Now that we’re well into the “unofficial” second half of the season and are flying past the 100-game mark, it’s time to give props to the MLBbros who’ve set the pace over the last four months plus.
So far, we’ve seen some dominant performances from established veterans as well as emerging superstars.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Best Player: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
After battling with injuries most of 2023, “The Judge” has been relatively healthy and the rest of the American League is paying the price. Two years removed from breaking Roger Maris’ AL single-season home run record and winning an MVP award, No. 99 is on a pace where he could shatter his own record and then some. He’s not only leading the league in homers, total bases, and RBI, he’s also in the top 10 in several offensive categories including hits, runs scored, and WAR. All of this while his slugging partner in crime (Giancarlo Stanton) remains on the disabled list. All rise indeed.
Best Pitcher: Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers
Along with teammate Tarik Skubal, the former Cardinal and Oriole has given Detroit one of the league’s best 1-2 punches on the mound. Currently, “Black Jack” has kept his ERA just under 3.00 (2.95) and is enjoying his best season since 2021, when he went 9-2 in St. Louis. In his last 7 starts, Flaherty is 5-1 with a 2.08 ERA including 43 K’s in 39 IP. Ironically, Flaherty’s name has come up in trade talks as the deadline approaches. The Cali native is set to be a free agent at season’s end.
Best Breakout Player: Josh Naylor, Cleveland Guardians
The native Canadian has taken his overall game to another level and was rewarded by being named to his first All-Star Game. At the break, he was hitting .246 with a career-high 22 home runs and 70 RBI, just behind fellow All-Star Jose Ramírez. Both marks currently lead all AL first baseman. Naylor is the first Cleveland first baseman to be named an All-Star since Carlos Santana in 2019 and is the 2nd Canadian to make the All-Star team for Cleveland, joining Jeff Heath (1941, 1943).
Best Rookie: David Hamilton, Boston Red Sox
After being thrust into the lineup following Trevor Story’s season-ending injury, the Texas native struggled at the plate. The early season woes also affected his fielding as the normally sure-handed Hamilton had several physical and mental miscues in April. However, manager Alex Cora stuck with him, and he has slowly turned his season around. After flirting with the Mendoza Line early on, Hamilton has hit .273 in his last 7 games raising his average to a season-high .265. Hamilton has only 2 errors since April.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Best Player: Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
MLBbro.com’s reigning Player of the Year began 2024 just how he ended 2023, establishing himself as one of the game’s best. The versatile shortstop/outfielder was on a torrid pace during the first two months of the season. He hit a sizzling .368 (46-of 125) with 6 homers, 23 RBI, and a combined .532 OPS.
However, everything changed on June 16th when he suffered a left-hand fracture after being hit by a pitch. While Betts has been out ever since, his overall numbers (304 with 10 homers and 40 RBI) were good enough for him to be named to his eighth straight trip to the All-Star Game.
Best Pitcher: Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds
The Reds’ Opening Day starter continues to make strides while Cincy tries to remain relevant during the wild NL Wild Card race. Named to the NL All-Star team, Greene has already set a career-high in wins (7) with a 3.34 ERA with 126 strikeouts through 110.1 innings of work at the break. This included a season-high in strikeouts with 10 against the Colorado Rockies in his last start before the break on July 11th. Following his win at Atlanta from Monday, Green dropped his ERA to 0.54 for the month.
Best Breakout Player: C.J. Abrams, Washington Nationals
It was just a matter of time before the 23-year-old shortstop would make an impact not only in D.C., but in MLB overall. In a season, where he was tabbed for his first All-Star Game, Abrams batted .295 in his first 26 games this season, totaling seven home runs and seven stolen bases. He also hit a sizzling .373 in June including 4 homers and 16 RBI during that stretch. With 15 homers and 15 steals at the break, he’s on pace for a possible 30-30 season, the first in Washington since Alfonso Soriano turned the trick in 2006.
Best Rookie: Masyn Winn, St. Louis Cardinals
After getting a brief taste of the Majors last year, the Texas native has taken a full bite this season and established himself as one of the best young players in the league. Winn made the Opening Day roster and has been one of the most consistent players in the Cards’ lineup. He was hitting .284 at the break, with 5 homers, 33 RBI, and 9 steals.
He also hit .309 during the month of June while also establishing his presence in the St. Louis infield. One of the highlights during the month was his performance against the San Francisco Giants on June 20th in the Negro Leagues Classic played at Rickwood Field. Winn was the only Black player in the game and went 1-for-3 at the plate with a double and two runs scored as the Cardinals won 6-5.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are looking like a team that can seriously contend for a World Series title this year and Mookie Betts has played a big role in that.
Betts has been on fire at the plate and continues to show us that pop in his bat. On Monday, he belted his sixth career grand slam and the 11th for the team this season, which tied a franchise record.
The seven-time all-star is putting together an MVP-caliber performance this season and has had a strong second half.
Through 106 games, Betts has hit 31 home runs, the fourth time in his career that he’s hit 30 or more in a season. This is also his second consecutive season where he’s hit 30 or more homers.
It is safe to say that Betts has handled the leadoff position quite well for the Dodgers. During those 106 games, he’s hitting .284 and has an impressive .582 slugging percentage.
Going into Tuesday, Betts was carrying a 14-game hitting streak.
After Monday’s 13-7 victory over the San Diego Padres, Betts talked about how the team always competes from the first pitch to the last.
“We just don’t give up,” Betts said in an mlb.com article. “We have to play all nine innings. Anything can happen at any given time, and we all know that. We’ve been around for a while, and the young guys are kind of taking to it. We have fun. That’s the main thing. We have fun playing the game.”
An important factor in any sport you are playing at any level is to have fun. When you’re having fun, good things tend to happen.
And you can end up hitting a grand slam as your only hit in the game, like Betts did on Monday.
“I don’t know if it’s that I don’t like the green light, I just don’t typically like swinging on 3-0,” Betts said on hitting that ball out of the park. “I still see myself as a leadoff hitter, and I’m supposed to get on base. Maybe that’s just kind of what’s been ingrained in me. But in that situation, I mean, especially with the momentum, I just felt we needed to try and score as many points as possible, and that was a good time to swing.”
Like Betts said, he’s trying to do his job as a leadoff hitter and get on base. But this season, we’ve seen him do more than just that, utilizing the long ball.
That win over the Padres gave the Dodgers the series win and manager Dave Roberts talked about how his team battled throughout the four-game series.
“It’s not easy. I think that comes with experience, in the sense that every at-bat, every pitch matters,” Roberts said. “Other teams could’ve just conceded and split the series, but to our credit, we kept scratching, clawing, putting together good at-bats. I think we snuck up on Lugo. He was sort of cruising, and we kind of fought back.”
With Betts leading things off for the offense, it can be a difficult task for opposing teams to have success against this lineup.
It will be exciting to see how Betts and the Dodgers continue to perform going into August and September.
This is one team that will be dangerous, especially when they’re clicking on all cylinders.
As a child, filmmaker Byron Motley had a front row seat to witness the glory days of Negro League baseball through the eyes of his father who was an umpire for 10 years. Those conversations have led to an epic documentary which resonates with the kind of reverence that’s similar to Ken Burns’ classic PBS documentaries on baseball history.
“The League” is Motley’s tribute to the legends of Black American baseball on and off the field. In just over 90 minutes, he chronicles in detail the anecdotes of some of the figures that brought a different flavor to America’s national game despite a racially insensitive time when players of color were not welcome in the Major Leagues.
Motley’s work, which he described to MLBbro.com in an exclusive interview, took 24 years before coming to fruition. This odyssey began in 1999 where he was encouraged to bring these stories to life for future generations. He began by tracking down many of the mythical Black legends who were alive at the time and through candid conversations he was able to frame the narratives of those times based on memories his father left with him.
The result was a seamless blend of interviews with historians, never before seen videos featuring conversations with former players, and notable fans who passed away. Together they chronicle this triumph of human spirit by a Black community during perilous social times. Owners, players, and fans who loved the game are also celebrated in this documentary.
The Iconic Poet Maya Angelou Was A Baseball Fan
One of those fans was the late poetess Maya Angelou who had a drop the mic moment when describing her recollections of being a young fan that ultimately became the title of the movie. On a trip to Winston Salem, N.C. Motley was able to score an interview with Angelou and in one of the great soundbites from the film its title was born.
“When people talked about going to the league,” Angelou recalls in grand motherly fashion on screen. “You knew they were talking about the Negro Leagues”.
Motley’s Two Decades Of Research: A Child Of The Negro Leagues
The narratives Motley uses to compliment most of the never-before-seen live action footage are not only inspired by the stories his father shared. They were from over two decades of interviews with many people who Motley knew as players and a diverse group of historians who tell this compelling story. The elder Motley was never a player himself, but officiating gave him a chance to be a part of the game.
“Being an umpire gave my father the chance to be close to his heroes,” Motley said. “During the offseason my father would run into players he knew when we were just walking down the street. I didn’t know who most of them were. They were just a bunch of old guys to me”.
However, as he grew older those memories became more important. While scouring the nation collecting interviews Motley was able to speak with some of the Negro League legends before they passed away and provided him with priceless memories.
For the first time, in many cases, Negro League legends such as Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe and Monte Irvin shared on camera their memories of competing while pressing through the segregation and Jim Crow. However, their resounding theme reflected an unwavering passion for baseball by fans and players that transformed the game.
Icons such as the late Hank Aaron recalled how the pay was light, but their passion helped the players overcome the dire straits they were facing to compete in the game they loved. Aaron, who played for the Indianapolis Clowns before he came to the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers, recalled playing for three dollars per day to cover his room and board while traveling.
“You would pay for your [lodging] and then go to the grocery store,” Aaron said. “Buy some peanut butter and a loaf of bread and then head to the next town”.
However, the resilience of the Negro League is personified by the stories of the foresight displayed by Black American business leaders such as Rube Foster, Cumberland Posey, and Effa Manley — and the influence of the Black Press. Foster is credited with being the “father of Black baseball” after founding the Negro National League in 1920 which became the first successful professional league for Black American players and owning the Chicago American Giants.
Posey, who was one of the first Black Athletes at Penn State, was the principal owner of the Homestead Grays and helped them become one of the premiere franchises in sports history.
Manley’s story is perhaps one of the most significant of all the previously untold Negro League Baseball stories. Manley was literally the first woman who was give the keys to run the day-to-day operation of a professional baseball franchise.
The Black Press Chronicled The Negro Leagues
The League also pays homage to the importance of Black newspapers and the legendary writers whose commentary chronicled the leagues around the country. Had it not been for those accounts in papers such as the Amsterdam News, Afro-American, Chicago Defender, and Pittsburgh Courier, the mythology of Black American baseball would be an afterthought today.
Currently the documentary is available on most streaming platforms.
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