Kuzul

For every fantasy owner, there comes a point in the season when a should-be stud just isn’t cutting it—so it’s time to cut him. That’s what this is all about: Letting you know it’s OK to let go.

Difficult late-season drops can come in all shapes and sizes, from that third-rounder not living up to expectations to the injury-prone star who just can’t get and stay healthy to a midseason pick-up who broke out then flamed out.

We get it: Once you’ve invested in a player and become attached, it’s not so simple to say so long. But sometimes, it’s for the best. After all, the stakes only get higher and the standings more solidified the longer you wait for a turnaround or rebound that might never come.

With owners everywhere making a push for the playoffs—and a shot to win it all—numbers become more important than names. Even the big ones.

What follows is a batch of players who either were selected as early draft picks or looked like surefire starters at one time, only to have since become cut candidates for one reason or another.

But don’t worry: Each player comes complete with suggestions for readily-available replacement options. Because as science says, for every drop, there should be an equal and opposite addition.

Begin Slideshow

Trading in Major League Baseball doesn’t end until Aug. 31, but it sure feels like just about all the wheeling and dealing wrapped up back on July 31, doesn’t it?

In part, that’s because the non-waiver trade deadline brought not just a flurry but a full-on storm of moves, as 12 trades were completed between 18 different teams involving 37 players (and two draft picks). That was the most transaction action on deadline day since 1998, as Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com points out.

No wonder August’s waiver-trading period has felt like a letdown by comparison.

It’s not that there haven’t been any swaps so since Aug. 1, because there have:

That’s eight moves, which actually isn’t far behind the 11 that happened last August.

What should be immediately discernible from the table, however, is that the trades just aren’t all that exciting or impactful. Certainly not when the biggest name to change jerseys is Josh Willingham.

At least last August, fairly well-known players like Alex Rios, Justin Morneau and Marlon Byrd found new homes.

And of course, there’s still some residue remaining from that memorable, shocking August 2012 blockbuster when the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers essentially remade their rosters in one fell—and financially monstrous—swoop.

A waiver trade that big, both in names and dollars, is unlikely to happen again any time soon, if ever. But why has August been such a bummer this year?

It’s not that there isn’t a need or demand for pitchers and position players, especially with so many clubs still in the hunt because of the second wild card in each league. In fact, that’s the biggest reason for the inactivity this month.

Through Wednesday’s games, only 11 teams—five in the AL and six in the NL—could safely be considered completely out of the running for a playoff spot, depending on how one classifies the Tampa Bay Rays and Cincinnati Reds.

Because so many teams are still in it, there aren’t nearly as many options as there might have been in the past, when only four teams in each league made it to October.

What’s more, the few clubs that are out of it aren’t exactly swimming in available players who might make an impact for a contender. That’s why those teams aren’t any good in the first place, right?

The other thing to remember, and it’s related to the above, is that this remains a seller’s market. That means the teams who would consider trading players away have the ability to ask for a haul, whether their players have passed through waivers entirely or were claimed by a specific team.

The only case when that doesn’t apply is if a club views trading a particular player as a salary dump. That is more or less what happened when the Chicago White Sox sent second baseman Gordon Beckham—who hit just .221/.263/.336 for them despite a $4.175 million salary this year—to the Los Angeles Angels for the ubiquitous Player To Be Named Later.

Beyond that, a number of players were put on waivers already, only to be claimed and then pulled back by their team, which eliminates them from being traded for the rest of the season. This reportedly is what happened to, among others, Cole Hamels, Yunel Escobar and Chad Qualls.

Same goes for Byrd and Morneau, as Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports, otherwise those two players could have been involved in a waiver deal for a second consecutive year.

That’s a formula for an inactive waiver-trade period.

As Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the prospects of his club making any last-minute additions via a waiver swap, “I’m not totally encouraged by it.”

There isn’t an easy fix to make Augusts of the future more trade-filled, either. Not unless there just so happen to be fewer contenders in a given season.

One possibility, though, could involve moving the non-waiver trade deadline back from July 31 into August, say Aug. 15 or Aug. 31. It’s not like that hasn’t been done before: Back in 1986, the deadline was moved to its current July 31 date—after six decades of being set at June 15.

As for the final days of this year’s deadline, which remains Aug. 31, there still are some names to keep tabs on.

The following players already have cleared waivers, according to MLB Trade Rumors, meaning they can be traded:

Will any of them be traded between now and Sunday? Quite possibly, if an interested—or desperate—suitor is willing to pay the price.

Will others not on the above list get moved? Almost certainly.

Because even though this August hasn’t been quite as gloriously chaotic as July was—and clearly won’t be in the end—one thing should be clear: As long as teams can make trades, trades will be made.

Statistics are accurate as of Aug. 28 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Conventional creed these past few years more or less requires everyone in and around Major League Baseball, from players to coaches to executives to media to fans, simply to accept that Mike Trout is the best player on the planet.

But what if Trout, as undeniably superlative as he has been to this point in his still-young career, isn’t even the best outfielder in the sport?

Taking that one step further: What if Trout isn’t the best outfielder to share the same large expanse of green this week? After all, Trout’s Los Angeles Angels are taking on the Miami Marlins and their very own freakishly gifted superstar, Giancarlo Stanton, for a three-game series that started Monday night.

If you ask Stanton, he’s not taking the bait. Here’s what he had to say about Trout before Monday’s showdown:

Catch that right there at the end? “To be on the same field [as Trout] is gonna be cool.”

Well, after Stanton’s performance in Monday’s game—the first time ever these two baseball behemoths, who are the MVP front-runners at the moment, have been on the same field in a regular-season game—maybe it’s the other way around?

“I think it’s great for baseball,” Marlins manager Mike Redmond told Joe Frisaro of MLB.com prior to Monday’s game. “You’ve got two dynamic young players playing on the same field. I know I’m excited to watch and be part of it. Hopefully our guy puts on great show.”

As if on cue, Stanton did just that. Propelled by Stanton’s three-run home run in the fourth inning that broke open what was a 4-0 game, the Marlins beat the Angels—the club with the best record in baseball at 77-52 entering the game—by a score of 7-1.

The victory helped the Marlins (65-65) gain a game in the NL wild-card chase, as they’re now just three back of the San Francisco Giants, who lost to the Colorado Rockies on Monday.

Oh, and not only was the above blast the 33rd of the year for Stanton—a total that leads the National League and is only one shy of the Baltimore Orioles’ Nelson Cruz, who is MLB‘s leader—there’s also this:

While Stanton was busy making history as part of his 1-for-3, three-RBI night with a run and two walks, Trout was going 0-for-4 to drop his average to .285, the lowest it has been since May 28, nearly three months ago.

Heck, Stanton was even responsible for making two of the putouts against Trout, who lined out to him in the sixth and flew out to him in the eighth.

One game obviously is little more than a narrative reinforcement in the still-untested theory that Stanton just might be better than Trout. So how about measuring up each player’s 2014 season as a whole then?

How’s that for a pair of seasons, huh? The two studs’ production has been about as similar as can be, especially when the numbers are as eye-popping as they are. By most of those measures, though, Stanton has been ever so slightly better so far, but it’s extremely close.

To see if we can’t get any more separation, here’s a check on some key advanced metrics:

So much for that idea. Trout and Stanton are just as evenly matched in the deeper digits. Again, however, Stanton has what appears to be the slightest of edges in most categories, thanks to his big game Monday.

In fact, it’s so close that, although Stanton ekes out Trout in Baseball Reference’s wins above replacement (WAR), the two are deadlocked in FanGraphs‘ version.

It’s worth pointing out for a moment that Stanton is trending positively in both aspects of plate discipline: His strikeout and walk rates are both career bests. Trout, on the other hand, is sporting a career-worst 25.2 percent strikeout rate, and that’s something he’s working to fix, per Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. Of course, Stanton’s 26.2 percent rate is still higher.

Considering the defensive side, Stanton is no slouch with the glove, but Trout is the better defender, particularly because he plays the more premium position of center field, while Stanton handles right.

What’s remarkable is that both players are still so, so young. Everyone knows Trout just turned 23 in August, but Stanton is just 21 months older; he’ll be only 25 after the season in November.

That’s really not much of a disparity when both players are in the majors and performing at such a high level. It’s also at least possible, given their youth, that both of these players are still on the upswing, meaning we may not have seen the best of either one yet.

Even if that’s not the case, this indeed is shaping up to be quite the best-player-in-baseball battle over the next handful of seasons, assuming both stay healthy.

That’s a factor that has been in Trout’s favor to this point but has been Stanton’s bugaboo. The 2014 season is really the first time in Stanton’s career that he’s been fully healthy.

While Trout is on pace for his third straight season with at least 139 games played (and he would have played more than that number in his rookie season of 2012 had the Angels not held him in the minors until late April), Stanton is working on just his second year out of five with at least that many games played.

When you’re healthy, you’re happy, and Stanton has been both this year. His personality and sense of humor come across in this postgame interview from Monday, so yes, dude has the chops to handle being in the running for the face of MLB with Trout, too:

As for which is the best player in baseball, it’s still hard to go against Trout, who owns that throne based on what he’s done at the outset of his career these first three incredible seasons.

But if Stanton is going to continue to improve as much as he has this year, Trout better not get too comfy on his perch.

Statistics are accurate as of Aug. 25 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Boston Red Sox landed outfielder Rusney Castillo on Friday with a record-setting contract for an international player from Cuba. The 27-year-old, who defected last December, had been weighing offers from several teams over the past few days and ultimately decided on a reported seven-year, $72.5 million deal from Boston.

The contract will begin immediately for 2014 and run through 2020.

The $72.5 million amount was quite a bit higher than expected, as Jayson Stark of ESPN.com wrote earlier in the week that the figure was presumed to be in the $50-$60 million range.

Because he is older than 23 and played for more than three seasons in Cuba’s top professional league, Serie Nacional, Castillo was not subject to Major League Baseball’s international bonus pool restrictions. In that regard, Castillo falls into the same camp as Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig and Jose Abreu, three other Cuban stars who signed big-money pacts in recent years.

And in case you were looking for even more video of Castillo, here is some footage from his official MLB showcase less than a month ago:

Represented by Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports as of June, Castillo checks in at 5’9″ and 205 pounds, according to Ben Badler of Baseball America, who speculates that Castillo is good enough to get to the majors this year, if not right away.

Here’s a take from Badler‘s latest report:

Castillo, 27, has gained 20 pounds since leaving Cuba and is now 5-foot-9, 205 pounds, with his best tool his plus-plus speed. The extra size and strength has translated into an increase in power, with some scouts now putting a 60 on his raw power after pegging him with below-average to average raw power while he was in Cuba. In games, at least while he was in Cuba, he’s more of a line-drive hitter with an aggressive hitting approach. He won a Gold Glove in Cuba in 2011-12, with the speed and reactions off the bat to profile in center field in the major leagues, even though his arm strength appears to have backed up since he left Cuba.

There are conflicting opinions about just how good Castillo is. Many see him as an everyday outfielder—perhaps even a center fielder—with comparisons to speedsters past and present, as Jesse Sanchez and Ian Browne of MLB.com write:

Known as an athletic outfielder with surprising power, Castillo has drawn comparisons to Ron Gant, Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury in terms of style of play, and he is seen as close to big league ready. Whether the 27-year-old would provide that type of impact this season is up for debate. He’s an older and a more seasoned talent than most amateur signings, but he also hasn’t played competitive baseball in more than a year.

Others, however, suggest he’s more of a “tweener” type who is more of a backup who could be a fill-in starter as needed, as Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com writes:

While in Cuba, Castillo didn’t put up the numbers of fellow defectors Jose Abreu or Yoenis Cespedes, but played well from 2011 to 2013, hitting .315 with a .383 on-base percentage and .512 slugging percentage with Ciego de Avila in Cuba’s top league.

In comparison, Cespedes hit .334 with a .420 OBP and .629 slugging from 2009 to 2011. Abreu hit an astounding .393 with a .537 OBP and .802 slugging percentage from 2011 to 2013.

Considered more of a line drive hitter in Cuba, many scouts projected Castillo as a fourth outfielder, but he’s added 20 pounds since defecting.

As B/R’s Adam Wells wrote of Castillo back in January:

He’s never shown much patience or plate discipline in Cuba, as evidenced by 32 walks in 420 plate appearances in the 2011-12 season. That’s not an unusual trait for players coming from Cuba. They are trying to hit their way on base, so being an on-base percentage guy isn’t likely going to be Castillo’s strong suit.

On the positive side, Castillo’s ability to play center field doesn’t put all the pressure on his bat.

What’s important to consider regarding Castillo is that questions surrounded what kind of impact Cespedes, Puig and Abreu would have at the time they signed. All three of them, of course, have turned out to be borderline MVP candidates in MLB—and right away too.

“We’ve had more examples of high-profile Cuban players come out [in recent years], so maybe we’re more informed now on what that transition is like,” Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said, via Mastrodonato. “At the time I think there was an expectation of transition time and there really wasn’t any.”

Their success is only helping pump up the market for Cuban players looking to come to the United States, like Castillo and fellow outfielder Yasmani Tomas, who defected earlier this summer.

The better Cuban stars do in the majors, the more money they’re going to get when they sign. This market is no longer the bargain bin it had been just a year or two ago.

As for how Castillo fits in with the Red Sox, given how much they’re ponying up to obtain his services, he’s clearly a big part of their future—and perhaps even their present.

Despite a disappointing 2014 season that has them in last place in the American League East after they won the World Series last year, the Red Sox have done a lot in the past month to retool their roster via trades and now the Castillo signing. In other words, Boston should once again be a factor as soon as 2015.

The organization is overloaded with outfielders at the moment, what with the likes of Cespedes (acquired in the Jon Lester trade), Allen Craig (acquired from the John Lackey deal) and Daniel Nava, as well as rookies Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. Veteran Shane Victorino, who has missed almost all of the season with injury, remains under contract for next year too.

That certainly could lead to a trade or two, which makes the Red Sox a very intriguing club to keep tabs on between now and the offseason.

One thing’s for sure, though: The newest member of the Boston Red Sox, Rusney Castillo, is going to be a key part of the squad going forward.

Statistics are accurate as of Aug. 22 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When it comes to elite, powerhouse teams, there suddenly seems to be a void in Major League Baseball this season. At least, that’s what the numbers indicate.

Only one team, the 76-50 (.603) Los Angeles Angels, is playing .600 ball through Thursday’s games. That’s a lofty winning percentage to meet, but it reinforces what feels like an increased level of parity in the sport.

Besides, as great as the Angels have been, they may not be able to sustain their pace. Their pitching has taken two big hits with season-ending injuries to lefty Tyler Skaggs (Tommy John surgery) and Garrett Richards, the right-hander who was a dark-horse Cy Young candidate before a torn patellar tendon ended his 2014 on Wednesday night, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.

While 90 wins is a somewhat arbitrary number, it’s also a pretty good standard to use when quantifying what might qualify as a good season. For one thing, “90” is a round number, and reaching that mark typically puts a team in the playoff picture, if not in the actual playoffs.

In 2014, though, there’s a shortage of squads on pace for a 90-win season, at least compared to a year ago.

Just last season, there were 11 teams—or 57 percent more—that reached the nine-zero mark:

On the surface, that appears to be a pretty big disparity and drop-off for 2014, no?

Plus, there’s always the chance that one or two of those clubs on pace for 90 double-yoos—say, the surprising Milwaukee Brewers or Kansas City Royals—happens to fall off pace.

That could mean we just might see the fewest 90-win team seasons since the 1994 player strike, as Neil Greenberg wrote for The Washington Post at the end of May. The fewest over the past 20 full seasons was six, which happened several times in that period, most recently in 2008.

Here’s the thing, though: There actually haven’t been that many 90-win clubs each season in recent years, as this table shows:

So maybe 2014’s mediocrity deserves quotation marks, as in, “mediocrity.”

Then again, there’s a good chance we’ll have a postseason without either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox—two of the sport’s marquee franchises—for the first time in, well, quite some time, as Mike Bauman of MLB.com writes:

For the first time since the Wild Card era began in 1995, there could be a postseason without either the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox. 

This is not about either rejoicing or moaning about the possibility. This is about noticing it, and thus noticing the way the game has changed.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Pirates and those Royals—two laughingstock franchises whose resumes include not years but decades of ineptitude—have either made or been on the fringes of the postseason for two straight seasons now.

So how has MLB changed—and been changing—to the point where parity has become the status quo and elite teams have become few and far between?

Selig’s Socialism

Bud Selig’s Robin Hood-like schemes—namely, revenue sharing and the luxury tax—force the rich to give to the poor, creating more financial opportunities for small- and mid-market clubs.

Here’s Bauman again:

The game’s economic structure has changed dramatically since the Yankees’ last great run of dominance in the late 1990s through the year 2000. Revenue sharing, unknown when Bud Selig first became Commissioner of Baseball 22 years ago, is now an economic fact of baseball life.

This is the leading edge of Selig’s legacy. His background was as the owner of the franchise in baseball’s smallest media market, Milwaukee. He believed that fans of every team were owed by baseball the sincere “hope and faith” that their team could compete and could win. Revenue sharing was the device that brought hope and faith to more franchises than ever.

All About the Benjamins

In recent years, cable television broadcast deals, both national and regional, have brought in massive amounts of money—like, millions and even billions.

This allows even some of the smaller-market organizations to be able to afford the opportunity to spend to sign free agents and extend their own players before they reach free agency.

Lock ‘Em Up

Speaking of which, there’s a definite trend toward teams locking up their homegrown talent. That makes it less likely that the monster-market teams in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago can simply throw big bucks at players in their primes.

Instead, top talents are extending their stays well into their late 20s and early 30s, after which ponying up is a much bigger risk.

If You Built It

While teams can afford to dole out big-money contracts, there’s still a need to draft and develop young talent from within.

This approach, when carried out properly, is what makes and keeps small-market clubs competitive because team-controlled talent is both cheap and productive.

Isn’t Stat Nice

The Moneyball mindset has evened the playing field, as front offices unearth new and better ways to evaluate players and mine for market inefficiencies.

Employing smart decision-makers and scouting and developmental staffs has become a must in baseball, especially for organizations, like the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays, who don’t have the financial fortitude to fight the big boys.

Stars Seeing Stars

Major injuries to big-name players happen every year, but it feels like 2014 has been especially rough, doesn’t it? 

There has been a rash of Tommy John surgeries to pitchers that began at the beginning of the year (i.e., Jose Fernandez, Matt Moore, Kris Medlen, Brandon Beachy) and has carried right on through (Tyler Skaggs).

“Losing two guys like that for an entire season is a difficult blow,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said back in April, via Jane Lee of MLB.com, after starters Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin were both lost to ulnar collateral replacement surgery. “Losing one’s a blow, two’s tough.“

Beyond that procedure, though, a host of other stars have been out for extended periods of time—like Clayton Kershaw, Paul Goldschmidt, Troy Tulowitzki, Edwin Encarnacion, Prince Fielder, Masahiro Tanaka and Bryce Harper, to name just a few—and it’s hard for teams to play well when their best players aren’t on the field. 

Closer Competition

Gone are the days of “enhanced” sluggers and spikes in offensive numbers. Pitching and defense now rule baseball.

When there are fewer runs scored in a game, there’s obviously less margin for error and less separation between the best and the bad. That brings parity and reality to the sport.

This can be attributed at least in part to the implementation over the past decade of steroid testing and increasingly harsher penalties for violations and/or positive results. Remember, it’s now 80 games for a first offense, 162 for a second and a lifetime ban for a third.

The Bottom Line

Baseball’s “mediocrity”—or at least, the sport’s lack of elite teams and the increase in parity—is a somewhat legitimate issue.

Ultimately, though, there are some fluky, aberrational elements behind this happening in 2014.

So while it’s possible this trend could continue, it’s just as likely that MLB will once again have a powerhouse team or three by next season.

Even if neither the Yankees or Red Sox are.

Statistics are accurate as of Aug. 21 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In the immediate aftermath of Thursday evening’s team-record-tying 10th straight victory, it’s apparent that the Washington Nationals are finally living up to their potential and putting the rest of the National League, if not all of baseball, on notice. Better yet, they’ve been doing it lately in dramatic—and eerily similar—fashion.

The Nationals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0 when third baseman Jordan Pacheco’s throw skipped past first baseman Mark Trumbo and into the camera well next to Washington’s dugout, allowing leadoff hitter Denard Span to score the deciding run.

The final play at Nationals Park looked like this:

The drama? Well, aside from the scoreless eight-and-a-half innings, Thursday’s win was the Nationals’ second consecutive of the walk-off variety and—get this—their fifth in six games.

The eerie similarity? For the second straight day, the game ended with reliever Evan Marshall on the mound for Arizona and Anthony Rendon hitting a ball toward third base to plate the winning run.

On Wednesday, Rendon—out of the starting lineup for the first time since June 10—came up as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth and knocked the game-winning RBI single to score Bryce Harper.

Keep an eye out for the similarities in the highlight of that walk-off:

“We just feel confident,” Span said via Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post, “that somehow, someway, we’re going to find a way to inch off a victory.”

With the win, the Nationals are now a season-high 20 games above .500 at 73-53. Not only that, but they also have the best record in the Senior Circuit, and it’s starting to feel like this club isn’t going to give up that throne any time soon. Especially after how things played out last season.

The 2013 campaign was an outright disappointment, as Washington fell behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East very early and didn’t really hit its stride until mid-August, by which point it was far too late. To wit, exactly a year ago, on Aug. 21, the Nats, who finished just 86-76 amid sky-high expectations, were 15.0 games behind Atlanta.

This year? It’s the Braves who entered Thursday seven games back.

Still, as utility man Kevin Frandsen told Bill Ladson of MLB.com after Wednesday’s walk-off:

It’s the middle of August. We have to continue to play good baseball. The Braves are not going to give in. The Marlins are not going to give in. People are sleeping on other teams, you can’t do that. We have to keep playing good baseball, continue to hit the baseball the way we do, pitch the ball, catch the ball and do all that.

The Nationals certainly have been doing “all that” over the past 10 games. In fact, they’ve been doing a lot of that for most of the season.

They have a 3.03 team ERA, the second-lowest overall and best in the NL. That’s been achieved through both the rotation and the bullpen.

With the explosive Stephen Strasburg (3.41 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, NL-best 198 strikeouts), steady Jordan Zimmermann (2.97, 1.15), underrated Doug Fister (2.20, 1.05), unheralded Tanner Roark (2.80, 1.09) and lone lefty Gio Gonzalez, Washington’s rotation is among the best and deepest in baseball.

The relief corps features two of the best setup men in the business in Tyler Clippard (1.95) and Drew Storen (1.54) in front of closer Rafael Soriano (2.49, 29 SV).

As if proving the prowess of the pitching staff, Gonzalez, who has been inconsistent since returning from a midseason stint on the disabled list, fired seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts Thursday. The effort lowered his ERA to 3.83 and his WHIP to 1.31.

Meanwhile, the offense has also been firing on all cylinders, especially since the All-Star break.

Led by Span (.388 average since the break), Rendon (MLB-best 88 runs), Ian Desmond (team highs of 20 homers and 77 RBI), Jayson Werth (.283/.375/.434) and Adam LaRoche (team-topping .838 OPS), Washington checks in with the second-most runs scored in the sport (144) over the second half so far.

And that’s without much in the way of production from Harper, as the 21-year-old is still trying to get himself going after missing a chunk of the year with a torn thumb ligament. He does, though, sport a .375 on-base percentage since the break. If he and Ryan Zimmerman, who remains on the disabled list with a hamstring injury, can find their form down the stretch, Washington will be even better.

Not that they aren’t already the best in the NL.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been in first in the NL Central for all but three days this season, but they’re up there with the Kansas City Royals as the two most surprising division leaders. Claiming they are better than the Nationals is taking things a bit too far.

And all of the sudden, the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers are looking less vaunted and more vulnerable. The big names are there and performing, but a few of them are battling injuries: shortstop Hanley Ramirez is on the DL with a strained oblique; lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu is on the shelf with a glut strain; and right-hander Zack Greinke is having his start pushed back due to elbow soreness, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.

The Nationals’ luck, on the other hand, appears to be turning—finally—as Kilgore writes:

The 2014 Nationals have been a dominant team all season long. It took the magic of the past 10 days for their record to reflect it, for their luck to catch up to their NL-best, plus-102 run differential. The Nationals…have won twice in extra innings and seven games by one run over their winning streak. Before it, they had gone 5-8 and 13-18 in such coin-flip contests. A prolonged run of success was probably inevitable. It didn’t have to be such a giddily fun ride.

The way things are shaping up now—not to mention, the way they’re playing lately—the Nationals are making good on all those expectations. They’re just doing it a year later than expected.

Statistics are accurate as of Aug. 21 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Milwaukee Brewers might be the most surprising team overall this season after getting off to a fast start and possessing at least a share of the NL Central lead for all but three days. But the most shocking division leader in Major League Baseball at the moment actually resides in the other Central: the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals, you see, weren’t supposed to be where they are—namely, at the top of the AL Central, a division that has belonged to the Detroit Tigers in recent years.

They weren’t supposed to be here according to most preseason prognostications. And they sure as heck weren’t supposed to be here a little less than a month ago, when a fourth straight loss dropped them to 48-50 and a season-worst eight games behind Detroit on July 21.

Well, Kansas City has gone a best-in-baseball 21-5 since that low point. The once-mighty Tigers, meanwhile, have fallen on hard times, winning just 11 of their last 26 in the wake of injuries to key pitchers Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez and Joakim Soria.

So with about six weeks left and the Royals now 69-55 and two-and-a-half games up in the Central, the heck with “supposed to be.”

“We’ve got too much focus now to say, ‘Hey, we’re in first, we’re fine,'” first baseman/designated hitter Billy Butler told Dick Kaegel of MLB.com. “No, it’s like, ‘We’re in first, we need to stretch this lead out.'”

But just how did the Royals—a small-market franchise with the longest active playoff drought in the majors dating back to 1985—get here? How are they doing this? Are they for real?

Because it’s starting to feel like we’re not in Kansas (City) anymore.

In some ways, the story seems too good to be true. In fact, the tale comes complete with a feel-good ditty involving team superfan SungWoo Lee, a longtime follower from South Korea who recently made his first trip to Kansas City to experience the Royals in person—at the exact time when the team was overtaking the Tigers for first place last week. Seriously.

That too-good-to-be-true feeling has some merit, though, especially in terms of the Royals offense, which remains right around league average at 4.12 runs per game. The sticks have been better of late, but not much: After scoring 4.07 runs per game in the first half, Kansas City is averaging 4.28 since the break.

The young offensive core just hasn’t taken the next step that many figured. First baseman Eric Hosmer, who had the potential to come into his own this year, currently is injured and wasn’t hitting all that much even when he was healthy (.267/.312/.377). Meanwhile, the formerly steady Billy Butler (.282/.330/.387) and potential breakout candidate Mike Moustakas (.198/.259/.376) have been disappointments, too.

In fact, going by weighted runs created plus (wRC+)—a metric that measures a player’s total offensive contributions where 100 represents league average—the Royals have only two players performing above average: left fielder Alex Gordon and center fielder Lorenzo Cain.

Essentially, this club is getting it done and sits where it does in the standings because of how much it excels on the other side of the ball—run prevention, and that factors in both pitching and defense.

The Royals rank 12th in total runs allowed, and that is driven by a staff that sports a 3.58 ERA—11th best in baseball. The rotation lacks any big names outside of James Shields (3.29 ERA, 1.21 WHIP), but each of Jason Vargas (3.17 ERA, 1.18 WHIP), Danny Duffy (2.60 ERA, 1.09 WHIP), Jeremy Guthrie (4.48 ERA, 1.34) and rookie Yordano Ventura (3.48 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) is capable of throwing a quality start in any given game.

To wit, Kansas City has 70 quality starts (six-plus innings pitched, three earned runs or less) on the year, the 10th most in the sport, and the five-man rotation has averaged 6.2 innings per start, which is the fifth-best mark around.

The bullpen? Well, that’s filled with young, hard-throwing arms like Aaron Crow (3.65 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, team-high 56 appearances), Kelvin Herrera (1.56 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) and Wade Davis (team-bests with an 0.83 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 13.8 K/9) in front of one of baseball’s very best closers in Greg Holland (1.84 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and an MLB-high 38 saves).

No wonder the club ranks fifth overall with 4.1 wins above replacement accrued by relievers.

As Buster Olney of ESPN.com (subscription required) writes:

The Kansas City bullpen is probably the difference between the Royals between in or out of first place in the AL Central. While Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has had to wade through uncertainty all summer with a struggling bullpen that ranks 27th in ERA, the back end of the Kansas City relief has been nearly pristine of late. 

And as for defense, well, the Royals are downright regal. Here’s a look at where they rank in various defensive metrics:

Among those statistics, the most impressive one is the total defense, an all-encompassing metric from FanGraphs that factors in all aspects of D and rolls them into one easy-to-digest number to show how many runs above (or below) average a team (or player) is.

In the Royals’ case, they are 51.9 runs better than average, which is not only the top mark in MLB but the top mark in MLB by quite a bit.

Much of that comes from the performances of three-time Gold Glove winner Gordon (17 runs above average), backup center fielder Jarrod Dyson (16.7) and catcher Salvador Perez (11.1), all of whom rank in the top 25 in the entire sport. But Cain (7.2) and shortstop Alcides Escobar (6.6) aren’t too shabby either.

Speaking of Perez and his work behind the plate, opponents simply don’t dare test his arm, as he’s allowed all of 46 successful steals on the season, the second-fewest among all teams. 

Run prevention clearly has become a bigger focus in MLB in recent years, and the Royals do it as well as just about any team out there, whether it’s pitching (both starters and relievers) or defense.

That’s why Kansas City is well above .500 both at home (33-28) and on the road (36-27), one of only seven teams—a group that does not include the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers—that can make that claim through Monday.

Taking all of this into account, the question remains: Are the Royals for real? Like, really for real?

Perhaps the only way to know for sure is to wait and see. If Kansas City hangs around with the Tigers at or near the top of the AL Central for another few weeks, we’re sure to get an answer one way or another.

After all, the Royals are only 4-9 against the Tigers head-to-head so far. That could be a problem considering they play each other six more times down the stretch, with three games in Detroit (Sept. 8-10) and three at home (Sept. 19-21).

It’s not unreasonable to suggest that those series could determine whether the Royals really are for real—and whether they can make it to October for the first time in 29 years.

Statistics are accurate as of Aug. 18 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Because they inhabit a playoff position at the moment, the St. Louis Cardinals are postseason contenders. But for most of 2014, the club hasn’t played up to preseason hopes and expectations that included visions of a second straight World Series run. The prime culprit? The lineup.

The Cardinals are in good shape at 64-56 and right there with the division rival Pittsburgh Pirates (64-57) and San Francisco Giants (63-57) for the two National League wild cards. They’re also 2.0 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.

So, yes, the Cardinals are in it. But until the offense starts clicking, they’re not necessarily in it, at least relative to expectations.

Just how offensive has St. Louis’ offense been? Here’s a rundown of where the unit ranks in several significant statistics:

That’s a far cry from 2013, when the team was third in the majors in runs scored (783, 4.8 R/G) and sported an aggregate triple-slash line of .269/.332/.401.

Things haven’t gotten any better since the All-Star break, either. St. Louis has averaged 3.5 runs per game in the second half compared to a better, but still bad, 3.8 in the first.

So where have the Cardinals been coming up empty? Well, for one thing, they’re not getting nearly the run production with runners in scoring position (RISP) after their historic 2013 performance in that department. Last year, St. Louis hit a ridiculous—and unrepeatable—.330 with RISP, setting an all-time record by nearly 20 points in batting average.

In 2014? The club is batting just 243, which checks in as the ninth-worst mark in the majors.

Another consideration? The Cards hitters are much worse against right-handed pitchers (.677 team OPS, 10th-worst in MLB) than they are against lefties (.729 OPS, 10th-best).

There are two other big problems. The first is that, as bad as the overall numbers have been, the Cardinals actually don’t have many positions that are in obvious need of an upgrade.

The league-wide weighted on-base average (wOBA) for non-pitchers is .316. Going by that, the Cardinals actually have received solid, above-average production from Matt Holliday in left field (.350 wOBA, 126 wRC+), Matt Adams at first base (.346 wOBA, 123 wRC+), Matt Carpenter at third (.345 wOBA, 122 wRC+), Jhonny Peralta (.342 wOBA, 120 wRC+) at shortstop and Jon Jay (.332 wOBA, 113 wRC+) in center.

Are all of those players performing up to their previous career standards? No. But none has been a flat-out disappointment either.

That leaves catcher, second base and right field as the biggest problem spots. Except, backstop is only an issue for now because Yadier Molina is on the disabled list for another few weeks after tearing a ligament in his right thumb on July 9.

“[Molina] still hasn’t picked up a bat, hasn’t gripped a ball without a brace,” manager Mike Matheny told Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We can’t get too far ahead.”

Second base and right field, though, currently are manned by rookies Kolten Wong and Oscar Taveras, two highly regarded youngsters who have been disappointing to various degrees so far.

As Scott Wuerz of the Belleville News-Democrat writes: “It has a negative cumulative effect on the team that it is required to play two inexperienced players in the same lineup almost every day.”

Wong has been better since a three-week demotion back to Triple-A in late-April, hitting .261/.297/.454 with 30 runs, nine homers and 14 steals in 57 games from mid-May on. His .307 wOBA and 96 wRC+ are at least on the upswing.

Taveras, however, has had quite the struggle adjusting to the majors since debuting at the end of May, even though he was a better prospect than Wong and one of the very elite ones in the sport entering the year.

Just 22, the lefty hitter is batting .206/.247/.284 in 45 games. Yes, it’s a teeny-tiny sample size of 150 plate appearances, but even if it’s a lot of pressure to put on a player who has only been in the bigs for a couple of months, Taveras has to do better than a .239 wOBA and 49 wRC+. Especially because he’s now getting everyday playing time after general manager John Mozeliak freed up right field for him by trading Allen Craig in what was a risky move, but one that also could pay off in a big way.

What does Matheny have to say about his rookie right fielder? “Just try to get him going, but more importantly get our offense going,” as he said via Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Clearly, the skipper sees a link between the potential Taveras has and the possibility of what that could mean for his sluggish offense.

The other problem St. Louis has? The Cardinals can wait on Molina to make it back and find his rhythm again, and they can hope that Taveras figures it out sooner than later, but both of those are passive routes that could leave them in a too-little-too-late situation.

Time is running out to pull off any kind of trade to address the lineup. Not that it’s easy to pull off an impact swap in August when players have to pass through waivers before being traded, but there’s at least the possibility.

By the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the team added some pitching help in right-handers John Lackey and Justin Masterson, but there was no deal to bring in a big bat, or even any bat. In fact, St. Louis traded away Craig, who—despite a terrible 2014—had hit .311/.364/.488 across 2012-13.

Some hitters who could be candidates for a waiver trade include outfielders Marlon Byrd of the Philadelphia Phillies, Alex Rios of the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Andre Ethier, as well as Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill. Whether any of those would be a definitive upgrade—and worth the cost of acquisition—is something Mozeliak has to weigh heavily before month’s end.

Otherwise, there’s not much the Cardinals can do other than get healthy and get better from within. That still could happen, but it needs to start. And soon.

Statistics are accurate through Aug. 14 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Giancarlo Stanton has spent all of the 2014 Major League Baseball season showing us how great he is. He spent all of Monday’s game showing us how great he can still be.

Stanton did a little of everything as the Miami Marlins hung on for a 6-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Well known for his prodigious power, Stanton put his team up 3-0 with a pair of homers—the first to right field and the second a 470-foot moon shot to left—on his way to a 2-for-3 night with two runs and three RBI.

With the long balls, Stanton brought his season total to 31, tying him with Chicago White Sox rookie slugger Jose Abreu and Nelson Cruz of the Baltimore Orioles for the MLB lead.

But Stanton wasn’t just all about offense Monday. He also made a lunging, highlight-reel catch on the warning track in deep right field to rob Kolten Wong of what could have been a rally-starting extra-base hit to kick off the top of the fifth inning at a time when the Cardinals had fought back to 5-3.

You may have seen this all-around performance in real time, or perhaps you’ve already watched the highlights, but even if either of those apply, it’s worth checking out Stanton’s display of damaging and defending baseballs again:

“He was definitely trying to take that game over, not only with his bat but with his glove,” Marlins manager Mike Redmond said afterward, via Jacob Feldman of the Miami Herald.

The Stanton-driven double-yoo lifted Miami’s record to 58-60 and helped the club gain a game on the Cardinals, who currently inhabit the second wild-card position in the NL.

Because of Stanton’s big night on Monday and monster season overall, the Marlins still are hanging around the playoff chase—they’re 3.5 games in back of St. Louis through play on Tuesday—which puts him in the MVP discussion in a league that lacks a no-doubt front-runner so far.

By season’s end, then, it’s at least possible that Stanton could have some hardware to his name, but it’s just as possible that we have not yet seen the best of him.

For one, Stanton is still just 24 years old, which is remarkable, considering it feels like he’s been around for quite a while. In a way, he has been here for some time, since this is actually his fifth MLB season; he broke into the bigs in June 2010 as a 20-year-old phenom.

Stanton ranks 12th all time with 148 career home runs before his age-25 season. With a month-and-a-half of baseball left, he should climb into the top 10 and perhaps even approach Albert Pujols, who amassed 160 through his age-24 campaign.

You took note of the company on that 150-homers-through-age-24 list, yes?

If that’s not a sign that there’s still plenty more to come from Stanton, then consider that he’s steadily improved both his strikeout and walk rates since his rookie season:

That’s right: Stanton currently is sporting the lowest strikeout rate of his career, and it’s almost five percentage points better than it was when he got started. That shows his ability to make significant adjustments.

In fact, his plate-discipline figures at FanGraphs prove he’s been swinging at a lower percentage of pitches outside the zone (O-Swing%) and swinging and missing more overall (SwStr%) since the start of 2013.

Then there’s Stanton’s solid defense in right field, not to mention the fact that he’s already stolen a career-high 10 bases and is on pace to more than double his previous best (six stolen bases in 2012).

The key for the 6’6″, 240-pound Stanton this year and going forward is his health, which had become a problem early in his career. But after battling all sorts of ailments and issues, including a right hamstring strain last year and right knee surgery in 2012—both of which cost him chunks of seasons—Stanton has been as durable as he has productive so far.

That’s a necessity if Stanton is going to continue showing us how great he is this year—and how much better he can still be in the years ahead.

In one single, dominant performance on Monday, Stanton provided evidence of both.

Statistics are accurate through Aug. 11 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Kansas City Royals haven’t played October baseball since 1985, when they won the World Series.

The fact that this team pulled into first place all by itself in the American League Central with a dramatic 3-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Monday night is kind of a big deal. And, frankly, an unexpected one.

So, too, was the club’s Monday acquisition of outfielder/designated hitter Josh Willingham from the Minnesota Twins. That seems like a minor move on the surface, but it’s one that carries some deeper meaning for a franchise that has floundered for much of the past three decades.

Remember, this is the Royals we’re talking about, an organization whose postseason drought dates back nearly 30 years and is the longest active October-less stretch in the majors.

So Monday’s victory deserved a little something extra:

Indeed, the win was especially big because the Royals took down the A’s, owners of the best record in baseball, as well as breakout right-hander Sonny Gray. But also because Kansas City (64-53) took over first from the Detroit Tigers (63-54) with their eighth straight win and 16th in their last 19.

The change at the top of the Central has happened rapidly, too, as the Tigers lost their third in a row and five of their past six contests to fall out of the top spot for the first time since June 19. Detroit has now gone 10-15 since the All-Star break.

Their slump has a lot to do with injuries (Anibal Sanchez, Joakim Soria), ineffectiveness (Justin Verlander) or both.

There’s still much more talent and experience on Detroit’s roster than there is on Kansas City’s—to claim otherwise is simply admitting to being a Royals fan—but clearly the Tigers need to be on notice now.

They have been the class of the division in recent years, and everyone expected that to continue this season, even more so after the blockbuster trade-deadline deal to land ace left-hander David Price fewer than two weeks ago.

And it’s not as if the Tigers are going to curl up into a ball and give up now that they’ve surrendered first place. Remember, they relinquished that position to the Royals, who won 10 straight in mid-June. But the Royals’ “reign” then lasted for all of 72 hours.

What’s gone right for the Royals in this latest hot stretch? Well, for one thing they’re finally getting some big games from their better bats, like Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Salvador Perez, as well as their role players like Norichika Aoki, Omar Infante and Jarrod Dyson.

The team also features a rotation that sends a capable or better starter to the mound each game in James Shields (3.25 ERA), Danny Duffy (2.57), Yordano Ventura (3.45), Jason Vargas (3.48) and Jeremy Guthrie (4.35).

Most of all, the Royals have a dynamic bullpen that ranks among the best in ERA (seventh at 3.18), thanks largely to the late-inning trio of hard-throwing setup men Kelvin Herrera (1.62 ERA) and Wade Davis (0.88 ERA, 13.7 K/9) and shutdown closer Greg Holland (1.74 ERA, 13.3 K/9, AL-best 35 SV).

That was the formula Monday, as Ventura threw six solid innings, allowing just the two runs, before turning things over to Herrera and Davis, both of whom worked perfect frames with two strikeouts apiece. Holland then worked around a leadoff single to close out the statement game.

“They have a great staff, top to bottom,” said A’s outfielder Josh Reddick, per Jane Lee of MLB.com. “I don’t even know if they have a guy that throws under 95 [mph], so that doesn’t make it real easy. It’s not just their fastballs. Their secondary stuff sets up their fastballs. They’ve done a great job doing what they’ve done.” 

As unlikely as it looked even 10 days ago, the Royals just might make the Tigers work for a shot at their fourth straight division crown.

That’s a good thing. Baseball could use a little underdog, a little oh-no-they-didn’t, and the Royals are providing as much. Look no further than Monday’s waiver trade for Willingham.

“We felt the time was right to be aggressive and add another bat,” general manager Dayton Moore told MLB.com’s Dick Kaegel.

Is Willingham the biggest name out there? No. But can a guy who has 12 homers in 68 games and whose .345 OBP is now the second best on the Royals (to Alex Gordon’s .356) be a productive piece down the stretch? Why not?

After all, the Royals offense has been one of the team’s weaknesses, ranking tied for 16th in runs scored, 21st in OPS and dead last in home runs. Plus, Moore needed to do something in light of the recent hand injury to Eric Hosmer, which could keep him out until September.

“If we find players that make sense, [Royals owner] Mr. [David] Glass has always been willing to add a piece that we think can help us win,” Moore said via Kaegel. “And we think that Josh is the right presence in our clubhouse and in our lineup right now for what our team needs.”

If nothing else, the Willingham deal proves that an ownership that has often been criticized and mocked for all the losing is actually involved and invested in the product on the field. Willingham doesn’t solve all of the Royals’ problems, but he could be a symbol of a hope that hasn’t existed in Kansas City since the 1980s—and a symbol of a possibility that has seemed an impossibility since 1985, in particular.

No, the Royals might not win the World Series this year for the first time since that season. Perspective points out that the MLB season isn’t even through mid-August yet, so any celebration over being in first place and in a playoff position this early shows just how eager Kansas City, both the town and its fans, are for a return to relevance.

After remaining in the playoff picture until late September last year in what wound up being Kansas City’s first non-losing season since 2003, however, the ultimate goal for the Royals isn’t relevance. It’s October. Monday night’s win made that month seem a little more possible.

Statistics are accurate through Aug. 11 and come from MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, except where otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com