At the half...

Well the first half is officially over. Let's take a quick look at the surprises and disappointments so far.

Surprises:

Sardine City Straphangers. Even though they've leveled off a bit lately, the Straphangers are still only five games out of a playoff spot. No one gave them much of a chance early on, but the Hangmen caught fire midway through the first half. The biggest factor has been the emergence of their pitching staff. Cole Hamels and Fausto Carmona have been the obvious studs, but Dice-K Matsuzaka and Phil Hughes have had some good moments too. And we haven't even mentioned rookie stud Ryan Braun yet...

Tampa Bay Plunkers. Their latest 4-game skid has left them at .500, but the first-year Plunkers are sitting in position for the final Wild Card spot. The team has been up and down so many times that analysts aren't sure if they're for real or just flirting with success.
Disappointments:

Hillsborough Hired Hitmen. After all the bravado in the offseason, the Hitmen have sputtered into 7th place. It took them quite a lot of work just to get to 1/2 a game out of the final playoff spot, but the Hitmen might have finally righted the ship. There's a lot of talent on the team that hasn't lived up to its promise. In particular the pitching staff has looked pretty mediocre, but C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander seem to be waking up.

Hoboken Cutters. Ok the Cutters didn't exactly have lofty expectations for this season, but they didn't expect to be in 13th and threatening for last place. Maybe a terrible finish is what the team needs though to truly rebuild. At least they got Brian Giles back though!