The All-Star Break is often considered halftime in the baseball season, but purists (I may have heard this from my father and grandfather who remembered the days before they an All-Star game) liked to say that you measure the first half of your seaspn based on where you are in the standings on the 4th of July.

Two teams in the major leagues are playing .600 ball as of tonight. The Yankess and the Red Sox. The Yankeees play their 81st game tomorrow, July 4th. The Red So play their 81st tonight. So it really is the halfway mark.

I’ve heard several people say that Adrian Beltre is the best pickup of the year for Boston. True, he’s leading the team in hitting at .3 , but it’s not all great. He also is #2 in the AL in GIDP’s and #1 in the AL in errors. What’s more, that error count is generous, as he has frequently shown that he has bad hands. He catches popups well, but a lot of grounders down the line go off his glove and he has trouble getting a hanbdle on the ball. When you get your glove on the ball but fail to make the play it should be scored as an error. At least ten times it’s been scored as an infield hit.