Fantasy Baseball First-Half Winners and Losers: Tolbert's Record Night, the Mets' Collapse, and Who Else Made History
Normally, this column looks back seven days for hitters and about two weeks for pitchers to anoint, you guessed it, recent winners and losers from fantasy baseball. This week we're looking back three and a half months, because the All-Star break exists precisely so a column like this one can happen. Here's who won the first half, who lost it, and one Kansas City utility infielder who did something nobody in baseball had done since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
Winners
Player of the First Half: Tyler Tolbert, Royals
Tolbert entered the season a .247 career hitter, a glove-and-legs specialist who existed mostly to pinch run and play good defense for twenty minutes a night. Then, across four games against the Phillies and Mets, he reached base safely in twelve consecutive plate appearances, tying the all-time MLB record set by Johnny Kling in 1902 and matched by Walt Dropo in 1952, and did it with a five-hit night against New York that included the first home run of his career and not one, not two, but three consecutive infield hits. He's now hitting .396 with 10 steals in 54 plate appearances, which means either the Royals stumbled into a real weapon or Tolbert should immediately buy a lottery ticket, and either way you should be checking whether he's still sitting on your waiver wire.
Team of the First Half: White Sox
Three consecutive 100-loss seasons will lower anybody's expectations, and Chicago spent those three years actively chasing the bottom, bottoming out with a 41-121 record in 2024 that still stands as the worst full season in modern baseball history. This year the White Sox are in first place in the AL Central at the break, carried by a rookie class, Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas, and Munetaka Murakami, that's outperforming every reasonable projection system and a pitching staff nobody outside the organization could have named in March. Nobody saw this coming, including, by their own admission, most of the guys sitting in that clubhouse.
The Fans
Yes, you, me, all of us are winners this season. The ABS system has been such a success that nobody is writing about it anymore, like it's been there forever. Personally, I'd like a team to get one challenge every 3 innings plus an extra 9th inning one allowing players and teams up to 4 challenges in the final inning, when getting it right is critical. Next up – let's try a similar system for check swings and stop relying on an umpire about 100 feet away from making those calls.
Also Worth a Nod
Eduardo Rodriguez has never posted a season ERA below 3.30 in his career and is sitting at 2.25 for Arizona at the break. Nick Martinez, at 35 years old, is running a 2.61 ERA with just 18 walks in 100 innings, easily the best season of his career, and Chris Sale, at 37, is in the thick of the NL Cy Young conversation, which is either a testament to his conditioning or proof that baseball still doesn't respect its elders enough to see this coming.
Losers
Team of the First Half: Mets
New York carried the second-highest payroll in baseball into this season, north of 375 million dollars in competitive balance tax obligations, and finished the first half a half-game better than the Colorado Rockies. They fired Carlos Mendoza on June 26 with the team sitting at 34-47, handed the job to interim manager Andy Green, and then lost six more before Green had even unpacked his office. Juan Soto has been exactly what they paid for, hitting close to .300 with an OPS that would define anyone else's season, but you cannot build a contender around a $765 million outfielder and an infield defense that leads the league in unforced errors, and the fire sale coming before the deadline is the only sensible move left on the board.
Player of the First Half: Cal Raleigh
Raleigh hit 60 home runs last season and finished as the AL MVP runner-up, the single best power season a catcher has ever produced in this sport. This year he has nine home runs and a .573 OPS through 59 games, with a strikeout rate that's climbed past 30 percent and a wRC+ that's collapsed from 161 to 69 year over year. Nobody has a clean explanation for it yet, and that's the part that should worry Seattle, because a player who got hurt is an easier problem to fix than a player the league has quietly figured out.
The Fans
Yes, fans have been winners this season, but we are about to lose, big time. The fight over baseball's financial state threatens to lock the players out in the offseason. Rich owners will whine and complain that other billionaires have more money than they do and they cannot possibly compete (Um, Tampa anyone?). MLB has treated us to a genuinely fun season that should result in great pennant races and a dramatic post-season, only to become less relevant while football extends its lead over all other sports for our attention. MLB is already marketing its proposals to us, packaging them as some sort of fan-friendly improvements to the game. Pardon me for not having empathy for the Royals or the Athletics because Steve Cohen runs laps around their banks. Raise more money, find more investors, and learn how to build a competitive franchise, because let's face it, Cohen's money ain't anywhere close to a World Series title.
Honorable Mention: Manny Machado
Machado is having a worse year than Raleigh, which is a sentence that shouldn't be possible given the two players involved. San Diego's all-time home run leader is hitting .193, the second-worst mark among qualified hitters in baseball, on a Padres offense that ranks 30th in the league in runs scored, and if that number doesn't stop you cold, you haven't been paying attention to how good this era of Padres baseball used to be.
Quick Hits
The Yankees lost 14 of their last 19 games heading into the break and now have to survive without Aaron Judge. The Tigers, preseason favorites to win the AL Central, sit nine games under .500 with the most blown leads in baseball and four different relievers in the league's top 15 for blown saves, a bullpen that has spent four months converting this roster's actual talent into somebody else's highlight reel.
That's the first half. We will resume with overreactions from the All-Star Game, HR Derby and a mere three games of fantasy activity to track this coming week..
Winners and Losers: Your Questions Answered
Q: What MLB record did Tyler Tolbert tie in 2026?
A: Tolbert recorded a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances, tying the all-time record set by Johnny Kling in 1902 and matched by Walt Dropo in 1952. He capped the streak with a five-hit game against the Mets that included the first home run of his career.
Q: Why did the Mets fire manager Carlos Mendoza?
A: The Mets fired Mendoza on June 26 with the team at 34-47 and in last place in the NL East, following a four-game sweep by the Cubs that included a six-error game. Interim manager Andy Green took over for the rest of the season while the team plans a full managerial search this winter.
Q: Why have the White Sox been the biggest surprise of 2026?
A: After three consecutive 100-loss seasons, Chicago entered the All-Star break in first place in the AL Central, powered by breakout years from rookies Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas, and Munetaka Murakami. A pitching staff that was considered a clear weakness entering the year has also outperformed expectations.
Q: What happened to Cal Raleigh's power numbers in 2026?
A: After hitting 60 home runs and finishing as AL MVP runner-up in 2025, Raleigh has managed just nine home runs and a .573 OPS through 59 games in 2026. His strikeout rate has climbed past 30 percent and his wRC+ has fallen from 161 to 69 year over year.
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This story was originally published July 12, 2026 at 3:50 PM.