First Half All Stars

Let's Hand Out Some Plaudits!

Photo Credit: Richmond Flying Squirrels

My Dominican sojourn is coming to an end today, which means today is the final day to take advantage of my “Yay for the DSL!” sale. For one more day, 25% of your first year as a There R Giants’ subscriber, whether you want an annual or monthly subscription. When I touch down back on domestic soil, the sale ends, folks!

As the industry takes a pause to rest — and to celebrate itself on the national stage with the All-Star Game — it’s a good time to step back and look at the broad picture here in our little corner of the world. So, for the next couple days, we’ll try and put our arms around the events of the last three months.

Up first, I’m going to hand out my first-half All-Star plaudits and deliver some hardware as well with my first team Gold Glove players. Tomorrow, I’m going to have a few thoughts on the state of the farm system and also take a whack at a quick mid-season re-rank of the Top 30. And, on Friday, as teams return to the field, I’m going to write about the things I’m most hoping to see in the second half of the season.

But before we get to all that, we need to recognize the players who really achieved in the first half this year. I actually found most of these choices to be pretty clear-cut this year — at least in my eyes. One position did offer up an impossible choice, but only one — and, it was a happy difficult choice, which is always the best scenario, not a choice between a lot of flawed candidates.

A couple of quick rules for my selections: I tried as much as possible to put players at the position where they played the most games, and if I could, choose from players who took a majority of their team’s reps at that position. I will note the couple of places where I fudged just a tiny bit. Adherence to actual positions that players actually played caused one brutally difficult decision — and one player unjustly snubbed from the starting lineup, but what can you do? Rules are rules, even personal ones. Now, on with our list — the best performers on the Giants’ farm for the first half of 2025.