I’ve been thinking a lot about the baseball calendar lately, especially how we use it to mark the passage of time and look forward to what’s to come. As fans, we cut the season short to make it easier for us to discuss notable plays, examine trends, and support our irrational faith that our team can turn things around. As analysts, we know we shouldn’t draw positive conclusions from these individual slivers — the sample sizes are too small — but we also recognize the benefits of using these arbitrary segments to understand the season as it progresses.
I mention all this because this weekend will start the second half of the season. Yes, we all know that the All-Star break hasn’t been the middle of the season for a long time, with Opening Day scheduled earlier in the year than ever before while the All-Star Game continues to be played on the second Tuesday of July. Still, there are three reasons I continue to find value in splitting the season in mid-July. First, setting the standard period for a few days provides a natural design point. Second, with the playoff field now expanded to 12 teams, the postseason lasts longer than ever. Because the team that wins the World Series may play as many as 22 additional games, the All-Star break ends up being the closest point to the journey from Opening Day to the final game of the Fall Classic. Finally, the three-week stretch after the All-Star game is the rush to the trade deadline that then leads to the Dog Days of August and the grueling rush of September. The games after the All-Star break are more demanding than the ones before them, thus making a few days off in July feel like a more representative dividing line than Game 81 in late June.
Anyway, in this first post of the second half, we answer your questions about what it would be like if MLB had a loan machine like professional baseball, Kyle Karros’ streak, the longest .500 halftime streak by a team, and what Anthony Rendon’s career was. But first, I’d like to remind you that this post bag is only available to FanGraphs members. If you are not yet a Member and would like to continue learning, you can sign up for Membership here. It’s the best way to experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with tons of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question about a future mailbag, email me at mailbag@fangraphs.com.
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