Baseball has reached its All-Star break, the traditional halfway mark of the regular season. With that in mind we break with tradition of the weekly SB Nation New York MLB Power Rankings, in which we gave you the previous week's top 10 players amongst the New York Yankees and New York Mets. Rather, this week we give you the top 10 for first half of the season.
1. David Wright, Mets -- Pitching has been a major strength, but the Mets aren't exceeding expectations at 46-30 and a half-game out of a Wild Card spot without their MVP candidate, David Wright. Just when you thought the offense would take a huge step back without Jose Reyes and to an extent Carlos Beltran, the franchise third basemen has taken this team on his back as the one guy teams target as the one who can't beat them. Wright has a sensational .352/.443/.567 line with 11 home runs, 59 RBI, 56 runs and nine steals. He's also tied for the league lead at 4.9 Wins Above Replacement. A career year, even without tremendous power numbers, is on the horizon. -- Jimmy Hascup
2. R.A. Dickey, Mets -- It's tough to survive a long season without rotation anchors. The Mets were thought of as having a patchwork rotation in the preseason, and now it has the third best ERA in the league at 3.48. Dickey (12-1) has emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball. Period. An All-Star and the frontrunner to start for the National League, Dickey has mastered the knuckleball like no other -- giving the team sterling innings (120), with precision (1.95 BB/9), big strikeout numbers (123) and the fourth-best ERA in the NL (2.40) and second-best WHIP in the majors (0.93). Oh yeah, his 12 wins is tied for the major-league lead and he is fourth in WAR at 3.1. -- Jimmy Hascup
2. Robinson Cano, Yankees -- It's tough remember at this point that Cano got off to a slow start this season, with only one home run and four RBI at the end of March. He had a torrid June, hitting .340 with 11 home runs and 21 RBI and has hit .364 thus far in July. For the season he is at .313 with 20 homers, 51 RBI, a career-best .578 slugging percentage and is 4.2 Wins Above Replacement. On a team filled with huge names and future Hall of Famers, Cano's star clearly shines brightest right now.
3. Derek Jeter, Yankees -- The 38-year-old Yankee Captain continues to defy age, hitting .308 during the first half of the season with 7 home runs. He hit only 6 homers all of last season. Jeter is now 14th on the all-time hits list with 3.199 and has a chance to move all the way to 11th (Willie Mays, 3.283) before the season is over.
4. Rafael Soriano, Yankees -- When Mariano Rivera crumped on the warning track in Kansas City this April with a season-ending knee injury Soriano wasn't even the Yankees' first choice to close games. That was David Robertson, and that did not work out. Soriano, the former Tampa Bay and Atlanta closer, stepped into the breach and has been brilliant. He has 20 saves in 21 opportunities and a miniscule 1.60 ERA, doing a great Rivera impersonation and solidifying the ninth inning for the Yankees.
5. Johan Santana, Mets -- Nobody knew what the Mets would get this season from Santana after missing a year because of shoulder surgery. His shoulder has held up just fine and he's formed a dominant one-two punch with Dickey. If you haven't heard, he also tossed the franchise's first no-hitter. The left-hander may not light up the radar gun like he used to, but he's shown it doesn't matter. He has thrown 102 2/3 innings, to the tune of a 3.24 ERA and 1.18 WHIP, 99 strikeouts and a 6-5 record.-- Jimmy Hascup
6. Ivan Nova, Yankees -- With every start by the 25-year-old right-hander it becomes more obvious that his 16-4 rookie season was no fluke. Nova had a rocky start to the season, since the beginning of June has seen his ERA drop from 5.60 to 3.92. His ERA in his last five starts in 2.20. One special thing about Nova is his ability to make pitches when he has to. Batters hit .328 vs. Nova in 'low-leverage' situations, but just .253 in 'high-leverage' or pressure situations.
6. Nick Swisher, Yankees -- The Yankees appear likely to let the free-agent-to-be walk away after this season, and his production will not be easy to replace. The right-fielder has 13 home runs and 51 RBI to go with a .262 batting average and is on pace to approach his career-best in RBI (95 in 2006 with Oakland).
7. Mark Teixeira, Yankees -- It seems like all everyone ever does is complain that Teixeira's batting average of .250 is well below his career mark of .280 and even farther below the .317 and .308 marks he had the two season prior to coming to New York. That ignores the fact that Teixeira leads the Yankees with 54 RBI and is on pace for a 30-homer, 100-RBI season for the ninth straight season. He also has just one error at first base.
8. Curtis Granderson, Yankees -- Granderson hit a career-best 41 home runs a season ago, and already has 23 home runs and 48 RBI this season. He is hitting only .248, but his .502 slugging percentage is second on the Yankees to Cano. You also can't ignore the fact that with Brett Gardner injured Granderson has patrolled center field in 83 of the Yankees' 84 games thus far in 2012.
9. CC Sabathia, Yankees -- The Yankees' starting rotation was in flux for much of the early part of the season, but the big lefty was the one constant. Sabathia is 9-3 with a 3.45 ERA and helped keep the Yankees afloat while the rest of the pitching staff sorted itself out the first two months of the season. He is currently on the DL with a groin injury, but should return shortly after the All-Star break.
10. Dillon Gee, Mets -- To the standard observer, Gee's 6-7 record, 4.10 ERA and 1.25 WHIP aren't too spectacular. But take a closer look, and one realizes he's pitched better than those rates indicate. His Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), which measures everything a pitcher is responsible for, is 3.68 and his xFIP (which normalizes the home run rate) is 3.50. For the team's "fourth" starter, he's given some sensational innings, improving on all his numbers from his first full season: more strikeouts (6.39 K/9 to 7.96), fewer walks (3.98 BB/9 to 2.38) and more groundballs (47.4 percent to 50.3 percent.) Jonathan Niese's progression has been nice, but he was given an extension this offseason hinting at the front office's expectations. Gee is that unsung staff hero that keeps a team in contention. -- Jimmy Hascup
Honorable Mentions: Scott Hairston, Mets; Boone Logan, Clay Rpada, Cody Eppley, Yankees