"Sometime this week, every team in baseball will play its 81st game. At the halfway point of the 2011 season, we've learned a few things.

• Runs are down significantly again. (From 4.61 per game in 2009 to 4.38 last year to 4.18 this year, the lowest number since 1992.)

• Last year needs a new nickname, because this is the real Year of the Pitcher. (Currently 23 starters who qualify for the ERA title are under 3.00, the most in 30 years and nearly twice as many as last season.)

• In that vein, little has changed. (Five of the eight playoff teams from last year would make it again were the season to end today.)

• You can be destitute and own one of baseball's signature franchises. (This breakdown of Frank McCourt's destruction of the Los Angeles Dodgers covers that swindle pretty well. The Wilpon family practically mortgaged the New York Mets to a hedge-fund manager, funny considering its dealing with another one, Bernie Madoff, is prompting a trustee for his victims to seek $1 billion from the Wilpons.)

• Old is new. (See: McKeon, Jack. Also see: Johnson, Davey.)

Any milepost, real or manufactured, presents a good time to hand out awards, too. Since every league needs an MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year, we're going to need a bonus degree to bring things full circle. Because the way he has performed over the last 10 weeks …

1. Adrian Gonzalez deserves an extra degree. Since the Boston Red Sox started 2-10, Gonzalez leads baseball with a .381 batting average and 64 RBIs – 11 more than the next closest, Prince Fielder. His .646 slugging percentage ranks second, his .431 on-base percentage fourth and the UZR metric ranks him the best defensive first baseman in the game by a significant margin. Gonzalez, long regarded as even unlikelier to steal a base than a Molina, even swiped a bag earlier this season.

So while Jose Bautista's numbers look better and Miguel Cabrera has made Jim Leyland look like a soothsayer by putting up an unseemly on-base percentage, Gonzalez is relishing his new league, new ballpark and new team to squeeze a kung-fu grip on the AL MVP reins.

He has proven correct the notion – espoused here, among other places – that his all-fields style of hitting would translate immediately to Fenway Park. One glance at his spray chart at home shows as many singles to left and center fields as right, nine of his 10 doubles to left and left-center and more home runs to the opposite field than his pull side.

Gonzalez clearly is the Red Sox's heart, something they needed to complement Dustin Pedroia's moxie and Jon Lester's(notes) work ethic and Jonathan Papelbon's quirks and the attitude …

2. Josh Beckett rediscovered sometime between the end of last year and the beginning of this season. His ascent back to the game's pitching elite makes him the shoo-in AL Comeback Player of the Year in the first half and among the top challengers for the Cy Young as well."