This article is part of our The Z Files series.
Believe it or not, we're at the true midpoint of the season, or at least very close. i thought it would be fun to look at the first half fantasy All-Stars. There won't be multiple rounds of voting to confuse broadcasting booths across the league. I made two sets of lists. The first is strictly ranking by earnings through Wednesday, June 24. The second looks at return on investment, using the average of RotoWire, Mastersball and Baseball HQ for the initial projection. The players are grouped by the highest profit over initial expected earnings, provided they earned at least $1 in standard 15-team mixed formats. In fact, all the earnings are based on standard 15-team, mixed roto scoring. First, second and third-team members are presented, along with their first-half roto stats.
FIRST TEAM OVERALL EARNINGS
| HITTERS | POS | $ Earn | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| Willson Contreras | C | $21 | 227 | 17 | 38 | 48 | 1 | 0.300 |
| Yasmani Grandal | C | $21 | 248 | 18 | 40 | 46 | 3 | 0.270 |
| Freddie Freeman | 1B | $32 | 316 | 21 | 60 | 61 | 1 | 0.313 |
| Rafael Devers | 3B | $32 | 311 | 12 | 60 | 49 | 8 | 0.322 |
| Josh Bell | CI | $32 | 297 | 21 | 60 | 68 | 0 | 0.310 |
| DJ LeMahieu | 2B | $31 | 301 | 12 | 58 | 54 | 4 | 0.336 |
| Trevor Story | SS | $36 | 296 | 17 | 65 | 48 | 12 | 0.294 |
| Adalberto Mondesi | MI | $34 | 290 | 6 | 40 | 44 | 27 | 0.269 |
| Christian Yelich | OF | $55 | 274 | 29 | 63 | 63 | 17 | 0.332 |
| Cody Bellinger | OF | $48 | 277 | 26 | 64 | 63 | 8 | 0.354 |
| Mike Trout | OF | $36 | 264 |
Believe it or not, we're at the true midpoint of the season, or at least very close. i thought it would be fun to look at the first half fantasy All-Stars. There won't be multiple rounds of voting to confuse broadcasting booths across the league. I made two sets of lists. The first is strictly ranking by earnings through Wednesday, June 24. The second looks at return on investment, using the average of RotoWire, Mastersball and Baseball HQ for the initial projection. The players are grouped by the highest profit over initial expected earnings, provided they earned at least $1 in standard 15-team mixed formats. In fact, all the earnings are based on standard 15-team, mixed roto scoring. First, second and third-team members are presented, along with their first-half roto stats.
FIRST TEAM OVERALL EARNINGS
| HITTERS | POS | $ Earn | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| Willson Contreras | C | $21 | 227 | 17 | 38 | 48 | 1 | 0.300 |
| Yasmani Grandal | C | $21 | 248 | 18 | 40 | 46 | 3 | 0.270 |
| Freddie Freeman | 1B | $32 | 316 | 21 | 60 | 61 | 1 | 0.313 |
| Rafael Devers | 3B | $32 | 311 | 12 | 60 | 49 | 8 | 0.322 |
| Josh Bell | CI | $32 | 297 | 21 | 60 | 68 | 0 | 0.310 |
| DJ LeMahieu | 2B | $31 | 301 | 12 | 58 | 54 | 4 | 0.336 |
| Trevor Story | SS | $36 | 296 | 17 | 65 | 48 | 12 | 0.294 |
| Adalberto Mondesi | MI | $34 | 290 | 6 | 40 | 44 | 27 | 0.269 |
| Christian Yelich | OF | $55 | 274 | 29 | 63 | 63 | 17 | 0.332 |
| Cody Bellinger | OF | $48 | 277 | 26 | 64 | 63 | 8 | 0.354 |
| Mike Trout | OF | $36 | 264 | 22 | 63 | 56 | 8 | 0.303 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | OF | $34 | 321 | 19 | 56 | 51 | 11 | 0.287 |
| Ketel Marte | OF | $31 | 316 | 20 | 54 | 51 | 4 | 0.316 |
| Nolan Arenado | UT | $32 | 306 | 19 | 57 | 62 | 2 | 0.317 |
| PITCHERS | POS | $ Earn | IP | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Justin Verlander | SP | $38 | 114.67 | 10 | 0 | 142 | 2.67 | 0.75 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | SP | $33 | 99 | 9 | 0 | 90 | 1.27 | 0.84 |
| Max Scherzer | SP | $30 | 114.33 | 7 | 0 | 156 | 2.52 | 1.03 |
| Charlie Morton | SP | $24 | 100 | 8 | 0 | 120 | 2.43 | 1.05 |
| Mike Minor | SP | $23 | 112.67 | 8 | 0 | 110 | 2.40 | 1.12 |
| Zack Greinke | SP | $22 | 108 | 8 | 0 | 93 | 3.08 | 0.95 |
| Walker Buehler | SP | $22 | 91.33 | 8 | 0 | 100 | 2.96 | 0.88 |
| Kirby Yates | CL | $27 | 33 | 0 | 26 | 54 | 1.36 | 0.91 |
| Josh Hader | CL | $25 | 37.67 | 1 | 18 | 73 | 1.91 | 0.66 |
SECOND TEAM OVERALL EARNINGS
| HITTERS | POS | $ Earn | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| Gary Sanchez | C | $21 | 229 | 23 | 36 | 52 | 0 | 0.266 |
| J.T. Realmuto | C | $17 | 271 | 10 | 48 | 36 | 3 | 0.262 |
| Pete Alonso | 1B | $28 | 292 | 27 | 52 | 61 | 1 | 0.281 |
| Anthony Rendon | 3B | $26 | 240 | 17 | 59 | 55 | 1 | 0.313 |
| Eduardo Escobar | CI | $27 | 315 | 18 | 54 | 62 | 3 | 0.283 |
| Javier Baez | 2B | $27 | 314 | 19 | 52 | 52 | 5 | 0.287 |
| Elvis Andrus | SS | $30 | 289 | 7 | 45 | 43 | 16 | 0.308 |
| Tim Anderson | MI | $29 | 271 | 11 | 39 | 37 | 15 | 0.317 |
| Whit Merrifield | OF | $30 | 340 | 11 | 57 | 42 | 11 | 0.303 |
| Marcell Ozuna | OF | $29 | 291 | 20 | 52 | 62 | 8 | 0.261 |
| Charlie Blackmon | OF | $28 | 280 | 18 | 57 | 49 | 2 | 0.325 |
| Eddie Rosario | OF | $26 | 308 | 20 | 51 | 60 | 3 | 0.282 |
| Domingo Santana | OF | $26 | 319 | 17 | 46 | 60 | 5 | 0.282 |
| Xander Bogaerts | UT | $27 | 305 | 15 | 61 | 55 | 3 | 0.298 |
| PITCHERS | POS | $ Earn | IP | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Gerrit Cole | SP | $21 | 102.67 | 7 | 0 | 151 | 3.42 | 1.05 |
| Jose Berrios | SP | $20 | 104.67 | 8 | 0 | 97 | 2.84 | 1.07 |
| Lucas Giolito | SP | $19 | 91 | 10 | 0 | 111 | 2.87 | 1.07 |
| Trevor Bauer | SP | $18 | 119 | 6 | 0 | 134 | 3.55 | 1.14 |
| Chris Sale | SP | $17 | 101.33 | 3 | 0 | 148 | 3.82 | 1.03 |
| Mike Soroka | SP | $17 | 78.33 | 8 | 0 | 63 | 2.07 | 0.97 |
| Jake Odorizzi | SP | $17 | 85.67 | 10 | 0 | 94 | 2.73 | 1.07 |
| Brad Hand | CL | $23 | 34.33 | 4 | 22 | 50 | 2.36 | 0.93 |
| Will Smith | CL | $23 | 32.33 | 1 | 21 | 49 | 1.95 | 0.74 |
THIRD TEAM OVERALL EARNINGS
| HITTERS | POS | $ Earn | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| James McCann | C | $16 | 198 | 8 | 34 | 25 | 4 | 0.328 |
| Omar Narvaez | C | $14 | 225 | 11 | 39 | 29 | 0 | 0.293 |
| Carlos Santana | 1B | $24 | 283 | 18 | 55 | 48 | 3 | 0.290 |
| Alex Bregman | 3B | $24 | 285 | 22 | 54 | 52 | 3 | 0.267 |
| Anthony Rizzo | CI | $22 | 278 | 19 | 50 | 55 | 3 | 0.270 |
| Mike Moustakas | 2B | $24 | 279 | 23 | 50 | 49 | 3 | 0.280 |
| Francisco Lindor | SS | $21 | 248 | 12 | 41 | 27 | 12 | 0.298 |
| Gleyber Torres | MI | $23 | 275 | 19 | 51 | 47 | 3 | 0.291 |
| Mookie Betts | OF | $23 | 314 | 13 | 64 | 37 | 9 | 0.261 |
| Juan Soto | OF | $21 | 255 | 12 | 45 | 50 | 5 | 0.302 |
| George Springer | OF | $21 | 193 | 18 | 42 | 44 | 4 | 0.316 |
| Starling Marte | OF | $21 | 284 | 11 | 46 | 38 | 11 | 0.271 |
| Kris Bryant | OF | $20 | 282 | 16 | 41 | 60 | 1 | 0.287 |
| Jonathan Villar | UT | $21 | 306 | 10 | 47 | 33 | 15 | 0.252 |
| PITCHERS | POS | $ Earn | IP | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Frankie Montas | SP | $17 | 90 | 9 | 0 | 97 | 2.70 | 1.12 |
| Luis Castillo | SP | $17 | 91.33 | 7 | 0 | 109 | 2.56 | 1.17 |
| Jacob deGrom | SP | $16 | 97 | 4 | 0 | 121 | 3.25 | 1.09 |
| Stephen Strasburg | SP | $16 | 102 | 8 | 0 | 120 | 3.79 | 1.08 |
| Yonny Chirinos | SP | $15 | 87 | 7 | 0 | 71 | 3.00 | 0.97 |
| Matthew Boyd | SP | $15 | 101.67 | 5 | 0 | 129 | 3.72 | 1.09 |
| Cole Hamels | SP | $14 | 98.67 | 6 | 0 | 96 | 2.92 | 1.19 |
| Aroldis Chapman | CL | $23 | 31 | 1 | 23 | 44 | 1.45 | 0.97 |
| Kenley Jansen | CL | $22 | 33.67 | 3 | 23 | 45 | 3.21 | 0.92 |
FIRST TEAM PROFIT
| HITTERS | POS | $Earn | PROJ | PROFIT | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| James McCann | C | $16 | $1 | $16 | 198 | 8 | 25 | 34 | 4 | 0.328 |
| Josh Phegley | C | $11 | -$5 | $15 | 186 | 9 | 41 | 29 | 0 | 0.258 |
| Pete Alonso | 1B | $28 | -$1 | $30 | 292 | 27 | 61 | 52 | 1 | 0.281 |
| Michael Chavis | 3B | $8 | -$26 | $33 | 236 | 12 | 38 | 34 | 2 | 0.263 |
| Daniel Vogelbach | CI | $13 | -$22 | $35 | 242 | 19 | 46 | 45 | 0 | 0.248 |
| Tommy La Stella | 2B | $17 | -$20 | $37 | 267 | 16 | 44 | 47 | 0 | 0.296 |
| Eric Sogard | SS | $8 | -$26 | $35 | 196 | 8 | 23 | 32 | 6 | 0.301 |
| Hanser Alberto | MI | $3 | -$26 | $28 | 238 | 3 | 21 | 20 | 4 | 0.315 |
| Hunter Pence | OF | $18 | -$21 | $39 | 194 | 15 | 48 | 44 | 3 | 0.294 |
| Howie Kendrick | OF | $16 | -$19 | $35 | 186 | 12 | 44 | 39 | 2 | 0.328 |
| Dwight Smith Jr | OF | $9 | -$23 | $32 | 243 | 11 | 43 | 34 | 4 | 0.255 |
| Brian Goodwin | OF | $6 | -$25 | $31 | 213 | 7 | 25 | 39 | 3 | 0.286 |
| Jarrod Dyson | OF | $16 | -$12 | $27 | 199 | 5 | 17 | 37 | 19 | 0.256 |
| Austin Riley | UT | $3 | -$25 | $28 | 151 | 12 | 34 | 29 | 0 | 0.272 |
| PITCHERS | POS | $ Earn | PROJ | PROFIT | IP | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Lucas Giolito | SP | $19 | -$10 | $29 | 91.0 | 10 | 0 | 111 | 2.87 | 1.07 |
| Frankie Montas | SP | $17 | -$11 | $28 | 90.0 | 9 | 0 | 97 | 2.7 | 1.12 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | SP | $33 | $7 | $27 | 99.0 | 9 | 0 | 90 | 1.27 | 0.84 |
| Mike Soroka | SP | $17 | -$6 | $23 | 78.3 | 8 | 0 | 63 | 2.07 | 0.97 |
| Jake Odorizzi | SP | $17 | -$3 | $20 | 85.7 | 10 | 0 | 94 | 2.73 | 1.07 |
| John Means | SP | $9 | -$11 | $20 | 70.7 | 6 | 0 | 59 | 2.67 | 1.15 |
| Mike Minor | SP | $23 | $5 | $18 | 112.7 | 8 | 0 | 110 | 2.4 | 1.12 |
| Luke Jackson | CL | $11 | -$11 | $22 | 39.0 | 3 | 12 | 54 | 3 | 1.26 |
| Shane Greene | CL | $21 | $3 | $18 | 30.0 | 0 | 21 | 30 | 0.9 | 0.87 |
SECOND TEAM PROFIT
| HITTERS | POS | $ Earn | PROJ | PROFIT | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| Pedro Severino | C | $7 | -$6 | $14 | 158 | 9 | 23 | 19 | 1 | 0.278 |
| Omar Narvaez | C | $14 | $1 | $13 | 225 | 11 | 29 | 39 | 0 | 0.293 |
| Christian Walker | 1B | $13 | -$11 | $24 | 276 | 14 | 34 | 41 | 5 | 0.264 |
| David Bote | 3B | $5 | -$21 | $25 | 201 | 9 | 34 | 29 | 4 | 0.254 |
| Josh Bell | CI | $32 | $8 | $24 | 297 | 21 | 68 | 60 | 0 | 0.31 |
| Brandon Lowe | 2B | $17 | -$10 | $27 | 262 | 15 | 47 | 38 | 4 | 0.279 |
| Dansby Swanson | SS | $20 | -$7 | $27 | 309 | 15 | 48 | 52 | 6 | 0.256 |
| DJ LeMahieu | MI | $31 | $4 | $26 | 301 | 12 | 54 | 58 | 4 | 0.336 |
| Ketel Marte | OF | $31 | $5 | $27 | 316 | 20 | 51 | 54 | 4 | 0.316 |
| Cody Bellinger | OF | $48 | $23 | $25 | 277 | 26 | 63 | 64 | 8 | 0.354 |
| Domingo Santana | OF | $26 | $2 | $24 | 319 | 17 | 60 | 46 | 5 | 0.282 |
| Cameron Maybin | OF | $2 | -$20 | $21 | 118 | 5 | 14 | 27 | 6 | 0.314 |
| Jorge Soler | OF | $13 | -$8 | $21 | 301 | 21 | 53 | 40 | 0 | 0.236 |
| Fernando Tatis Jr. | UT | $17 | -$7 | $23 | 168 | 9 | 25 | 35 | 11 | 0.327 |
| PITCHERS | POS | $ Earn | PROJ | PROFIT | IP | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Spencer Turnbull | SP | $4 | -$13 | $17 | 87.7 | 3 | 0 | 81 | 3.29 | 1.35 |
| Brandon Woodruff | SP | $11 | -$5 | $16 | 94.3 | 9 | 0 | 114 | 4.01 | 1.17 |
| Wade Miley | SP | $8 | -$8 | $16 | 89.7 | 6 | 0 | 78 | 3.51 | 1.19 |
| Jordan Lyles | SP | $3 | -$13 | $16 | 64.3 | 5 | 0 | 66 | 3.64 | 1.23 |
| Marcus Stroman | SP | $10 | -$4 | $14 | 100.7 | 5 | 0 | 77 | 3.04 | 1.25 |
| Matthew Boyd | SP | $15 | $2 | $14 | 101.7 | 5 | 0 | 129 | 3.72 | 1.09 |
| Max Fried | SP | $4 | -$9 | $13 | 88.7 | 9 | 0 | 84 | 3.96 | 1.33 |
| Hector Neris | CL | $16 | -$2 | $17 | 33.7 | 1 | 16 | 46 | 2.41 | 0.95 |
| Hansel Robles | CL | $9 | -$8 | $17 | 36.7 | 3 | 11 | 37 | 3.19 | 1.09 |
THIRD TEAM PROFIT
| HITTERS | POS | $ Earn | PROJ | PROFIT | AB | HR | RBI | R | SB | AVG |
| Roberto Perez | C | $9 | -$3 | $13 | 181 | 14 | 31 | 24 | 0 | 0.243 |
| Christian Vazquez | C | $12 | $1 | $11 | 219 | 10 | 30 | 28 | 1 | 0.288 |
| Rowdy Tellez | 1B | $2 | -$18 | $20 | 234 | 14 | 37 | 29 | 1 | 0.226 |
| Rafael Devers | 3B | $32 | $10 | $22 | 311 | 12 | 49 | 60 | 8 | 0.322 |
| Pablo Sandoval | CI | $2 | -$19 | $21 | 160 | 10 | 28 | 25 | 1 | 0.288 |
| Derek Dietrich | 2B | $7 | -$11 | $18 | 180 | 18 | 40 | 36 | 1 | 0.222 |
| Kevin Newman | SS | $3 | -$13 | $16 | 181 | 3 | 25 | 18 | 5 | 0.326 |
| Elvis Andrus | MI | $30 | $13 | $16 | 289 | 7 | 43 | 45 | 16 | 0.308 |
| Clint Frazier | OF | $4 | -$14 | $18 | 191 | 11 | 34 | 25 | 1 | 0.283 |
| Leury Garcia | OF | $14 | -$4 | $18 | 277 | 5 | 22 | 53 | 8 | 0.289 |
| Jake Marisnick | OF | $2 | -$16 | $18 | 163 | 8 | 20 | 27 | 6 | 0.252 |
| Melky Cabrera | OF | $3 | -$15 | $17 | 211 | 4 | 26 | 27 | 2 | 0.308 |
| Christian Yelich | OF | $55 | $39 | $17 | 274 | 29 | 63 | 63 | 17 | 0.332 |
| Hunter Dozier | UT | $10 | -$8 | $18 | 209 | 13 | 42 | 29 | 1 | 0.297 |
| PITCHERS | POS | $ Earn | PROJ | PROFIT | IP | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Chris Bassitt | SP | $2 | -$11 | $13 | 67.7 | 4 | 0 | 65 | 3.86 | 1.23 |
| Caleb Smith | SP | $8 | -$5 | $13 | 66.0 | 3 | 0 | 82 | 3.41 | 1.02 |
| Yonny Chirinos | SP | $15 | $3 | $13 | 87.0 | 7 | 0 | 71 | 3.00 | 0.97 |
| Luke Weaver | SP | $7 | -$6 | $12 | 62.3 | 4 | 0 | 68 | 3.03 | 1.11 |
| Griffin Canning | SP | $3 | no proj | 55.7 | 2 | 0 | 57 | 3.88 | 1.02 | |
| Zach Plesac | SP | $2 | no proj | 38.7 | 3 | 0 | 28 | 2.33 | 0.96 | |
| Jacob Webb | SP | $2 | no proj | 27.3 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 1.32 | 1.13 | |
| Marcus Walden | CL | $6 | -$11 | $17 | 43.0 | 6 | 1 | 49 | 2.72 | 1.02 |
| Brandon Workman | CL | $9 | -$7 | $16 | 37.0 | 7 | 3 | 53 | 1.70 | 1.03 |
