Best of Yardbarker: The Dodgers are on a mission

Major League Baseball has officially reached its midway point, and as the All-Star Game approaches, no team in the National League has more victories or, perhaps, more talent the Los Angeles Dodgers. Of course, we've seen this before from the Boys in Blue.

The Dodgers have owned the NL West four years running, winning more than 90 games in each of those seasons and entering almost every year as a World Series favorite. Then every postseason, the team falters despite all its talent and deep pockets.

Although you have seen this start before, this season is no sequel for the Dodgers: "Perhaps this is finally the year for the Dodgers. I mean, what else could one possibly ask for out of a contender than what the Dodgers have produced over the first half of the season? They have the world’s greatest pitcher, a rookie sensation that regularly drops jaws and one of the most sterling records in all of baseball to show for it."

Leading the charge for L.A., as he has since he entered the big leagues, is star pitcher Clayton Kershaw. The southpaw ace is up to his usual tricks, leading baseball in wins and innings pitched while holding a 12-2 record, 2.32 ERA and 135 strikeouts to just 20 walks in 17 games. Given his continued dominance, the three-time Cy Young winner and one-time MVP looks like a surefire Hall of Famer already at just 29 years old.

However, given the historic benchmarks for pitchers in the Hall of Fame, it appears there aren’t that many out there who can check the 300-win and 3,000-strikeout boxes, among other traditional metrics. So with pitchers throwing less innings and bullpens playing larger roles across the game, it’s time to rewrite the Hall of Fame rubric for today’s pitchers: "The goal of Hall of Fame voting should be to offer a correct snapshot of the best players of their era as judged in fair balance with established performance standards — and also what was great in the time period in which they performed. Brilliance in pitching should never be in danger of being overwhelmed by a barometer in the past that can’t possibly be met."

While the Dodgers are riding Kershaw's remarkable left arm and Cody Bellinger's power to the top of the NL, the Houston Astros are using a similar template. The only team with more victories than the Dodgers, the Astros got off to hot start off the arm of their own Cy Young-winning lefty, as Dallas Keuchel went 9-0 in his first 11 starts with a 1.67 ERA. Even with Keuchel on the disabled list, Lance McCullers has picked it up on the mound to the tune of a 7-1 mark and 2.53 ERA.

At the dish, it’s been George Springer’s pop atop the lineup leading the way. In fact, Springer is on pace to break the single-season record for leadoff home runs, leading to the ‘power hitters are coming for that number one spot' quiz: