England 397 for 6 (Morgan 148, Bairstow 90, Naib 3-68) beat Afghanistan 247 for 8 (Shahidi 76, Archer 3-52) by 150 runs

As it happened

That England decimated another attack, posted a massive total and batted their opponents out of the game is only surprising to someone who hasn't followed Eoin Morgan's side over the past four years. But even for avid enthusiasts of the 50-over game, the brutality of Tuesday's assault, led by the England captain himself, was so gruesome one might have been forgiven for wanting to look away by the end of the first innings. England blitzed their way to 397, 198 scored in the final 15, 148 smashed by Morgan in 16 overs he was at the crease. Afghanistan were reduced to batting out the overs, which, admirably though they did so, still meant they came up short by 150 runs in the end.

Watch on Hotstar (India only): England v Afghanistan - match highlights

The records tumbled off the page far easier than they rolled off the tongue: most sixes by an ODI player for Morgan (17) - most sixes by an ODI team (25), highest score for England at a World Cup (397), most expensive bowling figures at a World Cup for Rashid Khan (9-0-110-0) and the most sixes conceded by an individual bowler (Rashid Khan with 11). Morgan took the attack to Afghanistan almost as soon as he walked in to bat; the platform had been set in the first 30 overs by Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, and the only thing they lacked was the impetus required to push a 300-score into something far more daunting.

Fair to say that was achieved, then. With Morgan hitting just about every fourth ball of his innings for six - 17 were deposited over the rope in 71 balls - Afghanistan were up against a man who had prepared for an innings like this by nursing for four years. Rashid Khan, who Gulbadin Naib had held back for this stage of the innings, had the heaviest punishment inflicted upon him, seeing the ball fly to the fence no fewer than 11 times. He conceded 74 in his last four overs, and 110 overall, with Afghanistan paying the price of failing to take early wickets. With the Morgan given the freedom of Old Trafford in the final 20, carnage was always possible.

ALSO READ - Eoin Morgan: Beyond the sixes, the heartbeat of 'new' England

Prior to the bloodbath, however, England had been curiously sedate, as if wary of finding themselves turned over on a day they couldn't quite field their best eleven. Jason Roy had been ruled out with a hamstring injury, and (ridiculous as it sounds now) Morgan's availability wasn't quite a guarantee, still not fully recovered from the back injury that had kept him from batting against West Indies.

The first Powerplay saw England score 46 runs - the lowest since the 2015 World Cup - with Mujeeb ur Rehman keeping things tight at one end and Dawlat Zadran removing James Vince after the batsman had played a characteristically charming cameo.

Bairstow and Root, who ended up with an anonymous 88 in the larger context, began to push through the gears, but it still wasn't the no-consequences cricket England have championed in the past four years. They were holding something back, you sensed, but when Morgan walked in after Bairstow fell 10 runs short of his hundred, the hosts were finally free.

What could Gulbadin Naib know of the beast he unleashed when he overstepped second ball of the 32nd over. It seemed like just another sloppy error - it wasn't like Afghanistan hadn't made plenty of those in the field anyway. Catches had been put down, ones had been allowed to turn into twos and balls had been dived over. But that no-ball meant Morgan would have a free-hit off the eighth ball he faced - he had scored just one off seven till then. He clubbed it over cow corner for six, and then treated every ball that followed as if it were a free-hit.

This may be Afghanistan's heaviest defeat in the tournament, but there was much to admire about how they went about their innings. Fully aware they wouldn't chase it down, they opted not to address the target at all, instead putting together a fine ODI innings in its own right, the type they've lacked in the tournament thus far. It's been a competition marked by unrest, infighting, accusations and recriminations, but this is the Afghanistan fans were hoping would turn up all tournament. It was more representative of the Afghanistan of 2019; what we've seen much too often at this World Cup thus far is the lazy, uninformed caricature.

Naib, surprisingly opening the batting alongside Noor Ali Zadran, strung together a breezy little innings of 37 that meant, somewhat amusingly, that Afghanistan had outscored England in the first Powerplay. While these were small victories, they'd be the biggest Afghanistan were likely to enjoy; England's bowlers are much too good to allow the type of carnage that was required for Afghanistan to get anywhere near what England had posted.

Hashmatullah Shahidi, as is his wont, took charge of the middle overs, preventing things from falling apart while building partnerships with Rahmat Shah and Asghar Afghan, the occasional acceleration giving off the impression they would tee off from time to time, but never quite managing to do so. Jofra Archer and Mark Wood kept Afghanistan on their toes with express pace, and a couple of damaged helmets had the scars to prove it. Ultimately, however, the scarring belonged to the bowlers who had fronted up to an England captain in the sort of form most cricketers are happy to find themselves in once in a lifetime.

That they ended up with 247, the highest score by an Afghanistan side at a World Cup, will be scant consolation as their tournament begins to draw to a close. England's, on the other hand, may only just have begun.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Marcus Stoinis could return to the Australian team for Thursday's group game against Bangladesh after a side strain forced him to miss two matches. The allrounder bowled and batted during training at Trent Bridge and, while Justin Langer said Stoinis wasn't certain to play in the next match, he has allayed initial fears he could be ruled out for the remainder of the tournament.

"Not definitely, he's a chance," said Langer, when asked about the likelihood of Stoinis' imminent return. "It looked like he moved really well batting.

"We've been monitoring him. He's an elite athlete, he's an elite professional. He's done everything possible to get himself fit. He wouldn't give up the opportunity for anything, would he? He's determined so it doesn't surprise me with where he's at now. It's a credit to him, it's a credit to the medical staff that are getting him up. So hopefully he can have a real impact on the tournament."

Stoinis' absence forced Australia to tinker with the balance of the side for their game against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and, while they won both games, the bowling depth was challenged, with Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith and even Aaron Finch chiming in.

"We've played really well with another balance," said Langer. "We played in India and Dubai with two spinners. I'm really confident with whatever balance we go in. it's actually really exciting."

"We said at the start of the tour that we've got lots of options, very adaptable and that's our strength not our weakness. I get the sense some people think that's our weakness. I actually think it's our strength that we can play according to our opposition, we can play accordingly to grounds, we can play according to managing players."

"That's a strength, not a weakness."

Nathan Coulter-Nile is fully fit and available for Thursday's match after missing the Sri Lanka game due to back tightness.

"With his history and his back, and he is getting a bit tight in his back. he played three games [in seven days] and I don't think he has done that for a long time. He's fit and he's certainly fit to play the next game."

ALSO READ: Australia still trying to find best XI - Brad Haddin

Adam Zampa sat out Australia's last two matches while Nathan Lyon has yet to play in the World Cup but Langer was comfortable with the decision to rely on part-timers rather than playing specialist spinners if conditions and the balance of the side favoured such an approach.

"That was more brought upon us because 'Stoin' became injured," said Langer. "What was more exciting was how the two quicks took wickets in the middle overs. We know in one-day cricket you've got to take wickets in the middle overs. There's not many wickets falling up front in this tournament. And the way our quicks pulled it back in the middle overs against Pakistan and Sri Lanka was brilliant.

"That's something for us to think about as well in these conditions. It's been pace that's dominated the tournament. Over the last few years it's been spin that's dominated one-day cricket. That might change - it's been wet, it's been overcast, the wickets get a bit drier. This one looks dry. That's been the trend so far and it's worked really well.

"It might change when we get to Old Trafford for example. We might look at playing two spinners if it's a dry wicket. It's good to have those options."

But before thoughts can turn to Manchester there is the considerable task of facing Bangladesh, who travelled to Nottingham on Tuesday, fresh from an emphatic win over West Indies in Taunton. Shakib Al Hasan comes into this match in outrageous form: he has two centuries and two half-centuries in four innings in the tournament so far, in addition to taking five wickets.

"Well, we've got our plans against him, but he's playing well," said Langer. "I think he is the No.1 allrounder in the world, it's no surprise. He's a very good cricketer. But we'll be prepared for him."

Shakib and Bangladesh provide an intriguing challenge for Australia. They have not toured Australia for a bilateral series since 2008, which has been something of a sore point for Bangladesh cricket. At a time when Bangladesh have improved immensely as a one-day side, many of their players are still relatively unknown to the Australians, unlike most other teams in this World Cup.

"We haven't played against them and when we do play against them they are usually in their conditions," said Langer. "We've watched them closely, we've researched them closely. It's a really important game for us in the scheme of the competition. They all are, but this one in particular, the way it's starting to open up a little bit on the table. We'll be well prepared and all our boys know that."

Police in South Carolina have put out a missing person advisory for former Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers running back Rod Smart.

The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office says that Smart -- perhaps best known for his "He Hate Me" jersey in the XFL -- was last seen Wednesday in Indian Land, South Carolina.

"It is unusual for him to be out of touch for this long," police wrote in the advisory. "Mr. Smart's family is worried about his safety and well-being."

Smart, 42, played in one season for the Eagles (2001) and four with the Panthers (2002-05). He came to fame for his "He Hate Me" nickname, which he was allowed to put on his jersey for the one season of the XFL in 2001.

SAN FRANCISCO -- An attorney for a deputy involved in an altercation with the president of the Toronto Raptors as he tried to join his team on the court to celebrate their NBA championship said his client suffered a concussion and is on medical leave.

Attorney David Mastagni said Tuesday the 20-year-veteran of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has a jaw injury and is considering filing a lawsuit.

Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly says the deputy was checking court-access credentials after the game Thursday in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors when Raptors President Masai Ujiri shoved the deputy and Ujiri's arm struck him in the side of the head.

Kelly says investigators are questioning witnesses and the office hopes to file a report to prosecutors recommending a misdemeanor battery charge against Ujiri.

The team said last week it was cooperating with the investigation and gathering information on its own. It had no further comment Tuesday.

The name of the deputy has not been released.

Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes is declining his $25.1 million player option and becoming an unrestricted free agent, his agent, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports, tells ESPN.

Barnes, 27, one of the top small forwards in the marketplace, will pursue a long-term deal.

Barnes and the Kings remain open to exploring a long-term deal after a successful partnership in the final few months of the 2018-19 season, league sources said.

Barnes could join what promises to be a free-agent landscape that includes 10 teams with over $20 million in salary cap space.

Sacramento traded with Dallas for Barnes last season with the hopes of making him a long-term focus of a franchise core that includes guards De'Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield, and forwards Bogdan Bogdanovic and Marvin Bagley III.

Barnes averaged 16.4 points with the Dallas Mavericks and Kings in 2018-19, splitting the season between the two teams after a February trade.

Barnes played three-plus years with the Mavericks after signing a $94 million free-agent deal there. Barnes left the Golden State Warriors upon Kevin Durant's arrival in free agency in 2016. Barnes was part of a 2015 NBA championship with the Warriors and won a gold medal as part of Team USA in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In one of his more candid moments this past season, NBA commissioner Adam Silver confessed that he was concerned about the mental health of NBA players.

"A lot of players are unhappy," Silver told Bill Simmons at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, attributing much of the anxiety to social media.

There are any number of environmental or chemical factors present in "unhappiness" -- social media is certainly one, mental health conditions that go undiagnosed and untreated are likely another. One less obvious feature present in the lives of young NBA players is that the vast majority of them are playing in cities, for bosses, with co-workers and on behalf of brands they had zero influence in choosing.

In the NBA, a first-round pick who shows promise is effectively under the control of the team that drafted him for the first seven seasons of his career. This means that in the most formative years of their professional development, the most talented young men in basketball are given no agency to decide what most of us take for granted: where we will live, work and put down roots in our adult lives.

As Anthony Davis was preparing to become the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NBA draft, I wrote a piece proposing the NBA ditch the draft. Though the idea was presented as a fix for tanking, I also wanted to emphasize the principle of fair labor. I suggested that among the effects stemming from the abolition of the draft "would be a likely uptick in retention. A young player who chooses his destination based on his personal criteria is far more likely to stick around long term."

Seven years later, Davis has proved to be an apt illustration of the downstream effects of the draft system. If you were looking for a valve for the unhappiness Silver was talking about last winter, Davis was it. Wherever you come down on the conduct of Davis and his camp during the chaotic standoff that paralyzed two franchises and rippled out to several others before Davis was dealt on Saturday to the Lakers, it's fair to ask what role the current draft system played in the affair. Davis never chose New Orleans, and though he signed a flush multiyear extension with the Pelicans in 2015, he was yoked to restricted free agency when he did.

Freedom of choice for players should be a sacrosanct principle, particularly in a league that claims to value meritocracy. Looking at the roster of NBA owners, it's hard to believe that these billionaire proprietors, many of them self-made, don't subscribe to that virtue. Can you imagine if Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera -- who, upon graduating from UC San Diego with a master's in engineering, chose to take his skills to Apple -- was instead asked by some governing authority in big tech, "Where don't you want to go?" then promptly assigned there?

We are currently seeing that elite young basketball players, even before they arrive in the NBA, appreciate the value of choice more than ever. Witness RJ Hampton opting to play professionally in New Zealand rather than go uncompensated for his labor in college. The NBA has recognized as much by essentially opening up the G League as an alternate route for prospects who, like Hampton, want to steer clear of NCAA basketball.

Proponents of the draft generally maintain that it's the only way to ensure fairness in a 30-team league in which some of those teams are far more appealing homes than others. When a prodigy like Zion Williamson declares himself eligible to play in the NBA, the fairness of allowing him a say in where he'd like to play must defer to the fairness of giving the league's failing teams an infusion of talent.

Williamson, though, might entertain ideas about what kind of coach he'd like to play for, or the kind of city he'd like to live in, or the types of teammates he'd like to share the court with. Given that Williamson is a player with uncommon force whose output will need to be managed carefully, he might not want to entrust his body to just any medical and performance staff.

In a league where the product is the talent, why do employers get to interview the potential employees, but not the other way around? As Williamson embarks on building a global brand for himself over a career whose prime will come and go in about a dozen years, he might even have certain standards about what kind of person or businessman an NBA owner should be. Why is disqualification a one-way street, whereby no team has to employ a player whose character it finds questionable, but no incoming rookie has the right to dismiss an owner he and his family might think is sketchy?

NBA teams vary greatly in identity. Some are highly structured organizations, governed by order and discipline that have been in place for a while. (See: Miami, Oklahoma City.) Others feel like start-ups, with aspirational principles in place, and everything new and in flux -- and boy is it exciting! (See: LA Clippers, Brooklyn.) Teams are a lot like players in that way, and their personnel decisions are often expressions of those identities. But acting on preferences isn't a privilege that's afforded the draftee.

If NBA teams had to sell themselves to the rookie class, the overall quality of NBA management and the competitiveness of the product might improve considerably. It's likely that NBA owners understand this, because many of them have made hundreds of millions of dollars by mastering the incentive structures present in markets. Even though the league this year adjusted that structure for obtaining the highest draft picks -- tweaks that penalized the spectacularly awful teams in favor of the pretty awful ones -- failure is still the path to the best draft talent in the NBA.

Most fans and those inside the league widely acknowledge that the NBA product over the final seven weeks of the regular season is a watered-down version of the real thing. Remove the incentive to lose and the NBA could elevate the quality of play during the final third of the regular season. But more than that, the league could make winning games an advantage -- not an impediment -- toward luring a top young prospect to a team.

Imagine a system in which incoming rookies enjoyed the power to choose -- say unrestricted free agency. Critics contend that such a setup would concentrate the best young rookies on established and/or sexier franchises. But in a restrictive salary-cap system, a capped-out team doesn't have the resources to offer Williamson what he'd command in free agency. The Warriors would be every bit as hamstrung in pursuit of Williamson, Ja Morant or any other top-five pick as they are in chasing Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving.

Would the Lakers be assured a top-three talent every year by virtue of being the Lakers? Who knows, but under the current system, the most recognizable brand in North American professional sports drafted the No. 2 pick three years running from 2015 through 2017, and are slated to pick fourth this season. If rookies were free agents, the Lakers would not only have to win prospects with the power of persuasion, they'd also have to pay them something close to market value.

With NBA teams holding nearly equal spending power and operating under the same rules in the current cap structure, those who employ stars earning big salaries will have only so many resources with which to outbid teams that don't for the services of the most talented rookies. Only one of the eight conference semifinals teams (Philadelphia) would have any meaningful cap space to outbid the have-nots, and if rookie free agency occurred after veteran free agency, the Sixers could do so only by moving on from one of their veteran free-agent stars.

It's not that bad teams would have nothing to worry about -- but that's a feature, not a bug. Teams that have been circling the drain for years could no longer afford to perpetuate the cycle of misery with the comfort of knowing there's help on the way via the draft. Instead, poorly performing franchises would be pushed to do whatever was necessary to warrant the attention of the better prospects. They'll have to win basketball games, or build the best performance programs and training facilities, or hire executives and coaches whom players want as bosses. At the very least, franchises would have to approach desirable rookies and be able to say confidently, "This is a place where you can be the face of a franchise, win and build a personal brand."

Typically, arranged marriages don't produce the happiest unions, which could help explain why there are so many troubled working relationships in the NBA. A more equitable system would mean fewer storylines about player discontent and stars wanting to be elsewhere when their contracts expire -- and that's better for business.

The most capable teams, of course, will find their Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kyle Lowry or Pascal Siakam -- not one of them, incidentally, chosen in the top 10. They'll identify him early as the value play in the incoming class, all while a dozen rivals invest their resources and attention on landing one of the top three picks in a "three-player draft."

Scenarios like these would force front offices to act strategically, as there are a number of very good players who will gladly sign with a smart organization that values them as a foundational piece of the future and demonstrates as much -- not a safety school for a team that swings and misses on its first two pitches.

For those who believe that unrestricted free agency would be too punitive toward the NBA's doormat teams or less alluring markets, the league could develop a "matching system," like the National Resident Matching Program (or NRMP or "The Match"), which labor economists continue to regard as a remarkably effective model for assigning incoming talent to employers who need it.

How does it work? Every year, graduates of medical school -- the nation's future doctors -- rank the places where they'd like to be resident physicians in order of preference, while the medical institutions rank the graduates they most want to hire. An algorithm then processes the choices and issues the matches. The most talented young doctors are frequently paired with the most prestigious institutions, because there's often mutual interest.

But as Alvin Roth, who directed the redesign of the NRMP in 1995, writes in "Who Gets What -- And Why," The Match is a system in which "no applicant and residency program not matched with each other preferred each other to their assigned matches."

In an "NBA Match" system, if North Carolina's Nassir Little landed with Charlotte, there's a mathematical guarantee that no team he preferred ranked him higher than the Hornets did. Likewise, if Detroit ended up with Romeo Langford, it's certain that no rookie the Pistons liked more than Langford ranked Detroit higher than Langford did.

In an NBA Match system, mutual affection between player and team is recognized and honored. Overall, the best players and most desirable teams would clearly benefit in a match system -- and in this sense the NBA would begin to resemble the rest of professional life.

Concerns over whether Morant, the projected No. 2 pick, would just choose a winner ignore practical realities in the NBA that inform behavior. Would Morant really be willing to play behind Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson with Golden State or Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum with Portland? Would he willingly choose to play with Houston's James Harden and Chris Paul? How about Ben Simmons in Philadelphia, Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City or the majority of the league's teams that are committed long term at Morant's position?

How would Morant rank his preferred teams if he had the opportunity afforded to every med school grad in the country -- or if he was endowed with total freedom, like the smartest engineers coming out of college right now?

Would he seek out a situation like Trae Young's, in which the keys to a franchise are handed over to him on Day 1? Would he choose to play with LeBron James, assuming James has any interest in the final years of his career teaching a remedial education in NBA life to a 19-year-old? Would he look for a team that could offer a different flavor of veteran mentorship? Would the native of Sumter County, South Carolina, who played at a lower-profile college program prefer a smaller market?

Whatever criteria Morant applied to draw up his list, the common denominator would be, "What would make me happy?" And a league that has spent the better part of a year wringing its hands over the unhappiness of many of its best players could consider furnishing the next generation of stars the most basic amenity of professional and personal happiness: a say in where you work and live.

The Major League Baseball Umpires Association is not happy with San Diego Padres star Manny Machado's punishment for making contact with an umpire.

Machado was suspended one game after arguing a called third strike with plate umpire Bill Welke during Saturday's game against the Colorado Rockies

"One game..one single game. What kind of precedent is that setting? It is NOT okay to throw a temper tantrum and physically touch someone of authority, just because you don't agree. Violence in all workplaces is not tolerated. Period," the MLBUA said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

MLB said the punishment, imposed by chief baseball officer Joe Torre, was for "aggressively arguing and making contact'' with Welke. Machado denies that he made contact with the umpire and said he's appealing the one-game suspension and fine.

"We have our case and we're going to wait to see what the appeal comes back with. We always have the right to argue balls and strikes and give our opinion on it," Machado said.

In their Facebook post Tuesday, the MLBUA called the one-game suspension a "slap in the face" and said any physical contact with an umpire cannot be tolerated.

"Major League Baseball has to always lead by example in all cases of violent behavior, on and off the field. With that being said, the MLBUA is extraordinarily disappointed in Major League Baseball for its disciplinary 'inaction' handed down to Manny Machado."

The 26-year-old Machado is batting .261 with 13 home runs and 39 RBIs for the Padres after signing a $300 million, 10-year contract in spring training.

It's June 18 and Ketel Marte has 20 home runs.

I don't know if that's the craziest statistic in a season full of insanity, but it's certainly one of those numbers that pops like a Jackson Pollock painting. Marte is on pace for 44 home runs -- after entering the year with 22 career home runs in 1,399 at-bats. That's one home run every 63.6 at-bats. In 2019, he's homering every 14.5 at-bats. That's the career rate for Sammy Sosa and is better than Manny Ramirez, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.

Marte reached the majors in 2015 as a speed-first shortstop whom the Mariners envisioned as their future leadoff hitter. In his two seasons with Seattle, he hit three home runs in 656 at-bats, about a full season of playing time, and when his plate discipline deteriorated in his second season and he struggled on defense, the Mariners included him as the second piece alongside Taijuan Walker in the trade that brought Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger to Seattle.

That was Mike Hazen's first big trade as Arizona's general manager, and though Walker helped the Diamondbacks to a wild card in 2017 before he blew out his elbow last season, Marte's emergence is making the deal look much better for Hazen than it did the first couple of seasons.

The 25-year-old switch-hitter has filled out a once-skinny frame and has added strength. He showed signs of power potential with 14 home runs in 2018, but nobody could have forecast this kind of outburst.

"The results are matching the potential," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told the Arizona Republic. "Dynamic, exciting, those are single words that I can use. He's a mature baseball player today compared to when we first met him. ... He's matured in a way where he feels he's one of the top players, and you can tell by looking at him. But he's still humble and would never outwardly say that."

Working with new hitting coach Darnell Coles, Marte has tapped into his strength by -- yes -- changing his launch angle. His average angle has gone from 5.7 degrees to 11.2, meaning more fly balls and more home runs.

Marte's power comes from a good foundation of contact hitting, however. Last season he had the 19th-lowest strikeout rate among qualified batters. His strikeout and walk rates were basically identical to Anthony Rendon's. He has been more aggressive this year, and while that has led to a few more strikeouts and a little more chasing out of the zone, it has paid dividends in the power department.

Marte just hit six home runs during Arizona's 10-game road trip -- homering six times in the final eight games (and striking out just twice in 38 plate appearances). This is a player locked in right now. Earlier in June, he cracked this 482-foot home run:

Four hundred eighty-two feet. ? pic.twitter.com/kmj3dHFGE0

— MLB (@MLB) June 2, 2019

That home run also led to "The ball is more juiced than the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition" jokes. Indeed, we're on pace for about 1,150 home runs in June, the most ever in one month, breaking the previous high marks of 1,144 in April 2019 and 1,135 in May 2019.

That means Marte isn't the only surprise performer on the home run leaderboard. In honor of Marte's booming start, let's select the 2019 Ketel Marte All-Star team, focusing on this year's surprise power hitters who have never made a real All-Star team.

C -- Mitch Garver, Twins (11 home runs)

Only 11 home runs? Well, Garver's production has come in just 116 at-bats, as he has shared time behind the plate with Jason Castro and Willians Astudillo and also had an IL stint. He's hitting .310/.394/.664 after hitting .268 with seven home runs in 302 at-bats in 2018.

1B -- Josh Bell, Pirates (19 home runs)

Bell came up as a consensus top-40 overall prospect and slugged 26 home runs as a rookie in 2017. He hit just 12 homers in 2018, however, and everyone kind of forgot about him. He's leading the National League in total bases, doubles and RBIs while hitting .321/.388/.653. His big key: being more aggressive in the right counts. He's swinging about 7 percent more often, 11 percent more often at pitches in the zone and 11 percent more often on first pitches.

2B -- Brandon Lowe, Rays (15 home runs)

Lowe -- rhymes with "ow," which is the hurt he's putting on the baseball -- hit 28 home runs last year between Double-A, Triple-A and the majors, so maybe this output isn't a complete surprise. Still, he wasn't guaranteed a regular gig coming out of spring training, but Joey Wendle's injury opened up some playing time. Lowe is not very big (listed at 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, which is generous), but Lowe takes a mighty hack at the ball with a big hip turn. That approach results in whiffs (33.5 percent strikeout rate), but he has still managed to hit .289 thanks to a .393 BABIP.

SS -- Dansby Swanson, Braves (13 home runs)

Swanson is just one home run away from matching his 2018 total. His Statcast numbers are up across the board: exit velocity (86.8 mph to 90.5), launch angle (12.9 degrees to 13.9) and hard-hit rate (34.0 percent to 42.7). This could simply be a young player who has added strength and matured (he's chasing fewer pitches out of the zone). Or it could be the ball. Or both.

3B -- Tommy La Stella, Angels (15 home runs)

As a rookie in 2014, La Stella hit one home run in 319 at-bats. That was his game, and he has been a solid bench guy/pinch hitter ever since, entering 2018 with 10 home runs in 828 career at-bats. So, of course, he has 15 bombs. La Stella's average exit velocity is actually right in line with his career average and his ground ball rate remains unchanged. He has barreled up a few more balls and doesn't strike out much, but this looks like a prime example of somebody who has clearly benefited from the rabbit ball.

OF -- Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks (20 home runs)

One of the annoying things about the launch angle revolution is the implied suggestion that hitters are doing something they've never done before -- changing their swings to generate more fly balls. Nonsense. Take Kirby Puckett, off the top of my head. He hit four home runs his first two seasons and then broke out with 31 in 1986. What do you think he did to do that? Are more guys doing it now? Sure. In part because the juiced ball rewards that approach. But players are also bigger and stronger. If Marte had played in the 1980s, he probably would have remained a skinny shortstop who slapped the ball around and tried to hit .275. Now he's a bulked-up power hitter.

OF -- Hunter Renfroe, Padres (23 home runs)

Renfroe hit 26 home runs in each of the previous two seasons and is a former first-round pick, so his raw power has never been at issue. But are you kidding? He's on pace for 52 home runs in just 466 at-bats! He's slugging .647! He leads the majors in at-bats per home run (9.00), just ahead of Christian Yelich and Gary Sanchez. He's still the same hitter he has been -- low OBP, high strikeout rate -- but after a three-homer game and two-homer game in Colorado over the weekend, he has moved into a tie with Cody Bellinger and Peter Alonso, behind only Yelich in home runs.

Hunter Renfroe is the first #Padres hitter since Adrian Gonzalez in 2009 to hit 20 first-half home runs.#VoteFroe ✅ https://t.co/BRCteYQ0oq pic.twitter.com/8TWQl0F6vO

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 15, 2019

OF -- Jorge Soler, Royals (19 home runs)

Once a touted prospect out of Cuba, Soler has never hit enough or remained healthy enough to get 400 at-bats in a season. He hit 11 home runs the past two seasons, but he has remained in the lineup and could challenge Mike Moustakas' club record of 38 homers.

DH -- Dan Vogelbach, Mariners (17 home runs)

Out of options, the Mariners had to keep Vogelbach on the roster, but he started only one of the team's first seven games. Then he homered in four straight games, and now he could end up as the Mariners' All-Star rep. Vogelbach's career high in the minors was 23 home runs, so despite his Chris Farley body he has really been more of an all-around hitter than a pure power guy. Now he's both. How much fun would he be in the Home Run Derby?

UT -- Derek Dietrich, Reds (17 home runs)

He hasn't homered since May 28 (when he hit three in one game), he sits against lefties ... and he's still on pace for 39 home runs. Ted Williams reached 39 home runs once in his career. (Just to be clear, I am not comparing Derek Dietrich to Ted Williams.)