Mariners star Cal Raleigh is suddenly in real danger of losing his home run lead

By the time the second half kicked off, Cal Raleigh had already elevated to baseball superstardom. Not only is his nickname still one of the best around, he finished the first half with a 1.011 OPS, 38 home runs, and a Home Run Derby trophy to boot. Everything seemed like it was going his way, and he was already on track to make history as one of the best catchers to do it at the plate.

Unfortunately, things have slowed down significantly.

In the 138 plate appearances he has had in the second half, Raleigh has managed a meager .731 OPS with just nine home runs. He still leads all of baseball in home runs with 47, but while he has been stuck in the mud, other sluggers have been closing in.

At his current sluggish pace at the plate, Cal Raleigh risks being outpaced in the home run race

Raleigh's nine second-half home runs are just the 12th-most of any player. With 15 and 12 second-half home runs each, Kyle Schwarber (45) and Shohei Ohtani (44) are undoubtedly the biggest threats to the crown. And the way things are going, they'll almost certainly pass him by the end of the season.

It seems to point to a broader issue in Raleigh's approach. Prior to the All-Star break, he balanced a powerful swing with a patient approach, walking 14.9 percent of the time and striking out 25.2 percent of the time. After the Midsummer Classic, he has been far less disciplined, marked by a 9.4 BB% and a 33.3 K%.

Furthermore, his chase rate has jumped up from 29.6% to 38.1%, resulting in bigger misses and worse contact. He's not the only Mariner who has been struggling recently, but he's definitely not as hot as he used to be.

Still, not all is lost. Although things have slowed down for him, he still has a great chance of surpassing the single-season record for a primary catcher. Furthermore, he still has a 158 wRC+ on the season, good for fourth among all MLB players. This is all while playing the most demanding defensive position in baseball and it all amounts to 7.1 fWAR, the second-highest mark of any position player. He's still very much in the AL MVP conversation and has more than a month to get back on track.

In fact, with a tough schedule ahead of them, the entire Mariners team needs to think about turning things back around and reigniting the positive momentum that powered this team just a few weeks ago. Does Cal Raleigh need to heat up to jumpstart the rest of the lineup? Or does he need to feed off of the positive energy of his teammates?

It's hard to say which comes first in this chicken-or-the-egg scenario, but with just three wins in their last 10 games, someone will need to get going eventually if Seattle wants to stay in this playoff race.