Major League Baseball's All-Star break serves as the most official of all arbitrary cutoff points. Arriving at a little more than halfway through the season, the four-day break from games separates the year's first and second halves. Whether that layoff has any impact on players' performances is debatable, but for whatever reason, some players excel during the second half, while others suffer through some notable regression.
Given the lack of meaningful games played this past week, we'll turn our attention to players who trend in opposite directions after the midway point of the season. Three hitters poised to finish strong and three second-half slumpers go under the microscope in Week 15 of Three Up, Three Down.