BBFL: Trading Deadline Looms

Monday, July 21 2003 @ 08:56 AM EDT

Contributed by: Coach

Ouch! It hurts to fall from what I thought was a pretty secure second place and wake up this morning in third. Baird Brain enjoyed a brilliant 11-0 week against Chatsworth, while my team got thumped 10-2 by the Thunderbirds. Every week, I confidently assume that my hitters will keep me in the match, and hope that my pitchers will take a category or two, but no strategy is immune to disasters in Head-to-Head play.

Carlos Delgado, obviously tired from carrying the Jays and the Walrus on his back all season, sported a nifty 143/294/214 line for the abbreviated week. Milton Bradley chipped in with 133/235/333 and Bernie Williams was so bad (071/235/143) I traded him. When Marlon Byrd and Scott Spiezio are your hitting "stars," you're in trouble. Three of my starters didn't even pitch, and the ones who did were awful. Enough of this whining -- Jurgen wants to see the standings.

There are only six weeks left in the regular season. Runaway leader Snelville Jones won again, 7-4 over AGF, and only his margin of victory remains in question. Billies Bashers beat Mebion Glyndwr 9-3 in a match that changed both teams' status in the playoff race. With an 8-4 win over K-Town, Nation Builders made a move into fifth place, but seven teams are grouped within 2.5 games of the final two spots in the championship playoff round, so it's sure to be an exciting finish. Four teams are bunched within one game in the battle for the final spot in the consolation round. 

 #  Team                     W-L-T      Win %    GB 
 1  gashouse gorillas      122-61-9     .659     -- 
 2  Baird Brain            106-75-11    .581     15 
 3  Toronto Walrus         107-78-7     .576     16 
 4  Billies Bashers        102-81-9     .555     20 
 5  Nation Builders         97-89-6     .521     26.5 
 6  AGF                     97-89-6     .521     26.5 
 7  Red Mosquitos           94-87-11    .518     27 
 8  Jicks Rays              94-88-10    .516     27.5 
 9  Mebion Glyndwr          96-92-4     .510     28.5 
10  Sub-Urban Shockers      91-88-13    .508     29 
11  K-Town Mashers          95-92-5     .508     29 
12  Reykjavik Fish Candy    88-94-10    .484     33.5 
13  Springfield Isotopes    88-95-9     .482     34 
14  Eastern Shore Birds     88-96-8     .479     34.5 
15  Chatsworth Halos        88-96-8     .479     34.5 
16  Thunderbirds            83-102-7    .451     40 
17  Moscow Rats             81-101-10   .448     40.5 
18  masssuckage             75-104-13   .424     45 
19  Garces_not_on_roids     73-109-10   .406     48.5 
20  Geoffs Grumpy Group     69-117-6    .375     54.5
Am I worried about slipping right out of the playoffs? Not at all; I haven't given up on that first-round bye. A little help from the Isotopes against Baird Brain this week would be nice, and I'm not expecting my collective hitting slump to last long. Boomer Wells makes his Walrus debut this week against masssuckage -- I guess the Hannibal's Cannibals merchandise wasn't selling well -- and Paul Lo Duca is a big improvement over my revolving door of free agent catchers.

This is the last week to improve your team for the stretch drive; Sunday is the trading deadline. It is not the last chance for rebuilding teams to improve themselves for next year, but you'll have to wait, at least until October. We have approved offseason trading in principle, so now we should define the rules. There semed to be a general consensus that a window after the season and one before the next draft is a good idea, but some want it as short as a week, others as long as a month. The idea of unlimited offseason trading hasn't been rejected. Let's open the floor to discussion; when we have a specific proposal to vote on, we'll do it by e-mail. I'll start the ball rolling -- two weeks after the regular season ends, and two weeks before we announce keepers (that deadline is a week before the draft).

You won't be able to make trade offers via Yahoo after this week, but Batter's Box will be "open for business" all year. If two teams agree on an offseason trade, they should notify me or Jordan, and we'll post a BB entry. I'm not going to assume that everyone reads the site every day, so I'll propose a one week period after the announcement for any objections, which could either be posted as comments or sent by e-mail. There should probably be no trading allowed during that final week before the keeper deadline, so that the trade committee, which will be convened if necessary, can rule on any disputed deals. Spicol's going to keep track of the offseason moves, and we'll maintain league Web pages with rosters and e-mail addresses here in Da Box.

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