BBFL: Incredible Playoff Race

Monday, July 28 2003 @ 08:59 AM EDT

Contributed by: Coach

We may be nearing the "dog days" in real baseball, but in the Batter's Box Fantasy League, there are just five weeks remaining in the regular season, so this is crunch time. An amazing twelve teams are within two games of finishing sixth or better to qualify for a spot in the championship playoff round, and no less than 17 of 20 are still in the postseason picture.

The runaway leader Gashouse Gorillas remain on cruise control, having whipped Mebion Glyndwr 8-3 last week to open up a 16.5 game lead. There's a dead-heat for second between my Toronto Walrus (8-4 winners over masssuckage) and Baird Brain (7-5 winners over Springfield Isotopes) but Billie's Bashers are very much in the hunt for the other first-round bye after trouncing Jicks Rays 9-2. Red Mosquitos jumped from seventh into fifth place with a 7-3 defeat of K-Town Mashers. Then it gets really close.

Nation Builders, after losing 9-2 to the Thunderbirds (who I can assure you are tough right now) are currently sixth, with a narrow half-game lead on three teams: Reykjavik Fish Candy, Sub-Urban Shockers and AGF. Three more clubs -- K-Town, Mebion and Jicks -- are just one game farther back. That's a total of seven teams bunched within a game and a half of playing for the T-shirt. Reykjavik, whose GM Mike Moffatt was last seen waving the white flag, stormed back into contention and contributed to tightening the standings with a 9-2 win over AGF.

 #  Team                      W-L-T      Win %   GB 
 1  gashouse gorillas       130-64-10    .662    -- 
 2  Toronto Walrus          115-82-7     .581    16.5 
 3  Baird Brain             113-80-11    .581    16.5 
 4  Billies Bashers         111-83-10    .569    19 
 5  Red Mosquitos           101-90-13    .527    27.5 
 6  Nation Builders         100-98-6     .505    32 
 7  Reykjavik Fish Candy     97-96-11    .502    32.5 
 8  Sub-Urban Shockers       96-95-13    .502    32.5 
 9  AGF                      99-98-7     .502    32.5 
10  K-Town Mashers           98-99-7     .498    33.5 
11  Mebion Glyndwr           99-100-5    .498    33.5 
12  Jicks Rays               96-97-11    .498    33.5 
13  Eastern Shore Birds      95-101-8    .485    36 
14  Chatsworth Halos         95-101-8    .485    36 
15  Springfield Isotopes     93-102-9    .478    37.5 
16  Moscow Rats              90-102-12   .471    39 
17  Thunderbirds             92-105-7    .468    39.5 
18  masssuckage              79-112-13   .419    49.5 
19  Garces_not_on_roids      78-116-10   .407    52 
20  Geoffs Grumpy Group      70-126-8    .363    61

Our trade deadline has come and gone rather quietly. The Sub-Urban Shockers made the final two deals of the season, which should come as no surprise. GM Jordan "Everyone Must Go" Furlong is like a mechanic giving his car an engine overhaul while speeding along the highway. He's made nine trades this year, and has just five hitters (no pitchers!) remaining from his opening day roster. It's not like I'm standing pat, with seven trades and 57 total roster moves (hey, I punted middle infield and catcher) to rank second only to Jonny German in the latter category.

In his final week as a member of the Walrus, Jason Giambi hit .077 and "slugged" .154 -- perhaps he was depressed by being dumped. Fortunately, hot weekends by Carlos Delgado and Orlando Cabrera carried me, as my rebuilt pitching staff is still spinning its wheels -- Curt Schilling, David Wells and Jason Schmidt, all acquired in recent trades, combined for two starts and zero wins. Facing just two teams with winning records the rest of the way, I'm still confident of making the playoffs, but I won't go very far into September if my rotation doesn't produce.

The Rules Committee will convene later this week to come up with a proposal for offseason trading, then our recommendation will be put to a league-wide vote. In last week's BBFL thread, there was support for it to be unlimited, and no objections to that idea, so if you have any more input on the topic, please speak up now. Since there's a deadline for declaring keepers one week before the draft, the trading window should close one week sooner, allowing for peer review of any last-minute deals.

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