Only four weeks remain to determine the playoff seedings. Lopsided wins were the order of Week 18, and they changed the standings dramatically. Nation Builders clobbered masssuckage 11-1 to move into fifth place, while Mebion Glyndwr thumped Reykjavik Fish Candy by the same score to leap from 11th into sixth.
Red Mosquitos, comfortably in the championship picture a week ago, are now seventh, four games back of the resurgent Welshmen. The pesky bugs were eaten alive 11-1 by the Thunderbirds, who vaulted from 17th into 10th, and are just six games away from completing a truly miraculous charge into the championship round. I warned you, Spicol. Justin B.'s club is on a 30-6 tear against first-division rivals the last three weeks -- I was another of his victims -- and that pitching staff of Halladay, Vazquez, Santana and Harden is the envy of the league.
In the battle for second place (and the accompanying first-round playoff bye) Baird Brain pulled away from the Walrus with a 9-1 romp over Moscow Rats. My guys were cruising by the same score entering Sunday's play, but Geoff's Grumpy Group closed the gap to 7-3 behind chief grump Barry Bonds and the much nicer Mark Mulder. The K-Town Mashers' playoff hopes were dealt a 10-2 blow by Garces_not_on_roids, who moved up a notch to 18th in the standings:
# Team W-L-T Win % GBThese are happy times in the Walrus front office, as Cliff Politte looks healthy and is co-closing again, Schilling is 100%, and health risks Schmidt and Wells pitched well last week. Best of all, we snatched Mike Restovich (381/480/619 for his first week in the Show) off the FA list to replace Doug Glanville, and grabbed fellow phenom Laynce Nix off waivers, saying a not-so-sorrowful goodbye to Damian Rolls. Both moves were addition by subtraction, with significant upsides. If you're wondering why we signed Glanville and Rolls in the first place, I plead temporary insanity. However, before being banished to Dusty's bench, Doug went 412/429/559 last month, and Damian was 12/14/4 in the counting stats. I've owned worse players.
1 gashouse gorillas 137-68-11 .660 --
2 Baird Brain 122-81-13 .595 14
3 Toronto Walrus 122-85-9 .586 16
4 Billies Bashers 116-90-10 .560 21.5
5 Nation Builders 111-99-6 .528 28.5
6 Mebion Glyndwr 110-101-5 .521 30
7 Red Mosquitos 102-101-13 .502 34
8 Chatsworth Halos 102-104-10 .495 35.5
9 Sub-Urban Shockers 100-102-14 .495 35.5
10 Thunderbirds 103-106-7 .493 36
11 AGF 102-105-9 .493 36
12 Eastern Shore Birds 102-106-8 .491 36.5
13 Jicks Rays 100-104-12 .491 36.5
14 Springfield Isotopes 100-106-10 .486 37.5
15 K-Town Mashers 100-109-7 .479 39
16 Reykjavik Fish Candy 98-107-11 .479 39
17 Moscow Rats 91-111-14 .454 44.5
18 Garces_not_on_roids 88-118-10 .431 49.5
19 masssuckage 80-123-13 .400 56
20 Geoffs Grumpy Group 73-133-10 .361 64.5
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