On top of the standings by eight games, after a 10-2 chest-thumping of Red Mosquitos. To maintain hope, the rest of us should compare Snellville's Gashouse Gorillas to the New York Yankees -- you know, the former 18-3 "greatest team ever" that has since come back to the AL pack at a 9-13 clip. For now, the Jones boys are cruising along at 34 games over .500 and a .702 win percentage, and they play the 19th-place team this week.

Billie's Bashers, in second place after a 10-1 victory over the slumping Garces_not_on_roids, could play the Red Sox role. Springfield Isotopes and Baird Brain, currently third and fourth, can be Oakland or Seattle. My Toronto Walrus team, back to fifth after getting clobbered 9-3 by the Chatsworth Halos last week, is starting to look a little like the K.C. Royals.


Unlike the majors, just passing the 1/4 mark of their campaign, Yahoo head-to-head leagues are nearly 1/3 finished the regular season. Remember, our tournament starts after August. The big league games in September will decide our champion, and anyone who finishes in the top six after 22 weeks could win the coveted T-shirt. Here's where we stand after seven HtH matchups:

 #  Team                    W-L-T    Win %  GB 
 1  gashouse gorillas      58-24-2   .702    - 
 2  Billies Bashers        48-30-6   .607    8 
 3  Springfield Isotopes   47-32-5   .589    9.5 
 4  Baird Brain            46-32-6   .583   10 
 5  Toronto Walrus         44-35-5   .554   12.5 
 6  AGF                    44-36-4   .548   13 
 7  Hannibals Cannibals    42-37-5   .530   14.5 
 8  Sub-Urban Shockers     41-37-6   .524   15 
 9  Mebion Glyndwr         43-40-1   .518   15.5 
10  Nation Builders        41-40-3   .506   16.5 
11  Reykjavik Fish Candy   39-42-3   .482   18.5 
12  Moscow Rats            37-41-6   .476   19 
13  Chatsworth Halos       38-43-3   .470   19.5 
14  Eastern Shore Birds    39-44-1   .470   19.5 
15  Red Mosquitos          36-43-5   .458   20.5 
16  Jicks Rays             35-44-5   .446   21.5 
17  K-Town Mashers         37-47-0   .440   22 
18  Geoffs Grumpy Group    34-47-3   .423   23.5 
19  Garces_not_on_roids    27-54-3   .339   30.5 
20  Thunderbirds           26-54-4   .333   31 

I'm accepting that the loss of Tony Armas, who was off to a great start, will be hard to overcome. Not that I'm desperate, but I took a chance with Dontrelle Willis, a very exciting prospect rushed to the Show about two years too soon by an organization known for ruining young pitchers. I will also trade Cliff Politte (who really needs a nickname) for a good starter, or Billy Wagner for a very good one.

Last week, I sent Jay Gibbons to Mebion Glyndwr for an upgrade at SS (Cabrera over the Marlins' Gonzalez) and a setup man (Stewart) with a good K rate. I tried to get a starter for Gibbons, but Gwyn held out for Aubrey Huff, one of my few productive hitters. In the other recent deal, Chatsworth moved Richard Hidalgo and Gil Meche to Jordan's Sub-Urban Shockers for Bartolo Colon and Carlos Pena. A Beane-like move, Gideon -- Pena was a Shocker for less time than he was with Oakland.

I'm grateful that Mussina will make just one start for the Isotopes this week, and still waiting for the aliens to replace this impostor with the real Jason Giambi.