Closer and Closer

I’m going to make an entry every day that I can reporting on the standings of the top 7 teams so that there is an archive of the movement in the race.

Yesterday the race got even tighter, with the seven teams only 6.5 points apart, ranging from 66.0 to 59.5. The order is:

Pecklers 66.0
Any 9 65.5
Busch Leaguers & 300 Pounders 64.5
Cappers 64.0
Lickers 60.0
Bats 59.5

The top 5 teams are only 2 points apart.

I keep asking people how many points it’s going to take to win. The most common answer is 72. I’m not convinced it will be that high. I do believe the Leaguers will finish around 70, so that means every team will have to increase from where they are.

It’s not clear to me where the Lickers and Bats can find those points. Zack Duke racked up his ankle tonight and is likely done for the Bats this season. In this the last week of trading, the Lickers and Bats still have to make some kind of move, though the teams playing for next year are running out of guys that will help.

Any 9 and the Cappers are putting up Elder Barry pitching numbers tonight. Several starters have been killed tonight: Marquis and Tomko each went only 3 innings (Lickers), C. Vargas and Armas got beat up for the Cappers (ERA and Ratio points are critical to them), Beckett did not make it through the 4th (Any 9, also with critical pitching points) and Thompson was a little ugly for the Pounders. Meanwhile, the Pecklers’ pitchers haven’t pitched an inning yet.

Speaking of the Pecklers’ pitchers, Atlanta send Reitsma out for the 9th inning down 8-1 tonight, and he gave up 2 runs. That’s not exactly how you treat your closer. Prediction: the new Braves closer is Kyle Farnsworth.

Finally, early in this blog I spoke about Mr. Leaguer’s bet on the Warriors and how every $10 is important. We blew off $10 by reserving Tyler Walker today. He won’t be back until sometime in September, and he’s clearly done as the closer. There is no sense to it except we’re playing balls out, and we just had to spend it. Meanwhile, I wish we had bid $25 on Todd Jones and not $21. We’ve got plenty of FAAB money left.