Catching Up in the Race

Here are the results through Wednesday’s games, showing the increase or decrease from last Saturday when I did my last update.

Pecklers 69.5 (+2.5)
Busch Leaguers 69.5 (+8.0)
Any 9 65.5 (+.5)
300 Pounders 63.0 (+.5)
Cappers 61.5 (-5.5)
Bats 60.0 (-1.0)
Lickers 54.5 (-3.5)

The Busch Leaguers have made a strong move, paralleled by a jump into 2nd place in saves. The Pecklers put one save point at risk to them by trading Farnsworth, but since the transaction does not become effective until 9/6, we may hang on anyway. Clearly that point could be critical between the two teams.

The Pecklers have the tie breaker advantage over everyone, including the Busch Leaguers. The Leaguers ability to steal the save point would change the 1st tie breaker to 4-4 in categories. On the other hand, thanks to 23 RBI’s in the first 2 days of this week, including 14 yesterday, the Leaguers only lead the Pecklers by 8 in that category. So there.

We made the pitching trade to try to inch up in wins, but more importantly, to stay in front of the teams behind us. We now have 5 starters. Carrying 3 closers puts a governor on the wins production. Usually the only wins closers get are ugly ones (ie, blown saves). We hope that by taking one of the Falkuhns’ starters we will pass them in wins. We also hope the presence of a closer on the Falkuhns will keep them ahead of some of the teams that trail them in saves.

Any 9 has been hovering at 65, give or take, for a long time. They picked up Ensberg, which should help them in homers and possibly RBI’s. They will need to get some points in these categories to make it all possible.

The Cappers have taken a pounding this week. They suddenly only have 2 points in BA. George insists he couldn’t finish higher than 2nd, so he didn’t sell out completely. I don’t believe it. Neither does anyone I’ve talked to about it. Hey, I’m glad. He was serious competition, but only if he made a serious move. The result: the Cappers will finish 4th-6th, which just doesn’t pay. You’ve got to finish first or second at least every third year to make any money in this game. On the other hand, he’ll have another strong keeper list next year.

The Pounders have stalled at around 62 points after a furious run in August. The Pecklers just took an RBI point away from them, but it’s still close. This team just has to finish 3rd in saves (good for 2 points) which they probably will. And like everyone else, they need to get wins from their starting pitchers.

The Bats are hanging despite the following pitching line yesterday: 16-1/3 IP, 29 H, 3 BB, 19 ER. The Elder Barry emailed me some more of his new mystery novel to peruse. He says he’s going to name the first guy killed Mark Prior.

Let’s put the unhappy face on the Lickers. They are desperate for saves points, but have only one closer. They should have been banging on our door for Farnsworth. And after all season in the stratosphere in wins, suddenly the Cappers are on their butt. They have a few points upside here and there, but 60 points now seems to be their ceiling. They look to be down for the count, but let’s give credit where it is due: they had a brilliant draft. I just don’t think they got enough for their pitching keepers that they traded.

Finally, the Pecklers had a lovely finish to the Mets-Phils game a couple of days ago. In the top of the 8th, down 1 run, they brought in Juan Padilla for a clean inning. Then in the bottom of the 8th, Ramon Castro hit a 3 run homer. Looper came in for a clean ninth for the save. A win, a save and a game winning 3 run jimmy jack. It just doesn’t get any better than that.