Inspired by the "real" swap of Mark Bellhorn and Jose Hernandez, Jordan's Sub-Urban Shockers and Spicol's Red Mosquitos agreed on a mega-deal last week that saw Mark Prior and Jim Thome also change teams. Sean Casey replaces Thome at 1B for the rebuilt Shockers, and the Mosquitos managed to get Octavio Dotel. A trade of this magnitude is hard to assess (who "won" depends on Prior's continued good health and the possibility that he will be even more awesome in the future) but it has changed the personality of two contending teams. Making it even more exciting, the negotiations were public; I thought I was reading Moneyball instead of a BB thread.
Congratulations -- and thanks -- to the Chatsworth Halos for edging the first-place Gashouse Gorillas 6-5. Coupled with my 9-3 win over Mebion Glyndwr (it's better to be lucky than good; almost every category was very close) Snellville's lead is back down to single digits. I'm also grateful to Jason Giambi for his belated contributions, and to all my fellow owners for refusing to trade pitching for Milton Bradley. In addition to going 500/516/731 at the plate this week, he singlehandedly won me a category with five steals.
Here are the standings, with 10 weeks to go in the regular season. Top six at the end of August qualify for the championship playoffs (first and second place earn a first-round bye) and the next six will play in the consolation round):
# Team W-L-T Win % GBIn addition to my margin of one SB, I "beat" Gwyn by .006 in SLG, .04 in WHIP and a third of an inning pitched. By comparison, winning Runs by three is a landslide. The 9-3 result could easily have been 6-5 the other way. I'm reasonably confident against Jicks Rays this week -- with Vlad still sidelined, my hitters have an edge, and I always have a fighting chance in SV and K/BB. I would still like to add a starter. IB/OF Aubrey Huff is available, but it isn't a fire sale. I'm looking for equivalent talent -- not necessarily a keeper, but a useful #2 or #3, for someone ranked 78th overall by Yahoo.
1 gashouse gorillas 94-43-7 .677 --
2 Toronto Walrus 86-52-6 .618 8.5
3 Billies Bashers 78-59-7 .566 16
4 Baird Brain 75-60-9 .552 18
5 AGF 76-64-4 .542 19.5
6 Mebion Glyndwr 75-67-2 .528 21.5
7 Red Mosquitos 71-64-9 .524 22
8 Nation Builders 70-68-6 .507 24.5
9 Jicks Rays 68-67-9 .503 25
10 Sub-Urban Shockers 67-67-10 .500 25.5
11 Reykjavik Fish Candy 66-70-8 .486 27.5
12 Chatsworth Halos 67-71-6 .486 27.5
13 K-Town Mashers 68-73-3 .483 28
14 Springfield Isotopes 66-71-7 .483 28
15 Eastern Shore Birds 63-74-7 .462 31
16 Hannibals Cannibals 61-73-10 .458 31.5
17 Moscow Rats 58-77-9 .434 35
18 Thunderbirds 56-82-6 .410 38.5
19 Geoffs Grumpy Group 55-84-5 .399 40
20 Garces_not_on_roids 51-85-8 .382 42.5
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030623090213999