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 %   GB 
 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 

These 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.

Sorry, several members of the Trade Committee were too busy last week to address the offseason trading rules, and we'll try to discuss it this week. How about a show of hands on another suggestion? For a very nominal amount (less than $10 Can. per team) we could upgrade to Yahoo's premium service next year. In addition to live updates via StatTracker, there are several other features. There would be a convenient "e-mail league" tool, wireless access to check your team from your mobile phone, and lots of additional reference toys. Yahoo would even provide a Blue Jays replica jersey as the grand prize, and be the final arbiter of controversial trades. We could also expand by a couple of teams, and create two divisions, with crossover playoffs. I know "free" was part of the charm of this league, but that's very tempting.