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 %    GB 
 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 

In 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.