A day late, and a shorter entry than usual this week, as I'm away from home with limited Internet Access.
Week 19 Results
- London Knight 5-4 LA Thrashers
- New Hampshire Goats 5-7 North York Blues
- Barcelona Reds 3-7 Lower Saxony Tigers
- Felixstowe Fury 5-6 Edinburgh Dukes
- Manzen Marlins 6-6 Peitudas
- Brisbane Bikkies 9-3 Psydney Psychos
- Northampton Squirrels 2-10 Hamburger Blaufinken
Standings
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | GB | Last Week | Pos Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | L.A. Thrashers | 130-76-22 | .618 | - | 4-5-3 | - | ||
| 2. | London Knights | 117-83-28 | .575 | 10 | 5-4-3 | - | ||
| 3. | New Hampshire Goats | 112-92-24 | .544 | 17 | 5-7-0 | - | ||
| 4. | Lower Saxony Tigers | 113-94-21 | .542 | 17.5 | 7-3-2 | - | ||
| 5. | North York Blues | 113-98-17 | .533 | 19.5 | 7-5-0 | - | ||
| 6. | Edinburgh Dukes | 107-105-16 | .504 | 26 | 6-5-1 | +2 | ||
| 7. | Manzen Marlins | 106-104-18 | .504 | 26 | 6-6-0 | - | ||
| 8. | Psydney Psychos | 102-104-22 | .496 | 28 | 3-9-0 | -2 | ||
| 9. | BRISBANE BIKKIES | 104-110-14 | .487 | 30 | 9-3-0 | - | ||
| 10. | Hamburger Blaufinken | 101-109-18 | .482 | 31 | 10-2-0 | +1 | ||
| 11. | Peitudas | 97-111-20 | .469 | 34 | 6-6-0 | -1 | ||
| 12. | Northampton Squirels | 94-121-13 | .441 | 40.5 | 2-10-0 | - | ||
| 13. | Felixstowe Fury | 88-123-17 | .423 | 44.5 | 5-6-1 | - | ||
| 14. | Barcelona Reds | 79-133-16 | .382 | 54 | 3-7-2 | - |
Significant Moves
No last minute trades to report on, but Ryan Zimmerman is certainly making the rounds! Having been traded by LA to Northampton last week, the Squirrels dropped him. He then cleared waivers, allowing LA to pick him up again. The Thrashers then dropped him again, and this time, the Knights used their 14th waiver priority to pick him up for Adam Lind! Will he stay on the Knights' team for the duration? Time will tell!
There were a number of moves this week, as the likes of Cueto, Street, Adam Jones & Hafner all hit the wire. Replacing them were guys like Clay Buchholz, Ziegler, Milledge, Mora & Fernando Rodney. Most teams still have over 10 moves left; the exception being Psydney Psychos, who are down to 7. Credit to Lower Saxony, who are firmly established in the playoffs, despite only having made 9 moves all year to date.
Waffle
Ray's provided a comprehensive review of the top-of-the-table match-up, so I'll only add one thing to it - the rationale behind my starting Aaron Harang on Sunday. It was a calculated risk - I expected him to give up a few runs, but with a comfortable lead in ERA, I didn't think he could do that much harm, and I was trying to hold onto a 3-2 lead in wins. Of course, Harang had a dreadful outing, so it didn't exactly pay off as I'd hoped! Fortunately, it didn't cost me an overall win, and, if this had been the playoffs (where ERA is the tiebreaker), there is no way I would have started him, knowing the risks. But in the regular season, I felt it was worth the risk to try and hold onto wins, knowing that the worst it would cost would be losing the ERA category.
There was another epic encounter between New Hampshire in 3rd & North York in 5th. The latter took it 7-5, but that wasn't enough to move them up in the standings. Lower Saxony held onto 4th place with a 7-3 win over Barcelona, a match-up remarkable for the fact that 6 categories were tied going into Sunday's games!
Really, there was very little movement overall this week. The top 5, barring disasters, are all looking pretty good for the playoff with only 3 rounds to go. But the battle for 6th place is intense! Edinburgh moved back into 6th spot after narrowly beating Felixstowe, whilst Psydney dropped to 8th following a 9-3 thumping at the hands of local rivals Brisbane. Also right in there fighting are Manzen Marlins, held 6-6 by Peitudas. Brisbane's win means they are only 4 games back of 6th spot and Hamburger are also right there after ending Northampton's hopes with a 10-2 demolition. Anything can happen once the playoffs start, so all these teams have still got all to play for!
More big games in Week 20, with LA Thrashers on the verge of mathematically clinching their playoff place. They have another tough task, though, facing 3rd-placed New Hampshire. The Knights could also, theoretically, guarantee their spot this week if they have a large victory over 7th-placed Manzen Marlins. In the battle for the playoffs, Edinburgh take on Hamburger, Brisbane face Peitudas and Psydney will be desperate to take advantage of Northampton's recent slump.
3 weeks to go before those playoffs begin!
