No one has yet secured their post-season place in England South, but there was some significant movement, nonetheless. Some of the teams fighting for the number 1 seed put down their markers this week, whilst others faltered. The race for the top 6 is still too close to call...and after looking down and out a few weeks back, the defending champions suddenly have a sniff at sneaking their way in to the playoffs!
Week 20 Results
- London Knights 8-3 St. Leonard's Marlins
- Guildford Angels 0-10 Havant Hackers
- Enfield Lips 2-8 Orpington Dodgers
- Felixstowe Fury 10-2 Dunstable Phillies
- Bromley DLtastics 6-6 Sussex Royal Engineers
- Woking White Sox 2-9 Oxford Oilers
- Essex Eagles 3-7 London Bananas
- Solent Vipers 8-4 Bognor Yankees
Standings
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | GB | Last Week | Pos Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Havant Hackers | 129-89-22 | .583 | - | 10-0-2 | - | ||
| 2. | Solent Vipers | 126-98-16 | .558 | 6 | 8-4-0 | +1 | ||
| 3. | London Knights | 124-98-18 | .554 | 7 | 8-3-1 | +1 | ||
| 4. | Essex Eagles | 121-99-20 | .546 | 9 | 3-7-2 | -2 | ||
| 5. | SussexRoyalEngineers | 117-98-25 | .540 | 10.5 | 6-6-0 | - | ||
| 6. | London Bananas | 116-104-20 | .525 | 14 | 7-3-2 | - | ||
| 7. | Oxford Oilers | 113-104-23 | .519 | 15.5 | 9-2-1 | - | ||
| 8. | Felixstowe Fury | 113-109-18 | .508 | 18 | 10-2-0 | +3 | ||
| 9. | Orpington Dodgers | 106-105-29 | .502 | 19.5 | 8-2-2 | +3 | ||
| 10. | Enfield Lips | 109-113-18 | .492 | 22 | 2-8-2 | -1 | ||
| 11. | Dunstable Phillies | 103-109-28 | .488 | 23 | 2-10-0 | -3 | ||
| 12. | Woking White Sox | 106-115-19 | .481 | 24.5 | 2-9-1 | -2 | ||
| 13. | Guildford Angels | 95-117-28 | .454 | 31 | 0-10-2 | - | ||
| 14. | St Leonards Marlins | 91-122-27 | .435 | 35.5 | 3-8-1 | - | ||
| 15. | Bromley DLtastics | 90-122-28 | .433 | 36 | 6-6-0 | - | ||
| 16. | Bognor Yankees | 79-136-25 | .381 | 48.5 | 4-8-0 | - |
Significant Moves
As in the World Series, a lot of the moves this week focused on picking up bullpen pitchers to help with holds and saves. Enfield picked up Ziegler, the Knights grabbed Grabow, the Bananas went for Rodney and Romero, having dropped Ryan Franklin. Elsewhere, Dunstable let go Yunel Escobar in order to pick up Jed Lowrie; Solent swooped in with a waiver claim to add Escobar to their roster.
Waffle
Havant are looking good for the playoffs after shutting out Guildford 10-0. Solent Vipers & London Knights also did their chances no harm with good wins over Bognor & St. Leonard's respectively, but Essex slipped from 2nd to 4th after losing 7-3 to London Bananas.
That win kept the Bananas in 6th place, just behind Sussex, who will probably be happy to escape with a 6-6 draw after trailing Bromley for most of the week. Three teams took advantage to close the gap: Oxford, Felixstowe & Orpington all still have a fighting chance of the playoffs after their comfortable wins over Woking, Dunstable & Enfield, all of whom can probably say goodbye to any chance they had of finishing in the top 6.
More crucial ties in Week 21, as teams look to guarantee their post-season places, or creep closer to the top 6. Solent in 2nd can do themselves a power of good if they beat the 6th-placed Bananas, whilst 4th-placed Essex could also help themselves if they take the tie with Oxford (7th). The other top 6 teams have differing match-ups - the Knights have a tough one against a resurgent Felixstowe, whilst Havant & Sussex face potentially tricky ties against the underachieving Enfield & Woking. In the race for the playoffs, Orpington may have the best chance of moving up, as they get to face the 16th-place Bognor Yankees. Meanwhile, the teams in 11th, 13th, 14th, & 15th meet one another, with the only target being a place in the consolation playoffs.
look at felixstowe go. nice.
Yes, I've been really impressed by these two teams, who looked like they had no chance a couple of weeks back. They're definitely still in there fighting.
Saturday morning I looked at the scores and schedules and notices I'd win ERA, WHIP and wins regardless, but decided to play Byrd & Beckett anyway as not doing so would be bad sportsmanship. Both pitchers got shelled. 1 point lost.
Crunch week this week against the Bananas a good win virtually guarantees me i the playoffs but will probably knock Cabbie out, c'est la guerre.
With the exception of Ed's Hackers' no place is guaranteed yet.
OK, so 2 weeks to go and I'm having trouble holding onto 6th place. Each week there's someone else knocking on the door. Now I have to fight against the Vipers to hold onto the last playoff place. Poor start to the week for both of us. I think I'll need a lot of luck to get through this week and still be in a good place. Will the week see a bunching or spreading of scores in mid table? Only time will tell.
Good to see my Dodgers still alive in the playoff race - I badly needed wins the past few weeks, and am pleasantly surprised with the way some of my hitters have heated up after losing Carlos Lee.
If it comes down to the final week of the season, I'll be up against the Hackers!