Chasing the Treble Week 20 - Premier Priority

In my own little world, only one sporting event could possibly
overshadow the sheer magnitude of the Summer Olympics and that's the
English Premiership. When the Olympics gathers the attention of roughly
1-2 billion people around the planet, many of the world's eyes are
fixated on the Premiership for 38 weeks a season, making the Premier
League not only the most viewed soccer league in the world, but also
the most watched sports league in the world. This past weekend in
particular was opening weekend of the brand spanking new Premiership
season and in this part of the world, it's the most perfect excuse to
get drunk at 8am on a Sunday morning.

For the second year in a row, it was another disappointing opener from
this Manchester United fan's perspective, as the result was a mere 1-1
draw to Newcastle United (the Premiership's answer to the NFL's
Philadelphia Eagles and Chris' hometown club). It was a somewhat
understandable result given that United were far from full strength.
United's trumpcard, Cristiano Ronaldo is sidelined until October as he
recovers from ankle surgery whereas Nani was suspended for a few games,
Anderson is at the Olympics playing for Brazil, and Carlos Tevez was a
late scratch because of a short bereavement in his native Argentina.
Wayne Rooney was a doubt for Opening Day because of the stomach virus
and although he was able to start, he looked far from sharp. After 25
minutes in, Michael Carrick suffered an injury and once Carrick was
out, the attacking wasn't as smooth as it was for United. Newcastle
capitalized in having a great deal of success attacking the right
flanks on the counter but missed their chances for a win. The Toon
looked good, especially new signing Jonas Gutierrez and so did Obafemi
Martins who got Newcastle on the board, but odds are, they'll be a
mid-table club yet again. United started off last season with 2 draws
and 1 loss (the loss being to rival Manchester City) and wound up
overcoming the slow start to the Premiership title. So, likewise, no
worries for this United fan. In addition, this will give some
justification for United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to overpay for
Tottenham's Dimitar Berbatov for a 30 million pound transfer fee and
give United a pure #9 striker they've been missing since Ruud van
Nistelrooy was in a United uniform. In fantasy terms, I don't think
Berbatov's top 10 player value takes a hit and the same for Rooney but
unfortunately for me, Tevez's might unless he's expected to start as
more of a supporting winger.

On fantasy terms, my fantasy soccer teams got off to an OK start as a
whole. In the Rotodatabase Premiership salary cap league, I'd probably
kick myself for not adding West Ham's Dean Ashton's 2 goals when I was
seriously mulling over it but I got a decent 46 points despite Tevez
being a late scratch (I was banking on Tevez having a nice day vs.
Newcastle). In our draft-and-trade London Times Premiership league, I
got an early return off of Everton's Mikel Arteta and Yakubu as they
scored both of Everton's goals in a losing effort to Blackburn, a 3-2
home defeat that proved to be the match of the weekend. Obafemi Martins
is actually on this draft-and-trade club and his sole goal for
Newcastle helped my team stay up in the top 2 a weekend in, even though
it's early goings. Kudos have to go to Dru for Aston Villa's Gabriel
Agbonlahor, who scored the Premiership's first hat trick for the new
campaign. Lastly, I'm also in Yahoo's Beat the Fantasy Soccer Bloggers
league and I got off to a decent start at best. Adding Chelsea's Deco,
John Terry, and Arsenal's Bacary Sagna paid nice dividends but with
Jermaine Defoe and Darren Bent struggling to get on the score sheet,
it's slow goings for my Yahoo squad right now. Plus, you're asking for
it if you think Blackburn's Paul Robinson is a massive goalkeeper
bargain at 3.18 million pounds.

That might have sounded Greek to you and so we're right down to
business in talking about the week's action in the H2HWS. Cruise
control had been the order of the last few months for the World
Series-leading L.A. Thrashers with a relatively comfortable first place
lead. Two narrow defeats in a row, especially a 5-4 epic loss to Chris'
London Knights might have been motivation enough to wake up from the
sleepwalking in time to do combat against the 3rd place New Hampshire
Goats. Meanwhile, out in California, as the playoff race tightens, the
defending champions needed to take full advantage of taking on the last
place Boondock Saints, but by the looks of their roster, the Thrashers
could've easily been locked up in a dogfight. Lastly, the USA West
champions who had been in dominant form the last few weeks, were
gearing up for a barn burner against one of the leading playoff
contenders, Cafe Michigan. Here's the week's action:

H2H World Series

L.A. Thrashers 11, New Hampshire Goats 1

The World Series frontrunner L.A. Thrashers were all business as
they led wire to wire against their American compatriots, the New
Hampshire Goats and were rarely threatened by the Goats, as they were
more like lambs to the slaughter. The Thrashers ran riot, 11-1, to
increase their first place stranglehold from 10 games to 16.5 games,
the biggest margin since the All-Star Break, fresh off of a 9-1 rout of
the Northampton Squirels in Week 15. It was a formality that the
Thrashers would claim a playoff spot and it was officially set in stone
while virtually clinching a first-round bye, with a 23 game lead over
the 3rd place North York Blues. One more week should put away the pomp
and circumstance of locking up the World Series' top seed.

After a rather poor showing against the London Knights, the Thrashers'
pitching staff was back to tip-top shape. Dave Bush set the tempo with
a Monday win that had gifted the Californians a trim ERA/WHIP from the
get-go. Randy Johnson proved to be a revelation since being added a few
weeks ago as he notched a win in the early goings that had shadowed
Scott Kazmir's quality first start. The Thrashers' pitching was very
much in cruise control as New Hampshire's Ubaldo Jimenez and Chris
Volstad struggled in their early starts, ballooning the Goats' ERA and
WHIP beyond repair. It didn't help matters when Ron Mahay and Manny
Delcarmen further pelted the Goats' ratios, leaving Ben Sheets and Jon
Lester no margin for error against the league's top pitching staff.
Meanwhile, the Californians sailed to clear, outright victories in the
wins, ERA, and WHIP departments. Brandon Webb, Chad Billingsley, and
Francisco Liriano were in shutdown mode while John Lackey pitched in a
win to make it an easy 7-2 margin in wins. Hong-Chih Kuo vultured a win
and a save as the Thrashers were rarely tested in saves as well,
prevailing 3-1 in saves. Going into Saturday's games, the Thrashers had
a 2.16 ERA and 0.79 WHIP. Hong-Chih Kuo dented those ratios some a bit
whereas it wasn't a compelling need to start John Lackey and Randy
Johnson, but somehow they found their way in the Thrashers' lineup.
Dave Bush and Scott Kazmir's second starts were skipped and it was an
easy 50 K, 2.88 ERA, 0.94 WHIP by week's end.

On the offensive side of things, both the Thrashers and Goats were
losing a couple of integral parts to their hitting. Evan Longoria was
assigned to the DL while Ryan Braun was a day-to-day doubt for the
week. The news was a lot more sobering for New Hampshire as they would
have to march on for the rest of the season without influential slugger
Carlos Lee. New Hampshire still had a good deal of firepower with David
Wright, Nate McLouth, Ian Kinsler, and Adrian Gonzalez well capable of
carrying the Goats' offense. Due to the Longoria DL assignment, the
Thrashers used their free spot on Melvin Mora and he proved to be
crucial for the Californians. A 1-2 combo of Nick Markakis and Melvin
Mora propelled the Thrashers' offense forward and the Angelenos were
off to quick and sizable leads in RBI, AVG, and OPS early on in the
week. FA pickup Lastings Milledge also aided the Thrashers in the SB
department where they were hardly threatened in.

By Sunday's games, the Thrashers pulled away in just about every
category, leading 10-1 into the final day. Both teams had only 7
homeruns apiece going into Sunday. The Thrashers' Carlos Pena struggled
for the week on average but when he put the ball in play, they were
usually moonshots. Pena hit 3 for the Thrashers whereas Ian Kinsler
carried the Goats in the power department, with 3 homeruns of his own
to go with the occasional contribution from Aaron Rowand, Fred Lewis,
and Troy Tulowitzki while David Wright, Nate McLouth, and Adrian
Gonzalez were quiet for the week, especially the latter two. It was
then appropriate that the Thrashers' Melvin Mora would break the HR tie
in a big way with a 5-for-6 2 HR day, giving him an absurd line of 9 R,
3 HR, 12 RBI, .643 BA, 1.824 OPS for the week. Mora was indeed the
Thrashers' proverbial lightning in a bottle for the Thrashers whereas
Markakis pitched in with a 10 R, 9 RBI, .419 BA, 1.196 OPS line. Ryan
Braun was finally a go for Sunday's game and he didn't disappoint,
slugging a homerun in his first start since the back tightness injury.
Carlos Pena added one more homerun to close out the day and week in
style. In all, the Thrashers posted a dominant 42 R, 11 HR, 48 RBI, 7
SB, .327 BA, 1.010 OPS line for the series compared to the Goats'
equally dismal line (23 R, 7 HR, 21 RBI, 2 SB, .257 BA, .726 OPS). New
Hampshire were only able to wrestle home a point off a Ron Mahay hold
and even he was shelled hard while registering that hold. Here's the
box score of the dominant result:

Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Marlins caught by a playoff lifeline

It could be said that Week 19 was a week of reckoning in the World
Series from top to bottom but the Week 20 matchups were nonetheless
close and intense, with playoff implications abound. We start off with
the Manzen Marlins, who posted their most crucial season victory and
doing so in clutch fashion, as they prevailed 7-4 over the 3-time
defending World Series champion London Knights, ending the Knights'
stretch of 12 of 13 matchups won. The result most importantly for
Manzen catapulted them back into that vital 6th place spot.

The Psydney Psychos, seeking a return to the 6th spot, followed suit
with an identical 7-4 victory over the Northampton Squirels.
Northampton has struggled mightily recently and Psydney sought a most
significant result but the on-and-off Psychos were relatively drab
although it was good enough to pull in a 7-4 win over Northampton.
Psydney are still 2 games back of Manzen and will have to wait another
week to get a breakthrough.

The Edinburgh Dukes resided in 6th place last week but were edged by a
fellow playoff chaser, Hamburger Blaufinken, by a 6-5 score. The silver
lining for Hamburger is that despite losing some ground in the playoff
race is that they're still within striking distance, 6.5 games back of
Manzen but they'll need a significant result and/or some help from
other fixtures. For Edinburgh, it's a slight slip-up to say the least
as like Psydney, they fall back to 2 full games off of the 6th spot.

Another playoff chaser, the Brisbane Bikkies, keep up in their playoff
hunt, with a 7-5 win over the Brazilian champion, Peitudas. Brisbane
are 4.5 games off of the pace with two weeks to go whereas Peitudas are
10.5 games back of 6th place Manzen and unless they can fork up
lightning in a bottle for this coming week, they're pretty much ruled
out of contention.

There's some movement in the top 6. The Thrashers and Knights are a
fairly safe 1-2 but the North York Blues leap up from 5th to 3rd, as
they beat the last place Barcelona Reds, 7-4. The Goats' cataclysmic
loss sends them tumbling from 3rd to 5th whereas the Lower Saxony
Tigers were upset by second-to-last Felixstowe Fury, 6-5, which opened
the door for North York to climb to 3rd.

The standings look something like this: the L.A. Thrashers' commanding
lead is at 16.5 games over 2nd place London whereas the Londoners are
6.5 games ahead of 3rd place North York. Both Lower Saxony and North
York are tied in games back at 23. New Hampshire found it an awful time
to struggle, as not only are they 4 games off of 3rd place now, but one
more bad result sends them teetering on the verge of missing the
postseason, a prospect that seemed to be ill conceived. When you
consider that New Hampshire are just 2.5 games above Manzen and 4.5
games on top of 7th place Psydney, they'll need a win or two to cement
their place. As said before, Edinburgh, Brisbane, and Hamburger are in
it in that order. The last nail of the coffin beckons for Peitudas
perhaps whereas Northampton, Felixstowe, and Barcelona are locks in the
bottom 3.

H2HWS California South

L.A. Thrashers 6, Boondock Saints 4

The defending champions found themselves in the middle of a
shootout against the last place Boondock Saints but ultimately came out
of it as 6-4 winners. The week started brightly for the champs as David
Wright, Corey Hart, and Mark Teixeira homered with the latter enjoying
a 2 HR night but the Saints were spurred on by David Ortiz who slugged
two 3-run homeruns in the same inning. The Thrashers were off to a
fantastic 9-2 start at one point on the Boondock Saints but that would
prove to be short-lived. The series turned out to be a high-average
power slugfest in the early days as the resurgent duo of Carlos Pena
and Delmon Young hit yard for the Saints. The leads in all offensive
categories teetered back and forth, especially in BA and OPS but the
Thrashers' offense slowed down at the wrong time as outside of one Troy
Tulowitzki homerun, the weekend was mostly a miss. The Saints' offense
cooled off a good deal as well but they managed to drift away with the
leads in R, HR, RBI, and OPS.

The difference would have to come on the pitching side and the
Thrashers were quick to profit in the early goings. Cole Hamels and
Scott Kazmir were both two-start aces for the series and both were
quite good in their first turns, especially Hamels. Both Hamels and
Kazmir didn't factor in with wins unfortunately but had gotten the
champions off to a roaring start in ERA and WHIP. The Saints' Roy
Oswalt was also quite solid in the first turn but the sky finally fell
on Jeff Karstens whereas Joel Zumaya posted INF's before being dropped
off unceremoniously. Jorge Campillo wasn't exactly the brightest start
for the Thrashers as Campillo's poor outing handed the Saints leads in
ERA and WHIP. However, Jair Jurrjens and the resurgent Matt Cain
righted the ship while Roy Halladay posted a one-run complete game win
as the Thrashers' reliable ace proves to be the champions' biggest
bargain. It wasn't until the Sunday games that decided the pitching
matters once and for all. Roy Oswalt posted a brilliant 8 innings and a
win to give the Saints a 4-2 edge in wins but was undone because of
Jeff Karstens' relatively uninspiring performance. In the pair of
Sunday games, Scott Kazmir and Cole Hamels were effective in shutting
down for wins, tying in wins 4-4, while handing the Thrashers'
victories in saves (4-3), K's (60-45), and in ERA (2.43 to 3.10) and
WHIP (1.16 to 1.34). With the Thrashers able to hold off the Saints in
SB (4-3) and BA (.300 to .291), the champs take a positive step to
locking up their playoff spot in defense of their California title.

Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Mets don't miss the Donut Run

A lot of relatively close results this week but Missin the Mets
recorded the only lopsided result, a 9-2 thumping of the Monterey Park
Donuts, which launches the Mets back into the playoff picture, climbing
to 4th. The Donuts are dealt a massive blow to their playoff hopes as
they fall 9.5 games back with 2 weeks to make up for it.

It's starting to get a bit sticky at the top, however, as the two top
teams were held. The first place Lake Arrowheads haven't looked all
that formidable of late and they couldn't capitalize on the California
Blaze's flaccid offensive performance, as both teams settled for a 6-6
draw. The second place SF Giants were pipped by the Los Angeles
Dodgers, 6-5. The 2005 champion Dodgers didn't quite help out their
cause much as they're still a whopping 12.5 games off the pace.

The most interesting result of the week came from the San Fran
Pacificans dispatching the Davis Destroyers, 6-3. The Pacificans
leapfrog from 5th to 3rd whereas the then-3rd place Saddlebackers slip
up in the San Diego derby against the San Marcos Sox, 5-4, and it's a
costly slip-up, as they've remarkably fallen from 3rd to 6th.

Lake Arrowheads are comfortably ahead as their lead stretches to 8
games over the 2nd place SF Giants but the Giants can't afford to sit
pretty as they're in the precarious situation of losing their
first-round bye. The 3rd place Pacificans are a half-game out whereas
the Mets, Thrashers, and Saddlebackers are tied on games back, and are
each a full game back of the Giants for the first-round bye. Still in
7th is the California Blaze who couldn't get the desired breakthrough
and are 6 games on the outside looking in but very much within striking
distance. The 8th place Donuts and 9th place Dodgers' playoff hopes are
faint and unless anything drastic happens, the 10th place San Marcos
Sox and 11th Davis Destroyers are just about out of the running.

H2HWS USA West

L.A. Thrashers 8, Cafe Michigan 3

The reigning USA West champions continued their stretch of dominant
results, responding a firm test from Cafe Michigan with an 8-3 victory
which resolves a deadlock between the two sides earlier in the season.
It had the makings of a slugfest early as Cafe Michigan raced out to
early leads in R, HR, RBI, and SB thanks to a torrid Tuesday that had
seen the Michiganders enjoy a 9 R, 5 HR, 11 RBI, 2 SB, .343 BA, 1.195
OPS line. David Ortiz was red-hot for the Cafe while Chase Utley tossed
in a homerun and so did Johnny Damon and Garret Anderson. The Thrashers
hung in, with a 3 HR Tuesday thanks to Alex Rodriguez, Chris Iannetta,
and Lance Berkman, who has finally rediscovered his power stroke again
recently.

Pitching has been a relative fault for Cafe Michigan and their staff
ace, Justin Verlander, stumbled again in his first turn of a two-start
week. The following day had seen the surging Ubaldo Jimenez hit another
speed bump and the Cafe found themselves in a pitching hole already.
Pedro Martinez was solid enough in the Monday start for the defending
USA West champions while Randy Johnson was flat-out stellar again. The
champs were lucky to survive a scare as Tim Lincecum exited his first
turn early because of a hit ball off of his knee which turned out to be
nothing but a bruise. Lincecum has been nothing but the linchpin of the
Thrashers' staff and losing him would be a drastic loss.

Later in the week, Cafe Michigan's offense fell down to Earth and the
only homerun past Thursday for the Cafe came from Justin Morneau on a
Sunday game. The Thrashers began to pour it on from then on as a 6 R, 3
HR, 12 RBI, .345 BA, 1.203 OPS day had seen the USA West champions
start to pull away in the power categories. Jim Thome had started to
heat up while the magical run of Ryan Ludwick spun off another chapter
as Lance Berkman posted another homerun to push that homerun drought
out of mind and out of sight. The relatively quiet Troy Tulowitzki and
Carlos Beltran finally got on the board with homeruns of their own
whereas Alex Rodriguez slugged one out on the final day to put the
result out of doubt. The Thrashers posted a remarkable 54 RBI for the
series while posting 42 R and 11 HR. Meanwhile, the Thrashers' pitching
remained phenomenal as Daisuke Matsuzaka, Oliver Perez, Pedro Martinez,
Randy Johnson, and Tim Lincecum among others posted a solid line of 6
wins, 61 K, 1.64 ERA, and 1.17 WHIP to pass the week with flying
colors. Only a slightly better hitting Sunday for Cafe Michigan rescued
them a point in BA (.295 to .292) for a week that could've easily been
the third consecutive 9-2 rout for the USA West champs.

Out-of-Town Scoreboard: No bail bonds from a good 'ol fashioned beatdown

The result of the week undoubtedly resides with the 3rd place
Missouri River Jacks who pasted the Northern California champions Bonds
762 with an 11-0 washout. The Jacks were 4 games back of the 2nd place
Thrashers and with the better result, are within a full game back from
the USA West champs for the first-round bye.

Meanwhile, the moshpit that is the USA West playoff race hasn't quite
cleared up as of yet. Of the 6 teams battling for their playoff lives
in the 4th to 10th range, the Bellingham Rauks landed a big punch,
scoring an 8-4 result on the fading Bilbos Bunch. The result takes the
Rauks up a spot from 5th to 4th place, which ensures playoff security
for at least one more week. Bellingham are taking over 4th from the
Texas Two-Step who has changed places with Bellingham because of a 6-6
draw to the bottom dwelling Houston Headhunters in the Texas Derby.

Elsewhere, the Sparks Red Sox Slayers were victims of a mild upset, a
6-4 defeat at the hands of second-to-last Seattle Scorpions. However,
Sparks move up to the 6th playoff spot by virtue of the Michigan
Panthers losing 7-4 to the frontrunning Panolas Coyotes. With several
close categories up for grabs, the result could've gone either way but
it was Panolas that had gotten the better of the final day, leaving the
Panthers on the outside looking in this week.

The standings are only clear at the top 3. The Panolas Coyotes are
still pacing the field with a comfortable stiff-arm and a clinched
playoff spot to boot over the 2nd place L.A. Thrashers, who are 6 games
back. The Missouri River Jacks closely follow in 3rd place, a game back
of the Thrashers for the all important second round bye and are 7 games
back. The gap between the top 3 and the moshpit continues to grow, as
the River Jacks hold a 17 game lead over the 4th place Bellingham Rauks
and 5th place Texas Two-Step. The Sparks Red Sox Slayers are in 6th,
3.5 games out from Bellingham and Texas but the playoff race is still
relatively tight when you consider the Michigan Panthers are just a
half-game out of 6th. Cafe Michigan, despite losing 8-3 to the
champions, are still a game and a half out of the playoffs. Bilbos
Bunch are fading but have not faded all that much because they are 3.5
games out of 6th. Bonds 762* lie in 10th and have been dealt severe
blows to their fading playoff hopes. For what it's worth, the NorCal
champions are 6.5 games back of 6th place Sparks but will need some
help and some big results to make one more assault on the standings.

Who's on deck?

After facing the 2nd place London Knights and the then-3rd place
New Hampshire Goats, the L.A. Thrashers finish out the season against
the bottom two teams in the league, starting off with the Barcelona Reds.
With a playoff spot clinched and the likelihood of a top seed
mathematically wrapped up, there wouldn't be much at stake for the
Thrashers but what's at stake is pride. The Reds posted a narrow 6-5
win over the league leaders in Week 8, the first loss of the season for
the Thrashers. The league frontrunners don't want to give their Catalan
cousins the bragging rights that they've done the double against the
league leaders. Barcelona have a very formidable hitting ensemble, led
by Ryan Howard, Jorge Cantu, and Dan Uggla. Alex Rios, Hunter Pence,
and Magglio Ordonez have been disappointments by varying extents but
are always dangerous. The Reds' pitching is a bit more suspect,
anchored by Matt Cain, James Shields, Jered Weaver, and Wandy Rodriguez
for a thin pitching staff that features 3 holds relievers (Carlos
Villanueva, Masa Kobayashi, Matt Thornton) and one closer (Joel
Hanrahan). The Reds will trot out one two-start option in James Shields
but a tropical storm might have something to say about that although
they're under the Dome in Tampa whereas the Thrashers are not sending
out any two-start pitchers, which should be a blessing come playoff
time.

Taking a peek at the runners (H2HWS): Time to touch upon a few
more, well, meaningful matchups with playoff implications in the World
Series. The peach of the World Series matchups to this impartial
observer is the New Hampshire Goats vs. Manzen Marlins
series. Manzen are holding on to that 6th and final playoff spot and
after coming up clutch against the world champions, they must repeat
the chore again versus another perennial playoff contender. The Goats
suddenly find themselves fighting for their playoff lives for at least
a week and have an equal need to right the ship. The Psydney Psychos might make up ground against either the Goats or Marlins (or both) but standing in their way are the hard-hitting Hamburger Blaufinken,
who need a big result in every which way as well. Meanwhile, the
Edinburgh Dukes and the Brisbane Bikkies have the lesser envious
assignments. Edinburgh Dukes take on the Lower Saxony Tigers,
who might out-pitch the Dukes for the week and it's all up to Albert
Pujols and Josh Hamilton to carry the Dukes on their shoulders. Lastly,
the Brisbane Bikkies are stepping up to the plate against the London Knights and if anything, it's Brisbane's cup final and will be desperate for a win of any sort.

Off to the Inglewood Challenge, the Thrashers did OK at best vs. the
last place Boondock Saints but will need to be stellar to put away the
second-to-last Davis Destroyers. Davis had a good
midseason run but that has quickly fizzled out as much as it ignited as
they've slumped to 11th. Part of that brilliant run was a 7-4 win over
the Thrashers, who have not beaten Davis in the history of the
competition outright. Davis look to be a fickle bunch, led by Josh
Hamilton and Manny Ramirez. Losing Carl Crawford has hurt but Davis
will need Adrian Gonzalez to rekindle some of that surging hot form.
Alex Gordon, Edgar Renteria, and Hunter Pence have been relative
disappointments for Davis but either might come up big and so could
Brian Roberts and Howie Kendrick. Davis' pitching is anchored by Johan
Santana and further bolstered by Jeremy Guthrie, Randy Johnson, Zack
Greinke, and Francisco Liriano. Joakim Soria and Bobby Jenks have been
the lone bright spots for the Davis bullpen given the hit-or-miss Tony
Pena and the volcano known as Jason Isringhausen. Guthrie is the only
two-start option for Davis and Jorge Campillo is the only Thrasher
option this week.

Taking a peek at the runners (Cali): The biggest matchup of the week is a showdown between the top two teams: the #1 Lake Arrowheads and the #2 SF Giants.
Neither team has been all that convincing the last few weeks but one
has potentially less to worry about with a comfortable enough lead
(Lake Arrowheads) and one is in a must-win situation (SF Giants). The
other highlight is the 4th place Missin the Mets and 6th place Saddlebackers locking up at the Honeymooner's hotel while trying to sever the tie on games back. Elsewhere, the San Fran Pacificans are hoping the schedule maker's kind bounce turns out to be as kind on paper as they face the Los Angeles Dodgers, who need to sort out their playoff future and fast. It's the same exact scenario for the Monterey Park Donuts as they're caught up in a tailspin and need to see the reason why the Boondock Saints are their bottom dwellers in Cali South. Lastly, the California Blaze are
the best team with the best mathematical chance of reaching the
playoffs from the outside looking in but in their way are a bunch of
spoilers, the San Marcos Sox. The Blaze can't afford to
drift for a .508 OPS any time they're facing an offense that has Matt
Holliday, Hanley Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera, and BJ Upton among others.

The marquee matchup for the week resides in the West where the defending champions tangle up against a resurgent Bellingham Rauks
side. In the earlier meeting, the Thrashers squeaked by Bellingham with
a 7-5 win. Bellingham's fortunes tend to go the way of Prince Fielder
and Albert Pujols but with Curtis Granderson heating up as well as
Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis being revelations for the
Massachusetts side, Bellingham are capable for going on a good
offensive run. The Rauks' pitching is anchored by Johan Santana and a
few surprises (Mike Mussina, Jeremy Guthrie, and Joe Saunders) and a
bullpen marked by the closer linchpin, Joe Nathan. Guthrie is slated to
start twice for Bellingham while the champs are slated to have Daisuke
Matsuzaka and Oliver Perez available for two-start duty.

Taking a peek at the runners (USA West): Arguably the most intriguing matchup in the USA West is the series between the current 6th place playoff holder, Sparks Red Sox Slayers taking on the 7th place Michigan Panthers,
who are a half-game back of Sparks. The Nevada champions have ridden on
David Wright, Alfonso Soriano, and Jermaine Dye to take them to the
promised land but the Panthers have more offensive firepower and the
pitching depth to make this week difficult on Sparks. Cafe Michigan
will be seeking to take advantage of the 6-7 situation and move back
into playoff contention but have a rigorous test against the Texas Two-Step.
The offense has been hit-or-miss for Texas and Cafe has an advantage
there but it can be offset by the Two-Step's fantastic pitching. An
interesting encounter, indeed. Bilbos Bunch have the best possible scenario to gain ground in taking on the second to last Seattle Scorpions
but must take full advantage of it especially with the Thrashers
looming large to wreck their playoff hopes on the final week of the
season. Bonds 762 are left spiraling thanks to an 11-0
blanking at the hands of the River Jacks and it doesn't get any easier
for them as they're taking on the Panolas Coyotes, which might be the death knell of the NorCal champions. Lastly, the Missouri River Jacks have a golden chance on their hands to mount maximum points as they face the last place Houston Headhunters.

Check back next week as the playoff picture heats up and the quest for
the "T" word is taken up a notch. Until then, keep your clothes on...

-Ray