Into the 2nd half of the regular season, and it's no exaggeration to say that pretty much every team still has a chance to make the playoffs. One team seems guaranteed of a place (and probably the #1 seed), but after the 2nd-placed team was trounced in Week 12, the remaining 13 teams have 5 places to battle for...
Week 12 Results
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| London Knights | 27 | 9 | 27 | 3 | .278 | .777 | 6 | 3 | 53 | 0 | 3.84 | 1.14 | 4 |
| Toronto 5lyers | 36 | 9 | 29 | 6 | .271 | .856 | 7 | 2 | 44 | 4 | 2.38 | 1.25 | 7 |
A 4th-successive defeat for the Knights came in another frustrating manner, as an 8-2 lead heading into the weekend became a 4-7 defeat. The bats, having performed so well for 5 days, went abysmally quiet in the final 2 days, allowing the 5lyers to catch and move past them in all but AVG, whilst Toronto enjoyed 2 wins on Sunday thanks to David Price putting it together against the Marlins and Brandon Inge's 2-run shot vulturing a win for Bobby Seay. (London's 6 wins would have won every other match-up this week! Oh well!) Despite this defeat, the Knights are still clinging onto 6th spot, but things have to change fast if they are to stay there...
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| Belem Yankees | 26 | 8 | 32 | 5 | .227 | .748 | 3 | 5 | 43 | 0 | 2.87 | 1.19 | 9 |
| Ealing Eagles | 24 | 4 | 24 | 3 | .245 | .700 | 4 | 2 | 39 | 4 | 3.93 | 1.33 | 3 |
Comfortable win for Belem moves them closer to the top 6 as they dominated the hitting categories and took home most pitching as well. Neither team had spectacular weeks with the bat, as only Damon for the Yankees & Inge for the Eagles put up an OPS over .900; Ealing may feel unfortunate that a better AVG didn't give them any victories in the counting stats. They need Josh Hamilton back ASAP.
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| Norwich No | 27 | 8 | 30 | 6 | .305 | .938 | 2 | 4 | 29 | 3 | 3.49 | 1.38 | 6 |
| Muenster Blue Jays | 30 | 8 | 34 | 5 | .260 | .795 | 4 | 3 | 46 | 0 | 4.43 | 1.33 | 5 |
Could it be destiny that this year's title seems headed to Norwich? Certainly seems that way as they pulled off an unlikely victory after early week struggles, and two of their key starters unavailable. Can't deny that Andre Ethier's 3-HR day was a big help, but the bullpen was arguably the most important factor in this win. Liriano gave the Blue Jays 2 good outings, and Pujols was Pujols, but they fell agonisingly short of the victory.
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| Mr. Needle | 21 | 3 | 20 | 4 | .226 | .618 | 6 | 3 | 42 | 1 | 3.19 | 1.29 | 1 |
| Psydney Psychos | 27 | 7 | 31 | 6 | .299 | .849 | 3 | 4 | 62 | 1 | 2.48 | 1.23 | 10 |
A huge win for the Psychos moved them ahead of Mr. Needle into the #2 spot in the standings. Evan Longoria had a quiet week, and Aaron Harang got rocked in his start, but pretty much every other player contributed to this success. In contrast, Mr. Needle's bats were even worse than London's(!), and their pitching, whilst decent, couldn't live with the Psychos. And so they fall out of the top 2 for the first time in a number of weeks.
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| Stockstadt_ | 25 | 8 | 37 | 3 | .260 | .799 | 3 | 0 | 36 | 1 | 4.24 | 1.27 | 5 |
| Helsinki Hitters | 35 | 7 | 30 | 5 | .258 | .815 | 3 | 2 | 43 | 0 | 3.62 | 1.29 | 6 |
Helsinki edged a narrow battle which could easily have gone either way, as a look at the scores in HR, AVG, OPS, Wins, Holds & WHIP will tell you! Aaron Hill's 2HR Sunday performance wasn't quite enough to catch Stockstadt in HRs, but did prove to be the difference in OPS, whilst recently acquired Yovani Gallardo came up with a crucial win. Stockstadt had their own HR hero in the form of Pablo Sandoval and were also grateful to John Danks for his Sunday performance - tieing Wins and giving them the edge in WHIP.
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| Missouri River Jacks | 26 | 10 | 35 | 4 | .268 | .825 | 0 | 4 | 39 | 2 | 2.29 | 1.19 | 5 |
| L.A. Thrashers | 27 | 9 | 21 | 1 | .299 | .894 | 5 | 5 | 39 | 2 | 2.98 | 1.36 | 5 |
A win for either of these teams would probably have moved them into the playoffs; as it was, they shared out a 5-5 tie. Randy Wolf probably single-handedly destroyed the Thrashers' chances in ERA & WHIP; without that "performance", they may well have taken those categories, although Frank Francisco was also poor this week (the Hold helped, though). For Missouri, Hanley Ramirez was the undoubted star, with 3 HR & 15 RBI!
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| San Jose Athletics | 28 | 7 | 23 | 3 | .251 | .753 | 2 | 1 | 29 | 1 | 4.89 | 1.50 | 5 |
| New Hampshire Goats | 34 | 5 | 21 | 5 | .348 | .943 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 4 | 5.63 | 1.50 | 5 |
Another tie helped neither team in their attempts to climb the table. New Hampshire's bats hit very well for the week, so it is surprising to see them lose both HR & RBI. Todd Helton perhaps typifies their week, as he hit .333/1.053, but with only 3 Runs & 5 RBI to show for it. The Athletics, meanwhile, received HR help from 6 different players. Neither side's pitchers did much to be excited about, with the tie in WHIP being the most notable achievement!
Standings
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | GB | Last Week | Waiver | Moves | |
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| 1. | Norwich No | 88-47-9 | .642 | - | 6-5-1 | 5 | 15 | |
| 2. | Psydney Psychos | 71-54-19 | .559 | 12 | 10-1-1 | 10 | 28 | |
| 3. | Mr. Needle | 75-58-11 | .559 | 12 | 1-10-1 | 4 | 23 | |
| 4. | Helsinki Hitters | 75-59-10 | .556 | 12.5 | 6-5-1 | 7 | 13 | |
| 5. | Muenster Blue Jays | 73-58-13 | .552 | 13 | 5-6-1 | 9 | 20 | |
| 6. | London Knights | 68-65-11 | .510 | 19 | 4-7-1 | 11 | 29 | |
| 7. | L.A. Thrashers | 65-64-15 | .503 | 20 | 5-5-2 | 1 | 26 | |
| 8. | San Jose Athletics | 63-69-12 | .479 | 23.5 | 5-5-2 | 6 | 19 | |
| 9. | Missouri River Jacks | 57-65-22 | .472 | 24.5 | 5-5-2 | 12 | 30 | |
| 10. | Belem Yankees | 60-75-9 | .448 | 28 | 9-3-0 | 2 | 4 | |
| 11. | Stockstadt_ | 59-74-11 | .448 | 28 | 5-6-1 | 14 | 27 | |
| 12. | Ealing Eagles | 58-76-10 | .438 | 29.5 | 3-9-0 | 3 | 13 | |
| 13. | Toronto 5lyers | 55-76-13 | .427 | 31 | 7-4-1 | 13 | 22 | |
| 14. | New Hampshire Goats | 53-80-11 | .406 | 34 | 5-5-2 | 8 | 16 |
A 12-game lead at the top at this stage justifies my pre-season pick of Norwich as the favourites. There's a fascinating bunching of teams from 2nd-5th, and again from 6th-9th. Could we have the situation of last year's finalists battling it out for the final playoff place?! Other teams in the bottom half will have something to say about that, I've no doubt!
Week 12 and overall Stat leaders
| Stat | Week 12 | Team | Overall | Team |
| Runs | 36 | Toronto | 395 | Helsinki |
| HR | 10 | Missouri | 126 | Norwich |
| RBI | 37 | Stockstadt | 418 | Muenster |
| SB | 6 | Toronto / Norwich / Psydney | 87 | New Hampshire |
| AVG | .348 | New Hampshire | .293 | Muenster |
| OPS | .943 | New Hampshire | .874 | Muenster |
| Wins | 7 | Toronto | 48 | Stockstadt |
| Saves | 5 | Belem / LA | 55 | LA |
| Ks | 62 | Psydney | 626 | LA |
| Holds | 4 | Toronto / Ealing / New Hampshire | 28 | Stockstadt |
| ERA | 2.29 | Missouri | 3.17 | LA |
| WHIP | 1.14 | London | 1.18 | LA |
Week 13 Match-ups
- London Knights vs Ealing Eagles
- Belem Yankees vs New Hampshire Goats
- Norwich No vs Toronto 5lyers
- Mr. Needle vs Muenster Blue Jays
- Stockstadt vs Psydney Psychos
- Missouri River Jacks vs Helsinki Hitters
- San Jose Athletics vs LA Thrashers
This week sees the final match-ups in which teams play new opponents; in Week 14, we will meet our opening day opponents again. There's an interesting looking tie near the top, as 3rd-placed Mr. Needle looks to bounce back from this week's loss against 5th-placed Muenster. Looking further down the standings, 7th meet 8th, with the winner of LA vs San Jose hoping to move into the top 6 at the expense of London, who face a local derby against Ealing, their conquerors in the final of UK South last year!
