Standings Summary

National League Week 9

All eyes were pointed East this week as the New Orleans Thrill came out of the season long funk with a 12-2 sim, leapfrogging three teams in the process, and taking the lead in the NL East Wild Card race.  Few pitchers were better than Scott Stratton who went undefeated in 3 starts, pitching two complete games and giving up just 20 hits in 27 innings.  Mike Schmidt teed off with 6 homers and 20 RBI and might be the best third basemen in the game.

After an 8-5 week, the North Podunk Banana Bears, however, still feel they are the team to beat. They maintained a 3 ½ game lead on the division and appear to be in cruise control; Reggie Jackson led the team with 5 home runs while Lefty Gomez maintained a 1.90 ERA in 3 starts (23.2 IP).  Just a game out of the Wild Card, the Haven Tommyknockers made some noise as well, winning 9 of 13 contests.  Their bullpen was top notch, with no member recording an ERA over 3.00.

The rest of the East struggled and are starting to fall out of the playoff hunt.  After starting the week with a 3 ½ game lead in the Wild Card, the Ee-Yah Orators will finish it 3 ½ games out.  The White Rats, a +47 Run Differential team fighting with bad luck all year, are 4 ½  games out while the Saginaw Slammers are all but finished, 8 ½ out of the Wild Card.

The NL West remains an incredibly tight four horse race that is simply too close to call.  The Otherton Fishbiscuits finished last week in first, but are now in third.  John McDonald Fanclub moved from fourth to first and Helena dropped from 3rd to 4th.  The All Stars went 8-7 and maintained the Wild Card lead but just a ½ game.

The best player in the division might have been Cla Meredith, who pitched in 8 games, recorded 7 saves, and didn’t give up a run in over 10 innings for the Fanclub.  While much of the rest of the staff struggled, the offense more than made up for it giving the team a 10-4 record on the week.  Joe Sewell and Brooks Robinson batted close to .400; Rod Carew and Tommy Tucker approached a .400 OBP, and Albert Belle, Carl Yastrzemski, Mickey Mantle, and George Hall combined to hit 10 home runs and a .550 slugging.  The Fanclub's record over the past two weeks is 18-9.

There are several key series during Sim 10:

• Otherton twice travels to John McDonald for a total of 7 games
• Wild Card hopefuls from each league, the All Stars and Tommyknockers, face off in a 3 game set
• New Orleans faces those Tommyknockers twice on road;
• In between of which, they stay home for a 3 game series with Helena.  We’ll learn a lot about the Thrill over these 9 games.