Sorry, but an abbreviated blog entry tonight because I’m running the sim later than normal.

In the Platonic League, Stockholm has run off seven wins in a row to pull within 2.5 games of the wild card. Cairo and Pittsburgh are now tied for the cellar.

In the Socratic League, things are now preposterously tight as four teams are within 1.5 games and only have two playoff spots to divide up. Marietta clings to a one-game lead. Brooklyn and Jersey City are tied for the wild card spot. Winnipeg is just a half-game behind them and is tied in the loss column.

On the injury front, Pittsburgh lost reliever Vincent Furness for five-to-six weeks to a strained bicep, Seattle lost starter Juan Mandeville for three weeks to an inflamed rotator cuff, and Winnipeg lost reliever Jose Salo for 1-2 weeks with an inflamed elbow ligament.

The league file is posted. The web pages are on the way. Nate has the next sim on Friday.

MARIETTA – With a 2 game lead the SL the Mammoths host Brooklyn for what should be the series of the year. Marietta leads the season series 5-2 but Brooklyn is completing a 20-6 month of July and has stormed from 5th place to 2nd during that run.

This series will see the top of the Bombers rotation going to the mound starting with Mark Fossum in game 1. He started the All-Star Game and has an 11-5 record on the season. Marietta will throw Alvaro Pedro who is 7-7. Game 2 will be evenly matched with Thomas Flennor and his 3.70 ERA for Brooklyn against Fredrick Wickham and his 7-4 record for the Mammoths. And game 3 will have future pitching sensation Tyler “Ex-” Conn who is 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA since his mid-season call-up after the Bombers traded away some of their starting pitching. Conn will be opposed by the ace of Marietta’s staff Brandon Millette. He is tied for second in the SL with 12 wins and 3rd in ERA with 3.18.

All three games should be close and could come down which team’s strength come through. The Bombers have brought the bats during this winning streak and now lead the league with a .281 BA and the only team in the league to have over 1,000 hits. Marietta has the league’s best ERA at 3.53.

One thing is sure, this series could decide the SL as a sweep by Marietta would open up a 5 game spread and if it goes the other way Brooklyn would take the lead in the SL by a game.

See you in Marietta as we roll into August in the OEL.

To liven up their floundering seasons, Cairo and Pittsburgh made a trade today. Cairo sent closer Ariel Santos, a free agent at the end of the season, to Pittsburgh in exchange for minor league starting pitcher prospect Chuck Finger.

“I had to move Finger,” explained Pisces Owner/GM Mack Shultz. “Despite his great last name, I just couldn’t come up with a nickname for him that really suited. So, he had to go. Ariel Santos won’t torment me nearly as much, because his last name doesn’t cry out for a nickname as badly.”

In private, Pittsburgh team officials admitted that Shultz instructed his contract negotiators to get a deal done with Santos and said that if an extension wasn’t reached, there would be hell to pay.

Yes, readers, the trading deadline is here. Get your trades in prior to the next sim on Wednesday or make no trades at all! Now’s the time to move things forward with that ’special someone’ and move your relationship to the next level.

In the Platonic League Seattle continues to hold it’s lead and Sylva is moving into a dominant position for the wild card by leading Maryland by four games. Stockholm is only one-half game behind Maryland, as well, so things can still happen there.

The Socratic League sees Marietta stumble to a 5-5 record in their last ten opening the door for both Brooklyn and Jersey City to close the gap with their identical 8-2 records over the same period of time. Marietta is now up by only 2 games and only 3.5 games separate the top four teams in the SL.

In outstanding performances this sim Sylva’s starting pitcher Frank Sherrick one-hit Cairo. With only one walk allowed as well it was a truly astounding performance!

A near catastrophic injury hampers Brooklyn’s playoff push this sim as starting center fielder Oscar Woodworth Pulled a calf muscle badly. He’s out for at least five weeks and won’t be back until September! Get well soon, Oscar!

The next sim, and the trading deadline, are Wednesday by Mack!

Brooklyn – For the second year in a row players move across the Big Apple as the Bombers and Knights exchange players for prospects and draft picks.

SP Willie Carter and 1B Benicio Pineda and a suitcase of unmarked, non sequential $20’s are taking the L train to Brooklyn while 3B prospect Clayton Suazo and a 2nd round pick in 2004 head to Manhattan to become members of the Knights.

“We can’t think of today…we have to plan for tomorrow,” said Knights Owner/GM Eric Lent. “This move not only helps us up by putting Clayton on our roster, but gets rid of two players that were winning us too many games and hurting our chances of getting the #1 overall pick.”

The addition of Carter completes the rotation for the Bombers who have had problems with their #5 spot in the rotation. “We would be in first by a good 5 games if we had a competent 5th starter in the rotation, and Carter is that man,” stated Brooklyn manager George Welsh. “Management finally listened to me and now we are winning another Pennant.” He went on to ramble about how Marietta does not have a chance, but there was no sentence that did not have an expletive in it so we could not print any of it.

The computer GM from Winnipeg was contacted and said, “1001111001010100100010100011.” We believe that he was not pleased by the transaction.

We are 2 months from the end of the season and nothing is decided yet. With 9 teams with a legitimate chance of making the playoffs this season will come down to the wire and will make this season one the best in OEL history.

Just a sim away from the trading deadline, and the two leagues retain their same characteristics.

The Platonic League is still boring, as Seattle maintains its seven-game lead and holds the best record in the OEL. Better win the title this year, Matt. Sylva is still in the wild card spot. Maryland is three games behind Sylva and Stockholm is 4.5 games out of the playoffs. Pittsburgh’s grip on the cellar loosened as Cairo pulled within two games.

In the Socratic League, things are tightening back up and the hot streaks of Marietta and the Brooklyn seem to have passed. Marietta is still in first, but their lead is only 2.5 games. Winnipeg has moved into the wild card spot, sparking little electronic spasms of joy in computers everywhere. Brooklyn is just a half-game behind Winnipeg and three games out of first while Jersey City sits just another half-game back. It seems to be a four-team race for the two playoff spots. Helena, who waved the white flag a few sims ago, is still only five games out of the playoffs. Meanwhile, New York fended off Pittsburgh’s bid and maintains its grip on the first pick in the draft.

Miscellaneous notes:

Only day-to-day injuries, so that won’t be an impetus for the next-to-last sim for trades.

Winnipeg’s David Austin hit for the cycle on July 23 during a 6-5 win over Stockholm.

Sylva’s Benito Figueredo and Jersey City’s Brendon Townsend took home Player of the Week honors.

On July 22, Brooklyn scored one in the ninth and two in the tenth to beat Pittsburgh 4-2. Meanwhile, Helena pushed a run across in the 11th to beat Cairo 5-4.

On July 23, Winnipeg rode Austin’s cycle to a 6-5 10-inning victory over Stockholm. Brooklyn again broke Pisces’ fans hearts (hey, there’s a few Pisces fans, including Debbie Allen!) with a one-run victory in the tenth. This time, the middle relief was the main culprit as the Bombers scored six in the eighth inning.

On July 24, Maryland shut out Seattle 2-0 as Lewis McGurk and three relievers scattered seven hits and three walks. (Scattered, of course, is the mandatory verb to be used in shut outs where the scoreless team has more than five hits. I don’t make the sportswriting rules, I just follow them.)

Nothing struck me as interesting about the games on July 25 and 26, so look them up yourselves if you’re bored.

The big series of the next sim will be when Winnipeg plays three in Marietta.

The next sim will only be four days, as it will go up to July 31. That means that the trading deadline will be next Wednesday, when the sim rolls into August. Just five shopping days left!

The league file is up and the web pages are en route. Nate will handle the next sim, on Monday. Have a good weekend everyone.

The two frontrunner swap out this time!

Marietta sends first base prospect David Vidal to Seattle for Starting Pitcher Alvaro Pedro.

Mother and child are doing well.

Jersey City has sent veteran starting pitcher Steven Hawn to Seattle in exchange for minor league SP prospect Eric Pellham.

Seattle GM Matt Macario announced today that he is terminating contract negotiations with SP Alvaro Pedro. “We’ve been very happy with what Alvaro has done for us to date, particularly in the last two years. Unfortunately, money doesn’t grow on trees, so we’re going to need to part ways next year,” Macario said. “At this time we will entertain all trade offers for Alvaro as we look to the future.”

The normally blog-averse Seattle GM added that any trade offers should be submitted to him via email at guitar_shark@hotmail.com .

Well, sports fans, not a lot of movement at the top this time but the wildcard race continues to heat up.

In the Platonic League Seattle continues to be on top as Sylva and Maryland fight it out for the second playoff slot. Sylva has extended their wildcard lead over Maryland to two games by answering Maryland’s 3-7 in the last ten games with a solid 6-4 over the same period.

In the Socratic League Marietta remains up by four, gaining half a game in the lead but Brooklyn, while throwing off a nine game winning streak, has passed Winnipeg for the wild card slot. With a little over two months to go anything can happen here!

Notable games this week feature Brooklyn extending their streak with a 20-5 drubbing of Pittsburgh in a game that Brooklyn’s start only lasted two innings! How ’bout that?

On the injury front Helena’s Tony Chavez broke some ribs catching a ball and is out for at least four weeks! Other injuries include Cairo’s John Arant for a week, and Maryland’s Kenneth Juarez for a week.

Who will win and who will lose? Find out on Friday as Mack runs the sim! Be there!