The Playoff WatchWagon Week 17

Last week we took a look at the very distinct tiers in the league.  The home stretch should be a fascinating one, so lets take a look at any shake-ups in the tiers:

The James Tier:

James wanted to get back at Kurt for making him have his own tier of terribleness.  So last week he went out, picked up Ben, found a puddle, wrote "First Place" on the other side of it, laid down in the puddle and let Ben walk all over him to First Place.  James widened the gap between him and 9th in the process.  James will need to pick up 3.4 games per week for the remaining 5 weeks to catch 6th place.  

The James Tier - No Change.  

The Sixth Place Racers Tier:

The plot thickened for The Racers.  It was an exciting week of matchups with Tim facing off against Richie and Adrian squaring off against Drew.  Tim was in 9th place and took home a 6-4 win over Richie.  Tim labored over a decision on whether or not to start Kyle Hendricks over an early dinner with Adrian, Kurt and TJ.  Ultimately, he decided to take the knee.  It cost him a win and half game in the standings.  However, it ensured a much needed victory and puts Tim now 1 game out of the playoff spot.  Richie, clinging to 6th place for dear life, saw Adrian move to one half game back with a 5-4 win over Drew.  Drew is now 2.5 games out, sitting in 9th place.  

The Sixth Place Racers Tier: Gap from 9th to 6th closes from 3 games to 2.5.  The dream of a four way tie for 6th becomes increasingly probable, much to the chagrin of the commissioner who will be tasked with explaining the tiebreaker rule to everyone.  Up next on the schedule is:

9th Place Drew vs. 3rd Place TJ
8th Place Tim vs. 2nd Place Kurt
7th Place Adrian vs. 6th Place Richie

All eyes will be on Adrian and Richie as Tim and Drew look to keep pace against the leagues elite.  Excitement and also intrigue, too. 

The Comfortable Tier:

Colin closed the one half game gap between the comfortable tier as he comfortable tied TJ in a ho-hum 4-4 week.  Any week that ends in a tie that didn't involve me will be considered ho-hum unless someone makes a stink in the facebook chat.  

Jarrett lost to Kurt on a Sunday Night 2 run double by Javier Baez.  This 5-4 loss was anything but ho-hum because I was involved in it.  Dylan Bundy got a 5 run, 2 inning start rained out and replaced it with a quality start win.  Jarrett couldn't complete the comeback as Kurt had some late home runs to secure the victory.  

The Comfortable Tier - Half game gap closes with Colin and Jarrett now tied for 4th.  Both are still comfortable with 6th place Richie 11.5 games back.  Bye weeks becoming less likely as both sit 10 games back of second place.  With 5 weeks left to play, either comfortable team would need a collapse, massive hot streak or combination of the two.  

The Elite Tier:

TJ stays locked into third place, though he loses half a game on the second bye week.  Now 3.5 games back after the aforementioned ho-hum 4-4 tie with Colin.  Kurt, looking as though he would tie Jarrett, got a late RBI to take a 5-4 win and pick up half a game on TJ.  This all paled in comparison to Ben, who walked over the face-down-in-a-puddle James to first place.  Ben now holds a 2 game lead over second place.  

The Elite Tier - First Place Twins now separated by 2 games.  TJ loses ground.  Ben has the toughest on-paper matchup this week as Jarrett comes to town.  

See ya next week!