CAQ:  For the Quakes, it was a sprint and a marathon:  they shot out of the gate with a 20-7 record in April, winning their division by 16 games and then capping it off with their second straight championship.  They scored 5.8 runs a game, a full run above second-place Richmond.   Combine that with a third-place finish in ERA and fifth place in X-out %, and it's not hard to see how Castaic finished with a league-record 105 wins.  Forecast:  Injuries to Heyward, CarGo, Ruben Tejada, Vogelsong, and Cueto will hurt, and the bullpen's a mess; with the meltdown of John Axford and Brandon League, the Quakes don't have anything resembling a closer.  Stud (someone who performed above real-life expectations; replay stats first, then actual):  Allen Craig (1.249 OPS v. .876).  Dud (same, but below expectations):  nobody.  Draft Grade:  B.  The Quakes did pick up Joe Kelly, Rex Brothers will provide some bullpen help, and Matt Dominguez could serve as trade bait for someone looking for a 3B.  Salary Cap:  C.  They're $24 million over, with 3 players -- Hamels, Votto, and Zimmerman -- getting $52 million.  Other than Kelly, they don't have any really good cheap players.

WAC:  The Cheesewedgers managed to win 89 games, despite finishing in the middle of the pack in hitting and pitching, and committing a league-worst 134 errors.  The key was the bullpen, which posted a 2.96 ERA, second only to Montreal's 2.78, and almost a full run and a half better than the starters.  Forecast:  A solid core with Posey, Chris Johnson, Matt Cain, and Jay Bruce, but a big problem with the falloff in Matt Kemp's production:  WAC will be paying him $20 million for 263 AB's of .723 OPS.  And Ike Davis (32 HR's last year) fell off a cliff.  Stud:  Nobody.  Dud:  Jaime Garcia (6.42 ERA v. 3.92).  Draft Grade:  C+.  Scutaro was a big help, and Matt Adams looks to be a long-term value, but that's about it.  Salary Cap:  B.  West Allis is $17 million over the cap, but has only three players making 8 figures in salaries, and plenty of room to cut.

MMM:  The Maulers capitalized on a league-leading 3.35 ERA to sneak into the playoffs with an 83-79 record, before bowing out to Richmond in the 2nd round.  Pitching and defense (.798 X-out %, 2nd best in the league) were the name of the game.  Hitting certainly wasn't:  Maui finished with a team OPS of .689, ahead of only Bowie's .673.  Forecast:  Bad seasons by Josh Johnson, Matt Garza, and Giancarlo Stanton will hurt, and Maui definitely needs a closer:  Tyler Clippard led the team in saves last year with 15, despite a 4.70 ERA.  Stud:  Sean Marshall (3-1, 0.71 ERA v. 5-5, 2.51).  Dud:  Chad Billingsley (5-7, 5.53 v. 11-9, 3.55).  Draft Grade:  B.  Pickup of Carlos Gomez was huge, if his breakout performance is real.  Salary Cap:  A.  Maulers are $34 million over, but just cutting Billingsley, Garza, John Hanrahan, and Johnson will put them $18 million under.   And big question is whether to pay $20 million to Ryan Howard for his 286 AB's and 11 HR's.  Maui also has 10 AL players, by far the most in the league. 

LIT:  Despite playing in a bandbox, the Rockies could never get their offense untracked; they scored only 629 runs, fewest in the league.  That was the key to their 76-86 record:  their pitching (5th) and fielding (3rd) certainly wasn't the problem.  Forecast:  The Rockies have a key decision to make with Albert Pujols.  He was the mainstay of their offense last season, hitting 33 HR's; nobody else had as many as 20.  But he's getting $21 million in salary, injuries reduced him to 391 AB's, and his performance has been declining precipitously.  On the other hand, the resurgence of Jayson Werth and Michael Cuddyer provides a basis for playing for the present, not the future.  Stud:  Nobody.  Dud:  Danny Espinosa (.577 OPS v. .717).  Draft Grade:  A+.  In addition to Cuddyer, who led the NL in hitting, the Rockies picked up four other players who will be regulars next season.  Salary Cap:  A-.  Despite paying big bucks to Pujols and Verlander, the Rockies are only $15 million over the cap.

CRP:  After winning three straight championships, the Patriots had their worst (and only losing) season, going 70-92.  Nothing worked:  while Conn River hit 206 HR's, third-best in the league, they finished last in BA, 8th in RS, 10th in ERA, and 11th in errors.  No starter finished with a BA above .268, and Jered Weaver and Homer Bailey both had losing records and ERA's north of 5.00.  Forecast:  The Patriots have a decision to make, too, this time with Josh Hamilton, who's making $23 million.  The emergence of Paul Goldschmidt, who at a salary of $516,667 is the biggest bargain in the league, certainly poses some promise, but the outlook for Jose Reyes -- the only player who remains on the team that drafted him in the inaugural 2004 season -- isn't bright, either:  he's in the AL, had only 382 AB's, and is making more than $13 million.  Stud:  Nobody.  Dud:  A long list, but we'll go with Weaver (8-13, 5.05 v. 21-5, 2.81).  Draft Grade:  C-.  One of the problems with winning championships is that you wind up drafting at the bottom, and you don't get a shot at many quality players.  The Patriots didn't.  Salary Cap:  B.  The Patriots are only $17 million over, but have a lot of big contracts.  A lot depends on what they do with Hamilton and Reyes.

BOW.  Playing in the worst hitters park in the league didn't help the offense, as it finished with a league-worst .673 OPS.  But it didn't help the pitching, either; Bowie had a 4.49 ERA, better only than Marriottsville.  That explains a 56-106 record.  Forecast:  Some good picks last time around, a deep draft this time around, and a bounce-back season from Cliff Lee should help lead Bowie out of the darkness.  Stud:  Nobody.  Dud:  Jeremy Affeldt (1-8, 5.56 v. 1-2, 2.70).  Draft Grade:  A.  Bowie picked up a SS (Andrelton Simmons), two OF's (Aoki, Domonic Brown), and a starting pitcher (Mike Leake).  Salary Cap:  A.  The Bay Sox can put themselves $19 million under the cap just by cutting Roy Halladay, Affeldt, and Francisco Rodriguez.

MON:  The Pool Sharks resisted Bill James' Plexiglass Principle; after going from 54 wins in 2011 to 91 in 2012, Montreal won 96 this past season, only to get picked off in the 1st round of the playoffs.  What Montreal lacked in power (8th in HR's), they more than made up in speed, shattering the league record with 249 stolen bases.  They were paced by Juan Pierre's 75, but seven other players reached double figures, including the lumbering Yadier Molina.  The starting pitching was only so-so -- the 4.17 ERA was 7th in the league -- but Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman led a bullpen which posted a league-best 2.68 ERA.  Forecast:  There's some fall-off in the starting pitching -- Ian Kennedy and Bud Norris -- but a huge haul in the draft should keep Montreal in the thick of things.  Stud:  Craig Kimbrel.  Yeah, he was supposed to be good, but 9-2 with an 0.58 ERA?  That's sick.  Dud:  Nobody came close.  Draft:  A+.  The Pool Sharks picked up Patrick Corbin, Starling Marte, Jean Segura, and Hunter Pence.  Wow!  Salary Cap:  C-.  The one area of concern.  Montreal is $30 million over the cap, has 6 players with 8-figure contracts, and only one (Edwin Jackson) that's likely to be cut.

RAZ:  Richmond went 36-21 after a mid-season ownership change, vaulting into the playoffs with an 88-74 record and taking Castaic the full seven games before losing the championship series.  Despite a .253 BA, good for only 7th in the league, the Razz finished with 780 runs, behind only Castaic.  But it was the pitching which surprised:  Richmond finished with a  4.19 team ERA; their previous low was 4.66.  Forecast:  Kershaw was huge again, but injuries to Hanley Ramirez (304 AB's) and Bryce Harper (424), the decline in David Freese, and the loss of Corey Hart, are going to present some challenges.  Stud:  Harper (.338/.394/.561 v. .270/.340/.477).  Dud:  Ramirez (.221/.286/.379 v. .257/.322/.437.  Not likely to have this designation next year.  Draft:  A.  Picked up Harper, Matt Carpenter, and Bronson Arroyo.  Salary Cap:  B.  Richmond is $22 million over the cap, but there's a lot of fat.  Yes, I'm looking at you, Dan Uggla ($13 million) and you, Chris Young ($11.5 million).

VBO:  The Odd Sox have been one of the most consistent teams in the league, missing the playoffs only twice in ten years.  Pitching and defense have been the key, and they were again this year:  a second-best 3.56 team ERA, a league-leading .828 X-out %, and only 82 errors.  The hitting picked up a bit, finishing in the middle of the pack rather than VBO's normal position near the bottom.  Forecast:  VBO has six players who have been with the team since 2009 or before, the most in the league (Texas also has six), and that old gang may be breaking up.  Victorino's in the American League, Ethier hit 12 HR's last year, Rollins' OPS is down to a Satanic .666...  Still, Ricky Nolasco keeps humming along, and then there's this guy named Scherzer...  Stud:  Jesus Guzman (.925 OPS v. .737, albeit in only 176 AB's.  Dud:  Broxton, VBO's erstwhile closer (6-10, 5.65, 7 blown saves in 27 chances, v. 4-5, 2.48).  Draft:  C-.  First-round pick went to Adam Laroche, who pretty much went the way of VBO's first-round pick in 2011, Aubrey Huff.  Salary Cap:  B+.  VBO's only $11 million over the cap, but has some big decisions to make, the biggest being whether to keep Victorino and his $18 million salary.

TEX:  The Armadillos finished with 83 wins, and their stats reflect that middling status:  5th in RS, 7th in ERA, and 6th in X-out %.  The problem was a right-hand leaning lineup that bashed lefties (19-10) but finished five games under .500 against normal people.  It's also reflected in their record versus individual teams:  they didn't go two games better than anyone else or two games worse.  Forecast:  The big problem will be replacing 400 of Ryan Braun's AB's.  The second biggest will be what to do about the salary cap.  (See below.)  Stud:  Nobody.  Dud:  Nobody.  Draft:  B.  This would've been an A until Matt Harvey blew out his UCL in August, necessitating Tommy John surgery which will keep him out all of 2014.  Pickups of Travis Woods, Wilson Ramos, Papelbon, and Mark Buehrle help, but Buehrle's now in the AL, which leads us to... Salary Cap:  D.  Texas is $37 million over the cap, and several key players have huge salaried:  Fielder ($30 million), Kuroda ($20 million), Buehrle ($16 million), and Papelbon ($13 million).  What's more, the first three are in the AL, taking up an extra roster spot.  It's going to take a lot more than pruning to get Texas under the cap.

WES:  A woeful offense was expected, and the Ripcats actually improved theirs, scoring 44 more runs, thus finishing 11th instead of last in that category.  What wasn't expected was a collapse of the pitching staff, especially the bullpen:  it went from a league-leading 2.56 in 2012 to 3.74, good for only 7th place, dropping them from 1st in team ERA all the way down to 8th.  That goes a long way in explaining the decline from an 89-73 record to 74-88.  Forecast:  Freddie Freeman finally had the season to justify his selection as a first-round draft pick in 2012, Holliday was steady as ever, and Mike Minor improved markedly.  But Starlin Castro had a horrible season, Pedro Alvarez spent the last three months of the season hitting .213/.279/.421, and the Ripcats are in desperate need of a right-handed hitter:  they finished 17-27 against lefties.  Stud:  Nobody came close, unless you want to include Brian Schneider .824 OPS (v. .637) in 17 AB's.  Dud:  Any number of nominees, but let's go with Wandy Rodriguez (12-18, 5.29 ERA v. 13-14, 3.76).  Draft:  C.  Adam Wainwright was a big pickup (did he really last until the 9th pick?) that should pay off for years, but after that there was nobody, and I mean nobody.  Six of the players drafted can be dropped because they didn't even play in 2013.  Salary Cap:  B.  Westpark's only $18 million over, and there's plenty of room for cuts.  Starting with Rodriguez's $13.5 million. 

MAR:  Not hard to figure out how the Bones Demons lost 94 games:  you need look no farther than the 5.16 team ERA, worst in the league.  A full 15% of Marriotsville's innings went to pitchers with ERA's over 6.00, and the three top starters (in terms of IP) posted ERAs of 4.92, 4.93, and 5.23.  Incredibly, the bullpen was even worse, posting a 5.69 ERA to the starters' 4.92; only two other teams had bullpens with an ERA above 4.00.  Forecast:  The return of Troy Tulowitzki and an even better season by the best hitter on the planet, Miguel Cabrera, will keep the offense humming along, Trevor Cahill and AJ Burnett will solidify the starting staff, and Edward Mujica's surprise emergence as a closer will help stabilize the bullpen.  And let's face it:  things couldn't get any worse.  Stud:  Several offensive players, but the award goes to Ryan Doumit (.305/.370/.493 v. .275/.320/.461).  Dud:  Several pitchers, but the award goes hands-down to Gio Gonzalez (11-12, 5.23 ERA v. 22-8, 2.89).  Draft:  Jason Kubel cratered, but Gonzalez has to be better, and AJ Burnett is a big pickup.  Salary Cap:  A+.  Despite paying $28 million for Cabrera, Marriottsville is only $2 million over the cap.  

Aaron Division
CAQ.  The Quakes won their second championship (their first was in 2006), with a league-leading 97 wins.  They were a solid team -- they hit well (4th in RS), pitched well (2nd in ERA), and fielded well (1st in X-out %).  They had some issues at the top of the order (OBP of .311 and .302), but the middle of the order posted OPS's well into the .800 range.  The pitching was top-notch, with Cole Hamels (18-6, league-leading 2.23 ERA), Rick Vogelsong (13-6, 2.83), and Johnny Cueto (13-5, 3.21) starting, and John Axford (7-0, 42 saves, 1.17 ERA) finishing things out.  What the hell?  Andrew McCutchen hit .210/.337/.333.  Preview:  With Jason Heyward's bounceback from his sophomore slump, McCutchen's emergence as an elite player, and no noticeable decline in any of Castaic's regulars, the Quakes should definitely be in the hunt for a third championship ring.

LIT.  The Rockies fell just short, falling in the championship series, and also seemed a balanced team, leading the league in runs and finishing 3rd in ERA.  That last figure is deceptive, though; they actually finished 7th in runs allowed, their league-worst .694 X-out % leading to a league-high 85 unearned runs.  But man, could they hit, with seven players clubbing 20 or more HR's.  Team's best kept secret, though, was a bullpen sporting 7 pitchers with an ERA under 3.00, and the bullpen's 3.24 ERA was 2nd best in the league.  What the hell?  Micah Owings faced 158 right-handed batters, who hit .194 off of him.  He faced 30 fewer lefties, who clubbed him to the tune of a .406 average.  Tha's what a 7R balance rating will get you.  Preview:  Pujols' decline (he's lost about 250 points of OPS in the last three years) is a problem, although his salary, oddly enough, isn't:  he'll actually cost Littleton less next year than he did this year, plus the extra roster spot.  Bigger concern is loss of Berkman, who provided 42 HR's to Littleton this season, but was held by injuries to only 81 AB's in 2012.

CRP.  All good things must end, as did the Patriots' run of three championships.  They just barely made the playoffs with an 82-80 record.  They could still hit the ball (3rd in RS), but their team ERA slid from 3rd to 10th.  Jered Weaver was the only effective starter, and the leader in saves had 15.  What the hell?  Chief reason for the Patriots' pitching woes was the 58 starts given to Jhoulys Chacin (5-18, 5.05 ERA) and Ubaldo Jimenez (6-14, 6.61).  Preview:  Jose Reyes lost 50 points of BA, Brian McCann lost 40, Ryan Roberts lost his power, Josh Hamilton will make $12 million more, and the Patriots pitching is paper-thin after Weaver.  So they'll probably win 90 games.

WAC.  The Cheesewedgers just missed the playoffs, going 81-81.  Big problem was hitting; despite playing in a bandbox, West Allis scored fewer runs than all but three other teams.  And although they finished in the middle of the pack for homers, it was very concentrated:  only four players finished in double figures.  The pitching outside of three players -- Jason Motte, Matt Cain, and Javier Vazquez -- was shaky.  What the hell?  Shows how important that closer rating is.  Motte had a 3, and finished with a 4-3 record, 1.43 ERA, and 35 saves in 37 chances.  Preview:  Matt Kemp's injury will hurt (only 403 AB's), and Cory Luebke was lost to Tommy John surgery, but Buster Posey's MVP season and Chipper Jones last hurrah should put West Allis in the hunt.

MMM.  The Maulers lost 96 games, and it's not hard to see why:  they had a .242 BA and .306 OBP, both league lows, scored only 595 runs, and their top starter finished with an 11-9 record; the only other pitcher with double-digit wins had 10.  The Maulers may have been more competitive than at first glance:  they finished 41-43 for the months of April, May, and August, and 25-53 the other three months.  What the hell?  Despite their offensive woes, Maui hit 6 grand slams; only Littleton, with 7, had more.  Preview:  David Wright's resurgence, Giancarlo Stanton's continued growth, the emergence of Aaron Hill, plus some good draft picks for pitching could make Maui competitive, but they're probably still a year away.  One thing they have to do is decide whether they want to pay Ryan Howard $20 million for 260 AB's of 14 homers and a .219/.295/.423 line.

BOW.  After winning 90 games in 2011, the Bay Sox lost 99 this past season.  The hitting wasn't the problem; Bowie finishing 11th in RS, but it finished 12th the season before.  The pitching was another story, with the team ERA going from 2.72, best by nearly 40 points, to 3.86, 9th in the league.  The starting pitching was thin after Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, but the lineup was even thinner; only two players, Michael Bourn and Jason Bartlett, had more than 400 AB's.  What the hell?  If anything, the bullpen was even worse.  Sean Burnett led the team with six -- count'em, six -- saves, and the team had only 18 (out of 34 chances) for the season.  Preview:  Halladay and Lee had off years, and nobody had a good one.  Some good drafting and a lot of luck will be needed to make this team competitive in the next two years.  Part of the problem is continuity; team will be on its fifth manager in five years.

Ruth Division
MON.  The Pool Sharks completed one of the most amazing transitions in league history, going from 54-108 in 2011 to 93-69.  Run scoring improved somewhat, from 10th to 7th, but the big improvement was in run prevention:  Montreal tied for a league-best .781 X-out %, up from 7th the year before, helping the team allow the third fewest runs, with Zach Greinke (13-9, 2.52), Brandon Beachy (13-3, 2.91), Ian Kennedy (18-11, 3.17), and Matt Scherzer (14-9, 3.54) providing one of the most formidable rotations in the league.  If there was a weakness, it was the bullpen:  although Craig Kimbrel performed spectacularly, going 42-46 in saves with a 1.42 ERA, there was a problem getting the ball to him, as evidenced by the bullpen's 4.18 ERA; only Richmond's was worse.  Factoid.  In 15 games against Virginia Beach, Adrian Gonzalez hit .406/.486/.969, for a 1.455 OPS.  Preview:  The lineup's thin after Gonzalez, Beachy threw only 81 innings before undergoing Tommy John surgery, and Kennedy regressed.  But Montreal's taking a flyer on Kris Medlen (keeping him on the roster, despite only 2 IP) paid off big time, and Aroldis Chapman turned into a monster, so Montreal should be in the thick of it again.

TEX.  After starting the season 19-29, the Armadillos played 30 games over .500 the rest of the way.  This,despite relatively bad luck:  nobody overperformed, and numerous players performed much worse than expected.  Texas scored the second-most runs in the league, despite off-years by Prince Fielder (.151 points off his real-life OPS), Hunter Pence (-.145), and Ryan Braun (-.126).  Huroki Kuroda (15-9, 2.68) and Madison Bumgarner (15-7, 2.81) did the heavy lifting on the mound, but Mat Latos (.87 above his real-life ERA), Tommy Hanson (1.21 above), and Heath Bell (23 saves, 3.93 ERA v. 45, 2.44) fell short.  Factoid.  Texas got at least 20 HR's out of every spot in the batting order except the 7th, where it got 5.  Preview:  Fielder will cost over $30 million next season, and Bell's collapse will require some patching of the bullpen, but Texas is too deep to run into much trouble.  Braun's not going to have another off-year for them, and he's got to be the one of the biggest bargains in the league:  he had a .987 OPS in 2012 with a salary of less than $7.4 million. 

WES.  Probably one of the most unbalanced teams in league history.  Boy, could they pitch:  Tim Lincecum, Mike Leake, and Jair Jurrjens provided an excellent front of the rotation, and the bullpen was simply spectacular:  a 2.56 ERA, 70 points below the next lowest team, five relievers with ERA's under 2.00, J.J. Putz establishing  a league record with 50 saves...  Boy, couldn't they hit:  a league-low 592 runs, with only 3 players in double figures for homers.  Best indication of the woeful nature of the offense is that the catchers, in 572 AB's, combined to go .180/.265/.279.  Factoid.  In road games, Livan Hernandez went 2-4, with an 11.48 ERA and a 2.41 WHIP.  Factoid #2:  Westpark went 24-6 in August, best one-month record in league history, and 65-67 the other five months.  Preview:  With the collapse of Jurrjens and Lincecum, and no improvement among any of the non-pitchers, Westpark's looking at a 90-loss season.

VBO.  The Oddsox backed into the playoffs with an 83-79 record, doing it the way they have for the last five seasons:  on the strength of their pitching.  They hit 103 HR's, the fewest of any team besides Bowie, and no regular (400+ AB's) had even a .270 BA.  But Brett Myers put a 17-10 record on the board, Rickey Nolasco and R.A. Dickey chimed in with 15-8 and 14-8 respectively, and Brian Wilson picked up 28 saves in 31 chances.  A sterling defense, anchored by Jimmy Rollins, helped:  VBO's .774 X-out % lagged only behind Castaic and Montreal, both with .781.  Factoid.  Jonathan Sanchez was one lefty who beat the Strat curse, giving up only 5.9 H/9, 1.2 fewer than he did in real life.  And despite a 4L balance, righties hit only .182 against him, 36 points less than lefties managed.  Preview:  Dickey had a great season, but Myers is now a reliever for the White Sox, Wilson's season was lost to injury, and nobody stepped up offensively.  Virginia Beach is going to have to scramble for a playoff spot again next year.

MAR.  The Bones Demons led the league with a .273 BA, but a better indication of their offense is that, despite playing a hitter's park, they were outscored by six other teams and outhomered by seven.  Other than Miguel Cabrera and his .955 OPS (still 80 points below real life), the story was the same:  decent batting averages (nobody hit below .245), but no real production.  Bad luck was a problem, too, as indicated by Dan Haren's 12-17 record, despite a 3.12 ERA.  Factoid.  Haren must really enjoy home cooking; he went 9-5 with a 2.42 ERA at Chase Field, but the  on the road he was 3-12, 3.82.  Preview:  Haren's been the mainstay of the starting staff for years, but gained more than a run in ERA in 2012.  Shaun Marcum was limited to 124 innings this past season, and Tim Hudson is getting long in the tooth.  Angel Bastardo, who went 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA and 27 saves in 30 chances, and was supposed to shore up a weak bullpen -- Marriottsville's relievers allowed 35% of inherited runners to score, worst in the league -- finished 2012 with a 4.33 ERA.  Cabrera had another monster season, but he'll cost $28 million, and he was about the only one who did; Troy Tulowitski's injury (only 181 AB's), and the decline or collapse of players like Orlando Hudson, Marlon Byrd, and Nyjer Morgan puts Marriottsville in a definite rebuilding mode. 

RAZ.  Playing in Coors Stadium pretty much dictated Richmond's strategy:  bludgeon the opposing team's pitchers more than the opposing team bludgeoned Richmond's.  The Razz led the league in runs scored every year since the league was founded, and has never finished better than 11th in team ERA.  Only half that formula worked this season:  the Razz finished 5th in RS, while their team ERA was half a run worse than anybody else's.  Besides Corey Hart (.349/.415/.563), nobody had a standout offensive year, and the pitching problems were exemplified by Daniel Hudson, who went 5-18 with a 6.37 ERA, compared to 17-13, 3.49 in real life.  Factoid.  Clayton Kershaw actually pitched better in Coors than on the road:  12-4, 2.68 versus 5-7, 2.77.  Preview.  It remains to be seen if Hanley Ramirez' move out of Florida to the Dodgers can revive what once looked like a Hall of Fame career, but with Hudson's injury (45 IP), Anibal Sanchez' move to the AL, and the continued decline of Dan Uggla, Richmond will need its low draft picks to get back to a competitive state.  The biggest offseason decision they'll have to make is whether to move out of Coors.

CRP @ MON:  The Pool Sharks improved their win total by a whopping 39 games over last season, finishing with a league 2nd-best total of 93, while the reigning champion Patriots just scraped into the playoffs with 82 wins.  

PRINTING PLAYOFF TICKETS
CAQ (70-44, .614):  The Quakes cooled off a bit in June, going 11-15, but have resumed their torrid pace, with a 23-9 record since then.  The offense has been good, but not great; they're 5th in RS, with Joey Votto and Carlos Gonzalez having slightly sub-par years for them.  But run prevention has been the key:  a 3.16 ERA and .791 X-out %, both of which lead the league.

MON (66-48, .579):  Although the acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez has certainly helped -- the Pool Sharks' have scored 1/2 run per game more since then -- the real story of Montreal's moving away from the pack in the Ruth Division is pitching:  after finishing with a league-worst 4.66 ERA last year, they're at a 4th-best 3.60 this season.  During June, when they went 18-7, Bud Norris, Ian Kennedy, and Brandon Beachy combined to go 12-1 with a 1.67 ERA.

LIT (62-52, .544):  It's easy to pin the Rockies' success on the fact that they've hit 168 homers, almost 70 more than the league average; with eight guys already in double figures for HR's, the Rockies figure to score a lot of runs.  But despite playing in a bandbox, they also have the third-best ERA in the league, at 3.45.

TEX (60-54, .526):  The Armadillos' record doesn't make them a lock for the playoffs, but the way they've been playing does:  after going 19-29 in the first two blocks, they've played at a .620 pace since.  They've come back to the pack a bit, going only 18-16 after a blistering 19-7 record in June, but a lineup which features four players who already have 20+ homers will be there in October.

SCUFFLING
WAC (59-55, .518):  Despite playing in a hitter's park, the Cheese Wedgers are only 8th in RS, and their third-best 113 HR's is deceptive:  Matt Kemp has over a quarter of that total, three other players are in double figures, Lucas Duda has 7, and no one else has more than 4.  If West Allis is to make a run at it, their pitching -- a 5th best 3.63 ERA -- is going to have to carry them there. 

CRP (59-55, .518):  The league champions have actually played one game under .500 since May 1.  Not hard to figure out why:  although they score runs in bunches -- a third-best .751 team OPS -- they give them up in bunches, too:  they're allowing .7 runs more per game this year than last. 

WES (59-55, .518):  Good pitching and a great bullpen are doing their best to mask the worst offense in the league.  Matt Holliday (16) and Mike Morse (15) are the only players in double figures in HR's.  When your 5th place hitter (Freddie Freeman) has six, and the only other guy closing in on double digits (Colby Rasmus, with 9) is hitting .202, you know you're in trouble.

VBO (56-58, .491):  After a slow start, the Oddsox seem to have righted themselves by going 31-22 in May and June, but are only 13-21 since then.  Problems on both sides of the equation:  only Bowie has hit fewer homers, and 30% of VBO's innings have gone to pitchers with ERA's over 5.00.  (The comparable figure for Littleton is 10%.)

MAR (55-59, .482):  Although the Bones Demons lead the league in batting average, at .270, that's deceptive:  they're only 6th in RS, and only three players -- Miguel Cabrera (20), Troy Tulowitzki (14), and Will Venable (11) -- have more than seven home runs.

WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR
MMM (47-67, .412):  Maui was in it early, but has gone 19-41 since June 1.  They'll get some big help on offense next year from the seasons Melky Cabrera, David Wright, and Mike Stanton are having, and they'll be looking for starting pitching in the draft:  while their relievers have combined for a 3.52 ERA, their starters are almost a run worse, at 4.43.

RAZ (46-68, .404):  Richmond probably isn't as bad as their record:  other than an ugly June, when they went 7-19, they've played within a few games of .500 the other months.  Getting out of Coors, which they can do next year, might be a solution:  Corey Hart won't hit .354/.419/.572, but then again Dan Hudson won't go 3-13 with a 6.53 ERA, either.

BOW (45-69, .395):  In their ballpark, Bowie wasn't expected to hit, and they haven't, but they were expected to pitch, and they haven't done that:  a 3.90 ERA, 9th in the league, compared to last year's 2.72, which led the league by a mile.  But they can take heart from the fact that one team printing playoff tickets this season, Montreal, lost two-thirds of their games just last year.  

The Races.  CAQ continues to run away from the rest of the field in the Aaron Division, playing at a .639 clip, with CRP and LIT eight games back and just four games over .500.  A bigger battle looms in the Ruth Division, with five teams separated by only four games, TEX having re-entered the race by going 16-8 over the last block. 

The success of most of those teams isn't hard to figure; almost all of them rank high in offense, pitching, or both.  The exception is VBO, which ranks 9th in runs and 11th in pitching.  The big reason for their success?  An 18-6 record in 1-run games.

End of the Steroid Era.  That's come with a bang.  From the league's founding in 2004 through the 2010 season, league ERA averaged 4.28.  Last year it was 3.84, and so far this year it's 3.77... One era that hasn't ended is the Strat bias against left-handed pitchers.  Only two teams (BOW at 6-13 and MMM at 6-12 have losing records against them; LIT's record is 14-5. 

Factoids.  Yeah, the talent can get pretty thin after the first five or six rounds of the draft, but every now and then you come up with a nugget.  RAZ picked up Corey Hart in the 10th round of the 2010 draft.  He had a .762 OPS that season (real life 2009:  .753), but had a .949 last year (v. .865 in real play), and this season leads the league in hitting (.359) and OBP (.429), with 13 HR's and a .996 OPS... TEX has a 1.126 OPS with the bases loaded; WES has a .461... Albert Pujols is hitting .361 or better against five of the eleven clubs he's played, but only .118 against MMM... MAR is leading the league in BA, but is only 6th in runs scored; the problem is the underperformance of their two big guns, Miguel Cabrera (.885 OPS v. 1.034 expected) and Troy Tulowitzki (.787 v. .916)... Last year's champion, CRP, scored 10 or more runs in a game 12 times last season.  Through 72 games this year, they've done it only once... WAC's pitchers are hitting .226 for the season.  Both of WES's catchers are hitting .184.  There's a message here somewhere.

Studs.  CAQ's top three starters:  Cole Hamels (8-3, 1.60 ERA), Ryan Vogelsong (8-1, 2.17), and Johnny Cueto (7-4, 2.19); LIT's Aramis Ramirez (.336/.414./.549); MAR's Ryan Theriot (.376 BA); MON's Zach Greinke (8-5, 2.26); TEX's Madison Bumgarner (8-3, 2.28); VBO's Rickey Nolasco (7-1, 2.88); WAC's Matt Cain (7-2, 1.86); WES's Mike Leake (6-2, 2.17) and J.J. Putz (2-0, 1.93, with a league-leading 24 saves in 24 chances)... and Duds.  CRP's Brian McCann (.225 BA); MON's Gaby Sanchez (.233/.323/.336); RAZ's Dan Hudson (2-9, 5.40); TEX's Prince Fielder (.239 BA, .777 OPS); VBO's Jimmy Rollins (.215/.309/.312); WAC's Jay Bruce (.212/.300/.355).

Fast starts... The key to CAQ's 33-15 record isn't hard to figure out.  To be sure, the offense is doing its part, currently placing 4th in runs scored, mainly as the result of a league-leading .348 OBP, and the bullpen isn't bad,  with John Axford picking up 13 saves and posting a 1.27 ERA.  But their top four starters -- Cole Hamels, Rick Vogelsong, Johnny Cueto, and (gulp) Derek Lowe -- are a combined 21-5 with a 1.57 ERA.  Obviously, some regression to the mean is in order:  I'm guessing the Lowe isn't going to continue to allow 6.7 H/9, as opposed to the 10.2 he actually allowed last season.  But it's going to take some major falloffs to bring the Quakes back to the pack.

And slow ones... So far, TEX is the mystery team, 10 games under .500 after  I'd pegged them to win 90+.  A large part of the problem is the bullpen:  they've got the second-highest ERA (4.09) and the second-worst save percentage (.471) in the league, which goes some ways toward explaining their 5-10 record in 1-run games.  The real problem, though, is the hitting:  Despite a lineup featuring Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval, and Justin Upton, the Armadillos are 8th in runs scored, primarily because those first four players are hitting .145, .178, .285, and .189 below their real-life OPS.  Again, some regression to the mean is likely:  Pence, who hit .314/.370/.502 with 23 HR's, is not going to hit .223/.296/.291 with 0.  And keep in mind that just last year, Richmond won 90 games despite going .500 or worse in three of the season's six months.

Factoids.  LIT leads the world in homers; its 74 is twice as many as six other teams in the league... VBO's Jonathan Sanchez has a 1-2 record, despite giving up only 4.9 H/9; walking 6 batters per 9 will do that... What does taking a Cy Young pitcher and putting him in Coors do, especially when he's a left-hander to boot?  Boost his ERA from 2.28 to 4.00.  Clayton Kershaw's H/9 hasn't jumped much (6.7 to 7.6), but going from giving up .6 HR/9 to 1.5 doesn't help... Fire HAL:  BOW's road record is a respectable 13-14, but they're 4-17 at home... MAR kills lefties (8-3), but has trouble with righties (17-20), while MMM is the exact reverse:  the Maulers have gone 21-13 against righties, but only 4-10 against normal people... RAZ  is on a pace to steal 172 bases this season.  That would be the third time in eight seasons that it's stolen over 170.  The record is 199, by VBO in 2006... On the other side of the ledger, MAR is on pace to allow 189 SB's, which would be a record... And speaking of steals, MON needs a stop light:  they've stolen 39 bases, but been caught 28 times, a paltry .582 success percent... WES's meager success to this point  -- despite an offense which features only one player hitting above .268, and having been outscored by 15 runs on the season, they're two games over .500 -- is attributable to its bullpen.  Their bullpen ERA is a league-leading 2.37, and they've blown only two saves in 23 chances, also a league best.

Studs... LIT's Aramis Ramirez (.360/.428/.545); MAR's Ryan Theriot (.423 BA in 71 AB's) and Daniel Murphy (6 HR's, as many as he actually hit all last season); MON's Craig Kimbrel (0.89 ERA, 17 saves in 17 chances) and Brandon Beachy (5-1, 1.90); RAZ's Corey Hart (1.011 OPS, 12 HR's); WES's Mike Leake (5-1, 1.87).

and Duds... WAC's Matt Kemp, (.235/.330/.464, OPS .190 points less than real life);  CRP's Ubaldo Jimenez (2-4, 6.33); MMM's Jonathan Niese (2-6, 6.64); WAC's Rickie Weeks (.191/.311/.322); WES's Randy Wolf (2-6, 5.76).