New Week, New Leader

Uh oh, another one bites the dust!

Sneaky little bastards! Those cloaked killers, the Abingdon Assassins, have sliced and diced their way into 1st Place, cutting down all who oppose them in the process. Dougie Fresh's boys have put a disappointing 2007 season behind them and are making a statement that this year they'll be a team to be reckoned with.

Three weeks into the season and we've had 3 different teams leading the pack. This has all the early earmarks of a very wild year in HARL country.

To be honest, I can see more lead changes in the rotisserie crystal ball which I keep hidden in a secret chamber deep within the bowels of HARL Central. Why do I say that?

Well, for starters, just look at the Week #3 HARL standings:

While the Assassins and Mudhens have gotten off to fast starts, there are a whole bunch of teams huddled tightly together in the 70-point band. It would only take a hot week or two for the 9th place Brewskis to vault themselves all the way up to 3rd place. Things may settle down a bit standings-wise in another 2-3 weeks, but right now, things are in a huge state of flux. Everyone is still legitimately in the race, although the Lemmings and Rhinos need to bounce back soon because they're off to a sucky start.

I honestly can't recall the last time I found my beloved Sevy Rhinos in last place. I'm sure that the rest of you are cheering. I mean really, who doesn't want to beat the hell out of the team with the most HARL championships to its credit? But guys, I'm not giving up! I actually like my team this year. But jeez, the combination of poor starts from several key players (Francis, Gorzelanny, and Valverde on the pitching side, and Weeks, Beltran, and Andruw Jones on the hitting side), and some injuries woes (J-Roll, Matsui, Wigginton, zero stats from my 2nd Catcher for 3 weeks, and a back-half of the rotation that's been DL bound for a good chunk of the early season), and you have a recipe for a crap start. The horned ones really need to right the pitching ship, because 18 points just ain't gonna cut it.

Another thing that I find fascinating about the teams so far, is the great imbalance between batting and pitching points for most teams. The Gamblers and Grillers seem nicely balanced in the early going. The Maygamers, while tilted towards the offensive side of the ledger, are not grossly imbalanced. But every other HARL team has a difference of 14 or more points between its Batting and Pitching numbers. That can only mean two things: (1) lots of free agent action, and (2) much more trading activity to remedy these weaknesses. At least that seems logical. Whether our more conservative owners actually pull the trigger on deals or not remains to be seen.

All I know is there ain't no way in Hell that I'm finishing dead LAST! And you can suck that down, monkey boy!