UPDATE

I thought I would lay out some things through 60 games this season.  Just a reminder that the trading deadline is one week from today...Thursday July 4 @ 6:00 PM.

Here are the playoff standings as of now:


1.  WHAMMY!  (43-17)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  - 2nd, -7th]
My team didn't start off too well as far as point totals go, but I kept lucking out with wins.  My feeling was that the past two years, I finished 7th in a 6 team playoff field with very solid teams on paper, so the fantasy Gods were smiling on me this year.  Lately though, my team has been on absolute fire, and if not for a last minute Saltalamacchia for Arencibia substitution a week or so ago to play a guy I knew was playing, I'd be on a 15 game winning streak right now.  The funnest part for me (besides the winning) has been that my lineup from game to game is completely different.   TEAM MVP:  DETROIT SP

2.  MILLER GENUINE DRAFT  (35-25)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  + 12th]
Tom has had some bad luck this year with multiple injuries to key players such as Jose Reyes, Curtis Granderson, and Mark Teixeira.  However he's scored a lot of points and sits in first place as of now in the Blatz Division.  The reasons?  Chris Davis, Jean Segura, and Carlos Gomez to name a few.  The question will be if Tom decides to stand pat  TEAM MVP:  CHRIS DAVIS

3.  THE DIRTY BURGER  (34-26)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  AS IS]
Andy's rookie year in fantasy baseball has gone quite well.  No other team in the Schlitz Division is over .500 as of now, and Andy seems to be in the driver's seat for a top three seed.  Now, will he take the next step?  The opposite of my team, Andy's lineup never changes unless absolutely necessary.  Will he coast in to the playoffs and start being more active when the stakes are higher?  Will he make any kind of trade to shore up his team?  My 'guess' is no.  We'll see.  TEAM MVP:  PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT

4.  THE BIG BAD MOUSE  (38-22)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  -9th]
It's hard to say that Bill is the unlucky one in the league this year with another annual career year out of nowhere from Domonic Brown, but he does have the highest scoring team in the leauge (right now anyway) and the second best record in the league, but sits five games behind me in the Pabst Division.  To his credit, keeping Edwin Encarnacion has worked out, and Miguel Cabrera is possibly the best player in fantasy baseball.  My guess is Bill is waiting around until the very last minute to pull off a trade or two to enhance his chances for a second straight title.  TEAM MVP:  EDWIN ENCARNACION  (the most consistent of the trio that also includes Brown and Cabrera).

5.  RIZZ MOPPERS  (34-26)    [NET Draft picks for 2014:  AS IS]
Just a couple/few weeks ago Chris was on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs go and his team was on a downward spiral hovering around .500 after a nice start to the season.  But he's won 10 of his last 13 games and has separated himself from a couple other teams that were lumped in with him around the 6-8 seed.  Chris' biggest asset going forward may be his remaining schedule.  I've looked ahead for whatever reason, and found that he's got the unofficial easiest rest of the way as far as opponents go.  Are there any trades out there to solidify his lineup?  TEAM MVP:   CARLOS BELTRAN

6.  GIN AND JEWCED  (32-28)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  -3rd, -4th, -7th, -11th]
On paper it would seem Tim probably boasts the best lineup, but lately his boys have struggled to score points.  Ryan Braun is gone, which probably won't be a bad thing fantasy wise when it's all said and done, but Andrew McCutchen is no Braun production wise.  It'd be foolish to consider the June 27th version of Tim's squad a finished product, given Tim's trading history.  But we'll see if there are any more tweaks made in the next week.  Could there be another late night Watering Hole meeting on the horizon?  TEAM MVP:  MIKE TROUT

7.  WARE'S MY LEG?  (29-31)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  + 3rd, +4th, + 7th, +15th, -12th]
Bare packed it in long ago to look forward to next year but here he was on Wednesday playing for a chance to get back to .500.  You have to love Bare's participation level even after unloading his key pieces, and I wouldn't bet against him maybe sneaking in to the playoffs.  As of now he's three games out of a wild card and maybe even a better route to the playoffs would be winning the division where's he's five back.  He's got the next five games against the bottom two teams in the league, and seven games left against Dongo including closing out the season with a four game set.  TEAM MVP:  Dare I say NATE SCHIERHOLTZ?

8.  FLIGHT 666  (28-32)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  AS IS]
Andy started off the season red hot, but has now entered his annual June swoon (his words) and finds himself fighting to stay out of the Schlitz Division cellar instead of fighting for the Schlitz Division lead as he was for the first quarter of the season. Just like Bare, Andy's by no means out of it, but he needs to get on a hot streak soon.  Justin Upton has really cooled off, and Adrian Gonzalez seems to have turned in to more of a singles hitter over the last couple years, but they're still very good.  The wild card of this bunch might be Starling Marte.  TEAM MVP:  JUSTIN UPTON

9.  JUNEBUG  (27-33)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  AS IS]
While as of right now, Bug is obviously not where he wants to be, he has had a pretty remarkable stretch to get back in this thing for all intents and purposes.  He's gone 20-16 over the last 36 to at least have a chance.  I don't know how many extra wins he left on the table by continuing to go with the Cubs starters over the Reds, but six weeks ago he was dead in the water, the inevitable farm team for big brother Bill at or before the deadline.  Now?  We'll see.  Bill tried to convince Bug to 'start over' and trade for picks including one of the prized players in all of baseball, Carlos Gonzalez, but Bug thought that was crazy...and rightfully so.  TEAM MVP:  CARLOS GONZALEZ

10.   BONES  (22-38)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  AS IS]
The other rookie in our league had all the chips stacked in his favor with the multiple draft picks Crary left him, and I for one thought Bones drafted pretty well, but it looks as though maybe having a bunch of good players instead of a couple more great ones didn't work out for Bones.  Bryce Harper's health hasn't helped much of course, and Yoenis Cespedes disappears and then explodes, disappears, and then explodes.  Being 10 games out of the playoffs with 40 to play, we'll see what direction Bones goes in the next week.  His participation level has been very good all year, but the luck hasn't been there so far.  TEAM MVP:  DAVID WRIGHT

11.  THE LEAPFROGS  (21-39)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  + 7th, + 11th, -4th, -15th]
You have to love Phil's enthusiasm as a couple weeks ago, he would have bet money that he'd be a factor in the playoffs before it was all said and done, and on paper his team is pretty solid. But injuries to Aaron Hill and Matt Kemp haven't helped any, and the explosions on Monday and Thursday from his guys have hurt his team (in his eyes) too.  For the record, three league members feel that their guys really do well on the off days, and the last text I got from Phil about this I let him know that Giancarlo Stanton had 2 homers and two more of my guys also homered.  You have to take in to consideration what other teams' players do on those days as well.  It all evens out with our 100 game schedule in the end.  Is there enough of a market left for Phil to turn some assets in to future success?  We will see.  TEAM MVP:  NELSON CRUZ

12.  JANESVILLE ASTROS  (17-43)  [NET Draft picks for 2014:  + 2nd, +4th, +9th]
It's safe to say that Nick has no shot this year, but at least he loaded up with some quality picks for next year.  He's also probably frustrated some owners with some series wins against would be playoff teams.  Gotta love the spoiler part of fantasy sports. Now the question is if he will still plan on keeping Starlin Castro to go along with Albert Pujols.  Castro has been god awful.  That's something to keep in mind for those that have chips to trade.  Possibly keeping them for an off season move to a keeper needy team might be a better play than trading them in the next week.  You'd be guaranteed to get a 7th round pick for them....just something to chew on:  TEAM MVP:  ALBERT PUJOLS