Sorry about the whole "not doing this last week" thing. I'm surprised people care that much. There's a new Fact or Fiction this week (responses from Mikey Moroco, Pat Lackey, Nate Tomko, and myself), and hey, the Style Ponits standings are back! Enjoy.

1. Hot Fuzz, despite its recent free-fall, will retain the top overall seed that it currently has.

Mikey: close fact. with only three weeks remaining in the season, hot fuzz has a very tough schedule (two against the wiggles, one against a possible dream team jukebox, one against the upcoming seagulls [with jon and hammy, this team looks a lot better than it did earlier this year], and a must win against kathleen turner). if hot fuzz can win their final matchup with kto this week, they will have a 2 to 1 matchup win over the second place team. if the fuzz can go 2-0 this week and also pull one out against the wiggles, they will be up 2-0 against the wiggles, claiming a matchup win over the top 4 teams (nhh as well). their postseason can be heavily altered by the way they perform this week, and as of right now, i don't think dave matthews band is in town so it looks as if hot fuzz should have their full lineup.

Pat: Fact. They're the most talented team in the league. They got a bit bored mid-season, but they'll play well enough to keep the top seed.

Nate: Fiction. i picked kathleen turner overdrive at the beginning of the season to win the national conference, and by god i'm sticking with that prediction. Fuzz is better than i expected, i'll give them that, but the last few weeks are a little more actual hot fuzz than those undefeated first five. how many times did they squeak out a narrow win on that mildy impressive win streak? it was only a matter of time until they started losing those low scoring one-runners. they're a .500 squad masquerading as contenders. KTO, meanwhile, has been consistent all year, and i fully expect them to win 4 of their last six and slide past the fuzz. besides, hot fuzz has to play the sparkling wiggles two more times...guaranteed losses.

Ben: Fact, as much as I hate to say it. And this is almost for the same reason Nate said fiction. I picked Hot Fuzz to win the National Conference 3 months ago and I'm not going to change it now. I also say this hoping that my prediction turns out to be right. That way, when the Nappy Headed Ho's plow through the playoffs and into the finals, we can beat Hot Fuzz and become the first team to beat the top seed in the finals since this playoff format started. I can humiliate Bryan Frankovich yet again!

2. The current playoff format of previous years has included too many teams and the SBL should contract for this postseason.

Mikey: fiction. coming from me, it would be hypocritical for me to deny the fact that 3 out of the 4 teams i have made it to the finals with (weenises strike back, hoosier daddy, & tots) were ranked either fifth or sixth, coming into the post season. i think the sbl bigwigs have finally mastered the playoff format for the sbl, with a more king of the hill type approach, rather than an equal bracket feature. This year may easily be the year with the least amount of parity, making the format either more or less appealing/controversial than in years past, but in theory the format still makes the most sense. like in baseball, it seems as if the teams in the lower echelon have a habit of going off in the playoffs - beating teams they just frankly shouldn't. this makes the playoffs a hell of a lot more fun to watch, in my opinion. however, i still do believe that the best team in the regular season should have a better chance than the other teams. the current format does exactly that. i don't need to explain it, if you don't know what it is - look it up. but i think it's the best possible format, combining fairness and making baseketball fun to watch. and if you decided that you would play shitty in the regular season just to surprise people in the playoffs, it makes it a pretty shitty uphill climb, but definitely not an unattainable one (tsunami '06, won they play in game and defeated both the 2 and 4 seeds to make it to the championship & tots '05, ranked 6th and defeated the 5, 3, and 2 seeds to go to the 'ship).

Pat: Fiction. Et tu Ben Smith? What about Bukakke Tsunami?!? If the playoffs were contracted, the Tsunami would've never made the playoffs and the league would have been deprived of much fun. The more the merrier I say.

Nate: Fiction. i think the playoff format is perfect right now. every team gets a shot, meaning everyone gets to play another week or so, and we reward the best regular season teams with an easier route to the finals. the best overall record gets the automatic finals berth, meaning the best team gets to play for the left eye and prevents any of those putrid weenises/transexual heartbreaker finals. the next best two teams (conference champ and 2nd best record) get byes through the first round and only have to win 2 playoff series to make it to the finals versus three series for the worst 4 squads. if one of the sbl's lesser teams does manage to get to the championships, they'll have earned it, but will only be rewarded with a date against the league's best team.

Ben: Fiction. And I didn't mean to give anyone like Pat Lackey the wrong idea on this one. The format was put in place to protect the team with the best regular season, and it has done just that. In the end the teams who deserve to win have won, the championship that is, so I can't complain. Plus, it is a little more exciting to do the postseason this way. Cinderella stories make the NCAA tournament more interesting. The same holds true for cinderella stories in the SBL. Maybe one day that underdog can pull the upset in the finals. God, I hope that's us beating Hot Fuzz.

3. The Screamin' Seagulls (3 of 4), Nappy Headed Ho's (4 in a row), and the Sparkling Wiggles (5 of 6) will all continue their winning ways in the weeks to come.

Mikey: fact. fiction. faction. the seagulls recent run makes the most sense - their team doesn't suck as much. terry has another teammate on defense that get his feet off the ground (jon o), not to mention is an actual defensive threat. jon, as well as the addition of terrence wareham, makes this team an actual force. as for the hos, it seems as if they've been catching some breaks: defeating kto with only 7 runs, playing jukebox, and playing pj & the ladies come to mind. they are a good team, no doubt, though i don't believe as good as their 9-5 record suggest (especially since they are 3-4 against the national [read: non shitty] division). the wiggles are a very good team, nate has his new shelly goodpastor (now with defense!) in katie kelly, who decided that she was tired of being called the middle single queen and has stepped back once or twice a game. what will depend on the wiggles winning the next few games (as they play the top three teams in the next four), is how pat lackey will play. if he shows up with his game face on, they are very very able to stealing the top spot come season's end.

Pat: Both. I don't feel like checking the schedules to see who's likely to stay hot and who's not, but all three teams have premier talent. The problem is simply that there are only so many teams in the league. Someone has to lose to someone. All three can't stay this hot.

Nate: Fiction. considering they all play each other a handful of times in the coming weeks, it's gonna be tricky for all of the to continue their winning ways. the screamin' seagulls are vastly improving, but need a couple more undefeated weeks for anyone to seriously put them among the sbl's best. i don't see that happening, they'll probably lose one to KTO this week, then to the wiggles next week. the ho's kind of remind me of early season hot fuzz- they just keep catching teams playing their worst and are doing just enough to win. like hot fuzz, their luck is gonna run out. as for my wiggles, we probably have the toughest schedule remaining, with a pair against hot fuzz, one against KTO, and one apiece against the other two "hot" teams listed above. i actually don't forsee anyone keeping a hot streak going right now, and that's what i love about the sbl's crunch time.

Ben: Fiction. Obviously, you cannot say for certain that three teams will continue to play hot, although it is possible with these three since there are only two head to head contests left between them. The point of me asking this question was to see which team(s) can keep winning. As for that, the Nappy Headed Ho's may have the easiest path since they play only two more games against teams with winning records, although they haven't been playing their best. The Sparkling Wiggles have the toughest schedule, but have played the best as of late. The Screamin' Seagulls have stepped it up, owning a Week 7 victory over the Wiggles, but I'm not convinced that they can keep the ball rolling. This week's Sparkling Wiggles/Nappy Headed Ho's game is key, as the victors of this one stand the best chance of continuing any sort of hot streak.

4. Because Gavin St. John has missed his last four games (Vagititis, aka girlfriend stuff), Tony Mastrian has leaped ahead of him in the Rookie of the Year race.

Mikey: fiction. let's face it, tony mastrian has played like crap in the past couple of weeks. not to mention that he's missed a couple games himself (sickness one week). this was his big chance to put up even decent numbers and steal a lot of votes, and he failed to do so. to me, this says a lot.

Pat: Fiction. Gavin missing the last four games and seeing Hot Fuzz drop three of four without him has made it pretty clear just how good he's been this year. But then again, yeah, if he skips next week for another N-Sync concert or whatever, he's totally out.

Nate: Fiction. i wouldn't say tony has leapt ahead of gavin, but i will concede that he's pulled even. and honestly, with gavin being on frankovich's team PLUS having missed a week to go to a john 'friggin mayer concert, even with tony isn't gonna be enough for him to hoist a rookie of the year award- gavin has to beat tony. and the two horse race actually has a third horse in it, as bob spohn is just an inch or so behind the leaders and rapidly gaining, as he's actually come the last two weeks. peep these stats:
-9GP, 5HR, .380AVG, 28 RBI, 0AST, 6DP
-11GP, 5HR, .354AVG, 18RBI, 1AST, 7DP
-9GP, 2HR, .487 AVG, 26RBI, 0AST, 5DP
without any names attatched, this one is a toss up. do you award the played who's shown up the most and played the best defensively, do you award the best batting average, or do you go with the highest rbi total? let's just hope the next three weeks give us a little more seperation.
and by the way, tony was the first one, bob the second and gavin the third.

Ben: Fact. Although the .380 average is a little alarming, I would guess that if we were voting for the Rookie of the Year right now that Tony Mastrian would finish ahead of Gavin St. John. What I didn't think about until reading Nate's response was the emergence of Bob Spohn. He's almost come out of nowhere to pull nearly neck and neck to make this a three horse race...simply by showing up. While it's doubtful that he would finish anywhere other than third in the voting as of this moment, he has certainly made this race interesting and will keep Gavin and Tony on their toes.

5. An SBL player will cost his or her team a contest by the end of the season in an effort to obtain style points.

Mikey: fiction. i hope not, those things are getting dumb.

Pat: Fiction. I don't honestly know what SBLer thinks about style points during the game. They're fun to joke about from the sidelines or after you do something cool, but I don't know if anyone consciously thinks, "Man, I gotta make this double play look cool so I can get some style points." Of course, I'm pretty sure I'm last in the league in style points, so maybe that's just me being really bitter.

Nate: Fact. in fact, i'd bet my meager salary it's already happened. first off, let me start by saying that the totally objective style point system isn't one of my favorite things in the league. i believe at last check i was something like 34th in the league in style points... 34th! behind rando! seriously, has anyone ever actually stood me and rando side by side? i've got style oozing out of every orifice, i wipe my ass with style, i open jars of pickles with style, i kill kittens with style, and slick was my favorite wrestling manager ever. and i know i play baseketball with style. and who judges style in the sbl? possibly the only two people on earth with less style than big rando in kip and ben smith. pfft. (Sounds like Pat's not the only one who's bitter) anyway, we've already discussed how style points have ruined the solo homer. i can recall a number of times this season when someone launched a solo homer down by 6 to lead off an inning, only to be revered a god by style point rewarders the world over. down by 6 is not much of a defecit in this league nowadays, and the way to overcome that hole is certainly not to heave up solo homers til the cows come home. but i guess the question was will it happen again by the end of the season, and hell yea it will. and someone may even break a leg trying to get style points.

Ben: Fact. I'm sure it's already happened this season, deliberately or not, and will likely happen again. Not to say the SBL is entirely a "me first" league, but there is no shortage of selfish play. Your best bet to see it is in Week 10, when a team plans a meaningless game, or anytime Jukebox Hero or PJ & the Ladies take the court.

To go a little off the topic, style points have become a much bigger deal than I anticipated. Just chill, people. Some people love them, others do not. My feeling is that maybe we're going a bit too far here. They were just supposed to be something to laugh about on the sidelines as we drink beers between games, but let's not forget that this is supposed to be about having fun. The whole league is about having fun. Let's not get too serious about these types of things. I almost decided to quit keeping track of them altogether, as it's becoming almost more trouble than what it's worth. I'm sticking it out (as well as this column), just because it would be nice to see someone other than Nate and Kip keep up with something around here for a change. And who knows, maybe I'll change my mind. And no Nate, you're not that far down the style points standings. Quit your bitching.

6. Jukebox Hero will pass PJ & the Ladies in the standings by season's end, marking the first time Jukebox has finished anywhere other than last.

Mikey: fiction. pj & the ladies have a lot of tough games ahead of them. they are very capable of beating any team (after the 31-30 hot fuzz game a couple weeks ago, this is apparent). it's whether or not they decide if trying hard to win is really worth it. jukebox has a game against hot fuzz left on the schedule, so that's a win - unless mac, terry and nate are all having an off week. i say 7 is the magic number, so each should look to win one a week for the rest of the season for the last spot.

Pat: Fiction. When Dennis, Billy, and Rando all show up to play, PJ&L can beat anyone and they've proven that. Maybe they don't all show up to play all the time, but get passed by Jukebox? I don't think so.

Nate: ouch. ummm...... i'm gonna go Fiction on this one, but i would not be suprised in any way if it turns out to be fact. billy, rando and dennis are all good players, and at least two of them are having all-star calibur seasons. i can't imagine them not getting a few more wins over these final three weeks with the thought of being left out of the postseason hanging over them. jukebox will likely only get one more victory, probably when they play hot fuzz next week, but that's not gonna be enough.

Ben: Fiction. It is an interesting possibility to think about, though. Jukebox has no less than 3 games left against teams whom Nate's Sparkling Wiggles are looking up at in the standings, leaving the possibility of 3 stacked teams. They also have a game left against the Screamin' Seagulls, who are within striking distance of the Wiggles. PJ & the Ladies have two games left against the Nappy Headed Ho's, one against Hot Fuzz, and another against the suddenly good Seagulls. Their work is cut out for them. While I can't bring myself to say fact here, if it does indeed turn out to be that way, one could easily guess who will suit up in the yellow mesh alongside Lenny in the postseason.

7. Team Double Stuff is a true darkhorse candidate to go deep into the playoffs.

Mikey: fiction. the sbl playoffs are about one thing: consistency. no offense to my main doods dj bidd, bmf whitey, and dank, but consistency is the one thing this team is missing. they definitely have the talent to beat any team in the sbl on any given day, bubt to do so game after game seems like a stretch.

Pat: Fact, with an if. If Biddle, Dank, and Whitey all show up for the playoffs, this has to be a team no one wants to see. With Aryn setting the table, they're really a force to be reckoned with. The smoking trio showing up is a big if, though. And someone has to hit the big shot for them in the playoffs, but as a darkhorse? Yeah, I could seem them pulling a Bukakke Tsunami or a Weenis' Strike Back type run to the finals.

Nate: Fiction. this team lacks consistency. their lineup features a revolving door of players who one week struggle to show up at all forcing the sparkling wiggle's captain to suit up in black and pink, then the next week everyone shows up and nobody on the team plays more than 3 innings a game. besides the ever-changing lineup, the only consistent offensive threat on this team is aryn christman, and even she isn't playing all that christman-like this season. does this team, with a potential rookie of the year, a former rookie of the year, a potential most improved player, and a trio of former all-stars have the talent to push deep into the playoffs? without a doubt. are they a true darkhorse candidate? not until they start showing up and putting the biscuit in the basket. do i like answering my own questions? indeed!

Ben: Fact. Let's not discount a lineup of Aryn Christman, Bob Spohn, and Jamie Fabian. With all this talk about them not having a chance without the Biddle/Ben/Dank trio, few are appreciating the effort that the other three members of this team of putting forth. Besides, I could probably count on one hand how many of you thought TOTS or Bukkake Tsunami would advance far (especially the Tsunami). TOTS would defeat Double Stuff with no trouble, but a Tsunami/Double Stuff series would be competitive. Any team can beat any other on any given day in the SBL. Since we're only playing a best of three series and not best of five or seven, you almost have to consider any team who makes the playlffs a darkhorse.

Style Points Standings (through Week Seven):
1. Terry Hall..............12
2. Dennis Lackey.......10
3. Billy Weisberg.........9
4t. Matt McClelland.....7
4t. Nate Tomko............7
4t. Rando Knight...........7

I swear I'll do another column next week...

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