Father and son are currently battling for first place, as the Brewmasters and ass cheek! are both carrying point totals of at least 185. Following the Jenkins duo are the Natty's, Gay Rum, and the Utley's.
The Brewmasters are led by their dominant pitching staff. Doc Halladay, Jon Lester, Jair Jurrjens, and Cole Hamels are starting, while Joe Nathan and Ryan Franklin are closing their wins. Offensively, Kurt Suzuki, Gordon Beckham, Andre Ethier, and Kevin Youkilis continue to carry an improving batting order. The Brewmasters also just made a DL swap, placing David Wright on the injured list and getting Torii Hunter back.
Inject in ass cheek! is a unique team. Bret seems to always will his teams to victory, while carrying nothing more than a bunch of awful relief pitchers an overstock of average hitters. Meanwhile, he works the waiver wire daily, picking out the "least crappy" starting pitcher available, who is pitching against the Royals. Offensively, his team has been led by Derrek Lee, Shane Victorino, and Ryan Theriot. He is also carrying the "slumping" Manny Ramirez. Ass cheek! can gain the most points in the ERA and WHIP categories, not surprising based on his strategy of using bad pitching.
Rick Cummings and his Nasty Natty's are putting together quite the nappy season. Rising stars, Kendry Morales, Denard Span, Justin Upton, and Mark Reynolds appear to be carrying this squad. His pitching staff has some quality arms, like Josh Beckett and Justin Verlander. Unfortunately, the Natty's are way over pace in IP, and will see a drop in their counting stats over the last month. The Natty's have also played hurt this year, losing both Carlos Beltran and Daisuke to injuries.
Mount Gay Rum has had a great season. He even held first place for a while in mid-summer. His team is led by super-stud Albert Pujols, and his partners in the infield, Michael Young, Chone Figgins, and Jason Bartlett. On the mound, he's put together a very solid group of unsung relief pitchers to follow the starts of Johan Santana, Jered Weaver, and the surprising Edwin Jackson. Gay Rum is not going away, and should stay in contention throughout September.
Kris Gross' Bumpin' Utley's squad is led by, you guessed it, second baseman,.... Chris Coghlan. The pressure that would have been on Chase Utley to play for a team that was named after him would have been too much to handle anyway. Utley is actually on the team that is named after a shortstop, go figure. Bumpin has what looks like the most stacked offense in the league, carrying studs at almost every position. Their starting pitching is led by the 1-2 punch of Felix Hernandez and Chris Carpenter. The problem is a relief corps that has only recorded five saves all year, and Kris has had trouble finding a third of fourth starter that he can count on.There are a few other teams that are still within striking distance, including the two-time defending champion Roughnecks and "Tradin" Josh Robbins' Honkbal squad.
