As the marathon season starts to enter its final push to the playoff finish line, teams have begun to separate and shift into position. The trade deadline passed with several teams making tweaks to the roster, but massive shifts in Mega City and Ohio, with Mega City waiving the white towel and trading off key assets just two months after adding players for the playoff push. Disappointment abounds for the Gimps as it spent all year under-performing and living up to its nickname. Ohio started to fall off the pace, 7 games back of division leading Bellagio, so pushed more chips in to build a stronger playoff competitor.

While it’s still to early as to final seedings, the proverbial “if the playoffs started today” barroom banter is getting close enough for teams to consider opponents and look to make a push for seeding improvement or final playoff positioning.

What we know:

1. Ancaster in the National League with its 17-game lead over San Francisco is all but assured the National Conference Championship, promotion to the Premiere Conference next year and the #7 seed in the playoffs.
2. With Galesburg running out of steam and falling off the pace, and Space City never living up to early-season predictions, the National Play-In Tourney has started to take shape, with some version of SF, Wausau, fading Tuscany and surprising Montana the likely combatants. Space City is only 7 back of Montana and has a chance to finally get hot to get into the tournament. The winner of this four game battle will earn promotion and the 8th seed in the playoffs.
3. In the fight for top seed, Shoreline and Bellagio have started to separate, but not enough to be uncatchable by the rest of the Peloton. Arizona lurks 4 back of Bellagio, 6 back of Shoreline. Just behind Arizona is Merrimack, Cannon’s and Ohio to establish the top six playoff teams. Northwoods is 6 back of Ohio with an outside chance of breaking into the big dance.
4. Northwest is 6 games back of Hawaii if it hopes to get out of the cellar and avoid relegation. Hebron is only two back of Hawaii and can still avoid relegation with a strong push. Wheeling and Mega City, seem fairly certain to miss the playoffs, but avoid relegation.

Still plenty of ball to play, so without further chatter, let’s … Play Ball!