All 3,079 final - 1 week down (f)

Well after a week of the M v H final, it is still all to play for - I am ahead 7-6*, but have very little confidence that this will hold up through the final week of the season. To show how close our game is, we went into today with the score at 7-6, and while we are still there, the lead in 4 categories changed completely!

As has been the case all year in a head to head league you need a bit of luck - and in the final week you also have to cope with the effects of teams whose seasons are effectively finished resting key players to try out young guys for next year, or those teams with seasons are now shaped by the need to get players ready for rather more important games starting next week.

Both of us have more players in the former category, but the biggest problem for me is the end of season form of two guys who have carried me pretty much all season - Dan Uggla (an in-season pick up after another finalist... no names required... dropped him!) and Miguel Cabrera - who have combined to go 6/50 with 1 RBI and 2 errors over the last week. Cabrera reportedly has a sore shoulder which will likely impact him in the second week, while with Uggla, it may simply be the season has lasted a couple of weeks too many.

While this is a H2H league, the keeper element, and particulalry our minor league keepers, makes things more interesting, In a straightforward H2H you can start to dump players as these end of season effects become apparent, particulary as pitchers make their last starts of the season over the next couple of days - if you look at the FA list in our league, there are a number of names that you would snap up in an instant, but pretty much are all young guys that are minor league owned.

Given how close the BA / OPS and ERA / WHIP categories are, taking a chance on a spot starter, or a position pick up at this stage carries as much risk as it does reward... game (still!) on...

* For some reason Yahoo's StatTracker doesn't update one of our scoring categories (errors) live, so 7-6 could change if our teams have continued their defensive frailties...