As we stride towards Memorial Day, and that infamous first third of the season/first milepost designation.

But, like it or not, this is the logical time to seriously assess your teams, their position in the standings, and their realistic chances to be competing come the stretch run in August and September.

While I have two teams-my STATS squad trying to hit the .500 watermark, and my XFL team, languishing in 12th place, but looking like if my hitting and pitching could simply synch up for a couple of weeks they could jump to 8th, and quickly--my other squads, both AL only auction formats, could not be more different, and more the same.

They are the same in that both are built around two hitters: Carlos Pena and Magglio Ordonez. They are different in just about every other concievable way.

My CBS experts squad is at the bottom of the heap: 12th place. We have some saves there, but basically awful starting pitching, not enough speed, horrible average, and holes that Voyager could have shot through to get back to the present and maybe put them out of their misery.

The pitching problems center around the guy I anticipated as my #1, Kelvim Escobar.  And, as with most experts drafts, we selected our teams several weeks before the season began, and at the time Escobar looked like a solid pick. So much for that.

But, in that auction I was able to snag Pena for just $25, and Ordonez for $27, and I thought both those prices pretty reasonable for players I hoped would simply give me three-quarters of their 2007 stats at those prices.

The rest of the draft was lamentable, but, the thing that really kills that team is we can make daily transactions, and my brain simply is not geared for that. I do look at the trannies every day, but I only think in terms of adding or subtracting from my roster once a week.

Not that I am such an old dog that I cannot learn a new trick, but, I will need to train myself to think about this differently next year. For, this year, my team is too weak and far behind threaten much but the worst last place totals ever records.

But, in Tout AL, my team is flying high in second place at 88.5 points, just where I want them right now: in contention ,and playing hard, but not necessarily cruising which can happen when you are in first.

As noted, the Tout team is also formed around Pena and Mags, and that CBS auction was what gave me the idea of forming around them, as I thought they were indeed undervalued. Sure enough, in Tout, I got both for exactly the same prices, $25 and $27.

But, around them I managed to put Dustin McGowan (also on both squads), as well as James Shields and Joe Saunders as starters, and my middle infield of Dustin Pedroia, Michael Young, and Mark Ellis is just too good to ignore. Add in some actual consistancy from Milton Bradley, and you can see why this team is flying.

Best of all, over the next week I should get Eric Chavez and Jake Westbrook back from disabled-land, and hopefully all the gears will be working to keep me in the hunt the rest of the year.

It is funny how both squads, essentially looking at the same core could be so radically different in their results, but, this game always draws such a fine line between success and failure.

For now, all I can do is watch, pretty much amazed, hoping it continues. I hope you have teams in a similar position (to the Tout team, natch!).

Have a great Memorial Day. I hope my teams will too.