I gotta admit, having teams on auto-pilot causing all kinds of problems with overused players, etc. is pretty annoying. In an effort to change this, I thought I'd mention two really interesting teams currently available in my real-time league, 2000RT1.

First, there's the Paineville Tonks. For an unmanaged team, they've had a pretty good year and they have a great chance of making the playoffs. With 30 games left to play they have a 6 game lead in their division and the fourth-best record in the Senior Circuit. And with the one-two punch of Roger Clemens and Kevin Brown, they could easily win a playoff series or two. Throw in Gary Sheffield, Jeremy Burnitz, Tony Womack, Scott Brosius, Torii Hunter, Damian Miller and Preston Wilson and you get a pretty solid team.

And if you like pitching, you gotta love the Plano Cats. I'm talkin' Curt Schilling, Roy Oswalt, John Lieber, Troy Percival, Tim Wakefield, Mike Timlin, John Thomson and Paxton Crawford. Now that's a staff! Their offence is hardly worth mentioning -- their best position player is named Giambi, and it ain't Jason -- but with pitchers like that and great draft picks coming up next year you could easily swing a few deals and build a capable offence.

I know the commish occasionally hypes the most interesting teams available but I don't remember him mentioning either of these lately. I can't believe these squads are being allowed to just sit there idle. Grab 'em while you have the chance.

- Erle "sick of waiting 'til Tuesday for game results" Mundle (Vancouver Vampires,2000RT1)