I agree with everything you just said, but that is a lot of "ifs." *nervous laugh* I look at it this way. A lot of us have felt they did a lot with smoke and mirrors in the first half. But the wins have kept on coming, so at some point maybe we need to realize that it isn't smoke and mirrors, and we might actually have a legit contender on our hands. Of course, they team has created a false sense of security in me before, and crushed those hopes, so there's always going to be a sense of trepidation. But if you would have told me back in April that this team would be sitting at 15 above .500 and 1 game out of 1st on Aug. 3, I'm not sure I would have believed it. I thought they were a playoff contender, but I figured it would be to sneak into that 2nd wild card. This has been terrific. I totally agree, which is why I get a kick out of it whenever somebody complains when Counsel/Stearns do something unconventional. Perhaps they are just getting lucky...perhaps not.