Hello, good-bye? Todd Walker got familiar with take offs and landings at the Eagle's Nest. The infielder was signed April 5, cut April 25, signed June 16, cut June 23, and finally brought back for good on July 31... The Endzone Animals lost two players from their protected list -- reliever Rafael Soriano, who was traded, and ineligible pitcher Mark Prior, who was cut after getting injured yet again... Other than the two ineligible prospects, the only player on the 30-man roster who hasn't seen any action this season is pitcher Sean Marshall, who has spent the year in the minors. Hank Blalock has been on the team since early July but had just one at-bat -- but that's enough to get him in the league record book as a member of the '07 Animals. 

Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta (3rd place, 93-69)
The Mighty Men are in the post-season for a fifth straight year and they return plenty of veterans with post-season experience. Thirteen of the players on the 30-man roster return from last year's team, which advanced to the second round. And two of the players who weren't here last year (Milton Bradley and Tony Graffanino) were members of the 2004 squad that was knocked out in a first-round upset. The Mites won the World Series in 2000 and still have three members of that team -- Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, who have been the heart and soul of the team since 1997, a year after the franchise was founded; and Ray Durham, who was with the team from '98 to '01 and returned last year. Those three, plus Jorge Posada, are the only remaining players who were with the team in its original home of Jerusalem; 12 players were with the team at some point during its five year stay in Stanhope.

That's why they call 'em 'keepers': The Mighty Men still have all 15 players from their protected list. They also have the first six players they selected in this year's draft (and eight of the first nine players selected, the only exception being prospect Kei Igawa)... Owner/GM David Landsman made just two trades this regular season -- B.J. Ryan and Woody Williams -- but wheeling and dealing has been one of the cornerstones of his franchise's success. Of the 15 players on their protected list, nine were initially acquired through trades -- Francisco Liriano (Las Vegas, '07), Brandon McCarthy (Vancouver, '07), Morgan Ensberg (Hillsborough, '06), Jonny Gomes (Las Vegas, '06), Bengie Molina (D.C., '06), Jorge Posada (Phoenix, '04), Brian Giles (Hoboken, '04), Mike Mussina (Hoboken, '04) and Todd Helton (Brooklyn, '01).

Honolulu Sharks (4th place, 86-76)
It's no surprise the Sharks are in the playoffs -- they've been here four out of the last five seasons -- until you remember they finished dead last in 2006, with a record of 58-104. In fact, Sharks GM Adam Kozubal won the Ian Rintel Award as the Front Office Executive of the Year after leading his team to the best turn-around in baseball. However, just eight of the 30 players on the roster were here at any point during the '03-'05 playoff run, including Jason Giambi, Jason Kendall, Miguel Tejada, Roy Oswalt and Jason Schmidt, who were here for all three post-season appearances. Johnny Damon was a member of the '04-'05 teams and  Kenny Rogers and Jermaine Dye were here only for '05... Dye actually was a founding member of the 1997 Sharks, playing just 3 games during the team's inaugural season (he went 2-for-9 with a home run). He then bounced around the minors for a couple seasons before resurfacing with Jerusalem in '00, helping to lead them to their first-ever World's Championship by hitting .284 (.856 OPS); the following season he was even better, hitting .331 (.937 OPS). But he faded almost as quickly as he had appeared, spending the next five seasons bouncing between the minors and the bigs. The Sharks re-signed him in 2005 but he had just 12 at-bats that year; last year he got to play nearly every day, despite hitting .229 with a .639 OPS, as the team was out of it anyway. But maybe seeing regular playing time in the DMBL helped get him back on track, as this year he put up big-time numbers and made his first-ever All-Star team... If you go by continuous service, the oldest-serving Sharks are Giambi and Kendall, who broke onto the scene together with the woeful 100-loss 1999 Sharks and never left.

The gang's all here: Manager Gary Carter didn't get much in the way of reinforcements -- 29 of the 30 players on the roster were here on Opening Day. The only exception is reliever Jose Valverde, signed in June as a free agent -- but he never was promoted from the farm team. And the player Valverde replaced wouldn't have been on the post-season roster anyway, as it was prospect Luke Hochevar, a second round pick in the Supplemental Draft. Signing one free agent all season counts as an active year for Kozubal -- he hasn't made an in-season roster move, other than injury pick-ups, since 2003.

Hoboken Cutters (5th place, 86-76)
The Cutters are back in the post-season for the first time since 2002. As expected from a four-year drought, there's not a lot of holdovers from that '02 team -- just Omar Vizquel, Jason Isringhausen and Jarrod Washburn. In fact, the Cutters have the fewest playoff veterans of any team in the post-season, and the handful they do have only had the tiniest sips of playoff champagne. Mike Cameron has the most experience on paper, having played with Vancouver in '98, Newark in '00, Vatican City in '01, Wanaque in '02, Tijuana in '04 and Arkansas in '05 -- but he was a full-time player only in 2001. The other years he was a short-term free agent signing or at best a bench player. More experienced leadership will come from Vizquel -- in addition to the Cutters in '02, the Viz also was a member of the '92 and '93 Golden Falcons, the '97 Sacramento Seahawks and the '04 Sugar Bears, winning two World Series rings along the way ('92 and '04). As for Washburn and Izzy, they pretty much can only draw from their experience with the '02 Cutters -- Izzy never made the post-season with another team, and Washburn was a member of the '00 Golden Falcons for all of two regular season games... The other post-season non-virgins are Bobby Kielty (Newark '04 and '06), Jon Garland (Stanhope '03), Darren Oliver (Austin '00), Juan Rincon (Philly '05) and David Riske (Vancouver '06), but all were seldom-used part-timers. Brandon Lyon was a key member of the '02 Iron Fist as a rookie starting pitcher, but is unlikely to make the Cutters' post-season roster. 

Maybe you didn't get the memo? Hey, they're called the Cutters for a reason: Hoboken cut two players from their 15-man protected list, veterans Mark Ellis and Damian Miller, as well as their 5th-round draft pick (Pat Burrell). The Cutters have the fewest players remaining from their keeper list/draft, with 22 (one fewer than D.C. and Philly). That obviously means they also have the most in-season pick-ups, with 8 -- five free agents and three trades. They acquired 1B/OF Greg Norton and RP Brandon League from South Boston for promising rookie pitcher Adam Wainwright, and also added Wes Littleton from Vancouver for an 8th Round pick. Among the free agent signings are two former Cutters: Aaron Rowand, who also was a member of the '05-'06 teams, and David Riske, a member of the '04 squad. Rowand is particularly a fan favorite -- the hard-nosed outfielder often makes highlight reel catches that involve dives into the wall, the tarp, or the stands.

D.C. Bushslappers (6th place, 81-81)
In just his second year at the helm, owner Jamie Landsman has transformed what had been the most inept franchise in league history into a playoff team. For 14 years, the Columbia Crusaders/Rattlesnakes never posted a winning record, let alone reached the post-season; Landsman bought the franchise in 2006, spent a year cleaning house, and has reached the promised land. And when we say clean house, we mean it: The only Bushslappers who played for the Crusaders/Rattlesnakes are Mark Buehrle ('02-'05), Luis Castillo ('02-'05), Joe Nathan ('04-'05) and Frank Thomas ('99-'01), and of those, only Nathan was "inherited" -- everyone else had at least one other stop in between Columbia and D.C. ... Even though they're a brand-new team built on the remnants of a franchise that never reached the post-season, Landsman made sure to go out and acquire playoff experience. Thomas went to the big dance six times as a member of the Golden Falcons from '92-'98 (and won three World Series rings along the way); Jeff Kent has been here five times, all with Vancouver ('00-'02, '05-'06), while Derek Lowe is a four-timer (Austin '00, Stanhope '03-'04, Las Vegas '06). The others with post-season experience are Kelvim Escobar (Vancouver '99, Hoboken '02); Castillo (Vatican City '01, Las Vegas '06), Mike Lamb ('Stanhope '03, Philly '05), Alfonso Soriano ('Stanhope '03-'04), Jason Varitek (Carolina '99, Hillsborough '03), Lyle Overbay (Vancouver '05), Trever Miller (Vancouver '05), Chris Ray (Marietta '06), Dan Wheeler (Marietta '06), and Buehrle (Vancouver '06). In addition, Derrek Lee is ineligible this year, but he was a member of the '06 Rat Pack; Matt Morris has been to the post-season five times, as a member of the '98 Iron Fist, '01 Cardinals, '02 Wolverines, '03 Destroyers and '06 Iron Fist, but has yet to throw a pitch for the Bushslappers this season and thus will likely be left off their playoff roster.

Welcome to the party, pal! It's understandable the Bushslappers would want to shed some of the dead weight after finishing second-to-last in 2006, but they have just 10 players who were on last year's team. How is that even possible? Well, they didn't sign or trade for any former Bushslappers, and added just one (Mark Buehrle) via the draft. They added three guys to the keeper list during the off-season -- Dan Wheeler, Derek Lowe and Luis Castillo -- so they weren't members of the '06 Bushslappers. And a fourth keeper was ineligible last year -- closer Jonathan Papelbon -- so he technically wasn't a member of the 2006 Bushslappers either. And two other guys from teh keeper list are no longer with the team -- ineligible prospect Andy Marte, who was released, and Matt Holliday, who was traded (along with prospect Alex Gordon and a first round pick) for Chris Ray, Ryan Zimmerman and ineligible first baseman Derrek Lee... Note that Buehrle's one year of experience with the Bushslappers was last year. The lefty was traded to the Iron Fist in the middle of last season, then re-acquired in the draft. Although he is eligible for the post-season, he hasn't pitched in the DMBL this season. Free agent pick-ups Shaun Marcum and Matt Morris also spent the entire year in the minors.