[Westheim]

Somehow, these posts keep getting longer and longer…

Raccoons (14-11) @ Loggers (12-12)

Things began … not good. Kinji Kan started game 1 with a first inning 2-run shot by Alvin Sutphen. Mark Dawson solo homered in the second, but the Raccoons were already behind. They led at one point, but that got away from Kan again and the game was tied 3-3 after six. Kan came to bat in the top 7th, and the pen was still overused, so he remained in and lobbed a hit to left. Herrera and Hall drew walks to bring up Workman with two down. He got a grounder just past 2B Stephen Hall to score Kan and Herrera. Kan was removed at the first sign of trouble in the bottom 7th, a 2-out, 4-pitch walk to Jose Aguilar. White surrendered an RBI double to Sutphen. 5-4 Raccoons after seven. The Coons added a run in the ninth, and Wally Gaston pitched a 4-out save with West tired. Herrera 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Dawson 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI;

Vancouver lost to the Indians and we took the top spot in the division, but half a game ahead of both of those teams. Teams refused to pitch to Daniel Hall as soon as a runner was in scoring position, but Mark Dawson was warming up. He was put back to the #4 spot, where he belonged with Workman into the #5. Also, Banda was not hitting enough to be #2 and was swapped with Walker, down to the #6 or #7, depending on the catcher and opposing pitcher.

Chris Powell had a good outing in game 2 – unrewarded AGAIN. Daniel Hall had gone yard in the first inning, 1-0 Raccoons, but the Loggers scored two in the bottom 1st. The second run was Banda’s fault, who threw the ball way past the catcher, who could have nailed the runner with a good throw. The Raccoons tied it in the top 7th, with Powell removed for Green to pinch hit – he drove in Banda with a single, 2-2. The Coons faced elimination in the 10th, were Soto put runners on the corners with one out. Wally Gaston came on and struck out SS Dan Payne, but the main prize was Sutphen, the Rookie of the Month, behind him. Gaston made him ground out, and the Coons won 3-2 in the 11th. Hall 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Sanchez 2-5, RBI; Green (PH) 1-2, RBI; this was the fifth win for Wally Gaston in relief this season, tying for the Continental League lead (the others are starters, of course). Chris Powell was winless…

Green was back in at third and Banda out – he was on for defense, didn’t provide it, and batted less than Green.

Logan Evans was injured in an on base collision in game 3 of the series after just driving in the tying run in the top 3rd. The Loggers went ahead again on an error by Cameron Green, who was becoming an annoyance. The Coons however came back in the seventh, when they stopped trying to hit John Douglas’ pitches, and started to try him find the strike zone. He pushed in runs with bases-loaded walks to Hall and Dawson. They led 5-2, but then Soto filled the bags with Loggers in the eighth. Where was my pen? Looking for the oxygen tent. Justin Neubauer got two BIG outs, the latter from righty slugger Marvin Mills. Raccoons won, 6-2. Herrera 2-6, RBI; Dawson 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Rigsby 3-4, BB, 3B; Gonzalez 2-2, BB, RBI;

The last game had Young against Anibal Guerra, who had been discovered and smuggled out of Cuba in 1979 and never had come to our attention so far. Erratic was the best word to describe him, but he had enough control to occasionally find the zone in the game. Young in turn was beaten and battered. Hadn’t three double plays bailed him out of crowded situations, he wouldn’t have made it through seven with only four runs against him. The abused pen was then battered for five more runs in the eighth. 9-3 Loggers. Workman 2-5, 2B;

Interlude – Free Agent signing

The Raccoons signed SP Vicente Ruíz late on May 3, after the 9-3 loss in Milwaukee. He was told to fly right to Pittsburgh. Quick briefing on him: he is 29 and Dominican. He was with Las Vegas for four years and with Sioux Falls for three, where he went 10-11 with a 4.29 ERA last year. His career record is 73-81 with a 3.95 ERA. He has never been with a winning team his whole career. I hang my hope on the fact that he was quite good in the CL with Las Vegas. Now with Logan Evans possibly injured and out, we needed a starter anyway and Ruíz original target (Ackerman’s spot) would have to be taken over by somebody at AAA.

He is a 4-pitch guy with a good slider and changeup and good control as well. He’s not here to build the Pyramids in a day, he’s here to go his six, seven innings without major damage.

He got a 1-yr, $120k contract. The only other reasonable option for a starter on the free agent market would have been Mark Copeland, 34, who had been blown up completely the last two years in Dallas and Topeka.

Raccoons (17-12) @ Miners (11-17)

So far, a very strong rotation with Leland Lewis, David Burke, and Ricardo Torres had not helped the Miners a bit, they sat at the bottom of the FL East.

The Raccoons had 13 pitchers on their roster for this series. New acquisition Ruíz got the ball instead of Ackerman for the first game, with the latter moved to the aching pen. Ruíz pitched a strong debut game and went 6.2 innings in a 7-3 win over the Miners. Ackerman pitched the last 2.1 innings. Herrera 2-5, 2B; Hall 3-5, 2B, RBI; Workman 3-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI;

But the Coons fell to the Miners the next day, 8-4, on awful pitching by Kinji Kan – again. He could not get anybody out, walked scored of people, and hit and injured catcher Carlos Soto with a pitch. The Coons were held short by Leland Lewis on one run through seven innings and only lived up against the bullpen, but of course it would have had to be a tough rally from 7-1 down. David Jones also had another terrible outing in relief in the eighth, forcing in a runner put on by Wally Gaston. By the way, Soto had a broken thumb, so Kan was not only hurting his own team … Herrera 2-5; Hall 2-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5, RBI; Rigsby 2-4, 2B;

Davis Rigsby was our new leadoff batter, since he was still over .300 at the plate. Walker moved back into the bottom third of the lineup. He was struggling, as was Matt Workman at that point. Mark Dawson was up to .235 after his catastrophic first two weeks.

We also got news that Logan Evans would be out for some longer: he had apparently twisted his thumb so badly in his collision in game 3 in Milwaukee that ligaments had been torn. He was out until the middle or end of June and would require a rehab start or two, so he would not come back until about the All Star break. As Evans went to the DL, this forced another roster move. His start had been the first back in Portland against Los Angeles, and there were only two sensible options for replacements at the AAA team. The one was Todd Raines, the other was Carlos Gonzalez. Both were putting up ERA’s around 2.50, but ultimately, it had to be Raines: he was already on the 40-man roster, and that roster was full. Raines was also rested and there was no pinch, he could take over Evans’ spot in the rotation. Welcome to the majors, Todd. No, no, you would have made them anyway, yeah.

Oh yeah, game 3. We should stop starting Cam Green in Chris Powell’s games. Rigsby started the game with a home run, and Green then blew that lead with a bad throw on Ricardo Torres’ sac bunt in the third. I’m gonna kill him. I’M GONNA KILL HIM.

Powell got ANOTHER no decision. The home run of the day was to Chris Scott for two, and Powell trailed 4-1 at one point, but overall had good control over the Miners, fanning seven. He went 7.1 innings and left down 4-3. Herrera had a leadoff single in the ninth. Hall grounded him to second, and he scored on a long single by Dawson, that left the latter on second due an error by the defenders. Up 5-4, West came in to close it, and did so with a K to Chris Scott as the final out. 5-4 Coons. Herrera 2-4; Hall 2-5; Workman 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Interlude: Player profile

Who is Todd Raines, the Raccoons’ next new starter?

Raines is 23, and was a round 2 pick in the 1979 draft by the Richmond Rebels. He is considered a good average pitcher with a strong curve that has the potential to devastate. Problems include an inability to keep the ball down. His groundball percentage is 47%, like Christopher Powell’s, and while not that many leave the yard, he has some control problems. OSA asserts him supreme stuff, but Nathan Bruce, my head scout, doesn’t.

He was traded by the Rebels only six months after the draft and was then with the Stars organization for two years. The Raccoons acquired him in November 1981 for 1B Hoyt Cook. He is one month removed from a 1-hitter in AAA ball, where he fanned 13.

Raccoons (19-13) vs. Pacifics (16-16)

Daniel Hall was a bit out of shape and got rest for the first game. German Serna played in left. Raines pitched – wow. Let’s just say Mark Dawson made a few plays in right that left NO doubts about his physical fitness. Raines hardly made it through six with a 3-3 tie. The Raccoons blew that one up in the bottom 8th. Green drove in two, and Walker homered out to center for a 7-3 lead. Soto pitched a perfect ninth. 7-3 Raccoons. Dawson 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; the Furballs had only seven hits in the game, but for once lived up to the sentence that you may only leave the table once your plate is empty.

The winning pitcher in that first game? Wally Gaston. He now had six wins – leading the major leagues! GO WALLY!!

We jumped on Bob Gaulton, who entered with a 7.84 ERA, early on in game 2, scoring five runs in three innings. Young was pushed to complete eight frames. He started quite well, and ended well, but in the middle had a complete lapse of command with three straight walks. We still completed a convincing win here, 7-2 Raccoons. Hall 0-1, 4 BB (ties a team record); Dawson 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Workman 2-5;

We completed our first sweep of the season the next day. Ruíz was mostly solid in this start, and had to be, because he only got two runs in support this time. He went seven innings of 1-run ball, the result of a walk and a hit batsman in the sixth, with one run coming across. 2-1 Coons! Herrera 3-4, BB; Green 2-4, 2B, RBI; Ruíz 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, WIN (2);

Raccoons (22-13) @ Indians (17-16)

This was potentially a big series here. The Indians had beaten us for our first series this year (2-1) and they had a much better team offensively. As had the Raccoons, somehow.

With our pen rested and ready again, we sent Justin Neubauer (no damage in 2.2 IP) back to AAA and recalled Edgardo Gonzalez for the infield.

Game 1 featured two pitchers, whose ERA’s added up to over 11 (not too unevenly distributed) and as I said improved offenses. No wonder the game was 1-0 through eight… (I should stop making statements) – Kinji Kan made his first strong start in … a very long time, going eight innings of shutout ball. The Raccoons put a 4-spot on the Indians in the ninth for a 5-0 lead and I gave him a shot at the shutout, but he walked the first batter and the next had a hit and Kan was removed. Soto surrendered a double to Michael Martin, 5-2, and suddenly we had a fire on the field and we had to break out Grant West to end that threat. 5-2 Coons. Hall 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5; Green 2-4;

Game 2 had Powell as the Coons starter, so there was no scoring from our team. Both teams had one run in the fourth, and in the seventh Powell surrendered a leadoff double and the runner came around to score. The offense didn’t see any land against the combo of Alonso and Booth and a 5-game winning streak was over. 2-1 Indians. We had only four hits. But no wonder. Christopher Powell had been the Coons starter. Powell: 8 starts, 0-2 record, 2.84 ERA … I’m going to kill those slackers sooner or later.

The Coons had four singles in the top 3rd of the rubber game – and didn’t score. Steve Walker was thrown out trying to steal second and the next three were not driven in by either Hall or Dawson. They were again held down by the Indians staff, and again lost the game, 2-1. Raines took the loss. Rigsby 4-4; Sanchez 2-4;

Raccoons (23-15) @ Titans (18-20)

First up in this important 4-game series (important, since a loss would get the Titans back into the fight for the division lead) was Bastyao Caixinha, the pitcher the Titans had taken from Las Vegas in the rule 5 draft. He had been blasted so far for an ERA of 7.94. He no-hit the Raccoons through three (which was bad enough), while Young gave up three in the bottom 3rd. But the Raccoons rebounded nicely from here. Hall singled up the middle to start a 4-spot in the top 4th. Young was again blasted in the bottom 4th and was yanked. David Jones gave up more in relief. The Raccoons managed to tie the game in the top 6th, 7-7. Scoring stopped there, suddenly, with the ineffective starters out of the game. But the Raccoons were just unable to score. They eventually lost in the 12th after wasting the complete pen (once again…) and West took the 8-7 loss in the 12th. It was the first major league loss for Grant West in his career. Rigsby 2-6, 2B, RBI; Workman 2-6, RBI; Green 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Walker 2-5;

We also lost Jerry Ackerman to injury in this game, sore hamstring, he was unavailable for a few days. In addition to that misery, we demoted David Jones and his 6.88 ERA. Something was wrong with the left-handed pitchers this year… we recalled Burton Taylor, who had not really improved his outings a lot in AAA with a 6.00 ERA…

Vicente Ruíz and the rest of the Raccoons were smothered the next day. Ruíz gave up seven runs in six innings in a 10-1 blowout, where nothing, really nothing, worked out for the team. They didn’t hit, they didn’t run, they didn’t field, and they certainly didn’t pitch …

I *desperately* needed a strong outing from Kinji Kan, since the pen was already aching again. Game 3 put him against solid Jose Garza (2-3, 4.02), while Kan fashioned a 5.54 ERA (yet with twice Garza’s wins). And Kan delivered, sort of. The Raccoons led 1-0 in the third when we cheated ourselves out of a run, when Herrera was thrown out stealing right before a triple by Hall. Who then was hung out to dry there and didn’t score either. Kan hung on to a 2-1 lead going into the bottom 8th, where he struck out Wen Zhan with one out – but the umpire ruled catcher’s interference on Sanchez and Zhan came around to score on a double and the game was tied and went to extra innings. Then the Titans walked off in the 10th. Gaston had walked three, and Grönholm planted a 2-out single into shallow right. 3-2 Titans. After five wins in a row now five losses in a row. Bad pitching plus slow offense: all of our main punch Hall, Dawson, and Workman were struggling at this point. Rigsby 2-5; Hall 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI;

The Furballs rallied for six runs in the top 1st of the last game of this horrible series. Christopher Powell came to bat before he ever climbed the mound, and now this was his to lose. And the first two outs were made at the fences minus five feet by Hall and Dawson, so it would not get boring in this game. Up 7-2 in the fourth, and striking out the side (3-4-5 Gonsales, Grönholm, Cabrera), Powell was still well on pace for his first W of the season. Then it started to rain. Bottom 7th, Raccoons up 8-3. Walker made an error with one down and the next batter also reached base. I went out to Powell, who was soaked wet on the mound. He wanted to go after Gonsales, but walked him. Jason White then came in. Bottom 7th, up 8-3, bases full, one out, and slugger Isto Grönholm to face Jason White. Single to right. Cabrera doubled to left. Cunningham came out. 8-6, two in scoring position, still one out.

Powell did not get that W. The tying run scored in the bottom 9th, with two out. On a wild pitch by Grant West. The runner had reached base on a Cameron Green error.

ON A CAMERON GREEN ERROR.

Raccoons won 9-8 in the 11th, RBI double by Dawson.

Raccoons (24-18) @ Aces (24-18)

The 1984 Aces: big steaming machine with lots of production, but the pitching staff was not necessarily awesome. They ranked 10th in runs allowed. Well, the Raccoons were 9th…

Todd Raines punched his ticket back to AAA (and possibly oblivion) with his outing in game 1 of the series. Two innings, six hits, six walks, seven runs. Raccoons shot down 10-6. The pitching is becoming more and more ridiculous every day. I don’t even know whom to call up! Hall 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Green 3-4, 2B;

I eventually went with Neubauer to return into the pen, and Ackerman took over his #5 spot in the rotation. With Young and Ruíz bumped up one spot. Not that either of them belonged in the #3 spot.

For a welcome change, Charles Young had a decent game the next day, going seven innings of 2-run ball. He took the win, 4-2, although Wally Gaston had to sort out his mess in the bottom 8th. The Raccoons twice showed no baserunning instincts, with Banda thrown out trying to stretch a double, and Walker thrown out trying to make a double that was not a double. Banda 3-4, 2B, RBI; Workman 2-4; Banda had gotten the start over the ice cold Herrera.

Rubber game. Daniel Hall socked a 2-run home run in the first inning, but those two runs got away from Ruíz immediately. New lead then in the third with a 3-run shot by Mark Dawson. Davis Rigsby and Hall added solo shots and still Ruíz hardly made it through five innings. The Furballs led 10-4 in the top 7th, but in the bottom 7th Gilberto Soto was taken deep twice for three runs, one homer was by Chris Lynch. The barrage continued with single runs scored by both teams in the eighth. Up 11-8 we brought in West for the bottom 9th, where the Aces continued to hit balls every which way, but West held on to 2/3 of the lead. 11-9 Raccoons. Rigsby 3-6, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Hall 2-4, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-5, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Green 2-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 3 – Salem’s Harry Beauman is out with a concussion for at least four months. The 36-yr old veteran batted .356 in 73 AB’s this season.
May 12 – The Thunder sign Ralph Hoyles to a 2-yr extension worth $1.3M. Hoyles is 125-74 with a 2.72 ERA for his career. But he is also 37, and 1-4 with a 4.82 ERA in eight starts this year…
May 14 – The Thunder beat the Condors 3-0, with Hunter Frazier (4-3, 4.33 ERA) tossing a 2-hitter.
May 20 – IND SS Gabe Taylor is out for at least a month with a strained groin muscle. He batted .325 in 114 AB’s so far.

Complaints and stuff

It’s hard to say so far if that team can make the playoffs this year. The pitching and fielding are so much out of whack… I hardly complain about the offense this year – because it has never been that productive. They are almost scoring FIVE runs a game (4.94 to be exact). Sadly, they also give up 4.8 runs a game.

Chris Lynch was chosen over Daniel Hall as Batter of the Month of April – I am insulted!! Since then, Hall’s production has collapsed. Dawson doesn’t hit for much, and Herrera is another failure.

Mark Dawson has signed an extension with the Portland Raccoons. He will make $2.46M over the next five years, which is not too much compared to some other guys out there.

In addition to that, Richard Cunningham signed a 3-yr, $420k contract. I wanted to sign him for at least five years, but he had nothing of it. He wanted one year at some $160k and we eventually settled somewhere in between. Cunningham would have been arbitration eligible for the first time this season. I consider this bargain, since it is only slightly over his arbitration estimate, and that should rise with more good performances. I wonder why he doesn’t have much of a fanbase here in Portland. Must be that hideous mustache of his.

We still have four free agents and at least six arbitration eligible players to care about.

Winston Thompson comes off the DL in time for the next installment here. Edgardo Gonzalez goes back to AAA.

One more stop in Charlotte on this dreadful road trip, then home series against the Bayhawks. We will then hit the road for Oklahoma City and New York.

Next: draft pool analysis.