[Westheim]

Originally Posted by edtheguy

SAITO!! The way 1995 ended for him I was beginning to wonder if we would see any more good seasons from Kisho (starting pitchers near the age of 35 make me twitch nervously...). I'm happy to see that in 1996 (so far) he has been the old (I mean young) Saito again!

Well, no. He is in fact getting old. His WHIP is 15 points higher than it was seven to eight years ago (about 1.20 compared to between 1.04 to 1.06 in his best seasons). The walks are up slightly, but mostly he has become more hittable due to losing the late movement on his fastball. It's not more home runs (he has given up only three so far this year), but more singles, which will also mount to many runs at some point. An example of this occurred in this update.

Mainly he is 5-2 because of the excellent run support he got so far (5.5 R/G), which makes up for the run support he lacked the last few years.

He is under contract through 1998. We will see how far it will take him.

Originally Posted by Orcin

Well, if we are going to get sentimental and start crying anyway, I just want to say that it has been two years now since I made post #4 in this thread. The Fur Balls saga has broken into the Top 25 in all-time number of views on the dynasty forum. Well done!

I wonder how many of those views are by me - whenever I am bored in the office I like to take a look at my roster.

But well, thank you, and the other guys who come in here now and then for a little pep talk when I am having my moods.

---

There were three more series against teams from the CL South on our platter, and to be exact these were the three westernmost division members, all of whom had winning records at this point. So let’s hop down the coast and see where this goes.

Raccoons (26-16) @ Bayhawks (23-22) – May 21-23, 1996

The Bayhawks had issues with their rotation, which ranked 11th in the CL, and their 217 runs surrendered were equally bad. The offense was about average, but the Raccoons’ offense had slowed down recently and we weren’t scoring seven runs a game anymore (still over five per game on the season, though). The really bad news were that we weren’t exactly facing any pushovers on the mound in this series…

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (3-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Charles Bywaters (6-1, 3.54 ERA)
Antonio Donis (5-1, 4.24 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (2-2, 3.73 ERA)
Kisho Saito (5-2, 3.43 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (6-2, 2.11 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – 3B Higgins – P Wade
SFB: 2B J. Gomez – 3B P. Hernandez – 1B Dean – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – CF A. Marquez – SS Powys – C J. Ortíz – P Bywaters

The Raccoons’ first hit was a 3-run triple by David Vinson in the first after Bywaters had walked three batters. Neither pitcher was very good in this start and both needed over 100 pitches through five innings, after which the Raccoons were up 6-3, and were playing minus Liam Wedemeyer, who had been ejected for arguing balls and strikes (mainly strikes). Wade was removed after 5.1 innings with a runner on third, who was held on by Andres Otero. Burnett and Martinez advanced the game to the ninth with no scoring in the meantime. Tzu-jao Ban faced the 2-3-4 batters, with the latter two being the first of four consecutive left-handers. Ban removed Hernandez and Dean in full counts, before Pedro Perez singled, but Jim Thompson popped out to short. 6-3 Raccoons. Reece 2-4, BB, 2B; Green 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Vinson 3-4, 3B, 2 2B, 4 RBI;

David Vinson was really the player of this game. He has been much chastised for many things in recent years, but he is extremely hot at this point. He is fourth in OPS in the league at this point (with Green 2nd and Kinnear 5th), and he is controlling the stealing game this year, going 11/27 so far, and he threw out both runners that attempted to take second base in this game.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – LF Kinnear – SS Ingall – P Donis
SFB: RF S. Adams – C J. Ortíz – 3B P. Hernandez – LF P. Perez – SS Powys – 2B J. Gomez – CF J. Thompson – 1B Chen – P Chapa

No pitching, all offense again in this game. The Raccoons stormed out to a 3-0 lead again in the first inning, with Wedemeyer going deep for the first two runs. Both teams scored two in the second, and two in the fourth, as Chapa was knocked out early, and Donis barely managed to limp through five. Donis was wild, wilder, the wildest thing around in this game, walking four and going to at least two balls on almost everybody. We needed two innings from somebody here, and De La Rosa was destined for these things. Jim Thompson homered off him in the sixth, but he got to two out in the bottom 7th, up by two, with a runner on third, and Pedro Perez batting. No, he was put on intentionally and De La Rosa went after Powys, whom he struck out. Both Miller and Ban pitched perfect innings after that. 7-5 Raccoons. Brewer 4-4, BB, 2B; Reece 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Wedemeyer 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Kinnear 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB; De La Rosa 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K;

Liam Wedemeyer is the third player to double-digit home runs this season, after the Bayhawks’ Pedro Perez (why would I have walked him intentionally unless I was scared?) with 11, and Rául Vázquez, the Rebel, with 14.

But what is it with OUR stealing? Brewer was thrown out twice in this game by Jose Ortíz, and that brought us down to 16/29 for the year. I am really not having the boys steal a lot, but this is just abysmal!

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – C Kondo – P Saito
SFB: RF S. Adams – C J. Ortíz – 3B P. Hernandez – LF P. Perez – CF A. Marquez – SS Powys – 2B J. Gomez – 1B Chen – P R. Sanchez

That was a tough nut to crack. Ricardo Sanchez had been lights out all year, but Neil Reece touched him with a 2-run home run, a line drive basically, to left in the first inning. This however preceded Kisho Saito taking a timber beam square to the face in the bottom 1st, where Pedro Perez drove in a run, and then Powys drilled a 3-run homer with two outs. Saito however did something else well, besides recollecting himself fairly well after that. He had hits in his first two AB’s against Sanchez, with the latter scoring a run with two out in the fourth. It also moved Nori Kondo, who had been walked intentionally, to third, but Brewer grounded out. Saito found himself at the plate again in the sixth, down 4-3, with the bags full and one out, and we COULD not hit for him with the bullpen going four innings the last two days. He grounded out, but this time Brewer came through with a single, and Salazar also singled, turning that game around in the Coons’ favor. Reece struck out to end that inning up 5-4. After Saito struck out the side in the bottom 6th, he again came to bat with the sacks full in the seventh, by now against the bullpen, but with two out. Go bat, son. He flew out, and maybe that was my fatal mistake in the game, but for now Saito sat down the Bayhawks in order, punching out two more for five consecutive K’s (10 in total in the game), to end his day’s work. We were playing for one insurance run in the top 8th when Brewer singled to lead off. Salazar bunted him to second, and then Reece singled him in. Wedemeyer hadn’t read the script about the one run and homered to dead center! The Bayhawks’ bullpen became rapidly unhinged at this point. Gary Nixon was thrown in to get out of the inning, but the Raccoons would not stop hitting, and also got the benefit of doubt with a critical error by Pedro Hernandez in the inning. A full dozen Coons came to the plate, and we plated six runs in the eighth. Padilla pitched two wild innings to put the game away. 11-4 Raccoons! Brewer 3-6, 2 RBI; Salazar 3-5, 2 RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Green 2-6, 2B; Kinnear 3-4, BB, 2B; Kondo 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, W (6-2) and 2-4, 2B, RBI; Padilla 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

Win! Sweep! Kisho! Everything tastes like sugar!

I would not normally list a guy to surrender four runs in the merits report after the game, but how hard Saito was rocked in the first, and how amazing he was the next six frames (2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K in those), he deserved it. We will call Mike Powys’ 3-piece a nasty aberration and pretend it wasn’t so. Also, #201! Is it worth the bother to count up to #250?

Raccoons (29-16) vs. Condors (28-19) – May 24-26, 1996

With the last win we moved back into a virtual tie for first with the Loggers, and now faced the division-leading Condors at home. They had surrendered the least runs in the CL, just 165 of those, so you better trusted your own pitching against the #4 offense in the league.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (3-3, 2.98 ERA) vs. Woody Roberts (4-2, 2.51 ERA)
Jose Rivera (1-0, 3.55 ERA) vs. Harry Griggs (7-2, 2.96 ERA)
Scott Wade (4-3, 3.53 ERA) vs. Sergio Gonzalez (2-6, 4.03 ERA)

There were so six right-handers scheduled to pitch in this series!

Game 1
TIJ: LF Cleveland – RF E. Garza – 2B Boyle – CF O’Day – 3B J. Garcia – C Manuel – 1B Morales – SS Liang – P Roberts
POR: LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – 2B Higgins – SS Salazar – P Turner

There was not a lot of offense going on in the game early on. The Coons got a run in the second, but Turner gave it back in the third when the Condors put on three batters with two outs in the inning, and Cleveland came in to score. There was no major scoring chance until the bottom 6th. With one out, Neil Reece extended a 10-game hitting streak with a bloop into shallow right and advanced to third on a Wedemeyer single. The Green was hit by Woody Roberts, and Vinson came up with the bags full. Vinson was patient and walked to give Turner a new lead, and Higgins hit a sac fly, but when Salazar popped out, we had not gotten a hit with the bases loaded again. And with two out in the seventh, it fell apart for Turner again. He surrendered back-to-back RBI doubles to PH Paul Theobald and Dale Cleveland, then was yanked. Burnett came in and retired Garza to hold the game tied. We got Ingall (in the #9 hole) and Kinnear on in the bottom 7th, and with one out, Reece doubled to center to give the Raccoons their third lead of the day. All this was against the right-hander Daniel Perez, who was not removed when Wedemeyer stepped in, neither did they walk him to create a double play opportunity. Wedemeyer brought out his bat that read “divine punishment” and zinged a 2-run double into the corner in left. Burnett hit and hurt Bruce Boyle in the top 8th, but the Condors did not score, but Tzu-jao Ban was whacked in the ninth. He put the leadoff man Morales on, then alternated strikeouts and doubles past Alejandro Espinoza in right field for four batters. The Condors had the tying run on when Dani Rivas grounded out to first to end the game. 6-5 Raccoons. Reece 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

That’s five wins in a row, and some nail biters among them!

Game 2
TIJ: LF Cleveland – 1B Morales – CF O’Day – 3B J. Garcia – C Manuel – RF Givens – 2B Rivas – SS Liang – P Griggs
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Newton – SS Salazar – P J. Rivera

Liam Wedemeyer was hot and made sure everybody knew it, smashing a 3-run homer in the first inning, in which the Coons batted through the order, but left the bags full. The Condors did not get a hit until the third, a double by Chun-mei Liang, but the Condors left him on third base. After that, Harry Griggs switched into “lights out” mode and the Raccoons didn’t progress past second base, so Jose Rivera was very much on his own. And while he did not strike out anybody until the seventh inning, then he was still pitching a 3-hitter! Griggs shoveled himself into a deeper hole then in the bottom 7th. Kinnear was on first with two down. Pitching to Wedemeyer, Griggs threw a wild pitch, and when Wedemeyer then singled to left, Kinnear was waved around third despite Dale Cleveland having one of the best arms in the league, and Kinnear came in and was SAFE!! Rivera, tossing a 4-hitter on 100 pitches through eight, was left to bat for himself in the bottom 8th, struck out for the third time, then went back out to the mound, up by four. De La Rosa was getting ready, just in case. But Rivera didn’t need him. He struck out Jose Morales to start the frame, then got fly balls more or less right to Kinnear and Newton, respectively. 4-0 Furballs!! Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Newton 3-4; Rivera 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-0);

Of course this is the first career shutout (and second career win) for Jose Rivera. He is certainly making a case for keeping Miguel Lopez’ slot in the rotation for the remainder of the season, although the veteran we hired, Jose Gálvez, is not that horrible in St. Petersburg. We will keep watching this one.

All our positional starters had at least one hit in the game, and the starting nine finished, which is always nice.

Game 3
TIJ: LF Cleveland – 1B Morales – 2B Boyle – CF O’Day – 3B J. Garcia – C Manuel – RF Theobald – SS Liang – P S. Gonzalez
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – P Wade

Two fantastic offensive lineups met, and a pitchers’ duel broke out! Gonzalez and Wade *literally* gave up nothing through five innings, no team even getting to third base. Gonzalez then led off the top 6th and doubled past Royce Green in right, but went to third, and Green laser beamed him out there. Wade had a 3-hitter going after eight, while Sergio Gonzalez allowed only two hits through seven innings, but also walked a bunch and was taken out. Wade offered his first walk in the ninth to Gilberto Flores with one out. Flores stole second, and Wade walked Boyle, which got him out for Ken Burnett to face Preston O’Day. Burnett’s first pitch was popped up for Brewer to catch, and we were as good as out of the inning. Jesus Garcia then slapped a hard grounder off Burnett – but right to Salazar. Now we had a chance to walk off. Roberto Carrillo, former Raccoon, came in, and had Wedemeyer reach on an error. Wedemeyer tried to steal, but couldn’t get a good jump while Royce Green was batting, and when Green finally made contact, he didn’t need to run, but could trudge home slowly. Green had pulverized Carrillo’s 0-1 offering way out of left field – WALK OFF HOME RUN ROYCE GREEN!!! 2-0 Furballs! Green 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Wade 8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

We had three hits all day, and unfortunately Wade was not rewarded for his great outing. These pesky Condors, all of a sudden they laid off pitches! Nevertheless, we are at SEVEN in a row!

Raccoons (32-16) vs. Aces (27-22) – May 27-29, 1996

The Aces had come to within half a game of the CL South lead as we had swept the Condors. They had a well-rounded team, ranking in the upper half in the CL in most categories, and their rotation was ranked 2nd in ERA. This time however, we would miss the two best pitchers in the rotation, 8-2 Carlos Guillén and 5-3 Rafael Espinoza, both with ERA’s in the 2’s.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (6-1, 4.57 ERA) vs. Ben Carlson (4-4, 3.98 ERA)
Kisho Saito (6-2, 3.62 ERA) vs. Raimundo Beato (1-5, 6.52 ERA)
Jason Turner (3-3, 3.10 ERA) vs. Jou Hara (4-5, 3.94 ERA)

Three more righties from the opposition. Sad to see “Pooky” get hosed this way, I liked him (most of the time) when he was on our staff.

Game 1
LVA: 2B M. Gomez – LF Quintela – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – C Cardenas – 3B Waller – SS R. Gutierrez – 1B Duenas – P Carlson
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – CF Newton – SS Salazar – P Donis

Donis reached his 50th strikeout on the year (in 46.1 IP!) in the first inning, fanning two, with a drilled batter in between. Vinson was brushed in the bottom 2nd, but we did not see any intention there. There was precious little offense again early on, but the Raccoons loaded them up in the bottom 4th with one out and Salazar up. Salazar worked a walk, the third in the inning, to push in the first run of the game. Donis scored another run with a groundout, giving himself a 2-0 lead, and Royce Green drove in a run in the fifth. Donis hit another batter in the sixth, and then issued his first walk of the day, but got out of it without any more unhealthy wildness. Still, Donis was totally gassed after seven innings and the bullpen took over, De La Rosa pitching around an error by O’Morrissey in the eighth, and then Ban came out for the ninth. Ban got mildly pressured when with two out Miguel Cardenas squeezed a grounder through Salazar for a single, but ended the game in due time. 3-0 Critters!! Donis 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (7-1);

We have not been scored on for TWENTY-SEVEN innings!! Of course, Saito is coming up, and the big inning has loved him recently, but three consecutive shutouts!! Wow!!

Of course, we had only four hits in this game. I am concerned, but I will not throw tantrums as long as the opposition does not pummel our pitchers.

Game 2
LVA: 2B M. Gomez – LF Quintela – CF J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – C Cardenas – 3B Waller – SS R. Gutierrez – 1B Duenas – P Beato
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – 3B Ingall – SS Salazar – C Kondo – P Saito

An error by Manuel Gomez prolonged the first inning long enough for the Raccoons to score a pair of unearned runs for Saito, who started the game off very sharp, in contrast to Beato. The Raccoons loaded the bags with no outs against “Pooky” in the bottom 3rd, with Ingall to the plate. Beato did not make it out of the inning. Ingall singled home a pair, Kondo drove in a run, as did Brewer, and with two out, Beato walked Reece to ramp the score to 7-0. Jose Sotelo got Wedemeyer to ground out to short to escape the nightmare. Saito had all he needed to cruise the rest of the way. The Coons kept adding, with a 3-run fifth, during which Brewer jumped up to 4-4 on the day, but walked when he came up in the sixth, reducing the chances for a 6-6 day to almost zero. Saito obliterated the opposition for seven innings, but then suddenly the Aces hit three singles to start the top 8th. There was no way out of there without a run scoring. Unfortunately, all three runs scored, soiling Saito’s line and ending our consecutive scoreless innings streak at 34 frames. The game however, was not getting away anymore, we were at a streak of nine! 11-3 Furballs! Brewer 4-4, 2 BB, RBI; Reece 2-4, BB, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-5, RBI; Ingall 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Espinoza (PH) 1-1; Saito 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (7-2) and 1-4;

I am really twisted when it comes to knocking over “Pooky”. Like I said, I very much liked him on the Coons. And like I said, the big inning, with all those needle stabs of shy and soft singles, has its way with Kisho Saito recently. That should have been a shutout, but it just got away there and there was really nothing you could do about it. All those balls fell into no man’s land.

Game 3
LVA: 3B R. Gutierrez – CF J. Douglas – 1B J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – SS Duenas – LF Carter – 2B Waller – C Guerrero – P Hara
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – LF Kinnear – RF Green – C Vinson – SS Salazar – 1B Ingall – P Turner

The Coons got a 1-0 lead in the second with a 2-out RBI Ingall single, and aided by a throwing error by Mario Guerrero they added a run in the third. Through four, Jason Turner faced the minimum 12 batters despite allowing a hit, but Vinson threw out the runner. Taisuke Mashiba’s leadoff double in the fifth complicated matters for Turner and the Aces brought Mashiba in, but in the same inning, Vinson threw out another runner. Turner, who had not struck out anybody through five, started to come apart in the sixth, where Guerrero reached with a single to lead off. Hara then bunted, Turner tried to get Guerrero, but everybody was safe. With one out, the bases were loaded, and the 2-1 lead in active danger. Javier Vargas then popped to short, which put the focus on Mashiba. Now, if Ken Burnett wasn’t issuing so many walks, he would come in here, but a walk blows the lead, so we stayed with Turner. Mashiba fouled out to O-Mo, and the park was exhaling for the first time in five minutes, but a pair of doubles tied the game anyway in the seventh, and Turner was knocked out. De La Rosa put on Guerrero and with two out, two runners were in scoring position. Carlos Quintela hit for Robinson Gutierrez and singled up the middle. One run scored, but Reece battered out Guerrero at the plate. Still, we were behind, a strange feeling. Bottom 8th, Higgins, entered in a double switch, singled to right, and then stole second base. Brewer drew a walk against Jou Hara, putting the go-ahead run on base again, with O-Mo, Reece, and Kinnear coming. Hara walked O’Morrissey! Bases loaded, no outs! And … we didn’t get it done. Kinnear hit a sac fly, scoring Higgins, tying the game, but that was it. 3-3, Burnett was in from the last out in the eighth, and his first pitch was sent to Idaho by Raúl Duenas. Burnett didn’t retire anybody, and with errors by Vinson and Miller in the inning another run scored. The streak was going bust, right here, as Qi-zhen Geng sat us down 1-2-3 in the ninth. 5-3 Aces. Higgins (PH) 1-1;

In retrospect, why do I have Kinnear bat cleanup if Reece would be much better suited? Maybe it is just that I like to have my favorite boys in the three hole. This last sentence only fully blossoms if you imagine it being said with a cheeky grin by Emperor Nero, the burning Rome in the background.

Ha, madness, I love you!

In other news

May 21 – 22-year old NYC SP Anibal Sandoval (6-3, 3.26 ERA) narrowly misses entry into the record books, tossing a 1-hit shutout as the Crusaders beat the Knights, 3-0. Francisco Ramirez breaks up the no-hitter with a 1-out single in the bottom 9th.
May 25 – Milestone day in Topeka, as SFW CL Raúl Vargas (2-2, 1.69 ERA, 16 SV) saves a 2-1 Warriors win over the Buffaloes, notching his 300th career save.
May 25 – SAL OF Will Jackson (.312, 6 HR, 28 RBI) has come down with a sore shoulder and is expected to miss a month.

Complaints and stuff

I tried, but I can’t find much to complain about.

Our next opponent will be the Loggers, so things are tense as the calendar will flip to June.

Odd thing I realized: whenever Scott Wade pitches, I have to be careful about who is manning short and home plate, otherwise our lineup could be mistaken for a meeting of the Aryan Nation, with all-white players, and people could draw odd conclusions. Ah, the mind, it wanders. And boggles.