[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-29) vs. Bayhawks (19-32) – June 3-5, 2003

There was still ONE team with a worse record in the Continental League, and they’d come in for three, presumably to get their record straight. How would the Raccoons’ offense, with tiny teeth aplenty, fare against the league’s by far worst rotation (5.79 ERA)? Meanwhile the Bayhawks also scored the least runs in the CL, 196 in 51 games.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (2-6, 4.31 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (3-4, 4.62 ERA)
Randy Farley (3-1, 3.21 ERA) vs. Miguel Diaz (1-7, 6.44 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-1, 4.97 ERA) vs. Min-tae Kim (0-1, 32.41 ERA)

Game 1
SFB: 2B L. Berrios – SS J. Perez – C G. Ortíz – LF Brulhart – 3B Foster – CF Bulco – RF Arroyo – 1B I. Navarro – P R. Sanchez
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Brown

Setting a new record of futility – which was a great accomplishment on this team, which had a fantastic collection of fails in its history – Nick Brown did not throw a strike to any of the first three Bayhawks, awarding three 4-pitch walks. Somehow, the Bayhawks managed to run themselves out of the inning and didn’t score. He then struck out the side in the second. Nobody quite knew what to make of any sequence of at-bats with Brown on the mound, as he fell behind on Jesse Foster’s RBI triple in the third inning, but the score was flipped by Clyde Brady’s 2-run homer in the bottom of the same frame before Ledesma scored Martin with a double in the fourth to make it 3-1. Brown, after almost getting shot in the first inning, wound up not surrendering any more runs and just two more walks against six strikeouts through the seventh inning, which he left after Jose Perez singled with two outs. Huerta and Moreno almost blew the lead before Moreno finally struck out Foster to keep the 3-1 score in place. No offense was coming forth from the Raccoons, while Bruno pitched a scoreless eighth, and that left it to Nordahl in the ninth. The Bayhawks eagerly cooperated to get to Burger King across the street, with Arturo Aguilar and Leon Berrios hacking out wildly, before Perez grounded out to Concie. 3-1 Coons. Brady 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Ledesma 2-3, 2B, RBI; Brown 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 9 K, W (3-6);

Eddie Torrez may come off the DL after this series. While Cal Lyon is not doing anything to justify his oxygen consumption, Beairsto hit a double and STILL bats less than .100 on the year. Choices, choices.

Game 2
SFB: 3B Foster – LF R. Murphy – CF Arroyo – RF Javier – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Perez – 1B Aguilar – 2B Bulco – P M. Diaz
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Farley

Mr. Singles took to the mound, having allowed 66 hits in 53 innings, and immediately gave up 3 one-basers for a run in the first inning, before taking a page from Brownie’s playbook by the fifth, in which he issued two walks to get going and the Bayhawks would score their second in the inning. In the meantime, the Coons had plated three, including a solo jack for Chris Beairsto in the second that gave Farley the lead for the first time. That lead was blown in the sixth on a pair of singles, Foster driving in Aguilar from second base, knotting the score at three. Aguilar would hit into an effort-killing double play in the top 7th after Benton Wilson had given out a pair of no-outs walks to the Bayhawks, as the Raccoons staff continued to miss, and on occasion miss wildly. The Bayhawks would starve pairs of runners in the eighth (against Vega) and in the ninth (vs. Huerta), with the key at-bat taking place with one out in the ninth, and nobody on, when Jim Brulhart popped out on the 3-0 pitch before Ortíz and Perez both reached. The game was still tied, presenting a walkoff chance to Palacios and those following him in the ninth vs. closer Johnny Smith whose numbers I liked a lot: 18 innings, 16 hits, two walks, 26 K’s. He would walk Ledesma, but by that time there were two outs, and Beairsto was not even remotely a fair matchup for him and went down in flames to send the game to extras. The attendance was treated to a spectacular bullpen implosion, with Huerta continuing a great franchise tradition in walking the leadoff man. Two on, one out, Moreno came in, issued two walks, and left, Bruno came in, walked - … Four walks, two hits, four runs for the Bayhawks in the tenth did more than enough to send the fans in an angry mode on the way to their communities. 7-3 Bayhawks. Sharp 2-4; Brady 2-4, 2B; Martin 2-5;

Raccoons pitching issued 11 walks, which is one short of lighting my fuse. An all around **** performance, in short. And only now comes Clueless Bob.

Game 3
SFB: LF R. Gonzalez – 1B I. Navarro – CF Arroyo – RF Javier – SS J. Perez – 3B Foster – C Aguilar – 2B J. Diaz – P Kim
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Joly

Min-tae Kim, 34, who had not survived the second inning in his first start of the season, conceding seven runs in 1.2 innings, only gave up a soft single to Brady in the first two frames this time. But this was him facing the Raccoons, which was every pitcher’s chance to play hero. Like in the fourth. In a scoreless game, Joly was ineffective as all hell. After hitting a batter in addition to Javier’s leadoff double, Diaz was walked intentionally to load them up with two out and face Kim. Joly was one strike away from escaping the jam when Kim floated a single uncatchable into shallow center and two runs scored. Four runs would ultimately fall out of Joly once he was properly shaken over 5.1 innings. Kim was still going strong, pitching a 2-hitter. The Bayhawks added two runs in the seventh, casually drawing three walks from Sergio Vega. Martinez struck out three, but also walked two in the eighth, leaving the bases loaded eventually. In a most despicable team effort, the Raccoons allowed Kim to go the distance on six hits, while being handily defeated every which way by that oh-so-dangerous offense San Fran offered. 7-2 Bayhawks. Brady 2-4; Reece (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

15 hits, eight walks allowed. Six hits, no walks drawn. No wonder they’re losing to the worst team in the league. Well, they won’t be the worst team in the league for long.

Torrez came back from the DL and replaced the hopeless Beairsto, whose major league career, 122 at-bats old, sees him hitting the ball at a .123/.213/.287 pace. **** the five home runs. He has 45 K.

45 strikeouts in 122 at-bats!!

Raccoons (23-31) vs. Canadiens (24-28) – June 6-8, 2003

Could be a nasty weekend. The Elks have the fifth-best offense in the CL, while sporting shoddy pitching. Their rotation was ninth with a 4.09 ERA, their bullpen even 11th with a 5.02 mark. That was significantly worse than even the Coons’ considerable pitching blight, although their hurlers didn’t give out walks like free candy.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-8, 5.40 ERA) vs. Joe Hollow (1-5, 4.30 ERA)
Carl Bean (5-4, 2.59 ERA) vs. Juan Bello (3-5, 4.26 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (1-1, 8.76 ERA)

The only southpaw this week will be Hollow, in a game 1 sporting plenty of misery.

Game 1
VAN: SS A. Simon – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – CF R. Green – RF Velasquez – C Rosa – 3B Phillips – 1B J. Zamora – P Hollow
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Moore – C Fifield – CF Lyon – P Ford

The lefty Ford walked the lefty Simon on four pitches to start the game, and misery was strong right out of the gate, and grew to intense proportions once Royce Green took Ford well yard for three runs. The immediate reaction to that bomb was the home team applauding the visiting slugger (although there was history here…), and then in the bottom 1st Marv went yard on a Hollow meatball that refused to break, nor would it ever re-enter orbit. The bottom 3rd actually saw a major offensive uprising. Hollow committed the cardinal sin of pitching, allowing a leadoff walk to the opposing starting pitcher. Sharp legged out a grounder against Jim Phillips to put two on, and then Guerin went into the gap for an RBI double. Ingall's grounder up the middle eluded Jim Dobson for a score-flipping 2-run INGALL SINGLE. The air then went out of the inning which ended when Jesus Zamora shagged Reece’s liner that seemed ticketed for the right corner at first and tagged out the runner from first. Ford couldn’t hold onto the 4-3 lead though, which evaporated when Dobson and Green started the sixth with two singles. Dobson was scored on a Velasquez sacrifice to tie the game, before the Raccoons showed a sign of life in the sixth. Reece walked, Moore singled, and Fifield grounded to short, but Dobson dropped Simon’s throw and instead of the inning-ending double play we had three on with one out, but Cal Lyon due to bat. Miguel Ramirez was the only right-handed bat on the bench and hit for him, coming through with an RBI single to right! Brady hit for Ford but whiffed, but then Sharp came up and tossed Hollow from the game with a bases-clearing double past the reach of Royce Green. While we were now up 8-4, we had to cover three innings with a severely depleted bullpen. Right off the bat, only Nordahl, Huerta, Martinez, and Wilson were available, with everybody else having themselves exhausted in the Bayhawks series. Nordahl was set for the ninth, and the other three would have to cobble six outs together, which wound up being a serious squeeze once Huerta walked a pair in the seventh and allowed a run when Dobson singled with two out. The crumbling continued, with Nordahl coming into the game in the eighth and promptly surrendering another run, but the Elks would not come any closer in the game. Much the contrary, Gary Fifield hit a homer in the bottom 8th to keep them at distance. 9-6 Raccoons. Sharp 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Ingall 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Moore 2-4; M. Ramirez (PH) 1-2, RBI;

Just starting a 13-game stretch, the bullpen is already in shambles. There are no rested relievers in there right now. We need a strong outing from the Bean.

Game 2
VAN: SS A. Simon – LF J. Durán – 2B Dobson – 1B I. Gutierrez – RF Velasquez – CF E. Garcia – 3B Rodgers – C Hurtado – P Bello
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Bean

Bean expended 20 pitches in each of the first three innings, a) putting an early and definite dent into the hopes he might go eight again, and b) surrendering two runs in the second inning. The early deficit was erased on Pablo Ledesma’s third homer of the year in the bottom 2nd, and the Coons got the go-ahead run in by Martin’s RBI groundout in the next inning, but with the bags full we would have hoped for more. Hoping for more was always futile, as was running out Bean over 100 pitches in the seventh. He didn’t retire anybody and instead the Elks tied the score at three while even wasting a chance once Moreno struck out Green and then got a double play grounder to escape a serious jam. Top 8th, Manuel Martinez appeared to dish out a leadoff walk, which made me choke Honeypaws in the office atop the stands. The Elks didn’t score, and when Palacios reached on a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, we played for one run, using Brady to bunt. Neither Martin nor Reece managed to get anything productive done, foiling the plan. Nordahl pitched the ninth, whiffing two, then came up to bat with two out and Ledesma on second base in the bottom 9th. He was our best bet for another clean inning in the tenth, but we could walk off right now against Pedro Alvarado. Looking at the bench, however… Nordahl popped out, pitched a scoreless tenth, and then Sharp started the bottom 10th with a walk. Palacios grounded out, moving Sharp up to second. Brady singled up the middle, but Sharp had to hold, but now any deep fly by Martin would do. Alvarado fell behind, 2-1, on him, having the fourth pitch taken to right. It was certainly deep, and it was also high, and *plenty* deep: WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!! 6-3 Raccoons! Sharp 2-4, BB; Brady 2-4; Martin 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Ledesma 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

Yaay, virtual tie for fifth place! Yaay! Euphoria!

Bean walked five and struck out two in six innings, not quite falling into the “shutdown guy” category, and more falling in line with his delapitated rotation mates.

But a win is a win is a win. Nordahl’s two scoreless allowed us to rest a few other bullpen pieces, primarily Marcos Bruno and Domingo Moreno, so we might be a bit better off in the third game, with Brownie on the mound, which could mean you need either seven or zero innings from your pen.

Game 3
VAN: 3B Phillips – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – CF R. Green – RF Velasquez – C Rosa – SS Rodgers – 1B J. Zamora – P Fujita
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – SS M. Ramirez – CF Torrez – P Brown

The Coons didn’t reach base the first time through the order after Brown had been tagged for four hits and two runs in the first inning. While the Coons would get on in the bottom 4th they only scored on a Martin sac fly and eventually Ramirez left the bases loaded. Brown was dull, neither walking nor striking out a meaningful number in this game, instead offering fat pitches, one of which was taken out of the park by Royce Green to make it 3-1 in the sixth. Bottom of the inning, Martin hit a 1-out single and Reece added one of his own. Ledesma grounded to third, where Phillips didn’t get the ball out of his glove on the first try, then overthrew first base and Zamora couldn’t get it. Martin scored, and the Coons put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position for Ramirez, who outright failed with a grounder to third. Torrez was not pitched to, and Brown had to remain in the game with the bullpen still depleted. The strategy backfired twofold, with Brown striking out, then choking in the top 7th and leaving with two out and the bags full. Martinez appeared to face Green, issued four freebies, and then a bases-clearing double to Velasquez, and that was all there was to the game. Except the pen cocking up a few more runs, with Jim Phillips hitting a 2-piece off Benton Wilson. 10-4 Canadiens. Martin 2-3, RBI; Moore (PH) 1-1;



In other news

June 2 – The Canadiens are held to three hits and no runs by ATL SP Tynan Howard (3-6, 3.94 ERA), who takes the 8-0 victory for the Knights.
June 2 – Bad news for the Indians, who lose 1B/3B/LF David Lopez (.280, 9 HR, 26 RBI) for the year due to a torn ACL.
June 4 – WAS SP Mario Pagán (7-3, 2.49 ERA) shuts out the Pacifics on three hits in a 7-0 Capitals win.
June 7 – Tijuana’s Ramón Ortíz (4-4, 3.46 ERA) claims a win with eight shutout innings in a 5-0 win over the Bayhawks. It is the 200th career win for the 35-year old left-hander, who has 142 losses and a 3.45 career ERA, with 2,088 strikeouts. Signed all the way back in 1984 by the Capitals out of Santo Domingo, he appeared for Washington from 1989 through 1999, winning three rings and the 1993 FL POTY award along with eight All Star nominations. He has spent two years in Denver and is in his second year in Tijuana now.
June 8 – C Gabriel Ortíz (.310, 4 HR, 23 RBI) is flipped from the Bayhawks to the Stars along with pitching prospect Tommy Briggs for SP Russell Benson (3-5, 5.02 ERA). Everybody wonders what that trade is supposed to achieve.
June 8 – While the Loggers drop a 3-2 game to the Titans, missing a series sweep by one run, MIL 2B/SS Bartolo Hernandez (.323, 2 HR, 28 RBI) connects twice for a 20-game hitting streak.

Complaints and stuff

The Miners’ Miguel Cortez was the FL Player of the Week, batting .500 with three homers and nine driven in. He also broke his kneecap this week and is out for the season. Rough luck.

The following five batters are currently labeled as cold: Guerin, Ramirez, Palacios, Reece, and Lyon. I’d throw in Torrez and Ingall as well.

Time to decide whether we want to trade Bean and Palacios for prospects now or take the draft pick compensation (Moreno, Wilson, and Ingall will also be free agents, but may not be compensation eligible). Ingall and Ramirez can well play out the season at second base, but the rotation will present even more gaping holes when Bean is traded.

However, there is one guy I have my eye on, who’s a starting pitcher and might be available in a trade: 21-year old righty Edgar Amador, who already made his first four starts in the Bigs this year, faring so-so, and is right now back at AAA, which he owns. He is built like a truck, 6’3” and 285 pounds. Four pitches, all good, with a 98mph heater that has natural sink and generates tons of groundballs. He might be a tremendous option to move forward. Only problem? We’d have to trade Bean to the Loggers. I hate dealing quality players to division opponents.

The Loggers are also our next opponents. Four games of incredible pain due next in Milwaukee.

Still looking for a picture that portrays Nick Brown with the right brushstrokes. Something along the lines of a brilliantly lunatic scientist perhaps? In a way, he’s a Doctor K, and in a way, he’s a circus clown, too. Which is most unfortunate.

Brown 2003: 12 G, 3-7, 4.26 ERA, 45 BB, 69 K - in 69.2 IP
Brown career: 54 G, 14-21, 3.25 ERA, 163 BB, 331 K - in 321.2 IP

His BABIP is 23 points higher than in 2002, but mostly it's the horrendous BB/9 that's doing him in. He hasn't been ON in six weeks.