[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-6) @ Loggers (5-7) – April 18-20, 2011

What does it take to breath some life into this offense? Perhaps they can get going against the worst pitching team in the league, two weeks in. The Loggers’ rotation had run up a 5.20 ERA so far, which was bad enough, but their bullpen was really outdoing itself producing an ERA of almost NINE. Needless to say, their 6.33 runs allowed per game had them rock bottom of everything and they were likely to drop into last place sooner or later. Provided that the Coons could actually score anything in this set. But while we have won the season series against the horrendous Loggers four years in a row now, we actually only went 10-8 against them in 2010.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (0-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (0-1, 12.60 ERA)
Gil McDonald (0-1, 2.53 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (1-1, 1.38 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Gomez (0-2, 4.50 ERA)

This is three right-handed pitchers coming at us, but we are likely getting at least one left-hander this weekend in Charlotte.

Game 1
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – LF Taylor – RF Ayers – CF Castro – SS Palmer – C Owens – P Conway
MIL: SS Ito – 3B Sharp – 1B Catalo – LF Davenport – RF Locke – C R. Hernandez – CF Covington – 2B C. Miller – P R. Thomas

In the first four innings the Raccoons would get three base runners, 67% of which reached by virtue of being hit in the thighs by Roy Thomas. Yoshi Nomura’s single in the first was the only thing that actually deserved merit. Bill Conway was perfect through the first three innings, but Suketsune Ito opened the bottom of the fourth with a single to right. Sharp struck out, but the Loggers would still load the bases with two outs, getting Philip Locke on just because Adrian Quebell dropped his easy-as-pie pop. But someone apparently yelled at Quebell that this one was easy-as-pie, and “pie” distracted him greatly… Obviously, Raúl Hernandez would hit a 2-run single to center, and the Loggers had a 2-0 lead. Sharpie, who came in batting .298, upped to 3-0 with a 2-out RBI single in the fifth inning. Thomas hit a third batter in the top of the sixth, and revenge was now called for. Willie Davenport got a blow in the bottom of the inning, but the Loggers would hit into a double play in due time and didn’t add on to their lead. But they would in the seventh… The ****ty Raccoons remained completely clueless for the entire game and didn’t score until the ninth inning when reliever Micah Steele served up a few goofballs to the Raccoons not even they could miss. By then it was much too late, though. 5-2 Loggers. Pruitt (PH) 1-1, 2B; Owens 1-2, 2B; Conway 7.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, L (0-2);

I’m not quite able to find words right now…

Game 2
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF Taylor – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – CF White – C Bowen – P McDonald
MIL: SS Ito – CF Brissett – 1B Catalo – LF Davenport – RF Locke – 3B Cuevas – C Lemberger – 2B Simon – P Bartels

The Loggers romped all over McDonald, who allowed four line drives to start the second inning, and those fell in for two singles and two doubles and scored three runs. Another run scored in the third before Arthur Simon lined out to Pruitt with the bases loaded to end the inning. McDonald was hit for in the top 5th in the most promising spot yet, with White and Bowen on base and one out. Palmer had led off the inning with a single, but had gotten forced by White. Bowen had then singled to center. Tomas Castro batted for McDonald, flew out to Davenport in left, and Merritt popped out to shallow center, and nobody scored. Tommy Ward pitched two scoreless innings afterwards to pin the Loggers in place with their 4-run lead. But what was it good for? Absolutely nothing.

The Raccoons would scratch out a run in the seventh inning, that was really badly unearned. Palmer had reached again and reached third base when Tommy Lemberger threw away the ball on his steal attempt. Pat White brought him in with a sac fly. That was the complete and total report for all the Raccoons’ offensive exploits in this middle game. They managed four hits in total, no walks, and another plunked batter. 4-1 Loggers. Palmer 2-3; Ward 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Amari Brissett broke his ankle in this game. He had batted squid so far this season (in 9 AB) and I had already been on a trade for him to improve our lineup.

Logan Taylor was drilled in both this and the first game. Listen, Loggers. At least hit him in a way which allows us to collect an insurance reimbursement. Otherwise fudge up.

(Quebell has heard something about fudge and stampedes past)

No, we had reached a point where some move – any move, really – was needed to breath live into the offense. Manuel Gutierrez was waived and designated for assignment (together with 33% of our home runs), and Pat White, who had one last option, was sent to St. Petersburg outright. Instead, we added SS/3B Dave Roudabush (batting .531 through seven games) and OF Jason Seeley (.441, 2 HR, 12 RBI).

Seeley had been our 2008 first rounder, the 21st overall pick in that draft. He brings pedestrian defense and never showed big power at any level before. He has an explosive first step that helps him to swipe a base if necessary. He bats left-handed, but at this point I’m only hoping for any contribution from anybody, regardless whether their batting left-handed, right-handed, or just fall into a pitch.

Game 3
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – LF Seeley – RF Taylor – 1B Pruitt – SS Roudabush – CF Castro – C Bowen – P Brown
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 1B Catalo – RF Locke – 3B Sharp – C R. Hernandez – LF Alires – SS Simon – 2B C. Miller – P R. Gomez

J.R. Richardson almost homered on the first pitch by Brown, but Seeley, who had made a pedestrian out in the top of the first, caught it. Brown would go on to walk Leborio Catalo and Philip Locke on eight pitches before Sharp popped up a 3-1 pitch behind home plate, but Bowen dropped that. Sharpie would strike out as the runners pulled off a double steal, but Hernandez would go down swinging on a slider. Brownie would then come to bat in the top 2nd with one out and the bags full. Pruitt and Roudabush had started the inning with singles before Edgar Alires, who was playing in his major league debut opposite debutee Jason Seeley, made a headlong catch on a Castro line to left. Craig Bowen singled in a 3-1 count to load them up then. Brown kept the inning alive with an RBI groundout to first base before Jon Merritt singled into left to plate the remaining two runners and the Raccoons had an outrageous 3-0 lead!

Of course Brown was out to blow it as soon as possible and walked Edgar Alires to start the third inning. Arthur Simon singled, but Craig Miller hit into a double play and Rodrigo Gomez struck out. While Brown out of the gate had certainly looked wonky, his situation improved dramatically by the middle innings when the Raccoons forced an early exit on Gomez. Castro was on second base with two outs and Brown batting in the fourth. Nick singled to center, and when he turned around first base he saw the Loggers had a good shot at Castro at home, and made a run for second base. Sharpie yelled out to the cutoff man Simon, who threw to second base, where Brown was out by a mile, but Castro was home with the fourth run of the game. Seeley then got his first major league hit in the next inning, a double off the fence with one out that also moved Merritt to third base. Logan Taylor singled to right on the next pitch where the ball bounced off Locke’s chest, and both runs scored, 6-0. Brownie conceded a run on two hits in the bottom 5th, but the Coons burst out for a 4-spot (error-aided as it was…) in the top of the sixth, in which Bowen homered for two, and Pruitt doubled for as many. Another two runs in the seventh on a Nomura triple ran the dozen full for the Coons, who weren’t used to score 12 runs in a game (or a week) and were slightly dizzy. 12-2 Brownies! Merritt 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Castro 1-2, 2 BB; Bowen 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (3-1) and 1-4, 2 RBI;

After this soul-soothing blowout, we have five players tying for the team lead with 6 RBI: Bowen, Castro, Nomura, Pruitt, and Taylor. “Monti” Alston has 20 RBI.

Free agent signing

Worked on in secrecy so far, the Raccoons announced an agreement with 28-year old OF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.323, 140 HR, 535 RBI) on Friday morning. Morales signs a 1-yr, $920k contract. The Raccoons forfeit a first round pick to the Knights.

Yeah, this one was necessary, I claim. I panicked outright after the ****ty start to the season. Now I am in a predicament, with six outfielders on the roster. Since I was against sending Jason Seeley back to St. Petersburg with only one game under his belt, he remained on the roster. Pat Slayton, who had a full slate of options still available, was optioned to St. Pete instead. We will go with a short bullpen for now, but Gil McDonald will not get a start until the 30th again (since his usual turn on Monday turns out to be another off day), and is available out of the pen for the weekend series at the very least. I want to see a few more games from Seeley before I return him.

For what it’s worth, Matt Pruitt has options.

On the draft pick… Well. I’m notorious for drafting busts (either that, or they are drinking poisoned water in Ham Lake) and what do I want to do start with the #16 pick anyway? We still have four in the top 50. Besides, if Morales puts up anything even remotely resembling a standard season for him, he will be a type A free agent for us in the fall. Right now, I have him penciled in for the centerfield job.

Side note: Gutierrez went unclaimed (so, as usual) and arrived in St. Pete as well.

Raccoons (8-8) @ Falcons (3-12) – April 22-24, 2011

Wednesday’s rout of the Loggers handed off the red lantern of offensive futility to the Falcons – by one run. We definitely had ground to make up. To that league-worst hitting they were also adding the third-worst pitching staff and slowly but surely we began to see how they had started out .200 … The Falcons were the South team the Raccoons were overall worst against, with a .484 all-time clip, but we had taken five of nine last season. No team had won more than six games from the other since 1998.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (1-1, 2.50 ERA) vs. Roberto Ramirez (0-2, 11.88 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-0, 2.14 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (0-2, 3.68 ERA)
Bill Conway (0-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (0-1, 4.91 ERA)

Hernandez is this week’s left-handed opponent. Their best guy, Larry Cutts, is out for the season, and the replacement bridge isn’t that strong at all…

Game 1
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – LF Seeley – CF Morales – RF Taylor – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Umberger
CHA: CF A. Solís – SS J. Amador – C F. Chavez – 1B Valenzuela – LF J. Flores – RF D. Richardson – 3B N. Chavez – 2B Jackson – P R. Ramirez

Couple o’ firsts. Jose Morales reached on a Rickey Jackson error in his first AB as a Coon, and got forced by Logan Taylor. Yoshi Nomura became the first Coon to 7 RBI (in game 17…) when he doubled with one out in the third inning and Craig Bowen scored. That also moved Jon Merritt to third, and they were coming home with a run apiece soon after when Jason Seeley hit his first major league home run, a 3-run shot that was never in doubt at all and raced to the second row from the top in the rightfield bleachers.

Umberger was mostly solid, not getting into a jam until the fourth. There, a Jesus Flores double put two on with two outs, but Daniel Richardson came up, and his “best before” date had been in about 2006. The 39-year old was batting under .100 and popped up a 3-1 pitch to shallow right and for Logan Taylor to catch. Taylor added a run in the fifth with a 2-out single to center, joining Yoshi in seventh-RBI heaven. Richardson would be up again with two on and two out in the sixth, and that time fouled out. And after reaching on an error and walking twice, Morales also got his first hit as a Coon out of his system with a leadoff single in the top 7th. Then he got forced for the third time by Taylor. Jong-hoo went seven innings, striking out six, including three times Angel Solís, always to end an inning. The Falcons didn’t score until down to their last out, when Ron Thrasher allowed three singles for a run in the ninth inning. 7-1 Coons. Merritt 2-4, BB; Nomura 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Seeley 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1; Umberger 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-1);

Tomas Castro entered as pinch-hitter and stayed in centerfield afterwards, but left before the end of the game after getting oddly struck in the thumb by a fly ball. No structural damage, but the thumb was quite numb and he was listed as DTD for the rest of the weekend.

Game 2
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – LF Seeley – CF Morales – RF Taylor – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Baldwin
CHA: RF D. Richardson – LF A. Solís – 1B Valenzuela – 3B Ladd – SS J. Amador – C L. Ramirez – CF Reya – 2B D. Silva – P M. Ortíz

Quebell’s first homer put the Raccoons on top 1-0 in the first inning, and they had a good opportunity going in the third. Jon Merritt had reached on a leadoff walk, and after Yoshi struck out the bases were filled with two more walks drawn by the new arrivals. Logan Taylor singled up the middle to score a pair and take over the RBI lead on the team with a nifty nine before the inning fizzled out, although Craig Bowen, who batted with the bases loaded and two outs, drove a ball to fairly deep left center, but Luis Reya got there and made the catch.

Daniel Richardson’s old age cost the Falcons another run in the fourth inning. First he bumbled Baldwin’s leadoff single into an extra base, then he was just too slow to catch up with a deep drive by Jason Seeley that fell in for an RBI double. By the way, as we were on scum soiling the good name Daniel, that D. Silva guy was the ex-Titan Daniel Silva, washed ashore again in the Continental League after a stint with the Capitals.

While the Falcons’ Manuel Ortíz went six innings and walked and struck out seven apiece, Colin Baldwin’s game revolved around the most poor contact possible, and he had only one strikeout through five innings, then added a second one in the sixth. But he was maintaining a shutout, so… While the Coons added a run in the seventh on a Palmer single and another one in the ninth when they had Logan Taylor on third base and Eric Fontenot threw a wild pitch, Baldwin was still not scored upon. He had thrown 109 pitches though and we had right-handers up in the bottom of the ninth. He was sent back out, but Angel Casas – who really needed work! – was getting warm in the pen. Baldwin didn’t finish the shutout, partly because Adrian Quebell dropped Baldwin’s throw on a Jose Valenzuela grounder to put the first man on. Angel Casas entered after a 2-out single by Leon Ramirez, despite this not being a save situation. The game ended in one pitch, although that was a deep drive to center by Reya, which Morales caught. 6-0 Critters. Seeley 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Taylor 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Palmer 2-5, 2B, RBI; Baldwin 8.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-0) and 1-4;

Game 3
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Palmer – CF Morales – RF Ayers – LF Taylor – 1B Pruitt – C Owens – SS Roudabush – P Conway
CHA: CF A. Solís – SS J. Amador – C F. Chavez – 1B Valenzuela – RF D. Richardson – 3B N. Chavez – LF DeBoer – 2B D. Silva – P M. Hernandez

After a soft single by Keith Ayers started the second inning, Taylor, Pruitt, and Owens hit three balls really hard and deep – and none reached base, all three being caught. But of course once Conway took the mound, the ****ty marbles started to fall in. First, he walked Valenzuela, and then the Falcons snipped soft singles with Richardson and Nelson Chavez (ex-Coon terror factor alive and well…), although they were ultimately held to a sac fly in the inning. However, Fernando Chavez hit a 2-piece in the third and the Coons sat in a 3-0 hole. Conway was no help in containing the fire, issuing a leadoff walk for the third time in the fourth inning, then to Silva. While the Falcons didn’t make something of it, he now had five walks in the game, more than in his first three starts combined. Fernando Chavez hit a leadoff single in the fifth inning, after which Valenzuela struck out. With Daniel Richardson down 0-2, Conway threw not one, but two wild pitches back-to-back, evoking some gruesome Juan Diaz memories, before striking him out, and the Falcons left the one Chavez at third when the other Chavez flew out to Ayers.

Morales was batting 1-for-9 as a Raccoon until he led off the top 7th with a single, only the team’s third hit off Manuel Hernandez, who quickly threw a wild pitch of his own with Ayers at the plate. While we thought for a moment that something could happen here, Ayers flew out to Richardson, Taylor flew out to Jimmy DeBoer, and Pruitt bounced right back to Hernandez to – hold on! Hernandez’ throw to first was high, and tipped off the edge of Valenzuela’s glove, and from there the ball rolled into the dugout. That allowed Morales to score, Pruitt was sent to second, and the tying run came up in Travis Owens, who singled softly to center, allowing Pruitt to score and the Coons were back to within a run. Ward and Huerta held the Falcons down, and Quebell hit for Huerta to start the eighth inning with Hernandez still in the game. Quebell grounded out, but Merritt walked. Castro ran for him, and reached third base on Michael Palmer’s single. One out and runners on the corners! And not-the-#16-pick coming up! And while his drive to center was intercepted by another pesky defender, Morales’ sac fly tied the game if nothing else. Ayers also hit a ball into the gap, and also had it caught… And then Law Rockburn threw one pitch in the bottom 8th, Daniel Richardson drilled it fantastically well and the Raccoons lost anyway. 4-3 Falcons. Owens 2-4, RBI;

By my count, we were robbed of five doubles in this game…

In other news

April 19 – Vancouver’s 1B Ray Gilbert (.481, 1 HR, 4 RBI) has run his hitting streak to 25 games after a 2-hit day in the Canadiens’ 11-9 win over the Indians.
April 20 – Game over: Ray Gilbert goes 0-for-4 in the Canadiens’ 8-5 win over the Indians, ending his hitting streak at 25 games.
April 21 – The Blue Sox acquire OF Jeffrey Matthews (.373, 1 HR, 11 RBI) from the Warriors and will send them 30-yr old AAA first baseman Bill Thomas and an outfield prospect.
April 23 – OCT SP Carlos Castro (2-1, 2.93 ERA) is placed on the DL with elbow inflammation and is not expected back before the latter half of July.
April 23 – Another hitting streak to follow now is LAP 3B/2B Jens Carrolls’ (.410, 1 HR, 12 RBI). The 29-year old has hit in 20 consecutive games (going back to the final weekend of the 2010 season) after two singles in the Pacifics’ 7-5 loss to the Cyclones.
April 24 – … or maybe not. Carroll goes hitless against the Cyclones on Sunday, ending his streak at 20 games.
April 24 – The Pacifics also place 1B Stanley Murphy (.364, 2 HR, 14 RBI) on the DL with a broken finger. He might not return until early June.

Complaints and stuff

Nick Brown’s next strikeout will be #2,100 for him. Slowly but surely the franchise record by Kisho Saito comes into view. He would need to put up a new franchise record for single season strikeouts to reach it in 2011, though.

Another idea for how to utilize our sixth outfielder would be to use Tomas Castro as million-dollar pinch-runner deluxe. Think about it: he has the paws to steal a base, but he can’t get ON base. Well, we can just PUT him there! That’s genius! I am amazed by my own intellect!

That should be worth a million bucks!