[Westheim]

It’s Draft Week! The Rule 4 Draft will take place on Wednesday, after the conclusion of our series with the Rebels, who are leading the FL East.

Raccoons (30-30) @ Rebels (35-27) – June 13-15, 2016

How difficult our relation with the Rebels had been for the longest time illustrated the fact that we had won the last five interleague sets against them, including two sweeps, and not only were we still under .500 against them all-time, no, they were also the ABL team we had the worst record against. The golden banana of spanking the Raccoons would go to over to the Warriors if we could take a sixth series in a row from them.

The Rebels were mostly doing their damage on offense, ranking second in runs scored in the FL, while they sat only fifth in runs allowed. The rotation was decent, but the bullpen had some holes with a 4.30 ERA.

They had also completed a deal with the Canadiens just before the series, acquiring left-handed starting pitcher Dave Butler (4-5, 3.24 ERA) from them for the former Elks OF Ross Holland (.246, 1 HR, 16 RBI) and #41 prospect SP Alex Vallejo.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (5-3, 2.39 ERA) vs. Mike Brugh (7-2, 2.82 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (2-6, 5.21 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (4-5, 3.24 ERA)
Chris Munroe (2-3, 3.13 ERA) vs. Josh Knupp (5-6, 4.93 ERA)

And we will get to see Butler immediately, how lovely. He’s the only left-hander tentatively in this set.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C McNeela – P Santos
RIC: CF D. Flores – 1B A. Rodriguez – RF Kimura – C J. White – LF Reya – SS Morbidelli – 2B Cramer – 3B Hart – P Brugh

Neither team had a hit through three innings. Santos was perfect on four strikeouts, while Brugh had walked a pair in the first, but the Raccoons had been too polite to exploit the opportunity. Ron Richards would be the first batter to drop in a base knock, beating Alberto Rodriguez with a bouncer to right. That came with Adam Young on first after a walk, yet two outs, and nothing good happened with Jones batting. The fifth inning saw some motion with two outs as Cookie reached on an infield single, McKnight singled, and then Nunley reached on an error, all with two outs again. DeWeese fell to 0-2, which usually meant death to offense, but then landed a solid base hit to right for a 2-run single, the first tally in the game. Young grounded out, of course. Santos continued to deny the Rebels any base runners the second time through the order, but his pitch count was already at 73, which was not outright outlandish, but his limit were a hundred more or less…

The top 7th not only saw Simon Morbidelli hurting himself on a throw, but also a third run scoring for the Critters as Cookie singled, stole, and scored on McKnight’s single. Santos found two outs in four pitches in the bottom of the inning, but then had to look at Tamio Kimura hitting a ball precisely into the gap in left center and that was just in and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Kimura had a double, the Rebels crowd exhaled, some even stood up and applauded, appreciating Santos’ effort, which ended after the inning as he was hit for in the top of the eighth, though Margolis flew out to left against left-hander Iemitsu Rin, ending the inning with a man on base. Mathis appeared in the eighth, which opened an opportunity for David Gonzalez, Morbidelli’s replacement at short, to hit a solo homer to dead center, which was 427’ in Richmond. Manobu Sugano however would end the game with a perfect ninth, including two strikeouts. 3-1 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5; McKnight 2-4, BB, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (6-3);

Winning record!

After the game I was approached by an older gentleman with a white cowboy hat and an even whiter beard, who gave me his card, which identified him as Richard “Big Daddy” Barbour, and showed me an envelope with a pack of $100 bills and wanted to know whether Santos had any family and if I intended to sell that, too. I raised an eyebrow before shooing Santos, Thrasher, and Cookie into the bus back to the hotel…

Strange people wherever we go this year…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS Jones – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Sambrano – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – RF Stubbs – P Abe
RIC: CF D. Flores – 1B A. Rodriguez – C J. White – LF Reya – 3B B. Harris – RF Locke – 2B Da Silva – SS Hart – P D. Butler

This game also remained scoreless for a long time, and the Raccoons defense deserved the most credit for that. The Rebels had a man on base with no outs or one out in each of the first three innings, hit balls hard and got nothing. Cookie made two great plays in center, and Bergquist turned a wonderful double play to keep the Rebels off the board. The Coons however were dazzled by Butler, who in his Rebels debut allowed a double to Howard Jones in the first inning, wiped that one off, and then started to cruise. Through six innings, the Coons were still looking for another baserunner, while Danny Flores, an awesome centerfielder with a bit less of a bat and a bit more of a glove than Cookie, hit a ball to deep left in the bottom 6th that looked like at least a double, but somehow DeWeese got there and made the catch at the track. At the plate, DeWeese would do nothing but strike out; in the first, in the fourth, and also in the seventh, always ending another sad inning. Abe finally buckled in the bottom 7th, which saw Jamal White hit a leadoff double and then a Luis Reya single. Reya was batting a substantial (over 200 AB) .333 at the start of the series, but had gone dry on Monday. This was his first hit in the set. Ron Thrasher appeared with runners on the corners, but only ****ed up the game for good, allowing three straight hits to score three runs for the Rebels. Will West replaced him after that, walked Bo Hart, who was doubled off first when Butler lined out to Sandy Sambrano, which were the first outs in the game after six straight Rebels had reached base. Flores would single in the two runners still on base before Rodriguez flew out to DeWeese. The Coons were completely blown out with that crooked number on the board, and only managed one more hit against Dave Butler, who threw them a 2-hit shutout. 5-0 Rebels. Walter (PH) 1-1;

Well, no winning record any more.

Also no strange offers to buy any players of color after this one…

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C McNeela – P Munroe
RIC: 3B B. Harris – 1B A. Rodriguez – RF Kimura – LF Reya – 2B Cramer – CF Correa – C R. Lewis – SS Hart – P Knupp

The K was silent in Knupp’s name, though you wouldn’t have guessed it from seeing him whiff six Coons in four innings against just one hit (a DeWeese double). Munroe bled two runs early by allowing Justin Cramer on base in the bottom 2nd, then fell to a Jon Correa triple. We did not walk Bo Hart intentionally with two outs, and he promptly singled to run the score to 2-0. Hart was up again with two outs and two on (both having walked) in the bottom 4th, but then flew out to Ron Richards.

The visitors would suddenly be in business in the fifth inning. McNeela led off with a home run (his second career homer at age 28), and then Munroe beat Hart at short for a single. Cookie walked, representing a readily scoreable go-ahead run. However, after Walter flew out, Nunley got Carmona taken out with a grounder to Hart. While DeWeese walked to fill the bases with two outs, that put Nunley at second, and he could not score on Young’s single to center, which thus only tied the game, and left it tied when Richards silently K’ed. Singles by Munroe and Cookie with two outs in the sixth removed knocked out Knupp, but Adonis Foster (who could have been a Raccoon now*) got Shane Walter to ground out. In return, Munroe walked Kimura to start the bottom 6th, Reya singled, and with runners on the corners Munroe would get two pops for outs before Russell Lewis singled to score Kimura, Lewis’ first hit of the season.

The Raccoons would get the tying run on base with Dan Nordahl – still alive! – issuing a leadoff walk to Jones in the eighth. Margolis hit for McNeela with Rin approaching again, but hit into a double play, after which Sandy Sambrano actually reached first base and stole second, but Cookie struck out now and ended another inning with another runner in scoring position. Unremarkable ex-Coon Ray Kelley pitched a perfect ninth. 3-2 Rebels.

Raccoons (31-32) @ Loggers (30-36) – June 17-19, 2016

Four games into the season series, we were tied 2-2 with the Loggers, who were only one game removed from bringing up the rear in the CL North. The Loggers’ issue was pitching, of which they had none, reflected in their CL rank of dead-last when it came to runs allowed. Conceding 5.2 runs per game was probably not worthy of even a D-, and they had to work on that. Their offense was third in runs scored, but it was just not enough.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (5-5, 2.56 ERA) vs. Kurt Doyle (4-4, 5.40 ERA)
Hector Santos (6-3, 2.20 ERA) vs. Joey Van Buskirk (1-2, 3.86 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (2-7, 5.03 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (7-2, 3.06 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, as we are going to miss their only left-hander by a day.

Alonso Baca started a rehab assignment this weekend and could be back as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. The question was whom to demote. McNeela had an appealing average, but dumping Margolis would leave us with two left-handed batting catchers, and the lineup was distorted enough as it was.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B Young – RF Richards – C McNeela – P Brown
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – CF Cooper – 2B O. Sandoval – 3B I. Reed – P Doyle

The Coons jumped into the lead in the top of the first when Shane Walter lifted a ball outta right center, 1-0. It could have been 2-0, but Cookie’s blooper to shallow left was *just* caught by Chris LeMoine, who would later be the first Logger to hit a ball really hard off Brownie. By then Portland’s favorite son-in-law had arrived at two outs in the fourth with only two hits allowed, both soft singles. LeMoine drilled a ball to center, where Cookie laid out and caught it to end the inning. The Raccoons had had a pair on base with two outs in the third, but DeWeese’s liner to right had been caught by a leaping Oscar Sandoval to kill that opportunity. The Coons continued to be a mere nuisance with the bat – for their own fans, not those of the opposing team – and at some point a 38-year old guy that was clinging on to the last shades of his former staff had to give up a run. A leadoff walk to Tony Delgado wound up doing Brown in. By the time the Loggers tied the game in that bottom of the fifth, Andrew Cooper had replaced Delgado on the bases after a bad bunt, but was on second with Isiah Reed batting. Reed was a left-hander and the Critters fell into the trap of considering Brownie able to kill any batter, and even more so a left-hander. He couldn’t, Reed lined up the rightfield line, and Cooper scored, 1-1.

Brown also couldn’t get the heart of the Loggers’ order out in the bottom 6th. Mike Rucker walked and LeMoine singled with two outs before Delgado flew out to Cookie on a 3-1 pitch. The Coons would get Richards on with an infield single (happiness flushed through us…) in the top 7th, and McNeela also singled, bringing up Brown with one out. Hoping for good stuff, we let him hit, and he cracked a hard bouncer to the right side, but right into Rucker, who easily put him out. Cookie grounded to third, and Reed killed him as well, ending the inning with runners on second and third… The Loggers had righty Dave Walk (7.50 ERA) in the game by the eighth, trying to contain an entirely left-handed lineup. Walter hit a leadoff double to right, but when Nunley also hit one in that direction, Victor Hodgers made the play. DeWeese was not pitched to, but McKnight was, and bounced a ball to Rob Howell, who sailed his feed to Sandoval, and the Loggers got nobody, which put up Adam Young with three on and one out. Walk was probably not the right guy for this spot, but the Loggers stubbornly stuck to him anyway, which was precisely how last-place teams were made. Young FINALLY was useful, and hit a 2-0 pitch into the deep right corner, scoring two runs. Richards was walked intentionally (yes, actually!), McNeela struck out, but Sandy Sambrano beat Hodgers for a bases-clearing triple, which finally was enough damage on Walk to end his pains. Toby Wood replaced him, allowed an RBI single to Cookie, but then finally ended the inning against Walter. Kevin Beaver got the ball in the bottom 8th. Hodgers hit an infield single, advanced on an errant throw by McNeela and a passed ball, before Beaver drilled Rucker. This looked a lot like misery in the making, but LeMoine grounded to McKnight for the second out on Rucker while Hodgers scored, and after that Seung-mo Chun replaced Beaver and got the last four outs without blowing the game. 7-2 Brownies! Walter 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Young 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano (PH) 1-1, 3B, 3 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-5);

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Sambrano – C McNeela – P Santos
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – LF LeMoine – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – 3B I. Reed – C Delgado – CF Cooper – P Van Buskirk

DeWeese’s double, McKnight getting plunked, and a 4-pitch walk to Sandy loaded the bases with one out in the second inning for McNeela, who grounded to Victor Enriquez, who in turn became the second Loggers infielder in the series to miss his double play partner with a lobbed throw. Howell couldn’t come up with the ball, the first run was in, and the bases loaded for Santos, a dangerous .063 batter. A wild pitch by Van Buskirk plated the second run before Santos struck out, but Cookie brought in another run with a 2-out infield single, giving Santos a 3-0 lead. While that was already a wicked way to fall behind from the Loggers’ perspective, it got worse in the fourth inning. Sandy reached base with a leadoff walk and stole second base because Delgado couldn’t get a grip on the ball. McNeela singled through Rucker to score Sandy from second, 4-0, and Santos bunted McNeela over. Cookie hit his second infield single on the day, and Walter singled to center to score McNeela. Nunley then grounded to Enriquez, who also had to grab twice and thus failed to get any out on the next infield single, which loaded the bases for DeWeese. Mentally, Van Buskirk was dismembered already. He failed to throw a strike to DeWeese, which forced a run home on the 4-pitch walk, 6-0. That was it. The Loggers replaced him with Tom Nelson, a right-hander with good stuff, but ill control, who conceded single runs on Young’s single to center and McKnight’s sac fly to left, then walked Sambrano to restock the bags. McNeela hit a ball to deep left, where LeMoine totally sold out to keep the Coons from taking a double-digit lead, 8-0 in the middle of the fourth, with Santos being good, but not great, having allowed a few hard flies already. The Loggers would get onto the board in the bottom 5th in ironic fashion (this entire game was a mild joke, or an insult if you were a baseball purist) with the reliever Nelson doubling off Santos, who then dropped a feed from Young at first base to add Hodgers to the mix. One out, Howell singled to right center, which scored Nelson, but Hodgers was thrown out by Sandy at third base, helping Santos to end the inning quicker. That unearned run was all the damage the Loggers did to Santos, who went seven and a third, retiring with 92 pitches after Rob Howell had flown out to deep center, roamed by Cookie. The pen created an instant mess when Sugano walked the entire middle of the order and didn’t retire anybody. Mathis replaced him to face Isiah Reed, threw one pitch that was grounded to Bergquist at second base and converted into a double play to end the inning. McKnight countered with a solo shot in the ninth inning that was the final scribble to this day’s box score. 9-1 Raccoons! Carmona 3-4, BB, RBI; Stubbs (PH) 1-1; Young 2-5, RBI; Sambrano 0-1, 4 BB; Santos 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (7-3); Mathis 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – RF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Abe
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – LF LeMoine – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – 3B I. Reed – C Delgado – CF Cooper – P Cope

Cope struggled in the first inning and after Cookie’s leadoff double walked Sambrano and DeWeese, but Victor Hodgers limited the damage to one run when he spoiled drives to deep right by both Young and McKnight. Hodgers was hurting the Coons all over, hitting a triple in the bottom 1st to handily score the tying run, but of course Tadasu Abe hadn’t been good since his second start of the year… At least for now it didn’t get any worse, and Matt Nunley hit a solo shot in the third inning to put the Coons ahead again. While Cope hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, the Loggers didn’t get him around. Top 5th, Cookie drew a leadoff walk and ended up on third base after Tony Delgado’s throw to second on his stolen base attempt could not be contained by Howell. Nunley plated him with a single, 3-1, advanced on DeWeese’s groundout, and scored on Young’s single, 4-1. McKnight singled, and then Howard Jones found the gap in left center with a vicious liner that stopped dead against the wall. Both runners scored and Jones slid in with a 2-out triple! While the Coons had more chances that were without exception eventually spoiled by Hodgers alone, like him spearing a Nunley drive to deep right with Cookie on third base in the eighth inning, Abe turned up the volume as soon as he had a comfortable lead, and simply turned away the Loggers from the fifth inning through to two outs in the eighth, when Zach Knowling dropped in a pinch-hit double, but Hodgers couldn’t come through with the bat. Howell struck out to start the ninth before LeMoine walked. Rucker popped out, but Abe lost Enriquez in a full count. Isiah Reed was a left-hander, and anyway Abe’s last batter, which Oberst von Lindenthal explained to him in person and through volume and wild waving with his arms alone – no need for an interpreter – but it worked. Reed struck out, and Abe had a complete game win to bounce back from his recent struggles. 6-1 Critters! Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Nunley 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Young 3-4, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-4; Abe 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (3-7) and 1-4;

In other news

June 14 – ATL SP Pancho Trevino (4-3, 4.28 ERA) gets a no-decision in his 500th career game, a 5-4 loss to the Pacifics, allowing four runs in 6.1 innings. Of note, however, is his strikeout of Foster Leach in the third inning, which puts him into the 3,000 strikeouts club. The 36-year old Puerto Rican is only the ninth member of the club. Starting his career with the Thunder in 2000, Trevino had his most successful time with the Crusaders, having a hand in their five most recent championships (2008-09, 2013-15). He was an All Star three times. For his career, he is 222-146 with a 3.59 ERA.
June 16 – The Falcons churn out nine runs in the eighth inning to come from behind and secure a 10-4 win against the Scorpions.
June 19 – Wolves and Scorpions combine for seven home runs in their Sunday game, with the Wolves coming out on top, 6-5, despite trailing in homers, 4-3.

Complaints and stuff

Trevino is closing in on Brownie rather rapidly, up to 3,009 K, with Brownie seemingly stuck at 3,040.

Top 5 series this year by Raccoons’ runs scored:
22 – Loggers (June 17-19)
21 – Loggers (May 16-19)
18 – Crusaders (June 6-9)
16 – Knights (April 22-24)
15 – Aces (April 8-10)

MORE LOGGERS PLEASE!!

True fact: there’s no pitcher in AAA even remotely deserving a promotion to fill Toner’s spot in the rotation come Tuesday. Jeff Magnotta would be the default option but … it’s ugly. He was 42 walks against 31 strikeouts this season. He’s another log to throw onto the fire of forgotten draft busts.

We will send Will West back to AAA to make room on the roster. The 40-man roster is full, so the call could go to Magnotta after all for a lack of other options, although we could shift Juan Medina to the 60-day DL to open a spot.

Odd fact: Sandy Sambrano’s four walks on Saturday tied a populated franchise record, but it was actually the first time in six years that a Raccoon had drawn four walks in a game. Most recently, Adrian Quebell and Ron Alston had achieved four walks – in consecutive games in August of 2010. Daniel Hall and Clyde Brady did it three times.

Re Adonis Foster: I had a deal lined up last July to flip Stan Murphy for him, then describing him as the Bill Conway type (when Conway was decent). We have a fourth supplemental round pick for not doing that trade, so let’s see what our last supplemental round pick will bring.