[Westheim]

Raccoons (34-32) vs. Indians (31-37) – June 20-22, 2016

The two worst offensive teams would be pitted against another in this 3-game set, with the Indians’ 252 runs scored ranking 11th, six counters better than the Coons’ league-worst 246 runs. Their pitching was quite good and efficient, and was good enough for the fourth-least runs conceded in the league, despite a more mediocre rotation, which could rely on the second-best bullpen. Coming into this series, they were in a tremendous rut, having lost seven straight games prior to a 6-2 win over Boston on Sunday, and they had only won four games in the entire month. This season series was so far tied, 3-3.

Projected matchups:
Chris Munroe (2-4, 3.26 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (5-7, 4.53 ERA)
Jeff Magnotta (0-0) vs. Kyle Lamb (0-2, 5.75 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-5, 2.47 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (3-4, 3.84 ERA)

Magnotta would be in there due to a total lack of other ideas. We could have tried Blake Kelly, our 2012 seventh-rounder, but he also had grief control issues, so why not stick to the stick that didn’t stick the first time? Magnotta will oppose the Indians’ only southpaw, Lamb. This is only a stopgap solution for this one game and Magnotta will be back to AAA afterwards. We have another off day on Thursday ahead of playing for 17 days straight before the All Star Game, but with the off day we will not need another guy until the following Tuesday rather than this Sunday.

Game 1
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – SS Matias – 3B Tolwith – P Weise
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C McNeela – P Munroe

It would be interesting to see how pulling all the left-handed registers against the obligatorily opposing Tom Weise would work, but the left-handers quite definitely worked for the Indians against rule 5 pick Chris Munroe. He walked Josh Baker in the first, John Wilson singled, the Indians scored the first run on Jong-beom Kym’s sac fly (who was not a left-hander), and Nick Gilmor, another left-handed batter, also singled before Dave Padilla flew out to very deep right. The Coons in the bottom 1st opened with consecutive doubles by Cookie and Shane Walter before simply stopping. Back to the Indians in the top 2nd, Munroe hit Tom Weise to give the Indians a 2-out runner, then fell to an RBI double by Baker, singles by Wilson and Kym, which ran the score to 3-1, and then Richards had to dash after the next drive to very deep right to pick a Guerra rocket off the fence. The Indians would only score one run from having the bases loaded with no outs in the third inning, but it was pretty obvious that Munroe had absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile, the Coons’ catching dilemma resolved itself when Tom McNeela limped off the field after legging out an infield single in the bottom of the second inning. That single put two on with one out, Munroe bunted them over into scoring position, but Cookie flew out to Wilson in center to end the inning. The Coons would go on to strand pairs of runners in the next two innings, scoring one run in between on a Nunley groundout. Munroe put up zeroes in the fourth and fifth before finally some power came through. DeWeese hit a leadoff double in the bottom 5th before Adam Young hit a no-doubter to right center – WELL outta here. This, only his fifth homer for the team, and the first in almost a month, out of a hoped-for 25, put the Raccoons even at four. McKnight doubled right afterwards, only to be stranded, but Tom Weise then hit a leadoff double in the top 6th and was promptly scored on productive outs, giving the lead back to the Indians, their third in the game.

Munroe was gone after a leadoff single by Guerra in the seventh, but Seung-mo Chun bailed him out. The bottom 7th saw a leadoff single to center by DeWeese, representing the tying run, before Adam Young grounded to the right side. Kym made a lunging stop, but the ball broke free when he hit the ground, and the required second grab gave Young enough time to leg out an infield single without dismembering himself like McNeela had done. McKnight’s dull fly out to left was as close as the Raccoons came to tying the game; Richards struck out and Margolis rolled out to Raul Matias. The Raccoons also stranded the tying run on second base in the eighth inning when Cookie had doubled and then came emptiness. The ninth saw Jarrod Morrison, a right-hander, chainsaw them off in just three batters. 5-4 Indians. Carmona 2-5, 2 2B; Walter 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; DeWeese 3-5, 2B; Young 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-5, 2B; McNeela 1-1; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

We out-hit them 14-11, and it seems like even six doubles and a homer among 14 hits is not enough to score a decent amount of runs with this team of open sores.

McNeela had a tender hamstring, which would require at least two weeks of rest, which resulted in a switch of catchers between the roster and DL, as Alonso Baca was activated from his rehab assignment in AAA, though facing a southpaw on Tuesday the next start would actually go to Margolis. In another roster move, Will West (4.2 IP, 0 R, 4 K) was sent back to AAA to make room for Jeff Magnotta, who had pitched to a 6.05 ERA in 19.1 innings in the Bigs last year, and had a 5.42 ERA in AAA this year, with 46 walks opposed by 37 strikeouts. Last year in St. Pete, he had still had 90 K to 67 walks…

Game 2
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – SS Matias – 3B Tolwith – P Lamb
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS Jones – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – RF Stubbs – P Magnotta

Josh Baker opened the game with a hard single, but Magnotta held the Indians off the board for two innings. Raul Matias would open the third with a double off the centerfield wall, an already unpleasant event, but that was nothing against Kyle Lamb’s 1-out double up the rightfield line that scored Matias for the first run of the game. A walk to Baker and Wilson’s single loaded the bases and sent the bullpen stretching, but Jong-beom Kym hit into a double play. Magnotta was bailed out with a double play once more in the fourth before the ground swallowed him whole in the fifth. A leadoff walk to Aaron Tolwith opened the abyss. After Lamb’s bunt, the Indians put Baker and Wilson on with consecutive infield singles, and Magnotta registered only one more out from the next four batters, with doubles flying all over the park. Also, a wild pitch. John Korb got a fly out to center from Matias to end the inning with runners on the corners, but the Raccoons were down 5-0 and had so far not shown any offensive ambitions.

There were bad news for the Indians, though. Kyle Lamb allowed a leadoff walk to Danny Margolis in the bottom 5th before Matt Stubbs singled to left. The pitching coach and trainer hustled out after that, having seen something not to their liking, and Lamb was removed on the spot. Right-hander Mike Daniels took over, first facing Korb, who bunted over the runners to give Cookie a good chance to score two, which he promptly did with a single to center, 5-2. Korb would put the Coons into the seventh, but allowed a 1-out double to Kym. Guerra grounded out, with Sugano called on to retire Nick Gilmor and end the inning. Gilmor homered in a full count, which pretty much put Sugano on the heap of broken toys for good, and also put the game far out of reach for good. The Indians piled on another two runs in both the eighth and ninth innings, three of which were on Gallegos, and the last one was on Beaver, who became the second left-handed reliever on the day to allow a 2-run homer to left-handed batter Nick Gilmor. 11-2 Indians. Carmona 2-4, 2 RBI; Bergquist 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1;

Four and two thirds, 11 hits and five runs is probably not a good resume if you want to apply for more starts.

Or not being removed from the 40-man roster.

I also heard there shouting and some thudding sounds in the Raccoons’ locker room after the game, but I am too afraid to investigate.

Two roster moves were being made after this game, with Magnotta dumped back where he didn’t belong, either, but could do damage to his team less visibly, and Matt Stubbs was also dropped, batting .174 in limited usage. Jimmy Fucito (…….) was promoted from Ham Lake (!!), where he had batted .348/.455/.587 since being dumped there to become the right-handed non-presence in the outfield. Also up: right-hander Gary Dupes, 26, the third piece of the Cookie/Dingus trade that was still in the organization, although he was relegated to swingman duties in AAA, pitghing to a 3.12 ERA this season, but also with high walk numbers.

Dupes was already on the 40-man roster, but Fucito wasn’t. Juan Medina was moved to the 60-day DL – he was not expected to return this season anyway.

Game 3
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – C Padilla – RF Gilmor – 3B Tolwith – LF Baker – P Lambert
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – SS McKnight – C Baca – RF Richards – P Brown

Alonso Baca homered in his first plate appearance since returning from injury, plating McKnight to give the Coons their first lead in the series, 2-0 in the bottom 2nd. DeWeese added a run with a sac fly in the third inning. Nick Brown didn’t fool anybody, but utilized our ‘special’ baseballs with metal core, and Slappy had flicked on the power to the magnetic layer under the infield, driving the Indians nuts with grounder after grounder after grounder. Then he came to bat in the bottom 4th, seeing three on with no outs after a walk to McKnight and consecutive singles by Baca and Richards. Brownie was the first of two foul pop victims in the inning, with only Cookie chasing a run home with a sac fly hit to center, 4-0. Nunley hit a leadoff single in the fifth, DeWeese walked, and Nunley scored on productive outs (yay!) to bring the score to 5-0.

Something happened between innings then, because in the sixth the Indians suddenly whacked the ball. Opening with two hard singles by Wilson and Matias they put runners on the corners. Brown gave his all, and was lucky that Kym smacked a ball right to Nunley. While that was only good for an out at second base and Wilson scored, 5-1, the Indians would not get another hit in the inning and a subtle inspection by Oberst von Lindenthal (who dug a trench along the first base line after the unsuccessful bottom of the sixth) found that the metal layer under the field was no longer magnetic. After the game we would find out that Slappy had boozed and had fallen asleep in the control room, knocking over the evil lever for exactly this park ‘feature’. Brownie switched back to regular baseballs and struck out the side in the seventh to the delight of the home crowd. Brownie got one more out in the seventh after walking Mike Denny initially, and Chris Mathis took over with the lefty Wilson being disposed of with an easy fly to left. While the first thing that Mathis did would be a balk to move Denny to scoring position, the Indians never got another base runner against either him or Seung-mo Chun in the ninth inning, and this one was Brownie’s. 5-1 Brownies! Nunley 2-4; DeWeese 1-2, BB, RBI; Baca 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Richards 2-4, 2B; Brown 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (7-5);

Raccoons (35-34) @ Aces (39-34) – June 24-26, 2016

The Aces were in the – for them – unusual position of being in the hunt, sitting 1 1/2 games out in the South. They were the third-best offensive team in the league and had average pitching with a soft and squishy bullpen. The season series stood at 2-1 in their favor.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (7-3, 2.02 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (8-3, 4.28 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (3-7, 4.59 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (6-5, 4.13 ERA)
Chris Munroe (2-5, 3.61 ERA) vs. Alonso Alonso (3-7, 5.90 ERA)

The Aces only had right-handed starting pitchers. They could skip Alonso to bring Juan Valdevez (6-3, 2.15 ERA) into this series, however.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – SS McKnight – C Baca – RF Richards – P Santos
LVA: 1B Bovane – RF B. Miller – SS Burke – CF Struck – C D. Rice – 2B R. Walsh – LF Hubbard – 3B Reeve – P Hinkley

Hinkley’s leadoff walk to Cookie in the first inning cost him, as DeWeese rapped his 11th homer of the year to put the Raccoons up early, 2-0. In a perfect world you’d relax know and let your 2.02 ERA guy do his thing, but while Santos had a quick first inning, the second saw deep drives by Geoff Struck and Danny Rice defused on the track by Richards and Carmona, respectively, before Rich Walsh hit one out to cut the lead in half. Jimmy Hubbard hit a hard single to left, enough to look after Santos, who claimed to be fine and ended the inning with a K to Ron Reeve. Santos threw hard and the Aces swung hard, resulting either in no contact or very hard contact. McKnight homered in the top of the fourth, only the Coons’ second hit against Hinkley, but Santos gave the additional run right back with two hard hits against him in the bottom of the inning. In a disturbing contrast to Brownie’s game on Wednesday, every ball put in play by the Aces was usually enough to sound the alarm. He also had six strikeouts through four innings, but the bottom 5th opened in cringing fashion with Hinkley (!) hitting a ball so ****ing hard right at Nunley that survival instinct took over for Matt and he turned away and swiped to keep the damn ball off his face. That worked to a certain degree – the ball was kept in the infield, Nunley kept all his teeth, but he was assessed an error. The 3-2 lead was then protected by Cookie and Richards making circus plays on Bill Miller and Brent Burke, respectively.

Shane Walter’s leadoff single in the sixth was the Critters’ first hit not a homer in this game, and the Aces probably made a mistake by not pitching Nunley hard in to unnerve him after just barely holding on to his little black nose in the field before. Nunley didn’t swing at anything and walked eventually. DeWeese grounded out, but Young put another knife in the team effort with a glaring strikeout. McKnight bounced one over to Bovane – who inexplicably missed a perfectly playable ball, leaving McKnight with a stunning 2-out, 2-run single to right. The two runs proved to be not much cushion soon enough, with Santos rocked for another three hits and two runs in the bottom of the inning before departing the game in shame. More shame in the eighth, as Sugano was put in for a string of left-handers, walked Struck and Rice and was then chased from the game. Thrasher took over, with Bobby Diersing bunting the tying run to third and the go-ahead run to second base, now with one out. Rusty Beard popped out before Thrasher obliterated Reeve with a 2-2 heater to spoil the Aces’ chance. Cookie got on and was caught stealing in the top of the ninth, so no insurance run from there, either, and Thrasher remained in the game in the bottom ninth. Ahmed Williams struck out before Raúl Bovane singled. Bill Miller struck out, and then he hit Burke. Putting in Kevin Beaver for Geoff Struck would probably be as much of a folly as leaving Thrasher in to blow the game, and we were committed now. Oberst von Lindenthal did a flyover with a Douglas Skymaster and dropped a supply crate with a hand-written pep talk: “GET TO ****ING WORK!” Struck grounded out to Sandy Sambrano at second to end the inning. 5-4 Furballs. Walter 2-4; McKnight 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Thrasher 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (7);

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – RF Sambrano – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – C Baca – 2B H. Jones – P Abe
LVA: LF Flack – RF B. Miller – SS Burke – CF Struck – C D. Rice – 2B R. Walsh – 1B Bovane – 3B Reeve – P N. Jones

The Raccoons again jumped out to a lead in the first inning, this time with a triple by Walter, DeWeese walking, and Adam Young doubling into the corner in rightfield. The 1-0 lead was soon obliterated with Abe loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom 1st. Adam Flack singled, Miller doubled, and Burke walked. While Struck hit into a double play, a run scored there, and Miller scored on Danny Rice’s single. Cookie would tie the game with a 2-out RBI single in the second inning, and the score would remain 2-2 through six for two main reasons. First, the Raccoons did little to no hitting, and second, Abe kept getting bailed out by the defense. Cookie made a breakneck play in the fourth inning, and Jones and Walter each started a direly needed double play in the fifth and sixth innings. That was it for Abe, who was hit for to start the seventh. Nunley singled in his spot, Sandy Sambrano also singled, and then Walter hit into a double play. In the eighth inning, both teams went on to make outs on the base paths. DeWeese was caught stealing by Danny Rice, while the Aces had Rice on second base with two outs in the bottom 8th, the result of yet another Sugano walk. Chris Mathis allowed a single to center to Ahmed Williams, with Rice sent around third base, only to find himself thrown out by Cookie Carmona. The game remained tied. Both leftfielders made two sparkling plays each in the ninth inning to deny any offense and send the game to extras, where the tie was broken in the 11th. Michael Sieben pitched for the Aces in his second inning and had allowed Alonso Baca on base with a single. Jones made the second out before Nunley came up with two hits in two appearances since pinch-hitting earlier. He got his third one, a rocket blast high and deep to right, and gone! The Aces would show us three left-handers in the bottom 11th, and with Sugano and Beaver already used, we were in a bit of a bad spot. Thrasher was sent out after having thrown 31 pitches the previous day. He struck out Rice and Walsh in full counts before Ahmed Williams grounded out to Sambrano on first base. 4-2 Coons. Carmona 2-6, RBI; Young 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Nunley (PH) 3-3, HR, 2 RBI; Mathis 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (3-1);

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 2B Sambrano – RF Richards – C Margolis – P Munroe
LVA: LF Flack – RF B. Miller – SS Burke – CF Struck – C D. Rice – 2B R. Walsh – 1B A. Williams – 3B Reeve – P A. Alonso

Offense was low early on in this game. While Munroe was struggling with control, the Aces had only one hit in the first four innings, a Williams double, which moved Rich Walsh to third base in the bottom 2nd, from where Ron Reeve scored him with a sac fly. The Coons didn’t make that run up until the fifth. Young singled, was forced out by Sambrano, but Sandy then stole second base and came home on Ron Richards’ single. The Aces would have two hard singles in the bottom 5th, but Geoff Struck’s liner was caught mid-flight by Sambrano before it could get into centerfield, denying the Aces another lead. Instead, the Coons grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the top of the sixth. Walter hit a 1-out single, after which Nunley hit one hard to deep left, but was denied on the track by Adam Flack. DeWeese then walked, and Young singled to center, plating Walter from second base.

Munroe lasted six and two thirds with the lead, but when he got back to the top of the order, we saw two left-handers there, then the righty Burke, then another four left-handed bats. With Sugano and Thrasher having been used in both games in this set already, this was a case for the Beaver, hopefully. Adam Flack hit an infield single to immediately dampen the mood, but then was caught stealing by Margolis, who bumped his CS% to a meager 25% with this good throw. Alonso was still going in the eighth, which was a dangerous game by the Aces. Walter hit another 1-out single and Nunley walked to build pressure, but still no reliever in sight. And why would they bother with a reliever? DeWeese grounded out and Young flailed embarrassingly to end the inning, but Beaver was burned with three hard singles by Beard, Diersing, and Rice in the bottom of the inning to not only blow the lead, but also fall 3-2 behind. Michael Sieben, the loser on Saturday, retired McKnight, Richards, and Baca in order to end the game. 3-2 Aces. Walter 2-4; Young 2-4, RBI; Munroe 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

More shouting in the locker room. I will pretend they are discussing who has the prettiest jewelry while I pack my **** so we can get to the airport.

In other news

June 21 – There are no less than six half-innings of 3+ runs in the Falcons’ 14-9 win over the Bayhawks. CHA LF/RF Domino Nieves (.304, 3 HR, 19 RBI) contributes by going 4-for-5 with a double and a homer, plating five.
June 24 – The Crusaders’ and Bayhawks’ 12-inning game ends in favor of the home team with NYC 3B Alex Rivas (.248, 8 HR, 39 RBI) belting a walkoff grand slam off Jayden Maness.
June 25 – The Gold Sox not only rout the Capitals, 13-0, but they also score all of their runs right in the first inning. After the 13-run top of the first the game becomes a bit of a lull, though.
June 26 – The Warriors’ Jose Flores (8-5, 3.73 ERA) spins a 5-hit shutout in the Warriors’ 14-0 rout of the Rebels.

Complaints and stuff

We are currently seventh in the power rankings. I don’t know what they’re smoking at BNN, but I want some. Chad, our resident glue sniffer, too.

This week I could have done some trades and didn’t do them. One would have been a flip of Jason Bergquist for the Capitals’ Calvin Morris, a right-hander making an open stink in D.C. for not being in the rotation. Truth be told, his career record was not exactly a recommendation letter for a starting job, but we had a hole to fill, maybe two if Munroe was on the downwards trend. But I didn’t do that, despite Bergquist being about fourth on the depth chart at second base right now. The Capitals also tried to get rid of Toki Hayashi, a right-handed outfield bat, but Hayashi was in a terrible rut and was making $2M this year, which was not a good combo (especially with the international free agent period right around the corner). The Cyclones had 3B Pedro Cruz available, but there was the slight issue of us already having a very good third baseman in Matt Nunley, and neither had experience anywhere else.

Ron Richards notified me that the clubhouse was a right mess and that he couldn’t bare the negative factors in there. I had to remove them.

Dear Ron, nobody’s going to accept your pelt in any trade, and DeWeese might be an asshole, but he’s the only guy hitting for any vague power. He also has a shot at 90 RBI, which would be something for this rotten team…

In that 13-run inning game on Saturday, the Capitals got three shutout innings from Cássio Boda in long relief. Boda has been up and down between the majors and AAA ever since they acquired him in 2009. Last year he actually managed a decent season, going 8-5 with a 3.35 ERA in 22 games (20 starts), pitching 137 big league innings, the most in his career at age 32. Overall he’s 28-27 with a 4.00 ERA in 97 games, including a lot of bouncing.

Funny exercise! Let’s analyze the two Boda trades! We got him from the Titans in January of 2006 in the package for Al Martin (and a 12th-rounder that never made the majors) that made room for Adrian Quebell to take over on first base. The other incoming players were certified flashes in the pan J.C. Crespo and Ricardo Martinez. Besides Martinez having one of those great half-seasons to replace Danny Sharp on the field (but not in our hearts), almost driving Nick Brown up a tree with his butcherous defense at third base, and this deal also ruining Al Martin’s career, it also set the points for eight-and-a-half years of being annoyed over Quebell. The outward trade was at first unspectacular, receiving Pat White from the Capitals at the winter meetings in 2009. White did little of note here, but that had been true for Boda, too.

White was later included with Brett Gentry in the trade with the Buffaloes that brought Joe Cowan and Danny Margolis to Portland, with us still suffering through the latter. Ricardo Martinez, interestingly, netted us Bill Conway from the Rebels in November of 2010, which if nothing else at least created an interesting story line with him leading the CL ERA race in August of 2014 only to explode in September. Now with the Gold Sox, he’s employed exclusively in relief, while Martinez is still giving pitchers shivers, but has only 171 big league at-bats since being dumped by the Rebels after 2012. He got those with the Gold Sox in 2015, but batted .199 for it.