[Westheim]

Raccoons (50-52) @ Aces (52-54) – August 1-3, 2016

August started with a series against a team that had played four more games so far. The season series was split at three so far. The Aces, who had won their last four games, were ranked seventh in both runs scored and runs allowed. While not having any particular weakness, they sure had no strengths either. In the 22 common offensive and defensive categories that the ABL tracked, the Aces didn’t rank better than fifth in *any* of them.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (7-7, 4.08 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (9-8, 4.40 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.37 ERA) vs. Garret Purifoy (2-0, 3.24 ERA)
Hector Santos (9-5, 2.53 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (8-7, 2.67 ERA)

The Aces are yet another team without a left-handed pitcher. With the established Nehemiah Jones on the disabled list, Garret Purifoy had taken a slot in the rotation. The 31-year old would make only his third major league start against the Raccoons here. His major league experience prior to his call-up to replace Jones had been limited to 17 relief appearances in 2014, also with the Aces, during which he had pitched to a 6.43 ERA.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C Baca – P Abe
LVA: LF Hubbard – CF Flack – 1B T. Ramos – SS Burke – C D. Rice – 2B Walsh – RF J. Alexander – 3B Reeve – P Hinkley

Abe didn’t exactly react well to facing six left-handed batters and was rapped hard and often by the Aces from the start. They scored a run in the first on three hits, and two more runs in the second, including a home run by ex-Coon John Alexander. Those were all the runs that the Aces got off Abe in six innings, but they also hit a few hard balls right at defenders. In the same time, the Raccoons managed only three hits off Hinkley, and one run, and that scored after Hinkley had loaded the bases entirely through walks, but with one out the best that Ronnie McKnight could come up with was a run-scoring groundout. Another scoring opportunity wouldn’t transpire until the seventh inning. Howard Jones hit for Abe and walked with one out, with Hinkley also walking Shane Walter (his sixth free pass issued in the game). Nunley singled to center, setting up R.J. DeWeese with two outs and the bases loaded.

What happened next can only be described with the assumption that the Aces were even more cursed than the Raccoons. Not only did DeWeese’s fly to center get dropped by Adam Flack to score the tying runs, no, the go-ahead run also came home when Rich Walsh’s feed to first on Young’s following grounder hit the edge of Tony Ramos’ glove and bounced back to the man at the keystone, who looked on in disbelief as the Raccoons took a double-unearned 4-3 lead. Also slightly disconnected with his team: William HInkley. He stayed in to allow an RBI single to McKnight, 5-3, all four runs in the inning unearned. It was not Ramos’ last error in the inning, either. With one out in the ninth inning he also thoroughly annoyed reliever Steve Rob by throwing away McKnight’s grounder. This loaded the bases, with DeWeese and Young lingering ahead of McKnight. Rob rolled up and died after smacking Ron Richards with an 0-2 pitch to shove home the Coons’ sixth, and fifth unearned, run in the game. Further damage was done by Sandy Sambrano with a 2-out RBI single and Jimmy Fucito also came up with a 2-run single, pinch-hitting for Kevin Beaver. 9-3 Critters. Fucito (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-5, 2 RBI;

All in all, seven of our runs in this game were unearned. That’s apparently what a ninth-place defense looks like.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C Baca – P Brown
LVA: LF Hubbard – CF Flack – SS Burke – 1B T. Ramos – C Diersing – 2B Walsh – RF M. Cook – 3B I. Alvarez – P Purifoy

The Raccoons didn’t run into a 3-hit shutout against the hardcore replacement pitcher Purifoy, who was charged with two runs in the first inning on Adam Young’s 2-out double that chased home Walter and DeWeese. While Nick Brown continued his no-strikeouts, lots-of-grounders ways in not quite perfect fashion – the Aces were only stopped by timely double plays in the first two innings – the Aces continued to not get much from their starting pitcher. Young and McKnight were on base in the fourth inning for an RBI double by Richards. Baca was walked intentionally to bring up Brownie with no outs and the bags full. In an 0-2 count he unfortunately made contact and rolled over to Rich Walsh for a run-scoring double play. Cookie then popped out – the ground was opening under him as he was now 1-for-16.

While Brown was not much to look at, the Aces continued to get foiled by the defense, while Purifoy merely made it through the middle innings by luck that the Coons didn’t get all of the junk he threw. In the fifth and sixth combined, they made no less than four outs onto or close to the warning track, and never scored, with Jimmy Hubbard making another spectacular catch running *in* when Brownie looped one to left with two on and two out in the sixth. Only in the seventh inning did finally someone whack a ball outta here, and it was DeWeese, ending Purifoy’s messy outing with a 2-out, 2-run homer to right. The Aces looked like they would finally score on Nick Brown in the bottom 7th when Brent Burke led off with a double to left center. Bobby Diersing’s 1-out infield single didn’t improve his situation until Rich Walsh whiffed and Mike Cook grounded out to Nunley, leaving the 6-0 shutout intact, and that on 80 pitches. The eighth saw the Aces go down 1-2-3, ending with a K to Hubbard, and Brownie would start the ninth on 91 pitches and a 7-0 lead (Cookie had opened the top 9th with an infield single, had stolen a base and scored on Nunley’s groundout). He faced three batters, retired none of them, and was replaced by Mathis with Adam Flack having scored on two singles after a leadoff walk. Bobby Diersing hit into a double play and Rich Walsh grounded to first to end the game. 7-1 Brownies! Walther 4-5; DeWeese 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Young 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Richards 2-4, 2B, RBI; Baca 1-2, 2 BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (11-6);

Both Cookie and Nunley were slumping right now, while Adam Young was starting to hit a bit more. The first two would get their obligatory day off a bit early during this 20-game stretch and sit out the last game of the series. Also a day off: Baca. We play the Loggers on the weekend, and while they do have a left-handed starter, Carlos Michel (6-4, 4.53 ERA), he will start on Wednesday and will thus miss our upcoming 4-game set, so there’s no point in leaving Margolis for later. It’s not like Baca is tearing out trees.

Game 3
POR: 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – CF Sambrano – C Margolis – P Santos
LVA: C D. Rice – CF Flack – 1B T. Ramos – SS Burke – RF Struck – 2B Walsh – LF A. Williams – 3B I. Alvarez – P Valdevez

If Hector Santos’ K/BB ratio of 6.1 was already impressive, Juan Valdevez’ of 9.1 was almost unbelievable. He had walked only 11 against 100 K this season, but allowed a double to left to Shane Walter to start the game. The run scored on Adam Young’s single although Young himself got himself thrown out on the bases, but Santos had a 1-0 lead with a probably pitching duel in the cards. Except that the duel never materialized – none of the pitchers was anywhere close to his top performance.

Santos allowed fat contact all the time to all fields. For four innings, the defense prevented damage, but by the fifth inning that came apart. Geoff Struck led off with a double, scored on a single by Ahmed Williams, and with two outs Valdevez doubled home the leftfielder. The Coons remained ahead, because Ronnie McKnight had whacked two extra-base hits off Valdevez already, including a 2-run homer in the third that was now keeping Santos afloat, 3-2. Valdevez was out of the game by the sixth inning in which the Coons had Sandy Sambrano (double) and Margolis (single) on the corners. Santos lined out softly to Walsh, but when left-hander Kevin Johnston replaced Valdevez, he allowed a 2-out RBI single to Walter, another single to McKnight, but Young flew out to right center and Struck with the bases loaded, leaving the score at 4-2.

Another run came home in the seventh inning in dubious circumstances again. Howard Jones drew a 2-out walk from Johnston before scoring on a stolen base, a wild pitch, and Rich Walsh not being able to play Sandy’s grounder, leaving him with an RBI single. Santos then didn’t get through the bottom 7th, knocked out after hard 2-out singles by Williams and Izzy Alvarez. Ron Thrasher came on with John Alexander appearing as the tying run in the box – and walked him in a full count. He ran another full count to Danny Rice atop the order, but Rice got greedy and struck out, ending the inning with the tying runs aboard. The score remained at 5-2 into the bottom 9th with Manobu Sugano being assigned the save opportunity with three left-handed bats coming up in Struck, Walsh, and Williams. None of them reached base. 5-2 Coons. Walter 4-5, 2B, RBI; McKnight 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Young 2-5, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Sambrano 3-5, 2B, RBI; Margolis 2-5; Santos 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; W (10-5);

R.J. DeWeese had back-to-back games with three strikeouts for the first time since singing with the Coons. We didn’t really see this coming after he had put up no strikeouts in the three games before that. However, in the 15 games before *that* (July 10-29) he had whiffed in *every* game at least once, and 24 times total. He had previously not struck out for three consecutive games once, in the May 23-25 series against the Bayhawks.

The single that Izzy Alvarez hit off Hector Santos was the first major league hit for the 21-year old Dominican, who was promoted to the major league roster Tuesday after Ron Reeve hurt his hamstring in the series opener. He was not placed on the DL – the Aces believed they’d have Reeve back by the weekend.

In parenthesis I shall state this as soon as we’re out of state: with Reeve batting .212 with a pile of strikeouts I’d rather hope for a life-saving amputation, but to each his own.

Raccoons (53-52) vs. Loggers (46-62) – August 4-7, 2016

While the Raccoons had put up their first 3-game sweep since doing the same to the Loggers in June, those same Loggers came in having been thoroughly humiliated by Nick Brown’s strikeout race partner, Pancho Trevino, who had spun a 3-hitter with 11 strikeouts against them on Wednesday. Not only were the Loggers, who had shown some promise last year, but had since dealt some of their few assets, firmly in last place in the North, and had lost five of seven to the Raccoons so far, no, they really didn’t have any pitching at all, allowing almost five-and-a-half runs per game, by far rock bottom in the ABL. Their fifth-place offense couldn’t cope, and their run differential was -99.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (4-5, 3.02 ERA) vs. Kurt Doyle (5-9, 5.55 ERA)
Chris Munroe (4-7, 3.58 ERA) vs. Tom Nelson (2-3, 3.55 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (8-7, 4.10 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (11-7, 3.80 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-6, 2.30 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (7-13, 6.09 ERA)

Like I said, lefty Carlos Michel went on Wednesday and disappeared without much whistle against Pancho Trevino. The set at hand is entirely right-handed.

We will not see ex-Coon Rob Howell in this series, as he’s on the DL with a quad strain.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Delgado – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – SS J.J. Rodriguez – 2B Best – P Doyle
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 3B Nunley – RF Fucito – C Baca – P Toner

A J.J. Rodriguez error on Matt Nunley’s grounder in the bottom 2nd would get the Raccoons going in the first game on their new homestand. This moved Young to third after his leadoff double, and Baca scored him with a groundout. Toner reached on an infield single – more shoddy defense here – before Cookie Carmona tried to break out of his slump with a rip and belted a 3-run homer to right! Four runs scored in the inning – all unearned. The cushion was sizable, but Toner was not wasteful with it either. While he had a few control issues and had his pitch count rise early on, he allowed only one hit through five innings while whiffing seven. A shutout was not in the books however as he needed 73 pitches to get there. While the Loggers couldn’t hit Toner, Kurt Doyle was charged with two more runs in the fifth inning, courtesy of back-to-back homers by DeWeese and Young. The wind seemed to have picked up a bit here, and the Loggers finally also got to participate; pinch-hitter Brad Gore socked a homer off Jonny in the sixth inning, but the Loggers remained behind by five runs while Toner pitched seven innings before departing. The distance remained the same to the finish, although both teams hit another 2-run homer: McKnight for the Critters off Robby Delikat in the seventh, and Tony Delgado for the Loggers in the ninth, hitting one off Kevin Beaver. 8-3 Raccoons! Walter 3-4, 3B, 2B; McKnight 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, HR, RBI; Young 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (5-5) and 1-3;

R.J. DeWeese hit his 20th home run of the season. The team gave him a VERY silent treatment.

We have now won six in a row, scoring 6.5 runs per game. I have a hunch that this will not hold up for much longer. Although, looking at the Loggers’ staff……

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – C T. Delgado – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – 3B Landeros – SS J.J. Rodriguez – CF Gore – 2B Best – P Nelson
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – 2B Bergquist – C Baca – P Munroe

A 30+ pitches first inning ended with Rodriguez flying out to Ron Richards with the bases loaded after Chris Munroe had not only allowed a leadoff double to Victor Hodgers, no, he had also smacked Mike Rucker pretty good. Steve Best tripled in the second, but was stranded after Tom “Dawg” Nelson popped out to Bergquist and Hodgers lined out to Richards. Hodgers’ consolation would be throwing out Matt Nunley at home to end the bottom 2nd. For five innings, both teams found all their offensive ambitions thwarted, which included Cookie Carmona hitting three singles and not finding someone to help him three times. The shutout was broken up by Chris LeMoine with a leadoff jack in the sixth inning. Munroe couldn’t get out of the inning and allowed a single to left to Rodriguez before walking Gore. Sugano was called on with one out and two on and failed completely, allowing a 2-run double to Steve Best and an RBI single to Nelson.

One inning forward, the Loggers would load the bases with nobody out against Will West, while not even getting a base hit. Mike Rucker reached on Walter’s error, and West walked LeMoine before hitting Ruben Landeros. West came back with a K to Rodriguez before yielding for Ron Thrasher with the left-handed Gore up. Three pitches were enough to get an inning-ending double play. Then it was the Coons’ time to have the bases loaded with no outs, right in the bottom of the same inning. Ron Richards walked, and then Bergquist and Baca singled. Adam Young hit for Thrasher, predictably struck out, and the Coons were held to two runs on a run-scoring groundout by Cookie and Walter’s RBI single to right. That put the score at 4-2 for the Loggers, but the Coons kept reaching: DeWeese socked a leadoff jack off “Dawg” Nelson to start the bottom 8th, reducing the Loggers’ lead to 4-3. Nunley singled after that but never moved off first, and the Coons would have to beat right-hander Troy Charters in the bottom 9th, starting with Jimmy Fucito pinch-hitting for John Korb in the #9 hole. Fucito struck out, and after Cookie’s groundout the Coons only got the tying run on once Walter singled to right. McKnight ended up with a miserable 0-for-5 day when his fly to deep left was just barely caught by LeMoine, ending the Coons’ winning streak at six games. 4-3 Loggers. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Walter 2-5, RBI; Nunley 2-4; Richards 2-3, BB; Korb 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Welp. Looks like a good point to give McKnight a day off. That will leave DeWeese as the only everyday starter without an off day since the start of the 20-day marathon.

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS J.J. Rodriguez – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – C Pace – 2B Best – P Cope
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 3B Nunley – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Abe

In an all-or-nothing start to his outing, Tadasu Abe faced a dozen Loggers in the first three innings, and allowed three hits while whiffing six. The game was still scoreless when Abe singled past Landeros into left with two outs in the bottom 5th, moving Baca to second base for Cookie, who was still stuck in the quagmire and rolled out easily to Rucker. Young killed the bottom 6th with a double play after Walter had reached with an infield single, and Abe was all done after seven innings and 110 pitches, still holding the Loggers shut out. The bottom 7th saw Howard Jones on base with two outs after getting hit by Cope, and then Gore, who was misplaced at third base, but was still playing there after hitting for Landeros in the top of the inning, misfiled Alonso Baca’s grounder for an error. Two on, two out, McKnight hit for Abe, because a better spot would never come … and grounded out to Rucker.

Top 8th, Hodgers hit a single off Chris Mathis and was at second base when the dangerous part of the lineup appeared, starting with Rucker, and they were all left-handed. Sugano was called on again and obliterated Rucker on three pitches for a massively important strikeout. Cookie led off the bottom 8th with a single, stole second against weakly-winged Tim Pace, but was stranded on third base. Still on runs for anybody. The Loggers stuck to Cope in the bottom 9th although he had nothing to win and everything to lose in a scoreless game, but then again the Coons led off with Ron Richards, so what good could happen to them? Indeed the game would go into overtime in scoreless fashion, only to see the top 10th begin with Ron Thrasher conceding singles to both Delgado and Hodgers. Rodriguez bunted them over, but Rucker failed and struck out before LeMoine grounded out to Sandy Sambrano at second base. Bottom 10th: Dave Walk allowed a leadoff single to Baca, then threw a wild pitch. Sandy walked, which didn’t matter much right now, but Cookie singled to center. Baca was too slow to score, but the bases were loaded with nobody out. Shane Walter lifted a pitch to right center, Hodgers hustled over – and missed it! Ball in, Baca in, ballgame over! 1-0 Blighters! Carmona 3-5; Walter 3-5, RBI; Baca 2-4; Abe 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K and 1-2;

We had ten hits, all singles. In fact, with the Loggers’ 11 hits also all singles, the teams combined for 21 base hits and 21 total bases. Might explain the slow rate of scoring here….

Game 4
MIL: 3B Landeros – SS J.J. Rodriguez – 1B M. Rucker – C T. Delgado – CF Cooper – RF Gore – LF Knowling – 2B Best – P McDonald
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 2B Jones – RF Sambrano – C Margolis – P Brown

Nobody had a hit the first time through either order, and after Brownie had retired the first ten Loggers, Rodriguez laid down a perfect bunt for a 1-out single in the fourth. He would be left on base, though. Walter had a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, but was also ignored by his teammates. The Loggers left runners on the corners in the fifth when McDonald fouled out. The batters had only reached base with two outs, Zach Knowling walking and Best hitting a single. Rodriguez tripled in the sixth with one out, but also didn’t score when Rucker grounded so hard to Adam Young that Rodriguez scampered back to his base, but Delgado also grounded out. It took the teams until the seventh inning this time to score any form of run, and again it was the Coons to get it done first. Cookie had been on with a 1-out single in the sixth and had taken second base by force, but had been left there. DeWeese then opened the seventh with a single and also saw a need for increased pressure on the base paths, taking off in a 1-0 count, just as Adam Young launched a liner to the corner in right. Gore wasn’t gonna spoil it, Young had a double, and the Coons were up 1-0 as the relatively speedy DeWeese came home standing up. Young – of course – was left on base after an intentional walk to Sambrano(!!), but that also meant that we had Brownie bat with two outs, resulting in a flyout to right center and Brad Gore. He had a perfect eighth after that, and Isiah Reed made an error in the bottom 8th, only for McKnight to hit into an inning-ending double play.

And now? It was 1-0, Brownie was still in the game, and the middle of the order was up, and I had this really hard aversion against replacing a lefty with a lefty. Plus: Sugano and Thrasher had both been out two days in a row, and the best we could throw up there would be Kevin Beaver, who had been socked by those Loggers already in this series. And so Nick Brown, who had already been rocked in a ninth inning this very week, remained in the game to face Mike Rucker, Tony Delgado (a righty), and Andrew Cooper, with three more left-handers behind those three in the lineup. This could only go so wrong – and did. Brownie ran 2-2 counts against Rucker and Delgado. Rucker singled to center and was run for with Hodgers, and Delgado got drilled. Right-hander Travis Griffen then hit for Cooper, and it was bed time for a certain baked dessert. Mathis came in and struck out Griffen, but of course Brad Gore remained in the game here and had already soiled a shutout in this set. However, I had little trust in Beaver to do any good here. This was Mathis’ now. Gore struck out, bringing up Knowling, who batted .318 in only 66 at-bats, and rung a walk from Mathis, filling the bags. Isiah Reed stepped in, another hardly used replacement, also batting left-handed. Another long count, 2-2, and then a breaking ball almost in the dirt – and Reed swung over it. Ballgame!! 1-0 Brownies!!! Young 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (12-6); Mathis 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, SV (5);

(exhales audibly)

In other news

August 2 – The Rebels get drummed 20-2 by the Warriors, with SFW RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.282, 5 HR, 34 RBI) contributing five hits and two RBI.
August 2 – The Knights score runs in every inning from the seventh through the eleventh inning against the Loggers to erase first an 8-2 deficit, and then another 9-8 deficit in the tenth, to walk off, 10-9, on a wild pitch by Sergio Alvarez (0-1, 6.23 ERA).
August 4 – 21-year old Bayhawks hotshot OF Dave Garcia (.269, 7 HR, 53 RBI) will miss two weeks with a sore wrist.
August 6 – At 40 years old, nobody expected LVA CL Manuel Reyes (5-3, 1.26 ERA, 26 SV) to hold down a closer job anymore, much less to reach major milestones. Still, Reyes hasn’t missed a beat this season, and with two thirds of an inning of work in a hot situation protecting the Aces’ 8-4 lead over the Falcons, Reyes has saved his 300th career game. On his ninth team, Reyes is 73-79 with a 3.55 ERA in 1,134 career appearances, all in relief.

Complaints and stuff

Note to self: keep Brownie out of the ninth inning.

Late-game drama aside, Brownie’s ERA is the lowest it has ever been, .2 runs under his mark from his Pitcher of the Year season (2009), and .17 runs under his best ever for a season (2012). He’s doing something right. Doing even more things right would be Sam McMullen, who leads the majors with a 1.58 ERA. Second overall? Brownie! One point ahead of “Midnight” Martin, but a point is a point. Much like a win is a win. Right, Jonny?

That aside, waiver claim and fifth wheel Shane Walter won the Player of the Week award by batting .567 (17-for-30) with 3 RBI this week. He’d play every day at second if we weren’t paying Howard Jones $1.82M for doing … nothing? Ha-hah, did you know that Jones is due $2.02M in ’17 and $2.44M in ’18 and that those coins are all guaranteed? Ha-hah, that’s a good one.

It’s true, though. (polishes the gun normally resting in the top drawer)

Cookie only has 24 steals for the season, but he’s only four off the CL lead, which is once again his old nemesis Mike Rivera on the Titans. The FL is closing in on 40, but the CL is lagging behind badly. Last year, Victor Hodgers stole 57 bases while batting .281. This year he is merely poking for a .234 clip and has an OPS under .600. He has only 20 stolen bases so far. Was the 25-year old Hodgers’ 2015 season one of those Yoshi Yamada campaigns, one and done?

By the way, Hodgers might have an English surname and speaks actually perfect English, but is *actually* Venezuelan. There’s a story to that, but I’ll tell that whenever he makes it onto the Raccoons’ roster (not that I’m actively campaigning for that). True fact: the Loggers received him from the Crusaders along with another prospect that has since fizzled out and retired in a 2011 trade for SP A.J. Bartels.

They’re probably still wishing they hadn’t waived Martin Ortíz (who hit a walkoff homer in extras against the Elks on Sunday like it's nothing) in 2001, who has since racked up more trophies than fit in a common condo on the California beach. I will only mention his six Player of the Year awards, and if he makes it to 40, he might need to grow another ****ing arm to fit all his ****ing rings.

No, not bitter. Not at all.

Next week: Elks for four, then off to Denver for three.

Down on the farm the common misery is already pretty bad, but from time to time there will be some special misery. This week, 2014 third-rounder Sam Armetta (still bungling around in single-A) was injured in an on-base collision that broke his elbow so thoroughly he could then rotate it 360 degrees without feeling pain. That one looks ugly.