[Westheim]

As we are off-sync due to the draft being on Thursday, this is a Friday-through-Wednesday update, which also starts the string of 17 straight games before the All Star Game.

Raccoons (43-30) @ Falcons (34-37) – June 23-25, 2017

The Falcons ranked eighth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed. Both their rotation and their pen were similarly mediocre, and overall their offense wasn’t very impressive, but they were first in the league in stolen bases with 59 sacks taken. They were 2-1 versus Portland in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (6-6, 3.49 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (4-7, 4.89 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-2, 1.55 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (4-5, 4.68 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-3, 3.44 ERA) vs. Alex Vallejo (3-5, 3.74 ERA)

No left-handed starters for the Falcons! Meanwhile for the Coons, Knight drops to the end of the line this time, being assigned the Tuesday start against Las Vegas.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – RF Waggoner – P Morrison
CHA: 2B Good – LF Huibregtse – C Holliman – CF Feldmann – RF Benson – SS P. Hall – 1B M. Salinas – 3B Pellot – P P. Sanchez

Morrison was no good and had staggering command issues with all his pitches. He walked Matt Good and Steve Huibregtse in the first inning and was lucky enough that Denny caught Good (21 SB) stealing because otherwise the Falcons might have done more damage than one run on Ryan Holliman’s single and Ryan Feldmann’s subsequent sac fly. The bottom 4th saw the Falcons load the bases with nobody out on a leadoff walk to Travis Benson, a Nunley error, and Miguel Salinas getting hit, but also scored no runs when Alfonso Pellot and Pablo Sanchez both fouled out and Good rolled one over to Shane Walter. Morrison failed to finish five innings anyway, walking two more in the fifth (six total) before getting yanked with two outs. Jayden Reed replaced him and allowed two hard drives to right on two pitches. Paul Hall’s fell in for an RBI double, but Waggoner at least got Salinas’ to keep the score at 2-0. In those five innings the Raccoons had enjoyed a mere three base runners, and had stranded all of them on second base. Nunley’s single in the top 6th only superficially improved their output, as he was left even on first base. Pablo Sanchez had everything under control for 6 1/3 innings, and then suddenly the game exploded in his hands. Mike Denny jacked a homer to center, cutting the gap in half, and that was the first of four consecutive extra-base hits for the Raccoons, completely out of the blue. Young doubled, Waggoner homered to flip the score, and then Petracek doubled for Reed, but was left on base. Mathis pitched four outs from here, and Thrasher got two, but we then had the prospect of facing three left-handers in the bottom 9th, including the two quite ugly guys atop the order. Thrasher remained in the game, with the Falcons emptying their bench. Ricardo Martinez, Dave Carter, and Huigbregtse were sawed off in quick succession by Thrasher to end the game. 3-2 Critters. Young 2-4; Petracek (PH) 1-1, 2B; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (2);

Yup, that Ricardo Martinez is our Ricardo Martinez of old. He was a rookie in 2008, which seems like it was a long time ago. He batted .199 for the Gold Sox in limited action in ’15, didn’t appear in the Bigs in ’16, and now has a part time gig with the Falcons, batting .311 with 3 HR and 13 RBI in 45 at-bats, which is a damn bit better than anything he’s done in the last decade.

The Falcons switched pitchers for the next two games, pulling up Vallejo. It didn’t matter much; they had played a double header on Tuesday, and somebody had to go on short rest – either Vallejo or Durr.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – RF Waggoner – P Toner
CHA: 2B Good – LF Huibregtse – CF Feldmann – RF Benson – 1B M. Salinas – C M. Roberts – SS D. Carter – 3B Pellot – P Vallejo

While Denny threw out Matt Good again in this game – to end the third inning – the Raccoons had committed a base-running blunder even before that. Walter had hit a 2-out single to left, but tried to make it two, getting himself thrown out by Huibregtse in the process. DeWeese’s leadoff jack in the second inning gave Toner an early 1-0 lead, but he was just as wonky as in his last start. Huibregtse – who needs a nasty nickname badly – drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 4th, but what then happened had just as much to do with rotten luck of the Brownshirts than anything else. Feldmann sent a fly to left that DeWeese caught, then dropped as he bounced off the wall, resulting in a double. Then the Falcons sent three grounders through the seams on the infield to plate three runs, starting with a 2-run single up the middle by Salinas. While the Raccoons scored a balk-induced run in the fifth inning, for Toner it only got worse. He issued another leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, that one to Salinas, and Carter hit a single to send them to the corners with one out. Then Toner threw one plainly past Denny to bring Salinas across home plate, and Carter would score on Pellot’s single, 5-2. So while Toner went showering to look for nasty dents in his ego, the Raccoons continued to fail outright at hitting, except for Young, the stupid ****, who hit a 2-out single in the top 7th only to become the second Raccoon in the game to be thrown out at second base. Somehow, and completely undeserved they would get the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning after all. Brandon Johnson hit an actual, ****ing double in the eighth inning and was plated with Nunley’s 2-out single, and in the ninth Lawrence Rivers allowed a leadoff single to DeWeese to put the tying run in the box. A Denny single and a Waggoner walk loaded them up with two outs for Petracek, hitting for Seung-mo Chun, but the ****ing ex-Elk struck out, of course. 5-3 Falcons. DeWeese 2-4, HR, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Toner struck out eight and stole a base, but lost the game mainly for the same reasons that the Coons won the opener – a sudden explosion of hits, although theirs were almost all ****ty singles.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Petracek – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 1B Young – RF Stubbs – P Santos
CHA: 2B Good – LF Huibregtse – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – RF Benson – SS P. Hall – 1B M. Salinas – 3B Pellot – P Durr

Cookie had been left on second base twice on Friday, and suffered the same fate again in the first inning on Sunday after a leadoff double. Good dropped down a bunt to reach on a leadoff single for the Falcons, then swiped a base, giving him a 50% success rate against the Raccoons backstops. He was on third base with two outs for Feldmann, who exploited a hanging breaking ball from Santos for a massive 2-run homer to left.

There was no base hit in the game until the fifth when a medium-paced roller by Adam Young eluded Pellot for a single to left, but the Raccoons’ bottom of the order was in no shape to do anything with a runner on first. Walter drew a walk in the top 6th and DeWeese doubled past Huibregtse to put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs, but McKnight rolled out to the pitcher in the most miserable fashion. Margolis’ leadoff walk in the top 7th only led to double play hit into by Young, and in the bottom 7th the Falcons put the game away with a solo homer by Salinas. Three hits, three runs for them, three hits, no runs for the Inepticoons.

Nunley hit for Santos to start the eighth inning and singled to left, but then got forced on Carmona’s grounder. Petracek walked, and Walter hit a liner to center off new reliever Johnny Watson, a southpaw. Cookie scored, 3-1, and the tying runs were on first and second with one out for DeWeese, who flew out to deep right before McKnight struck out. 3-1 Falcons

I have a hunch that we are soon going to get a new hitting coach. But for now we made a little trade.

Interlude: trade

In a shocking move to the Dallas fanbase, the Stars and Raccoons struck a deal on Sunday night, sending 26-year old superstar OF/1B Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza (.355, 23 HR, 74 RBI) to the Raccoons for three prospects, including two in the top 100: #24 SP John Waker, #92 OF Ricky Cruz, and 3B Chris Schmitt.

Mendoza at his tender age was already a 3-time All Star and had been the 2016 FL Player of the Year, also taking the Platinum Stick for rightfielders (after winning the centerfield stick in ’14). He had led the league in slugging three times already, and had led the FL in home runs and RBI in 2016 when he had swatted 37 and plated 134. It was a ballsy win-now move from the Critters, while the Stars accepted their fate.

I tried to demote Adam Young, but he refused the assignment, intensifying the murderous rage I felt whenever I thought of him. So Matt Stubbs took the ban hammer and disappeared after five successless at-bats. Since the 40-man roster was full, Randy McMullen was waived and DFA’ed to get “Tiger” onto the 25-man roster.

I also shopped Young. No takers. Go figure!

Raccoons (44-32) @ Aces (36-39) – June 26-28, 2017

The Aces had a potent offense that ranked fourth in runs scored, but had no pitching whatsoever. Their rotation was the absolute worst with an ERA over five(!), and their pen was okay-ish, but couldn’t keep pace at all. They allowed the second-most runs in the league, which completely undid the good offensive work, and had them at a -27 run differential. Nevertheless, they were 2-1 against the Raccoons in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (7-7, 2.77 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (3-9, 7.09 ERA)
Damani Knight (1-2, 5.73 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (4-6, 4.45 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (6-6, 3.51 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (2-9, 4.95 ERA)

Three more right-handers! The Aces had a few players on the DL, including Matt Pruitt, who had batted .269 with five homers so far, but was out until August with a badly strained hammy.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Abe
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – C D. Rice – 3B Burke – 1B Hamilton – CF McCullough – LF Flack – RF Erickson – SS Beard – P Euteneuer

Cookie opened a game with a double for the third time in four games and finally ****ing scored, Walter plating him with a single. “Tiger” Mendoza hit a ground-rule double in his first at-bat with the Coons, and DeWeese walked. With the bases loaded, the Coons choked and only managed one more run on Denny’s sac fly. Euteneuer got levelled for four more runs in the second inning. With runners on the corners and one out, Walter grounded to the second baseman, Rich Walsh. Cookie slid hard into second base to take out Rusty Beard, which broke up the double play and allowed Waggoner to score, with a man remaining. Tiger walked, and then DeWeese cranked a 3-piece to right center, 6-0. It didn’t stay 6-0 for long; Abe was ruffled for four hits and two runs in the bottom 2nd, but Cookie’s 2-out, 2-run triple in the top 3rd pulled the runs right back, 8-2.

It continued to pour after that, despite Euteneuer removed after allowing eight runs in 2 2/3 innings. Garrett Purifoy allowed a run in the fourth inning walking Nunley, throwing a wild pitch, and allowing a single to Mike Denny, and in the fifth continued to put Critters one with a walk to Abe, a Cookie single (his fourth hit in the game and already a homer away from the cycle), and then a 3-piece fired to right center by Shane Walter, and the Coons even continued to get on after that, with Denny hitting another 2-out RBI single to run the score to 13-2. Armando Pena pitched in the sixth and allowed 1-out singles to Abe and Cookie. Walter popped out, bringing up Mendoza, who further exhausted an emptying park with a 3-run rocket inside the right foul pole, 16-2! McKnight sat in a tremendous slump, but hit a solo jack in the seventh to get the score to 17-3 … somewhere, Abe had allowed another run, but nobody had really noticed, to be honest. A number of players were replaced after the top 7th, including new acquisition Mendoza, though not Cookie, who was 5-for-5 and was to lead off the eighth for Portland. He popped out, however, but since the Coons continued to maul Aces pitching and scored another run before leaving the bases loaded in the inning, his spot would come up in the ninth inning, giving him another chance at both six hits and a cycle. Waggoner and Margolis made outs ahead of him and he came up with two outs facing Steve Rob, and hit a soft line over Arturo Perez into shallow right. Geoff Struck in rightfield didn’t get it – and it was in for another single, a 6-hit game for Cookie Carmona!! Petracek ran for him right away, but Bergquist grounded out, making this the only inning in the game in which the Coons didn’t score. 18-4 Raccoons!! Carmona 6-7, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; Mendoza 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Nunley 2-5, BB; Denny 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Waggoner 2-5, BB;

COOKIIIIEEEEE!!!

Now watch them get shut out for the next eleven games.

Cookie and dark thoughts aside, Mike Denny ran his hitting streak to 12 games, while Tiger extended a pre-existing hitting streak that had started in Dallas to 11 games.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Knight
LVA: LF Hubbard – C D. Rice – 3B Burke – 1B Hamilton – CF McCullough – 2B R. Walsh – RF Flack – SS Beard – P M. Ortíz

Ortíz hit Cookie with the first pitch in the game, which immediately got the Coons in the dugout into a rabid mood. Walter would go on to single, putting two on, and Mendoza made a calming gesture to the still barking dugout. He had this – and rapped a huge homer to left for an instant 3-0 lead. The Aces fans (merely 15,000 on a hot afternoon) gulped already, but they could see that Damani Knight would handily fit their own rotation, so not all hope was lost. Knight, though, got a few easy exits from the Aces on soft pops the first time through, then batted with two outs and two runners on base in the fourth and sent a grounder past Matt Hamilton for an RBI single, his first major-league hit. Nunley plated Tiger with a 2-out single in the fifth, then scored on Denny’s triple to run the score to 6-0, which was also the end of the line for Ortíz, as the Aces dove into their pen again. Rich Walsh had trouble with McKnight’s grounder close to the second base bag and couldn’t get a timely throw off, allowing the seventh run to score on the infield single, although the Aces would finally score on Knight in the bottom 5th, Burke and Hamilton bringing in runs with two outs that were unearned since Rusty Beard had originally reached on an error by Shane Walter. Damani Knight doubled and scored in the sixth inning, and pitched through seven without getting any strikeouts. Even crazier: John Korb completed the game with two dicey innings, and also struck out nobody. 8-2 Furballs. Walter 3-4, RBI; Mendoza 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; McKnight 2-4, RBI; Knight 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, W (2-2) and 2-3, 2B, RBI; Korb 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

So we won a game in which we struck out zero. That’s new, I guess. Also: one day after pouring out six hits, Cookie went 0-for-4.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Young – P Morrison
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – C D. Rice – 3B Burke – 1B Hamilton – RF Struck – CF McCullough – LF Erickson – SS Beard – P Valdevez

DeWeese’s double put the Raccoons 1-0 ahead in the first inning, but they added two more runs in the second inning as McKnight hit a leadoff jack and Young reached on an error, but moved around and scored on two productive outs and a wild pitch. Morrison had keenly watched Knight pitch on Tuesday and now also got a fair share of pops allowing him to get through the first innings quickly before getting more support in the fourth inning. Young singled to lead off and was bunted over by Morrison for the second time. After going 0-for-6 since shining 6-for-7, Cookie hit a ball over Kevin McCullough’s head for an RBI triple, but was left on when Walter lined out to Hamilton and Mendoza’s fly to left center ended up with McCullough, leaving the score at 4-0. The Aces would only have one hit compared to the Coons’ eight through five innings, then added injury to insult when McCullough slammed the ground hard while spoiling a double-bound drive by McKnight to lead off the sixth inning. Arturo Perez replaced him, and his first duty in office turned out to be the one to sadly watch an Adam Young drive go well and far above his head for a solo home run, 5-0.

The Aces finally got on the board in the seventh, also with a solo home run. Geoff Struck’s shot was only their second hit in the game. But maybe there was a swift comeback in the cards for the Coons. Garrett Purifoy, the pure sod from Monday that had allowed five runs in two innings, was at it again in the eighth inning and loaded the bases with nobody out: Denny doubled, McKnight singled, Young walked. Morrison was almost at 100 pitches and was thus hit for with Waggoner, who fell to two strikes, but then turned the table on Purifoy and hit a gapper to left center for a 2-run double. Another run scored on Walter’s groundout, 8-1, but Adam Flack homered off Beaver in the bottom 8th, which was unfortunate since Beaver had only been inserted for a long string of left-handers starting with Flack. Jayden Reed would inherit runners on the corners and one out when Beaver continued to melt, but got a double play grounder from Hamilton to exit the inning. The top 9th saw the bases loaded with no outs for the Coons yet again. Ken Chilcott had walked DeWeese and Nunley (and he was also a southpaw not getting it done) before Denny singled to center. Bergquist and Petracek came out to pinch-hit, both struck out, and Waggoner’s drive to deep right was heroically intercepted by Struck to strand all three runners. Alex Ramirez hadn’t pitched in a week and got his bells rustled in the bottom 9th as the Aces had three hard hits to score two runs off him, but it was not enough for a comeback. 8-4 Critters! Carmona 2-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Denny 3-5, 2B; McKnight 2-4, HR, RBI; Young 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Waggoner (PH) 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Morrison 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (7-6);

In other news

June 23 – The Warriors acquire OCT SP Ray Taylor (5-3, 3.17 ERA) for two prospects.
June 23 – Six home runs in the Aces-Crusaders game do not generate the expected outpour of runs. The Crusaders win 5-3. While one of the Aces’ pair of dingers is a 2-run shot, all the Crusaders’ four home runs are solo shots.
June 23 – The Stars rout the Capitals in a 15-4 game, although they only out-hit them 15-11.
June 24 – The Indians could be without 2B Jong-beom Kym (.322, 8 HR, 31 RBI) for a long while. The 33-year old Korean has torn ankle ligaments and could miss almost all of the remaining season.
June 25 – NAS RF/CF Chris Macias (.327, 6 HR, 51 RBI) is now the proud owner of a 20-game hitting streak after contributing two hits in the Blue Sox’ 9-5 win over the Pacifics.
June 27 – While his teammates rout the Titans to the tune of a dozen runs, ATL SP Stephen Quirion (8-6, 3.48 ERA) allows only three hits in a shutout, 12-0 Knights.

Complaints and stuff

I want to get into the ****ing playoffs!!

Thus the blockbuster trade that broke on Monday morning. The pitching is fine ‘round here, but the offense bitterly needs a boost. I expect to have found that.

I was prepared to include Danny Arguello in the deal to the Stars, but that wasn’t even necessary. The Stars were content with Waker, our 2016 top pick and #24 prospect, who was putting up disturbing walk numbers in Aumsville for the second straight (half-)season. Arguello had been roughed up in his first two starts in Ham Lake, but had since found a groove and had lowered his ERA into the 2’s, which ain’t shabby for a 20-year old. Chris Schmitt is a perfectly fine third base prospect, but he’s also blocked by Matt Nunley, who’s a perfectly fine third baseman right now and will be under team control until the end of the 2019 season. Then there was Ricky Cruz, who was the #92 prospect, but was in the process of burning out at AA. He was batting .175 there (even worse than the .241 clip from last year, which had been almost all singles), and had been demoted to Aumsville just a week ago. Including him in the Tiger package now was the best price we were ever going to get for him.

Tiger is in his sixth major league season, but has already signed a 7-year extension which is on one hand pretty ****ing expensive at $2.6M per season, but then again his production is mildly insane. Or at least it was in Dallas. (gloomy music score) Of course, between him and Cookie and DeWeese, our outfield will soon make $8M a year, which is a bit of madness. For now, however, he replaces the useless tool Young, since Waggoner occasionally has a useful hit. Young makes me riot inside.

Once in a decade, I like to shove in all the cards I have. It was Ron Alston in 2008. I can’t even remember the instance before that. This is our most recent Ron Alston trade. Alston clicked, but didn’t get the Coons to the playoffs until two years later.

Also: Freddy Lopez, Daniel Hall, Jorge Salazar, Cookie Carmona – the exhaustive list of players to collect half a dozen base knocks in a game for the Critters. All of them did it on the road, although it is arguably easier on the road due to the guaranteed ninth inning.

Loggers, Crusaders, Elks remain until the All Star Game. The Crusaders are our four-and-four buddies, and this will be a crucial moment. We can either kill them, and gain ground on Indy, too, or we can let them back into the race. They look **** now, but they are with everything that’s unholy and can stage any comeback they desire… But hey, we’re coming off the mother of all sweeps (34 runs, poor Aces), all will be well now.

What was that sound? Hm. Odd. Sounded like a rack of weights toppling over in the weight room and burying a weeping Cookie underneath? Nah, I’m imagining things. Surely.