Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

As you should have guessed after 22 years of Coon City Catastrophes, life's out to get me. Didn't get the laptop back yesterday. Now I could reactivate OOTP12 on this old bone here - if I had the licence number. I have put it down in a word document - which is on the new (infected) laptop. Theoretically, I could call the repair guy to look it up for me - if I had his number. Which is in the office. Which is locked shut by some serious security service on the weekends, which is totally unhappy and files serious invoices for having to unlock the office on the weekend.

"Why did you get the office unlocked on Saturday?" - "I was bored and wanted to see Kisho Saito pitch."

Red alert.

So, while I am dying of boredom over the next two days, ...... no. No, the sentence ends right there.

[Westheim]

Look who’s back! It’s the Masked Menaces!

Raccoons (37-63) vs. Bayhawks (61-36) – July 27-29, 1999

A .370 team going up against a .629 team. Interestingly, they had the best rotation in the league, but the most horrible bullpen. Yeah, we just have to climb over those 2+ ERA guys, nothing easier than that!

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (8-9, 3.02 ERA) vs. Henry Selph (10-1, 2.91 ERA)
Paco Martinez (0-1, 6.55 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (12-7, 2.51 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-6, 3.58 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (7-5, 2.26 ERA)

Game 1
SFB: RF Javier – 2B H. Ramirez – 1B D. Carroll – LF W. Jackson – CF A. Marquez – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Martinez – 3B Valdes – P Selph
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P Farley

The birds from the bay brusquely refused my suggestion to mix teams to have two .500 teams play against each other. So be it. The Bayhawks were right of course. Can’t get an easier sweep! They immediately set out on that conquest, attacking Farley for eight hits and four runs in the first three innings. Farley didn’t live to see the fifth inning for his turn at bat came up with two out and the bags full, down by four, in the bottom 4th. Granados hit for him, and grounded out to Martinez at short. The Bayhawks learned from that close call. As Jackie Lagarde entered the fifth, Carroll doubled, Jackson doubled, and Marquez homered, 7-0, before Lagarde even was close to an out. The Raccoons could be best described as offering token resistance only. 7-2 Bayhawks. Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Collins 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Nordahl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Let’s focus on the positive things: back-to-back RBI doubles by Reece and Gonzalez in the bottom 5th. And nobody got himself killed. If we could slightly expand on that …

Game 2
SFB: LF Walls – C G. Ortíz – 1B D. Carroll – RF Javier – CF A. Marquez – 2B H. Ramirez – SS J. Martinez – 3B J. Gomez – P Hamlyn
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – RF Brady – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P P. Martinez

Young Paco gave the outfielders quite the workout early on in the middle game, with Reece and Brady getting in a week’s worth of stretching in the first four innings – but getting to every ball out there. Meanwhile, Guerin’s 2-out RBI single in the bottom 2nd actually gave Martinez a shaky 1-0 lead, which could have been bigger, but Ingall preferred to leave runners on the corners by fouling out to the catcher Ortíz in his at-bat. The Bayhawks got Tom Walls on with a leadoff double in the top 6th and Walls was on third with two down and slugger Paco Javier batting. Javier was a left-hander, just as the Paco opposing him, and after a little pep talk by the pitching coach, the brown-clad Paco prevailed and struck out the white-dressed opposition to end the frame. Still 1-0. The leadoff man was on again in the seventh, and Reece made TWO strong catches in the inning to nurse the 1-0 score forward again. Can we please add something? I won’t stop being funny, right? The tying run came on again with a 2-out single by Ortíz in the top 8th. With the three big bats coming up, it was time to relieve Martinez. The team was out to get him, but I wouldn’t let him take the loss. Daniel Miller and Antonio Donis(!) were lined up to continue the game, Miller facing only Dave Carroll regardless of the outcome. Carroll put a 1-2 pitch into play, but Crowe made the play, inning over. The Coons weren’t even reaching base again, and so I sent Donis to protect a 1-0 lead in the ninth. Insanity, right there. Indeed, Javier reached on a grounder up the middle that Ingall managed to launch and grab, but couldn’t turn into an out anymore: infield single. Marquez sent a hard grounder to short, Guerin was right there, zip-zap, double play! That left Hector Ramirez to be dealt with, and Donis struck him out! 1-0 Coons! Guerin 2-4, RBI; Reece 2-4; P. Martinez 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-1);

While Martinez got his first major league win, Mata threw out his first stealer in eight tries today, nabbing Tom Walls going in the first inning, and also drew his first walk after some 30+ plate appearances.

We will not go into detail about how the Coons’ only run was actually unearned. It doesn’t matter. WHAT A WIN for Martinez!!

Game 3
SFB: RF Javier – 2B H. Ramirez – 1B D. Carroll – LF W. Jackson – CF A. Marquez – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Martinez – 3B J. Gomez – P Chapa
POR: SS Guerin – LF Buell – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Granados – RF Newton – C Fifield – 2B Goodchild – P Wade

Bases loaded, one out was only got enough for one run on a Granados groundout in the first inning for the Coons, and it came back to bite this time, as Wade was whacked by a 2-out RBI triple off Jose Martinez’ bat in the fourth inning and fell behind 2-1 after we elected to pitch to Gomez, batting .196, rather than take the chances with Chapa and two men on. Wade was pitching to contact – in theory, everything could dink in for a 2-run double. Wade was hit for with two on and two out in the bottom 6th, still down 2-1, but unfortunately I picked Mike “Instant Out” Crowe, who struck out. Mike Collins allowed a run in the seventh, but in turn the Coons got their two leadoff batters in scoring position with one out in the bottom 7th. The Bayhawks went cautiously about Gonzalez and walked him eventually. Bases loaded for Granados, who was 0-2 with an RBI in such situations in this series. And one strike, and two strikes, and – oh – ball in play, but … yeah, nah. He popped out to Ismael Durán manning second base. That brought up sad faces in the few fans still at the park, and also Luke Newton at the plate. Jose Matos, who was pitching the inning in relief of Chapa, tried hard not to make a mistake, but that’s when mistakes happen, and he gave Newton a really fat 2-2 pitch that Newton took to deep right center. Tom Walls looked like he might reach it, but the ball hit the top of the fence a foot above Walls’ glove! Suddenly, life at the park! Newton turned first, turned second, safe with a bases-clearing triple!! Terry Harris replaced Matos, issued three walks and a wild pitch to give the Coons two more runs. Tamburrino and Miller got the stunner to the finish line without major accidents. 6-3 Raccoons! Reece 2-4, BB; Granados 2-5, RBI; Newton 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Wade 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K and 1-2;

Raccoons (39-64) vs. Falcons (56-47) – July 30-August 1, 1999

What? Another team so much better than us? When will we face the easy victims?

The Falcons were mostly average, ranking mid-pack in many categories, except for hits (3rd), and somehow also made it to third place in runs scored, despite being 7th in AVG, 8th in OBP, and 10th in OPS. No, they weren’t hitting home runs (t-9th), nor where they stealing bases (8th). It was a mystery.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (4-4, 5.58 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (9-7, 4.38 ERA)
Kisho Saito (2-12, 4.68 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (4-8, 3.26 ERA)
Randy Farley (8-10, 3.19 ERA) vs. Angel Romero (12-7, 3.49 ERA)

In a quirk, we will face three left-handers in this series after finishing the last series against two southpaws already. Moreso, we are looking at Dan Moriarty and Carlos Guillén – two more left-handers! – to start the next series against the Aces! A week’s worth of southpaw opponents. Whew.

Game 1
CHA: 2B H. Green – C M. Castillo – CF Lugo – SS M. Hall – RF Mashiba – LF Morton – 1B J. Jackson – 3B Fugosi – P Wilson
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – RF Brady – LF Buell – 1B Granados – C Mata – P Fairchild

Another game that was about missed chances more than anything else. Both teams left runners on left and right. The Coons started it with Reece failing to convert runner on third, one out, in any meaningful way in the bottom 1st (a situation Clyde Brady would repeat in the fifth), and while we had the bags full in the second and scored two runs, including one singled in by Fairchild, that still ended in disaster when Guerin grounded into a force out at third base, and Ingall, well, Ingall wasn’t doing anything. The Falcons got a a run in the third, but left the bags full in the fifth without scoring. Fairchild failed to navigate the sixth inning, putting Morton on with two out. A wild pitch moved up the runner, and he then walked ex-Coon Joe Jackson. Chubby Martinez got Filippo Fugosi to ground out to keep a 2-1 lead alive. That was as far as luck went in this game. Chubby failed to lay down a bunt in the bottom 6th, then blew the game in the top 7th with four runners allowed. The Falcons took a 3-2 lead. They could have sealed the deal in the eighth with three straight 2-out singles off Dan Nordahl, but Nordahl came back to strike out Jose Lugo to escape. The Falcons expended four relievers in the eighth inning, before handing it to Holden Gorman in the ninth. An Ingall single put the tying run on with one out and Reece and Gonzalez coming up. Reece grounded out, moving Ingall to second. Ingall went to third on a passed ball on the first pitch to Gonzalez. Gonzalez hit the next pitch to left – but right to LF Ralph Wilson. 3-2 Falcons.

No. No, they still suck. And will suck forever.

Game 2
CHA: 2B H. Green – C M. Castillo – CF Lugo – SS M. Hall – LF Cleveland – RF Mashiba – 1B J. Jackson – 3B Fugosi – P M. Hernandez
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – RF Newton – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P Saito

The Falcons put their first two men on in both of the first two innings – and didn’t score. The runners were left in scoring position in the first, and Hernandez bunted into a double play in the second. Then the Coons slapped three singles to start the bottom 2nd, loading the bags … but “Instant Out” Crowe and Saito were next. Crowe however squeezed out a walk, forcing a run home, and while Saito hit into a double play, the run scored from third base. Guerin singled in another run, 3-0, and just seven innings to go for Saito. While the longest-tenured Raccoon dragged himself from inning to inning, the Coons had the bags full with one out in the bottom 5th, then had Buell pop up for the second out and Newton lined out to Cleveland, and we left another pair of runners in scoring position in the sixth when Ingall grounded out to Hall. But the zero in the top row on the scoreboard still remained. Not because Saito was great, but because he got the right amount of help – from both teams – whenever he needed it. A light drizzle began in the top 8th with Joe Morton on first base and one out. Saito retired Green and Castillo to end the inning at 100 pitches and still up 3-0. Daniel Miller was getting warmed up regardless. In the bottom 8th, Mata got on, and then Crowe. One out. We were just about to lift Saito for a pinch-hitter, when the rain stopped. Saito insisted on this being a heavenly sign and that he should bat, so he went out and bunted into a force out at third base. While I was now insisting he study his holy books again, Guerin walked, and brought up Ingall with the bags full. 3-1 against reliever Tom Brooks, Ingall popped one up to right – but Taisuke Mashiba couldn’t find it! It dinked in, and the Coons got another run. That set down Miller for the moment, although Reece flew out to Lugo. 4-0 in the ninth, Saito facing Lugo, Hall, and Cleveland. Ingall nabbed a mildly sharp liner by Lugo for the first out. Hall flew out to Buell. That left the veteran Dale Cleveland, batting .194 this year. He took Saito’s first pitch to the right side, bringing up Mashiba. Okay, we’ll let him have Mashiba, then we’ll go to Miller. Mashiba took a called strike, then watched the next pitch being called a ball low. A foul and another ball later, he fouled off another pitch that vanished in the stands just out of reach of Mike Crowe. Saito’s eye formed narrow slits as he contemplated about his 115th pitch of the game. Mashiba gleamed back through his own slits. After seeing fastballs four out five pitches in the at-bat, Mashiba probably anticipated something slow coming. And indeed Saito tossed him a terrible egg that dropped off right as it crossed the plate. Mashiba, guessing breaking ball all the way, was still caught off guard by the curve, and swung through it. It was Saito’s only K on the day. 4-0 SAITO’S MINIONS!!! Guerin 5-5, 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-5, RBI; Mata 2-3, 2B; Crowe 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (3-12);

KISHOOOOOO!!! SAITOOOOOO!!!

Master Kisho pitched his 51 complete game of his career (582 starts), and delivered his 20th shutout!

I FEEL SO ALIVE!!

Game 3
CHA: 2B H. Green – 1B J. Jackson – CF Lugo – SS M. Hall – RF Mashiba – LF Morton – C D. Smith – 3B C. Boyle – P Romero
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – RF Newton – C Mata – 3B Goodchild – P Farley

Both teams scored two runs in the first, with Ingall homering for the Coons’. Farley again struggled to contain the opposition, especially the right-handers Green and Jackson atop the lineup and fell 3-2 behind in the third. The Falcons chopped Farley up for five runs in six innings eventually. Through seven innings, the Coons merely managed four hits, the fourth of which was a solo home run by Cesar Gonzalez, but they trailed 5-3 and faced Holden Gorman again in the ninth. Gonzalez drew a 2-out walk, and Brady came out hitting for Buell. With Gonzalez in motion, Brady singled up the middle and as Gonzalez drew the throw to third base, but was easily safe, Brady moved up to second. We had the tying runs in scoring position for PH Mauro Granados, who walked, loading them up. Parker then hit for Mata, and was hit by the pitch! With a run being forced home, we came into a predicament here. Next up were the useless Goodchild and pitcher Dan Nordahl and we only had one pinch-hitter left in Gary Fifield. Well, first you gotta tie it, then you can win it, and so Fifield hit for Goodchild. But sometimes you just plain lose. Like when Fifield struck out. 5-4 Falcons. Brady (PH) 1-1;

In other news

July 26 – SAC 1B/3B/CF Jared O’Molony (.278, 5 HR, 39 RBI) faces a long recovery with a broken knee cap. Doctors estimate his time on the shelf northwards of nine months.
July 26 – In a stunner, the Scorpions acquire INF Masaaki Matsumoto (.350, 3 HR, 57 RBI) from the Capitals for SP Steve Rogers (8-12, 3.89 ERA), a minor leaguer and a catching prospect in Tim Ball.
July 27 – The Indians grab INF Adrian Matthews (.269, 4 HR, 51 RBI) from the Blue Sox for MR Jorge Escobar (2-1, 5 SV, 3.43 ERA).
July 29 – The Condors and Buffaloes agree on a 4-player deal that principally sends INF/LF/CF Rory Gorden (.282, 8 HR, 57 RBI) to Topeka in exchange for CL Domingo Moreno (2-0, 6 SV, 1.90 ERA).
July 30 – LVA OF Forest Hartley (.284, 7 HR, 44 RBI) hits a fourth inning double off Indy’s Dan George, reaching the 2,000 hits plateau. The 35-year old Hartley reaches the mark against the team that drafted him 11th overall in the 1983 amateur draft. The 4-time All Star and 1993 Gold Glove winner has played for Indy, Salem, Vancouver, and Las Vegas in a 16-year major league career, batting .291/.328/.429 with 155 HR and 872 RBI. Unfortunately a win was not in the books for him and the Aces on this day, as the Indians walk off in the 12th inning, 9-8.
August 1 – SFW 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.288, 4 HR, 40 RBI) will miss six weeks with a torn meniscus.

Complaints and stuff

Ricardo Castillo refused a minor league assignment. Since he was not getting back onto the big league roster, he was released on Wednesday.

After just returning to the AAA team, SP Ralph Ford managed to get ejected and suspended in his first start. If I had any hair left, I’d pull it now.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (40-66) @ Aces (44-59) – August 2-4, 1999

We were starting a 2-week road trip in Vegas, where they were struggling as well, but not quite as badly as in Portland. The Aces were 10th in runs scored and 8th in runs allowed in the league, which still compared quite favorably to the 11th offensively / 12th defensively Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Paco Martinez (1-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Dan Moriarty (7-11, 4.43 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-6, 3.50 ERA) vs. Carlos Guillén (3-6, 3.18 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (4-4, 5.34 ERA) vs. Rafael Barbosa (7-8, 3.79 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – RF Brady – LF Newton – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P P. Martinez
LVA: RF Cote – 2B Cerdeira – CF J. Vargas – LF Hartley – 1B M. Henry – C Manuel – SS Williamson – 3B Combes – P Moriarty

The Coons took a 1-0 lead in the first, but Bernard Combes flipped the score with a 2-out, 2-run home run in the bottom 2nd. The Coons had nobody on with two outs in the top 3rd before Guerin and Ingall hit singles, Reece walked, and then Cesar Gonzalez hit a 2-run double to left center and flipped the score right back. Not that it stopped there. Mike Henry hit another 2-run home run in the bottom of the frame, and a Gonzalez error added an unearned run against Paco Martinez. The youngster didn’t get past the leadoff man in the fifth, walking Henry to punch his ticket for the showers. Lagarde somehow didn’t drown despite the Aces having runners on the corners with no outs, and the 5-3 deficit stood. Top 6th, somebody lit up the scoreboard who had been struggling all year, as Mike Crowe tied the game with a huge 2-run home run! Moriarty remained in until the seventh, when he issued a walk to Gonzalez that pushed Reece to second base with one out. Qi-zhen Geng came in and walked Brady. Newton worked another walk in a full count, and Crowe singled home another run with two down, giving the Coons a 7-5 lead. The Aces again left runners on the corners in the bottom half of the seventh, and it wasn’t over yet. While Reece scored Guerin with a groundout for the second time in the game in the top 8th, Tamburrino failed in the bottom half of the frame and was taken deep for two by Henry. Miller replaced him and got the final out in the eighth. Top 9th, Brady, Newton, and Mata all singled to load the sacks with no outs. Crowe struck out, and Miller was next. Only Donis left in the pen. Hum. Miller was sent to the plate, struck out against Tzu-jao Ban, and so did Guerin. Uh-oh. Fortunately, Miller – with a little help from Brady, who made a fantastic catch on PH Wes McCormick’s bloop to start the bottom 9th – got through the latter half of the inning unscathed, 1-2-3. What a nail biter of a game! 8-7 Raccoons! Guerin 2-5, BB, 2B; Reece 2-4, 2 RBI; Newton 2-4, BB, RBI; Mata 2-5; Crowe 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Miller 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (4);

Phew! Nice to come out on the right side of such a game for once!

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – RF Brady – 3B Crowe – C Fifield – P Wade
LVA: LF Encarnación – SS Bradley – CF J. Vargas – 1B M. Henry – C Manuel – 2B Williamson – RF Hartley – 3B Combes – P Guillén

The Coons’ #8 batters had taken a sip from the power fountain, it seemed. Gary Fifield hit a 2-run dinger in the second inning for the first scoring in the middle game. Wade’s first two innings were strong, but the Aces soon found out how to hit him. After getting into scoring position in the third and fourth, they finally scored a run in the fifth and left the tying run on third. Back to those #8 batters, yesterday’s still had something going. Buell got on in the sixth and with two out Crowe unleashed another bomb for two more runs, bringing the lead to 4-1. And that wasn’t all. Next, the Aces got to see a 37-year old starter-turned-closer-turned-starter leading off the seventh inning with a triple! Scott Wade couldn’t believe it either and was laughing intensely once he stood up at third base. Wade scored, 5-1, when Ingall hit into a double play, and by now he also had settled back in the driver’s seat on the mound. The Aces didn’t get anything done in the eighth. Miller was casually tossing in the pen when the ninth began, which turned into actually warming up once Wade allowed a leadoff single to Mike Henry. The next two batters resulted in outs, bringing up Forest Hartley – and he grounded right back to Guerin. Ballgame! 5-1 Coons! Ingall 2-4; Wade 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-6) and 1-4, 3B;

SCOTTY!! While Scott Wade has never been somebody to look forward to come to bat, this was not his first triple. He hit triples before in 1988 and 1992. He has two career home runs as well, but overall has batted .168/.224/.218 in 834 career AB. Also, this was his 20th career complete game. He has 10 shutouts, none since 1996, but then again that was the last year he was used in the rotation exclusively.

In game 3, we will face a right-hander for the first time in a week!

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – RF Brady – C Mata – 3B Crowe – LF Parker – P Fairchild
LVA: LF Encarnación – 2B Cerdeira – CF J. Vargas – RF McCormick – 1B M. Henry – SS Bradley – C Williamson – 3B Combes – P Barbosa

It was not a happy reunion with a righty arm for the Coons, who were chainsawed by Barbosa early on, while Kelly Fairchild got porkchopped in a 4-run second inning. The Coons didn’t get a hit and a run until the fourth, but the two singles by Brady and Mata were the only offensive success they had. Things didn’t get batter after Fairchild was expelled five innings into the game. Lagarde faced four batters, all four hit safely, and Juan Martinez eventually surrendered a 3-run home run to Javier Encarnación. Unfortunately this meant that Julio Mata’s first career home run came in a bitter rout as it happened in the seventh. Then it ramped the score to 9-3 Aces. Barbosa however was letting up. In the eighth, the Coons loaded the bags with no outs, and Mata came up again. Then he unleashed a double to deep center, emptying the bags, suddenly cutting the gap in half. That was it for Barbosa, while left-hander Ian Johnson walked Crowe to bring the tying run to the plate. Parker struck out, but Buell, hitting for Donis, hit an infield single to load the sacks again. To no avail, though. Luis Estrada entered for the Aces and retired Guerin and Ingall efficiently. The ninth, still down by three, Charlie Deacon pitching. Reece singled to center, and Gonzalez walked. Again, the tying run was at the plate, and no outs. Brady’s infield single loaded them up – for Mata. Can the youngster deliver once more? A ball, another one, and contact. High and deep, Hartley can’t get it, it’s off the wall, and Brady has to hold up, but that’s a 2-run double!!! The go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs, and the recently resurgent Crowe was next, but he struck out. That brought up Parker, who was … the #8 batter! Remember how our #8 batters had both homered before in this series? Yeah, that happened. =) =)

=) =)

Never mind that Daniel Miller was almost defeated in the bottom 9th and taken deep by Victor Cerdeira, but held on just ever so barely.

11-10 FURBALLS!!! Guerin 2-6; Reece 2-5; Brady 2-3, BB; Mata 4-5, HR, 2 2B, 8 RBI; Buell (PH) 1-1;

XD

Let’s just call this the Julio Mata Game from now on. :-)

Raccoons (43-66) @ Titans (66-42) – August 5-8, 1999

This was a powerhouse, and we will be lucky to get out alive. Actually, splitting the series halfway would already be a great success for us.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (3-12, 4.38 ERA) vs. Samuel Bodenham (1-1, 1.65 ERA)
Randy Farley (8-11, 3.37 ERA) vs. Esteban Román (0-1, 5.73 ERA)
Paco Martinez (1-1, 4.76 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (14-7, 3.30 ERA)
Scott Wade (2-6, 3.08 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (13-6, 2.84 ERA)

The first two games would be great opportunities to strike. Bodenham is 31 and on his first major league assignment, and the Titans have just this Tuesday claimed Román off waivers by the Loggers. The reason for the holes in their rotation are injuries, as starter Kent Cahill just went down to a torn rotator cuff.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – RF Brady – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P Saito
BOS: CF Alonso – 3B Nakayama – 2B D. Silva – RF Greenman – 1B G. Douglas – C L. Lopez – LF Baker – SS Powys – P Bodenham

The hellsprung Daniel Silva homered off Saito in the first inning, while the Furballs excessively failed against Bodenham from the start. Saito struck out nine through seven innings, and it was one of those game to just take a big bite into the railing and hold on to it just to cope with the pain. Bodenham dazzled the Critters through seven, allowing two hits and no runs. Crowe then came up with a leadoff single in the eighth. Saito bunted him over, but Guerin failed. Ingall then worked a full count and finally blooped a singled into shallow right. INGALL SINGLE, GET THE HELL RUNNING, CROWE!!! Crowe was sent and was just barely safe ahead of Greenman’s throw. Up came Reece, didn’t bother for long and chopped a double into the gap in left center, easily plating Ingall from second base. Gonzalez followed that up with another quick single to left, Reece was sent home and scored, and the Titans were still scrambling to get the bullpen warmed up – but it was all too late. Clyde Brady sunk a ball in front of the batter’s eye to make it 5-1! Saito faced only one more batter, lefty Vicente Elizondo before being relieved at 115 pitches. And then it almost blew up again. Nordahl got Alonso, but Nakayama reached. Donis came on for Silva, but Silva singled, and so did Greenman. Bags full, two out, slugger Glenn Douglas up. Miller was thrown into the game, and got Douglas to ground out to Ingall. PHEW!! Two add-on runs in the top 9th moved the game out of the Titans’ reach. 7-1 Coons!! Reece 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Mata 2-4; Saito 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (4-12); Miller 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (6), IR 3-0;

SAITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-(voice breaks up)

He still has it. He just hasn’t showed it for part of this season. Just like the offense has hidden well the fact that they can score runs at times.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 1B Gonzalez – RF Brady – LF Buell – CF Newton – 3B Goodchild – P Farley
BOS: SS D. Silva – CF Elizondo – LF Thomas – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 2B H. Henry – 1B Baker – 3B Nakayama – P Román

The Titans scored runs off Farley in the first and sixth innings. Both started with extra base hits by Demon Silva. The supposed pushover Román was anything but, and held the Raccoons shut out as long as Farley pitched, and even beyond that. Martinez and Collins were lit up some in the bottom 7th, pretty much ending the budding winning streak we were on. Regardless, the Raccoons had nothing cooking against Román, who spun a 4-hit shutout. 5-0 Titans.

Way to get cooled off. We also got rid of Tom Goodchild, who was batting .063, and called up Brent McLaughlin.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Buell – C Mata – 1B Granados – 2B McLaughlin – P P. Martinez
BOS: CF Alonso – 3B Nakayama – RF Greenman – 1B G. Douglas – C L. Lopez – LF Baker – 2B H. Henry – SS Powys – P O’Halloran

The Raccoons loaded the bags with their first three batters in the game, but only scored one run on a Buell single before failing themselves out of the inning. By contrast, Paco Martinez was violently knocked over in the first inning, as the Titans plated four runs, and after another thumping knock with the morningstar by Haruki Nakayama for an RBI double was removed in the second inning. Thankfully, we got some awesome long relief from Jackie Lagarde, who didn’t allow anything while getting the game past the sixth inning. Jason O’Halloran however, after dodging a bullet or two in the first inning, switched into Awesome Mode, and was untouchable for the meek woodland creatures. From the second clean through the seventh, the Raccoons managed one hit. Brady hit a single to start the eighth, but nothing came of that. Ramiro Román relieved O’Halloran for the ninth, and hit Parker, and then had to yield for Bill Corkum when Luke Newton hit a single. Down 5-1, we still didn’t have the tying run at the plate, and never got him up either, as Corkum fanned Crowe, and Guerin rolled out. 5-1 Titans. Guerin 3-5; Buell 2-4, RBI; Newton (PH) 1-1; Lagarde 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Game 4
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Granados – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – SS McLaughlin – C Fifield – P Wade
BOS: SS D. Silva – CF Elizondo – LF Thomas – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – 2B H. Henry – 3B Powys – P Bautista

Another game, another early blow. After Wade struck out Silva, Elizondo’s bunt base hit was followed by a Granados error putting on Josh Thomas, and the Titans scored two runs in the first before long. Wade was not hitting his marks in this start, and while that has always resulted in strikeouts for him, it resulted in way more hits. While Bautista had a stumble as well and was loaded with three runs in the third, that was not enough for Wade, who held on to a 3-3 score at first, but was soundly sunk by home runs off the bats of Gonzalo Munoz and Glenn Douglas in the fifth inning. Down 6-3 after six, the Coons looked a bit done, before Brady and Reece singled with one out in the seventh. Granados drove home Brady, 6-4, and the runners were on the corners with Gonzalez now hitting for Dan Nordahl in Buell’s slot. One double play later we could stop worrying and focus on the following series in Vancouver. 9-5 Titans. Brady 3-5, RBI; Reece 2-5; Granados 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Fifield 2-2, HR, RBI;

In other news

August 3 – OCT SP Fabien Armand (11-4, 2.85 ERA) spins a 2-hitter in a 3-0 win over the Titans.
August 5 – The Titans announce that SP Kent Cahill (8-4, 3.00 ERA) will be out for a year with a torn rotator cuff.
August 7 – SFB SP Tony Hamlyn (14-8, 2.17 ERA) nails down the Thunder, allowing only three hits in a 4-0 win.
August 8 – WAS SP Ramón Ortíz (13-10, 2.95 ERA) is out for the year with inflammation in the shoulder.

Complaints and stuff

Relief pitching. It’s all a great annoyance. Look at Collins.
With IND: 1-0, 1.03 ERA, 35 IP, 4 ER, 14 BB, 25 K
With POR: 0-0, 11.25 ERA, 4 IP, 5 ER, 7 BB, 3 K
Why the utter **** …??

Also, Tamburrino. I’ve had it. Nobody wants the dirtbag (which is due another $700k through 2001) in a trade. Maybe someone will take him for free. He was designated for assignment following Sunday night’s disaster in which he walked home a run late. Bob Joly was recalled from AAA.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (44-69) @ Canadiens (50-62) – August 9-11, 1999

Travelling to Canada with a marginal team on the plane is never much fun, as marginal as the Elks themselves may be… While they were sub-average in both runs scored and runs allowed in the league, they were still besting the Raccoons by a sound margin in either category.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (4-4, 5.44 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (3-3, 3.10 ERA)
Kisho Saito (4-12, 4.23 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (12-10, 3.97 ERA)
Randy Farley (8-12, 3.35 ERA) vs. John Collins (6-14, 5.00 ERA)

As we arrived in Canada, Mike Collins, the useless dirtbag, came down with the flu and would most likely not be available (or at least you didn’t WANT him in the game; I didn’t want him even without the sneezing and the cold sweat…). In turn, the Canadiens lacked their best middle infield options in Angelo Duarte and Bob Butler.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Parker – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P Fairchild
VAN: SS Simon – LF Durán – CF Ledesma – RF H. Givens – 1B Valenzuela – C J. Lopez – 3B Sutton – 2B Shaw – P Dickerson

Ralph Ford’s arrival was a real possibility and Kelly Fairchild had to prove that he belonged on this staff at all. Would we see Ford pitch for the first time on Sunday in Salem? While that was a question for the future, it would be answered right now. It didn’t start well for Fairchild, who walked Arthur Simon as the first man up, and this set up a game of struggles for him. In the second inning, Mike Crowe hit an RBI single with the bags full and one out. Fairchild came up and sure enough hit into a double play. The next two innings, while the Coons were hitting singles in bushels but didn’t anything about those runners, the Canadiens stranded runners in scoring position. In the top 6th it was then a terrible bloop off Chris Parker’s bat to finally add to the 1-0 lead. Parker’s gopher dinked just inside the line, as far away from a defender as possible, with one out in the top 6th, scoring a running Clyde Brady from second base. Brady drew the throw to home, and the runners Reece and Parker moved into scoring position, from where an Ingall single and a Mata sac fly brought them in, 4-0. Of course, the Elks came right back and knocked out Fairchild in the bottom 6th. He left with a 4-1 lead, two out, and two in scoring position after a Jorge Lopez double. Donis came on to face Sutton, but walked him. A nifty play by Guerin on Travis Shaw’s grounder then still got him out of the inning. Nordahl pitched a clean seventh, then issued a walk to Ledesma and a welt to Givens in the eighth. Martinez wobbled out of that, as the Canadiens left the bags full again, but Martinez couldn’t get the game over with either. Up 5-1, he put two on with one out in the bottom 9th, and Miller was thrown into the fire, facing Ledesma, on whom he ran the count full, until Ledesma knocked a pitch hard to right – and right to Ingall, who started the game-ending double play. 5-1 Coons. Guerin 2-5; Gonzalez 2-5; Parker 2-4, RBI; Crowe 2-4, RBI;

Pheeeewwwww… This was one of those games that was constantly about to get out of control, but somehow the Elks never managed to land the final blow. Well, now they’re warmed up, now they’ll face Saito!

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – P Saito
VAN: SS Simon – RF Durán – 1B Valenzuela – LF P. Taylor – 3B Sutton – CF H. Givens – C Lozano – 2B Shaw – P Marquez

We entered this contest NOT ranked last in runs allowed anymore following the Aces’ 8-3 loss to the Thunder the day before. Additional burden on Saito, and another one were the dark clouds hovering over British Columbia on this cold Tuesday. The Coons sprung out to a quick 3-0 lead in the top 1st, with Marquez being anywhere but in the zone, walking Guerin, drilling Ingall (back-to-back days that Ingall took one for discomfort), issuing a wild pitch, and then Reece doubled the runners home. Buell scored Reece on a groundout. (concerned look at the weather) Actually, the weather was not Saito’s biggest enemy. Ill control was, as he issued two walks in a bottom 2nd that also saw Guerin make a critical error, and the Canadiens had the game tied after two, 3-3. Saito even fell behind 4-3 in the third, but Gonzalez’s 2-out RBI single in the top 5th re-tied the score. Buell singled and Marquez hit Mata to load them up for Crowe, who grounded out. The Furballs left the go-ahead run on third base again in the sixth, while Saito was taken deep for the first career home run for 21-year old, hailing from Terrebonne, Quebec, Arthur Simon. Down 5-4, Reece hit a leadoff single in the top 7th, and advanced on Henry Givens’ second error of the day. Crowe ended up singling him home with two down, tying the score once more, and giving Saito a no-decision. After a quick seventh from Lagarde, Joly came into the game for a lack of other options. He instantly gave up a leadoff single to Pedro Lozano, who moved over on two groundouts. Donis then managed to get Simon to ground out. In the ninth, the rains finally came as soon as Neil Reece flew out to Givens for the first out. Gonzalez walked against Juan Bello, who then drilled Buell (the FOURTH HBP in this series – Elks pitching to contact!), before Mata singled up the middle – and Givens made his third error. This time, it cost the go-ahead run in the ninth, and the Coons had two in scoring position with one out and Crowe up in a prominent spot again, but he wasn’t pitched to, and a Newton sac fly was all we could squeeze out. 7-5, on came Daniel Miller – and it blew up. Bases loaded, no outs in the blink of an eye, and left-handers up, and we were indeed out of options now. Miller had to get out of this, or take the loss, since other than an ailing, incompetent Collins and a much-used, unreliable Nordahl we didn’t have anything left. But here came another twist. As Miller went to 0-2 on Raymond Sutton, the rain had gotten so severe the game had to be halted. 37 minutes later, Sutton resumed the AB against Miller, and grounded out to first, but the winning runs were now in scoring position in a 7-6 game. Miller looked horrible as he walked Givens, then faced Lozano, who was eagerly hacking and put a 2-1 pitch into play. He did the one thing he could not do: hit a grounder to Guerin’s left. 6-4-3, saved by the bell, and Concie from Maracaibo. 7-6 Furballs! Reece 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, BB, RBI; Mata 2-4, RBI;

(blinks)

I was 100% sure that this one was going to blow up. The Elks are really terrible! In game 3, Randyboy will not have any bullpen to fall back onto. No left-hander at all with Collins coughing and Donis used several days in a row, and the right-handed party didn’t look much better (minus the coughing). I had the insane idea of using Scott Wade on two days’ rest after throwing 105 pitches on Sunday should Farley go out early…

By the way, Ralph Ford on Tuesday pitched eight innings of 2-run ball to take a win in Baton Rouge, going to 12-4 with a 3.91 ERA in AAA. Tuesday + five days = …? Right.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Parker – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P Farley
VAN: SS Simon – LF Durán – CF Ledesma – RF H. Givens – 1B Valenzuela – C J. Lopez – 3B Shaw – 2B Corona – P J. Collins

Again, the Coons stormed out of the gates, with Reece drawing first blood with an RBI single, and them scoring four runs total in the first. The Elks started by failing again. Valenzuela fouled out to leave runners on the corners in the first, and in the second they had a pair in scoring position as Simon hit a liner to left and – WHAT A PLAY BY CROWE!!! With a subtle grace, he leapt, he caught, he saved!! In turn, he struck out to leave the bags loaded in the top 3rd… Yet, the Elks kept drawing the loser card time and again. While they got a run off Farley in the third, the Coons got it back in the fifth on an Ingall groundout. In the bottom 5th, the Elks left two on, and in the sixth, they had the bags full, one out, and PH Phil Taylor hit to Guerin in a flashback to last night’s ninth. Farley tumbled through seven, on seven hits, four walks, one strikeout – but allowed only one run. The gassed bullpen of ours now only had to cover two innings with a 4-run lead, and it started with Nordahl (since I like to follow up with a more experienced guy in case of trouble, and that would be Martinez right now). Nordahl got through the inning on 11 pitches despite a leadoff single by Valenzuela, when Shaw hit into the double play mill once more. Chubby came out for the ninth, also allowed a runner, but Daniel Miller never entered the game. 5-1 Coons!! Reece 2-4, BB, RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, 2 2B; Parker 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Mata 4-4, BB, RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, W (9-12) and 1-3, 2B;

SWEPT THE ELKS!!! And few things taste sweeter than sweeping the Elks on their own grounds…!

Roster issues: we aligned it so that Bob Joly would remain on the roster for the opener in Salem, then be demoted in exchange for Ralph Ford, who would start game 3 in Salem, taking over Fairchild’s spot as he will move into the long relief role.

Danger however: Brad Tamburrino cleared waivers, and still refuses demotion. We can’t afford to release him as we are already overbudget and Carlos jr. is utterly unpleased by our efforts, and considers us a waste of money he has earned oh so hard through inheritance. Tamburrino will have to be put back onto the roster next Thursday, or traded. We have already established that nobody wants the dirtbag, however. So, next week, another reliever will have to be removed from the roster to put Tamburrino back on. Oh yay!

Raccoons (47-69) @ Wolves (60-54) – August 13-15, 1999

Despite their decent record, the Wolves are only fourth in the FL West, and trying to make another run. Their problems were entirely starting pitching-related, with a 5.03 ERA for the rotation, completely negating any positive effect of the best bullpen in the Federal League. They scored slightly above average runs, though, while they were relying on the long ball.

Projected matchups:
Paco Martinez (1-2, 6.38 ERA) vs. Seiichi Sugiyama (12-8, 3.49 ERA)
Scott Wade (2-7, 3.45 ERA) vs. Jose Cervantes (4-9, 5.72 ERA)
TBA vs. Alonso Lopez (7-12, 6.39 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, including TWO ex-minor leaguers of ours, Cervantes and Lopez! A seventh-round pick from 1992, Cervantes was released in 1996, but debuted for the Wolves the same year with a 0-1, 6.89 ERA performance in three starts. Since then, he is a total of 12-23, 5.12 ERA. Lopez was an international signing by Vince Guerra in ’92 from Puerto Rico, but was unprotected and taken in the 1996 rule 5 draft. He is 25-40 with a 4.75 ERA in the Bigs, with a hideous 1.71 WHIP.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – LF Parker – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Granados – 2B Ingall – C Mata – RF Brady – P P. Martinez
SAL: 3B Quintero – LF V. Hernandez – C J. Lopez – RF MacGruder – SS Liu – 2B Metting – 1B Phillips – CF D. Edwards – P Sugiyama

For the third game in a row, Neil Reece drove home the go-ahead run in the top 1st, this time with a solo home run, his tenth of the year. That was only the start however: Sugiyama was broken up rapidly through extended slugging as the Raccoons added four in the top 2nd, and three in the top 3rd, the last two runs always scoring after extra base hits from Guerin. Up 8-0, surely, Paco Martinez would cruise now, right? Wrong. The Wolves sledgehammered him for four runs in the bottom 3rd, including a monstrous home run by Jeff MacGruder, his 25th of the year, leading all of the ABL (with Gonzalez’s 16 still tying for the CL lead!), and also TWO errors committed by Granados and Reece(!!), making all four runs unearned. After that scare however, young Paco lined up a nice string of zeroes on the board, struck out MacGruder the next time he came up and retired him once more before running out of steam in the eighth, then up 9-4. Two on, Chubby Martinez and Collins got the two outs he couldn’t get. Bob Joly got an outing in the ninth, failed, but Jackie Lagarde hung on. 9-5 Furballs. Guerin 2-5, BB, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Granados 1-2, 3 BB; Ingall 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Newton (PH) 1-1, 2B; P. Martinez 7.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-2) and 1-4, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – LF Parker – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – RF Brady – C Mata – 2B Ingall – 3B Crowe – P Wade
SAL: 3B Quintero – 2B Metting – C J. Lopez – LF MacGruder – 1B J. Mullins – CF D. Edwards – SS Liu – RF Carver – P Cervantes

Four for four for Reece in the first – this time a sac fly after Guerin had stolen third base!! Wade however ran right into MacGruder in the first inning and took a 3-run blow he wouldn’t recover from, and he was hit for in the top 5th, in a 5-1 Wolves game. For a long time, the Raccoons hadn’t anything going against the outcast Cervantes, who allowed two hits through six innings. Still down 5-1, we had two men in scoring position with two out in the top 7th. Guerin singled to plate a run, and then Parker came up with a double, again putting runners in scoring position in a 5-3 game, and now those were the tying runs for a mildly hot Neil Reece. And while Jeff MacGruder was an amazing batter, he was not a very good defender. A very good defender would have had a chance on Reece’s fly to deep left that dropped just in front of the warning track to tie the score. Out of nothing, indeed. Nordahl and Collins held on to the tie the bottom 7th and 8th, respectively, and then the Coons loaded them up in the top 9th with two down. Avtandil Takhanov (or something like that) faced Cesar Gonzalez, who had plated all of nine runs in the last four weeks. Could he? Would he? In a full count, Gonzalez lifted a pop to shallow center. Vincente Hernandez came on, caught it, dropped it, and Crowe and Parker, alight with laughter, almost missed home plate as they scored. Up 7-5, it was Miller Time in the bottom 9th, and he struggled for the second time in a row, but was ultimately bailed out with another double play turned by the middle infielders. 7-5 Coons!! Parker 2-5, 2B, RBI; Reece 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Mata 2-4, 2 2B; Newton (PH) 1-1; Fairchild 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Thank heavens we have Concie!!

And now, a future star enters the stage for the first time. Hopefully he won’t stumble. This young man, a tender 22 years old, was the Condors’ first round pick in 1995. He was the main prize in the trade in June 1997 that shipped a bitching Ben O’Morrissey to Mexico. In the minors, he has struck out 975 batters in 909 innings. Please pay your respect to our newest southpaw, from Colorado Springs, Mr. Ralph Ford!

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Granados – 2B Ingall – LF Buell – C Fifield – P Ford
SAL: 3B Quintero – LF V. Hernandez – C J. Lopez – RF MacGruder – SS Liu – 2B Metting – 1B Phillips – CF D. Edwards – P A. Lopez

After that pompous introduction – albeit on short notice – Ralph Ford’s debut started out with a bland, almost bitter taste. The Wolves performed a terrible chop job on him in the first inning, plating three runs, and after that he merely lingered and didn’t sparkle as we had hoped for. The Coons didn’t take place offensively until the fourth when they loaded the bags on Lopez with no outs, but the bottom of the order was up. Buell wisely worked a walk before Fifield poked the ball into a double play and we remained 3-2 behind. Ford conceded a fourth run in the bottom of the inning, but the Raccoons loaded them up again in the top 5th, and Granados brought in the first run with a walk. One behind, an Ingall single would be just what the doctor ordered, but he grounded to first – where Phillips bobbled the ball and all hands were safe, and the game tied! Wonderfully, Buell and Fifield got single runs in, 6-4 Coons at half time. Ford wobbled through six, his butt saved by a double play in the fifth, but then left with an almost comfy 7-4 lead, but the next danger situation was right around the corner. Nordahl put two on with two out in the bottom 7th, and right there MacGruder’s spot came up again. Donis was sent in to relieve Nordahl, and MacGruder flailed his team out of the inning. Bottom 8th, yet more trouble, Jackie Lagarde was swamped and now Chubby was thrown into a jam. The Wolves plated two, had the bags full and Jorge Lopez at the plate, and after THAT it’s MacGruder, so the damage could only grow exponentially here. Lopez took Martinez’ first pitch to deep center. Reece could never get there and this was going to fa- … REECE CAUGHT IT!!! Stunning silence at the park, then even cheers for Reece, few and far between though. Would the Raccoons be able to scratch out another win and get away with a sweep of a whole week? MacGruder led off the bottom 9th, 7-6 game, and Chubby was still in, since Miller was about our last reliever available. MacGruder sent a huge fly to deep right – BRADY HAS IT!!!!! Kuang Liu popped out, bringing up former #1 prospect Kurt Metting, another right-hander, and he reached on an infield hit. Benny Carver came out as a left-handed pinch hitter, but Donis had been used and Collins was not to be trusted. Carver was an evil hacker, but once he made contact, the marble would fly a few miles. He hacked and missed twice, then made contact sending a fly to left. Buell was meandering about out there, unable to find the ball, and JUST in time made a few steps forward to catch it at face height. BALLGAME!!!! 7-6 FURRY CRITTERS!!!! Reece 2-5; Granados 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Ingall 2-5, 2 RBI; Buell 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; J. Martinez 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, SV (1);

In other news

Complaints and stuff

COONS COONS COONS!!!

40 runs scored, 24 allowed, and one or two incredible bouncebacks. This week at least partially made up for all the crap we had to endure this year…

I have a waiver deal lined up with the Buffaloes to get rid of Tamburrino. Don’t get excited. They were the only team showing casual interest into this enormous reclamation project, and they weren’t willing to give up anything of value. The trade is for a 20-year old infielder in A ball, and he’s not really a hot shot prospect. If the deal goes through (Monday should be the day), then the last piece of our once formidable Australian Connection will leave the organization.

I still cry after Vern Kinnear.

On a side note: 40,000 views for this thread - people still aren't quite fed up with my whining, it seems

[Trebro]

Whatever that tech did to your laptop should have been done sooner, apparently, as it seems to have excised some demons from the Furballs, too.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

On a side note: 40,000 views for this thread - people still aren't quite fed up with my whining, it seems

Well deserved! This dynasty always makes me smile, and makes me think too.


I admire your stamina. You take breaks but you always return with renewed "enthusiasm". I use quotes because sometimes it is vengeance on your own team. (Ok, you people want to play like this, then you WILL suffer through this season.)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Trebro

Whatever that tech did to your laptop should have been done sooner, apparently, as it seems to have excised some demons from the Furballs, too.

He hasn't lost since, so I think we have proof that some evil spirits messed with him this season.

Yeah, he hasn't lost since, but he will have two starts this week - will he get through? (cue dramatic music)

Originally Posted by Orcin

Well deserved! This dynasty always makes me smile, and makes me think too.

I admire your stamina. You take breaks but you always return with renewed "enthusiasm". I use quotes because sometimes it is vengeance on your own team. (Ok, you people want to play like this, then you WILL suffer through this season.)

Key is to know when you're really, really fed up, and then stop for as long as it takes. If you start a week, and the Coons go down 1-2-3 in the first, and then Saito allows a leadoff single, and your instantly enraged, you know it's time for a week off.

Acting in fury is arguably one of my many flaws, and it's clearly apparent in this dynasty, too.

---

The waiver deal with the Buffaloes fell through, because apparently the scrub was claimed. Is that even possible? Bloody hell. Now Tamburrino has to be put back on the roster or released by Thursday… right now it seems like Ralph Ford’s debut will have been a one-off, and he will only return in September.

Raccoons (50-69) vs. Capitals (64-55) – August 16-18, 1999

While not scoring many runs, the Capitals did allow the least runs in the Federal League. Their rotation was top with a 3.57 ERA, and their pen was second with a 3.62 ERA. Their lineup was all about getting on base: they only had 53 home runs, second-fewest in their league.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (4-12, 4.24 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (11-5, 3.03 ERA)
Randy Farley (9-12, 3.26 ERA) vs. Vernon Robertson (11-9, 3.35 ERA)
Paco Martinez (2-2, 4.88 ERA) vs. Steve Rogers (10-13, 3.48 ERA)

That’s three left-handers, and we will give Stephen Buell more playing time again. Parker has supplanted him last week, and Buell is really not getting it done for an extended period of time now.

On an odd note, the Capitals currently carry TWO players named Jesus Rivera on their roster, a 26-year old backup catcher, and a 23-year old rookie corner outfielder.

Game 1
WAS: 3B J. Lopez – 2B McFarland – CF V. Sanchez – LF J. Rivera – RF Hooper – C J. Rivera – 1B C. Solís – SS Torres – P Sato
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – C Mata – RF Brady – 3B Crowe – P Saito

Two doubles in the first, and then shoddy fielding and a little luck plated three early runs for the Raccoons in support of Saito, who didn’t allow anything but two walks that far. Bottom 4th, and to get it going Crowe reached with a single just shy of ex-Canadien McFarland. Saito twice failed to bunt, then battled back to work a walk. Guerin reached on an error before Ingall struck out raking. That brought up Reece with one out. Y’know, a little bit more support for Saito wouldn’t be a mistake. Sato tried to make him fish, but remained up, and Reece was not denied. To left, deep, GRAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!! That ended Sato’s day. The Capitals got their first hit in the fifth inning, and put their first two men on in the sixth, but failed to score. Instead, they lost McFarland in a collision with Guerin at second base. Saito allowed another two hits in the seventh, but at 39 he was still the agile cat, and started a double play to get out of the inning. He dodged another bullet in the eighth, but the shutout fell apart with two out in the ninth when Tony Torres blasted to left for two runs. Jackie Lagarde then relieved Saito and retired Werner Turner. 7-2 Saito’s Minions!! Ingall 2-5, RBI; Reece 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Crowe 2-3, BB; Saito 8.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-12);

SAITOOOOOO!!!

Game 2
WAS: SS J. Lopez – 3B C. Solís – CF V. Sanchez – LF J. Rivera – RF Calzado – 1B Hooper – C J. Rivera – 2B Torres – P Robertson
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – P Farley

Randyboy had a first inning from hell, in which the Capitals issued two walks, an infield hit, a Reece error, and general cruelness of the universe for two runs before Farley whiffed Torres to escape with the bags full. Farley made an error himself in the top 2nd that did however not lead to another run, then came up with runners on the corners in the bottom 2nd, and two down after a leadoff triple by Buell, who was still waiting on third base. Farley came through with a soft lob just over Torres and into shallow right. Guerin then drove in two runs to take the lead, 3-2. Neither team did much offensively for the next three innings until Cesar Gonzalez ended a power drought with a huge 2-run homer to right center, 5-2. Farley went seven, Collins pitched the eighth, and Miller ended the ninth with a K to Turner, and our winning streak extended to eight! 5-2 Furballs! Guerin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (10-12) and 1-2, RBI;

Farley is in all likelihood the only Furball to reach double-digit wins this year, and also drove in his first RBI this year, despite a sterling average for a pitcher: .268; Also, Daniel Miller reached ten saves. Didn’t think THAT would happen this year, either. (sour look) Actually, Wade had 13 before moving into the rotation.

Game 3
WAS: 3B J. Lopez – C J. Rivera – CF V. Sanchez – LF J. Rivera – 1B Mosley – 2B Kan – RF C. Solís – SS Torres – P Rogers
POR: SS Guerin – RF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – C Fifield – 2B McLaughlin – P P. Martinez

In a before rarely seen spectacle, Steve Rogers, the borderline genius, walked SIX Raccoons – in the FIRST inning! Unfortunately, we didn’t manage a hit, but was donated three runs anyway. Newton doubled home Guerin in the fourth before Torres brought out some long ball pain again with a solo shot off Paco Martinez in the top 5th. Rogers meanwhile recovered from his early blunders and by the sixth inning had not walked anybody else, but had struck out six instead. The Coons however put the leadoff man on in the seventh, which knocked out Rogers, and Crowe singled the run home with two down. Paco went eight, and Donis pitched the ninth. 5-1 Coons! Newton 2-5, 2B, RBI; Crowe 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Ingall (PH) 1-1; P. Martinez 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-2);

NINE! Now for bad news. The final out Martinez got was caught by Neil Reece, but he tweaked his ankle in the process. It is not serious, but bad enough that he won’t be able to play for the rest of the month. Although 15 days is longer than he is expected to come back, we need the roster spot, and we have to put him on the DL. What a shame, just now, as he had crossed the .300 mark …

As replacement we called up Jesus Taramillo, who is an excellent defensive centerfielder, also well able to man the corner outfield spots. His bat is probably not that much, but Taramillo is just here to hold the fort until Reece comes back and will probably split duties with Luke Newton. Both are switch hitters.

We also had to demote Ralph Ford to put Tamburrino back onto the roster. Kelly Fairchild will take over the spot in the rotation while I am steaming mad.

Raccoons (53-69) @ Indians (53-67) – August 20-22, 1999

Scoring runs was a terrible pain for the Indians, who barely managed to scratch against the 3.6 R/G mark – not that the Raccoons were that much better overall. In the last nine games however… their pitching was thoroughly average, and with a win in the opener we would actually leave the bottom of the division!

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (2-7, 3.82 ERA) vs. Steve Holcomb (6-13, 5.34 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (5-4, 5.13 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (3-4, 5.75 ERA)
Kisho Saito (5-12, 4.12 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (9-11, 3.81 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Granados – 3B Gonzalez – LF Parker – C Mata – 2B Ingall – CF Newton – P Wade
IND: C Cicalina – SS Matthews – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – RF Paredes – 3B Whaley – CF Hardy – 2B Burgos – P Holcomb

Both teams had a scoring chance in the second inning, but failed. Wade was lucky the Indians left the bases full on Holcomb’s groundout after he had filled them up with a single and two walks. Newton then drove home Mata in the fifth inning for the first run in the game, and in the seventh the Coons put Parker and Mata in scoring position with no outs. David Lopez’ awesome catch on Ingall’s liner denied him of a single, but Parker scored regardless. Kevin Rhodes then replaced Holcomb, struck out Newton – but Cicalina never caught the ball and bobbled the first pickup enabling Newton to dash it out to first base. Mata moved to third and then Wade ripped a single to shallow left, scoring the youngster! A seemingly frustrated Rhodes got to 0-2 on Guerin before getting too far inside and brushed him, loading the bags in the process. The 1-0 to Brady went through Cicalina’s legs for another run. Wade scored on Brady’s groundout to make it 5-0. The Indians nicked Wade for a run, but Cicalina became the loser of the game when he bounced out to Gonzalez with two men in scoring position. Both bullpens crumbled some in the last two innings, but while Nordahl was only booked for one run, the Indians blew up for another four runs between the eighth and ninth: 9-2 Coons!! Taramillo (PH) 1-1; Mata 3-4, BB, 2 2B; Newton 2-5, 2 RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, W (3-7) and 1-3, RBI;

Taramillo made his debut as a pinch-hitter for Parker in the ninth and whacked a single to center. Also: TEN wins in a row!! Fifth place!! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Odd note: we haven’t scored an even number of runs in a game in two weeks. Actually, our winning streak consists entirely of games in which we have scored either 5, 7, or 9 runs. Puzzling!

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Buell – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Newton – 3B Crowe – CF Taramillo – P Fairchild
IND: C Cicalina – SS Matthews – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – RF Paredes – 3B Whaley – CF Hardy – 2B Burgos – P Mosher

Kelly Fairchild didn’t see daylight beyond the fourth inning as the Indians stomped him for seven runs, crowned by a 3-run homer off David Lopez’ bat. Neither did the Coons’ winning streak. Mosher, the useless piece of junk, puzzled them most horribly. After leaving the bags loaded in the first inning, the Critters never got close to threatening against him, as he scattered five hits through 7.1 innings. It wasn’t until the Indians foolishly replaced him with Cesar Salcido that the Coons got on the board, but it was way too little, way too late, even with a ringing 3-run homer by Ingall in the ninth. 9-4 Indians. Ingall 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Mata 2-3, BB, RBI; Brady (PH) 1-1;

While we’re mopey here, it was the odd runs. We gotta score an odd number of runs, then we win! Gotta work something out. Best idea I have is to wait for a 1-0 lead, then shotgun every other Brownshirt approaching home plate from the third base side.

Oh yeah, last place again.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 1B Gonzalez – LF Parker – C Mata – 3B Crowe – CF Newton – P Saito
IND: LF G. Flores – 2B Burgos – C Cicalina – 1B D. Lopez – SS Matthews – 3B Whaley – CF J. Valdez – RF Alston – P Alba

In both the second and third innings, the Coons scored runs on groundouts just because Alberto Burgos couldn’t pivot quickly enough to first base to end the inning with a double play. Two early runs, but the bad news were that Saito was easily hittable on this day. Adrian Matthews took him deep to tie the score in the bottom 2nd, and Lopez didn’t miss the fence by much with Burgos on first in the bottom 4th. In a controversial move we did not hit for Saito with runners on the corners and two out in the top 6th. He grounded out and the score remained 2-1. In the bottom 6th, Alba, Flores, and Burgos all hit huge fly balls off Saito – and our outfielders caught them all, Brady, Parker, and Newton in order! His luck finally ran out in the bottom 7th, when the first pitch was taken behind the centerfield wall by Cicalina. The Raccoons just couldn’t get their bats up again. After Collins and Nordahl almost were beaten in the bottom 8th, Donis was put into a 2-2 game in the bottom 9th, but faced the strong right-handers right away. Everybody saw it not work out, so did I, but I still hoped he could get into extra innings. Nope. Lopez singled with one out, Matthews singled, and then Whaley sent Donis to the mines. 5-2 Indians. Parker 2-4, 2B, RBI; Mata 2-4, 2B; J. Martinez 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

How many years has it been that the Indians absolutely refuse to field Matt Brown against Kisho Saito? I can’t count them. Not that it helped him any in this game.

In other news

August 17 – NAS C Jose Rodriguez (.260, 4 HR, 27 RBI) has suffered a ruptured medial collateral ligament and will miss the rest of the season. Even a return for Opening Day is questionable.
August 18 – RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.283, 16 HR, 79 RBI) might miss up to a month with a hamstring strain.
August 21 – The flashy rookie season of 21-year old SFB OF Paco Javier (.228, 14 HR, 60 RBI) comes to an abrupt end as the hotshot as blown out his knee. A torn posterior cruciate ligament will mean a lengthy rehab process and at best a return for Opening Day.

Complaints and stuff

How about that Mata kid hitting .400?? I certainly didn’t see that coming… I’m not batting him higher because a slump is inevitable.

Yeah, so we sniffed fifth place for a day and now we’re in reverse again? Looks like it from the last two games. Neil Reece’s bat is lacking in that #3 hole. To be honest, there is nobody that can be plucked in there. Ingall is a singles hitter (INGALL SINGLE!!!) and Gonzalez isn’t driving anybody home already. Reece in #3 is the same as Daniel Hall was in #3 – pain for the opponents, all day long.

Gosh, I miss Daniel Hall …! (weeps)

[Westheim]

What do you mean, it’s Sunday already!? Where has the week gone!?

Despite longing for some quality time with the Critters all week, no 3-hour window opened to play the final week of August. On a more hopeful note, I will have December 24 to January 6 off work again and we should definitely get some games in then…

On Monday, besides lingering another day in Indy before heading up to Milwaukee for a mid-week series with the Treechoppers, we sent Manuel Martinez on a rehab assignment to St. Pete, so he will be back by early-to-mid September to get a few more sniffs at the Big League level. Furthermore on the injury report, Neil Reece will not be available until September 2, if I can count properly (which is most likely not the case).

Raccoons (54-71) @ Loggers (66-57) – August 24-26, 1999

The Loggers continued to outscore their most shoddy and cringeworthy pitching for a +32 run differential. They ranked mostly last or second-to-last in pitching categories – yes, even behind the Furballs – while they were scoring the second-most runs in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (10-12, 3.13 ERA) vs. Simon Walton (11-12, 5.68 ERA)
Paco Martinez (3-2, 4.12 ERA) vs. Tim Butler (8-8, 5.26 ERA)
Scott Wade (3-7, 3.56 ERA) vs. Davis Sims (6-10, 6.27 ERA)

That’s some serious non-pitching here, but feel free to marvel at the difference in ERA and record between Farley and Walton for a moment, before we will head into a sure mid-week sweep (and I don’t see us on the good end, either).

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Buell – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Newton – 3B Crowe – CF Taramillo – P Farley
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 2B Morales – 1B R. Vargas – 3B J. Cruz – C L. Ramirez – P Walton

Wunderkind Julio Mata extended a 10-game hitting streak by opening scoring with a leadoff jack in the top of the fourth. The same inning, the Coons left a pair on for the third straight frame, and the Loggers’ Rodrigo Morales re-tied the game in the bottom 4th with an RBI groundout. A Jorge Cruz error gave the Coons a prime chance in the top 6th, as it put Newton and Crowe in scoring position with no outs. The Loggers elected to pass on Taramillo and pitch to Farley with the bags full, Walton struck out our pitcher, Guerin fouled out, and Ingall whiffed pathetically, and they left two more on base in the seventh AND in the eighth. This one had to be a loss, although Farley wasn’t gonna take it and held a 1-1 tie through seven. Chubby was the one thrown into the volcano for putting on the first two batters in the bottom 8th. Donis struck out Cristo Ramirez, but Bakile Hiwalani then launched a moon-bound rocket off Dan Nordahl to seal that deal. Technically, there was another half inning to play. Cesar Gonzalez drew a leadoff walk, before closer Ricardo Medina hit Mata. Newton singled. No outs, tying runs on. Parker hit for Crowe and singled up the middle, 4-2. Granados hit a fly to deep left, but the most distasteful Hiwalani caught it and held him to a sac fly. Fifield struck out in place of Nordahl, leaving it to Guerin, and he grounded out. 4-3 Loggers. Buell 2-5, 2B; Newton 2-4, BB; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K and 1-2, BB;

SIXTEEN men left on base in a NINE inning game. Absolutely stunning. (tumbles out of the clubhouse, straight into traffic) [tires screech]

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Granados – LF Parker – CF Newton – P P. Martinez
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – SS B. Hernandez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – CF Fletcher – C L. Ramirez – 2B Sullivan – 3B J. Perez – P Butler

The Loggers took a lead in the third inning on an RBI triple by Bartolo Hernandez. The following pop to shallow left by Hiwalani was trapped rather than caught by Parker and Hernandez scored, putting the Coons 2-0 down. Martinez whiffed eight and allowed three runs on eight hits through seven innings, while the Raccoons sparkled with absence on the bases. The usually very hittable Tim Butler was not all that hittable for them, and he scattered four hits through seven innings. Then he walked Newton and Guerin in the top 8th, bringing up the tying run with one out, and when Clyde Brady drew another walk, it was game time for Ingall. Both Ingall and Gonzalez grounded out to Sullivan, and only one run scored. The Coons had the tying runs on base again in the ninth against Medina. Granados was run for by McLaughlin, with Parker the trailing man as Newton came to bat. The runners in motion, Newton singled to right, plating McLaughlin to bring the score to 3-2 with Parker on third and one out. Buell was in the #9 hole, and for ONCE came through with a single to left that tied the game. The go-ahead run in Newton however was left on third base in the inning, and Lagarde being sent for the ninth was bound to go wrong. The Loggers had the winning run on third with two down and Hiwalani up to bat. Nope. Despite Hernandez on first base, second base was still open, so Hiwalani was walked intentionally to pitch to Jorge Cruz, who walked off the Loggers regardless with a single to left. 4-3 Loggers. Parker 2-4; Newton 2-3, BB, RBI; P. Martinez 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K;

Julio Mata’s hitting streak ended at 11 games, while Concie has hit in ten straight now.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Granados – 3B Gonzalez – LF Parker – RF Brady – C Fifield – CF Taramillo – P Wade
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B R. Vargas – 3B J. Cruz – 2B J. Perez – C M. Vela – P Sims

Guerin singled, Ingall singled, Granados doubled: 1-0, runners on second and third, no outs – and the Coons didn’t score again. Two outs to first, and a good fly to deep left by Brady that the disgusting Hiwalani caught. Wade failed in his usual game of feeding groundballs to the infielders, with many balls going out, but the outfielders did a good job. In the bottom 5th, still up 1-0, Fifield’s throwing error put Jorge Cruz on second base with no outs. Wade would wiggle out of that mess, but most credit went to Marvin Ingall and a fabulous launching grab on a Miguel Vela liner. Brady also reached on an error to start the top 6th, but was never moved off first base. Bottom 6th, Hernandez on second with two down, Hiwalani was put on intentionally to pitch to Vargas, who fed a nice easy grounder to Gonzalez to end the inning. Mauro Granados would finally give Wade some breathing room with a long one in the seventh inning, and while Wade held up nicely, the Coons had a chance to crush the Loggers’ struggling bullpen in the ninth, but after plating a run with a Gonzalez double, Parker and Brady struck out to leave runners in scoring position. Wade came back out with a 3-0 lead with Miller in the wings. Wade started the ninth with a K to Hiwalani, but walked Vargas. Miller would enter at the next mistake, but Wade didn’t make another one. Cruz and Perez went down on easy grounders. 3-0 Raccoons! Ingall 2-5; Granados 4-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Wade 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (4-7);

SCOTTY!!! In firing his 11th career shutout he salvaged at least one game. I’m getting the impression that despite being 37, he’s not washed up just yet. Which is great. He’s under contract for 2000.

Raccoons (55-73) vs. Condors (69-58) – August 27-29, 1999

And here comes the exact opposite to the (supposedly; we certainly didn’t notice it) pitching-inept Loggers, as the Condors had the best bullpen in the league and were conceding less than four runs per game, ranking third, the same rank they held in runs scored. The Condors however had an impressive list of pitchers on the DL (comparable to the Coons’ own field hospital) including Harry Griggs, Juan Lara, and Ray Cobb.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (5-5, 5.53 ERA) vs. Bastyao Caixinha (11-11, 4.36 ERA)
Kisho Saito (5-12, 4.08 ERA) vs. Jose Maldonado (10-8, 2.43 ERA)
Randy Farley (10-12, 3.05 ERA) vs. Roberto Muniz (6-7, 4.91 ERA)

Game 1
TIJ: SS J. Barrón – 1B O’Morrissey – LF Wales – CF A. Lopez – RF Reyes – C Vinson – 2B R. Solís – 3B Wallace – P Caixinha
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Buell – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Newton – CF Taramillo – 3B McLaughlin – P Fairchild

Fairchild couldn’t have had a worse day if a train had run over him and severed all his limbs. The Condors tore him up at will, plating six runs in 4.1 innings, crowned by a 2-run homer by Arturo Lopez. Not that it got better once Fairchild’s carcasses had been scratched off the mound. Dan Nordahl faced two batters, which ended in a 2-run homer by Lopez yet again. Collins was tagged, too, unsurprisingly. O’Morrissey continued the barrage by piercing Lagarde for a solo bomb in the eighth, and it was long a rout by then. 11-2 Condors. Ingall 3-4, 2B; Mata 2-4; Fifield (PH) 1-1; Donis 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

What a drubbing. The bullpen is hardly a help on this team, and next comes Saito against a terribly strong pitcher, so here comes loss #13 for Saito-sama.

Game 2
TIJ: 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – RF Wales – LF A. Lopez – 1B O’Morrissey – C Washington – 3B R. Solís – CF A. Rodriguez – P J. Maldonado
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Granados – 3B Gonzalez – LF Parker – C Mata – CF Newton – RF Brady – P Saito

The Condors stormed Saito early and decisively, for three runs in the first two innings. The Coons managed two double plays hit into in the same time frame, and the game was pretty much over right there. Saito lingered through six, got no support, and once he was hit for in the bottom 6th, went off to spent time with his swords. The Coons’ pen tumbled through the seventh and eighth. Miller was thrown into the ninth to get at least some exercise in this week and we remained 3-0 behind into the bottom 9th where we got to face the most venerable Andres Ramirez. Ingall walked, and Fifield came up with a pinch-hit double against the ancient southpaw. Gonzalez came up as the tying run with one out, flew out, and Parker grounded out to Ramirez himself. 3-0 Condors. Fifield (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Ladies and gentlemen, right here you can see a very bad team full of useless dorks.

Game 3
TIJ: 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – LF Wales – CF A. Lopez – RF Reyes – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – 1B R. Solís – P Muniz
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Parker – 1B Granados – 3B Gonzalez – RF Buell – C Mata – CF Newton – SS McLaughlin – P Farley

Scoreless through four, with the Raccoons not getting on base until Ingall singled to start the fourth, the game saw Solís walk against Farley in the top 5th. With one out he stole second base before advancing on a balk – while Muniz was still trying to actually bunt. With the runner on third, Muniz now could ground out and score him. Raccoons fans at the park were speechless. Back-to-back doubles by Mata and Newton dug Farley out of that 1-0 hole in the bottom 5th, but Farley would still go down – to injury. He waved for the trainer in the sixth and left the game with some ill or other in his throwing arm. Donis replaced him, and got put in line for the win when Gonzalez and Buell came up with doubles and we scored two runs in the bottom 6th. Miller was shaking badly in the ninth however and put two men on with one out. O’Morrissey came up and grounded hard to third – where Gonzalez made a nifty play to start a double play to end this nightmare. 3-1 Raccoons. Ingall 2-4; Farley 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; Donis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (5-1);

In other news

August 23 – SAC C Lance Branch (.269, 8 HR, 47 RBI) is out for up to two weeks after banging his wrist in an on-base collision.
August 24 – Shoulder inflammation claims LVA SP Jou Hara (10-7, 3.17 ERA) for the rest of the season.
August 25 – IND OF Bruce Hardy (.216, 1 HR, 2 RBI in 37 AB) retires from professional sports. The 32-year old journeyman had suffered a fractured skull in a head-on collision with an outfield wall earlier in the year. Hardy was a career .222 batter with 23 HR and 128 RBI after being selected by the Thunder in the supplemental round of the 1989 amateur draft.
August 27 – OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.366, 8 HR, 63 RBI) brings in a single in the Thunder’s 5-1 win over the Crusaders to bring a hitting streak up to 20 games.
August 27 – The season of Salem’s slugging LF/RF Jeff MacGruder (.289, 27 HR, 89 RBI) is likely over with a fracture in the 27-year old’s foot.

Complaints and stuff

Nice week. Not. Where’s the booze? Chocolate doesn’t help.

With Farley gone down now, the only pitcher that remains of our Opening Day rotation is the unkillable Kisho Saito.

Of course Lance Branch is batting .336 in Sacramento as opposed to .233 in Coon City, but hands up if you are ACTUALLY surprised.

[Westheim]

Everybody exhale: the pain that Randy Farley felt in the sixth inning on Sunday was nothing too serious. It seems like a mild case of wrist soreness, but he will miss one start. However, he wouldn’t have pitched until the weekend anyway, and by then rosters will have expanded already and we might be able to shuffle staff a bit to get Ralph Ford to take over that start. Or maybe they will start him in AAA on the 31st. Who knows.

Raccoons (56-75) vs. Thunder (72-59) – August 30 – September 1, 1999

The Thunder sported a strong starting rotation with the second-best ERA in the Continental League at 3.50, and with a fourth rank in runs scored they were also supplementing them well. Well, you know, like GOOD teams do. I fear the worst for the Critters.

Projected matchups:
Paco Martinez (3-2, 4.08 ERA) vs. Lou Corbett (10-15, 4.90 ERA)
Scott Wade (4-7, 3.14 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (10-6, 2.69 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (5-6, 5.63 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (14-5, 2.84 ERA)

Fairchild was not set in stone on that September 1 start. However, looking at our AAA rotation, it was all too likely that Ralph Ford would start on *Monday*, so he wouldn’t be available for game 3 *or* to pitch in Friday’s game against the Titans (in Farley’s slot). With how our roster and the one in AAA looks… brace yourself, but after 12 years and 655 relief appearances Jackie Lagarde could be heading for an emergency start on Friday…

Game 1
OCT: RF Barnes – LF Humphrey – 3B S. Reece – CF R. Green – SS Grant – 1B Higashi – C Cooks – 2B J. Valentín – P Corbett
POR: SS Guerin – RF Newton – 2B Ingall – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – LF Parker – 3B Crowe – CF Taramillo – P P. Martinez

A member of the little team that couldn’t be held together, Royce Green still got warm welcomes whenever he came to Portland. The fact that he did little against Paco Martinez in the opener didn’t hurt either. Martinez was taken deep in the second by Bob Grant, but Taramillo’s first career RBI’s on a 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom 2nd gave him a lead, and Taramillo led off the bottom 5th – just after the Thunder had re-tied the score – with another double. Martinez grounded past Higashi with Taramillo running for an RBI single, before Guerin reached on an error by Lou Corbett. Green grabbed a pop by Newton, still got some cheers from somewhere, but the park didn’t exactly erupt at the easy grab. It would however in the same inning. Ingall got on to load the bags with one out for Gonzalez, whose liner to left was caught by Joey Humphrey and no advance was possible, the bags remained full. That brought up Mata, 0-2 on the day. He soon was 0-2 in the at-bat, before turning into pitch #80 from Corbett. Humphrey tried to get that one, but it was long gone. GRAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!! Martinez went seven innings in a game where the opposition made four errors to aid his campaign, and when Royce Green finally went deep against Tamburrino, the audience wasn’t too mad, and neither was it surprised. 9-3 Furballs. Gonzalez 2-3, BB; Mata 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Taramillo 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; P. Martinez 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (4-2) and 1-2, RBI;

Game 2
OCT: RF Barnes – LF Humphrey – 3B S. Reece – 1B Higashi – SS Grant – 2B Browne – CF D. Henry – C Briggs – P Higgins
POR: SS Guerin – LF Parker – 2B Ingall – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Granados – RF Buell – CF Newton – C Fifield – P Wade

Scotty had not won a game at home all season, but for winning a game a few things had to come together, like, you know, offense, and not blowing up as soon as you get some support. Wade had three good innings to start the game, but as soon as Concie was driven home by an Ingall single in the bottom 3rd for a 1-0 lead, Wade blew up. Sonny Reece ripped a leadoff jack in the fourth, bringing a hitting streak to 24 games, and the next five outs were recorded at the warning track. Wade recovered in the sixth and seventh, but was hit for in the bottom 7th and didn’t figure in the decision. The Coons loaded them up in the bottom 8th with an Ingall single, a Granados double, and an intentional walk to Buell (!!??), after which Higgins was removed and replaced by Vincente Galván to face Luke Newton. With a good eye, Newton worked a walk, shoving home the go-ahead run, before Galván struck out Fifield for the second out. Mata hit for Mike Collins, who had sat the Thunder down in order in the top of the inning. To the crowd’s amazement, Mata doubled over Artie Barnes for two more runs. Miller sealed the deal. 4-1 Coons! Guerin 2-4; Ingall 3-4, RBI; Mata (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K;

Rosters expanded for Wednesday’s game. As expected, Ralph Ford had pitched on the 31st (grumble), but was called up regardless. Sunday is the earliest start for him, however. We also added another starter you already know too well, two relievers, a youngster we waited some time for, another slacking middle infielder, and we also have Neil Reece in the wings to rejoin us for the Boston series, and Manuel Martinez could soon come back from his rehab assignment, too. The following players got callups:
SP Ralph Ford (13-6, 3.94 ERA @ AAA; 1-0, 6.00 ERA @ ML)
SP Esteban Flores (8-1, 3.46 ERA @ AAA; 2-6, 5.82 ERA @ ML)
MR Fred Carlton (1-1, 7.94 ERA @ AAA; 0-0, 0.00 ERA @ ML)
MR Bob Joly (2-6, 2 SV, 5.42 ERA @ AAA; 2-5, 6.60 ERA @ ML)
1B Albert Martin (.300/.398/.573, 29 HR, 68 RBI @ AAA)
INF/LF Steve Caddock (.122/.218/.143, 0 HR, 1 RBI @ AAA; .150/.253/.275, 2 HR, 7 RBI @ ML)

Yes, can you believe I am adding Caddock yet again?

Game 3
OCT: RF Barnes – CF Humphrey – 3B S. Reece – 1B Higashi – SS Grant – 2B Browne – LF D. Henry – C Briggs – P Armand
POR: SS Guerin – RF Newton – 2B Ingall – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Martin – LF Buell – CF Taramillo – P Fairchild

Fairchild sat down the first ten Thunder batters, but once Joey Humphrey shoved a single through between Guerin and Gonzalez, the Thunder quickly were all over Fairchild, pushed him to the ground and rubbed his face against the base line. Chalked up, Fairchild choked before getting out of the sixth and left trailing 3-0. Whenever there was no Coons hurler on the mound, Fabien Armand dazzled their batters and struck out ten over the course of eight shutout innings, and Jimmy Morey added another strikeout in the ninth in a largely eventless game. 3-0 Thunder. Guerin 2-4, 2B;

Were they ever in scoring position? Not sure. However, Albert Martin hit a single his first time at the plate, before going 0-3 the rest of the day.

Also, Sonny Reece’s hitting streak reached 25 games here with a double in the 2-run fourth inning against Fairchild.

Raccoons (58-76) vs. Titans (84-49) – September 2-5, 1999

Run differential of +200. Do I really need to present more details about a .632 team?

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (5-13, 4.10 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (18-7, 3.12 ERA)
Esteban Flores (2-6, 5.82 ERA) vs. TBD
Paco Martinez (4-2, 3.88 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (16-8, 3.10 ERA)
Ralph Ford (4-7, 2.99 ERA) vs. Sergio Gonzalez (6-7, 3.76 ERA)

Flores will most likely only make the one start and will then be waived again, but the only other option was Bob Joly or Jackie Lagarde, and neither is very thrilling. There is nothing left at AAA. We have just too many injuries. Good news is, the Titans aren’t knowing whom to throw into Friday’s game either.

Game 1
BOS: CF Alonso – 3B Nakayama – 2B D. Silva – RF Greenman – C L. Lopez – LF Baker – 1B Elliott – SS Powys – P O’Halloran
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B C. Gonzalez – C Mata – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – P Saito

Stunner early on: after Neil Reece extended an old 10-game hitting streak with a 2-out single in the first, Gonzalez popped to Pat Elliott, who failed to make a grab and we had two on. Then came Mata, saw, and conquered O’Halloran with a 3-run homer to never-seen-again-Land. Unfortunately, Saito wasn’t up to the task, and only Luke Newton saved him from an early shower with a nifty pick on Luis Alonso’s fly to deep right with the score 3-1 and the bags full in the top 2nd. The Titans got another run back thanks to the repulsive Daniel Silva in the third, and by some miracle or other Saito twice escaped with runners on third base until he was removed mercifully after six innings. Chubby Martinez replaced him for the seventh, gave up the game-tying home run to Haruki Nakayama, and failed to retire anybody as the bullpen exploded in a thousand flames. 10-3 Titans.

I don’t know what is worse. Being shut out by some Canadian international free agent we graciously passed on a few winters back, or getting stuffed with ten unanswered runs by the Titans and their pack of obnoxious players.

Game 2
BOS: 2B H. Henry – CF Elizondo – LF Thomas – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – 3B Nakayama – SS Elliott – P Bautista
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – CF Reece – LF Parker – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – C Fifield – P Flores

The Titans moved Bautista up to Friday’s essentially hopeless game for us, with little Esteban in the game, who was throwing flowers, or something like that. Flores walked the bags full in the first inning and Glenn Douglas’ 3-run double sounded the victory horn before the Raccoons had ever been to bat. Once they had, in the bottom 1st, they loaded the bags themselves only for Crowe to leave them loaded. Flores walked six, plated another run with a wild pitch in the fourth, and was back on the train to Sevasto- … St. Petersburg while Jesus Bautista was still mowing down Coons, who nominally kept stepping in at the plate, but had stopped actually taking action the second Mike Crowe had flunked out in the first inning. The merest sliver of offense was presented by Neil Reece, who salvaged his hitting streak with a leadoff jack in the ninth that knocked out Bautista. The Titans, who had failed to put on routs for consecutive days by leaving 13 runners on base, still had Bill Corkum, though, and the Raccoons went down without much of a whimper. 4-1 Titans. Martin 2-4; Nordahl 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

As mentioned, Esteban Flores was banished. No replacement was called up. Much the contrary, we demoted the rather useless Brent McLaughlin – neither him nor Caddock can be expected to properly hold a bat, but at least Caddock can be used in a variety of defensive situations. How just a glove can fill a fridge, amazing!

Meanwhile the Titans kept moving up pitchers, and by now had announced Bryce Hildred (yuck!!) for game 4.

Game 3
BOS: CF Alonso – 3B Nakayama – 2B D. Silva – RF Greenman – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – LF Elizondo – SS H. Henry – P S. Gonzalez
POR: SS Guerin – LF Parker – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – RF Newton – 2B Caddock – P P. Martinez

After Carlos Gonzalez for a change drove in a run in the bottom 1st, Paco Martinez went mental in the top 2nd as well and walked the bags full with one out. He recovered with a K to Horace Henry, but Reece had to stretch the legs pretty well to get Sergio Gonzalez’ fly. Flipping the roles, the Coons had the bags full in the bottom 2nd with Martinez batting and no outs, but he couldn’t resist putting a 3-1 ball into play and got Caddock forced out at second, but Mata scored. Guerin just barely got the third run of the game in before Parker whiffed. Martinez got ten outs without allowing a hit, but then the Titans reeled off three quick ones to get a run in the top 4th. Two in scoring position with one out, Henry lobbed out to Newton. Douglas tagged, but was out by three strides at home. Bottom 4th, Newton and Caddock singled their ways to the corners with no outs. Martinez popped out and Guerin whiffed, before Parker was hit by Gonzalez. That gave Reece a chance and he rolled a single to left by the slimmest of margins past a launching Henry. By the time Elizondo got the ball back in, two runs had scored. Martinez went into the seventh but was removed after a walk to Henry with one out. Lagarde got out of the inning. This time, there was no comeback for the Titans – much to the contrary their own bullpen crumbled some and the Coons got back some dignity: 8-1 Furballs. Guerin 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Parker 2-4, 2B, RBI; Reece 2-5, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Martin 2-5; Caddock 2-4; P. Martinez 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, W (5-2) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 4
BOS: CF Alonso – 3B Nakayama – 2B D. Silva – RF Greenman – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – LF Baker – SS Powys – P Hildred
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Buell – RF Newton – P Ford

Ford no-hit the Titans for three innings before the course of the game shifted rapidly and the Titans banged him for three runs in the fourth, more than just negating a 1-0 Raccoons advantage from the first inning, in which Buell had left the bags full (as usual). Between four hits, four walks, and seven K’s over six innings, Ralph Ford remained left in the rain by his team that failed to get a base hit from the second inning straight through to Neil Reece’s 2-out double in the bottom 8th. Gonzalez whiffed instantly. 3-1 Titans. Reece 2-4, 2B; Granados (PH) 1-1, 2B;

In other news

August 31 – Washington Capitals owner Orlando Gonzales passes away and leaves his team to his oldest son, Orlando jr., who is considered to be a lenient economizer.
September 2 – CHA OF/1B Joe Morton (.287, 3 HR, 61 RBI) makes history by hitting for the CYCLE in a 7-1 win of the Falcons over the Aces. Together with Hubert Green’s cycle on June 3 of this year against the Raccoons, it is the first time that a team has seen cycles by two team mates in the same season. This 27th cycle in ABL history is also the second total for the Falcons. The only other occasion in which a team had two cycles in one season was when Carlos León hit two cycles himself for the Wolves in 1982. León remains the only player with multiple cycles to his credit.
September 2 – OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.358, 9 HR, 65 RBI) has his 25-game hitting streak killed off in a 7-3 loss to the Bayhawks.
September 3 – LVA SP Dan Moriarty (7-15, 4.55 ERA) has torn his labrum and faces the possibility of not being able to pitch again on Opening Day in 2000.

Complaints and stuff

All hail the Continental League Rookie of the Month of August 1999: Julio Mata! Our youngster batted .387 with 3 HR and 23 RBI in his first month of duty, and while I am not sure he can keep that speed going over the long run, it was certainly a splash debut for him!

And that was all the good news. The team was horrendous again this week.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-79) @ Crusaders (63-73) – September 6-8, 1999

Two pitching-inept teams that were also scoring almost identical (sub average) runs. They had a -60 run differential, ours was -69. Almost a wash. Just like both teams had been washed away in this CL North.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (4-7, 2.99 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (11-13, 4.86 ERA)
Kisho Saito (5-13, 4.06 ERA) vs. Hector Lara (8-15, 5.14 ERA)
Randy Farley (10-12, 3.01 ERA) vs. Cipriano Miranda (3-4, 4.11 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B C. Gonzalez – LF Buell – RF Brady – 3B Crowe – C Fifield – P Wade
NYC: SS Rigg – 2B Nielsen – LF A. Johnson – CF Latham – 3B Rush – RF A. Ramirez – 1B J. Ramirez – C Clemente – P R. Gonzalez

Scotty really didn’t have a good day. While six innings, three runs came out to a so called quality start, it wasn’t quality. The Crusaders just failed to sink him, leaving two on in the second, and the bags packed in the third. Mike Crowe’s 3-run bomb in the fourth kept Wade in the running longer than he deserved in this game. Ramiro Gonzalez in contrast struck out a full dozen Coons, but didn’t get past the seventh either in a 3-3 game. Reliever Jose Hernandez walked the bags full in the top 8th, but the Coons didn’t score. When Theodore Mullins grounded past Guerin in the bottom 9th to plate pinch-runner Jorge Gonzales with two out, it not only handed Dan Nordahl his first career loss, it also ended an 0-4 Neil Reece’s 14-game hitting streak. 4-3 Crusaders. Guerin 2-4, BB;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Buell – RF Brady – P Saito
NYC: SS Rigg – C Clemente – RF J. Gonzales – LF A. Johnson – 3B Rush – 1B T. Mullins – 2B J. Ramirez – CF Diéguez – P Miranda

Theodore Mullins was a .368 batter with four homers against Saito, and he hit a fifth one in this game, ramping the score to 2-0 Crusaders in the bottom 2nd. Saito was nowhere near his mojo, Ingall and Reece failed to plate anybody with the bags full in the third, as this ship was not only sailing, but also sinking. Antonio Clemente knocked out Saito with a 3-run homer in the fourth, which boosted the score to 6-0, and there was no hope for this collection of losers. Through seven, they trailed 7-1, when all of a sudden Cesar Gonzalez launched a 3-run home run off Miranda in the top 8th. The Coons put more runners on, squeezed two over the plate, but finally Ingall grounded out to leave a pair on, and Dane Sanders salvaged the game for the Crusaders in the ninth. 7-6 Crusaders. Guerin 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-5, 2B; Mata 2-4, 2 2B; Buell 2-4; Brady 3-4, 2B, RBI;

Arff.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – LF Buell – CF Reece – 1B C. Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Brady – 3B Crowe – 2B Caddock – P Farley
NYC: RF J. Gonzales – 2B Nielsen – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – 3B Rush – CF A. Ramirez – SS J. Ramirez – C Clemente – P H. Lara

… and again the Crusaders struck first, and early, making the most out of a passed ball on Mata to plate an unearned run in the first inning against Randyboy. However this time, Clyde Brady re-tied the score with a solo shot, and the Coons broke through and overwhelmed Hector Lara in the fourth inning. Crowe drove in the go-ahead run, we loaded the bags, and then it was Farley with a bloop single to extend the lead. Guerin drove in two, and we took a 6-1 lead in the top fourth. Farley silenced the Crusaders for a long time, although they would crowd him in the eighth when they loaded the bases. Farley however got Jeffrey Nielsen to ground out to end the inning and the 5-run lead remained in place. Neil Reece ended an 0-11 spell in this series with a bloop RBI single with the bags full and two out in the top 9th, leading to Gonzalez emptying the bases with a double, and we got another run to complete a rout. Never mind our own bullpen meltdown with two runs on Carlton in the bottom 9th. 11-3 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Brady 3-5, HR, RBI; Farley 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (11-12) and 1-3, RBI;

After this series, we added reliever Manuel Martinez off his rehab assignment in St. Pete. Meanwhile, Esteban Flores cleared waivers and was reassigned to AAA.

Also, while Cesar Gonzalez has clobbered a stray homer in this series, the Continental League has finally dodged him in the power race. While 16 and then 17 homers were long enough for a share of the lead, by now Indy’s David Lopez has moved away with 23 dingers. Gonzalez has still a share for second place with 18 HR.

Raccoons (60-81) vs. Canadiens (63-76) – September 10-12, 1999

Our last meeting with the Elks this season, and their team still held an 8-7 advantage over us in the season head-to-head. Their run differential was merely -26, suggesting that they were quite a bit unlucky throughout the year, contrasting with the Raccoons, who were quite a bit **** all season long.

Projected matchups:
Paco Martinez (5-2, 3.62 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (13-14, 3.76 ERA)
Ralph Ford (1-1, 5.25 ERA) vs. George Norris (0-0)
Scott Wade (4-7, 3.09 ERA) vs. Jose Dominguez (8-14, 5.37 ERA)

Game 1
VAN: 3B Shaw – RF Hudson – 1B Valenzuela – 2B B. Butler – CF Ledesma – LF P. Taylor – C Lozano – SS Pyatt – P J. Marquez
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – P P. Martinez

Both teams sparkled with ineptness in a game that zipped by rather quickly because nobody was getting on base. Well, until Lance Hudson possibly broke his leg chugging after an Ingall pop in shallow right in the fourth inning at least. The Coons actually managed to get into scoring position when Guerin stole his 22nd bag in the bottom 6th, and while Ingall struck out, Reece lined into left to plate Guerin. 1-0 Coons, top 8th, leadoff double by Pedro Lozano. Pyatt’s groundout held him there, before Marquez tried to bunt him over. Martinez however pounced on the bunt and tossed it to third to nab Lozano, and the park was excited all of a sudden. For the ninth, Martinez was about to face three right-handers in Henry Givens, Valenzuela, and Butler. Do you leave him in there on a 4-hitter or do you turn to Daniel Miller? No. No, we called for Miller, and he struck out a pair in a 1-2-3 ninth. 1-0 Coons. Reece 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; P. Martinez 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-2);

Daniel Miller and Scott Wade now tie for the team lead in saves with 13. I won’t go into detail how that ranks in the league as a whole, though.

Suspiciously, David Brewer was placed on waivers by the Condors. He’s in the penultimate year of the $9M contract he signed with the Coons before the 1995 season, and he only has a .716 OPS this year.

Game 2
VAN: RF J. Durán – C J. Lopez – 1B Valenzuela – 2B B. Butler – CF Ledesma – LF P. Taylor – 3B Shaw – SS Sutton – P Norris
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Buell – P Ford

The starters of the middle game had a grand total of 12 innings of big league experience, all brought in by Ralph Ford. The young Coon was dominant in the first four innings and took a 1-0 lead, before Albert Martin’s defense became a concern in the fifth. Martin made an error on a slow grounder, and then couldn’t stop a Jorge Durán grounder from becoming a 2-out, 2-run single, although it rolled right past him. The runs were unearned. The backswing came promptly, however. Ford led off the bottom 5th with his first career single, before Guerin walked. Brady doubled Ford home to tie the game, and Reece walked as well. Bags full, no outs in a tied game. The Coons flunked out here, and only scored one more run on a Gonzalez sac fly. The Coons edged out two more runs while Ford went seven innings and struck out nine! Chubby Martinez and Daniel Miller finished out the game without the Elks getting another runner on. 5-2 Coons. Brady 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (2-1) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 3
VAN: SS Simon – LF J. Durán – CF Ledesma – 1B I. Gutierrez – 2B B. Butler – C J. Lopez – RF J. Maldonado – 3B Sutton – P Dominguez
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Newton – C Fifield – P Wade

Whenever Scott Wade strikes out the first two batter he sees, trouble is right ahead. Jorge Ledesma took him deep to give the Elks a 1-0 lead in the top 1st. The park was eager for a sweep of the Elks, and the first step was made in the bottom 2nd when Albert Martin launched his first career homer to tie the game at one. The Coons had a chance in the third, but Gonzalez hit straight into an inning-ending double play, and Wade was run over by a bus in the fourth, putting four Canadiens on before retiring anybody. The Elks scored thrice, and Dominguez refused to allow them to look back – initially. Once Fifield took him deep in the bottom 7th, Dominguez was removed, and in the bottom 8th the Elks relief corps loaded the bags with walks to Brady, Reece, and Gonzalez – the latter representing the go-ahead run – and no outs! Ingall blooped a single into shallow center to score the first run in the eighth, but then again the parade began to get lost. Juan Bello struck out Martin, and Newton merely popped to right, but at least sufficiently deep to score Reece and tie the game. The go-ahead run however was left on. Chubby Martinez was almost defeated, but struck out Arthur Simon to end the top 9th with the go-ahead run on third base. Bottom 9th, chance for a walkoff, Granados hit for Martinez, but grounded out. Guerin singled, and Brady was plunked, moving Guerin to second for Reece. With the quick Guerin on second and Reece to bat with one out, we had a pretty decent scoring chance. Reece swung at the 1-0, a thundering sound sent everybody to their feet, and while Reece himself moved almost in slo-mo, the ball certainly did not. WALKOFF HOME RUN!!!!!! 8-5 Raccoons!!! Brady 2-2, 2 BB; Reece 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

REEEEEEECE!!! I love him. He must never go away. I would not survive that. I toppled through losing Daniel Hall, and Vern Kinnear, and Royce Green – but I will never survive it when Neil Reece refuses to resign after next season.

On a different note, our AAA team leads their division by five with six to play. It would be the first time in a while one of our minor league outfits would be in the playoffs.

Raccoons (63-81) @ Titans (88-55) – September 14-16, 1999

Oh no, those Titans again. They are leading the division by 8 1/2 with less than 20 to play, so they look like a lock for the playoffs right now. I don’t consider the Coons much of a stepping stone to their ambitions right now…

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (5-14, 4.27 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (17-9, 3.17 ERA)
Randy Farley (11-12, 2.88 ERA) vs. Sergio Gonzalez (7-8, 3.99 ERA)
Paco Martinez (6-2, 3.19 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (3-3, 4.11 ERA)

We are facing three right-handers, so more playing time for Albert Martin, while I am not very fond of playing Stephen Buell at all anymore…

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Parker – P Saito
BOS: 1B G. Douglas – 3B Nakayama – 2B D. Silva – LF G. Munoz – CF Baker – RF Elizondo – C F. Diéguez – SS H. Henry – P Bautista

The Coons stunned the home crowd by plating three runs in the first inning on an Ingall single and a 2-run single by Mata. Martin struck out in between, and struck out again with the bags full and two down in the second inning. The Coons plated a fourth run regardless, but Saito was again not up to the task and was whacked pretty well. The Titans plated two in the bottom 3rd, cutting the gap in half, and the Raccoons were awfully silent at the plate. The defense held Saito in the game through six. In the top 7th of the 4-2 game, the Coons again loaded the bags, with one out, for Ingall. He grounded out, but a run scored, 5-2. Martin, 0-3 with 3 K, was hit for by Granados, while the Titans replaced Bautista with right-hander Nobuyoshi Matsui. Granados’ double plated two runs, and the lead was ramped to 7-2. Saito was removed after walking Mike Powys in the bottom 7th, and Tamburrino made it worse. Donis then walked David Brewer, whom the Titans had claimed off waivers from the Condors, to load the bags and Daniel Silva, the coonskinner of Boston, was next, but Donis came through and struck him out. The bottom came out of the Titans bullpen in the ninth, and the Coons completed a rout in support of a struggling Kisho Saito: 11-2 Coons!! Brady 3-5, BB, 2 RBI; Reece 3-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Granados (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Crowe 2-2, 2B; Donis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Five wins in a row for the Critters!! Also Saito has now matched his record from last year (6-14), and is a dozen short of 250. He has about three more starts this year. If he can win two more, that would make it ten next year, which sounds doable, if we can actually assemble a decent team.

Well, yeah. A lot of “if” clauses in there.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B C. Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – C Mata – 3B Caddock – P Farley
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Brewer – LF Thomas – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – CF Elizondo – 1B Nakayama – 3B H. Henry – P S. Gonzalez

Farley pitched a control game. While getting two early runs from his team, Farley held the Titans largely off the bags and allowed only one hit through six innings. The Coons added another run in the sixth, and one more in the seventh, before Farley ran into a wall in the bottom 7th, where Haruki Nakayama’s 2-run triple brought him onto the verge of losing. He barely made it through with a 4-3 lead still in place, but the glamour from the start was gone. He was hit for in the eighth, where PH Albert Martin’s leadoff single was followed by two more runners and Reece drove home a pair with the bags full. But that was enough. Chubby and Collins did the eighth, and Miller saved another one to run our streak to six. 6-3 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5; Brady 2-4, BB; Reece 4-5, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mata 2-5, 2B; Martin (PH) 1-1; Farley 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (12-12) and 1-3;

How a dominant game can almost blow up in no time… but Farley now has a dozen wins. Didn’t think, honestly, we’d get anybody there this season.

In the meantime we also killed off Glenn Douglas’ hot streak at 21 games.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B C. Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – C Mata – 3B Crowe – P P. Martinez
BOS: CF Alonso – 3B Nakayama – 2B D. Silva – RF Greenman – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – LF Elizondo – SS Powys – P Hildred

The game was tight through five with neither pitcher giving up a lot. To be precise, each gave up a solo home run, as Neil Reece and Luis Lopez took care of a 1-1 score. In the top 6th then, Hildred kinda lost his game. He had struck out five Furballs early on, but then loaded the bags with a walk to Parker with two down. Mata lined to left, and the ball went JUST past a launching Vicente Elizondo and went to the wall for a 2-run double. After an intentional walk to Crowe, Paco Martinez sent a bloop to shallow left in a full count that nobody got to and another two runs scored as Elizondo was slow to get the ball back to the infield. When reliever Haden Helton was taken deep by Cesar Gonzalez for two in the seventh, it all but completed the creaming of the playoff-aspiring Titans on their own field. The Titans never again raised a bat against a flashy Paco Martinez, who was overpowering them both on the mound and even at the plate. 7-1 Coons! Gonzalez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; P. Martinez 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (7-2) and 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

I have to admit, that this sweep came totally unexpected and the news of it are still trying to signal my brains to be excited about it. Brains refuse to believe…! Neither can the Titans believe what hit them… The Loggers suddenly are only five behind with 2 1/2 weeks to play.

Raccoons (66-81) @ Bayhawks (90-56) – September 17-19, 1999

Having secured a .500 record for the week, we weren’t even too scared about playing San Fran on the weekend. They were trying to play down the string, leading their division by eight, so they probably wouldn’t tear out legs to beat us at all cost (although homefield advantage was still hotly contested by all divisions except the FL East). This will still not have us score runs automatically. The Bayhawks are allowing roughly 3.25 R/G, so here’s work for the offensive department.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-1, 3.32 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (19-8, 2.11 ERA)
Scott Wade (4-7, 3.42 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (10-9, 2.29 ERA)
Kisho Saito (6-14, 4.21 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (14-8, 2.30 ERA)

Hey look, for once Kisho gets the easy guy! (nervous, pitiful laughter) Sanchez is also the only righty in the group.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Crowe – C Mata – LF Taramillo – SS Caddock – P Ford
SFB: LF Walls – 3B M. Munoz jr. – RF Black – CF A. Marquez – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Martinez – 1B H. Ramirez – 2B Navarro – P Hamlyn

The Furballs scored their offensive allotment in the first inning on a 2-run homer by Neil Reece, his 15th of the season. That was also Reece’s only action in the game, since he left after the first inning with a bruised wrist. By the time Neil Reece left the trainer’s room, where he had gotten his wrist braced, he met Ralph Ford coming from an early shower. While Reece had been taken care of, the Bayhawks had conducted a massacre on the field, and had scored seven runs on Ford, Collins, and Chubby Martinez, and Tony Hamlyn reached double digit strikeouts in the sixth inning. He would strike out a dozen in total, while pitching 7.2 innings. The Raccoons were never even close to getting back into the game. 7-3 Bayhawks. Ingall 2-5; Fifield (PH) 1-1; Reece 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Fairchild 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Yeah. Yeah, that was some pretty cold water we got doused with here. On the 137th anniversary of the Battle at Antietam, the Coons dugout looked like the sunken lane once the dust settled.

Neil Reece looks like he’s going to be out of action for another week now – just as he was getting on a hot streak. On the plus side, that should take away enough at-bats so he can’t plunge below .300 by season’s end anymore, as the home run raised his average to .311, and with the way Guerin is struggling by now, there’s a good chance that Reece will even claim the team batting title. Guerin is only three points ahead and is now losing a point every day…

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 3B Gonzalez – CF Newton – C Mata – 1B Martin – LF Buell – P Wade
SFB: 3B M. Munoz jr. – 2B H. Ramirez – 1B D. Carroll – RF W. Jackson – CF A. Marquez – C G. Ortíz – LF D. Woods – SS J. Martinez – P Chapa

The middle game was all about pitching – and the pitchers really meant it. Both starters went eight innings, and between them surrendered a total of seven hits and struck out 15 and walk only one apiece. In this light, scoring would be low, and a single run would potentially be enough. Thus, when in a scoreless contest Stephen Buell was mocked by a Jorge Chapa liner to left and let it escape for a leadoff triple, it was pretty obvious that Wade was likely doomed. While he struck out Manny Munoz jr., Hector Ramirez drove Chapa home, and that was already the game. Ryosei Kato relieved Chapa in the ninth, but the Raccoons just failed. 1-0 Bayhawks. Ingall 2-4; Wade 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (4-8);

Meh. Mellow. We are already lacking Neil Reece left and right.

And center.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Parker – CF Taramillo – P Saito
SFB: LF Walls – 3B M. Munoz jr. – 1B D. Carroll – RF Black – CF A. Marquez – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Martinez – 2B J. Gomez – P R. Sanchez

Saito wasn’t going to get far, that was evident from the start. Clyde Brady had to stretch quite a bit in right to keep the Bayhawks off the board in the first two innings, but Saito was just bowled over in the third, in which the Bayhawks plated five runs (three earned) to complete a series sweep by force. They led 5-1, countered by Jesus Taramillo’s first career dinger, and they wouldn’t be denied, would they? While they didn’t add to their lead, Sanchez didn’t allow anybody on base until the sixth, when Guerin singled but got himself thrown out stealing then. In the seventh however, the Raccoons loaded them up, bringing Mata up to the plate as the tying run. The Bayhawks pulled Sanchez for Jose Matos, who walked Mata, 5-2. We didn’t get past a Parker sac fly, though. But the eighth inning came, and Granados led off with a pinch-hit double. Johnny Smith replaced Matos, walked Guerin, and the tying runs were on with nobody out. Smith recovered with strikeouts to Brady, Ingall, a walk to Gonzalez, and another K to Martin. The Bayhawks saw the threat and made sure to crush Carlton and Nordahl in the bottom 8th. 8-4 Bayhawks. Newton (PH) 1-1, 2B; Granados (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Lagarde 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

In other news

September 7 – Season over for 28-year old MIL OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.336, 4 HR, 54 RBI), who has suffered a strain abdominal muscle in a game against the Indians.
September 8 – OCT Aaron Anderson (15-10, 2.90 ERA) 2-hits the Falcons in a 5-0 shutout.
September 10 – CIN 1B Larry Maldrum (.279, 7 HR, 64 RBI) has hit in 20 straight games with a triple in the Cyclones’ 8-2 win over the Blue Sox.
September 12 – While BOS 1B Glenn Douglas (.322, 19 HR, 91 RBI) brings his own hitting streak to 20 games with a hit in the Titans’ 3-2 loss to the Indians, Larry Maldrum’s is over as he goes hitless in a 6-5 loss of the Cyclones to the Blue Sox. Maldrum had been on 21 games.
September 14 – And another hitting streak, as MIL RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.339, 3 HR, 82 RBI) falls a double short of a cycle in a 13-inning marathon, 7-4 win over the Canadiens, in which he also hits the game-winning 3-run dinger, and now has hit in 20 straight games.
September 19 – The Falcons take care of Cristo Ramirez and the Loggers, holding Ramirez dry in four AB’s and taking the game, 6-5. Ramirez had hit in 23 straight games.

Complaints and stuff

This one came out of left- … ah, right field: Clyde Brady was the CL Player of the Week, batting .524 (11-21) with 1 HR and 4 RBI in the week we faced the Crusaders and Canadiens.

Ah right, Canadiens. We came from behind to take the season series against them, 10-8, with the sweep. This caps off our encounters for the decade. Overall the Raccoons won the season series eight times, every year except 1993 (strange enough) and 1998; we went 103-77 against them in the 90s, which contrasts nicely with our 80s against them, but I don’t even want to talk about the almost exact opposite result…

In a twist of irony, Neil Reece was named the Player of the Week for the second week in this update, despite limping off the field quite early. He was certainly hot: .588 (10-17), 3 HR, 10 RBI.

And we are not in last place anymore. Well, still two weeks to play. They can still lose 96. To be fair, for a long time they looked like they would lose 110…

An early word about the off season that will soon engulf us. It should be rather quiet for the Raccoons. I don’t expect us to be able to spend any money. We have three free agents: Granados, Juan Martinez, and Lagarde. Don’t expect any of those three back. With Cesar Gonzalez, Concie Guerin, and Jose Rivera expected to get big raises in arbitration, our budget is already full for next season, unless we get a raise. And … well … we ain’t gonna get one. We can’t take on any salary, although we need an impact bat. Both corner outfield positions are rather weakly manned. Buell is a disappointment. Newton has never been any good. Brady and Parker aren’t breaking out. Maybe something can be arranged in a trade, but I don’t see us getting any better in the offseason. Here’s to more losing! (toasts)

(sobs)

[Westheim]

Our AAA team, the St. Petersburg Alley Cats start their first round playoff series against the Toledo Discoverers (Titans-aligned) on Monday.

Raccoons (66-84) vs. Knights (68-81) – September 20-22, 1999

The Knights had long taken over the dead last spot in runs allowed, 732 or just short of five per game. In this case it usually does not help a lot to score the fifth-most runs in your league: you’re screwed.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (12-12, 2.91 ERA) vs. Chet Sloan (6-10, 4.96 ERA)
Paco Martinez (7-2, 2.93 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (12-16, 4.38 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-2, 4.70 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (0-0, 6.88 ERA)

Neil Reece would have to sit this series out in entirety, but might be back for the weekend series against Milwaukee. Meanwhile, Sloan and the 21-year old Cutts are southpaws I can’t remember us having faced before.

Game 1
ATL: RF Juevanos – C J. Johnson – 2B Palacios – 1B Tinker – LF Kinnear – SS Tanaka – CF Árias – 3B A. Hernandez – P Sloan
POR: SS Guerin – RF Newton – 2B Ingall – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Buell – CF Taramillo – P Farley

Sloan was torn to pieces and did not survive the first inning. Having allowed two runs and facing Taramillo with the bags full, he threw a terrible ball four, then gave a cookie to Farley that our own pitcher converted for a stunning bases-clearing 3-run triple! Farley didn’t allow a runner until the fourth inning, and generally cruised, while the Raccoons tacked on single runs in the second, third, and fourth, and then three runs in the sixth. That was surely more than enough to win the game, and Farley was cruising – until he didn’t anymore. Something snapped in the eighth and suddenly he issued three walks. The Knights still didn’t score, but Farley had lost it apparently. He was removed after a leadoff single by Pete Rogers in the top 9th. Sure enough, Chubby Martinez made sure the run scored with a double to Jesus Palacios. 12-2 Raccoons. Guerim 2-5; Martin 5-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Mata 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Taramillo 1-2, BB, 3 RBI; Farley 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (13-12) and 1-3, BB, 3B, 3 RBI;

Shoutout goes to Albert Martin, who terrorized the Knights for five hits in five tries and raised his average to .340! Something strange about him: he is hitting left-handed pitching much better than right-handed pitching despite being left-handed himself. The difference is about .100 OPS. This is truly miraculous.

Game 2
ATL: CF Rogers – C J. Johnson – 2B Palacios – 1B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – LF Kinnear – SS Lowe – 3B A. Gonzalez – P Howard
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – CF Newton – LF Parker – C Fifield – P P. Martinez

Martinez gave up the first hit in Britt Lowe’s career – a home run in the top 2nd. The Knights led 2-0 by the third, but Martinez struck out Vern Kinnear to end the fourth with the bags still full (Kinnear was batting sub-.100 vs. the Raccoons this season). The Coons had the bags full themselves in the bottom 4th, but managed only one run on a groundout by Albert Martin. Martinez went seven, but then still was 2-1 behind. A Palacios error however put Martin on to start the bottom 7th, and he went to third on Newton’s single. Parker grounded out, and Fifield grounded out, failing to score Martin. Buell hit for Martinez and popped out on the first pitch. Yeah, THAT is the team I know. I don’t know who stole the brown shirts yesterday. Martin got on in the bottom 9th of the 2-1 game, and was run for by Taramillo. But Taramillo was thrown out stealing, Newton whiffed, and the Coons left Martinez hanging on that tree. 2-1 Knights. Brady 3-4; P. Martinez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (7-3);

The Alley Cats are 1-1 in the AAA championship after two games in Toledo. Prospect Nick Brown won the first game of the set.

Game 3
ATL: CF Rogers – C J. Johnson – 2B Palacios – RF W. Taylor – SS Tanaka – 1B V. Martinez – LF Mendoza – 3B A. Gonzalez – P Cutts
POR: SS Guerin – RF Newton – 2B Ingall – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Buell – CF Taramillo – P Ford

The game started with a Cesar Gonzalez error, but Ford managed to escape with two strikeouts in the inning. The Coons scratched out a run in the bottom 1st, and Ford was on fire early on. Through four innings, he had whiffed seven batters, but a leadoff double by Rogers in the top 5th signaled that the game was not going to be won so easily. Taylor doubled the run home, tying the game. No matter what Ford was doing however, the team would not support him. Cesar Gonzalez was left on third base in the fifth, and in the seventh, Buell got on to lead off the frame, and then immediately was thrown out stealing. In total, Johnny Johnson threw out three Coons in the game… Ralph Ford was beyond 110 pitches and was done after eight innings. Daniel Miller was brought out and quickly subdued the Knights in the ninth (including a K to Kinnear, giving him five in the series). Martin led off the bottom 9th against the Knights’ closer, Roberto Delgado. Delgado fell behind Martin and came inside. Martin loved pitchers coming inside, hit it square, and up, and oh – my – god – we’re going home!!! 2-1 Coons!! Guerin 2-4, 2B; Ford 8.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K;

No-no, I am not “happy” that Kinnear whiffed five times in three days against us. He had an awful year, batting .238 with ten homers, and I would like to see him do well, but then I would also not like to see him do well against the Raccoons. We have certain candidates that are masters in that field. Indy’s Matt Brown, anyone?

Raccoons (68-85) vs. Loggers (85-67) – September 24-26, 1999

The Loggers needed a sweep, no excuses, since the Titans’ magic number was down to four. Meanwhile we are tied for fourth with the Indians coming into this set, and half a game ahead of the Canadiens. The Crusaders are quite a bit ahead in third place.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (4-8, 3.24 ERA) vs. Simon Walton (13-14, 5.48 ERA)
Kisho Saito (6-15, 4.24 ERA) vs. Tim Butler (8-12, 5.44 ERA)
Randy Farley (13-12, 2.84 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (21-7, 2.13 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 3B J. Perez – RF C. Ramirez – CF Hiwalani – 2B Morales – C L. Ramirez – 1B M. Jones – LF Sanders – P Walton
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – P Wade

Wade was roughed up in the first inning, with the inevitable Hiwalani driving in a pair of runs. There was potential of it getting even worse in the top 3rd, where Martin and Mata made errors to put Wade in a deep hole with Hiwalani batting again. This time, Wade struck the evil batter out. However, this was not Wade’s game. Down 3-0, he was removed in the sixth with a man on base, whom Collins starved, but in bad news, the Raccoons had so far more errors (2) than hits (1) against the perceived pushover Simon Walton. In a terrible battle, the Raccoons managed to scratch out a run in the seventh inning, driven in by Buell, just before he got caught stealing. The bottom 8th came, and we got Mata on base. Crowe failed, but Newton came up with one out and sent a liner to deep right that eluded Cristo Ramirez. It eluded him for quite a long time, and Newton was safe with a triple. The score was now 3-2, and we had the tying run on third with one out. Brady grounded out to third, keeping Newton pinned, and Guerin struck out. It was all a pain… Bottom 9th, we got Ingall on. Next was Reece. You don’t bunt with Reece! He popped out to shallow right. Martin was hit by Ricardo Medina, giving us the tying runs on base. Parker hit for Buell – and straight into a double play. 3-2 Loggers. Ingall 2-4, 2B; Buell 2-3, RBI;

Game 2
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – SS B. Hernandez – CF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – 2B Morales – C L. Ramirez – 3B J. Perez – LF M. Jones – P Butler
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – C Mata – P Saito

And another horrible game. Saito was whacked around from the start, and the Raccoons trailed 4-0 in the third inning. This included a run-scoring balk, a throwing error by Mata, who failed to nab any of three base stealers, and also a wild pitch. It was a living nightmare. Saito faced three batters in the fourth inning, failed to retire any of them, and when Lagarde relieved him, it only became worse. The Loggers were putting the rout on – with force. Albert Martin hit 3-run home runs in BOTH the fourth and fifth innings – and it didn’t get the Raccoons a single run closer to the Loggers. When Martin came up to bat again in the bottom 7th, Andrew Schaefer had put two men on already and was in no mood to face him. He just hit him straight away. War almost broke out in the park, before the umpires managed to get the mess cleaned up. Schaefer was not even ejected. Ingall batted with the bags full and one out, struck out, and Parker got only one run home, before Schaefer struck out Mata. Tamburrino would drill Jose Perez, who had hit a grand slam off Chubby Martinez earlier, upon getting a sign in the ninth, but regardless of the details, this was a horrible loss. 13-7 Loggers. Brady 2-5; Gonzalez 2-5, 2B; Martin 2-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Parker 1-2, 3 BB, RBI;

Game 3
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B R. Vargas – RF C. Ramirez – CF Hiwalani – 2B Morales – C L. Ramirez – 3B J. Cruz – LF Sanders – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – LF Buell – RF Newton – P Farley

Facing perhaps the best pitcher in baseball right now, the Coons had no chance. The best Farley could hope for was that he would hold out for long enough so that somebody else could suck up the loss. The Coons had their first two men on in the bottom 3rd, Reece at least brought them into scoring position with a groundout, but Gonzalez struck out to end an inning for the second time on the day. In the fourth, Martin and Mata went onto the corners with singles and nobody out. Buell failed (as usual), and Newton was put on intentionally by the Loggers to get to Farley with the bags full and one out. Farley held up well, but ultimately sent an easy fly to left, and Guerin grounded out. The Loggers were kept in check by Farley just as well and with even less hits allowed. In the sixth, he walked Vargas and Ramirez singled with two out. Runners on the corners, he faced Hiwalani, the Death of a Thousand Coons, but Reece made the catch in deep center. Reece couldn’t catch Leon Ramirez’ fly the next inning, however, as that ball banged off the batters’ eye. Down 1-0, Ingall hit a double in the bottom 7th that put him and Guerin in scoring position with one out. Come on Reece, we never needed you more! But Reece grounded out on the first pitch, Gonzalez flew to left, and the Raccoons failed to score yet again. Bottom 9th. Still 1-0. Medina was in, and Parker made the first out. Guerin then slapped a single into right and Ramirez misfielded it, giving Guerin an extra base. COME! ON! Don’t let Farley suck up this loss! After Ingall popped out, Reece came up. Come on, Neil! Give it all you got, Neil! Medina’s first pitch was grounded back to the mound by Reece. Medina launched after it, but couldn’t grab it and it hobbled over the mound to second base – and between Hernandez and Morales! Guerin rocketed around third base and came home before Hiwalani could get the ball back in from center – tied game! Extra innings commenced, and Bob Joly immediately gave up a run. Well, that went well. The Raccoons didn’t come back this time, and were swept. 2-1 Loggers. Guerin 2-5; Reece 3-5, RBI; Martin 2-5, 2B; Farley 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K and 1-2, BB;

In other news
September 20 – LVA OF Javier Vargas (.312, 13 HR, 64 RBI) has his season end early with a sprained ankle.
September 20 – Also season over for DAL C Rob James (.269, 13 HR, 81 RBI) who has become severely hobbled with plantar fascitis.
September 23 – SFW LF/RF/1B Hjalmar Flygt (.362, 8 HR, 79 RBI) is out of commission with a sore wrist. The playoff bound Warriors might lose him for the FLCS.
September 24 – The Warriors clinch the FL West with a 9-5 win over Los Angeles. They will make their fourth playoff appearance, and their third since 1994.
September 24 – Season over for NAS INF Leborio Catalo (.327, 0 HR, 50 RBI), who has twisted his ankle.
September 24 – Oklahoma’s Aaron Anderson (18-10, 2.72 ERA) 2-hits the Knights in his second shutout of the month.

Complaints and stuff

Steal success rate this week: 0% (0-5). This has been an issue all season long, we are hardly at 50%, despite Guerin and Buell not being terrible runners.

While this was horrible week for the Raccoons, the Alley Cats won their first two games at home against the Discoverers, clinching the best-of-5 series. With the quirky way OOTP is handling playoffs, the AAA championships started on Sunday already. Behind Esteban Flores’ pitching and two home runs by Chris Roberson, the Alley Cats whipped the Corpus Christi Whitefish (Knights-affiliated) 9-0. This is a best-of-7 series.

There was ONE Raccoon who had a good week: Albert Martin. He raked opposing pitching at a .417 clip (10-24) with three dingers and 10 RBI. He was the CL’s Player of the Week, making it three weeks in a row that a Coon has taken the honor.

And YET we are STILL back in last place…

[Westheim]

Final week. Let’s try not to kill ourselves while trying not to finish last.

Raccoons (68-88) @ Indians (70-86) – September 27-29, 1999

The Indians’ struggling offense ranked last in the Continental League, a whopping 74 runs behind the third-to-last Raccoons. The pitching didn’t give much either way. They’re playing out the string, nothing more, and nothing less, just like us.

Projected matchups:
Paco Martinez (7-3, 2.90 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (7-5, 3.71 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-2, 3.77 ERA) vs. Dan George (14-14, 3.21 ERA)
Scott Wade (4-9, 3.33 ERA) vs. Steve Holcomb (8-16, 5.20 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – RF Newton – LF Taramillo – C Fifield – P P. Martinez
IND: LF G. Flores – 2B Burgos – C Cicalina – 1B D. Lopez – SS Matthews – CF Maguey – 3B Whaley – RF J. Valdez – P Mosher

Home runs by a blazing hot Albert Martin and Luke Newton gave Martinez an early 2-0 lead, which nevertheless evaporated when the Indians chugged three base hits to start the bottom 4th. They plated two runs, before a Matt Whaley error plated Fifield in the top 5th and we were up 3-2 again. The Indians left a runner on third base three times in the first five innings. Martinez was removed when Antonio Vargas hit a pinch-hit double to lead off the bottom 7th, but Tamburrino got out of the inning – the first time probably this year that he managed not to humiliate himself – with Vargas starved at third base again. The Indians collapsed on errors by Burgos and Matthews that cost three unearned runs in the top 8th. That was a mere prelude however to the Raccoons’ own implosion that was set in motion in the bottom 9th. With a 6-2 lead, Jackie Lagarde got an out from Whaley, before Valdez singled and Jose Paraz walked. That was enough. Daniel Miller came in, and walked Matt Brown to load the bags. A loss incoming, it was Neil Reece’s launching grab on Alberto Burgos’ liner for the second out that had all the runners scramble back to their bases. Miller then struck out Cicalina. 6-2 Raccoons. Newton 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; P. Martinez 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (8-3);

The Alley Cats were shut out on five hits by the Whitefish in game 2 of the AAA championship, and lost 1-0. Series tied, 1-1, as the teams are heading to Southern Texas.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Buell – C Mata – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – P Ford
IND: LF G. Flores – 2B Burgos – C Cicalina – 1B D. Lopez – SS Matthews – CF Maguey – 3B Whaley – RF J. Valdez – P George

Rain curtailed Ralph Ford’s last start of the year early, as both pitchers were knocked out after three innings. Then, the Raccoons trailed 2-0 on David Lopez’ CL-leading 27th homer of the season, but the Coons rallied in the top 4th for four runs to take the lead. Crowe and Guerin both drove in a pair. Bottom 7th, the Coons were up 5-2, trouble brewed again as Lagarde pitched. He put Whaley on, and while he retired Valdez, he was replaced as Matt Brown pinch-hit in the #9 hole. Collins appeared, walked Brown, and remained in to face Flores. The leftfielder grounded to Crowe, who bungled the ball and the bags were loaded. Collins scored a run with a wild pitch even before Burgos drew another walk. Cicalina then tied the game off Chubby Martinez with a 2-run double. Not wanting to use Miller before the ninth, Joly was sent out for the eighth, and the Indians rendered a bottom 9th unnecessary by scoring against the pushover. 6-5 Indians. Fairchild 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Pitching, huh?

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – C Mata – P Wade
IND: RF Paredes – SS Matthews – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – C Cicalina – 3B Whaley – CF Fisher – 2B Burgos – P Holcomb

Scotty sat down the first eleven Indians he faced, only to have Matt Brown hit a bloop single to right. The Raccoons had had their first two men on in the second inning, but hadn’t scored, and the contest was scoreless after four. In the top 5th, Reece had runners on the corners and hit into an inning-ending double play. The game was scoreless through four, through six, through eight. Then the Indians made the cardinal mistake and sent Cesar Salcido. Martin led off with a single in that top 9th, and Ingall walked. Buell hit for Parker (which was probably a mistake) and grounded out, moving up the runners. Mata hit a sac fly to right, and Wade struck out, batting himself. Yes, he had looked so strong all night, he would pitch for himself in the ninth. He got Paredes and Matthews (with a K) to start the inning, then faced Matt Brown, the left-handed slugger. Only 1-0 ahead. But behind him, more sluggers will come. Scotty, you go! Brown popped the first pitch into the seats in left, and popped up the second as well – and Gonzalez got to that one! 1-0 Coons!!! Martin 2-4; Wade 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-9) and 1-4;

SCOTTY!!! His second shutout and fourth complete game of the year gives him a dozen shutouts for his career. In a season where he was plugged back into the rotation just because starters were dying left and right, and he made only 13 starts, that is a pretty impressive record.

The same day, the Alley Cats lost game 3 in Corpus Christi, 6-3, with Nick Brown absorbing the L. Things didn’t get better on the Raccoons’ off day, as the Alley Cats were washed off the field in a 12-0 rout, putting them behind the eight ball, as they faced a 3-1 series deficit.

The final weekend of the regular season saw the Titans enter up by two over the Loggers. The Titans were in Vancouver, while the Loggers hosted the Indians. In the FL East, the Buffaloes and Cyclones were tied and found themselves in a direct setup for the division title, which took place in Cincinnati. The Blue Sox and Capitals also had only been eliminated on Wednesday.

Raccoons (70-89) @ Crusaders (76-83) – October 1-3, 1999

We came into the game in last place, one game behind the Canadiens and Indians. You know, finishing last sucks. Let’s just not do that.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (6-16, 4.40 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (13-14, 4.26 ERA)
Randy Farley (13-12, 2.78 ERA) vs. Hector Lara (10-16, 5.06 ERA)
Paco Martinez (8-3, 2.91 ERA) vs. Cipriano Miranda (4-6, 4.58 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – LF Buell – C Mata – RF Taramillo – P Saito
NYC: RF J. Gonzales – C Clemente – 3B Rush – 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Cruz – 1B L. Ramirez – SS Nielsen – CF Lyons – P R. Gonzalez

Saito hit Jorge Gonzales with the first pitch, and you just knew the rout was gonna be on any second now. Accordingly, the Raccoons trailed 3-0 in the third inning, and no hope to turn it around, as they just sucked it out this final week. The main lowlight was Guerin, who struck out each of his first three at-bats. If that’s your leadoff man, you can stay home and forfeit. The Raccoons were shut out on three singles, an appropriate end to Saito’s season. 3-0 Crusaders.

And as if it wasn’t enough already, five hits by Harry Jackson were not enough for the Alley Cats, who lost game 5 in Corpus Christi, 8-7, in the tenth.

Because everything has to end as badly as possible.

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – LF Parker – C Mata – SS Caddock – P Farley
NYC: SS Rigg – 2B Nielsen – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – CF Latham – 3B Rush – RF J. Ramirez – C Clemente – P H. Lara

In another shocking display of inability, the Raccoons failed to score a run of their own for the second game in a row. The Crusaders’ botchy defense gave Farley a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Bob Rush’s 19th homer of the year turned the score around in the bottom of the same frame, 2-1. Farley soldiered on, much like Wade had done three days earlier, hoping in vain for some form of offense, but he was denied. The Raccoons left runners in scoring position four times, and never managed to achieve anything on their own. 3-1 Crusaders. Mata 2-4, 2B, RBI; Farley 8.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, L (13-13);

If anybody is counting, the Raccoons have not batted in an earned run since Tuesday. Next comes the Sunday game that THANK ALL HEAVENS concludes this HORRENDOUSLY AGGRAVATING SEASON FOR GOOD. The last hope of not finishing last is a tie with the Indians if they lose and the Raccoons win on the last day of the season.

My sick jokes.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – LF Parker – C Mata – P P. Martinez
NYC: RF J. Gonzales – C Clemente – LF A. Johnson – 3B Rush – 1B T. Mullins – 2B J. Ramirez – SS L. Ramirez – CF A. Diéguez – P Miranda

Since the best Paco Martinez could hope for was a no-decision, his start was a full success. He left in a scoreless tie in the bottom 7th, two men on base that Juan Martinez cleaned up more or less by accident. The Coons had casually left pairs of runners on a few times, and continued to do so in the top 8th, leaving Ingall on second base. In the ninth, Martin drew a walk before Guerin and Parker flailed helplessly against Rafael Serrano. Looking for a left-handed bat, Clyde Brady was picked off the bench to replace Mata and face Serrano, quickly found himself with two strikes, then fired a cannon shot straight to Europe: 2-run homer in the top 9th! Daniel Miller came in, walked two, faced Ed Rigg with two down, and surrendered an RBI double. The winning runs for the Crusaders were in scoring position, as they sent rookie Alan Breach to pinch-hit against Miller. This would be the test. Was Daniel Miller any good? Could he overcome eight at-bats of experience at the plate? The answer for this question turned out to be yes once Luke Newton snagged a shy pop off Breach’s bat, and the season was over. 2-1 Coons. Newton 2-4; Brady (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; P. Martinez 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Jackie Lagarde got the win for retiring Antonio Clemente on one pitch to end the eighth. It’s his 40th career win as a reliever, and I strongly suspect it will have been his last one.

In other news

September 27 – The Bayhawks rally in the eighth against Las Vegas, give Tony Hamlyn his 21st win of the year, and clinch the CL South with a 5-4 win over the Aces. The Thunder’s game in Tijuana becomes meaningless. The Thunder lose in extra innings, 7-5. The Bayhawks will make their third postseason appearance. They previously appeared in the CLCS in 1991 and 1992, both times being eliminated by the Raccoons.
October 1 – SAC INF Felipe Rivera (.305, 7 HR, 75 RBI) was hurt golfing on the off day and injured his wrist. He would miss the last three games of the season.
October 2 – Cincy’s Waylon Mahoney hits a doube of Francois Picard that scores Larry Maldrum and Benvenuto LaRocca to hand the Buffaloes a ninth-inning walkoff loss, 10-9 Cyclones. With this, the Cyclones conclude two decades of futility by reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1979, and the third time overall.
October 2 – SFB Tony Hamlyn (22-9, 2.24 ERA) continues to give his all with a 3-hit shutout of the Condors, 5-0.
October 3 – The Loggers, who had trailed the Titans by as many as eight games two weeks ago and who go into the final day of the season with a hope of forcing a tie-breaker are run over by the Indians, as Simon Walton allows six runs in three innings. A Loggers rally falls short, and they lose, 10-8. The Titans, who lost their own game to the Canadiens, 7-3, will get a shot to defend their 1998 title and will make their third playoff appearance, all consecutively.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons, meanwhile, finished last in the CL North, second-to-last in the Continental League, and tied for fifth-to-last in baseball. And 14 games under what I thought was a realistic goal for the year.

Albert Martin won September Rookie of the Year honors with a .338 batting clip, 5 HR and 12 RBI. Someone’s making a case for the first base job here!

So, Wade pitched another shutout! However, let’s be realistic. He was at times blown up out of proportion in both starts and relief appearances. He will be 38 next year and in the final year of his contract, and if I have a say, of his career, which would then have been spent entirely with the Raccoons, from draft to accepting that pension check. It would make him the third player in that all-Coon pantheon, next to Daniel Hall and Grant West.

Technically, there are quite a few players that were never part of any other organization, mostly players the Raccoons were seeded with when the ABL started play, and if you don’t insist on players that actually reached the major leagues, we can probably find a score or two of failed draft picks to satisfy your needs.

However, drafted by the Coons, developed by the Furballs, played for the Raccoons, and retired as a Critter: Wade would be the third one to do it.

Actually, there might be more than that. Players that were dropped before their time. Carlos Gonzalez and the likes come to mind. Should I investigate? Do I care enough?

[Westheim]

1999 ABL PLAYOFFS

The 1999 playoffs feature the Warriors as the team with the most playoff experience, as they take part for the fourth time. The Titans, Bayhawks, and Cyclones all made October for the third time. Except for the Bayhawks, all of the times have a previous championship.

The 99-63 Warriors enter the playoffs having clinched home field advantage throughout October. They relied on their strong starting rotation with Arnold McCray (19-9, 3.04 ERA) and Pat Cherry (19-10, 3.56 ERA) carrying them a fair way through the year. Neil Stewart also won 16 games but posted a 4.18 ERA. Their offense was all too relying on the long ball however, with two 25 HR batters in CF John Hensley and C Ruben Melendez, who drove in 112 and 118 runs, respectively. They drew a lot of walks to compensate for a second-worst .265 team batting average. Another thing they have going for them is a .700 record since September 1. They will be without infielders Hjalmar Flygt and Dave Heffer in the FLCS, though, and that could hurt them.

The 88-74 Cyclones come in with the worst record and only clinced their spot on the penultimate day of the season. While they can boast with a strong offense with high average, high OBP, and tie the Warriors with 112 homers, their pitching was in trouble constantly. While their corps struck out an FL-leading 1,140 batters, they also gave up 111 home runs and allowed the third-most hits, the latter partially attributable to a defense in shambles, with the team’s big guys like 1B/2B Dennis Berman (.250, 23 HR, 84 RBI) and LF/RF Dan Morris (.299, 32 HR, 94 RBI) not necessarily contributing much on defense. They can count on a strong back end of the bullpen, however, but in turn have lost their primary catcher Julio Silva (.286, 2 HR, 66 RBI) for the length of the playoffs.

The Warriors seem to have the cards in their hands, and should be able to overcome the Cyclones in five games.

In the CL, the Titans’ late collapse helped the 98-64 Bayhawks to clinch home field advantage rather easy. The Bayhawks were able to crumble most enemy teams with a tough-as-nuts starting rotation, that was even able to overcome a troubled bullpen, in which f.e. closer Ryosei Kato lost 12 games and posted a 4.08 ERA and 1.55 WHIP. In the rotation, 22-9 Tony Hamlyn, 11-11 Jorge Chapa, and 15-9 Ricardo Sanchez all posted ERA’s under 2.50, and Henry Selph (16-5, 3.08 ERA) and Miguel Diaz (14-8, 3.78 ERA) were no slouches either. Offensively they would struggle at times and lacked a key punch player. Only two players posted OPS marks over .800: 1B Dave Carroll (.295, 15 HR, 101 RBI) and OF Will Jackson (.250, 20 HR, 75 RBI). While the team has four players on the DL, only 22-year old Paco Javier (.228, 14 HR, 60 RBI) is a key loss.

The Titans plunged to 94-68 late in the season, playing .333 in September and October. Their great offense, which mostly ranked top 3 in the league, came to a screeching halt late in the year, and nobody knows whether they will be able to restart it in time for the playoffs. INF Daniel Silva (.283, 10 HR, 84 RBI), 1B Glenn Douglas (.310, 19 HR, 92 RBI), and 3B Haruki Nakayama (.300, 6 HR, 61 RBI) are key players on the team. The pitching was largely so-so, but Jason O’Halloran (21-9, 2.86 ERA) stood out once more. Young Jesus Bautista won 18 games, and Bill Corkum saved 45 on a 1.91 ERA. They also are hampered by injuries. Outfielder Dave Reid came off the DL just in time for the playoffs, but had no time to properly prepare, and C Luis Lopez (.256, 11 HR, 60 RBI) is laboring on a mild hamstring strain and might be unavailable for the first two games of the CLCS.

With the Titans frozen solid and the Bayhawks’ pitching, this should be a quick CLCS. Everybody’s expecting a walkover.

---

Cyclones @ Warriors … 2-12 … (Warriors lead 1-0) … SFW Ruben Melendez 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI;
Titans @ Bayhawks … 3-5 … (Bayhawks lead 1-0) … BOS Gonzalo Munoz 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Cyclones @ Warriors … 0-7 … (Warriors lead 2-0) … SFW Arnold McCray 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W; SFW Roland Moore 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI;
Titans @ Bayhawks … 2-3 … (Bayhawks lead 2-0) …

Warriors @ Cyclones … 5-6 … (Warriors lead 2-1) … CIN Douglas Dickerson 3-3, BB, 2 2B, 4 RBI;
Bayhawks @ Titans … 3-2 … (Bayhawks lead 3-0) …

Warriors @ Cyclones … 0-5 … (series tied 2-2) …
Bayhawks @ Titans … 5-4 … (Bayhawks win 4-0) … BOS Glenn Douglas 3-3, HR, 3 RBI; BOS Mike Powys 3-4, HR, RBI;

Warriors @ Cyclones … 7-6 (10) … (Warriors lead 3-2) … Cincy blows a 4-run lead after four innings; CIN Dan Morris 4-5, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI; CIN Alfonso Rojas 2-2, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; SFW Roland Moore (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Cyclones @ Warriors … 1-8 … (Warriors win 4-2) … SFW Neil Stewart 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, W;

---

1999 World Series

The teams with the best records in the regular season happen to meet in the World Series this year. The Bayhawks swept ailing Titans in the CLCS, incluing three 1-run wins their gritty pitching staff held on to. The Warriors had more troubles with the Cyclones, but three of their wins were convincing and clear. The Warriors should be better now, though, with Dave Heffer and Hjalmar Flygt back on the roster for the occasion. The Bayhawks will rely on their pitching staff and that their offense can scratch out two or three runs each time.

---

Bayhawks @ Warriors … 7-2 (15) … (Bayhawks lead 1-0) … SFB Tony Hamlyn 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; Bayhawks blow up Lawrence Bentley in the 15th, Gabriel Ortíz drives home the winning run

Bayhawks @ Warriors … 3-1 … (Bayhawks lead 2-0) … SFB Jorge Chapa 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W; SFW Ruben Melendez 3-4, 2B, RBI; Chapa sinks Cherry thanks to three runs in the seventh

Warriors @ Bayhawks … 2-4 … (Bayhawks lead 3-0) … SFB Ricardo Sanchez 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W; SFB Tom Walls 4-5, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; SFW Bob Petipas 2-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI;

Warriors @ Bayhawks … 4-14 … (Bayhawks win 4-0) … SFB Tony Hamlyn 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W; SFB Alfredo Marquez 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 4 RBI; SFW Sidney Aycock 3-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI;

In the end, it was a no contest. The Bayhawks go undefeated in the playoffs, the first ABL team to do so!

1999 World Series Champions
SAN FRANCISCO BAYHAWKS
(1st title)

[Orcin]

How about a post of the league history page showing the champions?

[Westheim]

Sure!

And because it’s Sunday, I will add the Raccoons’ history for free! :-P

Odd notes about the all time team records:

The Loggers loss that cost them a tie breaker game on October 3 was their 2,000th loss in ABL history. They are the first of the 24 teams that lose 2,000 games with a total record of 1,726-2,000 (.463), 25 games behind the next-worst Gold Sox.

No team has won 2,000 games yet in the regular season. The Condors ironically are the best ABL team with a 1,988-1,741 record, although they have never won a championship. They hold a 1-game lead over the Capitals, however, who have three titles, the most of all teams.

The Raccoons rank 13th overall with a 1,881-1,846 (.505) record, half a game behind the Falcons (1,881-1,845). The half game comes from the tie breaker game the Coons played in 1996 to snatch the division away from the Titans on the last weekend of the season.

[Westheim]

Dark days in Coon City

The Coons finished losing on October 3. Kisho Saito flew to Japan the same night. We didn't hear from him for two weeks.

After those two weeks, a letter arrived. Saito-sama, fed up with the team he had a contract worth $1.1M with for the 2000 season, instead opted out be officially retiring from baseball. He wrote he wanted to spend more time with his swords.

He retires with a 3.23 career ERA, and a 238-197 record.

And my heart is badly pierced and sputtering blood.

---

Hall of Fame material? I don't know. The 2,800 strikeouts are impressive. 250 wins would have looked much better.

Oh, as we are on the Hall of Fame already. I will write up the inductees in the next post. There is an ex-Raccoon among them whom I *never* would have expected to go in.

Also coming: detailed roster evaluation, including meaningful prospects. This will take some time and probably won't come until tomorrow.

[Westheim]

1999 HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS

Four players were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999. After no new players had been added the last two years, the Hall's total population is now seven.

SAC/NYC INF Hector Atilano (.311/.442/.459, 193 HR, 1,320 RBI, 41 SB)
Atilano, who played for six different teams in his career, but most notably for the Scorpions and Crusaders, played all the way to his age 43 season with the Warriors in 1994. The 14-time All Star won one championship in his career, with the 1991 Capitals. He accrued 2,710 career base hits, won batting titles in 1977 and 1986, led the Federal League in doubles in 1986, and ranked in the top 5 in OBP fifteen times, including five first place seasons.

WAS/SAC SP Parker Montgomery (203-184, 3.87 ERA)
Montgomery, who was a 4-time All Star, won three World Series titles with the Scorpions (1980) and the Capitals (1990-1991). He struck out 2,044 batters during his 18-year career. A control pitcher, he allowed double-digit home runs just five times in his career, and was taken deep only 147 times in total. In 16 playoff starts, he went 7-4 with a 3.52 ERA. In 1990, he led baseball with 22 wins.

POR/VAN 1B Tetsu Osanai (.319/.375/.486, 219 HR, 1,128 RBI)
Signed out of Japan by the Canadiens in 1979, Osanai debuted in ’81 and instantly terrorized pitchers all over the Continental League. The two-time champion with the Canadiens (1982) and Raccoons (1992) hit .299 or better (usually better) for his first nine ABL seasons, while posting OPS marks over 1 twice. He won four batting titles, two home run, and three RBI titles, all with the Raccoons, including a Triple Crown in 1986. He started more than 1,000 consecutive games on first base from 1985 to 1993. His massive stature and body mass soon began to weigh him down, however, and he was largely ineffective after the 1992 season. He finished his career with the Pacifics, who never managed to bring him back on his feet. He was an All Star nine times and twice won Batter of the Year honors.

IND SP Billy Robinson (222-157, 3.33 ERA)
Although Robinson pitched for four other teams in his 18-year career, he is still mostly remembered for being on the pitching-strong Indians from 1977 to 1983. He went undefeated in the playoffs in 1981 when the Indians won their only World Series, and was a reliever for the 1994 champions, the Thunder. He led the league in wins with 21 in 1980, the same year he posted a 1.99 ERA. He was an All Star eight times.

[Orcin]

Tetsu!!!!!!!

[Westheim]

First thing in the offseason: check with Uncle Scrooge whether he actually opens his wallet. Turns out, no, Carlosito merely adjusted our bottom-quarter budget from $15.9M to $16.2M – so forget any big buying sprees. Our owner is now the third-cheapest in the sport, and the Raccoons keep falling further behind. The fan base is growing unruly, too.

October in Portland. While four teams didn’t bother because they were going to play meaningful October baseball, the 71-91 Raccoons had just finished the decade by posting their second-worst record of not only the decade, but also since 1982. Going the 15 years from 1985 to 1999, the Raccoons posted losing records four times, three of those years being the last three. What seemed like a horrendous one-off explosion in 1997 with a semi-palatable, if still bad 1998 on it’s heels, 1999 was clear confirmation that the team lacked basic offensive qualities.

The Raccoons in 1999 scored 659 runs (11th in the CL), allowed 704 runs (6th in CL), and had a .716 defensive efficiency – first in the CL.

So, if fielding the best defensive team in the league rewards you with a last place finish, then **** defense! I already know where to start.

The roster will have to be reconstructed for next year. How exactly we would go about that without any meaningful funds was a mystery to be resolved to satisfaction.

During the first half of October, Vince Guerra and me did two things. We watched the Bayhawks roflstomp the playoff competition, and evaluated any semi-decent player that was in the organization. It is not all about planning for next year. Next year now routinely is just another train wreck in Portland. We’re more like planning for in two or three years, but we must keep in mind that all the hot young talent *seems* to be here already with Ford, Nordahl, Mata all debuting this season to varying degrees of success.

All players will be listed with their roster status on October 20 (expanded roster, 40-man roster, disabled list, or NOR for “not on 40-man roster” – think Esteban Flores and the like – or P for prospects not on the 40-man roster, with P* for prospects that will be rule 5 eligible this winter), their contract obligations, Vince’s scouting results (STU/MOV/CTL for pitchers, CON/POW/EYE for batters; two sets for prospects), and a piece of where their value may lie. Players will be ordered alphabetically within the categories to avoid any premature judgments until we are all set and done with this. However, only meaningful prospects will be included to avoid having to list all 123 players in the organization.

STARTING PITCHING

LHP Nick Brown (21) – P* - 19/10/5 – 19/12/10
AA: 18 GS, 6-5, 3.17 ERA, 83 BB, 151 K
AAA: 13 GS, 6-1, 3.79 ERA, 37 BB, 108 K
Came out of left field and the 11th round in the 1995 draft to become a legitimate 4-pitch prospect. Lack of movement and control evident. Can throw the ball 101 miles an hour, and has the nasty screw and slider to fool hitters mercilessly. Lack of movement makes him home run prone though.

LHP Ed Bryan (18) – P – 7/9/4 – 10/11/13
A: 18 GS, 4-9, 3.94 ERA, 27 BB, 104 K
Fourth round pick this year, Vince sees something in him, but it may not be in a starter’s role since his stamina could pose an issue before long. Is more of a finesse pitcher rather than overpowering with velocity.

LHP Ray Conner (24) – P* - 10/12/7 – 10/12/12
AA: 7 GS, 4-2, 4.25 ERA, 19 BB, 38 K
AAA: 24 GS, 10-8, 5.75 ERA, 77 BB, 115 K
Issues are obvious: after six years as a professional, he still can’t control his breaking pitches, and sometimes not even his fastball. Also gave up 24 home runs this year. No future in the big leagues.

RHP Kelly Fairchild (26) – EXP – 11/10/12
Minimum contract
ML: 34 G, 16 GS, 5-7, 5.39 ERA, 53 BB, 52 K
Was used as a swing man on a horrendous big league team this season. Even in that role he struggled. Control is lacking, he should ditch his slider, which does everything but slide. Even as a reliever sometimes just overmatched. His only value may be in soaking up damage for a last place team.

RHP Randy Farley (25) – EXP – 12/15/11 – 12/15/13
Minimum contract
ML: 33 G, 32 GS, 13-13, 2.80 ERA, 71 BB, 135 K
Vince says this gem’s control could still get better, and that wouldn’t be so bad. He improved from his rookie season in all categories but losses (but that wasn’t necessarily his fault) and has what it takes to become a dominant pitcher for years to come. While he can reach back to a strong 94 mph fastball, he is often pitching in a Wade-esque style for a 59% groundball percentage, and in 416 major league innings has only given up 20 home runs.

RHP Esteban Flores (26) – NOR – 11/12/11
Minimum contract
AAA: 12 GS, 8-2, 3.24 ERA, 18 BB, 80 K
ML: 13 G, 12 GS, 2-7, 5.76 ERA, 30 BB, 39 K
Solid mix of three decent pitches. Regardless, it has not worked out for him in the bigs, where he has 24 games, a 2-14 record and an ERA over five. His stuff seems to be only sufficient for the AAA level, since his AAA K/BB, easily exceeding 3, doesn’t translate to the Bigs at all. The nerves, maybe?

LHP Ralph Ford (22) – EXP – 16/12/8 – 16/12/10
Minimum contract
AAA: 25 GS, 13-6, 3.94 ERA, 74 BB, 182 K
ML: 6 GS, 2-2, 3.97 ERA, 12 BB, 32 K
Former first round pick by the Condors, acquired for Ben O’Morrissey a few years back, this blue chip seems to be the real deal. While not a smash hit, his debut in the second half of the season was certainly successful, and he has made a case for a starter’s job in 2000. Only armed with a 92-94 mph fastball, he effectively uses a changeup and a filthy screwball to knot up batters.

RHP Mike Harvey (18) – P – 7/9/3 – 19/12/9
A: 11 G, 7 GS, 2-3, 4.43 ERA, 16 BB, 37 K
Drafted this year, struggled in his rookie year as a professional. Vince recommends making him a reliever to make more effective use of a limited arsenal.

LHP Miguel Lopez (31) – DL – 12/11/13
Owed $1.875M through 2002
ML: 5 GS, 1-2, 4.63 ERA, 3 BB, 12 K
The routinely injured Lopez will have to come back from Tommy John surgery and is expected to be able to pitch come April. His big league pedigree (69-49, 3.39 ERA) is certainly pleasing, but one has to acknowledge that he has suffered serious injuries in three of the last six seasons. We can not rely on him, because he could just drop with another ailment at any second. Since he may not come off the DL until March, it may be hard to move him to make room for prospects. Don’t get the wrong impression: he’s a very good fireball pitcher – he just doesn’t hold up.

LHP Paco Martinez (24) – EXP – 12/10/11 – 12/10/12
Minimum contract
AAA: 16 GS, 5-8, 3.58 ERA, 36 BB, 103 K
ML: 15 GS, 8-3, 2.72 ERA, 29 BB, 63 K
The prize for dropping Mario Guerrero last year made a splash debut as an injury replacement, but if you compare his AAA and ML numbers, it becomes apparent that he performed above expectations. You can’t expect him to pitch to a sub-3 ERA in a full season. He just lacks the stuff for it. He throws five pitches, all so-so, and doesn’t reach higher than 92 mph.

LHP Frank McGeraghty (21) – P – 11/7/7 – 12/7/10
AA: 30 GS, 10-14, 5.91 ERA, 86 BB, 123 K
His general mix of four pitches is highly solid, but his AA season was certainly nothing less than a trainwreck. A supplemental round pick in 1998, Frank needs to hit the strike zone before he can progress. At this point we are not sure whether he will make it to AAA at all.

RHP Jose Rivera (26) – DL (40) – 11/15/12
Arbitration eligible ($330k in 1999)
ML: 19 GS, 8-5, 2.58 ERA, 33 BB, 63 K
After winning the CL ERA title in 1998, Rivera went down to a torn flexor tendon halfway through this season. We don’t know yet what we will get back next season, and whether he will continue to be effective. His stuff is lacking, and he relies on the infield to get people out. This worked for him in the majors so far, because in his ERA title season he didn’t even strike out as many batters as he walked.

RHP Julio Romero (25) – P* - 10/9/7
AA: 21 G, 20 GS, 9-7, 3.61 ERA, 51 BB, 130 K
AAA: 3 G, 2 GS, 2-0, 3.12 ERA, 2 BB, 18 K
Time may have left the 1995 fourth round pick permanently sidelined. Trying to pitch on the corners is not always working out for him, and he is routinely surrendering 20 home runs a year. His velocity doesn’t reach 90 mph. He should not be accounted for when you are looking for backups to your big league rotation.

LHP Tyler Sullivan (22) – P* - 15/9/6 – 15/10/9
A: 10 GS, 9-1, 1.39 ERA, 20 BB, 138 K
AA: 20 GS, 10-3, 3.38 ERA, 69 BB, 170 K
Sullivan was a draft by the Wolves in 1995. Two years later we acquired him for failed prospect Winston Witter, and he tore his labrum right after that. Restarting his career at the A level after a disastrous 1998 AA campaign, he found his mojo and struck out 308 batters in 1999. A move to AAA seems to be in order, although even Vince isn’t quite sure how he does it. The walks will be a problem if the doesn’t reel his stuff in.

LHP Gianni Tarquini (19) – P – 6/13/6 – 13/18/13
A: 23 GS, 4-12, 3.85 ERA, 52 BB, 109 K
Drafted in 1998, Tarquini has been so-so at the A level, which is completely devoid of offense, by the way. His fastball/splitter mix is promising, but unless he can bring up a good third pitch, he is not a top notch starter prospect and might be rather considered for a future relief job.

RHP Scott Wade (37) – EXP – 11/15/15
Owed $300k in 2000
ML: 43 G, 13 GS, 5-9, 3.08 ERA, 13 SV, 27 BB, 54 K
Taking over the Baton of the Ancients from Kisho Saito with the latter retiring, Scotty has been successfully plugged into any hole there was to fill the last few years. His efficient groundball pitching has rewarded him with a 15-year big league career and a permanent place in our hearts, regardless of whether he will start or relief in 2000. He is indeed considered a hole filler for us now, because of his versatility.

RHP Dwight Williams (25) – P* - 11/6/10 – 11/6/11
AAA: 23 GS, 10-6, 4.82 ERA, 36 BB, 130 K
While Williams had a decent AAA season, Vince sees nothing in him. He gave up 32 dingers this year, which would make him a perfect bomb in Raccoons Ballpark. If we don’t manage to trade him for something else before the rule 5 draft, we might just let him get picked, because ultimately we have little use for him.

RELIEF PITCHING

LHP Scott Boone (19) – P – 12/11/5 – 15/13/10
AA: 51 G, 2-6, 4.50 ERA, 31 SV, 28 BB, 48 K
Thought of as a new closer prospect, Boone failed to show his stuff that made him a supplemental round pick in 1998. The slider is sliding, the fastball is fast, yet, the AA batters refused to whiff at accelerated rates. We will for sure be giving him another season in Ham Lake, because rushing him up would do him no good.

RHP Marcos Bruno (23) – P – 18/12/9 – 20/13/12
AA: 28 G, 4-3, 3.09 ERA, 4 SV, 10 BB, 45 K
First round pick this season, Bruno handled AA batting with grace and sovereignty. A mean slider and a blistering 99 mph fastball are going to move to AAA for next season. Vince sees him in the bigs as early as next September.

LHP Fred Carlton (26) – EXP – 14/9/7
Minimum contract
AAA: 24 G, 1-1, 7.94 ERA, 10 BB, 36 K
ML: 10 G, 0-0, 2.35 ERA, 5 BB, 6 K
Gave up ten home runs in 28.1 innings in AAA, although none in Portland. His decent stuff is severely compromised by an inability to harness it, and that long ball record doesn’t help him either. When it comes to Collins and Donis as opponents for a left-handed relief job, he doesn’t even come close to stink up to them.

LHP Mike Collins (24) – EXP – 15/16/8
Minimum contract
ML: 48 G, 3-0, 1.95 ERA, 29 BB, 34 K
Acquired from the Indians mid-season, Collins managed to post four times his Indians’ ERA in Portland, and walked 15 while striking out nine. A giant disappointment, he still has a filthy sinker/screw combo going for him, and being under team control after being drafted out of college just two years ago still makes him a valuable asset – especially if you’re not exactly aiming for the World Series.

LHP Juan Diaz (24) – P* - 14/10/7 – 14/10/8
AAA: 36 G, 1-2, 4.05 ERA, 4 SV, 35 BB, 60 K
Third round pick in 1996, another guy with good stuf fand zero control over it. Since moving to AA in 1997, he has never managed to post a 2 K/BB, and Vince says that we should not hope to see any improvement from him anymore. As a backup at AAA he will not be very realiable.

LHP Antonio Donis (27) – EXP – 20/13/15
Arbitration eligible ($190k in 1999)
ML: 63 G, 5-1, 1.76 ERA, 1 SV, 10 BB, 34 K
After a 1996 season as a starter where he often struggled to pitch five innings, and troublesome 1997 and 1998 seasons that saw him get pounded in relief jobs, Donis had a strong rebound in 1999 to reclaim his career, which looked like it was going to end sooner rather than later. His WHIP was 0.93, and he managed to reverse a combined 1.2 K/BB for 1997-98 into a 3.4 K/BB mark this season. Vince says that he would prefer to see Donis over Miller as next year’s closer, assuming money to sign a star closer will not be available. Money will not be available.

RHP Bob Evans (19) – P – 16/9/4 – 20/10/11
A: 30 G, 2-4, 3.51 ERA, 18 SV, 11 BB, 60 K
Second round pick this year, Evans dominated pitching with an already well developed changeup. While Vince expected control issues, they certainly didn’t manifest in his rookie year as a professional. You should keep him in mind for a right-handed relief role in about three years.

RHP Bob Joly (23) – EXP – 10/15/12 – 10/15/13
Minimum contract
AAA: 19 G, 9 GS, 2-6, 5.42 ERA, 2 SV, 22 BB, 48 K
ML: 19 G, 7 GS, 2-7, 6.75 ERA, 17 BB, 17 K
A strong September impression in 1998 was exactly that: a strong September impression. Joly took it to face and nuts with bars of rebar all year long, regardless of whether he was pitching in Florida or Oregon. Having the makeup of a control pitcher, he couldn’t make it work, and was just too easily hittable. Vince recommends to keep him around as competition for Fairchild for a long relief / swing man role in 2000. He actually prefers Joly to Fairchild, but not by a wide margin.

RHP Joe Key (23) – P* - 14/11/5
AAA: 24 G, 1 GS, 3-2, 4.17 ERA, 1 SV, 38 BB, 56 K
Once a promising prospect after being taken in the fourth round in 1994 by us, Key’s star has long ago stopped to sparkle. While he struck out 281 batters in a starter’s campaign at the A level a few years ago, resettling into a relief role due to his inability to throw three pitches effectively has not helped him. His control is horrible and he would be picked apart by big league batting.

RHP Jackie Lagarde (36) – EXP – 10/13/10
Free agent
ML: 48 G, 1-2, 4.45 ERA, 2 SV, 34 BB, 26 K
Jackie’s days are over, it’s as simple as that. After not being signed until a few months into the season, Lagarde struggled with control and failed to find his blistering stuff that made him an outright nasty hurler to face in the early 90s. His contract is up and Vince is not keen on seeing it renewed.

RHP Juan Martinez (33) – EXP – 15/13/12
Free agent
ML: 73 G, 2-6, 4.41 ERA, 1 SV, 37 BB, 45 K
Chubby had a strong first half of the season, but blew up past the All Star Game. His strong control eluded him completely at times. Few things are worse for right-handed pitchers than walking the bases full, and Chubby certainly was guilty in this regard. His contract is up and Vince would like to give youth a chance.

RHP Miguel Martinez (21) – EXP – 19/16/8 – 19/17/13
Minimum contract
AAA: 16 G, 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 8 SV, 9 BB, 17 K
ML: 20 G, 0-0, 3.45 ERA, 14 BB, 9 K
1996 first round pick, Martinez was brought up early in the year, but soon went down with an injury and didn’t rejoin the team until September. The stuff certainly makes him a potential closer candidate, but the unresolved control issues rule out a 2000 big league run for this. Or do they? Well, Martinez has a 69% groundball percentage going for him with a hardly hittable sinker that gets sucked up by shortstops sooner rather than later. Vince sees great potential here, but he also recommends giving him some more time in AAA.

RHP Daniel Miller (31) – EXP – 16/16/10
Owed $300k in 2000
ML: 59 G, 4-1, 2.41 ERA, 17 SV, 24 BB, 32 K
Made a makeshift closer midway through the season, Miller held up remarkeably well – other than when he first looked for a successor to the great Grant West in 1996 – and staked out a claim to keep the job. Wondering about the low strikeout rate, Vince is pointing at Donis in this regard, though. Miller, one of the last three Raccoons to participate in the 1993 championship besides Scott Wade and Neil Reece, has never been a strikeout wonder, but has also a remarkable record of pitching to poor contact and a 63% groundball percentage going for him.

RHP Dan Nordahl (20) – EXP – 18/15/7 – 20/15/13
Minimum contract
AAA: 29 G, 3-3, 1.55 ERA, 16 SV, 16 BB, 42 K
ML: 30 G, 2-1, 4.61 ERA, 24 BB, 22 K
It was too early, and we know it now. Our 1997 top pick mostly got pounded, struggling with his own arm, his stuff, opposing pitching, and maybe everything else except the northern exposure, as he’s hailing from the land of Elks. We know he throws thunderbolts at up to 101 mph, and his mixed in slider is a hideous out pitch. We have enormous potential here, but we have to consider whether we will give him another half season or so in AAA to get a few things worked out better before throwing him into the shark tanks again. It would be a great loss of talent to burn him up before time.

LHP Pedro Perez (24) – 40 – 14/10/7 – 14/11/9
Minimum contract
AA: 18 G, 5-1, 3.32 ERA, 6 BB, 17 K
AAA: 25 G, 2 GS, 4-3, 3.69 ERA, 13 SV, 17 BB, 40 K
ML: 2 G, 0-0, 54.00 ERA, 2 BB, 0 K
Well-travelled in 1999, Perez was nuked in a very brief stint in Portland. With the competition we have in left-handed pitching, he might have a hard time getting back to the Bigs in 2000. He has a 96-98 mph fastball to his credit, accompanied by a sharply dropping curve. Vince wants to keep in reserve because he could turn out to be a good injury replacement for someone in the big leagues.

LHP Christian Proctor (32) – NOR – 15/12/8
Minimum contract
AAA: 24 G, 2 GS, 3-1, 4.68 ERA, 4 SV, 15 BB, 28 K
ML: 10 G, 0-2, 12.00 ERA, 9 BB, 5 K
Acquired to fill the gaping hole in the left-handed department, he was out of the revolving door in no time. Vince sees no point in trying to straighten him out when we have guys ten years his junior to work with.

RHP Brad Tamburrino (29) – EXP – 13/12/8
Owed $670k through 2001
ML: 58 G, 3-3, 6.50 ERA, 39 BB, 31 K
Whatever happened to him, he seems to have been handed the strongest of poisons. Was completely torn apart by batters, for reasons impossible to figure out for us. Removing this contract from the books is a top priority for us, especially since Vince recommends looking at the younger arms again.

LHP Antonio Toro (23) – P – 11/7/7 – 12/8/10
AA: 12 G, 1-0, 3.15 ERA, 1 SV, 5 BB, 18 K
A fifth round pick in 1997, Toro was already given up on pitched in extended training camp until he was reassigned to AA to see some service. A filthy slider gives some reason to hope that he could grow into a situational relief role, but we know that he has a few guys in front of him.

RHP Sergio Vega (19) – P – 12/11/5 – 16/13/10
A: 21 G, 2-2, 2.13 ERA, 9 SV, 10 BB, 40 K
AA: 8 G, 1-1, 5.40 ERA, 2 SV, 8 BB, 11 K
Groundball pitcher with a hardly hittable changeup. Drafted only last year, Vega has already made a good impression on Vince, who recommends keeping this young Venezuelan around, as he could be a future big league reliever.

LHP Salvador Velez (29) – NOR – 15/11/8
AAA: 1 G, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0 BB, 2 K
Signed as left-handed long-relief backup to a minor league contract last December, Velez went down with shoulder inflammation in early April and didn’t recover until after the season was over. He is technically still in the organization, but we are currently not sure whether we have any use for him.

CATCHERS

RHB Gary Fifield (27) – EXP – 10/13/10
Minimum contract
AAA (SAC): 28 AB, .250/.323/.464, 2 HR, 3 RBI
ML (SAC/POR): 96 AB, .281/.348/.479, 4 HR, 18 RBI
Seventh round pick once upon a time, Fifield was brought in when we dealt Lance Branch to the Scorpions to cut our losses. He soon took a backstep to Julio Mata, and he also has an injury history, making you long for proper backup in the minors. His catching abilities are run of the mill, too. Vince would even want a losing team to look for an upgrade.

RHB Brad Gray (27) – P – 8/6/8 – 8/7/8
AAA: 99 AB, .232/.350/.414, 4 HR, 12 RBI
Drafted in 1993, Gray has never made a name for himself as a prospect, even internally. His game is lacking in all areas, and how he even made it up to AAA is a mystery. If that is all the backup we have, we MUST look for upgrades.

RHB Wayne Lister (25) – P – 9/3/6
AAA: 163 AB, .233/.276/.362, 5 HR, 20 RBI
Added as minor league free agent before the 1999 season, he played a capable backup to Mata – in AAA. Vince sees him as a waste of time even in considerations.

RHB Julio Mata (23) – EXP – 10/7/7 – 11/12/11
Minimum contract
AAA: 306 AB, .261/.294/.458, 15 HR, 57 RBI
ML: 206 AB, .311/.364/.466, 4 HR, 37 RBI
Truth be told, his numbers were among the flashier surprises of this season. However, Vince sees issues. There are gaping holes in his swing, accounting for 132 strikeouts between levels in 1999. He never walks, either. His desire to swing for the fence is very big, and he has to be reeled in a bit. However, even should he struggle at the plate, he is still a good and intelligent defensive catcher. While his 25% CS rate in the Bigs was Vinson-esque to say the least, his minor league record leaves room for hope for improvements of considerable margin.

RHB Bob Wood (19) – P – 7/2/4 – 12/8/12
A: 211 AB, .223/.276/.313, 1 HR, 22 RBI
Drafted in the third round this season, Wood had a good rookie season at the A level. He calls a decent game and gets along well with pitchers. The batting needs to pick up a big amount, though. His swing has holes the size of Switzerland.

INFIELDERS

LHB INF/LF Steve Caddock (29) – EXP – 7/6/10
Minimum contract
AAA: 49 AB, .122/.218/.143, 0 HR, 1 RBI
ML: 98 AB, .163/.265/.265, 2 HR, 8 RBI
Caddock is a way impressive: he’s sticking around with the most limited of skill sets making cameo appearances in Portland since 1995. Excellent defense on all infield positions is about everything he has going for him, as a .202 career batting average will readily prove. Going into the winter, he is nevertheless our best bet at a backup infielder for next year. That alone makes Vince cry at night.

RHB 3B Mike Crowe (28) – EXP – 10/7/15
Minimum contract
ML: 325 AB, .212/.331/.302, 5 HR, 39 RBI
Despite being completely devoid of challengers to his position, Mike Crowe managed to lose his starter’s job during the season. With his serious inability to provide sparks with the bat, we ended up taking the defensive downgrade of moving Cesar Gonzalez to third base and playing a variety of first basemen at a rate that increased greatly the further the season progressed. Crowe is sitting on a branch that has already been sawed halfway through at the trunk, and can at best hope for a backup job in 2000.

LHB SS/2B Cesar Edralín (24) – P – 8/6/6 – 8/7/7
AA: 146 AB, .301/.381/.541, 10 HR, 29 RBI
AAA: 154 AB, .201/.257/.351, 6 HR, 13 RBI
Cesar actually moved backwards this season, being demoted to AA after struggling mightily in St. Pete. An able defender, the young Venezuelan failed to bat at all, but gained a lot more confidence in Ham Lake. Vince recommends keeping him around as a backup, especially since this international discovery of him will not be rule 5 eligible until next winter.

SHB 1B/3B/LF Cesar Gonzalez (26) – EXP – 11/14/15 – 12/14/16
Arbitration eligible ($650k in 1999)
ML: .250/.356/.421, 19 HR, 81 RBI
Appeared in all games in his first season in Coon City, despite a terrible slump that engulfed him in the second half of the season, as he hit only three home runs in the last two and a half months of the year. When working, his power bat can be a game changer. He has excellent defense at first base, and a strong arm also makes him a valid option for third base and left field. He is the cleanup hitter type to build a lineup around.

SHB INF Tom Goodchild (24) – 40 – 9/9/9
Minimum contract
AAA: 333 AB, .255/.336/.408, 13 HR, 42 RBI
ML: 16 AB, .063/.250/.063, 0 HR, 0 RBI
Defensively best used at third base with a strong arm, Goodchild was one of a score of backup infielders that made it up to Portland unexpectedly, and soon vanished back in the swamps in Florida. He can at best hope at a backup job or re-appearing as an injury replacement.

LHB 1B Mauro Granados (34) – EXP – 10/10/16
Free agent
ML (LVA/SAC/POR): 234 AB, .256/.369/.385, 4 HR, 39 RBI
Journeyman first baseman we sucked up in the Lance Branch trade. His contract is up and there is no need to retain him with the minimum salary of Albert Martin to replace him with.

RHB SS Conceicao Guerin (26) – EXP – 12/3/8
Arbitration eligible (Minimum contract in 1999)
ML: 648 AB, .304/.356/.389, 2 HR, 63 RBI
Although initially always labeled as merely a defensive shortstop, Concie has managed to make it to the leadoff job in the lineup with great resilience at the plate and getting on base at a decent .356 rate in 1999 – better than all other full time starters not named Neil Reece in ’99. He combines this small ball approach to ballgames with most excellent defense at short, winning 2.2 games with defense alone this season. He is also our main base running weapon. First time arbitration eligible, he will get a hefty raise, though. Regardless, we’re confidently set at the shortstop position.

RHB INF Marvin Ingall (31) – 13/5/10
Owed $1M through 2001
ML: 619 AB, .265/.320/.355, 6 HR, 66 RBI
Marvin had the worst season in a few years in ’99, at least when it comes to batting. A desire to get going led him to strike out 116 times, which was the main cause for his struggles. He is still an immensely valuable asset, being able to play all positions on the infield with great skill, and with the way our other assets are falling, he is the second base starter. Also, at 31 he is one of the old bones on a very young team and provides guidance to the boys.

SHB 1B Don Irvin (24) – P – 9/7/5 – 9/7/6
AA: 471 AB, .276/.349/.471, 18 HR, 70 RBI
AAA: 6 AB, .167/.167/.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI
Former hot prospect that cooled off quite remarkably since being drafted in 1997. Defensive liability that also struck out 113 times in 1999. Our confidence in Albert Martin makes him expendable.

RHB 1B Harry Jackson (27) – P – 12/7/6
AAA: 251 AB, .335/.394/.554, 14 HR, 48 RBI
The prospect that time forgot. Swamped by Michel, Martin, and whomever else we bothered sticking at St. Pete for a few years now, Jackson could never show what he really had. Defensively, that’s a good thing. Vince however doubts that his swing could not be easily exploited by big league pitching.

LHB 1B Albert Martin (22) – EXP – 13/12/10 – 13/13/11
Minimum contract
AAA: 370 AB, .300/.398/.573, 29 HR, 68 RBI
ML: 82 AB, .305/.374/.524, 5 HR, 12 RBI
He came, he saw, he conquered. Martin took the Raccoons by storm in September, including a walkoff home run and a game with a pair of 3-run shots. Impressive power, impressive ability to even reach base, with this package we are gladly taking the sub-standard defensive abilities and his snail pace on the bags to give him a shot at a full rookie campaign in 2000.

RHB INF Brent McLaughlin (27) – 40 – 7/4/9
Minimum contract
AAA: 236 AB, .220/.320/.352, 6 HR, 28 RBI
ML: 16 AB, .063/.167/.063, 0 HR, 0 RBI
Another one of those fringiest of fringe outfielders, McLaughlin stands back to his main adversary Caddock when it comes to defense and versatility, although he will still man all four infield spots competently. His bat however is even more lackluster than Caddock’s.

RHB 1B/2B Samy Michel (22) – 40 – 12/7/11 – 12/8/13
Minimum contract
AAA: 226 AB, .243/.351/.381, 5 HR, 27 RBI
ML: 104 AB, .202/.278/.260, 0 HR, 8 RBI
His third cup of tea saw him regress considerably compared to the second cup in 1998. By now he has been swiftly overtaken by hotshot Albert Martin. He is still regarded to be a good, if not great, future major leaguer, and there could be some trade value in him.

LHB 1B/2B George Morris (26) – 40 – 10/6/7
Minimum contract
AAA: 415 AB, .267/.325/.424, 13 HR, 58 RBI
ML: 18 AB, .111/.158/.167, 0 HR, 1 RBI
With the competition at first and second base, we may be well advised to get rid of even his minimum salary. He simply has no future with the Raccoons, given our assembled talent. With sub-standard batting, he can’t even make a cause for himself through defense or agility.

RHB 1B/2B Matt Love (23) – P – 15/3/8 – 18/3/11
AA: 293 AB, .311/.395/.481, 7 HR, 32 RBI
Drafted this year, Love made a strong debut in AA. His defense is good, and he may be best kept at second base, where he has been capable of turning double plays. Not much of a runner, though. Vince is not quite sure whether he can recommend a move to AAA to start the 2000 season already, but we have a whole winter to talk this over.

RHB INF/RF Miguel Ramirez (21) – P – 9/8/10 – 10/12/13
AA: 462 AB, .227/.353/.439, 26 HR, 88 RBI
An international signing by the Crusaders, he was released and then picked off the street by the Raccoons in 1997, and since then has quietly impressed his game. Defensively he is best at third base with impressive range and a laser arm. Combine that with a power bat and we found ourselves a legitimate third base prospect in him. A move to AAA should come in 2000.

RHB INF/RF Eisuke Sato (25) – P* - 9/5/5 – 10/5/7
AAA: 199 AB, .236/.285/.392, 8 HR, 23 RBI
Sato was hurt for part of the season, but nevertheless failed to impress with his bat. With us not being stuffed especially deep on the left side of the infield, he can still be considered a defensive backup, especially at short, where he is especially adept at fielding. Still, a starter’s job in the Bigs is nothing that needs to be discussed.

OUTFIELDERS

LHB LF/RF Clyde Brady (23) – EXP – 13/10/14 – 13/11/16
Minimum contract
ML: 442 AB, .256/.350/.355, 8 HR, 47 RBI
Was the starting rightfielder for most of the season, although we at times did some experiments with other guys. While Brady’s sophomore season wasn’t a smash success, the experiments fared even less well. Good fielding, a solid bat, and good speed and instincts that make him good to hit-and-run with. If he could just a little bit more, he would be a wonderful #2 option in the lineup, sitting between the right-handed Guerin and Reece.

RHB LF/RF Stephen Buell (24) – EXP – 12/3/12
Arbitration eligible (Minimum contract in 1999)
ML: 425 AB, .238/.311/.299, 1 HR, 34 RBI
Buell has been getting worse and worse since a quite splashy debut in 1996. The assumed permanent replacement for Vern Kinnear has been everything but that, at best subbing in the field. A 70 OPS in 1999 makes us long hard for a return of Vern, never mind his own struggles in Atlanta. Buell finds himself on the way to the exit door, with a flock of other youngsters preying on his job.

RHB LF/RF Jochen Funck (23) – P – 9/5/5 – 9/5/7
AA: 299 AB, .301/.381/.575, 20 HR, 55 RBI
AAA: 88 AB, .250/.275/.375, 2 HR, 7 RBI
The German kid has not been able to make a splash upon promotion to St. Petersburg. Vince has recently reduced his potential ratings. And it is not like he doesn’t have competition on the outfield corners.

LHB OF Jason Kent (25) – DL (40) – 11/5/10
Minimum contract
AAA: 189 AB, .296/.387/.439, 6 HR, 28 RBI
ML: 17 AB, .118/.211/.118, 0 HR, 0 RBI
Listed for completeness, Jason has played himself into foul ground even before this season and is listed merely for technically sitting on the 40-man roster for no apparent reason. A broken kneecap will however rule out a trade for most of the winter.

LHB OF Cal Lyon (24) – P* - 9/5/4 – 9/6/4
AAA: 254 AB, .268/.333/.457, 13 HR, 32 RBI
Even Vince finds it hard to make anything out of Lyon’s numbers. While undisputedly a great athlete showing excellent defense and a knack for base running, Lyon is terribly struggling at the plate. We don’t even know what the main problem is, but it could be that he trying to hard to hit home runs. He doesn’t admit it though. One of those fringe prospects you end up losing for no space on the 40-man roster, and next year they hit seven home runs off your inept pitching corps? Vince shrugs his shoulders right now.

SHB OF Luke Newton (28) – EXP – 10/3/12
Arbitration eligible ($180k in 1999)
ML: 210 AB, .238/.325/.362, 3 HR, 28 RBI
Newton keeps hanging in there as mainly defensive replacement in the majors, unable to break through to get a permanent starting role. The one chance he got, in 1997, he swiftly got hurt and missed most of the season. At least we know what we have in him: a competent filler for all three outfield spots. However, guys rarely get old with that description, and we are looking for upgrades. Newton’s anchor might be his ability to excellently sub for Neil Reece, something that few of our youngsters can brag about.

LHB LF/RF Chris Parker (24) – EXP – 13/7/8 – 13/7/11
Minimum contract
ML: 254 AB, .232/.306/.335, 2 HR, 32 RBI
One of the three pieces in the David Brewer trade (with Farley and Brady), Parker failed to get the bat up all season long. Nevertheless, an even worse slumping Stephen Buell is getting a lot moving in the outfield and Parker could be one guy to fill a potential void. His defense and agility clearly stand back of Buell’s however, so this is a battle that could be fought all of next season. Parker is certainly more than just a potential trade chip to us.

RHB CF/LF Neil Reece (33) – EXP – 15/12/12
Owed $1.1M in 2000
ML: 546 AB, .304/.387/.430, 15 HR, 81 RBI
Neil remains the best player on the field when the Raccoons appear to defend, regardless of the pitcher, and nobody could stink up to him this season, as he batted over .300 for the first time since 1995. Vince advises us to be careful though, as Neil enters a contract year. He will look for a lot of money to come back in 2001, and he would be 35 on Opening Day in 2001. A great leader, inspiring younger players, and always knowing a trick about batting or fielding, he is undisputedly THE key player on the team.

RHB LF/CF Chris Roberson (22) – P – 11/7/4 – 13/10/6
AA: 70 AB, .329/.356/.543, 4 HR, 11 RBI
AAA: 500 AB, .276/.311/.450, 17 HR, 88 RBI
A legitimate contender for the leftfield job in the future, Roberson is not without his deficiencies. He rarely ever walks, but is able to make contact and thus avoids to strike out too often. When he makes the bat meet the ball, the ball usually travels some distance. His defense, especially in left field, is strong, and he can also steal a base or two. Being only drafted in 1998 (first round), Roberson does not have to be pushed too hard – he still has time.

RHB OF Herb Rose (23) – P – 11/5/6 – 15/7/13
A: 227 AB, .269/.344/.352, 3 HR, 12 RBI
AA: 230 AB, .248/.303/.370, 6 HR, 23 RBI
His batting stats don’t show enough according to Vince, who disregards his 102 strikeouts this season and points at a lot of progress. It is a curve Vince says will continue and he sees him as legitimate rookie in 2002 – never mind that Rose will be 26 by then. So we are cautious and don’t bank on him too much.

SHB OF Jesus Taramillo (24) – EXP – 9/6/6
Minimum contract
AAA: 226 AB, .226/.293/.403, 8 HR, 24 RBI
ML: 42 AB, .190/.271/.333, 1 HR, 6 RBI
One of the many gap fillers we had up this season, Taramillo hardly filled the gap assigned to him at all. While an adept defender, he was just overmatched by big league pitching, something that won’t change according to Vince.

LHB OF/1B Edgardo Torrez (22) – P – 8/8/9 – 10/11/12
AA: 432 AB, .252/.338/.516, 30 HR, 92 RBI
Signed late in 1997 out of Venezuela, Torrez was hurt for some time this year and still managed to go deep 30 times in Ham Lake. Vince wants to move him up the ladder and see what he can do in AAA next season. He is able to swipe a base occasionally, and his strongest defensive position is actually in center, where he can display great range, while his arm is not all that strong.

LHB LF/RF Darwin Tyler (18) – P – 9/3/3 – 15/13/10
A: 256 AB, .203/.250/.301, 5 HR, 19 RBI
Darwin’s professional debut was a disaster, Vince admits. He believes in the kid however, and recommends tutoring him extensively in the future. We could have ourselves an excellent power bat on an outfield corners in a few years.

RHB LF/RF George Wood (23) – P* - 10/5/8 – 13/10/11
AAA: 550 AB, .284/.350/.438, 21 HR, 84 RBI
Another potential power bat waiting to be called up at AAA. Like with a lot of other corner outfielders we have lumbering about, his defense is unspectacular, and he really is too sluggish to steal any bases. Since he is still a work in progress according to Vince we might be best advised to keep him around in St. Pete, but unfortunately the 40-man roster is already full of players that are characterized just like he is.

---

No proof reading done, all errors are yours. This took a few hours, and I am tired.

Need.

Coffee.

…

Obviously, having hoarded prospects of varying degrees of obscurity for a long time leaves us with a lot of young boys to sieve now. MUCH work to do. Why don’t I just quit and move to Nunavut? No – no! Am I insane? That’s in Elkland!! I can move to Alaska, though.

[Westheim]

1999 ABL Awards:
Batting titles: DAL 1B/3B Salvador Mendez (.363, 1 HR, 58 RBI) and OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.361, 9 HR, 81 RBI)
Hitters of the Year: LAP 1B Marty Battle (.297, 39 HR, 110 RBI) and OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.361, 9 HR, 81 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAC SP Randy Travis (20-7, 2.64 ERA) and MIL SP Martin Garcia (22-7, 2.03 ERA, 280 K; won Triple Crown)
Rookies of the Year: DAL LF/RF Darrel Travy (.330, 25 HR, 98 RBI) and OCT 1B/3B Takahashi Higashi (.291, 15 HR, 68 RBI)
Gold Gloves (FL): WAS SP Steve Rogers, SFW C Ruben Melendez, CIN 1B Larry Maldrum, LAP 2B Germán Roldán, SFW 3B Bob Petipas, LAP SS Carlos Gonzalez, SFW LF Luis Arroyo, SFW CF John Hensley, RIC RF Raúl Vázquez
Gold Gloves (CL): OCT SP Fabien Armand, VAN C Jorge Lopez, IND 1B Matt Brown, POR 2B Marvin Ingall, VAN 3B Raymond Sutton, POR SS Conceicao Guerin, POR LF Stephen Buell, POR CF Neil Reece, OCT RF Artie Barnes

Retired players not named Kisho Saito:
SP Craig Hansen (272-204, 3.40 ERA, 2,578 K)
SP Bill Smith (239-216, 3.55 ERA, 2,516 K)

Smith is the pitcher that once famously snubbed the Raccoons’ offer to sign the identical contract with the Canadiens. That was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO AND I AM MAD TO THIS VERY DAY!!!

And it’s true, our horrendous last place team took home half the Gloves in our league. Why, if they had just won ALL the Gloves …! For Ingall, Concie, and Buell it is the first Glove, while Neil Reece has won his third, all consecutively.

---

While Kisho Saito’s decision to retire leaves a gaping wound, that can not be healed, nor can it be soothed, it helps us in the area of financials. Saito’s $1.1M salary for 2000 is off the books, and that opens up the possibility to use the money towards an impact bat at a corner outfield position. The Raccoons didn’t finish last in 1999 (the first time they did that in almost 20 years…) because of their average pitching or league-best defense, the offense has to be improved.

If you look around the diamond, all positions are more or less filled and should be either hard to upgrade, or no upgrade is desired at this junction. Albert Martin and Julio Mata made audible debuts in the second half of the season, and neither should gain a lot from going back to Florida. In Concie Guerin and Marvin Ingall we have a sterling middle infield double play combo that can also hit either 1-2 in the lineup, or should either one struggle 1 and 6. Since Martin is not good with the glove and even less with moving his high-circumference thighs, it is impossible to not have him play first. That means that Cesar Gonzalez has to move to a position he has less well-acquainted with, which should be third base.

Or – or he moves to left.

Moving CeGo to left field would solve a few things. It ends the outfield search right now, since between Clyde Brady and Luke Newton we have good coverage of right field, and the fifth spot could either go to Chris Parker or Stephen Buell, in the case the latter can’t be traded. Instead, a hole at third base would open. Mike Crowe could be used to fill it.

But then we said we want to upgrade our offense, and Crowe has batted .212 this season. His career average is .241. His OPS+ is 92. Big name free agents at third base include CIN Ramiro Gonzalez, Buffaloes team mates Jesus Garcia and Rory Gorden, and a pair of Titans in Horace Henry and Haruki Nakayama.

Gonzalez has the makeup of a leadoff batter, and is right-handed. He has no power, but is routinely batting .300 and up, with a .400 OBP in a good year. He’s 31, but he’s not what we are looking for. I might even be tempted to bite, but I would only bite if he were left-handed. The two most likely candidates for the first two spots we have right now are Guerin and Ingall. We don’t gain anything by adding Ramiro Gonzalez with another right-handed bat.

Of the Buffaloes, Gorden is well-travelled (read: often moved around), and also right-handed, but he hit 14 to 18 home runs each of the last three years. However, his last three years were by far his best. At times in the early 90s, he was a sub-.650 OPS batter. I have enough of those. Jesus Garcia is a 33-year old switch-hitter, and can hit not only home runs, but has hit 40 doubles as recently as 1998. By trade he is a natural first baseman, but able to hold his position at third base well enough.

Garcia certainly is interesting, but what about the Titans? Horace Henry is a legend, having amassed 2,623 career hits for the Blue Sox and Titans, including 209 home runs. He will also be 39 next season. The Titans mostly used him as a second baseman the last three years. The last time he played a majority of his games at third base was in 1995, still with Nashville. Then, he made 17 errors in 130 games, but fielded for +2.4 ZR in general.

But that was five years ago.

Nakayama has a nice hitter’s profile, but is right-handed as well, and doesn’t fit. So it seems that Jesus Garcia would be our only option to pursue if we decide to get an upgrade for third base and play Gonzalez in the outfield. Finding left-handed leftfielders might be easier than finding an upgrade for third base?

Other areas to look into are a backup catcher with a bit more experience, and who knows what we could acquire in a trade that includes Stephen Buell?

Then we have the mess in the rotation to sort out. We have Farley and - … whom exactly? Lopez and Rivera are trying to come back from injuries. Wade wants to pitch out of the rotation but weakening the corner infield positions defensively will hurt him the most. Then there are Ford and Paco Martinez, both of whom could use a bit more seasoning in AAA, it has been reckoned. Should we try to get a mid-rotation pitcher? Could we even afford one?

Random numbers – batting and actual WAR by typical Raccoons corner outfielders 1999:
Clyde Brady - +0.6 / +0.9
Luke Newton - 0.0 / +0.5
Chris Parker - -0.5 / -0.8
Stephen Buell - -1.9 / -1.2
Buell wins a ****ing Gold Glove and still costs the team MORE wins than Kelly Fairchild, Bob Joly, and Brad Tamburrino COMBINED.