Portland Raccoons (ABL) - Page 159

Westheim · 04-18-2020, 07:19 PM

2035 PLAYOFFS

By the time the Raccoons lost in seven, the FLCS was already over, naturally, since it also had been the first series to start. It had pitted a pair of 97-65 clubs against each other, with the twice-defending champs, the Warriors, coming from the CL South, which they had won by 11 games, and who had been assigned home field advantage. The Warriors had the best rotation in the Federal League (but a mediocre pen), and had the second-highest total of runs scored mostly on the strength of the long ball (173 HR, 1st in ABL); they had been average in batting average and on-base percentage, and they couldn’t steal bases at all. Besides almost an entire lineup filld to the brim with double-digit dinger swatters, they also had a balanced lineup that would give every pitcher a headache, while their starters were mostly southpaws.

Opposite them, the Capitals had won the CL North by four games. They had scored the most runs in the FL (beating the Warriors by 17 runs), and had used their league-leading .355 OBP and 155 stolen bases to drive the opposition crazy. They had the second-best rotation and a decent bullpen. Only Kelvin Winborn (.260, 22 HR, 83 RBI) had hit more than 20 dingers, and nobody had driven in more than 83 runs, although leadoff man Enrique Trevino matched that total. Lorenzo Viamontes (21-7, 2.85 ERA) had led the team in wins and ERA. Their lineup tended to lean to the left side, which made analysts give the Warriors an advantage.

This was the 12th playoff appearance for the Capitals, who had won three titles in the 1990s, but hadn’t been near the World Series in 12 years, most recently losing to the Titans in both 2022 and 2023. The Warriors made their 13th postseason and also had three titles, some of them even won recently. It was the first FLCS meeting for these teams in the century, but they had split a pair of meetings in the 90s; the Warriors had won the FLCS in ’94, but had lost to the Thunder in the World Series. The Capitals got back at them in ’97, then beat the rising Titans for their most-recent championship.

WAS @ SFW … 5-2 … (Capitals lead 1-0) … WAS Travis Adkins 3-4, 3B, RBI; SFW Mario Colon 3-4, HR, RBI;

WAS @ SFW … 7-0 … (Capitals lead 2-0) … WAS Scott Martin 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI; WAS Jerry Banda 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0)

The Capitals pour out six runs in the first inning and 25-year-old Jerry Banda paces himself for a complete-game win to take an early convincing lead.

SFW @ WAS … 3-2 … (Capitals lead 2-1)

SFW @ WAS … 3-15 … (Capitals lead 3-1) … WAS Adam Avakian 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; WAS Kelvin Winborn 2-4, 3 RBI; WAS Ross Sibley 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; WAS Scott Martin 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; WAS Noel Ferrero 4-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

SFW @ WAS … 1-3 … (Capitals win 4-1) … WAS Travis Adkins 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; WAS Michael Frank 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

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2035 WORLD SERIES

The well-rested Capitals got home field advantage in the second meeting of 97-65 teams in this World Series. Both teams had led their league in offense, and the Condors had even led theirs in terms of fewest runs allowed. They had the best rotation ERA in the CL, the best bullpen ERA, and also a better defense than the Capitals, at least. Both teams revolved around stolen bases and getting on base to strangulate the enemy, but the Capitals were better at it; while the Condors had scored the most runs in the CL, the Capitals in the traditionally more offensive-minded Federal League had outscored them by 72 runs – this year the difference in batting average between FL and CL was 11 points and the difference in league ERA was 22 points, but there was natural fluctuation there and occasionally the CL saw more scoring, which had happened three times in the last ten years, but on average the FL had about 5 points more in batting average and 7 points more in ERA.

Caps and Condors had met once in the World Series – the Capitals won the 1990 title in seven games against the Condors. Despite this, many considered the Condors the slightly better package overall, but they had the short turnaround and the Caps were as well rested as could be.

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TIJ @ WAS … 4-5 … (Capitals lead 1-0) … WAS Kelvin Winborn 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

TIJ @ WAS … 1-2 … (Capitals lead 2-0) … WAS Nate Evans 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; WAS Jerry Banda 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-0);

WAS @ TIJ … 4-5 … (Capitals lead 2-1) … TIJ Shane Sanks 2-2, 2 BB, 3B, RBI;

WAS @ TIJ … 5-6 … (series tied 2-2) … WAS Kaleb Holder 3-4, BB, 2B; WAS Ross Sibley 3-4, 2B, RBI; TIJ Chris Murphy 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B, RBI;

WAS @ TIJ … 5-2 … (Capitals lead 3-2) … WAS Noel Ferrero 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; TIJ Chris Murphy 2-5, 2 RBI; TIJ Justin Williams 3-4;

The Condors lose the pivotal Game 5 despite out-hitting the Caps, 8-7, when they strand nine runner on base to the Caps’ three.

TIJ @ WAS … 2-6 … (Capitals win 4-2) … TIJ Juan Palbes 2-3, BB, RBI; WAS Kelvin Winborn 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; WAS Jerry Banda 9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (3-0);

A complete-game 6-hitter from Jerry Banda and a clutch first-inning, 2-out, 3-run homer of Omar Uribe (0-2, 6.00 ERA) get the Capitals into the fast lane. They never trail in the game and close out the series solidly for their first championship in almost 40 years!

2035 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Washington Capitals
(4th title)

Westheim · 04-18-2020, 07:58 PM

After our inglorious return to Portland, I immediately absconded and disappeared for days. By the time Maud found me without pants, sprawled on the counter at a shady shanty near the Columbia River docks called “The One-Eyed Assassin’s Arms”, the Capitals had a lead of two games to one. By the time she had me sobered up and redressed, the national anthem played for Game 5.

I was no joy to be around of for at least another week afterwards, but when had I ever been? As exhilarating as the rally from 46-62 had been, as suffocating had been the smothering Game 7 defeat. The way they had played suggested that maybe we should get a new offense AND a new pitching staff – although that was probably unfair. Through at least Game 3 the Raccoons had been gritty and tough as nails, and looking back – though hindsight was 20/20 and in 2020 the Coons had blown up a tie-breaker game by pitching NICK ****ING LESTER in extra innings – we probably lost the series all the way back in Game 1, squandering a scoring opportunity in the top of the ninth before being walked off on. If the Coons win that game, they’re up 3-0 after one day back in Portland.

In the end, we ran into Juan Garcia three times, and never could beat the old leather boot (and neither could the Caps; he won Game 3). The 29-year-old Dominican, who was an ardent student of the game and watched hours of video each day of pitchers AND hitters, went 3-0 with a 2.56 ERA in four starts in the postseason, winning every game he entered but Game 1 in the CLCS. This was on the heels of 23.2 innings in the previous playoffs in which nobody had scored on him at all. For his career, he was 4-0 with a 1.46 ERA in seven playoff starts. Most of the damage this year was done by the Capitals, with the Coons only scoring six runs (five earned) in 24 innings against him. Garcia had won the CLCS, and had the Condors given him the chance to pitch Game 7 in the World Series, they probably would have walked away winners.

The really fun part? He was a late bloomer. All the miracles he had done, he had done for the league minimum. He hadn’t even become a starter for Tijuana until halfway through the 2034 season…!

Which brought us to our own pitchers, contracts, and coffers. It was the same spiel as every year, with Nick Valdes complaining about the lack of results and then after lots of begging wiring a check anyway.

This year’s check amounted to $37.5M, up $3M from last year, moving the Raccoons from t-15th to t-12th in the ABL, matching the Gold Sox’ budget. It would certainly allow a move or two, and those would be necessary, but more on that later.

The top 5 spenders were the Titans ($49.5M), Pacifics ($48.5M), Condors ($48M), Warriors ($47.5M), and Capitals ($45M). In the bottom 5 you’d find the Buffaloes ($29.4M), Aces ($27.6M), Rebels, Loggers ($25.2M each), and Falcons ($23.8M).

The missing CL North teams were t-9th (NYC, $39M), 14th (IND, $36.5M), and 17th (VAN, $33M).

The average budget was $37.05M, about $150k more than a year ago. The median budget amounted to $37.5M, up $1M from last season.

All of this brought us swiftly to what the dough would be spent on, and that was mostly players. The first round of decisions would come up in arbitration hearings. The Raccoons had ten arbitration eligible players and four free agents that were interesting in that regard, with most of their bullpen getting involved. This included closer Ed Blair, who voided his 2036 contract via player option to test the free agency waters at age 33. Like the other free agency cases (Zitzner, Zeltser, Gowan), he was not compensation eligible, which was highly regrettable. Off the top of my head, Zeltser might be the only guy we’d offer another contract to, but he’d have to take a bit of a cut from his $1.62M salary given he had hit for a .670 OPS…

The arbitration list included a bunch of players that were non-tender candidates with Bates, Scheffer, Marsingill, and Salgado. Hennessy looked completely messed up, too, unraveled by injuries, and he’d cost half a million to keep around. We could save over $2M by dumping all five of those, turn half of it into a contract for Bob Zeltser, and still have roundabout $5M left over to take to the marketplace. Or, given how our recent acquisitions went, make a road trip to Reno and bet it all on black. That sounded about as smart as bringing in Adam Avakian in the Zitzner trade with the Knights, dumping him on the Caps, and then claiming Zitzner off waivers.

So the Raccoons had potentially big construction projects on both infield corners and in their pen. We were certainly trying to improve the team rather than tearing it down. Why would we tear it down? We were division champs! …on a solid 84 wins. (cough)

Westheim · 04-20-2020, 02:27 AM

How would building on a certified winner like this 2035 Raccoons team look like? The starting pitching had to be sorted out for sure. Darren Brown, Raffaello Sabre, Josh Livingston, Bernie Chavez – who was even a viable starter at this point? Was Livingston’s 2035 season a fluke? Yes, he had only pitched to a 4-3 record and 2.86 ERA in 16 games (14 starts), and wasn’t striking anybody out. His third pitch was a pretty unimpressive changeup. He hadn’t won a game after August 17, even as the Raccoons were rallying to win the division. Brown was a bit of a short-tempered troublemaker, which was not the sort of player you wanted around unless he was carrying the team to a pennant. Brown, 26, had pitched 75 innings in the majors in ’35 (including CLCS), which was a career-high, sadly. He also hadn’t gotten anybody out in Game 7. Not that anybody had gotten anybody out in Game 7…

Nothing to worry about Bernie Chavez, though. With his contract he wasn’t going anywhere for sure after posting a 4.57 ERA, precisely two runs higher than his 2034 campaign. Those six more years for $12M were ours.

In terms of first basemen, the Raccoons would have options on the free agent market. Jay Elder, Kevin McGrath and others, all All Stars, some even recently, and each of them in the sunset of their careers, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t pump out another strong season or two. McGrath, 36, for example had hit 22 homers with a .266 clip for the Pacifics in ’35.

When it came to salary arbitration, the Raccoons cut some ties. Right-hander Nick Bates was non-tendered, but southpaw John Hennessy was. Both had been horrendous in a small sample size in ’35, but at least Hennessy had injuries as an excuse. Bates, 30, was just no longer a player anybody would wait on voluntarily. Also gone would be Philip Scheffer and Hugo Salgado, who would both cost half a million to be extremely unimpressive off the bench – besides, between Kurt Wall and Tony Morales the Raccoons already had two catchers that they had to make work out together, somehow. No place for Scheffer.

Another potential erasure candidate, Justin Marsingill was retained only because his arbitration estimate was only $320k and he ultimately signed a 1-year extension for $310k.

No new contract was in the books for Bob Zeltser, who was bound for free agency and judged himself worth some $13M over five years after hitting .253/.328/.351 in ’35, batting seventh or eighth quite a lot. For some reason he felt hard done by and his demand apparently included damages, too. Ed Blair had no interest in any real negotiations at this point; at 33, this was likely his last chance for a major windfall, and he was gonna roll the dice. Whether that would make Chris Wise closer by default in ’36 or whether the Raccoons could find budget space for a new closer somewhere else remained up in the air at this point.

Jimmy Wallace was another interesting case. He was up for arbitration one final time and considered his time had come for the big bucks. To his credit, he wasn’t trying to break the bank and my heart at the same time. He longed for five years at a modest, roundabout $6.5M. That didn’t sound so bad that it couldn’t be moved elsewhere in case of a downturn in terms of success. However, there was always the problem of his atrocious defense. He was a solid above-average hitter, posting OPS+ values between 105 and 117 every time he got a full season on the major league roster. He had hit a career-high 20 homers in ’35, and he was a rather tough strikeout. However, his defense was an eyesore. In 131 games (129 starts) in ’35, he managed to lose the team a full win just by playing leftfield. His defensive efficiency was .924 in left for his career, and it wasn’t much better in right (where he had played for most of his first two seasons). On and off over the last few years we had toyed with the idea of moving him to first base. During infrequent infield drills however he proved unable to smother any throw by an infielder that didn’t go into his glove right away. Unfortunately, this was not a problem fixed with glasses or corrective surgery; he had 20/20 vision. He was just THAT clumsy.

I will still claim that the Raccoons won the trade with the Buffos in 2030 where we picked him up, because we left them with nothing but garbage that was mostly out of organized baseball by now, and the one player that remained (albeit on the Miners), Izzy Chavez, was one of the worst relievers in the Federal League that hadn’t been demoted last season. At least we had gotten 5+ years of a .283, 74 HR, 400 RBI batter…

Westheim · 04-24-2020, 12:25 PM

I am embarrassed to announce that the St. Petersburg Alley Cats won the AAA championship despite being ravaged for players, beating the Anaheim Nautilus in seven games for the title while we here were kind of occupied with other things. Ham Lake (.500) and Aumsville (woeful) were nowhere the playoffs in their leagues. The Alley Cats win the title for the third time after 1992 and 2021.

The first big-league players signed 1-year extensions at the end of October. Marsingill got the aforementioned $310k, and Kurt Wall inked for $925k. The next were Manny Fernandez ($665k) and John Hennessy ($490k).

The big news came as November broke and the Raccoons announced a 5-year deal with Jimmy Wallace. The whole shebang was worth $5.8M only, which was rather cheap for a consistent above-average hitter, but of course everybody knew where his shortcomings were. That horse had been beaten to death and beyond by now. Wallace would make $800k in ’36, then $1.25M each for the four years after that while we would continue to watch his defense deteriorate from what it already was… and I’m also not gonna lie, that Nick Valdes wanted to see a different player in leftfield made me want to resign Wallace even more!

At the same time the Agitator reported that the Coons had offered Chris Wise a 4-year deal – which was actually true. He signed it in early November, and would be paid $1.1M each of the next four years. Sabre was the last guy that got an offer to sign it, getting $800k for 2036.

Consequently, Hugo Salgado, Philip Scheffer, and Nick Bates were all non-tendered and thus reached free agency along with regularly eligible players Travis Zitzner, Bob Zeltser, and Steve Gowan, plus finally Ed Blair, who wanted outta here badly enough to void his player option for 2036. As far as minor leaguers were concerned, only C David Tinnin became a free agent. He made nine appearances with the Raccoons (eight in ’33, one in ’34) and hit .100 (2-for-20) with 1 RBI.

Once free agency arrived one of my potential additions that I had pencilled down immediately fell through. Robbie Peel, 30-year-old lefty of the Miners, had become a free agent. He had saved 44 games and won *14* (!!!) in 2035, casually grabbing more wins than all of the Raccoons’ starters sans Gilberto Rendon (15, phew!). Alas, Peel was a type A free agent, and I didn’t feel like signing away our #16 pick for him. Chris Wise had a 1.92 ERA in ’35. Maybe he can click as closer this time…

Oh well, there were more players out there to blow millions on. The Raccoons had to figure out what to do with Josh Livingston, too, who had nothing but a shrug and excuse for a third pitch and after the initial flash had trended towards mediocrity. Livingston aside, we still have four tried and proven starters (Rendon, Willes, Sabre, Chavez), plus whatever the heck Darren Brown counted for. There were also still a steady five core relievers from ’35 around (Wise, David Fernandez, Prieto, Kulp, Garavito), with Hennessy, Citriniti, and Thomson also still on the extended roster.

The batting half of the roster had melted down to 13 players, but with holes. We had our catchers for ’36 in Morales and Wall – that was just final. In the outfield, Fowler was in center, Wallace and Manny Fernandez were certainly starters against right-handed pitching, but the supporting cast was not exciting: Preston Pinkerton and Ed Hooge would make for an *okay* backup pair. Jesus Maldonado we saw more as going back to AAA to start the year and then perhaps promoting in May or June or in case of injury – he was too precious to rot on the bench or platoon with Wallace. Of course, first base was an actual option with Maldonado, and we didn’t have any other half-decent first baseman. Topping our depth chart there was Chiyosaku Maruyama, and I’d rather not…

On the infield, five players remained. Berto was the only guaranteed starter at short. The odd couple of right-handed second baseman, Stalker (in a contract year again) and Vickers completed the middle infield, although Justin Marsingill, the only current option for the hot corner, could also fill in there. Matt Triolo was not likely to make the Opening Day roster, but could also play second, short, and third.

There were no hot and ready prospects on the AAA infield, either. 22-year-old 1B/C Jeff Wilson (the #33 pick in 2034) had split time between all three minor league levels in ’35, but had only hit 10 homers in 132 games. 21-year old 2B Jose Brito (2030 July IFA signing) had batted .295 with 12 homers in 78 games in AAA (after starting the year in Ham Lake), but needed more seasoning, too. The rest was broken garbage heap pick-ups of the Edgar Barrios mold.

So there was definitely room for one or two corner infield signings, and I already had at least one candidate in mind…

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November 10 – The Scorpions send CL Jorge Villegas jr. (3-4, 2.79 ERA, 29 SV)* to the Bayhawks for three prospects. The package includes #48 prospect CL Mario Benavides.
November 16 – The Rebels acquire utility player Adam Mitchell (.282, 5 HR, 52 RBI) from the Gold Sox, parting with 1B Gastao Rosado (.270, 14 HR, 90 RBI).
November 16 – The Aces pick up C Paul Kuehn (.254, 5 HR, 45 RBI) from the Knights, who receive two players in MR Shinsaburo Matsubara (11-17, 4.54 ERA, 13 SV) and a prospect.

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2035 AWARDS

Player of the Year – SFW C Ethan McCullar (.301, 26 HR, 93 RBI) and TIJ 3B Shane Sanks (.269, 29 HR, 107 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year – SAL SP Phil Harrington (22-6, 1.93 ERA) and LVA SP Chris Crowell (20-7, 2.77 ERA)
Rookies of the Year – NAS OF Sean Ashley (.281, 15 HR, 55 RBI) and NYC 1B Johnny Lopez (.274, 12 HR, 54 RBI)
Relievers of the Year – DEN CL Josh Boles (8-7, 2.59 ERA, 41 SV) and TIJ MR Josh Heckman (4-4, 1.78 ERA, 3 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL) – P DEN Mike Hodge – C SFW Ethan McCullar – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B RIC Ben Freeman – 3B PIT Omar Lastrade – SS SAL Jose Castro – LF CIN Ken Gibbs – CF SAC Mark Vermillion – RF DEN Kyle Beard
Platinum Sticks (CL) – P TIJ Jimmy Driver – C CHA Ernesto Huichapa – 1B OCT Danny Cruz – 2B IND Dan Schneller – 3B TIJ Shane Sanks – SS POR Alberto Ramos – LF OCT Luis Sagredo – CF POR Justin Fowler – RF ATL Roy Pincus
Gold Gloves (FL) – P SAL Brandon Nickerson – C WAS Nate Evans – 1B CIN Chris Delagrange – 2B DEN Wayne Morris – 3B CIN Kyle Lusk – SS SAL Jose Castro – LF PIT Ozzie Burgos – CF SAC Mark Vermillion – RF DEN Kyle Beard
Gold Gloves (CL) – P MIL William Stockwell – C CHA Ernesto Huichapa – 1B LVA Jesse Stedham – 2B TIJ Jason Bensinger – 3B BOS Antonio Gil – SS IND Juan Benito – LF ATL Luis Inoa – CF MIL Tyler Prestwood – RF BOS Moises Avila

Two Platinum Sticks is better than nothing, they say where I come from. And, “if you steal my chicken, I will shoot you in the face”.

Berto previously won Sticks in 2030 and 2031, then while pushing an .800 OPS. It’s weird seeing him win with a .283/.380/.332 slash. Fowler won his fourth Stick, taking one in every year Ramos won one, plus 2032, all of those in the FL for the Pacifics.

Of course none of this can overcome the stomach bleed I have from the skunk weasel taking his fifth POTY award.

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*in 2035. All others were after the free agency filing date and thus show career stats.

DD Martin · 04-24-2020, 02:03 PM

Kind of surprised you sign Wallace. I guess he’s a decent hitter but you can’t hide him. I know there is no DH in this league, but how about a DF (designated fielder)?

Hopefully Wallace works out, but I’d have my hand on the trigger to send him to Salem maybe

Westheim · 04-24-2020, 06:17 PM

Yes, but when have I ever not extended a player after non-stop bitching about him for four seasons?

UltimateAverageGuy · 04-25-2020, 03:40 PM

What years settings do you use?

Westheim · 04-25-2020, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

What years settings do you use?

I think the total stats modifiers originally were based on the 1977 season, which was the first year of the ABL, but in the 2000s Questdog made some subtle adjustments to them. In general they are still 1970s-ish, but they are not from any particular year.

The financials originally were historical starting with 1977, but I abandoned that even earlier and I have been doing manual inflation since at least the 1990s.

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In the second half of November the Thunder tried to get rid of CL David Gerow, whose numbers had taken a nosedive in 2035. There was something wrong with twice the walks and only two thirds the strikeouts per nine innings compared to the years before and for $2.2M we would be able to find out first-paw what exactly it was. We passed.

Proven talent was on the top of the shopping list though. While there were some teams that were trying to get rid of everything not nailed down, like in any other offseason, I was more curious about a few free agents, especially since we had this set of four or five players that were on the cusp or had arrived in the majors that every team would ask for, and Tony Morales, Jesus Maldonado, and the other two guys I talked about that I already half-forgot about… Cristiano, remind me. Cristiano. No, he’s not listening. He has the … the things in his ears. CRISTIANO. No, he’s making dance moves with his arms.

Oh well. None of those were up for grabs for other teams!

At one point, Nick Valdes popped by and presented a list with player additions that would make him happy, all of which would include selling the farm, and an arm, and a leg. Plus, he looked ridiculous, like a black and white photograph next to an entry in the encyclopedia with the underline “Lord Bumbleford arrives from Alexandria to excavate the pyramid of El-Insein*, 1928.” – Oh, you’re actually going on an archaeology expedition? – I didn’t know that was your expertise? – Yucatan? – The fountain of youth? – No, nobody’s ever found that, but make sure you search for it thoroughly. Take your time. Don’t come back without having found it.

Corner infielders were right up the top of my list. There were a few high-profile veteran first basemen available on the market, f.e. 36-year-old Kevin McGrath, who had been in a slight decline in the last year or two and who was also a type A free agent, which made me meander to another Kevin, and one we all still know well.

Kevin Harenberg was 38 years old, but came off a season in which he had hit for an .860 OPS, although not in a qualifying amount of at-bats. There had been a few nagging injuries, and the Capitals had been stacked, so he had only gotten to the plate 428 times, but had still hit 16 homers and 24 doubles and had driven in 62 runs. Harenberg was of course the big addition during the 2026 season after the Raccoons had lost Jon Gonzalez to injury, and willed them into the playoffs batting .326 with 14 homers in 61 games. He was never *that* good again through the end of his Critters stint after the 2030 season, but we got a pair of rings for it anyway.

And yes, Harenberg was older than dirt; he had been the FL Rookie of the Year the same season Jonny Toner led the CL in strikeouts for the final time – 2021. But he was also a proven serial winner – Harenberg had been on the championship-winning team five times in the last ten seasons, taking rings with the 2026 and 2028 Coons, the 2033 and 2034 Warriors, and the 2035 Capitals. He was like a good luck charm – rub it regularly for great results! He was also not eligible for compensation, making him an even better acquisition target. His advanced age also ruled out a long commitment, so he would also be able to bridge the gap to either Jesus Maldonado, who could play first base and the outfield, or Jeff Wilson at some point. He wouldn’t be available on a 1-year deal though…

At the hot corner, we looked for defense and maybe the OBP presence that Bob Zeltser had been in ’34 but decidedly not in ’35. There was a former Bayhawk that fit the mold and the Raccoons hurried to make an offer.

There was also the rule 5 draft coming up. The Raccoons had 33 players on the 40-man in late November. No trade was beckoning, and there was *some* talent in the minors that was eligible to be selected, and right-handers Tom Miller and Travis Sims were added to the roster. They couldn’t be more different, a 26-year-old starter and a 22-year-old reliever. Miller seemed firmly shut out from participation going down the line given that we had at least six valid starter candidates, but that didn’t mean we had to donate him to other teams for free. 23-year-old LF/1B Will Luna was also added.

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November 18 – The Wolves acquire SP Dylan Channel (10-18, 4.27 ERA) from the Buffaloes for a prospect.
November 21 – The Bayhawks take in the Stars’ 28-yr old OF Josh Dahlman (.269, 6 HR, 38 RBI), with Dallas receiving C Jorge Resendez (.256, 9 HR, 126 RBI), who was traded the other way in a trade in December 2034.
November 24 – The Knights pick up SP Mike Burris (8-11, 3.40 ERA) from the Indians, who get catching prospect Sal Mordino in the deal; the unranked 20-year-old hit three home runs in a single-A game in August.
November 25 – The Capitals reinforce their championship team with the addition of 35-year-old ex-TOP CF/RF Tony Coca (.254, 268 HR, 1,114 RBI), who signs a 1-yr, $1.42M contract.
November 25 – The Titans trade for the Buffos’ 1B Greg Regan (.288, 73 HR, 361 RBI), parting with outfielder Clay Walberg (.207, 8 HR, 57 RBI) and a prospect.
November 28 – The Dallas Stars sign ex-DEN CL Josh Boles (40-43, 2.82 ERA, 271 SV) to a 1-yr, $2.16M contract.
November 29 – The Raccoons sign ex-SFB 3B/SS Dave Myers (.285, 39 HR, 354 RBI) to a 4-yr, $7.2M contract.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 20 players are selected. The Raccoons draft 23-yr old MR Vance Harbison from the Capitals.

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Myers attended the press event for his contract signing on crutches for a broken foot, but we firmly believed that this was not something that would hinder him going forwards, right, Dr. Chung? – Dr. Chung, he’s not simulating, we saw the X-rays. – … Dr. Chung just spat on the floor and stormed out, mumbling something in Korean.

I like the idea of hitting Myers second behind Berto. With the right sort of personnel (cough) Harenberg (cough) you can then continue to alternate bats all the way through the lineup at least against right-handers. Although there was also the thought of hitting Fowler third, but then we’d want a lefty bat ahead of him, likely Manny Fernandez. There were surely options here!

Whether Harbison makes it to Opening Day is uncertain. He struck out 12.4/9 in AA, but couldn’t keep that up at all in AAA. He is probably not ready, and we’re also having an issue with Hennessy if we keep him, but that’s something that can be sorted out in the coming months.

In terms of former Raccoons signing new work papers, Jonathan Snyder regrettably joined the damn Elks for $374k (do people do EVERYTHING for money??); Hugo Salgado moved down I-5 and joined the Wolves for 2-yr, $594k;

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*Pronounce: Insane. And no, it’s not a real location.

Westheim · 04-26-2020, 12:56 PM

The Raccoons didn’t close shop after the rule 5 draft, not at all…

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December 2 – The Raccoons sign ex-WAS 1B Kevin Harenberg (.298, 277 HR, 1,287 RBI) to a 2-year contract. The 38-year-old 16-year veteran stands to make $4.6M as part of the deal.

+++

Now, that was some news. Even the Agitator had trouble finding enough vitriol for a second page of derisive comments and the fans loved it, at least that’s what Cristiano told me from observing Gobble, the concept of which was still beyond me.

There were several positives form that addition. First, we had a first baseman that had already had success with the team and that we were reasonably confident with not killing us on a daily basis. Second, the contract saw him guaranteed $2.4M for this season, while 2037 was a vesting option worth $2.2M and requiring him to play 120 games, so if old man issues befell him often enough, we wouldn’t be on the hook for that.

Preston Pinkerton was displeased for having to let go of #18, but Harenberg got the number back that he had worn in his first Coons stint and I wasn’t going to listen to any amount of bickering about it. – No, Preston, no! – You either stuff your snout with your banana and apple slices in your food bowl now, or I’ll take it away!!

(wrestles with Pinkerton over the food bowl)

Of course, the offseason was far form over, but the two biggest vacancies had been addressed, and now it was about rounding out the edges of the roster. We still had about $2.5M in the coffers, although there was already an offer out there to another player.

+++

December 4 – The Titans sign former Thunder catcher Mike Burgess (.276, 207 HR, 821 RBI) to a 2-yr, $7.48M contract.
December 4 – Former Raccoons closer Ed Blair (45-35, 3.11 ERA, 97 SV) joins the Condors for a 3-year deal worth $3.36M.
December 6 – Ex-LVA LF/RF Graciano Salto (.262, 148 HR, 604 RBI) signs with the Crusaders. The 32-year-old gets a 2-yr, $4.68M deal.
December 6 – With Salto signed, the Crusaders trade another 32-year-old corner outfielder, Keith Damron (.246, 114 HR, 483 RBI) to the Bayhawks for 2B/SS Kenny Elder (.253, 11 HR, 46 RBI) and #81 prospect CL Scott Holton. In a further deal, the Crusaders send Rookie of the Year (!) 1B Johnny Lopez (.272, 13 HR, 59 RBI) to the Canadiens for C Michael Duryea (.242, 12 HR, 37 RBI).
December 6 – Upon shipping INF Jonathan Rivera (.237, 14 HR, 159 RBI) and #36 prospect OF Ethan Moore to the Thunder, the Scorpions receive SP Miguel Bojorques (60-77, 4.52 ERA) and cash.
December 8 – The Buffaloes sign journeyman SP Josh D’Agostino (60-69, 4.05 ERA) to a 3-year contract. The 29-year-old will make $3.88M over three years after last pitching with the Rebels.
December 8 – The Aces send reliever Casey McQueen (13-15, 5.13 ERA, 39 SV) to the Knights for two prospects.
December 9 – The Thunder swap SP Ignacio del Rio (48-47, 4.18 ERA) to the Crusaders for two prospects, including #78 prospect SP Aaron Bryant.
December 10 – The hyperactive Crusaders acquire 3B Greg Ortiz (.267, 93 HR, 496 RBI) from the Falcons for three prospects.
December 20 – The Knights ink ex-PIT CL Robbie Peel (28-27, 4.14 ERA, 94 SV), handing a 3-yr, $5.76M contract to the Jamaican lefty.

+++

The winter meetings saw us in discussions with several teams. The Titans tried to get rid of Ivan Vega, 33, and also thought of the Raccoons, because, y’know, we ain’t got no outfielders or something like that. They had it in their head that we’d want to get rid of Colt Willes, which wasn’t necessarily the case.

Ultimately nothing materialized, and we were in a tight spot with our trading. The positions where we had lots of personnel and tried to get rid of a select few were far between, and then other teams rarely had interest in our players.

For example, Darren Brown was almost impossible to gauge for 2036. He had been all the way from totally in the zone to out of his mind in his brief, injury-riddled career. He had also majorly cocked up Game 7 in Tijuana. No team was keen on adding him, especially not for a prospect.

Also, the Raccoons were really hogging their remaining prospects and wouldn’t let go of any.

Other new engagements for former Critters: Noel Ferrero landed with the Pacifics for 3-yr, $1.71M; Adrian Reichardt rejoins the Titans at age 38 after three years abroad on an $850k deal; Giovanni James would make $560k with the Stars in 2036; Nick Bates got $560k from the Crusaders, but would have to work two years for it; Steve Gowan got 2-yr, $1.21M from the Thunder; the Falcons had $346k worth of mercy with Travis Zitzner;

DD Martin · 04-26-2020, 07:25 PM

�� They signed the old guy.

Edit - that was a screaming icon that wasn’t visible

Westheim · 04-27-2020, 07:10 PM

December 21 – The Indians ink a 1-year deal with veteran ex-LAP 1B Kevin McGrath (.273, 213 HR, 976 RBI). The 36-year-old will make $1.44M for his troubles.
December 24 – The Raccoons win the bidding for established Korean star Yeom “The Warden” Soung, who signs a 3-yr, $2.775M contract.
December 25 – The Crusaders get ex-CIN SP Geoff Whitehouse (85-79, 3.70 ERA) on a 2-yr, $5.84M deal.
December 26 – Former Rebel SP Kyle Dominy (59-60, 3.66 ERA) signs a new 4-yr, $15.96M contract with the Gold Sox.

+++

The southpaw Soung doesn’t have his nickname for nothing. He was the dominant closer in the Korean League. Armed with an absolutely unfair screwball he should find a home in the ABL no problem. He’ll be 31 years old by the time his first Opening Day will roll around.

The bullpen gets even more crowded with this addition, but there was one easy way to make room. Vance Harbison, our rule 5 pick, was by now pretty much guaranteed to not find a place on the Opening Day roster and would be returned to the Capitals after all. Even with Citriniti and Thomson also to be removed to AAA, that still left 13 quality pitchers for 12 spots.

Oh what a terrible problem to have!

We were now getting really close to our budget space, so trading away one piece for a prospect was always an option. In fact, we had an offer out there for *another* reliever…!

Oh, and there was also a Hall of Fame ballot out that had so far gone rather unnoticed because we were occupied with other stuff. I blame Maud. She’s supposed to keep me organized. – Maud, where’s the Hall of Fame ballot? – *Which* pile of newspapers did you put it on…? – The window? – The one with the Daily Tribune on top…? – (reads headline) “Dewey defeats Truman” … Doesn’t sound like pitchers I recognize.

Westheim · 04-28-2020, 03:36 PM

December 30 – The Condors sign 35-yr old ex-Titans stalwart 2B/3B Rhett West (.251, 116 HR, 798 RBI) to a 2-yr, $2.8M contract.
December 31 – Dallas adds ex-SAL/CIN SP Jong-hoo Cho (94-80, 4.01 ERA) for 2-yr, $2.48M.
December 31 – Meanwhile the Indians help themselves to ex-DAL CL Chris Henry (29-31, 3.11 ERA, 150 SV) at a 3-yr, $5.28M price.
January 2 – Portland adds more relief with former Crusaders MR Casey Moore (35-43, 3.00 ERA, 129 SV), who joins on a 1-yr, $500k contract.
January 8 – The Cyclones grab ex-NAS C Matt Cooper (.258, 38 HR, 299 RBI) with a bait four years wide and $5.52M across.
January 8 – Richmond also gets a new closer in ex-SFB Jimmy Lohrey (28-34, 4.28 ERA, 119 SV), who signs for $5.28M over three years.
January 16 – The Titans trade infielder Todd Johnson (.239, 17 HR, 194 RBI) to the Aces for MR Jeremy Wallis (11-7, 3.77 ERA, 1 SV) and a prospect.
January 17 – The Indians sign ex-POR 3B/SS Bob Zeltser (.299, 80 HR, 484 RBI) to a 1-year deal worth $1.34M.
January 23 – LVA OF Justin Simmons (.269, 16 HR, 159 RBI) is traded to the Knights, who part with SP Drew Johnson (34-37, 4.60 ERA) in the deal.

+++

Not gonna be snippy or anything, but Zeltser could have gotten a better deal here…

Moore was added as much for his pitching (those walks, though…) as his talent to keep a clubhouse in order. We had multiple issues with that in the last few years, and there’s still the odd mindless jerk around (Darren Brown f.e.) that needs slapping on the paws. And I prefer if the players self-police, because if I had to do it I would have to get out of this chair, go through Maud’s room to the hallway, down the left side, through the door, down the staircase, though the other corridor with the toilets, down another staircase right to the bottom, up the right corridor, all the way around the black pit where we keep the failed first round picks, and then down another set of stairs until I am finally at the red door to the clubhouse, and then I have to –

Then I’d have to talk to them. Nah. I’d rather not.

Vance Harbison was returned to the Caps with the Moore signing to make room on the 40-man roster, which was completely full.

Ex-Critters update: Billy Jennings to the Falcons for $310k; the Rebels took on Jarod Howden, the dumb pig, for $322k; Craig Hollenbeck is on the Scorpions for $384k; Fernando Garcia landed with the Thunder for $392k; 41-year-old Mark Roberts hooked up with the Blue Sox for $840k; the Condors found room and $416k for Elias Matias Tovias Diaz;

+++

2036 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The Hall of Fame inducted two new members from the current ballot, both making it into the Hall on their first year on the ballot, while Gil Rockwell remains on the outside looking in with only one more year to go for him.

Missouri-born, Andrew Showalter wore five different uniforms in his career, but always stayed close to Nashville, where he also spent the first seven of his 19 years in the majors. An 8-time All Star and 6-time Platinum Stick winner, he never got onto a championship-winning team, but led the Federal League in hits twice and consistently batted for more than an .825 OPS. The shortstop was adept at legging out extra base hits, logging as many as 70 of them in 2020, and also leading the league in triples once. For his career, he posted an exceptional .311 average, but never won a batting title. His .832 career OPS and 284 homers and 1,371 RBI sure didn’t hurt getting him into the Hall of Fame as a Blue Sock.

A catcher in the ABL for 18 years, Ruben Luna spent 15 of them with the Knights. Predominantly known for his bat, he took out seven Platinum Sticks and won the CL Player of the Year award three times (2020, 2023, 2024), but also took home two Gold Gloves in due time. He led the league in slugging once and OPS twice, and also won two home run titles in 2024 and 2025. Unfortunately, he never won a World Series ring. For his career, the Dominican left-handed batter hit .257/.363/.426 with 274 homers and a 1,117 RBI.

NAS SS Andrew Showalter – 1st – 89.4 – INDUCTED
ATL C Ruben Luna – 1st – 83.8 – INDUCTED
ATL LF Gil Rockwell – 9th – 60.0
??? SP Chris Klein – 2nd – 51.5
LAP C Errol Spears – 4th – 35.3
CIN 3B Eddie Moreno – 1st – 30.2
SFW SS Jamie Wilson – 1st – 24.7
??? CL Jarrod Morrison – 4th – 20.9
??? SP Ernest Green – 3rd – 15.7
??? SP Ian Van Meter – 4th – 12.3
NAS C Pat Walston – 5th – 10.6
??? SP Bob King – 10th – 8.5 – DROPPED
??? CL Ben Marx – 2nd – 7.7
OCT 2B Emilio Farias – 3rd – 5.5
ATL SS Devin Hibbard – 3rd – 5.5
PIT SP Pedro Hernandez – 3rd – 4.3 – DROPPED
??? CL Harry Merwin – 1st – 1.7 – DROPPED
SAC 1B Luis Moreira – 1st – 1.3 – DROPPED
SAC SP Brian Simmons – 2nd – 0.9 – DROPPED

Westheim · 05-01-2020, 01:35 PM

There had been some … “miscalculation” when compiling the roster for the 2036 season. See, we decked in on relievers on the free agent market, and by the way didn’t do a single trade the entire offseason. That wasn’t necessarily *the plan*, but the Raccoons had entered with money and there had been players available that fit the needs.

The plan however had always been to trade away Dusty Kulp as soon as the other relievers had signed. Kulp had been so-so on the field, and rather vocal about his unhappiness during the dire part of 2035. I don’t forget easily, sometimes, and so there was still a grudge trade to be made. There was only one problem – nobody wanted Dusty Kulp. I should qualify that. Nobody wanted Dusty Kulp without sending back an overweight 35-year-old centerfielder with bad table manners and a $6M millstone to be tied around my neck. And while that sounded exactly like the type of deal the Raccoons would engorge in, … it didn’t happen. That meant we arrived at a point where we had 14 quality pitchers vying for 12 spots, and if you take out the four starters that were pencilled in for sure, that became 10 pitchers squabbling over eight positions. And I mean it.

(opens door to the clubhouse, revealing two handful of Raccoons all in a pile trying to do harm to somebody else; there were Darren Brown and Josh Livingston trying to gouge each other’s eyes out; there was Prieto biting lustfully into David Fernandez’ tail; there was Kulp, sitting on John Hennessy’s face; and there was Chris Wise, dragging Yeom Soung around by an ear; and for some reason, there was Matt Nunley having a BBQ indoors in the background)

All is well.

+++

February 11 – The Aces acquire 26-yr old SP Bill Quintero (37-45, 4.12 ERA) from the Cyclones, parting with 25-yr old INF Bob Cruz (286, 3 HR, 34 RBI) and a prospect.
March 2 – Ex-BOS SP Robby Gonzalez (89-144, 4.33 ERA, 2 SV) signs a 2-yr, $2.48M contract with the Stars.
March 13 – Former Falcons corner outfielder Dave Trahan (.252, 46 HR, 248 RBI) hooks up with the Bayhawks on a 2-yr, $2.36M contract.
March 20 – Ex-NYC SP Joe Martin (93-98, 3.78 ERA) joins the Miners for 3-yr, $4.44M.

+++

Nope never made a trade all winter. Same for the Loggers, Miners, and Pacifics.

There really isn’t much more to go through leading up to Opening Day. Except for more ex-Coons signing small deals for pennies long after the snow had melted.

Toby Ross signed for $770k with the Warriors; Jared Stone got a 3-yr deal worth $1.37M from the Stars; Juan Camps signed with the Indians for a $328k deal; the Wolves added Pat Okrasinski for two years and $1.1M; Sacramento picked up George James for all of $336k; Rin Nomura took the 2-yr, $884k offer of the Crusaders;

Nobody signed a deal worth more than $16M the entire offseason. Maybe teams need to raise beer prices again. We’re selling the six-ounce cup for $35, no wonder we don’t make a profit anymore…

Westheim · 05-01-2020, 07:15 PM

2036 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2035 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Gilberto Rendon, 31, B:R, T:R (15-7, 3.08 ERA | 97-80, 3.83 ERA, 14 SV) – went from highly-paid Opening Day starter right to the new Rico Gutierrez, including a bump to the back end of the rotation, then had a splendid 2035 and bounced right back up in the pecking order.
SP Colt Willes, 29, B:R, T:R (12-10, 3.46 ERA | 52-49, 3.51 ERA) – really steady guy and a big gain for any rotation especially if partnered with a tight defense on the infield, and we can offer that. There is a lot of talent here, and it would be nice to see him win more than 12 games at some point…
SP Bernie Chavez, 27, B:R, T:R (10-11, 4.57 ERA | 46-33, 3.74 ERA) – came off his best career year (3rd in ERA in CL in 2034) by falling apart more or less entirely, despite getting more K/9. His entire 2035 season was a mystery, although we opine that a .352 BABIP behind him at a paw in how things turned out. Not selling him for a bag o’ baseballs yet. 94mph, curve, slider, and the tendency to hang something from time to time with a worst of 24 homers allowed in the 2035 season.
SP Raffaello Sabre, 27, B:L, T:R (9-10, 3.74 ERA | 40-42, 3.83 ERA) – not much remains of the notion that Chavez, Sabre, and since-dumped Ignacio del Rio would lead the Raccoons back to the holy land of the World Series. Sabre was either hurt or crummy in ’35, and hasn’t awed anybody in a while…
SP Darren Brown, 26, B:R, T:R (5-2, 2.71 ERA | 8-7, 3.48 ERA) – injuries, walkfests, glimpsed of solid goodness, and a Game 7 meltdown that ended our season. Brown’s a mixed bag to put it mildly.

MR Dusty Kulp, 33, B:S, T:R (3-5, 4.03 ERA, 1 SV | 47-50, 4.05 ERA, 71 SV) – the one that couldn’t be traded after being vocally unhappy for much of ’35, considering himself the closer. His stats, roughly 3 BB/9, 7 K/9, 5 HR, think it makes us right in not letting him into the ninth inning on a regular basis.
MR Antonio Prieto, 25, B:R, T:R (2-2, 4.13 ERA | 5-7, 3.63 ERA) – struck out more than 10 batters per nine innings but was consistently betrayed by defense (.321 BABIP), so he could be a lot better with some more support.
MR David Fernandez, 29, B:L, T:L (4-2, 2.28 ERA, 4 SV | 19-13, 2.70 ERA, 7 SV) – for getting no love from scouts, Fernandez is a remarkably solid reliever that strikes out roughly a batter per inning and can handle both left- and right-handed batters well. The walks are a bit of a problem, but, eh, lefties, huh?
MR Mauricio Garavito, 34, B:L, T:L (4-3, 4.74 ERA, 3 SV | 24-25, 3.16 ERA, 12 SV) – left-hander with balanced splits that was claimed off waivers by the Bayhawks early in the 2029 season when Jeremy Moesker turned out to be a turd. Has it really been this long??
SU Casey Moore *, 34, B:R, T:R (4-7, 3.15 ERA, 3 SV | 35-43, 3.00 ERA, 129 SV) – long-time in-division rival Casey Moore comes over on a 1-year deal and will hopefully help with retiring the opposition in eighth innings with his splitter.
MR Yeom Soung *, 31, B:L, T:L (rookie) – an established star from Korea, “The Warden” is expected to deny evil teams access to our leads. His elite screwball should do the job.
CL Chris Wise, 29, B:R, T:R (3-3, 1.92 ERA, 3 SV | 22-21, 2.60 ERA, 120 SV) – Wise inherits the closer’s job for a second time following Ed Blair’s unexpected departure to greener pastures. His 2035 season was impressive, especially considering that .312 BABIP he pitched to. Maybe the cutter action will keep him from losing ten games this time as he did in ’34…

C Tony Morales, 21, B:L, T:R (.269, 6 HR, 38 RBI | .269, 6 HR, 38 RBI) – had a solid half-season debut in ’35, doing above-average work at the plate and behind the dish. We totally hope that he can expand on that. Chances are good, given that he doesn’t turn 22 until later in April. He will be in some sort of platoon with Kurt Wall, but both should get roughly equal playing time.
C Kurt Wall, 32, B:R, T:R (.313, 6 HR, 48 RBI | .292, 29 HR, 211 RBI) – was surely an improvement over the turned-stale Elliott Thompson after a deadline deal with the Miners in ‘34, and continued to be rock solid throughout the 2035 season. Whether he will forever reach base with a .346 BABIP is something else entirely...

1B Kevin Harenberg *, 38, B:L, T:L (.292, 16 HR, 62 RBI | .298, 277 HR, 1,287 RBI) – returns to Portland after being a part of the twice-winning teams from 2026 through 2030; the deal is solid, he can still move about at his advanced age, and this will totally not turn into another orgy of watching Chiyosaku Maruyama start six games a week in July.
2B/SS Tim Stalker, 37, B:R, T:R (.263, 7 HR, 57 RBI | .262, 117 HR, 777 RBI) – there is no denying it, Tim Stalker is getting long in the tooth; his defense slipped a bit in ’35, but at least he continued to hit steadily, and besides, what bad thing has ever come off a 37-year-old middle infielder? Will be in his 15th season with the Critters.
SS Alberto Ramos, 30, B:L, T:R (.283, 0 HR, 39 RBI | .310, 20 HR, 441 RBI) – Portland’s goodest boy hopes for another healthy season with less slumps. He missed only five games, the fifth time in six years that he largely held up and stayed on the field after his younger-year growing pains, but his bat has recently slipped a bit towards league-average. That still makes him valuable; with six stolen base titles, including those of the last two seasons, every Ramos walk or single as the potential to really be a double. His mark of 519 career stolen bases has him in third place in league history, and he has yet to play a game as a 30-year-old...!
3B/SS Dave Myers *, 30, B:R, T:R (.271, 5 HR, 52 RBI | .285, 39 HR, 354 RBI) – Bob Zeltser’s replacement joins as free agent and has a knack for getting on base, drawing about 70 walks per season, which is not something the Raccoons have had much of on the roster. Consistent above-average hitter virtually guaranteed to post a 110 OPS+; he’s landed within one point of that mark in four of his seven seasons, and six times was in the 109 to 119 band.
2B Rich Vickers, 26, B:R, T:R (.306, 2 HR, 19 RBI | .292, 7 HR, 56 RBI) – Vickers remains mostly redundant on the roster, but there’s nothing we can do about that right now…
3B/2B/SS/RF Justin Marsingill, 29, B:R, T:R (.291, 2 HR, 16 RBI | .271, 7 HR, 82 RBI) – versatile infielder and quirky bit player that’s been up and down from St. Pete a whole lot over the years. Hit for an .820 OPS in limited action a year ago, and for a .523 OPS two years ago. His truth is probably somewhere in between.

LF/RF Jimmy Wallace, 29, B:L, T:L (.281, 20 HR, 79 RBI | .284, 54 HR, 321 RBI) – slugged a career-high .444 and netted a 5-year deal even though his presence in leftfield becomes a bit harder to defend, but at least the deal was relatively cheap. Might be the most worthless player by WAR with a 5-year deal on the books in the majors; for his 6-year career he has a total of 5.5 WAR.
CF/LF/RF Justin Fowler, 33, B:R, T:R (.309, 26 HR, 113 RBI | .285, 240 HR, 895 RBI) – no regrets about last year’s big acquisition, who failed to make the lineup 40 times due to nagging injuries, but still managed to lead the CL in RBI and slugging (.533). No notes, Justin, keep being yourself!
RF/LF/CF Manny Fernandez, 26, B:L, T:L (.286, 12 HR, 75 RBI | .276, 25 HR, 184 RBI) – the #5 pick in the 2031 draft made his debut when Adrian Reichardt went to the DL early in the 2033 season and never went away again, amassing almost 400 plate appearances in his debut season and then playing close to a full slate last year. Can really play all outfield positions well and often moves to left in the late innings when Wallace gets purged for defense.
LF/RF/CF Ed Hooge, 26, B:L, T:L (.235, 2 HR, 12 RBI | .241, 5 HR, 45 RBI) – one of those perplexingly useless players that somehow wind up stealing a thousand at-bats over eight seasons before they somehow run out of options and grace at the same time.
RF/2B/3B/CF/LF Preston Pinkerton, 30, B:R, T:R (.296, 0 HR, 18 RBI | .267, 2 HR, 46 RBI) – see Hooge, except that he is also the designated emergency pitcher, with a frightening 26 appearances in four years and a 10.06 ERA in 34 innings – the majority of his pitching appearances were in 2032, when the Raccoons couldn’t buy an out if they still had had credit...

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP/MR Josh Livingston, 25, B:R, T:R (6-3, 2.68 ERA | 10-4, 3.01 ERA, 1 SV) – optioned to Alley Cats; in an unanticipated shock move (and one that wasn’t intended either), the Raccoons sent Livingston to AAA despite pitching to a 2.86 ERA mostly as a starter for the Coons after coming over in a trade with Oklahoma. Livingston as only two and a half pitches, and didn’t win a game after mid-August.
MR John Hennessy, 28, B:L, T:L (0-0, 8.10 ERA | 11-8, 3.31 ERA, 2 SV) – optioned to Alley Cats; had an injury-addled season and when he finally came back in September he was royally awful. Will use his last option after sliding to #4 on the lefty reliever depth chart.
CF/RF/3B/SS/LF/1B Jesus Maldonado, 22, B:R, T:R (.271, 0 HR, 6 RBI | .271, 0 HR, 6 RBI) – optioned to Alley Cats; potential future star that was called up on September and just wasn’t quite ready for prime time (though by no means awful). Projects to become an elite batter.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived or reassigned during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Six lefty bats, seven righty bats on the roster to begin the season, which isn’t all bad, considering that some players are just locks to the lineup anyway and aren’t going to be platooned under any circumstance.

Vs. RHP: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Harenberg – CF Fowler – LF Wallace – C Morales – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – P
(Vs. LHP: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Harenberg – CF Fowler – C Wall – LF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Pinkerton – P

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The winter without a trade still sees the Raccoons vigorously reinforced. They didn’t quite break the top 5 in terms of WAR gained, but that’s deceptive given that Soung comes from Korea and thus has no WAR value assigned to him. We consider him a major gain, though. Overall we ended up 6th with +5.2 WAR gained, almost all of it coming from the Myers and Harenberg signings. In departures, Bob Zeltser (1.6 WAR) was the only significant loss.

Top 5: Crusaders (+9.1), Indians (+9.1), Condors (+7.8), Scorpions (+6.9), Stars (+6.4)
Bottom 5: Wolves (-4.2), Canadiens (-4.7), Knights (-7.1), Rebels (-9.1), Thunder (-12.4)

PREDICTION TIME:

Last year I declared “better offense, more wins, and the playoffs” and that it was “our time”.

It definitely was our time, at least starting from August 4. The pre-August 4 Raccoons were dismal, a 46-62 team that couldn’t find their own arse in the dark without the aid of a flashlight. From August 4 forwards they won 38 of 54 games, rallied from last to first, and eeked out the worst CL North playoff-entering record in league history with 84 wins, just ahead of the damn Elks and Titans. The run differential even then hinted at a team that was much better than 84-78, though…

The team is improved in quite a few ways, and we have more reinforcements potentially waiting in AAA, f.e. Maldonado. Injuries can be relatively well compensated, and maybe someone will pick up a grounder that Bernie Chavez allowed for a change.

The Raccoons are supposed to repeat as division champs (which would be their first successful division crown defense in 17 years) and this time will got out the sucky part. 95 wins is possible!

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

No offseason trades also means no prospects lost to hostile teams, but of course we also didn’t take anybody on. The Raccoons are 11th in the farm ranking, same as 12 months ago. Back then we had 12 ranked prospects, of which only two were in the top 100 (but those were inside the top 30). This year we are down to ten ranked prospects, but of these six rank in the top 100.

Half of last year’s ranked prospects are no longer ranked, but only one of them is no longer in the organization; #160 prospect Sebastian Waddingham was sent to Oklahoma on July 10 in the del Rio for Livingston deal.

10th (-4) – AAA OF/3B/1B Jesus Maldonado, 22 – 2032 international free agent signed by Raccoons
21st (+7) – A SP Lazaro Cavazos, 21 – 2034 first-round pick by Raccoons
62nd (new) – AAA SP Gene Tennis, 22 – 2032 first-round pick by Warriors, acquired in trade from Capitals for Adam Avakian
65th (new) – AAA 1B/C Jeff Wilson, 23 – 2034 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
90th (new) – A OF/1B Ivan Cantu, 19 – 2034 international free agent signed by Raccoons

99th (+6) – AA INF Jon Caskey, 22 – 2034 first-round pick by Raccoons
143rd (-27) – AAA OF/2B Cory Cronk, 22 – 2032 third-round pick by Raccoons
145th (+36) – AA SS/2B Jose Agosto, 22 – 2030 international free agent signed by Raccoons
146th (new) – AAA SP Jared Ottinger, 23 – 2033 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
199th (-40) – AAA INF Vince Lutch, 25 – 2029 second-round pick by Wolves, claimed off waivers from Loggers

Five other ranked prospects from last season are no longer ranked: #144 Travis Sims, #148 Brad Forsch, #184 Angelo Montano, #186 Jose Lopez, #193 Lazaro Salazar

The top 5 overall prospects this year are:

#1 VAN ML CF/RF Jerry Outram (newly drafted)
#2 IND AAA SP Ricky Sanchez (was #5)
#3 DAL AA SP Orlando Leos (was #11)
#4 PIT ML INF Sergio Barcia (was #1 (also in 2033))
#5 MIL A OF/1B Dan Torri (newly drafted)

Two of last year’s top 5 - #3 LVA Mike Hall and #4 CHA Tony Aparicio – saw promotion to the majors and their rookie status expired. The Loggers’ #2 prospect Jared Paul slipped to #13 after getting stuck in single-A Henderson.

Next: first pitch.

DD Martin · 05-02-2020, 12:34 AM

Vegas says the Raccoons are a sure bet to win at least 93 games (line is 93.5). I’m going over to take the over and there will be no giving up on the season mid year.

Westheim · 05-02-2020, 05:29 PM

I don’t know, Nick, why *haven’t* we won a game yet? – Maybe because it’s only the second breakfast and the first game of the season won’t start for another couple of hours? Just sit down and drink like all of us. Or knit. Maud is knitting.

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Indians (0-0) – April 8-10, 2036

The Raccoons had won 11 games from the Indians in 2035, but notably none of two played on August 3, the nadir of a so far rancid season that suddenly turned into a fairytale, with the “once upon a time” being read merely 24 hours later.

Projected matchups:
Gilberto Rendon (0-0) vs. Andy Bressner (0-0)
Colt Willes (0-0) vs. Josh Walsh (0-0)
Bernie Chavez (0-0) vs. John Nelson (0-0)

Not a southpaw to be seen in this series!

Game 1
IND: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 1B McGrath – SS Zeltser – C J. Herrera – 3B Czachor – P Bressner
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Harenberg – CF Fowler – LF Wallace – C Morales – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – P Rendon

The season began with Rendon branding 41-year-old Pablo Sanchez with a 1-2 pitch, which was certainly not a sign of respect towards the elderly. On the following grounders the Raccoons twice failed to turn two, and John Baron stole second base after the second fielder’s choice, which allowed him to score on Josh Garbinski’s single, putting the Arrowheads up 1-0. The Raccoons promptly didn’t get a base hit until Rendon singled with two outs in the third, instantly intensifying Nick Valdes’ grumpiness. – Well, I don’t know, Nick, maybe you should try grabbing a bat and taking a swing at Andy Bressner! – Where are you going? – Nick! – Nick! – … – Maud! Maud, tell the equipment guy in the clubhouse that Nick Valdes is going to try and wrestle a bat from- … – What do you mean, Maud, you ‘tackled Nick Valdes’??

The Indians had the bases loaded with two outs in the fifth inning after Bressner had forced out Juan Herrera with a bad bunt, Sanchez had drawn a 2-out walk, and Dan Schneller had singled through Dave Myers. John Baron hit a 1-0 pitch to the left side. Ramos had to lunge and knocked it down deep on the dirt, but had no play, and it was 2-0 on the infield single. Josh Garbinski grounded out afterwards, but it was now about time for some offense. Did you hear that, boys!? (bangs fist against the window front) It’s time for some offense!!

Manny Fernandez was the first position player to actually reach base in 2036, hitting a single in the bottom 5th that led absolutely nowhere. The bottom 6th began with Rendon being hit for after throwing over 90 pitches, many of them inefficient. Ed Hooge flew out to left in his spot, but then the bases filled via walks; Berto reached, and so did Myers and Fowler with two outs. Jimmy Wallace had the bags full and a chance to do damage. His zinger to the right side eluded Schneller for a base hit. Berto scored, Myers got a great jump and scored, and Fowler went to third by the time Sanchez collected the leather sphere. Tied ballgame – and then Tony Morales grounded out. Casey Moore then made his Raccoons debut, and could not have gone much more pear-shaped. Bressner lined out hard to Fernandez to begin the inning, and before long he had walked Sanchez and gave up a 2-run BOMB to John Baron. Two singles off Mauricio Garavito and two 2-out walks issued by Dusty Kulp pushed in another run in the eighth, with Juan Camps drawing the bases-loaded walk to push home an insurance run. Schneller popped out to strand three, but the Raccoons were adrift and nothing could save them. 5-2 Indians.

Yeom Soung made his Raccoons debut in the ninth, getting two pops for the final two outs the Indians made in this game.

Game 2
IND: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 1B McGrath – SS Zeltser – C J. Herrera – 3B Lambright – P J. Walsh
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Harenberg – CF Fowler – LF Wallace – C Morales – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – P Willes

Myers and Harenberg went to the corners with base hits in the bottom 1st, but Justin Fowler remained 113 behind his 2035 RBI total with a 6-4-3 grounder. Myers would reach base again in the fourth, leading off via catcher’s interference, which was a novel way of maybe please finally getting something going? Harenberg singled to right, Fowler grounded to left, and Kevin Harenberg broke up the double play in a very rustic manner against Dan Schneller, but unfortunately suffered the worst of it and had to be picked up by an eye-rolling Dr. Chung, who had to support Harenberg as they walked off the field. Here, the Raccoons tried a novel approach – Jimmy Wallace moved to first base, Fernandez to left, and Preston Pinkerton would enter the game in rightfield. The momentary shock about losing the assumed #3 batter to injury notwithstanding, the Raccoons still had runners on the corners and their only guy with an RBI on the season at the plate with one out. Wallace lined out to Schneller, Morales popped out, and nobody scored.

Bottom 5th, still scoreless, Manny led off with a single, then was joined on base by Tim Stalker, who drew four balls. Willes bunted them over into scoring position after popping balls foul twice. Berto was hitless on the season, but the Indians went for the proven double play approach and walked him intentionally to get Dave Myers up, who was however unretired in the game. When Myers popped out foul instead, that brought up proven slugger Kevin Haren- oh for ****’s sake. First at-bat of the season for Preston Pinkerton. But what the **** do I know? Pinkerton zinged the first pitch he saw over the head of Bob Zeltser, who looked familiar for some reason, two runs scored on the single, Pinkerton moved up to second on the throw to home plate that was nowhere near in time to get Stalker, Fowler was walked intentionally, and then Wallace popped out on a 3-1 pitch, leading me to spontaneously break a glass of Capt’n Coma in my paw.

The Raccoons would hold on to that 2-0 lead through eight, with Willes throwing just 79 pitches to get there, whiffing four. The problem was that they never tacked on to that lead, finally stranding Morales and Fernandez on base in the bottom 8th when Kurt Wall pinch-hit for Tim Stalker, but flew out to end the inning. That didn’t force a pinch-hitter into the #9 spot, but the Indians would bring the 2-3-4 batters to the plate in the ninth, and could Willes continue to fool them? There was an argument to be made about 79 pitches through eight being indicative of total control. You go, Colt! You go! Schneller opened with a single on a 1-2 pitch, but we wouldn’t make move with Baron, who was an easy strikeout, but could homer off anybody. He ran the count to 2-2, then grounded to Rich Vickers at the keystone. Vickers’ first chance of ’36 was a 4-6-3 double play, pushing the tying run back to the on-deck circle with left-handed Garbinski coming up. Willes remained in the game of course, Garbinski grounded to the right side, Vickers remained in control of that ball, too, and the Coons got into the W column on a complete-game 4-hit shutout! 2-0 Critters! Harenberg 2-2; Pinkerton 1-2, 2 RBI; Morales 3-4; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B; Willes 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Alright, we’re in the win column! Now let’s get the offense going. Listen up, boys! If you can knock out Nelson before the sixth in the rubber game, we’re all going to that all-you-can-eat place in Rosewood!

(Berto, Fowler, and the rest immediately scramble to watch video of John Nelson)

Game 3
IND: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 1B McGrath – SS Zeltser – C J. Herrera – 3B Czachor – P J. Nelson
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Wallace – CF Fowler – RF M. Fernandez – C Wall – 2B Vickers – LF Hooge – P Chavez

The all-you-can-eat place in Rosewood was probably safe from bankruptcy given that Bernie Chavez was the only Raccoon to reach base safely the first time through the order, and then was double-played into oblivion by Berto’s grounder to Schneller. It was another scoreless game through three at least, but Dan Schneller hit a leadoff jack in the fourth, and that was that… Bernie Chavez reacted like any good pitcher would, by walking Baron, throwing a wild pitch, and walking Garbinski anyway. Somehow a combo of a strikeout, popout, and groundout kept the Indians from adding to their 1-0 lead.

No other Raccoon got on until Kurt Wall doubled in the bottom 5th, representing the tying run in scoring position with one out. He scored when Bob Zeltser threw away Vickers’ 1-2 grounder in such way that it caromed off the ducking first base umpire’s back and took out a food tray held by an eight-year old in the first row of the stands on the first base side. The kid immediately burst into tears with his $28 fries on the ground (and with Preston Pinkerton and Raffaello Sabre trying to reach some through the fencing separating stands and dugout), but the tying run was in! That was also all the Critters got despite a 2-out single by Chavez, who now had 67% of the team’s hits in the game, with Berto remaining hitless with a grounder to Schneller that stranded runners on the corners.

99 pitches got Bernie Chavez through seven, after which he left with a no-decision as the Raccoons’ offense remained patently crummy. David Fernandez and Casey Moore pieced the eighth together around a Sanchez single off the former, but all the Coons got in the bottom 8th was a Myers walk with two gone already. Chris Wise made his first appearance of the year in a 1-1 tie in the top of the ninth, allowed a leadoff single to Garbinski, but retired the next three, including two strikeouts. The walkoff chance was real against Nelson, who was STILL in the game on a 4-hitter, and would face the 4-5-6 batters in the bottom 9th, so first up was Fowler, who like Berto was absolutely hitless in 2036. He remained as such, flying out to left. Manny singled up the middle, knocking out Nelson (no boys, too late!) in favor of Tim Thweatt. Fernandez was caught stealing, Wall reached on a Ryan Czachor error, and Vickers struck out, sending the game to extras where the top 10th saw Dusty Kulp park them on the corners, then having Manny Fernandez make a flying catch in the gap to retire John Baron to end the inning… Berto walked in the bottom 10th, but was picked off, after which the Coons sent Prieto into the game. Antonio Prieto was the last non-SP player to see action in ’36 and he was scheduled to pitch a few innings unless some team would finally break the oppressive silence. Prieto had to do two rounds before Chris Henry’s second inning of work in the bottom 12th saw a walk to Kurt Wall, then an actual mistake to Rich Vickers that was hit well and far and later measured at 400 feet to left-center – it also ended the game. 3-1 Coons. Vickers 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Chavez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K and 2-2; Prieto 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

No, boys, the all-you-can-eat place has closed already. You took too long to win! Score more runs earlier next time!

Nick Valdes expressed concern about the Coons scoring only seven runs in 30 innings so far, and did it in the worst way, conversing with Steve from Accounting how to best get a substantial write-off on the Raccoons for his personal income tax statement.

He also had to leave after this series. Something about having to make a girl disappear that knew too much, which he freely told Slappy and me, but neither of us were listening after that walk Wall drew in the 12th…

By Thursday, the Kevin Harenberg thing dissipated into a pile of ash more or less precisely amounting to $2.4M when Dr. Chung reported that Harenberg had hopelessly ****ed up his shoulder in the on-base collision and was out for the season, which of course rendered his vesting option worthless. He was off to the 60-day DL, I was mildly comatose for most of Friday, and the Raccoons did the unspeakable and called up Chiyosaku Maruyama, who had batted a dismal .247/.324/.340 in 30 games with Portland in ’35.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Knights (3-1) – April 11-13, 2036

The Knights had won a series with the Thunder and were currently leading the CL South, not that that meant anything – the Loggers were leading the North with a 1-0 record, owing to a win over the Crusaders and a rainout in their only two games scheduled so far. Atlanta had scored 23 runs in four games, which seemed impossibly much to us. They had also hit SIX homers already. The Raccoons barely had six RUNS. Last year we had lost seven of nine games against them.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (0-0) vs. Terry Garrigan (0-0)
Darren Brown (0-0) vs. Roland Warner (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Armando Zaragoza (1-0, 2.25 ERA)

Warner was the first southpaw we’d see this year. But first we’d deal with 25-year-old fourth-year swingman Terry Garrigan, who had 76 appearances in the majors, but only seven of them starts. His career ERA was 4.20.

Game 1
ATL: CF J. Simmons – LF Inoa – RF Pincus – 1B K. Henderson – 3B Maneke – SS Thomson – C Horner – 2B Ryu – P Garrigan
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Morales – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Sabre

Hiroaki Ryu drove in the game’s first run with a 2-out RBI single in the second inning after Sabre had allowed a single to Chris Maneke and walked Adam Horner. Garrigan popped out, keeping two on, but here the long wait for offense began again. Berto had opened the bottom 1st with a walk before he’d been doubled up by Myers, and Fowler grounded out to open the bottom 2nd, putting him and Ramos at a combined 0-for-23 to begin the season.

Terry Garrigan wouldn’t get the win, but not for an offensive outburst by the Portlanders. Biceps tendinitis culled him after three innings, leaving the Knights’ pen to fight for the W. Before they could blow much, a rain shower doused the ballpark and gave everybody a 40-minute timeout. Sabre returned on the other side of it and held off the Knights in the top 4th. In the bottom of the inning, Alfredo Flores walked Myers with one out, then allowed a 2-out single to Fowler(!) – it lives! It lives! Rejoice! Tony Morales then tied the game with a single to right before Fernandez grounded out to Ryu and stranded two. The top 5th began with Horner being nailed by Sabre before Ryu snuck a ball up the middle for a single. PH Manny Delgado flew to left, where Jimmy Wallace made a tumbling catch, then remained on the ground, dazed. Dr. Chung had to collect him as well, and I started to get water in my eyeballs… Ed Hooge replaced him in this game. Justin Simmons’ comebacker was taken for an out at second base by Sabre, but the Coons got only the one out and runners were on the corners with two outs for Luis Inoa, who hit a slow grounder to right, testing the paws of Tim Stalker – but at 37 years old he was still a better defender than the Jimmy Wallaces of the world would ever be – he hustled in, grabbed the ball and flung it in one fluid motion to Maruyama, who was a ****ty hitter, but could at least stretch in sufficient fashion and contained the ball for the third out of the inning.

Portland scratched out a 2-1 lead in the bottom 5th on Stalker’s leadoff double and a Sabre single. They could have gotten more, but Sabre inexplicably got run down between first and second despite the first base coach repeatedly yelling for him to stop at first. Berto drew a walk, stole second, and was left stranded. At least that was the team’s first stolen base of the year ticked off. The lead wasn’t meant to last. Top 6th, Edwin Rendon walked, then Kumanosuke Henderson reached on a Myers error, two on, nobody out. Chris Maneke popped out, Keith Thomson grounded out, but the runners advanced, then then Horner drove them both in with a single, flipping the score. Atlanta then tacked on a run against the confused pairing of Moore and Garavito in the seventh, who allowed two walks and a Henderson RBI single between them.

While the Raccoons had a runner on base in the seventh and eighth innings, they didn’t reach scoring position again until the ninth when Tony Morales led off with a double against Marcus Goode, bringing the tying run to the plate with three chances to make up a 4-2 deficit. Fernandez grounded out. Stalker whiffed. Kurt Wall batted for Maruyama and … whiffed. 4-2 Knights. Morales 2-4, 2B, RBI; Soung 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Dr. Chung told me the most fascinating thing on Friday night – that Jimmy Wallace and Kevin Harenberg had almost identical shoulder injuries, the most amazing coincidence he had seen in his career, well, except for that one time he treated several soldiers with shrapnel injuries from friendly fire during an army exercise north of Pyongyang. Since Wallace was younger, he was expected to recover sooner and maybe we would get him back as early as August!

I sat there, numb, and couldn’t even cry.

Since things had to be managed by somebody, Cristiano Carmona arranged for Wallace and his partially torn labrum to be transferred to the DL. The Raccoons called up scabby super utility Vince Lutch from AAA, but were trying to get another deal secured.

Game 2
ATL: CF J. Simmons – LF Inoa – RF Pincus – 1B K. Henderson – 3B Maneke – SS Thomson – C Horner – 2B Ryu – P R. Warner
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – C Wall – CF Fowler – 2B Stalker – LF Hooge – 1B Maruyama – RF Pinkerton – P Brown

There were a total of seven base hits in the Coons’ Saturday lineup, and while Wall and Fowler added two more in the bottom 1st, nobody scored after the pair of 2-out singles. Wall hit another 2-out single in the third inning, then with Dave Myers on base, but Fouler fowled out behind home plate and that was that… The Knights didn’t touch Brown for a hit until the fourth and then wrapped Justin Simmons up in a Luis Inoa-sponsored double play, and so we had our third game of the season that was scoreless after three innings.

While Darren Brown pitched six and two thirds scoreless to give his team every chance they deserved, he never got a run of support, and in fact no Critter reached base in the middle innings, not even by mercifully being nailed in the noggin’. Brown’s end came after a valiant fight with a 2-out walk to Chris Maneke and the single Keith Thomson hit up the middle, which was only the second hit off Brown in the game. With left-handed Adam Horner up, the Coons sent David Fernandez, who walked Horner, saw Ryu break the tie by legging out an infield roller against Dave Myers, and then gave up a clean single for two runs against PH Brian Eppler. Portland randomly picked up a run after Tim Stalker’s leadoff triple in the bottom 7th, with Ed Hooge nipping that rare RBI with a groundout before the inning devolved into more of nothing. Top 8th, Dusty Kulp faced three and retired one, and Mauricio Garavito was no help whatsoever, walking PH Jimmy Wood to fill the bases and giving up a sac fly to Thomson, 4-1. Come the bottom 9th, Alfredo Flores faced the 4-5-6 batters. Fowler led off with a single to left (.167, yay!) and Tim Stalker creamed the living **** out of a baseball for a 2-run homer that unfortunately still left the team one run short. Hooge flew out to left. Morales batted for Maruyama and grounded out. Manny Fernandez batted for Pinkerton and singled up the middle! … Unfortunately once more, the bench was about empty by now. Hitting for Antonio Prieto would be … Vince Lutch. He ran a full count before poking at a low offering and grounding out to short. 4-3 Knights. Wall 2-4; Fowler 2-4; Stalker 2-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; M. Fernandez (PH) 1-1;

Is that it? Was that all there was to our season? Is it over? Is it gonna be 157 more games like THIS?

Maud?

Maud, help??

In other news

In an early sign of trouble, the Raccoons were awarded the contract of 26-yr old left-handed hitter OF Jason Keller off waivers by the Warriors on Sunday. The 2028 third-rounder had some bench-riding experience in the majors. He could play all three outfield positions reasonably well and wasn’t swinging at garbage. Unfortunately, he had no power and only modest speed, but at least he made the minimum. Keller was 1-for-2 on the season with 2 RBI, somehow. For his career, he was a .260 batter with no homers in 123 at-bats and 14 RBI.

Vince Lutch was returned to AAA with the addition of Keller.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Knights (3-1) – April 11-13, 2036

Game 3
ATL: CF J. Simmons – LF Inoa – RF Pincus – 1B K. Henderson – 3B Maneke – SS Thomson – C Horner – 2B Ryu – P Zaragoza
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – C Morales – CF Fowler – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 3B Marsingill – 1B Maruyama – P Rendon

Luis Inoa’s slam was the first scoring in the game, occurring in the third inning after a soft Horner single, a screaming Ryu double, a must-get K against the picher, and then a clumsy walk facing Simmons. Rendon’s fastball was then hit 390 feet by the leftfielder, and the Raccoons were guaranteed dead for the day, given that they had yet to score more than three runs in a game this year. Rendon then fell to 3-0 against Roy Pincus before giving up a bomb to deep center, 5-0, before finishing the inning and depressingly hitting a leadoff single to right in the bottom 3rd, the first base knock for Portland on Sunday. Berto then grounded to second face for a fielder’s choice, dropping to 0-for-18 (with five walks) on the season. He then stole second base and scored when Manny Fernandez went yard to right, cutting the dismal score to 5-2.

On to the bottom 5th, where Fernandez opened with a double and advanced on a balk before he had to watch Morales and Fowler strike out in neat unison. Miraculously, Ed Hooge singled through the left side to score him with two outs, and the Raccoons found two more 2-out hits from Vickers and Marsingill to score Hooge as well, but with the tying run 90 feet away in Vickers, Maruyama popped out to end the inning and leave the team down 5-4. Rendon didn’t see his deficit erased despite holding on admirably outside of the third-inning carnage; he pitched into the sixth, getting a grounder from Kumanosuke Henderson before David Fernandez replaced him to retire the two left-handers after that. The exchange happened in a double switch that entered Dave Myers in the #9 hole and removing Maruyama from the game. Myers led off the bottom 6th, but grounded out before Berto legged out an infield roller for his first damn base hit of the season…! Zaragoza threw a wild pitch to advance him, then walked Manny Fernandez. Tony Morales, next to Fernandez the only Raccoon with a good batting average (both trying to hug .400), hit a screamer over the head of Henderson at 1-1. The ball went up the line for extra bases, Berto scored to tie the game, and the go-ahead runs were in scoring position for Fowler, who had STILL zero RBI on the season. The Knights had no interest in enabling him and put him onto the open base with intent, preferring to go after career slouch Ed Hooge, who grounded to right on 2-1, but the Knights only got Fowler at second and the return throw was not in time – Fernandez scored with the go-ahead run, 6-5…! Vickers grounded out.

David Fernandez and Kulp held on the in the seventh, which in clearer terms meant that Fernandez retired a pair before Kulp walked PH Luis Leija before having Myers make a hero’s play on a Simmons shot right at his striped face. Jason Keller pinch-hit and grounded out in an uneventful bottom 7th, then stayed in rightfield with Yeom Soung assuming pitching duties in the #5 hole deserted by Hooge. Inoa singled off him to begin the eighth, but after Pincus popped out, Henderson hit into a 6-4-3 double play. When no insurance run materialized it was on Chris Wise to removed the 5-6-7 batters in the ninth inning. Wood grounded out. Thomson whiffed. And Horner looked at a 1-2 slider that ticked the corner to get punched out. 6-5 Critters. M. Fernandez 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

April 8 – WAS SP Michael Frank (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 2-hits the Rebels in a 7-0 shutout. Frank, 32, strikes out nine for a stellar start to the season.
April 9 – While the Stars romp the Pacifics, 11-2 (for the second game in a row!), despite being out-hit 11-9, DAL LF Abel Madsen (.417, 1 HR, 7 RBI) drives in five runs on two hits, including a 3-run homer.
April 10 – All three Continental League games end in walkoff homers. In addition to POR 2B Rich Vickers going yard for a 12-inning, 3-1 win over the Indians, the Bayhawks are lifted, 7-6 over the Condors, by 1B/C Danny Monge (.600, 1 HR, 2 RBI), and the Knights walk off, 7-4, on the Thunder thanks to 1B Kumanosuke Henderson (.385, 1 HR, 5 RBI).
April 12 – CIN OF Ken Gibbs (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI) will be out for a month with an oblique strain.
April 13 – CIN OF/1B Dick Oshiita (.348, 1 HR, 4 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak stretching back to 2035 after landing one hit in a 6-5 loss to the Warriors.

Complaints and stuff

(sits calmly at his desk with his hair and the drapes on fire) Well. That went well! With Kevin Harenberg out for the season after one-and-a-half games, the Raccoons have to dig deep into the bag of dirty tricks to find a workaround. Jimmy Wallace at first quickly disappeared off the list, and Maruyama definitely isn’t it. Jeff Wilson isn’t ready for primetime. The fourth option would be Jesus Maldonado, who is a competent first baseman, but ALSO isn’t ready for primetime.

No, by the way to – (pauses as Maud empties another bucket of water over his unextinguishable head) … pfft! No to just trading for a good guy. The coffers are empty. We paid all we had to Harenberg, banking on 20 homers and 100 RBI from a 38-year-old, and Jimmy Wallace, calculating that at least he wasn’t getting hurt since he didn’t make any play to begin with…

And so the Raccoons put in a waiver claim on a no-good outfielder in the first week of the season. A truly useless sucker, but at least he made the minimum, and that was still too much for him. – Oh, hi, Jason. Welcome to Portland.

Justin Fowler has no RBI. Alberto Ramos has no base hit that reached as far as the infield dirt. Only one starter logged a win. Dusty Kulp has five walks in 2.1 innings.

Colt Willes had his fifth career shutout on Wednesday, and his second with the Coons. Last year he shut out the Crusaders in July, which was his only complete game of the season.

Fun Fact: Tim Stalker has an extra-base hit of every kind, but no singles.

That is the only stat I can think of that doesn’t make me fumble in the wall sockets with Maud’s knitting needles.

Archelirion · 05-02-2020, 06:23 PM

Quote:

By Thursday, the Kevin Harenberg thing dissipated into a pile of ash more or less precisely amounting to $2.4M when Dr. Chung reported that Harenberg had hopelessly ****ed up his shoulder in the on-base collision and was out for the season, which of course rendered his vesting option worthless. He was off to the 60-day DL, I was mildly comatose for most of Friday, and the Raccoons did the unspeakable and called up Chiyosaku Maruyama, who had batted a dismal .247/.324/.340 in 30 games with Portland in ’35.

It's a rough gig being a Raccoons fan

I'd rather hoped he'd at least see July...

Westheim · 05-03-2020, 04:32 PM

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Falcons (3-3) – April 14-16, 2036

The Raccoons had made it a habit of losing the season series against Charlotte, 4-5, which had occurred in six of the last eight seasons, including in 2035. In ’36 they were batting a pathetic .214 early on and hadn’t scored three runs per game, but on the other hand also weren’t allowing four runs per game. Given the ravaged status of the Raccoons’ offense with nothing else but waiver claims and rookies to burn as hole fillers, this series could quickly devolve into another set of snoozefests.

Projected matchups:
Colt Willes (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Matt Moon (0-0, 4.50 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (0-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Mike Barnett (1-0, 1.13 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (0-1, 1.50 ERA) vs. Joe Feltman (0-1, 2.25 ERA)

All right-handers in this series!

Game 1
CHA: SS O. Aguirre – CF Jon. Reyna – C Huichapa – 1B Zitzner – RF J. Aguilar – 2B J. Johnson – 3B Depp – LF L. Herrera – P Moon
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – CF M. Fernandez – C Wall – LF Hooge – 2B Stalker – RF Keller – 1B Maruyama – P Willes

While I still wondered what the **** had happened to make Ed Hooge bat fifth in the second week of the season, Jerry Aguilar and John Johnson hit back-to-back doubles to left and left-center off Willes to put the Falcons up 1-0. Ed Hooge then led off the bottom 2nd with a game-tying homer, so maybe that was the answer…? Tim Stalker then doubled and threatened to be left stranded by the dismal bottom of the order, but Colt Willes singled to left with two outs to give himself the lead before Berto dropped to 1-for-23 to end the inning. Oh well, he had been through ****ty Aprils before and then won the batting title. Totally unconcerned! Totally! (struggles to unscrew the next bottle of Capt’n Coma)

A leadoff walk to Dave Myers had him going on contact with Manny Fernandez batting in the bottom 3rd. The ball found the gap for extra bases and Myers scored easily to extend the lead to 3-1, but Fernandez was left in scoring position and the Falcons lobbed three singles off Willes in the fourth to score a run, with the actual RBI going to Matt Moon for his 2-out single that plated Johnson, so at least the hurlers were even, although thanks to Oscar Aguirre’s groundout the Raccoons remained up 3-2… well, at least until Jonathan Reyna’s leadoff jack in the fifth… That one tied the game. Aguilar doubled, Johnson singled with two outs to make it 4-3 Falcons.

Willes saw Berto and Fernandez reach the corners in the bottom 5th, but Kurt Wall hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3, and that was the last chance they got to take Willes off the hook while he was in he game. Johnson, a true pest, knocked him out with a 2-out double in the seventh. Mauricio Garavito secure a groundout from PH Ivan Pena to strand the insurance run, then was immediately pinch-hit for in the bottom 7th. Preston Pinkerton grounded out in his stead, and the Raccoons didn’t get on base until Dave Myers doubled with two outs. Manny Fernandez was the one hot bat in the lineup and upped his average to .440 with a resounding homer to left, his second of the season, and a score-flipper to boot!

Casey Moore then continued to sabotage the team every chance he got. After an initial pop out by Lorenzo Herrera, he did not retire another batter, allowing a single to PH Brian Hubbard, walking Oscar Aguirre, and then sucking up two runs on a wild pitch and a Reyna single. Ernesto Huichapa also singled, prompting a move to Prieto, who rung up Zitzner (batting .069!) before Aguilar flew out. Was there another comeback in the team? Surely not in the eighth, and the ninth pitted them against lefty Juan Vela, and the situation with Chiyosaku Maruyama had already deteriorated so badly in just 12 at-bats this season (netting him a .167 OPS) that the Raccoons hit for him even with the platoon advantage. Rich Vickers grounded out instead. Fowler hit for Prieto in the #9 hole and walked, and Vela then lost Berto in a full count, so the tying and winning runs were on base for Dave Myers, batting all of .190, but reaching base at almost twice that rate. Unfortunately, he poked, grounded a ball to Aguirre, and the Falcons turned two. 6-5 Falcons. M. Fernandez 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Hooge 2-4, HR, RBI; Prieto 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
CHA: SS O. Aguirre – CF Jon. Reyna – 3B I. Pena – C Huichapa – 1B Zitzner – RF J. Aguilar – 2B J. Johnson – LF Jennings – P Barnett
POR: 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – C Morales – CF Fowler – 2B Vickers – LF Hooge – SS Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Chavez

Not that we were the only ones knowing that Chiyosaku Maruyama was full o’ **** – with two outs and Vickers and Hooge in scoring position in the bottom 2nd, the Falcons didn’t bother with the intentional walk. Barnett put two strikes on him, then gave up a sure hopper to Aguirre for the third out. Yay, Chickoo, you made contact! YOUR MOTHER MUST BE SO PROUD.

Only Aguirre reached the first time through for the Falcons, and he was caught stealing, but they got Aguirre (who was forced by Reyna) and Ivan Pena on base with two infield singles in the fourth. Huichapa hit a deep fly out to Fernandez in right, allowing Reyna to third base, but Zitzner was frighteningly useless, too, and grounded out to Rich Vickers to strand a pair. The Raccoons had also left two abord in the bottom 3rd, Myers and Fernandez reaching before Morales and Fowler had their non-fatal flies caught rather easily by outfielders, and in the fourth Ed Hooge found a single, then was doubled up by Tim Stalker… It wasn’t the prettiest brand of baseball, that was for sure… Bottom 5th, Myers and Fernandez were on board again, this time with two gone, and maybe Tony Morales could not falter and instead – no, he struck out.

It took a ****ing leadoff triple by Justin Fowler to get the Raccoons on the ****ing scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth. And even then the Falcons pulled all kinds of trick moves, walking Hooge intentionally after Vickers hit a comebacker that kept the runner pinned, hoping for the double play. Unfortunately for them, Stalker hit a fly to center that was just deep enough for Fowler to beat Reyna’s respectable arm and score the maiden run in the game. Maruyama of course grounded out ****tily.

At this point, Bernie was on four hits and six strikeouts and looked okay, but dread the long ball…! He got the 4-5-6 batters all to two strikes in the seventh; two fanned, but Zitzner singled; however John Johnson had run out of hits in his bat and grounded out easily. Bernie batted for himself in the bottom 7th, flying out to Aguilar, then struck out ex-Coon Billy Jennings and Barnett in the eighth before walking Aguirre in a full count. Reyna was his last batter on pitch count AND the fact that the lefty batter Pena was up after that. He could count as far on his ten claws too, put it all into three more strikes, and would retire from the game with eight shutout innings and 11 strikeouts! The Raccoons did zero in the bottom 8th, so the 1-0 lead went to Chris Wise, who would face the meat of the lineup, gave up a bloop single to Pena to right, and a dying quail to Huichapa that fell into center, and the Falcons were on the corners with no outs. Oh goody goodness! Zitzner struck out for a major surprise, but the Coons couldn’t turn two on Aguilar’s well-placed grounder after that and only got the force at second base, so there went Bernie’s W. A groundout ended the inning, sending Mike Barnett back out for the ninth against the bottom of the order. Stalker, Wall, and Keller grounded out in order, sending the game to extras, where PH Mike Sawyer doubled to lead off the 10th against Yeom Soung. Aguirre got the RBI single, and the Raccoons had to show some magic against Vela in the bottom of the inning to make up a 2-1 deficit. Myers walked. Fernandez flew out. Morales walked, moving the tying run to second base. Fowler struck out. Batting fifth was Berto after an earlier PH assignment, so here was a .077 batter for some good luck. He singled to center, actually, but the ball bounced into Reyna’s mitten right away and there was no way to responsibly send Myers around third base. Preston Pinkerton batted for Hooge for a platoon advantage with three on and two outs – he was also the last guy off the bench, so from now on relievers would bat for themselves, although, then again, this would mean the Coons didn’t lose immediately. Pinkerton grounded out to third base and the Raccoons lost immediately. 2-1 Falcons. Hooge 2-3, BB; Chavez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K and 1-3;

(draws the blinds, sits back down, and puts the wicker waste paper basket over his head)

If I can’t see them, they can’t see me neither!

Game 3
CHA: SS O. Aguirre – CF Jon. Reyna – 3B I. Pena – C Huichapa – 1B Zitzner – RF J. Aguilar – 2B J. Johnson – LF L. Herrera – P Feltman
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Marsingill – P Sabre

The Raccoons had three singles and a run, driven in by Tony Morales, in the first inning, then a walk and three singles for two runs in the second inning. What a rush of offense! Berto and Myers got the RBI’s in the latter inning, and for both of them it was the first of the season. Now we only had to give one to Fowler! He grounded out to strand the two runners in scoring position. While Sabre retired the Falcons in order the first time through, Feltman kept getting socked with singles. While Morales grounded out to begin the bottom 3rd, Hooge doubled, they were on the corners with a Vickers single, and Justin Marsingill hit an RBI single past Zitzner, 4-0. Sabre then managed to bunt into a double play, but maybe it was better if he concentrated on his pitchcraft now.

He promptly walked Aguirre to begin the fourth and allowed a single to Reyna, and RBI single to Huichapa, and then a sac fly to Zitzner. Aguilar singled with two outs, prompting a mound visit to inquire whether Sabre was out of his ****ing mind. He claimed he wasn’t, but then gave up another screaming RBI single to Johnson, cutting the lead to 4-3. Herrera grounded out, but there was just nobody on this team to trust… By the fifth, Aguirre singled, Reyna homered, it was 5-4 Falcons, and Sabre was out of the game soon after…

Then the April weather got involved and a gray and dreary sky opened up for a 45-minute delay in the bottom of the fifth that knocked out Feltman with Hooge and Vickers already in scoring position after getting hits #11 and 12 for the Raccoons. With one out, the Falcons walked Marsingill intentionally to set up a double play. Abramo Archibugi, southpaw, would then face the pinch-hitting Tim Stalker, who struck out, and Ramos, who… struck out. Bottom 6th. Myers opened with a double. Fernandez singled, runners to the corners, and the RBI-less Fowler … struck out. HERE WE GO. Morales popped out, so only one out to go against Ed Hooge, who … singled! Tied ballgame, and Vickers’ single scored Fernandez from second base to give Portland a 6-5 lead …!? It had taken only SIXTEEN hits to get there…!! Archibugi walked Marsingill, which brought up another pinch-hitter in Kurt Wall, who … struck out. Three more stranded.

The Raccoons then got four outs from Prieto and two from David Fernandez in their quest to maybe win a game for once, which got them through eight with their pitching. Tony Morales’ leadoff single off Sean Rhinehart in the bottom 8th was their 17th hit, but was counting even worth it? Hooge flew out. Vickers whiffed. Keller batted for Marsingill to counter the right-hander, but struck out… well at least Maruyama could play defense now since nobody had asked him to bat so far… This time, Chris Wise faced the 6-7-8 batters. He walked Aguilar. He walked Johnson. Lorenzo Herrera hit a game-tying single. Hubbard in the #9 hole bunted badly getting the lead runner out at third base. Wise walked Aguirre to fill the bases, then was taken out of the ballgame and behind the shed. Yeom Soung inherited three on, one out, and .417 batter Jonathan Reyna at the plate. First pitch, vicious line drive – right at Vickers!! And he held on! The runners held stations, so no chance to get a cheesy double play, but we had two outs now. Mike Sawyer, one of the devils that spoiled Tuesday’s effort, would pinch-hit for the left-handed Pena. Another pitch, another vicious liner – right at Vickers!! AND HE HELD ON!!! While that staved off the loss for the moment, the Raccoons still had to bat, dreadfully having Maruyama lead off in the #9 hole (the pitcher was at #8 now after a wise move before Chris Wise came in to **** everything up AGAIN). Alex Aguilar, a right-hander of no particular pedigree, walked Maruyama (!), walked Berto, and gave up a single to Myers. The bags were full for all .441 of Manny Fernandez with nobody out… and he popped out on the infield. Fowler flew out to Reyna in shallow center, and there was no way Maruyama would score on that one – he wasn’t even done with his preparatory gymnastics for his victory stomp on home plate yet! Morales flew out to left. Extra innings, but they’d had to play them without me watching, because I was trying to sneak Maud’s scissors to stab the blades into my ****ing eyeballs…

What I didn’t see because I was fighting Maud in her room was Yeom Soung retiring the Falcons in order before Hooge led off the bottom 10th with a bloop single, then stole second base by accident when Vickers flailed on a hit-and-run. Pinkerton dropped a 2-2 single with one out, putting runners on the corners, and that meant that Maruyama was back at it… He grounded up the middle, there was a nanosecond of hesitation in John Johnson on whether to go home with the ball or try for two – then he went home … but it was too late to beat Ed Hooge, and the Raccoons walked off on a walkoff fielder’s choice by MARUYAMA. 7-6 Blighters. Myers 4-6, 2B, RBI; M. Fernandez 3-6; Morales 3-6, 2 RBI; Hooge 3-6, 2B; Vickers 4-6, RBI; Marsingill 1-1, 3 BB, RBI; Pinkerton (PH) 1-1; Soung 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-1);

It only took them 20 hits to win!

Raccoons (4-5) @ Titans (5-4) – April 18-20, 2036

The Titans were half a game behind the first-place Elks, with the Coons fourth in the North. Last year, beating them 11 out of 18 games was the key to the division. This year, even the Raccoons’ shadows were on crutches, so I had no hope for this first road series of the season, even though the Titans had been swept by the Bayhawks earlier in the week. We have always found ways to lose in Boston, and we will continue to do so; it’s our brand. They were fourth in runs scored, seventh in runs allowed, and were blessed with good health.

Projected matchups:
Darren Brown (0-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. Rich Willett (1-1, 2.25 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (0-0, 5.56 ERA) vs. Tony Chavez (2-0, 3.38 ERA)
Colt Willes (1-0, 2.30 ERA) vs. Mario Gonzalez (1-1, 4.91 ERA)

Of these three, only Willett was right-handed.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – RF Keller – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Brown
BOS: RF M. Avila – SS Gil – 1B Regan – LF W. Vega – 2B Spataro – C J. Young – 3B Beam – CF Hayden – P Willett

Darren Brown had one of those typical Darren Brown starts and got saddled for three runs right in the first frame. After an initial out from Moises Avila he filled the bags with a single and two walks, plated Antonio Gil with a wild pitch, allowed two more runs on a Jim Young single, and somehow was saved by D on Bobby Beam’s hard grounder before it could get even worse than that. Brown ran multiple 3-run counts after that, but didn’t walk anybody until after Greg Regan and Keith Spataro reached the corners with singles in the bottom 3rd and he plated Regan with a gruesome wild pitch, then completed a walk to Jim Young. Beam grounded out, keeping the score at a merciful 4-1, with the Coons’ run having come on a Tony Morales homer. Matt Hayden however hit a leadoff double in the fourth, scored on a bunt and a grounder, and down 5-1 the Coons had enough of Brown and yanked him. Garavito replaced him, got out of the inning, but conceded a run on three singles in the fifth, negating the run Manny Fernandez had driven in to briefly make it 5-2 in the top 5th…

At that point we considered the game to be very much in the bin and that it was all about using as few arms as possible from then on, but the seventh inning began with a Maruyama double (!!) off Willett, and then Vickers and Berto hit singles. This scored a run, 6-3, and brought the tying run to the dish with nobody out. Dave Myers’ sac fly got home a run, but didn’t greatly help in keeping the line moving, but Fernandez legged out an infield single. That brought up Fowler, batting .114 with no RBI. His BABIP was actually negative, Cristiano Carmona had calculated, so he was DUE a 3-run homer. He struck out. Morales struck out. Everything was terrible. Nobody scored through eight anymore, so the Raccoons arrived with the top of the order awaiting Jermaine Campbell, who had been roughed up for an 8.44 ERA early on. Quite a surprise, Ramos, Myers, and Fernandez went down in order… 6-4 Titans. Myers 2-4, RBI; M. Fernandez 2-5, 3B, RBI; Maruyama 2-4, 2B; Moore 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – C Wall – CF Fowler – 2B Stalker – LF Hooge – RF Pinkerton – 1B Maruyama – P Rendon
BOS: RF M. Avila – SS Gil – 1B Regan – LF W. Vega – 2B Spataro – C J. Young – 3B Beam – CF Reichardt – P T. Chavez

The Titans had Jim Young thrown out at home plate on Tony Chavez’ 2-out single in the bottom 2nd, and the Raccoons got a leadoff double from Maruyama (!!) in the third and never moved him another 90 or let alone 180 feet. Everybody struggled, nobody was happy. In the top 4th, the Raccoons got Stalker and Pinkerton on with base hits, then saw Chavez throw four clumsy balls to Maruyama. That filled the bags with two down and Rendon up, which was so helpful, but Rendon actually hit a ball over Bobby Beam for a base hit and two runs scored on the play! Berto then popped out, stranding runners on the corners… The 2-0 lead the went where all leads in Boston went, with Keith Spataro taking it away. Willie Vega drew a leadoff walk, Spataro ripped an RBI triple, then scored on a Young single to immediately tear Rendon a new one. The Coons scored a run on three singles in the top 5th? Rendon would just come apart again! Actually, there was a 2-out walk in a full count to Vega, and then Spataro reached on a Wall error, AND Rendon was exhausted on 103 pitches, AND Jim Young was a left-hander salivating to tear him up – Rendon was yanked after 4.2 messy innings with six hits, three walks, and at best a no-decision. Garavito got a grounder to Stalker, the toss to first was dropped by Maruyama, and the second straight error loaded the bases for Bobby Beam, who hit a screaming liner to right for a 2-run single, flipping the score. Longtime Titan and briefly ex-Coon Adrian Reichardt grounded out to end another dismal inning.

When Maruyama (!) and Myers hit extra base knocks in the sixth to tie the game, the Titans came back with another 2-spot, THREE extra-base hits beaten out of Garavito’s limp corpse by Avila, Gil, and Greg Regan. The inning after that, Prieto loaded the bases with three random Titans, and when David Fernandez came on with three on and two outs, his first pitch was wild to get a run home. And THEN he walked Gil. Somehow Regan grounded out. It hurt just from watching it, and the Titans would score for the fifth straight inning in the bottom 8th with Young homering off Fernandez to make it 8-4. The Raccoons went in order in the ninth against Wyatt Hamill… 8-4 Titans. Myers 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Stalker 3-4; Maruyama 3-3, BB, 2 2B;

Last place was achieved with this particularly gruesome loss, and I had no doubts that more would follow swiftly.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Wall – 2B Vickers – RF Pinkerton – 1B Maruyama – P Willes
BOS: RF M. Avila – SS Gil – 1B Regan – LF W. Vega – 2B Spataro – C J. Young – 3B Beam – CF Hayden – P M. Gonzalez

Justin Fowler and Kurt Wall, who looked like the result of a horrible transporter accident on an early-90s sci-fi show at this point, opened the top 2nd with a single and … well, by not falling down after Bobby Beam threw away a grounder, sending them both into scoring position with nobody out. Vickers popped out, Pinkerton flew out to center, and Fowler was thrown out at home plate by Hayden… When Maruyama opened the third with a single (!), Willes bunted into a 1-6-3 double play, and the fourth saw a leadoff double by Myers, a pop by Fernandez, then two walks issued to the wrongly reassembled team carriers of last year, loading the bags for Vickers, who flew out to Hayden just deep enough to get Myers home for an actual ****ing run. Pinkerton grounded out pathetically…

Top 5th, another leadoff single for Maruyama with the Titans’ defense porous up the middle while their offense had managed only one base hit against Willes so far. This time the Coons’ hurler managed to bunt the runner to second base without a major disaster, and Berto’ singled to right-center for an RBI single, 2-0 …! Hayden attempted to get Maruyama at home, but only allowed Berto to skirt into second base on the effort, not that that gave the Coons an extra run – Myers and Manny made tame outs to strand Ramos. Bottom 5th, the madness began. Willes allowed a single to Young, a double to Beam, and they were in scoring position as the tying runs with nobody out. Hayden fanned, Gonzalez WALKED (…!!), Avila whiffed, and then Gil shot a grounder at Vickers for the third out! Holy – would the Raccoons finally win a ballgame?? They sure got another two runs in the top 6th on straight 2-out hits by Vickers (double), Pinkerton (RBI single) and Maruyama (RBI double (!!!))!

Unfortunately Willes was about tuckered out after seven innings, having another tough one in the bottom 7th with Beam and Hayden hits before the inning ended on Avila’s 5-4-3 double play spanker. It left Willes with a 6-hit shutout, but on 99 pitches, and unlikely to finish to be polite. He began the bottom 8th facing Gil, but was removed after a leadoff single. A double switch inserted Yeom Soung and Tim Stalker into the game, and the southpaw rung up Regan before Vega hit into a double play. In the ninth, the Critters faced right-hander Blake Sciulli, whose most impressive weapon was a blazing red beard. Stalker hit a leadoff single, Berto walked, but Myers popped out and so did Fernandez. Should Justin Fowler even bat in an RBI situation anymore? He was 5-for-43 with sad eyes and made everybody with a Coons hat cry. But we were also still up by four with three outs to get, so why not piss this RISP at-bat away? He struck out. At least he caught Spataro’s liner to begin the ninth. Young singled off Soung, but Beam hit into a double play and the Coons escaped with a win. 4-0 Raccoons. Hooge (PH) 1-1; Maruyama 3-4, 2B, RBI; Stalker 1-1; Willes 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-0); Soung 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

April 14 – NAS 3B/2B Jim “Mastodon” Allen (.310, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has one hit in the Blue Sox’ 9-8 loss to the Warriors, also extending a hitting streak that started in 2035 to 20 games.
April 14 – PIT 3B Omar Lastrade (.308, 0 HR, 3 RBI) will be out six weeks after having his arm broken by an errant pitch by LAP SP Andy Jimenes (1-1, 3.00 ERA). Adding injury to insult, Jimenes grinds out a 1-0 win with a combined 5-hitter with CL Chun-yeong Chah (0-0, 0.00 ERA; 1 SV).
April 16 – LVA SP Antonio Vega (0-1, 2.70 ERA) is out for the season. The sophomore right-hander will have Tommy John surgery for a torn UCL.
April 17 – The Loggers trade 1B Justin LeClerc (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI) to the Wolves for C Francis Chavez (.200, 0 HR, 0 RBI).
April 18 – SFW SP Tony Galligher (1-1, 1.50 ERA) 3-hits the Pacifics with 8 strikeouts in a 6-0 shutout.
April 18 – Nashville’s Jim Allen (.310, 0 HR, 7 RBI) has his hitting streak stopped at 22 games with an oh-fer in a 6-5 win over the Miners.
April 18 – SFB INF Alex Castillo (.200, 0 HR, 3 RBI) will miss a month with a strained groin muscle.
April 19 – The hitting streak of CIN OF/1B Dick Oshiita (.378, 2 HR, 5 RBI) is alive and well. The 27-year-old has three hits in a 5-3 win over the Capitals to stretch the streak to 25 games.
April 19 – SFW 3B/2B Nick Rozenboom (.370, 3 HR, 10 RBI) has three hits and 5 RBI in the Warriors’ 17-8 slugfest with the Pacifics.

Complaints and stuff

Some BABIPs to rob everybody’s sleep. Berto is at .154; Fowler’s is .185; .143 for Wall; everybody else, even Chad and Maud, are over .300… I claim helplessness on accounts of divine intervention. Nothing we can do here but watch and be afraid.

The Cyclones offered to trade 34-year-old Barend Kok for Manny Fernandez. I found that rather insulting.

News from the injury front: in AAA, Josh Livingston has gone to the DL with an elbow strain and will be out two months. I don’t know whether there’s something wrong in the food. Maybe we should cut down on all the fudge they mix into their steak and fries bowls. – Hey, Stalker! What’s that green thing on top of your bowl? – Oh, right, the veggie. A single pea. – What do you mean, you’re not gonna eat it?? – Eat your ****ing pea or I will rip your stripes off!!

The mood in the clubhouse is … well, some things are better not talked about.

Fun Fact: 35 years ago today, Dallas’ Darrel Tracy had six base hits in a 10-9 loss to the Scorpions.

Tracy played in the majors from 1997 through 2008, but with gaps and often only for a handful of games. The 1999-2000 seasons were the only time he was a regular and batted .330 with 25 homers in ’99, but then quickly devolved into the true definition of a one hit wonder. He disappeared from the majors after just 70 games in ’02, batting .247 with 2 homers, and then made a starting lineup only twice more in his career, once each in 2004 and 2005 for the Cyclones. From 2003 through 2008 he appeared just 26 times in total.

Overall, he was the weirdest sort of .309 batter with 53 HR and 237 RBI, having just 419 base hits to his name.

Westheim · 05-04-2020, 05:58 PM

Raccoons (5-7) @ Canadiens (8-5) – April 22-24, 2036

Monday was off, and while I went home, the Raccoons’ Traveling Clown Show moved up to Elktown to play three games starting on Tuesday. The damn Elks had won 11 games from the Critters in ’35, but that has still not been enough to make the playoffs, something they were almost a quarter century removed from. The Elks had the third-worst batting average in the CL, but the fourth-most runs scored, the reason for which was mostly early-season randomness, and, well, the Coons had the highest batting average, somehow, and couldn’t score a lick. The Elks’ pitching was average so far, but they had a very good defense, spelling probably more trouble for Alberto Ramos and all the other BABIP strugglers.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (0-0, 0.60 ERA) vs. Bryce Neal (2-0, 4.70 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (0-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. Raymond Pearce (1-0, 1.13 ERA)
Darren Brown (0-2, 6.10 ERA) vs. Joe West (2-1, 2.75 ERA)

Neal would be a southpaw. The Elks had only one of those in their pen, and the Raccoons had three, but would be a man short in the pen as Yeom Soung had come down with a violent case of the ****s. While he hugged the toilet in his hotel room, 24 Critters tried to take on the Elks… At least the off day meant that the Raccoons could use a starter as emergency long man if things got dire or went deep into extra innings.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – CF Fowler – C Wall – RF Pinkerton – 1B Maruyama – P Chavez
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – C R. Castillo – CF Outram – 1B J. Lopez – RF Phillips – LF LeJeune – 2B Morrow – SS Cabral – P Neal

All the defense in the world helped Bryce Neal nothing for his performance in the second inning, which saw him issue four walks, including one with the bags already stacked with the 6-7-8 batters and Alberto Ramos at the plate, forcing home the first run of the game. Myers drew another bases-loaded walk, and Fernandez hit a sac fly. Tim Stalker dropped an RBI single, and then Justin Fowler turned a 1-2 pitch around for a 3-run homer to left, breaking a 45-AB RBI-less streak to start his season all while saddling Neal with a 7-spot.

If you naively assumed that the Raccoons would ride that 7-spot right till the end, you for once would not be mistaken. The Elks lied down and took it, and the only major outrage was when Bernie Chavez drilled Jerry Outram quite substantially in the third inning. While I did not disapprove of nailing Elks until they bled, it was probably not the right time to put runners on base – Ricky Castillo had drawn a leadoff walk. Nothing came of it due to a combo of poor outs going forwards, and Bernie would later cruise through the middle innings. Berto singled home Pinkerton in the fifth to tack on one more run, 8-0. Bernie then lost cohesion in the later innings and ran three long counts for three outs in the bottom 8th. That put him on just over 100 pitches, and his spot came up with two outs and Hooge and Keller on the corners in the top of the ninth. The Raccoons were willing to let him at least start the ninth with an 8-run cushion. Jonathan Snyder, a Raccoon long, long ago, struck him out. Bottom 9th, Castillo struck out, but ran a full count, getting Bernie up to 110 pitches. Outram struck out, but ran *another* full count. Well, Bernie would definitely get one chance at the shutout against Johnny Lopez, the reigning CL Rookie of the Year, albeit for different CL North team… Lopez hit the 1-2 pitch to center, Ed Hooge came on and made the catch, and everything was well for a day! 8-0 Raccoons! M. Fernandez 2-4, RBI; Fowler 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Wall 2-5, 2 2B; Pinkerton 2-4; Keller (PH) 1-1; Chavez 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

Huzzah!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Sabre
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – C R. Castillo – CF Outram – 1B Lopez – RF Phillips – LF LeJeune – 2B Morrow – SS Cabral – P Pearce

Unbelievably, the Raccoons beat an Elks starter to death early for the second straight game. Raymond Pearce gave up a 7-spot in the first, with Berto getting 2 RBI in the inning after initially singling, stealing second, and coming home on Dave Myers’ single. Justin Fowler hit a 2-run homer before the bases filled up for a 2-run single by Maruyama, and after Sabre bunted the remaining runners into scoring position, Ramos got his 2-out, 2-run single. So, kick back and relax? Well, maybe not. Sabre’s first pitch of the game was hit to the fence (but into Ed Hooge’s mitten) by D.J. Robinson, so maybe it was too early to show cocky behavior. Castillo reached base, but the Elks didn’t get the runner into scoring position, and instead the Raccoons tacked on a single run a bit later, just like on Tuesday, this time with a Hooge homer in the top 3rd – and then got another homer from Fernandez in the fourth. Outram would hit a leadoff double and scored on two productive outs in the bottom 4th, 9-1, but we were at a stage where getting steady outs was good enough and the odd run on the board didn’t matter.

The Elks used Gavin Lee in long relief until he left with an injury, but held the Coons off the board after the fourth inning. Sabre meanwhile pitched well without overpowering (only 3 K) until he didn’t anymore and the Elks ruffled him in the bottom 7th. With two outs in the inning they landed a string of base hits with an Eric Morrow single, an RBI double by Ramon Cabral, an RBI single by Will Korecky, who moved up on Fowler’s throw to home plate, and then a walk to Robinson. The Coons threw the anchor there and brought in Dusty Kulp for Castillo, with David Fernandez lined up to come in right afterwards against Outram and the following batters, but would have to wait another inning, since Kulp got his man on a grounder to Dave Myers. When his time came, Fernandez retired all four Elks he got, and the final two outs were collected by Casey Moore from Morrow and Cabral. 9-3 Furballs! Ramos 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; M. Fernandez 2-5, HR, RBI; Hooge 2-4, HR, RBI; Vickers 2-5, 2B; Maruyama 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

You know what would make me even more happy? If the boys could score TEN in the final game!

And won it, too.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Brown
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – C R. Castillo – CF Outram – 1B J. Lopez – RF Phillips – LF LeJeune – 2B Morrow – SS Cabral – P J. West

Unfortunately, Game 3 seemed to go the other way and most of the blame was on Darren Brown, who walked Robinson to begin the game, with the runner stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch. Castillo struck out, but Outram hit an RBI single, Brown walked the bases full, and then was lucky to escape with a LeJeune sac fly and a Morrow groundout to short, only 2-0 down. Brown issued a fourth walk in the bottom 2nd before he had his deficit made up by Dave Myers with a big homer in the top of the third; Brown contributed to that, opening the inning with a single up the middle.

Brown didn’t allow any more base runners in the fourth and fifth innings, while Joe West remained in shape much longer than his two predecessors combined, but in the sixth inning the Critters started off by loading the bases. Morales, Hooge, and Vickers singled in order to present the suddenly not quite as useless Chiyosaku Maruyama with three on and no outs. He was now batting .297 after a hot weekend and some more hits in this series, and broke the tie by freezing when a 1-2 pitch darted for his elbow, which was legit, we’d give him an extra point for that (affixes little gold star sticker on his scoresheet back home in Portland), with Tony Morales jogging home to put Portland up, 3-2. Hitting for Brown was the question now, but with nobody out the Coons felt good about taking this out and hoping for more outs from Darren later. Unfortunately he flew out to right in what became a dismal play, as Ed Hooge went for home, was thrown out by Ryan Phillips, but the rightfielder also hurt his hand or arm on the throw and had to be replaced by Pat Pohl, while the trailing runners advanced into scoring position, where Ramos left them when he flew out to LeJeune. Brown would get four more outs before leaving the game on five walks and five strikeouts, and somehow only two hits allowed. Garavito finished the bottom 7th, still up 3-2.

Joe West put Morales on base with a leadoff single in the eighth, but Hooge hit into a 6-4-3, at which point the Coons were up by eight hits, but only a measly run. Rich Vickers doubled, raising his average over .400, and Maruyama found a hole on the left side to get a single between Cabral and Robinson. Vickers scooted around for a long-awaited insurance run, and then Tim Stalker hit gapper for an RBI double in the pitcher’s spot, 5-2! Berto walked, but Erik David, who had replaced West three hits into the inning, struck out Dave Myers to strand two. Bottom 8th, and Dusty Kulp and disaster both got involved at the same time. Robinson hit a leadoff single, but was doubled up on Castillo’s grounder to short (now manned by Stalker with Ramos given the rest of the day off). Then Kulp nailed Jerry Outram. Lopez walked. Pohl hit an RBI single. LeJeune was up – LEFTY! LEFTY! Only David Fernandez was left for lefties, came in, the Elks sent Will Korecky as pinch-hitter to counter – but Fernandez got the strikeout, stranding the tying runs! Fowler (single) and Morales (walk) reached in the ninth, but were left stranded by Rafael Urbano before Chris Wise got involved with a game, and maybe he’d even get through the bottom of the order without ****ing up? Morrow led off the bottom 9th with a jack, 5-4. Cabral whiffed, though, so maybe – Josh Keen lined out viciously to Myers, who swiped blindly while squeaking for his life, but it still counted for an out. Robinson, a .119 hitting lefty, was the Elks’ last straw. He grounded out to Maruyama. 5-4 Critters! Morales 2-5; Hooge 2-4, BB; Vickers 3-5, 2B; Maruyama 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Stalker (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Aces (12-3) – April 25-27, 2036

The Aces had won eight in a row, including sweeps over the Knights and Thunder, and 11 of their last 12 games after initially dropping a series to the Falcons. They had yet to concede more than four runs in ANY game this season, so there was ONE subtle clue at what made them good. Unsurprisingly they were first in pretty much all pitching categories that mattered, and fourth in runs scored. We had lost five of nine to them last year.

Projected matchups:
Gilberto Rendon (0-0, 5.06 ERA) vs. Drew Johnson (1-1, 2.70 ERA)
Colt Willes (2-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. Matt Diduch (2-0, 1.13 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (1-0, 0.38 ERA) vs. Jamie Klages (2-0, 0.87 ERA)

All righties; the Coons still were without Yeom Soung, who had spent three days on the pot and was now completely exhausted and remained unavailable for at least Friday. But hey, we had spent three days in Elktown without ever using Antonio Prieto…

Game 1
LVA: RF Jorgensen – 1B Stedham – CF M. Hall – 2B Briones – C Kuehn – LF J. Nelson – 3B T. Johnson – SS Schneider – P D. Johnson
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Rendon

Right away, the Aces put three on Rendon, who retired none of the first fourth batters. Steve Jorgensen singled to right, Jesse Stedham walked, and Mike Hall legged out an infield single. Mario Briones hit a 2-run single up the middle to get something memorable on the board, and a Paul Kuehn sac fly would make it three before Justin Nelson struck out and Todd Johnson popped out. As expected, the Raccoons had nothing going early on against Drew Johnson, but Rendon would just keep on drowning. The Aces were on base in the second without scoring, but in the third inning Rendon nailed Mike Hall, who moved around on a stolen base and a Briones single. Rendon was knocked out before completing four innings, Stedham singling home Brian Schneider with two outs in the fourth, running the score to 5-0. Casey Moore got the ball, allowed another two singles to Hall and Briones to allow Stedham to score, then kindly struck out Kuehn in a 6-0 hole…

Manny Fernandez hit a jack in the bottom 4th, but that was not enough to stoke a rally. It was in fact about all they did to Drew Johnson in seven innings. After four outs from Moore, the Coons sent Prieto to burn him for three innings, which amounted to eight solid outs and then a pinch-hit homer by John Marz. The Raccoons couldn’t poke the Aces’ pen either, and lost this one by a country mile. 7-1 Aces. M. Fernandez 2-3, HR, 2B, RBI;

Maybe we should aim for scoring four runs in the series…?

Game 2
LVA: 3B T. Johnson – 1B Stedham – CF M. Hall – 2B Briones – C Kuehn – LF J. Nelson – RF E. Martin – SS McNatt – P Diduch
POR: SS Ramos – 3B D. Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – 2B Vickers – RF Keller – C Wall – 1B Maruyama – P Willes

The Coons broke out first on Saturday, landing three hits and a walk right in the bottom of the first inning. Myers singled, scored on Manny Fernandez’ double in the gap, and after Fowler walked and Vickers popped out, Jason Keller got his first Coons RBI with a single to center. While Willes allowed only one hit but quite a few hard knocks that somehow all ended up with the defense – the only Aces hit early on was actually an infield single by Briones – the Raccoons would again stir trouble with the same part of the lineup in the bottom of the third. Dave Myers reached base, but was forced out by Fernandez, who however stole second base, then got a good jump on a Fowler single and scored to make it 3-0. Would the Raccoons actually be the first to put a pawful on the Aces? Not in this inning – both Vickers and Keller made poor outs to strand Fowler. Maruyama singled with one out in the fourth, though, was bunted, and scored on a Berto single to make it 4-0.

One run away from setting a new record of scoring against the Aces this year, the Raccoons first saw the Aces cobble three hits together to get a run off Willes in the sixth inning. Diduch actually hit a single with Jeff McNatt already having stolen second base after a leadoff single. With runners on the corners, Todd Johnson hit into a run-scoring double play before Stedham hit a 2-out single that led nowhere. Diduch left with back pain in the bottom of the inning, while Willes still looked solid on paper after six; up 4-1, he had thrown only 61 pitches, but also only had two strikeouts, so hadn’t fooled many. Then, out of the blue, he whiffed the 4-5-6 batters in order in the seventh. McNatt singled off him in the eighth, but John Marz hit into a double play in his pinch-hitting appearance this time, leaving the score 4-1 in the middle of the eighth. The Raccoons got Fernandez on base in the bottom of the inning, but didn’t score again, so unless Chris Wise blew the save we in fact wouldn’t score a pawful after all… Hey, Wise – Don’t you dare be encouraged!! - … Wise faced the top of the order and allowed a double to Johnson right away. Stedham struck out, but Hall struck a base hit to left, and Fernandez’ poor throw home not only allowed Johnson to score, but also got Mike Hall to second base, taking away the double play, not that Briones’ following grounder would have lent itself to two. .211 hitter Paul Kuehn was up with two outs and the runner at third, and Wise carved up the switch-hitter to finish the game. 4-2 Coons. Myers 2-3, BB; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Willes 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (3-0);

Game 3
LVA: RF Jorgensen – 1B Stedham – CF M. Hall – 2B Briones – C Kuehn – LF J. Nelson – 3B T. Johnson – SS McNatt – P Klages
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Chavez

Justin Fowler hit his third homer of the week and the season, plating Berto (single) and Fernandez (forced out Myers) for a 3-0 lead in the bottom 1st. It was also his third homer of the season and he was still short of .200, but, eh, baby steps, and a 5-1 week would be great on its own merits… The inning continued with a Tony Morales single, but Hooge flew out. Stalker was nailed by Klages, to which Maruyama objected. The 26-year-old Japanese whatever player took offense to his nearest friend on the field getting plunked like that and banzai’d a fastball over the fence in left-center for ANOTHER 3-run homer, and THAT one broke the Aces’ streak of 17 straight games of allowing fewer than five runs.

Morales doubled home Fernandez in the bottom 2nd to make it 7-0, but Bernie Chavez wouldn’t pitch a shutout this time; he in fact got roughed up in the third. John Marz hit his second pinch-hit jack in the series hitting for Klages in the top 3rd, and then Steve Jorgensen and Mike Hall reached base before Mario Briones hit a 3-piece of his own to cut the lead to 7-4. Maybe it was another example of that one dismal unlucky inning? Bernie retired the next seven in a row to complete five, but with an advanced pitch count. He was however not hit for in the bottom 5th with two outs and Hooge on second and Maruyama on first. He poked a 1-0 pitch by righty Jerry Hodges up the middle, McNatt didn’t reach it, and the Coons got an RBI single out of it, extending the lead to 8-4. Berto then struck out, unfortunately.

Bottom 6th, Hodges and John Jackson filled the bags with Myers, Fowler (intentionally walked) and Hooge, bringing up Stalker with two outs, but the veteran popped out to short. Bernie in turn retired another six in a row (and 13 total in a row to end his day) before being lifted for a pinch-hitter with one out and nobody on in the bottom 7th. Vickers singled in his spot, Berto flew out to left, and Myers walked with two down. Fernandez grounded up the middle, where Briones made a strong play and fling to second base to force out Myers to end the inning. Portland had to get six outs from the pen without blowing a 4-run lead. Yeom Soung got the ball for the first time all week and retired Evan Martin, Jorgensen, and Stedham in order in the eighth despite looking emaciated. Right-hander Felipe Jacquez was then eviscerated by Justin Fowler, who blasted a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left for a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th! Four homers on the week! Still not batting .200 though… The next three Critters made outs, and that sent Dusty Kulp to the mound for the ninth. Hall singled. Briones walked. Kuehn singled. Kulp was yanked. Chris Wise got this sticky situation and began with a K to Nelson, which was a nice start. Todd Johnson also struck out waving, bringing up .178 batter Jeff McNatt as the last straw for Vegas. He fell to 1-2, then – of course… – hit a sighing single to right for two runs. Oh well, those were Kulp’s problem… Brian Schneider was pinch-hitting in the #9 hole and Wise’s problem… but he flew out easily to Fernandez before things could get REALLY ugly. 9-6 Raccoons! Ramos 2-5; Fowler 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Morales 2-5, 2B, RBI; Vickers (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 21 – SFW RF/1B/LF Tim Sheaffer (.214, 1 HR, 3 RBI) hits a homer for the sole scoring in the Warriors’ 1-0 win over the Stars.
April 21 – SFW SS Jesus Matos (.282, 0 HR, 8 RBI) would miss three weeks with a strained hammy.
April 22 – 41-year-old NAS SP Mark Roberts (2-0, 2.01 ERA) shuts out the Buffaloes on six hits but only one strikeout in a 2-0 Blue Sox win!
April 22 – BOS OF/2B Moises Avila (.255, 1 HR, 5 RBI) will be out at least to late May with a broken thumb.
April 23 – With two outs in the bottom 12th, Dallas’ LF Abel Madsen (.333, 2 HR, 13 RBI) fouls off no fewer then six pitches by SFW MR Derek Barker (1-1, 2.70 ERA) before knocking a single to give the Stars a 4-3 walkoff win.
April 25 – CIN OF/1B Dick Oshiita (.364, 4 HR, 14 RBI) reaches 30 games on his hitting streak with an RBI single in an 11-2 rout of the Wolves.
April 25 – The Falcons’ T.J. Bennett (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI), in only his third assignment to the starting lineup all year, churns out five hits with a triple and one RBI in a 12-3 rush of the Loggers.
April 27 – The hitting streak of Cincy’s Dick Oshiita (.373, 4 HR, 14 RBI) reaches 32 games by week’s end with a 2-hit day in a 4-3 loss to Salem. A second-inning double gets the job done early, and he adds a single later.
April 27 – Tijuana 1B Tomas Caraballo (.189, 1 HR, 4 RBI) could miss four months with a strained hip muscle.
April 27 – SFW RF/LF Doug Stross (.263, 1 HR, 10 RBI) will be on the DL for at least a month with a strained oblique.
April 27 – Every player in the Stars’ lineup, including SP Jong-hoo Cho (2-1, 2.52 ERA) has at least one hit and scores at least one run in a 17-2 ravaging of the Rebels.

Complaints and stuff

We swept the Elks, with a combined 22-7 runs. I liked that. That tasted good!

Justin Fowler exploded for four homers and 10 RBI after getting NOTHING done in the first two weeks. He wasn’t remotely close to Player of the Week honors though since because he did get a hit in every game this week (and on Sunday prior) and has a 7-game hitting streak, he actually got multiple hits only twice and struck out seven times. He batted only 8-for-23, or in other words, half his hits were homers. Whatever works!

Manny Fernandez leads the league in OPS with a 1.051 mark, seven points ahead of some Capitals bloke. Who that? .388 with four homers? Adam what? – Maud, you must pronounce it cleanly. – Avakian? – Never heard of that guy. – NO MAUD I NEVER HEARD OF HIM.

We’re two games out, which isn’t horrendous right now. At least we got Maruyama and Fowler and Berto to do ****ing anything. The offense wasn’t bad at all this week, and the pile of early outbursts got us to sixth in runs scored in the CL after that desolate start. I still think it could have gone better with Harenberg and Wallace around, but that glass of milk has not only been spilled but also lapped up by the cats by now.

What up in AAA? Jeff Wilson, Jose Brito, and Will Luna, all non-trivial prospects 23 or younger, are all batting .270-something with one homer at this point. Cory Cronk is hitting .271 with no homers. Of course we have a bigger prize yet, Jesus Maldonado. His slash is .310/.359/.479 with two homers. He still looks like lots of strikeouts, but he could probably be called up and contribute now. He turned 22 in March.

Fun Fact: Tuesday was the first career shutout for Bernie Chavez!

That is actually true, which is quite amazing for a guy that’s not perfect but certainly hugely talented and got SOME idiot to pay $16M to him. The shutout came in his 127th ABL start. He is now 47-33 with a 3.64 ERA for his career, with 611 strikeouts and six complete games. Not bad for a fourth-rounder that was only washed aboard because we needed to get rid of Rin Nomura’s contract at the deadline in ’29.

Westheim · 05-06-2020, 03:09 PM

I don’t know, Slappy, your interpretation of Kant’s categorical imperative does convince me not. I don’t wish to maximize the good for all baseball teams. Just for this one. But, what *is* this commotion outside!? – Maud! – Maud, was is it in your room!? – (Nick Valdes, his hands covered in shiny blood, barges through the door and immediately hides behind it) – Uhm. What… – (Valdes signals him to be silent with a finger on his lips, coloring them red as well) – Slappy, help me out here. What should I act like now? – What is it, Maud? Two gentlemen of the police are here? (Valdes makes panicked hand motions behind the door) Of course I will see them! (Valdes makes even wilder motions) – Hello, officers. How may I help you? – The guy with the blood-covered hands? He hides behind the door. – (Valdes howls in agony as the two cops pounce on him. He resists bitterly as they try to drag him out, leaving red hand prints all over the door, frame, and the cops’ uniforms) – Nice to see you. – (more loud noise from the other room)

(somebody shouts “Taser! Taser!” in Maud’s room)

(something electrical fizzles)

(noises of a body being dragged across the floor)

So, Slappy, where were we?

Raccoons (10-8) vs. Bayhawks (12-7) – April 28-30, 2036

The Raccoons won five of nine from the Bayhawks in 2035 while losing six games to the Condors, directly contributing to their own CLCS demise when the Condors beat the Bayhawks by one game in the South. As of now they were in second place again, sixth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. They had a strong defense, no speed on the base paths, but boasted 16 homers, almost one shot per game.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (1-1, 4.58 ERA) vs. Josh Long (2-1, 2.73 ERA)
Darren Brown (1-2, 4.86 ERA) vs. Jose Lerma (2-2, 4.40 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (0-1, 6.86 ERA) vs. Matt Huf (0-2, 4.33 ERA)

Lerma was the sole southpaw in the Bayhawks’ rotation. Their regular shortstop, Alex Castillo, was on the DL with a groin strain.

Game 1
SFB: CF Dahlman – SS Greer – 1B Monge – RF Levis – 2B J. Cruz – C Dear – LF Trahan – 3B O. Camacho – P J. Long
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Sabre

Sabre got waffled right out of the gate, although to be entirely fair, he started it, nailing Danny Monge with a 2-out, 0-2 pitch before getting taken deep by Doug Levis. In the second inning, Dave Trahan and Omar Camacho opened with singles and were bunted into scoring position. Both Josh Dahlman and Marshall Greer landed RBI singles, running the score to 4-0. The Raccoons only managed a Dave Myers single the first time through, and he was doubled up on a Fernandez grounder… Dave Trahan hit a leadoff triple in the fourth, but somehow was stranded, despite Sabre nailing the pitcher Long… Camacho and Dahlman popped out and Greer grounded out to strand runners on the corners.

Sabre’s day ended in the bottom 5th when the Raccoons for the first time accumulated on base in numbers. Morales, Stalker, and Maruyama all reached base, bringing up the shoddy pitcher’s spot with one out. Rich Vickers came out to bat and grounded up the middle and through the two middle infielders, scoring Morales and Stalker to cut the deficit in half! Maruyama scored on Ramos’ groundout, 4-3, but Myers popped out to Levis in shallow right, leaving the tying run in scoring position. – No, Maud, I didn’t see how pretty the tall blond cop was. – How did you manage to sneak a note with your phone number into one of his belt loops in the middle of the fight? – It’s not your phone number? – What is a “Gobble handle”?

Mauricio Garavito continued to have a horrendous month of April, allowing a leadoff triple to Trahan in the sixth, Trahan’s second three-base knock of the game. At least this time he strained his hamstring and wouldn’t be seen again for a while. Jaden Pridgeon replaced him and scored on Camacho’s sac fly, 5-3. The Coons stranded Fowler and Morales in the bottom 6th when Stalker flew out to Dahlman in deep center, but Prieto also shoveled two Bayhawks on that got stranded when Ed Hooge made a catch on the warning track against PH Justin Uliasz, hitting for Pridgeon (and then heading back to the dugout, with Keith Damron taking over leftfield duties, the Bayhawks’ fourth position player in the #7 slot). Bottom 7th, Long walked Maruyama, then disappeared in favor of lefty Jesus Rodarte. Ramos singled with one out, putting the tying runs on the corners, but Myers spanked a bouncer into a 5-4-3 double play. A Fernandez single off Rodarte and a Morales double against another southpaw, Eric Fox, put the tying runs in scoring position with one out in the bottom 8th even; Preston Pinkerton batted for Hooge, but the Bayhawks countered with right-hander Rick Haugh and his 10.80 ERA. Pinkerton struck out, and Tim Stalker flew out in the gap, caught by Doug Levis. With two scoreless innings from Casey Moore in the eighth and ninth, the Coons at least remained within punching distance to the end. Righty Jorge Villegas jr. was tasked with the bottom 9th. Maruyama struck out. Marsingill grounded out. Berto singled to right in his steady battle with the .200 mark. Moore was embedded in the #2 hole, where Kurt Wall now pinch-hit for him as the tying run. His hard grounder at Jose Cruz was the final out of the game. 5-3 Bayhawks. Ramos 2-5, RBI; Morales 3-4, 2B; Vickers (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Moore 2.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

27 hits total in this game, 16 for the opposition…

No, Slappy, I haven’t wondered what Valdes did. Sometimes it’s better not to know.

Game 2
SFB: CF Dahlman – SS Greer – 1B Monge – 2B J. Cruz – C Dear – LF Hawthorne – RF Pridgeon – 3B O. Camacho – P Lerma
POR: 3B Myers – 2B Vickers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – SS Stalker – 1B Maruyama – RF Pinkerton – C Wall – P Brown

While the Baybirds took a 1-0 lead in the top 1st on Monge and Cruz doubles with two outs, the Raccoons loaded the bases without being retired in the bottom 1st. Myers was nicked, Vickers doubled, and Manny walked, bringing up Fowler with a FAT chance to turn this game around pronto. He struck out, but Tim Stalker snuck a single past Jose Cruz for two runs before Maruyama popped out and Pinkerton flew out to Pridgeon, who was absolutely robbed by a flying Manny Fernandez in the gap in the second inning. After that both teams stranded runners in scoring position from time to time and never scored; the Coons f.e. left Pinkerton and Wall in scoring position in the bottom 4th when Myers popped out, and the Bayhawks got Matt Dear to third base on a single, grounder, and wild pitch, but left him there, too, in the top of the fifth. Manny reached base in the bottom 5th with a single and was itching to steal another base – he had taken his fourth of the season earlier against Lerma and Dear. He didn’t get a jump, and that was maybe for the better because Justin Fowler ran into a 98mph fastball and hit it right in The Spot. It was never seen again, his fifth homer adding up to a 4-1 lead. He also took the team RBI lead with a dizzying 12.

Darren Brown was not all bad in this game despite the early fireworks with back-to-back doubles. He allowed only two more hits through six, but began to lose the zone again as early as the fifth inning. He walked Marshall Greer to begin the sixth, putting serious concern on the faces of the Coons’ coaches in the dugout, but Danny Monge hit into a double play right away and the inning passed without further incidents. He began the seventh with two full counts; Matt Dear popped out, but George Hawthorne singled, and so did Pridgeon, putting runners on the corners. That was it for Brown – Dusty Kulp replaced him in an attempt to incinerate a medium-sized blaze. He struck out Camacho, but allowed a 2-out RBI single to PH Justin Uliasz. David Fernandez was called on to face Dahlman and got strike three past him, but only after a nine-pitch battle with the go-ahead run, ending the top 7th. Prieto conceded another run in the eighth on a leadoff double by Greer and two plenty-deep fly outs. The bottom 8th saw Berto walking in Stalker’s spot, but that was it against righty Ryan Kinner, and the 4-3 lead had to put into Chris Wise’s clumsy paws. He’d face the 6-7-8 batters in the ninth. Hawthorne popped out. PH Keith Damron grounded out to Vickers. Camacho whiffed, and the Coons won a squeaker. 4-3 Critters. M. Fernandez 2-3, BB; Brown 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-2);

We had just five base hits in this game, but at least it amounted to a scuffed W.

Game 3
SFB: CF Dahlman – SS Greer – 1B Monge – 2B J. Cruz – C Dear – LF Hawthorne – RF Pridgeon – 3B O. Camacho – P Huf
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Rendon

The weather was poor for the rubber game and it started to drizzle soon enough in the second inning with the game still scoreless. In the top 3rd, the tarp came on and stayed on for almost an hour. At that point, Rendon was seven outs into the game, having allowed three hits and having whiffed as many. He continued when play resumed, and got groundouts from both Greer and Monge. Huf faced the minimum through three innings, although Manny Fernandez hit a single and was picked off in the first.

Rendon walked Dear on four pitches in the fourth, and Hawthorne hit a sharp single right after. The bullpen tentatively got stretching, but two pitches later Jaden Pridgeon hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Bottom of the inning, Berto ticked a single up the middle, then stole second base before Huf walked Myers anyway. Manny heaved an 0-2 pitch over Marshall Greer to load the bases for Fowler, who had slipped under .200 again but led the team in RBI anyway. Fowler never got a good pitch to hit and walked instead, forcing home the first run of the game. Tony Morales grinded out a walk in a full count and Ed Hooge added a groundout, but then the inning fizzled out. Stalker struck out, Maruyama wasn’t pitched to, and Rendon got carved up by Huf, stranding three in a 3-0 game. Rendon had a quick fifth, qualifying for a potential W, before Berto opened another inning with another single, this time to left. Huf threw a wild pitch, allowed another soft single to Myers, then served a hanging breaking ball to Manny Fernandez that was rammed over the wall in rightfield, near the post, in line drive fashion. Boom! 3-run homer! That was the end for Huf; Rendon would continue a while longer, reaching the seventh inning before being knocked out by Hawthorne and Pridgeon and a pair of 1-out singles. Dusty Kulp took over, so there was potential for a rally for the Baybirds. Indeed, he walked Omar Camacho, and allowed a 2-run single to Keith Damron. Dahlman and Greer grounded out to end the inning, mercifully. The Coons went to Yeom Soung against all right-handers in the eighth, which worked well enough; he only walked Matt Dear, the first walk he allowed in ABL baseball. Garavito would pitch the final inning, conceding a 2-out single to Uliasz, but then struck out Dahlman to end the game. 6-2 Raccoons! Ramos 2-4; Myers 1-2, 2 BB; M. Fernandez 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Rendon 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-1);

This win ended the homestand and sent the Raccoons eastwards across the mountain. They would leave town half a game behind the Titans in second place in the North, and would get the Indians on the weekend as opposition to beat in order to take first place.

Raccoons (12-9) @ Indians (9-13) – May 2-4, 2036

Last in offense – what a novel concept for Indy. It was even worse for them with starting catcher Juan Herrera on the DL now. They were also near the shallow end of offensive activities with their pitching, which allowed the third-fewest runs in the CL, not that it helped them record-wise. We had taken two of three games from them at the start of the season, but it had been an awfully tough chew. Whether the Critters would light up their pitching this time remained to be seen.

Projected matchups:
Colt Willes (3-0, 1.47 ERA) vs. John Nelson (1-2, 5.16 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (2-0, 1.45 ERA) vs. Arnie Terwilliger (1-2, 3.54 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (1-2, 5.16 ERA) vs. Andy Bressner (4-0, 1.62 ERA)

Arnie Terwilliger had a great name, and the only left arm capable of anything in that array of hurlers.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – 1B Maruyama – 2B Stalker – RF Keller – P Willes
IND: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 1B McGrath – SS Zeltser – C Ebner – 3B Lambright – P J. Nelson

At age 41, Pablo Sanchez was batting .338 once he opened the bottom 1st with a single. Willes walked Josh Garbinski later on and had not one, but two highlight plays made in the outfield, with Fernandez and Keller retiring Dan Schneller and Kevin McGrath in flying fashion, respectively. Willes kept getting hit fairly had at times, but the Indians couldn’t get the ball out of the park and often not even onto the green bits. Jason Keller in particular made more nice plays as the innings wore on while the game remained scoreless. The Raccoons didn’t get a base knock until the fourth, when Myers singled, and didn’t score until the fifth when Tony Morales hit a bomb to right-center, his second of the season. Berto and Myers hit singles in the sixth, and they were on the corners when Manny Fernandez hit to Schneller for a fielder’s choice. Berto scored from third base, running the score to 2-0. The Indians went on to get a single off Willes in both the sixth and seventh, but Josh Garbinski and Sean Ebner hit into double plays, respectively. That was the last inning for a wonky Willes, who was pinch-hit for with Marsingill to no great effect in the top of the eighth. The Coons held on to 2-0 in the bottom 8th when David Fernandez retired the 1-2-3 guys in the Indians’ lineup, then got an insurance run in the ninth, a 2-out RBI single Tony Morales knocked off Nelson, who went the distance, allowing only five base hits. His solid effort was in vain – Chris Wise retired the Indians in order in the bottom 9th. 3-0 Furballs! Myers 2-3, BB; Morales 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Willes 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (4-0);

This game was over briskly in just 2:17. I don’t mind about less baseball as long as we get the same amount of wins. By now we were also tied with the Titans, who had played on Thursday, erasing the half game difference.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Vickers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – 1B Maruyama – RF Pinkerton – 3B Marsingill – C Wall – P Chavez
IND: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 1B McGrath – SS Zeltser – C Ebner – 3B Lambright – P Terwilliger

Fowler and Baron both had in common that they were batting under .200 and leading their team in bombs, and they both hit one in their first attempt in this game. Unfortunately, Fowler’s was a solo in the second, and Baron’s a 2-piece in the first, with Dan Schneller on base after an earlier single. The Raccoons would go on to tie the game in the fourth after the 6-7-8 batters all reached base with two outs and Garbinski overran Kurt Wall’s single for an extra base, allowing Preston Pinkerton to come around to tie things up. Unfortunately, Bernie Chavez struck out with two men on to end the inning for the second time in the contest.

…and then it all came apart. Terwilliger hit an innocent 1-out single in the bottom 5th, but it spiralled out of control fast against Chavez, who got a fly from Sanchez, but then walked Schneller in a full count, then had back-to-back pitches rammed out of the park by John Baron and Josh Garbinski, one to left and one to right. In a hurry, the Indians were up 6-2, and the Raccoons looked like they’d seen enough for the day. Marsingill drew a 2-out walk in the sixth, and was stranded when Wall grounded out. Nobody reached in the seventh, and when Fowler singled with one gone in the eighth, Maruyama popped out on a 3-1 pitch as he rapidly regressed towards awful, and Jason Keller, hitting for Pinkerton against just-arrived reliever Chris Henry, grounded out poorly to end the inning. Bernardo Martinez retired Marsingill, Morales, and Myers in order in the ninth. 6-2 Indians.

One of those “Bernie Chavez games”, giving up six hits for six runs on three homers. Boston beat the Elks, 2-1, so the Raccoons could at best hope for a tie at the end of the week, and would not get first place in their own right on Sunday.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 1B Maruyama – 2B Stalker – P Sabre
IND: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 1B McGrath – SS Zeltser – C Ebner – 3B Lambright – P Bressner

Manny singled, Fowler doubled, and the Coons got a first-inning run before Morales struck out to turn it over to the Arrowheads. The Raccoons got another run on a 2-out double an inning later, when with Ed Hooge on second base Raffaello Sabre hit a gapper that stretched away from Garbinski for an RBI double, making it a 2-0 game. On the mound, Sabre pitched a low-key effort that was nevertheless effective; he had only one strikeout (of Bressner) through five innings, but also allowed only one base hit (a Baron single in the fourth) and one walk (to Lambright in the third), and while the Indians made hard contact at times, he looked in pretty good shape!

More offense was of course always welcome. Dave Myers opened the sixth with a double off the fence in left, and Lambright couldn’t cut off Manny Fernandez’ bouncer over the third base bag that became a single caroming around in foul ground. By the time Garbinski collected the ball, Myers was on the way home, and Garbinski’s throw to home plate allowed Manny to zoom into second base in a 3-0 game. Fowler, batting a strong .205, was walked intentionally to get Morales up, batting .365 AND countering Bressner, but of course he was always a double play candidate. The ploy didn’t work – Tony ran a full count, then clicked a single up the middle, with Fernandez scurrying home and beating Baron’s throw, 4-0. After Hooge grounded out, Maruyama got four wide ones to bring up a struggling Tim Stalker, who was 1-for-14 on the week and slipped a grounder right at Schneller for a double play that killed the inning. Portland DID tack on two against Shane Jacobs in the seventh, though. Berto hit a double, and with two outs Manny Fernandez with a single and Justin Fowler with another double both drove in another run, stretching the score to 6-0.

That was a comfy lead for Sabre, who was on a mild 72 pitches through six innings and had a solid chance to get a shutout here, something he had last spun in ’34. Ex-Coon Bob Zeltser singled with two outs in the bottom 7th to drag that inning out quite a bit with a lengthy K to Ebner following. All of a sudden Sabre, who had gone to a full count against Garbinski to begin the inning, was over 90 pitches and the shutout receded into the distance. Lambright flew out to Fowler, Ryan Czachor popped out, and Pablo Sanchez grounded out to Ramos to complete eight, with Sabre on 102 pitches. Justin Fowler left the game after the eighth, replaced by Keller, who entered in rightfield with Manny moving over. Sabre batted for himself to begin the ninth, so the Critters showed confidence he could get through the 2-3-4 batters in the ninth, where several things happened. Schneller drew a leadoff walk in a full count, which sucked, and it also started to rain. Sabre fell to 3-0 on John Baron, who then poked into a fielder’s choice. Garbinski was back at the dish, batting .281 with 3 dingers from the left side. Sabre claimed to still have something left, but allowed a deep fly to center. Well, Fernandez caught it, no harm done. Now he can face McGrath, too. McGrath popped out foul, and the Raccoons had another shutout! 6-0 Critters! M. Fernandez 3-4, 2 RBI; Fowler 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Hooge 1-2, 2 BB; Sabre 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-2) and 1-4, 2B, RBI;

In other news

April 28 – 36-year-old NYC 3B/SS Guillermo Obando (.205, 0 HR, 2 RBI) lands his 2,500th base hit with a 3-hit performance in a 3-2 loss to the Falcons. The milestone hit comes right in the first inning, a single off CHA SP Bryce Sparkes (1-2, 2.68 ERA). Obando is a 5-time All Star and one-time Gold Glover in his second tour of duty with the Crusaders. He also played with the Capitals, Wolves, and Rebels in his career, for which he has batted .289/.358/.373 with 31 HR and 796 RBI. His 579 stolen bases rank him second all-time behind Pablo Sanchez (703).
April 28 – DEN SP Miguel Alvarado (2-0, 1.96 ERA) stretches a no-hitter into the ninth inning before TOP OF/1B Chris Herrington (.300, 1 HR, 1 RBI) doubles with one out in the inning. 1B Jake Evans (.256, 3 HR, 11 RBI) singles to plate the Buffos’ first run and Denver elects to have Robby Ciampa (0-1, 4.50 ERA, 1 SV) save the 2-1 game before it gets away from a sorrowful looking Alvarado.
April 28 – CIN OF/1B Dick Oshiita (.354, 4 HR, 14 RBI) has his hitting streak snap at 32 games with an 0-for-4 against the Scorpions. The Cyclones get whooped, 14-4.

Complaints and stuff

Sabre threw 122 pitches for the 2-hit shutout on Sunday, so he couldn’t possibly have gone much longer. The game was over in 2:34, three minutes shorter than Saturday’s game, which gave the entirety of the weekend set a total length of under seven and a half hours.

And now that we all had some time to grin stupidly, here’s the bad news: Justin Fowler didn’t come out for no reason on Sunday in the eighth inning. Dr. Chung found by pulling on a hurting digit that he had torn thumb ligaments and he would at least miss the rest of the month. When I heard that I clamored for the baseball gods to instead strike me with infirmity, but they weren’t gonna – they had more fun torturing me this way.

With Fowler to the DL, the entire middle of the lineup from Opening Day has now been wiped out with injuries. How precisely we’re still fifth in runs scored and second in the North is quite beyond me. Fowler’s replacement is rather obvious – the Raccoons will bring up Jesus Maldonado to play center every day. He was currently batting .290/.343/.430 in AAA. He probably would have come up sooner rather than later anyway, but we all thought he’d do so on the dead body of Jason Keller…

Thankfully we’ve had strong offensive participation from other parties, f.e. a surprisingly competent hitting display from Ed Hooge, who’s now shockingly a regular, and Tony Morales has a blinding .929 OPS. I called Cristiano in Portland and asked whether he thought the .400 BABIP was sustainable for him, in response to which he just chuckled and hung up.

The trip continues to New York, after which we’ll travel cross country to Sacramento. The week after that we’ll start a 2-week homestand by hosting the Rebels.

Fun Fact: Alberto Ramos is closing in on 50 WAR at the tender age of 30.

Now, WAR is a useless stat, as I always say, but some people, like Cristiano, like to use it for all kinds of smart-alecking. Apparently it means something to some people, like… astrology.

For his career, Berto has a .308/.398/.387 clip, a solid 1,674 base hits, 797 walks, and 525 stolen bases. His career OPS is .784, but he only ever had two injury-riddled seasons where he posted values over .800, and those were actually over .900, during his age 22-23 seasons, when he was still a growing boy and we just rode him too hard, or something, I don’t know, I’m not a doctor.

(observes Dr. Chung marking dotted lines halfway up Fowler’s forearm)

And the longer I look at Dr. Chung, the less I think he’s a doctor, either.

04-18-2020, 07:19 PM	#3161
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	2035 PLAYOFFS By the time the Raccoons lost in seven, the FLCS was already over, naturally, since it also had been the first series to start. It had pitted a pair of 97-65 clubs against each other, with the twice-defending champs, the Warriors, coming from the CL South, which they had won by 11 games, and who had been assigned home field advantage. The Warriors had the best rotation in the Federal League (but a mediocre pen), and had the second-highest total of runs scored mostly on the strength of the long ball (173 HR, 1st in ABL); they had been average in batting average and on-base percentage, and they couldn’t steal bases at all. Besides almost an entire lineup filld to the brim with double-digit dinger swatters, they also had a balanced lineup that would give every pitcher a headache, while their starters were mostly southpaws. Opposite them, the Capitals had won the CL North by four games. They had scored the most runs in the FL (beating the Warriors by 17 runs), and had used their league-leading .355 OBP and 155 stolen bases to drive the opposition crazy. They had the second-best rotation and a decent bullpen. Only Kelvin Winborn (.260, 22 HR, 83 RBI) had hit more than 20 dingers, and nobody had driven in more than 83 runs, although leadoff man Enrique Trevino matched that total. Lorenzo Viamontes (21-7, 2.85 ERA) had led the team in wins and ERA. Their lineup tended to lean to the left side, which made analysts give the Warriors an advantage. This was the 12th playoff appearance for the Capitals, who had won three titles in the 1990s, but hadn’t been near the World Series in 12 years, most recently losing to the Titans in both 2022 and 2023. The Warriors made their 13th postseason and also had three titles, some of them even won recently. It was the first FLCS meeting for these teams in the century, but they had split a pair of meetings in the 90s; the Warriors had won the FLCS in ’94, but had lost to the Thunder in the World Series. The Capitals got back at them in ’97, then beat the rising Titans for their most-recent championship. WAS @ SFW … 5-2 … (Capitals lead 1-0) … WAS Travis Adkins 3-4, 3B, RBI; SFW Mario Colon 3-4, HR, RBI; WAS @ SFW … 7-0 … (Capitals lead 2-0) … WAS Scott Martin 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI; WAS Jerry Banda 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0) The Capitals pour out six runs in the first inning and 25-year-old Jerry Banda paces himself for a complete-game win to take an early convincing lead. SFW @ WAS … 3-2 … (Capitals lead 2-1) SFW @ WAS … 3-15 … (Capitals lead 3-1) … WAS Adam Avakian 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; WAS Kelvin Winborn 2-4, 3 RBI; WAS Ross Sibley 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; WAS Scott Martin 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; WAS Noel Ferrero 4-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; SFW @ WAS … 1-3 … (Capitals win 4-1) … WAS Travis Adkins 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; WAS Michael Frank 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-0); +++ 2035 WORLD SERIES The well-rested Capitals got home field advantage in the second meeting of 97-65 teams in this World Series. Both teams had led their league in offense, and the Condors had even led theirs in terms of fewest runs allowed. They had the best rotation ERA in the CL, the best bullpen ERA, and also a better defense than the Capitals, at least. Both teams revolved around stolen bases and getting on base to strangulate the enemy, but the Capitals were better at it; while the Condors had scored the most runs in the CL, the Capitals in the traditionally more offensive-minded Federal League had outscored them by 72 runs – this year the difference in batting average between FL and CL was 11 points and the difference in league ERA was 22 points, but there was natural fluctuation there and occasionally the CL saw more scoring, which had happened three times in the last ten years, but on average the FL had about 5 points more in batting average and 7 points more in ERA. Caps and Condors had met once in the World Series – the Capitals won the 1990 title in seven games against the Condors. Despite this, many considered the Condors the slightly better package overall, but they had the short turnaround and the Caps were as well rested as could be. +++ TIJ @ WAS … 4-5 … (Capitals lead 1-0) … WAS Kelvin Winborn 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; TIJ @ WAS … 1-2 … (Capitals lead 2-0) … WAS Nate Evans 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; WAS Jerry Banda 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-0); WAS @ TIJ … 4-5 … (Capitals lead 2-1) … TIJ Shane Sanks 2-2, 2 BB, 3B, RBI; WAS @ TIJ … 5-6 … (series tied 2-2) … WAS Kaleb Holder 3-4, BB, 2B; WAS Ross Sibley 3-4, 2B, RBI; TIJ Chris Murphy 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B, RBI; WAS @ TIJ … 5-2 … (Capitals lead 3-2) … WAS Noel Ferrero 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; TIJ Chris Murphy 2-5, 2 RBI; TIJ Justin Williams 3-4; The Condors lose the pivotal Game 5 despite out-hitting the Caps, 8-7, when they strand nine runner on base to the Caps’ three. TIJ @ WAS … 2-6 … (Capitals win 4-2) … TIJ Juan Palbes 2-3, BB, RBI; WAS Kelvin Winborn 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; WAS Jerry Banda 9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (3-0); A complete-game 6-hitter from Jerry Banda and a clutch first-inning, 2-out, 3-run homer of Omar Uribe (0-2, 6.00 ERA) get the Capitals into the fast lane. They never trail in the game and close out the series solidly for their first championship in almost 40 years! 2035 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS Washington Capitals (4th title) Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

04-18-2020, 07:58 PM	#3162
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	After our inglorious return to Portland, I immediately absconded and disappeared for days. By the time Maud found me without pants, sprawled on the counter at a shady shanty near the Columbia River docks called “The One-Eyed Assassin’s Arms”, the Capitals had a lead of two games to one. By the time she had me sobered up and redressed, the national anthem played for Game 5. I was no joy to be around of for at least another week afterwards, but when had I ever been? As exhilarating as the rally from 46-62 had been, as suffocating had been the smothering Game 7 defeat. The way they had played suggested that maybe we should get a new offense AND a new pitching staff – although that was probably unfair. Through at least Game 3 the Raccoons had been gritty and tough as nails, and looking back – though hindsight was 20/20 and in 2020 the Coons had blown up a tie-breaker game by pitching NICK ***ING LESTER in extra innings – we probably lost the series all the way back in Game 1, squandering a scoring opportunity in the top of the ninth before being walked off on. If the Coons win that game, they’re up 3-0 after one day back in Portland. In the end, we ran into Juan Garcia three times, and never could beat the old leather boot (and neither could the Caps; he won Game 3). The 29-year-old Dominican, who was an ardent student of the game and watched hours of video each day of pitchers AND hitters, went 3-0 with a 2.56 ERA in four starts in the postseason, winning every game he entered but Game 1 in the CLCS. This was on the heels of 23.2 innings in the previous playoffs in which nobody had scored on him at all. For his career, he was 4-0 with a 1.46 ERA in seven playoff starts. Most of the damage this year was done by the Capitals, with the Coons only scoring six runs (five earned) in 24 innings against him. Garcia had won the CLCS, and had the Condors given him the chance to pitch Game 7 in the World Series, they probably would have walked away winners. The really fun part? He was a late bloomer. All the miracles he had done, he had done for the league minimum. He hadn’t even become a starter for Tijuana until halfway through the 2034 season…! Which brought us to our own pitchers, contracts, and coffers. It was the same spiel as every year, with Nick Valdes complaining about the lack of results and then after lots of begging wiring a check anyway. This year’s check amounted to $37.5M, up $3M from last year, moving the Raccoons from t-15th to t-12th in the ABL, matching the Gold Sox’ budget. It would certainly allow a move or two, and those would be necessary, but more on that later. The top 5 spenders were the Titans ($49.5M), Pacifics ($48.5M), Condors ($48M), Warriors ($47.5M), and Capitals ($45M). In the bottom 5 you’d find the Buffaloes ($29.4M), Aces ($27.6M), Rebels, Loggers ($25.2M each), and Falcons ($23.8M). The missing CL North teams were t-9th (NYC, $39M), 14th (IND, $36.5M), and 17th (VAN, $33M). The average budget was $37.05M, about $150k more than a year ago. The median budget amounted to $37.5M, up $1M from last season. All of this brought us swiftly to what the dough would be spent on, and that was mostly players. The first round of decisions would come up in arbitration hearings. The Raccoons had ten arbitration eligible players and four free agents that were interesting in that regard, with most of their bullpen getting involved. This included closer Ed Blair, who voided his 2036 contract via player option to test the free agency waters at age 33. Like the other free agency cases (Zitzner, Zeltser, Gowan), he was not compensation eligible, which was highly regrettable. Off the top of my head, Zeltser might be the only guy we’d offer another contract to, but he’d have to take a bit of a cut from his $1.62M salary given he had hit for a .670 OPS… The arbitration list included a bunch of players that were non-tender candidates with Bates, Scheffer, Marsingill, and Salgado. Hennessy looked completely messed up, too, unraveled by injuries, and he’d cost half a million to keep around. We could save over $2M by dumping all five of those, turn half of it into a contract for Bob Zeltser, and still have roundabout $5M left over to take to the marketplace. Or, given how our recent acquisitions went, make a road trip to Reno and bet it all on black. That sounded about as smart as bringing in Adam Avakian in the Zitzner trade with the Knights, dumping him on the Caps, and then claiming Zitzner off waivers. So the Raccoons had potentially big construction projects on both infield corners and in their pen. We were certainly trying to improve the team rather than tearing it down. Why would we tear it down? We were division champs! …on a solid 84 wins. (cough) Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

04-20-2020, 02:27 AM	#3163
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	How would building on a certified winner like this 2035 Raccoons team look like? The starting pitching had to be sorted out for sure. Darren Brown, Raffaello Sabre, Josh Livingston, Bernie Chavez – who was even a viable starter at this point? Was Livingston’s 2035 season a fluke? Yes, he had only pitched to a 4-3 record and 2.86 ERA in 16 games (14 starts), and wasn’t striking anybody out. His third pitch was a pretty unimpressive changeup. He hadn’t won a game after August 17, even as the Raccoons were rallying to win the division. Brown was a bit of a short-tempered troublemaker, which was not the sort of player you wanted around unless he was carrying the team to a pennant. Brown, 26, had pitched 75 innings in the majors in ’35 (including CLCS), which was a career-high, sadly. He also hadn’t gotten anybody out in Game 7. Not that anybody had gotten anybody out in Game 7… Nothing to worry about Bernie Chavez, though. With his contract he wasn’t going anywhere for sure after posting a 4.57 ERA, precisely two runs higher than his 2034 campaign. Those six more years for $12M were ours. In terms of first basemen, the Raccoons would have options on the free agent market. Jay Elder, Kevin McGrath and others, all All Stars, some even recently, and each of them in the sunset of their careers, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t pump out another strong season or two. McGrath, 36, for example had hit 22 homers with a .266 clip for the Pacifics in ’35. When it came to salary arbitration, the Raccoons cut some ties. Right-hander Nick Bates was non-tendered, but southpaw John Hennessy was. Both had been horrendous in a small sample size in ’35, but at least Hennessy had injuries as an excuse. Bates, 30, was just no longer a player anybody would wait on voluntarily. Also gone would be Philip Scheffer and Hugo Salgado, who would both cost half a million to be extremely unimpressive off the bench – besides, between Kurt Wall and Tony Morales the Raccoons already had two catchers that they had to make work out together, somehow. No place for Scheffer. Another potential erasure candidate, Justin Marsingill was retained only because his arbitration estimate was only $320k and he ultimately signed a 1-year extension for $310k. No new contract was in the books for Bob Zeltser, who was bound for free agency and judged himself worth some $13M over five years after hitting .253/.328/.351 in ’35, batting seventh or eighth quite a lot. For some reason he felt hard done by and his demand apparently included damages, too. Ed Blair had no interest in any real negotiations at this point; at 33, this was likely his last chance for a major windfall, and he was gonna roll the dice. Whether that would make Chris Wise closer by default in ’36 or whether the Raccoons could find budget space for a new closer somewhere else remained up in the air at this point. Jimmy Wallace was another interesting case. He was up for arbitration one final time and considered his time had come for the big bucks. To his credit, he wasn’t trying to break the bank and my heart at the same time. He longed for five years at a modest, roundabout $6.5M. That didn’t sound so bad that it couldn’t be moved elsewhere in case of a downturn in terms of success. However, there was always the problem of his atrocious defense. He was a solid above-average hitter, posting OPS+ values between 105 and 117 every time he got a full season on the major league roster. He had hit a career-high 20 homers in ’35, and he was a rather tough strikeout. However, his defense was an eyesore. In 131 games (129 starts) in ’35, he managed to lose the team a full win just by playing leftfield. His defensive efficiency was .924 in left for his career, and it wasn’t much better in right (where he had played for most of his first two seasons). On and off over the last few years we had toyed with the idea of moving him to first base. During infrequent infield drills however he proved unable to smother any throw by an infielder that didn’t go into his glove right away. Unfortunately, this was not a problem fixed with glasses or corrective surgery; he had 20/20 vision. He was just THAT clumsy. I will still claim that the Raccoons won the trade with the Buffos in 2030 where we picked him up, because we left them with nothing but garbage that was mostly out of organized baseball by now, and the one player that remained (albeit on the Miners), Izzy Chavez, was one of the worst relievers in the Federal League that hadn’t been demoted last season. At least we had gotten 5+ years of a .283, 74 HR, 400 RBI batter… __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here. Last edited by Westheim; 04-20-2020 at 04:04 AM.

04-24-2020, 12:25 PM	#3164
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	I am embarrassed to announce that the St. Petersburg Alley Cats won the AAA championship despite being ravaged for players, beating the Anaheim Nautilus in seven games for the title while we here were kind of occupied with other things. Ham Lake (.500) and Aumsville (woeful) were nowhere the playoffs in their leagues. The Alley Cats win the title for the third time after 1992 and 2021. The first big-league players signed 1-year extensions at the end of October. Marsingill got the aforementioned $310k, and Kurt Wall inked for $925k. The next were Manny Fernandez ($665k) and John Hennessy ($490k). The big news came as November broke and the Raccoons announced a 5-year deal with Jimmy Wallace. The whole shebang was worth $5.8M only, which was rather cheap for a consistent above-average hitter, but of course everybody knew where his shortcomings were. That horse had been beaten to death and beyond by now. Wallace would make $800k in ’36, then $1.25M each for the four years after that while we would continue to watch his defense deteriorate from what it already was… and I’m also not gonna lie, that Nick Valdes wanted to see a different player in leftfield made me want to resign Wallace even more! At the same time the Agitator reported that the Coons had offered Chris Wise a 4-year deal – which was actually true. He signed it in early November, and would be paid $1.1M each of the next four years. Sabre was the last guy that got an offer to sign it, getting $800k for 2036. Consequently, Hugo Salgado, Philip Scheffer, and Nick Bates were all non-tendered and thus reached free agency along with regularly eligible players Travis Zitzner, Bob Zeltser, and Steve Gowan, plus finally Ed Blair, who wanted outta here badly enough to void his player option for 2036. As far as minor leaguers were concerned, only C David Tinnin became a free agent. He made nine appearances with the Raccoons (eight in ’33, one in ’34) and hit .100 (2-for-20) with 1 RBI. Once free agency arrived one of my potential additions that I had pencilled down immediately fell through. Robbie Peel, 30-year-old lefty of the Miners, had become a free agent. He had saved 44 games and won 14 (!!!) in 2035, casually grabbing more wins than all of the Raccoons’ starters sans Gilberto Rendon (15, phew!). Alas, Peel was a type A free agent, and I didn’t feel like signing away our #16 pick for him. Chris Wise had a 1.92 ERA in ’35. Maybe he can click as closer this time… Oh well, there were more players out there to blow millions on. The Raccoons had to figure out what to do with Josh Livingston, too, who had nothing but a shrug and excuse for a third pitch and after the initial flash had trended towards mediocrity. Livingston aside, we still have four tried and proven starters (Rendon, Willes, Sabre, Chavez), plus whatever the heck Darren Brown counted for. There were also still a steady five core relievers from ’35 around (Wise, David Fernandez, Prieto, Kulp, Garavito), with Hennessy, Citriniti, and Thomson also still on the extended roster. The batting half of the roster had melted down to 13 players, but with holes. We had our catchers for ’36 in Morales and Wall – that was just final. In the outfield, Fowler was in center, Wallace and Manny Fernandez were certainly starters against right-handed pitching, but the supporting cast was not exciting: Preston Pinkerton and Ed Hooge would make for an okay backup pair. Jesus Maldonado we saw more as going back to AAA to start the year and then perhaps promoting in May or June or in case of injury – he was too precious to rot on the bench or platoon with Wallace. Of course, first base was an actual option with Maldonado, and we didn’t have any other half-decent first baseman. Topping our depth chart there was Chiyosaku Maruyama, and I’d rather not… On the infield, five players remained. Berto was the only guaranteed starter at short. The odd couple of right-handed second baseman, Stalker (in a contract year again) and Vickers completed the middle infield, although Justin Marsingill, the only current option for the hot corner, could also fill in there. Matt Triolo was not likely to make the Opening Day roster, but could also play second, short, and third. There were no hot and ready prospects on the AAA infield, either. 22-year-old 1B/C Jeff Wilson (the #33 pick in 2034) had split time between all three minor league levels in ’35, but had only hit 10 homers in 132 games. 21-year old 2B Jose Brito (2030 July IFA signing) had batted .295 with 12 homers in 78 games in AAA (after starting the year in Ham Lake), but needed more seasoning, too. The rest was broken garbage heap pick-ups of the Edgar Barrios mold. So there was definitely room for one or two corner infield signings, and I already had at least one candidate in mind… +++ November 10 – The Scorpions send CL Jorge Villegas jr. (3-4, 2.79 ERA, 29 SV)* to the Bayhawks for three prospects. The package includes #48 prospect CL Mario Benavides. November 16 – The Rebels acquire utility player Adam Mitchell (.282, 5 HR, 52 RBI) from the Gold Sox, parting with 1B Gastao Rosado (.270, 14 HR, 90 RBI). November 16 – The Aces pick up C Paul Kuehn (.254, 5 HR, 45 RBI) from the Knights, who receive two players in MR Shinsaburo Matsubara (11-17, 4.54 ERA, 13 SV) and a prospect. +++ 2035 AWARDS Player of the Year – SFW C Ethan McCullar (.301, 26 HR, 93 RBI) and TIJ 3B Shane Sanks (.269, 29 HR, 107 RBI) Pitchers of the Year – SAL SP Phil Harrington (22-6, 1.93 ERA) and LVA SP Chris Crowell (20-7, 2.77 ERA) Rookies of the Year – NAS OF Sean Ashley (.281, 15 HR, 55 RBI) and NYC 1B Johnny Lopez (.274, 12 HR, 54 RBI) Relievers of the Year – DEN CL Josh Boles (8-7, 2.59 ERA, 41 SV) and TIJ MR Josh Heckman (4-4, 1.78 ERA, 3 SV) Platinum Sticks (FL) – P DEN Mike Hodge – C SFW Ethan McCullar – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B RIC Ben Freeman – 3B PIT Omar Lastrade – SS SAL Jose Castro – LF CIN Ken Gibbs – CF SAC Mark Vermillion – RF DEN Kyle Beard Platinum Sticks (CL) – P TIJ Jimmy Driver – C CHA Ernesto Huichapa – 1B OCT Danny Cruz – 2B IND Dan Schneller – 3B TIJ Shane Sanks – SS POR Alberto Ramos – LF OCT Luis Sagredo – CF POR Justin Fowler – RF ATL Roy Pincus Gold Gloves (FL) – P SAL Brandon Nickerson – C WAS Nate Evans – 1B CIN Chris Delagrange – 2B DEN Wayne Morris – 3B CIN Kyle Lusk – SS SAL Jose Castro – LF PIT Ozzie Burgos – CF SAC Mark Vermillion – RF DEN Kyle Beard Gold Gloves (CL) – P MIL William Stockwell – C CHA Ernesto Huichapa – 1B LVA Jesse Stedham – 2B TIJ Jason Bensinger – 3B BOS Antonio Gil – SS IND Juan Benito – LF ATL Luis Inoa – CF MIL Tyler Prestwood – RF BOS Moises Avila Two Platinum Sticks is better than nothing, they say where I come from. And, “if you steal my chicken, I will shoot you in the face”. Berto previously won Sticks in 2030 and 2031, then while pushing an .800 OPS. It’s weird seeing him win with a .283/.380/.332 slash. Fowler won his fourth Stick, taking one in every year Ramos won one, plus 2032, all of those in the FL for the Pacifics. Of course none of this can overcome the stomach bleed I have from the skunk weasel taking his fifth POTY award. +++ in 2035. All others were after the free agency filing date and thus show career stats. __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

04-24-2020, 06:17 PM	#3166
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	Yes, but when have I ever not extended a player after non-stop bitching about him for four seasons? __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

04-24-2020, 02:03 PM	#3165
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 961	Kind of surprised you sign Wallace. I guess he’s a decent hitter but you can’t hide him. I know there is no DH in this league, but how about a DF (designated fielder)? Hopefully Wallace works out, but I’d have my hand on the trigger to send him to Salem maybe

04-25-2020, 03:40 PM	#3167
UltimateAverageGuy All Star Reserve Join Date: Jan 2017 Posts: 588	What years settings do you use?

04-26-2020, 12:56 PM	#3169
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	The Raccoons didn’t close shop after the rule 5 draft, not at all… +++ December 2 – The Raccoons sign ex-WAS 1B Kevin Harenberg (.298, 277 HR, 1,287 RBI) to a 2-year contract. The 38-year-old 16-year veteran stands to make $4.6M as part of the deal. +++ Now, that was some news. Even the Agitator had trouble finding enough vitriol for a second page of derisive comments and the fans loved it, at least that’s what Cristiano told me from observing Gobble, the concept of which was still beyond me. There were several positives form that addition. First, we had a first baseman that had already had success with the team and that we were reasonably confident with not killing us on a daily basis. Second, the contract saw him guaranteed $2.4M for this season, while 2037 was a vesting option worth $2.2M and requiring him to play 120 games, so if old man issues befell him often enough, we wouldn’t be on the hook for that. Preston Pinkerton was displeased for having to let go of #18, but Harenberg got the number back that he had worn in his first Coons stint and I wasn’t going to listen to any amount of bickering about it. – No, Preston, no! – You either stuff your snout with your banana and apple slices in your food bowl now, or I’ll take it away!! (wrestles with Pinkerton over the food bowl) Of course, the offseason was far form over, but the two biggest vacancies had been addressed, and now it was about rounding out the edges of the roster. We still had about $2.5M in the coffers, although there was already an offer out there to another player. +++ December 4 – The Titans sign former Thunder catcher Mike Burgess (.276, 207 HR, 821 RBI) to a 2-yr, $7.48M contract. December 4 – Former Raccoons closer Ed Blair (45-35, 3.11 ERA, 97 SV) joins the Condors for a 3-year deal worth $3.36M. December 6 – Ex-LVA LF/RF Graciano Salto (.262, 148 HR, 604 RBI) signs with the Crusaders. The 32-year-old gets a 2-yr, $4.68M deal. December 6 – With Salto signed, the Crusaders trade another 32-year-old corner outfielder, Keith Damron (.246, 114 HR, 483 RBI) to the Bayhawks for 2B/SS Kenny Elder (.253, 11 HR, 46 RBI) and #81 prospect CL Scott Holton. In a further deal, the Crusaders send Rookie of the Year (!) 1B Johnny Lopez (.272, 13 HR, 59 RBI) to the Canadiens for C Michael Duryea (.242, 12 HR, 37 RBI). December 6 – Upon shipping INF Jonathan Rivera (.237, 14 HR, 159 RBI) and #36 prospect OF Ethan Moore to the Thunder, the Scorpions receive SP Miguel Bojorques (60-77, 4.52 ERA) and cash. December 8 – The Buffaloes sign journeyman SP Josh D’Agostino (60-69, 4.05 ERA) to a 3-year contract. The 29-year-old will make $3.88M over three years after last pitching with the Rebels. December 8 – The Aces send reliever Casey McQueen (13-15, 5.13 ERA, 39 SV) to the Knights for two prospects. December 9 – The Thunder swap SP Ignacio del Rio (48-47, 4.18 ERA) to the Crusaders for two prospects, including #78 prospect SP Aaron Bryant. December 10 – The hyperactive Crusaders acquire 3B Greg Ortiz (.267, 93 HR, 496 RBI) from the Falcons for three prospects. December 20 – The Knights ink ex-PIT CL Robbie Peel (28-27, 4.14 ERA, 94 SV), handing a 3-yr, $5.76M contract to the Jamaican lefty. +++ The winter meetings saw us in discussions with several teams. The Titans tried to get rid of Ivan Vega, 33, and also thought of the Raccoons, because, y’know, we ain’t got no outfielders or something like that. They had it in their head that we’d want to get rid of Colt Willes, which wasn’t necessarily the case. Ultimately nothing materialized, and we were in a tight spot with our trading. The positions where we had lots of personnel and tried to get rid of a select few were far between, and then other teams rarely had interest in our players. For example, Darren Brown was almost impossible to gauge for 2036. He had been all the way from totally in the zone to out of his mind in his brief, injury-riddled career. He had also majorly cocked up Game 7 in Tijuana. No team was keen on adding him, especially not for a prospect. Also, the Raccoons were really hogging their remaining prospects and wouldn’t let go of any. Other new engagements for former Critters: Noel Ferrero landed with the Pacifics for 3-yr, $1.71M; Adrian Reichardt rejoins the Titans at age 38 after three years abroad on an $850k deal; Giovanni James would make $560k with the Stars in 2036; Nick Bates got $560k from the Crusaders, but would have to work two years for it; Steve Gowan got 2-yr, $1.21M from the Thunder; the Falcons had $346k worth of mercy with Travis Zitzner; Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

04-26-2020, 07:25 PM	#3170
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 961	�� They signed the old guy. Edit - that was a screaming icon that wasn’t visible Last edited by DD Martin; 04-26-2020 at 07:27 PM.

04-27-2020, 07:10 PM	#3171
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	December 21 – The Indians ink a 1-year deal with veteran ex-LAP 1B Kevin McGrath (.273, 213 HR, 976 RBI). The 36-year-old will make $1.44M for his troubles. December 24 – The Raccoons win the bidding for established Korean star Yeom “The Warden” Soung, who signs a 3-yr, $2.775M contract. December 25 – The Crusaders get ex-CIN SP Geoff Whitehouse (85-79, 3.70 ERA) on a 2-yr, $5.84M deal. December 26 – Former Rebel SP Kyle Dominy (59-60, 3.66 ERA) signs a new 4-yr, $15.96M contract with the Gold Sox. +++ The southpaw Soung doesn’t have his nickname for nothing. He was the dominant closer in the Korean League. Armed with an absolutely unfair screwball he should find a home in the ABL no problem. He’ll be 31 years old by the time his first Opening Day will roll around. The bullpen gets even more crowded with this addition, but there was one easy way to make room. Vance Harbison, our rule 5 pick, was by now pretty much guaranteed to not find a place on the Opening Day roster and would be returned to the Capitals after all. Even with Citriniti and Thomson also to be removed to AAA, that still left 13 quality pitchers for 12 spots. Oh what a terrible problem to have! We were now getting really close to our budget space, so trading away one piece for a prospect was always an option. In fact, we had an offer out there for another reliever…! Oh, and there was also a Hall of Fame ballot out that had so far gone rather unnoticed because we were occupied with other stuff. I blame Maud. She’s supposed to keep me organized. – Maud, where’s the Hall of Fame ballot? – Which pile of newspapers did you put it on…? – The window? – The one with the Daily Tribune on top…? – (reads headline) “Dewey defeats Truman” … Doesn’t sound like pitchers I recognize. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here. Last edited by Westheim; 04-27-2020 at 07:12 PM.

04-28-2020, 03:36 PM	#3172
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	December 30 – The Condors sign 35-yr old ex-Titans stalwart 2B/3B Rhett West (.251, 116 HR, 798 RBI) to a 2-yr, $2.8M contract. December 31 – Dallas adds ex-SAL/CIN SP Jong-hoo Cho (94-80, 4.01 ERA) for 2-yr, $2.48M. December 31 – Meanwhile the Indians help themselves to ex-DAL CL Chris Henry (29-31, 3.11 ERA, 150 SV) at a 3-yr, $5.28M price. January 2 – Portland adds more relief with former Crusaders MR Casey Moore (35-43, 3.00 ERA, 129 SV), who joins on a 1-yr, $500k contract. January 8 – The Cyclones grab ex-NAS C Matt Cooper (.258, 38 HR, 299 RBI) with a bait four years wide and $5.52M across. January 8 – Richmond also gets a new closer in ex-SFB Jimmy Lohrey (28-34, 4.28 ERA, 119 SV), who signs for $5.28M over three years. January 16 – The Titans trade infielder Todd Johnson (.239, 17 HR, 194 RBI) to the Aces for MR Jeremy Wallis (11-7, 3.77 ERA, 1 SV) and a prospect. January 17 – The Indians sign ex-POR 3B/SS Bob Zeltser (.299, 80 HR, 484 RBI) to a 1-year deal worth $1.34M. January 23 – LVA OF Justin Simmons (.269, 16 HR, 159 RBI) is traded to the Knights, who part with SP Drew Johnson (34-37, 4.60 ERA) in the deal. +++ Not gonna be snippy or anything, but Zeltser could have gotten a better deal here… Moore was added as much for his pitching (those walks, though…) as his talent to keep a clubhouse in order. We had multiple issues with that in the last few years, and there’s still the odd mindless jerk around (Darren Brown f.e.) that needs slapping on the paws. And I prefer if the players self-police, because if I had to do it I would have to get out of this chair, go through Maud’s room to the hallway, down the left side, through the door, down the staircase, though the other corridor with the toilets, down another staircase right to the bottom, up the right corridor, all the way around the black pit where we keep the failed first round picks, and then down another set of stairs until I am finally at the red door to the clubhouse, and then I have to – Then I’d have to talk to them. Nah. I’d rather not. Vance Harbison was returned to the Caps with the Moore signing to make room on the 40-man roster, which was completely full. Ex-Critters update: Billy Jennings to the Falcons for $310k; the Rebels took on Jarod Howden, the dumb pig, for $322k; Craig Hollenbeck is on the Scorpions for $384k; Fernando Garcia landed with the Thunder for $392k; 41-year-old Mark Roberts hooked up with the Blue Sox for $840k; the Condors found room and $416k for Elias Matias Tovias Diaz; +++ 2036 HALL OF FAME VOTING The Hall of Fame inducted two new members from the current ballot, both making it into the Hall on their first year on the ballot, while Gil Rockwell remains on the outside looking in with only one more year to go for him. Missouri-born, Andrew Showalter wore five different uniforms in his career, but always stayed close to Nashville, where he also spent the first seven of his 19 years in the majors. An 8-time All Star and 6-time Platinum Stick winner, he never got onto a championship-winning team, but led the Federal League in hits twice and consistently batted for more than an .825 OPS. The shortstop was adept at legging out extra base hits, logging as many as 70 of them in 2020, and also leading the league in triples once. For his career, he posted an exceptional .311 average, but never won a batting title. His .832 career OPS and 284 homers and 1,371 RBI sure didn’t hurt getting him into the Hall of Fame as a Blue Sock. A catcher in the ABL for 18 years, Ruben Luna spent 15 of them with the Knights. Predominantly known for his bat, he took out seven Platinum Sticks and won the CL Player of the Year award three times (2020, 2023, 2024), but also took home two Gold Gloves in due time. He led the league in slugging once and OPS twice, and also won two home run titles in 2024 and 2025. Unfortunately, he never won a World Series ring. For his career, the Dominican left-handed batter hit .257/.363/.426 with 274 homers and a 1,117 RBI. NAS SS Andrew Showalter – 1st – 89.4 – INDUCTED ATL C Ruben Luna – 1st – 83.8 – INDUCTED ATL LF Gil Rockwell – 9th – 60.0 ??? SP Chris Klein – 2nd – 51.5 LAP C Errol Spears – 4th – 35.3 CIN 3B Eddie Moreno – 1st – 30.2 SFW SS Jamie Wilson – 1st – 24.7 ??? CL Jarrod Morrison – 4th – 20.9 ??? SP Ernest Green – 3rd – 15.7 ??? SP Ian Van Meter – 4th – 12.3 NAS C Pat Walston – 5th – 10.6 ??? SP Bob King – 10th – 8.5 – DROPPED ??? CL Ben Marx – 2nd – 7.7 OCT 2B Emilio Farias – 3rd – 5.5 ATL SS Devin Hibbard – 3rd – 5.5 PIT SP Pedro Hernandez – 3rd – 4.3 – DROPPED ??? CL Harry Merwin – 1st – 1.7 – DROPPED SAC 1B Luis Moreira – 1st – 1.3 – DROPPED SAC SP Brian Simmons – 2nd – 0.9 – DROPPED Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

05-01-2020, 01:35 PM	#3173
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	There had been some … “miscalculation” when compiling the roster for the 2036 season. See, we decked in on relievers on the free agent market, and by the way didn’t do a single trade the entire offseason. That wasn’t necessarily the plan, but the Raccoons had entered with money and there had been players available that fit the needs. The plan however had always been to trade away Dusty Kulp as soon as the other relievers had signed. Kulp had been so-so on the field, and rather vocal about his unhappiness during the dire part of 2035. I don’t forget easily, sometimes, and so there was still a grudge trade to be made. There was only one problem – nobody wanted Dusty Kulp. I should qualify that. Nobody wanted Dusty Kulp without sending back an overweight 35-year-old centerfielder with bad table manners and a $6M millstone to be tied around my neck. And while that sounded exactly like the type of deal the Raccoons would engorge in, … it didn’t happen. That meant we arrived at a point where we had 14 quality pitchers vying for 12 spots, and if you take out the four starters that were pencilled in for sure, that became 10 pitchers squabbling over eight positions. And I mean it. (opens door to the clubhouse, revealing two handful of Raccoons all in a pile trying to do harm to somebody else; there were Darren Brown and Josh Livingston trying to gouge each other’s eyes out; there was Prieto biting lustfully into David Fernandez’ tail; there was Kulp, sitting on John Hennessy’s face; and there was Chris Wise, dragging Yeom Soung around by an ear; and for some reason, there was Matt Nunley having a BBQ indoors in the background) All is well. +++ February 11 – The Aces acquire 26-yr old SP Bill Quintero (37-45, 4.12 ERA) from the Cyclones, parting with 25-yr old INF Bob Cruz (286, 3 HR, 34 RBI) and a prospect. March 2 – Ex-BOS SP Robby Gonzalez (89-144, 4.33 ERA, 2 SV) signs a 2-yr, $2.48M contract with the Stars. March 13 – Former Falcons corner outfielder Dave Trahan (.252, 46 HR, 248 RBI) hooks up with the Bayhawks on a 2-yr, $2.36M contract. March 20 – Ex-NYC SP Joe Martin (93-98, 3.78 ERA) joins the Miners for 3-yr, $4.44M. +++ Nope never made a trade all winter. Same for the Loggers, Miners, and Pacifics. There really isn’t much more to go through leading up to Opening Day. Except for more ex-Coons signing small deals for pennies long after the snow had melted. Toby Ross signed for $770k with the Warriors; Jared Stone got a 3-yr deal worth $1.37M from the Stars; Juan Camps signed with the Indians for a $328k deal; the Wolves added Pat Okrasinski for two years and $1.1M; Sacramento picked up George James for all of $336k; Rin Nomura took the 2-yr, $884k offer of the Crusaders; Nobody signed a deal worth more than $16M the entire offseason. Maybe teams need to raise beer prices again. We’re selling the six-ounce cup for $35, no wonder we don’t make a profit anymore… __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

05-01-2020, 07:15 PM	#3174
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,765	2036 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2035 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions): SP Gilberto Rendon, 31, B:R, T:R (15-7, 3.08 ERA \| 97-80, 3.83 ERA, 14 SV) – went from highly-paid Opening Day starter right to the new Rico Gutierrez, including a bump to the back end of the rotation, then had a splendid 2035 and bounced right back up in the pecking order. SP Colt Willes, 29, B:R, T:R (12-10, 3.46 ERA \| 52-49, 3.51 ERA) – really steady guy and a big gain for any rotation especially if partnered with a tight defense on the infield, and we can offer that. There is a lot of talent here, and it would be nice to see him win more than 12 games at some point… SP Bernie Chavez, 27, B:R, T:R (10-11, 4.57 ERA \| 46-33, 3.74 ERA) – came off his best career year (3rd in ERA in CL in 2034) by falling apart more or less entirely, despite getting more K/9. His entire 2035 season was a mystery, although we opine that a .352 BABIP behind him at a paw in how things turned out. Not selling him for a bag o’ baseballs yet. 94mph, curve, slider, and the tendency to hang something from time to time with a worst of 24 homers allowed in the 2035 season. SP Raffaello Sabre, 27, B:L, T:R (9-10, 3.74 ERA \| 40-42, 3.83 ERA) – not much remains of the notion that Chavez, Sabre, and since-dumped Ignacio del Rio would lead the Raccoons back to the holy land of the World Series. Sabre was either hurt or crummy in ’35, and hasn’t awed anybody in a while… SP Darren Brown, 26, B:R, T:R (5-2, 2.71 ERA \| 8-7, 3.48 ERA) – injuries, walkfests, glimpsed of solid goodness, and a Game 7 meltdown that ended our season. Brown’s a mixed bag to put it mildly. MR Dusty Kulp, 33, B:S, T:R (3-5, 4.03 ERA, 1 SV \| 47-50, 4.05 ERA, 71 SV) – the one that couldn’t be traded after being vocally unhappy for much of ’35, considering himself the closer. His stats, roughly 3 BB/9, 7 K/9, 5 HR, think it makes us right in not letting him into the ninth inning on a regular basis. MR Antonio Prieto, 25, B:R, T:R (2-2, 4.13 ERA \| 5-7, 3.63 ERA) – struck out more than 10 batters per nine innings but was consistently betrayed by defense (.321 BABIP), so he could be a lot better with some more support. MR David Fernandez, 29, B:L, T:L (4-2, 2.28 ERA, 4 SV \| 19-13, 2.70 ERA, 7 SV) – for getting no love from scouts, Fernandez is a remarkably solid reliever that strikes out roughly a batter per inning and can handle both left- and right-handed batters well. The walks are a bit of a problem, but, eh, lefties, huh? MR Mauricio Garavito, 34, B:L, T:L (4-3, 4.74 ERA, 3 SV \| 24-25, 3.16 ERA, 12 SV) – left-hander with balanced splits that was claimed off waivers by the Bayhawks early in the 2029 season when Jeremy Moesker turned out to be a turd. Has it really been this long?? SU Casey Moore , 34, B:R, T:R (4-7, 3.15 ERA, 3 SV \| 35-43, 3.00 ERA, 129 SV) – long-time in-division rival Casey Moore comes over on a 1-year deal and will hopefully help with retiring the opposition in eighth innings with his splitter. MR Yeom Soung , 31, B:L, T:L (rookie) – an established star from Korea, “The Warden” is expected to deny evil teams access to our leads. His elite screwball should do the job. CL Chris Wise, 29, B:R, T:R (3-3, 1.92 ERA, 3 SV \| 22-21, 2.60 ERA, 120 SV) – Wise inherits the closer’s job for a second time following Ed Blair’s unexpected departure to greener pastures. His 2035 season was impressive, especially considering that .312 BABIP he pitched to. Maybe the cutter action will keep him from losing ten games this time as he did in ’34… C Tony Morales, 21, B:L, T:R (.269, 6 HR, 38 RBI \| .269, 6 HR, 38 RBI) – had a solid half-season debut in ’35, doing above-average work at the plate and behind the dish. We totally hope that he can expand on that. Chances are good, given that he doesn’t turn 22 until later in April. He will be in some sort of platoon with Kurt Wall, but both should get roughly equal playing time. C Kurt Wall, 32, B:R, T:R (.313, 6 HR, 48 RBI \| .292, 29 HR, 211 RBI) – was surely an improvement over the turned-stale Elliott Thompson after a deadline deal with the Miners in ‘34, and continued to be rock solid throughout the 2035 season. Whether he will forever reach base with a .346 BABIP is something else entirely... 1B Kevin Harenberg , 38, B:L, T:L (.292, 16 HR, 62 RBI \| .298, 277 HR, 1,287 RBI) – returns to Portland after being a part of the twice-winning teams from 2026 through 2030; the deal is solid, he can still move about at his advanced age, and this will totally not turn into another orgy of watching Chiyosaku Maruyama start six games a week in July. 2B/SS Tim Stalker, 37, B:R, T:R (.263, 7 HR, 57 RBI \| .262, 117 HR, 777 RBI) – there is no denying it, Tim Stalker is getting long in the tooth; his defense slipped a bit in ’35, but at least he continued to hit steadily, and besides, what bad thing has ever come off a 37-year-old middle infielder? Will be in his 15th season with the Critters. SS Alberto Ramos, 30, B:L, T:R (.283, 0 HR, 39 RBI \| .310, 20 HR, 441 RBI) – Portland’s goodest boy hopes for another healthy season with less slumps. He missed only five games, the fifth time in six years that he largely held up and stayed on the field after his younger-year growing pains, but his bat has recently slipped a bit towards league-average. That still makes him valuable; with six stolen base titles, including those of the last two seasons, every Ramos walk or single as the potential to really be a double. His mark of 519 career stolen bases has him in third place in league history, and he has yet to play a game as a 30-year-old...! 3B/SS Dave Myers , 30, B:R, T:R (.271, 5 HR, 52 RBI \| .285, 39 HR, 354 RBI) – Bob Zeltser’s replacement joins as free agent and has a knack for getting on base, drawing about 70 walks per season, which is not something the Raccoons have had much of on the roster. Consistent above-average hitter virtually guaranteed to post a 110 OPS+; he’s landed within one point of that mark in four of his seven seasons, and six times was in the 109 to 119 band. 2B Rich Vickers, 26, B:R, T:R (.306, 2 HR, 19 RBI \| .292, 7 HR, 56 RBI) – Vickers remains mostly redundant on the roster, but there’s nothing we can do about that right now… 3B/2B/SS/RF Justin Marsingill, 29, B:R, T:R (.291, 2 HR, 16 RBI \| .271, 7 HR, 82 RBI) – versatile infielder and quirky bit player that’s been up and down from St. Pete a whole lot over the years. Hit for an .820 OPS in limited action a year ago, and for a .523 OPS two years ago. His truth is probably somewhere in between. LF/RF Jimmy Wallace, 29, B:L, T:L (.281, 20 HR, 79 RBI \| .284, 54 HR, 321 RBI) – slugged a career-high .444 and netted a 5-year deal even though his presence in leftfield becomes a bit harder to defend, but at least the deal was relatively cheap. Might be the most worthless player by WAR with a 5-year deal on the books in the majors; for his 6-year career he has a total of 5.5 WAR. CF/LF/RF Justin Fowler, 33, B:R, T:R (.309, 26 HR, 113 RBI \| .285, 240 HR, 895 RBI) – no regrets about last year’s big acquisition, who failed to make the lineup 40 times due to nagging injuries, but still managed to lead the CL in RBI and slugging (.533). No notes, Justin, keep being yourself! RF/LF/CF Manny Fernandez, 26, B:L, T:L (.286, 12 HR, 75 RBI \| .276, 25 HR, 184 RBI) – the #5 pick in the 2031 draft made his debut when Adrian Reichardt went to the DL early in the 2033 season and never went away again, amassing almost 400 plate appearances in his debut season and then playing close to a full slate last year. Can really play all outfield positions well and often moves to left in the late innings when Wallace gets purged for defense. LF/RF/CF Ed Hooge, 26, B:L, T:L (.235, 2 HR, 12 RBI \| .241, 5 HR, 45 RBI) – one of those perplexingly useless players that somehow wind up stealing a thousand at-bats over eight seasons before they somehow run out of options and grace at the same time. RF/2B/3B/CF/LF Preston Pinkerton, 30, B:R, T:R (.296, 0 HR, 18 RBI \| .267, 2 HR, 46 RBI) – see Hooge, except that he is also the designated emergency pitcher, with a frightening 26 appearances in four years and a 10.06 ERA in 34 innings – the majority of his pitching appearances were in 2032, when the Raccoons couldn’t buy an out if they still had had credit... On disabled list: Nobody. Otherwise unavailable: Nobody. Other roster movement: SP/MR Josh Livingston, 25, B:R, T:R (6-3, 2.68 ERA \| 10-4, 3.01 ERA, 1 SV) – optioned to Alley Cats; in an unanticipated shock move (and one that wasn’t intended either), the Raccoons sent Livingston to AAA despite pitching to a 2.86 ERA mostly as a starter for the Coons after coming over in a trade with Oklahoma. Livingston as only two and a half pitches, and didn’t win a game after mid-August. MR John Hennessy, 28, B:L, T:L (0-0, 8.10 ERA \| 11-8, 3.31 ERA, 2 SV) – optioned to Alley Cats; had an injury-addled season and when he finally came back in September he was royally awful. Will use his last option after sliding to #4 on the lefty reliever depth chart. CF/RF/3B/SS/LF/1B Jesus Maldonado, 22, B:R, T:R (.271, 0 HR, 6 RBI \| .271, 0 HR, 6 RBI) – optioned to Alley Cats; potential future star that was called up on September and just wasn’t quite ready for prime time (though by no means awful). Projects to become an elite batter. Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived or reassigned during the offseason. OPENING DAY LINEUP: Six lefty bats, seven righty bats on the roster to begin the season, which isn’t all bad, considering that some players are just locks to the lineup anyway and aren’t going to be platooned under any circumstance. Vs. RHP: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Harenberg – CF Fowler – LF Wallace – C Morales – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – P (Vs. LHP: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – 1B Harenberg – CF Fowler – C Wall – LF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Pinkerton – P OFF SEASON CHANGES: The winter without a trade still sees the Raccoons vigorously reinforced. They didn’t quite break the top 5 in terms of WAR gained, but that’s deceptive given that Soung comes from Korea and thus has no WAR value assigned to him. We consider him a major gain, though. Overall we ended up 6th with +5.2 WAR gained, almost all of it coming from the Myers and Harenberg signings. In departures, Bob Zeltser (1.6 WAR) was the only significant loss. Top 5: Crusaders (+9.1), Indians (+9.1), Condors (+7.8), Scorpions (+6.9), Stars (+6.4) Bottom 5: Wolves (-4.2), Canadiens (-4.7), Knights (-7.1), Rebels (-9.1), Thunder (-12.4) PREDICTION TIME: Last year I declared “better offense, more wins, and the playoffs” and that it was “our time”. It definitely was our time, at least starting from August 4. The pre-August 4 Raccoons were dismal, a 46-62 team that couldn’t find their own arse in the dark without the aid of a flashlight. From August 4 forwards they won 38 of 54 games, rallied from last to first, and eeked out the worst CL North playoff-entering record in league history with 84 wins, just ahead of the damn Elks and Titans. The run differential even then hinted at a team that was much better than 84-78, though… The team is improved in quite a few ways, and we have more reinforcements potentially waiting in AAA, f.e. Maldonado. Injuries can be relatively well compensated, and maybe someone will pick up a grounder that Bernie Chavez allowed for a change. The Raccoons are supposed to repeat as division champs (which would be their first successful division crown defense in 17 years) and this time will got out the sucky part. 95 wins is possible! PLAYER DEVELOPMENT: No offseason trades also means no prospects lost to hostile teams, but of course we also didn’t take anybody on. The Raccoons are 11th in the farm ranking, same as 12 months ago. Back then we had 12 ranked prospects, of which only two were in the top 100 (but those were inside the top 30). This year we are down to ten ranked prospects, but of these six rank in the top 100. Half of last year’s ranked prospects are no longer ranked, but only one of them is no longer in the organization; #160 prospect Sebastian Waddingham was sent to Oklahoma on July 10 in the del Rio for Livingston deal. 10th (-4) – AAA OF/3B/1B Jesus Maldonado, 22 – 2032 international free agent signed by Raccoons 21st (+7) – A SP Lazaro Cavazos, 21 – 2034 first-round pick by Raccoons 62nd (new) – AAA SP Gene Tennis, 22 – 2032 first-round pick by Warriors, acquired in trade from Capitals for Adam Avakian 65th (new) – AAA 1B/C Jeff Wilson, 23 – 2034 supplemental round pick by Raccoons 90th (new) – A OF/1B Ivan Cantu, 19 – 2034 international free agent signed by Raccoons 99th (+6) – AA INF Jon Caskey, 22 – 2034 first-round pick by Raccoons 143rd (-27) – AAA OF/2B Cory Cronk, 22 – 2032 third-round pick by Raccoons 145th (+36) – AA SS/2B Jose Agosto, 22 – 2030 international free agent signed by Raccoons 146th (new) – AAA SP Jared Ottinger, 23 – 2033 supplemental round pick by Raccoons 199th (-40) – AAA INF Vince Lutch, 25 – 2029 second-round pick by Wolves, claimed off waivers from Loggers Five other ranked prospects from last season are no longer ranked: #144 Travis Sims, #148 Brad Forsch, #184 Angelo Montano, #186 Jose Lopez, #193 Lazaro Salazar The top 5 overall prospects this year are: #1 VAN ML CF/RF Jerry Outram (newly drafted) #2 IND AAA SP Ricky Sanchez (was #5) #3 DAL AA SP Orlando Leos (was #11) #4 PIT ML INF Sergio Barcia (was #1 (also in 2033)) #5 MIL A OF/1B Dan Torri (newly drafted) Two of last year’s top 5 - #3 LVA Mike Hall and #4 CHA Tony Aparicio – saw promotion to the majors and their rookie status expired. The Loggers’ #2 prospect Jared Paul slipped to #13 after getting stuck in single-A Henderson. Next: first pitch. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

05-02-2020, 12:34 AM	#3175
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 961	Vegas says the Raccoons are a sure bet to win at least 93 games (line is 93.5). I’m going over to take the over and there will be no giving up on the season mid year.