Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Did the scouting rating change on the AI side? If so, why doesn't it look different for you?

I guess they changed their mind about Ruíz. So did I. In May we both thought he'd come around. He didn't. I wouldn't do the trade the other way round, either.

First I was too much of a chicken, then they blew through their budget in the draft and couldn't take on Ruíz' salary and I couldn't work out a deal to still get him by taking on an old slacker off their roster.

Now it's a part of history.

Originally Posted by Orcin

Ok, back to your game now.

Okay.

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We made one last all-out offer to Bill Smith on December 15: five years at $800k each, plus incentives. He accepted that one for further review.

One thing was clear, though: if we sign Smith, we lose our first round pick to Vancouver, and have to trade Ruíz, no matter what, since otherwise we will be over-budget the moment the season starts. With the offer to Smith, the projected budget room decreased to $379k, which would then reduce itself to (less than) zero once the 40-man roster guys would be subtracted. Ruíz makes $500k this year. So, in a way, we’d pay $300k for a significant upgrade.

We waited on a response, which came the day after Christmas. He was getting a better offer from the Condors, which was bad news, since those $4M were already hard on the edge of can’t-give-no-more. (We still would have to cut lose Ruíz before the season would start, too). We upped to $4.3M on the same day, which almost ripped me apart. All that money!

December 17 – New year, new team: Lowell “Wacky” Booth will close for the Titans this year and will get $600k for his services. Booth has 247 career saves and last year had a 0.78 ERA for the Condors. The Titans also add SP Jorge Valdes (94-68, 3.11 ERA all with Denver) at a $2.72M for four years rate.
December 18 – Superstar INF Hector Atilano (.322, 132 HR, 816 RBI in 1,496 G) is signed by the Canadiens. Atilano, 35, will make $1.91M over two years.
December 21 – The Knights keep stacking them, as they add 3B Luis Barrera for 6-yr, $4.23M. Barrera, 30, has hit .283 with 103 homers in his career with the Warriors.
December 21 – CL Domingo Rivera joins the Buffaloes for 2-yr, $1.24M. Rivera has 161 career saves and a 2.07 ERA.
December 24 – Former Coon C Enrique Sanchez (.259, 71 HR, 468 RBI) is signed by the Warriors for 4-yr, $2.44M. Sanchez, 32, was one of the main offense generators for the Crusaders last year, homering 17 times. Warriors fans get even more to rave about for Christmas, as the team also signs 1B Raul Flores for 6-yr, $4.35M. Flores has a career .309 average, but hits for below-average power given his position.
December 25 – Ex-Thunder INF Scott Spivey, a career .274 hitter with zero power, signs with the Buffaloes for 6-yr, $4.53M. Spivey had his best season last year, batting .307 for Oklahoma.
January 2 – Ex-Coon 1B Matt Workman keeps bouncing, being traded by the Cyclones to the Wolves, along with a minor leaguer, for 1B Mario Andres. Workman is a career .275 batter, who has not found a place to play regularly since being traded by the Coons in mid-1985.
January 6 – The Raccoons send minors infielder Jose Munoz, 19, to Washington for 17-yr old outfield prospect Vern Kinnear.

Christopher Powell has announced his retirement by now, so no draft pick for us, but in a way I am glad he did. Apart from that half season with the Gold Sox, he’s been a Raccoon since mid-1977. He’ll always be one of us, in our hearts.

Bill Smith called on January 10. The Bayhawks had apparently out-bid us. (sobs) He gave us time for a counter-offer. I looked at the cash cache in the office, found it almost empty, but it was enough to re-up our offer once more. *Once* more. We need a quick decision here. There are a few more starters on the free agent market, none of which thrills me as much as Smith does, but Ruíz hasn’t thrilled me either last year.

January 23 – Lost out: SP Bill Smith joins the Dallas Stars. Smith (117-100, 3.24 ERA) will make $4.45M over five years (which is exactly the amount of our last offer).

Well. That’s a blow.

There are four experienced and meaningful free agent SP’s remaining. Carlos Castro and Johnny Brown are type A free agents, demand a ton of money, but are at least one level below Smith ability-wise. William Williams is 37 and asking for a 5-year deal. Fernando Vigil has never been an ace. He would be an option, but the question is whether we’d not be better off staying with Ruíz instead of piling money on Vigil.

Wow, this blows…

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

January 23 – Lost out: SP Bill Smith joins the Dallas Stars. Smith (117-100, 3.24 ERA) will make $4.45M over five years (which is exactly the amount of our last offer).

It appears his agent was just using you to get more money out of some other team. I hate it when that happens.

[Westheim]

February 1 – CL Jim Durden (139 SV, 2.09 ERA) joins the Indians for a year, earning $600k. He was with the Scorpions so far.
February 7 – 37-yr old SP William Williams (125-98, 3.33 ERA), who only started nine games with the Warriors last year due to injury, signs a 2-yr, $1.078M contract with the Gold Sox.
February 8 – SP Carlos Castro (103-82, 3.15 ERA) joins the Warriors for 7-yr, $5.254M.
February 9 – The Raccoons sign 30-yr old career minor leaguer SP Joe Thornton on a minor league deal.
February 11 – INF Dimian Barrios signs a 4-yr, $2.28M contract with the Condors. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick.
February 19 – The Miners and Seung-ook Yi (202 SV) agree on a 2-yr, $584k deal. Yi already closed games for Pittsburgh in 1985 before joining the Buffaloes last year.

Thornton gives us a good option in case a starter or two go down to injury. He’s never made the majors, but has good stuff according to our scouts. He’s a lefty with a cutter-slider combo and will be assigned to AAA.

But there’s no talking around it. February was over, and I didn’t get anything meaningful done this off-season. We didn’t improve the rotation, we didn’t improve the outfield, we didn’t improve anything. The Canadiens may be happy about it.

March 4 – 39-yr old outfielder Harry Beauman (.309, 52 HR, 502 RBI) receives a 2-yr, $832k contract from the Condors.
March 6 – The Raccoons sign 30-yr old outfielder Carlos León (.280 with 61 HR for his career) for 1-yr, $272k. He played most of his career with the Wolves, where he became the only ABL player to hit for the cycle twice.
March 26 – The Raccoons add INF Yong-chan Chong, a career .278 hitter. The 27-yr old infielder will make $137k for one year.

León will be the starting rightfielder, most likely. Bill Stevens is pushed out of the 25-man roster with this signing, and Weber and Gonzalez will be backups. It’s an improvement, but not a big one. León does not play in center, so Sanchez will start there. Defensively, Weber in CF and Sanchez in RF would be a better disposition.

Chong is the first South Korean player on the Raccoons roster, and will fill up the infield with both Perez and Campbell going back to AAA. Chong can play all four positions and should get some starts here and there, too.

No, it’s not been a great off season.

We signed two international discoveries, one from Venezuela and one from the Netherlands. Neither’s gonna be a Hall of Famer.

The hawt prospects in the ABL do not include any young Coon kits in the Top 10, but a whole litter in the Top 60:
14th – AAA 2B Dani Perez
28th – A OF Jesus Gonzalez (the recent signing from Venezuela)
35th – AAA 1B/3B Joe Jackson (first round pick two years ago)
56th – AAA RF Marcos Costello
58th – AA OF Glenn Johnston (acquired this winter)
97th – A OF Vern Kinnear (acquired this winter)
172nd – AAA CL Juan Martinez
193rd – AA SP Miguel Martinez (first round pick last year)

Oh, yes, we now have two pitchers named Miguel Martinez in our system, and five Martinezes in total…

The system is ranked 6th in the ABL (not bad for coming back from rock bottom a few years back). See the first and third guys on that list. Those could perfectly replace some mid-30s guys next year.

[Westheim]

1987 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 1986 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Logan Evans, 31, B:L, T:L (13-11, 2.92 ERA | 99-74, 3.10 ERA) – his control continues to plague him and he barely managed to get more K’s than BB’s again last year. But he also has surrendered six or less homers for six straight seasons and is able to keep damage low most of the time.
SP Carlos Gonzalez, 24, B:R, T:R (16-3, 2.83 ERA | 25-18, 3.44 ERA) – ended the season on the DL for the second straight year, but what he did before getting hurt was massive; he had the breakout season everybody had hoped for to see for a few years and finally justified being a #1 overall pick at age 17.
SP Scott Wade, 24, B:R, T:R (13-8, 3.15 ERA | 17-11, 3.36 ERA) – started at AAA last year, but open being called up quickly made himself an important part of the rotation; has good stuff, but gives up too many hits so far.
SP Kisho Saito, 26, B:L, T:L (9-17, 4.12 ERA | 77-58, 3.16 ERA) – he’s a workhorse, but he pitched in losing games much too often in the last two years. Can strike them out in scores, but has become more and more prone to the long ball. He is in a contract year.
SP Vicente Ruíz, 32, B:R, T:R (10-11, 4.47 ERA | 106-108, 3.76 ERA) – had a bad third season in Portland and was often unable to get through batters; his stamina and stuff have declined recently. Attempts to trade him were unsuccessful.

MU Miguel Martinez *, 27, B:L, T:L (rookie) – rule 5 draft pick, never made the majors so far, but .has a very promising changeup that should enable to him to mop up efficiently enough.
MR Tim Moss *, 31, B:L, T:L (1-0, 0.95 ERA | 19-20, 3.75 ERA, 7 SV) – one of two lefties in the pen, employed for situational use. Saw only limited use with the Buffaloes last year.
MR Jason Bentley, 25, B:R, T:R (1-4, 3.13 ERA, 1 SV | 1-4, 3.14 ERA, 2 SV) – solid performer out of the pen, filling a 7th inning role perfectly.
MR David Jones, 30, B:L, T:L (6-4, 2.00 ERA | 17-10, 3.54 ERA, 5 SV) – the main lefty in the pen, he had a stellar season again last year. Can also go several innings if lineups are stacked with lefties.
SU Richard Cunningham, 27, B:R, T:R (6-1, 2.50 ERA, 6 SV | 28-18, 2.25 ERA, 20 SV) – fireballer with even splits, who outright killed opposing batters last season – as always. Has closer stuff, but can’t get through Grant West.
SU Wally Gaston, 30, B:R, T:R (2-5, 1.93 ERA, 1 SV | 43-44, 2.72 ERA, 92 SV) – great stuff, bad control, but an ability to wiggle out of tight situations that has kept him going for ten years now as the last Coon from 1977’s opening day roster. He needs 60 IP this year for a vesting option to trigger, a mark he reached every year since ‘83.
CL Grant West, 30, B:L, T:L (3-3, 1.89 ERA, 40 SV | 18-5, 1.67 ERA, 212 SV) – nickname “Demon”, says it all. Ultra-reliable, a true killer. Pitched a career-high 62 innings last year and a blowup in the last game of the season ruined his ERA.

C Sam Dadswell, 26, B:L, T:R (.264, 12 HR, 50 RBI | .268, 53 HR, 229 RBI) – he continues to be plagued by nightmarish blackouts on defense, and had to yield more playing time to Gustavo Flores last year. They will platoon again this year. Was traded for a few years back with the intent of making him a dynasty cornerstone, but often enough he can’t even keep his home plate clean.
C Gustavo Flores, 28, B:R, T:R (.274, 4 HR, 31 RBI | .268, 8 HR, 81 RBI) – fought successfully for more playing time, and is clearly more than a pure backup to Dadswell.

1B Tetsu Osanai, 28, B:L, T:L (.341, 31 HR, 121 RBI | .330, 98 HR, 440 RBI) – won the TRIPLE CROWN last season, also setting Raccoons records in all categories, as well as a Continental League record for homers. Started all games, and if he has a weakness, it’s defense.
1B/2B/SS/3B Winston Thompson, 33, B:L, T:R (.263, 1 HR, 23 RBI | .263, 7 HR, 134 RBI) – starter at 2B, he continues to give the Coons solid presence on the bases from there, posting a career high .383 OBP. He struggled with injuries last season, though.
1B/3B/RF/LF Mark Dawson, 33, B:R, T:R (.231, 19 HR, 82 RBI | .245, 206 HR, 891 RBI) – #1 on the all-time home run leaderboard, he missed 20+ dingers for the first time since 1981, the year he was acquired from the Buffaloes. His offensive production and OBP was troubled last season, but he gave the Raccoons a solid wall of steel at third base, posting amazing defensive numbers. Can play all four corner spots in the field.
1B/3B/SS/2B/RF/CF Steve Walker, 27, B:R, T:R (.234, 4 HR, 40 RBI | .258, 31 HR, 281 RBI) – starting shortstop, he suffered through a prolonged slump late in last season and was unhappy about lost playing time. He is still very valuable defensively.
2B/SS Sergio Martinez *, 28, B:R, T:R (.273, 1 HR, 57 RBI | .283, 4 HR, 270 RBI) – brought on as free agent and backup infielder. He will have a hard time adequately replacing Dimian Barrios at the plate, but if Steve Walker struggles for longer periods of time, he could boot him out of the lineup.
1B/3B/2B/SS Yong-chan Chong *, 27, B:R, T:R (.243, 5 HR, 47 RBI | .278, 21 HR, 263 RBI) – free agent, split time between the Bayhawks and Miners last season, and is brought on as backup for all four infield spots.

LF/RF Daniel Hall, 31, B:R, T:R (.251, 5 HR, 46 RBI | .267, 128 HR, 524 RBI) – starter in leftfield, he has range, speed, a contact bat, and power – if he can put it on the field. Repeated injuries and struggles at the plate early in the season created a nightmare of a season for him, and he didn’t get mildly hot until September. He’s two years removed from a .287, 29 HR, 102 RBI season, so he will produce massively if he’s just healthy enough.
RF/LF/CF Armando Sanchez, 32, B:L, T:L (.335, 7 HR, 35 RBI | .289, 116 HR, 667 RBI) – starter in center, he also missed a lot of time due to injuries. He improved his AVG by 109 points compared to 1985, by far besting his .308 mark from 1978 with the Wolves. If he can produce at a .300+ rate again, we’ll be happy.
RF/LF Carlos León *, 30, B:L, T:L (.251, 8 HR, 56 RBI | .280, 61 HR, 459 RBI) – penciled in as starter in right, he should give the team solid production, although he’s a good bit removed from his 1980-1982 form, where he hit for 18 homers in a season, once hit .321, and became the only ABL player to hit for two cycles. Came on as free agent.
RF/CF/LF Ricardo Gonzalez, 27, B:L, T:L (.208, 6 HR, 31 RBI | .251, 57 HR, 301 RBI) – was a total bust last year after a surprise 21 homers in 1985. Barely played in September for being just awful.
CF/LF/RF Kelly Weber, 24, B:L, T:L (.269, 2 HR, 40 RBI | .248, 3 HR, 55 RBI) – came up as injury replacement last year and never went away again. He’s mostly a singles hitter, but can also make for a versatile defensive replacement to Sanchez or León.

Opening day lineups:
Vs. RHP: CF Sanchez – 2B Thompson – LF Hall – 1B Osanai – 3B Dawson – RF León – SS Walker – C Dadswell – P Evans
Vs. LHP: CF Sanchez – SS Walker – LF Hall – 1B Osanai – 3B Dawson – C Flores – RF León – 2B Thompson (Martinez) – P Evans

We shed 0.8 WAR this off season, still good enough for 8th among the 24 teams overall.

Top 5: Knights (+10.8) – Indians (+7.0) – Buffaloes (+6.9) – Falcons (+3.2) – Miners (+2.2)
Bottom 5: Loggers (-6.2) – Cyclones (-6.6) – Scorpions (-6.8) – Thunder (-7.3) – Gold Sox (-11.5)

PREDICTION TIME:

There was no significant improvement of the team this off season. The loss of Dimian Barrios has not been addressed a 100% percent. The addition of León does not improve the outfield too much. We were unable to sign SP Bill Smith who would have shored up our rotation very well.

The Furballs went 87-75 last year. I find it hard imagining a significant improvement over that. Should Daniel Hall and Steve Walker come back to form, and nobody else fall into a hole, they could reach 90 wins. Ownership thinks we should play above .500 ball.

Will it be enough to catch the Canadiens? Short answer: No. Long answer: No, of course not.

Our first games will be in Milwaukee against the Loggers.

[Westheim]

Don't know if this will vanish into the 'net's giant all-consuming black hole once the server moves again, but I will post anyway and hopefully remind to keep a backup.

Looking at the previous 16 pages all being chopped up makes me cry a river anyway. I have lost a massive tale of constant, but well-written failure once before in that aforementioned black hole, and it does not feel good, I can tell you...

(And even this post is chopped to pieces; I could just scream ... cry and scream ...)

Enough complaining, get in the Coons!

------

Raccoons (0-0) @ Loggers (0-0)

This was a short 2-game opener to the season.

Logan Evans opened the season for the Raccoons, and right away had a chance to notch his 100th career win. A leadoff single by Armando Sanchez was followed by a 2-out walk by Osanai, and Dawson drove in Sanchez with an RBI double. But Evans started out by walking the first guy he faced and that run also got around to score for an early 1-1 tie. The Raccoons had a lot of base hits in the next innings, but only scored one run in the third on an infield single by León. The Loggers blew up Evans in the bottom 6th and scored four runs in the inning for a 5-2 lead (and then still had less hits than the Raccoons). Despite five walks in the top 7th, the Raccoons only scored one run. After getting the first two Furballs on in the top 9th, they made three embarrassing outs against Ramiro Quintero, the Loggers’ sorry excuse for a closer. 5-3 Loggers. Hall 2-5, 2B; Dawson 1-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; León 2-5, RBI; Dadswell 3-4, BB;

The Coons scored a run in the top 1st again in the second game, but also left the bags full. Carlos Gonzalez got a whacking early to fall behind 2-1 after the first inning was completed, and 4-1 after the second, although the Loggers drew advantage from a passed ball on Flores and an error on Hall. The Raccoons routinely left runners in scoring position throughout the game, but clawed back to trail 5-4 heading to the top 9th. León got on with a single to start that frame. He advanced on two groundouts, before Sanchez sent a flyer to right center, which looked like the final out, but Edgardo Garza just missed it and it dropped in for a game-tying double. Steve Walker drove in Sanchez to go ahead. And unfortunately we had already used Grant West in the eighth and removed him for a pinch hitter. Thus, Cunningham was sent out to close. A 1-out double by Stephen Hall spelled trouble. Hokichi Endo came up with two down and Hall on third and sent a fast liner up the middle – caught by Yong-Chan Chong in his first appearance! 5-4 Raccoons, who out-hit the Loggers 18-12. Sanchez 3-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Walker 2-5, RBI; Osanai 4-5, 2 2B, RBI; Flores 2-5, 2B; León 2-5; S. Martinez 2-3, BB, 2B;

Raccoons (1-1) vs. Thunder (2-1)

I went back to the old Saito third, Wade fourth rotation for no real reason. If anything, it will split the lefties Evans and Saito in case Ruíz is skipped.

Saito was rudely welcomed to the season by 3B Marc Shaw with a solo home run in the top 1st of the first game. Through six innings, Saito surrendered four more hits and no more runs, but the Raccoons still trailed 1-0 for being held short by pitcher Bob Gaulton. Then, the bottom 6th: Daniel Hall led off with a single and Osanai slammed his first home run of the year (as well as the first for the team) to turn the game in an instant. Shaw left the game in the same inning after hurting himself on a defensive play to get out Mark Dawson. Saito continued to pitch two more innings and despite a leadoff double in the eighth, stayed ahead. Grant West got help from an amazing catch by Armando Sanchez in the ninth, but saved his first game of the year. 2-1 Raccoons. Both teams had six hits only. Hall 2-3, BB; Osanai 1-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

We were projected to face lefties for the next four days. With a predominantly left-handed batting outfield (except for Hall) and three more lefties around the diamond on the roster, this could become interesting. To get some right-handed bats into the lineup, Dadswell and Thompson would have to sit out a few games here.

The Thunder had always had a ton of left-handed batters themselves. They through eight (including the pitcher Morton Jennings) at Scott Wade, with Alfonso Aranda being the only righty. The Raccoons struck first with a first-pitch home run by Armando Sanchez. The first hit Scott Wade surrendered didn’t come until the top 4th, but then was an RBI double that tied the game. Things got very ugly in the sixth. A 1-out walk to Jeff Wagner started a catastrophic 4-run inning, with three runs unearned after an error by Sergio Martinez, and a 3-run homer by Scott Strong to cap it. The Thunder now led 5-1 and the Raccoons were wholly unable to come back. Daniel Hall went deep for two runs in the bottom 6th. And that was it. They never got another runner in scoring position in the game and despite a good effort by the pen, the game was lost. 5-3 Thunder, while the Raccoons out-hit them 8-5. Sanchez 2-4, HR, RBI; Wade only allowed six baserunners, yet somehow the Thunder made five runs out of those.

There is already a pattern here of lots of hits, but too many singles and not enough runs because of that.

The thing with singles is, it takes you to hit three of them to get a run, most of the time. The Coons managed that in the bottom 2nd of the rubber game, with Thompson driving in Dawson with two down. The Raccoons added an unearned run in the bottom 3rd. Vicente Ruíz jammed in the fourth, but escaped with only one run across and then drove in one of two runs in the bottom 4th himself with a double to the left field wall. Ruíz added two more scoreless innings before being pinch hit for in the bottom 6th. Miguel Martinez made his major league debut in the seventh. His first batter was Frederick Webb and he surrendered him in a perfect inning. Then came the ninth, the Raccoons led 5-1, and David Jones tried to pitch a second inning – ouch. Grant West entered with two on, but gave a PH 2-run double to Guy King before ending the game. 5-3 Raccoons. Weber 3-4; Thompson 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Ruíz 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Despite a winning record, we were only fourth so far in the division – the CL North had roughed up the CL South pretty well in the first interdivision series. The Thunder and Knights tied for the lead at 3-3.

Raccoons (3-2) vs. Condors (3-4)

So far, the Condors had scored almost twice as many runs as the Raccoons (34-19). However, they had also given up more runs (31-19). Things could develop either way.

Logan Evans was unable to remove batters with two strikes on them. It had already been that way in the season opener and things continued here in his second start. Luckily, the Condors didn’t get good contact either. Sadly, though, the Raccoons were equally harmless. Kelly Weber singled to start the bottom 5th of a scoreless game and even stole second, but was left on third eventually. That was by far the furthest any Coon had gotten in the game so far. Next inning, Cipriano Ortega hit a triple and with nobody out was easily scored by the Condors. The Raccoons were already down to their last out in the bottom 6th, when Daniel Hall walked. Tetsu Osanai doubled him in and the Coons filled the bases, only for Gustavo Flores to pop out. Armando Sanchez threw out Clifton Greenan at home in the top 7th to keep the game tied. Prime chance then in the bottom 7th: Chong started it with a walk. León pinch hit for Evans and flew to left, right to Diego Rodriguez, who dropped the ball. Armando Sanchez walked. Bases loaded without ever getting a hit, and with nobody out. Walker grounded and Chong was thrown out at home. Daniel Hall lined out to center. I was chewing on the railing. Osanai up. He sent one to right for a single, scoring León, and Sanchez dashed home and was safe. Dawson grounded out to end the inning, 3-1 Coons now. Momentum came right back at us, as Wally Gaston walked the first two batters in the top 8th. Cunningham came in, but the crap was boiling already. He got one out, before the Condors scored a run and filled the bases with another walk. He struck out Juan Valentin for the second out. Next was Greenan. He swung at a 1-1 pitch and sent it to left. Daniel Hall never bothered running after it, it was a massive grand slam. Miguel Martinez was also lit up in the ninth and the Raccoons lost, 8-3. Osanai 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Weber 2-3, BB;

Game 2. Carlos Gonzalez suffered from ill control, blowing up in the fourth inning. Chad Fisher homered, then the Condors loaded the bags with a single and two walks, and there was nobody out. Pitcher Jose Macias refused to make an out, but singled to short left. The Condors scored another run, walked in, and Gonzalez was yanked. Bentley got out of the mess, but was charged with a run in the fifth. Down 4-0, the Raccoons loaded them up in the bottom 5th. Sergio Martinez had a pinch-hit RBI single, and Kelly Weber was hit by a pitch. Down 4-2, bases loaded, one out. Steve Walker grounded into a double play. Gaston and Moss were shelled in the seventh, as the Condors extended their lead to 7-2. Dadswell, León, and Sergio Martinez started the bottom 7th with three straight singles. This time they almost managed to really badly hurt the Condors. Weber grounded for the first run and first out, but Walker hit an RBI single, and Daniel Hall tripled for two runs and represented the tying run at third – and was stranded by Osanai and Dawson. We had burned through the pen almost completely by now, and Cunningham couldn’t get through the ninth. Grant West got the last out and he was also the last guy out of the pen. If they scored in the bottom 9th, they better scored two. Sergio Martinez hit a leadoff double. He was on third with two out and Hall up. West was in the #4 spot after an earlier double switch, so Hall had to get a base hit. But: full count, ball at the knees, he held up – low, and no swing, Hall walked. We still had oh-for-zillion Ricardo Gonzalez on the bench, but no pitchers left. Grant West was sent to bat. West had not hit safely since 1983, and had only had *two* AB’s the last three seasons combined. He faced a murder closer in Scott Clements. And he struck out. 7-6 Condors. Dadswell 3-4; León (PH) 1-2; S. Martinez 3-3, 2B, RBI;

We needed one thing from Kisho Saito: a LONG outing. Besides Bentley and Jones, we had little available pen-wise. All seven relievers had been used in the last game. Sanchez and Thompson took care and got Saito a 1-0 lead in the first. The top 2nd saw a single and two walks given up by Saito, and no outs. Here we go. Jorge Mora hit a bases-clearing double – and yes, that was the opposing pitcher. The Condors scored seven runs in the inning, and soon after that the rains started to come down. Fans left (I was understanding there). When the rain forced a 65-minute delay in the bottom 9th, the Raccoons trailed 10-2. They also lost by that score, yet were only out-hit 13-11. Sanchez 4-5; Thompson 2-5, 2B, RBI; León 2-4;

Raccoons (3-5) vs. Indians (7-2)

Even in my imagination I couldn’t have come up with a worse start to the season. The pitching was a nightmare. Next was a 4-game set against the Indians, who had somehow stormed out of the gate in an impressive way.

Our bullpen was in tethers. Outfielder Ricardo Gonzalez (0-7, 3 K, .000 OBP) was sent to AAA, which he did not refuse, and MR Pedro Vazquez was called up. The AAA season had started already, but Vazquez had not pitched yet. Apart from him, Grant West was the only half-way rested arm in the pen to start the series. Go Gobbler!

But Scott “Gobbler” Wade was whacked early on, surrendering two runs in the top 1st. The Indians led 3-1 after the third, and while Wade piled up K’s, he also gave up too many hits. The Raccoons meanwhile put on their leadoff man regularly – only to leave him on there, dying. Mark Dawson then started the bottom 6th with a double to left. Carlos León grounded to third, but Alvin Sutphen was slow off the dirt and couldn’t make a play. Runners on the corners, nobody out, Steve Walker almost grounded into a double play, and was barely safe at first. Dawson scored, and while Sam Dadswell also got on – nobody got in anymore. Bottom 7th: leadoff single by Sanchez, then a single by Hall to put them on the corners with nobody out – again. The big Japanese guy was up. But neither he, nor Mark Dawson managed to get something meaningful done. León scored Sanchez with a single to center to tie the game, but that was it again. Three singles then filled the bases against Dennis Columpton in the bottom 8th, with one out. Hall was up. Flew out. Osanai came up. Long staring duel between him and Columpton. Then the big Japanese guy launched a gigantic home run for a grand slam to center. Vazquez came on in the ninth and put the first two Indians on, before Martinez made a good stretch on a grounder and converted for a double play that helped Vazquez out of the inning. 7-3 Raccoons. Thompson 2-4; Hall 2-5, 2B; Osanai 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Dawson 2-4, BB, 2 2B; León 2-5, RBI; Wade 8.0 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (1-1);

Game 2 saw Vicente Ruíz being hit around early on. The Indians stormed out to a 4-0 lead through three innings, and Ruíz didn’t last past the fifth. The Raccoons looked phenomenally bad against the Indians’ Robert Vazquez, who went the distance in the game and pitched a 4-hitter. There was really not more to tell about the game. 4-0 Indians. S. Martinez (PH) 1-2; Vazquez 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3. The Raccoons left them loaded up in the second, and Dadswell on after a triple in the fourth. The Indians in turn left two in scoring position in the fifth, as Logan Evans clawed on to the scoreless tie, which was broken up in the bottom 5th then. Hall with one out grounded for Armando Sanchez to be forced at second base, but Hall was safe at first. Tetsu Osanai drilled the ball into the left field corner, where it missed the fence, but the speedy Hall scored easily from first. Dawson flew to left as well, where Gabe Taylor dropped the ball and Osanai scored. One run got away from Evans in the sixth. To start the seventh, Angelo Duarte sent a huge flyball to deep right – and León caught it! But Evans looked empty enough to go to the pen. Wally Gaston (3.0 IP, 5 BB, 2 K, 12.00 ERA) entered, and got two outs. The bottom 7th gave the Coons another chance to score big. Dawson’s sac fly made it 3-1. They loaded the bags with two out, bringing up Chong, who had not set the field alight so far this season. Kelly Weber came out to counter righty Dennis Columpton. He squeezed a single to left to score a second run. Gaston would have been next, but Steve Walker came out to pinch hit for him. He was hitting .176 so far, but the bench was not too big with only 12 position players around. Walker connected for a long flyball to center, long, longer, GONE!! Grand slam Walker, the Raccoons suddenly led 8-1, and held on to it until the end. Osanai 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; León 2-4; Dadswell 2-3, 3B; Chong 1-2, BB; Weber (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walker (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Evans 6.1 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

Carlos Gonzalez fell behind 1-0 in the first inning of the last game, courtesy of a leadoff triple by Bill Taggart, who was sacrificed in afterwards. Gonzalez then held home plate clean – but so did Alex Miranda, who started for the Indians. Through six innings, the Raccoons managed to get *one* hit against him. Osanai then hit a double to get the bottom 7th moving, and scored on a massive blunder by SS Angelo Duarte on a grounder by Steve Walker, which rolled only further away from him, no matter how often he picked and dropped it. Walks to Dawson and Dadswell loaded the bases, and nobody out. Carlos León next, but he grounded to get Walker forced at home. Again we brought in Kelly Weber to pinch hit – again a single, this time to right, and the Raccoons led, but only 2-1, since Thompson grounded into a double play to end the game. Grant West blew the save in the ninth, serving up a first-pitch homer to Raul Vazquez, making everybody wonder who on this team was actually able to to his job. Tied game to the bottom 9th. Dadswell doubled, León singled. Flores pinch hit for West, a single just inside the right field line – Raccoons win, 3-2. Dadswell 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Weber (PH) 1-1, RBI; Flores (PH) 1-1, RBI; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Had West been able to save the game, we would have had five starters with a 1-1 record.

In other news

April 10 – The first man down this year is VAN OF Ramon Gonzalez (2 for 7, 1 RBI), who will miss most of the season with a broken hand.
April 11 – A small tear in his labrum will keep OCT INF Marc Shaw (.313, 1 HR, 3 RBI) out until late May. He suffered the injury in the opener of the Raccoons series.
April 12 – Just added this offseason, OF Brian Henry (.304, 0 HR, 1 RBI) gets hurt for the Warriors. A concussion will sideline him for at least three weeks.
April 13 – SAC SP Miguel Fuentes (0-0, 5.40 ERA), who is a hot prospect at age 24, will miss most of the season, if not all of it, with a fractured elbow.
April 15 – Oldie DEN SP William Williams (0-2, 6.92 ERA) is out for four to five months with radial nerve compression.
April 15 – PIT David Burke (1-1, 2.81 ERA) tosses a 3-hitter in a 1-0 win over the Pacifics. It is his *35th* career shutout!
April 15 – ATL 1B Fred Rodgers (.387, 0 HR, 7 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak reaching back to 1986 going after a 2-5 day against the Titans.
April 18 – Milwaukee’s Neil Stewart (1-1, 2.63 ERA) keeps the Titans hitters guessing all day and hurls a 3-hitter in a 4-0 win for the Loggers.

Complaints and stuff

If your two setup men combine for a 5-run inning, you can stop bothering right away. The bullpen is normally one of the key pieces of this team, especially the back end. They have been god damn awful.

The same is true for most of the team. Every starter but Wade (who was defeated on unearned runs) had been blown up more or less once already.

And the infield? Wow, there’s some serious not-hitting going on there. (The outfield ain’t much better)

We have some issues here. (frowns)

We have another home series against the Titans, then a road trip to Las Vegas and Charlotte coming up, and then April will already be history.

[Westheim]

Ricardo Gonzalez was recalled and Pedro Vazquez sent down again. Gonzalez hit a 2-run homer in AAA, so apparently he can still hit.

Raccoons (6-6) vs. Titans (8-5)

The Raccoons found amazing ways to destroy themselves. That had always been true, but the first inning of the series opener was … utterly amazing. Eduardo German hit an infield single on a full count to get things moving. Barry Miller flew out to Hall in left, before Kisho Saito balked German over to second. Mark Dawson lost Hjalmar Flygt’s grounder for an unearned run across, and then Saito hit Isto Grönholm with a pitch. 2-out doubles by Bob Arnold and Carlos Hernandez plated three more runs. 4-0 Titans. I was close to losing consciousness. German made it 5-0 with a solo jack in the second. The Raccoons did zero until the bottom 4th, when Osanai and Dadswell hit back-to-back home runs to cut the deficit to 5-2. They then chased Boston’s Dave O’Neill from the game in the fifth, while he was still ahead when they loaded the bags for Osanai with nobody out. But Osanai popped out and Dadswell lined into a double play. Oh, the calamity. Mark Dawson, who was dropped to #7 in the lineup for his struggles, still got the Raccoons back into the game with a 2-run homer in the bottom 6th. Sergio Martinez singled and was bunted to second by Saito after that. Thompson’s liner was caught by Bob Goyer, but Sanchez then hit one that could not be caught to deep right. Home run, 6-5 Raccoons. They had another bases loaded-zero outs situation in the seventh – and scored only once. But it was enough, Bentley and West finished out the game. 7-5 Coons. All position players that started the game had at least one hit. Thompson 2-4, BB; Sanchez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-4, HR, RBI; Dadswell 2-4, HR, RBI; Dawson 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

That brought Saito to 2-1, the only starter currently with a winning record, yet the one with the worst ERA (4.26).

Boston’s Bob MacGruder entered with an 0.56 ERA after surrendering only one earned run in 16 innings so far. The Raccoons doubled that to two earned runs in the first inning of game 2. Bottom 3rd, Raccoons still up 1-0. Sanchez singled. Thompson walked. León singled. Nobody out. Osanai up. Flygt caught his flyer to left, Sanchez tagged and scored, and that was all the production in the inning. Scott Wade collapsed in the top 4th. He issued a 2-out bases loaded walk to Ernesto Ruíz (who was hitting z-e-r-o), and then a 2-run single to MacGruder, and they put two more on him in the fifth. Bottom 7th, down 5-3, Armando Sanchez tripled off MacGruder to get things moving. Unfortunately, the Raccoons made three outs that were SO poor, he couldn’t score. A Mark Dawson home run in the eighth didn’t matter. The Raccoons lost, 5-4. Sanchez 3-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Dadswell 2-4, 2 RBI; Chong (PH) 1-1;

The Titans took an early 2-0 lead against Vicente Ruíz in the rubber game. The Coons came back in the fourth and tied the game, but also left the bases loaded. Ruíz went five innings before tiring, another concerning development. The game was still at 2-2 heading to the bottom 7th. Sanchez walked, stole second and reached third on Thompson’s single. Nobody out. Dadswell flew out to short right. Osanai fouled out. I snapped out. Carlos León pinch hit for Wally Gaston in the #5 spot – a single to center. That would have to do. Jones walked Flygt to start things in the top 8th. Grönholm singled against Cunningham, who then got two outs with the runners both going into scoring position. Bob Goyer up, 2 for 21. STRUCK HIM OUT!! West came in for the ninth and struck out Barry Miller on a full count. He also struck out Salvador Vargas on a full count, but Dadswell lost the ball and Vargas dashed to first – safe. German K’ed, and this brought up Carlos Gonsales, the well-hitting, not-so-well-catching catcher. Single to left. Pressure building up. Flygt stepped in. West threw two balls, then Flygt slapped two pitches foul. Another ball, another full count. Another foul ball. Pitch #31 of the inning: a bit low and inside it appeared, Flygt ripped – and missed, HE STRUCK HIM OUT!!! 3-2 Raccoons. Sanchez 2-3, BB; León (PH) 1-1, RBI; West 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, SV (4);

Raccoons (8-7) @ Aces (7-8)

Game 1: Logan Evans fell behind 2-0 in the first, but the Raccoons tied that deficit in the top 3rd. Unfortunately, Evans gave up a 2-run homer to Ira Houston right away in the bottom of the inning, and then was half-way solid until he was shelled by rookie Zheng-xin Zhang with a 3-run home run in the bottom 7th, which also was the end for the Raccoons’ ambitions, which had been pathetic anyway. Miguel Martinez, the equally pathetic excuse for a reliever, gave up three straight singles, then a 1-out grand slam to Chong-seop O. The Raccoons ended up victims of an 11-2 bashing, and were also 4-hit. Hall 1-2, BB, RBI; Thompson (PH) 1-1; Bentley 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

With that rout, the Raccoons now ranked 10th in both runs scored and runs against, and 64-77 overall. Even defense, long a strong suit of the team, only had them 7th overall in the CL.

The Raccoons faced Luis DeJesus in the middle game, who had a 17.18 ERA going into the game. The Aces were not bothered by those numbers, putting two runs on Carlos Gonzalez in the bottom 1st, one unearned after a throwing error by Dadswell (here we go again). DeJesus puzzled the Raccoons in a … puzzling way. He 4-hit them into the seventh, but was removed with two on and a 3-0 lead. Nelson Gonzales came in to face Yong-chan Chong. The Raccoons’ first ever South Korean player unloaded to left to tie the game with a home run. Mark Dawson in the bottom 7th made an amazing catch on a line drive and converted it for a double play, forcing the runner on second, ending the inning. The Coons had to scramble to get an unearned run over the plate in the top 8th on a grounder by Hall, but then Kelly Weber hit a huge double against the wall in center that scored two more runs, and Chong drove in Weber. Moss and Cunningham ended the game with wobbly, but scoreless innings. 7-3 Raccoons. Thompson 2-5, 2B; Chong 2-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

The Raccoons put up three runs in the first inning, which included two doubles JUST past the reach of LF Craig Knapp. “Icon” Allen got one run right back from Saito with a homer in the bottom 1st. The Raccoons led 5-1 after the top 6th, but Saito got himself into trouble with two walks in the bottom 6th and both runners (or rather: walkers) scored. But Saito was a strange guy, and rebounded by striking out the side in the seventh. Then came the eighth – and a massive collapse by Gaston and Cunningham. The first four Aces all reached base, and they scored three runs in the inning.

The agony. The agony.

Trailing 6-5 into the top 9th, the Raccoons faced Matt Sims. Thompson reached on an error. Dadswell bunted him to second. Osanai walked on a full count, and was forced at second on Leóns grounder. Dawson popped out.

11 hits, all singles. Thompson 3-5; León 2-4, BB;

The agony.

Raccoons (9-9) @ Falcons (9-10)

Scott Wade was up against Manuel Movonda in game 1. It was not a pretty game. The Falcons stole three bases off Dadswell in the first two innings – their whole lineup had stolen two bases COMBINED going into the game. Dadswell was unable to get anything meaningful done – the Falcons scored three runs in the bottom 3rd in close plays at home alone, and he never managed to get anybody out. Through three, Scott Wade was long blasted, as the Raccoons trailed 6-2. Home runs by Dawson (solo, 4th inning) and Osanai (3-run, 5th inning) tied the game again, so Movonda got his shelling, too, but the amount of terrible catching and pitching and hitting and fielding was … terrible. Movonda’s exit didn’t come until hitting Daniel Hall with a pitch. Hall objected to Movonda’s pitch location – with blunt force. The benches emptied and some shoving and punching and choking later, Movonda and Hall were ejected. Wade for some reason was still pitching and was hit for another run in the bottom 5th, then hit by me for being a dork. Bentley surrendered a run in the seventh and the Coons lost, 8-6. Sanchez 2-5, 2B; Thompson 4-5, 2B, RBI; Osanai 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-5, HR, RBI; Walker 2-4;

Daniel Hall was given a 7-game suspension. Well, he doesn’t hit more than .197 anyway.

Vicente Ruíz gave up only three hits in game 2. Too bad, he did it in 5.2 innings, added five walks, and was slapped for four runs. The Raccoons actually out-hit the Falcons through six, 4-3, but trailed, 4-0. It wasn’t until the eighth that the Raccoons got on the board against Bastyao Caixinha, with a walk from Chong, a single by Sanchez, and a long double by Sergio Martinez. Nobody out, Mark Dawson came to the plate representing the tying run. He grounded slowly up the left foul line for a very poor out. Osanai struck out – but Kyae-Sung Park lost the ball, Osanai dashed to first and Sanchez raced home. They did get in Martinez, too, but still trailed, 4-3. They went down silently in the ninth. 4-3 Falcons, who were out-hit 7-4. Sanchez 2-4; Martinez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-4, RBI; Chong (PH) 0-0, BB;

Two 2-out RBI doubles in the bottom 3rd got the Falcons ahead in the last game, against Logan Evans. Evans gave up nine hits, yet somehow the damage remained those two runs, in six innings. Surely the Coons – to carry the game safely – could mount some – NO! Of course not! They got one run in the sixth, which was unearned after a throwing error. So, Evans was on the hook heading into the eighth, where Armando Sanchez tied the game with a home run. They put two on with two out in the inning, bringing up Flores. Dadswell came out to pinch hit to counter righty pitcher Julio Rodriguez. He singled over the bag into center, just between the infielders, and brought in a run, and the Raccoons upped to 4-2. Bottom 9th. Gilbert Dougan got on to start the inning, and Walker could not come up with a double play on Dave Polk’s grounder. With two down, Antonio Esquivel took advantage by taking Grant West deep – the game was tied. Between the 10th and 14th innings, the Raccoons had one hit: Wally Gaston’s single in the 12th. The Falcons threatened twice, but never got the winning run in. Mark Dawson was awarded second with one out in the top 15th on another bad throw. Dadswell struck out. León struck out. The Coons didn’t have a hit until the top 17th, when Thompson singled to lead off. Sergio Martinez, the last man off the bench, was hit by a pitch, and Dawson singled to left, but Thompson held. Bases loaded, one out. Right there, the Falcons pen collapsed. Dadswell singled to right, 5-4. León singled to right, 6-4. Walker grounded out, but a run scored, 7-4. Walker went 0-8 in the game. Chong singled to left, 8-4. Sanchez doubled to center, 10-4. But now the Raccoons had to pitch – and did not have anybody left. Jason Bentley had to come out after having pitched several days in a row, but he will be able to hold on to a 6-run lead, right? Teo Colón – grounded to short. Kyae-sung Park – grounded to short. Gary Helton – K! 10-4 Raccoons in *17* innings. Osanai 3-4; Dadswell (PH) 2-5, 2 RBI; León 2-6, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Chong (PB) 2-5, RBI; Gaston 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; Jones 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0); the game started at 7:05pm and didn’t end until almost 1am.

In other news

April 21 – Atlanta’s Jeremiah Carrell (.341, 1 HR, 8 RBI) is hurt yet again. He will miss five weeks with elbow inflammation.
April 22 – An on base collision leaves Oklahoma’s Dave Browne (.300, 0 HR, 5 RBI) with a separated shoulder and out for up to a month.
April 22 – ATL 1B Fred Rodgers goes hitless against the Condors, ending his 24-game hitting streak.
April 23 – Shock to everyone in Pittsburgh: SP David Burke (1-1, 2.45 ERA) has to leave a game early and will be out for two months with elbow tendinitis.
April 24 – PIT 3B Cameron Green (of Coon history) is out for four months with torn ankle ligaments. He is .265 with 0 HR and 4 RBI this year, but put up a .289, 14 HR, 96 RBI clip last season.
April 24 – WAS 2B Yoshihito Ito (.420, 1 HR, 15 RBI) hits a 9th inning single against the Pacifics to bring his hitting streak to 20 games.
April 25 – The Pacifics hate hitting streaks, and thus chill Ito’s right away, at 20 games.
April 26 – The Buffaloes had added MR Joe Roberts just this winter. After appearing in only three games, he is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 26 – After a slow start to the season, Aces outfielder Claudio Garcia (.222, 1 HR, 7 RBI) will now have to wait a month to improve, suffering from shoulder tendinitis.
April 29 – OCT SP Kevin Williams (3-1, 1.22 ERA) suffers a light back injury upon striking a deer with his car on the expressway. He will be out for about a week. There are no reports on the condition of the deer.

Complaints and stuff

Grant West’s four strikeouts in a single inning are a Raccoons first. I have no way to tell whether it has happened before in the ABL.

But it makes him no exception to the awful play of the team in April, which is thankfully over. Those ERA’s are nightmares. The batting is, too. Neither catcher can field his position, and everything has basically already died as far as ambitions are concerned. There are SO MANY things going wrong at this point, there is no way, everything can straighten itself out in time.

Wow. Just wow, those numbers. Wow. The record does in no way show how bad they are. They rank close to the bottom in any meaningful pitching or batting category, with very few exceptions.

Saito, Cunningham, Moss, Walker, León, and Chong will be free agents at the end of the year. A couple more are arbitration eligible.

Next: Loggers, Canadiens at home. Interleague play has the Buffaloes and Warriors. We will start a road trip to Titans and Crusaders the day the draft pool is released – should I feel like messing with the slackers the next few days…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (10-11) vs. Loggers (7-14)

Two awful teams met to determine the masters of awfulness.

Game 1, and the Raccoons got a headstart. While Carlos Gonzalez fell to a 4th inning RBI double off the bat of Jose Aguilar, the Raccoons were no-hit into the seventh by Judd Montgomery. Armando Sanchez singled up the middle to finally break into the H column. This was still a 1-0 game, so not all hope was gone with Sanchez on first and nobody out. All hope was gone only when Sanchez was caught stealing. Yet, the suckers at least got Gonzalez off the hook, courtesy of the other Gonzalez on the team, Ricardo. 1 for 20 so far, he hit a 2-out pinch-hit RBI double in the bottom 8th to tie the game. But then came Cunningham to pitch the ninth. Second pitch – Edgardo Garza hit it out. Loggers won, 2-1, as Tetsu Osanai was stranded on third in the bottom 9th. R. Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; C. Gonzalez 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;

Three hits against a team as terrible as those Loggers. Oh holy crab …

Osanai provided a lead with an RBI double in the bottom 1st of the middle game. Martinez led off the second with a triple, but they stranded him. With one out in the third, Dawson grounded into a double play with the bags loaded. Top 4th, and Gustavo Flores single-handedly blew the lead with a passed ball, and uncaught third strike, and a stolen bag against him. EVERY CHANCE TO SUCK – they took it. Masterfully. Hokichi Endo homered off Kisho Saito to get the Loggers 2-1 ahead in the fifth. Saito even singled to start the bottom 5th. He never went past first. Bottom 8th, still 2-1 Loggers. Thompson walked, Sanchez double. Two in scoring position, nobody out. You turn this now, or I will RIP YOUR HEADS OFF!! León walked. Osanai then singled to short center, which tied the game. Bases loaded, still nobody out. Dawson up, who was not even hitting .200 anymore. He got a liner to deep center through Jose Aguilar and scored two runs (also getting back to .200), and the Raccoons emerged leading 5-2. Grant West walked the first two Loggers in the ninth and surrendered one run. 5-3 Raccoons. Osanai 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; S. Martinez 3-4, 3B, RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Ricardo Gonzalez went 0-4 in this game to stay tugged away below .100 safely. He was sent back to AAA, and Gustavo Quintanilla was brought up, who was hitting .359 in AAA this year.

Terry Williams and Scott Wade had some stuff in common. Both had losing records, on losing teams, and ERA’s just under six going into the rubber game. Other than Wade, Reynolds however not even pitched a full inning before leaving with an injury. Wade spun six innings of shutout ball, while the Coons left them on the corners (with one out) in the fifth. Wade gave away one hit through six – then three to start the seventh. Two runs in. The Raccoons left the tying runs on base in the bottom 9th. 2-0 Loggers. Wade 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, L (1-4);

They just can not pull some runs out of their big fat - …

Raccoons (11-13) vs. Canadiens (10-14)

I was rather shocked the Canadiens were so bad out of the gate, EVEN WORSE than the Baboons. They suffered from the same ills as we did: bad pitching, bad hitting, bad catching, bad fielding, and added some injuries.

Game 1 saw the Raccoons take the lead in the bottom 2nd, after Osanai hit a TRIPLE and Dawson grounded to get him in. Did anybody realize the effort it took to hurl that body around three bags in as little time as possible? But the effort soon went down the drain, as Vicente Ruíz was socked for three runs in the third. Down 3-2, he came up to bat in the bottom 5th – and homered. Raimundo Beato and 48 other players as well as four umps, the managers and 19,899 in attendance stared in disbelief. But that was also to no avail, since he gave up another run in the top 6th for the Hemiplegic Badgers to trail again. Time for another counter-scramble. With two on in the bottom 6th, and nobody out, Sergio Martinez was told to bunt – and failed. He then grounded into a double play. Quintanilla was walked to get to Ruíz, and León pinch hit for him – a single to short left to tie the game. Thompson then came up with a single to right and the Raccoons went ahead again when Quintanilla scored. Top 7th, things collapsed the other way, away from Tim Moss. Sam Dadswell committed a throwing error that scored the tying run again. Dadswell tried to make good with a go-ahead homer in the bottom 7th. Kelly Weber threw out pinch runner Jorge Diaz at the plate to end the top 8th. Maybe we can finally get some break here? West pitched a perfect ninth with two K’s to end it. 6-5 Raccoons. Sanchez 2-4; Dadswell 2-4, HR, RBI; Quintanilla 2-3, BB; León (PH) 1-2, RBI;

Steve Walker belted a 2-run homer to get the Raccoons on top in the bottom 2nd once again in the middle game. The Furballs added three more in the bottom 4th, including a 2-run triple by Quintanilla. This gave the Raccoons a 5-0 lead, but makes it necessary to shift the focus to Logan Evans. His control was extraordinarily bad. He walked six in his outing and the Canadiens finally added a few hits and slashed the lead from 5-0 to 5-4 in the next few innings. Top 8th: Wally Gaston came in, and walked Marcos Mendez on four pitches, then exited, not because of the walk, but intense pain in his elbow. Cunningham added another walk before punching out two to escape the mess. Despite a walk with two down, Grant West converted another save. 5-4 Raccoons. Walker 2-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

Wally Gaston will head to the DL with bone spurs in his elbow. Estimated time of return? At least a month.

A Sergio Martinez error plated an unearned run against Carlos Gonzalez in the top 1st, which the Raccoons countered with the help of a Daniel Hall triple in the bottom 2nd. Gonzalez struck out seven from the second through the fifth, holding the Canadiens at bay, but then had to wiggle around a Hector Atilano triple in the sixth. Armando Sanchez’ leadoff jack in the bottom 6th put the Furballs on top, 2-1. That remained the score through eight. Gonzalez was still in, and West was not available after being out the last two days. The plan was to have Gonzalez pitch one at a time in the ninth, but if he got to Brian Adams, the fourth guy to come up in the inning, David Jones would take over. It came exactly that way – Ramon Carrillo reached base and Adams came up with two out. Jones struck him out on a full count to hold on to the 2-1 win. The Raccoons had only four hits (after six the day before). C. Gonzalez 8.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (2-1);

A sweep over the Canadiens would have made me a happy squealing piglet last season. This season it was somehow moot.

If you look at it, all wins were 1-run wins. The first one went back and forth, the second one was a 5-run lead that collapsed away. The third was won on two big hits (Hall, Sanchez) and a stellar pitching performance. There was really no reason to get overly ecstatic.

Pedro Vazquez was called up to replace Wally Gaston on the roster. David Jones moved into a setup role, while Vazquez and Martinez would largely share mop-up and 6th/7th inning roles.

Raccoons (14-13) @ Buffaloes (16-12)

Game 1. Kisho Saito did what was a wise thing to do with this team: create your own offense. With the bases loaded in the top 2nd, he hit a ball into the left centerfield gap to score two runs, and Thompson added an infield RBI single to it for a 3-0 lead. The Coons added two in the third inning, including a home run by Osanai, and the Buffaloes also got one for a 5-1 score that persisted through eight. The Coons only put Osanai on in the ninth and didn’t score. Saito was only at 94 pitches and was sent out for the ninth, but two base hits scored a run and he was brought in. Grant West ended the game. 5-2 Raccoons. Osanai 3-5, HR, RBI; Dawson 2-4, BB, 2B; Saito 8.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (3-1) and 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

Neither team accounted for much offense to start the middle game. The Buffaloes twice left runners on third against Scott Wade, in the second and fourth innings, and Cristo Negrón, clicked off Raccoons batters with relative ease. But Negrón’s control worsened. He walked two in the fifth, and then followed a Sanchez single with two more walks in the sixth. Bases loaded, Carlos León up with one out. His grounder to third was easily converted by Arturo Garcia for a double play, home and first. While Wade also zeroed out the Buffaloes, he also blew two chances to score, popping up bunts for easy outs in both the fifth and seventh innings. The game was still scoreless through seven. The Raccoons chased Negrón in the eighth with a Dadswell double, intentional walk to Osanai, and a Dawson single. Nobody out, three on, and León up again, but the Buffaloes brought lefty Cesar Zuniga, and we went to Flores to pinch hit. He flew to left for an out, but at least it was far enough for Dadswell to tag and score. Hall grounded out, and hadn’t it been for a wild pitch by Zuniga, the Raccoons wouldn’t have scored another run. Wade put two on with two out and Cunningham was brought in. One run scored on a double by Engjell Vulaj (he continued to annoy, even when a league away), and walked the bases full before Flores was able to catch a foul pop to end the misery. Grant West gave a double to Will Gilmore in the ninth, but held on to the 2-1 lead. Dadswell 2-3, BB, 2B; Wade 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (2-4);

Game 3 saw the Coons hit three singles and leave the bases loaded (Daniel Hall K’ed) in the top 1st. Mark Dawson’s RBI double started the scoring in the top 3rd, which the Raccoons left with a 2-0 lead. One run got away from Vicente Ruíz in the fourth, but the Raccoons re-added it in the sixth, when Dadswell made for home from second on a Kelly Weber single to deep right. Things took a turn south in the bottom 7th then. Milo Carpenter, not exactly a power-bursting second baseman, homered off Ruíz, who was chased with a Gilmore double. Still nobody out, Tim Moss took pitcher Santiago Alonso’s bunt to force Gilmore at third. With righties at the top of the lineup, Jason Bentley came out, and led the Coons out of the inning with a 3-2 lead. Dadswell hit a 1-out double in the top 8th. Despite batting .190, Daniel Hall got an intentional walk, and the Raccoons left them on. Miguel Martinez pitched a strong bottom 8th with two K’s against the 3-4-5 batters. The Coons added an insurance run and Jones saved the game with West having been out the last two days. 4-2 Raccoons. Thompson 3-5; Dawson 2-5, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-5; Dadswell 2-5, 2B; Chong 1-1;

So, out of the blue we had swept consecutive series. But this should not fool anybody. We had gotten a strong run through the rotation here. The offense was paralyzed. While looming four over .500 (and suddenly only one game behind the Indians, who had been swept by the Miners), our run differential was merely +1.

On a positive note, we still have not lost a series against Topeka in the decade (six series in eight years) and have swept the last two for a 16-8 overall record against them.

Raccoons (17-13) vs. Warriors (14-18)

This was a team that sported a number of former Raccoons, including OF Alex White, C Enrique Sanchez, SP David Castillo (although he never played for us in the majors), and MR Stanton Coleman. How hard can those be to beat?

The Raccoons scored two in the bottom 1st, while Logan Evans was perfect through three innings in the opener. But Evans was torn up in the fourth for three runs and the Coons were behind. The Raccoons singled three times in the bottom 5th for a bases loaded, one out situation. Osanai and Hall both struck out. That far, they trailed 3-2, but led 8-3 in hits. Things didn’t get better. The Warriors added two in the eighth, and the Raccoons left the bases loaded again with a K to Sergio Martinez in the bottom 8th. Warriors won, 5-2. Hits: 10-6 Raccoons; Team LOB: 11-5 Raccoons. Thompson 2-5; Sanchez 2-5, 2B, RBI;

Daniel Hall was so bad, he was benched. It tore my heart right through the middle. But he was too awful to watch. The saddest sight…

Kelly Weber’s 2-run triple got the Coons up again in the first inning. Next inning, the Warriors knocked Carlos Gonzalez out of this middle game with a 7-run barrage on four hits and a few walks, and aided by an error by Osanai, but mostly by terrible pitching. Between the third and seventh inning, no Raccoon reached base. Armando Sanchez’ leadoff infield single in the bottom 8th was meaningless, the Raccoons trailed 9-2 already. 9-2 was also the final score, and the hits column read 7-4 Warriors. Cunningham 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

Carlos Castro came into the last game with a 1.78 ERA. How were we supposed to hurt him? These days, our hitting coach chalked it up on the plus side, when none of the boys knocked himself out with the lumber in batting practice.

It didn’t matter a single bit what Castro did or didn’t. Kisho Saito was whacked around for 12 hits, 5 runs in 4+ innings, and even then there were still two on that Tim Moss had to pitch around (which he did). The Raccoons were 2-hit through four innings. Moss had a 1-on, 2-out single in the bottom 5th – Thompson grounded out. After the shelling to Saito, the bullpen pitched five innings of 1-hit ball. But of course, it was way past their bedtime. They left runners on third twice, and never scored, going down 5-0. Moss 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K and 1-1; Jones 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

May 3 – The Miners beat the Cyclones 6-2, but there are still reasons to celebrate for Cincinnati, as Claudio Rojas goes 3-4 and logs his 2,000th career base hit.
May 4 – DAL SP Jose Gonzalez (3-1, 3.97 ERA) is out for at least four months with a torn rotator cuff.
May 12 – Milwaukee’s Edgardo Garza (.317, 5 HR, 15 RBI) launches three home runs in a 10-8 win over the Gold Sox.

Complaints and stuff

Things are so utterly pointless around here… Record over last two weeks: 7-5; so far, so good. Runs scored/against over last two weeks: 34-41;

Of our 17 wins, the distribution of run differentials were as follows:

7 runs – 1 game
6 runs – 1 game
4 runs – 2 games
3 runs – 1 game
2 runs – 5 games
1 run – 7 games

And here we are – with ZERO OFFENSE. It took them 33 games to score 129 runs. That’s less than four per game, and that’s completely awful.

The Raccoons ranked top of the leagues in the Power Rankings published May 11. That was all pitching, folks. Pitching ain’t gonna carry you for seven months – it didn’t even carry into the next week. We need some offense. Some pieces are there, like Osanai of course, and we have a few high-OBP guys with speed in Sanchez and Thompson. Dadswell’s AVG is appealing (his defense is NOT), but we are missing production from Dawson, Walker, and Hall. All those three are batting FAR … VERY FAR below their undisputable capabilities.

In fact, the only players performing noticeably better than in 1986 are Winston Thompson and Jason Bentley. Everybody else is either level (not too many) or worse. Some much worse (Evans, Cunningham, Wade, Flores, Walker) …

Amidst a sea of suckers, 1B Tetsu Osanai remains as a standout – in a good way. He was the CL Player of the Week for the week ending May 2. He went 13-24 with a homer and six batted in.

In his 11th year with the Coons, Wally Gaston has been placed on the DL for the first time. This of course will pretty much void his vesting option for next year, since he won’t be able to reach 60 IP anymore.

And as if I didn’t have enough crap to deal with, FOUR(!!!) minor league catchers have gotten hurt simultaneously, adding a pressing need to sign some junk free agents. All this pointless actions steal time from me actually taking care of getting the important things done, for example knotting a proper sling to hang myself with. We started the season with only nine catchers in the system and it promptly came back slapping me in the face …

AGONY.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-16) @ Titans (15-20)

The Titans had changed a lot from the last few years, where they had regularly scored the most runs and also had given up runs in bushels. That was no longer true, with their offense having fallen into mid-pack. They still gave up lots’a runs.

Against Dave O’Neill in game 1, we mounted every lefty batter we could find, and only Dawson and Chong started the game batting from the right side. Hall remained bench, as was Walker, all of which didn’t even really matter, since Scott Wade was touched up for three early runs. Osanai drove in Sanchez in the fifth with a single, but Wade gave that run right back in the bottom of the inning. 4-1 down, Sergio Martinez had a pinch hit single in Wade’s spot to start the top 7th. Thompson singled to right and they had runners on the corners with nobody out and the 2-3-4 batters up. Sanchez singled to left for one run to score, but the inning fizzled out after that. Despite all the failures around the team, the Raccoons managed to bring the go-ahead run to the plate against “Wacky” Booth with two out in the ninth. But Dawson rolled out to short and the game was over. 5-3 Titans. Thompson 2-5; Sanchez 2-4, BB, RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 2B, RBI; S. Martinez (PH) 1-2;

Walker batted eighth in the middle game. With two out in the top 2nd, Quintanilla (who started over Weber) singled to center, then stole second against John Fleury behind the plate. Walker drove him in with a double to left and Vicente Ruíz scored him with an RBI single. Maybe Ruíz should be converted to a position player after all. Up 3-0, Ruíz jammed big in the bottom 3rd. Bases loaded, two out, full count to Zahid Mashwanis, the batter popped out foul to third to end the threat. Ruíz scattered six hits in six innings of scoreless ball, then was chased in the bottom 7th, when Barry Miller’s infield single brought the tying run to the plate with one out. Jason Bentley loaded the bases by hitting Ryan Dickerson with a pitch. Richard Cunningham was brought in. Eduardo German popped out to second for out #2. Manny Mora sent a liner to left that was caught by Quintanilla. The 3-0 lead held up into the ninth (the Raccoons left two on in the eighth when Hall pinch hit in the #9 spot and flew out). With two down, Martinez pinch hit for 0-4 Dadswell and doubled to center, bringing up Osanai once more. Home run to right, 5-0, the final score. Sanchez 2-4, BB, 2B; S. Martinez (PH) 1-1, 2B; Osanai 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Quintanilla 2-4; Walker 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Ruíz 6.1 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-2);

The next three anticipated starters were all lefties, bringing the struggling Daniel Hall back into the starting lineup. “Struggling” was not even the right term.

The Top 4 in the lineup for game 3 (Sanchez, Quintanilla, Thompson, Osanai) batted .300 or better. The rest (Dawson, Hall, Flores, Walker, Evans) under .200 … ouch. Evans pitched only three (scoreless) innings, before leaving the game with an oblique strain. Osanai and Dawson hit doubles in the fourth. Dawson made for third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout off Hall’s bat. Miguel Martinez immediately blew the lead again in the bottom 4th, 2-2 tie. Two on, two out in the fifth, Dawson grounded to Bob Goyer at short, but Goyer’s throw to first was off the mark and Dawson was safe. Bases loaded for Hall (.182 …) – he sent a grounder up the right foul line, AND THROUGH GRÖNHOLM!! Again, everybody was safe, and the Raccoons led again. Martinez set about to blow it again and was removed for Moss to face Hjalmar Flygt with one on and one out in the bottom 5th. LONG fly ball to DEEP right, Quintanilla after it and HE CAUGHT IT!!! Cunningham ended the inning, then drew a 1-out walk in the top 6th. Sanchez reached on an error and then Quintanilla made a cause for himself with a double to deep left, scoring Cunningham. Our hideously-moustached reliever went two more innings, surrendering a homer to Ryan Dickerson along the way, but the Coons led 5-3 through seven. Salvador Vargas homered off Vazquez in the bottom 8th. That kid was not good for anything but as a target. The Raccoons left the bases loaded with one out in the top 9th, leaving Grant West with no margin for error. Gonsales was safe at first on a bad throw by Dawson, but Flygt grounded into a double play. Isto Grönholm up, who hadn’t set the world on fire so far this season and in this series. He grounded out to Walker, and the Raccoons came away with a 5-4 win. Sanchez 3-5, 2B; Osanai 2-5, 2B; Hall 2-5, 2 RBI;

Richard Cunningham drew his second career walk. :-P

Raccoons (19-17) @ Crusaders (12-25)

The Raccoons started the series by leaving two on in the first inning. Carlos Gonzalez walked the first batter he faced, 22-yr old rookie outfielder Edward Snyder, but Snyder was caught stealing and over the next few innings, Gonzalez did not allow any other baserunners, until a 2-out walk to opposing pitcher Carlos Guillen in the bottom 6th. Snyder popped out foul to end the inning. The game was still scoreless, as the Raccoons were unable to mount any offense, either. Tetsu Osanai tattooed a slider by Guillen in the seventh for a home run and the lead. The Coons filled the bags after that. Gonzalez came up with one out and artistically grounded into a sure-fire double play. 1B Ambuvica Talip broke up the no-hitter with a 2-out single in the bottom 7th. Quintanilla had made an amazing catch on Pedro Villa’s just before Talip’s at-bat already. Catcher Anthony Porter added another hit, a 2-out double in the bottom 8th, but Gonzalez struck out PH Ben Browning to get out. The Raccoons remained clueless in the top 9th and the lead remained 1-0. Gonzalez hit Snyder with his first pitch in the bottom 9th and was yanked instantly. But collapse mode was already on. Stephen Walton singled to put runners on the corners against West immediately. Pedro Villa sacrificed in Snyder to tie the game. The game went to extra innings, when the Crusaders left the winning run at third. Steve Walker led off with a single to right, where Norberto Farias bobbled the ball bad enough for Walker to hit second base. Kelly Weber grounded out and Walker went to third. Armando Sanchez was walked intentionally, and Thompson was brought in on his day off to replace Quintanilla. He struck out and Dadswell flew out – another chance botched masterfully. Top 11th: Osanai led off with a single. Despite the slow-footed giant having to do the running part, we called a hit-and-run with Dawson at the plate. A throwing error by the defenders put two Coons in scoring position – with no outs. Daniel Hall at the plate: the Crusaders were not eager to pitch to him, as Hall had just clawed his way back to a .200 average. Chong was next, and he lobbed a ball over the infield for a clean single and the go-ahead run (Osanai) to score from third. Now the floodgates opened dramatically. When Osanai came back to the plate, the Raccoons had plated seven and there was still nobody out. Osanai struck out and the inning ended quickly then. The Raccoons still won, 8-1. Sanchez 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 3-5, BB, HR, RBI; Chong (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walker 3-4, BB, RBI; Weber (PH) 1-2, RBI; C. Gonzalez 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K;

Game 2 had two lefty starters, Kisho Saito and Francisco Vidrio, and both had a 4.14 ERA. Vidrio’s ERA was inflated first, when Daniel Hall jacked a home run in the top 1st. The Coons added an unearned run in the third, again with Hall at the plate. Signs of improvement? Saito in turn pitched four great innings, but then ran into a wall in the fifth. The Crusaders put two in scoring position with one out and the #8 hitter, C Anthony Porter, up. He knocked a liner up – RIGHT INTO SAITO’S GLOVE! Whew!! Vidrio came to bat now with two out. He made Hall run some out there in left, but flew out to end the inning. Saito had another close call in the seventh, and also put two on in the eighth with a fragile 2-0 lead. David Jones came in to collect the final out, but even that was a vicious low flyer to Daniel Hall in left. Grant West closed out the game. 2-0 Raccoons. How went the game in hits? 10-4 Crusaders. Hall 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Saito 7.2 IP, 9 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (4-2);

The Coons scored first again in the last game, one run in the top 1st. Sanchez and Hall executed a successful double steal and Osanai sacrificed Sanchez in. But they left it there, and also missed chances in the next few innings. Scott Wade was then roughed up in the bottom 4th, with a 2-run homer by Talip and another run for a 3-1 Crusaders lead. And baserunners were just so hard to come by for this team. They made up one run in the seventh, but still trailed 3-2 heading to the ninth. León drew a leadoff walk and although he was not a fast runner we called a hit-and-run. Steve Walker sent a flyer to left – OVER the leftfielder!! León scored on the double and the game was tied. Joshua Bernard balked Walker to third, and Chong was at the plate with nobody out, having come on in a double switch in the top 9th. Chong singled through Pedro Villa and Dan Payne on the right side for a lead. Cunningham came out to close the game and retired the Crusaders in order. 4-3 Raccoons! Walker 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Chong 1-1, RBI;

Raccoons (22-17) vs. Knights (17-23)

The Knights had gone on a massive buying spree in the offseason – now they graced the bottom of the CL South. Despite that, they were 4th in both runs scored and runs against in the Continental League, so one could expect them to come around. Please not this week, please not this week, please not - …

We started out by facing Kiyohira Sasaki, who had been part of the 1983 Stars, who beat us in the World Series that year. Sasaki was perfect the first two innings, before walking Steve Walker in the #7 spot. Flores singled to left and Ruíz moved them over. Perfect chance for Sanchez and Thompson, but the former whiffed and the latter’s liner was caught by 3B Luis Barrera, who had signed an enormous contract en route to batting .173 so far. Hall singled to start the fourth, stole second, and was left out there. Afterwards, Ruíz was undone by home runs from Joreao Paulos (2 runs, 5th) and Fred Rodgers (solo, 6th), which, with Sasaki acing his way through the game, was pretty much the story here. The Raccoons tried, they really did, and Hall and Martinez drove in runs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, but they lacked that one extra hit to tie the game. The Knights won, 4-2. Hall 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Middle game: Bernard Lepore started for Atlanta and almost homered off Logan Evans in the third, but Sanchez got the flyer a stride shy of the wall. Next, Sanchez led off the bottom 3rd and stroked a single to left. Thompson singled – runners on the corners. Hall scored Sanchez with a sac fly for a 1-0 lead after three. Logan Evans blew it right away in the top 4th. Single, walk, single, walk, all with two out before striking out Paulos to end it. Evans now began to struggle a lot after three strong innings early on. Double plays bailed him out in both the fifth and the sixth. He was pinch hit for in the bottom 6th, but the Raccoons still left two in scoring position. Bentley and Jones then blew up the game in the seventh, where Bentley put two on, and Jones served up a 2-out home run to Douglas Donaldson. The Raccoons couldn’t get anything done in the game, and lost. 4-1 Knights. Sanchez 2-4; Walker 2-3, BB; Weber 2-3;

Osanai and Sanchez were the only lefties in the lineup against Carlos Asquabal in the last game. A 4-3 record and 3.19 ERA didn’t necessarily tell how much of an ace he was. Carlos Gonzalez in turn got in trouble with two walks in the top 2nd, but rebounded by striking out the side in the third. The Raccoons put on two with nobody out in the bottom 3rd, but Hall, Osanai, and Walker were unable to bring anybody in, the game remained scoreless. Bottom 4th: Dawson singled, Quintanilla doubled. Gonzalez grounded for a run to come in, but they remained utterly pathetic in RISP situations. Osanai managed to get a run over the plate in the fifth, also on a groundout. That 2-0 lead held up well as long as Gonzalez pitched 1-hit ball for six innings. Two Knights singled in the seventh, and with two out, Marcinek Wodaj sent a pop-up to short center, that nobody got to. One run scored, and they scored another run on another single to tie the game. Four singles to do enough damage. The Coons always had three at best. Gonzalez left with a runner on in the top 8th that David Jones promptly allowed to score. Knights won, 3-2. S. Martinez 2-4; Flores 2-4; Weber (PH) 1-1;

Interlude: waiver claim

We claimed MR Dirk Campbell off waivers from the Pittsburgh Miners and the claim was executed on the day of the start of the series in San Francisco. Campbell is a 32-year old righty with a good changeup that makes people shiver – a bit at least. He bounced around several teams in his minor league career and pitched on an off with the Canadiens the last three years. The Miners claimed him off waivers in April, but ultimately weren’t happy with him. I’m not happy either with my righty relievers.

To get Campbell on the roster(s), 3B/2B Orlando Lantán was waived and designated for assignment, and MR Pedro Vazquez was sent back to AAA.

Campbell is still arbitration eligible, but I don’t consider him a long-time solution anyway.

Raccoons (22-20) @ Bayhawks (24-21)

Kisho Saito started the series, the only starter with a winning record on the Coons roster. Winston Thompson hit a single in the first inning of the opener, and came around to score on an error for an early 1-0 lead. Thompson’s single was the Coons’ last hit through seven innings. Saito’s 1-0 lead came apart in the bottom 7th, after 2-hitting the Bayhawks through six, an RBI double killed him right there. Kelly Weber singled to start the top 8th. Alfonso Torres hit a pinch-hit double in the bottom 8th to chase Saito, but Cunningham held on to the tie. Thompson got right into the middle of it again with a double in the ninth and he again scored on an error. Now the SanFran pen unraveled suddenly and with two out the Coons brought in three more runs with hits by Martinez and Weber. Cunningham and Moss completed the game, the former got the W in the 5-1 win. Thompson 2-4, 2B; Weber 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K; Cunningham 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-3);

Game 2. It was a terrible scramble for the Raccoons to get single runs in the fourth (driven in by Osanai) and sixth (Thompson). Wade was pitching rather well that far, but loaded the bags in the bottom 6th and was lucky to get out unhurt through the quick hands of Walker and Thompson, who turned a double play with a grounder by oldtimer Jimmy Hunter. Wade went 7.1 innings of shutout ball, before handing the ball to Dirk Campbell to wear a coonskin cap for the first time. He struck out Jose Diaz and Alfonso Torres. Gustavo Quintanilla added some security with a pinch-hit 2-run homer in the ninth. Grant West still pitched the bottom 9th, as he needed some work, and while he put two on, he struck out the side. 4-0 Raccoons. Osanai 3-4, 2B, RBI; Quintanilla (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Wade 7.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (3-5);

Vicente Ruíz loaded the bags in the bottom 1st of the final game, but the Bayhawks managed only one run. The Raccoons turned it to 2-1 Coons by the third. But Ruíz’ control was not there, he walked four over five innings. Tetsu Osanai added some air with a home run in the sixth, 3-1. Moss surrendered a 2-out homer to Gary Beauchamp in the bottom 6th. Bentley came on and K’ed SS Hector Martinez, but Dadswell lost the ball and Martinez was safe at first. Luckily, pitcher Luis Nunez came up and grounded out. Bentley then walked the first two batters in the bottom 7th (although Jose Diaz, the first one, stole second against the incapable Dadswell before the second walk anyway), and David Jones just managed to get through the mess with the lead intact. The Furballs left the bags full in the eighth. Chong got on in the top 9th, but was forced when Dawson grounded. Hall then came up. Both him and Dawson were only PH’ing here after being benched. Hall sent a triple to the deep right corner to score an insurance run. With one out, Hall – was left to die at third. “Demon” West pitched a perfect bottom 9th, and the Raccoons won 4-2 for another sweep. Hall (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; Osanai 2-4, HR, RBI; Walker 2-3, BB;

In other news

May 15 – PIT CF Jesus Rodriguez (.303, 3 HR, 16 RBI) will miss a few weeks with a sore shoulder.
May 18 – In his first season after a successful stint with Vancouver, MR/CL Gerard Marquis was rung at a 6.75 ERA pace by Federal League hitters. Now, the Stars reliever is out until September with a ruptured finger tendon.
May 20 – The Miners lose another player, MR Juan Miranda (13 G, 0-1, 2.76 ERA, 1 SV), who has ruptured a finger tendon and will miss three to four months.
May 21 – The Knights lose star SS Eddy Bailey (.268, 2 HR, 19 RBI) for at least a month to a torn abdominal muscle.
May 23 – Dallas INF Jerome Ramsey (.317, 1 HR, 10 RBI) will miss up to three weeks with a herniated disc.
May 23 – NAS OF Antonio Rodriguez (.376, 0 HR, 31 RBI) misses a cycle by the home run in a 5-5 outing in a 8-2 win over Sacramento. Rodriguez is only 21 years old and could wreak havoc among pitchers for a long time.
May 26 – LVA OF Claudio Garcia (.231, 1 HR, 8 RBI) hits his head on a defensive play and will be out for a few months with a concussion. Garcia, 24, has been plagued by injuries in his budding career.
May 27 – DEN OF Shoichi Fujino (.320, 6 HR, 39 RBI) will miss six weeks with a broken thumb.
May 27 – A torn quad will sideline RIC INF Alberto Reyes (.293, 0 HR, 14 RBI) for at least six weeks.
May 28 – With a 4-1 record and a 1.38 ERA, TIJ SP Jorge Mora has had a stellar first two months this year. Now he has a torn UCL and will miss a year on the DL.

Complaints and stuff

I am a little disappointed nobody has acknowledged the utter cuteness of my avatar so far. Full size picture below. Gosh, so cuuuute (wanna cuddle...! He'd probably rip my hands right off, but still ...!)

What is going in the right direction here? Well, Tetsu Osanai does not have another triple crown season, but he’s doing very well, batting some .320 to .330 and leading the CL in homers. He’s off A MILE in RBI’s, but that’s not HIS fault, if you look at the whole team. Armando Sanchez and Winston Thompson are a great 1-2 pair, with the only issue being the fact that both bat left-handed. Sanchez leads the league in stolen bases with 11, actually. Against LHP however, Thompson has to drop down and it’s hard to find an achieving right-handed batter on this team.

The defense overall has been much better this month, with the exception of Dadswell. But he’s batting twice as much as Flores, who would have been sent away a long time ago, if he wouldn’t be out of options.

The rotation has recovered nicely the last few weeks, as has the pen, minus Martinez and Vazquez (who was sent to AAA when we picked up Campbell). The issue is the pathetic offense, and it’s easy to find the culprits for the misery: Hall and Dawson. Looking at the numbers should be enough. The last time BOTH of them had good seasons, must have been 1983, when we went to the postseason. With barely any production from them, you won’t get anywhere.

Since May 4, the Coons have won and lost games in bunches: six wins, then four losses, then five wins, then three losses, now three wins. So, they have by no means played successless, we’re second in the division and five over .500, but is has definitely not been fun to watch them play the way they have been. They rank 11th in runs scored, and the run differential is +4 (174-170). Only the Loggers have less runs scored (170). We are at less than 3.9 R/G. The last time the Coons failed to post 4.0 R/G? 1982.

Next: Condors and Aces at home, Loggers and Indians on the road. Interleague after that, Blue Sox and Stars with the draft also during that week.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-20) vs. Condors (30-17)

The Condors were a run machine – 233 of them so far, which was almost 40% more than what the Furballs had put up so far.

The Condors also went ahead in game 1, in the top 2nd on – who could’ve guessed it – a passed ball by Sam Dadswell that advanced a runner to score on the next single. Woody Roberts was perfect through three, but allowed three singles in the bottom 4th, where the Coons scored one run to cut a 2-0 gap in half. But the 1987 Logan Evans was nowhere near the class of the Logan Evans of the last five years. He coughed up five runs in 6.2 innings and the Raccoons trailed 5-1 after seven. The Raccoons mounted a bit of offense in the bottom 8th. Sanchez and Thompson both got on, and León hit a PH RBI double in place of Quintanilla. Osanai came to the plate, representing the tying run. He sent a soaring high liner into center, JUST OVER CF Preston O’Day for a 2-run double. Dadswell struck out, but Dawson hit another double to tie the game. Dimian Barrios came out to pinch hit for the Condors in the ninth, he batted .164 in 55 AB, and Tim Moss grounded him to first. Osanai became the match winner in the bottom 9th, hitting a 2-out single over the infield, which Armando Sanchez used to dash home from second for a 6-5 walkoff win. Sanchez 1-2, 3 BB; León (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI; Osanai 3-5, 2B, 4 RBI;

Middle game: Carlos Gonzalez had really bad control and NO stuff. The Condors took an early 3-0 lead, while the Raccoons didn’t get a hit until the bottom 3rd, but Sergio Martinez was then thrown out stealing. The Coons scored two in the bottom 5th with a León triple and a Sanchez double, but Gonzalez had given up four by then. They loaded the bases in the bottom 6th with one out, when the often erratic John Douglas (former Logger) walked Dadswell to add to Hall and Dawson already on the bags. León came up, and another triple would have come in very handy, but León grounded into a double play. There was no more meaningful offense after that, the Raccoons just silently went down. 5-2 Condors. Thompson 2-3, BB; S. Martinez 2-3, RBI;

Condors starter Gary Simmons drilled two Coons in the first inning, but they were still not able to score. The Condors had three singles in the top 2nd, followed by an RBI walk to Clifton Greenan given up by Kisho Saito. Simmons then mercifully grounded into an inning-ending double play. The Raccoons turned the table with two runs in the bottom 3rd, on an RBI single by Osanai and a grounder by Hall. Nightmare unfolded then in the top 4th. Chad Fisher’s leadoff triple but the Coons and especially Saito in a bad spot from the get-go. He got one grounder to third that held the runner, but he scored on the next grounder and Osanai dropped Dawson’s throw for an error. Next play, a grounder to Saito, throw to second – into centerfield, another error. Simmons came up and grounded to first, Osanai to Thompson – OVER Thompson, another error. The Condors scored four unearned runs in the inning, which was more than enough to win the game. Armando Sanchez hit a solo jack, but that was it. 5-3 Condors, 10-4 in hits, and 4-0 Raccoons as far as errors were concerned. Sanchez 2-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Cunningham 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Interlude: trade

We did dump some junk into other people’s yards on May 31, trading OF Ricardo Gonzalez to the Falcons for minor leaguers SP Kiyomitsu Sano and MR Jake Pitts.

Sano is no good, won’t make the majors, ever, and the same goes for Pitts, but I got rid of the million bucks or so still left on Gonzalez’ contract. Gonzalez was hitting sub .200 even at AAA and I had no patience to endure that for much longer anyway. Nothing lost, little gained. Let’s move on.

Raccoons (26-22) vs. Aces (21-28)

The Aces were weak-batting and had the worst rotation in the league.

There were strange things about Scott Wade, really. Many of them crystallized early in the first game. He jammed right out of the gate, barely getting a grounder to end the inning with the bases loaded and no damage done. The Raccoons scored one and left two on in the first, and the same in the second. Wade was supposed to bunt in that second inning, but got León forced at third – Wade can not lay down a sac bunt for his life without causing carnage! After an RBI single by Steve Walker in the bottom 3rd with one out, Wade came up again with the bags loaded and still one out. Nowhere to put a bunt down to. Swing away. He hit a double over the centerfielder Angelo Cardenas, scoring two. After that early barrage and 5-0 lead, Aces starter Luis De Jesus retired the next nine Coons over 3.0 innings. Wade allowed a run in the sixth, then gave up two 2-out walks in the seventh. One runner scored against Tim Moss, but the Coons were still 5-2 ahead. Daniel Hall broke it up further again, with a 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom 8th, sitting Grant West down in the pen. Instead Miguel Martinez came in and sat down the last three Aces. 7-2 Raccoons! Hall 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 4-5; Dawson 2-4, RBI; Walker 1-2, 2 BB, RBI;

The Raccoons took an early 1-0 lead on a Dawson double in the first inning of the middle game, but then started hitting altogether against Ron Dillon, who came in with an 8.27 ERA. While Vicente Ruíz delivered five scoreless innings, he was hit decisively in the sixth and knocked out with two on in a 1-1 game. The Aces ended up scoring four runs in the inning. They scored another four runs against a helpless bullpen in the seventh. The Raccoons? They were just lying there, waiting for death to happen. They scored three runs in the eighth because of walks, errors, and misplays, but lost 8-4. Osanai 2-4, RBI; Dawson 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Walker 2-3, BB, RBI; Weber (PH) 1-2 – this includes all the hits the team had.

Logan Evans no-hit the Aces the first time through the lineup, but the Coons didn’t do anything either in the first three innings. Things then grew hideous in the top 4th. Tadashi Kan broke up the no-hitter with a 1-out single. On the next play, Mark Allen grounded to short, where Chong hurled to Thompson, who threw to first – then held his side and was walked off the field. Sam Dadswell put something up on the board with a 2-run homer in the bottom 4th, but by now my thoughts were elsewhere almost entirely. Evans blistered through the game at a torrid pace, 2-hitting the Aces through eight. With a 4-0 lead, he was left in, and quickly removed the first two guys. Then Mark Allen singled. Ira Houston singled, playable by Chong, but the play was not made. Lowell Allen singled and suddenly the tying run came to the plate, and Grant West came into the game. He got Craig Knapp to ground out. 4-1 Raccoons. Dadswell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Evans 8.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (3-3);

Losing Winston Thompson will tear another hole in a porous lineup. He was not diagnosed on the same day, neither on the following off-day.

Wally Gaston was able to return to some form of mound, recovering from the removal of bone spurs in his elbow, and was sent to a rehab assignment at AAA.

Raccoons (28-23) @ Loggers (20-33)

Carlos Gonzalez was the only Coons starter with less than three wins now (and ironically had the best ERA among them), and was roughly greeted by Cisco Banda with a 2-run homer in the bottom 2nd of the opener. A throwing error by Gustavo Flores plated another, unearned, run in the third. Mark Dawson’s 2-run homer thus was not able to tie the game in the top 4th, and the Loggers added another run after a successful base steal in the bottom 4th. Gonzalez was knocked out, putting the first four men on in the bottom 5th, and things deteriorated only more with Moss and Campbell on the mound. The Loggers scored six runs in the inning alone, distancing the Raccoons, 10-2, which eventually was also the final score.

This team can’t get anything done. They can’t even … not even look not-horrible against the horrible Loggers.

The Raccoons put up two runs in the first frame of the middle game against Judd Montgomery before being silenced. Three consecutive extra base hits tied the game in the bottom 4th, with Kisho Saito looking everything but good. Montgomery retired fifteen Coons in a row in the middle innings, while Saito struggled to hold the tie through seven. Saito was then pinch hit for with Hall in the top 8th, but Hall didn’t get to make contact, since Montgomery hit him with the pitch. Hall then made for third as Sanchez hit a 1-out single. Sergio Martinez was up, who had been the last guy to reach base before Montgomery’s streak began in the third inning. He sent a glove-seeking grounder to short, but the Loggers couldn’t pull off the double play and Hall scored the go-ahead run from third. A great catch from León in the bottom 8th prohibited Cunningham from blowing the lead, and West entered with the 3-2 lead in the bottom 9th. He struck out the first two, then popped up Charlie Justin to end the game. 3-2 Raccoons on only five hits. Sanchez 2-4, 2B; S. Martinez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (5-3); West 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (14);

Game 3: after another three scoreless frames to start a game, Kelly Weber tripled in Daniel Hall with two down in the top 4th for a 1-0 lead. Catcher Luis Gonzalez, more known for his cannon arm, tied the game with a leadoff homer off Scott Wade in the fifth. The Raccoons gave Wade another lead, 2-1, in the top 6th. Bottom 6th: Edgardo Garza came up first – home run. Osanai doubled in a run in the seventh, and Wade – this time got the leadoff batter, then allowed a single and nicked the next batter and was yanked. David Jones came in to face lefties, but the Loggers sent righty PH Felipe Hernandez. Jones still prevailed, getting two groundball outs to hold on to the lead. The Coons finally got something going in the top 8th, with a 2-run triple by Sanchez, who was then scored by Martinez, 6-2. Campbell and Bentley held on from there and the score remained 6-2. Sanchez 2-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; S. Martinez 2-5, RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Weber 2-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Wade 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (5-5);

The bad news broke the same day: Winston Thompson had suffered an oblique strain and will be out roughly until the All Star break, a month from now. At least we had a halfway decent replacement in Dani Perez, who was called up from AAA to split time with Sergio Martinez and Yong-chan Chong.

In other news

May 30 – Nashville’s hotshot Antonio Rodriguez (.374, 0 HR, 31 RBI) will miss over a month with an oblique strain, possibly up until the All Star Game, which is a shame, since he could easily have been nominated for the Federal League.
June 4 – Young Loggers MR Michael Brown (4.07 ERA in 17 G) will miss over a year with a torn UCL.

Complaints and stuff

It’s a very, very strange season. They are playing the most horrible ball (and for two full months now) since they started leaving the basement, so basically since 1982 or 1983. While our ’82 record was 75-87, it was noticeable trend upwards from the gruesome first five seasons. Of course in 1983, we went to the Big Show. Yet, they are only 1.5 games behind first place. It’s puzzling in the highest degree.

What’s the difference? What doesn’t work anymore? It’s hard to tell in some places. Logan Evans f.e. is the only starter remaining from 1982. Of course the backend of the pen has been in place since then (that’s a LONG time!), but those three are clearly at their worst in those six seasons. Things get easier when you get to the position players. Hall and Dawson do not produce. While we finally have a very good centerfielder (or several very good outfielders whom we can shift back and forth), Daniel Hall and Mark Dawson are unable to bat even a flat .200 and show no power either. This is a trend now. One bad year – happens. Two bad years – happens. But both have had several bad years since 1983. And this is their worst. Add incapable catching to that and we have most faults of the team nailed down.

What to do? I don’t know. I really don’t. The team is 1.5 games behind the Indians for the division lead, and they are so utterly un-fun to watch.

The Nashville Blue Sox have claimed Orlando Lantán, our 1981 top draft pick. May they grow eternally happy with him.

We may soon place more people on waivers. Gustavo Flores is too terrible to stay with. Once Wally Gaston returns, we need to get rid of either Miguel Martinez (rule 5 pick) or Dirk Campbell (out of options and acquired on waivers in the first place). I’m also not happy with Quintanilla, but he has options, and León, who has 10/5 rights.

Rights! Whoever gave those suckers RIGHTS!! Most of them can’t even find their right thumb!

Next: interesting 3-set in Indy, then interleague with the Blue Sox and Stars. The draft will take place during the Stars series.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-24) @ Indians (33-24)

Vicente Ruíz was skipped with an off day before the series and Logan Evans was sent to the mound to have the 1-2-3 guys in this series for the division lead. But with the recently horrible Carlos Gonzalez looming behind Evans … well, things could still go right.

Both teams had only two hits apiece through four innings of the opener. The Raccoons came to bat in the fifth and Walker walked to start a massive inning. Quintanilla’s double off the wall put both in scoring position, before Evans struck out. The next six Coons all reached base as they shelled Pepe Acevedo and reliever Bob Haines for seven runs in the inning, which nevertheless included a wild pitch by Acevedo and an error. Mark Dawson hit a 3-piece. One should think that Logan Evans would be able to handle a 7-0 lead. But … the Indians sent Haines to bat in the bottom 5th and he socked a long ball. It started to rain soon afterwards, chasing Logan Evans after pitching 5.1 innings of 3-hit, homer-to-opposing-long-reliever ball. The #9 spot produced another homer for the Indians in the bottom 8th, by pinch hitter Angelo Duarte off Tim Moss, the only batter Moss faced that day. The Coons had the game bagged, though. A 2-run triple by Quintanilla and an unearned run in the ninth took care of a 10-2 win over the division leaders. Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Dawson 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Quintanilla 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 2. The Indians dismantled Gonzalez in the bottom 3rd for three runs, while the Coons were 1-hit through four by Hunter Frazier. They then scored two runs in the fifth on four singles, but still trailed. Top 6th: Dadswell struck a leadoff single, followed by an Osanai double. Big chance here, boys. Mark Dawson tied the game with a single up the middle, but the next three Coons up (León, Weber, Perez) made three poor outs and Osanai was left at third base. The Indians threatened in the bottom 7th, but also left the go-ahead run on third base. The Coons then went ahead when, with Dadswell on second and two out in the top 8th, Forest Hartley dropped Carlos León’s low flyer, allowing Dadswell to score. Jones and West held on to that slim lead the rest of the way. 4-3 Raccoons! Sanchez 3-5, RBI; Dawson 2-4, RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1;

Suddenly, the Raccoons were division leaders! It still didn’t feel like it, they were barely scoring more runs than were scored on them (225-215), and their offense was tied for last place in the CL.

Kisho Saito now had the task to hold on to the lead against Robert Vazquez (7-5, 2.56 ERA). The Coons filled the bags in the top 1st, but León struck out to end the inning. No team threatened for the next 2 1/2 innings. Osanai then put the Coons on top with a line drive home run just inches over the wall in right center, 1-0. Saito breezed through to the eighth from there, where it went all wrong. Robert Vazquez’ leadoff single was a bad sign, but Saito then walked Tom Welch and the Indians fans grabbed their rally tomahawks and started chanting. Cunningham was brought in. The Indians brought lefty Raul Vazquez to pinch hit, and Cunningham struck him out. Forest Hartley flew out to Hall in left. 1B Gilberto Alaniz up next – K’ed! But there was a ninth inning to complete, too. The Raccoons were wholly incapable of making something out of Mark Dawson’s leadoff single, and West came in – to blow the save. Dale Hunter’s 1-out double off the wall scored Angelo Duarte from first and while the Coons tried to make the play at home, Hunter went to third, representing the winning run. Horace Simpson sent a hopper to Dawson, who threw out Hunter at home. A K to Tom Welch sent the game to extra innings. Top 11th: Steve Walker hit a leadoff single off Tim Hess. Dawson K’ed, Osanai lined out hard, Hall K’ed. It was always the same with that team. Alvin Sutphen was thrown out in the bottom 11th when he tried to stretch a leadoff double off Campbell. Hall may not be batting for much, but defensively he still got the key plays done. Bottom 12th: Bentley came in and gave David Harris a true leadoff triple. Greg Brown grounded to third, where Dawson looked back the runner, then made the play at first. Welch popped out, and Tim Moss came in to face lefty Raul Vazquez. STRUCK HIM OUT!! The agony was allowed to continue. Neither team amounted to much for the next two innings. Dani Perez hit a leadoff single in the top 15, but was thrown out on a run-and-hit, where Sergio Martinez missed the hitting part entirely. Miguel Martinez hit an Indian in the bottom 15th, but this didn’t advance things either. Armando Sanchez then clubbed a homer in the top 16th – and NOW we’re playing ball again. Sutphen’s 1-out single in the bottom 16th chased Martinez and David Jones came in, the last guy out of the pen. He faced the lefty Duarte, who bunted Sutphen over, but this brought up the pitcher Dennis Columpton with two down. He singled to left, unreachable for anybody, and Sutphen came home. 2-2, tied game.

Agony.

The next few innings passed while I was passed out. Ruíz came on in the 19th inning or so. The Indians threatened a few times after Dadswell dropped a third strike in the 17th and a 2-base throwing error by Walker in the 20th inning, but things continued. The Coons put two on in the 23rd, but Walker flew out to end that chance… by now the Coons were out of reserve players except the remaining starters, and the park was out of beer, so a decision would have to come quickly. It came quickly. Sutphen hit a leadoff single in the bottom 23rd, Duarte walked, and Jorge Mora laid down a perfect bunt and everybody was safe. Things were over with the bases loaded and nobody out. David Harris singled to center to end the game.

3-2 Indians. IN TWENTY-THREE INNINGS. Sanchez 5-9, BB, HR, RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K; Moss 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

AGONY.

Raccoons (32-25) vs. Blue Sox (33-26)

The bullpen was blown up big time now. Besides Cunningham and Martinez I didn’t really have anybody available for the first game against Nashville, and the box of wonders, Scott Wade, on the mound, who could last anywhere from one to nine innings. In addition to that, Vicente Ruíz was used up and would not be able to start game 2, so here we were also sending people out on short rest down the road the next week. With the perfect timing that was unique to the Raccoons, they had forked up just at the right point, at the beginning of our first 16-game stretch of the year.

Trying to regain control here, we sent outfielder Gustavo Quintanilla to AAA before the start of the Blue Sox series and recalled Wally Gaston from his rehab stint in St. Petersburg, carrying 13 pitchers for at least this series. Hope is that things will straighten out by Monday, when we will go to Dallas.

All was well for five innings with Scott Wade, K’ing six over that span. The Blue Sox landed three hits on him in the sixth to score the first run of the game. No Raccoons had put a foot on third base through five. The bottom 6th had a 1-out single by Martinez, who advanced on a wild pitch and scored and tied the game on Mark Dawson’s double. The Raccoons went on to fill the bags, but León struck out for the second out in the inning. With Chong at the plate, a passed ball to Travis Lange got the Coons a lead, which was a good thing, since Chong flew out to center on the next pitch. They made it 3-1 in the seventh, but 3B Horace Henry led off the Blue Sox’ half of the eighth with a homer to left. The Blue Sox got John White to third base, before (former Raccoons top pick) Alejandro Lopez grounded to Osanai for the final out of the eighth. An infield leadoff single by Larry Coffin then cost the game. A 2-out double by Mike Grimes tied the game in the top 9th off Cunningham. The Raccoons were wholly incompetent to score a runner on second in the bottom 9th, and lost, 4-3. S. Martinez 2-4, RBI; Chong 2-4; Wade 8.0 IP, 10 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K;

Now, for one round through on short rest, Logan Evans was sent out for game 2. Both Evans and Luis Guzman showed their best game that day, putting up a long row of zeros on the scoreboard. Through seven, both teams had no runs and just two hits. Evans then jammed in the eighth, where a walk and a single put runners on the corners with two down. Wally Gaston came in, his first appearance after his DL stint, and fans rose from their seats to show some appreciation for what he had endured the last ten plus years here. He came in to face the catcher, Travis Lange. Before that duel was resolved, John White stole second on Dadswell, who bobbled the ball and watched White slide into second base. Lange then grounded to Dawson on the next pitch, who threw to Osanai to end the inning. Moss pitched a quick ninth. Guzman was still in the scoreless game entering the bottom 9th. León pinch hit in the #9 spot and doubled to left. Now, let’s get this run over and head to the clubhouse, Roseanne’s gonna be on in 20 minutes. Armando Sanchez got an intentional walk to get the double play in order, bringing up Martinez. With lefties Dadswell and Osanai coming up, Martinez was told to bunt the runners over. The Blue Sox reacted by walking Dadswell intentionally. Tetsu Osanai to the plate, any long ball will do. A walk would do so, too – and Osanai worked a full count walk. The Raccoons walked some more: off the field. 1-0 Raccoons, both teams managed just three hits, and the Coons had six baserunners all day. León (PH) 1-1, 2B; Evans 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 1 K;

Since the Indians were steadily losing games against the Capitals, the Raccoons were now first in the CL North and last in the CL in runs scored.

The Raccoons fell behind early in the rubber game, a 2-run homer by Larry Coffin getting away from Carlos Gonzalez. One run was unearned, since Fernando Pueblo had reached on a throw dropped by Osanai before Coffin went deep. The Raccoons halved the gap right away in the bottom 2nd. Gonzalez hit a batter that came around to score in the fifth, while the Raccoons looked like they were in dire need of being jump started again. Coffin made an error that got Kelly Weber on base to start the bottom 5th. Maybe that was the spark? The Blue Sox responded with a homer by Jesus Arias in the sixth. Miguel Martinez blew the game open with a single-single-single-homer outing in the top 9th. Horace Henry hit the grand slam. Osanai went deep in the bottom 9th, but the Raccoons lost 8-3. Hall 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Perez (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Raccoons (33-27) @ Stars (33-29)

The start of this road series also marked the day of the amateur draft, so we’d have some picking to do after the first game. For results of the draft see the respective post.

Game 1 was scoreless into the fourth, when Daniel Hall came up with two on and no outs. He lined out to short right field, and Dadswell was picked out trying to get back to second base. The Raccoons still managed to score a run in the inning to take the lead. But it didn’t last. Bottom 5th, the Stars landed four base hits, three of which came on 2-strike counts, against Kisho Saito, and scored three runs. The top 7th offered a chance to get back. Dawson singled and Walker doubled, bringing up Saito with nobody out. The Stars brought a new pitcher, righty Joaquin Bastos, and we countered with the only lefty bat on the bench at the moment, Kelly Weber, who was alternating turns with Carlos León and Daniel Hall on the bench. Weber lobbed the ball into short center to score the first run and get the tying run 90 feet away, and Walker came in on a Martinez sac fly. Neither team did much after that and the game went to extra innings. In the bottom 10th, Dadswell tried hard to lose the game. With two down, the Stars had Andres Serna on first against David Jones, and Raúl Herrera at the plate. Serna set off to steal, and Dadswell threw the ball away, putting Serna on third. Herrera then walked, and Grant West was brought into the game. Herrera tried to steal, and Dadswell couldn’t even make a throw, being too clumsy to hold on to the ball. West grounded Claudio Ayala to third to get out of the mess. West continued the struggles however in the 11th, where the Stars had runners on second and third with one out, and only got out when Walker threw out one at the plate, and Dawson made a great play for the third out. The Coons left two on in the top 12th, and in 13th Steve Walker grounded into an inning-ending double play with two on. By then, we were already down to our last reliever again, which was Miguel Martinez, to make things worse. Flores on second and Sanchez on first, Martinez came even to bat in the top 14th. There was nobody left in the pen. Calling a hit-and-run, Martinez landed a liner into short right that was enough to score the slow-footed Flores from second base. Osanai and Hall (so far 0-6) piled on with RBI hits. Martinez pitched another scoreless inning and the Raccoons won 6-3. The Raccoons landed 17 hits, but their RISP numbers were probably not thrilling. S. Martinez 2-6, RBI; Dawson 3-6; Walker 2-6, 2B, RBI; Weber (PH) 1-1, RBI; Flores (PH) 2-2; M. Martinez 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-0) and 1-1, RBI;

So that makes a 0-out, 4-run day followed by a 9-out, 0-hit day for Miguel Martinez, and on consecutive days so. This also made for another depleted pen. Except for Wally Gaston, who had been out the two days before, every reliever worked during this game. So we stayed at 13 pitchers for another few days.

Game 2 was Wade’s. Worst case scenario, he gets blown up and Ruíz has to come out in long relief, forcing another round through the rotation on short rest. Moss and West were 100% ready for the middle game.

Worst case scenario, this also included C Miguel Fuentes homering to start the bottom 1st in that middle game. The Raccoons tumbled mightily to get one run out of runners on the corners with nobody out in the top 4th. First Osanai popped out foul, then Dawson was barely safe after getting Dadswell forced at second already. Sergio Martinez hustled home with the tying run. However, the wheels came off of Wade’s wagon quickly with four runs over the next two innings for the Coons to trail 5-1. The Coons got the tying run to the plate in the sixth with the bags full, one out, and Hall up, but his long flyball was caught by Herrera and only one run scored, and again in the seventh, down 5-2, two on, nobody out, and Martinez up. He singled to left to load the bases for Dadswell, who flew out, but Osanai then drove in two with a roller just past first base, but that was it again, as Dawson and Weber left the go-ahead runs on. The bullpen imploded in the eighth, with Moss and Gaston producing two runs and leaving the bags loaded for Grant West to get the final two outs, both K’s. 7-4 Stars. S. Martinez 3-5; Osanai 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 3 had Ruíz and Bill Smith (last with the Canadiens, who infamously snubbed us this winter) as opponents. Shoving nine runs up Bill Smith’s … glove would certainly appease me. Carlos León certainly got the team in the right direction with a home run in the second inning, his first long one with the Raccoons. But the lead didn’t last, as Raúl Herrera homered off Ruíz right in the bottom 2nd. A leadoff double by Sam Dadswell was entirely wasted in the top 4th – they didn’t even get him to third with three pathetic grounders. They took the lead in the fifth. Chong made home from second on a Sergio Martinez single, with the tag by Shimpei Iwamoto a fraction late, and a passed ball by Iwamoto then prolonged the inning long enough to score two more, unearned, runs. The Coons broke the game open with a 4-run seventh, during which Ruíz was removed for Dani Perez to pinch hit, and Daniel Hall mashed a long one in the ninth for a blowout, 10-1 Furballs! Dadswell 3-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; León 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Hall 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Perez (PH) 2-2, RBI; Ruíz 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (5-5);

In other news

June 9 – Crusaders INF Pedro Villa (.250, 3 HR, 28 RBI) is out until late July with a sprained thumb.
June 10 – The Titans’ Barry Miller (.244, 0 HR, 12 RBI) is out for the season. The serviceable infielder has suffered a torn back muscle.
June 13 – Jeremiah Carrell shut better call it quits. The Knight will miss at least a month with a knee sprain. He has managed to get just 1,163 AB in the last three and a half years. In ’87 he’s batting .291 in 86 AB.
June 13 – Sacramento’s Mark Warburton (6-6, 4.39 ERA) tosses a 1-hitter in a 6-0 win over the Crusaders. SS John Beach spoils the party early with a 4th inning single.
June 13 – CHA Bastyao Caixinha (9-3, 2.83 ERA) 2-hits the Buffaloes in a 1-0 win.
June 13 – Hitting streaks are special, even more so for catchers, and Washington’s Luis Rivera (.298, 8 HR, 40 RBI) has one of 20 games going after a 3rd inning single in an 8-1 win over the Indians.
June 14 – Rivera’s hitting streak ends at 20 games, going 0-5 against the Indians.
June 15 – The Capitals find themselves 1-hit by LVA Jarrod Schroeder (2-5, 4.06 ERA). The Aces win 2-0.
June 17 – IND SP Robert Vazquez (7-5, 2.46 ERA) will have to rest a few weeks with shoulder inflammation.
June 17 – The Pacifics are trashed, 23-2, by the Knights in a massive blowout. Most productive is 1B Fred Rodgers, who goes 6-7 with a homer and seven runs batted in. It’s the ABL’s first 6-hit game in two and a half seasons, and the 16th overall.

Complaints and stuff

The agony was that agonizing, I didn’t touch the game for I think five days or so after that 23-innings loss.

Carlos León is complaining that he is not an everyday starter. I am complaining that Carlos León isn’t batting .650 with two homers each day.

Some upswing in offense in those last few games in Dallas, enough to get the team back to the midfield in runs scored in the CL (things are not that far apart apparently). But Sanchez has been in a hole the last week, and we moved Sergio Martinez to bat leadoff. Martinez has made a cause for a starting spot here. Winston Thompson will be on the DL for two more weeks, so we won’t have a problem until the end of June or early July. Neither Kelly nor León is batting a lot, and Hall isn’t batting barely any. I still can’t get a fifth outfielder up, since the bullpen is still overused.

The rotation mostly holds it’s ground, but they still lose a lot of games because of low offensive output.

In fact, the Raccoons may well be the least horrible team in a horrible division, although the reason for the Canadiens’ abysmal performance is much a mystery that remains to be solved. They have no production from their catchers, little from the outfield (less than the Coons even), and two starters have been rocked: Robbie Campbell and Carlos Lozano have lost 18 games between them. Still, that team playing below .500 is SHOCKING!

Next: home series against New York, then a long road trip to Boston, Oklahoma, Atlanta, and Indy.

[Westheim]

1987 AMATEUR DRAFT

The Raccoons will pick 18th in every round, plus 15th in a 46-pick supplemental first round.

There were about four future opening day starting pitchers in the pool, foremost Wilson Moreno (14/15/14). The pool was much better in regard to future closers, with Ivan Lopez and Albert Mathews both scouted 20/20/20, and a couple more with very high ratings as well. There also was about a full future All Star team of fielders in the pool, including C Bob Armstrong (18/3/14), INF Bob Grant (20/14/8), 2B/3B Hector Gonzalez (14/11/17), LF Martin Horn (17/17/7), OF R.J. Stinton (15/9/18), and RF Orlando Rodriguez (19/3/10).

If given first pick, I would tend to either Moreno or Stinton, but we won’t have first pick, sadly. We’ll see.

The first overall pick was LF Martin “Funky” Horn, taken by the Los Angeles Pacifics. Moreno, Stinton, and Grant were also gone by the time the Raccoons were to pick first time.

Round 1 (#18) – 2B/3B Hector Gonzalez, 22, from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico – great hitting prospect with very good defense at second base, where he is much better than at third because of a somewhat lacking arm, and decent speed
Supp. Round (#39) – CL Albert Matthews, 18, from Holden, MA – with his devastating splitter, he has true closer potential
Round 2 (#88) – C Bob Armstrong, 21, from Mission, KS – very good contact and gap power, but no home run power, and his catching abilities are not overwhelming so far
Round 3 (#112) – INF/LF/CF Terry Miller, 20, from Switzer, WV – very versatile with good contact and gap power projections, he could make a good middle infielder or utility player, much like what he currently have in Steve Walker
Round 4 (#136) – SP Dennis Fried, 18, from Los Angeles, CA – not exactly a raw diamond, but his scouting report looks much like Christopher Powell’s used to, and we had fun with him for many years; strong control, good enough stuff, but little movement require a lot of work
Round 5 (#160) – MR Walter Weber, 23, from Grand Rapids, MI – great slider, potentially a situational lefty somewhere down the road
Round 6 (#184) – 1B/2B Randy Foster, 22, from Pacific Grove, CA – good infield work, but his batting is not projected to overwhelm anybody
Round 7 (#208) – C Jose Lopez, 19, from Greeley, CO – decent catching prospect with a dubious bat
Round 8 (#232) – SP Ken Hines, 17, from Bedford, TX – five pitches, all awful, but maybe he can get two of them together and become a lefty reliever
Round 9 (#256) – MR Jesus Munoz, 21, from Caracas, Venezuela – decent stuff, but not much beyond his curveball
Round 10 (#290) – SP Gary Montgomery, 18, from Montreal, Canada – good changeup; I don’t want to say bad things about round 10 picks anymore

Gonzalez was assigned to the AA level, all others went to A ball. Some players were released in turn, including C Michael Coates, who was once included in the deal that sent away Jayson Bowling, and OF Matt Olson, a 1982 supplemental round pick, who once hit .300 in AAA, but has completely caved in the last two years.

There were actually two Hector Gonzalezes in the pool, which freaked me out massively, when the Warriors picked the other one later in the draft. Oh god, what have I done!?? But it was all good, no wrong clicks, no nightmares (other than the usual ones).

The top SP’s were all gone by our first pick. I passed on the one or two middle-good guys remaining to draft Gonzalez, then picked Fried [pronounce Freed, not Fried like in fried chicken] in round 4, who was the only hopeful SP remaining in the pool then.

[Westheim]

THE PORTLAND POST
June 17, 1987

ABL owners vote not to expand next season
by A. Miller

There were no terribly big surprises surfacing once the ABL’s rule 4 draft proceedings completed yesterday in Sacramento. The Los Angeles Pacifics picked outfielder Martin Horn first overall in the draft, the Portland Raccoons used their first round pick to select another second and third baseman from a Spanish-speaking country many people have their doubts on, and then owners and their representatives also convened at the side to vote on one urgent matter, the question of expansion of the league.

Incepted in 1977, the ABL has played with 24 teams all along since then. However, many American markets, even big ones like Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia, are not represented in the league. Chicago has been most aggressive trying to lure the Capitals franchise from Washington to the lakes in 1985, and then the Warriors franchise from Sioux Falls this winter. So far, nothing has come about from these potential – and potentially abandoned – move talks.

This of course means that the league would have to add franchises to get Chicago and Detroit, and maybe others, into the show. Rumor also has it that New York City would like a second franchise with the Crusaders enduring a struggle that has been lasting for most of this decade.

But Chicago’s and everybody else’s hopes received a dash yesterday, as owners have reportedly voted against expansion, 14-7 with three teams abstaining. No details have been made public about which teams voted for expansion or against, but reportedly neither subleague got even close to a qualifying majority either. ABL statutes require at least a 75% majority of teams to vote in favor of expansion, a mark that was missed by a wide margin. This means that nine teams would have to vote pro expansion in one subleague for a chance of expansion to actually happen.

How the representatives of the Portland Raccoons voted, is not known, either. While owner Carlos Valdes is said to favor expansion to tap into new markets and the financial opportunities this presents, general manager Richard Westfield said in an interview in March of this year that the league is not ready for an expansion, citing a lack of talent in the player pool. “Once you go past the 30th to 33rd player on about any team’s 40-man roster”, Westfield then told Bert Anderson from the National Sports Channel (NSC), “things get incredibly thin. Now you expand by four teams, and suddenly you have seventh infielders play every day”, and also added that it would be “only worse” for pitchers.

While there thus does not appear to be a unison opinion even in one team’s clubhouse, it can only be imagined that the league is divided over this as well. They were able to agree on one thing however: they will hold the next vote on the expansion case at the 1988 winter meetings.

[Questdog]

23 innings...wow!.....first place....wow!....Walter O. Weber....WOW....

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Walter O. Weber....WOW....

Who's that chick?

-------

Raccoons (35-28) vs. Crusaders (27-38)

This was a 4-game set, with the Crusaders projected to roll up three lefties in the first three games, which was not projecting to go well for us with most of our right-handed batters struggling anyway. That rotation was the stronghold of their roster. And now Osanai, Sanchez, and Dadswell would be matched for three days. Past Sergio Martinez in leadoff things would get dicey.

Logan Evans took the mound for the opener. Evans was not in control of his pitches. He walked three in the second inning, walking in the go-ahead run for the Crusaders. Luckily for him, the Crusaders swung at everything in their general direction. León had the first Coons hit in the bottom 2nd, but got thrown out trying to stretch the single into something better. Walker and Flores got on to start the bottom 3rd and Evans bunted them over. Walker was thrown out at home trying to score on Martinez’ flyout, inning over. SS John Beach and P Carlos Guillen banged Evans out of the game with run-scoring doubles in the top 6th. Neither of them had been batting more than .120 going into the game. Mark Dawson got the Coons on the board with a 3-run homer in the bottom 6th, leaving a 4-3 deficit to overcome. Two more Coons got on, but Walker popped out to end the inning. But first we had to overcome Bentley putting on two in the top 7th. David Jones came in to strike out Ben Browning and end the inning. Dani Perez then hit a home run in the bottom of the inning and tied the game. From there, Rich Cunningham pitched three great innings without the Raccoons getting even to third base. Moss pitched the 11th, and León walked to start the home half of the frame. Moss was in the #7 slot and bunted him over. With righty Hervé Ben pitching, Sam Dadswell pinch hit for Gustavo Flores, but was walked intentionally and the inning fizzled out from there. That was what this team needed: more extra innings. Hall singled to start the 13th, then stole second against catcher Anthony Porter. León walked, too, bringing up the pitcher again, Wally Gaston. With K-ings Dadswell and Perez looming, things were desperate. The signal was for a run-and-hit. The runners took off, Gaston couldn’t pull the trigger, a strike, Porter launched to third base, where Hall slid in – SAFE!! The Crusaders now actually walked Gaston intentionally to create force plays on every base. Dadswell was up, still nobody out. He grounded not even as far as the mound, and Hall was forced at home. Perez popped out to short. Two out. I was twisting the metal railing of the dugout with my bare hands. Martinez came up and JUST singled through on the left side to walk off the Furballs, 5-4. S. Martinez 3-7, 2B, RBI; Dawson 1-5, BB, HR, 3 RBI; León 2-4, 2 BB, 2B; Cunningham 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K; Gaston 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-0);

Bad news about our pitchers: the bullpen was a mess while we were STILL carrying that extra man, and to make everything worse, Scott Wade came down with bronchitis and would miss his next start. It looked a lot like we’d need a 14th pitchers in just two days.

First things first, Carlos Gonzalez went out to pitch game 2. We’d need a REALLY long outing from him. Ambuvica Talip homered in the second to get the Crusaders ahead, while Todd McKenzie retired the first nine Coons. He loaded the bases in the fourth, but Dadswell struck out to end the inning. Apart from that, the Raccoons had little going. The Crusaders led 2-0 in the seventh, when Hall singled to start the Raccoons’ half. Hall was forced on Chong’s grounder and León came up with two down. He homered to dead center to tie the game. The Raccoons ran out of arms in the ninth inning. Moss put two Raccoons on, prompting West to come in with one out. Martinez and Chong could not execute a double play on a grounder to short and the Crusaders scored the go-ahead run. An error put Hall on base in the bottom 9th and he came around to score on a Kelly Weber sac fly. The game went to extra innings, of course. West pitched the 10th and then hit a single to right to lead off. Only Flores remained on the bench and he was not suited as pinch runner, so West stayed on the base. Martinez singled to put West in scoring position. Sanchez grounded to short, but the Crusaders only got the out at first, bringing up Dawson and Osanai with one out. Dawson was walked and Osanai grounded into a out-at-home-out-at-first double play. West struck out the side in the 11th. Bottom of the inning: Hall walked, stole second, and the Crusaders put on Dadswell. Weber singled. Bases loaded, nobody out. Perez grounded and Hall was forced out at home. This brought up West, but he was pinch hit for with Flores. He grounded to short, Dadswell was out at home. OH COME ON!!! The next pitch by Hervé Ben got past the catcher – Weber scored the winning run. Sergio Martinez was probably most relieved, standing in the batter’s box. 4-3 Raccoons. S. Martinez 2-4; Weber (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walker (PH) 1-1; West 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-0) and 1-1;

Bases loaded, less than two outs, groundball, force play at home. The same awful sight being repeated over and over and over. It’s worse than a nightmare. Nightmares end at some point.

At age 30, this was Grant West’s third career base hit.

Scott Wade being unable to start in game 4 of the series necessitated a roster change. 2B Dani Perez was demoted for SP Francisco Trujillo. We now have 14 pitchers on our roster, and 11 position players. Things get more complicated here every day. [I had to do this one day early, since he would be up to start on the day of game 3 with the AAA team, and I need that arm]

But first up was game 3. Kisho Saito started the game with a hit batter, CF Stephen Walton, and would have surrendered more than one run in the first hadn’t it been for Armando Sanchez making two huge catches in deep right center. The Coons came back and tied the game in the fourth, Hall driving in Dawson with a 2-out single. Saito completed eight innings without getting ahead. Flores hit a 1-out double in the bottom 8th and Saito was removed for Chong, the only righty on the bench. Chong went into the left center gap, scoring Flores from second base. The Raccoons now led 2-1 into the ninth, but Grant West was unavailable after throwing almost 50 pitches the day before. Cunningham had thrown 46 two days ago, and so we went to Wally Gaston. The Crusaders fed him nothing but lefties, and Ben Browning hit a leadoff double for major trouble. Younger grounded out, Talip struck out, and the runner was still at second with Peter Charles at the plate. The 2-1 pitch got away from Flores and Browning went to third. Gaston got the count full, then struck out Charles. HELL, YES, WALLY!! 2-1 Raccoons. Flores 2-3, 2B; Saito 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (6-3);

Now for Francisco Trujillo’s big league debut. He was a round 2 pick by the Blue Sox in 1981, and we acquired him in December 1982 in the Paul Cooper trade. Since then he’s had a flurry of injuries and doesn’t rank too high on any depth chart, but Manuel Paredes was not ready to start for another two days, Jerry Ackerman had no options and would not be called up for one start, and everybody else was even worse off than Trujillo talent-wise. Trujillo’s stuff was very good, and he had once struck out 18 in an AAA game, but his control was a mess. We’ve had such pitchers before…

So game 4 was Trujillo’s debut, while Mark Dawson was out of the lineup for some rest. Old men don’t like 16 straight games. Trujillo’s debut was not a good one. The first five Crusaders all reached base against him (aided by an error by Chong). The Coons drew three walks in the bottom 1st without scoring, and put two more on in both the second and third – without scoring. Chong and Martinez were both thrown out trying to steal in the fourth. It was a continuing nightmare. Trujillo pitched some good innings and showed his great stuff, but was blown up in the fifth, where the Crusaders scored two runs without any hits, but with two walks and a hit batsmen, then an error with two down by Hall. The Coons didn’t get aboard until the seventh, when Osanai homered for two runs. But the game ended ugly. Gaston pitched the ninth (lack of arms…) and after a single and two walks was burnt with a grand slam by Dan Payne. All the damage was done after Gaston had struck out two. Raccoons were dumped, 8-2. S. Martinez 2-5; Osanai 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

So, four games, 3-1 record, 12-16 runs. Something ain’t right here.

Raccoons (38-29) @ Titans (30-40)

Trujillo was sent to AAA again for this series, and Gustavo Quintanilla recalled. We still have to decide on a reliever to cut. Sanchez got some rest in the first game of the series, and Hall was replaced by Quintanilla in left for one or two games.

The Coons took a lead for a change in the top 2nd, 1-0, but Vicente Ruíz was crushed right away with a no-outs grand slam by Manny Mora in the bottom 2nd. The Titans added another run, 5-1. And Manny Mora really hated Ruíz, apparently, because he hit a 2-shot in the third, ending Ruíz day. Great, that’s what we need, more bullpen usage. The Coons got a chance in the seventh, down 8-3 after a 2-out, 2-run double by Martinez in the inning before that. Dadswell and Osanai singled, and Dawson reached on an error by Boston’s new 3B Chad Fisher. Nobody out, they only scored one run on a groundout by Quintanilla. They also left the bases loaded in the eighth, Dawson grounded out for the final out. We trailed 8-4 into the ninth and Weber doubled to lead off, followed by Quintanilla’s RBI single. Now the Titans brought their closer, “Wacky” Booth. He had a 7.15 ERA. Chance here? Walker grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Hall in the #9 spot walked, bringing the tying run to the plate, but no further. Raccoons lost when Sanchez pinch hit to strike out, 8-5. S. Martinez 3-6, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Osanai 2-5; Weber 2-4, 2B, RBI; Quintanilla 2-5, 2 RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1, BB;

Logan Evans came up against Kinji Kan in the middle game. Both pitched gems, with Logan Evans carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning, before Esteban Rodriguez hit a single between Martinez and Osanai. Martinez in the top 6th had gotten to third base, but had been starved there, and the game was still scoreless, but Evans got in trouble in this bottom 6th with two walks that filled the bags, and Isto Grönholm at the plate. Evans managed to get him to ground out harmlessly to Walker at short, inning over. Steve Walker had a double to start the eighth, and Evans came up next, and hit a single to short center. Runners on the corners for Sergio Martinez. He flew out and Walker had to hold, and Sanchez popped out over the infield. Dadswell finally put something on the board with a bouncer to right. Osanai walked for loaded bases, and Dawson hit a single to short center on a full count that scored two runs. Evans was sent to bat in the ninth and entered the bottom 9th still on the mound, but Grant West was warming up. But Logan Evans was his own closer that day, completing a 1-hit shutout of the Titans, 3-0 Coons!! Dadswell 2-4, RBI; Walker 2-4; Evans 9.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K, W (5-3) and 1-4;

Logan Evans pitched his eighth career shutout, keeping a 5-year run with one SHO per year intact. He previously pitched 1-hitters in ’84 and ’85, but never walked more than three batters in his shutouts.

The Coons stormed out of the gate in the rubber game, as with two down in the top 1st Dawson doubled, Osanai doubled, and Hall homered to put three on the board. The Titans threatened in the bottom 3rd and put Carlos Gonzalez in a corner after an error by Martinez put on their first runner of the day, and Gonzalez walked another batter. But a grounder to Martinez ended the inning and the 3-0 lead remained intact. Bottom 4th, another error (Quintanilla) and another tight spot, with two in scoring position and nobody out. Both runners scored, as Steve Walker committed the next error. Two in, two on, still nobody out! The Titans loaded the bags when opposing pitcher Eric McCullough singled into left, but Dawson made a great grab on a sizzling Manny Mora line drive that ended the inning, still up 3-2. Bottom 5th. With one out, Hjalmar Flygt grounded to Martinez, who threw it past Osanai. Error #4. Two great catches by Armando Sanchez saved Gonzalez (and Martinez…) here. Gonzalez went seven innings without being to blame for much. Grönholm tried to be the spoiler here, hitting a leadoff double off Cunningham in the bottom 8th. He got a groundout, a K, and then a flyball to deeeep center, which Sanchez JUST got to for his fifth or so great catch of the game. Grant West came in for the ninth. A grounder from 3B Ernesto Ruíz eluded Martinez, who also couldn’t turn the double play on the next grounder, and Ruíz came in to score with two down, giving West the fifth blown save of the year. Flygt dropped a ball in front of the plate and Dadswell then couldn’t make that play, putting the winning run at third and Grönholm into the box. We walked him and went after the lefty Mashwanis, but the Titans brought righty Eduardo German. German singled to left, past Dawson, for the Titans to win 4-3. Four errors and numerous botched plays. Sanchez was the only standout in that regard, but went 0-4 and left four on. C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

For a team built around defense and pitching, that was a [self-censored] game. Yes, I just said that.

In other news

June 18 – The Titans resolve their problems with two strong catchers by trading away John Fleury (.255 in 149 AB) to Tijuana for 3B Chad Fisher (.291, 9 HR, 54 RBI) and a minor league pitcher. The Titans also trade MR Glenn Corbin, who appeared in only 42 games for them since last year, to Washington for a prospect.
June 20 – The Cyclones beat the Buffaloes 4-3, with CF Pedro Ortiz (.329, 1 HR, 22 RBI) bringing his hitting streak to 20 games.
June 24 – CF Stephen Walton (.270, 4 HR, 19 RBI) knocks six hits against the Loggers in a 9-0 rout by the Crusaders, five singles and a double.
June 24 – Ortiz’ hitting streak ends at 22 games in a 7-3 win over the Capitals.

Complaints and stuff

I’m holding here because I’m stuck. We have an off day and the pen will have the rest it needs. This means we can send down one reliever. But whom!?

Obviously we can’t send down West, Cunningham, Bentley, Moss, and Jones. All five are performing (mostly) extraordinarily. In fact, Tim Moss may be our second best junk grab after Winston Thompson four years ago.

Wally Gaston is struggling, but we don’t know whether it’s that elbow still bugging him. In any case, he has 10/5 rights. He is also in a contract year, since he won’t get the 60 IP required for his vesting option for 1988 to trigger. That leaves Campbell, whom we only acquired on waivers in the first place, because he has no options, and Martinez, who was a rule 5 pick, and can’t be sent down anyway. I don’t know what to do…….

At one point here I saw the Miners waived Troy Scott, who was once a Coon, but we didn’t have the budget room to take him on anyway, and even then he was no better than Kelly Weber as a backup outfielder.

Winston Thompson will come off the DL sometimes during the next week. Theoretically, the bullpen decision could wait until then.

The batting remains a mess. They are middle of the pack in most categories, except K’s (1st!) and homers (2nd). The pitching ranks in the top 3 in most categories and top 5 in all but one: home runs allowed! 45 dingers allowed so far, second-worst in the league.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Who's that chick?

1987 5th round draft pick of the Portland Racoons......

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

1987 5th round draft pick of the Portland Racoons......

I know that, but who's Walter O. Weber?

You confuse me, you know?

I'd prefer if you'd solve my bullpen problem

[Westheim]

After getting two days to break my brain over the question of whether I wanted to cut Dirk Campbell or Miguel Martinez. Both had things going for them. Campbell had the better ERA and scouting report, while Martinez was younger, had more stamina, and was a rule 5 pick and could only be lost completely. Campbell still could clear waivers and go to AAA.

So we waived Dirk Campbell.

Raccoons (39-31) @ Thunder (36-36)

The Thunder were going nowhere at the moment, and had fired manager Joe Riley less than a week ago. Riley was 762-763 for his managing career (including the hopeless causes of the 1977-78 Aces and 1979-81 Wolves). Riley was considered a legend, and would grace any coaching staff, but while I would have liked to add him, there were no funds available for this.

Game 1 was awful. Kisho Saito was ineffective, lacking control, and frequently going to 3-ball counts. He surrendered four runs in six innings, of which three were unearned thanks to shoddy fielding. Add to that no offense at all, and you quickly end up with a 7-hit shutout by Domingo Leon. The Raccoons had a terribly hard time hitting anything but singles, with only Daniel Hall hitting a 9th inning double. They lost 5-0. S. Martinez 2-4;

Scott Wade had missed his last start due to being terribly sick and came back with control issues as well. He still held together early on, while Sergio Martinez had a 2-out RBI single in the top 3rd that got the Raccoons atop 1-0. For Martinez, the hit marked the 13th straight game he hit safely in. Wade had a few strong innings, striking out the side in the fourth, but fell to a Dave Browne 2-run home run in the sixth inning. That was all the damage that had to be done. The Raccoons were 4-hit and lost, 3-1.

MR Dirk Campbell cleared waivers, was demoted to AAA, and was replaced by 2B Dani Perez. FINALLY BACK TO TWELVE PITCHERS!! Now, if a few of those 13 hitters could pick up the pace a bit…

The Thunder sent in Bob Gaulton to pitch in game 3, and he had a 6.28 ERA. The Raccoons loaded the bags on three straight singles to start the game, before Osanai grounded into a run-scoring double play, and Hall struck out. Second inning, three straight singles again. This time they at least managed to score two on their own, and Gaulton was kind enough to bring in another runner with a wild pitch with two out. Vicente Ruíz ended Gaulton’s day in the fourth with a 2-run double off the wall in left to make it 6-1 at that point. They piled on more against the Thunder pen with clutch hits from Martinez, and a 2-run homer from Daniel Hall. The Thunder were kind enough to help wherever they could, with bases loaded walks and sub par fielding. The Raccoons smashed through them this time, winning a staggering 14-3. S. Martinez 4-6, 3 RBI; Weber 2-5, RBI; Dadswell 2-6; Hall 1-3, 3 BB, HR, 2 RBI; León 3-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Walker 3-5, 2B; Jones 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

And now the bad news: apart from Armando Sanchez, Daniel Hall, Mark Dawson, and everbody else slumping, Tetsu Osanai is in a 1-19 funk the last few days, and 14-65 with only two homers in the last 15 days. That’s some serious trouble here.

On less depressing news, Winston Thompson came off the DL after his oblique strain, and will replace Dani Perez on the roster, whose last short stint was limited to one AB, a strikeout.

Raccoons (40-33) @ Knights (42-33)

The Knights started game 1 with Xavier Mayes on the hill, who had a 1.73 ERA. This sounded like a tough castle to storm for the Raccoons, and he retired the first six Coons with ease. Then it was – of all people – Gustavo Quintanilla, who rocked him with a leadoff homer in the top 3rd. Quintanilla then went on to rob Michael Root of a 3-run homer, ending the inning with his catch. Logan Evans had walked the two men on base, and his control was far off in this game. That should not been that he was entirely bad: he held the Knights hitless through three, through four, through five. Gustavo Flores led off the top 6th with a single, and Evans laid down a bad bunt, but Mayes threw wide of second base and Flores was safe, as was Evans. Kelly Weber’s infield single loaded the bags with two out for Daniel Hall. Time to knock one. He knocked a racing grounder up the middle for one run, and Osanai singled to right for two more. Michael Root took his revenge and broke up the no-hit bid in the bottom 6th, but Logan Evans’ pitch count was already past 80 anyway due to the bad control and five walks issued so far. Walk number six in the bottom 7th ended the game for him. The pen created a jam in the eighth. Gaston walked Tom McDonald with two down. Tim Moss then came in to face lefty Luis Barrera, but walked him on four straight. Aaron Nolan was up, a switch hitter, but better against lefties, so we brought Cunningham. Rich struck him out. Mario Rodriguez then nailed Miguel Martinez with a 2-shot in the ninth, giving Grant West a 1-out save opportunity, and converted. 4-2 Raccoons. Quintanilla 4-4, HR, RBI; Evans 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 6 BB, 3 K, W (6-3);

Sergio Martinez went 0-4 and had his 14-game hitting streak end. Depending on how things will go with him, he, Thompson, and Walker could form a tripod of middle infielders there, taking turns around second base. Of course, Mark Dawson ain’t hitting either, so Walker could play there as well.

Game 2 had Carlos Gonzalez, who had gotten zero run support so far, and despite an ERA just 0.45 higher than last year, had already twice as many losses in all of last season (3-6 to 16-3). Gonzalez got a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but blew it in the second. 24-year old LF Valerio Saldana hit his maiden big league homer, a 2-piece, off him. Gonzalez also was out of control, walked four, and was socked out of the game with 2-run homers by both Root and Rodgers in the fifth, that gave the Knights a 6-1 lead. Barrera immediately homered off Tim Moss, 7-1. The game was long out of the window there, and the Raccoons once more were held very short, on four hits. They were smashed 8-1. S. Martinez (PH) 1-1;

Bad control continued for the Furballs rotation, as Kisho Saito also walked a number of batters in his start in the rubber game. He had a 32-pitch first inning where he just escaped a bases loaded jam with no damage done, then wobbled on. The game was still scoreless after five, the Raccoons leaving two on twice. The Raccoons were lucky in the bottom 6th, where Hall threw out Luis Barrera when the latter tried to stretch a double. The game remained tied. Saito lasted into the eighth, where he was removed with a runner on third for Cunningham to face a right-hander, and Cunningham got out of the inning. With two down in the ninth, the Coons started something with a single from Osanai. Hall worked a walk, and Daswell singled to right, where Root got to it quickly. Osanai was waved home and toppled into home plate a hair ahead of the tag by Carl Vickers. With one out in the bottom 9th, West surrendered a single and a double. Vickers was up next and drove both runners in with a single to center. Sixth blown save for West this year… 2-1 Knights. Osanai 2-4; Dadswell 2-4, RBI; Saito 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K;

Oh why… oh just why…

Raccoons (41-35) @ Indians (39-39)

At 3.0 games behind, the Indians had a fair chance to take back the division lead in this 4-game set.

After a promising start into the opener and three innings of 1-hit ball, Scott Wade was blown out of the skies with two home runs and four runs in total in the bottom 4th. The Raccoons had been 2-hit so far by Jesse Carver, who wasn’t even having a great year and who had lost six of his last seven starts. After striking out the side in the fifth, Wade surrendered another long ball to Raul Vazquez (his second of the day) in the bottom 6th. The Raccoons raised their heads once in the top 7th. Leadoff doubles by Dawson and Sanchez scored a run, and León walked, Weber singled, and Hall pinch hit for an RBI walk, the go-ahead run came to the plate with nobody out. Of course, they botched it phenomenally from there and never landed another base hit in the game. Indians won, 5-3. Dawson 2-4; Sanchez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Hall (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Gaston 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

The Indians’ youngster Bob Harris entered game 2 with a 5.54 ERA, and his stuff was known as being lacking. It was however enough to stay on pace with those safely failing Raccoons. The game was tied at 2-2 after the top 2nd and remained there until the bottom 6th, where Ruíz walked two and Harris’ grounder with the bags full and one out was not converted into a double play, scoring one run. The Raccoons allowed Harris to pitch eight innings without ever getting dangerous again. Dennis Columpton came in to close it in the ninth. After a single to Carlos León he struck out Hall and Weber and finally Chong grounded out. 3-2 Indians. Sanchez 1-2, 2 BB;

Bring in Logan Evans, in a lefty duel against Pepe Acevedo, once flipped from the Coons to the Blue Sox for Jack Pennington. Tetsu Osanai got the Coons out of the gate first with an RBI triple in the first inning (needless to say that Osanai was left stranded), but things swung back in the bottom 4th. Three singles tied the game and put two runners in scoring position. Horace Simpson was walked intentionally to get to Acevedo, but Evans threw a wild pitch for the Indians to take an insurmountable 2-1 lead. The Coons failed to get anybody past first base until Armando Sanchez tied the game with a homer to left center in the top 8th. The Indians came right back in the bottom 8th scoring the winning run on an error by Carlos León. Of course, Evans had walked the scoring runner first. 3-2 Indians. Sanchez 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1;

I will not comment on this series here, and instead just report that Gustavo Flores slipped on some wet patch of grass after the game and bummed his knee and would be out for a day or two. Gustavo Quintanilla was sent to AAA and Odwin Garza called up for the duration of Flores being sore.

And here comes the division lead deciding game. Carlos Gonzalez vs. Alex Miranda. Both losing records, both ERA’s around four. A throwing error by 3B Gabe Taylor helped the Raccoons to plate an unearned run for a 1-0 lead after three, but Dawson and Gonzalez both grounded into inning-ending double plays in the third and fourth, respectively. They left a runner on third in the fifth, too, and two on in the sixth. Gonzalez managed to hold the Indians at bay, then left with a bugging arm after the sixth inning. Bentley blew it in the seventh by putting two on, and the Indians brought a runner around against David Jones. Hall’s leadoff single in the ninth brought Cunningham to the plate, who bunted him over. Steve Walker somehow managed to put a looping flyer between outfielders and Hall scored on the 1-out single. This time West did not blow it. 2-1 Raccoons. Dadswell 2-4, BB, RBI; Hall 3-4, 2B; Thompson 3-3; Walker 1-2, RBI; C. Gonzalez 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

In other news

June 27 – Boston’s titaneous slugger Isto Grönholm (.258, 4 HR, 38 RBI) fails a random drug test and is suspended for 10 games by the ABL office. Grönholm is 6’0’’ and weighs 235 lbs, and ironically has his worst season since breaking into the majors.
June 27 – PIT Craig Hansen (10-3, 2.44 ERA) 3-hits the Gold Sox in a 6-0 win by the Miners.
June 28 – The Aces’ OF Ira Houston (.233, 2 HR, 37 RBI) is out for the year with a torn flexor tendon. The youngster had his best season so far.
July 1 – MIL Neil Stewart (7-6, 2.23 ERA) 2-hits the Thunder, as the Loggers win 4-0.
July 2 – Veteran starter Joe Ellis (6-10, 2.60 ERA) could miss the rest of the season with elbow inflammation. The 36-yr old has already signed a 2-yr, $1.5M extension with the Falcons.
July 4 – The Falcons are 1-hit by Oklahoma’s Wilson Cordova (10-3, 2.53). The Thunder win 3-0.

Complaints and stuff

Frustration is boiling in unknown intensities.

Carlos Gonzalez is not diagnosed, but potentially out for the season (he’s never finished a season, due to injuries). I hate it. I just hate it.

Logan Evans was named the CL Pitcher of the Month of June 1987, going 4-0 with a 1.26 ERA in six starts. Not bad for a guy walking more batters than he strikes out. It’s his second POTM award after winning one last August.

I tried to negotiate a contract extension with Richard Cunningham, which so far did not go well. He started at 6-yr, $3M, so basically demanding closer’s money. He really hugs tight to that $500k mark, so this could really get tough, since I can’t fit that into the budget. We have other important contracts to extend, too, like Kisho Saito’s. While not the uber-star, he is a very good #2/#3 slot guy, and while the Raccoons lack the beast starter that wins 18 or more each year, they need the more of the former category.

They have not scored more than four runs (and that only once) in the last two weeks, except for that Bob Gaulton blowout for 14 runs. Even if the Coons make the playoffs (which I have all reason to doubt), they will be blasted out of the Championship Series in no time. The Knights are not even the best team in the CL South. The Condors are motoring. The Coons are not motoring, not even moving, they are awful. They are 1-5 against both those teams this year. They suck.

Next: Canadiens, Loggers, All Star game.

I hate it. I hate it. Preordering OOTP 14 was the worst decision of my life since the last time I preordered a game.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (42-38) vs. Canadiens (38-43)

One year ago, we had played the Canadiens for eight around the All Star break, getting creamed 2-6. We will play them again this season the same way, and probably will get creamed, 0-8. The Canadiens had their rotation mostly back to form so I was expecting it to be only a matter of time to steamroll to the top of the division. Of course, the schedule provided them with a first class chance to do so.

Game 1 was started by Kisho Saito for the Hapless Woodrats. Saito allowed homers to sub par outfielders Marcos Mendez and Jorge Diaz early on and the Coons trailed 4-2 in the sixth. Hall singled, León hit an infield single to the feet of pitcher Tia Fa, and Winston Thompson walked to load them up with one out. Walker scored Hall on a sac fly and that was it in this inning. And also for this game. Canadiens won, 4-3. All Raccoons position players logged exactly one hit.

Here we received the news that Carlos Gonzalez was out for the season with shoulder inflammation. He went to the 60-day DL and I went screaming at a wall. Jerry Ackerman was called up after two full seasons in the minors, on his last option. He’s 22-24 with a 4.19 ERA in his major league career, and 8-4 with an ERA just over three in AAA ball this season. We will have to do something with our rotation anyway this winter, so he has three months to make himself useful now.

Game 2, with suspiciously few fans in the park. Scott Wade’s own throwing error plated the go-ahead run for the Canadiens in the top 3rd. The Raccoons were able to tie that one with an unearned run of their own in the bottom 3rd, but Wade allowed four singles in the fifth for a new 3-1 Canadiens lead. Wade went seven, still on the hook, 3-2, when exiting for a pinch hitter in the bottom 7th. The Canadiens loaded the bases in the eighth, but Cunningham picked up Moss’ mess and held them off the board. A leadoff double by Dadswell in the bottom 8th didn’t lead to something scoreable either. The Raccoons lost again, 3-2, and were 6-hit by Vancouver. Dadswell 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Cunningham 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

The third game was a scoreless snoozer through the first five innings. Four singles for the Raccoons, two for the Canadiens, nothing of excitement going on. Hector Atilano broke up the nap with 2-out homer in the top 6th. Daniel Hall hit a double into the right corner to start the bottom 7th. León singled to put runners on the corners with nobody out, chasing starter Robbie Campbell. Dawson grounded out to third, where Hall had to hold. Ruíz was pinch hit for with Kelly Weber, who managed to squeeze a grounder past 2B Atilano to tie the game. Martinez brought in León with a sac fly to give the Coons a lead. Wally Gaston loaded the bases with a walk and two singles in the top 8th. Moss came in to face Atilano, but the Canadiens scored two runs against him. Bottom 8th. Sanchez singled, Osanai doubled, nobody out, go-ahead run on second base. And they left this chance out, too. Walker tied the game with a sac fly, before Hall struck out and Quintanilla made another embarrassing out. Grant West entered the tied game and fans plundered the concession stands like Vikings, knowing fully well that this game could only end if the Canadiens scored, which was – despite West’s performance so far this year – not likely to happen soon. West pitched three scoreless frames, despite putting runners on third in both the 10th and 11th innings. Daniel Hall was the only base runner for the Coons in those three innings after drawing a walk in the 11th. Miguel Martinez threw 11 straight balls in the top 12th to walk two, which helped the Canadiens score a run. The Coons made the most of another error when Art Garrett threw wildly past first in the bottom 12th to score Kelly Weber from second base and tie the game again. Moreover, Sergio Martinez was now on second, and nobody out. They didn’t score him, the misery continued. Martinez walked two again in the 14th, and again the Canadiens scored. This time their run was unanswered. 5-4 Canadiens. S. Martinez 2-5, 2 RBI; Weber (PH) 2-4, 2B, RBI; Ruíz 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Miguel Martinez was released the next day, and Dirk Campbell was brought back up.

Who’s pitching for the Canadiens, still going strong at age 36? Juan “Mauler” Correa. As was usual business, he waited in game 4 of our recently regular 4-game sweeps. And then there was Angel Potter, whom I labeled as a weak hitter prior to the 1983 World Series, who hit a 2-out RBI double in the top 1st off Logan Evans. But Potter also got the Coons started in the bottom 1st, when the umpire ruled him as interfering with Winston Thompson, when the latter struck out, and awarded first base to Thompson. Two seeing eye singles later, Coons were glaring at Correa (11-3, 1.87 ERA) from every direction there was. Hall swung at a 3-0 pitch (!) and flew out to short right. I dropped unconscious right there. When I came back to me, the Coons led 2-1 in the top 3rd, and Evans was stared at from four Canadiens with one out. The Canadiens scored two, including one with a bases loaded walk, but they were unearned after an error by Thompson. Osanai was thrown out trying to stretch a double in the bottom 6th, which may have cost the tying run. Evans was gone in the seventh, where the Canadiens upped to 4-2. Armando Sanchez tied the game up with a big rip in the bottom 8th, with Correa still on the mound. But those two runs came right back in the top 9th, an Art Garrett homer off Campbell and another run against David Jones. Canadiens won again, 6-4.

This dropped the Raccoons to 42-42. And they STILL led the CL North, tied again with the Indians (43-43), and the Canadiens now only half a game behind. Them being behind should change soon.

Raccoons (42-42) @ Loggers (37-49)

Jeremy Ackerman would start this series for the Raccoons before the rotation would be reset after the All Star game, where no Raccoon was supposed to end up anyway.

Ackerman and Scott Murphy (who had a BB/K rate of 3.5) traded zeros through four innings. Mark Dawson led off the fifth with his annual triple. Winston Thompson drove Dawson in for a lead. A combo of a Todd Baker throwing error on an Osanai single and then a wild pitch plated three more in the inning. The Raccoons went from 4-0 to 5-1 and then 7-1 in the ninth. Wally Gaston was supposed to pitch the bottom 9th. But couldn’t. The Loggers plated two on three singles and a walk, and we had to get Cunningham to end that display of inability. He held on, 7-3 Raccoons. At least Jerry Ackerman’s season debut was an all-around success. Thompson 2-5, RBI; Sanchez 2-4, BB; Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; León 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Ackerman 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, BB;

As lefties Neil Stewart and Kisho Saito squared off in the middle game, a lot of zeros were put up on the board again. Both teams were 1-hit through four. Steve Walker’s leadoff double in the fifth presented an opportunity that went untaken. First man up in the bottom 5th was Felipe Hernandez, and Saito, who had let the flyballs soar all day, surrendered a full count home run. Saito was chewed up for three runs, including another homer, in the sixth, and was removed there. Stewart homered off Campbell in the seventh, while the Raccoons didn’t do anything. Neil Stewart pitched a 3-hitter, taking the 6-0 win.

Game 3 got the scoring started early with unearned runs on either side in the first inning (Martinez to blame for the Coons), as Scott Wade held a 2-1 lead into the second. Sam Dadswell made another one of his infamous pitcher’s-bunt-thrown-into-stands errors in the bottom 2nd, but Wade managed to get out of there with the lead intact. It remained that way into the fifth, where the Raccoons got Quintanilla on with a leadoff single to left, who then stole second, and they got two infield singles to aid them, and they upped it to 5-1. Wade was in firm control through seven, but put two on in the eighth. Bentley didn’t make it better, plunking Charlie Justin to bring the tying run to the plate. Grant West entered with two out in the bottom 8th. He popped out catcher Luis Gonzalez. West held on, and the Raccoons scored an extra run to win 6-1. The Coons had 12 hits, all singles. S. Martinez 2-4, BB, RBI; León 3-5, RBI; Quintanilla 3-4; Weber 2-4; Wade 7.1 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (6-9);

All Star Game

Tetsu Osanai and Armando Sanchez were the Coons’ only All Stars. The CL team is spread out far, with the four Falcons being the most numerous. The Gold Sox (seven) and Blue Sox (five) dominated the FL team, although the Gold Sox included Dale Wales, who was injured two days before the game.

While Sanchez only had a successful PH appearance, Tetsu Osanai was MVP, going 3-5 with a homer and 2 RBI. The home run scored the winning run as the CL won 6-4 over the FL.

I wish he’d play this great for the Raccoons.

In other news

July 10 – TIJ SS Cipriano Ortega (.319, 0 HR, 33 RBI) will miss six weeks with a biceps strain.
July 12 – Denver’s slugger Dale Wales (.325, 6 HR, 59 RBI) has sprained his elbow and is out until the end of the month.
July 13 – LAP SS Bruce Cannon (.351, 2 HR, 30 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going.
July 15 – Pittsburgh will be without Xiao-wei Li (.269, 0 HR, 28 RBI) for the rest of the season. The 27-yr old has broken his elbow.

Complaints and stuff

That’s all the grief I can stand today.

Let’s see. This is the third straight year that Carlos Gonzalez has something inflamed in his arm. At age 24, with a decent 28-25 record and good 3.44 ERA in the majors he’s basically a part time pitcher with a big future on the DL.

The division is so miserable, and the Canadiens are now slowly coming forward. Of course, the Raccoons are always happy to help them out.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (44-43) @ Canadiens (43-45)

Things couldn’t possibly get worse than in our last series against the Canadiens, right? Right? Losing four on a five runs differential was extremely bitter. Would I prefer getting swept by 28-8 runs?

Game 1 saw the Raccoons knock out Canadiens starter Tia Fa by the third inning. Three runs in the first, with a 2-run homer by Dadswell, and three more in the third, one unearned, did the trick. Light rain plagued the contest, as well as Logan Evans’ bad control. Evans went six innings and left with a 7-2 lead after loading up the bags and paying for it in the fourth inning. The bullpen took over and held on the rest of the way. Both the Coons and the Canadiens left the bases loaded once along the way. S. Martinez 3-6, RBI; Dadswell 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gaston 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Tetsu Osanai went 0-5 in this game with an RBI, and dropped his average to .298 – which means we’re in deep trouble.

Game 2. The Raccoons left two on in the third, two in the fourth, and three in the fifth with Osanai grounding out there – never scoring. Kisho Saito could hold Vancouver at bay for only so long, and finally surrendered two runs on three straight hits in the bottom 5th. Saito drove in a run himself in the sixth, but on the same play the Canadiens got the final out by nailing Dawson trying to go first to third. The Coons’ chance came in the top 7th. Martinez reached with a single, and Thompson’s grounder to short on a hit-and-run was lost by Art Garrett. The runners were safe in scoring position and there was nobody out. Both runners came in to score after a Sanchez walk. Osanai flew out to center, and Martinez tagged up and came home. Dadswell singled to short center and Thompson made home from second. Hall was hit by the pitch, loading the bases, but they scored only one more with a walk to León and left the bags full. But now Saito pitched two more strong innings, giving a 5-2 lead after eight to Grant West, who quickly finished business. 5-2 Coons! Dadswell 3-5, 2 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (7-6) and 2-4, RBI;

The Raccoons got ahead quickly in the third game, batting around in the first inning against a hopeless Robbie Campbell, who only managed to K Scott Wade, and two batters (Hall, Martinez) were surrendered by CF Marcos Mendez. Wade had a 4-0 lead to work with, and set out to blow it. A leadoff double was followed by a hit batter, before the Canadiens ran themselves out of an inning. The lead runner Mendez was caught stealing third, and Wade managed to wiggle through. Into the top 2nd, the Raccoons quickly removed Campbell with two more runs. Wade was much better in the next innings and carried a 1-hitter for a while. Steve Wall got to him with a solo jack in the seventh and he put the leadoff batter on in the eighth and was removed for Jones with lefties coming up. Jones allowed a few hits and Wade’s runner to score. The Coons offense was not entirely idle, but didn’t score after the second inning, until Quintanilla hit a homer in the ninth. The Coons won 8-2. Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Dadswell 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Walker 2-5, 2B, RBI; Quintanilla (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Chong 2-5; Wade 7.0, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (7-9);

Juan Correa got a warm welcome from Tetsu Osanai in game 4, a 2-run double in the first inning, giving Jerry Ackerman a 2-0 lead early on. A double to Correa in the bottom 3rd spelled doom for Ackerman, as Marcos Mendez came up to homer and tie the game. The Coons took a new lead with a Hall sac fly in the top 5th, but this time Melvin Greene tied the game with a homer right away in the bottom of the inning. The Canadiens got to Ackerman again in the bottom 7th, where he put two on and Cunningham couldn’t keep them from scoring. The Raccoons countered with a León homer in the eighth, where the Canadiens suffered a possibly far worse loss than just another game – they lost Juan Correa to injury. The veteran left the field. Top 9th, one run down, Winston Thompson led off with a double against Chris Nelson. Quintanilla flew out for Sanchez, and Osanai grounded out to put Thompson at third. Two down, still behind by a run. Daniel Hall to the plate – DOUBLE TO CENTER!! Hall tied the game with a long flyer to center, just ten feet shy of the wall. Hall was left on and Wally Gaston was left in after pitching the eighth, and put a runner on with one out. Jones came in again for lefties. With two out, the Canadiens loaded the bases. Brian Adams, who had hurt the Coons so many times before, up – he grounded to Osanai. Extra innings. An infield single by Chong and a single on a hit and run by Martinez put runners on the corners with one out in the top 10th. That’s when Chris Nelson balked – and the Raccoons scored the go-ahead run with Thompson in an 0-2 count. With one out, West walked two in the bottom 10th. Wall grounded to the mound, but West’s only play was at first. Melvin Greene came back up with the winning run on second, but was walked to get to Miguel Guzman. He fell victim to West’s sinker – 6-5 Coons!! S. Martinez 3-6; Thompson 2-6, 2B; Dawson (PH) 1-1; Chong (PH) 1-1;

SWEPT THOSE CANADIENS!!!! GOTCHA!!!!!

The Indians won three over the same timeframe and were now one game behind in what now was a 2-team race again for the moment. The Canadiens were 5.5 games behind now. The Indians then won on our off day to get within half a game.

Raccoons (48-43) vs. Titans (42-52)

Game 1 started out very ugly for the Coons. Vicente Ruíz was socked for three runs in the first, and Daniel Hall was hurt making the final out in the top 1st, crawling off with an oblique strain. The Coons hit three straight doubles with León, Walker, and Dawson in the bottom 2nd, coming back to a 3-2 deficit and Titans pitcher Luis Cruz also left the game with an injury. Bloody game. It got bloodier for the Raccoons, with Ruíz and Jason Bentley being burned for six more runs in the fourth inning alone. There were no softly hit balls in this game, mostly doubles. We went on by losing Bentley to an undisclosed injury in the sixth. Next, Hjalmar Flygt homered off Wally Gaston, 11-2. Dawson also knocked one, and Gaston finished the game, an 11-5 clubbing. Dadswell 2-4, 2B, RBI; León 2-4, 2B; Dawson 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Gaston 3.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

The Indians won their game, also taking the division lead. Bentley was not diagnosed that day, while Daniel Hall has a very mild oblique strain and will most likely only miss five or six games. This gets Quintanilla or Weber into the lineup again. Playing one man short was bad. Playing two men short…..

Game 2 saw Sanchez get on base in the bottom 1st. He stole second and scored on an Osanai single – the only Coons hit for a while. Logan Evans pitched well, but the Titans tied the game in the fifth. Kelly Weber doubled in the bottom 5th, but was caught trying to steal third. The Raccoons were unable to mound anything else against Jorge Valdes and Evans left after seven in the 1-1 tie. We had to use three relievers to survive the top 8th, which made a quick decision imperative, as only Moss and West remained in the pen. We had Cunningham ground out for the final out in the bottom 8th so that he could pitch the ninth, which he did masterfully. Back to the top of the lineup in the bottom 9th, Lowell Booth came in for the Titans. Martinez flew out, but Sanchez singled past 1B Grönholm to get on, then stole second. Dadswell and Osanai as lefties countered “Wacky”, so we smelled victory. Too soon, both made outs for extra innings. The bottom 10th had Dawson as the leadoff man on, but with two out Weber singled for Dawson to stop at third and Cunningham came up. Thompson struck out for him. Grant West left a runner at third in the top 11th. Martinez led off with a grounder to second just under Chad Fisher’s body for the next chance to walk off, when a 1-out infield grounder was not converted into an out by the Titans, as Dadswell was safe at first. Osanai came up, one month removed from his last homer for the Coons. He grounded out, but the runners moved up. Dawson came up and got through to right – 2-1 Raccoons after 11! Dawson 2-5, RBI; Weber 2-4, 2B; Evans 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K; Cunningham 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Armando Sanchez stole two bags in that game to bring his total to 18 this season, tying Tijuana’s Cipriano Ortega for the CL lead, which is something new, I think. He also logged his 214th stolen base (44 with the Coons), good for 4th on the all time list, behind Xiao-wei Li, the obnoxious Raúl Herrera, and Tony Barr.

Both teams could have scored big in the first inning of the rubber game, but Carlos León managed to pick a would-be 3-run homer by Chad Fisher off the fence for the final out in the top 1st, and Dadswell grounded out with the bags loaded to keep the game scoreless, but not for long. Dadswell scored the Titan’s first run with a 2-out, runner-on-third passed ball in the top 2nd. The Titans then went on to deconstruct Kisho Saito completely with a 3-run third. Dadswell left two on in the bottom 3rd, rapidly racking up You Lost The Game points. Not even a leadoff triple by Quintanilla in the bottom 4th led to a run – the Raccoons were trying hard to lose this one. Bottom 5th: Sanchez singled his way on with one out and stole second. Osanai walked on four straight, and Dawson came up, providing another big hit – a homer to center that tied the game, 4-4, but the Titans came right back with another run against Saito in the sixth. Winston Thompson’s 2-out double off the wall tied it in the bottom 6th, and Sanchez and Osanai followed with two RBI hits to get Saito, removed for a pinch hitter, in line for the win. The rally was killed by whom else than Dadswell with a K. Campbell came in – and the Titans came back. One run in, Bob Arnold on second, a 2-out grounder was mishandled by Osanai and Manny Mora was safe at first. Zahid Mashwanis came in to pinch hit in the #9 hole. This prompted entry from Tim Moss – GOT HIM!! Moss even hit a double in the bottom 7th (becoming 2 for 2 on the season), but was left on. Moss also put a runner on second in the top 8th, and Gaston came in with two down to face Isto Grönholm – GOT HIM TOO!! Grant West put the first man on in the ninth with a walk (his control was not the best these last two weeks) and then proceeded to get close outs three times, including a great grab by Quintanilla that missed could have tied the game. 7-6 Raccoons! Thompson 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Osanai 3-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Dawson 1-2, 3 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

The Indians had had that day off and the division was tied again.

Raccoons (50-44) vs. Falcons (48-46)

Game 1 saw Scott Wade surrender two early runs. He was too easily hittable at times and the Falcons took him to the invitation. Quintanilla hit a huge 2-out, 2-run triple in the bottom 4th to tie the game. The next time Quintanilla came up, the Coons had Walker and Weber on the corner. SS Shawn Sherman couldn’t make anything out of his grounder and Walker scored the go-ahead run. Sherman made an error when Wade batted with two down in that sixth inning and the bases were loaded for Martinez, and he scored another run with a single, before León flew out. But there was no happy end. Richard Cunningham was blown up for four runs in the eighth. He had two down, then nicked Jonah Frank with a pitch, and things exploded rapidly from there and the Raccoons lost 6-4. Quintanilla 2-3, BB, 3B, 3 RBI;

More bad news to follow, as Jason Bentley had a sore shoulder and was out for three weeks. He went to the DL. AAA CL Juan Martinez was added to the 40-man roster and called up. Martinez had been discovered in Mexico in 1983 as a 16-yr old and steadily worked his way up the system. His control needed some more work, but he had quite good stuff. He was not big league closer material, but could fill a responsible role eventually.

Jerry Ackerman had nothing against the Falcons lineup in game 2. He was lucky enough to escape with only four runs allowed in 5.1 innings, with the Coons infield turning two double plays and also gaining on bad Falcons base running. Martinez missed an easy grounder in the top 6th that scored two runs. The Coons had little going. When they had runners on base, they left them were they were. S. Martinez 2-5; Sanchez 2-4, BB; Osanai 4-4, RBI; Quintanilla 2-4; Weber (PH) 1-1;

Logan Evans started game 3 on short rest, adding Ruíz to the bullpen if necessary. Ruíz last outing had been awful, and we had an off day next, so it was only Evans suffering. After two scoreless innings, Sergio Martinez hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 3rd. Sanchez grounded so miserably, Martinez had to hold, and Dawson was hit by the pitch, and Osanai walked to load the bases with Dadswell up. He worked a full count, then walked for the go-ahead run. Thompson and Quintanilla came up with RBI singles, and Weber scored another runner on a sac fly, 4-0. Next, Evans loaded the bases with Falcons and they scored two in the inning. Control began to badly elude Evans in the fifth and sixth and he was removed after walking Helton with two out in the sixth, even with pitcher Julio Rodriguez up. Gaston got Rodriguez to keep moving. Gaston crumbled away in the seventh. One run in and two on base, David Jones had to face righty Irwin Webster for the final out. He got him to ground out and the 4-3 lead held. The Coons added two insurance runs, one driven in by Daniel Hall as pinch hitter for Jones in his first AB back from the oblique strain. West pitched a perfect ninth to salvage one game of the series, 6-3 Coons. S. Martinez 2-4, BB, 3B; Thompson 2-4, 2 RBI; Weber 2-3, RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1, RBI;

In other news

July 19 – The Warriors and Falcons trade infielders Shawn Sherman and Dana Cameron to each other. Cameron was batting .278 for the Falcons, Sherman .231 for Sioux Falls. Minor leaguers are also exchanged.
July 21 – L.A.’s Bruce Cannon gets his hitting streak to 25 games with a 2-5 day against the Warriors.
July 22 – VAN SP Juan Correa (12-3, 2.15 ERA) is out for the season with a herniated disc. It is the first time that the 240-game winner will go to the DL in his career. At 36, he will be a free agent in the fall.
July 25 – NO-HITTER!!! Nashville’s Ray Shaw (4-0, 2.81 ERA), not even a regular starter for the team, kept the Warriors off balance all day and most of all kept them hitless in a 1-0 victory for the Blue Sox! Shaw walked three over the course of the game and enters the record books as the eighth pitcher to toss a no-hitter, and the first since Carlos Guillen more than two years ago.
July 25 – Veteran SS Claudio Rojas (.305, 0 HR, 33 RBI) is traded from the Cyclones to the Stars, mainly to acquire minor league closer Orlando Mercardo. It is a strange move for the Cyclones, who lead the division.
July 25 – The Condors send INF Jorge Salazar (.276, 2 HR, 31 RBI) to Indianapolis with a prospect for versatile pitcher Bob Haines (3-1, 2.38 ERA in 24 G), who has a no-hitter to his credit.

Complaints and stuff

Sam Dadswell was the CL Player of the Week around the All Star game, going 9-17 with a homer and six batted in. In exchange he cost about six runs in that last Titans game.

1B Wayne Baxter was placed on waivers by the Buffaloes. He hit .302 with 28 homers in 1983, and .239 with 25 homers in 1984. He is batting .140 with no power this year. He’s 29 and received a $600k contract in arbitration last year. I doubt the Buffaloes will get rid of him. Baxter cleared waivers (no surprise) and may be arbitration eligible again.

The trade deadline is in four days. We have no money, and many needs, but little to give up. But with the budget for next year and our contract commitments made already, it will be hard to squeeze several important players in there. Time to break up the pack?

Tim Moss has signed a 2-yr, $415k contract extension. With him and Jones we should have the left side of the pen nailed down for the rest of the decade. These will be Moss’ age 33/34 seasons. He has a good 2.70 ERA for us this year, and it could be better if we hadn’t used him out of his intended role so often.

Who leads the CL in strikeouts? Manuel Movonda ahead of Bastyao Caixinha, both of the Falcons. Two years ago, the Falcons would have traded either for Vicente Ruíz.

I hate myself.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (51-46) vs. Bayhawks (43-57)

Game 1 did not start in any way nice. Winston Thompson left early with a back injury, and Saito had one man on with two out in the top 2nd and pitcher Luis Nunez up. Nunez hit the first single for the Bayhawks, and Kai Edwards hit a hissing 2-run double past Hall in left. A 2-run homer by Dadswell tied the game back up in the bottom 2nd, and roles between Edwards and Hall were reversed in the bottom 3rd, when Hall slogged an RBI double past the leftfielder Edwards to get the Furballs into the lead. The Coons led 4-2, but not for long. Saito was overwhelmed in the top 4th, and an error by Thompson replacement Steve Walker on a Nunez grounder plated two runs and we were tied again. Saito was done after five heavily ineffective innings, and Juan Martinez made his big league debut in the top 6th. His first big league batter was SS Hector Martinez, who struck out on a full count. Juan Martinez wound up with the W eventually, thanks to a 2-bomb by Mark Dawson in the bottom 6th. The Coons went to 8-4, but things got dicey in the top 9th when Moss loaded the bases. Grant West came in with two down, but threw a wild pitch first to score a run, before striking out the last batter. 8-5 Raccoons. Thompson 1-1; Osanai 2-5; Hall 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Dadswell 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Weber 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Winston Thompson had a bruised back and was DTD for about six days.

Game 2 saw the Bayhawks play Wilson Moreno, their recent second-overall amateur draft pick, who had owned AA ball over eight starts and now made his major league debut against Scott Wade. Four of the first five outs Wade collected were K’s, but the Bayhawks knocked him pretty well and left a few on almost every innings. The game was tied, 1-1, into the bottom 4th, where Wade came to bat with runners on the corners and popped to shallow right – the Bayhawks dropped the ball and the Coons scored an unearned run, but then left the bases loaded just as the Bayhawks had done in the top 4th. Wade clung on to the shaky 2-1 lead long enough to outlast Moreno, who was pulled after León singled to start the bottom 6th. Wade lasted seven before Jones came in for the eighth and walked the first two batters he faced – the only two he faced. Eighth inning emergency – bring Cunningham, and quick!! He managed to surrender the Bayhawks without the tying run coming in. And then West blew the save again, with doubles to Jose Diaz and Kai Edwards. The Raccoons blew the game once more in extra innings. With Wally Gaston pitching, Steve Walker failed to make outs with the first two grounders he reveiced in the top 11th. These were scored infield hits, but Dawson then threw a ball past Osanai for a true error. Two unearned runs came across in the inning, but the Raccoons managed to glue enough hits together for two runs of their own in the bottom 11th. And on we went, Dadswell bunting into a force of Hall at third in the bottom 12th with nobody out.

How the Coons eventually won the game in the 13th may be memorized forever in some fans’ minds. Quintanilla, in for Sanchez, grounded out to third. Chong, in for Walker, flew out to deep center. Martinez seemed to ground out, but 1B Chong-seop O failed to catch the ball and Martinez went to second. This brought up Dirk Campbell, after two innings of relief. Only Flores left on the bench and no reliever in the pen, Campbell went to bat, but grounded not far from home on the right foul line. Pitcher Vicente Guzman hustled to make a throw – also past O, and Martinez went home on a walk-off two-base throwing error. 5-4 Raccoons. S. Martinez 2-6, BB, RBI; León 2-3, 3 BB; Quintanilla (PH) 1-2; Campbell 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-1);

Three straight full count walks by Vincente Ortiz helped the Raccoons to plate the first two runs in the last game of the series, in the bottom 2nd. The Coons made it 5-0 in the third, but Jerry Ackerman fell apart rather quickly and a 3-run homer by Edwards in the fifth a) chased Ackerman and b) tied the game, 5-5. Edwards stole second unopposed against Dadswell in the seventh, then scored on the following 2-out single to get the Bayhawks ahead. The Coons turned the table with two runs in the bottom 7th – but hadn’t scored any if not for two errors by the Bayhawks. Cunningham pitched the eighth, the Coons made it 8-6 in the bottom 8th, and Cunningham stayed in with West unavailable. Single to Jimmy Hunter, flyer by Tom Taylor dropped by León, winning run comes to the plate with nobody out, and it was Kai Edwards. He grounded into a double play and Cunningham was able to end it, wobbly, but that was more than West had managed to do the day before. 8-6 Coons. S. Martinez 2-5, 2B; León 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Chong 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Hall 0-0, BB; Cunningham 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, SV (4);

That was about how much it took for the Coons to score: two errors in one inning. Bayhawks are winless in ’87 against those Coons.

Deadline trade

We will slam the brakes right here, for the Coons engaged in a trade late on July 30 with the Atlanta Knights.

The Knights send two players to Portland: SP/MR Zach Baker and SP Jason Turner. In turn they receive SP Vicente Ruíz, INF/CF/RF Steve Walker, and CF/RF Jesus Gonzalez.

Baker and Ruíz are not much different, except for Baker being six years younger and making the minimum. Baker is 14-9 with a 4.14 ERA in 40 games (38 starts) for the Knights since 1984.

Steve Walker is extremely unhappy in Portland and is constantly letting his voice heard about it. He’s batting not enough to get past anybody into the lineup at the moment, and Mark Dawson’s 3B defense is exceptional, despite him batting 25 points less. Walker will be a free agent at season’s end and may be compensation eligible.

Gonzalez was discovered this winter in Venezuela, but we’re not overly keen on him. But the Knights are. In turn we are very keen on Turner, the 1983 3rd overall draft pick. He has a sizzling fastball, a strong cutter, a good changeup and a slider to complete the package and has only some control issues to even out at age 22.

This saves us $180k in 1987 salary, and between Ruíz and Baker, who has a $130k arbitration estimate if he qualifies, another $290k in 1988.

I will dearly miss Steve Walker’s versatility. We had acquired him prior to 1982 from the Warriors, so he had been along for the ride as far as the not-completely-horrible Raccoons have existed. But Thompson plays all infield positions well (except third, where you can tolerate him without crying), and Dawson remains as outfield/infield jumper. Right now I try to imagine my 1989 rotation. C. Gonzalez, Evans, Wade, Saito, Turner. Sounds not too bad. There *are* IF’s attached to that, though.

Other moves because of the trade: called up SP Francisco Trujillo to the majors to take over Ruíz’ start tomorrow, sent MR Juan Martinez to AAA to keep the number of pitchers at 12, and called up 2B Dani Perez to back up the infield with Thompson still ailing for another few days.

In other news

July 30 – The Canadiens acquire 37-yr old Jack Pennington (2.63 ERA in 14 G) from the Blue Sox for INF Manuel Flores (.268, 3 HR, 21 RBI). Pennington was a Coon for half a season in 1980, and has been a starter for most of his career.
July 30 – The Rebels’ outfielder Manuel Doval (.335, 10 HR, 71 RBI) will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Complaints and stuff

One more home series against the Aces, then another 14 straight games on the road. Brrr.