Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Charlie Hough]

Where's Wally Gaston now? DL? Minors?

[Westheim]

After posting a 6.43 ERA, he was demoted to the minors two weeks or so ago. And for 1989? A 33-yr old reliever with always ill control that has completely lost it - I don't think that he fits with a rebuilding team.

By the way, the focus was switched from "WIN NOW" to "Rebuild" after that Loggers ... thing that happened.

I still want to unload more old baggage. With Dawson and Hall 10/5 protected and half our capable SP's on the DL, things focus on Dadswell and Osanai now. And Grant West.

West would be due his 300th save some time at the end of this or early next season.

Here come five more 67-95 seasons.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (47-52) @ Knights (56-42)

We were looking at “Mauler” Correa, young hotshot Glenn Ryan, and our old 1983 World Series nemesis Kiyo Sasaki in this series. We could have saved us the airfare, really.

Bases loaded, nobody out – the biggest fear of Raccoons management on either side of the mound. The Raccoons trailed 1-0 in the top 2nd and found themselves in that situation in the opener, then flailed against Correa and remained shut out. Bottom 5th: Wade was hit every which way by the Knights (especially their top lethal middle of the order with Root, Wodaj, McDonald, and Barrera in there), who loaded the bags with nobody out in the 1-0 game. Wade battled back, got two outs, then fell to a 2-run single by … Correa. Top 8th, bases loaded, nobody out against Correa in a 5-2 game, the go-ahead run comes to the plate, Dumont pinch-hitting for Higgins. Dumont hit a double past LF Jesus Berrios to score two, and now there was a great chance to save Wade an L. Dadswell doubled to left to get the Raccoons ahead. The Knights started to make errors on top of that and the Coons suddenly led 8-5. The bullpen crumbled mightily in the bottom 8th, but Dawson started a saving double play to get out of the inning. West pitched a quick ninth, seeing action for the third day in a row. 8-5 Raccoons. Weber 2-4, 2B; Hall 2-4, RBI; Dumont (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Johnston (PH) 2-3;

In bad news, Glenn Johnston went down hurt in the bottom 9th. An oblique strain will put him on the DL for at least two weeks. We called up Bill Stevens as a replacement. We also demoted Matt Higgins for Joe Jackson.

Glenn Ryan (whom the Raccoons had tried to acquire before) was singed early in the middle game for six runs through the first three. That was a necessary amount of offense with Jerry Ackerman pitching. Through four, the Knights were only 6-3 behind. Top 6th, again bases loaded, nobody out. Oh, they did damage this time: Tetsu Osanai grand-slammed for a 10-3 lead. The Knights were far from defeated, though, rolling up Ackerman and Martinez with a 3-run sixth themselves. But the Raccoons got some great length out of Dirk Campbell and held the Knights at bay right there. 10-6 Raccoons. Weber 2-5; Osanai 4-5, HR, 5 RBI; Dadswell 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Dumont 2-4, BB, RBI; Campbell 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

After all that scoring, it was pitchers’ day in the last game. Alejandro Venegas pitched significantly better than Wade or Ackerman, yet he was the only one winding up with a loss. Sasaki hacked the Raccoons into finely grained dust, going into the ninth before becoming exhausted. The Raccoons were 3-hit, and Venegas took a griefing 2-0 loss. Venegas 7.1 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (4-10);

Trade

Late on July 27, the Raccoons swapped left-handed relievers again. Ed King, 36, just acquired this season from the Titans, was sent to Cincinnati for Ken Burnett, a 25-year old changeup artiste. Burnett’s big league career ERA so far reads a nasty 8.00, but encompasses only six games for the 1986 Indians and 1988 Cyclones.

But that was only half the deal. The Raccoons also acquired AAA 1B/3B Ben O’Morrissey, a 22-yr old prospect with a well-rounded and potent bat, very good defense, and tremendous running skills. In exchange, we sent over 2B Dani Perez, who was very good defensive player, but his bat was not that exciting. Perez had been discovered by us in Panama years ago. Now 24, he had made the majors, but O’Morrissey was the bigger talent. By far. The Cyclones needed middle infielders desperately, though, and accepted that trade. To put this right: I think Perez can still become a very useful player, but his niche is small. O’Morrissey should leave him in his shadows.

Overall, we got younger, and better, although the corner infield positions are pretty crowded by now. Don’t get this wrong: King is (was?) an amazing reliever, pitching 19 games for the Furballs to a 1.42 ERA. But we want to attract fresh blood, and at 36, he won’t be around to see the next great Coons dynasty to rise to the top.

Steve Walker was called up to replace Perez in the infield, reuniting with Winston Thompson for the sterling middle infield combo that helped the 1983 Raccoons into the postseason. Wally Gaston returned to the Raccoons bullpen, which now held only one lefty (Shaw) besides West, and both acquired players were placed with AAA St. Petersburg.

The off day that followed our series in Atlanta, made all the dealing easier as well.

Raccoons (49-53) @ Condors (60-42)

From one CL South powerhouse on to the next. They came in having won six in a row and started by throwing John Douglas (12-4, 3.48 ERA) at the Furballs. Douglas had the walks under control this season, and by this I mean that he actually had more K’s (96) than BB’s (78) coming in.

And dude, was Douglas on fire. He struck out the side (along with a walk to Hall) in the first inning, and axed them further to that tune. Jason Turner was pitching for the Furballs. Neither team landed a hit through three (Douglas fanned six, Turner three), before Kelly Weber managed a single into center. Weber was singled in by Osanai two batters later for a 1-0 lead. Turner’s no-hit bid held up into the sixth until broken up by 1B Jeremiah Carrell with a single to short right center, just after Dumont in right had made a great catch to retire Thomas Martin and keep the bid alive. Turner worked himself up with ill control and could not go for a complete game, though. But Vazquez and West ended the game on a high note, as the Furballs left the Condors with two hits and made their own six hits count for a 2-0 win. Osanai 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Turner 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (3-2);

The Coons scored three early on Israel Gomes, including a 2-run home run by Daniel Hall in the middle game. Kisho Saito started to nurse a no-hit bid as well, but it was broken up in the fourth with two singles and almost a home run by Juan Valentin, just short of the fence, that Bill Stevens caught. While the Raccoons were laid to sleep by Gomes by then, Saito became messed up. He gave up three straight singles for a run in the fifth, and balked in a run with the bases loaded, two out, and Gomes at the plate in the sixth. Gomes popped out and Saito was removed after bunting Stevens over in the top 7th. It didn’t matter. Bentley loaded the bags in the bottom 7th, Shaw didn’t get anybody out, the Condors tied it, Gaston walked in two more runs, Campbell walked in another run, and the Condors put up a 7-spot. The Condors won in smacking fashion, 9-5.

Scott Wade was not on top of his game in the rubber match, with bad control and many hits against him. A misplay by Kelly Weber in right added to the horror in the bottom 4th, where the Condors tied the game 2-2. Before that, in the top 3rd, Joe Jackson (getting a start at third) and Daniel Hall executed a double steal to eventually score both in the inning. The Raccoons took the lead again in the fifth on a just-fair double by Osanai on the left side. Stevens and Walker added runs, 5-2, and Wade hit a hard spot in the Condors lineup again. O’Day, Ogawa and Valentin were three lefties he just could not get through. The first two got on with two out – then he struck out Valentin to get in line for a W. Then came the bottom 7th, and the same thing happened again. Bentley put two on and was relieved by Shaw, who did only make it worse. Bases loaded, one out, 5-4 Raccoons, Juan Martinez came out. John Fleury hit a grand slam. 8-5 Condors. Weber 2-5; Hall 2-4, BB, 2B; Osanai 3-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Stevens 2-5, 2 RBI;

OH COME ON!!! BLOODY COW!!!! THAT BULLPAWN!!!

That bullpen was axed vehemently after the game on the trip up the coast to San Francisco. Both Jason Bentley and Wally Gaston were demoted to AAA. We were short on left-handers for various reasons, or Shaw would have gone along on the same boat. Emerson MacDonald (once here in ’86 for 13 games and a 5+ ERA) and Jake Pitts were called up. Pitts was to make his major league debut, a former 7th round pick with decent numbers in AAA this year. He had been acquired from the Falcons last year in a deal involving minor leaguers. Juan Ramirez was demoted for 1B Billy Mitchell.

Raccoons (50-55) @ Bayhawks (48-57)

A leadoff homer by Antonio Torres got Jerry Ackerman behind in the opener. Larry Marshall twice took doubles away from the Coons early, denying them at least one run, but Mark Dawson muscled #19 for the season in the top 4th to turn the game to 2-1 Coons. Ackerman went five 3-hit innings and was pinch-hit for in the top 6th with Mitchell with the bags full and two out, but Mitchell fouled out. The bullpen (Campbell) blew a starter’s lead with a big inning for the third straight day. Campbell put two on, and surrendered a 3-run homer to Marshall. MacDonald’s first batter was Kai Edwards, who homered as well. Another 4-spot to kill every nice effort the rotation put up. Top 8th, one more chance, with two in scoring position and nobody out for the Raccoons. And no scoring with Weber, Jackson, and Thompson to the plate. 5-3 Bayhawks. Thompson 2-5; Dawson 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Dumont 3-4, 2 2B;

Joe Jackson was demoted to AAA and Matt Higgins was recalled, who had hit .423 down there in the short time he was there.

Dawson doubled in a pair in the top 1st of the middle game for a lead for Venegas. That was where the offense went to bad for Portland. Venegas saved the bullpen from the embarrassment to blow leads with 4- to 7-run innings for four days in a row by surrendering a game-tying homer to Marshall in the sixth. The Coons made two quick outs in a tied game in the top 7th. Venegas was sent batting, and hit a double down the right field line. Thompson dinked one into short center. Sanchez dinked one into short center, Venegas scored, back in the lead. Hall walked, giving Osanai the bags full, but he struck out. Then Venegas failed to get out the opposing pitcher, Chris O’Keefe, for the third time that day. And the moment was here: the pen took over to collect eight outs with a 3-2 lead – an impossible task. They didn’t even get ONE. Vazquez was taken deep by Cesar Cruz, and the Bayhawks won, 4-3, after the Raccoons left the tying run on third in the eighth AND the ninth. Thompson 2-4, BB; Sanchez 2-5, RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB; Pitts 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K (big league debut);

Osanai scored Hall with a double for another first inning lead in the last game. Jason Turner came up in the bottom 1st to give an RBI walk to the #4 batter, Larry Marshall. He somehow wiggled out of the bases loaded jam in a 1-1 tie with a double play. Turner was struggling a ton, loading the bags in the third, before being helped out by Dawson catching a hard liner and a sprawling play by Osanai. Turner finally came apart in the fifth for the Bayhawks to lead 3-1. Most interestingly, the bullpen now seemed to hold up. Top 8th: the Raccoons loaded the bags with one out and Dawson up. He shattered a Russ McCallum pitch to hit a grand slam out of leftfield. And NOW the bullpen crumbled. MacDonald, left over from a clean seventh, and Shaw put the tying runs on and Grant West came out for a 4-out save attempt. He got out of the jam with a grounder to Mitchell (who had replaced Osanai at first), but before he could focus on the ninth, he had to grab a bat. Bases loaded, two out, he singled to left for an insurance run. And only then could West get back out and retire the Bayhawks in order to end a string of four just-kill-me losses. 6-3 Raccoons. Sanchez 2-5; Dawson 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; West 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (24) and 1-1, RBI;

In other news

July 25 – The Wolves acquire outfielder Dale Cleveland, 25, from Washington for SP Carlos Reyes (5-8, 3.80 ERA). The Wolves have to see something in Cleveland, an AAAA player for years now, that nobody else does. Reyes is 74-87 with a 3.82 ERA for his career, all for the Wolves so far.
July 25 – 20 seems like an almost magical numbers this year, as Claudio Ayala’s hitting streak ends at 20 games.
July 26 – LAP C Gustavo Flores (.240, 1 HR, 27 RBI) is out for the season with a torn PCL. The Pacifics acquired him this season from the Raccoons.
July 27 – Another ex-(minors)-Coon going down: IND SP Pepe Acevedo (7-5, 2.73 ERA) is out for the year with bone spurs in his elbow.
July 28 – The Canadiens trade the struggling 29-yr old 3B Teo Colón (.211, 2 HR, 40 RBI) to the Rebels for MR Enrico Trujillo and a minor league catcher. Colón played some great seasons for the Falcons in the mid-80s, but has not found his bat the last few seasons.
July 29 – PIT Ricardo Torres (10-6, 3.02 ERA) 2-hits the Stars to take the 5-0 win.
July 30 – DAL Neil Ford (9-5, 2.54 ERA) returns the favor to the Miners the next day, hurling a 3-hitter in a 4-0 win for the Stars.
July 30 – The Aces acquire 1B Gilberto Alaniz (.267, 14 HR, 50 RBI) from the Indians for MR Mauro Gomez. To the naked eye, the Aces make a huge gain here for the unproven, yet still already 27 years old Gomez.
July 30 – NAS 3B Horace Henry (.293, 9 HR, 65 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going.
July 31 – Henry’s hitting streak is killed by the Gold Sox, while SFW C Jose Gomes (.307, 2 HR, 35 RBI) makes it a 20-game hitting streak for himself with a last-AB single against the Cyclones. The Warriors still lost 6-5.
August 1 – Jose Gomes becomes the sixth player this year with a hitting streak of exactly 20 games, going 0-4 against the Rebels. Only Isto Grönholm has gone farther (22).

Complaints and stuff

Somehow, neither Sam Dadswell, nor Tetsu Osanai have much trade value. I tried to trade both for young starting pitching (Evans and Saito getting old…er), yet no team was interested. OSA rates Tetsu at 3 1/2 stars recently.

Both are in their late 20s. Retaining them should keep them around for a push in 1991. Osanai would be 32 then. Dadswell and Vinson are both rated at 5-star potential, and Dadswell at actual five stars. Vinson could pan out to be magic, or couldn’t. Ah, those decisions! In the end, no further trades were made. There will be a winter after all.

And while Osanai was not considered valuable enough to pursue for several contending teams to shave their top prospects – who hit .392 with 3 HR and 19 RBI in July to be the CL Player of the Month? Tetsuuuuuu!

Jason Turner is a good kid, I think. With a bit better control he would have been able to go the distance in the game in Tijuana, but he needed 104 pitches through seven frames. He reminds me a bit of Logan Evans, who in his younger days always ran “negative” K/BB ratios (read: smaller than 1), while performing about league average. Now Evans, besides sitting on the DL, is 118-89 for his career (300 starts) and his K/BB has turned around to a more friendly 1.17 now. Turner has a bit more stuff and less command, it seems right now.

Let me tell you something else I envision to form either next year or 1990: our new outfield consisting of Daniel Hall, Glenn Johnston, Daniel Dumont, Kelly Weber, and Neil Reece. The middle three are lefties. Reece is an ace defensive centerfielder with good contact making abilities and some speed we just acquired. Him and Johnston could platoon in center. Johnston and Weber fit all positions well, and Dumont is a bit of the wild card in there. Johnston could have the greatest career of all of them (well, besides Hall, who ranks high on a few all-time leaderboards already and will always be pick number one).

And yes, I screamed obsceneties during the two collapses in Tijuana, and the window was open. The games after that, I merely managed to wince and squeal …

[Westheim]

Because I feel like it, Raccoons Maniacs Episode 3:

1. Which of the following statements are correct?
a) Grant West's current 2.51 ERA this season stands as his worst single season ERA to date.
b) Grant West is the only active player born in Portland, OR.
c) Excluding 1983, the Raccoons have finished 15 or more games out of the CL North division winners in all but one season.
d) The Raccoons have never had a player hitting two triples in a single game.

2. Who hit the Raccoons' only postseason triple?
a) Daniel Hall
b) Chris Smith
c) Tetsu Osanai

3. Who holds the Raccoons' record of seven AB's in a 9-inning game?
a) Mark Dawson
b) Raúl Herrera
c) Greg Swift

4. Who holds the highest batting average as a Raccoon (min. 1,000 AB)?
a) Tetsu Osanai
b) Pedro Sánz
c) Armando Sanchez

5. Which position player has the fewest AB's ever among all position players ever donning the Raccoons uniform?
a) Gary Carter
b) Roy Rollins
c) Angel Ramirez

The contestant with the most correct answers will receive tickets for four seats of his choice for all home games the next time the Raccoons play in the World Series. If you live that long, of course.

[Westheim]

Back home for a week now, including four against the cross-border pests from Vancouver and then three against the Titans. Interleague part three after that.

Raccoons (51-57) vs. Canadiens (61-45)

Hits were scarce in the series opener. David Vinson mashed a 2-piece in the fourth for only the third hit all day, all for the Coons. In fact, Kisho Saito went a long way in a quest for a perfect game, but it was broken up in the sixth by Carlos Lozano, the opposing pitcher, with a single on an 0-2 count. Hector Atilano got in another single in the seventh, but that was everything the Canadiens got off Saito that day. He struck out 11, including five of the last six, to take the 2-0 win. The Raccoons had only four hits, but at least the one that counted. Saito 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K, W (9-10);

This was the seventh career shutout for Saito, the fourth while pitching for the Coons (three for them Canadiens) and the second this year. The 11 K’s tied the Raccoons record for strikeouts in a single game already held by himself and Logan Evans. Yes, no Coon has ever fanned a dozen in a game. Still. Furthermore, this was Kisho Saito’s 100th career win.

Scott Wade and Vernon Robertson neutralized each other early on in the second game, but the Raccoons broke the game open in the fourth, putting up seven runs, including a grand slam by Osanai and a solo shot by Dawson back-to-back. That was enough of a lead for Scott Wade to notch the win, even though he was not very sharp and failed to strike out anybody. He surrendered a 2-run home run to LF Miguel Guzman in the seventh, but the Raccoons held on to win 8-3. Higgins 3-5, 2B; Osanai 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Vinson 2-4; Wade 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, W (9-4);

This was Wade’s first W after going 0-1 in his last six starts, during which he surrendered just 17 runs (14 earned) in 39.1 innings. Blame the pen, and spotty offense.

Ackerman in game 3 walked the bags full with nobody out in the second and fell 2-0 behind. The Coons came back to tie it in the fourth on an unearned run, but Ackerman was incinerated in the fifth and yanked. The Canadiens put three more on Vazquez in the seventh for a seemingly insurmountable 8-2 lead, yet Dumont hit a 2-piece (his first major league home run) in the bottom 7th and with two out the Coons brought the tying run to the plate in Daniel Hall, but he grounded out. The Canadiens responded with another brutal act of violence on the Raccoons bullpen. Raccoons were smothered, 11-4.

Matt Higgins was sent to AAA again and Juan Ramirez was recalled.

Game 4. An early bang by Osanai had the Raccoons up 2-0, then 3-0, but they left the bags full in the fourth. Venegas was struggling, especially with control, surrendering more walks than hits (4:3) through five scoreless frames, bailed out by the defense time and again. Venegas walked two more in the sixth and was sent showering. Campbell got Guzman to end the sixth, so Venegas was left with a skewed 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 6 BB, 1 K line. The Coons extended their lead to 6-0 through seven, before the bullpen blew up once again. MacDonald was rocked for three runs and a runner left on while getting one out in the eighth. The runner scored against Martinez and suddenly a comfy 6-0 became a shaking 6-4 game. But Grant West had a strong summer, he sat down the Canadiens in order in the ninth. 6-4 Raccoons. Dadswell 2-4, BB; Osanai 3-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Walker 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Stevens (PH) 1-2; Campbell 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Winston Thompson strained a rib cage muscle early in this game and will be headed to the DL, about to return at the end of the month, two to three weeks from now. Instead of returning to Higgins as replacement, we went to our AA affiliate in Ham Lake and called up Carlos Miranda. He plays everywhere on the infield and was already up with the Coons in 1985 and 1986, then batting .245 in 159 AB.

Raccoons (54-58) vs. Titans (50-63)

The Raccoons tried to get a piece of Kinji Kan, their most horrible nemesis among mound-dwellers, yet failed in most shameful fashion. Turner 2-hit the Titans through five, but both hits were home runs by Mashwanis and Mora. To start the sixth, Turner surrendered four straight singles to be shelled and removed. The Titans scored four, the last on a wild pitch by Campbell. The bullpen threw up another 4-spot the next inning, and the Titans wiped the floor with the Raccoons to a 10-2 tune, the shutout for Kan not broken up until the ninth. Dadswell 3-4; Stevens 2-4, 3B, RBI;

Jake Pitts was returned to AAA for Wally Gaston. Note that we are swinging at air here, with no reliable relievers left in the system. Also, Glenn Johnston came off the DL after surviving his oblique strain and Bill Stevens was back at AAA ball.

Glenn Johnston started in right in his first game back from the DL. The first batter, Eduardo Germán, sent a flyer to him, which Johnston dropped. Good return. Salvador Vargas’ 2-run home run instantly put Kisho Saito in a hole in his start in the middle game. The Coons countered in the bottom 1st with hits by Dadswell, Hall, and Osanai. Johnston came up, 2-1 behind, two out, two in scoring position. He drilled a home run out to right, 4-2 Coons! Good return! Rain started to fall in the third, then stop again a little later, only to start again, stop again, and so on. Saito surrendered a leadoff jack to 2B Kelly Carpenter (a recent arrival in the Bigs, a 23-yr old 1987 supplemental round pick by the Titans) in the fifth, but Johnston singled in another run in the bottom of the inning. Saito went seven and was removed with two out and the bags full in the bottom 7th, but PH Mitchell flew out to waste the chance to bolster the 6-3 lead. That turned the game over to the pen and Wally Gaston, who pitched a clean eighth. Armando Sanchez homered in the bottom 8th to keep West in the pen and send out Gaston again for the ninth, and now everything that could went wrong. Infield single by Flygt, then a walk to Vargas. Shaw came in to face Mora, who hit ANOTHER infield single. Now enter Grant West with nobody out and the tying run in form of Ryan Dickerson stepping in to bat. Dickerson singled up the middle, 7-4. Mashwanis forced a walk, 7-5. Rain pouring down, West soaked, Titans all around, and everything going to hell. West – struck out Carpenter, struck out Mark Bowman. Then he went 2-2 on Germán, who popped to short center and into Steve Walker’s glove. 7-5 Raccoons. Hall 2-4, BB, 2B; Johnston 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Ramirez 2-4, 2B; Saito 7.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (10-10); West 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, SV (26);

THAT’S A CLOSER, RIGHT HERE!!!

The rubber game with Scott Wade in it lacked excitement early on, until Armando Sanchez threw out Ernesto Ruíz at the plate to end the top 3rd and keep the scoreless game … well, scoreless. Sanchez also made a great catch to end the fourth. Now, some offense would be nice. In the bottom 6th, Daniel Hall hit a double off the centerfield wall to score Glenn Johnston from first base for the first run in the game. Scoring was a pain, and Carlos Miranda was thrown out at the plate by Boston’s Hjalmar Flygt to end the bottom 7th. The Coons got an insurance run in the eighth. Top 9th, we looked at Wade. 4-hitting the Titans so far, he had not been in serious trouble since the third inning. Despite all lefties coming up, he was sent out for the ninth. Seven pitches later, the Titans were shut out, and Wade a 10-game winner for the season. 2-0 Raccoons. Sanchez 3-4; Hall 3-4, 2B, RBI; Wade 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (10-4);

For “Gobbler” Wade, it was the third shutout gobbled up in his ABL career, and the first this season. It was also his 40th W in his 90th start.

Anybody remember Yoshinobu Ishizaki? “Itchy” has overcome a badly broken ankle and has been assigned for rehab in St. Petersburg. He appeared in a grand total of four Raccoons games and is redundant now. He will be shipped off this winter. Along with Itchy, Carlos Gonzalez returned from his inflamed elbow and was sent to AAA for rehab. We have conveniently placed off days. I want Gonzalez to make one start in the minors, skip Turner in the big leagues, and switch them before Turner would come up to start again.

Raccoons (56-59) @ Scorpions (35-78)

I was already dreaming up horrible ways for the Raccoons to become swept in this series. The Scorpions were 354-564 in runs scored/against, both worst marks in the Federal League. To compare: the Raccoons were 502-504, both mid-pack in the Continental League.

Jerry Ackerman faced nine right-handers in the opener. And Ackerman had it socked to him with full force, falling 3-1 behind after two and only escaping the third for Glenn Johnston running into the centerfield wall and STILL starting a double play. While the not-so-lame Scorpions were a-swinging, the Raccoons left them loaded in the first, and two in scoring position in the fifth. Top 6th: Steve Walker homered to start the frame and shorten the gap to 5-3. They loaded them up again with one out. Hall struck out. Can’t anybody here euthanize me? But wait, Osanai doubled off the wall in left to tie the game again and save Ackerman an L he would have had deserved. Dawson’s 2-run single got the Coons up 7-5, but the Scorpions got one run right back from Vazquez. Gaston, Shaw, and Martinez worked together well in the eighth to blow an 8-6 lead. The Coons left three aboard in the ninth and the game went to extra innings. Dawson doubled to start the top 10th. Dadswell was walked intentionally and Walker was to bunt them over, but Jose Valentin’s throw was way wide and went out of play for a 2-base error. From here it derailed into a 6-run inning for Portland, and Campbell held on, 14-8 Furballs, on 23 hits. Sanchez 4-7, RBI; Johnston 4-6, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Osanai 4-4, 2B, 4 RBI; Weber (PH) 1-1; Dawson 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; Walker 2-6, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Ramirez 3-5, BB, RBI; Campbell 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (4-2);

Glenn Johnston tweaked his ankle in the 10th inning and would be day-to-day with a mild sprain for a few days.

Billy Mitchell was sent to AAA, and Gustavo Quintanilla was recalled, so the Raccoons would carry an additional outfielder for a few days before another move that was planned.

Hall and Osanai had first-inning RBI XBH’s in the middle game, giving Venegas an early 2-0 lead. Venegas continued a recent trend of pitching a tiny bit slightly less terrible, and in addition to that came up with the bases loaded and two out in the top 4th. Dumont and Ramirez had already pathetically flailed just ahead of him (yes, there had been three on with no outs again…), and Venegas saved the inning with a 2-run double just fair up right. The bottom 6th started most terrible for Venegas, as the first three men reached and one run scored, but the guy from Aberdeen, MD gritted his teeth and managed to surrender the next three batters without any more damage. Top 8th: the Furballs had already scored one and had the bags full with one out and Dumont at the plate. He went down 0-2 quickly, then flailed even quicker, but ever so slightly brushed the mask of catcher Mauro Arellano, who had been sitting on top of batters all day. Dumont was awarded first base on catcher’s interference, a run scored, and Kelly Weber added another run pinch-hitting for Ramirez. Up 7-1, Wally Gaston came out for the eighth and did not implode this time. The Coons won, 9-1, on 15 hits. Miranda 1-1; Osanai 3-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Dawson 4-5, 2B, RBI; Walker 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Venegas 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-10) and 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

The final game of the series presented a tough opponent for Kisho Saito: Juan Torres (3-14, 5.84 ERA); the Coons were historically bad against pushover pitchers. Must be a feature of pushover teams. The Furballs went up 1-0 in the first, yet Saito bunted into a double play in the second inning. Double plays were the theme of the day, as the Coons seemed to hit into like twelve (in fact they were close to finishing research on how to hit into two double plays in one inning) and couldn’t turn one for their lives. Kelly Weber held a sometimes shaky Saito in the game with a few great plays in center, then came up with a 2-run single in the fifth (where they left the bags full then…). Saito then came apart in the bottom 5th with a shot by Rodrigo Morales that was uncatchable, and the game was tied. If you don’t make use of your chances … 12 years straight now, and rolling. Saito went out after six innings of 3-run ball, causing two double plays. The Scorpions instantly doubled their output on the pen in the seventh and won 7-3, on 17 hits themselves. Osanai 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Miranda 2-4;

In other news

August 4 – The same day Kisho Saito shut out the Canadiens, IND Alex Miranda (4-8, 4.92 ERA) shut out the Titans on a 3-hitter, the Indians winning 5-0.
August 6 – Las Vegas loses Mark “Icon” Allen (.339, 16 HR, 70 RBI) for two weeks to an intercostal strain.
August 9 – Atlanta’s Juan “Mauler” Correa (10-11, 3.67 ERA) tosses one for the ages. The 37-year old turns in a complete game 10-hitter against Oklahoma City, which the Knights win 10-3. It is the 250th career win for Correa, by far the premier pitcher in ABL throughout the first 12 years. The next-closest pitcher to 250 wins? David Burke, with 176.
August 9 – BOS SP Charles Young (7-13, 4.84 ERA) is out for the season after rupturing a finger tendon.
August 12 – Shunned ex-Coon Tim Moss (3-3, 5.59 ERA in 47 G between Portland and Boston this year) is out for the season with bone chips in his elbow.
August 13 – SFB Wilson Moreno (7-8, 3.74 ERA) puts a spell on the Buffaloes with a 1-hitter in a 5-0 shutout. The no-hitter is not broken up until the ninth with a leadoff single by Marc Leach.

Complaints and stuff

Since June 9, Grant West went 22 G, 24.2 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 6 BB, 22 K, 12/12 SV/SVO, with the only stain being the extra-inning affair against Indy he lost in July. That’s where four of those 14 runners and all earned runs come from. He’s 31 and kicking, and only 20 SV away from 300.

Look at that bullpen. Look at that … I mean … and … that … dhah!! (pulls out hair) They are just ... So Hard In Trouble! (If you look at it long enough you get it)

I think three races are decided, only the CL South remains open.

[Westheim]

Rebels, Crusaders, and Loggers coming to town.

Raccoons (58-60) vs. Rebels (60-58)

The Rebels were a good defensive team with a well-rounded rotation, without a true ace, but with many #2 or #3 starters. All series between the two teams had resulted in sweeps so far, with the Rebels emerging triumphant in 1978 and 1981, and the Raccoons taking victory in 1986.

The Raccoons had never seen Richmond’s Roger Weaver before, normally not blessed with a great out pitch or so, but he was coming in 13-4 with a 3.20 ERA and thus was on par with Scott Wade, who was 10-4 with a 3.12 ERA. Up the middle, the Rebels boasted Scott Spivey and Teo Colón, former CL South players with a knack to skin Coons, and in center Troy Scott, a former Coon. The defense was good on the ground, but Mark Dawson circumvented it in the bottom 2nd with a solo homer to left. That was not enough offense, though. Fellow 3B Tokimasa Nakai tied the game with a solo shot off Wade in the fourth. A rare Mark Dawson triple was wasted in the bottom of the same inning when the Raccoons around him flailed in vain thrice. Wade then came apart in a 2-run sixth, and the Coons trailed 3-1. Despite pitchers getting credit for saves, one belonged to Colón in the bottom 9th. Osanai sent a quick grounder up the middle leading off the inning, which Colón JUST got and turned into an out at first. Behind him, Dawson homered again, but it was not enough. 3-2 Rebels. Dawson 3-4, 2 HR, 3B, 2 RBI; MacDonald 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Interestingly, Nakai could be a Coon now, having been offered in trades in July. But he was basically 3B-only, and inferior in ability to Dawson, so we could keep Dawson and soldier on just as well.

Ackerman in, game lost before it begins. Down 1-0, the Coons loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom 2nd. They failed to score, as Walker popped out and Ramirez precisely hit into a 6-4-3 killer. The Rebels left runners on in every inning and failed to knock out Ackerman, who scored the tying run in the third, and drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom 5th! As soon as he was leading, he was lit up, and Gabriel Torres hit a 2-run shot in the sixth to get the Rebels back to the top. That was already enough, that and the four double plays the Raccoons hit into. The Rebels won, 4-2.

Game 3 was about Big ‘Uns. Venegas surrendered a 2-piece to Manuel Doval in the first inning, which the Raccoons chewed on for a while. Dawson hit a solo shot (his third home run of the series) in the fourth to make it 2-1. In the sixth, Hall and Osanai homered back-to-back to turn the game. The Rebels switched to small ball against Venegas, who had struck out seven in the meantime, in the eighth inning, successfully. They put runners on the corners with one out, and Venegas was replaced with Juan Martinez to face the right-handed 2B Alberto Reyes, who sacrificed in the tying run. Gabriel Torres tatered another off Martinez in the ninth, it was over. 4-3 Rebels. Swept. Hall 2-4, HR, RBI;

The undescribable agony.

Raccoons (58-63) vs. Crusaders (46-75)

Carlos Gonzalez’ rehab start in AAA had been abysmal (3.1 IP, 7 R), but this was the way things went these days. He was still summoned to pitch to the last-place Crusaders. The Crusaders loaded the bags instantly in the first, but whiffed their way out of it, remaining scoreless. Gonzalez remained erratic, raced up his pitch count, and finally fell behind in the sixth, which he didn’t get out of. But the Raccoons weren’t going anywhere, anyway. Then the pen had it broken up. Mike Shaw faced four batters in the seventh, retired nobody, and was instantly sent to St. Petersburg. The one in Russia. Against Wally Gaston, the inning became a farce, and the Crusaders, inept as they were, scored six. The Raccoons lost, 7-0.

Wally Gaston was handed his papers and released the same night. This time forever.

All our lefty relievers were seeming to suffer from one or the other ailment. So it came that the Raccoons went with no left-handers in the pen besides Grant West for the moment. We called up Jason Bentley and Yasushi Suto, who had been acquired in a deal for catcher Mark Mitchell in 1985. Anybody remember Mitchell? I don’t. Suto is 24 and has no outstanding features whatsoever.

In addition to that, Daniel Dumont was demoted to AAA to make room for Yoshinobu Ishizaki, a comeback nobody was dying to see.

In the middle game, Kisho Saito went five scoreless before being removed in an attempt to generate offense. The Coons had been no-hit by Travis Newton into the fifth, until Osanai and Dawson had come up with singles. They ended up with the bases loaded and two out, and Saito next. Armando Sanchez struck out for Saito. The bullpen imploded with high precision in the seventh again and the Raccoons lost, 4-1. Saito 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Scott Wade didn’t fool anybody in game 3, starting the game with three straight singles and a run. The Coons were donated two runs in the bottom 2nd with an error by Lorenzo Gomez at short, but otherwise came up … short, unless for more misplays by New York. A grounder by Dadswell hobbled away from Seitaro Ine in the fourth, but was scored an infield hit, and the Coons squeezed out another run. If there was small ball, this was tiny- or dumb-luck-ball, and everything this bunch of suckers was capable of. The defense was still mostly okay and kept Wade in a 3-2 game for seven frames. Yasushi Suto made his big league debut in the top 8th, struck out two, and held on to give the game to Grant West. The closer was shaking a little bit, but struck out Ine to salvage at least the one game he could. 3-2 Hemiplegic Badgers. Osanai 2-4; Suto 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (debut);

In other news

August 15 – VAN SP Carlos Lozano (7-10, 3.53 ERA) is discovered to have bone chips in his elbow and is out for the season.
August 16 – NAS SP Carlos Lopez (11-7, 2.70 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders to take a 9-0 shutout.
August 16 – Charlotte’s Manuel Movonda (8-10, 3.88 ERA) 3-hits the Stars in a 7-0 win.
August 17 – The Condors will be without CF Preston O’Day (.279, 7 HR, 44 RBI) down the stretch. The 24-yr old has a sprained ankle.
August 21 – The Condors also lose SP John Douglas (13-6, 3.22 ERA) to elbow inflammation for the rest of the season.

Complaints and stuff

One more series at home left, but screw it. We’re having like 80°F at 11pm here, and I don’t have any energy for this kind of crap.

Tetsu Osanai was named Player of the Week for the week in the previous update, going 12-20 with 1 HR and 9 RBI.

Later. Maybe.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-65) vs. Loggers (49-75)

The Raccoons took a first inning lead, Hall driving in Sanchez, before things unraveled for Jerry Ackerman in the third, making a throwing error on pitcher John Fowler’s sac bunt. That put two on with one out, and the Loggers tied the game with RF Jim Wood’s 2-out single to left. The Loggers took a 2-1 lead in the sixth then, and Fowler singled off Ackerman to start the seventh, leading to Ackerman’s exit. A bad throw by Dawson on Emilio Román’s grounder off Jason Bentley put two on with nobody out, but the Loggers managed nothing but infield hobblers for the rest of the inning and the Coons wiggled out of it. Daniel Hall tied it with a 2-out double scoring Glenn Johnston in the bottom 8th. Suto punched out the side in the ninth, but took the loss in the 10th owed to an unearned run for which Dadswell was responsible. Dadswell had been on second in the bottom 9th, but had not been scored. The Coons managed all of six hits in the game. Johnston 2-3, BB; Hall 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell 2-4, 2B;

The good news were that we good Winston Thompson back from the DL. Quintanilla was sent to AAA to restore six infielders and five outfielders on the team.

We faced Judd Montgomery (11-7, 2.33 ERA) in the middle game. Two out, one on in the bottom 2nd, Ishizaki drew his very first walk as a Raccoon, bringing up Steve Walker, who had always had a knack for surprise bang – he took Montgomery deep to right center for an instant 3-0 lead. Hall made it 4-0 in the third, before Venegas put three on in the top 4th, but came out unscathed when Osanai got the final out on a grounder into the hole on the right side. Starting the eighth in a 4-1 game, Venegas put on two and left for Juan Martinez to try and clean up the mess. The tying run at the plate was slugger Isto Grönholm, but he grounded out. He allowed both runs to score with a 2-out RBI single by Jordan Archer. West saved the day, 4-3 Coons, again with only six hits. Dadswell 2-2, BB; Walker 1-3, HR, 3 RBI;

Since hitting 4-10 after a 2-0 loss in Atlanta on July 27, Venegas has started five times, with a 3-0 record and a 2.70 ERA. That’s not to say that he was awesome, he has as many shortcomings as everybody on the staff, but he performed very well despite these shortcomings. We may still need a #5 starter next season, so he better closes in on that 4.00 ERA overall (now: 4.30).

We faced rookie Davis Sims (0-5, 9.00 ERA) in the rubber game. Let’s burn him. And things really didn’t fall poor Sims’ way. Errors by Jesus Jimenez in the first and Isto Grönholm in the second helped the Raccoons to mount runs on him for an early 4-0 lead. Carlos Gonzalez then was pounded as well in a 3-run fourth, and then was further lit up in the fifth. He was removed there, 4.1 innings in, 4-4 game and two on. It became a 5-run inning against MacDonald, and the bullpen further broke up with a 4-run sixth. The game far out of hand, I resigned to slowly rock back and forth and weep in a corner. 13-5 Loggers. How many hits did th- right, six. Sanchez 2-4, RBI; Osanai 2-3, HR, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (60-67) @ Falcons (59-67)

The opener. The Falcons had lost five straight, while the Coons’ Kisho Saito came in 10-10 trying to get back to a winning record. Hall and Osanai were both robbed of doubles in the first (Hall still scored Thompson with the sac fly), before Saito tossed a 3-pitch bottom 1st. Up 2-0, a throwing error by Steve Walker was followed by a 2-run single by Alfonso Aranda and the game became tied through unearned runs. Kelly Weber’s 2-run triple renewed life for Saito, who added an RBI himself to make it 5-2. Saito hit Aranda in the bottom 6th, and it could have been ugly unless for a monster catch by Hall, retiring sometimes-slugging catcher Kyae-sung Park to end the inning. Aranda came back to homer off Saito in the eighth. Saito was not too bothered. He stayed in the game to toss a complete game 8-hitter, taking a 5-3 win. Thompson 2-4, BB, 2B; Dawson 2-4; Weber 2-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (11-10) and 1-3, RBI;

Saito only took 105 pitches to complete the game despite all the hits. A double play helped some, but overall the Falcons took a lot of swings early in the count, keeping the pitch count manageable.

Strikeout machine Ricardo Medina (7-10, 2.51 ERA) was up in the middle game to face Scott Wade, who struggled to punch out people in 2-strike counts and fell victim to a Kelly Weber error in the bottom 3rd, producing two runs. The Coons? Produced nuthin’. Kelly Weber’s leadoff single in the top 7th was their first H off Medina since a Hall single in the first. Hall was drilled by Medina, bringing up Osanai and Dawson, who didn’t produce nothing either. Dadswell hit a 2-out fielder’s choice that scored Hall, but the call at first was blown and Dadswell should have been out. Still trailing 2-1, Hall led off the top 9th with a double, and was brought in on the outs made by Osanai and Dawson to get Wade off the hook. Both teams suckered into extra innings, and deep so. The Falcons had a chance to walk off against West in the 13th, but Walker threw out the runner at home for the second out. Hall led off the top 14th with another double. West was in Osanai’s spot and pinch hit for with Armando Sanchez, who struck out, and Hall never moved further. Against Suto, the Falcons left two in scoring position when Jeffery Booker was struck out to end the 14th. Top 15th, Juan Ramirez hit a single. He stole second on a run-and-hit where Johnston lacked the hitting part, but when Johnston grounded to Aranda, the latter threw it away and Ramirez scored. Up 3-2 for the bottom 15th, we had a terrible selection of whom to send out to face Justin Reader, Jonah Frank, and Aranda. Jason Bentley was thrown in – and sat them down in order. 3-2 Raccoons after a long time. Hall 3-6, 2 2B; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K; Campbell 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; West 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Mark Dawson sat for being ice cold in the final game in Charlotte (as was Sanchez on and off for two weeks now). The Coons took a 1-0 lead in the top 3rd against Bastyao Caixinha, a 14-game winner already, which Ackerman gave back in the bottom with a single, two full count walks and a sac fly. There was only negligible offense until the top 7th, which started innocently enough with a leadoff walk to Walker. Thompson got on, Miranda was hit by Caixinha, and Hall worked a full count walk to force in the go-ahead run for the Furballs. Osanai grounded out to end the inning. Ackerman pitched into the eighth, but became stuck there. Campbell narrowly bailed him out. Grant West had thrown 37 pitches the day before, but I trusted him more than anybody else for the bottom 9th with a 2-1 lead. Juan Barranco to lead o-oh-oh, a double. But West dug in on the mound, looked fiercely, and proceeded to punch out the next three guys up! 2-1 Raccoons. Osanai 2-4, RBI; Ackerman 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (2-3); West 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (29);

Raccoons (63-67) @ Aces (67-63)

The Aces, who weren’t really knowing whether they were going up or down in the standings, sent oldie Bob Hillier to pitch the opener, but the 36-yr old was ruffled early in a 4-run second inning, including another 3-run home run by Steve Walker. The Coons made it 6-1 in the top 3rd, but it almost got away from Alejandro Venegas in the bottom 3rd. The Aces came back to 6-3 and left the tying runs all on base when Venegas struck out Shimpei Iwamoto, but Venegas faced more misery in the fourth and was removed after surrendering 11 hits and five runs. Both bullpens thus took over in the fourth inning, and from the Raccoons’ point of view this could not be good. Up 6-5, the lead almost came apart in the bottom 6th, where Armando Sanchez threw out the tying run for the third out at the plate. The Coons wobbled on to enter the bottom 9th up 7-6. This time, Grant West was really not available having thrown 57 pitches in two days. Vazquez stayed in, having collected the last out in the eighth, gave a leadoff single to Mark “Icon” Allen, but then punched out two and got out of the game. 7-6 Raccoons after being out-hit 16-8. Osanai 2-2, 2 BB; Dawson 2-3, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Johnston 2-4, 2B, RBI; Vazquez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

Carlos Gonzalez was in the middle game. Tetsu Osanai saved him in the first inning by starting a double play, first-and-second, to get out of an early jam, but Gonzalez fell into the next in the bottom 2nd, and the Aces went up 1-0. A nasty throwing error by SS Vicente Ramirez plated two unearned runs for Portland in the third, but that 2-1 lead didn’t hold past the fourth. Gonzalez was just too awful. He went on to bunt for Ishizaki to be forced at second in the top 5th and my neck was growing thicker and redder every inning. All of a sudden he struck out the side in the bottom 5th, and that included both Allens, Lowell and Mark. Top 6th, the Raccoons were giving Gonzalez a new lead. Daniel Hall homered. Tetsu Osanai homered. Mark Dawson homered, all back-to-back-to-back. Gonzalez was taken deep by Manuel Guzman in the bottom 6th, 5-3. Guzman was new to the Coonskinners Club. He had gone 250+ AB this season without a dinger, but had hit two in this series. Gonzalez started the seventh with two doubles, was chased, and Martinez allowed his remaining runner to score to tie the game. A leadoff triple by Winston Thompson in the ninth failed to produce a run for the Raccoons, before the Aces loaded them up against Suto in the bottom 9th, but didn’t walk off. Ishizaki threw out Craig Knapp at the plate to end the bottom 10th. Hall’s leadoff single in the 12th provided a chance. 1-out Run-and-hit, Hall went, Dawson flailed, Hall was out. On the next pitch, Dawson doubled to center. The Coons still managed to score two runs in the inning. West came in, walked Tony Clark, and was bashed a mile by Connor Barrett, for his first blown save in almost three months. With one out, Claudio Garcia came to third after a single, steal, and sac fly. Mark Allen was waved over to first to go after Ira Houston, who grounded to second, but Thompson’s throw to home was late and the Aces walked off over West. 8-7 Aces. Hall 2-5, BB, HR, RBI; Dawson 3-5, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Dadswell 3-6, RBI; Ishizaki 4-5, BB, 2B, RBI;

The Aces had no trouble making contact against Kisho Saito in the rubber game, and Mark Allen got them on track early with a first inning homer. Mark Dawson hit a 2-shot in the fourth to tie the game. It was his 26th of the year, and still a month to play. For this game however, it was meaningless. The Aces hit five singles off Saito in the bottom 4th, knocking him out. Among them were two or three of the gotta-be-kidding-me quality, but the damage was done and five runs in already. There was no comeback for the Raccoons, who fizzled out without as much as the tiniest spark. 6-2 Aces. Dawson 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Campbell 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

August 26 – SFB 1B Roberto Rodriguez (.312, 1 HR, 35 RBI) will miss a few weeks with a fractured foot.
August 27 – A torn rotator cuff has done nothing to diminish Bill Smith’s abilities. In his second start for the Stars since finishing rehab, Smith (2-0, 1.69 ERA) spins a 1-hitter against the Rebels.
August 27 – Also a shutout: ATL Bernard Lepore (6-9, 3.76 ERA) turns in a 3-hitter against the Canadiens, who are trashed 10-0. ATL 3B Luis Barrera lacks the triple for a cycle in the game, going 5-6.
August 29 – Indy’s Alex Miranda (4-9, 4.87 ERA) is out until next summer with a torn UCL.
August 29 – NAS SS Mike Grimes (.304, 0 HR, 47 RBI) will miss a month with a sprained ankle.
August 30 – VAN Robbie Campbell (13-4, 3.56 ERA) 1-hits the Falcons, as the Canadiens win 4-0.
August 31 – TIJ RF Thomas Martin (.307, 6 HR, 56 RBI) goes 5-5 in a 9-7 win over the Titans, and in turn HITS FOR THE CYCLE. It is the 10th cycle in ABL history, the first for a Condors player, and ends an almost 2-year cycle-less drought.

Complaints and stuff

Logan Evans’ recovery from radial nerve compression surgery is going everything but great. It is very likely that he will miss the start of next season, either on the DL or in rehab.

Mark Dawson is making a run at Tetsu Osanai’s Raccoons home run record for a single season, which stands at 31. Dawson has 26 now. The all-time record seems far away: 35, held twice by Gabriel Cruz with himself.

Interesting notes: our AAA SP Jose Fernandez went 6-0 with a 2.78 ERA in August to be named Pitcher of the Month in that league. And what is with Richard Cunningham? Traded to Dallas, the Stars installed him as their closer right away. So far he has appeared in 20 games and is 2-0 with 14 SV and an ERA of nothing, absolutely nothing. I miss him and will continue to miss him for the next decade or so, but it's great to see him getting a chance on closing, which he was made for in the first place. He had only 26 SV for the Raccoons between 1981 and 1988. Bye Richard. :-(

Next: rosters expand. Which suckers will the Raccoons add to the suckers already here?

[Westheim]

No tickets to the 2015 World Series have been dished out.

Originally Posted by Westheim

1. Which of the following statements are correct?
a) Grant West's current 2.51 ERA this season stands as his worst single season ERA to date.
c) Excluding 1983, the Raccoons have finished 15 or more games out of the CL North division winners in all but one season.
d) The Raccoons have never had a player hitting two triples in a single game.

2. Who hit the Raccoons' only postseason triple?
b) Chris Smith

3. Who holds the Raccoons' record of seven AB's in a 9-inning game?
c) Greg Swift

4. Who holds the highest batting average as a Raccoon (min. 1,000 AB)?
a) Tetsu Osanai

5. Which position player has the fewest AB's ever among all position players ever donning the Raccoons uniform?
c) Angel Ramirez

[blazertaz13]

I am glad to see that you are back playing again and this is still a great read. I appreciate reading a dynasty were the playing experience is similar to mine. I am still trying to figure out how to win every single year. :-)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by blazertaz13

I am glad to see that you are back playing again and this is still a great read. I appreciate reading a dynasty were the playing experience is similar to mine. I am still trying to figure out how to win every single year. :-)

Thanks. I'm starting to think that all these perennial winners prepare their dynasty threads with some aid of Photoshop. Winning in this game has been proven by me to be impossible.

----

The Portland Raccoons have added the following players to their major league roster, effective September 2 (since we have an off day to start the month). Our AAA team is seriously playoff bound and I don’t want to weaken them too much, especially with the Raccoons going nowhere nice anyway.

MR Mike Shaw (3-0, 1 SV, 2.97 ERA in 20 G in AAA; 0-1, 9.00 ERA in 17 G in ML)
1B/3B Joe Jackson (.277, 6 HR, 49 RBI in 109 G in AAA; .189, 1 HR, 3 RBI in 14 G in ML)
LF/RF Daniel Dumont (.331, 5 HR, 30 RBI in 38 G in AAA; .253, 1 HR, 20 RBI in 66 G in ML)

Our crown jewels like Matt Higgins, Ben O’Morrissey, Neil Reece, Jason Turner and so on will not be called up until the St. Petersburg Alley Cats are eliminated from the playoffs. All four of those could be on the majors roster next year, and there are more like them with the AAA team, which has been stomping over the competition so far.

In other news, we pitched an offer to SP Scott Wade to buy out his arbitration years (he’s slated to complete his third year of big league experience in mid-September) and three years of free agency. Negotiations went smooth, we should have big news before late.

Raccoons (64-69) vs. Canadiens (75-57)

This was just a 3-game home stand against the cross-border pests, before the Raccoons would leave again for the hostile world outside Raccoons Ballpark.

September scoring started with a Mark Dawson shot in the bottom 2nd in the opener, making it 1-0 in support of Scott Wade. The Canadiens didn’t make hard contact against Wade until the sixth, but then it instantly was a game-tying 2-run homer by Hector Atilano. Wade fell behind 3-2 in his seventh and final inning, and Vazquez surrendered another home run in the eighth, but the Canadiens removed tiring starter Tia Fa too late. At the start of the bottom 8th, Thompson doubled, Johnston singled, and Hall drove both in with a double into the right corner. Osanai was walked intentionally and Dawson singled to center. Tied game, bases loaded, nobody out. Steve Walker was up and somehow he had a hand for the important hits despite batting .200 in his return to Portland, as he hit a 2-run double to left. The Coons batted through the order and scored five, handing it over to Grant West, who put two on, but also punched out two and saved the 7-4 Raccoons win. Thompson 2-5, 2B; Hall 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Dawson 2-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Walker 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Sanchez (PH) 1-1;

Jerry Ackerman fell behind early with an unearned run in the top 1st, but he made the throwing error himself, so the run may not be earned, but he earned some extra torture after the game. Ackerman was not sharp either way, while Vernon Robertson was perfect through three innings before a Johnston single in the fourth. Ackerman couldn’t even get Robertson out, who knocked two singles off him. Robertson reached with two out in the top 6th, which had Ackerman removed for MacDonald, and from here, an error by Juan Ramirez and ill control by MacDonald almost made something ugly of the inning. Joe Jackson, who got a start at third, saved the day with a nice play. A 2-run home run by Osanai in the bottom 6th got the Raccoons on top, 3-2. The Coons got two more in the seventh when Hall walked on a full count with the bags full and a subsequent balk by reliever Thomas Green. The pen almost came crashing down again for us, with the Canadiens putting three on in the eighth, but a foul pop off Carlos Gonsales’ bat ended the inning just in time. We tried to give West a day off after a long ninth the day before, but Bentley put two on and the tying run came to the plate. West had to come in, punched out September callup Jose Renteria for the final out, and sent the fans home happy. 5-2 Raccoons. Johnston 2-4; Vinson 2-4;

Out-hit 11-7 here and with three errors committed (Ackerman, Ramirez, Vinson), and four walks given up, we still somehow staved off the Canadiens. Phew. But we also had to use seven pitchers in the game, so it *was* a struggle. And luck, overall the Canadiens stranded *16* runners on base!

On another note, this was the 900th overall win for the Portland Raccoons.

Venegas was off a mile in the final game. Control was bad, and the Canadiens made contact as they pleased. Still holding a zero up into the fourth, he was undone when pitcher Robbie Campbell hit a 2-out single off him that loaded the bags. The Canadiens scored two. Venegas pitched five innings with those two runs but plenty of runners left on again, then was pinch hit for with Ishizaki to no effect. Those two runs were everything the Canadiens got up against the Coons through nine, but it appeared to be enough with Campbell 3-hitting them through eight before handing over to Rick Evans. Hall’s 2-out single brought the tying run to the plate, and Osanai singled as well. Mark Dawson now needed only one big rip to – he fouled out. 2-0 Canadiens. Osanai 3-4, 2B; Bentley 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

In other news

September 2 – 36-yr old SFW 1B Bruce Cannon lands his 2,000th career base hit in a 6-0 win of the Warriors over the Gold Sox. He played for five teams since 1977, most notably the Indians from 1978 to 1983, with whom he won his only World Series ring in 1981. He is the third player to reach the mark after Claudio Rojas and Alfonso Aranda.
September 2 – The season of Las Vegas’ Claudio Garcia (.309, 8 HR, 52 RBI) may well be over after suffering an elbow sprain.
September 5 – 25-yr old Luis Ramos retires because of a labrum torn and damaged beyond proper repair. The 4th overall pick in the 1984 draft, he spent all of his career with the Rebels, batting .319 with 773 hits and an insane career OBP of .435. He will now return to his homeland, Mexico.

Complaints and stuff

Just a short update. I basically haven’t slept properly since Sunday and … I don’t know. What was I gonna say?

Mark Dawson was Player of the Week for the week ending with this Vancouver series, going 9-14 with 3 HR and 5 RBI. Tetsu’s franchise home run record is all but safe. No, Questdog, I won’t bench him intentionally beyond what is necessary to take a look at Joe Jackson :-P

Also, Winston Witter, one of our A level outfielders, batted .464 this week with 4 RBI and was Player of the Week there. Unfortunately, he’s hitting mere .222 this year. But he’s only 17, who knows…

Next, road trip to Indy, Boston, and Vancouver for a total of 10 games. Whenever I can catch up on sleep.

[Westheim]

Good news! Scott Wade signed his contract extension, making him wear the brown uniform for six years in exchange for roughly $1.6M including incentives. That’s terribly cheap! If I were made an offer to keep five guys in the 3.10 ERA and 2 K/BB vicinity in the rotation for a *combined* $1.33M a year, I’d make a dash for it. Wade’s contract runs through 1994, making him replace Daniel Hall as Furball with the longest running contract at this point (Hall’s expires 1993).

For comparison, the Raccoons’ opening day rotation this season (Evans, Saito, Wade, Gonzalez, Venegas) came in at $1.53M, with Evans grabbing almost half the bucks ($700k). Including the current arbitration estimate for Gonzalez, we’re in for $1.72M for those five for next year.

Yeah, just some math here. Now let’s gonna play some ball!

Raccoons (66-70) @ Indians (85-52)

I was not worried about the Raccoons being also mathematically eliminated from contention in the CL North in this series. A) It didn’t matter at 18.5 GB; B) At worst they could drop to a M# of 2 relative to the Indians; you see, no trust lost with this team.

With an off day before and after the Canadiens series, Carlos Gonzalez was skipped and Kisho Saito went out for the series opener. Saito had the Coons’ first hit in the game, which is never a good sign, and Terry Reynolds was as good for the Indians as Saito was on the mound for us early on. The Coons went up 1-0 on a Steve Walker double in the fourth. The same inning, Saito grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded, and in the sixth, they loaded the bases with no outs and then Walker, Dumont, and Saito all made pathetic outs. Thankfully, on the mound Kisho was a terrible enigma that the Indians never were able to solve in the game. He easily went the distance for a 1-0 shutout, and had enough gas for maybe another two frames. 1-0 Furballs! Dawson 2-4; Walker 1-4, 2B, RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K, W (12-11) and 2-4;

98 pitches were enough for Saito’s eighth career shutout, the third this season and already the second of the Indians this season! His last SHO was against the Canadiens just over a month ago. There he fanned 11 and also walked nobody. Boy, if Kisho’s on, he is ON!

Next, Wade, who had just committed to waste his best years on Portland. He struggled a bit with too many left-handed bats in the Indians lineup and fell behind 2-0 in the third. Robert Vazquez largely returned the favor to the Raccoons in this game. Although he surrendered a run in the fifth, he was never in danger and Wade hung in for the loss, especially when the bullpen was unable to pitch a proper seventh. The Coons lost, 5-1. Sanchez 2-3, 2B; Vinson 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

Up early 2-0 in the rubber game (where Hall notably got a day off), the Raccoons had to trust Jerry Ackerman. Although “sharp” and “Ackerman” were never synonymous in any context, he did well enough with a 7-inning, 2-run outing, holding on to a 3-2 lead. An error by 1B Jorge Gonzalez in the eighth got the Raccoons offense a much needed break against Jesse Carver. One run scored, and with Thompson intentionally walked to load the bases with one out, Dumont hit a snail pace single under everybody’s glove up the middle to score another run and chase Carver. Bases loaded, one out, still, but a wild pitch by reliever Hunter Frazier on his first pitch of the game, dissolved this situation quickly. Weber brought in another run, and all four were unearned. Shaw pitched a perfect eighth while giving up three scorching liners for the defense to come up with. Bentley’s ninth was much less taxing on the defense, and the Coons emerged 7-2 winners. Dadswell 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Dawson 3-5, 2B; Osanai 2-4, 2B, RBI; Johnston 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Dumont (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ackerman 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-3);

The Raccoons have already lost 71 games this year, as many as all of last season, and still have 23 to play.

Raccoons (68-71) @ Titans (63-78)

Continental League RBI race three days ago: Dawson 98, Osanai 96, Mashwanis 90. Heading into the weekend series in Boston: Dawson 98, Osanai 97, Mashwanis 95. Somebody’s pretty warm here, and we’re entering his home turf.

Interestingly, Mashwanis sat in game 1 with Venegas up to pitch. The Coons scored first, but Venegas’ sometimes generally ineffective style got to him in the third, where he gave a leadoff walk to pitcher Jorge Valdes, as if the latter needed any help. Valdes was brought around to score to tie the game, 1-1. But this was Venegas’ only lapse in the game, and back-to-back doubles by Thompson and Dadswell in the fifth helped the Coons to restore a 3-1 lead. Mashwanis didn’t come into the game until the eighth as a pinch hitter facing Pedro Vazquez, but grounded out to end the inning. Coons won, 6-1. Thompson 1-2, 3 BB, 2B; Dadswell 3-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5, 2B; Venegas 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (8-11); West 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 2, and here came Kinji Kan, our recent nightmare. He was 4-9 this season, but 1-1 against the Raccoons, with the Titans winning another game he started and dazzled Coons hitters in after his departure. This time around, the Coons quickly put two on him, but then double play-balled themselves out of more chances in the next two innings. Carlos Gonzalez was nicked in the second and stole a base, and hit an RBI double in the fourth, before completely coming undone once again, with a complete inabilitiy to throw strikes in a 3-run fourth inning. Fifth inning, another killing double play grounded into by Dawson, and then Gonzalez put on two more and was removed. Shaw and Vazquez came in and both had nothing else to do than to walk their first batters on four straight balls, and the Titans took the lead. Sixth inning, and Walker grounded into an inning-ending double play, which for convenience from here on out will be called just IEDP. However in the eighth, the Coons were able to overcome the Titans pen to turn the game around, first with a go-ahead 2-run single by Ishizaki, and then with three more, as reliever Dan Gray allowed four straight Coons to reach base. This broke the Titans and the Raccoons won, 9-4. Thompson 2-5, BB, RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Dawson 2-5, RBI; Weber 3-5, 2B, RBI; Ishizaki 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Osanai and Dawson now both had 99 RBI on the year. Who wants to go first, who wants to? (In the Federal League, DAL Gabriel Cruz was at 112, but let’s just focus on our small world here)

Recently, Kisho Saito had noticeable drop off after very good starts. Could he reverse that trend in the final game in Boston? Short answer: no. Kelly Carpenter homered in the first, and the Titans added another run in a jamming second. The Coons still went up 3-2 in the top 4th, with Saito scoring the tying run with a sac fly. The next inning, Hall led off with a triple, and Osanai singled to right to beat Dawson to 100 RBI’s. Titans starter Ryan Childs was now in collapse mode and accelerated the walks he dished out. Saito singled in a run in his next trip up, making it 6-2 already, Saito went six with three runs against him eventually, and the pen almost blew it up in the seventh, with the Titans leaving the bases loaded. Bubba Hicks pitched for the Titans in the top 8th, put three on with no outs, and then faced Osanai, who bashed for a slam, which put the game way out of reach of the Titans. 11-3 Raccoons. Ishizaki 2-5, BB, RBI; Osanai 3-6, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Dawson 2-4, 2B; Ramirez 1-2, 3 BB, RBI; Bentley 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

This sweep did a couple of things. First, it brought the Raccoons back to .500 after spending all the time since mid-June just a handful of games below. Second, it confirmed that we owned the Titans this year, knocking them down to a 13-5 tune. It’s only the second time the Raccoons have EVER gone 13-5 on a division rival! The other occurrence? Last year against the Crusader (this year so far: 8-6).

Raccoons (71-71) @ Canadiens (83-59)

To start the 4-set, neither Tia Fa nor Scott Wade were particularly effective. Interestingly, neither lineup was able to generate runs out of the flood of guys on base, either, and the game was 1-1 through four. The Coons drew a lot of walks, and Wade gave up a myriad of singles, and the Canadiens in addition ran themselves out of the bottom 4th and did not take the lead. When the Canadiens did take the lead, it was not off Wade, but MacDonald in the seventh, on a wild pitch. Including Wade, who only collected the first out, the Raccoons sent five pitchers into a massacre in the inning, in which the Canadiens scored six, including two home runs off Yasushi Suto. Things further unraveled in the eighth with Grant West in. Two hits were followed by Osanai and West messing up a play at first for a 2-base throwing error and additional damage. In all, the Canadiens scored three unearned runs in the inning. 10-2 Canadiens. Osanai 2-5, HR, RBI;

I hate the Canadiens.

Also, Daniel Hall has stopped hitting altogether and we will take a closer look at a few other outfielders now. Dawson has also ended his hot streak more or less, which, with four homers short and 21 games to play, should make Tetsu’s franchise home run record rather safe.

For game 2, Mark Dawson started in right to give Joe Jackson another look and Hall was benched. Eventually, any effects would be meaningless, because Jerry Ackerman was raped in a 5-run second inning to put the game way out of reach early on. Ackerman went another inning before the pen took over, holding the 5-0 in place through five. Sanchez drove in a run in the sixth and a rally began in the seventh with a leadoff double by Winston Thompson. Dawson brought him in for his 100th RBI this year, and Johnston and Ishizaki added singles. Down 5-3, one out, two on, Jackson came up, 2-3 on the day. Here is your chance to shine, young man. He lined out and the Raccoons lost, 5-3, with Dumont having one of those IEDP’s to end the game. Thompson 2-5, 2B; Dawson 1-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Dadswell (PH) 1-1; Ishizaki (PH) 1-1, RBI; Jackson 2-4; Sanchez (PH) 1-2, 2B, RBI; MacDonald 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Venegas didn’t fool anybody in game 3, and had to be helped by a 5-star caliber play by Steve Walker in the first, catching a flaming liner to start a double play to get out of a bases-loaded jam, while the Raccoons grounded into double plays in the second and in the third to make sure they didn’t score. What helps in these cases? The long ball. Dawson drilled a 2-run homer in the sixth that gave the Raccoons a 3-2 lead, but that was short-lived, as Venegas was taken deep by Zeusef Affra in the bottom 6th. Thompson was thrown out at the plate in the seventh, as everything that could go wrong, did. Daniel Hall and Ramón Gonzalez were both caught stealing in the ninth, each time representing the go-ahead (and in the latter case: winning) run in a 3-3 tie. Dadswell threw out another runner in the 10th, and Vinson nailed a runner in the 13th, but the overall offenselessness of the Raccoons was shocking. Grant West lost the game in his third inning of work with three singles in the bottom 14. 4-3 Canadiens. Dawson 2-6, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-5, BB, 2B; Thompson 2-5, BB; Weber (PH) 1-1; Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Campbell 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

In vain I tried to find a lineup to avert another devastating 4-game sweep at the hand of the Canadiens, but with Carlos Gonzalez going against Raimundo Beato (19-7, 2.96 ERA) odds weren’t in our favor, obvisouly. The Coons still tried and Tetsu Osanai whacked a 2-run homer in the first inning to make strides toward a W. But the lead did not survive even the second inning. Gonzalez was beyond awful, even for awful *Coons* pitchers. He walked five through two innings, after which we had a 2-2 tie. Gonzalez pitched 4.1 innings, allowed seven walks and was sent home by Art Garrett with a tie-breaking 2-run home run. Beato struck out eight and their pen five more as the Raccoons never even threatened again and lost 6-3. Osanai 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Thompson 2-3, BB;

Besides all remaining positive feelings for Carlos Gonzalez, I also lost Mike Shaw here as the only left hander in the pen, who pitched to and retired Atilano in the seventh, then left with a shoulder injury and is out for the year.

Affra is one of those guys you just want to beat senseless with a bat every time you face his team. He has four home runs this season. ALL OF THEM against the Raccoons.

In other news

September 6 – TIJ C John Fleury (.299, 10 HR, 75 RBI) tore his meniscus while running the bases a few days back and is now confirmed to miss the rest of the regular season – and possibly the playoffs, which will be a terrible loss to the Condors.
September 7 – Ex-Coon Troy Scott, 36, batting .256 for the Rebels, is handed a 9-game suspension for brawling with the Buffaloes’ Cristo Negrón.
September 11 – The Stars beat the Wolves 11-1 in Salem, clinching the FL West on the way. It will be the 4th overall playoff appearance for Dallas, and the third straight, but they went out in the FLCS against the Blue Sox both of the last two seasons.
September 13 – CIN MR Ed King (2-2, 1.93 ERA, 2 SV in 57 G between BOS, POR, CIN) is out with a torn flexor tendon.
September 15 – Nashville’s Jose Arroyo staves off Pittsburgh’s Craig Hansen for the Blue Sox to win 2-1 and clinch the division. The Blue Sox are twice-defending ABL champions.
September 15 – Season over for Topeka’s Cordell Atkins (.252, 11 HR, 39 RBI). The 32-year old infielder heads to the DL with back spasms.

Complaints and stuff

Pittsburgh’s Cameron Green was the FL Player of the Week with a 9-22, 3 HR, 9 RBI performance. A Coon until 1985, he was alight with a .289 average for the Miners in 1986, making me already thinking about having made a mistake. Since then? Sub-.230 both last and this year. Add to that the awful defense, and we made the right call in trading him for Dimian Barrios and prospect SP Luis Herrera. Herrera was hurt a lot since then, and Barrios left via free agency after one season, but if I’m not mistaken, we picked up our current AAA CL Albert Matthews with the draft pick Barrios netted us. Between AA and AAA he has appeared in 59 games this year, with 40 SV, an almost 4:1 K/BB ratio and an ERA of 3.09 (with his AA mark actually much worse) He’s no Cunningham, but he’s the #28 ABL prospect and could be here as early as next season!

[Westheim]

With Mike Shaw going down to shoulder bursitis, we turned to AAA and called up left-hander Travis Brown. The 26-yr old was the third-to-last overall pick (#257) in the 1980 amateur draft, taken by Atlanta. After bouncing around without ever getting a shot at the majors for nine years, he signed a minor league contract with the Raccoons earlier this year. Now he will make his major league debut after pitching 4.2 scoreless innings in AAA.

Raccoons (71-75) vs. Knights (86-60)

The Raccoons now had a chance to mess with the CL South’s title race, but in the form they had presented themselves on the last part of that road trip, they could just as well end up being obliterated by the roaming Knights.

Game 1. Kisho Saito went out – and was obliterated. He walked in two runs with bases loaded and surrendered two more runs, including an RBI single to pitcher Bernard Lepore. Second inning. He nailed Eddy Bailey (the second hit batsmen on the day), then walked three straight, then walked himself, to the showers. It was the latest chapter in Raccoons abysmality. Bentley was in early for a long day, and in a lost cause, 6-0 down by the time the second inning was over. Bentley was even the first Coon to reach base with a 2-out walk in the bottom 3rd. In a catastrophic display of overall inabilities, the Raccoons were sunk 8-2, with some decent long relief the least sickening part of their game.

If not quite as useless as Saito the day before, Scott Wade was still awful in the middle game. All the time he was behind in the count, was behind 2-0 early, which Kelly Weber tied with his second homer of the season in the third, and unable to get runners out on his own. Surprisingly, Kiyohira Sasaki came unglued for good even earlier than Wade, getting slapped in a 4-run fourth inning, which ended his day. Wade wobbled on into the seventh, before Travis Brown was to make his big league debut with two out and one on, facing a monster right away, in RF Michael Root. Brown had him pop out to short. Starting with Brown, everything went to hell in the eighth, once again. A succession of relievers came in, all unable to get outs. With a 7-2 lead crushed to 7-6, two on and two outs, the Knights order circled back to Root and Grant West was broken out to try a 4-out save. West walked Root before fanning Sakutaro Ine. To start the ninth, two grounders sneaked through the infield and West ended up blowing the save. Another grounder hopped through Dawson to score the go-ahead run for the Knights, and the Raccoons lost ag- no, wait. Johnston led off hitting for West and singled to right. Thompson bunted him over, and Weber came up with an RBI single to tie the game. Osanai came up with two out and Weber on and zinged a sharp liner to deep left, where it bounced to the wall and gave Weber enough time to score from first. 9-8 Raccoons. Weber 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Osanai 2-5, HR, RBI; Sanchez 2-4, 2 RBI; Johnston (PH) 1-1;

Pitching has reached new depths. Hall is ice cold. Sanchez is ice cold. Dadswell and Vinson are ice cold. Half the infield is colder than ice cold. Two more weeks of pain comin’ our way.

Michael Root and Joreao Paulos tagged Jerry Ackerman with a pair of 2-run homers in the fourth to break up a scoreless rubber game. Juan Correa befuddled the Raccoons for the most part, except for a 2-run boom that Mark Dawson hit into the parking lot in the fifth. Correa had no more lapses in another victory of his over the Raccoons, 6-2 Knights. Dadswell 2-4; Vinson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

With our 1-2 starters obviously collapsing down the stretch and the 3-4-5 guys being awful anyway we will try and stretch for a 6-man rotation for the last two weeks of the season, giving Yasushi Suto at least one start, and we’ll see from there.

Also, the next week our St. Petersburg team will play the Toledo Discoverers (affiliate of the Titans) in the semi finals of the AAA championships. In case of an exit in this round, we will add a few more players for the final week of play for the Raccoons.

Raccoons (72-77) vs. Thunder (78-71)

There was a new team in town, but the abuse didn’t stop just because of that. With an 1-6 record in the last week, the Raccoons were in collapse again, deflating rapidly, and as much was true for Jerry Ackerman, who surrendered a steady stream of runs in the opener. Five frames, five runs against Ackerman, all the while Thunder starter Billy Robinson struggled with control, but the Coons couldn’t even draw enough walks to get things moving someplace other that Grindstone Dungeon. The Raccoons were down 5-2 in the bottom 7th, left the bags full while striking out thrice in the inning, upon which Emerson MacDonald entered the top 8th. Hit batter, 2-base throwing error by Dadswell, 2-run double, home run. Things were just going that way. Add to that Campbell surrendering two in the ninth, including one on a wild pitch. The Raccoons were sunk once more, 11-2. Dawson 2-5; Osanai 4-5, 2 2B;

At some point, heads gotta roll. The Raccoons fired their pitching coach, Andy Silver, who had been with the team for almost a decade. Bench coach Silas Barnett was made pitching coach for the last two weeks.

Carlos Gonzalez in game 2, first inning: walked in a run, balked in a run. Here we go again… Bottom 3rd, Daniel Hall managed his first productive at-bat in over a week, a 2-out bases-loaded RBI single. Kelly Weber hit a 2-run single behind him and the Coons were up 3-2. Winston Thompson drove in a run in the fourth, but then had to leave the game while obviously being in pain. Gonzalez got rid of the lead in the fifth, surrendering four more runs, including walking in the tying run and surrendering a 2-run single with two down to pitcher Ramon Vargas. Two left on by Gonzalez scored against Vazquez. The nightmare just was not ending. The Raccoons were so miserable, that when Daniel Hall hit a grand slam in the bottom 6th, they didn’t even tie the game (9-8 Thunder), neither did the park sound very ecstatic. Well, there wasn’t anybody there in the first place. The Raccoons left the tying runs a-base in the ninth and lost, 10-8. Dadswell 2-5, 2B; Dawson 2-5; Hall 3-5, HR, 5 RBI; Weber 3-4, 2 RBI; Ishizaki (PH) 1-1;

Winston Thompson is done for this year with an oblique strain.

Yasushi Suto was thrown out in game 3 to hold the (burning and partially collapsed) fort. Mark Dawson was scratched just before the game for being ol- sore. Suto got a 1-0 lead in the first, nothing more. A leadoff double to pitcher Kevin Williams in the top 6th sealed his fate rather quickly, since the Thunder brought Williams in to score and tie the game. But Williams was a bit shaky and continued so in the bottom 6th. After Hall doubled, Osanai was put on intentionally, but Weber singled to right to load the bases. Joe Jackson was next – he worked a walk to break the tie and force in Hall. That was it however, for Steve Walker hit into a double play. However, the Thunder tied the game again off Suto in the seventh. The young Japanese left with a no-decision, while Kelly Weber drove in the go-ahead run for the second time in the game in the bottom 8th. West was in to pitch the ninth and was already walking off the mound, when Juan Ramirez botched the would-be third-out grounder for an error. That put two Thunder on and righty slugger Joseph Day as a pinch hitter at the plate. He lined a full count pitch into right and the tying run scored. Armando Sanchez walked off the Coons with a solo home run in the bottom 9th, 4-3, but that’s not the point. Sanchez 2-5, HR, RBI; Hall 2-2, 2 BB, 2B; Osanai 1-2, 2 BB; Weber 2-3, 2 RBI; Suto 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

I’m really, REALLY ANGRY. This GOD DAMN AWFUL team full of SUCKERS!! GAHH!!!

Grant West has not gotten a save in 18 days, a) for this godforsaken dump of trash of a team not getting ANYTHING done in order, and because of such ****ING MISPLAYS!!

In other news

September 17 – Nashville’s Luis Guzman (17-6, 3.36 ERA) seems to be in shape for the playoffs, tossing a 3-hitter in a 5-0 win over the Warriors.
September 18 – The Scorpions fall to the Capitals, 5-3, giving them their 100th loss of the year. At 49-100 they have to win at least five of their last 13 to avoid tying or breaking the 1977 Loggers’ negative record of 109 losses in a season.

Complaints and stuff

Needless to say that extra whippings were scheduled for Juan Ramirez. And the rest of the team. In front of city hall. They make me cry, I make them cry.

St. Petersburg trails 2-1 in the Best of 5 series against Toledo.

One series in Milwaukee, then final home stand against New York and Indy. Then it will be finally over, until it will start all over again.

[Westheim]

There is some concerning development going on in the ABL. Pitchers are becoming more and more dominant.

In the 70s, the FL averaged about 4.10 ERA with a high of 4.21 in 1978. The CL sat lower, around 3.70. While the CL’s mark has remained largely constant since then, except for an abnormal 3.46 mark in 1982, the FL has consistently come down from the 4+ marks. That league’s ERA was between 3.94 and 3.95 every year from 1981 to 1983, and since then has plummeted to levels in the 3.70 region. This season marks the first in ABL history where the CL has a higher ERA (3.68) than the FL (3.61).

It’s also really tough to find great offensive players. They all have flaws one way or the other. The Tetsu Osanai type player in the league is pretty much limited to … Tetsu Osanai. :-/

But mainly it’s the pitchers. Looking at a particular stat I nail the issue down to pitchers just becoming more and more beef: individual single season K/9. How many 1970s seasons by individual pitchers are in the Top 50?

Two. 1977 Juan Correa and 1977 Joe Ellis. The highest ranking Federal League pitcher from the 1970s on the list is Bill Smith, who pitched for the Pacifics in 1979 and ranks 54th all time with that season.

Even more clear, this number: how many marks in the Top 20 among individual single season K/9 charts have been set either this or last year?

Ten. Dallas’ Neil Ford was the first pitcher to shell the 9 K/9 barrier last season (not even “Mauler” Correa managed that before!), and he has repeated the feat this season, but was superseded by the Warriors’ Manuel Paredes (yes, the one the Coons traded away for David Vinson; get off my back already …)

I will have to watch this, but don’t know how to counter it anyway. Some crazy people have already suggested to replace the pitcher in the batting order with another batter that doesn’t have to take the field.

Such nonsense of course can not be tolerated under any circumstances. (rolls eyes)

(Side note: the only player to make the Top 100 in single season K/9 as a Raccoon? Kisho Saito, twice, including this season)

(Side note #2: which two players have gobbled up the Top 10 single season BB/9 positions between them? “Mauler” Correa (eight times) and – AND! – Christopher Powell (twice))

[Westheim]

Raccoons (73-79) @ Loggers (62-91)

Kisho Saito started the series for the Raccoons, and was closely watched after his 6-walk game last time out, in which he appeared very much fatigued. He fell behind 1-0 in the second on a Jesus Jimenez moonshot, but then hit himself an RBI single in the top 3rd, which was part of a 4-run inning that was crowned by a 2-shot by Sam Dadswell. It was Saito’s 10th RBI this season. Loggers starter John Fowler was well on his way to loss #18 and allowed the first five Raccoons in the top 4th to reach base (including walking Saito). Dadswell then hit a grand slam off reliever Michael Brown to make it 10-1. The bottom 6th started with an error by Jackson at third, but it was obvious that Saito was out of steam as well while still well below even 90 pitches. The Loggers scored three in the inning, two were earned, and added solo runs in each of the next two innings. That bullpen, always making games interesting. But the Coons held on and won, 10-6. Walker 2-5, RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB; Jackson 3-4, 2 2B, RBI;

Either way, unless Scott Wade somehow wins a few games in relief in addition to his last two starts, Kisho Saito will be the Portland wins king this year with 14. Unless absolutely necessary, we won’t send him out again, since he really seems to be sucked dry by now. He tossed 209 innings this year, as opposed to 220+ in each of the last six seasons. Longtime overuse?

Also, St. Petersburg was eliminated in the playoffs today and we will call up a few youngsters for the final week of the season.

Much the same story in game 2 to start it off. Wade fell behind to a second inning solo homer, the Coons turned the table in the second, this time with two runs. The similarities ended there, though, no big offense this time. Manny Rodriguez, who had homered earlier, hit a double to lead off the bottom 7th, still in a 2-1 game. His mistake was trying to go to third, where he was nailed by a great throw by Johnston from right. Wade completed seven innings in line for the W. Osanai and Dawson both popped out poorly with the bases loaded in the eighth, before Kelly Weber scored an insurance run with a pinch-hit sac fly in the ninth. The pen held up and West saved a 3-1 game. Dadswell 2-4, RBI; Dumont (PH) 1-1; Weber (PH) 0-0, RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (12-6);

Game 3, Ackerman. ‘nuff said. The Loggers went ahead 2-0 in the first, before both sides left the bags full in the second without scoring. Scoring would be difficult for the rest of the game. And while the Raccoons out-hit their opposition, 10-6, they just couldn’t get their runners in, leaving two on three times in the game, including the final two innings. They never scored and lost, 2-0. Walker 2-5, 2B; Johnston 1-1; Osanai 2-4, 2B; Vinson (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 2-4; Ishizaki (PH) 1-1;

More callups

We called up 1B Billy Mitchell again, who homered 42 times in just 122 games in AAA this year, but can’t get even a single in the Bigs.

We also added outfielder Gustavo Quintanilla, relievers Jake Pitts and Ken Burnett, and infielder Ben O’Morrissey. The former two were already here this season. The latter two were acquired in the middle of the season from the Cyclones. Burnett is a left-hander with only marginal big league experience, while O’Morrissey is a corner infielder trying to learn the middle infield jobs, who will make his major league debut.

Matt Higgins is still nursing an oblique strain and missed the playoffs in AAA, but will be called up in a few days. Neil Reece suffered a hamstring strain in the playoffs and is out for the year, but I wouldn’t have called him up most likely anyway. In case we don’t pitch Saito anymore and/or something else bad happens, we have more pitchers available at AAA.

Raccoons (75-80) vs. Crusaders (57-98)

Venegas opened the series in his – barring special circumstances – penultimate start of the year. His first three innings were great and Sam Dadswell with a 2-run homer and some small ball gave him an early 3-0 lead, before running into a bit of a jam in the fourth with two Crusaders reaching scoring position with nobody out. He worked out of there with only one run scoring. The Raccoons added long balls. Dadswell homered again in the fifth, 4-1, and in the sixth Dawson followed up Osanai’s leadoff walk with a giant shot to left center. Venegas held on to pitch seven and collect an easy W, as the Coons clobbered the New York bullpen senseless with a 3-run seventh and then a 6-run eighth! The final score suggests the game to be much closer than it really was, as the Raccoons POUNDED on the Crusaders, 15-1. Dadswell 2-3, 3 BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Dawson 2-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Ramirez 1-1; Walker 3-3, 2 BB, 3 RBI; Ishizaki (PH) 1-2, 2B, 3 RBI; Venegas 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (9-12);

Mark Dawson now has 30 homers on the season, the first time for him to reach the mark, and breaking a tie with Daniel Hall for 2nd with 29 in a single season. Tetsu’s mark, remember, is 31. Six games left. Dawson would play in right for game 2, with Ben O’Morrissey making his major league debut at third base.

Carlos Gonzalez fell behind 1-0 in the top 1st, but a 3-run homer by Daniel Hall in the bottom 1st looked much better on the scoreboard (and did the balls fly here in late September?). Unfortunately, things got scary in the top 3rd. Pitcher Francisco Vidrio singled to start the inning. On the next play, O’Morrissey got his first chance – and messed it up with a 2-base error. An infield single followed, but the runners had to hold as Vinson fielded the ball on the left foul line, blocking home. Still, bases loaded, nobody out, Carlos Gonzalez on the mound and Pedro Villa, the most similar thing to a slugger the Crusaders had, coming up. Villa and Raúl Castillo both singled up the middle, Gonzalez walked in another run, and eventually they scored four. That nightmare seemed like enough to sink the Raccoons – they didn’t threaten for four innings. Daniel Hall hit a 2-out solo home run in the bottom 8th to shorten the gap to one run. But there was no comeback and Bentley was socked in the ninth. 7-4 Crusaders. Hall 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Miranda 2-3, 2B;

Yasushi Suto made another start in game 3. The Crusaders sent Luis Andrade, 21, who had collected a 31.50 ERA in two starts, lasting a combined two innings. Of course the Coons didn’t do anything in their first two innings, then put two on to start the bottom 3rd. Suto came to bat, failed to bunt twice, then swung away at the 0-2 pitch and singled to load the bags with nobody out. Kelly Weber grounded to the mound next, and Andrade couldn’t come up with any play despite plenty sub-average speed runners around, and everybody was safe, 1-0 Coons. Andrade walked in two, before Dawson hit into an inning-ending double play. Suto was dominant in the start and 1-hit the Crusaders into the sixth. With two out, a flyer bounced off Daniel Hall’s glove in left, and Suto went on to surrender a single for an unearned run. Suto was then hit by a pitch from Andrade in the bottom 6th, and Castillo, first up in the seventh, homered to left center. Problems? Suto wanted to stay in and finished the inning still 3-2 ahead. Ken Burnett came in to pitch the eighth, his Raccoons debut. He put two on among three batters faced and Dirk Campbell came in to save the unsaveable. Diego Rodriguez doubled in both runners in an instant. Bottom 8th, counterattack time. Two on, one out, Johnston pinch hit for Weber and hit a triple to swap the lead again. They scored two unearned runs on top of that after an error and a passed ball. West did his job, 7-4 Coons. Johnston (PH) 1-1, 3B, 2 RBI; Hall 2-5, 2B; Osanai 3-4, BB, RBI; Dumont 3-4, 2B; Miranda 2-3, BB; Ramirez 1-1; Suto 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;

I think this is the first time the Raccoons have ever dealt another team their 100th loss of the season.

Quite a bit was talked about Kisho Saito and his apparent struggles in late September and after a thorough evaluation of every available data and a report from the head trainer, it was decided to shut down Saito for the season, giving his start to Pedro Vazquez.

Ben O’Morrissey had his first major league hit in his first AB of the day, homering off Carlos Guillen. That was all the support Vazquez got in his spot start, but he 2-hit the Crusaders through five. Guillen reached base on an error by Ramirez to start the top 6th and with lefties up, Vazquez was taken out. Brown was ineffective in relief, and the Crusaders turned the game around on two infield singles and a Villa double against him and Campbell. Bentley surrendered ANOTHER infield hit for ANOTHER run. Three infield hits, three runs scored before a double play ended the pain. The bullpen was about to fall completely now in the seventh, but Burnett managed to get out of a jam by starting a double play, home and first. It didn’t help any in the end, as the Raccoons were playing dead at the plate, and lost 4-2. Dawson 2-3, BB; O’Morrissey 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Vazquez 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K;

This assures the Raccoons their first losing season in four years, but we have been seing it coming for some time now.

Raccoons (77-82) vs. Indians (98-61)

I don’t want the pesky Indians to win a hundred. Tough task ahead. Their staff has surrendered 499 runs so far, that’s just over 3.1 per game! If you thought the Indians of the early 80s had bad ass pitching, what do you call that assortment of awesomeness?

Mark Dawson and Tetsu Osanai were tied in the RBI race in the CL, with 109 ribbies each. There was a good chance for things to stay that way… Meanwhile, Dawson leads the home run race by two dingers, and Osanai leads the batting title race by five points over Hjalmar Flygt.

Scott Wade was unlucky guy number one to go out in this series, basically knowing he had to deliver shutout ball for a win. Well, Daniel Hall hit a 2-piece in the first inning for some early support. But things came apart too soon in the third. Dumont made an error to put pitcher Bob Harris on second base and two searing line drives later the game was tied with a runner on third and nobody out and while Wade scrambled, the go-ahead run scored. The Raccoons couldn’t get things going. Bottom 6th: two on, two out, Kelly Weber pinch hit for Miranda and singled to right, but Osanai had to hold at third. That knocked out both starters, as Bob Harris was relieved and Wade was being pinch hit for by Ishizaki, who struck out. Not all was lost for Wade however, as Dawson came through in the seventh with a massively great 2-out, 2-run double that was just mere inches to the good side of the left field line. Then, Travis Brown faced two batters in the top 8th, surrendering a 2-run homer by Raúl Vazquez, that turned the game right away again. Didn’t matter, Pitts and Burnett were shelled for four more runs in the ninth. 9-4 Indians. Weber (PH) 1-1;

Ishizaki. What a useless piece of ****. Matt Higgins joined the club late.

Two to go, including another start for Jerry Ackerman, which was no reason to get excited. We played O’Morrissey at second, not one of his positions, to give him some AB’s. Higgins played short since I considered it unlikely that we would re-sign Steve Walker. Both youngsters made awesome plays in the top 1st of the game, while in the bottom 1st Hall, Osanai and Dawson evokes Singles Magic to score a run. Hall could have been out at the plate, but with Osanai scampering to third on Dawson’s single, the Indians got the out there where it was more likely. O’Morrissey then quickly made an error in the second that went on to tie the game. Bottom 3rd, and Mark Dawson still had goals to achieve. With a massive 3-run rocket to left he hit his 31st homer of the season, tying the Raccoons record held by Tetsu Osanai. We had Higgins on third in the bottom 4th with Ackerman up and tried a suicide squeeze – which didn’t work, Higgins was thrown out. The Coons left droves on in the fourth and fifth. Ackerman pitched a neat game, not surrendering an earned run, but stalled with two out in the seventh. With runners on the corners, Martinez came in, but didn’t figure too much into the equation when Dadswell picked a snoozing Enrico Lopez off first. Martinez proved ineffective in the eighth, but Vazquez came in and struck out two strong lefties(!) to hold a 4-2 lead. O’Morrissey made *another* error in the ninth, getting a concerned look from Grant West, who then hit a batter. Eventually, he pitched out of it to save the 4-2 win. Osanai 3-4; Dawson 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-4; Mitchell (PH) 1-1; Ackerman 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (4-6);

Going into the final day, Dawson clinching the home run and RBI titles for the CL was certain, unless Michael Root or Raúl Vazquez came up with the ABL’s first 4-homer game. Osanai led Flygt by seven points for the batting title.

Final day. O’Morrissey played second and batted leadoff. (Is he my new darling?) Venegas went out trying to get to double-digit wins at the last minute. But the Indians stomped all over him, putting the game away by the third, 5-0, and he was removed in the fourth. By then, the Coons didn’t even have a hit, which only came with an Osanai single in the bottom 4th. After five, down by five, the replacements were brought in, f.e. for Osanai. Dawson remained in, as he was still on a quest. Bottom 6th, Hall walked with one out. Kelly Weber pinch-walked in the #4 spot, Dawson grounded out to force Weber at second. Now with two down, the Coons started a phenomenal rally. Vinson walked on a full count to load the bags. Johnston singled to score two. Mitchell singled. Quintanilla singled to score two more. O’Morrissey singled to tie the game before Higgins grounded out. Ken Burnett in the ninth put a runner on, and while Grant West came in, the runner scored to put the Coons down 6-5 into the bottom 9th. They stayed there. 6-5 Indians. Mitchell (PH) 2-2;

In other news

September 23 – The Blue Sox and Stars both shut out their opponents (6-0 in Topeka and 7-0 in Sioux Falls, respectively) to hit 100 wins on the same day.
September 24 – Way to go: NAS Luis Guzman (18-6, 3.24 ERA) hurls back-to-back-to-back shutouts, 2-hitting the Buffaloes in a 3-0 win. Guzman has gone the distance in each of his last nine starts, including four shutouts, and a 7-1 record and a 1.51 ERA.
September 27 – The Indians are visiting the Canadiens and after taking the opener the day before, they also win the second match, coming back from a 4-2 deficit after seven to win 6-4. The Indians clinch the division with that win for their fourth playoff appearance overall and second in a row.
September 29 – Richmond’s Tony Simpson, a bullpen workhorse with a 3.24 ERA in 63 games this year, will miss all of next season trying to recover from a torn flexor tendon.
September 29 – The Scorpions lose game 3 against Dallas at home, 6-4, for their 109th loss of the season, tying the all time losses record set by the Loggers in the inaugural season in 1977. The Scorpions still have to play three against the fellow triple-digit losses Warriors.
September 30 – The Condors win 4-0 in Las Vegas to clinch the CL South with two to play. The Knights lose 10-2 in Charlotte and either result would have been enough to decide the division and set the playoff field.
September 30 – Fans in Milwaukee sigh in relief. Their team will narrowly avoid 100 losses this year, and have the worst all time record (842-1,100), but the Scorpions are shut out at home by the Warriors, 3-0, and take their 110th loss, setting a new single season losses record.
October 2 – Bastyao Caixinha (15-14, 2.72 ERA) ends the season with a 3-hitter as the Falcons dump the Knights, 3-0.

Complaints and stuff

Much potential, but much to work on. Can Higgins and O’Morrissey become cornerstones of a strong infield? I think yes. Can Mitchell replace Osanai? I think no.

Tetsu Osanai won the batting title with a .350 mark, while Mark Dawson took the home run and RBI crowns. Dawson’s 31 dingers were the most for all of the ABL. The .350 batting average is the best ever for the Raccoons and improves a mile over the rather pedestrian .299 that Osanai hit last year.

On the boards below are quite a few names we will never see again.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

On the boards below are quite a few names we will never see again.

We will miss them. Well, maybe you won't.

[Westheim]

1988 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The playoff field is almost identical to last year, with only the Condors replacing the Knights.

To make one thing clear well ahead: there is no reason the Blue Sox won’t make this a three-peat. While they will miss SP Chris Lacy’s awesome arm (torn flexor tendon) and C Travis Lange’s bat (torn thumb ligament), they still have an awesome team including the best pitching staff in either league. And their offense ranked consistently in the Top 3 in all but two categories, led by 3B Horace Henry (.297, 16 HR, 100 RBI).

The Stars are in for a challenge. They have the #1 offense in the country, spearheaded by RF Gabriel Cruz (.295, 30 HR, 140 RBI). The rotation is flawless, the pen has some small issues, but Richard Cunningham, acquired from the Raccoons, has thrived in the closer role, collecting 22 SV and a 3-0 record with a 0.86 ERA after the July trade. MR Kent Battle will miss the FLCS, but could return for the World Series. The only concern could be middle infield, where Pete Ross and Sergio Martinez are injured and won’t be available.

For the CLCS, the Indians had the best pitching in the Continental League, but have three starters on the DL (Harris, Miranda, Acevedo), and this alone could break them. Their outfield is strong at the plate and they have a slugging shortstop, but apart from those their offense is meh. The Condors combine decent pitching with good to very good hitting, but also have key players on the DL like C John Fleury.

The Indians make back-to-back appearances and their fourth overall with one title. The Condors make their third appearance and are the only team without a title. The Blue Sox play in the playoffs for the fifth time (all in the last six years) and are twice-defending champions. The Stars also make their third consecutive appearance and fourth overall, they have one title (1983 against you-know-whom).

My guess: Blue Sox in seven, Condors in five, and then Blue Sox over the Condors in five.

---

Blue Sox @ Stars … 5-4 … (Blue Sox lead 1-0) … a first-inning 4-spot propels Nashville, but the Stars almost came back to tie it
Condors @ Indians … 3-4 (11) … (Indians lead 1-0) … TIJ Jon Butler (age 41) blew the save in the ninth and the Indians walked off in the 11th on an RBI single by reliever(!!!) Tim Hess.

Blue Sox @ Stars … 2-3 (11) … (series tied 1-1) … NAS Luis Guzman 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; DAL Bill Smith 8.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K; the Stars walk off on a 2-base throwing error by NAS SS Mike Grimes
Condors @ Indians … 4-3 … (series tied 1-1) … TIJ Jose Macias 8.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

Stars @ Blue Sox … 5-3 … (Stars lead 2-1) …
Indians @ Condors … 2-3 … (Condors lead 2-1) … TIJ Thomas Martin 2-4, 2 RBI;

Stars @ Blue Sox … 1-6 … (series tied 2-2) … NAS Carlos Lopez 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K;
Indians @ Condors … 2-5 … (Condors lead 3-1) … TIJ Israel Gomes 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K; TIJ Sean Bergeron 2-3, HR, 4 RBI;

Stars @ Blue Sox … 5-8 … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … DAL Jorge Rosa was incinerated early, but the Stars tried to come back in vain again; NAS Antonio Rodriguez 3-4, 2 RBI;
Indians @ Condors … 1-2 … (Condors win 4-1) … TIJ Claudio Rojas 3-4;

Blue Sox @ Stars … 5-6 (10) … (series tied 3-3) … unsung heroes Guzman and Smith from game 2 lined up again, and Guzman was socked early, but the Blue Sox clawed back to tie the game. Cunningham won the game in extra innings; NAS Horace Henry 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; DAL Gabriel Cruz 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI (including the walk off home run);

Blue Sox @ Stars … 5-10 … (Dallas win 4-3) … both starters were blown up early – the Dallas pen held on and let the offense do the work; DAL Miguel Fuentes 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; DAL Raúl Herrera 3-3, 3B, 3 RBI;

---

1988 WORLD SERIES

The Condors lost outfielder Preston O’Day to injury in the CLCS, taking a piece out of their lineup, but O’Day has never been the guy to key on.

Condors @ Stars … 4-5 (10) … (Stars lead 1-0) … this one swayed back and forth, and DAL Richard Cunningham blew the save in the ninth, fell behind in the 10th, but won the game on an error by TIJ 2B Juan Valentin, the second walk off error for the Stars in this playoffs; TIJ Seitaro Ogawa 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; TIJ Felix Velez (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI (tied the game in ninth inning);

Condors @ Stars … 2-3 … (Stars lead 2-0) … another walk-off win, this time on small ball; DAL Neil Ford 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K; TIJ Woody Roberts 8.0 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Stars @ Condors … 6-1 … (Stars lead 3-0) … DAL Bill Smith 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K; DAL John Harris 3-4, 3B, 3 RBI; DAL Xiao-wei Li 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI;

Stars @ Condors … 2-3 … (Stars lead 3-1) … TIJ Cipriano Ortega 2-4, 3B, RBI;

Stars @ Condors … 4-10 … (Stars lead 3-2) … the Condors jump back in with a 6-run seventh against a helpless Dallas bullpen; TIJ Seitaro Ogawa 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI;

Condors @ Stars … 9-5 … (series tied 3-3) … the Dallas pen collapses yet again in the seventh; TIJ Seitaro Ogawa 3-5, 2B, RBI; TIJ Juan Valentin 3-6, HR, RBI;

Condors @ Stars … 0-10 … (Stars win 4-3) … QUIT THIS NONSENSE!! The Stars wreck Jose Macias with a 5-run first inning and never looked back in a quickly dull game seven; DAL Bill Smith 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K; DAL Miguel Fuentes 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI;

1988 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
DALLAS STARS
(2nd title)

Who remains from the 1983 championship team that defeated the Raccoons? Shockingly few. The team was almost entirely rebuilt in the last few years around RF Gabriel Cruz, who remains one constant. Besides him? Two pitchers, SP Jake Wallace and MR Joaquin Bastos. That’s all. Those 1983 and 1988 World Series winners are 90% different teams.

[Westheim]

First things first: I got another score of 1. So, now we can get the ball moving here and will move to October 31 with this update only for we will then analyze our current situation more thoroughly.

Last year’s budget: $12.6M; this year’s budget: $12.7M; since I want to play young guys anyway, that won’t hurt me as much.

Billy Mitchell was the AAA Batter of the Year, going .334 with 43 HR and 121 RBI in 470 AB.

We need a new scouting director (Charles Hutchinson was outstanding in regards to minor league players, but his scouting of major league personnel leaves much to be desired), a new pitching coach, a bench coach, and one or two positions in the minors. Things started to go wrong already here, with no phenomenal scouts available, and all the old famous pitchers wanted to play manager and were asking for ridiculous money to endure the indignity of being a pitching coach. I also looked at a switch for the head trainer, who is a legend in keeping Daniel Hall’s spinal column in one piece, but his only a decent arm healer. But there were no really better options available. He is in the last year of his contract now.

We have a bunch of arbitration / free agent cases:

INF Winston Thompson, INF Steve Walker, and OF Armando Sanchez are bound for free agency. Walker was a filler, hit .217 and won’t be retained. Sanchez will be left to walk away to clear his salary from the books, but his god damn horrible second half of the season dropped him from a type A to a type B free agent. Thanks. Thompson is critical, since we really need his defense and his OBP (.362) make him a good poor man’s leadoff batter. I expect to fill both those roles with youngsters, a description the 34-yr old doesn’t necessarily fit. He is a type B free agent, and we are very thankful we had him the last six years (and he is certainly thankful we gave him a career; he is the guy I picked off the pile of free agents before the 1983 season with all of 27 AB’s to his credit), but we are making cuts here. I also think that at a $230k arbitration estimate he becomes a bit overpaid. All three will be left to walk.

There were seven arbitration cases (player, stats, current salary (minimum=$79k), arb. estimate):
SP Jerry Ackerman (4-6, 4.46 ERA) – minimum - $118,500
SP Carlos Gonzalez (5-14, 5.35 ERA) - $250,000 - $288,750
SP Alejandro Venegas (9-12, 4.52 ERA) – minimum - $118,500 *super-2 case
MR Jason Bentley (64.1 IP, 4.62 ERA) – minimum - $118,500
MR Dirk Campbell (65.1 IP, 3.31 ERA) - $124,425 - $136,868
C Sam Dadswell (.280, 14 HR) - $310,000 - $400,000
OF Kelly Weber (.264, 2 HR) – minimum - $118,500

Here we have some mess. First, regardless of the ongoing rebuilding process, the bullpen needs to be removed, since it sucked the life out of everything last year. Bentley pitched in the low 3’s the last three seasons, and never found his mojo last year. Campbell was decent, but will be 35 next July. Both will be retained, and Bentley has options left.

The rotation. Phew. Evans and Saito are set, along with Wade. Evans may well miss the start of the season and can not be traded anyway. Saito is the closest to an ace that we have, and Wade is here for cheap and here to stay. That makes at least two slots in the rotation to fill, possibly with the three guys in arbitration above.

I have the most doubt in Gonzalez, really. Looks like he is forked up. At 26, he has a history of inflammation in both elbow and shoulder that could fill a 3-volume book. He’s been hurt every single year. Last year, he spent less time on the DL, but was outright awful when he pitched. I think about cutting losses here.

Ackerman and Venegas meanwhile can not both be in the rotation. That would give us four lefties and I don’t want that. Right handed batters can be mean, too. Neither has options. Venegas has three well-developed pitches, while Ackerman has four, but no great out pitch. They are the same age, same ERA, same record (adjusted for innings pitched). It’s like picking among identical twins.

Dadswell is high on my trade list. The final decision revolves a bit around a scouting report of the new scout on David Vinson, whose batting is inferior to Dadswell’s so far. Dadswell was once intended as franchise cornerstone, and he still can be (he’s 28 now). Either one will be our primary catcher for years to come, since we don’t really have anybody in our system.

Weber has been used as pinch hitter or spot starter in center the last few years. Glenn Johnston may be his replacement. But much depends on who will fill third base (which in turn depends on whether we will go through the agony to convert Ben O’Morrissey to a second baseman). I don’t want to play Mark Dawson playing right field next year. If he still does go there, there’s no room for Weber among Johnston, Dumont, and Quintanilla, the latter of which is the weakest batter, but the only righty we have closely available (but there are *some* options at AAA, still).

So, all will get offers. We will offer the estimate for all except for: Gonzalez ($250k), Campbell ($125k), and Weber ($125k).

October 3 – WAS LF Jeffery Brown (.362, 28 HR, 109 RBI) and POR 1B Tetsu Osanai (.350, 25 HR, 109 RBI) win the league’s batting titles.
October 24 – The ABL president’s office announces a reduction of the height of the pitcher’s mound in order to increase offense in the league.
October 24 – The Rebels acquire INF Shawn Sherman, a 28-yr old .253 hitter with power, for INF Scott Spivey and a minor leaguer, who are sent to Charlotte. Spivey has 1,159 career hits at age 31.
October 27 – The Raccoons trade 1B Billy Mitchell (43 HR in AAA last year) to the Capitals for INF Antonio Gonzalez, a young .247 hitter, and two minor league outfielder in Randy Powers and Rex Sherman.

On October 25, the Capitals approached us with a trade proposal for Billy Mitchell, offering INF Antonio Gonzalez, a 26-yr old Puerto Rican, slick fielder, but only a .250 bat, and while he had hit 20+ dingers every year in the minors, he had shown little power in the majors so far. (Maybe a home run park could help?) But he had options and would earn the minimum next year.

Between Osanai and Mitchell, one had to go. Mitchell was killing AAA pitching, but I was not going to carry two first basemen on the roster. Since Mitchell had no potential to hit .330 at the big league level, I would rather trade him, despite all our rebuilding crap that was going one. Since Osanai will be only 30 next year, he has many more years ahead of him (which is not the case for a certain third baseman we have). Also, fans love him and shower him with pink underwear after every game, how can you trade him. Mitchell is inferior in every aspect to Osanai (as are maybe all first basemen), and was expendable.

The Gold Sox have already approached us with a trade for Kelly Weber, which would give us an experienced left-handed reliever at the top of his game in Nate Goodman, 30. The offer is pending!

Next: evaluation of players by roster category.

[Questdog]

Okay, that was me that tossed the pair of boxers, but I swear they were not pink.......

[Westheim]

Addendum to the October post above:
Antonio Gonzalez is not THE ANSWER. But he’s young, he plays all infield positions well (which we will need upon shedding Walker and Thompson) and we won’t compete anyway for anything next season (at the current pace, 81-81 would be a great result). The winter 1989-90, that one will be the important one. Plus we grabbed two prospects, one of which (Randy Powers) could emerge to become a valuable big league hitter. With Sherman I grabbed everything I could get.



PORTLAND RACCOONS Roster Evaluation Report – by Richard Steward, Head Scout, October 31, 1988
Note: scrawls are by me, the GM

The following report has been compiled over the last week. Some players may have to be further analyzed, with support from the medical department of the organization. Players are ranked with up to five stars in parenthesis. If two numbers are given, the first defines the current level of the player, the latter the potential of the player. If one number is given, the player has reached his potential.

Rotation

Good 1-2-3 lineup with Logan Evans (3.0; currently on DL), Kisho Saito (3.5), and Scott Wade (*). A number of candidates are available for the remaining spots, including once 16-game winner Carlos Gonzalez, who had mechanical issues and has a history of injuries. Alejandro Venegas (1.5) and Jerry Ackerman (.5/1.5) do not match up to big league requirements. Top prospect Jason Turner (AAA, 2.5/4.5) should become a star, but may need another half or full season at the AAA level. Other potential future big league starters are Miguel Lopez (AA, 1/4), Gary Montgomery (A, 1/2.5), both at least two years away. Short-term depth is provided by Kiyomitsu Sano (1/2) and Jose Fernandez (1/1.5) at AAA.

No real surprises with the re-evaluation here, except for Evans, who lost a star compared to our former scouts. He’s 33 in January. I see him our #3 starter once he returns. Below that we are in trouble. Looks like Venegas will stay around for another year. Ackerman may or may not clear waivers. The AAA guys don’t help us. Turner needs a wee bit more time and the other guys will be blown up just as well.

Bullpen

There are a few bright spots here, but not too many. Grant West (4.5) is an elite closer and highly reliable. Juan Martinez (4/5) and Ken Burnett (3.5/4) should form a strong R/L setup pair once fully matured. Especially the 24.00 ERA to Burnett last season does not mean anything, he just needs to get into a groove and will succeed. Dirk Campbell (3) is a good veteran able to hold the fort. Pedro Vazquez (2/2.5) may be best suited to a long relief role, as is Emerson MacDonald (2.5). I am not very high on the other pitchers left at the big league level: Jason Bentley (1.5), Travis Brown (1), Yasushi Suto (1), and Jake Pitts (0.5/1). There is NO depth at AAA apart from CL Albert Matthews (3/5), who should be left to develop for another year. Beyond that, there is little potential in the lower ranks apart from AA CL Tony Vela (1/2).

Ouch, that’s a hit here. Steward has trashed not only our bullpen in Portland (for the most part), but also has thrown out *every* *single* reliever in the minor leagues! The exception is Matthews, who struggles with control. We have no depth at all here and need to try and improve through trades or FA signings. If we can’t get the relievers out of our system… a bad bullpen hurts the starters, too. Absolutely needing to improve here.

Catcher

The pair of catchers at the big league level is so strong, it is almost overstuffed with Sam Dadswell (4.5) and David Vinson (4/5). I see more offensive potential in Vinson, but Dadswell can call a better game. Rolled into one they would be perfect. Beyond the major league level, I see no promising talent at all, just a bunch of washed up veterans and kids with questionable talent.

Surprising to see Vinson with a higher potential than Dadswell, but either way it is not a question of one player or the other, but more of philosophy. Do we want a great hitter and good fielder or a good hitter and great fielder? It will depend on the rest of the team, but what team will we field in three years from now? I think we could get a good return in a trade for either, but whom to trade!? Maybe sit it out another year? What use could that have? Argh.

Infield

1B Tetsu Osanai (4.5) may be the best offensive player in the Continental League, with high average and power, but his defense is highly questionable. The other veteran corner infielder, Mark Dawson (3.5) led the majors in home runs last year, but I see him past his peak. Steve Walker (2) and Winston Thompson (1.5) are veteran players that should be replaced by the young players Ben O’Morrissey (4/5) and Matt Higgins (3.5) sooner rather than later. Joe Jackson (2/3) has been rated exceptional offensively before, but can not live up to that. I don’t see him amount to an All Star. With corner infield crowded, he may be left over. Antonio Gonzalez (2.5) is worth more for his defense than his offense, but should hold his own. Juan Ramirez (1) and Carlos Miranda (1/1.5) don’t provide much depth. AA 1B Vincente Rodriguez (1.5) is the only minor league player that stands out the least little bit.

Another roster area trashed, at least as far as the minor leagues are concerned. Plus, Mark Dawson is closing in on the big 35, and is declining? Walker and Thompson will go away anyway. O’Morrissey and Higgins should start as much as possible. We may look for another young middle infielder. Or should we keep Thompson, who bats left-handed? No, we take the draft pick. I guess.

Outfield

Daniel Hall (4), Yoshinobu Ishizaki (4), and Daniel Dumont (3.5/5) would make for a top notch outfield, if either could play center reliably. Glenn Johnston (2/2.5) is a good fit for center. Armando Sanchez (2) is declining in his ability and prone to long slumps. Gustavo Quintanilla (1.5/2) and Kelly Weber (1) may do for backup players, but one should consider an upgrade. Options at AAA include Randy Powers (1.5/2.5), Marcos Costello (2), Neil Reece (1/4), who may take over centerfield eventually, and Bill Stevens (1/1.5). Another top talent is at AA, Vern Kinnear (1/4). There are a few more players, and overall, the outfield causes the least concerns along with catching.

The issue with the Top 3 that can’t play together will be resolved by trading Ishizaki. He would have made a perfect fit last year, had he stayed healthy. In fact, had he stayed healthy, maybe the Raccoons would have fared better and we never would have chopped our team apart in July. Don’t wanna blame him, but on this team, there is only room for one outfielder in his 30s. Hall-Johnston-Dumont or Hall-Johnston-Quintanilla depending on the opposing starter sounds not too shabby, but Quintanilla has to pick up his hitting. Powers, Reece, and Stevens are right-handers at AAA, but Reece will be held back, he needs more time to develop. Reece batted .270 with 21 HR between AA and AAA last year and is our future centerfielder.

*Note that Scott Wade only has two pitches and the game rates him as 1-star player regardless of what he actually does as a starter. He’s rated 1/5.

And guys, I need an honest opinion! Am I over-valueing Daniel Hall because I am emotionally attached to our first ever draft pick? Note that sharp drop of production from '84 to '85. Since then he basically two hot streaks and two cold streaks every season, and can't hit the .270s for a full year anymore. Am I cutting him too much slack?[/B]

Next interesting question: how do we squeeze all the young talent through the rule 5 draft? Once Walker, Thompson, and Sanchez will clear in two weeks, we will have 36 men on there (and Evans on the 60-day DL). Sano, Reece and Powers need to be added definitely, that makes 39. And then there are still prospects left over that may be taken. We may want to hold off on trades for prospects that are rule 5 draft-eligible until December.

There’s still the trade proposal by the Gold Sox on the table. It would shore up our bullpen big time, at the cost of Kelly Weber. Let’s look at this. The Raccoons were awful with southpaw relievers after David Jones was traded in July. The assortment of misery sent out there can not be improved in-house, we need outside help. Their offer, Nate Goodman, has a devastating knuckle curve – if it hits the strike zone, but he always exceeds 2/1 K/BB. He was even the Gold Sox closer in 1987, and has a sub-3 ERA for his career. Weber (our 1981 round 3 pick) is more or less a .260 singles hitter with a bad eye living off his exceptional defense, but apart from Dumont the outfielders we currently have (and are going to retain) are all very good defensively as well. We lose a backup for a setup? Sounds great!

The Gold Sox even offer a prospect (not a good one) on top of that. We will negotiate a bit here, but it seems like Kelly is on the way out.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Am I over-valueing Daniel Hall because I am emotionally attached to our first ever draft pick?

I think there is a lot to like there, even though the batting average is so-so. The leadership is a plus, good eye, decent glove and speed, and some gap power. He is still above average OPS.

I don't see or remember the contract. How much, and for how long? If he makes "star" salary, I would say keep him for a couple more seasons. At "superstar" salary, your money might be better spent elsewhere, although that probably also makes him hard to trade.