Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Can Moore field? 'Cause if so, he seems to be asking for more playing time.....

P.S. I know you said he wasn't good in center......

He is more or less useable and nothing more in the corner outfield spots, and an upgrade over 36-year old Neil Reece's legs for sure. He's ill-suited for center.

Career fielding numbers (did some addition work here, the Buffaloes sprinkled him all over the place for four years, and I have no idea how to calculate aggregate RF and EFF numbers, so I didn't even try):

3B: 40 G, 156 Inn, 45 TC, 11 PO, 28 A, 6 E, .867 PCT, ZR -4.7
LF: 25 G, 161 Inn, 44 TC, 42 PO, 2 A, 0 E, 1.000 PCT, ZR -0.9
CF: 25 G, 161.2 Inn, 35 TC, 33 PO, 1 A, 1 E, .971 PCT, ZR -2.6
RF: 95 G, 768 Inn, 167 TC, 160 PO, 3 A, 4 E, .976 PCT, ZR -1.0

But I know what you're getting at, and Neil Reece has run up a -12.3 ZR in leftfield already this year.

[Questdog]

I love Reece as much as anyone. And benching him is unlikely to produce a run at the division title anyways......but it is sad to see those numbers next to his name.....

[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-29) vs. Bayhawks (19-32) – June 3-5, 2003

There was still ONE team with a worse record in the Continental League, and they’d come in for three, presumably to get their record straight. How would the Raccoons’ offense, with tiny teeth aplenty, fare against the league’s by far worst rotation (5.79 ERA)? Meanwhile the Bayhawks also scored the least runs in the CL, 196 in 51 games.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (2-6, 4.31 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (3-4, 4.62 ERA)
Randy Farley (3-1, 3.21 ERA) vs. Miguel Diaz (1-7, 6.44 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-1, 4.97 ERA) vs. Min-tae Kim (0-1, 32.41 ERA)

Game 1
SFB: 2B L. Berrios – SS J. Perez – C G. Ortíz – LF Brulhart – 3B Foster – CF Bulco – RF Arroyo – 1B I. Navarro – P R. Sanchez
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Brown

Setting a new record of futility – which was a great accomplishment on this team, which had a fantastic collection of fails in its history – Nick Brown did not throw a strike to any of the first three Bayhawks, awarding three 4-pitch walks. Somehow, the Bayhawks managed to run themselves out of the inning and didn’t score. He then struck out the side in the second. Nobody quite knew what to make of any sequence of at-bats with Brown on the mound, as he fell behind on Jesse Foster’s RBI triple in the third inning, but the score was flipped by Clyde Brady’s 2-run homer in the bottom of the same frame before Ledesma scored Martin with a double in the fourth to make it 3-1. Brown, after almost getting shot in the first inning, wound up not surrendering any more runs and just two more walks against six strikeouts through the seventh inning, which he left after Jose Perez singled with two outs. Huerta and Moreno almost blew the lead before Moreno finally struck out Foster to keep the 3-1 score in place. No offense was coming forth from the Raccoons, while Bruno pitched a scoreless eighth, and that left it to Nordahl in the ninth. The Bayhawks eagerly cooperated to get to Burger King across the street, with Arturo Aguilar and Leon Berrios hacking out wildly, before Perez grounded out to Concie. 3-1 Coons. Brady 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Ledesma 2-3, 2B, RBI; Brown 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 9 K, W (3-6);

Eddie Torrez may come off the DL after this series. While Cal Lyon is not doing anything to justify his oxygen consumption, Beairsto hit a double and STILL bats less than .100 on the year. Choices, choices.

Game 2
SFB: 3B Foster – LF R. Murphy – CF Arroyo – RF Javier – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Perez – 1B Aguilar – 2B Bulco – P M. Diaz
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Farley

Mr. Singles took to the mound, having allowed 66 hits in 53 innings, and immediately gave up 3 one-basers for a run in the first inning, before taking a page from Brownie’s playbook by the fifth, in which he issued two walks to get going and the Bayhawks would score their second in the inning. In the meantime, the Coons had plated three, including a solo jack for Chris Beairsto in the second that gave Farley the lead for the first time. That lead was blown in the sixth on a pair of singles, Foster driving in Aguilar from second base, knotting the score at three. Aguilar would hit into an effort-killing double play in the top 7th after Benton Wilson had given out a pair of no-outs walks to the Bayhawks, as the Raccoons staff continued to miss, and on occasion miss wildly. The Bayhawks would starve pairs of runners in the eighth (against Vega) and in the ninth (vs. Huerta), with the key at-bat taking place with one out in the ninth, and nobody on, when Jim Brulhart popped out on the 3-0 pitch before Ortíz and Perez both reached. The game was still tied, presenting a walkoff chance to Palacios and those following him in the ninth vs. closer Johnny Smith whose numbers I liked a lot: 18 innings, 16 hits, two walks, 26 K’s. He would walk Ledesma, but by that time there were two outs, and Beairsto was not even remotely a fair matchup for him and went down in flames to send the game to extras. The attendance was treated to a spectacular bullpen implosion, with Huerta continuing a great franchise tradition in walking the leadoff man. Two on, one out, Moreno came in, issued two walks, and left, Bruno came in, walked - … Four walks, two hits, four runs for the Bayhawks in the tenth did more than enough to send the fans in an angry mode on the way to their communities. 7-3 Bayhawks. Sharp 2-4; Brady 2-4, 2B; Martin 2-5;

Raccoons pitching issued 11 walks, which is one short of lighting my fuse. An all around **** performance, in short. And only now comes Clueless Bob.

Game 3
SFB: LF R. Gonzalez – 1B I. Navarro – CF Arroyo – RF Javier – SS J. Perez – 3B Foster – C Aguilar – 2B J. Diaz – P Kim
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Joly

Min-tae Kim, 34, who had not survived the second inning in his first start of the season, conceding seven runs in 1.2 innings, only gave up a soft single to Brady in the first two frames this time. But this was him facing the Raccoons, which was every pitcher’s chance to play hero. Like in the fourth. In a scoreless game, Joly was ineffective as all hell. After hitting a batter in addition to Javier’s leadoff double, Diaz was walked intentionally to load them up with two out and face Kim. Joly was one strike away from escaping the jam when Kim floated a single uncatchable into shallow center and two runs scored. Four runs would ultimately fall out of Joly once he was properly shaken over 5.1 innings. Kim was still going strong, pitching a 2-hitter. The Bayhawks added two runs in the seventh, casually drawing three walks from Sergio Vega. Martinez struck out three, but also walked two in the eighth, leaving the bases loaded eventually. In a most despicable team effort, the Raccoons allowed Kim to go the distance on six hits, while being handily defeated every which way by that oh-so-dangerous offense San Fran offered. 7-2 Bayhawks. Brady 2-4; Reece (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

15 hits, eight walks allowed. Six hits, no walks drawn. No wonder they’re losing to the worst team in the league. Well, they won’t be the worst team in the league for long.

Torrez came back from the DL and replaced the hopeless Beairsto, whose major league career, 122 at-bats old, sees him hitting the ball at a .123/.213/.287 pace. **** the five home runs. He has 45 K.

45 strikeouts in 122 at-bats!!

Raccoons (23-31) vs. Canadiens (24-28) – June 6-8, 2003

Could be a nasty weekend. The Elks have the fifth-best offense in the CL, while sporting shoddy pitching. Their rotation was ninth with a 4.09 ERA, their bullpen even 11th with a 5.02 mark. That was significantly worse than even the Coons’ considerable pitching blight, although their hurlers didn’t give out walks like free candy.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-8, 5.40 ERA) vs. Joe Hollow (1-5, 4.30 ERA)
Carl Bean (5-4, 2.59 ERA) vs. Juan Bello (3-5, 4.26 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (1-1, 8.76 ERA)

The only southpaw this week will be Hollow, in a game 1 sporting plenty of misery.

Game 1
VAN: SS A. Simon – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – CF R. Green – RF Velasquez – C Rosa – 3B Phillips – 1B J. Zamora – P Hollow
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Moore – C Fifield – CF Lyon – P Ford

The lefty Ford walked the lefty Simon on four pitches to start the game, and misery was strong right out of the gate, and grew to intense proportions once Royce Green took Ford well yard for three runs. The immediate reaction to that bomb was the home team applauding the visiting slugger (although there was history here…), and then in the bottom 1st Marv went yard on a Hollow meatball that refused to break, nor would it ever re-enter orbit. The bottom 3rd actually saw a major offensive uprising. Hollow committed the cardinal sin of pitching, allowing a leadoff walk to the opposing starting pitcher. Sharp legged out a grounder against Jim Phillips to put two on, and then Guerin went into the gap for an RBI double. Ingall's grounder up the middle eluded Jim Dobson for a score-flipping 2-run INGALL SINGLE. The air then went out of the inning which ended when Jesus Zamora shagged Reece’s liner that seemed ticketed for the right corner at first and tagged out the runner from first. Ford couldn’t hold onto the 4-3 lead though, which evaporated when Dobson and Green started the sixth with two singles. Dobson was scored on a Velasquez sacrifice to tie the game, before the Raccoons showed a sign of life in the sixth. Reece walked, Moore singled, and Fifield grounded to short, but Dobson dropped Simon’s throw and instead of the inning-ending double play we had three on with one out, but Cal Lyon due to bat. Miguel Ramirez was the only right-handed bat on the bench and hit for him, coming through with an RBI single to right! Brady hit for Ford but whiffed, but then Sharp came up and tossed Hollow from the game with a bases-clearing double past the reach of Royce Green. While we were now up 8-4, we had to cover three innings with a severely depleted bullpen. Right off the bat, only Nordahl, Huerta, Martinez, and Wilson were available, with everybody else having themselves exhausted in the Bayhawks series. Nordahl was set for the ninth, and the other three would have to cobble six outs together, which wound up being a serious squeeze once Huerta walked a pair in the seventh and allowed a run when Dobson singled with two out. The crumbling continued, with Nordahl coming into the game in the eighth and promptly surrendering another run, but the Elks would not come any closer in the game. Much the contrary, Gary Fifield hit a homer in the bottom 8th to keep them at distance. 9-6 Raccoons. Sharp 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Ingall 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Moore 2-4; M. Ramirez (PH) 1-2, RBI;

Just starting a 13-game stretch, the bullpen is already in shambles. There are no rested relievers in there right now. We need a strong outing from the Bean.

Game 2
VAN: SS A. Simon – LF J. Durán – 2B Dobson – 1B I. Gutierrez – RF Velasquez – CF E. Garcia – 3B Rodgers – C Hurtado – P Bello
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Bean

Bean expended 20 pitches in each of the first three innings, a) putting an early and definite dent into the hopes he might go eight again, and b) surrendering two runs in the second inning. The early deficit was erased on Pablo Ledesma’s third homer of the year in the bottom 2nd, and the Coons got the go-ahead run in by Martin’s RBI groundout in the next inning, but with the bags full we would have hoped for more. Hoping for more was always futile, as was running out Bean over 100 pitches in the seventh. He didn’t retire anybody and instead the Elks tied the score at three while even wasting a chance once Moreno struck out Green and then got a double play grounder to escape a serious jam. Top 8th, Manuel Martinez appeared to dish out a leadoff walk, which made me choke Honeypaws in the office atop the stands. The Elks didn’t score, and when Palacios reached on a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, we played for one run, using Brady to bunt. Neither Martin nor Reece managed to get anything productive done, foiling the plan. Nordahl pitched the ninth, whiffing two, then came up to bat with two out and Ledesma on second base in the bottom 9th. He was our best bet for another clean inning in the tenth, but we could walk off right now against Pedro Alvarado. Looking at the bench, however… Nordahl popped out, pitched a scoreless tenth, and then Sharp started the bottom 10th with a walk. Palacios grounded out, moving Sharp up to second. Brady singled up the middle, but Sharp had to hold, but now any deep fly by Martin would do. Alvarado fell behind, 2-1, on him, having the fourth pitch taken to right. It was certainly deep, and it was also high, and *plenty* deep: WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!! 6-3 Raccoons! Sharp 2-4, BB; Brady 2-4; Martin 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Ledesma 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

Yaay, virtual tie for fifth place! Yaay! Euphoria!

Bean walked five and struck out two in six innings, not quite falling into the “shutdown guy” category, and more falling in line with his delapitated rotation mates.

But a win is a win is a win. Nordahl’s two scoreless allowed us to rest a few other bullpen pieces, primarily Marcos Bruno and Domingo Moreno, so we might be a bit better off in the third game, with Brownie on the mound, which could mean you need either seven or zero innings from your pen.

Game 3
VAN: 3B Phillips – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – CF R. Green – RF Velasquez – C Rosa – SS Rodgers – 1B J. Zamora – P Fujita
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – SS M. Ramirez – CF Torrez – P Brown

The Coons didn’t reach base the first time through the order after Brown had been tagged for four hits and two runs in the first inning. While the Coons would get on in the bottom 4th they only scored on a Martin sac fly and eventually Ramirez left the bases loaded. Brown was dull, neither walking nor striking out a meaningful number in this game, instead offering fat pitches, one of which was taken out of the park by Royce Green to make it 3-1 in the sixth. Bottom of the inning, Martin hit a 1-out single and Reece added one of his own. Ledesma grounded to third, where Phillips didn’t get the ball out of his glove on the first try, then overthrew first base and Zamora couldn’t get it. Martin scored, and the Coons put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position for Ramirez, who outright failed with a grounder to third. Torrez was not pitched to, and Brown had to remain in the game with the bullpen still depleted. The strategy backfired twofold, with Brown striking out, then choking in the top 7th and leaving with two out and the bags full. Martinez appeared to face Green, issued four freebies, and then a bases-clearing double to Velasquez, and that was all there was to the game. Except the pen cocking up a few more runs, with Jim Phillips hitting a 2-piece off Benton Wilson. 10-4 Canadiens. Martin 2-3, RBI; Moore (PH) 1-1;



In other news

June 2 – The Canadiens are held to three hits and no runs by ATL SP Tynan Howard (3-6, 3.94 ERA), who takes the 8-0 victory for the Knights.
June 2 – Bad news for the Indians, who lose 1B/3B/LF David Lopez (.280, 9 HR, 26 RBI) for the year due to a torn ACL.
June 4 – WAS SP Mario Pagán (7-3, 2.49 ERA) shuts out the Pacifics on three hits in a 7-0 Capitals win.
June 7 – Tijuana’s Ramón Ortíz (4-4, 3.46 ERA) claims a win with eight shutout innings in a 5-0 win over the Bayhawks. It is the 200th career win for the 35-year old left-hander, who has 142 losses and a 3.45 career ERA, with 2,088 strikeouts. Signed all the way back in 1984 by the Capitals out of Santo Domingo, he appeared for Washington from 1989 through 1999, winning three rings and the 1993 FL POTY award along with eight All Star nominations. He has spent two years in Denver and is in his second year in Tijuana now.
June 8 – C Gabriel Ortíz (.310, 4 HR, 23 RBI) is flipped from the Bayhawks to the Stars along with pitching prospect Tommy Briggs for SP Russell Benson (3-5, 5.02 ERA). Everybody wonders what that trade is supposed to achieve.
June 8 – While the Loggers drop a 3-2 game to the Titans, missing a series sweep by one run, MIL 2B/SS Bartolo Hernandez (.323, 2 HR, 28 RBI) connects twice for a 20-game hitting streak.

Complaints and stuff

The Miners’ Miguel Cortez was the FL Player of the Week, batting .500 with three homers and nine driven in. He also broke his kneecap this week and is out for the season. Rough luck.

The following five batters are currently labeled as cold: Guerin, Ramirez, Palacios, Reece, and Lyon. I’d throw in Torrez and Ingall as well.

Time to decide whether we want to trade Bean and Palacios for prospects now or take the draft pick compensation (Moreno, Wilson, and Ingall will also be free agents, but may not be compensation eligible). Ingall and Ramirez can well play out the season at second base, but the rotation will present even more gaping holes when Bean is traded.

However, there is one guy I have my eye on, who’s a starting pitcher and might be available in a trade: 21-year old righty Edgar Amador, who already made his first four starts in the Bigs this year, faring so-so, and is right now back at AAA, which he owns. He is built like a truck, 6’3” and 285 pounds. Four pitches, all good, with a 98mph heater that has natural sink and generates tons of groundballs. He might be a tremendous option to move forward. Only problem? We’d have to trade Bean to the Loggers. I hate dealing quality players to division opponents.

The Loggers are also our next opponents. Four games of incredible pain due next in Milwaukee.

Still looking for a picture that portrays Nick Brown with the right brushstrokes. Something along the lines of a brilliantly lunatic scientist perhaps? In a way, he’s a Doctor K, and in a way, he’s a circus clown, too. Which is most unfortunate.

Brown 2003: 12 G, 3-7, 4.26 ERA, 45 BB, 69 K - in 69.2 IP
Brown career: 54 G, 14-21, 3.25 ERA, 163 BB, 331 K - in 321.2 IP

His BABIP is 23 points higher than in 2002, but mostly it's the horrendous BB/9 that's doing him in. He hasn't been ON in six weeks.

[Questdog]

I like the sound of the Amador kid. You'd be giving them good pitcher in the division, sure, but they'd be given you maybe a better one......

They'd take Bean straight up for him or would they need much more?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I like the sound of the Amador kid. You'd be giving them good pitcher in the division, sure, but they'd be given you maybe a better one......

They'd take Bean straight up for him or would they need much more?

Their GM Leland French says he'd have to think about it, so most likely they'd want more. A possible not-hurting throw-in to get the deal done right away would be AAA 1B Mun-wah Tsung, who has no place to contribute anyway with Al Martin occupying first base. Tsung is still a year away from being able to cut it in the Bigs, and even then Martin would out-slug him.

Problem is, the Loggers only have $1M of budget space and the draft is next Sunday. So we'd have to get this done right now because next Monday will most likely be too late.

Aaah, gotta sleep over that one. Bean never delivered like he did for the Gold Sox, but he's a top 3 WAR pitcher in the CL right now. Isn't a 21-year old not-quite-but-almost-ready pitcher a bit on the short side for him? I'd think WE should be able to demand a second player. Maybe an outfielder able to out-hit his weight? Would give us three of the kind. Hiwalani-Fletcher-C.Ramirez is an elite trio, and they have Avery Johnson rotting on the bench, but we can't get the deal done for Amador AND Johnson anyway, since the trade would right now cost us an additional $2,600 and we are already overbudget, and the Loggers have not a dime of cash.

[Questdog]

I was under the impression that Bean was in the final year of a contract....is that not so?.....If he is locked up for longer, then, yes, we should get more than a prospect (or not trade him at all). But if he is in a walk year, I'd be happy with just the 21-year old (because he sounds awesome from your description), if I knew I had no chance of re-signing him.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-32) vs. Loggers (35-21) – June 9-12, 2003

I considered calling in “sick” for this series, since nothing good can possibly happen to the Raccoons. The Loggers are tops in runs scored and in bullpen ERA, and don’t you think the rotation is shabby. Much the opposite. This is a team that might dump the Titans this year. Before that, however, the baseball gods have put the menial task of dumping the Coons.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (3-1, 3.34 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (6-2, 2.88 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-2, 5.17 ERA) vs. Marc Padgett (2-1, 2.70 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-8, 5.45 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (3-5, 3.65 ERA)
Carl Bean (5-4, 2.72 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (7-3, 3.36 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C C. Ramos – 1B Costello – P M. Garcia
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – CF Torrez – P Farley

When you can easily calculate that your lame-ass offense might well be held to two runs or less (most likely less) runs by the opposing starter, you hate to see your starter getting deconstructed so thoroughly as Farley did in the first inning. Allowing three hits and three walks, the Loggers put four on him, and the game was essentially over. Frustratingly, Farley would go on to pitch seven more innings of 3-hit ball, shutting out the Loggers after that horrid first. It didn’t help a lick. Garcia was on, and with Garcia that didn’t mean he was merely on, but ON. Through six that meant three hits and 11 K for the Raccoons, and although they chained up three singles in the eighth, Garcia’s last inning, they only amounted to one run. And that was wildly insufficient this Monday. 4-1 Loggers. Sharp 2-4; Guerin 2-4, 2B;

The plus side of losing the game in the first inning is that the bullpen doesn’t get a chance to fudge up a flimsy 2-1 lead.

In passing, this was also Martin García’s 200th career win. For him, 200 wins stand against 105 losses, with a sparkling 2.80 ERA. He is only 31 years old. Right here is the prime candidate to reach 300 career wins as the first ABL pitcher to get there. He’s t-19th on the all-time win list, and has 79 to go before he can catch all-time leader Woody Roberts. One might say that the Loggers picked well when they had the first pick in the 1990 draft. Garcia is merely a 5-time Pitcher of the Year (1996, 1998-2001) …

Game 2
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C C. Ramos – 1B J. Nava – P Padgett
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Moore – C Ledesma – SS M. Ramirez – CF Torrez – P Joly

Padgett never faced anybody other than Sharp, leaving with an injury after three pitches. The Raccoons scored a run in the first on Jesus Longoria, but were then silenced again. A 1-0 lead given to Joly equaled no lead at all, and Joly didn’t make it through the fifth inning, socked for five runs, three of which were unearned after a Sharp error, but who are we kidding? It’s Joly. Meanwhile the Loggers had a middle reliever, Gabriel Garcia, pressed into long relief duty, in which he fared overwhelmingly well, fanning five Raccoons in three shutout innings. It fit the picture the fundamentally overwhelmed Raccoons had painted for the last six weeks very well. They weren’t doing anything – at all. After that single run in the first inning, the Loggers pen was never in trouble and pitched eight shutout innings. 7-1 Loggers.

Game 3
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C Benitez – 1B Costello – P R. Gonzalez
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Ford

A bloop (Reece) and a blast (Martin’s 10th) gave Ralph Ford two runs to work with in the first inning. Err, well. One run. He had already been whacked every which way in the top 1st for the Loggers to strike first, but now it was a 2-1 game. It wasn’t long before a Jorge Cruz line drive home run made it 2-2, but Martin, who came in as dead as disco after an especially disheartening 0-5 day on Tuesday, came back in his next at-bat and hit another one out himself to restore a 1-run advantage for Coon City. But … but Ford sucked balls. He went five innings, allowed 11 hits, and was penciled into the loser’s column when Tom Johnson hit a towering 3-run homer in the fifth. The Loggers had already tied the score in the inning, and were now up 6-3. They didn’t stop there, because why would they? Huerta was torn to shreds in a seventh inning from hell on four singles, two wild pitches, and Martinez couldn’t dig him out either, resulting in three runs. Gonzalez fell one out short of a complete game, leaving when Torrez drove in Guerin in the bottom 9th for a meaningless run. 9-4 Loggers. Martin 3-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Ingall 2-4; Torrez 2-4, RBI;

Thank goodness we will hit the road next week. That means our pitching staff, entirely consisting of clowns and freaks and no-lifers, will only ruin the mood for eight innings a day.

The Coons made a roster move on Thursday, designating the perpetually successless Cal Lyon for assignment. Ramón Meza was called up to make a spot start as Carl Bean was scratched for unknown reasons. The southpaw Meza was 2-8 with a 7.35 ERA in AAA, so the Loggers had that 4-game sweep in the bag. It had not been close even once.

Game 4
MIL: C Benitez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – 2B M. Valdes – 1B J. Nava – P Morrow
POR: RF Brady – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Moore – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Meza

Meza was taken deep by Hiwalani for a pair of runs in the first, and in the bottom of the inning, Doug Morrow was most wonky. The bases were loaded with two out for Ramirez. Morrow had already walked a pair and was 3-0 on Ramirez. Ramirez swung (!!) and grounded out to short. Meza was not in sync with the universe and the strike zone and expended 60 pitches through three innings. Some time around the fourth, something switched in his brain, and he began to throw dead straight down broadway. In a way, that was better. The Loggers would make scores of first-pitch outs and Meza eventually went eight innings with only one additional run surrendered. The Loggers would get a fourth run off Benton Wilson after a Jose Nava leadoff double in the ninth. And the Raccoons’ offense? Unbelievably, that bases-loading walk that Dale Moore drew in the first inning was their last base runner. After Moore, Morrow sat down 22 straight. Carl McCoy pitched the ninth in 1-2-3 fashion. 4-0 Loggers. Meza 8.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, L (0-1);

For the record, Al Martin and a soft single off his assumed power bat was everything that kept us from getting no-hit for this gloomy mid-June series. We haven’t scheduled regular beltings for a while, but Ramirez will get the practice reinstituted. What a ****ing dumbtwat.

Interlude: Trade

The Raccoons had spent the last one and a half years in neutral mode, hoping to make a poke back at that elusive .500 mark. It hadn’t worked out. Now they were 11 below .500, had no hope of returning there, and so we started to sell everything that wasn’t nailed down.

Carl Bean had been scratched from the fourth game of the Loggers series, and there was a reason for that. The following night, the Raccoons flipped Bean, 75-75 with a 3.87 ERA for his career, to the same Loggers he didn’t pitch against.

In return, the Raccoons received three minor leaguers: AAA SP Edgar Amador, AA 1B/3B Jon Liles, and A MR Mike Carter. Amador is the main prize, a hulking 6’3’’, 280 lbs titan with a flaming heater in the upper 90s with natural sink, and three other decent or good pitches, including a nasty fork. He is 1-1 with a 4.13 ERA in four big league starts this season, victimized by a .402 BABIP. Amador is 21 years old and will at first be placed in AAA.

The second-biggest prize is Carter, a 23-year old lefty languishing in A ball for unknown reasons. He killed A ball hitters. Vince thinks he should be in AAA, but for now we will place him in AA. Liles is a pure filler since we have a lot of injured position players and in general woodland creatures with striped bushy tails like to shove their little mouths full with everything they can get.

Bean had been in a contract year, and the Raccoons could not expect to muster the funds to re-sign him after the year. The injury to Marc Padgett certainly accelerated the Loggers’ inclination to get the deal done.

Matt Love was added as roster filler to the Raccoons (after Cal Lyon had been DFA’ed), while fan interest crashed.

Raccoons (25-36) vs. Pacifics (28-33) – June 13-15, 2003

How the Pacifics managed to maintain a semi-decent record with the third-least runs scored and the most runs allowed in the Federal League was anybody’s guess. Their rotation had a 5.69 ERA and screamed for a pounding.

And here come the Uttercoons.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (3-7, 4.26 ERA) vs. Raúl Chavez (2-8, 6.02 ERA)
Randy Farley (3-2, 3.48 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (4-7, 6.53 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-3, 5.05 ERA) vs. Harry Wentz (4-7, 5.84 ERA)

Game 1
LAP: CF Gentil – 1B S. Mendez – RF Bonneau – LF K. Potter – 3B Moon – SS J. Vega – 2B Battle – C Cooks – P R. Chavez
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Fifield – CF Torrez – 1B Love – P Brown

Brown hit the first batter of the game, Bryan Gentil, then walked Salvador Mendez. Yohan Bonneau hit into a double play, before Ken Potter took Brown well deep. 2-0 Pacifics in no time. The next batter, Derek Moon, was called out on strikes and exploded right away, pointing the bat at Brown and told the umpire how the sucker on the mound hadn’t thrown a strike the whole game. Moon was then allowed to shower early. The Raccoons, two runs down, started a tedious slow-motion scramble to get back into the game. They got a run in the first, and in the fifth had Sharp on first with Brady batting and one out. Brady singled through Mendez and Sharp aggressively went to third, where he was safe, and Brady moved up to second, representing the go-ahead run. Ingall precisely grounded to the one spot he shouldn’t, new third baseman Eric Wallace. Reece grounded to the same spot, but slower and Wallace turned out to not have any play. An infield single tied the game, and then Guerin struck out. The tedious scramble continued. The go-ahead run was left on third base again in the bottom 6th, and Brown was able to squeeze out another inning. Could he leave in line for a win? Sharp led off the seventh with a single, then got erased on Brady’s double play. Ingall hurled a double over Gentil, bringing up Reece, who dumped a single to right and Ingall was running and scored, 3-2. Now get that over with, boys. Top 8th, Martinez retired Mendez, then yielded for Moreno, who plunked Bonneau and surrendered two singles to blow it. Bruno came in to the rescue and kept the Pacifics from taking a lead on the so far strong Moreno. Bruno also did the ninth to give the Critters a walkoff chance against righty Peter Sanders, who started his assignment by allowing Danny Sharp’s fourth hit on the day. Brady grounded into the teeth of the defense again, erasing Sharp. And the Coons didn’t score, sending the game to extras. Wilson appeared to face the part of the lineup with Moreno had flunked against, allowed a 2-out single to Wallace, but struck out Potter and Vega. Bottom 10th, Sanders to Guerin, resulting in a single, and Guerin stole second base right away. Martin hit for Fifield, but got only junk and walked. Torrez flew out to left, moving Concie to third. Palacios and Ledesma came out as pinch-hitters, and both ****ed up. The - … I … it’s … - … (chews on hat). Bottom 11th, Sharp walked, Brady – double play. Sergio Vega lost in the 12th. 4-3 Pacifics. Sharp 4-5, BB; Ingall 2-6, 2B; Reece 3-6, 2 RBI; Guerin 2-6, RBI; Torrez 3-6, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Brown probably hates his own team as much as opposing hitters, mostly those that get away from the game with welts and bruises and sometimes two strikeouts, hate him.

Since being 16-15 after a 5-1 win over the Wolves on May 10, the Raccoons have lost 22 of their last 31 games. They are on their second 6-game losing streak of the season. The first instance lasted seven losses, immediately following that 16-15 ray of light.

Game 2
LAP: CF C. Parker – 2B S. Mendez – RF Bonneau – 1B Battle – 3B E. Wallace – SS J. Vega – LF Gentil – C Cooks – P Bautista
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Farley

Everybody wondered what was wrong with Jesus Bautista and his 6+ ERA. We got a glimpse of potential issues in the first inning, where he drilled Sharp, walked Brady, allowed a single to Palacios, DRILLED Martin …! It was horrible! Reece singled, driving in two to make it 3-0, and then somewhere, some bonk hit into a double play. Ledesma was the culprit. Mr. Singles loaded the bases in return in the top 2nd and was lucky enough for Bautista to come up with two down and fly out softly to Clyde Brady. Additional offense was called for and delivered: Bautista did not survive the second inning, putting men on quickly, and back-to-back doubles by Martin and Reece ramped the score to 7-0. A few runs were unearned after a Bonneau error, but Bautista had not been on top of a single batter and he had faced 14. And 14 Coons usually got opposing pitchers through four at least. Farley was not particularly good, although nine runs of support carried him for a while. Yet, in the seventh he got irretrievably stuck. Bases loaded, Bonneau up in a 9-2 game, one out, Moreno came in, got a soft pop to Torrez from Bonneau and a higher fly out to medium-depth right from Battle. Huerta pitched six quick outs to get things over with. Against the bullpen, the Raccoons managed very little to nothing. 9-2 Coons. Martin 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Reece 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Ramirez (PH) 1-1; Huerta 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

With this game, Al Martin is top 3 in all triple crown categories again. He leads in RBI (51), trails Ron Alston by two home runs, and Oliver Torres of the Aces by a mere 50 points of batting average.

Game 3
LAP: CF C. Parker – 2B S. Mendez – RF Bonneau – LF K. Potter – 1B Battle – SS Moon – 3B J. Vega – C Cooks – P Wentz
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – CF Moore – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – 2B M. Ramirez – P Joly

Miguel Ramirez put the Coons ahead 1-0 in the second with a sac fly, but the team didn’t add immediately and expecting Joly to pitch shutout ball for any length of time was just asking for trouble. The Pacifics re-tied the score in the fourth, but the bottom of the same inning was painful: the Coons loaded them up with one out, including a HBP to Concie, for Ramirez to bat again. A hit would have been great, but we took the RBI groundout. Then Joly was plunked. Sharp sent a fly to deep left with three men on, but Ken Potter nabbed it to end the inning. So here’s that 1-run lead again. And Joly still in the game. Ya. The next fudge-up happened in the sixth. Bonneau hit a 1-out double, and when Ken Potter grounded to first, Martin made the play, tossed to Joly, and Joly - … nobody knows what’s going on in his head, but it looked like he wasn’t opening his glove in the first place. The error helped the Pacifics to re-tie the score and Joly left after seven with a no-decision. The eighth saw the Pacifics draw two walks off Martinez and one off Bruno, but they didn’t score. The Coons were struggling to solve Wentz, but got a chance in the bottom 8th. Martin walked with one out, and then Reece managed to get a double past Bonneau to get himself and Martin into scoring position. Concie sailed out to shallow right, and Ledesma flew to Potter for an easy – error. Two runs scored when the ball glanced off Potter’s glove. Nordahl saved this one without much fuss. 4-2 Coons. Moore 2-4, 2B; Reece 2-4, 2B; Ledesma 2-4, RBI; Joly 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K;

Deserved or not, the Coons have a 2-game winning streak – WE’RE ON A ROLL, BABY!!!

In other news

June 13 – Carl Bean’s Loggers debut could not have been any better: he fans nine and allows only four hits in a 7-0 shutout over the Wolves. He’s now 6-4 with a 2.46 ERA for the year. Bean replaces Marc Padgett (2-1, 2.67 ERA) in the Loggers rotation. Padgett is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
June 14 – OCT INF Bob Grant (.253, 4 HR, 26 RBI) celebrates his 2,000th career base hit in a 6-5 Thunder win over the Cyclones. The milestone hit is a game-tying RBI single off Paco Leoniedas in the seventh inning. Grant, 33, was the ninth overall pick in the 1987 draft, taken by the Loggers. He played with them from 1990 through 1996, and with the Thunder since then. He was an All Star three times and won the CL Gold Glove at second base in 1997.
June 14 – For MIL 2B/SS Bartolo Hernandez (.325, 2 HR, 29 RBI), his hitting streak reaches 25 games with one hit in a 7-3 loss to the Wolves.
June 15 – More Loggers in the news, as SP John Miller (6-2, 3.59 ERA) shuts out the Wolves on three hits in the last game of the series, whiffing eleven while the Wolves get clobbered 10-0.
June 15 – OF Christian Greenman (.225, 8 HR, 21 RBI), traded from the Titans to the Indians prior to the 2002 season, is traded back from the Indians to the Titans, along with a scrub, for 2B/3B David Mendez (.313, 2 HR, 19 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Only two active pitchers are ahead of Martin Garcia in career wins, and of those, Vernon Robertson is on his last legs, 12th with 223 wins. Oklahoma’s Aaron Anderson is t-16th with 209 wins and enjoys a good pace.

Edgar Amador made his Alley Cats debut in relief (!?) pitching 1.1 scoreless innings. Gotta check with the staff in St. Pete. They seem to be mildly idiotic down there.

With a fourth inning single off Harry Wentz on Sunday, Neil Reece has gotten within 80 hits of Daniel Hall’s franchise mark. He had a very good series with three multi-hit games and eight knocks total against L.A., and unfortunately, they won’t come back this year… and maybe not even next…

[Westheim]

2003 AMATEUR DRAFT

We had on clear cut #1 pick in our eye this time around. There were some things to like, some things to don’t like about most of the assumed top picks. The Raccoons have the seventh pick in every round, but no additional picks once again.

Our shorter shortlist:

SP Jose Flores (11/15/11)

RP Will Butler (20/16/20)
RP Angel Casas (20/16/17)
RP Matt Valentine (20/15/10)

C Mike Wilson (13/12/11)
C Errol Spears (12/12/13) – who can’t actually catch…

1B Steve Butler (15/20/17)
1B Joaquin Hernandez (14/10/12)

LF/RF Jose Morales (15/13/14)
RF Artie Hill (14/15/14)
OF/1B Tommy Ward (14/8/12)

Hard to pick among those. Luckily(?), six other teams would get a pick before the Raccoons, so the choice might be a little less hard by the team we came up to choose.

The Knights made Jose Morales the #1 pick in the 2003 draft. Jose Flores went fourth overall to the Stars, but these were the only two players that went off our top 11. Hill and Ward both had their upsides, but there was one pitcher in the group that had an advantage over everybody else. Most players on the list were high schoolers, but Angel Casas killed hitters at the collegiate level for Cal State. With killing we’re talking 138 K in 94.1 innings. By the time we picked again on the other side of a 42-pick supplemental round the only guy left from the top 11 was Matt Valentine, but after taking a reliever in the first round I was hesitant to take another one in the second.

2003 RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#7) – CL Angel Casas, 20, from Ecatepec, Mexico – right-hander with a sinker/slider repertoire; the sinker clocks in around 97mph, and he generates groundballs whenever he doesn’t strike out the batter in the first place. Might be major league ready within 12 months. Tremendous closer potential.
Round 2 (#73) – OF Santiago Trevino, 20, from Odgen, UT – not much in the way of power, but he is extremely quick with the feet, making for an excellent centerfielder, and there is enough contact and gap potential there for him to make a worthwhile batter as well
Round 3 (#97) – MR Matt Valentine, 17, from New York, NY – finesse southpaw, throwing 85mph, but owns a pretty malicious curve and works on the changeup; whether he will ever amount to anything will depend on his ability to spot the corners
Round 4 (#121) – 3B/1B Jerry Lawson, 22, from Lynbrook, NY – good contact bat with extra base power, but not a raw power slugger. Has *some* of many things, but excels in no category. Has to work on pitch recognition and his defense at third base is also not great.
Round 5 (#145) – SP Salvador Cardona, 22, from Plattsburgh, NY – left-hander that is struggling in college ball, pitching for obscure SUNY-Canton. Somebody told me SUNY means Sports Unicorns Negotiating Youngstown, OH, but that was a joke, right? Cardona’s control is a joke, too.
Round 6 (#169) – 3B Santiago Rodriguez, 18, from Caracas, Venezuela – bat potential is there but needs serious work, but he already fields very adeptly at third base
Round 7 (#193) – MR Steve Reese, 22, from Massillon, OH – throws dead straight, and doesn’t throw it by anybody, either
Round 8 (#217) – SS/2B Manny Mesa, 21, from Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. – very good middle infielder, with no power, little speed, and most likely not a lot of contact potential
Round 9 (#241) – C Juan Rios, 22, from El Vigia, Venezuela – drafted as a catcher, but sucks at catching; really doesn’t have any position, possessing no range, and not much at all besides a so-so arm; can hit some already, but were to play him?
Round 10 (#265) – 1B Mike Storey, 22, from Micco, FL – a poor version of a prototypical first baseman
Round 11 (#289) – SP Norm Bowman, 21, from Placerville, CA – left-hander, throws all kinds of junk and calls it pitches
Round 12 (#313) – SP Glen Barnes, 18, from Buffalo, NY – also owns an assortment of five pseudo-pitches, with a fastball topping out at 85mph, and coming in dead straight

Casas and Trevino were sent to AA, and the rest would debut at A ball.

[Questdog]

I dunno about passing Artie Hill for a reliever......especially with the state of our outfield......of course the state of the bullpen is not so solid either. But mostly, I just have to like a guy named Artie......though, maybe if our scout's assessment of Hill is spot on, then he might not be there at #7......but still a reliever over a maybe franchise outfielder?.......but like you say, maybe he is our Angel come to save us.....

[Westheim]

Angel Casas might be the next Grant West. That closer search has been going on for almost a decade now.

Artie Hill is a high school player, and we have a terrible history with high school outfielders. Or outfielders in general. Have we drafted a good one after Daniel Hall? I'd have to read up on that.

One problem might be not trusting your own scout completely. Vince has been around some. Our draft history with him looks good on pitchers, but horrible on hitters. It can't be all coincidence. He really has better success unearthing kids all over New Spain. So a few things came together here:

- horrible history with outfielders, including with Vince
- high school player
- OSA has him run of the mill

Too much doubt in the end. On the other hand: only one reliever we drafted in the proper first round has ever failed us (Juan Santos, 1984). And we drafted quite a few: Cunningham, West, Miller, Martinez, Nordahl, Bruno;

I may be reading too much into this. But I was not happy to pick Hill over Casas. If Casas had been gone at #7 it might well have been Hill, because the starting pitcher was gone, we have so many first basemen drafted and lingering, and the other relievers have their own issues.

---

Re, franchise outfielders: I still have my money on Beairsto-Torrez-Brady in the longer run, although Beairsto's K's are most unsettling. If Beairsto could cut down the K's he could platoon with Reece in left starting immediately, since it's obvious that Reece is over the mountain, but we gotta pay that contract anyway. He can't be traded and he won't ever go to AAA, so he's on the roster through 2004. Besides, he had eight hits against L.A., and that's enough for my faith to come back. Not defensively, he's old and wrecked, but offensively.

Also, where are we going? To hell, of course, but there is still a big free agent on board in Palacios. However, he is in a slump and has little trade value right now. We might want to wait for a few more weeks before evaluating our options further.

With Amador, I want to get him three to five starts in AAA. We should not have much trouble to find him a rotation spot in case of him succeeding for the Alley Cats.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-37) @ Miners (30-33) – June 17-19, 2003

299 runs ranked 6th for the Miners in the Federal League, but their pitching held them back, them having conceded 316 runs. Their bullpen had a higher ERA than the rotation. While both clocked in the high 4’s in ERA, the bullpen was the worst of the Federal League with a 4.97 mark.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (3-9, 5.83 ERA) vs. Henry Becker (5-6, 3.83 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-7, 4.11 ERA) vs. Roy Floyd (5-6, 3.89 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-2, 3.42 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (6-4, 5.49 ERA)

We utilized the off day on Monday to move Brown and Farley up one spot in the rotation. Meza has been penciled in for Friday. This splits the three left-handers by getting Farley in between Brown and Meza. It is temporary anyway. Felipe Garcia should be back in early July, and then there’s Amador.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Ford
PIT: RF Walls – 3B Quintero – LF Blanc – 1B R. Vargas – C J. Reyes – CF Rincón – SS Ryan – 2B M. Hall – P Becker

The Miners ravaged Ford as they pleased, landing six hits on him in just two innings, in addition to a walk and an error by Ford himself, which was easily enough for five runs. When Mark Hall homered to make it 6-2 in the bottom 3rd we had to wonder whether Ralph Ford wouldn’t be better suited to pitch in AAA. Ford put another two runners on base in the fourth, and Huerta replaced him, surrendering an additional run. At 7-2, it was over anyway, unless a fairly steady Becker would crumble. Well, there was a minor crumble. Becker struck out seven over 6.2 innings, but then allowed a Martin single and walked Reece. James Mills relieved him and served up a 2-run triple to Concie, who was left on third base when Torrez struck out. That still left the Coons three runs down, and the score remained 7-4 through eight. Then the Miners sent their closer Paco Barrera who was not without his own struggles, posting an ERA of almost four (Dan Nordahl is laughing, though). Brady walked, Ingall singled, and with no outs, Martin was the tying run at the plate. Yet, Martin flew out to center, and nobody was bothered to move runners further ahead as Reece lined out and Moore popped out to Tom Walls in right. 7-4 Miners. Ingall 2-4, BB; Martin 2-5; Guerin 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI;

After being a 10-game winner last June, Ralph Ford is now a 10-game loser.

And what, besides binge drinking, is supposed to make this team palatable?

Game 2
POR: RF Brady – CF Moore – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – P Brown
PIT: RF Walls – 3B Quintero – LF Blanc – 1B R. Vargas – C J. Reyes – CF Rincón – SS Ryan – 2B Sepúlveda – P Floyd

Another perfect first inning for Raccoons pitching: Brown struck out Walls, then walked Quintero in a full count. Quintero stole second, which was ultimately fruitless since Brown walked Mohammed Blanc anyway. Quintero was thrown out stealing third base one pitch before Roberto Vargas singled, and the bases would then be loaded on a Guerin error and a Rincón single. Pitch #33 of the inning was taken to deep center by softly hitting shortstop Haden Ryan and Moore was nowhere near it, with Ryan emptying the bases. For a pleasant change in this most unfortunate 4-0 opening, the Raccoons didn’t just roll up and die, but powered the score back tied with a 3-run homer by Ramirez in the second, and a solo jack by Martin (his 12th of the year) in the fourth. And just then, when the team had evened the score again, Brown nicked Sepúlveda with an 0-2 pitch and Sepúlveda would steal and be bunted and singled around to give the Miners a renewed 5-4 lead. Top 5th, Moore doubled, Palacios singled, and then Martin came up with nothing more than a pathetic roller that still went under Floyd who took a bit too long with recovering it, denying the Miners a double play, and instead Moore scored on the groundout. There was still a chance with two out, Palacios on second, and Reece – oh no, it’s 2003. My bad. Blanc drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, and when Vargas singled, Blanc went to third, but found the ball to have arrived him well before him – Brady’s arm nailed out the lead runner, and Jesus Reyes grounded into a double play. Brown managed another scoreless sixth, striking out eight eventually with five runs allowed, but three of those were unearned. Top 7th, Brady led off with a double and moved up on Moore’s groundout. Palacios and Martin left him on third, and there was no W forthcoming for Brown again. We called on Marcos Bruno to show off his 1.05 ERA, which didn’t work after a leadoff walk to Josh Thomas, who was brought in to score. Miners up again, 6-5, before Reece hit a leadoff double in the eighth. Guerin walked, both reaching against reliever Anastasio Munoz, bringing in the next reliever in Jose Hernandez, who issued a 4-pitch walk to Ledesma. Bases loaded, no outs, goddamn it, SCORE!! Miguel Ramirez was unretired on the day, was ahead 3-1, poked, and fouled out. Sharp struck out in Bruno’s place, enabling the Miners to go to the left-hander Manuel Chavez against Brady – and there was another 4-pitch walk. Pleasant to see that other teams had sucking pitching as well, the game was tied, and the bases were loaded for Moore, and Chavez threw a ball, and another one, and then one that Reyes couldn’t come up with that plated Guerin. Moore managed to ground out then. Up 7-6 now, and although his turn would come up in the top 9th, Martin was already pulled for defense while Moreno came out to pitch a scoreless eighth. Although the Coons got leadoff man Marvin Ingall on base in the top 9th, they wouldn’t score, so the 7-6 score was Nordahl’s in the bottom 9th. PH Rusty Washington singled to get the frame going. Walls bunted him over, and Nordahl’s wild pitch moved Washington to third with one out, before Mark Hall emphatically popped out to short. That made it Nordahl vs. Blanc, a righty batting .319 with some oomph. The count was run full before Blanc grounded to third, where Ramirez had to hustle in and field it with the bare hand and zing it over to first, Blanc crashing in, bang-bang play, and the umpire calls him – OUT!! 7-6 Coons! Brady 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Ingall (PH) 1-1; Reece 2-5, 2B; Ramirez 3-4, HR, 3 RBI;

That was one hellacious grind. (exhales)

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF Torrez – SS M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – P Farley
PIT: 2B Sepúlveda – 3B Quintero – LF Blanc – RF J. Thomas – 1B R. Vargas – C J. Reyes – CF Walls – SS Ryan – P Lane

Lane fell behind the first three Raccoons, which all reached, and Martin singled home the first run of the game before Reece put an early dent into our efforts with a run-scoring double play. Torrez drove in another run with a single, handing Mr. Singles an early 3-0 lead. Farley never got a chance to lose the game. He allowed a single to Sepúlveda, who stole second, went to third on a groundout, and then walked Blanc. He shook his arm, something was wrong, and he came out of the game, registering one out. Huerta conceded Sepúlveda’s run on a sac fly, but ended the inning in due time. Rotten luck soon got mixed with horrible fielding (Sharp costing two runs with an error in the bottom 2nd) and ineffective pitching (Huerta sucking balls instead of collecting innings). The game was tied at four in the bottom 3rd, the bases were loaded and Benton Wilson was called on to get the final out from Sepúlveda. While the out was made it was more on Brady selling out on a corner-bound liner. The Coons managed to score single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to reclaim a 6-4 lead, while Sergio Vega was not qualified to pitch in long relief, either. He walked two in the bottom 5th and Bruno rescued him by getting out Quintero. An attempt to have Bruno go much deeper was forcibly thrown out as well when his turn came up with two outs and the bags full in the seventh. Marv hit for him. A single would be swell, but instead he hit a high fly to the gap in left center. Blanc wasn’t getting it, and while it was short of the fence, it glanced off the wall for a bases-clearing double! Sharp singled him in for double digit runs for the Critters, but even ahead 10-4, the game was not in the bag. The bullpen got emptied rather quickly. Martinez pitched the seventh on eight pitches, was run out for the eighth, but soon got stuck. Moreno surrendered two runs on a double and a wild pitch, bringing the Miners back to within four. Although it was not a save situation, Nordahl was put in for the ninth. He was also the last reliever we had. Three batters, three hissing flies, somehow became three outs. 10-6 Critters. Sharp 2-5, BB, RBI; Brady 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Palacios 2-5, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-4, RBI; Reece 2-5; Torrez 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Ingall (PH) 2-2, 2B, 3 RBI; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

… and this, kids, happens when neither team has any pitching worth mentioning.

We should mention though that Farley had some tenderness in his elbow. It looks like he will miss a start, which creates a bit of a predicament with our decimated pitching staff.

Farley’s next turn would be Tuesday against the Titans. We have Thursday off next week. Yeah, well, we need a spot starter. And when we thought Meza would only be a spot starter… To make matters worse, Edgar Amador’s first AAA start was not a great advertisement for instant promotion: 5.2 innings, 6 earned runs. His BABIP is .481 for the Alley Cats.

Raccoons (29-38) @ Indians (33-33) – June 20-22, 2003

Despite a +43 run differential, the Indians were playing .500 ball. The reasons for this were nebulous, with no glaring weakness easily identifiable. Their young slugger prince Ron Alston was on a tear, smashing four homers in the last few days to get to 17 on the season. The season series is 2-2.

Projected matchups:
Ramón Meza (0-1, 3.38 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (4-1, 1.81 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-3, 4.60 ERA) vs. Alonso Alonso (4-6, 3.87 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-10, 6.15 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (7-5, 3.15 ERA)

Three right-handers against three scrubs. Informed readers will realize quickly that the Raccoons are not the team with three right-handers.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Meza
IND: 1B Montray – 2B D. Mendez – RF Alston – LF Alvarez – CF Cavazos – SS Stevens – C Bowen – 3B Harris – P Tobitt

The first three Coons in the game reached yet again, with Tobitt dropping Mendez’ throw on Sharp’s leadoff grounder, and then walking Torrez and Brady. Martin K’ed, Reece popped out, and Guerin whiffed, and if not for a wild pitch in the middle of that mess, the Raccoons would not have scored at all… They left two more on base in the second, but Guerin doubled in Reece with two out in the third to make it 2-0. The Indians were taking their time, but Robbie Harris’ solo homer in the bottom 3rd showed that they were still in the game. Both pitchers struggled: Tobitt had five walks after four innings, allowing two more runs in the top 4th, but Meza’s abilities were insufficient even without a bad day and gave the two runs right back to make it 4-3 Coons after four. Tobitt bled six walks and six hits in 5.1 innings before being removed with two on base and one out. Jack Hamilton relieved him and walked Torrez to load the bases for Brady, who grounded sharply to second base and if not for Torrez taking out Art Stevens the Indians would have turned a double play. Instead, no throw ever was made to first as Stevens ended up in the dirt, and Meza scored from third, 5-3, before Martin, who had made three piss poor outs on the day, sent a fly to deep center, but Cavazos got that one. To give Meza some credit in the end, he did at least protect the pen to best of his inabilities, going 7.2 innings before putting Montray on with a single. Martinez faced Mendez, who singled, and then Moreno was called on to retire Ron Alston. The 23-year old stallion cut against Moreno’s first pitch, but got under it, yet it threatened to come down in shallow left. Reece hustled to best of HIS abilities, and made a relieving grab. The Coons also left a pair on in the top 9th, leaving the 5-3 score in place, but who should pitch the bottom of the inning? Nordahl and Bruno had both gone two days in a row. With switch-hitters up first, staying with Moreno was probably not the worst choice. He struck out Jesus Alvarez, while Cavazos lobbed out to Brady. Art Stevens was a right-hander, but the only rested righty was Sergio Vega. The heck, bring Nordahl! Predictably, Art Stevens homered, and Nordahl walked a pair before being mercifully removed. Benton Wilson came in to face pinch-hitter Matt MacKey, who sent a 1-2 pitch to Ingall, who made a most merciful out to first. 5-4 Coons. Sharp 2-4, BB; Reece 2-4, BB; Guerin 2-5, 2B, RBI; Ledesma 0-1, 3 BB; Meza 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

If I had just stayed with Moreno …..

Well, there have to be reasons for the franchise being 56 wins under its expected record after 26 years. I suck.

We made a roster move, getting rid of Matt Love to add a 13th pitcher in Ricky Beach (0-1, 22.85 ERA), who was assigned the Saturday start right away. Joly was moved to long relief.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Torrez – LF Moore – RF Brady – 1B Ingall – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Fifield – P Beach
IND: 3B Montray – 2B D. Mendez – LF Alston – C Paraz – CF Cavazos – RF MacKey – SS Stevens – 1B Kilters – P A. Alonso

For the third straight day the Coons accumulated on base early, although they were held to a Brady sac fly in the top 1st. But one run didn’t mesh well with Beach. Singles, walks, wild pitches, hit batters – Beach ticked all boxes in another horrible start. The Indians put four runs on him in just four innings, before he was hit for and put on the train to Nowhere Town. So, Joly got into this game after all, and served up a homer to MacKey rather quickly. The Raccoons couldn’t find a way to solve Alonso, although they got a runner on base in almost every inning. However, it always stayed just one runner. After that first inning hiccup, Alonso pitched seven more scoreless innings, while Beach’s shenanigans ensured an end to the Raccoons raging 3-game winning streak. 5-1 Indians. Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B; Moore 2-4;

Beach was not only sent back to AAA, he was designated for assignment. Maybe someone can relief us of this piece of poo. Cal Lyon rejoined the team. Yaay.

With Joly pitching three innings in this game, he should be good to go again to take over Farley’s start on Tuesday. That would help us shift Farley to the weekend to get that elbow healed. If that is not enough, we might have to DL him after all and call up either Fernando Piquero or Edgar Amador.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – CF Moore – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – SS M. Ramirez – P Ford
PIT: SS Stevens – 2B D. Mendez – RF Alston – C Paraz – LF Alvarez – CF Cavazos – 1B B. Morris – 3B Harris – P Alba

Ford started, so this game was lost before the first pitch. Ford was by now just a wreck waiting to happen, and you didn’t have to wait for very long in this bitter Sunday pill. After getting two outs from Stevens and Mendez he walked Alston and Paraz, Alvarez singled, and two doubles plated four runs. Ford was knocked out in the fifth inning, being loaded with seven runs once Ricardo Huerta surrendered the two runners he had left on base, allowing a 2-out double on an 0-2 pitch to Cavazos. That was the game in a nutshell. ****ed up pitching, and the hitting was - … was what? Was it even there? Through six, no. Alba allowed one run in the second, and little else, but tired in the seventh and left after walking Sharp. Claudio Duarte replaced, but didn’t relieve him. Moore singled. Martin singled, making it 7-2. Reece got a good swing, too, sending a fly to left that carried and carried, and was OUTTA HERE!! That got the Coons back to within two runs, but they had their own relief issues, and Vega put on the first two batters in the bottom 7th, and nobody could be found to clean that mess up. The runners scored off Wilson, and that was it. 9-5 Indians. Moore 3-4; Martin 2-5, RBI; Reece 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Torrez (PH) 1-2; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

After winning three in a row, the Raccoons still can’t post a winning week.

In other news

June 16 – 34-year old SFB SP Min-tae Kim (3-1, 3.54 ERA) sends a message that he’s not done yet, 2-hitting the Wolves in a 5-0 shutout win.
June 18 – WAS SP Chris York (9-4, 3.42 ERA) will miss a month with elbow inflammation. He has struck out 128 batters in 102.2 innings.
June 18 – MIL MR Jesus Longoria (5-2, 1.73 ERA, 1 SV) is DTD with a sore ankle.
June 19 – ATL LF/RF Stephen Ware (.332, 0 HR, 24 RBI) is out for the season with a broken kneecap.
June 21 – Milwaukee’s Bartolo Hernandez (.322, 2 HR, 31 RBI) goes 2-3 in a 4-2 win over the Canadiens to bring his hitting streak to 30 games. However, there’s also a tough break for the Loggers, as just-acquired SP Carl Bean (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is out for at least a month with a fractured foot.

Complaints and stuff

Lance Cox was called to a meeting with general management to talk about his managerial strategies and how we were not happy with the performance of the team. General management in this case encompassed all the people in key positions to get a complete look at the situation, so: me, Chad, Slappy, and Honeypaws.

Cox looked mildly concerned about the mental state of affairs in general management in return, but in the end it was mostly show, since we just signed him to a 4-year extension last winter and there’s no money to dump him.

If anybody needs a few doldrums, I’m sitting right in the middle of them.

Edgar Amador allowed four runs in six innings in his second start for the Alley Cats. Fernando Piquero in turn has pressed his ERA under six now, which is progress. We might actually call HIM up first, and then I think it might be not for Meza or Joly, but Ford. Ralph Ford, 3-11 with a 6.61 ERA, smells. That is the friendliest way to put it.

Well, the whole pitching staff is a Shakespearean tragedy. They allowed 37 runs this week. They allowed 32 last week. And 36 the week before that. Even a warm offense (what does a HOT offense actually look like?) can’t keep pace with that. And a big part is Ford, who has surrendered 22 earned runs JUST THIS MONTH. He has not gotten an out in the seventh inning since May 5, and then he got exactly one. He has never completed seven innings this season. His highest game score was a 77 against the Aces in six shutout innings, and the next-best is a 63, followed by a 56.

At some point, you gotta cut your losses.

There are a few, very few, spots that are a little less dark (I refuse to call them bright). Neil Reece has risen from the grave to bat .435/.463/.589 in the last nine games, with one homer, three doubles, and 10 RBI. He is 70 hits off the franchise mark. Sharp has done a good job. Brady, Moore. But overall it’s not even remotely enough to keep the snouts above the waterline.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-40) vs. Titans (43-24) – June 23-25, 2003

Is it me or are we playing the Titans every other week? Maybe it’s me and I get all the winning teams mixed up. The Titans were just one game ahead of the Loggers and had no time to waste in Portland. Their #4 offense and #1 pitching were already salivating over the opportunity to squelch the poor little Furballs.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (3-7, 4.03 ERA) vs. Joe Mann (4-3, 2.92 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-3, 4.52 ERA) vs. Steven Snyder (6-2, 2.20 ERA)
Ramón Meza (1-1, 3.45 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (8-4, 3.57 ERA)

Game 1
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – RF Greenman – 3B V. Flores – LF Bryant – 2B H. Ramirez – C F. Diéguez – P Mann
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Moore – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Brown

The Titans were stunned to find Brown being able to find the zone. He struck out five facing the minimum through three innings, then struck out Silva to start the fourth. Matsumoto took a ball to center for the Titans’ first hit of the game. Garrison singled. Greenman grounded to Sharp and Sharp lost it in his pockets. The bases were loaded with one out in a scoreless game, and while Brown went to two strikes on both Vic Flores and Howard Bryant, the at-bats resulted in a sac fly and an RBI single. Ramirez struck out, but the Titans were up 2-0. Amazingly it was Joe Mann struggling with the zone, as he hardly threw a strike in the bottom 4th, loading them up with one out for Ledesma. Later in the box score, you could precisely identify this as the first spot where the Raccoons just rolled up, pretended to be dead, and let it all be. Ledesma rolled the ball back to Mann, who started a double play, home-and-first. Brown did what he could, whiffing ten, and in the eighth had his line ruined for good by shoddy defense and Manuel Martinez insisting on having everybody on the bases come in to score. The Coons scored a lonely run in the bottom 8th, Reece singling in Brady, while Joe Mann went all the way. 7-1 Titans. Martin 2-4; Brown 7.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, L (3-8);

I would love to come up with any excuse, but at the end of the day, these Titans are a good team with good players, and these Raccoons are a **** team with **** players.

Game 2
BOS: LF Elizondo – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 3B Austin – C L. Lopez – 2B H. Ramirez – SS D. Silva – P Snyder
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – 2B M. Ramirez – CF Lyon – P Joly

The middle game was … peculiar. The titans had two on in the first when Austin sent a huge fly to deep left which Old Neil somehow intercepted to keep the runners starved. The Coons also left two on, and in the top 2nd Joly and Ledesma pulled off a rare wild pitch / hit batter combo to load them up with two out and did NOT get hosed when Masaaki Matsumoto flew to deep right center. Brady made that play, raising the Titans’ LOB to five. In the bottom of the inning Guerin and Ramirez got on base, and then set off for a double steal. Lopez double-clutched and didn’t get Guerin at third, and Snyder balked immediately after that to award Guerin home and the Raccoons the first run of the game. Cal Lyon singled in Ramirez, then was caught stealing, and Joly almost took his own head off whiffing at a ball in chin height. Bottom 3rd, Snyder allowed a 2-out single to Reece, then issued three straight walks, getting only one strike in, but Ramirez flew out to center to leave them loaded. But now we were up 3-0, so we would probably cruise and – oh, wait, Joly was still pitching, drilling Elizondo for the second time in the game in the fourth inning! Guerin started a double play on Matsumoto’s grounder to quell that threat and in the fifth it was Reece stretching his legs again to strand two more Titans. Snyder had his third hit of the day off Joly in the sixth, but also was left on by Matsumoto. Six innings and 110 pitches by Joly had made everybody in attendance pretty dizzy and he retired with a 4-0 lead, attained with a solo home run by Brady. The bullpen took over – and blew the game right in the seventh. Moreno was banked on to retire a string of left-handers and plainly didn’t. Moreno was charged with four runs, the last two scoring on a 2-out, 1-2 grounder that Vic Flores hit off Marcos Bruno that leisurely rolled through between Martin and Ingall. The … the … I …

-.-

Bottom 7th, and the Raccoons were not the only team with ****ed up pitching. Nate Harrison walked two in the inning and then got a front row seat in witnessing another chapter in the Neil Reece Renaissance as the 36-year old from Massapequa, which nobody ever had hurt of before his emergence, rammed a voluminous 3-run homer out of the park, just inside the left foul pole. Bruno responded to the 7-4 lead by putting the first two men on base in the top 8th, and the meltdown continued. Wilson conceded two runs and left with two out and runners on the corners. Nordahl came out right now to face righty Pat Elliott, and struck him out. For anybody with room in their scorebooks, it was now 7-6, and plenty of sweat, which only intensified when Nordahl was singled upon by leadoff man Diéguez in the ninth. He struck out Elizondo, then walked Matsumoto, then struck out Garrison. Logic dictated that Munoz would come through, the count got to 2-1, 2-2, ran full, and he walked him. A-ah, here comes Ma-ark Austin. With complete doubt in our mind, we remembered Nordahl’s outing. How could anything else than a strikeout happen? A ball, a strike, another one. Austin looked at a pitch low – and got rung up regardless. 7-6 Coons. Brady 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Reece 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Guerin 2-3, BB; Ingall (PH) 0-0, 2 BB; Joly 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K; Nordahl 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, SV (15);

I would call this one mildly exhausting, take the win and drink myself to sleep.

Game 3
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – 2B Austin – 3B V. Flores – LF G. Munoz – RF Bryant – C F. DIéguez – P Chapa
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Meza

The Titans got a run before they ever got a hit, with Meza walking three and hitting another batter, and that was before Howard Bryant’s 3-run double did away with the no-hit bid. It would just continue like that. Meza threw nine straight balls to start the second inning, walking Chapa and Silva, and by the time that inning was over, the Titans had two hits and six runs. And it … it went on, in some way? The Coons scored two unearned runs when Fifield doubled with two out, and, well, the bullpen was overworked anyway, and Meza hit. His grounder hit Fifield to actually end the inning. Once Meza was gone from the game, circus was over, and the game became a snoozer through the middle innings. And it was 6-2, the Titans could hardly do much to endanger them taking this set. Or maybe they could. Guerin led off the bottom 7th with a line drive double to the left corner, and Torrez was walked intentionally in an odd spot. Sharp would eventually come up with two out, and hit his first home run of the year to cut the gap to one run, 6-5. Fifield in the top 8th failed to dig out either Hector Ramirez’ pinch-bunt, nor Daniel Silva’s poor grounder, both being safe with infield singles, but Huerta managed to pitch around it. Bottom 8th, Reece walked, Martin singled, Ingall bunted them into scoring position as the tying and go-ahead run. Guerin striking out in that spot had not been calculated for, and the Raccoons would not score, neither in the eighth, nor in the ninth when John Bennett’s appearance made the point moot and the game was over once Neil Reece hopelessly flailed. 6-5 Titans. Sharp 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Martin 2-4; Huerta 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Bitter series. Bitter defeat.

It’s a bitter life.

Raccoons (31-42) @ Falcons (34-37) – June 27-29, 2003

For their shoddy record, the Falcons still held down second place in the CL South, with eight teams in the Continental League having losing records overall. They weren’t scoring a lot of runs, 8th in the league, and their pitching was plagued by a rotation that was prone to implosions. Ha! I know one, too!

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (4-2, 3.53 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (9-4, 4.07 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-11, 6.61 ERA) vs. Brandon Edwards (2-3, 6.48 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-8, 3.80 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (7-8, 3.59 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Farley
CHA: SS Vieitas – LF R. Wilson – 2B H. Green – 1B Batlle – C F. Chavez – RF J. Lugo – CF Estrada – 3B Moore – P M. Hernandez

Farley was wonky, but Hernandez went down quickly. The Falcons drew first blood with a walk to Vieitas and Wilson doubling him home in the bottom 1st, but the Raccoons came back with two runs in the second and a 3-run homer by Eddie Torrez in the next inning to go up 5-1. The Falcons rallied in the bottom 4th, loading them up with two out and Jose Ramirez hitting for Hernandez, but he grounded out. The Coons tacked on a run in the top 5th, but Farley was shelled with back-to-back bombs by Hubert Green and Paco Batlle in the bottom of the inning, running the score to 6-3. Farley went seven without more accidents. He allowed five hits in total, but three of them for extra bases and scoring runs. Martinez and Moreno combined for a scoreless eighth, bringing out Nordahl for the ninth, facing the bottom of the order. Pedro Estrada and Herberto Vieitas hit singles, going to the corners with two outs. Ralph Wilson popped one to shallow center, but nobody was going to get that one as it dinked in for an RBI single. Oh for crying out – Hubert Green zinged a liner to short, Guerin leaping – and he caught it! Phew!! 6-4 Coons. Sharp 2-5, RBI; Palacios (PH) 1-1; Ingall 2-4, 2B; Guerin 2-3, BB; Torrez 1-3, HR, 4 RBI; Moore (PH) 1-1;

If Nordahl would have been unscored upon in the ninth, that would have been a 6-3 game, and the least runs conceded by the team in 10 games. Since June 4, we have allowed less than four runs only three times, and never less than two.

Yikes.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – 2B Palacios – CF Lyon – P Ford
CHA: CF J. Ramirez – 2B A. Ramirez – LF J. Lugo – 1B H. Green – RF Hudson – SS Vieitas – 3B McGreary – C Durango – P B. Edwards

Dubbed Ford’s Last Stand by the Agitator, this was a show-and-tell game for the left-hander. How long would the Raccoons, last place and hopeless or not, watch his act?

The Raccoons didn’t get a hit until Ledesma singled up the middle in the fourth, moving Guerin, who had walked, to second base. The second hit was Palacios’, went up the middle as well, and plated Guerin for the first run of the game. The Falcons had had two soft singles in the first three innings, and had two more of those in the fourth, but left runners on the corners when Ford struck out Herberto Vieitas. The top 6th saw the Coons have the bases loaded and no outs after a Moore double, Martin walking, and Concie reaching on an error. Edwards continued to unravel, plating Moore with a wild one, but then Ledesma hit at a 3-0 pitch and lined out to second, almost getting Concie doubled off, and the Raccoons wouldn’t score again in the inning. The Coons struggled at the plate, leaving two more runners on base in the eighth, while Ford was still pitching, but did not complete the eighth. Jose Ramirez flew out to medium depth leftfield, and the Ford issued his first walk of the day. Jose Lugo drove the ball to center, but right to Lyon. But that brought up Hubert Green and his 11 homers as the tying run, and we wanted a right-hander in the situation. Bruno faced him, but Green singled on the first pitch. Lefty Ralph Wilson pinch-hit now, prompting Benton Wilson to come in, resulting in a bases-loaded walk. Helplessly and out of ideas we grabbed Dan Nordahl, and the Falcons countered with another lefty in Paco Batlle. Dan fell behind 3-1 before Batlle got one to drive to deep right center. Was it – or could Lyon - …? Lyon sold out on a flying grab, caught it, made a sound impression on the warning track, but got away unhurt, and the Falcons didn’t score. In the ninth, Nordahl walked the leadoff man Toby McGreary, but eventually got out of that mess as well. 2-0 Coons. Ford 7.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (4-11); Nordahl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (17);

Woot, a shutout!! So, Ford was good, he’ll get another one. We will graciously ignore the four hits the little trash combers managed to accumulate themselves.

The last time the Coons allowed no runs in a game? May 22, 7-0 over the Indians at home. Brown, Huerta, Wilson, and Nordahl combining for three hits and nine strikeouts.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Ingall – 2B Palacios – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Brown
CHA: CF J. Ramirez – 2B A. Ramirez – LF J. Lugo – 1B H. Green – RF Hudson – SS Vieitas – 3B McGreary – C Durango – P T. Wilson

Brown had a strange way of trying for a series sweep, not retiring any of the first four batters, with Jose Ramirez taking him deep right away. Down 2-0 with two in scoring position, he struck out Hudson and Vieitas before the Falcons picked it up again, plating two more runs before it was Terry Wilson’s time at bat. Brown walked him on four balls, and then Jose Ramirez doubled in two more runs. 6-0 on six hits and two walks. The next useless bandit to get caught and hung was Vega, who allowed two hits and three walks in the bottom 4th. How to wreck an already awful bullpen? Have them go six innings at least twice a week. Huerta got whacked as well two innings later, with the damage just mounting. When Huerta allowed two runs, the Falcons reached double digits, which was one way to follow up a shutout in style. 11-3 Falcons. Reece 2-4, RBI; Palacios 2-4, 2 RBI; Martinez 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Why don’t we just designate all the ****s for assignment, release everybody that isn’t claimed (read: everybody, because they are all just useless ****s), and start over with our .333 AAA team?

In other news

June 23 – It’s a new week, but MIL SS/2B Bartolo Hernandez (.328, 2 HR, 31 RBI) has his hitting streak still alive and well, running it to 32 games with a pair of singles in a 9-7 win over the Crusaders. He now ties Portland’s Neil Reece for the ninth-longest hitting streak in ABL history.
June 26 – WAS SP Mario Pagán (8-5, 2.93 ERA) goes to the DL with an oblique strain, figuring to miss a month at least.
June 27 – SAC OF Aaron Jenkins (.292, 5 HR, 35 RBI) has an RBI single off the Rebels’ Greg Grams, but the Scorpions fall to the Rebels, 3-2. It is the 2,500 career base hit for the 34-year old Jenkins, who has spent his entire major league career for the team that drafted him fourth overall in the 1987 draft. .299/.338/.452 with 161 HR and 1,156 RBI for his career, with 187 stolen bases on top of that, Jenkins is one of the elite sluggers in the game. He was an All Star four times and won a Gold Glove in 2001. The same year he also had a 6-hit game against the Wolves, and his 1,156 RBI rank him 14th all time, and fifth among active players.
June 27 – Hernandez’, who is batting .332 with 2 HR and 33 RBI, has his streak reach 35 games with two hits in a 2-0 win over the Knights, including an RBI double. He now ties Manuel Doval and Clement Clark for the fifth-longest hitting streak in ABL history. Claudio Rojas’ record is 12 games off.
June 29 – Bartolo Hernandez ends the week at 37 games of hitting, chipping in an RBI double in the Loggers’ 6-1 win over the Knights. Hernandez (.334, 2 HR, 36 RBI) now owns the fourth-longest hitting streak in ABL history. He looks up to 47- and 40-game hitting streaks by Claudio Rojas (1983 and 1980, respectively), and a 39-gamer by Roland Moore.

Complaints and stuff

Something that tends to get lost in the box score: Clyde Brady has been picked off first base three times the last three weeks. Listen, Clyde. Stuffing yourself full is okay, and snoozing around the park in an engorged state is okay, but when you’re counting for a run, you better get those paws going.

In AAA, Fernando Piquero’s ERA keeps going down bit by bit, while it is hard to make anything of Edgar Amador right now, who is 1-1 with a 5.75 ERA and a .402 BABIP. The 3.4 K/BB is certainly in his favor.

On Wednesday, we hit rock bottom. Surrendering six runs every day finally got us tied for most runs allowed in the Continental League, a state that is still valid as of Sunday. Took some time, but we’re there. The walks keep hurting us. The walks and the hit batters, and the wild pitches, and those moments when the team just retreats to a corner to hold still in order to not accidentally strain a whisker.

Because I feel like it: take a keen guess, which pitcher might have allowed the most walks in franchise history?

[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-43) @ Aces (34-41) – June 30-July 2, 2003

The Aces were third-worst in scoring runs in the CL, but their run differential was actually only -12 due to some solid pitching. The bullpen had its holes, but the rotation was above average, and they had the fifth-least runs conceded. For comparison and shuddering, the Raccoons’ run differential is a cold -57.

Projected matchups:
Bob Joly (0-3, 4.12 ERA) vs. Frank Pierre (5-5, 3.09 ERA)
Ramón Meza (1-2, 5.23 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (5-6, 3.16 ERA)
Randy Farley (5-2, 3.56 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (8-6, 2.76 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Joly
LVA: C L. Paredes – CF Messinger – 1B O. Torres – LF Talamante – 2B J. Martinez – 3B Samuels – RF G. Wills – SS Bell – P Pierre

Danny Sharp scored on a wild pitch in the first inning just in time before Martin swung himself out of his own shoes, but still missed the ball. Yet, Bob Joly, who was hardly ahead in the count on any hitter in this game, was not shy when it came to giving up runs in the most stupid ways. Bottom 2nd, Martinez got on, advanced on a wild pitch by Joly, and scored on Rusty Samuels’ single. Joly already trailed 2-1 in the bottom 4th (another double getting past old Neil Reece), when he made an active bid for extinction. Having Gary Wills on first with two out and the pitcher at the plate, he not only walked Frank Pierre, but also Paredes on nine pitches total. Then he balked. Forest Messinger struck out to end the inning because he just couldn’t stop laughing at the total joke on the mound. That was one of two strikeouts Joly got in this horrendous start, against six walks and four runs in six innings, and he only made it that far because Ledesma went 100% against base stealers, of which there were two. Funny thing was, he even got a chance for a win when in the top 7th the Raccoons started to get on base. It was a 4-2 game and the bags were full with two out and Martin at the plate. Martin was 0-3 on the day, with 2 K. Pierre put two strikes on him, but Martin put a low pitch into play and trickled into center between the converging infielders, scoring two runs and knocking Pierre from the game. Brady bounced out, however, and the game was only tied. Joly didn’t get a W, and he didn’t deserve one, and the game wasn’t tied for long either. Benton Wilson put two men on, including a walk, and Martinez topped his **** performance with a single and TWO walks as the Aces countered with two runs right away. That was not all of the game however. Against the awful pitching useless Charlie Deacon and the torrid defense of new third baseman Mike Henry, the Aces conceded four unearned runs in the top 8th, again a pair off Al Martin’s bat, and the Aces just kept burning: Jaime Martinez’ leadoff error in the top 9th put Ledesma on base, where he was soon joined by Palacios and Sharp, before Concie and Reece each drove in a pair of runs. There, up by six, Domingo Moreno was in Martin’s slot after a double switch, and we let him in the game, since the pen was not holding any rested relievers anyway. No more runs came forth, but Moreno got a 2-inning save. 12-6 Raccoons. Guerin 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; Reece 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Martin 2-5, 4 RBI; Brady 2-4, RBI; Torrez 2-4; Ramirez (PH) 1-1, 2B; Palacios (PH) 2-2, 2B; Moreno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, SV (2);

In total, five runs were unearned in those last two innings. And that was what we meant when we spoke about a bullpen with holes at the top of the show: 11 runs in the last three innings. Very Raccoons-like.

For the Loggers, Bartolo Hernandez was still keeping his hitting streak going. If he can make it through their midweek tilt with the Thunder, he will have four free games on the weekend … in Portland.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – CF Moore – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Meza
LVA: SS J. Martinez – 3B Warrain – 2B O. Torres – LF Talamante – 1B M. Henry – RF Covington – CF Bell – C L. Paredes – P T. Wilson

Ramón Meza pitched to the best of his abilities, which means he allowed seven runs on ten hits, three walks, a hit batter, and admittedly a jaw-dropping, stupendous error by Guerin – in just four innings. Of course, that was quite a bit more than the Raccoons managed to mount, which was … two singles. That was pretty much all that could be said about the game. The Raccoons performed horrendously, but the Aces also left 13 men on base and didn’t score against the bullpen. Al Martin drove in Brady in the eighth with a single. That was all there was to this dreadful night. 7-1 Aces. Reece 2-4; Vega 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Ramón Meza is no more. I went through my box of Star Trek merchandise to find my phaser and disrupted his neutrons. Slappy is scraping him off the walls. We will call up somebody to take the spot and make the Sunday start, but for the moment added Kaz Kichida to help the bullpen for two or three days. Well, Kaz and being a help? Something ain’t fitting here.

Something else to be scraped off the walls is Bartolo Hernandez’ hitting streak. Five at-bats yielded no success for him in a 9-7 Loggers win over the Thunder. He ends his streak at 38 games, the fourth longest in ABL history.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – 3B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Farley
LVA: 2B J. Martinez – C L. Paredes – 1B O. Torres – RF Covington – 3B Warrain – LF Messinger – CF G. Wills – SS Samuels – P Sandoval

Vince rated that Aces lineup as outright pathetic, except for Sandoval and Torres, whom he gave 4 1/2 stars. Those were the guys that could beat you. And while the Coons went up 1-0 on Palacios’ leadoff jack in the second inning, Sandoval held them short otherwise. In the bottom 3rd, Sandoval even led off with a ground rule double, but was still on second base when Torres turn came up with two out. Yeah, no. Instead, Farley pitched to Covington, who batted 203 points less and fouled out on the first pitch to end the inning. Top 4th, Palacios scored again after walking and subsequent singles by Ingall and Torrez, 2-0, but that lead was blown in the bottom of the inning. With a man on second and two outs, we pitched to Samuels, who hit an RBI single, which was very unfortunate, but didn’t excuse Farley, who went on to allow an RBI double to … yes, Sandoval. And Reece looked hellaciously bad on that one. Sandoval would come up again with two out in the sixth and hit a single. Three times he faced Farley, resulting in five total bases and the game-tying RBI. The Coons wouldn’t get another chance until the eighth, when Sandoval made an error that put two Raccoons on base with nobody out. After Ingall popped out, he was removed for Anthony Duhamel, who kept the Raccoons from scoring with Torrez grounding out and Ledesma popping out to short. Farley walked the leadoff man in the bottom 8th, Inaki-Luki Warrain, and was removed, along with Warrain, for whom Cisco Guzmán ran, but Moreno and Bruno just barely managed to escape the inning with the go-ahead run starved at third base. Guerin in the top 9th reached on the Aces’ third error of the game, this time on Mike Henry, who was in at third again. And hadn’t there been some miracle on Monday that started just like that? Next, Brady walked. Sharp hit for an 0-4 Reece, took Duhamel’s first pitch to left and past Rusty Samuels, scoring the speedy Concie to break the 2-2 tie! That was all we got. Ian Johnson came in, struck out Martin and Ramirez hit for Palacios, but popped out. Now it was on Nordahl, who struck out Dick Bell before Jaime Martinez tripled. ****. Martinez scored on Luis Paredes’ fly out to left, and we went to extras, where Marv led things off with a line drive home run to left center! Nordahl, second attempt, bottom 10th. Oops, that’s a leadoff double for Martin Covington. With two out and Covington on third base, Nordahl faced Charlie Bruce, for whom this was his first major league at-bat. He sent a 2-1 pitch as a sharp grounder wide of first – but Sharp was right there. 4-3 Coons. Sharp (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ingall 2-5, HR, RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Sometimes a win is just a win, but sometimes you could really use a real closer…

Raccoons (35-44) vs. Loggers (51-27) – July 3-6, 2003

We are 1-7 this year against the Loggers, which is tremendous. They have now taken over the top of the CL North, despite injury woes, First in offense, third in defense, a pitching staff of studs. Why are we even showing up? Do we need to sell tickets and hot dogs and all the crappy merchandising boogaloo so badly?

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (4-11, 6.02 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (9-4, 3.43 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-9, 4.26 ERA) vs. John Miller (7-2, 3.70 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-3, 4.28 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (8-5, 3.26 ERA)
TBD vs. Dani Alvarado (3-7, 6.65 ERA)

Oh, that looks bad for three days, and we will have a debutee up on Sunday. To 1-11 we go!

Game 1
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C Benitez – 1B J. Nava – P Morrow
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – LF Moore – 2B Palacios – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Ford

The good impression Ralph Ford had made in his last start didn’t last much past the ceremonial first pitch, with Bakile Hiwalani, who was struggling at a .221 average, hit him with a 2-run homer in the first inning. Down 2-0 was tragic, but not fatal this time, because Doug Morrow didn’t live to see daylight past the second inning. Starting with a 1-out homer by Moore in the bottom 2nd, the Raccoons would put six straight men on base, including five left-handed batters, and a 3-run homer by Ledesma. Martin would draw a bases-loaded walk with two out, and then Moore cashed in three more with a double to the corner, which was the end of Morrow’s day, and the Raccoons had an 8-spot! Even a team routinely surrendering seven runs a game should win with an 8-spot! Top 3rd, Bartolo Hernandez, leadoff homer. Yeah well, maybe we should execute Ford first. The ball was carrying well, however, with Ledesma making it 9-3 with a solo homer in the bottom 3rd, and the Coons added single runs in each of the next two innings. Ford performed far from great, but not too shabby for a day with a strong El Nino creating all kinds of weather absurdities in Coon City, allowing four runs in 6.2 innings. Top 9th, up by eight. Kichida came in. Single to Johnson, walks to Fletcher and Benitez. No outs. Out with Kichida. Two runs would score off Martinez. 12-6 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, 2 BB; Sharp 2-5; Moore 3-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Palacios 3-5; Ledesma 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Huerta 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Wouldn’t you believe it: they find a way to surrender six runs. EVERY. ****ING. DAY.

So, Kichida goes on the trash pile. Anybody in need of a ****ing ****headed twat with an arm so useless, he couldn’t possibly suck more if it were amputated?

Kichida was demoted, and now say hi to Edgar Amador.

Game 2
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C Benitez – 1B J. Nava – P J. Miller
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – CF Moore – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – SS M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – P Brown

A pair of doubles by Sharp and Martin plated a run in the bottom 1st before Nick Brown struck out his 100th batter of the season in the top 2nd, doing the honors to Tom Johnson. The ball was also still carrying well, with Ramirez hitting a solo home run in the second, and Moore in the third. A Sharp sac fly made it 4-0 in the fourth, as the Coons scored a run every inning. Brown was not in trouble until the fifth with a leadoff walk to Johnson and a Fletcher single, but eventually got out on John Miller’s poor bunt that Ledesma took to third where Sharp zinged it back over to first for an inning-ending double play. Brown was then tagged by Hernandez with a leadoff jack in the sixth, cutting the score to 4-1. The Loggers wouldn’t get any more out of Brown, who went eight innings in a strong start. In the ninth, it was on Nordahl as the Coons hadn’t scored in the second set of four innings, and while he did get the job done, he just couldn’t resist to make it interesting. With two out, the Loggers got the tying run to the plate, but Jose Nava grounded back to Nordahl for the final out. 4-1 Furballs! Sharp 2-3, 2B, RBI; Ramirez 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (4-9) and 1-2;

What’s more, we crawled past the Crusaders and are not in last place anymore. Happy Fourth of July everybody!!

Game 3
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C C. Ramos – LF A. Johnson – 1B J. Nava – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Sharp – LF Reece – RF Moore – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Joly

This was not a thrilling pitching matchup from the home team’s standpoint. Then, the first hit for the Loggers didn’t fall in until the fourth, however it didn’t fall in, it went out right away for a solo home run by Tom Johnson. That made it 1-0 for the Loggers, and it was their only hit until the seventh. Joly scored another run with a wild pitch in the eighth, but it was still a decent outing. Unfortunately for him, Garcia just killed the Raccoons, striking out nine in seven inning and scattering only a few singles, and Jesus Longoria didn’t allow anything in the eighth. Robbie Wills came out to close it in the ninth, but Neil Reece’s leadoff homer put the Raccoons on the board and brought the tying run to the plate. But while an Ingall single put the tying run on base with two out, Torrez fouled out to end the game. 2-1 Loggers. Ingall 3-4; Joly 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (0-4);

Well, we shut them down once, they shut us down once. The last game of the set could well end 13-10.

Game 4
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C C. Ramos – 1B J. Nava – P Alvarado
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Amador

Edgar Amador’s Coons career started with lots of 2-strike counts turned into three hits and two runs in the top 1st, but the Furballs rallied in the bottom of the inning and tied the score on Concie’s 2-out, 2-run single. They also left two on in the first, two in the second, and three in the third without scoring again, while Amador hit a batter that came around to score in the fourth. The Loggers kept threatening, loading them up in the sixth when Amador issued back-to-back walks, but then Alvarado came up and made the third out with a grounder to Palacios. Ledesma reached in the bottom 6th and was left in scoring position. The Raccoons just could not do anything worthwhile against Alvarado, and in the top 7th Amador allowed a single to Hernandez, walked Ramirez, and predictably Hiwalani went deep. Amador ended up with six runs in six innings, quite the debut. Bottom 8th, down 6-2, Gabriel Garcia issued two walks to Ledesma and Ingall. Jesus Longoria relieved him, allowing an RBI double to Sharp, which brought the tying run to the plate. Brady popped out, and Moore grounded out to end the inning. Two more left in scoring position, and an all-out **** game from the first pitch to the last. 6-3 Loggers. Martin 2-4, BB; Palacios 2-4, BB; Ledesma 2-2, 2 BB, 2B;

The Inepticoons are nice people. They see a horrible pitcher and go “Oh yeah, he’s a sorry fella. We’ll be nice to him, so he can go to bed happy.”

They don’t quite bother about what they’re doing to their GM, though.

In other news

July 2 – It’s the 200th career win for NAS SP Dennis Fried (9-6, 3.50 ERA), who goes the distance in a 9-2 Blue Sox triumph over the Scorpions. Fried, 34, was originally drafted in 1987 in the fourth round by the Raccoons. He only appeared in 16 games for them in 1990 before being traded to Nashville, where he has pitched ever since, going 200-126 with a 3.55 ERA and 1,981 strikeouts. He has been an All Star four times, won the 1996 Pitcher of the Year award, and was the Pitcher of the Month seven times.
July 3 – Scare in Topeka, as SP Tony Hamlyn (10-1, 2.53 ERA) leaves a game against the Blue Sox early. He is diagnosed with elbow inflammation, but should only miss one start.
July 3 – In just his second start since getting called up again, WAS SP Chad Wright (1-1, 2.12 ERA) 2-hits the Miners in a 1-0 shutout.
July 6 – Time for a new hitting streak. 20 games is the current margin for DEN 3B/SS Zak Davidson (.333, 1 HR, 30 RBI) after two singles in a 4-1 win of the Gold Sox over the Pacifics. It is the fourth time for Davidson to have a 20-game hitting streak, already gobbling up one such streak each year from 1999 to 2001, with a high of 26 games in 2001.
July 6 – A broken hand puts SAL C/1B Jorge Lopez (.252, 6 HR, 38 RBI) out of commission for six weeks.

Complaints and stuff

In AAA, Alejandro Rojas was named Player of the Month. He hit 11 homes for the Alley Cats and has 17 for the season. Problem: he’s a first baseman. He can hardly play that. Trade bait?

Felipe Garcia started a rehab assignment. He went 2-1 with a 3.14 ERA at the start of the season, and I can’t wait for him to replace Joly in the rotation.

Interesting to see how neither our team slash line matches up with our runs scored, neither do the team ERA’s with the runs conceded. I don’t know what the baseball gods are doing. They are probably well drunk.

Whenever we play the Aces and they play spare outfielder Martin Covington, my brain beams back to 1977 and the trade we made with the Capitals before the first ever ABL game, that made Ben Simon a Raccoon for four players, two of which never played in the Bigs, and one of those was a reliever named Elvis Covington. That was just a great game. Sadly, he had zero ability. And that was the essence of that 1977 team. And just like that we’re back in 2003…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-46) vs. Crusaders (36-46) – July 7-10, 2003

We’ll play four for(?) last place honors. Their lowly .240 batting average had the Crusaders score less than four runs a game, and their pitching was not even close to keep the playing field level. Their run differential was at -71 by 20 runs worse than the Raccoons, yet somehow we’re still only spaced half a game apart. Strange things are happening.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (5-2, 3.48 ERA) vs. Kelly Fairchild (3-8, 5.26 ERA)
Ralph Ford (5-11, 5.98 ERA) vs. Mike Nelson (7-7, 5.01 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-9, 4.01 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (5-7, 3.46 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-4, 4.09 ERA) vs. Marvin Hall (3-6, 5.07 ERA)

Four games, four right-handers. Early in the season when we lacked two of our right-handed position players, we struggled quite a bit against left-handed pitching, however by now our left-handed batters are a bit lame. Martin, Brady, Palacios – you name them, none of them is setting the world on fire.

Game 1
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B T. Mullins – 2B Andrews – 3B Rigg – C F. Gonzalez – P Fairchild
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B A. Martin – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Farley

In theory, Randy Farley pitched a gem. It was still nerve-wrecking. The Crusaders took the lead in the top 1st on Gary Rice dropping a bunt for a single, moving up on two outs, and scoring on Daniel Sharp’s error as he mishandled Stanton Martin’s ground ball. The deficit was temporary, Clyde Brady lifting Farley and the Coons quickly with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the inning, and Fairchild gave up another run in the second. Then, the offense died for a considerable amount of time. A few things conspired against Farley in the seventh inning eventually to knock him from the game. Andrews singled and stole second on a lame throw by Ledesma, who had thrown one into center two innings earlier, but hadn’t gotten an error because the runner hadn’t advanced further. Ed Rigg drew the first walk given up by Farley, putting the tying runs on, and then Farley got Felix Gonzalez to ground right back to him for a double play opportunity. Unless of course his throw would be well high and over a leaping Guerin. That loaded them up, and Farley expended another 15 pitches go get through Jorge Gonzales (K) and Rice (4-3) to leave the inning without a run scoring. But his spot was up to start the bottom 7th and he was removed for a pinch-hitter in Ingall as we faced reliever Mike Collins, a prominent chapter in the first volume of Infamous Left-Handed Relief Pitchers for the Raccoons. While Ingall doubled and Collins walked three in the inning, we only got the one run on a Martin sac fly to make it 4-1. Moreno and Bruno almost ruined that score in the eighth, but Brady snagged a sharp liner by Andrews to end the inning with runners on the corners, after Moreno had walked the leadoff man Britton. The ninth was relaxed however, as Nordahl retired the Crusaders in order, fanning two. 4-1 Coons. Sharp 2-2, 2 BB; Ingall (PH) 1-2, 2B; Farley 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (6-2);

Of course, it could have been worse. While Farley appeared to be cruising to a shutout, the Crusaders could have put up a 7-spot just as easily.

We are that far: every game the Critters don’t surrender half a dozen runs is filed away in the “good” cabinet.

Game 2
NYC: CF Gonzales – 2B Andrews – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 1B T. Mullins – 3B F. Adams – C F. Gonzalez – P Nelson
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B A. Martin – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Ford

Ford won his last two decisions, and this was the right time to start a proper streak. Neither team got any hard contact off the opposing pitcher in the first three innings. The fourth then stopped Ford’s attempt at making it a streak, because he felt some thing or other and left the game with what appeared to be an injury. Ricardo Huerta was called on to go into long relief, performing well and beyond expectation with 3.2 innings of hitless relief, and he also drove in the go-ahead (and only) run through his outing with a sac fly in the fifth inning. Huerta was hit for in the bottom 7th with runners on the corners and nobody out, with Moore flying out to shallow right on 3-1. Sharp drew a walk off reliever Alex Glaviz to load them up anyway, and that brought up Guerin with one out and the bags full. If possible, we’d like a ball beyond the infielders, please. Guerin had already had a number of doubles this year, especially early in the season, and here he hit a ball to the outfield as well, and fairly deep, and nobody would get it. In fact, it was carrying, carrying, and became a GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!! That sealed the deal. The Crusaders hadn’t gotten the bats up all game, and that didn’t change. Another run fell out of Glaviz in the eighth after a walk, a double, and a sac fly, and the Coons were never really threatened. 6-0 Furballs. Guerin 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Torrez 3-4, 2 2B; Ledesma 2-3, RBI; Ford 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; Huerta 3.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-2);

Concie with a slam? Go home, baseball gods, you’re drunk! =)

Of course the injury to Ralph Ford – no matter how bad he has been this year – could be devastating. Our rotation has little credibility besides Farley, who seems to have left the Singles Cascades behind himself, and Nick Brown, and Brown only on a good day. After that, it’s rookies …

Rookie and Bob Joly. (shivers)

Game 3
NYC: CF Gonzales – 2B Andrews – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 1B T. Mullins – 3B Burne – C Negrón – P Reeves
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B A. Martin – CF Torrez – SS M. Ramirez – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – P Brown

First inning, and no, Brown would not go deep into the contest. He walked Andrews, walked Ortíz, Martin singled, and Rice hit an infield single to Sharp who had lost his glove in Milwaukee, it seemed. Brown struck out the next two, but it was going to be one of those games. In six innings, Brown surrendered five runs total, the remaining four all scoring on home runs, a solo shot by Gonzales in the second, and a 3-job with nobody out in the sixth hit by Mullins. The Raccoons had mildly tried to rally in the second and third innings, had hit into mood-killing double plays both times, and just couldn’t get anything going. Through six innings, they were held to three singles, and Sergio Vega had bled another run in the seventh, making it 6-0 and with Whit Reeves, the ex-Scorpion, locked in, the Coons figured to have no chance at this.

Yeah, but figuring is such a peculiar thing. Dale Moore led off the seventh with a double. Martin singled, and Torrez turned into one for his sixth homer of the year, cutting the gap in half with one swipe. Next inning, now against the bullpen, Sharp hit a terrible bloop for a 1-out single. Brady singled. Martin singled, with Sharp waved around and scoring. Torrez hit a ball deep to right, off the wall, and Martin was waved around and scored from first base with the tying run on the double! Ingall got on, hitting for Palacios against left-handed pitching, but Fifield made the final out of the inning. We soon went to extras, where Dan Nordahl pitched a good 10th and wonky 11th, but the Crusaders didn’t score off him. Bottom 11th, Torrez led off against Glaviz, who had been rocked before in this series, and sent a huge fly to deep center, but it was caught by Jorge Gonzales. Next was Ramirez and drew a walk, and with Negrón having a very weak arm and the bullpen thin, we pressed the issue and had Ramirez go for the extra bag. Negrón didn’t even come close, Ramirez had the base, his fourth of the year, and Ingall sent a fly to deep right that eluded Martin, and the Coons walked off!! 7-6 Furballs!! Martin 3-5, 2B, RBI; Torrez 2-4, BB, HR, 5 RBI; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (3-1);

That was a comeback I never would have expected. After Ted Mullins’ homer this game was so over, and then the team suddenly comes back and scored back-to-back 3-spots to tie.

Do they have some soul after all?

Game 4
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 1B T. Mullins – 3B Rigg – CF Gonzales – 2B F. Adams – C F. Gonzalez – P M. Hall
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B A. Martin – CF Torrez – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Joly

If we could complete the sweep behind a winless Bob Joly (…) and the Elks would lose another one to the Titans, we’d move into a virtual tie with them just in time for a 3-set against another on the pre-All-Star-Game weekend for fourth place.

But there was just no winning with Joly. He was a useless piece of ****. The Crusaders had their way with him, every which way they wanted. After Al Martin hit a solo homer in the bottom 2nd to get the scoring going, the Crusaders soon whacked Joly around and would eventually return the favor of the consecutive 3-spots to Bob the Unfunny Clown, who did not survive the fifth inning, trailing 6-2 on ten hits, including two triples. The Coons had the bags full with one out and Martin batting, but nothing came of that. While Torrez drew a bases-loaded walk to pull the score to 6-3, Guerin grounded out to short this time. But maybe it was a bit too much to ask for a slam every other day. By contrast, a rather stark contrast, the Crusaders would get 15 hits off Raccoons pitching, with Ed Rigg missing the cycle by the home run, which was about the only thing we didn’t surrender one of. 7-3 Crusaders. Brady 2-5; Guerin 2-4; Moreno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Joly…

The Coons stole four bases in this game, and Concie alone stole three! Still didn’t help any.

Raccoons (40-47) vs. Canadiens (41-44) – July 11-13, 2003

Against the more or less average Canadiens, who sported the worst bullpen in the Continental League, the Raccoons had taken six of nine so far this year. We certainly had a desire to make it nine for twelve.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (1-2, 5.10 ERA) vs. George Norris (7-3, 3.54 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-2, 3.22 ERA) vs. Juan Bello (5-7, 4.37 ERA)
TBD vs. Joe Hollow (3-10, 5.35 ERA)

We still had no clue about Ralph Ford’s condition. And it’s been a few days. I can’t possibly have just thrown the medical report into the trash? Or could it … could it be this piece of paper that is completely covered in honey? … Don’t ask…

Game 1
VAN: SS Simon – CF E. Garcia – 2B Dobson – 1B I. Gutierrez – RF Velasquez – 3B Phillips – LF R. Green – C Hurtado – P Norris
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Moore – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF Torrez – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Amador

And the bad news were just crashing down now. Edgar Amador’s second start as a Raccoon lasted one inning. He tweaked his ankle on a pitch to Jerry Dobson and had to leave the game. There was no way we could piece another game together with the shambles of the bullpen. We got another 3.1 innings from Huerta, who had already been used heavily in the Crusaders series, allowing only an unearned run that was on Torrez, and left when Martin dropped Guerin’s throw that put Norris on base in the fifth. Moreno kept that runner on, and the game remained tied 1-1. Bottom 5th, Ingall singled, Ledesma walked, and Moreno struggled to get a bunt down, but eventually moved the runners into scoring position, and the Raccoons still didn’t score. Sharp was walked intentionally, and then Guerin and Moore made poor outs. Top 7th, still tied, Benton Wilson walked Arthur Simon with one out, then allowed a double to Ramón Trinidad hitting for Garcia. Reece brought the ball back in, and while his legs were old, his arm wasn’t, and he threw out Simon at home plate. The Elks didn’t score, but came close again the next inning against Marcos Bruno. Two out, Jim Phillips at second, Royce Green grounded to Ingall, whose throw as dropped by Martin. Third dumb error for the team in this game, but the Elks still couldn’t pull out a run. Neither could the Coons, behind held to four walks and three hits by George Norris through seven innings. One out in the bottom 8th, Guerin slapped a single to right. Although Pedro Hurtado had about the best arm in the world, he was in motion during Dale Moore’s at-bat and ran while Moore turned into a pitch. Guerin never stopped, and neither did Moore, for he had hit it out! 3-1 Coons, and somehow we had managed to save Dan Nordahl for the end here. While he got Dave Wheaton to fly out softly to Reece, he then walked Arthur Simon and Ramón Trinidad rammed a double to left center that put the tying runs in scoring position with one out. We really didn’t have anybody else, and extra innings would be TREMENDOUSLY bad, Danny. He struck out Dobson, which brought up NOT Gutierrez, the slugger, but Freddy Rosa, who was batting .181 with three homers after some double switches. Nordahl fell behind on him, 3-1, and instead of walking him, was taken to left for a double, and the score was tied. Yeah, my bad. Why do I go with a TREMENDOUSLY bad pitcher? Velasquez struck out before Pedro Alvarado issued a leadoff walk to Ingall in the bottom 9th, and then Ledesma hit right into a double play. Extra innings. Of course. Nordahl was left out there to ****ing die. First batter, Jim Phillips, floating one out to Torrez, who made his second idiotic error of the game, and that was four for the team. Nordahl would also balk, but the Elks still failed to score. Bottom 10th, Leon Walker pitching. Sharp doubled to left center, ran past second, ran to third, and the ball was there about half an hour before Sharp arrived. WHICH WAS DOUBLE AWFUL, since Concie doubled right behind him! An intentional walk to Moore and an infield single by Ramirez loaded them up for Clyde Brady, who hit for Neil Reece to counter the righty Walker. The count ran full before Brady put the ball in play by about 30 feet. Walker hustled in and lobbed the ball to Hurtado to force Concie. Torrez with two out, another full count. A fastball in the dirt walked off the Coons. 4-3 Raccoons. Sharp 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Guerin 2-5, 2B; Ramirez 1-1; Huerta 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K and 1-1; Wilson 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

You know… Even with our practice of awarding three “Doofus of the Game” awards, in gold, silver, and bronze, each day, we can’t cover all the mooks in this one. Four errors, Nordahl, Sharp, ugh!! And it all starts with rotten luck with Amador’s ankle!

The universe hates the Raccoons. I just don’t know why they’re winning these closely-knit games that cry out to be lost.

Of course the hammer came soon enough. While Amador’s ankle was not all that bad and he’d be good to go after the All Star break, Ralph Ford wouldn’t. He had torn his rotator cuff and was out for the season.

Like we don’t have enough problems. Well. We scrambled, and called up Fernando Piquero to take over Ford’s spot and make the start on Sunday. That didn’t help us any with our ridiculously squeezed bullpen. And Piquero would only make the start on Sunday if Farley would go sufficiently deep on Saturday. If Farley got knocked out early, Piquero would have to appear in relief in that game, and then we NOT A SINGLE OTHER OPTION left but pitching Nick Brown on short rest on Sunday.

Game 2
VAN: SS Simon – CF E. Garcia – 2B Dobson – 1B I. Gutierrez – LF Wheaton – 3B Phillips – RF R. Green – C Hurtado – P Bello
POR: RF Brady – SS Guerin – LF Reece – 1B Martin – CF Torrez – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Farley

The second inning was a perfect illustration for how ****ed up everything was in Coon City. First, Farley was pierced with three straight singles over the second base bag by Wheaton, Phillips, and Green, plating Wheaton for a 1-0 score. When Hurtado flew out to Brady and the Elks had runners on the corners with two out for Bello, Farley through four straight balls, and Arthur Simon took advantage with a bases-clearing double well past Neil Reece. It was of course exactly the one thing we didn’t need and couldn’t use: Farley returning to being Mr. Singles. He surrendered plenty of those in the game, 11 hits in six innings, nine of them singles, producing five runs and using him up completely for over 120 pitches. Down 5-1, the Raccoons had the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom 6th for Palacios, who used deadly precision to shove a grounder into Jerry Dobson’s glove for a 4-6-3 double play. Top 7th, Sergio Vega came in, faced one batter, then left the game with some ouchie or other. Martinez was wrung out for five outs, and somewhere we squeezed another inning from Marcos Bruno – all in another soul-crunching losing effort. 5-2 Canadiens. Guerin 3-5, 2B; Martin 2-4, 2B; Martinez 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

YAY! More injuries!! Rejoice!!

Sergio Vega’s sore shoulder might be good past the All Star break. Who cares! It’s all just right in the groove.

The groove of misery.

Game 3
VAN: SS Simon – CF E. Garcia – 2B Dobson – RF Velasquez – LF Wheaton – 3B Rodgers – 1B Phillips – C Hurtado – P Hollow
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – C Fifield – CF Lyon – P Piquero

Arthur Simon singled, stole a base, and while Piquero would issue three walks in the inning, a Velasquez double play held the actual damage to one run. In the bottom of the second inning the Raccoons loaded them up on singles by Martin and Brady sandwiching an Ingall walk, all with nobody out, and Hollow kept missing by miles, walking Fifield on four pitches, which was not an easy task. That forced in the tying run, but the Coons were held to a Lyon sac fly and didn’t break through. In the top 3rd, the Canadiens put their first two men in scoring position, but failed to score when Dobson whiffed, Velasquez grounded out to Sharp, and Wheaton lobbed out to Reece. While the Raccoons hit into double plays in both the fourth and fifth innings to kill chances before they even were proper chances, Piquero at least came through on occasion, like in the top 5th where he had a runner on second, but struck out the dangerous Velasquez to end the inning. In the sixth he walked Dave Wheaton as the leadoff man, but Sharp dug him out by starting an inning-ending double play on Jim Phillips’ grounder. The Coons got another chance to expand their 2-1 lead presented on the silver platter in the bottom 6th when Ken Rodgers capitally tossed Concie’s grounder away to put a speedy runner on second with nobody out. The Elks walked Reece intentionally to have Hollow get the favorable matchup with the lefty Martin, who grounded into a fielder’s choice that sent Reece right back to the dugout. Ingall walked, loading them up. We were still looking for our third hit on the day, but also gladly accepted the sixth walk from Hollow, which had Clyde Brady force in the third run for the home team. And then Fifield hit into another double play to end the inning. Top 7th, runner on third with two out, Piquero faced Enrique Garcia as his last batter no matter what. Garcia drilled a 2-0 pitch to deep left, where suddenly Reece appeared and caught it with a launching grab. Whoah! Is it 1998!? So, we needed six outs in a 3-1 game, with a bullpen that was exhausted throughout. Well, Nordahl was penciled in for the ninth, but right now in the eighth we had two right-handers in Dobson and Velasquez to retire, and called on Martinez. He got Dobson, but Velasquez singled, which moved the line up to Benton Wilson. Wheaton grounded to Ingall, but we only got the lead runner. Rodgers then fired a liner up the middl- WHOAH, GUERIN!!! The play of the month, right there!! That ended the inning, gave the Raccoons another chance to try for a third hit, which was an utterly futile endeavor, but at least Concie reached on an error again. (sour look) Reece grounded out, moving Concie to second, and then Martin DID GET ONE THROUGH!! Single to right, Concie scored handily, 4-1, and suddenly the Gordian Knot was dissolved with a double by Marv and a pinch-hit single by Palacios, with two more runs scoring. Nordahl did his usual escapades in the ninth, including drilling Iván Gutierrez, but got through. 6-1 Coons. Martin 2-4, RBI; Ingall 1-1, 3 BB, 2B; Brady 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Palacios (PH) 1-1, RBI; Piquero 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

All Star Game

In the 2003 All Star Game, the Federal League All Stars played the Boston Titans. Or something like that. The Titans had nine players (Chapa, Hildred, O’Halloran, Snyder, Bennett, Lopez, Matsumoto, Garrison, Munoz) on the roster. The Raccoons got one mercy All Star, Albert Martin, who was nominated for the third straight year.

Martin strikes out in a pinch-hitting appearance. The CL wins 4-3 in walkoff fashion. Anibal Sandoval surrendered all three of the FL’s runs in the first inning and the CL doesn’t come back until the seventh, when they score two runs off Dan Moriarty, and in the ninth Ryosei Kato blows the save. Atlanta’s Alejandro Rodriguez walks off the CL with a 2-run double.

Roster moves

We added Felipe Garcia, who was 1-1 with a 1.16 ERA in three rehab starts in AAA, to the 25-man roster. Sergio Vega returned to AAA, Bob Joly was kicked out of the rotation into the long man role. Piquero is hanging around right now, but I don’t see an alternative with Bean traded and Ford injured. Actually, wonky Nick Brown is now our top hurler.

Raccoons (42-48) @ Crusaders (38-51) – July 17-20, 2003

No, they haven’t started scoring, and they are still atrocious, begging to be beaten.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-9, 4.21 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (5-7, 3.48 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-3, 3.48 ERA) vs. Kelly Fairchild (3-10, 4.99 ERA)
Edgar Amador (1-2, 4.94 ERA) vs. Mike Nelson (7-8, 5.21 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (2-1, 3.14 ERA) vs. Marvin Hall (4-6, 4.96 ERA)

And those four are still right-handed, too. There might be movement in the matchups, since Greg Connor (7-4, 3.50 ERA) could come off the DL.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B A. Martin – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Brown
NYC: CF Gonzales – 2B Andrews – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 3B Rigg – 1B Burne – C F. Gonzalez – P Reeves

The first run of the game scored on a balk by Reeves, plating Palacios in the fifth. The Coons had had the bases loaded with no outs and Nick Brown batting. Brown was iffy with the control again, but somehow kept the Crusaders stranded. Although Brown was then robbed on what off the bat looked like a double by Stanton Martin, it was still a sac fly, and three more hits would eventually score three more runs, giving the Coons a 5-spot. Now you longed for a shutdown inning from Brown in the bottom 5th, which he entered on 63 pitches. Not bloody quite. With two down, Brown drilled Gonzales, walked Andrews, before Ortíz reached on an error by Al Martin, Stanton Martin walked, and Gary Rice singled, and SOMEHOW Ed Rigg did something capitally wrong and made the third out. 5-2. Brown lasted only six after all, walking four and plunking a pair against eight strikeouts. Both runs were unearned. The score was still 5-2 after seven, when the Crusaders sent Mike Collins although they should know better. Concie led off and homered! And then Collins put one on, put two on, and Ledesma homered as well, making it 9-2. Bob Joly pitched the final two innings, not allowing the Crusaders back into the game. 9-2 Coons. Moore 2-5, 2B, RBI; Guerin 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Palacios 2-5; Ledesma 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (5-9); Joly 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Give me more of that Collins chick. He sucks so badly, even the Raccoons can put up big numbers. Well, we’re insiders on this one. In exchange, the Crusaders lost a good reliever in Leonardo Sosa to injury in this game.

With this outing, Brownie appears in the top 3 in strikeouts in the CL again. His 122 K trail Martin Garcia by 12 and Kelvin Yates by six.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B A. Martin – 2B Palacios – 3B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Farley
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B T. Mullins – 2B Andrews – 3B Rigg – C F. Gonzalez – P Fairchild

Fairchild was off by miles and the Coons loaded the bases on a single and two walks, but up came, with one out, Farley. He grounded to third, where Rigg tried to get the double play rather than the out at home, but they were too slow in turning it, and Farley came up with an RBI groundout. Concie singled in a run and the Coons were up 2-0. Farley surrendered the first eight batters before Fairchild homered, which was not only slightly annoying, but it also kept the inning going for three more Crusaders to reach base and tie the score. It didn’t stay tied for too long. Farley morphed into Mr. Singles again by the fifth and was just needled to death by the Crusaders, who hit single after single after single. Farley was yanked at 5-2 with two men on. Another run scored off Huerta as the Raccoons had another **** day on the mound. Down by four became down by two against a shoddy Fairchild, and while the Coons didn’t get to Alex Glaviz this time around, they still cooked up the bullpen in the eighth. Guerin came up with the tying runs on base and he was unretired on the day. Mario Perez (not the Capitals starter) was tasked with his removal, failed, and Concie doubled the runners home to get us even at six, but we couldn’t find anyone to drive him in. Confidently(!?) we sent in Marcos Bruno to get us to the next inning – and he was torn apart. Three runs scored off him, including a Gary Rice home run. 9-6 Crusaders. Guerin 4-4, BB, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Palacios 2-4; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Moore (PH) 1-1;

Frustration. Completely ****ed up pitching staff, can’t get anything done. This is about the WORST offensive team in the league, and they still manage to routinely put up six, seven, or more against these atrocious pushovers.

We got rid again of Cal Lyon and called up Chris Beairsto, who by now had 31 homers in AAA.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – LF Moore – 3B Sharp – 1B A. Martin – 2B Palacios – RF Beairsto – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Amador
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 1B T. Mullins – 2B Andrews – 3B Rigg – RF Gonzales – C F. Gonzalez – P Connor

There was Greg Connor, fresh off the disabled list. He faced Beairsto with three on and two out in the first inning, surrendered a high fly to deep center, but Britton caught that. The Crusaders then instantly broke through Amador, scoring two in the first on poor stuff and bad control, and soiled him with six runs in four innings. And here came the bullpen, and it went on. Huerta was taken deep by the first guy he faced, Mullins, and that made it 7-0 against a Raccoons outfit that didn’t even show effort. They didn’t even try. The Crusaders had this one easily in the bag. 8-2 Crusaders. Palacios 2-3, BB, RBI;

The Crusaders stole four bases off Fifield, who also went 0-3 to drop to .148. And it is enough. He was designated for assignment. Mark Thomas, that other sucker, was called up.

Game 4
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B A. Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – P F. Garcia
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B T. Mullins – 2B Andrews – 3B Rigg – C F. Gonzalez – P Nelson

Another game, another pitcher incinerated, and it was the guy with the brown cap yet again. Garcia was crap from the first pitch going forward. In the first two innings he only had two men on each time, and bailed out twice when liners were caught by Guerin in the first and Sharp in the second. By the third, luck was out, and he got hammered. His control was ****, he had no stuff, the Crusaders just stuck the bats in there and singled and singled and singled. Seven hits and five walks in just four innings plated just three runs, but it was enough **** for one day. In the meantime, the Raccoons had about nothing, and certainly no runs. The Crusaders would casually continue to score like in the sixth with two runs on Bruno that were unearned after Sharp had not made one, but TWO errors in the inning, then hit into an inning-ending double play in the top 7th. Somewhere, somehow, two terrible bloops would eventually create a little bit of offense for the Inepticoons. In the top 9th then, facing lefty Ignacio Garcia, Thomas led off with a pinch-hit double that hobbled through Ed Rigg. Beairsto walked, bringing up the tying run with no outs. Palacios struck out. Ingall struck out. Guerin popped out. 5-2 Crusaders. Guerin 2-4, BB; Brady 2-4; Reece 2-4, RBI; Thomas (PH) 1-1, RBI; Palacios 2-4; Moreno 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

July 11 – Denver’s Zak Davidson (.333, 1 HR, 32 RBI) stretches his hitting streak to 25 games with a 1-3 day in a 6-2 loss to Dallas.
July 12 – TIJ 2B/SS Juan Barrón (.283, 1 HR, 36 RBI) joins the 2,000 hits club with two hits in a 7-5 win of the Condors over the Bayhawks. Drafted sixth overall by the Falcons in 1990, Barrón debuted with them the next year before joining Tijuana in 1999. For his career he is batting .313/.353/.401 with 24 HR and 663 RBI. At age 31 he still has a long road ahead of him and could make it to the 3,000 mark rather handily.
July 12 – DEN INF Jose Correa (.263, 2 HR, 36 RBI) is out for a month with a quad strain.
July 13 – TIJ SP Curt Powell (2-8, 5.79 ERA) is out for the year with a torn labrum.
July 13 – The day before the All Star game, Zak Davidson’s hitting streak ends at 26 games.
July 16 – All time home run leader TIJ RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.320, 10 HR, 39 RBI) seems likely to miss a month with a fracture in his foot.
July 18 – RIC OF/1B Gerardo Rios (.282, 17 HR, 59 RBI) has suffered an intercostal strain and will be out for about a month.
July 20 – WAS SP Chris York (9-4, 3.34 ERA) has been diagnosed with a torn labrum and is out for the year.

Complaints and stuff

Shopping Jesus Palacios yielded no returns. This may be a salary issue, mainly the fact that most teams are either overbudget after the draft (though not as badly as last year), and the Raccoons are overbudget as well. Also, he doesn’t perform well, either.

The week before the All Star Game was certainly one to declare a Week of Wonders. Well, basically, any week in which Concie hits a slam is one that qualifies. But add to that two starting pitchers getting hurt, the Raccoons winning one of those games despite four errors and Nordahl blowing yet another save, and them posting a winning week despite most atrocious luck.

And dumb mistakes. The second week however was just abysmal. Tear-jerking. Makes you quit baseball…

Defining note of the summer: the Raccoons have conceded six or more runs in a game *22* times since the start of June.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (43-51) @ Titans (58-33) – July 22-24, 2003

Wow, we’re really constantly playing the Titans… Here they come again. Raccoons look like trash compared to them, as always, what not all with their third-best offense (430 runs scored) and best pitching that had conceded a juicy 130 runs less than that. Runs allowed and the rotation ERA were tops in the CL, the latter a swift 2.98, which was outright ridiculous. The bullpen was fourth with a 3.30 ERA. They are up 6-3 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Francisco Piquero (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (11-5, 3.45 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-9, 3.98 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (9-6, 2.33 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-3, 3.83 ERA) vs. Steven Snyder (8-3, 2.80 ERA)

Chapa is a lefty, so Mark Thomas gets his first start of the year behind the dish and a chance to get that career .234/.318/.364 slash line exhibited. We are thrilled at the opportunity.

Game 1
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Reece – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 3B M. Ramirez – CF Moore – C Thomas – P Piquero
BOS: LF Elizondo – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 3B Austin – C L. Lopez – 2B H. Ramirez – SS D. Silva – P Chapa

Ingall and Ramirez drew singles to start the top of the second inning, and when Moore grounded to the right side, Chapa dropped Matsumoto’s throw. That loaded them up with no outs, and for once they came through. Thomas drew a walk to force home a run, Piquero and Sharp would drive in runs with singles, and Reece hit a sac fly to make it 4-0 in support of Piquero. Piquero responded to this wonderful event by walking the first two Titans in the bottom 2nd. He was completely out of whack and the game didn’t blow up in his face for the sole reason that Thomas threw out base stealers in both of the first two innings. Piquero didn’t pitch out of whack for very long, though. He left in the third with an injury after allowing a double to Elizondo, having allowed one run in 2.1 innings on two hits and three walks. With Bob Joly pitching in long relief, we needed more offense quickly. Clyde Brady’s leadoff jack in the fifth made it a 5-1 game, which seemed like a casual cruise until the seventh. Joly got that far, but retired only one before walking Ramirez. Benton Wilson came on, popped up Silva, but then walked PH Christian Greenman and Vicente Elizondo. Bruno was broken out to get the third out from Matsumoto, who grounded out to Ingall to leave the bases loaded. We faced Nathan Harrison in the top of the eighth, and Thomas hit a leadoff single. Bruno bunted him over, but Sharp, who was unretired on the day, was walked intentionally. After Guerin whiffed, it was on Reece to do some good. He crushed Harrison’s first pitch to left, curving towards the foul pole, and it was …… fair!! A 3-run homer for Neil Reece! Bruno pitched the bottom 8th of the 8-1 affair, faced four batters, all of which put the first pitch into play, and three were retired. Since he had only thrown eight pitches for four outs, he remained in the game, but got tagged with a Daniel Silva homer in the ninth. This one was not going to get away though. 8-2 Raccoons! Sharp 3-3, 2 BB, RBI; Thomas 2-3, BB, RBI; Joly 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, W (1-5); Bruno 2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (3), IR 3-0;

Say what, Bob Joly is winless no more!

And what’s going to be wrong with Piquero? Can he keep the arm or do we have to fashion him a shiny hook?

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – P Brown
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – RF Greenman – 2B Austin – 3B V. Flores – LF G. Munoz – CF Bryant – C F. Diéguez – P Hildred

There was one pitcher in the park who would walk six batters in his outing, only to find the opposition not too keen on taking advantage. He lasted into the seventh. The other pitcher didn’t walk anybody, was sharp as a knife, perfect the first time through the lineup, and was only scored upon due to an untimely double to the speedy opposing shortstop. That guy was just ON.

Brownie was ON. Hildred was the messed up guy, while Brown paid for Silva’s leadoff double in the fourth with a run that cost the Raccoons a world of hurt to put back onto the board in the sixth. The score was 1-1 through eight, although the Titans had had the chance to sink Brown in the bottom of that inning. The key AB was that to Fernando Diéguez who singled with one out in an 0-2 count. The Titans got two men on, but didn’t score when Elizondo struck out hitting for the pitcher in Matsumoto’s spot. Brown led off the top of the ninth, but had gas left and batted for himself, and popped out. Guerin singled past the reach of Silva, moved up on Sharp’s groundout, and then scored when Brady lobbed a ball into shallow left. 2-1 Coons through eight and a half, and here came Brown for the ninth. I wasn’t going to have Nordahl pitch to a string of left-handers (which is what that middle of the lineup was) when Brown was this ON. And the inning started with a walk to Greenman. (gulp) Austin flew out to deep center, and Flores, who had struck out each time at bat today, popped up a 3-1 pitch. Well, he was reeling a bit, but now we have two down and a lefty up. What’s the worst that can happen? Gonzalo Munoz homered. 3-2 Titans. Brady 3-4, BB, RBI; Brown 8.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, L (5-10);

Hnnngg-gaaahh… (clutches chest and falls off the chair)

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – LF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – P Farley
BOS: LF Elizondo – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 3B Austin – C L. Lopez – 2B V. Flores – SS D. Silva – P Snyder

Guerin led off with a double, but was left on third when Brady’s liner was caught by Flores and Martin whiffed. Farley was all **** from the start and was tagged for three runs in the first, and another run in the second. After that abysmal start he would only go five innings, but at least allowed no more runs, although he walked five batters in total. The Raccoons actually stayed close to the action with a run scoring in the third (that was actually Farley coming in on Brady’s groundout), and then a 2-run homer by Torrez in the fourth. Snyder didn’t make it through five, but when Farley left, he was still on a 4-3 hook. Bottom 7th, Domingo Moreno allowed two 2-out runners, and Luis Lopez fired a humming liner to left on an 0-2 pitch. Yet, Danny Sharp threw himself at that fireball and smothered it, sparing Moreno two runs, but those two runs instead fell out of Martinez in the next inning, which sported a leadoff walk, catcher’s interference, a hit batter, and lots of facepalm. The Coons went down without much fuss. 6-3 Titans. Guerin 3-5; Huerta 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

More goody-good news: Fernando Piquero is out for the year with shoulder inflammation.

Does the Home Depot carry wobbly stools AND high quality rope or do I need to go to different places for that?

Ramón Meza was called up as a stop-gap solution. I know, I know, he is no solution. He’d start the Sunday game in Tijuana on short rest. Reasoning? He will lose independently of his days of rest, and apart from that, maybe he hasn’t noticed, but THIS AIN’T ****ING DISNEYLAND.

Raccoons (44-53) @ Condors (48-48) – July 25-27, 2003

Other than their mediocre record suggested, the Condors were just two games out of first place in the throughout mediocre CL South. The Thunder were faltering a bit, and the Condors caught up. With the way the Raccoons were playing (mostly half-dead) this might become another feast for an opposing team that really didn’t know how to keep the opposition from scoring (9th in runs allowed), but matched those 460 runs allowed with 466 they scored themselves, and that mark was second in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (1-3, 5.91 ERA) vs. Manuel Pineda (5-6, 5.35 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (2-2, 3.58 ERA) vs. TBD
Ramón Meza (1-3, 5.84 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (7-8, 3.46 ERA)

The TBD might well become Frank Pierre (6-6, 3.84 ERA), whom the Condors acquired from the Aces just before the start of this series.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Moore – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – RF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – P Amador
TIJ: 3B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – C Cicalina – 1B B. Román – RF Reya – CF Morton – LF MacGruder – 2B Stein – P Pineda

The wind was blowing in from right, and it knocked out all the high deep flies the Raccoons hit there in the opening innings. They also left runners on third base in each of the first three, and scored only one run on a pair of doubles by Ledesma and Beairsto in the second. That left 21-year old Edgar Amador with a 1-0 lead that he managed quite nicely. He sat down the first *16* Condors that stepped up, whiffing seven of them. Sooner or later, his luck ran out, when Jim Stein singled up the middle with one out in the sixth. Pineda bunted him to second, and Amador was ahead on Bruce Boyle when the 1-2 pitch hit the batter, but Juan Barrón grounded out to Palacios to end the frame. Top 7th, Beairsto and Palacios hit two of the cheapest singles we’d see all year to get the frame going. Amador bunted them into scoring position, and now we wanted to see something else than a walk: Guerin turned on an 0-1 pitch and fired it to left. The wind seemed to pick it up and it was GONE!!! CONCIE WITH A THREE-SHOT!!!

Euphoria soon settled down. Amador couldn’t get through the bottom of the 7th, walking Cicalina, and Román doubled, and Reya hit a sac fly. Eddie wound up loading the bases full, and when the Condors sent left-handed Raymond Sutton to hit for Pineda, we turned to Moreno, who balked before he ever threw a ball, and then had Palacios make a long stretch to intercept that first-pitch racing grounder off Sutton’s bat. Coons up by two with six outs to get. Martin made it three and six to start the eighth with a rocket that even the wind couldn’t stop, 5-2, and after Moreno got one and Bruno two outs in the eighth, Nordahl was brought in for the ninth. The first man he faced was Bartolo Román – homer. The defense then grabbed the balls it could. 5-3 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Beairsto 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Amador 6.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (2-3);

Nordahl now has 20 saves against seven homers, which is a crappy ratio for a closer. He allowed seven home runs in 2001 and 2002 as well, but in quite a few more innings, and then he didn’t all that other traffic going on.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Sharp – LF Moore – RF Brady – 3B Ingall – CF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – C Thomas – P F. Garcia
TIJ: 3B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – C Cicalina – 1B B. Román – RF Reya – CF Morton – LF MacGruder – 2B Stein – P Yates

Yates was moved up to this game, and he was second in the CL in strikeouts, so the Coons had to be on their claws. He had more K than Brown, f.e., but Brown’s K/9 was better.

In the first he walked, he balked, he allowed an RBI single to Clyde Brady, but after that he began to torment the Critters, striking out seven between the second and fourth innings. In the bottom of the latter, a wobbling Garcia finally fell over, conceding a run after a leadoff double by Bartolo Román, but fed Yates some of his own medicine with an inning-ending strikeout with two men on before it could get really ugly. Top 5th, Beairsto walked, and Palacios singled, and with zero out, that was something like a chance. Beairsto was on third base with two out for Guerin, but a wild pitch scored him before Guerin grounded out. That renewed lead didn’t make it far at all, as Urbano Cicalina mashed a score-levelling homer in the bottom of the same frame. Garcia left in the next inning, retiring only one, but loading the bases. Benton Wilson allowed a sac fly to Raymond Sutton, but struck out Boyle to keep the score at 3-2 for the home team. Yates had been hit for with Sutton, so we started seeing their pen as well in the seventh and Ingall started the meeting with a double off Tom Watkins in the top 7th. Thomas singled Ingall in with two down to tie it yet again, but when Martinez appeared in the bottom of the inning, faced three, put three on, and Huerta put two uncontested walks on top of that, the doors were blown off this game. Moreno got an out from Mitsuhide Suzuki, before Jim Stein singled to drive in the third run of the inning and keeping the bases loaded. Rafael Garcia hit for the pitcher, it would be his first plate appearance of the season. It was also a memorable one as his grand slam gave the Condors double digits, and Bruce Boyle followed it up with the back end of back-to-back homers. The unearned 3-run homer that Chris Beairsto hit of Jared Chaney in the eighth somehow went under in the wild celebrations of the Condors and their quite audible appendages in the stands. Beairsto also pitched the bottom 8th. He had pitched in high school and as a freshman in college, and he’d keep further damage from the pen. He struck out Luis Reya and had a perfect inning. 11-6 Condors. Beairsto 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI and 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Palacios 2-4; Thomas 2-4, RBI;

That experience was somewhere between somber and sobering, can’t decide. Does it matter? Found a store that has really ****ty stools.

Wait! Can Beairsto start? Vince? – No? – Then it’s the stool.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Beairsto – C Thomas – P Meza
TIJ: SS J. Barrón – 1B R. Garcia – C Cicalina – LF Reya – CF Morton – 2B B. Boyle – 3B Suzuki – RF MacGruder – P R. Ortíz

Ramón Ortíz came in 7-7 with a 3.73 ERA and a very Raccoonish 73 K in 149.2 innings pitched. He faced Meza, who wasn’t supposed to be here, but then *I* would know other places to be, too.

In the top fourth we got an example of why we are putting up with Beairsto’s off-the-charts strikeouts: his score-flipping 2-out, 2-run home run flew well clear of the 20-row bleacher section behind right field, and smashed a Pontiac’s windshield in the parking lot behind it. The Condors didn’t get much good contact off Meza, and when they got some, they made dumb errors on the basepaths, getting a runner thrown out at home early in the game, and another one when Cicalina went first-to-third on a Reya single that didn’t permit a snail as him to do that. Meza still botched the lead, although it took him longer than expected, all the way to the seventh. Joe Morton led off with a double, and then Meza walked Boyle without much fuss. With righty Mitsuhide Suzuki up, Meza time was over, Bruno came in for Suzuki, but drilled him. Wilson was next for MacGruder, who harvested a groundout after falling behind 0-2, scoring Morton from third to tie the game, 2-2. The Condors didn’t get any more, however, having Ortíz bunt the trailing run to second base only for Barrón to roll out to his counterpart Concie. The main benefit of Ortíz taking that bunt turned out to be him surrendering three singles in the top 8th for the Coons to swim up to the top, 3-2, again, and in the ninth Enrico Gonzalez started the frame with walks to Sharp and Concie. Reece singled, loading them up, but now the inning rapidly deflated, a run only scoring on a wild pitch by Gonzalez. Nordahl was tasked with the 4-2 lead to hold on to at least a .500 week, and this time did his job without any reality TV drama. 4-2 Raccoons. Martin 2-4, BB, 2B; Ingall 2-5, 2B; Thomas 2-4, RBI;

In other news

July 21 – VAN SP Joe Hollow (3-11, 5.10 ERA) is out for the year with shoulder inflammation.
July 25 – The Aces’ Anibal Sandoval (9-6, 2.62 ERA) 2-hits the Loggers in a 5-0 shutout.
July 25 – The Condors acquire SP Frank Pierre (6-6, 3.84 ERA) from the Aces for RF/LF Baden Speed, who had spent all of the 2003 season in the minor leagues for the Aces, batting .330 in 373 AB for the Los Reyes Crows.
July 25 – IND OF Matt MacKey (.259, 12 HR, 41 RBI) is out for a month with a hip muscle strain.
July 26 – Season over for SAL INF Kurt Metting (.285, 2 HR, 34 RBI), who has ruptured a finger tendon.
July 27 – And then it’s DAL RF/LF Artie Barnes (.294, 7 HR, 40 RBI) missing three weeks with a torn ankle ligament.

Complaints and stuff

Neil Reece’s ninth inning single on Sunday marks his 1,836th hit as a Raccoon. How is that important? He is now exactly 50 behind Daniel Hall for the franchise mark.

I waited all weekend to pun one out with “… and there was Pierre”, and then they don’t pitch him. Arf. Woulda been the highlight of my week, but then it’s going to be Edgar Amador’s 5.1 perfect frames that blew up in his face pretty much square.

Meza back in the rotation. How do I deserve this?

We could also flip Joly back into the rotation, and debut Lawrence Rockburn, a 23-year old righty reliever. He looks good in AAA. He’s got the name, but has he got the stuff?

And regarding starters, we are in fact out of pitchers. If another guy goes down, we might need to start Sergio Vega. It is THAT bad.

But did you notice that I haven't bitched about or current left-handed relief all year? Great, huh? They're both free agents, by the way.

[pjh5165]

How long of a leash does Nordahl have closing games? He's got the ugliest numbers in the entire pen right now.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by pjh5165

How long of a leash does Nordahl have closing games? He's got the ugliest numbers in the entire pen right now.

Our relief pitching according to Vince (because I suck and my opinion is mostly tarnished by booze and pills):

Marcos Bruno - 20/14/12 - dominant relief pitcher
Dan Nordahl - 20/14/11 - will give you quality innings
Manuel Martinez - 19/17/12 - solid reliever, setup guy
Ricardo Huerta - 18/13/15 - plus reliever
Domingo Moreno - 17/11/13 - average reliever
Benton Wilson - 15/12/10 - mop-up or left-handed specialist
Bob Joly - 9/14/15 - mop-up duty

Marcos Bruno has the better career ERA (3.38 to 4.10), but Nordahl was brought up too soon and ravaged when he was 20. Bruno walks too many, and Nordahl has the better K/9, but gives up more home runs. It's almost a wash. Bruno is 27, and Nordahl is 24.

Nordahl has not been that bad since April 20. In his last 25 games, he has pitched 29 innings and has allowed eight earned runs. That's a 2.48 ERA, which is acceptable. He is 14/16 in SV/OPP in that time frame, and won four games, against no losses. So, he was most horrible in the first two weeks of the season (8 ER in 5 G). Since then, it's mostly me exaggerating and/or panicking.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-54) vs. Thunder (50-47) – July 29-31, 2003

The Thunder had lost 24 of their last 35 games, but with a sweep in this series they could at least turn a .500 July, as the most damage had been done in late June, including a 7-game losing streak. It was absolutely amazing: they were leading the CL South despite scoring the least runs in the league! They were third in runs allowed, with a -18 run differential! Quite pathetic a division, huh? The Thunder don’t even have been plagued by injuries. They just don’t score. At all.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (5-10, 3.92 ERA) vs. Aaron Anderson (8-7, 3.03 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-4, 3.98 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (8-9, 3.99 ERA)
Edgar Amador (2-3, 5.40 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (6-7, 4.07 ERA)

That’s three right-handers.

Game 1
OCT: RF Rangel – CF Humphrey – SS Grant – 1B Higashi – 2B Kaustrop – C De La Parra – LF M. Rodriguez – 3B H. Castro – P Anderson
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – 2B Palacios – P Brown

Brown was still shell-shocked from Wednesday in Boston, and was total garbage, lasting only five innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and six walks. Butch Kaustrop infuriatingly reached base and scored three times, and Brown struck out only five. Once he was removed, the Raccoons trailed 5-1 with only one hit to their credit. Yeah, those Thunder, total suckers. Joly appeared in the sixth, faced four Thunder, and all four singled. Martinez replaced him, got a run-scoring grounder from Kaustrop, but surrendered another run on a single by De La Parra. That put the Raccoons down by seven and it was time to try and snooze off. Anderson gave up only one more hit in his eight innings, while the Thunder didn’t need to do any more. 8-1 Thunder. Reece 2-4; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Reece had two of our three singles, hitting another one in the ninth of Sergio Alvarez. The Thunder had 14 hits. It was … stark.

Game 2
OCT: LF F. Jones – CF Humphrey – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – SS Grant – C De La Parra – 2B Kaustrop – RF Mallinder – P Trevino
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Ingall – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – 2B Palacios – P Farley

Both teams had one hit through three innings, with the Critters’ coming off Farley’s bat. Humphrey singled to start the fourth, and then Higashi fired a liner up the left foul line and Reece hustled and grabbed it! The park burst into spontaneous cheers for franchise poster boy #2. In the bottom of the inning he drew a walk after Clyde Brady’s leadoff jack that made it 1-0 for the home team, and eventually scored on an Ingall single, 2-0. Trevino struggled all of a sudden and loaded them up with one out that was recorded when Martin grounded out on a 3-0 pitch. Palacios batted with three on and grounded a hopper under Trevino’s glove and up to second base, where Kaustrop was too slow and couldn’t make any play: infield single! Farley scored a run with a groundout, and then Sharp put Trevino to bed with a 3-run homer!! That was a most delicious 7-spot, and now it was hoping that Farley could make it through the fifth without getting lit up. This was one of his problems, not getting that shutdown inning, but this time he put up another zero, and another, and another. The seventh was where the problems started with a Bob Grant leadoff single, and then Sharp bumbled De La Parra’s grounder. While Farley got out unscathed, the long inning rocketed him over 100 pitches and he was left in the dugout for the eighth. Wilson got two, Joly four outs, of which three were to Beairsto in deep center. 8-0 Raccoons. Brady 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Palacios 2-4, RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (7-4) and 1-2, RBI;

Outside of that one inning, their 7-run fourth, the Coons didn’t do a lick. But the pitching held up phenomenally in this one, allowing four hits total.

Game 3
OCT: LF F. Jones – CF Humphrey – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – SS Grant – C De La Parra – 2B H. Castro – RF Rangel – P Higgins
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – CF Beairsto – P Amador

Amador was not any good, constantly pitching in bad counts. In the first three innings, he walked four and allowed two hits, and the Thunder left the bases loaded twice without scoring. His dumb luck ran out in the fourth inning, when back-to-back doubles by Alberto Rangel and Vaughn Higgins plated a total of three runs for the Thunder. Amador also lasted only five innings, and the pen was going to get strained some more. Aside from loading them up and leaving them that way in the fourth, the Raccoons were failing throughout the lineup, and didn’t score. In the top 6th, another chunk broke out of the roster when Clyde Brady ran into the wall in deep right snagging a foul ball. That was with Huerta pitching, and it soon got much worse score-wise. Bases loaded, two out, Higashi grounded to Ramirez, who threw the ball past Martin for two runs to come in, and then Tomas Cardenas doubled to right. Four unearned runs scored in the inning, making it 7-0, like it mattered. Ramirez made another ******ed error in the seventh, and the bullpen just couldn’t get that lost cause into the books, walking and walking and walking people. The Thunder failed to put up another big inning, but it was still a hopeless massacre. 8-0 Thunder. Brady 1-1, BB;

Raccoons had three hits. That was a sad series. There was not one tense game in there. And Ramirez had quite a day, 0-4 at the plate with two errors for five unearned runs…

Raccoons (47-56) vs. Bayhawks (39-64) – August 1-3, 2003

The Bayhawks were ninth in offense and soundly worst in defense in the CL, with their starters still running up a 5+ ERA, the worst mark around. The bullpen was actually good, with a third-place 3.00 ERA!

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (2-2, 3.79 ERA) vs. Miguel Diaz (3-12, 4.94 ERA)
Ramón Meza (1-3, 5.28 ERA) vs. Jose Hermundo (2-9, 4.75 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-11, 4.12 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (9-8, 3.55 ERA)

That will make for a week straight of right-handed pitchers. Whether we can solve these guys remains to be seen, however.

Game 1
SFB: RF Javier – LF R. Gonzalez – 1B D. Carroll – CF Arroyo – 3B Foster – C Aguilar – SS J. Perez – 2B Bulco – P M. Diaz
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P F. Garcia

Garcia struggled from the start, and while the Bayhawks stranded pairs of runners in each of the first two innings, in the third Paco Javier set an exclamation mark with a home run to center. He needed 101 pitches to get through five innings, with the Bayhawks unable to deliver a decisive blow. In the bottom 5th Diaz formally invited them to the game after allowing only two runners in the first four innings. He walked Beairsto and Torrez with no outs, and then Thomas singled to right, enabling Beairsto to score the tying run. Garcia popped up a bunt for the first out, and Guerin grounded into a fielder’s choice. That left them on the corners for Sharp, who found himself ahead 3-0 before he sliced into the next pitch. It went over the infield and well over a launching Arroyo, from whom it would carom away upon hitting the centerfield wall. Sharp had a 2-run triple, making it 3-1, but was left on after Palacios walked and then was right picked off. Garcia was wrung out for 6.2 innings, still holding that 3-1 lead, although he pitched in deep counts all the time. But the bottom line was that he survived and took some pressure of the bullpen which the Thunder had beleaguered earlier in the week. Eddie Torrez made it 4-1 with a 1-out home run in the seventh, and the Bayhawks fell apart in a 4-run eighth. Jim Brulhart hit an RBI double off Marcos Bruno in the ninth, but the game was not going to get away. 8-2 Raccoons. Palacios 1-2, 2 BB; Ingall (PH) 1-1; Torrez 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Garcia 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (3-2);

L 8-1, W 8-0, L 8-0, W 8-2; pattern developing.

Game 2
SFB: CF Bulco – SS J. Perez – C Aguilar – 1B D. Carroll – 3B Foster – RF R. Gonzalez – LF Arroyo – 2B J. Diaz – P Hermundo
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – P Meza

Chris Beairsto’s home run in the bottom 2nd put the Coons atop 1-0, but that lead turned out to not only be non-permanent, but also quite short-lived. Concie was the bloke, throwing away Hermundo’s grounder to lead off the third, and the Bayhawks brought him in to tie the score. The tie was short-lived as well. In the bottom of the frame, both Sharp and Concie singled through on the left side and Martin came up with an awe-inspiring 3-run homer well out of centerfield. When Beairsto tripled in the fourth, it didn’t only push his average over .200, it also knocked off the hard parts of the cycle. Top 5th, the fool Meza blew that lead, too, putting on Aguilar and then allowing back-to-back home runs to Carroll and Foster. Again, the Coons came scrambling right back in the bottom of the frame. Sharp and Concie were on again for Martin, this time in scoring position and actually scoring when Martin singled into left to make it 6-4. Next was Reece and fired a liner to center that eluded about everybody and Reece was comfortably safe with an RBI triple, and scored on a wild pitch, but Beairsto struck out, kind of ending his bid unless the Bayhawks, with Hermundo booked for seven runs, would break apart completely. Anyway, even up 8-4 Meza still sucked balls and was removed with runners on second and third in the top 6th. Martinez came in and was 0-2 on Jose Perez before allowing a 2-run single, so in the end, BOTH starters were soiled with six runs. And it just wouldn’t stop – for the Raccoons. Huerta failed in the seventh, Wilson came in, failed as well, and Juan Diaz put the Bayhawks on top with a 2-run homer to make it 9-8. Marcos Bruno couldn’t get out of the inning either, and the miserable Bayhawks put up a 5-spot on the even more miserable bullpen. Bottom 7th, leadoff jack by Al Martin, 11-9 for the other guys, in case you had given up counting somewhere. The Coons came up with three more singles by Reece, Beairsto, and Ingall to plate another run, but were still short. The madness had yet to stop. Top 8th, Moreno walked Ramiro Gonzalez before Arroyo singled and Moreno threw a wild one to move them into scoring position with one out. Then he struck out Diaz and Ismael Navarro hit a hard grounder to third that Sharp nabbed and played to first to keep the Bayhawks from scoring – this time – but another run fell out of him in the top 9th, which meant that the Raccoons faced Johnny Smith and his 5.6 K/BB and 1.03 ERA in the bottom 9th and were looking for two runs. Beairsto led off, needing a double, but struck out, and nobody got on. 12-10 Bayhawks. Sharp 2-5; Guerin 3-5; Martin 3-4, BB, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Reece 2-5, 3B, RBI; Beairsto 3-5, HR, 3B, RBI; Ramirez (PH) 1-1; Ingall (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Well, ****. Scoring double digits and losing sucks balls. But has a Raccoonish taste to it.

Also sucking balls was the need to put Clyde Brady on the DL with a mild shoulder strain. He might be back after two weeks. Maybe not. 25-year old LF/RF Jorge Rodriguez, our 1999 second round pick, was added to the 40-man roster and called up. He was batting a meager .234/.304/.421 with 7 HR and 30 RBI in 64 games in AAA, but well, somebody’s gotta wear that uniform.

Game 3
SFB: RF Javier – SS J. Perez – C Aguilar – LF Brulhart – 1B D. Carroll – 3B Foster – CF Bulco – 2B I. Navarro – P R. Sanchez
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – CF Torrez – P Brown

Brown was whacked around in the first inning for a bunch of hard hit fly balls and if Torrez hadn’t made two amazing shags, he would have bled much more than just one run. He somehow held on to bare live the next few innings, then found himself ahead 2-1 when Martin sent one deep for #17 in the third. Bottom 4th, Thomas and Torrez reached to start the inning and Brown feigned a bunt on the first pitch then swung the bat and beat the baffled defense up the middle with a single. Bases loaded, no outs, Sharp struck out, but Concie walked, and Palacios grounded up the middle past Navarro’s reach, 4-1, but that was it for the frame. Brown, who needed 41 pitches for the first two innings, got better once he pitched to contact, getting mostly poor one, and his next 44 pitches covered four innings, and those were scoreless. Dumb luck also played a role. Jesse Foster doubled with one out in the seventh, and we went to “maybe one more?”, which turned out to be two when Trystao Bulco lined right back to Brown, who whirled around and picked a confused Foster off second base to end the inning. Brown was gone after walking Luis Arroyo in the eighth, but then was up by five, with Beairsto having another homer in the game. It was not a save situation, but we didn’t feel like creating one, and Nordahl came out, since everybody else was half dead. Jorge Rodriguez entered in the double switch and made his major league debut, leading off the bottom 8th, but flew out. Nordahl held up, K’ing two. 6-1 Furballs. Palacios 2-4, RBI; Brown 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-11) and 2-3; Nordahl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

That was our last series against the Bayhawks. We beat them 5-4, our first season victory over them since ’98.

Anybody remember Salvarado Soure? He was one of Vince’s discoveries and a throw-in in the Cavazos trade. He’s now up in the Bigs and in this series beat Neil Reece twice with men in scoring position. Oh well, we can’t always be right. Or ever.

In other news

July 28 – RIC INF Bob Hall (.288, 10 HR, 52 RBI) could miss most of the rest of the season with a sore shoulder. He will be out for five to six weeks at least.
July 30 – The Rebels and Falcons strike a deal that sends 1B Paco Batlle (.271, 13 HR, 56 RBI) to Richmond in exchange for SP Greg Grams (7-4, 3.80 ERA), who is 31. The teams also exchange non-prospects.
July 31 – TIJ INF Bruce Boyle (.248, 12 HR, 47 RBI) makes history, connecting for four hits, one of each kind, against the Loggers in a 5-3 Condors win. Boyle thus hits for the 31st cycle in ABL history, and for the first in almost three years since Nashville’s Felix Hernandez cycled in September of 2000. Boyle also connects for the fourth cycle in Condors history, the first team to get that many, and also becomes only the second player to ever hit multiple cycles after Carlos León. He had previously cycled against the Knights in 1992. The other cyclers for the Condors were Thomas Martin in 1988 and Martin Horn in 1998.
August 3 – ATL LF/RF Alejandro Rodriguez (.315, 1 HR, 42 RBI) hits the DL with tendinitis in his hamstring. He might miss the rest of the month.

Complaints and stuff

Tried to trade Palacios at the deadline. We got one offer. Lance Hitchcock. That would have been a player I was after five years ago, but now he’s 33, and overpaid. So, we passed on the instant trade, and instead will look forward to get draft picks for him.

Last year, Ralph Ford had 10 wins by June. This year, it’s already August, and Randy leads the team with seven wins. Marcos Bruno actually ties for third place on the team with a guy on the DL and a guy that was traded six weeks ago.

As we mentioned it recently in the Liberty League thread, here’s the Raccoons’ top 10 in triples for the franchise (number of seasons in parenthesis):

1st – Daniel Hall – 51 (17)
t-2nd – Neil Reece – 39 (15)
t-2nd – Conceicao Guerin – 39 (8)
4th – Ben O’Morrissey – 36 (10)
5th – Matt Higgins – 31 (9)
6th – Jorge Salazar – 26 (8)
7th – Bobby Quinn – 19 (7)
t-8th – Vern Kinnear – 18 (7)
t-8th – David Brewer – 18 (3)
t-8th – David Vinson – 18 (10)

Looks kind of balanced. Even Tetsu had 16 triples in nine years. Excluding pitchers, the most AB for a player without a triple for the Raccoons is 475 for early backup catcher Kieran Lawson. Among players with LOTS of AB, our first first baseman Wyatt Johnston had only three triples in 2,596 AB, but he was already ancient when the Raccoons started play. For long time starting pitchers, f.e., Kisho Saito (1,121 AB) had one triple, Scott Wade (933 AB) had three, and Logan Evans (674 AB) had none, and no pitcher with more AB has zero.

The numbers may be *a bit* on the low side, but not dramatically.

With his recent power surge, Al Martin has taken over fifth place in the all-time homers list for Raccoons, passing Royce Green’s mark of 89. The top 5 now look like this:

1st – Daniel Hall – 223
2nd – Mark Dawson – 221
3rd – Tetsu Osanai – 168
4th – Neil Reece – 165
5th – Albert Martin – 92

Al is only 13th in RBI in franchise history, but climbing. Seven more, and he’ll tie Sam Dadswell’s 338 RBI attained in the 80s.

Ah, the 80s. I miss them. We only made the playoffs twice, but were winning most of the time.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (49-57) @ Falcons (49-54) – August 4-6, 2003

Another example of a thoroughly mediocre CL South were the Falcons being five games under .500, but only four games out of first place. There wasn’t anything particularly good about their roster. So, somehow just another Raccoons team.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (7-4, 3.75 ERA) vs. Dylan Jones (11-7, 3.89 ERA)
Edgar Amador (2-4, 5.40 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (11-8, 4.46 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (3-2, 3.43 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (13-9, 3.22 ERA)

49 wins on this team and we’re gonna face 35 of them, great. Those are also three left-handers, another oddity that is going to befall us in this midweek melee.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – CF Torrez – P Farley
CHA: CF Hudson – LF R. Wilson – RF J. Lugo – C F. Chavez – 1B H. Green – SS Vieitas – 3B S. Moore – 2B A. Ramirez – P D. Jones

Through four innings, we lived a nightmare. We had no hits, just two walks, and those runners got erased as Jones faced the minimum. We had little pitching, as Farley struggled to throw strikes, and the Falcons got on easily. And we had fielding, but it was of the scary sort, with Guerin dropping Farley’s throw in the bottom 2nd that loaded the bases and let the Falcons score the first run of the game. It was 2-0 after four for the home team, and Ingall drew another walk in the fifth. Oh, well, another runner to get picked off. Beairsto came off and – holy cow – that pitch was crushed clear to the Atlantic: game-tying 2-run homer, well over the 410ft fence. Before the Falcons could regroup, the Coons took the lead, 3-2, when Farley doubled through Steve Moore and Torrez scored from first base. That remained the score through seven, when Sharp’s leadoff double and a subsequent wild pitch allowed Guerin to plate Sharp with a single up the middle to make it 4-2. Concie was not scored, and Farley did not re-appear for the eighth after expending 107 pitches. By the time he had wrapped his arm with a towel, the lead was gone, with Moreno serving up a homer to Fernando Chavez, walking two, and Martinez then came in and allowed a single, a wild pitch, and so on. The inning ended when Neil Reece hammered out Pedro Estrada at home, but now the Coons trailed by a run, facing closer Luis Hernandez, who didn’t throw a strike to the first three batters. Beairsto grounded out, but Thomas and Torrez walked. Their pitching coach jogged out to choke Hernandez some, and he then returned to strike out Palacios and Sharp. 5-4 Falcons. Beairsto 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K and 1-2, 2B, RBI;

Yay, our bullpen. Blech. Another one of those truly unnecessary losses where the assumed relief man just forgoes basic pitching principles - … like, you know, throw one over the plate once in a while. And in general, throw them only where your catcher can theoretically reach them.

Game 2
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Reece – 2B Ingall – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Amador
CHA: CF Hudson – LF R. Wilson – RF J. Lugo – C F. Chavez – 1B H. Green – SS Vieitas – 3B McGreary – 2B S. Moore – P M. Hernandez

Offense was expensive early on, but in the bottom 4th the Raccoons were not hit hard only once, but twice. First Concie got himself hurt on a launching play, and after we replaced him with Palacios (and Ingall moving to short), Hubert Green hit a booming home run right away to get some scoring onto the board. But! The Raccoons did get going eventually, right in the next inning. After Torrez made an out, Amador hit a rocket that fell onto the warning track and arrived at second base eventually, thoroughly exhausted, as badly out of shape he was. Sharp singled, but Amador was never to score on such a thing. However, Palacios singled, and THAT scored the tying run in our bulky pitcher. Reece grounded to short, but past the reach of Herberto Vieitas and Sharp was sent and scored for the lead. After Ingall made the second out, Beairsto came up and – oh, wow. Wow. Just wow. That thing was not only outta here, it didn’t come down again until two zip codes over – 3-run homer!! That put the Coons up 5-1. Amador was very good through five, but in the sixth, the roof caved in. One run already in, the Falcons had them loaded with one out. But his stuff was still biting, and the #8 guy Steve Moore was up. He could probably take on Moore – and he struck him out. Now back in the groove, we also had him face pinch-hitter Pedro Estrada, who was not a power guy, and a right-hander anyway. Whoops, where was that liner goin’? Okay, two runs scored, and now Huerta came in and sat down John Hudson, but now our nice lead was down to a single run. Huerta managed to somehow pitch around a Jose Lugo triple in the bottom 7th, and Bruno walked a pair, but somehow we even survived that in the eighth. But we still had Nordahl available to blow it up. Bottom 9th, Wilson grounded out, and he whiffed Lugo. Then Chavez singled. Hubert Green doubled, putting the winning runs in scoring position for the Falcons with two out and Herberto Vieitas batting, a shortstop with oomph, and a switch-hitter. He made contact with the 1-1 pitch, sailing it out to left center. And funny thing was, Torrez had been moved to first base, after Martin had pinch-hit for Sharp against a right-handed reliever in the top of the ninth. Between Reece and Beairsto, there was plenty of space for that one to fall in. 6-5 Falcons. Palacios 2-2, BB, RBI; Reece 2-5, RBI; Huerta 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Nordahl… I really wanted to like him, but that little piece of dirt is starting to really tick me off.

Neil Reece stole his first base since 2000 in this game. That’s probably it for this year. The last year he managed to swipe more than one bag was 1993.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS M. Ramirez – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – CF Torrez – P F. Garcia
CHA: CF Hudson – LF R. Wilson – RF J. Lugo – C F. Chavez – 1B H. Green – SS Vieitas – 3B McGreary – 2B Starks – P T. Wilson

When Beairsto made it a dinger a day with a second inning solo home run, that was the first run of the game. The run didn’t stay alone on the board for long, as the Falcons rapped Garcia for two in the bottom of the frame, and another one in the third. The Coons didn’t have much going on – except for Beairsto. He hit another bang in the fourth, solo again, because nobody else got on. The next time he came up, the Falcons fed him junk, he walked, and they got him erased on Mark Thomas’ double play grounder. The Coons still trailed 3-2 when Beairsto was up again, this time with Ramirez on second and no outs. It was not an intentional walk in the way of the catcher stepping out by six feet, but it came pretty close. Now we used Thomas to bunt and hoped to avoid to have two turned again, which worked, and then Torrez singled up the middle, and both runs scored! That was a 4-3 lead, and then we instantly got to see the bullpen mangle that lead again. Huerta got two men out, then walked Green. Wilson came in to throw a wild one and allow a single to Vieitas, and then we brought Bruno against Pedro Estrada. Bruno would manage something rare: allowing two 3-run home runs in one inning. Estrada was first, and Hudson was second. And the Coons lost. 9-5 Falcons. Palacios 2-5, HR, RBI; Beairsto 2-2, 2 BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Torrez 4-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

(throws paper off the desk in disgust) I would really love to give you a detailed report on what is wrong and how we fix it, but truth be told, this is all completely ****ed up and it will never get any better anymore.

Never.

Raccoons (49-60) @ Indians (52-56) – August 7-10, 2003

They had some of this and some of that, and most importantly, the Raccoons are ****. The Indians’ most remarkable feature was a 3.67 rotation ERA, second in the CL, and a tough nut to crack for a team of castaways, or more precisely, throwaways.

Projected matchups:
Ramón Meza (1-3, 5.75 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (3-5, 3.10 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-11, 3.95 ERA) vs. Alonso Alonso (8-8, 3.83 ERA)
Randy Farley (7-4, 3.61 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (7-11, 3.48 ERA)
Edgar Amador (2-4, 5.50 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (4-6, 4.22 ERA)

Another left-hander, then three right-handers. Not that it matters. Our guys will find a way to give up another 34 runs in this series.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS M. Ramirez – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – CF Torrez – P Meza
IND: LF Alvarez – 2B D. Mendez – RF Alston – CF Cavazos – SS M. Jones – C Bowen – 1B Montray – 3B Harris – P Hamilton

The Raccoons struck first again, and again with a solo home run. This time Martin hit his 18th of the year in the top 4th, after both teams combined for three soft singles in the first three innings. Like all things good in Coon City, it didn’t last long. Bottom 4th, Mike Jones homered, and we are tied at one. The Indians were just getting warm, and Meza stopped surrendering people in the bottom 5th altogether. Bases loaded, no outs, and while Cavazos popped out for the first out, Meza then in succession walked and balked, and Montray put the nails into it with a 2-out, 2-run double that made it 5-1 eventually. Bottom 6th, Hamilton led off with a single and Meza’s last act before he was put in a sack and shipped back to Santa Banana was drilling Jesus Alvarez. Joly came in and threw four balls to Mendez, then walked another one, and a single to Cavazos … the Indians scored three more runs, left them loaded, and would put three on again in the eighth, but didn’t score either. In the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter by a long shot. Al Martin was the last Raccoon to touch third base. 8-1 Indians. Martin 2-4, HR, RBI;

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Beairsto – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – SS Ingall – CF Torrez – P Brown
IND: LF Alvarez – 2B D. Mendez – RF Alston – C Paraz – CF Cavazos – 1B B. Morris – SS M. Jones – 3B Harris – P A. Alonso

Alonso didn’t get a decision, leaving in the second with an injury, although by that time Jose Paraz had put the Indians ahead 2-0 with a ringing shot in the first. Brown was wonky, and if the Indians had put up eight WITHOUT their big bats the day before, they’d easily swamp him for as much here. Bottom 3rd, Brown walked Alston, walked Paraz, and Cavazos singled, all with two out. Bob Morris launched a 3-1 liner to left that found Reece more than Reece found him, but it counted for the third out. Brown didn’t surrender anything else through six innings of work and was actually quite good in the latter three, not issuing another walk after dealing out four in the first three innings. He was hit for in the top 7th with two out and Ingall and Torrez representing the tying and go-ahead runs in a 2-1 deficit. Dale Moore popped out. The bullpen almost became unwound in the eighth, but Beairsto saved two runs with a headlong catch. That still made them winners. They still trailed in the ninth, 2-1, facing Iemitsu Rin with Martin batting first. After Rin disposed of the shadows of Martin and Reece, Miguel Ramirez had a pinch-hit single up the middle. Ingall fired a ball to deep left that got the home team’s fans squeaking briefly, but ultimately Jesus Alvarez made a leisure catch. 2-1 Indians. Ramirez (PH) 1-1;

Concie was put on the DL today with an oblique strain. He will get back in late September, but that won’t help us keeping the snouts above the waterline. Manny Gabriel was called up, batting .311 in AAA, but we know he sucks in the spotlight, yet we need a shortstop. Marvin Ingall gets you only that far. I would dig it if Ramirez could play a decent short, but his best position is third, and he keeps botching things one spot over.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Beairsto – 1B Martin – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – SS Gabriel – LF J. Rodriguez – P Farley
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – C Paraz – CF Cavazos – 2B D. Mendez – RF C. Rey – LF J. Alvarez – SS Kilters – P P Moreau

We’d force feed Moreau seven left-handed batters. See how he likes that.

The game started with two singles by Sharp and Palacios before Sharp was caught in a rundown, Beairsto made something dumb as well, and - … by contrast, Farley allowed a single to the first two batters as well, he was Mr. Singles after all, but those two managed to stay on the base paths. For good measure he added a balk and allowed Paraz to sacrifice in Montray for the first run of the game. Two more singles in the second, but no runs, and in the third, Farley allowed leadoff single to Jones and Paraz, then threw a wild one. Cavazos floated a soft line to center, where Torrez made the catch, and Jones started for home, where Torrez hammered him out for a double play. Then Farley walked the bags full versus David Mendez and Claudio Rey. Somehow Alvarez rolled into an out, but Farley wasn’t going to last long. The Raccoons were irrelevant for five innings, before Sharp singled to start the top 6th. That was their fourth hit, and half of them by right-handers (read: Sharp). Palacios was plunked and then Beairsto singled.

Okay, we have a 1-0 deficit, three on, and nobody out. Would someone kindly step forward and smack one?

No. Martin lobbed out to shallow left, with the tardy Sharp having no hope of scoring. Then Ledesma grounded to second for a pair. Farley, who allowed a flurry of base runners with seven hits and four walks, didn’t get through the sixth and was replaced by Wilson with two in scoring position and two outs and Montray up. Wilson took care of the lefty with a K and the score remained 1-0. That remained the score through eight, and there’s Rin. He probably was licking his lips to face Torrez, Gabriel, and Rodriguez, but the bench was still full except for Marv. Well, Torrez batted, and flew out. Then came Reece and Thomas, and those two didn’t even manage to get the lumber on the leather. 1-0 Indians. Sharp 2-4;

Game 4
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – RF J. Rodriguez – P Amador
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – LF Alston – C Paraz – 2B D. Mendez – RF C. Rey – CF Alvarez – SS Kilters – P Jimenez

Martin killed the first inning with a double play. In the second, the Raccoons had the misfortune to get Amador to the plate with three on and no outs. Eddie at least lofted one to right that Claudio Rey couldn’t get back in in time for nab Ramirez at home, 1-0 Coons. Torrez singled, and then Palacios popped out to short. Hnn-gggh!! The third and fourth were scary innings for Amador, with the Indians sprinkling runners all over the place but not getting them in. After that run in the second, the Raccoons had just one scoring opportunity in the fifth, and apart from that waited for a big bang in the bottom half of the line score, only to then shrug and say “Well, at least we tried”. Mike Jones led off the bottom 8th with a double, which got Amador knocked from the game, as we preferred a left-hander against the big boys. However, groundouts by Alston and Paraz brought Jones around to score and we were tied, in another chapter of futility, this time written by Benton Wilson, who didn’t do anything wrong, but didn’t do anything right either. Ledesma doubled off Terry Harris to start the top 9th, and here we used Ramirez to bunt him into scoring position as we are DESPERATE for a run. Ramirez bunted so badly that Ledesma got forced, and the Raccoons ended up leaving two men on. Nordahl needed some work, so we forfeited the game. Ah, not quite. He put Chris Kilters on with two out, but then Torrez snagged the deep fly unleashed by Craig Bowen to spoil the Indians’ party. For a second. Bottom 10th, Manuel Martinez drilled Montray, walked Jones, but Alston flew out to Reece on 3-2. Didn’t matter. Martinez walked Paraz on four straight to load them up. Marcos Bruno came in to face David Mendez, struck him out, and then Jimmy Holbrook popped out. Bruno also pitched the 11th, but by the 12th we were stuck with Bob Joly. He struck out Montray, then walked Jones, walked Alston, and there was nobody left to rescue him. Paraz walked on four pitches once again, and Mendez walked off his team with a first-pitch single. 2-1 Indians. Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

We had five hits. We had 50 hits for the entire week.

In other news

August 4 – Nashville’s Carlos Castro (15-5, 2.74 ERA) strikes out 15 Pacifics in an 8-1 Blue Sox win, allowing only six hits and a walk in a complete game effort.
August 7 – MIL SP Doug Morrow (12-7, 3.93 ERA) spins a 2-hitter in a 2-0 shutout of the Canadiens.
August 8 – TOP OF Lionnel Perri (.315, 20 HR, 96 RBI) has manufactured a 20-game hitting streak with a 1-6 day in a 10-5 win over the Cyclones.
August 9 – Another 20 pops up with ATL C Ricardo Valadez (.273, 2 HR, 27 RBI) showing some consistency and a second-inning single in a 13-2 smothering the Knights get handed by the Aces.

Complaints and stuff

Hard to find words.

[Questdog]

That was one rough week, compadre.....