Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

2003 PLAYOFFS

The 2003 FLCS will see two teams who made the playoffs both once in the past two years, and will make their fourth appearance in total. The 94-68 Buffaloes are going to host the 93-69 Gold Sox, with the latter making the playoffs for back-to-back seasons. The Gold Sox were the 1985 champions, the Buffaloes have never won a title.

In the CLCS, the 85-77 Falcons, who made the playoffs for only the third time and the first since 1982, and have never won a title, face a steep uphill battle against the 107-55 Titans, a powerhouse that has won 100+ games in each of the last three years, will make its sixth playoff appearance, all of those within the last seven years, and won the title in 1998, 2002, and 2003.

The Falcons don’t quite know even how they were washed up in this lucky spot. The CL South was thoroughly mediocre overall, but the Falcons’ 85 wins is not even the least any playoff team has ever had. The 1994 Loggers won the CL North with 85 wins, but a year before that, the Stars won only 83 games and made the October show! The Falcons are playing successful small ball offense, with high OBP and few strikeouts and homers. Unfortunately their pitching is thoroughly mediocre. Their best starter was Dylan Jones at 18-11 and a 3.82 ERA. The back end of the bullpen is strong with setup Cory Maupin and closer Luis Hernandez being among the best in the game, but the middle relief is as squishy as the rotation. Offensively, they can’t offer much punch, with Hubert Green, who took over the franchise hits mark this year, hitting .285 with 16 homers and 99 driven in and standing out by far. Then they lose young outfield hotshot .307 batter Ralph Wilson two days before the playoffs because he tried to tear a phonebook in half, and their normal primary catcher Miguel Castillo is also out after appearing in only 21 games this year due a torn labrum.

The Titans also suffered a bad blow when 21-game winner Jason O’Halloran went down with a torn back muscle in the final week of the regular season. Unlike the Falcons, they have more where that 2.63 ERA came from. Even though they will have to replace O’Halloran with Ben Carlson, their remaining three starters are well enough to not be stricken by fear. Jorge Chapa (19-8, 3.20 ERA), Bryce Hildred (16-11, 2.84 ERA), and Joe Mann (15-7, 3.13 ERA) should be more than enough to handle the Falcons. They top this with a strong bullpen, a closer John Bennett who saved 50 games on a 1.62 ERA, and a tough-as-nails lineup, featuring – among others! – C Luis Lopez (.266, 17 HR, 77 RBI), and outfielders Gonzalo Munoz (.281, 23 HR, 93 RBI), Rudy Garrison (.274, 9 HR, 79 RBI), and Christian Greenman (.228, 13 HR, 38 RBI). It is tough to come up with a scenario in which the Titans, who led the CL in almost all pitching categories, and were top 3 in almost all batting categories, will not just stomp over the Falcons and annihilate them swiftly.

In the Federal League, both teams in the FLCS know how to hit, although they do it a bit differently, but only one can pitch. That team is the Buffaloes. They rank top 2 in almost all pitching categories, except home runs allowed, while pairing that with a normally very dense lineup. Their rotation is anchored by 21-5 Tony Hamlyn, who pitched to a stellar-as-usual 2.51 ERA this year, and while the rest of the rotation is not quite as shiny, the bullpen is quite capable at extinguishing fires. They have two 20+ HR hitters in outfielders Javier Gusmán and Lionnel Perri, with support from 1B Matt Brown and 2B Georg Spinu, but Spinu also reached base at an outrageous .449 pace! Jon Merritt had a .427 OBP, both of those two drawing over 100 walks, Spinu even 136! They are in trouble, though: injuries. The back end of the pen lacks Arthur Joplin (0.55 ERA! And not even closing full time!), who is out with elbow inflammation, and 1B Jose Valenzuela and RF Paul Theobald from their lineup. Theobald missed 118 games after a severe concussion suffered on May 30, and was not activated for the FLCS.

The Gold Sox also enjoy playing small ball, not hitting many home runs, in fact the least in the Federal League, but managed to get on base a lot as a team, although they lack any Spinu-like beasts, except for Zak Davidson, who OPS’ed .828 mainly on singles and 102 walks drawn. Nobody hit more than 15 homers, or drove in even close to 100 runs for them, but that’s another sign of a balanced lineup: they have five players with 70+ RBI, and NINE with 50+ RBI! They mostly key on outfielders Pedro Pujols (.325, 15 HR, 92 RBI) and Dale Wales (.318, 10 HR, 80 RBI) to get things done. Their undoing might be pitching. The bullpen was the best in the Federal League, with an especially strong back end, with Lawrence Bentley (2.14 ERA), Antonio Donis (2.51 ERA), and Scott Hood (2.60 ERA, 39 SV). But the rotation was *ravaged* by injuries, with three starters unavailable for the playoffs, although Chang-se Park *could* potentially be ready in time for the World Series – if the Gold Sox can reach it. As things stand now, their top pitcher for the playoffs is a rather unexciting Andres Gamez (13-9, 3.73 ERA). This should give the Buffaloes a clear edge.

2003 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Gold Sox @ Buffaloes … 13-3 … (Gold Sox lead 1-0) … DEN David Estrada 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W; DEN Dale Wales 3-5, BB, HR, 2B, 5 RBI;
Falcons @ Titans … 5-6 (10) … (Titans lead 1-0) … BOS Howard Bryant (PH) 1-1, 2B, 3 RBI; CHA Luis Hernandez walks three in the bottom 10th to lose

Gold Sox @ Buffaloes … 3-1 (11) … (Gold Sox lead 2-0) … TOP Tony Hamlyn 10.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K; Jesus Rivera homers off Roberto Delgado for the win
Falcons @ Titans … 6-5 … (series tied 1-1) … BOS Rudy Garrison 3-4, BB, 3 RBI; CHA Hubert Green 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI;

Buffaloes @ Gold Sox … 6-3 … (Gold Sox lead 2-1) … TOP Javier Gusmán 4-5, 2 RBI;
Titans @ Falcons … 2-3 (11) … (Falcons lead 2-1) … BOS Fernando Diéguez 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; this time, the Titan’s Xavier Herrera walks three en route to a walkoff

Buffaloes @ Gold Sox … 4-1 … (series tied 2-2) … TOP Dan George 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W;
Titans @ Falcons … 10-4 … (series tied 2-2) … BOS Fernando Diéguez (PH) 1-1, 2B, 3 RBI; Titans plate six in the sixth

Buffaloes @ Gold Sox … 4-5 … (Gold Sox lead 3-2) … TOP Georg Spinu 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gold Sox do all the damage in the fifth against Tony Hamlyn
Titans @ Falcons … 1-3 … (Falcons lead 3-2) … CHA Terry Wilson 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 0 K, W;

Gold Sox @ Buffaloes … 8-1 … (Gold Sox win 4-2) … DEN Andres Gamez 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W; DEN Johnny Johnson 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; DEN Samy Michel 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI;
Falcons @ Titans … 6-9 … (series tied 3-3) … CHA Jose Ramirez 4-4, BB; BOS Masaaki Matsumoto 1-2, 2 BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Titans plate six in the fifth

Falcons @ Titans … 2-3 … (Titans win 4-3) … BOS Joe Mann 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W; Matsumoto scores Daniel Silva with a single in the eighth for the winning run

---

That was a gigantic bullet the Titans dodged. Nobody quite expected that they would have so much trouble with the pesky Falcons. The question is, are they the favorites? Well, the Gold Sox still have no pitching.

These two teams have never faced each other in a World Series. It is only the second Big Show for the Gold Sox other than their 1985 championship, long before the Titans ever made the playoffs at all.

The Titans are only the second team that re-appears in the World Series as twice-defending champions. The other team were the 1992 Capitals, who had won the title in 1990 and 1991, but lost the middle of three straight Capitals-Raccoons series to the Oregonians (as they would in 1993). The Titans are the 2001 and 2002 champions. Thus, no team has ever won three straight titles, and only those 1990-91 Capitals, 1992-93 Raccoons, 2001-02 Titans, plus the 1986-87 Blue Sox have won back-to-back championships. What’s more, only the Capitals (1991-92, 1996) and Titans (1998, 2001-02) have won three titles, so the Titans could become the first team to win FOUR!

The Gold Sox add Chang-se Park, who hasn’t pitched in six and a half months, to the roster, but they lost 40-year old Dale Wales to back spasms in the FLCS. The Titans lost infielder Victor Flores to a thumb sprain. It doesn’t really change the key issue here, a wonky Gold Sox rotation and a monstrous offense for the Titans, that nevertheless failed to sledgehammer their way through the Falcons. The Titans still are the favorites.

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2003 WORLD SERIES

Gold Sox @ Titans … 5-4 … (Gold Sox lead 1-0) … DEN Jesus Rivera (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; BOS Christian Greenman 3-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Rivera’s homer comes with two out in the ninth off John Bennett

Gold Sox @ Titans … 4-2 … (Gold Sox lead 2-0) … BOS Ben Carlson 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; Titans lose in the ninth again!

Titans @ Gold Sox … 1-3 … (Gold Sox lead 3-0) … DEN Paco Martinez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W; BOS Masaaki Matsumoto 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

Titans @ Gold Sox … 8-5 … (Gold Sox lead 3-1) … DEN Pedro Pujols 3-5, 3B, 2 2B, 3 RBI; BOS Gonzalo Munoz 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; BOS Mark Austin 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

The Titans announced after game 4 that CL John Bennett was out with shoulder inflammation.

Titans @ Gold Sox … 7-6 (13) … (Gold Sox lead 3-2) … BOS Rudy Garrison 2-3, 3 BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; BOS Luis Lopez 2-5, 2 BB, 3 RBI; BOS Risto Mäkelä 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W; both teams went to extras at 4-4, scored single runs in BOTH the 10th and the 11th, before the Titans made it through

Gold Sox @ Titans … 3-1 … (Gold Sox win 4-2) … DEN Juan Rodriguez 8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, W; Scott Hood saves the game

2003 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
DENVER GOLD SOX
(2nd title)

[Westheim]

Odd notes

The Gold Sox went 6-0 in playoff road games, and 2-4 at home. Well, that’s one way to do it. Paco Martinez, Samy Michel, and Antonio Donis on that team, all ex-Coons.

Marvin Ingall was diagnosed with a knee sprain. It is not relevant right now, but he will be fine if we want to re-sign him. No amputation necessary.

The Thunder are now the most successful team in terms of all time record. They top the Condors by three games. Blue Sox, Capitals, Warriors round out the top 5. Talk about small market teams having no success. The Raccoons dropped past the Buffaloes to 16th all time, now 47 under at 2,164-2,211.

Dennis Fried signed a 2-yr, $3.56M extension with the Blue Sox. He’s 205-134 with a 3.60 ERA and 2,053 K. Why exactly did we trade him?

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Service announcement: The Raccoons will take a short break for technical reasons, mostly related to the out-of-control financial things. Normal service (read: more losing seasons) will resume soon, or maybe a bit later.

[Westheim]

Portland, that little town in the woods. Willamette flowing through steadily. Things going their way.

These things now include seven straight losing seasons for the Furballs.

I got an email from the Mexican Prick in late October. He was as usual not thrilled with my performance, the team’s performance, and everything else, and most things in particular. He was up on the palisades as we hadn’t extended Jesus Palacios’ contract yet. Well, tough ****, Carlosito, I thought, we don’t have no money for that.

The Prick went on to state that the budget would be raised to $19.6M in 2004, but this was in the light of both him and the fan base getting tired of our act. Seven consecutive losing seasons and the like. Well, tough ****, Carlosito, I thought, I am getting tired of your act, too. That will be the second-smallest budget in the sport, which is actually a worse relative position than before.

And I didn’t even know he knew we still had a few fans.

He went on that he expected to see more fans in the park (note 1: forward to Maud; note 2: when has he ever been here for a game? Prick.), and also eventually the team back in the World Series. Well, tough ****, Carlosito, I thought, nobody’s coming to see a bunch of losers play out the string for at best fourth place for the better part of a decade.

Ah, foes! What would we do without them?

---

First thing to take care of salary arbitration and free agents. The bad news ahead: Marvin Ingall, Jesus Palacios, Benton Wilson, and Domingo Moreno are all bound for free agency – and none of them is eligible for compensation. Not even Palacios. Well, ****.

We have a whole array of arbitration cases with a total of 11 players lined up to appear there (with service time, old salary, estimate):

SP Nick Brown (10-13, 3.72 ERA) – 3.046 – minimum - $460k
MR Marcos Bruno (5-4, 3.92 ERA) – 3.000 – minimum - $230k
MR Ricardo Huerta (5-4, 3.30 ERA) – 4.091 - $210k - $240k
SP/MR Bob Joly (2-10, 4.39 ERA) – 3.091 - $150k - $230k
MR Manuel Martinez (3-3, 2.47 ERA) – 4.011 - $215k - $240k
CL Dan Nordahl (4-3, 4.14 ERA, 36 SV) – 4.008 - $220k - $250k
C Gary Fifield (.145/.226/.274, 4 HR, 14 RBI) – 3.060 – minimum - $230k
C Pablo Ledesma (.216/.325/.380, 12 HR, 61 RBI) – 4.106 - $850k - $998k
C Mark Thomas (.333/.360/.402, 0 HR, 13 RBI) – 2.157 – minimum - $230k
1B/3B Daniel Sharp (.284/.361/.380, 5 HR, 38 RBI) – 3.073 – minimum - $370k
OF Dale Moore (.266/.316/.380, 4 HR, 21 RBI) – 3.079 – minimum - $230k

And these are our projected free agents:

MR Domingo Moreno (1-3, 2.80 ERA) - $400k
MR Benton Wilson (4-4, 3.11 ERA) - $369k
INF Marvin Ingall (.266/.327/.358, 5 HR, 31 RBI) - $250k
2B Jesus Palacios (.267/.331/.341, 9 HR, 42 RBI) - $1.22M

Given our $19.6M budget (which is just $200k more than the bottom scratching Pacifics will have available), and the contracts we already have on board, it will be difficult to even keep the players we already have and love, and BOY, is that a sentence I hate to keep drumming out.

Off the top of my head, there are three things to save more or less (mostly less) cash with:
• Palacios. He can’t come back, he’s too expensive for a .672 OPS bat. Would have really loved some compensation though. Slacker!
• Ledesma. He’s not getting paid a million to bat .216; if he gets his estimate, and Palacios is not retained, he will be the third-highest paid player on the team after Neil Reece and Clyde Brady. He batted .300 with an OPS well over .800 with the Buffaloes, for crying out loud!
• Right-handed relief, most notably perennial clown Bob Joly. Rockburn can take his spot. He will make the minimum. That of course saves less than a hundred grand. But I am tired of Bob the Clown’s act, and I’ve been for some time.

We might want to focus on keeping the left-handed relievers on board, and after that Marv. Marv will be 35 next year, you can’t bank on many great things to come. And he’s never been a star, but always serviceable.

That defines losing teams. No stars, but everybody’s serviceable.

Another player to dump is Moore. He was pretty exciting the first two months of the season, but soon enough excitement made way for resignation. We barely used him the last two months of 2003. We should not be grumpy (other than with Ledesma), since Moore was always only a throw-in. In the Ledesma trade, no less.

By the way, the Buffaloes didn’t get their money’s worth in that trade, either. They received THREE WILD PITCHES IN ONE AT BAT Juan Diaz, who sucked his way down to AA and was released in May(!), SP Jack Berry, who improved on his 41 home runs surrendered between AA and AAA in 2002, by surrendering 48 between the same two levels this year (I will forfeit the 255 K in 239.1 IP in this case), and Chris Roberson, whom they parked at AAA for 108 AB of .308 hitting very late in the season. Looking at it from this perspective, the Furballs might even be better off than the Hooves-‘n-Horns.

Well. Let’s go about it from a different perspective. Which players to we want to keep 100%? Brown, Bruno, Huerta, Sharp, Nordahl (we can always find a proper closer on the street and have him pitch setup). And at least one between Moreno and Wilson.

Having to pick between Moreno and Wilson, you’d go with Moreno. He’s three years younger, and his career record so far is very consistent. Wilson posted ERA’s north of six in back-to-back seasons 1999-2000. Moreno can also pitch two innings if the enemy insists on loading the lineup with left-handers and the starter goes six or less. Wilson is a short man, a situational lefty. Of course you would prefer to keep both. But this is not Make-A-Wish. Although with the Coons, the medical report is grim…

But I was able to get a few things done before the end of October. Nick Brown signed a 1-yr, $440k deal, and Marcos Bruno agreed to exactly half that price, which saved thirty grand total. But we totally ripped off Daniel Sharp, whom I think will have a rising value in the near future. He agreed to a 4-yr, $2M contract, with only $350k paid next year. That’s little gain again in 2004, but it might pay out well in the longer run. The deal buys out all his arbitration years and one year of free agency.

After those deals we had just a hair over $2M available from the budget, but that was with several managerial positions in the organization not filled. The actual number was probably a quarter million lower.

Pursuing Moreno was not an easy task in itself. He was insisting on a 3-year deal. I had two years on my mind. But he had pitched so well for us the last two years, and he was only going to be 30 years old next season. So I buckled and gave in to his demands. I am getting old and weak.

We also signed Dan Nordahl to a $250k deal for 2004. That estimate seemed too low to me even for a sieve with a tail on the mound.

October 26 – The Thunder acquire 26-yr old INF/OF Max Nixon (.238, 18 HR, 90 RBI) from the Wolves in exchange for LF/RF Freddie Jones (.298, 25 HR, 418 RBI), who’s 31.
October 31 – Loggers fans are excited to hear that 30-yr old LF/RF Bakile Hiwalani (.287, 161 HR, 930 RBI) will wear the black hat for seven more years, getting paid $16.24M.
October 31 – The Canadiens trade 33-yr old MR Bubby Cannon (30-18, 4.23 ERA, 8 SV) to the Bayhawks for three low-level, low-upside prospects.
November 4 – The Raccoons and MR Domingo Moreno (17-10, 2.92 ERA, 14 SV) agree to a 3-yr, $1.365M extension.
November 7 – MIL OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.289, 5 HR, 73 RBI) also hooks up with the team for longer. The 32-year old will receive $4.24M over two years.
November 8 – Another trade between the Canadiens and Bayhawks: Vancouver unloads OF/1B Jorge Durán (.304, 8 HR, 266 RBI) for two more prospects, including A OF Dave Strickland, 20, who looks like he should make the prospect list in a prominent spot this spring.

2003 ABL Award Winners:

Most Valuable Player: TOP SP Tony Hamlyn (21-5, 2.51 ERA) and IND LF/RF Ron Alston (.310, 39 HR, 122 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: TOP Tony Hamlyn (21-5, 2.51 ERA) and BOS Jason O’Halloran (21-8, 2.63 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: DAL OF Cesar Morán (.290, 12 HR, 70 RBI) and POR OF Edgardo Torrez (.271, 17 HR, 56 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: TOP Arthur Joplin (4-2, 0.55 ERA, 23 SV) and NYC Leonardo Sosa (4-2, 1.19 ERA, 41 SV)
Gold Gloves (FL): P NAS Dennis Fried, C WAS Miguel Torres, 1B NAS Cesar Gonzalez, 2B DEN Jose Correa, 3B NAS Bob Townsley, SS DEN Armando Rodriguez, LF DAL Robinson Perez, CF DAL Cesar Morán, RF DAL Artie Barnes
Gold Gloves (CL): P LVA Anibal Sandoval, C POR Pablo Ledesma, 1B BOS Masaaki Matsumoto, 2B MIL Bartolo Hernandez, 3B BOS Mark Austin, SS BOS Daniel Silva, LF NYC Martin Ortíz, CF CHA John Hudson, RF SFB Paco Javier
Silver Sluggers (FL): P DAL Veit Koell, C RIC Rob James, 1B DAL/MIL Mac Woods, 2B TOP Georg Spinu, 3B DEN Zak Davidson, SS SAL Dave Hutchinson, LF LAP Ken Potter, CF CIN Will Bailey, RF CIN Dan Morris
Silver Sluggers (CL): P ATL Tynan Howard, C IND Jose Paraz, 1B POR Albert Martin, 2B MIL Bartolo Hernandez, 3B OCT Takahashi Higashi, SS MIL Tom Johnson, LF IND Ron Alston, CF BOS Rudy Garrison, RF BOS Gonzalo Munoz

Chris Beairsto finished second in the rookie voting! That’s a statement for our youngsters. Well, a rookie, a glove (even if unsuspected), and a bat. We’ll take that and hope to build on this. No, I’m actually buzzed over Torrez’ award, I didn’t see that one coming at all.

Further (mostly depressing) notes in early October:

• The only notable players to retire after the 2003 season were journeyman reliever Jared Chaney (56-56, 3.00 ERA, 181 SV), who mostly pitched for the Crusaders, but won a ring with the Titans in 2001, and grand old man Vernon Robertson (227-167, 3.72 ERA), who mostly pitched on the Canadiens and joined the Capitals in time for their third title and his only ring. He won the 1990 CL POTY award.
• The Warriors would offer Dave Heffer, capable second baseman and career .748 OPSer, in a trade for Dale Moore. Sadly, Heffer will make $1.76M next year, which we kinda don’t have.
• Why did we never give Gabby De La Rosa a chance to close for us? The last five years with the Stars, he has saved 167 games while maintaining miniscule ERA’s. It was him all the time, the successor to Grant West. And I dealt him. For what? Cesar Gonzalez. Who? Exactly.

I can't do anything right.

[Westheim]

Talked with my good friend (I actually DO have something like that!) Cristo Duarte, the Buffaloes’ GM. He has one of the biggest budgets in the league, yet he still has to make room in there. Poor bastard. He tried to move Paul Theobald, a corner outfielder, 34, who knows how to hit for .300 or more. His career OPS is .813, with no drop noticeable yet, with only 32 home runs. He’s always been more of an OBP guy. He would trade him for Alejandro Rojas.

We have no room for Rojas with Al Martin occupying first base fair and square. It is still not a good trade. Although Theobald is a right-handed batter, something we will be looking for to better balance our outfield, he can’t play centerfield. Torrez is the only good option for center. Beairsto lacks the range, Reece is too old, Brady has no hang of it, either. And Theobald hasn’t played a game in center in a few centuries. The $1.19M he is due in 2004 are an additional head shake to the deal.

I also tried to trade spares for Royce Green, who would be a good fit in so many ways, but the Elks couldn’t be coaxed. You might assume they’d be looking to unload that $900k deal, but they weren’t biting.

Salary arbitration eventually hit us, and we still went there with six players. Five of those went in our favor, and the sixth one was not much more expensive than he already was. Ricardo Huerta and Manuel Martinez were both awarded $260k, Mark Thomas was awarded $250, and Gary Fifield and Dale Moore both got $230k. The only loss we took was Pablo Ledesma, whom we offered $1M for and he got $1.06M.

Free agents filed on November 19. We lost Jesus Palacios, Benton Wilson, and Bob Joly, the latter of which had not received an arbitration offer. (Joly had yielded no suitors when shopped, and I have seen well enough of him over the last six seasons. Yay no-hitter, but it’s enough)

Among the division rivals, the Loggers lost the most key personnel: Morrow, Bean, Cruz, Galloway, Ramos, all gone. The Titans lost a few pitchers, but no front line guys, except for closer John Bennett, also Daniel Silva, that disgusting rat’s ass. The Indians and Crusaders lost a few players that weren’t going to win them a title anyway, and the Canadiens lost plenty of pitchers, including Juan Bello and a flock of relievers, plus Iván Gutierrez, Alfredo De Jesus and Ramón Trinidad. So, the Raccoons at least didn’t get raked as much as their rivals to begin the year.

April will come though…

I looked at starting pitchers for a while in late November. Until I thought, well … we’re gonna have Brown, Farley, and Ford for sure. We have a great talent in Amador, who will only turn 22 in December, and Felipe Garcia always gets overlooked. That is a fairly decent bunch. They are not amazing top to bottom, but even if Amador or Garcia falter, we still have Fernando Piquero and Jesus Elmore behind them. In 2003, Ford, Garcia, Piquero, and Elmore were all injured for significant amounts of time. That kept us giving starts to slackers like Ramón Meza and Bob Joly, and oh god, Ricky Beach. But that’s some pretty darn good top *seven*, there is no need to spend most of the available money on another one, especially with the Raccoons not eyeing the playoffs in 2004. We are merely eyeing winning ball. 82 wins. That’s all we’re trying to do. Get decency back to town.

Although there is a way to open up a lot of budget space. $1.06M for Pablo Ledesma is excessive. He batted .216 for crying out loud. He also got a Gold Glove. The difference between last year and the preceding seasons he turned out in Topeka is so huge, you have got to figure that last year was a tremendously bad anomaly for him. He will get better. You can’t fall off a cliff that steep at age 27! Unless you fall off an actual cliff, but last time we checked, Ledesma was still alive.

What we will need for sure is another left-hander for the bullpen to accompany Domingo Moreno, who is now signed through 2006. Daniel Sharp is the only player with a guaranteed contract beyond that.

Ahead of the rule 5 draft, we placed relievers Aurelio Hernandez and Ed Bryan, both in AAA, and starter Jesus Elmore (recovering from Tommy John surgery) on the 40-man roster, as well as 3B Steve Searcy. There were plenty more players eligible, but nobody was screaming for protection. With one pitcher (Gianni Tarquini) getting designated for assignment and removed from the 40-man roster, we had an open spot. Our last rule 5 pick (Huerta) was pretty decent, so we wanted to have a chance for another one, if possible.

November 10 – The Raccoons and INF Marvin Ingall (.278, 53 HR, 428 RBI) agree on a 1-yr, $300k deal for the 35-year old veteran.
November 13 – The Buffaloes add 31-yr old 3B/SS Raymond Sutton (.283, 34 HR, 282 RBI) from the Condors, trading him for a prospect.
November 13 – The Thunder acquire 33-yr old OF Tom Walls (.290, 25 HR, 338 RBI) from the Miners, which costs them 27-yr old C Brian Campbell (.220, 5 HR, 30 RBI) and 18-yr old A C Jesus Carbajal. The Miners also send cash.
November 20 – The Aces trade SP Alfredo Rios (45-74, 4.52 ERA) and cash to the Wolves for two prospects, including the current #70 AAA SP Jim Pennington.
November 21 – The Knights acquire 32-yr old OF Jesus Maldonado (.301, 29 HR, 187 RBI) from the Buffaloes, giving up 38-yr old C David Vinson (.238, 151 HR, 732 RBI) and a minor leaguer in return.
November 27 – All-time home run leader RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.305, 389 HR, 1,416 RBI) finds a new home in Sioux Falls, signing on for 1-yr, $1.44M. The 37-year old Vázquez spent the last two years with the Condors.
November 27 – Ex-MIL 1B/2B Jorge Cruz (.265, 118 HR, 623 RBI), who is 32, signs a 4-yr, $6.48M contract with the Bayhawks.
November 29 – The Titans resign 29-year old INF Daniel Silva (.268, 59 HR, 662 RBI) to a 6-yr, $7.68M deal.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 11 players are taken in a single round. The Raccoons draft MR Dave Williams (5-2, 3.97 ERA), a 28-year old left-hander, from the Rebels.
December 1 – INF/LF Phil Montray (.258, 21 HR, 143 RBI) is straded from the Indians to the Miners for 1B/3B/RF Miguel Cortez (.255, 33 HR, 195 RBI).
December 1 – More offense coming for the Loggers, who acquire 3B/1B Matt Brown (.280, 191 HR, 827 RBI), age 34, from the Buffaloes in exchange for 35-yr old SP John Miller (73-71, 4.57 ERA) and a minor leaguer.
December 3 – Ex-TIJ SS/2B Juan Barrón (.310, 25 HR, 681 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $1.74M deal with the Bayhawks. Barrón is a 31-year old switch-hitter.
December 3 – Closer Ryosei Kato (40-40, 2.68 ERA, 175 SV) moves on from the Warriors. The 31-year old signs a 3-yr, $4.68M contract with the Buffaloes.
December 4 – The Capitals sign 31-yr old ex-MIL C Carlos Ramos (.299, 91 HR, 546 RBI) to a 5-year contract worth $11.2M.
December 4 – Another 31-year old catcher moves inside the FL West, as ex-SAL Jorge Lopez (.278, 84 HR, 475 RBI) inks with the Warriors for 2-yr, $4.88M.

Great, six more years of Silva drawing us a nose. I hate that little germ.

I love Marv. Marv is nine days short of qualifying for his pension. Marv mustn’t starve. He also needs only 13 base knocks to become the eighth player to have 1,000 hits for the Raccoons (* denotes active players):
1st – Neil Reece – 1,894 *
2nd – Daniel Hall – 1,886
3rd – Tetsu Osanai – 1,548
4th – Mark Dawson – 1,313
5th – Ben O’Morrissey – 1,180 *
6th – Jorge Salazar – 1,142
7th – Conceicao Guerin – 1,018 *
8th – Marvin Ingall – 987 *
9th – Matt Higgins – 961
10th – David Vinson – 871 *
[…]
14th – Clyde Brady – 687 * (next active on Coons)

What are the Raccoons looking for? A proper closer is one thing. In fact we are bidding for one, who has not been allowed to close all too often, but certainly has the stuff to do it. He lost 16 games in relief the last two years, but that was with an aggregate BABIP of .340 against him. If we get him, we can move Nordahl and Bruno back an inning each, and then you are in the seventh and you can pick between Bruno, Huerta, and Martinez, which is not the worst arrangement of choices to have.

We need a quality right-handed outfielder (I am trying hard to get Royce Green back, but the Elks are stubborn; they've seen too much players traded our way and heading to the Hall of Fame, although Royce ain't Japanese even...)*, and we need a left-handed infielder that can play both middle infield positions. Right now Marv is penciled in for second base and to cover short and third. And he is 35. Well, there IS some guy named Manny Gabriel, but I can't stand him.

Our lineup figures to be quite dense in the middle. At the top you can pick between three OBP guys in Concie, Sharp, and Brady. His lack of speed might drop Sharp all the way to sixth if things go normal. Concie's good for 40 SB if he doesn't get hurt or slumps for too long. He stole 24 sacks missing over 60 games last year. Torrez might hit #3 against right-handers. Then you have Martin at #4. Behind that, most likely a platoon between Neil Reece and Chris Beairsto. You can do SO MUCH WORSE for a lineup!

Is it a lineup that can win 82 games?

Odd note: with the Gold Sox stumping the Titans in the World Series, the Raccoons are no longer the worst team by overall record with multiple championships. We are 47 games below .500 after 27 seasons, but the Gold Sox are a whopping 160 games under, only the Miners (-216), Pacifics (-232), Aces (-254), and Crusaders (-306) being worse.

*No, Kisho Saito is not in the Hall of Fame - yet. He only retired after the 1999 season. I fancy his chances.

[Westheim]

I had the most boring winter meetings in ages. First, nobody wanted any of the players I didn’t want in the first place. Second, someone had booked some sterile, vegan, and probably kosher hotel in San Francisco where there wasn’t even anything to binge drink. Or even chocolate.

No chocolate!!

No, we didn’t get anything done, and no, we didn’t sign anybody in a furiously frustrating five days in the green hell at the bay. The closer I had pitched an offer to wanted more money, I said quite literally ‘Hnnngghh!!’ and walked away.

December 8 – One of the higher ranked free agents goes off the board as the Crusaders land ex-SFB OF Paco Javier (.256, 84 HR, 378 RBI) for a 4-yr, $11.2M contract.
December 8 – The Knights ink ex-SFW SP Johnny Collins (70-50, 3.59 ERA) for 3-yr, $4.28M.
December 8 – The Crusaders’ former closer, 30-year old Leonardo Sosa (35-35, 2.61 ERA, 128 SV) hauls in a 3-yr, $4.2M deal from the Stars.
December 9 – The Falcons and Warriors finish a trade that sends 31-yr old 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.290, 41 HR, 638 RBI) to the Falcons in exchange for 26-yr old INF Antonio Ramirez (.291, 7 HR, 86 RBI) and 24-yr old MR Lou Rickett (0-0, 6.17 ERA in 8 G)
December 9 – Cincy grabs ex-IND OF Ramiro Cavazos (.267, 49 HR, 287 RBI), giving the Californian a 3-yr, $2.98M contract.
December 10 – The Buffaloes acquire C Miguel Torres (.259, 23 HR, 144 RBI) from the Capitals in exchange for 32-yr old MR Roberto Delgado (65-60, 3.28 ERA, 228 SV) and #47 prospect Ross Terwilliger.
December 11 – The Bayhawks acquire OF/1B Joe Morton (.300, 33 HR, 327 RBI) from the Condors for three low-level prospects.
December 18 – The Scorpions agree to terms with ex-RIC 1B/3B Haruki Nakayama (.277, 80 HR, 819 RBI). The 34-year old receives a 2-yr, $4.48M contract.
December 19 – Ex-DAL C Gabriel Ortíz (.280, 37 HR, 377 RBI) hooks up with the Buffaloes, earning $11.46M over the next six years.
December 21 – The Raccoons agree to terms with 27-yr old international free agent SP Kenichi Watanabe, who receives a 1-yr, $200k contract.
December 21 – The Loggers sign ex-SFW C Ruben Melendez (.234, 189 HR, 901 RBI) to a 1-yr, $610k contract. Melendez played all of 2003 in AAA.
December 26 – 32-year old 1B Iván Gutierrez (.251, 155 HR, 555 RBI) ends up with the Bayhawks on a 6-yr, $11.88M contract. He was previously with the Canadiens.
December 30 – The Thunder pick up ex-POR 2B Jesus Palacios (.289, 76 HR, 393 RBI) for 3-yr, $2.29M.
December 30 – Indy adds veteran ex-MIL SP Doug Morrow (187-175, 3.90 ERA) for 1-yr, $1.08M.


Watanabe means even more depth to the rotation, but I wouldn’t want to test his credentials in the majors right away.

That was really everything that happened around here in December. Still looking for upgrades to infield, outfield, closer, catcher … not much money available and little to offer in trades.

[Westheim]

January 3 – The Warriors sign ex-DEN OF Luis Alonso (.263, 44 HR, 391 RBI) for 3-yr, $1.56M.
January 10 – Ex-TOP SP Chang-bum O (86-96, 4.51 ERA) is signed by the Warriors. The 32-year old receives a 1-yr, $1.74M contract.
January 10 – The former Scorpion 36-yr old RF/LF Vonne Calzado (.335, 130 HR, 1,100 RBI) agrees to a 2-yr, $4.64M contract with the Miners.
January 12 – New Cyclone in town: 29-year old INF Bob Butler (.266, 84 HR, 391 RBI), fresh off the Warriors, signs a 2-yr, $1.64M contract with Cincinnati.
January 16 – The Bayhawks sign 31-yr old SP Takeru Sato (89-80, 3.94 ERA), who already pitched for them in 2002 before heading to Pittsburgh, to a 1-yr, $630k contract.
January 17 – The Canadiens trade INF Arthur Simon (.261, 18 HR, 136 RBI) to the Condors for 1B/3B Mitsuhide Suzuki (.272, 6 HR, 38 RBI) and a minor leaguer.
January 29 – Ex-WAS CL Nobuyoshi Matsui (37-46, 3.02 ERA, 74 SV), who is 31, signs a 1-yr, $890k deal with the Aces.

We were after Luis Alonso, who won two rings with the Titans in his younger years, and shares fate with Marvin Ingall, in spending 2000 with the Knights and then returning to his old team. The Titans traded him to Atlanta for Jesus Zamora, then claimed him off waivers in early 2001, and traded him to the Gold Sox for Nate Harrison after that season ended.

We were also after Nobu Matsui, but it was a bucks thing again. Well, bad luck. You won’t get a closer for half a million. That’s not the going rate. Looks like we will have to do some trading after all.

The Canadiens weren’t giving up Royce Green, so we had to look elsewhere. Also, nobody wanted anybody we’d like to get rid of. And it was late January, so not only was the fan base (or what was left of it) growing unruly, but the Agitator ran a picture of a homeless man sleeping on a park bench, under which several items previously containing alcoholic liquids were disposed of, with an accompanying text clearly hinting at the lazy, overweight, idiotic Raccoons GM.

It was the Agitator. They were still trying to get warm.

One item that could be dealt was Miguel Ramirez. He was hitting for power, true, but he was also hacking madly at the same time. He didn’t fit the middle infield well. Between him and Marv, I’d rather have the steady singles bat with good defense at second base. He was quite good at third base, but we had Daniel Sharp at third base. Sharp had his issues at the hot corner, but he could not move to first base, because there was Al Martin. And Ramirez wasn’t batting left-handed, so no obvious platoon opportunities were presenting themselves here.

Dale Moore was the obvious trade piece. All catchers are available if someone can be bothered. If push came to shove we might be ready to part with a reliever, like Huerta, or Martinez.

The search for a left-handed batting second baseman with good defense, good contact, good eyes, and at least a little speed yielded only players under contract at exorbitant rates, and once we lowered our requirements enough to get some less prohibitively expensive personnel returned, Manny Gabriel turned up as well in the list.

Congrats, Marv, you just won a starter’s job. Manny’s a backup, whether I hate him or not, and what not. And isn’t it all terribly fruitless around here?

At one point we were after versatile outfielder John Hudson, a steady right-handed bat, who grew up admiring Neil Reece. As we all know, Neil is from Massapequa, NY, on Long Island's southern coast. Well, Hudson is from North Massapequa, NY! Neil made his major league debut when Hudson was in junior high, and you can bet that it was all the talk with the young boys in town. The two high school fields the boys played ball at are just 20 blocks apart. *

February 1 – SP Francisco Garza (95-125, 4.14 ERA) returns to the CL North, signing a 1-yr, $1.38M contract with the Titans after spending most of his career with the Crusaders.
February 3 – The Raccoons and Falcons agree to a trade that sends AAA 1B Mun-wah Tsung, 21, and AAA SP Jesus Elmore, 24, to Charlotte in exchange for 25-yr old OF Matt King (.289, 1 HR, 42 RBI) and 20-yr old AA 1B/2B Keegan Crabtree.
February 12 – The Canadiens land themselves a new closer in ex-LAP Peter Sanders (27-23, 4.00 ERA, 69 SV), who will make $2.28M over three years.
February 15 – Another CL North team hooks up a new closer, as ex-TIJ CL Enrico Gonzalez (53-39, 2.70 ERA, 303 SV) comes to terms with the Indians on a 3-yr, §3.36M contract.
February 16 – 33-yr old SP Ricardo Sanchez (185-113, 3.48 ERA) will be a Wolf next season, signing a 1-yr, $1.32M deal after leaving the Bayhawks.
February 22 – Veteran 1B/2B David Brewer (.327, 85 HR, 921 RBI) rejoins the Titans on a 1-yr, $720k deal. Brewer is 36 and has masterfully missed every chance to win a title so far in his career, always joining teams just too late or just too early.
February 23 – The Bayhawks hook up ex-POR/MIL SP Carl Bean (81-77, 3.85 ERA), who will make $4.5M over three years.
February 23 – The Gold Sox trade 28-yr old LF/RF Jesus Rivera (.317, 132 HR, 671 RBI) to the Scorpions in exchange for 32-yr old SP Randy Travis (119-100, 3.92 ERA) and pitching prospect Harlan Hilliard.
February 24 – Well-overrated ex-LVA MR Charlie Deacon (32-46, 2.89 ERA, 162 SV) comes to a 3-yr, $2.43M pay day with the Crusaders.

In order to get something going, we had to axe into our alleged starting pitching depth, because while the Falcons were keen on Tsung, they were also keen on King, and there was no way to get Hudson without some serious bleeding (like: trade them Nick Brown-bleeding). King is a good contact batter who rarely strikes out and walks a bit. He could steal double digit bases, and he plays all three outfield positions very well. It’s the right-handed bat we need to balance our outfield, and he makes Dale Moore redundant. Crabtree was the only semi-prospect the Falcons would part with in the deal that at least got Vince to raise an eyebrow.

It was never Dale Moore’s fault. He just didn’t fit the other outfielders, and we love them more. Whether King will make a big splash here, we’ll see. For now Vince rates him with as many stars as he gives Al Martin. One.

I have another problem with Moore. Nobody wants him unless in a salary dump for an expensive veteran. I don’t even want a prospect. I just want a bag of baseballs. No, nobody biting.

It’s March 1. The Rebels have made us a trade offer I’ll need to mull about. They want Manny Gabriel (so, not much of anything), and they offer a legit back piece to the bullpen in Bill Corkum (ex-Titan), who’s due just over a million in 2004 and will then be a free agent, but who is no Matsui and maybe not better than Nordahl, PLUS a reclamation pitching project, a youngster who had surgery to fix a torn rotator cuff at age 18. It’s a lot of money, it will create a problem with infield backup, and it might create disturbances in the bullpen, since Corkum’s contract guarantees him the closer’s job.

---

* I hear, in real life Massapequa High School (Neil's school) is actually renowned for its sports teams, having produced the three Baldinger brothers for the NFL, oh, and some guy named Jerry Seinfeld. Hudson would have been to Plainedge High School, where I could not find anything sports-related, but Steve Guttenberg went there.

This goes to the complaints section: I am struggling terribly with the new team home screen. The old team home screen was from where I went to all my minor league teams and it had all stats neatly presented for all teams. The new team home screen is utter bull crap. Who needs that stuff? It sucks. I can’t get any decent minor league overview.

[Westheim]

March 1 – The Raccoons and Rebels agree on a deal that sends 30-year old MR Bill Corkum (32-35, 2.55 ERA, 195 SV), 25-yr old AA MR Rémy Lucas, and 19-yr old A MR Pedro Delgado to Portland, while the Rebels receive 28-yr old INF/LF/RF Manny Gabriel (.230, 1 HR, 17 RBI) and 28-yr old LF/RF Dale Moore (.272, 20 HR, 107 RBI).
March 13 – The Raccoons sign 30-yr old INF Brad Sheehan (.218, 4 HR, 47 RBI), who has not played in the majors since 2000, to a 1-yr, $190k contract.
April 2 – The Raccoons claim 25-year old AAA 3B Vito Mendez off waivers by the Scorpions.

The Corkum trade might stir up commotions in the bullpen, but I was willing to accept that once I found a way to sneak Dale Moore in there. Again, nothing wrong with Moore as a backup. If he were a right-handed batter, we would have kept him. But he’s not, and I didn’t want his contract lingering at AAA. Corkum takes over the spot that was supposed to go to Lawrence Rockburn, while Huerta may now be the guy responsible for long relief, but Corkum and Bruno can also pitch multiple innings.

Well, Vince liked the Corkum deal because it brings in a quality player for two scrubs. Maud liked the Corkum deal because she had had a hard time finding something to use in promotion. Slappy didn’t like the Corkum deal, because when on the visiting Titans he once spilled a 6oz. bottle of Gaytirade in the visitor’s clubhouse and Slappy had to clean it up. Honeypaws didn’t say much but I could see in his eyes that he liked the Corkum deal. So my council came back with a 3-1 verdict in favor of it.

At the time of the trade, we also had an offer out there to free agent MR Nick Lee (most notably with the Crusaders for a few years), but Lee notified me the next day that he had better offers, and we didn’t follow up on ours then. Lee is not signed as of April 1.

The Sheehan thing was Vince’s idea. Vince pointed at him and literally said “That guy”. Just “That guy”. I don’t know why anybody would overlook a guy that batted .175 in his most recent tour of duty with the Pacifics, and merely .244 last year in AAA, for three years, but Vince insisted. We will try him out in April. He doesn’t even bat left-handed. If he doesn’t spark immediately, he gets designated for assignment. We failed to come up with a left-handed bat at all.

Vince rates Al Martin with one star and Brad Sheehan with four. I suspect he found Slappy’s liquor stash. Which would be doubly outrageous, because I’ve been in search of that for ten years and couldn’t find it around the park…

What else? Other ex-Coons washed ashore included Tony Vela in New York, Cipriano Miranda in Sioux Falls, Daniel Richardson in Cincy, and Orlando Blanco in Richmond. And it’s about go time.

[Westheim]

2004 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2003 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Nick Brown, 26, B:L, T:L (10-13, 3.72 ERA | 21-27, 3.31 ERA) – strikeout machine, setting a new single season K mark for the team with 223 in 2003; although the control is still not there and will probably never come – he has walked just shy of 100 batters in each of his two full seasons. The magnificent stuff and the fact that Ralph Ford had the year from hell win him his first Opening Day assignment.
SP Randy Farley, 30, B:R, T:R (13-7, 3.61 ERA | 69-64, 3.75 ERA) – still looks young, although he will already embark on his seventh major league campaign, all with the Coons; has been dubbed Mr. Singles for a problematic H/9 and BABIP development, which the two of course being related in some way. The question is how much influence Randy has over .310 or higher BABIP marks (.351 in 2002) for four consecutive years.
SP Ralph Ford, 26, B:L, T:L (5-11, 5.77 ERA | 38-53, 4.04 ERA) – had the year from hell, struggling furiously in the first half of the season, and then got shut down with a small tear in his rotator cuff after 18 starts. His previous track record shows all facets of a starting pitcher’s life already, so it may not become boring with our #3 guy.
SP Edgar Amador, 22, B:R, T:R (6-6, 3.95 ERA | 6-6, 3.95 ERA) – serious groundball pitcher who was acquired mid-season in the Carl Bean trade and made a total of 21 starts between the Loggers and the Raccoons. His control is not 100% there yet, but he seems too good to be parked in AAA.
SP Felipe Garcia, 26, B:R, T:R (7-6, 4.01 ERA | 11-11, 4.18 ERA) – struggled with injuries for all of his professional career, with last year no exception. On a good day he can spin a fantastic game. But good days have been few and far between.

MR Bill Corkum *, 30, B:R, T:R (6-7, 4.09 ERA, 2 SV | 32-35, 2.55 ERA, 195 SV) – acquired from the Rebels in the Gabriel / Moore trade, Corkum further condenses the options we have available from the right side; should Dan Nordahl’s struggles continue, he is a prime candidate to take over the closer’s role.
MR Ricardo Huerta, 30, B:R, T:R (5-4, 3.30 ERA, 1 SV | 13-16, 3.94 ERA, 3 SV) – continues to impress with rock-solid relief work, running up 153 innings over the last two seasons, and the structure of our bullpen means that he will again be the first guy we go to in long relief situations.
MR Dave Williams *, 29, B:L, T:L (did not appear | 5-2, 3.97 ERA) – rule 5 pick from the Rebels to be used as a left-handed specialist, although his K/9 indicates that he likes to rely on his defense a lot.
MR Manuel Martinez, 25, B:R, T:R (3-3, 2.47 ERA, 1 SV | 8-7, 3.91 ERA, 3 SV) – runner at third, two outs, right-hander at the plate, Martinez is your man; can strike out almost anybody, but might also walk a few in between; very little stamina, and his usage indicates that as well, as he has pitched 165.2 innings in 232 career games.
SU Marcos Bruno, 28, B:R, T:R (5-4, 3.92 ERA, 3 SV | 13-11, 3.74 ERA, 11 SV) – pitched wonderfully for five months before he imploded in September, including a back injury, but he has proven himself to be a reliable late inning piece.
SU Domingo Moreno, 30, B:R, T:L (1-3, 2.80 ERA, 2 SV | 17-10, 2.92 ERA, 14 SV) – while his first year in Portland (2002) was marred by injuries, he was a very steady reliever for us in 2003 and was rewarded with a 3-year extension. Can pitch multiple innings if required, but will mostly be used in the seventh or eighth inning for left-handers.
CL Dan Nordahl, 25, B:R, T:R (4-3, 4.14 ERA, 36 SV | 16-16, 4.05 ERA, 88 SV) – started the season in the most atrocious ways, nursing an ERA over nine for most of April, and never really got into a groove, which is to say that ninth innings were never boring with the Raccoons holding a close lead; has surrendered 10 home runs last year, which is about his biggest problem, because he can strike people out at will if everything clicks for him.

C Pablo Ledesma, 28, B:L, T:R (.216, 12 HR, 61 RBI | .253, 53 HR, 311 RBI) – in the history of the Raccoons, there have been some disappointments, and Ledesma ranks very high on the list, batting an atrocious .216 in his first season on the Willamette, and although he won a Gold Glove, that didn’t save his season. We are still looking for a clever way to move his contract, which somehow ballooned to the fourth-largest on the team.
C Mark Thomas, 27, B:R, T:R (.333, 0 HR, 13 RBI | .249, 11 HR, 71 RBI) – called up late for the atrocious Gary Fifield, and batted well in 102 AB, but his track record keeps us from declaring him any more than a platoon mate to Ledesma.

1B Albert Martin, 27, B:L, T:L (.307, 30 HR, 117 RBI | .286, 105 HR, 370 RBI) – premium home run AND average hitter, and you will buy some shoddy defense with that. Won the first base batting award in the first year the ABL awarded it.
1B/2B/3B/SS Marvin Ingall, 35, B:R, T:R (.266, 5 HR, 31 RBI | .278, 53 HR, 428 RBI) – good all-rounder, playing all infield positions well and delivering those trademark INGALL SINGLES whenever one is needed. Like, when the opposing pitcher has sat down 26 of his teammates without allowing anyone on base. Jesus Palacios’ departure wins him the starting second base job after a few years of utility duties here and in Atlanta, and he’s not bad at second base, having won a pair of Gold Gloves in 1999 and 2000.
SS Conceicao Guerin, 30, B:R, T:R (.280, 3 HR, 44 RBI | .280, 14 HR, 321 RBI) – Concie missed 67 games with injuries, and still stole 24 bases, which just adds to his good on-base bat and the golden defense.
1B/3B Daniel Sharp, 26, B:R, T:R (.284, 5 HR, 38 RBI | .286, 24 HR, 160 RBI) – everyday third baseman, never mind the occasional stupid error, in the field or on the base paths; missed 51 games with a variety of injuries in 2003, like Concie, but when healthy can provide lots of RBI opportunities for the guys behind him.
3B/SS/2B/RF/1B Miguel Ramirez, 25, B:R, T:R (.208, 14 HR, 42 RBI | .189, 15 HR, 55 RBI) – this young Dominican has a hacker’s bat, which illustrates his 1-for-40 futility in 2002 better than anything else; can do damage with power, but he goes not connect near often enough to dislodge anybody around the diamond.
2B/SS/3B/1B Brad Sheehan *, 30, B:R, T:R (did not appaear | .218, 4 HR, 47 RBI) – plays all positions well, was added at the insistence of a certain scouting director who is becoming old and strange.

LF/CF Neil Reece, 37, B:R, T:R (.272, 9 HR, 64 RBI | .303, 169 HR, 865 RBI) – longest-tenured Raccoon, having debuted in 1989, Reece has been eaten up by old age and injuries, although he ironically was injury-free for the first time since 1993 (his 153 appearances in 2003 are a personal best!) in exactly that season in which the sparkle came off; his agility is gone, and he receives the honorary first listing among outfielders despite him being in a platoon with the hotshot Beairsto. Last time at-bat for the last Raccoon to have won a ring with the team, or can he find something and remain viable post-2004?
RF/CF/LF/1B Edgardo Torrez, 27, B:L, T:L (.271, 17 HR, 56 RBI | .268, 20 HR, 67 RBI) – a late bloomer always bitten by injuries, Torrez by surprise took the 2003 CL Rookie Award after striking fear amongst the opposition for 133 games at age 26, tormenting them with power, a good eye to draw walks, and some speed. We don’t see anybody to dislodge him from center in the near future.
LF/RF Clyde Brady, 27, B:L, T:L (.249, 10 HR, 50 RBI | .257, 64 HR, 305 RBI) – fails to deliver on the glimpse of greatness we saw in the injury-shortened 2001 season, now delivering almost the same numbers every season. We tried to trade for Royce Green to keep Brady busy, which didn’t work out, and right now he is quite uncontested in right except for starts against left-handed pitching of which a number will go to King.
LF/RF Chris Beairsto, 25, B:L, T:L (.241, 17 HR, 42 RBI | .212, 21 HR, 50 RBI) – platoon made of Neil Reece in leftfield, Beairsto combines feast and famine more spectacularly than most players the sport has seen: at his best he can hit home runs almost every day, but at his worst, he will strike out three times for many consecutive games. If this kid could learn a sliver of plate discipline, he could become great. Beairsto also was a pitcher in his youth and is a candidate for the most severe mop-up duties.
LF/RF/CF Matt King *, 26, B:R, T:R (.333, 0 HR, 7 RBI | .289, 1 HR, 42 RBI) – acquired in trade from the Falcons, King can provide backup to all three positions and might grab a fair share of starts against left-handed pitching.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
C Gary Fifield, 31, B:R, T:R (.145, 4 HR, 14 RBI | .211, 25 HR, 95 RBI) – DFA after we couldn’t move him for a full year.

Opening day lineups:
Vs. RHP: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Brown
Vs. LHP: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Brady – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P Brown
However, Neil Reece will get the Opening Day start even against a right-hander.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The Raccoons posted their franchise-worst seventh consecutive losing season at 76-86, and that was the best result in five years. The offseason was rather uneventful in Portland. There were a few deals and the odd signing, but the Raccoons did not land a really big name to improve their game, losing 0.7 WAR for a t-13th spot in BNN’s offseason ranking.

Top 5: Bayhawks (+13.3), Crusaders (+6.2), Cyclones (+6.2), Wolves (+3.4), Buffaloes (+2.7)
Bottom 5: Indians (-3.7), Warriors (-4.1), Capitals (-6.3), Condors (-12.7), Loggers (-16.5)

PREDICTION TIME:

Last year I predicted the Raccoons to play along for a while before being decimated by injuries and finishing 71-91. Most of that became true, as we were over .500 into May before reality began to sink in, and Concie and Sharpie missed chunks of the season as well as the rotation getting mauled with Ford, Garcia, and Piquero (who is back in AAA) getting hurt and Carl Bean traded for future glory chances.

The Raccoons are hardly improved this year, but they may have a better balanced roster this time around, the Jolys and McLaughlins having been disposed of. But there are still health concerns over a lot of the players, and we got extraordinary contributions from guys like Eddie Torrez, who have to back up these outputs now.

We failed to land an impact player, old problems continue to persist, and overall there is no hope for significant improvement. The Raccoons will never be a factor and will finish far off, at 72-90.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

For years, the Raccoons’ system was mired in obscurity, even ranking near the bottom a few years ago, and 16th both of the last two seasons. Apparently the weather has changed, because this year BNN puts us – far and away! – at #1 in the country!

Last year we had only six prospects in the top 200, this year we have six in the first 61 selections. And some more! Of the previous six from last year, #62 Chris Beairsto is no longer eligible, #36 Mun-wah Tsung was traded, and #79 Ieyoshi Nomura and #93 Mike Willard fell off the list.

2nd (new) – AAA CL Angel Casas, 21 – 2003 first round pick by the Raccoons
22nd (+119) – AA SP/MR Adam Riddle, 22 – 2002 second round pick by the Raccoons
24th (new) – A MR Pedro Delgado, 19 – 2002 first round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Bill Corkum and Rémy Lucas for Manny Gabriel and Dale Moore
37th (new) – AA CL Rémy Lucas, 25 – 2000 fifth round pick by the Crusaders, acquired in trade with Bill Corkum and Pedro Delgado for Manny Gabriel and Dale Moore
52nd (new) – AAA MR Lawrence Rockburn, 23 – international discovery by the Thunder, acquired in trade for Butch Kaustrop
61st (new) – AA OF Santiago Trevino, 21 – 2003 second round pick by the Raccoons
72nd (+113) – AAA 1B Alejandro Rojas, 24 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
95th (new) – AAA MR Cody Bryant, 21 – 2001 second round pick by the Raccoons
102nd (new) – AAA MR Ed Bryan, 23 – 1999 fourth round pick by the Raccoons
111th (new) – AAA MR Scott Boone, 23 – 1998 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
112nd (new) – AAA MR Matt Cash, 21 – 2000 second round pick by the Raccoons
120th (new) – AAA C Bob Wood, 23 – 1999 third round pick by the Raccoons
129th (new) – AA MR Luis Beltran, 24 – 2001 seventh round pick by the Raccoons
134th (new) – AAA MR Aurelio Hernandez, 24 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
156th (new) – A 2B Keegan Crabtree, 20 – 2001 supplemental round pick by the Falcons, acquired in trade with Matt King for Mun-wah Tsung and Jesus Elmore
191st (new) – AA 1B Leonard Wyatt, 20 – 2002 eighth round pick by the Raccoons
199th (new) – A MR Tony Rodriguez, 19 – 2002 fourth round pick by the Raccoons

Attention. This is the newest version of OOTP, and I expect the evaluation to weight things differently than before, which is why I blame bits and bytes more than actual decent development work by me and my staff. Right, Slappy? Slappy nods in agreement as he watches a few of the kids throw balls into a bucket.

22-year old CIN 1B Ray Gilbert is the only player beating out Angel in the rankings, being put at #1. The Cyclones drafted Gilbert sixth overall in the 1999 draft. He was the #4 prospect last season.

Next: first pitch!

[Orcin]

You can certainly expect to have the best bullpen in the league in the near future.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Crusaders (0-0) – April 5-7, 2004

New year, new start. The Crusaders look quite rejuvenated, and may not be the bottom dwellers we have known them to be for very much longer.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Whit Reeves (0-0)
Randy Farley (0-0) vs. Greg Connor (0-0)
Ralph Ford (0-0) vs. Emerson Fricke (0-0)

Fricke is a 28-year old left-hander from Illinois, whose major league experience encompasses two innings in relief for the Pacifics in 1999. Maybe the Crusaders will not be that good after all …

Game 1
NYC: RF Gonzales – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Tinker – SS Rice – 3B A. De Jesus – C D. Anderson – CF Cook – P Reeves
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Brown

Opening Day in crap weather. At least Concie reached on an error by De Jesus to get our year rolling once Nick Brown had sat down the Crusaders in order in the top 1st. The inning would end with Martin hitting into a double play, though. Brown would soon get rocked, however. Daryl Anderson singled to start the third, and Greg Cook went very deep to put two runs on the board. After that, Brown melted down, simply and easily. He walked three batters in the inning after that, and the Crusaders scored a third run, and Brown got knocked out in the fifth inning without registering an out, leaving two on in a 4-0 game. Even the baseball gods cried, forcing a 40 minute delay in the seventh inning much to the frustration of the sparse crowd that had appeared to try and survive 39°, wet and windy. Runs fell out of Huerta and Williams, and Whit Reeves, the ex-Scorpion, didn’t allow a whole lot in his seventh innings of 1-run ball. Cory Maupin would surrender a solo home run to Clyde Brady in the eighth, but that was all the Raccoons managed to club together. 7-2 Crusaders. Thomas (PH) 2-2, RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

And who’d have thunk that Marcos Bruno would lead the team in strikeouts after Opening Day? Ha!

The only spares not used in the game were Nordahl, Moreno, and King. Williams allowed a run in his Coons debut, and Sheehan struck out hitting for Bruno in the bottom 9th.

Game 2
NYC: RF Javier – 2B J. Hernandez – SS Rice – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Carroll – 3B A. De Jesus – C D. Anderson – CF Cook – P Connor
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Farley

Same play as yesterday, no score for two innings, and then the Crusaders got there first. Greg Connor’s leadoff single rolled past Albert Martin and they brought him around to score, but this time the Raccoons had an immediate answer with a Guerin double and Brady single to score him in the bottom 3rd, and the next time Concie was up he reached again on an error by De Jesus. He went on to steal second, went to third on Torrez’ bloop single, and then Brady doubled to right to give the Raccoons the lead! Martin struck out, but singles by Beairsto and Sharp ramped the score to 4-1 before the bases filled up with an intentional walk to Ledesma and Farley flew out to left to end the inning. In a perfect world, Randy Farley would have managed that lead well for a few more innings, but the Crusaders got single runs in both of the sixth and seventh to make it 4-3. Williams and Corkum combined for a clean eighth, and then it was Nordahl time against the bottom of the Crusaders’ lineup. Daryl Anderson and Bill Tinker took 2-2 pitches to the outfield, where both flies were caught, and Jorge Gonzales struck out. 4-3 Raccoons! Torrez 2-4; Brady 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Beairsto 2-4, RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Farley 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
NYC: RF Gonzales – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Tinker – SS Rice – 3B A. De Jesus – C D. Anderson – CF Cook – P Fricke
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Brady – CF King – C Thomas – P Ford

Ford loaded the bases before he ever registered an out, and the Crusaders scored two runs on four singles and a walk in the first inning. The only Raccoon to reach base in the first was Sharp, and he was tagged out at third base by a good margin. Like Brown on Monday, Ford went only four plus, allowing four runs, the last on a leadoff jack by Gary Rice in the fifth, but while Brown had had really one bad inning, Ford had sucked outright for seven hits and four walks and quite a few more 3-ball counts the Crusaders had jabbed at and had made outs on. Ford however was spared the loss as the Raccoons crawled back into the contest, and in the bottom 6th got a bit of 2-out terror going against Fricke in his first major league start, with back-to-back RBI doubles by Reece and Brady knotting up the score before Matt King grounded out. Top 7th, Gary Rice hit a leadoff double off Manuel Martinez and scored on De Jesus’ bloop single. Because that’s how we’ve been rolling for seven years. Every effort has to go to waste, absolutely. In the 5-4 game the Crusaders kept Fricke in there. Thomas then led off with a double in the bottom 7th, and Fricke threw a wild pitch to move him to third after striking out Torrez in the #9 hole. Concie grounded out, but Sharp came through, or rather, out, hitting a towering no-doubt homer to left that flipped the score in favor of the Coons, but the joy was short-lived once more as Moreno put runners on the corners in the eighth and Bruno couldn’t find a K this time around. The score became tied 6-6, and a Brady double led nowhere in particular in the bottom of the eighth. Bruno continued in the top 9th, but De Jesus hit a leadoff single. Williams replaced him to get left-handed pinch-hitter Paco Javier and then faced ex-Coon and reliever Tony Vela with two out and the runner at third base. Somehow – SOMEHOW – this situation resulted in three more runs, on Vela’s single, and Jorge Gonzales’ homer. 9-6 Crusaders. Sharp 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Martin 2-4; Brady 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Well, that was rough. So far we haven’t seen anything exciting. Maybe except for Clyde Brady. Everybody else was just blech in this opening series.

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Condors (1-3) – April 9-11, 2004

The Condors had given up the most runs at this point, but they had also played four games already, and what are statistics at the end of the day when you have a roster full of no-good suckers?

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (0-0) vs. Jose Aguilar (0-0)
Felipe Garcia (0-0) vs. Kelvin Yates (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Nick Brown (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs. Curt Powell (0-0, 6.00 ERA)

That’s three right-handers. Reece struck out five times in 9 AB in the opening series, so maybe Beairsto will really make all the starts in this series.

Game 1
TIJ: RF MacGruder – C Cicalina – LF Reya – CF Luxton – 2B B. Boyle – SS Stein – 1B Cambria – 3B N. Chavez – P Aguilar
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 3B Sharp – C Ledesma – 2B Sheehan – P Amador

Hugues Cambria’s first homer of the season put the Condors 2-0 on top in the second inning against the colossal Amador, who nevertheless made a nifty play on a grounder later in the inning, and then led off the third with a line drive to left that eluded Luis Reya and saw Amador rumble into second base with a double. He was never moved off that base by the succeeding runners, though. Other than the homer, Amador pitched quite remarkably, despite the string of left-handers in the middle of the opposing lineup. He had whiffed eight through six innings and while the Raccoons had been bothered to score a run in the bottom 5th, he still trailed. Bottom 6th then, with two out Ledesma reached on a single. We were tempted to hit for Sheehan, but then didn’t since we couldn’t get a left-hander in there anyway – they were all already IN the lineup. Lo and behold, 1-2 pitch, Sheehan homered to left, putting the Coon on top 3-2. The lead didn’t hold up, though, as Boyle and Cambria got to Amador with doubles in the top 7th, tying back the score, and when Amador continued in the eighth, he didn’t retire anybody and instead was charged with another run. The Raccoons didn’t let him lose, though. Sharp got on in the eighth, and then left-hander Colby Kirk was inserted to face Ledesma, but did a more middling job of it. Ledesma homered, and we took another lead. We had two men on with one out when Eddie Torrez put a 3-0 pitch in play for an inning-ending double play. Dan Nordahl induced a grounder to second from the first man in the ninth, Nelson Chavez, but Sheehan couldn’t dig it out in time and Chavez was safe. Antonio Clemente grounded to third, where Sharp threw the ball away for his first errors of undoubtedly many this year. Nordahl then struck out Arthur Simon and Urbano Cicalina, before Luis Reya grounded back to the mound, and the ball bounced against both of Nordahl’s legs, and nobody had a play. Bases loaded, and the following sequence would rival Juan Diaz’ infamous three wild pitches in an at bat: first Nordahl walked Robbie Luxton to blow the save. Then Ledesma was charged with a passed ball that got the team behind, before Nordahl completed the at bat with Bruce Boyle with another walk, before beginning to face Bartolo Román with a wild pitch, and – oh! – another run scored. 7-5 Condors. Guerin 3-4, 2B, RBI; Sharp 2-5, 3B; Ledesma 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Amador 7.0 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 10 K and 2-2, 2B;

Sheehan, quite impressive for a first hit for the team. Vince just grins. Ya, ya, old man, I’ll get to you later.

The feeling of despair that makes itself noticed, just four games into the season…

The baseball gods were crying so hard – laughter and tears of joy, I assume – that the weather that had been ****ty for all of this week, finally preempted a contest on Saturday. The game was postponed to Sunday to give everybody a double dose of joy and … frustration.

Game 2
TIJ: SS Simon – C Cicalina – LF Reya – CF Luxton – 1B B. Román – 2B B. Boyle – RF MacGruder – 3B Stein – P Yates
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 1B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P F. Garcia

Cicalina was the only right-hander in that lineup and we had to play 18 innings today, so joy would be relegated to narrow confines. And then Daniel Sharp hit a 2-run homer in the bottom 1st, and Garcia sat down the first ten Condors he faced until it was of course Cicalina to get the first single for them. Another single by Luis Reya followed and soon enough Bartolo Román made everybody miserable with a 3-run homer. The Raccoons managed only one hit other than Sharp’s four-baser through six innings, then suddenly burst out and bowled over Yates in the seventh, knocking three doubles in the inning between Sharp, Brady, and Ingall, to plate a total of three runs. Garcia soldiered through eight innings, and Nordahl struck out two in a perfect ninth. 5-3 Coons! Sharp 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-3, 2B, RBI; Garcia 8.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

Ledesma, Ingall, and Concie were all kept on the bench for the start of the second leg of the doubleheader.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Simon – LF Bayle – CF Luxton – RF Reya – 2B B. Boyle – 1B Heathershaw – C Clemente – 3B N. Chavez – P Pineda
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS M. Ramirez – 2B Sheehan – C Thomas – P Brown

Miguel Ramirez’ first hit of the year was well deep and gave the Coons a 1-0 lead in the second inning. They added a run in the third, but Robbie Luxton had Brown’s number. He reached both in the fourth and sixth and both times scored, the second time on his own home run, to tie the score through six. Brown went seven with eight strikeouts and hoped for magic when Paco Leoniedas walked Torrez and Brady to start the bottom 7th, and although a third walk to Beairsto would load the bases, nobody could be bothered to come through and they left them loaded. Martinez got one out in the top 8th, Moreno the other two, and when Thomas led off with a single in the bottom 8th, Moreno bunted him over to stay in the game with more left-handers due for the Condors in the ninth. But again, no success at bat for the Furballs. Moreno struck out the side in the ninth, and the Condors stayed with righty Shane Sweet to face our 3-4-5 battery. C’mon boys! Nope, nobody reached. How can you worsen a doubleheader? With extra innings of course. Corkum pitched the 10th, Williams the 11th. Alonso Villegas was tasked with both by the Condors, but Neil Reece hit a pinch-hit single to lead off the bottom 11th. Sharp, 0-5, bunted him to second base, and then Torrez struck out and Brady grounded out to Heathershaw at short. Huerta – en route to being overworked early again – pitched two scoreless for us, the Condors stranding runners on second and third in the 13th. In the bottom of that inning, an Ingall single off Ray Cobb put the winning run on with nobody out, and Concie ran for Ingall. Concie reached third as Thomas and Reece grounded out in succession, and Sharp was still 0-5 on the day. C’mon Danny! Show them! Cobb got him to 1-2, but then Sharp sent one up the middle, and past the reach of Heathershaw into center. 3-2 Raccoons! Thomas 2-5, BB; Reece (PH) 1-2; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K; Moreno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; Huerta 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Whoo, that one was tough, almost unchewable. But if you have to play two – and 22 innings in total – at least win them both, and the Raccoons got that part accomplished.

The Titans went 6-0 in the first week, stomping the opposition. I think they will run away with the CL North this year…

Raccoons (3-3) @ Bayhawks (3-3) – April 12-14, 2004

The Bayhawks look less desolate than last year for sure, with some new talent having come in. But the first week, while not a total disaster at 3-3, saw them only score 19 runs, second-worst in the CL, with a .206 batting average. Well, you gotta improve on that.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (0-1, 27.00 ERA)
Ralph Ford (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. Raúl Fuentes (0-1, 3.38 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-0, 5.14 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (1-0, 1.13 ERA)

Now, these are three left-handed starters! We will certainly see a lot of Neil Reece and Mark Thomas in the coming days, and a sprinkle of Matt King, too.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Brady – CF King – C Thomas – P Farley
SFB: C J. Lopez – SS J. Barrón – 1B I. Gutierrez – LF Morton – RF Arroyo – CF Buell – 3B T. Torres – 2B J. Perez – P Sato

Walking the first two batters in the bottom 2nd didn’t do Randy any good, as the Bayhawks combined it well with a humiliating 2-out RBI single by their pitcher Takeru Sato, and that on an 0-2 pitch. The Coons didn’t trail for long, as Mark Thomas hit a triple in the third and scored on Farley’s groundout. That 1-1 score proved to persistent however, as neither team could get much of a threat developed until “Take me out to the ballgame”. Once the last “ballgame” had echoed out in the cavernous park at the Bay, however, Jorge Cruz pinch-hit for a leadoff double in the seventh, and once Jorge Lopez defeated Neil Reece’s diminished range for a 2-out RBI double, the Bayhawks were ahead 2-1. That was the final blow already in a quick contest that barely went past two-and-a-quarter hours. Sato struck out nine over eight innings, and Johnny Smith annihilated Martin, Torrez, and Brady at blistering speed in the ninth. 2-1 Bayhawks.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Sharp – LF Reece – RF Brady – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Sheehan – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P Ford
SFB: 2B J. Barrón – 1B Valdes – 3B J. Cruz – CF Black – SS J. Perez – C Aguilar – LF Buell – RF T. Torres – P Fuentes

Neil Reece didn’t have much time to feature in the middle contest, striking out to end the top 1st and disagreeing audibly for everybody with the home plate umpire, who instantly ran him. Beairsto replaced Old Neil. While Reece wasn’t the only strikeout victim for Fuentes, who tore threw the Coons like through paper, Ralph Ford enjoyed no success whatsoever. He allowed a run in the first, and in the fourth the Bayhawks put four men on before they ever made an out, increasing their lead to merely 3-0. Ford lasted five and two thirds, leaving with runners on the corners in the 3-0 game after Fuentes had defeated him with a single. Opposing pitchers clobbering ours is a disturbingly common theme early in this season. Martinez came in and got a foul out from Barrón to keep the damage limited. Anyway, the main damage was done to the lineup, which at that point had been held to a Brady single and eight strikeouts. It wouldn’t get much better beyond that. Martin had a pinch-hit single with two out in the eighth, which nothing coming out of that, and Concie reached on an infield single in the ninth. But Fuentes, who had struck out ONE batter in eight innings in his first go of the season, struck out a DOZEN, pitching a 3-hit shutout today. 3-0 Bayhawks. Martin (PH) 1-1; Martinez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Eight games in, we’re one game off the bottom of the division. We are not scoring runs, and we are giving up runs, which in combination works to any team’s disadvantage (duh). The following players are all batting .200 or less: Martin, Sheehan, Ramirez, Beairsto, and Torrez. Only Ledesma, Thomas, Sharp, and Brady have OPS values exceeding .700. And Daniel Sharp leads the team in home runs, which in itself is a strange occurrence.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P Amador
SFB: C J. Lopez – SS J. Barrón – 3B J. Cruz – LF Morton – RF Arroyo – CF Maguey – 1B T. Torres – 2B J. Perez – P M. Hernandez

The Coons loaded them up in the first, but Martin struck out and while Ingall flew to deep left, Joe Morton made the play, and we didn’t score. The Bayhawks however did score in the bottom 2nd, when there were lots of grounders eluding the middle infielders, ex-Elk Luis Arroyo drove in the first run of the game, and they were up 2-0 when they left the bases loaded themselves. The Raccoons didn’t start to matter offensively again until the sixth when Brady was on base and went to third aggressively on Reece’s bloop single. Arroyo’s throw was not good, and Brady was safe at third. From there he scored on Martin lining out to center, 2-1. Ingall walked, moving Reece to second base, before Torrez flew out. Then Thomas came through with a 2-out double on a 2-2 pitch, scoring Reece to get the score to 2-2. Amador batted for himself, grounded to second base, and Perez blew the play, allowing the go-ahead run in Ingall to score, and Concie singled to left to make it 4-2, ending Hernandez’ day. One of Vince’s discoveries, Salvadaro Soure, appeared to surrender Sharp and end the inning. Amador went on to protect the 4-2 lead through seven innings, handing it over to Corkum, who didn’t get the eighth over with, walking Arturo Aguilar and Jorge Cruz. Ivan Gutierrez came out to hit for Morton, who was batting less than .100, but we brought Moreno, who struck out the pinch-hitter and ended the inning. Top 9th, Sharp and Brady drew walks off Leonard Williamson before Johnny Smith came in, the Bayhawks trying to use their closer to keep the Coons in range. Neil Reece promptly hit into a double play. Martin was walked intentionally, but an Ingall single put the fifth run on the board, and then Torrez chased Smith with a 3-run homer to right! 8-2 Raccoons! Guerin 2-5, RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB, RBI; Torrez 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Thomas 3-5, 2B, RBI; Amador 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-0); Moreno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

Titans still undefeated. Thank god we can go to Vancouver and don’t have to face them.

Raccoons (4-5) @ Canadiens (4-4) – April 15-18, 2004

The Canadiens were playing balanced ball early in the season, scoring 34 runs (t-10th) and allowing 35 runs (4th). Their rotation had allowed most of the damage, ranking ninth with a 4.29 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (1-0, 3.38 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (0-0, 9.00 ERA)
Nick Brown (0-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (0-2, 3.09 ERA)
Randy Farley (1-1, 3.21 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (1-1, 4.61 ERA)
Ralph Ford (0-1, 6.52 ERA) vs. Joe Hollow (1-0, 1.13 ERA)

We will face three right-handers before a lefty on Sunday, and we have an off day on Monday. We might want to give Daniel Sharp a day off at some point, as well as Brady, who both played in both ends of the double header and did not get rest in between now and then. It’s early. No need to exhaust the personnel just yet. Checking for matchups with Brady I was surprised to find out that – while he hasn’t faced Taylor before – he actually hits the lefty Hollow far and away the hardest: .390 in 41 AB!

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – CF Torrez – 2B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – P F. Garcia
VAN: LF T. Wilson – CF E. Garcia – 2B Dobson – 1B J. Zamora – 3B Suzuki – C Hurtado – RF Wheaton – SS Phillips – P R. Taylor

Neither team managed to score early on, with the Elks not even getting on base against Garcia. In the bottom 2nd both Zamora and Suzuki grounded out poorly on 3-ball pitches, which sent their manager raging in the dugout. The Raccoons in turn skillfully hit into their share of double plays early and didn’t score. Garcia sat down the first 14 Canadiens before Pedro Hurtado drew a walk, and immediately Dave Wheaton followed that up with a single. Jim Phillips walked, but Taylor mercifully grounded out to end the fifth inning. Scoreless ball continued through seven, before the bottom 8th saw Wheaton and Phillips single. Ramón Trinidad was hit by Garcia and the bases were loaded – with no outs. Amazingly, they wouldn’t score. Moreno came in, struck out Anastasio Munoz and Enrique Garcia, and then Manuel Martinez got Jerry Dobson to send a tame grounder to Sharp for the third out. We went to extra innings, still entirely scoreless, once Marcos Bruno had pitched the ninth for us after the top 9th had seen Torrez hit a double and get stranded at second. The top 11th(!) finally saw a Raccoon reach third base! Peter Sanders walked both Martin and Beairsto to start the inning, and then Torrez singled to right. Ingall, in the game since the eighth, drew another walk – offense, offense! Not that the Coons got any more than that. Ledesma struck out, Sheehan got Beairsto forced out at home, and Guerin rolled out to short. Nordahl came in for the bottom 11th. He struck out Velasquez – yay! He struck out Garcia – YAY! He – left the game? Um… while we had a little moment and warmed up Huerta, we found out that Nordahl had felt a pinch, and that’s nothing you’ll ever want to hear with your closer. Huerta got Dobson to pop to short. 1-0 Coons. Torrez 2-4, 2B; Garcia 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 2B Sheehan – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – P Brown
VAN: CF T. Wilson – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – 1B A. Munoz – RF Velasquez – 3B Suzuki – C Rosa – SS Phillips – P Dickerson

No more offense than yesterday, well … almost. The teams combined for three hits through four and a half innings before Velasquez and Suzuki chopped incredibly annoying bloop singles to lead off the fifth inning for the Elks. Brown tried hard, but Velasquez scored on a sac fly by Freddy Rosa. Down 1-0 – insurmountable! Top 6th, Brown hit with Ledesma on second base and one out. No use in throwing away outs, so Brown swung and his grounder wasn’t dug out, giving him an infield single and Ledesma third base, from where Concie drove him in with a single over Dobson. Dickerson struck out Torrez, and Brady lined out to Dobson to end the inning with two Coons stranded in a 1-1 game. But the Elks took a new lead in the bottom 6th with an unearned run fabricated when Ledesma made a throwing error on a stolen base attempt. Brown was hit for in the top 8th with King, to no effect, and was on a 2-1 hook as we entered the ninth. Pedro Alvarado pitched and the Coons got the leadoff man on when Torrez singled. He then took second base on a hit-and-run in which Brady missed his part, but then still singled and moved Torrez to third on the next pitch. Martin’s single drove in Torrez, tied the score, and there was still no out in the inning. Sharp hit for Beairsto, struck out, and Thomas hit for Sheehan, and popped out, and Ledesma also struck out. Concie almost became the bloke in the bottom 9th when his error put leadoff man Jerry Dobson on base, but he recovered by converting a line drive by Mitsuhide Suzuki into an inning-ending double play. And guess what! Extra innings again! The Raccoons refused to start producing however, and the Elks walked off on Huerta with three hits in the bottom 11th. 3-2 Canadiens. Guerin 3-5, RBI; Martin 2-4, BB, RBI; Reece 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K and 1-2;

Now only half a game ahead of last place. Oh, and the Titans finally lost a game, just when we thought it wouldn’t happen anymore, 2-1 in Milwaukee with Martin Garcia outdueling Jorge Chapa.

Neil Reece became the first Coon to 1,900 career hits with a meaningless single.

Dan Nordahl was diagnosed with a mild shoulder strain. A trip to the DL will not be necessary, but he will still not be available for at least a couple more days.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF Torrez – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Farley
VAN: LF T. Wilson – CF E. Garcia – 2B Dobson – RF Velasquez – 3B Suzuki – SS Rodgers – 1B Phillips – C Hurtado – P Fujita

For what it was worth, the Elks managed to top our opening day weather with 36 degrees and mucky conditions that were just short of fog. The Coons played mucky, too, loading the bags with one out in the second before Ledesma hit into a 4-6-3 double play. The Raccoons actually DID score first when Al Martin shoved a single just fair and just past a stretching Phillips to plate Concie in the third inning. Soon after that, the conditions worsened with a steady rain that soon forced a 40 minute delay. Randy had been very good before the delay, but not so much afterwards. He wobbled through five supported by a few strong plays made in the field, two of those by Danny Sharp, and when rain forced another delay in the sixth inning, he was gone. We loaded them up in the top 6th and with two out Farley was hit for by Beairsto, who took a called strike three from ex-Coon Albert Matthews. The lead went bust on Martinez in the seventh, with Moreno stalling two runners in scoring position. At 1-1, were we heading for extras yet again? Can’t we just lose dismally in regulation? No worries, Marcos Bruno came in for the eighth, looked bad all along and surrendered three hits and two runs, princely on a Velasquez RBI double, to get this one into the loss column before we’d have to pay overtime surcharges. 3-1 Canadiens. Reece 2-4, 2B; Farley 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Yay, last place – achieved! We’re not quite last in runs scored, but we’re on a damn good way there…

Game 4
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Thomas – CF Torrez – RF King – P Ford
VAN: CF T. Wilson – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – 1B A. Munoz – RF Velasquez – 3B Suzuki – C Rosa – SS Phillips – P Hollow

While the Elks stormed the mound in the first inning to plate three runs on a hapless Ralph Ford, the Raccoons consistently put their leadoff man on in this game and then did something stupid, and never scored in the first four innings. In the fifth, Torrez was the leadoff man that got on, and then Matt King hit a double to bring them both into scoring position with no outs. Ford flew to deep center, but Wilson caught that ball, holding him to a sac fly. Guerin fouled out and then Sharp lined hard to the right side, where Munoz made a sprawling catch. And that same ****, all day long. Bottom 6th, the Elks had two men on with two out and Phillips’ grounder to left eluding Sharp and Guerin for an RBI single, 4-1. Well, let Ford get the pitcher, and then we’ll throw some bullpen meat in. Well. Unless the pitcher hit it out. Hollow’s 3-run homer blew the doors off this game, and had Ford leave the game in shame, with lots of ugly Canadian children snickering. 7-1 Canadiens. Martin 2-4; King 2-3, 2B; Corkum 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Yes, I threw stuff at the walls when Hollow homered, and yes, some of it stuck.

In other news

April 6 – The Wolves start the year by losing LF/RF Jesus Flores (0-for-3, 0 HR, 0 RBI) to a herniated disc. The 27-year old will miss a month.
April 7 – PIT SP Henry Becker (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will miss up to six weeks with an intercostal strain.
April 12 – Bone chips in his elbow will require SFW SP Manny Rios (1-0, 3.12 ERA) to have invasive surgery and to miss most of the season.
April 13 – In Cincy, OF/1B Will Bailey (.333, 1 HR, 4 RBI) will be out for a month with a strained oblique, an injury he contracts at the very end of a 5-hit performance in the Cyclones’ 7-6 loss to the Stars.
April 15 – Sophomore IND SP Curtis Tobitt (0-1, 5.40 ERA) gets the bad news that his labrum is torn and he will miss at least four months.
April 18 – CIN LF/RF Dan Morris (.220, 0 HR, 2 RBI) is felled by an oblique strain, joining his mate Bailey on the DL for the next month.

Complaints and stuff

Batting .407 with 2 HR and 6 RBI in the first week of the year, Daniel Sharp was named the CL’s Player of the Week – yay!

Well, that first week still was pretty yay. The second week… (shivers) – horrendous hitting display, to be polite.

Edgar Amador has been dubbed “The Fat Cat” in local media for two reasons. He fielded bunts by batters well in both of his first two starts this season, and he has been seen in a Portland nightclub right before the start of the season, wearing a screamingly obnoxious jacket in leopard optic. Plus a purple hat with a feather, but that one doesn’t fit in anywhere. Plus, he’s morbidly obese but we don’t really want him to focus on losing weight now in the middle of the season. To bring him down to XXL we’d have to starve him for four weeks, and he’s still gotta pitch…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (5-8) vs. Indians (5-7) – April 20-22, 2004

And here’s a cellar dweller series for you, just two weeks into the season, but these teams are already a combined 13 1/2 games out of the Titans, who beat the Elks on our off day, 5-1, behind eight strong innings from Joe Mann. Way to go! The Indians meanwhile had scored 50 runs and allowed 52, not outrageous numbers for sure. Their pitching was quite decent, although their rotation had some holes, but the top 3 in homers in the Continental League are all Indians: Jose Paraz has five, David Lopez has four, and Ron Alston ties for third with three.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (0-0, 3.48 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (2-0, 2.28 ERA)
Nick Brown (0-1, 4.00 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (0-2, 12.60 ERA)

The medical report says that Dan Nordahl might be unavailable for the entire series. In his absence, we will close by committee. You know, should there be something to close at all.

This series starts with the southpaw Hamilton as opponent, so Neil Reece gets that start. Beairsto will be run out on Wednesday against Morrow, but if he doesn’t get his act together rather quickly, he might see more starts against right-handers go to Reece, who is at least hitting singles in addition to tons of whiffs. Like, against Moreau.

Game 1
IND: 2B D. Mendez – RF C. Rey – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF MacKey – 1B Kilters – SS Stevens – P Hamilton
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – C Thomas – CF Torrez – RF King – 2B Sheehan – P Amador

The Fat Cat walked and balked in the first, but the first damage was done to Hamilton, who became Al Martin’s first dinger victim of the season, and that one counted for three runs in the bottom 1st. The Coons would not get another hit until the Cat had one in the fifth, and the Indians only had one hit themselves in the meantime, but that was a solo home run by David Lopez. Unlike Martin he had already hit four on the season, and tied team mate Jose Paraz for the CL lead. It was the only hit the Fat Cat allowed in six innings, and he was preempted from going further by Oregon’s lovely April weather, which doused the park for an hour right after the final out in the bottom 6th. Williams, Martinez, and Moreno combined for six outs against only two baserunners before we had to decide between Bruno and Corkum in the ninth, the score still 3-1, with not an awful lot having happened in the bottoms of innings past the first. In fact, no Raccoon reached third base after the first inning. Bruno came in, facing David Lopez first, who popped out to Ingall at second, just like Paraz after him, and Bruno got an easy grounder to short from PH Craig Bowen. 3-1 Coons. Martin 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Amador 6.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (2-0) and 1-2;

That makes Amador the first Coon with two wins this season, and Marcos Bruno the fourth to grab a save, joining Nordahl (who has two), Huerta, and Moreno. Without checking, I feel like we lead in the latter category.

Game 2
IND: 2B D. Mendez – RF C. Rey – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF MacKey – 1B Harris – SS Stevens – P Morrow
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Beairsto – C Ledesma – CF King – P F. Garcia

Both sides hacked in the first innings, but the Raccoons managed to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom 3rd after singles by Concie and Sharpie, and Brady drawing another walk. Martin was up, lined out to Lopez at third, and Marv hit into a 6-4-3 mood killer. The Indians instantly pierced us once more through the heart with a scratch-out run in the top 4th, and in the fifth it came apart rather rapidly for Garcia, who walked Robbie Harris, then had Art Stevens reach on an infield single, and when Morrow bunted it right back to him, he tried to nab Harris at third, but his throw was high and Sharp was lucky to make a leaping grab on it. With the bases now loaded, Garcia walked Mendez, 2-0, before striking out Claudio Rey. The lefty Alston came up, and he hadn’t looked very good in this series so far. Ah, but well, maybe a wild pitch will score the third run for the Indians, and Ingall had to make a marvelous play on the grounder Alston hit on the next pitch to just keep it at 3-0 Indians. Garcia lasted seven otherwise good innings, but the Raccoons were drifting dead in the water. The three runs were well sufficient in the end, but for good measure Lopez would pummel Bill Corkum with a 2-run shot in the eighth. 5-1 Indians. Sharp 2-4; Ledesma 2-3, BB; Ramirez (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Garcia 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, L (1-1);

Still not last in runs scored. Turns out the Bayhawks have scored only *35* runs in 14 games, which is still a lot more anemic than the Coons, who at this junction fail to exceed the 3 R/G mark, having plated 43 markers in 15 contests.

Game 3
IND: CF Alvarez – 2B D. Mendez – RF Alston – LF D. Lopez – C Paraz – 1B Cortez – 3B Harris – SS Stevens – P Moreau
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Beairsto – C Ledesma – CF King – P Brown

Dan Nordahl sat in the bullpen for the first time in this series, amongst his mates. Was he available, or was it a trick to make the Indians think he was available? Would we find out?

Brown came in winless, was dismayed to find the same lineup penciled in as in yesterday’s 5-1 loss, and cocked up a run in the first inning, while the Coons had Guerin reach on a single, got him thrown out trying to steal, and then left two men on anyway. Brown drew a leadoff walk in the third, only to be caught up in Concie’s double play grounder, and it looked bad. On the mound, Brown struck out five in the first four innings, but kept trailing until we entered the bottom 4th. The Raccoons got three horribly cheap hits by Brady (past Mendez), Ingall (past Harris), and Beairsto (who never got it out of the infield) to load the bases, and then Ledesma doubled over Cortez to plate two runs. King was walked intentionally after which Brown struck out with the bases loaded, but when Concie came up he doubled into the gap in right center, and all runners scored – OFFENSE!! That made it 5-1, and if Brown had any guts now, he’d hold on to that for a long, long time.

Well… Top 5th. Harris singled to right. Stevens tried to bunt him over, grounded to Brown, who made a piss poor throw to second and look, another error by the pitcher. Chris Kilters hit for the ravaged Moreau and walked, loading them up with one out. Alvarez popped out. David Mendez hacked himself out. Whoah. The Coons had three on with no outs in the bottom 6th before Alonso Alonso (yes, actually, still) struck out Brown and Concie and Sharpie grounded out to short. We did manage to tack on a run on a Beairsto double in the bottom 7th before Brown walked two in the next inning and was removed. Martinez ineffectively allowed both runners to score and Marcos Bruno appeared to strike out Robbie Harris, the tying run, to end the inning. The score 6-3, Nordahl and Corkum did some casual tossing in the pen as the bottom 8th dawned. The Raccoons got King on with a double off Kevin Edwards. Torrez hit for Bruno but was intentionally walked, and Concie hit into another double play, putting King at third. Ramirez hit for Sharp and singled to left, which took away the save, 7-3. Nordahl immediately sat down. Brady got on, and then Martin broke through the poor Edwards’ defenses by unloading his second 3-run homer in the series. Corkum pitched a perfect ninth. 10-3 Raccoons! Guerin 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Ramirez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brady 3-4, BB; Martin 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Beairsto 3-4, 2B, RBI; Ledesma 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; King 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Brown 7.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (1-1);

Whoah, whoah! Runs! So many runs! Stop it! I’m dizzy!

Would Nordahl have been available? Well, who knows? ;-)

Raccoons (7-9) vs. Thunder (7-9) – April 23-25, 2004

While the Raccoons couldn’t find runs with the help of a flashlight, but were pitching pretty okay, the Thunder were the opposite, primarily scoring runs (other than last year, when they led the division with the worst offense), but they had shown to have an explosive bullpen that had cost them a few games already. The rotation ranked fourth with a 3.53 ERA, comparable to the Raccoons’.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (1-1, 2.37 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (2-1, 3.27 ERA)
Ralph Ford (0-2, 8.22 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
Edgar Amador (2-0, 3.15 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (1-2, 1.52 ERA)

Game 1
OCT: 2B Palacios – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – SS Grant – RF A. Flores – 1B Nixon – LF Rangel – CF Olson – P Higgins
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Beairsto – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – P Farley

Guerin and Brady hit doubles in the bottom 1st and both scored in the inning, but Randy, who had been shoddy in the first, also was battered in the second inning. The two runs came back onto the board, but when Vaughn Higgins popped up his bunt for an easy second out, keeping Mike Olson at first base, we figured, well, that’s gonna do. Not quite. Palacios hit an infield single, and an unfazed Farley walked De La Parra. Ingall then intercepted Takahashi Higashi’s hard grounder to make the final out to second, but just barely, keeping the score 2-2. But Farley struggled, and just didn’t get ahead in the count to about anybody. The Thunder threatened in the fourth again, but Higgins bunted into a double play to avoid any harm to Farley. Brady singled home Ledesma in the bottom 4th to give Randy the lead again, 3-2, but the Thunder kept hitting singles off Randy (what was his derisive nickname again?), and he didn’t last through the sixth inning. Two on, one out, Dave Williams entered and struck out Olson and Higgins to preserve the 3-2 advantage. The Raccoons tacked on a run in the bottom 6th when Martin singled in Guerin, and the gap opened further the next inning when two runs fell out of the Thunder bullpen. Our bullpen however was immaculate, recording 11 outs with only one single falling out of Marcos Bruno in the ninth, and striking out seven. Martinez struck out the side in the eighth. 6-2 Coons! Guerin 3-5, 2B, RBI; Brady 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Thomas (PH) 1-1, 2B; Torrez 2-3, BB, RBI; Ramirez 2-4; Ledesma 2-4, 2B;

Good news, we’re only half a game out of second place now. Now, regarding the Titans ……

Bad news, the Buffaloes are the first team to a hundred runs scored. We have … what? 59? Relatedly, Al Martin became the first Coon with 10 RBI. ‘t was about time, y’ know?

Game 2
OCT: 2B Nixon – C De La Parra – 1B L. Soto – 3B Higashi – SS Grant – RF A. Flores – LF Walls – CF Rangel – P Crawford
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – C Ledesma – P Ford

Ford pitched only one inning, allowing an unearned run after Concie dropped a pop fly to shallow left, then left with back soreness. That was pretty bad, and now we had to ravage our bullpen for eight innings, and so Ricardo Huerta came out to go as far as possible. His spot came up with two down and Sharp and Ledesma on the corners in the bottom 2nd, but no way we would hit for our best long man option there. We didn’t need to, either, as Huerta singled to right and tied the score. Concie failed to redeem himself and grounded out, and then Huerta was taken apart by the Thunder, nipping him for two runs in the third, and Alberto Rangel added a solo home run in the fourth, which was all that Huerta managed: three innings, three runs. But Corkum pitched two scoreless, and after that the Coons threatened in the bottom 6th. Reece led off with a single, and Crawford walked Torrez and Sharp – no outs. Ledesma’s double tied the game, but unfortunately it was also the last hit they got in the inning, and they barely took a lead on Brady’s RBI groundout. Moreno came in despite all the batters in the Thunder lineup being right-handed. He got four outs before Luis Soto singled with one out in the eighth. Okay, get Nordahl, he’s well rested. That didn’t preclude him from blowing the save, though, as Bob Grant lined a 2-out double off the wall in left to drive home Soto and knot the score at five. The Coons had runners on third with one out in both the seventh and eighth, and never scored. Bottom 9th, Jimmy Morey, who struggled to an uncharacteristic 5.68 ERA early on, started the inning by giving up an Ingall single up the middle. Nordahl had been double switched in for Al Martin, though, and now Mark Thomas hit for him. He lined out to short, and Ingall wasn’t moved by Reece or Torrez either.

AND ISN’T LIFE GREAT?? We ACTUALLY had to play extra innings because Nordahl is such a ****ING DORK!

The only justifiably fresh pitcher left was Dave Williams, the left-handed rule 5 pick, but we gotta use the pieces we have before interrupting The Fat Cat’s second dinner. Max Nixon drew a leadoff walk from Williams, moved to third on a bunt and a steal, and was starved when Soto struck out and Higashi grounded back to Williams for an easy third out. Soto was the bloke again in the 12th, when he flew out to Torrez, leaving two men stranded on second and third. By now The Fat Cat had arrived in the bullpen, sans feathered hat, and started some tossing, as Williams had finished three innings. We’d get one from Bruno, and then it was him. Or maybe we could get some offense before that? (giggles) The 13th was his fourth inning and his last, as he left with a fantastic applause generated by a sparse crowd. Sancho Rivera sat down Ramirez, Guerin, and Brady in order in the bottom of the inning. Then came Bruno, three up, three down, and we faced Jose Ochoa in the bottom 14th. Ochoa had had a hand in the Thunder bullpen meltdown the previous day, and he was a lefty facing right-handers. Ingall flew to deep left, but Tom Walls made it there. King hit for Bruno, last bat off the bench, and lined to center, AND RANGEL MISPLAYED IT!! It fell in, bounced to the wall, Rangel scurrying after it, and King had a triple!! That got everybody up, and everybody was chanting for Neil Reece to end this before we’d flip over to Sunday. The Thunder had other plans, walked Reece intentionally, and so Ochoa could face the lefty Torrez. But it didn’t work: Torrez singled past Soto, and the game was over. The Fat Cat returned for a third dinner. 6-5 Raccoons! Ingall 3-7, 2B, RBI; King (PH) 1-1, 3B; Reece 2-6, BB; Sharp 3-5, BB; Ledesma 3-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Corkum 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Williams 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

Marv hit an RBI double in the third inning that marked his 1,000th hit as a Raccoon, and the 1,133rd of his major league career (132 for the Knights in 2001, and one for the Wolves all the way back in 1990).

And no, Alberto Rangel is not a centerfielder by trade. Not that I’m complaining.

We were in a sticky proposition for Sunday, though. We had about no bullpen available to back up Amador, and we could not possibly get another reliever up without waiving another player. Vince wasn’t here, scouring banana plantations in Costa Rica, so I went over his scouting reports. No, I couldn’t figure out what was so good about him. He didn’t show it in any case.

So the Raccoons waived and designated Brad Sheehan for assignment, and Lawrence Rockburn was called up.

Game 3
OCT: 2B Palacios – C De La Parra – LF Humphrey – 3B Higashi – SS Grant – RF A. Flores – 1B Nixon – CF Olson – P Armand
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – C Thomas – RF Brady – CF King – 2B M. Ramirez – P Amador

Three 2-out walks and a Flores single gave the Thunder a 2-0 lead in the first, and you couldn’t be any less happy about it. The Fat Cat walked another batter in the second before settling into a groove and didn’t surrender any runs until the Coons tied the score in the fifth. Armand had already thrown a run-scoring wild pitch in the second inning, and in the fifth doubles by Ramirez and Guerin got the score to 2-2, Sharp singled, too, but Reece hit into an inning-ending double play. The next inning, the intentional walk strategy hurt the Thunder for the second time in as many days. Martin was at third after a leadoff double and a fly out by Thomas. Brady was not pitched to by the Thunder, although Armand matched him, and they rather picked King, who was a right-hander. King promptly singled to left, and the Coons were up 3-2. Ramirez walked. In any other situation, Amador would be hit for at over 80 pitches, but we NEEDED another inning from him. And oops, another double play… Concie walked at the top of the home half of the seventh. After Sharp popped out, Reece grounded to the mound. It would have been our umpteenseventh double play of the week, but Armand actually threw that one away, and we had first and second with one out. That was also the curtain for Armand, with Sergio Alvarez, a right-hander, replacing him, but Alvarez surrendered both Martin and Thomas on the first pitch. Top 8th, still 3-2, the Fat Cat still in there. He got Higashi, but then Grant lined a shot over Martin and into deep right. Brady played it short of the wall, and Grant went through second base only to find Brady’s throw to arrive at third well ahead of himself and he was out. Alberto Flores flew out leisurely to Reece, who hardly had to move (not that he moved easily…), and the cat had gotten through eight. Clyde Brady’s leadoff jack in the bottom of the inning created some breathing space as Nordahl took to the mound in the ninth, facing the bottom third of the order. He ran a full count on Max Nixon, who grounded out to short, then whiffed Mike Olson. Alonso Baca hit for the pitcher, and also found Concie’s glove. 4-2 Coons! King 2-4, RBI; Ramirez 2-2, 2 BB, 2 2B; Amador 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (3-0);

CATMANIA!!

In other news

April 20 – The Loggers commit big, signing 29-year old 2B/SS Bartolo Hernandez (.294, 0 HR, 7 RBI) to a 5-yr, $14.8M contract extension. At his young age, Hernandez has already landed 1,377 base hits and has 194 stolen bases and a Gold Glove – there’s nothing he can’t do.
April 24 – NYC SP Emerson Fricke (1-0, 3.68 ERA) is out for the year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
April 24 – NAS CF John Hensley (.377, 0 HR, 5 RBI) is out for a month with knee tendinitis.

Complaints and stuff

As Mr. Orcin commented, we have an entire bullpen getting ready in the minor leagues. We might want to look at getting bats in exchange for arms, current or future. When the Raccoons scored ten runs on Thursday, and even with half the league not playing, they didn’t move out of second-to-last place in runs scored in the CL…

Vince recommends promoting Angel Casas (not quite 22 years old) to the Bigs right now. He has him 20/14/10 current, 20/15/16 potential, and five stars current. He appeared in 23 AAA games total between this and last season (remember he was only drafted in 2003), and in 29 innings allowed only 23 hits, 13 walks, and struck out 42. This year, he has 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K. I think I would like to see a little more outings in AAA, but we might be able to promote him in the latter half of May.

Ralph Ford will not miss a start with the back issue, but he still is struggling badly…

On the other hand I am starting to really dig Amador. His BABIP is amazing, but he gets lots and lots of poor groundballs. And Amador has given up 10 homers in 127 innings for the Coons, which ain’t bad when you play in Portland half the time, and with the Loggers, he didn’t surrender any in 24 innings in a much more cozy park for pitchers. The Loggers may come to regret that trade, since by now they have nothing to show for it. Bean is a Bayhawk now. 22 years old from Venezuela, doesn’t understand a lick of English, but he’s constantly around the other Latin players on the team. Garcia and Guerin (who are from Venezuela), and Bruno (who was born in Michigan, but you wouldn’t guess that) are talking to him a lot and they say he’s really easy to get along with.

Unless you’re a fashion person. You might take the leopard jacket and the purple hat as an insult. I’ll take it any day of the week if he keeps pitching this way, though, and the Raccoons have a 4-game winning streak!!

[Trebro]

I'd probably give Casus more time in AAA, but you are quicker to promote than I am. I'm pretty stubborn about "a year a level" unless they are sub 1.0 WHIP or batting better than .333 or so.

Titans are a concern, but maybe if you can build up a bank of wins before injuries, this can be the over .500 year! That's the killer on a small budget--no depth behind the starters, no matter how good they are.

[Griever20]

Originally Posted by Trebro

I'd probably give Casus more time in AAA, but you are quicker to promote than I am.

I probably would leave him in AAA aswell right now to let him work on his control. A elite reliever won't get you closer to the playoffs right now I guess, IF he would be elite right off the bat.

How sustainable is the production of the catching platoon? They are putting monster numbers up there for sure!

[Westheim]

The problem with Casas is a wholly different one. It's not if and when to bring him up (I would wait at least another month to get a bit more reliability into those numbers), but whom do you drop? We can't drop either left-hander, since Williams (and for some strange reason, I always want to call him Campbell ...?) is a rule 5 guy, and Moreno is fantastic.

The right-handers? Huerta and Martinez have no options left and you would never get them through waivers. Corkum has 10/5 rights and would damn sure use them. And then you have Nordahl and Bruno left, and - ...

This predicament is impossible to solve.

That Corkum trade looks worse than ever. We added a reliever we turned out to not need, for a ton of money we don't have, and traded away a left-handed infield bat we failed to replace.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (10-9) vs. Knights (9-8) – April 26-28, 2004

The Knights had been affected by weather a lot early in the season, not playing a game for three straight days in the second week when games in Boston and Las Vegas were wiped out around their off day. While they had the highest batting average in the league, and scored the third-most runs, most of their efforts were ruined by a bullpen that got torn and quartered routinely for a 5.88 bullpen ERA – far and away the worst in the league.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (1-1, 2.05 ERA) vs. John Woodard (0-2, 7.52 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-1, 3.91 ERA) vs. Scott Murphy (1-1, 3.60 ERA)
Randy Farley (2-1, 2.59 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (3-0, 0.60 ERA)

And then the weather-plagued Knights came to Portland – and it rained on Monday. The opener was postponed to Tuesday for another double header. Normally, we’d have sent Lawrence Rockburn back in case of a good start by Garcia on Monday, but we’d keep him around for the double header of course.

Game 1
ATL: 2B J. Miller – SS Luján – LF Ware – RF J. Garcia – C Valadez – 1B Maldrum – CF F. Rivera – 3B Verdon – P Woodard
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Ledesma – 3B Sharp – LF Beairsto – CF Torrez – P F. Garcia

After Garcia tossed a scoreless top 1st, Woodard retired Guerin – and then nobody for a while. Only Beairsto made the second out on a run-scoring groundout and the Raccoons plated three in the inning, which ended when Torrez struck out. Woodard pitched with the bases loaded again in the second, with Ledesma drawing a bases-loaded walk before Sharp struck out, 4-0. Garcia wasn’t without his problems, though. In the fourth, Garcia and Valadez hit back-to-back 2-out singles, Larry Maldrum walked, and we got a break when Francisco Rivera chased a high ball four and popped out to Guerin. Al Martin and Jorge Garcia exchanged solo home runs in the middle innings, but that one run was everything surrendered by Felipe Garcia over seven innings. Rockburn was assigned the final two frames after the Raccoons broke through the bullpen in the bottom 7th to score three more runs, and although he gave up a lot of hard contact, the Knights failed to score on him, as Torrez and Beairsto sucked up most of the deep flies. 8-1 Raccoons. Guerin 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Torrez 2-3, BB, 2B; Garcia 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-1); Rockburn 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Rockburn was demoted after the game. Brad Sheehan was still on irrevocable waivers, but we had flown in outfielder Jorge Rodriguez to be an extra bat for a game or two. He had batted .167 (2-12) in limited action last year.

In case you put money on Concie to lead the team in RBI after 20 games, congrats, you won. Well, he ties for the lead with Martin and Brady, with 11 for all of them.

Game 2
ATL: 2B J. Miller – SS Luján – CF Ware – RF J. Garcia – LF W. Taylor – 1B Maldrum – C Defrese – 3B Verdon – P Murphy
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Thomas – 3B M. Ramirez – RF J. Rodriguez – P Brown

Brown looked like crap in the first inning in which the Knights struck four singles, but only scored on an in-between sac fly. In return, the Coons put up another first inning 3-spot, including two bases-loaded walks drawn by Ingall and Thomas. Both Eddie Torrez in the second and ex-Coon Jorge Defrese in the fourth hit solo shots to give us a 4-1 score, but Murphy completely melted away in the bottom of the fifth, in which he walked four batters, a couple of those with the bases loaded, the latter drawn by Rodriguez, to be evicted from the game by his manager. It didn’t get better for the Knights, though. Their bullpen had another implosion in the bottom 7th, with Thomas getting started with a double, and they walked Ramirez intentionally. Rodriguez singled to right, where Garcia made an error to allow Thomas to score. The runners were in scoring position for Brown, who had some gas left and batted for himself, plunking a single to shallow right that scored both runners. Torrez hit another homer to cap a 5-run rush. Brown left after Stephen Ware singled in the eighth, and Corkum and Moreno did not allow any more damage in this clobbering. 11-2 Raccoons! Torrez 3-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Thomas 1-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Rodriguez 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (2-1) and 1-4, 2 RBI;

Well, that was some pleasant day for baseball! Outscoring the opposition 19-3 gave the Raccoons an uncontested second place in the CL North, and they would eye a sweep in the series finale. Strong starting pitching in the double header gave us a very well rested bullpen and another off day on Thursday to come.

Game 3
ATL: 2B J. Miller – SS Luján – LF Ware – RF J. Garcia – C Valadez – 1B Maldrum – CF F. Rivera – 3B Verdon – P Cutts
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – C Thomas – LF Reece – RF Brady – 2B M. Ramirez – P Farley

Mr. Singles thought, well, if we have a bullpen, we can also use the guys. The Knights clobbered him from the start, and plated three runs on five hits and a walk in the first two innings, and Larry Maldrum added a solo homer in the third. The Raccoons were puzzled by Larry Cutts and were held to a few measly groundball singles, three of those through seven depressing innings. At least our own bullpen pitched shutout ball, which came back into play in the eighth. Matt King led off with a pinch-hit single, then was thrown out stealing. That would turn out to be a costly mistake. Guerin doubled, Torrez walked, and Sharp singled, loading the bases in the 4-0 game for Al Martin. Grounder to short, zing-zang-zung. 4-0 Knights. King (PH) 1-1;

So, our winning streak is ended violently by Cutts’ eight shutout frames, and our own stupidity, although to be fair, nobody past Martin reached base in this game, either. We would have scored two runs, perhaps.

Ay…

Raccoons (12-10) vs. Crusaders (11-10) – April 30-May 2, 2004

The Crusaders lived off a very good pitching staff that had surrendered the second-least runs in the Continental League, while scoring averagely themselves. Their run differential was +17 (Raccoons: +12).

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (3-0, 2.89 ERA) vs. Russell Benson (0-3, 3.34 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (2-1, 1.86 ERA) vs. Mark Hall (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-1, 3.55 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (3-1, 2.93 ERA)

We utilized the off day to skip Ralph Ford, who was struggling, and he also had left his last start with an injury, and we desired more time to get him looked after, and all that PR crap that Maud cooked up. He sucked balls, and was skipped.

We will face three right-handers in this series.

Game 1
NYC: RF Javier – 2B J. Hernandez – SS Rice – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Carroll – C D. Anderson – 3B Edralín – CF Cook – P Benson
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Ledesma – 2B Ingall – LF Beairsto – P Amador

Benson was fairly new to the Continental League at 33 years old, having spent most of his career, which only begun at age 28, in the Federal League. He was 18-32 with a 5.11 ERA since then.

The Cat labored hard, but engorged by an extra serving of omelette, missed his center of gravity in this game, and constantly threw balls in the dirt. Ledesma couldn’t get him up, and the pitching coach could neither. The Crusaders took two runs in the first, and had good chances in the third, and in the fourth, the latter of which ended on a double play turned by Concie and a bang-bang play at first that went the Coons’ way. Both teams turned inning-ending double plays in the fifth, with Reece hitting into the one in the bottom half as Amador exited early at this opportunity. It was only a 2-0 game, but he was wearing out the dirt behind home plate. He would stay undefeated though, because while the Raccoons threatened to be shut out for consecutive games, they reared their heads and tails eventually, and the bang came from the unlikeliest source. In the bottom 8th, Benson was still carrying a 3-hit shutout. Beairsto drew a leadoff walk, and then the only lefty bat on the bench hit for Domingo Moreno. Jorge Rodriguez planted a shot to deep center, and the park failed to contain it: game-tying 2-run homer! While the top of the order made three quick outs, Dan Nordahl then struck out the side in the top 9th, putting the left-handed 4-5-6 guys up to face righty Cory Maupin in the bottom 9th. Only Brady reached, and Ingall lined out to Maupin, who was shocked and relieved to find that ball in his glove. Oh yeah, extra innings! Nordahl remained in the game, but couldn’t get the 10th over with. Two out, two on, Williams came in to face Ortíz, and the big leftfielder fouled out to Sharp. Martinez had a runner advance all the way to third in the top 11th, but got out of that mess, and then in the bottom 11th the Coons, who had all of four hits on the day, faced Charlie Deacon, the most overpaid pitcher in baseball. Sharp singled, Martin singled, and Sharp went to third. No outs for Brady, and no way Deacon would stop this: Brady singled to right, and the Coons not quite walked, but rather limped off. 3-2 Furballs. Rodriguez (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

217.2 innings were pitched by Raccoons in the month of April. You may notice that this is a bunch more than 23 times nine…

Game 2
NYC: RF Javier – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – SS Rice – 1B Carroll – 3B A. De Jesus – C R. Rivera – CF Cook – P M. Hall
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Ledesma – 2B Ingall – LF J. Rodriguez – P F. Garcia

The opposing team scored first again, when Paco Javier hit a 2-run homer in the third off Garcia. Marvin Hall, who had faced one batter all season, retired the Critters in order the first time through the order, striking out five. That dominance was broken by a Sharp single in the fourth, but no runs could be found by the Raccoons, while plenty fell out of Garcia. The Crusaders added a pair in the top 4th, and in the top 6th, Greg Cook’s 2-out, 2-run homer was about the final nail in the coffin. The Coons couldn’t get onto the board themselves until Al Martin hit his team-leading fourth homer of the season, a leadoff jack in the seventh. That was all they got off Hall, who pitched a complete game, allowing only that one run and striking out ten. At least our bullpen pitched shutout ball again. 6-1 Crusaders. Martin 2-4, HR, RBI;

Game 3
NYC: RF Gonzales – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Tinker – SS Rice – 3B A. De Jesus – C D. Anderson – CF Javier – P Reeves
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Ledesma – LF Reece – 2B M. Ramirez – P Brown

Between Guerin and Martin, the Critters scored a run in the bottom 1st, but other than that remained pathetic on the base paths, hitting into inning-ending double plays in the third and fourth innings. Nick Brown retired the first dozen Crusaders, before the fifth saw him walk Bill Tinker, walk Gary Rice, and walk Alfredo De Jesus. Aaand, he walked Daryl Anderson, too. The Crusaders scored three runs without the benefit of a hit, when nobody could be bothered to turn a double play on Javier’s grounder, and Reeves hit a sac fly. They would get two singles in the sixth, with Tinker plating another run. There was some form of life still left in the home team that trailed 4-1 at that point. To start the bottom 6th, Guerin, Torrez, and Sharp all singled, bringing the score to 4-2 and having the tying runs on base for Martin. Martin got a pitch he liked and hit it a mile – all of a sudden, the Raccoons were on top again, 5-4! And something seemed wrong with Reeves, too, who did not strike out anybody in this game. Brady walked, and while Ledesma made the first out, Reece clobbered Reeves for his first home run of the season, making it 7-4. The Crusaders were invited back into the game by Brown putting leadoff man Anderson on base in the top 7th, an error by Sharp, ineffective relief by Martinez, and they were held to one run because Ramirez made not one, but two nifty grabs at seventh base, including one to end the inning on Martin Ortíz. And then rain came and got everybody wet. The forecast had actually been very good, but somewhere, somehow, a few clouds had gathered and doused the Willamette area. Torrez made the first out in the bottom 7th at the hands of ex-Coon Tony Vela, but before Sharp could step in, the tarp came on. It never came off, and the Raccoons won a rain-shortened game for a change. 7-5 Furballs! Guerin 2-3, BB; Sharp 2-3, RBI; Martin 2-3, HR, 4 RBI;

Struggling to find something positive. Maybe that Pablo Ledesma ended his 0/13 futility in catching stealers? He nipped Paco Javier to end the miserable fifth inning. Brownie can be really infuriating at times……

In other news

April 28 – Torn ankle ligaments could mean that CHA LF/RF Ralph Wilson (.254, 1 HR, 13 RBI) could miss most of the rest of the season.
May 1 – TIJ C Urbano Cicalina (.330, 1 HR, 5 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak manufactured, hitting a double in the 4-3 win of the Condors over the Aces.

Complaints and stuff

The team … well, whenever you score 19 runs in two games, then almost put up a double-zero, you gotta ask yourself, why is that? And it is hard to tell. The team ranks almost consistently in the upper half of stats. But sometimes they can’t get the bats up…

We promoted Alan Williams to AAA this week, a forgotten fourth-rounder from the 2000 amateur draft. He does not hit much at all, but he plays all four positions. We might take another look at Sheehan, who was not claimed, first, but Williams’ chances are rising.

As we are on AAA already, Angel Casas was shredded in an outing against Buffalo (SFW) on Saturday, surrendering four runs and taking the loss.

Odd note: the handling we received by Marvin Hall on Saturday was the 2,222nd regular season loss for the franchise.

I must admit, I didn’t even know that OOTP 16 had rain-shortened games as well. I knew of the postponements and double headers.

[Questdog]

Great start for the 'Coons, but it is kind of depressing to be playing well and look up and see Boston at 20-4......

[Westheim]

Raccoons (14-11) @ Loggers (12-12) – May 3-6, 2004

Somewhere over the last 12 months, the Loggers had more or less ran out of pitching. Their rotation still had Martin Garcia and Ramiro Gonzalez, but little beyond that, and their bullpen had bloomed to a 5.98 ERA, worst in the CL. Overall, their 112 runs allowed ranked 10th, while they also weren’t scoring with many of their stars struggling, like Bakile Hiwalani, who batted .193 coming into this 4-game set.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (2-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (2-3, 3.60 ERA)
Ralph Ford (0-2, 7.71 ERA) vs. Jaime Aguila (0-1, 5.88 ERA)
Edgar Amador (3-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Marc Padgett (1-2, 5.06 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (2-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Dani Alvarado (2-1, 3.16 ERA)

Gonzalez is a lefty, and then it’s three right-handers.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – LF Reece – 1B Sharp – C Thomas – 2B Ingall – 3B M. Ramirez – RF King – P Farley
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – LF Graham – 1B M. Woods – SS T. Johnson – 3B M. Brown – RF A. Johnson – C Benitez – P R. Gonzalez

While Thomas, Ingall, and King hit a few balls hard to produce two runs in the second inning, Farley was not allowing a hit into the fourth, but his control against left-handers was suspicious. Nevertheless, the Loggers failed to tag him, much of the credit being due to Sharp however, who on Martin’s off day made a few spectacular plays at first base, saving runs twice. The Raccoons didn’t add to their lead, and Farley eventually committed the worst sin in baseball, as he had two on and two out in the seventh, and then walked the opposing pitcher. Bakile Hiwalani hit for Bartolo Hernandez, Manuel Martinez pitched for Farley, and the Logger went down flailing. There was a Fletcher single and a balk on Bill Corkum in the eighth, but still no score from the home team, but the ninth featured Nordahl and an instant uprising from that so far luckless home team. Brown stroked a hard single to right, and Juan Jose Villa would have a pinch-hit single with two out, throw to third didn’t get anybody, and the tying runs ended up in scoring position. That put Nordahl against Pedro Costello, who was 0-for-6 on the year, and sure enough he doubled into the corner in left, where even a juvenile Neil Reece wouldn’t have made it to. And we got another chance to play extras. Reece knocked in the go-ahead run though, in Robbie Wills’ second inning of work for the Loggers, the top 11th. Guerin had walked, stolen second, the Loggers walked Torrez intentionally after that, but Reece came through with a single. Nobody else did, though. However, although Huerta allowed a double to Tom Johnson in the bottom of the inning, the Loggers had run out of their bench. With two out and the tying run at second base, Wills had to hit for himself and Huerta dispatched him on three pitches. 3-2 Coons. Reece 2-5, 2B, RBI;

On a day where we managed four hits over nine innings (and eventually only Reece’s beyond that), Nordahl had to blow another save. He absolutely positively had to. Nordahl. ****ing dork. He has a 50% (3/6) save rate this year. I don’t think we need to put up with that. We have more pitchers.

Congrats, Marcos! You got a new hat to wear! It’s got a “CL” on it!

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Ledesma – LF Beairsto – 2B Ingall – P Ford
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B M. Brown – LF Hiwalani – 1B M. Woods – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – RF J.J. Villa – C Benitez – P Aguila

The Raccoons painstakingly scratched out three runs over six innings, one in the first on Guerin walking, stealing, and running real hard on a Sharp single, one in the fifth that was unearned, and one in the sixth when Beairsto finally met a ball and tripled to score Martin, in support of Ralph Ford, who pitched like crap and didn’t deserve a win anyway. The Loggers always came up short in the first five innings, although he helped them with messy pitching down the middle and occasionally right into the batter, as happened to Bartolo Hernandez. In the bottom 6th then, he walked Brown, Hiwalani, and Johnson, just like that. Bases loaded, one out, Corkum held the damage to a sac fly with Fletcher and then got Villa to lob out to center. It was the final offensive situation of significance in the game. Neither team managed to get the bats up. Marcos Bruno saved his first game as the official closer without much fuss, and ended the game with K’s to Villa and Benitez. 3-1 Coons. Ingall 2-3, BB; Corkum 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

It is a scramble at the moment. We don’t have one hot bat at the moment. Everybody’s just scraping by, and some aren’t even doing that.

We made a roster move, demoting the sixth outfielder Rodriguez for Brad Sheehan, who batted .423 with two homers in AAA in just 26 AB.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – C Ledesma – CF King – 2B Sheehan – LF Beairsto – P Amador
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF Hiwalani – 1B M. Woods – SS T. Johnson – 3B M. Brown – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – P Padgett

A Jerry Fletcher error on a sorry pop by Sheehan got the Coons going, as it allowed Martin to score and Sheehan then scored on Beairsto’s single, 2-0 in the top 2nd, and in the top 4th the Raccoons had King and Sheehan on second and first, respectively, when Beairsto, Amador, and Guerin unleashed a string of three consecutive RBI singles to centerfield. Brady tried to hit a big one, and of course was caught, but it was now 5-0. The Fat Cat had some control issues, and raised up the pitch count. But again, the Loggers were not getting the hits to accompany the walks, until the sixth. Amador had just walked Mac Woods with two out, when Tom Johnson drilled a fly to right that was beyond the range of Clyde Brady. But Brady got a good bounce off the wall, while Woods was chugging around third, only to find himself narrowly tagged out by Ledesma at home. The Loggers would get to Amador for one run in the next inning, but by then Padgett and Carl McCoy had already given up three more counters to the Coons, who led 8-1. We ran the score to double digits against righty Enrique Fernandez in the ninth when pinch-hitters Torrez and Ingall had a single and a homer, respectively. 10-1 Raccoons! Guerin 3-5, RBI; Torrez (PH) 1-1; Ingall (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Martin 4-5, 2B; Beairsto 2-4, 2 RBI; Amador 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (4-0) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 4
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – C Ledesma – LF Reece – 2B Ingall – RF Beairsto – P F. Garcia
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B M. Brown – RF Hiwalani – LF Graham – 1B M. Woods – SS T. Johnson – CF C. Ramirez – C Melendez – P Alvarado

We had had our problems with the scrappy Alvarado in the past. He was just a guy the Raccoons had never hit well – and they didn’t hit him well this Thursday, either. After Alvarado had sat down 11 Furballs, Sharp chopped a single to left, but that was it for efforts. Meanwhile, Felipe Garcia had been raked royally, and lasted only 4.1 innings, conceding six runs, half of them coming on Mac Woods’ towering home run that brought the curtain down. Both Nordahl and Moreno surrendered single runs while the Raccoons only got on the board with a pinch-hit infield single with three on and two out by Brady in the top 7th. Guerin promptly grounded out after Alvarado had shortly lapsed into his usual wild ways. The Raccoons failed to draw advantage and capitally botched the entirely possible 4-game sweep. 8-1 Loggers. Reece 2-4, 2B; Brady (PH) 1-1, RBI; Martinez 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Sigh. Well, 4-game sweeps are rare for a reason. The entire roster has to be spot one. We’re not. But we actually got a steal from somebody other than Concie or Torrez in this game, as Beairsto swiped one!

Raccoons (17-12) @ Miners (15-13) – May 7-9, 2004

The Miners were 6th in runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League, with no big weaknesses, except that they neither hit for power, nor managed to steal bases. They were also in the bottom half in defense.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (3-1, 4.12 ERA) vs. Juan Garcia (3-2, 4.93 ERA)
Randy Farley (2-2, 2.75 ERA) vs. John Collins (2-0, 2.25 ERA)
Ralph Ford (1-2, 6.23 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (1-2, 6.65 ERA)

Three more right-handers (and it looks like we’ll get more of those to start next week), and none of the left-handed outfielders is going well. Oh bother.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Thomas – 2B Ingall – LF Beairsto – P Brown
PIT: 3B Quintero – RF Rincón – LF Blanc – 1B R. Vargas – 2B Kaustrop – SS Montray – C A. Ortíz – CF Walters – P J. Garcia

Sharp tripled home Torrez to get scoring going in the top 1st, then scored on an error by ex-Indian Phil Montray. Offense was generally appreciated and more would be welcome, since Brown lacked the best stuff and also command. The offense made a few nice plays throughout the game, and then it would be Juan Garcia to drive in the Miners’ first run in the fifth. At that point, the Coons had left plenty of runners on base, and Sharp had been thrown out at home. After some more failing, Torrez would finally deliver a very relieving 2-run homer in the seventh that brought the score to 4-1, but in the bottom of the inning, Brown got whacked even by left-handers, got only one out and Huerta bailed him out, but one run had already scored on Bill Walter’s single to right. The Miners bullpen would surrender more runs in the late innings. Guerin had a 2-run single in the eighth, and in the ninth we got another run off righty Manuel Chavez. The Coons’ pen held up. 7-2 Coons. Torrez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Sharp 3-5, 3B, RBI; Martin 2-5; Thomas 2-5; Ingall 2-4; King (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ramirez (PH) 1-1;

We had 15 hits in this game, but for a while it looked like a tough 3-2 loss was developing. Brown didn’t have it today, but he now ties the Fat Cat with four wins for most on the team. In the CL, only co-Titans Bryce Hildred and Joe Mann have five wins already.

Saturday’s game was rained out and pushed back to Sunday. Ugh, another double-header. That meant we needed a good effort from Randy, since Ralph Ford was likely to consume the entirety of our bullpen anyway.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Reece – C Ledesma – 2B Sheehan – P Farley
PIT: SS Sepúlveda – 3B Quintero – RF J. Thomas – 1B R. Vargas – C Campbell – 2B Aguilar – LF Rincón – CF Walters – P J. Collins

The weather, that had been not shabby at all on Friday, was however still mucky on Sunday. Would we get two games in?

Clyde Brady’s leadoff jack in the second inning got the first run in, in any case. Reece singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and then the Coons got a break when Farley’s grounder was thrown away by Lorenzo Sepúlveda and ended up in the stands, plating Reece to make it 2-0. Unfortunately Randy was not cooperating with our smart plan to have him pitch deep into the game. He had a runner on first with two outs in the bottom 2nd, then drilled Walters with a 1-2 pitch. Collins and Sepúlveda would both come up with soft RBI singles, and we were tied again. Top 4th, Farley reached on an error for the second time in the game, this time with Roberto Quintero throwing wide of first to pull Vargas off the bag. This moved Ledesma, who had been drilled, from second to third, and we had only one out. Guerin walked, loading them up for Torrez, who only managed an RBI groundout before Sharp flew out to the warning track in center. 3-2 Raccoons threatened to not stay 3-2 Raccoons for long. Farley served the moniker of Mr. Singles honorably, putting two men on in both the fourth and fifth (actually three in the fifth, and a double play), all with singles, but the Miners didn’t score when he struck out Sepúlveda in the fourth and César Aguilar in the fifth to end the respective innings. In the top 6th Sheehan had a single to get going, stole second, and then Farley struck out bunting and we didn’t score. No, it was a **** game for Farley, and everbody knew it. Bottom 6th, Walters had a 1-out single, and then Collins hit his third single on the day. That was 11 hits against Farley, and it was enough. Williams whiffed Sepúlveda for the second out, and Nordahl got a fly out from Quintero, said the box score, but in reality Brady had to hustle hard to get that rocket. The Coons finally tagged on a run in the top 7th when Reece singled Sharp in, but we tried to cover seom distance with Nordahl – and it blew up on him, as always. David Rincón hit a 3-run homer that flipped the score to 5-4. Then the Miners bullpen had to show what it had again, and it had nothing. Beairsto hit for Nordahl and doubled to start the top 8th against Alberto Munoz. Guerin singled, and Torrez doubled, which tied the score and put two runners in scoring position. Manuel Chavez came in, intentionally walked Sharp, to face the lefty Martin, but Chavez was defeated by both left-handers coming up, as Martin singled to give the Coons a 6-5 lead, and then Brady drew a walk to score another run. No outs, by the way, Reece walked, 8-5, and we batted all the way down the order again until Beairsto grounded out to leave the score at 9-5. Here the Coons caught a break. While the Miners had to use another two relievers to just get the loss into the books, we at least got away with burning Huerta for two innings and one run allowed to get that mess of a win finished. 11-6 Raccoons. Guerin 3-5, BB, 3B; Sharp 3-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-5, BB, RBI; Brady 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, 2 RBI;

Well, the good news is, we still have four relievers we didn’t use in this game, and if all else fails we have Beairsto to suck it up.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Torrez – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Beairsto – C Thomas – SS M. Ramirez – P Ford
PIT: SS Sepúlveda – RF Rincón – LF Blanc – 1B R. Vargas – 2B Kaustrop – 3B Quintero – C A. Ortíz – CF Walters – P Lane

The Coons burst out and blew through Jerry Lane right away, plating five runs in the first inning when Sharp singled to right, Torrez doubled to right, Brady walked, Martin walked, Ingall hit a sac fly, and finally Beairsto hit his first homer of the year. Ford pitched a clean first, and Lane was showering before the second inning was over, being socked for two more runs. 7-0 was surely arousing, but Ford still had to pitch, and his ERA was over six for a reason. But here Ford retired the first ten Miners, whiffing half of them, before he walked Rincón and Blanc with one out in the fourth. He recovered by striking out both Vargas and Kaustrop. The Miners hoped for salvation in long relief from former Elk Juan Bello, but he went only three innings, surrendering a run in the third, and then the Coons put up a 6-run inning in the fifth, romping the score to 14-0! They loaded the bases again with nobody out in the sixth as it was just completely coming apart for the poor Miners. Three more runs scored on a Torrez sac fly, a Martin single, and a run-scoring groundout by Ingall. Then it was reliever Manuel Chavez to break up the no-hitter in the bottom 6th, and while Roberto Vargas would bring in two runs with a double for the Miners, we’d try to ride Ford a bit deeper. It turned out that he didn’t need any reliever to dig him out. Although his pitch count went over 120 eventually, he never got into danger and pitched a complete game. The Raccoons didn’t score anymore in the last few innings, having run themselves sleepy around the diamond. 17-2 Furballs!! Sharp 4-4, 2 BB, RBI; Torrez 4-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Brady 2-5, BB, RBI; Martin 3-5, 3 RBI; Ingall 2-5, 3B, 2B, 5 RBI; Beairsto 2-6, HR, 4 RBI; Ramirez 2-5, BB, 2B; Ford 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 12 K, W (2-2) and 3-6, 2 2B;

Thomas went oh for six, soiling the team result. And although the Raccoons chomped the Miners into tiny little pieces, none of them performed tops in the league this May 9. See below.

This double-drubbing moves us to third in runs scored in the league!

In other news

May 3 – The Falcons end TIJ C Urbano Cicalina’s hot streak at 21 games. Cicalina is batting .323 with 1 HR and 5 RBI.
May 5 – Next hitting streak popping up: DAL SS Kunimatsu Sato (.365, 2 HR, 13 RBI) has a 20-game streak going after two hits in the Stars’ 5-4 win over the Scorpions.
May 5 – Radial nerve compression is going to cost TIJ SP Curt Powell (1-1, 2.83 ERA) the remainder of the season. Powell hasn’t pitched a full season since 2001.
May 6 – Next one please: Kunimatso Sato is held dry by the Scorpions on Thursday, while the Stars win 8-7, but his hitting streak ends at 20 games.
May 7 – The Rebels lose their young slugger 1B/3B Alfredo Gonzalez (.266, 9 HR, 22 RBI), who has suffered a mild hamstring strain, but he might be back at the end of the month.
May 9 – LAP 3B Juan Martinez (.226, 1 HR, 15 RBI) chugs six hits in an 11-9 win of his Pacifics over the Bayhawks, all singles, to drive in three runs. It is the 37th 6-hit game in ABL history, and the first ever for the Pacifics. There had not been a 6-hit game since August 26, 2001, when Lorenzo Sepúlveda had one for the Miners. It is the first 6-hit performance in interleague play since David Brewer’s in 1989, for the Canadiens over the Blue Sox, which to date is also the most recent instance in which the team of the player with six hits lost the game.

Complaints and stuff

The pitching is no doubt awesome. I am still concerned about the offense. Third place or not. They have these outbursts, and then they will not score more than three runs three of four games. We had five games with 10+ runs scored already. I don’t know whether we had five all of last year. But at the same time we have scored two runs or less 11 times…

Dan Nordahl fell just shy of Wally Gaston for second place on our all-time saves list before getting booted into a more menial role. Who are the top 10 game savers for the franchise?

1st – Grant West – 522
2nd – Wally Gaston – 94
3rd – Dan Nordahl – 91
4th – Daniel Miller – 56
5th – Scott Wade – 53
6th – Kevin Hatfield – 50
7th – Jackie Lagarde – 45
8th – Gabriel De La Rosa – 41
9th – Tzu-jao Ban – 39
10th – Antonio Donis – 29
…
t-13th Marcos Bruno – 13

Funny how Scott Wade is not only fifth for saves, but also second in wins for the Coons with 170. The only current starter within even 100 wins of his mark is Randy Farley, with 71, which actually ranks him 7th overall in franchise history, one spot ahead of second-most saver, eighth-best winner Wally Gaston, who claimed victory 49 times – all in relief.

Tried to play two weeks, but I was sleepy this afternoon and started too late, and I am so very sorry. (still looks sleepy)

That 17-run drubbing of the Miners unlocked three achievements :-P

[Trebro]

Has your league considered adding a dreaded wild card?

Regardless, it's nice to see you winning again. Maybe that'll open a purse string or two.

(As an OT: How are you liking 16?)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-12) vs. Pacifics (13-19) – May 10-12, 2004

The Pacifics had a -23 run differential, ranking 8th in runs scored and 9th in runs allowed in their league. The issues lay with their rotation, which had a 5.05 ERA attached to it, but we would face both of their starters that were doing quite well for themselves.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (4-0, 2.70 ERA) vs. Jonathan Dumont (2-0, 2.50 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (2-3, 4.12 ERA) vs. Joe Jennings (0-3, 9.30 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-1, 3.94 ERA) vs. Raúl Chavez (2-1, 2.35 ERA)

That’s two more right-handers, which will make for eight straight righties faced until Chavez will give us something else to look at for the first time since last Monday in Milwaukee.

Game 1
LAP: CF Parker – 3B J. Martinez – RF Bonneau – LF K. Potter – 1B Battle – C A. Ramirez – 2B B. Andrews – SS A. Diaz – P Dumont
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Torrez – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Beairsto – C Thomas – 2B Ingall – P Amador

Ex-Coon Chris Parker walked to start the game and came around to score on two singles, one of the infield variety. The Fat Cat was well off with his control, and was constantly in trouble. While the Raccoons tied the score with an RBI double by Mark Thomas in the bottom 4th, Amador came up with the bases loaded and no outs, and hit into an inning-killing double play, before he went out for the fifth and issued three walks and balk. The score was broken open with a 2-out, bases-clearing triple by Antonio Ramirez against a not relieving Manuel Martinez. It was a matter of rotten luck at the end. Both starters gave up six walks and Dumont didn’t get beyond five innings either. Through seven innings, the Raccoons made nine outs to the outfielders, and hit into three double plays, had three strikeouts, and there wasn’t much more room in 21 outs. The balls didn’t fall in. Moreno surrendered a run over two innings, and in the bottom 8th Al Martin hit a solo homer, 6-2. Corkum pitched a wonky ninth. Ledesma grounded out against Manuel Sáenz, who then walked Sheehan. Guerin singled, bringing in closer Donald Sims, who imitated Dan Nordahl wonderfully with a 3-run homer surrendered to Clyde Brady. We were still a run short, however. King hit for Torrez and flew out to Parker, oh, look, another fly out. Martin was the final straw, and clobbered Sims good: two down in the ninth, Martin hit the game-tying homer!

Which of course meant extra innings. We got one inning from Dave Williams, and two from Marcos Bruno, the latter of which was almost blown to pieces when Guerin made a bad throw on a grounder. The Pacifics had veteran Momsilo Plavsic pitch both the 10th and 11th, and he returned for the 12th, starting out with a walk to Al Martin. And here came Dan Nordahl to pinch-run. He would have to pitch an inning anyway, and there was nobody on the bench, but Nordahl would run for Martin. Sharp sacrificed Nordahl to second base, from where he had a good chance to score on a single. Although there was little room: Bruno had to bat in the #8 hole, and the Pacifics took the bigger threat away by walking Beairsto intentionally. Thomas flew out, Nordahl advancing, but now nobody was left to bat for Marcos Bruno, who struck out. So, Bruno had to go to first base, and Nordahl pitched in the 13th, whiffing the side between Plavsic, Parker, and Juan Martinez, then came to the plate with Sheehan on second and Brady on first with two out in the bottom 13th, and popped out. Oh, me and my actual logic! The Coons overcame a 2-base error by Beairsto in the 14th, but when Nordahl had a man on second in the 15th and walked relief pitcher Esteban Pina, the roof threatened to come down. Parker ran an 0-6 day to 0-7 however, and Martinez struck out for the fifth time on the day. Nordahl however was done after three innings, and we wouldn’t touch Huerta after 42 pitches on Sunday. Next was Garcia and jumbling the rotation, and with Bruno leading off the bottom 15th… he made an out, but Sheehan singled. Guerin flew out to center. Brady - … Brady got hold of one, and drove it. And Garcia wouldn’t have to pitch until tomorrow. WALKOFF HOMER!!! 8-6 Raccoons. Brady 2-7, BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Martin 2-4, 2 BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Nordahl 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-1);

The Cat stays undefeated, though undeserved, but I’d like to stop playing extra innings now, though. Thanks.

Game 2
LAP: CF Parker – 2B B. Andrews – RF Bonneau – LF K. Potter – 1B J. Rivera – C A. Ramirez – 3B A. Diaz – SS Petipas – P Jennings
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Torrez – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P F. Garcia

With the pen in shambles, Garcia took the ball. I hate to do it, but he’d have to take one for the team here. Besides Huerta and Corkum, nobody was really available, and he wouldn’t leave this game under at least six runs or 115 pitches.

The Raccoons got two runs early on Brady doubling, Torrez tripling, and Martin grounding out productively in the bottom 1st, but after that both teams settled into a get on / stay on rhythm, regularly leaving two aboard. So it was not comfortable watching, with Garcia constantly in danger of getting rolled over, while the Raccoons were drawing walks again, but didn’t get the necessary hits. All was well through six in the 2-0 game, but in the seventh Petipas singled to get going, the third straight leadoff batter reaching base, and the fifth in total for the Pacifics. Parker singled, and Bonneau walked. Ken Potter was the money guy with two outs, a dangerous switch-hitter with power from either side of the plate. Garcia threw his 113th pitch of the day, and it was his last, as Potter sent a slam out of the park. Jennings went into the eighth, the Raccoons unable to hurt him and liven up his 9+ ERA. He only left when Martin sneaked a double past Jesus Rivera and put himself and Torrez into scoring position with one out in the eighth. The lefty Juan Rivera appeared to pitch, making Beairsto yield to Reece, but Neil only managed a sac fly and Ramirez lined out. In the bottom 9th we faced lefty Zach Cleveland, who went to full counts on the first three men he faced. Sharp walked. Ledesma walked. Sheehan jabbed and flew out. Concie took to the first pitch he saw right away and rammed a double to left, but Ledesma was not going to score on that. Tied game in the bottom 9th (anybody hearing the bell tolling, too?), one out, and the winning run at third. C’MON CLYDE! DO IT AGAIN! Clyde wasn’t pitched to, Torrez whiffed, and Martin fouled out.

Extra innings. Well, this wouldn’t take long either way. Either we find someone to hit one out, or the pen will collapse well before the 15th today. For the 10th, Huerta was squelched dry, but managed a clean inning with two men stranded (like in the ninth). For his efforts, he got rewarded. Reece and Thomas, who hit for Huerta, made outs, but then Sharp singled to left. Ledesma singled up the middle. Sheehan singled over Martinez at third base, the ball rolling well up the left foul line, and Sharp was never going to hold: he was safe well ahead of Ken Potter’s throw to home. 5-4 Coons!!!! Torrez 3-4, BB, 3B, 2B, RBI; Ramirez 2-4; Sharp 1-1, BB; Sheehan 2-3, RBI; Corkum 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Huerta 2.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

Can we still stop playing extra inning games, please? Pretty please? Pretty please, dear baseball gods, I’d fashion nothing more than a complete game, four hits, one run, ten strikeouts from Nick Brown tomorrow.

Game 3
LAP: CF Keshishian – 3B J. Martinez – RF Bonneau – LF K. Potter – 2B B. Andrews – 1B A. Diaz – C J. Rivera – SS Petipas – P R. Chavez
POR: SS Guerin – CF Torrez – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – C Thomas – P Brown

Brown struck out the side in the first inning, two more in the second, and nobody reached the first time through the order, while Marv took care of business with a 2-run homer in the bottom 2nd. Yohan Bonneau drew a walk in the fourth, but Potter flew out to Brady and nothing happened. Bryan Andrews reached on Neil Reece’s error to start the top 5th, but was caught up in Antonio Diaz’ double play before Rivera grounded out to short. The next man on base was Brown himself, reaching on Andrews’ error to start the bottom 6th. Nobody since Ingall’s shot had reached for the home team, and nobody would support Brown in this inning, either. Brownie’s no-hit bid was broken up by the same guy who had stopped his perfecto, Bonneau, who lined up the middle with one out in the seventh, uncatchable for anybody. Rivera had a single in the eighth, but nobody was able to move past first base for the Pacifics. Meanwhile the Coons were still looking for a runner to reach on his own merit, but no such luck in the bottom 8th, either, with Ingall and Brown striking out to sandwich Thomas’ fly out to center. Brown was left to pitch for himself. He had been too dominant. He got Tirgen Keshishian to ground out to short, then walked Martinez, which wasn’t good. Bonneau drilled a shot to left, but Reece made his best play in some time on that rocket. But that brought up Ken Potter, and we weren’t buying into that. Marcos Bruno came on to face the double-edged slugger, who singled to right. Pinch-hitter Ryan Milk doubled into right center, but Potter had to hold. Nevertheless, the winning runs were in scoring position and lefty Chris Parker was out to hit for Diaz. Moreno came in to replace Bruno, only to have Parker fire a 2-2 pitch to right – BUT MARTIN!!! Saw it, leapt, CAUGHT IT!!! 2-1 Coons!! Ingall 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 8.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (5-1);

Whoa-hah-haaaaah……. (shivers). In hindsight, maybe Brown should have faced Potter after all. It could not have come much worse…

We had two hits in this game. The Pacifics ended up having four hits, one run, but only struck out nine times. I am unhappy now.

And we’re still five behind the unsaintly Titans. (I won’t mouth that we’d deserve better, though, because I know better than THAT)

Raccoons (23-12) @ Indians (15-18) – May 14-16, 2004

In fifth place in the division, the Indians struggled with the bats, their .229 average ranking them last in the Continental League, while they utilized power from their three sluggers Ron Alston, Jose Paraz, and David Lopez to at least score SOME runs, but still ranked ninth in runs scored. The pitching was mediocre, and their run differential was -23.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (2-2, 2.83 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (2-4, 6.67 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-2, 4.99 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (1-1, 2.74 ERA)
Edgar Amador (4-0, 3.25 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (0-3, 5.77 ERA)

Again two righties followed by a southpaw. The starting pitchers don’t look impressive, probably because they aren’t.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Torrez – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 2B Ingall – C Ledesma – P Farley
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF MacKey – RF Martines – 1B Kilters – P Moreau

Both teams left runners on third base in the second inning, and both scored only one run despite plenty of traffic in four innings. Then similarities ended. While the Raccoons had their fifth go bust when Ledesma was called out at home on Brady’s single, although replay showed he was never tagged, that ended our half of the inning. In the bottom half, Farley got whacked. Plenty of hard balls plated two runs for the Indians. Farley wobbled through another one before the top 7th started with Reece, who had two hits already and now drew a walk from Moreau. Ingall singled, moving Reece to third base, and then Ledesma got a fly over Felix Martines’ head in right and got an RBI double, with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. No outs, Beairsto hit for Farley, lined out, and Guerin and Brady grounded out in generally insufficient manner. In turn, the Raccoons exploded in a fireball in the bottom 7th. Williams allowed a single to Kilters before getting an out from Craig Bowen. Then Corkum came in, and in a space of five batters, there was a passed ball, a wild pitch, and strewn thoughout the mess four singles rained down on us. There also was actual rain coming from the skies. None of it was particularly helpful. 7-3 Indians. Brady 2-5; Torrez 2-5, RBI; Reece 3-3, BB, 3B, 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-4;

This forcefully terminates our 6-game winning streak. That middle of the order is just a pain to pitch to. It’s a bit like what we had almost 20 years ago. Hall, Osanai, Dawson, Green. A lot of power, but not particularly high batting averages (except for Tetsu of course), and a very poor bottom of the order.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Ledesma – 2B Ingall – CF Beairsto – P Ford
IND: CF Alvarez – 2B D. Mendez – RF Alston – LF D. Lopez – C Paraz – 1B Cortez – 3B Harris – SS Stevens – P Jimenez

Ralph Ford had thrown almost 130 pitches for a complete game with a dozen strikeouts his last time on the mound, and here he started with two first-pitch outs to Guerin before Ron Alston almost took a 2-2 pitch beyond the wall in right, but Brady warped there and made the catch. While he didn’t allow a runner until Robbie Harris singled to start the third, he was far off the biting stuff from last Sunday. Trouble was brewing in the fourth with a leadoff walk to David Mendez, but after an Alston single Lopez flew out to Reece and Paraz hit sharply into a double play, 6-4-3. The Coons had a scattering of singles, but didn’t threaten much. Neil Reece came just short of a 3-run homer, instead making the final out in the fifth to Alston, but in the top 6th the board got to show something with Ledesma hitting a solo home run to left center. In the bottom 7th Paraz hit a 1-out double then, followed by Cortez singling to left. The Indians sent Paraz, hoping his lead feet would be countered by Neil Reece’s old age, but Reece unleashed a thunderous throw that well beat Paraz to home plate and he was out, and Harris struck out to keep it 1-0 Coons. While the Raccoons were really embarrassing at the plate, the Indians hit Ford hard in the bottom 8th – but none of the balls fell in. Art Stevens was retired by Reece with a good hustle, Guerin made a launching grab on Claudio Rey’s liner, and Brady had the greatest plays of all, snatching a potential triple from the speedy Alvarez in the gap in right center. Offense please? No, and stop asking! Bruno faced the 2-3-4 part in the bottom 9th with the slimmest of leads to protect. Craig Bowen hit for Mendez, .391 as a pinch-hitter, and sure enough he singled. Alston grounded a 2-2 pitch hard to first, where Ingall was now displaced to, grabbed it and played to second to get Bowen. It didn’t matter which runner he got out, though. Lopez doubled through Ramirez at third base, and Paraz singled up the middle. 2-1 Indians. Ledesma 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Ford 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K and 1-3;

So now that Marcos Bruno has more blown saves than actual saves, whom should we have close now?

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 2B Ingall – CF King – C Thomas – P Amador
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF MacKey – RF C. Rey – 1B Harris – P Hamilton

The Coons got their first three men on, but couldn’t follow up with a hit, scoring only on a sac fly by Martin and a wild pitch by Hamilton himself. Singles by Thomas, Amador, and Guerin loaded them up with one out in the second inning, with Sharp hitting into a double play. Amador struggled to get ahead in the count, but at least kept the ball on the ground, and always right to Concie, at least early on. He kind of lost control completely in the fourth, which started out with Alston, and two walks and a single later, the bases were loaded and nobody was out. MacKey hacked out, but Rey chopped one to right for a sac fly before Harris grounded out to short. We needed more offense – Amador wasn’t going to carry a 2-1 lead much further. Sharp led off the fifth by singling to left. Brady had a terribly cheap bloop double, giving Martin a chance for two ribbies, and while his single to right scored only Sharp, it was still a precious run and a reason to be thankful for. Also, Reece came up with a single, which made it 4-1, two on, no outs. King singled to center, scoring Martin, before being thrown out stealing, and the inning ended at 5-1. The bottom 6th started with Alston again, but this time the Fat Cat was successful, as Alston grounded out, Lopez struck out, and Paraz flew out to Reece. The seventh got highly critical again, with two cheap hits notched by the Indians, but Amador was able to get a foul out from Mendez and struck out Art Stevens to end the inning and conclude a mostly good outing over seven frames. Bottom 8th, still 5-1, another inning starting with Alston, who reached on an 0-2 infield single against Williams, who then moved over for Martinez, who struck out Lopez, Paraz, and MacKey in succession, and the Indians didn’t get anything together despite Claudio Rey’s leadoff single off Bill Corkum in the ninth. 5-1 Coons. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Sharp 2-5; Thomas 2-3; Amador 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 8 K, W (5-0) and 1-2;

Matt King was thrown out stealing twice in this game. He is 0/3 on the year. It’s like he’s waving a flag before he goes. Nobody besides Concie knows how to steal, it seems.

In other news

May 11 – ATL RF/LF/1B Jorge Garcia (.292, 6 HR, 24 RBI) is out for two to three months with torn ligaments in his thumb.
May 11 – SAL LF/RF Jesus Flores (1-for-7), who just returned from a neck injury that cost him a month of the season, goes down to an intercostal strain and will miss another month.
May 12 – The Canadiens’ primary hope to return to relevance, 23-year old SP Rod Taylor (1-2, 3.66 ERA), will be out for at least a full year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
May 13 – The Bayhawks flip 38-yr old C Arturo Aguilar (.214, 1 HR, 6 RBI) to the Loggers and receive 34-yr old outfielder Avery Johnson (.244, 1 HR, 4 RBI) and a minor leaguer.
May 13 – The Falcons receive 26-yr old SP Tommy Wilson (1-5, 6.53 ERA) from the Falcons in exchange for two prospects, including #38 A SS Domingo Ortega, 17.

Complaints and stuff

As every year, we have to take care of Ricardo Huerta. To start the week, he was already at 19.1 innings, after the fifth part of the season. Corkum has also been used a lot, but Huerta is running up 80 pitches every inning and I’d like my relievers to stay around or better below 70 innings. Of course a lot of that has to do with the starters. Generally, we have good starters, but we have already played a metric butt ton of extra innings, too. Right, Dan?

We claim to have pitching, yet we can’t play the low-scoring, friggin’ Indians…

Don’t quite know what to make of the Fat Cat right now. All his struggles seem to be control related. 6.8 K/9 isn’t bad for a starter, but 4.9 BB/9 certainly are. At the same time, he has the second-best (to Brown) H/9 rate at 7.0 H/9. These two are fundamentally different. Both will have terrible command sometimes, but Brown can compensate for a lot by throwing filth. Amador relies (and usually gets) the ground ball. He fed them to Concie really nicely in his Sunday start.

This makes for an interesting dilemma. Amador relies more on defense than anybody else on the staff. He might actually fare best when we give Al Martin a day off, move Sharp to first, and have Ramirez, a third baseman by trade, and a good one at that, man the hot corner. At the same time, that will hurt our production, which is more so-so, and netted only 24 runs this week (in 60 innings).

Next week, this team can show what it’s made of. Next week we’ll play the Titans, four games in Boston. I suspect we will find out that the team is made up of maize, sugar, much lard, few nuts, and crumbles easily.

Originally Posted by Trebro

Has your league considered adding a dreaded wild card?

Regardless, it's nice to see you winning again. Maybe that'll open a purse string or two.

(As an OT: How are you liking 16?)

No wild card with 6-team divisions. It might be an option with 7-team divisions, but all my expansion plans are postponed due to no schedule available that scratches all itches. Expansion was always intended, but back then I wanted to wait "at least ten" seasons before expanding. You see where we are now.

It is nice to see them winning, too. Ultimately though, luck has been on our side. It's still early (tm).

Everything seems to be in different places, and I really don't dig the interface changes at all. There are nice bits and pieces, like postponements and rain-shortened games, and Questdog insists that the player model is a lot better, but obviously the first draft pool with new players has just generated and I have not looked at it yet. But the interface is ugly...

Btw, if somebody could give me a hint at the team photo option that I have seen in other dynasties ... I seem to be really unable to find it...

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Btw, if somebody could give me a hint at the team photo option that I have seen in other dynasties ... I seem to be really unable to find it...

Go to the Team Home Page, then Settings, then click on the button at the top right for "Modify Team Colors, etc,"...There is a button at the bottom of that page.

Before you do that, though, you might want to set up your team with some decent uniforms......