Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

The Inepticoons were back in town. Oh, the joy.

I filed in sick on Monday. I couldn’t get it over me to shower. Or put on pants. At night, I watched Nick Brown’s start against the Indians, slumped over the couch. Honeypaws was staring at me from his place on the other sofa.

You can’t get away from them, can you?

Raccoons (73-82) vs. Indians (88-67) – September 25-28, 2006

Up by five and a half, the Indians had brought the champagne with them (not trusting the Coons and their non-budget to provide them with celebratory gimmicks) to knock it off once they’d clinch their first postseason in 18 years. Certainly the odds weren’t in their favor for the opener on Monday, but eventually their pitching would hold the scruffy Raccoons lineup scoreless at some point, right? They were merely 10-4 against the Coons on the year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.86 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (7-14, 5.11 ERA)
Ralph Ford (14-11, 3.52 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (10-11, 4.15 ERA)
Rhett Carpenter (1-1, 5.00 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (13-14, 3.52 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (8-16, 3.97 ERA) vs. Bob King (11-10, 3.79 ERA)

We miss Curtis Tobitt (22-4, 1.98 ERA). Whatever the heck that means now…

Game 1
IND: CF A. Solís – 1B S. Stevens – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – RF B. Miller – C L. Paredes – 2B A. Stevens – SS J. Lopez – P R. Jimenez
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 1B Pruitt – LF Brady – RF Mays – CF Fernandez – 3B Sharp – C A. Ramirez – P Brown

Strikeout victim #1,111 for Nick Brown was Bill Miller to end the first inning which had been unnecessarily prolonged by Brownie’s own error on Ron Alston’s grounder. Jimenez would chop a leadoff single off Brown in the third, but through five everything was in the green area for Brown. As it had been against the Condors…

The Raccoons were still hitless in the bottom 5th against the unimpressive Jimenez when Fernandez walked and Sharp got knicked by the hurler. Brown batted with one out and recently pitchers had been quite involved in early runs for the team. Here, Brown singled to right, which was the first tally and the first hit for the home team in the contest. Sharp went to third. Nomura walked on a disputable pitch in a full count before Flores’ drive to left was caught by Alston, but Sharp scored, 2-0. Matt Pruitt was next in line and bowled over Jimenez with his first career homer, a huge shot to dead center that jumped the score to 5-0!

At about that point I managed to locate enough power in my body to raise myself up on the couch. Big mistake. Brownie had been in cruise control on a 2-hitter through six innings, but the seventh started with Ron Alston hitting a single into center, and where there’s Alston, there’s also David Lopez, and both were in the top 20 in career home runs in the ABL. Lopez hit one right off Brown. The Raccoons found some offense in the bottom of the inning, but “some” did not amount to runs and they left the bases loaded. We also had two men on with two outs in the eighth when Quebell hit for Brown, but struck out. Brown at least put the ball in play three times on the day…

And then Angel Casas couldn’t close it. He got Simon Stevens, but Ron Alston homered off him, 5-3. Bill Miller’s ringing 2-out double and a pinch-hit single by Marty Battle chased him for Marcos Bruno to face right-handed PH Filippo Fugosi, who fouled out on a 2-1 pitch. 5-3 Brownies. Pruitt 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (11-5) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 2
IND: 2B C. Aguilar – CF Martines – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – RF B. Miller – 1B Fugosi – SS J. Lopez – P Moreau
POR: SS Flores – LF Pruitt – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – C A. Ramirez – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingram – P Ford

Another day, another 3-run homer from Matt Pruitt, this time in the third inning and following Eddie Fernandez’ solo shot in the preceding inning, giving Ford a 4-0 lead. Unfortunately, Ralph Ford was walky, issuing a free pass in about every inning. FORTUNATELY, Ron Alston tattooed one of his pitches when the obligatory walk had not been issued yet in the sixth. Ford then quickly walked Lopez and Paraz. Marcos Bruno had to save the day in the sixth inning today, striking out Fugosi and then proceeded to strike out the side in the seventh. With Angel having been hit hard in Monday’s game and having pitched two days in a row, we started to get unconventional. Moreno got two outs for us before David Lopez singled off Sergio Vega. Ed Bryan got Paraz, then got Miller to start the ninth inning. And then it was – Kaz. It was the bottom of the order, it was a 4-1 lead with one out in the ninth, and Rockburn had pitched almost every day last week. It was not pretty – Fugosi walked, before Lopez hit one hard to short – but Kaz got the job done eventually. 4-1 Coons. Pruitt 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Ford walked six in this start. Also: how good are Alston, Lopez, and Paraz? All are hitting around .280, and they combined for 80 home runs and 270 runs driven in. It was a bit like Hall – Osanai – Dawson years and years ago: a fear-inducing 3-4-5. For their careers, they have 214 (David Lopez, t-18th all time), 197 (Ron Alston, 23rd), and 140 (Jose Paraz, t-79th) home runs, 551 in total. Hall, Osanai, and Dawson for their careers? 746, but not all of them for the Coons, only 612. Those three Indians? They are career Indians, and they will stay together for another season before Lopez and Paraz could be free agents. Alston is signed through ’10.

This might be the spot to point out the following oddity. Tetsu Osanai might be in the Hall of Fame, but he actually has LESS career home runs than both Daniel Hall AND Mark Dawson. But four batting titles in five years will do something for your HOF cause.

Game 3
IND: CF A. Solís – RF B. Miller – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 2B J. Lopez – SS Kilters – P R. Gonzalez
POR: 3B Flores – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Brady – LF Crespo – 1B Pruitt – SS R. Miller – C Esquivel – P Carpenter

The Terrific Three got to 81 homers when Paraz launched a shot off Carpenter in the second inning that counted for two. The third saw Carpenter hit Ramiro Gonzalez, the pitcher, throw a wild pitch, and surrender another run on a ringing double by David Lopez. Like Ford the day before, Carpenter lasted only five and two thirds before simply getting stuck. Rémy Lucas entered with Sharp in a double switch that ended Pruitt’s day so Lucas could pitch to a string of left-handers. The first one of those was the pitcher, who was 1-1 with two times on base, and lined a ball hard to right, but Sharp made a jumping grab to end the inning and spare two runs. Ramiro Gonzalez might have been denied here, but he certainly kept the Raccoons dry in a 3-0 game, allowing three soft hits through five innings. Lucas wasn’t any good against even left-handers and allowed another RBI double to Alston by the seventh. Gonzalez developed his own issues against left-handed batters in the bottom 7th, putting on Nomura and Mays to start the inning, with Nomura scoring on Crespo’s single, and Mays scoring on a wild pitch, but no matter what the Raccoons were cobbling together, the Indians were still SLUGGING. Jose Paraz took Kichida deep in the ninth, and this one just kept getting away further... 6-2 Indians. Nomura 2-4; Mays 2-3; Bowen (PH) 1-1; Crespo 2-4, 2B, RBI;

They still haven’t clinched with the Elks not stopping to win. But the magic number is a tiny 1 with this win, and they get Watanabe, whose non-stuff should be a big help to get the Indians to score big in the final game of the series. The entire CLCS could get locked up by tomorrow with the Falcons’ M# also at 1. At this point, in the FL East there are still FOUR teams with mathematical chances! Honestly, however, it was the Blue Sox (yet again) or the Cyclones, who were only one game out.

The Raccoons’ numbers in any case were reduced by one, with Eddie Fernandez, chronically injured, leaving early with a tweaked shoulder. He was out for the year with some soreness. We filed for Santiago Trevino to join the team in the final days of the season.

Game 4
IND: 2B C. Aguilar – RF B. Miller – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – CF Harrigan – SS Kilters – P B. King
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 3B Flores – SS R. Miller – P Watanabe

Quebell singled in a run before the team left the bases loaded in the first inning. David Lopez instantly retied the score, making it into 17th all time with his 215th career dinger, and the Indians just kept piling on against Watanabe, scoring two more runs in the inning. Watanabe got knocked out in the fourth inning, with the Indians’ pathetic bottom of the order hitting him for four consecutive singles. These four singles didn’t score a run however, with Brady throwing out Simon Stevens going first-to-third on Sean Harrigan’s single. Bases loaded, Rémy Lucas came in and struck out Aguilar and Miller to strand all three runners. With many innings still to log, we found a spot for the disgusting Jose Dominguez, who hadn’t pitched in three weeks for being ****. This was a losing effort already. Go ahead, Jose, blow it for good. Bob King was crumbling however: Craig Bowen tied the game in the fifth, and the Coons had the bases loaded in the sixth, only for Clyde Brady to strike out for the third out. Dominguez walked three in three innings, but was not scored upon, and then Adrian Quebell led off the bottom 7th with a triple! The bases got loaded again in the 3-3 game with one out. Ryan Miller couldn’t hit a barn from the inside, so Sharp hit for him and got the bare minimum done with a sac fly that sent the team ahead, 4-3. Antonio Ramirez batted for Dominguez. At 2-1 he popped off of first, and Simon Stevens had it glance off his glove and got an error. In a full count, Ramirez popped to the foul side of first again – and this time Stevens nabbed it. Top 8th, Rockburn allowed a single to the only batter he faced, Harrigan, before Moreno came in and sat down the side in order. Bottom 8th, Nomura singled and Pruitt doubled. Runners on second and third with no outs, Brady and Quebell hit rockets – and both had them caught. Bowen then chopped a ball over the head of Fugosi at second, Nomura scored on the single, Pruitt was sent, Claudio Rey’s throw was terrible, and Pruitt was actually safe. Angel came out for the ninth, and he just was not right. Jose Lopez hit a booming double over Pruitt to start the inning, and the Terrific Three all hit the ball hard – and all three hard balls were snagged, two of them by Quebell! 6-3 Indians. Nomura 3-5; Brady 2-5, 2B; Quebell 2-5, RBI; Bowen 3-3, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Mays (PH) 1-1; Dominguez 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K, W (14-13);

Good news for the Indians? The Canadiens lost 1-0 to the Crusaders, so despite them failing utterly against the Raccoons, they still clinched the division – their fifth postseason in franchise history, and the first in 18 years. They were the 1981 champions.

In the CLCS they would face the Falcons, who clinched with a 5-2 win behind Larry Cutts over the Thunder, and would also be in the playoffs for the fifth time, but for them it was the third time in four years, the second consecutive and of course they were the defending champions, too.

And our visitors’ clubhouse was all sticky from that champagne and on Friday morning I found out that Slappy had filed in sick ‘til Christmas.

Raccoons (76-83) vs. Loggers (66-93) – September 29-October 1, 2006

Do we REALLY have to play this set? Well, it’s Brownie time once more, but … REALLY? We’re 6-9 against them on the year.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (5-6, 4.01 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (10-13, 4.25 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-5, 2.82 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-12, 5.97 ERA)
Ralph Ford (15-11, 3.46 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (13-7, 2.55 ERA)

Final game of the season will also be Ralph Ford’s 222nd and final start for the Raccoons. He narrowly avoided 100 losses (67-96, 3.97 ERA).

Game 1
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – SS Tolwith – 3B O. Rios – 1B C. Parker – C T. Phillips – P Lloyd
POR: 3B Flores – 2B Nomura – CF Crespo – LF Brady – C Bowen – RF Mays – 1B Sharp – SS R. Miller – P Webster

Lloyd didn’t give up a hit the first time through the order (and Webster no run) before Flores singled up the middle with two outs in the bottom 3rd. Nomura singled, bringing up J.C. Crespo, who got a present delivered from Lloyd, right down the middle, and tattered it for a 3-run homer. Tim Dumpster immediately set out to blow that ugly 3-0 lead, and the Loggers loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth. He struck out Phillips, then fell 3-1 on Lloyd, who ultimately singled to cut the lead to 3-1. Bayle popped out to right, bringing up Bartolo Hernandez, who was really not a power hitter, but ended Dumpster’s season with a slam, his third homer on the season. The trash can section of the bullpen followed their brother in spirit, but Salazar and Cash actually turned in 3.1 scoreless innings from there. Lloyd was still pitching in the bottom 7th, giving up a single to badly struggling Ryan Miller. Pruitt hit for Cash although a lefty was dealing, and – WHAT – A – BOMB!! Huuuuge home run!! That is NEVER going to come down again!!

With the game re-set to resume from nothing, 5-5, Law Rockburn went from the eighth to the tenth without allowing anything. Which was all well and swell, if just the team could have gotten anything going. But no such luck. When Quebell hit for Miller in the bottom 9th, got on, and was run for by Yamada, Yamada got himself caught stealing. Top 11th, Marcos Bruno just collapsed, and walked and balked the winning run home for the Loggers. 6-5 Loggers. Pruitt (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Cash 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Rockburn 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – 1B Batlle – 3B O. Rios – SS M. Clark – C T. Phillips – P Norris
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Flores – CF Trevino – C A. Ramirez – SS Yamada – P Brown

George Norris was not skipped as originally hinted at, which might spare us Martin Garcia in the season finale. Norris was 7-15 with a 5.76 ERA.

Brownie went to three balls on the first three batters, resulting in a K, a walk, and a single, before Austin hit into a cleansing double play, and Jimmy Bayle would strike out in a full count again the next time up in the third. There was no score through five innings, which included Brown and Nomura getting left in scoring position in the bottom 5th by Pruitt and Brady. Brownie hit a 1-out single for the second time in the game in the bottom 7th. Nomura doubled, and they were in scoring position again. Norris was still pitching. Could somebody please put something on the board, right now?

Yes! Pruitt hit one to left that was caught, but was sufficiently deep to score Brown with the go-ahead run. Nomura came home on Brady’s single. Quebell walked, and Flores singled to make it 3-0. Trevino’s bloop fell unattended into no man’s land, and with the runners in motion, even Quebell scored on a ball in shallow right. Bowen then struck out in an 0-3 Ramirez’ place. With that 4-0 lead, Brown returned to the mound, and despite the early control woes, he was only at 79 pitches through seven, but needed 17 to overcome Orlando Rios’ leadoff single in the eighth to finally strike out Chris Parker. But it’s the final weekend, we can knock ourselves over today. He’d go for that shutout (and the Coons putting up another 4-spot with a 3-shot by Quebell included in the bottom 8th helped build confidence). Bayle struck out, but Hernandez walked. Hiwalani then hit one through the diving Flores for a double. Hernandez was sent home, Pruitt to Yamada to Bowen – OUT AT THE PLATE!! Hiwalani moved to third base with two outs. Okay, ONE more batter for Brownie. He’d face Tim Austin, a righty with some pop and an almost 25% whiff rate. First pitch, called strike. A ball. Another ball. A foul ball. Another foul ball. A rip – missed. 8-0 Brownies!!! Nomura 1-2, 3 BB, 2B; Brady 3-5, RBI; Quebell 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W (12-5) and 2-4;

BROWNIIIEEE!!!!

Game 3
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – SS Tolwith – 3B O. Rios – C T. Phillips – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – CF Crespo – LF Brady – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Lugo – P Ford

Last hurrah for Ralph Ford and Clyde Brady, the latter scoring the first run of the game on a Sharp single in the bottom 2nd. The Loggers loaded them up in direct response but didn’t score when Hernandez popped out to shallow left and Hiwalani grounded out to Nomura, but Tim Austin hit a leadoff jack in the fourth to tie the score anyway. Ford tried to leave Portland on a high note, but the Loggers shoved the go-ahead run across in the sixth inning and it looked like Martin Garcia heading for #252 instead. Ford was hit for with Mays in the bottom 7th, which didn’t yield results, and Marcos Bruno was bested by Bakile Hiwalani in the eighth to push the score to 3-1. And then, suddenly, Flores with a single, and Nomura with a double, and the tying runs in scoring position in the bottom 8th. Crespo couldn’t get it done, but Brady singled to right and both runs scored! Tied ballgame! Domingo Moreno, also in his final appearance, kept the Loggers at bay in the top of the ninth. Martin Garcia was STILL in there in the bottom of the inning. Two out, nobody on, Pruitt hit for Lugo. He fired a shot to left center for a double, kept running, and was out. Extra innings. Casas pitched a messy but scoreless top 10th and we faced their closer, Robbie Wills, in the bottom 10th. Trevino made an out before Vic Flores doubled to left. Sliding into second base he pulled some thing or other and was replaced by Ryan Miller. Nomura was not pitched to, while Crespo flew out to left.

Could Clyde Brady at least leave on that high note? No, he grounded out, and a meaningless game meaninglessly was going to drag on. To make a long afternoon short, the Loggers pushed a run across against Kaz in the 13th, and Clyde Brady made the final out in the game. 4-3 Loggers. Flores 2-5, 2B; Brady 2-6, 2 RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K; Casas 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In head-to-head competition for the final spot in the playoffs, the Blue Sox out-hit the Cyclones 15-6 this Sunday – and still lost 4-3. CIN Dan Morris comes up clutch with two homers (30 on the year) to lift the Cyclones, the team he has spent his entire career with, since 1999, and fourth overall. They were the champions in the ABL’s inaugural season in 1977.

In other news

September 28 – Hitting streak over for WAS LF Raúl Vázquez (.307, 14 HR, 72 RBI) who goes dry against the Rebels to have his streak end at 23 games.

Complaints and stuff

A man of many talents, Nick Brown had his fifth career shutout and ninth complete game, and his first shutout since 2004. He missed his career best ERA from his rookie season by .01; despite missing two months, he finishes with 4.4 pitching WAR. He finishes with a career best .254/.267/.305 slash line with the bat, putting some of our real batters to shame.

I love him. He’s taken over from Dan The Man, and Neil Reece, who’s still playing ball in Oompalooza, AK, or somewhere close to that, to be precise. Oompalooza has the nearest post office.

That’s how all things end, most of the time. In the dust.

It’s been 30 years in Portland. The first ten years had a few incredible lows and one incredibly joyful high. The next ten years were high-high-high, until the fun police busted us for drug abuse. The last ten years… (puts down bottle of Capt’n Coma next to the chair on the balcony overlooking the dark ballpark under a pitch-black night)

The last ten years are the reason why there’s suicide hotlines.

[Westheim]

2006 PLAYOFFS

This year’s FLCS put the 103-59 Dallas Stars, who had clinched home field advantage throughout the postseason, against the come-from-behind 87-75 Cincinnati Cyclones.

On paper, this was a no-brainer. The Stars were doing everything right. They had the highest batting average, the most home runs, and the most stolen bases in the league. They had – far and away – the most runs scored with 857. Their rotation ranked third, and the bullpen was competent enough not to blow things up. If it just wasn’t for injuries claiming outfielders John Alexander and Logan Taylor, both with OPS numbers well north of .800, and reliever Dane Sanders, AND closer Leonardo Sosa, who had merely saved 51 games, you could bet your life on them. Sosa was DTD with a stiff neck and would be hampered for the early games in the series. The other three were really out, but they still fielded a lineup in which only two guys were not batting .305 or better. Two!

By contrast, the Cyclones – how had they even made it!? They had the WORST rotation in the Federal League! They were t-2nd in runs scored, but … the worst rotation! And the bullpen really was not any better. Apart from closer Ian Johnson (1.67 ERA, 40 SV) and reliever Ray Cobb (6-3, 3.84 ERA) you could get their whole pitching staff at Major Dollar. Their ace was Nathan O’Herlihy, with an ERA a shade under five. Yes, really. They had their bright sides, like the 3-4-5 batters Dan Morris (.321, 30 HR, 100 RBI), Will Bailey (.344, 25 HR, 106 RBI), and Ray Gilbert (.350, 14 HR, 98 RBI), but they also had the most terrible fielding in the league – no. You had to be insane (or already stinking rich) to bet on the Cyclones.

The Continental League race was less lop-sided, but the CL North champions Indians still had glaring issues. They had only one starting pitcher with a winning record in Curtis Tobitt (23-4, 1.94 ERA), the to-be-announced Pitcher of the Year, and while they had three beasts in their lineup with Ron Alston (.286, 32 HR, 86 RBI), David Lopez (.278, 32 HR, 110 RBI), and Jose Paraz (.277, 23 HR, 90 RBI), the rest of their batting order looked shockingly terrible. They had given 300+ PA to three different sub-.600 OPS batters, and two more who just inflated their OPS through walks, but weren’t productive otherwise. Despite that awesome middle of the order, they were 7th in run scored. They could not steal bases, either. They did have a decent rotation south of Tobitt, and a very strong bullpen, though.

The Falcons entered down one capable starting pitcher (Tommy Wilson), and the rest of their staff was decidedly unpretty. Their whole rotation was no better than the Indians’ #2-#4 guys, and they had nobody to stink up to Tobitt. Larry Cutts led them with a 16-7 record and 3.49 ERA. Their bullpen was weaker by a long margin than the Indians’. In turn, they had scored the most runs in the Continental League with a balanced lineup anchored by second baseman Jose Lopez (.277, 34 HR, 121 RBI), who was surrounded by four more 12+ HR batters with averages of .282 or better. Even their #8 guy was better than the Indians’ #2.

Experts wouldn’t be surprised by the Cyclones getting swept by the Stars. The CLCS is more open, with Curtis Tobitt being close to impregnable. Despite the Indians’ lineup relying on three guys exclusively, they still had the nose up on the Falcons and might win in six.

In total, five World Series titles are held by the teams, which each holding at least one (Cyclones 1977; Stars 1983 + 1988; Indians 1981; Falcons 2005).

2006 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Indians @ Falcons … 4-1 … (Indians lead 1-0) … IND Curtis Tobitt 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W;

Cyclones @ Stars … 2-4 … (Stars lead 1-0) … DAL Christian Greenman 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI;
Indians @ Falcons … 5-3 … (Indians lead 2-0) … Falcons fall behind 2-0 in the first, never catch up

Cyclones @ Stars … 13-10 … (series tied 1-1) … the Cyclones break through Edgar Amador and Kevin Wanless for TWELVE runs in the third inning, and still almost lose; CIN Dennis Berman 3-5, BB, 2B, RBI; CIN Will Bailey 3-5, HR, 7 RBI; DAL Cesar Morán 4-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Falcons @ Indians … 0-2 (18) … (Indians lead 3-0) … in 18 innings, the teams combined for 19 hits, before a relieving walkoff homer off Lewis Donaldson; CIN Angel Solís 2-7, HR, 2 RBI; CHA Alfredo Collazo 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K; CHA Jerry Paul 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; IND Ramiro Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K; IND Lawrence Bentley 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

Stars @ Cyclones … 5-4 (10) … (Stars lead 2-1) … DAL Robinson Perez 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; DAL Kevin Wanless 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; CIN Jose Silva 3-5, HR, RBI;
Falcons @ Indians … 6-1 … (Indians lead 3-1) … CHA Mun-wah Tsung 2-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; CHA Dylan Jones 8.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, W;

Stars @ Cyclones … 6-3 … (Stars lead 3-1) … DAL Luis Soto 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; CIN Dennis Berman 3-4, BB, HR, RBI;
Falcons @ Indians … 5-4 (10) … (Indians lead 3-2) … CHA Mun-wah Tsung 3-5, RBI; CHA Pedro Estrada (PH) 2-2, RBI; IND Ron Alston 3-5, 2 2B; IND David Lopez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; IND Ron Brantley (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Stars @ Cyclones … 1-8 … (Stars lead 3-2) … CIN Nathan O’Herlihy 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W; CIN Dennis Berman 3-5, 2 RBI;

Indians @ Falcons … 1-5 … (series tied 3-3) … IND Cesar Aguilar 3-4; CHA Mun-wah Tsung 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; CHA David Rincón 3-4, 2 2B;

Cyclones @ Stars … 7-14 … (Stars win 4-2) … CIN Will Bailey 2-4, 2 RBI; CIN Felix Hernandez 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; DAL Hector Garcia 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; DAL Christian Greenman 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; DAL Robinson Perez 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; DAL Eduard Januczek 2-3, 2B;
Indians @ Falcons … 4-1 … (Indians win 4-3) … IND Ramiro Gonzalez 7.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W;

So close, but no cigar for the Falcons, rallying from an 0-3 deficit only to get buzzed by Ramiro Gonzalez in game 7. The Cyclones were in fact caught out by their abysmal pitching. They held a 4-0 lead after romping Edgar Amador in the first inning of game 6.

2006 WORLD SERIES

With almost comparable pitching staffs, the Indians holding the Tobitt Advantage, the Stars outscored the Indians by 187 runs, and took the interleague series 2-1. That vastly better lineup should give a distinct advantage to the Stars. Don’t expect to get value from those game 6 tickets.

Indians @ Stars … 1-4 … (Stars lead 1-0) … IND Curtis Tobitt gets bombed in the third; DAL Paul Miller 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W; DAL Christian Greenman 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Indians @ Stars … 3-4 … (Stars lead 2-0) … DAL Armando Rodriguez 2-3, RBI; DAL Cesar Morán 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

Stars @ Indians … 1-2 (10) … (Stars lead 2-1) … Leonardo Sosa blows the save in the ninth and loses in the tenth; DAL Edgar Amador 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K;

Stars @ Indians … 6-0 … (Stars lead 3-1) … DAL Paul Miller 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W; DAL Hector Garcia 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; DAL Robinson Perez 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Stars @ Indians … 5-3 … (Stars win 4-1) … Curtis Tobitt gets stuck in the sixth; Hector Garcia’s 1-out double off Iemitsu Rin in the ninth is the series-winning hit; DAL Luis Soto 2-4, BB, RBI; IND Bill Miller 2-4, 2 RBI;

The Stars join the Capitals with three titles, tying them for second place behind the four-time champion Titans. Six teams have won two titles: Canadiens, Gold Sox, Blue Sox, Thunder, Scorpions, and Raccoons.

2006 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
DALLAS STARS
(3rd title)

[Westheim]

Ever seen a, not necessarily financially, but rather spiritually, mentally, broken man? Late October of 2006, in Portland, a certain office at a certain ballpark would give you a pretty good visual description. Stuck with a team that couldn’t generate any offense, and would have four-fifths inept starting pitching next season, one certain GM had received a notice from the hideous team owner with next season’s budget, with an increase in available money that would best be described as spare change, and was laid down on the heavy brown sofa, tightly embracing Honeypaws and a box of donuts, moaning loudly in semi-regular intervals, while Chad, the mindless mascot man, was making the rounds, bobbling 800-some leftover Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day bobbleheads that were strewn all over all tables, cupboards, and the floor.

A mildly disturbing scene, to say the least.

The Mexican Prick in his enormous grace had decided to leave the Raccoons with $18.8M for their 31st ABL season, which was $400k more than in 2006, but was still the smallest budget in the league. The only other team with less than $20M were the Rebels. The average budget in the league is $25.2M, the median is $24.2M.

A change from years prior will be that the Raccoons CAN play on the free agent market this year thanks to some of the Avatars of Losing leaving the team, freeing up almost $3M. Only $250k of that was going into guaranteed salary increases (80% of that to Brownie, the rest to Blunt – err, Sharp). We won’t have all of the money available, however, firstly to hire a largely new coaching staff with many departures, the retirement of bench coach Dave Dukes, and at least one notable case of our major league hitting coach released and being fed to wild beavers upriver on the Columbia, and secondly that brings us swiftly to the salary arbitration overview, which is a quick affair this year:

Arbitration eligible players (with 2006 numbers, service time, 2006 salary, 2007 estimate):
SP Felipe Garcia (3-4, 5.47 ERA) – 3.119 - $240k - $283.5k
C Craig Bowen (.252, 10 HR, 30 RBI) – 4.052 - $258k - $420k
C Antonio Ramirez (.249, 7 HR, 44 RBI) – 5.032 - $540k - $600k
INF Victor Flores (.283, 6 HR, 53 RBI) – 5.075 - $352k - $390k
OF Edgardo Fernandez (.242, 4 HR, 37 RBI) – 4.166 - $360k - $400k

Free agency eligible players (with 2006 numbers, 2006 salary, compensation):
SP Ralph Ford (15-11, 3.44 ERA) - $1.1M – type-A
LF/RF Clyde Brady (.279, 12 HR, 75 RBI) - $1.2M – type-B
LF/RF Jose Lugo (.198, 0 HR, 10 RBI) - $218k – no compensation
MR Domingo Moreno (3-2, 3.18 ERA, 1 SV) - $455k – no compensation

None of the free agents will be back. Remember, they’re the Avatars of Losing. We will make offers to the five salary arbitration cases, even though Garcia is completely useless and will be expensively parked at AAA. We might use Craig Bowen as primary catcher next season, however well that will go. Ramirez is too expensive for a backup and can be used as trade chip. We desperately need starting pitching, and Ramirez might yield somebody better than Tim Dumpster.

We avoided arbitration with Craig Bowen by signing him to a 2-yr, $820k contract on October 27. A similar deal was refused by Eddie Fernandez, and Felipe Garcia was also unwilling to resign to last year’s conditions.

We offered $600k for Ramirez, $400k each for Flores and Fernandez, and $284k for Garcia, and went 4-0 in arbitration.

October 28 – The Crusaders acquire 26-yr old SP Jim Baker (4-8, 5.70 ERA) from the Condors, parting with a rather dubious prospect.
November 7 – The Cyclones lock up 2006 Player of the Year Will Bailey (.314, 184 HR, 833 RBI). The 29-year old will earn $23.8M over the next seven years.
November 11 – The Stars trade for the Pacifics’ LF/RF Yohan Bonneau (.290, 149 HR, 668 RBI) in exchange for SP Alfredo Rios (76-103, 4.48 ERA) and prospect OF Jaime Marino, who has been traded three times since July 15.

2006 AWARDS
Player of the Year: CIN RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.344, 25 HR, 106 RBI) and ATL LF/CF Jose Morales (.309, 25 HR, 94 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: DEN SP Antonio Donis (17-6, 2.29 ERA) and IND Curtis Tobitt (23-4, 1.94 ERA)
Rookie of the Year: DAL 1B/2B Alberto Rodriguez (.264, 15 HR, 71 RBI) and CHA 1B Mun-wah Tsung (.282, 15 HR, 69 RBI)
Reliever of the Year: PIT Paco Barrera (6-2, 0.92 ERA, 44 SV) and SFB Johnny Smith (2-1, 0.38 ERA, 43 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P SAL Raúl Chavez, C DAL Rafael Garza, 1B CIN Ray Gilbert, 2B DAL Hector Garcia, 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel, SS WAS Adriano Lulli, LF CIN Dan Morris, CF SFW Earl Clark, RF CIN Will Bailey
Platinum Sticks (CL): P CHA Larry Cutts, C IND Jose Paraz, 1B ATL Jorge Garcia, 2B TIJ Juan Diaz, 3B IND David Lopez, SS TIJ Bruce Boyle, LF OCT Victorino Sanchez, CF ATL Jose Morales, RF MIL Bakile Hiwalani
Gold Gloves (FL): P SFW Santiago Chavez, C PIT Bartholomeu Pino, 1B CIN Ray Gilbert, 2B DEN Jose Correa, 3B SAC Sonny Reece, SS DAL Armando Rodriguez, LF SAL Fernando Guerra, CF NAS Alex Samuels, RF PIT Luke Black
Gold Gloves (CL): P VAN Rod Taylor, C LVA Eduardo Durango, 1B POR Adrian Quebell, 2B MIL Bartolo Hernandez, 3B BOS Mark Austin, SS CHA Leslie Starks, LF BOS Tom Walls, CF NYC Roberto Pena, RF NYC Stanton Martin

Among our almost completely renovated staff is Carlos Asquabal as manager in Aumsville. His 18-year pitching career for the Knights and 245 major league wins with 2,995 strikeouts had him at 71.2% in the 2006 HOF voting.

There’s a pair of interesting Japanese players coming over as international free agents. One is a 30-year old right-handed pitcher, “Dodo” Iwase, with an outright devastating changeup – but sadly no third pitch. Scott Wade had rousing success with two pitches, but can there be another Scott Wade? If it worked out, “Dodo” could be an incredibly cheap gain for us, looking for an $800k deal. If it didn’t work, we had an incredibly expensive right-handed reliever on our hands.

The other guy was a 29-year old, cube-shaped, power-stick-wielding catcher of dubious mobility and agility from the Kisho Saito School of Smiling named Hideaki “Quasimodo” Suda. Regarding the nickname, he REALLY looked the part! He was looking for big money, but at some point a godforsaken franchise must answer to the following question: how much should we pretend to try to win games, or would it really be better to field the most ridiculous product to at least get soiled relentlessly on Saturday Evening Live, then sue them for damages?

Is that a plan? Go all in on the two Jap chubs, and trade Antonio Ramirez for anybody better than Dumpster Boy?

In other news, Neil Reece retired, but is still waiting alongside an unpaved road somewhere in Wyoming for a twice-weekly bus to take him to the nearest populated place on his long journey home to Massapequa.

[Westheim]

I don’t want to go overboard or anything, but we might just have fixed a whole lot of problems on getting back to relevancy.

The Raccoons started the offseason not only with a bang, but with a slam. Trying to get rid of one of our flock of underwhelming catchers, we shopped Antonio Ramirez. The Condors, having their own issues behind the dish, were genuinely interested. The Condors were also rebuilding and trying to unload a few of their more expensive pieces. They had a lot of dead weight on the roster, and only two genuine stars, CF Ramón Perez and repeat-strikeout king Kelvin Yates. 1,440 strikeouts in 206 games (200 starts) had him keep pace with Nick Brown, who had 1,127 strikeouts in 164 games (161 starts). Their career K/9 numbers were both 9.6;

Where could we be going here?

November 14 – The Raccoons deal 28-yr old C Antonio Ramirez (.249, 23 HR, 222 RBI) and 27-yr old OF Edgardo Fernandez (.269, 15 HR, 183 RBI) to the Condors. In return the Raccoons receive 28-yr old SP Kelvin Yates (71-86, 3.61 ERA) and 29-yr old AAA MR Ward Jackson (6-3, 4.49 ERA, 1 SV), who did not pitch in the majors last year.
November 16 – The Crusaders pick up MR Rodrigo Garcia (4-4, 4.22 ERA, 6 SV) from the Bayhawks in exchange for two AAA players.
November 22 – The Bayhawks sign ex-IND 1B/LF/3B David Lopez (.248, 217 HR, 767 RBI) for a 5-yr, $12.2M, robbing the Indians of one of their Terrific Three after the 32-year old Lopez waived his player option for 2007.
November 22 – The Knights shell out $15.2M over six years for ex-TOP OF Javier Gusmán (.271, 88 HR, 480 RBI). The 27-year old should make a big impact with the Knights.
November 22 – The Condors sign RF/LF Christian Greenman (.249, 120 HR, 391 RBI), who hit for a .939 OPS for the Stars in the latter half of 2006, to a 2-yr, $1.52M deal.
November 23 – The Rebels sign SP Johnny Collins (104-83, 3.78 ERA), age 32, to a $10.1M contract over five years. Collins was with the Knights.
November 23 – 37-year old MR Javier Navarro (78-82, 2.54 ERA, 451 SV) signs up with the Indians for $1.2M over two years. Navarro also played for the team in 1997.

Now calm down, we still have three dorks in the rotation.

Yates will make $1.8M per year until 2009 (also Brownie’s last year under contract), but the last year is a player option. If he keeps going at the current rate, he can rake in $3M annually with ease. This gives us the best 1-2 punch in the majors, in my humble opinion. There are pitchers that are a notch over those two guys, but no team has a pair of them. One drawback on Yates is that he is a flyball pitcher, so his ERA might not be all that pretty in Portland.

But he gets Awesome Australian points! True, the only Aussie that didn't make us wince in the long run was Vern Kinnear, but we had a few of them in the mid-to-late 90s. You know, before and while everything came crushing down.

Ward Jackson is potentially in the trash with severe walk issues in 2005 and 2006. He is due $355k next year. We are looking for a second left-hander to accompany Ed Bryan, but he’s probably not it. Even Rémy Lucas is less horrible than Jackson. Jackson is out of options and would have to be waived to get him to St. Pete.

Ramirez is one of four pitchers on the roster, neither of them particularly useful, while Fernandez has been hurt all the time in his two seasons in Portland. In Crespo and Trevino we can cover for him either offensively or defensively.

Should the Critters make a run for Quasimodo Suda? At first glance, he could be a big power hitter with cringeworthy defense. But his ratings are the same as Craig Bowen when it comes to offense, who has better defense than Suda. He also has that wild 70s moustache going for him.

Problem is… we have no stats whatsoever for Suda, and Bowen’s career stats imply that the ratings are flawed. He batted .252/.345/.415 with 10 HR and 30 RBI in 270 AB for the Raccoons in 2006. That .760 OPS is BY FAR his best season result. In four years as a hardly used backup for the Indians (they DO have Jose Paraz), he never had more than 188 AB, or an OPS better .661, and for what it is worth, his career OPS is .669 as well. He’s 26. Players hardly get better at 26. Can he repeat a .760 OPS over a full season?

And .760 OPS from a catcher over a full season would be quite big for the Raccoons, who have not had any production whatsoever from behind the dish after David Vinson’s sophomore campaign in 1990, when he hit .279/.387/.525 with 21 dingers. Since then? I wish you hadn’t asked. Players with less than 25 AB per season are omitted from the following list.

1991: David Vinson (461 AB, .734 OPS), Gustavo Flores (130 AB, .665 OPS)
1992: David Vinson (352 AB, .692 OPS), Jose Rodriguez (189 AB, .789 OPS), Shimpei Iwamoto (27 AB, .462 OPS)
1993: David Vinson (397 AB, .762 OPS), Jose Rodriguez (144 AB, .676 OPS)
1994: David Vinson (391 AB, .753 OPS), Jose Rodriguez (168 AB, .655 OPS)
1995: David Vinson (463 AB, .683 OPS), Ron McDonald (71 AB, .737 OPS), Jose Rodriguez (70 AB, .364 OPS)
1996: David Vinson (438 AB, .811 OPS), Nori Kondo (134 AB, .682 OPS)
1997: David Vinson (279 AB, .661 OPS), Sidney Aycock (183 AB, .632 OPS), Nori Kondo (70 AB, .525 OPS), Ron McDonald (50 AB, .486 OPS)
1998: Werner Turner (527 AB, .760 OPS), Ricardo Castillo (59 AB, .677 OPS), Ron McDonald (51 AB, .373 OPS), Mario Guerrero (29 AB, .232 OPS)
1999: Lance Branch (240 AB, .688 OPS), Julio Mata (206 AB, .830 OPS), Ricardo Castillo (107 AB, .663 OPS), Gary Fifield (65 AB, .764 OPS)
2000: Julio Mata (476 AB, .642 OPS), Freddy Jackson (116 AB, .701 OPS), Gary Fifield (40 AB, .359 OPS)
2001: Mark Thomas (324 AB, .704 OPS), Julio Mata (162 AB, .437 OPS), Gary Fifield (60 AB, .469 OPS), Jorge Defrese (53 AB, .711 OPS)
2002: Gary Fifield (340 AB, .708 OPS), Mark Thomas (163 AB, .634 OPS), Pablo Fernandez (58 AB, .552 OPS)
2003: Pablo Ledesma (366 AB, .705 OPS), Gary Fifield (124 AB, .500 OPS), Mark Thomas (102 AB, .762 OPS)
2004: Mark Thomas (232 AB, .560 OPS), Pablo Ledesma (201 AB, .704 OPS), Freddy Rosa (125 AB, .637 OPS), Gary Fifield (27 AB, .475 OPS)
2005: Bob Wood (370 AB, .557 OPS), Leon Ramirez (154 AB, .788 OPS), Curt Cooks (39 AB, .394 OPS)
2006: Craig Bowen (270 AB, .760 OPS), Bob Wood (186 AB, .505 OPS), Antonio Ramirez (96 AB, .590 OPS), Sergio Esquivel (54 AB, .558 OPS)

Rated R, for cruelty to animals and children, and excessive gore. Other than a resurgence by Vinson in ’96 when the Coons collectively stomped everybody for 108 wins in the regular season (and none in the World Series), a decent season from Werner Turner before letting him go again, and Julio Mata’s false-alarm blazing debut, the last 16 years have been truly gruesome. Half of the time was spent wondering whether Vinson could be resuscitated, the other half was spent trying to keep track of the personnel currently at hand, and we ran out a different Opening Day catcher seemingly every year, at several junctions secretly wishing Vinson back into the fold.

And now Bowen? Really?

But … Suda? Really?

SOMEWHERE offense has to come from. What’s our lineup next year? Right now, we are quite sure about our infield. Quebell, Nomura, Flores, Sharp around the diamond are pretty much set, although their 2006 contributions were largely unspectacular, with a nod given to Yoshi-N, who did a very good job with a .378 OBP and also 35 doubles for a reasonable .745 OPS. It may look unspectacular, but together with solid defense he racked up over 4 WAR. Vic Flores was good, but not overwhelming (but Ryan Miller clearly showed he’s undercooked so far), Quebell was a disappointment, and Sharp had his worst ever season by a HUGE margin. There is reason to believe that he had simply contracted the plague and will be better this year, because he was hugely consistent for his first five full seasons in the Bigs.

In the outfield we probably employ a combo of Trevino and Crespo in center, which will hurt either way, and then have to decide whether we want to stick with Pruitt or the hugely hollow Bobo Mays. There’s also Tomas Castro. None of those three is older than 23. In fact, none of those five outfielders is older than 26 (Crespo), with Trevino at 24 also ranking as ancient in comparison. One issue here is the fact that Mays has the only powerful arm in the group. So it’s not really Castro AND Pruitt, it’s OR, unless Pruitt plays first base, but he bats from the same side as Quebell, so nothing is gained there. The Raccoons could really use a right-handed outfield bat with a strong throwing arm…

At the same time, the rotation gets lightweight once you go past Brown and Yates. We have Dominguez under contract (the biggest on the team, actually), while you probably shed the least tears over the tough trooper Watanabe. But still, Kenichi as #3 starter? Wow, that’s as bad as Yates being the #2 is awesome.

And then we’re pretty much down to Dumpster Boy and the unbelievably bad Rhett Carpenter (career ERA of 8.19, and he’s gonna be 30!) for the fifth spot. I keep looking at “Dodo” Iwase, and he’s not going to be Wade-esque. Scotty had a better moving fastball and a better breaking ball. Iwase won’t survive as a starter. His numbers will be horrible.

Though, lemme see Carpenter’s numbers again.

Oy.

Our best hopes in the minors are still not good hopes. Cássio Boda and Brandon Teasdale appeared in AAA late in 2006, but only made seven starts between them, and it really was not pretty. The only other genuine prospect starting pitcher is 18 years old and all the way down in Aumsville, where Dominican right-hander Hector Santos pitched to a 9-8 record, 3.10 ERA, and struck out 144 in 136 2/3 innings. He was one of the last international discoveries by good old Vince Guerra.

Well, we started the offseason with an exclamation mark. Merely another dozen question marks remaining to be dispelled…

[Westheim]

I don’t want to get too worked up over this, but replacing (potentially) Felipe Garcia in the rotation with Kelvin Yates could potentially mean a 10-game swing upwards for this team in 2007. Of course, IN FACT Yates is replacing not Garcia, who was never really in the plans for 2007, but rather Ralph Ford, so we might probably add only 3-4 games over 2006. Now add a healthy Nick Brown in place of all the other losers and we add another 3-4 wins (because look at who pitched in his absence…). Just disallow any injuries, and we have already arrived at a 84-78 record.

Of course, if baseball was that easy, teams wouldn’t wander the desert for decades.

We still have a palatable worker ant in Watanabe around, but Dominguez was nothing but awful for us in 2006, and then there’s Dumpster Boy. The back end of the rotation is shameful of a major league team. The question is whether “Dodo” Iwase could be any better than Dumpster Boy. Or maybe we can find something on the trash heap? Other team’s discards usually don’t cost that much…

We also need offense of course. The main question is how we will best fit Tomas Castro, Matt Pruitt, and Adrian Quebell, who, pathetically, could well be the team’s best three sluggers, into just two spots they can realistically play in. Neither Castro nor Pruitt had any arm strength. Bob Mays had been awful but we had nobody available to chase him out of the starter’s job in right! We could possibly try Tomas Castro, who had good range (Pruitt didn’t) in center. It would probably not be pretty, but J.C. Crespo’s game out there was nothing for the yearbook, either (Crespo cost one win defensively in 2006 according to Whitebread and his electronic tome of numbers), and why bother with Crespo at all if we potentially had an even better bat with the same ****ty glove for the centerfield job on our hands? We might just have to accept that we won’t get a new Neil Reece any time soon.

Which really pushes us towards finding an improvement for rightfield, and said improvement has to bat right-handed, or at least be a naturally right-handed switch-hitter (which would probably be even better), because we are going to topple ridiculously towards the left side in our preferred lineup, which will contain only two right-handed batters in Sharp and Flores, and a switch-hitter in Bowen (and Crespo). We NEED that right-handed rightfielder!

Also, backup infielders. We have the following personnel still tumbling around: Ryan Miller, Steve Searcy, Tom Ingram, and Yoshi Yamada. Also Cesar Pena in the minors. While Ryan Miller was really bad in his cup of coffee in the last two weeks in 2006, that does NOT NOT make him The Future. His expected emergence will nicely coincide with Vic Flores heading for free agency after 2007. That said, Miller will start the year in the swamps, and barring Flores getting badly injured, spend most of the year there.

Searcy, Ingram, Yamada, Pena – they could die in a fire and we wouldn’t particularly care. In 1,140 PA (1,071 AB), they were posting a combined .501 OPS. Honestly, why give a ****?

If we honestly were looking into keeping one of them around as a utility guy, it would be Yamada, who was the most adept defender of them all and had that added bonus of being a blazing runner. But don’t ever hand him a bat, oh, lords, please, I’m fearing for our lives.

Pena is already nicely stored in AAA, but Ingram is awful, and Searcy is about to go extinct anyway, because we have a 20-year old third baseman in AAA in Ricardo Martinez. That young Mexican will not be a joy with the glove, but he makes up for his clumsiness (the arm is sound, though) with a powerful swing that resulted in 18 home runs and a .790 OPS in Ham Lake last year. He broke his ankle after hitting one home run in just three games in St. Petersburg in September, and is still walking with a boot, but look who’s in a contract year, too: Daniel Sharp.

The Raccoons aren’t necessarily getting any better, but they’re certainly getting younger.

Proof needed? The (highly speculative right now) starting lineup for next Opening Day goes as such: Nomura – Flores – Castro – Pruitt – Quebell – Sharp – Mays – Bowen – Brown. Average age of the group? Not quite 25. If Miller would replace Flores, and Martinez replace Sharp in 2008, they’d be even younger. That group’s salary? $3.66M in 2007, almost half of which is due to Brownie.

Then again, poor and pathetic teams have to use players that really need the money in order to elope starvation.

As we are on money already, here’s the complete list of players in a contract year in 2007 with their salary: Jose Dominguez ($1.68M), Daniel Sharp ($600k), Vic Flores ($400k), Marcos Bruno ($340k). You know whom I want back? Bruno.

End of sentence.

Yeah, well, right-handed rightfielder. Sorry, Bobo, you haven’t been cutting it. And currently there aren’t any remotely hopeful outfield prospects in our system except 2006 draftees Jimmy Eichelkraut and Dave Green, both of whom didn’t leave A ball.

November 24 – 37-year old INF Bruce Boyle (.266, 141 HR, 938 RBI) has spent his entire 18-year career with the Condors, who would not resign him. The Titans now picked up Boyle and handed him a 2-year, $3.64M contract.
November 25 – 34-year old, award-laden ex-SAC 3B Sonny Reece (.313, 169 HR, 1,104 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $5.68M deal with the Warriors.
November 27 – The Warriors also race to snap up ex-LVA/NAS INF Oliver Torres (.325, 20 HR, 309 RBI). The 29-year old standout will make $23.84M over six years.
November 28 – The Crusaders sign ex-IND CL Iemitsu Rin (24-23, 1.73 ERA, 193 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.94M deal.
December 1 – The rule 5 draft generates little interest. Only eight players are drafted, and no team picks or loses more than one. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 1 – The Indians find themselves a Rin replacement rather quickly, adding recently ringed ex-DAL CL Leonardo Sosa (48-48, 2.50 ERA, 259 SV). The 33-year old signs a 3-year, $4.8M contract.
December 2 – Ex-SFW INF/RF/CF Ramón Garza (.283, 50 HR, 771 RBI) finds a new home in Dallas, where the 33-year old will make $3.2M over two years.
December 3 – OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.311, 51 HR, 745 RBI) returns to the CL North at age 35 after a year with the Bayhawks. He signs a 3-yr, $2.48M contract with the Canadiens. Most of his career was spent with the Loggers.
December 4 – The Crusaders keep adding relief pitching with ex-MIL Robbie Wills (36-40, 2.37 ERA, 299 SV) also coming over for 3-yr, $1.62M.
December 4 – 2006 CL RPOTY Johnny Smith (43-31, 2.34 ERA, 240 SV) goes from the Bayhawks to the Pacifics on a 3-yr, $4.86M contract.
December 4 – The Loggers deal SP George Norris (23-49, 5.58 ERA) and rule 5 pick Ruslan Kobulidze ot the Pacifics for LF/RF/1B Jean-Paul Dubois (.243, 11 HR, 109 RBI).
December 5 – The Raccoons trade 25-yr old 3B Steve Searcy (.221, 2 HR, 18 RBI) to the Warriors for 21-yr old AA LF/1B Jerry Saenz.
December 6 – The Titans jump the shark by acquiring 27-yr old SP Jesus Elmore (7-19, 5.38 ERA) from the Aces for two prospects, including #79 RF/LF Ron Richards.
December 7 – The Rebels receive 27-yr old SS Antonio Luján (.267, 46 RBI, 351 RBI) from the Warriors for 29-yr old SP Chris Lamb (37-41, 5.04 ERA) and #76 prospect LF Gil Gross.

We currently – after the winter meetings have ended – have offers out there for a veteran right-handed rightfielder, who spent considerable time in the CL South, as well as a back-of-rotation starting pitcher, who did most of his work in the Federal League. I can’t say much before anything is official, but the former rhymes with Duke Smack, and the later with Nanny Busfahr’n*.

Below is the 2006 Hall of Fame Ballot. There are two Raccoons on there that have absolutely no chance to even stay alive for a single year.

*German for riding a bus. Worst pun in a long time. I apologize. Twice. And I will stop rhyming right now.

[Westheim]

December 12 – 33-yr old RF/LF Josh Thomas (.271, 150 HR, 740 RBI), last with the Condors, signs a 2-yr, $1.32M contract with the Rebels.
December 14 – The Crusaders spend $3.56M over three years on ex-LAP SP Jesus Bautista (160-169, 3.92 ERA), who lost 15 games each of his four years in L.A. and never posted an ERA better than 4.42; he’s 34.
December 15 – Ex-TOP CL Ryosei Kato (53-47, 2.50 ERA, 308 SV) signs a big deal for a 34-year old closer, inking with the Capitals for 3-yr, $6.6M, while the team also adds 1B/3B/LF Cesar Gonzalez (.266, 196 HR, 831 RBI) for 2-yr, $4.56M.
December 17 – The Canadiens jump on SS/3B Gary Rice (.263, 63 HR, 397 RBI) for 6-yr, $9.24M. Rice, only 26, was with the Crusaders.
December 17 – Former Gold Sock CL Scott Hood (34-34, 2.08 ERA, 265 SV) signs a 3-yr, $1.92M contract with the Crusaders.
December 19 – The Raccoons add 33-yr old OF Luke Black (.235, 74 HR, 325 RBI). The former Miner receives a 4-yr, $4M deal.
December 20 – The Knights sign ex-OCT Antonio De La Parra (.286, 50 HR, 560 RBI). The 32-year old will get $2.12M over two years.
December 21 – Ex-CIN SP Takeru Sato (120-107, 4.20 ERA), who hasn’t been good in years, wins a 2-yr, $2.68M contract from the Blue Sox.
December 22 – The Bayhawks pick up ex-SFW 1B/C Urbano Cicalina (.293, 93 HR, 638 RBI) for 2-yr, $4.32M. The aches and pains of his 33-yr old body mean that Cicalina will probably play a lot at first base rather than actually catch.
December 24 – The Knights sign ex-POR SP Ralph Ford (69-96, 3.96 ERA) for 3-yr, $4.56M. The Raccoons received the Knights 3rd round pick and a supplemental round pick in the 2007 draft.
December 24 – The Thunder shell out $18.72M on a 6-year deal for ex-VAN SP Daniel Dickerson (81-75, 3.33 ERA). Dickerson, 29, has been out with a torn elbow ligament (not Tommy John, though) since July, and is not expected to pitch before the All Star Game.
December 24 – Ex-CIN/CHA SP George Allen (52-70, 4.67 ERA) gets a 3-yr, $4.68M deal with the Scorpions.

Obivously pissed off that we don’t get a first round pick for Ralph Ford. We could have used it. **** that third round pick…

Now, before you hurl stones (or raccoons) at me (don’t, especially the raccoons, they’re too cute to be thrown), the Black deal is actually pretty sane. Only the first two years (all for $1M) of the deal are guaranteed. The last two years are contingent on him appearing in 120 games. If we ever get Bobo Wood going, he can be disposed of easily.

Black’s average is not very good, although he does not strike out TOO much (just over 20%). He is going to be 34 in June, but he is still very quick on his feet, resulting in a nice share of extra base hits. He slugged .402 while batting .231 for the Miners last year, with almost 50% of his hits for extra bases. That gives me the idea that he keeps being unlucky with singles, which in turn hints at a possibility that he might not actually drop another 50 points of average in Portland like everybody else uses to do. He plays all three positions very well, his arm kills runners, and he’s totally going to be our starting rightfielder. He played for 2.5 WAR last season, 0.1 less than Clyde Brady, while playing 30 less games.

He’s of course the Duke Smack I hinted at. That pitcher I mentioned keeps bitching and moaning and I have dropped him. I have a different starting pitcher in my focus now. He’s from the Fabaceae family.

I also struggled badly to get away with just ten choices on the HOF ballot. I tried hard to not have both Raccoons drop off the ballot with less than one percent of the vote, so in the end I didn’t vote for Carlos Asquabal, whom I assumed to get elected anyway, and rather gave one vote to Scott Wade, but didn’t give one to Jason Turner. (Honestly, none of them should even get close to the Hall of Fame…)

And boy, didn’t it do Asquabal any good! (Don’t tell him, he’s our new A ball manager)

---

HALL OF FAME VOTING RESULTS

SFW CL Andres Ramirez – 96.9 – 1st year – INDUCTED
NAS 3B Horace Henry – 79.7 – 1st year – INDUCTED
ATL RF Michel Root – 73.1 – 2nd year
OCT 2B Dave Browne – 57.3 – 2nd year
PIT LF Diego Rodriguez – 56.8 – 2nd year
ATL SP Carlos Asquabal – 49.3 – 4th year
WAS CL Domingo Rivera – 48.5 – 4th year
WAS C Gabriel Rivera – 43.6 – 4th year
IND CL Jim Durden – 41.4 – 4th year
DEN SS Paul Connolly – 34.8 – 3rd year
POR SP Scott Wade – 32.6 – 1st year
CHA SP Manuel Movonda – 27.8 – 1st year
LAP SP David Burke – 25.1 – 4th year
TOP SP Arnold McCray – 23.3 – 2nd year
LAP RF Yoshinobu Ishizaki – 15.0 – 4th year
DAL RF Moromao Hino – 5.7 – 1st year
CHA CL Ricardo Medina – 4.8 – 1st year – DROPPED
DAL SP Kiyohira Sasaki – 4.8 – 4th year – DROPPED
NYC CL Rick Evans – 4.0 – 4th year – DROPPED
RIC SP Harry Griggs – 3.1 – 2nd year – DROPPED
NAS CF Antonio Rodriguez – 3.1 – 2nd year – DROPPED
SFB 3B Roberto Rodriguez – 2.6 – 4th year – DROPPED
TIJ CF Preston O’Day – 1.8 – 1st year – DROPPED
LAP CF Xiao-wei Li – 1.3 – 4th year – DROPPED
IND MR Tim Hess – 0.4 – 1st year – DROPPED
POR SP Jason Turner – 0.0 – 1st year – DROPPED
LVA SP Jou Hara – 0.0 – 1st year – DROPPED

---

HOW did Scotty wind up with 32% of the vote? Does the Hall (which now has 15 inhabitants) have a side gallery with curiosities like 2-pitch starting pitchers that survive the times?

30 years ago, Andres Ramirez was that other guy I pondered over regarding first draft pick. Daniel Hall or Andres Ramirez? Andres Ramirez or Daniel Hall? Since we drafted ourselves our own Hall of Fame closer some time later, I think everything came out about right.

And look how happy Horace Henry is upon arriving in the Hall!

[pjh5165]

That mustache that Luke Black is rocking makes him worth the $1M/year alone

[Westheim]

January 5 – Former Rebel INF Bob Hall (.279, 124 HR, 769 RBI) signs a 1-yr, $1.2M deal with the Pacifics.
January 7 – The Stars agree on a deal with 34-yr old SS/2B Juan Barrón (.306, 31 HR, 820 RBI) for 2-yr, $1.92M. Barrón comes off the Bayhawks.
January 18 – 37-year old ex-SFW RF Cristo Ramirez (.327, 69 HR, 1207 RBI) agrees to a 1-yr, $560k deal with the Blue Sox. Ramirez leads all active players with 3,486 career hits, trailing only Dale Wales (3,673) and HOF Jeffery Brown (3,582) all time.
January 19 – Ex-CIN SP Jeremy Peterson (62-90, 4.97 ERA) settles on the Titans’ 6-yr, $12.96M offer.
January 23 – Former Buffalo OF/1B Julio Garcia (.280, 47 HR, 379 RBI) will spend his age 32-34 seasons on a $1.98M deal with the Rebels.
January 25 – Veteran SP Francisco Garza (144-155, 4.11 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $4.56M contract with the Pacifics. He was last with the Thunder.
January 27 – The Gold Sox sign ex-POR LF/RF Clyde Brady (.255, 112 HR, 509 RBI) on a 3-yr, $3.7M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick.
January 27 – Ex-NYC CL Charlie Deacon (49-62, 2.75 ERA, 273 SV) agrees to a 1-yr, $1.74M deal with the team that first brought him up, the Aces.
January 28 – The Pacifics sign 31-yr old C Pedro Hurtado (.266, 31 HR, 244 RBI) to a 1-yr, $580k contract. Hurtado was the Knights’ backup in 2006.
February 7 – 32-yr old OF Ramiro Cavazos (.270, 83 HR, 520 RBI) signs with the Titans after two years in Sacramento. He will make $2.79M over three years.
February 8 – Former Knights closer Manuel Reyes (38-39, 3.25 ERA, 223 SV) ends up with the Indians for 3-yr, $2.36M.
February 10 – The Titans sign international free agent C Hideaki Suda to a 1-yr, $790k contract.

I was after Hurtado in late January but he obviously already had L.A. on hand and didn’t fall for my $500k offer, and I wasn’t going to pay any more for an excellent defensive backup. We’re still committed to Craig Bowen and his moustache starting for us behind the plate.

You obviously don’t have to be any good to reveice (not: earn) 13 million bucks these days…

Not a lot of trades going on, and then they are literally for the Butch Kaustrops of the game. (Butch Kaustrop was actually traded…)

I have taken a bit from scouting and development to improve the on-field product. We spent over the league average in these fields last year, but we need a bit better personnel.

Currently there are offers out there for a starting pitcher, a left-handed reliever, and a middle infielder. That starting pitcher is still the one I mentioned last time. He’s having several teams on his hands and I think he’s playing them all against another. But he’s got all the trumps in his hand, since he’s basically the last decent starter on the market.

[Westheim]

February 26 – The Raccoons sign 34-yr old MR Colby Kirk (36-34, 4.09 ERA, 14 SV), a former Miner, to a 1-yr, $270k deal.
March 3 – The Raccoons claim 28-yr old 1B/3B Juan Gusmán (.360, 0 HR, 5 RBI in 25 AB) off waivers by the Warriors. Gusmán hasn’t played in the Bigs since 2003.
March 11 – The Thunder sign 30-yr old ex-SAC SP Manny Guzmán (46-62, 4.35 ERA) to a 2-yr, $1.63M contract.
March 14 – The Bayhawks deal 30-yr old SP Raúl Fuentes (48-45, 4.28 ERA) to the Raccoons for 28-yr old MR Rémy Lucas (3-0, 4.02 ERA) and 23-yr old AAA SP G.G. Williams.

Manny Guzmán was the pitcher I was after before we jumped onto the train that circled the States a zillion times while approximately five teams were engaged in a bidding war for Carl Bean’s services. We didn’t drop out of the race until the first half of March, when he called to say the Warriors were offering more than our 2-yr, $1.76M.

But we were out of money. As simple as that. I don’t want to slash S&D any further than I already have.

So, no return of the Bean to Portland. Instead we get to see Dumpster Boy every fifth day. How thrilling an expectation.

No, we can’t allow that to happen! So we whipped up the trade with the Bayhawks for a fifth starter. Fuentes is still arbitration eligible, last year was the only year he didn’t suck, but everything’s better than Dumpster Boy. Williams probably will not amount to a good major league pitcher. He has four pitches, but none of them are good, like his 91mph straight fastball. We have other options in AAA, including two better prospects in Brandon Teasdale and Cássio Boda, as well as Rhett Carpenter, whom I tried to get rid of in every which way, basically everything short of setting him on fire.

We also did not manage to get Kunimatsu Sato signed, a middle infielder to back up Flores and Nomura. That actually means that the scruffy Gusmán might wind up on the Opening Day roster…

By the way, the Bitchy Bean is unsigned as of Opening Eve…

[Westheim]

2007 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2006 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Nick Brown, 29, B:L, T:L (12-5, 2.66 ERA | 68-49, 3.03 ERA) – our ace missed significant time for the first time in his major league career, two months with a shoulder strain, holding him to 22 starts in 2006. He looks all healthy and ready to axe down batters again with his consistent 9.6 K/9.
SP Kelvin Yates *, 29, B:L, T:R (13-15, 3.30 ERA | 71-86, 3.61 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired in trade for the Condors – and we can’t yet really believe, nor grasp it – we fully expect Yates to extend his streak of four consecutive Continental League strikeout titles, or at the very least, yield only to Brownie. You have to hope for the swings to miss, since contact off him tends to result in high fly balls.
SP Jose Dominguez, 33, B:L, T:R (14-13, 4.31 ERA | 122-138, 4.33 ERA) – acquired in trade mid-season, Dominguez was just one in a long row of failures on the mound for the Raccoons, posting a 5.27 ERA in 11 games with the Coons. Despite this, he will be the second-most expensive player on the roster after Yates.
SP Raúl Fuentes *, 31, B:L, T:L (10-4, 3.16 ERA | 48-45, 4.28 ERA) – control-challenged left-hander that was acquired from the Bayhawks for Rémy Lucas and G.G. Williams in March after all other options fell through. We hope from more than from Tim Webster.
SP Kenichi Watanabe, 30, B:R, T:R (8-16, 4.04 ERA | 12-24, 3.69 ERA) – Watanabe nibbles the corners, which sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t. If it doesn’t, he’s usually out of the game rather quickly.

MU Kazuhiko Kichida, 27, B:L, T:R (4-5, 3.59 ERA | 7-8, 3.71 ERA) – there’s always that point somewhere in the season where you think Kaz has turned the corner, and then some violent outing happens in which he gets torn to shreds. Just not a reliable guy you can’t trust with a lead. He might snip walkoff singles in long marathon games from time to time, though.
MR Adam Riddle, 25, B:R, T:R (5-1, 2.40 ERA | 5-1, 2.25 ERA) – joined the roster early in 2006 and delivered some solid middle relief. A decent right-hander, every pen needs two or three, and when they make the minimum, the better.
MR Colby Kirk *, 34, B:L, T:L (6-7, 4.91 ERA, 1 SV | 36-34, 4.09 ERA, 14 SV) – Portland is Kirk’s fifth station in five years as he keeps bouncing from one-year deal to one-year deal. We are looking for some 7th inning or situational relief from him. He has vibrant movement that sometimes leads to the strike zone getting ignored by his pitches.
MR Lawrence Rockburn, 26, B:R, T:R (3-0, 2.13 ERA, 3 SV | 7-3, 2.64 ERA, 4 SV) – Raw Lockburn really broke out in 2006, delivering rock-solid relief in front of Marcos Bruno. With those two and Casas aligned, opposing teams had a hard time past the sixth in ‘06.
SU Marcos Bruno, 31, B:R, T:R (3-4, 1.71 ERA, 6 SV | 21-24, 3.07 ERA, 56 SV) – again subbed for an injured Angel Casas early in the season, and was almost completely spotless for the entire season. The strange reason for his struggles when we tried to make him the full time closer years ago remains undiscovered.
SU Ed Bryan, 26, B:L, T:L (6-3, 2.53 ERA, 1 SV | 8-5, 2.38 ERA, 1 SV) – with the departure of Domingo Moreno, Bryan is promoted to a setup role after being mostly used as a situational left-hander before. So far he has not conclusively shown that he can remove right-handers.
CL Angel Casas, 24, B:S, T:R (1-3, 2.45 ERA, 41 SV | 4-5, 2.11 ERA, 72 SV) – by now, Angel has some pattern established of contracting a minor injury in April, getting subbed for in some way or another, then being awesome for the remaining five months of the year.

C Craig Bowen, 26, B:S, T:R (.252, 10 HR, 30 RBI | .217, 25 HR, 94 RBI) – leading the team in moustache, and being the best catcher we’ve had in some years (yes, really), wins Bowen the primary job.
C Bob Wood, 26, B:R, T:R (.199, 1 HR, 14 RBI | .211, 5 HR, 45 RBI) – the Raccoons were really, really committed to Wood as the catcher for the next few years to get other stuff sorted out, but at some level even commitment knows limits. He will be the backup until we can make an upgrade.

1B Adrian Quebell, 24, B:L, T:L (.269, 12 HR, 77 RBI | .275, 12 HR, 78 RBI) – Quebell won the Gold Glove, but we’d rather have preferred a 25-HR season. His rookie campaign may not have been completely unheralded, but it was not the kind of offensive production we had envisioned when we dumped Al Martin to make room for him.
1B/2B Ieyoshi Nomura, 23, B:L, T:R (.288, 2 HR, 50 RBI | .282, 4 HR, 75 RBI) – while around him people fell and rarely rose, Yoshi kept swinging away and chipping lots of singles and also 35 doubles for some strong production from the keystone. He’s also getting much better at defense.
SS/3B/2B Victor Flores, 28, B:R, T:R (.283, 6 HR, 53 RBI | .278, 16 HR, 268 RBI) – Vic did a splendid job in 2006, playing shortstop almost every day. We really could not have hoped for much more from him. He’s in a contract year.
1B/3B Daniel Sharp, 29, B:R, T:R (.236, 3 HR, 43 RBI | .282, 40 HR, 300 RBI) – everyday third baseman, shaky defense or not, Sharp fell into a hole last Opening Day and never crawled out – a shocking development for a former incredibly steady player, who is now in a contract year.
SS/2B/3B Yoshi Yamada, 29, B:L, T:R (.152, 1 HR, 4 RBI | .201, 3 HR, 39 RBI) – he can run, he can field, but he surely can not hit a lick, even if his life would depend on it.
1B/3B Juan Gusmán *, 28, B:R, T:R (did not play | .360, 0 HR, 5 RBI) – sometimes you make an Opening Day roster because the guy your team prefers, just doesn’t sign his contract. Gusmán, claimed off waivers, might not stick around for long, but he might add to his 25 career at-bats, all collected before 2004.

LF/1B Matt Pruitt, 23, B:L, T:R (.325, 3 HR, 16 RBI | .325, 3 HR, 16 RBI) – played well enough last September to stay on the roster (and in a prominent spot); defense is not really his strong suit; he has to make a living with the bat, which is rumored to contain up to 30 homers a year.
LF/CF Tomas Castro, 23, B:S, T:R (.298, 11 HR, 67 RBI | .299, 18 HR, 102 RBI) – acquired in mid-season from the Stars, Castro dropped his power stroke upon arrival. A surplus of leftfielders moves him to center, where his limited range and arm might cost some, but it’s the only move we can make without sitting either him, Pruitt, or Quebell. He can steal bases, too, nabbing 28 between Dallas and Portland last year.
RF/LF/CF Luke Black *, 33, B:R, T:R (.231, 13 HR, 64 RBI | .235, 74 HR, 325 RBI) – his bat has lots of extra base hits in it, and he doesn’t quite strike out as often as his low batting average would indicate. Despite the advance age, Black is still an excellent defender with a murder arm, and was brought in mainly because of batting right-handed, something this team – strangely – desperately needs.
CF/RF/LF Santiago Trevino, 24, B:L, T:L (.247, 0 HR, 14 RBI | .247, 0 HR, 14 RBI) – excellent defensive centerfielder with an uninspiring bat.
RF/LF/CF Jose Carlos Crespo, 26, B:S, T:R (.266, 8 HR, 56 RBI | .267, 8 HR, 58 RBI) – Crespo filled out every hole he was stuck in, playing all over the place, even in center, where hadn’t played before 2006, but he was very ineffective out there. The bat was steady and good for a surprise or two.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
MR Ward Jackson *, 29, B:L, T:L (did not play | 6-3, 4.49 ERA, 1 SV) – DFA. Was acquired from the Condors along with Kelvin Yates as the Condors tried to dump his contract, stowing him away in AAA all of 2006.
MR Sergio Vega, 26, B:R, T:R (0-2, 5.79 ERA | 0-4, 5.52 ERA) – DFA. Made eight appearances (two starts) in an unconvincing manner in 2006. His career BB/9 is almost nine.

Opening day lineups:
Vs. RHP: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – P Brown
Vs. LHP: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – P Brown

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

We dropped some of the Avatars of Losing, with Brady, Ford, and Moreno leaving via free agency, and the ballclub was selectively, but convincingly improved. It doesn’t quite show in the numbers, but the Raccoons gained 0.5 WAR in the offseason, 11th overall.

Top 5: Rebels (+9.2), Crusaders (+7.6), Stars (+6.8), Warriors (+5.6), Aces (+3.7)
Bottom 5: Canadiens (-5.6), Bayhawks (-6.1), Indians (-6.4), Scorpions (-6.9), Blue Sox (-7.0)

PREDICTION TIME:

It’s been ten years. Ten years of losing.

This year, it will end. The Raccoons will win. They will not compete for anything related to October (watch those Crusaders closely!), but they will get over the hump.

We have the best 1-2 punch in the league as far as starting pitchers are concerned. The lineup consists of many young, hungry players with obvious talent, although they aren’t always placed in the best defensive spots for their ability. The bullpen was one of the best in the league and will remain so. Finally, our bench is not final, we STILL have an offer out there to Kunimatsu Sato, who is so totally a lot better than Gusmán.

Of course, we make a few assumptions here. One is that Matt Pruitt, still a rookie(!), will click in the cleanup spot. That’s a lot to ask from a boy with 91 at-bats.

This team has an 85-77 finish in it. I believe that. (I have to).

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Raccoons’ farm system remains middling, dropping slightly from 12th to 13th overall, with a noticeable drop in ranked players from 13 to just 10.

The following ranked players from last year are no longer eligible: #40 Adrian Quebell (service time), #53 Adam Riddle (service time), #70 Luis Beltran (age), #166 Bob Mays (service time). Also from the top 200 fell: #95 Matt Cash, #134 Ted Reese, #184 Cody Bryant.

18th (new) – A SP Dave Self, 19 – 2006 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
19th (new) – A SP Hector Santos, 18 – international discovery by Vince Guerra
58th (+74) – AAA SS Ryan Miller, 22 – 2002 first round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Christian Greenman for Mark Thomas, Manuel Martinez, and Freddy Rosa
67th (-32) – AA CL Pedro Delgado, 22 – 2002 first round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Bill Corkum and Rémy Lucas for Manny Gabriel and Dale Moore
87th (-24) – AAA 3B Ricardo Martinez, 21 – international discovery by Pacifics, acquired in trade from Titans with Jose Carlos Crespo and Cássio Boda for Albert Martin and Glen Barnes
97th (new) – A OF Jimmy Eichelkraut, 18 – 2006 first round pick by the Raccoons
120th (-33) – AAA 2B Jose Gutierrez, 22 – international discovery by Condors, acquire in trade from Pacifics for Curt Cooks
128th (-18) – AAA SP Brendan Teasdale, 22 – 2005 first round pick by the Raccoons
138th (new) – AAA SP Cássio Boda, 22 – 2001 eleventh round pick by the Buffaloes, acquired in trade from Titans with Jose Carlos Crespo and Ricardo Martinez for Albert Martin and Glen Barnes
188th (-5) – AAA SP Cesar Lopez, 24 – international discovery by Knights, acquired in trade with Jesus Palacios, Manny Gabriel, and Butch Kaustrop for Marvin Ingall and Manuel Reyes

The #1 prospect in the country is 18-year old SS Tom McWhorter, the second overall pick by the Miners in 2006.

Next: first pitch!

[Westheim]

Took a while to open the ballpark for the season opener, as there were some … issues, that had to be resolved or makeshifted around. Thankfully, we have great tech support here in Portland! (casually shoves cage with two overweight hamsters behind a cupboard) Those guys aren’t here for any reason at aaaall.

But now let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!!

Too much euphoria. Too much euphoria…

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 3-5, 2007

What’s left in that oldy, moldy Titans core? And what do these young raccoon cubs – still green behind their fluffy ears – have in their sticks to welcome them?

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Jorge Chapa (0-0)
Kelvin Yates (0-0) vs. Jason O’Halloran (0-0)
Jose Dominguez (0-0) vs. Bryce Hildred (0-0)

Game 1
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – LF Brulhart – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – 3B M. Austin – P Chapa
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – P Brown

The opener for the 2007 season sure had everything you were used to in Portland. Mucky weather (and a 30-minute delay in the third inning), heartbreaks, and a convincing early lead evaporating in a puff of smoke.

That early lead was a result of Jorge Chapa being tickled for eight singles and four runs by the Raccoons in the first three innings, including four singles in a row with one out in the bottom 1st. Pruitt drove in the first run for the team in 2007. And with a single. Brownie gave up a run in the third, but basically looked steady, until he didn’t. It started innocently enough with a 1-out single by Chapa (it always starts innocently with the pitcher, right?) in the fifth inning. Brown then drilled Rudy Garrison, and Dave Hutchinson also singled, which was why a walk to Anastasio Munoz was double-plus ungood. While “Quasimodo” Suda lined out to Sharp, Jim Brulhart singled to right and the game was tied out of the blue. Bruce Boyle homered off Brown in the sixth to put the Titans on top, but Brown actually finished the inning. Down 5-4, the Coons restarted the game with back-to-back doubles by Sharpand Bowen off Chapa, and a Hutchinson error brought the go-ahead run in Bowen to third base, with Quebell on first. Crespo hit for Brown, singled, and while Nomura hit into a double play, Vic Flores plated Quebell with another single to put the team up 7-5. The last single came against reliever Matt Collins, who would collect four strikeouts through the end of the eighth. Rockburn and Bryan bridged the game to Angel Casas, who showed no weakness whatsoever, struck out Jimmy Bayle and Garrison, and Hutchinson grounded out to first. 7-5 Brownies! Flores 2-4, RBI; Castro 2-4; Pruitt 3-4, 2 RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1, RBI;

That was one of those cases of rotten luck. Brownie allowed ten runners in six innings, but five of those piled up in that ugly fifth…

We also premiered something that might become A Thing this season. Along with Angel, Santiago Trevino entered the game in the ninth, with Castro moving to left and Pruitt removed, which greatly improves the outfield defense. Well, no ball left the infield in the inning, but you never know.

With this team, you never, never know.

Next was Kelvin Yates’ Coons debut, but first we designated Juan Gusmán for assignment without ever putting him into a game, because …

Interlude: free agent acquisition

The Raccoons signed 29-yr old SS/2B Kunimatsu Sato (.273, 20 HR, 270 RBI) to a 1-yr, $440k contract. Sato got his start with the Stars in 2000 and stayed with them until being taded to the Capitals in the middle of last season. He was a starter from 2001 through 2004, but never amounted to a 100 OPS+, says Whitebread.

Sato has mostly only been a shortstop in his career, but he’s supposed to provide additional backup for both of our middle infielders. He bats right-handed, so in case Yoshi Nomura goes into a slump, he would also start against left-handed pitchers.

He also has 110 stolen bases in his career, topping 20 each of his four seasons as a regular.

How can it be OPS+ when it is less than OPS? Stupid numbers crap.

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 3-5, 2007

Back to Portland, where the middle game of the series was drowned out by torrential rains on Wednesday, delaying Yates’ debut to Thursday.

We’ve played one game and I’m already scribbling in my pocket schedule, as we got a double-header scheduled for Thursday (but still with icky weather looming). It’s a dark, wet day. Let’s play two?

Game 2
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – LF Cavazos – 3B M. Austin – P O’Halloran
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – P Yates

The honors of the first home run of the year were taken by the new guy in town, as Luke Black hit a solo shot off O’Halloran in the second inning for the first run of the game. After the Titans put the run back on a Garrison RBI double in the third, O’Halloran joined Chapa as the Old Guard of the Titans got shot up by the Raccoons, although with O’Halloran it was about patience and waiting for him to saw off his own branch on the tree. In the bottom 3rd the Coons got two runs off him without the benefit of a hit OR an error. It was all O’Halloran: three walks, a balk, and a wild pitch. O’Halloran wasn’t whacked with the use of the bat until the sixth, when Sharp and Bowen hit back-to-back bombs off him to run the lead to 5-1. The monster that the Titans had put behind the dish wasn’t willing to stand back to our own catcher and tattered a shot off Yates in the seventh inning, but that was also a solo home run and we were still up 5-2. In fact, Yates was pretty conserving with his pitches, and was in quite good shape after the bottom 8th, in which he hit, after Yamada had been inserted for Bowen to run, but became the first ever ABL victim of that monster’s arm, and made the final out. With another game on tap and despite the almost black skies, Yates got a shot at the ninth, in which he faced the 3-4-5 batters. Well, Yates got Anastasio Munoz, but “Quasimodo” Suda CRUSHED another home run and now we did reach out to Angel to save our sorry souls. He struck out Gonzalo Munoz, then got PH Jim Brulhart to fly out to center. 5-3 Coons. Castro 2-3, RBI; Bowen 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Yates 8.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Yoshi Nomura was amongst those subbed out against Hildred. This does not indicate a slump although he started the year 1-for-7. I used the entire bench to try and avoid getting all the bones tired by the end of the first week (20-inning games incoming?).

Game 3
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – LF Cavazos – C Rosa – 3B M. Austin – P Hildred
POR: 3B Flores – SS Sato – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Crespo – CF Trevino – C Wood – 2B Yamada – P Dominguez

Resting guys didn’t work for long. On Kunimatsu Sato’s first hit as a Coon, Vic Flores was waved around to score from second on the single, taking advantage of Ramiro Cavazos’ jello arm. Flores nevertheless became entangled with ex-Coon Freddy Rosa at home plate and banged his left arm into Rosa’s knee and had to leave the contest. Daniel Sharp took over at third (he might be used to it), and in the third, after which the Coons led 1-0. Quebell ended the third with a fly out to center, then ended the fifth with two men stranded in scoring position. This was not good. Dominguez didn’t give up much early, but we had seen enough in 54 2/3 innings last year to know that a 1-0 lead was not safe with him – and it wasn’t. By the sixth, he didn’t get anybody out, and soon enough surrendered a towering 3-run homer to Boyle as the Titans scored four in the inning. And it just so happened that the Raccoons couldn’t do anything at all with Hildred, who pitched into the eighth, until with two out the Coons actually did bring the tying run to the plate, but Ramiro Román appeared to strike out J.C. Crespo and quell the threat. Yet another ex-Furball, Manuel Martinez, sealed the deal in the ninth. 4-1 Titans. Sato 2-4, RBI;

We had only five hits in this one. Well, we might have been begging for it? And we still lost Vic Flores, although it will not be permanent. He was diagnosed with quad soreness. It will hurt the rest of the weekend, but he should be back to 100% by Monday or Tuesday.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Aces (2-2) – April 6-8, 2007

The Aces had already lost a quality part of their lineup for the season with Martin Covington going down with a torn labrum after just six AB this year. A certain Albert Martin, signed off the heap for $212k in February, was batting 8-for-13 for them.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (0-0) vs. Jack Thomas (0-0)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-0) vs. Anibal Sandoval (0-1, 6.43 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-0, 7.50 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (0-0, 1.50 ERA)

Game 1
LVA: SS Soto – 3B Warrain – C Durango – 1B A. Martin – 2B B. Nichols – CF Messinger – RF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – P Thomas
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Sato – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – P Fuentes

Kunimatsu Sato had singled in the first run of the game in the bottom 3rd in the last game, he did the same in this one. This time he plated Quebell however, and Vic Flores was on the shelf anyway. By then, Raúl Fuentes had already survived having runners on the corners with one out in the first. Fuentes had bailed out of the first starting with a K to Martin, but hit Martin to put two men on in the first place in the fourth. The Aces had a chance, but let it get away. Nichols flew out to Pruitt in left, and then it was Forest Messinger to strike out, inning over. Yoshi-N doubled in a run in the fifth when three other Raccoons whiffed with two men on base, but the Aces got to Fuentes in the top 6th. A leadoff walk to Inaki-Luki Warrain opened the gates for bad things to happen, like a Kunimatsu Sato error to put runners on the corners once more. This time, the Aces brought home Warrain, but still trailed 2-1. Err, 3-1. Daniel Sharp doubled home Luke Black in the bottom of the inning, then sat down at second base, which he had barely reached alive. The trainer hustled out to collect the remains of another infielder, as Yoshi Yamada replaced him in the game.

Bowen singled to plate Yamada, 4-1, and Fuentes retired the first two men in the seventh before reaching 110 pitches and Law Rockburn replaced him to end the seventh. Both bullpens were largely spotless through the eighth, although the Coons reached third base with Luke Black in their half of the eighth, but couldn’t get him in. Angel Casas appeared to save the 4-1 lead, but had to face the left-handed 6-7-8 batters (who were batting a combined .176). He struck out Messinger and also got Cameron out, but Logan Taylor homered to right. Good thing we had a big lead, huh? 4-2 Critters. Sharp 2-3, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, RBI; Quebell 2-3, BB; Fuentes 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

Daniel Sharp was in a bit of pain, but we dodged another bullet: no structural damage, just a sore knee. He wasn’t able to play at all, however, for at least a few days. That’s a predicament, since now our bench is down to three and a half guys… Will the Raccoons survive the weekend without a pitcher having to play short?

Game 2
LVA: LF L. Taylor – 2B B. Nichols – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – 1B A. Martin – 3B Warrain – CF Cameron – 3B Soto – P Sandoval
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Sato – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Yamada – P Watanabe

While the worker ant Watanabe worked hard, the results weren’t all that convincing. There were constantly Aces on the bases, and it was about all defense that carried Watanabe through five innings of 1-run ball, including Al Martin being thrown out at home by Luke Black in the second, and a few other strong defensive plays. Watanabe was not scored upon through four, before Logan Taylor hit a 1-out triple in the fifth and scored on Nichols’ groundout. Durango, Garcia, and Martin all reached before Watanabe’s last man Warrain popped one out to Sato to end the inning.

Speaking of Luke Black’s arm, he tried to make himself a fan favorite out of the gates. Our biggest free agent acquisition in some years, Black drove in four runs in his first two plate appearances this Saturday, with a 2-run single in the first, and a 2-run homer in the third, taking care of the Raccoons’ 4-1 lead in the fifth after Watanabe’s departure all by himself. Black doubled in the fifth, nobody to drive in, unfortunately, missing a triple for the cycle, and scored on Quebell’s single. 5-1 became 5-3 in a hurry when Colby Kirk and Kaz Kichida were wholly inefficient in the top 6th, but the bottom 6th saw both a run made in Japan, with Yoshi-Y singling, Kaz bunting him over, and Yoshi-N plating him with a single to get back to 6-3 at least. The game wasn’t over just yet, though. Marcos Bruno got the last out in the seventh and two in the eighth, but drilled Taylor along the way. Ed Bryan came in to face Durango, who rammed the first pitch he saw to center – but Castro! Castro made a wonderful play! And that ended the inning, and the score remained 6-3 through eight.

Now, do you bring Angel? He had thrown 41 pitches on three of the last four days, and he had a history of getting hurt in April, so NO. Bruno had been used, as well as Kaz and both left-handers, but Rockburn was available, facing 4-5-6, and right-left-right. No ball left the infield as Rockburn was perfect in the inning, and also struck out Al Martin. 6-3 Coons! Nomura 2-4, BB, RBI; Black 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Quebell 3-4, RBI;

First team in the CL to get to four wins! WOOOT!!!

Then the bad news: our gory field hospital got added to overnight, as Adam Riddle came down with fever and some truly nasty sneeze. He was sent to bed and would be unavailable for a few days. That’s 22 Coons left alive now…

Game 3
LVA: SS Soto – 3B Warrain – RF R. Garcia – 1B A. Martin – 2B B. Nichols – CF Messinger – C T. Turner – LF Cameron – P Pennington
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Sato – LF Castro – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 3B Yamada – P Brown

Bad weather on the horizon again, Brownie set out to lower that ugly 7.50 ERA inherited on Tuesday in the opener. The ERA went up to a flat nine before ever twitching in the other direction as Francisco Soto doubled and scored on Warrain’s single. Brown threw six pitches to the first three men, resulting in three hits and no strikes by anybody before Al Martin hit into a double play and Nichols whiffed. No, this would not be a Brown start to marvel much about. In the second, he went to full counts on three consecutive batters, striking out one, and plunking another. Matt Pruitt had tied the score with an RBI single in the bottom 1st, and Brownie at least held the tie until the skies couldn’t hold all that moisture anymore. Rain delay in the third – like on Opening Day! Don’t you hate those Portland Aprils??

The delay lasted about 45 minutes, longer than on Tuesday, and how much could you torture Brown this Opening Week (never mind his adventures in the 20-inning drama against Oklahoma last year around this time), but at the same time there was not that much bullpen available. Ironically, Brownie got BETTER after the delay! Had it been a struggle before, he mowed down batters afterwards, whiffing nine over six innings! Nobody gave him a lead, however, and he left in a 1-1 tie. Colby Kirk held that for an inning before Marcos Bruno got into a tight spot in the eighth. Logan Taylor’s pinch-hit single was followed by a walk to Warrain, but then Ricardo Garcia hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 beauty. Sato and Pruitt singled in the bottom 8th off ex-Furball Domingo Moreno, but that was not enough for a run. After a quick ninth by Bryan, Moreno was still in for the bottom of the inning with plenty more left-handers in the lineup. Well, except for Craig Bowen, who led off, and who was a switch-hitter. Moreno tried to power past him, but Bowen met the 1-0 with the bat, and here power met power for a long drive – that – was – GONE!!!! 2-1 Raccoons!!! Pruitt 3-3, BB, RBI; Flores (PH) 1-1; Brown 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K;


In other news

April 3 – IND LF/RF Ron Alston (.167, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 6 AB) will miss most of April with an oblique strain. This might hurt the Indians…
April 4 – The Rebels acquire C Brian Campbell (.600, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 5 AB) from the Bayhawks for two minor leaguers, including a veteran that has fallen out of favor in 31-yr old Paco Batlle.
April 6 – SFW CF/LF Earl Clark (.357, 0 HR, 2 RBI) keeps nursing a hitting streak carried over from 2006, getting two hits in a 6-0 shutout of the Rebels to run the streak to 20 games.
April 6 – The Loggers’ SP William Lloyd (1-0, 0.00 ERA) shuts out the Knights on three hits in a 9-0 rout.
April 7 – Free agent SP Carl Bean (111-125, 4.27 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $1.92M contract with the Falcons.
April 7 – The Rebels kill off Earl Clark’s hitting streak at 20 games.

Complaints and stuff

Least runs conceded in the CL after a week, and eighth in offense. Well, 25 runs (4.17 R/G) would be a GREAT improvement over previous years…

All three players we designated for assignment (Ward Jackson, Sergio Vega, and Juan Gusmán) cleared waivers and were assigned to St. Petersburg.

With Flores and Sharp incapacitated, if we could find a Japanese first baseman we’d have the first all-Japanese infield in baseball history. Outside of Japan, of course.

News from the Aches & Ailments Department indicate that Vic Flores (who pinch-hit twice on the weekend) is expected back on Monday, but Sharp and Riddle might stay unavailable for the next series.

Saturday, May 12 the Raccoons will be at home facing the Indians. The day has been designated Neil Reece Appreciation and Bobblehead Day at the ballpark. There will also be a number retired. And I will advise Maud to be cautious with the bobblehead order.

(mindless Chad still making the rounds, bobbling all the leftover Daniel Hall bobbleheads)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (5-1) vs. Falcons (1-5) – April 9-11, 2007

Something was upside down in the Continental League, and it might be the Raccoons sitting atop the North with the best record, while the Falcons had somehow gotten under the bus in the opening week. It was their pitching that was to blame. They had bled for 49 runs in the first week of the season, with a horrendous 8.70 ERA to their rotation.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (1-0, 3.24 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (0-1, 8.44 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-1, 5.14 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (0-0, 9.00 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (0-1, 18.00 ERA)

Three right-handers (and not the worst of the bunch: Carl Bean had allowed eight runs in 1.2 innings in his season debut) coming at the diminished Coons, who were still without Sharp and Riddle.

Game 1
CHA: RF Reya – CF Theobald – C F. Chavez – 2B J. Lopez – 1B Tsung – LF J. Flores – 3B H. Green – SS Moore – P T. Wilson
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B V. Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – SS Sato – P Yates

A team with a ravaged pitching staff came to town and a pitchers’ duel broke out. Always the same Coons, huh? There was just one base runner through 3 1/2 innings (and not the Raccoons’), but Castro made his way on base in the bottom 4th and scored on Pruitt’s double to right. That fly almost went out, banging off the wall, but Jesus Flores’ drive in the top 5th really went out, immediately tying the score again, now at one. That was still the score in the bottom 7th when Wilson suddenly lost control and walked Quebell and Bowen, the first free passes issued by him in the game (but he had walked five in his first start). Sato lined out to the shortstop, and Crespo hit for Yates, but flew out softly to Paul Theobald in center. The first guy that got to see Kaz Kichida in the top 8th was then Steve Moore, who powered a poor pitch to Kingdom Come, sending the Raccoons trailing 2-1. Yoshi-N led off the bottom 8th with a double, moving to third on Flores’ groundout. Wilson was still in there to face our left-handed stallions, who saw two pitches to make two outs in an embarrassing manner, and the Raccoons weren’t quite able to solve closer Luis Hernandez, either. 2-1 Falcons. Nomura 2-4, 2B; Yates 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K;

That was a sad game. Hopefully not a first glance at what’s to come. Obviously, Castro and Pruitt not getting a runner in from third base with one out is already highly discouraging. That they saw a total of two pitches doesn’t make it any better.

Did we pick off anybody last year? No clue. Probably not. Kaz did the honors in this game, plucking Fernando Chavez off first to end the top 9th. Then, however, all was lost already.

Game 2
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Theobald – C F. Chavez – 2B J. Lopez – LF J. Flores – 1B H. Green – RF Walls – SS Grant – P Grams
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – P Dominguez

There was more of less offense in the early going. Half the game went past with a total of four hits and no runs scored. Dominguez fed grounders to his infielders and that was a pretty neat strategy. Grams was solid until he also gave double walks to Quebell and Bowen, but this time at the start of an inning, the bottom 5th. Daniel Sharp pushed a grounder past Javy Rodriguez for an RBI double, and then Dominguez singled to make it 2-0 immediately. After poor outs by Nomura and Flores, Tomas Castro lined a single to right center, good enough to score both runners, before he was caught stealing (our third CS in the series against no successes). And then Dominguez, who had allowed but one little hit in five innings, melted away again. Two out in the sixth he absolutely hit a wall, allowed four straight singles, then walked Hubert Green, which amounted to a 4-2 lead and the bases loaded. Marcos Bruno couldn’t help out at all, surrendering a game-tying double to Tom Walls before Bob Grant grounded out. The lead was restored in the bottom of the inning with doubles by Pruitt and Bowen, before Pruitt came up to bat in the next inning with two outs and two on, drummed another double to plate both teammates before sliding into second base, jumping up, waiting antsily for the safe sign from the ump, then hooved awkwardly around the bag. That did look like trouble from a mile away, and he came out of the game.

And that was not all the trouble for this game. Ed Bryan started the top 8th, allowed a homer to Jose Lopez and hit Jesus Flores before departing. Law Rockburn took over and was absolutely ravaged. Mun-wah Tsung hit a pinch-hit, score-flipping 3-run homer, and then another three men got on base to the point where we gave up and sent Kaz Kichida again, who did nothing to end the collapse and waved another two runs across. 12 men to the plate, seven runs in for the Falcons against three relievers. 11-7 Falcons. Nomura 2-5; Castro 2-5, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

The Falcons had 14 hits, of which 12 came bundled in the sixth and eighth innings. Yeah, with that kind of luck we can close shop right now…

Oh, talking about luck. Matt Pruitt (.414 with 6 RBI) had suffered a strained hamstring and was out for a month.

And here comes Bob Mays.

Game 3
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Theobald – 1B Tsung – SS J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – 2B H. Green – LF Reya – CF Walls – P Collazo
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Fuentes

Collazo threw his first eight pitches for balls, then three for strikes. Two of those called on Castro, the third met with the bat and slung to deep right for a 3-run homer and a blitz lead. Too bad Fuentes couldn’t quite handle it. The Falcons loaded the bases with no outs in the top 2nd before Reya struck out and Walls hit a grounder to short – that the Raccoons couldn’t convert for two. Collazo made the third out, but still, one run chipped off, and another would follow in the fifth after Walls had tripled. Of course, when Sharp had tripled an inning earlier, nobody had driven him in. Even the baseball gods were weeping at the Raccoons’ performance in this series, and it accordingly started to rain in the fifth inning.

Collazo kept walking people, like leadoff man Castro in the bottom 5th. Quebell singled, as did Black, getting the lead back to 4-2, but although Quebell arrived at third base with no outs, he was not scored. Jose Lopez kept getting on base for the Falcons, reappearing in the top 6th with one out. Fuentes turned his attention to Fernando Chavez, but before any damage could be done, the umpires called for the tarp to be put on as we entered a rain delay. The tarp came on, and it stayed on, as the Raccoons stole themselves out of town with a not-even-six-innings win. 4-2 Coons. Castro 1-2, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-3, 3B;

If you’re not any good, at least be lucky…

Raccoons (6-3) @ Crusaders (6-3) – April 13-15, 2007

We were tying for the CL North lead, along with the Indians, while the Loggers and Canadiens were also just one game back. Basically everybody in the division had a winning record so far, minus the Titans (4-6). While the Falcons had come in with the most runs conceded (which didn’t really stop for them…), the Crusaders had spilled only 25 counters over their first nine games, which was quite awesome already, but there were also ZERO runs put onto their bullpen yet! They had scored 49 runs (t-2nd).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (0-0, 5.14 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (1-0, 2.35 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (1-1, 4.38 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-1, 5.68 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (2-0, 1.59 ERA)

All right-handers for this week.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – CF Crespo – RF Mays – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS Caraballo – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – C J. Lopez – 1B T. Mullins – 2B H. Cardenas – P A. Javier

The Martin Brigade had already six homers between them this season, but it was leaving the taste of blood in every Raccoons fan’s mouth that Francisco Caraballo actually opened the scoring with a home run before Stanton Martin joined him in the exercise – off Nick Brown, too. That was 2-0 Crusaders, but they didn’t smile for long. Craig Bowen homered, his team-leading third shot of the year, before Crespo, Mays, and Nomura reached by various means only to be collectively driven in with a bases-clearing double off Vic Flores’ bat. Now it was 4-2 Coons. A game that revolved around who could hit the most the farthest saw Martin Ortíz take Brownie deep in the fourth, then devolved into something nasty with two outs when Mullins walked and Cardenas singled, prompting the removal of Javier for PH Apasyu Britton. He grounded to short, Flores missed it, and the bases were loaded after the error, yet only for a short while before Roberto Pena singled to right center to give the Crusaders a 5-4 lead.

Four innings, mentally everybody was exhausted. Brown had a clean fifth, but the sixth brought back the living hell, with Mullins singling, and then Cardenas got plunked in an 0-2 count. Roberto Pena hit for reliever Bob Evans and reached on Brown’s error. Bases loaded with Caraballo up, normally a spot for Bruno or Rockburn, but neither had been any good so far. Better stay with plan A, resulting in a grounder to Flores, that for once wasn’t misplayed into something surreal. The Coons kept trailing, however.

And their bullpen was SO good, they could bring Robbie Wills – in the seventh! Nothing happened there, but Quebell hit a leadoff single off Scott Hood, the former Gold Sox closer, in the eighth. Yamada ran for him, stole second, got to third on Sharp’s single, and then came home on a wild pitch. New York’s bullpen – no longer untouched in its naughty spot! But while the Raccoons loaded the bases in the inning, Hood struck out Bowen, Mays, and Nomura on the way out, but in the top 9th Vic Flores singled off Iemitsu Rin. No outs, but a bunt wouldn’t help since Yamada was batting behind Castro. Both grounded out to the right side, allowing Flores to reach third base. Up came Daniel Sharp, fell to two strikes like everybody before him, then drilled a rocket into the gap in right center, and that’s IN, and that’s a lead!! RBI double from Daniel Sharp, the news of whose demise were greatly exaggerated!! Unfortunately, the bottom 9th started with a single by Ming Kui off Angel Casas, and while Casas got Pena and Raymond Sutton, he now had Kui at second, and the two big ones coming up. There was not enough room to pitch around anybody, so rather he would go after Stanton Martin, the right-hander, and hope for the best results. Nope, Martin chipped a single, Kui scored, and the band played on.

Fast forward to the 12th, where Rodrigo Garcia, a southpaw, started with an obvious K to the overmatched Yamada. Then Sharp came up and hurled another pitch into his gap, this one also for extra bases and Sharp turned second and dashed to third, and … safe! But Sharp was uncomfortable and the trainer took a look at him, and finally we had to remove him, with Trevino running for him. Runner on third, one out for Bowen, or maybe not. The Crusaders put him on intentionally, going after Crespo instead. Crespo’s fly to right was caught, but sufficiently deep to plate Trevino for a 7-6 lead. Bob Wood hit for Bruno to no effect to end the inning. And now what? Bob Wood stayed in to fill first base for the fallen Sharp, Trevino stayed in center, and Crespo’s spot was taken by Ed Bryan to close this one, but Martin Ortíz was up first, drove a pitch hard to deep right – but Luke Black made the catch, having stayed in at Mays’ expense earlier after pinch-hitting. Jerry Henry, batting .065, reached on a Yamada error, before Rodrigo Garcia had to bat – both benches were completely empty by now! He bunted the first pitch back to the mound, where Bryan had it come right into his glove, winged it to second for the force, back to first, out, ballgame! 7-6 Critters. Flores 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; Sharp 4-6, 3B, 2B, RBI; Mays 3-5; Sato (PH) 1-1; Bruno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

I checked, and I aged three years during this game. At least there’s the following two things working in our favor: we’ll have Monday off, and Daniel Sharp only very mildly tweaked his hammy. At least one day off was warmly recommended by our trainer.

Do we look like we can spare a .458/.500/.917 bat for even one inning? Sharpie thought the same, insisting to be put into the lineup the next day.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Yates
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 3B J. Henry – 1B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P Reeves

While both pitchers were harried early for a quick 2-2 score, with the Crusaders of course scoring on a Martin Ortíz homer that counted for a pair, Yates overall looked pretty much locked in. How locked in? Uh, say, ten strikeouts in five innings in 64 pitches? The Raccoons hadn’t had much chance to score, though, and the game remained tied, Luke Black popping out with the bases loaded to end the top 6th, until Craig Bowen hit a leadoff triple in the seventh. Yet, Trevino failed, grounding out hard to first, which left Yates with the dubiou- … or maybe he’d single to right, and Bowen scored! The Coons had runners in scoring position in the eighth after a Castro single and Quebell double off Scott Hood, but Black and Bowen struck out to let that chance get away. The Crusaders also got runners on base in the bottom 8th with a Henry single and Britton walking, but Yates remained at the wheel, struck out Ming Kui, and got Pena to end the inning, still 3-2.

Potentially controversially, Yates was sent to bat in the ninth. The 2-3-4 guys were due in the bottom 9th, and Angel had blown it on Friday already. And Yates still looked good! There was also a potential team strikeouts record involved, and Yates struck out Cardenas for #13. Ortíz reached on an infield single in a full count as now Yates’ pitch count was shooting upwards. He struck out Martin, tying the franchise mark for strikeouts in a game, and that only left Caraballo to be dealt with. The first pitch to him missed badly, and Caraballo then hit a grounder on a pitch pretty much right in the sweet spot, shooting it sharply to Sharp, who corralled it, to first – OUT!! 3-2 Raccoons!! Quebell 2-4, 2B; Bowen 2-4, 3B; Yates 9.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 14 K, W (2-0) and 1-4, RBI;

Like I said, that’s a pretty good 1-2 punch. Yates tied the franchise single game strikeout mark of 14 set by Brownie in 2004, and becomes only the fifth pitcher to have a 12+ strikeouts game for the Raccoons (Steven Berry, Kisho Saito, Ralph Ford the others in chronological order).

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Dominguez
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B J. Henry – C D. Anderson – P Bautista

The sweep in New York was denied to the Raccoons by their expensive, yet inept, #3 starter. Dominguez was crap from the start. In the first, he walked Ortíz and was behind on Martin when Ortíz took off and was caught stealing. Martin then led off the bottom 2nd with a hard out, but Dominguez would surrender three 2-out singles to the 6-7-8 batters to fall 1-0 behind. Martin hit into a double play to collect Ortíz in the third, but in the fourth Jerry Henry hit a 2-run homer off Dominguez, and the Crusaders ran him off the premises by the fifth, putting another two runs on him. The Raccoons couldn’t get to Jesus Bautista at all, amounting to two measly singles through five innings.

Then came the sixth, and things got wicked. Bob Mays hit for Dominguez and singled to right, then stole second base without a throw from Anderson. Flores plated him with a 1-out single, before Castro’s grounder was misfielded by Bautista for an error. Daniel Sharp hit a high bloop that thumped onto the grass between Pena, Caraballo, and Cardenas, who almost took another out, cutting the gap to 5-2. But luck ran out right here, Quebell flew out softly to center, and Black grounded out to third. Both teams hissed and cussed a bit the next innings, until a wicked bottom 8th. The Raccoons entered down 5-2 with Kaz carrying over from the seventh. Ted Mullins singled off him and we moved on to Rockburn, who had been shellacked earlier this week by the Falcons, and now got soap-socked by his own team. Jerry Henry popped to first, and Quebell dropped it. Daryl Anderson grounded in front of the plate, and Bowen’s throw to third was so far past Sharp that he didn’t even move, assuming he could not possibly have been the intended recipient. That already scored a run, and there were no outs, although THERE REALLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Another run scored on a sac fly against the numbed Rockburn, putting the game well out of reach. 7-2 Crusaders. Flores 3-4, RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Mays (PH) 2-2, 2B;

In other news

April 9 – Cincinnati catcher Robert Rucker is out for the season without even getting an at-bat, having torn his medial collateral ligament. He batted .292 last season for the Cyclones.
April 10 – It gets worse for the Cyclones. Now primary catcher Felix Hernandez (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for at least a month with a broken arm.
April 10 – Young WAS LF Raúl Vázquez (.278, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is out for a couple of months with a concussion.
April 11 – LAP LF Ken Potter (.381, 0 HR, 2 RBI) is out for the rest of the month with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

The record still looks good, although we have taken a few emotional damages this week, and also one physical that might hurt the efforts more than it seemed at first. With Pruitt on the DL and Black having a black week (1-for-19!), the offense was not really anywhere close to satisfying. We’re 10th in offense right now, and our run differential is +1.

We will face both division leaders in our league next week.

Also, we’re closing in on 2,400 franchise wins. First guy with a chance to grab it currently is Brownie, assuming we don’t lose until his turn…

Kelvin Yates leads the ABL with 28 strikeouts right now. Curtis Tobitt has 27 for the Indians, and over in Denver, Antonio Donis has 26. That name might ring a bell.

Amazingly, Raúl Fuentes(!) is third in the CL in ERA (1.46). He trails MIL William Lloyd, who has yet to allow an earned run, and second is a guy on the Bayhawks with a 1.23 ERA. Does the name Esteban Flores mean anything to you?

Flores was a failed prospect for us so long ago – he was taken in the rule 5 draft in 1999 – that his sudden reemergence is stunning. He’s 33 and has spent seven years with the Rebels, mostly to horrid results, the low point coming in 2003, when he started 28 games and ended up 6-14 with a 6.53 ERA. His career record is 54-98 with a 5.33 ERA. He’s logged 1,313 innings in the Bigs for merely 5 WAR total. So, regression towards the mean might be in the cards for him.

[Questdog]

Matt Pruitt is looking more and more like the new Danny Hall every day!....

[Texasborn]

Happy international Raccoon Appreciation day!!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Texasborn

Happy international Raccoon Appreciation day!!

That cries out for an update tonight, huh?

[Westheim]

Who’s gonna win #2,400 for the franchise? We need three to get there.

Raccoons (8-4) @ Indians (8-4) – April 17-19, 2007

Both of these teams came in with just under 50 runs conceded, good enough to take up room in the top 3 in the CL, but the Indians had outscored the Raccoons by almost a full run per game (the Coons were 11th). While the Coons’ pen so far had been wonky, the Indians’ had been stellar with a 1.17 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (2-0, 1.46 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (1-0, 3.77 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (0-0, 10.38 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (2-0, 3.05 ERA)

We continue to get only right-handed starters, but Ralph Ford seems to be on tap for Friday’s game against the Knights.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Black – CF Crespo – P Fuentes
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – 2B J. Miller – LF A. Solís – SS J. Lopez – P Jimenez

The Indians scored first without getting even a hit when Fuentes hit Jimenez with a 1-2 pitch, then walked three straight batters. Luckily, Jose Paraz fouled out and Tomas Castro got to Filippo Fugosi’s howling liner into left. While the Raccoons would eventually get a run (Crespo singling in Sharp in the fifth), the Indians would also at some point get a hit (also in the fifth, a Javier single), but the resulting runner got caught stealing by Craig Bowen. The game dragged on with a 1-1 score, but at some point something had to give, and of course the guy with five walks and a hit batter on the day crumbled away first. Fuentes surrendered two line drives to start the bottom 7th, putting runners on the corners, and when Vic Flores intercepted a grounder by Jose Lugo deep behind second base, he had no play at all. Colby Kirk provided no relief to the hastily yanked Fuentes and the Indians scored three runs in the inning. What did the Raccoons do? Well, not too much besides laying down to snooze through the ninth… 4-1 Indians. Quebell 1-2, BB; Mays (PH) 1-1;

In between games here, we claimed INF Manuel Gutierrez off waivers by the Warriors. He’s a 26-year old left-handed batting Salvadoran, all glove, little exposure with the bat. Since his debut in 2002, he’s batted .274 with seven homers in not quite 400 at-bats, and he had only seven total at-bats the last two years.

He remained DFA’ed on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Indians skipped Moreau and moved Pitcher of the Year Curtis Tobitt into the middle game. Poor Kenichi.

… or maybe not. An hour before game time, it started to rain. The middle game never got underway on Wednesday, and we got a double header scheduled for Thursday. Yet, for Kenichi, the news didn’t get better. He still had to face Tobitt in the early game.

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – 2B Sato – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Trevino – SS Yamada – P Watanabe
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – LF A. Solís – 2B J. Miller – 3B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – P Tobitt

Aided by the rainout, we were now last in runs scored in the Continental League AND had to face Tobitt. Ugh!

And maybe Jose Paraz felt alone in the lineup with David Lopez departed and Ron Alston on the DL, but he didn’t show it all that much, doubling in Paco Javier in the bottom 1st to give his team a lead. The Coons got a double from Yoshi Yamada in the top of the third, and a wild pitch advanced Yamada to third base, and then Tobitt overpowered Watanabe and Flores. He struck them out in huge numbers anyway, including five in a row, Bowen through Mays, the second time through the order, and when Sharp somehow reached with two outs in the sixth, Bowen struck out again to leave Tobitt at 11. Watanabe pitched to the best of his abilities – fruitlessly. Curtis Tobitt collected a full dozen in the game over eight innings, but even with another run (Paraz singling home Javier, again, off Bryan in the eighth) he was not brought back out for the ninth. We faced Leonardo Sosa again, who had suffocated us with a pillow two days ago already. It almost came back to bite the Indians to remove their ace – but “almost” rarely cuts it. Quebell doubled batting for Sato, and then Sharp hit a double that just eluded Jose Lugo in right, but Bowen grounded out to end the game. 2-1 Indians. Quebell (PH) 1-1, 2B; Sharp 2-4, 2B, RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (1-1);

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Brown
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – 2B J. Miller – LF A. Solís – C J. Rivera – SS J. Lopez – P King

Bob King (0-1, 4.66 ERA) moved into this game. Meanwhile the question was whether Nick Brown could chip in three hits and two stolen bases to get the offense going.

While that was the question before the game, the question after the start of the game quickly became whether Nick Brown would bat at all. After King sat down the Coons in order in the top of the first, Brown just crapped out right away. He drilled Bill Miller, then issued four walks, and surrendered a single to Jose Lopez that amounted to four runs and a sure loss. On the way to his untimely departure after four innings, Angel Solís and Jesus Rivera hit back-to-back home runs off Brown, whose start to 2007 started to move from “bumpy” to “is he okay?”. The Raccoons trailed 6-1 when Kaz entered the fray, although it felt like a few lightyears. Kaz pitched two scoreless, and Black plated two with a homer, but it was one of those series-ending games that you never had the feeling that the Raccoons would end up in any other way than wet and mopped up in a bucket – which turned out to be true. Rain started in the eighth, quickly got heavy, and the game was eventually called early. 6-3 Indians. Black 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-3, 2B, RBI; Kichida 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

And that’s our season. Was fun for sure.

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Knights (8-7) – April 20-22, 2007

The Raccoons had been rolled up by the Indians, the Knights had been rolled up by the Condors. Both had dropped out of the lead in the divisions. While the Coons were completely inept to score any runs, the Knights led the CL in offense. We were still 3rd in runs allowed (they were 9th), but was it helping us any? Nah.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (2-0, 2.22 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (2-0, 5.03 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-2, 6.62 ERA) vs. Jong-suk Lee (1-1, 2.28 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (2-1, 2.45 ERA) vs. Dylan Jones (1-1, 9.39 ERA)

On this team, Ford would be 0-3 with this ERA. Same for the other southpaw to be served to us, Dylan Jones.

We dumped Yoshi Yamada to St. Pete and added Manuel Gutierrez to the roster, but that’s certainly not a notable improvement.

Game 1
ATL: CF J. Gusmán – 1B Urban – RF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – C De La Parra – SS Kester – 2B C. Martinez – LF J. Gonzalez – P Ford
POR: SS Flores – 2B Sato – LF Castro – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF Crespo – P Yates

The Knights jumped out quickly on a 2-run homer by Jose Morales, hit in the first inning off Yates, who lined up neatly with yesterday’s starters in generally missing generously every which way and plunking a man. The difference was that he left in a tied game, holding the Knights down and striking out seven over the next six innings. Watching the Raccoons’ offense was a bit like walking on glue, but eventually Luke Black drove in the tying run in the bottom 6th. The Critters did little in the bottom 7th before Bryan and Bruno with a lot of pitches just so squelched themselves through the top 8th. The bottom 8th was led off by Vic Flores with a howling double to center. Sato grounded out, moving Vic to third, and the Knights stayed with Ford with the left-hander Tomas Castro, batting .196, appearing. Castro blooped a single over the head of Garcia into left, and the go-ahead run came home. Angel Casas followed a pattern in getting two outs rather quickly, then had something ugly happen. Doug Plummer doubled to right, but that was as far as the Knights would get in this one, with Gusmán making the final out. 3-2 Coons. Black 2-4, 2B, RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

Game 2
ATL: CF J. Gusmán – SS Kester – RF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – 2B C. Martinez – C J. Clark – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF J. Gonzalez – P J.S. Lee
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Mays – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Dominguez

One inning after Bobo Wood gave the Raccoons a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the bottom 2nd, Jose Dominguez routinely fell apart and was whacked for three runs in the third, including a 2-piece by Morales. He was just not getting anybody out without major help from somebody in the field. The Critters scratched out a run in the bottom 4th, Dominguez immediately gave it back to Morales. Jong-suk Lee had his own problems, loading the bases with Furballs in the bottom of the sixth, then facing Bowen with nobody out. Bowen had a big stick, but sent a meekly grounder back to short. Fortunately it was so wimpily hit that Jaime Kester only got the out at first, and the Coons got back to 4-3 as Sharp scored from third. Trevino was bypassed intentionally, but the Knights should have seen it coming that Dominguez wasn’t going to be allowed in the same zip code as a bases loaded situation after THAT start. Crespo was tabbed, popped out shabbily, and Flores grounded out in pathetic fashion. The Knights developed a chance in the top 7th on Lee singling off Rockburn and an error by Nomura, didn’t score, and then the Coons got Nomura on and Black reached on an error. Sharp failed, Quebell failed, but the runners were in scoring position for Mays, who got drilled by Lee, and then Bowen singled up the middle just ever so barely to score two runners and flip the score in the Coons’ favor. Trevino singled to left, Mays was sent around third, but was thrown out by a good chunk by fellow leftfielder Jorge Gonzalez. Marcos Bruno survived a double in the eighth, and Tomas Castro hit a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the inning, but was caught stealing, getting Angel into another 1-run game, starting out against #8 hitter Gonzalez, whom he struck out, before the Knights sent Doug Plummer again, who unleashed a HUGE fly to deep left field, and Bob Mays did get to it and caught it! Gusmán grounded out. 5-4 Furballs. Nomura 2-4, BB; Mays 1-1, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

Dominguez…….. can’t we just … I don’t know. We need to collect the insurance on whatever we do, though.

Game 3
ATL: CF J. Gusmán – C De La Parra – RF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – SS C. Martinez – 1B Urban – 2B Fish – LF J. Gonzalez – P D. Jones
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Crespo – P Fuentes

No score, two outs in the top 3rd, and nobody on, the Knights casually stuck Fuentes, who struck out four and walked only one the first time through the order, into a bag and then hung that bag with 20ft rope from a 15ft bridge. Gusmán doubled, De La Parra singled, Morales walked, Garcia doubled (and Bobo Mays tweaked his ankle on a clumsy play), and Martinez singled to plate four runs without the least little bit of resistance offered by anybody clad in brown. Somewhere in this unhappy game the Raccoons managed an unearned run, but once Morales came back up and got something other than junk aimed to break his feet, he drilled a no-outs, 2-run triple off the centerfield wall, breaking up Fuentes for good.

Even more sad than Fuentes’ performance was the fact that the other team was as bad as ours, and nobody in the park probably could in fact play this game. The Knights entered the bottom 5th up 6-1, but they left it tied, as Dylan Jones got roughed up phenomenally. J.C. Crespo hit a 1-out solo homer. Manuel Gutierrez’ first AB as a Raccoon was unsuccessful, but Flores and Nomura hit singles to get on base with two outs. Luke Black flashed that thunderstick with a 3-run homer, and it still wasn’t over as Sharp doubled and scored on Quebell’s single: 6-6. And for the first time in the series, Jose Morales and Jorge Garcia were retired back-to-back when Ed Bryan whiffed the former and got the latter to serve a grounder to Yoshi to end the seventh, the score still knotted. The Coons would leave Black and Sharp in scoring position in the bottom of the inning, though, so it was not all sugar around the house. We were actually going to run out of arms, while not even frantically trying to match. When Rockburn completed the eighth in scoreless fashion, we were down to Bruno and Casas (who had both been out two days in a row), and a rested Kaz. Tomas Castro, Mays’ injury replacement, doubled off the base of the wall in right, putting the Knights and their reliever Enrique Meneces under pressure. The switch-hitter Crespo was next, so no pitching change, and Crespo came through again with a double and that gave the Raccoons the lead!

And now Rockburn’s turn was up. There were no outs, and I wasn’t going to use Angel in the ninth anyway, trying to limit his three-days-in-a-row exposure early on with his history of figgly injuries in April (two years in a row). Rockburn was already in and the bench was down to Trevino and Wood, a weak lefty and a zero-batting righty. Rockburn grounded to short, Carlos Martinez threw the ball away, Crespo scored, and it was 8-6, and I looked like a ****ing genius. Law scored on Yoshi’s double, and then Black was walked intentionally, while Sharp was walked unintentionally, which got a new pitcher in (Tom Watkins), but why are they bringing the right-hander now for Quebell? A single kept the line moving, and Bowen walked in another run before the inning fizzled out, but the Raccoons had put up their second 5-spot of the night. And great news: we don’t have to bother Bruno and Casas! Perhaps. Nah, the Knights went down in order. 11-6 Furballs! Flores 2-5; Nomura 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Black 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 3-5, 2 RBI; Crespo 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

Mays tweaked his ankle very mildly. He claims not to feel it at all. Strange. When he hit the restroom in the cafeteria after the game, I could swear I heard somebody howling in there.

In other news

April 18 – DAL INF/RF/CF Ramón Garza (.244, 0 HR, 6 RBI) drives in the winning run in the Stars’ 2-1 win over the Wolves, a sixth inning RBI single off Max Shepherd, to notch his 2,000th career hit. It’s also his 777th RBI and he has 50 home runs for his 16-year career.
April 19 – DAL SP Rafael De Jesus (1-0, 2.13 ERA) is out for the next 12 months, heading for Tommy John surgery with a torn UCL.
April 19 – TOP 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.233, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is out for a week with a thumb contusion.
April 21 – A strained back muscle will keep RIC OF/1B Gerardo Rios (.262, 1 HR, 10 RBI) off the field for about three weeks.

Complaints and stuff

I admit, I cried during the Sunday game, but the turnaround makes it a sweet 2,400th franchise win. And it was completely unexpected. They almost doubled their offensive output for the entire week!

Prospect watch!
Brandon Teasdale … Ask again later
Cássio Boda … Don’t ask again later
Ricardo Martinez … Half his hits are homers, but 85% of his AB’s are…
Ryan Miller … Oh my gosh…
Hector Santos … Who?
Jimmy Eichelkraut … Aah: .293/.383/.463 in 12 A games – progress!
Kevin Rex … WHO?? But: .323/.442/.419 in 12 AA games – seriously, WHO??

Stats time: Career Hits Leaders (ABL; *active)
1st – Dale Wales – 3,673
2nd – Jeffery Brown – 3,582 (HOF)
3rd – Cristo Ramirez – 3,499 *
4th – Paul Connolly – 3,023
5th – Vonne Calzado – 3,017 *
6th – Diego Rodriguez – 2,993
7th – Hjalmar Flygt – 2,914
8th – Dave Browne – 2,907
9th – Aaron Jenkins – 2,866 *
10th – Hector Atilano – 2,710 (HOF)
11th – Horace Henry – 2,707 (HOF)
12th – Raúl Vázquez – 2,651 *
13th – Forest Hartley – 2,598 *
14th – Claudio Rojas – 2,584 (HOF)
15th – Jim Stein – 2,576 *
16th – Edgardo Garza – 2,575
17th – Juan Barrón – 2,550 *
18th – Juan Valentin – 2,543
19th – David Brewer – 2,529 *
20th – Manuel Flores – 2,498

[craftdr]

Originally Posted by Texasborn

Happy international Raccoon Appreciation day!!

My Redbone coonhound Little Ann, disagrees... Her raccoon appreciation days don't start here in Michigan for a few more weeks!


But I'm interrupting... a new report to peruse!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by craftdr

My Redbone coonhound Little Ann, disagrees... Her raccoon appreciation days don't start here in Michigan for a few more weeks!

Well, thankfully there's no team in Michigan we'd need to visit, or else I'd have to watch her chase Marcos Bruno up a tree...

Raccoons (11-7) vs. Thunder (10-9) – April 23-25, 2007

One game over .500 was good enough to lead the CL South early on, with the Thunder even having a negative run differential of -2. They weren’t hitting an awful lot, batting .231 as a team with 70 runs scored, which had him in the bottom 3 of the league (and after the 11-6 drubbing of the Knights on Sunday, the Coons were actually up to 9th!). They had the best rotation in the early going, though, something that couldn’t be said about your favorite Critters.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 1.50 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (2-1, 1.71 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-1, 6.14 ERA) vs. Aaron Anderson (1-1, 3.95 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (2-0, 2.30 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (1-1, 3.12 ERA)

Luis Martinez is a left-hander, the only one we get in this series (but Boston is up on the weekend, and they have two that like to skin Raccoons), and here’s another thing about the Thunder’s offensive struggles: their star leadoff hitter Victorino Sanchez is batting .229 coming in. Without a doubt something will happen there…

Game 1
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Takizawa – CF McCormick – 3B Reese – SS Heathershaw – 2B Nixon – C L. Paredes – P L. Martinez
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – LF Castro – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – P Watanabe

While Watanabe struggled with his control, the Raccoons quickly took a piece out of Martinez, loading the bases with one out in the bottom 1st and then scored on a Sharp groundout and a Bowen single to take a 2-0 lead. They left runners in scoring position the next inning, but so did the Thunder. Things still went well for Watanabe until Vic Flores made an error in the fourth inning, putting on Max Nixon, and Martinez (of all people) singled him in with two outs. The Thunder then hit a flurry of singles in the fifth to tie the score.

By now, our constant companion in Portland in April had set in: rain. Luke Black reached base to start the bottom 6th because Bradley Heathershaw might have a winner’s name, but he slipped on a play and his throw to first pulled Tomas Cardenas well off the bag. Instead of grasping the opportunity, score an unearned run and hope for monsoon, the Raccoons hit three balls that were very high but not far at all. Colby Kirk pitched the top 7th, then followed J.C. Crespo to the plate. Crespo had doubled, and Kirk was supposed to bunt him to third, but failed really hard. He finally grounded out, and Crespo actually ended up at third base, from where he scored on Flores’ double to center! And then – monsoon! Monsoon kicked in! … but didn’t last long. An hour later, play resumed with Kunimatsu Sato having been inserted as pinch hitter for Yoshi just before the tarp came on. Sato popped out, Bob Wood struck out in place of Castro against a left-handed reliever in Jason Long, and the score remained 3-2.

Well, Kirk had been in there to retire Tom Reese, another lefty at the top of the road team’s half of the eighth, but by the time that inning went live he had already hit the cocktail bar. Marcos Bruno pitched a quick eighth instead. The Raccoons let a Craig Bowen double get away unused in the bottom of the inning, and the ninth opened with Angel Casas conceding a drive to right to Roberto Vargas – but Luke Black snagged it. Casas closed it with K’s to left-handers Alonso Baca and Victorino Sanchez (.219). 3-2 Critters! Flores 3-4, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, 2B, RBI; Crespo 2-3, 2B;

That’s Colby Kirk’s first win for the Raccoons (in strange circumstances, too). We’re now 12-7, and half the wins are owned by relievers.

Game 2
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B R. Vargas – SS Nixon – CF Gonzales – 2B Heathershaw – RF Rangel – C L. Paredes – 3B Reese – P A. Anderson
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Crespo – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – CF S. Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – C Wood – P Brown

Brown started the game with one walk, two walks. After his last insta-collapse, the pitching coach was slingshotted out to the mound immediately. Brown then got into a full count against Nixon, but struck him out, also struck out Gonzales, and Heathershaw grounded out. He had dodged that bullet, but he was still well out of whack. While he was not scored upon through four innings, he needed 73 pitches to get through, and walked four. In the fifth Brownie drilled Nixon, then walked Gonzales. The Thunder still didn’t score, while the Raccoons had hit into double plays in both of the first two innings, then had ceased to reach base altogether until Brown chipped a 2-out single in the sixth. Yoshi promptly flew out softly. To start the top 7th, Brown walked Anderson(!) to make half a dozen full, and then Victorino Sanchez powered a shot out of center to end his night in disgrace.

After Crespo reached on an error in the bottom 7th, Luke Black sent a drive to right that fell short of the wall and into Alberto Rangel’s glove. The bottom 8th started with Quebell singling through Roberto Vargas at first, and then Trevino singled up the middle. Anderson was still in the game, facing a few batters hitting zero and easily made them account for three outs on a Gutierrez double play and Bobo Wood simply did what he did best and whiffed his way back to the bench. Facing closer Sancho Rivera in the ninth, Vic Flores hit for Kaz Kichida and singled. Castro hit for Yoshi and was shaken up by a pitch to his hip. Bob Mays hit for Crespo, struck out, and Black grounded out, moving the runners into scoring position for Sharp. And Sharp popped out. 2-0 Thunder. Quebell 2-3; Flores (PH) 1-1; Kichida 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Wild thought, but could we put Kaz into the rotation in place of Brown? Bob Wood is wearing me out, too…

Game 3
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Takizawa – CF McCormick – 2B Michel – SS Heathershaw – 3B Nixon – C L. Paredes – P P. Trevino
POR: SS Flores – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF S. Trevino – P Yates

Home runs by Haruyoshi Takizawa and Vic Flores made it 2-1 Thunder in the first inning, and Yates didn’t strike out anybody until Takizawa was up again, to end the third. Flores tripled his second time up, but wasn’t scored when Sharp whiffed and Black popped out foul. The Coons tied the game shortly in the bottom 4th, Bowen being driven in by Yoshi, but Yates was double-bombed by Cardenas and McCormick in the top of the sixth and that put the Raccoons in a nasty 5-2 hole against a pitcher that had them quite well under control. But Trevino was tiring in a laborious bottom 6th and when the Coons got Tomas Castro and Vic Flores on base with singles in the bottom 7th, the Thunder went to Jason Long, who had already sabotaged their chances on Monday. Promptly, Luke Black managed a 2-run double and scored on Quebell’s single to right and the score was tied again, at five. Soon enough it became untied. Ed Bryan appeared for the eighth, but the Thunder hit Vargas for Takizawa and Vargas hit another bomb, 6-5. Bottom 9th, Rivera pitching with the slim lead, Crespo struck out which brought up Vic Flores and got the park onto the feet, clapping the hands frantically. We’d take a double, thanks. But Flores struck out, much to the dismay of the attendance, and then Sharp, 0-for-4, lifted a ****ty fly to left that Alonso Baca nevertheless dropped. Sharp reached second base, giving Luke Black another chance, hitting .224 and against a right-hander and all that notwithstanding. 0-1 pitch, grounder to Samy Michel at second, BUT IT GETS PAST HIM!! The ball goes into center, and Sharp goes around third, and we have a tied ballgame!!

To make it all that much worse, the former Raccoon Samy Michel then hit into a double play in the top of the tenth, letting Colby Kirk off the hook. Kirk had just allowed Jorge Gonzales to reach on his own error. That ended the inning, but another one followed quickly. Santiago Trevino reached on a walk to get the bottom 11th going, drawing it off right-hander Bartolo Gomez. Behind him was Kunimatsu Sato, who had entered in a double switch with Angel Casas before the 11th. Sato now bunted Trevino to second base, bringing up Flores, and more clapping. We’d take that double again. The count ran full. Flores fouled another one off, a liner that was foul by a good few feet on the left side. Next pitch, same location, another liner was hit – over Tom Reese at third, and up the line it goes! Into the corner!! That’s it!! That’s it!!

VIC FLORES HAS HIT FOR THE CYCLE --- AND WALKED OFF THE COONS!!!

7-6 Victors!!! Flores 4-6, HR, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI, Black 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB; Castro (PH) 1-1; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Hurrah!! There have now been 39 cycles in ABL history, with the last two of those coming last August (Stanton Martin vs. the Critters, anyone?). The other three of the last four cycles have all been against Oklahoma, who haven’t had one since 1990. The Coons’ last cycle came of course in 1989, Mark Dawson, and it was their only one.

Raccoons (13-8) @ Titans (11-10) – April 27-29, 2007

There are no winning teams in the South, but the Titans are fifth in our division. Huh?

We are 2-1 against them. Their offense was the second-most potent in the Continental League, with 106 runs scored, but their pitchers were giving up almost as much, with 96 runs allowed. Both halves of their staff ranked 8th in ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (0-2, 6.46 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-1, 2.89 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (2-1, 4.37 ERA) vs. Jeremy Peterson (1-3, 4.55 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 1.59 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (2-2, 6.75 ERA)

We miss O’Halloran, but him and Chapa, who were once a killing 1-2 southpaw punch, have the worst ERA’s on the staff, excluding mop up reliever Ray Conner (8.79 ERA).

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Dominguez
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – LF Cavazos – 3B M. Austin – P Hildred

Sorting players by age ascending, the sixth-youngest (Hutchinson) was the first Titan of all 18 guys penciled into their teams’ lineups, and the only one in the youngest eight.

In an excruciating game, Dominguez walked two in the bottom 1st before Luke Black bailed him out with a great catch on Gonzalo Munoz’ drive to right. Quebell led off the top 2nd with a double, was thrown out at third, and then Castro reached and was picked off first, and then we still got Yoshi on with a HBP, but … no, it was not to be. “Quasimodo” Suda tripled in the go-ahead run for the Titans in the bottom 3rd instead. Dominguez tumbled from mess to mess, like in the bottom 4th, which started with Bruce Boyle walking, the fourth walk drawn by Titans on the day. Ramiro Cavazos reached on an error by Nomura, and Mark Austin’s single loaded the bases with nobody out. Hildred grounded to the mound, where Dominguez made the play to home, forcing out Boyle. In a wonderful stroke of luck, Rudy Garrison popped out and Hutchinson was retired on a caught foul tip. Now can we score please? Flores led off the sixth with a double, but that was of course not enough to get a run across. Bottom 6th. Cavazos walked, Austin walked, Hildred singled past a lunging Nomura – bases loaded, nobody out. Dominguez remained in for now, retiring Garrison on a foul pop, Hutchinson on a pop to Quebell, and Anastasio Munoz on a groundout.

NOW CAN WE GET A ****ING RUN, PLEASE?? Well, Hildred still had his old team in his mental death grip, and they just weren’t getting on base. And when they had two on in the eighth, with two out, and Luke Black fired a 3-1 pitch to deep center, sure as hell Rudy Garrison caught it. Bottom 8th, Riddle put two on, and Bruno stalled them. Still down my one ****ty run into the top 9th, we faced another ex-Coon in Manuel Martinez. They’re everywhere, huh!? Craig Bowen livened up an 0-3, 3 K day with a leadoff walk. Kunimatsu Sato ran for him, but while he stole second base, there was never much more chance to advance. Quebell struck out, Castro struck out, and Nomura sailed out to Gonzalo Munoz eventually, in a really, really ****ty game. 1-0 Titans.

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – CF Crespo – P Fuentes
BOS: LF Bayle – CF Garrison – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – SS Hutchinson – RF G. Munoz – 2B B. Boyle – 3B Watts – P Peterson

Fuentes’ good start to the season had been wiped away for good once the Titans romped him for three runs in the first inning. He basically threw batting practice, but doubled home Castro in the top 2nd to at least get one run back onto the board. The Critters had left the bases loaded in the first inning, then got that run, then ceased to be for a few innings against the winner of the $13M lottery. Activity resumed in the top of the fifth, when Flores hit a 1-out double and scored on Nomura’s single. Black forced out Nomura, but stole second and came home – narrowly – on a Bowen single to tie the score, but somehow the Raccoons kept finding ways to completely lose all composure in the most stupid ways. Suda led off the bottom 6th with a blooper that fell into shallow right center before Sharp made his second error on the day on a Gonzalo Munoz grounder. Boyle grounded to Nomura, who couldn’t make a play, either, and generously was not assigned an error or the death penalty. Bases loaded, one out, no confidence in anybody, but hey, why not overwork Marcos Bruno? Bruno came in to face Thomas Watts, who hit a grounder to Flores, and they quickly turned two to exit the frame.

Maybe we could get some help from the $13M twat? Peterson allowed a leadoff single to Flores in the seventh, and Vic was in motion when Nomura hit a ball to center – that Garrison caught! Flores made a hasty U-turn at second base and rocketed back to first, where he arrived JUST ahead of the ball. Black then singled to center, moving Flores to third base after all, and then Peterson was called out for a balk on a shoulder twitch to plate Flores for the go-ahead run! After Bowen got on, but Quebell hit into a double play, Bruno did the seventh. Rockburn replaced him for the eighth, in which he sat down the 3-4-5 guys without much fuss. No add-on run materialized for Risto Mäkelä striking out five of the six batters he faced over two innings, and Angel had to make do without a safety net. He retired Gonzalo Munoz on the first pitch, but Bruce Boyle doubled through Sharp (at first for defense) into right field, and then PH Mark Austin unleashed a terrible drive to deep right center! Uh that’s – here comes Black … - AND BLACK LEAPS AND HAS IT!!!

Okay now. Reset mentally. Here comes another pinch-hitter. Another ex-Coon! Freddy Rosa with Boyle at third base. C’mon Angel. Be a champion. Be a champion. That champion fell 2-1 behind before Rosa put the ball in play. Grounder to Yoshi, picked, throw, out – done! 4-3 Critters! Flores 2-5, 2B; Black 2-4; Bowen 2-3, BB, RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-0);

Casually, Marcos Bruno leads the team with three wins. Um, well. If it works, it ain’t broken.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – LF Mays – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – 2B Sato – CF Crespo – C Wood – P Watanabe
BOS: CF Garrison – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – 2B B. Boyle – LF Cavazos – RF Bayle – 3B M. Austin – P Chapa

While the Coons scored a run in the first, Sharp plating Flores with a 2-out single, the Titans immediately sat on top of poor Kenichi Watanabe. The first two guys hit singles in the bottom 1st, and then it was an amazing grab on Boyle by Mays that ended the inning without some major damage. Some good D all over the field didn’t let dicey situations arise for the next two innings until Watanabe made a gruesome throwing error that put Anastasio Munoz on second base with nobody out in the fourth inning. Suda flew deep to center, where Crespo made a strong play, to move Munoz to third, before Watanabe struck out Boyle and got another fantastic play by Luke Black, who snagged a soft line from Cavazos just above the grass in shallow right. Crespo would retire Suda in jaw-dropping fashion again in the sixth, and the score remained 1-0.

Boys, look at Chapa! He ain’t got nothing! Hit him with your sticks, c’mon now!! Well, turns out the Titans got as much D together for Chapa as the Coons did for Watanabe, who was done after seven shutout innings, still in a 1-0 game. Watanabe went, rain came. The Raccoons had Wood, Watanabe, and Flores cycle through the batter’s box in the top 8th with no discernible success. Bottom 8th, Ed Bryan came on. He got Austin before Rosa worked a walk hitting for Chapa. Bryan dramatically wiped his wet face a few times, with the rain pouring down. The subtle trick worked, the umpires huddled together, then called over the grounds crew master – the tarp came on!

And there we sat for 90 minutes, the rain not letting up the least little bit. After that sizeable delay, and with the Raccoons having to fly across a continent to play again on Monday, the game was eventually called. Got’em!! 1-0 Wet Furballs! Flores 2-4; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-1);

Seven total hits in that game, but … do I really care? We won and got back at them for their ****ty 1-0 win on Friday, so “Huzzah!” to us!

In other news

April 23 – New York’s outfielder Roberto Pena (.269, 0 HR, 5 RBI) will have to sit out for two weeks with a sprained finger.
April 24 – NAS RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.259, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has a big night although he only hits a double off Carlos Castro in a 5-2 win of the Blue Sox over the Scorpions. It is the 3,500th career hit for Cristo Ramirez, and only two other players have reached that number: Dale Wales and HOF Jeffery Brown. Ramirez has too many accolades to list but two Hitter of the Year awards (1993 and 1998), three batting titles (1993, 1998, and 2000) and nine All Star nominations say a thing or two about this 37-year old on a mission, who has been around since 1989, the first of 16 seasons in a Loggers uniform for him. In 1993, he led the Continental League in slugging despite hitting only five home runs – but made up for it with 15 triples, one of seven times he led the league in triples.
April 26 – CHA LF Forest Hartley (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 6 AB) announces his retirement at the end of the year. Some say it’s time. Hartley is 43.
April 27 – MIL SS/2B Bartolo Hernandez (.263, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has his 2,000th career hit in a 6-2 win of the Loggers over the Canadiens. Hernandez goes 3-5 in the game, getting the key hit, a single, to start the game off Rod Taylor. Hernandez, 32, has spent his entire 13-year career with the Loggers, winning four Gold Gloves along the way.
April 29 – CHA LF/RF Jesus Flores (.280, 5 HR, 13 RBI) looks like he will miss about seven weeks after breaking his thumb.

Complaints and stuff

All hail Vic! All hail Vic! All hail Vic! He was player of the week, batting .565 (13-for-23) with 1 HR and 3 RBI.

In a perfect world, when Ryan Miller will be our shortstop next year, batting .320 with 18 homers, winning a Gold Glove, the Rookie AND Hitter of the Year Title, and hits the winning 3-run triple in the bottom 9th of game 7 of the World Series, Vic Flores would be our super-sub, scoring the winning run as pinch-runner for Matt Pruitt.

But we’ve got no money for any of that ****.

With money or without, that was a PRETTY INTENSE WEEK. If we could just score a little tad more… 15 runs over six games is kinda pathetic, and we are last in offense in the CL right now with measly 88 markers in 24 games: 3.66 R/G …

Checking the numbers, yes, our park still works as ever, just not for the team that plays the most games in it. Offenders in the home runs allowed category: Kaz, Law, and Angel each with one, Bryan with two, Dominguez three, Brownie SEVEN, and Yates EIGHT!! Kelvin Yates has never played a game for us without getting taken to the dark side, seven homers at home, one on the road. Brownie actually allowed five dingers on the road in just two starts, but he’s been out of his mind anyway, the whole month.

Stats time! Franchise saves by left-handed pitchers!
1st – Grant West – 522
2nd – Antonio Donis – 29
t-3rd – Ken Burnett – 9
t-3rd – Ben Green – 9
5th – David Jones – 8

There’s no real point in going farther, huh?

But here’s a little trivia question: which Raccoons pitcher has the lowest winning percentage (min. 50 GS)? He is not obscure, in fact he’s fairly prominent in our franchise history.

[Westheim]

The team landed in Vancouver late on Sunday night, got everybody carried to the hotel, then collectively awoke at three in the morning when there was commotion on the hotel floor, as Kelvin Yates was rushed to the hospital after he had called 9-1-1 himself and had reported that his heartbeat was irregular.

I was not in Vancouver for a history of legal complications (we will not go into that), but I was called out of bed at 3:30am and spent the time until sunrise cowering in a corner and weeping.

And all we knew on Monday morning was that he was alive and relatively well, and that he would definitely not pitch on Tuesday, when Kaz would take his turn. So we had that nice thing going on, and the Elks on our hands! Now bring in the clowns!

Raccoons (15-9) @ Canadiens (13-11) – April 30-May 2, 2007

The Canadiens had a -3 run differential, with some trouble scoring runs. They had 94, which ranked them 8th in the CL. Well, the Coons were last with 88, so we were technically rather close to the median. They had the third-best rotation and bullpen when looking at the ERA.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-2, 5.46 ERA) vs. Simon Pegler (2-2, 4.85 ERA)
Kazuhiko Kichida (0-1, 0.84 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (2-2, 3.55 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-3, 5.40 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (3-1, 3.02 ERA)

This was their starters assuming they’d skip Gustavo Rodriguez (1-1, 0.00 ERA). All four runs he had allowed in 17 innings had been unearned.

I didn’t see Nick Brown start the opener on Monday night. I was busy. With something important. I had fashioned myself a wig from one of Slappy’s mops (he wasn’t using them anyway) and had taken one of Aunt Wilma’s dresses, a blue one with a white floral pattern. Aunt Wilma wasn’t minding, either. Aunt Wilma’s been dead for four years.

Anyway, I was busy with something important, since I had to cross that border in disguise, and that’s why I was driving up I-5. By the time of first pitch, I was refueling the car near Olympia, WA, and trying to shake off a middle-aged truck driver, who had a foreign accent and was making advances on me. GET THE **** OFF OF ME, CAMILLO!! I got places to be!!

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – CF Trevino – P Brown
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 3B Suzuki – 1B Denunez – CF Holland – LF Trinidad – P Pegler

By the time I came back to the car, it was the second inning, and Nick Brown had already been bombed by Gary Rice for two. Oh the joy! But the game was tied at two by the time I reached Seattle, the Raccoons taking a run in the second, and one more in the fourth, but leaving additional runners on third base in both frames. According to the radio guys, Brown was not any good, and relied on the outfielders quite a lot. Daniel Sharp made a few plays on the hot corner, too, but then hit a sorry pop with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth. That one wasn’t going to elude Enrique Garcia, and another chance was wasted. I was angry and going faster. Simon Pegler wasn’t much good either, but the Raccoons didn’t have anything going their way in the game. Castro singled leading off the sixth, didn’t advance while Trevino was busy striking out, then was finally caught stealing for the umpteenth time on the year. Brown struck out.

The positive side of Brown pitching to contact for some wicked reason was that he didn’t spend many pitches, and the Elks still couldn’t make him pay for it. It was nominally a three hour drive from Olympia to the border, but by the time the eighth inning concluded with Jerry Dobson fouling out to Bowen, Brownie was on 99 pitches and the game was still tied, and I had just gone past Burlington, still 45 minutes away from the border.

Castro led off the ninth with a single off closer Pedro Alvarado. Trevino bunted him to second, and Bobo Mays hit for Brown, but ineptly grounded out, and while Castro moved up, Flores struck out to strand a runner on third for the fourth time in the game. There was only one more pitch in the game, a Colby Kirk offering that was hit into the Pacific by lefty Enrique Garcia. 3-2 Canadiens. Flores 2-5; Quebell 2-3, BB, 2B; Castro 3-4, 3B, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

I made it to Vancouver just past midnight, having shaken off both Camillo and a guy named Georges in another roadside establishment to conduct biological necessities. He had claimed to be an off-duty Mountie and swore his boundless love for me, but he smelled of cheap booze and two packs of cigarettes since lunch, and I grabbed the lower part of the dress, faked right, dashed left, and drove off.

I visited Kelvin Yates on Tuesday morning to see whether this was a pitcher whose condition was ACTUALLY fatal (and not something like Dominguez). The Pakistani doctor fell way too easily to my claim of being his aunt, Wilma Yates, and he should excuse my hair, I had had no time to make myself fancy before hustling here.

Apparently there was nothing fatal about Yates’ condition at all. He had been checked in with heart palpitations, but his heart was 100% perfectly good. There was however the possibility that this was a mental thing and he asked me whether I knew if my nephew was suffering from anxiety or panic disorders?

Is that it? A stud pitcher afraid to take the mound?

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – SS Sato – CF Trevino – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Kichida
VAN: 2B Dobson – CF E. Garcia – SS Rice – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B Denunez – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – RF Richardson – P Fujita

I had made it into the Elks’ park, which was not full at all on a Tuesday afternoon. I had no problems getting a seat close to the playing field. I hadn’t had time to exchange currencies, but while I might be wearing an old lady’s dress and a cringeworthy non-wig in front of 12,000 people, I was not as much out of my mind so as not to bring my wallet and my credit cards…

What I saw wasn’t at all pretty. While the Raccoons scored first on a Manuel Gutierrez home run (!!), Kaz was wild well beyond a healthy measure of balls mixed in. He walked four by the third inning, and soon enough gave up his 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Jorge Denunez. The Coons took the lead back instantly. Castro singled, and Luke Black drilled a shot to center, that missed Enrique Garcia’s glove by mere inches for a triple. Black came home on a fly by Bowen to center, making this a 3-1 game, while the Elks stranded ex-Failcoon Daniel Richardson at third base in the bottom 4th, and two more were left stranded in the fifth, but the Elks were out-hitting the Raccoons 7-3 at that point. Kichida could burst into flames any second.

Now, my costume wasn’t perfect, as it turned out. For once, I cheered at the wrong times, which was excusable. I couldn’t cheer for the Elks if my life depended on it. There is some thing called dignity after all. But I think I should have prepared myself better. The Elks didn’t beg to be taken out to the ballgame during the seventh inning stretch, but on some occasions they sang their anthem. While everybody started to sing “Oh Canada”, I burst into “Oh say, can’t you see …” and didn’t notice until I was at the part with the ramparts and the bombs and stuff. Worse yet, they had some Hug A Mountie Day going on, and the lead singer was … Georges, the Mountie. After snapping into silence in my front row seat in the middle of the anthem, I thought I might go unnoticed – but, hey, you know me and my luck? Georges finished “Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee!” in front of home plate, then turned to me, burst into tears, and cried out why I couldn’t give him the love he deserved before being carried off so play could resume, but not before I was shown on the big video screen, with the public announcement tool blaring out that somebody seemed to have a Bad Hair Day.

Play resumed with Kaz issuing his sixth walk, which led to his removal and the ugly ginger kid six seats further up the line giggling joyfully. I angrily hushed him, he burst into tears, and soon enough out of the corners of my eyes I could see uniformed park personnel appear around my section. On the field, Rockburn and Bruno paraded into the game, with the Elks scoring a run to get back to 3-2 on a Castro throwing error. The stinking Elks finally tied the game when stinking Daniel Richardson homered off Bruno in the eighth. By the way, did I mention I paid entry with my credit card?

Apparently I was still listed on Canada’s Top 10 Most Wanted for ripping a Canadiens cap off a kid’s hat in a public park in Vancouver almost 20 years ago. And stomping on it. That kid’s gotta be 30 now, he was certainly over it, but Canada was not. While processing data, the Elks’ personnel had noticed my name popping up, and I can’t say that I kept a low profile during this game, which was turning into extra innings, but before Pedro Alvarado could get ready for a second inning, a muscular guy in a pink Canadiens shirt sat down next to me and kindly inquired, “Mr. Westfield, we request you to leave the property immediately. Will you behave cooperatively?”, to which I responded “Never!”, gripping the arm rests of my first row seat. He grabbed my arm, I shrieked “Is that how you treat a lady!?”, then grabbed the dress and bolted for the exit. Oops, no, too late. They cornered me and dragged me into the bowels of the stadium while I cried out “Win it for me, boys!!”. Judging by the audible bursts of joy above about 20 minutes later, they didn’t. Bryan allowed three hits in the 11th.

4-3 Canadiens. Riddle 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

A ****ty week was getting ever ****tier. While the team prepared to play the final game of the set, I was awaiting the indignity of being deported from a Western, arguably civilized country in a cell at a Vancouver police station on Wednesday. Thankfully, they had the radio with the broadcast on, as the two guys on duty casually listened to their team. For three hours, there was not one incoming call. There just was no crime in Canada, it appeared, except for the crimes against the beauty of the game committed whenever Jose Dominguez took the mound.

Game 3
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – CF Trevino – P Dominguez
VAN: 2B Dobson – CF E. Garcia – SS Rice – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B Denunez – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – RF Richardson – P R. Taylor

Vic Flores started the game with a home run off Taylor (anybody knowing what happened the last time he did that?), but Dominguez gave the lead back in a hurry in the bottom of the first. Generally, the Raccoons’ lineup behaved very ineptly, but the Elks handed them a huge 3-run present in the fourth, making two errors, Taylor threw a wild pitch to plate the go-ahead run, and then Kunimatsu Sato tripled in two more to make it 4-1. Yet, the ****ing can of **** that was Dominguez was unbelievable. He issued four walks through three innings. Suzuki tripled to start the bottom 4th, then Dominguez walked three more batters, which was enough to get yanked, Ed Bryan came in and continued to fail. The Elks tied the game on a single by Garcia and a groundout by Rice, and through four it was four-all. A pair of doubles scored the go-ahead run against Rockburn in the seventh. The Raccoons weren’t doing ANYTHING. Taylor struck out ten, and when the defense wasn’t actively stabbing him in the back, couldn’t be touched by the futile Raccoons. 5-4 Canadiens. Bowen 2-4; Nomura 2-4;

No, this is not a winning team. This is a ****ty team full of ****. This series, Raccoons: 24 H, 5 BB, 30 K, 18 LOB, Canadiens: 28 H, 17 BB, 15 K, 22 LOB;

Vic Flores however has a 12-game hitting streak.

On our off day, Matt Pruitt was sent on a rehab assignment to St. Petersburg with hopes to have him back in Salem. Kelvin Yates was discharged from the hospital and made the return trip to Portland. Plus, I was reluctantly let back into the States by U.S. officials. They really didn’t want me back at all. Must be Wolves fans.

Raccoons (15-12) @ Wolves (10-18) – May 4-6, 2007

How’s that? The worst offensive team in each league hails from Oregon. Prepare for some 1-0 nail biters! The Wolves also had a catastrophic bullpen and didn’t defend well, so they were giving up substantially more runs than the Raccoons. We are 28-26 overall against the Wolves, but we got swept the last two times we played.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (2-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Max Shepherd (3-3, 1.71 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-1, 1.13 ERA) vs. David Peterson (0-3, 4.45 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-2, 4.75 ERA) vs. Raúl Chavez (2-2, 3.66 ERA)

Lefty matchup on Sunday, and we will miss Carlos Sackett (1-1, 2.89 ERA) by a day. Would they trade Sackett for Dominguez?

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – CF Crespo – P Fuentes
SAL: SS Dawson – 1B Catalo – 2B A. Rodriguez – CF Luxton – RF Summers – LF Guerra – 3B D. Mendez – C M. Thomas – P Shepherd

After Castro singled and got caught up in Black’s mess to end the top 1st, but the Coons took the bats to Shepherd in the second inning. Bowen reached, and Nomura and Sharp hit back-to-back RBI doubles. Sharp would score on Fuentes’ sac fly to make it an early 3-0 affair. For Fuentes everything was dandy for a while until he walked Shepherd with one out in the fifth. A knell, smoke, and suddenly the bags were full with two outs, but Robbie Luxton hit one right to Nomura for the third out and the 3-0 advantage was preserved. The top of the lineup jammed Fuentes violently again the next time through and a Leborio Catalo double put two men in scoring position with two outs, and with a righty up, we went to Bruno, who retired Alberto Rodriguez on a grounder right back to papa. Bruno also did the eighth, striking out three around a Sharp error, but by now Sharp had four hits in the affair and was excused. Angel retired the side in order. By the way, all relevant offensive actions of the Raccoons have been duly reported. 3-0 Coons. Sharp 4-4, 3 2B, RBI; Fuentes 6.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (3-1); Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

First multi-hit game for Sharpie since April 19! And what a multi-hit game! In turn, Luke Black is dangerously close to .200 …

Matt Pruitt won’t be back this weekend. Seems like he got hurt again in his first start at AAA…

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Watanabe
SAL: SS Dawson – 1B Catalo – LF Guerra – CF Luxton – 2B A. Rodriguez – C P. Ledesma – RF A. Chavez – 3B D. Mendez – P D. Peterson

Vic Flores extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single to start the game, then was caught up in a double play. Sharp doubled, for nought once more. Watanabe walked two to create a mess in the bottom 1st, but whiffed two on his way out. Kenichi struck out two in each of the first three innings, which was very un-Kenichi-like. The Coons scratched out a single run in the second inning, combined with a Mays single, a stolen base, and then a 2-out single by Trevino when he wasn’t intentionally walked. Then they lay dead into the sixth, when Castro ripped a leadoff triple. Sharp scored him with a sac fly. Watanabe was still going well, but sometimes things happen quickly. A single, another single, and then Alberto Rodriguez wrapped a shot around the left foul pole to fire the Wolves into a 3-2 lead. The Raccoons at the plate … failed, and failed, and failed… It was still 3-2 in the ninth, facing struggling closer Aurelio Garcia, who had an ERA close to six with him and more walks than strikeouts. Bowen singled to get going, and Sato ran for him. Quebell walked. I stayed with Mays, too, because why would I remove a .344 lefty for a .208 righty? Alas, Mays struck out, and Luke Black now hit for Nomura. And Black popped out. Nobody to hit for Trevino except Bobo Wood, or Gutierrez. And Trevino struck out. 3-2 Wolves. Castro 2-4, 3B, 2B; Mays 2-4;

My god, this lineup is so ****…

And I can still trump this deserted display by announcing that Matt Pruitt suffered a herniated disc on one swing in AAA, and has been reassigned to the DL, where he will spend another month, at least.

I heard Pruitt was born a few weeks early in October of 1983 in New Orleans. Anybody know whether Daniel Hall was down there for Mardi Gras in ’83 and … enjoyed himself with a black beauty?

Game 3
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – RF Black – CF Crespo – SS Sato – 2B M. Gutierrez – C Wood – P Brown
SAL: SS Dawson – 1B Catalo – 2B A. Rodriguez – CF Luxton – RF Summers – LF Guerra – 3B D. Mendez – C M. Thomas – P R. Chavez

It was cold, it was wet, it was Oregon after all, and there was a rain delay just large enough for half a soccer game already in the second inning. Not that Brownie could be messed up much more, not getting ahead on hitters at all. Nevertheless, the Wolves didn’t get on base the first time through the order, but starting with Catalo they quickly swamped Brown in the bottom 4th with a wicked sequence of walk, single, wild pitch, walk, before Brown struck out struggling Barry Summers. Fernando Guerra shot a grounder up the middle that Gutierrez intercepted, long throw to make to first, but he was out! The game remained scoreless since the Raccoons had been born inept and hadn’t changed much since. Vic Flores had extended his streak to 15 with a single in his second at-bat, and was also the Coon with the next hit, a 1-out double in the sixth. With the greatest of pains after Castro flew out, Daniel Sharp hobbled a single to left that Flores scored on for the first run of the game. Brown was done after six innings, with the delay and the walks and all, but still struck out seven, five of those K’s coming against the bottom 3 in Salem’s order. Quebell was hitting for Brown in the top 7th with Kunimatsu Sato on third and two outs, and popped out. Rockburn pitched two perfect innings in defense of the 1-0 lead, with the Wolves still limited to the one hit in Brown’s shaky fourth. Chavez was still pitching in the ninth when Black hit a grounder to Ryan Dawson that took a nasty hop off the edge of the infield dirt and Dawson couldn’t adjust to hit, losing it for a single over his glove. Crespo bunted Black to second, but that only had the effect of Sato getting walked intentionally. Mays batted for Gutierrez and hit right into a double play. Arf. Bottom 9th, Wolves still 1-hit and shut out, Angel struck out Pablo Ledesma, struck out Alberto Rodriguez, and then Robbie Luxton singled. That brought up Barry Summers, a righty hitting at a .129 clip, and he wasn’t hit for. Angel’s mercy was limited. 1-0 Brownies. Flores 2-4, 2B; Black 2-4; Brown 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (2-2); Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

The games certainly don’t get less tense…

In other news

April 30 – New York’s Robbie Wills (0-0, 0.64 ERA, 1 SV) notches his 300th career save by holding the Titans at distance in a 6-3 Crusaders win. His previous 299 saves all came with the Loggers.
April 30 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.367, 0 HR, 8 RBI) will miss about two weeks with an intercostal strain.
May 2 – The Cyclones place OF Jose Silva (.291, 2 HR, 14 RBI) on the DL with a sore shoulder and expect him to be out for about six weeks.
May 3 – LVA SP Angel Romero (1-1, 5.54 ERA) might be out for the year with radial nerve compression.
May 3 – LAP 1B/3B Chris Ramey (.217, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has torn ankle ligaments and could miss all of the remaining season.
May 3 – The Canadiens acquire 39-yr MR Jose Sotelo (0-2, 2.00 ERA, 1 SV) and a minor league catcher from the Buffaloes for 3B Alex Rivas, who batted .250 in only ten games for them.
May 4 – TIJ MR Jack Peterson (1-0, 4.26 ERA) has suffered a torn flexor tendon in his pitching elbow and faces a grim prognosis with recovery potentially taking up to 15 months for him, if he can make it at all.
May 5 – IND LF/RF Ron Alston (.300, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 10 AB), just returned from a strained oblique, returns to the shelf with back tightness. 15 days should be enough for him.

Complaints and stuff

Don’t forget Neil Reece Appreciation & Bobblehead Day next Saturday, May 12, vs. the Indians!

Rookie of the month in the CL? “Quasimodo” Suda. Ah, my decisions…

Well, the offense is totally awful. Another week with meager 15 runs. Granted, they also only conceded 15 runs, but … unnggh!!

Kelvin Yates will take his next turn in the rotation on Tuesday vs. Cincy. I contemplate skipping, dropping, and eliminating Dominguez.

Of course, we hoped for Matt Pruitt to bring back some buzz, but that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. I don’t know what we can do. It’s hopeless. They’re scoring 3.43 R/G. How do you fix that?

By the way, the trivia question was worded with the intent of having Juan Berrios as the answer, who went 26-59 (.306) as the answer, and “Winless” Watanabe (14-26, .352) as the hook, but turns out I can’t even read my tables right. The worst winning percentage for the franchsie with at least 50 games started belongs to Gary Simmons (12-37, .245), who’s totally obscure and lingered around for a few years as a reliever after we dumped him. But Berrios is very big in ABL history, since he was the first guy to pitch a no-hitter in the league. May 3, 1977, the Raccoons routing the Loggers, 12-0.

Stats time! Franchise winning percentage by pitchers (min. 50 GS), a.k.a. you won’t believe how far down Kisho Saito is on the list:
1st – Robert Vázquez - .676 (46-22)
2nd – Jason Turner - .612 (109-69)
3rd – Jose Rivera - .591 (39-27)
4th – Kinji Kan - .585 (24-17)
5th – Nick Brown - .579 (70-51)
6th – Logan Evans - .559 (124-98)
7th – Scott Wade - .547 (170-141)
8th – Miguel Lopez - .535 (83-72)
9th – Vicente Ruíz - .527 (39-35)
t-10th – Kisho Saito - .519 (189-175)
t-10th – Raimundo Beato - .519 (28-26)

With the exception of Kan, Brownie, and Evans, these guys all were on staff in the early-to-mid 90s. Go figure.

Why don’t we have guys like “Pooky” anymore?

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-13) vs. Cyclones (18-12) – May 8-10, 2007

Here came a team with good pitching. Yikes. They ranked tied for second in runs allowed in the Federal League, while also scoring the second-most runs (outscoring the Raccoons 165 to 103 …). There really weren’t all that many weaknesses on this team and the Cyclones might be a good bet to return to the playoffs this year. They were suffering from a number of injuries, but so far it didn’t hurt them in their efforts to lead the FL East.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (2-0, 3.05 ERA) vs. Santiago Chavez (1-1, 4.05 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (3-1, 3.63 ERA) vs. Luis Guerrero (3-1, 2.70 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 1.80 ERA) vs. Richard Williams (3-2, 5.22 ERA)

Guerrero is a left-hander.

Game 1
CIN: 2B Berman – 3B Bond – LF D. Morris – CF Bailey – 1B Gilbert – RF A. Johnson – SS A. Gomez – C J. Silva – P S. Chavez
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Yates

The Critters took a first inning lead on a solo home run by Tomas Castro, his second of the year. Vic Flores would add his third dinger of the year in the third inning, also extending his hitting streak to 16 games, but that was about all the Raccoons did offensively. Meanwhile, Yates had the jitters. Despite a warm applause from the home crowd whenever he came out to deliver an inning, he randomly burst into wild episodes, which resulted in the bases being loaded with one out in the fourth, with a single and two walks responsible for that. Avery Johnson plated a run with a sac fly to Trevino before Gomez’ grounder to Flores ended the inning. When Nomura and Trevino hit back-to-back singles with one out in the bottom 7th, it shot our hit output all the way to five on the day. Crespo hit for Yates, flew out, and Flores did the same. Kevin Bond didn’t miss a game-tying homer by all that much in the top of the eighth, banging a double off the top of the rightfield wall against Ed Bryan. Dan Morris ended the inning with a groundout to Quebell. It was still a nail biter when Castro drew a walk off Qi-zhen Geng in the bottom 8th, stole second (after getting thrown out once earlier), and then scored on Geng’s error. Craig Bowen had grounded to the right side, Ray Gilbert made the play, a good throw to the pitcher, but Geng had it dink off his glove. That’s how we all know Qi-zhen Geng’s efforts: not worth the oxygen consumed. The Raccoons had Quebell put on intentionally, but Yoshi would plate both runners with a 2-out single up the middle to break the score open. 5-1 Critters. Castro 2-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Nomura 2-4, 2 RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (3-0); Bryan 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
CIN: LF D. Morris – C J. Silva – 1B Gilbert – RF Bailey – 2B Berman – SS A. Gomez – CF MacGruder – 3B Banda – P Guerrero
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 2B Sato – CF Crespo – C Wood – P Fuentes

As the Raccoons’ offensive ineptness continued, the first meaningful action of the game didn’t come until the fourth when Gilbert doubled and Berman singled to give the Cyclones a 1-0 lead on the lefty Fuentes. The Raccoons got their chance soon enough in the bottom of the inning. Castro led off with a single before Luis Guerrero lost the strike zone and walked Sharp and Quebell. Of course the team couldn’t buy a hit in such a situation, but still took the lead. Black hit a sac fly to plate Castro, Sato walked, and Crespo’s groundout was just barely good enough to bring home Sharp. The Cyclones intentionally walked Bobo Wood and his toothpick to get to Fuentes, who duly grounded out.

Fuentes was in trouble in the sixth again. Gilbert led off with a single into center before Will Bailey hit the ball with the bottom of the bat and clonked it into the ground about one foot away from home plate. Wood nabbed Gilbert at second base, but Bailey made it to first base safely. Dennis Berman then fired a liner into deep right for a double. Luke Black got a good bounce off the wall while the Cyclones waved Bailey around third base. Black to Quebell to Wood – out! Fuentes struck out Aurelio Gomez to starve Berman at third base and we continued to lead 2-1. In the eighth Marcos Bruno offered a leadoff walk to Dan Morris before Julio Silva hit a horrendous bunt right back to Bruno, who started the double play, and Gilbert grounded out to short. Flores led off the bottom 8th with a single after going 0-3 so far, but we also found our way into a double play, Bowen the culprit, hitting for Quebell with Guerrero still dealing for Cincy. No, the score remained 2-1, and it was on Angel now. Rain began to fall (it’s Portland after all; oops, rhyming again), and the inevitable Berman doubled to the left corner with one out. Gomez singled, putting runners on the corners. At 0-2 on MacGruder, the game was shortly delayed for rain that soon stopped. MacGruder finished his strikeout, and then Al Graves pinch-hit, a .286 lefty with 14 AB and no homers. Was Angel still good? His third K of the day was answer enough. 2-1 Coons! Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Sato 1-2, BB; Fuentes 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (4-1);

PHEW!! Boys! I … I can’t … can you please …!!

We had four hits in this game. How few hits can you have and still win games fairly regularly? Well, depends on whether you lead your league in allowing the least runs, which we now do. Least runs scored, least runs allowed. We’re the ****ing 1980s Indians.

Game 3
CIN: 2B Berman – 3B Banda – LF D. Morris – CF Bailey – 1B Gilbert – RF A. Johnson – SS A. Gomez – C J. Silva – P R. Williams
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Watanabe

Both teams scored in the first, 1-1, and we had a 35-minute rain delay by the second. Visit Portland, the City of Precipitation!

Yoshi Nomura slipped, fell, and couldn’t get up in the third inning, and while the Raccoons score two runs on four hits in the bottom 3rd, Watanabe was instantly barraged for three runs on five hits in the top 4th. Offense! Whoah! Too bad the other team was ahead 4-3. Watanabe didn’t get past the fifth inning, then had to watch his team not making contact against Williams, who was really everything but a strikeout pitcher, but ran up seven K’s through six innings. Yet then came the bottom 7th, and Vic Flores led off with a triple to center, and Tomas Castro’s single to center tied the score at four. Castro stole second base, and Berman got a bad hop on Sharp’s bouncer and had it get past him into centerfield, and Castro scored! Colby Kirk, who was in the line for the win after relieving Kaz and ending the top 7th, did a quick and merciless eighth on the Cyclones, who still relied on their pitching rubber chicken, Williams, even on 119 pitches and proven non-success. But, ah, that soft lineup… Williams managed to strike out Flores with his 130th pitch to end the inning without a threat having developed. Angel got to face the bottom of the order, and nobody got on. 5-4 Furballs! Flores 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Castro 2-4, 2B, RBI; Sharp 3-4, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-4; Kirk 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

Whoah! What a sweep! They are juuuust sooooo squeaking past the opposition! For how long can that go well? By the way, here come those division leading Indians.

Yoshi Nomura had banged up his elbow. No serious damage, just a mild sprain. He’s still out for a week. DL’ing him might not get us anywhere pleasant, either…

Raccoons (20-13) vs. Indians (22-12) – May 11-13, 2007 – NEIL REECE APPRECIATION & BOBBLEHEAD DAY ON SATURDAY

The Indians were 3-0 against the Raccoons this season. They scored the second-most runs in the CL, and allowed the third-fewest, but didn’t we just swipe away such a team? Plus, they’re without Ron Alston again (but they didn’t need him the first time around, either…).

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (0-3, 5.94 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (6-0, 2.15 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-2, 4.07 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (1-3, 8.03 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (3-0, 2.78 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (2-4, 3.43 ERA)

No, Kel, everything’s fine, no need to sweat. Stop sweating now. Don’t shiver, either. STOP IT NOW!!

No, ugh. No. No crying either!

Game 1
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – 1B S. Stevens – LF A. Solís – 2B J. Miller – SS J. Lopez – P Tobitt
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 2B Sato – CF Trevino – P Dominguez

Odds weren’t in our favor, despite Vic Flores hitting a triple into the right center gap in the bottom 1st and scoring on Sharp’s groundout for a 1-0 lead. Even when we added another run, Quebell coming home on Trevino’s sac fly in the second inning, and got to 2-0, odds still weren’t in our favor. Dominguez was still in the game… As was to be expected, Paco Javier homered with Jose Lopez on base in the third, and we were tied again, and the odds weren’t in our favor.

Yet, Tobitt didn’t have it, and was actually out of the game before Dominguez! The Coons ruffled him for two takeback runs in the bottom 3rd, and then we had Trevino on base in the bottom 4th for Vic Flores, who took a rip, sending a ball soaring, soaring, OUTTA HERE!! The score jumped to 6-2 (and Flores was again a double shy of the cycle), and that was it for the reigning Pitcher of the Year!

But Dominguez. That ****ing ****tard. Top 5th, Bill Miller singled, and Jose Paraz went deep. Then Fugosi tripled. And now the second starter got yanked, with the tying run at the plate and nobody out. Kaz came in, conceded the run on a groundout, then walked Angel Solís. He threw two wild pitches to move the tying run to third, then saved his bacon by striking out Jose Lopez, 6-5. And what’s that? Rain.

The Coons had two on in the bottom 5th before Sato hit into a double play, and Kaz started the top 6th by retiring reliever Manuel Reyes before the rain sent the game into a delay (once again). It remained in suspended animation for 80 minutes, then the baseball gods chuckled and lifted the cloud cover, and play resumed. We got Trevino on in the bottom 6th (and had Kirk hit for there was still some distance to cover…), and Flores landed a hit to knock out Reyes, but it was “only” a single. Castro’s grounder was lost in translation by Simon Stevens, scoring Trevino, before Sharp was walked intentionally to load the bases for Bowen against lefty Dane Sanders. Bowen ripped into the first pitch he saw, a hot racer up the middle and into center for two runs! 9-5! Black plated a run with a groundout and Sato then singled to get the score to 11-5! Holy whiskers!!

After that display of squeezing as many singles as needed into open ground, the air kinda got out of the game. After Colby Kirk put on the leadoff batter in the top 7th, Rockburn got in, allowed another single, then retired nine straight batters on the way to a long save. The Raccoons had another chance in the bottom 8th, but Quebell delivered a double play. 11-5 Furballs! Flores 4-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Bowen 3-5, 3 RBI; Quebell 4-5, 2B, RBI; Rockburn 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (2);

Woot, woot!! We’re half a game out of first place, and we got our 1-2 punch coming up. Could life be any sweeter in Critterland?

Game 2
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – LF A. Solís – 2B J. Miller – SS J. Lopez – P R. Gonzalez
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 2B Sato – P Brown

Paraz drove a ball to deep right in the first, but Black got to it before Brownie could incur early damage. There would be a high fly like that in every inning against Brown, who also walked a pair in the second and clearly was not where we would want him to be. But the Indians didn’t get those drives to fall in, while the Raccoons didn’t even get a hard hit ball until the fifth, but Black’s drive to left was caught by Solís. The Raccoons were held to one hit (Sharp’s single in the fourth) through half a game by Gonzalez. Paraz hit another long drive in the sixth, this time to left. Castro caught it on the warning track, inning over. Uaah, the tension!

Neither team amounted to a run through seven. Brown started the eighth on 100 pitches, but after Jose Lopez (R, .310) were the pitcher and two more lefties atop the lineup. Lopez grounded out, but Gonzalez was not removed and also grounded out. But then PH Jesus Rivera drew a walk off Brown, ending his day. Bryan appeared to face Bill Miller, and the resulting home run shattered Neil Reece Appreciation & Bobblehead Day to shards. Bryan got booed relentlessly. Gonzalez was still in the game in the bottom 9th, facing the 2-3-4 batters with a 2-0 lead. Castro’s single knocked him from the game, bringing in Leonardo Sosa, who struck out Sharp, Quebell, and also the faintest hope that the team might actually able to compete for a prize in anything that was not a lottery. 2-0 Indians. Mays 1-1, 2B; Brown 7.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, L (2-3) and 1-1;

Arf. Vic Flores’ hitting streak also ended at 19 games, the longest streak in the CL this year.

Apart from the competitive failure, the day was a blast for the attendance (18,588), which got a crisp 2:30 contest with festivities before and after. Before included bobbleheads for the first 15,000 people in attendance (and none left over, apart from the extras Maud had ordered for everybody in management and for the faithful Capt’n Coma guys and other sponsors), and Neil Reece and his family assembled on the diamond (in brisk weather) before the game and honored by former and current players (David Vinson, Scott Wade, Marcos Bruno, and Daniel Sharp offering their thoughts) and a certain GM that was almost reduced to tears and gave Reece a manly hug. Twice.

After the game, fireworks, which I didn’t quite enjoy, biting into a piece of wood while manically stabbing Ed Bryan’s face in the yearbook.

Game 3
IND: CF P. Javier – RF B. Miller – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – 1B S. Stevens – LF A. Solís – 2B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – P Jimenez
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Black – CF Crespo – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Yates

Both teams scratched out a run in the first inning. Yates issued a 2-out walk to Jimenez (2-2, 3.26 ERA) in the second with a man already on, but luckily Paco Javier grounded out to Gutierrez to end the inning. The Coons then took the lead on J.C. Crespo’s homer in the bottom 2nd, 2-1. Yates however struggled as badly as Brown had the day before. Bill Miller and Paraz reached on hits in 3-ball counts to start the third inning. Fugosi hit into a double play to Sharp and Stevens grounded out to Flores, but our co-aces were just not acing…

Luke Black homered to get the bottom 4th underway, bringing the score to 3-1. And while Yates’ potential damage got suckered up by the #1 defense in the CL, the Raccoons actually rediscovered their power stroke now, with Tomas Castro hitting a mammoth shot to dead center in the bottom 5th, collecting Flores and running the score to 5-1. Somehow, nobody knew how, Yates went seven. Colby Kirk took the ball in the eighth and retired the 1-2-3 left-handed- and switch-hitters. The score remained 5-1 into the ninth, and we tabbed Marcos Bruno to get three outs from the 4-5-6 batters. Err, or maybe not. Fugosi singled, Solís walked, and we went on to Angel. Casas struck out Cesar Aguilar before Lopez hit a hard grounder to Sharp, who corralled it, threw to first – out! 5-1 Coons! Castro 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-4; Yates 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (4-0);

In other news

May 10 – VAN CF/RF Enrique Garcia (.238, 1 HR, 8 RBI) has suffered a shoulder strain and might not be back before the All Star Game.
May 10 – DEN RF/LF Pedro Pujols (.286, 3 HR, 13 RBI) is also bound to miss over a month with a strained hammy.

Complaints and stuff

Are we somebody or are we nobody? Can’t make up my mind. I won’t get over my head over a 22-14 record just yet, because we were 18 over .500 a few years ago at the end of May and - … well ten years of losing have to come from somewhere, right?

We are on our first longer string of games this year, having completed six of sixteen. Our next ten games are against teams with a collective 45-65 record. We’ll see how that goes after going 5-1 against division leaders this week.

Man, that loss Brownie took stinks. He wasn’t good, but Ed Bryan is horrendous.

Yoshi is expected to miss at least three, maybe four more games, so, all of the series we’ll play against the Loggers, potentially. He’s not been good with the stick so far, but his defense is quite good.

By the way, our defensive efficiency is BY FAR tops in the ABL. A .737 EFF is 19 points higher than that of the next-best team, the Bayhawks.

And you know who leads the FL in wins? A certain obese feline.