Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-14) vs. Loggers (14-23) – May 14-17, 2007

The Loggers had run up a -38 run differential in 37 games, ranking 9th in runs scored and 11th in runs allowed. Their rotation was not very good, but their bullpen was actually worse. Putting their troubles into as little words as possible, their ace, Martin Garcia, had an ERA over six. Bakile Hiwalani was batting .213. Their only purposeful player was Tim Austin (.353, 7 HR, 38 RBI).

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (4-1, 3.24 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (2-2, 5.28 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 2.57 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (2-3, 4.74 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-3, 6.51 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (3-3, 6.56 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-3, 3.62 ERA) vs. Armando Gomez (0-0)

Gomez was replacing Fernando Cruz (2-3, 4.38 ERA) who had just been put on the DL with a back strain. We will face two righties first, then two lefties.

Game 1
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – SS T. Johnson – LF Wheaton – 1B C. Parker – C T. Phillips – P J. Diaz
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – CF Trevino – 2B M. Gutierrez – C Wood – P Fuentes

The Loggers got a double from Bartolo Hernandez to start the game, then froze. The first run of the game scored as Bob Wood defeated his year-long 0-for-22 futility and hit an RBI double to drive home Gutierrez in the bottom 3rd. Our third-tier backup second baseman had been hit by a pitch. Wood would score an unearned run after an Aaron Tolwith error and we led 2-0 after three. The Loggers would get their revenge in the fifth when Dave Wheaton got hit by a pitch to start the inning and was brought around to score, the RBI going to Diaz for his 2-out single (grumbles). Apart from that, neither team did much, and when they did anything, they hit into two-for-ones a lot. The Loggers got a double from Austin (who had more RBI and more homers than the next two guys on the team combined) with two outs in the eighth. That was the signal for Fuentes to go away, especially with Hiwalani up. Marcos Bruno got that file slapped onto his desk and processed it for an inning-ending, first-pitch grounder to short. Angel had been out three of the last five games and the lower part of the Loggers’ order didn’t look like they were capable of holding knife and fork, let alone hurt Marcos. He remained in the game, and finished it on just eight more pitches. 2-1 Coons. Wood 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Fuentes 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (5-1) and 1-3; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

We had only one more hit (Castro), so three in total. Whoah. How much longer will that go well? We really only won today because Tolwith bumbled a grounder from Fuentes. If Bobo Wood is the best offensive player on your team, you’re in trouble…

We have scored 133 runs. The only team with less are the Wolves. We trail everybody else by at least 16, and up to 83 runs.

Game 2
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – LF Dubois – C J. Reyes – P R. Thomas
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 2B Sato – CF Trevino – P Watanabe

Top 1st, Bobo Mays dropped Hernandez’ fly before Tolwith reached on an infield single to third base. Castro caught a drive by Austin on the warning track before Hiwalani hit into a double play. Inept teams at work.

And inept they were. Neither team fielded a starting pitcher on his way to the Hall of Fame, yet the lineups couldn’t make good contact even occasionally. Bottom 5th, still scoreless with the Coons on one soft single and three walks, but no runs (and neither had the Loggers scored). Tolwith couldn’t play a grounder from a Coons hurler for the second day in a row, allowing Watanabe on with a leadoff infield single. Desperate for ONE run, we had Vic Flores bunt Watanabe to second …! To no avail. Eventually, so much futility had to lead to losses. Watanabe allowed three singles in the top 7th that plated the first run of the game. Rockburn replaced him. Roy Thomas struck out trying to bunt, and Hernandez almost forced an error on Sharp with a soft grounder that he had to throw bare-handed. Quebell saved Sharp with a Gold Glover’s stretch, but we were down 1-0. In the bottom 8th, all seemed lost. Black hit for Bryan and lined out to third, at least a hard hit. Flores was retired effortlessly by Thomas. Then, uproar, for Tomas Castro singled up the middle, the Furballs’ third hit on the day. Daniel Sharp appeared in the box and hit another liner to left, but this one eluded Tolwith and bounced up the left field line. The speedy Castro scored on the double and we were tied again (and presumably bound to play 29 innings, with Slappy pitching).

The game got wicked by the ninth. Angel Casas appeared to pitch and put Tom Johnson on to start the inning, dropping Quebell’s throw to first after Adrian had made a strong defensive play on the grounder. Jean-Paul Dubois fired a ball to deep left, Castro caught it, and Johnson tagged and hustled to second – and Castro threw him out! Your standard 7-6 double play! Casas struck out Chris Parker to end the ninth and two more in the tenth before the Loggers brought their closer Gabe Garcia into the bottom 10th. Santiago Trevino led off with a single. We fancied our chances with a bunt better than with our bench of blighters, yet Angel couldn’t get a bunt down to save his bacon, and then Garcia nicked him in the (non-pitching) shoulder! Flores singled, and the bases were loaded – with no outs. And Castro – of course! – struck out. That brought up Sharp, who had saved the day in the eighth already, got ahead of Garcia, and was patient. He might have heard my screams from my office. “DON’T YOU DARE HIT INTO A DOUBLE PLAY!!!” Sharp didn’t hit at all, drew a walk, and the home crowd cheered. 2-1 Raccoons. Sharp 1-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Watanabe 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K and 1-2; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Casas 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

They keep winning and we took the lead in the division with a Canadiens loss (3-2 in NYC), but my pills don’t work anymore. (shivers and spills a glass of water)

Game 3
MIL: 3B Tolwith – 2B M. Clark – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – LF J. Garcia – C J. Reyes – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Black – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – 2B Sato – P Dominguez

With two 6+ ERA pitchers taking the ball, surely there’d be some offense. For two innings it surely didn’t look like it, Dominguez giving up one hit and Garcia none, but starting with Dominguez in the bottom 3rd the Raccoons reeled off four straight singles and scored two runs. Martin Garcia left the game after the inning with an apparent injury. Despite the team now being up 2-0, Dominguez couldn’t be trusted, and after four clean innings showed why, issuing walks to two of the first three batters in the top 5th. Jaime Garcia plated a pair with a single eventually, and the game was tied again. Dominguez was charged with the go-ahead run in the top 6th, an inning that he saw concluded form the dugout after putting two men on yet again. Briefly a Coon, Dave Wheaton drove in the go-ahead run off Rockburn, before a bullpen explosion in the seventh put the game far out of reach. A single off Rockburn, two walks issued by Kirk, a Sharp error and another hit off Bruno plated four runs in total for the Loggers. Another run would fall out of Adam Riddle. The Raccoons didn’t do squid with the bats. 8-2 Loggers. Castro 2-3, BB;

At this point, we’ve been held to two runs or fewer in 50% of our games this month, and to five runs or fewer in all but one. Next, a struggling Brownie who could really goddamn use some support.

Game 4
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – LF Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – CF J. Garcia – 1B T. Powell – C T. Phillips – P A. Gomez
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Black – CF Crespo – SS Sato – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Brown

Gomez’ season debut didn’t start pretty. Flores doubled, Castro walked, and Sharp singled between Tolwith and Johnson into left to load them up with nobody retired. Wheaton had Bowen’s fly coming for him, dropped it, 1-0, and Black and Crespo both hit RBI singles to left, 3-0 with no outs, but from there it was only one more run on Kunimatsu Sato’s sac fly. Gutierrez grounded out and Brown fouled out, but now was staked a flush of four runs and had to see towards making it last. And Brownie had problems delivering strike three… There was no shortage of 2-strike counts, but he just couldn’t erase batters once again. Luckily, the Loggers were the door mats of the division right now and couldn’t hurt him even in his weakened state. Brownie held on to a 5-0 lead for six and a third before leaving the game after a walk to Jaime Garcia (with Armando Gomez still in the game!). Kaz relieved him, got Phillips to fly out to right and struck out Parker to end the seventh inning, but the eighth became another sore spot on the lesser part of our bullpen – and our largely stainless defense. Kaz allowed a single to Tolwith. Riddle replaced him and got Hiwalani on a pop, but when Kirk entered the game he allowed a single to Wheaton. Tom Johnson singled to right, the Loggers sent Tolwith from second base and Black’s throw was outrageously off line from home plate and he was charged an error. No support was forthcoming anymore from the brown-clad players wielding sticks, but Ed Bryan managed to end the game without more bad things happening with a clean ninth. 5-1 Brownies. Flores 3-4, 2 2B; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Brown 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (3-3);

The run was charged to Kaz, but was unearned. Well, we took three of four from a last place team despite batting like we’d be holding willow branches. Sometimes you just take it and don’t bitch too loudly. The baseball gods might hear you and fell two or four or nine of your pitchers. Not Dominguez, of course.

Raccoons (25-15) vs. Condors (17-23) – May 18-20, 2007

6th in runs scored, 10th in runs allowed, the Condors lacked starting pitching more than anything else. Their hurlers had run up a 5.25 ERA for the rotation, which wasn’t even bottoms in the CL, but it was too much for their middling offense to keep pace.

The Condors look quite lost with a .425 winning percentage, but are only four games out in the struggling South. Meanwhile the Raccoons enter the series leading the North by half a game over both the Indians and Canadiens. The Crusaders are two back.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (4-0, 2.58 ERA) vs. Curt Powell (2-4, 5.59 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (5-1, 2.92 ERA) vs. Ramón Escobedo (2-1, 4.02 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 2.40 ERA) vs. Art Cox (1-1, 4.79 ERA)

Kel, what are you crying about now? – I know it’s your old team. – Well, then DON’T suck. – Yes, it is as simple as that.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Ybarra – RF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – CF R. Perez – 3B B. Román – LF Crum – 1B Maldrum – C A. Ramirez – P C. Powell
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Yates

Kel didn’t suck; in fact, he was quite awesome, as the Condors mainly dropped like flies, but squeezed out a run in the second inning when Ramón Perez singled, stole second base, and scored on Johnny Crum’s single. The first time through the order, Curt Powell looked like he had that win bagged, but the Coons tied the score in the fourth, and plated two runs in the fifth. Castro drove in Trevino for the go-ahead run, then stole second and scored on Sharp’s single, 3-1. Through six, Kel had not allowed runners other than the two in the second, while striking out nine. Striking out to start the bottom 6th was Quebell. He was already steaming at a 2-1 ball called a strike, and when Powell got the same pitch again from the umpire, he slammed down his bat and gave the ump quite an earful, which had him promptly ejected. Sato entered the game, manning short, with Flores and Sharp sliding around. Top 7th, the Condors got their third runner, Perez with a double, and Perez was on third base with two outs and Crum up. Crum was a .333 lefty, and that was not quite a good matchup with Yates at 98 pitches and already having been burned once. But Maldrum looked appealing with a runner on third! Crum was put on intentionally, Blair Harris hit for Maldrum, but struck out anyway, with Kel ending the day on a high note and 11 whiffs. In the bottom of the inning the Critters had back-to-back scratch singles, but couldn’t convert that into a run or two. Mays led off the bottom 8th with a single off ex-Coon Kevin Jones, and it looked like he’d be starved as well until Duke Smack batted for Marcos Bruno and hit a 2-run homer to double our lead! Angel remained in the shed. Instead Ed Bryan struck out two in a clean ninth. 5-1 Furballs! Flores 2-5, 2B; Castro 2-5, RBI; Sharp 3-4, 2B, RBI; Mays 3-4, 2B, RBI; Black (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (5-0);

At this point, Kel is second in ERA in the CL. First? “Winless” Watanabe!!

Game 2
TIJ: CF R. Perez – 3B Quintero – 2B J. Diaz – C A. Ramirez – 1B Maldrum – RF Crum – LF Greenman – SS Ybarra – P Escobedo
POR: SS Flores – CF Trevino – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – LF Crespo – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Fuentes

While the Raccoons’ lineup contained way too many .200 batters, the Condors took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a 2-run double by Juan Diaz. The anemic Raccoons got their chance in the bottom 4th when they loaded the bases on a three singles, but that brought up Bob Wood with one out, and he embarrassingly popped out foul. Fuentes was fireballed away by Escobedo and we kept trailing 2-0. After five innings Escobedo had already eight striped tails on his belt, and wasn’t looking like slowing down any, but then did allow a single to Quebell to start the bottom 6th. A wild pitch moved Quebell up before Crespo walked anyway. Nomura singled to left: bases loaded, no outs, down 2-0, and here comes Wood. Bowen had the day off. Hnnggh. Hnnghh! No, Wood had to bat. You better hit that one good, Bobo.

He didn’t, grounding to short, where the ball became stuck in Ybarra’s glove for a run-scoring error. That gave Wood an RBI, but no pass in my book. Fuentes was next, but was hit for by Castro. When not here, where then? 2-0 pitch, lined softly into shallow center, no chance for anybody, and Crespo scored, and Nomura was waved around and scored, and that was a 3-2 lead! It was also all we got, with Escobedo striking out Flores and Sharp on the way out of the frame. All the effort was rendered moot soon enough when Colby Kirk was taken deep by Ramón Perez to start the eighth.

Well, that’s what you get for sending out a dork instead of Bruno… Bruno came after the game-tying shot, retired the Condors in order, and was in line for the win once Kevin Jones allowed a 2-out RBI single to Trevino in the bottom 8th. Angel was not kept in the shed this time, which ironically led to the most nerve-wracking top 9th in a few days. Blair Harris started the ninth with a pinch-hit double before Crum drilled a ball to deep center – and Trevino got to it! Nevertheless, the tying run was on third. Casas got some mental assistance from the pitching coach sharing a wisdom or two about toughening up. Rowan Tanner came up and was sat down with a K. Now Jesus Alvarez pinch-hit, sending a grounder to the right side. Quebell intercepts it, Casas hustling over, Alvarez racing up the line – BANG! BANG! OUT!! 4-3 Critters. Trevino 2-5, RBI; Black 2-3, BB, 2B; Nomura 2-4; Castro (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Sato 1-1; Fuentes 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

That’s the fourth win for Marcos Bruno this season, which means he has won more than Brownie.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 1B Maldrum – CF R. Perez – 3B B. Román – LF Crum – RF J. Alvarez – 2B Brantley – C B. Harris – P Cox
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – P Watanabe

The Critters burst out of the box in this game, running over Art Cox for four runs in the first inning. Castro got on before Sharp hit his second homer of the year, and then Quebell, Bowen, and Mays all had 2-out hits to score two more counters for Watanabe, who was put into a bad spot in the third with a throwing error by Bowen moving a runner all the way to third base, but the Condors couldn’t score then and only hurt him by a stroke of luck in the fifth inning, when Blair Harris hit a triple over the first base bag that threw up chalk on its first bounce. Cox lined out to Flores for the second out and Watanabe got Ybarra to pop out to keep the damage at one run, 4-1. Watanabe pitched two more innings, allowing an inconsequential double to Harris in the seventh (but Harris now only lacked the long ball for the cycle).

Yet, we found trouble nevertheless. Kaz replaced Watanabe in the eighth, got one out only but walked two. That brought in Bryan with Perez, Román, and Crum up, all left-handers. In a tense at-bat, in which Ramón Perez tried very hard to get his team even, Bryan registered a strikeout before getting Bartolo Román to fly out to Black in left. The Coons got Quebell on in the bottom 8th, but a drive to right by Bowen was caught by Alvarez and we didn’t tack on. Top 9th, we actually started with Bryan against Crum, who drew a walk. Ah, yeah. Me and my ****ty ideas. Angel came in now, with the tying run in the on-deck circle and no outs, but moved it back to the dugout when Jesus Alvarez chipped a 2-2 pitch into play – but right to Yoshi, who easily turned a 4-6-3. Brantley struck out. 4-1 Critters!! Castro 2-4; Quebell 3-4; Mays 2-4, RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (3-2);

In other news

May 15 – TOP RF/LF Ricco Ghiberti (.196, 2 HR, 8 RBI) might miss the rest of the season with a torn back muscle. Will the Buffs be able to replace his .606 OPS?
May 17 – Topeka’s CL Arthur Joplin (1-1, 0.78 ERA, 15 SV) holds down the Capitals in a 5-2 win, earning his 300th career save.
May 17 – Nursing a sore elbow, WAS SP Randy Farley (0-2, 3.89 ERA) will miss the rest of the month.
May 19 – NYC CL Iemitsu Rin (1-0, 1.10 ERA, 10 SV) has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation and could be out for the entire remaining season.
May 19 – The Stars’ young horse SP Jose Flores (5-1, 3.16 ERA) might miss up to two months with a sprained ankle.
May 20 – CYCLE: IND OF Angel Solís (.299, 2 HR, 13 RBI) hurts the Aces every which way in a 17-5 drubbing, finding enough time to draw two walks in addition to a 4-for-4 natural cycle! The 40th cycle in ABL history is the second for the Indians, coming three years after Jose Paraz’ against the Thunder. It is also the fourth natural cycle, but the first such in 29 years! It hadn’t been even one month since the last cycle, which had been hit for on April 25 by Portland’s Victor Flores.

Complaints and stuff

This is a team of remarkable pluckiness, but I don’t know whether their stupid luck is reproducible over three more quarters of a season. Sooner or later everybody in the rotation will have a few Dominguez-esque starts and then I would like to know that we can reliably score more than three runs per game…

Dominguez is on the edge of extermination. I’m currently looking at Cássio Boda, who has had a few strong starts now and is 5-1 with a 3.32 ERA in AAA. Lots of walks, though. By the way, Boda’s an 11th rounder…

Just exactly how wicked has everything been? With his most recent outing, Kenichi Watanabe leads ALL OF THE ABL in earned run average.

That can’t be right. The universe will soon readjust itself…

[Westheim]

Dominguez has to pitch twice this week. I fear the worst.

Raccoons (28-15) @ Bayhawks (18-24) – May 21-23, 2007

The Bayhawks had a worse batting average than the Raccoons, but scored (plenty) more runs, ranking ninth with 176 markers (Raccoons: 12th, 155). They were seventh in runs allowed. Somehow this translated into a rather measly fourth place and six under .500 in late May. They were probably due for a break…

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (0-4, 6.33 ERA) vs. Esteban Flores (3-3, 4.47 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-3, 3.21 ERA) vs. Iván Cordero (1-3, 5.86 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (5-1, 2.93 ERA) vs. Shawn White (3-5, 6.45 ERA)

The Bayhawks had had the most ugly weather in Boston on the weekend. They had played a double header on Saturday after rain had washed out Friday’s game, then had Sunday’s contest postponed because of rain, too. They had Thursday off, too. As a result, their rotation is not really set in stone for this series.

Game 1
POR: SS V. Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – CF Castro – LF Black – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – P Dominguez
SFB: CF Hudson – RF Durán – 1B Batlle – 3B D. Lopez – C Cicalina – 2B J. Perez – LF M. Smith – SS Guerin – P E. Flores

While Vic Flores started the game by tripling off Esteban Flores and scored on a sac fly by Quebell, Jose Dominguez immediately set out to torpedo yet another contest. He walked two and allowed a single to Cicalina in the first, and narrowly avoided being scored on when Jose Perez grounded out to Quebell. Dominguez’ ineptness caught up with him in due time, though, and the Bayhawks tied the score the next inning. Bottom 3rd, Dominguez got two outs before Perez tripled. Mark Smith singled, 2-1 Birds, Concie singled, and then he walked Flores on four pitches…

We endured this crap for five innings. Amazingly, the Bayhawks didn’t score another run, but the Coons just couldn’t handle their sticks, either. With Dominguez banished out of sight, Sharp homered in the sixth to rob him of a well-deserved loss, but then Adam Riddle applied for a well-deserved loss, making a throwing error and hitting a batter in a calamitous bottom 6th that was favorably ended by Flores starting a double play with only one run across. Riddle would also bunt into a double play in the seventh, making his presence in the game just another unwelcome experience. But he wouldn’t take the loss, either. Vic Flores had another inning-starting extra base hit, a double, in the eighth, and scored on Tomas Castro’s 1-out single. Luke Black loaded them up with a single, and we just so barely got a run home when Mays lined out to deep left, and Danny Sharp had ample time to scurry home from third base. Yoshi doubled, however, plating Castro and bringing the score to 5-3. Rockburn almost caught lockburn in the bottom of the inning, allowing two deep flies to left, but Black caught both drives to keep the Birds down. Marcos Bruno got the ninth with Angel having pitched twice in a row. He served up a long drive to left to David Lopez to get the inning underway, and wow, what a catch by Black! He was literally soaring through the air like an eagle to snare that one! There would be a tight spot with two outs, though. Cristián Gonzales singled with two outs, and then Mark Smith reached on an error by Quebell, representing the tying run. Bruno had played with Concie long enough to know how to get him out, however. K, game over. 5-3 Critters. Flores 3-5, 3B, 2B; Castro 3-4, RBI;

Adam Riddle got the win despite being awful. Well, well, some earn their money, some get it. But at least we survived a Dominguez started without going broke, so that counts for something. The Elks and Indians were idle on Monday, so we were now ahead by a full game.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – CF Crespo – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Brown
SFB: CF Hudson – SS J. Perez – 3B D. Lopez – 1B Batlle – C Cicalina – LF M. Smith – RF Durán – 2B Da Silva – P Cordero

The Raccoons had a proper single from Sharp and two infield singles from Black and Crespo in the first, but didn’t score. Bob Wood however walked in the second and scored on a Castro single, so the Coons were up 1-0. Brown had issued a walk in the first inning, and then would occasionally allow a soft single to be hit just behind the infield, but overall threw the Bayhawks to the ground, pressed a thick cushion on their beaks and, to make sure, knelt on either end. But after getting lots of men on in the first three innings (and while scoring only a pair), the Raccoons went through four innings of futility against Cordero as well, not registering a pulse again until Duke Smack’s leadoff jack in the eighth that ran the score to 3-0.

And all of a sudden – boom! Nick Brown emerged for the eighth, and threw eight straight balls. That brought the tying run to the plate, and there were no outs. Law Rockburn came in, walked John Hudson, I almost fainted, but Rockburn struck out Perez and then had David Lopez hit a HARD liner right into Yoshi’s glove. That was two outs with the bags stacked, as we sent Ed Bryan to pitch to the left-handed slugger Paco Batlle. The Bayhawks inexplicably sent Pablo Fernandez, their backup catcher, to pinch-hit. At first this seemed good (a short visit by Fernandez in Portland in 2002 told us a whole lot…), but then Bryan gave up a high drive to deep center on the first pitch. Crespo ran back while I wished Trevino was out there. Crespo back to the track, leaping – GOT IT!!! Angel’s quick ninth was almost boring in comparison. 3-0 Brownies! Black 2-4, HR, RBI; Crespo 3-4, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (4-3);

Game 3
POR: SS V. Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – CF Castro – LF Black – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – P Yates
SFB: CF Hudson – RF Durán – 1B Batlle – 3B D. Lopez – C Cicalina – 2B J. Perez – LF C. Gonzales – SS Irvin – P White

After Vic Flores was left on third base with Sharp and Castro striking out to end the first inning, Bob Mays’ triple was a key piece in a 2-run second for the Critters. Kel didn’t strike out anybody until he happened to come across the opposing pitcher, then added Hudson to end the third for good measure. A Sharp error caused a minor commotion on the base paths in the fourth inning, but the Bayhawks found it quite hard to get solid contact off Yates, who reached on an error himself to start the top 5th. Flores got a single past Jeremiah Irvin before Quebell hit into his special, a double play, and we didn’t score.

All those embarrassingly botched chances eventually had to cost a game, and it might goddamn well cost this one. In the bottom 6th, Yates hit the first batter, John Hudson, then didn’t get a strikeout when he needed it, and THEN had lead-footed Urbano Cicalina hit a liner under Tomas Castro’s glove for a game-tying 2-out, 2-run triple, followed by Jose Perez’ infield single, on which the Bayhawks took the lead. While Yates didn’t lose the game when the Raccoons re-tied it in the seventh, they left runners on third base in that and the next inning, when Duke Smack arrived there after a 1-out triple and Mays and Nomura went down flailing. After Sharp dropped a pop up behind the mound to start the bottom 8th behind luck- and listless Colby Kirk, somehow Kaz got the team out of that rut and into extra innings. Quebell reached base with a single to start the top 10th, batting against Salvarado Soure, and was run for by Gutierrez, who made it to second on a hit-and-run, in which the hitting part, Trevino, didn’t work much at all, but at least moved the go-ahead run to third with an 0-2 fly out. Here, the Bayhawks walked Castro intentionally to get to Duke Smack, which was their fatal mistake. The Duke singled, plating Gutierrez, and while Angel in the bottom 10th allowed a leadoff single to Maxime Da Silva, he struck out the next three batters to end the game. 4-3 Critters!! Flores 3-4, BB, RBI; Quebell 2-5; Black 3-5, 3B, RBI; Nomura 2-5, RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K; Kichida 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-1);

I am sweating blood and tears, but they keep winning – somehow. We are now 15-2 since getting out of Salem three Sundays ago and we went 9-1 against those three consecutive losing teams I mentioned. But now we get a tougher opponent, as we have to jump across the continent to meet up with the leaders of the Southern Division.

Raccoons (31-15) @ Falcons (26-21) – May 25-27, 2007

We are 1-2 this season against the Falcons, who are leading the Continental League with a .285 batting average and scored the second-most runs. However, their run differential was +1 for they had some real pitching woes they couldn’t solve on the fly, with their rotation being raked to a 4.92 ERA (9th), and the bullpen was no compensation either, also ranking in the bottom half in the league.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (5-1, 2.93 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (2-2, 5.54 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (3-2, 2.23 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (5-1, 3.80 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (0-4, 6.04 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (5-5, 4.48 ERA)

Carl Bean had by now reeled in his ERA to under five for them, but was on the DL. They also had a few important position players on the shelf, foremost outfielder Jesus Flores, and veteran Paul Theobald.

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

… and then the Falcons also lost franchise figurehead Hubert Green on the first defensive play of the game. The Raccoons scored a run on Castro’s RBI triple in the first, just after Green had been carried off. The third inning saw both teams just refuse to score. Fuentes led off the top half with a double, but was stranded at third, and in the bottom of the inning the Falcons cobbled together a walk and two fluke singles only to have Mun-wah Tsung, the former Raccoons farmhand, ground out to Yoshi to end the inning without scoring. The next two runs were scored by Castro with a solo home run in the fourth and then a bases-loaded, 2-out infield single in the fifth, following up on a wicked inning that had seen Bowen draw a walk to get started only to get forced out by Fuentes with a horrendous bunt. And THAT was the at-bat that ended up with Fuentes scoring!

Baseball, don’t ever change.

By the seventh, Fuentes had two hits, scoring after neither of them, but the two hits were just as many as the entire Falcons team had amassed. Also, Castro was a double shy of the cycle. His eighth inning single saw him steal second, advance on a passed ball, and score on Duke Smack’s fly to right picked off the chalk by Luis Reya, 4-0. Then the bottom 8th, suddenly another scare, and now it was Quebell’s defense that led to questionable results. David Rincón hit a single right through him with one out, and then Javy Rodriguez reached on an error by him. The Falcons loaded them up with two outs and Fuentes facing the left-handed Tsung, who grounded out harmlessly to Sato at second. Fuentes actually appeared in the ninth (still short of 100 pitches), but left at the same time as Jose Lopez’ leadoff homer, but that was all the Falcons got. 4-1 Critters! Castro 4-4, HR, 3B, 3 RBI; Sato (PH) 1-1, 3B; Fuentes 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (6-1) and 2-4, 2B;

Ed Bryan actually pitched the ninth and got his third save with three of four batters behind Lopez being left-handed, plus I am very scared to wear out Angel, so this was the perfect scenario for it.

And that’s eight!

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – RF Black – CF Crespo – 2B Sato – 3B M. Gutierrez – C Wood – P Watanabe
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Reya – 2B J. Lopez – 1B Tsung – LF Walls – CF Burke – C Ishikawa – SS Starks – P Cutts

For four innings, the composite offensive efforts of both teams consisted of Duke Smack trying really hard to homer to left, but he was foiled twice by Tom Walls and by about ten feet. The game was scoreless through four, before the Raccoons broke through Cutts in ridiculous manner. Gutierrez led off with a single, and while Bob Wood, intent of getting that old batting average to .100 or even beyond, sent a liner into the gap in left center that was nevertheless caught by Walls as well. Then came Watanabe – and doubled on a blooper into medium-depth left, almost right onto the foul line. While that didn’t score Gutierrez, Vic Flores’ double did, and Flores would also come home on Castro’s single, running the score to 3-0. Watanabe was only tagged with a run when Rodriguez led off the sixth with a triple and Watanabe wasn’t quite a strikeout pitcher to recover unharmed from that. The Coons overall however recovered quickly from that minor setback to 3-1, and had Castro and Crespo both hit 2-run doubles in the top 7th to load Cutts with seven total runs. The 2-run doubles were spaced apart half an hour by a rain delay caused by a sudden and unexpected shower, and Tomas Castro in between left with a groin injury which didn’t seem to be serious.

Until here it was all fun and games. But now the bullpen took over, and Riddle and Kirk immediately made a mockery out of a 7-1 game. They loaded the bases in the bottom 8th with no outs, and we had to go to Marcos Bruno after two runs were already in against Kirk. Bruno struck out Walls, but allowed a single to Ishikawa on a poor pitch that scored two more runs, and then also left with an injury, and this one didn’t look good at all. Angel Casas had to come out to whiff Leslie Starks and get out of the inning at 7-5, and pitched a quick ninth retiring three left-handers in order. 7-5 Coons. Flores 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Castro 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Wood 2-4; Watanabe 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (4-2) and 1-3, 2B; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (17);

Very worried about our eighth inning glue. He’s listening to everybody calling out “Marcos”. There were no concerns of Tomas Castro playing on Sunday, but we left him out of the lineup as a precaution and / or to give him a day off.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Black – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – C Bowen – P Dominguez
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Burke – 2B J. Lopez – 1B Tsung – LF Walls – RF Rincón – C Ishikawa – SS Grant – P T. Wilson

The Raccoons, still far and away the best defensive team in the entire ABL, played the Sunday game highly intoxicated – at least it seemed so. A myriad of errors and misplays put a big hurt on the score in the early innings, and it wasn’t Dominguez’ fault much at all. Vic Flores dropped a sorry pop by Ishikawa with two out in the bottom 2nd, and while Bob Grant homered after that, he never should have come to bat with a man on base. That made it 2-0 Falcons, the Coons pulled a run back, then immediately gave it back on a Bowen throwing error giving Javy Rodriguez extra bases in the bottom 3rd. Rodriguez came in to score, 3-1, and not one run of those earned. Top 4th, Duke Smack tried to jump start the offense with a leadoff double. Mays singled, runners on the corners, and Yoshi struck out. Great, perfect point for a double play! Trevino singled to center, though, 3-2, and then Bowen came up. Craig Bowen was in a nasty 4-for-36 (.111) slump, but had already singled in his first at-bat, and now peppered his first homer since April 13, flipping the score to 5-3 Furballs. Dominguez just barely made it through five innings with the lead in one piece, which required Bob Mays throwing out Tsung at home to end the bottom 5th. The Raccoons continued to walk dangerously close to the edge of losing their winning streak.

At least Duke Smack had found his bat again and hit a double to score Quebell in the seventh for a very welcome insurance run, 6-3, especially with our eighth inning a bit uncertain right now. But first get there. Bryan and Kichida wobbled before that, giving up a bunch of sound contact, but nothing that ultimately counted. Kaz hit a guy in the bottom 8th, but Rockburn found a way out, still 6-3. Relief in the ninth: after Manuel Gutierrez somehow managed to hobble a single past Tsung, both Flores and Quebell hit hissing liners for doubles into the left corner, and that ran the score all the way to 8-3. But Rockburn had been hit for, and with a 5-run lead we wouldn’t touch Angel. So it was Colby Kirk again. And he might have spun a clean inning, but then it was back to how the game started, and an incredibly horrendous error by Gutierrez led to an unearned run on Kirk. The Raccoons still pulled through, and won their tenth straight. 8-4 Raccoons!! Quebell 4-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Black 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Mays 2-5; Bowen 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

In other news

May 23 – Cincy’s Nathan O’Herlihy (5-1, 4.11 ERA) strikes out 15 Pacifics in a 4-1 Cyclones win.
May 24 – The Loggers lose INF Tom Johnson (.247, 1 HR, 11 RBI) for the year after he has torn his labrum.
May 25 – The Indians trade for Tijuana’s SP Román Escobedo (2-1, 4.07 ERA), parting with prospect LF Joey Kretz.
May 27 – OCT INF/LF Max Nixon (.222, 3 HR, 14 RBI) is out for the remainder of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
May 27 – IND SP Curtis Tobitt (8-1, 2.30 ERA) 2-hits the Bayhawks with 10 strikeouts in an 8-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Look at those pesky Elks, not getting off our fat asses! But do you have a guess who’s first in the power rankings? Huh, who could it be? Who could it be? Maybe the same team that leads the ABL in runs allowed, starters’ ERA, and defensive efficiency? And yes, Kenichi still leads the entire league in ABL, .02 ahead of SAL Max Shepherd.

The Fat Cat spun a 4-hit shutout of the Rebels this week. He is 7-1 with a 2.53 ERA for the year. Yay, lucky us.

So while that transpired, I shopped Dominguez this week. I literally got three offers. (Part of the problem is the huge contract, of course)

We can either take a no-good infielder in Tom Philpot, 26, batting .196 in AAA(!), from the Miners, or backup outfielder Jake Burke, 28, from the Falcons, or Topeka’s reliever Victor Gonzalez, 28, who has an 18.00 ERA. Burke’s career OPS is .729 and he has no striking qualities. No better than Crespo, f.e., perhaps worse.

Sigh.

[Questdog]

This is awesome!.....perhaps, maybe, might the streak be over?....

[Texasborn]

Quick how do you remove a Jinks!!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (34-15) @ Knights (23-26) – May 28-30, 2007

While there was hardly ever anything going on, scoring-wise, in Raccoons games, the Knights had the league led in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a -12 differential. Their rotation got creamed to a 5.50 ERA, and their bullpen was over five as well. We had swept them in the first series of the season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-3, 2.86 ERA) vs. Eric Stevens (4-3, 5.19 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 2.58 ERA) vs. Domingo Cruz (3-3, 4.14 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (6-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. Dylan Jones (3-4, 7.81 ERA)

That is two southpaws sandwiching a right-hander, with a third lefty, our own old Ralph Ford, not getting a turn in this series. He was 5-5 with a 4.91 ERA.

The Raccoons would put a 10-game winning streak on the line.

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – P Brown
ATL: RF J. Gusmán – SS C. Martinez – LF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B Urban – C J. Clark – CF Hicks – P Stevens

Nick Brown struck out four in the first two innings, then singled to start the top 3rd and scored on Vic Flores’ double, the first run of the game. The Knights didn’t get a hit until the fourth inning, a double off the wall, but they didn’t score, other than the Critters, who tore up Stevens in the fifth, when they batted through the order and scored four more runs. Flores, Castro, and Crespo all hit doubles. Reliever Enrique Meneces snipped a single into center against Brown in the sixth, but then surrendered a homer to Crespo in the top of the seventh that made it 6-0. Through six, the Knights hadn’t done anything. Then things started to happen against Brownie. First, Black misplayed a Jose Morales fly to right that fell in for a double. Nomura made an error, and then Juan Gutierrez hit a clean single to break up the shutout. Brown got out of that mess, but became stuck for good in the eighth, with the Knights getting onto the corners with no outs. Rockburn struck out Carlos Martinez, and then came Bryan and was taken WELL deep by Morales to cut the advantage to 6-4. Just when it seemed like everything would fall to pieces in a hurry, Bryan got out of the eighth, and the Knights exploded in a flurry of errors (on poor grounders by Nomura and Bowen), and ultimately a wild pitch. Tomas Castro doubled in a few more runs, and after the 3-run eighth we put up a 4-run ninth. 10-4 Brownies!! Flores 2-4, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; Castro 4-6, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 3-5, 2 2B; Crespo 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (5-3) and 1-3;

And that’s 11! I’m not quite sure what our longest winning streak is. Maybe 13 or 14, something like that. I can’t even tell when it’s been.

To dampen the mood a bit, Marcos Bruno was diagnosed with elbow soreness. He’d be out until at least the All Star Break, tearing a hole into our late innings.

We called up Matt Cash (0-2, 3.25 ERA, 14 SV) from AAA.

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – RF Black – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Yates
ATL: RF J. Gusmán – C De La Parra – 3B J. Garcia – 2B C. Martinez – SS Kester – LF Plummer – 1B J. Gutierrez – CF Hicks – P D. Cruz

Both pitchers entirely coincidentally hit the first batter they saw in the game, but neither team scored after that, neither in the first, nor the second inning. The third inning, however, saw Craig Bowen lead off with a home run. Yates walked, Flores singled, Sharp singled to score Yates, and then Castro bombed a 3-piece for a quick 5-0 lead. Bowen led off the next inning as well, tripled, and we scored two more to get to 7-0. That was already against the bullpen, and the Knights’ pen was flammable like you wouldn’t believe. The Raccoons put up another 3-spot in the seventh inning, greatly helped by a Doug Plummer error. Kel carried a 1-hitter through six, but was taken deep by Carlos Martinez to get the bottom 7th going. Not that it greatly mattered – the Raccoons were up and gone. Cash pitched a scoreless season debut in the ninth inning. 10-1 Coons! Flores 2-2, 2 BB; Sharp 3-5, 2 RBI; Black 2-5; Bowen 2-4, BB, HR, 3B, RBI; Yates 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (6-0) and 1-2, BB, 2 RBI;

We’re now 10th in runs scored! Whoah! Oh, and we haven’t lost in a while. If we make it through the final game in the set, it’ll be two weeks.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Sato – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Fuentes
ATL: SS C. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF J. Morales – LF R. Lopez – 1B Urban – RF Plummer – 3B Fish – 2B J. Gutierrez – P D. Jones

… but Fuentes got rushed in the third game. Martinez and De La Parra both singled to either side of Sato, and then Morales drilled a 3-run shot to get us into an early hole, 3-0. Somehow, though, this team had found the sticks now. The Raccoons scratched out a run in the second, and then Tom Fish’s error with two outs put Sharp on base in the top 3rd. Duke Smack tied the game with a towering homer. We had the bases loaded in the fourth after Fuentes drew a 1-out walk, but Vic Flores hit into a double play. Fuentes walked the first two batters in the bottom 4th, but the Knights left those in scoring position. Missed chances on both sides, but the Raccoons grabbed their next one in the top 5th. Sharp hit a 1-out single, but got forced by Black. Quebell and Sato got on, bringing up Trevino, who pushed a bouncer past Lou Urban at first and two runs scored, 5-3. Unfortunately, Fuentes was really not up to the task and was wobbled again in the bottom 5th. The Knights tied the game after two hits and a groundout, leaving Morales at third with two outs when we removed Fuentes for Colby Kirk to face left-hander Lou Urban. He walked Urban before Plummer, another lefty, grounded out. Through five, five all.

Not for long, though. Crespo led off the sixth after entering with Kirk in a double switch to remove Trevino. He singled, and then Vic Flores hit a triple to start the sixth inning, 6-5. Flores scored on fly out by Sharp to right, but that 7-5 was still far from secure. Adam Riddle retired four batters before PH Desi Boyer, hitting .059, took him deep with one out in the seventh, bringing the Knights back to 7-6. Bryan struggled badly to get out of the inning, but eventually managed with the bases teeming.

Top 8th, Flores singled, stole second, moved to third on Castro’s single. Sharp then hit another single, all off Tom Watkins, and the Coons were up 8-6. Black then hit into a double play to kill the momentum a bit, and we didn’t tack on. Rockburn then was up for us, allowed a single to Juan Gutierrez with one out, then faced Jason Clark and Carlos Martinez. Both went into full counts, both fired rockets to center, and Crespo nabbed them both. And then Angel came on, issued his first walk of the year to start the bottom 9th to Jaime Kester, and that brought up Morales as the tying run. Morales singled to right, moving Kester to third base. Rodrigo Lopez flew to left for a sac fly. Lou Urban doubled, moving the winning runs into scoring position as things got slightly uncomfortable. Doug Plummer was up, who had hurt the Raccoons greatly in the first series of the year, but Angel had him struck out for the second out, and that brought up Tom Fish, a .188 batting righty. You would expect Angel do excel here, but the second pitch was drilled to right center, Luke Black hustled in, a stretch, a launch, an out! 8-7 Raccoons!! Flores 2-5, 3B, RBI; Sharp 2-4, 2 RBI; Sato 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Trevino 3-3, 3 RBI;

Eeeek! That was a close one, but it was won, and it’s now 13 games in a row! Next up is the league ERA leader, so what’s the worst that can happen?

Raccoons (37-15) @ Titans (27-26) – June 1-3, 2007

One game over .500, the Titans were fifth in a strong CL North (and the Furballs were fur-st! *grin*). They were t-6th in runs scored, fifth in runs allowed, with a +16 differential. We were 4-2 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (4-2, 2.15 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (3-1, 7.92 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-3, 2.96 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (5-4, 4.52 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (6-0, 2.42 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (4-4, 3.38 ERA)

Two more left-handers to start this series. We haven’t had four southpaws in one week in a while.

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

Unfortunately, Watanabe found a master in … Ray Conner. Conner homered in the third, 1-0 Titans, and when the Raccoons got the score tied, pushing in merely one run from their eight hits through four innings, Conner hit another RBI single in the fifth to get the Titans ahead again. The Titans loaded the bases with one out in the inning, but Watanabe at least got Anastasio Munoz to hit into a double play. Watanabe was knocked out in the next inning, “Quasimodo” Suda leading off with a single, Bruce Boyle singled, Luke Black’s throw in was nowhere near a teammate, and Suda scored, 3-1. That got Watanabe out, and Colby Kirk took over against a few more weak left-handers. Kirk walked Cavazos, and then Conner’s at-bat resulted in another run when Kirk threw his grounder away. Oh well, it had been a nice streak, but now they were down 4-1. Another hard-luck inning for the Coons offensively in the seventh was followed by the pen completely imploding in the bottom 7th. Matt Cash put three men on, and Kaz allowed all of them to score. Kaz also walked three in the eighth, and we had to bother another pitcher, Riddle getting Gonzalo Munoz to pop out foul. The Coons had nothing going – at all. 7-1 Titans. Castro 2-5; Bowen 2-4, 2B;

Well, bright sides. The Elks lost 5-2 to the Loggers, and had already lost on Monday, so we remained 2 1/2 ahead.

But we deleted the extremely useless Colby Kirk (6.46 ERA and a high degree of uselessness). Ward Jackson was promoted from AAA, where he had pitched semi-respectably. Jackson had been the second peace in the Yates deal with the Condors, and hadn’t actually pitched in the Bigs since 2005.

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – 1B Sharp – LF Black – RF Mays – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – P Brown
BOS: 2B B. Boyle – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – LF Brulhart – RF G. Munoz – CF Cavazos – 3B D. Silva – P O’Halloran

Both teams put two on in the first inning, and neither scored. The Coons had two more on in the second, and Brownie hit into a double play, before the top 3rd brought two defensive bobbles by Daniel Silva at third base (not his usual position), one being charged an error, the second generously not, and Sharp drew a walk off O’Halloran to load the bases with no outs. The old war horse (35 years old) fell apart, walked in a run to Black before Mays hit a Texas Leaguer for an RBI single, then walked in another run against Sato. Nomura actually hit the first hard ball of the inning, but lined out to Hutchinson, because baseball is a silly game. Bowen singled to center for two. Brown avoided the double play this time, and Flores singled home Sato for a 6-0 lead. O’Halloran was knocked out in the next inning with three more hard hits and three runs, including a 2-run triple by Mays, but the Titans also broke a chunk out of Brown’s game with three hits and two runs in the bottom 4th, running the score to 9-2. Brownie had the heat, and had ten Titans struck out by the time he got through five innings, but also had over 90 pitches…

Lawrence Rivers was hit for two runs in the top 7th, with Brownie hitting a 1-out single leading up to a Castro RBI triple and Sharp RBI single to run the score to 11-2. But when Brown faced two more batters in the bottom 7th, he walked Garrison and Boyle took him deep to get back to 11-4. At that point, the pen took over. And despite a 7-run lead, the Raccoons struggled to seal the deal. After Riddle and Jackson did rather well, Matt Cash failed again. Three of four men he faced reached, and we had to bring in Rockburn to clean up his ****. 11-5 Brownies! Quebell (PH) 1-1; Castro 5-6, 3B, RBI; Sharp 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Mays 3-5, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI; Bowen 2-5, 2 RBI; Riddle 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – RF Mays – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Yates
BOS: CF Garrison – LF Cavazos – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – 2B B. Boyle – SS D. Silva – RF Brulhart – 3B M. Austin – P Peterson

Rather than Hildred, who was always a lance in our side, we faced Jeremy Peterson (1-4, 4.13 ERA), another right-hander.

Initially there was little offense, but Flores singled and scored on Quebell’s double in the third inning, with little else happening. Kel struck out five and allowed no hits through four innings, but Boyle hit a leadoff double in the bottom 5th. Mark Austin hit a 2-out single, but Boyle was too slow to score and Peterson struck out to end the inning. The 1-2-3 guys struck out for the Titans in the next inning, giving Yates ten on the day, and in a 1-0 game.

The Coons loaded the bases with no outs in the top 7th with a Bowen double, an intentional walk to Yoshi, and Trevino singling softly to center. Kel remained in and took a 2-0 pitch from Peterson into left for an RBI single! Vic Flores singled in a pair to get the score to 4-0. Yates struck out Suda for #11 to start the bottom 7th, then got three fly balls. Trevino caught two, and Castro dropped the middle one for an error. Another error by Quebell torpedoed Yates’ efforts for good in the eighth, as he ran out of steam and couldn’t go for a shutout. Law Rockburn pitched the ninth inning for a combined shutout. 4-0 Coons. Flores 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4, 2 2B; Yates 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K, W (7-0) and 2-4, RBI;

Yay, a 2-game winning streak!

In other news

May 28 – The Canadiens acquire SP David Peterson (1-5, 3.61 ERA) from the Wolves, parting with #57 prospect CF Abe Ruiz.
May 29 – SFW INF Jaime Mateo (.222, 0 HR, 11 RBI) might be out for the season with a ruptured achilles tendon.
May 30 – The Canadiens’ old veteran OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.328, 2 HR, 11 RBI) has suffered a broken thumb and will miss about a month.
June 1 – DEN SP Jerry Lane (2-3, 4.33 ERA) has been discovered to have a partial tear to his UCL and is out for the season, trying to rehab.
June 2 – Big day for SFW 3B Sonny Reece (.322, 8 HR, 30 RBI), who has three hits in the Warriors’ 18-1 creaming of the Scorpions, including the 2,500th of his career. The milestone hit is a 2-run single off George Allen in the first inning of the rout. Reece, 34, is .313 with 177 HR and 1,134 RBI for his career, which also includes two game 7 walkoff home runs in one postseason, for the 2000 Thunder. He also has four Gold Gloves and was the 1999 and 2000 CL Hitter of the Year.

Complaints and stuff

The bullpen was not very amusing this week. Marcos goes down and immediately things fall apart considerably. Also, Brownie's tendency to just quit functioning at random points is alarming...

But nevertheless, I enjoy myself some .700 ball.

Jimmy Eichelkraut suffered a fractured rib and will miss a month or so. His OPS was just short of .800 in single-A and he had been close to getting a promotion. (sigh)

The latest development update from Whitebread was kind to AA SP Hector Santos (POT 15/13/12 now).

[Trebro]

Plenty of year to go, but it cautiously looks like you'll at least get the .500 monkey off your back.

[Westheim]

2007 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons’ mediocre finish in 2006 grants them the eighth pick in every round in the 2007 draft. As compensation for the departures of Clyde Brady and Ralph Ford the Raccoons have also received three compensation picks. Two of those are supplemental round picks (#6 and #20 of 31), and the third is a rather less impressive 11th pick in the third round. Overall, they will have six of the first ninety selections.

With this bushel of early picks it is the more unfortunate that the draft pool is not overly rich.

Whitebread compiled his usual cryptic tome of confusion. I kindly asked him to explain – with words, not fips, nor wobas – whom we should pick. He had no answer. At least not a short one.

There was a quartet of high school starting pitchers in the draft that the numbers seemed to make exciting or at least promising, but, Whitebread explained, other teams were using his superior techniques as well and would almost certainly have picked all of them, especially his top 2, by the time we would pick at the eighth position.

There was also a few outfielders in the draft with surprisingly similar characteristics. All without much power, all without good gloves, but good on-base qualities. There was considerably less promising player material among catchers and infielders available.

The top dozen or so, including “conventional” potential STF/MOV/CTL or CON/POW/EYE values Whitebread only assigns under protest, calling it an unscientifical procedure:

SP Brett Lillis (10/12/8)
SP Andy Overstake (11/14/4)
SP Jim Cushing (12/15/11)
SP Kevin Denton (10/12/10)
SP Bruce Mack (14/13/11)

CL George Youngblood (12/15/12)

3B/1B Tommie Peterson (9/8/14)
1B C.J. Vanderwall (10/7/15)

LF/RF Mike Bednarski (10/11/12)
LF/RF Danny Munn (7/11/14)
LF Steve Derer (9/16/13)
RF/LF/1B John Gartner (14/10/5)
OF/1B Dave Milliard (10/10/8)

There is an ongoing issue, probably with this league file specifically, that keeps generating draft pools of potentially dubious quality. Coupled with a soulless college graduate head scout who has traded exposure to sunlight for the passive glare of a laptop screen and has never witnessed the beauty of a ballgame in person, a 12/15/11 prospect is to be considered outrageously promising. Among ALL 360 players’ three primary attributes there are two 17’s and a single 18, all in “third” attributes (CTL/EYE).

[Westheim]

Raccoons (39-16) vs. Crusaders (31-24) – June 5-8, 2007

We return home for a 4-game set against the Crusaders, against whom we are 2-1 on this season. This will be a showdown between the two teams best at preventing the opposition to score runs, with the Crusaders second with 189 runs allowed (Raccoons: 171), while they are fifth with 252 runs scored. So things appear pretty even, yet they are eight games back of us in the division.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (6-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (3-8, 6.39 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (1-4, 5.60 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (7-2, 3.02 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (4-3, 2.41 ERA) vs. George Kirk (0-0)
Nick Brown (6-3, 3.20 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (6-2, 3.16 ERA)

We will face all right-handers in this series. Kirk replaces Greg Connor (5-2, 3.13 ERA) in their rotation, who is out with a knee contusion. They are also without their closer Iemitsu Rin (the former Indian) for the balance of the season.

Our next off day is on the 14th, playing 13 straight games, long enough to try and give everybody a day off. We might not face a left-handed starter all week, however, so it’s not a thing of waiting for favorable matchups. With interleague games making up the last two series of the 13-game stretch, a tactical approach would be to play all regulars normally in this series, and then give them days off later against teams outside our division.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – C J. Lopez – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – P Reeves
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – CF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Mays – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes

While Reeves held the Raccoons hitless, Fuentes was hit all the time, but the game was scoreless through three innings. Stanton Martin led off the fourth with a double. Ortíz walked, and Caraballo’s groundout moved them into scoring position. Here, Fuentes struck out Jorge Lopez before throwing a 2-2 pitch right into Ted Mullins. This actually led to a more favorable matchup with Orlando Rios despite the bases being loaded, but Fuentes first balked, then allowed a 2-run double anyway. That 3-spot loomed large over Fuentes, who struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings, because apart from a Nomura walk the Raccoons had been wholly absent from the base paths through six innings. Reeves, by far the worst pitcher in their rotation, looked hardly beatable at all until Quebell hit a double up the right field line to start the bottom 7th. Sharp tripled, cutting the gap to 3-1, and scored on Castro’s single, before the next three Critters made poor outs again, but at least that ugly zero in the H column was gone.

Yoshi led off the bottom 8th, grounded up the middle, Sutton threw to Mullins, and the ball glanced off the side of Mullins’ glove and into foul ground. Yoshi made it to second base with no outs. J.C. Crespo hit for Kaz Kichida, but grounded out poorly. With the tying run at third and one out, the Crusaders began to bother their relievers. Robbie Wills walked Vic Flores and was gone, with Rodrigo Garcia, a left-hander, facing Quebell, who hit into one of his patented double plays. We faced Scott Hood in the ninth, who was everything but flawless in trying to replace Rin, and allowed a leadoff single to Sharpie. Kunimatsu Sato ran for him, advanced to second on a groundout, and when Duke Smack singled to center, Sato came around to score the tying run!

Bowen singled, moving Black to second base before Mays struck out. Trevino now hit for Nomura, chipped a floater to shallow center, Pena and Cardenas converged and it was in! And Black was around third base and going home, and the throw was way too late, the Raccoons walked off!! 4-3 Coons!!! Sharp 2-4, 3B, RBI; Trevino (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Hu-wheeee!! That game looked so completely lost through six (and even in the fourth) and they really pulled it back out of the trash can!

Okay, I’m a believer now! I believe in this team! It has some wicked chemistry that somehow has sparked something resembling greatness!

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

While Dominguez continued to be a blowout waiting to happen, the Raccoons scored first in the second game. Black legged out a leadoff triple in the second inning, scored on Bowen’s groundout, and then J.C. Crespo took Bautista deep to right for an early 2-0 advantage. Dominguez surrendered lots of hard contact, but enjoyed the kind support of his outfielders, who prevented damage in the early going. Dominguez helped himself with a 2-out RBI single in the bottom 4th, score going to 3-0, then walked Mullins to start the top 5th. Mullins advanced to third on Bowen’s wild throw to second to really not prevent him from stealing, but kept pinned there when Anderson popped out foul and Dominguez struck out his opponent Bautista. Another walk was issued in the sixth, putting Hector Cardenas on base in front of the Martin Brothers. Ortíz grounded hard to first, where Quebell decided to nip Cardenas at second, and Stanton Martin, nursing a 15-game hitting streak, remained locked out when Castro caught his fly to left. A significant buzz started right around that point, for the Crusaders were mashing the little white sphere all over the park, yet were entirely hitless in the contest.

That didn’t change in the seventh, either, when Caraballo and Mullins struck out, and Crespo got to a drive by deep center off the bat of scruffy Ian Burns. In the eighth, Daryl Anderson grounded out to Sharp before Gutierrez flawlessly handled grounders by Bautista and Pena.

Still 3-0 in the ninth. Trevino entered for defense in center, while Angel was warmed up, but did not enter quite yet. The sublime, the borderline unwatchable Jose Dominguez working on no-hitting the Crusaders, turned into the surreal when pitch #103, the first of the inning, was popped to second by Cardenas, and Gutierrez simply didn’t catch it for a jaw-dropping error. And now the big boys came up. Ortíz worked a four-pitch walk, but Dominguez wasn’t missing wildly, but consistently down and away. The risk I went here was considerable, but he remained in the game despite the tying run appearing in Stanton “Clockwork” Martin, who took the second pitch he saw for a grounder to short and a 6-4-3 breath reliever. That reset the scene to Cardenas at third base with two outs, and Francisco Caraballo at the plate, a .240 hitting shortstop with a little bit of pop.

Dominguez walked him. The tying run came back up. 114 pitches for Dominguez, and left-hander Apasyu Britton appearing in the box. The pitching coach had already paid Dominguez a visit, so the next time we’d go out, that’s it. Would there be a fifth no-hitter in franchise history? No other teams had five no-hitters.

Pitch #117 was put into play by Britton. A fly ball soaring to left field, Castro was hustling over to the line to get it. Castro set the feet, raised the glove, and – fump – he caught it. 3-0 No-No-Coons!!! Black 3-4, 3B; Crespo 2-4, HR, RBI; Dominguez 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 4 K, W (2-4) and 2-2, RBI;

XD XD

I just don’t know what to say. There were about four fly balls that off the bat looked not only like trouble, but potentially like outta here. And then it is *Dominguez*! We have Brownie and Kel on the roster, and it is *Dominguez*!

Dominguez is not quite the barren desert that was Bob Joly (2000), but they now share the list of pitchers who have spun a no-hitter for the Raccoons with Juan Berrios (1977), Jason Turner (1989), and Manuel Movonda (1998). We hold five no-hitters, more than any other team, and this was only the 27th no-hitter in ABL history.

Interlude: Trade

Colby Kirk (3-1, 6.46 ERA) cleared waivers on Tuesday, but refused assignment to St. Petersburg. He was swiftly placed in a shopping cart and about a dozen teams had a need for disappointing left-handed relief. We struck a deal with the Pacifics for 22-yr old 2002 second-rounder AA SP Daryl Hurt, who was a work in progress without getting regular playing time. The Pacifics didn’t give a lick about him, bouncing him between AA and AAA, but he had only appeared in five games (two starts) the entire season despite being perfectly healthy. He had struck out 15 in his only start in AA! The same start, he walked six (while throwing 139 pitches, so the Pacifics really didn’t give a **** about whether his arm would fall off), so there were control issues, but we could use another work in progress.

Hurt was assigned to Ham Lake.

Raccoons (39-16) vs. Crusaders (31-24) – June 5-8, 2007

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P G. Kirk
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – RF Black – CF Crespo – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Watanabe

No no-no on Nodnesday, as both teams got a hit and a single run in the first inning of this game. Kenichi Watanabe only faced six batters before consulting with the trainer and leaving the game, having thrown only 19 pitches and collected four outs, so our bullpen that was perfectly rested and a bit bored coming into the game would be used relentlessly to cover another 23 outs. This was now Kaz Kichida’s game, he would pitch until he had no more.

Kaz ended the inning with two strikeouts, then drove in Crespo with an RBI single in the bottom 2nd to give himself a 2-1 lead. Pena overran the ball, giving Wood and Kaz an extra base each with one out, which didn’t really factor into anything at the end of the inning. Flores, Sharp, and Castro all hit RBI singles to run the score to 5-1 on Kirk, who, as all Raccoons fans worth their merchandise know, no-hit the Raccoons on the final weekend of the 2004 season. While Kirk would be gone in the bottom 4th after another RBI single by Sharpie brought the score to 6-1, Kaz did exceedingly well for himself for being thrown into a quasi-start without preparation and delivered 4 2/3 shutout innings, while the Raccoons kept merrily scoring and led 9-1 after six. Then we gave the ball to Matt Cash and immediately bad things started to happen. The Crusaders would only get two runs off him (and only one of them earned), however, and their own bullpen happily kept falling apart, as the Raccoons scored in every inning except the third and the seventh. 11-3 Critters! Flores 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB; Sharp 3-5, 2 RBI; Castro 4-4, BB, RBI; Crespo 3-5, 2B, RBI; Bowen (PH) 1-1, RBI; Wood 2-5, 2B, RBI; Kichida 4.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (3-1) and 1-3, RBI;

By the way, the Elks have now lost two games in a row to the Indians, growing our lead to six games. Further south, the Stars got bombed 10-3 by the Pacifics (a certain Colby Kirk pitching a 3-inning save).

That makes the Raccoons the best team in baseball.

Ah, aren’t they a delight?

Game 4
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B H. Cardenas – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – C J. Lopez – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – P A. Javier
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Brown

While Brownie had everything working and struck out Crusaders in numbers, Angel Javier struggled, yet Stanton Martin in rightfield kept robbing the Raccoons, taking away three seemingly sure doubles in the first four innings. Brown suffered a setback in the third inning, a Pena double and Cardenas RBI single with two outs, but Tomas Castro’s homer in the bottom 4th was well uncatchable even for Martin and tied the game again. Brown got shot over 100 pitches with an arduous sixth that included two full count walks to Lopez and Rios and while he finished with his 10th strikeout to Angel Javier, that was also the end of his game, since his spot was due to lead off in the bottom of the inning. With the Raccoons limited to two hits so far, and Brown over 100 pitches, Bob Mays hit for him and fouled out. Flores singled, but that was it for the Raccoons, and Brownie would not get a decision. We survived a Ming Kui single off Rockburn and Bryan walking Martin Ortíz in the seventh, in the bottom of which Castro hit a leadoff double, but was never advanced. Tied through eighth we had a very rested Angel Casas available for two innings, which included retiring the 1-2-3 batters in order in the ninth, saw Quebell draw a walk off Javier to start the bottom 9th, being run for by Sato, but the Raccoons just could not get the ball onto the green. After brushing Ortíz with his first pitch of the 10th, Casas struck out the side. Angel Javier had only expended 100 pitches through nine innings and was sent out for the bottom 10th, where Bowen led off with a single. Bowen was moved up on two groundouts and was at third when we had the choice between Gutierrez and Wood to bat for Angel with two outs. It was the left-hander. Gutierrez worked a full count before lobbing a soft line to right – and Stanton Martin, who had robbed the Raccoons all day long, had no chance to catch this one. It fell in, and Gutierrez walked off the Coons for a sweep! 2-1 Critters!! Castro 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 10 K; Casas 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-0);

Raccoons (43-16) vs. Scorpions (27-33) – June 9-11, 2007

The Scorpions had the worst bullpen in the Federal League, and had the third-worst rotation, which led to them having surrendered almost five runs per game, 296 in total, which was the second-highest mark in their league. They were capable with the stick, however, scoring 278 runs, ranking third in that regard.

These teams had only met once in the last four years, which had actually happened last year, when the Raccoons had swept the Scorpions. Overall we were 27-30 against them, and that sweep in 2006 was our only series win against them since 1996.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (7-0, 2.19 ERA) vs. George Allen (1-9, 7.22 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (6-1, 3.25 ERA) vs. George Norris (3-5, 6.80 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (2-4, 4.79 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (0-0)

If Graham made his big league debut on Sunday, this would give us a left-handed pitcher to face after all. Graham was 23, and an extreme fly ball pitcher. But Carlos Castro (5-4, 2.88 ERA) would be rested for a Sunday start, so we weren’t holding our breath just yet. Sacramento had placed their regular left-hander Dan Moriarty (4-4, 3.62 ERA) onto the DL on Wednesday with a calf strain.

Game 1
SAC: SS B. Butler – C Gibson – 2B D. McCormick – 1B Cain – CF K. Williams – RF R. Anderson – LF MacKey – 3B Nava – P Allen
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Crespo – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Yates

Allen walked more than he struck out, allowed lots of hits, and was also prone to hard contact. All three of those things factored into the first inning which saw Duke Smack clobber a 2-out, 2-run triple to give the Raccoons an early lead behind Yates, who dealt fireballs and mowed down Scorpions at a frantic pace. Through six innings, he whiffed nine, walked two, and allowed no hits, but was already at 80 pitches.

The Raccoons had not done much against Allen after the first until loading the bases with three singles in the fifth inning, but Bowen ultimately grounded out to leave the bases loaded. Allen put on Crespo in the sixth with a single, but was removed for Jesus Quinones, who allowed an RBI double to Vic Flores, 3-0 in the sixth. The path cut by Flores’ grounder past first and into right would then be followed by a ball hit by Sammy Cain for a leadoff double in the seventh to break up Yates’ bid. Ken Williams’ liner was then got by Gutierrez with Cain in motion, and Gutierrez, while tumbling, threw to Flores to get the runner doubled off. Kel finished eight with 12 K but also with a flat 100 pitches. *However*, we also had used Angel for two and Bruno was on the DL, so without more support, Kel might still be our best option in the ninth. Yates faced the 1-2-3 batters in the top 9th, got Butler to ground out to short, Gibson to softly fly out to left center, and then erased McCormick with his battleaxe. 3-0 Furballs! Quebell 2-4; Black 2-4, 2 RBI; Crespo 3-4, 2B; Mays (PH) 1-1; Yates 9.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 13 K, W (8-0);

This was the second career shutout for Kel, the first as a Coon. He also has 14 complete game, two with Portland.

It really looks like we get the debutee on Sunday, so the middle game saw Duke Smack and Vic Flores getting a day off. We can rest Castro, Quebell, and Sharp tomorrow if so desired.

Game 2
SAC: SS B. Butler – 2B D. McCormick – C Gibson – 1B Cain – CF K. Williams – LF J. Rivera – 3B Nava – RF R. Anderson – P Norris
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Crespo – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes

Rodney Gibson peppered a 2-run homer off Fuentes in the first inning, as the first three batters all hit the ball very hard, with Bob Butler getting thrown out at home by Mays on McCormick’s double. The Raccoons had Crespo on with a single in the bottom 2nd when Kunimatsu Sato hit a 2-out double to center that was just enough to plate Crespo to get back to 2-1. From here, Norris issued three straight walks to Yoshi, Fuentes(!), and Castro to tie the score before Quebell could ground out.

But Fuentes didn’t have it. After a short shower in the third inning, Jesus Rivera homered in the fourth, and the Scorpions scored another run in the fifth inning, as Fuentes continued to surrender hard contact to all fields and sometimes beyond. The Raccoons were willingly accepting numerous walks surrendered by Norris, but couldn’t get that key hit when needed. In the bottom 6th, Sato got on with a single, and while Nomura grounded to third for what looked like two, Vicente Nava’s throw to second was high and into centerfield. Vic Flores then hit for Fuentes and walked, giving Castro three on and one out in a 4-2 deficit. He grounded to the right side, where Dave McCormick only had a play at first, 4-3, and that brought up Quebell, who had no home runs on the season despite playing first base every day, but at least theoretically knew where the fence was. He banged a double off that fence he couldn’t overcome, and that was enough to flip the score in Fuentes’ favor. It also started to drizzle again.

Law Rockburn didn’t hold onto Fuentes’ lead very well at all, surrendering a game-tying home run to Bob Butler, the first man he faced in the top 7th. He then allowed a single to McCormick before Gibson hit into a double play and the score remained tied in the frame, and then the Scorpions ran out George Norris just long enough to blow the game. Norris issued his sixth walk (against no strikeouts) to Bowen leading off the bottom 7th, allowed a single to Mays and was then graviously removed and led behind the shed. Just as Rick Nicholls allowed a single to Crespo that stocked the bases to capacity, a gunshot was heard. Kunimatsu Sato got the Raccoons ahead with a 2-run single to shallow center, and Nicholls walked Nomura to load the bases again – still no outs. Black hit for Rockburn and into a double play, home-and-first, but Castro doubled in a pair with two outs, 9-5. Cash and Jackson immediately made a mockery out of the eighth, swamping the infield with Scorpions badly enough for Angel Casas to come into a 9-6 game with the tying run at the plate in Butler. Angel struck out the offensive offender to exit the dreadful inning, and the Scorpions would not rise again in the ninth. 9-6 Critters. Castro 1-4, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Crespo 3-4; Sato 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Flores (PH) 1-1; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (19);

That was a wild and wicked one, and we got to do something about the shallow end of our bullpen. Matt Cash was already beyond horrendous last season, and he’s so again this year. Time to cut our losses and not assign more innings (and leads!) to him. I can’t do much about Ward Jackson’s presence right now, because we have to look for a quality left-hander to replace him, but Cash can we improved on easily.

So Cash (16.20 ERA in 2007; 7.36 ERA in his career) was banished, and we called up Cody Bryant, who was unscored upon in 14.2 innings in AAA.

Meanwhile, there is still no diagnosis on Kenichi Watanabe, whose turn comes up on Monday. There might be another spot start in there for Kaz, since it will be hard to find a suitable arm in AAA on such short notice…

Game 3
SAC: SS B. Butler – C Gibson – 2B D. McCormick – CF K. Williams – LF J. Rivera – RF R. Anderson – 3B Nava – 1B Moore – P Gine
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – RF Black – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Dominguez

In the end, we did not face the debutee, and not Castro either, but Jorge Gine (4-3, 4.60 ERA).

Five days after no-hitting the Crusaders, Jose Dominguez was swamped from the start of the final game in the set. Butler’s drive to center that opened the game was caught by Trevino, but Dominguez walked two and allowed both runners to score in the first inning. It got even worse for the Raccoons, who had Vic Flores reach on a single in the bottom 1st, then got forced by Castro on a grounder to short. Butler leapt as he threw to first, not getting Castro, but came down on Flores’ foot besides the bag. Flores never got up, clutching his foot in agony, and was carried off on a stretcher.

While I tumbled numbly through my office, and Gutierrez replaced Flores, the Raccoons were a bit wasteful with scoring opportunities, leaving two on in the first, in the third (where they scored a run), and then had two on again in the fifth, down 2-1, with Black batting and one out. Duke Smack had had a black day so far, coming up twice with men on both times and causing three outs, but here he singled to left to bring home Castro and tie the score. Sato doubled to right to give the Raccoons a 4-2 lead and Jorge Gine left right after that with an apparent injury. Dominguez allowed a triple to Dave McCormick in the sixth that led to a run soon enough and in the seventh Rockburn inherited trouble from Ward Jackson and had his bacon saved by Luke Black with a good grab on a howling drive off the stick of Rodney Gibson, keeping the score at 4-3. Crespo and Gutierrez hit 2-out singles in the bottom 8th off Nicholls, but Castro grounded out. Angel came out in the ninth, retired ex-Coon Julio Mata on a grounder to get going, struck out Nava, then had another ex-Coon in Dale Moore hit a double. That was all the Scorpions got, however. Juan Jose Villa flew out to Crespo in right, and that was the game, and another sweep! 4-3 Critters! Flores 1-1; Gutierrez 3-4; Castro 3-5; Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Sato 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Crespo 1-1; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Vic Flores broke his foot. He will miss at least four weeks.

We’re doomed.

In other news

June 4 – As the Condors romp the Bayhawks, 11-0, TIJ SP Ed Lawrence (1-1, 2.61 ERA, 1 SV) spins a 3-hit shutout in a spot start!
June 5 – A broken foot should keep SFB 1B/LF/3B David Lopez (.249, 11 HR, 31 RBI) out of the lineup for the next month.
June 6 – Denver’s INF Jose Correa (.271, 4 HR, 21 RBI) joins the DL folks with a shoulder strain that might cost him six weeks.
June 8 – WAS 1B/3B Cesar Gonzalez (.270, 8 HR, 34 RBI) hits the DL with a knee sprain. Recovery should take about a month for him.
June 8 – Shoulder tendinitis figures to cost NAS RF Juan Ortíz (.272, 11 HR, 50 RBI) the rest of the month of June.
June 9 – The Thunder trade SP Pancho Trevino (2-4, 6.45 ERA), who has an abnormally horrendous season, to the Falcons for two pitching prospects in #54 Nehemiah Jones and #65 Dave Butler.
June 10 – BOS LF/RF Gonzalo Munoz (.247, 5 HR, 20 RBI) delivers the 39th 6-hit performance by a batter in ABL history, connecting for a home run, a double, and four singles in the Titans’ 9-6 win over the Pacifics. He is the second Titan to achieve the feat after Isto Grönholm in 1983. No 6-hit day had been reported since Bartolo Hernandez’ second 6-hit game in May of 2005. Hernandez is the only player to get six hits twice, and no player has ever gotten seven.

Complaints and stuff

More notes for Tuesday:
• This has happened to the Crusaders five times, more than any other team
• The Crusaders and Raccoons have done this to another twice both ways now, more than any other pairing of teams
• The Crusaders have had their hands in six of the last 13 instances this happened

This ****ing crazy game of baseball…

After his 1-hitter on Friday, Kelvin Yates a win and a whiff short of leading the CL in all triple crown categories. A guy being 8-0 with a 1.97 ERA and 100 K on June 8? I’ll take it. There are now also seven games spun by a Critter with more than a dozen strikeouts, of which Yates holds a pair (14 and 13 once each). Ralph Ford had 13 once, and Brownie holds all other instances with a 14 and three 13’s.

J.C. meanwhile nipped a backdoor Player of the Week award, hitting .600 (12-20) with 1 HR and 2 RBI in limited exposure.

With the Hurt trade I really feel like we have restocked our minors with good starting pitching. There are a number of guys to watch now. Just three years ago it was all completely barren.

Of course, we have another 9-game winning streak now, however, with Watanabe potentially out for longer, and above all Vic Flores out for the next month, everything is about to reverse itself. Regression towards the mean begins now. How can we move along without Vic Flores!?

I don’t even know how to get going from here. We might try Sato for a while, although I think we might want to rather give the month’s worth of at-bats to Ryan Miller.

Doesn’t matter that we, after putting the Scorpions into last place, will face the other three last place teams in the next week. Everything’s going down …!

(embraces Honeypaws and starts to rock back and forth)

[Orcin]

So... 29-3 in your last 32 games? I think that's right. Wow!

[Questdog]

Did you change the difficulty to "Settler"?.......

Unbelievable! And with the only batter I like on the DL!!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Did you change the difficulty to "Settler"?.......

I found a way to have the console appear where you just type in a result for each game.

Originally Posted by Questdog

Unbelievable! And with the only batter I like on the DL!!

Good you mention Matt Pruitt. He will (again...) start rehab in the latter half of next week.

[Westheim]

There were no good news to start the week. Kenichi Watanabe had (FINALLY) been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation. No structural damage, but he will have to be shut down completely for months, and might even be out for the remainder of the season. That put a significant crimp into our plans to just run away with a 120-win season…

For starters, there were no desirable starters in AAA for the suddenly opened spot for Monday’s game in Richmond. With that, the start was given to Kaz, who was rested, not having pitched since first replacing Watanabe on Wednesday, earning the win with 4 2/3 shutout innings. After that, I am looking at Cássio Boda to be called up. Boda is 7-3 with a 3.70 ERA in AAA, and our other promising prospect, Brandon Teasdale (5-3, 4.15 ERA), is having an almost one-for-one approach to walks and strikeouts, which certainly would not improve in the Bigs just yet. There are also old bones in Rhett Carpenter (2-3, 2.70 ERA) and Tim Webster (2-7, 5.19 ERA) strewn around, another prospect who had dropped off the radar in recent years in Cesar Lopez (3-5, 5.09 ERA) and a semi-decent swing man in Salvador Cardona (2-0, 0.90 ERA in 7 G, 2 GS) in AAA. In AA, there’s Pat Composto with a 5-3, 1.95 ERA mark, but we’re not madly desperate right now. Boda will do for the moment, and should get the call in time for perhaps the Friday game.

Before that, we issued a callup to Sergio Vega, bouncing between St. Pete and Portland, bullpen and rotation since 2002. He was 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA in just 11 innings in AAA this year. Ryan Miller was called up to take the spot of Flores. Miller was .289/.330/.399 with three homers in AAA. And that decision was not only made with much less words, but also much less pains.

Raccoons (46-16) @ Rebels (23-39) – June 11-13, 2007

The Rebels ranked last in runs scored while the Raccoons had made it to eighth in their league, while their pitching wasn’t all that bad at all, ranking sixth in runs allowed with a decent rotation but a fatally porous bullpen that ranked last in the league with a 4.09 ERA.

The Rebels are the single-worst opponent for the Raccoons in history, beating them up 25-8 over 11 matchups. We have been swept in the last three interleague series against them and haven’t won a series with the Rebels since our last championship season in 1993…

Projected matchups:
Kazuhiko Kichida (3-1, 0.56 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (3-6, 5.25 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-3, 3.07 ERA) vs. Johnny Collins (3-6, 3.38 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (8-0, 1.97 ERA) vs. William Raven (2-1, 3.33 ERA)

That’s all right-handers. I guess, the point of trying to give Vic Flores a day off is mute now, but Daniel Sharp has not had an off day, as has Castro.

Game 1
POR: LF Crespo – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Black – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – 3B M. Gutierrez – CF Trevino – P Kichida
RIC: CF MacNamara – LF J. Garcia – 1B G. Rios – C B. Campbell – RF J. Thomas – SS Luján – 3B N. Chavez – 2B Moultrie – P Kirkland

Kaz had a bit of a traffic problem in the first innings, requiring rescue by the double play in both of the first two innings, while Kirkland had early success with strikeouts, but in the fourth allowed a double to Ryan Miller, who then scored on Yoshi’s single for the first run of the game. That was about all the Raccoons managed to do against Kirkland, and also about all the balls they actually managed to hit out of the infield. Flores missing everywhere. Kaz had a strange game, pitching into the seventh inning without striking out anybody, ever. The Rebels tied the game soon after they fell behind, and in the bottom 7th they hit three singles off Kichida, with pinch-hitter Dan Franklin delivering the go-ahead RBI single. Ed Bryan replaced Kaz with two outs, allowed a deep drive to center to Julio Garcia, but Trevino made the play to end the frame. Kirkland had been hit for by Franklin, and three relievers cobbled together the eighth inning for them. In the ninth we faced Matt Ruffin, not a bad closer at all, with one run to make up. Gutierrez struck out. Bob Mays hit for Trevino and flew out to center. Tomas Castro then hit for Cody Bryant, who had gotten the last out in the eighth, and fired the second pitch he got to right. High, deep, outta here!! We went to extras, with Ruffin axing down Quebell and Bowen before Luke Black made him give up two 2-out solo homers in the game, this one giving the Critters a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning it was Angel then, pitching for the third straight day, and four out of five, but we had no other option readily available. So Angel had been around the last few days, and it really showed. He struck out Willie Davenport to start the inning before Garcia was only retired on a deep fly to left. Gerardo Rios singled, and Ramón Olivares walked. Josh Thomas launched a shot to deep center, where Crespo was playing. Will he – … Will it …? He caught it! 3-2 Raccoons!! Nomura 2-4, RBI; Castro (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Kichida 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K;

Offensively, this was not a good game, but it was enough for the tenth straight win for the team! Actually, that’s two 10+ winning streaks separated by a single loss, so you can figure out how we’ve been for the last few weeks.

Sergio Vega got the win in this game, pitching a scoreless ninth.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – 2B Sato – P Brown
RIC: CF MacNamara – 2B Moultrie – RF G. Rios – C B. Campbell – 1B Griffin – SS Luján – LF J. Thomas – 3B N. Chavez – P J. Collins

Three runs were scored in the second inning, and all were unearned. First the Raccoons took a lead on an error by Antonio Luján that put Luke Black on base in the top half. He would score on a groundout by Ryan Miller. In the bottom of the inning it was then Sharp to commit his tenth error of the year, allowing Luján to reach, before Josh Thomas obliterated a Brown pitch for a colossal 2-run homer. The score remained as such, 2-1 Rebels, into the sixth when the Raccoons had nobody on with two outs, but then put up some 2-out terror with a Bowen double, Miller RBI single, and Trevino RBI double to take the lead, 3-2. Brown delivered a shutdown sixth, and was on his way through the seventh with two outs and nobody on, when Sato threw away Nelson Chavez’ grounder. Dan Franklin played pinch-hitting spoiler like the night before and singled in the runner, which made it a 3-3 game, and no run against Brownie was earned. He completed eight in a tie before Crespo hit for him against Alonso Villegas to get the ninth inning underway and whacked a triple to center! Castro singled to shallow center to put the Coons ahead for the third time on the day, but it was also all they got in the inning, and there was no way that Angel would try to save this one. The bullpen coach had to sit on his back to keep him from storming onto the field. Facing a mix of all types of batters, we went with the best remaining option, Law Rockburn. Lefty Daron Griffin flew out on the first pitch, Trevino making an easy catch. The righty Antonio Luján struck out, but Rockburn walked switch-hitter Josh Thomas, bringing up another switch-hitter in Nelson Chavez, and he walked, too, which was highly unusual for Rockburn, who had issued only three walks in 30.1 innings so far. Ramón Olivares hit for the pitcher, a right-hander, so we would not go to Bryan. Olivares grounded to short, Miller had it, to first, ballgame. 4-3 Brownies! Quebell 2-5; Crespo (PH) 1-1, 3B; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (7-3) and 1-3;

Funny how Daniel Sharp has always had a good stick with a hole in the glove, except last year, when he didn’t even make a handful of errors, but couldn’t bat a lick.

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – CF Crespo – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Yates
RIC: SS Luján – CF J. Garcia – 1B Griffin – LF G. Rios – C B. Campbell – RF J. Thomas – 2B Moultrie – 3B N. Chavez – P Cabrera

We got a look at right-hander Jesus Cabrera (2-4, 4.14 ERA) in the final game of the set, as Kel was trying to defend an 11-game winning streak.

A Garcia double and Gerardo Rios’ single gave the Rebels a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Raccoons came right back in the top of the second. Starting with Crespo, they hit three singles to get going, already tying it up, and then Nomura doubled for the go-ahead run to score. From here it was all walks and strikeouts to the end of the inning, with Castro and Quebell drawing the former to push in another run, 3-1. This was never a secure lead since Yates allowed quite a lot of contact, and exploded in shame in the bottom 4th when Nelson Chavez and the pitcher Cabrera hit back-to-back homers to re-knot the score. The score was still tied at three when Yates was hit for to start the top 7th. Despite the rocky outing and the depressing home runs, he had struck out eleven almost casually, but had thrown over 100 pitches in an overall uneasy outing. Sato hit for him and walked, which led to Cabrera’s removal. Lefty Aurelio Hernandez had nothing better to do than to walk the bases full with one out, facing Black, who grounded the first pitch to short for a two-for-one, another depressing moment.

Nomura grounded to short with runners on the corners and one out in the eighth, but managed to stay out of the double play, and Crespo scored on the play to break the tie. That put Vega in line for the win again after pitching the bottom 7th, but he would not get it this time. Ward Jackson faced only two batters in the bottom 8th, walked Rios, and Adam Riddle gave up a 2-out RBI double to Davenport to get the game tied. The Rebels didn’t stop there, hitting two more singles off Riddle to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom 9th against lefty Sammy Davis, Quebell’s leadoff single gave the Furballs a chance. Quebell moved up on Sharp’s groundout, then to third when Davis uncorked a wild one! But Black struck out, and Crespo struck out, too, and that ended the Raccoons’ 11-game winning streak. 5-4 Rebels. Quebell 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Crespo 2-5, 2B; Miller 2-3, BB, RBI; Mays (PH) 1-1;

Well, that was just bad pitching. Kel brought it on himself. While Nelson Chavez is a good player that shouldn’t be hidden in the #8 hole, you never ever allow a homer to the opposing pitcher. It’s bad taste! The relief performance was outrageously terrible!

In preparation for the weekend series, Cody Bryant was demoted back to St. Petersburg, while we kept Sergio Vega after two good innings around for some more select use until we good improve ourselves.

In turn, Cássio Boda was called up to make his major league debut. This 24-year old Venezuelan right-hander mixes five pitches together, a 98mph heater, a changeup, a splitter, a fork, and a circle change. His control is decent, but he tends to hang all kinds of pitches from his arsenal, leading to more fly balls than you would like to see. He was an 11th rounder taken by the Buffaloes in the 2001 draft, was released in 2002 and picked up by the Titans, who packaged him up with J.C. Crespo and Ricardo Martinez (still at AAA) for Al Martin and a farmhand.

There was another thing developing in that Daniel Sharp came down violently sick and was unavailable as we opened the weekend set with the Loggers in Milwaukee.

Trade

With Marcos Bruno still out for another month, we made a move to shore up our bullpen a bit. On Friday the Raccoons thus acquired 37-year old MR John Bennett (2-0, 1.77 ERA) from the Titans. This cost us 3B/1B Juan Gusmán (the waiver claim that started the season on the roster, but never appeared in a game before Kunimatsu Sato signed), plus former third round pick Ed Caldwell and an international signing in INF/RF Carlos Miranda, both in A ball.

Caldwell is still destined for great things, according to scouts around the nation, but he is batting for a .545 OPS in A ball this year, going hard on his 21st birthday. We have other outfield prospects down there that deserve priority (Jimmy Oakweeds, anyone?), and if it bites us down the road, well, that’s baseball. We are living for this season now.

Bennett has spent his entire 16-year career in the CL North with the Loggers and Titans. He has 337 career saves, leading the league in the category four times, and a 3.01 career ERA. He will be a free agent at the end of the year, and will cost us half of our remaining budget space to put him into a 7th/8th inning role for the last 3 1/2 months (plus).

Bennett would not be on the roster for the opener in Milwaukee, but would replace Sergio Vega for Saturday.

Raccoons (48-17) @ Loggers (29-37) – June 15-17, 2007

The Loggers were last in the division, and 10th in runs scored and 9th in runs allowed in the Continental League. Their rotation was actually average. We were 3-1 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (0-0) vs. Junior Diaz (4-4, 4.12 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (6-1, 3.46 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (7-3, 4.11 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-4, 4.76 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (3-6, 4.55 ERA)

The eternal Martin Garcia will be the only southpaw on tap in this series, unless they shove Fernando Cruz (3-4, 4.75 ERA) into the series after skipping him midweek.

With Daniel Sharp unexpectedly hitting the bed, we put Ryan Miller on third base as an emergency measure. Miller has no professional experience at the hot corner. We’re doing a lot of emergency stuff right now with injuries and illnesses mounting quickly…

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B R. Miller – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – P Boda
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – C J. Reyes – LF J. Garcia – 2B Clemente – P J. Diaz

Miller got the first defensive chance of the game for the Raccoons, a hard grounder by Bartolo Hernandez, and handled it well. Boda struck out two, including Bakile Hiwalani, in his first inning in the Bigs, a wonderful introduction. Cássio hit an RBI single in the top 2nd, scoring Nomura, who had clobbered a bases-clearing double for a quick 3-0 lead just ahead of Boda, and Junior Diaz was deconstructed for half a dozen in the inning once Quebell hit a 2-out, 2-run double. Boda would hit singles his next two times up as well, driving in the seventh run of the game in the third inning, also knocking out Diaz in the process, and pitched competently enough to not allow the Loggers back into the game, which would have been hard to achieve for a single pitcher, since the Raccoons kept piling on and reached double digits in the sixth inning. The Loggers got onto the board in the bottom 6th in the most ridiculous manner, though. Reliever Wes Gardner homered to center off Boda, who looked after that rocket with a charming mix of amusement and disgust. Cássio went into the ninth but left the game after a leadoff walk to Aaron Tolwith. The Loggers brought Tolwith and Chris Parker into scoring position on the latter’s double (on which he also hurt himself), but Sergio Vega ended the game before Boda’s line could be tainted beyond the ridiculous homer. 11-1 Raccoons! Castro 2-6; Miller 2-5, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Nomura 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 5 RBI; Boda 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0) and 3-5, 2 RBI;

Vega boarded a plane to Florida right after the game and we added John Bennett to the roster. Daniel Sharp was still unavailable.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B R. Miller – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Fuentes
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – LF Wheaton – 1B C. Parker – 2B M. Clark – C T. Phillips – P F. Cruz

Cruz was moved into this middle game, which turned out to be a splendid decision by the Loggers. The Raccoons loaded the bases, but didn’t score in the first inning, and after that were largely absent. Bakile Hiwalani, silenced completely by Boda on Friday, drove in the first run of the game in the bottom 3rd, the first of back-to-back RBI base hits between him and Dave Wheaton that put the Loggers up 2-0. The Raccoons had Crespo thrown out at home on a Quebell double to end the fifth, and the Raccoons would fall short and strand two men in both of the next two innings, with Yoshi Nomura driving in a run in the sixth to get to 2-1.

The Loggers then attempted to lose the game without Raccoons hitting in the clutch. Tolwith made an error to start the top 8th, putting on Miller, and then Sato walked against Micah Steele. Leonardo Gonzalez replaced him, a left-hander, got two 2-2 on Yoshi, but eventually surrendered a single up the middle and into center. That ball was hit too hard, however, and Miller had no chance to score on Tim Austin. So, bases loaded with no outs and one run to make up, while the Loggers changed pitchers again and brought a right-hander in Dave Walk. And then the Bobos struck. Bobo Wood hit into a double play, home and first, and Bobo Mays made the third out to first base, and completed four consecutive innings of stranding two men on base in the ninth when a Castro single and Quebell walk was wildly not enough to beat Gabe Garcia. 2-1 Loggers. Castro 3-5; Quebell 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Nomura 3-4, RBI; Fuentes 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (6-2);

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Dominguez
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – LF C. Parker – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – C J. Reyes – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – P M. Garcia

Martin Garcia was on, and Jose Dominguez was not, that was the short version of the report for the rubber game. The Raccoons had Crespo reach on an uncaught third strike in the first inning, rounded up in a Sharp double play, and then nobody until a soft single by Quebell in the fifth. By then Dominguez had been socked well already. He would not get out of the fifth inning, trailing 4-0 with two men on base. Ward Jackson got a fly to left from Wheaton that Castro had run quite a bit for, but caught it to end the inning. Miller and Mays went down silently in the sixth before Castro snipped a single to right. Then Crespo singled. Sharp singled, and Castro scored. Duke Smack appeared as the tying run, hacked once, hacked twice, mashed on the third try, a wonderful comet to leftfield, and a line drive home run!!

While Garcia looked a bit shaken, understandably, the Raccoons went to Kaz in the bottom 6th, who retired absolutely nobody, but allowed two doubles and a walk. Law Rockburn actually managed to successfully clean up that steaming mess with only the one run scoring that had already been across, and the Loggers left the bases loaded with one cautious walk issued to Parker. Garcia, vying for career win #292, did not return, with Eric Fontenot taking over. He put Bowen on in the seventh, but Miller managed to hit into a double play before we could even set up a chance. The score was still 5-4 in the ninth when he were confronted with Gabe Garcia again, and Sharp was the first Furball up. This time around, Garcia didn’t fuss around for long. Sharp popped out to short, and then Garcia fireballed Black and Quebell back to the dugout. 5-4 Loggers. Black 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

We lost back-to-back games for the first time since May 1-2 in Vancouver. Conincidentally, that was also our last series loss, a 3-game sweep we had suffered in the cold, harsh North. Since then, the Critters had won 33 of 37 (or 32 of 35 prior to the loss on the way out of Richmond).

In other news

June 11 – OCT LF Victorino Sanchez (.340, 5 HR, 33 RBI) lands his 2,000th career hit, a sixth inning single off the Wolves’ Mark Jones in an 8-1 win for the Thunder. Impressively, he is only 28 years old and has won five batting titles already. Should the baseball gods decide to keep him healthy, he might not be content with only becoming the ABL’s career hits champions eventually, but might aim for the big four-triple-oh. Sanchez was signed out of Mexico by the Capitals in 1995 and made his debut at the tender age of 17.
June 11 – The Thunder acquire 1B/2B Kurt Metting (.276, 3 HR, 25 RBI) from the Blue Sox in exchange for 1B Roberto Vargas (.253, 2 HR, 10 RBI).
June 12 – Tests reveal a fracture in SAC SP Jorge Gine’s (4-4, 5.75 ERA) pitching elbow. Gine is out for the season.
June 14 – IND LF/RF Ron Alston (.391, 8 HR, 24 RBI in 87 AB) keeps having the year from hell and has now been placed on the DL for the third time with a broken wrist. He will be out for two to three months.
June 14 – TIJ SP Manuel Pineda (1-3, 7.52 ERA) has been diagnosed with a torn labrum, ending his season.
June 14 – The Condors deal OF Jesus Alvarez (.263, 5 HR, 19 RBI) to the Blue Sox for a prospect.
June 15 – As players keep going down to injury, BOS INF Bruce Boyle (.261, 6 HR, 32 RBI) will miss up to two months with a hamstring strain.
June 15 – The Wolves deal CL Aurelio Garcia (3-5, 4.11 ERA, 17 SV) to the Gold Sox, receiving five prospects in return, and SP Steve Rogers (6-2, 2.09 ERA) to the Falcons for veteran INF Bob Grant (.284, 1 HR, 20 RBI) and another prospect, #64 SP Micah McIntyre.
June 17 – Indy’s C Jose Paraz (.287, 6 HR, 34 RBI) signs a 5-yr, $15.2M extension.

Complaints and stuff

I thought Boda would be the 400th player to ever wear the brown shirt, but I apparently miscounted and the honors went to Ward Jackson already. Oh well, welcome #401.

Miller, Sato, Nomura, Gutierrez … that surviving middle infield is not very pounding. Where have you gone, Victor Flo-ho-res …?

Flores and Bruno are both still at least three weeks away from returning to the squad, so we have to keep patching things. But Matt Pruitt resumed baseball activities on Saturday, and we should bring him up in a few days.

Oh, and the team would have to play .330 from here on to manage a losing season. No-nonono, no boys! This is not supposed to be a challenge!!

[Westheim]

2007 AMATEUR DRAFT

The 2007 ABL Amateur Draft took place on Friday. The Raccoons had the eighth pick in every round, plus two supplemental round picks and the eleventh pick in the third round, courtesy of free agency compensation for Clyde Brady and Ralph Ford.

We sort of had a list of players that were somewhat interesting, but Whitebread was not particularly amazed by any of the kids. The numbers were favorable of a couple of high school pitchers, but picking eighth and with only four pitchers around, we weren’t guaranteed to get one.

SP Brett Lillis (10/12/8)
SP Andy Overstake (11/14/4)
SP Jim Cushing (12/15/11)
SP Kevin Denton (10/12/10)
SP Bruce Mark (14/13/11)

CL George Youngblood (12/15/12)

3B/1B Tommie Peterson (9/8/14)
1B C.J. Vanderwall (10/7/15)

LF/RF Mike Bednarski (10/11/12)
LF/RF Danny Munn (7/11/14)
LF Steve Derer (9/16/13)
RF/LF/1B John Gartner (14/10/5)
OF/1B Dave Milliard (10/10/8)

The #1 overall pick was with the Pacifics, who selected 22-yr old SP Bruce Mark with the first overall pick, followed by fellow pitchers Ben Lehman to the Rebels and Jim Cushing to the Loggers. Bednarski and Milliard were also gone by the time we had our first pick coming up.

Whitebread had Lillis, Overstake, and Denton to pick from among his starting pitchers. He said that originally he had intended Lillis to be his top pick, but had consulted with two of the pitching coaches in our system and the area scout and had found out that he was mostly throwing fastballs, fastballs, fastballs. How much potential was there for complementary breaking stuff to be developed?

With that, the Raccoons used their #8 pick for Kevin Denton. Lillis and Overstake were taken back-to-back at the end of the first round, and by the time our first supplemental pick moved to the top of the list, all pitchers and outfielders from the hotter shortlist were already gone, only the two infielders Peterson and Vanderwall remained.

2007 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS
Round 1 (#8) – SP Kevin Denton, 19, from Houston, TX – southpaw with a sinking fastball and a dirty splitter; generates plenty of ground balls with poor contact by batters
Supp. Round (#32) – 1B C.J. Vanderwall, 20, from Annapolis, MD – more or less your prototypical first baseman with shoddy defense, no speed, and at least some power … although we would wish for a bit more power…
Supp. Round (#44) – SP Mike Cole, 18, from Greater Carrollwood, FL – huge swooping curveball on this right-hander, but the fastball is not very impressive, and he will need to improve on his WIP changeup to make it in baseball
Round 2 (#63) – C Brian Hammond, 21, from Brooklyn, NY – lead-footed catcher with a strong arm but sometimes clumsy behavior. Has good contact abilities and might come up with some pop, too.
Round 3 (#87) – LF Josh Turzak, 18, from Mt. Lebanon, PA – he might never win a Gold Glove, being nimble with neither of his paws, but he has a good swing and can hit for power all over the field
Round 3 (#90) – INF Nick Robinson, 21, from Moorhead, MS – cast from the quirky mold, he is a highly-skilled defender and quick runner and base stealer, but has mostly a singles bat; needs to have the desire to hit home runs slapped out of his head, which results in strikeouts on desperate rips
Round 4 (#111) – RF/SS Shane Lea, 18, from Hillsboro, OR – first, we got to find this kid a position where he can do the least damage with his clumsy paws, then we got to school his eye and make him more patient in his approach; the result good be a good ballplayer.
Round 5 (#135) – INF Mark Lydic, 18, from Casas Adobes, AZ – good range, arm, and speed, but not too adept with the bat, but might hit a few home runs to console his manager over his .210 batting average
Round 6 (#159) – INF/LF/RF Chris Phillips, 18, from Los Angeles, CA – quite an adept fielder basically all over the field, Phillips has to show much more with the bat to even make it as an utility
Round 7 (#183) – C Pedro Torruellas, 18, from Ceiba, Puerto Rico – this switch-hitter is a mad hacker; when he makes contact, he sends pitchers crying, but it doesn’t happen all that often
Round 8 (#207) – SP Danny Wood, 19, from Redan, GA – this lefty was not even the #1 pitcher on his high school team in backwaters Georgia…
Round 9 (#231) – SP Josh Meissner, 18, from Mission, TX – right-hander with an 86mph “fastball”, and his splitter has the ability to freeze batters in time
Round 10 (#255) – INF/RF Andy Lannon, 18, from Omaha, NE – another one of those kids playing all over the place with their glove, but not getting much done with the bat
Round 11 (#279) – SP Keith Dale, 18, from Parma, OH – right-hander with an 86mph “fastball”, yet again, and the breaking stuff is rather dull
Round 12 (#303) – LF/RF/1B Pete Schipper, 20, from Margate, FL – likes to hit for power – which he does – but occasionally it would be nice to get on base more often than just every fortnight

All players were assigned to Aumsville to get their start in professional ball. We released a few players, including two former fourth rounder in infielders Jamie Orr and Jerry Lawson, and of course there was also that Ed Caldwell trade.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (49-19) vs. Indians (41-28) – June 18-20, 2007

The Indians were one of only two teams the Raccoons had a losing record against so far this season, having dropped four of six contest already played (the other team? The Elks, 0-3), despite the fact that their offense had never had Ron Alston to torture them and David Lopez was gone anyway. Something about the Raccoons just didn’t mix well with the team that ranked fourth in both runs scored and runs allowed in the league (Coons: 9th and 1st, respectively).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (7-3, 2.80 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (6-5, 3.05 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (8-0, 2.13 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (3-2, 4.50 ERA)
Cássio Boda (1-0, 1.13 ERA) vs. Bob King (5-3, 3.42 ERA)

We won’t have to face Curtis Tobitt (10-2, 2.67 ERA) unless he pitches on short rest on Wednesday, but Escobedo was already out of his spot in the order with Gonzalez named to oppose Brownie on Monday, so who knows what might happen…

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

Brownie struck out five, including Felix Martines for #100 on the year, the first time through the order, not allowing any runners, but Gonzalez didn’t stand back much, whiffing three while walking Sharp in the first inning, so no hits through three. That changed with Angel Solís’ leadoff single in the fourth. The runner stole second, but was kept on there when Stevens and Paraz both grounded hard to Sharpie at third, and he made two good plays to retire them. Filippo Fugosi hit one out the next inning, though, giving the Indians a 1-0 advantage while the Raccoons were still hitless. You could see that Brown was trying hard, reaching ten strikeouts in the sixth, but he also allowed another run on a Solís double and Paraz RBI single, while throwing wild pitches in both the fifth and the sixth. Castro broke up Gonzalez’ bid with two outs in the sixth, singling to right, but was left on by Crespo. No, it all fell apart for the Raccoons for good in the seventh. Lopez hit a soft single before Martines drew the first walk for the Indians. Brown remained in when the Indians sent Jose Lugo, a left-hander, to pinch-hit, but his trickler evaded both Sato and Miller up the middle and the Indians moved to 3-0. Brown finished the inning, but the Raccoons had been choked over six innings by Gonzalez, for whom Lugo had hit. While the Critters’ new acquisition John Bennett got double-bombed by Fugosi and James Miller in the eighth, the Raccoons only managed one more hit on the road to getting suffocated. 6-0 Indians. Mays (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, L (7-4);

Three losses in a row now. Time to start worrying, I guess?

Game 2
IND: LF A. Solís – RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 2B J. Miller – SS J. Lopez – 3B C. Aguilar – CF Martines – P Escobedo
POR: CF Crespo – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Black – C Bowen – RF Mays – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Yates

When the first three Indians all hit hard flies to left in this game, the worries manifested in a hurry. Luke Black caught all three of the flies, however, and the Raccoons broke through Escobedo for three runs in the bottom 2nd, starting with a Bowen home run and ending with a 2-out, 2-run single by Crespo, going a long way in reassuring everybody that they weren’t quite dead. Escobedo was out of the game by the fourth with the score upped to 6-0, including a home run by Crespo. Yates had yet to allow a hit. Just like on Monday, Solís would be the spoiler, hitting a 1-out single in the sixth, but was thrown out stealing by Bowen this time. Bowen, the old Indians backup catcher, almost hit a 3-piece in the bottom 6th, but was caught on the warning track by Bill Miller to end the inning. Yates expended 97 pitches on a 2-hitter through eight (Paraz doubled along the way) and with then a 7-0 lead there was no question as to whether he would come out to pitch the ninth, facing the top of the order. The pesky Angel Solís hit a leadoff jack to break up the shutout, but the Indians could not get back into this one. 7-1 Coons. Crespo 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Quebell 3-5; Black 2-4, 2B, RBI; Mays 2-4; Yates 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (9-0);

With that performance, Kel now leads the CL in ERA (.64 over Tobitt) and strikeouts (7 over Tobitt), while trailing by one win (of course, Tobitt). Brownie is third in strikeouts, a dozen off Yates.

We had anticipated Matt Pruitt perhaps to come up by Wednesday, but he had struggled in a few days with the Alley Cats since coming back from the back problem, and he will remain in AAA for a few more days.

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

A Lopez single and an Aguilar double gave the Indians two men in scoring position with two outs in the second, but Felix Martines was mired in a terrible rut, and we were confident enough to have Boda pitch to him in his second career start. Martines popped out foul, and the game remained scoreless, at least until we got a pleasant flashback to the previous game. The Raccoons again got the lead on Craig Bowen hitting one very deep and would have put up a 3-spot in the second again, with Gutierrez and Castro driving in runs, if Cesar Aguilar hadn’t made a critical error on Crespo’s grounder. Instead of ending the inning, it brought up Quebell with runners in scoring position, and Adrian singled to right to run the tally to 5-0!

As soon as we were up, we stumbled. Boda hit King with a pitch to start the third inning. Solís reached on an error by Bowen. And then Bill Miller walked. Bases loaded, no outs, pitching coach calming down a sweating rookie. Simon Stevens plated a pair with a double before Paraz walked. Boda then had a resurgence (with the pen seeing some guys doing stretches), struck out Fugosi and Lopez, and we would have gotten out ahead 5-2 if a ball hadn’t found Sharp. Struck sharply by Aguilar, the boo-man of the bottom 2nd, Sharp had trouble with the transfer, then threw wildly to second base, plating another run on the error. Martines made the third out as the Indians got back to 5-3 immediately in a top 3rd that wasn’t quite within the definition of a shutdown inning. The Indians didn’t stop there as the Raccoons were now in complete disarray, and foremost Boda. A single, a walk, a 3-run homer by Stevens turned the game in the fourth. Fugosi doubled, yanking Boda, and Adam Riddle waved the runner around to fall behind 7-5.

The Coons got blasted, and then didn’t help themselves with inning-ending double plays hit into in both the fifth and sixth innings. Bennett got blasted for the second straight day, a 2-run homer by Paraz that put the game away in the eighth inning. 9-6 Indians. Sharp 2-4; Bowen 2-4, HR, RBI; Nomura 2-4, 3B; Mays (PH) 1-1;

Well, that was horrendously ugly.

Since winning 33 of 36, we have dropped five of seven, and I don’t like that much at all.

Raccoons (50-21) @ Aces (26-47) – June 22-24, 2007

The Aces were fifth in runs scored, but 11th in runs allowed. Their rotation was getting battered to a 5.39 ERA, something that even a decent bullpen could not fix. We had swept them in the first series this year.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (6-2, 3.43 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (3-5, 5.60 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-4, 4.95 ERA) vs. Roberto Muniz (2-6, 8.56 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-4, 2.88 ERA) vs. Bob Bowden (2-8, 7.56 ERA)

That’s some awful ERA’s. It’s also three right-handed starters.

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes
LVA: 2B F. Soto – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – CF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – 1B Messinger – P Valdevez

The offense tried by heart to rekindle the warm fuzzy feelings of recent weeks, with Castro scoring on Black’s sac fly in the first, and Bowen clanking his third homer in three games off the right foul pole in the second for an early 2-0 lead. The Aces didn’t get a hit the first time through the order, but Francisco Soto reached on an infield single to the right side to start the fourth inning for them. Inaki-Luki Warrain reached on a clumsy wide throw by Fuentes to second, but got caught up in Eduardo Durango’s double play. Ricardo Garcia then came through with a single to left, cutting the score in half, 2-1. Something had to be done, and when Duke Smack came up with two men on in the fifth he zinged a liner into the left field corner, from where it bounced awkwardly away from Logan Taylor to become a 2-run triple! Black would score on a Sharp single, then triple again his next time up, and score on a Miller single, 6-1, and then hit a sac fly his next time up, 7-1. There would be a mild crumble in the bottom 8th in which Soto hit an RBI double to knock out Fuentes. Riddle allowed Soto to score, but Ed Bryan regained control of the situation and eventually struck out Don Cameron to end the inning still up by four, and Law Rockburn did his job to not allow them to get any closer in the ninth. 7-3 Raccoons. Quebell 3-4, 2B; Black 2-3, 2 3B, 4 RBI; Bowen 2-5, HR, RBI; Miller 3-5, RBI; Fuentes 7.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (7-2);

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – CF Trevino – P Dominguez
LVA: 2B F. Soto – 3B Warrain – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – CF Messinger – 1B McDermott – RF Cameron – SS Dahlke – P Muniz

Both Castro and Sharp got on base in the first, and both managed to get thrown out, Castro on a straight steal, and Sharp on what he thought was a bloop double. That sounds strange already, and his move was even stranger. They say, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stranger – right? – but he was going to get killed for more stupid mistakes for sure.

Kuni Sato gave the Raccoons the lead in this one, an RBI single scoring Luke Black in the second, and they tacked on a run in the third, but left on a total of five men across the two innings. That of course had to hurt, more so with Dominguez pitching and five left-handers in the Aces’ lineup, and sure enough Forest Messinger hit a game-tying 2-run homer in the bottom 4th. Dominguez was his usual shabby self, allowing only three hits but walking four and whiffing none at all in five innings, then allowed a leadoff double to Eduardo Durango in the bottom 6th. In a tied game and with four lefties more to come, Ward Jackson came in, and Taylor grounded out, Messinger whiffed, and McDermott grounded out to keep the game tied. Jackson walked Don Cameron to start the seventh, though, and was removed for Bennett, who retired three to keep Cameron on base.

Game tied at two we entered the ninth, facing legendary pushover Charlie Deacon. Ryan Miller led off in the #9 slot after having entered in a double switch in the bottom 8th along with Ed Bryan. He doubled to left, setting up a prime chance to take the lead. Castro got plunked, Quebell flew out, and Sharp hit into a double play. No, no, no…

Bryan pitched the ninth sufficiently well to force extras, where Deacon walked a pair to get Trevino up with two outs. Trevino lobbed a soft line into shallow right in a full count, good enough for even Craig Bowen to score from second base. That was all we got, leaving on two more, and Angel had to protect a 3-2 lead, which he did in stellar fashion, and with two strikeouts. 3-2 Coons! Sharp 3-5, 2B, RBI; Sato 2-4, RBI; Trevino 2-5, RBI; Bennett 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Bryan 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-1);

More good news: the Indians and Elks are scuffling (the Indians at least when not playing the Critters), and our lead is now up to 9 1/2 games.

Bob Mays was sent to AAA after this game. Matt Pruitt was back for Sunday. He has missed 65 games since a .414/.469/.517 start to the year.

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – CF Crespo – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Brown
LVA: 2B F. Soto – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – CF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – 1B Messinger – P Bowden

Pruitt returned with a single that loaded the bases in the top 1st, and while Black didn’t smack one, he drew a walk off a rotting Bob Bowden (51 BB in 89.1 IP) to push home Sharp with the first run of the game. J.C. Crespo’s single and Ryan Miller’s sac fly gave the Raccoons a 3-0 lead in the inning, and Craig Bowen hit his fourth home run of the week the next inning, collecting Sharp for a 5-0 advantage! Brownie was not untouchable however, walked a guy in the first, then walked Logan Taylor in the second. Taylor was caught in a rundown on Tom Dahlke’s single and disposed of by Miller and Sharp in a shallow grave in the woods, but Messinger also singled and Brown only got out of the inning on a K to Bowden, his fourth on the day.

The Aces kept coming for him, though. Soto started the third with an infield single, and Warrain singled up the middle. The two pulled off a double steal, then got stranded in scoring position. Despite not having his best stuff and control, Brown remained unhurt through five innings with a 6-0 lead, but spent 90 pitches getting there, so a shutout was not in the books today. The sixth would be his last inning, with one lengthy at-bat after another. Logan Taylor reached on an infield single that Brown had to field on the first base line, but couldn’t get a throw off. He then axed down Tom Dahlke to still end the night on an arguably high note. The Raccoons would have the bases loaded with no outs in the eighth, scoring only on a sac fly, but that made it 7-0 after Riddle’s clean bottom 7th, and Ward Jackson wasn’t scored upon either in the eighth. Then, Kaz Kichida got massacred. Bottom 9th, Dahlke led off with a homer. Messinger hit a hard single, and Artie Hill homered. No outs. Exit Kaz, enter Bennett, who got a sufficient numbers of outs in due time to complete the sweep. 7-3 Brownies. Sharp 3-5; Crespo 2-5, RBI; Miller 2-3, 2B, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Brown 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (8-4);

In other news

June 19 – VAN SP Juichi Fujita (6-4, 3.49 ERA) 3-hits the Titans in a 1-0 nailbiter that goes the Canadiens’ way.
June 21 – In his second start for the Falcons, SP Steve Rogers (7-2, 1.89 ERA) 3-hits the Bayhawks in a 3-0 shutout.
June 23 – 39-year old LAP SP Manny Rios (2-7, 6.97 ERA) might end his career on the DL, being diagnosed with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
June 24 – VAN SS/3B Gary Rice (.336, 7 HR, 31 RBI) is expected to miss a month with a fractured foot.
June 24 – TIJ CL Lorenzo Flores (1-4, 3.21 ERA, 18 SV) logs his 300th save to put away the Condors’ 5-2 win over the Indians. The 37-year old is pitching his first time in the Continental League, having spent the first 16 years of his career with the Blue Sox, Capitals, Cyclones, and Stars, but he only was a complimentary piece and not the closer at any point for Washington and Dallas, yet has notched a save for 17 consecutive seasons.

Complaints and stuff

So the Coons lose their shortstop to a broken foot, and now the Elks do the same. Level playing field?

The Raccoons have never swept a CL South team 9-0 before, but this edition of the Aces looks like they might achieve the feat. They really don’t have much of anything, and with starting pitching like that, you’re begging for last place and some humiliation along the way.

The Critters have been 0-9’ed before however. Twice, actually, by the 1977 Bayhawks and 1985 Knights, the latter instance still puzzling.

So, Pruitt’s back, now we’re just (“just”!) missing Vic Flores, Marcos Bruno, and Kenichi Watanabe. The latter will come back in September at best, but Flores and Bruno could be back around the All Star break.

How many All Stars will the Raccoons be able to send? Still two weeks, but it won’t hurt to dream, right? On the way there, we will play the Condors, Crusaders, Canadiens, and Titans. The Canadiens are our four-and-four partners again this year, and we will have another series with the Indians right after that back leg of the four-and-four. We have no more off days until the All Star game.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (53-21) vs. Condors (33-42) – June 25-27, 2007

The Condors came in with the 8th-ranked offense, third-worst pitching, and a 5-game winning streak. Being nine and a half games back was good enough for third place in the South, which was getting a bit overrun by the North despite this not being a reenactment of the Battle of Chattanooga. We’d stay out west, thanks.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (9-0, 2.03 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (4-8, 5.75 ERA)
Cássio Boda (1-1, 4.63 ERA) vs. Art Cox (4-4, 4.02 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (7-2, 3.35 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (6-7, 4.70 ERA)

Kel was again hyperventilating at the thought of pitching against his old team despite a strong seven innings of 1-run, 11-K ball the last time this happened and in fact we were 3-0 against them. Meanwhile we are looking exclusively at right-handed batters in this series.

Game 1
TIJ: CF R. Perez – LF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – 3B B. Román – 1B Maldrum – RF Ward – C P. Estrada – SS Ybarra – P Carter
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 2B Nomura – C Wood – SS M. Gutierrez – P Yates

After Ramón Perez leadoff single, Kel struck out the next three batters to reach 100 more strikeouts than walks on the season (121/21). To celebrate the occasion, the Raccoons romped Carter for four runs in the bottom of the first, with singles by Castro, who stole second and reached third on an errant throw by Paco Estrada, and Quebell, walks drawn by Sharp and Black, and finally two more singles by Wood and Gutierrez. Both pitchers than allowed a myriad of hits and a balk in the bottom 3rd and top 4th, respectively, but only conceded a run each. Yates hit into an inning-ending double play in the Coons’ half, but struck out Pancho Ybarra in a full count before the top 4th could get really ugly with two men in scoring position.

All was well until the seventh inning. The Raccoons were up 6-1 with Ybarra getting moved to second on a groundout by PH Roberto Quintero. That made for two outs but Yates didn’t quite have it anymore and the dangerous left-handed Ramón Perez was up next. Ward Jackson was tasked with that, and failed abysmally, surrendering successive RBI hits to Perez and Rowan Tanner. Rockburn replaced him, Juan Diaz singled, and then Bartolo Román sent a rocket to left that required an artistic performance by just-healed Matt Pruitt to not turn into something ugly, ending the inning with a rather less comfy 6-3 lead. The Critters didn’t add to that although Castro tripled in the eighth, and instead relied on an Angel to save them. With two outs, Tanner hit an infield single to third, where Gutierrez had been shifted at the expense of Sharp to aid defense, which clearly didn’t work out well, but Casas got Diaz to ground out to bring up the Game Over screen for the Condors. 6-3 Critters. Castro 3-3, 2 BB, 3B; Wood 2-3, BB, 3 RBI; Yates 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (10-0);

Have we ever had a 10-0 pitcher? I seriously doubt that. Ralph Ford did win ten games by the end of June a few years ago, but … oooh, wait! Scott Wade was undefeated for like forever one year! That was around … uh, what the heck do I know? I’m just cleaning the glasses here…!

Game 2
TIJ: CF R. Perez – LF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – 3B B. Román – RF Barnes – C A. Ramirez – 1B Ward – SS Ybarra – P Cox
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Boda

Daniel Sharp’s defense was becoming a topic ever so slowly but surely, as he opened a door for the Condors in the middle game when he threw away Art Cox’ bunt in the third inning. Cássio Boda tried his very best to not let the resulting situation (runners on second and third, no outs) get away, and managed to allow only one runner to score, but now trailed 1-0. Not for long, though. He led off the bottom 3rd, chipped a single to right, and then scored on Tomas Castro’s huge home run to dead center that flipped the score in the Furballs’ favor. Boda then went on to concede three walks in the fourth and the tying run to score on an Ybarra grounder. He went only five innings with a lot of long pitch counts, four walks and seven strikeouts. Kaz Kichida couldn’t quite make good for his last ****ty outing and allowed a run in the latter of his two innings, but a Nomura sac fly pulled the score back even in the same inning, the seventh. Then Rockburn got out. Tommy Ward, who along with Ramón Perez was wearing out Raccoons pitching in this series, singled, and then Rockburn made a gut-twisting error and dropped Quebell’s throw to first on Paco Estrada’s grounder that should have ended the top 8th. Ed Bryan came out for Perez, who was hit for with … Christian Greenman, whose guts I hated, but who struck out to lay that threat to rest. Castro led off the bottom 8th with a double, Quebell’s grounder was thrown into the dugout by Juan Diaz. While Quebell was never moved past second base, one run was plenty much for Angel Casas, who put away his 24th of the year. 4-3 Raccoons. Castro 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Miller 2-3;

Steve Rogers and the Falcons beat the Crusaders, 5-2, which pushed our division lead to double digits!

And with that, this series ended already: all of Wednesday in Portland was rain, rain, rain. The game was rescheduled for our last series in late August as part of a double header. That series will take place in Tijuana, but for the makeup game the Raccoons will officially be the home team.

Raccoons (55-21) vs. Crusaders (46-32) – June 28-July 1, 2007

The Crusaders ranked second in runs scored in the CL (with the Raccoons just now breaking into the upper half), and they also were conceding the second-least runs after the Raccoons. We held an advantage of 39 runs less conceded, though. Their rotation ranked second, their bullpen first. Over the course of the season, we have beaten them in six of seven games.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (7-2, 3.35 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (8-3, 3.10 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-4, 4.87 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (7-8, 4.99 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-4, 2.71 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (8-4, 3.37 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (10-0, 2.07 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (7-5, 3.42 ERA)

That’s more right-handers. Not a single southpaw even close.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – C J. Lopez – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – P A. Javier
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Crespo – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes

Tomas Castro came in with a 10-game hitting streak and made it 11 on the fly, hitting a leadoff jack in the bottom of the first to give Fuentes a 1-0 lead. The lead was 2-0 by the top 4th, in which Fuentes, who had already loaded the bases with a single and two walks in the second inning and had only gotten out thanks to hitting up with the opposing pitcher, found new trouble. Caraballo singled, Lopez walked, and then Luke Black tried to catch Ted Mullins’ blooper to right, completely missed it, and the result was a 2-run triple and three runs in the inning, giving the pursuing Crusaders a 3-2 lead. Two problems: Fuentes was not any good, and the Raccoons couldn’t get the ball onto the ground anymore and hit plenty of pop ups that scared absolutely nobody. A fourth run would score in the fifth inning after singles by the Martin Brothers, as Fuentes went six shoddy frames. The Raccoons took until the bottom 7th to mount something remotely resembling a threat. Crespo singled, Nomura singled, one out. Pruitt hit for Riddle, and right into a double play, a liner to Hernandez, who doubled Yoshi off first. Raccoons pitchers threw three pitches in the top 9th, Kaz Kichida getting three outs on two throws after Ward Jackson got no outs on one offering, which Roberto Pena turned into a single. Hernandez’ double play grounder was followed by a Stanton Martin roller to third. In the bottom 9th Robbie Wills struck out Black and Bowen with authority before Kunimatsu Sato hit a pinch-hit home run that went entirely to waste. 4-3 Crusaders. Castro 2-4, HR, RBI; Black 2-4, 2 2B; Sato (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P Reeves
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – SS M. Gutierrez – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Dominguez

Dominguez got knocked over and trampled on in the first inning, issuing three walks, a few singles, hit a batter with the bases loaded, and allowed four runs in total. Six walks worked the Raccoons and Dominguez in particular into a tremendously deep hole, and Dominguez was yanked in the fourth with two outs, the bases full with Crusaders, in a 4-0 game, and Caraballo at the plate. John Bennett came in, got Caraballo out with a grounder to short, then retired batters quickly for the next two innings and into the seventh inning until Caraballo came up again and hit a triple, and it was another one of those misplayed botch jobs, this time by Castro in center. Caraballo scored on a single by Ted Mullins, moving the score to 5-0. The Raccoons had two hits at that point, being completely choked by Whit Reeves. When they actually did get two men on in the bottom 8th, Reeves was removed for Scott Hood while Bowen batted for Adam Riddle – and struck out. No, this was really not our game. The Raccoons were shut out on three pitches. 5-0 Crusaders. Bennett 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Among the hitless casualties was Castro and his 11-game hitting streak.

I don’t like how this series is developing, but thank god our A team comes up now.

Game 3
NYC: 1B T. Mullins – 2B J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – C J. Lopez – CF Britton – 3B O. Rios – P Bautista
POR: LF Castro – SS R. Miller – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 2B Nomura – P Brown

Castro led off the Coons’ half of the first with a drive to deep center. What looked like it would give Brownie a 1-0 lead was actually caught by Apasyu Britton on the warning track, but Britton was in no condition to stop before slamming into the fence, and when he did, he dropped the ball. Castro had a double, and Miller singled him in. That lead was soon blown. Martin Ortíz led off the top 2nd with a triple, and while Caraballo’s fly out to Trevino was too shallow to dare to make it home, Jorge Lopez singled for a 1-1 tie. Brown then walked Britton and Rios, two left-handers, and was a lucky bastard to have Jesus Bautista’s liner to be caught by Sharp. He then struck out Mullins. Bottom 2nd, Trevino struck a home run to get going, and then Nomura, Brown, and Castro all reached base without an out being made. Bautista got a bloody nose here. Miller struck out, but Sharp singled to make it 3-1, and while Pruitt’s hard liner was caught by Mullins, he couldn’t double off Sharp, who had gotten an early start. Duke Smack sent a liner into the gap in left center that was played well by Ortíz to remain a single, but scored two runs nevertheless. The Coons added another run in the next inning off Bautista. Brownie had a few good innings after the nightmare in the second, then started to lose command of every pitch he knew. He walked four in total in seven innings, but only surrendered one more run, a homer to Ape Britton, and maintained a 4-run lead. The eighth inning saw Stanton Martin double against Rockburn, but Ed Bryan came in to retire Ortíz and get out of the inning. The ninth had left-handers up once Lopez could be removed. Ward Jackson was tasked after Bryan had been hit for in the bottom 8th (Crespo struck out). Britton singled with one out against Jackson before he got Rios. Pinch-hitter Ming Kui hit a high drive to center, but Trevino caught it to end the game. 6-2 Brownies! Castro 3-5, 2B, RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Black 2-4, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Nomura 2-4; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (9-4);

That was another weak command and control game from Brownie, who just can’t reach his 2-ish BB/9 numbers from the last two seasons. But he has the same K/9 he’s had for five years now, always between 9.5 and 9.8, and 9.7 right now at the half way point in 2007.

Well, at least we will not be getting swept. That would have stung, dropping a 10 1/2 game lead down to six. That will not happen, and next is Mr. Undefeated.

Game 4
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – LF Britton – C D. Anderson – P Baker
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Sato – P Yates

Britton was hurt on a play in the first inning, bringing Ming Kui as replacement into the game. The Raccoons scored three runs anyway after Castro singled, stole second, then circled around on Matt Pruitt’s first home run of the season. Black, Bowen, and Miller would chain up 2-out hits to plate another run. Kel was dealing, whiffing five against one single the first time through the order, but the Crusaders then managed to chain three singles together in the fourth inning. Francisco Caraballo hit a single right past Miller to score Hernandez, 3-1. In the fifth, Sharp botched another grounder, throwing it away to put Daryl Anderson on second base with nobody out, but Kel then turned into a cat on Jim Baker’s bunt and got Anderson tagged out by Sharp at third base. That was not a very good break though, because slowly but surely the game eroded away. Roberto Pena reached on a dump single into no man’s land, and then Yates plunked Hernandez to load them up. Miller missed Martin’s grounder to short, which turned into a 2-run single, tying the game.

And just then, the Raccoons were handed bases loaded and no outs in the bottom 5th. Castro singled and moved to second on Martin’s error in right. Quebell was put on intentionally and then Sharp’s double play grounder was murdered into an error by Caraballo. Pruitt struck out in a full count before Black singled up the middle. Quebell was held, but we were up 4-3 again. Bowen also found himself in a full count, but managed to make contact, slapping a grounder to the right side. Hernandez launched – missed it! It was into right, and again the runner from second, Sharp, was held, because Stanton Martin’s arm was not from this world. Sharp scored on Miller’s sac fly before Sato struck out, but we had that 3-run lead back. Yates pitched three shutout innings after his midgame stumbles, while the Raccoons left a runner in scoring position in every inning through the eighth. That in turn meant that the ninth inning was Angel time, facing Rios, Kui, and Anderson. No ball was put in play – Angel struck out the side to save us a split in this 4-game set! 6-3 Critters! Castro 2-5; Pruitt 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Black 3-4, RBI; Bowen 2-4, RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1; Yates 8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (11-0);

In other news

June 26 – A 2-hit shutout is pitched by NAS SP Toshiro Uenohara (5-5, 4.82 ERA) in an 8-0 win over the Wolves.
June 29 – SAL INF Bob Grant (.297, 2 HR, 23 RBI) celebrates his 2,500th career hit, a single off the Warriors’ Rickie Mendoza in a 6-2 Wolves win. Grant, 37, who was a first round pick by the Loggers in 1987, has batted .296 with 167 HR and 1,142 RBI in his career that began in 1990. He won a Gold Glove as the Thunder’s second baseman in 1997, and was an All Star two times.
June 30 – Sioux Falls’ Manuel Alba (8-7, 4.18 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves in an 8-0 stomper.

Complaints and stuff

Batting .480 (12-25) with 2 HR and 4 RBI won Tomas Castro the Player of the Week honors in the Continental League!

Kel Yates: 11-0, 2.16 ERA, 136 K – this leads all triple crown categories! We have never had a pitching triple crown winner (but Tetsu won a hitting triple crown in his first full year in Portland, 1986), and right now he leads Curtis Tobitt by a win and five strikeouts. His ERA lead is over half a run, with Tobitt at 2.80. Also, Brownie: 9-4, 2.70 ERA, 114 K – that is good enough for third place in all triple crown categories!

That 1-2 punch atop the rotation is BIG for us. While Fuentes, Watanabe, Boda, and Dominguez have all had their light and dark moments to varying degrees, those two at the top can cut down any opponent at any time. The acquisition of Yates was perhaps the move that turned the franchise around, although maybe Amador for Castro wasn’t such a bad trade, either. Matt Pruitt was acquired from Cincy two years ago in exchange for a catcher that still hasn’t been up to AAA.

Couple that with otherworldly defense (although Sharp is not sharp), and an uncanny ability to scratch out runs even in desperate situations that last year's team completely lacked. Did we really switch out 25 players? Gotta check on that.

Also, we surpassed 1979's win total in June.

The Comprehensive and Complete (I hope) Portland Raccoons All Stars Compendium

1977 (3) – Jose Flores, Pedro Sánz, Ben Simon
1978 (1) – Ben Simon (2)
1979 (1) – Ben Simon (3)
1980 (2) – Stephano Bocci, Ben Simon (4)
1981 (1) – Ralph Nixon
1982 (1) – Daniel Hall
1983 (4) – Mark Dawson, Kinji Kan, Enrique Sanchez, Grant West
1984 (3) – Daniel Hall (2), Kisho Saito*, Grant West (2)
1985 (3) – Tetsu Osanai*, Vicente Ruiz, Grant West (3)
1986 (4) – Dimian Barrios, Carlos Gonzalez, Tetsu Osanai (2), Grant West (4)
1987 (2) – Tetsu Osanai (3), Armando Sanchez
1988 (3) – Mark Dawson (2), Tetsu Osanai (4), Armando Sanchez (2)
1989 (4) – Sam Dadswell, Tetsu Osanai (5), Kisho Saito (2), Scott Wade
1990 (none)
1991 (3) – Neil Reece, Kisho Saito (3), Jason Turner
1992 (4) – Daniel Hall (3), Ben O’Morrissey, Kisho Saito (4), Scott Wade (2)
1993 (3) – Miguel Lopez, Ben O’Morrissey (2), Neil Reece (2)
1994 (none)
1995 (6) – David Brewer, Ben O’Morrissey (3), Neil Reece (3), Kisho Saito (5), Jorge Salazar, Jason Turner (2)
1996 (4) – Tzu-jao Ban, David Brewer (2), Antonio Donis, Royce Green
1997 (1) – David Brewer (3)
1998 (1) – Manuel Movonda
1999 (1) – Conceicao Guerin
2000 (none)
2001 (3) – Conceicao Guerin (2), Albert Martin, Jesus Palacios
2002 (3) – Ralph Ford, Albert Martin (2), Jesus Palacios (2)
2003 (1) – Albert Martin (3)
2004 (1) – Nick Brown
2005 (1) – Nick Brown (2)
2006 (none)

*acquired mid-season before the All Star Game

[Questdog]

Was it 1989 that Saito and Wade were like a combined 24-1 at one point?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Was it 1989 that Saito and Wade were like a combined 24-1 at one point?

It was 1989, and they were 25-1, Scotty being 15-0 and Saito ruining the statistic with his 10-1 record, before the Indians turned Wade inside out in a 17-7 slaughter. They went 13-10 (total 38-11) from there to the end of the year, but hey, you can't have it all. Scotty's 21-6 year was his only 20-win season.

Ah, 1989. That was a nice season. Risen from the ashes of the 1988 fire-in-an-orphanage, the Raccoons shot to the top of the division again and ended up in the only postseason Oregon Brawl in history.

And then... Game 6, Ed Parrell, Glenn Johnston, and a winter of agony.

[OmahaBaseball]

What a great detailed, well-presented dynasty. I have really enjoyed reading though the pages. Look forward to more.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by CHOWDERHEAD

What a great detailed, well-presented dynasty. I have really enjoyed reading though the pages. Look forward to more.

Oy. People are still reading through this? Through all of it?

---

Here we go to break down the Elks' place. Let's see whose boss in the Northwest! (No, we don't need the Wolves to actually take part in such a contest, the Wolves are pathetic, and everybody knows it)

Raccoons (57-23) @ Canadiens (48-32) – July 2-5, 2007

Time to rectify that 0-3 record we have so far against the stinkin’ Elks. Taking three out of four twice from them would suffice but I wouldn’t be opposed to a double sweep, either. No matter how you raked them, they had a 5-game winning streak, and had the fifth-most runs scored in the league, despite the highest batting average of all teams. They also ranked fifth in runs allowed. Their rotation had a slightly better ERA than their bullpen.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (1-1, 3.78 ERA) vs. David Peterson (4-7, 4.36 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (7-3, 3.51 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (6-6, 3.71 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-5, 5.09 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (8-4, 3.13 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-4, 2.70 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (9-4, 2.69 ERA)

Marquez is a left-hander, which might be a good point to rest Castro and Quebell.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Boda
VAN: RF E. Garcia – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rodgers – 2B Palmer – P D. Peterson

After Castro and Pruitt had already hit the ball hard and far, but had been denied on the warning track, Black and Bowen gave the Raccoons a 2-0 lead in the top 2nd with back-to-back home runs off Peterson. The ball was certainly travelling well: Jose Gonzalez hit a jack off Boda to start the bottom 2nd, and in the bottom 3rd a single by Enrique Garcia and a double by Jerry Fletcher, the ex-Logger, was enough 2-out oomph to get the game tied. The lead was retaken on a 2-out RBI triple by Tomas Castro that brought in Miller in the fifth, and Ryan Miller would come up big in the seventh inning, following Bowen’s walk with his first major league home run to get the score to 5-2. Boda didn’t strike out anybody through five, then two in the sixth, then was run from the game in the seventh with three singles against him. Ed Bryan had the tying runs on the corners in a 5-3 game, facing Enrique Garcia, and surrendered the fourth single off the inning, 5-4. Law Rockburn was tasked with Fletcher, and another fail for another single tied the game through seven.

The Coons were almost out of the ninth when Miller’s grounder was bobbled by rookie Michael Palmer. Nomura singled, which brought up J.C. Crespo as pinch-hitter against Pedro Alvarado, but he looked at strike three and the runners were stranded. Ex-Raccoon Miguel Ramirez was batting 1-for-17 when he was sent to pinch-hit against Ward Jackson in the bottom 9th and almost hit one out, but had it snared by Luke Black at the wall. In the bottom 10th Kaz inherited a runner from Jackson before Ryan Miller put another one on with an error. Kaz got fed a hopper from Mitsuhide Suzuki after that and used it to turn an inning-ending double play. His defense let up significantly in the next inning. While the Raccoons couldn’t get through the infield anymore, the Elks didn’t need to. Kichida walked Ortíz, then threw away Ramirez’ bunt to put the winning run at third base with no outs. The Raccoons survived a grounder by Palmer to third, but Ramón Trinidad singled to right center to end it. 6-5 Canadiens. Miller 2-5, HR, 2 RBI;

Ack. Daniel Sharp went 0-5 with two inning-ending double plays to lead the team in futility. That was not a good game at all. Suddenly I have a bad feeling about this series…

Game 2
POR: CF Crespo – 1B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B R. Miller – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes
VAN: 2B Palmer – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – RF Denunez – C F. Diéguez – SS Rodgers – P J. Marquez

While the Raccoons kept masterfully utilizing the double play to not score any runs, this time with Luke Black at the forefront, Fuentes blew up in marvelous ways in this second game. The Canadiens had it won by the fourth, in which a 2-out RBI double by Marquez – his second double of the day – eventually led to three runs, following up a first inning in which the Canadiens had enjoyed a Suzuki single followed by Fuentes pitching squarely into Fletcher’s thigh, then threw a wild pitch. Two runs scored on Jose Gonzalez’ single then. That didn’t mean the collapse didn’t continue after the fourth. Fuentes basically quit trying and left trailing 7-1 with Diéguez on first and one out. Okay, that’s a slow runner, maybe Ward Jackson can get a double play from that left-handed shortstop of theirs – or maybe Jackson would surrender a mammoth home run to that left-handed shortstop to make it 9-1. After killing his team’s chances all day long, Black would hit a meaningless 3-run home run with two down in the ninth. 9-4 Canadiens. Quebell (PH) 1-1; Pruitt 4-5;

The twat Jackson was squeezed out into the eighth inning, pitching three innings and walking four, then was banished to St. Petersburg. Luis Beltran, at 27 years of age hardly a prospect, was called up to replace him. Beltran had been our seventh round pick in 2007, and had pitched to a 1.40 ERA in 19.2 innings in St. Pete this year. Kenichi Watanabe was transferred to the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster. Beltran’s days might be limited to five; Marcos Bruno might join us right out of the All Star break.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – RF Black – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Dominguez
VAN: RF E. Garcia – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rodgers – 2B M. Ramirez – P Fujita

Chances weren’t in our favor to stay out of going down to 0-6 against the smelly beasts, but Dominguez was even worse than usual. The Elks had two hard singles in the first inning, didn’t score, so Dominguez made absolutely sure in the second inning. Besides making the final out with two on in the top 2nd, he allowed leadoff singles to Suzuki and Ortíz in the bottom of the inning, then casually walked both Ken Rodgers and Miguel Ramirez. Fujita hit into a double play, but the second run scored, 2-0.

Dominguez was an accident that just kept on crashing. The Elks got another run in the bottom 3rd before Nomura made a great play to end it, and he walked two in the fourth before Nomura started a saving double play. For the Raccoons, offensively, nothing worked. There was a double play that killed them once, and then they had Pruitt thrown out at home to end another inning. Ryan Miller proved unable to steal a base, and when they had two on with one out in the seventh, Quebell and Bowen made the ****tiest outs possible outside of impaling themselves with their sticks. On making his major league debut close to retirement age, Beltran’s first batter was Enrique Garcia to start the bottom 7th, and he gave up a triple and then a run right away before John Bennett was taken well yard by Mitsuhide Suzuki in the eighth. The Coons hit into another double play (Gutierrez…) in the ninth before being defeated by Fujita in an unlikely 9-hit shutout. 5-0 Canadiens. Castro 2-5, 2B; Nomura 2-3, BB; Gutierrez 2-4;

Umm, guys? Guys? They’re … they’re getting closer. You see them coming, right?

Brownie. Brownie, listen. You need to stop them. YOU need to stop them. You will probably not get any support, so you need to hit a home run AND spin a shutout. Can you do that for me? Pretty please?

Game 4
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Brown
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – CF Fletcher – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – SS Rodgers – P R. Taylor

Before Brownie could try to rip one, Duke Smack went deep to start the second inning. That was about the balance of the teams’ offense for a while. Brown was left to fend for himself, which went remarkably well for a while until Bobo Wood actively stabbed him by completely missing a 1-2 pitch with two outs and a runner on third base in the fourth inning. That passed ball tied the score at one. The Raccoons then got a break (and they needed it) in the sixth. Castro had led off with a single and then Quebell grounded to first. Tony Ramos came in and had to hurry his throw to first base, but Dobson couldn’t come up with a low feed and the Raccoons were handed two men in scoring position with no outs on the error. We took a lead on Sharp’s sac fly before Pruitt was walked intentionally and Black not quite so intentionally to load them up, but Miller and Nomura both struck out.

Through six, Brownie was all ace. In the seventh, it all came crashing down. Walk to Ortíz, wild pitch, walk to Suzuki. Trinidad struck out, and then he really, actually walked Rod Taylor. That filled the bags with one out in a 2-1 game. Law Rockburn appeared to face Jerry Dobson, who hit a sac fly to tie the score, and from there Rockburn didn’t retire anybody. Garcia singled, Fletcher singled, Gonzalez doubled. The Elks plated five runs in the inning, and laughingly completed their second sweep of the year over the Raccoons. 6-2 Canadiens. Black 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Well, it’s all going to ****. By my calculation, the ****ing Elks will lead the division by next Friday.

Raccoons (57-27) @ Titans (45-41) – July 6-8, 2007

13 games out (but only eight behind the Canadiens), the Titans were seventh in runs scored and third in runs allowed in the league. Their bullpen was especially strong with a 2.33 ERA against them, but they so far had lost six of nine against the Critters on the year.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (11-0, 2.16 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (7-2, 4.18 ERA)
Cássio Boda (1-1, 4.63 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (9-5, 4.19 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (7-4, 4.05 ERA) vs. Jeremy Peterson (4-6, 4.66 ERA)

We miss their best two guys by ERA, Jorge Chapa (3.16) and Bryce Hildred (2.86). Whether that helps us depends on whether the team can simply stop ****ing up. We start the series with two left-handers opposing us.

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – SS R. Miller – 2B Sato – P Yates
BOS: 2B D. Silva – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – RF G. Munoz – LF Cavazos – CF Garrison – 3B M. Austin – P Conner

Undefeated Kelvin Yates was tasked with stopping the misery, which did not include surrendering singles to the miserable Daniel Silva and Hutchinson, then allowing a double steal and both runners to score on groundouts to fall 2-0 behind in the first. Duke Smack reconquered half the deficit instantly in the top 2nd with his 14th homer of the year, but Conner then retired the next nine without much fuss – including the Duke. All the while Kel sat on more walks (2) than strikeouts (1) … Success seemed not exactly right around the corner despite Sharp singling in the fifth to finally get on base again. Sato batted with him at second and two outs, but was hit by Conner to bring up Yates. Oh yay. Kel however hit a liner down the rightfield line, plating Sharp with a double to tie the score. In a perfect world, Castro would not have struck out, but eh, what are you gonna - …

The Titans got runners onto the corners with Hutchinson and Munoz singles in the bottom 5th, but finally Yates found the stuff that made him undefeated and struck out Quasimodo and that other Munoz to escape. That didn’t stop the Titans, though. They had two on again in the sixth, two more singles, and then the hack face Silva drove in the go-ahead run with a 2-out single. ******** Silva would drive home another run in the eighth off Bryan, and Kel was undefeated no more. 4-2 Titans. Nomura 1-1;

Okay, it’s a collapse. It’s all coming down, and really quickly, too.

But at least Vic Flores rejoins the squad now after getting warm with a few swings in AAA the last two days. Manuel Gutierrez was designated for the void. Vic would still lead the CL batting race if he had not dropped off the table for insufficient plate appearances.

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

The Raccoons actually took an actual lead in the middle game when Castro singled in Miller in the third inning, 1-0. Both pitchers did very well in generating poor contact, and in fact the most trouble that Boda was in for five innings was when he made a throwing error himself. Daniel Silva was a constant pest on the base paths, but remained contained and didn’t get past second base his three times up and three times on. All went well into the bottom 7th, when Gonzalo Munoz led off with a single, and Boda then walked Rudy Garrison in a full count, which was also the end of his day. Ed Bryan came out with left-handers to be retired, but Freddy Rosa hit for Austin, and almost, but not quite, beat Castro in center on a 3-1 pitch. The double avoided, Munoz moved to third as the tying run, and Jim Brulhart hit for O’Halloran. Bennett replaced Bryan and got a foul pop behind the plate to end the inning. We got Vic Flores to second in the eighth, only for Castro to line out to Silva to end the inning. The Critters failed to score even after a leadoff double by Quebell off Manuel Martinez in the ninth inning, and the score remained 1-0. And who’s that chick jogging in from the pen? Have we seen him before? Quick, check whose #28. Whoever that black kid with the white wings was, he mowed down the Titans in short order in the inning. 1-0 Critters. Flores 2-3, BB; Boda 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (2-1);

We haven’t scored more than five runs in a game this month, and we have scored five total in the last four games. Guys? A bit more effort, please!

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – P Fuentes
BOS: 2B D. Silva – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – LF Brulhart – CF Garrison – C Rosa – RF Cavazos – 3B Watts – P J. Peterson

While Castro and Pruitt had their fly balls die on the warning track (and inside gloves) in the first inning, the ****ing pest Silva led off his half of the first with a home run off Fuentes, who crumbled in record pace as the Titans put up another five hits and four runs total in the first inning. Second inning, the ***hole led off with a single, another single, a double steal, and the Raccoons were watching with open eyes, eager to find out what happened next. They were down by five after two innings, and all hope and all confidence was all gone. Rosa singled off Fuentes to start the bottom 3rd before Cavazos sent a rocket out of the park, 7-0. Next, Fuentes was loaded into a catapult and sent out on the same trajectory.

The Raccoons were outright miserable in this game. The sole high note was Kaz with scoreless long relief. As soon as he departed, Adam Riddle got lit up by Brulhart with a long ball. The Raccoons didn’t get onto the board until the ninth, when Matt Pruitt hit a half-unearned 2-run homer off Peterson. 8-2 Titans. Flores 3-4; Pruitt 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4; Kichida 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

In other news

July 2 – The Knights acquired CL Francisco Rodriguez (3-5, 6.23 ERA, 17 SV) from the Scorpions in exchange for two prospects, including #80 CL Ron Carroll.
July 2 – The Scorpions also send SP George Allen (1-11, 6.22 ERA) to the Bayhawks for 3B Stan Whitley (.308, 0 HR, 6 RBI in 78 AB) and a minor leaguer, and the Bayhawks fare even better with a trade for CIN SP Jeremiah Bowman (8-5, 3.30 ERA), which costs them #55 prospect SP Johnny Krom.
July 3 – The Indians pick up OF Robbie Luxton (.258, 8 HR, 38 RBI) from the Wolves, sending them three prospects, all unranked.
July 3 – ATL LF/RF Rodrigo Lopez (.325, 1 HR, 22 RBI) has his hand broken by a pitch and might miss most of the remaining season.
July 4 – With trade season in full flight, the Stars picked up CL Charlie Deacon (6-7, 6.08 ERA, 12 SV) from the Aces in exchange for #79 pitching prospect B.J. Wilbanks and another minor leaguer.
July 4 – CHA SP Carl Bean (2-3, 4.67 ERA) was out for the season with radial nerve compression.
July 5 – SFW CF/LF Earl Clark (.336, 4 HR, 40 RBI) might miss more than a month with a broken foot.
July 6 – The Cyclones pick up SP Juan Garcia (5-9, 4.18 ERA) from the Miners for three prospects, and CL Lorenzo Flores (2-5, 3.03 ERA, 19 SV) from the Condors for just one.
July 7 – DAL INF Armando Rodriguez (.305, 4 HR, 41 RBI) has suffered a hamstring strain and is out for a month.
July 8 – 22-year old New York hotshot OF Roberto Pena (.272, 3 HR, 21 RBI) will miss three weeks with a tear in his hamstring.
July 8 – The Knights shut down their young stud OF Jose Morales (.325, 17 HR, 61 RBI) with shoulder inflammation. He might be done for the year.

Complaints and stuff

****ing Elks.

Then we lost #2,500 in franchise history on Friday when Kel had absolutely nothing.

Clyde Brady had something: five hits in a game this week, all singles, scoring nobody, in a 5-2 Gold Sox win over the Wolves.

The Raccoons will send four players to the All Star Game. Kel, Angel, Vic, and Castro. Why Nick Brown is excluded while the old bone Aaron Anderson (6-5, 4.22 ERA) gets to go is beyond me. On the other hand that works perfectly for Brownie to start the first game after the break.

Nah, I’m still mad.

[Westheim]

Marcos Bruno started a rehab assignment in AAA during the All Star break. I’d like to give him a week or so and two to three outings to get warm again.

All Star Game

In Sacramento, the Federal League beats the Continental League, 3-2 in ten innings. Kelvin Yates takes the loss, but the winning run, driven in by Oliver Torres of the Warriors, is unearned after TOP Ramón Echevarria initially reaches on an error by LVA Inaki-Luki Warrain.

Angel Casas had pitched a scoreless inning in the game. Vic Flores has a pinch-hitting appearances without a hit, while Tomas Castro starts in center, but goes 0-2 with two strikeouts before being hit for.

NYC Stanton Martin is 4-4 with a walk, but MVP honors go to Torres.

Raccoons (58-29) vs. Canadiens (53-34) – July 12-15, 2007

Beaten and battered, and here they come again. We really can’t afford another series loss, morally and as such…

Our offense has dropped to t-10th, while they still rank fifth in offense and fourth in pitching. Oh yeah, and they are 7-0 against the Fuzzies this year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-5, 2.79 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (9-4, 2.93 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (11-1, 2.26 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (2-2, 3.11 ERA)
Cássio Boda (2-1, 3.64 ERA) vs. David Peterson (4-8, 4.52 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (7-5, 4.57 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (10-4, 2.59 ERA)

Game 1
VAN: 2B Dobson – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – C G. Ortíz – RF Denunez – SS M. Ramirez – P Fujita
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Brown

Nick Brown … sucked … badly. He walked two in the first following an Ortíz single and only got out of the bases-loaded jam when he could snack up Fujita, then in the third had a man on, then walked Ramos, drilled Gonzalez, and against Ortíz finally walked a run in. It was something a suddenly struggling team didn’t need out of the All Star break. They had nothing going through four innings, while the Elks let Brown get away with five walks in five innings to score only one run. Brown bunted when Nomura hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, and there was a break: Mitsuhide Suzuki threw the ball away, and the Raccoons had runners in scoring position with no outs. Vic Flores beat out a sorry grounder to be safe at first, and Yoshi scored the tying run on the play, before Matt Pruitt came up with one out and peppered a rocket to center, and that was OUTTA HERE!!

Brownie started the sixth inning, issued a sixth walk, and was removed once he accepted Fujita’s bunt for the second out. And although Craig Bowen tried really hard to have the runner, ex-Furball Ramirez, score and had Adam Riddle’s first pitch bounce through his legs, Riddle got Jerry Dobson with a grounder to end the inning still up 4-1. The bottom of the inning saw Crespo reach batting for Riddle with a single, and Flores and Pruitt contributed singles to score another run. Suzuki made another error, but Quebell left the bases loaded. The team kept grinding, chasing Fujita with six runs against him in the bottom 7th, and reliever Simon Pegler was also in for a rough surprise. After scoring no runs and hardly any hits through the first four, the Raccoons forcefully broke through for nine runs in the latter four for a convincing win. 9-2 Brownies! Flores 3-5, 2 RBI; Castro 2-5; Pruitt 2-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Bowen 3-5; Nomura 2-4, 2B, RBI; Crespo (PH) 2-3, 2 RBI;

Game 2
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C G. Ortíz – LF Richardson – SS Rodgers – P Spears
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Yates

Hopefully Yates had more than five and two thirds innings of free-for-all… Well, no. Tony Ramos homered in the first inning, and while the run was pulled right back on a Flores double, Castro groundout and Pruitt sac fly, Yates was struggling. The Elks loaded the bases in the third before Suzuki grounded out to short, where Ryan Miller made the short throw to Yoshi to register the third out. Balls were jumping off the Elks’ bats in the middle innings, but stellar outfield defense, especially by Pruitt and Black, kept the game in one piece and tied. They had nothing to show for their deep drives, but the Raccoons got two solo homers by Castro and Black in the bottom 6th to take a 3-1 lead. The Elks did get two men on in the top of the seventh then. Yates struck out Rodgers for the second out, only his fourth K on the night, then allowed a deep drive to Scott Spears, on which Pruitt made an A-MA-ZING catch, soaring through the air like an eagle, to end the inning. The eighth inning was puzzled together by Bennett, Bryan, and Rockburn, each getting one out, while Bryan put Ramos on with a single. Bob Wood, while batting less than zero, made a strong defensive play on Jerry Dobson’s drag bunt attempt. The ninth was much less mix-and-match. Angel struck out two and nobody reached base. 3-1 Raccoons! Black 2-4, HR, RBI; Quebell 2-3; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Yates 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (12-1) and 1-2;

The Crusaders were scuffling, too, and so our lead was back up to seven games at this point. Good, boys, good, well done! Now that you have them pinned to the ground, with your spikes against their necks, don’t let go!

Game 3
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C G. Ortíz – SS Rodgers – P D. Peterson
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS R. Miller – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Boda

The Elks got a running start against Cássio Boda, four hits and two runs in the first inning, and he didn’t even get close to a pitcher’s count. Boda wouldn’t get any better after that first inning, but the defense would make a few more plays, and the offense scored one run on Quebell’s 2-out RBI single in the bottom 1st, then flipped the score when Craig Bowen hit a huge homer in the fourth to collect Miller and take a 3-2 lead. Boda somehow made it through six, an inning that ended with a controversial out call on a bang-bang play at first base, where Quebell’s throw just barely beat David Peterson to first base. Daniel Sharp’s pinch-hit RBI double in the bottom of the inning scored a highly welcomed insurance run that became the entire margin of lead all too soon. Riddle and Beltran faced single batters to start the top 7th, Dobson and Garcia, issued walks, and Rockburn eventually plated Dobson with a wild pitch before whiffing Suzuki to get out of the inning at 4-3. Jerry Fletcher made it all the way to third base in the eighth inning, but was stranded, yet when J.C. Crespo reached on an error in the bottom of the inning he wasn’t scored either. Angel faced the top of the order in the ninth, allowed nothing, and ended the game with his 50th strikeout of the year (in 35 innings) to Jose Gonzalez. 4-3 Furballs!! Pruitt 2-3, BB; Bowen 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sharp (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Yeah, yeah, yeah! Come on, boys, one more! One more!

Game 4
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – SS Rodgers – P J. Marquez
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – CF Crespo – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Sharp – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes

We faced Jose Marquez (7-7, 3.86 ERA) again, who made the cardinal error of not removing the opposing pitcher with two down in the bottom 2nd. Fuentes’ single loaded the bases, and when Vic Flores hit a looper over Tony Ramos, it fell in for a 2-run double. Unfortunately, Fuentes’ struggles weren’t over. The Elks reached scoring position in four of the first five innings. In the fifth that was a leadoff walk to Suzuki and then Rodgers reached on an infield single. Marquez bunted them into scoring position, from where Dobson plated Suzuki with a sac fly to cut our lead to 2-1. The Raccoons found it tough to get on base after the third inning, and Fuentes was dodging bullet after bullet and somehow kept wobbling on, finishing seven innings of 1-run ball. His spot was due up first in the bottom 7th and our bench was entirely populated with left-handed batters. Quebell was picked to pinch-hit, and fired a shot to deep right and outta here! The eighth saw another leadoff jack, dished by Duke Smack, and Marquez stayed in the game long enough to surrender a few more singles and another run. Beltran and Kichida shared ninth inning duties with Angel’s services not required this time. 5-1 Coons! Flores 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4; Sato 2-4, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Fuentes 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (8-5) and 1-1, BB;

300 at-bats and already a home run for our first baseman! Whoah! That power!

In other news

July 10 – A triceps strain will keep MIL CL Gabriel Garcia (0-7, 2.95 ERA, 21 SV) out of action for the rest of the month.
July 13 – LAP LF Ken Potter (.258, 12 HR, 47 RBI) has suffered an abdominal strain and will miss about three weeks.
July 14 – TOP 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.273, 1 HR, 27 RBI) logs his 2,000th career base hit, an eighth inning single off the Miners’ Miguel Rodriguez in a 4-1 Buffaloes loss. Spinu, the 34-year old on-base wonder, led the league in walks three times, and has a career .407 OBP, with 1,290 walks on top of those 2,000 hits. He has played his whole career, since 1994, with the Buffaloes and has 83 HR and 761 RBI.
July 15 – Big day for Cincinnati’s own RF/LF Dan Morris (.368, 17 HR, 60 RBI), who collects three hits in his team’s 10-7 loss to the Blue Sox. The final knock, an eighth inning RBI single off Stanton Taylor, marks Morris’ 2,500th career hit. Not a shabby batter, he has gone .319/.430/.511 with 351 HR and 1,317 RBI in his career, played entirely with the Cyclones, who drafted him seventh overall in the 1991 draft. Since then he won a batting title in 1994, the Hitter of the Year award twice (1995, 1997), and went to ten All Star games. His 41-HR campaign in ’95 ranks t-2nd only to Raúl Vázquez 42 dingers in 1992.
July 15 – DEN 1B/SS Jesus Amador (.214, 5 HR, 46 RBI) causes a trouble in a Denver bar and receives a nasty cut on his hand that will take a few weeks to completely heal.

Complaints and stuff

That was yummy. That tasted good.

When I heard Amador and trouble in a bar, I thought of the Fat Cat and a contest of who could eat the most Polish sausages.

We received a number of trade proposals this week, foremost from the Pacifics, who try to get rid of their highly paid relief pitchers and plunder our farm. Nah, I’ll pass. But nice to see that 19-yr old SP Hector Santos (4-1, 2.15 ERA @ A; 0-7, 4.11 ERA @ AA) has the interest of other teams. Not that I want to trade him. But looks like not only our scouting department is hot (pot. 15/13/12) on him. Stamina might be an issue, though (7).

Jimmy Eichelkraut had been promoted to Ham Lake in late June, but after batting .136 for over two weeks was sent back to Aumsville. We’ll try again later.

I also think I’ll demote Ryan Miller again until September. We don’t really have space on the infield right now, and I don’t want him to dwell on the bench. Gutierrez wasn’t claimed off waivers, so we could bring him back somehow. I’m sure we can find some dead meat on the 40-man roster to dispose of.

And who’s the leader in home runs for the franchise amongst our current player? Daniel Sharp, with 43. If he gets another one at some point in his life, he’d tie with Jesus Palacios for 20th on the all time list. Next: Craig Bowen with 21 and then already Duke Smack with 16.