Portland Raccoons (ABL) - Page 86

Westheim · 02-06-2016, 04:25 PM

Raccoons (58-40) vs. Condors (40-59) – July 28-30, 2009

The last place Condors were also last in scoring runs, plating just over 3.6 runs per game. Their rotation was second-worst with a 4.50 ERA, but their bullpen was actually in the top 3 in the league, resulting in an average numbers of runs allowed. The Coons were 1-2 against them this year.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.78 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (9-9, 4.41 ERA)
Cássio Boda (0-1, 10.80 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (2-7, 6.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-5, 1.99 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (8-10, 4.20 ERA)

Those are all right-handers. They currently don’t even carry a southpaw in their bullpen, which is a very strange way to compose a roster.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – RF Crum – 1B R. Morris – CF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – LF Ward – 2B Montray – P J. Silva
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – RF Ayers – C De La Parra – P J. Cruz

Nobody in their lineup had more than ten home runs or 34 RBI. But before these lineups could outdo another in failing, Tomas Castro tweaked his back in the Coons’ first at-bat of the day and had to leave the game. After the Coons went down in the first, Manny Cruz homered off Javier Cruz. The Coons grabbed that run back in the bottom of the inning, Cruz drove in the go-ahead run again in the next inning, but the Condors left them loaded in the end. Bottom 3rd, Javier Cruz hit a leadoff single, and was soon joined on the bases by Trevino and Nomura. Ron Alston battled out a walk, which forced in the tying run again, 2-2, and still left the bags full with no outs. Martinez and Quebell struck out, and Howell popped out to shallow right. The same three fools failed again when Nomura and Alston got on to start the fifth inning, and Javier Cruz had his day end early after issuing five walks in 5.1 innings. He left in a tie with Phil Montray on second base. Huerta took over, struck out Pancho Ybarra and Foster Leach, and the threat was quelled.

There wasn’t another threat for quite a while as the game turned into a competition of who could retire the side in order on less pitches. After their fifth inning fiasco the Raccoons had two singles in the next three innings, before the bottom 9th came up with Cesar Fuentes pitching. Ximenes Lopes was the last guy off the bench, hitting for Law Rockburn. He fell 0-2 behind, then rammed a pitch to right center. Quite high, higher, gone!! 3-2 Raccoons! Castro 1-1; Nomura 2-4; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Correa (PH) 1-1; Lopes (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Sims 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (5-2);

Well, maybe Ximenes Lopes should get more playing time over the lifeless body of that other catcher we are paying a ton of money to.

For the moment there was completely different issue: Tomas Castro was estimated to be out for at least one week with back tightness. How much deeper than to Schipper in AA will we have to reach to find a replacement? In the end, we DL’ed Castro grumblingly and added an infielder, 1B Ralph Myers (.291, 12 HR, 41 RBI in AAA). He bats left-handed, which doesn’t mesh well with Quebell, but … ah, what are you gonna do…

Game 2
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – RF Crum – 1B R. Morris – CF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – LF Roberson – 2B Montray – P Furst
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – P Boda

Boda had a horrendous first inning, with a few hard hits, a wild pitch, a clobbered batsman, and somehow only one run allowed because Chris Roberson, the ex-Coon, readily struck out to end the inning with three men on base. Boda also drilled Montray at the start of the second inning, and again in the fourth inning after a Roberson double to get started. The Raccoons had gone down in order the first time through their lineup, and the Condors were close to starting their third turn through the lineup… Boda continued to be little more than a punching bag, although the Condors left plenty of men on and only led 2-0 after the top 5th. Quebell’s leadoff single was the first thing that Furst allowed in the game, and never moved past first base. It wasn’t until the bottom 7th that the Raccoons got somebody in scoring position. Alston hit a 1-out single, Quebell walked, and Martinez blasted up the first base line on a grounder to be barely safe against Ybarra’s throw. Then Trevino bounced into a double play.

As far as scrubs and home runs were concerned, Pete Schipper hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th, obviously the first of his career. De La Pants followed with a single, Ralph Myers debuted with a strikeout, but Nomura drew a walk off Furst, who should probably be relieved in this dangerous situation, but remained in to face Rob Howell, who catapulted a pitch to deep left. Roberson saw that that one was gone from a mile away: 3-run homer, Coons take the lead! And that wasn’t all: Ron Alston homered as well. 5-2 Raccoons. Alston 2-4, HR, RBI; Boda 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-1);

The fact that Cássio Boda lasted eight innings says more about the Condors than about him. He drilled three batters, and was completely crap. The Condors were still worse, and if baseball were a seven-inning game, even that would have been enough to beat the Coons. Maybe the Condors will consider playing their bullpen a bit earlier in game 3?

And since being beaten out of New York, we have cobbled a 5-game winning streak together. Somehow.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – 3B D. Jones – CF Roberson – RF Ward – 2B Montray – P J. Martin
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – RF Schipper – C Lopes – P Brown

Alston homered early this time, a 2-piece in the first inning for an early 2-0 lead for Brownie – what an unfamiliar situation! Brown was so befuddled that he walked Montray in the third and then hit “Midnight” Martin with a pitch, but Pancho Ybarra bounced into a double play to keep the Condors off the board. They didn’t stay off forever, though, putting leadoff man Foster Leach on with a single past Sharp in the fourth and then getting doubles from Morris and Roberson to tie the game. The Coons had already left two men in scoring position in the third, and continued to fail, while Brown lost it in more and more and more and walked in the go-ahead run for the Condors in the fifth. He labored through the sixth before Alston walked to start the Coons’ half of that inning. Quebell quickly forced him, but Sharp and Trevino reached to stack the bags with one out for Schipper, who grounded out to first to score the tying run. With an intentional walk to Ximenes Lopes, both starting pitchers left the game. Colin Sabatino replaced Martin, and Nick Brown was hit for with Ralph Myers, who popped out, leaving the score tied at three.

After Rockburn pitched a scoreless inning, the Coons loaded the bases again with two outs. Alston singled, Quebell reached on an error, and Sharp worked a walk. Trevino singled up the middle to plate a pair before Schipper grounded out, 5-3 Coons now. The eight was uneventful, but the ninth got dicey, with Manny Cruz and Foster Leach both hitting singles off Angel Casas, but then they already had two outs, and while an 0-3, 3K Johnny Crum managed to avoid a golden sombrero, he grounded out to end the game and seal the sweep. 5-3 Furballs. Alston 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2 RBI;

With home runs in back-to-back games, Ron Alston has passed Dan Morris again for most home runs in the ABL. Alston now has 25 to Morris’ 24. Nobody else in either league has reached 20 yet, with CIN Will Bailey third overall with 19.

Raccoons (61-40) vs. Falcons (46-54) – July 31-August 2, 2009

The Falcons, against whom we were 3-3 this year, were sixth in offense and ninth in runs allowed. They weren’t really good in any category at all.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (8-5, 2.88 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (2-6, 6.65 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (8-4, 3.24 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (2-2, 2.84 ERA)
Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.81 ERA) vs. Pedro Vargas (1-1, 6.35 ERA)

Three right-handers again in this set, as we miss their southpaw on duty Larry Cutts (10-9, 3.90 ERA). They are deep into their non-existent depth with starting pitchers, with Steve Rogers, David Estrada, and Jerry Lane all on the DL.

Game 1
CHA: 2B H. Green – CF P. Flores – LF Brulhart – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – RF J. Flores – SS Heart – 1B Reya – P T. Wilson
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – RF Schipper – P Baldwin

Last year’s home run king Jose Lopez, who then hit 36 dingers, hit his 18th his first time up, a solo shot that started the second inning and was the first tally in the game. Baldwin was all over the place and pitched in many deep counts, but the Falcons stranded runners in scoring position rather frequently with insufficient contact abilities. Yoshi caught three pop ups alone. The Coons had one runner in scoring position in the first five innings, Pete Schipper after a third inning double, and stranded him, too. They didn’t exactly stand out with offensive prowess, but Quebell, Martinez, De La Patience, and most of the bench actually managed to take down a pretzel vendor and restlessly gorge down the goods, plus all the napkins, in the middle of an inning. So they did have some abilities after all!

Things looked seriously like they might improve by the bottom 6th. Still trailing 1-0, Baldwin led off with a liner over the head of Max Heart into shallow left, and Nomura hit a bloop into right center between the Floreses, two on, no outs, let’s go! The team barely got in the tying run, though, as Martinez rolled up the first base line holding his belly with an aching expression for a groundout, and Alston’s fly to center was barely deep enough for a sac fly. Quebell also grounded out to first and jogged up the line for about three steps before making a sharp right turn and darting at a kid with a hot dog in the first row.

Bottom 7th, two on again with one out. Ralph Myers hit for Schipper with Tommy Wilson still in, and the Falcons didn’t grab a left-hander. Myers came up with his first major league hit, a single up the middle, but with De La Pumpkin weighed down by bakery products, he couldn’t score from second base. Daniel Sharp hit for reliever Ted Reese, right into a double play. Guess which four players hardly moved on the groundball. Bruno and Huerta kept the Falcons down in the last innings to keep the game tied, while we faced Jeff Paul, not quite the closer type, in the bottom 9th. The right-hander faced Quebell first, got him to ground out on a 3-1 pitch, and Correa and De La Pastry went down even quicker. There wasn’t another runner for the Faticoons until the bottom 11th, when Keith Ayers singled past Heart. The good thing was that he was batting in the #2 hole and Alston was up. Ron had missed a home run by about 20 feet to end the eighth inning, maybe he could pull it a bit more now? Or maybe he would pop out to second. Quebell singled, but Correa kept being a failure through and through, and the game continued for Raw Lockburn to hit Jesus Flores in the top 12th, misfield a grounder, and concede the go-ahead run for the Falcons. All that came forward from the Raccoons in the bottom of the inning, as De La Pork, Trevino, and Ximenes Lopes made outs in order, were the unmistakable sounds of digestion. 2-1 Falcons. Myers (PH) 1-1; Huerta 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

What a way to throw away a 6-game winning streak. Of course against a pushover pitcher.

Will we ever get a productive lineup!?

Game 2
CHA: SS Reeve – CF P. Flores – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – RF J. Flores – 1B J. Mendoza – LF Reya – 2B H. Green – P Collazo
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Correa – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – C De La Parra – 1B Myers – RF Ayers – CF Trevino – P Umberger

The Falcons had runners in scoring position with one out in the first inning already, but both Jose Lopez and Jesus Flores struck out in full counts to waste the opportunity. But don’t you worry if you had a dead president or two on the Falcons in the office pool, because the Blighters had you covered. Luis Reya on second with two outs in the next inning, Umberger through the fattest pitch possible to Alfredo Collazo, and the pitcher singled into center, plenty of time for Reya to score. While Nomura and Alston reached base to start the first two innings for the home team, respectively, the usual ******s hit into double plays, and after Umberger doubled(!!) in the third inning, Nomura and the ****** in the #2 hole left him on base without mercy. Hubert Green’s solo jack in the fifth brought the score to 2-0, so the Falcons winning probability went up to 105%.

Bottom 5th, unbounded frustration came to a head for the home crowd. Keith Ayers hit a single to get going, then was caught stealing. Trevino bloked his way out of the box some way or other before Umberger singled(!!!). Yoshi hit a looper down the leftfield line and past Reya to move himself and Jong-hoo into scoring position with two outs. And here, in the fifth inning, Adrian Quebell hit for the completely useless Jose Correa, who had long worn out his welcome on the team, but unfortunately was owed another $5.7M through 2012. Correa was not amused, and once Quebell flew out softly to right, the home fans weren’t either.

Umberger didn’t register another out. Fernando Chavez and Jose Lopez hit singles to start the sixth, and with left-handers coming in great quantity after that, Donald Sims was called from the pen and got out of the inning unharmed. Next, the Coons hit four singles off an unsuspecting Falcons team to tie the game in the bottom 6th before Sharp batted for Sims and struck out. However, Quebell was left on third base in the bottom 7th, and Ted Reese was overcome quickly for two runs in the top 8th. Bottom 8th, Howell and Ayers singled with one out. With lefty Ryan O’Quinn coming in, Schipper batted for Trevino, grounded to short, but the Falcons couldn’t turn two, but neither could the Raccoons get a hit from Ximenes Lopes in place of Reese, and that was still before Luis Beltran’s command and Rob Howell’s glove went missing in action in the top of the ninth. The Raccoons out-hit the Falcons 14-9, and still went down beaten soundly. 6-2 Falcons. Nomura 2-5, 2B; Quebell (PH) 2-3; Alston 2-4, BB; Ayers 3-4, RBI;

Game 3
CHA: SS Reeve – CF P. Flores – 3B J. Lopez – RF J. Flores – LF Brulhart – C Ishikawa – 1B Heart – 2B H. Green – P P. Vargas
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – SS Howell – RF Ayers – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Cruz

Oh look, a 6+ ERA pitcher, and the Raccoons go down in order their first time through the lineup. When had that ever happened! The Coons still were looking for a base runner when Pedro Vargas’ 2-out single in the top 5th plated Max Heart, who had only made it to third base on a throwing error by Ximenes Lopes. Alston looked like he had #26 hit in the bottom of the inning, but Jesus Flores had that ball caught against the wall. Jose Lopez was not denied, homering in the top 6th, 2-0. Meanwhile, six innings into the game, Vargas had faced 18 batters, and none had made it to first base.

While Cruz allowed another run in the seventh, and Vargas still had only 21 batters faced after seven innings, the perfect game threat was no more. Sharp had hit a gapper to right center, but had been thrown out at third base by Jesus Flores. But a double was a double was a double, and it didn’t help anybody. Cruz pitched nine innings and hung on a pretty ghastly hook, with the Critters still held to one hit in the bottom 9th. Correa hit for Lopes and singled to left to start the inning. Myers struck out, but Nomura drew a walk off the hurriedly appearing Luis Hernandez. The brought up Sharp as the tying run, and if he could just keep the line moving so we could get Alston back up. Or maybe he would hit a drive to center that was OUTTA HERE!!!

With the game tied and the Falcons blinking in disbelief, Hernandez continued to melt. Alston hit a 2-out single, Howell walked, but Ayers grounded out and we had extra innings. The Falcons almost broke through Sims and Huerta in the 10th, leaving Chavez and Reeve in scoring position after Jose Mendoza popped out to Howell, but after a non-performance in the bottom 10th, Huerta allowed a run on a 2-out single by Heart in the 11th. Jeff Paul struck out Sharp, Quebell, and Alston in order in the bottom of the inning, sealing the sweep. 4-3 Falcons. Sharp 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Correa (PH) 1-1; Cruz 9.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

In other news

July 27 – In a most surprising trade, the Bayhawks deal SP Tyler Sullivan (12-6, 2.24 ERA), who is 32, to the Capitals for two prospects, one of which is #65 SS/3B Edgar Ramirez.
July 27 – PIT SP Barney Manning (8-4, 3.60 ERA) will miss two months with back spasms.
July 27 – The Miners trade OF Manny Perez (.307, 3 HR, 54 RBI) to the Pacifics, adding MR Jerry Paul (2-0, 4.01 ERA) and a prospect.
July 27 – OF Jose Silva (.334, 6 HR, 43 RBI) of the Cyclones is definitely out for the season, having torn an abdominal muscle.
July 28 – CHA SP Steve Rogers (5-14, 4.66 ERA) has this season end early with a torn rotator cuff.
August 1 – VAN SP Rod Taylor (12-6, 3.06 ERA) allows only three hits and strikes out 13 batters in a 6-0 shutout over the Bayhawks.
August 1 – NAS C Craig Bowen (.264, 11 HR, 52 RBI) has broken his wrist and will miss six weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Is it another two months? That long? Oh, I can’t cope…

The offense is essentially completely dead. The pitching is still the best in the league, and the offense is entirely awful. Of course it hurts when you lose your #2, #3, and #4 outfielders. I mean… Pete Schipper!! He is a last-rounder! He came from AA!!

But Quebell is in an endless slump, Correa is a complete waste of words, and Martinez has reverted to being an automatic out, too. Let’s be glad over Yoshi Nomura’s resurgence to a major league average output, although he probably shouldn’t bat leadoff…

As far as our field hospital before a 4-city, 13-game road trip goes, Pruitt will be activated in time for the weekend series in Milwaukee, but neither Castro nor Black will be back before the middle of the month. Not that Count Hack has been anything but an automatic out this season. Good thing we covered us with the vesting options…

As we’re on the topic of precious coins, with Black’s salary going off the 2010 books, we so far have four seven-digit salaries lined up for Brownie ($2.2M), Alston ($1.9M), Correa ($1.7M), and Umberger ($1M). Bruno, Cruz, Huerta, and Sharp are free agents and right now we figure to have about $2.9M available. Our third base situation is tricky right now, or maybe a better word would be “nebulous”. Cruz doesn’t have to be resigned since I calculate with Hector Santos (4.6 BB/9, 6.9 K/9 in AAA…) to debut somewhere in 2010. Blow money on Bruno? He’s struggled badly in the first half of the year…

I am very frustrated. Also, the cookie jar is empty. That saddens my heart even more.

MarkCuban · 02-06-2016, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westheim

This team will never get back to the playoffs, never. I need to get fired, that would get the team in line.

But I still have those photos.

Hm.. even if the owner COULD fire you, he probably wouldn't. There really is no capable replacement for your considerable skill [within the Portland budget]... he probably couldn't afford to hire the Mascot.

I'm really excited for the tear-down rebuild in 2010. Transactions are more entertaining than games.

Westheim · 02-07-2016, 09:37 AM

Raccoons (61-43) @ Knights (54-50) – August 3-5, 2009

Oh look, the CL South leaders are actually recognizably over .500 now. And if their third-best offense could spew out three runs per game in this series, they might be seven over by Wednesday night. Disregard their fourth-worst concept of preventing runs. In fact, disregard the Raccoons’ lineup entirely. We will only play the bottoms of innings to save everybody time and bother.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (1-1, 4.76 ERA) vs. Jim Turner (7-5, 3.38 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-5, 2.10 ERA) vs. Kurt Doyle (8-9, 4.83 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (8-5, 2.80 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (9-3, 3.69 ERA)

There’s a right-hander hiding between two southpaws in this series, and those two southpaws are their best starters in terms of ERA. And well, Butler has more wins than any Raccoons starter anyway.

The series itself however didn’t get underway until Tuesday when it rained cats and dogs and other critters on Monday. The Coons were happily spending the day inside, alternating between eating and snoozing. We had a double header to play on Tuesday though and used that splendid opportunity to switch our starters, put Boda behind Brown and have him separate the left-handers again.

Game 1
POR: SS Howell – 2B Correa – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Brown
ATL: SS Kester – 2B T. Pena – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – 3B C. Martinez – LF Ju. Garcia – 1B Younger – C Delgado – P Turner

This was a visitor’s lineup that one was tempted to sneeze at, but Pete Schipper put the Raccoons ahead early with a solo home run in the second inning. Alas, you also had to sneeze at Nick Brown, who seamlessly got in line with all the other dorks allowing run-scoring 2-out hits to the opposing pitcher recently. The Knights had two on already, the Coons called an intentional walk to 28-year old rookie Carlos Delgado, and Jim Turner singled in a pair anyway in the bottom 2nd. That was even before the great RISP qualities of the Raccoons came to light again, with Alston and Martinez leaving the bases loaded in the top 3rd, and Brown stranding Schipper at third base in the fourth. Ricardo Martinez would tie the game with a 2-out RBI double in the top 5th, scoring Correa from second base, but Alston running from first was thrown out at home. Desperate times, desperate measures, desperate results.

At least the Coons got Jim Turner out of the game by the sixth inning when Schipper and De La Poland hit singles to start the inning. Sadakuno Imamura replaced him, and at that point, the Raccoons had ten hits to the Knights’ five, and still couldn’t beg their way to a lead. Eventually we had the bases loaded for Correa with two outs, the count ran full, and Correa finally yoinked a pitch to right center that vanished in the vast alley between Morales and Munoz and wasn’t excavated again until Correa was sliding into third base with a score-improving 3-run triple. Imamura was in meltdown mode, walked Sharp and Alston, but Martinez raked himself out. No, there was the occasional fluke hit, but overall the team was not improving. Nick Brown hit a leadoff double in the top 8th and was stranded mercilessly, too, and it got even harder for him in the bottom of the inning, in which Jose Morales and Carlos Martinez both took him deep with solo home runs to get the Knights back to within a run at 5-4. Ricardo Martinez hit a double in the ninth, but forget about it. In fact, consign yourself to the pitch black abyss. Angel Casas walked Kevin Bond to start the bottom 9th, and soon enough allowed a triple to John Kelsey that blew out Brownie’s win. Jaime Kester’s fly to left was deep enough for Kelsey to tag and score as the Knights walked off. 6-5 Knights. Correa 2-4, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Martinez 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Schipper 4-5, HR, RBI;

We out-hit them 14-8. Our LOB was 11, theirs four. The problem, you see, is that this team is composed entirely of ****ing numbnuts that couldn’t **** a brick if being fed clay and tied down outside in the summer sun, let alone score one of their own litter on third base with less than two outs.

What do you mean there’s another game today?? I don’t want no other game today!!

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – SS Howell – RF Schipper – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Boda
ATL: SS Kester – 2B C. Martinez – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – 1B Jo. Garcia – 3B T. Pena – LF Kelsey – C Fowler – P Doyle

Vermin scored four runs from four singles in the first inning, although the Knights used every trick they knew to help them with a wild pitch by Doyle bringing in the very first tally, and also an outrageous throwing error by Gonzalo Munoz helping out. Two runs scored on sac flies, and Trevino was the only Raccoon to actually score a run with a base hit. But, 4-0 in the first, life is good. Except that one run was immediately given back by Boda when Morales conquered him for a home run, but hey, 4-1 in the first. 4-1 became 6-1 as Kurt Doyle continued to not put hitters away, and a Nomura triple in the fourth brought in the seventh run. Caution, boys! You don’t want to run out of your weekly run allotment on Tuesday!

Things got a little uglier in the fourth, too, with Doyle still allowed to fuss around and drilling Quebell and Howell. Those were left on base, and Doyle was hit for in the bottom of the inning, with Bond flying out to Alston to end the inning. Yet, despite being up by six runs, this was still Boda pitching, and his non-skill began to show, too. Gonzalo Munoz and Jorge Garcia hit back-to-back homers to start the bottom 6th, pulling the Knights back to 7-3, and while Boda was allowed to mess around some more, he was removed after Tony Pena and Dale Fowler reached the corners with two hard singles. One out, Luis Beltran was called on to face the reliever Chris Lamb in the box, which was an odd spot to not hit for a pitcher, even in the back leg of a double header. Lamb quickly flicked a 1-0 pitch into a double play to quell the threat. With Huerta pitching in the eighth, the Knights had a runner thrown out at home by Trevino, but the game was locked up for the Coons in the top 9th when Ralph Myers hit for Schipper with Howell on base and rocked his first career home run to right center. 9-3 Coons. Nomura 2-3, 2 BB, 3B; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Howell 1-2, BB; Myers (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1, 2B; Beltran 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

After churning out four hits in the first game, Pete Schipper went 0-3, 3K in the second game. Oh well.

Game 3
POR: SS Howell – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Alston – 2B Correa – RF Ayers – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Baldwin
ATL: SS Kester – LF Ju. Garcia – CF J. Morales – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Bond – RF Jo. Garcia – 2B Kelsey – C Delgado – P Butler

At first it looked like a pitchers’ duel in the making, with no score and little action through three innings, but then the Raccoons had the bases loaded in the top 4th. Unfortunately this was with one out and the worst bit of the lineup coming up. De La Pudding had a full count going and swung over a ball that was terribly close to the dirt, and Trevino limply loped out to Garcia in right. The next runner in scoring position was Sharp in the sixth, reaching on a Carlos Martinez throwing error (THAT Martinez was a Gold Glover, though), and made it to second base with no outs. While Alston grounded out and Jose Diarrhea merely achieved the bare minimum with a sac fly to right, Baldwin blew up the instant he was handed the lead. One-hitting the Knights through five innings, he allowed a double to Dave Butler in the bottom 6th, then was taken deep back-to-back by Jorge Garcia and Jose Morales. Top 7th, De La Polio hit a blooper that fell in front of Garcia. While Trevino continued to fail, Ricardo Martinez batted for Baldwin and hit a triple to center that not only scored the runner, but also had the tying run at third base with less than two outs, and with the greatest of pains, Rob Howell’s sac fly just barely got Martinez home, 3-3. All the effort was for nought when Ted Reese allowed a 2-run homer to Delgado in the bottom of the inning, though. Sharp homered in the top 8th, a solo job, Huerta gave the run right back. 6-4 Knights. Martinez (PH) 1-1, 3B;

The Knights had a 2-homer inning in every game in this set. The Raccoons had lunch twice on Wednesday.

Ralph Myers was demoted back to St. Petersburg as Matt Pruitt came off the DL in time for the weekend series. Myers might be back in September as a left-handed bat off the bench, and if Quebell continues to suck like he does, he might even get a few starts here and there then.

Raccoons (62-45) @ Loggers (38-68) – August 6-9, 2009

We were 6-1 against the Loggers this season, and they were truly horrendous in all fields. Second-least runs scored, most runs allowed, worst rotation, second-worst bullpen. They were even worst in defense! There was not only not much to like about this team, there was NOTHING to like about this team. In other words, they were the 2000 Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (8-4, 3.26 ERA) vs. Art Davies (0-0)
Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.75 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (4-6, 5.24 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-5, 2.22 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-13, 4.26 ERA)
Cássio Boda (2-1, 4.86 ERA) vs. Tom Constantino (1-2, 5.46 ERA)

We miss their only left-hander, William Lloyd (4-12, 4.78 ERA), it seems. Well, they nominally do have more left-handers, but they (Fabien Armand, Fernando Cruz) are both on the DL.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Umberger
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – C Baca – 1B Cambria – 3B Jennings – 2B K. Scott – P Davies

Davies, a 26-year old right-hander with unremarkable everything, went undrafted in the 2000 Amateur Draft and worked his way up the ladder by cleaning other players’ spikes at first. This was his major league debut and he got started with two scoreless innings and driving in a run in his first at-bat, a 2-out (of course) RBI single in the bottom 2nd that already gave the Loggers a 2-0 lead over Umberger, who spent a lot of time in deep counts and reached 100 pitches in the sixth inning, which was also as long as it took the Raccoons to overcome a 2-run deficit against a fourth-rate pitcher. Nomura and Howell plated runs in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.

Umberger had Jennings in scoring position with two outs and an 0-2 count to J.R. Richardson in the sixth inning then. From there he threw a wild pitch, six more that were either fouled off or balls, and finally allowed a single that gave the lead back to the Loggers. Rockburn replaced him, Richardson stole second base, and then scored on a Bartolo Hernandez single on an 0-2 pitch. Luis Beltran drilled not one, but TWO batters in the bottom 7th before allowing another 2-out RBI single to Dave Jennings. It was all entirely and wholly horrible, and ended in a rightfully smothering defeat, with two unearned runs for a howling Howell error in the bottom 8th. 7-2 Loggers. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Correa (PH) 1-1;

What a funless job I have…

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Ayers – P Cruz
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – C Baca – 1B Cambria – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – P Huertas

Our left-handed 3-4-5 guys all reached on soft singles and a walk in the first inning before Martinez flew out equally softly to Tim Austin and nobody scored. This game turned terminally south in an incredible hurry. After Austin flied out to right in the bottom 2nd, the Loggers started to turn up the volume. Alonso Baca singled, as did the undead Hugues Cambria and Aaron Tolwith. Keith Scott doubled in two, Huertas singled home one, and Richardson plated the fourth run with another double. Bartolo Hernandez’ single got the score to 5-0 and then ancient Bakile Hiwalani channeled some mystical force to crank a 3-run homer. Eight batters, eight base hits, eight runs, eight more reasons to just cut your wrists and wait for darkness.

With Cruz having gotten poured salt in his soil and turned into a wasteland, Luis Beltran was selected to do some long relief work if at all possible, but he allowed another run before even getting out of the inning. The Raccoons had the bases loaded in the top 3rd before Martinez hit into an inning-ending double play, and the Raccoons didn’t do anything remotely remarkable beyond that. At least we covered the entire game with just Beltran and Huerta, both allowing a run. Not that it mattered. 10-1 Loggers. Howell 2-4, 2B; Alston 2-3, RBI; Beltran 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K; Huerta 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

(blank expression)

Game 3
POR: SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Correa – C Lopes – CF Trevino – P Brown
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 1B Q. Burton – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – C Olson – P R. Thomas

Brownie faced an entirely right-handed lineup on short rest, which was not the perfect storm for sure. Maybe the Tolwith error in the second inning that allowed Sharp to stay out of possibly a double play and instead put him on along with Quebell and no outs could lead to something, especially with Correa reaching on an infield single after beating out Keith Scott’s throw. Three on, no outs, bring the runts of the litter. Ximenes Lopes hit a grounder hard to left, but this time Tolwith didn’t butcher it. He only got the out on Correa at second, though, and the first run was in. The output tripled when Trevino’s liner to right was not caught up with by Hiwalani, who had to follow the bouncer all the way into the corner. Brownie singled up the middle, 4-0, stole a base, and scored on an Alston single with two outs before the inning came to an end. Not quite a 9-spot, but certainly not a bad base to build on, 5-0 in the second.

Unforunately, Brown’s stuff had not been delivered yet from Atlanta (it would arrive Sunday morning), and the Loggers lined three hard singles off him in the bottom of the inning. While that only got them back to 5-1, there was certainly room for more. Hiwalani and Austin were already on the corners in the bottom 3rd when Brown knocked out Hernandez with a pitch. Dave Jennings replaced the logged Hernandez, the bases were loaded, and Brownie was wildly adrift. Tolwith singled in a run, and Mike Olson singled in two before Thomas somehow made the third out. 5-4. While the Coons added two runs in the fourth inning, mainly on a Howell triple and an Alston homer (apparently these things still exist more frequently than appearances of Halley’ Comet), for Brownie the struggles never ended in this game, and he never got himself righted over the course of six horrendous innings of 9-hit, 4-run ball. Law Rockburn took over the 7-4 lead in the seventh, and immediately turned the lead into a void. Three of four batters he faced, reached, and two runs were already in after a Dave Jennings double when Marcos Bruno took over, and just so maneuvered around feared sluggers Keith Scott and Mike Olson to arrive in the eighth with a slight 7-6 edge. Bruno’s services were required in the bottom 8th, so with two on and one out he bunted in the top 8th, and even THAT could result in a double play apparently. At least he struck out the side of Baca, John Cameron, and Quinn Burton in the bottom 8th in hope of evading getting shaved.

There was actually a rain delay then in the top of the ninth (remember, this was a Nick Brown start, and he’s cursed), but even though that lasted longer than an hour, the game was not called by the umpires. No, no, give the team of mooks the chance to bring in their idiot closer first. Hiwalani grounded out to Sharp and Hugues Cambria whiffed, and then the Loggers rapped three straight 2-out singles off Casas. That brought up Chris Delaney, who had taken Huerta deep the day before. 2-1 pitch, hard grounder to third base, Sharp with a tumbling grab, rolled back to his feet and zinged the ball to first, bang-bang play and the batter was … OUT!! 7-6 Brownies. Howell 2-4, BB, 3B; Alston 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 4
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Boda
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B Cambria – LF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B Tolwith – RF J. Cameron – 2B K. Scott – P Constantino

The 23-year old Constantino had some walk issues, with 22 free passes in 28 innings this season. While that was often bad but sometimes wouldn’t bite you, we had to battle with the textbook definition of a dork in Cássio Boda, and also with our lineup, but Quebell, Correa, and Schipper loaded the bases in the second inning with three singles, and no outs. De La Panama as always failed, but Trevino singled to center to at least get one run in, and a second run would only score on a wild pitch. Another run scored in the third inning, but soon enough the Loggers were all over Boda. Hiwalani’s leadoff single was quickly followed by a Tim Austin RBI double in the bottom 4th, and the Loggers plated two in the inning, then stranded a pair in the fifth. Boda made it through seven with a 4-2 lead. Quebell had singled home Sharp with two outs in the seventh. Then Rockburn took over and that hadn’t worked on Saturday, either. Here, he basically walked Hiwalani, then had Schipper dash all over rightfield to catch drives by Austin and Baca, the latter one being especially scary, and then waited until Aaron Tolwith hacked himself out with the Civil War veteran Hiwalani in motion. The Coons left runners on the corners in the ninth, waiting for Angel Casas to make it a nail biter in the bottom 9th again. Pruitt actually took leftfield with a pile of popcorn in his glove. Keith Ayers had replaced Schipper for additional defense and caught drives by John Cameron and Keith Scott before Quinn Burton lined up the middle, but was intercepted successfully by Yoshi Nomura. 4-2 Critters. Quebell 4-5, RBI; Correa 2-5, RBI; Schipper 2-3, BB; Boda 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (3-1);

Constantino actually walked only three batters in 8.1 innings, with Sharp drawing free passes twice.

By the way. When I refer to Bakile Hiwalani as Civil War veteran I actually mean the one between Marius and Sulla.

In other news

August 3 – The Pacifics keep falling apart, sending SP J.J. Wirth (11-9, 3.18 ERA) to the DL with shoulder inflammation. He won’t return from there until next season.
August 4 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.299, 0 HR, 30 RBI) is back to the DL with a fractured finger and is not expected back until mid-September.
August 7 – 28-year old WAS LF Raúl Vázquez (.252, 6 HR, 19 RBI) is forced to retire after repeating injuries to ankle ligaments have made his ankle unstable. Vázquez batted .280 with 32 HR and 160 RBI in a 6-year career.

Complaints and stuff

The team slid out of the top 5 in the power rankings with this weak of horrors. The headache is getting quite intense by now.

Guess who’s our first pitcher to nine wins. Nick Brown, on pace for 13 wins this season, the definition of a true ace!

This week, the Mexican Prick inquired why he couldn’t see Whitebread’s contract extension on the 2010 expenses forecast. I wrote him that Whitebread would not get an extension. The answer to that was hard to misinterpret. The Prick insisted on an extension to Whitebread for as many years as was feasible. I had Mike, the technician, cut together some footage of the single A ball Poza Rica Thieves of Jimmy Eichelkraut being horrendous, and sent that back to the Prick with the single line “There’s his first ever pick, three years later, stuck in a rat-infested **** hole in Mexico.”

I’m still waiting for a response to that, but I wouldn’t fancy my chances that the doughbag just keeled over and choked to death. Besides, that wouldn’t necessarily help us. I heard his eldest offspring fancies shiny race cars, high roller Baccarat in Vegas, expensive hookers of either sex, and constantly has his nose full of something that looks like flour, but isn’t.

Speaking of Mike, he also cuts the game preparation videos for our team, but I recently found out that they aren’t even watching them. That might explain why every last donk of a pitcher is able to fool them. They are exchanging the numbers and locations of pizza places in all 24 ABL cities with great interest, though.

MarkCuban · 02-08-2016, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westheim

This week, the Mexican Prick inquired why he couldn’t see Whitebread’s contract extension on the 2010 expenses forecast. I wrote him that Whitebread would not get an extension. The answer to that was hard to misinterpret. The Prick insisted on an extension to Whitebread for as many years as was feasible. I had Mike, the technician, cut together some footage of the single A ball Poza Rica Thieves of Jimmy Eichelkraut being horrendous, and sent that back to the Prick with the single line “There’s his first ever pick, three years later, stuck in a rat-infested **** hole in Mexico.”

I’m still waiting for a response to that, but I wouldn’t fancy my chances that the doughbag just keeled over and choked to death. Besides, that wouldn’t necessarily help us. I heard his eldest offspring fancies shiny race cars, high roller Baccarat in Vegas, expensive hookers of either sex, and constantly has his nose full of something that looks like flour, but isn’t.

If Jimmy "Oatmeal" Eichelkraut makes a Josh Hamilton-esque comeback after Portland inevitably releases him, you think he'd give you a cut of the endorsement deal? I imagine Quaker Oats doesn't get many opportunities for tie-ins.

Maybe you could star alongside him in the commercial. What flavor do you think they'd name after him? I'd go with a Maple Syrup and Raisin combination.

Westheim · 02-08-2016, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

If Jimmy "Oatmeal" Eichelkraut makes a Josh Hamilton-esque comeback after Portland inevitably releases him, you think he'd give you a cut of the endorsement deal? I imagine Quaker Oats doesn't get many opportunities for tie-ins.

He was traded twice last year, first in the Ron Alston deal with Sharp and Ryan Miller, so he's not our business anymore, except for when I need to get rid of unwanted personnel.

---

Raccoons (64-47) @ Indians (57-54) – August 10-12, 2009

The Indians failed to score four runs per game and ranked 11th in runs scored (but the Raccoons were right at 4.0 R/G …), but their pitching was in the top 3 in the league, especially the rotation. Low-scoring series might be coming, but so far the Coons had owned the Indians in this season, winning nine of the 12 games between the two teams.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (8-5, 2.87 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (5-9, 5.58 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (8-5, 3.38 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (9-6, 2.96 ERA)
Javier Cruz (8-7, 3.25 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (10-7, 3.19 ERA)

We face both of their left-handers, Escobedo and Sjogren, and their best guy overall. And well, Escobedo might be a pushover, but… although I seem to remember that we did get to him eventually in all recent games. Tomas Castro might come back on Wednesday, but maybe he will only come back on the weekend.

Game 1
POR: SS Howell – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – 2B Correa – RF Schipper – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Baldwin
IND: CF MacNamarra – C R. Speed – RF Pacheco – 1B S. Guerra – LF Luxton – 3B C. Aguilar – SS Barrón – 2B Mathews – P Escobedo

That awful Indians offense jumped on Colin Baldwin right away with three extra base hits in the first inning, including home runs by Richard Speed and Santiago Guerra that gave them a 3-0 lead. Baldwin never managed a clean inning, getting blown out of the park for six runs in 3.2 innings, which included another home run by Guerra, whose career total coming into the game had been squid. Yeah, low-scoring games. It would become low-scoring from here, though. The Raccoons bullpen nailed down that scruffy lineup that had just had Baldwin for breakfast over the remaining 13 outs, not allowing a whole lot at all. But the bad news were that Escobedo, scruffier than can be described without too many details, pitched eight innings and struck out more than he allowed base hits. The Raccoons scratched out two runs – didn’t matter the least little bit. 6-2 Indians. Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, RBI;

Good start to the week. But can still get worse.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – CF Ayers – C Lopes – P Umberger
IND: CF MacNamara – RF Pacheco – 1B Tsung – C Paraz – LF Luxton – 3B C. Aguilar – SS R. Miller – 2B Boyle – P Tobitt

Tobitt issued two walks in the first inning, which were left unused by the Coons, and one figured that that was their chance of the day, and it was all over, especially with Umberger in no condition to offer resistance, allowing two singles to start the second inning, and then plated one run right away with a wild pitch. The other runner would score on a Bruce Boyle sac fly. Boyle, two months away from being 40 years old by now, was still better at this man-on-third, one-out thing than anybody on this horrid team. Pruitt drew a walk in the fourth, and there was a hit batter, Ximenes Lopes, in the fifth, but that was all. Oh yeah, and nine strikeouts through five innings. This seriously smelled like a no-hitter in the making.

And then Daniel Sharp whacked a double past Robbie Luxton to start the sixth, there would not be a no-hitter, and in a few minutes’ time there wasn’t even a lead. Alston singled, Correa doubled, and Ayers singled to plate two runs in the sixth inning, tying the score. Tobitt left in the seventh inning after ten strikeouts and shooting well over 100 pitches, and the Raccoons would produce a bases-loaded situation with a Nomura walk drawn off Tobitt, and then singles by Sharp and Alston against reliever Sergio Alvarez. Quebell grounded out to first to end the inning. Meanwhile Jong-hoo had actually become unhittable after the second inning, and finished eight innings while striking out as many. Rob Howell hit for him to start the top 9th, walked against Salvadaro Soure, then was caught stealing by the girl-armed Paraz, which was all the more bitter when the inning continued with a Nomura walk, Sharp’s single, a Pruitt K, and Alston flying out to left. Sims retired Pacheco, Tsung, and Paraz in order in the bottom 9th and we had overtime, in which both pitchers delivered a scoreless 10th.

The 11th started with Hélio Maggessi walking Ximenes Lopes in a full count. Pete Schipper hit for Sims, the hit-and-run was on, Lopes went, Schipper missed, but Paraz’ throw bounced and Lopes was safe at second. Well, Schipper had missed the first pitch of the at-bat, but he wouldn’t miss the fifth. Maggessi’s 2-2 offering was tattered well over the leftfield wall and the Raccoons had a lead. Angel Casas had thrown A LOT of pitches recently, so the save opportunity went to Marcos Bruno here, and he struck out Santiago Guerra, Brian MacNamara, and Roberto Pacheco in order to end the game. 4-2 Critters. Sharp 3-6, 2B; Alston 2-5; Schipper (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Umberger 8.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K; Sims 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (6-1);

Where does that Schipper kid come from after all? He’s a last-rounder. He’s not supposed to hit game-winning home runs. He was the … 303rd pick in the 2007 draft.

(shakes head)

Game 3
POR: SS Howell – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – 2B Correa – RF Schipper – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Cruz
IND: CF MacNamara – RF Pacheco – 1B Tsung – C Paraz – LF Luxton – 3B C. Aguilar – SS R. Miller – 2B Mathews – P Sjogren

The Raccoons somehow squeezed out a run in the first inning, Howell walking, Sharp singling, and Howell coming home on Alston’s groundout. They wouldn’t get another hit for a long, long time against Jimmy Sjogren, while Cruz soon enough cocked up a 2-run homer to Roberto Pacheco that gave the Indians a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning. It was then Sharp in the sixth inning to have another hit, a bloop into shallow right to lead off the inning. Alston, Correa, and Schipper struck out in order… Those two Sharp singles were all the Coons had through eight. Cruz pitched seven decent innings except for that damn bomb to damn Pacheco, but Luis Beltran allowed another run brought in by damn Mun-wah Tsung in the eighth inning. Down 3-1 against Soure, Alston led off the ninth, walked, Nomura struck out, Schipper struck out, and then Pruitt drew another walk in Martinez’ spot. Quebell hit for De La Pity, but grounded out on the first damn pitch from damn Soure. 3-1 Indians. Sharp 2-3, BB; Cruz 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K;

All those damn guys up there? All former Coons minor leaguers. What did we get for them? Tsung was traded with Jesus Elmore (who’s now also a major leaguer!) for gigantic busts Matt King and Keegan Crabtree. Pacheco was the price for Eddie Torrez, which didn’t work out, either. And Soure was part of the deal for Ramiro Cavazos all the way back in 2000. That doesn’t include Ryan Miller, a third part of the Ron Alston trade last season, the other parts of which were of course Daniel Sharp (who keeps snapping back no matter where he’s sent) and Jimmy Oatmeal, the sucker.

I knew Pacheco would eventually kill us, but Torrez looked like the right part to get a losers’ team adjusted. Ugh.

Raccoons (65-49) @ Pacifics (73-42) – August 14-16, 2009

The Pacifics are Pathetics no more, it seems, and are well on their way to their first postseason appearance since 1991(!), and on the way to there they had to trap and skin some Coons over the weekend. We haven’t played them in three years, but actually took the last four series against them between 2001 and 2005, which hints at how much more horrible than even those early-decade Coons the Pacifics must have been. They were second in scoring and were allowing the least number of runs in the Federal League, with a +158 run differential (Coons: +50 …).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-5, 2.37 ERA) vs. Iván Cordero (2-2, 7.50 ERA)
Cássio Boda (3-1, 4.18 ERA) vs. Curt Powell (6-12, 4.66 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (8-6, 3.19 ERA) vs. Brad Smith (14-2, 2.49 ERA)

Cordero is the only left-hander, a stop-gap solution with J.J. Wirth having disappeared to the DL for them. He was with the Bayhawks for a number of years earlier in the decade. Smith looks good already, but their best guy is actually Ernest Green with a 2.14 ERA; whom we will kindly miss. He is leading the majors in ERA with the demise of Nick Brown’s season.

We got Castro back from the DL (and sent Luke Black for a rehab assignment), and Pete Schipper was assigned to AAA for the remainder of August, but he’d be back (most likely) in September. He had to go instead of Keith Ayers, because Ayers had no options, but was a better defender, and I still think Schipper’s a fluke.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Brown
LAP: 3B J. Carroll – 2B V. Flores – CF Roberts – 1B Murphy – SS Lulli – C Spears – LF M. Perez – RF E. Jackson – P Cordero

The Raccoons loaded the bases in the first inning against Cordero, who was either all over the place or right down the middle. He plated the first run, Howell, with a wild pitch before reloading the bases right away with a walk to Quebell. But Ayers whiffed and Correa grounded out, and the Raccoons were left without a run scored on their own, and the lead went out of the window right away when old Coon Vic Flores homered off Brown in the first inning. Brown struggled to get strike three over in this game, and in addition to that there was some shoddy middle infield defense this time. A grounder eluding Correa led to the Pacifics taking a 2-1 lead in the third, the run again driven in by Flores. While Ron Alston’s monthly home run flipped the score to 3-2 in the top 5th, Brown instantly imploded with Jens Carroll’s leadoff triple in the bottom 5th, then walked Flores and drilled Jimmy Roberts. That he only surrendered the tying run was owed to three great catches by Castro, Sharp, and Castro again.

Top 6th, Quebell started it with a single and then Ayers hit a double to left, putting the go-ahead runs in scoring position, but the team barely got one run in. And won’t they learn that one run ain’t enough? Brown didn’t even get through six innings, left the tying run on base, whom Rockburn mopped up, but that had not been a good display of pitching. Cordero was also out of the game, so it wouldn’t get easier to score runs from here… Rockburn got through the seventh despite drilling Jimmy Roberts, handing off to Bruno, who allowed a single to Manny Perez with two outs in the eighth, but struck out Adriano Lulli, Errol Spears, and Eddie Jackson around him. There was just no help coming forth in the top halves of innings, and so Angel Casas was put into the bottom 9th, and he had blown a Brown win very recently. Pedro Cruz struck out, Jens Carroll struck out, and then Vic Flores hit another deep drive to center – but Trevino had replaced Castro for defense and hauled that one in. 4-3 Brownies. Sharp 2-4; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – C De La Parra – P Boda
LAP: 3B J. Carroll – 2B V. Flores – CF Roberts – 1B Murphy – SS Lulli – C Spears – RF E. Jackson – LF M. Perez – P Powell

Ron Alston drove in a lead for his team for the third time in the series when he hit a 2-out RBI single in the top of the first inning. Cássio Boda quickly shoveled the bases full in the bottom 1st, walking two of the first three batters, and when Stanley Murphy singled, the Pacifics had the bags full, only for Lulli to ground into a 4-6-3. While Boda was incredibly shaky and had to be dug out by the defense that turned another critical double play in the third inning, the Raccoons couldn’t score for their sorry tails again, not with two on and no outs in the third, and not with the bases loaded, two outs, and a 3-0 count to Castro, who poked and grounded out to Flores to end the fourth. The Pacifics would tie the game in the bottom 4th on a 2-out RBI single by Curt Powell, their pitcher, and I was rubbing my temples to make the pain go away, but it wouldn’t. While Boda continued to be easily hit and was saved by another double play in the sixth when Manny Perez lined out to Correa, who doubled off Lulli from second base, the Raccoons had actually been spotted another lead with a 2-run shot authored by Matt Pruitt in the fifth inning. Up 3-1, Boda was removed after Carroll’s 1-out single in the bottom 7th. Ricardo Huerta came in, who had issues and allowed a single to Flores, but the Pacifics would leave their men on, yet had runners on the corners right away in the bottom 8th with Lulli and Spears singling off Huerta.

Donald Sims faced left-handed pinch-hitter Ryan Milk, who hit a 2-2 fastball to deep right. There, Ayers had replaced Alston (who was in left, Quebell was actually out of the game), and made the catch on the warning track, but Lulli scored, and the next at-bat would be contentious. Manny Perez popped an 0-1 pitch to very far right, but it was playable for a hustling Ayers, who tried to make a leaping grab right on top of the rightfield line, dinked the ball off the edge of his glove and it bounced in foul territory. The Pacifics argued that the ball had been fair until Ayers shoved it foul, and wanted their runners, who had reached first and third, to stick, but the umpiring crew sent them back, giving Ayers an error and an 0-2 count against Perez, who was back to the plate. Perez struck out and Sims would get through the inning, with the Pacifics manager barking from the home dugout constantly.

Yoshi Nomura struck out stranding runners on the corners in the top 9th, who had only arrived there with two outs when Howell and Castro singled. Angel Casas came out for the bottom of the inning, Carroll led off with a single, and then he walked Flores. Jimmy Roberts hit into a double play, leaving it to Casas and Stanley Murphy with the tying run on third base. Murphy grounded between third and short, but Howell had remained in the game, made a great play and zinged the ball to first in time to nab Murphy, who wasn’t all that quick in the first place. 3-2 Coons. Castro 3-5; Howell (PH) 1-1;

Castro was assigned to the chain room after this game. We could have had one or more extra runs very early and then the game isn’t that close and nerve-wrecking that I can’t even eat anymore!

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – C Lopes – P Baldwin
LAP: 3B J. Carroll – 2B V. Flores – CF Roberts – 1B Murphy – SS Lulli – C Spears – LF M. Perez – RF E. Jackson – P B. Smith

Matt Pruitt had a completely black day on defensive duty, with the Pacifics hitting four flies his way in the first three innings, and they were all doubles, including one gruesome misplay, on the very first fly to left by Lulli, that first bounced in behind him as he actually overslid it. That was enough for L.A. to score three early runs, while the Raccoons had little going on except for a rally-killing, inning-ending double play that Howell hit into in the third inning. While there was that, the Pacifics had to remove Brad Smith in pains in the fourth inning, and they had to put in the charred remains of former starter Anibal Sandoval, whose ERA was almost eight, and Ron Alston hit a triple off him right away. While Alston scored on Quebell’s single, that was all the Coons got, and Baldwin restored the 3-run gap immediately in the bottom 4th with a 2-out run-scoring wild pitch.

Baldwin led off the fifth with a single against the next reliever, Lou Cannon, but got forced on Castro’s grounder. Howell doubled to center, but Pruitt grounded out to first, keeping the runners pinned. Cannon was a right-hander and somewhat cautious with Alston, who eventually walked, but then Quebell hit a single to center that scored both Castro and Howell. Martinez, the automatic out, was an automatic out. Baldwin got another two runs stuck between his butt cheeks then when Jimmy Roberts homered in the bottom 5th without Baldwin having logged another out, and the Pacifics would whack another four hits for two runs off Ted Reese, including another double past the luckless Pruitt. Down 8-3, the game was lost for good. The Raccoons failed their way through the inning, once again hitting into three double plays in a game, and both Alston and Quebell had deep drives to right center not only miss the wall, which both would have been 3-run homers, but also had the not-bombs caught. 8-3 Pacifics. Castro 2-5; Alston 2-4, BB, 3B; Quebell 3-4, BB, 3 RBI; Nomura 2-3, 2B;

Pruitt went 0-4 in addition to being a bottomless bucket on the defense in this Sunday stinker. Back home, boys, let’s keep our shame to ourselves.

In other news

August 12 – NYC CF Roberto Pena (.286, 5 HR, 39 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak completed with a single in his Crusaders’ 3-1 win over the Titans.
August 14 – As the Titans beat the Stars 8-5, BOS LF/RF Apasyu Britton (.313, 3 HR, 26 RBI) collects six hits, a double and five singles with one RBI. He is the 43rd batter to achieve this feat, and the second of the season after Denver’s Yuji Hashimoto. He is the third Titan to have a 6-hit game after Isto Grönholm (1983) and Gonzalo Munoz (2007). In the same game, BOS OF/1B Gerardo Rios (.249, 16 HR, 66 RBI) has five hits, including two doubles and two RBI.
August 16 – The Canadiens’ SP Rod Taylor (15-6, 2.72 ERA) throws a 3-hitter and whiffs ten batters in a 7-0 win over the Wolves.
August 16 – A strained hammy sends DAL CF/LF César Morán (.301, 12 HR, 62 RBI) to the DL for the next four weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Dropped from seventh to ninth in the power rankings by now.

Al Martin batted .520 with 2 HR and 8 RBI for the Scorpions and was FL Player of the Week.

It’s game over for Ricardo Martinez and Ted Reese. I can’t stand their sights anymore. Whatever I saw and liked in the first-half Martinez in 2008 is all gone. I can’t give another lick about the bum. Reese was never expected to be any good, and he isn’t. Manuel Gutierrez (.279/.340/.380 in 129 AB in AAA) will replace Martinez, while the bullpen slot goes to 23-year old right-hander Derrek Fredlund. Good knuckle curve (mean, even), bad control, but a 2.14 ERA in AAA this year. He was a second-rounder for the Warriors in 2005 before we picked him up by dealing them Kelly Fairchild. Maybe that’s one trade that WON’T result in rectal pain for the rest of our lives.

Oh, while our AAA and AA teams are merely meh, our A-level team, laden with junk, is a shocking 31-82 at this point. In St. Pete, Dave Green has been out for the season for a while as far as AAA outfield prospects go, and now Jason Seeley has joined him with a torn back muscle. Below, Pete Schipper, not the usual scouting report on big league sluggers, huh?

Westheim · 02-10-2016, 05:34 PM

Raccoons (67-50) vs. Miners (67-51) – August 18-20, 2009

We were returning home to play seven games in six days, including a double header with the Titans on the weekend after having Monday off. We haven’t lost a series against the Miners since 1980(!!), maintaining a .727 winning percentage against them. Of course the Miners were blazing hot coming in, having won their last eight games, leading the FL East. They were second in runs scored in the Federal League, and were just as good in terms of runs allowed. There wasn’t much weakness to be found in their pitching staff, with both rotation and bullpen ranking in the top 3 in ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (8-5, 3.32 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (7-9, 3.78 ERA)
Javier Cruz (8-8, 3.21 ERA) vs. Henry Becker (11-7, 3.12 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.45 ERA) vs. Miguel Rodriguez (14-7, 3.15 ERA)

In this series, the opposing starters were opposite-handed for all three games.

Game 1
PIT: CF Stewart – RF Blanc – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B Madison – 3B Ladd – LF DeWeese – SS J. Gonzales – P M. Hernandez
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Umberger

Manuel Hernandez was averaging almost a walk every other inning and went about raising that average some more right away in the bottom 1st, walking Castro, Howell, and Alston in succession. Daniel Sharp worked a full count, and Hernandez’ next pitch was so low, not even Ricardo Martinez would have - … well, Martinez probably would have, but Sharp didn’t, and four walks made a run. Unfortunately that was it for glory. A Quebell sac fly was all that the Coons managed to make out of all the free goodies they were handed. But after four walks in the first inning, the Coons got four singles in the second inning, with Sharp plating a pair with two outs, and ironically in this already wicked contest, Umberger had the Critters’ first hit of the game. He had also struck out a handful in the first two innings before the Miners whacked him for a pair, singled in also with two outs by Steve Butler in the top 3rd. In the sixth inning, a Blanc single and Butler double put the Miners’ tying runs in scoring position with no outs. Bartholomeu Pino struck out in a full count, but Steve Madison’s single and a Wes Ladd sacrifice tied the game at four. Umberger struck out R.J. DeWeese to end the frame, but it looked like despite nine strikeouts in six innings he would be left with nothing.

But whenever it looked like the game was going to turn into something sour sooner rather than later, Rob Howell would come along. Umberger actually singled in the bottom 6th, and Hernandez drilled Castro. Howell came up and roped a bomb to left center that exploded the scoreboard to 7-4 in favor of the Critters. Umberger pitched a seventh inning that almost got out of hand with Tomas Castro making a running catch backwards on the warning track before he barely avoided cracking his skull open against the wall. That ended the inning and saved at least one run, and Umberger’s day was also over after seven.

Ex-Furball John Bennett appeared for the Miners in the bottom 7th, and got out Quebell and Ayers, but by then the Raccoons got wind of the Snackers bar in his back pocket. Correa sniffed it first, singled up the middle, and a rout was on. De La Pancake singled, and when Matt Pruitt hit for Umberger, Correa scored on his single to right, before Tomas Castro lined a 2-0 pitch to deep left for a 2-run double. Having Raccoons emptying his pockets all over himself, Bennett fled the mound in panic, and all was well in Coon City. 10-4 Raccoons! Howell 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Correa 2-4; Umberger 7.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (9-5) and 2-3;

Derrek Fredlund made his major league debut in the ninth inning and struck out his first batter in the majors, Wes Ladd. He also got the maiden base hit allowed off his back, a DeWeese single, but retired the next two batters to end the game.

Game 2
PIT: CF Stewart – LF DeWeese – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B Madison – 3B Ladd – RF Alexander – SS J. Gonzales – P Becker
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Cruz

Things happened quickly again in the middle game. Both teams scored a run with the help of an infield single in their halves of the first, and Daniel Sharp tweaked an oblique and had to leave the game. Both pitchers faced their significant other with a man on, two outs, and a full count in the second inning. Cruz walked Becker in the top 2nd, but struck out to end the bottom 2nd. Nothing happened in between, but showing his walky side soon got Cruz hurt with a 2-run homer by Steve Madison in the top 3rd, with the runner Butler having reached on a walk. The Coons had snacked on John Bennett’s stash all night long and were a bit tired at the plate. They got chances with two men on that were induced by Miners errors in the fourth and eighth innings, and bailed out of both, and the Miners weren’t able to score either. Beltran, Rockburn, and Bruno held them short once Cruz exited after six and a thirds, having whiffed eight batters, but it was the Coons who had to make up two runs. Getting Keith Ayers on with a leadoff single against Paco Barrera in the bottom 9th was certainly a good start, but Correa popped out. Trevino batted in the #8 spot and grounded back to Barrera, which got Ayers forced out at second base. Ximenes Lopes was our last bat off the bench, hitting for Bruno, and grounded out to short. 3-1 Miners. Sharp 1-1, RBI;

Offense for a day, hooray, hooray, hooray…

Meanwhile, Daniel Sharp will be a bit tight with a mild oblique strain and probably needs to be handled with care for the rest of the week. Add to that a double header on Friday that I find it hard to construct a rotation around. I mean, who should temporarily vacate their roster spot for a scratch pitcher to make a start? And who would said scratch pitcher be?

Maybe the weather would help us out. It was showering hard on Thursday. With the Miners having to go cross country to Washington, the game was cancelled two hours after it should have been started and rescheduled for the following week, evacuating our scheduled off day between getting drubbed again in New York and the beginning of the next homestand against the Thunder. It’s also not too hard on the Miners. After playing the Capitals and Rebels in the east, they had to get back to the west coast by Friday anyway for a series in Sacramento. And thus, in washing out Nick Brown’s start, the weather actually HELPED us in filling out the Titans series’ rotation without any wonky moves required. Well, the problem at least gets delayed to the next series in New York…

Raccoons (68-51) vs. Titans (59-61) – August 21-23, 2009

The Titans ranked seventh in runs scored (so much better than yours truly) and fifth in runs allowed (but we were laughing about that). They had a very good top 3 bullpen, but the rotation’s ERA was in the bottom half in the league. We were 7-4 against them on the season, and this series will start with a double header to make up for a game rained out on April 19.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.45 ERA) vs. Jesus Elmore (9-5, 4.20 ERA)
Cássio Boda (4-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (8-7, 4.52 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (8-7, 3.48 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (6-14, 3.87 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (9-5, 3.40 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (7-9, 4.76 ERA)

We get all their right-handers, it seems, and will miss Ray Conner (7-11, 3.57 ERA). Yoshi Nomura is excited.

Game 1
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Britton – C Suda – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – 3B Higashi – 1B G. Rios – SS J. Amador – P Elmore
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Correa – C De La Parra – P Brown

The Coons got two early runs after a Howell single, a wild pitch, Pruitt groundout, Alston walk, and then consecutive singles by Quebell and Yoshi. The team didn’t stop there, quickly adding more runs, with Javier Gusmán being beaten by balls over his head by Howell in the second and Nomura in the third, both falling in for run-scoring extra base hits, and the score after three was 5-0 in favor of the home team, with Brownie however not unhittable at all. There had been a deep drive to right by Jesus Ramirez in the top 3rd with a man on, but it had come down and into Ron Alston’s glove still 15 feet from the wall. After two strikeouts and some bad flails in the top 4th, Matt Pruitt ripped a huge homer in the bottom of the same inning, 7-0. All was well in Coon City.

Indeed it was. After Jesus Amador (three Jesuses in their lineup and they still weren’t blessed with offense) singled in the third inning, and once Alston caught that drive, Brown switched into domination mode. He would sit down the next 17 batters following Amador, which, math dictates, sends you clean through eight. The Raccoons’ fifth inning was the first in which they didn’t score (also Elmore’s last), and they didn’t score again until the eighth inning, when Tomas Castro ripped a 2-piece off Lawrence Rivers. Brownie entered the ninth with a 9-0 lead, 10 K, and only 89 pitches! Amador struck out, John Hudson struck out, Julio Silva, annoyingly, singled. Okay, still some breath left in our horse. A long at-bat with Apasyu Britton saw the count run full eventually. Silva ran on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Britton swung, and missed it. It was done!! 9-0 Brownies!! Castro 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Howell 2-5, 3B, RBI; Quebell 3-3, BB, RBI; Nomura 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 K, W (11-5) and 1-3;

(squeaks) BROWNIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!! (the glass of the trophy case cracks and splinters)

This is already Brownie’s fifth complete game of the season (the previous high was three in ’03), and tied his career high in shutouts (also from ’03) with the second of the year. He has 17 CG and 8 SHO in total. Ironically, 2003 was Brown’s worst major league season (omitting his initial 41-inning call-up in 2001). In addition to the usual shutout hysteria, he preserved the bullpen in its entirety for the second part of the double header, which is why I like to start the better guy first usually.

Also, annoyingly, he didn’t even strike out the most batters this Friday, as Jack Berry whiffed 15. That Jack Berry whom I traded because he’d never cut it. Looks like he’s cut it. -.-

Game 2
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF J. Gusmán – LF G. Rios – RF Hayashi – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Higashi – C J. Silva – SS M. Austin – P Cabrera
POR: LF Castro – 2B Nomura – 1B Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Correa – 3B M. Gutierrez – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Boda

After hitting for three total bases in an entire game earlier in the day, Jesus Ramirez hit for three bases in the first at-bat of the nightcap. Boda had Gusmán pop out, but then drilled consecutive batters, and Tony Ramos drove in a pair. Somehow the inning ended before the Titans scored nine runs, and then Jesus Cabrera put the first three Coons on. Castro and Pruitt hit singles around a Nomura walk, and zero runs scored once Alston and Gutierrez struck out around a Correa pop. The entire team went from “Hooray, Life is Good!” into facepalm mode in a matter of hours. Boda was wildly inaccurate in his actions, occasionally also coming down broadway, leading to a 2-piece by Mark Austin in the fourth, which romped the score to 5-0 already. Boda didn’t get out of the fifth, but Fredlund did.

The Critters were sucking hard, but eventually got the tying run to the plate. While their bottom 7th started with a Silva error that put Gutierrez on second base, they got going with two outs, supported by Jesus Cabrera losing control. With Gutierrez on third and two outs, Quebell hit for Ricardo Huerta and walked. Castro singled up the middle to score the team’s first run, and then Yoshi walked to load them up for Pruitt, who hit the first pitch to deep left, but into an out. That was also the last time they had the tying run even remotely close to grabbing a bat. 5-1 Titans. Castro 2-5, RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Britton – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – 3B Higashi – SS J. Amador – P Carter
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – SS Howell – 3B M. Gutierrez – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

Colin Baldwin had struggled badly in his last few starts, and a walk to Ramirez and a Britton singled weren’t good signs to start game 3 on day 2. Then “Quasimodo” Suda hit a ball hard to Gutierrez, whose momentum carried him onto third base automatically, and from there he started a zing-around-the-horn for a 6-4-3 triple play! After that break, the first Coons reached base, with Castro hitting a double, Nomura singling, and then Pruitt brought in the first run with another single. Quebell appeared to kill the effort with a really hard grounder right to Ramirez, who turned two while Yoshi scored, but then Ayers lined to right for a single, stole second base, and scored on Rob Howell’s single to left, putting up a 3-run first after all. With two outs in the bottom 2nd, Pruitt would score Castro again with another single, before Quebell stranded a pair with a groundout to first. The Coons got to 5-0 through three, but it wasn’t easy cruising for Baldwin, who surrendered a lot of hard contact, with Castro alone making four catches of medium to morally wrong difficulty. There was one drive that Pruitt couldn’t catch, a 2-run homer by Toki Hayashi in the fourth inning that kept the score close at 5-2.

Baldwin left after six and between Rockburn’s leadoff walk to Amador, Sims’ walk to Ramirez, Britton’s single to right and Ayers’ subsequent throwing error, with the ball crossing the third base line at equal distance between third and home, the Coons almost blew out their 3-run lead in the top 7th. Suda grounded out to Gutierrez to end the inning with a 5-3 score and the tying runs in scoring position to end the horrid frame. Bottom 7th: the Titans brought left-hander Jason Long to face the 2-3-4 batters, who all reached with two singles and a walk. Now with the right-hander up, the Titans still were hoping to an out from Long, but Keith Ayers singled to left to score Yoshi, 6-3. The Coons would only get one more run. Howell grounded into a force at home, but Gutierrez had a run-scoring groundout before De La Polka flew out to right center. The Coons got another out from Sims in the eighth before we sent Fredlund to hopefully end the game by getting five outs with a 7-3 lead. He ended the eighth, but got stuck in the ninth, when he issued walks to Amador and Britton. Angel Casas came in and Suda fouled out on the fourth pitch to end the game. 7-3 Coons. Castro 2-5, 2B; Nomura 3-4, BB; Pruitt 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Ayers 2-4, RBI; Howell 2-3, BB, RBI;

Daniel Sharp is good to go after a few days of moving around cautiously and not doing much except for a pinch-hitting appearance in which he popped out.

Game 4
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF J. Gusmán – C Suda – LF G. Rios – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Higashi – RF Hudson – SS M. Austin – P Patrick
POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Howell – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Umberger

Once again this week, the Critters got their first three batters in the game on. Castro singled, Sharp walked, and Pruitt was shaken with a ball into the stomach, but made it to first base alive. From there, it was two productive outs by Alston and Howell for a 2-0 lead, but no big bang before Nomura flew out to left to end the frame. The Titans got a wild-pitch-assisted run off Umberger in the third before Sharp hit a double to get the bottom of the inning underway. Pruitt singled, and then the whole caravan reversed again with Alston popping out to shallow left and Howell hitting into a two-for-one. Next inning, next leadoff double, Nomura’s, and a Trevino single right after that for another first-and-third, no outs situation, but with the perhaps worst possible 8-9 combo up in Ximenes Lopes (.129) and Umberger, a notoriously poor hitter even for one of the other profession. In SOME way the minimized the damage when Lopes struck out and Umberger flew out to shallow left, which at least gave a competent batter a chance in bringing up Tomas Castro, who managed to flip a bloop into center that fell for an RBI single, after which Sharp struck out. Bottom 5th, Alston hit a single before Brian Patrick drilled Nomura and Trevino, which only stacked the sacks for Lopes, which couldn’t end well. To be fair, he met the ball well, but grounded out right to Higashi at third base. Bottom 6th: Umberger walked(!!!), Castro walked, too, Sharp flew out to left, Pruitt flew out to left, Alston grounded out to first. It was really an annoying game…

It got even more annoying when Umberger was struck for three hits and two runs in the seventh inning, which allowed the Titans to tie a game that was long supposed to be an 8-1 blowout. But no, the guys in brown had preferred to cover their eyes with their paws. Or their tails in case they were eating right now. Bottom 7th: 1-out hits from Nomura and Trevino, and with Patrick somehow still pitching and not getting removed with Lopes to bat despite having thrown 120 pitches, we removed Lopes in vain hope of generating ANYTHING. Quebell hit for Lopes, walked, and then Ayers hit for Umberger, and Patrick was now losing it quite quickly, walking Ayers as well to force in the go-ahead run. Castro doubled in a pair in the first case of not booting it in two hours, which also finally knocked Patrick from the game, but the Raccoons would strand a pair.

And then the Titans rallied against Luis Beltran. He faced five batters in the top 8th, four lefties, and three reached. Bruno came into a 6-4 game with the tying runs on and got a pop to Ayers in right from Higashi to end the inning. The bottom 8th shall go unmentioned, and the top 9th continued with Bruno, with Angel not coming until the tying run would appear at the plate. It never did. 6-4 Furballs. Castro 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Nomura 1-2, BB, 2B; Trevino 2-3; Umberger 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (10-5); Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (5);

The Raccoons left 13 men on base. I chewed off 13 of my paw nails.

In other news

August 18 – The 23-game hitting streak of NYC CF Roberto Pena (.289, 5 HR, 40 RBI) comes to an end with a hitless day in a 5-2 Crusaders loss to the Rebels.
August 18 – CHA SP Alfredo Collazo (4-2, 2.42 ERA) 2-hits the Gold Sox in a 7-0 shutout win.
August 19 – Blow for New York: RF/LF Stanton Martin (.306, 22 HR, 90 RBI) is out for up to six weeks with shoulder tendinitis.
August 20 – A strained hamstring puts ATL SS Jaime Kester (.271, 1 HR, 41 RBI) on the DL for six weeks.
August 21 – At the tender age of 31, Oklahoma City’s Victorino Sanchez (.348, 6 HR, 41 RBI) knocks his 2,500th base hit in an 11-2 smashing of the Falcons. A single off Tommy Wilson in the second inning is the milestone hit for Sanchez, who debuted in the majors in 1996 at the soft age of 17 years old. Since then he has amassed more accolades than anyone can be bothered to count, and he looks like he could more than smash the career hits record by Dale Wales, which stands at 3,673 knocks.
August 21 – CIN SP Jack Berry (13-8, 3.95 ERA) strikes out 15 batters while allowing four hits in a 9-1 rout of the Buffaloes.
August 21 – RIC LF/RF Jimmy Bayle (.279, 8 HR, 42 RBI) has a 5-hit game in a 13-inning, 12-8 win over the Blue Sox. The Rebel has three singles, an RBI triple, and game-winning grand slam in the 13th inning.

Complaints and stuff

Back in the top 5 in the power rankings now, fourth behind the three division leaders that aren’t in horrendous divisions.

Tomas Castro has a 14-game hitting streak. That streak started on July 23 before his most recent DL stint, with five games of the streak before the tight back, and nine since. In those nine games, he’s hit .450/.476/.600 with 1 HR, 8 RBI (from the leadoff spot!) and 3 SB, and all of the swipes in the last five games. He was also named Player of the Week with a 12-26 (.462), 1 HR, 8 RBI week.

We’re past the three-quarter point, which probably makes eyeing a 40 HR season from Ron Alston moot now. Also, Quebell hasn’t hit a homer since the 27th … OF JUNE. Now, the Duke will rejoin us swiftly here (or rather in New York) after not getting all that warm in AAA, with the usual dilemma of whom to send away, and this might entail waiving Keith Ayers, but he hasn’t done anything this year at all, and it’s probably too late to hope for a turnaround. I don’t know whether Ayers will be lost on waivers, maybe, maybe not. Will we be sad? Maybe, maybe not. (We *could* demote Gutierrez again and squeeze by on five infielders for a week, though!)

Pete Schipper batted for a .929 OPS in just over a week in AAA. Well, that is a puny sample size, but should we actually have found something when scraping up the bottom of the barrel?

Although the god of thunder definitely has something against Nick Brown, the rainout on Thursday helps us in the long run. In the end, only one guy has to pitch on short rest, and that will be Boda in the middle game in New York. Because who gives a lick about him tearing out his elbow, or even his entire arm at the shoulder joint?

And not that it matters who starts when and how well he fares…

pgjocki · 02-10-2016, 06:05 PM

If only you had a wild card...maybe the commish will consider it over the Winter Meetings.

Westheim · 02-10-2016, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pgjocki

If only you had a wild card...maybe the commish will consider it over the Winter Meetings.

Nah! The "S" in ABL stands for "honest baseball"!

Westheim · 02-11-2016, 05:03 PM

Raccoons (71-52) @ Crusaders (79-45) – August 24-26, 2009

The season series was split through 12 games, which was doubly sad given that the Raccoons had started out 5-0 against NYC at one point. This was the last series in New York between the teams, but we would play another 3-set in Portland on the second-to-last weekend of the season. To be realistic, the Raccoons need to do better than 4-2 over the remaining games to get even remotely close to contention again.

The Crusaders were second to only us in runs allowed, while they scored soundly the most runs in the Continental League. But they had lost Stanton Martin to injury a week ago, so there was that…

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (8-9, 3.26 ERA) vs. Elwood Spurrell (13-8, 3.88 ERA)
Cássio Boda (4-2, 4.46 ERA) vs. Ken Maddox (7-8, 4.70 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-5, 2.32 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (15-9, 3.37 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, which was no surprise. They had no left-handed starters.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Cruz
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – RF MacKey – C D. Anderson – P Spurrell

This was the first of three mortally important games. If the Raccoons wanted the slightest sniff of another chance at the playoffs, they had to win the series, and better sweep it.

Too bad Cruz allowed two runs on a few well-placed singles right in the first inning. The Coons’ first five batters went down in order before Yoshi hit a soft single to right in the top 2nd. Howell and De La Poland also hit singles, and then even Cruz came up with a soft line over Francisco Caraballo into shallow right that scored Rob Howell and tied the score at two. Tomas Castro came up, he with the winning streak, and rocketed a pitch to deep right, where Matt MacKey threw up his arms in disgust as the ball broke the plane of the wall: 3-run homer, Coons up 5-2! While the initial impression had been that Cruz wasn’t up to the task, both pitchers ended up in a situation with runners on the corners and one out in the third inning. Elwood Spurrell threw a run-scoring wild pitch, while Cruz struck out Sonny Reece and Paco Batlle to get out of the jam, and Spurrell’s nightmare continued long enough to allow another homer, a solo shot, to Tomas Castro in the top 4th. The Crusaders hit for him in a 7-2 deficit in the bottom 4th, and Zak Davidson struck out in his spot.

Not that Cruz had a stellar game. He allowed a run in the fifth, which he took 102 pitches to complete and then was removed after Daryl Anderson singled with one out in the sixth. Law Rockburn replaced him, but gave up a single to Marc Williams and a double to Roberto Pena as the Crusaders scored two runs and got back to 7-5. The Coons would strand three runners in scoring position between the top 7th and 8th before they arrived at the critical junction in the bottom 8th. Donald Sims had already gotten three outs, and the righty Anderson was up, with reliever Lorenzo Flores behind, and lefty leadoff man Roberto Pena after that. They had two left-handers on the bench, so either way we were likely screwed. In that case, protect Sims for another game in the set, and move to a right-hander. With Huerta in the back of our heads reserved to perhaps pitch long relief for Boda tomorrow, Marcos Bruno came in. Anderson popped out to Alston, and as expected, endless coon schreck Ming Kui appeared in the box, but grounded out to Nomura for once. The top 9th saw Alston walk against Iemitsu Rin with two outs before Correa hit for the luckless Quebell against the left-hander and sent a bloop into shallow right that bounced off MacKey’s ugly nose for an error that put the runners in scoring position. Ayers batted for Nomura, pulled an 0-1 pitch to left, and that was high, deep, and gone!!! 10-5 Raccoons!! Castro 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Correa (PH) 1-1; Nomura 3-4; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (6);

After this game, we placed Manuel Gutierrez on waivers to get Luke Black back onto the team. He just seemed to have found that extra base hit stroke in AAA, and I wanted him to show that here. If at all, humanely, possible. Thanks.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Boda
NYC: CF R. Pena – RF MacKey – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – SS Davidson – C D. Anderson – P Maddox

Roberto Pena homered on Boda’s first pitch, and that was that. The Crusaders loaded the bases after that, but left them loaded in the bottom 1st. While the Coons’ lineup showed an uncanny ability to ground out to Sonny Reece to leave a variable number of runners on base, Boda’s only ability was to allow hard deep drives. That wouldn’t go well forever, and sooner or later there would be noise again, like on Daryl Anderson’s RBI triple in the bottom 4th. Sharp’s clumsiness would allow Pena to plate Anderson with an infield single, giving the Crusaders a 3-0 edge. The Coons managed to curb their rally attempts early in this game. They had Howell on in the fifth, and De La Pogo hit into a double play. They got Alston on with a leadoff single in the seventh, and Black grounded to Reece for two.

Bottom 8th, Derrek Fredlund was almost out of the inning. Despite Caraballo’s leadoff single, the Crusaders still had their runner on first with two outs, when Fredlund balked and gave them a free base. He had thrown a pitch without touching the rubber, the stupid kiddo. Sure as damned hell, Zak Davidson singled the runner in on the next pitch to put the Crusaders up 4-0. In the ninth inning, the Furballs faced Scott Hood for the second inning. Castro hit a leadoff single, extending a hitting streak to 16 games at the last opportunity, but it was a long way to get the tying run to the plate, and it grew just longer when Sharp bounced a 3-1 pitch into a double play. 4-0 Crusaders.

Well, the slightest sliver of a chance remains. If Nick Brown can beat the evil purple knights in the rubber game, the remainder of our games against them will still make up almost half of our number of games back, which with a month and change to play still qualifies as “not out”. But Brownie has to win this one. If the Raccoons lose on Wednesday, the season is in the trash for good.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – C D. Anderson – 1B M. Williams – RF R. Chavez – P P. Trevino

… and then Nick Brown, who came off a 13-K shutout, went to three balls on the first three batters, and all three reached base in the first inning. Caraballo’s 0-2 grounder up the middle and slightly left of second base eluded Howell for a single, and the damn dam broke instantly. Brown allowed three RBI singles and threw a wild pitch in the inning for a fourth run, that buried the Raccoons immediately. For their lineup, the game started like every other in the series, with the first five batters being retired before Nomura would have a base hit, this time a triple, and of course he was stranded by Howell. No other Raccoon reached until Black singled in the fifth, and of course he was left on as well.

The bottom 5th was also when the Crusaders danced off with the season. Brown had struck out seven and walked four at that point, and was basically eating innings. While facing four more batters, he didn’t retire anybody, walked three, allowed a single, and also threw another wild pitch. Ricardo Huerta ended up pitching long relief for the assumed ace instead of the ugly adopted stepchild, allowed a single to Marc Williams and a rousing 3-run homer to Ricardo Chavez that flicked on every single light in New York. 10-0. There was not a way in which to be demolished more soundly. Oh, wait – there was! Huerta allowed three more hits, and threw two more wild pitches in the inning en route to a 12-0 deficit, and there wasn’t a mercy rule written into the rule book yet.

While I was holding onto a bottle of some stew or other in the visiting GM’s box, crying inconsolably with Honeypaws dangerously dangling from the railing in front of me, Ron Alston hit the most meaningless home run in history in the top of the seventh inning. “**** you, Alston”, I slurred under the influence of Jimmy Proof, “Don’t need your ****ing homers anymore now”, and continued to sip from the mouth of my only friend in the world. Rockburn gave that run right back in the bottom of the inning. Oh come on! Now that they had been so close!! 13-1 Crusaders. Black 2-4; Correa (PH) 1-1, BB;

Raccoons (72-54) vs. Miners (71-54) – August 27, 2009

I refused to see anybody, didn’t board the team’s plane, and generally locked myself away after that display of ineptitude on Wednesday. I flew back west the next morning, and remained unapproachable. Well, except for Slappy, who had all the keys and went in and out of my office as he pleased. He also told me that Nick Brown wanted to talk to me, but I turned away and stared out of the window with a blank expression. I didn’t want to talk to anybody, and the least to him.

The Miners came in once more to make up for last Thursday’s rainout. Colin Baldwin (9-7, 3.46 ERA) would face righty Miguel Rodriguez (15-7, 3.07 ERA), who had originally been scheduled for this game as well.

Game
PIT: CF Stewart – 3B Ladd – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B Madison – SS J. Gonzales – LF DeWeese – RF Burkhart – P M. Rodriguez
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C Lopes – P Baldwin

None of the first five Raccoons had reached in any game in New York, and Rodriguez was perfect the first time through the order. The Miners put up singles runs in the third and fourth innings which were both times mainly owed to Daniel Sharp’s defensive ineptitude. The first Coon on base was Nomura yet again, a fourth inning single that ended with him trotting back to the dugout from first base. In the fifth, Adrian Quebell hit his first goddamn home run in two months, while Colin Baldwin pitched eight good innings in a losing cause. Rodriguez struck out ten while allowing only three hits through eight innings, but with the slim 2-1 lead he held the Miners sent Paco Barrera, a righty, into the bottom of the ninth, which started with Yoshi. Six pitches were enough to retire him, Alston, and Black on grounders to Steve Madison (twice) and Wes Ladd. 2-1 Miners. Quebell 2-3, HR, RBI; Baldwin 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (9-8);

So that’s our first series loss to the Miners in 29 years, and that’s also the end for Tomas Castro’s 17-game hitting streak, but it doesn’t matter, because I feel like the reason why I keep breathing died somewhere between the fifth and sixth walk on Wednesday.

Raccoons (72-55) vs. Thunder (59-67) – August 28-30, 2009

The Thunder swept us the last time we met and are 4-2 against us on the season. You can only be wary of this fifth-best offense and tenth-best pitching and always be on guard, because they have all the tricks up their sleeves.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (10-5, 3.42 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (6-10, 5.01 ERA)
Javier Cruz (9-9, 3.38 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (12-5, 2.36 ERA)
Cássio Boda (4-3, 4.46 ERA) vs. William Raven (7-11, 5.18 ERA)

We might get those three, but they have also used ex-Coon John Richardson (2-5, 5.23 ERA) as starter infrequently in recent weeks, and he is rested. Sato is the only left-hander that is likely to appear in the series.

Game 1
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B B. Butler – 3B Heathershaw – P Sato
POR: SS Howell – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – LF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Umberger

Umberger allowed good contact from the start. Sanchez and Cardenas singled, and Tom Reese doubled that pair in before long for an early 2-0 lead. Somehow Umberger would last seven innings with only one more run allowed, but for a pleasant change he didn’t walk a batter, or seven. The offense however was shudderingly bad. Through seven innings, the team managed three hits off Takeru Sato, whose best days were long behind him and anybody else who was alive. The Raccoons got their best chance at scoring in a long, sadly long time when a throwing error by Bob Butler put Rob Howell on second base with one down in the eighth. Sato’s last squeak was a full count walk to Sharp, Lewis Donaldson got Quebell to fly out softly to left, before righty Dennis Boland was scheduled to face Black, but Ron Alston hit for him, yet all he managed was another walk. Keith Ayers gave a 1-2 pitch a ride to deep left, but it was short, and caught, too. The Raccoons would have the tying run at the plate again in the bottom 9th. Correa and Trevino drew walks, bringing up Pruitt with one out against the right-hander Vaughn Higgins, but hacked himself out. Howell grounded up the middle, Marcos Garza made the play. 3-0 Thunder.

Raccoons’ BABIP in this game: .143; Thunder’s BABIP in this game: .433;

To recap, that’s two runs in the last four games. Two runs total.

Game 2
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B B. Butler – 3B J. Pena – P J. Richardson
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Correa – C De La Parra – P Cruz

And once more the opposing team held the lead by their third batter as Sanchez walked, Cardenas singled, and Ledesma plated Sanchez with a sac fly. Overall, they scored two runs in the first, but for an awkward change this didn’t result in a game victory by default. After Castro and Howell hacked out against John Richardson, Alston singled, Black doubled, and Quebell plated both with a single to right. Richardson, who hadn’t started games for the Raccoons for a reason, continued to impress nobody and allowed another 2-spot in the bottom 2nd, this time even scoring a run with a wild pitch. Even with a crappy pitcher on the mound, this team needed help to score anything. They would get one more run off Richardson, and that one was wild pitch-induced as well, in the fifth inning. Black had walked, advanced a base on the wild one, then scored on Yoshi’s single, 5-2. Cruz didn’t have much and struck out only two batters in seven innings, but at least he lived that long and didn’t have to be purged after, say, four plus. The Thunder got Victorino Sanchez on with a leadoff single in the top 8th against Beltran, but the Coons bailed out on a double play. Angel had struck out only three batters in his last six innings pitched, but struck out the side in the ninth. 5-2 Coons. Howell 3-4; Black 2-2, 2 BB; Cruz 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (10-9);

Pa! Pa! You have to adjust the radio! I just thought they said that the Raccoons won!

Game 3
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B B. Butler – 3B J. Pena – P Dickerson
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – SS Correa – C Lopes – P Boda

The Coons had the bases loaded with no outs in the first inning after a Castro single, Nomura double, and a cautious walk to Alston. All that caution didn’t help if you threw a wild pitch, which Dickerson did, and the next pitch was lined into the right corner by Quebell to plate all three of the runners for a blitz 3-0 lead. With Boda pitching, no 3-run lead was forever, so it was probably a good thing that Pruitt hit a solo homer in the third inning to get us to 4-0. But stabs at Boda aside, at least he hadn’t allowed four runs in the first inning…

He did allow four in the fourth, however. Ledesma and Reese hit soft singles to center before Marcos Garza packed a 3-run homer. Boda continued to be ****, put Gonzalez on, somehow got Butler out, and with two outs we gave an intentional walk to Juan Pena so he could face Dickerson, whose single tied the game. No, there was no use for Boda at all. He was just a stupid piece of ****, and that stupid piece of **** was yanked in the fifth with runners on the corners (Ledesma and Reece again) and one out … again. Marcos Garza hit into a double play that Law Rockburn started, and the tie stood up for now. Law pitched another inning in competent fashion (a welcome sight for sure), and as soon as he was hit for in the bottom 6th he was in line for the W, when Luke Black shot his ninth homer of the season to straightaway centerfield, 5-4. That wasn’t all: Castro got on, and Ron Alston would hit Black’s total plus four handfuls to give the team a 7-4 lead. With six left- and switch-hitters lined up for the Thunder, we hoped for Donald Sims to give us more than three outs of the nine left to grab. He got two outs, allowed a run and left the tying runs on for Marcos Bruno to wipe up in whiffing his namesake Garza. Bruno struck out two more and got a pop from Pena in the eighth, bridging the game to Angel Casas after all. Victorino Sanchez’ lone weakness was so-so power, but he homered off Angel with one out. However, that was all the Thunder managed to put up in the ninth. 7-6 Blighters. Castro 2-4; Pruitt 2-4, HR, RBI; Black (PH) 1-2, HR, RBI; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (7-3); Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

August 27 – TIJ 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.257, 12 HR, 59 RBI) collects five hits, including a double and three homers with 5 RBI in the Condors’ 7-3 win over the Knights. Diaz becomes the 18th player in ABL history with a 3-homer game and the first since POR Craig Bowen hit four almost exactly two years ago. In fact, the last three 3-homer games were all in August. It is the second time the feat is achieved by a Condor after home run king Raúl Vázquez hit three against the Aces in 2002.
August 28 – Sioux Falls’ Ken Harris (12-10, 3.93 ERA) 2-hits the Capitals as the Warriors shut them out, 6-0.
August 30 – CHA SP David Estrada (7-5, 3.38 ERA) is out for the season and might miss the start of the 2010 season with a torn labrum.

Complaints and stuff

18 over .500 … again. They were 16 over for the first time on July 5, after Umberger walked four and struck out one, but somehow wasn’t eaten by the Titans in a 1-0 game. They reached 18 over four days later when Quebell walked them off in the 11th inning against the Indians. Since then, they have been a .500 team so hard, they moved outside a +2/-2 band around 18 over .500 for a total of three days, and none of those consecutively.

Some time ago I remembered Randy Farley, Carl Bean, Ralph Ford, Concie Guerin, Clyde Brady and so on, the somewhat good parts of the chronic loser teams from ’97 to ’06, and called them something derogatory, like Loser Brigade, or something like that. Turns out that Nick Brown always mingled well with that group. **** Nick Brown, no more use dead or alive than any other of the crap heads.

Nothing more to say.

Westheim · 02-12-2016, 08:22 PM

Raccoons (74-56) vs. Bayhawks (62-68) – August 31-September 2, 2009

Here comes another losing team from the CL South, one that we are so far not posting a losing record against this year, but at 4-2, anything can happen. They had the worst batting average (with the Raccoons giving them a good run by now), but were eighth in runs scored (hum…), while they were allowing the fourth-least runs, but overall their run differential was -26 (Coons: +51).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (11-6, 2.68 ERA) vs. Reynaldo Rendon (6-8, 3.74 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (9-8, 3.40 ERA) vs. G.G. Williams (2-9, 5.16 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (10-6, 3.43 ERA) vs. Richard Williams (6-15, 5.03 ERA)

G.G. is the only lefty scheduled to face the sorry bunch of losers right now, but of course September 1 is just 24 hours away.

Game 1
SFB: 1B Catalo – 2B J. Perez – RF D. Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C Rosa – LF F. Guerra – SS McCullough – CF Covington – P Rendon
POR: LF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Correa – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Brown

I told Slappy to erect a screen in front of the big windows in my office, which I hadn’t left in four days, so I and Honeypaws wouldn’t have to watch the game. But Slappy didn’t do it, which was no surprise at all. Nobody ‘round here did what I expected of him, ever.

Which brought us right to Nick Brown, who continued were he had left off on that sad Wednesday in New York, issuing two walks and pitching in many 3-ball counts in the first three innings, while striking out only Rendon (but at least that was with runners in scoring position to end the second). The Coons pulled two runs out of a hat in the bottom 3rd, with a Yoshi double the key piece in the inning. Brown struck out Guerra, McCullough, and Covington from the fourth into the fifth before allowing a 2-out double to Rendon and walking Leborio Catalo and Jose Perez. Don Cameron kindly grounded out to Quebell to strand the runners. Brown wasn’t entirely useless, however, leading off the Coons’ fifth with a line drive single to right, which allowed him to score on Tomas Castro’s home run, 4-0. Say, Tomas, where’s that power been all year!?

Brown somehow got through seven innings despite as many walks as strikeouts (four apiece), but the Bayhawks got only five hits off him, one of which being a David Lopez double to start the sixth inning, and the Birds maneuvered him around to score, so Brown left the game with a 4-1 lead. Huerta pitched the eighth with minimal disturbance, but Angel had thrown almost 40 pitches in two days and Bruno was assigned the ninth inning. Bruno sat down Fernando Guerra before McCullough singled. With two outs, things got really tight. Omarion Thompson hit a bloop that bounced between Castro and Sharp, and then Leborio Catalo singled up the middle to represent the tying run on base. Jose Perez sent a drive to center, Trevino came in, and … caught it. 4-2 Brownies. Castro 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Alston 2-3, BB; Sharp 2-4; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (12-6) and 2-3, 2B;

With August 31 in the books, the Loggers were eliminated from playoff contention, and rosters expanded for September play.

The Raccoons added a select few players. SP Kenichi Watanabe (10-8, 3.70 ERA) was the last AAA backup to get a shot in 2009, Ted Reese rejoined the pen with a 3.29 ERA in AAA, and over 4 in the bigs. Ralph Myers (.283/.402/.417, 14 HR, 57 RBI) was added as pinch-hitter, as well as Ricardo Martinez (.399/.454/.611, 6 HR, 39 RBI) and Pete Schipper (.279/.367/.419, 1 HR, 6 RBI in 13 G).

Game 2
SFB: SS McCullough – 2B J. Perez – RF D. Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C Rosa – CF DeBoer – 1B A. Gonzalez – LF Covington – P G.G. Williams
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Correa – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

Baldwin pitched six innings, allowing a walk in every inning but one, and wouldn’t have been booked for a run if not for a passed ball on De La Plough with two out and Don Cameron on third base. That gave the Baybirds one run to the Coons’ none, as they had only managed to pile two hits on G.G. Williams through five innings. Baldwin retired two more in the top 7th before yielding to Fredlund, who allowed a terrible drive to right to McCullough, but that was sucked up by Luke Black’s glove. The Coons’ hour appeared to have come in the bottom of the seventh with leadoff walks to Quebell and Correa. Sharp grounded out before that catcher impostor drew another walk to load them up. Ricardo Martinez batted for Fredlund, drove the ball to deep left, but had it caught by Martin Covington on the warning track. Still, Quebell tagged and scored, at least tying the score, but Castro failed and flew out to shallow left. And so G.G.W. kept pitching into the eighth. Howell reached on a bloop single before Alston beat Jimmy DeBoer with a drive to center for a double. Howell was held ahead of the throw, but with two runners in scoring position and no outs, even I liked our chances. Black was walked intentionally, Quebell popped out, and I stopped liking our chances. Keith Ayers batted for Correa, fell behind 1-2 before ripping a ball to center. Going, going, GONE!! GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

That wasn’t enough to win the game, however. Huerta came in, and DeBoer and callup Alfredo Gonzalez hit singles to go to the corners with one out, which prompted an appearance by Angel Casas, who struck out Covington and Antonio Luján to secure the win in this one. 5-1 Coons. Alston 2-4, 2B; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B; Baldwin 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K;

Keith “Drama” Ayers. Good nick, I’m staying with it. Law has eight wins now, which is just one short of Baldwin’s total.

Game 3
SFB: 1B Catalo – 2B J. Perez – RF D. Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C M. Torres – CF DeBoer – LF Covington – SS McCullough – P R. Williams
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Umberger

Umberger was in trouble early after a Catalo single and Perez reaching on a Castro error, but Umberger managed to pitch through that and keep the Baybirds off the board. After that early scare, Quebell drove in the Coons’ first run in the bottom 1st before Howell zinged into an inning-ending double play. Richard Williams then loaded the bases with the first three Coons to show up in the bottom 2nd. Umberger whiffed, Castro popped out, but the inning would see a pair of bases-loaded, multi-run doubles hit by the Coons. Nomura doubled in a pair, Alston walked to reload the sacks, and the Quebell emptied them with another double, 6-0, both doubles through Catalo and into right along the line. Catalo’s black inning continued with an error on the next play that would have sat down Howell, but didn’t, and then Pruitt launched a 3-piece to ramp the score to 9-0. Catalo tried to make up for it with a leadoff jack off Umberger in the third inning, but that one would be hard to get back, especially since the Birds kept melting. The Coons got four runs off Zack Yeadon in the next two innings, with Castro doubling in a pair in the fourth, 13-2 at that point, and two more runs came across in the bottom of the inning. That lightened up my mood slightly.

While the Bayhawks kept melting merrily, Umberger allowed three runs in six laborious innings before being relieved by Fredlund. We hoped for a 3-inning save, but at some point former starter turned reliever Joe Hollow, who by then had also bled three runs, hit a home run off Fredlund in the eighth inning, and that 3-inning save was called off. Ted Reese finished the game semi-competently. 18-4 Raccoons!! Castro 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 1-3, 2 BB; Quebell 3-3, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Howell 2-5, 3B; Pruitt 1-2, 3 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-4, 2 RBI; De La Parra 1-2, 3 BB, 2B; Schipper 1-1, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (77-56) @ Loggers (48-84) – September 4-6, 2009

We were 8-3 on the division’s punching bags, who had lost their last four games compared to the Coons’ five straight wins. They were 11th in runs scored and 12th in runs allowed, and enough reasons to cry.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (10-9, 3.34 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (7-8, 4.52 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-6, 2.63 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-16, 4.69 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-0) vs. Art Davies (3-2, 4.79 ERA)

That’s three right-handed starters, and not necessarily their worst.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – P Cruz
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B Cambria – LF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B Tolwith – RF Delaney – 2B K. Scott – P Huertas

Ron Alston hit his 30th bomb of the season in the first inning, a solo job for a 1-0 lead, that grew to 3-0 in the second, including a De La Pogo homer. The Loggers combined Huertas’ tendency to allow hard contact with grievous defense: in the fourth a horrendous throwing error by Aaron Tolwith helped the Coons to plate two more runs for a 5-0 lead. Not that Cruz was immune to hard contact: the Loggers had threatened in the first inning after hard singles by Hugues Cambria and Bakile Hiwalani, but had left them in scoring position, and they would do the same thing in the bottom 6th. Hiwalani went unretired against Cruz, but around him his team didn’t amount to much of anything. Both pitchers went seven innings with Cruz not being scored upon at all, while Huertas had given up five runs. He was replaced by Gabriel Caro in the eighth, who allowed Howell on base to start the inning. He was driven in by De La Polo with a single, but Castro would strand a pair of runners. Facing righty Micah Steele in the ninth, Alston hit a 1-out single before Pete Schipper batted for a hitless Black and hit another one of those huge bombs that raised hopes in Furballs fans across the Northwest and elsewhere. The Loggers never got another leg up against Rockburn and Reese as this game ended with a streak-lengthening shutout. 8-0 Critters. Alston 2-5, HR, RBI; Schipper (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Howell 3-5; De La Parra 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Myers (PH) 1-1, 2B; Cruz 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (11-9) and 1-3;

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – RF Schipper – SS Howell – 1B Myers – C De La Parra – P Brown
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 2B K. Scott – LF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – 3B Tolwith – 1B Lewis – RF K. Wood – C Baca – P R. Thomas

It was quite frigid in Milwaukee, but dry, and Tomas Castro opened the game with a triple, and was stranded on third base, while Brown gave up three hits and two runs in the first inning, Tim Austin’s 1-out, 2-run double doing the honors. But in the top 2nd it would be De La Petticoat with a homer (for two runs) in back-to-back games to tie the score, and the Coons took the lead in the third. Nomura hit a leadoff double and scored on Alston’s single to left center. The line kept moving in the inning, with both callups in the lineup, Schipper and Myers, contributing RBI base hits for a 5-2 lead. Brown remained adrift, putting the first two Loggers on again in the bottom 3rd, but they went down flailing after that.

Both teams didn’t put up much offense in the middle innings, but we got Castro on in the top 7th, and he stole second base. Yoshi came up, sent a liner to left that ate up Hiwalani and raced to the wall for an RBI triple and a 6-2 lead. The Loggers walked Alston intentionally, but that also backfired. Daniel Sharp saw a new pitcher in righty Enrique Mesa and lined a double into the left corner, plating both runners. Mesa would balk before whiffing Howell and Myers, then hit a single off Brown with two out in the bottom of the seventh. Brown finished the inning, kind of, when Alston made a head-first catch on Bartolo Hernandez’ liner to left, and was hit for with Matt Pruitt in the eighth. Pruitt doubled to put himself and De La Pincer into scoring position with no outs, soon enough resulting in two more runs and double digits in total. Huerta and Boda kept the Loggers away in the last two innings as the Coons won their seventh straight. 10-2 Brownies. Nomura 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Myers 2-5, RBI; De La Parra 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-2, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (13-6) and 1-3;

Yoshi Nomura has a 12-game hitting streak.

That was also the last game in this week. Sunday’s game was rained out, preempting Kenichi Watanabe’s first start in over 12 months.

In other news

September 1 – The season of TIJ SP Brian Furst (7-9, 5.16 ERA) is over as he is placed on the DL with shoulder inflammation. Whether he will be back by next Opening Day remains to be seen.
September 2 – SFW 1B Raúl Bovane (.282, 15 HR, 71 RBI) knocks four hits, three of which leave the yard, and plates six in the Warriors’ 10-1 romp over the Miners. This comes just six days after TIJ Juan Diaz’ 3-homer game, the shortest gap between occurrences in league history. The Warriors hadn’t had a 3-HR game before.
September 2 – IND SP Bob King (11-13, 3.54 ERA) might miss three weeks with a sprained ankle.
September 3 – In a week of big achievements, LVA RF/LF Ricardo Garcia (.280, 18 HR, 100 RBI) hits for the cycle in the Aces’ 14-2 thrashing of the Falcons. He drives in six while collecting the four necessary hits for the cycle. This is the 44th cycle in league history, the second of the season (four months exactly after POR Adrian Quebell’s), and the third in team history after those by Mark “Icon” Allen in 1984 and Joe Morton’s in 1999.

Complaints and stuff

Nick “Blowup” Brown won his 110th game this week, pushed his career ERA under three, and is only four strikeouts away from 1,800. But he still blew our season.

Indy’s Ryan Miller was CL Player of the Week, batting .448 with 7 RBI. Where have I heard that name before?

Sunday’s game against the Loggers will be made up on the 14th in Portland, when our 4-game set at home becomes a 5-game set, and the Loggers will officially be the home team for one game. That’s in the middle of a string of 17 consecutive days without an off day (well, technically 14 now with the rainout), but with expanded rosters nobody cares a lot about that.

Meanwhile we’re two wins away from reaching .500 for our franchise history…

Westheim · 02-14-2016, 10:19 AM

Raccoons (79-56) @ Canadiens (72-62) – September 7-10, 2009

Yuck, it smells up here! The Elks were third in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, but I must admit it would be strikingly satisfying to extend our 7-game winning streak long enough to reach or even cross the all-time .500 threshold on foreign and hostile soil.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (0-0) vs. Juichi Fujita (13-7, 2.99 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (9-8, 3.26 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (17-7, 2.77 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (11-6, 3.47 ERA) vs. David Peterson (11-15, 5.22 ERA)
Javier Cruz (11-9, 3.20 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (11-13, 5.12 ERA)

These are all right-handed pitchers. But I find it strange that they appear to not pitch Scott Spears (13-8, 4.58 ERA) in the series.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – SS Correa – C De La Parra – P Watanabe
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Dobson – P Fujita

Yoshi’s hitting streak was extended with a first-inning triple, which nevertheless didn’t lead to a run. The Raccoons left the bases loaded in the top 2nd while the Elks hit three singles for a run off Watanabe in the bottom of the inning. Castro had been retired on a foul pop to end the top 2nd, and when the Coons had runners on the corners with two outs in the third, Black popped out foul to leave another two on. While they kept behaving highly ineptly, the Elks didn’t. The winning streak pretty much went pop in the bottom 6th when Juichi Fujita hit a leadoff single on an 0-2 pitch, Pruitt couldn’t make a play with Ross Holland’s bunt, and both runners were tripled in by Enrique Garcia. Watanabe was sent packing after singles by Morris and Thomas, and the Elks had a 4-0 lead. Huerta retired the next three batters, before the Raccoons got another chance in the top 7th, whether that was deserved or not. De La Pakistan led off with a floating single, and they loaded the bags with a Castro single to center and Nomura walking in a full count. Fujita remained in to face Ron Alston, who grounded to the mound, Fujita threw home to nab the runner, and while Alston was safe at first, Sharp struck out and our LOB total reached double digits. While the batting part didn’t work, the fielding and pitching were abysmal, too. In the bottom 7th the Elks got an extra run on a foul pop that was dropped by Jose Diarrhea, a single off Beltran, and then again Luis Beltran botching up, failing to play an Enrique Garcia grounder back to the mound. Fujita could, but not a single Greycoat would. 5-0 Canadiens. Castro 2-5; Nomura 2-4, BB, 3B; Alston 2-5; Black 2-4;

I see. It’s another week of facepalms.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Schipper – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Baldwin
VAN: CF Holland – RF E. Garcia – 3B Suzuki – 1B Harmon – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – LF J. Thomas – 2B Dobson – P R. Taylor

The first hit in the second game was Baldwin’s single to right, which gave the Coons runners on first and second. Howell had walked to start that top of the third inning but had gotten forced by that useless catcher of ours. When Castro walked, the bases were loaded, Nomura struck out on three pitches, but Sharp managed to hit an 0-2 pitch to shallow right that Garcia couldn’t get to. Two runs scored before Alston flew out softly to Ross Holland in shallow center.

While Rod Taylor convincingly led the league in strikeouts and Baldwin had less than half of his whiffs, he kept pace in this game pretty well. Through five innings, Baldwin’s six strikeouts were only one back of Taylor’s seven, and the Coons were still up 2-0. That was bound to change in the most horrendous circumstances, though, and quickly. Garcia hit a leadoff double over Ron Alston to start the bottom 6th, and Baldwin walked Mitsuhide Suzuki before 33-year old call-up Henry Harmon hit a double into the rightfield corner to score a run and leave runners on second and third, who scored with a wild pitch and passed ball on consecutive pitches in Gabriel Ortíz’ at-bat, who eventually walked. Baldwin didn’t make it out of the inning, while Taylor mightily continued to make the visiting batsmen look utterly ridiculous. Through seven innings, he had struck out 11, the last of which, Keith Ayers, who had entered in a double switch with Ted Reese, marked his 250th whiff of the year. The Coons kept trailing by a run into the ninth, which started with Matt Pruitt pinch-hitting in the #6 hole for Bruno against Pedro Alvarado, who had nine walks and 77 strikeouts for the season. Pruitt singled to left in a full count, Howell struck out, but Luke Black managed to reach on an infield single (like he had any other means by now). Another strikeout was laid on Ayers, while the count on Castro with two outs ran full. Castro lunged at a pitch at the bottom of the zone, and it merrily bounced fast into rightfield, with Pruitt coming in to score and tie the game at three. Nomura struck out, leaving runners on the corners, just as the Elks would when Clint Southcott flew out to Castro, and we went to extras. Both Alvarado and Rockburn pitched the ninth and tenth without coming to a conclusion for the game.

When the Coons finally faced a human pitcher in Jose Escobar, they broke through quickly. Rob Howell singled to start the 11th and quickly scored on Luke Black’s double. Well, “breaking through” was a term that could be bent either way. They loaded the bases before Nomura grounded into a force at home and Sharp grounded into a double play, leaving them with one run. In this case, however, that was enough for Angel Casas, who retired the side on ten pitches in the bottom of the inning. 4-3 Raccoons. Castro 2-5, BB, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; De La Parra 2-2, BB; Black (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (9-3);

It has happened. Law Rockburn has tied Colin Baldwin for wins. We’re still two below .500 all time. Meanwhile, Yoshi’s 14-game hitting streak ended by going 0-14. Well, almost. 0-6 is bad enough, though. The Coons struck out 15 times in total.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – C Lopes – P Umberger
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Rodgers – P Spears

Ah, there’s Spears. He’s pronounced like “spares”, y’know, that’s why this is a funny - … oh never mind.

The only hit Umberger allowed in five innings was a Suzuki homer that tied the game in the bottom 2nd, negating Quebell’s sac fly from the first. Spears was walking people frequently, and put on Lopes and Castro with free passes in the fifth inning before balking them into scoring position from where they scored on a well place single by Rob Howell, giving Umberger a new 3-1 lead. The Elks would evacuate Spears with two outs in the sixth after the Raccoons loaded the bases on a 2-out single by Umberger, but Kevin Jones retired Castro on a fly to left. Things turned against Jones in the seventh inning, however. Nomura hit a leadoff single and Howell walked before grounders by Alston and Quebell closely passed to either side of Ken Rodgers to first load the bases and then score the first run of the inning, 4-1, but despite all the best chances for a big, deciding inning, the Raccoons keeled over and failed after a Luke Black sac fly that made it 5-1. Umberger meanwhile had been fairly dominant and arrived in the ninth inning with a 3-hitter when the Elks began to cheat and sent Ross Holland on base with an unbeatable bunt. Holland was quickly forced out by a Garcia grounder, but a 2-out single by Josh Thomas made everything a bit tighter, and then Daniel Sharp mishandled Suzuki’s grounder to third for an error. That brought up the rookie Clint Southcott, who had already placed hurt on the Raccoons in his short career. Umberger was removed for Angel Casas, and Southcott still unleashed a hard liner to left that Ron Alston barely got a grip on while sliding on his belly. Somehow, it worked. 5-1 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4; Howell 4-4, BB, 2 RBI; Quebell 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Myers (PH) 1-1; Umberger 8.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (12-6);

That’s three games this week, and in all three games the Coons had exactly ONE extra-base hit, making scoring a bit like walking on glue.

Also, this is Angel’s 40th save of the year. Technically there’s still plenty of season left to challenge Grant West’s team record of 49 saves from 1992. The major league record? 53, put up in ’86 by Dallas’ Derek Wolfe, who astonishingly saved only 73 games in total in his entire career, which spanned 14 years.

We made another roster addition after this game. 2006 sixth-rounder Tom McNeela, 21, was added, a left-handed hitting catcher. Main reason is that I’m sick of the two catchers we have, one of which is hitting .095 and the other one feeling like he’s batting even less than that. His batting in AAA wasn’t pretty, but you can’t do much worse than .095…

Game 4
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Ayers – C McNeela – P Cruz
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Dobson – P D. Peterson

For the second time in the series, the Raccoons’ starter had the first hit of the game in the top 3rd, but nothing came of Cruz’ single. By contrast, Cruz was plagued by ill control, had already walked three in the first two innings, and issued another free pass to Ross Holland at the start of the bottom 3rd. Holland stole a base (already the second base picked away from McNeela in his debut) and scored on Josh Thomas’ single. That was the Elks’ first hit in the game, too.

Somehow they had Holland on base again in the fifth after he had forced out Peterson, who had singled to start the inning. Holland, with 43 stolen bases on the season, ran again, but this time McNeela axed him down to end the inning. Meanwhile, the Raccoons’ maddening offensive line was in full flight and completely unable to get ANY good contact off the hideous pushover Peterson, who lasted seven innings of 5-hit ball to be hit for in the bottom 7th when the Elks had Ortíz on third with two outs. Beltran replaced Cruz as Ken Rodgers batted for Peterson and allowed the run to score on a single on a 1-2 pitch. Another run was scored off Ricardo Huerta in the eighth. Alvarado was out to casually collect three outs in the ninth when Howell singled and Ron Alston homered, but since they hadn’t done anything except for eating baseballs the entire game, that still left them a run short. When Quebell singled, Trevino ran for him and stole second base while Sharpwas busy striking out. Pruitt batted for Ayers and whiffed. Black batted for McNeela and hacked. 3-2 Canadiens. Alston 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4;

… and the fourth straight game in which they had ONE extra base hit, and also our 300th loss against the ****ing Elks overall.

In a fit of rage, I fired hitting coach Jose Mendoza after this game. He had been here three years, and aside from hints of decency in 2008, the hitting had been outrageously unimpressive.

Raccoons (81-58) vs. Indians (76-63) – September 7-10, 2009

The were in the bottom group in offense (but who in town wasn’t), but also still had a top 3 pitching staff going. Just like the Coons, this wasn’t buying them any goodies, though.

This was our last series against the Indians, and we had already taken the season series at a 10-5 clip. That shouldn’t mean we should stop trying. The Crusaders just lost four straight, so maybe, while the Raccoons are inept at the plate and that will never change, the Crusaders in their state of Stanton-Martin-lessness could lose a few more games, while we have FIVE with the Loggers next we- … ah, just shut up.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-6, 2.63 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (9-10, 4.77 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Kevin Edwards (0-0, 1.13 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (9-8, 3.31 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (13-7, 2.78 ERA)

That’s the well-known moldy lefty Escobedo up front, with two right-handers behind. The 31-year old Edwards is a call-up, having spent his first 29 starts of the year in AAA, going 12-8 with a 3.61 ERA there.

Game 1
IND: CF A. Solís – 2B Mathews – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – 3B Kilters – LF Philip – P Escobedo
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – RF Black – LF Schipper – 2B Correa – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Brown

Nick Brown pitching, bad things will happen. Solís reached on a bloop single to open the game before Sharp put Joey Mathews on base with a throwing error. In fact, the Indians had two in scoring position already, which would score on a wild pitch (…!) and a groundout. The Indians’ lead was short-lived, with Howell homering in the first and a few bloops falling the Coons’ way in the bottom 2nd, in which Nick Brown drove in the tying run himself with a 2-out single. But you couldn’t overlook that he lacked stuff to remove batters entirely right now, and this had been going ever since the 13-K shutout in mid-August. Chris Kilters was the only Indian to strike out the first time through, although Solís also hacked out in the top 3rd, Brown’s 200th strikeout of the season. After Mathews tripled past Castro, Paraz was called out on a borderline pitch in a full count, which was great, since we needed every break we could possibly get our paws on. While the Raccoons left Castro on after a leadoff double in the bottom 3rd, Brown charitably loaded the bases in the top 4th to then strike out Escobedo to strand three. It was not a pleasant game at all with the Coons’ ace at 86 pitches through four innings.

And the top 5th wasn’t easier on one’s nerves, either! Angel Solís led off with a triple, because he could, before Mathews swung over a few too many errant pitches. Jose Paraz reached on an infield single when Brown was busy looking back Solís, but then struck out Tsung. That left ex-Coons farmhand Roberto Pacheco at the plate, and he went down in flames, too. On top of that, Escobedo began to crumble in the bottom 5th. Howell and Black had hits with one and two outs, respectively, before Pete Schipper’s first hit of the month fell just inside the leftfield line, and deep enough for Howell to score the go-ahead run. Escobedo continued by walking Correa and Sharp, pushing in another run, before De La Paris popped up and out on a 1-0 pitch. Brown somehow dragged himself through the sixth despite going in on more than 100 pitches, and was hit for by Ricardo Martinez in the bottom 6th. Escobedo issued his sixth walk, and Martinez eventually scored on Rob Howell’s single, 5-2, and the Critters would score another run on singles by Quebell and Black before the Indians finally gave up on Escobedo. Replacing Brown, Donald Sims collected four outs before his fifth man reached on a Quebell error, but Ricardo Huerta got out of the eighth, and also dutifully collected three outs in the ninth despite a minor uprising by the Indians with two outs. 6-2 Brownies. Howell 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Schipper 2-5, RBI; Correa 2-3, BB, 2B; Brown 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (14-6) and 1-2, RBI; Sims 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Huerta 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
IND: CF A. Solís – 3B C. Aguilar – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – LF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – RF Philip – 2B Mathews – P Edwards
POR: LF Castro – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C McNeela – P Watanabe

Tom McNeela’s first major league hit was a leadoff double in the third inning. Castro would single, steal second, but Nomura and Howell had little to no empathy with the runners and left them on base. Through three, there was no score. There was only one hit off Watanabe through five innings. In the bottom 5th, McNeela and Castro were on base again, standing on the corners with two outs for Yoshi, who lined to short, right into Miller’s glove. One and a half hours of hitting frustration were slightly helped by another home run out of Rob Howell’s surprisingly big backpack of power, leading off the bottom 6th, the first run of the game. The next three Critters went down, and in the top 7th Pacheco singled against Watanabe, who continued with a 2-out walk to Clint Philip. When Daniel Richardson came out to hit for Mathews, Donald Sims replaced Watanabe and got Richardson to ground out to Yoshi. Edwards was still pitching, walked McNeela in the bottom 7th, and then was taken well deep by the pinch-hitting Matt Pruitt, 3-0. Luis Beltran pitched a very quick eighth against mostly left-handed opposition, and Angel Casas allowed a 2-out double to Pacheco before Bruce Boyle struck out in Miller’s spot to end the game. 3-0 Raccoons. Castro 2-4; Howell 2-4, HR, RBI; McNeela 1-1, 2 BB, 2B; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (1-1);

2,663-2,663!! FIVE-HUNDRED, BA-BY!! Now let’s not get drummed by nineteen in the Sunday game. Please!

Oh, and someone score a run or two off Curtis Tobitt, that’d be nice.

Game 3
IND: CF A. Solís – 2B Mathews – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – 3B Kilters – LF Philip – P Tobitt
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Myers – 3B C. Martinez – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

Jose Paraz homered in the first inning, only his fifth shot of the year. The Coons were denied when Ralph Myers’ drive to right was caught by Pacheco on the track in the second inning, and they weren’t doing much otherwise before Baldwin’s fuse blew out in the fourth. Pacheco hit a single to get started, Miller was drilled, and Kilters walked. All that with no outs. Clint Philip had his count run full before he was called out looking, after which Curtis Tobitt hit a sharp grounder to Martinez. In my head, that one eluded him for six runs, but actually Martinez made a great stab, flung the ball to Yoshi, and over to Quebell for a 5-4-3 double play. Phew!

But there was still Tobitt, and he was completely choking the Raccoons, who had one hit through six innings, and not a lotta hope, which tended against zero once Baldwin got stuck in the seventh, Rockburn came in to face Santiago Guerra with two out and a runner on second in the inning, and Guerra homered to left. That was 3-0, or in other worse, 30 innings or more of hitting against Tobitt to make that up. Well, technically the Coons got the tying run to the plate with two out in the bottom 7th. Alston reached on an error and Black drew a disputable walk, leaving it to rookie Ralph Myers to sort out. His single to right loaded the bases, and Pruitt batted for Ricardo Martinez … and popped out. We got Tom McNeela on with a pinch-hit double in the bottom 8th, and he got stranded when Yoshi Nomura’s drive to deep center was intercepted by Solís. That was their last chance to waste. In the ninth they faced Salvadaro Soure, and that meant 100 strikeouts in 66 2/3 innings. He kept his pace well, whiffing Howell and Black on the way to end the game. 3-0 Indians. McNeela (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Ffffff…

In other news

September 9 – WAS SP Carlos Sackett (9-7, 4.13 ERA) will miss the rest of this and perhaps half of next season after tearing his posterior cruciate ligament.

Complaints and stuff

In beating the Indians 12 times in 2009, we’ve put up the best result against them since going 13-5 in 1998. We won 14 against them once, in 1989.

Besides reaching 200 K on the season on Friday, Nick Brown also crossed the 1,800 K mark in the same game, striking out Chris Kilters to reach the next “100”. He stands at 1,805, so no new marks will be reached this season, unless anybody cares about 1,700 innings pitched. I don’t, but he needs to collect 44 outs to get there.

Also, I have no clue how not at least one run was earned against him in the Indians game. Without the error, it goes single, groundout (5-3), wild pitch, groundout (6-3), which should be ample opportunity for an earned run.

But maybe that’s the problem: I have no clue. That’s why the roster contains De La Picenza and Jose Diarrhea. By the way, there’s a trade offer from the Titans who desire nothing more than Ron Alston in a trade for their public address announcer’s stepson, who’s a paraplegic standup comedian. Sounds fair to me! We need more fun ‘round here!

In deals that aren’t but could actually be, there are a few teams around the league that are trying to trade us a catcher real hard. While I appreciate the notion in general, I can’t deal them Matt Pruitt in exchange for one, and that’s what the Blue Sox for example want.

We also signed a replacement hitting coach, Glenn Williams. His nickname is “Martini”. I feel like we’ll get along fabulously.

Westheim · 02-16-2016, 04:33 PM

Raccoons (83-59) vs. Loggers (49-91) – September 14-17, 2009

There was never a better time for a 5-game series with the Loggers, with the Raccoons sitting one game below .500 all time. There was a very slim chance at the playoffs, but there’s probably another 3-game sweep at the hands of the Crusaders coming for us, so don’t even bother about that. The Loggers’ run differential was soundly worse than -200, with the second-worst offense and worst pitching in the league.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (12-6, 3.36 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (6-15, 5.02 ERA)
Cássio Boda (4-3, 4.73 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (7-10, 4.66 ERA)
Javier Cruz (11-10, 3.19 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-18, 5.12 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-6, 2.55 ERA) vs. Art Davies (3-3, 6.23 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 3.09 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (8-11, 3.67 ERA)

Looks like lefties will be bookending this series for Milwaukee. Their entire rotation just brings up tears. There’s also a twist in that the series-opener will officially count as a home game for Milwaukee, because that’s where a game was rained out two weeks ago.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Correa – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Umberger
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – C Baca – 1B Cambria – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – P Lloyd

While the Loggers posed a danger with infield singles, stolen bases and passed balls contributed by the useless Raccoons catcher, and scored at least a tiny run from that in the first inning, Lloyd sat down the first ten Critters in the game before Rob Howell hit a clean single to right with one out in the fourth, and soon enough got picked off by Lloyd. Alonso Baca homered in the bottom 4th to give the Loggers a 2-0 lead, and when Black reached on an infield single in the top 5th, Quebell hit into one of his ****ing double plays. Lloyd’s control, that had been perfect through six innings, slipped in the top 7th. Alston had hit a single, and with two out Lloyd walked both Correa and Sharp to stack the sacks. Keith Ayers batted for our resident death of all offense, but flew out to left. As a response of no offense by his own team, which everybody in attendance found quite offensive, Umberger actively helped the Loggers to another run by walking Lloyd batting leadoff in the bottom 7th. The Loggers brought him around, and the Raccoons brought nothing except for headaches.

Top 8th, Yoshi Nomura batted for Umberger and singled. After Castro flew out to Bakile Hiwalani, Rob Howell and Ron Alston both singled to load the bases, with new pitcher Scott Boone, left-handed, facing Luke Black. Was he Duke Smack or Count Hack today? The answer was B, he struck out on three pitches (…), and Quebell had two strikes on himself in a hurry. In trying to remove him, Boone pitched over the plate, Quebell sniffed it and liked it, and sent a shot that was bending towards the foul pole and passed … inside!! GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!! As surprising as it came, this was the death knell for the Loggers, who sent six batters to the plate against Sims in the eighth and Casas in the ninth, and none of them reached. 4-3 Raccoons. Alston 2-4; Quebell 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – 1B Cambria – 3B Tolwith – C Blake – 2B K. Scott – P Huertas
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Myers – 3B R. Martinez – C McNeela – CF Trevino – P Boda

The Raccoons scored single runs in the first two innings on sacrifice flies, with the latter giving Tom McNeela his first major league RBI. Too bad that Cássio Boda was pitching like crap once again, got away with it for two innings, but walked three men in a nerve-wrecking top of the third, in which a clean single by Eric Blake got things started, and eventually an infield single by Tim Austin scored the tying run. Before despair could engulf anybody entirely (foremost the home team’s GM), more offense came forward from first base, with Ralph Myers hitting a 2-run homer in the bottom 4th that gave the Critters a new 4-2 lead. Somehow Boda made it through five innings with only five walks and two runs against him, but singles by Austin and Tolwith posed a significant threat in the top 6th and he was yanked with Rockburn inheriting the runners with two outs and Eric Blake batting. One strikeout to Blake and a grounder back to the mound by Keith Scott later, the inning was over, and the Coons still were on top by two, but another Myers homer would tack a run onto that in the bottom of the inning.

With Rockburn pitching five outs, things looked confidently good for the Racccons, initially. Huerta got two quick outs in the eighth, then walked two batters, which prompted us to call for Marcos Bruno, who was originally scheduled to pitch the ninth if the lead was still three or less. Bruno allowed singles to Scott and Quinn Burton to plate two runs, 5-4, before striking out J.R. Richardson. Bottom 8th, Scott Boone was at work again, and issued walks to Pruitt, Alston, and Myers, three left-handers, with one out. Martinez lined out to Tolwith on the first pitch, but Pruitt was smarter than running on contact and was not doubled off. Daniel Sharp hit for McNeela, singled to left center, two runs scored, and Bruno struck out two in the ninth without Hiwalani’s drive to deep center with one out scaring anybody. Trevino caught that, just in case. 7-4 Raccoons. Myers 2-2, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Sharp (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

And with that, “Scumbag” Boda has brought the Raccoons back into overall-winning waters, yay! Well, I’d like to give nods to the offense that poured out enough runs to survive five and a third innings of his pitching rather than “Scumbag” Boda.

Also, just so no disillusion crops up, despite winning two games on Monday, the Raccoons gained zero on the Crusaders, who swept a double header from the Elks.

Game 3
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – C Baca – 1B Cambria – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – P R. Thomas
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P J. Cruz

Tim Austin’s homer gave the Loggers a 1-0 lead in the top 2nd that was short-lived. The Raccoons got singles from Alston, Sharp, and De La Pelican in the bottom 2nd, tying the game, and Thomas struggled to retire anybody in the third inning. Castro singled, Nomura walked on four pitches, and Pruitt singled hard to right, but still good enough to score Castro from second base and take the lead. Then Alston grounded into a double play to kill the effort. The top 4th was led off by Hiwalani with a double past the limited reach of Castro, and he was on third base when Alonso Baca unleashed a 2-out drive to deep right that missed the wall but found Ron Alston’s glove – somehow.

The Coons, somehow, kept hitting into double plays, severely limiting their potential in this game. They added a run in the bottom 5th, and a Hiwalani error helped them to a fourth run in the bottom of the sixth inning, but overall their RISP hitting was and remained gruesome. When Cruz pitched into the eighth but in succession allowed a 1-out single to Keith Scott and a double to Quinn Burton, the effort was in grave danger. Luis Beltran came in to face the lefty Richardson, struck him out, and then Fredlund pitched to Bartolo Hernandez, who grounded the first pitch to short, Rob Howell’s throw to first dinked in the dirt and took a bounce on Quebell, but he quickly swiped it before the thing could get ugly. That’s why Quebell’s a Gold Glover, after all! The eighth was over, the Coons found a way into their third double play of the game in their half of the inning, and Baca homered off Angel in the ninth, but that was with two outs and nobody on. Nobody got on after Baca. 4-2 Coons. Castro 2-4; Alston 2-4; Sharp 2-3, BB; Cruz 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (12-10) and 1-3;

Game 4
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 2B K. Scott – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – 1B Burton – C Baca – P Davies
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – 2B Nomura – 3B R. Martinez – C McNeela – P Brown

And again the Loggers took the lead in the first, this time with Keith Scott assaulting a 3-2 pitch by Nick Brown to homer just slightly right of straightaway centerfield. While Brown struck out five Loggers in the first three innings, suggesting overall bad offensive attributes for their team, his opposite Art Davies wasn’t quite as hopeless as his 6+ ERA would suggest. He walked Castro to start the game and gave him second base with a horribly bad pickoff attempt, but the Raccoons – for the second time in the set! – didn’t get a hit until their 11th batter was at the plate, a leadoff single by Rob Howell in the bottom 4th. Perhaps this was also suggesting overall bad offensive attributes for OUR team. As things went, Pruitt singled, Yoshi singled to tie the game, but Martinez struck out to keep runners on the corners. Martinez was to bat again with two on (Ayers on second, Yoshi on first) and two out in the bottom 6th, but with Ron Alston on the bench, we took him out, but got the inning-ending groundout served anyway. While the team kept failing outrageously, Quinn Burton homered with two outs in the top 7th to put the Loggers ahead again, 2-1. They now had four hits, including two four-basers, and Davies, who had come in with 27 walks against 21 strikeouts, tied the stats at 28 by the end of the bottom 7th. Nick Brown retired from the game after eight unrewarded innings, still trailing. Ted Reese pitched a clean ninth before Micah Steele got a rare save chance for the Loggers, and allowed the tying run in Keith Ayers on base with a leadoff single. That was followed by a Nomura single, and then he walked Correa, who had taken over at third base. Three on, no outs, one run to tie, two runs to win. Maybe, there’s a brute force approach to that. Ralph Myers hit for Tom McNeela, who had been silenced completely by Davies. Myers hit a 1-2 pitch to left, looked quite easy, but Tim Austin dropped it anyway. Everybody moved up a base, three on, no outs, one run to win. Pete Schipper hit for Ted Reese, struck out, Castro was down 2-2 before sending a drive to center, and even if that didn’t go out, and in fact centerfielder Amari Brissett caught it, but it was still the game. 3-2 Coons. Ayers 2-4; Nomura 3-4, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K;

No extra-base hits in a Nick Brown game, what a shocking new development!

Amari Brissett is a 21-year old defensive centerfielder, and originally a Wolves second-rounder from 2006, that skipped AAA to make his major league debut in this contest. He didn’t get an at-bat after replacing Richardson, and he did everything right on that Castro drive, and his team still lost the game. Welcome to the big leagues, kid, there’s more pain and tears waiting for you just around this corner.

Anybody ever seen a 5-game sweep?

Game 5
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – 1B Cambria – 3B Tolwith – C Blake – 2B K. Scott – P F. Cruz
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 2B Correa – 1B Myers – C De La Parra – P Watanabe

For the fourth time in the series, the Loggers scored first. At first, the 2-out walk Watanabe handed to Eric Blake in the second inning seemed innocent enough, but Keith Scott singled, Blake went to third, and Luke Black’s throw was nowhere close in particular, allowing the catcher to scamper home with an unearned run. Bad control by Watanabe, egregious defense by Myers, and a well-placed single by Aaron Tolwith racked up three more runs in the third inning, with two more being unearned. The Coons had had a chance in the bottom 2nd until De La Peru had hit into a double play, but Watanabe led off the bottom 3rd with a double, and before long the bases were loaded with no outs for Alston, who joined all the other useless chumps by hitting into a double play. Black grounded out and only one run had scored.

Watanabe lasted hardly five innings, partly because of ****ty command (three walks, but many more long counts) and another throwing error, this time by Sharp, that caused another unearned run to score in the fifth inning. Down 5-2, the Coons had a man on with Alston batting with one out, and oops, another double play. Infinite madness continued with Fernando Cruz drawing a walk off Fredlund in the top 6th, which somehow didn’t escalate into six more unearned runs. Fredlund logged four outs, all with three strikes, before Tim Austin took him deep in the seventh. Beltran came in, got an out, then was pierced by Tolwith with another homer. Way to go about a potential 5-game sweep (or, gasp, playoff participation). Matt Pruitt’s home run in the bottom 7th was dutifully entered into the scorebook, but didn’t change anything, and when Castro hit a single after that, Rob Howell managed to find a way for another double play.

The Coons were down 7-3 coming into the bottom of the ninth. They faced righty Eric Fontenot, who had already ended the eighth for the Loggers. Quebell hit for Correa and singled. Yoshi hit for Ted Reese, and also singled, which prompted an appearance from Steele. He would not throw a ball until the game was over. Schipper hit for the gruesome catcher, flew out to Hiwalani, and Pruitt and Castro struck out quickly. 7-3 Loggers. Correa 2-3; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Nomura (PH) 1-1; Pruitt 1-2, HR, RBI; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (87-60) @ Condors (65-81) – September 18-20, 2009

We were 4-2 against the Condors this year, but they had a 4-game winning streak, and we … didn’t. They ranked last in offense even behind the Loggers, but were in the top half in runs allowed, only 606 markers, which had them fourth in the CL. This was mainly due to a strong bullpen. The rotation was average at best.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (9-9, 3.29 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (12-6, 3.71 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (13-6, 3.38 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (7-4, 3.01 ERA)
Javier Cruz (12-10, 3.11 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (12-13, 3.85 ERA)

Those are all right-handers. We miss their worst guy, Doug Thompson (6-10, 5.18 ERA) as well as the guy who has the best stuff, but not quite a good ERA, Jaylen “Midnight” Martin.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – RF Schipper – C McNeela – P Baldwin
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – LF Crum – 2B J. Diaz – 1B R. Morris – 3B D. Jones – CF Roberson – RF Libby – P Grams

Johnny Crum was the deadly dagger in almost anything the Raccoons undertook in the series opener, robbing at least three doubles that the offense could have needed, and also breaking the Condors into the H column with two outs in the fourth after Colin Baldwin had retired the first 11 batters in order. Still, a Quebell homer had put the Raccoons up 2-0 in the third inning, but that was about the only thing that Crum hadn’t caught.

Grams would drill Baldwin in the fifth, Baldwin would score on a Howell double, 3-0, and the Condors were sick of him by the sixth inning. Tell me about it, I was sick of him by the sixth inning in the first week of April! He left with Nomura on base and one out, and his replacement César Fuentes quickly allowed an RBI triple to Schipper, who would then come in on Tom McNeela’s sac fly to give Baldwin a 5-0 lead, but his shutout bid was soon broken up partly thanks to Sharp’s 13th error of the season, in the bottom 7th, in which the Condors scored an unearned run. Baldwin kept going regardless and reached the ninth inning in relatively good shape. With the Condors down to their final out, Crum’s turn was up and he worked the first walk of the game for his team. Soling … EVERYTHING. Baldwin struck out Juan Diaz to end the game. 6-1 Raccoons. Quebell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Alston 2-5; Nomura 2-4; Baldwin 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (10-9);

This is Colin Baldwin’s third career complete game, all as a Raccoon (remember he started his career with the Pacifics in ’07), but he continues to have no shutout to his credit.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Umberger
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – 2B J. Diaz – 1B R. Morris – LF Crum – 3B D. Jones – CF Dennis – RF R. Anderson – P Boyer

To start the game, Tomas Castro let one rip to put the road team on top, before Howell walked and Quebell hit into another double play. Oh, well, we’ll always have that one run…

Or perhaps more. While Umberger allowed a run in the bottom 2nd, he had already driven in a run in the top of the inning in the most unusual circumstances with Correa and De La Pinocchio coming up with consecutive base hits, and Umberger bringing home Correa with a productive out. The Coons would be in another so-not-promising situation in the top 3rd. Howell and Alston had reached and were in scoring position after Sharp had grounded to first for the second out. That brought up Count Hack, but before he could be counted out hacking, Zach Boyer had thrown not one, but TWO wild pitches to give the Critters an undeserved 4-1 lead. Another run scored, driven in by Castro, in the top 4th, and in the bottom 4th the Condors got their chance with a leadoff single by Rob Morris and then Crum reaching on a Correa throwing error, as the Coons got none instead of two. After Jong-hoo had struck out Dan Jones, Eric Dennis would ground hard to third base, where Sharp would turn the double play in a desperate attempt to make up for this week’s misplays, an unconventional 5-3 DP. In exchange, he also hit into a double play in the next inning…

There were nice moments and not so nice moments, and this week most moments with Sharp involved weren’t nice at all, but that last double play still left Quebell on third base with two outs and enough time for the old Count to hit one more homer, his 74th for the Coons, making up exactly half his major league total in WAY LESS than half his major league years, and perhaps his final one, too. It was also the last ink blotch in Boyer’s book, five innings of 7-run ball, and not a scoreless frame included.

While it had been a hard game on Condors starting pitching, the Coons’ starter was suddenly getting eaten in the bottom 7th. The Condors roped three hits off Umberger to chase him, but the drubbing continued with two sharp 2-out hits off Huerta. This was alarming. The tying run appeared in the box with two men in scoring position in a 7-4 game, and that tying run was Johnny Crum, who hit Donald Sims’ first pitch hard up the middle, but somehow Correa got a paw onto it and made a play to first to end the inning before it could get REALLY ugly. But well, there was still potential for a continuing meltdown. For starters, the Coons left the bases stacked in the top 8th without improving on the 7-4 score, but Law Rockburn sat down the Condors in order in the bottom 8th. Two more were stranded in the top 9th, and the Condors’ Isiah Reed led off the bottom 9th with a single off Angel. Ybarra grounded to third, and Sharp blew the play, his third capital error this week. It also pulled the tying run to the plate with nobody out, and Angel’s next pitch was wild and past Tom McNeela. Then he finally got things righted, slightly. He struck out PH Tommy Ward, and Diaz flew out to right, but not deep enough for the marginally slow Reed to score from third base. That had Rob Morris come up with two outs. Scouted with power, he wasn’t showing any, but Casas threw another wild pitch to score a run in any case, and eventually walked Morris, and oh, ****, here’s Johnny Crum. He popped up the first pitch, going to the left side, AND OH ****, SHARP IS GOING AFTER IT. QUICK!! SOMEONE SHOOT HIM IN THE PAWS!!! No, he’s got it. 7-5 Coons. Castro 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-5; Alston 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Correa 2-3; Myers (PH) 1-1; Pruitt (PH) 1-1;

Now, these drops here are very, veeeeery … I need to be very careful. More than 20 drops have been known to kill a horse! (angrily shakes half the bottle into his Capt’n Coma)

You know the weirdest thing? Despite not batting and not fielding, we’re catching up with the Crusaders just ever so slightly.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – 2B Nomura – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – C McNeela – P Cruz
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – 2B J. Diaz – 1B R. Morris – LF Crum – 3B D. Jones – CF P. Javier – RF Ward – P J. Silva

The first inning saw the three left-handers in the 3-4-5 spots load the bases only for Count Hack to hack out, and nobody scored. Crum batted with runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning, but grounded out hard to Quebell, who made a nifty grab, and later doubled in the first run of the game, plating Howell from first base in the third inning, hitting a fly over Paco Javier in center. That direction was the power alley for this game, with Ricardo Martinez homering there in the fourth, 2-0. Cruz was allowing a fair number of singles, but also didn’t waste too much time with balls and was striking out eight through six innings of work, keeping the potential danger down and the Condors shut out.

Quebell opened the score a bit more with another RBI double in the seventh, this one scoring Castro with one out. Alston was bypassed by the Condors despite not having driven in a run all week, but Nomura popped up which brought the #6 slot to the plate, where Count Hack had hacked out three times in as many chances today, and – no. Pruitt hit for him, and HE hacked out instead. All the offensive failures immediately threatened to topple the game and the sweep when the Condors finally got an extra base hit, a 2-out RBI double by Ybarra that brought them onto the scoreboard. Huerta replaced Cruz immediately, struck out Foster Leach, and the world kept turning for the moment, despite Silva lasting eight innings on ten hits and ten strikeouts, and Jayden Reed would make the dozen full on them in the top 9th. Somehow Angel Casas worked around a leadoff walk to Dan Jones in the bottom of the inning. Trevino had replaced Castro for defense in center and sucked up the drives there by Tommy Ward and PH Steve Roane to end the game. 3-1 Blighters. Quebell 5-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Cruz 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (13-10) and 1-2;

In other news

September 14 – NAS SP Stanton Taylor (8-18, 5.03 ERA) is out for the season with shoulder inflammation.
September 17 – CIN LF/RF/1B Will Bailey (.389, 27 HR, 108 RBI) will be out for a long time. The 32-year old has broken his kneecap and recovery could take up to nine months.
September 18 – Radial nerve compression puts LVA CL Jorge Cortez (1-9, 5.20 ERA, 28 SV) out of order until next summer, which might actually help the Aces to be less horrible until next June.
September 19 – WAS LF/RF Ken Potter (.253, 23 HR, 78 RBI) has a rotten season end with a ruptured achilles tendon.
September 20 – Another Cyclones regular hits the DL, as 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.335, 8 HR, 59 RBI) goes down with a shoulder strain. He should be out for only two weeks, though.

Complaints and stuff

14-4 still is our best ever result against the Loggers. Four out of five still wasn’t enough, and I’d blame the offense. The Loggers had been 1,000 runs short of the year of Declaration of Independence coming in, and they left pretty much healed in all their pitching wounds.
MIL R/A thru Sep 13: 5.54
MIL R/A Sep 14-17: 4.20

One burning question right now concerns the to-be-free agent Javier Cruz. Do we want to make him a pitch for a 1-year extension? He’s 36, but he’s been mostly very solid, almost good, although he’s had his share of 8-run blowouts in his two years in Portland. But hey, who hasn’t? (looks Nick Brown in the eyes) … Well, who hasn’t? (Brown runs out, sobbing)

So, we’ve seen that our backup trifecta of Teasdale, Watanabe, and Boda can’t do a lick, and those half-a-million journeymen like Greg Grams don’t make you happy, either. But we have a slot in the rotation open in 2010, and our blue chip Hector Santos can’t fill it yet, working on a quite bad command issue in AAA. Six walks per nine ain’t great there, and they won’t help him win games here. If we could get Cruz back at a slightly reduced rate, maybe for $700k, that would make me happy, but only for one year.

By the way, there IS one more thing that Nick Brown can reach before the year is out. No, not the World Series, ha-hah. But he holds the franchise record in strikeouts in a season with 243, and with three more starts in the cards for him, and 217 in the bank right now, there’s the chance to break that record. By the way, Brownie holds seven single-season strikeout outputs in the top 10 for this team. Kel Yates has two (being here for two season), and there’s ONE mark left over in the top 10 that was put up by Kisho Saito, which is in 10th place now, his 193 K from ’85. Nick Brown’s all from ninth place and 212 K (2002) up.

And with two weeks left, Angel Casas is four away from Grant West’s franchise single season save record…

Next week, Aces, then showdown against the Crusaders.

Westheim · 02-17-2016, 02:09 PM

The Purple Poopers have come to town, and the Furballs are in a position to take the division lead from them. How will Coon City look by Sunday night?

Westheim · 02-17-2016, 03:31 PM

One correction to last week’s comments, where I said Hector Santos walked six per nine innings in AAA. That’s not true, I don’t know what I was looking at even … He made 19 AAA starts, pitched 117.1 innings, 10-5, 3.45 ERA, 98 K, but 60 walks. That’s 4.6 BB/9. He will start in AAA for sure in 2010, since the control won’t get better here, and he won’t even be 22 at the start of the 2010 season. No need to rush, no need to rush. But something tells me this right-hander won’t have to wait until he turns 23…

Raccoons (90-60) vs. Aces (64-85) – September 22-24, 2009

Last pushover team for this season, only winning teams after that, including one in particular. But despite the Aces’ second-worst pitching in the league (only better than the Loggers’), we had not been able to do better than 3-3 against them, which was an issue. They scored the fourth-most runs in the CL, but that was still giving them a cringy -62 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (14-6, 2.54 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (13-10, 4.21 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-2, 2.70 ERA) vs. Jimmy Young (5-13, 4.84 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (10-9, 3.12 ERA) vs. Shawn White (5-12, 4.39 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, and we might get a lot more of those on the weekend. Since the Crusaders shut out the Thunder behind Whit Reeves on Monday, the 21st, we started the series a full four games behind them, but they would have Thursday off.

Game 1
LVA: 2B H. Jones – 1B McDermott – RF R. Garcia – SS Dahlke – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – 3B F. Flores – CF Messinger – P Pennington
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C McNeela – P Brown

… and then you put your ace on the mound against that moisty last-place team, and he walks three batters in the first inning and Logan Taylor singles in a pair right away. The Coons would put runners onto the corners in the bottom of the inning, but had drives to center by Pruitt and Quebell intercepted by Forest Messinger and didn’t score, and that pattern would continue for a while, as they showed their most inept side against Jim Pennington. While Brown had shown his inept side right at the start, he would hold the Aces almost completely off the bases for the next bunch of inning and struck out six over five innings, but the damage had been done, and the Raccoons were unable to make up a 2-0 deficit.

The bottom 6th started with a Castro bloop to shallow left that Logan Taylor just narrowly didn’t get to before Howell was drilled by Pennington. That meant the tying runs were on base with no outs and four left-handers coming up, three of whom could rake. Pruitt sent another high drive to center, and Messinger wasn’t getting that one as it rammed off the wall. Castro scored, Howell was held at third base, then scored on Ron Alston’s single to left, which tied the score. Quebell’s grounder up the middle escaped Howard Jones for the go-ahead RBI single, and when all was done, the Coons had batted through the order and scored four runs. And to all that offense Nick Brown, who ended the inning with a fly to right that was at least not the easiest out, responded by serving his second pitch of the seventh inning for a rocket blast to Taylor, cutting the lead back to a skinny run. Brown retired Jones at the start of the eighth before Sean McDermott singled to center. That was the call for Marcos Bruno, who ended the inning before the lead could go poof. In the ninth, we turned to Donald Sims for two reasons. The power-happy left-handers Eduardo Durango and Taylor were to lead off, and Angel Casas had tossed some 40 pitches between Saturday and Sunday and wasn’t all that fresh. While Durango almost fired Sims’ very first pitch into the next county – it did come down just short of the wall and into Trevino’s mitt – the Aces then curiously batted right-handed call-up Chad Parker for Logan Taylor. A wicked move indeed. He popped out, and so did PH Tom Turner. 4-3 Brownies. Castro 2-4; Alston 2-4, RBI; Brown 7.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (15-6);

This would have been less of a drama if that first inning hadn’t almost gotten out of hand. All this doesn’t make me feel well for Sunday, which will be Brownie’s next call. Meanwhile, the Crusaders’ Greg Connor beat the Thunder, 6-2, to keep the gap at four.

Game 2
LVA: 1B McDermott – 2B H. Jones – LF L. Taylor – RF R. Garcia – C Durango – SS Dahlke – CF Messinger – 3B F. Flores – P Young
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Watanabe

The Raccoons had another early deficit handed to them by the dumb **** De La Polio, who made a capital throwing error on Howard Jones’ grounder in the top 1st, just before Logan Taylor hit an inside-the-park home run well past the limited reach of Ron Alston. The Raccoons were held to almost squid again the first time through the order, but got the game tied in the fourth inning. Alston singled, Quebell homered, voila, 2-2. Pruitt had led off that inning with a groundout, and led off the sixth with another groundout, but this time to my surprise didn’t spark offense with it. The Aces were held remarkably short by Watanabe whenever De La Poison wasn’t inviting them, and the game remained tied into the late innings, where Nomura started the bottom 7th with a single and in a hunch we called a bunt for Sharp, that was so bad, Young easily threw out Yoshi at second base. Black and Myers didn’t produce in PH appearances, and Watanabe was hit for, so Beltran started the top 8th, getting Sandy Sambrano to fly out before Huerta collected outs from Parker and Jones, but still the Raccoons found it too much to ask to pull a run from their pelt. When Donald Sims walked a pair in the top 9th, this one had disaster written all over it. Law Rockburn replaced him, but allowed a single for the go-ahead run to Forest Messinger. Bottom 9th, Dave Hughes entered to close this one, and the righty had 99 strikeouts in 92 innings of swingman’s work, and Ron Alston homered right away, number 32, and it tied the score. It could have been the game, y’know? Quebell hit a single, and Nomura as a high schooler had once broken his jaw while bunting (and had worn a headgear for six months after that; I have pictures), and rather swung away, but grounded out to first. Sharp was walked intentionally to get to Ximenes Lopes, who was hit for in a real hurry, Pete Schipper grabbing a bat – and was drilled. Keith Ayers hit for Rockburn … and straight into a double play.

Top 10th, Derrek Fredlund was in the game. He struck out Geoff Struck (yes, actually), before Chad Parker doubled to centerfield. Howard Jones singled to right, where Schipper was now stationed, Parker turned the corner for home, and Schipper parked him on the bench. The inning ended with Fredlund striking out Ricky Avila, and the game ended with straight 2-out singles by McNeela, Alston, and Quebell in the bottom 10th. 4-3 Raccoons. Castro 3-5; McNeela 1-1; Alston 3-5, HR, RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

Instead of Law’s 10th win, Fredlund got his first, and I don’t want to complain too loudly, but I hope they’re preserving the big bat power for the weekend, because these hitting displays won’t get them far against the Crusaders. As we’re talking about the evil fiends from the east, they lost the series finale against Oklahoma, 5-3, cutting the gap to three games. By now, all other teams in the division were eliminated.

I like that name. Sandy Sambrano. If he were any good, I’d try to trade for him, just for ****ty puns. But no, we’re past that mock-the-game stage, but remember how much fun we had with our all-Yoshi middle infield? Right, none! And Sambrano is a player of the same quality.

Game 3
LVA: 2B H. Jones – 1B McDermott – RF R. Garcia – SS Dahlke – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – 3B D. Ortega – CF Messinger – P S. White
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Correa – C McNeela – P Baldwin

The Aces waited until the second inning this time before Domingo Ortega’s 11th career at-bat resulted in his first career homer, but at least the Coons were quick to respond, hit doubles through Quebell and McNeela in the bottom 2nd and when Baldwin singled to right with two outs in the inning, he was sent to second as bait for Ricardo Garcia to allow McNeela to stretch those legs on the way home. It worked: the Aces took the sure out at second base and McNeela made it home just in time without molestation to score the go-ahead run, 2-1.

While the Aces suffered the amount of frustration at our defense that was normally reserved for me when they hit into three double plays in the first five innings, the Raccoons got an extra run from a misplay by Tom Dahlke at short, who missed a Ron Alston grounder in the bottom 4th. What was generously scored a single (hometown scoring, what can I say…), it soon became a run when Quebell hit his 19th homer of the season.

For a while, we looked good with a 4-1 lead, but in the seventh, Baldwin got stuck really bad. He walked Tom Dahlke for the second time (Dahlke was batting under .200 despite hitting 27 bombs, however that worked out), and then allowed a single to Taylor. Rockburn came on, struck out Ortega, but then we underestimated Forest Messinger for the second time already in this series, the old bone singled to left, and we had ourselves yet another 4-3 score. But: the bottom 7th started with a single by Schipper, hitting for Law, and Castro followed with another single before Howell walked, all against reliever Nick Hartman. Three on, nobody out, the Juice Brigade waiting in line. When Pruitt flew to left, Taylor made the catch near the leftfield line in about two thirds’ depth, and Schipper was sent. Taylor’s wild throw not only allowed Durango no chance at a play, it also allowed ALL Raccoons to move up a base, but at the same time took the bat out of Alston’s hand, and Quebell came to the plate with the sacks reloaded and one out, fired a 3-1 pitch to left, another catch was made by Taylor, but another run scored as well. When Sharp struck out, we were up 6-3.

Ted Reese was assigned the eighth, but with two out put Garcia and Dahlke on base. Beltran was called from the pen to retire one of Durango or Taylor without blowing the score, and barely did so when Durango grounded out to Quebell on a 3-1 pitch. Angel struck out the side in the ninth to seal the sweep. 6-3 Critters! Castro 2-4; Alston 2-3, BB; Quebell 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-4; McNeela 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Schipper (PH) 1-2;

If Adrian Quebell is warming up RIGHT NOW, we have a chance. We’ll ignore the double play he hit into in the sixth for the moment, for the sake of argument, or perhaps the sake of sanity?

So, we did our part, and we’re back to within 2.5 games, which means that a sweep would hand us the division lead. And to be fair, would two out of three be enough? Can’t bank on that, especially with the Elks on our plate in the last week. They always have a nasty trick on hand…

Raccoons (93-60) vs. Crusaders (95-57) – September 25-27, 2009

First in runs scored (775; POR: 8th, 635), second in runs allowed (545; POR: 1st, 528) – and they hold a slight 8-7 edge in the season series. That must stop. We must win that season series.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (14-6, 3.44 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (20-9, 3.18 ERA)
Javier Cruz (13-10, 3.05 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (15-4, 2.92 ERA)
Nick Brown (15-6, 2.58 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (13-15, 3.67 ERA)

Everybody managed to bring their best three starters into this one. The Crusaders also just got Stanton Martin back, which is unfortunate, but they still lack their leadoff man Roberto Pena and his knack to do you in at the start of the game. Apart from that, they’re healthy and hungry, and now this thing is ON!

Game 1
NYC: CF Kui – 1B Batlle – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – SS J. Ortega – C J. Flores – P P. Trevino
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B R. Martinez – C McNeela – P Umberger

Trevino came in with 115 walks and 197 strikeouts, and reached 199 on the first two men he faced before Pruitt singled, Alston walked, Caraballo bungled Quebell’s grounder, and Yoshi Nomura came to bat with the bases loaded, and hobbled out to short. No Coon would reach base in the second and third, while in the top 4th Umberger, who had so far gone right after batters and had struck out four, went after batters A BIT too much and plunked Stanton Martin at the start of the inning. Martin Ortíz singled up the middle and uh-oh… Caraballo’s pop to right was caught by Alston, and then Sonny Reece lined to left where Pruitt made a headlong catch to prevent the scoreboard from lighting up! Jorge Ortega struck out to keep the Martin Brothers stranded. It wasn’t until McNeela’s 1-out single in the bottom 5th that a Greycoat appeared on a base again, Jong-hoo bunted him over, but Castro struck out.

And things slowly began to turn south. Stanton Martin hit a leadoff single in the sixth, and Umberger kept shaking his right arm. The trainer came out, and after some discussion collected Umberger, who had allowed scarcely anything for five innings. Ricardo Huerta took over with the losing run on base, walked Ortíz, and the runners moved over on Caraballo’s groundout. Sonny Reece popped out to Howell before Ortega drilled a line to left AND THERE’S PRUITT!!! Another awesome catch in the highest danger!! Give that boy a Gold Glove right now!!

For now, the Coons still were looking for a way to break the scoreless tie in a good way. Pruitt getting brushed by a Trevino pitch in the bottom 6th was a good start, and Trevino then walked Alston, only his second free pass on the day, but neither Quebell nor Nomura could lift the bat in a positive way. And then the seventh started with third-string catcher Jose Flores homering off Huerta. Paco Batlle homered in the same inning. 2-0 Crusaders, and the Raccoons had two ****ty hits on the board. Bottom of the inning, Martinez made another soft, poor, tear-jerking out before Tom McNeela completely bedazzled Ming Kui with a liner to slightly-left center. Kui misplayed the ball hard enough for a triple before Ralph Myers hit for Ted Reese and homered to right, just like that. Game tied.

Sims put a man on in the eighth and got a double play before the Crusaders hit the right-hander Marc Williams for Sonny Reece and we moved on to Bruno, who would log four outs to complete regulation and give the Coons a walkoff chance in the bottom 9th, if they could someone cheat Scott Hood (82 IP, 114 K) out of his daily ration of batters’ skulls. Ricardo Martinez was not a good point to get started, was hit for by Pete Schipper, who flew out, and McNeela and Myers also didn’t reach, sending the game to extras. The 10th was assigned to Angel Casas, who was singled against by Ming Kui, the little sewer rat that came into the game batting .133 with no homers and no stolen bases and since then had hit three singles and swiped three sacks, but rebounded by striking out Batlle and the Martins in order, but Hood ate Black, Howell, and Sharp in succession in the bottom 10th. Meanwhile the Coons were running out of pitchers, and Fredlund was in. After that we might get an inning out of Law, and then it was on Cássio Boda, the spare starter that nobody needed. But Fredlund put two on in the 11th, which forced the Crusaders to hit Zak Davidson for Hood to no effect, and we got Iemitsu Rin in the bottom 11th, and his ERA of .87 was begging to be broken up. But he was a left-hander, and we had three left-handers up to bat in the inning, starting with Alston, and continuing with … Santiago Trevino after some mad double-switching along the way. Better end this NOW. One strike and a ball on Alston before he took a good swing, and a good fly to right center that was extra bases for sure and a prime chance to … except if it would … it could … it was … IT – WAS – GOING!!!!! 3-2 FURBALLS!!!! Pruitt 2-3; Alston 1-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI; McNeela 2-4; Myers (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Umberger 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

(exhales, four hours later) Fffffffff…….. that was … oooaaah.

But we passed this one. Maybe not with honors, but we’re still good. Tell your mom you got a B- and quickly disappear into your room, she’ll buy it.

Jong-hoo had suffered a shoulder strain and was out for the regular season (so much for the spare starter nobody needed) and also the CLCS. You know, if there’d be a CLCS.

But please (voice cracks) … can we have A BIT more offense early in the game? I can’t feel anything from the stomach down anymore……

Game 2
NYC: SS J. Hernandez – 1B Batlle – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – CF Kui – C D. Anderson – P Reeves
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Myers – 2B Nomura – C De La Parra – P Cruz

The first offense was put up by the Crusaders, who rapped three singles with way too much ease for anybody in the park to feel comfy off Javier Cruz, and that with a spent bullpen. That even included Stanton Martin grounding into a fielder’s choice on a 3-0 pitch, which cost the Crusaders at least one run, and they settled for a single tally. The Raccoons got walks to Sharp and Myers at the start of the bottom 2nd, then had Nomura hit into a double play and De La Pretzel was as expensive as he was useless. Then the Coons yanked their starter in the third inning. Cruz allowed three singles to start the inning, putting the Crusaders up 2-0 with nobody out and runners on first and second. Someone had obviously shat into Cruz’ breakfast trash can and we couldn’t have any of that. In an expression of the utmost desperation, Cássio Boda was thrown into the game. There you have that ball, kid, see what you can do.

Turns out, nothing. Caraballo doubled in the runs, it was 4-0, and after the top 5h it was 6-0 with Paco Batlle going deep off Boda. The Crusaders had 13 hits to the Raccoons’ three, and the mood in the park was rather bleak. The season was about to end right here, and the team wasn’t getting anything done, stranding pairs of runners in the fourth and sixth.

Boda was removed after four innings in which he allowed seven hits and four runs to cross home plate, with the Raccoons’ season absolutely in shards on the floor. Beltran and Fredlund finished the game without any more damage done, but the amount of damage done previously was wildly sufficient. Ron Alston had won the game with a homer the previous night. This time, his eighth inning homer was completely meaningless. 6-1 Crusaders. Castro 2-4; Alston 2-4, HR, RBI; Sharp 3-3, BB; Fredlund 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

… and other than a pair of walks drawn by Ralph Myers, none of the Blighters reached base even once. No wonder they always come up on somebody’s tail lights.

Sunday would have been Nick Brown, but … there was something about Sunday games, and Nick Brown in particular this season. In short, it rained horrendously, and there would not be a game. The contest was rescheduled for Monday after the end of the regular season…

Did I mention that the Crusaders have four games left against the utmost miserable Loggers?

In other news

September 24 – ATL 3B/2B Carlos Martinez (.258, 21 HR, 98 RBI) is out for the year with a hamstring strain, just when he could have made the playoffs with his 76-76 team.
September 25 – Big day for 34-year old TOP SP Tony Hamlyn (6-11, 3.08 ERA), who goes eight innings whiffing nine in a 5-3 win over the Blue Sox. It’s his 200th career victory. Hamlyn was an international discovery by the Bayhawks, debuting for them in 1997. He has a 2.60 career ERA and 2,849 strikeouts in 413 starts. He has led the league in ERA four times, in strikeouts twice, and in pitcher’s WAR eight times, winning five Pitcher of the Year trophies from 2002-2004, and 2007-2008, the last four of which came with the Buffaloes. He will be a free agent this winter and certainly be able to command another big contract.
September 25 – The Pacifics have locked up the FL West with a 6-0 win over the Scorpions. It will be their fourth playoff appearance and the first since 1991. In the last 17 years they finished fifth or sixth NINE times, and in the bottom half of the West every year from 1999 through 2008. They also lost 105 or more games three times in that span.
September 26 – LVA C Eduardo Durango (.308, 12 HR, 78 RBI) keeps chipping away at the Thunder in a 15-inning, 5-4 loss of the Aces to Oklahoma, snipping six singles with three RBI’s off them. It’s the 44th time in ABL history that a player has hit safely six times in a game, the third time this year, and the second time in Aces history. Andres Manuel had six hits in the penultimate week of the 1996 season for them. It is the fourth time however, that the player with six hits ends up on the losing team, and the third time in this decade.
September 26 – VAN OF Ross Holland (.286, 7 HR, 66 RBI) ends his season early with a quad strain.
September 27 – It as well season over for OCT C Pablo Ledesma (.269, 10 HR, 64 RBI) after he has fractured his ankle.

Complaints and stuff

(lies motionless on the floor)

(mumbles without moving) Ron Alston was POTY with a .526, 3 HR, 4 RBI week, but who cares…

(there’s also some vomit in that dark corner)

Westheim · 02-17-2016, 03:33 PM

Today's featured picture on Wickedpedia:

Nick Brown, still waiting for an answer from the clouds as to how, and goddamnit WHY??

In the background, Matt Pruitt, looking for his bat. Or maybe food. Who knows...

Westheim · 02-20-2016, 12:47 PM

The random blonde bimbo in the apricot blazer that was violently assaulting every bit of good taste, and that had cost her daddy a truck load of money to get her through college, penetratingly grins into the camera on the afternoon news on the local channel.

“And that was Jeff with the weather.”

His name’s Joe, and everybody knows. Her daddy is weeping somewhere. A picture of an excited raccoon appears on the screen behind her.

“And today is also a big day in sports, as the Portland Maroons are trying to win their way into the ALB payoffs today. The team is trying to take another game from the Catalina Vanquishers –

Yes, she actually just said that.

“after last night’s shootout.”

There’s probably no reason to worry about her future. It’s a local channel after all.

“With the Baboons tied for first place with the North Dakota Conceptions –

Probably, money wasn’t enough for her to finish college. She's got to have been somebody’s side hoe at some point.

“… every game counts!”

But she gets the point over, I guess? But I can’t stand her. Let’s flick over to NOISECAR.

Westheim · 02-20-2016, 02:47 PM

The Raccoons are 2 1/2 games back, play the Elks, and the Crusaders play the horrendous Loggers. You’ll probably need Hitchcock’s ability to create suspense and drama here, which I don’t have. I also don’t have a lot of motivation to face them again on the following Monday. Another year ends in failure.

Raccoons (94-61) vs. Titans (74-82) – September 28-30, 2009

The Titans were in town for the final time, having lost 10 of 15 to the Coons on the season. They were 6th in runs scored, but 8th in runs allowed with a -27 differential.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (15-6, 2.58 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (10-12, 3.46 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-2, 2.28 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (8-12, 5.04 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (11-9, 3.16 ERA) vs. Jesus Elmore (12-6, 4.30 ERA)

How Jesus Elmore has a .667 winning percentage, while the arguably better Ron Carter lost 20 games is a mystery to me.

We will skip Boda on the off day, and have Cruz, Brown, and Watanabe in the final series in Elktown, that last game with New York aside, which falls to Baldwin.

Game 1
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Britton – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – 3B Higashi – SS J. Amador – P Conner
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 3B Sharp – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Correa – 1B Myers – C De La Parra – P Brown

Nick Brown visibly pitched with anger, striking out six in the first four innings while nursing a slowly blossoming no-hit bid that was trampled with Takahashi Higashi in the fifth inning with a 2-out single. By then the Raccoons hadn’t really done much, scoring an unearned run in the bottom 3rd. Castro had singled, stolen the next sack and gone to third on Suda’s airmailed throw to centerfield, and scored on Daniel Sharp’s single. The Titans would get two more 2-out singles against Brown in the sixth and seventh innings, but that was a bit of a late start against one of the top 10 pitchers in the league, and definitely too late. Brown went eight, but got over 100 pitches in the process and probably wasn’t going for a shutout unless there was an outburst in the bottom of the inning with Howell leading off. Rob flew out to center, but Sharp dinked a single to the shallow regions of the same area, bringing up Alston, who cracked his 35th bomb of the season to right field, 3-0. This shall qualify as an outburst for our purposes, and the Titans’ ninth also started with their #2 batter. Britton bounced out to Howell before Suda whiffed, but Tony Ramos singled to center. Okay, Brownie was at 111 pitches, and nothing can happen with Tokimune Hayashi batting, while Angel was ready to come in. Hayashi got the tiniest bit of a low 1-2 pitch and bounced it to Howell, no problem, game over. 3-0 Brownies! Castro 2-4; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Alston 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (16-6);

While the Coons won a 4-hitter, the Loggers stunned the Crusaders with a 5-hitter tossed by Ramón Huertas (9-12, 4.66 ERA), beating them 4-0, and the Coons moved to 1 1/2 games out. Ah, the baseball gods! They’re teasing!

This was Nick Brown’s sixth complete game and third shutout of the season, both career highs. He has 18 CG and 9 SHO in total. The 16 wins are a second-best for his career. He went 20-7 for a 2004 team that was appreciably much worse than the 2009 edition. If he retires a man in the seventh inning on Saturday, he will also come up with a career high in innings pitched.

Game 2
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF J. Gusmán – C Suda – LF G. Rios – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Higashi – RF Britton – SS M. Austin – P Patrick
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C McNeela – P Watanabe

Brian Patrick entered the game with 112 BB and 116 K in 177 innings, so this game could go either way, with the Critters striking out 16 times, or him walking six in an inning. While both teams got a run early without any walks being a factor, Patrick melted down in time. While the Coons seemed to threaten after a Pruitt double in the bottom 3rd, it was a 2-out walk to Quebell that brought up Sharp, who singled in the go-ahead run. Patrick then walked Nomura and McNeela, who had manufactured the Coons’ first run, and a grounder up the middle by Kenichi Watanabe eluded Mark Austin and became a 2-run single for a 5-1 lead. While Patrick would walk six in four innings and be hit for in the bottom of the fourth already, Watanabe somehow managed to get six consecutive outs on grounders to Yoshi Nomura in the fourth and fifth innings, with one Mark Austin single past the reach of Howell in the string.

While Watanabe would be knocked out by a 2-out RBI triple off Austin’s bat in the seventh, the Raccoons were silenced by lefty reliever Matt Collins, who took over for Patrick and whiffed four in two innings, and overall didn’t get back onto their four paws until the eighth inning. With Angel warming up for a 3-run save, the Raccoons put Jose Correa on with a 1-out single. Ex-Furball Manuel Martinez came in for the Titans, walked Castro, threw a wild pitch, and balked to push in another run. With that, Luis Beltran, who had pitched the eighth, remained in the game with the first two batters in the ninth, Rios and Ramos, being left-handers, and when those two didn’t get on remained in the game to retire Higashi on a grounder to Sharp. 6-2 Coons. Nomura 1-2, BB, 2B; McNeela 2-2, BB, 2 RBI; Correa (PH) 1-1; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (2-2) and 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Beltran 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

This is of course Luis Beltran’s first career save.

In episode two of “These Teasing Baseball Gods”, the Crusaders blow a 2-0 lead after seven against the Loggers, who get XBH from Alonso Baca, Bartolo Hernandez, and Tim Austin in the eighth inning to plate three runs and eventually win 4-2. The Coons are now half a game back and face a former farmhand of theirs in game 3.

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Britton – C Suda – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – 3B Higashi – 1B G. Rios – SS E. Salazar – P Elmore
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Schipper – 2B Nomura – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

After scoring in the third in game 1 and the second in game 2, the Critters took the lead in the first inning in game 3 when Rob Howell tripled and scored on Alston’s sac fly. It didn’t last, though. Gerardo Rios whacked a 3-run homer off Baldwin in the top 2nd, and the Titans kept getting on base. Edgar Salazar singled, and when Elmore bunted, that was the first out in the top 2nd. Salazar scored on Jesus Ramirez’ single, and the Coons sat in a 4-1 hole and hadn’t recently shown the means to crawl out of something like that. Their first opportunity came soon. Howell walked in the bottom 3rd, Alston singled, and with two outs Elmore missed mightily and walked Sharp on four pitches to load the bases for Pete Schipper, who grounded out to short.

Baldwin – our chosen one for the Monday game against the Crusaders… - didn’t log an out in the fifth inning. Tokimune Hayashi doubled, then he walked Javier Gusmán, and then he walked into the dugout with Law Rockburn being called on. The Titans set fire to Raw’s locks with a double by Gerardo Rios and took an irreversible 6-1 lead. Or was it? Bottom 6th, Elmore walked Quebell and Sharp to start the inning. Schipper lined to center where Gusmán had to play it on a bounce, while Quebell was held at third base. Bases loaded with nobody out, Yoshi popped out before Matt Pruitt batted in the #8 slot. Elmore’s sixth walk pushed in a run and brought up Ralph Myers as the tying run, batting for Rockburn. He drubbed the first pitch to right, but Hayashi made the catch. Sharp scored, 6-3. Castro reloaded the sacks with a single for Howell, and then “Quasimodo” Suda donked on a low pitch and had it bounce away. Passed ball, 6-4, but Howell grounded out to strand the tying runs in scoring position before Ron Alston could get a shot.

But Elmore wasn’t going anywhere and had no issues with the Coons’ middle of the order in the seventh. On the other side of the line score, Huerta allowed a leadoff single to Rios and walked Salazar in the top 8th. Donald Sims replaced him, got a double play grounder from PH Tony Ramos and a groundout from Jesus Ramirez and the score didn’t blow up completely. The bottom 8th and top 9th were uneventful. Questionable closer Charlie Deacon would try to defend a 2-run lead starting with Rob Howell in the box. Howell K’ed, Alston grounded out. Quebell kept the team alive with a soft line, bringing up Sharp as the tying run, but his summer power surge had long dried up, yet he singled to keep the line moving. Correa batted for Schipper, flew out, and the game was over. 6-4 Titans. Quebell 2-4, BB, 2B; Sharp 2-3, 2 BB, 2B;

The funny part of the story is that the Loggers stripped down Pancho Trevino for all the runs in a 5-3 win over the Crusaders and the Raccoons thus missed their chance to take over the lead in the division. The Crusaders avoided a sweep on Thursday with a 10-1 rout of Fernando Cruz and everybody else with a black-and-green cap, leaving the Coons down one game with four to play, including one against another. But the other three take place in the City of Smells…

Raccoons (96-62) @ Canadiens (84-75) – October 2-4, 2009

The Raccoons had won the season series against the Elks only once in the last five years, and then also won only 10 games. This year we stood at 8-7 over them, which was better than the opposite, but in this cursed city, things can reverse itself quickly… We need to survive a third-place offense and seventh-place pitching.

While the Raccoons are one game back, they control their own destiny. They simply need to win five games from here … while playing as many. This includes a game 163 of course.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (13-11, 3.20 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (17-8, 3.02 ERA)
Nick Brown (16-6, 2.47 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (18-9, 2.93 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 2.37 ERA) vs. David Peterson (12-18, 4.83 ERA)

All right-handers. They have their highly annoying leadoff batter Ross Holland on the DL, but nobody else. They might bat their highly annoying rookie Clint Southcott leadoff, with seven highly annoying batters behind him. The Crusaders are playing at home against Indy, but will not have to face Curtis Tobitt in the series. They WILL face Ramón Escobedo (5.04 ERA), though…

In the South, the Knights hold a 3-game advantage entering the final weekend (that isn’t quite the final weekend, you know…).

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C McNeela – P Cruz
VAN: LF Southcott – CF E. Garcia – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Rodgers – P Fujita

For the fourth time in the week, the Coons struck first, and it was a big strike, as a terrible clang off the bat of Yoshi Nomura right away signaled a 2-run homer in the top 2nd. Nomura then also stood out on defense, turning a critical double play with two on to end the bottom of the same inning. Gary Rice had rolled out to him. Ron Alston plated Howell in the top 3rd, his 98th RBI, 3-0, and Castro doubled in Yoshi with two outs in the fourth to tack on another run.

Those watching the scoreboard had already witnessed the outcome of Friday’s game in New York. Whit Reeves had gotten mildly raked, and the Indians had won 5-2. We were playing for a tied division right now, and we were up by four in the fourth, in which Cruz struck out two and didn’t allow the Elks to come closer. Things got a bit dicier by the sixth. What had worked in the fourth, with Cruz bunting Yoshi to second base with one out, didn’t work and Fujita turned a double play on a favorable bounce. In the bottom of the inning, Cruz allowed a leadoff single to Southcott, who stole second and was on third with two out when Josh Thomas grounded up the middle. Nomura made a play and made a desperate, unaimed throw – and Thomas was out! (with a good stretch by Quebell)

Castro stole a base in the top 7th and eventually scored on a 2-out single by Quebell, which also knocked out Juichi Fujita, but Cruz was out of juice in the bottom 7th, too. Ortiz singled, Rice doubled, one out, he gone. Luis Beltran faced the lefty Ken Rodgers, and whiffed him. Right-hander Jerry Dobson batted for reliever Cris Pena, which prompted an appearance from Huerta and a 2-run single. Southcott also singled, and suddenly everything was beginning to spin. Donald Sims entered the game just in time to get a groundout to short from Enrique Garcia to keep the Elks three away. Top 8th, Nomura, McNeela, and Martinez all singled with nobody out against Jose Escobar. Tomas Castro was about to line out to Josh Thomas, but Thomas lost the ball and it glanced off his glove for a run-scoring error. A wild pitch, a sac fly, and a Pruitt single later, four runs were on the board and this one seemed to be tucked away. And yet it would take two and a half more hours to finish the game. Not because the Raccoons imploded, but for TWO rain delays of about an hour each, one in the eighth, and one with two outs in the bottom 9th. Ted Reese would have finished the game without the delay, but Derrek Fredlund replaced him after the rain subsided and struck out Southcott to force the division into a tie. 9-2 Furballs!! Alston 2-5, RBI; Quebell 3-4, BB, RBI; Nomura 4-5, HR, 2 RBI;

So, who’s chewing his nails now?

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C McNeela – P Brown
VAN: 2B Dobson – CF E. Garcia – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – LF D. Morris – 1B Harmon – RF Southcott – SS Rice – P R. Taylor

It was 100 RBI’s for Ron Alston in the first inning, plating both Castro and Pruitt on a ground-rule double as the Furballs scored first for the fifth time this week. Taylor, who came in with 282 strikeouts, also walked Quebell, but whiffed Sharp and got Nomura to pop out to end the inning. Brownie struck out the side in the first, while in New York the Crusaders sealed a 5-3 win over the Indians. We had to win this one to stay tied. And the team was on a frickin’ damn good way: Tomas Castro homered in the second inning, collecting Tom McNeela for a 4-0 lead!!

But the Elks got a good grip on Brownie soon. They had runners on the corners in the second inning where Pruitt’s good grab in deep left center prevented Gary Rice from getting a swing at Brown’s ego, but in the third they even loaded the bases with 26 home runs worth of Dan Morris coming to the plate with two outs. He was a lefty, though, grounded a 1-1 pitch hard up the middle, but there was Yoshi again and made the play to force Mitsuhide Suzuki! Phew!! While Fujita settled into his kill zone and began to strike out the Coons in flocks, Brown continued to shake and faced Morris again with two out and two on in the bottom 5th. This time the slugger struck out and the 4-0 lead lived through five. This was hard work and a shutout was not going to come forth from this, as Brownie was on exactly 100 pitches after only six innings (but had whiffed eight after all, somehow). He did pitch a clean seventh and ended that with a strikeout to Enrique Garcia, but the rest would have to come from the pen today. But Fujita was also gone after seven, so that was that.

The Coons didn’t get to reliever Avtandil Tarakhanov in the eighth, and Marcos Bruno, who hadn’t pitched this week, took over a 4-0 lead with the #3 slot up to start the bottom 8th. He struck out Ortíz, but Suzuki sent a ball to deep right – but Alston made the catch at the wall. Morris grounded out, and the ninth was handed to Fredlund, with Angel Casas once more waiting in the wings, but wasn’t needed again. Henry Harmon struck out against Fredlund, and despite a drive to deep center by Gary Rice, nobody got on. Trevino caught Rice’s attempt to end the game. 4-0 Brownies!!! Castro 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, W (17-6);

Nick Brown put up a new career high in innings pitched (does anyone care?), and *matched* the franchise record for strikeouts that he put up two years ago with 243 K. He has 1,841 at the end of the regular season. He’s the only pitcher to finish in the top 3 in all three pitching triple crown categories in either league.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C McNeela – P Watanabe
VAN: LF Southcott – CF E. Garcia – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Dobson – P D. Peterson

And to make it a week straight with the Furballs scoring before the opposition could, Rob Howell homered in the first. In less splendid news, Gabriel Ortíz had caught Tomas Castro stealing on the previous pitch. Things weren’t looking like they were going to go well overall. Watanabe walked two in the first inning, but wiggled out of that somehow. In the bottom 2nd Ortíz reached on a Howell throwing error and Watanabe plunked Rice. Again, the Elks bowed out early with Dobson and Peterson grounding to Howell for a total of three outs. Yet every relief was temporary. Southcott walked to start the third, and then Quebell made a bad throwing error on Garcia’s grounder. That put the go-ahead runs in scoring position and there were no outs against a floating Watanabe, who got yanked in the same inning after Dan Morris came through with a 2-run double, scored on a Josh Thomas single, and even though McNeela emptied the bags when he caught Suzuki stealing for the second out, Ortíz singled again. Ted Reese replaced Watanabe and finally got out of the horrendous inning, after which the Coons trailed 3-1. By the way, the scoreboard showed that the Crusaders won over Indy, 5-3.

But everything was going to hell now. The Coons stranded the tying runs when Sharp grounded out to Rice in the top 4th, and in the bottom of the inning the bases were loaded with no outs after a Castro error and two singles, and with Dan Morris at the plate. And then, Reese had the testicles to actually balk in a run. Morris singled, 5-1, and this one was way out of hand now. Cássio Boda replaced Reese and he was going to pitch until his arm would separate itself from his body. We would have to win two games against the Crusaders and we would need all our relievers then.

Boda balked and walked a guy before there would be even one out on the board. Suzuki grounded into a double play, Boda walked Ortíz, but Gary Rice grounded out in a full count. That’s a 6-1 deficit, three errors, two balks, and I don’t know what else. The 5-run deficit didn’t change meaningfully through seven. The Coons got a run, then the Elks pulled it back, 7-2. The top 8th saw Castro and Howell hit two singles to get started. If there was a chance to somehow flip this one, this was it. Three swatting lefties up, when would the Elks pull Peterson? Turned out, never. Pruitt hit into a 6-4-3 and Alston floated a gentle pop to Rice as well. The Elks saw a shiny thing in the Coons’ paws, and felt the urge to destroy it. 7-3 Canadiens. Castro 3-4, RBI; Howell 3-4, HR, RBI; Quebell 2-4; Black (PH) 1-1, RBI; Boda 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

Raccoons (98-63) vs. Crusaders (99-62) – October 5, 2009

Overtime game, though it isn’t actually. It’s Monday. We need to get to Tuesday really bad. I don’t even know whom we’re gonna pitch on Tuesday. Looks like Javier Cruz on three days’ rest, which isn’t a real thriller. We are 8-9 against them on the season, and Colin Baldwin (11-10, 3.38 ERA) hasn’t been good all of September. We face right-hander Pancho Trevino (20-10, 3.28 ERA).

NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 1B Batlle – 3B Reece – C D. Anderson – P P. Trevino
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C McNeela – P Baldwin

The game started with a Colin Baldwin error on Pena’s grounder, sending Pena to second base right away. Then he threw a wild pitch. While I was mighty close to fainting and crashing into the trophy case once more, Baldwin struck out Julio Hernandez and Stanton Martin before Ortíz grounded out on a nifty play by Yoshi. Before the Crusader’s lineup would be through once, they had already made three hard outs to centerfield as well, so we were probably in for a beating and the point to remove Baldwin had to be selected with utmost care.

Top 3rd, one out, Pancho Trevino singled. Pena floated a ball to right that Ron Alston completely butchered and had fall in for the fifth error in two days. By that point, the best time to yank Baldwin had already passed. He struck out Hernandez before the Martins and Caraballo all had run-scoring hits. Beltran replaced the disgraced Baldwin, walked Paco Batlle, but Sonny Reece grounded out. Down by three and hitless, the Raccoons looked beaten already.

And they probably were. Ricardo Huerta pitched three innings (while Trevino had two hits off him and remained unretired in the game…), while the Raccoons amounted to three singles, and never more than one in an inning through the middle of the sixth. Sharp had hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but Nomura had hit into a double play. Ricardo Martinez batted for Huerta to start the bottom 6th and reached on an infield single. Castro struck out, Howell flew out, Pruitt struck out. Bottom 7th, the third one with a leadoff single in a row, as Alston ticketed one to center, and finally some movement. Quebell hit a 3-2 pitch to right, Stanton Martin didn’t get it, it was a double, and the tying run was at the plate in Danny Sharp, who struck out gracefully. Trevino didn’t get Yoshi fooled however, and walked him. That pulled Tom McNeela into the at-bat that would make or break the season. It was a terrible spot for a green rookie to hit. The only alternative was probably Ralph Myers, although with Trevino in the game, I was saving him to hit for Rockburn in the #9 hole. There was absolutely no trust in guys like De La Panic and Jose Diarrhea. Tom McNeela batting with three on and one out in a 3-0 deficit in the seventh inning against the winningest pitcher in the Continental League was a most unfortunate spot to be in. Maybe less ****ty defense the last two days would have improved our situation here. It was too late to clamor over a toppled trash can, however. McNeela batted, and flew out to Martin. Alston scored. Ralph Myers batted for Law Rockburn, singled to right on a 1-1, Quebell turned third and was safe, 3-2. Castro was prone to strike out, and Trevino had 219 of those on his belt, including seven in this game. But there was this no-trust thing with regards to the bench (and if you were looking for a big swat, Count Hack had already gotten a turn in the third inning, indicating how far up on the bench chart he was). Castro batted, fell to one strike, two strikes, of course, then send a grounder to the right side of the second base bag, and past Caraballo! Yoshi in full flight, turning third, there was no throw from Roberto Pena, and we were tied up at three!!!

Rob Howell grounded out, but at least we were no longer facing instant elimination. In a double switch, Trevino went into the #9 hole and centerfield, with Marcos Bruno going into the #1 slot, Castro was out. Caraballo sent a drive to left to start the eighth, which was caught by Pruitt, and Bruno sat down the Crusaders 1-2-3, but the same result was won by Trevino off our middle of the order in the bottom of the inning. The top 9th brought trouble. Matt MacKey and Roberto Pena were on base with two outs and Stanton Martin batting. Bruno was still in, and was going to face him, with Sims ready to go after that against the lefty Ortíz. 2-2 pitch to Stanton Martin – struck him out!!

Iemitsu Rin pitched in the bottom of the inning. Ron Alston had won a game ten days earlier with a homer off him, but Ron Alston wasn’t going to bat until the 10th inning. We didn’t want no tenth inning, but Rin retired Sharp on a grounder and struck out Yoshi and Schipper. Extra innings. My paws were sweaty as all hell.

And here came Angel. He didn’t get a strike past Martin Ortíz or Francisco Caraballo, but got a grounder to first and a pop to short from them. Paco Batlle struck out. Bottom 10th, more Rin, nobody on. Top 11th, Sonny Reece reached on one of those impossible bloops for a leadoff single, but Jose Flores hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Zak Davidson struck out. The Crusaders moved to Scott Hood for the bottom of the 11th, a right-hander against Pruitt, Alston, Quebell. Come on, guys, one lefty to win it all – at least for today! Pruitt led off with a single, and you DON’T bunt with Ron Alston. There are more elegant ways to win! Or maybe he would hit into a two-piece himself.

Top 12th, Angel had removed Pena and Jorge Ortega when he drilled Stanton Martin. That was so not good. Martin stole second base off De La Panic, and scored on the other Martin’s single. And we had the bottom of the order up in the bottom of the inning, with Hood still pitching. Sharp grounded out. Nomura grounded out. Angel’s spot was next. Correa singled for him. That brought up Santiago Trevino, and there was probably nothing gained by sending Keith Ayers instead. Well, Ayers wasn’t batting .192 at least. We’ll find *someone* to play center if this goes on, I guess. When Ayers singled up the middle, Correa had to hold at second base. There was De La Panic, but the last bat on the bench was Ximenes Lopes, and that wasn’t going to work. Hood put two strikes on him before DLP lobbed a ball to left center AND ORTÍZ WASN’T GETTING IT!!! Correa scored, Ayers was sent around third base, relay throw from Ortega, and Ayers was ……. OUT!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Once the dust had settled, we tried to do the best possible. Keith Ayers went to centerfield, and we tried to pry the 13th inning from the bottom of the Crusaders’ order with Fredlund, which resulted in three quick outs. Scott Hood would face Howell and after that the meat of the lineup in the bottom 13th. Alston walked with two outs, Quebell singled. A 1-5 Sharp came up with the pitcher behind him and grounded out. When Fredlund issued a 1-out walk to Pena in the top 14th, Sims replaced him. That meant that Sims would bat to lead off the bottom of the inning, because … Ximenes Lopes. Pena stole his 42nd bag as Ortega struck out. With first base open, and any run scoring potentially fatal anyways, Stanton Martin was walked intentionally so Sims could pitch to the lefty Ortíz with two outs. Ortíz singled, Pena scored, and Robbie Wills decimated the side to end our season. 5-4 Crusaders. De La Parra 1-2, 2B, RBI; McNeela 1-2, RBI; Correa (PH) 1-2; Martinez (PH) 1-1; Myers (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-2; Huerta 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Bruno 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 28 – SAL SP Max Shepherd (12-11, 3.39 ERA) needs to have bone chips removed from his elbow, but should be ready for Opening Day in 2010.
September 29 – SFW SP Ken Harris (13-14, 3.76 ERA) has to seek repair for a partially torn labrum and won’t be able to throw again until December.
September 30 – The Cyclones lock up the FL East with a 2-1 win over the Buffaloes. They make the playoffs for the seventh time, and the fourth consecutive year. They were the 1977 champions.
September 30 – In the daily draw for starting pitchers getting hurt just before the end of the season, RIC Bartolo Ortíz (10-15, 4.64 ERA) gets shut down with shoulder inflammation. He might also be ready for Opening Day.
October 1 – It goes on: OCT SP Daniel Dickerson (12-10, 3.25 ERA) will have to rehab a tender elbow over the winter.
October 2 – The magical 82-78 Knights lock up the CL South with a 12-inning, 5-4 win over their last remaining competitors, the Falcons.
October 2 – It ain’t a pitcher! DAL CF/LF César Morán (.295, 13 HR, 72 RBI) is out with a torn meniscus requiring six weeks to heal. This is the Knights’ fifth playoff appearance and the first since 1989! They finished last in the South six times in the interim and posted only TWO winning seasons.
October 3 – DAL 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.345, 22 HR, 116 RBI) livens up late-season drudgery in Dallas with a 20-game hitting streak, accomplished with a 2-for-3 day in a 7-1 loss to the Gold Sox.

Complaints and stuff

What could there possibly be left to complain about. My pains are over for the year.

MarkCuban · 02-21-2016, 08:19 AM

This had to be the most painful end to a season I've seen in this dynasty.

The team battled back, made it PAST the final day, and lost in a 14-inning heartbreaker to a Crusaders team they lacked the resources to compete with.

...And so the Nick "Brownie" Brown era went out with a whimper, not a bang. I have to think this is the time to rebuild, to start on that long process again... soon enough, the Crusaders will cool off, and the division will stabilize....

Quote:

Consequently, "Losing Teams" are my favorite to read about -- I love watching the GM execute a three-to-four year plan flawlessly flexing his "baseball smarts" to outwit his peers and grab high-end prospects. It's absolutely dreamy.

And three or four years from now, nine plucky lovable underdogs will take the field in the CL Championship series, with revenge on the mind... and gold in their hearts.

Westheim · 02-22-2016, 05:28 AM

2009 ABL PLAYOFFS

After identical playoff fields in 2007 and 2008, only two of the teams that made the postseason back then also return in 2009, the Crusaders and Cyclones. The Knights and Pacifics replace the Falcons and Stars, respectively, after finishing in the second division in 2008 (and regularly for the last 20 years). The Continental League has won the World Series nine out of the last 11 years. Overall, the leagues are even (after the Federal League’s dominance in the 1980s) at 16-16.

The 100-62 Crusaders are three-time total, and twice-defending World Series champions and are going to face the 82-80 Knights, who are one of seven teams to never hoist the trophy at season’s end.

While the Crusaders had a hairy entry into the postseason, not locking up their berth in the CL North until the day after the end of the regular season, they seem to be in a good spot. They have no injuries and can bring a devastating lineup into play that scored 815 runs, clearly the most in the CL, in 2009. They do everything, batting for average, power, and also stole the most bases, with leadoff man Roberto Pena ripping 42 bags alone. The fearsome duo of Martin Ortíz (.330, 26 HR, 104 RBI) and Stanton Martin (.306, 22 HR, 95 RBI) in the middle can club its way through every pitching staff, and the lineup is dangerous all the way down to the #8 slot with Daryl Anderson still hitting 15 home runs. Their bullpen has three closers fighting for position, with Iemitsu Rin, Scott Hood, and Robbie Wills all pitching for ERA’s of 1.44 or better. If there’s ANY weakness to the team, it’s the latter half of the rotation, where 4+ ERA pitchers Elwood Spurrell and Ken Maddox are not quite maintaining a frantic pace of excellence. The team also starts 2008 POTY Greg Connor (14-16, 3.68 ERA) and the winningest pitcher in the league, Pancho Trevino (20-10, 3.29 ERA).

How exactly the Knights want to stink up to the best offense and second-best pitching staff will be interesting to see. The CL South continued to be just run over by everybody as a whole, and consequently a 82-80 team made the playoffs. The Knights would have finished fifth in the CL North… Well, they had a potent offense, their 792 runs scored ranking second to the Crusaders in this regard, but oh boy, the pitching. They allowed almost as many runs, 761, ninth in the league. The rotation is led by sophomore southpaw Dave Butler (16-6, 3.35 ERA), who was their only pitcher not frequently getting clubbed. While the Crusaders have five relievers with a 2.50 ERA or better, the Knights don’t have ANY. Their bullpen consists of failed starters, seventh inning relievers in prominent roles, and a few guys that wouldn’t be allowed to carry the bag of baseballs on the Crusaders. It speaks volumes that they have four guys with eight saves or more on the year, but not because they could pick between different shades of excellence. The door just kept revolving on them. But they do have a middle of the order that can crack some scoreboards, led by Jose Morales (.334, 33 HR, 114 RBI) and Gonzalo Munoz (.259, 26 HR, 90 RBI), who was a key part of the dominant Titans in the first half of the 2000s. But their lineup gets soft at the bottom of the order, with three of the four infield spots being held by barely average players, who aren’t even flashing the glove. They also have 2B Carlos Martinez (.258, 21 HR, 98 RBI) out for the postseason with a strained hamstring, and one of their closers du jour, Paco Leoniedas (4.59 ERA, 11 SV) on the DL with a back strain for at least the CLCS.

In the Federal League, the 1977 champions 94-68 Cyclones come off a season and are also going to face a team without championship honors, the 104-58 Pacifics. In fact, the Pacifics have never even made the World Series, being eliminated in the FLCS by the Buffaloes in ’81, the Miners in ’82, and the Capitals in ‘91. Only the Capitals went on to win the World Series.

The Pacifics and their long history of futility nevertheless enter the postseason with the best overall record, rising from the ashes of the last two decades, which where entirely a lost cause for the team. They had the best pitching staff, allowing the least runs in the Federal League at 616 markers, while scoring 857 runs, third in the league. Their rotation was little short of awesome with Brad Smith (18-4, 2.34 ERA) and Ernest Green (17-6, 2.54 ERA) both vying for POTY honors, and where did rookie Bruce Mark (9-0, 2.39 ERA) come from?? They are complemented by old warhorse Curt Powell (10-17, 4.05 ERA). The pen is top-heavy, with the sixth/seventh inning somewhat of a problem for them. They have three batters with a clip of around .300 and 18+ homers in their lineup, with Jimmy Roberts (.309, 26 HR, 93 RBI), Stanley Murphy (.287, 21 HR, 112 RBI) and Errol Spears (.326, 18 HR, 106 RBI) contributing. But there are issues for them. They have a huge list of injuries. SP J.J. Wirth (11-9, 3.18 ERA) is out with shoulder inflammation, INF Victor Flores (.290, 5 HR, 79 RBI) has a forearm strain and will miss the FLCS, and they also have their #3 and #4 outfielders, Eddie Jackson and Tom Wilson on the shelf for the entire playoffs, giving a starter’s job to 31-year old Blair Harris, who has never had more than 223 AB in any season of his career.

The Cyclones aren’t any healthier, which is bad for them since they aren’t any better in the first place. The team scored a few more runs than the Pacifics, 874 (2nd in FL), but we will get to their decimated lineup in a second. Their pitching ranked fourth, perhaps not by their own inability, but rather because of one of the worst fielding teams in the league around them. Not only that, but while the Cyclones hit for power, they stole a mere 32 bases, mostly by accident. The best ERA in the rotation is 18-11 Jack Berry’s 3.94, but everybody lingers around the four mark for them, except the old Titan Jason O’Halloran (12-12, 4.90 ERA). The bullpen is led by ace closer Ian Johnson (36 SV, 1.95 ERA), but lacks a great deal of star talent in the supporting roles, and even if they have the names, like Lawrence Bentley, Iván Lopez, and Bill Corkum, those guys are a combined 114 years old and posted sub-par seasons (in fact, Bentley and Lopez are the two active players with the most ABL service time accumulated). And yeah, their DL. With C Felix Hernandez (.255, 5 HR, 50 in an injury-riddled season), 1B Will Bailey (.389, 27 HR, 108 RBI), INF Bob Hall (.292, 4 HR, 52 RBI), CF Jose Silva (.334, 6 HR, 43 RBI), and utility man Alfredo Banda all out for the playoffs (except for Hall, who might return in a World Series for them), their lineup has been severely reduced. They have Ray Gilbert (304, 21 HR, 79 RBI), but are trying to get juice from a pair of 36-year olds, Georg Spinu (.335, 8 HR, 59 RBI) and César Gonzalez (.290, 22 HR, 102 RBI). Around them, the land is mostly barren.

Predictions: Crusaders in five at most, Pacifics in six.

***

2009 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Cyclones @ Pacifics … 9-1 … (CIN lead 1-0) … CIN Georg Spinu 3-4, BB, 2B; CIN Cesar Gonzalez 4-4, BB, 2B, RBI; CIN Artie Barnes 3-4; CIN Nathan O’Herlihy 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W and 2-4, 2 RBI; LAP Errol Spears 2-3, HR, RBI;

Cyclones @ Pacifics … 7-2 … (CIN lead 2-0) … CIN Simon Morbidelli 3-6, HR, RBI; CIN Pedro Estrada 3-4, RBI; CIN Jack Berry 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W; the Cyclones lose Cesar Gonzalez to a back injury
Knights @ Crusaders … 13-4 … (ATL lead 1-0) … ATL Jorge Garcia 3-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI; ATL Carlos Delgado 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; NYC Francesco Caraballo 3-4, 2 2B;

Knights @ Crusaders … 2-6 … (series tied 1-1) … ATL Jose Morales 2-4, 3B; NYC Martin Ortíz 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; NYC Stanton Martin 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; NYC Elwood Spurrell 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W;

Pacifics @ Cyclones … 5-6 (11) … (CIN lead 3-0) … CIN Pedro Estrada 3-6, RBI; CIN Max Nixon 4-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; CIN Iván Lopez 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K; the Pacifics score all their runs in the third inning before Cincy with the aid of 39-year old Iván Lopez on the mound rallies back

Pacifics @ Cyclones … 5-6 … (CIN wins 4-0) … LAP Jens Carroll 3-5, RBI; LAP Stanley Murphy 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; CIN Pedro Estrada 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; CIN Roy Newman 3-4, RBI; Estrada’s slam off Bruce Mark caps a 6-run rally in the bottom 7th and wins the Cyclones their ticket into the World Series; Roy Newman, 27, was an 11th-rounder in ’02 and has never started a regular season game in the majors!
Crusaders @ Knights … 2-11 … (ATL lead 2-1) …

Crusaders @ Knights … 14-5 … (series tied 2-2) … NYC Roberto Pena 4-4, 2 BB, 2B, 3 RBI; NYC Julio Hernandez 4-6, RBI; NYC Stanton Martin 3-5, 3 2B, RBI; ATL Gonzalo Munoz 3-5, RBI; ATL Kevin Bond 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI; that is some gruesome pitching in this series!

Crusaders @ Knights … 5-8 … (ATL lead 3-2) … NYC Stanton Martin 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; NYC Francisco Caraballo 4-5, 2B; ATL John Kelsey 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; ATL Julio Garcia 3-5; ATL Gonzalo Munoz 3-5; ATL Kenneth Younger (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Crusaders blow a 5-2 lead in the sixth

Knights @ Crusaders … 1-7 … (series tied 3-3) … NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-4; NYC Elwood Spurrell 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 1 K, W; Spurrell’s outing is still the best pitched game of the series …

Knights @ Crusaders … 8-10 … (NYC win 4-3) … ATL Jose Morales 4-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; ATL Gonzalo Munoz 3-5, 3 2B, 2 RBI; NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; NYC Sonny Reece 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; ATL blows leads of 5-0 and 7-3 and gets turned inside out in a 6-run bottom 7th; Sonny Reece has a the game-winning hit once more

***

2009 WORLD SERIES

Ya gotta love those Cyclones!! But boy, is it gonna be tough for them. They looked outmatched before the FLCS, which they swept, but how are they going to fare against the Crusaders? Losing César Gonzalez to injury in the FLCS isn’t going to aid their efforts, since their lineup is now almost completely bereft of sluggers outside of Ray Gilbert and his 21 home runs, who didn’t do a whole lot in the FLCS. The Crusaders remain injury-free, and their lineup might have more feast days against the Cyclones beleaguered pitching staff.

These teams have never faced another in the World Series, mainly because the Cyclones didn’t get back there after their 1977 triumph over the Bayhawks. Yes, it has been 32 years.

Predictions aren’t my thing exactly here, but I’m going to have to assume that the Crusaders will complete their 3-peat in six games at most.

***

Cyclones @ Crusaders … 3-4 (12) … (NYC lead 1-0) … NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-5, 2B, RBI; NYC Melvin Dunn (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI (walkoff hit); NYC Robbie Wills 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W; Hood/Rin/Wills pitch five hitless innings after Greg Connor departs

Cyclones @ Crusaders … 4-5 (12) … (NYC lead 2-0) … NYC Stanton Martin 3-6, HR, 2B, RBI; NYC Robbie Wills 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W and 1-1, RBI (walkoff hit); Wills’ double to Jose Silva is the only hit allowed by the closing trifecta in four innings, and, oh, yeah, he singles in Stanton Martin to win the game for himself, too

Crusaders @ Cyclones … 1-4 … (NYC lead 2-1) … NYC Julio Hernandez 2-4; CIN Juan Garcia 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W and 1-3, RBI;

Crusaders @ Cyclones … 3-1 … (NYC lead 3-1) … NYC Ken Maddox 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W and 3-3, 2 RBI;

Crusaders @ Cyclones … 8-1 … (NYC win 4-1) … NYC Martin Ortíz 3-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; NYC Paco Battle 1-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; NYC Greg Connor 9.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W;

So, yeah, the Cyclones didn’t have an extra base hit after game 2, became the fourth team after the 1995 Thunder, 1996 Raccoons, and 2008 Stars to sweep their LCS to lose the World Series, the Crusaders’ pitching staff is a Swiss Army knife, and their bullpen should be forbidden outright, but this doesn’t change the following, and that I’m bleeding inside, and that they tie the Titans with most championships now:

2009 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
New York Crusaders
(4th title)

Westheim · 02-23-2016, 03:12 PM

The offseason started with Whitebread packing his laptop and … no, he didn’t have anything else. I had refused to extend his contract, and I got daily hate mail from the Prick in Mexico announcing that bitter consequences were inevitably going to follow soon. I hope that means he sends me a death squad because Keith Ayers was out at home and I just can’t anymore…….. (head sinks into the crossed arms on the table, but keeps mumbling)

There were a few more things. Despite being a dork with no knowledge about life in general and baseball in particular (by the way, Jimmy Oatmeal had appeared in 21 games for the Condors’ AA team in Nogales late in the year, batting .187), even the Prick had to acknowledge that it hadn’t all been crap ‘round here in ’09, and had to grant a reluctant budget increase to $22.8M (17th in ABL), up from $21.4M in 2009 (18th). Which is great. Now we can add that extra third closer that we could have used in the 14th inning in … (head sinks into the crossed arms on the table, but keeps mumbling)

The league average in budget is $24.7M, the median $24.1M. All but seven teams are concentrated in the area between $20.2M and $27.4M. The Aces, Rebels, and Loggers are significantly poorer than that, while the Crusaders, Cyclones, Titans, and Stars are markedly better off financially. The extremes are both concentrated in the CL North, with the Loggers at a paltry $16M, and the Crusaders whopping a $37M budget. Gee.

No help from the depths of hell, and my own rampant depression aside, there was a technicality of Luke Black’s 2010 $1M vesting option finally being stricken from the books. As the 2010 offseason begins, the Raccoons actually have *some* money to go shopping, but really not a whole lot. We can by no means go all-out crazy and add that extra third closer that … (head sinks into the crossed arms on the table, but keeps mumbling)

Let’s talk roster, where there’s a few interesting developments we need to talk about, with 13 total players involved in the salary arbitration process, and not every case is easy.

Players eligible for salary arbitration (with 2009 numbers, service time, 2009 salary, and 2010 estimate)

SP Kenichi Watanabe, 33 (2-3, 2.73 ERA in 33 IP) – 3.026 - $230k - $260k
CL Angel Casas, 27 (2-3, 1.58 ERA, 46 SV) – 5.059 - $520k - $690k
1B Adrian Quebell, 27 (.294/.372/.456, 19 HR, 92 RBI) – 4.027 - $550k - $715k
INF Manuel Gutierrez, 29 (.217/.257/.275, 1 HR, 9 RBI) – 3.069 – minimum - $230k
2B Ieyoshi Nomura, 25 (.280/.364/.376, 3 HR, 32 RBI) – 5.044 - $280k - $420k
SS/1B Rob Howell, 24 (.266/.348/.384, 8 HR, 39 RBI) – 3.101 – minimum - $360k
LF/1B Matt Pruitt, 26 (.288/.356/.439, 8 HR, 44 RBI) – 2.167 – minimum - $360k
CF/LF Santiago Trevino, 27 (.192/.234/.233, 0 HR, 10 RBI) – 3.062 – minimum - $230k

There’s a few good guys on there we definitely want to keep, but before we get into the thick of things, here’s those free agents we have on the roster still:

OF Luke Black, 36 (.230/.307/.391, 10 HR, 34 RBI) - $1M – type A free agent
SP Javier Cruz, 36 (14-11, 3.19 ERA, 160 K) - $800k – type B free agent
3B/1B Daniel Sharp, 32 (.281/.366/.386, 7 HR, 50 RBI) - $232k – type B free agent
MR Marcos Bruno, 33 (5-4, 2.26 ERA, 8 SV) - $830k – no compensation
MR Ricardo Huerta, 35 (1-2, 2.84 ERA) - $710k – no compensation

… which is where the bad news start.

Well, first there’s good news. For example, there’s good news for Matt Pruitt, who with Luke Black’s death of old age wins a starting spot for 2010 by default. Granted, our outfield of Pruitt, Castro, and Alston might be the worst defensive starting trio in the entire universe, but they sure are a potent offensive group. Except that it isn’t that easy at all. Luke Black is a type A free agent. That’s two free draft picks, but only if he doesn’t pick us up in arbitration, and crazy how these arbitrators are, they might award him even more than a million.

I have no issues offering arbitration to Cruz and Sharp (and we will come back to them later), and I really would have hoped for Marcos Bruno to be eligible for compensation, but the type A tag on Luke Black stinks. Even if he doesn’t take us to arbitration, he still needs to get signed, and with his 2009 campaign that could happen very late in the offseason or perhaps not at all. We might possibly receive a fourth round pick if bad comes to worse. This is one heck of a predicament!

Taking the risk and have Black stuck on you with a $1.5M deal is essentially horrible since we already have a few really bad contracts on the team that I would want to divest us of. Paying Antonio De La Parra another $1.67M over the next two seasons is one thing, but we’re in for $5.1M through ’12 with Jose Correa.

The goal would be to try to assemble the best possible team for 2010, which is the last year on Ron Alston’s contract. Does anybody actually expect us to be able to take part in the bidding war for him a year from now? Nah, he’ll probably join the Martins in New York. I mean, he could easily command a 7-yr, $21M deal. The Raccoons don’t hand out those kind of deals. Nick Brown got 5-yr, $11M and it almost tore the town in two. Ron Alston is merely 30 years old, and he’s two bombs away from the top 10 in career home runs, for crying out loud. He’s never been worth less than 4 WAR in a season since he was 22, excluding 2007, when he was hurting all over with back issues, an oblique, and then finally broke his wrist.

Going back to the arbitration cases, there are six obvious keeps on there, with a few where you want to avoid impending free agency right away, especially Angel and Yoshi. The six include Watanabe, especially since Cruz is likely to walk unless we can get him for another year and less than his 2009 price. The only two that are so-so cases are Trevino and Gutierrez. They are basically defensive players that can’t bat for their poor souls. But that makes especially Trevino so much more useful to this team, which has a mediocre-at-best defensive starting set of outfielders. Inserting Trevino into center late in the game, and either dropping Castro or moving him to left and dropping Pruitt, you can increase the defense of the outfield by A LOT. Gutierrez, hum. As things are, we have a pretty good defensive infield anyway, and need no designated defensive bystander, especially with Correa likely unmovable after his abysmal season and his huge contract. Well, we are well off defensively in the infield, except for third base.

And well, is third base an issue now. Okay, Ricardo Martinez raked AAA pitching all year long whenever assigned there. He kinda raked ML pitching in the first half of ’08. It’s been a struggle for him ever since. And with his glove, he really can’t afford to bat .223/.243/.383 like he did in 2009 for the Coons. Then there’s the steady but uninspired bat of Daniel Sharp. He’s a good #6 hitter, yes. He’s not a good defender, and never has been. He’s making an error at third base every 73 innings across his major league career. For Martinez, that number is 42. So, Sharp hasn’t been good at all, but Martinez is twice as bad. The Coons had a third baseman in the 80s that drove me nuts with his shredded glove, Cameron Green. For his career he made an error every 70 innings, and every 74 innings as a Critter. He was also a bit of a power hitter with a lagging average, with a career .740 OPS, with Martinez’ at .722 right now.

Ricardo Martinez is worse than Cameron Green, over whom I tore out my hair by the bushel. Why bother with him?

So keep bothering with Sharp? How does the free agent class at third base look like? If you believe in a 37-year old Sonny Reece (admittedly having a great year with a .858 OPS and still strong defense) and your wallet can pack him… There’s also Boston’s Takahashi Higashi, who’ll be 36, and has a pretty dull .250/.340/.380 bat, living on 30 doubles a year, and we all know how easy those are to hit in Portland…

Another thing needing addressing really bad is the rotation. It was the best in the CL in 2009, although there were good days and bad days. We know we have Nick Brown around until 2013 (2014 if he calls the player option), and Jong-hoo Umberger is going to be under team control until 2013 as well, although the contract he signed as international free agent ends in 2010. Colin Baldwin will make the minimum again in ’10, and we think we will debut our blue chip starting pitcher prospect Hector Santos at some point in the second half of the year, but … that’s two open spots until then. Okay, we keep Watanabe, for what it’s worth, but we found out the hard way this season that neither Cássio Boda (13-11, 4.44 ERA) nor Brendan Teasdale (0-7, 7.59 ERA) are worth anything in a major league uniform. There’s nobody even close coming behind Santos, although there is hope for Rich Hood, 22, and Kevin Denton, 21, in AA, where they will also start the 2010 season. Denton has a bad walk issue, while Hood hasn’t had any issues at all so far. Now watch him tear all ligaments in his elbow throwing a snowball to his nephew. On Christmas.

So doesn’t that kind of make it a good and wise idea to hunt down Javier Cruz’ agent?

Tons of questions, no answers, and less than $2.5M of budget room.

---

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

...And so the Nick "Brownie" Brown era went out with a whimper, not a bang. I have to think this is the time to rebuild, to start on that long process again... soon enough, the Crusaders will cool off, and the division will stabilize....

And three or four years from now, nine plucky lovable underdogs will take the field in the CL Championship series, with revenge on the mind... and gold in their hearts.

Except that the era doesn't end because he signed the extension sometime early in the season. You must have missed the people dancing in the streets in Coon City. This year is another all-in (except we're not trading Hector Santos), and once Alston is gone, it's about seeing what's left and what makes the most sense.

Realistically however, if we're out by ten in July and have three starters on the DL, then trading Alston for blue chips is a very viable option.

Not Brownie, though. He's my feelgood story. I need him.

02-06-2016, 04:25 PM	#1701
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	Raccoons (58-40) vs. Condors (40-59) – July 28-30, 2009 The last place Condors were also last in scoring runs, plating just over 3.6 runs per game. Their rotation was second-worst with a 4.50 ERA, but their bullpen was actually in the top 3 in the league, resulting in an average numbers of runs allowed. The Coons were 1-2 against them this year. Projected matchups: Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.78 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (9-9, 4.41 ERA) Cássio Boda (0-1, 10.80 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (2-7, 6.16 ERA) Nick Brown (8-5, 1.99 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (8-10, 4.20 ERA) Those are all right-handers. They currently don’t even carry a southpaw in their bullpen, which is a very strange way to compose a roster. Game 1 TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – RF Crum – 1B R. Morris – CF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – LF Ward – 2B Montray – P J. Silva POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – RF Ayers – C De La Parra – P J. Cruz Nobody in their lineup had more than ten home runs or 34 RBI. But before these lineups could outdo another in failing, Tomas Castro tweaked his back in the Coons’ first at-bat of the day and had to leave the game. After the Coons went down in the first, Manny Cruz homered off Javier Cruz. The Coons grabbed that run back in the bottom of the inning, Cruz drove in the go-ahead run again in the next inning, but the Condors left them loaded in the end. Bottom 3rd, Javier Cruz hit a leadoff single, and was soon joined on the bases by Trevino and Nomura. Ron Alston battled out a walk, which forced in the tying run again, 2-2, and still left the bags full with no outs. Martinez and Quebell struck out, and Howell popped out to shallow right. The same three fools failed again when Nomura and Alston got on to start the fifth inning, and Javier Cruz had his day end early after issuing five walks in 5.1 innings. He left in a tie with Phil Montray on second base. Huerta took over, struck out Pancho Ybarra and Foster Leach, and the threat was quelled. There wasn’t another threat for quite a while as the game turned into a competition of who could retire the side in order on less pitches. After their fifth inning fiasco the Raccoons had two singles in the next three innings, before the bottom 9th came up with Cesar Fuentes pitching. Ximenes Lopes was the last guy off the bench, hitting for Law Rockburn. He fell 0-2 behind, then rammed a pitch to right center. Quite high, higher, gone!! 3-2 Raccoons! Castro 1-1; Nomura 2-4; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Correa (PH) 1-1; Lopes (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Sims 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (5-2); Well, maybe Ximenes Lopes should get more playing time over the lifeless body of that other catcher we are paying a ton of money to. For the moment there was completely different issue: Tomas Castro was estimated to be out for at least one week with back tightness. How much deeper than to Schipper in AA will we have to reach to find a replacement? In the end, we DL’ed Castro grumblingly and added an infielder, 1B Ralph Myers (.291, 12 HR, 41 RBI in AAA). He bats left-handed, which doesn’t mesh well with Quebell, but … ah, what are you gonna do… Game 2 TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – RF Crum – 1B R. Morris – CF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – LF Roberson – 2B Montray – P Furst POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – P Boda Boda had a horrendous first inning, with a few hard hits, a wild pitch, a clobbered batsman, and somehow only one run allowed because Chris Roberson, the ex-Coon, readily struck out to end the inning with three men on base. Boda also drilled Montray at the start of the second inning, and again in the fourth inning after a Roberson double to get started. The Raccoons had gone down in order the first time through their lineup, and the Condors were close to starting their third turn through the lineup… Boda continued to be little more than a punching bag, although the Condors left plenty of men on and only led 2-0 after the top 5th. Quebell’s leadoff single was the first thing that Furst allowed in the game, and never moved past first base. It wasn’t until the bottom 7th that the Raccoons got somebody in scoring position. Alston hit a 1-out single, Quebell walked, and Martinez blasted up the first base line on a grounder to be barely safe against Ybarra’s throw. Then Trevino bounced into a double play. As far as scrubs and home runs were concerned, Pete Schipper hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th, obviously the first of his career. De La Pants followed with a single, Ralph Myers debuted with a strikeout, but Nomura drew a walk off Furst, who should probably be relieved in this dangerous situation, but remained in to face Rob Howell, who catapulted a pitch to deep left. Roberson saw that that one was gone from a mile away: 3-run homer, Coons take the lead! And that wasn’t all: Ron Alston homered as well. 5-2 Raccoons. Alston 2-4, HR, RBI; Boda 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-1); The fact that Cássio Boda lasted eight innings says more about the Condors than about him. He drilled three batters, and was completely crap. The Condors were still worse, and if baseball were a seven-inning game, even that would have been enough to beat the Coons. Maybe the Condors will consider playing their bullpen a bit earlier in game 3? And since being beaten out of New York, we have cobbled a 5-game winning streak together. Somehow. Game 3 TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – 3B D. Jones – CF Roberson – RF Ward – 2B Montray – P J. Martin POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – RF Schipper – C Lopes – P Brown Alston homered early this time, a 2-piece in the first inning for an early 2-0 lead for Brownie – what an unfamiliar situation! Brown was so befuddled that he walked Montray in the third and then hit “Midnight” Martin with a pitch, but Pancho Ybarra bounced into a double play to keep the Condors off the board. They didn’t stay off forever, though, putting leadoff man Foster Leach on with a single past Sharp in the fourth and then getting doubles from Morris and Roberson to tie the game. The Coons had already left two men in scoring position in the third, and continued to fail, while Brown lost it in more and more and more and walked in the go-ahead run for the Condors in the fifth. He labored through the sixth before Alston walked to start the Coons’ half of that inning. Quebell quickly forced him, but Sharp and Trevino reached to stack the bags with one out for Schipper, who grounded out to first to score the tying run. With an intentional walk to Ximenes Lopes, both starting pitchers left the game. Colin Sabatino replaced Martin, and Nick Brown was hit for with Ralph Myers, who popped out, leaving the score tied at three. After Rockburn pitched a scoreless inning, the Coons loaded the bases again with two outs. Alston singled, Quebell reached on an error, and Sharp worked a walk. Trevino singled up the middle to plate a pair before Schipper grounded out, 5-3 Coons now. The eight was uneventful, but the ninth got dicey, with Manny Cruz and Foster Leach both hitting singles off Angel Casas, but then they already had two outs, and while an 0-3, 3K Johnny Crum managed to avoid a golden sombrero, he grounded out to end the game and seal the sweep. 5-3 Furballs. Alston 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2 RBI; With home runs in back-to-back games, Ron Alston has passed Dan Morris again for most home runs in the ABL. Alston now has 25 to Morris’ 24. Nobody else in either league has reached 20 yet, with CIN Will Bailey third overall with 19. Raccoons (61-40) vs. Falcons (46-54) – July 31-August 2, 2009 The Falcons, against whom we were 3-3 this year, were sixth in offense and ninth in runs allowed. They weren’t really good in any category at all. Projected matchups: Colin Baldwin (8-5, 2.88 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (2-6, 6.65 ERA) Jong-hoo Umberger (8-4, 3.24 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (2-2, 2.84 ERA) Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.81 ERA) vs. Pedro Vargas (1-1, 6.35 ERA) Three right-handers again in this set, as we miss their southpaw on duty Larry Cutts (10-9, 3.90 ERA). They are deep into their non-existent depth with starting pitchers, with Steve Rogers, David Estrada, and Jerry Lane all on the DL. Game 1 CHA: 2B H. Green – CF P. Flores – LF Brulhart – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – RF J. Flores – SS Heart – 1B Reya – P T. Wilson POR: 2B Nomura – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – RF Schipper – P Baldwin Last year’s home run king Jose Lopez, who then hit 36 dingers, hit his 18th his first time up, a solo shot that started the second inning and was the first tally in the game. Baldwin was all over the place and pitched in many deep counts, but the Falcons stranded runners in scoring position rather frequently with insufficient contact abilities. Yoshi caught three pop ups alone. The Coons had one runner in scoring position in the first five innings, Pete Schipper after a third inning double, and stranded him, too. They didn’t exactly stand out with offensive prowess, but Quebell, Martinez, De La Patience, and most of the bench actually managed to take down a pretzel vendor and restlessly gorge down the goods, plus all the napkins, in the middle of an inning. So they did have some abilities after all! Things looked seriously like they might improve by the bottom 6th. Still trailing 1-0, Baldwin led off with a liner over the head of Max Heart into shallow left, and Nomura hit a bloop into right center between the Floreses, two on, no outs, let’s go! The team barely got in the tying run, though, as Martinez rolled up the first base line holding his belly with an aching expression for a groundout, and Alston’s fly to center was barely deep enough for a sac fly. Quebell also grounded out to first and jogged up the line for about three steps before making a sharp right turn and darting at a kid with a hot dog in the first row. Bottom 7th, two on again with one out. Ralph Myers hit for Schipper with Tommy Wilson still in, and the Falcons didn’t grab a left-hander. Myers came up with his first major league hit, a single up the middle, but with De La Pumpkin weighed down by bakery products, he couldn’t score from second base. Daniel Sharp hit for reliever Ted Reese, right into a double play. Guess which four players hardly moved on the groundball. Bruno and Huerta kept the Falcons down in the last innings to keep the game tied, while we faced Jeff Paul, not quite the closer type, in the bottom 9th. The right-hander faced Quebell first, got him to ground out on a 3-1 pitch, and Correa and De La Pastry went down even quicker. There wasn’t another runner for the Faticoons until the bottom 11th, when Keith Ayers singled past Heart. The good thing was that he was batting in the #2 hole and Alston was up. Ron had missed a home run by about 20 feet to end the eighth inning, maybe he could pull it a bit more now? Or maybe he would pop out to second. Quebell singled, but Correa kept being a failure through and through, and the game continued for Raw Lockburn to hit Jesus Flores in the top 12th, misfield a grounder, and concede the go-ahead run for the Falcons. All that came forward from the Raccoons in the bottom of the inning, as De La Pork, Trevino, and Ximenes Lopes made outs in order, were the unmistakable sounds of digestion. 2-1 Falcons. Myers (PH) 1-1; Huerta 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; What a way to throw away a 6-game winning streak. Of course against a pushover pitcher. Will we ever get a productive lineup!? Game 2 CHA: SS Reeve – CF P. Flores – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – RF J. Flores – 1B J. Mendoza – LF Reya – 2B H. Green – P Collazo POR: 2B Nomura – SS Correa – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – C De La Parra – 1B Myers – RF Ayers – CF Trevino – P Umberger The Falcons had runners in scoring position with one out in the first inning already, but both Jose Lopez and Jesus Flores struck out in full counts to waste the opportunity. But don’t you worry if you had a dead president or two on the Falcons in the office pool, because the Blighters had you covered. Luis Reya on second with two outs in the next inning, Umberger through the fattest pitch possible to Alfredo Collazo, and the pitcher singled into center, plenty of time for Reya to score. While Nomura and Alston reached base to start the first two innings for the home team, respectively, the usual ****s hit into double plays, and after Umberger doubled(!!) in the third inning, Nomura and the ** in the #2 hole left him on base without mercy. Hubert Green’s solo jack in the fifth brought the score to 2-0, so the Falcons winning probability went up to 105%. Bottom 5th, unbounded frustration came to a head for the home crowd. Keith Ayers hit a single to get going, then was caught stealing. Trevino bloked his way out of the box some way or other before Umberger singled(!!!). Yoshi hit a looper down the leftfield line and past Reya to move himself and Jong-hoo into scoring position with two outs. And here, in the fifth inning, Adrian Quebell hit for the completely useless Jose Correa, who had long worn out his welcome on the team, but unfortunately was owed another $5.7M through 2012. Correa was not amused, and once Quebell flew out softly to right, the home fans weren’t either. Umberger didn’t register another out. Fernando Chavez and Jose Lopez hit singles to start the sixth, and with left-handers coming in great quantity after that, Donald Sims was called from the pen and got out of the inning unharmed. Next, the Coons hit four singles off an unsuspecting Falcons team to tie the game in the bottom 6th before Sharp batted for Sims and struck out. However, Quebell was left on third base in the bottom 7th, and Ted Reese was overcome quickly for two runs in the top 8th. Bottom 8th, Howell and Ayers singled with one out. With lefty Ryan O’Quinn coming in, Schipper batted for Trevino, grounded to short, but the Falcons couldn’t turn two, but neither could the Raccoons get a hit from Ximenes Lopes in place of Reese, and that was still before Luis Beltran’s command and Rob Howell’s glove went missing in action in the top of the ninth. The Raccoons out-hit the Falcons 14-9, and still went down beaten soundly. 6-2 Falcons. Nomura 2-5, 2B; Quebell (PH) 2-3; Alston 2-4, BB; Ayers 3-4, RBI; Game 3 CHA: SS Reeve – CF P. Flores – 3B J. Lopez – RF J. Flores – LF Brulhart – C Ishikawa – 1B Heart – 2B H. Green – P P. Vargas POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – SS Howell – RF Ayers – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Cruz Oh look, a 6+ ERA pitcher, and the Raccoons go down in order their first time through the lineup. When had that ever happened! The Coons still were looking for a base runner when Pedro Vargas’ 2-out single in the top 5th plated Max Heart, who had only made it to third base on a throwing error by Ximenes Lopes. Alston looked like he had #26 hit in the bottom of the inning, but Jesus Flores had that ball caught against the wall. Jose Lopez was not denied, homering in the top 6th, 2-0. Meanwhile, six innings into the game, Vargas had faced 18 batters, and none had made it to first base. While Cruz allowed another run in the seventh, and Vargas still had only 21 batters faced after seven innings, the perfect game threat was no more. Sharp had hit a gapper to right center, but had been thrown out at third base by Jesus Flores. But a double was a double was a double, and it didn’t help anybody. Cruz pitched nine innings and hung on a pretty ghastly hook, with the Critters still held to one hit in the bottom 9th. Correa hit for Lopes and singled to left to start the inning. Myers struck out, but Nomura drew a walk off the hurriedly appearing Luis Hernandez. The brought up Sharp as the tying run, and if he could just keep the line moving so we could get Alston back up. Or maybe he would hit a drive to center that was OUTTA HERE!!! With the game tied and the Falcons blinking in disbelief, Hernandez continued to melt. Alston hit a 2-out single, Howell walked, but Ayers grounded out and we had extra innings. The Falcons almost broke through Sims and Huerta in the 10th, leaving Chavez and Reeve in scoring position after Jose Mendoza popped out to Howell, but after a non-performance in the bottom 10th, Huerta allowed a run on a 2-out single by Heart in the 11th. Jeff Paul struck out Sharp, Quebell, and Alston in order in the bottom of the inning, sealing the sweep. 4-3 Falcons. Sharp 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Correa (PH) 1-1; Cruz 9.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K; In other news July 27 – In a most surprising trade, the Bayhawks deal SP Tyler Sullivan (12-6, 2.24 ERA), who is 32, to the Capitals for two prospects, one of which is #65 SS/3B Edgar Ramirez. July 27 – PIT SP Barney Manning (8-4, 3.60 ERA) will miss two months with back spasms. July 27 – The Miners trade OF Manny Perez (.307, 3 HR, 54 RBI) to the Pacifics, adding MR Jerry Paul (2-0, 4.01 ERA) and a prospect. July 27 – OF Jose Silva (.334, 6 HR, 43 RBI) of the Cyclones is definitely out for the season, having torn an abdominal muscle. July 28 – CHA SP Steve Rogers (5-14, 4.66 ERA) has this season end early with a torn rotator cuff. August 1 – VAN SP Rod Taylor (12-6, 3.06 ERA) allows only three hits and strikes out 13 batters in a 6-0 shutout over the Bayhawks. August 1 – NAS C Craig Bowen (.264, 11 HR, 52 RBI) has broken his wrist and will miss six weeks. Complaints and stuff** Is it another two months? That long? Oh, I can’t cope… The offense is essentially completely dead. The pitching is still the best in the league, and the offense is entirely awful. Of course it hurts when you lose your #2, #3, and #4 outfielders. I mean… Pete Schipper!! He is a last-rounder! He came from AA!! But Quebell is in an endless slump, Correa is a complete waste of words, and Martinez has reverted to being an automatic out, too. Let’s be glad over Yoshi Nomura’s resurgence to a major league average output, although he probably shouldn’t bat leadoff… As far as our field hospital before a 4-city, 13-game road trip goes, Pruitt will be activated in time for the weekend series in Milwaukee, but neither Castro nor Black will be back before the middle of the month. Not that Count Hack has been anything but an automatic out this season. Good thing we covered us with the vesting options… As we’re on the topic of precious coins, with Black’s salary going off the 2010 books, we so far have four seven-digit salaries lined up for Brownie ($2.2M), Alston ($1.9M), Correa ($1.7M), and Umberger ($1M). Bruno, Cruz, Huerta, and Sharp are free agents and right now we figure to have about $2.9M available. Our third base situation is tricky right now, or maybe a better word would be “nebulous”. Cruz doesn’t have to be resigned since I calculate with Hector Santos (4.6 BB/9, 6.9 K/9 in AAA…) to debut somewhere in 2010. Blow money on Bruno? He’s struggled badly in the first half of the year… I am very frustrated. Also, the cookie jar is empty. That saddens my heart even more. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-07-2016, 09:37 AM	#1703
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	Raccoons (61-43) @ Knights (54-50) – August 3-5, 2009 Oh look, the CL South leaders are actually recognizably over .500 now. And if their third-best offense could spew out three runs per game in this series, they might be seven over by Wednesday night. Disregard their fourth-worst concept of preventing runs. In fact, disregard the Raccoons’ lineup entirely. We will only play the bottoms of innings to save everybody time and bother. Projected matchups: Cássio Boda (1-1, 4.76 ERA) vs. Jim Turner (7-5, 3.38 ERA) Nick Brown (8-5, 2.10 ERA) vs. Kurt Doyle (8-9, 4.83 ERA) Colin Baldwin (8-5, 2.80 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (9-3, 3.69 ERA) There’s a right-hander hiding between two southpaws in this series, and those two southpaws are their best starters in terms of ERA. And well, Butler has more wins than any Raccoons starter anyway. The series itself however didn’t get underway until Tuesday when it rained cats and dogs and other critters on Monday. The Coons were happily spending the day inside, alternating between eating and snoozing. We had a double header to play on Tuesday though and used that splendid opportunity to switch our starters, put Boda behind Brown and have him separate the left-handers again. Game 1 POR: SS Howell – 2B Correa – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Brown ATL: SS Kester – 2B T. Pena – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – 3B C. Martinez – LF Ju. Garcia – 1B Younger – C Delgado – P Turner This was a visitor’s lineup that one was tempted to sneeze at, but Pete Schipper put the Raccoons ahead early with a solo home run in the second inning. Alas, you also had to sneeze at Nick Brown, who seamlessly got in line with all the other dorks allowing run-scoring 2-out hits to the opposing pitcher recently. The Knights had two on already, the Coons called an intentional walk to 28-year old rookie Carlos Delgado, and Jim Turner singled in a pair anyway in the bottom 2nd. That was even before the great RISP qualities of the Raccoons came to light again, with Alston and Martinez leaving the bases loaded in the top 3rd, and Brown stranding Schipper at third base in the fourth. Ricardo Martinez would tie the game with a 2-out RBI double in the top 5th, scoring Correa from second base, but Alston running from first was thrown out at home. Desperate times, desperate measures, desperate results. At least the Coons got Jim Turner out of the game by the sixth inning when Schipper and De La Poland hit singles to start the inning. Sadakuno Imamura replaced him, and at that point, the Raccoons had ten hits to the Knights’ five, and still couldn’t beg their way to a lead. Eventually we had the bases loaded for Correa with two outs, the count ran full, and Correa finally yoinked a pitch to right center that vanished in the vast alley between Morales and Munoz and wasn’t excavated again until Correa was sliding into third base with a score-improving 3-run triple. Imamura was in meltdown mode, walked Sharp and Alston, but Martinez raked himself out. No, there was the occasional fluke hit, but overall the team was not improving. Nick Brown hit a leadoff double in the top 8th and was stranded mercilessly, too, and it got even harder for him in the bottom of the inning, in which Jose Morales and Carlos Martinez both took him deep with solo home runs to get the Knights back to within a run at 5-4. Ricardo Martinez hit a double in the ninth, but forget about it. In fact, consign yourself to the pitch black abyss. Angel Casas walked Kevin Bond to start the bottom 9th, and soon enough allowed a triple to John Kelsey that blew out Brownie’s win. Jaime Kester’s fly to left was deep enough for Kelsey to tag and score as the Knights walked off. 6-5 Knights. Correa 2-4, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Martinez 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Schipper 4-5, HR, RBI; We out-hit them 14-8. Our LOB was 11, theirs four. The problem, you see, is that this team is composed entirely of **ing numbnuts that couldn’t a brick if being fed clay and tied down outside in the summer sun, let alone score one of their own litter on third base with less than two outs. What do you mean there’s another game today?? I don’t want no other game today!! Game 2 POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – SS Howell – RF Schipper – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Boda ATL: SS Kester – 2B C. Martinez – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – 1B Jo. Garcia – 3B T. Pena – LF Kelsey – C Fowler – P Doyle Vermin scored four runs from four singles in the first inning, although the Knights used every trick they knew to help them with a wild pitch by Doyle bringing in the very first tally, and also an outrageous throwing error by Gonzalo Munoz helping out. Two runs scored on sac flies, and Trevino was the only Raccoon to actually score a run with a base hit. But, 4-0 in the first, life is good. Except that one run was immediately given back by Boda when Morales conquered him for a home run, but hey, 4-1 in the first. 4-1 became 6-1 as Kurt Doyle continued to not put hitters away, and a Nomura triple in the fourth brought in the seventh run. Caution, boys! You don’t want to run out of your weekly run allotment on Tuesday! Things got a little uglier in the fourth, too, with Doyle still allowed to fuss around and drilling Quebell and Howell. Those were left on base, and Doyle was hit for in the bottom of the inning, with Bond flying out to Alston to end the inning. Yet, despite being up by six runs, this was still Boda pitching, and his non-skill began to show, too. Gonzalo Munoz and Jorge Garcia hit back-to-back homers to start the bottom 6th, pulling the Knights back to 7-3, and while Boda was allowed to mess around some more, he was removed after Tony Pena and Dale Fowler reached the corners with two hard singles. One out, Luis Beltran was called on to face the reliever Chris Lamb in the box, which was an odd spot to not hit for a pitcher, even in the back leg of a double header. Lamb quickly flicked a 1-0 pitch into a double play to quell the threat. With Huerta pitching in the eighth, the Knights had a runner thrown out at home by Trevino, but the game was locked up for the Coons in the top 9th when Ralph Myers hit for Schipper with Howell on base and rocked his first career home run to right center. 9-3 Coons. Nomura 2-3, 2 BB, 3B; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Howell 1-2, BB; Myers (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1, 2B; Beltran 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; After churning out four hits in the first game, Pete Schipper went 0-3, 3K in the second game. Oh well. Game 3 POR: SS Howell – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Alston – 2B Correa – RF Ayers – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Baldwin ATL: SS Kester – LF Ju. Garcia – CF J. Morales – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Bond – RF Jo. Garcia – 2B Kelsey – C Delgado – P Butler At first it looked like a pitchers’ duel in the making, with no score and little action through three innings, but then the Raccoons had the bases loaded in the top 4th. Unfortunately this was with one out and the worst bit of the lineup coming up. De La Pudding had a full count going and swung over a ball that was terribly close to the dirt, and Trevino limply loped out to Garcia in right. The next runner in scoring position was Sharp in the sixth, reaching on a Carlos Martinez throwing error (THAT Martinez was a Gold Glover, though), and made it to second base with no outs. While Alston grounded out and Jose Diarrhea merely achieved the bare minimum with a sac fly to right, Baldwin blew up the instant he was handed the lead. One-hitting the Knights through five innings, he allowed a double to Dave Butler in the bottom 6th, then was taken deep back-to-back by Jorge Garcia and Jose Morales. Top 7th, De La Polio hit a blooper that fell in front of Garcia. While Trevino continued to fail, Ricardo Martinez batted for Baldwin and hit a triple to center that not only scored the runner, but also had the tying run at third base with less than two outs, and with the greatest of pains, Rob Howell’s sac fly just barely got Martinez home, 3-3. All the effort was for nought when Ted Reese allowed a 2-run homer to Delgado in the bottom of the inning, though. Sharp homered in the top 8th, a solo job, Huerta gave the run right back. 6-4 Knights. Martinez (PH) 1-1, 3B; The Knights had a 2-homer inning in every game in this set. The Raccoons had lunch twice on Wednesday. Ralph Myers was demoted back to St. Petersburg as Matt Pruitt came off the DL in time for the weekend series. Myers might be back in September as a left-handed bat off the bench, and if Quebell continues to suck like he does, he might even get a few starts here and there then. Raccoons (62-45) @ Loggers (38-68) – August 6-9, 2009 We were 6-1 against the Loggers this season, and they were truly horrendous in all fields. Second-least runs scored, most runs allowed, worst rotation, second-worst bullpen. They were even worst in defense! There was not only not much to like about this team, there was NOTHING to like about this team. In other words, they were the 2000 Raccoons. Projected matchups: Jong-hoo Umberger (8-4, 3.26 ERA) vs. Art Davies (0-0) Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.75 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (4-6, 5.24 ERA) Nick Brown (8-5, 2.22 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-13, 4.26 ERA) Cássio Boda (2-1, 4.86 ERA) vs. Tom Constantino (1-2, 5.46 ERA) We miss their only left-hander, William Lloyd (4-12, 4.78 ERA), it seems. Well, they nominally do have more left-handers, but they (Fabien Armand, Fernando Cruz) are both on the DL. Game 1 POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Umberger MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – C Baca – 1B Cambria – 3B Jennings – 2B K. Scott – P Davies Davies, a 26-year old right-hander with unremarkable everything, went undrafted in the 2000 Amateur Draft and worked his way up the ladder by cleaning other players’ spikes at first. This was his major league debut and he got started with two scoreless innings and driving in a run in his first at-bat, a 2-out (of course) RBI single in the bottom 2nd that already gave the Loggers a 2-0 lead over Umberger, who spent a lot of time in deep counts and reached 100 pitches in the sixth inning, which was also as long as it took the Raccoons to overcome a 2-run deficit against a fourth-rate pitcher. Nomura and Howell plated runs in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively. Umberger had Jennings in scoring position with two outs and an 0-2 count to J.R. Richardson in the sixth inning then. From there he threw a wild pitch, six more that were either fouled off or balls, and finally allowed a single that gave the lead back to the Loggers. Rockburn replaced him, Richardson stole second base, and then scored on a Bartolo Hernandez single on an 0-2 pitch. Luis Beltran drilled not one, but TWO batters in the bottom 7th before allowing another 2-out RBI single to Dave Jennings. It was all entirely and wholly horrible, and ended in a rightfully smothering defeat, with two unearned runs for a howling Howell error in the bottom 8th. 7-2 Loggers. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Correa (PH) 1-1; What a funless job I have… Game 2 POR: 2B Nomura – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Ayers – P Cruz MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – C Baca – 1B Cambria – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – P Huertas Our left-handed 3-4-5 guys all reached on soft singles and a walk in the first inning before Martinez flew out equally softly to Tim Austin and nobody scored. This game turned terminally south in an incredible hurry. After Austin flied out to right in the bottom 2nd, the Loggers started to turn up the volume. Alonso Baca singled, as did the undead Hugues Cambria and Aaron Tolwith. Keith Scott doubled in two, Huertas singled home one, and Richardson plated the fourth run with another double. Bartolo Hernandez’ single got the score to 5-0 and then ancient Bakile Hiwalani channeled some mystical force to crank a 3-run homer. Eight batters, eight base hits, eight runs, eight more reasons to just cut your wrists and wait for darkness. With Cruz having gotten poured salt in his soil and turned into a wasteland, Luis Beltran was selected to do some long relief work if at all possible, but he allowed another run before even getting out of the inning. The Raccoons had the bases loaded in the top 3rd before Martinez hit into an inning-ending double play, and the Raccoons didn’t do anything remotely remarkable beyond that. At least we covered the entire game with just Beltran and Huerta, both allowing a run. Not that it mattered. 10-1 Loggers. Howell 2-4, 2B; Alston 2-3, RBI; Beltran 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K; Huerta 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; (blank expression) Game 3 POR: SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Correa – C Lopes – CF Trevino – P Brown MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 1B Q. Burton – RF Hiwalani – LF T. Austin – SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – C Olson – P R. Thomas Brownie faced an entirely right-handed lineup on short rest, which was not the perfect storm for sure. Maybe the Tolwith error in the second inning that allowed Sharp to stay out of possibly a double play and instead put him on along with Quebell and no outs could lead to something, especially with Correa reaching on an infield single after beating out Keith Scott’s throw. Three on, no outs, bring the runts of the litter. Ximenes Lopes hit a grounder hard to left, but this time Tolwith didn’t butcher it. He only got the out on Correa at second, though, and the first run was in. The output tripled when Trevino’s liner to right was not caught up with by Hiwalani, who had to follow the bouncer all the way into the corner. Brownie singled up the middle, 4-0, stole a base, and scored on an Alston single with two outs before the inning came to an end. Not quite a 9-spot, but certainly not a bad base to build on, 5-0 in the second. Unforunately, Brown’s stuff had not been delivered yet from Atlanta (it would arrive Sunday morning), and the Loggers lined three hard singles off him in the bottom of the inning. While that only got them back to 5-1, there was certainly room for more. Hiwalani and Austin were already on the corners in the bottom 3rd when Brown knocked out Hernandez with a pitch. Dave Jennings replaced the logged Hernandez, the bases were loaded, and Brownie was wildly adrift. Tolwith singled in a run, and Mike Olson singled in two before Thomas somehow made the third out. 5-4. While the Coons added two runs in the fourth inning, mainly on a Howell triple and an Alston homer (apparently these things still exist more frequently than appearances of Halley’ Comet), for Brownie the struggles never ended in this game, and he never got himself righted over the course of six horrendous innings of 9-hit, 4-run ball. Law Rockburn took over the 7-4 lead in the seventh, and immediately turned the lead into a void. Three of four batters he faced, reached, and two runs were already in after a Dave Jennings double when Marcos Bruno took over, and just so maneuvered around feared sluggers Keith Scott and Mike Olson to arrive in the eighth with a slight 7-6 edge. Bruno’s services were required in the bottom 8th, so with two on and one out he bunted in the top 8th, and even THAT could result in a double play apparently. At least he struck out the side of Baca, John Cameron, and Quinn Burton in the bottom 8th in hope of evading getting shaved. There was actually a rain delay then in the top of the ninth (remember, this was a Nick Brown start, and he’s cursed), but even though that lasted longer than an hour, the game was not called by the umpires. No, no, give the team of mooks the chance to bring in their idiot closer first. Hiwalani grounded out to Sharp and Hugues Cambria whiffed, and then the Loggers rapped three straight 2-out singles off Casas. That brought up Chris Delaney, who had taken Huerta deep the day before. 2-1 pitch, hard grounder to third base, Sharp with a tumbling grab, rolled back to his feet and zinged the ball to first, bang-bang play and the batter was … OUT!! 7-6 Brownies. Howell 2-4, BB, 3B; Alston 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; Game 4 POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Boda MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B Cambria – LF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B Tolwith – RF J. Cameron – 2B K. Scott – P Constantino The 23-year old Constantino had some walk issues, with 22 free passes in 28 innings this season. While that was often bad but sometimes wouldn’t bite you, we had to battle with the textbook definition of a dork in Cássio Boda, and also with our lineup, but Quebell, Correa, and Schipper loaded the bases in the second inning with three singles, and no outs. De La Panama as always failed, but Trevino singled to center to at least get one run in, and a second run would only score on a wild pitch. Another run scored in the third inning, but soon enough the Loggers were all over Boda. Hiwalani’s leadoff single was quickly followed by a Tim Austin RBI double in the bottom 4th, and the Loggers plated two in the inning, then stranded a pair in the fifth. Boda made it through seven with a 4-2 lead. Quebell had singled home Sharp with two outs in the seventh. Then Rockburn took over and that hadn’t worked on Saturday, either. Here, he basically walked Hiwalani, then had Schipper dash all over rightfield to catch drives by Austin and Baca, the latter one being especially scary, and then waited until Aaron Tolwith hacked himself out with the Civil War veteran Hiwalani in motion. The Coons left runners on the corners in the ninth, waiting for Angel Casas to make it a nail biter in the bottom 9th again. Pruitt actually took leftfield with a pile of popcorn in his glove. Keith Ayers had replaced Schipper for additional defense and caught drives by John Cameron and Keith Scott before Quinn Burton lined up the middle, but was intercepted successfully by Yoshi Nomura. 4-2 Critters. Quebell 4-5, RBI; Correa 2-5, RBI; Schipper 2-3, BB; Boda 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (3-1); Constantino actually walked only three batters in 8.1 innings, with Sharp drawing free passes twice. By the way. When I refer to Bakile Hiwalani as Civil War veteran I actually mean the one between Marius and Sulla. In other news August 3 – The Pacifics keep falling apart, sending SP J.J. Wirth (11-9, 3.18 ERA) to the DL with shoulder inflammation. He won’t return from there until next season. August 4 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.299, 0 HR, 30 RBI) is back to the DL with a fractured finger and is not expected back until mid-September. August 7 – 28-year old WAS LF Raúl Vázquez (.252, 6 HR, 19 RBI) is forced to retire after repeating injuries to ankle ligaments have made his ankle unstable. Vázquez batted .280 with 32 HR and 160 RBI in a 6-year career. Complaints and stuff The team slid out of the top 5 in the power rankings with this weak of horrors. The headache is getting quite intense by now. Guess who’s our first pitcher to nine wins. Nick Brown, on pace for 13 wins this season, the definition of a true ace! This week, the Mexican Prick inquired why he couldn’t see Whitebread’s contract extension on the 2010 expenses forecast. I wrote him that Whitebread would not get an extension. The answer to that was hard to misinterpret. The Prick insisted on an extension to Whitebread for as many years as was feasible. I had Mike, the technician, cut together some footage of the single A ball Poza Rica Thieves of Jimmy Eichelkraut being horrendous, and sent that back to the Prick with the single line “There’s his first ever pick, three years later, stuck in a rat-infested ** hole in Mexico.” I’m still waiting for a response to that, but I wouldn’t fancy my chances that the doughbag just keeled over and choked to death. Besides, that wouldn’t necessarily help us. I heard his eldest offspring fancies shiny race cars, high roller Baccarat in Vegas, expensive hookers of either sex, and constantly has his nose full of something that looks like flour, but isn’t. Speaking of Mike, he also cuts the game preparation videos for our team, but I recently found out that they aren’t even watching them. That might explain why every last donk of a pitcher is able to fool them. They are exchanging the numbers and locations of pizza places in all 24 ABL cities with great interest, though. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here. Last edited by Westheim; 02-07-2016 at 09:39 AM.

02-10-2016, 05:34 PM	#1706
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	Raccoons (67-50) vs. Miners (67-51) – August 18-20, 2009 We were returning home to play seven games in six days, including a double header with the Titans on the weekend after having Monday off. We haven’t lost a series against the Miners since 1980(!!), maintaining a .727 winning percentage against them. Of course the Miners were blazing hot coming in, having won their last eight games, leading the FL East. They were second in runs scored in the Federal League, and were just as good in terms of runs allowed. There wasn’t much weakness to be found in their pitching staff, with both rotation and bullpen ranking in the top 3 in ERA. Projected matchups: Jong-hoo Umberger (8-5, 3.32 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (7-9, 3.78 ERA) Javier Cruz (8-8, 3.21 ERA) vs. Henry Becker (11-7, 3.12 ERA) Nick Brown (10-5, 2.45 ERA) vs. Miguel Rodriguez (14-7, 3.15 ERA) In this series, the opposing starters were opposite-handed for all three games. Game 1 PIT: CF Stewart – RF Blanc – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B Madison – 3B Ladd – LF DeWeese – SS J. Gonzales – P M. Hernandez POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Umberger Manuel Hernandez was averaging almost a walk every other inning and went about raising that average some more right away in the bottom 1st, walking Castro, Howell, and Alston in succession. Daniel Sharp worked a full count, and Hernandez’ next pitch was so low, not even Ricardo Martinez would have - … well, Martinez probably would have, but Sharp didn’t, and four walks made a run. Unfortunately that was it for glory. A Quebell sac fly was all that the Coons managed to make out of all the free goodies they were handed. But after four walks in the first inning, the Coons got four singles in the second inning, with Sharp plating a pair with two outs, and ironically in this already wicked contest, Umberger had the Critters’ first hit of the game. He had also struck out a handful in the first two innings before the Miners whacked him for a pair, singled in also with two outs by Steve Butler in the top 3rd. In the sixth inning, a Blanc single and Butler double put the Miners’ tying runs in scoring position with no outs. Bartholomeu Pino struck out in a full count, but Steve Madison’s single and a Wes Ladd sacrifice tied the game at four. Umberger struck out R.J. DeWeese to end the frame, but it looked like despite nine strikeouts in six innings he would be left with nothing. But whenever it looked like the game was going to turn into something sour sooner rather than later, Rob Howell would come along. Umberger actually singled in the bottom 6th, and Hernandez drilled Castro. Howell came up and roped a bomb to left center that exploded the scoreboard to 7-4 in favor of the Critters. Umberger pitched a seventh inning that almost got out of hand with Tomas Castro making a running catch backwards on the warning track before he barely avoided cracking his skull open against the wall. That ended the inning and saved at least one run, and Umberger’s day was also over after seven. Ex-Furball John Bennett appeared for the Miners in the bottom 7th, and got out Quebell and Ayers, but by then the Raccoons got wind of the Snackers bar in his back pocket. Correa sniffed it first, singled up the middle, and a rout was on. De La Pancake singled, and when Matt Pruitt hit for Umberger, Correa scored on his single to right, before Tomas Castro lined a 2-0 pitch to deep left for a 2-run double. Having Raccoons emptying his pockets all over himself, Bennett fled the mound in panic, and all was well in Coon City. 10-4 Raccoons! Howell 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Correa 2-4; Umberger 7.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (9-5) and 2-3; Derrek Fredlund made his major league debut in the ninth inning and struck out his first batter in the majors, Wes Ladd. He also got the maiden base hit allowed off his back, a DeWeese single, but retired the next two batters to end the game. Game 2 PIT: CF Stewart – LF DeWeese – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B Madison – 3B Ladd – RF Alexander – SS J. Gonzales – P Becker POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Cruz Things happened quickly again in the middle game. Both teams scored a run with the help of an infield single in their halves of the first, and Daniel Sharp tweaked an oblique and had to leave the game. Both pitchers faced their significant other with a man on, two outs, and a full count in the second inning. Cruz walked Becker in the top 2nd, but struck out to end the bottom 2nd. Nothing happened in between, but showing his walky side soon got Cruz hurt with a 2-run homer by Steve Madison in the top 3rd, with the runner Butler having reached on a walk. The Coons had snacked on John Bennett’s stash all night long and were a bit tired at the plate. They got chances with two men on that were induced by Miners errors in the fourth and eighth innings, and bailed out of both, and the Miners weren’t able to score either. Beltran, Rockburn, and Bruno held them short once Cruz exited after six and a thirds, having whiffed eight batters, but it was the Coons who had to make up two runs. Getting Keith Ayers on with a leadoff single against Paco Barrera in the bottom 9th was certainly a good start, but Correa popped out. Trevino batted in the #8 spot and grounded back to Barrera, which got Ayers forced out at second base. Ximenes Lopes was our last bat off the bench, hitting for Bruno, and grounded out to short. 3-1 Miners. Sharp 1-1, RBI; Offense for a day, hooray, hooray, hooray… Meanwhile, Daniel Sharp will be a bit tight with a mild oblique strain and probably needs to be handled with care for the rest of the week. Add to that a double header on Friday that I find it hard to construct a rotation around. I mean, who should temporarily vacate their roster spot for a scratch pitcher to make a start? And who would said scratch pitcher be? Maybe the weather would help us out. It was showering hard on Thursday. With the Miners having to go cross country to Washington, the game was cancelled two hours after it should have been started and rescheduled for the following week, evacuating our scheduled off day between getting drubbed again in New York and the beginning of the next homestand against the Thunder. It’s also not too hard on the Miners. After playing the Capitals and Rebels in the east, they had to get back to the west coast by Friday anyway for a series in Sacramento. And thus, in washing out Nick Brown’s start, the weather actually HELPED us in filling out the Titans series’ rotation without any wonky moves required. Well, the problem at least gets delayed to the next series in New York… Raccoons (68-51) vs. Titans (59-61) – August 21-23, 2009 The Titans ranked seventh in runs scored (so much better than yours truly) and fifth in runs allowed (but we were laughing about that). They had a very good top 3 bullpen, but the rotation’s ERA was in the bottom half in the league. We were 7-4 against them on the season, and this series will start with a double header to make up for a game rained out on April 19. Projected matchups: Nick Brown (10-5, 2.45 ERA) vs. Jesus Elmore (9-5, 4.20 ERA) Cássio Boda (4-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (8-7, 4.52 ERA) Colin Baldwin (8-7, 3.48 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (6-14, 3.87 ERA) Jong-hoo Umberger (9-5, 3.40 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (7-9, 4.76 ERA) We get all their right-handers, it seems, and will miss Ray Conner (7-11, 3.57 ERA). Yoshi Nomura is excited. Game 1 BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Britton – C Suda – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – 3B Higashi – 1B G. Rios – SS J. Amador – P Elmore POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Correa – C De La Parra – P Brown The Coons got two early runs after a Howell single, a wild pitch, Pruitt groundout, Alston walk, and then consecutive singles by Quebell and Yoshi. The team didn’t stop there, quickly adding more runs, with Javier Gusmán being beaten by balls over his head by Howell in the second and Nomura in the third, both falling in for run-scoring extra base hits, and the score after three was 5-0 in favor of the home team, with Brownie however not unhittable at all. There had been a deep drive to right by Jesus Ramirez in the top 3rd with a man on, but it had come down and into Ron Alston’s glove still 15 feet from the wall. After two strikeouts and some bad flails in the top 4th, Matt Pruitt ripped a huge homer in the bottom of the same inning, 7-0. All was well in Coon City. Indeed it was. After Jesus Amador (three Jesuses in their lineup and they still weren’t blessed with offense) singled in the third inning, and once Alston caught that drive, Brown switched into domination mode. He would sit down the next 17 batters following Amador, which, math dictates, sends you clean through eight. The Raccoons’ fifth inning was the first in which they didn’t score (also Elmore’s last), and they didn’t score again until the eighth inning, when Tomas Castro ripped a 2-piece off Lawrence Rivers. Brownie entered the ninth with a 9-0 lead, 10 K, and only 89 pitches! Amador struck out, John Hudson struck out, Julio Silva, annoyingly, singled. Okay, still some breath left in our horse. A long at-bat with Apasyu Britton saw the count run full eventually. Silva ran on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Britton swung, and missed it. It was done!! 9-0 Brownies!! Castro 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Howell 2-5, 3B, RBI; Quebell 3-3, BB, RBI; Nomura 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 K, W (11-5) and 1-3; (squeaks) BROWNIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!! (the glass of the trophy case cracks and splinters) This is already Brownie’s fifth complete game of the season (the previous high was three in ’03), and tied his career high in shutouts (also from ’03) with the second of the year. He has 17 CG and 8 SHO in total. Ironically, 2003 was Brown’s worst major league season (omitting his initial 41-inning call-up in 2001). In addition to the usual shutout hysteria, he preserved the bullpen in its entirety for the second part of the double header, which is why I like to start the better guy first usually. Also, annoyingly, he didn’t even strike out the most batters this Friday, as Jack Berry whiffed 15. That Jack Berry whom I traded because he’d never cut it. Looks like he’s cut it. -.- Game 2 BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF J. Gusmán – LF G. Rios – RF Hayashi – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Higashi – C J. Silva – SS M. Austin – P Cabrera POR: LF Castro – 2B Nomura – 1B Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Correa – 3B M. Gutierrez – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Boda After hitting for three total bases in an entire game earlier in the day, Jesus Ramirez hit for three bases in the first at-bat of the nightcap. Boda had Gusmán pop out, but then drilled consecutive batters, and Tony Ramos drove in a pair. Somehow the inning ended before the Titans scored nine runs, and then Jesus Cabrera put the first three Coons on. Castro and Pruitt hit singles around a Nomura walk, and zero runs scored once Alston and Gutierrez struck out around a Correa pop. The entire team went from “Hooray, Life is Good!” into facepalm mode in a matter of hours. Boda was wildly inaccurate in his actions, occasionally also coming down broadway, leading to a 2-piece by Mark Austin in the fourth, which romped the score to 5-0 already. Boda didn’t get out of the fifth, but Fredlund did. The Critters were sucking hard, but eventually got the tying run to the plate. While their bottom 7th started with a Silva error that put Gutierrez on second base, they got going with two outs, supported by Jesus Cabrera losing control. With Gutierrez on third and two outs, Quebell hit for Ricardo Huerta and walked. Castro singled up the middle to score the team’s first run, and then Yoshi walked to load them up for Pruitt, who hit the first pitch to deep left, but into an out. That was also the last time they had the tying run even remotely close to grabbing a bat. 5-1 Titans. Castro 2-5, RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Game 3 BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Britton – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – 3B Higashi – SS J. Amador – P Carter POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – SS Howell – 3B M. Gutierrez – C De La Parra – P Baldwin Colin Baldwin had struggled badly in his last few starts, and a walk to Ramirez and a Britton singled weren’t good signs to start game 3 on day 2. Then “Quasimodo” Suda hit a ball hard to Gutierrez, whose momentum carried him onto third base automatically, and from there he started a zing-around-the-horn for a 6-4-3 triple play! After that break, the first Coons reached base, with Castro hitting a double, Nomura singling, and then Pruitt brought in the first run with another single. Quebell appeared to kill the effort with a really hard grounder right to Ramirez, who turned two while Yoshi scored, but then Ayers lined to right for a single, stole second base, and scored on Rob Howell’s single to left, putting up a 3-run first after all. With two outs in the bottom 2nd, Pruitt would score Castro again with another single, before Quebell stranded a pair with a groundout to first. The Coons got to 5-0 through three, but it wasn’t easy cruising for Baldwin, who surrendered a lot of hard contact, with Castro alone making four catches of medium to morally wrong difficulty. There was one drive that Pruitt couldn’t catch, a 2-run homer by Toki Hayashi in the fourth inning that kept the score close at 5-2. Baldwin left after six and between Rockburn’s leadoff walk to Amador, Sims’ walk to Ramirez, Britton’s single to right and Ayers’ subsequent throwing error, with the ball crossing the third base line at equal distance between third and home, the Coons almost blew out their 3-run lead in the top 7th. Suda grounded out to Gutierrez to end the inning with a 5-3 score and the tying runs in scoring position to end the horrid frame. Bottom 7th: the Titans brought left-hander Jason Long to face the 2-3-4 batters, who all reached with two singles and a walk. Now with the right-hander up, the Titans still were hoping to an out from Long, but Keith Ayers singled to left to score Yoshi, 6-3. The Coons would only get one more run. Howell grounded into a force at home, but Gutierrez had a run-scoring groundout before De La Polka flew out to right center. The Coons got another out from Sims in the eighth before we sent Fredlund to hopefully end the game by getting five outs with a 7-3 lead. He ended the eighth, but got stuck in the ninth, when he issued walks to Amador and Britton. Angel Casas came in and Suda fouled out on the fourth pitch to end the game. 7-3 Coons. Castro 2-5, 2B; Nomura 3-4, BB; Pruitt 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Ayers 2-4, RBI; Howell 2-3, BB, RBI; Daniel Sharp is good to go after a few days of moving around cautiously and not doing much except for a pinch-hitting appearance in which he popped out. Game 4 BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF J. Gusmán – C Suda – LF G. Rios – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Higashi – RF Hudson – SS M. Austin – P Patrick POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Howell – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – C Lopes – P Umberger Once again this week, the Critters got their first three batters in the game on. Castro singled, Sharp walked, and Pruitt was shaken with a ball into the stomach, but made it to first base alive. From there, it was two productive outs by Alston and Howell for a 2-0 lead, but no big bang before Nomura flew out to left to end the frame. The Titans got a wild-pitch-assisted run off Umberger in the third before Sharp hit a double to get the bottom of the inning underway. Pruitt singled, and then the whole caravan reversed again with Alston popping out to shallow left and Howell hitting into a two-for-one. Next inning, next leadoff double, Nomura’s, and a Trevino single right after that for another first-and-third, no outs situation, but with the perhaps worst possible 8-9 combo up in Ximenes Lopes (.129) and Umberger, a notoriously poor hitter even for one of the other profession. In SOME way the minimized the damage when Lopes struck out and Umberger flew out to shallow left, which at least gave a competent batter a chance in bringing up Tomas Castro, who managed to flip a bloop into center that fell for an RBI single, after which Sharp struck out. Bottom 5th, Alston hit a single before Brian Patrick drilled Nomura and Trevino, which only stacked the sacks for Lopes, which couldn’t end well. To be fair, he met the ball well, but grounded out right to Higashi at third base. Bottom 6th: Umberger walked(!!!), Castro walked, too, Sharp flew out to left, Pruitt flew out to left, Alston grounded out to first. It was really an annoying game… It got even more annoying when Umberger was struck for three hits and two runs in the seventh inning, which allowed the Titans to tie a game that was long supposed to be an 8-1 blowout. But no, the guys in brown had preferred to cover their eyes with their paws. Or their tails in case they were eating right now. Bottom 7th: 1-out hits from Nomura and Trevino, and with Patrick somehow still pitching and not getting removed with Lopes to bat despite having thrown 120 pitches, we removed Lopes in vain hope of generating ANYTHING. Quebell hit for Lopes, walked, and then Ayers hit for Umberger, and Patrick was now losing it quite quickly, walking Ayers as well to force in the go-ahead run. Castro doubled in a pair in the first case of not booting it in two hours, which also finally knocked Patrick from the game, but the Raccoons would strand a pair. And then the Titans rallied against Luis Beltran. He faced five batters in the top 8th, four lefties, and three reached. Bruno came into a 6-4 game with the tying runs on and got a pop to Ayers in right from Higashi to end the inning. The bottom 8th shall go unmentioned, and the top 9th continued with Bruno, with Angel not coming until the tying run would appear at the plate. It never did. 6-4 Furballs. Castro 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Nomura 1-2, BB, 2B; Trevino 2-3; Umberger 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (10-5); Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (5); The Raccoons left 13 men on base. I chewed off 13 of my paw nails. In other news August 18 – The 23-game hitting streak of NYC CF Roberto Pena (.289, 5 HR, 40 RBI) comes to an end with a hitless day in a 5-2 Crusaders loss to the Rebels. August 18 – CHA SP Alfredo Collazo (4-2, 2.42 ERA) 2-hits the Gold Sox in a 7-0 shutout win. August 19 – Blow for New York: RF/LF Stanton Martin (.306, 22 HR, 90 RBI) is out for up to six weeks with shoulder tendinitis. August 20 – A strained hamstring puts ATL SS Jaime Kester (.271, 1 HR, 41 RBI) on the DL for six weeks. August 21 – At the tender age of 31, Oklahoma City’s Victorino Sanchez (.348, 6 HR, 41 RBI) knocks his 2,500th base hit in an 11-2 smashing of the Falcons. A single off Tommy Wilson in the second inning is the milestone hit for Sanchez, who debuted in the majors in 1996 at the soft age of 17 years old. Since then he has amassed more accolades than anyone can be bothered to count, and he looks like he could more than smash the career hits record by Dale Wales, which stands at 3,673 knocks. August 21 – CIN SP Jack Berry (13-8, 3.95 ERA) strikes out 15 batters while allowing four hits in a 9-1 rout of the Buffaloes. August 21 – RIC LF/RF Jimmy Bayle (.279, 8 HR, 42 RBI) has a 5-hit game in a 13-inning, 12-8 win over the Blue Sox. The Rebel has three singles, an RBI triple, and game-winning grand slam in the 13th inning. Complaints and stuff Back in the top 5 in the power rankings now, fourth behind the three division leaders that aren’t in horrendous divisions. Tomas Castro has a 14-game hitting streak. That streak started on July 23 before his most recent DL stint, with five games of the streak before the tight back, and nine since. In those nine games, he’s hit .450/.476/.600 with 1 HR, 8 RBI (from the leadoff spot!) and 3 SB, and all of the swipes in the last five games. He was also named Player of the Week with a 12-26 (.462), 1 HR, 8 RBI week. We’re past the three-quarter point, which probably makes eyeing a 40 HR season from Ron Alston moot now. Also, Quebell hasn’t hit a homer since the 27th … OF JUNE. Now, the Duke will rejoin us swiftly here (or rather in New York) after not getting all that warm in AAA, with the usual dilemma of whom to send away, and this might entail waiving Keith Ayers, but he hasn’t done anything this year at all, and it’s probably too late to hope for a turnaround. I don’t know whether Ayers will be lost on waivers, maybe, maybe not. Will we be sad? Maybe, maybe not. (We could demote Gutierrez again and squeeze by on five infielders for a week, though!) Pete Schipper batted for a .929 OPS in just over a week in AAA. Well, that is a puny sample size, but should we actually have found something when scraping up the bottom of the barrel? Although the god of thunder definitely has something against Nick Brown, the rainout on Thursday helps us in the long run. In the end, only one guy has to pitch on short rest, and that will be Boda in the middle game in New York. Because who gives a lick about him tearing out his elbow, or even his entire arm at the shoulder joint? And not that it matters who starts when and how well he fares… Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-10-2016, 06:05 PM	#1707
pgjocki All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Maryland - just outside DC Posts: 1,590	If only you had a wild card...maybe the commish will consider it over the Winter Meetings. __________________ - - - World Series championships: 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1982, 2006, 2011

02-11-2016, 05:03 PM	#1709
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	Raccoons (71-52) @ Crusaders (79-45) – August 24-26, 2009 The season series was split through 12 games, which was doubly sad given that the Raccoons had started out 5-0 against NYC at one point. This was the last series in New York between the teams, but we would play another 3-set in Portland on the second-to-last weekend of the season. To be realistic, the Raccoons need to do better than 4-2 over the remaining games to get even remotely close to contention again. The Crusaders were second to only us in runs allowed, while they scored soundly the most runs in the Continental League. But they had lost Stanton Martin to injury a week ago, so there was that… Projected matchups: Javier Cruz (8-9, 3.26 ERA) vs. Elwood Spurrell (13-8, 3.88 ERA) Cássio Boda (4-2, 4.46 ERA) vs. Ken Maddox (7-8, 4.70 ERA) Nick Brown (11-5, 2.32 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (15-9, 3.37 ERA) That’s three right-handers, which was no surprise. They had no left-handed starters. Game 1 POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Cruz NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – RF MacKey – C D. Anderson – P Spurrell This was the first of three mortally important games. If the Raccoons wanted the slightest sniff of another chance at the playoffs, they had to win the series, and better sweep it. Too bad Cruz allowed two runs on a few well-placed singles right in the first inning. The Coons’ first five batters went down in order before Yoshi hit a soft single to right in the top 2nd. Howell and De La Poland also hit singles, and then even Cruz came up with a soft line over Francisco Caraballo into shallow right that scored Rob Howell and tied the score at two. Tomas Castro came up, he with the winning streak, and rocketed a pitch to deep right, where Matt MacKey threw up his arms in disgust as the ball broke the plane of the wall: 3-run homer, Coons up 5-2! While the initial impression had been that Cruz wasn’t up to the task, both pitchers ended up in a situation with runners on the corners and one out in the third inning. Elwood Spurrell threw a run-scoring wild pitch, while Cruz struck out Sonny Reece and Paco Batlle to get out of the jam, and Spurrell’s nightmare continued long enough to allow another homer, a solo shot, to Tomas Castro in the top 4th. The Crusaders hit for him in a 7-2 deficit in the bottom 4th, and Zak Davidson struck out in his spot. Not that Cruz had a stellar game. He allowed a run in the fifth, which he took 102 pitches to complete and then was removed after Daryl Anderson singled with one out in the sixth. Law Rockburn replaced him, but gave up a single to Marc Williams and a double to Roberto Pena as the Crusaders scored two runs and got back to 7-5. The Coons would strand three runners in scoring position between the top 7th and 8th before they arrived at the critical junction in the bottom 8th. Donald Sims had already gotten three outs, and the righty Anderson was up, with reliever Lorenzo Flores behind, and lefty leadoff man Roberto Pena after that. They had two left-handers on the bench, so either way we were likely screwed. In that case, protect Sims for another game in the set, and move to a right-hander. With Huerta in the back of our heads reserved to perhaps pitch long relief for Boda tomorrow, Marcos Bruno came in. Anderson popped out to Alston, and as expected, endless coon schreck Ming Kui appeared in the box, but grounded out to Nomura for once. The top 9th saw Alston walk against Iemitsu Rin with two outs before Correa hit for the luckless Quebell against the left-hander and sent a bloop into shallow right that bounced off MacKey’s ugly nose for an error that put the runners in scoring position. Ayers batted for Nomura, pulled an 0-1 pitch to left, and that was high, deep, and gone!!! 10-5 Raccoons!! Castro 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Correa (PH) 1-1; Nomura 3-4; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (6); After this game, we placed Manuel Gutierrez on waivers to get Luke Black back onto the team. He just seemed to have found that extra base hit stroke in AAA, and I wanted him to show that here. If at all, humanely, possible. Thanks. Game 2 POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Boda NYC: CF R. Pena – RF MacKey – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – SS Davidson – C D. Anderson – P Maddox Roberto Pena homered on Boda’s first pitch, and that was that. The Crusaders loaded the bases after that, but left them loaded in the bottom 1st. While the Coons’ lineup showed an uncanny ability to ground out to Sonny Reece to leave a variable number of runners on base, Boda’s only ability was to allow hard deep drives. That wouldn’t go well forever, and sooner or later there would be noise again, like on Daryl Anderson’s RBI triple in the bottom 4th. Sharp’s clumsiness would allow Pena to plate Anderson with an infield single, giving the Crusaders a 3-0 edge. The Coons managed to curb their rally attempts early in this game. They had Howell on in the fifth, and De La Pogo hit into a double play. They got Alston on with a leadoff single in the seventh, and Black grounded to Reece for two. Bottom 8th, Derrek Fredlund was almost out of the inning. Despite Caraballo’s leadoff single, the Crusaders still had their runner on first with two outs, when Fredlund balked and gave them a free base. He had thrown a pitch without touching the rubber, the stupid kiddo. Sure as damned hell, Zak Davidson singled the runner in on the next pitch to put the Crusaders up 4-0. In the ninth inning, the Furballs faced Scott Hood for the second inning. Castro hit a leadoff single, extending a hitting streak to 16 games at the last opportunity, but it was a long way to get the tying run to the plate, and it grew just longer when Sharp bounced a 3-1 pitch into a double play. 4-0 Crusaders. Well, the slightest sliver of a chance remains. If Nick Brown can beat the evil purple knights in the rubber game, the remainder of our games against them will still make up almost half of our number of games back, which with a month and change to play still qualifies as “not out”. But Brownie has to win this one. If the Raccoons lose on Wednesday, the season is in the trash for good. Game 3 POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – LF Alston – RF Black – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Brown NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – C D. Anderson – 1B M. Williams – RF R. Chavez – P P. Trevino … and then Nick Brown, who came off a 13-K shutout, went to three balls on the first three batters, and all three reached base in the first inning. Caraballo’s 0-2 grounder up the middle and slightly left of second base eluded Howell for a single, and the damn dam broke instantly. Brown allowed three RBI singles and threw a wild pitch in the inning for a fourth run, that buried the Raccoons immediately. For their lineup, the game started like every other in the series, with the first five batters being retired before Nomura would have a base hit, this time a triple, and of course he was stranded by Howell. No other Raccoon reached until Black singled in the fifth, and of course he was left on as well. The bottom 5th was also when the Crusaders danced off with the season. Brown had struck out seven and walked four at that point, and was basically eating innings. While facing four more batters, he didn’t retire anybody, walked three, allowed a single, and also threw another wild pitch. Ricardo Huerta ended up pitching long relief for the assumed ace instead of the ugly adopted stepchild, allowed a single to Marc Williams and a rousing 3-run homer to Ricardo Chavez that flicked on every single light in New York. 10-0. There was not a way in which to be demolished more soundly. Oh, wait – there was! Huerta allowed three more hits, and threw two more wild pitches in the inning en route to a 12-0 deficit, and there wasn’t a mercy rule written into the rule book yet. While I was holding onto a bottle of some stew or other in the visiting GM’s box, crying inconsolably with Honeypaws dangerously dangling from the railing in front of me, Ron Alston hit the most meaningless home run in history in the top of the seventh inning. “** you, Alston”, I slurred under the influence of Jimmy Proof, “Don’t need your ing homers anymore now”, and continued to sip from the mouth of my only friend in the world. Rockburn gave that run right back in the bottom of the inning. Oh come on! Now that they had been so close!! 13-1 Crusaders. Black 2-4; Correa (PH) 1-1, BB; Raccoons (72-54) vs. Miners (71-54) – August 27, 2009 I refused to see anybody, didn’t board the team’s plane, and generally locked myself away after that display of ineptitude on Wednesday. I flew back west the next morning, and remained unapproachable. Well, except for Slappy, who had all the keys and went in and out of my office as he pleased. He also told me that Nick Brown wanted to talk to me, but I turned away and stared out of the window with a blank expression. I didn’t want to talk to anybody, and the least to him. The Miners came in once more to make up for last Thursday’s rainout. Colin Baldwin (9-7, 3.46 ERA) would face righty Miguel Rodriguez (15-7, 3.07 ERA), who had originally been scheduled for this game as well. Game PIT: CF Stewart – 3B Ladd – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B Madison – SS J. Gonzales – LF DeWeese – RF Burkhart – P M. Rodriguez POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C Lopes – P Baldwin None of the first five Raccoons had reached in any game in New York, and Rodriguez was perfect the first time through the order. The Miners put up singles runs in the third and fourth innings which were both times mainly owed to Daniel Sharp’s defensive ineptitude. The first Coon on base was Nomura yet again, a fourth inning single that ended with him trotting back to the dugout from first base. In the fifth, Adrian Quebell hit his first goddamn home run in two months, while Colin Baldwin pitched eight good innings in a losing cause. Rodriguez struck out ten while allowing only three hits through eight innings, but with the slim 2-1 lead he held the Miners sent Paco Barrera, a righty, into the bottom of the ninth, which started with Yoshi. Six pitches were enough to retire him, Alston, and Black on grounders to Steve Madison (twice) and Wes Ladd. 2-1 Miners. Quebell 2-3, HR, RBI; Baldwin 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (9-8); So that’s our first series loss to the Miners in 29 years, and that’s also the end for Tomas Castro’s 17-game hitting streak, but it doesn’t matter, because I feel like the reason why I keep breathing died somewhere between the fifth and sixth walk on Wednesday. Raccoons (72-55) vs. Thunder (59-67) – August 28-30, 2009 The Thunder swept us the last time we met and are 4-2 against us on the season. You can only be wary of this fifth-best offense and tenth-best pitching and always be on guard, because they have all the tricks up their sleeves. Projected matchups: Jong-hoo Umberger (10-5, 3.42 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (6-10, 5.01 ERA) Javier Cruz (9-9, 3.38 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (12-5, 2.36 ERA) Cássio Boda (4-3, 4.46 ERA) vs. William Raven (7-11, 5.18 ERA) We might get those three, but they have also used ex-Coon John Richardson (2-5, 5.23 ERA) as starter infrequently in recent weeks, and he is rested. Sato is the only left-hander that is likely to appear in the series. Game 1 OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B B. Butler – 3B Heathershaw – P Sato POR: SS Howell – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – LF Ayers – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Umberger Umberger allowed good contact from the start. Sanchez and Cardenas singled, and Tom Reese doubled that pair in before long for an early 2-0 lead. Somehow Umberger would last seven innings with only one more run allowed, but for a pleasant change he didn’t walk a batter, or seven. The offense however was shudderingly bad. Through seven innings, the team managed three hits off Takeru Sato, whose best days were long behind him and anybody else who was alive. The Raccoons got their best chance at scoring in a long, sadly long time when a throwing error by Bob Butler put Rob Howell on second base with one down in the eighth. Sato’s last squeak was a full count walk to Sharp, Lewis Donaldson got Quebell to fly out softly to left, before righty Dennis Boland was scheduled to face Black, but Ron Alston hit for him, yet all he managed was another walk. Keith Ayers gave a 1-2 pitch a ride to deep left, but it was short, and caught, too. The Raccoons would have the tying run at the plate again in the bottom 9th. Correa and Trevino drew walks, bringing up Pruitt with one out against the right-hander Vaughn Higgins, but hacked himself out. Howell grounded up the middle, Marcos Garza made the play. 3-0 Thunder. Raccoons’ BABIP in this game: .143; Thunder’s BABIP in this game: .433; To recap, that’s two runs in the last four games. Two runs total. Game 2 OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B B. Butler – 3B J. Pena – P J. Richardson POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Correa – C De La Parra – P Cruz And once more the opposing team held the lead by their third batter as Sanchez walked, Cardenas singled, and Ledesma plated Sanchez with a sac fly. Overall, they scored two runs in the first, but for an awkward change this didn’t result in a game victory by default. After Castro and Howell hacked out against John Richardson, Alston singled, Black doubled, and Quebell plated both with a single to right. Richardson, who hadn’t started games for the Raccoons for a reason, continued to impress nobody and allowed another 2-spot in the bottom 2nd, this time even scoring a run with a wild pitch. Even with a crappy pitcher on the mound, this team needed help to score anything. They would get one more run off Richardson, and that one was wild pitch-induced as well, in the fifth inning. Black had walked, advanced a base on the wild one, then scored on Yoshi’s single, 5-2. Cruz didn’t have much and struck out only two batters in seven innings, but at least he lived that long and didn’t have to be purged after, say, four plus. The Thunder got Victorino Sanchez on with a leadoff single in the top 8th against Beltran, but the Coons bailed out on a double play. Angel had struck out only three batters in his last six innings pitched, but struck out the side in the ninth. 5-2 Coons. Howell 3-4; Black 2-2, 2 BB; Cruz 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (10-9); Pa! Pa! You have to adjust the radio! I just thought they said that the Raccoons won! Game 3 OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B B. Butler – 3B J. Pena – P Dickerson POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – SS Correa – C Lopes – P Boda The Coons had the bases loaded with no outs in the first inning after a Castro single, Nomura double, and a cautious walk to Alston. All that caution didn’t help if you threw a wild pitch, which Dickerson did, and the next pitch was lined into the right corner by Quebell to plate all three of the runners for a blitz 3-0 lead. With Boda pitching, no 3-run lead was forever, so it was probably a good thing that Pruitt hit a solo homer in the third inning to get us to 4-0. But stabs at Boda aside, at least he hadn’t allowed four runs in the first inning… He did allow four in the fourth, however. Ledesma and Reese hit soft singles to center before Marcos Garza packed a 3-run homer. Boda continued to be , put Gonzalez on, somehow got Butler out, and with two outs we gave an intentional walk to Juan Pena so he could face Dickerson, whose single tied the game. No, there was no use for Boda at all. He was just a stupid piece of , and that stupid piece of was yanked in the fifth with runners on the corners (Ledesma and Reece again) and one out … again. Marcos Garza hit into a double play that Law Rockburn started, and the tie stood up for now. Law pitched another inning in competent fashion (a welcome sight for sure), and as soon as he was hit for in the bottom 6th he was in line for the W, when Luke Black shot his ninth homer of the season to straightaway centerfield, 5-4. That wasn’t all: Castro got on, and Ron Alston would hit Black’s total plus four handfuls to give the team a 7-4 lead. With six left- and switch-hitters lined up for the Thunder, we hoped for Donald Sims to give us more than three outs of the nine left to grab. He got two outs, allowed a run and left the tying runs on for Marcos Bruno to wipe up in whiffing his namesake Garza. Bruno struck out two more and got a pop from Pena in the eighth, bridging the game to Angel Casas after all. Victorino Sanchez’ lone weakness was so-so power, but he homered off Angel with one out. However, that was all the Thunder managed to put up in the ninth. 7-6 Blighters. Castro 2-4; Pruitt 2-4, HR, RBI; Black (PH) 1-2, HR, RBI; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (7-3); Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; In other news August 27 – TIJ 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.257, 12 HR, 59 RBI) collects five hits, including a double and three homers with 5 RBI in the Condors’ 7-3 win over the Knights. Diaz becomes the 18th player in ABL history with a 3-homer game and the first since POR Craig Bowen hit four almost exactly two years ago. In fact, the last three 3-homer games were all in August. It is the second time the feat is achieved by a Condor after home run king Raúl Vázquez hit three against the Aces in 2002. August 28 – Sioux Falls’ Ken Harris (12-10, 3.93 ERA) 2-hits the Capitals as the Warriors shut them out, 6-0. August 30 – CHA SP David Estrada (7-5, 3.38 ERA) is out for the season and might miss the start of the 2010 season with a torn labrum. Complaints and stuff 18 over .500 … again. They were 16 over for the first time on July 5, after Umberger walked four and struck out one, but somehow wasn’t eaten by the Titans in a 1-0 game. They reached 18 over four days later when Quebell walked them off in the 11th inning against the Indians. Since then, they have been a .500 team so hard, they moved outside a +2/-2 band around 18 over .500 for a total of three days, and none of those consecutively. Some time ago I remembered Randy Farley, Carl Bean, Ralph Ford, Concie Guerin, Clyde Brady and so on, the somewhat good parts of the chronic loser teams from ’97 to ’06, and called them something derogatory, like Loser Brigade, or something like that. Turns out that Nick Brown always mingled well with that group. ** Nick Brown, no more use dead or alive than any other of the crap heads. Nothing more to say. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-12-2016, 08:22 PM	#1710
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	Raccoons (74-56) vs. Bayhawks (62-68) – August 31-September 2, 2009 Here comes another losing team from the CL South, one that we are so far not posting a losing record against this year, but at 4-2, anything can happen. They had the worst batting average (with the Raccoons giving them a good run by now), but were eighth in runs scored (hum…), while they were allowing the fourth-least runs, but overall their run differential was -26 (Coons: +51). Projected matchups: Nick Brown (11-6, 2.68 ERA) vs. Reynaldo Rendon (6-8, 3.74 ERA) Colin Baldwin (9-8, 3.40 ERA) vs. G.G. Williams (2-9, 5.16 ERA) Jong-hoo Umberger (10-6, 3.43 ERA) vs. Richard Williams (6-15, 5.03 ERA) G.G. is the only lefty scheduled to face the sorry bunch of losers right now, but of course September 1 is just 24 hours away. Game 1 SFB: 1B Catalo – 2B J. Perez – RF D. Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C Rosa – LF F. Guerra – SS McCullough – CF Covington – P Rendon POR: LF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Correa – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Brown I told Slappy to erect a screen in front of the big windows in my office, which I hadn’t left in four days, so I and Honeypaws wouldn’t have to watch the game. But Slappy didn’t do it, which was no surprise at all. Nobody ‘round here did what I expected of him, ever. Which brought us right to Nick Brown, who continued were he had left off on that sad Wednesday in New York, issuing two walks and pitching in many 3-ball counts in the first three innings, while striking out only Rendon (but at least that was with runners in scoring position to end the second). The Coons pulled two runs out of a hat in the bottom 3rd, with a Yoshi double the key piece in the inning. Brown struck out Guerra, McCullough, and Covington from the fourth into the fifth before allowing a 2-out double to Rendon and walking Leborio Catalo and Jose Perez. Don Cameron kindly grounded out to Quebell to strand the runners. Brown wasn’t entirely useless, however, leading off the Coons’ fifth with a line drive single to right, which allowed him to score on Tomas Castro’s home run, 4-0. Say, Tomas, where’s that power been all year!? Brown somehow got through seven innings despite as many walks as strikeouts (four apiece), but the Bayhawks got only five hits off him, one of which being a David Lopez double to start the sixth inning, and the Birds maneuvered him around to score, so Brown left the game with a 4-1 lead. Huerta pitched the eighth with minimal disturbance, but Angel had thrown almost 40 pitches in two days and Bruno was assigned the ninth inning. Bruno sat down Fernando Guerra before McCullough singled. With two outs, things got really tight. Omarion Thompson hit a bloop that bounced between Castro and Sharp, and then Leborio Catalo singled up the middle to represent the tying run on base. Jose Perez sent a drive to center, Trevino came in, and … caught it. 4-2 Brownies. Castro 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Alston 2-3, BB; Sharp 2-4; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (12-6) and 2-3, 2B; With August 31 in the books, the Loggers were eliminated from playoff contention, and rosters expanded for September play. The Raccoons added a select few players. SP Kenichi Watanabe (10-8, 3.70 ERA) was the last AAA backup to get a shot in 2009, Ted Reese rejoined the pen with a 3.29 ERA in AAA, and over 4 in the bigs. Ralph Myers (.283/.402/.417, 14 HR, 57 RBI) was added as pinch-hitter, as well as Ricardo Martinez (.399/.454/.611, 6 HR, 39 RBI) and Pete Schipper (.279/.367/.419, 1 HR, 6 RBI in 13 G). Game 2 SFB: SS McCullough – 2B J. Perez – RF D. Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C Rosa – CF DeBoer – 1B A. Gonzalez – LF Covington – P G.G. Williams POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 2B Correa – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Baldwin Baldwin pitched six innings, allowing a walk in every inning but one, and wouldn’t have been booked for a run if not for a passed ball on De La Plough with two out and Don Cameron on third base. That gave the Baybirds one run to the Coons’ none, as they had only managed to pile two hits on G.G. Williams through five innings. Baldwin retired two more in the top 7th before yielding to Fredlund, who allowed a terrible drive to right to McCullough, but that was sucked up by Luke Black’s glove. The Coons’ hour appeared to have come in the bottom of the seventh with leadoff walks to Quebell and Correa. Sharp grounded out before that catcher impostor drew another walk to load them up. Ricardo Martinez batted for Fredlund, drove the ball to deep left, but had it caught by Martin Covington on the warning track. Still, Quebell tagged and scored, at least tying the score, but Castro failed and flew out to shallow left. And so G.G.W. kept pitching into the eighth. Howell reached on a bloop single before Alston beat Jimmy DeBoer with a drive to center for a double. Howell was held ahead of the throw, but with two runners in scoring position and no outs, even I liked our chances. Black was walked intentionally, Quebell popped out, and I stopped liking our chances. Keith Ayers batted for Correa, fell behind 1-2 before ripping a ball to center. Going, going, GONE!! GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!! That wasn’t enough to win the game, however. Huerta came in, and DeBoer and callup Alfredo Gonzalez hit singles to go to the corners with one out, which prompted an appearance by Angel Casas, who struck out Covington and Antonio Luján to secure the win in this one. 5-1 Coons. Alston 2-4, 2B; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B; Baldwin 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K; Keith “Drama” Ayers. Good nick, I’m staying with it. Law has eight wins now, which is just one short of Baldwin’s total. Game 3 SFB: 1B Catalo – 2B J. Perez – RF D. Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C M. Torres – CF DeBoer – LF Covington – SS McCullough – P R. Williams POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Umberger Umberger was in trouble early after a Catalo single and Perez reaching on a Castro error, but Umberger managed to pitch through that and keep the Baybirds off the board. After that early scare, Quebell drove in the Coons’ first run in the bottom 1st before Howell zinged into an inning-ending double play. Richard Williams then loaded the bases with the first three Coons to show up in the bottom 2nd. Umberger whiffed, Castro popped out, but the inning would see a pair of bases-loaded, multi-run doubles hit by the Coons. Nomura doubled in a pair, Alston walked to reload the sacks, and the Quebell emptied them with another double, 6-0, both doubles through Catalo and into right along the line. Catalo’s black inning continued with an error on the next play that would have sat down Howell, but didn’t, and then Pruitt launched a 3-piece to ramp the score to 9-0. Catalo tried to make up for it with a leadoff jack off Umberger in the third inning, but that one would be hard to get back, especially since the Birds kept melting. The Coons got four runs off Zack Yeadon in the next two innings, with Castro doubling in a pair in the fourth, 13-2 at that point, and two more runs came across in the bottom of the inning. That lightened up my mood slightly. While the Bayhawks kept melting merrily, Umberger allowed three runs in six laborious innings before being relieved by Fredlund. We hoped for a 3-inning save, but at some point former starter turned reliever Joe Hollow, who by then had also bled three runs, hit a home run off Fredlund in the eighth inning, and that 3-inning save was called off. Ted Reese finished the game semi-competently. 18-4 Raccoons!! Castro 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 1-3, 2 BB; Quebell 3-3, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Howell 2-5, 3B; Pruitt 1-2, 3 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-4, 2 RBI; De La Parra 1-2, 3 BB, 2B; Schipper 1-1, 2 RBI; Raccoons (77-56) @ Loggers (48-84) – September 4-6, 2009 We were 8-3 on the division’s punching bags, who had lost their last four games compared to the Coons’ five straight wins. They were 11th in runs scored and 12th in runs allowed, and enough reasons to cry. Projected matchups: Javier Cruz (10-9, 3.34 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (7-8, 4.52 ERA) Nick Brown (12-6, 2.63 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-16, 4.69 ERA) Kenichi Watanabe (0-0) vs. Art Davies (3-2, 4.79 ERA) That’s three right-handed starters, and not necessarily their worst. Game 1 POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – P Cruz MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B Cambria – LF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B Tolwith – RF Delaney – 2B K. Scott – P Huertas Ron Alston hit his 30th bomb of the season in the first inning, a solo job for a 1-0 lead, that grew to 3-0 in the second, including a De La Pogo homer. The Loggers combined Huertas’ tendency to allow hard contact with grievous defense: in the fourth a horrendous throwing error by Aaron Tolwith helped the Coons to plate two more runs for a 5-0 lead. Not that Cruz was immune to hard contact: the Loggers had threatened in the first inning after hard singles by Hugues Cambria and Bakile Hiwalani, but had left them in scoring position, and they would do the same thing in the bottom 6th. Hiwalani went unretired against Cruz, but around him his team didn’t amount to much of anything. Both pitchers went seven innings with Cruz not being scored upon at all, while Huertas had given up five runs. He was replaced by Gabriel Caro in the eighth, who allowed Howell on base to start the inning. He was driven in by De La Polo with a single, but Castro would strand a pair of runners. Facing righty Micah Steele in the ninth, Alston hit a 1-out single before Pete Schipper batted for a hitless Black and hit another one of those huge bombs that raised hopes in Furballs fans across the Northwest and elsewhere. The Loggers never got another leg up against Rockburn and Reese as this game ended with a streak-lengthening shutout. 8-0 Critters. Alston 2-5, HR, RBI; Schipper (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Howell 3-5; De La Parra 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Myers (PH) 1-1, 2B; Cruz 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (11-9) and 1-3; Game 2 POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 3B Sharp – RF Schipper – SS Howell – 1B Myers – C De La Parra – P Brown MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 2B K. Scott – LF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – 3B Tolwith – 1B Lewis – RF K. Wood – C Baca – P R. Thomas It was quite frigid in Milwaukee, but dry, and Tomas Castro opened the game with a triple, and was stranded on third base, while Brown gave up three hits and two runs in the first inning, Tim Austin’s 1-out, 2-run double doing the honors. But in the top 2nd it would be De La Petticoat with a homer (for two runs) in back-to-back games to tie the score, and the Coons took the lead in the third. Nomura hit a leadoff double and scored on Alston’s single to left center. The line kept moving in the inning, with both callups in the lineup, Schipper and Myers, contributing RBI base hits for a 5-2 lead. Brown remained adrift, putting the first two Loggers on again in the bottom 3rd, but they went down flailing after that. Both teams didn’t put up much offense in the middle innings, but we got Castro on in the top 7th, and he stole second base. Yoshi came up, sent a liner to left that ate up Hiwalani and raced to the wall for an RBI triple and a 6-2 lead. The Loggers walked Alston intentionally, but that also backfired. Daniel Sharp saw a new pitcher in righty Enrique Mesa and lined a double into the left corner, plating both runners. Mesa would balk before whiffing Howell and Myers, then hit a single off Brown with two out in the bottom of the seventh. Brown finished the inning, kind of, when Alston made a head-first catch on Bartolo Hernandez’ liner to left, and was hit for with Matt Pruitt in the eighth. Pruitt doubled to put himself and De La Pincer into scoring position with no outs, soon enough resulting in two more runs and double digits in total. Huerta and Boda kept the Loggers away in the last two innings as the Coons won their seventh straight. 10-2 Brownies. Nomura 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Myers 2-5, RBI; De La Parra 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-2, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (13-6) and 1-3; Yoshi Nomura has a 12-game hitting streak. That was also the last game in this week. Sunday’s game was rained out, preempting Kenichi Watanabe’s first start in over 12 months. In other news September 1 – The season of TIJ SP Brian Furst (7-9, 5.16 ERA) is over as he is placed on the DL with shoulder inflammation. Whether he will be back by next Opening Day remains to be seen. September 2 – SFW 1B Raúl Bovane (.282, 15 HR, 71 RBI) knocks four hits, three of which leave the yard, and plates six in the Warriors’ 10-1 romp over the Miners. This comes just six days after TIJ Juan Diaz’ 3-homer game, the shortest gap between occurrences in league history. The Warriors hadn’t had a 3-HR game before. September 2 – IND SP Bob King (11-13, 3.54 ERA) might miss three weeks with a sprained ankle. September 3 – In a week of big achievements, LVA RF/LF Ricardo Garcia (.280, 18 HR, 100 RBI) hits for the cycle in the Aces’ 14-2 thrashing of the Falcons. He drives in six while collecting the four necessary hits for the cycle. This is the 44th cycle in league history, the second of the season (four months exactly after POR Adrian Quebell’s), and the third in team history after those by Mark “Icon” Allen in 1984 and Joe Morton’s in 1999. Complaints and stuff Nick “Blowup” Brown won his 110th game this week, pushed his career ERA under three, and is only four strikeouts away from 1,800. But he still blew our season. Indy’s Ryan Miller was CL Player of the Week, batting .448 with 7 RBI. Where have I heard that name before? Sunday’s game against the Loggers will be made up on the 14th in Portland, when our 4-game set at home becomes a 5-game set, and the Loggers will officially be the home team for one game. That’s in the middle of a string of 17 consecutive days without an off day (well, technically 14 now with the rainout), but with expanded rosters nobody cares a lot about that. Meanwhile we’re two wins away from reaching .500 for our franchise history… Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-17-2016, 02:09 PM	#1713
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	The Purple Poopers have come to town, and the Furballs are in a position to take the division lead from them. How will Coon City look by Sunday night? Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-17-2016, 03:33 PM	#1715
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	Today's featured picture on Wickedpedia: Nick Brown, still waiting for an answer from the clouds as to how, and goddamnit WHY?? In the background, Matt Pruitt, looking for his bat. Or maybe food. Who knows... Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-20-2016, 12:47 PM	#1716
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	The random blonde bimbo in the apricot blazer that was violently assaulting every bit of good taste, and that had cost her daddy a truck load of money to get her through college, penetratingly grins into the camera on the afternoon news on the local channel. “And that was Jeff with the weather.” His name’s Joe, and everybody knows. Her daddy is weeping somewhere. A picture of an excited raccoon appears on the screen behind her. “And today is also a big day in sports, as the Portland Maroons are trying to win their way into the ALB payoffs today. The team is trying to take another game from the Catalina Vanquishers – Yes, she actually just said that. “after last night’s shootout.” There’s probably no reason to worry about her future. It’s a local channel after all. “With the Baboons tied for first place with the North Dakota Conceptions – Probably, money wasn’t enough for her to finish college. She's got to have been somebody’s side hoe at some point. “… every game counts!” But she gets the point over, I guess? But I can’t stand her. Let’s flick over to NOISECAR. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

02-22-2016, 05:28 AM	#1719
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,744	2009 ABL PLAYOFFS After identical playoff fields in 2007 and 2008, only two of the teams that made the postseason back then also return in 2009, the Crusaders and Cyclones. The Knights and Pacifics replace the Falcons and Stars, respectively, after finishing in the second division in 2008 (and regularly for the last 20 years). The Continental League has won the World Series nine out of the last 11 years. Overall, the leagues are even (after the Federal League’s dominance in the 1980s) at 16-16. The 100-62 Crusaders are three-time total, and twice-defending World Series champions and are going to face the 82-80 Knights, who are one of seven teams to never hoist the trophy at season’s end. While the Crusaders had a hairy entry into the postseason, not locking up their berth in the CL North until the day after the end of the regular season, they seem to be in a good spot. They have no injuries and can bring a devastating lineup into play that scored 815 runs, clearly the most in the CL, in 2009. They do everything, batting for average, power, and also stole the most bases, with leadoff man Roberto Pena ripping 42 bags alone. The fearsome duo of Martin Ortíz (.330, 26 HR, 104 RBI) and Stanton Martin (.306, 22 HR, 95 RBI) in the middle can club its way through every pitching staff, and the lineup is dangerous all the way down to the #8 slot with Daryl Anderson still hitting 15 home runs. Their bullpen has three closers fighting for position, with Iemitsu Rin, Scott Hood, and Robbie Wills all pitching for ERA’s of 1.44 or better. If there’s ANY weakness to the team, it’s the latter half of the rotation, where 4+ ERA pitchers Elwood Spurrell and Ken Maddox are not quite maintaining a frantic pace of excellence. The team also starts 2008 POTY Greg Connor (14-16, 3.68 ERA) and the winningest pitcher in the league, Pancho Trevino (20-10, 3.29 ERA). How exactly the Knights want to stink up to the best offense and second-best pitching staff will be interesting to see. The CL South continued to be just run over by everybody as a whole, and consequently a 82-80 team made the playoffs. The Knights would have finished fifth in the CL North… Well, they had a potent offense, their 792 runs scored ranking second to the Crusaders in this regard, but oh boy, the pitching. They allowed almost as many runs, 761, ninth in the league. The rotation is led by sophomore southpaw Dave Butler (16-6, 3.35 ERA), who was their only pitcher not frequently getting clubbed. While the Crusaders have five relievers with a 2.50 ERA or better, the Knights don’t have ANY. Their bullpen consists of failed starters, seventh inning relievers in prominent roles, and a few guys that wouldn’t be allowed to carry the bag of baseballs on the Crusaders. It speaks volumes that they have four guys with eight saves or more on the year, but not because they could pick between different shades of excellence. The door just kept revolving on them. But they do have a middle of the order that can crack some scoreboards, led by Jose Morales (.334, 33 HR, 114 RBI) and Gonzalo Munoz (.259, 26 HR, 90 RBI), who was a key part of the dominant Titans in the first half of the 2000s. But their lineup gets soft at the bottom of the order, with three of the four infield spots being held by barely average players, who aren’t even flashing the glove. They also have 2B Carlos Martinez (.258, 21 HR, 98 RBI) out for the postseason with a strained hamstring, and one of their closers du jour, Paco Leoniedas (4.59 ERA, 11 SV) on the DL with a back strain for at least the CLCS. In the Federal League, the 1977 champions 94-68 Cyclones come off a season and are also going to face a team without championship honors, the 104-58 Pacifics. In fact, the Pacifics have never even made the World Series, being eliminated in the FLCS by the Buffaloes in ’81, the Miners in ’82, and the Capitals in ‘91. Only the Capitals went on to win the World Series. The Pacifics and their long history of futility nevertheless enter the postseason with the best overall record, rising from the ashes of the last two decades, which where entirely a lost cause for the team. They had the best pitching staff, allowing the least runs in the Federal League at 616 markers, while scoring 857 runs, third in the league. Their rotation was little short of awesome with Brad Smith (18-4, 2.34 ERA) and Ernest Green (17-6, 2.54 ERA) both vying for POTY honors, and where did rookie Bruce Mark (9-0, 2.39 ERA) come from?? They are complemented by old warhorse Curt Powell (10-17, 4.05 ERA). The pen is top-heavy, with the sixth/seventh inning somewhat of a problem for them. They have three batters with a clip of around .300 and 18+ homers in their lineup, with Jimmy Roberts (.309, 26 HR, 93 RBI), Stanley Murphy (.287, 21 HR, 112 RBI) and Errol Spears (.326, 18 HR, 106 RBI) contributing. But there are issues for them. They have a huge list of injuries. SP J.J. Wirth (11-9, 3.18 ERA) is out with shoulder inflammation, INF Victor Flores (.290, 5 HR, 79 RBI) has a forearm strain and will miss the FLCS, and they also have their #3 and #4 outfielders, Eddie Jackson and Tom Wilson on the shelf for the entire playoffs, giving a starter’s job to 31-year old Blair Harris, who has never had more than 223 AB in any season of his career. The Cyclones aren’t any healthier, which is bad for them since they aren’t any better in the first place. The team scored a few more runs than the Pacifics, 874 (2nd in FL), but we will get to their decimated lineup in a second. Their pitching ranked fourth, perhaps not by their own inability, but rather because of one of the worst fielding teams in the league around them. Not only that, but while the Cyclones hit for power, they stole a mere 32 bases, mostly by accident. The best ERA in the rotation is 18-11 Jack Berry’s 3.94, but everybody lingers around the four mark for them, except the old Titan Jason O’Halloran (12-12, 4.90 ERA). The bullpen is led by ace closer Ian Johnson (36 SV, 1.95 ERA), but lacks a great deal of star talent in the supporting roles, and even if they have the names, like Lawrence Bentley, Iván Lopez, and Bill Corkum, those guys are a combined 114 years old and posted sub-par seasons (in fact, Bentley and Lopez are the two active players with the most ABL service time accumulated). And yeah, their DL. With C Felix Hernandez (.255, 5 HR, 50 in an injury-riddled season), 1B Will Bailey (.389, 27 HR, 108 RBI), INF Bob Hall (.292, 4 HR, 52 RBI), CF Jose Silva (.334, 6 HR, 43 RBI), and utility man Alfredo Banda all out for the playoffs (except for Hall, who might return in a World Series for them), their lineup has been severely reduced. They have Ray Gilbert (304, 21 HR, 79 RBI), but are trying to get juice from a pair of 36-year olds, Georg Spinu (.335, 8 HR, 59 RBI) and César Gonzalez (.290, 22 HR, 102 RBI). Around them, the land is mostly barren. Predictions: Crusaders in five at most, Pacifics in six. * 2009 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Cyclones @ Pacifics … 9-1 … (CIN lead 1-0) … CIN Georg Spinu 3-4, BB, 2B; CIN Cesar Gonzalez 4-4, BB, 2B, RBI; CIN Artie Barnes 3-4; CIN Nathan O’Herlihy 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W and 2-4, 2 RBI; LAP Errol Spears 2-3, HR, RBI; Cyclones @ Pacifics … 7-2 … (CIN lead 2-0) … CIN Simon Morbidelli 3-6, HR, RBI; CIN Pedro Estrada 3-4, RBI; CIN Jack Berry 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W; the Cyclones lose Cesar Gonzalez to a back injury Knights @ Crusaders … 13-4 … (ATL lead 1-0) … ATL Jorge Garcia 3-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI; ATL Carlos Delgado 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; NYC Francesco Caraballo 3-4, 2 2B; Knights @ Crusaders … 2-6 … (series tied 1-1) … ATL Jose Morales 2-4, 3B; NYC Martin Ortíz 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; NYC Stanton Martin 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; NYC Elwood Spurrell 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W; Pacifics @ Cyclones … 5-6 (11) … (CIN lead 3-0) … CIN Pedro Estrada 3-6, RBI; CIN Max Nixon 4-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; CIN Iván Lopez 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K; the Pacifics score all their runs in the third inning before Cincy with the aid of 39-year old Iván Lopez on the mound rallies back Pacifics @ Cyclones … 5-6 … (CIN wins 4-0) … LAP Jens Carroll 3-5, RBI; LAP Stanley Murphy 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; CIN Pedro Estrada 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; CIN Roy Newman 3-4, RBI; Estrada’s slam off Bruce Mark caps a 6-run rally in the bottom 7th and wins the Cyclones their ticket into the World Series; Roy Newman, 27, was an 11th-rounder in ’02 and has never started a regular season game in the majors! Crusaders @ Knights … 2-11 … (ATL lead 2-1) … Crusaders @ Knights … 14-5 … (series tied 2-2) … NYC Roberto Pena 4-4, 2 BB, 2B, 3 RBI; NYC Julio Hernandez 4-6, RBI; NYC Stanton Martin 3-5, 3 2B, RBI; ATL Gonzalo Munoz 3-5, RBI; ATL Kevin Bond 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI; that is some gruesome pitching in this series! Crusaders @ Knights … 5-8 … (ATL lead 3-2) … NYC Stanton Martin 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; NYC Francisco Caraballo 4-5, 2B; ATL John Kelsey 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; ATL Julio Garcia 3-5; ATL Gonzalo Munoz 3-5; ATL Kenneth Younger (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Crusaders blow a 5-2 lead in the sixth Knights @ Crusaders … 1-7 … (series tied 3-3) … NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-4; NYC Elwood Spurrell 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 1 K, W; Spurrell’s outing is still the best pitched game of the series … Knights @ Crusaders … 8-10 … (NYC win 4-3) … ATL Jose Morales 4-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; ATL Gonzalo Munoz 3-5, 3 2B, 2 RBI; NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; NYC Sonny Reece 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; ATL blows leads of 5-0 and 7-3 and gets turned inside out in a 6-run bottom 7th; Sonny Reece has a the game-winning hit once more * 2009 WORLD SERIES Ya gotta love those Cyclones!! But boy, is it gonna be tough for them. They looked outmatched before the FLCS, which they swept, but how are they going to fare against the Crusaders? Losing César Gonzalez to injury in the FLCS isn’t going to aid their efforts, since their lineup is now almost completely bereft of sluggers outside of Ray Gilbert and his 21 home runs, who didn’t do a whole lot in the FLCS. The Crusaders remain injury-free, and their lineup might have more feast days against the Cyclones beleaguered pitching staff. These teams have never faced another in the World Series, mainly because the Cyclones didn’t get back there after their 1977 triumph over the Bayhawks. Yes, it has been 32 years. Predictions aren’t my thing exactly here, but I’m going to have to assume that the Crusaders will complete their 3-peat in six games at most. *** Cyclones @ Crusaders … 3-4 (12) … (NYC lead 1-0) … NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-5, 2B, RBI; NYC Melvin Dunn (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI (walkoff hit); NYC Robbie Wills 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W; Hood/Rin/Wills pitch five hitless innings after Greg Connor departs Cyclones @ Crusaders … 4-5 (12) … (NYC lead 2-0) … NYC Stanton Martin 3-6, HR, 2B, RBI; NYC Robbie Wills 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W and 1-1, RBI (walkoff hit); Wills’ double to Jose Silva is the only hit allowed by the closing trifecta in four innings, and, oh, yeah, he singles in Stanton Martin to win the game for himself, too Crusaders @ Cyclones … 1-4 … (NYC lead 2-1) … NYC Julio Hernandez 2-4; CIN Juan Garcia 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W and 1-3, RBI; Crusaders @ Cyclones … 3-1 … (NYC lead 3-1) … NYC Ken Maddox 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W and 3-3, 2 RBI; Crusaders @ Cyclones … 8-1 … (NYC win 4-1) … NYC Martin Ortíz 3-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; NYC Paco Battle 1-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; NYC Greg Connor 9.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W; So, yeah, the Cyclones didn’t have an extra base hit after game 2, became the fourth team after the 1995 Thunder, 1996 Raccoons, and 2008 Stars to sweep their LCS to lose the World Series, the Crusaders’ pitching staff is a Swiss Army knife, and their bullpen should be forbidden outright, but this doesn’t change the following, and that I’m bleeding inside, and that they tie the Titans with most championships now: 2009 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS New York Crusaders (4th title) Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.