Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

In early November two more arbitration candidates came off the table, as Pat Slayton signed for $275k, and Pat White inked for $260k. That left only Bednarski (the castaways aside), but I couldn’t even look at him. So much disappointment! I filed an $800k arbitration offer and turned to booze. Bednarski received the $800k during the hearing.

Our pursuit of outstanding hitting coach Zheng-Zhang Zhung (not his actual name, but close) turned out to be futile. He demanded half a million per year to turn this ragdoll cast around, and that was money the Raccoons weren’t going to pay to someone wandering up and down the dugout and shaking his head every once in a while.

We needed our money to find a shortstop, a right-handed setup man, and – as always – a mighty slugger of whom we’d then be terribly disappointed. The second base question was an interesting one. We did have Jason Bergquist in the wings, but he had not excited anybody in his cups of coffee, batting .200 over 60 AB with no power. He hit 14 homers in St. Pete in 2012, but that was probably a fluke. He did just not compare well to Yoshi Nomura. They were probably even on defense, although Bergquist was quicker with his hands than with his feet, although he had a quick first step and had swiped 24 bases over the last two minor league campaigns. In other words, he was exploding forwards, but moving sideways was not his strength, and his overall range at second base was nothing to forge medals for.

Another wicked idea would be to move Sandy Sambrano to second base, and look for a slugging leftfielder. Maybe another trash can signing like John Alexander, and like Luke Black a number of years ago. By the way, John Alexander would be a free agent… He was prohibitively expensive, though. That “rebuild value” thing that Angel Casas had agreed to had worked wonderfully for J-Alex, who was now seeking a fat deal in the $2.4M range and was probably going to get it.

The Raccoons had that special joker player in Sandy Sambrano, who preliminarily was penciled in for starting in leftfield, but could really start almost anywhere. Short and third were probably stretches for him, but he was still a backup there, but I wouldn’t dare to anoint him the starting shortstop.

Looking for an actual shortstop I stumbled over Rob Howell, who had been in Portland in that capacity at times before being dumped onto the Cyclones along with similar annoyance Logan Taylor, primarily for Cameron McSweeney, who had then been half of the bounty it took to get D-Alex from the Stars (the other being Brenda). While McSweeney had by now arrived in the Scorpions system after another trade, he still hadn’t made it to triple-A… And Howell had led the Continental League with 46 doubles and had somehow still wound up with a below-average OPS this season. It was kind of amazing.

Not amazing and perhaps only mildly surprising, the Indians and Hoshi Watanabe did not agree to a new contract and Hoshi became a free agent after all.

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November 4 – BOS RF/LF Ricardo Garcia (.269, 126 HR, 627 RBI) announces his retirement after suffering several setbacks in his attempt to come back from a torn back muscle. Garcia, 31, was an All Star and Platinum Stick winner in 2010, his last season with the Aces.
November 4 – The Indians deal INF Gary Rice (.277, 143 HR, 827 RBI) to the Rebels for 1B Jimmy Shank (.314, 18 HR, 153 RBI) and a third-rate prospect.
November 9 – After an unsuccessful Tommy John surgery and some emergency remedial work after that it is clear that the career of PIT SP Barney Manning (65-65, 4.21 ERA) is over. The 30-year old left-hander has announced his retirement.
November 12 – The Titans deal LF Javier Gusmán (.269, 135 HR, 846 RBI) to the Miners for 1B/3B Marc Williams (.278, 38 HR, 225 RBI) and a prospect.
November 13 – Another move by the Titans, who pick up MR Dave Hughes (24-22, 3.86 ERA, 88 SV) from the Aces for unranked outfield prospect Brian Skinner.
November 15 – 31-year old LF Apasyu Britton (.294, 36 HR, 436 RBI) returns to the Thunder in a deal with the Buffaloes, who also throw in prospect OF/2B Bill Gonzales, who was once ranked #57, but dropped out of the ranks last season. The Buffaloes receive 1B Jimmy Roberts (.282, 156 HR, 675 RBI).

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2013 ABL AWARDS

Player of the Year: PIT SS Tom McWhorter (.314, 35 HR, 110 RBI) and NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.316, 34 HR, 109 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: DAL CL Salvadaro Soure (5-2, 1.37 ERA, 43 SV) and BOS SP Tony Hamlyn (21-6, 2.03 ERA)
Rookie of the Year: SFW RF D.J. Fullerton (.274, 16 HR, 81 RBI) and MIL 1B Mike Rucker (.289, 26 HR, 96 RBI)
Reliever of the Year: DAL CL Salvadaro Soure (5-2, 1.37 ERA, 43 SV) and CHA CL Matt Collins (9-4, 2.45 ERA, 33 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P SAL Alonso Alonso, C CIN Jayden Jolley, 1B PIT Steve Butler, 2B WAS Alberto Rodriguez, 3B CIN Jesus Amador, SS PIT Tom McWhorter, LF SFW Jose Morales, CF LAP Jimmy Roberts, RF SFW D.J. Fullerton
Platinum Sticks (CL): P NYC Pancho Trevino, C POR Dylan Alexander, 1B ATL Gil Rockwell, 2B NYC Francisco Caraballo, 3B VAN Mitsuhide Suzuki, SS OCT Emilio Farias, LF NYC Martin Ortíz, CF TIJ Ryan Feldmann, RF SFB Ron Alston
Gold Gloves (FL): P TOP Jimmy Miller, C SAC Foster Leach, 1B LVA* Raúl Bovane, 2B DEN J.R. Kinkade, 3B TOP Pedro Cruz, SS DAL Armando Rodriguez, LF NAS Joey Kretz, CF RIC Danny Flores, RF DEN Bill Hiscock
Gold Gloves (CL): P BOS Tony Hamlyn, C LVA Eduardo Durango, 1B VAN Ray Gilbert, 2B MIL Oscar Sandoval, 3B SFB Javier Rodriguez, SS CHA Rich Ibarra, LF NYC Martin Ortíz, CF IND John Wilson, RF NYC Stanton Martin

*Raúl Bovane was traded from the Scorpions to the Aces in a little observed waiver deal in September.

[Westheim]

After free agents filed I tried to find some impact bat for the middle of the order, probably the #5 slot, assuming that we’d lead off with Carmona and Sambrano anyway, and with Yoshi gone would move Quebell to the #3 hole to hit into double plays.

One interesting guy was Washington’s Danny Munn, a corner outfielder that had only found his big stick in 2014 at age 26, but Calderón was keen on him. The Capitals had next to no pitching, neither in the Bigs, nor in the minors, but while I was readily willing to part with Rich Hood, they were really insisting on Hector Santos, and that was not going to work. Hood and either Ernesto Lozano or Jeff Magnotta seemed to work for a while, but ultimately they turned Lozano down as well, and I was not going to part with Magnotta, and when they traded for Charlotte’s Adrian Valencia on November 18, their half-hearted interest into Rich Hood waned as well.

Jack Berry turned out to be untradable pretty soon, but we had a surplus starting pitcher (and two by May) and had to move somebody somewhere. Well, for obvious reasons Nick Brown was not going to be it, Dickerson was injured and could not be traded anyway, and Santos and Toner also were not going to go anyway. That left Conway, Berry, and Hood, and nobody wanted a piece of Berry. Hood had been about league average in his first season and a half, and there had to be some value in that for some team, you’d guess.

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November 20 – The Raccoons trade 26-year old SP Rich Hood (17-20, 4.01 ERA) and 22-yr old AAA SP Justin Denham to the Cyclones for 29-yr old MR Ron Sakellaris (26-20, 3.30 ERA, 9 SV).
November 22 – In a puzzling trade, the Pacifics dump 35-yr old C Russell Lewis (.243, 6 HR, 67 RBI), who didn’t play in the majors in 2013, and cash onto the Falcons for 25-yr old recent Gold Glove winner Rich Ibarra (.243, 3 HR, 67 RBI) and #81 prospect SP Alex Silva.
November 23 – The Crusaders sign ex-LVA C Eduardo Durango (.290, 113 HR, 710 RBI) to a 2-yr, $3.24M deal. The 33-year old left-handed hitter should be a capable replacement for Gabriel Ortíz.
November 23 – The Aces sign ex-TOP CL Kevin Johnston (38-38, 2.78 ERA, 172 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.16M contract.
November 25 – The Capitals sign ex-POR 2B Ieyoshi Nomura (.290, 31 HR, 434 RBI) to a 7-yr, $18.48M contract. The Raccoons receive a second-round pick in return.
November 30 – The Scorpions sign ex-VAN SP Juichi Fujita (190-117, 3.41 ERA). The 32-year old right-hander will make $7.92M over four years.
November 30 – After splitting time between the Indians and Stars in 2013, 1B Mun-wah Tsung (.275, 148 HR, 620 RBI) hooks up with the Gold Sox, signing a 4-yr, $2.74M contract.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 15 players are taken over three rounds. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 1 – The Loggers sign ex-SAC C Foster Leach (.282, 35 HR, 357 RBI) to a 2-yr, $2.88M contract.

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The Capitals fishing Yoshi out of the free agent pond was the fourth-worst outcome for the Raccoons, who get the ninth pick in the second round, as the Capitals’ first-round pick is of course protected. Never mind the tears in general.

Sakellaris is signed for $690k in 2014, and has a $740k player option for 2015. He struggled early in his career, but has been very good in recent times, and I would call him something of a setup-plus pitcher, who could well be the closer if it weren’t for Angel Casas. Hood was maybe not the most expendable piece among our pool of starting pitchers, but nobody wanted Berry and so it was going to be Hood. Denham was a supplemental round pick in 2010 and was lit up to an 8.27 ERA in AAA last year, pitching out of the pen at the end of the season. Good luck turning that one around.

[Westheim]

Finding a slugger was a maddening, endless, joy-deprived experience during this winter of 2013-14. Even one with the most menial secondary requirements, like, you know, don’t kill your team while playing leftfield.

There were a few candidates, sure. But unless you could blow $2.5M on somebody to sign a Roberto Pena type (never mind his wrecked condition, which he shared with surprisingly many other players we investigated), you were going to have to make a few hard choices.

There was Pena, of course, rumored to demand about $2M. He was only 29, but owned six Gold Gloves, and had been part of the 2007-2009 Crusaders title trifecta. But his offense had let up in the last two years, and even worse, his body had as well. At 29 he was basically an old man.

Moving on to actual old men, there was 35-year old (moving hard on 36) Ken Potter. He had 253 career homers, but nobody in Portland had noticed, because every single one of them had been hit for a Federal League team. Offensively he was still productive, but there was the mild issue that his hip had given out just 17 games into the 2013 season and he had never made it onto the field again. His defense was pretty bad, he had no speed, and all you could hope for at best were a few dingers here and there. He had hit 18 when his body held up long enough for 120 games with the 2012 Blue Sox. 18 would have been already pushing for the team lead on the 2013 Critters.

Lionnel Perri, to be 37 on Opening Day, was perhaps a compromise candidate, but he was also a type A free agent, and the Raccoons – with chances for them sinking into oblivion well bigger than for them to make one last challenge before the lights inevitably would go out – were keen to keep their (lone…) first round pick in the 2014 draft.

There was one last guy in Earl Clark, 33, another player that had exclusively or almost exclusively played in the Federal League in this group. He had also missed half the season with a broken wrist and a quad issue, batting .319/.434/.458 for the Rebels. That was a rather common slash for him, and in a normal season, he would hit 15 dingers although his body didn’t look much like it, as he was rather short (5’10’’) and not too well packed with muscle. He also led the FL in triples in 2011 (one year after Jon Merritt, then a youthful 34, did it for the Coons in the CL), so he had a lot of aces up his sleeves. Problem was just that he was one of those $2.5M guys and the Raccoons couldn’t hope to land him. $2.5M was pretty much all they had available, and so far we had no backup infielders, no backup catcher that was not a joke, and the second base situation was dreadful at best. Clark was not eligible for compensation, however, probably because of the injuries, and was thus a perfect fit … for a team with $1M more in the bank. I blamed the Mexican Prick all the way here.

Yeah, the infield. Shortstop is a problem right now. Walt Canning can probably play it, although he’s a better third baseman. But third base is clogged already with Jon Merritt in his final year (turning 38 in May) and Matt Nunley fighting for recognition. Nunley’s cards looked pretty bad for 2014, though. He had batted .187 for the ’13 Coons, with a .227 slugging percentage. I was tempted to try a platoon between the two (Merritt was right-handed, Nunley left-handed), but Nunley was going to end up in AAA anyway with a bad April. He was a strong defensive third baseman, too, though, and Calderón was *very* confident as far his future was concerned and considered him a great steal for a fourth round pick. Well, he does not have home run power. He hit 16 dingers in the minors … since being drafted, three and a half years ago.

I like some power from the hot corner. I liked Mark Dawson … before he just died. I liked Ben O’Morrissey … before he turned into an asshole. Daniel Sharp was a nice player for other reasons. Cam Green’s defense always drove me nuts. Thinking about it, the Raccoons haven’t had THAT many third basemen in their history! Ed Sullivan was the positional leader from 1977 to 1979 before leaving for the Condors, and he hit for power, mashing 20 bombs in ’77. Then came Pedro Hermundo from the Crusaders, but only was here for a year before being turned into the Cyclones’ SP Jack Pennington, and amazing pitcher at that time, unfortunately unaffordable and flicked the Buffaloes halfway through the (sad) 1981 season for … Mark Dawson. Now, Dawson was moved all over the place, playing every corner competently, but between him and Cam Green we covered third base from 1981 through 1990. Green left halfway through, and Dawson was released during a dismal ’91 with O’Morrissey taking over, straight through mid-1997 and the full-blown collapse. Mike Crowe got the assignment after that, failed hard, and was canned by 1999. César Gonzalez, originally a first baseman, played there in 2000 (about his worst career year), before the Age of Sharp broke. 2008 and Ricardo Martinez (shivers) aside, Sharpie held down third base all throughout the 2000s. Then came Merritt, except for 2013, when Ken Rodgers got most of the playing time due to injury.

The only position with less change in the positional leaders in team history is first base: Wyatt Johnson (1977-1981), Matt Workman (1982-85), Tetsu Osanai (1986-92), Matt Higgins (1993, which was a stopgap thing, because he was really not a first baseman, and led in appearances at second base every other year from 1989 through 1994), Esteban Baldivía (1994-95), Liam Wedemeyer (1996-98), the aforementioned César Gonzalez (1999), Al Martin (2000-05), and Adrian Quebell (2006-13). Really, the 90s were a mess, but not as bad as the interlude between David Vinson and Craig Bowen behind the plate. Eight years during which the Raccoons unveiled a new primary catcher at least twice per season. Brrrrr.

Yeah, back to the present times. Second base is another problem. Now, if we can’t get a slugger, Sambrano plays leftfield, so second base is going to be either a different acquisition, or Jason Bergquist, who batted .200 during his callups in 2013. Calderón thinks he’ll be useful, but that’s not how he talks about Nunley.

But if we’re assuming that the Raccoons don’t go anywhere in 2014, which is extremely likely, it might not be a bad idea to stick Bergquist to the keystone, split the left side of the infield between Merritt, Nunley, and Canning, and just find a quality backup that can play all over the infield again. Preferrably one less bitchy than Rodgers.

Then the Raccoons might still pursue Earl Clark, but then Jason Seeley has to go. Not that I am sad to see his backside. We had mildly high hopes for him, but he flew under the radar consistently in all three partial season with the Raccoons. 600 PA, not even close to league average, and he’s 27. Anything you turn him into might probably be a gain. (Then, the same thing might be said for Pat White) All you needed was to find a team dumb or desperate enough to take a flyer on his alleged potential. There I was, always having assumed that the only “potential” you had left at 27 was for grey hair, incontinence, and death.

Turns out the Titans were stupid enough. On December 4, we had a deal of Seeley for backup catcher Randy Porter plus a middling prospect when I got greedy and wanted two middling prospects. Their GM, Travis Adamietz – a few years ago an intern for the Raccoons! – said he wanted to think about it, then traded for Rodrigo Lopez overnight and as quickly as that Jason Seeley was no longer required by them. And I had forgotten to bring by bat with rusty nails sticking out to the winter meetings.

That was even before the Titans swooped up Earl Clark. The Raccoons hadn’t even yet figured out a way to make a sensitive offer to him. While the Titans more or less won the winter meetings, the Raccoons were left wondering why the lid of that garbage can kept falling down again and again, and onto their tiny paws.

Finding a right-handed backup catcher was no joy, either. I trade to trade for the Gold Sox’ Gary Brown and the Wolves’ Morgan Little during the winter meetings, but all they cared about was Ricardo Carmona. Sure. The Gold Sox had literally nobody that could be hoped to play centerfield next year, and they refused to even consider Jason Seeley or Pat White. Nope, Carmona or bust!

Among free agents was Raúl Hernandez, who had been the Loggers’ primary catcher the last few years. Now, it’s the Loggers! I’d be cautious to sign the Loggers’ former primary janitor as a backup to Slappy, and certainly there had to be flaws with Hernandez, a Gold Glove winner in 2012 and also owner of a 2010(!) World Series ring. Sure they were flaws! He was a very good defensive catcher, had no real home run power, but had hit almost 30 doubles on average the last three years. But he had also led the CL in strikeouts in 2012 and 2013 and his OPS had been in the .610s either year. But for a team that had not a lot going for itself, he was probably not a bad signing…

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December 2 – The Scorpions swipe former local and divisional rival INF Adriano Lulli (.266, 96 HR, 713 RBI), who was with the Pacifics for a number of years. He gets a 1-yr, $750k deal.
December 3 – The Pacifics console themselves with 37-year old ex-DAL 1B/3B Dennis Berman (.283, 283 HR, 1,343 RBI), who agrees to a 2-yr, $3.6M contract.
December 3 – The Thunder pick up 29-year old ex-SAC/SFW SP Jorge Gine (94-72, 3.63 ERA), who won 15 games in 2013. He is bound to receive $16.08M over six years.
December 4 – Big free agent name off the table: former Titans SP Tony Hamlyn (275-159, 2.59 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $7.08M contract with the Warriors. The 38-year old southpaw sits at 3,697 career strikeouts, just 86 behind career leader Martin Garcia.
December 4 – The Thunder want all the pitching! They ink 36-yr old left-hander Ralph Ford (152-187, 4.05 ERA), last with the Stars, to a 3-yr, $4.5M deal.
December 4 – Ex-Titan 2B Jesus Ramirez (.256, 36 HR, 305 RBI) becomes a Crusader. The 28-year old gets a 3-yr, $4.78M contract.
December 5 – Another new Crusader is unveiled, with ex-RIC SP Colin Sabatino (31-53, 3.97 ERA) signing a 5-yr, $8.3M contract.
December 5 – The Titans don’t hold back, either, acquiring 33-yr old LF/RF Rodrigo Lopez (.291, 53 HR, 769 RBI) from the Scorpions for four prospects, including #2 prospect RF Michael Matos, a 19-year old Cuban in A-ball.
December 5 – The Indians acquire INF Ryan Dawson (.259, 40 HR, 281 RBI) from the Wolves, along with cash, while parting with SP Aaron Walsh (22-16, 3.87 ERA).
December 6 – More new players in the CL North, as the Titans add ex-RIC LF Earl Clark (.312, 125 HR, 860 RBI) for 2-yr, $4.48M, and they also acquire MR Jeff Lyon (3-5, 3.53 ERA) from the Gold Sox for a second-rate prospect.
December 7 – It doesn’t stop for the Titans, who sign 34-yr old OF John Alexander (.287, 198 HR, 925 RBI), who split 2013 between the Raccoons and the Falcons, to a 2-yr, $3.72M contract, and add 2B Jose Gutierrez (.284, 4 HR, 115 RBI from the Wolves for OF/1B/SS Dylan Grindstaff (.242, 5 HR, 29 RBI) and a minor leaguer.

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So far the Titans have parted with 32 players. It will be a completely new team in 2014. The Coons’ lone addition remains Ron Sakellaris.

I also made an offer to J-Alex during the winter meetings. Two years, $3.4M guaranteed, $3.8M with incentives. Was snubbed.

What else? Tomas Castro hooked up with the Condors on a very cheap 1-year deal. He only made it into 45 games with the Scorpions in 2013, battling hamstring woes. Coonskinner Alexis Legendre is out of the division, signing with the Falcons.

[Westheim]

After the winter meetings, which were quite sobering and made me vow never to return to Boston unless forced, and also made me vow to never spend another five minutes of my life in a clear state of mind, I grieved for a day or two, then continued the hunt for personnel.

Tom Dahlke had been a trade target for the Coons a few years ago. A versatile infielder, who also had experience in leftfield, Dahlke was a career .230/.303/.398 batter with 108 homers, who had just turned 30. Feast or famine was the battle cry for this right-handed former Ace, but his right-handedness was the main problem. If he had been left-handed or a switch-hitter, we would have pursued him, but I was looking forward to maximize platoon advantages for the 2014 Raccoons. We already had a platoon going at third base, and … well, that was largely it. Dahlke was no help to us, four Gold Gloves be damned.

Looking for an actual shortstop that was not right-handed was an impossible task as well. I was looking for somebody not already a hundred years old, that wouldn’t kill the Raccoons defensively, and bat at least his own weight. The possibilities were frighteningly few between. Sadistically, Ken Rodgers topped Calderón’s list of candidates. Well, there was also the Crusaders’ Jorge Ortega, who had won four rings with them as a career backup and could best be described as decent throughout and a switch-hitter. The Crusaders knew of his value of being very versatile (playing all infield positions and both corner outfield spots in a pinch) and demanded enough (Carmona…….) in return that talks led nowhere nice.

Can people please accept that Ricardo Carmona is the Coons’ and won’t change being the Coons’ for the forseeable future? That would actually be very pleasant!

No regrets anymore over killing our 2011 first round pick with the Morales signing and subsequent flip to Capitals for the bundle including Carmona. **** Travis Bahner.

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December 14 – The Stars sign ex-CIN 1B/3B Jesus Amador (.252, 84 HR, 555 RBI). The 35-year old will receive $6.4M over three years.
December 19 – The biggest remaining free agent – arguably – goes off the table as ex-BOS SP Curtis Tobitt (148-61, 2.70 ERA) inks a 2-yr, $6.88M contract with the Thunder. His previous team, the Indians, had also been in the running.
December 19 – The Cyclones pick up ex-DEN CL Luis Hernandez (60-44, 1.87 ERA, 390 SV) for $7.6M over three years.
December 19 – 35-year old ex-PIT MR Kevin Wanless (59-53, 2.60 ERA, 233 SV) lands a fat 3-yr, $7.92M contract with the Crusaders.
December 22 – Another closer for the Cyclones, because you can never have enough. Ex-CHA Matt Collins (35-18, 2.78 ERA, 84 SV) inks a 1-yr, $1.96M contact with Cincy.
December 22 – 22-year old ATL OF J.J. Reams (.184, 0 HR, 3 RBI), the 28th overall pick in the 2011 draft, announces his retirement under tears after suffering a shattered elbow making a headlong catch on a Wes Ladd line drive in a meaningless game in September.
December 26 – Veteran closer Iemitsu Rin (52-39, 1.88 ERA, 332 SV), a 35-year old ex-Titan, signs a 3-yr, $8.6M contract with the Rebels.

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Dahlke signed with the Falcons in mid-December. The Coons hadn’t made an offer. The Titans picked up Ken Rodgers, and the Raccoons damn sure wouldn’t make an offer to him. The Raccoons had an offer out there for ex-Titan Jesus Flores, but he sure enough had fallen asleep since receiving it and Christmas came and Christmas went and the Raccoons hadn’t anything to show off outside of Ron Sakellaris.

[Westheim]

Doubtlessly the other 23 GM’s in the league had formed a conspiracy to only trade with the Raccoons if any of them could get Ricardo Carmona in return. They would then meet and cut him into 23 pieces of equal volume.

On New Year’s Eve I rung up the Buffaloes about Justin Nickel. A completely marginal right-handed batting outfielder with no track record and little skills whatsoever. The Buffaloes were going nowhere with or without him, but a trade for Nickel would not happen unless they could nip Carmona in return. Okay, if pushed hard and begged for long enough, they would graciously accept Hector Santos, but only as a favor to the Raccoons.

Can’t you just all get off my back? Maybe they’re just still pissed for trading Neil Reece 25 years later… That COULD be. I’m still frosty over the Raúl Castillo trade. Which brings us to the Hall of Fame voting … at the bottom of this dispatch.

Looking for a left-handed batting middle infielder to complement Canning and Bergquist (resignation sinking in…) I came across the Elks’ Jaylin Lawrence, not much of a hitter but a good defensive middle infielder. The Elks had read their emails, though, and knew they were required by 22 other GM’s to ask for Ricardo Carmona, so that deal fell through swiftly.

There was a switch-hitter on the Capitals, 24-year old Salvador Orellana, that could help us as well. It was not the usual list that was sent back, mainly because they couldn’t afford Santos due to budget constraints, but Carmona was on it, along with Vic Mercado and Graham Wasserman. Mercado, 18, is pitching in A-ball after being signed in the 2012 international free agent period. There is some promise with the kid. No way I’m parting with a starting pitcher with some promise for a backup middle infielder that drops his bat randomly in the box.

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December 31 – 33-yr old RF/LF/1B Jorge Garcia (.272, 215 HR, 925 RBI) switches allegiance in the CL South, moving from the Knights to the Falcons on a 4-yr, $5.9M contract.
January 3 – Ex-BOS/NYC Jesus Flores (.273, 145 HR, 899 RBI) signs a 1-yr, $500k contract with the Stars.
January 4 – The other part of the deal that sent Jesus Flores to New York mid-season, ex-NYC/BOS Roberto Pena (.282, 58 HR, 403 RBI), hooks up with the Gold Sox. The 29-year old signs a 5-yr, $7.6M contract.
January 5 – The Bayhawks come to terms with 38-yr old LF/RF Mohammed Blanc (.322, 125 HR, 960 RBI), who agrees to a 1-yr, $2.08M contract. Blanc, a career Miner until 2012, spent ’13 with the Thunder.
January 6 – The Indians deal SP Sam McMullen (13-26, 4.62 ERA) to the Canadiens for two prospects.
January 8 – 32-year old 1B/3B/RF Kevin Bond (.265, 54 HR, 416 RBI) rejoins the Crusaders on a 1-yr, $1M contract. Bond, who missed most of his 2013 Miners campaign with injuries, played for the Crusaders from 2010 through 2012.
January 9 – The Stars gobble up ex-DEN/WAS LF/RF Lionnel Perri (.263, 233 HR, 1,232 RBI). The 36-year old receives a 2-yr, $4.24M contract.
January 14 – Former Indians closer Helio Maggessi (26-26, 2.68 ERA, 82 SV) hooks up with the Scorpions on a 2-yr, $2.82M deal.
January 23 – The Raccoons sign ex-MIL C Raúl Hernandez (.237, 21 HR, 183 RBI) to a 1-yr, $300k contract.
January 29 – The Stars sign ex-CHA Fernando Chavez (.318, 134 HR, 836 RBI). The 36-year old gets a 3-yr, $3.12M contract.

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But hey, at least the Raccoons managed to sign a living strikeout. Things could probably actually be still worse.

No they couldn’t.

Oh well, Sandy Sambrano can cover the middle infield. He can cover short, second, left, right, first, center, and when he’s covered all that he can cover for Steve from Accounting when the allergy season is coming up, and also for Slappy, because it’s goddamn ****ing dirty in here!

The Coons actually received a trade proposal in late January that did not involve Ricardo Carmona, but rather the Scorpions attempting to dump the mostly dead contract of Francisco Soto onto them, along with a minor league chump, for Bill Conway. Nah.

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2014 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The Hall of Fame ballot was properly torn apart in 2014, with about equal parts of the candidates being either elected to the Hall, staying on the ballot for next year, or dropping from the ballot right away. There were a whopping five new members of the Hall of Fame!

CHA SP Carlos Castro – 1st – 89.0 – INDUCTED
NAS SP Dennis Fried – 2nd – 86.6 – INDUCTED
SAC CF Aaron Jenkins – 2nd – 86.0 – INDUCTED
TOP SP Arnold McCray – 9th – 83.6 – INDUCTED
MIL SP Neil Stewart – 7th – 80.4 – INDUCTED
POR CF Neil Reece – 4th – 55.1
OCT SS Bob Grant – 1st – 43.2
MIL 2B Jim Stein – 1st – 39.3
SFB CL William Henderson – 3rd – 25.6
BOS LF Jose Martinez – 7th – 17.0
WAS CL Jesus Longoria – 1st – 6.3
RIC C Arturo Aguilar – 1st – 3.6 – DROPPED
LAP SP Angel Romero – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
DEN CL Cory Maupin – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
DAL 2B Rodrigo Morales – 3rd – 2.7 – DROPPED
IND CF Forest Hartley – 2nd – 2.7 – DROPPED
ATL CL Enrico Gonzalez – 1st – 0.9 – DROPPED
PIT CL Roberto Delgado – 1st – 0.6 – DROPPED
IND SP Chang-se Park – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED

The Hall’s population grows to 34. Castro is the first Falcon inducted, McCray is the first Buffalo, and Stewart is the first Logger. Dennis Fried joins Horace Henry as second Blue Sock, but the Scorpions now form the biggest faction with four players as Jenkins joins Parker Montgomery, Juan Correa, and Hector Atilano.

Teams still without Hall of Famers are the Crusaders, Wolves, Aces, and the Bayhawks. Only the Crusaders have a reasonable player coming up any time soon, SP Anibal Sandoval in 2015.

The 2015 and 2017 ballots look ordinary as a whole, with two damn-sure first-ballot Hall of Famers on the latter in BOS Jason O’Halloran and CIN Dan Morris, while 2018 will have a swath of that Loggers core with Jerry Fletcher, Cristo Ramirez, and Bakile Hiwalani. Also, Javier Cruz (for the Blue Sox) and Antonio Donis (for the Gold Sox). The insane ballot coming up will be 2016, though. 20 players on the preliminary ballot, including a no-doubter in MIL Martin Garcia and lots of so-so players that could clutter the ballot for years and years. Neil Reece’s last chance at election might be 2015. And I think we all agree he’s not a true Hall of Famer after all and mostly a vanity project to keep alive on the ballot by one particularly sad-faced GM.

[GoodOlKevin]

Where can I steal your cap and jersey? I LOVE it

[Westheim]

Somewhere in there are all the ABL logos: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ee-taking.html

+++

February 1 – The Raccoons and 30-yr old utility player Palmer Taylor (.237, 3 HR, 26 RBI), who last played in the Bigs with the Loggers in 2011, agree to a $212k contract for 2014.
February 12 – Former Cyclone SP Jeremiah Bowman (106-110, 4.40 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $2.24M contract with the Miners.
February 13 – The Raccoons acquire 30-yr old OF Joe Cowan (.244, 45 HR, 353 RBI) and 22-yr old AA/AAA C Danny Margolis from the Buffaloes, parting in return with 30-yr old LF/RF Brett Gentry (.281, 3 HR, 17 RBI in 196 AB) and 31-yr old OF Pat White (.289, 14 HR, 156 RBI).
February 14 – The Bayhawks sign ex-NYC C Gabriel Ortíz (.278, 109 HR, 966 RBI) to a 1-yr, $312k contract. San Francisco was the 38-year old backstop’s first major league team from 1998 through 2003.

+++

Palmer Taylor is that left-handed complement to our middle infielders, although there are of course notes to attach here. There’s no reason to claim he will get the Raccoons anywhere, because he won’t. He wasn’t good enough to stick on the Loggers when he was 27 years old, his defense has a few holes, and he has neither power nor speed nor anything else I like about a player. He might find himself dumped by May if he dares to hit .147 …

The Raccoons have had their trash can signings for certain infield positions that worked out splendidly (Winston Thompson, 1983, f.e.), but this is not one of those cases, sadly. Taylor hit .268/.325/.337 between the Loggers AA and AAA affiliates last season. (Okay, Winston Thompson had not played big league ball in three years rather than two, but just believe me on this one)

The Joe Cowan trade came by accident, more or less. I tried to clear a few of those 30-year olds that populated the fringes of the 40-man roster (which had only one empty spot), and the Buffaloes surprisingly bit when I offered Brett Gentry, who hasn’t done anything in his career. Truth be told, they tried to clear that $1M that Joe Cowan was due in the last year of his contract. For that, I made them eat two 30-year old fringe players, and added a second-rate catching prospect in return. Margolis might or might not make the major league roster one day – Calderón leans to the latter scenario – but at least we got *something* out of Gentry and White. Cowan does everything that White does, but a tad better. He hit 12 homers in 157 games with the 2011 Stars, but that was an outlier. He batted for a league-average .720 OPS in 2013, but his first year in Topeka was a bit of a chainsaw massacre, batting .216 with only 14 extra base hits before going down with a torn labrum on June 30, 2012.

If anything goes wrong with either Sandy or Carmona, Cowan figures to take over the centerfield starting job. Bergquist would be another candidate for “if anything goes wrong”, in his case also extending to “if he bats .205”.

With that, the offseason was about over for the Raccoons, who still had money to spend, but nobody to throw it at, and still had obvious holes, like second base in particular and their lineup in general, but had no means of patching them, since apparently the only way to improve the team was by selling what in only a few years might be the very best players on the team for pennies on the dollar for some complementary piece.

One month to Opening Day. Nick Brown is going to pitch. I’m so excited I could just wet myself.

What else?
• Matt Pruitt hooked up with the Indians on a $222k deal in mid-February, a few days after …
• Al Martin latched back onto a CL North roster for $246k promised by the Titans. Al is 37 now and after hitting 142 home runs for the Raccoons in six-and-some years during the dark times, he’s only hit 23 in the eight years since, bouncing from janitor assignment to mascot assignment and back.
• Marcos Bruno, 38, snatched another $750k from the Warriors after suffering through a year-long nightmare (4.87 ERA) with the Capitals in 2013.
• At the end of the month, Daniel Sharp picked up a $278k gig with the Knights. He still has a shot at 2,000 hits, sitting 244 H out. Sharpie will turn 37 in June.

[Westheim]

March 20 – The Titans sign veteran reliever Valentim Innocentes (23-28, 3.26 ERA, 157 SV) to a 1-yr, $590k contract. Innocentes spent his career with the Bayhawks for the most part.

+++

For the Raccoons there was only one interesting development in March, and it concerned their rotation come Opening Day. Daniel Dickerson had been rehabbing that blasted shoulder in Florida all winter long, and in early March declared that he was going to be healthy and take the ball in the first series of the year. Ivan the Druid lit some psychedelic candles and called to the spirits to see whether that was going to be a wise idea, but couldn’t find anything wrong when an owl spirit appeared to him, with bleeding eyes, and cast a die with little lightning symbols on all sides.

Oh well, that probably means we have a Jack Berry to spare. There wasn’t a team in the league interested in that $880k contract, however. Although, maybe, some were assuming that that contract would be available on waivers by April…

The odd thing with left-handed starters being few and far between… the Opening Day rotations for the Continental League teams show *seven* left-handed starting pitchers (including Brownie), four in the North (Brownie, Indy’s Chester Graham and Tristan Broun, and the Elks’ Sam McMullen), and three in the South (ATL Dave Butler and the Thunder’s Ralph Ford and Ed Michaels). That’s just 12% of SP jobs in the CL being occupied by southpaws. In the Federal League, there will be 16 left-handed pitchers in the rotations, a healthier 27%.

[Westheim]

2014 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2013 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Nick Brown, 36, B:L, T:L (2-4, 3.10 ERA | 168-101, 2.85 ERA) – Nick Brown blew out his elbow last May 19 and the Raccoons’ season was over. It also looks like it’s over for the hitter-murdering Nick Brown of old; after rehabbing the injury, Brown lost four miles an hour off his fastball, and things might become harder for him, especially that 3,000 K thing, where he sits almost 400 out and the clock is running. This is a contract year for Brownie.
SP Daniel Dickerson, 36, B:R, T:R (0-1, 1.04 ERA | 146-125, 3.35 ERA, 1 SV) – the signing of this grizzled veteran with the unfortunate injury history was a gamble in the first place, but that Dickerson would literally pitch eight innings and drop dead in 2013 was a bit unexpected. We know that Nick Brown will be reduced, but nobody knows much about how Dickerson is right now, since he literally got healthy five minutes before the season started.
SP Hector Santos, 25, B:S, T:R (7-11, 4.05 ERA | 26-28, 3.87 ERA) – had a disappointing season, where the peripherals like walks and strikeouts (K/BB close to 5) did not match up at all with his overall results. 2013 would have been the chance for Santos to step forward and announce his #1 starter ambitions, but he did anything but. He certainly has the stuff, but he seems to lack the mental ingredients of being a successful pitcher.
SP Jonathan Toner, 23, B:R, T:R (5-5, 3.40 ERA | 5-5, 3.40 ERA) – Toner made his debut mid-season after the Raccoons had placed their fourth starting pitcher on the DL, and after some initial struggles held up well to the end of the season. Had control issues in the minors, but put up a 3.5 K/BB in his 12 major league starts.
SP Bill Conway, 28, B:R, T:R (8-10, 3.72 ERA | 35-45, 4.12 ERA, 2 SV) – a flurry of injuries brought Conway back into the rotation early in 2013, and while he’s not quite as flashy as other pitchers, he held his ground remarkably well and stayed in the rotation through to the end of the season with the best ERA for a qualifying pitcher on the team – of which there weren’t many.

MR Tom Constantino, 28, B:R, T:R (5-1, 3.86 ERA, 1 SV | 8-14, 5.21 ERA, 1 SV) – ordinary right-hander, capable of long relief, claimed off waivers from the Loggers(…!) in the middle of the 2013 season.
MR Pat Slayton, 28, B:R, T:R (7-1, 3.67 ERA, 1 SV | 13-5, 2.74 ERA, 2 SV) – some people never shake off that rule 5 smell, and Slayton is one of those; he was demoted several times in AAA, only to always swiftly return due to another fellow pitcher dropping to some ailment. He is out of options now.
MR Josh Gibson, 28, B:R, T:R (7-7, 3.94 ERA | 13-9, 3.62 ERA) – did a decent job in various roles in the first season in which he reached 60 innings in relief. He’s not exactly overpowering anybody, and occasionally walks people, but that’s not bad for somebody who was drafted as a position player.
MR Manobu Sugano, 29, B:L, T:L (5-1, 3.45 ERA, 4 SV | 9-3, 2.59 ERA, 6 SV) – decent relief man with a high strikeout rate, but unfortunately also with control issues that became worse in his second season in the ABL.
SU Ron Thrasher, 26, B:L, T:L (2-1, 2.49 ERA, 1 SV | 11-10, 2.32 ERA, 5 SV) – blessed with an executioner’s stuff, but saddled with a drunkard’s control, Thrasher has the better stuff and gets the assignment over Sugano in the left-hander ranking, but to be fair, overall they don’t give another much. Neither is a sound option with the bases loaded.
SU Ron Sakellaris *, 29, B:R, T:R (5-2, 2.14 ERA, 1 SV | 26-20, 3.30 ERA, 9 SV) – acquired in a trade with Cincinnati, Sakellaris promises to keep the eighth inning clean with a blistering 98 mph fastball and a nasty curve.
CL Angel Casas, 31, B:S, T:R (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 SV | 17-19, 1.65 ERA, 368 SV) – vanished onto the DL just five innings into the 2013 season and only reappeared with the 2014 Coons on a 1-year deal to rebuild his value and catch that big contract after this season.

C Dylan Alexander, 29, B:L, T:R (.301, 20 HR, 68 RBI | .275, 67 HR, 254 RBI) – missed time on the DL (just like everybody vaguely useful in ’13), but put up a strong .892 OPS when able to play. Also not a bad defensive catcher at all, although Craig Bowen, finally departed, had the better throwing arm.
C Raúl Hernandez *, 29, B:R, T:R (.221, 5 HR, 46 RBI | .237, 21 HR, 183 RBI) – Hernandez was added as backup to D-Alex, despite being the horrendous Loggers’ primary starter for three years.

1B Adrian Quebell, 31, B:L, T:L (.290, 17 HR, 83 RBI | .293, 120 HR, 632 RBI) – three more years for Quebell to take his double play bat elsewhere. Still has very good defense, and has odd bursts of power, where he can hit six bombs in ten days and then not one more for six weeks, but overall his tendency to ground to short is excruciating and draining.
2B Jason Bergquist, 24, B:R, T:R (.200, 0 HR, 3 RBI | .200, 0 HR, 3 RBI) – and here it is, the replacement for the dearly beloved Yoshi Nomura. His defense might be comparable, his bat isn’t and won’t, and he’s perhaps the bigger part of a ghastly picture up the middle for the ’14 Coons. Still qualifies as rookie.
3B/SS Walt Canning, 28, B:R, T:R (.275, 4 HR, 32 RBI | .260, 6 HR, 55 RBI) – despite not being much of a batter, or a good defensive shortstop, Walt Canning has wound up with the starting shortstop job for the 2014 Whiskerchops. May the baseball gods be kind to us all.
3B Matt Nunley, 23, B:L, T:R (.187, 0 HR, 4 RBI | .187, 0 HR, 4 RBI) – on the hot corner, another rookie candidate in Matt Nunley. Hasn’t hit the cover off the ball at any level, but we still think there’s power potential waiting to be tapped. He is however an excellent third baseman, very adept with the glove, and with good range.
1B/3B Jon Merritt, 37, B:R, T:R (.265, 0 HR, 9 RBI | .268, 60 HR, 762 RBI) – not much is left of the player who hit 18 triples in his first year in Coon City. Now in the last year of his 5-year deal, Merritt has diminished in most aspects and unless Matt Nunley brings salt sticks to the plate will not get a qualifying amount of at-bats in 2014. He didn’t in 2013, either, thanks to yet more injuries. Misery for him started when he tried to *pitch* in a dispiriting loss.
2B/SS/3B/1B/RF Palmer Taylor *, 30, B:L, T:R (did not play in majors | .237, 3 HR, 26 RBI) – signed as free agent more for his versatility than his bat that he last got to show off on the last-place 2011 Loggers – a theme not uncommon for the 2014 Raccoons.

1B/LF/2B/CF/RF/SS Sandy Sambrano, 26, B:S, T:R (.264, 4 HR, 49 RBI | .277, 7 HR, 146 RBI) – once Matt Pruitt showed that he was completely unhelpful, Sandy got most starts in leftfield in 2013 already and it looks a lot like it will be so again. Together with Carmona, the most asked-for young player in the major leagues, he forms a deadly running combo atop the order.
LF/CF/RF Ricardo Carmona, 22, B:L, T:R (.320, 3 HR, 57 RBI | .312, 3 HR, 76 RBI) – the Jose Morales bonanza a few years ago has already worked out when you look at this young Panamanian pony, racing along the beach and gnawing through opposing pitchers. Carmona won the Continental League stolen base competition in his first full season in the Bigs with 45 sacks taken (while being caught an ugly 28 times), but could be even more of an annoyance to opposing teams if he weren’t so swing-happy and would work a few more walks. But maybe this wisdom will come with age; he’s still a kit tripsing around on unsure paws after all.
RF/LF Mike Bednarski, 27, B:R, T:R (.265, 13 HR, 63 RBI | .275, 69 HR, 307 RBI) – the disappointment of the 2013 season as far as additions that did not end up on the DL were concerned, Bednarski was right up there at the top of the list, posting a career-worst OPS of .748, and also career-worst numbers in most other countables you like in a slugger.
LF/RF/CF Jason Seeley, 27, B:L, T:R (.220, 2 HR, 10 RBI | .226, 12 HR, 67 RBI) – if nothing else, the mildly talented Seeley is persevering, and now that he has run out of options might be able to stick to the roster for more than two weeks at a time. Yet, his track record with the bat doesn’t hit at future success. A free swinger that hits few home runs and strikes out a lot, Seeley leaves much to be desired.
LF/CF/RF/3B Joe Cowan *, 32, B:L, T:R (.250, 6 HR, 45 RBI | .244, 45 HR, 353 RBI) – acquired from the Buffaloes in a move that saved them salary and contracted the fringes of the roster for the Raccoons, Cowan is an adept defender, but not that much of a hitter, and his injury track record is also not exactly pretty.

On disabled list: No major league players, but AAA C Alexis Crespin starts the season on the DL recovering from a torn posterior cruciate ligament.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Jack Berry, 33, B:R, T:R (7-6, 4.50 ERA | 107-89, 3.79 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; acquired in trade from the Indians after Nick Brown went on the DL in May, but soon ended up on the DL as well, and with Dickerson unexpectedly ready at the start of the year, Berry is the odd man out.
SP/MR Sergio Vega, 33, B:R, T:R (6-5, 2.60 ERA | 9-12, 3.61 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; despite the most dubious set of abilities, Vega has been with the Raccoons for long enough to be considered inventory, but almost doubled his 116 career major league innings he had before the season in 2013. When injuries had decimated the rotation, Vega stepped up and for about six weeks befuddled hitters and even maintained a mild scoreless streak of almost 30 innings before falling apart in September.
MR Derrek Fredlund, 28, B:R, T:R (0-2, 4.26 ERA | 3-4, 4.69 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; appeared in only 12 innings for the Coons in 2013 after not getting a nod at all in 2011 and 2012. If he could somewhat make that nasty knuckling curve of his go in the approximate direction of where it was supposed to go... but he really can’t.
C Tom McNeela, 25, B:L, T:R (.242, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .255, 0 HR, 12 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; middling defensively, not a real game changer offensively, and waived on Opening Day for the second year in a row. That’s what you get for 66 AB without an RBI in the previous season.

Opening day lineup:
Vs. RHP: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Brown
(Vs. LHP: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – SS Canning – C Hernandez – 2B Bergquist – P Brown)

Depending on how bad Bergquist will be in comparison to Palmer Taylor, the assignment against right-handed pitching could change. Also, if Bergquist scuffles and we get production from a backup outfielder, Sandy Sambrano would move in from leftfield to open up space there.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The Raccoons had a pretty bad offseason, not netting one significant addition to the team. When the best addition you can point at is a non-closing relief pitcher, you did it wrong. There would have been room for improvement or at least limiting the damage of Yoshi Nomura’s departure, but the middle infield spots badly degraded compared to the previous seasons, and we will see what we can get between Nunley and Merritt on third base.

The Raccoons “won” the offseason by WAR according to BNN last season, so **** BNN, kindly. This year, the loss of Nomura was enough to put the Raccoons into a giant hole there was no way out of and they finished the offseason in 18th place by WAR gains, or rather losses, dropping 4.0 WAR, not quite the setback incurred by Yoshi’s unfortunate departure (-4.8).

Top 5: Gold Sox (+12.3), Warriors (+5.0), Knights (+4.7), Buffaloes (+4.3), Crusaders (+4.0)
Bottom 5: Aces (-5.3), Wolves (-5.9), Indians (-6.1), Titans (-8.1), Falcons (-11.2)

PREDICTION TIME:

Not expected to factor into the race even last season, the Raccoons quickly shed body parts left and right and trudged towards an uninspired 84-78 finish, their seventh consecutive winning season, and probably their last for a while.

You have to hold it to some of the replacement pieces that stepped up, the Toners and Vegas and even Cannings on that 2013 roster, but overall fun baseball was hardly ever displayed to the Portland audience in 2013, yet it could have been MUCH worse.

The issues with the roster are glaring. The top two pitchers are both 36 years old and come off huge injuries, as does the closer. The other starting pitchers are either prone to meltdowns (Santos), unproven sophomores (Toner), or guys alternating good and horrendous years (Conway) – and for Conway, a horrendous year is due. There are way too many outcasts that the LOGGERS didn’t want anymore on this roster. There are two sluggers on it that hardly ever slug and love to hit into 6-4-3’s. The entire infield is a total mess. We have a pair of exciting young outfielders, but that’s largely it. Chances are that between Toner, Bergquist, and Canning at least one will have a decent season, but two might bomb and be gone by May. The lineup is a huge concern. The Raccoons didn’t score in 2013 with Yoshi, and now they have … Bergquist.

Another flush of injuries will be even worse this time, because the replacements are far between compared to last year, especially in terms of outfielders and starting pitchers. But even if the Raccoons stay healthy, they will have to give their all to make it to .500.

Best guess: the Crusaders run away with the North. The Loggers and Indians were already irrelevant, and the Titans shed a tremendous amount of talent and might well drop into a bottomless pit this year (just look at their Opening Day starter, Toshiro Uenohara). Maybe the general weakness of the North will lend the Coons a hand in 2014, and if they keep things together otherwise and Brownie and Dickerson get a combined 1,300 people out for a change, then this team could finish 84-78 again. But for that, all things have to click. Another injury-ridden roller coaster of sadness, three starting infielders consistently batting .210, or old age showing on the key pitchers, and the Raccoons will tumble into the cellar. And how likely is it for all things to click? All things haven’t clicked for this team in almost 20 years.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Unfortunately enough for a team glaring into the abyss, the Raccoons’ farm system ranks only 16th in the sport, up two ranks from 2013, with the number of ranked prospects increasing from seven to ten for the first time in a number of years. Of the seven ranked prospects from last year, a few are no longer on the list: #17 Jonathan Toner (service time), #187 Andy Hackney (traded) are gone.

19th (new) – AAA SP Graham Wasserman, 23 – 2011 first round pick by Stars, acquired in trade for Colin Baldwin, Michael Palmer, Craig Bowen, and Andy Hackney
46th (new) – A SP Vic Mercado, 19 – 2012 international free agent signed by Raccoons
56th (+85) – A 2B/SS/LF Tony Viera, 19 – 2012 international free agent signed by Raccoons
100th (+28) – A OF Edgar Hernandez, 21 – international discovery by Whitebread
114th (+23) – AA SP Jeff Magnotta, 20 – 2012 first round pick by the Raccoons
116th (+73) – ML 2B Jason Bergquist, 24 – 2008 supplemental round pick by Cyclones, acquired in trade with Ricardo Carmona, Mike Cook, Gary Dupes, and Joe O’Brian for Jose Morales and Luis Beltran
150th (new) – AA SP Ernesto Lozano, 21 – international discovery by Falcons, acquired in trade with Will West, Cory Massey for John Alexander and cash
188th (-148) – AAA SP Gary Dupes, 24 – 2008 fourth round pick by Cyclones, acquired in trade with Ricardo Carmona, Mike Cook, Jason Bergquist, and Joe O’Brian for Jose Morales and Luis Beltran
192nd (new) – A CF/RF Andy Bareford, 19 – 2013 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
199th (new) – AAA C Danny Margolis, 23 – 2009 supplemental round pick by Buffaloes, acquired in trade with Joe Cowan for Pat White and Brett Gentry

Re:Jonathan Toner I have a scouting update from Calderón that indicates that not Santos, but perhaps TONER will be our next young ace. His ratings look similar to Nick Brown’s in his hey day, with the exception that Brown had four “blue”-ish pitches, and Toner has only three and an alibi changeup. His velocity is up to 98 mph. Maybe he’s the guy to be excited for in the future. Just ignore the fact that he’s already had elbow surgery…

The top 5 overall prospects this year are Salem’s A OF Justin Quinn, San Francisco’s A OF Dave Garcia, TIJ ML SP Estevan Leon, TOP AAA LF/RF/3B Saverio Piepoli (#4 also last year, and #1 in 2012), and Sacramento’s ML 3B Jason LaCombe.

Next: first pitch.

There were two errors in last year's prospect things; Jeff Magnotta was listed as AAA then, but he was still in single-A, and Calderón was given credit for bringing in Viera, which he didn't.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons will open the 2014 season with a 9-game homestand starting on Tuesday.

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 8-10, 2014

The Titans finished second in 2013, but they have bled their two best starting pitchers, and also a few odd bits and pieces here and there. No Tony Hamlyn, no Curtis Tobitt anymore. The Titans are predicted to drop back to the second division, although then again, outside of the Crusaders everybody in the North is predicted to drop back or stick to the second division.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (0-0)
Daniel Dickerson (0-0) vs. Ian Rutter (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Ramón Jimenez (0-0)

That’s three right-handers to start the season, and to be precise, the Raccoons won’t play a team with a left-handed starter until the second weekend of the season, when they could potentially face Sam McMullen.

And now, please turn your attention to the mound and the first pitch of the 2014 season, and the first pitch thrown by Mister Nick Brown in exactly 323 days.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – 1B Hayashi – RF R. Lopez – CF J. Alexander – 3B M. Williams – P Uenohara
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Brown

To the home crowd’s delight, Nick Brown struck out Mike Rivera and Earl Clark in a perfect first inning. He held the Titans to a Rodrigo Lopez double the first time through, but Uenohara was perfect through three, which was not quite to the home crowd’s delight. That situation didn’t get better, and the Titans would get doubles by Toki Hayashi to lead off the fifth, and Marc Williams later in the inning, but by then Hayashi had already scored on a passed ball and John Alexander’s sac fly. Uenohara had retired a dozen straight, but then was unexpectedly singled to death in the bottom of the inning. The Raccoons unpacked five singles, starting with D-Alex and Bednarski, with Canning tying the game with his, and Bergquist producing the lead with his single. Brownie singled to load them up, then took out Jose Gutierrez on Carmona’s grounder to short to allow another run to score, 3-1, before Carmona was caught stealing with runners on the corners to end the inning.

Brownie, playing hard, put in an almost vintage performance and went seven innings of 1-run ball, with the last two innings ending in double plays. Sakellaris made his Coons debut in the eighth inning, with Williams reaching with a leadoff single. The tying run came to the plate, but the Titans didn’t get any more, with Williams being stranded on third base eventually. Even more dicey, the ninth. Angel Casas hadn’t pitched since last April, and the Titans got a double from Earl Clark right away. “Quasimodo” Suda grounded out to Angel, but then Hayashi singled to center, where Joe Cowan had replaced Carmona. Cowan fired home – and Clark was out at the plate. What a throw! Angel then struck out Rodrigo Lopez, and the Raccoons put their opener away as a W. 3-1 Brownies! Alexander 2-3; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-2;

Just to get everybody back on track, this was Brownie’s 169th career win, his ERA dropped to 2.85, and he now has 2,611 strikeouts.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – 1B Hayashi – RF R. Lopez – 3B M. Williams – P Rutter
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson

Dickerson was ravaged from the very start. Rivera tripled and scored on Jose Gutierrez’ single, and the Titans quickly added a Suda single and a 2-run double by J-Alex to lead 3-0. All hits were hard ones, and even Earl Clark’s out was quite hard to center. J-Alex stole third base (!) and scored on Hayashi’s groundout, and the inning ended with a 4-0 score against the Coons. Rutter had a 1-2-3 first, but Dickerson was a mess of royal proportions. He loaded the bases in the second inning, with the third runner appearing when he smacked an evading Earl Clark in the hand, but initially that pitch had been heading right for Clark’s nose. Clark went down and winced, and was eventually replaced by Zachary Thurman. Suda came to the plate angry and hacked madly, producing a foul pop that was easily caught by D-Alex to end the inning. The Titans had Dickerson on the ropes again in the fourth inning, leaving runners on second and third when Thurman flew out to Sandy.

The Raccoons then got their first extra base hit of the season (‘bout time) in the bottom 4th, when Adrian Quebell slugged a leadoff jack, unfortunately only slightly cutting into the Titans’ 4-0 edge. Dickerson soon restored the old 4-run gap anyway. The Titans hit three singles off him in the fifth for Marc Williams to drive in their fifth run of the game, and Dickerson was not heard from again after the inning ended, conceding five runs on 12 hits. The game was not quite over, however, and the Raccoons would have the tying run at the plate in the sixth inning after Rutter had walked Sandy (who got forced by Quebell), D-Alex, and Bednarski. That meant, however, that Nunley was up, 0-for-5 to start the season, but that dire run ended with a hard RBI single to center on an 0-2 pitch. 5-2 Titans now, and Canning got them to 5-3 with a sac fly. Constantino was in the #8 hole after pitching the top 6th, and was now hit for with Joe Cowan, who was also behind 0-2 before coming through against Rutter, smashing a huge bomb to right that was OUTTA HERE and flipped the score to 6-5 for the Critters! The fun didn’t stop here, as the Coons continued to chew up Aurelio Hernandez. Palmer Taylor singled, Carmona ended an 0-for-7 to start the season and doubled into the right corner, and Sandy scored them both with a 2-run single to center, 8-5, a 7-run outburst!

We then made the grave mistake of handing Pat Slayton a ball that was not a squeaky dog toy, and instantly paid for it with a 2-run homer by Lopez in the top 7th. Slayton had issued a leadoff walk to Suda, who was forced by J-Alex, who was then caught stealing, and it STILL was not enough to nurse Slayton through an inning. Hayashi singled, Lopez bombed, 8-7. Gibson would concede the tying run with a pinch-hit leadoff hack by Pancho Ybarra in the eighth, and infinite sadness was about to break out. Gibson somehow wiggled out of the eighth after allowing another hit, and also conceded a leadoff single to Thurman in the ninth. Sugano came in and got a double play from the left-hander Suda, and the Titans remained in the tie, bringing up the top of the order in a tied game in the bottom 9th, but also their closer Tommy Wooldridge. K-armona, K-ambrano, K-Alex, extra innings. Bottom 10th, Wooldridge walked Bednarski to start the inning. There was nobody left to run for him (only backup catcher Raúl Hernandez, the only Critter yet to see action this season), and K-erritt, K-anning, K-owan, the inning was over. – Hey, Titans! Your closer is filthy!! – Now I told them!

Hernandez got into the game in the bottom 11th. Carmona had doubled off Valentim Innocentes and was on third base with two outs and Ron Thrasher up in the #3 slot. K-ernandez, on to the 12th! Here, the Raccoons abstained from Angel Casas (worried about breaking him right away), Sakellaris (not desperate enough), and instead gave the ball to Bill Conway, who was not due to start until Saturday, and could probably spin two innings. He actually pitched three, retiring the first eight batters he faced quite quickly before Suda hit a full count double to left center, and J-Alex battled him extensively before grounding out to Taylor at second to end the inning. Sandy was on in the bottom 14th, and was caught stealing (Coons in 2014: 0-for-2). Then it was Sakellaris’ turn to get burned on the pyre of no-offense-for-anybody, at least until the 17th inning, when the Titans ended a few hours of futility when Suda reached on catcher’s interference while striking out to open the inning and Hayashi then hit a 2-run bomb. Sakellaris, exhausted, even had to bat in the bottom 17th, popping a soft line to center that J-Alex dropped for a 1-out baserunner and the tying run appearing. Watch them now tie the game and play until sunrise; or maybe Dylan Alexander will go to 0-7 with a double play. 10-8 Titans. Sambrano 3-7, BB, 2 RBI; Taylor 2-6; Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K; Conway 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

We’re two days in, and I’m already frustrated. The Titans out-hit us 19-11, and we struck out 16 times.

Earl Clark was out for a few days with a hand contusion. Not that the Titans would need him to beat us. They also had played Al Martin in extra innings, when everybody had long gone home except for the poor players, and Al went 0-3 with 3 K.

Raúl Hernandez would already get his first start of the season on Thursday, after D-Alex caught every inning of the 17-frame nightmare and was a bit toast the next morning.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – RF R. Lopez – LF Garrison – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – 1B Hayashi – 3B M. Williams – 2B K. Rodgers – P R. Jimenez
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – CF Cowan – C Hernandez – SS Canning – P Santos

The doctor prescribed a good, long outing from Hector Santos for this game, but things were laborious for him and the Titans managed to run a lot of long counts after going down quickly in the first. They already took a 1-0 lead in the second, Hayashi plating Alexander, and Santos’ control was questionable with a lot of 3-ball counts. Sandy Sambrano was the first Coon on base in the game – a single in the first – and also the second Coon on base in the game – a walk in the fourth – and then stole second base despite the Titans knowing he’d go and calling a pitchout. Sandy was still safe and scored on Bednarski’s double to left, tying the score at one, and they quickly took the lead on Joe Cowan’s RBI single to center.

Bottom 6th. Quebell, one of plenty of Brownshirts batting well under .200 early on, hit a double to center to get going. The Titans put Bednarski on intentionally to get to Nunley, who was also sitting at .125 and made it worse with a soft line right to Mike Rivera. Cowan struck out and Hernandez flew out easily to right, wasting a perfectly good chance to build on a 2-1 lead. Santos knocked against 100 pitches in the seventh, got two outs on deep flies and was replaced when lefty Ken Rodgers came up, whom Sugano whiffed to end the inning. Light rain started a bit later and intensified in the top 8th, where there were two outs, nobody on, and Josh Gibson was 3-2 on Rodrigo Lopez before the tarp came on, albeit just for a quarter of an hour. Gibson walked Lopez, Rudy Garrison – back with the Titans after five years in the Federal League – singled, and Angel Casas was brought out for a 4-out save, starting with Suda. Who popped out to Walt Canning. Bottom 8th, Quebell produced an insurance run with a homer off Innocentes, who then conceded a double to Bednarski. Nunley was walked intentionally (!?!), Palmer Taylor, having entered in a double switch with Angel, walked unintentionally, and the bags were full with nobody out in a 3-1 game. The Coons scored two more on Hernandez’ sac fly and a 2-out RBI single by Jason Seeley, which opened up the opportunity to bring another guy in to get Angel off his legs, but now he was already in there and – no, Angel, go ahead. J-Alex singled on an 0-2 pitch to start the inning before Hayashi hit a 1-2 bomb, and instantly the Titans were back in the game, 5-3. Williams and Rodgers struck out before Simon Stevens walked. Rivera was Angel’s last batter in any case, chipped a 1-0 pitch to short, and Canning just barely was able to contain it and make the play. 5-3 Critters. Quebell 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Bednarski 2-3, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Seeley 2-2, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Falcons (1-3) – April 11-13, 2014

While the Raccoons held last place in batting average early in the season, they at least held a share of first in the North, while the Falcons brought up the rear in the South. They had the second-worst batting average and were also 11th in runs scored early on. (With the Coons, it was a factor of that long game on Wednesday, because they were actually tied for third in runs scored) The Falcons’ pen had been completely ablaze in their first set with the Thunder, ravaged for an ERA of almost seven.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Scott Spears (0-0)
Bill Conway (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Steve Kreider (0-1, 1.13 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (0-0, 8.44 ERA)

Three right-handers for them, as expected. We’ll have to see what Conway can give us on Saturday after throwing over 40 pitches on Wednesday. It might be prudent to hold Pat Slayton out of the opener to have a long reliever to piggy-back with Conway, who might not be able to give us more than five innings, if that much.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Best – CF E. Anderson – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – LF J. Jimenez – SS R. Miller – RF DeBoer – C M. Roberts – P Spears
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Toner was wobbling from the start, and the Falcons left pairs of runners on base in the second, third, and fourth innings, with Toner’s stick costing the Raccoons an inning-ending double play in the bottom 2nd. Nobody scored early, but perhaps the Coons could do something with Bednarski’s leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth. He was on third with two outs when Bergquist got four wide ones, but Toner then wrestled a really unintentional walk from Spears, bringing up Carmona, who was not hot at all out of the gates and hit a liner to left that was probably a single, but Jose Jimenez – normally a strong defender – tried to catch it, but couldn’t reach it. It bounced through between his glove and his private parts and rolled another 25 feet behind him, allowing Carmona to coast into second base with a bases-clearing double! On the mound, Toner’s issues didn’t subside. Steve Best had a leadoff single in the fifth, and he walked both Eric Anderson and Jose Jimenez before Ryan Miller grounded out to Canning to strand three more Falcons in this 3-0 game. Canning added a run in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out RBI single that cashed in Quebell, who had hit a leadoff double. Toner had a double play turned for him by Canning in the sixth, but then put on Spears with a 2-out single, and that was enough. His incompetence at a basic level ironically also removed Canning from the game in a double switch, since the #9 spot was to lead off the bottom 6th. Palmer Taylor came in, singled, as did Carmona, but Sandy and Quebell popped out. D-Alex came up against a new pitcher, right-hander Pedro Vargas, and crushed a 2-1 pitch for a huge 3-run homer, 7-0. The Coons added another run in the seventh, while the Falcons remained shut out, although Sugano walked the first two batters in the ninth in a desperate attempt to hand them *something*. 8-0 Raccoons. Carmona 4-5, 2B, 4 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Bergquist 1-2, 2 BB; Taylor 1-1;

Game 2
CHA: RF Puckett – CF E. Anderson – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – SS R. Miller – 2B Best – LF Nieves – C M. Roberts – P Kreider
POR: LF Carmona – CF Cowan – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Merritt – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

The Coons got all from Conway they could ask for, with six scoreless innings spun by the bulky right-hander. Alexander threw out a base stealer in the fourth, Bednarski gunned down a runner at third base in the sixth, but he also struck out a bunch. Unfortunately, the Raccoons failed to generate any meaningful amount of offense to help him out. Instead, Jon Merritt generated a throwing error in the seventh that put Thrasher in a hole, and Pat Slayton was definitely the wrong guy to try and dig him out. He allowed a 2-out, 2-run double to KREIDER. Slayton only escaped being beheaded because the Coons rallied for three in the bottom 7th, with Jon Merritt doubling home D-Alex, the tying run scoring on a wild pitch by Kreider, and Carmona gave the Coons the lead with a 2-out RBI single to left, 3-2. Palmer Taylor had again replaced Canning in a double switch again and cracked a 3-run homer off Bobby Guerrero in the bottom of the eighth to open the score considerably. The pen was still reeling from the second game of the season and so Angel Casas was brought in despite a 6-2 lead, and promptly allowed a run on a walk and two singles before extinguishing Carlos Martinez as the tying run with a strikeout to end the game. 6-3 Coons. Merritt 4-4, 2B, RBI; Taylor 1-2, HR, 3 RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1; Conway 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K;

Game 3
CHA: CF DeBoer – C R. Lewis – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – LF J. Jimenez – SS R. Miller – RF E. Anderson – 2B Dahlke – P R. Carter
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Cowan – C Hernandez – SS Taylor – 3B Nunley – P Brown

For once, the Critters scored early. Sandy hit a single in the first, made it to second when Jimmy DeBoer fumbled the ball, and wound up scoring on Bednarski’s triple into the gap in right center. Cowan singled, 2-0, but then went to 0-2 in stealing bases. Another out on the base paths was made in the bottom 2nd, also ending that inning, when Raúl Hernandez was thrown out trying to score from second base on Brownie’s single. The Falcons had no runners the first two innings, but Eric Anderson yanked a leadoff shot in the third inning, and Brown ended up walking Tom Dahlke, who was brought around by the crew, scoring on Russell Lewis’ single, which tied the score at two. The Raccoons would continue to sparkle with offensive ineptness in the middle innings, too. Quebell hit into a double play, then his next time up was involved in a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Sambrano. Brownie did not allow base runners, but couldn’t get support. The Falcons were still held to two hits in the seventh inning, when Jose Jimenez struck out on some filth that was borderline in a 3-2 count, barked, and was tossed. Chris Puckett came on.

The Coons had runners on the corners after a Hernandez double and Taylor single in the bottom 7th. Nobody out, Nunley (.133) up. The Falcons weren’t going to move the right-hander Carter, but Nunley was drifting and not hitting anything, and Jon Merritt hit for him. He grounded to second, Taylor moved up, Hernandez held, and Merritt was out. Brown then worked a walk to fill the bags for Carmona, who flew out to DeBoer, but that was deep enough for Hernandez to dash home with the go-ahead run. Sandy walked, but Quebell flew out to right, not being a big help. The Coons had two on in the eighth, but Taylor hit into a double play, and now yesterday’s move to Angel Casas backfired, since he unavailable to protect a 3-2 lead. Sakellaris got the ball, facing the 2-3-4 batters. Jorge Garcia and Puckett were left-handers, so Thrasher was already told to drop the chips and stretch. Sakellaris allowed two hard liners, Lewis’ falling in for a double and Martinez’ being caught by Cowan. Thrasher came on, with the Falcons hitting for Garcia with Domingo Nieves, an odd move. Thrasher struck out Nieves, walked PH Alexis Legendre, but then got Miller to ground out to short. 3-2 Brownies! Sambrano 2-2, 2 BB; Bednarski 4-4, 3B, RBI; Hernandez 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Brown 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (2-0) and 1-2, BB;

Raccoons (5-1) vs. Aces (3-3) – April 14-16, 2014

The Aces were third in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed after a tiny week of the season, and the Raccoons were the best team by record in the Continental League. We got the first call to reserve World Series tickets this Monday. Might be a bit early. Let’s play the Crusaders first.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. Jimmy Young (0-0)
Hector Santos (1-0, 1.35 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (1-0, 2.57 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (0-1, 3.38 ERA)

No southpaw to find in this rotation.

Game 1
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – 1B Bovane – SS Burke – CF Kelsey – LF Zachery – RF Struck – C D. Rice – P Young
POR: CF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – SS Canning – LF Seeley – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson

Sandy hit a single to get the Coons into the H column at their first opportunity, stole second base, but was left on third base. No other player reached base until Merritt drew a 4-pitch walk to start the fourth. Quebell then chipped a ball to second base that was not fast enough to be a double play – or any play. Howard Jones had to hold on, and the Coons had two on, nobody out, and .167 cleanup man Dylan Alexander coming up. D-Alex hit another ball to Jones, THAT one sure looked like a double play, but Brent Burke dropped Jones’ throw and again the Aces got nobody. Jimmy Young forced in the first run of the game when he hit Bednarski. Canning hit into a run-scoring double play, but Seeley hit an RBI single to build a 3-0 lead. John Kelsey ended Dickerson’s no-hit bid with a double right away in the fifth inning, and would come around to score before long. Brent Burke homered the next inning to tie the game. More trouble developed in the seventh, with Rusty Zachery singling, Geoff Struck doubling, and the Aces had two in scoring position with nobody out. Dickerson remained in for Danny Rice, who struck out, and the Aces didn’t move their pitcher, who also struck out. Left-handed batter Ron Richards hit for Ricky Avila then, prompting an appearance by Manobu Sugano, and another strikeout. The Coons also stranded two in their half of the seventh, coming from a Sandy single and an error by new third baseman Wade White, the Aces’ third E in the game. The game went to the ninth tied, nobody scored, and Sakellaris pitched a perfect 10th as well. Sandy got on with a leadoff single in the bottom 10th and reached second when Merritt grounded out. Cowan hit for Sakellaris against lefty Kevin Johnston, walked, but neither D-Alex (F9) nor Bednarski (K) could come through. Thus we had arrived at the Pat Slayton part of the bullpen, who got the 11th and however long it would take him to lose this one. Slayton threw only five pitches to four batters in the top 11th, which was perhaps saying something about his deceptiveness. Bottom of the inning, Canning hit a leadoff single. Seeley bunted him over, Taylor flew out to left. Carmona had been in the #9 hole for a while. He floated a ball to shallow right, where it dinked in well ahead of Geoff Struck. Canning was being sent all away and Struck had to be quick – but he dropped the ball on the transfer, and the Raccoons walked off on the Aces’ fourth error of the game. 4-3 Furballs. Sambrano 2-4, BB; Sakellaris 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – 1B Bovane – RF Richards – SS Burke – CF Kelsey – LF Zackery – C D. Rice – P N. Jones
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – SS Canning – C Hernandez – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – P Santos

The Coons threw up a quick 3-spot despite Carmona getting caught stealing and remaining SB-less in 2014, with Nehemiah Jones being all over the place and issuing three walks in the inning. Canning singled in a run, and Hernandez singled home a pair. Santos struck out the first four Aces batters in the game, then walked Burke and allowed a run on Kelsey’s double, 3-1 in the second. Jones continued to struggle real bad with control. He reached six walks (and no strikeouts) when he lost Carmona in a full count in the bottom 4th; that loaded the bases. Sandy’s slow grounder escaped Jones for an RBI single, 4-1, before Quebell hit into an inning-ending double play. Right, Adrian? Everybody does what he does best!

Santos, who had started like a race car, ran out of fuel in the middle innings and barely made it through six innings. Kelsey was the tying run with runners on the corners in the sixth, but grounded out to Quebell to end the inning. Michael Sieben issued three walks in the bottom 7th, but Carmona was caught stealing AGAIN and the Coons didn’t score. In turn, the Coons’ pen came close to imploding in the eighth inning. Gibson allowed two doubles to left to Ricky Avila and Howard Jones, got yanked, and Constantino waved home the second run with a single to Raúl Bovane. He also walked Struck, with Thrasher coming out to face Kelsey, who was hit for with right-hander Bobby Diersing, who chipped an 0-1 pitch to short for a double play to let the Coons escape in a 4-3 score. The meltdown wasn’t over, however, since Angel professionally blew the save with a leadoff walk to Zackery, and then singles by PH Adam Flack, that tied the game, and Ricky Avila, that would have given the Aces the lead if Carmona hadn’t thrown out Flack at home. Carmona got on, had his pants full and didn’t attempt a steal anymore, and the Raccoons didn’t score in the bottom 9th.

Now our wisdom was limited to going back to Slayton. Another quick, scoreless inning in the top 10th, and then Bednarski singled off Mike Daniels to start the bottom half of the frame. Cowan ran for him and was bunted to second by Canning. D-Alex hit for Hernandez, grounded out to third to extend his season-opening struggles, but Nunley hit a liner into the gap in right and past Richards to walk off the Critters. 5-4 Raccoons. Sambrano 2-4, BB, RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bergquist 2-4;

Aye, aye, Angel. What is going on?

Game 3
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – 1B Bovane – RF Richards – SS Burke – CF Kelsey – LF Zackery – C D. Rice – P Hinkley
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Toner struggled with control again, walking a few early. The Aces would have two men on in the third, but Howard Jones hit into a double play that Palmer Taylor started with utmost precision. The Coons were slow with the sticks, and when Raúl Bovane hit a leadoff double in the top of the fourth, that was the chance for the Aces to take the lead. A groundout and a flyout did the job for them, Brent Burke plating the first run of the game. The Raccoons wouldn’t get a good scoring chance until the bottom of the sixth. Quebell hit a 1-out single, Bednarski doubled, and they were both in scoring position. D-Alex fouled out, dropping to .115, and Taylor grounded out uselessly, and nobody scored. At least Taylor made a difficult play to end the top 7th. Toner had drilled Burke and walked Kelsey, and Sugano had replaced him to face Danny Rice, who grounded out to Taylor to end the inning. But the Raccoons were still down 1-0 despite out-hitting the Aces 5-2.

The Aces would catch up in hits against Josh Gibson, putting runners on the corners with one out. Hinkley, the pitcher, had led off the inning with a single… Gibson would have drowned in all probability if not for Bednarski not only catching Bovane’s fly to right, but also killing off the sent Hinkley at the plate, ending that inning. Can we please get some offense now? Nah. Hinkley arrived in the ninth inning with a 6-hit shutout, one run to make up, and Alexander, Taylor, and Nunley up, three left-handers, but three left-handers with not even a .200 clip between them. D-Alex lined out softly to short, Taylor flew out to center. Merritt batted for Nunley, walked, Seeley batted for Bergquist, singled between Zackery and Wade White, and now Hernandez hit for Thrasher, and another walk was issued! Bases loaded, Kevin Johnston, the southpaw, replaced Hinkley maybe a tad too late. Carmona was only batting .237, but he was the last man standing here. You wanna be major leaguer, Ricardo? You wanna be a hero? Here it is. Be a hero. He grounded out to the pitcher. 1-0 Aces. Quebell 2-3, BB; Seeley (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 7 – Opening Day Shutout! Oklahoma’s newest addition, SP Curtis Tobitt (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 4-hits the Falcons in a 1-0 pitching display.
April 7 – Opening Day also brings 40-year old WAS SP Randy Farley (1-0, 3.52 ERA) to everybody’s attention. The veteran that has seen everything except a winning team holds the Miners to three runs in 7.2 innings to claim a 7-3 victory for his 200th career win. Overall, he is 200-166 with a 3.99 ERA and 2,124 strikeouts.
April 8 – In a crazy see-saw game, the Condors and Bayhawks beat each others’ skulls in for 32 hits and 25 runs, with the Bayhawks walking off in the ninth on Mohammed Blanc’s single, 13-12.
April 10 – LAP LF/RF Jimmy Roberts (.333, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for a month with a strained hammy.
April 11 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.167, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has torn ankle ligaments and will be out for about a month.
April 13 – The Cyclones and Stars play 14 innings. Tied at three after 13, the Cyclones break out for six runs in the 14th, with the Stars rallying for two before losing, 9-5.
April 14 – The Warriors’ SP Fernando Cruz (1-1, 4.50 ERA) 2-hits the Blue Sox in a shutout.

Complaints and stuff

What all does not work? Angel Casas was scored on in three straight games, which hasn’t EVER happened before – I guess. Carmona is struggling and 0-for-3 in stealing. Overall, we are 2-for-7. This should be a stealing team. Despite that, on Tuesday, we ranked second in runs scored, but 11th (!) in batting average. The Raccoons have scored them in bunches, with many 3-run innings and that 7-run outburst against the Titans. Dickerson has been awful, and Slayton leads the team in wins.

We're first in starters' ERA, though. Adding up the ERA's of Brownie, Conway, Toner, and Santos gives you basically a league-average pitcher.

Speaking about Brownie, he is still 17th in career strikeouts, but under normal condition will reel in Kiyohira Sasaki this month (three starts should be enough for 20 K, right?). He has, however, by missing most of 2013, gotten pressure from behind. Pancho Trevino is now only 42 K behind Brownie. He could get to 14th place by the latter half of May, and - given the diminished stuff - if we aim for a slightly less outrageous 200 K this year (he averaged 235 K in 2010-2012), he would end up right in the vicinity of Kisho Saito, who is still 11th, but should be overtaken by Kel Yates right around June or the All Star game. But Kel hasn't stayed healthy since 2010, so that's that.

All players that were put on waivers at the start of the year arrived safely in St. Petersburg.

Odd 1 1/2 week opening, but many games ran long and I also got a late start. I will try to make this up this week, somehow, although I normally take three plus hours for a week on its own, and time during the week is, sadly, limited. Still haven't broken the lottery.

[Questdog]

(Before reading the comments below, get out the "Let It Be"album by the Beatles and play the first song of the 2nd side as background setting).

Awesome start! If the old pitchers can make it through the season, we should have a first-rate rotation and if Casas can get back in shape we should have a first-rate bullpen and if Carmona can score 200 runs, we should have a first-rate offense and if everything is first-rate we might end up in first place!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

(Before reading the comments below, get out the "Let It Be"album by the Beatles and play the first song of the 2nd side as background setting).

Awesome start! If the old pitchers can make it through the season, we should have a first-rate rotation and if Casas can get back in shape we should have a first-rate bullpen and if Carmona can score 200 runs, we should have a first-rate offense and if everything is first-rate we might end up in first place!

I will just say nothing right here and let it hit you like a truck, if that's okay for you ...

+++

Raccoons (7-2) @ Canadiens (5-4) – April 18-20, 2014

The Raccoons faced the Elks in their first road series of the season. The Elks had hit well early on, ranking third in runs scored, with average pitching behind that. Their rotation and their runs allowed had them sixth in the CL, but the bullpen had been massacred early on, with a 7.66 ERA against those guys. The Raccoons have taken the season series from the Elks for five straight years.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (1-1, 5.11 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. William Raven (0-1, 2.77 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (0-0, 6.17 ERA) vs. Dustin Burke (0-1, 14.54 ERA)

Originally I considered skipping Conway on the off day, but are we nuts? He has not allowed a run in his first nine innings, why would we skip such a guy? I can make Brownie’s arm fall off later in the season still. Unless the Raccoons skip Dustin Burke – their schedule would allow for that – we still won’t see our first left-handed opponent of the season.

But then something else happened. Vancouver got doused on Friday, with no baseball to be played. The opener was thus pushed back to Saturday, and we’d play two. THAT changed things a bit; I prefer to have my alpha guy go first in a double header, since he usually uses less bullpen and thus leaves more options for the second game. Thus, Nick Brown got the ball ahead of Conway on Saturday.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P Brown
VAN: CF Holland – 3B Suzuki – 1B Gilbert – C Rosa – LF Cameron – RF E. Garcia – SS Madison – 2B Mateo – P R. Taylor

Carmona dropped to 0-4 in stealing bases in 2014 right in the first inning, drawing a walk off Taylor and then getting thrown out by horrendous ex-Coon Freddy Rosa. While that was not a first (well, Rosa throwing out anybody sure was), there would be a first in the second inning, when all of Elkland got to “uuh” and “aah” over Matt Nunley’s first career homer, a line drive job to right center, and it counted for two with D-Alex on base. The 2-0 lead didn’t live long, however. Neither Raccoons middle infielder was applying for a Gold Glove in this game, with two to the naked eye playable grounders escaping Bergquist, and one getting past Canning, and the with two on in the bottom 3rd, Brown allowed a bomb to Mitsuhide Suzuki, that old hack, to flip the score to 3-2 Elks, and they got another run in the bottom 4th after two singles to start that inning.

Thankfully, Brownie was one of the better-hitting pitchers in the league. His turn came up with two on and two outs in the top of the sixth inning, and with him having another 25 pitches or so left in the tank, and especially with having to play a double header, he had to bat – and singled to right, scoring D-Alex from second base, 4-3. Carmona came up and hit one right in Brown’s grounder’s track for another RBI single, plating Bergquist to tie the score. Sandy fouled out to end the inning. The Raccoons stranded two more in the seventh when Taylor struck out Nunley to end his day with six walks and seven strikeouts, and a no-decision. Brown didn’t get through seven, leaving with two outs and a runner on second in the bottom 7th. Jeremiah Irvin was that runner, reaching on a 1-out pinch-hit single. Josh Gibson was asked to get Suzuki, who had burned Brown earlier in the game, and Suzuki now hit a grounder hard to left in a full count, but for once Canning didn’t fudge up and made a nimble and elegant play to get the third out at first base, and so none of the old foes Brown and Taylor got a decision.

But the nifty play didn’t mean that Canning didn’t continue to do stupid stuff. He hit a leadoff single off Chris Spindler in the eighth, then immediately fell asleep at the wheel and was picked off first. Jon Merritt, having entered in a double switch just earlier, singled to left, then kicked those old limbs into motion when Carmona found the gap in left center. Merritt had led the league in triples as recently as 2010, and while not a lot of that speed was left, it was enough to comfortably make for home on the double, 5-4 for the good team. Then Carmona was caught stealing third… just before Sambrano singled… The baserunning on this team was atrocious, to say the least. And the bullpen got in line seamlessly. Gibson put Don Cameron on in the bottom 8th, Sugano came in with two outs, walked Miguel Torres, conceded the game-tying single to Steve Madison, and then a huge 2-run double to Jaime Mateo, and the Raccoons were sunk. 7-5 Canadiens. Sambrano 2-5; Alexander 2-3, 2 BB; Merritt 1-1;

Game 2
POR: 2B Sambrano – 1B Merritt – LF Seeley – RF Bednarski – CF Cowan – 3B Nunley – C Hernandez – SS Canning – P Conway
VAN: CF Holland – RF E. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – 2B Madison – 3B Suzuki – C M. Torres – LF Luxton – SS Mateo – P Raven

By contrast, the nightcap went real wrong real quick. Conway struck out five in the first two innings, but the Elks also took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 2nd because they had somebody who could actually go from first base to second base without the hammer crushing his numb skull in. That guy was Suzuki, and he scored on Miguel Torres’ single to right after that. Conway allowed two more runs the following inning, and would not strike out another batter. The Elks had already upped the score to 4-0 in the fourth and in the fifth loaded the bases with nobody out after a Steve Madison single, Suzuki getting drilled, and Miguel Torres drawing the fourth walk off Conway. Pat Slayton and Jason Seeley would get out of the inning without any of the runners scored when Slayton whiffed Robbie Luxton (batting .067) and Jaime Mateo flew out to left, Madison tagged, but was narrowly tagged out by Hernandez at home after a terrific throw by Seeley.

Five innings in, the Coons were still hitless against Raven, but Canning offered a leadoff single in the top 6th. Merritt doubled him home with two outs, and Seeley worked a walk. The tying run came up, and what would we give for a slugger in this spot. What did the Coons bring up? Bednarski. Of course he struck out. Top 7th, two on with one out, thanks to an error by Raven on Matt Nunley’s bouncer back to the mound. Quebell hit for Canning, chipped an 0-2 pitch to right and it fell well in front of Enrique Garcia for a single, scoring Cowan from second base, 4-2. Carmona hit for Slayton, walked – thank heavens there was no room for him to take off to – and Sandy wrestled a full count walk from Raven to push home the Coons’ third run and knock Raven from the game. Pat Treglown would face Merritt, K, and then Seeley popped out to short. Top 9th, D-Alex hit for Hernandez, who had had a rotten game (0-3, 3 K, E, 0/3 CS), and walked against Pedro Alvarado, who had already saved the first game, and who’s first pitch to Quebell was wild, moving the tying run to second base. But Quebell would soon enough dutifully fly out shabbily to left, and Taylor and Sambrano had similarly useless plate appearances, stranding D-Alex at third base. 4-3 Canadiens. Quebell (PH) 1-2, RBI; Slayton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

What’s that noise? Is that a dying bird in free fall?

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – SS P. Taylor – P Dickerson
VAN: CF Holland – RF E. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 2B Madison – 3B Suzuki – C M. Torres – SS Mateo – P D. Burke

The Elks had three hits and two more stolen bases (seven now in the series) in the first inning alone, but somehow were held to only one run. The disgusting Holland took off again in the second inning – turnover was fast with Dickerson getting shackled in these early innings – and finally a brown-clad catcher could throw somebody out, as Alexander nailed him to end the inning, but the Elks were already up 2-0 and the Raccoons again hitless. The Critters didn’t have to wait until the sixth for a hit this Sunday, but they damn sure didn’t score, and Sambrano was caught stealing in the sixth, getting the Coons to a 20% success rate in 2014. (Success against the Raccoons: 67%) Dickerson got stuck in the seventh and conceded another run, while the Raccoons didn’t even get a single paw onto Burke until the eighth inning when he allowed singles to Carmona, Quebell, and Bednarski to put a run across. D-Alex then flew out to center to end the inning, and the Raccoons were swept. 3-1 Canadiens. Taylor 2-4, 2 2B;

Raccoons (7-5) @ Crusaders (5-8) – April 22-24, 2014

Here came an opponent for the Crusaders to get back on track after a dismal start in which their rotation had been blown up for a 5+ ERA (10th in CL), ghastly defense (11th), crummy hitting (9th in runs scored), and they had already lost “Clockwork” Martin, who had gotten his nickname from his ability to always show up on the DL at the right / wrong time. The Raccoons had been clobbered by New York in 2013, going down 5-13.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-0, 1.42 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (1-2, 4.57 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-1, 0.73 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (0-2, 5.40 ERA)
Bill Conway (0-1, 2.77 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (0-2, 8.38 ERA)

Conway had thrown 108 pitches in his start, but we had gotten an off day on Monday, so he was now going on regular rest on Thursday. No lefties in this series, either. Maybe next week.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – SS P. Taylor – P Santos
NYC: CF Brissett – C Durango – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – SS Caraballo – RF Bond – 2B J. Ortega – 3B Salinas – P J. Martin

The Coons took a quick 1-0 lead when Carmona singled, held still long enough for Quebell to double past the limited reach of Kevin Bond, and then ignited the afterburners and scored from first base. The lead lasted for about two minutes. The Crusaders had two right-handed batters in their lineup, including the pitcher, and Santos was set on fire right away. A hit here, a walk there, and then Francisco Caraballo – the second right-handed batter – crashed a pitiful 1-2 pitch for a 2-run homer to take a 3-1 lead. The Coons would hit a few singles here and there off Jaylen Martin, leaving runners on the corners when Palmer Taylor struck out to end the fourth, but they loaded the bases on two singles and a walk in the fifth, bringing up Bednarski (so, not a cleanup batter) with one out. Bednarski sent a slow roller to first, where B.J. Manfull took the sure out, allowing Carmona to score, but D-Alex honored his .167 batting average and rolled out to Jorge Ortega to strand two in scoring position. Bergquist hit a 1-out triple in the sixth inning. Taylor struck out once more, and Cowan hit for Santos as the Coons were desperate to get the tying run home, but Cowan got a 3-1 pitch and popped it up to forfeit another chance.

Failure continued unabated, with Thrasher issuing two walks to two of the plentiful left-handed batters in the lineup in the bottom 6th, and only made it out unharmed because Bergquist turned two for him. Slayton would score an insurance run for the Crusaders with a wild pitch in the eighth, which came back to hurt when Jason Seeley’s pinch-hit homer in the top 9th off Micah Steele then did NOT tie the game, but only got the Raccoons to 4-3. Merritt then hit a 1-out single, was forced by Carmona’s grounder, and Carmona was caught stealing to end the game. 4-3 Crusaders. Quebell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bergquist 2-4, 3B; Seeley (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1;

Few notes. The Raccoons have lost five straight. They lost this one while out-hitting the Crusaders … 11-4. That’s right. 11-4 in hits. Lost.

Also, Carmona is oh-for-six in stolen bases and might soon be sold to travelling slave traders. His career success rate is now under 60%.

And despite batting leadoff, Carmona leads the team in RBI, which says something about the ****ing **** assumed middle of the order on this roster.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – 3B Merritt – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Toner
NYC: CF Brissett – C Durango – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – SS Caraballo – 2B J. Ramirez – RF Bond – 3B J. Ortega – P P. Miller

Carmona now also failed on driving in runs, which was not in his job description, but in times of trouble I have to console myself at making a 22-year old youngster cry into his pillow at night, so he would now get yelled at on a daily basis. Here he failed in the top of the third inning, with one out and runners on second and third, hitting a ****ty pop to shallow center that was no challenge for Amari Brissett, and with D-Alex on third was a no-go to tag and make for home. Paul Miller then threw a wild pitch, plating the first run of the game, and Sandy singled home Canning, 2-0, before Quebell struck out. Toner, facing a similar lineup as Santos had, did not allow a hit the first time through, but allowed four in his second tour, including an RBI double by Eduardo Durango and then a leadoff triple by Jorge Ortega in the fifth that quickly led to the tying run to come home, and the Crusaders took the lead in the next inning after Martin Ortíz’ leadoff double. That came after Sambrano and Quebell were caught up in yet another strike-em-out-throw-em-out in the top 6th. The Raccoons hit into double plays in the seventh and eighth innings, but Merritt hit a leadoff single in the top 9th off Steele to become the tying run once more, although Joe Cowan ran for him. Alexander struck out. Nunley grounded out. Taylor struck out. 3-2 Crusaders. Sambrano 2-4, RBI; Bednarski 2-4;

And that’s six, and already at .500. I mean, I knew the 7-1 was fake, but c’mon, guys, show some pulse!

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – LF Seeley – 3B Nunley – C Alexander – P Conway
NYC: CF Brissett – C Durango – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – SS Caraballo – 2B J. Ramirez – RF Bond – 3B J. Ortega – P Wanless

The Crusaders sent Kevin Wanless (1-1, 9.35 ERA) assuming that nothing could potentially go wrong, but he had to be doing something wrong, because Quebell launched a 2-run homer in the first inning. The Coons would add a third run in the fourth inning that was more general wildness by Wanless than hitting heroics on their part, but at least Conway seemed to cope really well with all the poisonous left-handed bats, allowing only three hits and no runs his first two runs through the order. Then Brissett hit a 2-out single in the fifth. Oh well, nothing major. Durango grounded to first, and Quebell fumbled it. Oh great, once – ONCE – you meet a ball, now you instantly have to give it back!? True to his reputation, Martin Ortíz hit a booming 2-run double into the corner in rightfield, getting the Crusader back to 3-2.

The Coons had runners on the corners with no outs in the top 6th and didn’t score: Seeley grounded out, Nunley grounded out, D-Alex wasn’t pitched to, and Conway went down glaring. On the mound he went 6 2/3 innings while maintaining the slim lead, but when the top of the order and four left-handed bats came back up, Ron Thrasher got the ball. Thrasher even got a turn at bat in the top 8th. Robbie Wills walked Bednarski and Nunley, after which D-Alex, walked intentionally twice in the game, came up and raked hard, and accidentally met a pitch, and drilled it half a mile to right, blooming the score to 6-2. We desired Thrasher’s arm for the bottom of the inning, and of course he made a real mess and put two men on before Jesus Ramirez popped out to short to end the inning. This was not a save situation anymore, but Angel Casas hadn’t pitched in a week and was assigned the bottom of the order in the bottom of the ninth inning. Kevin Bond popped out, Jorge Ortega whiffed, Drew Lowe lined out to Sandy. 6-2 Coons. Carmona 2-5; Quebell 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Bednarski 2-3, BB, 2B; Bergquist 2-5; Alexander 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Conway 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-1);

In other news

April 19 – OCT SP Curtis Tobitt (3-0, 0.72 ERA) completely mauls the Condors, striking out 16 of the hapless rufflebirds over 8.2 innings. The Thunder claim victory, 6-2. The 16 K tie the CL record already jointly held by Tobitt and then-Condor Kelvin Yates.
April 19 – Three Condors – Craig Dasher (.333, 0 HR, 5 RBI), Ron Eroh (.184, 0 HR, 5 RBI), and Ezra Branch (.375, 1 HR, 12 RBI) – all have 4-hit games in a 14-6 thrashing of the Thunder, in which the Condors pour out 21 hits total.
April 19 – NAS SP Jason McDonald (1-0, 1.84 ERA) is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 20 – The Titans score two runs in the top of the tenth inning in Indianapolis, only for Tommy Wooldridge (0-3, 6.75 ERA, 3 SV) to blow the game in the bottom 10th with three runs for the Indians, who win 9-8.
April 21 – Cycle! BOS OF John Alexander (.353, 2 HR, 13 RBI) collects four hits, one of each kind, in the Titans’ 7-6 loss to the Loggers, driving in four runs, including a 2-run triple in the ninth inning, in which he is left on third base as the tying run. The 53rd cycle in ABL history is the third for the Titans (Christian Greenman, 2004; Jesus Flores, 2012) and the fourth out of the last seven in a losing effort. It’s also the second consecutive time that the team that had the last cycle is the one that is cycled against in the next occurrence of the feat.
April 23 – ATL LF Marty Reyes (.304, 1 HR, 3 RBI) has his season come to a sticky end after breaking his knee cap.
April 24 – In a slugfest, the Condors rout the Aces, 11-5, on the strength of five home runs. Will Newman (.233, 2 HR, 8 RBI) homers twice and drives in three. The Aces had only two home runs.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons are last in stealing bases, but they’re not only last, they’re ****ing 2-for-14. That was the ONLY thing this team was supposed to be good at. The ONLY thing.

As things look right now, this will be a long year, with lots of losing, lots of crying, and I might shoot one or two of them in the butt with the blunderbuss. Carmona is right up the list.

[Questdog]

A few losses never hurt nobody; I'm still playing my Beatles record.....

You think Vancouver and Indy will end up on top of the division? We are still ahead of Boston and New York......

What's the deal with Boston anyways?

[Westheim]

I'd have said that Boston has all the bats and atrocious pitching, but it's been the other way round. They are 11th in runs scored despite snatching up everybody that the Coons wanted. Their pitching has been average, but look at their Opening Day starter. Toshiro Uenohara has a career ERA of 4.35;

Indy is probably fake. They poured out a lot of runs early on, but there are a lot of has-beens in that lineup that will soon return to their usual form. Matt Pruitt is batting .310 for them. The Elks might be good, depending on whether they can fix that pen and get Rod Taylor straightened out.

I still have my money on the Crusaders, who should take off when Stanton Martin comes back in the first half of May.

And pray for the Falcons, they look a lot like a team that will not stop at 100 losses.

[shipfb21]

the starting pitching is looking good very early on. the bullpen is walking too many batters so far. if we can get some type of hitting going, we may be able to compete. i think skip is falling in love with the speed and trying to swipe bases too much, which is putting more pressure on our hitters to produce. we are running ourselves out of potential big innings. maybe the front office can make a move and bring in a big time bat, afterall are pitching is getting any younger. lets go for it... side note, brownie is raking this year at the plate...

[MarkCuban]

Portland will be fine -- they have two good, possibly great, young pitchers on the roster and another live arm in AAA. You have a budding superstar in Carmona, but with possibly three great, young, salary controlled pitchers you don't need a whole lot of pop in your bat.

Think about it. Toner-Santos-Wasserman. Those names, in that order? They strike fear.

This is just one year. 365 days. They'll fly by. No reason to hurt Santos or Toner by having them work a lot of innings -- it just isn't worth finishing 2nd instead of 4th in your division.

Take a vacation. Spend some time down on the farm. Put your feet up. If you need to spend money, purchase a better pitching coach.

You don't need to get down in the dumps when recruiting potential Portland Raccoons for your team. Look at the positives, they haven't become arbitration eligible yet.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Knights (9-6) – April 25-27, 2014

Would the Knights’ package be good enough to challenge for only their second postseason appearance in 25 years? Well, they at least had Gil Rockwell and his six home runs in the third week of the season. Unfortunately they were already down two outfielders and had only scored the eighth-most runs early on. Their pitching had been average. The Raccoons had beaten them 7-2 in 2013.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (2-0, 2.91 ERA) vs. Shaun Yoder (2-1, 4.50 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (0-1, 5.40 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (2-0, 1.02 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-1, 2.55 ERA) vs. Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 4.96 ERA)

And more right-handed pitchers! Southpaw Dave Butler went on Wednesday and is not expected to get the ball in this series.

Game 1
ATL: 2B Downing – 3B Luján – LF Rockwell – SS Hibbard – C W. Jones – RF McIntyre – 1B Sharp – CF Morán – P Yoder
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – C Hernandez – SS Canning – P Brown

Except for César Morán, the Knights carted up a completely right-handed lineup, which paid dividends instantly when Josh Downing hit a leadoff jack off Brownie. Hard contact was nothing that was hard to come by for the Knights, who hit a few deep flies in the first innings, but only Downing got one out, and nobody else even got past the outfielders for an extra-base hit. Initially, the Coons’ offensive efforts were limited to Quebell drawing a walk and getting picked off in the first inning, but Walt Canning ran into a fat pitch in the third and homered to tie the game at one. Two innings later, a leadoff double by Bergquist was a good chance in itself, but then Yoder drilled Nunley with a 1-2 pitch instead of erasing him. Hernandez singled to left, loading them up, and Canning’s fly to center was easily caught by Morán, who then threw out Bergquist at home. The other runners moved up, leaving Brownie with runners on second and third and two outs. But maybe he should really bat cleanup rather than those other dorks: Nick Brown knocked a hard bouncer past the aging Luján and the ball made it all the way to the wall for a 2-run double, 3-1! On the mound, things got better for Brown the further the game went along and after the scary first few innings, the Knights made hardly any meaningful contact in the middle innings, or the seventh that consisted of two lazy pops over the infield and a strikeout. Brown only came out when he issued his first walk of the game, running his pitch count over 100 while also bringing the tying run to the plate with a 2-out free pass to Downing in the eighth. Sakellaris replaced him, walked Luján (and it was not close), then faced Rockwell as the go-ahead run. Again, six homers after 15 games. THAT count ran full, but Rockwell then raked and was rocked instead, striking out to end the inning. Angel Casas retired the Knights 1-2-3 in the ninth, but had little stuff to display. 3-1 Brownies! Brown 7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (3-0) and 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI;

C’mon guys! Don’t let a 36-year old man do EVERYTHING!!

Game 2
ATL: SS Hibbard – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 2B Downing – 3B Luján – RF McIntyre – 1B Hilderbrand – CF Morán – P McKenzie
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P Dickerson

Downing gave the Knights a 1-0 lead in the first again, plating Ruben Luna with a fielder’s choice when Canning and Bergquist weren’t quick enough to turn the double play on Downing’s grounder to short. Luna had reached by being smacked in the butt by Dickerson, who continued to not have a good time at all. The Coons countered the early deficit with four singles (by their first five minus Bednarski in the top bottom 1st) to flip the score to 2-1 in their favor, but Dickerson continued to bleed hits and the Knights tied the score in the third inning, thanks to McKenzie knocking a leadoff single and getting moved around quickly.

Sambrano stole a base in the bottom 3rd – that really happened! – in the midst of McKenzie walking the bases full, but the Coons wouldn’t score, and Canning stole a base in the fourth – yes, actually! – after which Dickerson walked, and the Coons again didn’t score because Carmona grounded out and Sambrano fouled out to third base… Bednarski and Bergquist hit singles with one out in the fifth, and Lou Cannon, who had replaced McKenzie when the latter was pinch-hit for in the top 5th, threw a wild 0-2 pitch to D-Alex, moving up the runners, and they left runners on second and third AGAIN when Alexander grounded out to Luján and Nunley flew out softly to Will McIntyre. While Brown had been hit hard and then had gotten better rapidly on Friday, no such thing happened with Dickerson. The Knights hit the ball hard – but right at the defense for the better part of Dickerson’s seven innings. They only managed three hits.

Bottom 7th, the Knights FORCED a chance onto the unassuming Raccoons. Quebell reached on an error by T.J. Hilderbrand, and when Bednarski grounded to short, Devin Hibbard threw shoddily and Downing couldn’t come up with a perfect double play ball. Back-to-back errors gave the Coons two on with one out for the fifth time in seven innings, only for Bergquist to send another one right to Hibbard and this time nobody ****ed up. Except Bergquist, of course. Chance #6 didn’t take long to come up. D-Alex doubled off Dave Shannon to start the bottom of the eighth, and Nunley was walked intentionally to bring up a right-hander in Canning. Yet, Jason Seeley hit for him, it started to rain, and then a wild pitch moved up the runners. Second and third with NO OUTS. Seeley cracked away at the next pitch, sending a hard bouncer to right, and just like Brown’s 2-run double yesterday the defender (Hildebrand) couldn’t swipe fast enough and was completely and visibly undressed. Seeley’s rocket didn’t quite make it to the wall, but was still good enough for a 2-run double! Jon Merritt kept the line moving with a pinch-hit single, Carmona lined out to left for a sac fly, 5-2, the Knights brought a new pitcher, but Javier Montes-Ortíz walked Sambrano, and then Quebell … hit into a double play. Of course he did. Angel was unavailable after going two straight days and looking brittle even then, and Josh Gibson got the ball – potentially an odd choice, especially with Rockwell leading off the ninth. Mind the rain, though. Gibson fell to 2-0 on Rockwell, who couldn’t help but to salivate – and then the rain reached storm intensity. The tarp came on, an hour went by, and then they called the game. 5-2 Raccoons. Bergquist 2-4, RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1; Dickerson 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Josh Gibson has no career saves. Since he retired nobody, he was not credited with one here, either. On the plus side, he didn’t blow it. And we all know that that would have been likely.

Game 3
ATL: SS Hibbard – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 2B Downing – RF McIntyre – 1B Hilderbrand – 3B Sharp – CF Morán – P K. Watanabe
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – 3B Merritt – 2B Bergquist – RF Cowan – SS Canning – P Santos

The Knights for once didn’t score in the first, and neither did they in the second, well, except for César Morán, who scored an ejection after being up in arms on a perfectly good strike three call that ended the inning with Daniel Sharp on first base. That forced Johnny Crum, not a centerfielder, to play centerfield, and would make that a good place to hit to. Sharpie started a double play in the bottom 2nd, and also made a nifty play on Bergquist to strand a pair (Quebell and D-Alex had singled) in the bottom 4th.

While Santos had brought the heat and relegated the Knights mostly to looking and shrugging, the Coons had little going against not-so-winless Watanabe. Bottom 6th, Carmona singled to center, only the Coons’ third hit on the day. Then he took off for second, Ruben Luna’s throw was high, swipe – not in time, safe, first stolen base for Carmona and a 14% success rate for the year. Hooray, hooray, a star reborn. Then Sambrano, Quebell, and Alexander let him rot on third base, the game remained scoreless.

The Knights had back-to-back 1-out singles by Downing and Alejandro Rodriguez in the seventh, but Hilderbrand hit a bouncer to Canning for a 6-4-3 inning-ender, so ineptness was not a one-sided affair here. When the Coons finally scored the go-ahead run in the bottom 7th, it was on Jason Bergquist’s first career homer, and it JUST went over the wall in leftfield. To start the eighth, Sharpie was called out on ball four in a full count, and now HE slammed his bat down and yelled out before joining Morán in the clubhouse playing cards after the Knights’ second ejection of the day. The game threatened to blow up on the Coons anyway. Johnny Crum singled, Santos got William Jones on a pop, and then Hibbard grounded to Merritt for what was going to end the - … or sail into the dugout. That gave the Knights second and third with two outs in a 1-0 game, and Thrasher was now called in swiftly to face the left-hander Luna. Strikeout! For nought, though, because Angel Casas was torn to pieces in the ninth. Downing tripled, Rodriguez singled, tied game, and then Hilderbrand hit a real moonshot to give the Knights a 3-1 lead. The Raccoons’ efforts in the bottom 9th against right-hander Tim Poe would be limited to a leadoff walk by Quebell. 3-1 Knights. Santos 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K;

Okay, looks like we don’t have a closer, and Angel Casas will never get that huge contract. His ERA is about nine now and his save conversion rate is about the same as Carmona’s success rate in swiping bases.

Nah kidding, nobody has been as underwhelming as Carmona, or even remotely close to it.

Raccoons (10-8) vs. Bayhawks (9-9) – April 28-30, 2014

Bayhawks games were not boring for sure. They scored the most runs in the Continental League, and conceded the most. Both their rotation and their bullpen ran ERA’s north of six, and they had lost their last three games, although that admittedly came at the hands of the Crusaders. We had beaten them 5-4 last season.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (1-2, 1.86 ERA) vs. Reynaldo Rendon (1-0, 4.98 ERA)
Bill Conway (1-1, 1.83 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (3-1, 3.91 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Alex Maldonado (0-3, 12.00 ERA)

They have no left-handed starting pitchers, so we will have gone the entire month of April without facing one, and it won’t get better on the weekend against Boston.

Game 1
SFB: LF Blanc – SS Ingraham – RF Alston – 1B A. Young – 2B J. Gutierrez – 3B J. Rodriguez – C Lefebure – CF Mattera – P Rendon
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P Toner

The Bayhawks were scoring a lot of runs, true, but the Raccoons as a whole were not really making it hard for them. With Adam Young at first base in the second inning, Javier Rodriguez singled to right, and the ball went through Bednarski’s legs for a grievous error, that nevertheless became meaningless when Toner walked Michael Lefebure and drilled Joel Mattera. Rendon whiffed, but Mohammed Blanc singled past the reach of Bergquist and the Birds were up 3-0. The Coons then ran themselves out of their own half of the second inning when Nunley lined out to Jose Gutierrez and D-Alex was caught well off second base for an easy double play. By contrast, Toner didn’t make it out of the third inning, smashing two more batters (Ron Alston and Mattera), conceded two homers to Young and Javy Rodriguez, and with an 0-2 count on Reynaldo Rendon and two outs, couldn’t even get that done and allowed a single. He was yanked, down 6-0 with two on, and Pat Slayton was given as much of the game as he desired to cover, which turned out to be seven outs for the cost of two more runs. Rendon scattered nine hits in less than seven innings, but the Raccoons got only one run off him, with “Monte” Alston adding insult to injury when he picked a drive by Bednarski off the top of the fence in the eighth that would have given the disappointing pseudo-slugger his first homer of the season. After Slayton’s failure we had to try and get long relief from Constantino, who covered the seventh and eighth just right before issuing two walks to start the ninth, after which Rodriguez was safe on a bunt that Quebell couldn’t play, and then Constantino drilled Michael Lefebure to force in a run. Gibson somehow wobbled out of the inning with only one more run coming across. Law Rockburn pitched the bottom 9th, pressing his ERA under 1 as the sole strongly performing pitcher in the Bayhawks pen – up to this series at least. 10-1 Bayhawks. Carmona 3-4; Quebell 3-4, 2B, RBI;

Over the last two weeks, the Raccoons have failed to score even three runs per game, and went 4-8.

Game 2
SFB: LF Blanc – C G. Ortíz – RF Alston – 1B A. Young – SS Ingraham – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Mattera – 2B M. Robinson – P Beauchamp
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – 3B Merritt – SS Canning – P Conway

Conway looked like he would get blown over just as quickly. The Bayhawks had two hard hits in the first inning, both singles for Gabriel Ortíz (the former Crusader) and Ron Alston (the former traitor) before Adam Young fouled out and Zach Ingraham’s bloop was caught by Sambrano in a head-first slide that almost ripped his nose off. The Raccoons had three singles in the bottom 2nd, loading the bases and leaving them loaded once Canning flew out to shallow right and Conway went down hacking. Blanc homered in the top of the third, and the Bayhawks left two on in both that and the next inning, failing to sink Conway in due time. However, Conway was just short of 100 pitches after five and was hit for at the start of the bottom of the inning. Cowan walked in his place, Carmona hit into a double play, and then Sandy tripled, but what was it good for, as Jason Seeley grounded out to second base and the Coons remained empty-pawed. Our catcher hit into a double play in the sixth, their catcher hit a 2-run shot in the seventh.

Bottom 7th. Merritt led off with a single and was forced by Canning’s grounder to second. Josh Gibson was hopefully going to get a few more outs and was asked to bunt, with Young unable to get an out this time. Carmona grounded to first, with Young throwing to second for the out on Gibson, but the return throw was late and the Coons had runners on the corners for Sandy Sambrano, who hit one to center for a double, but not long enough for Carmona to score. Still, Canning was in, 3-1, and the tying runs were in scoring position for Jason Seeley, who had been in the lineup with a .375 clip, and would start over Bednarski until he’d drop under .300. He was at .333 already, and lined out to Alston. The Bayhawks tore Gibson right open then, shackling him for four runs in the eighth, and the Raccoons fell victim to another rout, despite the final result not looking like a rout when the shallow end of the Bayhawks’ pen (Adam Riddle, partially) gave up three late runs. 8-4 Bayhawks. Carmona 2-5, 2B; Sambrano 2-4, 2B, RBI; Quebell 3-5, RBI; Bergquist 3-5; Merritt 2-3; Nunley (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

What else? Both Bergquist and Carmona were caught stealing in this game. Nobody stole a base. Minus a couple Bayhawks, of course. Funny how Ortíz is 3/13 in throwing out stealers this year … *including* this game.

The two double plays and 11 men left on base contributed as well to a clear loss despite 16 hits churned out by the masked suckers, who the Loggers caught up with after this game. Both teams sat at 10-10, tied for fourth in the North.

Game 3
SFB: C G. Ortíz – SS Ingraham – RF Alston – LF Blanc – 1B A. Young – 3B J. Rodriguez – 2B C. Santos – CF M. Robinson – P Maldonado
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Merritt – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Canning – CF Cowan – P Brown

Gabe Ortíz, not a fast guy at all, led off with a single before being thrown out when Zach Ingraham botched the hit-and-run call. Ingraham would eventually walk, then was caught stealing. Are you over there trying to make us feel better, huh?? Cut it out! We are Coons! We don’t need no pity!

Brownie needed six strikeouts to catch up with Kiyohira Sasaki on the all time leaderboard, had the first five batters in 2-strike counts, but whiffed only Young. Carmona and Seeley hit doubles in the first for a 1-0 lead, and in the second Brownie hit another single with two out and Alexander on first. Carmona walked to fill the bases, but Merritt grounded out and nobody scored. When the Critters did tack on a run in the bottom 3rd it was mainly via defensive ineptitude. Carlos Santos made a clumsy play on Seeley’s leadoff single, and Maldonado threw a wild one that got him to third base from where he scored on Bergquist’s groundout. There was also trouble with Brown, who nursed full counts all the time and was at 59 pitches after three scoreless innings, and he needed another 23 pitches in the fourth, losing Young to a full count walk, and Rodriguez to a full count single. He would not make it out of the fifth, despite two quick outs. Then he walked Ortíz, Ingraham singled, Alston singled, 2-1, and then Blanc uncorked one that was going to live in highlight reels of monster shots forever, flipping the score to 4-2 for the team in the fashionable road greys.

While Brown remained undefeated because Maldonado coughed up two runs in the bottom of the inning and wouldn’t get a decision, either, the Raccoons stranded another three runners without scoring in the bottom 6th, in which Carmona stole his second base of the year – as the trailing man in a double steal led by Joe Cowan, who batted a nifty .103 by now and had reached via a Maldonado-issued walk. Both first basemen made an error in the seventh inning, neither led to a run. Canning hit into a double play after D-Alex reached on Young’s error. After two more tame innings in regulation, extra innings loomed. Adam Riddle issued a leadoff walk to Alexander in the bottom 10th, with Palmer Taylor coming on to run and was caught stealing. Slayton walked two in the top 11th, but that was not enough to lose the game. Sandy’s leadoff single gave the Coons another chance in the bottom 11th, although he got the “hug the base real tight” sign. After Hernandez popped out, Merritt singled to left center and the winning run moved to second base. Seeley popped out, but Quebell singled up the middle and Sandy was a guaranteed score and a walkoff with his speed. 5-4 Critters. Carmona 2-4, BB, 2B; Merritt 2-5, RBI; Seeley 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Alexander 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Sambrano (PH) 1-1, BB; Casas 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Slayton, the dork, won his fourth game. That actually gives him a share of the Continental League lead, and NOBODY in the Federal League has even won four yet. Baseball, the game that will drive you nuts.

And just when we thought that our apparently paraplegic leadoff man and base stealer would somehow be the only guy to reach double-digit RBI in April, Quebell’s walkoff hopper got him to 10 RBI as well. Over in Cincy, R.J. DeWeese led the majors with THIRTY. THIRTY.

Raccoons (11-10) @ Titans (9-13) – May 2-4, 2014

The Titans were in last place, true, but they had a 5-game winning streak going, having swept the Thunder during the week. They were seventh in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed, and things could still go either way for them, despite the non-existent on-paper pitching. The Raccoons had taken two of three from them to open the season.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (0-1, 4.62 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (0-0, 3.06 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-1, 1.78 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (1-1, 5.32 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-3, 4.09 ERA) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (2-3, 4.88 ERA)

Like I said, no southpaws to be found here. They have put Rodrigo Lopez onto the DL however, so maybe that will help the Raccoons to not get completely culled by an offense with five 10+ RBI batters. John Alexander led them with 18.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – SS Sambrano – CF Seeley – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C D. Alexander – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – P Dickerson
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – RF Hayashi – 1B S. Stevens – 3B M. Williams – P C. Lee

The Coons scored first when Bednarski brought home Sandy with a sac fly in the first, which was not a lot for the bases being loaded with one out, but all the while better than a double play. Real excitement kicked in in the second inning. Thanks to an error by Simon Stevens the Raccoons had loaded the bases again to bring up Seeley with two outs, and he hit a 2-2 liner off Chae-ku Lee that split J-Alex and Toki Hayashi and made it all the way to the wall for a bases-clearing triple, 4-0! That the 4-0 lead was actually worth very little was due to the starter, who cocked up four singles in the bottom of the second inning, and the Titans unfortunately had the pitcher on base to create a roadblock and keep them to a single run. Dickerson’s stint in the game came to an end soon. He walked “Quasimodo” Suda in the bottom 3rd, allowed a single to J-Alex, kept rotating his shoulders and shook his head, and the trainer hustled out to check on his condition. Apparently it was fatal, he came out.

So, the Raccoons were up 4-1 and had to cover seven innings with the pen, with the tying run at the plate and nobody out. What a desirable task. Constantino was selected, almost ****ed up, and the Titans plated two on singles by Stevens and Marc Williams before Lee fouled out and Mike Rivera grounded out to second base. Constantino would then hit a double to start the fourth inning in a desperate attempt to make up for his earlier sins. Carmona singled, stole second on Suda, Sandy grounded out to first, but Seeley banged a double off the wall to grow the lead to 6-3. Also, it was the fourth inning and Seeley was a home run short of the cycle. Lee was removed after the 2-run double, with Dave Hughes plating Seeley with a wild pitch, 7-3. Constantino was back out for the bottom 4th, Jose Gutierrez singled, Suda homered, and J-Alex tripled. Exit Constantino, the sucker, and enter Slayton, who conceded the run on a sac fly, 7-6, and the lead was blown in the fifth for good, with Williams hitting a leadoff double off ****ing Slayton and then scored on Nunley’s throwing error, colossally airmailing Dave Hughes’ bunt into the stands. Sure enough he came around to score on a 1-out single by Gutierrez, and Slayton fudged up long enough to load the bases. Sugano came in to face J-Alex down 8-7, but threw a laugher and got bombed for a grand slam. That wasn’t even all. Sugano then walked Hayashi and allowed back-to-back RBI doubles to Williams and Zachary Thurman before Rivera flew out. An 8-spot for the Titans, the Raccoons down by … a lot. The Raccoons came pretty close to running out of pitching entirely in this game, in which the bullpens kept bleeding profusely and in which Jason Seeley and John Alexander both had five hits, but missed the cycle by one piece (the double in J-Alex’ case). 16-9 Titans. Sambrano 2-6, RBI; Seeley 5-5, BB, 3B, 2 2B, 5 RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-2; Bergquist 2-3, 2 BB;

John Alexander now has four triples on the season. The Raccoons don’t even have a guy with four homers. Or four stolen bases. Isn’t that right, Carmona??

386 pitches were thrown in this game. Most were right down the middle.

Ivan the Druid diagnosed Dickerson with an oblique strain, which sounded odd, but it was what it was. He went on the DL, expected to be back in early June. By the time he comes back, he will have cashed in $4.3M from the Raccoons. He has yet to win a game as a Raccoon.

Dickerson’s next turns would have been on the 7th in Milwaukee, and then not until the 14th against Richmond, due to two off days on the 8th and 12th. We could go without another starter by conserving Pat Slayton for the next four days to have him pitch the series finale in Milwaukee. Instead, the bullpen would get a fresh arm in Juan Gallegos (3.50 ERA in AAA).

As a last note to his frightening display of a burnt down haunted house, Matt Nunley had four at-bats and achieved a Golden Sombrero in this game.

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – SS Sambrano – CF Seeley – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C D. Alexander – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – P Santos
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – RF Hayashi – 1B S. Stevens – 3B M. Williams – P Kirkland

This game started with a throwing error by Suda, but it would have been disrespectful to score on that opportunity – Carmona on second or not – and so the Greycoats abstained. Santos struck out seven in the first three innings, which probably meant that his juice wouldn’t be enough to cover a meaningful distance (say, more than five innings?), but at least Bednarski, the fool, found himself thrown a goose egg by the replacement level (if we’re generous) pitcher Kirkland and deposited it into the visitor’s bullpen where it almost killed Angel Casas napping. 1-0 Raccoons in the middle of the fourth, but by the end of the fourth it was 2-1 Titans. Santos had walked Earl Clark, then had fallen right away to back-to-back doubles by Suda and Alexander.

Carmona was caught stealing in the fifth, which cost the Raccoons a precious run when Sandy walked and Seeley doubled into the gap. Quebell and Bednarski, the despicable turds, failed outright with Seeley on second base and one out, and the tying run was all the Raccoons got. Quebell left Seeley on again in the seventh, popping out for the third out. Santos only went six, and Thrasher was splattered in the eighth inning, putting three men on, including right-handed PH Pancho Ybarra with a pinch-hit RBI single in place of the left-hander John Alexander. That broke the tie, and also Thrasher. Constantino came on, but surrendered two more runs charged to Thrasher on singles by Hayashi and Stevens, all with two outs. 5-2 Titans. Seeley 2-4, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B; Taylor (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Two runs from five extra-base hits. They are truly phenomenal. Phenomenally under .500 now, and another loss away from last place (pending the Loggers’ performance).

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Merritt – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – C Hernandez – CF Cowan – SS Canning – P Toner
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – RF Hayashi – 1B S. Stevens – 3B M. Williams – P Uenohara

The Raccoons scored one run in the first when Bergquist hit a 1-out, bases-loaded single before Hernandez and Cowan crapped the communal bed with pitiful outs. When Jose Gutierrez tried to get the lead runner Canning on Toner’s bunt in the second inning, the ill-advised throw cost the Titans any out and gave the Raccoons a second runner. Carmona hit into a double play to make the point moot.

All of this was doubly unfortunate given that Toner had no stuff whatsoever and the Titans hit the ball wherever they pleased. Hayashi was thrown out at home in the second inning, but otherwise they would have tied the game right there after a walk and two singles. Top 3rd. Seeley reached on Gutierrez’ error, Quebell singled. Two on for Bergquist, who lined just barely over the leaping Stevens’ glove and the liner made it all the way to the corner for an RBI double. Uenohara balked home Quebell, 3-0, which left Bergquist on third with nobody out – and he would not score…! Hernandez whiffed, Cowan popped out to shallow center, Canning got four, and Toner struck out flailing. J-Alex drove in the Titans’ first run in the bottom of the inning, as they got consistent runners off the horrible Toner. Top 4th, Bergquist struck out to strand runners on second and third, and the Titans kept piling it on against Toner, who walked Gutierrez opening the bottom 5th. Earl Clark singled, runners to the corners, and while Suda hit into a double play, the lead run scored, 3-2. Toner had to labor hard to get even out of that inning, and at 105 pitches was done after five. The bullpen would be forever thankful. Juan Gallegos, freshly arrived, immediately set out to reduce the workload by an inning, with the first three batters he faced in the sixth all smacking the ball hard for line drive hits, tying the score at three, and not more thanks to a Rivera double play. The rest of the daily botch job had to be done by other contributors. Sugano opened the bottom 8th to face Alexander, but the Titans again hit for him and brought Thurman, who singled. Sakellaris came in, got a bouncer from Hayashi and threw it away. Runners on second and third now with nobody out – the Titans knew how to make at least something out of this. Marc Williams brought home the go-ahead run with a drive to deep center. Cowan caught it, but could totally not prevent the run from scoring.

Top 9th. Tommy Wooldridge was on to defend the 4-3 lead for Boston, but had a rather indefensible 4.50 ERA for a closer. (Don’t look at Angel, please) Carmona tried to meet a pitch leading off the inning, and in some way succeeded, getting plunked by a 2-2 offering. The tying run was on, and so was defensive catcher Melvin Dunn, who squinted at Carmona, who shook his legs at first base. Everybody knew what was coming, everybody in the park, even the annoying toddler in the fourth row up the first base line that hadn’t stopped crying and screaming since the third inning. The 1-0 to Merritt was high by design, Dunn leapt up and catapulted it out to second base, and Carmona was out by ten feet. Merritt singled, Seeley and Quebell struck out, and that was that. 4-3 Titans. Merritt 3-5; Quebell 2-4, BB, 2B; Bergquist 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Canning 2-3, BB;

Carmona was missing from the team bus when it tried to leave for the airport. Nick Brown and Dylan Alexander went back into the visitors’ clubhouse and found Carmona curled up and sobbing – and naked – under the cold running water in the very last shower. It took almost an hour to get him dry and dressed, the team’s charter flight was delayed even more until a new takeoff slot could be assigned at Logan International Airport and the team didn’t arrive in Milwaukee until late in the night.

In other news

April 25 – WAS LF/RF Tim Burkhart (.282, 1 HR, 4 RBI) announces his retirement after suffering a fractured skull slamming headfirst into the outfield wall in a game last week. The #12 pick in the 2007 draft played for the Miners and Capitals in the big leagues, batting .236 with 25 HR and 201 RBI.
April 26 – The Capitals’ Adrian Valencia (0-1, 3.62 ERA) has a no-hitter going in the ninth inning, but is exhausted and can’t find the strike zone anymore. With two outs in the ninth and the winning run on base in a scoreless game, Patrick Mercier (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 4 SV) is called upon and strikes out the Warriors’ Ken Williams. The Capitals manufacture a run in the bottom of the ninth to win 1-0 on a combined no-hitter, which the ABL so far didn’t officially recognize. The Capitals have never had a “true” no-hitter.
April 27 – SFB INF Zachary Richter (.480, 1 HR, 5 RBI) is lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
April 28 – DEN LF Victorino Sanchez (.397, 1 HR, 10 RBI) could be out until August with a torn calf muscle.
May 4 – OCT INF Emilio Farias (.398, 0 HR, 14 RBI) could miss up to six weeks with a broken rib.
May 4 – Chronic back soreness is listed as the reason for LAP 1B Stanley Murphy (.263, 2 HR, 9 RBI) to end up on the DL. He might be back by early June.

Complaints and stuff

Here’s one to boggle your mind (like this team wasn’t reason to get into a spin already). Jason Bergquist silently batted .328 with 1 HR and 4 RBI in April, and apparently that was enough to win Rookie of the Month honors. Over in the FL, Patrick Mercier, who won the combined no-hitter, was Pitcher of the Month as the Capitals’ closer, and “Dingus” Morales batted .380 and smacked seven to nab Hitter of the Month honors.

John Alexander has driven in 11 against the Coons this season. Over the course of ALL games played, only one Raccoon beats him, and … and it’s Jason Seeley.

As a whole it is hard to find words for the rampant ineptitude on this team. Or put this way: they would be last in runs scored by a good margin if the Falcons weren’t completely hopeless with barely three runs per game, and at the rate the pitching is going at the Loggers will not have to worry about last place this year.

Talking about Milwaukee…

[Westheim]

Ultimately everybody arrived at the park on Monday night, nobody had cut himself, and minor mental breakdown or not, Carmona was playing and batting leadoff. Opposing teams were clearly in his head, but it wouldn’t get better by sitting on the bench and eating ice cream. For what it was worth, opposing teams were also in my head, but nobody gave a dime in a gutter about that either.

Raccoons (11-13) @ Loggers (10-14) – May 5-7, 2014

The Loggers were in last place, had lost four straight … the same narrative since 2005, basically, their first losing season after the glory decade-plus that saw them win the North twice and finish runner-up eight times, including one game out three times. They had finished last, or in a tie for fifth, every year since 2006. But maybe the Raccoons would be for dinner now. Their batting was not spectacular, but that was a gentle description for what the brown-clad lineup was doing, and while the Loggers’ rotation was embarrassing with a 5+ ERA, they had the best bullpen in the CL. And like the Coons would do anything against their starters! We had already gone a dismal 7-11 against them in 2013.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (1-2, 1.82 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (2-2, 5.29 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-0, 3.18 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (2-3, 5.12 ERA)
Pat Slayton (4-1, 6.94 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (2-3, 4.21 ERA)

That’s three more right-handers. Again, Slayton was getting the start to spare us the pain of sifting through the AAA bunch for a semi-palatable starter (there was none, everybody was getting clobbered and the Alley Cats were darn close to playing .300 ball). However, unless the Stars will make a pitching change until then, we’re guaranteed a left-handed pitcher to oppose us on the weekend. They have three of those in their rotation.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P Conway
MIL: 3B J.J. Rodriguez – 2B Roncero – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – CF Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – LF Hodgers – C Leach – P Patrick

The Loggers went up 1-0 in the first when Juan Jose Rodriguez singled over Canning and scored on Justin Dally’s double. A few years after batting eighth and being made fun of, Dally had actually matured into a worthwhile player, hitting for almost a .900 OPS in 2013. The Raccoons had a chance in the top 2nd, admittedly generated by J.J. Rodriguez’ error, but had runners on the corners and two outs for Walt Canning, when D-Alex fell asleep and was picked off first base to end the inning. The first two innings were a bad struggle for Conway, who didn’t look like he’d see the middle innings and allowed another run, wild-pitch-aided as it was, in the bottom 2nd, but then actually started to put up zeroes. Quebell homered in the fourth to get the Coons back to 2-1, but no big inning was coming together.

Before Quebell homered, Carmona had reached base with a single in the first inning. Foster Leach had a good arm, but even so, our third base coach had been prepared and held up a huge three-by-two-feet cardboard sign with huge black lettering; “HOLD”. Carmona held, Sandy grounded into a force at second, then was caught stealing by Leach – perfect execution all around.

Conway went seven without allowing as much as a hit (other than a hit batsman) after the third inning, something that had not been in the cards initially. He was, however, still trailing when Merritt hit for him (and flew out) to start the top of the eighth. Then Carmona singled to Dally in right, representing the tying run. In addition to the third base coach’s “HOLD” sign, our hitting coach switched the real-size traffic light that had been erected in the dugout after the Sambrano CS to bright red. Sandy fouled out, Seeley struck out. Top 9th, Quebell led off with a double off Jose Ramos. Now THAT’S an interesting development! Cowan ran for him (which had the added benefit of not getting to abuse a helpless bat), but this turned out to have been an unnecessary move. D-Alex homered with one out, flipping the score and taking Conway off the hook. The Loggers crumbled further, as Ramos allowed a single to Nunley, then made an error. Lefty Orlando Valdez would concede an insurance run to Carmona with a 2-out single before Angel got his dirty paws on a 4-2 lead. Victor Hodgers hit his first pitch for a single to bring up the tying run, but Zach Knowling and Dave Jennings struck out and Rodriguez grounded the first pitch he got to Canning to end the game. 4-2 Raccoons. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Quebell 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Alexander 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Conway 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Josh Gibson got the win with two outs in the eighth, while the only guys on the roster with more than one W remain the two guys to start the next two games, and one of them damn sure ain’t a starter.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – LF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – P Brown
MIL: 3B J.J. Rodriguez – SS O. Sandoval – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – CF Enriquez – LF Knowling – 2B Jennings – C Leach – P B. Morrison

Interestingly it was the usually dull Quebell (Quedull?) who appeared to get things moving here. He hit a leadoff triple in the second inning and Bergquist promptly serviced him with an RBI single, the first run in the game. Bednarski took one pitch to hit into a double play – glad we had that “first” ticked off as well. Morrison walked a pair ahead of Brownie, then HIT Brownie, and while there weren’t may Raccoons fans in the park, there was still an audible gasp released by the entire attendance. Brown was a bit worn by the knock, but picked himself out of the dirt and jogged to first, probably angry that he couldn’t show off his .545 batting skills. Carmona hit with the bases loaded, but grounded out to Jennings. Brown then hit Knowling in the bottom of the inning, but it looked accidental enough to not spawn boos or spark a riot. The Loggers left him on second when Leach grounded out.

But by the third, Brown appeared visibly out of shape. Morrison led off with a double, Sandoval singled, and Brown balked in the tying run. Dally and Rucker walked to load the bases with one out, Victor Enriquez popped out to Bergquist, but Knowling volleyed a tremendous shot to center that Carmona dashed after and made a lunging grab on the track before bouncing off the wall – and held on to the ball that appeared to spring loose just as he braced for impact. So everybody had their 3 LOB inning now, and Brownie, 2 K shy of reaching 16th on the all time leaderboard, had more hit batsmen than strikeouts to show off. He got a new lead, however, when Carmona hit a 2-out, 2-run double in the top of the fourth. He just had to nurse it for a few more innings, but that seemed exceedingly hard right now. However, Leach struck out flailing over ball four in the dirt in the bottom 4th, getting Brownie to 2,640 K and a tie for 16th, and Dally struck out raking in the fifth to break the tie. The Loggers got a walk and two hits off him in the sixth, Leach drove home a 2-out run, and Brown departed after six messy innings. Between Constantino and Thrasher the Coons came awfully close to blowing the 3-2 lead in the seventh (Tim Pace struck out with the bases loaded), but Sakellaris had a clean eighth and Sambrano drove home Palmer Taylor with a 2-out triple in the ninth to bring up Angel with the same score as the day before, but this time he was facing the top of the order (with reliever Ricardo Munoz lodged in the #2 hole) rather than the bottom. No danger developed, however, as J.J. Rodriguez struck out, Roncero rolled one to second, and Dally rolled one to third. 4-2 Brownies! Quebell 2-4, 3B, 2B; Bednarski 2-4;

It wasn’t pretty, but Brownie went to 4-0 on the season, trailing only 5-0 Zach Boyer on the Condors in the majors in that regard. His stuff has been MIA in the last two starts, however.

A sweep would be nice. But… Slayton.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – LF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Slayton
MIL: 3B J.J. Rodriguez – 2B Roncero – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – LF Knowling – SS O. Sandoval – CF Hodgers – C Pace – P Caro

Foster Leach had a murder arm, Tim Pace very much didn’t. Carmona opened this day game with a single, and was visibly itching. Just then, a plane flew over the park, a small two-decker with a banner affixed to the tail that read “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT”. Carmona held, went to third on a Seeley single, and scored on a sac fly, 1-0. Then came Slayton. The Loggers had two hits in the first, but Mike Rucker hit into a double play. They didn’t threaten again until the fourth, then had runners on the corners with nobody out, but Justin Dally pulled something while he legged out his infield single and had to be replaced by Nick Gilmor. Rucker hit a sac fly to deep left to tie the game, but then Knowling hit into another double play. Another double play would end the bottom 5th, but not until after Gabriel Caro had grabbed the lead with a 1-out RBI single.

Slayton was done after five, and would not pick up a major-league-leading fifth win. Thrasher got three lefties in the sixth, and the top 7th saw Canning get smacked and an error by Silvestro Roncero that put Sandy Sambrano on base as means to create a chance for Coon City. Carmona singled to load the sacks with one out, and Merritt came through when he cracked a 1-2 pitch past the lunging Rodriguez into leftfield for two runs to score, 3-2 Coons. Seeley then hit into a double play, and the ****ty Raccoons pen blew the lead in a hurry. Thrasher faced three more, but put two on, and Sakellaris failed to be of any help, instead allowing Caro to hit a 2-out, 2-run single to flip the score right back in the Loggers’ favor. Top 9th, Taylor pinch-hit for Canning, but grounded out against Ramos. Sandy grounded out as well, but Carmona drew a 2-out walk and was the tying run. A group of cheerleaders erupted from the Raccoons’ dugout and hopped up and down the third base line before forming, with their arms and legs, the letters “IF YOU MUST…” – he took off on the first pitch, the Loggers knew that he would, but Pace didn’t get him – safe! Merritt lined out to end the game, though. 4-3 Loggers. Carmona 2-4, BB; Seeley 2-4; Cowan 1-1; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

That successful if meaningless swipe brings the Raccoons’ SB% to a crisp 33.3% (9-for-27) this year. Opposing runners are successful 65.2% (15-for-23) of the time.

Raccoons (13-14) @ Stars (11-16) – May 9-11, 2014

The Stars’ problem was not readily identified. They were above average in runs scored (5th in the FL), and sixth in runs allowed. The rotation was solid, the pen not quite. Maybe their FL-worst defense was the culprit. No, they had actually only allowed seven unearned runs, less than the Critters, who were credited with a much better defense. Things were mysterious here for sure.

The Raccoons played the Stars rarely in the last nine years, but took all three series when they did square up against them. Their last series loss came in 2004. Overall we’re .519 against Dallas, excluding the postseason…

In the last week, the Stars had lost 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.307, 3 HR, 8 RBI) to a fractured knee cap, and also SP Jose Flores (2-2, 3.23 ERA) to a torn UCL and Tommy John surgery. Both were out for the season, and Flores even for longer. Flores had won 21 games in 2012.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-1, 2.01 ERA) vs. Fred O’Quinn (2-2, 3.63 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-3, 4.00 ERA) vs. Ron Bartlatt (0-0, 8.31 ERA)
Bill Conway (1-2, 1.99 ERA) vs. Colin Baldwin (1-2, 5.25 ERA)

As promised, southpaws! Two will be book-ending this series, and we no Baldwin very well. Bartlatt on Saturday is not confirmed yet. This would have been Flores’ spot. We could actually also get another lefty in swingman Victor Scott (0-1, 20.25 ERA) if they’re willing to roll the dice. The Coons are still 0-0 against southpaws this year, but it will change now. When O’Quinn got ready to pitch to Carmona to get the first game underway, two Coons bench players mused in the dugout, half-jokingly, “What’s he doin’ out there?” – “Yeah. He’s doin’ it all wrong.” – “Should someone tell him?” – “Nah. That’s how they do it in *Texas*” …

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Santos
DAL: CF J. Harris – SS A. Rodriguez – 1B Mendoza – C Case – LF Perri – RF Bonneau – 3B J. Amador – 2B K. Sato – P O’Quinn

The Raccoons had an outburst in the second inning, plating three runs on four hits, including an RBI double by D-Alex and also a wild pitch. That was a nice start to a game, but there were bleak spots as well, like Quebell using a 3-0 pitch to hit into a double play in the fifth, or Hector Santos not getting a bunt down in either of his first two plate appearances. While he kept the Stars mostly off the bases, a 2-out brain fart of his cost a run in the bottom of the fifth. Yohan Bonneau had singled with two outs and Santos threw a pitch so wild, it should have counted for two WP’s and a spanking. The extra base allowed Bonneau to score on Jesus Amador’s dink single into the shallow outfield regions and the Coons lead was reduced from four runs to three unnecessarily. Top 6th, Canning with the leadoff walk, next bunt opportunity for Santos, who this time got it down, and it was a beauty. Aaron Case hurried a terrible throw that skipped up the rightfield line and the Coons had runners on second and third with nobody out. Carmona and Santos both hit RBI singles, 6-1, then pulled off a double steal off O’Quinn’s replacement Dan Parker (a Raccoon for 12 blessedly forgotten games in 2008) to get back to runners on second and third and nobody out! Both runs would score on a Merritt sac fly and a Bednarski single, running the lead to 8-1. Santos reappeared for the bottom 6th on 64 pitches and now could show off pitch count economics for extra points, but made a mess in the seventh inning. Hugo Mendoza singled to get going, and then he drilled Case. Lionnel Perri grounded to Bergquist, who threw to Canning, who dropped the ball, and the Stars had three on and nobody out. Santos walked home a run against Bonneau before departing, with Constantino getting out of the jam with minimal damage, one run scoring on Kuni Sato’s groundout after he K’ed Amador. PH Juan Diaz fouled out to Merritt, leaving the score at 8-3. Neither team seriously threatened in the last two innings. 8-3 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, 2 RBI; Bednarski 4-5, RBI; Bergquist 2-4; Seeley (PH) 1-1; Alexander 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Canning 2-3, BB, RBI; Constantino 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – LF Seeley – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P Toner
DAL: CF J. Harris – SS A. Rodriguez – 1B Mendoza – C Case – LF Perri – RF Bonneau – 3B J. Amador – 2B K. Sato – P Bartlatt

Ricardo Carmona brought a box of cookies to the dugout for this one after telling team mates he was a bit tired of sunflower seeds and the manager wouldn’t let them have burgers, and that the sugar was also calming the voices. While it might be necessary to investigate the nature of those voices and what they were telling him, he had to bat and the cookies were gone (and the box had chew marks on it, too) by the time he tripled to open the game and scored on Sandy’s double, a new nickname was born. Atop the order, “Cookie” Carmona and Sandy Sambrano, both with extra base hits and runs scored in the first inning, handing Toner a 2-0 lead. More extra-base hits were coming. Canning doubled home Nunley in the second, 3-0, and Sandy opened the third with another double past Bonneau and scored swiftly on Seeley’s single to left, 4-0. “Cookie” swiped a base in the fifth, but was left on, and Toner found trouble in the bottom of the inning.

Toner had allowed only one hit in four innings, but hit Perri at the start of the fifth and then allowed a single to Bonneau. Amador walked, and the tying run came to the plate with nobody out, but Toner wiggled out with minimal damage, conceding only one run on Sato’s grounder to first. PH Juan Diaz struck out, and John Harris rolled one to Canning for the third out, the score remaining 4-1. But the Stars had found his number. While Mendoza ran themselves out of the sixth when he was gunned down by D-Alex, they got another run off Toner in the seventh, which he didn’t finish. Sugano came out to face pinch-hitter Roberto Pacheco as the tying run with two outs and struck him out. The Critters left runners on second and third in the top 8th when Alexander struck out, but the Stars didn’t fare better, Perri leaving the tying runs aboard when he glared at strike three from Ron Sakellaris. In a depressing game of back-and-forth, Sandy struck out to strand two in the top 9th, and now it was on Angel Casas, and the Stars rose up. Bonneau singled and moved up to second on Amador’s groundout. Kuni Sato, also an ex-Coon, hit a hard double into the left corner, easily plating Bonneau, 4-3. Fernando Chavez popped out to shallow center, leaving John Harris, an unheralded youngster in his third season of not getting many at-bats unless it was for injuries. He hit at Angel’s first pitch, popped up and Quebell hustled in and caught the ball. 4-3 Critters. Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B; Sambrano 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Nunley 2-4; Toner 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-3);

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – SS Canning – C Hernandez – P Conway
DAL: CF J. Harris – SS A. Rodriguez – 1B Mendoza – C Case – LF Perri – RF Bonneau – 3B J. Amador – 2B K. Sato – P Baldwin

Conway was a mess in this Sunday affair, with the Stars storming out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on the strength of a leadoff walk to Aaron Case and two doubles by Bonneau and Sato, the latter resulting out of a grievous misplay by Sandy Sambrano in leftfield. The Coons would make up the deficit in the fourth (despite Sambrano being caught stealing) fueled by a “Cookie” triple, with Quebell and Bergquist driving in the two runs with singles. Conway was erratic, though, walked the leadoff guy Perri in the bottom 4th and then conceded a cannon shot to Bonneau that put the Stars up by two right away again. Then he walked Amador…

Conway somehow went six, abusing the defense on the way, and Hernandez threw out another base stealer to keep the Stars somewhat within reach. Armando Rodriguez then butchered Bergquist’s grounder to open the top 7th and the tying run came up for the Coons. Canning walked, putting the tying run on, and when Baldwin threw a pitch well over the head of his catcher Case, the tying runs even were in scoring position with nobody gone. Too much defensive befuddlement cost the Stars dearly, as Hernandez hit an RBI single, Carmona an RBI groundout, and Sambrano an RBI single to take a 5-4 lead in the inning. Then Sambrano was thrown out again. Lock the showers!! We’ll fly home smelly, but we’ll fly the **** home!!

Gibson had a scoreless bottom 7th, and the Coons had two on with one out in the eighth when D-Alex hit for Bergquist against right-hander Jarrod Morrison – straight into a double play. Thrasher did a quick eighth before Canning hit a leadoff triple off Morrison in the ninth. Hernandez was put on intentionally and Taylor struck out, but that still brought up the top of the order and Cookie and Sandy, but they only produced one insurance run (better than nothing, though) when Carmona flew out to center and Canning made for home. Angel got grounders to Canning and Taylor before punching out Amador, and the Coons had a sweep in Dallas! 6-4 Raccoons! Quebell 2-4, RBI; Hernandez 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 8 – Without precedence, TWO players hit three home runs in one game on Thursday! SFW INF Jamie Wilson (.297, 5 HR, 12 RBI) humbles the Scorpions with three home runs, all solo shots, and four hits total in an 11-2 thrashing in Sioux Falls, while in California the Knights’ 1B/LF Gil Rockwell (.311, 12 HR, 19 RBI) crushes three bombs against the Bayhawks – also all solo shots. The Knights still lose, 6-5, only the third time the feat has been achieved for a losing team. These are the 26th and 27th occurrence of 3+ HR in one game, more than half of which have come in the last ten years. For the Warriors it is the second 3 HR game (Raúl Bovane, 2009), for the Knights the third (Michael Root, 1989; Gonzalo Munoz, 2010). Munoz also hit his three home runs in San Francisco, but the Knights won the game then.
May 8 – NYC SP Paul Miller (2-2, 4.07 ERA) 3-hits the Indians in a 6-0 shutout.
May 10 – VAN SP William Raven (2-1, 2.48 ERA) has a partially torn UCL and will try to rehab the injury and avoid Tommy John surgery. He might still be out for the season.
May 10 – BOS LF Earl Clark (.292, 1 HR, 10 RBI) is out until late June with torn ankle ligaments.
May 10 – The Condors pick up #94 prospect RF/CF/3B Craig Abraham from the Knights, along with MR Dave Shannon (2-1, 6.75 ERA) for RF Jimmy Raupp, who only appeared in AAA so far this season. He batted .217 with five homers in limited action with the Condors in 2013.
May 10 – The Miners have two hits to the Canadiens’ eight, but the hits are homers by Steve Butler and Dave McCormick and the Miners prevail 2-1.
May 11 – Old warhorse SFW SP Tony Hamlyn (3-1, 4.60 ERA) was clobbered in an on-base collision and will miss at least one start with a sprain to his non-pitching elbow.
May 11 – The Knights out-hit the Cyclones 13-10, but somehow lose 11-2. ATL SP Shaun Yoder’s line of one inning pitched and seven runs allowed give a hint as to why.

Complaints and stuff

Carmona’s triple on Sunday has him with a 12-game hitting streak.

The Raupp deal between the Knights and Condors is also a bit of a salary dump on the Knights’ part. Shannon is actually due about half a million bucks, and he’s atrocious. The money freed up might help the Knights make a move that actually helps their chances in an open CL South.

About starters. Dickerson might be back at the start of June. We don’t need a guy in his next turn, but on the 13th the Coons start a 16-day string without an off day, and will need three starts from somebody. AAA is horrible. It’s like they’re all pitching with explosive diarrhea, all the time, down there. We could move Constantino to the rotation for the rest of the month. He actually has four different pitches, none too great, but… He actually has 15 bit league starts with the Loggers between 2009 and 2011, but it damn sure wasn’t a nice experience for anybody involved. Yeah, that might be the way to go, though.

The best ERA’s in AAA belong to Enrique Guzman, a Whitebread find that has never really been talked about, Sergio Vega, the endless rhubarb gum, and only then Graham Wasserman, but that one is already well north of four. And with 17 walks in 33 innings.

Deeper in the system, 2013 top pick Andy Bareford had suffered through a debilitatingly disastrous first professional season, batting .167/.213/.219 for Aumsville. He’s been .330/.379/.491 this year! However, he’s torn his labrum and will be out until the summer.

And now …!

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS

1st – Martin Garcia – 3,783
2nd – Tony Hamlyn – 3,725 (active)
3rd – Woody Roberts – 3,313 (HOF)
4th – Aaron Anderson – 3,225
5th – Carlos Castro – 3,198 (HOF)
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,164
7th – Chris York – 3,103 (active)
8th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
9th – Arnold McCray – 2,900 (HOF)
10th – Bastyao Caixinha – 2,844 (HOF)
11th – Kisho Saito – 2,800 (HOF)
12th – Robbie Campbell – 2,763
13th – Kelvin Yates – 2,736 (active)
14th – Leland Lewis – 2,664 (HOF)
15th – Manuel Movonda – 2,663
16th – Nick Brown – 2,641 (active)
17th – Kiyohira Sasaki – 2,640
18th – Pancho Trevino – 2,603 (active)
19th – Craig Hansen – 2,578 (HOF)
t-20th – Dan George – 2,516
t-20th – Bill Smith – 2,516

The next-closest active pitcher is Rod Taylor, sitting in 28th with 2,307 K. Can’t wait for him to move up and kick Bill Smith in the teeth and out of the top 20.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (16-14) vs. Rebels (15-13) – May 13-15, 2014

The Rebels were leading the Federal League with the best pitching staff and the least number of runs allowed, but their offense was a bit like gum, ranking in the bottom third in runs scored. Both teams were almost even in stolen bases, with the Rebels having 15 to the Coons’ 13, however for the Rebels this was good enough to rank inside the top 3 in the FL, while the Raccoons were in the bottom 3 in the CL.

After suffering three consecutive sweeps at the Rebels’ sabres in the early 2000s (no surprise there) the Raccoons had taken the last four series between the teams, with 2-1 series wins the last two years. Overall, the Rebels are still the Federal League team hurting the Raccoons the most in league history, with the Critters only managing a .378 winning percentage against them.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-0, 3.15 ERA) vs. Tim Winston (1-0, 4.15 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 2.17 ERA) vs. Shaun Babineau (1-1, 3.30 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-3, 3.74 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (2-3, 4.23 ERA)

The Rebels only had right-handed starters. They also had imported two long-time Continental League shortstops, one of which (Micah Brazeal) was on the DL, and the other (Gary Rice) was looking forward to inflict more hurt on the Furballs.

Game 1
RIC: CF D. Flores – 1B D. Graham – LF W. Jones – C J. White – 2B P. Brown – RF Locke – SS G. Rice – 3B Delikat – P Winston
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P N. Brown

Things didn’t get off well for Nick Brown, who had struggled in his last two starts and ran four 3-ball counts the first time through the Rebels’ order. While they hit a few hard grounders, Nunley and Canning made some nice plays and they didn’t get any hits, but only one of them, namesake Powell Brown, struck out. At bat, Brown singled with two outs and Nunley and Canning on base after having drawn 2-out walks, but Nunley was thrown out at home by Pbilip Locke. Quebell had already ruined the first inning with a double play hit into with Sandy and Seeley on base. Winston Jones would single in the fourth, but nothing came off that, just as with Brownie walking Gary Rice in the fifth before drilling Eli Delikat. Tim Winston bunted them over, but Danny Flores grounded out to Bergquist to end the inning. Brownie hit another single to lead off the bottom 5th, but was forced out by a Carmona grounder. Nevertheless, Carmona was safe, moved up on Sandy’s groundout, and then finally Jason Seeley found the gap with a 2-out, 1-2 pitch and the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on the RBI double. A pair of doubles by Bergquist and Nunley plated a second run in the sixth. Carmona led off the seventh with a double, but was stranded. Brownie had trouble brewing as late as the sixth inning, but eventually made it into the eighth with the Rebels never hurting him. He retired two left-handers to start the eighth, sitting down Flores and PH Garrett D’Alesandro on pops, then left for Sakellaris to pitch a 4-out save. Jones grounded out to end the eighth, but a Jamal White leadoff single brought up the tying run in the ninth. But David Gonzalez and Philip Locke were no help in getting the Rebels back, and Sakellaris ended the game with a K to Rice. 2-0 Brownies! Seeley 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (5-0) and 2-3; Sakellaris 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

Brownie!! Time to talk contract? Take the millions, Brownie! Take all the millions!

Game 2
RIC: CF D. Flores – 2B P. Brown – LF W. Jones – C J. White – RF Locke – 1B D. Graham – SS G. Rice – 3B D. Silva – P Furst
POR: CF Carmona – LF Seeley – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – SS Taylor – P Santos

Babineau didn’t take the ball, and the Raccoons got to see not only really old villain Daniel Silva in the #8 hole, but also Brian Furst, who had been scheduled for Thursday.

Rain was in the forecast and Santos struggled to throw strikes to left-handed batters, of which there were five (including switch-hitters) in the lineup. Still, Jamal White was thrown out at third base on a leadoff double in the second inning, while Bednarski hit a looper that escaped Locke for a real triple in the bottom 2nd, with D-Alex plating him with a sac fly, 1-0 Coons. Bottom 3rd, the Critters had Taylor on third, one out, and Cookie Carmona batting when the clouds opened up and emptied onto Portland. The game was in delay for about an hour, and when Furst was able to resume pitching he smacked Carmona to put runners onto the corners. Seeley came up, singled to right, Taylor scored, Carmona went to third, Locke threw there, or tried to, but the throw went up the leftfield line and escaped all defenders, enabling Carmona to score and Seeley to make it to second base, 3-0.

With the rain and all, the Coons barely managed to squeeze five innings from Santos, who allowed a home run to Dave Graham in the fifth, but managed to hang on to a 3-1 lead. Furst would also go five, but was shackled for four 2-out singles hit by the #2 through #5 batters in the bottom 5th, with Bednarski’s single to right plating two and extending the lead to 5-1 before D-Alex struck out. The Raccoons had four innings to cover with their pen. Gallegos got the ball first, put two on, and had to be rescued by Sugano, but that was the last breath from the Rebels, who managed only one more runner as solo innings were turned in by Slayton, Constantino (tune-up for making a few starts until Dickerson’s return), and Thrasher. 5-1 Raccoons. Bednarski 3-3, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1;

Cookie went 0-for-3 and ended his hitting streak at 13 games.

Game 3
RIC: CF D. Flores – 2B P. Brown – LF W. Jones – C J. White – RF Locke – 1B D. Graham – SS G. Rice – 3B Delikat – P Knupp
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Seeley – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – C Hernandez – SS Canning – P Toner

The Coons faced Josh Knupp (3-2, 2.22 ERA) in this series finale, and he almost would have taken the ball with a lead, but Danny Flores was ruled out at home on a bang-bang play. Winston Jones had singled to left and Seeley had hurled the ball back in. Things went further south for Knupp in quick succession. Carmona opened the bottom 1st with a bloop triple, scored on Sandy’s single, and Bednarski would drive a fat pitch for a homer to left, 3-0 in the first inning! It sure didn’t stay that way; Knupp hated to trail and hit a 2-out RBI single in the top 2nd (after the Critters had intentionally walked Eli Delikat with Rice on second base), and Locke further closed the gap with a solo home run in the fourth inning, 3-2. Locke came up again with two out and two on in the fifth, but struck out, and followed that up with a fielding error on Sandy’s leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. The extra base became an extra run once Sambrano scored on Quebell’s single to right, with Bednarski and Nunley making unproductive outs to run out of that inning. Another run was scratched out the next inning when Raúl Hernandez walked(!) and stole(!) a base, then came home on Carmona’s 2-out single, 5-2.

Toner went seven, but Sugano then ran into trouble in the eighth. He retired the first two batters, but then allowed consecutive singles to switch-hitters Gary Rice and Eli Delikat, as well as an RBI single to lefty Garett D’Alesandro. The tying runs aboard, Pedro Hurtado batted for Flores, and that was the call for Angel Casas to come out and face the right-hander. Hurtado hit a hard fly to left, but it was quite manageable for the defensively able Seeley, inning over at 5-3, but Angel ran into more trouble in the ninth (which was not unusual in his “rebuild value” campaign…). Brown and Jones led off with singles, and here we had a real mess. Jamal White flew out to Seeley, Brown moved up, but Jones held at first. Locke cracked the first pitch he got up the middle, but Canning made a flying grab before burying his face in the dirt, but that potential RBI single had been properly killed and the Coons were one out from sweeping the series. It didn’t come from Graham, however, who was nicked by a 2-1 pitch, loading the bases. Nope! Nope. We didn’t like this at all. Ron Thrasher came in to face Rice, ran a full count and lost him to a walk, shoving home the only run the Coons could allow to concede, but then got rid of Delikat on three pitches. 5-4 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, 3B, RBI; Sambrano 2-5, RBI; Bednarski 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Merritt 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (3-3) and 1-2;

Angel Casas sure isn’t rebuilding much, and bringing in Ron Thrasher with the bases loaded is madness, so we’ll silently put this in the books, grin for a bit, but we might want to do better against the next team coming in…

Raccoons (19-14) vs. Crusaders (19-16) – May 16-18, 2014

Both teams were within 1 1/2 games of the division-leading Indians(!) as they got together for this weekend set. The Crusaders were raking it, producing the second-most runs despite the second-worst batting average thanks to a CL-leading 32 homers. The Coons had a batting average better by 17 points, but slugged for 17 points less, and had a bushel less runs to show for it. The Crusaders were fourth in runs allowed, and had taken two of three during the teams’ first meeting in April.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-2, 2.63 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (3-2, 2.89 ERA)
Tom Constantino (0-0, 3.97 ERA) vs. Kevin Wanless (2-3, 3.75 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-0, 2.64 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (4-2, 3.07 ERA)

The Coons brought a 6-game winning streak, sweeping the recent interleague bonanza, to this battle. We also might want to not strike out so much against Trevino, who’s breathing down Brownie’s neck on the strikeout leaderboard.

Game 1
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – CF Brissett – 3B Salinas – P Trevino
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Seeley – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Conway

Conway’s cage was rattled in the second inning when Stanton Martin socked a homer for the first run of the game. Amazingly, on this May 16, this was also “Clockwork”’s first homer of the season, though admittedly he had missed most of the play so far, and the shot came in his 45th at-bat. Nunley and Canning both hit doubles in the bottom of the inning to tie the score again, and the Coons appeared in business in the bottom of the fourth after soft singles by Bednarski and Nunley to open the inning. Then Alexander hit into a double play, his third of the week in his third start of the week, Canning wasn’t pitched to, and Conway was obliterated by Trevino, his fifth strikeout. Neither team mounted much until the Crusaders returned the double-double favors in the seventh, Conway’s last inning. B.J. Manfull was the first to double to right with one out, and while Eduardo Durango grounded out, Manfull scored on Amari Brissett’s double, also to rightfield, and the Crusaders were up 2-1. Trevino was also retired after seven inning, having whiffed eight, and the Raccoons got to the pen. Quebell hit a 1-out triple off Ken McKenzie to generate a splendid chance for a comeback, and while the Crusaders sent right-handed Sergio Alvarez to replace the southpaw McKenzie, Bednarski raked a double into the leftfield corner to tie the game. Nunley singled, runner to third, and then Alexander – double play, inning over. Sakellaris sat down the 3-4-5 guys in order in the top 9th, and when Canning opened the bottom of the inning with a single off Alvarez, Sakellaris was retained to bunt, moving Canning to second, and then Carmona hit a chipper that caused Alvarez and Manfull to get in each other’s paths – and Cookie was safe at first, with the tying run at third. Sandy with one out – popped out to Francisco Caraballo, which left things to Alvarez and Jason Seeley, who turned on the first pitch and drove it to right. Martin chased after it, but he wasn’t going to get to it, as it was … OUTTA HERE!! 5-2 Raccoons!! Carmona 2-5; Seeley 1-5, HR, 3 RBI; Bednarski 3-4, 2B, RBI; Nunley 3-4, 2B; Canning 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Conway 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Seeley’s shot not just won the game … it also won the division lead! The Elks outlasted the Indians in 11 innings, putting the Raccoons on a 7-game run and a half game lead over both Indy and Elktown. The Crusaders are two back.

Game 2
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – CF Brissett – 3B Bond – P Wanless
POR: CF Carmona – LF Seeley – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – C Hernandez – P Constantino

Constantino’s first foray into starting in three years went everything but smoothly. Jesus Ramirez hit a leadoff shot, and he conceded another run in the first inning. He never really dominated anybody in the Crusaders’ lineup, and Jesus Ramirez would drive another 2-run homer off him in the fifth inning. That put up the Crusaders 4-0, with the Raccoons mustering only one hit and three walks off Wanless in four innings. Constantino was hit for to start the bottom 5th, Joe Cowan singled past Caraballo and Carmona reached on an infield single, but it took until Quebell’s turn to get a ball past B.J. Manfull. Quebell hit a 2-run double into the corner in right, plating both runners and getting the Raccoons back into contention, down 4-2.

Gallegos pitched two innings, allowing another home run to Eduardo Durango on the way, before Cowan opened the bottom 7th with another single (and he had to hit lots of singles to get to a worthwhile batting average by now), Carmona grounded out, and Cowan scored from second base on Seeley’s single to right center, 5-3. Bednarski had been removed to facilitate a long outing by Gallegos, and Merritt hit for Gallegos in the #3 hole now, but grounded out. Quebell was drilled by McKenzie, who had replaced Wanless, and then Bergquist fired a shot into the gap in right center, but Stanton Martin turned up unexpectedly and snagged the shot, and it looked increasingly like the Coons’ run was going to end. McKenzie was still around for the bottom 8th, but Nunley was leading off. Sandy hit for him to start the inning but lined out to Brissett in center. Canning K’ed before McKenzie melted and walked both Raúl Hernandez and Joe Cowan, whose batting averages added up to less than Bednarski’s. Carmona was the go-ahead run, yet grounded out against new pitcher Alex Ramirez. Raúl Hernandez threw out TWO base runners in the top 9th, but it just wasn’t enough as Micah Steele nailed down the save. 5-3 Crusaders. Cowan (PH) 2-2, BB;

Obviously, since two teams half a game behind the Coons played another, we lost the top spot after only one night in the sun. The Elks beat the Indians, 4-3, and took over command in the North. Four teams in 1 1/2 games again, and the Titans are only another 1 1/2 out. No comment on the Loggers.

Game 3
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – SS Salinas – CF Brissett – P J. Martin
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Brown

Here come the aces for the rubber game! It can’t really be touted Old vs. Young, since “Midnight” Martin has reached the big three-oh already as well. Brownie had no winning streak to nurse except his own against the best lineup in the league.

Brownie had a clean first, but Martin got tagged. Cookie Carmona led off with a single before swiping second from Durango, one of the best defensive catchers around. Sandy walked, and when Seeley doubled to deep right, the first run was in, and two runners were in scoring position with nobody out for Quebell, who failed as usual, and the only other run that would come onto the board in the inning did so on a wild pitch. Martin struggled with control, but Brownie didn’t have all his best stuff once more, so neither was on top of things. The Raccoons squeezed out a third run in the fourth inning, Carmona driving in D-Alex with a 2-out single. Alexander had reached after being hit by Martin, really livening up his recent production, with a sac fly and 16 rotten eggs in his prior 17 plate appearances.

Brownie was certainly not dominating, but untouched through five innings, but sure came close to a sticky end in the sixth. Jaylen Martin led off with a single on a 3-1 pitch, and Ramirez walked. The tying run came up, but Caraballo hit into a double play nicely turned by Bergquist, but still one run came home when Martin Ortíz hit a 1-2 grounder through between Nunley and Canning. Stanton Martin struck out. Brown labored through another inning, despite a 2-out walk drawn by Miguel Salinas. That brought up Brissett, who had never had a hit against Nick Brown and was 1-for-9 in this series, and grounded out poorly to end the inning with a 3-1 lead, which was not a lot, and when Thrasher hit Drew Lowe, the backup catcher who had entered in a double switch, to start the eighth inning, **** got real. Lowe moved up on consecutive groundouts, then scored on another Ortíz single, 3-2. Bottom 8th, lefty Aurelio Garcia in. Bednarski hit for Seeley and singled, and Quebell hit for himself and into a double play. GODDAMN IT, YOU ****ING ***HOLE!! Merritt hit for Nunley, hit one hard to right, but not hard enough to beat Stanton Martin.

Angel Casas, chronically struggling since the season had started, had to protect a tiny 3-2 lead against Manfull, a mystery pinch-hitter, and Salinas, no right-handers included at first sight. Manfull popped out before Bond hit for Aurelio Garcia, hit a fly to deep center, but Joe Cowan managed to get there and snag the evil ball. Salinas hit the first pitch hard to right, Bergquist with a lunging grab, scrambled up and threw to first – OUT! 3-2 Brownies!! Carmona 2-4, RBI; Sambrano 2-3, BB; Bednarski (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (6-0);

In other news

May 15 – MIL RF Justin Dally (.238, 3 HR, 14 RBI) has been laboring on an intercostal strain for a while and will miss at least another week.
May 16 – No-hitter! Pittsburgh’s Fred Dugo (2-3, 4.75 ERA) dazes the Cyclones all night long and holds them hitless in a 2-0 win. Dugo actually has a perfect game until he drills Gerardo Rios with nobody out in the ninth inning. The 32nd no-hitter in ABL history is the third for the Miners (Wilson Cordova, 1989; Leland Lewis, 1993) and only the third no-hitter since the start of the 2009 season.
May 16 – BOS SP Toshiro Uenohara (3-3, 4.19 ERA) is going to miss about a month with shoulder tendinitis.

Complaints and stuff

Despite only marginal usage, Mike Bednarski was CL Player of the Week, batting .667 (10-for-15) with 1 HR and 5 RBI.

Brownie is the second pitcher in the CL to six wins after SFB Milt Beauchamp. The ABL lead is seven, with SFW Jimmy Boswell winning his seventh on Sunday. I’ll point out however that he’s not among the leaders in strikeouts. The K is hard to come by for him in May. He’s t-5th in the CL (with “Midnight” Martin, interestingly), but overall not even in the top 10. He’s lost velocity, hurting his fastball (obviously) and sinker, and he lost the slider to a good amount. The screwball is still working well for him, though. I’m trying to put a price tag onto this package in my head. Is this still worth $2M? Maybe I should wait with an offer until he inevitably loses one.

Hector Santos leads the CL in ERA, but in the FL there are two guys better with SAL Zach Hughes (1.47) and NAS Matt McCabe (2.09).

Rich Hood was the losing pitcher in the Fred Dugo no-hitter. Hood is 2-3, with a 5.93 ERA for the Cyclones, and the other half of the price for Ron Sakellaris, Justin Denham, is getting lit up in Raleigh in AA.

Hard week coming up with four against Indy and three against the Thunder before it’s off to the road for two weeks, one in the west and one in the east.

Also, the draft pool is out, and the Raccoons will have an interesting enough set of picks (despite not getting a first round pick for Yoshi Nomura) to make paramount a thorough study of the available warm bodies.

[Questdog]

Hot-diggity!