[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-13) vs. Condors (14-27) – May 19-21, 1995

If you give up a lot of runs, and don’t score a lot, you tend to end up with the worst record in the league. The 70s Raccoons could sing a song of that. The 1995 Condors fit right into the same mold, ranking last in runs allowed and in batting average in the Continental League, and accordingly, had bled some losses through the first one and a half months of the season. The Raccoons had the highest average in the league and had conceded the second-least runs.

This one’s got all the necessary ingredients for embarrassment in it.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (7-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Woody Roberts (1-7, 7.84 ERA)
Jason Turner (4-1, 3.06 ERA) vs. Kevin Williams (3-4, 5.48 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (2-1, 3.25 ERA) vs. Robbie Dadswell (4-5, 3.96 ERA)

Woody Roberts was scratched an hour before the series opener started, and Kevin Williams was moved up to face Saito. The Coons got up 1-0 in the first, but the Condors hit four singles – all weak – off Saito in the top 2nd, which was enough to plate two runs. Then we started to run after that, and by run I really mean a really slow tumble. Williams silenced the Coons for three more innings, before two walks sandwiching an infield single loaded the bases for us with no outs in the bottom 5th. Gotta score some here. Vinson popped out. Bobby Quinn, who had driven in the first run of the game, came up and blooped into center for what seemed at first to be the second out, but CF Paul Theobald just couldn’t get there after an awkward first step. The blooper fell in, and two runs scored. We would score another run on a groundout, and were up 4-2, giving the ball back to Saito. Our Japanese sword master sat down six more batters in a row before yielding to relief. We were up 6-2 after seven. Lagarde came in, and the first two Condors reached base. Lagarde managed to collect two outs, but by then the tying run came to the plate, and we called on De La Rosa to give us four outs, and the first of these pronto please! De La Rosa surrendered three straight singles and Saito’s lead was gone. The Condors continued their ways against Tony Vela in the ninth inning and scored another run, and now led the game. Bottom 9th, closer Mike Dye in. Vinson walked to lead off and Salazar came out to run for him. Quinn grounded to short to force Salazar. Reece came into the game, hitting for Tony Vela in the #7 hole. He walked, and Brewer on his off day came out to bat for Ingall, but grounded out. Chih-tui Jin was hit by a pitch, loading the bags with two out. Higgins came up, and flew out to center. 7-6 Condors. Green 2-5, 2B, RBI; Quinn 3-4, BB, 3 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

Lesson learned: pitch Saito until his arms comes off. This is the first Saito start this year that we managed to lose. I am really, really annoyed by that bullpen, which manages to botch every game it gets their filthy fingers on!!

Game 2. Preparing for more agony with Jason Turner pitching, and a game in which the Coons faced a two-time Pitcher of the Year – and that as late as 1993 – who appeared due to be wound up. Woody Roberts – moved back a day – had been nothing but torn open all year and was bleeding heavily. That’s where the Coons’ offense came into play, because Turner started the game with a leadoff walk to Theobald, who was brought in to score. One on, two out in the top 2nd, Turner was singled against by Roberts, and then Theobald homered. 4-0 Condors in no time. Never mind that Turner ended up going seven innings, striking out NINE, he had BLOWN it, and he had blown it EARLY. The least thing he could do was to go seven so I would not have to stand the sight of even more suckers on the mound. Of course – OF COURSE – Roberts went six innings of 4-hit ball, whiffing four and walking none, keeping the Raccoons shut out. Bottom 8th, Matt Rankin pitching in his second inning. Vinson hit a leadoff double. Quinn pinch-hit, making an out. Vinson went to third, and Brewer was walked intentionally. Salazar was in a prime spot to score, as ex-Coon Roberto Carrillo appeared. Salazar grounded to first, and only the fact that Brewer bowled into SS Kevin Lewis at second broke up the double play, and Vinson – held. Neil Reece to the plate. Carrillo fell 2-0 behind, and then made a bad pitch, that was bad enough for three runs. Far out of center field, Reece’s homer brought us to 4-3. But we were still on the receiving end of this, and O-Mo doubled in the eighth, but was left on by Green, and Higgins ran for Baldy when the latter hit a 1-out single off Dye in the ninth. Higgins went to third on a wild pitch, and Vinson walked, but was forced out on Quinn’s grounder. Brewer with two down, Dye came to regret seeing him, as Brewer singled to right and tied the game at high noon. Salazar walked to load the bags, but Reece struck out, and we went to extra innings. Martinez and West managed to give up two runs in an instant. Down by two into the bottom 10th, we got runners on the corners with one out due to no achievement of our own with a throwing error into the seats, a wild pitch, and a walk by the Condors. Higgins took care of that with a double play grounder to second. 6-4 Condors. Brewer 3-4, BB, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B;

‘nother game at the old ballpark. Lopez pitching was not promising an easy night. The Coons went up 1-0 in the first, a lead that Vinson cost us in the second, throwing away a grounder that put the tying run on, which the Condors got in against Lopez when I did not walk the #8 batter intentionally with two down. Jose Morales singled to left, and we were tied. Lopez then surrendered two runs that were actually on him in the third, because he was sucking all year long. In the bottom 4th, O-Mo and Green went into scoring position with no outs after a walk and a double. Kinnear grounded out, scoring O-Mo, which put the tying run (Green) at third with one out. Baldivía managed to line into a double play. He just does that. It’s his deal. Bottom 6th, still down 3-2: Reece led off with an infield single, went to second on a wild pitch and to third on O-Mo’s single. Green was grazed by a pitch. Bases loaded, no outs. Kinnear grounded to second to get Reece thrown out at home. And that – with one out – brought up Baldy. Uh, that’s gonna be trouble. For the Condors, that was, since Baldy hit a 2-run double to left, turning that game around for the moment. We came out ahead 5-3, but Miller surrendered his first run of the year in the top 7th after putting the first two men on. This bullpen. We got that run back in the bottom 7th, putting Lagarde into the game in the eighth. Nobody on, he was one strike away from having a clean inning, and then plunked Henry Givens. To add insult to injury, he walked the next guy, and we were drowning again. Lefty Preston O’Day was sent to pinch-hit for the Condors, so Lagarde was yanked for Burnett. O’Day went deep. Down 7-6, the offense came back in the bottom 8th, scored two, and now we put in De La Rosa with an 8-7 lead in the ninth, and Royce Green got the save in my book, intercepting a seemingly surefire 2-run double by Jose Morales for the final out. 8-7 Coons. Salazar 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Reece 3-5; O’Morrissey 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Baldivía 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

This bullpen has to be dealt with, and QUICK!!

Meanwhile, we got our embarrassment here. The most pathetic offense pounced on the team with the best record in the league. Needless to say that the Portland Agitator had a field day this weekend, denouncing us up and down every issue of being incompetent, impotent, indifferent, and also communists. Yeah, that one too.

Thankfully we were going out of down, although this meant some good excuses had to be found at the check-in at the airport for me and my diverse assortment of prescription pain and anger medications, plus three boxes of “Good Morning Sunshine” tea.

Non of that junk helped any, by the way.

Raccoons (28-15) @ Bayhawks (26-17) – May 22-24, 1995

Now were actually facing a respectable opponent, after what the less-respectable Condors had inflicted on us, which was a scary thought. The Bayhawks led the defending champions from Oklahoma by two games, as we came to town, while we still led by four (over the Titans) in our division. The Bayhawks absolutely lived on pitching, scoring an average number of runs, but their pitching staff was top notch, and their bullpen came in below an ERA of 2 and wasn’t even half that of the Coons’ relievers (1.76 vs. the Coons’ 3.75).

Projected matchups:
Robert Vázquez (2-1, 3.56 ERA) vs. Gary Nixon (4-4, 3.61 ERA)
Scott Wade (2-4, 4.38 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (2-0, 3.41 ERA)
Kisho Saito (7-0, 2.47 ERA) vs. Min-tae Kim (4-2, 3.88 ERA)

In the opener, Royce Green got the Coons ahead with an RBI triple in the top 2nd, before he was left on third base for three successive outs. We would tack on a run in the third, but for the first half of the game, Vázquez and Nixon battled along quite well, but what was special about Vázquez was how extraordinarily efficient he was in this outing. Through six, the Bayhawks only managed to extort 60 pitches from Vázquez. Nixon would come apart in the seventh, where the Coons upped to 6-0 on him. Vázquez breezed into the bottom 8th, where a leadoff single, a balk, and another single got the better of his shutout bid. Regardless, Vázquez would have enough in him to finish up the Bayhawks in under 100 pitches. Higgins 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Vinson 2-5, RBI; Vázquez 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-1) and 2-4, 2 2B;

Really, in keeping the bullpen out of this, Robert Vázquez may have done the team as a whole more of a service than even to himself. He got through the game in 98 pitches, with only an 18-pitch eighth with that pesky run spoiling the party. More than that, his two doubles were the second-most total bases for any player in this game, behind only Neil Reece, who homered in the ninth.

Wade was up in game 2 against 20-year old rookie Jorge Chapa. Much like the day before, one team was never even close to winning this game, and this time that team was the visiting one. Chapa only went 5.2 innings, but annihilated everything that dared to step into the batters box, whiffing eight Raccoons in shutout fashion. Wade gave up a 2-run shot to 1B Bill Dean in the first inning, and two unearned runs were added to the ledger in the fourth after O-Mo misfielded a Chapa grounder with a runner on and two out. 3B Roberto Rodriguez then drove both runners in. Things turned ugly for Wade in the bottom 6th, where he was charged with three more runs, the last two of which conceded by Grant West, who could not even retire left-handers at this point. The bullpen waved in a total of five runs in 2.1 innings pitched. 10-0 Bayhawks.

We had eight runners and struck out 12 times. They had 15 runners and struck out three times. Go wonder about this blowout.

Rubber game time, with Kisho not coming out until that arm would turn black. Min-tae Kim had that kind of possessed grin that would freak you out colossally. The Coons socked four runs on Kim in the first three innings, while Saito was flawless, but somehow you knew that something demonic was about to happen. It happened in the bottom 5th. Up 4-0, Saito had a runner on second and two out after Kim had bunted to be out at first. Suddenly, Roberto Guevara, Jim Thompson, and Roberto Rodriguez hurled liners into the outfield off Saito, and three runs scored. Saito hit the wall for good in the seventh, walking Kim with one out, and then plunked Thompson with two out. That was it, and Lagarde got the call, and there was a potential loss for Saito in this, if Lagarde gave up those two runs to the next batters, starting with Rodriguez. First pitch, audible knock, fast grounder to Brewer, who made the play and Saito remained on the swell side of the ledger for the moment. The offense was no help in keeping him there. Ever since the fourth inning, Kim had put some devil jinx on them. That 4-3 lead had to hold up by arm power rather than bat power. We got through the eighth, putting in De La Rosa for the ninth, who got a K, then walked Pedro Perez, and then was blown up with two doubles and a sac fly. 5-4 Bayhawks. Brewer 2-4, BB; Reece 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4, 3B; Kinnear 3-4, RBI;

Now, also looking for a closer.

Raccoons (29-17) @ Falcons (25-22) – May 26-28, 1995

The Falcons produced lots of low-scoring games with both the second-fewest in runs scored and allowed in the CL. So far, it had them close to the lead in the division. How such a team would fare against the Raccoons with the massive output of runs on either side of the line score, especially recently …?

Jason Turner (4-1, 3.32 ERA) vs. Robbie Campbell (6-3, 3.28 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (2-1, 3.22 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (2-2, 4.06 ERA)
Robert Vázquez (3-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. Jesus Lopez (2-5, 3.29 ERA)

Maybe low scores would prevail. The first guy to reach base by any means in the opener between Turner and Campbell was David Brewer with a leadoff walk … in the fourth! Both had been perfect through three. Unsurprisingly, it was big bang time instantly, and four runs scored in the combined halves of the fourth, but fortunately so far, most of them came on a 3-run homer by Royce Green. While Green had been in somewhat of a slump since leaving the DL and Campbell was fanning Coons left and right (and Neil Reece thrice) in the game, he kept running into Green’s rotating sharpened stick of pain. After the 3-piece in the fourth, Green made it a pair in the sixth, and again it was a 3-piece, making it a 6-1 game for Turner. While Turner was dealing, I tried to keep the bullpen out of this one, but it didn’t work. He put two on with one out in the ninth, and somebody had to come in for help. The choice of the day was Tony Vela, which was a good choice, since he punched out Bernard Combes and got Hubert Green to ground out to O-Mo. 6-1 Raccoons. Salazar 2-4; Green 2-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Turner 8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-1);

We made six runs out of six hits, which can be described as efficient. Neil Reece was not efficient, whiffing in each of his four AB’s. Still, our team LOB was *one* in this game. The unlucky guy was Kinnear, who had blooped his way on base in the fifth and with Turner at the plate actually stole second base on a botched hit and run. He still ended up starved at third base.

At this point, every game is more or less a crap shot with this team. You have no clue what either half of the pitching staff is gonna give you, and the offense, while overall productive, sometimes has total blackouts.

Offense was low key to start the middle game as well, with no score through three innings. Miguel Lopez by then had six strikeouts (more than Neil Reece…) among the first nine outs recorded, and the seventh was on Vinson retiring somebody on the far side of the diamond. Then, the Coons loaded the bags with no outs in the top 4th, bringing up the bottom half of the lineup. Higgins did not have to do much against Wilson, who walked him on four straight, putting the first run of the night on the board. Before you could properly put that down on your scorecard, Bobby Quinn singled to left, 2-0, and then Vinson emptied the bags with a double into the deep right corner, and went to third on the throw home. While Lopez made the first out, Brewer singled in Vinson, and Baldivía also singled his way on, Brewer going to third, against reliever Ed Davis. Reece singled, 7-0, before O-Mo and Green made the final outs. O-Mo almost hit it out to deep center, but Christian Dunphy got to a ball about two feet short of the 430’ wall. Regardless, a fantastic outing by Miguel Lopez saw the Falcons nailed firmly to the ground. That was true until the ninth. With two outs to be collected, the little pest that was Djordje Nedic homered off Lopez. That had not been in the script! Grant West entered, gave up a homer to Felix Velez, and then semi-collected the final two outs as foul pop outs. 7-2 Coons. Brewer 2-5, RBI; Reece 2-4, RBI; Green 2-4, 2B; Lopez 8.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (3-1);

Struck out ten and then some pest has to hit a home run. Grrrrr. Well, we will take those two great outings (back to back) as what they are: wonderful changes from our routine which has been going on for most of May.

Game 3. Royce Green had a day off as Vázquez had to fight uphill if he didn’t want to be branded as the guy with the worst outing in this series. He didn’t cut it. While no-hitting the Falcons in the fourth, he had none but himself to blame for not making a play on Adam Kent’s 2-out grounder, which became an infield single. Christian Dunphy then socked a home run and that was that. However, the Raccoons offense in some way had hit the ground running, and the again not really. They ended each of the first three innings with double plays, yet still managed to score four runs for Vázquez. Mark Hall hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 5th. While Vázquez got two outs without Hall moving a dot, he then fell to Hubert Green’s 2-out single, and the score became a rather uncomfy 4-3, which held through six, and since Vázquez was to lead off the top 7th, he was removed for a pinch-hitter right there (to no effect). The top 8th however saw Jorge Salazar plate two fellow Furballs with a 1-out triple, and in the ninth we got even more relief when ex-Coon Chris Nelson failed to throw strikes. The Coons tore him up like a pack of baseball cards, scoring five runs in the inning. That helped Juan Martinez to an unforeseeable 2-inning save, too. 11-3 Raccoons! Reece 2-4, BB, RBI; O’Morrissey 4-5; Salazar 3-4, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Vinson 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

The Falcons may want to look at improving their offense.

In other news

May 19 – NYC OF Clement Clark (.278, 1 HR, 14 RBI) has his moment of glory in a 4-3 win of the Crusaders over the Falcons. Clark goes 2-5, hitting his 2,000th big league hit off reliever Ray Hoskins. It *is* a big hit: Clark walks off his team with an RBI single scoring Martin Limón in the bottom of the 12th inning.
May 20 – PIT LF Carlos Torres (.341, 7 HR, 31 RBI) will miss five weeks with an oblique strain.
May 23 – 35-year old IND CL Jim Durden (1-1, 2.04 ERA, 11 SV), who has been saving games for the Indians since 1987, signs a 3-yr, $3.12M extension with the team, setting a whole new prize point on closers. Durden has 445 SV to his credit, 6th all time.
May 26 – Everybody awakes to the surprising news of a huge trade between the Aces and Miners. Pittsburgh receives SP Manuel Movonda (7-1, 4.98 ERA) and sends OF Lucio Hernandez (.323, 2 HR, 25 RBI) to Las Vegas.
May 26 – TIJ SP Woody Roberts (2-7, 6.08 ERA) seems to have found his mojo, 1-hitting the Canadiens in a 6-0 win for Tijuana. CF Jorge Ledesma has the offending hit against Roberts.

Complaints and stuff

I had about the most horrible week I can remember for quite some time, and was looking forward to dealing with my little furry sunshines today, and then those first two series happened. Bah, that can kill your mood. If you had a mood beforehand, I was grumpy enough anyway.

You can not win all the time (this ain’t soccer and the German top level league; that league table makes me cry), but you can at least expect some decency from your bullpen, which you’re pouring the princely total of $1,472,000 into for the year. There are teams out there that spend less on their rotation!! (Wild claim I have not checked at all, but I am sure, there are some)

After the Condors series, Ben O’Morrissey again qualified for the batting title and immediately slotted into second place trailing Oklahoma’s Vonne Calzado by 30 points (.395 to .365). Interestingly, he shoved a Coon out of that second spot: Jorge Salazar was then third with a .339 mark.

O-Mo is still second, while leading the CL in OPS, and Reece’s 33 RBI ties for the lead with Las Vegas’ Javier Vargas. And we continue to have lots of .300 hitters, and in fact we rank 1st or 2nd in ALL offensive categories, except stolen bases, where we are t-7th. That’s a change to back then, when usually our pitching was way better than our hitting. And our pitching is not bad in itself: certain areas are bad. T-11th in home runs allowed (which is a consequence of our shoe box ball park), t-10th in strikeouts and 8th in bullpen ERA are the most glaring deficits, and 7th in walks allowed ain’t great either.

To be honest, the last three may be related. We have allowed 175 walks and punched out 274 batters in 440.2 innings pitched.
Rotation: 314.1 IP, 100 BB, 192 K
Bullpen: 126.1 IP, 75 BB, 82 K

Bullpen K/BB rates season / career:
De La Rosa: 1.70 / 2.52
Lagarde: 1.15 / 2.45
Burnett: 2.05 / 1.91
Martinez: 1.12 / 2.96
Vela: 0.92 / 2.50
Miller: 1.07 / 2.22
West: 0.31 / 2.40
That can’t possibly last all season, right? Except for Grant West, non of them are in washed-up age. But they can’t get their act together.

But again, if you look at our rotation, the top 4 between them have lost only three games combined, and it is almost June. The offense has done their share to pick them up when necessary, but the bullpen has made it a primary task to blow leads whenever given the chance.

As far as the bullpen goes, my first move was to claim MR Daniel Perez, 25, off waivers by the Stars, but the Loggers also claimed him, and their claim was superior, so we were left out here. We have very little money to make moves, but the right-handers in the pen NEED some help, urgently.

I have an offer out to a veteran reliever, who is the only sensible guy left on the free agent market despite the fact that he hardly ever pitched a full season in the major leagues without being demoted, traded, waived, or outright released. Of the 636 innings he has pitched as a pro, a bit less than half came in the majors. But well, there is nobody else left, and there are no relievers on the trading block, so we start off with him. Plus, use up that budget room before the draft shoots you over budget anyway!

Our AAA team will be no help in getting along here, since all the right-handers there are either struggling, or have proven they don’t belong in the majors. For better news from the prospect front, infielder Samy Michel got the A level Player of the Week award after batting 11-22 with 2 HR and 7 RBI this week.