[Westheim]

Raccoons (38-55) vs. Indians (44-48) – July 16-18, 2001

With an anemic batting average of .236, the Indians were scoring just barely 3.8 runs per game. Their pitching had come down to earth a bit more recently, and now ranked sixth in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (5-6, 5.36 ERA) vs. Ben Carlson (3-7, 5.87 ERA)
Carl Bean (7-7, 3.90 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (11-6, 2.84 ERA)
Ralph Ford (6-8, 3.39 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (8-10, 4.10 ERA)

These were all right-handers, and we weren’t scheduled a left-hander until possibly Saturday.

Game 1
IND: CF Maguey – LF Quintela – RF J. Valdez – 1B D. Lopez – C Abrams – 3B Whaley – 2B Montray – SS Matthews – P Carlson
POR: RF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – C Thomas – LF Parker – P M. Lopez

Neil Reece set the Raccoons ahead in the bottom 1st with a 2-out RBI double that plated Palacios, and while Miguel Lopez showed some life in his ravaged body and struck out six batters through four innings, he also surrendered a no-doubt home run to David Lopez that tied the game in the fourth. Mark Thomas’ leadoff single in the bottom 5th was the first sign of some form of life or other from the Raccoons since the bottom 1st. Parker singled, Lopez bunted them over, and then Cavazos struck out and nobody was counting on Sharp for a reason. After his pathetic soft fly for the third out, Juan Valdez led off the top 6th with a double and was scored by a Whaley single, as the Indians took a 2-1 lead. However, somebody else was showing some life in the last few days, too. It was Neil Reece, who found Palacios on base as his turn came up in the bottom 6th and cracked an awesome 2-run, score-flipping home run. Martin homered back-to-back with him, giving Lopez a new 4-2 lead. Miguel Lopez’ day ended with a 1-out walk to David Lopez in the eighth, but Marcos Bruno struck out Abrams and Whaley to exit the frame. Dan Nordahl came out and ran the line to four straight strikeouts in the ninth, fanning Montray and Matthews, before Jose Paraz came out and hit a pinch-hit home run to cut the gap in half. Ron Alston hit for Tomas Maguey and singled, and then the nightmare happened and Carlos Quintela hit a grounder sharply to Sharp. For once, the youngster didn’t fudge up and made the play. 4-3 Coons. Palacios 2-4; Reece 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Parker 2-3; Lopez 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (6-6);

Game 2
IND: SS Montray – CF J. Valdez – C Paraz – 1B D. Lopez – LF Alston – 2B J. Garcia – RF Lugo – 3B Matthews – P Park
POR: RF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – C Thomas – LF Parker – P Bean

Jose Lugo’s solo jack in the second inning gave the Indians the first run of the game and they added two more against a hapless Carl Bean in the third. Chang-se Park sat down the first six Raccoons he faced, then was taken out by a Mark Thomas liner and had to leave the game with an injury. While this was bad for the Indians, and horrible for Park, it was perhaps a chance for the Raccoons to get one of the most dominating pitchers out of the game – admittedly in an ugly way. In the bottom 4th, reliever Alonso Alonso loaded the bases with no outs with a walk to Sharp and singles by Palacios and Reece. That was it for hits, and the best one could say was that Martin and Guerin had productive outs, getting the team back to 3-2, nursing false hope. 3-2 became 6-2 in the sixth as the Indians torched Bean for good, their offensive outburst crowned by Lugo’s second homer on the day. Two down in the bottom 6th, Martin homered and Guerin singled and stole bases on consecutive pitches, but Mark Thomas still left him on. The Coons again had three on with no outs in the bottom 7th, failed again being held to two sac flies, and it didn’t really matter, because in the meantime Bob Joly had been set on fire by the Indians in the top half of the inning. Our bullpen suffered close-to-complete annihilation in the top 9th, as usual. 10-5 Indians.

For a team that’s not scoring a lot, them Indians are sure scoring a lot.

On the league lead fronts, Bakile Hiwalani drove in four as the Loggers trashed the Crusaders, 11-0, so Palacios probably won’t see that lead never again, particularly because of his own inability to achieve anything worth noting. For the same reason, he now has in-house competition for the home run lead, where Martin has tied Jorge Cruz for second place with 17 homers. Concie’s two bags in this game got him to 24, breaking the tie with the resentful Daniel Silva and also claimed the ABL lead.

Game 3
IND: CF Maguey – LF Quintela – RF J. Valdez – 1B D. Lopez – C Abrams – 3B Whaley – 2B Lepe – SS Matthews – P Alba
POR: LF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – 1B Martin – C Thomas – SS Guerin – RF Flores – 2B McLaughlin – P Ford

Ralphie faced an all-right-handed lineup, and for a while things went fairly well, with Ford sitting down most of the players he faced and not allowing runs, and Cavazos’ 10th dinger of the season setting the Raccoons ahead, 1-0. In the top 5th, Matt Whaley hit a fly into the gap in left center. Neil Reece ran after it and made a launching grab for the first out of the inning. However, something bothered him and he kneeled down on the grass after tossing the ball back in. Cavazos went over and waved for the trainer to come out. Reece left, Cavazos moved to center, and Parker came in. The team still led 1-0 and in the sixth, Ford struck out Alba to reach 100 K’s for the season in 114 innings. Top 7th, still 1-0, because Thomas and Guerin found it too bothersome to plate Parker from third base in the bottom 6th. Ford got Valdez, but then allowed a big double to Lopez, who advanced to third on a wild pitch. Oh, here it comes. That wild one also ran the count full on Brian Abrams, who then lined to left, where Parker snagged it off the top of the grass for a legal catch, although the Indians protested. Now it was Matt Whaley, who had spent most of the year in AAA and sought ways to get back into a regular role, with two down and the tying run on third base. First pitch, contact, a flare to shallow right, Flores hustling in – and he got it. The eighth was uneventful, both pitchers finishing it, and the Raccoons held the 1-0 lead into the top 9th. Now, Nordahl was all kinds of wonky, and the Indians had plenty of left-handers. Ford had only allowed three hits and at least we knew whom he was batting against, and when. He entered on 105 pitches and the first one he made in the ninth was cannonballed hard up the third base line by Carlos Quintela – and Daniel Sharp made an amazing grab for the first out! Okay, we got this! And then Valdez singled. Hnng-gghh. No, we were committed now. This was all Ralphie. Lopez popped up and out to Guerin, and then Abrams hit a soft fly to right center. Flores picked up a pizza, ate it, and then casually made the catch in due time. 1-0 Coons! Cavazos 1-4, HR, RBI; Reece 1-2, 2B; Ford 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (7-8);

The devil sat in Neil Reece’s back again, as some pain in the region of his herniated disc from last year had suddenly flared up again. The most grim estimates put his return window at around four weeks, and knowing my life and my fate, four weeks will be it. Looking for a replacement for him, Chris Beairsto was ruled out quickly since he had trouble adjusting to AAA pitching at this point and hit clearly below .200. But it was a golden window for somebody else, who had already been on the way off our watchlist: Chris Roberson.

Roberson, 24, and our first round pick, fourth overall, in the 1998 amateur draft out of Seton Hall, had been lingering in St. Pete since early on in 1999, but had been ravaged by injuries last season. This year, he batted for a .970 OPS for the Alley Cats with 22 homers. Agile, he was also a very sound solution for the now open centerfield spot. His profile shows big power, but bad judgment. So, there will be K’s and he probably won’t ever draw a walk – EVER. He drew just 22 in roughly 400 PA in AAA this year. In turn he can steal bases, something Neil Reece was never very good at. Roberson was not yet on the 40-man roster, but would have been rule 5 eligible this fall anyway (and a September call up regardless, especially with the team awful and Brady already out).

Ralph Ford still celebrated his first career shutout in his 58th start.

Raccoons (40-56) @ Knights (35-60) – July 20-22, 2001

This was a battle of the two most pathetic pitching staffs, with the Knights having given up 523 runs to our 481, so there was quite a gap there. While the Coons could at least boast an average offensive output, the Knights were also second-worst in offense, so there was our chance to have a winning week!

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (3-7, 4.89 ERA) vs. Hector Martinez (5-7, 5.72 ERA)
Cipriano Miranda (3-10, 4.37 ERA) vs. Ramon Meza (3-5, 7.82 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (6-6, 5.15 ERA) vs. Manuel Movonda (3-8, 5.14 ERA)

Yes that’s Bam Bam Movonda, pitching in his second year past being effective. Meza was the only lefty we would see this week.

Game 1
POR: RF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – CF Roberson – SS Guerin – LF Parker – C Fifield – P Farley
ATL: RF A. Rodriguez – SS Ingall – LF Ware – CF G. Rios – 2B J. Miller – C Fabián – 1B Luján – 3B Verdon – P H. Martinez

Chris Roberson’s first career AB was a bases-loading 2-out single in the top 1st, leading up to Concie plating a pair with his own single and the Furballs went up 2-0. Unfortunately, Farley was goddamn awful and constantly spent his time behind in the count. He walked the edge of taking a bat to the face (figuratively, as well as by me personally) for three innings before he finally imploded in the fourth, then however aided by a throwing error by Fifield that made one of the Knights’ pair of runs unearned. Roberson tripled in the top 5th to plate Sharp and regain the lead, with Sharp being on base after getting hit by a pitch. The same fate caught up with Palacios in the seventh, and he was injured by that Hector Martinez offering that appeared to strike him in the lower leg or ankle. The Raccoons bench hollered obscene insults at Martinez, who stretched out his arms as if to say that it wasn’t his fault that the ball had curved up into Palacios’ face. Heart replaced Palacios, joining Sharp on the bases. When Martin stepped in at the plate, he pointed his bat at Martinez, indicating who was next to leave this game. And he made him, with a 3-run homer, his 18th of the season. Reliever Francisco Gutierrez didn’t retire any of the next three Coons and we added two more runs. That put the lead at 8-2, yet now the bullpen took over from an ineffective Farley, and put ineffectiveness to new levels. Joly faced three men and was removed after a 1-out RBI triple by Ingall, who pulled something and also left the game. Then Diaz came in and walked both left-handers, Ware and Rios. Martinez was next, getting to 1-2 counts on both James Miller and Pedro Fabián. Miller made the second out with a sac fly, but Fabián singled, reloading the bags in an 8-4 game. The count on Luján ran full before he unwisely grounded out to Concie. With Cole Johnston pitching in the eighth, the Coons loaded the bases, but didn’t score. Bottom 8th, Daniel Miller, three batters faced, three singles. Bring Bruno! Marcos was NOT BY A LICK any better than Miller – but the Knights managed to run themselves out of the inning. Despite a Will Taylor single plating a run, Cavazos threw out Orlando Mendoza at home on that play, and when Gerardo Rios lifted a ball to left, Parker nailed Alejandro Rodriguez at home. Cavazos drove home a run in the ninth, leaving us to pick Scott Wade rather than Dan Nordahl – the only arms left in the pen after two innings of dismal failure – as this was not a save situation anymore. Perhaps Wade could make it one. Nah, he sat them down in order. 9-5 Raccoons. Sharp 2-4, BB, RBI; Martin 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Roberson 3-3, 2 BB, 3B, RBI; Guerin 2-5, 3 RBI;

So, the bullpen of horrors struck again, and Palacios was struck, and I can’t guarantee that Cipriano Miranda won’t take somebody’s head off on Saturday.

On the other hand, Chris Roberson had one of the best debuts I can remember, as he wasn’t sat down even once by the Knights!

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – LF Cavazos – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – 2B Heart – RF Flores – P Miranda
ATL: RF A. Rodriguez – SS Ingall – LF Ware – CF G. Rios – 1B Tinker – 2B J. Miller – C Fabián – 3B Verdon – P Meza

The Raccoons melted away much sooner this time. Miranda was ineffective, and run over in a 4-run third inning. Two runs were unearned after a Thomas throwing error. Those catchers… At that point, Miranda had already come inside to and plunked Gerardo Rios, and the Raccoons were still looking for a hit of their own. Their first hit of the game would be Chris Roberson’s first homer of hit major league career, a 1-out solo job in the top 4th. The horrible Miranda was yanked after an RBI double by Marvin Ingall in the bottom 4th, making it 5-2 Knights, and Diaz faced Ware and Rios again. He struck out Ware, but Roberson almost had to tear his legs out to catch Rios’ fly to deep center. The Coons scratched out a run in the top 5th, but left the bases loaded, and that was not the way you could play, even a last place team. Top 7th, Roberson on third base with one out, Sharp ran a 3-0 count against lefty Sammy Davis – then grounded out, and didn’t even get Roberson home. Another day, another boner from Dannyboy. In turn, the Knights got a run off – whom else – Bob Joly, and this game was drifting downriver, and they got another run out of Scott Wade in the bottom 8th, chaining up three hits with two outs. 7-3 Knights. Roberson 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI;

Last eight games for Ramiro Cavazos: 5-36, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 11 K. Trying too hard?

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – CF Roberson – RF Cavazos – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – LF Parker – 2B McLaughlin – P M. Lopez
ATL: 2B J. Miller – SS Ingall – LF Ware – 1B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – CF Jaramillo – C A. Alvarez – 3B Verdon – P Movonda

After striking out three in the first inning, Miguel Lopez was still turned inside out even quicker than the useless Miranda the day before, as the Knights put four runs on him one inning earlier, in the second, and with no errors in there this time. Key was a 2-out, 2-run triple by James Miller, and even then Lopez failed to stop the bleeding. However, the 2001 Movonda couldn’t stink up even to the 1998 Brownshirt version. In the top 4th, Sharp got on and scored on a Thomas double before Parker homered and moved the Coons back within one. After Guerin was thrown out stealing to kill our efforts in the fifth, Sharp hit a 1-out triple in the sixth and although Ingall threw all his body at Mark Thomas’ grounder, it went through, tying the game. Parker got on and was forced by McLaughlin, getting us into a predicament of Lopez having to bat with runners on the corners and two outs. While Movonda was weak at 37, we would really long for a pinch-hitter, but our bullpen had been eaten up (to some comedic effect) the last two days. Lopez, batting .206 on the year, was sent to bat for himself, and floated a low glider to left – and Ware didn’t get it, the Coons took the lead! The Coons stranded Roberson on third base however in the seventh when Sharp hit into a double play. A leadoff double by Nick Verdon in the bottom 7th spelled trouble and although Manuel Martinez relieved Lopez, he couldn’t keep the run from scoring, as the Knights re-tied the contest. In the eighth we faced ex-Coon Albert Matthews. When Chris Parker got on with a 1-out single it was time for some wicked games. McLaughlin bunted Parker to second. Then, Kent hit for Martinez – and sure enough doubled off Matthews, which made it 6-5 Coons. After Bruno was not scored on in the bottom 8th, we faced Manuel Reyes in the top 9th. He got Roberson, but he didn’t get much more. Cavazos singled, and Martin walked. Sharp plated Cavazos with a single, and Thomas hit an RBI double. We managed another sac fly before the inning fizzled out, and then elected to have Bruno go on in a 9-5 game. Julio Jaramillo led off the bottom 9th with an extra base hit. However, there was no agreeing over how many bases he had. Jaramillo said three, but Chris Parker said two and threw him out. Bruno still didn’t get out of the inning, allowing a single to Verdon and a walk to Rios with two down. Nordahl appeared to face Miller, and his second pitch was taken up the middle. Verdon was waved around third, and this time Chris Roberson disagreed, firing a grapeshot at home, where Verdon was out comfortably. 9-5 Coons. Guerin 2-5; Sharp 3-5, 3B, RBI; Thomas 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Parker 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI;

In other news

July 19 – SFW LF Javier Encarnación (.323, 4 HR, 49 RBI) is out for a month with an elbow sprain.
July 22 – The Falcons’ allrounder Herberto Vieitas (.225, 3 HR, 26 RBI) is out for the season with torn ankle ligaments. The 25-year old Vieitas plays all defensive positions except catcher.

Complaints and stuff

I had been waiting for the inevitable Neil Reece injury for quite some time. Now it’s here. With Brady down for (most likely) the whole season, our outfield looks toothless and bleak now. Playing two out of Parker, Flores, and Kent, plus some random scrub, on any given day does not likely enhance our chances to carry fourth place going forward.

Hear me. Talking about fourth place as some kind of achievement.

Although it really would be, with Jesus Palacios also going down. By Sunday night we knew there was no structural damage but he would still miss one to two more weeks with a foot contusion. There was no point in leaving him on the roster. The next semi-decent prospect might follow Chris Roberson on the heels in form of Miguel Ramirez (who was already up to scarce success this year), and even another outfielder in Edgardo Torrez.

During our series with the Knights, they had Mike Crowe (.220, 1 HR, 8 RBI in 127 AB) designated for assignment. I just can’t see anybody picking up a 30-year old third baseman that mediocre, even for a minimum contract.

Bob Joly has been shopped, yielding no suitors, even at the deadline. Well, to be fair, I only tried baseball teams. I didn’t try other outfits at their own deadline for acquiring barely living piles of meat, like … occult circles in need of sacrificial lambs for rituals and such.