[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-52) vs. Bayhawks (56-43) – July 22-24, 2002

Another scarily good team, although these Bayhawks couldn’t stink up to the Thunder in the Southern Division. Ranking 5th in offense and 3rd in pitching was all well and swell, but didn’t help if the opposition led the league in BOTH categories.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (10-8, 3.80 ERA) vs. Henry Selph (5-9, 5.53 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-6, 2.77 ERA) vs. Miguel Diaz (7-4, 4.35 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-8, 3.89 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (16-4, 2.10 ERA)

Wow, Hamlyn. Also, Carl Bean had won his last five decisions and was undefeated for over a month, and would try to pass Ralph Ford in wins for the Furballs in the opener, with a struggling Selph opposing him. But we all know how dangerous struggling pitchers can be to the Furballs…

Game 1
SFB: RF Javier – CF Walls – 1B D. Carroll – LF W. Jackson – SS J. Perez – 2B I. Navarro – C Manuel – 3B Bulco – P Selph
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – CF Reece – RF Brady – 3B Sharp – C Fifield – P Bean

With no score on the board, the bottom 4th unfolded particularly peculiar. The Raccoons had Reece (single) and Brady (walk) on base with one out. Sharp grounded to second, where Ismael Navarro had to stretch and could only get Sharp at first. So we had runners in scoring position with two down, and Fifield, batting all of .186, up next. The Bayhawks elected to bypass him and rather pitch to Bean (.340, 2 HR, 10 RBI) – and then Selph rung Bean’s buttocks with the very first pitch. That made it 1-0, and then Guerin struck out, ending the frame. Bean scattered a fair amount of runners all over the place, with a tight spot in the second, where Selph’s spot in the order came up in time to get an inning-ending strikeout in, and then again in the fifth, where only Guerin’s quick hands kept the shutout in order, starting a double play on Jose Perez. Bean was everything but dominant, and his bid for a win dissipated in the dark of night in the seventh. The Raccoons were as excruciating as ever at the plate, and failed to score on their own, and in the top 7th Bean put the leadoff man on for the third straight inning. This time, it cost, with Dave Carroll singling home Paco Javier with one out. That was it for Bean, as Rodriguez came out to face Will Jackson, the left-hander, but instead faced Luke Black, the right-hander. Rodriguez as usual was not particularly helpful, but Marcos Bruno would end the inning before the Bayhawks could take a lead. Bruno and Ingall had entered in a double switch, removing Sharp from the game, and the bottom 7th started with an Ingall single. Guerin made an out on a fly to center, before Palacios reached when Perez dropped his pop, and Roberson was hit by Selph. That filled them up for Albert Martin, and we were already asking us where his power had gone. Another boring fly to middle-outfield later - … well, at least he got Ingall home, the Raccoons led 2-1, and Reece added one plating Palacios with a 2-out single. Even on TV, our NWSN guys Cubby Hairston and Wally Gaston discussed Martin not hitting anything out even an inning later, when we had Parker on first and Fifield batting. Heck, Fifield hit one out, to dead center, making it 5-1, and doing his best to chase down Martin with his 11th while batting below the threshold to legally have oxygen administered. Whatever was right or wrong this side of the power alley, the Bayhawks ultimately couldn’t hurt our bullpen, and went down silently in the eighth and ninth. 5-1 Coons! Reece 2-4, RBI; Brady 2-3, BB; Parker (PH) 1-1; Bean 6.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

In fact, Albert Martin has not homered in the month of July. Heck! Since the All Star break he has had TWO extra base hits!

Game 2
SFB: 3B Berrios – LF Walls – 1B D. Carroll – CF Black – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Perez – 2B I. Navarro – RF Bulco – P M. Diaz
POR: RF Brady – 2B Palacios – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – CF Reece – 3B Sharp – C Fifield – SS Matthews – P Brown

Tuesday wouldn’t become merry Nick Brown Appreciation Day, with the diamond allowing a grand slam to Jose Perez in the first inning after walking the two preceding batters with two down. Brown was utter dog poo, allowing everybody and their moms to reach base, and issuing SIX walks in the first three innings, ALL with two outs. Meanwhile, Miguel Diaz was perfect. Brown started the fourth by walking Leon Berrios, and failed to throw a strike past the next two batters, either, finally getting yoinked. The Coons presented themselves overall despicably, totaling one base runner in five innings against Diaz. When they finally came alive, it was more through dumb luck and Diaz melting in the sixth. Matthews hit a single with one out, bringing up Huerta in long relief. Huerta twice failed to lay down a bunt, then got a sign to swing, and singled between Berrios and Perez. Brady walked to load them up, and from there, the Coons would score runs on a walk, a hit batter (Roberson), and a single, but couldn’t tie the score, leaving it at 4-3, and it was still just that after Dan Nordahl pitched a 4-pitch top 9th. Reece led off the bottom 9th against Johnny Smith, who had a 6.5 K/BB rate, but wouldn’t whiff anybody in the inning, instead surrendering line drives to Reece and pinch-hitter Guerin. Alas, both those lines were caught, and no Coon reached base. 4-3 Bayhawks. Palacios 2-4, RBI; Huerta 3.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K and 1-1;

Brownie walked seven, whiffed one.

If they weren’t trampled on, what would hopes and dreams be for anyway?

Unrelated, Gil Flores was designated for assignment. Cal Lyon was called up, but this more of a stopgap measure, and we might make another adjustment soon. I just can’t say whether that will be for Chris Beairsto already…

We got a trade proposal from the Thunder. What do they want from us? I know we have the best grounds crew in the CL (the Raccoons are perpetually lying face down in the dirt and grass and it is me-ti-cu-lous-ly combed!), but they need a PLAYER? The offer was Marvin Ingall going over for C Jason Briggs.

Of course the Coons need a catcher. We have three of them, none batting more than .190. Briggs is interesting. Not much power. Not very good contact. But he has struck out 56 times. IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS. And that is in over 1,300 AB. However, that’s his only trick. He’s a decent catcher, he’s better than anybody we have and claiming to be of the same trade, but he’s also a free agent and will cost us another $300k in salary until we’re there.

Game 3
SFB: RF Javier – CF Walls – 1B D. Carroll – LF W. Jackson – C G. Ortiz – SS J. Perez – 2B Berrios – 3B Bulco – P Hamlyn
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – CF Reece – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – C Fernandez – P Farley

Poor Randy. He didn’t figure much of a chance, even though the score was 1-1 after the first inning, and Hamlyn, who led the CL in all Triple Crown categories, didn’t fan anybody the first time through the order. But Randy himself was pitching like arse, with Roberson nailing out a second run at home in the top 1st, and the Bayhawks leaving five men on without scoring in the next two frames. But they kept getting on base and sooner or later Farley would buckle, which happened in the fifth, a run scoring on doubles by Walls and Jackson handing the Bayhawks a 2-1 lead. That was the margin between the two teams as the innings ticked down. We even used Bob Joly in relief, voiding a start for him with Thursday off, to get a bit of work off the proper bullpen. Joly walked a bunch, but was not scored on. The Raccoons fanned only four times against Hamlyn over eight frames, but couldn’t hit him decisively either. So here we were down by one and facing Johnny Smith again, facing the 4-5-6 guys and axing through them in no time. 2-1 Bayhawks.

(sigh)

The offense is so dead. Nobody is doing anything. Really, nobody. Gimme some dice, gotta write down Friday’s lineup *somehow*. The lineup would not include Fernandez, who was demoted to AAA to add Mark Thomas, who came off the DL.

Raccoons (47-54) vs. Knights (40-61) – July 26-28, 2002

I’d like to pounce on a bottom dweller, please. 101 games, 527 runs allowed, which was pretty much all anybody absolutely needed to know about the Knights, with a half-decent bullpen being seriously overcooked by a rampant atrocious rotation bordering on intentionally harming everybody in attendance, inducing an urge to vomit whenever they wound up, or wherever they wound up. Now they’d wind up in Raccoons Ballpark, and without a doubt would be pretty good.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (10-6, 2.44 ERA) vs. Hector Martinez (6-6, 6.35 ERA)
Carl Bean (10-8, 3.69 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (4-12, 5.19 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-7, 2.89 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (7-10, 4.96 ERA)

Game 1
ATL: 2B J. Miller – C Valadez – CF Ware – 1B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – SS Lujan – LF A. Solís – 3B A. Hernandez – P H. Martinez
POR: RF Brady – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – C Thomas – P Ford

Another game that just like that started out 4-0 Opposition. This time all runs were unearned after a critical error by Guerin that put Stephen Ware on in addition to Ricardo Valadez instead of ending the first in due time. Ford continued to surrender another four singles before inevitably Hector Martinez came up and lobbed out to Brady. Ford was tagged for another three singles and an earned run in the second, and somehow would strike out seven over 4.1 innings before Hector Martinez homered off him to send him to bed with a 6-0 deficit. On a windy Friday night where on the Raccoons’ staff nobody did much, and few did anything, Martinez was out there on the mound, throwing lollipops, wearing his big clown shoes, and a fake red nose, and wasn’t done in. When Roberson led off the second inning with a triple, Martinez came back with three strikeouts. The universe was showing the Raccoons the finger, with Thomas singling to start the bottom 5th, only for Ingall to hit hard to third for a double play. When Martinez issued two 2-out walks to Brady and Palacios, Reece flew to left center for a casual third out. When Ingall got on the next time around, the Knights made impossible plays on defense to foil the Critters again. Ultimately, what the Critters did, was not important. The show was put on by the Knights, who would kill every pitcher the Raccoons fielded in the game, and they fielded a lot.

The game continued to crumble. At first Bob Joly was decent in another unplanned for relief appearance, before getting tagged for two in the seventh. Rodriguez was tasked with the eighth, walked Ware, the lefty, and was then sunk by Tinker with a homer to make it a 10-0 rout. He put another man on, before Miller appeared and cleaned up. Miller remained in for the ninth, but it just was not meant to work. Glenn Douglas singled, James Miller doubled, and Valadez walked. Bases loaded, no outs, out with Miller to have Diaz pitch to the left-hander. Said left-hander singled, and Ware put two more on the board, 12-0. Tinker singled, before Will Taylor accidentally made an out. We were in the ****s, somehow Diaz would collect two more.

Or would he? Nick Verdon singled, plating Valadez, 13-0. Diaz walked Angel Solís, 14-0. Anastasio Hernandez effortlessly took one of Diaz’ beans and sent it against the batter’s eye. 18-0.

Well, somehow Diaz has got to collect two more, since we’re not bringing another pitcher. Douglas singled. Miller flew out, before Valadez walked. Ware, the left-hander, doubled, bringing the score to an especially painful – in case you weren’t numb yet – twenty-oh. This wasn’t going to end, right? Marcos Bruno was sent for. Bill Tinker homered off him. In the bottom 9th, Matthews singled. Then Guerin hit into a double play killing the rally.

22-0 Knights. Matthews (PH) 1-1;

When the grounds crew came in to prepare the field for the Saturday game, they found me lying face down across the remains of the base line running from home to third. There actually was not much line left. The Knights had worn it out.

Players executed:
Mauro Rodriguez (7.13 ERA)
Juan Diaz (10.32 ERA)

Players moving up on executables list:
Pedro Perez (4.50 ERA in AAA)
Cesar Miranda (9-4, 3.50 ERA in 19 GS in AAA)

Game 2
ATL: CF A. Solís – C Valadez – LF Ware – 1B G. Douglas – 2B J. Miller – SS Lujan – RF R. Lopez – 3B Verdon – P Grams
POR: RF Brady – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – SS Matthews – LF Parker – C Fifield – P Bean

After every bloody loss, no matter how mind-boggling, heart-tearing, soul-squelching, spirit-breaking, comes another day with another game. This one had Bean in it, and him and his entourage at least tried to leave the impression that everything was going to be fine. Bean struck out two in the first and kept the Knights at bay early on, while an early lead for the home team was arranged for by Neil Reece, who went deep for two runs in the bottom 1st. The Coons added an unearned run in the third, driven in Palacios, before the Knights had runners on the corners in the fourth, but Bean lasered out Antonio Lujan. Trouble kept brewing, however, with Sharp throwing away Grams’ bunt in the fifth to put two in scoring position with one out. Pieces started to come out of Bean, who walked Solís, before Valadez grounded sharply to Matthews for a double play. Matthews was in the crosshairs in the seventh however, making an error to put on leadoff man Rodrigo Lopez. Once Verdon doubled past Sharp, our 4-0 lead (reached when Brady scored after tripling in the fifth) seemed like it was going to go bust any second now, and Grams took a 1-2 pitch to center for an RBI single, before Bean took control again, struck out Solís and Valadez hit into a double play. Bottom 7th, Fifield was on base for Brady with two out. Brady was unretired on the day and smacked a high fly to right that was not coming down, 6-1 Coons, and Brady was a double from the cycle, but was highly unlikely to come up again with the Raccoons leading. This game was not secure, though. Martinez couldn’t solve the Knights in the eighth and the bases were loaded with two out after a 4-pitch walk to Lopez. In came Nordahl to face Verdon, who lobbed a 2-2 offering to shallow left, but Parker made the catch, stranding three. The Coons scored a pair in the bottom 8th, but Brady’s turn didn’t come up again. Bill Tinker took Dan Nordahl deep in the ninth, but the damage was insufficient to get the Knights back into the game. 8-2 Raccoons. Brady 4-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Palacios 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bean 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (11-8);

The Knights’ Steven Ware strained a back muscle in this game and would miss a month. I still had some chalk on the face, but listed myself as DTD and moved on.

Bill Tinker has three home runs on the year – all in two days in Portland.

Game 3
ATL: CF A. Solís – C Valadez – 1B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – 2B J. Miller – LF R. Lopez – SS Verdon – 3B A. Hernandez – P Cutts
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Roberson – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – 1B Ingall – C Fifield – P Brown

Brownie was perfect the first time through the Knights’ lineup, whiffing five, but falling to 3-ball counts three times, and none of those three batters struck out. The soup began to boil soon enough, however. After Solís failed to reach on a drag bunt leading off the, Valadez walked, Tinker lobbed a single over Palacios, and Taylor also walked. Bases loaded, one out, Brown relied on his number one to strike out James Miller, and Rodrigo Lopez grounded out to Guerin, keeping the game scoreless. Scoreless ended in the bottom 5th, when Guerin zinged a soft single to left that Lopez managed to lose between his legs for an extra base. Both Ingall and Fifield singled, bringing Guerin home, 1-0, before Brown struck out in vain attempts to lay down a bunt, and the Raccoons wouldn’t score any more. The Knights got Solís to third base after a leadoff walk in the sixth, but Brown got another key K to Taylor to escape, and the Raccoons continued to flail pointlessly, leaving another two runners on in the bottom of the inning, begging for Brown and whatever relievers we might be bothered using to walk six consecutive Knights. So far, Brownie was holding up, and in the bottom 7th, the Coons had runners on first and second once more after a Fifield single, Brown bunt, and Sharp getting put on intentionally for the guy that was a double removed from happiness the night before. Before Brady could poke, Cutts balked, moving the runners into scoring position. COME ON NOW!! Brady got to 3-1 before poking and it found a hole to get into left for an RBI single. Reece then found it necessary to hit into a double play. Bottom 8th, Guerin reached with a 2-out walk presented by Bartolo Gomez, right-handed relief man. When Guerin set off to steal with Ingall batting, Valadez’ throw was way high and Guerin reached third on the error. And here comes an INGALL SINGLE!! Begging for controversy and horrible things to happen, Brown batted with two on and two out and grounded out, sending himself back to the mound for the ninth with a 3-0 lead, facing the 2-3-4 batters with Nordahl standing by. Ricardo Valadez’ leadoff double was provocation enough to send for Danny, who preserved not only the win, but also Brownie’s clean sheet. 3-0 Coons. Guerin 2-3, BB; Ingall 2-4, RBI; Fifield 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K, W (6-7);

Oh Brownie. What are we gonna do with you? Utter crap on Tuesday, awesome on Sunday. That’s ten walks and eleven strikeouts for him this week. Not a great ratio.

In other news

July 22 – OCT 1B Tomas Cardenas (.343, 10 HR, 55 RBI) will miss another two weeks with plantar fasciitis.
July 25 – The Knights part with OF/1B Gerardo Rios (.244, 11 HR, 52 RBI), who gets sent with a minor leaguer to the Rebels for C Ricardo Valadez (.355, 2 HR, 12 RBI in 76 AB) and pitching prospect Juan Sanchez.
July 25 – The Bayhawks deal MR Nesto Martinez (1-2, 3.55 ERA, 3 SV) to the Miners for utility man Justin Comte (.214, 1 HR, 9 RBI in 70 AB) and a minor leaguer.
July 27 – The Condors deal OF Matt MacKey (.357, 5 HR, 10 RBI in 84 AB) to the Indians for veteran bullpen help in MR Jared Chaney (1-0, 1.88 ERA, 9 SV).

Complaints and stuff

I have no comments.

Only this. I erred when I said last week the Raccoons were on the way to Oblivion. They aren’t. They are way too good as the league’s laughing sacks to not be remembered for a long, long time.

Oh. And this. We shopped our dismal, disfigured left-handed ex-relievers around, and uncovered no suitors among the 23 competing baseball franchises, which was not really shocking, after all they were COMPETING, but I was stunned to see that not even medical labs would take a stab at them and send over a box of Aspirin for Diaz and Rodriguez to use them up in research for a boil ointment.

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The following “qualified” free agents signed this week for the most meager money:
SP Ramiro Gonzalez with the Falcons
INF Bob Butler with the Warriors
That’s not a lot, but it’s better than nothing. The Coons must not sign any qualified free agents until at least two more are signed.