[Westheim]

We demoted Santiago Trevino on Monday and added Jose Dominguez to the 25-man roster. It’s not that Trevino was doing anything particularly badly, but he also wasn’t providing any sparks. But well, who was?

Raccoons (45-50) vs. Bayhawks (47-53) – July 25-27, 2006

The Bayhawks sported the best bullpen in the league, and didn’t help them any. Their rotation ranked eighth in ERA, and their offense was not that much better than that, and all in all they were readily defeated. But we know something about the feeling, too… We are 1-2 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (10-8, 3.91 ERA) vs. Marc Padgett (1-4, 4.34 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (5-9, 4.19 ERA) vs. Tyler Sullivan (8-8, 3.87 ERA)
Tim Webster (2-0, 2.84 ERA) vs. Jeremiah Bowman (5-5, 4.52 ERA)

Dominguez will make his first start against the team he was acquired from. That can only ever end badly.

Game 1
SFB: LF Beairsto – 2B J. Barrón – RF Keshishian – C B. Campbell – 1B C. Parker – 3B J. Perez – CF Hudson – SS Sheehan – P Padgett
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – CF E. Fernandez – P Dominguez

And just like that, the newest acquisition the Raccoons had made on their annual way to oblivion surrendered a leadoff home run to Chris Beairsto, whom we didn’t want to entrust with putting pine tar on bats anymore, and the Bayhawks were up 1-0. Dominguez drilled Tirgen Keshishian, walked Brian Campbell, then got singles flicked over the infield by Parker and Perez to fall 3-0 behind in the first. The Raccoons made up a run in the second inning, aided by a Bayhawks error, but Dominguez never stopped sucking. His Coons debut lasted three and two thirds, ending with a no-doubt 2-run homer by Brian Campbell that ran the score to 6-1.

Although he well deserved it, Dominguez did not get the loss. Marc Padgett was old and weak, and in the bottom 4th we saw Sharp singling home Castro for the second time on the day, before Eddie Fernandez hit his first homer of the season to collect Sharp and get back to 6-4. This was a game of pairs. Sharp had two RBI singles, and Fernandez would have another home run, his latter chasing Marc Padgett with a 3-run shot in the bottom 6th! With the resulting 7-6 lead we tried to get two innings from Domingo Moreno, but PH Pablo Fernandez (how many ex-Raccoons DO they have!?) doubled with one out in the eighth and Law Rockburn appeared to get out of the inning with Fernandez starved at third base. The Raccoons had nothing against the strong Bayhawks pen (including Salvadaro Soure, a Vince Guerra discovery), and when Angel Casas walked Keshishian to start the ninth inning, things got dicey. Angel however was indeed sharp – and struck out the next three batters. 7-6 Coons! Castro 2-4, 2B; Sharp 2-2, BB, 2 RBI; Fernandez 2-3, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Riddle 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-1);

After this game, the Bayhawks traded Chris Parker (.269, 2 HR, 27 RBI) to Milwaukee for two prospects, one decent, one not.

With that win, we’re seven games out behind the crumbling Indians. We are only in fifth place but how can you sell inventory when you are only seven games out? I mean, it’s nuts! We are in no place to challenge for the division! We can’t add players, either. Every addition that comes here plainly fails. This season alone there have been four: Angel Romero, Jose Dominguez, Antonio Ramirez, and Tomas Castro. But how can you slap 7 GB in late July in the face and deal away your least horrible players?

At the same time, you don’t want to trade prospects for a less than ridiculous chance at the playoffs.

Game 2
SFB: LF Beairsto – 2B J. Barrón – RF Keshishian – C B. Campbell – 3B J. Perez – 1B J. Cruz – CF Hudson – SS Sheehan – P Sullivan
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF E. Fernandez – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – LF Castro – P Watanabe

Another day, another mouthful of runs in the first inning. Watanabe got shoved around for four, showing nothing but stuff that wouldn’t suffice to throw batting practice. Add ****ty weather to that ****ty first inning and you have all the ingredients for pain ready at your hands. But the team would rally again. Castro hit a 2-run triple with two out in the second inning to cut the gap in half, and Watanabe just so held on to that 4-2 deficit until hitting a single to start the bottom 5th. Vic Flores doubled, and suddenly the tying runs were ready to be driven in. Yoshi Nomura’s grounder ticked off the glove of a stretching Jose Perez for an RBI single, and Brady hit a sac fly to tie the score. And then, Quebell with the double play, while Watanabe had nothing better to do than hit the leadoff man Campbell in the sixth and collapse like a house of cards. Two runs were already in when Ed Bryan came to the rescue and stranded the third runner on base, but the damage was done. Eddie Fernandez drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, stole second, and came in to score on a Bowen single, but that still had the Raccoons a run short at 6-5. Rockburn had pitched the top 7th and remained in for the eighth as we faced right-handers, but he put two men on anyway. When Pablo Fernandez was sent to hit for Brad Sheehan, Marcos Bruno appeared to get a grounder to end the inning. In the bottom 8th it was a grave throwing error by Jorge Cruz that allowed Quebell to reach second base as the tying run with no outs, but Fernandez, Sharp, and Bowen failed colossally and couldn’t knock Sullivan from the game, and the lineup didn’t succeed against closer Johnny Smith, who had blown just one save all year, either. 6-5 Bayhawks. Flores 2-5, 2B; Bowen 2-3, RBI;

Of course the Raccoons have no chance at the division! You fool!! They have no pitching, and no hitting, and they have foremost no pitching, but primarily no hitting!

Game 3
SFB: CF Hudson – 2B J. Barrón – RF Keshishian – C B. Campbell – 3B J. Perez – 1B J. Cruz – LF L. Alonso – SS Sheehan – P Bowman
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Castro – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – CF E. Fernandez – 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – P Webster

A daily tradition now, the Bayhawks took the lead in the first inning, although this time it was only one run as Tim Webster more and more was becoming the ace of the staff. The Coons took the lead in their half of the first with a 2-out, 2-run single by Ramirez that scored Castro and Quebell. Webster hardly ever got a strike past anybody, and the defense did most of the dirty work. That sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t, and the Bayhawks tied the score in the fourth, only to run into Quebell and Fernandez in the bottom 4th. The latter doubled in the former, restoring the Coons to the lead, and with two on and two out Webster snipped a soft line past Cruz that landed just fair to score Fernandez and move to 4-2. After both teams stranded a pair in the fifth, Webster got a few more easy outs and finished seven innings on 109 pitches. Bruno quickly dealt with the eighth, and just like in the opener, the Bayhawks got a runner quickly in the ninth against Angel, but still racked up three strikeouts to get suffocated. 4-2 Coons. Quebell 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Webster 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (3-0) and 1-3, RBI;

Raccoons (47-51) vs. Aces (45-57) – July 28-30, 2006

The Aces came in having dropped four straight, with a horrendous pitching staff that had allowed 510 runs (exactly 5 R/G) the main reason for their dwelling in the cellar. Both halves of their staff were posting 4.50-ish ERA’s, which came out to a 9th place for the starters, and 12th place for the pen. The season series is evenly split at three wins for either rotten outfit.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (2-6, 5.10 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (0-5, 5.61 ERA)
Ralph Ford (8-9, 3.25 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (9-7, 4.04 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (10-8, 4.20 ERA) vs. Bob Bowden (7-8, 3.66 ERA)

We will get the semi-decent part of their rotation, unfortunately. They also have Jesus Elmore in there, who is 4-11 with a 5.55 ERA and was in our system for a while. Plus a total bum with a 9-ish ERA in four starts.

Game 1
LVA: LF Covington – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – 1B Breach – CF Messinger – 2B F. Soto – SS Vieitas – P Valdevez
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Flores – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – CF Fernandez – RF Mays – SS Yamada – P Fairchild

Another classic for our collection of horrendously agonizing first inning, Marvin Covington started the game with a clean single to left, then stole second uncontested when the clumsy Ramirez dropped the ball. That did not matter much when Fairchild walked Inaki-Luki Warrain anyway. Eduardo Durango scored Covington with a single, 1-0, and Fairchild mixed in a wild pitch to Ricardo Garcia, who then singled, 2-0, before Yoshi Nomura spoiled the party by starting a double play on Alan Breach, that still scored a run, 3-0. I left my window to the field and instead had Whitebread compile a report on our AAA starters.

Fairchild never stopped being bull****, and was knocked out in the fifth inning, even topping Watanabe and Dominguez by being charged with seven runs in four and a third. Kichida replaced him, and by then the Coons were hopelessly behind, scoring only one run when Fernandez, who had himself quite a week, singled home Quebell in the bottom of the fourth. Then they did rally, but were extraordinarily stupid about it. In the bottom 5th, one run was already in when Quebell batted with two out and runners on the corners. He doubled to right and the runner from first, Flores, was sent around third and got thrown out at home. Then at 7-3 in the sixth, Fernandez was on first with one out and Mays batting. Mays completely missed a fastball in a hit-and-run and Fernandez was thrown out. Mays homered on the next pitch. No, it wasn’t gonna happen. Adam Riddle was tagged for a run in the top 8th, we got a run in the bottom 8th, but the damage done by Dork on Duty was too big to be overcome. 8-5 Aces. Quebell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Ramirez 2-4, 2B; Fernandez 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Kichida 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K and 1-1;

Trade

After I was done weeping over Whitebread’s AAA report, Kelly Fairchild (2-7, 5.51 ERA) was eliminated swiftly. We traded him to the Warriors for a 2005 second round pick that had just been promoted to AA ball, right-handed reliever Derrek Fredlund, 20 years old.

We called up Felipe Garcia (3-8, 3.69 ERA in AAA), because the tenth time around, everything will be so much better.

Raccoons (47-51) vs. Aces (45-57) – July 28-30, 2006

Before the start of this middle game I went down into the clubhouse, had the pitching coach assemble the remaining four starters and then grabbed Law Rockburn and Adam Riddle, had them take off their shirts and then showed the starters the various reddish spots on their bodies.

“You see that!? They’re all sore! All over their bodies! STOP OVERWORKING THEM!!”

Game 2
LVA: 1B Breach – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – LF Cameron – 2B F. Soto – CF Covington – SS Vieitas – P Pennington
POR: 2B Flores – CF Fernandez – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – LF Crespo – 3B Sharp – SS Pena – P Ford

A miracle happened at the park on Saturday – the office of the resident Catholic archbishop started investigations immediately – when Ralph Ford did NOT give up a run in the first inning, and didn’t allow a hit until he had struck out seven batters, and that was in the fourth inning. Ford pitched with a 1-0 lead that was critically endangered after Francisco Soto’s leadoff double in the fifth, but he cut down the Aces to keep Soto at third, and got a second run of support in the bottom of the inning when Crespo singled in Quebell with two outs. A string of three 2-out singles ended with Sharp grounding out poorly to short. Top 6th, Alan Breach led off and became Ford’s 10th victim, and he struck out Garcia and Soto in the seventh to reach a dozen! Covington became #13 as Ford was reaching for a new franchise mark, but when Vieitas doubled on a 1-1 pitch in that top 8th, the tying run came to the plate and Ford also reached 101 pitches. But: that tying run was a left-handed pinch-hitter in Artie Hill, with the left-hander Breach after that. Ford claimed he had this, but Hill singled, and right-hander Tom Turner was taking Breach’s spot, which was the exit call for Ford. Marcos Bruno came on and got a double play grounder from Turner, with Cesar Pena having to reach wide to intercept it, but still started the two-for-one. The initial plan was for Bruno to finish the game, but his turn came up with two on and two out in the bottom 8th. Facing righty Don Davis, Tomas Castro hit for Bruno, singled to right, and pinch-runner Yoshi Yamada would score easily from second base, and another run scored on Vic Flores’ infield single to get us to 4-0. Since Pena had been hit for, Yamada stayed in the field at short and made an error to start the ninth, Warrain reaching against Rockburn. Law got the next two guys without getting sabotaged, with Yamada grabbing a liner by Ricardo Garcia, before Moreno came in and struck out left-hander Don Cameron. 4-0 Coons. Flores 2-5, RBI; Quebell 3-4, RBI; Ramirez 2-4; Castro (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ford 7.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 13 K, W (9-9) and 1-2;

Screaming helps tremendously.

Game 3
LVA: LF Covington – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – 1B Breach – CF Messinger – 2B F. Soto – SS Vieitas – P Bowden
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – C A. Ramirez – P Dominguez

Aaand another first inning deficit. Dominguez opened with a bean served to Covington that the not-quite-as-inept Ace converted for a leadoff double and soon enough scored to put his team up 1-0. In the bottom 2nd the Raccoons drew three walks, but the completely inept Bob Mays hit into a double play and nobody scored. The Inepticoons drew five walks and hit into two double plays before Quebell had their first hit in the fourth inning, a single, that was soon followed by a Sharp double, nothing at all from Mays, the piece of ****, and an intentional walk to Ramirez. Dominguez would have made the final out if not for Inaki-Luki Warrain’s missed grab and an unearned run scored before Nomura flew out to left. The already despised Dominguez had allowed seven hits and two runs in four inning, but by the time he was beaten with with wet towels in the dugout he was actually in the lead. The bottom 5th had seen a Flores single and a Brady double play, but in the bottom 6th Sharp singled with one out, and even the numb nut Mays walked. Ramirez singled to left, the bags were full and Dominguez was hooked for Tomas Castro to bat and single to right, plating two runs to flip the score to 3-2. That was it for offense, however, since Nomura hit the ball hard all day, and never got one past the outfielders, and Flores also flew out, albeit softly. Ed Bryan struck out the side in the seventh, and Bruno, in action for the fourth time in five days, pitched a perfect eighth with one K. The team continued to fail royally on offense, and thus Angel had no cushion facing Breach, Messinger, and Soto. Breach lifted out to left before Forest Messinger sent a grounder to the third base side, and Angel’s off side, of the mound. Sharp raced in, made a bare-hand play, I saw red lights flashing with capital letters blaring out ERROR! ERROR! – but his throw to first was nothing short of amazing and Messinger was hustling, but out. Don Cameron hit for Soto, but grounded out to Nomura, who finally HAD reached base in the bottom 8th – when he got hit. 3-2 Coons. Quebell 2-3, BB; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B; Ramirez 2-2, 2 BB; Castro (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

In other news

July 25 – The Indians pick up INF/LF Jose Lopez (.307, 10 HR, 64 RBI) from the Miners for unranked AAA outfielder George Jones.
July 25 – The Stars grab OF John Alexander (.262, 13 HR, 49 RBI) from the Capitals in exchange for SS/2B Kunimatsu Sato (.298, 1 HR, 4 RBI in 57 AB) and #11 prospect SP Jarrod Morrison.
July 27 – A stretched elbow ligament will put VAN SP Daniel Dickerson (12-6, 2.14 ERA) out of commission for the next 12 months.
July 27 – Former Furball CL Ricardo Huerta (1-3, 2.18 ERA, 28 SV) is dealt from the Condors to the Gold Sox for two middling prospects.
July 28 – The Stars trade LF/RF Artie Barnes (.275, 8 HR, 57 RBI) to the Wolves for prospect Jaime Marino, who was in the Wolves’ organization for only 13 days since a trade with the Titans, and a minor leaguer.
July 28 – Onto the DL with a quad strain: SAC INF/LF Dave McCormick (.319, 12 HR, 57 RBI);
July 30 – INF Brian Nichols (.286, 3 HR, 37 RBI) and cash is sent to the Condors by the Titans for SP Paul Kirkland (9-8, 4.33 ERA) and #79 prospect OF Ron Richards.
July 30 – The Gold Sox deal INF Jose Lopez (.274, 23 HR, 77 RBI) to the Falcons for SP Rodrigo Gomez (12-1, 3.62 ERA) and a minor leaguer.
July 30 – INF Bob Butler (.292, 3 HR, 46 RBI) is traded from the Thunder to the Scorpions, with OF/1B Haruyoshi Takizawa (.261, 3 HR, 19 RBI) making the return trip.

Complaints and stuff

Funny thing. Dickerson has 164 innings pitched. He will qualify for the ERA title, and how likely is it that Tobitt maintains his sub-2 ERA pace? It’s half his ERA from last season!

Ralph Ford is now the only Raccoon other than Nick Brown with a 13+ K game. That pesky Herberto Vieitas! If not for that double, he would have had a bit more breathing space available.

The Raccoons actually squeezed into the upper half in the power rankings, coming in at 12th at the conclusion of this 4-2 week.

And my hesitance to make any moves at the deadline will certainly come back to hurt the team eventually. Yes, they might be seven games out, and yes, they are second from the bottom in the division. That’s not enough reason to do nothing. Either go in and move, or back out and sell. I didn’t do either, and we will continue to linger.

Diamonds and the Raccoons in the second division – those things last forever!