[Westheim]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

I have a gut feeling the Raccoons will be just enough out at the All-Star Break that you're dealing Brownie

You must surely be new here. Please take a seat and I will have Maud brief you on how things run 'round here.

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Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 2-4, 2013

The Titans had shed some batting over the winter, including a host of outfielders, but had appeared to shore up their pitching. Unfortunately it hadn’t appeared in 2012 that pitching had been their bigger issue. The Raccoons had beaten them 10-8 in 2012, and had beaten them for five straight seasons.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Curtis Tobitt (0-0)
Daniel Dickerson (0-0) vs. Tony Hamlyn (0-0)
Colin Baldwin (0-0) vs. Ian Rutter (0-0)

Opposite-handed pitchers are going to face each other in every game of this series, with the Raccoons seeing their only southpaw, Tony Hamlyn, on Wednesday in the middle game.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 1B Legendre – 3B B. Butler – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF T. Austin – CF Grindstaff – P Tobitt
POR: LF Sambrano – CF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C D. Alexander – SS Palmer – 3B Merritt – P Brown

Ricardo Garcia procured the first tally in a Raccoons game in 2013, hitting a leadoff jack off Nick Brown in the second inning. Brown, annoyed, angrily struck out “Quasimodo” Suda, Jesus Ramirez, and Tim Austin to end the inning. Brownie struck out six the first time through the order (everybody except for Garcia and the top two in the lineup, Mike Rivera and Alexis Legendre), and also had the Raccoons’ first base hit in 2013, a 1-out single to right in the bottom 3rd that didn’t lead to anything. That wasn’t all yet – things got better the second time through. Yoshi Nomura drew his second walk to start the bottom 4th, followed by a Quebell single. Mike Bednarski had given a ball a ride to left his first time up – only to have it snatched by Tim Austin – but this time was not denied, catapulting a huge 3-run homer. There was never much guessing whether it was out of here – it was outta here right off the bat. Curtis Tobitt now suffered rapid decomposition: D-Alex doubled, Palmer singled, and while he got two outs from Merritt and Brown, the top three of the Coons’ order then all hit 2-out singles, driving in two more, before Tobitt plated the sixth run himself with a wild pitch to Quebell, who ended up walking to reload the bases – and that was ALL for Curtis Tobitt, totally stuck in the fourth inning! Scott Hood appeared to definitely get out Bednarski, who had brought out the hurt in the first place, but Bednarski battled Hood for nine pitches before singling up the middle to bring in two more runs, AND D-Alex singled home Quebell after that before Palmer finally grounded out. NINE RUNS in the inning!

After that rousing experience, the Raccoons quickly were dealt a blow to the knee, when Sandy Sambrano got entangled with Mike Rivera in an on-base collision in the fifth inning. Sambrano had to be helped off the field and was replaced by Matt Pruitt, while the Critters tacked on a run against Hood to make it 10-1, a score that Nick Brown maintained through seven innings, casually striking out a dozen in the season-opening rout. With a 9-run lead, Bill Conway was tasked with the final two innings, but started his outing by surrendering a really long home run – the first of his career – to Dylan Grindstaff. That was only a third of the runs that Conway would cock up in the inning, while the Raccoons then took it to Dan Parker in the bottom 8th, where Bednarski cracked his second 3-run homer of the game, letting the Titans run the gauntlet for 8 RBI in his Raccoons debut. 13-4 Brownies!!! Sambrano 2-4, RBI; Nomura 2-3, 2 BB; Quebell 2-4, BB; Bednarski 3-5, 2 HR, 8 RBI; D. Alexander 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Canning (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, W (1-0) and 1-2;

Only three players (Neil Reece, Vern Kinnear, Craig Bowen) have ever had more than Bednarski’s 8 RBI in a game for the Coons, and none of them did it in their debut. That was some nice debut. Now let’s hope he improves from there.

Meanwhile we’re worried about Sandy Sambrano for multiple reasons.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – CF J. Gusmán – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Flores – 3B B. Butler – 1B Grindstaff – P Hamlyn
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – P Dickerson

Bednarski hit another deep drive his first time up, but was denied of an RBI double by Jesus Flores. Instead, the Titans took a 1-0 lead in the top 3rd when Dylan Grindstaff, signed out of independent ball in 2012, hit a leadoff single, stole second, made third on Alexander’s throwing error, and scored on Rivera’s groundout. Dickerson was easily hittable in his Raccoons debut, and the Titans moved to strangulate him in the top of the fourth with three straight singles to get going between Suda, Ramirez, and Flores, before the next three, which included 38-year old veteran Bob Butler, the already annoying Grindstaff, and pitcher Tony Hamlyn, struck out, struck out, aaaand … struck out. Things didn’t go better for the Raccoons, either, as they got Bednarski on with a leadoff walk and Quebell with an infield single (rare enough) in the bottom 4th, but were then extinguished by Hamlyn with two strikeouts to Pruitt and Carmona and a sorry pop by Jon Merritt.

The Titans also missed another chance to vanquish Dickerson, who followed up Rivera’s leadoff single in the fifth with walks to Suda and Ramirez before Flores struck out to leave the bases stocked for the second consecutive inning. While Dickerson was no good at all for six innings, the bullpen immediately fell apart when tested in the top 7th. Thrasher got two outs before walking Ricardo Garcia, and believe it or not, the crew would manage to make a 5-spot out of that. Gibson appeared to face Suda, who hit an RBI double, before things moved on to Manobu Sugano, who allowed a single to Ramirez, then threw eight straight balls and ultimately fell to a bases-clearing triple by Todd Moultrie. Slayton walked two more needlessly in the top of the ninth, while the Coons scored a pair of irrelevant runs on groundouts late in the game. 6-2 Titans. Palmer 2-4; Rodgers 1-1;

I have a hunch that we will have A LOT of fun with that bullpen…

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 1B Legendre – 3B B. Butler – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF T. Austin – CF Grindstaff – P Rutter
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – 3B Merritt – P Baldwin

The Raccoons got on the board first for the first time in 2013 in this rubber game when Michael Palmer tripled home D-Alex in the bottom 2nd, but then was left there with one out. That lead didn’t hold up for long; Colin Baldwin was running lots of deep counts, with the Titans drawing a couple of walks early, but it was a Jesus Ramirez double that got them going in the top 4th. Tim Austin singled home the runner, then tried to score himself on Grindstaff’s double, but was thrown out by Pruitt at home. Grindstaff moved to third, but was left there when Rutter flew out to Carmona. Walking people AND allowing doubles really doesn’t mix well, Colin!

The mostly inefficient Baldwin fell 2-1 behind in the fifth on three more singles by the Titans, Rivera hitting one to start the inning, and Ricardo Garcia hitting one to get home the go-ahead run. While the Raccoons never got a good grasp of Rutter and failed to threaten at all after their second inning run, the Raccoons’ bullpen soon was again creating unbearable situations. Baldwin left after Rivera’s 1-out single in the seventh and Josh Gibson, whose scoreless appearances streak had been snapped the previous day, got out of the inning, but then put the first two batters on base with singles in the eighth. Sugano replaced him inefficiently, mainly because Jon Merritt played Ramirez’ bunt into a single to load the bases with nobody out. Hoshi Watanabe made his Raccoons debut in a really sticky spot and coughed up two runs on a grounder by Angel Solís and a hard single by Jesus Flores. Ricardo Garcia homered off Bill Conway in the ninth. The Raccoons trailed 5-1 into the ninth, got Iemitsu Rin into the game after D-Alex and Pruitt reached base, but Pruitt was thrown out at home on Palmer’s RBI single. Jon Merritt’s should-have-been-game-ending grounder was mishandled by Butler to bring up PH John Alexander as the tying run, but he grounded out to Moultrie on Iemitsu Rin’s first pitch. 5-2 Titans. D. Alexander 2-4; Palmer 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Rodgers (PH) 1-1;

Interlude: trade

All four players that had been waived and designated for assignment at the start of the season cleared waivers, and three were assigned to the Alley Cats (McNeela, Ayers, Roudabush). Richard Williams refused the assignment and was traded off for another meaningless player, as we sent him to the Crusaders for 26-yr old RF/LF Jeff Bowden, who hit for a .653 OPS in ten games in 2012. He makes the minimum, which is well.

Now wait for Williams to throw a shutout against the Raccoons in May.

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Aces (2-2) – April 5-7, 2013

The Raccoons had taken six of nine from the Aces in 2012, plus their best outfielder during the winter, and were looking for some more offense against a team that had allowed only 14 runs in its first 4-game set against the Condors, but also had scored only 12 runs, of which Josh Downing had driven in five.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Nehemiah Jones (0-0)
Rich Hood (0-0) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (1-0, 2.70 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (0-0, 4.50 ERA)

Three right-handers on tap for the weekend.

Game 1
LVA: 1B McDermott – 2B H. Jones – C Durango – RF Richards – LF Zackery – SS F. Soto – 3B Dahlke – CF Struck – P N. Jones
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – C Bowen – P Santos

Santos came out and walked Sean McDermott to start the game, but quickly settled in and began to click off the next six batters, including three strikeouts in the second inning. In fact, the only player to get a base hit off Santos the first times through the order would be Geoff Struck, who hit two singles, and those weren’t enough to score runs. Just as inept: the Raccoons. They had nothing going at all through five, except for that one time in the fourth inning when Bednarski and Quebell got on base with nobody on and Matt Pruitt swiftly hit into a double play. Top 6th then, Santos smacked Howard Jones with a 2-2 pitch, Jones moved up on a passed ball charged to Bowen on the 0-1 to Eduardo Durango, and Durango became the first Ace to strike a hit other than Struck, doubling to center to score Jones with the first run of the game. Santos was still trying to shake that off when Rusty Zackery fired a 2-run homer off him that put the Aces up 3-0 and sent Santos showering after five and two thirds. The Aces were close to upping the score significantly in the eighth in which neither Slayton nor Thrasher appeared to be willing to get an out, but Watanabe went in and cleaned up, with only one run added to the Aces tally of now four counters to the Coons’ squid. Jones was spilling singles here and there at times but wasn’t in danger until the bottom 8th, which the Raccoons opened with three straight singles by Merritt, Nomura, and Carmona, bringing up the middle of the order as tying runs with nobody out in the inning. Jones faced two more batters, walking in a run against Bednarski before leaving after Quebell’s 2-run single, but Zack Entwistle didn’t fare much better, walking Pruitt to reload the bases. Palmer hit a sharp grounder to third, with Tom Dahlke coming home for the force, but Ken Rodgers sneaked a grounder past Ricky Avila at short to plate Quebell, and Pruitt was sent home with the go-ahead run and scored well ahead of the throw by Struck. Bowen, who had been once before denied when Rusty Zackery scraped a would-be double out of the sky in leftfield, lined out hard to McDermott, bringing up Merritt again, who just plain beat Dahlke with a rocket up the leftfield line, completing the Critters’ 7-run onslaught in the bottom 8th. Angel Casas, who had warmed up anyway before the comeback, walked his first batter of 2013 – Struck – before retiring the next three, including two strikeouts. 7-4 Raccoons. Nomura 2-5; Rodgers 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Merritt (PH) 2-2, 2B, 2 RBI;

Still no news on Sandy Sambrano, by the way. I am starting to think that our new trainer spends his days smoking herbs rather than getting players fixed.

Game 2
LVA: 2B H. Jones – SS Dahlke – LF Zackery – C Durango – RF Richards – 1B F. Soto – 3B Avila – CF Trovillion – P Wagoner
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – SS Palmer – LF J. Alexander – 3B Merritt – P Hood

The Aces got only a Rusty Zackery single off Hood the first time through, striking out three times, while the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on John Alexander’s RBI triple that drove home Palmer. The Critters thereafter failed to even attempt to tack on another run (or even two) and eventually the Aces had to knock something against Hood. Back-to-back doubles by Ron Richards and Francisco Soto at the start of the fifth inning did the trick well enough to tie the game, and Soto came home on Dave Trovillion’s single to give the a 2-1 lead. Merritt opened the bottom 5th with a single, but was forced out by a poor bunt by Hood on which Avila made a strong play. Yoshi then singled and Carmona walked to fill the bags for Bednarski, who raked and K’ed, while Quebell grounded out to his significant other. The Aces got 2-out hits by Zackery and Durango in the sixth to add a run to their lead, which was in danger in the bottom 8th. Law Rockburn had already registered five outs for his new team in this game before walking Palmer with two outs. Mike Daniels replaced him, J-Alex singled, Merritt walked, and the Aces moved on to Rémy Lucas, a southpaw and former Raccoon whom I’d never put in with a 3-1 lead and three men on base. Bowen grabbed a bat and struck out. The Raccoons would get the tying run to the plate in the bottom 9th after Ricardo Carmona’s 1-out triple off Ryosei Kato. Carmona ran as soon as Mike Bednarski made contact on a 1-0 pitch … too bad that he lined out to Howard Jones, and that Carmona was well over halfway to home plate from where there was no way back to the sanctuary of third base. 3-1 Aces. Nomura 3-5, 2B; Palmer 2-2, 2 BB; J. Alexander 2-4, 3B, RBI; Hood 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, L (0-1);

****ing dimwit Carmona.

Meanwhile we finally put Sandy Sambrano on the DL with a strained rib cage muscle. He should not be back before the start of May. Brett Gentry was called up for the sakeness of a right-handed bat.

Game 3
LVA: 2B H. Jones – 1B McDermott – LF Zackery – C Durango – RF Richards – SS Dahlke – 3B F. Soto – CF Trovillion – P Valdevez
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – LF J. Alexander – SS Rodgers – 3B Merritt – P Brown

Nick Brown, who had killed everything once to two strikes on Opening Day, had Howard Jones at 2-2 before allowing a leadoff single, then was 0-2 on Sean McDermott before throwing a wild pitch and conceding a 2-run homer on the 1-2. That 337-footer just barely coughed over the fence at the shallowest bit of the park, right inside the right foul pole. That hittability never went away for Brown in this game, with Zackery adding a double to the pile right after the homer, although the Aces didn’t score again until the third inning, then on two singles and a sac fly. While Brown failed to go six and chased by a combination of too many extra base hits, a brief rain delay, and his own throwing error that put Dahlke on second base in the top 6th, and STILL somehow struck out ten batters in this muddled appearance, Valdevez faced the minimum through four innings (including a John Alexander double play) and only surrendered a run in the fifth inning on a sac fly, leaving the Raccoons then 3-1 behind. Josh Gibson retired Francisco Soto to strand Dahlke and at least keep the Raccoons close, but they had an unnerving habit of getting the leadoff man on in these middle innings and then fudging their way out of it. Walt Canning drew a leadoff walk after entering along with Gibson in the double play that removed Brownie and promptly was forced out by Nomura’s grounder before the sub-.200 batters Carmona and Bednarski continued their race towards a squid batting average. That was already their final twitch. Quebell flew out to left against Law Rockburn in the bottom 7th before the rain came back and doused Coon City pretty bad. After another lengthy rain delay the game was eventually called. 3-1 Aces. Quebell 2-3;

In other news

April 3 – ATL RF/1B Pat Arnette (.273, 0 HR, 1 RBI) gets a double in the Knights’ 10-8 win over the Falcons to extend a hitting streak carried forward from 2012 to 25 games.
April 6 – The Loggers cool off Atlanta’s Pat Arnette (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI), who goes empty in the Knights’ 7-6 win over Milwaukee to end his hitting streak at 26 games.
April 7 – TIJ SP Zach Boyer (1-0, 3.68 ERA) is placed on the DL with radial nerve compression and might miss four to five months.

Complaints and stuff

Last place in the North, worst defense, worst bullpen, leadoff man on the DL, no stolen bases, and no home runs since Wednesday – the definition of “cluster****”, I guess.