[Westheim]

There hasn't been a catcher that didn't wither and die in Coon City since Sam Dadswell. That's before David Vinson, guys. Dadswell was a Critter for 5 1/2 years, putting up above-average OPS+ numbers in every season. Then he went to Denver and rolled up and died.

Werner Turner was only here for a year and was then traded in '98, but never annoyed us too greatly. But what's a single year?

Craig Bowen's first stint in Portland was almost great. If we just never had taken him back from the Blue Sox... He's in AAA now.

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Raccoons (23-20) @ Condors (21-22) – May 26-28, 2014

The Condors were markedly better than in recent years, hovering around the .500 mark with the fourth-best offense in the Continental League. Unfortunately, the pitching was still mediocre, and they allowed just a few more runs than they scored. The Raccoons had beaten them 7-2 in 2013, and had won the season series for the last eight years.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-2, 2.39 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (2-2, 3.74 ERA)
Tom Constantino (0-2, 5.48 ERA) vs. Ethan Knight (0-0)
Nick Brown (6-1, 2.77 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (5-2, 4.01 ERA)

Ethan Knight was a 26-year old rookie who had just been called up and had yet to make his major league debut. He’s also a left-hander, and there’s a gap in the rotation for Tuesday, although the Condors have yet to formally announce their starter for the middle game. Knight is their only southpaw in the rotation.

Jimmy Eichelkraut is on the Condors’ roster, and is actually playing! - … badly. He’s batting .196 with two homers in about 50 AB.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Conway
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 1B Jaeger – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – LF Newman – SS Eroh – C Bedinghaus – 2B Lafon – P Rojas

Quebell came up with runners on the corners and one out in the first inning and … fouled out on a 3-1 pitch. And here we go. Conway drilled Craig Dasher to start his day – the 10th time that Dasher was hit this season. Dasher stole two bases, Conway issued two walks, and the Condors left all runners stranded with a pair of pops. Top 2nd, D-Alex had already ended an 0-for-28 drought on Sunday, but now doubled with Bergquist on first base after a walk, and the Raccoons had runners on second and third, but only managed a groundout by Palmer Taylor to plate a single run. At least we got an RBI double by Nunley in the third, plating Sandy with two outs. The Condors weren’t completely idle, drawing walks and walks off Bill Conway, and got a home run from Bill Bedinghaus in the fourth that was fortunately a solo shot. Top 5th, Sandy got on base with one out and stole second base (his second bag on the day) before Bednarski struck out, but Bedinghaus couldn’t come up with the ball, Sandy made it to third and Bednarski was safe at first. Quebell then actually hit a meaningful single, plating Sandy for a 3-1 score, but that was it.

Bottom 5th, Conway continued to mess with the beauty of baseball. Dasher hit a leadoff double, and Conway then issued full count walks to both Kevin Jaeger and Ezra Branch. That loaded the bases with nobody out, and Ryan Feldmann’s RBI single knocked Conway from the game. Josh Gibson came in and dumb-lucked himself out of the inning. Quebell caught a flaming liner by Will Newman, Carmona hustled to contain a pop to short center by Ron Eroh, and Bill Bedinghaus hit one hard to left, but right to Taylor for the third out. Still up 3-2, though credit lay SOLELY with the defense. Not even defense could help in the bottom 6th, when Gallegos and Sugano ****ed up completely, issued three walks, including Sugano to Feldmann with the bases loaded and two outs, and THEN Newman hit a bases-clearing double off the fence. That put up the Condors, 6-3, and the Raccoons somehow scratched out a run to stay close in the top 7th. But they were still down by two in the ninth, facing a rather curious choice to close a game in Dave Shannon and his 6.43 ERA (and other than Angel, he has rarely ever been better). Yet, Bednarski and Quebell made poor outs to get started before Matt Nunley yanked a homer. But that still left them a run short, and when Jon Merritt batted for Mario Gomez, he grounded out to Dasher. 6-5 Condors. Quebell 2-5, RBI; Nunley 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B; Gomez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Craig Dasher ain’t named Dasher for nothin’! And: Dylan Alexander’s first multi-hit game, ladies and gentleman, since … I don’t know. When were calendars invented?

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Merritt – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – C Hernandez – SS Canning – CF Cowan – P Constantino
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 1B Jaeger – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – LF Newman – C J. Vargas – SS Eroh – 2B Lafon – P Knight

Daniel Dickerson was scheduled for a rehab start in St. Pete on the weekend, which meant that this was the second-to-last game (probably) to be forfeited by Constantino and the lineup to equal parts. The Coons drew two walks and left the bases loaded in the top of the first before Constantino went to work on that winning record of ours. Three pitches in the bottom 2nd were enough for Jose Vargas to knock a 3-run homer, and Dasher added a solo shot in the third. Raúl Hernandez made a case for more playing time with a solo homer of his own in the fourth, but that was all meager, and the Condors had three singles from their first three batters in the bottom of the inning. After a sac fly by Roland Lafon, 5-1, Matt Keeler hit for Knight, who had thrown lots of balls, but had otherwise been solid enough to only allow that one run. Keeler reached, Dasher singled home two, Branch got on, and Constantino was banished with the bases loaded and down by six. Feldmann drilled Gallegos’ first pitch to right, but Bednarski contained it before even more insidious damage could be done.

Actually, more damage was to be done to the Raccoons. Gallegos was bruised for two runs in the fifth inning, but remained in the game. It was a loss anyway, what more was there to break? Jon Merritt, actually, who suffered a shoulder strain on a defensive play and was replaced by Nunley in the seventh inning. Which was too bad for two reasons. Merritt was still a worthwhile player, and he also amounted alone by himself to the total amount of total bases the Raccoons would manage to hit for after the fourth inning massacre: one single to left. 9-1 Condors. Merritt 2-3, BB; Gallegos 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Jon Merritt has a rather mild shoulder strain. He’s out for the rest of the week, but he shouldn’t miss more than a week’s worth of games. While he was not a full time player, sharing third base with Matt Nunley, I still didn’t want to bury him on the DL for an additional week and he would thus stay on the roster. There’s also an off-day on Thursday.

We have arrived at a negative run differential (176-177), and we have also arrived at the point where I will start to shop or dump unwanted personnel.

Now we’re looking anxiously at Brownie to salvage at least one game in this set. Also, with 6 K he could jump not one, but TWO spots on the all-time strikeout leaderboards.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Brown
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 1B Jaeger – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – C J. Vargas – SS Eroh – LF Eichelkraut – 2B Lafon – P Boyer

Brown was just no good, and a sweep was likely right from the start. The Condors had two singles and a few more hard balls to fielders in the first inning, and while D-Alex doubled home Quebell in the top 2nd for a 1-0 lead, Brown blew it by the bottom 3rd, being rapped for three hits, including a 2-run double by Ryan Feldmann, and a walk and surrendered three runs before Jimmy Oatmeal, who had been the first K in the game, bounced a 3-0 pitch to Brown for the third out. Nunley tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth, but Brownie wasn’t fooling anybody. At least he got a bunt down when the Coons had D-Alex (single) and Taylor (plunked) on base in the top of the fifth with nobody out. Cookie Carmona reclaimed the lead with a gapper in left center that Feldmann couldn’t contain until it was already a 2-run triple, flipping the score, and Sandy brought him home with a sac fly, 5-3. The bottom 5th saw Brownie throw 12 pitches, face three batters, but ten of the pitches were balls and the inning ended on a sad chopper by Vargas that Brownie turned for a double play after Feldmann had walked. He had a much more comfy sixth inning, getting a pop from Eroh before striking out Oatmeal and Lafon. That gave him 5 K, but all the K’s had come against the bottom three of the order. On an incredibly short leash, Brown had the Condors go down 1-2-3 in the seventh, with all three outs registered on grounders to a different infielder. He retired the left-handed Branch on a grounder to Sandy at second (Seeley had PH’ed for Bergqusit and they had flicked positions in the top 8th) to start the bottom 8th, and that was as far as we’d push luck. Sakellaris almost blew the game when he walked Feldmann and surrendered a deep drive to Vargas, but the wind got hold of that one and dropped it into Cookie’s glove on the warning track. Even closer to blowing the game came Angel Casas. He walked Oatmeal, which looking at our 2006 top pick’s stats was a hard thing to do, then allowed an infield single to Newman. Tying runs on with no outs, and the Condors bunted them over. Dasher battled, but struck out, and then it was on Kevin Jaeger to hit a hard drive to center. Now there: Joe Cowan. He made the play. 5-3 Brownies. Carmona 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-3, 3B, RBI; Alexander 2-3, BB, RBI;

I thought a bit about whether to display Brownie in the post-game honors, but … no. He was HORRIBLE. How he eloped with a win will remain a mystery forever.

Raccoons (24-22) @ Aces (20-26) – May 30-June 1, 2014

The Aces had lost four straight (but the Crusaders had played a role in that), but their record was considerably worse than what would be expected. They had a -1 run differential, so they should really be three games better. Bad things are dawning on me for this weekend set. The Aces were missing one of their starters on the DL (William Hinkley) and they had dropped two of three to the Critters in April.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (5-1, 2.11 ERA) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (4-3, 3.50 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (3-4, 3.40 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (4-4, 4.21 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-2, 2.54 ERA) vs. Jimmy Young (2-3, 3.62 ERA)

Three right-handers on this weekend. I’m playing with the thought of working Joe Cowan into the lineup for back-to-back days to give him a few more at-bats and to see whether he stinks really as badly as I think now. Problem is, someone has to sit. Bednarski has gotten warm and pushed Seeley back into his spot, Cookie is a joy again (and up to third place in steals in the CL with 12), so Sandy might get a day off at least.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – SS Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – CF Cowan – P Santos
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – SS Burke – RF Richards – 1B Bovane – CF Kelsey – LF Zackery – C D. Rice – P Wagoner

Maybe, just maybe, D-Alex was coming back. Giving him that little cart with the oxygen bottle, tubed straight into the little black nose, had been a good idea. Had been mine, rather than Ivan’s. What were we paying him for after all?

D-Alex had hits the first two times up in this game, hitting an RBI double for the first run of the game in the second and singling in the fourth. More offense was denied when Cowan and Santos ended up back-to-back K’s in both inning. Santos had the best stats among Raccoons starters by now, but struggled badly in the first two innings, allowing a few hard singles. A hero’s play by Quebell in the second saved two runs.

The Raccoons extended their lead in the fifth inning thanks to Ron Richards’ misplay of a Bednarski blooper. He tried to snag it out of the air, missed it, and it bounced into the corner for an RBI triple. Sandy was plated after drawing the 1-out walk. The Coons got Jaquan Wagoner out in the same inning when Quebell singled, 3-0, and Nunley doubled. Mike Daniels then got two outs from Bergquist and Alexander to end the inning with two in scoring position. The lead was extended in the seventh when Quebell took Agustin Gutierrez deep with a mammoth 2-run homer to center. Santos had had some easier middle innings, but got stuck in the seventh. He walked a pair and was replaced when he bumped into 100 pitches. Sugano came on and struck out Danny Rice to end the inning. Seeley then hit for Sugano in the top 8th, tripled, and came home on Cookie’s single. The Aces hit back-to-back doubles off Josh Gibson in the bottom 8th, but lost Ricky Avila in the process, and didn’t get back into the game anyway, give or take a 2-run homer by Rusty Zackery off Marco Gomez… 6-3 Furballs. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Bednarski 2-5, 3B, RBI; Quebell 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Nunley 3-4, BB, 2 2B; Alexander 3-5, 2B, RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1, 3B; Santos 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-1);

Cowan went 0-5 with 3 K, which sounds like a faint cry to be released from this horrible job of his.

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – CF Cowan – SS Canning – P Toner
LVA: 3B W. White – 2B H. Jones – SS Burke – RF Richards – 1B Bovane – CF Kelsey – LF Zackery – C D. Rice – P Valdevez

The Aces comprehensively battered Toner early on. He hit Howard Jones in the first inning, but Jones was caught stealing, yet in the second inning the Aces were hitting the ball hard all over. John Kelsey hit a hard single, Rusty Zackery hit a harder RBI double, and Danny Rice hit a real bomb, a 2-run homer, to bring the Aces to the fore, 3-0. Little did the Aces know that the lead wouldn’t last even an inning. Canning opened the top of the third with a single. Toner failed in bunting, missing twice, then turned the table on Valdevez and walked. Carmona fouled out, Nunley popped out, but then Bednarski drove a ball to deep right for a 2-run double, and Quebell upped that and hit his sixth, and team-leading, homer of the season, also to right, flipping the score to 4-3. Never mind that the Aces opened the bottom of the inning with four straight hits, then drew two bases-loaded walks off Toner to evict the youngster from the game with a true nightmare of a line. Gibson came on and got two outs at once when Valdevez flew out to center, Kelsey tagged and was thrown out by Cowan at home. Wade White popped out, holding the Aces at 6-4 … for now. Richards bombed Gibson for a 2-piece in the fourth, with one run unearned after an error by Nunley. The completely ineffective Gibson allowed another run in the bottom 5th, this one unearned because Carmona dropped a ball, with another runner thrown out at home by Bednarski. Then the Aces made two errors in the top 6th, and the Coons had the bases loaded with one out for Seeley, who hit for Gibson. He lined into a double play, and the Raccoons were assured of a comprehensive defeat.

Or weren’t they? Carmona reached to start the seventh. Valdevez was still in there and allowed an RBI double to Nunley. Quebell – doubtlessly having arrived at a hot streak – bombed a shot to left center, and all of a sudden 9-4 had become 9-7. The Aces went to Michael Sieben, who allowed a shot to D-Alex, 9-8. Gallegos then also hurt the Aces by striking Rusty Zackery with a pitch, and the outfielder had to be dragged off the field with a sling around his foot. The top 8th was a bit of a stillbirth, but Quebell reached with a leadoff single against Kevin Johnston in the ninth. Now, Johnston was a lefty, but D-Alex had added 38 points of average since the week had started. Ball one, then another low ball, and that one escaped Rice! Wild pitch, Quebell to second. Alexander walked, but Johnston had arrived at the squishy part of the lineup now. Bergquist struck out, Cowan struck out, and Canning flew out to right. 9-8 Aces. Carmona 3-5; Nunley 2-5, 2B, RBI; Quebell 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Alexander 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Bergquist 2-5;

Joe Cowan had to bat because the spare outfielders had already been used and discarded. He hit a single in this game, but struck out in his other four plate appearances, and he’s outta here. The question is whether we have to release the sucker and eat the salary.

Jon Merritt was good to go for the rubber game, but Matt Nunley got the start against the right-hander Jimmy Young. Merritt would probably sub in at some point.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – SS Canning – P Conway
LVA: 3B W. White – 2B H. Jones – SS Burke – RF Richards – 1B Bovane – LF Struck – CF Flack – C D. Rice – P Young

Little did the Coons desire more than a good, long outing by Conway, probably a win. He held the Aces short early on and got himself a lead with a sac fly that scored Bergquist in the third inning. Bergquist had doubled to start the frame. Quebell upped to 2-0 with a line drive homer in the fourth. There wasn’t much going on offensively in the middle innings outside of Nunley and Bednarski being robbed of home runs or doubles right on the top of the fence by Richards and Struck, respectively. Conway cruised into the bottom 7th until Rice hit a 2-out RBI double to get the Aces to 2-1, a run so unexpectedly appearing on the board it was a mild shock. Top 8th, Merritt hit for Conway, walked with one out, and Cookie fouled out. Sambrano singled, however, and so did Bednarski, but his soft fly to center was quickly picked up by Adam Flack and Merritt couldn’t score. Bases loaded for Quebell, which this week was a GOOD thing. Quebell singled hard to center, Flack had no chance on it, Merritt scored, Sambrano went for home, the throw came in with Bednarski heading for third, and the Aces went for the sure out on Bednarski, conceding Sambrano’s run as well when Bednarski evaded Wade White’s tag attempts for long enough. 4-1 Coons, six outs to collect, White reached with an infield single against Sakellaris and D-Alex in the bottom 8th, but got swept up in a double play right away, and the next four went down. 4-1 Raccoons. Sambrano 2-4; Quebell 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Merritt (PH) 0-0, BB; Conway 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-2);

In other news

May 27 – 36-year old DAL SS/2B Armando Rodriguez (.333, 3 HR, 16 RBI) makes headlines once more, furnishing a 20-game hitting streak with one hit on Tuesday. Rodriguez’ solo home run amounts to the Stars’ total production in a 15-1 rout at the bats of the Blue Sox.
May 27 – VAN 1B Ray Gilbert (.337, 9 HR, 32 RBI) might miss two weeks after knocking up his knee on a bad slide into a base. He’s put on the DL with a knee contusion.
May 28 – Veteran Warrior C Jose Paraz (.268, 4 HR, 24 RBI) is out for a month with a rib injury.
May 29 – The next blow for the FL West-leading Warriors: OF Jose Morales (.379, 10 HR, 32 RBI) is out until the All Star game with a hamstring strain.
May 31 – The hitting streak of Armando Rodriguez (.359, 3 HR, 16 RBI) reaches 25 games with two singles in a 6-3 win over the Rebels.
June 1 – While the Stars spill it all over the Rebels in a 10-6 win, Armando Rodriguez goes empty in four tries and ends his 25-game hitting streak.

Complaints and stuff

April’s CL Rookie title went to Jason Bergquist, who dropped off in May, but guess who got hotter? Matt Nunley! He batted .382 with two homers and a handful RBI to win the award! (Calderón also bumped up his ratings in the June 1 update)

Also with bumps: Toner, Wasserman (rather small), a number of relievers in AA, including Dan Moon, who seems to be less sucky out of the pen, and Nick Lester. But Toner would be the biggest news, getting his potential stuff bumped to 20 by Calderón. Santos doesn’t have 20 (17!), Brown had for a decade, but Toner … well, this week’s start was not a good showcase. The entire season isn’t a showcase.

We got to improve the lineup. We’re 10th in runs scored (and only left 11th behind on Saturday, now ahead a run of our next opponents, the Knights), comfortably ahead of only the Falcons, who are really hopeless, and score barely over three runs per game. They are every bit as bad as their record indicates, and they’re doing it without former Raccoons, which is odd.

Walt Canning is an obvious weak spot, and Palmer Taylor hasn’t been useful either. We still have Dave Roudabush and Pat Whitehouse – neither of whom has anywhere to go – in AAA, but they’re batting .220-ish. 24-year old Brock Hudman is batting .292 in AAA, but he’d be a defensive sore since he’s more of a second baseman. However, if Canning doesn’t get better soon…

Also not getting better, Daniel Dickerson. He made a rehab start on Saturday, and was slaughtered by the toddlers in AAA, allowing six runs in three innings. With that, we have to patch things. He will get another start, and – regrettably – Constantino will get another one in the Bigs. We will however flip him to go after Brownie, so back in Dickerson’s original spot, which is possible due to the off day we had on Thursday.

Nick Brown tied for 15th on the all-time strikeout board with his messy start on Wednesday, but didn’t leap past Manuel Movonda and Leland Lewis. Lewis, who’s ahead by one whiff, is a Hall of Famer of course who spent his career with the Miners and hardly ever was on the Coons’ radar, and while Movonda, with whom Brownie ties now, was only in Portland for one season, and not a good one (1998), he’s still warmly remembered as the second-least meaningless pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the brown shirt.

Odd fact: Manuel Movonda is still the only pitcher in ABL history to allow a run in his no-hitter.

Odder fact: Brendan Teasdale leads the majors in wins at home with six. He’s 8-2 with a 2.79 ERA overall. Brenda all of a sudden got good at 29.

I think I should get on the draft pool, so that’s going to be the next update, but it might take me two evenings. Please remain patient and stay off the drugs, thanks.