[Westheim]

I had a Raccoons nightmare tonight, of the save file somehow breaking. All games then ended in ridiculous scores like 217-158. Woke up in slight panic.

Good news, OOTP still works as intended. Bad news, it’s still the ’16 Coons.

+++

Raccoons (67-62) @ Thunder (55-74) – August 29-31, 2016

Last series before roster expansion, and it was the final hurrah against the bottom-bound Thunder. The Raccoons had not exactly taken advantage of them so far in 2016, splitting the six games with them evenly. The last three season matchups had ended with 5-4 Raccoons triumphs. The Thunder ranked last in runs scored in the Continental League, and were only seventh in runs allowed. The pen was good, the rotation not quite.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (11-5, 2.52 ERA) vs. Antonio Quintero (2-3, 4.14 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (7-6, 2.80 ERA) vs. Ed Michaels (8-12, 3.58 ERA)
Chris Munroe (5-9, 3.32 ERA) vs. Jorge Gine (12-7, 2.68 ERA)

Lefty in the middle in this series, at least as far as the home team is concerned.

The gap between 11th (us) and 12th (them) in runs scored in the CL is only six runs, so I am confident that they can make that up and we take the red lantern with us before the month is over.

Rosters expand after the set, but we are off on September 1. Nevertheless, I long to shake things up with this lineup of fails. Combined with the Michaels appearance, we will fire the Tuesday game to the wind and rest as many of our left-handed batting starters as possible (we have five right-handed and one switch bat – Sandy – right now). Sorry, Jonny. Really, sorry, but they wouldn’t have scored for you anyway…

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – RF Sambrano – CF Duarte – C Baca – P Santos
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – RF R. Lopez – 1B B. Thomas – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – LF J. Flores – P Quintero

Quintero didn’t fare well at all in the opening inning. Walter singled, McKnight doubled, and then he threw a wild pitch to plate the first run. DeWeese walked, Young hit an RBI single, and another walk to Sandy filled the bags, and Quintero still couldn’t zero in on the general vicinity of the strike zone and Alex Duarte got his first big league RBI by holding still and drawing a bases-loaded walk, 3-0. Since Alonso Baca found it necessary to poke and hit into a double play to Emilio Farias, that was also the end point of the inning. Santos was in no way comfortable with the lead, and the Thunder started to cut into it sooner rather than later with Jesus Soto’s triple in the bottom 2nd. Erik Janes hit another deep fly that DeWeese caught, but the run scored anyway, and the Thunder were only two back. To add injury to insult, Santos clocked Jesus Flores three pitches later, necessitating the latter’s removal in favor of Earl Clark. That was the only early run off Santos, although the Thunder had their leadoff men on with singles in both the third and fourth innings. The top 5th saw the fall from grace for Quintero, who allowed a single to Shane Walter to start the inning, and then a 2-run homer to Nunley. Scoring continued with McKnight singling and scoring on Adam Young’s double, Sandy singled, and Duarte’s single plated Young, 7-1, and ended Quintero’s day for good. The middle innings were good for Santos, however, who got through them quick enough to make it to the eighth inning, where he got thoroughly stuck with runners on the corners after a double and a scratch single. Sugano would face Jalen Parks with two outs and got a grounder to short for the third out to close Santos’ line. The score remained 7-1 into the bottom 9th, where the Coons made their obligatory mess. Sugano got an out from Jesus Soto, then hit Erik Janes. Clark walked, bringing up right-handed pinch-hitter Armando Rodriguez. Will West came out, walked him, then allowed a 2-run double to Sean Young. The carrousel kept spinning, spewing forth Chris Mathis, who at least got closer to the finish with Farias’ RBI groundout. Rodrigo Lopez grounded out to McKnight to finally end the game. 7-4 Coons. Walter 2-4; Nunley 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-5, 2B; Young 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-3, BB, 2B; Santos 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (12-5);

So, 6-game losing streak ended, albeit narrowly… I also wonder what kind of lead would be big enough not to be put in danger in the late innings…

Jesus Flores was out for the series with a hand contusion.

Game 2
POR: 1B Sambrano – SS Jones – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – CF Duarte – 2B Bergquist – LF Stubbs – C Margolis – P Toner
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – RF R. Lopez – 1B B. Thomas – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – C D. Anderson – LF V. Diaz – P Michaels

Jonny had Farias, Lopez, and Bill Thomas all at two strikes in the first inning and retired none of them in a productive way. The first two singled to go to the corners, and Thomas’ sac fly put the Thunder up 1-0. That would be the only run Toner would allow in this outing, though a contributing factor for sure was the 50-minute rain delay early on that eventually held him to five innings, with him quite searching of the strike zone afterwards, also contributing to his early removal. Also searching: Michaels. Having allowed only three singles in the first five innings, he allowed one to Sandy Sambrano to start the sixth. Jones and Nunley walked after that, though by then Sambrano had already been caught stealing by Daryl Anderson, and the Coons only had them on first and second with one out for Ron Richards, a recipe for disaster if there was one. Richards struck out, Duarte grounded out to short, and Toner remained on the short end of the stick. John Korb pitched a perfect bottom 6th, before his spot came up with Margolis on first after a 2-out single in the top 7th. Aiming to mount a charge in the eighth, Korb was left in there, but actually singled, putting Margolis at third base for Sambrano, with Michaels still pitching, and Sandy grounded out to third.

The Thunder would ride Ed Michaels until it was too late, but in all fairness, they couldn’t have seen it coming. Howard Jones hit a leadoff single in the eighth inning. Nunley grounded out, but that still brought up Richards, a sure out if there was one. Swinging strike, foul ball, another foul ball – he’ll miss one soon enough. Or maybe not. Ron Richards clonked the fourth pitch of the at-bat, a soaring drive to right that vanished into the rightfield seats and collapsed the Thunder’s house of cards at once. Except that the Raccoons were just the same with their 1-run lead in the bottom 8th. Mathis was in, walked Farias to start the inning and then allowed a double to Lopez. Thomas struck out, after which we moved to Thrasher with lefties up, dire for another strikeout. Rodriguez hit for Soto, though, and walked onto the open base against Thrasher (36 BB in 46.2 IP now). Erik Janes and Cameron Konrath would put three runs on the board with a pair of singles, and although I felt like the Critters would never be heard from again, McKnight and Young came up with singles in the ninth against Micah Steele. With two outs, R.J. DeWeese (who had struck out three times on Monday), hit for Howard Jones against the right-hander, who couldn’t have closed a glass of jam as a Raccoon. The count ran full, DeWeese grounded to Rodriguez at second, and the throw to Bill Thomas was in time. 4-2 Thunder. Duarte 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Margolis 2-4; Young 1-1; Korb 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-1;

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Baca – P Munroe
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – RF R. Lopez – 1B B. Thomas – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – LF V. Diaz – P Gine

Our 3-year winning streak against the Thunder ended right in the first inning, where Chris Munroe allowed four hits to four batters in his first nine pitches, and although some Nunley D made two red lights flare up on the board in a 2-0 game, he walked Janes and allowed a 2-run double to Diaz to open the gates again. When Gine struck out, the inning ended with the Thunder up 4-0, which they double to 8-0 in the third inning, which was briefly interrupted by rain, but Munroe shouldn’t use that as an excuse. I’d give him the first run, that was unearned after a Adam Young error that allowed Jalen Parks to reach, but after that he allowed singles to Vinny Diaz and Jorge Gine (!) with two outs, followed by Sean Young’s 3-run blast to right. Parks made it 10-0 with a 2-run blast off Seung-mo Chun in the fourth, and if there had so far been no reports of offensive heroics by the Raccoons, then the reason for that was that there was nothing to report.

Gine struck out seven against two hits in the first five inning before suffering a small laps in the sixth inning. Walter walked, McKnight doubled, and then DeWeese scored two with a bloop single with two outs when it didn’t count for ass. Bottom 6th, down 10-2, Will West came out and got one out from three batters, though to be precise, Ron Richards got that out, throwing out Lopez going first-to-third on Thomas’ single, which also scored Farias, who in turn had hit a leadoff triple, while Lopez had been plunked by West. Three more runs scored in the bottom 8th against Kevin Beaver, who had already collected five outs, but was overwhelmed by the Thunder with three hits and three walks, the latter being consecutive to the last three batters he faced. Sugano ended that inning. 14-2 Thunder. McKnight 2-3, 2B;

You can’t be denied much harder than that. And as indicated, the Raccoons are now officially last in runs scored with 506. Thunder: 10th, 511. The Indians are in between.

Roster expansion

While our AAA team was getting beat up regularly, and the Coons weren’t competing for anything, there was no need to call up an excessive amount of personnel. There were also no prospects to test. The only one with a mild shot at a future, Duarte, was already here replacing Cookie Carmona on the field, but not in our hearts.

Nope, a standard package of two or three relievers at most, a catcher, and an outfielder would do. Tom McNeela and Brandon Johnson filled the bench spots, while Gary Dupes and Juan Gallegos would provide reinforcements to the giant hole in the bottom of the bullpen.

Raccoons (68-64) vs. Loggers (57-76) – September 2-4, 2016

The almost entirely pitching-less Loggers (670 runs allowed, just over five per game) had a -107 run differential with their seventh-place offense, and were probably in last place for a reason. The Coons were in position to take the season series for the third straight year. 2016 so far stood 8-3 in their favor.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (9-8, 3.57 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (13-7, 3.63 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-8, 2.24 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (9-15, 5.28 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-5, 2.46 ERA) vs. Carlos Michel (9-5, 3.90 ERA)

We get another southpaw on Sunday with Michel, who along with Cope is one of only two starters for them below the CL average ERA.

Nick Brown will enter the Saturday game with 189 innings pitched, requiring three outs to trigger his $1.8M vesting option, and also with 3,099 strikeouts, four behind Chris York for seventh all time. His possession of seventh place, if attained, will be short-termed in any case, since Pancho Trevino has almost caught him now. The Knight sits at 3,086, while Rod Taylor is coming with even bigger steps, sitting 17 away from joining the 3,000 club on Friday morning.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – 3B Landeros – CF Gore – 2B Best – P Cope
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Baca – P Abe

Abe came within two foul balls of an immaculate inning in the second, striking out Chris LeMoine, Tony Delgado, and Ruben Landeros in order. He walked Steve Best and Victor Hodgers in the third, but held the Loggers hitless, while the Coons took a 1-0 lead despite Abe bunting into a force on Baca in the bottom 3rd. Walter’s groundout advanced Abe to second base, from where he scored on Nunley’s soft single to center. While the Loggers also wouldn’t get a base hit their second time through the order, the Coons fared almost equally bad. Duarte was on base in the fourth, but was double-played away by Richards. Abe drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 5th, but was ignored. McKnight then opened the bottom 6th with a walk drawn off Brian Cope, but was caught stealing – just ahead of DeWeese’s 23rd homer of the season, which now only made it a 2-0 game. Abe’s no-hitter was broken up in the top 7th with a 1-out single by Tony Delgado, though Landeros’ grounder to Walter at second quickly ended the inning with a double play. Ron Richards provided some unexpected cushion with a solo homer in the bottom 7th, 3-0, and although Brad Gore drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, Abe continued to put Loggers away consistently, and after recent escapades by the relief corps would keep the ball in the ninth, although he would face the left-handed power division in the inning after Zach Knowling opened the inning popping up the first pitch for the first out. Mike Rucker singled to left, but Chris LeMoine struck out, leaving Delgado to dissect. That didn’t work, either, as Delgado beat DeWeese in left for an RBI double onto the warning track, and when Abe got a grounder to short from pinch-hitter Tim Pace, the sure-handed McKnight blew that as well for an error. Manobu Sugano would now replace Abe for Brad Gore, but the Loggers had read their scouting reports, too, and sent right-handed Corey Martin, a September call-up, to pinch-hit. The 29-year old hacker was in infrequent guest on the Loggers’ 25-man roster, getting all of 15 at-bats last year and so far none this year. When Sugano had him at 0-2, he threw a wild pitch two feet past Baca to allow the second run to score, before Martin looked at a fastball right down the middle. 3-2 Coons. Abe 8.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (10-8);

Ain’t feel no heartbeat anymore…

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – LF LeMoine – 1B M. Rucker – C Delgado – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – 2B Best – P McDonald
POR: 1B Young – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C McNeela – CF Johnson – P Brown

Brownie triggered his 2017 option with a perfect first inning, registering three outs on three grounders. The part of the fan base that was informed about these contractual details spontaneously burst into cheers. The Loggers soon quelled the cheers with a leadoff single by Rucker and the following Delgado double in the top 2nd, though they scored only one run on their free following grounders. Fans also waited for strikeout #3,100 in vain for an extended period of time. Brownie had none through three, through four… all the while the rest of the litter did the best to make the horrendous McDonald look as good as humanely possible. Not only did he come in with an ERA far over five, but also with 202 hits allowed in 170.2 innings, and 84 walks to 69 strikeouts. The Coons didn’t take advantage of any of that, and had one hit and one walk through four innings.

Finally, cheers in the fifth. After Andrew Cooper grounded out to short to start the inning, Ruben Landeros hacked himself out swinging, Brownie’s first in the game, and #3,100 overall. Steve Best went down looking right after that, and with the knot finally untied struck out the side in the sixth to pass the fallen Chris York (who was still not retired, but hadn’t pitched in the ABL in three years) for seventh all-time. Brownie made it six in a row – leading to some semi-drunken reveling in the cheap seats since there was really NOTHING ELSE TO CHEER A **** ABOUT – before the 4-5 combo undid him again with Rucker walking and Delgado hitting an RBI double, making it 2-0 Loggers.

The Coons would have BY FAR their best chance yet in the bottom of the seventh when Howard Jones hit a 1-out single and McNeela walked. This was Go Time. Shane Walter hit for Johnson and hit an RBI single to right center, and Sandy hit for Brownie and walked. Bases loaded, one out for Adam Young. Don’t you dare hitting into a ****ing double play. He rolled the first pitch he saw to Mike Rucker, who zinged it to second, but Rob Howell’s return throw was late – barely. The tying run scored, with Nunley coming up, and he also grounded out to Rucker. **** team.

Ron Thrasher lined up for the loss in no time at all. He issued a leadoff walk to Brad Gore. Victor Hodgers got Gore forced with a bouncer to Thrasher, but then stole second base anyway. Moving to third on Eric Kingsley’s grounder, he scored on Tim Pace’s double to left. The Coons pulled the run back, however, thanks to a DeWeese double and 2-out single by Howard Jones in the bottom of the inning. That last one was hit off Robby Delikat, a right-hander, who remained in to allow another single to center to Tom McNeela before Alonso Baca hit for Thrasher in the #8 slot. Looping a high pop to shallow center, the three converging Loggers defenders shooed another off and the ball fell in, with Jones scoring from second base to give the Critters an undeserved lead. A discombobulated Delikat walked Sandy to fill the bases, then also walked Young to push an insurance run home before Nunley grounded out to complete a dreadful 0-for-5. John Korb got the save opportunity over the inconsistent Mathis and allowed leadoff single to Delgado right away. Two groundouts later, PH Isiah Reed sent a rocket to deep right that Ron Richards defused while bouncing hard off the fence – but he held onto the ball, ending the game. 5-3 Blighters. Jones 2-4, RBI; Walter (PH) 1-1, RBI; Baca (PH) 1-1, RBI; Sambrano (PH) 0-0, 2 BB; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Ron Thrasher got the win, which will probably prompt him to squawk about wanting to be nominated as closer again.

Game 3
MIL: 3B Landeros – RF Gore – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – CF Cooper – SS Kingsley – 2B Best – P Michel
POR: 1B Sambrano – 2B Jones – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – RF Stubbs – C Margolis – P Santos

The Coons got an instant start with a Sandy single and Jones’ 2-run homer in the bottom 1st. McKnight and Duarte also hit singles, but Nunley rolled into a double play to end the first inning. Also a fast start wouldn’t mean there wouldn’t be an even faster disaster, and Hector Santos ran into such one in the top 2nd. Chris LeMoine and Andrew Cooper reached base with infield singles before Steve Best cranked a 3-run homer to right center, giving them a 3-2 lead. It was close to getting worse in the third, with Ruben Landeros singling to center and Brad Gore hitting a double to right to put runners in scoring position with nobody out, but Rucker grounded hard to Sambrano for the first out and Santos then got two pops to end the inning with nobody scoring. The fourth: more horror. Cooper drew a leadoff walk and Kingsley and Best hit singles to the right side. 4-2, runners on the corners, no outs, Best was caught stealing and Michel failed struck out, with Landeros grounding out to strand a runner on third base.

The Raccoons would have three on with two outs in the bottom 5th. Michel had followed a McKnight single with walks to DeWeese and Nunley, but that meant that Matt Stubbs was up, batting .184 in 38 at-bats with no RBI. But… Ron Richards, against a right-hander? That one wouldn’t work either… Stubbs batted, fell to 1-2, then snipped a bouncer to the left side that Landeros inexplicably missed, and two runs scored on the single to tie the score at four. Margolis’ single on the next pitch loaded them up for … Richards. Santos was done after 90 messy pitches in five innings, but he might get a win after all if Rich- … good joke. No, the Loggers managed to set fire to their own little house again. Michel threw a wild pitch at 1-2 to allow Nunley to score with the go-ahead run, and when Richards grounded to Steve Best on the next pitch, Best threw the ball wildly past Rucker, allowing two more runners to score. Michel, close to tears, was replaced with Robby Delikat, who immediately threw a wild pitch to Sandy, moving Richards to third. Sandy walked, but Jones grounded out, ending a nightmare inning for the Loggers with a 5-spot for the Coons, and a 7-4 lead. But the same Coons now had to get a dozen outs from their bullpen of horrors, though things certainly looked promising as the innings ticked past. Beaver and Chun both had scoreless innings, Sugano killed Rucker and LeMoine in the eighth before Korb whiffed Delgado. They had a chance to tack on some insurance in the bottom 8th when Jones walked with one out and McKnight singled, bringing up DeWeese against right-hander Toby Wood, with the Loggers seemingly convinced to make it through the game without another pitcher. Wood nailed DeWeese eventually, then with the bags full was 3-1 against Duarte, who found it necessary to swing and grounded to Landeros, but the Loggers only got DeWeese at second, and Jones scored. Nunley grounded out, but no further insurance was necessary, as John Korb finished the game quickly, needing 11 pitches for the last four outs. 8-4 Critters! McKnight 3-5; DeWeese 0-1, 3 BB; Margolis 2-3; Korb 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (3);

John Korb (2-1, 3.18 ERA, 3 SV) – who would have been dumped during opening week if just Lou Cannon (2-1, 3.28 ERA) had signed with us – has now saved back-to-back games.

In other news

August 29 – Bayhawks and Loggers have ten hits a side in their Monday night contest, and there are ten runs in the game – all by the Loggers in a highly unusual 10-0 rout.
August 29 – Crusaders and Aces engage in a 17-inning marathon that is decided in New York’s favor on Masaya Arakaki’s (.250, 1 HR, 3 RBI) 2-run homer off Kevin Johnston in the top of the 17th, giving the Crusaders a 5-3 win.
August 31 – NYC SP Fernando Cruz (13-10, 3.34 ERA) throws a 1-hit shutout against the Aces, allowing only a seventh inning single to Adam Flack in a 3-0 win.
September 1 – The Capitals blow leads of 9-3 in the fourth and 12-6 in the seventh as the Buffaloes score six times in the bottom 7th and twice in the eighth to beat them 14-12.
September 3 – The last-place Wolves haven’t had much to cheer about this season, but SP Jaden Joseph (7-10, 3.83 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout in a 6-0 win over the Scorpions to cheer up the fan base.
September 3 – Falcons and Aces are tied 1-1 through six before the Falcons break out four runs in the top 7th. The Aces counter with a 5-spot in the bottom 7th, but the Falcons top them with another 4-spot in the eighth and win, 9-6.

Complaints and stuff

So, Brownie triggered his option, although he can still pull a Saito Salto and retire in disgust.

I would.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS

1st – Tony Hamlyn – 3,952
2nd – Martin Garcia – 3,783 (HOF)
3rd – Woody Roberts – 3,313 (HOF)
4th – Aaron Anderson – 3,225 (HOF)
5th – Carlos Castro – 3,198 (HOF)
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,164
7th – Nick Brown – 3,106 (active)
8th – Chris York – 3,103 (active)
9th – Pancho Trevino – 3,086 (active)
10th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
11th – Rod Taylor – 2,983 (active)

The next-closest active pitcher would be Curtis Tobitt, 24th with 2,494 K. Next-closest current Critter? Hector Santos with 993.

Two of our single-A hotshot pitchers burst through 100 walks this week. I don’t think anybody should expect an appearance, much less a bobblehead, for Danny Arguello (the expensive international kid) or Travis Garrett (’15 second-rounder) at any point in this life.

Ah, pitching. Our top 3 have been playoff-worthy all season long (each in their way) and even Abe has been very good recently, and hey, come on, where would this team be without the never rewarded Chris Munroe? Best rule 5 pick since at least Ricardo Huerta in 2002. I can’t even remember any rule 5 picks we made in between. Huerta merely won 22 games in relief with consistently low ERA’s (3.30 or better) from 2002 through 2005.

We will need another starter in a few weeks, but it won’t be Jeff Magnotta, who is in the process of completely flaming out in AAA. 6-11 with a 5.52 ERA and 1.2 walks for every whiff. But at this point, we could also give the ball to Francisquo Bocanegra (10-10, 3.90 ERA) and take the loss…

I wonder whether Bob Joly is still tossing with his kids and would sign a contract. He’s got to be about 45 now, but you never know your luck…