[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-33) vs. Canadiens (32-49) – July 6-9, 2020

The wretched Elks had their own problems, playing some truly miserable baseball that included scoring almost nothing and giving up plenty of runs. They in fact ranked in last in both runs scored and runs conceded in the Continental League with a -102 run differential at the halfway point. Pouncing on them would be oh so sweet, and the Raccoons had yet to lose a game to the Elks in 2020, having swept them over three games in the first meeting between the teams.

Projected matchups:
Travis Garrett (1-2, 4.13 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (0-0, 4.01 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-4, 3.01 ERA) vs. Bryant Roberts (2-7, 4.45 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (7-5, 3.34 ERA) vs. Matt Rosenthal (4-6, 4.46 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (6-7, 3.93 ERA)

Their starters were all right-handed; while the Elks were miserable in almost any category you desired to look at, they had one thing going for them, ranking second in stolen bases in the CL with 49, although things were kind of dense in that category when you consider that the Coons had 40 stolen bases and ranked sixth. Employing Danny Margolis as often as possible in this series was certainly not a big mistake, though.

Game 1
VAN: LF A. Torres – 1B J. Gutierrez – CF Rocha – C Delgado – 3B Roundtree – SS Otis – RF Kim – 2B Folk – P Riley
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – P Garrett

Trouble for Garrett would usually start only with two outs in this game, with the Elks pounding back-to-back 2-out doubles in the first inning by Mario Rocha and Tony Delgado to take an early 1-0 lead. In the third they would get Jose Gutierrez and Rocha on with 2-out singles before Delgado lined really hard right into McKnight’s glove to end the inning, and Brody Folk would chase home Matt Otis with a 2-out double off the leftfield wall in the fourth inning, making this a 2-0 game. The Raccoons’ offense hadn’t showed up at all; through five innings, they reached scoring position once under their own power, with singles by Nunley and Bareford in the second inning, an endeavor ended by DeWeese lifting a ball to Roca in center, and Mendoza in the fourth arrived at second base after an infield single and a wild pitch, but nobody reached third base for the home team in the first five innings. It was ****ty contact galore, with Riley striking out a mere pair of batters through five.

Cruel Garrett meanwhile made Raccoons fans hang in by not falling apart despite having ample chances to do so. In the sixth inning the Elks got Steve Roundtree on base with a 1-out single just past Nunley, and Garrett would lose Otis on a borderline 3-2 pitch where he didn’t get the call. Man-su Kim drove a pitch to right that Cookie snared at the edge of the warning track, and Garrett held on by snuffing out Folk to end the inning and leave runners on the corners, which included that one corner that still no Raccoon had touched in the game. As the top of the order went down limply in the bottom of the sixth, my utter despair only grew. If they couldn’t beat the Elks, who were close to ranking last in whatever category you could make up, including ‘appeal’ and ‘smell per nine innings’, what was there left to do? Garrett got stuck in the seventh, and of course only with two outs, as Gutierrez drew four balls and no strikes and Rocha singled past Mendoza. Mathis replaced Garrett and got Delgado to ground out to short, but the 2-0 deficit felt more like 9-0. Riley held on through eight innings, staving off 2-out singles by Cookie and Yoshi in the bottom of the eighth. McKnight fired a liner to left with the tying runs on base, but right at Alex Torres, ending the inning, and against Mike Tharp and his K/BB of *10* the Raccoons stood not even a chance in the ninth. 2-0 Canadiens.

Game 2
VAN: SS Otis – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Delgado – 3B Roundtree – LF Kim – 2B Folk – P B. Roberts
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF DeWald – P Toner

Yoshi double, McKnight walk, Mendoza single – the bases were loaded with one down in the bottom of the first, but Eddie Jackson, inserted as a desperate cry for offense, struck out and Margolis hobbled one over to Otis to waste the opportunity. Toner had walked Ezra Branch in the first inning, but then had struck out Rocha to get out. No such thing would happen in the second inning, which opened with a walk to Delgado before he struck Roundtree with an 0-2 pitch. After a flyout by Kim, Folk drew a walk to load the bases. Roberts lined to left, Cookie snared it, but Delgado scored on the sac fly, and then Matt Otis’ fly to center befuddled DeWald, who overran the ball and conceded a 2-run double that put this game to bed right away. While Otis’ undeserved double remained the Elks’ only run for a while, the entire team tried to chip in with stupidity to get Toner out of the game as quickly as possible, like Mendoza making a mind-boggling and utterly careless error on a boring grounder in the third inning. The Elks’ had to wait to the fifth for another hit, Gutierrez singling to center and reaching a 19-game hitting streak, but wouldn’t score on Toner, who was nevertheless almost at 100 pitches already, and was toast after six innings, issuing a leadoff walk to Delgado for good measure in his last frame. The harmless Raccoons couldn’t have been further from being any kind of threat, even when Roberts issued walks to Jackson and Margolis in the bottom of the sixth. Nunley simply hit into a double play to end that inning and to be done with it. And that was before a bullpen collapse in the seventh inning, with the 1-through-5 batters in the Elks’ order reaching collectively against a miserable cavalcade of Boynton, Kaiser, and Davis – all horrible, and all horribly overworked – before Roundtree shat on the parade with a double play grounder to McKnight to end the inning with only two runs across when twenty were entirely possible. Nothing was possible for the Raccoons, except finding more ways to be ****ty. Prince walked and Cookie singled in the bottom of the seventh, and Nomura managed to bounce merrily into a 5-3 double play. Will West coughed up a run at some point late in the game, but I couldn’t see anymore for all the tears of despair. 6-0 Canadiens. Mendoza 2-4;

Mandatory expunction and compulsory euthanasia for the entire roster is becoming an option now…

Kevin DeWald was sent to St. Petersburg after the game, replaced by 24-year old Dwayne Metts, our 2016 third-round pick. Metts had decent defense across all outfield positions and was a left-handed batter, so the awkward platoon with Andy Bareford would continue in some form. He was also really quick on the bases – if he ever got there. He had batted merely .252 with no power and plenty of strikeouts in AAA prior to being called up.

Game 3
VAN: LF A. Torres – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – C Delgado – 3B Roundtree – SS Otis – CF Kim – 2B Folk – P Rosenthal
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Metts – P Abe

Alex Torres tripled on the first pitch Abe threw and scored easily enough on Ezra Branch’s single, hanging the loss on the Raccoons right in the first inning again. While Nunley was the first Raccoon to reach base with a 2-out single in the bottom 2nd, and DeWeese doubled to right center, and Dwayne Metts walked in a full count in his first major league plate appearance, Abe sure as hell couldn’t even make the slightest bit of contact and struck out to strand a full set of runners. At least Abe was steady on the mound, if you were willing to ignore the hard leadoff base knock that Rosenthal hit off him right after the second inning ended, only for Rosenthal to suffer a rush of **** to the brains and being cornered up between second and third and eventually put out by Nunley, which probably spared Abe a run in the third inning. Torres hit a leadoff double in the fifth, stole third base, but was left stranded due to poor infield grounders by his team. Down 1-0 after two, the Coons would certainly rally and - … oh, just quit pretending! Rosenthal was perfect the second time through the order, and they were still trailing insurmountably, 1-0, after five.

In the bottom of the sixth, Cookie singled to left, stole second base, and still found a way to be stranded on third base after the Coons’ 2-3-4 had delivered three absolutely pathetic and embarrassing groundballs. Abe went to the eighth, unloved, walked Torres with one out, and while Gutierrez popped out (ending his hitting streak unless the Coons would find a way to extend the game or the Elks to hit all the way back around to him in the ninth), the left-hander Branch was up. Ron Thrasher came in, the Elks countered with right-handed batter Dave Padilla, but his sharp grounder was gobbled up by Yoshi to end the inning. Still 1-0 for the ****ing Elks. Dwayne Metts’ first career base hit was a leadoff single to rightfield off Rosenthal in the bottom of the eighth inning. Thrasher was used to bunt him to second base, and Cookie singled to center to move Metts to third. Yoshi knocked a liner into Otis’ glove for the second out, but McKnight lifted a ball up the rightfield line for a – where the **** did that ****ing Elk come from?? Moises Berrones had warped over to the line and took the ball, ending the inning and extending the Raccoons’ scoreless streak to a whopping 26 innings, which extended to 27 with Mike Tharp’s perfect ninth. 1-0 Canadiens. Carmona 2-4; Abe 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (7-6);

Elks had been 4-for-4 in stealing off Margolis in this set, so why not lose a game with Olivares behind the dish? Coming up now.

Also, I think I am done with life. I’ll wait for the Druid to be distracted and then smash in the glass of the cabinet with the big skull and crossed bones in his storage room.

Game 4
VAN: LF A. Torres – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – C Delgado – 3B Roundtree – SS Otis – CF Kim – 2B Folk – P Funderburk
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – C Olivares – LF DeWeese – P Knight

The homepage of the Agitator almost instantly brought up a news item with a red banner imprinted with *BREAKING NEWS* in thick letters and the title “COONS SCORE RUN”, right in the first inning, when Yoshi singled and then McKnight and Mendoza hit back-to-back bombs to right off Ron Funderburk for an early 3-0 lead, ending TWENTY-SEVEN INNINGS OF MISERY. For the moment at least, because with Damani Knight on the mound, no lead was ever big enough. Out of character, though, Knight managed to slip a few zeroes onto the board, although the defense did most of the grisly work, like in the third inning, in which Funderburk hid a hard single to center on a 3-1 pitch, Knight walked Alex Torres, and then was bailed out by McKnight who turned a wonderful and unexpected 6-4-3 on Jose Gutierrez. Singled by Mendoza (who was forced out by Bareford, who in turn stole second base), Olivares, and DeWeese produced a run in the bottom 4th, 4-0, before Knight struck out to leave two on.

That strikeout, while not completely unlikely, was exactly where the game turned sour. Knight came back for the fifth, walked Otis leading off, and Otis quickly swiped second base off Olivares. Knight actually struck out Man-su Kim, Olivares had the ball clank off his shin guard and roll almost all the way to the dugout steps, allowing Kim to reach on the uncaught third strike and putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Folk singled to right, one run in, Kim to third, Cookie threw there in vain, and Folk advanced to second. Funderburk got to 2-0 before ripping a single to right center, two were going to score unless Cookie tried to throw even harder, which he did, Folk was out at home plate, but Cookie had also basically ripped his arm from the socket and left the game in a mountain of pain, a feeling shared by most in attendance. As he was walked off the field, Metts replacing him, it was time to count the evil blessing. It was 4-2, Funderburk on first base and one out, and we didn’t quite know whether all this was Knight’s fault or not. The pitching coach tried to explain to him why exactly the dog-catcher’s van had just rolled up at the gate next to the bullpens. Knight then struck out Torres, Gutierrez flew out to Metts, and superficially order was restored for the moment.

The Coons stranded runners in scoring position, Metts in the fifth and Olivares in the sixth, and Knight nibbled around the bottom of the order in the seventh inning, which in itself was progress for sure. He would however depart with Otis on third base after a double and left-hander Moises Berrones pinch-hitting for Funderburk with two outs. Kaiser came out and collected Berrones on a soft fly to left to end the inning. The rest of the pen tried their darndest to blow the game in the eighth, though, with Gutierrez hitting a 1-out double off Joel Davis, Thrasher walking his only man, Branch, and it was on McKnight again to turn a sharp grounder by Delgado off Mathis into a double play. Mathis would work around an Otis single in the ninth to salvage a game from the set at last. 4-2 Blighters. Mendoza 2-3, HR, RBI; Olivares 2-3, RBI; Knight 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-1); Mathis 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (2);

The Druid explained how Cookie’s recent lack of success at the plate had caused his soul to wander through his body and how that had thrown his body out of alignment on the throw. He diagnosed a sore back and strongly recommended to sit him for the Loggers series and rest him through the All Star break where he scheduled three days of ‘good talks’ as only medication.

Mena, I swear, if you don’t know what you’re doing……!

Raccoons (47-36) @ Loggers (50-36) – July 10-12, 2020

Cookie’s injury came at a very bad time with the Loggers on our plates before the All Star Game. Theoretically the Raccoons could reclaim the division lead with a sweep, but let’s be real for just a second here. The Coons had lost 16 of their last 24 games and were in no position to sweep anybody, although they held a 5-3 lead over the Loggers in the season series. They still didn’t look like much of a playoff team (although their chances were phenomenal right now), scoring the fifth-most runs and allowing the fourth-fewest. Those weren’t exactly overwhelming numbers! They also had a few injury issues, having lost starter Luis Guerrero for the season and missing Brad Gore from their lineup. Ex-Coon Jason Seeley was also on the DL and would not haunt us in this set.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (3-5, 5.19 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (7-3, 2.90 ERA)
Travis Garrett (1-3, 3.82 ERA) vs. Chris Sinkhorn (10-6, 2.41 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-5, 3.10 ERA) vs. Troy McCaskill (8-8, 3.85 ERA)

For that extra bit of resignation before the series even began, the Raccoons would face the Loggers’ 1-2 punch, including their only surviving southpaw, Sinkhorn, which was a great name for a pitcher if you think about it. He sinks one past you, and then the horn of doom would sound in person of that white-haired chubby guy clad in black behind home plate. His K/BB weren’t pretty though, not even 1.4, thanks to 68 walks issued in 127 innings.

Game 1
POR: CF Bareford – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – LF DeWeese – P Guerrero
MIL: 2B Stewart – SS Burns – CF Coleman – 1B LeMoine – C Denny – RF Cooper – 3B Farias – LF J. Gonzalez – P Prevost

It took only to the second inning for the frequent punching bag Guerrero and the rest of the sodden crew to fall apart. Mike Denny led off with a single to left, Guerrero walked Andrew Cooper and allowed a single to Emilio Farias. With the bases full, Javier Gonzalez grounded to Nomura, whose throw to first eluded Mendoza for a 2-base, 2-run error. Guerrero couldn’t even erase Prevost, who hit a run-scoring groundout, and the Loggers plated three in total in the inning. Not that the Coons weren’t good for some drama; Yoshi singled and Mendoza walked in the fourth, and with one out Margolis sent a looper to shallow right. Tyler Stewart and Andrew Cooper almost took another out in a head-on-head collision, neither got the ball, and the bases were loaded on the single. Nunley flew a ball to center that was deep enough to score a run – except that Ian Coleman butchered the ball and it popped out of his glove, scoring two runs and putting the tying and go-ahead run in scoring position for Eddie Jackson, who flew out to right. Margolis went for home in a leisurely stroll that was supposed to be all the pace he had, and Cooper threw him out to end the inning before opening the bottom 4th with a single, stealing a base and eventually scoring on Gonzalez’ double play grounder that followed Farias’ single, putting the Loggers up 4-2 after four.

The Coons stranded runners on the corners in the sixth inning with Nunley grounding out to his significant other, Farias, and in one of those bitter twists we were seeing too many of, the Coons could only score after a 2-out double by ****ing Guerrero in the seventh, with Bareford singling him in. That still left the Raccoons behind, 4-3, and it wasn’t looking like it was going to get better. Farias singled to lead off the bottom 7th, with Guerrero hanging on until he drilled Tyler Stewart with two outs. Davis replaced him to face Kyle Burns and erased him with a strikeout to end the inning. The game was lost, however; while Prevost had been hit for in the bottom of the seventh, the Loggers would get perfect relief in the last two innings, with Justin Carlin, Ivan Morales, and Quinn MacCarthy nailing the Raccoons to the ground. 4-3 Loggers. Bareford 2-4, RBI; Nomura 2-4; Guerrero 6.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, L (3-6) and 1-3, 2B;

Game 2
POR: CF Bareford – 2B Nomura – C Margolis – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – SS Prince – 3B Petracek – LF Metts – P Garrett
MIL: 2B Stewart – SS Burns – CF Coleman – 1B LeMoine – C Denny – 3B Velez – RF Cooper – LF Tesch – P Sinkhorn

Bareford opened the game with a single, which was the last base knock for anybody until Jackson’s 2-out single in the fourth, and none of those hits amounted to anything. Garrett was perfect the first time through the Loggers’ lineup, which was either a sign of real progress to stardom or one of the baseball god’s exceedingly cruel tricks before the hammer (or in this case: the axes and chainsaws) would come down. It was maybe a bit of both. Garrett struck out six and allowed only two hits through five innings, but one of those hits was a first-pitch leadoff jack by Stewart in the fourth inning, which sent the Raccoons into their daily death spin in a 1-0 deficit. They were not getting anything done in terms of mounting offense against Sinkhorn who clipped away batter after batter, and when he gave the Coons a free runner, hitting Jackson in the seventh inning, Prince and Petracek turned pale and perished nonetheless. Garrett hung in, batted and struck out in the eighth inning, which gave as many whiffs to Sinkhorn and four outs to go in a 1-0 shuthout that by now nobody doubted he would complete. That was until Andy Bareford ninjaed a 1-1 fastball and deposited it over the leftfield fence to tie the score, out of the blue. It was only the sixth base hit in a pitching duel, split evenly between the teams. Sinkhorn walked Yoshi, but Margolis grounded out. Neither pitcher survived the bottom of the eighth. Javier Gonzalez hit for Sinkhorn and rolled one over to Yoshi for the second out, but that was the last out Garrett collected. PH Emilio Farias singled up the middle, and Petracek couldn’t do anything with a slow roller by Burns. Two on, two out, lefties ahead, Ron Thrasher came into the game, hung a K on Ian Coleman, and neither starting pitcher would get a decision with that.

MacCarthy and Thrasher were not scored upon in the ninth, sending the game and the Coons’ stretched bullpen to extra innings. MacCarthy continued to pitch in the tenth, putting Metts on base with an infield single to get the inning underway. McKnight hit for Thrasher, struck out, but Bareford singled to center and sent Metts to third base. There he remained, as Yoshi struck out and Margolis rolled out to short. The Loggers stranded pairs of runners in the 10th AND 11th against Chun, but Will West never retired anybody in the 12th inning. Cooper doubled, Tesch singled, and with Paul Hall pinch-hitting, Cooper raced home on a squeeze play that took apart the battery and the Loggers walked off. 2-1 Loggers. Bareford 3-5, HR, RBI; Garrett 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K;

Outside of Bareford’s three hits, the Raccoons had only two more. No wonder they keep losing and losing and losing.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Toner
MIL: RF Cooper – 2B Farias – CF Coleman – 1B LeMoine – C Denny – 3B Velez – SS P. Hall – LF Tesch – P McCaskill

McCaskill walked two in the first inning, but nobody could be arsed to find a base hit in their lunch box. Toner entered the game four strikeouts away from tying for 100th in K’s all time, hung one on Cooper to start his outing, and struck out the side in the second, if you were willing to ignore him hitting Alberto Velez. Hall was #1,627 in Toner’s career, good enough to tie for 100th place. In between, the Coons had taken A LEAD, with Metts drawing a walk in the second and coming around on 2-out singles by Toner and Yoshi. While the Coons’ lineup was completely dead as usual, Toner was in a murderer’s mood, striking out nine in the first five innings while scattering only two hits, and while Farias hit a double in the bottom 6th that came with two outs and Ian Coleman was rung up as Toner’s 11th victim. McCaskill struck out only three through seven innings, including Toner in that seventh inning, and had dodged a bullet when the otherwise lame Coons had put Metts on with a leadoff single, although Metts was caught stealing by Denny before DeWeese even took his first futile hack. A leadoff double by LeMoine into the rightfield corner superficially put Toner in trouble in the bottom 7th, but he snuffed out Denny and Velez before Hall grounded out to short, still 1-0 in the game.

Top of the eighth, Coleman grossly misplayed a liner to center by Yoshi Nomura that became a leadoff triple. I would greatly appreciate somebody taking their paws out of their mouths for a second to score that runner! The Loggers certainly had some kind of plan, walking Jackson – a right-handed batter – intentionally to get to the left-handed batters with two men on base and nobody out. McKnight – in a terrible rut like everybody else – grounded up the middle, Farias cut off the ball, but had no play on either McKnight or Jackson, and Yoshi scored on the infield single. A wild 0-2 pitch to Mendoza advanced the runners to scoring position, and Mendoza got back into the at-bat, knocking a single to rightfield and scoring both runners, 4-0. Margolis hit into a double play, largely ending the inning, although Nunley would hit a 2-out single. Metts flew out to center. Toner now had a cushion as well as 13 K on just *85* pitches. A shutout was certainly possible now, with Gonzalez getting a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning. Toner struck out Cooper and got a grounder from Farias to end that inning, and he would face the 3-4-5 batters in the bottom 9th, coming in on 98 pitches. In another episode of “All goes well until it ****ing doesn’t”, Toner walked Coleman on four pitches, and LeMoine singled through Nunley’s various limbs to put two on. Margolis lost hold of a pitch to Denny, allowing the runners into scoring position on the passed ball, although Toner struck out his former catcher after that. Toner still had pulse and eagerness in considerable amounts, although the pen was stirring at a high pace. Velez was at 1-2 before he flew to left. Jackson had no trouble with the ball, but the Loggers brought a run home to blow apart the shutout bid. Hall struck out to end the inning, leaving Toner with a complete game effort. 4-1 Coons. Nomura 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Toner 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 16 K, W (9-5) and 1-3;

No other Continental League pitcher had ever struck out more than 16 batters in a game – of course Toner held the CL record with 18 K on Closing Day in 2016, still a tie for the ABL record – and still NOBODY in Oregon or elsewhere talked about the feat on Monday morning. See below.

In other news

July 6 – PIT 1B Jesus Ramirez (.379, 5 HR, 19 RBI) hits for the cycle in the Miners’ mental 15-12 win over the Rebels, driving in five runs with a 4-for-6 performance that sees him land every type of hit once. The 66th cycle in ABL history is the first ever for the Miners franchise, and the second consecutive witnessed at the Richmond Grounds, although none of them have been for the Rebels. LAP Marc Thompson cycled against the Rebels in their own house earlier this season.
July 7 – The Titans trade CL Nestor Munoz (4-7, 4.19 ERA, 15 SV) to the Cyclones for two prospects. It is the second such deal between the teams in less than a week.
July 7 – The Condors’ and Falcons’ game goes 15 innings before the Falcons secure a 2-1 win in walkoff fashion, using a leadoff double by Rob Howell (.100, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and a 2-out single by Pat Fowlkes (.329, 7 HR, 44 RBI) to win.
July 8 – The Pacifics swap 35-year old SP Ernest Green (1-1, 2.95 ERA), who got all of his 163 career wins with L.A., to the Stars for RF Chris Macias (.224, 1 HR, 8 RBI).
July 8 – NYC 1B Carlos Martinez (.272, 4 HR, 24 RBI) is dealt to the Miners for 3B Tom Thomas (.255, 7 HR, 22 RBI) and a second-rate prospect.
July 8 – Meanwhile, NYC INF Sergio Valdez (.302, 8 HR, 29 RBI) will miss two weeks with a mild oblique strain.
July 9 – The Scorpions beat the Gold Sox, 1-0 in ten innings, on a walkoff single by Pablo Sanchez (.377, 5 HR, 46 RBI).
July 11 – The Crusaders remain active on the trade market, converting 40-year-old 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.236, 1 HR, 12 RBI) into the Cyclones’ surplus outfielder Alex Duarte, who had yet to appear in the major leagues in 2020.
July 11 – In the 11th inning of a 5-5 game the Condors run out of pitching and concede another five runs to the Bayhawks, taking a 10-5 loss.
July 12 – On the day the Wolves ship RF Justin Quinn (.276, 6 HR, 44 RBI) to the Miners for SP Tim Dunn (6-9, 5.08 ERA) and a prospect, SP Carlos Barron (8-7, 3.42 ERA) gives Wolves fans something to cheer about anyway, spinning a NO-HITTER against the Warriors in a 4-0 Wolves victory. Barron issues three walks in the game, strikes out six, and yields no base knocks to enter the history books. It is the first ever no-hitter for the Wolves, and the 42nd in ABL history.
July 12 – The Thunder amount to only three hits while getting routed 12-0 by the Aces.

Complaints and stuff

Ah, I am glad you could make it. Sit down please (points at the children size table in the middle of the room) and have tea with us while we discuss our next moves. (on tiny chairs around the table decked out with pink plastic plates and cups sit Honeypaws, the stuffed toy raccoon, Chad in the mascot costume except for the head with a cross-eyed and very high expression, and Slappy, who has exchanged tea for a bottle of booze) Do you take one or two pieces of sugar? And do you take mil- NOT ON THAT CHAIR!! That chair is for Edgar! My imaginary friend!!

…

Who would have thought that a 9-18 spill attacks the mind that hard?

…

With Ramirez’ feat on Monday, only the Elks, Scorpions, and Capitals remain without ever having hit for the cycle. While the Elks have a no-hitter which we WILL NEVER TALK ABOUT AGAIN, the Scorpions and Capitals have it even worse; they have never seen a no-hitter for their team, either. Also, not only did Toner lose the shutout on the 26th out on Sunday and did not get #1 performance on the day with his 16 strikeouts, no, Carlos Barron also robbed him of the distinction of having pitched the most recent no-hitter. Pretty bad day for Toner!

Rumor around the league has it that the Titans were never calculating on actually competing and now sell high to put the next great team together. However, the four prospects netted from the Cyclones are consistently crummy. I wouldn’t deal Kevin DeWald for any of those, or all four of those.

The Raccoons will have – somehow – five All Stars in this year’s edition of the ultimately meaningless showcase. Jonny Toner, Hector Santos (in nomine, since injured), Chris Mathis, Yoshi Nomura, and Dumbo Mendoza have been selected. It is the seventh nomination for Toner, the sixth for Mendoza (third with the Coons), fifth for Yoshi (second as a Coon) and Santos, and the second for Mathis.

I can’t help but feel like only five weeks ago we would have filled the roster with about eight or nine guys.

But now let’s revel into the only thing we can revel in right now, Jonny Toner’s just-begun crusade up the strikeout leaderboards, we shall henceforth always present once he advances a position in good old Brownie tradition, including five spots above and three spots below each current Raccoon on the list:

93th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699
94th – Paul Kirkland – 1,698
95th – Ian Rutter – 1,693 – active
96th – Juan Garcia – 1,684
97th – Jesse Carver – 1,682
98th – Hector Santos – 1,664 – active, on DL
99th – Kevin Williams – 1,649
100th – Jonathan Toner – 1,639 - active

Side note: Nick Brown (3,166 K) is sitting in eighth place on the career strikeouts table while awaiting Hall of Fame induction, but will soon drop to ninth. LAP Brad Smith is already within 19 K of him and doesn’t look like stopping soon. His top 10 spot is secure for the foreseeable future, however, with only TWO active pitchers even within 1,000 strikeouts of his mark. CHA Juan Ortega (31st, 2,416 K) is 34 and has a case for sure, but NYC “Midnight” Martin (40th, 2,285 K) is already 36 and looks like a few parts have gone missing over the winter. Only 15 pitchers in the top 100 are active at all at this point.