[Westheim]

This week was supposed to get to you right after the draft, or, well, within three-ish hours of the draft, but didn’t. But see yourself.

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Raccoons (34-28) @ Rebels (32-30) – June 15-17, 2043

The Raccoons on their winning spree headed out to Richmond for three games, meeting with the team sitting sixth in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League, as well as fourth in their division, five games out. Their pen had a worse ERA than their rotation, while their batters were an incredibly pesky group, having the most walks drawn in the FL and the fewest strikeouts. Despite that they were only mediocre offensively, 10th in hits and 9th in batting average. We had won the last three series with the Rebs, most recently two of three in 2041, and had not lost a series to them since 2035.

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (8-4, 2.81 ERA) vs. Ryan Person (5-3, 2.90 ERA)
Cory Lambert (1-5, 4.55 ERA) vs. Omar Lara (5-4, 3.12 ERA)
Jake Jackson (5-6, 5.27 ERA) vs. Chris Crowell (4-4, 4.58 ERA)

The Rebs had three lefty starters, of whom we’d only see one, Lara.

Omar Gutierrez was still day-to-day to begin the series, and Nick Lando would start against the right-hander at second base.

Game 1
POR: RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Sieber – SS Castro – 1B Yamamoto – 2B Lando – P Mathers
RIC: 2B Loyola – CF A. Aguilera – LF P. Gonzalez – 1B Liberos – 3B Frazier – RF C. Robinson – C K. Duncan – SS J. Santos – P Person

Mathers struck out the first two batters, but got into trouble by the second inning, when Josh Frazier hit a double to right, he walked Chris Robinson, and then Kyle Duncan hit a double to left. That scored one run, while Jonathan Santos’ pretty deep sac fly scored another, and the Rebels had a 2-0 lead on hitless Raccoons. Person retired ten Raccoons in a row to begin the game before walking Ricky Jimenez, but got pop outs over the infield from both Maldo and Manny to keep that runner out of scoring position, and retired the 5-6-7 bunch in order in the fifth to maintain his no-hitter. Mathers couldn’t be further from a clean inning in the bottom 5th. Jonathan Santos singled, was bunted to second, but Jon Loyola walked anyway. Alvin Aguilera singled to left to load the bases, and Pablo Gonzalez, hitting .381 with 15 homers, singled to right to drive in the Rebels’ third run. Mathers walked in a run against Manny Liberos, then got a grounder for a double play from Josh Frazier, but the game looked pretty lost even without a bases-clearing triple… Stephon Nettles ended the bid with a 2-out single in the sixth inning, but Jimenez struck out after that. Chris Robinson drew a walk from Seth Green in the bottom 6th, which was Robinson’s third walk in the game, and Santos’ triple increased the score to 5-0. Person’s strikeout and Loyola grounding out to short kept Santos on base. The Coons then cobbled a run together from three singles by Maldo, Sieber, and Yamamoto in the seventh, but with runners on the corners and two outs, Nick Lando’s fly to right was caught near the warning track by Robinson. Pablo Gonzalez and Manny Liberos answered with a double off the wall and a clean RBI single to put a run on Zack Kelly in the bottom of the inning. 6-1 Rebels. De Wit (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: C Sieber – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – 1B Yamamoto – 2B Lando – RF Casas – P Lambert
RIC: 2B Loyola – CF A. Aguilera – 1B Liberos – 3B Frazier – RF C. Robinson – C K. Duncan – LF Gouveia – SS J. Santos – P O. Lara

The game began with Sieber whiffing, but then a hit batter, a double, and a walk loaded the bases for the Raccoons. Castro came up, had a 3-1 count in his favor, and then grounded into a double play. The Rebels scored instead, getting Loyola on with a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, and he stole second base, stole third base, and scored when Jimenez couldn’t come up with a bouncing throw by Sieber for an unearned run. The Coons would have only a Lando single for additional hits through the conclusion of five innings, while the Rebels put runners on from time to time, but didn’t score until Loyola doubled in the fifth and, sitting on third base with two outs, scored when Yamamoto fumbled a Liberos grounder into an “infield single”. More shoddy fielding put the first two runners on base in the sixth inning as Robinson reached on a disagreement between Lando and Yamamoto, and Duncan got on when Lambert spiked an eager throw to second base on a comebacker for an error; however, the bottom three hitters for Richmond produced nothing but unhelpful outs and the runners were stranded where they were.

Somehow, Nick Lando was the one who got Portland on the board in the seventh, cutting a 2-0 gap in half when he singled home Yamamoto, who had doubled into right-center with one out, then swung the old hindpaws hard on Jose Casas’ double into the leftfield corner to make it all the way around to score the tying run! De Wit and Sieber then grounded out to end the inning. When Alex Ramirez held the Rebels in the tie in the bottom 7th, the Raccoons then found themselves with another thick chance in the eighth through little fault of their own; Lara was betrayed when Liberos dropped Maldo’s 1-out pop for an error, then gave up a Manny double right through Liberos – a Gold Glover in an era long gone – that put them both in scoring position. Castro struck out. Yamamoto popped out. (sigh!) The pen then fell apart in the bottom 8th. Ramirez issued a leadoff walk to Frazier, and Chuck Jones came in for Robinson, but gave up a single to the right-handed Logan Arnold pinch-hitting instead. Jon Craig was not very helpful in stemming the tide, walking the bags full against Narciso Gouveia, then gave up a 2-run single to Santos to bury the Critters for good. We amounted to a pinch-hit double by Omar Gutierrez in the ninth, but that was it. 4-2 Rebels. Lando 2-3, RBI; Lambert 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K;

Bidding for an 0-6 week now?

Game 3
POR: RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – SS Castro – 1B Yamamoto – 2B Gutierrez – P Jackson
RIC: C K. Duncan – CF A. Aguilera – LF P. Gonzalez – 1B Liberos – RF C. Robinson – 2B L. Arnold – 3B DeGroote – SS J. Santos – P Crowell

While he wasn’t fooling anybody, giving up two hard singles to begin his day and only bailing out because Gonzalez hit into a double play right afterwards, Jake Jackson did drive in a run to take a 1-0 lead with a 2-out single in the second inning. Kilmer on second, Yamamoto on first, he grounded through the right side to get Kilmer around, while Yamamoto, a wrecking ball in many ways, found himself polished off in a rundown between second and third to end the inning. Portland tacked on two in the third inning on a pair of 2-out RBI doubles by Manny and Kilmer, after the inning had started with Nettles walking and stealing his 14th base of the year. Nettles led off the fifth with a triple to right, then scored on Nick DeGroote’s pretty grim throwing error that parked Jimenez on second base. The Rebs went around Maldo with first base open, then had Crowell fumble Manny’s infield roller for the second error of the inning. It loaded the bags with nobody out for Kilmer, who grinded out a walk to extend the lead to 5-0, and so did Jose Castro, 6-0. Yamamoto grounded into a force at home plate, but Gutierrez with an RBI single and Jackson with a sac fly got another two runs in while right-hander Jimmy Anderson saw out the inning. It was 8-0 in the middle of the fifth, and while Jackson was *technically* pitching a shutout he also never stopped giving up sharp and loud contact – it was just that the Rebels couldn’t get the balls past the defense.

It was still 8-0 in the seventh when Jackson came apart for good, allowing a single to Liberos before walking both Robinson and Arnold in full counts, all with one gone. Next gone was Jackson, who yielded for Craig, who boogied out of the inning for a sac fly allowed to DeGroote, but nothing else, which was a run I’d happily give back for two outs. Castro struck out in the eighth to strand the bases full against Anderson, but then turned a nifty double play in the bottom of the inning to avoid getting yelled at. Nobody reached base in the ninth inning for either team as the Raccoons secured at least one win on their way outta town. 8-1 Raccoons. Nettles 2-5, BB, 3B; Kilmer 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (6-6) and 1-3, 2 RBI; Craig 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Interlude: Trade

The Raccoons struck a trade with the Aces on their off day on Thursday, picking up 1B Sal Ayala (.297, 8 HR, 29 RBI) from Vegas for three minor leaguers / prospects. Ayala, who can play corner outfield positions in a real emergency, and hits left-handed, is a high-OBP bat (led the league in walks in ’41), but with no speed. While I resent having a roadblock at the top of the order, he will play there at least until Carreno comes back from the DL (some time next week), and after that we’ll have to see.

Ayala is usually hitting / holding out for a .400+ OBP and reached as high as an .831 OPS in a qualifying season with the Baybirds in ’40. He was with the Loggers at the start of his career, but is a persistent wandering trophy, with Portland being his fifth team in the Bigs. He is in the second year of a flat 3-yr, $5.1M deal. The Coons continue to enjoy lots and lots of budget space this year, and currently look like they would still have about $5M in budget space next year.

The Raccoons will send Shuta Yamamoto (.219/.276/.318) to AAA and made room there by including 1B Damian Salazar (.214, 1 HR, 11 RBI for 2040 Coons) from the Alley Cats to make room on the roster, which took some haggling to get lined up on Thursday. If the Aces (who made the initial offer that led to this trade) hadn’t taken Salazar, he’d have been released. They had been after 2042 supplemental rounder David Sanders (also an outfielder) to begin with.

The other players going over are outfielders and Bens, Southall and Bonczek. Ben Southall was the 2037 sixth-rounder, hitting .243 with no power in AAA at this point, while Ben Bonczek had been taken in the third round in 2040 and was still in Aumsville, where he was much closer to oblivion than a promotion to Ham Lake.

Raccoons (35-30) @ Indians (26-40) – June 19-21, 2043

The last-place Indians held a 3-1 lead in the season series against the Critters, which needed rectifying. They were also quite hopeless, with the worst offense in the league, scoring under 3.5 runs per game, and average pitching that just couldn’t keep up. They had lost five straight, and were 4-12 for the month of June.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (7-3, 3.28 ERA) vs. Ayden Cobb (3-2, 3.43 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (4-7, 3.38 ERA) vs. Alex Flores (1-3, 3.99 ERA)
Corey Mathers (8-5, 3.07 ERA) vs. Bill Drury (3-10, 4.65 ERA)

Both teams had been off on Thursday, allowing them to skip a starter – but all their staters were right-handed, so it would not have much of an impact on the Raccoons.

Game 1
POR: 1B Ayala – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Nettles – SS Castro – 2B Gutierrez – P Clark
IND: SS Russ – 1B Zuazo – 3B Hutson – RF Sanderfer – LF D. Rivera – 2B E. Vargas – C Rose – CF B. Quinteros – P A. Cobb

Sal Ayala began his Coons career with a single to left-center. The Raccoons would hit three singles in that first inning, and stranded the bags full of Ayala, Maldo, and Manny once Kilmer whiffed and Nettles grounded out. The Indians also loaded the bases with singles from Andrew Russ and Alvin Zuazo. With two outs, Clark had Danny Rivera at 1-2 before nailing him, then gave up a single to right instead. Nettles overran that ball, allowing a second run to score, with Jason Rose striking out in a full count after that. Single, hit batter, another walk – the bases were loaded for the Arrowheads once more in the bottom 2nd as Brent Clark was completely off-kilter. Dan Hutson hit a sac fly for the only addition, though, with Alex Sanderfer grounding out to short to end the inning.

While Clark was hard enough to straighten out, the Raccoons also were on a quest to strand as many runners as possible and cause me as much agony as they possibly could. Maldonado led off the third inning with a single, stole a base, and scored on Nettles’ infield single eventually. In the fourth inning, Maldondo singled home Omar Gutierrez with a 2-out hit. But the Raccoons also stranded three runners between those two innings – Manny struck out afterwards – and remained 3-2 behind on eight hits and eight stranded batters through four innings. Ayden Cobb led off the bottom 4th with a double to left, which was depressing, but then was left at second base by the 1-2-3 batters, which was probably even depressingerer for the poor sod in the home team’s GM suite.

The Indians then extended their lead again to 4-2 with a Danny Rivera homer in the fifth, and 5-2 in the sixth when Clark parked Bill Quinteros on base and Alex Ramirez did little to stop him, giving up an RBI single to Alvin Zuazo. Meanwhile, Ayala in the sixth and Manny in the seventh ended innings with double play grounders of the 4-6-3 variety. Castro reached base, stole second, and scored on Omar Gutierrez’ 2-out RBI single in the eighth, but it was getting late by now, and when Sean Sieber batted for the pitcher in the #9 hole, he grounded out. Seth Green kept the Arrowheads away in the bottom 8th, and right-hander Ruben Vela had a 2-run lead to defend against the top of the order in the ninth inning. Ayala was 1-for-2 with two walks in his debut with Portland, but grounded out. Jimenez popped out. Maldonado took a 2-2 pitch to center for a single to extend the suffering just a bit longer. Manny grounded out. 5-3 Indians. Maldonado 4-5, RBI; Gutierrez 3-4, RBI;

We had 11 base hits – all singles – and managed to strand a dozen.

Game 2
POR: 1B Ayala – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Nettles – SS Castro – 2B Gutierrez – P Wheatley
IND: SS Russ – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – LF D. Rivera – 1B Zuazo – CF B. Quinteros – 2B Sanderfer – C Rose – P A. Flores

Manny hit a 3-run homer in the first inning, which was certainly a lift, collecting Ayala and Jimenez from the bases. Wheatley in turn retired the first two, gave up a 3-1 single to Hutson, and then walked three batters in a row while I was gnawing on my Raccoons hat. Sanderfer would strike out to end an excruciating inning. Wheatley went on with a 1-2-3 second, then conceded a leadoff double to Mario Ochoa in the third. He hit Rivera, Zuazo singled, and Ayala snatched a 1-out liner by Quinteros and almost caught Ochoa at third base, but he slid narrowly back in again ahead of Ricky Jimenez’ tag, bringing up Sanderfer, a .157 batter, with the bags full and two outs. This time he grounded out to short, getting to six left on base in two attempts.

So while Wheatley was bit of a burden on my liver, the Raccoons at least tacked on with a 2-run homer by Castro, outta rightfield like Manny’s earlier. Nettles had been on second base with a single and a stolen base. Bottom 4th, up 5-1, the bags were full with nobody out, and in the worst way. The very worst way. Jason Rose struck out, but reached when Kilmer kicked the ball away. Wheatley walked Adam Huber, hitting for the discarded Flores, and Russ hit a comebacker, but Wheatley spiked a throw to second base and Castro couldn’t come up with it. At this stage, Wheatley had gotten nine outs on 86 pitches and the pen was cranking. It got involved in the very inning; Hutson hit a 1-out, 2-run single, and while Rivera popped out harmlessly, Wheatley walked Zuazo and got the axe – 103 pitches, and a giant mess, 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 5 walks. Kelly got Quinteros to pop up, settling his line on three runs (one earned) and no chance for a W.

The Indians got a free runner in the fifth when Jimenez booted a Sanderfer grounder to begin the frame, but Kelly got a double play from Rose. Reliever Chris Manley popped out. Top 6th, Kilmer hit a 1-out single to left, Nettles walked to push him to second, and he kicked it into high gear on Castro’s single to center. Quinteros’ throw was late and Kilmer slid in safe, 6-3, with the trailing runners taking the extra base. Gutierrez singled through the right side to plate Nettles, 7-3, and Jose Casas batted for Kelly against new pitcher Cesar Suarez and raked an RBI double to center. Ayala walked, but Jimenez whiffed and Maldo grounded out in a full count to park it at 8-3. Maldo left the game after that to ensure multiple innings from Sauerkraut by putting him in the #3 hole, but the left-hander walked a pair and gave up an RBI single to Zuazo in the bottom of the sixth to continue the mess. Quinteros flew out to Nettles to strand a pair. He put runners on the corners again in the seventh before getting shanked, now with Castro removed in a double switch and Nick Lando batting third going forwards. Jon Craig gave up a sac fly, but got out of the inning with an 8-5 score in a thoroughly annoying game that was tuckering me out. Gutierrez played short now and committed a throwing error in the eighth, the Coons’ fourth error in the game, but Jon Craig pitched around that. Josh Rella in the ninth would give up a leadoff single to Sanderfer, but got a grounder from Rose, a K in on Enrique Vargas, and a groundout from Russ to boogie out of the game. 8-5 Raccoons. Kilmer 2-5, 2B; Castro 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Casas (PH) 1-2, 2B, RBI;

The sort of game that entitles you to two weeks’ vacation. Would have been three without the W.

Game 3
POR: 1B Ayala – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Sieber – SS Castro – RF Casas – 2B Lando – P Mathers
IND: SS Russ – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – LF D. Rivera – 1B Zuazo – CF B. Quinteros – 2B Sanderfer – C Custello – P Drury

The Coons went up 1-0 in the first in unearned fashion, getting nothing really but Manny’s RBI single, with Ayala having reached on a Sanderfer error and Jimenez having been drilled to move him to second base. Sieber then struck out and Castro flew out to strand a pair the Coons didn’t deserve in the first place. For the rest of the early innings, the only hit was a Lando single in the third inning, while Mathers walked two in three innings, but didn’t give up a base knock. Lando came to bat again in the fourth with runners on the corners and one out following a Castro triple and a walk drawn by Casas. He made the most out of his severely curtailed skill set and hit a sac fly to center, 2-0. The inning ended with Mathers, while the bottom of the inning ended Mathers’ no-hit attempt when Rivera singled. Zuazo doubled him up right away. The Indians instead tied the game in the bottom 5th; Quinteros hit a leadoff jack to right, 2-1, and Mathers retired the next two before giving up a single to Drury. The opposing pitcher raced for third base on Russ’ single to center, and Maldonado threw the ball away to allow him to score all the way from first base. Ochoa grounded out, but I had the taste of blood in my mouth again.

Still tied in the seventh, the Raccoons slowly loaded the bags to the point where Maldonado would bat with Casas, Ayala, and Jimenez aboard and two outs. He came up clutch while down 1-2, singling through Sanderfer to give the Coons a 3-2 lead. Manny grounded out to first, though, but at least Mathers got through seven without blowing the 3-2. Chuck Jones got the eighth, but got only one out, a K to Ochoa, before he walked the right-handed Hutson and Vargas, also right-handed, batted for Rivera. Alex Ramirez secured two grounders to get out of the inning.

Then it got quite dark as a cloud moved over the ballpark. Pretty soon it started to empty over the ballpark and the game went to a rain delay at the most stupid moment – with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, after Josh Rella had given up leadoff singles to Quinteros and Sanderfer, and just after he had struck out Roger Custello and Jason Rose. The rain delay took almost an hour before play resumed, but then not with Rella. The Raccoons went to Jon Craig against Russ instead. He got a fly to center to end the game. 3-2 Coons. Castro 2-4, 3B; Mathers 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (9-5);

In other news

June 15 – Everybody in the Bayhawks’ lineup has a hit and an RBI, and every position player in their lineup scores a run in a 15-2 rout of the Wolves. The Bayhawks also score in each of the first seven innings of the game. OF/1B Scott Martin (.325, 6 HR, 32 RBI) leads the team with four hits, and drives in two runs.
June 15 – The Scorpions trade SP Ruben Guzman (3-1, 4.04 ERA) to the Thunder for two prospects.
June 16 – WAS SP Jerry Banda (5-7, 3.80 ERA) 2-hits the Canadiens in a 3-0 shutout, whiffing six.
June 17 – Blue Sox C Jorge Santa Cruz (.261, 3 HR, 24 RBI) could miss time until the end of July with a broken finger.
June 20 – NAS SP Juan Garcia (6-4, 4.52 ERA) is out with a torn UCL. The 36-year-old will have Tommy John surgery and will miss at least a full year.
June 21 – Capitals SP Kyle Dominy (2-2, 4.30 ERA) carries a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Buffaloes, but gives up a leadoff single to Dave Lee (.274, 2 HR, 19 RBI) and is removed for Tim Thweatt (3-1, 1.64 ERA, 6 SV) who nails down the 4-0 win without giving up another hit to the Buffaloes.
June 21 – SAC 1B Craig Hollenbeck (.233, 1 HR, 9 RBI) drives in four runs on three singles and two doubles in a 14-3 rout of the Pacifics.

FL Player of the Week: SAL C Morgan Kuhlmann (.212, 3 HR, 19 RBI), hitting .417 (10-24) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB C John Hill (.282, 5 HR, 41 RBI), batting .417 (10-24) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Sal Ayala went 1-for-9 in the set against the Indians, but drew six walks. The only thing annoying me about the deal is that he has no speed. The Raccoons will probably need another bat, more of the slugging variety, if they actually want to compete for the division, in which nobody has run away yet – we’re only 3 1/2 games out at this point.

Yes, I thought we’d easily lose 90 games. But the pitching has been much better than expected while the batting was just about as rancid as expected, but not more rancid. We’ll get back Carreno, maybe even on Monday, to improve our OBP atop the order even further, then will drop Jimenez to the #5 hole. Rightfield remains a completely bleak position for us, though.

In 26 games in AAA, Justin Waltz has batted .311/.395/.515, but what reason is there to hope that he has now figured it out and would produce anything but tears at the major league level? Juan Rosario, a waiver claim early in the year, was hitting for an .827 OPS with the Alley Cats, and Gene Pellicano was hitting … nothing, really. So the next attempt would be the right-handed Rosario.

Also playing in AAA, Matt Waters, who we still claim is the shortstop of the future. He is hitting .226/.385/.290 with no homers and 3 RBI in 17 games. He hit .241/.342/.380 in Ham Lake for the first 43 games of his season. Again, he has completely rancid BABIPs, which makes me think he’s permanently cursed. But he’s a switch-hitting, very adept defensive shortstop to begin with, and you’ll take a wart or two on his forehead and yours as part of the curse.

Now a brief trip home to play the Loggers, then a weekend skip down to San Fran, then back home to play the Condors and Titans. This schedule is weird.

Fun Fact: Jesus Maldonado is third in batting average in the CL, and leads the league in slugging (barely), but Ayala is actually third in OBP.

Nobody beats Jerry Outram in batting average and OBP, though. He’s hitting a ridiculous .376/.513/.526 compared to Maldo’s .341/.403/.576; Nobody is even within 40 points of his OBP, and Jared Paul of the Loggers is barely within 30 points of his batting average.

He’s a true menace (although more readily circumventable with Dan Schneller on the DL), but I have a hard time hating him, although he keeps raking the Raccoons, too. It’s hard to hate genuinely great hitters. I didn’t hate the Martin Brothers, either, f.e., or the Indians pack that made our lives hard about 30 years ago. Yes, I did hate Ray ******* Gilbert, but that was a special case.

But I sure hate the .210 wimps that keep hitting .430 against Portland…