[Westheim]

Raccoons (51-47) vs. Thunder (57-42) – July 29-31, 2064

After a day off on Monday the Raccoons hosted the Thunder for three games at home. Oklahoma City was leading the South by a narrow margin over the Knights, struggling to find offense. They managed to sit bottoms in both homers and stolen bases, while having the second-highest OBP in the Continental League. Thad oddball mix only worked itself out for the ninth-most runs in the CL, but they were being kept afloat by their pitching, which allowed the second-fewest runs to the opposition. They were ahead of the Coons, 2-1, in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (10-7, 3.02 ERA) vs. A.C. Stebbins (7-6, 3.74 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-6, 4.45 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (1-3, 3.12 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-9, 4.98 ERA) vs. Alfredo Picun (12-3, 4.40 ERA)

Handedness would match for all games in this series, e.g. we’d face two left-handers ahead of the righty Picun. Both Baca, 23, and Picun, 25, were relative newcomers, and a rookie and sophomore, respectively. Baca would make his fifth career start.

Game 1
OCT: CF R. Miles – RF Whitlow – SS M. Veguilla – LF B. Ramires – 3B McNeal – 1B I. Stone – C T. Anderson – 2B Bonilla – P Stebbins
POR: 3B Morales – SS Novelo – LF Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – CF Campos – P Riddle

The week began with Riddle trying to put up a crooked number by hitting Rick Miles, allowing a single to center to Eric Whitlow, and then walks to Bill Ramires and – with the bags full – Josh McNeal. That brought up the only run of the inning, with aggressive defending by Kozak and Tallent preventing a worse outcome. He would never figure out his arsenal for the entire game, and allowed another run in the fourth on singles by Alberto Bonilla and Stebbins, with a neat wild pitch in between moving Bonilla into scoring position. For Portland, Arellano hit doubles his first two times at the plate; he got stranded with Tallent in the second inning, but in the fourth followed a Monck single with two bases and then Joel Starr at least scored Monck with a groundout before Tallent flew out to Miles to end the inning.

The Raccoons then seemed trapped 2-1 down with a lack of offensive ambition. Marco Campos’ leadoff single in the fifth led nowhere partly because Riddle couldn’t get a bunt down, and Monck drew a 2-out walk in the sixth, but then Arellano struck out. Riddle lasted seven muddled innings, and a sprinkling of relief from Hall, Nesbitt, and Herrera didn’t allow any more runs to the Thunder, but we still had to score a run to get even, or two to win. Vic Morales’ leadoff single in the eighth led nowhere, and in the ninth Brian Doster retired Arellano and Starr before Elmer Maldonado kept up the pretense with a pinch-hit 2-out single. Aoki batted for Campos, but popped out to the catcher Tim Anderson. 2-1 Thunder. Arellano 2-4, 2 2B; Maldonado (PH) 1-1; Campos 1-2, BB;

Game 2
OCT: C L. Miranda – RF Whitlow – SS M. Veguilla – LF B. Ramires – 3B McNeal – 1B I. Stone – CF R. Miles – 2B J. Caballero – P D. Baca
POR: 3B Morales – SS Novelo – LF Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – CF Campos – P Fox

On Wednesday it was the Critters to go up 1-0 in the first, as Baca walked Morales to begin his start and then conceded the run on a 2-out single to right-center by Rich Monck. Fox did not allow a hit the first time through (but then right away gave up a single on Luis Miranda’s second attempt in the box), and had his lead doubled in the bottom 3rd, when Morales drew another walk and then scored on successive singles by Pablo Novelo and Jack Kozak. Monck whiffed and Arellano flew out to keep a pair on base. Fox maintained his shutout through four, then struggled trying to bunt in the bottom 4th after Baca had issued walks to Starr and Campos. Down 0-2 we just set the runners in motion. Baca now threw a ball, but the Thunder were taken by surprise and the Coons got an odd double steal (Starr took *third*). Baca was so surprised, he gave up a soft RBI single to Fox on the next pitch, 3-0. Morales drew his third walk of the day, but Novelo hit into an inning-ending double play.

Through five, Fox seemed *fine*, but the sixth began with full counts and a walk to Miranda, followed by a Whitlow single. Novelo got a grounder from Miguel Veguilla, but the Coons couldn’t turn two on the play, but Bill Ramires then whiffed and Kozak tracked down a McNeal fly to left-center to keep the Thunder off the board. Instead, Starr struck a leadoff double in the bottom 6th and scored on a grounder by Tallent and Campos’ sac fly that went all the way to the fence in center. Miles made the catch crashing into the wall and broke his shoulder blade, leading to replacement by Danny Garcia.

Fox put seven shutout innings together before hitting the 100 pitches mark. The Raccoons double-bombed Juan Juarez between Novelo and Kozak in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-0, and the bases filled up in the eighth against Mike Chartrand with pinch-hit singles for Oley and Aoki, then another walk drawn by Morales. Novelo’s grounder to short should have ended the inning, but Veguilla’s throw to first pulled Ian Stone off the bag and the Raccoons got another run on the error before Kozak struck out. Dover and McDaniel finished the game on the hill without conceding a run to the Thunder. 6-0 Critters! Morales 0-1, 4 BB; Novelo 2-5, HR, RBI; Kozak 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Campos 0-1, BB, RBI; Oley (PH) 1-1; Aoki (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (8-6);

With that, the trade deadline was upon us. Honeypaws – are we getting anybody!?

(Honeypaws’ whiskers hang)

Game 3
OCT: 2B Curiel – 1B I. Stone – RF B. Ramires – SS M. Veguilla – 3B Bonilla – C L. Miranda – LF D. Garcia – CF F. Gomez – P Picun
POR: 3B Morales – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – CF Maldonado – SS Aoki – C Lawson – RF Oley – P Alba

The Coons hit four singles between Maldonado, Aoki, Oley (who got the RBI), and Alba in the second inning before Morales struck out to strand three runners, but at least that was a 1-0 lead, also meaning that, yes, Angel Alba had already faced six-plus batters (seven, in fact), and had yet to suffer insertion of another white hot poker up his furry tush. Instead, Picun got punked in the third inning; Kozak led off with a jack, after which he walked the 3-4 batters and was taken deep yet again by Maldonado, exploding the score to 5-0 at once. Picun did not re-appear after that inning.

While not all was rosy with Alba, he worked his way through the innings. Early on the Thunder made some hard contact without finding empty space for it to drop in, while in the middle innings Alba’s counts went longer, but the Thunder still didn’t gain traction and then mostly went down fast from the sixth inning onwards, to the point where Alba batted for himself leading off the bottom 8th. The Raccoons had only added one run in the meantime after some very good long relief by Joe Napier, but then a Bonilla error had helped us to an unearned run in the seventh. Alba grounded out to begin the bottom 8th, but Chartrand then put Morales on base with a single and Kozak and Starr hit back-to-back doubles. Starr drove in a pair, but then also left the game with Luis Silva – same hammy as last time. Campos ran for him and was left on base before Alba went out for the ninth, retiring Ernesto Curiel and Ian Stone quickly before Bill Ramires took him deep to right on the last out of the game… Alba had to settle for a complete-game 4-hitter after he retired Veguilla on a fly to Oley. 8-1 Raccoons. Kozak 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Maldonado 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Alba 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (6-9) and 1-3;

Joel Starr was day-to-day for at least the rest of the week with the same hamstring acting up as four weeks ago.

Trade

Just before the curtains came down on unrestricted trading for the season, the Raccoons acquired MR Ryan Harmer (7-1, 1.80 ERA, 1 SV) from the Scorpions for the failed career of AAA SP Freddy Castillo, who was 28 years old by now. Harmer was 37, having his last hurrah, and yes, that is the same Ryan Harmer that persistently drove me insane in a previous decade before the Stars took him in the Rule 5 draft one year.

Victor Herrera (0-1, 4.91 ERA) was sent back to AAA to make room on the roster for Harmer.

Raccoons (53-48) vs. Falcons (52-48) – August 1-3, 2064

The Falcons were four games out in the South, but were posting rather mediocre numbers throughout, sitting eighth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed. The only things they excelled at were defense and stealing bases, and they led the CL in both categories. They also led the season series against the Portlanders, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Jarod Morris (5-4, 3.62 ERA) vs. Tom Kies (0-1, 7.90 ERA)
Josh Elling (12-4, 3.71 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (4-7, 5.61 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (10-8, 3.00 ERA) vs. Levi Harre (9-5, 3.48 ERA)

Tom Kies was the #5 pick from three years ago and would make his third career start in the opener. He was also the only left-hander to face the Raccoons on the weekend.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Duhe – RF Padgett – 1B Joe Washington – CF Pinault – C O. Matos – 3B Healey – LF S. Brown – SS T. Taylor – P Kies
POR: 3B Morales – SS Novelo – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – LF Maldonado – RF Tallent – CF Campos – P Morris

Offense was scarce in the Friday opener, even with the pitching pairing on paw. The two teams combined for five base hits in the first five innings, and it took until the bottom 5th until the Raccoons scratched out a 1-0 lead when Campos drew a walk from Kies, was bunted to second by Morris, and scored on Vic Morales’ 2-out single to left-center. That was about it for excitement. Cody Padgett and Mike Pinault hit a pair of singles against Morris in the sixth, but were left on base by Oscar Matos, who flew out easily to Tallent. Morris then completed eight innings while the Raccoons could not do better than three hits against Kies in seven frames. Aoki hit an infield single in place of Morris to begin the bottom 8th, but was doubled off by Morales, and so the 1-0 lead went to McGinley, who had not appeared at all in the Thunder series. Joe Washington and Pinault grounded out before Matos hit a 2-out single in the ninth, but the game ended with a Rick Healey grounder to Monck. 1-0 Blighters. Campos 1-2, BB; Aoki (PH) 1-1; Morris 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-4);

Interlude: waiver claim

Come Saturday, the Raccoons would claim right-hander Alex Cruzado (5-0, 3.26 ERA) off waivers by the Loggers. Cruzado, 29, was a swingman with six pitches, although he should just ditch half of them and throw the changeup more. He had a tendency to get taken deep, was a constant source of command issues, and was changing teams mid-season for the third straight year.

But hey, we had just actively traded for Ryan Harmer, so we were very much flinging things at the wall. John Nesbitt (1-0, 3.75 ERA) was sent back to St. Petersburg to make room on the roster.

Raccoons (53-48) vs. Falcons (52-48) – August 1-3, 2064

Game 2
CHA: LF Fountain – RF Padgett – 1B Joe Washington – CF Pinault – C O. Matos – 3B Healey – 2B Duhe – SS T. Taylor – P Ledbetter
POR: 3B Morales – RF Oley – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – CF Maldonado – C Arellano – SS Aoki – LF Tallent – P Elling

Morales, Kozak, and Monck all drove doubles to left in the first inning for a very quick 2-0 lead on Saturday, and that was not it for doubles the first time through, as Randy Tallent also socked an RBI double after Aoki singled and stole second base to begin the bottom 2nd – and then Elling whacked another RBI double to left…! Elling would come in to score on Morales’ grounder and Oley’s sac fly to left as Elijah Fountain finally caught something. By then the score was 5-0, but Fountain singled and stole second in the top 3rd and scored on a Washington hit to get the Falcons on the board.

Arellano hit another double in the third, but the doubles then fizzled out once the Falcons figured that Ledbetter was better let go. However, Kozak and Arellano put a run together with singles in the bottom 5th against righty Esteban Vargas, who had an ERA over seven. Elling held up his end rather well, although he had help from the defense, which turned double plays for him in the fourth and sixth, but when the defense betrayed him and Morales fudged a Jared Duhe grounder for an error in the seventh, Elling ended up being stuck. He walked Scott Brown in the #9 hole, and Padgett legged out an infield single with two outs. McDaniel replaced Elling with the bases loaded against Washington, got two strikes, and then got BLASTED for a grand slam.

With the score close again at 6-5, the Raccoons got leadoff singles from Monck and Maldonado, then croaked in the bottom 7th. Jesse Dover retired Charlotte in order in the eighth, then was hit for with Campos, who drew a walk from Jason Stine. Morales ripped a 2-run homer to left after that, creating some breathing room, although McGinley ended up not needing it in the ninth inning, in which the Falcons went down in three batters. 8-5 Raccoons. Morales 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5, 2B, RBI; Arellano 2-3, 2B, RBI; Elling 6.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, W (13-4) and 2-2, 2B, RBI;

Game 3
CHA: LF Fountain – RF Padgett – CF Pinault – 3B Healey – 2B Duhe – 1B Joe Washington – C Ayon – SS T. Taylor – P Harre
POR: 3B Morales – RF Oley – 1B Kozak – CF Maldonado – C Arellano – LF Tallent – SS Aoki – 2B Gardner – P Riddle

Both teams got a double from their #2 hitter in the first inning, and neither managed to score them to get an early leg up in the game that would decide the season series. The Coons had a hit in each of the three innings without scoring, while the Falcons got 2-out knocks from Healey and Duhe in the fourth, then stranded them on the corners when Washington grounded out to Aoki. Jack Kozak then socked his 18th homer of the season to lead off the fourth. Maldonado walked and stole second base before scoring on an Arellano single past Duhe, 2-0, before the 6-7-8 batters were convenient outs.

The game trundled along the next couple innings before the Falcons put their first two bodies on base in the seventh. Danny Ayon hit a comebacker to Riddle after that, and the Coons pitcher pounced and threw the ball to third base to get the lead runner Duhe out. Trent Taylor grounded into a fielder’s choice and the Falcons hung on to Harre for some reason for the inning-concluding strikeout. Harre then walked Aoki to begin the bottom 7th, although he was forced out by Gardner, giving Monck a day off ahead of an 8-game week, before Starr batted for Riddle. The hamstring-addled first-sacker slapped a ball through Joe Washington for a single. Gardner raced for third base, and Cody Padgett threw the ball away, allowing Gardner to dash around to score and Starr to gingerly slide his body up to second base, from where Campos ran for him. From there, Morales walked, Monck batted for Oley and flew out to deep center, and Kozak singled home a run, 4-0, before Maldonado grounded out.

Harmer made his first appearance for the Raccoons in almost a decade in the eighth and allowed singles to Fountain and Healey, although Fountain managed to run the Falcons out of the inning. Harmer allowed a single to Duhe to begin the ninth before yielding for Mike Hall, who got a double play and the sweep into the books. 4-0 Coons. Oley 2-3, 2B; Kozak 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr (PH) 1-1; Riddle 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (11-8);

In other news

July 30 – The Titans acquire SP Joe Chalmers (7-10, 4.51 ERA) from the Bayhawks for the price of three prospects.
July 30 – The Scorpions trade veteran SP Bobby “Tipsy” Herrera (6-13, 3.89 ERA) to the Loggers for four prospects. This package includes #66 CL Ben Dickson and #83 C Omar Lopez.
July 31 – Bayhawks 2B/LF Armando Montoya (.325, 9 HR, 27 RBI) finds his 2,000th career hit (and then two more) in a 5-3 win against the Titans. The milestone is a 2-run single off BOS SP Will Glaude (6-9, 4.41 ERA).
August 1 – DEN OF William Ortiz (.222, 4 HR, 26 RBI) will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle.
August 2 – DAL SP Ray “Crabman” Walker (16-3, 2.50 ERA) will miss the rest of the month with a strained forearm.

FL Player of the Week: PIT 1B Mike Velazquez (.306, 11 HR, 41 RBI), hitting .375 (9-24) with 3 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS OF Steve Humphries (.308, 12 HR, 65 RBI), batting .500 (13-26) with 1 HR, 5 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL RF/LF Roberto Almanza (.305, 0 HR, 61 RBI), clipping .396 with 26 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC 1B Belchior Fresco (.329, 5 HR, 22 RBI), hitting .326 with 5 HR, 23 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: LAP SP Francisco Tello (7-5, 3.09 ERA), going 4-1 with a 1.40 ERA, 28 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: OCT SP Aaron Harris (9-6, 2.73 ERA), an unbeaten 4-0 with 0.79 ERA, 28 K
FL Rookie of the Month: RIC LF/RF/1B Brady Terrell (.331, 5 HR, 36 RBI), batting .330 with 3 HR, 19 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN INF/RF Carlos Castro (.310, 2 HR, 16 RBI), batting .333 with 2 HR, 15 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Our deadline activity was probably not typical for a team two games behind and with various needs, but we lacked the sort of prospects that I was willing to part with to make impact moves. Always hesitant to let go of 20-year-old AAA outfielders (Malcolm Spicer) for a quick fix. And no, I am not entirely sure that Harmer and Cruzado – the latter of whom had yet to get the ball while wearing a brown hat – were gonna fix *anything*.

The Raccoons almost brought back Trent Brassfield, who was on the trading block from the Capitals. However, at this point he was making $3.5M a year and hitting league average, and that wasn’t exactly what I imagined in getting over the hump. So yeah, I was tempted, but for once I was smarter than that.

(Cristiano gives the blunderbuss back to Maud, now that the trade deadline has passed)

On the injury front, Joel Starr is expected to be back in the lineup on Monday, although his hamstring bothers me. Jose Corral started a brief rehab assignment in AAA on Saturday and will return by the middle of the week. Bruce Burkart will be a bit further behind and might not return until the week after next.

The next two weeks will be rough regardless with 14 games on the road, including a 5-game, extended weekend set in Elk City right after our next series in Tijuana. Indy and Sacramento were also part of that travel itinerary.

Fun Fact: 33-year-old Armando Montoya has spent his entire career with the Bayhawks and hurting the Raccoons.

The Dominican right-handed batter won Rookie of the Year honors in 2053 and since then a championship, six Platinum Sticks, and four All Star nominations. He has led the league in hits, doubles, triples, and RBI at various points while regularly hitting 20+ home runs without ever taking the CL home run crown. Overall he was hitting .289/.345/.488 with 267 homers and 1,153 RBI alongside 206 stolen bases.

Montoya never missed more than 14 games in his first nine years as a major league, but since then has been down for 38, 29, and this year already 60 games.