Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (21-36) vs. Titans (36-17) – June 9-11, 2065

These two teams were off on Monday – the only ones in the league, even due thanks to two double headers there were actually 13 games played – while I got mentally ready for a severe beating. The Raccoons came off a sweep of the Indians that ended a 9-game losing spill, but the Indians were barely breathing, so what did that mean after all? The Titans were first in runs allowed and third in runs scored. They were so stomping, they had a +103 run differential already, a week ahead of Draft Day. Boston was in the top 3 in almost all crucial categories, although they were only 6th in the CL in stolen bases and defense, which they were certainly crying about. They had actually lost a game to the Coons already, while winning three of four in the first meeting of these two teams.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (3-7, 5.06 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (5-3, 2.16 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.91 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (5-2, 2.65 ERA)
Josh Elling (5-4, 3.63 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (4-0, 2.41 ERA)

The Titans are only bringing right-handed starters, and were without regulars Steve Humphries and Ryan Spehar, who were stowed away on the DL.

Game 1
BOS: RF Joe Washington – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – LF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P Brenize
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Alba

If you brought any hope to the Tuesday opener because it was Brenize pitching and the Titans never scored for Brenize, then Angel Alba had a nasty surprise in for you; two actually, as in, a pair of 2-run homers he served up to Eddie Marcotte and Andy Lee right in the first inning, along with another hit, two walks, and a balk. That was the game, pretty much right there. Brenize firmly pressed a pillow on the face of the Raccoons’ offense, and also hit an RBI double to drive in Diego Mendoza in the fourth inning to go up 5-0. Alba retired Joe Washington and Bobby Ellwood to get out of the inning, but then walked Marcotte to begin the top 5th and was disposed of. Garvey replaced Alba, got three outs without allowing a run in part because Marcotte was caught stealing, then allowed a leadoff single to Lee in the sixth and yielded for a very unhappy Jeff Crowley in more garbage relief.

Brenize slipped in the bottom 6th, allowing singles to Tallent (who entered in a double switch with Crowley), Spicer, Monck, and Kozak, the latter two cashing 2-out RBI singles before Colter flew out to Lee in shallow center to end the inning. Crowley pitched two and two thirds before walking Lee in the top 8th and then left the game after a consultation with Luis Silva – yay, more injuries! – and Madrid came in, allowing another 2-run homer to Yoslan Valdez in a #9 hole vacated by Brenize in the top of the ninth. The Titans put lefty Tyler Gleason into the bottom 9th. He nicked Kozak on base to begin the inning with a 7-2 lead, then got bombarded with right-handed pinch-hitters, of whom Serrano and Arellano whacked a pair of 2-out doubles to left, Arellano plating the two runners ahead of him. Jason Rhodes then came in and stopped the shenanigans very quickly. 7-4 Titans. Spicer 2-5; Serrano (PH) 1-1, 2B; Arellano (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Crowley 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

No news on Crowley so far. And no Bryce Wallace on Tuesday. Chalmers was up on regular rest instead.

Game 2
BOS: RF Joe Washington – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – LF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P Chalmers
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – SS Serrano – RF Bentley – CF Garmon – P Walla

Serrano was involved on both ends of a baserunning blunder in the second inning on Tuesday, being thrown out by Washington going first-to-third on a Corey Garmon single, which ended the inning, but before that he had snatched a scalded Diego Mendoza liner and had zinged it to first in time to double off an adventurous Andy Lee, who had strayed too far off first base, and was retired 6-3. Neither team scored in the early going, although the Titans worked Walla for plenty of pitches in the early innings. Burkart reached base on a Mendoza error in the fourth, but was then doubled off by Monck’s grounder to short as things just continued to not go very well for the Critters. On the other side, Morales threw away Marcos Onelas’ grounder in the fifth for his tenth error of the year (gulp!) and two bases, but Walla worked his way around that, too. Serrano opened the bottom 5th with a single and was doubled off swiftly by John Bentley.

Walla very commendably fought the Titans to a zip-zilch draw for seven innings, but the bad early pitch economy meant he was done after that, having gone 97 pitches, but allowing only two hits. Left-handed pinch-hitter Pat Fowler then was nailed by Sansao Tyson to begin the eighth, but the Titans couldn’t get that runner around, either. The scoreless tie was not broken until the ninth inning when John Nesbitt got his filthy paws on the ball and allowed a single to Marcotte, a double to Joyner, and then saw the go-ahead run score with two outs when a pitch to Mendoza escaped through Bruce Burkart’s oddly-shaped hindlegs. Mendoza actually grounded out after that. Chalmers was still going in the bottom 9th, which began with Colter batting for Nesbitt. He grounded out, but Spicer dropped a single behind Ellwood and the Titans again made the move to Rhodes mid-inning. Two pitches later the game ended, Vic Morales grounding into a 4-6-3 double play on a 1-0 pitch. 1-0 Titans. Serrano 3-3; Walla 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

Six hits, three double plays hit into. (blows!)

Game 3
BOS: RF Joe Washington – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – LF A. Lee – 3B I. Berrios – 2B Onelas – P B. Wallace
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – SS Serrano – C Arellano – RF Bentley – CF Garmon – P Elling

Elling had tire marks on his back in the first inning, too, giving up a leadoff jack to Washington before surrendering three straight singles to the 2-3-4 batters, walking in a run against Lee, and then seeing another run score on an Ivan Berrios grounder, which put the Titans up 3-0 before Onelas struck out to end the inning. Washington, Ellwood, and Jorge Arviso all singled their way on base against Elling in the second inning, and Bill Joyner’s fly to deep left was rushed down by Spicer to end the inning. Elling filled the bases again in the fourth with Washington, Ellwood, and Marcotte, the latter two drawing walks, and was then yanked after 84 pitches for just ten outs. Garvey struck out Arviso and got Joyner to ground out to Kozak to prevent the Titans from tacking on, but they had ravaged Elling for eight hits, and the Raccoons had zero against Wallace so far.

That changed in the bottom 4th with a leadoff triple to right or Kozak, who was then swiftly doubled home by Monck, and Serrano hit a shy single to put the tying runs on the corners. Arellano grounded to short, but stayed out of the double play somehow while Monck scored, 3-2. Wallace threw a wild pitch, Bentley’s grounder moved Arellano to third base, and Garmon walked with two outs. Aoki batted for Garvey, but struck out to end the inning.

Dover wasn’t scored on in the fifth, but Boston restored the 3-run lead in the sixth against Carrillo, who gave up four straight singles to Marcotte, Arviso, Joyner, and Lee as the Raccoons got beaten around once again. With Crowley uncertain and nobody in AAA that wasn’t getting his head beaten in, the Raccoons had to reserve Chance Fox for Saturday, popping relievers in and out for an inning at a time, and still had to go to Novelo in the ninth inning of a 5-2 game. He was well off this time, walking two and giving up an RBI double to Mendoza in between before Pat Fowler overeagerly hit into an inning-ending double play to bail him out. Right-hander Matt Taylor began the bottom 9th for Boston, giving up a single to Bentley and then straight away a 2-run homer to PH Randy Tallent! The Titans had run out of part-inning charges on their Jason Rhodes wonderweapon though, and then had to switch to another right-hander in Tony Castellanos. Novelo grounded to short and Mendoza threw that ball away for a 2-base error, promoting the tying run to the dish. Spicer popped out to Joyner in foul ground, but Morales’ 1-out single brought up Kozak as the winning run. He struck out as it began to rain quite heavily and quite quickly, but Monck’s 2-out RBI single kept the game alive, 6-5. However, Serrano flew out to Lee to end the game. 6-5 Titans. Monck 3-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Bentley 2-4; Tallent (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Sigh!

Sigh!!!

The sighs didn’t get less when Luis Silva came back with some ugly imaging that showed a partial tear in Crowley’s labrum, which would put him out of action until August easily. So he was whisked off to the DL, and Chance Fox won the Saturday start by default, which was not to be misunderstood as a commendation for his services. Tetsu Kurihara was called up to replace Crowley on the roster.

Raccoons (21-39) vs. Miners (24-36) – June 12-14, 2065

The Miners were on a 5-game losing streak, but their overall numbers were not *that* bad, as they were ninth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed in the Federal League. They had a -40 run differential, still better than the Coons’ -61. The Raccoons had won the last EIGHT meetings with the Miners, one sweep and seven 2-1 series, including a series played in each of the last four years.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (2-8, 3.48 ERA) vs. Kerry Sheats (1-5, 7.45 ERA)
Chance Fox (2-5, 6.97 ERA) vs. Coby Strutz (6-5, 3.40 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-8, 5.40 ERA) vs. Chris Hale (3-8, 6.55 ERA)

If those three Miners (and the Coons) made you shiver, then behold of the Miners’ Juan Betancourt – who we would not see unless they skipped one of the left-handers Strutz and Hale. Although, why would they? Betancourt had a 6.19 ERA from 13 starts – of which he had lost *every single one*!

Maybe some high scoring upon us! Don’t rest on any 9-1 lead.

The Miners would play the entire series with a short bench, because of a 6-game suspension to Elmer Maldonado, who was a full-time starting outfielder for the Miners after a year of fine fourth outfielder service in Portland, for punching Cincy’s Blake Anderson this Tuesday. Maldonado has been hitting .276 with a homer and 21 RBI so far. He batted .252 with 11 homers in just under 400 at-bats for the Coons.

Game 1
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – C N. Dingman – CF McNamee – 1B Jo. Campos – RF Milian – 2B Hood – LF Andon – P Sheats
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Nakayama

Nakayama was taken way deep by Brian Robinson in the first inning. There was more hard contact off him after that, but it ended up with outfielders, Colter making a couple of daring catches, mixing in all sorts of colors on his uniform by the fourth inning, while the Raccoons found another 7+ ERA pitcher and immediately acted like he was an endangered species that needed to be protected. The Coons only brought up one over the minimum in the first three innings, then got Morales on with a single and Burkart with an error to begin the bottom 4th, but Monck immediately rumbled into a double play and Morales was left on third base when Kozak went down fann-tastically. Sal Andon hit a sixth-inning jack off Nakayama then, making it an insurmountable 2-0. An inning later, Monck and Kozak hit 1-out singles, only to get stranded by Colter and Aoki… Nakayama pitched eight innings without a shred of support; when Bentley and Spicer hit a pair of 1-out singles off Sheats in the bottom 8th, Morales was right on the spot to smack into a 6-4-3 double play. Sheats was still going in the bottom 9th, now with his ERA in the low 6’s, but only oversaw a sharp groundout by Burkart before being lifted for left-hander Ryan Croft. Monck grounded out, but Kozak hit a jack over the wall in left with the team down to their final out. Serrano batted for Colter and singled, but Tallent popped out to short end the game ended. 2-1 Miners. Spicer 2-4; Kozak 3-4, HR, RBI; Serrano (PH) 1-1; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Nakayama 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (2-9);

(has face deeply buried in his paws)

Game 2
PIT: 2B E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – C N. Dingman – 1B Jo. Campos – SS R. Ortiz – CF McNamee – LF Andon – RF Milian – P Strutz
POR: SS Serrano – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – LF Spicer – CF Garmon – RF Tallent – P Fox

Fox allowed three singles and struck out four the first time through the order, without allowing a run in case you weren’t sure, then actually got a lead in the bottom 2nd when Monck singled, Kozak doubled, and … well, then it got dumb for a bit, because Monck shied back to third base on Spicer’s grounder to Edgar Gonzales, which almost cost us a Kozak, who had gone to third base before realizing that Monck returned and had to really scramble to get back to second. Strutz then nicked Garmon to fill the bases, only to have them unfilled on the very next pitch as Randy Tallent buried a liner deep in the right-center gap for a bases-clearing triple. Fox whiffed, but Serrano hit a jack to extend the lead to 5-0.

The Miners appeared stunned after that 5-run inning; they didn’t get another hit until Sal Andon singled in the fifth, and Nick Dingman hit a double in the sixth, but both were stranded. Likewise, Strutz hung in there with all his will to live, and didn’t allow diddly-squat to the Raccoons after the early assault. However, Fox, with some help from his friends in the outfield, managed to put seven shutout innings together somehow, and on exactly 100 pitches. Novelo batted for him to lead off the bottom 7th, but grounded out as Strutz put up another 1-2-3 inning. Roland Hood then batted for the left-hander to start the eighth. Between Carrillo and Nesbitt, the bases were loaded within four batters, and Jose Campos brought in the Miners’ first run, although that was with a rather unsmart sac fly on a 3-0 pitch by Nesbitt, who got yelled out and struck out Robert Ortiz to end the inning… but not until after he plated a second run with a wild pitch. Garvey then got the ball for a save opportunity in the ninth inning, fell to 3-0 on Kevin McNamee to begin the inning, and the next Miner poked at a 3-0 and made a stupid out, McNamee rolling over to Monck. Sal Andon and David Milian went down in order, too. 5-2 Raccoons. Kozak 2-3, 2B; Tallent 1-3, 3B, 3 RBI; Fox 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-5);

This was the seventh career save for Jeremy Garvey, the other six obviously having come with the damn Elks, none after ’63.

Game 3
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – C N. Dingman – CF McNamee – 1B Jo. Campos – RF Milian – 2B Hood – LF Andon – P Hale
POR: 2B Serrano – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – SS Novelo – LF Bentley – CF Garmon – RF Tallent – P Alba

Alba was whacked around for two screamers by Edgar Gonzales, who stole second, and Dingman, who tried to get him home from there, but saw him thrown out at the plate by Bentley. McNamee drew a walk, but Campos’ groundout ended the inning. Dingman hit another single in the third, but not to great effect ,and Campos singled to lead off the fourth before Milian’s fly to center was dropped for an error and two bases by Garmon. Now in a bit of a spot of bother, with runners on second and third and nobody out, Alba found a quantum of what had made him fun to watch in 2062-63 and struck out Hood, Andon, and Hale in order to get out of the inning.

The Coons had a few good swings and long flies in the early innings, but couldn’t beat the outfielders for anything. Morales began the bottom 4th with a single, and Kozak walked. Novelo then chipped a single through the right side and Morales got a good start and actually made it around to home plate safely from second base to score the game’s first run. Bentley’s shy single loaded the bases, but Garmon struck out and Tallent popped out to Gonzales to leave a full set of runners on base. Garmon then also couldn’t catch up to McNamee’s 2-out fly to deep center that dropped for an RBI double, scoring the unretireable Dingman from first base to get us even at one.

Serrano and Morales had 1-out singles in the bottom 5th to go to the corners, upon which Burkart grounded sharply to third base. Brian Robinson visibly considered two, then changed his mind, then threw the ball ten feet past a diving Campos at first base for a 2-base error of his own, this one scoring the go-ahead run and putting a pair in scoring position for Kozak, who predictably struck out, but Novelo was there to slap a 2-run double to left-center, 4-1. Bentley grounded to the right side; Campos contained the ball and threw it to Hale – who dropped it for another error, allowing Garmon to hit a doubly-unearned 2-out RBI single before Tallent made the last out to short. In fact, all runs in the inning were unearned. Sal Andon’s solo homer to left in the top 6th was very much earned, and cut the lead to 5-2.

Straight singles off Steven Fenstermacher (German for window maker, not: widow maker) by Alba, Serrano, and Burkart loaded the bags for the Portlanders in the bottom 6th, before they were waiting for Kozak to do something again. This time he got hold of the first pitch and singled over Hood to drive home a run, but Novelo crashed into a double play to kill the effort. Alba finished seven, while Monck doubled in place of Garmon in the bottom 7th, then scored on a pinch-hit single by Spicer in the #9 spot. Spicer stole second, but Serrano grounded out to end the inning. The ball was then given to Cruz Madrid, who allowed a single to Campos and saw Hood reach on a Morales error (…), but Andon found a double play to shut up the Miners. Kurihara handled the final inning for a pinch-hit single by Ortiz, but nothing else as the Coons took a series from the Miners for the ninth straight time. 7-2 Critters. Serrano 2-5; Morales 2-4; Arellano (PH) 1-1; Kozak 2-5, RBI; Novelo 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Bentley 2-4, 2B; Monck (PH) 1-1, 2B; Spicer (PH) 1-1, RBI; Alba 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (4-8) and 1-3;

In other news

June 12 – ATL SP Ben Peterson (4-5, 3.91 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves for a 7-0 shutout in his third Knights start after being traded over there from those same Wolves.
June 12 – The Titans beat the Buffaloes, 15-3, in a rare case of winning a game in the first inning, in which they already score 11 runs.
June 14 – The Condors beat the Blue Sox, 7-6 in ten innings, by scoring a single run exactly in the last six innings they play, from the fifth through the tenth.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.326, 14 HR, 54 RBI), smashing .542 (13-24) with 5 HR, 13 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS C Jorge Arviso (.277, 9 HR, 40 RBI), going .391 (9-23) with 3 HR, 13 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I don’t think Chance Fox could be more erratic even if he tried. His last two starts he went 10 runs in two innings (Game Score: -5), then no runs in seven innings (69, nice). In between, that 3-frame save (no runs). He pitched only four times in May for being annoying and still managed to **** up 21 runs. Two outings in June, no runs.

2.92 runs of support across his 13 starts: I hear Shoma Nakayama (2-9, 3.36 ERA) is mulling giving the Raccoons all their money back and $500k in his savings from Japan, just so he can go back home, because **** this team.

I am mulling over whether I’m paying *him* $100k so he takes me with him to Nagoya, because **** this team.

We are having the draft on Monday, along with the start of a 3-game set in the Wolves’ den. The Crusaders will then pay a visit on the weekend for another three games.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons’ #17, #19, #21, and #23 wearing players are all stowed away on the DL.

Nobody is wearing #25 currently, but can someone conduct a welfare check on good old #15, Daniel Hall? He might have fallen and broken a hip without anybody noticing.

[Westheim]

2065 AMATEUR DRAFT

The day of the draft arrived on Monday, and the Raccoons were hoping to draft some goodies with their #19 pick in each round, a supplemental round pick, and the eighth pick of the second round that had been received from the Thunder as compensation for the loss of Tyler Riddle. And with some goodies I meant about ten major league ready pitchers to fix this bloody mess.

The Raccoons put 132 players on the annual shortlist, and of those there was of course a dozen or so players on the annual hotlist for the most interesting young talent in the country (*high school player):

SP Brian Jones (14/13/13) * – BNN #2
SP Eric Stengel (13/12/13)
SP Eric Langan (13/12/12) – BNN #3
SP Jeremy King (12/12/9) * – BNN #5

CL Matt Guadagno (19/13/12)
CL Josh Carrington (17/13/11)

C Chris Willhite (9/14/17)

INF/CF/RF John Katzman (14/12/17)
SS/3B Phil Townsend (14/15/9) – BNN #6

OF Jake Ward (14/13/11) – BNN #1
LF/1B/RF Miguel Sandoval (10/15/8) * – BNN #7
OF Josh Phelps (10/14/12) – BNN #9
OF/SS Dan Moore (14/12/10)

As I had already sniffed out with the pokey black nose before, John Katzman was gone quickly, and the Wolves – whom the Raccoons played on the same day the draft was held – in fact snatched him up with the #1 pick. After that, outfielders Jake Ward and Miguel Sandoval went to the Bayhawks and Gold Sox, respectively, with the #2 and #3 selections. The Miners then jumped into the pitching part of the draft pool and picked out Brian Jones with the #4 pick. The Rebels next took non-hotlist SP Jayden Beck before the Scorpions made off with Eric Stengel. The damn Elks then took Dan Moore with the #7 pick. Eric Langan was taken at #9 by the Buffos, and the Pacifics emptied the hotlist of starting pitchers at #11 with the selection of Jeremy King. The Aces also closed the book on outfielders one pick later with Josh Phelps.

There was little respite from seeing the hotlist dismantled; the Capitals had the #13 pick and spent it on Chris Willhite, and even the closers weren’t safe from being selected ahead of the Raccoons’ greedy paws getting a go, as the Condors drafted Matt Guadagno with the #16 choice. The Coons were left to choose between the other closer, Josh Carrington, and a shortstop with big power potential, and how do you think that went?

However, Carrington remained on the board for the Raccoons’ first compensation pick in the supplemental round, and he wasn’t left lying around at the top of the closer’s column of the draft board for any longer. And even beyond that the Raccoons surely made it a point to draw more lottery tickets on the pitching side than usual…

+++

2065 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#19) – SS/3B Phil Townsend, 18, from Naples Park, FL – according to our scouting report, Townsend can do everything but cure blindness by placing his paw on one’s eyes: he hits for average, for quite a bit of power, he fields well enough to play any infield position and likely above average, and he has blazing speed on the bases just in case he doesn’t get the ball outta here right away. It sounds *a bit* too good to be true!
Supp. Round (#31) – CL Josh Carrington, 23, from Cerritos, CA – right-hander with a 98mph blazer and a slider; gets plenty of groundballs and is working his control into shape, and is reasonably close to get brought up to the majors, maybe as early as September
Round 2 (#44) – SP Steve George, 18, from Vallejo, CA – has the eyes of a killer, if not necessarily the stuff to actually slay batters in scored; however, the right-hander’s four-pitch arsenal is well-rounded and he seems qualified to become a quality corner nibbler with great control
Round 2 (#55) – 1B Jeff Hensley, 20, from Hollywood, FL – knows that he can whack the ball over the fence and will try to do so consistently, but also has enough patience to lay off the worst kind of junk; otherwise the stereotypical marble-legged, snail-paced first baseman
Round 3 (#79) – SP Elijah Grismore, 20, from Hamilton, OH – right-hander throwing 90 with a swooping curve; if he could ever get a third pitch working, he might be a very decent starter.
Round 4 (#103) – CL Steve Leopold, 20, from Kalamazoo, MI – left-hander with a bendy fastball and an even bendier curveball; the stuff should play, now it’s about finding any sort of control to at least fool the batters instead of sending them scattering for cover.
Round 5 (#127) – C Sam Brown, 19, from Arlington, TX – contact bat and patience at the plate, but not much of a throwing arm and few other defensive talents to put him anywhere else.
Round 6 (#151) – CL Nick Reed, 22, from Pinellas Park, FL – more right-handed curveballers for the Raccoons! Reed did throw three pitches, with the curveball being his best, but he lacked stamina to be a starter, but figured to be a versatile weapon from the pen.
Round 7 (#175) – LF/RF Ben Heard, 18, from Queens, NY – he could hit, more for average than power, and had some speed, but he also had a reputation as a lazy bastard more interested into playing cards than working on his game
Round 8 (#199) – SP Mitchell Dougherty, 18, from Independence, MO – snout-faced right-hander with a cutter, slider, and a bit of a changeup; decent control, but dear baseball gods, was he an ugly kid!
Round 9 (#223) – SS/2B Justin Green, 18, from Germantown, MD – slick-fielding infielder with a rather bland bat with little power, and also not a lot of speed on the bases
Round 10 (#247) – OF Jonathan Young, 18, from East Richmond Heights, CA – mostly a singles slapper with some speed to perhaps gain extra bases that way. Rather ordinary on defense.
Round 11 (#271) – SP Jason Michael, 18, from Wenona, IL – left-hander that throws 86, although the changeup is interesting, which couldn’t be said about his slider; perhaps enough for a career in batting practice
Round 12 (#295) – INF/RF Dave Nollet, 18, from Cocoa, FL – plays four positions rather well, but doesn’t really hit for anything; however, I heard “cocoa” and I was captivated.
Round 13 (#319) – 2B/3B Brian Poppe, 18, from Johnson, VT – middle infielder with little range, third baseman with an eh arm, doesn’t really hit anything, either, but I needed *Vermont* to complete my Bingo card and go home.

+++

All new draft picks were assigned to single-A Aumsville, with the exception of Carrington, who went straight to St. Petersburg.

Apart from that it was a year with more than average injuries in the minors as well, so it wasn’t like we had a that much of dead mass to cut right now in the upper minors, although a few players were released anyway, some of which even had been mentioned at one point or another:

Lefty reliever Tony Shadwick (2060, 4th Round) was released for showing absolutely no control in the upper minors in the last few years; for similar reasons we exited even more relievers from the 2060 draft, as Tim Morris (2060, 8th Round) was still walking 5+/9 at 25 years old with the Panthers, and the unlikely career of Andy Marullo (2060, 13th Round) ended in a fourth year in Ham Lake;

For position players, infielder Justice Carson (2061, 6th Round), Mike Julian (2063, 8th Round), and Jayden Felder (2064, 13th Round) were released for an absolute lack of hitting. Outfielder Benito Otal, a $22k July IFA signing, was also released from the Beagles for a pair of seasons hitting .199 in single-A.

There were more candidates to send home, especially on the pitching side in AAA, but it wasn’t like I could just bake ourselves a new farm system, and if I actually could, the little monsters would surely get eaten by the big league chums while still warm….

[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-40) @ Wolves (23-39) – June 15-17, 2065

My, wasn’t Oregon baseball just in the *best* place…? You couldn’t light a fire by clanging these two hard-boiled eggs of teams together, both sitting in the bottom four in both runs scored and runs allowed in their respective leagues. The Wolves had the worse run differential at -70, though the Raccoons were not far behind at -54. For what it was worth, scarily enough the Wolves had an even more ridiculous bullpen ERA of 5.82 than the Coons. These teams had met in both of the last two years, and both times Portland had taken home two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.50 ERA) vs. Levi Harre (2-4, 5.00 ERA)
Josh Elling (5-5, 3.82 ERA) vs. Juan Cuadrado (0-3, 3.91 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-9, 3.36 ERA) vs. Jimmy Nelson (4-6, 4.52 ERA)

Only right-handers that knew what it meant to get nowhere coming up here. The Wolves had three injured relievers (including Raffy de la Cruz), and catcher Steve Preston was also on the DL.

Game 1
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Walla
SAL: RF Derbyshire – 2B Labonte – LF Consuegra – CF B. Davidson – 1B Huffman – C Opsahl – SS N. Kelly – 3B Macomber – P Harre

Walla had a hard time with the Wolves’ lineup, with his pitch count rapidly escalating especially in the third and fourth innings, running four full counts for two walks in the former and having the bags full with Kevin Huffman, Jerry Opsahl, and Phil Macomber and only one out after three singles in the latter, although Levi Harre then popped out and Palmiro Derbyshire (what a name!) flying out calmly to Jamie Colter in right prevented the Wolves from scoring. Regardless, Walla was up to 89 pitches in just four innings of a scoreless game in which the Raccoons’ offense again looked worse than useless. Walla in his despair hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but that was as good as it got for him, as Spicer forced him out and then didn’t get past second base in the inning. Walla then ended up not getting through the fifth inning, allowing a leadoff single to Paul Labonte before striking out Jose Consuegra and Bill Davidson, but he was then lifted before the left-handed slugger Huffman, who was 2-for-2, could have another go at him. Tyson was used to get a pop to Morales and bugger out of the inning.

Top 6th, Harre walked Arellano and allowed a single to Colter to get going. Aoki made a useless out, while Garmon flew out to Derbyshire, who tried to catch the ball with his wrist, which left him with an error and the Raccoons with the bases loaded and one down… and Sansao Tyson batting. We needed more outs from the southpaw, so he had to bat for himself – and singled to center to get the game’s first run home. Colter tried to score from second, but was thrown out at the plate, holding Tyson to one RBI, and the Coons to one run overall since Spicer then popped out to Labonte.

Tyson got three more outs before Nesbitt got the seventh inning. Derbyshire and Labonte hit 1-out singles, but Consuegra found Monck for a 4-6-3 double play to get the Coons and their pathetic 1-0 lead outta there. Cruz Madrid had a 1-2-3 eighth (!!), before the Raccoons got leadoff singles from pinch-hitters John Bentley and Franklin Serrano to begin the ninth inning against righty Pat Bidwell, who next walked Morales. Three on, nobody out in a 1-0 game! Kozak was walked and a run forced in on four pitches, none of them close, and while Bidwell went back into the zone, he still surrendered another run on a Monck sac fly before being replaced with Hiromichi Saito and his 12.84 ERA. Arellano struck out, but Colter singled in another run before the inning ended, sparing us any cruel thoughts about who in that rancid pen you could entrust with a save against a last-place team. In the event, the ball went to Carrillo, who could resist the urge to blow up once more and put the Wolves away in four batters. 4-0 Raccoons. Serrano (PH) 1-1; Colter 2-4, BB, RBI; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Tyson 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-0) and 1-1, RBI;

First RBI for Sansao Tyson in four years, when he made a few spot starts for the Loggers and picked up a bunch of at-bats that way. He now had five for his career.

He’s so gonna bat sixth on Tuesday!

Batting second on Tuesday was Franklin Serrano, who somehow had spotted himself a 10-game hitting streak together despite generally inconsistent usage.

Game 2
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – C Burkart – RF Bentley – CF Tallent – P Elling
SAL: 2B Labonte – LF Consuegra – RF J. Acuna – CF B. Davidson – 1B Huffman – SS Lloyd – C Opsahl – 3B Macomber – P Cuadrado

Spicer singled his way on base to begin the game, stole second base, then was thrown out making an attempt at third base – again. However, the Raccoons through Kozak made such poor outs, that indeed the only way to somehow get home would have been to steal his way all the way around… However, with two outs in the second inning, Bruce Burkart started a string of singles with Bentley and Randy Tallent that saw Burkart score the game’s first run from second base before Elling grounded out to leave a pair on base, then proceeded to fool the bases full for the Wolves with a single and two walks in the bottom 2nd before getting Cuadrado to pop out to Serrano at short to keep everybody stranded.

While Elling like Walla the day before strung up zeroes on the board while having his pitch count explode at a rapid pace, the Raccoons narrowly missed the fences (or the ground for that matter) with Morales in the third inning and Monck to begin the fourth before Bentley struck a leadoff double in the fifth inning. Tallent’s grounder to short was peppered away for an error, two bases, and a run by Ted Lloyd, 2-0, before Cuadrado hit Spencer and gave up an unearned run on Serrano’s RBI single. Morales hit another RBI single, but Monck’s bleak year continued with an inning-ending double play to Lloyd, Labonte, Huffman.

97 pitches just about got the 4-0 lead through five for Elling, who ran two full counts and issued a leadoff walk to Labonte in the bottom 5th. His spot came up with two on and two out in the sixth, but the Raccoons took the L at the plate hoping for a few more outs – which worked out as planned when Elling grounded out and then retired the Wolves in order in the bottom 6th.

Rich Monck then had a brief glimpse into his 2064 season in the seventh, ending Cuadrado’s night with Spicer and Morales on the corners and a huge 3-run homer to right-center, which ran the tally to 7-0. The Wolves in turn finally scored against Garvey and Kurihara in the eighth inning when the Coons gave up two hits, two walks, one run on a Huffman single, and then buggered out when Jerry Opsahl struck out with the bases loaded against the Japanese right-hander. Morales doubled and Monck got hit by Guido Branco in the top 9th, but they were left on base, while Kurihara got another three outs to finish the game. 7-1 Coons! Spicer 2-4; Morales 3-5, 2B, RBI; Burkart 2-5, 2B; Bentley 3-3, BB, 2B; Novelo (PH) 1-1; Elling 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (6-5);

Sshh! Don’t tell the boys, so they don’t get nervous, but we actually had a 4-game winning streak now…! It was our longest of the year so we were probably due a face-first splat into a bucket of lard.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – RF Bentley – C Burkart – 1B Colter – CF Garmon – P Nakayama
SAL: 2B Labonte – C Opsahl – RF J. Acuna – CF B. Davidson – 1B Huffman – SS Lloyd – LF Derbyshire – 3B Macomber – P J. Nelson

The Wolves scored first in the final game of the set as Paul Labonte had a leadoff single, stole second, and came around after an Opsahl groundout and Javier Acuna’s sac fly, although the Raccoons got a 2-out run of their own in their next go at the plate as Burkart singled and then just barely scored from first on Colter’s gap double in left-center before Garmon grounded out. The Wolves then had a walk and a single in both the second and third innings without scoring, then got another leadoff walk drawn by Lloyd in the fourth. Lloyd stole second, but was left on third base by the bottom of the order.

Burkart drew a leadoff walk, the first free pass issued by Nelson, to begin the top 5th, then moved to second on a Colter single. Garmon’s single through the right side loaded the bases with nobody out for Nakayama, which predictably led nowhere, but Spicer then grinded Nelson down for a bases-loaded walk and the go-ahead run in a full count, 2-1. Nelson then allowed a run each on: a balk, a Serrano single, and Morales’ sac fly, then was removed from the 5-1 game. Branco struck out Monck after coming far inside again, leading to some hissing from Monck and Branco howling back, but nothing bigger broke out.

Bill Davidson struck a solo homer in the sixth, his 13th of the year, to shorten the score to 5-2 against Nakayama, who was failing bravely onwards. Next half-inning, Garmon singled and stole second before Serrano stamped a 2-run homer into the box score, extending the lead to 7-2. Morales singled, but cursed Rich Monck lined out to Labonte against Saito. Nevertheless it looked like the Raccoons would cruise towards a rather comfy sweep, as Nesbitt had a quick eighth after seven dodgy, but successful innings by Nakayama. Jesse Dover got the ball for the ninth inning, allowed a leadoff single to Phil Macomber, then grabbed his thigh and limped off with Luis Silva. Tyson replaced him, but walked Kyle Grulke and allowed an RBI single to Opsahl with one out. With right-handers up, the Coons went back to Carrillo, who put Acuna on base before whiffing Davidson. Huffman was next as the tying run with two outs, and the Raccoons brought in the fourth pitcher of the inning, having Garvey match handedness with the occasional slugger, who was then replaced with right-hander Fernando Contreras, who was 3-1 ahead before bouncing out to Kozak at first base. 7-3 Raccoons. Serrano 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Colter 3-4, 2B, RBI; Garmon 2-4; Aoki (PH) 1-1; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (3-9);

Dover went to the DL on Thursday, which was an off day, with a strained hamstring and was expected to miss a month for that reason. Dover was wearing #20, so maybe that whole area of numbers was cursed. The only player with a number between #17 and #23 still standing was Rich Monck.

The 40-man roster was full; the Raccoons wanted to get right-hander Paul Barton back from AAA, but he had been waived off the roster (and “want” was boldly applicated here), and no roster spot was available. However, Jeff Crowley was likely going to miss nearly two months anyway. So instead of molesting the waiver wire with our castoffs, we moved Crowley to the 60-day DL to make room for Barton.

Raccoons (26-40) vs. Crusaders (37-30) – June 19-21, 2065

After some time with other teams that were threatening to drown in the shallow end of the pool, the Raccoons – on a 5-game winning streak if nothing else! – had to play the Crusaders, who were struggling to keep up in the division race and were nine games out by now, but were confident they could handle the Critters some more after winning three of four games from them earlier in the year. New York ranked third in offense and fourth in pitching in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.96 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (8-2, 1.97 ERA)
Angel Alba (4-8, 5.15 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (3-5, 3.65 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.29 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (7-3, 3.35 ERA)

Another series without a lefty opponent.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P Seiter
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – RF Bentley – 1B Kozak – C Arellano – CF Garmon – P Fox

Expectations for Chance Fox were rather basic against Seiter, and boiled down to begging him to not make us use six pitchers right after a day off, or Pablo Novelo in post-carpet bombing relief. While the Raccoons’ offense was absolutely hopeless against Seiter, and didn’t amount to a base hit until Kozak hit a single in the fifth inning, Fox to the surprise of even Honeypaws kept pace with Seiter and did not allow a run through six innings. Now, there was a couple of asterisks. He only struck out two batters, and he gave up a couple of hard fly balls that ended up with an outfielder rather than falling in for extra bases. Fox also walked two batters early on, and both were cleaned up with double play grounders; in the sixth, he allowed 1-out singles to Bryant Box and Omar Sanchez before Steve Dilly grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to still keep the Crusaders off the scoreboard. He almost seemed to have *something* … but then the Crusaders started the seventh with a single by Kazuhide Takeuchi, a Jake Cline double through Morales, and then he simply nailed Coby Thore. Ex-Coon Juan Ojeda batted for Jose Alvarez, and the Raccoons went to a right-hander to meet the threat. Cruz Madrid gave up a sac fly to Ojeda, but nothing else as he removed the New York battery, but Seiter had the Raccoons where he wanted them. Yeah, Monck hit a soft 1-out single in the bottom 7th, but then he struck out Bentley and Kozak flew one to center … which Bryant Box completely misplayed. He went back, realized his mistake, came in, dove for the ball and missed it, and then it was off to the races in Portland, Box trying to pick himself up and chase after the ball along with Coby Thore, and Monck hurrying to score from first base, while Kozak was also swinging the old hindpaws to get around first, around second, and around third, and there was still no throw from the outfield, and Jack Kozak flipped the score with an inside-the-park home run!!

Of course, nothing good could ever last in Portland, and the bullpen immediately blundered the magnificent lead away as Carrillo gave up a leadoff double to Box, eager to redeem himself, and then Tyson gave up a game-tying single to Takeuchi… and a homer to Dilly. Bottom 8th, Garmon started with a groundout, but Seiter then lost Colter on balls. Spicer and Serrano singled with one down to load the bases, which the Crusaders were not prepared for. Seiter was only removed *after* he gave up a bases-clearing double into the leftfield corner to Vic Morales, which put the Raccoons back on top, 5-4…! Monck singled home Morales off Kody Mello, who then picked him off, then allowed a solo homer to Bentley. John Nesbitt then retired the Crusaders in the ninth inning for a stunning win in a late-game frenzy. 7-4 Raccoons!! Monck 2-4, RBI; Kozak 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Well, that was exciting. (fur stands in all directions)

It was also the first career save for John Nesbitt in 42 games scattered across four seasons, a day after the right-hander from Idaho turned 27.

Game 2
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P E. Lee
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Burkart – RF Bentley – 1B Kozak – CF Garmon – P Alba

Saturday’s contest began with Box sticking a triple into the rightfield corner, and while Alba got a K on Omar Sanchez, Steve Dilly plated the runner with a groundout for an early 1-0 New York lead. The second brought more raised eyebrows; first Jake Cline reached when Bentley dropped his fly to right for an error, and then Garmon caught Thore’s fly to center, but left a brown smear in the outfield grass after a headlong dive and was collected by Luis Silva, whose collection of broken bones had to be almost complete by now… Tallent replaced Garmon in centerfield. Alba got around the unearned runner in that inning, but then allowed a run in the third – again with Takeuchi driving in Box – to fall behind 2-0.

The Coons had pairs on base in the second and fourth innings. The former attempt ended with a Tallent fly out to Thore on the warning track, while Kozak hit into a double play to smash the hint of a chance offered by Burkart and Bentley singles. Alba singled in the fifth, but found no friends to support him with that attempt, either. The Coons kept putting out singles; Morales hit one to center to begin the bottom 6th, and Monck singled to right. Burkart hit a low liner to center that Box tried to play on the run, then pulled up too late and had it bounce off his shin for an extra base, a run, and an error. The score was now 2-1, with a pair in scoring position and nobody out. Discouragingly, Bentley grounded out to first for no advance, but Kozak’s clean single to left tied the game before Tallent ran out of such and hit into a 6-4-3 double play to wreck the inning.

Alba – on the bright side – pitched into the eighth inning, but then put a pair of Crusaders on base as Sanchez singled and he walked Dilly with one out, and then was lifted for a bullpen that brought precious little in terms of relief. Tyson struck out Takeuchi, but Nesbitt gave up the go-ahead run on Jake Cline’s 2-out RBI single. Jose Alvarez struck out to keep two New Yorkers on base. The Raccoons had chances to overturn that 1-run deficit when Burkart walked in the eighth and Aoki hit a pinch-hit single in the ninth, but both times the next guy coming up – Kozak and Colter, respectively – smacked into a double play and that killed the winning streak. 3-2 Crusaders. Burkart 3-3, BB, RBI; Alba 7.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, L (4-9);

Game 3
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P Je. Washington
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – RF Colter – CF Tallent – P Walla

The Raccoons played a guy short on the bench since Garmon was still being assessed on Sunday, which somehow affected their ability to play defense. Burkart committed a throwing error on a base stealing attempt by Bryant Box in the first inning, although Box would be left on third base by the New Yorkers, and Spicer misplayed a Thore single into two bases, leading to a run for New York after all in the second inning when the luckily advanced runner was driven in on another single by Alvarez. Box led off the third with a double and scored on two productive outs before another Takeuchi double, although Cline grounded out to short to keep that runner on base.

The Coons were held to three singles by Washington through five innings, including a first-inning single by Serrano that ran his hitting streak to 15 games, and while Walla entered the sixth inning, the Crusaders quickly tore him a new one as Dilly and Takeuchi hit a pair of leadoff doubles, 3-0, and then an Alvarez single and a walk to Pedro Gonzales loaded the bases with two outs for Washington, who swiftly singled in two runs and knocked out Walla. Garvey struck out Box to end the dismal inning, but gave up a homer to Takeuchi-on-fire in the seventh, 6-0. Barton pitched (badly) in the eighth inning, giving up two runs that happened to be unearned thanks to another throwing error by Burkart. Things did NOT get better with Kurihara in the ninth; he walked Alex Romero getting going, gave up a double to Cline, one run scored on a Thore groundout, and then another one on a throwing error by Kozak, who threw Alvarez’ grounder behind Kurihara’s back for the fourth Coons error in this complete stinker. One of the two runs on Kurihara were unearned, while Jerry Washington was still merrily marching along. Bentley and Monck hit a pair of singles against him in the bottom 9th, but Arellano and Kozak made the final poor outs in a game full of them on the right side of the box score. Washington ended up with a 5-hit shutout. 10-0 Crusaders. Bentley (PH) 1-1;

In other news

June 18 – The Cyclones win a rain-shortened, seven-inning game against the Crusaders, who need to get out of town. CIN SP Dan Albrecht (3-6, 4.42 ERA) gets a budget 5-hit shutout, the first shutout of the 32-year-old late bloomer’s career.
June 20 – The Miners wish for the acquisition of MR Mike Goldfield (0-2, 5.33 ERA) from the Capitals hard enough to part with #75 prospect SP Freddie DeWitt.
June 21 – 21-year-old MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.335, 2 HR, 19 RBI) has put a 20-game hitting streak together with a single in a 4-3 loss to the Canadiens.
June 21 – LAP SP Javier Arocho (4-3, 2.64 ERA) would miss the rest of the season with a ruptured UCL, which the Pacifics would try to rehab.

FL Player of the Week: PIT C/1B Nick Dingman (.313, 22 HR, 56 RBI), smashing .500 (8-16) with 5 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS C Jorge Arviso (.298, 11 HR, 43 RBI), batting .500 (11-22) with 2 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Brief 6-game winning streak intermission in the general sucking, but I think we got back on track on Saturday (for the offense) and on Sunday (for absolutely everything).

With Garmon down, the Raccoons are threatening to run short on outfielders that can do *anything*, but Jose Corral is scheduled for a rehab assignment in the coming days and could rejoin the Raccoons on the weekend. Joel Starr should also start rehab before the month is over, although he should get at least a week, better ten days, to get warmed up. He should still rejoin the team ahead of the All Star Game.

We’ll be away in Loggerland and at the Bay of Tears next week. It’s another home week with the Condors and Titans, then another road week in Siberia and Indy before the All Star Game. The damn Elks are our four-by-four matchup this year.

Fun Fact: Pittsburgh’s Nick Dingman has 22 homers in 69 team games this year.

Dingman, a catcher and kinda first baseman to keep his bat in the lineup, has appeared in 62 games himself. Dingman socked 43 and 44 homers, respectively, in 2062 and 2063 before being held to 25 in an injury-addled ’64. In both his 40+ HR seasons and this year he hit well over .300 as well and for OPS well above .900.

And it’s still not enough to get the Miners to .500!

Dingman was a #29 pick by the Blue Sox in 2056 but ended up in Pittsburgh in a trade for Kodai Koga in 2060 after appearing in 51 games for the Sox, hitting .242 with 7 homers. Since then he’s hit another 170 bombs and brought up his career slash line to .299/.340/.548. Two years ago he was the CL Player of the Year, and he’s no slouch behind the dish either, taking home two Gold Gloves so far.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-42) @ Loggers (35-33) – June 22-24, 2065

Well behind the Loggers, the Raccoons ventured to Milwaukee to try and turn a 1-5 season series around, or at least keep it from further escalating in this 3-game set. The Loggers were third in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, but were also already 13 games behind the Titans, who were running away with the division.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (6-5, 3.55 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (7-4, 2.71 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-9, 3.30 ERA) vs. Larry Wilson (0-3, 12.19 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.47 ERA) vs. Bobby Herrera (8-3, 2.42 ERA)

More right-handers upon right-handers.

The only injury on the Loggers was reliever Aiden Shaw, while the Raccoons still dragged an undiagnosed Corey Garmon around like a bad stench on Monday – although the short bench resolved itself when the Monday opener was rained out and then Luis Silva came back with a diagnosis of an intercostal strain for Garmon, who was thus whisked off to the DL for at least two weeks. Carlos Matas rejoined the team, having batted .182 for the Coons earlier in the year, and batting .219 in St. Pete.

The weather was still pretty dull on Tuesday and it rained all morning, soaking the field. The planned double header on Tuesday was moved do Wednesday, with only a single game contested on Tuesday night. The weather forecast for Wednesday was still grim, though.

Game 1
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – CF Colter – RF Bentley – C Arellano – P Elling
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – C Guitreau – SS Reber – 3B V. Velez – P Pizzichini

When baseball was finally played, the Raccoons were behind quite quickly, as Elling walked and stranded a pair in the first inning, then gave up a leadoff single to Tommy Guitreau and a triple to Kyle Reber. Vic Velez’ grounder made it 2-0. The Coons had another comatose start and did not get a base hit the first time through the lineup against “Pizza”, until Serrano led off the fourth with a single for a 16-game hitting streak. Morales found another single, but Monck hit into a double play. However, a big roundhouse swing by Jack Kozak sent the poor baseball over the fence and tied the game at two.

That was all for that short outburst of offense, and Elling – after several false starts with warming up over the last two days – continued to struggle mightily. Velez would go on to hit a leadoff double into the leftfield corner to begin the bottom 5th and then scored on a pair of groundouts from Pizza and Scott Franks. The Coons answered with a Serrano single to start the sixth, but then produced nothing but disturbed air and sad trots to first base after that and stranded Serrano and the tying run at second base. Milwaukee answered with an inside-the-park homer by Carlos Dominguez in the bottom 6th, extending their lead to 4-2, when Bentley dove for Dominguez’ 2-out liner, missed it, and slid halfway to the infield on the slicky grass, giving Dominguez enough time to scramble around the bases. This gave Dominguez, batting .331, a 20-game hitting streak.

Randy Tallent entered with Garvey in a double switch for Elling and Bentley in the bottom 7th and then led off the eighth inning for the Coons. He whacked a double into the leftfield corner and while Spicer grounded out, Serrano kept swinging the hot stick and singled home the runner to shorten the score to 4-3. Morales and Monck remained rather unhelpful, though, and the inning fizzled out. Garvey held the Loggers close through the bottom 8th before lefty Vincent Hernandez got the ball in the ninth inning. He got Kozak, Novelo, and Burkart in quick succession to end the ballgame. 4-3 Loggers. Serrano 3-4, RBI; Kozak 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Tallent (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Game 2
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – CF Colter – RF Bentley – C Arellano – P Nakayama
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – C Guitreau – SS Reber – RF D. Wright – 3B V. Velez – P L. Wilson

The skies were shockingly clear on Wednesday afternoon, waiting to be filled with baseballs hit high and far off Nakayama. But the Loggers behaved themselves to begin the game and the first three innings were basically devoid of offense until the so far hitless Coons got runners on the corners with a Serrano double and a Morales single and then we scored a rousing one run on Monck’s sac fly before the inning fizzled out. However, the Loggers also began their half of the fourth inning with a hit from the #2 hole, but then followed Jonathan Merrill’s single with another single, and another single, and another single. Tommy Guitreau drove in Merrill, although Cesar Ramirez was thrown out at the plate on that play and then the Loggers stranded the remaining runners to keep the game tied at one.

The Coons remained on two hits through six innings, while the Loggers got seven hits in six innings, but also shed Velez on an injury suffered on a throw to first base, and replaced him with Matt Ruskin.

Nakayama made it to the eighth inning, but then gave up another four singles inside the top five batters in the Loggers lineup, which was worth two runs for Milwaukee, and Carrillo replaced him only to give up a 3-run homer to Devin Willoughby. 6-1 Loggers.

Carlos Dominguez was subbed into this game in a double switch, but then went 0-for-1 and lost his 20-game hitting streak. Serrano was at 17.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – 2B Serrano – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – 3B Novelo – SS Aoki – CF Matas – RF Tallent – P Fox
MIL: SS Reber – CF Merrill – LF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – C Jack – 3B Ruskin – P B. Herrera

Rain was back by the time the second game kicked off, but we started the shenanigans anyway. The Coons scored first when Spicer right away singled off Tipsy Bobby and stole second, then was doubled home by Bruce Burkart, who however was left on base. Spicer however hit another single with two outs in the second with Carlos Matas (who had forced out Aoki) and Fox (infield single) on base. Matas scored from second base, but the remaining runners were stranded on Serrano’s fly out to center. Portland added another “1” to the board in the third inning when Jack hit a Kozak to left, but all of the 3-0 lead then went bust when the Loggers started the bottom 3rd with J.P. Jack and Ruskin singles, and a couple more screamers for hits by Kyle Reber and Cesar Ramirez helped them to score three runs to get even.

The rain got more intense in the fourth inning and knocked out both starters when it started pouring in earnest in the fifth. We expected a suspension, but the umpires waited out a 90-minute rain delay before sending everybody back onto the swampy field. Grant MacKinnon got the ball for the Loggers and immediately gave up a homer to Bruce Burkart, 4-3. The Coons in turn stole six outs with Paul Barton, and got another three from Sansao Tyson, the ex-Logger, to get through seven innings.

The score was still 4-3 when the eighth began with Burkart slapping a ball off Randy Birnbaum and into the left-center gap, where it went to the wall. Burkart turned second base, but slipped, fell, yowled, and barely crawled back to the base before Luis Silva trudged through the restarting to rain to collect the remains of another player. Vic Morales ran for him, as the Coons had an actual desire for that insurance run, and scored on a Kozak single to center. Birnbaum walked Novelo and gave up a 2-run triple to right-center to Matas before being removed for Julio Robles, who gave up another run on a Tallent single to right. Monck and Spicer made the last two outs, and Arellano then filled the #3 hole to catch the last two innings or so.

The ”or so” part became interesting in the ninth. Garvey retired the Loggers quickly in the eighth, but served up a leadoff jack to Guitreau in the ninth and was then removed for Cruz Madrid, who blew out of every hole again and was slapped around for hits by Jack, Dave Wright, and Merrill, with the last one driving in a 2-out run and bringing up Cesar Ramirez as the tying run. There was no southpaw remaining in the Coons pen, so we tried and threw Nesbitt at the wall. He got a grounder to Serrano to end the game. 8-5 Raccoons. Spicer 3-5, RBI; Burkart 3-4, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Kozak 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Barton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Serrano went 0-for-5 and ended his 17-game hitting streak.

Burkart was off to the DL with an oblique strain. The Raccoons would need a third-string for the next month or so and called up 28-year-old Scott Lawson a .226 hitter when with the Raccoons over 83 games in the last two years.

Raccoons (28-44) @ Bayhawks (33-39) – June 26-28, 2065

The Baybirds were in last place in the South, but had a way better record (and a 2-1 lead in the season series) against the Raccoons. San Francisco ranked seventh in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed. They were high on power, but shallow when it came to speed, and they had a number of key regulars on the DL: Armando Montoya, Scott Laws, and Nate Navarre were all stuffed away with injuries.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (4-9, 5.03 ERA) vs. Goffredo Merlin (4-4, 4.13 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-3, 2.82 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (5-6, 4.02 ERA)
Josh Elling (6-6, 3.69 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (9-1, 3.36 ERA)

More right-handers coming here.

Jose Corral had started a rehab assignment on Monday and was likely to return to the team in the next few days. Joel Starr started a rehab assignment in St. Pete this Friday, but was still well off for his actual return to the Coons.

Game 1
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Matas – P Alba
SFB: CF Blackham – SS D. Cox – RF J. Paez – 1B J. McLaughlin – LF Streng – 2B Jer. White – C L. Marquez – 3B Rybarczyk – P Merlin

Spicer began the series with a single and being caught stealing, and instead Jared McLaughlin made it 1-0 Baybirds in the bottom 2nd with a homer to left. The Coons then didn’t really know how to respond, while Alba continued to give up solid contact. Bottom 4th, and he walked McLaughlin leading off, then had Ian Streng reach base on an Aoki error. Jeremy White singled, giving San Fran three on and nobody out, which they Portlanded into two strikeouts and a floater to Colter from Merlin.

After five quick innings, the Coons ached towards scoring the tying run in the sixth when Spicer led off with a single and this time managed to steal second base. Two soggy outs and a walk to Rich Monck later, he was still on base, but was then driven in when Arellano got a grounder through between Dustin Cox and Mike Rybarczyk for a single. Colter also got on base, and the foundering Yukio Aoki bashed a ball into deep center for a 2-out, bases-clearing triple and a 4-1 Portland lead. Matas was walked intentionally to get to Alba, which – and this was the funny part – led to another 2-run triple up the rightfield line for the Coons and a dismissal for Goffredo Merlin. Ricky “H.” Herrera replaced him and got Spicer out to end the 6-run meltdown. Alba would go eight innings of a 4-hitter from there, not being in serious danger after wiggling out of the fourth-inning jam. Kurihara added a ninth inning for nothing more than a Lorenzo Marquez single to put another W in the books. 6-1 Raccoons. Spicer 2-4; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Matas 1-2, 2 BB; Alba 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-9) and 1-4, 3B, 2 RBI;

Game 2
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – RF Bentley – C Arellano – SS Aoki – CF Matas – P Walla
SFB: CF Blackham – SS D. Cox – RF J. Paez – 1B J. McLaughlin – LF Streng – 2B Jer. White – C L. Marquez – 3B Rybarczyk – P Egley

Triples kept coming; after Rich Monck and Ian Streng exchanged solo homers in the second inning for no decision on this game, the Coons got Walla on with a double to left and Spicer by means of getting plunked by Egley in the third inning. Vic Morales found the right-center gap then for a 2-run triple and a 3-1 lead, then went for home plate on a Kozak fly out to right, but was hammered out by Juan Paez to end the inning. Arellano homered to left with two outs in the fourth, 4-1, and Egley gave up singles to the 7-8 batters, but then got the better of Walla to end the inning, while Walla saw Paez reach on an infield single in the bottom of the same inning, but then get doubled off on McLaughlin’s grounder to Monck. Paez singled again his next time up – and again was doubled off, this time when Streng grounded out to Monck. That was already in the seventh inning of a briskly progressing game, and Walla still had reserves. First though, Morales singled to left against Roberto Mendez at the start of the eighth inning. Kozak and Monck both grounded to the right side; McLaughlin got hold of the first grounder and turned it into an out, but Monck’s got through and plated Morales from third base, 5-1. The Baybirds got that run back thanks to a 2-base throwing error by Aoki that put Jeremy White on base to begin the bottom 8th, and Marquez’ single off Walla, who at least finished the inning after allowing the unearned run, getting a double play from Rybarczyk, 5-4-3, on the way out. The Raccoons, closerless as they were, did not tack on again in the ninth, so had a 3-run lead for the bottom 9th with an almost fully rested bullpen. With the left-handed David Blackham leading off, Tyson got the ball and would keep it until he caused trouble – which he never did. The Bayhawks went in order against him. 5-2 Furballs. Morales 2-5, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Aoki 2-4; Matas 2-3, BB; Walla 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (2-3) and 1-3, 2B;

The Raccoons returned Jamie Colter (.284, 1 HR, 10 RBI) to the Alley Cats and brought back Jose Corral in time for the Sunday series finale. The reason why Colter had to go related to our defensive capabilities in center, which without Matas looked seriously flawed. Between Kozak, Colter, and Tallent, we had zero long term solutions out there.

Game 3
POR: SS Serrano – RF Corral – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – LF Bentley – CF Matas – C Lawson – P Elling
SFB: CF Blackham – SS D. Cox – RF J. Paez – LF Streng – 2B Jer. White – C L. Marquez – 1B R. Cordero – 3B Rybarczyk – P Wittman

The fringe kids that survived Corral’s return batted with three on and two outs in the first inning; Bentley plated Serrano with a single to right, but Matas struck out and left Morales, Monck, and Bentley on base. Bentley made up for his earlier clutch by hitting into a double play to erase a Kozak single in the fourth inning while Matas at least played a slick glove and made a sliding catch on a Blackham floater to shallow center in the bottom 4th. Since Dustin Cox homered to right immediately after that – no catching that one – the Coons fell into a tie, but didn’t trial thanks to that play.

The Raccoons unpacked three straight 1-out singles from their 3-4-5 batters to fill all the bases in the sixth inning, and to bring the fringe kids back into the spotlight. Bentley again got a run home with a sac fly, but Matas flew out to end the inning. The Coons had another triplet of singles in the seventh inning, then with the 1-2-3 batters and two outs. Morales drove in Serrano, 3-1, and Monck *almost* got one over the fence against Pat Kristen, but Streng, the evil fiend, picked the ball off the top of the fence to kill the inning instead.

Elling went seven solid innings, putting Jeremy White on base before picking him back off base in his final frame. Matas then finally got on the good side in the batting part of the box score as well, doubling home Kozak against Kristen in the eighth, 4-1, and a passed ball charged to Marquez and a soft single gave Lawson an RBI.

That made it 5-2, but also asked for six outs from the Raccoons relief corps, which immediately stormed out of the bullpen gate with their underpants over their heads and making ghastly noises. Carrillo was out first, got beaten around for a single, a hit, and RBI double by Paez, and then was kicked off the hill for Cruz Madrid, who gave up a hard fly to right to Streng, but Jose Corral chased it down and caught it on the run to end the inning, Portland still up by three. They remained up 5-2 in the ninth despite a Morales leadoff single, then gave the ball to Kurihara, which immediately went pear-shaped. White had a deep fly out to Corral, but then Marquez singled and Rich Cordero walked. The tying run at the dish, the Bayhawks batted left-handed Jose Escalera in the #8 hole and the Coons sent for Garvey, who gave up another long fly, but Matas remained on top of that and made the catch in deep center. Garvey ended the game with a K to Kyle Fisher. 5-2 Raccoons. Morales 4-5, RBI; Monck 2-5; Kozak 3-4, BB; Spicer (PH) 1-1; Elling 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (7-6);

In other news

June 24 – The Rebels lose outfielder Jeremy Jenkins (.346, 16 HR, 50 RBI) to a broken thumb. The 27-year-old will miss at least a month.
June 24 – The only Capitals hit in a 3-0 loss to the Cyclones’ SP Blake Anderson (6-3, 3.10 ERA) and CL Pedro Valentin (3-4, 5.06 ERA, 17 SV) is a single by WAS 3B/SS Zach Suggs (.261, 9 HR, 22 RBI).
June 25 – CIN 3B Kevin Rising (.241, 1 HR, 23 RBI) is done for the season with a partially torn UCL.
June 26 – The season of BOS SP Mike Bell (10-2, 2.15 ERA) ends due to the discovery of a tear in his rotator cuff.
June 26 – IND SP Raul Ontiveros (2-6, 5.36 ERA) is expected to miss ten months with a torn labrum.
June 26 – The Titans beat the Falcons, 2-0 in 13 innings, while giving up only three hits to the Charlotte batters.
June 27 – Richmond RF/LF/1B Matt Ford (.293, 6 HR, 25 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 4-for-4 outing, driving in two runs in a 7-4 win against the Gold Sox. The 23-year-old former #19 pick was in his second big league season and hit only his third career triple in this game.
June 27 – The Thunder trade corner outfielder Tony Rodriquez (.237, 1 HR, 14 RBI) to the Capitals, along with a prospect, for SS/2B Ramon Archuleta (.293, 10 HR, 39 RBI).
June 27 – The Canadiens get two prospects from the Buffaloes for MR Mike Perez (1-2, 4.08 ERA, 1 SV).
June 27 – The Buffaloes beat the Stars, 5-4 in 15 innings.

FL Player of the Week: RIC RF/LF/1B Matt Ford (.300, 6 HR, 25 RBI), hitting for a .522 (12-23) clip, 1 HR, 3 RBI, and a cycle
CL Player of the Week: OCT LF/RF Alfredo Mendez (.380, 3 HR, 17 RBI), batting .875 (7-8) with 1 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Injuries continue to befall the Critters, with Burkart down (again) and Garmon also off to the DL. Corral returned and might yet start hitting this season (claws crossed!), and Starr at least started rehab now although I don’t expect him to rejoin the team on the upcoming 7-game homestand.

The Coons end the week on a 4-game winning streak. The starting rotation seems to have gotten it together now, which is why we’re 13-11 in June and especially 10-4 in our last 14 games. The pen remains an absolute piece of work.

And thanks to the early-season decrepitude, we’re 18 1/2 games behind the Titans and need not worry about who to pick up at the deadline. Speaking of the Titans, we will host them for four games this week, after playing three games with the Condors. From there it will be a road trip to the Elks and Indians before the All Star Game.

Fun Fact: Despite only playing in 29 games so far this year, Jose Corral is still third on the team home run board.

Four bombs while hitting .180 and missing 46 games. There’s a lot to unpack there, but my therapist bills hourly and there’s only so much budget left.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (31-44) vs. Condors (42-34) – June 29-July 1, 2065

The Condors were just one game away from the top in the South and brought a 7-game winning streak to Portland, where the resident Critters were on a 4-game winning streak of their own. Tijuana brought also the #2 offense and average pitching and a +18 run differential. Their defense and bullpen were major problems for them, but the same was true for the Raccoons, who held a 2-1 lead against the Condors this year. What Tijuana did not bring north were Brett Bebout, Matt McInnis, Willie Acosta, and Jonathan Watson, all regulars that were languishing on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (3-10, 3.52 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (8-5, 4.74 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.55 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (3-5, 3.53 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-9, 4.70 ERA) vs. Ryan Singletary (3-4, 3.95 ERA)

We were in another one of those sequences where we just wouldn’t come up against a left-handed starter. The Titans series later this weekend also didn’t promise one to come up.

Game 1
TIJ: LF Ma. Gilmore – 3B D. Miller – C Brann – 1B Metz – RF Ewig – 2B D. Guzman – CF Arcos – SS Veguilla – P E. Mauricio
POR: SS Serrano – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – RF Corral – C Arellano – CF Tallent – P Nakayama

Offense was slow to begin with, neither team getting more than two base hits in the first three innings. While the Condors fumbled a leadoff double by Miguel Veguilla in the third inning, however, the Raccoons got a leadoff walk issued to Randy Tallent in the bottom 3rd, bunted him to second, and while Serrano was no help in getting the run home, a Spicer single plated Tallent from second base and put the Critters up 1-0. Spicer also stole his 25th base of the year, but was left on base by Vic Morales’ grounder to short. Nakayama, always lusting for more losses, was however immediately battered for four fourth-inning singles and two runs to flip the score; Mike Brann hit one to center to begin the inning, and with two outs, Danny Guzman, Matt Ewig, and Veguilla all chipped more soft hits to get two runs home between Ewig and Veguilla. Mauricio then popped out to short to leave those two on base. The same bottom half of the lineup got on base in serial fashion again in the sixth inning, culminating in an insurance run through Veguilla’s sac fly before Mauricio again was the third out.

The Coons struggled to hit, although their #8 hitter was just as unretireable as the Condors’. Tallent was on base again in the fifth, and then again in the seventh inning, when he was bunted to second and scored from there on a grim throwing error by Danny Miller, shortening the score to 3-2 again, although the Raccoons then refused to convert that free unearned runner in scoring position into the tying run. Top 8th, and Nakayama came back out only to see Andy Metz reach on a Kozak error and then be lifted for a relief tosser anyway. John Kaniewski hit a pinch-hit single off Tyson before the lefty struck out Guzman. Cruz Madrid replaced Tyson for the bottom of the order, allowed a single to Arcos that filled the bases, struck out Veguilla, and then gave up a 2-out, pinch-hit, unearned grand slam to Eric Frasher… 7-2 Condors. Monck 3-4; Tallent 2-3, BB;

Game 2
TIJ: 1B L. Jimenez – CF Arcos – LF Kaniewski – 3B D. Miller – SS Veguilla – C Eaton – RF Frasher – 2B D. Guzman – P M. Clemente
POR: SS Serrano – LF Bentley – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – RF Corral – C Arellano – CF Matas – P Fox

The Condors packed the lineup with every righty stick they could find, while I harbored no illusions and hung on the Capt’n Coma and a tray of muffins from the time of the anthem. However, offense was absolutely minimal as a pitching duel broke out between Foxie Brown and Marco Clemente, both of whom allowed just two hits and no runs through five innings. Fox also walked a guy, and a ran longer counts which meant he needed 74 pitches through five shutout innings, but it could have come a lot worse.

It then came worse, as while Fox struck out Leonardo Jimenez and Roberto Arcos to begin the sixth inning, Kaniewski then took him deep to right-center, and the Condors added a pair of 2-out singles after that. Todd Eaton grounded out to end the inning, though, and Fox pitched another inning hoping to get taken off the hook. Monck and Kozak slapped leadoff singles against Clemente to begin the bottom 7th, which was already the biggest offensive outburst afford to Fox by the team in this game, regardless of a run scored or not. Corral grounded into a fielder’s choice at second base, but the tying run moved to third base for Arellano, who hit a sac fly and got Fox a no-decision before Matas grounded out.

Carrillo, Garvey, and Nesbitt then tumbled two scoreless innings together to complete regulation while Clemente was still pitching entering the bottom 9th, acing the meat of the Coons’ order, if there even was such a thing. Morales grounded out to second on one pitch, while Monck hit a ball well to right, but Frasher was there to make the catch just in front of the warning track. Kozak’s first-pitch groundout sent the game to extra innings, where Nesbitt immediately put Guzman and Art Walker on base, Tyson walked them full with a free pass to Ewig, and then the Condors blundered into an 8-2 double play on Matt Gilmore’s fly to Matas in shallow center and Guzman rather inexplicably making for home plate. This ended the inning, and Jose Corral’s long drive to right off Takenori Tanizaki ended the ga- oops, no, that bloody thing fell into Frasher’s mitten on the warning track and the game continued. Tetsu Kurihara failed the bases full in the 11th inning and gave up a bases-clearing double to Danny Guzman to lose the game. 4-1 Condors. Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

(deep sigh)

Game 3
TIJ: LF Ma. Gilmore – CF Arcos – C Brann – 1B Metz – RF Ewig – 3B D. Miller – 2B D. Guzman – SS Veguilla – P Singletary
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – CF Kozak – 1B Bentley – SS Aoki – C Lawson – P Alba

The Condors scored a run for the Raccoons in the first inning on Wednesday as Singletary nicked Spicer, who stole second, but then only came around because of defensive shenanigans for an infield single for Morales, and – after Monck popped out foul – a wild pitch by Singletary. The lead didn’t last long before Andy Metz conquered a confused and erratic Alba for a 3-run homer in the third inning after Matt Gilmore and Arcos reached base to begin the inning. Guzman in the fourth and Arcos in the fifth whacked leadoff doubles into the gaps, but only the latter was scored on another double mashed by Metz, which made it 4-1 in the middle of the fifth, which was also curtains for a terrible Alba…

Barton somehow scattered four hits in two innings without giving up more runs, but Carrillo had his numb head beaten in again for three hits, a walk, and two runs in the eighth inning. The Raccoons, who had been playing dead for a couple of hours at that point, then suddenly slapped singles with Novelo, Corral, and Spicer in the bottom 8th, loading the bases with nobody out against Singletary. Morales hit a sac fly, Monck popped out to short, and Kozak singled the bases full again to knock out the starter for southpaw Joe Cash. Arellano batted for Bentley, but hit a grounder right to the shortstop Veguilla to end the inning. Novelo then went to the hill, but got bludgeoned for five hits, three runs, and was yanked after he filled the bases drilling Leonardo Jimenez. Garvey struck out Ewig to get out of the ******* inning. An Aoki triple to lead off the bottom 9th and Lawson’s sac fly gave the Raccoons a pointless run before the sweep was completed. 9-3 Condors. Corral 3-5; Kozak 2-4; Aoki 2-4; Novelo (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (31-47) vs. Titans (50-25) – July 2-5, 2065

Thankfully the Titans were already up 6-1 on the Coons this year and I didn’t have to pretend like we might win a game in this 4-game series. Boston was tops in runs scored and runs allowed in the CL, brought a +132 run differential, and while they had lost Mike Bell for the season, they might just about slog through the second half of the season with a 9-game lead on the Crusaders to begin the weekend. Y’know, before they’d cruelly sweep the Coons.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (2-3, 2.62 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (8-2, 2.58 ERA)
Josh Elling (7-6, 3.51 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (7-4, 3.96 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-11, 3.54 ERA) vs. Matt Taylor (0-0, 2.73 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.10 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (9-3, 2.26 ERA)

(sings) Where have all the southpaws go-hone…?

Game 1
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P B. Wallace
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – SS Aoki – C Arellano – CF Matas – P Walla

Walla allowed no fewer than four big bashes in the first inning, two of which fell for doubles by Steve Humphries and Eddie Marcotte, who got an RBI before being thrown out trying to steal third base, and another one that was being dropped for an error by Spicer. Somehow the Titans were held to one run in the inning, then kept hitting singles in the next innings, but also hit into two double plays to keep Walla in the game. The Coons brought up the minimum against Wallace the first time through; Yukio Aoki drew a walk, but was also caught stealing. A leadoff walk was afforded to Jose Corral by Wallace in the bottom 4th. That tying run advanced on a groundout by Spicer and an infield single by Morales, but Monck then blundered into a double play. In turn, Boston got a leadoff single from Wallace, a Bobby Ellwood double, and still no more runs in the top 5th because Walla got a K on Marcotte and then had Jorge Arviso ground out.

Out-hit 8-1 through four-and-a-half, the Coons then suddenly tied the game on a leadoff Jack Kozak in the bottom 5th. The Titans answered with a Bill Joyner single and Diego Mendoza’s 2-run homer in the sixth inning, which then also ended Walla’s awful day. Another three hits and a run were then beaten out of Kurihara before the inning was over. Bottom 6th, Spicer got on, stole second, and scored on a Morales double, bringing up Monck as the tying run, but he flew out to left and Kozak grounded out to third base to end the inning without even converting Morales into a run. Another run did score in the seventh though after Aoki sent a gapper for a leadoff triple and then scored on Arellano’s sac fly, 4-3. Cruz Madrid held the Titans close in the eighth, and Spicer had another leadoff single and stole second base in the bottom 8th, but the 3-4-5 crapped out entirely and Spicer and the tying run were left on third base. The Titans then put the lid on in the ninth against Nesbitt, who gave up a leadoff double to Ellwood, a single to Marcotte, a run on Joyner’s groundout after Arviso fanned, walked Joe Washington, and then surrendered two 2-out runs on Mendoza’s double to left. Bryce Wallace then finished an oddly-shaped complete-game 6-hitter. 7-3 Titans. Spicer 2-4; Morales 2-4, 2B, RBI; Aoki 1-2, 2 BB, 3B;

Malcolm Spicer was up to 28 stolen bases after this game, taking the CL steals lead from Vegas’ Vic Lorenzo.

Also, the Coons plunged into a tie for last place with the Indians, with three games with Boston to spare…

Kozak had a day off on Friday, with the same planned for Monck, Morales, and Spicer over the next days as there were no more days off until the All Star Game. The Raccoons expected to see a southpaw (Ed Nadeau) on Tuesday, so maybe that would be Spicer’s day.

Game 2
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P Glaude
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Bentley – SS Serrano – C Arellano – CF Matas – P Elling

Humphries bombed Elling for 400 feet on the very first pitch of Friday’s game, so there was that. Spicer hit a double in the bottom 1st, but was again stranded, while Joe Washington struck a leadoff double in the top 2nd and scored on two productive outs by Mendoza and Marcos Onelas, while leadoff singles by Bentley and Serrano in the bottom 2nd also went nowhere. (unleashes big sigh before biting open another egg and licking out the contents)

The Titans disposed of Elling in a 6-run third inning. Arviso hit a homer, and then there were two outs on the board before Elling stopped retiring players at all and was beaten out of the game with another six straight hits. Down 8-0, this game was over, but Bobby Ellwood still saw fit to steal second base off Paul Barton before Marcotte flew out to center. The Coons got a scrappy run in the bottom of the inning when Corral got on, was forced out by Spicer, but Spicer stole another base and scored on a Morales single. Barton in turn retired the first two batters in the fourth before filling the bases with the 6-7-8 batters on two hits and a walk, and then gave up two more runs on Glaude’s single to center. For ****** sake!!!

The Coons got more garbage relief from Kurihara for two scoreless, then used Novelo in the eighth, but that led to another 3-run homer for Joe Washington. A Monck error and an Arviso RBI single added an unearned run in the ninth against Garvey. Glaude, like Wallace on Thursday, pitched a complete-game 6-hitter. 14-1 Titans. Spicer 2-4, 2B; Bentley 2-4; Kurihara 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Rich Monck and Vic Morales both got Saturday off, because why ******* bother anymore?

Game 3
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P M. Taylor
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 1B Bentley – CF Kozak – SS Aoki – 2B Serrano – 3B Tallent – C Lawson – P Nakayama

Humphries opened another game with a hit, singling and stealing second, and then scored on two well-placed outs by Ellwood and Marcotte. The Critters couldn’t score after Aoki drew a leadoff walk and advanced on a balk in the second inning, then had a very frustrated Nakayama single to begin the bottom 3rd. Taylor nicked Spicer and allowed another single to Bentley to fill ‘em up with one out, but Kozak had a sad fly to shallow right for the second out. However, Aoki came through, clipped a liner into shallow left-center, and flipped the score by plating Nakyama and Spicer, 2-1. Serrano added an RBI single before Tallent whiffed the Coons out of the inning.

The Titans flipped the score back *immediately*, which was heart-braking to the n-th degree. Nakayama allowed a leadoff single to Ellwood in the fourth, the runner advanced on Marcotte’s groundout, then scored on an Arviso hit, while Joyner socked a 2-run homer to left-center, making it 4-3 Boston, and then Diego Mendoza hit ANOTHER home run. Nakayama, useless otherwise, then hit another single in the bottom of the fourth, but was of course left on base…

Nakayama ended up battered for 11 hits and the five runs in six ****** innings before Nesbitt pitched two shutout innings out of the pen. Sansao Tyson allowed a leadoff double to Andy Lee in the #9 spot in the ninth inning before nicking Humphries, but then got three outs, nominally giving the Raccoons a chance in the bottom 9th against Tyler Gleason; the southpaw being the first Titans reliever to poke his head out of the pen in this ******* series. Carlos Matas singled leading off in Tyson’s place, while Monck batted for Corral, splintered a bat, and chucked a bouncer to Onelas for a 4-6-3 double play. (noisily double-facepaws) Spicer’s fly to Marcotte ended the game. 5-3 Titans. Morales (PH) 1-1; Matas (PH) 1-1; Nesbitt 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

And just like that, another 6-game losing streak…

Game 4
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 3B D. Mendoza – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 2B Onelas – P Brenize
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – SS Novelo – C Arellano – CF Matas – P Fox

Why anybody would put pants on to bother and play this game was beyond me. Perennial Pitcher of the Year contender Jason Brenize and the league’s best offense against the scrappy charm of Foxie Brown? Well, the Titans never scored for Brenize, so maybe –

Fox was mostly behind and walked Ellwood in the first inning, but it was the Coons that scored first with a Spicer triple and a Morales homer to right for a quick 2-0 lead. Brenize had the only Titans hit the first time through, which sounded like typical Brenize start, and the Titans put Mendoza and Joyner on base with two down in the fourth inning, but Washington grounded out orderly. However, Onelas and Humphries put out another pair of singles to get the Titans on the board in the fifth, shortening the score to 2-1. Carlos Matas answered with a leadoff double over Marcotte’s head in the bottom 5th. He moved to third on Fox’ groundout, after which the waiting game began as Corral walked and Spicer struck out. Morales grounded over the second base bag, Ellwood made a sliding play to knock the ball down, but the Titans had no play – all paws were safe as Matas scored, 3-1. Monck then hit a fly to deep left, but it dropped into Humphries’ glove on the edge of the track to leave two on…

Fox mishandled a Mendoza grounder into an infield single in the sixth, but then got a new chance on Joyner’s comebacker and got himself out of the inning by starting a 1-6-3 double play. Fox wiggled through the bottom of the order in the seventh to reach the stretch on a 5-hitter for another very respectable outing as he tried to rebuild his almost shipwrecked career. When Brenize lost Matas on balls in a full count to begin the bottom 7th, Fox was retained to bunt, which then led to an intentional walk to the .178 menace that was Jose Corral. The Coons went for the double steal – successfully! – and Spicer singled home a run with a clean knock to shallow center, 4-1, then stole his 30th base! Morales hit a sac fly and Monck singled home Spicer with two outs to ruin Brenize’s ERA for weeks to come. Kozak then nearly homered off reliever Josh Atkins, but the ball was caught by Marcotte in deep center to end the inning.

Now we just had to get six outs without blowing a 5-run lead, how hard could that be!? Well, putting Carrillo on the hill for the eighth was a gamble, and he immediately lost Humphries in a full count, but then Ellwood grounded one to Monck for a 4-6-3 double play and Marcotte hacked out to end the inning. Garvey then no-nonsense retired the Titans in order in the ninth. 6-1 Raccoons! Spicer 2-4, 3B, RBI; Morales 2-3, HR, 4 RBI; Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (4-5);

In other news

June 29 – The Canadiens send SP Ryan Musgrave (8-4, 3.73 ERA) to the Bayhawks in order to pick up 1B Rico Cordero (.242, 5 HR, 17 RBI) and #170 prospect INF John Koonz.
June 29 – Atlanta would be without 2B/3B Nick Nye (.270, 9 HR, 25 RBI) for six weeks thanks to the 34-year-old spraining his ankle.
June 30 – Vancouver sends MR Steve Slye (1-0, 0.78 ERA) to the Buffaloes for a prospect.
June 30 – Warriors OF Marco Asencio (.322, 2 HR, 17 RBI) breaks up a no-hitter by WAS SP Jon Reyes (5-2, 3.89 ERA) with a 2-out single in the ninth inning. Reyes is replaced by WAS CL Jon Dominguez (2-6, 6.82 ERA, 18 SV), who finishes the 4-0 game for him.

July 1 – CIN OF Melvin Avila (.288, 4 HR, 10 RBI) was expected to miss six weeks with a broken hand.
July 1 – The Rebels beat the Wolves, 12-2, after a decisive 10-run seventh inning. Rebs OF Willie Ospina (.359, 3 HR, 13 RBI) hits two homers, a double, and drives in five runs from the leadoff spot.
July 2 – The hyperactive Canadiens trade OF Brent Campbell (.245, 4 HR, 26 RBI) and a prospect to the Capitals for SP Jose Villegas (7-4, 3.07 ERA).
July 2 – The Buffaloes rally out of a 6-run hole against the Capitals in the top of the ninth inning, only to lose in walkoff fashion, 8-7, in the bottom of the ninth inning.
July 3 – PIT 3B/SS Brian Robinson (.316, 2 HR, 25 RBI) reaches a 20-game hitting streak by knocking out for singles and knocking in three runs in a 14-5 rush of the Cyclones.
July 3 – Nashville would be without catcher David Johnson (.307, 12 HR, 37 RBI) for at least a month thanks to the 30-year-old breaking a finger.

July 4 – The hitting streak of Pittsburgh’s Brian Robinson (.312, 2 HR, 25 RBI) doesn’t last past 20 games as he is held hitless in a 3-1 win against the Cyclones on Saturday.
July 4 – The Loggers’ 21-year-old phenom Carlos Dominguez (.335, 5 HR, 30 RBI) strikes five hits, including a homer, and drives in five runs in a 10-inning, 11-9 win against the Indians.
July 4 – NAS 1B Kris DiPrimio (.316, 11 HR, 44 RBI) was out for a month with a bruised wrist.
July 4 – The Canadiens make their fifth trade in the last week by acquiring infielder Matt Kilday (.269, 0 HR, 34 RBI) from the Knights for SP Johnny Doolin (4-7, 3.26 ERA).
July 5 – The Falcons trade SP Jose Lugo (7-2, 2.45 ERA) to the Condors in exchange for outfielder Mike Pinault (.269, 1 HR, 18 RBI) and a prospect.
July 5 – L.A. acquires LF/RF/1B Brady Terrell (.284, 8 HR, 47 RBI) from the Rebels for SP Francisco Tello (4-6, 4.48 ERA) and a prospect.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF Chad Pritchett (.342, 15 HR, 70 RBI), raking .607 (17-28) with 1 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ INF Miguel Veguilla (.295, 6 HR, 44 RBI), batting .500 (15-30) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Chad Pritchett (.324, 14 HR, 65 RBI), clicking .393 with 8 HR, 41 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: BOS C Jorge Arviso (.305, 13 HR, 53 RBI), churning .408 with 7 HR, 32 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Alan Deakin (7-1, 2.67 ERA), going 4-1 with a 3.35 ERA, 34 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Jason Brenize (9-3, 2.26 ERA), a crisp 5-0 with 2.08 ERA, 38 K
FL Rookie of the Month: RIC RF/LF/1B Matt Ford (.303, 6 HR, 26 RBI), batting .309 with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: NYC LF/RF Kazuhide Takeuchi (.293, 10 HR, 42 RBI), hitting .333 with 4 HR, 18 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Since tumbling back into the rotation through no contribution of his own, Chance Fox is 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA, and that includes that rain-soaked outing in Milwaukee where he gave up three runs in four innings. In the other four starts he went six or seven innings and didn’t allow more than one run in any of them.

Why is Jose Corral batting leadoff with *that* slash line? – Because I am having a standoff with the baseball gods to see who blinks first, me with his .178/.238/.319 slash or them with the .208 BABIP they smother him with.

Joel Starr will return soon; Alex Vargas has also started a rehab assignment this week, but we can really only use one of the two first basemen on the roster, which will be Starr. But who knows who gets traded this month…?

Cruz Madrid was complaining that he wasn’t being made the team’s closer. I wonder whether he’s looked at his bloody stats at all.

The signing window for international free agents had opened on Wednesday, and the Raccoons made a first splurge on Friday, signing SP Val Centeno for $450k. The 18-year-old Venezuelan righty had three fine pitches, led by a 94mph cutter. Centeno, who had hidden out in the jungle somewhere to make it to 18 without being signed, was sent straight to Aumsville.

With nothing to trade up to at the deadline, and no restrictions on signing Latin teen boys this year, the Raccoons were chasing after a few more potentially expensive starting pitchers and a few complementary pieces. Our initial offers were worth $1.3M, well over the soft cap of $832k.

We blew through that soft cap on Sunday then when we signed outfielder Eddy Valdez for $112k, but especially another Venezuelan right-hander, Crispino D’Urso, for $590k. D’Urso, 16 years old (and barely), was working with six pitches, and was a groundballer with a very high ceiling, and I was surprised that he went that cheaply. However, that put the Coons already over $1.15M spent (plus $320k in penalty tax) and thus in the highest penalty bracket for next year. There was no point in holding back from here. “Urso” is Italian for “bear”, I hear. “Crispy Bear”, anyone? He’s only 16 though, so it will require some patience.

Road trip to Elk City and Indy ahead of the All Star Game, and then four at home with the Elks and three with the Loggers afterwards.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have won only two of their 11 games with the Titans this year, and both times Chance Fox out-dueled Jason Brenize.

The first one was on April 16 in Boston, although Fox and Brenize didn’t get decisions in that game, which wasn’t decided until the tenth inning in the Raccoons’ favor. That was also the first meeting of these two teams on the season, which means that in between the Titans beat the Raccoons nine games in a row, and it wasn’t always subtle. There was another 13-3 beating immediately after that first Fox/Brenize tilt in April…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-50) @ Canadiens (40-41) – July 6-9, 2065

Eight of the Critters’ next eleven games were against the stinking Elks, which could easily make for some accelerated depression on my end, but there was no point in crying over the scheduling, and the boys were off to Siberia for a four-game set to start the week. The Elks were competent at the .500 mark, and also around average in runs scored and runs allowed in the league, posting a -8 run differential. So far these two teams had split a four-game set in May.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (5-10, 4.83 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (6-2, 2.53 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-4, 2.80 ERA) vs. Ed Nadeau (4-7, 4.07 ERA)
Josh Elling (7-7, 4.14 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (8-4, 2.89 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-12, 3.76 ERA) vs. Adam Foley (2-3, 4.61 ERA)

After not seeing a southpaw for about 38 months, the Coons would get to see two in a row on Tuesday and Wednesday. What a weird development! The Raccoons accordingly stuffed the lineup with every lefty batter that could hold a stick.

The Elks had a few injuries, including pitcher Martyn Polaco and just-acquired Matt Kilday and outfielder Rick Atkins. The Raccoons were expecting Joel Starr, Corey Garmon, and Jesse Dover back soon-ish.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Bentley – SS Aoki – C Arellano – CF Matas – P Alba
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – LF Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – 1B N. Vaughn – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P Nielsen

Carlos Castro drew a walk from a discombobulated Angel Alba and was then caught stealing twice in the first three innings of the series opener, but Alba still put enough runners on base to allow a run in the first inning on singles by Hsi-chuen Yue (who did steal second successfully) and Chad Whetstine. Alba remained all over the place for most of his outing, which would be six innings of 3-run ball, the other two runs scoring in the bottom 6th on hits by Whetstine, Ben Newman, who hit an RBI double, and Steven Spalding. Meanwhile, the Raccoons took their turns in order against Ken Nielsen without much effect for six innings before Monck hit a leadoff single and Bentley walked to begin the seventh. Aoki promptly hit into a double play, but Arellano at least got a consolation run on the board with an RBI single to center. Carrillo pitched a scoreless seventh before Madrid and Garvey pooled together to load the bases in the eighth, but Rico Cordero struck out to end the inning. The Elks then sent in Jon McGinley, whose ERA was up to 7.18, for the ninth inning against the Coons’ 3-4-5 batters. Monck and Novelo hit singles, but Morales and Kozak struck out before Arellano’s grounder to short left the tying runs on base… 3-1 Canadiens. Monck 2-4; Novelo (PH) 1-1; Arellano 2-4, RBI;

Maybe cramming all the righty sticks into the lineup against a southpaw would work?

Game 2
POR: RF Tallent – 2B Serrano – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – LF Bentley – C Arellano – SS Novelo – CF Matas – P Walla
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF N. Vaughn – 3B K. Graves – CF Chenette – P Nadeau

Yes, but no, but yes. Carlos Matas struck his first major league home run with Novelo on base to give the Raccoons a 2-0 lead in the second inning, but of course he was a left-handed batter. Tallent and Serrano then hit a pair of singles in the third inning, which derailed on a Morales double play grounder, and the 1-2 pair hit another pair of singles off Nadeau in the fifth inning, but Morales grounded to short again, this time for the one out the Elks needed to get out of the inning. Walla retired the Elks in order the first time through, but with two scary long flies to the warning track, then walked Carlos Castro to start the bottom 4th, but the runner remained on base. However, Nick Vaughn finally jumped one over the fence off Walla in the fifth inning, a solo homer for the Elks’ first hit of the game, and the score was 2-1 through five.

Walla got through six and two thirds on 93 pitches, and still held the skinny 2-1 lead provided by Matas when he arrived at Vaughn again, the first of three straight lefty hitters in that lineup. Sansao Tyson got the ball, walked Vaughn, but then got a fly to Bentley from Kenny Graves to get out of the inning. Top 8th, Tallent hit another single off righty reliever Jose Salazar before – for a change – being doubled off by Serrano. Tyson returned for the bottom 8th, facing Tyler Chenette, PH Rico Cordero, and Castro, and gave up – in order – a single, a double, and a score-flipping triple, upon which, back home on the trusty brown couch in the office, my head slumped forwards and my chin hit my fuzzy chest, and I was silent for long enough for Maud to check for a pulse. Nesbitt replaced Tyson, got two outs while loading the bases, and then yielded for Garvey, who gave up a 2-run single to PH Steve Varner before striking out Graves to end the ******* inning. The Coons hit three singles off McGinley for a run in the ninth inning, but that was obviously not enough. Corral followed Monck’s pinch-hit RBI single with a game-concluding groundout to second base. 5-3 Canadiens. Tallent 3-4; Serrano 2-3, BB; Novelo 3-4; Monck (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walla 6.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

We out-hit the Elks, 11-6.

Nick Walla must be cursed. There is no other explanation for him being 2-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 12 starts.

Also cursed: Carlos Matas (.228, 1 HR, 6 RBI), who the day after his first career homer was sent back to AAA to get Corey Garmon back on the roster.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – SS Novelo – RF Tallent – CF Garmon – C Lawson – P Elling
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF N. Vaughn – 3B K. Graves – CF Chenette – P J. Villegas

Morales singled and was doubled off by Kozak in the first inning, and the Raccoons had Monck and Novelo on the corners with one out in the second inning when Garmon tried to justify his roster spot with another double play grounder, but that one was thrown away by Castro and the Raccoons got a run that was initially unearned, but since you can’t assume the double play even against these horrendous Critters, the run became earned when Lawson livened up his .077 batting average with an RBI single to left. Garmon made for third base and scored on Elling’s sac fly, while Spicer grounded to Kenny Graves with two outs, but Graves also committed a throwing error for two bases and another run. Spicer scored from second on a Vic Morales single to right, Kozak singled, too, and Monck doubled in the pair of them before the inning came to a conclusion. The Coons were now up 7-0 (five unearned), and everybody wondered in which fancy way they’d blow that one.

While Villegas was gone after three innings, Elling allowed a run on Yue and Whetstine hits in the fourth inning, but apart from some full counts early on looked like he had things under control, even more so once Elks right-hander Dallas Samson put Novelo and Garmon on base in the fifth inning and then stooped as low as giving up a 2-out, 3-run homer to Scott ******* Lawson. Graves answered with a solo homer in the bottom 5th, in which Elling’s counts suddenly went long and longer again and he was rapidly approaching 100 pitches. He gave up another homer to Roberto Lozada in the sixth, 10-3, and then was removed after walking Chenette on four pitches with one gone in the bottom 7th. Barton replaced him and got the inning to end against Chris Richardson in strike-em-out-throw-em-out fashion as Chenette tried to scoop second base for no good reason whatsoever. The eighth was calm, while the Coons tacked on a run with Morales and Novelo doubles in the ninth inning. 11-3 Critters. Morales 3-5, 2B, RBI; Monck 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Novelo 4-5, 2B, RBI; Garmon 2-3, RBI; Lawson 2-4, HR, 4 RBI;

Can we please play like this every day? At least against the filthy Elks?

John Bentley (.311, 3 HR, 8 RBI) returned to AAA at this point to make room for the restored body of Joel Starr. However, if you were a 25-year-old hitter with a batting average within 100 points of your big league team’s record in July there was every chance that you were going to move up the pecking order and depth chart in the next few weeks…

Now excuse me, the phone is ringing. (waggles over to the desk like he’s up to something)

Game 4
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Serrano – C Arellano – CF Garmon – P Nakayama
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF N. Vaughn – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P Foley

The Elks put Castro on base when Spicer trapped his fly to left for a single, then had Nakayama considerately walk the bags full for them. Lozada singled in one, Newman singled in two more, and the fiends were up 3-0 in no time. They had three more singles from their 1-2-3 batters in the second inning, but Castro removed himself on offense with a baserunning blunder and they failed to score more runs. The leadoff man was on for the Elks in the next two innings as well, once on a Garmon error, but they kindly hit into double plays to remove those runners, just like Jose Corral did when Nakayama hit a single in the fifth…

With the Raccoons no threat whatsoever after an 11-run outburst on Wednesday, Nakayama tried to go as far as he could, which turned out to be six and a third, before handing it over to the pen. Tyson got one out before allowing a hit and was replaced with Nesbitt, who got out of *that* inning, but then put the first three Elks on base in the bottom 8th and did not exactly find help from Juan Carrillo, as all three runs scored. The Coons never scored, amounting to five measly singles against Foley and Salazar. 6-0 Canadiens. Monck 2-4;

Raccoons (33-53) @ Indians (32-53) – July 10-12, 2065

Last place playoffs here in Indy just ahead of the All Star Game, in which neither team figured to play a prominent role. Currently the Raccoons were half a game ahead of the red lantern carriers from Indy, but I had a hunch that might change. Indy was bottoms in runs scored, while the Coons were bottoms in runs allowed in the CL. We had a -70 run differential, while they were down -84, which was honestly not that much after half a year of sucking this hard. Everybody had a bunch of injuries to players that were largely underperforming, so why waste words on that, and we were up 7-2 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (4-5, 4.73 ERA) vs. Josh Barcellona (5-6, 4.18 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-11, 4.81 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (3-12, 4.37 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-4, 2.68 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (5-4, 1.95 ERA)

A rainout on Thursday left the Indians with some wiggle room for how they would go about their starters here, but we were expecting their only southpaw DeWitt to pitch at some point in the series, unless he made the All Star team and they’d vacate him from his start, probably in favor of Kelly Whitney (4-7, 4.96 ERA).

Jack Kozak was suspiciously absent from the lineup for the second day in a row. And the Raccoons GM was also unusually absent from a series played outside of Canada.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – C Arellano – P Fox
IND: 3B A. Mendez – SS G. Lujan – 1B Starwalt – LF Dowsey – 2B Sowell – RF B. Johnston – CF M. Martin – C A. Monroe – P Barcellona

Alex Mendez and Guillermo Lujan hit singles before Danny Starwalt smacked into a double play in the bottom 1st, however Fox gave up another single and a first-inning run to Justin Dowsey, who at (now) .249 with 13 homers was by far the biggest stick in that lineup. Things calmed down for Fox the following innings, while Barcellona walked Aoki in the second but otherwise threatened to pitch a no-hitter for 4.2 innings until he was taken deep out of the blue by Marcos Arellano to tie the game at one. Barcellona would restore his own lead, though, with an RBI single to plate Bryan Johnston in the bottom of the same inning. The run was unearned thanks to Johnston reaching on another baffling fielding error by Vic Morales.

Fox pitched accident-free through the remainder of eight innings from there, while the Raccoons had Monck on base in the seventh and lost him on a misplaced hit-and-run call. Garmon singled to begin the eighth and was also caught stealing. Desperation was not working in the Coons’ favor, and then they came up against lefty Cody Kleidon in the ninth inning. Spicer, Morales, and Monck went in order to put the game into the books. 2-1 Indians. Arellano 2-3, HR, RBI; Fox 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (4-6);

Interlude: Trade

The Raccoons officially gave up on what they had and swung a big trade with the Thunder on Friday night.

The Thunder would receive SP Josh Elling (8-7, 4.15 ERA), 1B/LF/CF Jack Kozak (.240, 10 HR, 40 RBI), and MR Tetsu Kurihara (0-1, 4.35 ERA) in a trade for three young players / prospects. This package included AAA CL Ricky Baca, who the Coons had taken in the Rule 5 draft before returning him unused to the Thunder a few years earlier, and single-A LF/RF George van Otterdijk, but the headline news was the acquisition of the league’s #2 (!) prospect, 20-year-old INF A.J. Taylor, who would be assigned to Ham Lake.

Taylor had been the #39 pick in the draft just one season ago and was hitting solidly if without power in single-A Temple for the Thunder. The forecast for him was as a slick-fielding middle infielder with great speed, a patient approach to the plate, and quite a bit of pop if things worked out. Our head scout Steve Hansen didn’t particularly like him, but OSA put him at 11/14/13 and he had a .372 OBP in single-A this year to back that up.

Elling had gone 35-27 as a Raccoon and by departing removed his $7M/year from the books (the Thunder received no cash as part of the deal), and Jack Kozak for all the dramatic homers was an erratic career .726 OPS batter in a season-long slump that we didn’t want to give a long-term deal to even when he was begging for it. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Kozak, but he was hard to fit into a team and the Raccoons had to make some dramatic cuts to get a #2 prospect on board.

Ricky Baca joined the Raccoons. He had pitched in ten games for the Thunder last year, posting a 3.18 ERA. With two games to go before the break, the roster was then filled with right-hander Juan Soriano, who had made two appearances for Portland after being claimed on waivers last year, and, well, John Bentley.

Raccoons (33-53) @ Indians (32-53) – July 10-12, 2065

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Serrano – CF Garmon – C Arellano – P Alba
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – RF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – LF B. Johnston – 2B Sowell – SS G. Lujan – P Whitney

Confusion rose with Whitney getting the ball on Saturday ahead of anybody else. The Coons wasted a single in each of the first three innings before the 6-7-8 batters somehow filled up the bases against Whitney in the fourth inning, but pops on the infield by Alba and Corral prevented the Portland Shambles from scoring a run. Indy was up 1-0 at that point on a Matt Martin homer from the bottom 3rd.

Joel Starr then got his first RBI’s of the year in team game #88 (of which he had missed 79) when he socked a 2-run homer to center to liven up his .160 batting average. Morales had singled to begin the inning, and now the Coons had a 2-1 lead.

After a fair bit of traffic in the early innings, Alba turned solid in the middle innings and went on to pitch seven innings for five base hits in an attempt to defend that skinny lead, but of course it wasn’t enough to cover the distance and the bullpen would get paws on this game in an attempt to get another six outs. Maybe an insurance would help; the Coons put Starr (walk) and Garmon (single) on the corners with two outs in the top 8th and then sent Bentley to bat for Arellano against Whitney, who gave up a drive to deep center, but Bentley couldn’t beat the range of Eddy Ramirez and the inning ended. Cruz Madrid then retired Martin to begin the bottom 8th before walking Dowsey and giving up a pinch-hit double to Matt Rogers. Garvey tried to save the unsaveable, allowed a score-flipping single to Vinny Atencio, but to anybody’s surprise the Raccoons came back against Kleidon in the ninth inning. Novelo struck a leadoff double pinch-hitting in the #9 spot. Corral grounded out, moving him to third base, and Spicer tied the game at three with a single up the middle. Morales hit another single, and Monck hit into a double play… Carrillo then nearly lost the game in the bottom 9th on long drives by Ken Sowell and Guillermo Lujan. Spicer rushed down the first one, while Lujan’s fell for a double in right. Ramirez struck out and Martin grounded out to short to send the game to extras.

Overtime began with Joel Starr reaching on an uncaught third strike against Kleidon, who went on to eviscerate the 6-7-8 batters to get out of that situation. Ricky Baca then gave his Coons debut, two years and three months removed from being returned to the Thunder as a Rule 5 pick. He gave up a double to Alex Mendez, but then got the next three Indians out, two by strikeouts. Barton was up next for the Coons and gave up a 2-out triple to Tony Torres (who?) in the bottom 11th, walked Ramirez, and then got Martin out on a fly to Corral. Vic Morales then struck out a leadoff double off Antonio Pichardo to start off the 12th. Monck flailed, Starr was walked intentionally, and then Serrano romped a 3-run homer to break the tie! Sansao Tyson got the ball in the bottom 12th, allowed a single to Rogers and an RBI double to Andre Monroe, but got the damn game over with. 6-4 Coons. Morales 3-6, 2B; Serrano 2-6, HR, 3 RBI; Garmon 4-5, BB; Arellano 1-2, BB; Novelo (PH) 1-1, 2B; Alba 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

DeWitt made the All Star team, so the Indians sent Carreno on Sunday, who did not.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – RF Bentley – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Serrano – CF Tallent – C Lawson – P Walla
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – RF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – LF B. Johnston – 2B Sowell – SS G. Lujan – P Carreno

Ramirez took Walla deep right out of the gate, and the Indians clipped three more singles around the first time through without putting anything else on the scoreboard. The Raccoons had little going in the first two innings before Scott Lawson drew a leadoff walk in the third inning. Walla’s bunt was bad and Lawson was out at second base, but Walla scored himself then after a Spicer single and a Bentley double to left. The former Raccoon Carreno walked Morales on four pitches to fill the bases for Monck, who flew to right-center, where Dowsey reached to make a catch, then dropped the ball anyway. This was ruled an error and a go-ahead RBI for Monck, as the bases remained loaded in a 2-1 game for Starr, who was down 0-2 before he hit a sac fly to left, before Serrano ended the inning with a fly to Ramirez in center.

After a Starwalt homer to left narrowed the score to 3-2 in the bottom 3rd, Walla proved unable to get a bunt down again with Tallent on first and one out in the fourth. Tallent, dismayed by the ineffective poking, stole a base at 0-2, then was surprised to see Walla hit a single to center and stopped at third base. He came home on Spicer’s sac fly to center, 4-2. Bentley flew out to deep right to end the inning. Walla and Spicer hit singles again with two outs in the sixth inning. Carreno walked Bentley, then was collected from the bases-loaded situation with involvement of the Indians trainer. Righty Victor Perez came in for Morales, who fell to 0-2 before popping one out to Starwalt and left the bases loaded.

Walla kept pitching to a considerable amount of loud contact, even though the Indians didn’t get the balls to go out or fall on the green grass in the middle innings. Perez then nicked Monck to begin the seventh, then was taken deep by Starr for a 2-piece as punishment. Walla then finally gave up another solo jack to Guillermo Lujan in the bottom 7th. He got through two outs in the bottom 8th before a Starwalt single knocked him out. Sansao Tyson struck out Atencio to complete the inning, and then got another three outs without issue in the ninth inning. 6-3 Furballs. Spicer 2-4, RBI; Walla 7.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-4) and 2-4; Tyson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (3);

In other news

July 6 – The Crusaders send outfielder Coby Thore (.291, 2 HR, 23 RBI) to the Thunder for two prospects.
July 8 – New York acquires catcher Victor Reyna (.258, 1 HR, 12 RBI) and a prospect from the Indians for SP Josh Barcellona (5-6, 4.18 ERA).
July 8 – The Loggers trade for lefty Blue Sox CL Steve Keller (4-5, 4.24 ERA, 15 SV) in exchange for two prospects.
July 8 – The Condors score ten runs in the fifth inning on their way to beat the Knights. Five different Condors hit a home run in the 14-3 game.
July 8 – The Scorpions beat the Stars, 13-10 in 14 innings. SAC INF/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.278, 13 HR, 59 RBI) hits two home runs and drives in four, while Dallas’ 3B/SS/LF Xavier Reyes (.345, 0 HR, 47 RBI) plates as many runners while chipping five singles.
July 9 – 41-year-old ATL SP Kodai Koga (5-11, 5.32 ERA) wasn’t having the best season of his career, but it was enough to 4-hit the Condors in a 4-0 shutout on Thursday. It was the 36th shutout of his career, encompassing 576 starts for six different teams.
July 9 – A sprained ankle puts Aces OF Jaden Wilson (.269, 3 HR, 38 RBI) out of action for the next month.
July 10 – Thunder 1B/LF/RF Ben Laity (.278, 4 HR, 21 RBI) puts out four singles and a grand slam in a 13-2 rout of the Aces.
July 10 – Boston 1B Bill Joyner (.330, 13 HR, 71 RBI) decides the Titans’ game with the Canadiens with a top-of-the-11th grand slam off Vancouer’s Elijah LaBat (4-4, 4.71 ERA, 14 SV) for an 8-4 victory.
July 10 – Falcons OF Dan Geiger (.297, 1 HR, 11 RBI) was going to miss the rest of the season with a broken elbow.
July 12 – 35-year-old switch-hitting middle infielder Willie Acosta (.242, 2 HR, 22 RBI) is sent from the Condors to the Blue Sox, along with a prospect, for SP Preston Young (4-10, 6.13 ERA).
July 12 – The Aces rally for five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Thunder, 6-5.
July 12 – The Stars beat the Pacifics, 4-3, thanks to a walkoff balk by LAP CL Roberto Ramirez (5-2, 3.99 ERA, 19 SV).

FL Player of the Week: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.355, 17 HR, 58 RBI), bashing .452 (14-31) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL UT Carlos Fumero (.303, 5 HR, 37 RBI), hitting .400 (14-35) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

No All Stars on this team and I have no reasonable argument why we should have one, either. The Titans stacked the team with seven players (Bell, Brenize, Gleason, Arviso, Joyner, Marcotte, Humphries).

Tetsu Kurihara lost his first game for the Thunder on Sunday. No idea why they asked for him in the A.J. Taylor trade. NO idea. The Raccoons are in engaged in more trade talks. You can probably expect Monck and Starr to stay at this point since we’d be selling under value, and I am not open to trading any of the younger players (Morales, Corral…) at this stage either. However, the pen is free pickings, and the fringe pieces like our myriad of shortstops is also up for grabs. Probably no more top 10 prospects to be acquired with that stuff.

We can not reasonably trade a starting pitcher from here, because the situation in AAA is beyond dire. There’s nothing you can call up from there (Applecore, Bollinger, Sensabaugh as known quantities, and Sandy Pineda and Cody Childress as derailed prospects) that would have a halfway-decent chance to get through five innings in the majors right now. The best ERA’s in that group would be Pineda’s 4.47 ahead of 4.73 for Applecore. AAA ERA’s, that is.

The Raccoons snatched another teenage catcher from the July IFA pool this week, which cost them $80k (half of that being tax), and were still after another pitcher.

Jesse Dover started a rehab assignment this week and can be expected to return after the All Star Game when we will play another four with the damn Elks (shivers), followed by three with the Loggers, all at home.

Fun Fact: Thursday’s 4-hit shutout by Kodai Koga against Tijuana broke a tie at the top of the leaderboard for career shutouts.

Koga’s 36th shutout left David Burke, a veteran of the ABL’s inaugural season in 1977, in the dust. Burke, who was 22 when the league started play, pitched 14 seasons in the majors and amassed 35 shutouts along the way, including *eight* shutouts for the 1982 Pacifics alone. Burke split his career roughly halfway between the Pacifics and Miners, which a hangers-on appearance for the Knights in 1991, pitching to a 179-132 record and 3.27 ERA with 1,613 strikeouts, which wasn’t enough to get elected to the Hall of Fame by the Secret Ninja Committee.

The 41-year-old Koga should be more lucky as career shutouts leader. While he was only 235-231 with a 3.74 ERA, he also had 2,589 strikeouts to offer. While Koga had never led the league in anything that would give you headlines, and for awards only had two All Star nominations and a Gold Glove, it was the decades-long run of competence that might get him some votes. He also pitched two no-hitters, both pitched in April; one came in his first Knights stint against the Aces in 2050, and another one with the Miners against the Rebels in 2058.

[Westheim]

Trade

The Raccoons sent 2B/SS Franklin Serrano (.318, 3 HR, 20 RBI) to the Blue Sox on the day of the All Star Game to acquire left-handed SP Juan Sanchez (7-8, 4.82 ERA), who was making $5.1M a year through 2066 and was on the Sox’ removal list for that reason. The 30-year-old, who was a 3-time All Star and had won FL Rookie of the Year honors in 2059, was having a trying season, which meant he should fit right in.

On the other paw, acquiring a serviceable starting pitcher meant more wiggle room for different trades going forwards. And under the paw – Serrano was one of the leading malcontents in an increasingly toxic clubhouse and we had to make an odd move here or there to right the ship, even if it meant taking on a mediocre starting pitcher that was now the biggest earner on the team.

All Star Game

The CL beats the FL, 7-3, taking the lead early and never looking back. Boston’s Bill Joyner is an odd choice for MVP honors, going 1-1 with a walk and RBI as mid-game replacement for Ian Stone. The win goes to Ben Seiter of New York, pitching the second inning in relief of Boston’s Jason Brenize.

Raccoons (35-54) vs. Canadiens (44-44) – July 16-19, 2065

The Elks had gained a 5-3 edge in the season series last week, but overall their run differential was still -11 and they were still average in many categories. Which beat whatever we were doing here…

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (7-8, 4.82 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (8-5, 2.98 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-13, 3.79 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (7-2, 2.36 ERA)
Nick Walla (3-4, 2.75 ERA) vs. Adam Foley (3-3, 3.86 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-6, 4.37 ERA) vs. Ed Nadeau (4-8, 4.05 ERA)

Villegas and Nadeau were still the two left-handers in the rotation for the damn Elks, who were still without position players Matt Kilday and Rick Atkins, although both were expected to return to the team soon, maybe while they were still in Portland.

The Raccoons went into this series with a surplus reliever and a short bench and two rehab cases (Dover, Vargas) in AAA. And who knows who might get traded in the next 48 hours?

Game 1
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – RF Lozada – C Varner – LF Vaughn – 1B Whetstine – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P J. Villegas
POR: LF Spicer – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – CF Garmon – C Arellano – P Sanchez

Joel Starr was penciled into the lineup with an “aw shucks” attitude when the lineup refused to add up otherwise after the departure of Jack Kozak, but he doubled home the game’s first two runs in the bottom of the first inning, finding the gap on an 0-2 pitch to bring in Novelo and Monck, who had both singled off the southpaw Villegas. Tallent struck out, but the bottom 2nd saw another two Coons runs on Garmon and Arellano doubles and a 2-out RBI single for Novelo, but before excitement could start bubbling all over, the Elks’ Roberto Lozada burned Sanchez in his Coons debut with a long 3-run homer to left in the top 3rd. The Elks had plenty of runners in the early going, stranding one in the first, two in the second, and another two in scoring position in the third inning when Nick Vaughn and Chad Whetstine reached after the Lozada homer, advanced on a passed ball, and were stranded when Steven Spalding flew out to Spicer in left.

Sanchez’ first outing soon turned pear-shaped completely when he gave up a leadoff walk to Vaughn in the sixth and a double to Whetstine right afterwards. Spalding whiffed, but Tyler Chenette flipped the score with a single to center, and even reliever Dallas Samson singled. A walk to Carlos Castro filled the bases and spelled the end for Sanchez. The useless pelt of Cruz Madrid then immediately gave up a bases-clearing double to Hsi-chuen Yue and another RBI single to Steve Varner as the Elks escalated into a 9-4 lead.

The Coons had long lied down snoozing, but facing ex-Coon Reynaldo Bravo in the bottom 7th got Monck and Starr on base with soft contact. Tallent struck out, while Corral drew a 2-out walk in place of Garmon. Arellano drove a ball to deep left, but couldn’t beat Vaughn, and the inning ended with three stranded on base. Juan Soriano pitched the eighth and struck out three batters, but not without giving up a single to Yue, an RBI double to Vaughn, and balking Vaughn to third base. The Raccoons only got Starr on base again in the ninth, but Tallent hit into a double play to end the contest. 10-4 Canadiens. Novelo 2-3, BB, RBI; Starr 4-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Arellano 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Ten unanswered runs allowed, eight by Juan Sanchez on his debut for the team. Swell.

Two roster moves were made between games, as both John Nesbitt (0-1, 6.91 ERA, 2 SV) and Juan Soriano (0-0, 9.00 ERA) were sent to the Alley Cats in exchange for Jesse Dover and… who’s there hitting something, anything… uh… hmmm…….. oh well, Joe Gardner hasn’t been to Portland in a while. Let’s check out his table manners.

Game 2
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF Vaughn – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P Nielsen
POR: LF Spicer – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – RF Corral – C Arellano – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Nakayama

Misery continued unabated with Nakayama lacking command entirely in this Friday game and the Coons’ only runner the first time through being Jose Corral, reaching on an error as his average dipped to .174. Somehow the Elks remained off the board until the fourth when Vaughn singled, Nakayama walked Spalding, Chenette singled in a run past Starr at first, and Nielsen’s grounder was bobbled for an error by Rich Monck, all with two outs. Castro flew out to Corral to leave the bases loaded.

Nakayama bumbled bravely onwards, while the Coons did not get a base hit off Nielsen until Vic Morales hit a single in the sixth. Chenette singled to begin the top 7th, stole second, reached third on Arellano’s throwing error, and then was easily singled home by Castro to double the Elks’ lead to 2-0. Nakayama made it to the eighth, gave up a single to Lozada and a double to Ben Newman on which Lozada managed to get thrown out at the plate. The Coons went to the pen, got Tyson, and of course he gave up the inherited runner on a 2-out RBI double by Spalding. Carrillo pitched the ninth, giving up a leadoff single to Nielsen, who was doubled off by Yue to bail out the next bumbling idiot in line. The Elks then brought in McGinley for the bottom 9th, presumably just to rub it in. The Coons, being out-hit 11-1 to start the inning, almost managed to disappear in order, but Monck reached on a Spalding error with two outs. Novelo then flew out to right instead. 3-0 Canadiens.

(facepaws and moans)

Game 3
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF Vaughn – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P Foley
POR: RF Corral – LF Bentley – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – CF Garmon – SS Aoki – C Lawson – P Walla

Adam Foley took the hill with a 4-0 lead thanks to Walla giving up a double to Castro, walking Yue, and then two outs later surrendering two runs on Newman’s double and another two on a massive Vaughn homer to dead center. (with a tired expression rips page out of binder with scorecards and eats the page)

The Elks had their own messy inning coming, though, as Foley gave up four singles to Garmon, Lawson, Walla, and Bentley in the second inning. Walla and Bentley got RBI’s, but Morales then grounded out to second to end the inning with a 4-2 score. From there Walla struggled through another three innings without allowing another run, but also without vaguely appearing like a major league pitcher, before Foley allowed another two singles to Bentley and Morales at the start of the bottom 5th. Monck and Starr made meek outs and Garmon was unceremoniously plunked to load the bases for Yukio Aoki, who lined out to short to end the inning – but not until after Foley plated Bentley with a wild pitch, 4-3.

Bottom 6th, and Lawson started with a groundout. Spicer batted for him, reached on an error by Whetstine, then stole second and scored on a Corral single (!) to knot the score at four. Before things could escalate into a lead, though, John Bentley crashed into a 4-6-3 double play. Monck singled and was picked off first the next inning, and in the eighth Aoki struck a double to right with one out before Novelo batted for Lawson and grounded out. Joe Gardner then batted for the pitcher Garvey and singled through the left side to give the Coons an actual 5-4 lead in the game. To celebrate, he was caught stealing, ending the inning and giving a save chance to a rather undeserving Cruz Madrid. Lozada grounded out easily. Newman popped out. Vaughn also popped … one over the fence in right to tie the game. (angrily and repeatedly slams scorecard binder on the table to a degree that makes even Maud and Honeypaws raise eyebrows) Kenny Graves flew out to center to give the stick back to the Coons, facing former teammate Elijah LaBat, who got the 1-2-3 in order to send the game to extras.

Paul Barton got the ball for the tenth inning. Tyler Chenette singled on his second pitch, but Chris Richardson struck out. Maud said something silly like it looking like everything might work out yet, and then Castro buried a triple in the gap to break the tie and immediately scored on a Yue single on the next pitch. Kevin Ewers walked, Ben Newman launched a 3-run homer, and the Coons had to use ANOTHER reliever just to GET OUT OF THE ******* INNING. The bottom 10th got unexpectedly tight. Arellano – who was batting fourth since Monck had been replaced with Novelo at second for D during the 7 1/2 seconds when we held the lead although it was not humanly possible to defend the **** that Cruz Madrid was giving up all the ******* time…!! – singled to begin the inning and Joel Starr then immediately popped a homer to left, 10-7. McGinley replaced LaBat, but gave up a triple to Garmon, who scored on Aoki’s groundout. Novelo lined out, but Tallent, the last guy on the bench, singled to left with two outs, bringing back Corral as the tying run. But Corral had a negative-eleven BABIP and grounded out to Yue… 10-8 Canadiens. Bentley 3-5, RBI; Arellano 1-1; Garmon 2-4, 3B; Gardner (PH) 1-1, RBI; Tallent (PH) 1-1;

Game 4
VAN: 2B Kilday – SS C. Castro – CF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF N. Vaughn – 3B Spalding – P Nadeau
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Arellano – CF Garmon – 2B Gardner – LF Tallent – P Fox

Southpaw Sunday dawned and the sun set on Chance Fox looking like a vaguely competent pitcher. Matt Kilday and Carlos Castro reached base right away and would be plated by Steve Varner with a 2-out single for a really early 2-0 Elks lead. Fox would also nail Spalding the first time he met him, and also the second time Spalding came to the plate, which always took away the free out on the pitcher Nadeau, who gave up a run in the second on an Arellano double and Tallent’s 2-out RBI single, then managed to fill the bases with nothing but Critters to begin the fourth inning, as Arellano, Garmon, and Gardner chopped singles on three consecutive pitches to load them up for Tallent. Nadeau walked in the tying run in a full count, struck out Fox, but gave up two more runs on a Corral single as the Coons went up 4-2. Novelo and Morales then made outs.

Fox walked Rick Atkins in the fifth before tying to give up a triple in the gap to Lozada, who was absolutely robbed by Garmon running into the gap at breakneck speed and somehow catching the ball over his shoulder. Varner grounded out to leave Atkins at first. Bottom 5th, Starr drew a leadoff walk before Arellano doubled to right. Garmon was walked intentionally for another three on, nobody out situation. The Coons would make three outs through strikeouts, but not without another RBI single for Tallent that knocked out Nadeau. Josh Meighan then struck out Fox and Corral to escape.

Fox somehow failed his way through seven innings with that 5-2 lead, offering a walk and getting a double play grounder in each of his last two frames out there. Dover got the ball in the eighth, allowed a single to Atkins, but then struck out Lozada and Varner before handing the marble off to Garvey, who got another K on Whetstine. The Coons struck with the southpaw into the ninth inning, where he got Vaughn on strikes before brushing Spalding on base. Rico Cordero hit a soft single to left to bring the tying run to the plate. Kilday popped out. Castro hit a fly to left, but John Bentley got that one. 5-2 Coons. Arellano 3-4, 2 2B; Garmon 1-2, BB; Bentley (PH) 1-1, 2B; Tallent 2-3, BB, 3 RBI;

In other news

July 13 – OCT 2B Mike Weber (.226, 3 HR, 21 RBI) could miss the rest of the season after suffering a gnarly concussion.
July 13 – LAP SP/MR Roger Pritchard (0-1, 5.70 ERA) is out for 12 months thanks to a torn flexor tendon.
July 15 – Milwaukee trades for SP Adam Lunn (5-6, 4.30 ERA) and sends four prospects to the Capitals. The package includes #98 1B Armando Curiel.
July 16 – The Loggers report that C Tommy Guitreau (.264, 13 HR, 40 RBI) is going to miss six weeks due to an adverse reaction to a snakebite.
July 17 – The Aces trade SP Dan Graham (5-5, 3.15 ERA) to the Pacifics for two prospects.
July 17 – The Buffos beat the Rebs, 1-0 in ten innings.
July 18 – San Francisco defeats Las Vegas, 3-1 in 16 trying innings.
July 18 – NYC CF/RF Bryant Box (.254, 7 HR, 30 RBI) hits a home run for the only score in a 1-0 win against the Indians.

FL Player of the Week: NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.254, 23 HR, 61 RBI), packing .368 (7-19) with 3 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL OF Jonathan Merrill (.299, 3 HR, 34 RBI), clipping .563 (9-16) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Tommy Guitreau might be hurting, but nobody’s more snakebitten around here than the Raccoons……

No wonder you can’t get offers for half the bodies on this team. You can probably only release them, because even if you pressed a pillow on their faces they’d be too dumb to die…..

Serrano had been dangled to the Knights before the trade with the Blue Sox. The Knights oddly enough were shopping around SS Casey Ramsey, who was hitting .307 and had last year socked 16 homers for the Condors. He was defensively sound and definitely had to have a dead body hidden away somewhere. The Coons couldn’t get the Knights to accept a deal for another one of our shortstops, nor find a package that worked to acquire left-hander and #28 prospect Ricky McMahan, so we went for the Sox trade instead.

The Coons signed their last July IFA target this week, bringing 16-year-old Dominican right-hander Alex Molina, a groundballer with four-pitch mix, into the academy for $400k (double that after tax). In total we spent $1,592,000 on players and another $760,000 in tax and would have the harshest signing restrictions next year.

But, eh! We were in the running for the #1 pick next June! Big strategy! Tah! [insert extra picture below]

Excitement will continue against the Loggers at home, then the Thunder and Aces on the road. The final game of the month will be the opener of another homestand with the Falcons on the 31st.

Fun Fact: We’re back down to .500 all-time against the damn Elks.

798-798. Six more to play this year.

Can you please not fall under .500 again??

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Have the Coons ever had the #1 pick in the draft?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

Have the Coons ever had the #1 pick in the draft?

Once, in 1980, as a reward for losing 107 games in '79.

Unsurprisingly we blew it.

Carlos Gonzalez couldn't climb a mound without falling off and hurting himself...

[Westheim]

Raccoons (36-57) vs. Loggers (50-42) – July 20-22, 2065

The Raccoons had 69 more games to play, which probably wouldn’t be all that nice, and the Loggers were in for three of them. They had won five in a row, were 7-2 against the Raccoons this year, and brought the CL’s #3 offense and #7 pitching. They had the highest team batting average in the league at .278, but were without starting catcher Tommy Guitreau, who was sorely missed in that lineup.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (5-11, 4.59 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (3-9, 6.77 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (7-9, 5.24 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (9-5, 3.07 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-14, 3.78 ERA) vs. Adam Lunn (5-6, 4.23 ERA)

We’d see only right-handers, but “Tipsy” Bobby Herrera (10-3, 2.59 ERA) had pitched on Sunday and was not part of the group.

Game 1
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – SS Reber – C Jack – 3B V. Velez – P Waldron
POR: RF Corral – LF Bentley – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – CF Garmon – SS Aoki – C Arellano – P Alba

The Loggers had five left-handed hitters at the top of that lineup, which immediately went to work on Alba after Scott Franks grounded out. Johathan Merrill walked, Cesar Ramirez singled, and Fidel Carrera reached on an error by Rich Monck. From there, it was off to the races. Carlos Dominguez singled home two, Kyle Reber tripled in two more, and J.P. Jack made it 5-0 (three earned) with a groundout to short. Alright, see you tomorrow, everybody!

The Coons had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom 1st as Corral and Bentley hit singles and Waldron leaked a walk to Vic Morales. Between Monck’s grounder that resulted in an out at the plate, Starr’s sac fly to left, and a Garmon groundout they scored one measly run. Kyle Reber instead drove in another run off Alba in the third inning, and Alba only returned to get an out from Waldron in the fourth inning before being whisked away before that left-handed barrage could start again. Ricky Baca got five outs after Alba’s departure.

The score remained 6-1 into the bottom 5th when the Raccoons had the bases loaded again with two outs after a Corral single, Bentley reaching on an error, and Monck drawing a walk. Starr worked the count for a bases-loaded walk, but Corey Garmon, the dunce, poked a 3-1 pitch into the glove of Reber at short to end the inning. The tying run was back at the dish in the sixth as Waldron got whacked around for a double by Arellano, a pinch-hit single off Novelo’s bat, and then a Corral double into the rightfield corner, which drove in Arellano and reduced the score to 6-3. Bentley grounded out very poorly and the runners had to hold in scoring position, but with two outs Waldron threw a wild pitch and Morales dinked in a single in shallow left, and suddenly it was 6-5 with Monck at the plate. He grounded out to short, though.

Sansao Tyson then threw two shutout innings against the Loggers’ lefty lumbers, and against all odds the Raccoons rumbled back into a 6-6 tie when Bentley tripled to center his next time up and scored on *another* wild pitch by Waldron. The Loggers failed to tear Juan Carrillo limb from limb in the ninth inning before sending left-hander Steve Keller after the Coons in the bottom 9th. Joel Starr had none of that, cracked a walkoff homer, and the Coons won the ballgame…! 7-6 Furballs!! Corral 3-5, 2B, RBI; Bentley 2-5, 3B, 2B; Aoki 2-3, BB; Novelo (PH) 1-2; Tyson 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
MIL: SS Reber – RF C. Dominguez – LF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – 2B F. Carrera – 3B V. Velez – CF Franks – C Chinea – P Pizzichini
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – SS Aoki – CF Tallent – P Sanchez

The early innings saw the Loggers squander leadoff singles in both the first and second innings, while the Coons had Starr on with a single and reach second base on a balk, but that was it for early offense on Tuesday. The bottom 4th then arrived and Morales hit a 1-out single before “Pizza” hit Monck in the elbow to add a second runner. Starr grounded out, advancing the runners, and then Arellano dunked a single into shallow left-center to get both of them home for the first runs in the ballgame. Pizza would then walk Aoki, but Tallent grounded out to third base to end the inning.

Milwaukee wasted no time to get on the board as well; Scott Franks and Jerry Chinea got leadoff hits and went to the corners in the fifth inning, and while Sanchez got the pitcher out without issue, Kyle Reber plated Franks with a sac fly to left, 2-1. Dominguez grounded out to Monck, though. Cesar Ramirez smashed a leadoff double off the fence to begin the sixth, but was stranded on three rather hapless outs. Chinea came up with another single in the seventh inning before the Raccoons fudged a double play opportunity when Dave Wright grounded to Aoki and the shortstop’s throw pulled Monck off second base for an error. Thankfully Kyle Reber hit another sharp grounder right at Morales and the Coons got a 5-4-3 double play out of the inning that way.

Sanchez went seven before being hit for with Bentley in the bottom 7th, which didn’t lead anywhere in particular. Garvey got the ball for the eighth and conceded a leadoff single to Dominguez, but then collected three tame outs to keep Dominguez and the tying run stranded at second base. The Coons then finally put some distance into that score in the bottom 8th. Loggers righty Oliver Graham allowed singles to Corral and Morales, who reached scoring position on Monck’s roller to second for the second out. Starr – a true godsend since returning from injury – wasted no time to cash both runners with a single to left, 4-1, then scored on an Arellano double into the gap against Vincent Hernandez. Novelo grounded out against the southpaw, but Cruz Madrid got three outs without causing a national emergency. 5-1 Coons. Starr 2-4, 2 RBI; Arellano 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Sanchez 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (8-9);

Game 3
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – SS Reber – C Jack – 3B V. Velez – P Lunn
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – CF Tallent – SS Gardner – P Nakayama

Nakayama drew Monday’s lineup in the series finale, which at least didn’t go as instantly wrong as it did for Alba on Monday. The Coons in fact scored first when they got Starr and Arellano on base to begin the bottom 2nd and Joe Gardner hit a sac fly. Tallent also reached base, but the inning then fizzled out.

Nakayama worked his way through the Loggers lineup once before lightning forced a delay of about an hour for a brief but intense rain shower. Both starters returned after the weather delay, but Nakayama soon ran into a wall in the fifth inning. Dominguez led off with a single, he walked Reber on four pitches, and J.P. Jack doubled home the tying run. Velez’ grounder to short made it 2-1 Loggers before Lunn whiffed and Franks popped out to Monck behind second base to strand Jack on base. Nakayama didn’t return for the sixth, being replaced with Ricky Baca and the Coons tried to not hang a 15th loss on the “rookie” before the end of July, but after Tallent and Gardner fought their way to the corners against Lunn with two outs in the bottom 6th, Bentley’s fly to left-center was caught by the killjoy Merrill. Morales hit a 2-out single in the seventh, but was also left on base. In the eighth it was Tallent and Gardner again that reached base with 2-out singles and again they were stranded, this time by Aoki grounding out to Fidel Carrera. But no, it was the Loggers that would finally do something with 2-out runners after Jesse Dover put Reber and Wright on base with two outs in the ninth inning and then suffered a gap double by Vic Velez that extended the score to 4-1. Matt Ruskin struck out, giving the ball to the left-handed Keller again. He walked Corral leading off before striking out Novelo, who was batting for Spicer, who was drowning on dry land at this point. Morales grounded out to second and Monck flew out to center to finish the game. 4-1 Loggers. Starr 2-4; Tallent 2-4, 2B; Gardner 2-3, RBI;

3-15! I wasn’t sure how Nakayama was doing it, but someone make him stop, please.

Raccoons (38-58) @ Thunder (49-46) – July 24-26, 2065

Despite sitting fourth in the South and just over .500, the Thunder were just 3 1/2 games off the pace. They had taken two of three games from the Coons so far with their #7 offense and #3 pitching in the Continental League. Mike Weber was the only regular on the DL for them.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (3-4, 2.97 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (6-4, 4.61 ERA)
Chance Fox (5-6, 4.23 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (5-6, 4.27 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-11, 4.77 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (11-5, 2.55 ERA)

The Thunder sent up two of their three southpaws, and one of their two ex-Coons, the other being Josh Elling (9-7, 3.64 ERA). The left-handers would lead the way, with the righty Harris going on Sunday.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Tallent – 2B Gardner – CF Garmon – P Walla
OCT: RF Almanza – 1B I. Stone – LF Laity – C Bohannon – CF Thore – SS Palominos – 3B Bonilla – 2B Archuleta – P Riddle

Riddle was slapped around for five singles and three runs in the first inning, the first marker being put on the board by Starr, singling home Corral. Arellano got an RBI groundout and Tallent another RBI single in the inning. Walla immediately allowed a double to Roberto Almanza, a single to Ian Stone, and eventually a run on a sac fly by Martin Bohannon in the first, so neither pitcher was particularly awake and ready for action. Almanza doubled again his next time up, but was left on base then.

Walla allowed no further hits through five innings, and the Coons were still up 3-1 in the sixth when Arellano hit a 1-out single to left and then Tallent stuck his fat fuzzy tush into an inside pitch, and was awarded first base for it. The Thunder vehemently protested to no avail, then filled the bases when Gardner’s grounder was mishandled for an error by Ramon Archuleta. Garmon’s groundout scored an unearned run, but that was as good as it got, with Riddle ringing up Walla every chance he got in this game. The Raccoons’ young starter did however go seven innings, even though the seventh got dicey as Alberto Bonilla, Archuleta, and Ramon Lopez loaded the bases before Almanza got another double… but this time it was a double play to Gardner, 4-6-3, and it ended the inning.

Monck batted for Gardner against righty Brian Doster in the eighth, singled, but didn’t get further than that. He then handled a Ben Laity grounder off Jeremy Garvey and threw badly enough to Novelo that Ian Stone, the batter from first, was out and took a diving Novelo’s knee to the chest. Stone had to leave the game, being replaced by Jack Kozak. Carrillo replaced Garvey and got a first-pitch double play grounder from Bohannon to Novelo, ending another inning. Jesse Dover would finish the game with a save on three strikeouts, even though everybody around him played clownshoes, such as Novelo dropping Coby Thore’s pop to short and Arellano being charged with a passed ball. 4-1 Raccoons. Arellano 2-4, RBI; Monck (PH) 1-1; Walla 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (4-4);

Ian Stone went to the DL with an intercostal strain (whatever that was!), but Novelo’s knee was fine. Whatever it takes to get Kozak to hit three Jacks off the Coons staff!

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Tallent – C Lawson – CF Garmon – P Fox
OCT: RF Almanza – SS Archuleta – 2B Palominos – 3B Blackshire – 1B Laity – C R. Lopez – LF Alf. Mendez – CF Thore – P D. Baca

Through three innings the Thunder had a Jose Palominos triple that only saw him stranded at third base in the bottom 1st, while the Coons managed to get Garmon to third base but no further with a single and a stolen base in the top of the third. Neither team scored, but it got interesting in the fourth, which Danny Baca began by *drilling* Vic Morales, who took a long time to limp to first base, and then immediately had to rush to third on a double to left-center by Rich Monck. Nobody out, a pair in scoring position, and the Raccoons grounded out, struck out, and popped out; Starr at least got Morales home with the first run of the game…

The Thunder got Ramon Lopez on when he was nicked by Fox in the bottom 5th, but Alf Mendez found another inning-ending double play. Coby Thore then reached on a Novelo error to begin the home sixth, but Fox kept 1-hitting the Thunder and they stranded Thore at third base.

Nah, Fox wasn’t gonna pitch a shutout. There were too many ex-Coons on that Thunder roster, including Dave Blackshire, who by now was 37 years and old and hadn’t been a Critter since his age 26 season, but of course he found a solo homer to left in the seventh inning, getting the teams even at one. Nothing changed about that score for the rest of regulation. Fox pitched nine innings of 4-hit ball for just over 100 pitches, but that would be all for him.

The Coons got two pinch-hit singles in the tenth against Tetsu Kurihara, and also no run(s) thanks to Yukio Aoki, who led off with a single in Lawson’s spot, getting thrown out trying to make it a double. Arellano then singled in Fox’ spot with two outs, but was left on by Corral. The game then ended with just two pitches thrown by Cruz Madrid in the bottom 10th, the second of which Ramon Lopez blasted over the fence for a good 420 feet. 2-1 Thunder. Monck 3-4, 2B; Aoki (PH) 1-1; Arellano (PH) 1-1; Fox 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

(deep sigh)

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – CF Tallent – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – LF Spicer – C Arellano – SS Aoki – P Alba
OCT: RF Almanza – LF Thore – 1B Laity – C Bohannon – 3B Bonilla – SS Palominos – CF J. Parker – 2B Archuleta – P Aa. Harris

Joel Starr continued to have a pulse, unlike his teammates, and hit a 3-run homer to right in the first inning. Corral singled and Tallent walked while Morales hit into a fielder’s choice ahead of him. Monck singled after Starr, was forced out by Spicer, and Spicer was caught stealing to continue his tailspin. The Thunder made up a run in the bottom 2nd when Alba nicked Bohannon with an 0-2 pitch, failed the bags full, and eventually Archuleta got home a run with a groundout, but the Raccoons got Corral and Tallent on the corners in the third inning before Morales hit a grounder to Alberto Bonilla for the first out, but at least got Arellano home, 4-1. Starr fanned and Monck flew out to deep right. The Thunder went on to lose Archuleta on a defensive play in the fourth inning. Blackshire replaced him as Archuleta hobbled off with a twisted ankle.

A Bonilla homer in the bottom 4th got the Thunder closer again, 4-2, but the Coons loaded the bags with Tallent, Morales, Starr, and one out in the fifth inning against a foundering Harris. Rich Monck ended a full month of home run futility when he struck a monster blast to right on the first (and final) pitch offered by Harris – GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

The 8-2 lead briefly took the air out of the Thunder, but Thore hit a double into the gap to lead off the sixth, but then was stranded rather quickly. Jose Palominos hit a solo jack off Alba leading off the seventh, but Alba then struck out Johnny Parker, who threw his helmet in frustration and was ejected. Alf Mendez replaced him. Alba finished the inning, but gave up 2-out singles to ex-Coons Blackshire and Kozak on the way out before Almanza rolled over to Aoki. Alba was hit for with Bentley in the eighth inning, but by that point it had started to rain and the rain got pretty heavy very fast. Joe Napier finished the top 8th on the hill, but the game never came back from the between-inning break as the grounds crew threw the tarp on the field. It remained there for two hours before the game was called. 8-3 Furballs. Corral 2-4, 2B; Tallent 1-2, BB; Starr 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Alba 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (6-11);

In other news

July 20 – The Gold Sox trade SP Mike Lieb (6-6, 3.63 ERA) to the Buffaloes for two prospects. The deal includes the #72 prospect SP John Santamaria.
July 20 – Rebels SP Dan Garicia (5-7, 5.32 ERA) will miss the rest of the season after tearing his rotator cuff.
July 20 – A broken elbow ends the season of Pacifics 1B Alejandro Olivares (.262, 7 HR, 35 RBI).
July 22 – DEN 2B Miguel Ulloa (.293, 6 HR, 32 RBI) is a triple shy of the cycle in a 5-hit game with two RBI in the Gold Sox’ 13-9 loss to the Stars.
July 22 – Indy trades right-hander Antonio Pichardo (1-2, 3.96 ERA, 2 SV) to the Miners for a prospect.
July 23 – Tijuana acquires INF William McColgin (.255, 6 HR, 36 RBI) from the Gold Sox for a pair of prospects.
July 24 – VAN SP Ken Nielsen (8-2, 2.14 ERA) was going to miss at least a month with a strained oblique.
July 26 – WAS 3B/SS Zach Suggs (.263, 11 HR, 32 RBI) could miss the rest of the season after suffering a bruised kneecap.

FL Player of the Week: CIN RF/LF Roberto Soto (.366, 12 HR, 45 RBI), hitting .560 (14-25) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: DEN/TIJ INF William McColgin (.268, 7 HR, 41 RBI), bashing .556 (10-18) with 1 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

For a new low, this week we reached the point where all our starting outfielders (Spicer, Garmon, Corral) had a WAR of at least -1.0; Corral was still cursed (even though he went 8-26 with two walks this week, better than *nothing*), Garmon had never hit all year long, and Spicer was in a sub-.100 slump in the middle of the week, then sat against the southpaws, then did nothing but fail on Sunday. The air for him was getting rather thin as far as spending August in Portland was concerned.

Next time Cruz Madrid asks me why he’s not named closer, I’ll have him duct-taped to a chair and have him watch all his stupid game-losing gaffes on repeat for 26 hours straight. His eyes will also duct-taped wide open. Blinking is for winners!!

To be honest, the only player besides Joel Starr that hasn’t been going on my whiskers in the last couple of weeks is … uh… Chance Fox? He’s 2-1 with a 1.42 ERA across 38 innings in his last five starts right now.

You’ll never guess though, which player currently has the most WAR for the Raccoons this season.

Bruce Burkart started a rehab assignment on Friday, so we won’t suffer Scott Lawson for much longer. With Monday being off, he’s not going to get another starting assignment in this call-up for sure.

The Portland WAR-What-Is-It-Good-For?s would travel home via Vegas with a day off on Monday. The weekend would see the Falcons coming to Portland, as well as deadline day.

Fun Fact: The single-season record for losses in a season for a Raccoons starter is 21.

Gary Simmons posted that mark all the way back in 1981, his second and final season as a starter (and also his final season as a Critter). He went 3-21 with a 4.60 ERA, which, y’know, wasn’t *great*, but at times some offense would be nice.

Nakayama hasn’t had more than three runs of support in any of his last six games (all of which he lost), and more than one run of support just twice in that stretch. Overall he’s gotten seven runs of support three times, five runs once, four runs twice…. You get the vibe. For the season, his average run support is a spectacular 2.6 runs per game.

But if you give him 4+ runs, he’s 3-2 with a no-decision!

And he’s also the Raccoon with the most WAR this year. Yes, a guy with a 3-15 record was worth +2.3 WAR. If you replaced him with just any old can opener, than can opener would be 0-17.

[Westheim]

Trade

The Raccoons acquired right-handed MR Kody Mello (2-1, 3.82 ERA, 3 SV) from the Crusaders on Tuesday, with INF/LF/RF Yukio Aoki (.218, 2 HR, 19 RBI) and AA INF Esteban Gallegos going to New York.

The Raccoons were of course constantly looking for some blanket to smother the bullpen fire with, while Aoki had been made out as one of the main troublemakers in a tense clubhouse. Gallegos had been a scouting discovery some time ago and didn’t look like anything special or why any club would specifically ask for him.

Paul Barton (2-1, 5.40 ERA) was put on waivers to make room on the roster, while the Coons called up 1B Alex Vargas as a bench bat (neither him nor Starr were able to play any other position). Vargas had previously gone from the DL and a rehab assignment right back to an AAA regular.

Raccoons (40-59) @ Aces (47-50) – July 28-30, 2065

The Aces were fading from contention in the CL South with an active 5-game losing streak, but had swept the Raccoons in the first series between these teams in ’65. They ranked ninth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed, with a -5 run differential (Critters: -65). They were tops in stolen bases, but bottoms in home runs in the CL. For injuries they were without starters Matthew May and Adam Edge as well as outfielders Jaden Wilson and Don Lewis.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (8-9, 5.01 ERA) vs. Chris Monahan (7-8, 4.19 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-15, 3.78 ERA) vs. Dan Gaither (1-4, 4.53 ERA)
Nick Walla (4-4, 2.85 ERA) vs. Justin Reif (3-6, 5.09 ERA)

Those were all right-handers, however, the common off day on Monday allowed for the Aces to skip southpaw Josh Mayo (3-3, 5.54 ERA) into the series. That particular ex-Coon was now eight years removed from pitching wearing the brown shirt.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Arellano – LF Spicer – SS Novelo – CF Garmon – P Sanchez
LVA: RF A. Warner – SS Hatakeyama – LF Lorenzo – C A. Gomez – 1B A. Alfaro – 2B M. Roberts – CF Leggett – 3B C. Pena – P Monahan

The Raccoons got a blitz start on Tuesday with a walk issued by Monahan to Jose Corral and then Vic Morales right away cracked a 2-run homer. The Aces got one run right back though with singles for Koji Hatakeyama, who stole second, and Victor Lorenzo, who drove him in. In the third inning, Corral drew another walk, but then was doubled off by Morales, while Hatakeyama got on base again with a triple into the corner and then scored on Lorenzo’s sac fly, which tied the game.

No runs were scored and little base running took place in the middle innings, although the Aces stranded a pair in the bottom 6th, in which they also lost catcher Alex Gomez who limped off the field after legging out an infield single and was replaced with backup catcher Mark Reed. Top 7th, Spicer grounded out to begin against Monahan, but the bottom third of the order then hit a bushel of singles off the Aces’ righty. Juan Sanchez drove home Novelo to give himself a new 3-2 lead, and there were still runners on the corners with one out for Jose Corral, but he took a 3-2 pitch to Mike Roberts for a 4-6-3 double play…

Sanchez pitched into the bottom 8th despite a leadoff walk to Lorenzo. Reed grounded out and Alex Alfaro struck out in a full count. When a true right-handed batter appeared (Roberts), the Raccoons went to Carrillo, who threw one pitch for a liner to left, which Spicer managed to spear before it could dink in and tie the game, instead ending the inning. Dover then allowed a leadoff single to Wally Leggett in the bottom 9th, which put the tying run on base again, but then managed to get poor outs from Cesar Pena, Daniel Medford, and Aaron Warner to put the game away. 3-2 Coons. Garmon 2-3; Vargas (PH) 1-1; Sanchez 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (9-9) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Arellano – LF Bentley – SS Novelo – CF Tallent – P Nakayama
LVA: 1B M. Reed – RF A. Warner – LF Lorenzo – C Leggett – 3B A. Alfaro – 2B M. Roberts – CF LeVan – SS Hatakeyama – P Gaither

The Coons began the game with three straight doubles to right and scored one run in the top of the first, which probably required some explaining. Jose Corral was not content with a double and was immediately thrown out at third base, so we only had Starr drive in Morales, and then Monck and Arellano made meek outs and left Starr in scoring position. Meanwhile, Nakayama was in hot pursuit of that 16th loss when he gave up FOUR straight singles to begin his outing. Leggett, who was catching for some reason I couldn’t figure out, drove in Reed, who was not catching for some reason I couldn’t figure out, but Aaron Warner was thrown out at the plate. Nakayama nailed Alfaro, gave up a sac fly to Roberts, and then struck out Phil LeVan to leave two on base. The Coons flipped the score right away in the top 2nd; Novelo singled and stole second, then scored on a Tallent double to left. Nakayama hit an RBI single past Hatakeyama (pauses to realign his jaw) to give himself a 3-2 lead, much like Sanchez had done the day before. The Hatakeyama-Nakayama wars continued in the bottom 2nd with a leadoff single for the Aces shortstop, but he was left on base by the next three batters.

Portland added a run in the third with straight 2-out singles from the 5-6-7 batters, and Gaither was shredded for good in the fourth. He walked Nakayama leading off and got his just punishment for that when, after a Corral single and two outs, Rich Monck romped a 3-run homer to right off him, 7-2. His replacement Gabe Molina filled the bases before he got Tallent to fly out to center and strand three runners. Nakayama was still in the race for a silly loss though, allowing a single to Molina in the bottom 4th. Reed grounded out before Warner and Lorenzo both bashed 2-out RBI knocks off Nakayama, shortening the score to 7-4. Leggett then grounded out to Novelo. Rich Monck replied with a 2-out RBI double, scoring Morales, in the top 5th, before the sixth inning became the first in the game in which the Critters didn’t score. Nakayama finished six innings on the hill, spotty as they were, holding on to the 8-4 lead.

Top 8th, and following an inning in which the Raccoons loaded the bases in unearned fashion thanks to a Hatakeyama error, but didn’t score, Jesus Aquino allowed leadoff singles to Novelo and Tallent. Alex Vargas batted for Sansao Tyson, who had put up a zero in the bottom 7th, and doubled to center, driving in a run. Aquino walked Corral to make it three on, nobody out, walked in a run against Morales, saw another run score on a passed ball, and conceded another run on Starr’s single to right before being yoinked. Ubaldo Piteira, southpaw by birth, popped out Monck, but gave up an RBI single to Arellano. Lawson and Novelo then made outs, but the 5-run inning exploded the score to 13-4, by far the most support Nakayama had gotten in a game all year.

Of course the pen then had to **** all over the box score. Ricky Baca got the 9-run lead and turned it into a 5-run lead in the bottom 8th by giving up five hits, all scorchers, and had to be dug out by Cruz Madrid, who walked Roberts before ringing up LeVan to get the stupid inning over with. He got three more outs without issue in the ninth to finish the game. 13-8 Raccoons! Corral 3-5, 2 BB, 2 2B; Starr 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-6, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Arellano 3-5, BB, RBI; Bentley 2-5; Novelo 4-6, RBI; Tallent 3-6, 2B, RBI; Vargas (PH) 1-2, 2B, RBI;

Scott Lawson (.138, 1 HR, 6 RBI) returned to AAA at this point as the Coons reclaimed Bruce Burkart, who had batted .105 in a rehab assignment of six games.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Burkart – LF Bentley – SS Novelo – CF Garmon – P Walla
LVA: CF Marazzo – RF A. Warner – LF Lorenzo – C A. Gomez – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B M. Reed – 2B Medford – SS Leggett – P Reif

Alex Gomez was back in there after sitting out for a game, trying to catch a full game on a bad leg. He hit a sac fly in the bottom 1st to cash in Lorenzo, who had tripled home Aaron Warner and his infield single, so the Coons were right away in a 2-0 hole, which they climbed out of in the fourth inning, albeit in unearned fashion. Reif walked a batter in every inning to begin the game; in the fourth it was Novelo with one out after he had already brushed Burkart on base. Garmon hit an RBI single to right, and while Walla whiffed, Corral’s grounder to first was butchered by Reed for an error that allowed Novelo to score from third base and tie the game. Morales then grounded out to short to strand a pair.

Top 5th, and Joel Starr crammed a leadoff triple into the rightfield corner. Reif walked Monck intentionally, then Burkart unintentionally, which fille the bases. When he plated Starr with a wild pitch, the Aces put Bentley on base intentionally as well. Novelo hit a sac fly, 4-2, but Garmon grounded out an Walla whiffed again to end the inning. Walla was doing well in this stage of the game, even though he nicked Medford at one point, and the Coons got Reif out of the game in the sixth, where he walked Corral again, who scored on a pair of soft 1-out singles by Starr and Monck. Burkart’s single loaded the bases against Gabe Molina, who got Bentley to 1-2 before *drilling* him to force in a run. Novelo’s foul pop and Garmon’s fly to center ended the inning without a due score explosion. Instead Walla walked Warner when the bottom 6th commenced, and the Aces maneuvered him around with the help of a Gomez single, 6-3.

Walla singled to begin the seventh against Molina, who then *struck* another Coons batter in Corral. At this point, I just wanted to get out of town without any broken wrists and skulls… Molina struck out the next two batters, who probably had their pants full at this point, but Rich Monck didn’t care, got in there, and smacked a 2-out, 2-run double to extend the lead to 8-3. This turned out the final score; Walla went seven innings of 4-hit ball, while Garvey got two outs after that. Kody Mello made his Coons debut mopping up for the last four outs in a sweep to level the season series. 8-3 Furballs! Starr 3-4, 2 BB, 3B; Monck 2-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Garmon 2-5, RBI; Walla 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-4) and 1-4;

Raccoons (43-59) vs. Falcons (53-47) – July 31-August 2, 2065

Runs were hard to come by in Falcons games, the team sitting tenth in runs scored, but second in runs allowed. Despite their narrow +5 run differential, they were finding themselves leading a dense CL South, with four teams under a blanket and the Aces despite their L8 run just six games back. They had the best defense in the league, but were down a full set of outfielders that were on the DL: Dan Geiger, Tony Garcia, and Natsu Nakamura were all unavailable. The Falcons had already put away the season series against the Coons, winning five of the six games played so far.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (5-6, 3.92 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (9-4, 3.07 ERA)
Angel Alba (6-11, 4.72 ERA) vs. Jayden Craddock (9-5, 2.95 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (9-9, 4.84 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (11-7, 3.02 ERA)

Three right-handers and no reason to use their Monday off day to skip lefty Luis Palacios (4-5, 4.62 ERA) into the Sunday game.

Game 1
CHA: LF S. Brown – CF Padgett – C O. Matos – RF Jes. Martinez – 3B Healey – SS T. Taylor – 2B Duhe – 1B Valcarcel – P J. Lugo
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Burkart – LF Spicer – CF Tallent – SS Gardner – P Fox

Scott Brown opened the game with a single to left, but was doubled up by Cody Padgett. Lugo then allowed leadoff singles to Corral and Morales in the bottom 1st, balked them into scoring position and then passed on contending further with Joel Starr in a 3-0 count and put him on base. Monck popped out on the infield before Burkart’s grounder to third base resulted in an unusual 5-U out there, but Rick Healey, who had to go back a few steps to force out Morales, then couldn’t get a throw off to home or first anymore, and Corral scored with the game’s first run. Spicer loaded them back up with an infield single, but Tallent flew out to Brown. After all that fluffing about, Jesus Martinez unceremoniously punched a leadoff jack off Fox in the top 2nd to tie the game at one.

The third was uneventful, but the Coons had the 7-8 batters on base in the fourth inning. They pulled off a double steal, but Fox fanned and Corral grounded out to Jesus Valcarcel at first base to keep the pair in scoring position. Rich Monck then broke the tie with a solo homer in the bottom 5th, but Scott Brown whacked Fox for a leadoff double in the following half-inning and scored on productive outs by Padgett and Oscar Matos to get the teams right back level. Spicer singled and was caught stealing (…) in the bottom 6th while Fox had Morales fumble a Trent Taylor grounder for a free runner in the seventh. Both Jared Duhe and Jesus Valcarcel then launched drives to deep left and left-center, respectively, and somehow neither of them were able to beat the outfielders, both Spicer and Tallent making a running catch each to sneak Fox out of the inning. Fox then even got a lead spotted in the bottom 7th when Lugo lost both Corral and Starr on walked, then gave up a go-ahead RBI single to Monck. Burkart and Spicer grounded out, so the score remained 3-2. The ball went to Madrid in the eighth. He offered a leadoff walk to Joo-Chan Lee in the #9 hole, then painstakingly had to pitch around the pinch-runner Elijah Fountain, who ended up stranded on third base after three long counts for outs against the 1-2-3 batters. The Coons failed to tack on and then gave the ball to Dover again in the ninth. He drilled Jesus Martinez, but Healey grounded into a double play. Taylor singled with two outs, but Duhe grounded out to Novelo at third base to end the game. 3-2 Coons. Corral 2-3, BB, 2B; Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Spicer 2-4; Tallent 2-4, 2B; Fox 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (6-6);

Five in a row! For how bad the team was overall, we sure had our fair share of winning streaks of non-trivial length.

Losing streaks, too.

Game 2
CHA: CF Fountain – RF Padgett – C O. Matos – 1B Jes. Martinez – 3B Healey – 2B Duhe – SS T. Taylor – LF S. Brown – P Craddock
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Burkart – LF Bentley – SS Novelo – CF Garmon – P Alba

Martinez very nearly repeated his feat from Friday and hit a leadoff jack in the top 2nd, but the ball was a little short and Bentley made his way back in time to make the catch. Alba had to get around a 2-base throwing error by Burkart in the third inning, then an infield single by Padgett on a drag bunt to begin the fourth inning. Padgett stole second on a 3-2 pitch that struck out Jesus Martinez for the second out, but Alba then walked Healey. Duhe flew out to left to strand a pair. Rich Monck seemed to be finding his groove now and opened the scoring with a leadoff jack in the bottom 4th. Trent Taylor hit a leadoff double to left-center to begin the top of the fifth, but Alba worked his way around that one, too, with Fountain popping out to Morales in foul ground to keep the tying run stranded, six feet away from where the third out was made, while a Corral homer in the bottom 5th ran the score to 2-0.

The Coons then bobbled two runners after the Corral homer, and two more in the sixth, while Alba was constantly battling base runners. Taylor and Brown went to the corners with a pair of hits to left with one out in the seventh, but Scott Moore, batting for Craddock, jammed into a 4-6-3 double play to get Alba out of trouble *again*! It was his final escape in the game, as he was up to 99 pitches, most of them under quite some pressure. The Coons in the bottom 7th got Starr and Monck on against Brett Lillis jr. before Burkart blundered into a double play himself.

New toy Mello got three straight outs from the 1-2-3 batters in the eighth inning which was a rather unusual sight both in this game and from any Raccoons reliever at all. How comforting was it then when Juan Carrillo got the ball in the ninth, and gave up not one, but TWO 1-out triples to Healey and Duhe? That put the tying run right at third base, and Taylor’s groundout scored that tying run to blow the lead Alba had fought so hard for. Baca ended the inning before the Coons’ 2-3-4 would come up against lefty Jason Stine. Starr hit a 1-out double, but everybody else grounded out calmly, and the game went to overtime, where Rich Monck made a diving catch on a Padgett liner, but then left the game with back pain. (facepaws!) Baca then gave up a 2-out single to Matos, and Dover replaced him, but gave up more singles to Martinez and Healey as well as the go-ahead run, before Duhe grounded out. Southpaw Ryan De Jong removed Tallent, Novelo, and Garmon in order in the bottom 10th to end the Coons’ winning streak. 3-2 Falcons. Corral 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Monck 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Garmon 2-4, BB; Arellano (PH) 1-1, 2B; Alba 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Rich Monck would be day-to-day for at least a few days with mild back spasms and would not be in the lineup on Sunday at the very least (and probably longer).

Just when he started to pop homers…!!

Game 3
CHA: LF S. Brown – CF Padgett – C O. Matos – RF Jes. Martinez – 3B Healey – SS T. Taylor – 2B Duhe – 1B Valcarcel – P Ledbetter
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Spicer – 2B Tallent – CF Garmon – P Sanchez

Sanchez faced the minimum the first time through as Healey singled but was doubled up by Taylor in the second inning for the only disturbance on the bases. The Coons had hardly any more on offense in the early innings. Cody Padgett hit an infield single in the fourth and was caught stealing, but Matos hit another single and Jesus Martinez cranked a 400-footer to put the Falcons up 2-0. Brown drove in another two runs in the fourth with a 2-out single, cashing in Duhe and Valcarcel to double the score. Ledbetter allowed a double to Arellano, two singles, and struck out seven through five shutout innings and appeared to be cruising comfortably.

The page turned in the bottom 6th, however. Morales hit a solo homer to get the Coons on the board, and then Ledbetter just couldn’t get the third out. Arellano doubled again, Spicer singled, and Tallent singled home Arellano. Garmon’s fly to right was caught by Martinez, though, and kept the tying runs on base. Sanchez went seven before Alex Vargas hit for him and drove a ball to deep right, but Martinez got back and made the catch – the 36-year-old Cuban (and briefly a Critter) wasn’t a Gold Glover for nothing. Novelo hit a 2-out double to left, but Morales popped out and left him on base.

Jeremy Garvey had a meltdown in the eighth, putting all three batters he faced on base. Mello replaced him, got a double play grounder from Martinez, but then, with one run already in, bobbled another walk to Healey, an RBI single to Taylor, and the Falcons were back out to a 4-game lead at 6-2, before Duhe made the last out. The Coons had nothing in the eighth, but the ninth began with Joe Gardner singling off Matt Maylath in Tallent’s spot. Garmon and Burkart made outs, but Corral squeezed out a walk in a full count, prompting a move to De Jong. He needed one pitch to pop out Novelo and end the game. 6-2 Falcons. Novelo 2-5, 2B; Arellano 2-4, 2 2B; Gardner (PH) 1-1;

In other news

July 27 – The Indians deal SP Kelly Whitney (5-7, 4.62 ERA) to the Blue Sox for two prospects, including the #18 prospect SP Pablo Apodaca.
July 28 – RF/LF Scott Laws (.259, 0 HR, 10 RBI) is sent from the Bayhawks to the Miners for a prospect.
July 31 – Buffos SP Sean Sweeton (6-8, 4.17 ERA) will miss at least a month; the 39-year-old had suffered a quad strain.
August 1 – VAN SP Adam Foley (3-4, 4.48 ERA) is diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff. Whether the 38-year-old can come back from 12 months’ worth of reconvalescence remains to be seen.
August 2 – NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.251, 28 HR, 72 RBI) has a busy day in a 16-8 blowout of the Gold Sox, crashing two homers for five RBI and also drawing three walks. He scored four runs.
August 2 – Aces SP Tim Henderson (9-6, 2.96 ERA) also faces 12 months on the sidelines with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.

FL Player of the Week: WAS INF Angelo Flores (.312, 12 HR, 55 RBI), batting .500 (13-26) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR INF Rich Monck (.268, 12 HR, 60 RBI), slapping .409 (9-22) with 3 HR, 10 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Chad Pritchett (.326, 21 HR, 94 RBI), bashing .333 with 7 HR, 29 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: ATL UT Carlos Fumero (.312, 6 HR, 49 RBI), hitting .402 with 3 HR, 25 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SFW SP Phil Baker (11-4, 2.88 ERA), going 4-0 with a 1.22 ERA, 33 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Danny Ortiz (10-9, 3.90 ERA), posting a 5-1 mark with 2.20 ERA, 23 K
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.300, 4 HR, 38 RBI), batting .380 with 2 HR, 15 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.350, 6 HR, 47 RBI), clipping .412 with 2 HR, 24 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Player of the Week Rich Monck had appeared in all of the team’s first 104 games before his back acted up (and just as he was getting into a power groove…). He missed Sunday, so that’s over, and he’s likely to sit out the entire Bayhawks series unless we need a pinch-hitting stick really urgently.

Nobody really noticed, but Marcos Arellano has a 12-game hitting streak going, including three pinch-hitting 1-for-1’s. Now that Bruce Burkart is back, it will be even harder to maintain it, though.

Now that the deadline is passed, how’s big loot and #2 prospect A.J. Taylor doing in Ham Lake? Great. Just great. Through 21 games, he’s hitting .107 and contracted a tight back.

The Raccoons drop down to San Francisco for a 3-game set at the Bay beginning on Monday. We’ll then have another homestand against the Crusaders and Elks. No off day until the 13th; and also no ballgame to the East of the Rockies until the 31st of the month.

Fun Fact: Nick Walla claimed the 7,500th regular season W for the team on Thursday by beating the Aces.

Fine timing for somebody that couldn’t win a game in the majors for quite a while this year. He went five starts, going 0-2 with a 3.15 ERA before finally beating the Indians with a complete game on June 5. In fact he had now won consecutive games for the first time in his career.

Through 17 ABL starts (one last season), he was now 6-4 with a 2.78 ERA and a 3.2 K/BB rate. None of this was particularly shabby for a #50 pick that didn’t light up the prospect rankings until being named #37 prospect for this season, and who was developing into a candidate for Rookie of the Year honors.

Let’s just not talk about how Malcolm Spicer’s ROTY campaign was going…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (44-61) @ Bayhawks (45-60) – August 3-5, 2065

This series assembled the two teams that gave up the most runs in the Continental League, with the Bayhawks out-sucking the Raccoons in that regard, but not by much. They were also 11th in runs scored, compared to 8th for the Critters, who also led the season series, 4-2. While we were probably going to play the entire series without much input from Rich Monck and his aching back, the Bayhawks had Armando Montoya, Dustin Cox, Nate Navarre, and Ian Streng on the DL, reducing an already awful lineup to even less.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (4-15, 3.88 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (8-9, 4.52 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-4, 2.92 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (8-8, 4.28 ERA)
Chance Fox (6-6, 3.83 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (10-3, 3.35 ERA)

The Bayhawks had only right-handers to throw at the Critters.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Burkart – LF Bentley – CF Garmon – 2B Gardner – P Nakayama
SFB: CF J. Echols – CF Blackham – RF J. Paez – 1B J. McLaughlin – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B Jer. White – SS Gaines – C L. Marquez – P Egley

The Baybirds took a 1-0 lead on three singles in the first, as Nakayama, off a rare W, failed to get any between Jonathan Echols, Juan Paez, and Jared McLaughlin out. The Coons equalized immediately, though, as Egley lost Burkart and Garmon on balls, and then gave up a scratch, 2-out RBI single to Joe Gardner. Nakayama grounded out to Dan Sandoval to end the inning, then right away gave up two more singles to Tony Gaines and Lorenzo Marquez. Egley’s bunt was bad and got Marquez forced out at second, but Echols’ sac fly and a David Blackham triple each plated another San Fran run. Nakayama walked Paez before McLaughlin flew out to John Bentley in deep left.

Nakayama would only last five innings, allowing ten total hits in a persistent Bayhawks barrage, although they did not score another run off him. Much the contrary, Nakayama scored a run in the top 5th after a leadoff single and getting moved around far enough to score on a 2-out single by Starr, but that only shortened the score to 3-2, and Burkart made the last out there. While the Raccoons did nothing for him in the top of the sixth, he was spared that 16th loss, though; Ricky Baca had a 1-2-3 sixth, and then in the seventh the Coons flipped the score on Egley, starting with a pinch-hit 1-out double by Alex Vargas. Corral flew out, but Pablo Novelo tied the game with a single to left. Egley then walked Vic Morales, then gave up the go-ahead RBI single to Joel Starr. Burkart’s fly to right-center was caught by Paez to end the inning. Paez then drew a walk off Carrillo to begin the bottom 7th, stole second, and from there scored on two productive outs to tie the score at four.

Rich Monck made an unexpected pinch-hitting appearance in the 4-4 tie with two outs in the ninth inning. Vic Morales had just reached base on an error by Zach DeWitt at short, and Starr had sat down in favor of Vargas and had the pitcher in his spot now. Monck batted for Sansao Tyson, but grounded out to second base, and Cruz Madrid did not allow a run in the bottom 9th, sending the game to extras, which began with a ground-rule double to left by Bruce Burkart, bouncing one over the fence off Zach Johnson, who was left over from the ninth inning. Bentley was walked intentionally before the 7-8-9 made three poor outs to keep Burkart and Bentley on base. The first two Coons were on again in the 11th with a soft Corral single to center and a line drive double to left by Novelo, both setting up camp in scoring position against Roberto Mendez. Morales lined out to short before Arellano and his 12-game hitting streak batted for Madrid – and he singled to center! Only Corral scored, but the tie was broken and the streak extended to 13 games, somehow! Burkart then swiftly grounded into a double play to end the inning. Garvey was the only rested pitcher available in the pen anymore, and he began the bottom 11th by allowing a single to Mike Rybarczyk in the #9 hole. DeWitt grounded to Morales, who threw the ball away for an error. Blackham walked, and the bags were full with nobody out. Paez’ grounder to short was taken for two by Novelo, which allowed the Baybirds to tie the game, but we needn’t worry about who was gonna pitch in even deeper extra innings since McLaughlin was kind enough to hit a 2-out walkoff single… 6-5 Bayhawks. Corral 2-6; Novelo 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Morales 2-5; Starr 2-4, 2 RBI; Arellano (PH) 1-1, RBI; Gardner 2-5, RBI; Vargas (PH) 1-3, 2B; Madrid 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

(tortured sigh)

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Burkart – LF Spicer – CF Tallent – 2B Gardner – P Walla
SFB: SS Gaines – CF Blackham – RF J. Paez – 1B J. McLaughlin – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B Jer. White – LF Escalera – C L. Marquez – P Musgrave

Like Nakayama, Walla gave up a run on three singles in the bottom 1st, Dan Sandoval plating David Blackham to get the Baybirds on the board, but Joel Starr had none of that and slapped a leadoff jack in the second to get the teams even again. Spicer legged out an infield single in the same inning, stole second and reached third when Marquez’ throw got away from Tony Gaines, and then scored the go-ahead run on Tallent’s groundout. Joel Starr got another RBI in the third inning, in which Musgrave put Corral and Novelo on base with one out before ringing up Morales. Starr singled through the right side, getting Corral home from second base, 3-1, but Sandoval then speared a sharp bouncer by Burkart and got the third out of the inning.

Spicer hit another single in the fourth but was doubled up by Tallent this time, as the super utility grounded into a 6-4-3. Instead, Tony Gaines popped a solo homer to right in the fifth, reducing the lead to 3-2. Apart from that, Walla kept the Bayhawks relatively short of base runners. After the three singles in the first inning, and including the Gaines homer, he allowed just three hits total in the following six innings.

Top 8th, and the Coons had an unearned three on, nobody out situation as Starr reached base on a Gaines error to get the frame underway. Burkart then walked and Spicer dinked in a shy single behind the shortstop. San Fran brought Roberto Mendez for Musgrave, Tallent popped out in foul ground, and Gardner grounded to Jeremy White, but the Bayhawks *just* couldn’t turn the double play and Starr scored with an unearned run, 4-2. Walla then batted for himself, grounding out, but had a quick 1-2-3 bottom 8th and had enough oxygen left to go the distance after almost all the relievers were involved on Monday. The Coons put Novelo on base and left him there in the ninth, while Walla gave up a leadoff double through Morales to Sandoval in the ninth, and still remained on the hill. Sandoval scored on productive outs by White and Jose Escalera, but Marquez’ easy fly to Spicer ended the game. 4-3 Coons. Novelo 3-5; Starr 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Spicer 3-4; Walla 9.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (6-4);

Since the next off day was still eight days away, the Coons were looking to give the regulars a rest in the rubber game. However, as along as Rich Monck was day-to-day, only one between Novelo, Morales, and Gardner could be on the bench. Morales got the day off on Wednesday then.

Game 3
POR: LF Bentley – SS Novelo – C Arellano – 1B Starr – 3B Tallent – RF Spicer – CF Garmon – 2B Gardner – P Fox
SFB: CF Blackham – C Bogdan – RF J. Paez – 2B Jer. White – 1B J. McLaughlin – LF K. Fisher – 3B Gaines – SS Rybarczyk – P Wittman

Wittman walked the first two Critters on Wednesday, and Arellano wasted no time getting his unlikely hitting streak to 14 games with a single to left that also loaded the bases with nobody out. The next three batters each hit a sharp RBI single; Starr to center, Tallent to left, and Spicer to center again. Wittman then walked in another run against Corey Garmon, while Joe Gardner made the first out with a sac fly to right-center. Fox batted before he pitched, whiffing, and Bentley grounded out, but Foxie Brown now had a 5-0 lead. Blackham opened with a single for the Baybirds, but Bryan Bogdan blundered into a 5-4-3 double play. The top 2nd began with a throwing error by Rybarczyk, putting Novelo on base. Arellano singled, Starr popped out, but Tallent walked the bags full before Spicer – suddenly unfrozen? – spanked a 2-run double to left, 7-0. Garmon killed Wittman with another 2-run double to right-center. Steve Smith replaced him; the right-hander got Gardner on strikes, but then allowed an RBI double to Fox with two outs, settling Wittman’s line at ten runs allowed in 1.1 innings. “Only” eight were earned, but Fox surely knew that kind of pain, having been brutally dismembered in a 10-run game himself earlier this year before apparently righting himself.

Fox wasn’t particularly sharp; the Bayhawks loaded the bases without scoring in the third inning, and a McLaughlin single and Kyle Fisher’s RBI double got them at least on the board for a run in the fourth, although Fisher was then stranded when the 7-8-9 made straight poor outs. The leadoff man Blackham was on with another leadoff single in the fifth, and was again doubled off by Bogdan. Fox allowed only one run through five, but scattered seven hits and threw 68 pitches, so it wasn’t *great*, but for the time being surely good enough. The Portland offense was in lawn chair mode after the early tenner until Bayhawks righty Rich Krogman filled the bags all the way down in the seventh inning. Novelo and Tallent hit singles before Krogman nicked Spicer with two outs. However, Garmon flew out to left and nobody scored. Fox went seven innings on 102 pitches eventually, getting bailed out of a jam when Tallent started a 5-3 double play in the bottom 7th. Carrillo and Baca then got the last outs in the game with little panic involved, but the Coons finished the game without scoring any runs in the last seven innings after the early assault. 10-1 Furballs. Novelo 2-5, BB; Arellano 3-6; Starr 2-5, RBI; Spicer 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Garmon 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Morales (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (7-6);

Raccoons (46-62) vs. Crusaders (61-47) – August 6-9, 2065

The Crusaders had whittled the Titans’ lead, which had been double digits in June, down to five games at this point, so the Raccoons came just at the right time for them now, since they were 5-2 on the Coons this year. New York ranked fourth in runs scored and runs allowed, with a +57 run differential (Critters: -49). They didn’t hit homers all that much, but ranked second in stolen bases in the CL. Their bullpen was a source of constant bother with an ERA well over four.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (6-11, 4.47 ERA) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (5-1, 3.14 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (9-10, 4.86 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (10-6, 3.04 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (4-15, 3.93 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (6-9, 4.39 ERA)
Nick Walla (6-4, 2.92 ERA) vs. TBD

Fitzgibbon was the only southpaw. Sunday would be the spot of Erik Lee (6-8, 3.85 ERA), but he had left his last start with a blister and was day-to-day. If he could not go, we’d perhaps get Ben Seiter (13-5, 2.72 ERA) on short rest.

No longer day-to-day: Rich Monck, who was back in the lineup even against the lefty in the opener. Instead, Starr had a day off.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – 1B M. Velazquez – LF A. Romero – C P. Gonzales – P Fitzgibbon
POR: SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Vargas – C Burkart – LF Tallent – CF Garmon – P Alba

Alba got a flogging right out of the gate as Omar Sanchez singled, stole second, scored on Steve Dilly’s single, and Kazuhide Takeuchi romped a homer to left, 3-0. After surviving some of Vic Morales’ usual defensive sabotage in the second inning, Alba settled into more of a groove and didn’t allow much to the New Yorkers in the next innings, but the Raccoons’ offense was also fast asleep against Fitzgibbon until the bottom of the fifth, which began with single by Randy Tallent, who stole second. Garmon walked, and both did the double steal. Alba grounded out to the pitcher, but Novelo drove in both runs with a single to right-center, 3-2. Corral flew out, Morales walked, but Monck’s fly to center was caught by Bryant Box to end the inning. Takeuchi answered the uprising with a solo homer in the sixth.

Both starters went seven in the 4-2 game; while Alba was hit for with Spicer in the bottom 7th, and Spicer singled and was then doubled off by Novelo, Fitzgibbon appeared in the bottom 8th, but was lifted following a leadoff walk to Corral. Left-hander Bill Grau replaced him, who allowed a single to Morales, then departed for another lefty, Pedro Mendoza, who quelled the threat by getting a 4-6-3 grounder from Monck and popping out Vargas. Instead the Crusaders added another run in the ninth against Sansao Tyson, who walked Mike Velazquez, gave up a bloop single to Pedro Gonzales, and then a sharp RBI single to Eddie Menchaca. The run proved unnecessary as the Coons went down quickly in the ninth. 5-2 Crusaders. Morales 2-3, BB; Spicer (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
NYC: CF Box – 2B Cline – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – LF Menchaca – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P Jer. Washington
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Burkart – LF Spicer – CF Garmon – SS Gardner – P J. Sanchez

Juan Sanchez struck out seven across six innings, which was all we could get from him due to numerous long counts. Along the way he allowed one run in the third inning, when Bryant Box led off with a double and scored on productive outs by Jake Cline and Omar Sanchez. That was the only run in the game when Juan Sanchez was pinch-hit for to begin the bottom 6th; the Coons did not only not have a run, they also didn’t have a hit against Washington, only reaching on an error and a hit-by-pitch by that point. Vargas grounded out in Sanchez’ spot before Corral hit a soft single to break up the no-hitter, but that was as far as the offense got in that inning.

Worse yet, when the seventh inning began, Rich Monck was nowhere to be seen and Randy Tallent was manning second base for reasons yet to be discovered, but just to be sure I opened a bottle of Capt’n Coma. Kody Mello also gave up a pinch-hit 2-run homer to Alex Romero in that inning, so the score was moving away form the Coons. Garvey and Carrillo got the Coons through the rest of regulation, but the Raccoons did nothing against Washington for eight innings then saw Starr and Burkart go to the corners against luxuriously paid, oddly misplaced closer Ricardo Montoya, promoting the tying run to the plate with one out in the bottom 9th. It was also the pitcher’s spot, since Spicer had been removed in a double switch earlier. Arellano struck out in that spot, and once Garmon grounded out to second, that also ended Arellano’s hitting streak. 3-0 Crusaders.

Luis Silva reported on Saturday that Rich Monck had strained an oblique and was going to miss up to six weeks, which at this point was almost all that remained in this wretched season (for Monck *and* the team). So he was off to the DL, and the Raccoons had to reach down to AAA again.

At this point of the season, the infield pickings there were rather slim so we considered using Tallent as an infielder more and instead got a right-handed outfielder, LF/CF Marquise Early, a 24-year-old seventh-rounder from 2060 that was hitting .310 between Ham Lake and St. Pete this year. Power wasn’t his game, but he had a bit of speed. Defense was ho-hum, but he had a very patient eye – so patient that he had posted a *.480* OBP in Ham Lake, drawing 46 walks in just 39 games before getting promoted.

Game 3
NYC: M. Velazquez – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – 2B Cline – LF Jose Alvarez – CF Menchaca – RF A. Romero – C M. Nieto – P Kozloski
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Arellano – CF Garmon – 2B Tallent – P Nakayama

Nakayama faced the minimum the first time through (while not getting any run support once more) but then gave up a jack to Velazquez to begin the fourth, walked Sanchez, who made ground on two outs before being balked across the plate, and then still surrendered a triple to Jose Alvarez before Menchaca grounded out to Tallent to end the dismal inning. Surprisingly, that woke up the Coons, and Starr and Novelo hit leadoff singles before de-hitting-streaked Marcos Arellano bashed an RBI double to right-center. Garmon tied the game with a sac fly before the inning fizzled out.

After a calm fifth, Novelo hit a 1-out double in the sixth, but was stranded by Arellano and Garmon. Nakayama went through seven innings of 2-hit, 2-run ball, never blinking besides that most unfortunate fourth inning. Tyson was then dismembered in the eighth, giving up leadoff doubles to Kozloski (…) and Takeuchi before walking Omar Sanchez and being disposed of. Madrid replaced him; his first pitch was wild, and while Dilly made a poor out, Jake Cline then singled home two runs as the Coons had another bullpen ***********. Baca came in, gave up two screamers for hits and two more runs to the left-handed Alvarez and Romero, and the Crusaders ended up deciding the game with a 5-spot.

Or did they? Morales began the bottom 8th with a single off Kozloski, who then walked Starr and was removed. Bill Grau allowed a single to Novelo and was replaced with Dave Hyman, who got Arellano to hit into a force at home, then left for Pedro Mendoza, who faced PH Alex Vargas grounding to third base, where Dilly dallied the ball for an error and a run scored. Jose Robledo replaced Mendoza, through one pitch for a 2-run double for Tallent, then was yanked for Matt Shapira, who allowed a sac fly to the pinch-hitting Burkart before getting Corral to fly out. The Coons had scored four runs (three earned) and the score was right back down to 7-6. Garvey had a 1-2-3 ninth inning before Johnny McRae, a 28-year-old guy on his third cup of coffee, tried his luck with a save against the 2-3-4 batters. Spicer popped out, Morales grounded out, and Starr flew out to deep center… 7-6 Crusaders. Novelo 4-4, 2 2B; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

Marquise Early made his ABL debut as a ninth-inning defensive replacement in centerfield, but since the Coons went down in order in their half of the ninth inning, didn’t get to swing a stick.

It was then Seiter on short rest on Sunday indeed as Erik Lee was not ready to pitch yet.

Game 4
NYC: 1B M. Velazquez – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Jose Alvarez – CF Menchaca – C P. Gonzales – P Seiter
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Burkart – CF Tallent – 2B Gardner – P Walla

Vic Morales’ solo homer in the bottom 1st marked the first run on Sunday, but Walla was all over the place and soon behind. Omar Sanchez singled and was caught stealing in the first, but the Crusaders loaded them up in the second before Walla escaped against Seiter. He then walked Velazquez to begin the third, Sanchez doubled, and Dilly singled both of them in to flip the score, then was doubled off on a Takeuchi grounder. Dilly didn’t live to see the fourth inning, though, as he went flying in an on-base collision with Jose Corral in the bottom 3rd. Corral was going first-to-third on a Spicer single to right, but Takeuchi’s throw beat him to the base, although it put Dilly into his sliding path. The runner was out, the inning ended, but the Crusaders also had to put ex-Coon Juan Ojeda at third base from there.

Walla’s struggles continued in the fourth as Alvarez singled up the middle and he walked Menchaca in a full count. After some pitchcraft advisory on the hill, he got a 4-6-3 grounder from Gonzales and again eloped with a K on Seiter. Didn’t help, though; Velazquez hit another leadoff single in the fifth, Ojeda was nicked, and Takeuchi’s RBI double and Cline’s RBI groundout extended New York’s lead to 4-1. Walla got out of the inning with a K on Alvarez, but was then not seen again after a shoddy outing.

Bottom 6th, and singles by Bentley in the #9 hole, Spicer, and Morales loaded the bases against Seiter, presenting Joel Starr with the tying runs and one out. Seiter’s short rest perhaps showed with a lazy 1-1 pitch that was easily bashable, and Starr obliged with a bases-clearing double into the left-center gap! Seiter battled his way out of the inning in a 4-4 tie, but was then whisked away.

The tie held into the ninth inning, where Cruz Madrid retired the Crusaders’ 1-2-3 batters in order. Bill Grau had gone the eighth for New York but remained on the hill to begin the bottom 9th as the Coons tried to avoid getting swept. Burkart, Tallent, and Gardner disappeared in order, however, and the game went to overtime. The attempt to have Madrid go two innings immediately backfired when he filled the bases rather briskly in the tenth inning. Pedro Gonzales hit a 2-run single to break the tie before Ricky Baca came in, struck out Box and Velazquez, and we got to see Ricardo Montoya again. Marquise Early batted for Baca to begin the bottom 10th, making his first appearance wielding a stick in the majors. Montoya had him for breakfast, then pitched around a Corral single to finish the sweep. 6-4 Crusaders. Spicer 2-5; Morales 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Starr 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Bentley (PH) 1-1;

In other news

August 3 – The Miners beat the Warriors, 6-5 in 19 innings. The first nine extra innings are all scoreless before the Warriors break the 4-4 tie in the top of the 19th inning, only to give up two runs immediately after for a walkoff, affected by a walkoff single by PIT OF Sal Andon (.254, 9 HR, 43 RBI).
August 4 – The Loggers beat the Condors, 1-0 in ten innings, the only run scoring on a pinch-hit single by third-string catcher Jerry Chinea (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI).
August 5 – NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.251, 28 HR, 72 RBI) could miss the rest of the month with an oblique strain.
August 6 – The Titans put ten runs on the Indians in the ninth inning alone for a crushing 15-3 win.
August 7 – ATL SS Casey Ramsey (.306, 8 HR, 42 RBI) has put a 20-game hitting streak together. The mark is reached with three singles and an RBI in an 8-4 defeat to the Thunder.
August 8 – Cyclones INF Jordan Hernandez (.284, 5 HR, 57 RBI) is a homer shy of the cycle in a 5-hit game that the Cyclones lose to the Buffaloes, 5-4. Hernandez, despite five hits, has no RBI’s.
August 8 – ATL C Justin Hart (.373, 4 HR, 27 RBI) hits a home run for all the runs in a 2-0 win against the Thunder. Teammate Casey Ramsey (.302, 8 HR, 42 RBI) is held hitless by Oklahoma City, ending his 20-game hitting streak.

FL Player of the Week: DEN 2B/SS Oscar Aredondo (.294, 5 HR, 37 RBI), hitting .367 (11-30) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB OF David Blackham (.252, 6 HR, 34 RBI), batting .444 (12-27) with 1 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The good news: only 50 more games.

We’re not only incompetent, we’re also very fair and try not to interfere with the race for the division: the Switzerland Raccoons are 2-9 this year against both Boston and New York! The Loggers might be complaining, since we’re a slightly more respectable 4-8 against them (and the Elks, too). The Indians are the only team we’re beating this year in our division (9-3). In fact, that’s 21-37 in division and 25-29 outside of it. We should play the Baybirds more often…

Spicer is somewhat back on the horse now and he’s still in the race for the stolen base title. Spicy has taken 35 bags by force, one behind Vic Lorenzo of the Aces. I won’t have any unfavorable Yoshi Yamada comparisons here – Spicer still has an 82 OPS+ which is *twice* as much (to the point!) as what Yamada had in his single full season in the majors, winning the CL stolen base title with 54 stolen bags as the Coons shortstop while batting .208/.238/.258. Yamada did have a nice glove at short though, so he was worth only -0.2 WAR, not -0.9 like Spicer right now (although that’s up from a season-worst of -1.2 earlier…).

The Elks will come in for three days now, and we’ll be in Sacramento on the weekend for a three-game set that is framed by off days on either side. After that waits a 2-week homestand with the Blue Sox, Titans, Loggers, and Condors. Lots of home games in August, but only 12 more in September and October then.

Fun Fact: Randy Tallent played at all seven of his positions in both 2062 (with the Elks) and 2064 (with the Critters).

This year, he’s only missing shortstop for the full package. With Rich Monck out for six weeks, his chance might come eventually…

For his career, Tallent – never a regular by any stretch of the imagination – has played more than 100 innings at six of his positions, excluding first base. He is most frequently used in rightfield (495.1 innings) and centerfield (352.1), followed by shortstop (240.2), third base (175), leftfield (154), second base (123), and first base (27).

[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-66) vs. Canadiens (54-57) – August 10-12, 2065

The Raccoons would try to stink up to the Elks again, which so far had worked out to a .333 success rate across 12 games this season. The Elks were sixth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed. They had three pitchers on the DL, including starters Ken Nielsen and Adam Foley, which certainly wasn’t helping their ninth-ranked rotation.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (7-6, 3.67 ERA) vs. Tzu-jao Ruan (0-0, 1.42 ERA)
Angel Alba (6-12, 4.50 ERA) vs. Josh Tarver (0-0)
Juan Sanchez (9-11, 4.72 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (9-6, 3.32 ERA)

Tzu-jao Ruan was not to be confused with Tzu-jao Ban. Josh Tarver was a 20-year-old right-hander taken by the Knights with the #26 pick in 2063. The Elks had acquired him by trading Erik Swain in July 2064, and he was the #30 prospect in the ABL. He would make his major league debut. Villegas was the only southpaw we were expecting.

Game 1
VAN: 1B N. Vaughn – SS C. Castro – CF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – LF Whetstine – 2B Yue – 3B Spalding – P Ruan
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Burkart – CF Garmon – 2B Gardner – P Fox

Chance Fox was probably due for a waffling and got it in the Monday opener. He walked two of the first three batters before Roberto Lozada doubled home Carlos Castro, but Rick Atkins was thrown out at the plate. Steve Varner added an RBI single. Chad Whetstine made the third out in the inning, but Hsi-chuen Yue socked a leadoff homer – his first ABL longball – over the wall in left in the top 2nd, and Ruan struck a triple into the corner with one out, but remained stranded because Vaughn struck out and Castro grounded out. Whetstine hit another homer to begin the fourth inning. Fox then walked Yue, Steven Spalding singled, and a Morales error on Ruan’s bunt allowed Yue to score from third base. Fox allowed another 2-out walk to Atkins before being yanked, with Mello allowing another run on an RBI single by Lozada. The last three runs were unearned, which still left Fox with four earned runs in 3.2 innings. Whetstine and Yue then got Mello for a run on a pair of doubles in the fifth to run the score to 8-0, because of course the Raccoons were not even trying. Carrillo amounted to two more runs in the sixth, allowing a leadoff walk to Castro, an Atkins triple, and a sac fly. The Coons ran out of relievers by the eighth inning and Novelo got the ball in the ninth. He got a scoreless inning (but put two on base) like Dover and Garvey in the previous two innings. The Coons scored one sodden run in the middle innings when Spicer hit an infield single, stole his 36th bag, and was singled home by Vic Morales. That was it. The Coons loaded the bases with Jose Salazar pitching and two outs in the bottom 9th, but Novelo flew out to left. But what were we expecting from the pitcher batting…? 10-1 Canadiens. Morales 3-5, RBI; Garmon 2-4;

Game 2
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF R. Atkins – LF Whetstine – C Newman – RF N. Vaughn – 1B R. Cordero – 3B Spalding – P Tarver
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Arellano – 2B Tallent – C Garmon – P Alba

Angel Alba allowed a 2-run homer to Rico Cordero in the second inning after walking Vaughn ahead of him, so that was sub-optimal. On the bright paw, he only allowed three hits in the first six innings, however, the Coons were similarly inept at the plate against a 20-year-old making his ******* ABL debut. They had three hits in seven innings and didn’t mount much of an actual threat until Morales and Starr went to the corners with two outs in the bottom 6th, but then Novelo grounded out to Matt Kilday. Alba was replaced in a double switch after seven innings, with Tyson going in along with Marquise Early in center; Early hit his first career single off Tarver, but the Coons never got that runner off first base either. Tarver was still going in the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead, but was removed after Joel Starr flew out to Whetstine on the warning track. Jon McGinley walked Novelo, but got a double play grounder from Arellano. 2-0 Canadiens. Garmon 1-2, BB; Early 1-1; Alba 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (6-13);

This team. Especially against *that* team.

Game 3
VAN: 2B Kilday – SS C. Castro – RF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – LF Whetstine – 1B N. Vaughn – 3B Spalding – P J. Villegas
POR: SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 1B Vargas – 2B Tallent – CF Garmon – LF Early – P J. Sanchez

Sanchez allowed a single to Castro in the first, then walked the bags full and surrendered two runs on a sharp Whetstine single to center, so the Raccoons just couldn’t catch a break until Alex Vargas came to bat with Burkart on base after a leadoff single in the bottom 2nd; Vargas, who wasn’t getting a lot of playing time, slapped a home run over the fence in left and the game was tied. 2-run homers kept coming, next with Novelo doubling and Corral bashing a homer to right for a 4-2 lead in the third inning!

Villegas only lasted three innings before being hit for, while Sanchez went six before tuckering himself out with a lot of erratic pitches, plenty of long counts, and at the same time the Elks had only five base runners against him…? Still took 98 pitches to get through six innings for the left-hander. Garvey replaced him, walked Cordero to begin the seventh, and then painstakingly stalked around that runner to keep the 4-2 lead intact.

Bottom 7th, Robbie Lingard put the 1-2-3 batters on base with a single, walk, and single to begin the inning. Somehow – nobody would ever know how – Bruce Burkart spanked a ball into a 6-2-3 double play, which was one of the rarer, soul-bleaching plays. Varner then lost the first pitch to Vargas, Corral scoring on the passed ball, and Vargas then singled home Morales, 6-2. Joel Starr batted for Tallent, but grounded out to end the inning. However, the 4-run lead was nursed successfully to game’s conclusion by Carrillo and Dover, and the Coons snapped the losing streak at six games. 6-2 Critters. Novelo 2-4, 2B; Morales 2-4, 2B; Vargas 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Raccoons (47-68) @ Scorpions (54-59) – August 14-16, 2065

The quick weekend trip against the Stingers, who ranked third in runs scored in the FL, but were seventh in runs allowed. Their rotation was the main problem, carrying a 4.70 ERA, which went claw in claw with that second-worst defense in the league. They had a pile of injuries, too, missing pitchers Kenny Donnelly and Jorge Quinones, first baseman Jin Imamura, and outfielder Cory Oldfield. These teams had met last season for three games, all of them won by the Coons.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (4-15, 3.87 ERA) vs. Ernesto Culver (6-9, 5.53 ERA)
Nick Walla (6-4, 3.10 ERA) vs. Curt Green (8-3, 3.72 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-7, 4.03 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (5-3, 3.80 ERA)

The Stingers only had right-handers in the rotation, but three southpaw relievers.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Burkart – 2B Tallent – C Garmon – P Nakayama
SAC: SS Gallo – RF Buras – C Danis – LF Anker – 2B F. Martinez – 1B A. Gutierrez – 3B W. de Leon – CF Hambrick – P Culver

Morales singled home Spicer in the first inning, giving the Coons a quick 1-0 lead in the Friday opener. Novelo grounded out to leave Morales on, and both teams stranded a runner in the second inning before Corral struck a leadoff double in the top 3rd. Spicer whiffed, Morales singled shyly and Corral had to hold at third base, but Starr’s double got home a run, and Novelo plated two with a single to right-center, upping the score to 4-0, which grew to 5-0 with two more singles by Burkart and Garmon before Nakayama was rung up.

Nakayama seemed to get into the groove with leading games, because he didn’t allow the Stingers all that much. They got just three hits for no runs and six strikeouts through five innings in this game, although his pitch count was getting up there – and then the balls were, too, as Will Buras socked a gap double and then scored on Nate Danis’ homer to left-center in the bottom 6th, putting Sacramento on the board in a 5-2 game. Nakayama would use 103 pitches to cover seven innings, though, which was a nice enough rate and if you would get that every day from your starters… well, yeah. Vargas batted for Nakayama with two outs in the eighth and with Burkart and Tallent on base, but his drive to deep right was caught by Buras.

The Coons then gave it an honest go to lose the game with the bullpen again. Ricky Baca entered and walked three batters of the four he faced, departing with a hot mess left behind for Jesse Dover, as those were the tying runs. Jim Fusselman pinch-hit and grounded to short, but the Critters could not turn the double play, and Buras scored from third base, 5-3. Dover struck out Willie de Leon, though, leaving a pair on the corners. Since the offense had gone home a long time ago, Cruz Madrid then allowed the tying run to the plate with a first-pitch single allowed to Christian Hambrick in the bottom 9th. Giving credit though, he then buckled down and struck out Mario Delgadillo, J.P. Gallo, and Will Buras in order to get the W into the books. 5-3 Raccoons. Corral 2-5, 2B; Morales 2-4, RBI; Burkart 2-3, BB; Garmon 2-4, RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (5-15);

Look at you, Shoma Nakayama, on a rousing 2-game winning streak! …with two no-decisions in between, and the ERA went up in that 4-game span, but who am I to complain?

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Bentley – CF Garmon – 2B Gardner – P Walla
SAC: SS Gallo – RF Buras – C Danis – LF Anker – 2B F. Martinez – 1B A. Gutierrez – 3B W. de Leon – CF Hambrick – P C. Green

Joel Starr failed to hit a home run on a drive right to the top of the fence in the top 2nd, but at least broke Grant Anker in half, who made the catch, but clonked off the wall and fell to the ground rather noisily before slowly walking off the field with the Scorpions’ trainer, replaced with Chris Tomko, who then hit a leadoff single off Walla in the bottom 2nd and was moved around to third base before de Leon singled him across, putting Sacramento up 1-0. They added another run in the bottom 3rd; while Walla struck out Green and Gallo to begin that inning, Buras and Danis bashed a pair of doubles to get him for that second run. Tomko then grounded out to short.

The Coons had a Corral single in the first inning, but he was doubled off and Green faced the minimum through three innings. Corral and Morales were back on base with singles in the fourth, but Starr and Arellano both grounded out and the chance was wasted. Sacramento kept scoring though as Felix Martinez hit a jack in the bottom 4th, and then hit *another* home run with two outs in the fifth. Those were unearned thanks to Vic Morales bungling another grounder. Walla was done after five ineffective innings, and while Ricky Baca got four outs without getting slapped, Kody Mello was taken deep for another run by Danis in the seventh. The Coons never put another threat together after the fourth inning. 6-0 Scorpions. Corral 2-4; Spicer (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Novelo – 1B Starr – C Burkart – CF Early – 2B Gardner – SS Tallent – P Fox
SAC: SS Gallo – 2B F. Martinez – 3B W. de Leon – C Danis – LF Hambrick – 1B Fusselman – RF A. Gutierrez – CF Tomko – P Rath

Fox had a quick first, but put Danis and Fusselman on the corners in the bottom 2nd and while Alex Gutierrez didn’t get the job done, Chris Tomko hit an RBI double with two outs. Rath then grounded out to leave two in scoring position. Rath meanwhile struck out five Raccoons in three innings and didn’t allow a base hit until Spicer dinked in a single to begin the fourth. Novelo drove a ball to right that was caught, and then Spicer was caught, stealing.

Another base knock would not come around for Portland until Corral buried a 1-out triple in the right-center gap in the sixth inning, which suddenly put the tying run at third base. Spicer came through with an RBI single up the middle, then stole second successfully, but could not score on Novelo’s infield single. Joel Starr romped a ball to the wall in left; Spicer scored, but Novelo was thrown out at the plate by Hambrick. Burkart flew out to center, leaving the score at 2-1 Coons.

Foxie Brown scratched and clawed and hissed that 2-1 lead through seven innings before being hit for to begin the eighth against Rath. Garmon grounded out and Rath retired them in order before being hit for himself with John Vaillancourt to begin the bottom 8th. Madrid struck him out and also pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Dover then got the ninth; Willie de Leon singled to right to put the tying run on base immediately, but Danis popped out and PH Josh Bursley grounded to Starr, who knocked the ball down, then zinged it around the runner to second base for a force out – but a double play was never in the cards. When Buras batted for Fusselman to present another lefty stick, the Raccoons went and grabbed Garvey, who allowed a single to center, but another lefty hitter came up with Gutierrez. His floater to left was caught by Spicer, putting the game away. 2-1 Blighters. Spicer 2-4, RBI; Novelo 2-4;

In other news

August 10 – The Knights get flogged by the Condors in a 16-0 blowout. TIJ 3B/RF Eric Frasher (.213, 7 HR, 35 RBI) leads the charge with two homers, a single, and six RBI.
August 11 – Rebs OF Willie Ospina (.299, 6 HR, 27 RBI) was ruled out for a month due to a hamstring strain.
August 12 – TOP INF/LF Alex Rodriguez (.259, 4 HR, 36 RBI) would be out for a month with an intercostal strain.
August 15 – It’s another shutout for 41-year-old ATL SP Kodai Koga (7-15, 4.56 ERA), who throws a 5-hitter to beat the Blue Sox, 6-0.
August 16 – NAS SP Tony Marquez (5-3, 4.93 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Knights, giving Nashville a 2-0 lead.

FL Player of the Week: WAS 1B Pedro Parada (.303, 9 HR, 56 RBI), batting .440 (11-25) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS 1B Bill Joyner (.331, 18 HR, 95 RBI), bashing .419 (13-31) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Spicy is on top for stolen bases in the CL again, leading Vic Lorenzo by two. Nobody else is even close right now, while the ABL lead is Dallas’ Adam Yocum putting up 39 bases, one more than Spicer, and six clear of Denver’s Miguel Ulloa in the FL.

Yeah, that kinda season where all we have to look at in August is the stolen base race.

We’re now 799-800 against the damn Elks, all-time. The bobbleheads just couldn’t win that stupid series…..

After that excursion to Cali it’s back home for 12 games total against the Blue Sox, Titans, Loggers, and Condors. Next two Mondays are off, thankfully.

Fun Fact: Indy’s Mike DeWitt is well ahead (more than half a run) in the CL ERA race.

He’s also 6-4 with his 2.03 ERA because of course he’s not getting any run support from the last-place Indians. He’s third in runs scored, but his chances for the Pitcher of the Year award are quite literally zilch.