Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

The new year was here, not that it was promising anything good to the Raccoons, who had not managed to unload any of their big contracts, had gotten only another ho-hum catcher in a meaningless trade, and THREE Rule 5 picks, one of which was a broken toy, and had most of their remaining coins in two free agents that couldn’t make up their damn mind about signing on to this listing ship or nah. As the new year began, the Raccoons were at +0.4 WAR on the players they had added this offseason, ahead of only the Wolves, who literally hadn’t signed anybody.

And that +0.4 was before we actually signed our first free agent of the winter, upon which it went DOWN…

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January 3 – After 11 years away, 39-year-old ex-WAS SP Ryan Musgrave (143-163, 4.15 ERA) agrees to a $1.6M deal with the Titans for 2071.
January 6 – The Raccoons sign ex-SAC MR Dan Graham (87-85, 3.85 ERA, 67 SV) on a 2-year, $2.3M contract. The second year is a team option. Graham will be 34 on Opening Day.
January 13 – Portland also adds almost-33-year-old ex-LVA INF Jordan Hernandez (.268, 47 HR, 432 RBI) on an $850k contract.
January 20 – The Thunder bring in 37-year-old former Rebs LF Jose Ambriz (.281, 94 HR, 623 RBI) on a 2-year, $5.68M deal.
January 22 – The Raccoons strike a deal with the Buffaloes that sends 30-year-old RF Jose Corral (.263, 103 HR, 458 RBI) and AA 1B Tom Ferrari, along with $1M in cash, to Topeka. In exchange the Raccoons get 34-yr old OF Jaden Wilson (.277, 79 HR, 540 RBI) back, and prospect AAA OF Jesus Morentin.
January 25 – The Critters land 34-year-old 1B Alejandro Olivares (.289, 117 HR, 708 RBI) from the Pacifics in exchange for 30-yr old AAA SP Cody Childress (2-15, 5.27 ERA).
January 27 – The Capitals sign former Miners RF/LF Alex Romero (.276, 76 HR, 448 RBI) to a 4-year, $10.8M contract.

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Graham was a much needed second left-hander for the pen that needed a good defense behind him, which we would be able to provide. An average-to-mediocre starter in the first half of his career, Graham was down to two pitches at this stage, but could still get left-handed batters out alright.

The Hernandez signing screams despair, as even the Aces didn’t find it advisable to add him to the major league roster for most of last year. But hey, maybe he can somehow leech his way into 500 at-bats once we dispose of that Rule 5er. Hernandez *does* have two Gold Gloves and somehow was an All Star with Dallas in ’69 despite hitting for a 92 OPS+ for the season.

And then finally the surface and the gasp of air we needed. The Buffaloes were gonna take Jose Corral off our paws in exchange for another non-contributing outfielder who knew Portland well, having been here for three years already. Wilson was by now at the point where he was below-average defensively as a centerfielder, but would still be able to hold down rightfield. He was also owed the same dosh as Corral – but spread over three seasons. We also parted with some loose coin and a Ferrari (a ninth-rounder that had little hope of further advancement), and got an *interesting* prospect in Morentin, who was not ranked, but had been the top-ranked unranked Buffos prospect last year, e.g. just outside the top 200 perhaps, and we thought he might be ranked this year. He was already 23, and the hope was that we’d find a way to dispose of Wilson otherwise and bring up Morentin at some point. – Oh, hi, Jaden. Look! We still have your food bowl! (places down a plan black bowl with a brown adhesive strip he just scrawled ‘Jaden’ on)

Jaden Wilson also got #5 back, which in the meantime had been worn by bombed prospect Jack Hamel, ho batted .152 in a brief exposition in ’69 and didn’t appear on the Coons at all last season, but batted .171 in AAA and even spent 48 games in Ham Lake just to get northed in again. Kind reminder that Hamel was also a #5 pick, the first high-up pick in a string we had during Wilson’s first stint on the team. The others were Jimmyboy (a #4), and Kyle Markovich, the #6 pick in ’68, who had split time between AA and AAA last year, and had shown to not be ready for AAA pitching at all.

So at that point we had $3.5M in budget room again, although it was perhaps a bit late for that, and under $400k in cash left. Since we weren’t gonna trade up during the season and had max penalties for the July IFA pool, there was no reason not to go after another free agent. Catcher, first base, third base, and any pitching were basically valid ideas, but I was content with having the plus-gloved Gabe Rivas try his luck behind the plate, and we had just signed that other third-sacker, whose name I had already forgotten. It then happened that the Pacifics came around trying to offload salary, and we managed to snatch the final year on Olivares’ contract for just over $2M and Cody Childress, which was as close to good riddance as it gets.

I feel like this looks more like a full lineup now…!

What’s new about old Critters? Rafael Murcia joined the Knights for $570k; Jerry Morejon joined the Condors for $540k; the Thunder signed Victor Ramirez for $1.08M;

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2071 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The best part of the offseason for the Raccoons was here – Lonzo Lavorano made the Hall of Fame!

Lonzo spent his entire professional career with the Raccoons, from being signed as a scouting discovery in 2043 until his retirement 20 years later. He played 15 seasons in the majors as everyday shortstop, hitting for a good average, but with little power – his career high for home runs in a season was six, and he never reached 30 doubles in a year – although he made up for these shortcomings with blistering speed on the base paths. His 752 stolen bases led the career leaderboard when he retired and were only passed in the 2070 season. He led the CL in stolen bases eight times, with a career high of 73 steals in ’55. Although his defense declined in his later seasons, he won a Gold Glove at shortstop in his second full season in ’51, and won a ring with the Raccoons along with CLCS MVP honors in 2054. For his career of 2,002 games, Lonzo batted .276/.310/.356 with 2,199 hits, 46 homers, 707 RBI, 1,001 runs scored, and the aforementioned 752 stolen bases.

Coincidentally, Eddie Moreno was also a scouting discovery for the Scorpions, all the way back in 2034. By contrast to Lonzo, he never drew any good reviews for his defense as a corner outfielder or first baseman, but he was a serial All Star with nine showcases in total, and won three Platinum Sticks and two Player of the Year awards that came 11 years apart in 2044 and 2055. A slugger through and through, Moreno led the league in homers five times; three times in a row with the Scorpions in 2043-45, and then after a pronounced lull in the middle of his career, twice more as a Knight in 2055-56. In his POTY seasons he also led the league in slugging, OPS, and RBI, with one more RBI title in ’43. He was never a threat for a stolen base and hit .300 only four times in his career, which saw him in seven different uniforms, with the initial 7-year stint with Sacramento by far the longest he spent with any franchise. No other team had him for more than three years, as did the Cyclones and Buffaloes (across two stints). He was part of the 2055 Knights team that won the World Series, his and the franchise’s only championship ring. For his career, Moreno batted .277/.350/.477 with 2,624 hits, 478 homers, and 1,704 RBI.

For a pattern, Victor Corrales was also a scouting discovery by the Miners in 2043. The most accomplished of the three players inducted, and being voted in quite overwhelmingly on the first ballot, Corrales had an 18-year career in the majors, including 11 seasons with the Miners before he followed up with stints in Sacramento and Nashville. He never played in the Continental League. A weapon both with the bat and the glove, he led the FL in triples once, home runs once, and RBI four times. He led the FL in WAR twice, winning Player of the Year honors both times, in 2053 and 2056. While he last topped a leaderboard in his age 29 season, he remained a prolific WAR producer thanks to elite defense and a high batting average until age 35, at which point he went into a sharp decline and finished with two seasons of replacement level contributions. By then however, he had bagged 9 All Star appearances, five Platinum Sticks, and a stack of seven Gold Gloves in a ten-year period from 2051 through 2060, his age 24-33 seasons. These all came at third base, where he spent more than 95% of his 20,700 career innings in the field. Corrales retired a career .300 hitter at .302/.349/.458 with 2,859 hits, 274 homers (with a season-best of 32), 120 triples, and 1,592 RBI, and also stole 301 bases with a season-high of 41 – but he never won a championship. He did win FLCS MVP honors with the Miners in 2056.

Full voting results:

PIT 3B Victor Corrales – 1st – 96.7 – INDUCTED
SAC LF Eddie Moreno – 8th – 83.9 – INDUCTED
POR SS Lorenzo Lavorano – 3rd – 80.0 – INDUCTED
CIN LF Juan del Toro – 1st – 36.1
CHA RF Danny Ceballos – 2nd – 30.0
??? SS Julio Moriel – 3rd – 23.3
DEN 3B Ronnie Thompson – 10th – 16.4 – DROPPED
IND LF Danny Rivera – 8th – 13.3
LAP RF Matt Diskin – 5th – 12.4
??? CL Jason Posey – 2nd – 10.6
NAS C Jose Cantu – 2nd – 9.7
IND CL Tommy Gardner – 3rd – 9.4
CHA C Luis Miranda – 1st – 9.1
??? CL Ben Lussier – 2nd – 7.9
??? CL Mike Lynn – 8th – 6.7
??? SS Alex Adame – 7th – 6.4
IND 3B Bobby Anderson – 1st – 6.1
NAS SP Travis Baker – 1st – 5.2
ATL CF Jon Alade – 2nd – 4.8 – DROPPED
TIJ SP Larry Colwell – 1st – 3.6 – DROPPED
DEN MR Kellen Lanning – 4th – 3.6 – DROPPED
SAC SS Chris Navarro – 4th – 3.6 – DROPPED
OCT SP Mike Chartrand – 1st – 2.1 – DROPPED
PIT LF Josh Abercrombie – 2nd – 2.1 – DROPPED
??? SP Anton Jesus – 1st – 1.5 – DROPPED
WAS LF Dan Martin – 2nd – 0.9 – DROPPED
VAN C Tristan Waker – 1st – 0.9 – DROPPED
??? CL Steve Watson – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED

Lonzo is the 14th player inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Critter, and the seventh position player. In that category he joins – roughly chronologically – Tetsu Osanai, Neil Reece, Yoshi Nomure, Alberto Ramos, Manny Fernandez, and Jesus Maldonado.

The seven pitchers are of course Grant West, Kisho Saito, Nick Brown, Angel Casas, Jonny Toner, Mark Roberts, and Josh Boles.

[Westheim]

February was a tense time around Raccoons Ballpark because Maud had accumulated a critical mass of furniture catalogues and wanted new drapes for the office. I convinced her after long discussions that drapes were not in the budget this year, but we could just squeeze in a good piece of rope, to which she frostily agreed.

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January 31 – The Pacifics sign ex-MIL 2B/3B Roland Hood (.278, 66 HR, 412 RBI) on a $3.68M contract for 2071.
February 12 – The Thunder ink former Cyclones SP Ray Rath (68-66, 3.97 ERA, 1 SV) on a 3-year, $20M contract. The 31-year-old only partook in the most recent Cincy championship, though.
February 16 – 3B/2B Paul Weber (.252, 66 HR, 294 RBI) and a prospect are traded from the Scorpions to the Cyclones in exchange for SP Luis Briseno (65-52, 3.70 ERA) and cash.
February 18 – New York grabs former Loggers SP Danny Ortiz (120-100, 3.84 ERA) for three years and $19.8M.
February 18 – L.A. picks up SP/MR Carlos Gomez (43-45, 4.02 ERA, 4 SV) from the Falcons for 2B Jimmy Madden (.287, 31 HR, 203 RBI).
February 28 – The Canadiens sign ex-POR 3B/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.246, 176 HR, 722 RBI) for a $2.12M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick for compensation.

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There have been very things happening here indeed. We are outta dosh, we have accepted that we can’t trade Humphries or Big Wharton, and we feel no desire to trade Katzman, the least-luxuriously played of the presumed top four batters. No there were no offers for Yocum either.

The “outta dosh” part was only partially correct, because we spent the entire month nibbling around on a 1-year deal for reclamation project Brad Fales, who had been one of the best closers in the league, but had been wrecked by injuries in the last two seasons, to the point where he only pitched 24 innings, including rehab, for two years combined. That was all we could do anymore – a million and a few crumbs for a reliever that may or may not humph out the season.

Still a month to go, but don’t expect any reigning Player of the Year signings…

The Buffos gave Ian Lowry a $570k contract for 2071; Ramon Carreno went to the Loggers for $1.12M; the Cyclones gave Lorenzo Marquez $590k; Angel Alba hooked up with the Loggers for $1.22M over two years;

[Westheim]

March 2 – The Raccoons sign injury-addled ex-Warriors reliever Brad Fales (30-37, 3.13 ERA, 156 SV) on a $1.31M contract for 2071.
March 28 – The Buffaloes sign ex-OCT SP Alfredo Picun (65-47, 4.12 ERA) for $24M over four years.

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Fun Fact: last year the Warriors paid more per inning pitched by Fales than the Coons shoveled dosh into Tyler Wharton’s snout per home run.

It’ll be fiiine.

The signing put the Raccoons on just under $50M of payroll, which was as much as could realistically be squeezed out of a $63M budget without entirely abolishing the scouting department.

Only the odd minor league signing took place on our side at the end of the offseason, like 22-year-old Cuban shortstop Ramon Mata, who after signing for nothing but promises was assigned to Ham Lake. And Oscar Semchez was particularly enthused with a 16-year-old Mexican he took off the streets. Moises Gamez was a speeding outfielder with high OBP and power potential, and you’d never hear of him again.

The last medical update on Ron Rismiller, our incapacitated Rule 5 pitcher who had turned 23 since being taken on December 1, was a bit more optimistic than before and Luis Silva opined that he would be able to go on rehab in late May now, but we’d of course give him the full 30 days in St. Petersburg after that. It’s not an exploit, it’s called strategy.

Some former Raccoons also got new employment late in the offseason: Ramon Archuleta signed with Dallas for $610k; Tetsu Kurihara landed a $910k deal from the Knights; the Loggers gave $550k to Wally Leggett;

[Westheim]

2071 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2070 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Nick Walla, 30, B:R, T:R (12-11, 3.77 ERA | 67-73, 3.54 ERA) – Walla has five good pitches, and came close to an ERA title in 2068 before a late fade derailed the campaign, and he would be even better if he had a wipeout pitch in his arsenal. Had an absolutely abysmal first half in 2070, but was then nearly amazing in the last couple of months.
SP Tony Gaytan, 27, B:R, T:R (10-15, 3.89 ERA | 43-65, 4.11 ERA) – “Bombs Away!” Gaytan really cut down on the homers allowed in 2070, going from a staggering 36 bombs allowed to 21, but somehow that didn’t lead in an improvement in fortunes either. He has never posted a winning record in the majors, but at least he’s signed rather cheaply through 2074.
SP/MR Gabriel Rios, 29, B:L, T:L (8-3, 3.31 ERA, 2 SV | 26-23, 3.58 ERA, 4 SV) – Rios wants to start, and we always muse that Rios could start, but whenever Rios does start, it’s usually a disaster. Then he actually did get to start halfway through the 2070 season and was actually really good – and then hit the DL and when he came back he was anything but good. I don’t know, just put him in the catapult and launch him against the leftfield wall, maybe something’ll stick. At least he kept the walks down while in the rotation, posted his lowest ever BB/9 at 2.8 (in a meaningful amount of games at least).
SP Vinny Morales, 29, B:S, T:R (9-12, 3.87 ERA | 28-31, 3.81 ERA) – returned from the list of busted prospects as a midseason replacement in 2068 and suddenly managed to pitch competently at the major league level, even though his strikeouts were rather few and far between. Good control, but tends to give up dingers and doesn’t have a lot of stamina. And there’s never anything interesting to write about him, although he actually did pitch his first complete game last season.
SP Jimmy Wharton, 24, B:L, T:L (10-12, 4.46 ERA | 17-17, 4.44 ERA) – the former #4 pick spent his first full season in the rotation and the results were rather rough, with unimpressive strikeout totals and too many games where he just couldn’t get anybody out. But at least he rivaled Gaytan in giving up the long ones. Great times, and don’t get me started on those other high picks we made in the late 60s…

MR Dan Graham *, 34, B:L, T:L (4-6, 4.60 ERA, 1 SV | 87-85, 3.85 ERA, 67 SV) – left-hander and former starter that has suffered from bad BABIP’s and low bite on the breaking balls for a while now, but somehow ended up with a 2-year deal, half of which was a team option.
MR Todd Sullivan, 24, B:R, T:R (3-0, 2.56 ERA | 3-0, 2.56 ERA) – young right-hander with three good pitches (but short stamina) that had his career ruined with a July trade to the Coons when the Stars took on Jerry Morejon and Carlos Fumero last season. So far hasn’t made me angry.
MR Edgar Gutierrez, 28, B:L, T:R (2-2, 2.52 ERA | 2-2, 2.52 ERA) – free agent signing out of Mexico last year, and wasn’t any good, even though the ERA might make you believe so. Crappy control, and prone to waving in other people’s runners.
MR Jason Holzmeister, 26, B:S, T:R (0-2, 2.17 ERA | 9-6, 3.50 ERA) – not sure why we keep going back to this former Rule 5 pick that can only hold onto a job when the only other options are to shoot him in the knee or send him back to the Falcons. Has been through the AAA Express repeatedly in the past and is walking almost four batters per nine innings for his stop-start major league career.
SU Brad Fales *, 32, B:L, T:R (0-1, 27.00 ERA | 30-37, 3.13 ERA, 156 SV) – reclamation project who missed most of the last two seasons and spun only 19 innings ni the majors after three dominant closing years with the Knights and leading the CL in saves one time. Had no stuff last year, but perhaps that issue was solved in any of several surgeries?
SU Ricky McMahan, 29, B:L, T:L (1-3, 3.74 ERA, 1 SV | 18-16, 3.43 ERA, 11 SV) – steady work from this left-hander who shook off his awful control issues a few years ago and is now usually not a reason for concern.
CL Pedro Valentin, 31, B:S, T:R (3-3, 2.04 ERA, 32 SV | 26-19, 2.60 ERA, 140 SV) – led the FL in saves in his first Coons year in 2068 after being acquired in that mixed-bag deal with the Cyclones along with Jared Duhe and “Rated-R” Rautenstrauch, and is the last piece of that deal still actually with the team (which also means he missed out on three rings in Cincy while trying to keep this pig stye together, hey-ho). He brings a GORGEOUS curveball and a 96mph heater and I have no clue why nobody was biting when we dangled him this winter.

C Gabe Rivas *, 27, B:L, T:R (.395, 0 HR, 7 RBI | .290, 13 HR, 76 RBI) – acquired from the Warriors, a fine defensive catcher with only token exposure to the major leagues in ’70 after two full campaigns as a backup catcher. He has the primary job to begin this year, and I don’t see anybody taking that away from him.
C Sam Brown, 25, B:L, T:R (.221, 0 HR, 13 RBI | .221, 0 HR, 13 RBI) – new year, new catchers, even though Brown had already spent most of the previous season on the roster after replacing Willie Jalomo. He had not done anything memorable, had hit for a 52 OPS+, was defensively meaningless, and somehow had still hung on to a roster spot.

1B Alejandro Olivares *, 34, B:R, T:R (.297, 4 HR, 39 RBI | .289, 117 HR, 708 RBI) – veteran first baseman that was readily surrendered by the Pacifics after 11 years with the team, who was in a contract year. He was persistently hitting for just above the league average and there were hopes that he’d continue to do so while sitting out the remainder of his contract.
2B/SS/3B Adam Yocum, 30, B:R, T:R (.343, 3 HR, 37 RBI | .327, 9 HR, 529 RBI) – the elite singles slapper and OBP personality was a real force at the top of the lineup, stirring for 38 stolen bases and 5.1 WAR while missing 19 games with injury. Wasn’t a close candidate for a Gold Glove or any good with runners in scoring position, but his stick wasn’t killing the team (his salary did though).
2B/3B/SS/CF John Katzman, 26, B:R, T:R (.309, 14 HR, 84 RBI | .288, 62 HR, 400 RBI) – Katz was pawsome in his first season with the Raccoons and thanks to his rather team-friendly contract was almost guaranteed to waste the best years of his career on a losing team, after already wasting the first five years of his career on the Wolves. What could possibly make it even worse, outside of a debilitating injury?
3B/2B/SS Jordan Hernandez *, 33, B:R, T:R (.286, 1 HR, 3 RBI | .268, 47 HR, 432 RBI) – this budget version of a third baseman still had decent defense for his age, but alarmingly had only made 14 games with the Aces while mostly languishing in AAA. 1-year rental if there ever was one.
RF/3B/CF/2B/SS Nick Luebbert *, 26, B:S, T:R (no stats) – super utility and Rule 5 pick that was only weeks away from turning 27, but had never seen the majors in his life.
1B Josh Woodley *, 23, B:L, T:L (no stats) – among the many signs of doom on the roster was this Rule 5 pick that came straight from *AA* and hadn’t even been particularly good there. Had some promising power potential, but even a last-place team hardly had the time to wait on that to materialize.

LF/RF/CF Steve Humphries, 34, B:R, T:R (.260, 1 HR, 10 RBI | .277, 78 HR, 528 RBI) – the Raccoons shoveled $36M into the oven to sign the former Titans outfielder as free agent, for which the 5-time Gold Glover rewarded them with countless injuries and missing 110 games in total. Whenever we could pry him off the stretcher for a couple of weeks, he was decent, but it never lasted very long.
CF Tyler Wharton, 33, B:R, T:R (.284, 22 HR, 83 RBI | .323, 326 HR, 1,298 RBI) – by now the 7-time Player of the Year had shed almost 70 points of batting average and half the homers from his final year in Dallas, where he won a triple crown. In Portland, he wasn’t winning anything, certainly not any games. His 2070 OPS of .823 was by far his worst since his injury-addled age 22 season. Not worth the $9M a year. I wonder why he had no trade market.
RF/LF/CF Jaden Wilson *, 34, B:L, T:L (.241, 2 HR, 24 RBI | .277, 79 HR, 540 RBI) – the Raccoons exchanged longtime Critter Jose Corral for the return of Jaden Wilson from the Buffaloes, who was cheap, but had a contract until he’d be almost 37 1/2 years old, and who also wasn’t hitting a whole lot anymore and who was no longer a smart choice to play centerfield.
RF/LF George van Otterdijk, 26, B:R, T:R (.245, 7 HR, 38 RBI | .266, 19 HR, 86 RBI) – here’s a secret: we don’t really know what to do with the young Dutch Antillean, who plays shoddy defense, doesn’t hit a lot, and frankly doesn’t even smell… well… he smells a bit like a wet otter would smell.
1B/LF/RF/3B Jamie Colter, 29, B:L, T:R (.266, 3 HR, 8 RBI | .268, 11 HR, 60 RBI) – Colter surprisingly made the roster over the younger and more flashy Benito Otal, although neither of them were hitting a whole lot for average or power, and Colter at least had more defensive applications.

On disabled list:
MR Ron Rismiller *, 23, B:R, T:R (no stats) – Rule 5 pick recovering from a torn labrum and expected to return to action in late May with a full rehab assignment. Strong fastball and curve that could maybe turn into something useful – if that bloody shoulder holds together. Claws crossed!

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Val Centeno, 24, B:S, T:R (2-7, 7.10 ERA | 2-7, 7.10 ERA) – optioned to AAA; there were really high hopes for this right-hander signed as July IFA from Venezuela, but a thrashed elbow in ’69 led to 12 months on the shelf, and when he came back he was bluntly garbage – even in AAA. The Raccoons kept running him out there against all reason, and he got his snout beaten in every single time.
SP/MR Steve George, 24, B:R, T:R (0-2, 5.84 ERA | 0-2, 5.84 ERA) – optioned to AAA; former second-rounder that was mostly used in garbage relief late in the season, and usually pitched like garbage with little stuff and a way worse home run rate than Tony Gaytan, with a dinger per under five innings.
SP Harrison Hunt, 25, B:L, T:L (0-0, 2.70 ERA | 0-1, 5.40 ERA) – optioned to AAA; just a couple of appearances in the majors for the left-hander, who has walked a lot more batters than he has struck out, and who throws six pitches, but none of them being particularly good.
C/3B Willie Jalomo, 24, B:S, T:R (.119, 0 HR, 3 RBI | .161, 0 HR, 5 RBI) – optioned to AAA; a decently defensive young catcher that can’t hit a lick even though he got ample chances last year. Would be great to work him onto a roster with his added ability to play third base, but when you’re hitting .119 and lose 0.8 WAR in just 35 games, you’re indefensible even with his actual defense.
1B Dan Gomez, 26, B:L, T:L (.265, 1 HR, 4 RBI | .273, 5 HR, 21 RBI) – optioned to AAA; run-of-the-mill first-sacker that was a woeful replacement for Jerry Morejon and invited all sorts of further roster shenanigans. Since he had options, he got sent away while we wait for Josh Woodley to hit .140 before axing the latter.
LF/CF/RF Benito Otal, 26, B:L, T:L (.270, 3 HR, 36 RBI | .267, 11 HR, 97 RBI) – optioned to AAA; two lackluster seasons with dreadful offense after a flashy cup of coffee in ’68 saw Otal optioned off the roster to begin the season. If you lose out to Jamie Colter, you might as well start to learn welding.
LF/CF Jesus Guerrero, 24, B:R, T:R (.197, 1 HR, 5 RBI | .197, 1 HR, 5 RBI) – optioned to AAA; was about as useless as you’d expect a guy that spent five summers in Ham Lake to be in his cups of coffee in the majors in 2070… all speed, no stick, and not a defensive gain either.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or retrained as a hot dog vendor this offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

(Vs. RHP: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson (van Otterdijk) – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez (Luebbert) – P)
(Vs. LHP: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – P)

The lineup leans even more to the right than last year with the addition of Olivares, even though there were a couple of left-handed bats on the bench to sub in. We continue to have two left-handed catchers and none that can hit.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

Last year the Coons had the biggest WAR gain in the offseason and then shed five more games in the standings, never mind even the bitter desolation on the field that was on display for months and months. This year there were no funds for splashes, not even small ones. We started at the bottom and remained there. Overall the Coons dropped -5.1 WAR, and ranked 21st in the league in that.

J.P. Gallo (-2.5 WAR) and Rafael Murcia (-1.8) were the largest free agency losses, although technically Murcia had only played the worst half of his season with Portland. None of the free agents signed (and there weren’t many) did a whole lot. The Olivares trade with L.A. was good for +1.1 WAR, by far the best transaction in that category we did all winter.

Top 5: Capitals (+13.8), Titans (+11.7), Crusaders (+5.2), Knights (+3.0), Pacifics (+2.7)
Bottom 5: Falcons (-4.7), Raccoons (-5.1), Aces (-6.5), Canadiens (-6.7), Stars (-7.2)

For CL North teams, the Loggers were 12th with -1.2 WAR, and the Indians appeared in 14th at -1.4 WAR.

PREDICTION TIME:

For the second year in a row I mused how the team would win 86-90 games and they didn’t come close to breaking even, let alone competing.

This year it’s somehow even worse because we couldn’t even get rid of the big contracts we took on the winter before that got us NOWHERE, and there’s more 1-year rentals and Rule 5 picks. Great! Now we can watch Humphries and Wharton get old and gray while being infuriatingly expensive, and instead of crash landing for a season or two with them, we’re now ****** for another three years with them, and then probably even more without them once they’ll have passed into the great beyond.

There’s nothing but doom to be expected here. 90 losses should be a given. That’s before injuries and without Val Centeno having to play a role.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

If there was anything to take away from this offseason, it was the state of the farm system that shot from 20th in the league to the TOP in all of the ABL! We’d soon find out how many of the newly ranked boys were actually good for anything, but the Raccoons went from eight ranked prospects to *seventeen*, of which six were in the top 50 (before: one) and ten in the top 100 (three). Oh, the riches!

This was even without the former #142 pick Jesus Guerrero, who exceeded rookie limits and was no longer eligible for the rankings. The other seven ranked prospects from last year were all still here, although only six were still ranked, as #151 Mike Pavan had dropped out of the top 200.

#6 (new) – A CL Dan McPartland, 19 – 2070 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
24th (+33) – A SS/3B Danny Reyes, 19 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons
25th (+135) – AA INF Omar Vigil, 20 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons
34th (new) – A SP Jalen McCorkle, 21 – 2070 first-round pick by Raccoons
41st (new) – A SP Tony Trinidad, 18 – 2068 July IFA signing by Raccoons
45th (new) – INT SP Jose Espino, 17 – 2070 July IFA signing by Raccoons

62nd (new) – ML CL Ron Rismiller, 23 – 2067 sixth-round pick by Pacifics, taken in Rule 5 draft by Raccoons
76th (new) – AA MR Phil Beck, 20 – 2069 supplemental round pick by Stars, acquired with Todd Sullivan, Roberto Pena for Carlos Fumero and Jerry Morejon by Raccoons
80th (+77) – A 2B/SS Ismael Tenorio, 20 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons
82nd (+56) – AA RF/LF Isaac Bishop, 23 – 2069 first-round pick by Raccoons

108th (-19) – A INF/LF/CF Rob Robinson, 20 – 2069 fourth-round pick by Raccoons
109th (new) – A SP Roberto Martinez, 18 – 2068 July IFA signing by Raccoons
115th (new) – AA SP Crispino D’Urso, 21 – 2065 July IFA signing by Raccoons
130th (-80) – AAA CL Noah Newhard, 22 – 2068 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
150th (new) – AA SS/2B Ramon Mata, 22 – 2070/71 Winter IFA signing by Raccoons
163rd (new) – A RF/LF Phil Christensen, 19 – 2070 12th-round pick by Raccoons
195th (new) – AA 2B Roberto Pena, 23 - 2069 supplemental round pick by Stars, acquired with Todd Sullivan, Phil Beck for Carlos Fumero and Jerry Morejon by Raccoons

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

#1 (0) – TOP AA CL Brent Shaw, 20
#2 (new) – TOP A SP Andy Knight, 19
#3 (+1) – SAL AA OF/1B Nelson Aguilar, 20
#4 (+1) – OCT AAA RF/INF/CF Jay Moore, 22
#5 (+16) – MIL AA LF Josh Field, 19

#6 (new) – POR A CL Dan McPartland, 19
#7 (new) – SFB A INF Chris Sandidge, 20
#8 (+43) – DEN AAA 1B Jon Marrero, 23
#9 (-3) – DAL AA INF Carlos Saldana, 23
#10 (+1) – NAS AA SS Dan Mammen, 22

Knight was the second consecutive #1 pick by the Buffaloes, and the pair of them were now the 1-2 prospects in the country. Also taken in the previous summer’s amateur draft: Sandidge (at #6) and McPartland (at #44).

Six of last year’s top 10 were no longer ranked.

#2 Ryan Redding had been on the Bayhawks’ Opening Day roster and had spent most of the season there (minus a DL stint and rehab), batting .257 with five homers in 118 games. One spot behind him at #3, Topeka’s Javier Velazquez had debuted some months into the season and had ended up batting a paltry .203 with three homers in 87 games.

Juan Arreola made his ABL debut at age 25 after somehow rising to #7 on the prospect board, but had only pitched in 16 games in relief – without allowing an earned run despite mediocre K/BB numbers. He was on the major league roster to begin the new season.

The old #8 prospect CL Alex Tabares had been traded from the Canadiens to the Capitals, but otherwise had remained stuck at the AA level and dropped 34 spots to #42. Boston reliever Jay Krenek went from #9 to #35 after not making his ABL debut in all of last season, but he was on the big league roster on Opening Day. Finally, #10 SP Danny Ramirez was still in AA for the Loggers after 30 mixed starts last season and slipped just outside the top 10 to #11.

Next: first pitch.

[DD Martin]

Much more optimistic up north in Tacoma WA. I think this group finally gives you and the Agitator something to enjoy. I think you get that 90 wins, the question is will it be enough to get you to the playoffs.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

I think this group finally gives you and the Agitator something to enjoy.

I think you have yet to name somebody who is known to enjoy *anything*...

+++

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Indians (0-0) – April 7-9, 2071

The Raccoons had not seen much land against the Indians in 2070, losing 12 of the 18 games played, although overall the head-to-head battle had see-sawed quite a bit in the last few years. Both teams had endured a rather feckless offseason and neither expected to be much better in the new season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (0-0) vs. Mike DeWitt (0-0)
Tony Gaytan (0-0) vs. Victor Perez (0-0)
Gabriel Rios (0-0) vs. Jorge Flores (0-0)

The Raccoons drew a southpaw on Opening Day, but it looked like DeWitt would be the only left-hander for the first week’s worth of games.

Game 1
IND: CF Hilario – LF W. Griffith – RF T. Torres – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – C A. Morris – 2B Richmond – P DeWitt
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – P Walla

The Indians battery was not in sync to begin the season as Humph opened the Coons’ surely futile efforts with a single and twice advanced on a wild pitch or passed ball before DeWitt walked the bags full with Katz and Tyler Wharton behind him. New man Alejandro Olivares then lined out to short and van Otterdijk rolled over to Matt Martin to ensure that no runs would be scored with the bases loaded for the 95th consecutive ******* season. Consistently applying to mantra of maximum annoyance, Gabe Rivas (single) and Humph (walk) were also stranded in the second inning.

Scoring on the new season was formally opened in the bottom 3rd with a leadoff home run by Katz, giving Walla a 1-0 lead. The right-hander had allowed only one single to Fernando Valadez the first time through the order, and remained spotless through four, whiffing as many Indians. Walla then hit a single to go to the corners with Jordan Hernandez, the third new player in that starting lineup, with one out in the bottom 4th, but was stranded with a K on Humphries and Yocum’s fly out. Doubles by Andy Morris and PH Guillermo Lujan tied up the game in the fifth inning, but that was a disturbingly early departure for DeWitt, who only pitched four innings before being sacrificed.

Walla eventually pitched seven innings with as many strikeouts against five base hits in this Opening Day assignment, which earned him another one of those no-decisions, since the Raccoons were unable to get a paw up on the Indy pen. Yocum hit a single in the bottom 7th, but was doubled up by Katz to end the inning. The eighth was then the Coons debut of Brad Fales, who got an out before Wade Griffith doubled off him, and then McMahan cleaned up behind him without letting that go-ahead run across. Jaden Wilson made his return to Portland as an unsuccessful pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, and Nick Luebbert, one of the Rule 5 picks on the roster, entered the game as defensive replacement for Jordan Hernandez afterwards, while the other Rule 5 position player, Josh Woodley, batted for Pedro Valentin after his 1-2-3 ninth inning. On the first pitch he ever saw by a major leaguer (Ryan Croft), he bashed a walkoff blast out of the ******* ballpark…!! 2-1 Furballs!! Olivares 2-3, BB; Woodley (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Walla 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K and 1-2;

(giggles all the way to bed)

Game 2
IND: CF Hilario – LF W. Griffith – RF T. Torres – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – C A. Morris – 2B Richmond – P V. Perez
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – P Gaytan

Between the first five batters he saw in 2071, Tony Gaytan gave up two long fly outs and singles to Jose Hilario, Matt Rogers, and Matt Martin, and also a run in the first inning on that last knock, prompting an early appearance by our new pitching coach, after which he struck out Valadez to end the inning. Andy Morris and Walter Richmond whacked doubles to begin the second to add a run, but Richmond was then thrown out at third base on a bad bunt by Perez, which shortened the inning. While Gaytan also failed the bases full with another infield single, walk, and hit batter, but didn’t allow a run in the third inning, the Coons produced *nothing* out of the goodness of their own hearts that first time through the lineup, got not one, but two batters (Wharton, Gaytan) on base by Indians errors, and doubled off half of those like complete idiots. Gaytan gave up a single to Perez and a homer to Hilario in the fourth before an early departure for being absolutely useless. Equally useless Jason Holzmeister gave up a solo homer to Andy Morris in the fifth, at which point we were down by a pawful.

While Edgar Gutierrez pitched two innings in the sixth and seventh, and the Raccoons scored an almost incidental 2-out run in the sixth when Katz doubled and Wharton singled him in, Tuesday’s hero Josh Woodley then batted fwith Olivares and Rivas on base in the bottom 7th, and hit into an inning-ending double play. Yocum hit into another double play in the eighth to erase a leadoff single by Humph. In between the Indians had tacked on a run with a leadoff triple by Walter Richmond off Dan Graham, and a sac fly.

Bottom 9th, and Rodolfo Zea put three batters on base with a string of singles, as Wharton, Olivares, and Rivas all got on base. Croft, Tuesday’s loser, replaced Zea, and gave up a sac fly to Jordan Hernandez, but that at least reduced the Coons to their last out. Van Otterdijk flew out to left to end the game. 6-2 Indians. T. Wharton 3-4, RBI; Olivares 2-4; Rivas 2-4; Gutierrez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
IND: SS Valadez – LF W. Griffith – CF Hilario – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – C A. Morris – 2B Richmond – P Jo. Flores
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 1B Olivares – C Brown – 3B Luebbert – P Rios

The Coons went up 1-0 in the first inning with a Yocum triple into the corner, after which Katz walked and Wharton scored the lead runner with a groundout. Katz was then left on base. Rios then tripled into the rightfield corner in the second inning, but with nobody on, nor with Humph caring, and then blew the lead miserably in the third. After retiring six in a row to begin the game and his season, Rios saw Morris get on with an infield single, although he got him out on a terrible bunt knocked back right at him by Flores. However, Valadez hit a 2-out single, and consecutive walks to Wade Griffith and Jose Hilario forced in the tying run before Matt Rogers grounded out to second.

Yocum led off the bottom 3rd with a single and was caught stealing. Olivares led the fourth off with another single, and Valadez fudged Sam Brown’s double play grounder for an error, giving the Coons two runners with nobody out. Luebbert hit into a fielder’s choice, Rios fanned, and Humph grounded out to short to still not get a ******* run across.

The grisly end for Rios came in the sixth when Griffith, Rogers, and Martin piled onto the bases with singles, and then piled back into the dugout on Tony Torres’ bases-clearing double in the right-center gap. Todd Sullivan replaced him, gave up the first career homer of Walter Richmond, and then Coons were down by five. Flores then for reasons best known to him allowed hits to Brown and Luebbert in the bottom of the sixth, and then was taken deep for a 3-run homer by George van Otterdijk in the pitcher’s spot, 6-4. Fales, McMahan, and Holzmeister then held the game tight, although each of them allowed a fly out to the warning track and none of them looked particularly convincing, but it remained a 2-run game into the bottom of the ninth, for which the Coons brought up the top of the order against Justin Esch. Humph whiffed, but a Yocum single put the tying run in the box. Katz fell to 1-2 before slinging a double to left-center. Yocum was stopped at third base before Hilario could do something funny at the plate, and Wharton batted with the tying runs in scoring position… and popped out in foul ground like ****. Wilson popped out to short, and that was the ballgame. 6-4 Indians. Yocum 3-5, 3B; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI;

Sigh.

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Falcons (2-2) – April 10-12, 2071

Charlotte had split four games with San Francisco to begin the season. They had scored 13 runs dong so and allowed as many. So far no injuries and nothing to cry about in North Carolina, but they’d surely find a way to get there. Last year’s season series had gone to Portland, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Vinny Morales (0-0) vs. Dan Speake (0-0)
Jimmy Wharton (0-0) vs. Edgar Mauricio (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Gary Peoples (0-0, 6.75 ERA)

No southpaw coming up here.

Game 1
CHA: CF L. Collins – 3B A. Rodriguez – RF Terrell – C O. Matos – SS Tr. Taylor – 1B Huffman – 2B Madden – LF Bakker – P Speake
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – P Morales

Morales struck out the side around an infield single by Alex Rodriguez in the first inning and got two outs in the second before allowing another single to Jimmy Madden. He went on to walk Matt Bakkr, bringing up the pitcher Speake, who spoke with a slap to center and an RBI single for the game’s first run, and Landon Collins bonked a homer for another three. Great. Alejandro Olivares answered with a solo homer in the bottom 2nd, which didn’t make the biggest dent in the deficit, but the Raccoons kept picking away. Rivas singled, Hernandez popped out, and Morales also hit a single with two outs. Humph singled to load the bases, Yocum singled to center to get a run home, and Katz singled to center to tie the game at four. And then all $9M’s worth of Tyler Wharton flew out to Collins to end the inning.

Morales right away fell behind again when Kevin Huffman doubled home Trent Taylor in the third inning, and was then hit for in the bottom 3rd after Olivares, Rivas, and Hernandez had loaded the bases with one out. Van Otterdijk hit a game-tying single to center, 5-all, and Humphries hit a grounder to short that should have ended the inning, but the Gold Glover Taylor flubbed the throw to second and the Falcons got nobody, while the Coons got the go-ahead run home. Yocum looped an RBI single in between Madden and Brady Terrell, 7-5, and that was the end of Speake for the day. David Gooding got a double play grounder from Katzman to end the inning. Bottom 4th, and Gooding hit Jaden Wilson and allowed a single to Olivares. Gabe Rivas hit a double into the left-center gap to bring both of those runners home, and it was 9-5. Hernandez’ double to left got the Coons into double digits, but Taylor singled and Huffman homered off Dan Graham in the fifth inning to get the rapidly escalating score to 10-7.

Graham pitched three innings and gave up three runs, the third coming on another home run by Alex Rodriguez in the sixth. The Coons appeared to have gone back to sleep, hoping to get the 2-run lead to the finish line. Sullivan pitched a scoreless seventh, and Yocum singled off Brent Junker and stole second base to begin the bottom 7th. Katz’ soft single put them on the corners, but Wharton’s poor grounder only advanced Katz, but not Yocum. Junker walked Wilson to fill the bases, then Olivares to push Yocum’s run home. Rivas raked another double into another gap, this time in right-center and brought in two more runs. Lefty Ryan Lewis replaced junked Junker, got a grounder from Hernandez that Madden fumbled for another error, and a run would have scored on the play regardless. The inning fizzled out after that, and then Sullivan got another out and McMahan got two more in the eighth. Lewis then walked Yocum and gave up a 2-run homer to Katzman, and then walked Colter and Wilson. Rivas singled to load the bases once again, and Hernandez doubled home two runs. With Lewis reduced to ashes as well, Freddie DeWitt came in to try and end the bloody game, and got groundouts from Brown and Humphries to get out of the inning. Gutierrez put the lid on the game. 18-8 Furballs!! Yocum 3-5, BB, 2 RBI; Katzman 4-5, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Olivares 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Rivas 4-5, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Hernandez 3-6, 2 2B, 4 RBI; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Should I complain that they scored all their runs for next week already, or should I point out that Tyler Wharton went 0-for-5?

Anyway, Maud will give me the looks. Oh, there, she’s already doing it.

With this riotous performance, the Raccoons took first place in runs scored in the CL, which would surely last long.

Game 2
IND: CF L. Collins – 3B A. Rodriguez – SS Tr. Taylor – C O. Matos – RF Terrell – 2B Bazua – LF A. Villarreal – 1B Huffman – P E. Mauricio
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – RF Colter – 3B Hernandez – P J. Wharton

Jimmyboy walked two of his first three batters in his season debut, but then also struck out Matos and Terrell to escape his selfmade jam. Not that this meant that he would be any good overall. The Falcons whacked him for four hits and two runs, ending with Collins’ 2-out triple, and had Raul Bazua getting himself caught stealing to actually limit the damage. The Falcons put two more runners on base in the third inning, but didn’t score them.

At that point it looked like Jimmyboy was toast and the Raccoons would burn out their pen for the first time before getting to play on a Sunday. However – after the third inning, Jimmy was suddenly economical about the pitches – he had already thrown over 60 in the first three frames – and managed to tack on another 3.2 innings before being relieved after a 2-out walk to Collins in the seventh inning. At that point this promoted the tying run to the box, because the Raccoons had turned the game around on a pair of home runs by winter additions: Jordan Hernandez had poked a solo homer in the third inning, and Alejandro Olivares had huzzah-ed a 3-piece to flip the score in the sixth. He was then double-switched out for Woodley as Fales replaced Jimmy Wharton. The ploy faled, and a single by Rodriguez, a silly walk to Taylor, and Matos’ bases-clearing double to the base of the leftfield wall flipped the score back to the Falcons. Terrell then flew out to Humphries.

Woodley walked and Humphries singled, but both were left stranded in the seventh inning, and another pair was left on base in the eighth, as Wharton and Rivas singled, but nobody could get them home. The pen managed to hold the Falcons to their 1-run lead in the late innings, employing McMahan and Valentin after Falters was done faling, and then it was Woodley again to get the attention with a 1-out double to center in the bottom 9th off Orazio Cecere. However, Humphries and Yocum both flew out, and the Raccoons lost. 5-4 Falcons. T. Wharton 2-4; Woodley 1-1, BB, 2B;

There was no rest day coming until Thursday, so the Raccoons sat Tyler Wharton and Yocum on Sunday, and Katz, Humph, and Olivares were expected to rest on Monday.

Game 3
IND: CF L. Collins – 3B A. Rodriguez – RF Terrell – SS Tr. Taylor – 1B Huffman – 2B Bazua – C C. Mora – LF A. Campbell – P Peoples
POR: LF Humphries – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – CF Wilson – 2B Hernandez – 3B Luebbert – C Brown – P Walla

Van Otterdijk went deep to left for a solo socking in the first inning to give Walla a quick lead. Walla blew that one with a leadoff double by ex-Elk Adam Campbell, who was maneuvered around with a bunt and sac fly in the third, but another solo homer by Humphries in the same inning made it a 2-1 lead again.

Walla from there put up six solid innings of 3-hit ball, then was chased by an hourlong rain delay that also flushed Gary Peoples down the drain. The Coons were still up 2-1 on just three hits as well when they put runners on the corners in the bottom 6th. Katz walked, was forced out by Olivares, and then Wilson singled and sent Olivares to third base. Hernandez grounded to second past a lunging Junker, who potentially confused Bazua, who misplayed the ball off his wrist and the error cost the Falcons one, maybe two outs. A run scored, and Wilson and Hernandez were now in scoring position … for two more pitches, and then Luebbert singled through the left side and got the runners home for his first two career RBI’s, but then was left on base.

Up 5-1, Holzmeister struck out the side in the seventh, before lefty John Robinson filled the bags with nobody out in the bottom of the inning, as Humphries doubled and then the Otter and Katz walked. Three bad outs were made … but not in order, as at least Jaden Wilson got a run home with a single. Olivares, Hernandez, and Luebbert, however, were out of sparkle for the day. Dan Graham then had another run beaten out of him in the eighth inning when Landon Collins kept bashing and doubled home Campbell, and Gutierrez gave up a homer to Huffman in the ninth, then walked Bazua, and was yanked for Valentin, who got the last two outs without any more drama. 6-3 Coons. Humphries 2-4, 2B, RBI; Katzman 0-1, 3 BB; Wilson 2-4, RBI; Walla 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Aces (5-1) – April 13-15, 2071

The Aces were already in a groove, scoring 50% more runs than they gave up and being in the top 4 in both categories so far although the Raccoons were still tops in runs scored, somehow. They ha the most stolen bases but the worst pen in the league. The Aces had taken the last season series, 6-3.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs. Tim Henderson (1-0, 1.29 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (0-1, 8.44 ERA) vs. Luis Ortiz (0-0, 6.00 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-0, 15.00 ERA) vs. John Santamaria (1-0, 4.05 ERA)

Two right-handers, then a southpaw in the final game of the set. After that we’d also have a day off.

We decided to split the off days. Katz and Olivares were off on Monday; Humphries would sit on Tuesday.

Game 1
LVA: 2B J. Williams – 1B A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – RF Harmsen – LF Takeuchi – P T. Henderson
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – CF T. Wharton – C Rivas – SS Hernandez – 1B Woodley – 3B Luebbert – P Gaytan

The weather was as much a problem as Gaytan going right down the middle for a good part of the early innings. It rained on and off, and somehow all the long fly balls stayed in the park and were caught by an outfielder. The Aces still had four hits and only two strikeouts against Gaytan after five wet innings, while the Coons had a single by the Otter and absolutely nothing else against Henderson. The rain got worse in the sixth and the game went to a rain delay. It remained there for the rest of the day and the game ended up suspended.

And that was our Monday.

Game 1 (resumed)
LVA: 2B J. Williams – 1B A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – RF Harmsen – LF Takeuchi – P T. Henderson
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – CF T. Wharton – C Rivas – SS Hernandez – 1B Woodley – 3B Luebbert – P Holzmeister

Staggeringly, the Aces ran Henderson, who had thrown only 41 pitches on Monday, back out on Tuesday. While them abusing their pitcher was their problem, Holzmeister inherited an 0-1 count against Chris Haynes with two outs and nobody on base in the sixth inning of a scoreless game. Haynes whiffed, and Holzmeister did another inning before the ball went to Graham, who held the Aces away in the eighth. Adam Jones hit a leadoff single in the ninth inning, but Fales replaced Graham and removed the Aces in order from there. The Coons meanwhile STILL had the one Otter single.

Henderson pitched all the way into the NINTH inning, where Katz lined out in Luebbert’s space, but then walked Olivares and Humphries, the former of which was the winning run. Yocum then struck out against Roberto Navarro, who also had the Otter at 1-2, but van Otterdijk then poked the ball into play. The grounder went to second and Alex Corpus, and … he threw the ball away. The thing went into the dugout, and the Coons won by the rulebook as the ump sent Olivares home from second base. 1-0 Blighters. Gaytan 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Well, that’s certainly *a* way to win a ballgame…

Game 2
LVA: 2B J. Williams – RF A. Jones – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – 1B McGrew – C Preston – RF Harmsen – P L. Ortiz
POR: RF Wilson – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – RF van Otterdijk – C Brown – 3B Hernandez – P Rios

The middle game began slow with no runs scored in the first three innings, but then the Aces broke out in the fourth, putting two runs on Rios in an inning that began with a single by Josh Phelps, and while Koji Hakateyama flew out, Matt Rodewald also singled. Luke McGrew again flew out, but Rios walked Steve Preston and when John Harmsen singled, two runs were in. Ortiz then popped out to shallow right. In turn, Katz doubled to right and Wharton was nicked to begin the bottom of the same inning. Olivares whiffed, but van Otterdijk’s double and Brown’s groundout each brought in a run to tie the game again.

The Coons needed more length from Rios, but after a snoozy fifth, the wheels fell off in the sixth inning. With two leadoff walks to Rodewald and McGrew he really prepared his own demise. Steve Preston doubled home a run, Harmsen got another RBI with a groundout, and after a K on Ortiz got Rios to two outs, Hernandez made consecutive errors at third base to wave in another run. Sullivan replaced Rios, balked in a run, and surrendered another on a double before finally getting out of the ******* inning. Down by five somewhat unearned runs, the Coons were done. Katz singled home a run in the bottom 7th, but between McMahan and Gutierrez the bullpen kept exploding in the eighth inning and the Aces scored another two runs against them, refusing to make outs. Hernandez hit a homer in the bottom 8th that wasn’t nearly making up for the damage he had caused with his glove up his furry tush earlier. Gutierrez gave up ANOTHER run in the ninth by walking the leadoff man McGrew, who stole second and then got around on productive outs, something the brown team was incapable of. 10-4 Aces. Wilson 2-5; Katzman 4-4, 2B, RBI; van Otterdijk 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

Game 3
LVA: 2B J. Williams – 1B A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – RF A. Rosado – LF McGrew – P Santamaria
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – RF van Otterdijk – C Rivas – 3B Luebbert – P Morales

The Coons had no hits the first time through, and Morales was just as useless as Rios for the second game in a row. After a quick first, Phelps and Hatakeyama hit leadoff singles in the second, but were somehow left stranded. No such luck in the third inning, in which the 2-3-4 batters for Vegas clipped straight 2-out singles to get a run across. The Aces kept crowding the bases and had Morales at 86 pitches with six hits and two walks allowed through five innings, while the Coons only got into the H column on van Otterdijk’s leadoff single in the bottom 5th. Rivas popped out in foul ground, caught by Haynes, but Santamaria lost Luebbert on balls. We then arrived at the point where baseball was cruel and made no sense – but it was cruel to the Aces so I didn’t give a ****: Santamaria had Morales at 0-2, then gave up a ball in the gap in right-center for a score-flipping 2-run double…! Humph then walked and Yocum socked another RBI double to right. Katz struck out, Wharton was walked intentionally despite batting a ******* .172, and that brought up Olivares with the plate loaded and no fork in sight. His groundout to short stranded all the runners in the 3-1 game.

Hatakeyama then immediately hit a single on the first pitch by Morales in the sixth, because OF COURSE he did. Morales walked Rodewald, and Hatakeyama took off to take third base, but was thrown out by Rivas. Rodewald went to second. A groundout and a K to McGrew ended the inning, but Morales was done after six innings of getting whacked around and putting everything with a pulse on base.

Rivas singled and Luebbert drew another walk off Santamaria, who was now on six free passes. Wilson pinch-hit in that bottom 6th, but popped out for the second out. Santamaria was kept on to face Humphries, but that was a bad mistake, and Humph raked a 3-run screamer over the wall in left to rush the score to 6-1!

Graham got three groundouts in the seventh to advance the line score before Holzmeister tried to soil the rug again and walked Haynes and Hatakeyama in the fifth inning. However, an eager K by Rodewald and a groundout by Alfredo Rosado put the runners away. Not as bad as Brad Failes, though: the reclamation project reclaimed the Aces back into the game with a McGrew single, a walk to Kazuhide Takeuchi, and a 3-piece served up to Jimmy Williams. Thing was, it didn’t get better with Valentin. Adam Jones’ pop was good for any out at all, but then he walked Haynes, gave up hits to Phelps and Hatakeyama, who drove in Haynes, and Rodewald’s groundout tied the game. No stuff, no list, nothing. 5-run lead blown to ******* hell. Rosado popped out, and here was another thing: Tyler Wharton had been removed from the game because they’re not gonna blow a 5-run lead, right? His spot was up third in the bottom 9th now. Woodley pinch-hit there for the designated blower Valentin and hit into a double play to end regulation and remove Katz from the bases.

Extras went to Todd Sullivan, but Jimmy Wharton was also sent to the pen. Sullivan gave up a 1-out single to Corpus in the #9 hole, who moved up on Williams’ grounder and went for home on Jones’ single to right. Jaden Wilson threw him out and kept the game tied. Rivas hit a single in the bottom 10th that got the team nowhere, and Wilson, batting ninth, drew a leadoff walk from Roberto Navarro in the bottom 11th. Chris Derrick, known jealously watch his bases so nobody stole them, replaced him… and did I mention that Humphries was also out of the game and Colter was batting at the top of the order, and was 0-for-all to begin the season? Yeah, but he singled *here* and sent “Winning Run” Wilson to third base with nobody out. Yocum and Katz were still there, maybe – no, because when Yocum grounded out miserably, they just put Katz on the open base, and the Coons had to send Sam ******* Brown to pinch-hit. Luckily for Brown, Derrick couldn’t find the zone any more than Brown could find a hit with a runner anywhere in sight, and the game ended on a full-count, walkoff walk. 7-6 Coons. Brown (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Rivas 2-5; Wilson (PH) 1-2, BB; Sullivan 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

In other news

April 6 – CHA SP Edgar Mauricio (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and two relievers dominate the Bayhawks for a combined 1-hitter in a 4-0 win on Opening Day. Only OF Jake Ward (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI) gets a single on the board for San Francisco.
April 6 – The Stars-Pacifics opener right away ends wickedly with a 4-3, 11th inning walkoff win for L.A. when LAP INF Ron Laux (0-for-0, 0 HR, 0 RBI) scores from third base on an bad pickoff attempt and throwing error by DAL C Steve Varner (.400, 0 HR, 0 RBI).
April 7 – A carried-over 21-game hitting streak by LVA OF Josh Phelps (.250, 0 HR, 0 RBI) is snapped by the Condors in a 3-1 Aces win in the second game of the season.
April 7 – SAL C Fernando Contreras (.455, 2 HR, 5 RBI) knocks out two homers, a double, a single, and drives in five runs against the Gold Sox, but the Wolves end up defeated, 8-7.
April 10 – 21-year-old IND OF/2B Walter Richmond (.467, 2 HR, 6 RBI) hits for the cycle in his fourth career game, collecting the four required hits in just four at-bats and driving in three runs … but the Indians lose to the Aces, 8-7.
April 12 – The Crusaders beat the Thunder, 2-1 in 13 innings, on a walkoff home run by C Matt Corbin (.667, 1 HR, 1 RBI), who is playing in only his second career game.
April 14 – ATL SP Justin Kent (1-0, 1.06 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout against the Canadiens for a 3-0 win.
April 15 – The Capitals score five runs in the eighth inning to turn around an early 2-1 deficit, but the Stars prevail for a 7-6 win anyway with a 5-run ninth of their own.

Player of the Week (FL): DEN LF/RF/1B Miguel Sandoval (.500, 3 HR, 7 RBI)
Player of the Week (CL): SFB 2B/SS Ryan Bruce (.519, 2 HR, 8 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

There’s some mixed bags on the team. The pitching has been largely woeful, but the offense is in first place… on the strength of an 18-run outburst against the Aces, which has been known to happen from time to time to teams. The pen is all over the place, and the same for most of the starters, only Walla having been really solid so far.

For batters, Katz is raking like crazy, while Big Bucks Wharton is batting .200 and has none of the team’s 11 homers. Or an extra base hit.

Maybe some things will level out going forwards. Although Katz can continue to hit .414 for all I care.

Road trip coming up to Boston and Elk City, after which we’ll be back home to host the Condors and Thunder, and that will already be it for the month of April.

Fun Fact: Tyler Wharton is the worst position player on the team at -0.2 WAR.

Honeypaws, it’s early.

It’s early, right, Honeypaws?

[DD Martin]

See 5-4 there is joy in Pixley. Should be a sign of encouragement.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

See 5-4 there is joy in Pixley. Should be a sign of encouragement.

(bites lip to not spoiler anything from the Titans series he just played while crying into his morning coffee)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (5-4) @ Titans (4-5) – April 17-19, 2071

The Titans had started 4-1 before going on a 4-game losing streak. They had scored the eighth-most runs and allowed the fourth-most. The rotation was getting close to a 6 ERA, and they were near the bottom in defense and stolen bases, but led the CL in homers – tied with the brown-hatted team with 11 bombs each. Boston had been up 10-8 in the season series last year. Andy Metz was already on the DL for them.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (0-0, 4.05 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (0-0, 2.57 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-0, 1.38 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (1-1, 6.43 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (0-1, 3.72 ERA) vs. Jesse Cruise (0-1, 3.00 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday! …unless they got tricky with the common off day on Thursday.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – P J. Wharton
BOS: SS E. Gonzales – CF Marcotte – C Goodwin – RF M. Garcia – 1B H. Moreno – 3B D. Miller – LF R. Moreno – 2B Jer. White – P M. Bell

Bell retired the 1-2-3 in order in the first inning, while Jimmy Wharton gave up four straight singles to begin the game and was down 2-0 in a hurry. Edgar Gonzales was caught stealing, but Eddie Marcotte and Curt Goodwin pulled off a double steal to triple the Titans’ stolen base output in the inning. Top 2nd, and the tying runs were in scoring position immediately now as Tyler Wharton singled and Jaden Wilson doubled to right. Olivares’ groundout and Rivas’ sac fly tied the game.

Humphries stole two bases in the third inning, but was left on base along with Katz, and the Titans stranded two runners in the fourth inning, in a period of the game where Jimmy Wharton was running 3-ball counts on everybody and their mother. He walked Eddie Marcotte and Manuel Garcia in the bottom 5th, but the inning ended with Hector Moreno striking out. The game was still tied at two, but Jimmyboy, who looked horrendous on six hits and four walks through five innings, was already nearing 90 pitches. He only pitched one more inning, in which he nicked Raul Moreno onto base, but that runner was left on as well. The ball went to Todd Sullivan in the seventh inning, who struck out the Titans’ 1-2-3 batters in order.

Bell also settled for a no-decision after seven much sharper innings than his counterpart, not that it got him any laurels. Teams just plain failed to get on base in the late innings, as the Coons went down in order in the last three innings, and so did the Titans, with Edgar Gutierrez putting up two scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth. Gabe Rivas then opened the tenth inning, the second frame for Boston closer Jerry Washington, with an infield single. Whatever works, I guess. Jordan Hernandez hit a proper single to center, but then Woodley struck out, Humphries flew out, and Yocum grounded out. The Coons sent Brad Fales into the bottom 10th, where he walked the leadoff man Gonzales, who stole second, got two outs, and then left the game after a consultation with Luis Silva. Oh goodie goodness! – McMahan inherited that winning run on third base with two outs, struck out Garcia, and the game continued.

The Titans lost lefty Tyler Gleason to injury in the 11th, but the Raccoons were not yet close to the point where the Titans had to send out the cleaning lady to pitch and we’d maybe score a run after a couple of innings that way. Wilson singled against Matt Nelson in the inning, but that was with two outs and the extent of the offense. McMahan sorted through a bunch of right-handed batters in the bottom 11th to keep the game going. Van Otterdijk reached on a throwing error in the 12th, but Yocum struck out to end the inning, deepening a slump further with an 0-for-6 day. Jeremy White got close to a walkoff dinger off Holzmeister in the inning, but Wilson caught the ball at the fence. Nelson saw Katz reach on an error by Gonzales to begin the top 13th, and we were ALMOST tempted to bunt with Tyler Wharton. He ended up with a shy single through the left side. Wilson then flew out to right before a wild pitch advanced the runners into scoring position. Both Olivares and Rivas then popped out on the infield to strand the ******* runners.

Holzmeister had another clean inning, and the game entered the 14th, with right-hander Jay Krenek pitching for Boston. Sam Brown pinch-hit for a 1-out single and Humphries hit a blooper that dinked just in front of a sliding Manuel Garcia for another single, with Brown going to second. Yocum actually got something done at that point and singled to center, and the Coons sent Brown for the plate, because we were running out of pitchers and the usual ******** wasn’t working. Jeff Hawkins in center got nothing on the throw and Brown managed to tumble over the plate safe, breaking the tie that had persisted for HOURS. The trail runners advanced, Krenek walked Katz anyway, and Big Wharton batted with the bags stuffed and one out, adding an insurance run with a sac fly to center. Yocum did not advance in that situation, so the new Boston pitcher Bronson Vanderven’s wild pitch did not plate a run – but Wilson’s 2-out single did. Olivares got to 0-for-7 with a groundout to Danny Miller at third base and left runners on the corners. The 3-run lead went to Valentin, who gave up a leadoff jack to Hector Moreno in the bottom 14th… and then ANOTHER ONE to Miller. WHAT IS GOING ON??? Matt Ford singled, but was forced out on White’s grounder. Hawkins drew a walk in a full count, and the Coons only got him at second on Gonzales’ comebacker. However, with the tying and winning runs on the corners, the Titans rocked up the pitcher Vanderven with two outs. He popped out, and the Coons SOMEHOW won the game. 5-4 Blighters. Humphries 4-6, BB; T. Wharton 2-6, RBI; Wilson 3-7, 2B, RBI; Brown (PH) 1-1; Gutierrez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Brad Fales hit the DL with forearm stiffness, which might only take a week to get back to normal (or would nevr go back to normal), but the Coons looked like they could use an additional arm during that week… even if it was Juan Vega to replace him…

It looked a little worse for Tyler Gleason, who had saved 41 games last year, who was out for the year with a torn UCL.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – C Brown – 3B Hernandez – 1B Woodley – P Walla
BOS: SS E. Gonzales – CF Marcotte – C N. Dingman – RF M. Garcia – 1B H. Moreno – 3B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – LF J. Hawkins – P Musgrave

The Raccoons shed Tyler Wharton in the first inning then as he bounced off the wall in pursuit of a Nick Ding(er)man flyball which he caught, but not without slamming his knee into the wall. He ended up being carted off the field while I silently watched and cried. The Otter entered the game in right, while Wilson moved to center – while that was no longer a smart *permanent* arrangement, we’d have to get through *this* game somehow.

Nick Walla was not as sharp as in the first two games of the year, but all the runners he put on were stranded in the early going, although he also short-circuited the third inning and Woodley drawing a walk with a terrible bunt back to Musgrave. However, Yocum hit a single and stole second to begin the fourth inning, advanced on Katz’ fly to center and then scored the game’s first run on Musgrave’s wild pitch. The Titans left runners on the corners for the second straight inning in the bottom 3rd as Hector Moreno and White hit singles, but Hawkins grounded out to third base to keep them on. Walla needed *93* pitches through five shutout innings, which was one of those glass-half-full-but-leaking situations.

Portland extended the lead in the sixth when Humph drew a leadoff walk and the struggling Yocum hit into a 5-4-3 double play, but after that Katz doubled and scored on van Otterdijk’s RBI single, 2-0. Hawkins ran down a Wilson drive in left-center to end the inning. Walla however left after 5.2 innings after allowing 2-out singles to Miller and White. Gutierrez came in and got Hawkins to fly out to the Otter, then – after Woodley hit into a double play to kill a potential tack-on run in the top 7th – allowed a leadoff single to the opposing pitcher, who in turn was doubled off himself by Marcotte. Katz then hit into a double play with Humph (walk) and Yocum (single) on the corners to ruin the Coons’ half of the eighth… Sullivan then got the bottom 8th, got two fast outs, and then allowed a single to Moreno, a double to Miller, drilled White, and with the bases loaded… struck out Hawkins. Valentin then got the 2-0 lead in the bottom 9th and I closed my eyes. He struck out Matt Ford, then walked Gonzales, and then got BLASTED by Marcotte to tie the ******* ballgame… which then went to MORE EXTRA INNINGS.

Hernandez drew a leadoff walk from Jerry Washington and was then doubled the **** up by Woodley, after which the ball went to Vega. Yocum, useless with a stick, was useless with the glove and allowed Hector Moreno on with an error right away. Vega struck out Miller, but then walked White. Hawkins scratched out a single to load the bases, and the game ended on a pinch-hit slammo by Curt Goodwin. 6-2 Titans. Yocum 3-4; van Otterdijk 2-4, RBI;

(looks definitely boozey) Alright. That happened. Olivares was also 0-for-20 at this point. Uhm. Well. Tyler Wharton bruised his kneecap and was going on the DL. He was probably gonna miss a month. Man, that .222 bat was gonna be missed in the millllll of that llllineup. Don’t ask me what the ******* **** isssssup with Valllllnnnnnin. I just… I jus… I jus needsssmmzzzzz….

By Sunday, Benito Otal was back on the roster to play centerfield despite not hitting in St. Pete either. The only outfielder hitting something, anything, were Dave Falquez and Charlie Langohr, but the first was an absolute no for centerfield duties, and the second was in the “oh dear lord, no!” category.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 1B Olivares – CF Otal – 3B Hernandez – P Gaytan
BOS: SS E. Gonzales – CF Marcotte – C N. Dingman – RF M. Garcia – 1B H. Moreno – 3B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – LF J. Hawkins – P Cruise

A pair of walks to begin the bottom 1st and then Nick Ding(er)man’s RBI single put the Titans on top right away, but Garcia struck out and Hector Moreno hit into a double play to bail out Gaytan, who immediately looked like he wasn’t gonna be of any use to anybody, and I didn’t mean that he struck out to leave Katz (single), Rivas (plonked), and Hernandez (walk) on base in the top 2nd. But he did that as well. He also drilled Cruise with a pitch when the opposing pitcher batted for the first time.

Rivas tied the game with his first Coons homer in the fourth inning, and the Coons then took the lead with straight singles from the 6-7-8 batters, Hernandez driving in Olivares, who broke that 0-for-21 run he was on. Gaytan whiffed in a full count, Humph walked in a full count to load the bags with two outs, and Yocum then legged out an infield roller in ANOTHER full count, getting the brown team’s third run home. The Otter fanned, though, leaving another three on base. Gaytan drilled White and walked Hawkins in the bottom 4th, but two groundouts stranded them as well – but it was hard to say which of the two starters looked more hopeless. For sure the Titans, who were constantly ahead in the count against Gaytan, did him major favors by readily swinging at 3-1 pitches…

Cruise was gone after five, while Gaytan lasted six innings, but gave up a run in that last frame on a White double and Hawkins’ RBI single with two gone. The Coons buried another two runners in the seventh, as did the Titans, getting leadoff singles from Gonzales and Marcotte and those runners into scoring position on Holzmeister’s wild pitch, but Ding(er)man and Garcia both whiffed, and Katz’ nifty play on Moreno’s grounder kept the lead together – barely.

Matt Nelson walked Hernandez and Humph in the eighth inning. Wilson grounded out in between, and Yocum hit into a fielder’s choice, moving Hernandez to third, but forcing out Humph at second. Colter batted for a hitless Otter against Nelson, but his fly to left-center was run down by Hawkins and the Coons failed to tack on AGAIN. ******* Jeff Hawkins singled off McMahan with two gone in the bottom 8th, but was left on base, after which Cody Kleidon allowed leadoff singles to Katz and Rivas in the ninth and had runners on the corners with nobody bloody out. Come on, boys! Insurance run! Olivares popped out behind the dish and Otal simply fanned, but Jordan Hernandez poked a single up the middle for a 2-out run. Luebbert batted for McMahan and flew out to Marcotte, and the Coons then sent Dan Graham into the bottom 9th as no qualified right-hander was left that hadn’t already pitched in both of the first two games, and against the all-righty top of the order. Gonzales grounded out to Yocum. Marcotte flew out to left. Ding(er)man, who was dingerless on the season, grounded out to Katz. 4-2 Coons. Yocum 3-5, RBI; Katzman 2-4, BB; Rivas 2-4, HR, RBI; Olivares 3-5; Otal 2-5; Hernandez 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (7-5) @ Canadiens (4-9) – April 21-23, 2071

The damn Elks had caught a rotten start to the season and brought up the rear in the division, where they could remain for all I cared for. I of course had to head back home for this series, watching the Raccoons play the Elks, who were in the bottom three in runs scored and runs allowed and had already amassed a -28 run differential, from afar. Last year had been another giant L for us in the season series, losing 11 of 18 games to the Moose.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (0-2, 8.18 ERA) vs. Dallas Samson (0-1, 5.25 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-0, 6.00 ERA) vs. Adam Molloy (0-2, 8.10 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (0-0, 3.55 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (1-1, 2.75 ERA)

They only had right-handed starters, but four lefty relievers that weren’t gonna do them much good against our lineup. I hoped.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 1B Olivares – CF Otal – 3B Hernandez – P Rios
VAN: SS Barraza – 1B Spicer – LF Lozada – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – C M. Lopez – 3B Eggert – 2B Terrazas – P Samson

Rios retired the first ten Elks in a row and only allowed a single to ex-Coon Malcolm Spicer in the fourth. Spicer got nowhere, and a walk drawn by Mario Lopez in the fifth didn’t get the Elks any further. Rios struck out seven and was still on a halfway decent pitch count of 76 through six innings, while the Raccoons hadn’t put up *a lot* of offense, but had taken the lead in the third inning on a 2-run homer by Jaden Wilson, just after Yocum had gotten on base. Another run was scored through doubles by Otal and Rios himself after that, extending the lead to 3-0. His next time up, Rios bunted into a double play, though, after Hernandez drew a leadoff walk in the seventh. Rios got three quick outs in the seventh, but then ran out of juice in the eighth inning. Dan Eggert hit a double, he walked Juan Terrazas, then struck out Jose Alvarez for the second out of the inning, but Roberto Barraza’s single loaded the bases. With Spicer up, Rios, on 100 pitches, remained on the hill – and got a first-pitch groundout to Yocum. That game then went to Valentin in the ninth inning, and he simply kept exploding. John Bustillos singled up the middle, Dan Moore homered, and things got pretty dicey before Lopez grounded out and Andy Ratliff flew out to center to end the game… 3-2 Coons. Rios 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (1-2) and 1-3, RBI;

I wonder why nobody wanted Pedro Valentin this winter.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 1B Woodley – 3B Luebbert – CF Otal – P Morales
VAN: SS Barraza – 3B Gallo – LF Lozada – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – 1B Jose Alvarez – 2B Eggert – C M. Lopez – P Molloy

Adam Molloy left the game before he allowed a run, conceding seven singles in 5.2 innings, but the Raccoons packed three of those into the first inning where their first runner (Yocum) was caught stealing and the next two were left on base, and then did precious little for depressingly long. Vinny Morales was holding up his end and only allowed three hits in the first five innings, two of them to J.P. Gallo against his old team, and no runs, while the Coons crowded Molloy out of the game in the sixth when Katz, Rivas, and Woodley all flocked on base with two outs and the .125 hitter Luebbert approaching, and the Elks sent left-hander Travis Davis, who allowed the game’s first runs on Luebbert’ sharp single to center, plating Katz and Rivas, but then struck out Benito Otal to end the inning.

Vinny pitched into the eighth, but walked the leadoff man Lopez before getting a fly out from Andy Ratliff on his 101st and final pitch. Holzmeister somehow was the first choice out of the pen, but struck out both Roberto Barraza and J.P. Gallo to end the inning. With Valentin more than just a little off kilter and more akin to a cat running around with some underpants on fire on its head, the Coons turned to McMahan for a mixed bag of batters in the 3-4-5 spots. He retired them in good order to put another W down. 2-0 Blighters. Katzman 3-4; Morales 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – CF Otal – P J. Wharton
VAN: SS Barraza – 1B Spicer – LF Lozada – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – C M. Lopez – 3B Gallo – 2B Terrazas – P R. Montoya

40-year-old Ricardo Montoya offered leadoff walks in the second inning to Katz, where nothing good happened, and in the third inning to Otal, who stole second and then gained third base on Jimmyboy’s groundout. He scored on another grounder by Humph, and the Coons had a 1-0 lead. Jimmy allowed a single to Lozada the first time through, then a single to Barraza with two gone in the bottom 3rd, and neither made it into scoring position. When Dan Moore drew a walk in the fourth inning, he was caught stealing. The Elks looked like even more forsaken at the plate than the Critters, and that was saying something.

The third leadoff walk by Montoya went to Jordan Hernandez in the fifth inning, and he was also brought in by Humphries with a 2-out single, 2-0. Yocum then singled over the head of Terrazas, and Wilson found the left-center gap for a 2-run double that also doubled the score before Katz’ pop to short ended the inning. The fourth leadoff walk, to Rivas, was the end of Montoya in this game, and Guillermo Arzola, one of the four southpaw relievers on the roster, managed to clean up behind him. Meanwhile, Jimmy was on 51 pitches through five innings of 2-hit ball, but saw Spicer reach with an infield single in the bottom 6th. He was stranded as well.

Arzola walked Yocum, who stole second after three straight times being caught stealing, and then scored on a Wilson single to left. Katz grounded out, and him and Wilson were taken off their legs in favor of Luebbert and Colter at the stretch. Immediately, Jimmyboy then gave up a homer to Bustillos. Probably no connection between those moves, but we were just taking notes here. Colter singled in a run against Danny Nava with one out in the ninth inning, but Luebbert hit into an inning-ending double play, while Jimmy was still around and entered the ninth inning, facing the 3-4-5 batters on 91 pitches. He struck out Lozada, but Bustillos had found something against him and bashed a double. Moore’s grounder advanced the runner, but Lopez flew out to Otal and Jimmyboy had a complete-game win. 6-1 Furballs! Humphries 2-5, 2 RBI; Yocum 3-5; Wilson 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Colter 1-1, RBI; Olivares 2-4; J. Wharton 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

A sweep in Elk City, tee-hee!

This also put the Raccoons into a tie for first place with the Loggers ahead of the weekend.

Raccoons (10-5) vs. Condors (6-9) – April 24-26, 2071

Back home to play agains the Condors, who were also in the bottom three in the league in runs scored, but had average pitching. They had a -20 run differential so far (Coons: +10). Their rotation had the second-worst ERA and their bullpen the second-best in the CL. Lowlights for Tijuana included a .294 team OBP and just three homers, all by Josh Rugar (.333, 3 HR, 13 RBI), who also had more than double the RBI total of anybody else on the team. The Coons had lost the season series for two years in a row, both times ending up with the 4-5 end of the stick.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (1-0, 0.96 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (1-2, 6.19 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-1, 3.45 ERA) vs. Ryan Mann (1-2, 2.91 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-2, 4.74 ERA) vs. Joe Allen (1-1, 3.80 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday yet again? It looked like it from the outset, but the Condors had been off on Thursday and had wiggle room.

Game 1
TIJ: 2B Monzon – SS D. Campbell – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – CF J. Elliott – RF Padgett – 3B Matthews – P Brenize
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Brown – CF Luebbert – P Walla

The Condors got to Walla rather quickly and scored two runs on a 2-out single by David Cline and a pair of doubles by Josh Rugar and Robert Alvarez in the first inning. They had more singles in the third inning, but the Raccoons made the flick-around on the scoreboard happen in the bottom 3rd, which began with Brown and Luebbert getting on base. Walla got them into scoring position with a groundout rather than a bunt, Humph walked the bases full, Yocum hit a sac fly, and van Otterdijk got the big knock, a 2-out, 2-run triple to get up 3-2. Katz’ pop to Rafael Monzon left him on third base, and the Condors got a leadoff walk drawn by Alvarez in the fourth inning. Cody Padgett added a 1-out single before the 8-9 batters went down meekly and Walla buggered out of the inning.

The Condors made not one, but two errors in the bottom 5th to put Yocum and the Otter on base with two outs, but again Katz couldn’t get anybody across and grounded out to Monzon this time. Walla had a clean fifth, but had to work around another two runners in the sixth inning, and then was hit for when Brenize allowed Brown and Luebbert on base again with two gone in the bottom 6th. Jaden Wilson chucked the Coons’ second 2-out, 2-run triple of the game, extending the lead to 5-2, but was left on base by Humphries. Wilson remained in the game in right, and the Otter moved to left, while Dan Graham went into the #1 spot in the lineup to begin the seventh, retiring the Condors in order, and then got another K on Cline in the eighth, but Gutierrez then gave up a homer to Rugar, 5-3. He then retired Alvarez and Jake Elliott to complete the inning. Condors reliever Harry Facteau began his second inning of work in the bottom 8th with walks to the Coons’ 7-8 batters. Wilson hit into a fielder’s choice, and Rivas pinch-hit for Gutierrez in the #1 spot and singled to get Brown home, so one Raccoons catcher plated the other. Yocum hit another RBI single, Facteau was replaced with David Mundell, who threw a wild pitch and then conceded a run on van Otterdijk’s groundout. Katz whiffed, continuing his rotten day. Juan Vega finished the game… but not without allowing a triple, a walk, TWO wild pitches, and a run… 8-4 Raccoons. Rivas (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 2-2, 2 BB; Wilson (PH) 1-2, 3B, 2 RBI;

Five wins in a row and a Loggers loss meant the Raccoons were in sole possession of first place on Friday night.

Those buggers were up to something … (shakes fist at the baseball gods)

Game 2
TIJ: RF Padgett – SS D. Campbell – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – CF J. Elliott – 2B Barrientos – 3B B. Robinson – P Mann
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – 1B Woodley – CF Otal – P Gaytan

Gaytan got three in a row in the first inning, and Katz got a 3-run homer with Yocum (forcing out Humph) and Wilson getting on base ahead of him. The first Condors runner in the game was Jon Barrientos, nailed by Gaytan, who then quickly added Brian Robinson to the bases. Ryan Mann struck out, Padgett hit into a fielder’s choice, but David Campbell walked and Cline doubled in two runs before Rugar ground out to Katz. Portland then failed to score after a throwing error by Robinson gave them Humph at second base in the bottom 3rd, while Robert Alvarez and Jake Elliott went to the corners with quick leadoff singles in the fourth, in which Gaytan eventually balked the tying run home. (facepaws)

It was only after the lead was blown that Gaytan seemed to get better and piled up a few strikeouts, and then Katz hit his second go-ahead homer of the game, only a solo job though, leading off the bottom 6th.

Gaytan held that lead through seven, and McMahan and Sullivan combined for a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Facteau issued walks to Yocum and Katz in the bottom 8th, but the Coons couldn’t get a hit while emptying their bench otherwise, and the runners were stranded, and then we ended up with Valentin facing the 6-7-8 batters in a 1-run game when he could barely keep his pants on right now. The Condors were also emptying their bench, which had a lot of left-handed sticks still on it. Mitch Watson struck out, but Chris Srour walked and was replaced with Monzon to pinch-run. Robinson fanned, and Kevin Matthews, a .145 switch-hitter, batted for the pitcher. Valentin engaged in pickoff attempts, then allowed singles to Matthews and Padgett to blow the lead. Campbell flew out. Tied at four, the Coons faced righty Tyler Reed in the bottom 9th, and he walked Woodley, then allowed a single to Otal that moved the winning run to second base. Sam Brown bunted the runners over, and the Condors responded with an intentional walk to Humph, but that still meant they had to get Yocum out without giving up a dinker. They didn’t – Yocum sliced a single through the left side, neat and clean, and the Coons walked it off. 5-4 Raccoons. Yocum 2-4, BB, RBI; Katzman 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI;

No pretty points, and Pedro Valentin might need a mercy killing, but for now we had a W6 streak.

Game 3
TIJ: 2B Monzon – RF Padgett – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – CF J. Elliott – SS D. Campbell – 3B Matthews – P J. Allen
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – CF Luebbert – P Rios

There was no scoring in the early innings, despite Rios allowing a leadoff walk to the speedy Monzon in the first and a leadoff double to Alvarez in the second inning. The Condors couldn’t get those guys around, but the Raccoons were even less impressive and didn’t threaten to score either. Rios struck out five through three innings, but then stumbled and fell on the snout in the fourth when he gave up two runs on a 2-out double by Campbell, who drove in Rugar and Elliott, who had landed a single and a walk, respectively. The Raccoons had Olivares and Hernandez on base in the bottom 5th, but Luebbert hit into a double play to end the inning.

Rugar made it 3-0 with a homer in the sixth inning. He was STILL the only Condors player with home runs on the season, but now he had five. Rios meanwhile had zero strikeouts in the middle innings. Otal batted for him in the bottom 6th, but to no good results. Katz got on base and doubled off again by Rivas in the seventh, and the winning streak was clearly ending. Vega allowed another run in the eighth inning when he put Padgett on with a double, and Dan Graham then couldn’t keep the runner on base.

The bottom 8th began with Hernandez grounding out, but Wilson batted for Luebbert and homered, reducing the score to 4-1. Woodley singled in the pitcher’s spot and Humph doubled to center, and the tying run appeared in the box. New left-hander Chris Thompson got pops from both Yocum and van Otterdijk to shut the Coons up. Instead the Condors got another run in the ninth, putting two runners on against Sullivan, and getting an RBI single from Padgett off McMahan. Down 5-1, the Coons made two quick outs against Juan Arguelles in the bottom 9th before Rivas got on base and Jordan Hernandez hit a homer to left. Tyler Reed replaced Arguelles and got a groundout from Wilson to end the game and the streak. 5-3 Condors. Wilson (PH) 1-2, HR, RBI; Woodley (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 17 – CIN OF Fernando Cruz (.273, 3 HR, 5 RBI) was going to miss three weeks due to a sprained ankle.
April 19 – IND SP Jorge Flores (1-0, 3.46 ERA) goes on the DL with ulnar nerve irritation and was gonna miss at least half the season.
April 19 – RIC LF/CF Juan Licona (.277, 4 HR, 10 RBI) contributes three hits, two homers, and five RBI in the Rebs’ 12-1 rout of the Blue Sox.
April 21 – OCT 1B Ian Stone (.241, 2 HR, 8 RBI) gets three singles, two homers, and drives in three runs in a 13-9 loss to the Falcons.
April 22 – PIT SP Brian Jones (4-0, 2.17 ERA) dominates the Rebels in a 1-hit shutout and strikes out ten Richmond batters for an 8-0 win. RIC RF/INF/CF Jared Robichaud (.300, 0 HR, 5 RBI) has a single for the only Rebs hit in the game.
April 25 – In the second game of a double-header, PIT INF/RF/CF Jeff Maudlin (.238, 3 HR, 15 RBI) cracks a walkoff grand slam in the ninth inning against LAP CL David Wright (1-2, 10.32 ERA, 3 SV) to give the Miners a sweep in the double-header, 9-3 and 8-4.
April 26 – BOS CF/LF Eddie Marcotte (.291, 6 HR, 14 RBI) was expected to miss two weeks with a knee contusion.

Player of the Week 2 (FL): CIN 1B Mike White (.365, 1 HR, 7 RBI), batting .462 (12-26) with 1 HR, 5 RBI
Player of the Week 2 (CL): MIL RF Dave Wright (.318, 3 HR, 7 RBI), punching .375 (9-24) with 3 HR, 5 RBI

Player of the Week 3 (FL): PIT OF Anthony Schneider (.373, 4 HR, 18 RBI), slapping .520 (13-25) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
Player of the Week 3 (CL): OCT 1B Ian Stone (.276, 2 HR, 9 RBI), batting .522 (12-23) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Certainly a better start to the season than we would have imagined, although bits and pieces are already hanging off the roster, and Tyler Wharton is gonna be out for a month. – True, Cristiano, it’s not like he did anything nice before he went on the DL. – Cristiano, you’re not helping.

Adam Yocum ends the week with an 11-game hitting streak.

The status of the Rule 5ers is about as expected: dismal. Woodley hasn’t done ANYTHING since his walkoff homer on Opening Day, and Luebbert is just woeful with the stick, and has a .182 BABIP to boot. Bit too early to cut ties, and then, who would we even call up? Dave Falquez (.326/.482/.419) is tearing up AAA, but he can’t replace either of those, and can only barely play corner outfield, so he’s just another question, not an answer.

The DIVISION-LEADING Raccoons would play three games at home with the Thunder to end the month, and then start a 9-game, 3-city road trip on the 1st that would see them in Indy, New York, and Denver.

Fun Fact: George van Otterdijk was the first Raccoon to double-digit RBI’s this year.

This despite only starting about half the games.

+++

2066 seventh-rounder Charlie Langohr’s surname translates to “long ear” from German, so you can bet your last dime on him getting the call-up at some point just for more terrible puns.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-6) vs. Thunder (8-11) – April 27-29, 2071

The first-place Raccoons (confused look) hosted the Thunder to close out the month of April. Not a lot had gone right for them so far, as they had the worst rotation and the most runs surrendered, and were only eighth in runs scored in the CL. They had a -21 run differential, but the Coons were only at +13 and I was still waiting for a random midweek sweep to get us back in line. No injuries on the Thunder’s side. The Coons had lost this matchup for seven straight years, though never worse than 3-6, which had been the tally last year.

Projected matchups:
Vinny Morales (1-0, 3.31 ERA) vs. Jose Aguilar (1-2, 7.98 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (1-0, 2.49 ERA) vs. Luis Ramirez (2-0, 0.36 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-0, 1.46 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (1-3, 6.26 ERA)

Lefties galore with Aguilar and Baca, and they had three left-handed starters in total, including Chris Hale (1-1, 7.84 ERA). No, none of them were doing them any good.

Game 1
OCT: CF J. Reyes – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – RF Bonner – LF Ambriz – 2B C. Gutierrez – 3B Llerena – P Jo. Aguilar
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – RF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – P Morales

The Thunder put two runs on Morales in a hurry, as he walked Martin Bohannon and then gave up three fat singles to Jose Palominos, Ian Stone, and Jose Ambriz, the latter two of whom each got an RBI. The home team got van Otterdijk and Katz on with a walk and a single with two outs in the bottom of the inning, but after a wild pitch by Aguilar, Olivares struck out in a full count and the runners were stranded in scoring position. A new attempt for offense came in the bottom 3rd with Humph drawing a 1-out walk and Yocum hitting a single up the middle, but this time van Otterdijk crashed into a 6-4-3. Katz walked and Wilson singled in the fourth, and were left on base. Vinny, who was controlling the Thunder much better after the early upset, and allowed only one single across the next four innings, then opened the bottom 5th with a single to right that bounced in front of long-ago Coon Ryan Bonner, *off* long-ago Coon Ryan Bonner, and the error allowed the Critters to get their pitcher to second base to begin the inning. Humph and Yocum held out for walks to fill the bags with nobody out, a.k.a. The Danger Zone, and the Otter hit a sac fly to Jon Reyes to get the team on the board, and Aguilar replaced by righty Chris Monahan, who conceded a game-tying single to Katz, a long fly that was caught to Olivares, and then the go-ahead RBI single to Jaden Wilson. Hernandez’ groundout ended the inning with Portland up 3-2.

Palominos reached base on an infield single after the long inning and stole second, but Morales got tight outs from the next three batters and the tying run remained stuck at second base. Carlos Gutierrez, another former Raccoon, opened the seventh with a hard single, though, and he was brought around to score on Reyes’ 2-out single to center, which ended Morales’ day. Holzmeister then retired Bohannon, and van Otterdijk brushed the foul pole in leftfield for a homer off right-hander Marc Timmons one out after the stretch.

Palominos tied the game with a home run off Holzmeister in the eighth, and Holzmeister also put Bonner on base. Gutierrez drove in that go-ahead run with a 2-out single off Dan Graham, as things began to unravel and the Raccoons were now behind again, and the Thunder got an insurance run in the ninth inning off useless Juan Vega, who put the leadoff man Oscar Aredondo on base, got a force from Reyes, but then balked Reyes to second and easily surrendered the run from there. The Coons went down meekly from there. 6-4 Thunder. Van Otterdijk 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Katzman 2-3, BB, RBI; Wilson 2-4, RBI;

I say “long-ago Coon Ryan Bonner”, but it’s actually only been four years. Those four years have felt like twenty, though…

Game 2
OCT: CF J. Reyes – RF Bonner – LF Talavera – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – 3B Llerena – C Norwood – 2B C. Gutierrez – P L. Ramirez
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – CF Otal – 3B Hernandez – P J. Wharton

On the bright paw, the Raccoons scored SIX runs in the first inning and murdered Luis Ramirez and his ERA right out of the gate, with an RBI single for Olivares, a 3-run homer for Gabe Rivas, and a 2-run double for Humphries – but Ramirez was not the only player that didn’t see the second inning, as Humphries pulled a thing or other on his double and limped off the field. Van Otterdijk replaced him as pinch-runner, saw Yocum pop out to end the inning, and then took leftfield. Timmons pitched in the bottom 2nd and had the bags full immediately with the 3-4-5 batters, gave up an RBI single to Rivas, another run on Otal’s groundout, and one more on Hernandez’ sac fly, then got yanked for Monahan, who heroically retired Jimmyboy. The Coons reached ten runs in the third inning with Yocum and Wilson singles with one gone, then Katz’ RBI double. Olivares’ sac fly made it 11-0, and Katz was stranded on Rivas’ fly to center.

Everybody calmed down a bit at that point. The Coons did nothing on offense in the next couple of innings, while Jimmyboy was pitching fine, but not efficiently, so a shutout was not on the table. He gave up a leadoff triple to Bonner in the sixth, struck out Victor Talavera, but then allowed an RBI single to Palominos to get the Thunder on the board anyway, and was almost at 100 pitches after six innings. He got two more outs before a pinch-hit single by Aredondo and a full-count walk to Reyes in the seventh, and then was replaced with Sullivan, who got Bonner to fly out to the Otter and ended the inning. The Coons then put in Vega with a 10-run lead, with his bus ticket to St. Pete already purchased. He got three outs, mostly loud, which we deemed enough. After a Jaden Wilson homer in the eighth inning tacked on another run, the Coons went to their second-worst reliever by ERA, closer Pedro Valentin, for three uneventful outs in the ninth. 12-1 Raccoons! Humphries 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Wilson 4-5, HR, RBI; Olivares 2-3, 2 RBI; Brown (PH) 1-1, 2B; Rivas 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; J. Wharton 6.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (2-0);

Roster move on Wednesday; there were so far no injury reports on Humphries, who remained on the roster but incapacitated. However, Juan Vega (0-1, 11.57 ERA) ended up on waivers and replaced him with Steve George, but George did not arrive rested and was not available for the rubber game.

Game 3
OCT: CF J. Reyes – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – RF Bonner – LF Ambriz – 2B C. Gutierrez – 3B Llerena – P D. Baca
POR: 2B Yocum – LF van Otterdijk – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – CF Luebbert – C Brown – P Walla

After Walla put the speedy Jon Reyes on and walked Palominos, and had a tough time extracting himself from that situation (but did so with a K on Stone and Bonner’s fly to Luebbert in center), the Raccoons got on the board early again as Yocum drew a leadoff walk and van Otterdijk bashed one over the wall in left right away. This was followed by another 2-run homer in the second inning, where Hernandez doubled to left-center, and then Rule 5er Nick Luebbert slapped one over the fence for his first career round-tripper. A bit of variety for the crooked number in the third inning then, as van Otterdijk led off with a double, but didn’t score until Olivares’ 2-out single. Olivares moved up to second on an attempt at the plate that was way late, then scored on a Hernandez single, and Hernandez also gained second base on a throw to the plate, but Luebbert flew out to center.

Nominally we should be able to recline with a 6-0 lead on Walla, but he had needed 48 pitches to get through the first three innings, so nothing was easy here, and no freebies. Bonner singled in the fourth, but was doubled off by Jose Ambriz’ grounder to short. A Hernandez error ran the pitch count up further in the fifth, and then Bohannon worked a leadoff walk and Palominos doubled at the start of the sixth. Stone popped out on the infield, but Bonner drove in both runners with a streak to left and up the line. Ambriz and Gutierrez made weak outs after that. Walla got stuck at 6.2 innings and lifted after Reyes singled on his 109th pitch of the game, but the runner was caught stealing by Sam Brown after Gutierrez replaced Walla. Gutierrez never got an out under his own power, putting Bohannon and Palominos on to begin the eighth before McMahan replaced him, got a double play grounder from Stone to Yocum, walked Bonner, but rung up Ambriz. The Coons took the series with a scoreless inning from Dan Graham in the ninth. 6-2 Critters. Van Otterdijk 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Hernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Luebbert 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Walla 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (3-0);

Some good news then came during the 48 hours between the end of the homestand and our next game in Indy, as Nick Walla won Pitcher of the Month honors (squee!), and Steve Humphries’ hammy was found to be “tight”, but not *worse*, and he was day-to-day. He would not be in the lineup in the opener in Indy, and we’d play it by fuzzy ear from there.

Raccoons (14-7) @ Indians (9-13) – May 1-3, 2071

The Indians had won the opening series, 2-1, but since then had sagged and were now fifth in the division, and had lost five games in a row. They had the most runs scored with 108 markers in 24 games, but they were giving up exactly as many. Ruckus rotation, boggling bullpen, desolate defense. Also, two pitchers on the DL, as Jorge Flores and Tim Tennant were out for at least a few months.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-1, 3.57 ERA) vs. Pablo Apodaca (0-2, 5.85 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-3, 4.68 ERA) vs. Miguel Lopez (2-1, 4.22 ERA)
Vinny Morales (1-0, 3.52 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (0-1, 4.71 ERA)

With Apodaca and DeWitt, we would face *four* southpaw starters this week. What an odd concept! Also, DeWitt had yet to win a game, which was also quite unusual.

Keep an eye on Walter Richmond (.319, 2 HR, 16 RBI), who won Rookie of the Month honors and who was still batting eighth a lot, despite lots of .210s hitting ahead of him.

Game 1
POR: 2B Yocum – LF van Otterdijk – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – CF Luebbert – P Gaytan
IND: SS Valadez – LF W. Griffith – CF Hilario – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – C A. Morris – 2B Richmond – P Apodaca

Friday’s opener began with a walk, single, K, and then Katz doubled in the game’s first run with a ball near Wade Griffith in deep left. Olivares’ sac fly and another RBI double by Jordan Hernandez made it 3-0 before Gaytan got the ball in his paw. He almost gave up a homer to Fernando Valadez on his first pitch of the game, but the ball came down in van Otterdijk’s mitten, then proceeded to give up a single to Matt Rogers in the second, but no other runners in the first three innings, and Rogers was left on base. No strikeouts, though, so he remained weirdly off compared to his previous career numbers of many strikeouts, more homers. His first K didn’t come until the bottom 5th when he rung up Richmond following a 1-out double by Andy Morris. Apodaca then left that runner on base, while the Coons had stranded Luebbert and Yocum in scoring position in the top of the inning, and the score was still 3-0.

That changed in the bottom 6th, which began with a Yocum error that put Valadez on base. Gaytan got two weak outs from Griffith and Jose Hilario, but then gave up a homer to Matt Rogers, both runs unearned. Tony Torres then tied the game with a homer to lead off the seventh, and Richmond gave the Indians the lead with another homer off Gaytan. Oh, there he was again! …without the strikeouts, mind.

The Raccoons just couldn’t put anything together after their choke in the fifth inning and went on to lose this game completely without even contesting in the late innings. 4-3 Indians. Van Otterdijk 2-4; Hernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Sigh.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – CF Otal – 3B Hernandez – P Rios
IND: SS Valadez – C A. Morris – CF Hilario – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – LF Masterson – 2B Richmond – P Mi. Lopez

Humphries returned to the lineup with a leadoff single on Saturday, and was stranded on first base. Rivas’ single in the second also led nowhere, while Rios was all over the place, issued three walks in the first three innings, and was lucky that the Indians has Scott Masterson hit into a double play in the second, and that Valadez got himself caught stealing in the third.

Top 4th, and Katz and Olivares opened with singles for the brown team. Rivas smashed into a 4-6-3 double play and Otal floated out to Hilario to make sure nothing undue happened to Miguel Lopez’ ERA. Matt Martin nearly hit a homer in the bottom 4th, but was caught at the fence in left, and Rios then issued a 2-out walk on four pitches to Tony Torres, who scored on Masterson’s single to right and Wilson’s subsequent massive throwing error. Richmond whiffed to limit the damage to the game’s first (unearned) run. The Coons continued to fail to score, including after Hernandez’ wallbanger double to lead off the fifth inning. Olivares and Rivas reached with two gone in the sixth, but Otal flew out to Hilario again.

Torres tripled home Rogers with two outs in the bottom 6th instead, and while Rios struck out Masterson, he left the game after six innings, down 2-0 with the Coons on a 14-inning scoreless streak. Jamie Colter hit a double in his spot in the seventh inning – and was also stranded. Nobody reached in the eighth for Portland, but the Indians put two runs on Dan Graham to put the game away. Luebbert and Hernandez hit singles in the ninth inning to go to the corners with one out, and closer Ryan Croft allowed a run on Colter’s sac fly, but Josh Woodley grounded out to end the game. 4-1 Indians. Rivas 2-3; Luebbert (PH) 1-1; Hernandez 2-3, BB, 2B; Colter (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

That was awful. That was the first of those games where they are constantly on base and can’t get a ******* hit with a runner in scoring position ALL GAME LONG in a good while.

Here come ten more, probably.

Steve George pitched mop-up behind Graham, then was sent back to AAA as Brad Fales came off the DL.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 3B Hernandez – C Brown – CF Luebbert – 1B Woodley – P V. Morales
IND: SS Valadez – LF W. Griffith – CF Hilario – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – C A. Morris – 2B Richmond – P M. DeWitt

Singles by Hernandez and Sam Brown put runners on the corners to begin the second inning on Sunday, then had to rely on Rule 5ers for actual offense. Nick Luebbert came through with an RBI double over the head of Hilario, but Woodley lined out, Morales popped out, and Humph flew out to Griffith, who at least had to run for that one, so we only scored one run. Luebbert then rushed down a Richmond drive to make a lunging grab that bailed Morales out of the bottom 2nd with the Indians having runners on the corners themselves. Valadez and Griffith put themselves on base with one out in the third, but Hilario flew out to Humph in deep left and Rogers grounded out sharply to Yocum. So, Vinny was not looking good at all. Hernandez looked better, hitting a leadoff double into the gap in left-center to begin the fourth. He didn’t score as Brown and Luebbert made outs, Woodley got directions to first base, and Morales popped out – then collapsed in the bottom of the inning. Martin smacked a double on the first pitch of the inning. Torres struck out, but Morris walked in a full count. Richmond flew out, and DeWitt tied the game with a single, then scored with his battery mate on a Valadez double into the leftfield corner. Griffith whiffed excitedly, but now the Indians were up 3-1.

The Coons tumbled towards a sweep, while Morales was yanked after another leadoff double by Hilario and a Martin RBI single in the bottom 5th. Gutierrez replaced him and kept at least that runner on base… DeWitt then hit a leadoff double himself off Gutierrez in the sixth, but Gutierrez shut down the top of the order and escaped without allowing a run.

The brown team had been comatose for a while when the Indians gifted them a chance in the seventh. DeWitt walked Humph with two outs and was replaced with Felix Morales, who got a grounder from Yocum to short, which Valadez threw away for a 2-base error. This brought van Otterdijk to the plate as the tying run. The lefty Morales gave up a single through the right side, both runners scored, and the tally was now 4-3 Indy, but Katz popped out. Brad Fales pitched in the eighth inning and gave up … a lot. He struck out Alex Gomez, but then walked Valadez, who stole second, and was thrown out at the plate on a Griffith single to right. Hilario tripled in a run, Rogers hit an RBI single, and Fales looked like complete garbage. Jon Kronberg popped out to short to end the inning, and the Raccoons just rolled into a ball and cashed their sweep. 6-3 Indians. Van Otterdijk 2-4, 2 RBI; Hernandez 2-4, 2B;

In other news

April 27 – 22-year-old Aces LF/CF/INF Jimmy Williams (.333, 1 HR, 10 RBI) has put together a 20-game hitting streak with a third-inning single in a 6-5 win against the Crusaders.
April 27 – The Canadiens beat the Condors, 4-3 in 14 innings. To get there they had to hit into four double plays and still left 11 runners on base.
April 28 – A stretched elbow ligament ends the season of RIC SP Josh Tarver (0-0, 3.00 ERA).
April 29 – DEN SP Aaron O’Harra (2-2, 3.44 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout to beat the Rebels, 6-0.
April 29 – The hitting streak of Vegas’ Jimmy Williams (.320, 1 HR, 10 RBI) ends at 21 games with an 0-for-4 in a 2-1 win against New York.
April 30 – The season of SAL 1B Jeremy McDermott (.250, 2 HR, 10 RBI) could be over after the 25-year-old has suffered ruptured achilles tendon.
April 30 – The Crusaders deal 2B/SS Ryan Philpot (.238, 0 HR, 8 RBI) to Sacramento for MR Leo Garcia (1-0, 2.79 ERA) and #36 prospect SP Kyle Maloff.
May 1 – A home run by CHA SS/3B Trent Taylor (.163, 1 HR, 7 RBI) beats the Bayhawks, 1-0.
May 2 – MIL SP Matt Crist (4-2, 2.01 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders for a 3-0 victory.
May 2 – The Canadiens trade SP Adam Molloy (0-3, 5.56 ERA) to the Aces for four prospects. The deal includes #64 CL Felix Guerrero, and #101 INF George Marshall.
May 3 – The Gold Sox beat the Wolves, 6-5, on a ninth-inning walkoff balk by SAL MR David Mangione (1-0, 5.59 ERA).

Player of the Week (FL): LAP 2B/3B Roland Hood (.358, 1 HR, 10 RBI), batting .650 (13-20) with 5 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): ATL OF Jorge Soto (.370, 2 HR, 13 RBI), clipping .536 (15-28) with 5 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: PIT OF Anthony Schneider (.351, 5 HR, 21 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL C Manuel Rodriguez (.310, 8 HR, 20 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT SP Brian Jones (5-0, 2.00 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: POR SP Nick Walla (3-0, 1.72 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: SAL INF/LF/RF Ray Olin (.306, 1 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: IND OF/2B Walter Richmond (.319, 2 HR, 16 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Nick Walla took his second Pitcher of the Month honors, having gotten one before in July 2068. That was the year where he dueled Nate Freeman for the ERA title before they both crashed late. Not sure how he got this one when Scott Bickerton of the Falcons had an ERA under 1, but I was not complaining per se.

The team is on a 3-game losing streak in which they looked like they couldn’t boil a pot of water for their entire stay in Indianapolis. Somehow we’re still second in runs scored with 4.8 runs per game. They did score (rounded) just that much this week, but that was with a 12 against the Thunder, and they lost four of the other five games.

There is a crass difference between starters and the pen, with the former having a better ERA by almost a run and three quarters…! We should look into the possibility to add a reliever that actually functions maybe. Or five.

The road trip continues through New York and Denver, and after that we’ll be home for two weeks. Off days on Thursday and the Monday after the trip; but we’ll play 16 straight games after that.

Fun Fact: Pedro Valentin gave up as many home runs (four) as the entire rotation combined in April.

Yay? Also, this was before “Hard Knock” Gaytan came back on Friday.

Nick Walla was the only pitcher on the roster (besides Steve George, who didn’t pitch) to not give up a home run in April. That is a solid foundation and I can’t wait to see how it will derail in the next five months.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (14-10) @ Crusaders (12-12) – May 4-6, 2071

After a feckless sweep in Indianapolis that put the whole division inside of 3 1/2 games, the Raccoons ventured on to New York to play the first three games of the year with the Crusaders. This season series had alternated 11-7 outcomes in the last three years, with the Raccoons on top in 2068 and 2070. The Crusaders were second-worst in offense so far, but also gave up only the third-fewest runs. Their rotation was better than their bullpen by more than two runs, which was even more disparate than the Raccoons’ pitching split. Pitchers Dennis Marck and Danny Ortiz and infielder Kyle Reber were on the Crusaders’ DL.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (2-0, 2.22 ERA) vs. Colt Long (2-0, 3.62 ERA)
Nick Walla (3-0, 1.72 ERA) vs. Russell Anderson (0-0, 2.08 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-2, 3.34 ERA) vs. Josh Jackson (1-1, 5.84 ERA)

After four southpaw starters last week (not that it helped the offense much), the Raccoons faced another two southpaws to begin this series – IF Russell Anderson was indeed making a spot start in place of Ortiz.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – CF Luebbert – P J. Wharton
NYC: RF Ospina – 3B Joe King – LF Griffin – CF B. Davidson – 2B McNulty – SS R. Ortiz – 1B B. Johnston – C Marty – P C. Long

Yocum, the Otter, and Olivares churned out singles for a quick run in the first inning and the RBI for Olivares before Jordan Hernandez whiffed and ended the inning. We then added an unearned run in the second inning, which began with Chris McNulty’s 2-base throwing error to put Gabe Rivas in scoring position. Luebbert grounded out, Jimmyboy walked (!), and Humph hit a sac fly to Tony Griffin on the warning track. In turn, Hernandez made an error to put Robert Ortiz on base, with McNulty already on, and Bryan Johnston’s groundout moved the runners into scoring position with two outs. While we were employing the intentional walk sparingly in general, this was the situation to do it to not have Jimmy Wharton face the right-handed and pesky .266 hitter Ryan Marty, and he rung up the opposing pitcher instead to leave the bases loaded.

Jimmy dropped his ERA under two by the fourth inning, in which Ortiz hit a 2-out triple to right, but with nobody on base and without Bryan Johnston offering any assistance, leaving the runner stranded as he grounded out to Olivares. The Coons then doubled their score in the fifth, starting with Long offering a 1-out walk to Yocum. Van Otterdijk flew out, but Katz socked an RBI double to left-center, then scored on Olivares’ second 2-out RBI knock of the game that made it 4-0. Hernandez walked, but Rivas whiffed to end the inning – and then suddenly Wharton couldn’t pitch anymore. Marty hit a leadoff homer in the bottom 5th, and Willie Ospina and Joe King mashed back-to-back doubles. Tony Griffin’s RBI single and Bill Davidson walking got the bullpen going, but McNulty crashed into a double play to end the inning with the lead molten down to 4-3.

Jimmyboy hit a single in the sixth, but was left on and then retired nobody in the bottom 6th, walking Ortiz and allowing a single to Johnston before Holzmeister replaced him and got three stingy outs that prevented the Crusaders from scoring. The Crusaders also batted for Long in the inning, and so Adam Dochterman pitched in the top 7th and right away put the Otter and Katz on the corners with singles. Olivares hit a sac fly, 5-3, but Hernandez doubled to left to put a pair in scoring position. However, a pair of sucky groundouts by Rivas and Luebbert stranded the runners. Joe King drew a leadoff walk off Sullivan in the bottom 7th, but was caught stealing, and Humphries drew a 1-out walk in the top 8th, but was caught stealing.

The Coons asked Brad Fails for two outs, and got them, somehow, as he walked McNulty and got a double play grounder from Ortiz to shave almost two full runs off his ERA. McMahan then retired Johnston, and the ball and the 5-3 lead went to Valentin in the bottom of the ninth. He got two outs from Marty and Jonathan Merrill, drilled Ospina, gave up a mind-boggling RBI triple to King, and then somehow struck out Griffin to end the game… 5-4 Coons. Van Otterdijk 2-5; Katzman 2-5, 2B, RBI; Olivares 2-3, 3 RBI;

Still lowered his ERA, though… (sour look)

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – CF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – P Walla
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – SS Joe King – LF Griffin – CF B. Davidson – 2B McNulty – 1B B. Johnston – C Marty – RF Ospina – P R. Anderson

Offense was absent in the early going, as neither team had a hit through three innings. Walla walked Griffin in the first, but apart from that retired all Crusaders. The spot starter Anderson removed the Coons in order, and continued to do so until Miguel Lacatelli fumbled a Hernandez grounder to begin the sixth inning, so we only got on base on an error after all. This put the tying run on base, as by then Walla had given up three hits, with a Griffin double and Bill Davidson’s RBI single putting the Crusaders up 1-0 in the bottom 4th. Anderson retired the 8-9-1 batters in order to keep Hernandez stranded.

The Raccoons did not reach under their own volition until Katz drew a 2-out walk in the seventh, after which Olivares grounded out. Wilson drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, but was doubled up by Hernandez. Anderson then drilled Rivas, but Walla grounded out. Walla completed eight innings on the losing end without flashy strikeout totals, but held the Crusaders to six hits, while the spot starter Anderson did not get to finish what he started and was replaced with Christopher Tinari for the ninth inning. The right-hander, who had issued more walks than brought down the hammer for strikeouts this year, faced the top of the order. He walked Humphries, then gave up a looper over Johnston’s glove to Yocum for a single. The ballpark murmured. A double steal put the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. And then van Otterdijk hit a piss poor grounder to third that got nobody anything, followed by Tinari ringing up Katz and Olivares. 1-0 Crusaders. Walla 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, L (3-1);

Brutal incompetence.

I didn’t even have to buy a season ticket to watch this team, and yet I want a refund.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – RF van Otterdijk – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – P Gaytan
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – SS Joe King – LF Griffin – CF B. Davidson – 2B McNulty – 1B B. Johnston – C Marty – RF Ospina – P Jo. Jackson

Portland again got the early lead in the rubber game, as Jackson nicked Humph and allowed a single to Yocum to begin his outing. Wilson grounded out to advance the runners, and Katz’ sac fly and an Olivares double cashed the pair from scoring position. Olivares then helped the Crusaders get two on base in the bottom of the inning with an error, but Gaytan struck out McNulty before it could get ugly; however, he also got bashed around for three hits and a run in the bottom 2nd, including a ******* 2-out RBI single by the opposing pitcher.

It only got worse. Griffin hit a leadoff triple in the third, and while Gaytan struck out Davidson, the Crusaders flipped the score on McNulty’s double and Johnston’s single, and Marty also singled before Ospina struck out and Jackson chased Humphries into the corner for the third out. In total the Crusaders whacked Gaytan around for eight hits in three innings and took a 3-2 lead. He was yanked just one out in the fourth after issuing another hit and a walk to the 4-5 batters. Sullivan dug out of the inning.

The Raccoons remained on two base hits through six innings, while the Crusaders piled up a dozen in the same time, now with Gutierrez pitching. The game looked more lost than it actually was, and in the seventh inning the Coons got the tying runs to the corners with one out as Jackson gave up a pair of singles to van Otterdijk and Rivas. Hernandez dished another single through the left side, and suddenly the game was tied. Benito Otal was already batting ninth, having entered in a double switch with Gutierrez and replacing Jaden Wilson in center. He flew out to center against Dochterman, who then walked Humph to fill the bases. Yocum laid off the garbage, drew another walk, and that pushed home Rivas as the go-ahead run! Josh Woodley batted for the pitcher, but flew out to Griffin to leave three on… and then the bottom 7th immediately derailed and steamed right through a burning orphanage. McMahan walked the leadoff man Johnston, Katz **** on a double play grounder by Marty, and Ospina hit a bloop single between Yocum and van Otterdijk, but the Crusaders sent Johnston, whom the Otter threw out at the plate, and he also jammed his leg into Rivas’ and ended up leaving the game and was replaced by Robert Ortiz. The trailing runners advanced though, and Merrill’s pinch-hit grounder tied the game before Lacatelli struck out.

Even at four to begin the eighth, Katz hit #5 off Leo Garcia to establish a new 5-4 lead while still getting out-hit a loopy 13-6. Brad Fails was sent into the bottom 8th, allowed a leadoff single to King, but Griffin flew out and Davidson hit into a double play grounder this time. The Raccoons stranded Yocum and his 2-out single in the ninth before the ball went to the other off-kilter right-hander that was supposed to be more useful than he was, Valentin: McNulty almost took his head off with a barreled liner up the middle for a leadoff single, but two pops and Ospina’s grounder to Yocum ended the game. 5-4 Critters. Yocum 2-4, BB, RBI;

The Coons had seven hits. The Crusaders had FIFTEEN. We also made two errors and walked three of their sort. They stranded 14 runners. Let’s just call it a “team effort” and bugger off to Colorado.

Raccoons (16-11) @ Gold Sox (12-14) – May 8-10, 2071

The Gold Sox had won four games in a row, including on Thursday, our off day. They were still climbing out of a hole, though, and were just seventh in both runs scored and runs allowed, for a -11 run differential (Coons: +20). Their bullpen was a complete disaster, defense was crummy, and they had no speed on the base paths. Walt Chicas and Miguel Sandoval – the team leader with five homers – were on the DL. The Raccoons had won the last four series played against the Sox, including two consecutive sweeps in ’68 and ’70.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (1-4, 4.06 ERA) vs. Juan Ybarra (0-2, 4.88 ERA)
Vinny Morales (1-1, 4.28 ERA) vs. Aaron Bent (1-2, 5.03 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (3-0, 2.70 ERA) vs. TBD

The Gold Sox had played a double-header on Wednesday, and had not announced Sunday’s pitcher yet. It could be either right-hander Ryan Furlong (1-1, 6.75 ERA) or left-hander Aaron O’Harra (3-2, 2.85 ERA), either on short rest. The other starters were right-handers.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – CF Otal – P Rios
DEN: LF Tuck – 2B Kilday – C Brann – 1B J. Gutierrez – CF Wang – 3B B. Metz – RF Donaldson – SS J.P. Davis – P Ybarra

Humph, battling the .200 mark, opened the game with a single to center, which Yocum imitated. The runners took off and Mike Brann threw the ball past a lunging Beau Metz for an error, allowing Humph to score immediately and Yocum to dilly-dally over to third base. The Coons then left him there with a Wilson K, Katz grounding out to first, and another K on Olivares. BRILLIANT.

Nobody else had a hit through three innings, except for Dao-zi Wang, who singled off Rios in the second, but was stranded. Both starters had 3 K through three innings, but Ybarra gave up a leadoff triple into the corner to Jaden Wilson in the fourth inning, and then plated the runner with a wild pitch. In the same inning, Olivares doubled and was plated with Hernandez’ 2-out single to right, 3-0, but Wang then ran down a long Otal drive to end the inning. The Gold Sox then had not one, but *two* infield singles in the bottom 4th, by Wang and before that, Matt Kilday, who had knocked his 2,500th career hit fair and square earlier this week (and it felt like we had been around for at least 7- to 800 of them). Stingy pitching by Rios kept the runners on the corners and the Sox off the board.

Humph drew a walk, but was caught stealing in the fifth, however, Wilson also got on base to begin the sixth and did steal second base. Katz flew out, but Olivares walked, and then Gabe Rivas lobbed an RBI single into left-center. This extended the score to 4-0 before the 7-8 hitters made meek outs … and before Juan Gutierrez doubled home Kilday in the same inning to get the Sox on the board after all.

The 4-1 score stood into the eighth, where Rios allowed a leadoff single to Tuck, but Kilday hit into a double play. However, Rios then walked Brann and Gutierrez and was replaced with Gutierrez against Wang, who flew out to Otal in center to end the threat. Luebbert’s pinch-hit single in the ninth went nowhere nice, and so Valentin got a 3-run lead to mess with this time around. Again, he put the leadoff man on base as Beau Metz singled, but then struck out Justin Donaldson, J.P. Davis flew out to Wilson, and then the game ended on a K t Noel Rounsaville (sic!). 4-1 Coons. Wilson 2-4, 3B; Luebbert (PH) 1-1; Rios 7.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-4);

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – 1B Woodley – CF Otal – P Morales
DEN: C Brann – 2B Kilday – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF Tuck – CF Wang – 3B B. Metz – RF Donaldson – SS Franks – P Bent

The Raccoons habitually scored early, piecing together three singles between Yocum, Katz, and Rivas for an early 1-0 lead, before Hernandez flew out to Donaldson. Hernandez also ended the third inning, hitting a single with Wilson and Katz on base and two outs, but Donaldson now threw out Wilson at the plate to end the inning. Donaldson then hit a single to left, stole second, and scored on Devon Franks’ double to tie the game. Whee. Morales at least saw off the 9-1-2 batters without conceding the go-ahead run, too, getting two grounders with a pop in between.

Both teams then poked around a bit and hit the odd single, but got nowhere in the next few innings. For example, Mike Brann hit a leadoff single to center in the bottom 6th, then was doubled off by Kilday. Juan Gutierrez reached on a throwing error by Hernandez, but Chris Tuck flew out to Humph. It took a Morales double in the seventh to get the Raccoons going. Humph walked behind him, Yocum made a poor out in the air, but Jaden Wilson came through with a 2-out RBI single to right-center, and Vinny went around quite aggressively there. Katz grounded out to Franks, so no major breakthrough was achieved, and Morales immediately worked himself into a jam with a Wang walk and a single by Metz in the bottom 7th. Donaldson and Rounsaville both hit rollers in front of home plate that Rivas cat-like played for outs at first, and PH Juan Portillo then grounded out to Katz to leave the runners in scoring position.

Morales got one more out from Brann to begin the eighth, which put him at 103 pitches (in other words, plenty), and also brought up the stingy left-handed bit of the lineup. McMahan and Olivares entered in a double switch, and McMahan retired – … nobody. Kilday doubled, Gutierrez walked, Tuck tied the game with a single, and **** all, McMahan left without getting an out. Wang flew out against Sullivan and Metz whiffed, and the game was tied at two after eight innings. The Coons then went down in order in the ninth inning, while Sullivan walked the first two batters, Davis and Steve Killelea, and Dan Graham couldn’t keep Davis on base, as the Gold Sox walked off on a Kilday single with two outs. 3-2 Gold Sox. Wilson 2-3, BB, RBI; Morales 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K and 2-3, 2 2B;

It was then O’Harra, the left-hander for the rubber game, but as I mentioned on short rest. Like this team was gonna get a starter out before the 13th inning.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – CF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – P J. Wharton
DEN: LF Tuck – 2B Kilday – C Brann – 1B J. Gutierrez – CF Wang – 3B B. Metz – RF Donaldson – SS Franks – P O’Harra

The Coons did not score in the first and I immediately lost all hope, even before a breathtakingly stupid bottom of the second, in which Wharton walked three Sox, even though Wang doubled up the leadoff man Gutierrez, but with two outs Yocum threw away Franks’ grounder for an error and a free run. O’Harra struck out, but the Sox were up 1-0 without the benefit of a base hit. Not like the Coons had one.

Tuck homered off Wharton in the third inning, extending the lead to 2-0, although the Coons *did* get a hit with Yocum’s leadoff triple in the fourth inning. Van Otterdijk fanned, but Katz hit a sac fly at least to get the runner home, but that was it for the inning. While Wharton was all over the ******* place and had no cohesion whatsoever, the Raccoons would then indulge in killing what few runners they had with double plays, as van Otterdijk and Olivares did in consecutive innings in the sixth and seventh. While Wharton got stuck in the bottom 7th and was dug out by Brad Fails (!), the eighth began with Hernandez doubling off O’Harra, who was then lifted for righty Jorge Lara with the tying run in scoring position and nobody out. Rivas singled up the middle, but Wang was on it quick and Hernandez, who had already turned third base, retreated in a hurry. Woodley pinch-hit and whiffed, and Humph, batting .185, walked to fill the bags. Yocum was down 0-2 before he poked a grounder at Kilday, and with anybody but Humph gassing it from first base, that would have been a double play. Instead, Kilday had to go to first, and the Coons got the tying run home on the groundout. Jamie Colter then batted for van Otterdijk – and his drive to left-center fell in between Tuck and Wang, Tuck fell down, Wang had to go back, two runs scored on the double, and the Coons were on top now…! New right-hander Jorge Garza popped out Katz.

Dan Graham set out to blow the lead then, as it was his turn. Tuck flew out, but the 2-3-4 went double, walk, RBI single off him, and then he was yanked for Holzmeister. Wang whiffed, but Metz rolled a soft single that filled the bases with two outs. Holzmeister remained in for Donaldson, who hit a grounder to second – and Yocum hustled in and made the out just in time to strand the bases loaded and get the Coons out still up 4-3. Sam Brown hit a single in Hernandez’ spot in the ninth, but the Coons didn’t do anything with it, then sent out Valentin with no cushion and Rounsaville pinch-hitting again. The youngster grounded out, and Valentin then rung up the lefty-hitting Killelea and Tuck to squeak away with another series win…! 4-3 Blighters. Humphries 0-1, 3 BB; Colter (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown (PH) 1-1; Rivas 2-4;

In other news

May 6 – DEN 2B/3B Matt Kilday (.295, 0 HR, 5 RBI) clips two more hits to reach 2,500 for his career. The 34-year-old 2-time batting champ and 1-time stolen base leader has played for six different teams, mostly for the Indians, and has hit .307 with 18 HR and 796 RBI for his career, while also stealing 505 bases. Kilday’s pair of singles comes in a 5-2 win against Sacramento, in which DEN OF Chris Tuck (.324, 3 HR, 19 RBI) drives in all his team’s runs on three base hits.
May 7 – DAL SP Bobby Marceau (3-2, 6.09 ERA) hasn’t looked right all year and is being shut down with shoulder inflammation. He might miss most of the remainder of the season.
May 8 – CIN OF Fernando Cruz (.308, 3 HR, 5 RBI) is expected to miss the rest of the month due to shoulder soreness.
May 8 – The Canadiens beat the Blue Sox, 5-4 in 15 innings in Nashville. The game is tied at one through 14 innings before both teams’ pitching staffs run out of glue.
May 8 – Sacramento beats Oklahoma City, 6-5 in 14 innings. OCT RF Ryan Bonner (.353, 0 HR, 12 RBI) clips five singles in the defeat, but never drives in a run.
May 9 – Sign of life from TIJ SP Jason Brenize (4-3, 2.81 ERA), who strikes the thrice-defending champions from Cincinnati with a 3-hit shutout for a 5-0 win.
May 10 – The Thunder and Scorpions engorge themselves in another 15-inning game, this time with Oklahoma on top, 2-1.

Player of the Week (FL): SFW RF/LF Steve Millen (.407, 2 HR, 19 RBI), hitting .556 (15-27) with 4 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): VAN OF Dan Moore (.311, 5 HR, 17 RBI), slapping .467 (14-30) with 3 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Coons remain in first place by a scratch, but the offense had a really annoying week. Only one homer (Katz) and 3.33 runs per game aren’t gonna cut it in the long term, and we haven’t even played the Loggers yet, where we always give up six, eight runs.

Nick Walla got starved for a hard-luck L this week, but is second in ERA in the CL behind Scott Bickerton.

30 games in, maybe a couple words about our Rule 5 picks. Ron Rismiller started a rehab assignment this week, earlier than expected to be honest. He will get the full 30 days in St. Petersburg, but we’d have to activate or return him in early June.

So Luebbert is being a bit of a plucky poor man’s super utility right now and fills in some in centerfield. While he’s not hitting a lot by any definition, he’s at least useful, and with Tyler Wharton out a few more weeks, he’ll remain on the roster at least until then. Josh Woodley however… he hit the walkoff homer on Opening Day, but basically hasn’t hit since, going 4-for-32 since the feat, with 12 K. If there was a smart option in AAA, the Raccoons should probably go for it. Danny Huckaby is hitting .376/.477/.591 in St. Pete, but he’s also only able to play first base, so he’d be stuck behind Olivares anyway. Dan Gomez isn’t hitting anything much at all in limited playing time. For more versatile infielders, Brian McFarland is hitting .307 with no power at all, and doesn’t play first base at a petit-sized 5’10’’.

Did you notice that the Raccoons played a team with a winning record only ONCE this year, when we met the 5-1 Aces in the second week of the season? That’s over now, as we play the Miners, Elks, Loggers, and Baybirds on the upcoming 13-game homestand. Three of them have a winning record now, and the Elks just might have when they get here (they play the Wolves for crying out loud). This homestand will show whether this first-place team actually has any pants on.

Fun Fact: The Loggers have already sledgehammered 43 home runs in 31 games.

The Critters have 23 homers, and that ties for third place in the CL. Heck, the entire team hasn’t hit as many DOUBLES as the Loggers have homers…!

[Westheim]

Had an Old Man Moment yesterday, where I thought I’d lie down for five minutes and then I’d do a round of Critters. Well, I have now woken up at 4am, and how about Critters *now*?

+++

Raccoons (18-12) vs. Miners (18-12) – May 12-14, 2071

The Miners were tops in offense for the league, scoring SIX runs a game, so the Raccoons’ flimsy pitching staff was due for a gruesome death this week. They allowed the fifth-fewest runs in the FL, and had a +43 run differential. Lots of speed, lots of homers, but some serious lethargy in the defensive department and a bullpen with an ERA over five, as if that could help the Critters… However, we had won the last *13* series against the Miners at this point, including two-outta-three for four years running.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (3-1, 1.60 ERA) vs. Goffredo Merlin (1-0, 4.09 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-2, 3.82 ERA) vs. Steven Fenstermacher (3-2, 2.20 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (2-4, 3.49 ERA) vs. Brian Jones (5-2, 3.65 ERA)

They had an entirely right-handed rotation. Jones had left his last start with a back issue after just 30 pitches, but was said to be back on the horse.

Game 1
PIT: LF Chapman – RF Mastache – CF Schneider – 1B Dowsey – SS Maudlin – 3B C. Castro – 2B H. Gomez – C J. Contreras – P Merlin
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – CF Otal – P Walla

Vicente Mastache hit a single off Walla in the first inning, but was left on base – and that was the only runner for either team the first time through the order. The Miners then got Walla in the fourth, which Moustache led off with a triple in the right-center gap before Anthony Schneider, ex-Coon Justin Dowsey, and Jeff Maudlin all clipped singles, scoring Moustache and loading the bases. Walla then struck out Carlos Castro, Hector Gomez, and Jonathan Contreras in order to keep them on their bases, but the pitch count was now in the toilet, and the Coons still didn’t have a base runner. A leadoff walk drawn by Humph in the bottom 4th ticked that box, and Gomez fumbled Yocum’s grounder for an error. Wilson hit into a double play and Katz flew out to Schneider to let the opportunity pass. The rest of the brown lineup then faded into obscurity for the second turn in a row, while Walla allowed a single in each of the next two innings, then allowed another run when Contreras hit a leadoff double on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh, and Walla couldn’t keep him on base, conceding the second run on Merlin’s bunt and Norm Chapman’s groundout.

The Raccoons were still hitless at the stretch, but Merlin walked Yocum to begin the bottom 7th, and then gave up a game-tying homer to Jaden Wilson. Katz made it back-to-back with a foul pole tickler in left, and Portland was suddenly up 3-2. McMahan came into the game for the eighth inning and retired the 3-4-5 batters in order and without issue. Valentin got Castro and PH Dan Burns to begin the ninth, but Contreras then singled to put the tying run on base with two gone. Nate Holcomb batted for the pitcher, but grounded out to Yocum. 3-2 Blighters. Walla 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (4-1);

Those two homers remained our only base hits in this game. This is fiiine.

Game 2
PIT: LF Chapman – RF Mastache – CF Schneider – 2B Selep – 1B Dowsey – SS Maudlin – 3B C. Castro – C J. Contreras – P Fenstermacher
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Luebbert – RF Colter – P Gaytan

Gaytan threw five pitches, hitting Chapman AND Moustache with two of them, and already drew the first consultation from the pitching coach and trainer Luis Silva by that point. Anthony Schneider then singled to center, Matthew Selep hit an RBI single on the infield, and then the inning somehow dissipated with Dowsey’s pop to Olivares and a double play grounder from Maudlin to Katz, who flipped the score with a 2-out homer to right in the bottom 1st after Humph had drawn another leadoff walk (but was still hitting .181). Contreras doubled in the second and Chapman drew a 2-out walk and stole second, but Moustache struck out to keep a pair in scoring position against an extremely wonky looking Gaytan, who did however hit a sac fly to right in the bottom 2nd after Rivas and Luebbert hit a pair of singles, the latter on the infield.

Both teams left a runner on third base in the fourth, and Gaytan was again drowning in runners come the fifth inning. Chapman and Selep singles and a 2-out walk to Dowsey loaded the bases. He walked in a run in a full count against Maudlin, and Castro hit an RBI single to right on a 1-2 pitch, but Colter threw out Dowsey trying to score from second to end the inning. Gaytan allowed a leadoff double to Contreras in the sixth and got a bunt from Wi(n)dowmaker before being lifted for Dan Graham, but Graham couldn’t keep the runner on base, and Chapman’s groundout gave the Miners a 4-3 lead.

The Miners tacked on a run in the seventh as Graham put Selep and Dowsey on the corners for only one out and was replaced with Sullivan. Rivas snapped a throw to first base to pick off Dowsey, but Maudlin singled home the extra run anyway with two outs. The Raccoons were not getting on base at all from the fifth through the seventh innings, despite Fenstermacher not getting a single strikeout in that time. Jaden Wilson singled, finally, in the eighth, and was then caught stealing… Holzmeister gave up two runs with two walks to begin the ninth inning and some singles afterwards, but the game was about over at that point anyway. 7-3 Miners. Luebbert 2-3, BB;

Game 3
PIT: LF Chapman – RF Mastache – 2B Selep – CF Schneider – C J. Contreras – 1B Dowsey – SS Maudlin – 3B C. Castro – P B. Jones
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – 1B Woodley – CF Otal – P Rios

Portland got the first run in the rubber game on straight singles by the 3-4-5 batters, Hernandez driving home Wilson, before Rivas flew out to Schneider to end the inning. Schneider reached by drawing a walk leading off the second inning, but was doubled up by the catcher Contreras. Dowsey singled, Maudlin walked, and Benito Otal was kind enough to catch a doozy floater by Carlos Castro to shallow center before the inning could escalate. Rios and Humph hit 2-out singles in the bottom 2n, but Yocum lined out to Selep, and Rios hit another 2-out single in the fourth, then with Josh Woodley on base after a single of his own, but the runners were stranded in both innings and the score remained 1-0. The Coons were out-hitting the Miners at this point, 7-1, and my whiskers tingled as I saw a reversal of the Tuesday opener coming in the near future.

Dowsey reached base on an infield single in the fifth, but didn’t get far as the bottom third of the order made weak outs against Rios. Yocum hit a leadoff single – the first Coons runner with nobody out on the day – and was caught stealing in the bottom 5th.

The reversal came in the sixth with three straight leadoff singles for the Miners, Chapman going up the middle, Moustache legging out an infield single, and Selep clipping an RBI single to right. Moustache went to third on that play, then scored on a groundout, and the Miners took a 2-1 lead. The Coons frittered away another leadoff single by Hernandez in the inning, then saw Rios put on the 7-8 batters with walks in the seventh. Jones bunted them onwards, and Rios had Chapman at 0-2 with two outs before allowing an infield roller that became an RBI single as the ball died well in front of Yocum. Holzmeister replaced Rios, was met with left-handed PH Dan Burns, but Burns grounded out to first in Moustache’s place, leaving runners on the corners. Holzmeister got another out in the eighth, after which McMahan struck out three in a row, but despite only two outs to get, Todd Sullivan gave up another run on two hits and two stolen bases in the ninth inning. That made it 4-1, and the Coons looked like they had nothing left to keep their winning streak against the Miners going. John Faughnan was pitching in the bottom 9th and struck out Woodley, but then gave up a pair of 1-out singles to pinch-hitters van Otterdijk and Olivares. Humph flew out to Chapman and Yocum flew out to Burns to end the game. 4-1 Miners. Hernandez 2-4, RBI; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1; Olivares (PH) 1-1;

Blech. One run on 11 hits. Or, like the Tuesday opener, mostly.

And now the Elks. Blech!!

Raccoons (19-14) vs. Canadiens (18-17) – May 15-17, 2071

The damn Elks were one of four teams all within theoretical reach of a tie for first place by the end of the week, and just two games out. The Coons had swept the first series of the year against them, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t return the favor. The Stinkers had won four games in a row, had the second-best offense in the Continental League… but were also giving up the fourth-most runs and had the second-worst rotation by ERA. Of course, what use was that for the Raccoons, who couldn’t get the sticks up? Infielders Andy Ratliff and J.P. Gallo were on the Elks’ DL.

Projected matchups:
Vinny Morales (1-1, 3.63 ERA) vs. Juan Rosado (2-5, 7.41 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (3-0, 2.50 ERA) vs. Esteban Ferrer (1-1, 11.88 ERA)
Nick Walla (4-1, 1.75 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (2-2, 4.50 ERA)

The Elks‘ rotation was entirely right-handed, but they came in on an off day and had a chance to skip Ferrer for Dallas Samson (2-2, 3.49 ERA).

The Coons entered the series scoring fewer than three runs per game in May.

Game 1
VAN: SS Barraza – 1B E. Campos – CF D. Moore – RF Bustillos – LF Lozada – 3B Forrest – C M. Lopez – 2B Terrazas – P J. Rosado
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Brown – 3B Hernandez – CF Otal – P Morales

The game went off the rails almost immediately as Roberto Barraza reached on an infield single and Morales plunked Eddie Campos. Dan Moore’s comebacker wasn’t turned quick enough for two by Morales, and regardless of that he would have scored Barraza from third with his wild pitch anyway. Somehow the Elks held themselves to just that one run in the opening inning. The Coons began the bottom 1st with a double to left from .176 hitter Steve Humphries, a shy single by Yocum, and then an infield single off Wilson’s stick, loading the bases with nobody out. Katz crashed into a run-scoring double play to tie the game, but Olivares fanned. And it wasn’t gonna get better.

Top 2nd, and a 1-out walk to Mario Lopez soon escalated with Juan Terrazas singling and the pitcher Rosado socking an RBI double. Barraza’s sac fly made it 3-1, at which point the Elks had already exceeding our scoring capacity. Campos grounded out, but Bustillos struck a triple in the third inning and scored on another sac fly, 4-1, and then Morales put Adam Forrest and Lopez on base with two outs. Terrazas grounded out to short.

Morales hit a single in the bottom 3rd and was ignored by the other dimwits in the lineup, and with his erratic and useless act on the mound didn’t make it past five innings as the Coons faceplanted towards another L. When Humph drew a 2-out walk in the bottom 5th and Yocum singled, Wilson whiffed to keep the Coons from scoring. Katz hit a leadoff single to center in the sixth, while Olivares’ grounder to short was mishandled for an error by Barraza, but even with that gift the Raccoons were too **** to do anything, and three pathetic outs later a pair was stranded in scoring position. Humph got on base with a walk in the seventh, then was caught stealing.

Some stingy relief by Brad Fails and Edgar Gutierrez meant that the Elks were technically still in reach in a 4-1 game entering the bottom 8th. Katz singled and Olivares walked to begin the bottom 8th, bringing the tying run to the plate. Sam Brown slapped a single over Terrazas to plate Katz from second, 4-2. Hernandez flew out to Bustillos, and Gabe Rivas batted for the pitcher Gutierrez in the #8 spot (Luebbert was in the #9 hole and center after a double switch). Rivas’ single loaded the bases, but Luebbert’s fly to left was caught and he was held to a sac fly by Lozada, 4-3. Rosado walked Humph, then departed for ex-Coon Elijah LaBat – whose first pitch brushed Yocum and forced in the game-tying run…! Van Otterdijk batted for Wilson… but grounded out, and left three runners on base.

Valentin had a scoreless ninth despite nicking Dan Eggert, and the Elks were still with LaBat into the bottom 9th, which Katz led off with a 3-2 single to left. Suddenly the Coons made short work of the Elks. When LaBat ran a full count on Olivares, Katz was off on first motion, and Olivares dished the ball into the gap. Nobody got even near the ball, and Katz scored leisurely on the walkoff double…! 5-4 Raccoons. Humphries 1-2, 3 BB, 2B; Yocum 3-4, 2B, RBI; Katzman 3-5; Brown 2-4, RBI; Rivas (PH) 1-1; Gutierrez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Esteban Ferrer was skipped at least on Saturday, as Nick Waldron moved up into the middle game against Jimmyboy.

Benito Otal (.140, 0 HR, 1 RBI) was sent back to AAA and replaced with Jesus Morentin, who had come over in the Jaden Wilson – Jose Corral trade with the Buffos in January. He would make his major league debut and get some at-bats while we were waiting for Big Wharton’s return.

Game 2
VAN: SS Barraza – C M. Lopez – CF D. Moore – RF Lozada – 3B Forrest – 1B Jose Alvarez – LF Bustillos – 2B Terrazas – P Waldron
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – CF Morentin – P J. Wharton

Wharton came out with a 3-0 count against Barraza, who grounded out, then walked Lopez instead. A Lozada single put runners on the corners, both of whom scored on Adam Forrest’s 2-out double, but Forrest also tore out a leg and was replaced with an Eggert, who scored when Jose Alvarez’ fly was dropped by Wilson for a really, really good start to the game and a 3-0 Elks lead. The Raccoons loaded the bases as Humphries walked, Yocum singled (and was forced out by Wilson), and Katz drew another walk, and at least scored a pair, as Olivares’ sac fly and Rivas’ single each got home a run before Hernandez flew out to center.

While a Humph double and Yocum’s RBI single tied the game at three in the bottom 2nd, the Coons’ battery was not even not on the same page, they weren’t even in the same bloody book. Wharton kept befuddling Rivas to such a degree that Terrazas reached on an uncaught third strike in the top 2nd, but was forced out on Waldron’s bad bunt, and the Elks didn’t tack on in the inning. However, Lozada doubled and Bustillos homered to give them a 5-3 lead in the third inning. Waldron loaded the bags with the 5-6-7 batters in the bottom 3rd, bringing up an 0-for-1 Morentin with one out. He got the debutant to 0-2, but then gave up a zinger to left for a game-tying 2-run double…! Wharton then killed Waldron with a 2-run single to center, 7-5, and lefty Guillermo Arzola gave up another double to Humph, who was suddenly rallying for the .200 mark! Yocum’s grounder to Eggert kept the runner pinned at the second out, but Jaden Wilson snapped a 2-run single to center. Arzola walked Katz, but Olivares then grounded out to short, ending a 6-run hammering.

Jimmyboy followed Waldron into the showers before long, giving up Lopez and Moore singles for two outs in the fourth before being yanked from the 9-5 game. Brad Fails got a pop from Lozada to get out of the inning, hit a single in the bottom 4th, and got three more outs, but the Coons lost Jaden Wilson to a hyperextended elbow in the fifth. He was replaced with Colter, who doubled after a leadoff walk drawn by Yocum off Arzola in the bottom 5th, putting a pair scoring position. Katz scratched an RBI single from an 0-2 pitch, Olivares hit a double play grounder to short that Barraza threw into Terrazas’ legs for no outs and a run, and another lefty, Travis Davis, replaced Arzola. Rivas did ground into a double play, and Hernandez grounded out to third to end the inning.

The Elks got a run out of Gutierrez in the seventh, but Katz answered with a solo homer off Paul Wolk in the bottom of the inning to restore the 6-run lead. The Coons asked Dan Graham for the last two innings. He allowed a single to Eddie Campos in the #9 hole in the eighth, but Barraza hit into a double play. Lopez singled and Moore walked to begin the ninth, but Lozada flew out to Morentin, who found Lopez far off second base and threw there in time for an 8-6 double play that was supposd to drive the dagger all the way in, but the Elks got two more singles and a run, but also managed to lose Dan Moore to injury before the game was out. 12-7 Furballs. Humphries 2-4, BB, 2 2B; Yocum 2-4, BB, RBI; Colter 1-2, 2B; Katzman 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Rivas 2-4, BB, RBI;

Offense!! (high-fives Slappy with some enthusiasm) This game also secured first place for another Sunday night.

Jaden Wilson was not in the lineup on Sunday, and was probably not available immediately.

Game 3
VAN: SS Barraza – 1B E. Campos – CF D. Moore – RF Bustillos – LF Lozada – 3B Eggert – C M. Lopez – 2B Terrazas – P Samson
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF van Otterdijk – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 3B Luebbert – CF Morentin – 1B Woodley – P Walla

Bustillos got Walla for a 2-run homer in the first inning, and when the Raccoons got the bases loaded with Rivas (hit), Morentin (plonked), and Woodley (walk) in the bottom 2nd, that brought up Walla with one gone. He hit a sac fly, but Humph couldn’t get his grounder past Barraza and the inning ended. Walla then dallied on, but wasn’t exactly proof of long flies; however, the outfielders were shagging all of them, at least those that didn’t go out like Bustillos’ in the first inning. Woodley, however, dropped one of Moore’s foul pops to cause extra strain on Walla.

Dallas Samson walked a pair in the bottom 4th, putting Rivas and Morentin on base and brought up Woodley, who hadn’t landed an RBI since his Opening Day walkoff homer, but slapped a ball that fell between Moore, who was hampered by a hurting back, and Lozada for an RBI double, tying the game. Walla flew out to Bustillos in shallow right for the second out, but Humph cranked a 3-run homer to dead-center, gave Walla a 5-2 lead, and knocked out Samson after just 3.2 innings…!!

The next few innings passed quickly as Walla got into more of a groove, although this involved mostly groundouts and not a lot of K’s. However – whatever got the Elks out! Bottom 7th, and the Coons began with Humph reaching on an error and Shamar King walking Yocum. The pair pulled off a double steal while backup catcher Josh Richmond was curiously watching, but Portland only tacked on a run after the Otter lined out, Katz was walked intentionally, and King threw a wild pitch. Rivas then bashed a 2-run double, 8-2, and Morentin added an RBI double with two gone. Woodley singled, but Walla grounded out. Nick Walla struck out a pair in the eighth and returned for the ninth inning, suddenly with a solid pitch count after four quick frames, but the Coons took Katz off his legs by having Hernandez hit for him in the eighth. Campos, Moore, and Lozada bashed three hits for two runs off Walla, though, and knocked him out for only one run against Bustillos in the ninth inning. Sullivan finished out the game. 9-4 Raccoons! Hernandez (PH) 1-1; Rivas 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Morentin 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Woodley 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 12 – MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.308, 5 HR, 18 RBI) is expected to miss six weeks due to a strained hip muscle.
May 13 – ATL OF Jorge Soto (.364, 2 HR, 14 RBI) was out with a separated shoulder for at least six weeks.
May 13 – Canadiens 2B Andy Ratliff (.310, 0 HR, 7 RBI) also appeared to be out for six weeks thanks to an elbow sprain.
May 15 – Boston RF/LF/1B Manuel Garcia (.275, 11 HR, 25 RBI) smashes three home runs and drives in five runs as the Titans beat the Loggers, 8-4, in Milwaukee.
May 15 – LAP OF John Miller (.316, 4 HR, 20 RBI) was going to miss six weeks with a strained hammy.
May 16 – The Warriors take a 1-0 lead in the first inning against the Gold Sox and hold that until the eighth inning, when Denver turns the game around quite decisively with a 13-run inning, and doing so without the benefit of a home run (although six runs are unearned).
May 17 – NAS RF Austin Gordon (.248, 0 HR, 8 RBI) lands a single for his 2,000th base hit in a 7-3 loss to the Capitals.

Player of the Week (FL): DAL RF/LF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.571, 1 HR, 6 RBI), hitting .529 (9-17) with 1 HR, 4 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): OCT 2B/SS Jose Palominos (.346, 8 HR, 20 RBI), hitting .478 (11-23) with 2 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

(grins from one ear to the other) 6-0 against the dumb ******* Elks so far!!!

(grins so hard his fuzzy ear tips touch behind his skull) Tee-hee-heeeee!!

Finally some offense in the weekend series against the damn Elks!

The honest truth: Josh Woodley was an oh-fer away from being returned to the Gold Sox when he clipped two hits and drove in a run on Sunday. He’ll be around for another week now. Not sure that’s gonna help the offense and team overall, especially with Jaden Wilson perhaps hampered for the entire next week AND we’re playing the Loggers.

Yes, Loggers for four and Bayhawks for three to complete this long homestand, and we will not have an off day until the Thursday after that. The Titans-Loggers game was rained out on Sunday and so the Loggers will come into Portland with everybody rested.

Fun Fact: Austin Gordon has spent his entire career with the Blue Sox.

They took him as #2 pick in the 2055 draft, right outta high school, and he made his debut after a slow but steady rise through the minors, halfway through the 2059 season. Now in his 13th year with the team (and in a contract year), Gordon has piled up eight All Star Games, six Platinum Sticks, and has collected a batting title in ’63, a home run title in ’64, and four times led the FL in doubles. In fact, in 2064 he led the FL in homers (33) *and* doubles (42), batting .332/.372/.550 and driving in 110 runs, the first of five straight 100+ RBI seasons for him.

Overall he has batted .304/.351/.516 with 319 homers and 1,106 RBI. While even at 34 Gordon was a serviceable defender, but no threat for a Gold Glove, speed was absolutely not his game. Gordon had ONE stolen base in his 13-year career.

[DD Martin]

36 games in and up 3 in first place. I told ya this team had something. Get the big guy back and everything will be smooth sailing.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

36 games in and up 3 in first place. I told ya this team had something. Get the big guy back and everything will be smooth sailing.

Ever seen a smooth raccoon? - Yeah, that's not gonna work out.

+++

Raccoons (22-14) vs. Loggers (18-18) – May 18-21, 2071

For almost a quarter of the season the Raccoons had managed to avoid the Loggers, but no more – here they were for the first four of 18 games that would have to be played, even though I had terrible premonitions about the upcoming masscare. Loggerland placed third in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed with a -4 run differential, but for the last half-decade they had been all whoop and had overwhelmingly had the Raccoons’ number. Last year we had managed to struggle to a 9-9 tie in the season series, after five years of getting the short end of the stick, sometimes a very short end of the stick. They arrived with Cesar Ramirez and Ramon Carreno injured. I didn’t think it would help that much.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-3, 4.23 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (4-2, 2.54 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (2-5, 3.57 ERA) vs. Ayahito Ochi (2-1, 4.71 ERA)
Vinny Morales (1-1, 4.08 ERA) vs. Julio Robles (2-2, 3.44 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (3-0, 3.12 ERA) vs. Cory Ritter (3-3, 2.96 ERA)

Ochi and Kevin Bennett (4-2, 5.92 ERA) were southpaws, and they could bring both into this series as their Sunday game had been rained out.

Game 1
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 1B Kiger – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – CF Parrish – LF Bursley – 3B Monck – P Crist
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Hernandez – CF Morentin – P Gaytan

There was one right-handed batter in the Loggers’ lineup and one left-handed batter in the Coons’ lineup (pitchers excluded). Contrary to household lineup science this did not put the Raccoons in an instant 3-0 hole, and they had three hits compared to the Loggers’ one hit the first time through the lineup. But the one hit off Gaytan was a solo homer by Fidel Carrera, while the Coons had THREE hits and Crist still faced the minimum in three innings as Katz was doubled off by van Otterdijk after singling, Hernandez was caught stealing after singling, and Jesus Morentin was picked off first base. Brilliant. Add to that Yocum’s single in the bottom 4th and Gabe Rivas’ double play grounder.

Gaytan pitched 6.2 innings and left still down 1-0, but with John Parrish (leadoff double) and Dave Wright (plonked on a 1-2 count) in scoring position. Dan Graham came out to face Sean Van Leeuwen, who was for some reason hit for with a terminally old Danny Starwalt, batting .133, and grounding out easily to Olivares to end the inning. Graham pitched another inning around a Carlos Dominguez doubled, and the Coons had two runners of their own in the bottom 8th as Woodley batted for van Otterdijk and hit back-to-back singles with Hernandez, but Morentin popped out and Jamie Colter grounded out to ex-Coon Rich Monck (waves hi, shyly and depressed) when batting for Graham. Monck followed a walk drawn by Dave wright off Holzmeister with a game-deciding 2-run homer off Holzmeister in the ninth inning, but Crist pitched a 7-hit shutout. 3-0 Loggers. Yocum 2-4; Woodley (PH) 1-1; Hernandez 2-3; Gaytan 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, L (1-4);

That was hard to watch and it’s only gonna get worse. I feel it.

Game 2
MIL: 3B Van Leeuwen – SS Leggett – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – 1B Starwalt – CF Parrish – LF R. Soto – P Ochi
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – SS Katzman – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – CF Morentin – C Brown – P Rios

The Loggers got another 1-0 lead in the second inning on Tuesday on three singles hit by Rodriguez, Starwalt (not decrepit enough for *us* apparently), and Parrish, but the big knock came in the fourth inning when .150, left-handed hitter Roberto Soto knelled a bases-clearing double off Rios on an 0-2 pitch. He was the first Logger to put a ball in play the second time through – their 1-2-3 batters had K’ed in order in the third inning, and just when you thought that maybe it was gonna be alright in the end, Rios walked the bases full and caught the dumbest 3-run double in the snout you could possibly imagine. That made it a 4-0 game because of course the dumbos in the brown hats weren’t getting anything done again.

Rios was dismissed after five innings and as many runs, allowing another marker onto the board in the top 5th as Dominguez doubled and Rodriguez singled him in. Ochi then allowed a leadoff walk to Sam Brown in the bottom 5th, Woodley batted for Rios and singled, and another walk to Humphries loaded the bases with nobody out. Yocum, who REALLY should do ******* better than hit a grounder to short and get doubled off, hit a grounder to short and got doubled off, 6-4-3, while Brown scored. Olivares and Katz followed with RBI hits, but the inning was already terminal and Hernandez flew out to Soto to end it, Portland down 5-3.

After a calm sixth inning the Raccoons sent Gutierrez in to pitch, and he was routinely useless, loading the bases and walking in a run without getting anybody out. McMahan did little to improve situation and the Loggers ran another four laps around the derelict bullpen to take an unassailable 9-3 lead, especially since then Katz hit into an inning-ending double play in the bottom 7th after the 1-2-3 faces had loaded the bases. 9-3 Loggers. Olivares 2-2, 3 BB, RBI; van Otterdijk 2-4; Brown 2-3, BB; Woodley (PH) 1-1;

The Loggers’ Dave Wright (.313, 7 HR, 21 RBI) entered and left the game late and suffered an intercostal strain and was headed to the DL.

Maud, I think I’ll need the good rope. – For, uh, science?

Game 3
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 1B Kiger – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – CF Parrish – LF Alaniz – 3B Monck – P Ju. Robles
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – RF Colter – CF Morentin – P Morales

The Loggers did not take a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Wednesday, but took a 1-0 lead after three straight singles to begin the game instead, without Vinny Morales getting an out. The 4-5-6 then made outs, and unproductive ones at that, but Morales allowed another run to the top of the order in the third inning on two singles and a wild pitch. Vinny also had the only Coons hit the first time through, a 1-out single in the bottom 3rd after which he was immediately doubled off by Humphries’ grounder to short.

Three more singles added a run in the fourth, 3-0, and the Coons got Rivas on by means of an error, and into scoring position on a wild pitch, and then ******* left him there. Bottom 5th, and Colter drew a 1-out walk from Robles, who got Morentin to fly out uselessly. Morales singled, his AND the Coons’ second hit in the game (steams out of fuzzy ears), but Humphries grounded AWFULLY in front of home plate and … Rodriguez threw the ball away, and the Coons reached the scoreboard on that 2-out, 2-base error, which also moved the tying runs into scoring position, but it was really beneath Adam Yocum to exploit such a regrettable misfortune by a fellow sportsman, and he put some more of the good English on a comebacker to Robles – AND ON THE FIRST PITCH – to end the inning instead.

Morales didn’t get out of the sixth inning on the pitching side and needed Graham to clean up Mario Alaniz’ leadoff double in the sixth, and for a while there was no brown hat on the field that had a base hit in the game, until Katz hit a 1-out homer to shorten the score to 3-2 in the bottom 6th. Olivares and Hernandez followed up with singles, but Colter’s fly to left was caught by Alaniz. Morentin batted for two outs and sailed a ball into shallow left-center, where it dinked or a game-tying RBI single. Van Otterdijk then batted for Graham, but grounded out, and the game remained tied.

Holzmeister held the game tied in the seventh and Rivas at least tried with a double, but was left on base. McMahan then entered the eighth and was immediately taken over the fence by the left-handed Carrera to break the tie and gave up two more singles before extricating himself. Bottom 8th, Joe Cash allowed a single to Olivares leading off, and then Hernandez singled off B.J. Butrico. Raul Salas replaced him in turn, but gave up another single to Colter, and now the bases were full with nobody out. Morentin kept the line moving with a single to left, tying the game, and so did Sam Brown, crunching a 2-1 pitch up the middle for a go-ahead RBI single. Humph walked and forced in a run, and Yocum hit a sac fly. Rivas smacked into a double play, sending a 3-run lead to Pedro Valentin, who had pitched a garbage inning to get Tuesday’s sad-sack loss over the line. Here he faced the top of the order. Van Leeuwen flew out to Morentin, Josh Bursley grounded out, and Dominguez flew out to left. 7-4 Coons. Olivares 2-4; Hernandez 2-4; Morentin 2-4, 2 RBI; Brown (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Hey, a flick of the tail…!

How did the Crusaders get into second place at this point? Let’s just say they caught the Titans with their pants down and move on.

Tyler Wharton was sent on a rehab assignment in AAA. We were hoping for three to four days and him being back with the team by Monday at the latest. Meanwhile, Jaden Wilson was still day-to-day with the hyperextended elbow, and Humph and the middle infielders could perhaps use a day off, but not in a game that counted double. They could get Friday and Saturday off in some sort.

Game 4
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – SS Leggett – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – LF Alaniz – CF Parrish – 3B Monck – P Ritter
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – RF Colter – CF Morentin – P J. Wharton

The Raccoons again brought up the minimum the first time through, getting a single from Humph and a double play from Rivas, and not a lot of good stuff otherwise. The Loggers at least didn’t get onto the board early on against undefeated Jimmy Wharton, scattering hits and occasionally getting caught stealing like Carrera in the second inning. Humph drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and scurried to third base on Yocum’s single to right-center, which set up a credible scoring opportunity even for this team, although I wouldn’t say I was mad that Cory Ritter took over the scoring for them and threw a wild pitch to Rivas that brought in the game’s first run. He walked Rivas in a full count, and lost Katz on a single in another full count, at which point there were three on with nobody out. Olivares walked and forced in another run, and it got to 3-0 on Hernandez’ groundout. Walking Colter filled the bases again. Morentin popped out, but Jimmyboy chucked a 2-run double to left to get his own lead to 5-0 and chased Ritter. Enter Javy Carpio, he of the 16.00 ERA for the Coons in six games last year, then a 10+ ERA in nine games for the Loggers, who had a 23.14 ERA in his previous four games this year. He allowed an RBI single to Humph, 6-0, before Yocum popped out.

The long layoff didn’t do anything to hurt Jimmyboy, who had a quick 1-2-3 fifth inning, while Carpio did what he did best in the bottom 5th, putting people on base unmotivated and then give up a 3-run homer to Jordan Hernandez. Jimmy also loaded the bases in the sixth then, issuing walks to Starwalt and Leggett around a Bursley single, but got a crucial 1-out pop behind the plate from Dominguez, and then Rodriguez flew out easily to Morentin, letting Wharton elope without actual damage, if you didn’t count in the chance for a shutout that had now passed for pitch count reasons.

Bottom 6th, and Nick Walters issued walks to Wharton and Humph, then allowed a single to Yocum to fill the bases with nobody out. Rivas hit an RBI single, and Katz brought in a run with a double play grounder. Josh Woodley then batted for Olivares and hit a 2-run homer. Yocum clipped home a run against Jon Reyes in the seventh, while the Coons ran out Wharton for eight innings and 114 pitches, but that would have to be all for him. Gutierrez put the lid on in the ninth. 14-0 Furballs!! Humphries 2-2, 3 BB, RBI; Yocum 3-5, RBI; Rivas 2-4, BB, RBI; Luebbert (PH) 1-1; Olivares 0-1, 2 BB, RBI; Woodley (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; J. Wharton 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, W (4-0) and 1-2, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

This ruckus series ended with the Raccoons having a 2 1/2 game lead over the out-of-the-blue Crusaders, who had swept the Titans.

Raccoons (24-16) vs. Bayhawks (21-19) – May 22-24, 2071

San Francisco came in with a +22 run differential on the #5 offense and #4 pitching in the league, which was a bit up from their horrendous stretch from 2062 through 2070 where they routinely had no pitching an finished bottoms in the South four times – right after winning the 2061 World Series. They had good defense, but a highly dysfunctional bullpen, and also four players on the DL, including starters Billy Thompson and Liberio Ivo, and a couple of relievers. The Bayhawks had last won the season series against the Coons in their 2061 championship season. The Coons had been up 6-3 in ’70.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (5-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Jarod Morris (3-3, 4.09 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-4, 3.80 ERA) vs. Austin LaRosa (3-2, 3.80 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (2-6, 4.11 ERA) vs. Ricardo Orta (1-0, 7.90 ERA)

Only right-handers t finish off the homestand, if the Baybirds indeed went with Orta, who had twice as many walks as strikeouts on swingman duty.

Jaden Wilson had pinch-hit once in the Loggers series, but was back in the lineup on Friday.

Game 1
SFB: 2B M. Flores – SS Bruce – RF J. Ward – CF Redding – LF Haus – C H. Valdez – 1B Catano – 3B K. Ball – P J. Morris
POR: 2B Yocum – LF Morentin – RF Wilson – SS Katzman – C Rivas – 3B Hernandez – 1B Woodley – CF Luebbert – P Walla

Wilson, Rivas, and Luebbert each hit a single in each of the first three innings, and none of them made it particularly far on the base paths. Walla retired the Bayhawks in order the first time through and remained spotless the second time through as well, but the Coons continued to struggle against Jarod Morris, having expended all their runs on Thursday. The Portlanders had no base hits in the middle innings, and Walla was back out for the seventh inning, getting PH Daniel Aguilar to ground out in the #1 spot, then had Ryan Bruce at 0-2 … but nailed him. This ended a 19-body perfect game bid and put the first Baybird on base rather needlessly. Jake Ward then hit into a 5-4-3 double play. Ryan Redding, Brett Haus, and Hugo Valdez disappeared in order in the eighth inning, K’s at either end, but the game was STILL scoreless.

Rivas grounded out to begin the bottom 8th, but Woodley got hold of a breaking ball by Morris and BARRELED it over the wall in right, finally giving Walla a run! Luebbert grounded out and Walla whiffed before the right-hander returned to the hill. Jose Catano singled on the first pitch, and that was that. Tony Solares ran for Catano, but only advanced base by base on Keith Ball’s and Shane Bell’s groundouts, bringing up Ray Efird in the top spot of the lineup. Walla walked him, remained around for Bruce, but his sharp single to right-center brought in Solares, tied the game, and evicted Walla from the mound. Brad Fails came in, allowed a single to right to Ward, but Wilson – elbow apparently fixed – peppered a throw home that threw out Efird to end the inning and keep the game tied. Brad Yoxall retired the 1-2-3 Critters in order in the bottom of the inning, and the game went to extras.

The Coons remained inept in extras, although Yocum singled and stole a base in the 11th to at least get in scoring position, but with two gone and without Morentin doing anything useful at all against lefty Gabe Molina (which is why Humph didn’t pinch-hit). Haus singled off Valentin with one out in the 12th, but Valentin struck out three… to end up in a corners, two outs situation, since Solares reached when Rivas misplaced strike three in his tush. Solares stole second, but Ball flew out to Luebbert in center to strand the runners in scoring position. Wilson grounded out to begin the bottom 12th, but Katz singled. He was on the move when Rivas strung a screamer up the rightfield line, past Ward, and into the corner, and scored easily and well ahead of Ward’s throw. 2-1 Blighters. Rivas 2-5, 2B, RBI; Walla 8.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;

Bummer on that not-a-perfecto, not-a-no-hitter, but maybe don’t hit guys in an 0-2 count? Walla did get his ERA under two again, though.

1.99!

Game 2
SFB: 2B M. Flores – SS Bruce – RF J. Ward – CF Redding – LF Haus – C H. Valdez – 1B Catano – 3B K. Ball – P LaRosa
POR: LF Humphries – RF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – SS Katzman – 1B Olivares – CF Morentin – C Brown – 2B Luebbert – P Gaytan

San Fran scattered three hits with a side of a walk and a hit batter in the first three innings, but didn’t score thanks to a double play here and a caught-stealing there. The Coons had no hits the first time through, but Brown got nicked to begin the bottom 3rd and Luebbert reached on an error by Mario Flores. Gaytan bunted them both into scoring position, but Humph and Wilson made poor outs and left them on base. Gaytan hit Ward to begin the fourth inning, but Redding’s grounder to short forced him out and then Redding was caught stealing.

The game stretched into the sixth without a score or a Coons hit, but Jordan Hernandez then struck a 1-out double to right. Katz was walked intentionally, and a double steal went awry and Hernandez was thrown out. Olivares’ groundout ended the inning.

LaRosa was out of the game first, after Brown hit another single off him in the bottom 7th. Juan Betancourt came in with one out and allowed another single to Luebbert. Gaytan then fooled around until he was down 1-2, then hit a liner – but right at Catano, and Luebbert was off the base and doubled off to end the inning, 3-U. Gaytan worked himself into and out of a jam with singles by Jerry Inestroza (who!?) and Ryan Bruce, and a full-count walk to Ward with one gone in the top 8th. He got Redding to 0-2 before a mound conference, with McMahan waiting to come in against the left-handed Haus, but Redding smashed into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. The Coons got Humph to draw a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, but then left him on base as well.

The game was still scoreless, but a throwing error by Hernandez then put the pinch-hitter Shane Bell on second base with nobody out against Dan Graham in the ninth. Graham got Aguilar and Catano, but Keith Ball singled home the unearned winning run. Olivares then hit a leadoff single against Yoxall in the bottom 9th. Yocum batted for Morentin, but grounded to Flores at second to force out the lead runner. He was however pacey of paw and got a good start when Sam Brown *drove* a ball into the right-center gap. Redding and Bell converged, but didn’t get there, and Brown tied the game on the RBI double! Van Otterdijk ran for Brown, but Luebbert and Rivas made poor outs and this game, too, went to extras.

But the Coons were hungry and extras did not take long – there was a dinner reservation to make. Todd Sullivan got three quick outs in the tenth, and Steve Humphries harrumphed a walkoff homer over the fence in left for the second straight extra-inning walkoff. 2-1 Blighters. Brown 2-3, 2B, RBI; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

And he may be awaited, but Tyler Wharton got only four at-bats in St. Pete so far due to arriving too late on Thursday, and then a rainout, and yada yada, we’d meet him on the road in Atlanta.

Game 3
SFB: 2B M. Flores – 1B Catano – CF Redding – LF Haus – C H. Valdez – SS Efird – RF S. Bell – 3B K. Ball – P Orta
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 3B Hernandez – CF Wilson – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – RF Colter – SS Luebbert – P Rios

Jaden Wilson barged a 3-run homer off Orta right in the first inning, and he had walked Yocum to get the Coons going. Hernandez singled in between. Orta loaded the bases with the 6-7-8 batters, two hits and a walk, but struck out Rios to get out of the inning. The Coons stole a pair of bases with Humph and Hernandez in the second, but didn’t get a run home thanks to poor outs from Wilson and Olivares; but Colter tripled and scored on Luebbert’s sac fly in the bottom 3rd, 4-0.

Rios allowed only one hit and struck out four in the first three innings, but conceded a leadoff single to Catano and nicked Redding to begin the fourth. Haus flew out and Valdez grounded out, but Rios also walked Efird to load them up for the rookie Bell, who thankfully remained on zero career homers when he flew out to Wilson. Orta was lifted after putting on the first two batters in the bottom 4th, but Aaron McClair stranded Humph and Yocum in scoring position eventually, as usual. With Orta gone, the Coons’ offense slumbered off as well and hardly pressed the Bayhawks pen afterwards.

Rios got through 7.2 innings on 104 pitches before allowing a single to Catano and being replaced with Holzmeister, who threw only one pitch, which Redding nearly took over the wall, but Humphries made a catch right against the wall to end the inning. Dan Graham completed the shutout and the sweep in a quick ninth. 4-0 Critters. Yocum 1-2, 2 BB; Colter 2-4, 3B, 2B; Luebbert 1-2, BB, RBI; Rios 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (3-6)

In other news

May 18 – The Miners beat the Capitals, 1-0 in 11 innings.
May 19 – The Rebels grind the Cyclones for 15 innings before getting away with a 4-2 win.
May 20 – Capitals OF Tyler Chenette (.271, 5 HR, 19 RBI) hits or the cycle, going 4-for-5 and driving in two runs in a 7-6 loss to the Miners.
May 21 – Salem OF Chris Bauer (.500, 1 HR, 6 RBI) continues a hitting streak that began in 2070 and has been interrupted by a DL stint by now to 20 games with two knocks in an 18-5 rout of the Scorpions, including a 10-run fifth inning that gives the Wolves the lead for the first and final time in the game.
May 22 – The Blue Sox beat the Stars in a back-and-forth 15-13 shootout. NAS INF Jordan Sellman (.312, 6 HR, 28 RBI) leads all players with five RBI, getting a home run and two singles.
May 23 – NYC SP Russell Anderson (4-0, 1.30 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Condors, taking a 5-0 win.
May 24 – 40-year-old warriors 1B Miguel Medina (.288, 1 HR, 10 RBI) connects for two hits, including a 3-run homer, and drives in five runs in total in a 9-3 win against the Miners. The home run off PIT SP Brian Jones (7-3, 3.48 ERA) is the 2,000th base hit of his career.
May 24 – The Pacifics acquire 1B Juan Gutierrez (.306, 5 HR, 29 RBI) from the Gold Sox in exchange for OF Chris McLean (.273, 3 HR, 26 RBI) and a prospect, #110 CL Sean Scola.

Player of the Week (FL): DAL LF/CF Matt Little (.375, 5 HR, 20 RBI), mashing .481 (13-27) with 4 HR, 7 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): VAN OF Dan Moore (.323, 7 HR, 26 RBI), clubbing .407 (11-27) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

After dropping two rather lamely contested games against the Loggers, the Raccoons won five in a row, some with offense, some without. The Crusaders had an 8-game winning streak going after consecutive sweeps of the Titans and Condors, plus some wins against Indy on the prior weekend. They were the only team within a pawful of games on Sunday night.

And, who knows, maybe Tyler Wharton can hit again when he rejoins the team in Atlanta.

And, who knows, maybe they can then give Tony Gaytan some run support. Gaytan pitched 14.2 innings for one earned run this week and went 0-1. Nick Walla meanwhile wasn’t perfect or got the no-hitter over the line on Friday, but Scott Bickerton got on the face just enough from the Elks on Saturday to move Walla to the top spot in the CL ERA race once more.

The Rule 5ers endure, and Josh Woodley hit a pair of homers this week to cling onto his spot at the end of the bench. We could *really* use another middle infielder.

Three-city road trip to the CL South next: we’ll hit Atlanta, Vegas, and Tijuana on that trip.

Fun Fact: All but 412 of Miguel Medina’s 2,001 career hits have come with the Warriors.

He spent a decade with the team from 2056 to 2065, getting a Gold Glove, a pair of Platinum Sticks, and leading the FL in doubles and RBI’s once each, but his only World Series ring as actually taken with the Cyclones in 2069.

The Warriors were neither Medina’s first team in his career – he was acquired from the Pacifics in a trade after making 33 appearances with L.A. – nor the first team this year as he signed a contract with the Rebs, but went 1-for-6 before being placed on waivers and claimed by the Warriors after five years and as many cities away.

In total, Medina has batted .279/.360/.438 for his career, with 2,001 hits, 230 homers, and 1,025 RBI.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-16) @ Knights (26-17) – May 25-27, 2071

First-place teams squared off to begin the new week and new road trip, and both the Raccoons and Knights had a 2 1/2-game lead in their divisions, and both had a winning streak of at least four (Knights) games going, or five in the Coons’ case. Something had to budge. Atlanta had the highest batting average in the CL at .284 and ranked third in runs scored; they gave up the second-fewest runs. Their run differential was +49 (Coons: +42). Atlanta sported the best bullpen by ERA. Outfielder Jorge Soto was on the DL, as reliever Francisco Tello had been for the entire season, recovering from Tommy John surgery last June. The Knights had SMASHED the Raccoons last year, winning eight of nine games.

Projected matchups:
Vinny Morales (1-1, 4.17 ERA) vs. Adam Lunn (5-3, 2.22 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (4-0, 2.63 ERA) vs. Shane Triebwasser (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-1, 1.99 ERA) vs. Justin Kent (3-1, 2.98 ERA)

Kent was the only left-hander in the group Atlanta sent up. Triebwasser had only made one start and three total appearances this year, spending the rest of the time with a strained hammy.

Jesus Morentin (.226, 0 HR, 5 RBI) made room on the roster for Tyler Wharton, who had just as many homers on the season.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 1B Olivares – C Rivas – 3B Luebbert – P Morales
ATL: SS Guangorena – 1B DiPrimio – C Hart – CF D. Mendoza – LF Troxel – 2B J. Munoz – 3B Schomer – RF Caceres – P Lunn

Offense was slow to begin with despite a leadoff single by Humph right away. Three poor outs were made after that, but the Raccoons would scratch out a pair of solo homers by Olivares in the second and Katz in the fourth to get something on the board, while Morales initially held up quite well against the Knights, but in the bottom of the fourth slipped and gave up straight singles to Justin Hart, David Mendoza, and Tom Troxel, with a wild pitch mixed in; Troxel drove in a run, but Jorge Munoz’ K and Jon Schomer’s grounder to Luebbert at third kept runners on the corners and the Coons in the lead, 2-1.

Vinny Morales went on to hit his fourth double of the season in the top 5th, putting himself in scoring position with one out. Humph grounded out, Yocum walked, but with two outs Katz banged a double off the wall in the far left corner to get both runners home and extend the lead to 4-1 again. Big Wharton then grounded out to fall to .205 with 3 RBI on the season, and 0-for-3 in the game, but I was totally calm, like a cat with his tail on fire. The Knights batted for Lunn in the bottom 5th, but Morales retired the 8-9-1 batters in order in the inning. The Knights did get Kris DiPrimio and Troxel on base with hits in the bottom 6th, but left them there when Munoz struck out again.

Morales was done after six innings and 105 pitches against a chewy lineup, and Edgar Gutierrez tended to the bottom of the order in the seventh inning … and Luis Silva tended to Katz’ shoulder once he left the game after a defensive play. Silva soon got more customers, as Brad Fales got two outs from Tomas Guangorena and DiPrimio in the eighth inning, but then also left with some complaint or other (again). The Coons brought in Valentin ahead of schedule to go for a 4-out save. Valentin retired the Knights in order to put the game in the books, but at what price? 4-1 Raccoons. Humphries 2-4; Katzman 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Olivares 3-3, BB, HR, RBI; Morales 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-1) and 1-2, BB, 2B;

When I asked the baseball gods for the return of Tyler Wharton, I should have specified that I didn’t mean *in exchange for* Katz…… all my fault, again!

Katz was off to the DL for the month by Tuesday, but Luis Silva was still doctoring around on Brad Fails-Especially-Physically. The Raccoons brought up 23-year-old Brian McFarland, who was the second-rounder from 2067, but not even one of our bazillion ranked prospects. Hitting .299 in AAA, though. No power, but he could play decently well up the middle.

Man, Honeypaws. Have I ever felt more like King Epic of Papyrus!? – (Honeypaws’ whiskers curl in horror)

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Brown – SS McFarland – P J. Wharton
ATL: SS Guangorena – 3B Schomer – C Hart – CF D. Mendoza – 1B DiPrimio – 2B J. Munoz – LF S. Valdez – RF Caceres – P Triebwasser

With the team’s batting triple crown leader (and 28% of homers) off to the DL, the Raccoons tumbled into Tuesday with Jordan ******* Hernandez as active team RBI leader. They took a 1-0 lead when Yocum singled and Wilson cranked an RBI triple in the right-center gap, but all the signs of inescapable doom were right there as Tyler Wharton whiffed and Olivares grounded out to leave Jaden Wilson on third base. Jimmyboy remained unfazed for the time being and the Coons began the third inning with Humph and Yocum singles, and Wilson grounding out to third base, which put the runners in scoring position. Wharton, batting .195, walked – as did Olivares, forcing in a run. Hernandez’ sac fly made it 3-0, but Sam Brown grounded out to end the inning, but the Knights came right back with a 2-spot against Jimmy Wharton, who allowed leadoff hits to Santiago Valdez and Jorge Caceres, a sac fly to the pitcher, and another RBI single to Jon Schomer in the bottom 3rd. He struck out Hart to keep the tying run on base.

The Knights kept pushing, getting DiPrimio and Munoz on base through sharp 1-out singles in the fourth inning. Valdez flew out to Wilson and DiPrimio – NOT a fast runner by any description – made a bid for third base … but was thrown out by Wilson to end the inning! Top 5th, and Tyler Wharton reached base on … catcher’s interference. That was as “good” as it got for the inning, but Brown led off the sixth with a double, and McFarland cashed a souvenir with a single to center, his first ABL hit, which put runners on the corners. Jimmyboy swung away and struck a double through DiPrimio to extend the lead to 4-2 and put a pair in scoring position with nobody out. Humph and Yocum both hit a sharp RBI single to chase Triebwasser, and then Jaden Wilson broke the game open by cranking a 3-run homer off Oliver Graham.

Former Critter Evan Alvey then mopped up for a couple of innings, before Yocum hit a double off Alex Dominguez in the eighth, but was left on base. Big Wharton got on base and was stranded as well – by getting brushed with a pitch by Dominguez… Best Wharton on the day almost by default went to Jimmyboy, who pitched eight innings, giving up another run after allowing a leadoff double to another ex-Coon, Rafael Murcia, in the bottom 8th. A DiPrimio double and a Yocum error gave the Knights another unearned run in the ninth against Holzmeister, but that was as close as they got again. 9-4 Furballs! Humphries 2-4, BB, RBI; Yocum 4-5, 2B, RBI; Wilson 2-5, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; J. Wharton 8.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (5-0) and 1-4, 2B, RBI;

The Coons went on to send Brad Fales to the DL with back tightness that would severely limit him for at least a week, and we didn’t feel like sitting that one out with only six relievers. Somehow we ended up with Matt Schmieder on the roster again, which required putting Willie Jalomo on waivers to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P Walla
ATL: SS Guangorena – 1B DiPrimio – C Hart – CF D. Mendoza – LF Troxel – 2B J. Munoz – 3B Schomer – RF S. Valdez – P Kent

The battery was not on in the series finale. Walla walked Guangorena right away in the bottom 1st; the runner stole second and scored on Justin Hart’s single, and the second inning got way worse with a 3-spot for Atlanta – all unearned. Munoz flew out to center to begin the inning, but Schomer doubled and Valdez walked. Rivas then took Kent’s inevitable bunt to third base, but so badly that Hernandez couldn’t contain the ball while diving for it, and the 2-base throwing error kicked the Knights into fifth gear. Schomer scored on the play, Valdez scored on Guangorena’s groundout, and DiPrimio singled home Schomer to get to 4-0. Hart then struck out.

The Coons did precious little in the early innings, but Olivares and Wharton began the fourth with singles before Hernandez banged into a 6-4-3 double play. However, van Otterdijk with a double and Rivas with a single each drove in a 2-out run to cut the gap in half before McFarland grounded out to Munoz. Walla hit a single to start the fifth, but was doubled up by Humph, and Hernandez hit into another double play involving Olivares in the sixth inning. Walla was done after six innings, and had a homer hit off his pelt by David Mendoza on the way out, leaving with a 5-2 deficit.

The game trundled on into the eighth inning, where Tetsu Kurihara (so many ex-Coons on that roster…) put Humph and Olivares on the corners with base hits and then was replaced with Brett Bebout as Big Wharton appeared in the box, but lined out to Munoz and remained RBI-less in his return from infirmity. Bebout rung up Hernandez to dispel the threat, and the bottom 8th went to Schmieder, who exploded outright. He walked DiPrimio, was taken deep by Hart, and then walked Mendoza and Munoz, allowed a hit to Schomer, and was chased from three on and one out. Holzmeister rung up Valdez, and Murcia grounded out to end the inning, but the Coons went down in order in the ninth inning anyway. 7-2 Knights. Olivares 3-4; T. Wharton 2-4;

Raccoons (29-17) @ Aces (26-21) – May 29-31, 2071

The Raccoons had taken two of three games from the Aces earlier in the season. By now the Aces were tops in the league in runs scored (yay), and fifth in runs allowed. They had a +39 run differential and were just 1 1/2 games behind the Knights in the South. They led the league in stolen bases, but were a bit daft in the power department outside of catcher Chris Haynes (.297, 11 HR, 33 RBI), with the rest of the team pooling together just 15 homers. The only notable injury was reliever Roberto Navarro.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-4, 3.23 ERA) vs. Melvin Guerra (1-0, 4.83 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (3-6, 3.57 ERA) vs. John Santamaria (3-1, 4.37 ERA)
Vinny Morales (2-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Luis Ortiz (3-1, 3.99 ERA)

Santamaria was the sole southpaw coming up on the weekend. Half of Guerra’s appearances this year had been in relief.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – SS Luebbert – P Gaytan
LVA: 2B Ji. Williams – 1B A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – RF Joe Jackson – LF McGrew – P M. Guerra

Tyler Wharton continued to not be the spark that the team needed, walking with Yocum on third base in the first inning to leave Olivares to ground out, and outright whiffed with runners on the corners his second time up to let that chance pass as well. The game was scoreless into the fifth inning until Gaytan slipped a walk to Matt Rodewald and was immediately taken deep by quad-A veteran Joe Jackson, who hit his first longball of the season. Otherwise Gaytan struck out six and had one of the four meager hits the Coons put out before the stretch, and struck out two more – Koji Hatakeyama and Rodewald – after the stretch. The Coons remained inept in the eighth, Gaytan pitched around a single by Jimmy Williams in the eighth and was headed for a well-pitched complete-game loss for his collection. The Aces had gotten 19 outs from Mel Guerra, five more from Pedro Negron, and went to Adam Molloy for the ninth inning. Tyler Wharton and Josh Woodley both flew out easily before van Otterdijk batted for Hernandez and stuck his fat old tush into a pitch to get on base. The Aces protested but the ump didn’t care and Rivas came up as the tying run, and clipped a single. Luebbert’s groundout ended the game. 2-0 Aces. Rivas 2-4; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (1-5) and 1-3;

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P Rios
LVA: 2B Ji. Williams – 1B A. Jones – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – C Preston – RF A. Rosado – LF McGrew – P Santamaria

Neither team scored on two singles each in the first three innings of the Saturday game, with the Raccoons additionally shooting themselves in the hindpaw when Tyler Wharton hit a leadoff single and then was caught stealing in the second. Hernandez also singled, but was left on base. Santamaria in turn had one of the two early hits off Rios, who otherwise allowed three walks and struck out four in five innings, but gave up singles to Adam Jones and Josh Phelps with two gone in the bottom 5th. Van Otterdijk chased down the following fly to right by Hatakeyama to keep the game scoreless through five.

The Aces took the lead in the bottom 6th when Rodewald hit a leadoff double to center. Steve Preston and Alfredo Rosado both grounded out, and the Coons even walked Luke McGrew intentionally, but ******* Santamaria just hit another 2-out RBI single to give himself the lead, then continued to choke out the Critters for a 2-hitter through seven. Rios allowed a leadoff single to Jones in the bottom 7th and was lifted for Sullivan, who couldn’t have done more damage to the limping Critters if he had set the occupied team bus on fire as he walked Phelps, allowed an RBI knock to Hatakeyama, and then was taken deep for a 3-run homer by Rodewald. George van Otterdijk’s homer to left in the eighth was way too little and way too late.

The Aces then got three hits, a walk, and a guy on base on an error in the bottom 8th against Gutierrez – and still didn’t score. The first two runners, Williams and Jones, were both caught stealing before the next three loaded the bases, and before McMahan came in to pop out Preston. The Coons entered the ninth down by four and made outs with their 1-2 batters before all else, and before singles by Olivares and Wharton knocked out Santamaria for Molloy, who gave up another single to Hernandez, bringing van Otterdijk up as the tying run. He grounded out to short. 5-1 Aces. T. Wharton 2-4; Hernandez 2-4;

The Crusaders had remained 2 1/2 games back in the midweek series, but by now had beaten the Baybirds twice, including on an 11th-inning walkoff homer by Tony Griffin on this day, and were now just half a game back and ready to take the division lead on Sunday.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – 1B Woodley – SS Luebbert – C Brown – P Morales
LVA: 2B Ji. Williams – 1B A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – RF A. Rosado – LF McGrew – P L. Ortiz

The Coons scored first (!) on Sunday, getting a 1-out single from Brown in the third inning and a good bunt from Morales before Humph walked and Yocum snapped an RBI single to center. Wilson grounded out to short, though, and the inning ended before Wharton could hit another $50k hole in the air. Morales retired eight straight before giving up a single to the opposing pitcher, of all people, but Williams’ fly to right was caught by Wilson. The Coons scratched another run on three singles in the fourth inning, with Wharton going up the middle to get on base initially, but two outs were made without moving him. He went to third on Luebbert’ single to right, and scored on Brown’s single to right, but Luebbert was thrown out at third base by Rosado to cut the inning short. The Aces made up the run in the bottom 4th in unearned fashion, Hatakeyama singling home Phelps, who had only reached on Vinny’s own capital 2-out, 2-base throwing error. Rodewald then grounded out. The rest of the lead went bust in the bottom 5th with breathtakingly stupid walks to the 8-9 batters, Williams popping out, but Adam Jones hitting an RBI single to center. Ortiz was thrown out at third base by Wharton to bail out Morales.

Back to square one, Wharton singled with one out in the sixth, but was doubled up by Hernandez, and that was it for meaningful offense for a bit. Vinny held up for seven innings of 3-hit ball and a good measure of his own stupidity for a 2-2 tie for 7.1 innings of a no-decision, getting an out from PH Jim White in the bottom 8th before Graham retired the 1-2 batters on strikes. Wharton then opened the top 9th with another one of his precious singles off Pedro Negron. He tried to get caught stealing again, but never got a jump bad enough and instead reached second when Negron finished walking Hernandez. Woodley grounded out, advancing the runners, and Olivares batted for Luebbert, but got the pointer to first straightaway. That left the Coons with Sam Brown, somehow hitting 3-for-3 in the game and .373 for the year. His grounder to first was played VERY aggressively by Adam Jones, who fired it home on the run – and Wharton was out at the dish! The bags remained loaded, though, and Gabe Rivas batted for Graham. He hit a looper to shallow center, and Phelps didn’t make it there – the ball was in for a single! Hernandez scored, Olivares scored, and the Coons took the lead back with two outs…! McFarland ran for Brown, but Humph struck out, and the Coons turned to Valentin for the bottom 9th. The closer hadn’t pitched since Monday and the fat part of the lineup was up. Haynes scratched out a walk in a full count, but Phelps whiffed. Hatakeyama legged out the return throw on his grounder to McFarland at short, and Kazuhide Takeuchi pinch-hit for Rodewald. He struck out, and the Coons eloped with a win from the city. 4-2 Coons. T. Wharton 3-4; Brown 3-4, RBI; Rivas (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

In other news

May 25 – The Wolves smash up the Miners, 16-0, while somehow none of their players gets more than three hits, or RBI, or runs scored. SAL SP Jimmy Nelson (3-2, 3.59 ERA) pitches 8.1 shutout innings and drives in three runs himself on a bases-clearing double.
May 26 – SFB SP Mark Mills (2-1, 2.79 ERA), in only his fifth ABL start, spins a 1-hit shutout against the Loggers for a 5-0 win. The Bayhawks have used the 24-year-old left-hander both as starter and reliever this year. The only hit he allows is a double in the fourth inning by MIL C Manuel Rodriguez (.266, 10 HR, 29 RBI).
May 26 – SAL OF Chris Bauer (.444, 2 HR, 14 RBI) comes to the plate EIGHT times in a 16-inning, 4-2 win against the Miners, but never finds a base hit, and thus ends his 24-game hitting streak in impressive style.
May 26 – Caps 3B Rick Healey (.258, 4 HR, 17 RBI) was going to miss a month with a bruised wrist.
May 28 – TOP SP Dan Jennings (3-4, 4.97 ERA) pitches eight no-hit innings for an unearned run, but has to yield for CL Alvaro Garza (0-1, 3.38 ERA, 10 SV) in the ninth inning of a 3-1 game against the Pacifics. Garza gets two outs before allowing an RBI double to recent L.A. acquisition 1B Juan Gutierrez (.322, 8 HR, 38 RBI). The Buffaloes still manage to squeeze out a 3-2 win.
May 28 – 42-year-old left-handed WAS MR Nick Robinson (5-2, 2.21 ERA, 1 SV) gets his 200th career win in relief in a 7-6 victory over the Warriors.
May 28 – Blue Sox and Gold Sox play 16 innings’ worth of sock-sorting before the blue variety comes out on top, 7-6.
May 29 – The Caps manage to out-hit the Stars, 13-7, but lose the game, 7-3, without Dallas having only one extra-base hit, a 2-run triple by RF/LF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.394, 1 HR, 9 RBI).
May 31 – ATL SP Rob Wilkinson (3-3, 5.40 ERA) is headed for Tommy John surgery and will miss a full year after tearing his UCL.

Player of the Week (FL): LAP 1B Juan Gutierrez (.326, 11 HR, 45 RBI), crushing .522 (12-23) with 6 HR, 16 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): BOS 2B/1B Jeremy White (.228, 3 HR, 19 RBI), clipping .444 (8-18) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DEN/LAP 1B Juan Gutierrez (.326, 11 HR, 45 RBI), ripping .336 with 8 HR, 32 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: VAN OF Dan Moore (.335, 9 HR, 31 RBI), shooting .378 with 7 HR, 23 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: TOP SP T.J. Herbert (5-3, 1.95 ERA), going 4-0 with an 0.65 ERA, 30 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: NYC SP Russell Anderson (5-0, 1.48 ERA), going a perfect 5-0 with 1.35 ERA, 12 K
FL Rookie of the Month: SAL INF/LF/CF Ray Olin (.282, 3 HR, 20 RBI), batting .267 with 2 HR, 12 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: TIJ 3B Kevin Matthews (.225, 2 HR, 17 RBI), slapping .299 with 2 HR, 12 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The season review will read that the Coons’ pathetic bid for the 2071 playoffs ended when John Katzman went on the DL.

I am growing increasingly unhappy with not only Tyler Wharton, who is unfathomably untradeable at this point, but also with the composition of the bench. Woodley’s spot could be used so much better, but I also don’t want to send him back right now… McFarland doesn’t look like he can match Katz’ production, or even Nick Luebbert’s. Then there’s Danny Huckaby, age 22, hitting .340 with five homers in AAA to begin this year. He’s left-handed like Woodley and has only first base to play at. I already have an idea or two for a fancy nickname for him. There was no chance to use any of them last year, when he had a cup of coffee last year, hitting .204 with no homers and four RBI in Portland.

BNN, for ***** and giggles, listed all five of the Coons starters – and nobody else on the team – as “hot” at the end of the week. They gave these values for the quintet:
Jimmy: 2 G, 2-0, 1.69 ERA
Vinny: 2 G, 1-0, 1.35 ERA
Rios: 2 G, 1-1, 1.32 ERA
Walla: 2 G, 0-1, 1.84 ERA
Gaytan: 3 G, 0-2, 1.19 ERA

That’s 11 starts of 80.1 innings and a combined 1.46 ERA, going a solid 4-4 in the process. The pen had the decency to somehow wait out the chronically delinquent offense to turn the three no-decisions into wins. The offense, since putting 14 on the Loggers to end that series on the 21st, has played nine games against the CL South for a whopping 3.1 runs per game.

Awful, awful, awful!

The road trip continues to Tijuana and Indy before we’ll return home to play the Titans and Stars.

As if I don’t have enough Stars in Portland, hitting for a 77 OPS+…

Fun Fact: Nick Robinson is in his 20th major league season, one-and-a-half of which he spent with the Critters in 2061-62.

Robinson was the #107 pick by Denver all the way back in 2048, but made it to the majors just in time to pitch 41 innings with a mix of starts and relief appearances for the 2052 Gold Sox, who went on to win the World Series – the only ring of his long career. A staple starter for the Sox for the next eight years, he led the FL in wins and ERA once each, winning the 2058 FL Pitcher of the Year award on the latter occasion, going 13-10 with a 2.67 ERA and 171 K. He ended up traded to the Raccoons in the 2060-61 offseason, along with Marcos Arellano for “DD” Damasceno and a bunch of lint, but the 2061 Raccoons went out in the CLCS and started their ongoing decade-long sting of mediocrity in 2062 and traded him on to the Capitals, along with Angel Perez and Bobby Herrera, for a pile of busts: Jeff Applegate, Sandy Pineda, and Kyle Pisciotti – none of whom were older than 32 at this point, and none of whom had played professionally beyond *2068*.

This started Robinson’s frequent flyer phase of his career, as he usually was in a new city every year now, with the exception of 2-year stints with the Warriors in 2065-66 and the Loggers in 2068-69. Right now he was on his second stint with the Caps. 2066 was the last year he was used exclusively as a starter, and this year he had yet to make a single start.

Over his career he had made five All Star Games, and had pitched to a 200-136 record, 3.43 ERA, and 52 saves. Across 768 big-league games (439 starts), he had 2,410 strikeouts in 2,956 innings.

[Westheim]

2071 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

Thanks to once again being terrible in the previous season, the Raccoons approached the amateur draft with a relatively good pick – #7 this year! – to burn on some wastrel. In addition to that we also had a supplemental round pick for the loss of J.P. Gallo.

This got us to the actual draft pool, from which we selected 129 players to put on our shortlist for the year. Like the year before, there were more pitchers listed than position players, by a skinny majority of one.

Of course I had also nagged Oscar Semchez into compiling another hotlist with the dozen-or-so most promising faces in the draft pool, as if that had ever done us any good before (*high school player):

SP Bob Taylor (13/13/13) – BNN #1
SP Andrew Speed (12/14/10)
SP Dave Pokorski (10/14/14) – BNN #3
SP Pedro Orellana (11/16/13)
SP Paul Little (10/16/12) – BNN #10

C Guo-Dong Sha (10/8/11)
C/1B Joe Mullins (14/12/8) – BNN #6

1B Kyle Piel (12/17/16) *

OF/1B/SS Micah Davis (11/14/11)
OF/1B Matt Pothier (9/11/20) – BNN #9
OF Nate Bellotti (8/14/16) – BNN #4
OF Danny Woodley (9/13/11) – BNN #5

Yes, only one of these was a high school player, and yes, his name sounded like Kyle Pile. Imagine all the terrible, woeful, pawful puns that could be made from that one. He was as good as in Aumsville.

Micah Davis was perhaps a bit of a sleeper pick in there. He potentially ticked the entire tool box with speed and defense to boot, and he was nowhere near BNN’s top 10. If sanity prevailed and we did not take Vile Bile with the #7 pick, then it might potentially be Davis. The baseball gods know that we need someone that can swing a ******* stick…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-19) @ Condors (23-26) – June 1-3, 2071

The strong Raccoons rotation and the associated dross ventured to Tijuana for a 3-game set with the Condors, who sat fifth in the South, six games out, and had scored the fewest runs in the league, barely scratching out 3.4 runs per game. The pitching was average, and the run differential was -38. Portland was up 2-1 in the season series. The Condors had outfielder Jake Elliott on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (5-0, 2.73 ERA) vs. Bryan Farris (0-5, 5.36 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-2, 2.08 ERA) vs. Ryan Mann (2-6, 3.93 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-5, 3.10 ERA) vs. Joe Allen (4-4, 3.84 ERA)

Left-handers were lined up on either side of the right-hander Ryan Mann.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P J. Wharton
TIJ: 2B Monzon – SS D. Campbell – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – RF Valencia – CF Schreiber – C M. Watson – 3B K. Matthews – P Farris

Humph homered to begin the week and Yocum reached on a bloop single and was doubled up by Olivares. Big Wharton and Hernandez then reached on an infield single and a walk, respectively, but van Otterdijk grounded out to short. Brian McFarland hit a 1-out double in the second, Jimmyboy singled, and Humph’s groundout plated the second run of the game. Yocum grounded out, but the third inning began with Farris issuing two walks before Jordan Hernandez hit an RBI double to right-center, 3-0. Van Otterdijk’s grounder to first did not get a run home, but Gabe Rivas’ sac fly to Chris Schreiber did, before the inning fizzled out. Jimmyboy retired eight in a row before allowing a single to Farris, and then another one to Rafael Monzon, but Humph tracked down David Campbell’s fly ball to left to end the bottom of the third inning.

The Coons squeezed Farris out of the game by the fifth inning, as he walked Big Wharton and allowed a single to Hernandez before being replaced with David Mundell. The lefty conceded a run on groundouts by the 6-7 hitters, McFarland was walked intentionally, and Jimmy Wharton flew out to center, but Schreiber had to slide to make the catch end keep the runners on the bases. Mundell drove in an unearned run in the bottom 5th, singling to score Mitch Watson, who had reached on Jimmy Wharton’s own error to begin the inning. The skies darkened rapidly as a storm moved in at that point. Josh Rugar hit a leadoff homer off Jimmy in the bottom 6th, but only two more Condors came to the plate before lightning clapped and thunder roared, and the game went into a weather delay. The storm hung around though – and two hours later, the game was called by the umpires. 5-2 Raccoons. Humphries 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; T. Wharton 1-2, 2 BB; Hernandez 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI; McFarland 1-1, 2 BB; J. Wharton 5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-0) and 1-3;

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – 1B Woodley – C Rivas – SS Luebbert – P Walla
TIJ: 2B Monzon – SS D. Campbell – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – RF Valencia – CF Schreiber – 3B B. Robinson – P Mann

Humphries again drove in the first run of the game on Tuesday, but this time it took until the third inning. He zinged a double into the rightfield corner with two outs in the inning, driving in Nick Luebbert after the other Nick, Walla, failed to get the bunt down and popped out to the opposing pitcher for the second out. Humph then scored on a Yocum single for a 2-0 lead, but Jaden Wilson struck out. On the hill, Walla did not allow a base runner the first time through, whiffing four Condors. However, the bottom 4th began with a walk in a full count to Monzon, David Campbell socked a double, and a passed ball, another walk, and a run-scoring double-play grounder by Rugar later, the game was tied…

More full counts ran up Walla’s pitch count in the fifth, and the game remained tied at two through six innings, with only three total hits in the game, as the Coons had yet to get anything besides the third-inning RBI knocks by their 1-2 batters. It was the Condors to come through first then, as Walla allowed a leadoff single to Rugar, then a 1-out double to Rafael Valencia in the bottom 7th. Schreiber’s sac fly broke the tie, but Brian Robinson grounded out to end the inning.

The Coons remained clueless and hitless, getting Olivares on base, batting for Walla, when Mann brushed him with a pitch, and Yocum drew a 2-out walk in the eighth, but Wilson flew out to Valencia and the runners remained on base. It took the advent of the ninth inning, and a hapless Wharton groundout, and then a pinch-hitting appearance by Jamie Colter to get another bloody hit on the board, a 1-out double to right off right-hander Tyler Reed. Woodley walked, Rivas flew out to left, and Luebbert drew another walk, filling the bases in a 3-2 game. Sam Brown batted for McMahan in the pitcher’s spot, but he also flew out to Rugar. 3-2 Condors. Yocum 1-1, 3 BB, RBI; Colter (PH) 1-1, 2B; Walla 7.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 K, L (5-3);

Ugh.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Hernandez – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Gaytan
TIJ: CF Schreiber – SS D. Campbell – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – RF Valencia – 2B Barrientos – 3B K. Matthews – P Joe Allen

Humph hit another leadoff jack in the rubber game, but the most thrilling news on Wednesday was Tyler Wharton’s first ******* extra-base hit of the season, a 2-out, first-inning double to right-center on June 3, and the Raccoons followed it up with four straight singles, and the Otter, Brown, and McFarland each got an RBI. In the young shortstop’s case, it was the first RBI of his career. The Coons then engorged on double plays in the following innings, while Humphries also took away a homer from Josh Rugar in the second inning. Gaytan gave up quite a bit of contact in the first three innings, but the defense held the Condors to two singles and no runs. Instead, Gaytan knocked out Allen with a 2-run double in the fourth, extending his own lead to 6-0 by plating Brown and McFarland, who had both singled, with Valencia chipping in an error trying to pick up McFarland’s single. Mundell retired the 1-2-3 batters in order to end that inning.

Gaytan’s lead only grew as Humph opened the sixth with a double off left-hander Brian Kauffman, who walked Olivares and gave up an RBI single to Wharton. Van Otterdijk reached on an error, Kauffman balked the runners onwards, and Hernandez singled in another run before Brown’s fly out to left ended the inning, Portland up 8-0. The Condors didn’t get on the board until the eighth when Jon Barrientos rolled a leadoff single up the middle and Gaytan drilled Kevin Matthews. Mitch Watson’s grounder and Chris Schreiber’s sac fly got a run home, but Campbell then popped out. Gaytan was done after eight, and Matt Schmieder couldn’t even pitch a clean ninth with a 7-run lead, giving up a Cline single and a Rugar homer before allowing the defense to piece the remaining outs together. 8-3 Critters. Humphries 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; T. Wharton 3-5, 2B, RBI; van Otterdijk 2-5, RBI; Hernandez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Brown 2-4, BB, RBI; McFarland 3-3, 2 BB, RBI; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-5) and 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

The Crusaders took two of three from the Knights, so the gap remained at half a game.

Matt Schmieder (0-0, 27.00 ERA) was on waivers on Thursday, and the Raccoons activated their third and final Rule 5 pick, Ron Rismiller, who had pitched to an 0.47 ERA through 13 appearances while on rehab in St. Petersburg.

Raccoons (32-20) @ Indians (22-32) – June 5-7, 2071

The Indians sat ten games below .500, but they were 5-1 against the Raccoons this year, and it was kinda bugging me. Ninth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, they only had a -12 run differential, so something surely was afoot, like a 4-8 record in 1-run games (but 1-1 against Portland). Can we just score some runs and win, please?

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (3-7, 3.52 ERA) vs. Miguel Lopez (4-2, 3.64 ERA)
Vinny Morales (2-1, 3.53 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (5-4, 2.00 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-0, 2.64 ERA) vs. Pablo Apodaca (1-8, 4.41 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday…! By then we might be 1-8 against them.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – SS Luebbert – P Rios
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – C A. Morris – CF Hilario – 1B M. Rogers – LF W. Griffith – RF T. Torres – SS Masterson – 2B Richmond – P Mi. Lopez

The Indians loaded the bases with their 5-6-7 batters and one out in the bottom 2nd, getting two singles and a walk off Rios, but Walter Richmond struck out and Miguel Lopez popped out to strand all the runners. The Coons then returned the favor and put three on, beginning with a Rios double and including Humph drawing a walk and Wilson hitting a shy single with two outs. Tyler Wharton whiffed, and it began to rain.

Jordan Hernandez’ solo homer gave the Coons a 1-0 lead in the fourth before the rain brought on a half-hour rain delay. Rios had thrown 36 pitches in the first three innings and returned, nicked Tony Torres in the bottom 4th, drew a walk in the top 5th, and neither event got close to leading to a run, nor did Richmond’s leadoff walk in a full count in the bottom 5th. After a bunt and Matt Martin’s groundout, Rios rung up Andy Morris to strand him at third base.

Martin made an error to begin the sixth, putting Wharton on base (he had to reach SOMEHOW from time to time, I guess), and the big guy reached third base on an Olivares single right afterwards. Hernandez lined out to Martin and Rivas smashed into a double play to get rid of this excellent scoring opportunity. Rios singled and reached third on Humph’s single to set up the corners again with one out in the seventh. Left-hander Felix Morales replaced Lopez, but gave up an RBI single through the left side to Yocum, 2-0. Wilson hit another one of those to right, 3-0, but Wharton grounded to short for a fielder’s choice, and Scott Masterson also held the runner at third base. Morales losing Olivares on balls loaded the bags with Hernandez with two outs, and the third-sacker raked a 2-run single sharply through the left side… and on an 0-2 pitch! Rivas’ groundout to third ended a 4-run inning.

Rios came back after the stretch, got Tony Torres out, but then had Masterson single and misfielded Richmond’s grounder for an error. Left-handed PH Ryan Schimke slapped an RBI single on 3-1, and Rios was yanked for Gutierrez, who walked Martin and then gave up a game-tying slam to Andy Morris before being kicked out of the game again. Graham sorted out the inning, and Holzmeister held a 5-5 tie in the eighth. The ninth inning saw Wharton and Olivares on the corners with one out again as Ryan Croft walked the former and the latter singled him onwards. Van Otterdijk batted for Holzmeister in the #6 hole, but popped out, and Woodley batted for a hitless Rivas, but whiffed. Sullivan got the ball for the ninth, gave up a leadoff double to the #9 hitter Jaden Billie (who?), then K’ed Martin. Morris, the slammer, then hit a single to left. Billie turned third and went for home, but Humph had other plans and threw him out at the plate. Joke was on him though, as Sullivan then walked the next three batters to force in the winning run… 6-5 Indians. Yocum 2-5, RBI; Wilson 2-5, RBI; Olivares 3-4, BB; Hernandez 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Rios 6.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K and 2-2, BB, 2B;

(looks equal amounts stunned and annoyed) This particular case of brain diarrhea cost the Raccoons first place as the Crusaders eked out a 3-2 win against the Loggers.

Pffff.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Brown – SS Luebbert – P V. Morales
IND: CF Hilario – LF W. Griffith – RF T. Torres – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – C A. Morris – 2B Richmond – P V. Perez

For the fourth time this week, Humph drove in the game’s first run, and for the second time it happened in the third inning, this time with an RBI single to left-center, plating Luebbert from second just after Morales had bunted into a force at third base after Brown and Luebbert had reached to begin the top 3rd. Morales and Humphries went into scoring position when Griffith made a vain attempt at the plate, and they scored one by one on Yocum’s groundout and Jaden Wilson’s single over the head of Fernando Valadez. Wilson stole second, but Wharton flew out to Jose Hilario…

Morales allowed one hit in the first three innings, while the Coons got Olivares on base in the fourth, but he was caught stealing. Martin and Valadez reached with a 2-out walk and single, respectively, in the same inning, but Morris whiffed to keep them stranded. Vinny hit a double to right in the fifth, but the Coons managed to turn that into another goose egg, and the Indians parked their 1-2-3 batters with two outs on base again, getting a Hilario single and two walks before Rogers bounced out to Olivares and stranded the whole lot of them – so it wasn’t the comfiest 3-0 lead ever…

Olivares tried his best to make it better and hit a 2-out jack to extend the lead to 4-0 in the sixth. Morales got only one more out from Valadez in the bottom 6th as Martin reached on a Luebbert error and Morris singled. Graham came in, rung up Richmond, but Scott Masterson pinch-hit for a 2-out RBI double before Hilario grounded out. McMahan followed in the 4-1 game with three quick groundouts in the seventh, and Rismiller was getting ready for his ABL debut in the eighth. Martin flew out on his first big league pitch, floating out to Wharton in shallow center, but he walked Valadez on four pitches. Morris jammed into a double play, however, so things could have gone worse.

Since no tack-on offense was coming around anymore, the ninth was Pedro Valentin’s for the first time all week. He struck out Richmond, but walked Alex Gomez. He struck out Hilario, but Wade Griffith reached on an error by Hernandez, bringing up Tony Torres when the game shoulda been over. Torres hit a fly to deep right, but it was not long enough, and Wilson picked it to get a rare and precious win against the Indians. 4-1 Raccoons. Olivares 1-2, BB, HR, RBI;

Hey-hey, a win against Indy! And a solid debut for Rismiller. Let’s hope he can get some strikeouts and maybe turn into Rizzmiller.

(Honeypaws audibly snorts)

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – C Brown – SS McFarland – P J. Wharton
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B M. Rogers – LF W. Griffith – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 2B Richmond – P Apodaca

Tyler Wharton did it! He hit a homer to lead off the second inning! Miracles DO happen!! Salty quips aside, Hernandez made it back-to-back with his sixth longball of the season and the Coons had scored first in all games, and now had to try and not go 3-3 from there. Jimmyboy was doing his best with two scoreless and then a leadoff single in the third inning. Humph walked and Yocum filled the bags with another single, but the dimwits then had Olivares ground into a force at the plate, Big Wharton popped out, and Hernandez grounded out to third…

The Indians promptly roared past into a 3-2 lead in the bottom 3rd as Apodaca singled and Martin walked with one out. Valadez’ RBI double and Hilario’s 2-run single stuffed Jimmyboy with three runs in a hurry. The middle innings passed in a hurry. Van Otterdijk singled his way on and was caught stealing when Brown couldn’t make contact in a hit-and-run, and that was mostly it for the Coons. Rogers also managed to be caught stealing on the Indians’ side.

Jimmy Wharton ended up going eight innings on a 5-hitter… and when the ninth inning dawned on Ryan Croft and the Coons’ 4-5-6 batters, was still on the short end of a 3-2 score. Wharton flew out, Hernandez whiffed, and van Otterdijk lobbed a single over Richmond’s glove to keep the team alive. Jaden Wilson batted for Sam Brown, but struck out in a full count. 3-2 Indians. J. Wharton 8.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (6-1) and 1-3;

In other news

June 2 – Crusaders INF Joe King (.354, 2 HR, 16 RBI) snaps six base hits in an 11-inning, 4-3 win against the Knights, although two of his five singles (next to a double and two RBI) come only in extra innings.
June 2 – Vegas 3B/2B/RF Matt Rodewald (.261, 2 HR, 32 RB) was out with a strained hip muscle and would miss at least one month.
June 3 – The Crusaders win another extra-inning affair, 2-1 in 12 innings against the Knights. No runs are scored in the first ten innings before both teams plate a run in the 11th, but only New York gets on the board in the 12th.
June 6 – Crusaders and Loggers take a 4-4 game to the 11th inning before the Crusaders take their third overtime W of the week with a 7-run outburst to clinch an 11-4 victory.
June 7 – The Rebels beat the Buffaloes in a 14-inning game, 4-2.

Player of the Week (FL): PIT OF Anthony Schneider (.328, 9 HR, 39 RBI), hitting .476 (10-21) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): BOS INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.340, 5 HR, 31 RBI), clapping .522 (12-23) with 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

What a sullen week. Can somebody get the Indians outta sight, please??

With his ultimately pointless homer on Sunday, Tyler Wharton now ties Nick Luebbert, Rule 5er, for ninth place on the team with one homer. And he’s tied for 14th for extra-base hits with Luebbert and Jesus Morentin, and, oh, THE OTHER WHARTON.

Jesus H. Christ.

The Raccoons will go back home now for a 7-game homestand hosting the Titans and Stars.

Fun Fact: Jimmy Wharton needed 52 fewer at-bats to get two extra-base hits than Tyler Wharton.

(dour look)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-22) vs. Titans (29-25) – June 8-11, 2071

The Titans were four games back and had won four in a row, and were to play four games with the Critters in Portland to start our weeklong homestand. Boston struggled to score, sitting at eighth in runs scored… and also eighth in runs allowed? They were bottoms in stolen bases, but second in homers. Their rotation had a 4.42 ERA, bottom three in the CL, and their run differential was -4. Portland was up 2-1 in the season series. There were four injuries on the Titans, most notably reliever Tyler Gleason, who was done for the year, and outfielder Raul Moreno.

Projected matchups
Nick Walla (5-3, 2.24 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (5-4, 3.54 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (2-5, 2.87 ERA) vs. Adam McDonald (4-5, 5.37 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (3-7, 3.45 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (4-6, 7.03 ERA)
Vinny Morales (3-1, 3.23 ERA) vs. Jesse Cruise (3-4, 3.84 ERA)

Two right, two left from the blue team!

Game 1
BOS: LF Lorenzo – CF Marcotte – C N. Dingman – RF M. Garcia – 1B H. Moreno – 3B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – SS E. Gonzales – P Musgrave
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF Wilson – CF T. Wharton – 1B Olivares – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – SS Luebbert – P Walla

Steve Humphries drove in the first run *again* to begin this week, hitting a 2-out RBI single in the bottom 2nd after reaching with Yocum on singles in the first, but being stranded by a 3-4-5 blackout; in the second inning, Rivas and Luebbert tumbled onto the bases, but Walla actually bunted badly into a force play at third to get Rivas removed. Luebbert scored from second on the Humph hit, though. Yocum then grounded out. Meanwhile, Nick Walla struck out four Titans the first time through, allowing only a single to Danny Miller and no hard rockets.

Nick Luebbert’s sac fly in the fourth doubled the score to 2-0 after Hernandez and Rivas had begun the inning by going to the corners. The middle of the lineup was a total nightmare, though. Jaden Wilson singled to begin the third, but was forced out by Wharton, and Olivares crashed into a double play, and in the fifth Wilson doubled off Yocum after his single. Walla’s middle innings included no strikeouts the second time through the order, a 2-out Victor Lorenzo single in the sixth, but then a K on Eddie Marcotte. The bottom of that inning saw leadoff singles by Olivares and Hernandez, and Musgrave lost Rivas to ball four in a full count: three on and nobody out. Luebbert brought in another run at the cost of a 4-6-3 double play, but Walla snuck an RBI single past Gold Glover Edgar Gonzales for a tack-on run. Humph walked, but Yocum grounded out to Hector Moreno to end the inning at 4-0. On the hill, Walla struck out three in a row into the seventh, then gave up a long fly to center to Moreno, but that was caught by Wharton.

The shutout was threatened in the eighth with a leadoff single by Miller and then Jeremy White getting on base through a Hernandez error, but Walla got Gonzales to fly out and then got a double play grounder from PH Matt Ford. Humph and Yocum then drove in Hernandez and Rivas with 2-out RBI singles off left-hander Juan Sanchez in the bottom 8th, giving Walla a 6-0 lead into the ninth inning, which he entered on 84 pitches, with the top of the order due up. Vic Lorenzo grounded to the right side. Olivares contained the ball, but Walla dropped his feed at first base, and the leadoff man reached on the error. Marcotte flew out to Humph, but Nick Ding(er)man singled through the left side. While the pen was readying, Luebbert then got paws on a quick bouncer by Manuel Garcia, and started a wonderful 6-4-3 double play to slam the door shut. 6-0 Furballs! Humphries 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Yocum 3-5, RBI; Hernandez 3-4, 2B; Rivas 3-3, BB; Walla 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (6-3) and 1-3, RBI;

Sixth career shutout and the CL lead in pitcher WAR for Nick Walla after this strong appearance! (excitedly claps his paws together) Very good! Wheee!!

Game 2
BOS: LF Lorenzo – CF Marcotte – C N. Dingman – RF M. Garcia – 1B H. Moreno – 3B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – SS E. Gonzales – P McDonald
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – 1B Woodley – RF Colter – SS Luebbert – P Gaytan

Tony Gaytan struck out five Boston batters the first time through the lineup, but also gave up a solo home run to Jeremy White – the first game in over a week where the opposition scored first. On the other side of the box score, Nick Luebbert broke his foot in a collision with Moreno at first base when he legged out an infield single in the bottom 2nd, so he hobbled off with Luis Silva, and McFarland took over the position.

Gaytan would reach ten strikeouts by the sixth inning – but on 87 pitches, and by then down 3-0 after allowing another homer to Garcia in the fourth, after walking Marcotte to begin the inning. Both teams actually had two hits in the first five innings, but one team had homers and the other had singles. Yocum led off the bottom 6th with a single to center, but got forced out by Wilson’s grounder to short, and the Coons remained off the board with Hernandez’ groundout and Rivas’ flyout in the left-center gap.

Adam McDonald sent Gaytan to bed in the eighth inning with another 2-run homer that made it a 5-0 game and made for a really perverted line for Gaytan in this game: four hits, one walk, FIVE RUNS, and ten strikeouts in 7.1 innings. Every Titan that got on… scored. Edgar Gutierrez replaced Gaytan in a double switch that exchanged first basemen – and Olivares led off the bottom 8th with a homer to left. Garcia singled and Moreno homered to left off Gutierrez in the ninth, and Tyler Wharton pinch-hit and grounded out on a 3-0 pitch before the game was out… 7-1 Titans. Yocum 1-2, 2 BB; Olivares 1-1, HR, RBI;

Roster moves followed as Nick Luebbert took his .214 stick and broken foot to the DL, and Edgar Gutierrez (0-0, 5.03 ERA) was optioned to AAA. He was replaced by Brad Fales coming off the DL himself, but the Coons were suddenly so desperate for middle infielders that they brought back Jesus Morentin – an outfielder by trade for sure, but there was no reason that he couldn’t play up the middle on the infield… but he had never exercised that trade a lot…

Game 3
BOS: LF Lorenzo – CF Marcotte – C Goodwin – RF M. Garcia – 3B D. Miller – SS E. Gonzales – 1B M. Ford – 2B Jer. White – P Riddle
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Rios

The first five Coons reached base on Wednesday as Humph walked, followed by three singles (the 3-4 hitters cashing RBI’s), and another walk drawn by Hernandez, before van Otterdijk had to bring in a third run by crashing into a 5-3 double play. Brown then grounded out to Ford to end the inning. Rios ran full counts galore from the start, including a leadoff walk to Lorenzo in the first, but gave up his first run on a Jeremy White homer in the third inning. Bottom 3rd, Wharton reached on an error before Hernandez and the Otter filled the bags against the underwater ex-Coon Tyler Riddle behind him. But three on, nobody out turned into no runs as Brown hit into a force at home, and McFarland and Rios both fanned.

I opened the booze when Rios allowed a run on three singles in the fourth inning, then with runners on the corners, two outs, and two strikes on ******* Tyler Riddle balked in the tying run. Riddle struck out on the next pitch. Lorenzo grounded out to begin the fifth, but Rios walked Marcotte in another bloody full count, and then gave up a blast to Curt Goodwin in order to depart with a 5-3 deficit. Rismiller replaced him, but immediately gave up another blast to Manuel Garcia, 6-3.

Bottom 5th, and Wharton drew a leadoff walk, as all good sluggers do. Hernandez singled him to third, and van Otterdijk got a looper behind White for an RBI single, putting the tying runs on with nobody out. Sam Brown RAKED a 3-piece over the wall in right for his first career bomb, and that put the Coons up again, 7-6, and Riddle was yanked by the Titans, allowing seven runs (six earned) in four-plus innings. Bronson Vanderven replaced him, allowed a 1-out single to Colter and a double to Humph, but the Coons only got one more run on Yocum’s sac fly. Olivares walked, and Wharton grounded out to short, as all terminally declining sluggers do.

After Brad Fails got around Marcotte reaching on catcher’s interference in the sixth, Hernandez’ leadoff double only led to a run on McFarland’s 2-out single in the bottom of the inning, 9-6. Bryce Wallace then allowed a pinch-hit single to Woodley, walked Humph, and gave up another run on a Yocum single to left. Juan Sanchez replaced him, but two pitches into the at-bat Olivares thundered a bases-clearing double into the right-center gap and all the way to the wall…! Hell, even Tyler ******* Wharton clubbed an RBI single off the overwhelmed left-hander! The game even went on long enough for Wharton to scratch another RBI single with two outs in the bottom 8th against another lefty, Dave Parra, driving in Morentin, who had batted for Humphries and singled. Marcotte’s homer off Dan Graham in the ninth didn’t really matter anymore. 15-7 Critters! Humphries 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Morentin (PH) 1-1; Yocum 3-5, 2 RBI; Olivares 2-4, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; T. Wharton 3-5, BB, 3 RBI; Hernandez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Brown 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Colter (PH) 1-1; Woodley (PH) 1-2; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Ron Rismiller got his first big league W in his second career outing.

Game 4
BOS: 2B Jer. White – CF Marcotte – C N. Dingman – RF M. Garcia – 1B H. Moreno – 3B D. Miller – LF J. Hawkins – SS E. Gonzales – P Cruise
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – 3B Hernandez – RF van Otterdijk – C Brown – SS Morentin – P Morales

Bombs away continued, but only for the blue team, on Thursday. Marcotte hit homers the first two times he saw Vinny Morales, a solo shot in the first and a 2-piece in the second, and Moreno added another homer before that third inning was out. When he wasn’t giving up souvenirs, he was constantly behind in the count, and the game looked like a write-off… but by the end of four innings it was all even at four, and without a Critters home run in return. The Coons went on four pitches in the first inning, then wasted two singles in the second. In the third, Humph hit a 1-out single on the 12th pitch of his at-bat with Cruise, Yocum doubled, and walks to Olivares and Wharton forced in a run. Hernandez’ grounder in another full count plated another run, but van Otterdijk then grounded out, stranding two. Brown’s bloop double to begin the fourth was followed by a groundout and Morales’ sac fly before three straight 2-out singles from the top of the order tied the game on Olivares’ watch. Wharton drew another walk, like a MAN, and Hernandez grounded out on the first pitch to strand another full set of runners.

The 4-4 score persisted while the Critters somehow dragged Morales through six innings, after which his spot led off the bottom round of the frame and Jaden Wilson batted for him to no great results. Humphries singled, but was picked off first by Cruise. Both teams hit into a double play in the seventh inning, but Nick Ding(er)man thumped a 2-piece off Todd Sullivan in his second inning of work in the eighth to break the tie. Rismiller replaced him and along with Pedro Valentin got three outs each, but the Raccoons’ offense had exhausted themselves and went down meekly against Cody Kleidon and Jerry Washington in the last two innings. 6-4 Titans. Humphries 3-4; Yocum 2-5, 2B; Olivares 2-4, BB, RBI; Brown 3-4, 2B;

The Crusaders took two of three games from the Elks mid-week, so the Coons were a full game behind on Thursday night.

Raccoons (35-24) vs. Stars (29-31) – June 12-14, 2071

Dallas in their little shoebox was pumping out just over five runs a game in the FL West, but they were giving up just as many and even had a -7 run differential. Their pitching was frankly horrendous, but everybody and their mother was being taken deep on the brown team as well right now … except for Walla, maybe. Dallas was tops in OBP, good for getting slams, but had the worst defense in the ABL, also good for eventually giving up slams. They had four players on the DL, foremost pitchers Bobby Marceau and Antonio Santelices. The Raccoons had dropped six series against them in a row, last taking a set in 2060.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (6-1, 2.72 ERA) vs. Alex Quevedo (3-3, 2.70 ERA)
Nick Walla (6-3, 2.00 ERA) vs. Andy Canada (4-3, 4.05 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (2-6, 3.18 ERA) vs. Ian Peters (5-5, 4.65 ERA)

Only right-handers in that Dallas rotation, and we saw the three best ones in this series. The others had ERA’s over five.

The day before the series began, the Loggers sent RF Dave Wright (.309, 7 HR, 23 RBI) to Dallas for INF/RF Victor Morales (.286, 2 HR, 10 RBI) and a prospect, #155 3B Devon Trotta.

Game 1
DAL: 2B Fumero – RF Dave Wright – CF J. Evans – C Varner – SS An. Mendez – LF T. Pritchard – 1B Whetstine – 3B Stockton – P Quevedo
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P J. Wharton

Portland went up 2-0 in the first as Yocum and Olivares slapped a pair of hits and Wharton with a groundout and Wilson with a single got them home. The Stars were a bit confused what had become of Tyler Wharton, batting .250 with a homer and ten RBI in June, which was understandable, because I was living it live and in color and couldn’t believe it either. Dallas’ Dallas Stockton hit a leadoff double in the third inning and eventually was brought around to score to get them also on the board. Expensive Wharton brought in another run by means of a 6-4-3 double play with Yocum and Olivares on the corners in the bottom 3rd, keeping the gap at two runs, but also brutally slaughtering the inning, but Steve Varner, Antonio Mendez, and Chad Whetstine hits gave a run right back to the Stars in the fourth.

Jimmyboy pitched rather unconvincingly, getting only two strikeouts in six innings, but Quevedo was gone after five, with Allan Bergerud replacing him and issuing leadoff walks to the Critters’ 5-6 hitters in the bottom 6th. The bottom of the order couldn’t have been more useless, though, as Rivas flew out, McFarland whiffed, and Jimmy grounded out. He went on and allowed a leadoff double to right to PH Matt Little and was yanked. Brad Fails then extricated the Coons by retiring three straight batters without giving Little, the tying run on second base, another inch.

Tyler Wharton, who had lined out to Stockton to strand Humph on base in the fifth inning, then batted with Humph and Olivares on base and one out in the seventh against Bergerud. He singled up the middle; Humph went home, Bergerud cut off the throw to the plate, and instead fired it to third base where Olivares was out by a mile, so the run came home, but the Coons still made the second out. Wharton then stole second and came home when Jaden Wilson bashed a ball into the right-center gap for a double, 5-2! Bergerud was replaced with lefty Jorge Ruiz, who had an ERA over nine, and who got Bergerud charged with another run by conceding an RBI single to center to Jordan Hernandez. Rivas’ groundout ended the inning.

Up 6-2, Holzmeister got two outs from Varner and Mendez in the eighth before being replaced with McMahan in a double switch that gave Jamie Colter a rare appearance at third base. McMahan, who had not appeared at all in the Boston series against an overwhelmingly right-handed lineup – except in his breakfast bacon commercials of course – struck out ex-Coon Brian Hills to end the eighth, then ended up batting when the Coons put Colter, Humph, and Yocum on the bases in the bottom 8th, Olivares drove in a run with a single, and Wharton doubled home a pair. Wilson popped out, but McMahan batted for himself, whiffing, before finishing the job on the hill. 9-2 Furballs! Yocum 2-4, BB; Olivares 4-5, 2B, RBI; T. Wharton 2-5, 2B, 4 RBI; Wilson 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

What a weird offense, scoring more runs again but nearly without any homers. The Crusaders lost to the Buffos on Friday, so we got virtually even again (the Coons had played two more games at this stage).

Adam Yocum as a bit sore and needed a day off on Saturday, especially with the nearest off day still almost a week away.

Game 2
DAL: 2B Fumero – RF Dave Wright – CF Stockton – 1B V.D. Morales – C Varner – SS Hills – LF M. Little – 3B An. Mendez – P Canada
POR: LF Humphries – 3B Hernandez – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – RF Colter – C Rivas – 2B Morentin – SS McFarland – P Walla

Dave Wright and Steve Humphries exchanged home runs in the first inning for a 1-1 score, so the shutout was off the table quite early for Walla on Saturday. The Coons took a 2-1 lead an inning later as Rivas singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored after advancing on Morentin’s groundout when McFarland singled up the middle. McFarland stole his first base, but was left on, being stranded when Humph was robbed in the gap by Dave Wright, who landed hard and tumbled on the warning track and then was taken off the field on a stretcher, just three days after the Stars had acquired him from the Loggers. Jake Evans replaced him.

Dallas’ Dallas Stockton tied the game with a home run off Walla in the fourth inning, but Portland went back up in the fifth when Olivares singled and then scored from first base on a gap double by Big Check Wharton. Colter cranked his first homer of the season to run the lead to 5-2 and knock out the American Canada. But Walla just didn’t have the good stuff – he was taken deep again by Dallas’ Dallas Stockton in the sixth, and this was also a 2-piece, narrowing the score to 5-4.

Wilson batted for Walla in the bottom 6th, which led nowhere, and the Coons then shoveled the bags full with inefficient relief from both Graham and Fails in the seventh. When Whetstine batted for Evans with three on and two outs, McMahan came in to meet the lefty hitter, but lost him in a full count to ball four, blowing the lead, and then gave up another 2-run double to Dallas’ Dallas Stockton, on which a baserunning blunder on the Stars’ part ended the inning. Hernandez singled and Wharton doubled to put the tying runs in scoring position with one gone in the bottom 7th, but between the right-handed pinch-hitters Yocum and van Otterdijk the Coons got zero runs home against the left-handed pushover Jorge Ruiz. Instead, Todd Sullivan gave up another 2-run homer to Steve Varner in the eighth. Olivares hit another late solo homer in the bottom 9th, but that one didn’t make any impact anymore. 9-6 Stars. Olivares 3-5, HR, RBI; T. Wharton 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; Colter 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; McFarland 2-3, BB, RBI;

Todd Sullivan (2-3, 4.70 ERA) had ****** up enough at this point and was sent to AAA. The Raccoons brought up Noah Newhard for his debut, the 23-year-old having a 3.00 ERA in St. Petersburg.

Game 3
DAL: 2B Fumero – SS Hills – 3B Stockton – CF M. Little – LF Whetstine – C Varner – RF J. Evans – 1B T. Pritchard – P Peters
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Olivares – CF T. Wharton – RF Wilson – 3B Hernandez – C Brown – SS Morentin – P Gaytan

Gaytan got three straight outs in the first, then nailed Matt Little on 0-2 to begin the second and walked Whetstine and Varner to fill the bags with nobody out. After Brown went out to demand that he stop faffing about, Gaytan then got pops from Evans and Tommy Pritchard, then rung up Ian Peters to bail out of the jam.

The Coons had a guy on base in each of the first three innings, but Yocum and Wilson also blundered into double plays and we didn’t get anywhere near a run. Yocum then was on base again to begin the bottom 4th, followed by Wharton walking on four pitches and Wilson drawing another walk in a full count to make it three on with one gone for Jordan Hernandez – who hit into another double play.

Bottom 5th, Brown led off with a single and Morentin slapped a double to right, putting a pair in scoring position with nobody out, but also the pitcher batting. Gaytan whiffed, but Humph was to the rescue, as usual these days, and got a 2-run single over the head of Hills at short. Yocum also singled, but the 3-4 batters made weak outs to keep the pair on base. Stockton flew out to begin the sixth, but Gaytan issued another walk to Little; however, Whetstine found Yocum for a 4-6-3 double play. Gaytan finally departed in the eighth after a 1-out walk to ex-Coon Carlos Fumero. Graham replaced him, popped out Hills, and whiffed the annoying Stockton to get out of the inning.

The Raccoons loaded the bases again in the bottom 8th as they got their 3-4-5 batters on with singles against Edgar Cornejo and one out. Van Otterdijk batted for a hitless Hernandez and clipped another single for a run into rightfield, and two more runs would score on wild pitches by two different relievers, Cornejo and Curt Crater, but the Coons didn’t get another knock. However, the lead was now 5-0 and we stuck with Graham for the time being, who now had a chance for a 5-out save. Two lefty sticks were still up and both grounded out, but Antonio Mendez hit a 2-out single. However, the game ended when Evans lined out to Morentin. 5-0 Critters. Humphries 2-5, 2 RBI; T. Wharton 1-2, 2 BB; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1, RBI; Gaytan 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K, W (3-6); Graham 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (2);

In other news

June 8 – As the Bayhawks beat the Knights, 10-8, five runs are driven in on four hits, including a home run, by SFB OF Brett Haus (.244, 4 HR, 27 RBI).
June 10 – The Indians acquire MR Josh Carrington (2-1, 4.38 ERA) from Los Angeles for two prospects, including #133 INF/LF Leo Lugo.
June 10 – The Capitals beat the Buffaloes, 5-1 in 12 innings, on a walkoff grand slam by WAS C Chris Willhite (.190, 5 HR, 25 RBI).
June 11 – The Aces pick up 41-year-old SP Ricardo Montoya (4-4, 2.93 ERA) from the Canadiens, along with $3M in cash, for four prospects, including #107 CL Yvain Michelozzo.

Player of the Week (FL): DAL 1B/3B/OF Dallas Stockton (.259, 8 HR, 38 RBI), slapping .556 (10-18) with 3 HR, 8 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): POR 1B Alejandro Olivares (.316, 6 HR, 30 RBI), churning .519 (14-27) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

In between Walla’s shutout on Monday and Gaytan’s solid outing on Sunday, the Raccoons had a full run through the rotation where none of them could get anybody out. Jimmyboy had a halfway decent outing, but none of the others did, and together they piled up a 6.07 ERA across those five starts.

First series win against the Stars in 11 years, wheee…

The season of AAA outfielder Dave Falquez ended this week with a broken elbow that would require two months of casting and four more of rehab, so that was that. More of interest was the assortment of starters in AAA, where Harrison Hunt had a low-2 ERA. Val Centeno was … at least better than last season and was still not completely written off, but Hunt was an option to bring up, but he would really have to start, since his arsenal was broad and lacked a wipeout pitch, making him an unappealing relief option. A bold option would be to trade a starter on paw for something more interesting, like, I don’t know, a centerfielder that could ******* hit the weight of his paycheck?

Speaking of injuries earlier, Katz was expected to go on a rehab assignment at around the next weekend and would then rejoin the team after two or three games.

With that, we’re flying out East, but on different planes. The Raccoons go to Washington and then Milwaukee, but I’ll be taking the detour through New York to League HQ for the draft that will take place on Monday.

Fun Fact: 36 years ago today, Sioux Falls’ Ethan McCullar hit for the cycle against the Stars.

2035 was the career year for the catcher from Galesburg, IL, as he hit .301 and took the FL home run crown with 28 longballs, driving 93 runs. The 145 OPS+ was the best of his career at age 27. He had taken two rings in the previous two years with the Warriors and won two Gold Gloves in the following two years, but never led the league in any category again. After 10 1/2 seasons with the Warriors he was let go after the 2041 season and finished his career with largely unproductive stints in Tijuana, Cincy, and L.A. The 5-time All Star did however hit 20+ home runs eight times in the nine seasons from 2033 through 2041, which wasn’t a mean feat for a catcher.

For his career, McCullar appeared in 1,742 games, batting .267/.334/.441 with 1,609 hits, 233 homers, and 950 RBI. He also had 317 doubles.

[Westheim]

2071 AMATEUR DRAFT

New week, new draft, new players to be perpetually disappointed by! The Raccoons came prepared with their #7 pick, a supplemental round pick, and the calmness resulting from the knowledge that it was all for nothing and in the end we’d bottle it anyway.

Also, a hotlist (*high school player):

SP Bob Taylor (13/13/13) – BNN #1
SP Andrew Speed (12/14/10)
SP Dave Pokorski (10/14/14) – BNN #3
SP Pedro Orellana (11/16/13)
SP Paul Little (10/16/12) – BNN #10

C Guo-Dong Sha (10/8/11)
C/1B Joe Mullins (14/12/8) – BNN #6

1B Kyle Piel (12/17/16) *

OF/1B/SS Micah Davis (11/14/11)
OF/1B Matt Pothier (9/11/20) – BNN #9
OF Nate Bellotti (8/14/16) – BNN #4
OF Danny Woodley (9/13/11) – BNN #5

Micah Davis with his five tools and Kyle Pile… uh, Piel, were very attractive options for a #7 pick, but there was also always the option to lunge for another starting pitcher, because when have we ever managed to get something out of a first-round first baseman?

But six teams got to go ahead of the Raccoons, who clearly hadn’t lost hard enough last season, beginning with the Bayhawks….. who immediately went for the eyeballs and selected Micah Davis first-overall. The Buffaloes then went with pitcher Bob Taylor, and the Condors selected outfielder Matt Pothier. The Blue Sox drafted Danny Woodley with their #4 pick, the Gold Sox went for Pedro Orellana, and the Crusaders selected Brad DuKate, who was an outfielder just off the hotlist.

So that left Piel on the pile, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. Too many failures with first-round first basemen. Which was a horrible way to do analysis on young talent that hadn’t even been born (nor their parents) at the time I collected my sample size, but the Raccoons chickened out, and selected Andrew Speed instead, who OSA was glowing for and rated him in all the colors of the rainbow. He narrowly was chosen over Dave Pokorski, who right away went to the Falcons at #8.

From there, hotlist picks were Joe Mullins going to Salem at #11, immediately followed by Guo-Dong Sha being taken by the Titans, and Nate Bellotti going to the Rebs at #13. L.A. took Paul Little with the #14 pick, which only left Piel on the not so tall hotlist pile anymore. He fell all the way to the Raccoons’ supplemental round pick, where we took him, because now it was apparently not an issue anymore to take a first-sacker with a prime real estate selection… (shrugs!)

+++

2071 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#7) – SP Andrew Speed, 22, from Country Club, FL – right-handed groundballer that throws hard and everything has movement; only three pitches, but those all look like real assets
Supp. Round (#27) – 1B Kyle Piel, 17, from Detroit, MI – moves like a first baseman, smells like a first baseman, but there was tremendous power potential to make me salivate like there was a box of donuts in front of my snout
Round 2 (#44) – C Omar Decker, 18, from west Fork, AR – solid batting profile all the way through, adept behind the plate, and a good throwing arm, plus he might even not be completely embarrassing as a base runner and might even swipe a few bags
Round 3 (#68) – SP Herb Hildebrand, 20, from Port St. Lucie, FL – right-hander throwing 92mph and a bit straight; solid four-pitch arsenal though with some good promise on the curveball and changeup, though
Round 4 (#92) – INF/LF/RF Josh Swan, 18, from St. Martin, MS – versatile defender with good contact potential and a keen eye, but not a lot of speed or power
Round 5 (#116) – LF/2B/3B/RF Tim Peters, 20, from Harbor, OR – in the draft as an infielder with a singles stick, but the locals knew that the had mostly pitched in high school and that he hadn’t been all that bad; solid four-pitch arsenal on the right-hander, although he had also had the nickname “Wild Thing” in school… the Raccoons would try to make him another conversion project
Round 6 (#140) – CL Adam Benis, 20, from El Cerrito, CA – right-hander with a curveball and cutter, and also a wicked red handlebar moustache that should scare hitters into submission
Round 7 (#164) – SP Alpha Tanner, 18, from Lewistown, MT – another right-hander with only two good pitches, foremost a curveball, and some control issues that needed intense hammering away at the problem
Round 8 (#188) – OF Guy Tolson, 19, from Cohoes, NY – free-roaming outfielder with no more than a singles bat
Round 9 (#212) – CL Josh Wilder, 20, from South Euclid, OH – dumb as a brick, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to throw his 91mph heater through a whole wall of bricks, nor will the coaches be able to; left-hander with odd four-pitch mix, but no stamina
Round 10 (#236) – 2B/SS Bobby Hutchison, 18, from Wichita, KS – agile middle infielder with a rather weak throwing arm; good base stealer, boldly assuming he gets on base
Round 11 (#260) – CL Ezra Montgomery, 21, from Schaumburg, IL – left-handed reliever with a 90mph fastball and sinker and a terrible, no-good changeup
Round 12 (#284) – MR Derrick Wilson, 22, from South Lake Tahoe, CA – impressive circle change and absolutely no control over the fastball on this right-hander
Round 13 (#308) – 2B/SS Gregg Kisamore, 18, from Kingman, AZ – another one of those slick-fielding armless middle infielders, but this one also couldn’t hit a lick

+++

Top pick Speed was assigned to Ham Lake right out of the gate, while the remainder went to Aumsville.

And then the trimming began, as the Raccoons put about a dozen bodies out the door to make room in the minors.

We began with a pair of right-handed frequent flyers between Portland and St. Petersburg, as both Juan Soriano and Matt Schmieder were released. Schmieder, 29 and a fifth-rounder in 2060, had made 84 appearances for the Raccoons across the last six seasons, doing generally badly at 3-5 and a 5.73 ERA. The 34-year-old Soriano had been a waiver claim off the Scorpions in 2064, and had compiled a 2-2 record, 4.18 ERA, and a save in 79 games in the majors (one with Sacramento). Only 12 of those appearances had come after 2067. 2065 third-rounder Elijah Grismore, who had turned out to not have any control over anything and by now was heading for being 27 years old, was also canned from the Alley Cats roster. More notable (meaning they weren’t dragged in by the scout, or the cat, or were some random minor league free agent signing in March) pitchers to be gone included: Andrew van Deventer (2067, 4th round), Joe Cameron (2069, 6th round), William Ives (2068, 10th round), Jason Michael (2065, 11th round);

On the position player side we parted ways with INF/LF Jacob Davis, the almost-29-year-old fifth-rounder from 2064, who had appeared in 45 games for the Raccoons, batting .197 with 5 RBI. He was hitting .150 in AAA and we had some guys that could move up from further down. Further released from the minor leagues were: LF/RF Ben Heard (2065, 7th round), 2B/3B Mike Harter (2068, 7th round), LF/RF Gates Wooldridge (2069, 9th round), 2B Jonathan Maxey (2066, 12th round), 2B/SS Mike Hilker (2067, 12th round), C Michael Kasper (2070, 13th round);

In total and including the international complex, we put 22 players out the door, and it would have been 24 if Aumsville infielders Ismael Tenorio and Ron Robinson weren’t ranked the #80 and #108 prospects, respectively. Maybe they just needed a change of air and were moved to Ham Lake with a big old shrug instead. And if Jack Hamel, hitting .226 with one homer in AAA, hadn’t been the #5 pick a whole pawful of years ago, he’d been out the door as well. So far he had only appeared in 15 big-league games in 2069, batting .152 with 15 strikeouts in 33 at-bats. It wasn’t much better *now*…

A number of our ranked prospects were also promoted, including the top ranked #6 CL Dan McPartland (one of those conversion projects) making the move to Ham Lake. #45 prospect SP Jose Espino also made the move from the international complex to Aumsville at 17 years old.

[DD Martin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

2071 AMATEUR DRAFT

Also, a hotlist (*high school player):

SP Bob Taylor (13/13/13) – BNN #1
SP Andrew Speed (12/14/10)
SP Dave Pokorski (10/14/14) – BNN #3
SP Pedro Orellana (11/16/13)
SP Paul Little (10/16/12) – BNN #10

C Guo-Dong Sha (10/8/11)
C/1B Joe Mullins (14/12/8) – BNN #6

1B Kyle Piel (12/17/16) *

OF/1B/SS Micah Davis (11/14/11)
OF/1B Matt Pothier (9/11/20) – BNN #9
OF Nate Bellotti (8/14/16) – BNN #4
OF Danny Woodley (9/13/11) – BNN #5

So that left Piel on the pile, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. Too many failures with first-round first basemen. Which was a horrible way to do analysis on young talent that hadn’t even been born (nor their parents) at the time I collected my sample size, but the Raccoons chickened out, and selected Andrew Speed instead, who OSA was glowing for and rated him in all the colors of the rainbow. He narrowly was chosen over Dave Pokorski, who right away went to the Falcons at #8.
.

So what made Portland take Speed over OSA /BNN #3 overall Pokorski?

Good pass on Pile who you’d be kicking yourselves over taking at #7 when you got him at #27. It’s rare I take a 1B in round 1 unless the prospect is just too good. I like starting pitchers and up the middle positions in rd 1.

Hopefully Speed works out but it will be interesting or maybe painfully to keep tabs on Pokorski.