Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Sizeman21

Well atleast you have 4th safely secured for the season...here's a winners medal...the Raccoons thoroughly deserve it!

Good news! Participation trophies is what we live for here...

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Raccoons (75-74) vs. Condors (75-73) – September 16-18, 2041

Somehow, being basically .500 was enough to sit in second place, only four games out, in the CL South. The Condors still had an uphill battle here in a 4-game set that would open with a double header, against a team they had beaten only once in five tries this season. They were fifth in runs plated and sixth in runs given up, which sounded decidedly mediocre. Wow, I’m really talking down on a team not in danger to slide towards a -100 run differential with a steady losing streak at the end here…

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (0-4, 2.98 ERA) vs. Gilberto Rendon (13-8, 3.47 ERA)
Nelson Moreno (11-11, 4.88 ERA) vs. Tommy Kubik (11-12, 3.53 ERA)
Drew Johnson (6-14, 4.07 ERA) vs. Jose Lerma (9-13, 4.51 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (10-11, 3.68 ERA) vs. Edward Flinn (15-10, 3.30 ERA)

“Kitten” Kubik and toothless old beater Lerma (42 years old) would be southpaws, but let’s see whether they wouldn’t shake things up; some guys here would have to go on short rest.

Game 1
TIJ: LF S. Martin – 1B Willie Ojeda – CF Phinazee – SS Ragsdale – RF R. Phillips – 3B Toohey – 2B Shay – C J. Beard – P G. Rendon
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – C Morales – CF Reyna – 1B Goetz – RF Balaski – P Mathers

Corey Mathers hadn’t enjoyed much luck (or run support) so far in his career with the Coons, and a Tony Hunter throwing error led to an unearned run in the first inning, allowing Dylan Ragsdale to single home Scott Martin. Three soft or infield singles and a walk led to another run in the top 3rd, but Hunter made it up to Mathers in the bottom of the inning. After Cosmo singled home Bill Balaski (leadoff single), Tony Hunter took the finest Costa Rican pitcher the Raccoons had ever employed deep to right, putting Portland up 3-2. Then bad defense caught up with the Condors, too, with Adam Shay delivering a 2-base throwing error in the bottom 5th that put Berto on second base. Cosmo was walked intentionally, Hunter struck out, but Manny Fernandez zinged a double up the leftfield line for two runs with two out in the inning. After Morales walked, Reyna fanned, keeping it at 5-2 through five innings.

Ryan Phillips and Adam Shay reached the corners with singles off Mathers in the sixth inning. With one out and Johnny Beard down 0-2, Shay took off, and would not redeem itself. While Beard looked at strike three, the same baseball was taken by Morales to catch Shay stealing to end the inning. Mathers lasted another two outs in the seventh before he ran into the mostly left-handed meaty part of the order while sitting on 98 pitches. Chuck Jones took over, faced four batters, and retired them all. A Balaski homer off Jamal Barrow in the bottom 8th took the save chance away, but don’t despair – we have Travis Sims! He issued a single, a walk, retired nobody, and then brought out Hamill in the ninth inning. Beard popped out, but a Berto error on Bill Moore’s grounder loaded the bases. Scott Martin singled home a pair, and Willie Ojeda hit a sac fly, narrowing the lead to one run. James Arnett pinch-hit for Mal Phinazee, but struck out. 6-5 Raccoons. Trevino 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Balaski 3-4, HR, RBI; Mathers 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-4);

Game 2
TIJ: LF Scott Martin – 1B Willie Ojeda – CF Phinazee – SS Ragsdale – RF R. Phillips – 2B Shay – 3B B. Moore – C F. Chavez – P Lerma
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Ito – 1B Reyna – CF Anderson – 3B Trawick – P Moreno

Monday’s main event (going by crowd size) saw Nelson Moreno drop just two singles while whiffing six in the first five innings, which was so unlike Nelson Moreno that I had Cristiano call Gus, our equipment guy, three times to make sure that guy wearing #20 was actually Nels. The offense, however, was truly Portlandish. Through five they had three hits … and just as many double plays. There was a tight spot for Moreno in the seventh inning with a leadoff double by Ragsdale and all, but the runner was stranded on third base after three poor outs. Hunter hit a single in the bottom 7th, was caught stealing, and I sighed. Moreno then fell 1-0 behind in the eighth, fumbling Francis Chavez’ grounder leading off, and while PH Dave Trahan hit into a fielder’s choice, Scott Martin ripped an RBI double up the rightfield line. The Coons answered with a Van Anderson single leading off the bottom 8th. Trawick then grounded to short, but Ragsdale botched their fourth double play, retiring nobody. Balaski batted for Nels against reliever Matt Schwartz, walked, and three on and no outs sounded like crushing defeat was near. Lefty Brandon Bakst inherited the sticky spot, facing Cosmo, who hit into a force play at home. Hunter, not so much – he cracked a 2-0 pitch into the gap for a bases-clearing double, potentially making Nelson Moreno a posthumous winner! Manny walked and Kilmer hit an RBI single against righty Chad Sheff, 4-1, and an unretired Rikuto Ito (!) banged a double off the fence to plate two more runs. The Coons got a seventh run with two down after Anderson walked, Trawick hitting an RBI single off Gary Martin, who was about the number of pitcher in the inning that the Coons had piled runs on the Condors. Things ended with a Balaski grounder, finally. 7-1 Raccoons! Hunter 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Kilmer 2-3, BB, RBI; Ito 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Moreno 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (12-11);

Game 3
TIJ: 2B Shay – 1B Willie Ojeda – CF Phinazee – SS Ragsdale – RF R. Phillips – LF Trahan – 3B B. Moore – C J. Beard – P Kubik
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Ito – 1B Goetz – SS Nickas – CF Nettles – P Johnson

Two clumsy walks by Kubik and Stephon Nettles’ first RBI single in as long as I could remember gave the Coons a run in the bottom 2nd, but Johnson had already allowed a couple with pedestrian pitching. Shay had whacked a leadoff double and had been maneuvered around to score in the first and Bill Moore had bashed a solo homer in the second inning, and the Condors led 2-1, at least until Ryan Phillips ripped a leadoff jack in the fourth. Then they led 3-1…

The Condors loaded the bases against Johnson in the sixth on a walk, a single, and a nailed Bill Moore. Beard hit a 2-run single, and Johnson was yanked after receiving Kubik’s bunt for the second out. Brent Clark rung up Shay to keep the score at 5-1. Portland answered with singles by Cosmo, Ito, Goetz, and NIckas (!) in the bottom of the inning. The latter two each drove in a run and the tying runs were on base for … Tony Hunter. There was just no faith in Nettles, one RBI single here or there… and Hunter grounded out still. Nothing came out of Jay de Wit’s pinch-hit single to lead off the seventh (except for drinks on the house in every bar on Aruba), nor Ito’s 1-out double off Kubik in the eighth. Kubik retired Goetz and Nickas to complete eight. Instead, two doubles (Justin Simmons, James Arnett) off Josh Rella and a throwing error by Kilmer produced two more Condors runs (one earned) in the ninth inning. Down 7-3 in the bottom 9th against lefty Mario Benavides, Reyna drew a leadoff walk. Looking for a righty bat, we picked Chris Lancaster (the pickings were slim), who stunningly hit a 2-run homer to center, the second of his cup-of-coffee career. Steve Bailey now entered against the top of the order. Berto’s leadoff single brought the tying run to the dish, but Cosmo whiffed and Manny hit into a 6-4-3 game-ender. 7-5 Condors. Ito 2-4, 2B; Nettles 1-1, BB, RBI; de Wit (PH) 1-1; Lancaster (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Oh well – relief is on the way! Nick Lando would come off the DL for Wednesday!

Yay. Excitement.

Slappy, excitement.

(Slappy raises his bottle of booze)

Game 4
TIJ: 2B Shay – 1B Willie Ojeda – CF Phinazee – SS Ragsdale – RF R. Phillips – 3B Toohey – LF J. Simmons – C J. Beard – P Flinn
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – C Morales – CF Reyna – 1B Goetz – RF Balaski – P B. Chavez

This was in all likelihood Bernie Chavez’ final home start as a Raccoon, giving the schedule, his expiring contract, and the general aimlessness of the franchise as a whole. It didn’t take long for one more souvenir to leave the park – Mal Phinazee hit a solo shot in the third inning. That cut the Raccoons’ lead in half to 2-1; Balaski had hit a homer himself in the bottom 2nd, also of the solo sort, while the Raccoons had taken the lead in the first inning thanks to singles by Berto and Cosmo… and ultimately Edward Flinn’s wild pitch that bailed out a crummy showing of the 3-4-5 batters. The Condors would tie the game in the fifth when Willie Ojeda doubled home Adam Shay, who had singled and stolen second base. Bernie allowed four hits and whiffed as many through five, but was 2-for-2 at the plate, not that this had led to any tack-on offense…

Bottom 5th, the Raccoons began with Cosmo walking and Hunter doubling to left, putting a pair in scoring position with no outs. The Condors fiendishly walked Manny intentionally to doom the effort – almost. While Morales struck out, Reyna whipped a 2-run single. The bags would fill up again when Balaski drew a 2-out walk, but this time Bernie struck out to strand the bases loaded. He then shoveled the bags full himself in the seventh and left the mound in a pickle, having conceded singles to Simmons and Beard, then a walk to Martin. Chuck Jones got a pop from Ojeda, then was lifted when right-hander Bill Moore pinch-hit for Phinazee. Pointless Deadline Acquisition #2 walked in a run, 4-3, before Ragsdale flew out to center…

Ryan Phillips hit a leadoff double off Craig in the eighth, but got no support and was stranded at third base. The Raccoons failed to get on base at all in two innings pitched by Zach Warner, then sent Hamill into the ninth inning. Arnett rolled out on the first pitch. Martin flew out to Balaski. Ojeda singled to center, but Reyna remained master of Moore’s fly to center, and that ended the game. 4-3 Critters. Ramos 2-5; Reyna 2-4, 2 RBI; Anderson (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons were then idle on Thursday, which also happened to be mathematical elimination day for them when the Loggers beat the Aces, 4-2, on homers by ******* Ted Del Vecchio and Jared Paul.

Oh well. Maybe next year.

At this point the Loggers were one game up on the Crusaders, who were shedding players [see below], while the damn Elks were technically alive but not really, being seven games out.

Raccoons (78-75) vs. Titans (68-84) – September 20-22, 2041

20 games out, the Titans were unfamiliar territory, but that was the result of sitting in the bottom three in both runs scored and runs allowed. In fact, only the Titans were scoring fewer runs than the Raccoons. Of course they had nevertheless long wrapped up the season series, 10-5, over the hapless Portlanders.

Projected matchups:
Josh Brown (14-6, 3.66 ERA) vs. Philip Wise (11-12, 4.72 ERA)
Jake White (0-2, 7.82 ERA) vs. Adam Howell (7-12, 3.68 ERA)
Corey Mathers (1-4, 2.77 ERA) vs. Seth Green (3-9, 5.65 ERA)

Those would all be right-handers.

Game 1
BOS: RF M. Avila – 1B A. Zacarias – LF W. Vega – CF Vermillion – C Duryea – 3B Rangel – 2B Leveque – SS J. Rodriguez – P P. Wise
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – SS Hunter – C Morales – 1B Reyna – RF Balaski – LF de Wit – CF Anderson – P Brown

Boston went up on an unearned run, courtesy of a Ramos error, in the first inning. It put Alex Zacarias on the bases, which filled up with Willie Vega (walk) and Mark Vermillion (single). Michael Duryea hit a run-scoring single before Ruben Rangel ran into a comebacker for a force out at home and Wayne Leveque struck out. But didn’t Wayne Leveque have the ring of a potential terrible coonskinner? We’d have to see.

While the Raccoons stranded pairs without plating anybody in the first and second innings, the Titans crowded Brown again in the top of the third. Vermillion hit a double, Duryea also reached base, and Rangel hit an RBI single. The runners moved up on Reyna’s late throw to home plate, and – didn’t I ******* call it?? – here was Wayne Leveque, slapping a 2-run single, his first major league hit an RBIs. And the Raccoons? Hunter hit a 1-out double in the bottom 3rd… and was stranded. But when Rangel hit a double off Brown in the fifth inning, he wasn’t stranded. Leveque, the ugly little rat, ripped a 2-out RBI triple to get him.

With Brown out of the game after five horrendous innings, the Raccoons crowded Wise in the bottom 6th. Jay de Wit hit an RBI single with one out. Wise walked both Anderson to fill the bases, then Ito to push in a run, shortening the score to 5-2. Berto hit a 3-2 pitch into rightfield for an RBI single, 5-3, knocking out Wise for lefty-hander Emanuel Caceiro, who struck out Cosmo, but walked in another run against Tony Hunter with two gone. Tony Morales was ready to ground out, but Juan Rodriguez botched the grounder and conceded the tying run on that erroneous play. Kilmer hit for Reyna, but flew out to right to keep the bases loaded, but Brown was off the hook in a 5-5 tie (not that he deserved it). For a stunner, the Raccoons then remained in the tie by three shutout innings delivered by Angelo Montano, who had been inserted just to kill time. No reward in W shape came unto him, though; the bottom 9th saw Tony Morales hit a leadoff single… and be picked off by Logan Bessey, sending the game to extras, where Josh Rella allowed a walk, but no runs in the top 10th. De Wit then hit a leadoff single in the 10th, still against Bessey. Anderson flew out, but Ito singled to move the winning run to second base. He didn’t remain there for long – when Berto singled up the middle, de Wit went like lightning and easily came around to score and end the game. 6-5 Raccoons. Ramos 2-5, BB, 2 RB; Morales 2-5; de Wit 3-5, RBI; Ito 1-2, BB, RBI; Montano 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

They are having fireworks in Aruba, Maud? – Don’t they always do?

We’re always glad to jump-start people’s careers up here, and we don’t even charge a ******* fee.

Another player rejoined from the DL at this point, and it was Jesus Maldonado! He was the last guy to return – relievers Ramirez and Lindstrom would not make it back for these last eight games.

Game 2
BOS: 3B Rangel – 1B A. Zacarias – CF Vermillion – RF M. Avila – C Duryea – 2B Santillan – LF Liceaga – SS Toney – P Sciulli
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – CF Maldonado – C Morales – RF Ito – 1B Goetz – 3B Trawick – P White

The Raccoons saw spot starter and professional redhead Blake Sciulli (0-

[Questdog]

.500 secured! Yippee! We may lose a lot, but we ain't true losers!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (81-75) @ Loggers (90-65) – September 23-25, 2041

All that was left for the hairy buggers this year was to spoil the party for the Loggers, who were two games up on the Crusaders with seven to play for both of them – not that we had done much spoiling to them in recent years, or this year (5-10 as of Monday morning). Both contenders would play the Titans; the Crusaders for four, the Loggers for three – and then the Loggers had a makeup game scheduled for *Monday* after the nominal end of the regular season. Milwaukee was fourth in runs scored, third in runs allowed, and second in homers and bullpen ERA. Their rotation was eighth in ERA.

Projected matchups:
Nelson Moreno (12-11, 4.71 ERA) vs. Adam Giovenco (10-5, 4.17 ERA)
Drew Johnson (6-15, 4.18 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (15-6, 3.04 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (11-11, 3.69 ERA) vs. Ron Purcell (4-3, 3.06 ERA)

Only right-handers expected here.

Game 1
POR: 3B Ramos – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – CF Maldonado – C Morales – RF Balaski – 2B Trevino – 1B Goetz – P Moreno
MIL: RF Cannizzard – SS Del Vecchio – 1B Brayboy – 3B Paul – C F. Gomez – LF J. Nelson – CF Prestwood – 2B V. Acosta – P Giovenco

Manny Fernandez tried to get the spoiling started with a solo jack in the first inning, but there was some comfort in knowing that Nelson Moreno could get rid of any lead quickly – nothing quite like a reliable pitcher! Aaron Brayboy took him deep to right in the bottom 1st. Thanks to a Cosmo throwing error that had put Tim Cannizzard on base, that made it 2-1 Loggers already. The Logger reached 100 RBI on that shot. Tony Hunter would tie the score with a single in the third inning, scoring Art Goetz to get even, but the Raccoons then left both Hunter in scoring position as well as runners (Morales, Trevino) on the corners when Art Goetz flew out easily to right in the bottom 4th.

Bring back Manny, then – Fernandez hit another solo home run in the sixth inning, giving Portland a 3-2 lead. Moreno didn’t bobble that one immediately, but visibly came apart in the seventh inning. He hit Justin Nelson, walked Tyler Prestwood, and then was lifted for Chuck Jones with two outs against PH Joseph Ronan in the #9 hole. Jones entered mid-snack and had some fruitcake stuck on his snout that bothered him. He wiped at it, then absentmindedly licked his paw with one cleat on the rubber and was called out for a balk, advancing the runners into scoring position. At least he then got Ronan to pop out… Jones turned out less fortunate (or skilled?) in the eighth inning, serving up a game-tying homer to Brayboy, the annoying little brat. Tim Zimmerman finished the inning, then, after Cosmo had reached base and had managed to be caught stealing in the top of the ninth, gave up a leadoff double to Felipe Gomez in the bottom of the ninth. Hunter made a slick play on Nelson, Daniel Hertenstein grounded out softly, and Nick Duncan lifted the Loggers anyway with a clean single to center, securing the walkoff. 4-3 Loggers. Fernandez 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Balaski 2-4; Goetz 2-3, BB; Moreno 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

The Crusaders beat the Titans, 5-4, leaving the gap between the top two at two games.

Game 2
POR: 3B Ramos – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – 1B Maldonado – C Morales – RF Ito – 2B Trevino – CF Anderson – P Johnson
MIL: RF Cannizzard – SS Del Vecchio – 1B Brayboy – 3B Paul – LF Duncan – CF Hertenstein – C Sicco – 2B V. Acosta – P Piedra

While the Loggers hit some wild screamers off Drew Johnson in the early going and got doubles from Daniel Hertenstein, who was singled in by Valentino Sicco in the bottom 2nd, and Duncan – to score Jared Paul with two outs in the third – the Raccoons didn’t get a base hit until the fourth inning; that was an RBI single for Tony Morales, though, plating Berto from second base after Piedra had walked both him and Manny Fernandez. Ito also walked, loading the bags for Cosmo Trevino, who hit a wall tickler to left for a score-flipping 2-run double. Van Anderson was walked with intent and Johnson grounded out as the Raccoons batted through the order, but also stranded a full set.

Johnson hung on to the 3-2 lead, mainly thanks to some sharp defense behind him. The Loggers tickled ihm for a total of seven hits in six innings, and many more that looked like real trouble off the bat. Instead, the Raccoons loaded them up in the seventh inning against Piedra and then Cesar Perez, putting Cosmo, Anderson (singles), and Hunter (2-out walk) on base before Manny flicked a single to right to add a run to the tally. Maldonado added two with a single in right-center. Morales walked to reload the bases, but Ito left them loaded, flying out to left. The Loggers scratched out a run against Pointless Deadline Acquisition #2 in the bottom 7th, but Portland clawed it back in the eighth. Van Anderson doubled to left, Miguel Reyna singled to right to score him, 7-3. Berto and Hunter made the last two outs after that. Brent Clark and Juan Zabala did the remaining pitching to get the game in the books. 7-3 Raccoons. Maldonado 2-5, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Anderson 2-3, BB, 2B;

The only relief for the Loggers was the Crusaders’ 5-4 loss to the Titans, still keeping the gap at two games. With New York stripped of half their lineup now because of injuries (Briones, Alba, Besaw, Adame all on the DL) it was hard to see them getting any momentum built up again.

Game 3
POR: SS Hunter – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – CF Maldonado – C Kilmer – RF Reyna – 1B Goetz – 3B de Wit – P B. Chavez
MIL: RF Cannizzard – SS Del Vecchio – 1B Brayboy – 3B Paul – LF Duncan – C F. Gomez – CF Borchard – 2B V. Acosta – P Purcell

Tony Hunter singled, stole second, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on a groundout to put the Loggers in a first-inning hole. Thankfully – for them – we had brought Bernie Chavez, whose last outing as a Critter saw the unfathomable Ted Del ******* reach on de Wit error – Aruba called three days’ national mourning immediately – a Brayboy single, a run-scoring groundout for Paul, and finally a mammoth shot to right by Nick Duncan, putting Milwaukee in the lead, 3-1. While those runs were all unearned, Bernie Chavez’ last Coons start still ended in shambles. A 5-run meltdown in the fourth inning would make sure of that. Paul and Duncan hit singles, Gomez raked a 3-run homer to left, and a walk to Adam Borchard, Cannizzard’s 2-out RBI single… and that was it. The Coons went to the pen, with the last run conceded on ******* Del Vecchio’s double off Regrettable Deadline Acquisition #2.

Down 8-1, the Raccoons did little to redeem themselves until the seventh inning, when a throwing error by Victor Acosta opened the door for a pair of unearned runs drive in by Hunter and Cosmo. While Jake White pitched two innings of garbage time relief, the Raccoons made up another run in the eighth inning. Nick Lando walked, stole a base, and came around on de Wit’s sac fly. That was all the rally they had in them, though – the ninth only saw Maldonado draw a walk against Brian Freels, but being ignored after that. 8-4 Loggers. Hunter 2-5, RBI; Fernandez 2-3, 2 BB; Ito (PH) 1-2; Lancaster 1-1; White 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

The gap out front remained the same – the Crusaders beat the Titans 5-3 on Wednesday.

But the Loggers didn’t play on Thursday (same as the Critters, who were bumbling down to Indiana). The Crusaders did – and lost to the Titans, 3-2. Boston had only two hits, but somehow that was enough to widen the Loggers’ berth to 2 1/2 games.

Raccoons (82-77) @ Indians (65-94) – September 27-29, 2041

Bottoms in runs scored, and third from the bottom in runs allowed – let’s just say both teams were glad the season was over. Let’s not hurt ourselves here, guys. The Coons were up 12-3 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Josh Brown (14-6, 3.76 ERA) vs. Luke Moses (7-9, 4.23 ERA)
Corey Mathers (2-4, 2.68 ERA) vs. Ayden Cobb (7-11, 3.53 ERA)
Nelson Moreno (12-11, 4.59 ERA) vs. Manuel Herrera (9-14, 5.36 ERA)

…and we’d finish the year without seeing another left-hander!

Game 1
POR: 3B Ramos – SS Hunter – CF Maldonado – C Morales – LF Reyna – 2B Trevino – 1B Goetz – RF Balaski – P Brown
IND: SS Russ – 3B Hutson – C Mordino – RF Sanderfer – 1B Dodson – 2B E. Vargas – LF D. Gonzales – CF D. Rivera – P Moses

Neither team scored a run the first time through, but Luke Moses walked three Critters (he entered with 109 BB for the season), then added Berto to the list to begin the third inning. Hunter hit a double, and after Maldonado grounded out poorly, Morales hit a sac fly for the first run of the game. The lead wasn’t added to, nor would it last, with David Gonzales whacking a leadoff double in the fifth and scoring on two productive outs, the RBI going on Moses’ ledger. In between, Cosmo had stumbled and fallen on defense (it happens from time to time with old men, I hear) and had to be replaced by Lando, who then hit the second of two leadoff singles off Moses in the sixth inning, sending Miguel Reyna to third base, from where Goetz got him home with a sac fly, 2-1. Lando stole second, but was left on base.

Moses was done in the seventh after walking Berto and Hunter to begin the inning, giving him seven free passes (one intentional) on the day, and 116 for the year, fitting of a regular on a last-place team. By the way, the Raccoons didn’t score from two on, no outs, which was very much fitting of a fourth-place team…… The Indians countered with two singles off Brown in the bottom 7th, but also left their runners aboard, despite having the tying run on third base with out. Jeff Diaz popped out foul, and Dave Serrato grounded out to short.

Top 8th, runners on the corners, no outs. Lando walked and reached third base on Goetz’ single. Balaski whacked an RBI double, while Van Anderson hit for Brown and added a sac fly. Berto then singled home Balaski as the Indians churned through their pen, to no avail, as the Coons went up 5-1. In the ninth it was Reyna and Lando to park on base with nobody out before Goetz and Balaski both slapped RBI singles to center. Berto also hit an RBI single – after Manny Fernandez had rolled into a double play hitting for Zabala. Travis Sims then almost, but not bloody quite managed to blow a 7-run lead in the bottom 9th, putting three Arrowheads on base while they also struck out three times. 8-1 Raccoons. Ramos 2-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Hunter 3-4, BB, 2B; Lando 2-2, BB; Goetz 2-4, 2 RBI; Balaski 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (15-6);

The race kept going – the Loggers lost to the Titans, 6-1, while New York eked out a 3-1 win over the damn Elks, narrowing the gap to 1 1/2 games with 2 1/2 to play, while just in the last few days they had also shed pitcher Chris Inderrieden and replacement shortstop Tom Austin to injuries…

At this point, only the FL East was decided, and the FL West was still a 3-way race.

Game 2
POR: 3B Ramos – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 1B Reyna – CF Anderson – RF Balaski – 2B Lando – P Mathers
IND: CF Crocker – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – LF D. Rivera – 1B Dodson – 2B Sanderfer – C Mordino – SS E. Vargas – P Cobb

Saturday brought the weirdest “pitching duel”, where both pitchers walked everybody’s legs off, but nobody could find a damn base hit in their bat racks. Mathers walked three in five innings and allowed one hit for no runs. The Coons had four walks and two hits, and also no runs. That changed only when Berto and Hunter reached base to begin the sixth inning. Two long fly ball outs by Manny and Kilmer brought Ramos around for the game’s first run on the board. Nick Crocker hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th, but despite stealing his 28th bag of the year was left on second by his team as it limped to the season’s crudely drawn finish line. Mathers lasted seven innings on the 2-hitter, then was hit for to generate offense in the eighth – but not a lot happened on that front. Hunter was caught stealing to end the top 8th, while the bottom 8th was handled well enough by Zimmerman and Kelly. Fernando Nora retired the Coons 1-2-3 in the ninth, which brought Wyatt Hamill into a game again this year. Jeff Diaz singled, David Gonzales doubled, and the tying and winning runs were in scoring position with one out. In a full count, Pat Dodson looked at strike three. Then Dave Serrato, hitting all of .188, pinch-hit for Nora, hit a terrible roller to the left side. Jake Trawick – defensive replacement of the day – hustled in, flung bare-handed to first base – out! 1-0 Blighters. Ramos 0-1, 3 BB; Kilmer 0-2, BB, RBI; Mathers 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (3-4);

The Loggers came apart in Boston (tell me about it) for the second day in a row, getting wet to the tune of an 8-2 loss. New York squeezed through the damn Elks once more, 3-2, to stay alive and well for Sunday, with that makeup game on Monday looming ever larger.

The Coons decided to no longer give a crap and filled the lineup with every sucker they had on the roster on Sunday. The only exception was Manny, who had a whack at 20 homers (being one short). Nels wasn’t happy when he saw the lineup, but I recommended that he could always toss a shutout and hit a homer himself.

Game 3
POR: 3B de Wit – C Lancaster – LF Fernandez – 1B Goetz – RF Ito – CF Anderson – 2B Lando – SS Nickas – P Moreno
IND: CF Crocker – RF M. Ochoa – LF D. Rivera – 1B Dodson – 2B Sanderfer – C Mordino – 3B Munoz – SS Russ – P M. Herrera

Homering did occur, but it was Jay de Wit to open the game. The isle of Aruba rose six feet out of the ocean when all Arubans jumped in the air simultaneously at the occurrence. Then Manny took Herrera deep as well, attaining #20 just like that. Now it was on Nels, who walked Crocker to start the Indians’ time at the dish, conceded the run on a Danny Rivera single, and also fumbled a ball for an error. Good, solid start. Future All Star. Andrew Russ’ double and an RBI single by the opposing pitcher then tied the game in the bottom 2nd.

While Moreno continued to be a mess and his pitch count shout up like a rocket, at least the defense started to help out and kept the game tied through four. In the fifth, Nickas hit a leadoff double (!), de Wit walked, and Manny dropped a 2-out RBI single to take the lead again. A walk to Goetz filled the bases, but Ito poked at the 3-1 and popped out to strand all of them.

97 pitches in five innings we deemed enough for Moreno, which somehow was enough to stay in position for the W as long as the pen wouldn’t collapse. Superfluous Deadline Acquisition #2 handed in a clean sixth to keep the 3-2 lead going, before Goetz and Ito reached base against Joe Robinson to begin the seventh. Van Anderson cracked an RBI double in the gap, and Nick Lando was walked INTENTIONALLY to get to Steve Nickas, and I couldn’t figure out which of these had to feel the weirdest at that stage. Nickas didn’t care, shot a 2-run double up the rightfield line, 6-2, while Lando got home on a pinch-hit sac fly by Berto, who was politely applauded by the home crowd of five people in section 26. Chuck Jones gave us one out, then the ball went to Rella, who got four before Jeff Diaz hit a 2-out single in the ninth. Why not bring a new reliever here, just to annoy people? Zack Kelly walked Crocker, but then got Mario Ochoa to ground out to complete the season. 7-2 Coons. De Wit 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Fernandez 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Ito 2-4; Nickas 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

The Crusaders got an RBI triple from Ramon Sifuentes in the first inning, then rode that lonely run to conclusion of their final game of the year. The Loggers beat the Titans, 7-1, which meant that they would win the division with a win over the Thunder on Monday, else would get another chance against New York on Tuesday.

In other news

September 24 – In the middle of four playoff races, the 3000th career hit of CIN 1B Danny Santillano (.339, 23 HR, 93 RBI) goes almost unnoticed. Santillano, 35 years old, lands three hits in an 11-6 win over the Buffaloes, the first of them – a double – being the milestone hit off TOP SP Ricardo Ordas (11-10, 3.74 ERA). The 6-time Player of the Year Santillano is a career .332/.420/.537 hitter with 410 homers and 1,549 RBI.
September 25 – Rookie CIN 1B/3B Sebastian Copeland (.251, 4 HR, 32 RBI) punches the Cyclones’ playoff ticket with a walkoff single to beat the Buffaloes, 4-3.
September 25 – The Aces land SP Leonhart Becker (11-15, 3.91 ERA) from the Gold Sox in a waiver deal, parting with a non-prospect.
September 25 – A solo homer by DEN INF Ryan Johnston (.235, 3 HR, 14 RBI) is all the offense in their 1-0 win over the Pacifics.
September 28 – CHA CL Ray Andrews (10-5, 3.36 ERA, 38 SV) gets his 300th career save, shutting the door on the Thunder in a 2-1 Falcons win that simultaneously nails the CL South shut for Charlotte.
September 29 – Salem’s Armando Herrera (.327, 1 HR, 50 RBI) hits a sac fly in the 11th inning to beat the Scorpions, 5-4, and secure the FL West for the Wolves rather than having to go to a tie-breaker game against Dallas on Monday.
September 29 – The Falcons drop their regular season finale, 3-2 to the Thunder in 16 innings. The decision is brought about with an RBI double by OCT 2B Kevin Archinal (5-for-10, 0 HR, 1 RBI) off Charlotte’s Adam Messer (1-2, 4.08 ERA, 2 SV).
September 29 – LVA 3B/2B Doug Richardson (.241, 16 HR, 72 RBI) has five hits in the Aces’ 5-4 win over the Knights, four of them for extra bases with a triple and three doubles. He drives in one run.
September 30 – The Loggers score four runs in the sixth inning, then manage to weather the storm for a 4-3 win that clinches them the CL North on the after-Closing Day make-up day with the Thunder. MIL C Felipe Gomez (.279, 17 HR, 66 RBI) is 3-for-4 with 2 RBI as the Loggers’ standout in the division decider.

Complaints and stuff

(whiskers twitch angrily) … I smell Sauerkraut in the Continental League again…!!

Also, Dr. Padilla … we have to talk about this … what did you say? Cosmo broke his HIP!? – We’re talking about the guy with the ******* $3.8M player option for next year, right? – So is he going to be ready for Opening Day? – What do you mean, you are waiting for expert opinions on the matter?? What do we have YOU for??

Alright, alright – you are not an expert on old people injuries…

Tony Hunter won the stolen base title in the Continental League. Alex Adame had the nose ahead initially, but went down hurt in September, and Hunter *just* snuck past him in this final week. No other Critter won anything worth remembering.

Our strong September netted us nothing tangible and the #16 pick next season.

Fun Fact: With this sweep, we finished 15-3 over the Indians this year.

That is the best performance against a CL North opponent in 27 years, when we dominated the Loggers to the tune of 16-2.

Must have been about the rookie season of Berto and Cosmo…

[DD Martin]

Rips up his Vegas ticket....

[Westheim]

Obviously the Arrowheads' fault! ...but maybe that will teach you betting against the Fluffballs!

[pgjocki]

The only pressing question is how much does the owner steal from the budget this offseason and is it time to burn it all down and rebuild?

Hello, yes, two decades of darkness does sound distressing but I don't know if I want another 3 years of barely above .500 ball and no postseason.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

2041 ABL PLAYOFFS

Once more, the regular season had whittled down the number championship-eligible ABL teams from 24 to just four, with the goal now being to win eight more games to walk away with the trophy.

The Loggers had finished the season with the best record in the league, 94-68, despite only clinching the CL North on the Monday after nominal Closing Day. They were fourth in runs scored and third in runs allowed in the league, with the most home runs and a very good bullpen having to scratch out the droppings of their mediocre rotation. They were lining up four righty starters headed by Sergio Piedra (15-8, 3.32 ERA). The offense was led by Aaron Brayboy (.306, 21 HR, 101 RBI) and Jared Paul (.285, 23 HR, 90 RBI), with three other players also hitting 13+ homers and hitting .257 or better. Their lineup was pretty balanced between lefty and righty hitters. They had two players on the DL, regulars Dan Torri and Tony Lira, neither of which were going to come back this year.

Opposing the Loggers in the CLCS were the 86-76 Falcons, who had won the CL South by three games. They had only been eighth in runs scored and second in runs allowed, but with a meager +17 run differential. They were hitting .261, which was sixth-best in the league, but could neither hit home runs (11th), nor steal any bases (bottoms). They did have the best rotation though – entirely right-handed for the playoffs as well – at least as long as you only counted earned runs. They were also in the bottom three in defense. One of the weirder rosters to make the playoffs in recent memory, they had Oscar Flores (17-8, 2.97 ERA) and Ernie Quintero (13-13, 3.16 ERA) topping their rotation. Their best batter, Jose Farfan, was on the DL since July with a torn-up knee. Of the remaining batters, Chris Robinson (.294, 16 HR, 79 RBI) had compiled the best numbers. Nobody else had more than 12 home runs and only Tony Aparicio had reached the .300 mark (.303, 9 HR, 58 RBI). Their lineup was leaning heavily to the right.

Over in the FLCS, the Wolves had home field advantage after winning the FL West by one game, finishing with a 93-69 record. They had come second in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed. They had the highest on-base percentage of any playoff team and any Federal League team at .348, but had also finished bottoms in stolen bases in the FL. They had come third in home runs. While their *also* entirely right-handed rotation was pretty decent with Ryan Bedrosian (19-11, 2.90 ERA) as headliner, their bullpen was entirely porous and prone to meltdowns. After regular closer Miguel Salazar ruptured his UCL during the season, they had gone through a number of closers, currently settling on Sebastien Parham (7-8, 5.47 ERA, 16 SV), acquired mid-season from the Thunder. Hitters Rai Higashi and Bill Jenkins were also stowed away on the DL for the year. Morgan Kuhlmann (.271, 33 HR, 109 RBI) won the home run title and was bating cleanup amidst up to five .300 batters, three of which (Jose Rivera, Bob Mancini, Sergio Barcia) had also hit 15+ home runs.

On the other end were the 87-75 Cyclones, winning the FL East by three games. They entered the postseason with no injuries of note, and third in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed. Despite the superficially good runs totals, the rotation was headed by Willie Gallardo (15-14, 3.21 ERA) and then rapidly descended into 4-ish ERA’s. They, too, went with only right-handed starters after moving Chris “Tuba” Turner (15-8, 3.19 ERA) to the bullpen for spurious reasons. They also had gone through several closers, ending up with sophomore Carson Jarvinen (3-4, 5.43 ERA, 12 SV) at this stage. Cincinnati featured three .300 hitters, who also all hit for power and all hit left-handed: Danny Santillano (.337, 23 HR, 94 RBI), Melvin Hernandez (.318, 16 HR, 74 RBI), and Jayden Lockwood (.306, 23 HR, 84 RBI). After that the quality of their lineup fell off though, yet the force of those three left-handers was expected to give the Wolves some trouble.

Of the teams involved in the playoffs, the Cyclones and Falcons had the most appearances, both making the postseason for the 11th time. The Wolves won their eighth division title, while the Loggers only reached October baseball for the fifth time, breaking a tie with the Gold Sox for fewest among all teams.

The Loggers and Falcons both had one championship to their names, and the Cyclones and Wolves both had two. This included the Wolves being the defending champions.

Neither of the two LCS matchups had occurred in the past, nor had any of the potential World Series pairings been seen in the past.

The experts considered the Loggers clear favorites to win the CLCS, while the FLCS was more of a toss-up.

+++

2041 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

CIN @ SAL … 4-2 … (Cyclones lead 1-0) … CIN Jayden Lockwood 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; CIN Brandon Nickerson 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

CIN @ SAL … 5-3 … (Cyclones lead 2-0) … CIN Danny Santillano 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;
CHA @ MIL … 1-3 … (Loggers lead 1-0) … CHA Chris Russell 3-4, 2B;

CHA @ MIL … 4-5 … (Loggers lead 2-0) … MIL Nick Duncan 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Sal Chavez 8.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (1-0) and 2-2, 2B;

Sal Chavez holds the Falcons to one hit and one run through eight before running out of fumes in the ninth inning. With two on and one out, Kurt Crater almost explodes the game, giving up four base runners before restoring order.

SAL @ CIN … 11-16 … (Cyclones lead 3-0) … SAL Morgan Kuhlmann 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; SAL Bob Mancini 2-5, 2 RBI; SAL Kurt Wall (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; CIN Mike Gibson 3-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; CIN Danny Santillano 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 7 RBI; CIN Jayden Lockwood 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; CIN Cody St. Peter 2-5, 2 RBI;

Maybe the Wolves should get credit for almost rallying out of a 15-1 hole after five innings.

SAL @ CIN … 7-5 … (Cyclones lead 3-1) … SAL Jose Rivera 3-4; SAL Morgan Kuhlmann 3-5, 2B, 4 RBI; CIN Danny Santillano 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI;
MIL @ CHA … 0-5 … (Loggers lead 2-1) … CHA Ruben Esperanza 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; CHA Oscar Flores 8.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

SAL @ CIN … 2-4 … (Cyclones win 4-1) … CIN Danny Santillano 2-2, 2 BB; CIN Cody St. Peter 2-4, HR, RBI; CIN Juan Brito 3-4, RBI;
MIL @ CHA … 3-0 … (Loggers lead 3-1) … MIL Aaron Brayboy 3-5; MIL Nick Duncan 3-4, HR, 2 RBI;

MIL @ CHA … 7-4 … (Loggers win 4-1) … MIL Aaron Brayboy 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; MIL Hector Alvarez (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

+++

2041 WORLD SERIES

With that, the Loggers would have homefield advantage over the Cyclones in the World Series. They had however shed one of their most important hitters, Jared Paul, who had suffered a forearm strain in the CLCS and was ruled out for the World Series. The Cyclones had dropped backup outfielder Celio Umbreiro to a strained oblique.

Thus, it remained a matchup of two right-handed banks of starting pitchers against fairly well-mixed (Loggers) to left-leaning (Cyclones) lineups, with crummy bullpens and la-la defense. It could entirely become a World Series of comebacks – or be over in four games. Odds are fairly even at the bookies, though.

CIN @ MIL … 2-3 … (Loggers lead 1-0) … MIL Joseph Ronan (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; MIL Carlos Padilla 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

Hitting for Pat Wynn, Paul’s replacement and a veteran of 17 ABL games at age 27, Joseph Ronan erases the Cyclones 2-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. Daniel Hertenstein doubles in Ted Del Vecchio in the eighth to secure the victory.

CIN @ MIL … 8-4 … (series tied 1-1) … CIN Dan Rollin (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; CIN Dan Mathes (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

MIL @ CIN … 5-6 … (Cyclones lead 2-1) … MIL Tim Cannizzard 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; MIL Ted Del Vecchio 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; CIN Ricky Rodriguez 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; CIN Danny Santillano 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

Santillano is hitting .440 with 4 HR and 12 RBI in the playoffs. He looks fairly determined to finally add a damn ring to his six Player of the Year honors.

MIL @ CIN … 8-3 … (series tied 2-2) … Felipe Gomez 1-2, HR, 4 RBI; CIN Jayden Lockwood 2-3, 2 BB, 3B;

Tim Cannizzard and Felipe Gomez both hit 3-run homers to fuel the Loggers’ drive to get even.

MIL @ CIN … 2-1 … (Loggers lead 3-2) … MIL Daniel Hertenstein 3-4, RBI; MIL Valentino Sicco (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; MIL Sergio Piedra 7.1 IP, 10 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (3-0) and 2-3, 2B; CIN Ricky Rodriguez 3-4, RBI; CIN Jayden Lockwood 3-4, 2B; CIN Willie Gallardo 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (2-1);

Rodriguez gives the Cyclones the lead in the third inning, but the Loggers scrabble together their runs off Gallardo in the seventh inning. The whole affair in pivotal Game 5 takes 2 hours and 21 minutes despite 19 hits being sprinkled around and is immediately labelled an all-time classic for gritty pitching with runners in scoring position.

CIN @ MIL … 6-5 (10) … (series tied 3-3) … CIN Ricky Rodriguez 3-5, 3B, 2B; CIN Melvin Hernandez 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; MIL Nick Duncan 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Rico Leyva walks and is run for by Jesus Burgos, who steals second base immediately in the top 10th. Cody St. Peter singles, and Burgos comes home to score, while the Loggers hit a pair of 2-out singles between Cannizzard and Wynn, but strand the ring-bearing runners when Brayboy flies out to center.

CIN @ MIL … 5-7 … (Loggers win 4-3) … MIL Ted Del Vecchio 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; MIL Justin Nelson (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Nelson pinch-hits for the go-ahead runs in the sixth inning, which gives the W to Carlos Padilla (2-1, 3.51 ERA) eventually, after the Loggers piece together the final three innings with six different pitchers shedding four hits and a run.

The Loggers!

…

2041 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Milwaukee Loggers
(2nd title)

[DD Martin]

Remember those days when the Loggers were the laughingstock, nobody is laughing anymore

[Sizeman21]

Nice writeup Westheim, good playoff coverage. I hope the furballs play better next season. Might be a pipe dream though...

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Remember those days when the Loggers were the laughingstock, nobody is laughing anymore

We still have more rings than them. As long as we have more rings than them, it has not always been for the bum!

I can tell myself that for another two years at least

Originally Posted by Sizeman21

Nice writeup Westheim, good playoff coverage. I hope the furballs play better next season. Might be a pipe dream though...

WELL......

+++

Project “maybe next year” started in earnest within a few days of the World Series concluding with the Loggers emerging triumphant from the Game 7 slog.

I didn’t know whether Nick Valdes had gotten distracted digging up ancient treasures in some backwater colony or bulldozing a whole new square mile of rainforest for a parking lot, but in any case we only got the message that the budget would stay at $39M for the new season, same as last year. The Raccoons continued to sit 15th among all ABL teams, this time tied with the Buffaloes.

The top 5 in the league were the Capitals ($52M), Blue Sox ($51M), damn Elks ($49M), Wolves ($48.5M), and Condors ($47M). The Raccoons remained the poorhouse of the Northwest, by a good margin.

The bottom 5 were the Thunder ($37M), Loggers ($35.5M), Gold Sox ($33.5M), Rebels ($31.5M9, and Indians ($27M). That left the Crusaders among CL North teams. They had a $40M budget, putting them t-13th in the league.

The average budget was $41.23M, up a whopping $780k from 2041. The median budget amounted to $40.25M, a quarter million up from last year. Yeah, yeah only the Critters are getting choked again…

The budget situation was not helped by Cosmo Trevino obviously picking up his $3.8M player option from his death bed, where he lingered with the broken hip.

That left a dozen players that needed attention for the salary arbitration / free agency period. Starting with the arbitration cases, there we had four pitchers (Brown, Jones, Lindstrom, Zabala), who were all varying degrees of useful. While the latter two right-handers were certainly not going to pitch the Coons to a playoff berth any time soon, they would also come relatively cheap. The other arbitration cases were Tony Hunter, who had seen a breakout season in 2041, batting .278/.396/.382 and taking the stolen base title while putting up 5.7 WAR… and then there was Stephon Nettles, who had some point must have had SOME sort of promise, but beat me with a dead horse, I can’t tell you anything about that. Two injury-riddled seasons, one in which he hit .305 (but not for an OPS+ in triple digits) in 47 games, and one in which he hit .197 (and damn sure not for an OPS+ in triple digits) in 87 games, mostly off the bench. There was merit in having a defensively adept centerfielder, but … hoot, Nettles was tough to love…

Then there were the free agents, of which there were also six. *Four* of them were compensation eligible, all type B, for a supplemental round pick: Bernie Chavez, Drew Johnson, Tony Morales, and Alberto Ramos. There was danger in offering arbitration to at least a couple of them, but dang I liked me some draft picks! …to burn on Nick Landos.

The other free agents were Jake Trawick, 36, and Tim Zimmerman, 37, and nobody would really miss them.

So, with Chavez and Johnson on the way out, the question beckoned who’d actually pitch for the Raccoons next year. We had Josh Brown, and whatever promise was left to Nelson Moreno, and … uh… Corey Mathers? After that you were already into the weeds with Montano, Jake White, and whoever had been left in AAA, the Vince Burkes of the world. Jason Wheatley had spent most of the year in AAA, walking more than he struck out, thus clearly indicating that he needed more seasoning. Victor Merino, another decent starting pitching prospect, made two starts for the Alley Cats late in the year after the big league club had made off with some AAA assets, faring not much better, and everybody else was even further behind.

Now, we’d have SOME money available, in the area of $5M, but it was just not going to be possible to build a contender from that point with that little dosh, especially with a half-eaten casserole for a bullpen, and with Tony Morales also departing via free agency. (It hasn’t really come up ever, but he’s the one bad apple among the main players here, character wise, which means I am fine with handing over the dish to Kilmer full time)

The Raccoons had no first baseman (at least none hitting for anything worth subscribing to for his .321 BABIP), no second baseman (unless the old people doctor could fix up Trevino), no third baseman (unless we moved Maldonado there), and much more important, not a lot of a clue how to piece it all together. How stupid was a platoon between Balaski and Ito in right? Would Miguel Reyna play like the first half or the second half going forward? Was Travis Sims the ideal closer after all?

[Westheim]

Work began on sorting out arbitration cases. There were two pitchers that the Raccoons would like to sign for multiple seasons at once but only one of them (Josh Brown) actually took home the offer. Chuck Jones refused, insisting on a 1-year deal, which was ballsy considering that he was already 29 and would not reach free agency until after the 2043 season.

There was less enthusiasm for the other two relievers on hand. David Lindstrom had almost doubled his ERA from the year before, but Cristiano showed me some BABIP values which indicated that the defense had helped him a lot in ’40 and had not done anything good for him in ’41. He was probably a run-of-the-mill high-3 ERA pitcher with a normal defense behind him. Considering that he was also a team leader at least some hitters were impressed by his wild beard, we extended another offer to him.

No such luck for Juan Zabala. The 33-year-old was the secretary of inconsistency when on the roster, which he wasn’t a whole lot due to shoulder woes. The list of shoulder woes for him was long and growing longer, and the Raccoons had no interest in burning more money on this chronic DL case.

That aside, the Raccoons had to find new pitchers in the offseason – the current top 5 starting pitchers on staff (Brown, Moreno, Mathers, Montano, White) would be grossly insufficient to be anything other than punching bags going forwards.

Now, the real question was whether we could turn, say, a soon-to-be-32-year-old outfielder we all adore and like and who is generally above-average, but got a meaty contract after one superb season he never replicated, into a younger starting pitcher that would be around for a while. (Not that the Raccoons had leftfielders to spare, at least not of above-de Wit quality…) But we had tried to trade Manny Fernandez before and the returns had not materialized. Was that because Fernandez’ contract was too big or because the Coons GM thought Fernandez better than he was? He had won an RBI title as recently as ’40 after all, and had been Player of the Year in ’36! But he had also posted four straight seasons in the 110s for OPS+, which was *good* … but not *great*. That was Manny Fernandez – an all-around good player hitting for average, power, with a fine glove, and with some speed … but he was not a star, and maybe I was expecting a star pitcher in return.

He also wasn’t really earning that $2.5M contract per year, second-biggest on the team behind hip-stricken Cosmo ($3.8M), and in 2042 terms ahead of Maldonado (2.2M), Hamill (1.9M), Kilmer (1.7M), Reyna (a frightening 1.5M), and Ito (who gave that guy 1.4M???);

Our first talks of the offseason were with the championship Loggers, a minor deal that would see a lefty reliever dinked for Joseph Ronan, simply for the purpose of Ronan not burning the Raccoons anymore. We’d then leave him to rot in Rancho Cucaracha in Instructional League. Nothing came of that proposal, ultimately, and Ronan hung with the Loggers.

The Loggers!

Before much of importance happened, the first contracts came back signed. Lindstrom inked for $450k, Jones for $510k, and Josh Brown signed a 5-year, $6.6M contract that I would consider team-friendly if he continues to pitch like this. He will get $900k this next season, $1.2M the year after, then $1.5M three times after that.

Also, did I say we need pitchers?

+++

October 21 – The Rebels ship SP Danny Tankersley (18-21, 3.99 ERA) to the Pacifics in exchange for #96 prospect SS Landon Guillory.
October 21 – The Thunder acquire SS/2B Chris O’Keefe (.238, 55 HR, 276 RBI) from the Aces, parting with five prospects, none of them ranked or even close.
October 24 – The Raccoons snatch 29-year-old right-hander SP Jake Jackson (36-51, 3.75 ERA) from the Indians for three outfielders, LF/RF/1B Bill Balaski (.273, 14 HR, 78 RBI) and single-A prospects OF/1B/3B Nelson Hernandez and OF Chance Middendorf.
November 4 – The Rebels acquire SP Casey Pinter (44-47, 4.08 ERA) from the Crusaders for two prospects.

+++

Pitching was added at the cost of two second-rounders (Balaski, Middendorf) and a July IFA that cost $215k and never hit in Aumsville, just like Middendorf. Balaski was an easy addition when the Indians wanted extra to the two prospects we had already whittled it down to, because the best he could be for us next year was in a platoon with Rikuto Ito, and then we were already stuck with Reyna, who could do everything Balaski could, and was not a terrible error sink in rightfield. Balaski played 1,382 innings in the outfield for Portland and made 18 errors, which struck as a lot.

What does Jackson bring to the table? Certainly #2 credentials (unless Nelson Moreno wants to roar back and claim those honors, which I would be entirely open for!) with a 95mph fastball, a curve, and a fork, and general groundball disposition. His weak spot is control, meaning he will walk about 90 batters a year. He is also arbitration-eligible and did not sign a contract with the Indians before the trade. He made $880k in 2041 and pretty soon signed a $1M contract for the 2041 season. He will be arbitration eligible twice more.

Of course the jury will be out for a while on that trade, but at this point it looks like a friggin’ steal for the Critters!

We also signed Tony Hunter for $720k and Stephon Nettles (reluctantly) for $375k a few days prior to salary arbitration. With Zabala non-tendered, the only way for us to have an actual hearing was for one of the four free agents to drag us there.

In minor news, the Raccoons reassigned some players to AAA right away; Travis Sims was waived (and not claimed, quelle surprise), and Jake White and Chris Lancaster were optioned. We also released Chua-kah Yuen, a 27-year-old righty reliever that had been signed on a minor league deal out of Taiwan on the eve of the 2041 season and had pitched to a 7.33 ERA there.

+++

2041 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: SAL C Morgan Kuhlmann (.271, 33 HR, 109 RBI) and VAN OF Jerry Outram (.353, 19 HR, 70 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAL SP Ryan Bedrosian (19-11, 2.90 ERA) and ATL SP Brad Santry (9-12, 2.75 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: PIT OF/1B Rusty Dirks (.321, 11 HR, 57 RBI) and NYC SP Jeff Johnson (18-5, 3.04 ERA)
Relievers of the Year: LAP CL Jesse Allison (8-7, 2.54 ERA, 28 SV) and TIJ CL Steve Bailey (5-5, 2.11 ERA, 34 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P TOP Miguel Alvarado – C SAL Morgan Kuhlmann – 1B CIN Danny Santillano – 2B DAL Hugo Acosta – 3B SAC Paul Laughren – SS LAP Brian Bowman – LF SAC Mike Preble – CF CIN Jayden Lockwood – RF RIC Joe Ritchey
Platinum Sticks (CL): P LVA Oscar Valdes – C VAN Timóteo Clemente – 1B TIJ Willie Ojeda – 2B VAN Dan Schneller – 3B MIL Jared Paul – SS MIL Ted Del Vecchio – LF OCT Ethan Moore – CF VAN Jerry Outram – RF SFB Dave Martinez
Gold Gloves (FL): P SAC Josh Vercher – C DAL Pacio Torreo – 1B RIC Manny Liberos – 2B WAS Logan Arnold – 3B NAS Brad Critzer – SS CIN Cody St. Peter – LF DAL Ricky Correa – CF SAL Armando Herrera – RF PIT T.J. Serad
Gold Gloves (CL): P SFB Noe Candeloro – C CHA Chris Kokoszka – 1B MIL Aaron Brayboy – 2B LVA Glenn Sprague – 3B TIJ Nick Rozenboom – SS POR Tony Hunter – LF ATL Luis Inoa – CF BOS Mark Vermillion – RF TIJ Ryan Phillips

+++

Oh yes.

Remember salary arbitration and being dragged there?

We were dragged there.

[Questdog]

Is that Pitcher of the Year Ryan Bedrosian fellow related to the Bedrosian that used to pitch for Portland?........

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Is that Pitcher of the Year Ryan Bedrosian fellow related to the Bedrosian that used to pitch for Portland?........

Ouch!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

You two negative nancies must be subscribers to the Agitator!

Who says Jason Wheatley won't be a Pitcher of the Year down the road? Well, Matt Waters, the other half of the Bedrosian return from the Knights, won't be. He's an infielder.

There are a lot of 14s on the OSA scouting reports for both those guys (plus real speed for Waters). Scout Guy has them (esp. Waters) a bit lower, but he hates baseball players in general, so...

Wheatley, like 2B Arturo Carreno, has an ERA of "next year, maybe September". Waters is a bit further out. I will say a bit more on our prospects as the winter progresses.

[Westheim]

Berto taking the Raccoons to the arbitrator kinda of threw a wrench into … everything. But here he was, having signed up for an 18th season with the Critterfolk. That would tie him with Nick Brown (2001-18) for second-most campaigns at least partially participated in, trailing only Matt Nunley (2013-31) with 19 seasons. Isn’t that true, Berto? (pats Berto’s fuzzy head between the ears while Berto gobbles berries out of his favorite food bowl)

Yes, Maud, we can cancel the retirement ceremony for #7. – Yes, tell Yoshi Nomura to stay home. The double-retirement of #7 has to wait another year.

But there was no making mistakes here – we could not continue playing Berto as regular third baseman. He was a giant black hole on defense, with Cristiano estimating that the Raccoons lost an additional two games just for him rolling around the hot corner in his rotundity. And it was a shame – he still had good paws and a strong arm, he just couldn’t move side to side or turn with any velocity conducive to playing professional baseball… or beer league, really. No, we had to come up with a plan here, that would invariably see him be a part time player – or spend most of his time at first base. It wasn’t like Art Goetz had lit the world on fire in his 200-ish at-bats last year (.260/.293/.380). The Raccoons’ inability to find a first-sacker to do ANYTHING AT ALL was a bit tragic at this point, so maybe those two could to some time-share arrangement at first? Unfortunately, both were batting left-handed, so no synergy effect could be had.

What else did the Raccoons need? Well, pitching – always. But from a position player standpoint we definitely needed a backup catcher to Jeff Kilmer, who was signed for a while with another $9.7M over five years on his deal, signed before last season. No hot-fire catching prospect was anywhere near the big league team, with 20-year-old Ruben Gonzalez playing for the Panthers at the end of the year, and not hitting anything much there. He’d be back in Aumsville to begin the season.

The only real fixture besides old man Cosmo on the infield was Tony Hunter. Since Cosmo or whoever would fill in for him if he was not ready for Opening Day (Lando! Yay!) was currently figured to just keep second base warm for Arturo Carreno, the needs were really on the two corners. The free agent market at third base was pretty dire, while first base had a legit star in Danny Cruz on the market. He was of course a type A free agent, however – the Raccoons had three supplemental round picks coming up (should have been four…), so I was not entirely averse to burning the #16 pick for the right player. Cruz had just won another home run title with the Thunder (the fifth of his career, and never consecutively) and had smashed the ball for an .861 OPS. He was a switch-hitter, still competently defending first base, but would already be 36 on Opening Day, and would command not only our first-round pick, but also about $4M a year, which was most of the Raccoons’ available dosh.

On third base the only legit star was Nick Rozenboom coming off the Condors. He was however going to be *38* in January and the tooth of time was very obviously gnawing on him. He also had not hit for much at all the last two seasons. No compensation attached to him, but that was probably not the right move.

A quality third baseman was also difficult to acquire in a trade. I scratched on the Wolves and Scorpions’ doors for Sergio Barcia (.301/.398/.429) and Paul Laughren (.266/.385/.404), respectively, but it would have cost us at least one and probably both of Matt Waters and Jason Wheatley, or comparable prospects, and Jesus Maldonado as cherry on top.

Speaking of Maldonado – he was at least *an* option for regular third baseman. Playing all positions except for catcher and second base reasonably well had always seen him shifting around where there was a hole (he had once again played five different positions for at least 22 innings each last year), and in 409 career innings at third base he was a slight plus on defense. The fun fact here was that plugging Maldo at third base would cost us nothing at all.

So what about centerfield then? Could be Miguel Reyna, but I liked the idea of him platooning for the most part with Rikuto Ito. The other options already on the roster for centerfield (Van Anderson, Stephon Nettles) were all batting lefty, like Reyna, so we were perhaps in the market for a right-handed centerfield bat. There was also Jordan Gonzalez in AAA. He had played eight games with the Raccoons in 2040, hitting a meaningless .286 with 1 HR and 4 RBI, and was a switch-hitter. He was *an* option, and probably not any smarter or dumber than the other two. (Although I didn’t see Nettles on the Opening Day roster at all at this point…)

Ponderings aside, anybody remember Raffaello Sabre? The Capitals signed him for $22M over five years prior to last season. He spontaneously exploded, his stuff was shaved from 12 to 8 on the scouting report and he ended up in the bullpen after posting outlandish ERA’s. He finished the year with 103 innings of work and a 3-10 record with a 6.42 ERA. Yikes.

[Westheim]

Now, after Manny Fernandez again did not yield any fruit worth picking – no prospects worth mentioning were to be had for him in a trade – the Raccoons settled into their usual role, which meant nibbling around the fringes of the free agent market, make a scroogey trade somewhere, and in the end come up 83-79 again.

Getting even that far would require at least one more starting pitcher. Corey Mathers had auditioned finely after coming out of nowhere late in 2041, and would be the usual wing-and-prayer fifth starter that usually got axed by May. But even then, Brown, Jackson, and Moreno only made three, and we’d need four ahead of Mathers. We figured Eric Weitz a bad target to go after, despite him being the prime free agent in terms of starters. He was up there in age (33), and Scout Guy claimed to see the sands of time washing out the mortar between the bricks with him already. In the event, he signed with the Wolves in a hurry for what must have been the very first contract offer being delivered.

The next rank of free agent starters were righty Corey Booth and lefty Al Scott. They were 30 and 32, respectively, a groundballer and a flyballer, and a type A free agent and not a type A free agent. And I was not married to that #16 pick (but wouldn’t leave it to the damn Elks either, who got the Wolves’ #23 instead), but I liked Scott better overall. He was an FL veteran, pretty consistently delivering 3 BB/9 and 7 K/9, and allowing about 18 homers. His stamina was not the best, but we had lived with a couple of pitchers graded a mere 8 in stamina for a while now. If they were *good*, 8 stamina was not a problem. Isn’t that right, Cristiano. – Why would Gustaf be a 19 stamina? – Does he even pitch? – Cristiano, “runningback” is not a baseball position. – Cristiano, roll down to Dr. Padilla and get your head checked out. – Yes, maybe it was indeed banged against the bedframe too often.

(Cristiano leaves)

What?

Anyway. Scott, who won a ring with the 2035 Caps when he only made a few appearances out of the pen, looked like a pitcher right up my alley. Maybe we’d even get him relatively cheap! Cheap is good when 10% of the roster is locked up in THIS … (points at Cosmo in hospital gown, shaking while holding on to a walking frame in the middle of the room)

Scott was 6’5’’ and weighed half of Berto’s left leg, so maybe he’d even get his K/9 up with proper nutrition in Portland.

(Maud brings in a bowl with steaks for Cosmo and puts it on the table in front of him)

(Cosmo falls face first into the steak bowl)

(Cosmo doesn’t move)

+++

November 16 – The Wolves acquire SP Julian Ponce (58-47, 3.14 ERA) from the Rebels, parting with two prospects.
November 17 – The Titans send SP Aaron Howell (12-18, 3.58 ERA) to the Condors for two prospects.
November 18 – The Loggers get RF/LF Jonathan Fleming (.268, 70 HR, 252 RBI), who missed much of 2041 with injuries, from the Rebels in exchange for INF/LF Joseph Ronan (.289, 15 HR, 158 RBI) and a prospect.
November 21 – The Wolves snatch the top free agent starting pitcher on the market, ex-VAN Eric Weitz (157-107, 3.31 ERA) on a 2-yr, $7.28M contract.
November 21 – The Cyclones add former Condors CL Steve Bailey (58-62, 3.15 ERA, 307 SV) for 3-yr, $7.32M.
November 24 – The Raccoons acquire OF Tony Romero (.234, 65 HR, 292 RBI) from the Capitals for MR David Lindstrom (15-15, 3.87 ERA, 14 SV) and AAA SP Vince Burke (1-1, 4.30 ERA).
November 25 – Career Thunder 1B Danny Cruz (.276, 330 HR, 1,115 RBI) is convinced to become a Bayhawk for 2 years and $6.56M.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 12 players are selected over two rounds. The Raccoons are not affected.

+++

Romero is a former Logger and two-time stolen base champion. He is defense-first, and doesn’t hit for much of an average, but is an interesting top-of-the-order option against lefty pitching. The Raccoons didn’t exactly give up a lot to get him.

Now, assuming that Manny Fernandez is fixed in leftfield (why wouldn’t he be?), and Maldonado filling in at third base, the Raccoons would have the personnel to fill the other two outfield spots with platoons: Romero and Ito from the right side, and Reyna and Nettles or Anderson from the left side. The chink in the armor here was that neither between Van Anderson and Stephon Nettles had hit anything at all last year. That had been almost 300 PA of negative WAR-batting.

[Westheim]

Just quickly flicking this in, because it might not fit into the next update otherwise. (cue dramatic music) Dun-dun-duuuuh!

[Westheim]

When the Winter Meetings began, the Raccoons had only 12 pitcher and 15 position players on the roster. That included Montano as makeshift starting pitcher (well, he was a starting pitcher, just not one that should be let near a baseball in the Bigs), but only seven relievers after the Lindstrom trade: Hamill, Clark, Jones, and Kelly from the left side, and Ramirez, Craig, and Rella from the right side. That work was needed on that disposition was self-explanatory.

Kilmer was the only catcher on the roster. Berto was a minister without portfolio, but most likely figured into first base, where he clashed with Goetz. Cosmo was potentially going to miss Opening Day at second base; Hunter was at short for sure, while Lando and Nickas hung around on the roster. Maldonado was technically an outfielder, but likely to be the starter at third base come April. The other outfielders were Fernandez, Reyna, Ito, Romero, Anderson, Nettles, and de Wit (also a candidate for backup infielder). Actually de Wit had a pretty decent case to make the Opening Day roster over Lando, giving the Raccoons another super utility in the sense that he could play both infield and outfield (but only three positions in total).

The Raccoons’ laundry list thus? Another starting pitcher (and we were definitely talking with Al Scott!), a backup catcher (always a solid choice to have two), and an upgrade over Steve Nickas and/or Nick Lando should not be too hard to find. Literally any old rag on a stick would do.

When the Winter Meetings began, the Falcons offered up 1B Dan Sarro in a deal for Reyna, which was not something that sounded too good. Reyna could play first base, too, and Sarro was still a left-handed batter. If anything, we needed a right-handed first baseman (Maldonado?) for the mix.

Here was the thing. The Raccoons could get by entirely without an actual first baseman on the roster (and let’s be honest, when have we ever not been wholly disappointed by first basemen?). Between Berto, Reyna, and Maldo we could probably fill first base just *fine*. Thing was, though, that Maldonado couldn’t be on two corners at the same time…

+++

December 4 – The Condors sign former Knight 2B Jesus Matos (.277, 127 HR, 640 RBI). The 33-year-old will bag $6.08 over four years.
December 4 – The Loggers send RF/LF Nick Duncan (.285, 51 HR, 206 RBI) and cash to the Miners for LF/CF Bill Reeves (.236, 30 HR, 132 RBI) and a prospect.
December 5 – The Falcons get 2B/SS Adam Shay (.238, 5 HR, 43 RBI) from the Condors, along with a prospect, for 1B/3B Ryan Lorensen (.239, 31 HR, 158 RBI), who joins the Tijuana roster.
December 6 – The Aces sign ex-SFB 1B/LF/RF Sal Ayala (.269, 57 HR, 354 RBI) to a 3-yr, $5.1M contract.
December 9 – 30-year-old Dallas right-hander, SP/MR Joe Murphy (14-30, 5.04 ERA) announces his retirement, citing complications from his ruptured finger tendons that kept him out of the last few months of the 2041 season.
December 14 – The Raccoons sign 21-year-old Japanese import 1B Shuta Yamamoto to a $400k contract, and assign him to AA Ham Lake.

+++

The Winter Meetings passed without the Raccoons doing anything that would have made the front pages of the Agitator one way or another. Behind the scenes, though, we dropped out when the asking price of Al Scott reached $4.7M per season for a 4-year deal. I claim we got wrecked when Eric Weitz, the miserable sod, signed right away with the Wolves, leaving Scott as the premier free agent to pursue. Our very first offer was for $2.6M per year. From there, the price kept escalating all through the Winter Meetings. In the end, there was no Scott for the Coons, (nor a Corey Booth, who was also commanding well over $4M at this stage) only a vague “Al” sound when it came to filling out the rotation for ’42.

Okay, well, that’s it… tune back in next week to see more failures on “Raccoons!” – the soap opera where nothing ever goes right? And we –

Yes, Maud? – They called back? – Hold on, I have to get on the phone with Sacramento.

+++

December 15 – In a big deal, the Raccoons acquire 32-year-old SP Rich Willett () and 31-year-old RF/1B/LF Carlos Cortes () from the Scorpions for 25-yr old OF Rikuto Ito (), #87 prospect AA INF Mario Coto, and AAA C Josh Lindblom.
December 16 – The Falcons win the rights to SP Corey Booth’s (75-64, 3.76 ERA) pitchcraft. The 30-year-old former Star will make $22.12M over five years.
December 16 – The Warriors add ex-RIC CL Yeom Soung (23-29, 2.41 ERA, 184 SV) on a 3-yr, $7.96M deal.
December 19 – The Bayhawks add ex-TOP SP Miguel Alvarado (80-59, 3.99 ERA) for 2-yr, $4.64M.
December 19 – The Raccoons sign 28-year-old 1B/C Jeff Wilson (.272, 52 HR, 297 RBI) to a $440k contract.
December 25 – Christmas Day gets the Capitals fans a present as 32-year-old lefty SP Al Scott (57-48, 3.85 ERA) returns to where he pitched until 2039, signing a 4-yr, $17.12M contract after three years in Sacramento.
December 25 – Career Blue Sock 3B/2B Jim “Mastodon” Allen (.318, 166 HR, 1,110 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $7.36M contract with the Thunder.
December 27 – The Buffaloes acquire C/1B Josh Davis (.212, 18 HR, 62 RBI) from the Bayhawks, along with a prospect, for 1B/LF/RF Ed Haertling (.261, 11 HR, 78 RBI).
December 28 – Ex-CIN LF/1B Melvin Hernandez (.311, 184 HR, 731 RBI) lands with the Canadiens for 5-yr, $18.2M.

+++

Well. That was expensive. Still cheaper than those free agents, though. It also took two weeks to get that deal together, which at various times included every left-hander in the pen, various SP prospects (Arias, Merino), and one or the other of the two AA outfield prospects (Southall, Sowden). What the Scorpions really wanted was A) get rid of Cortes, and B) get Ito. So we gave them Ito.

Ito is weird – scouted highly for power, he had about 420 PA in his first year in the States, split between Portland and St. Pete, and hit all but seven homers and 33 extra-base hits. He may be overscouted, or he might break out at age 25, but the Raccoons saw the opening and went for it. The trade is better than it looks at first glance, I promise.

Well, there is 2-time Pitcher of the Year (with Boston, in case you wondered) Rich Willett, who was traded to Sacramento at the deadline in ’41, but didn’t get them into the playoffs either (going 3-4 with a 2.54 ERA). He is an ace, no doubt about it. He is also a free agent after the season. (scratches head)

Cortes we didn’t initially go after, but he was on the trading block after voicing displeasure with seeing his role reduced at the end of last season, ending up on the bench for the first time in his career. He was the 2038 FL Player of the Year, and for that comes relatively cheap at $2.24M for two more years (2043 being a player option; Willett costs $3.12M, but we shed seven figures on Ito, too). Taking on Cortes actually made the Scorpions much friendlier to our Willett overtures.

As a pleasant side effect, the trade made Nick Valdes almost ecstatic – he wired his utmost congratulations for acquiring a Player of the Year, and sent a rapping telegram – a black guy on yellow roller skates with green mohawk and a beard down to his nipples, which showed through his net shirt – deliver chocolates and flowers. I was confused, but eventually settled into eating the chocolates while Maud propped up the flowers too close to the immobilized Cosmo, who nibbled them up.

So what now? Willett has the ball on Opening Day, done. The rotation is complete. Cortes bats right-handed, which is crucial to our plans here. He can split time between first base and rightfield. Berto will also get time at first base. I don’t see Art Goetz fitting in here, anymore, but there is still some offseason to go here.

Coto is a genuine prospect, but you can’t keep all of them. The opportunity was too good. Of course, our budget space almost disappeared with this trade, too (but it got us to #1 in the offseason WAR gains chart!). There were only a couple of hundred thousand dollars left, plus $1.1M in cash, and we had yet to find a second catcher. Thankfully, Jeff Wilson signed for relatively cheap. You might actually remember him, because we drafted him in the supplemental round in 2034. He was in another big deal with the Scorpions that brought in Troy Greenway in 2037.

That feels like it was 30 years ago.

Other once-upon-a-time Raccoons finding new tree holes: Bob Zeltser got $448k from the Scorpions; Drew Johnson signed for $392k with the Indians;

[Questdog]

Okay! I'll renew my season ticket! Sounds like we MIGHT see a pennant race this year!

[ayaghmour2]

Five really good new pieces this offseason, should be an exciting season up in Portland!