Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

January 4 – Reigning CL ERA king ex-IND SP Drew Johnson (99-97, 3.83 ERA, 2 SV) settles for $1.4M for one year from the Gold Sox.
January 5 – The Bayhawks land 35-yr old RF/LF Juan Brito (.289, 75 HR, 349 RBI) on a $1.2M deal for 2043. Brito split his time in ’42 between Cincy and Sacramento.
January 8 – The Condors sign ex-SAL INF Sergio Barcia (.249, 66 HR, 369 RBI). The 31-year-old will earn $15.6M over five years.
January 10 – The Gold Sox add ex-NAS SP Matt Hose (99-98, 4.09 ERA) for 2-yr, $6M.
January 16 – A deal with the Thunder lands OF Adrian Wade (.293, 59 HR, 351 RBI) for the Titans, as well as a prospect. Oklahoma receives 1B Alex Zacarias (.256, 98 HR, 449 RBI).
January 20 – Milwaukee gets OF/1B T.J. Serad (.255, 14 HR, 117 RBI) from the Miners in exchange for 2B Tony Lira (.217, 30 HR, 179 RBI) and a prospect.
January 31 – 29-year-old OF Tony Romero (.234, 79 HR, 347 RBI) who spent time with the Raccoons and Aces in 2042, signs a 4-yr, $7.16M contract with the Pacifics.

+++

We had 17 pitchers on the extended roster and all I did in January was to try to flip one for a backup outfielder with fair skills, not batting left-handed. We scratched on the Gold Sox for Chris Walker, who hit .298 in limited action, and on the Warriors for Juan Garcia (.257, 5 HR, 58 RBI), but neither team was willing to rummage much in our budget bin for mediocre tossers.

Only one other ex-Critter with a new contract: Tim Hale got $2.04M over two years from the Miners;

+++

2043 ABL HALL OF FAME BALLOT

The Hall of Fame receives one new Hall of Famer in 2043, as longtime Scorpions outfielder Doug Stross finds himself inducted. Stross, the Player of the Year in 2024 and 2025, spent his entire 19-year career in the Federal League, playing for the Blue Sox, Warriors, and Stars besides his 15-season stint with Sacramento. He was an All Star seven times, and in his Player of the Year seasons also led the league in batting average and OBP. He led the league in OBP four times in total, with a career high of .489 in 2024. For his career he posted a .314/.433/.416 slash line with 123 HR and 1,208 RBI. He stole 97 bases and in total landed 2,842 base hits.

SAC LF Doug Stross – 1st – 93.8 – INDUCTED
MIL SP Chris Sinkhorn – 5th – 50.6
SFW SS Jamie Wilson – 8th – 35.8
TIJ SP Jeff Little – 1st – 29.6
??? 1B Kevin Harenberg – 1st – 13.2
PIT C J.J. Henley – 3rd – 12.5
OCT SS Alex Serrato – 1st – 10.1
WAS C David Lessman – 2nd – 8.2
??? SP Ernest Green – 10th – 7.4 – DROPPED
NYC 3B Andy Schmit – 1st – 6.6
ATL SP Mario Rosas – 1st – 5.8
TOP CL Mike Baker – 6th – 5.4
SFW C Mike Thompson – 3rd – 3.5 – DROPPED
WAS 2B Dave Menth – 2nd – 3.5 – DROPPED
BOS CF Adrian Reichardt – 1st – 3.1 – DROPPED
??? SP Tommy Weintraub – 2nd – 0.8 – DROPPED
ATL 2B John Johnson – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED
CIN CF Nando Maiello – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

Nick Valdes called in February, asking when we’d finally sign a few stars so that he could boast about it to his friends in the safari club. I made up some crap about how baseball was really about playing it with all your heart and soul, which confused him, given that he had neither – just an extensive collection of heads of hunted wildlife on a wall in his top-floor office that probably scared the heck out of his secretary.

+++

March 9 – The Raccoons claim 25-year-old AAA OF Juan Rosario off waivers by the Gold Sox. He has yet to appear in the major leagues.
March 10 – The Falcons trade RF Chris Robinson (.277, 47 HR, 207 RBI) and cash to the Rebels for C Ramon Alicea (.271, 11 HR, 85 RBI).
March 10 – The Cyclones send 1B/3B Sebastian Copeland (.245, 18 HR, 100 RBI) and a dull prospect to the Scorpions for the services of SP Melvin Lucero (17-12, 3.38 ERA).
March 22 – OCT SP Bryce Sparkes (136-121, 3.70 ERA) retires from baseball as the elbow on his throwing arm keeps crumbling away, requiring another surgery to remove more bone spurs. The 35-year-old right-hander was an All Star twice and pitched for the Falcons, Raccoons, Capitals, and Thunder in a 10-year career.

+++

Rosario is a bit of a ho-hum addition. The Gold Sox tried to get him off the 40-man roster, and we have some room; he was assigned to the Alley Cats. He batted .236 with four homers in 84 games in Chula Vista last year, so no miracles are to be expected there. He plays all three outfield positions decently enough, bats right-handed, and is an adept base stealer.

Man, such excitement.

Some house cleaning was done in March, with 32-year-old AAA OF Alex Castro released. He had two cups of coffee with the Raccoons, and there was no point in keeping his detached head in the freezer to prevent it from spoiling anymore. A couple more guys at the end of their pseudo prospect life were out the door as well, the only notable won perhaps being left-hander Kyle Owens, our fourth-round pick in 2038, who was walking everything with legs, and even players without legs and was stuck in AA just short of his 26th birthday.

Thus winds down one of the dullest offseasons in team history. We’ll try to make sure and follow it up with an exciting battle for the division and – (chuckles)

New employment opportunities for ex-Critters: Ed Hooge joined Sacramento for $350k; Wyatt Hamill got $420k from the Gold Sox; Terry Garrigan wound up in L.A. on a $362k deal; it was $432k for Jesse Stedham from the Blue Sox;

Alberto Ramos did not find somebody to play for all winter.

[Westheim]

2043 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2042 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Jake Jackson, 30, B:R, T:R (12-14, 3.70 ERA | 48-65, 3.74 ERA) – groundballer with three good pitches, including a 95mph fastball, imported from the dead-end Indians last year as we pieced together a rotation for a competing team that never competed. He’s the only guy from the Willett/Brown/Jackson trifecta that didn’t end up in Vegas and thus became the Opening Day man by default. Except for his first cup of coffee with Indy, he has never been on a winning team in his life. If there is any concern with Jackson, it’s bouts of ill control – he’s been pushing for 100 walks in a season regularly.
SP/MR Brent Clark, 28, B:L, T:L (7-4, 2.42 ERA, 3 SV | 15-14, 3.29 ERA, 11 SV) – after three and a half years in the bullpen with decent success, Clark made his first seven career starts at the tail end of the 2042 season when everything else had already burned down and was quite successful. We instantly bought into the idea of having intentionally buried an ace in middle relief, and plunked him into the rotation permanently to begin the 2043 season.
SP Jason Wheatley, 22, B:R, T:R (1-3, 4.19 ERA | 1-3, 4.19 ERA) – a 5-pitch mix that was yet getting better, groundball tendency, and a face ready for fur care advertisement … Portland waited on his debut ever since he landed here in a July trade with the Knights in 2040, and when he made his debut in September, he was … fundamentally alright? Didn’t whiff many, gave up four bombs in 34 innings, but the foundations are there, and he is one of our entrants in the Rookie of the Year race.
SP Corey Mathers, 24, B:R, T:R (5-12, 4.07 ERA | 8-16, 3.57 ERA) – Mix of four pitches, groundballer, 93mph fastball, and quick riser from being the #20 pick in the ’39 draft, and somehow nobody talks about Mathers at all as you know, the young right-hander in the 2042 rotation that actually got people out (most of the time). Yes, he only won five games in 25 attempts – but the team as a whole didn’t win many more, either…
SP Cory Lambert, 28, B:R, T:R (4-7, 3.67 ERA | 6-8, 4.19 ERA) – his scouting report says many mean things about him, and he was not even doing well in AAA to begin last season before being called up for long relief as spring and the Coons’ hopes both faded at the same time. Worked his way into the rotation eventually, and did reasonably good, but there are some big exclamation marks in his scouting report and on his stat sheet, like 4.5 K/9 and almost a full homer per nine innings.

MR Chuck Jones, 31, B:L, T:L (5-2, 3.63 ERA, 3 SV | 22-12, 3.21 ERA, 12 SV) – lefty specialist that should be kept away from right-handers; if handled properly, can get his walks per nine innings under three, when he walked upwards of five in previous employments when he wasn’t handled with care.
MR Zack Kelly, 27, B:L, T:L (5-2, 4.20 ERA, 3 SV | 8-2, 3.50 ERA, 3 SV) – left-handed third-year pitcher with balanced splits, throws 96 with a nasty curve to complement it. Also has a crummy changeup and made a couple of spot starts, and while he fared alright, he’s not exactly pencilled in for starting pitcher duties in the long run.
SP/MR Leonhart Becker *, 30, B:L, T:L (4-5, 3.38 ERA | 42-48, 3.61 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired from the Aces, we figured the best way to stop my archenemy Sauerkraut from ruining our efforts on the field was to make him a Raccoon, a plan that might show certain cracks already…
SP/MR Seth Green *, 33, B:R, T:R (3-0, 3.52 ERA | 12-13, 4.64 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired in a modest deal from the Titans, Green is one of several contingency options should the rotation fall apart (as if that would happen…!), and for the time being a good old run-of-the-mill right-hander for the pen.
MR Jon Craig, 28, B:R, T:R (1-3, 4.06 ERA, 1 SV | 7-5, 3.58 ERA, 5 SV) – right-hander with basic competence that was the Pointless Deadline Acquisition #2 in 2041, when the Coons were *** half-in, *** half-out in the second half of July. Craig (and Terry Garrigan) came, one stayed, one went, and the Raccoons backed their ***** out of the door pretty quick in August.
SU/SP Nelson Moreno, 24, B:R, T:R (11-13, 5.01 ERA | 30-31, 4.43 ERA) – sic transit gloria mundi; the Raccoons’ previous diamond-grade pitching prospect had a third season that was boundless horror from beginning to end, and was relegated to the bullpen in September. Oh, all the All Stars we could have gotten in a trade! Now we had a maybe-setup guy that was known to be prone to explosions and no idea what to do if that didn’t work out either…
CL Josh Rella, 26, B:R, T:R (3-2, 1.99 ERA, 17 SV | 4-2, 2.71 ERA, 17 SV) – control issues are the main red flag here, as he has walked 5.5 batters per nine innings for his brief (73 IP) career. He also became the closer by default, which tells you a thing or two about the 2042-43 Coons.

C Jeff Kilmer, 31, B:R, T:R (.191, 7 HR, 43 RBI | .257, 62 HR, 289 RBI) – three years earlier, Kilmer hit for a 171 OPS+ in 105 games. Last year he hit for a 62 OPS+ in 121 games. Since his BABIP was about negative 57 points in 2042 – the worst string of rotten luck for an entire season I can remember – we are still somewhat base-level confident that he will somehow live out his contract (through 2046) and we don’t have to resort to drowning him in a barrel after all, which was a thought we had in 2037, when he also hit for a 62 OPS+.
C Sean Sieber, 25, B:R, T:R (.320, 1 HR, 6 RBI | .320, 1 HR, 6 RBI) – a bit of a ho-hum backup catcher, not that great defensively, and then he also got all the BABIP luck the baseball gods cruelly denied Kilmer. Given that he was a 10th-round pick in ’36, I’d say we already got more from Sieber than we could ever hope for.

1B Shuta Yamamoto, 23, B:R, T:R (.222, 9 HR, 37 RBI | .222, 9 HR, 37 RBI) – signed out of Japan for relatively cheap, Yamamoto was originally assigned to Ham Lake, but stormed through the high minors fast enough to get into 65 games last year. He hit precious little, had a few pronounced slumps, but we had any number of expensive high-profile free agents at the position in the last 25 years that did exactly the same, so he’s already an established major leaguer in that sense...
2B Arturo Carreno, 23, B:R, T:R (.232, 0 HR, 6 RBI | .232, 0 HR, 6 RBI) – another second-year player that didn’t do a whole lot in ’42, but is now expected to do some carrying. Carreno once cost $60k to sign in the 2036 July IFA period, and even if the bat doesn’t work out, he is a very good defensive keystone guard that would even be useful on a winning team – somebody’s gotta bat eighth! But for now, he’s gonna bat first.
3B Ricky Jimenez *, 25, B:R, T:R (no stats) – the only big addition (in terms of dollares) of the year is also a no-name addition at the same time. Jimenez is fresh out of Cuba, and the Raccoons buy into his workout videos to the tune of $3M per season for the foreseeable future (all his 20s anyway). Very good defender, tough strikeout, and at least some power that lets us hope for a pleasant surprise rather than a $15M grave in the woods.
SS Jose Castro *, 33, B:S, T:R (.259, 3 HR, 18 RBI | .277, 142 HR, 660 RBI) – former Scorpion signed a 1-year deal after an injury-riddled season. He still has Glove, having won eight golden ones with the Wolves in his 20s. Likely a transitional investment while we wait for Matt Waters to hit a ball into something other than a mitten, golden or otherwise.
2B/3B/SS/LF Omar Gutierrez, 28, B:L, T:R (.340, 4 HR, 22 RBI | .340, 4 HR, 22 RBI) – versatile lefty-hitting infielder that never made the majors in a stuffed Wolves organization and then suddenly broke out at age 27 … at least until his back locked up and he ended the year on the DL. Will do backup duties, but since he is also a left-handed batter he might get semi-regular starts all over the infield against righty pitching.
3B/LF/2B Jay de Wit, 26, B:S, T:R (.236, 3 HR, 32 RBI | .245, 4 HR, 42 RBI) – Aruba’s Finest played the whole season with the Critters, but his bat had nothing left compared to his flashy cup of coffee the year before. At least he’s a switch-hitter and a poor man’s super utility.

LF/RF/CF Manny Fernandez, 33, B:L, T:L (.287, 17 HR, 98 RBI | .286, 147 HR, 838 RBI) – as close to a 5-tool player as the Raccoons could ever find, especially in a draft. 2036 Player of the Year! Also won an RBI title in 2040, which totally saved our season (not). A trade for sterling prospects did not materialize this winter just like the winter and summer preceding it, and the one before that, and – FINE, we’ll keep him! Probably will never win the ring he deserves.
1B/RF/3B/CF/SS/LF Jesus Maldonado, 29, B:R, T:R (.283, 9 HR, 65 RBI | .285, 57 HR, 392 RBI) – It’s hard to forget this one: .411/.431/.571 and a 2037 World Series MVP award while playing on the losing team. If you can get THAT together, you must at least make it to the All Star Game at some point, don’t you? So far no luck for Maldonado in that regard. Regressed a bit in ’42, and as a reward got shunted around again to centerfield, and please stop getting hurt?
RF Justin Waltz, 24, B:R, T:R (.188, 0 HR, 8 RBI | .188, 0 HR, 8 RBI) – he was the readiest of the pieces we got from the Aces when we tore down the roster in July, and while he initially hit a bit, he stopped doing that eventually and also didn’t manage to hit a single ball over the fence in 149 at-bats. Him and Nettles figure to be in a sorta-platoon to begin the season (but with Waltz getting at least half the starts).
RF/CF/LF Stephon Nettles, 28, B:L, T:R (.287, 2 HR, 20 RBI | .261, 3 HR, 108 RBI) – strong defensive outfielder that looked like a Hall of Famer for about two weeks after being recalled last summer, then never hit a ball again. He’s definitely the mildly infuriating sort of defensive outfielder...
RF/CF/LF Van Anderson, 25, B:L, T:L (.226, 1 HR, 7 RBI | .237, 1 HR, 11 RBI) – kind of a ho-hum player, that does everything alright, but doesn’t have a niche in which he excels. Was recalled only late in the 2042 season and didn’t hit anything, either.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Angelo Montano, 25, B:L, T:L (1-5, 4.70 ERA | 8-19, 5.26 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; keeps getting called up for garbage duty, does splatter the trash all over the ballpark, then leaves the game and everybody else unhappy. Bad control and a launchpad.
SP/MR Jake White, 25, B:R, T:L (1-3, 4.05 ERA | 1-5, 5.45 ERA) – optioned to AAA; ho-hum lefty with trouble finding the zone. He only pitched in relief in his nine outings with Portland in 2042 but is actually self-described as being a starter.
MR Alexis Cortes, 23, B:R, T:R (0-0, 4.97 ERA | 0-0, 4.97 ERA) – optioned to AAA; right-hander that made 15 relief appearances for his debut, walking almost a batter per inning, and thus being sent back to the Alley Cats for seasoning.
MR Alex Ramirez, 34, B:R, T:R (0-0, 0.00 ERA | 10-5, 1.65 ERA, 11 SV) – optioned to AAA; in a stunning move, the Raccoons optioned the 34-year-old bullpen stalwart of the 2040-41 seasons (his first in the majors after eloping Cuba) to St. Petersburg. This was partly the result of a roster squeeze with everybody else either out of options, too precious (Rella, Moreno?), or refusing an AAA assignment (Sauerkraut!); and partly the fact that he missed almost all of 2042 and had displayed major control woes even before going down with a torn-up elbow in April.
MR Travis Sims, 30, B:R, T:R (0-1, 3.06 ERA | 8-6, 4.62 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; perpetual collector of garbage innings (192 innings in 169 games in seven different seasons) that has passed through waivers so many times already it probably doesn’t even hurt his feelings any more than his career BB/9 of 6.1 hurts me…
LF/CF Jordan Gonzalez, 26, B:S, T:L (.114, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .179, 1 HR, 4 RBI) – optioned to AAA; potentially useful outfielder that had the worst cup of coffee we’d seen in a while in ‘42.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived or reassigned during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Look… I know. This is a transitional year, and we need to test a few things. Like, is Arturo Carreno able to reach base at any appreciable rate?

Vs. RHP: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Nettles (Waltz) – P
(Vs. LHP: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – RF Waltz – SS Castro – P)

We don’t have many lefty bats this year, and most of them are bench dwellers. Castro and de Wit are switch-hitters. Besides Manny, only Nettles, Anderson, and Gutierrez bat left-handed. So, right-handed opposition might be looking forward to meeting us.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

We didn’t really do much in the offseason, and we didn’t really try, either. In terms of WAR that shakes out to -2.3 WAR lost, which ranks us 15th in the league. We made only two trades for bullpen fillers, and we signed only two free agents, one of which is entirely new to the league.

Top 5: Bayhawks (+9.8), Blue Sox (+7.9), Gold Sox (+6.2), Stars (+3.9), Rebels (+3.2)
Bottom 5: Canadiens (-4.6), Scorpions (-4.9), Buffaloes (-5.2), Crusaders (-7.1), Aces (-9.8)

The remaining teams in our division are 11th (MIL, 0.0), 13th (BOS, -1.2), and 17th (IND, -2.9).

PREDICTION TIME:

There is nothing good to predict here. We are waiting for the arrival of more youth, especially pitchers, and to fill the holes with solid hitting in some other way. For the time being, the Raccoons are a solid bet to lose 90 games. A winning record would require breakouts by pretty much all the youngsters that scarcely performed and/or underperformed last year.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Our farm remains in second place overall in the ABL, the fifth straight year we have a top position in the ranking, and we have yet to get anything making a pleasant noise on impact with the harsh reality of the major leagues.

Last year we boasted 13 ranked prospects, including nine in the top 100, and five in the top 50! The latter category even included Sandy Casaus, who has since busted and been shipped outta town after being ranked #30 last year (at age 25). He was also the only player among the 13 prospects to leave the organization between seasons.

Well, the in memoriam bit of Coons prospects-no-more: #81 Josh Rella, #106 Corey Mathers, and #155 Zack Kelly all exceeded rookie limits (and Kelly would have been 26 anyway), while #87 Mario Coto was traded to Sacramento. No players that were ranked last year lost their ranking while still technically being Raccoons prospects, but a bunch are no longer ranked after being included in the top 200 last year. Depressingly that group includes almost all the non-pitchers from last year’s list…: #90 Brian Shedd, #165 Roberto Medina, #166 Matt Sowden, and #180 Ben Southall.

7th (+6) – AA INF Matt Waters, 22 – 2039 first-round pick by Knights, acquired from Knights with Jason Wheatley for Ryan Bedrosian, Rico Sanchez, Brad Ledford, Willie Morales
25th (-11) – AA SP Tony Negrete, 20 – 2038 international free agent signed by Raccoons
28th (-4) – ML SP Jason Wheatley, 22 – 2038 supplemental round pick by Knights, acquired from Knights with Matt Waters for Ryan Bedrosian, Rico Sanchez, Brad Ledford, Willie Morales
41st (new) – AAA RF/1B/LF Jose Casas, 23 – 2037 scouting discovery by Buffaloes, acquired from Bayhawks for Carlos Cortes

55th (-8) – AAA SP Victor Merino, 22 – 2039 international free agent signed by Raccoons
60th (new) – AAA SP Generos de Leon, 21 – 2037 international free agent signed by Blue Sox, acquired from Aces with Justin Waltz, Preston Porter for Rich Willett, Josh Brown, Tony Romero
66th (-3) – AAA SP Adam Capone, 23 – 2040 first-round pick by Raccoons
76th (+43) – AA C Ruben Gonzalez, 21 – 2038 international free agent by Raccoons
90th (new) – A SP Sean Belisle, 19 – 2042 second-round pick by Raccoons

115th (-59) – AAA SP Jose Arias, 21 – 2038 international free agent signed by Raccoons
139th (new) – AAA OF Gene Pellicano, 23 – 2041 first-round pick by Buffaloes, acquired with Bob Ibold for Tony Hunter, Wyatt Hamill
145th (new) – AA CL Brad Barnes, 22 – 2042 supplemental-round pick by Raccoons
146th (-85) – AA SP Bubba Wolinsky, 20 – 2041 first-round pick by Raccoons
159th (new) – A RF/LF David Sanders, 21 – 2042 supplemental-round pick by Raccoons
183rd (new) – INT OF Arturo Romero, 17 – 2042 international free agent signed by Raccoons

Despite losing five ranked prospects, the list grows to 15 players, four of them in the top 50 and nine in the top 100.

The top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (+15) – SAC AAA SP Mike McCaffrey, 21
2nd (+33) – PIT AA SS/3B/RF Ed Soberanes, 19
3rd (-1) – DEN AA INF Ivan Villa, 21
4th (+2) – DEN AA UT Eric Miller, 21
5th (new) – IND ML OF/1B Bill Quinteros, 21

6th (-2) – NAS AAA 1B Alejandro Ramos, 23
7th (+6) – POR AA INF Matt Waters, 22
8th (new) – OCT AA SP Luis Copa, 19
9th (new) – ATL AA SP Jeremy Chaney, 21
10th (-3) – SFB AAA C Sean Suggs, 20

Soberanes signed for seven figures with the Miners in the 2040 July IFA period and has scouts fawning over his abilty to make contact and potential home run power. He could be a slugging shortstop and triple crown threat, some say!

Quinteros was the #1 pick in the 2042 draft and is apparently set to make the Opening Day roster for the Indians. Chaney was taken at #4 by the Knights. Copa is also ranked for the first time and is said to be in the majors sooner rather than later.

That leaves six top 10 prospects from last year that are no longer ranked this season, including #1 prospect Mario Villa, who graduated to the Warriors in July and hit .269 with 5 HR, 29 RBI and an eyebrow-raising 31 stolen bases in 71 games. The #5 talent, outfielder and shortstop Alvin Aguilera, was on the Opening Day roster for the Rebels and played in 140 games, but was coming off the bench a lot because he didn’t hit much at all, finishing with a .222 average and .595 OPS.

#8 prospect and Dallas right-hander Chris Davis was roughed up in AAA and sagged to #17 in this year’s ranking. #9 youth Kevin Daley pitched his way up the Condors’ AA team, but down to #14 in the new ranking. And #10 from last year, Rebes right-hander Zach Tubbs, did very well in AA and was moved to AAA now, but moved down one spot to #11 in the rankings.

The weirdest case is maybe the #3 prospect from last year, Washington right-hander John Snider, who was already 25, never ranked before, not even a starter, and while he made the majors last year, he only pitched in 18 games, all in relief, for a 3.68 ERA. He is almost 27 now and no longer eligible.

Next: first pitch.

[DD Martin]

So you must still have a lot of budget money floating around at Critter Central. Hopefully Nick doesn’t take it back to explore (demolish) the caves near Grants Pass looking for some sort of fossil fuel or coal. Maybe have Maud hid it somewhere

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

So you must still have a lot of budget money floating around at Critter Central. Hopefully Nick doesn’t take it back to explore (demolish) the caves near Grants Pass looking for some sort of fossil fuel or coal. Maybe have Maud hid it somewhere

They’re already gone. Had to be filled in so that Nick could erect a commercial Thunderdome above.

+++

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Canadiens (0-0) – April 7-9, 2043

Yeah, this season would get off so well. The Raccoons had rumbled to a 4-14 finish against the damn Elks, the defending division champs (coughs blood), last season, and there was simply no reason to be confident that things would change this year. This was a team that could do a lot of pounding, and the Raccoons were a team that would have to do a lot of taking this season.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (0-0) vs. Matt Sealock (0-0)
Brent Clark (0-0) vs. Paul Medvec (0-0)
Jason Wheatley (0-0) vs. David Arias (0-0)

We would get all their right-handers and none of their southpaws John Roeder and Alex Lewis.

Game 1
VAN: RF van der Zanden – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B J. Becker – 1B J. Lopez – SS R. Johnston – P Sealock
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Nettles – P Jackson

…and Portland scored first! Rookie #1, Arturo Carreno, opened their half of the first inning with a double to left, then scored on a Maldonado double to right. Manny singled, and then the inning fizzled out between Shuta Yamamoto’s pop and Jeff Kilmer whiffing. Jackson held up the 1-0 score for a while, despite having near-constant traffic thanks to two walks and three hits in the first four innings, including leadoff singles for both Jerry Outram and Dan Schneller, the two stars in the middle of that damn Elks lineup. A fly to center, a fielder’s choice, and a K to Johnny Lopez would get Jackson out of that jam. The Coons had nobody on in the bottom 4th when Jose Castro doubled with two outs. Stephon Nettles was walked intentionally, but Jackson clipped a single to drive in Castro from second base, 2-0. Carreno legged out an infield single on a tricky roller, and that loaded the bases for debutee Ricky Jimenez, who thus far had grounded out twice for a career, and now had three on and nobody out. He got a pretty fat 3-1 from Sealock and whacked it deep to left … deep, deep… and caught by Melvin Hernandez.

The Coons’ first steal of the season came in the fifth, and was put into the books by Manny Fernandez, who singled, then swiped second, reached third on a wild pitch after that, and was singled in by Yamamoto eventually to make it a 3-0 game. Carreno, who had gone 4-for-7 stealing in his brief time up in ’42, also stole a base in the sixth inning, as the Raccoons embarked on a quest to not only steal more bases than they’d hit homers or win games, but maybe even both of those combined…

Jackson held a 4-hit shutout together through seven innings, but would go no further on account of 109 pitches thrown by that point. The damn Elks the found the board against Chuck Jones in the eighth inning, thanks to a leadoff triple by Arnout van der Zanden in right-center. Timóteo Clemente singled the runner home, 3-1, but Jones and Jon Craig wiggled out of the inning after that. Bottom 8th, Jose Castro reached on a Schneller error to begin the inning, then stole second, but between Nettles, Omar Gutierrez, and Carreno was stranded. Josh Rella didn’t care – he put the damn Elks away on five pitches and three times soft contact in the ninth inning. 3-1 Furballs! Carreno 2-5, 2B; Fernandez 2-4; Yamamoto 2-4, 2B, RBI; Castro 2-4, 2B; Jackson 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Winners! (shows off his dated disco moves) We’re winners!! Ta-dah!! (spins around, then abruptly freezes)

(reaches for the edge of the desk and whines) Maaaud…! Call Dr. Padilla…!

Game 2
VAN: RF van der Zanden – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – 1B J. Lopez – LF J. Becker – SS R. Johnston – 3B R. Ashley – P Medvec
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Waltz – P Clark

By the middle game on Wednesday, the Raccoons had the bullpen up in the second inning thanks to Brent Clark allowing two leadoff walks to Schneller and Johnny Lopez, a single to Justin Becker, and then a slam over the fence in left to Ryan Johnston. That would turn out to be the only runs out of Clark, who tacked on another four scoreless after that, but by the time he was finished on 103 pitches in the middle of the sixth, the Raccoons had scattered seven hits for no runs, thanks to three double plays being hit into, and Carreno getting caught stealing in our first entry into the CS column.

Seth Green made his Raccoons debut in the seventh inning, briefly acquiring an infinite franchise ERA when Clemente took him deep to left leading off. The Raccoons also finally made the board in that inning, getting Kilmer on base and then a homer to right from new arrival Jose Castro, narrowing the gap to 5-2. After Nelson Moreno sat down the 7-8-9 in order in the top 8th, the bottom 8th saw the tying run come to the plate for Portland after Medvec nailed Jimenez and Maldonado singled, all with nobody out. Manny hit a floater to left that dinked in front of a rushing Justin Becker by one foot at most. This filled the bags for the Critters, and now the damn Elks had them right where they wanted them. (bangs fist on table) Yamamoto immediately hit a comebacker that was taken for an out at home. Gutierrez hit for Kilmer to get a lefty bat in there, but struck out. Castro flew out to end the inning with all runners still aboard… Instead, the Elks’ 3-4-5 hitters clubbed Zack Kelly for a tack-on run in the ninth. 6-2 Canadiens. Carreno 2-5, 2B; Fernandez 2-4; Castro 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Nettles (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
VAN: 1B J. Lopez – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B J. Becker – RF V. Vazquez – SS R. Johnston – P D. Arias
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Sieber – 3B Gutierrez – RF Waltz – P Wheatley

First start of the year for Jason Wheatley – and it went entirely into the gutter right from the start. Dan Schneller took him deep after a first-inning walk to Outram, 2-0 Elks, and that line tripled in the second inning, where Wheatley issued another two walk, three hits, and a Yamamoto error in the formative stage of the inning also didn’t exactly help, but made three of the Elks’ four runs in the inning unearned. The damn Elks even helped out, with Johnny Lopez getting thrown out going first to third on a bases-loaded, 2-run single by Jerry Outram. Wheatley was back for the third inning, conceded another run on Ryan Johnston double with two outs, and was hit for with Jay de Wit in the bottom 3rd while Arias faced the minimum, in other words, ballgame.

The Raccoons went to Sauerkraut for garbage relief in his Raccoons debut, but was held to two innings as rain interfered with both his long relief quest and Arias’ no-hitter that ended in the fifth inning. He pitched after an hourlong delay with the 7-0 lead, which was probably not advised, put Sieber and Gutierrez on the corners, then with two outs gave up the first career hit of pinch-hitter Ricky Jimenez – a thundering 3-run homer to left! …and unfortunately that was all for the Raccoons, who got only two more runners the rest of the way against long relief from Joe Hicks, and otherwise went down meekly – though not without Manny Fernandez getting killed by Sean Green, who gave up a long fly to left to Clemente that Manny caught while crashing into the fence, then left the game in favor of Van Anderson with back discomfort. 7-3 Canadiens. Maldonado 2-4, 2B; Jimenez (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Becker 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K; Green 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Manny’s back would remain a problem for a while – he was said to have a mildly herniated disc by Dr. Padilla, and would be day-to-day for at least a week. A DL stint was an option, but we’d try to rest him a day or two first.

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Bayhawks (3-1) – April 10-12, 2043

The Baybirds had taken three of four from the Condors for second place in the CL South at this early point, trailing only the undefeated Falcons. They had scored 18 runs and conceded 15, while the Raccoons were bottoms in the league in runs scored, and that wasn’t gonna get better any time soon. We had an 8-year run of winning the season series against San Francisco, taking five of nine games last year.

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (0-0) vs. Rafael Pedraza (0-0)
Cory Lambert (0-0) vs. Mike Mihalik (0-0, 8.10 ERA)
Jake Jackson (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Garrett Sutherland (0-0, 3.00 ERA)

For the second series in a row, we would dodge a team’s two left-handers. Typical Raccoons luck, now that our lineup leans righty quite significantly… *and* with Manny ailing…

Game 1
SFB: SS J. Gonzalez – CF M. Hall – 3B Sifuentes – 1B D. Cruz – RF S. Martin – C J. Hill – LF Ju. Brito – 2B V. Acosta – P Pedraza
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – 1B Yamamoto – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – LF Anderson – P Mathers

Mathers allowed a leadoff single to Jorge Gonzalez to begin the game, then retired nine in a row after that before getting a lead in the bottom 3rd when Carreno singled, stole second, and was plated with a Jimenez single for a 1-0 Critters lead. The Bayhawks only reached base again in the fifth inning; John Hill singled up the middle, and Mathers lost Juan Brito in a full count, but then struck out Vic Acosta and Pedraza to get out of the inning. Through five he had a 2-hit shutout and five strikeouts, but had also already thrown over 80 pitches, 30 of those in the fifth.

Bottom 5th, Van Anderson led off with a slap single to left on a 1-2 pitch, then was bunted to second and scored on a Carreno double in the left-center gap. Jimenez grabbed another RBI with a 2-out single, extending the lead to 3-0. Mathers held on to that for another two innings, finishing his day still with a 2-hitter and 103 pitches through seven. Chuck Jones followed up with a scoreless inning, and the Raccoons scratched out another run in the bottom 8th, when Stephon Nettles hit a Brito-assisted triple to left that should have been caught, then scored on a Kilmer single to make it 4-0. Josh Rella still got in the game in the ninth against the top of the order. He proceeded to make it “interesting”, for after a pop to second by Gonzalez, Rella stuffed the bases with a Mike Hall single, then two walks to Ramon Sifuentes and Danny Cruz. When he walked Scott Martin, too, in a full count, and forced in a run, he was yanked. Zack Kelly came in, matching up with PH Corey Caldwell. He got a grounder from Caldwell that scored a run, then whiffed PH Dave Martinez to end the game. 4-2 Coons. Carreno 2-4, 2B, RBI; Jimenez 3-3, BB, 2 RBI; Kilmer 3-4, RBI; Mathers 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
SFB: SS J. Gonzalez – CF M. Hall – 3B Sifuentes – 1B D. Cruz – LF Caldwell – C J. Hill – RF Ju. Brito – 2B V. Acosta – P Mihalik
POR: 2B Carreno – RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – 1B Yamamoto – SS Gutierrez – C Kilmer – LF de Wit – P Lambert

We were used to not getting anything out of the former damn, dumb Elk Mike Mihalik, so we were not exactly shocked to only get two hits off him in five innings and no runs. Lambert was *fine*, allowing four hits in five innings, but unfortunately three of them got bundled into the fourth inning and led to a run, Acosta driving in Caldwell for the game’s first and lonely run. Lambert held San Fran short in the sixth, while Carreno reached with a leadoff single – and then was caught stealing. Lambert also ended up going seven innings, doing so on 106 pitches (making Wheatley very much the ugly duckling five games in), but was still on the hook when he got his pat on the fuzzy bum. Gutierrez hit a 2-out single in the bottom of the seventh, but was also stranded when Kilmer grounded out. Bottom 8th, de Wit hit a soft single to center to begin the inning. Manny Fernandez grabbed a stick to hit for Nelson Moreno, who had delivered a scoreless (but not trouble-free) eighth inning, but grounded out. Mihalik lost Carreno on balls, narrowly, then saw Nettles reach on a howling bloop between Caldwell and Gonzalez. Three on, nobody out for Ricky Jimenez – and a spanker to short, to second, to first, inning over. Jon Craig held the Bayhawks away in the ninth inning, prompting Matt May into the game in the bottom 9th with the tiniest of leads, and with Maldonado leading off. Maldo slapped a soft liner to center on 3-1, getting it to fall in for a single. He went on pitcher’s movement on the 1-0 pitch to Yamamoto, which the first baseman slapped to right, allowing Maldo to reach third base with the tying run. Gutierrez hit another single to right, tying the game and sending Yamamoto to second base, where he was lifted for Justin Waltz to pinch-run. Kilmer then threw some screws and bolts into the well-oiled machinery, making it all clunk and stutter with a double play, 6-4-3. That brought up de Wit with the winning run on third base and two outs – and he slapped another grounder to the right side … and through! Waltz scored and the Raccoons walked off …! 2-1 Critters! Nettles 2-4; Gutierrez 2-3, BB, RBI; de Wit 3-4, RBI; Lambert 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB; 5 K;

Aruba suffered a major power outage when everybody on the island tuned their TVs to NWSN when de Wit was up in the bottom 9th, but I think word of his game-winning slap single eventually spread to everybody.

Winning team again! (enthusiastically double-high-fives Cristiano Carmona so hard, Cristiano’s wheelchair tilts backwards and sends him crashing into the bobblehead cabinet)

Maud? – Can you send for Dr. Padilla once more?

Normally we liked to give everybody a day off in the first week if the schedule didn’t offer an off day on Thursday, but with Manny day-to-day things were a bit tighter and Maldonado would sub for Yamamoto at first base on Sunday. Maldo would get a day off against the next right-hander the following week; he was the only player not afforded an off day through the first week.

Game 3
SFB: SS J. Gonzalez – CF M. Hall – 3B Sifuentes – 1B D. Cruz – RF S. Martin – LF Caldwell – C Canas – 2B V. Acosta – P Sutherland
POR: SS Castro – CF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – C Sieber – 2B Gutierrez – LF de Wit – RF Waltz – P Jackson

Jackson retired the Bayhawks in order until yielding a single to the opposing pitcher Sutherland in the third inning. Gonzalez also singled, but Mike Hall grounded out to end the top 3rd. The Raccoons had no hits until the third inning, either, with Waltz reaching to begin the inning on an infield roller. He stole second, then reached third when Jackson bunted his way to two strikes, then hit a single on 2-2. Castro gave the Raccoons a 1-0 lead, albeit with a 4-6-3 double play… Nettles walked and stole second, but was left aboard when Jimenez grounded out.

Jackson was spinning a great game, needing all of 38 pitches through 4.1 innings – and then the rain returned. A lengthy rain delay would knock out Sutherland (who threw 59 pitches in four innings), while Jackson returned after another hour-long break and got the last two outs in the fifth in strikeout fashion, but rapidly lost velocity and location in the sixth inning and was hauled in after the Baybirds somehow went down 1-2-3 anyway. The score was still 1-0 at that point, and Nelson Moreno didn’t blow it either in the seventh … in part because his arm fell off and he was collected by Dr. Padilla. Was it time for the season’s first Capt’n Coma? Zack Kelly collected the final out in the seventh instead of Moreno, who was too busy wincing, then pitched a 1-2-3 in the eighth. The Raccoons got Castro on as the leadoff man in the eighth, but stranded him at second, then went back to Rella, who had struggled mightily in a non-save situation a couple days back. He walked PH Dave Martinez on four pitches to get the ninth underway, which made for such a cozy feeling. Brito struck out hitting in the #1 hole, and Hall grounded to short, but the Coons only got the lead runner, bringing up Sifuentes (.379, 2 HR, 7 RBI) with two outs. At least a righty batter! Pop behind third base, Jimenez back – ballgame and a slow-motion sweep! 1-0 Blighters! Waltz 1-2, BB; Jackson 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (2-0) and 1-2;

In other news

April 8 – PIT SP Jonathan Dykstra (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 3-hits the Capitals in a 6-0 shutout.
April 8 – 19-year-old Falcons phenom OF Miguel Martinez (.714, 0 HR, 5 RBI) bats for five base hits in a 15-6 blowout of the Knights; three singles in regulation, and a triple and a single in the 11th inning in which the Knights come completely unglued. Martinez drives in five runs with his heroics.
April 10 – The Blue Sox lead 9-2 against the Scorpions in the third inning, yet manage to lose the game, 11-10, with an epic meltdown in the sixth that costs them a 6-run lead at that point.
April 11 – LAP OF Aaron Foss (.333, 1 HR, 6 RBI) has five hits and three RBI, missing the cycle by the home run in a 7-3 win over the Miners.

FL Player of the Week: NAS 3B/SS Brad Critzer (.360, 4 HR, 10 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Jerry Outram (.609, 1 HR, 6 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

In case you wondered, yes, we’re absolutely last in runs scored. But we’re also 4-2 for the time being (with a -2 run differential) and with a defensive efficiency that is so good (.764) that it qualifies as writing on the wall. I mused above that we might end up with more stolen bases than homers and wins combined. Right now it’s true, 8 steals over 2 homers and 4 wins.

Carreno leads the team in OPS and strikeouts. There are high hopes for the kid. There’s also a .533 BABIP on that kid. I don’t know.

Not having Manny never helps, and the bad back might yet bother him all of next week. No idea what’s wrong with Moreno other than he customarily sucks and makes me sad.

Angelo Montano and Travis Sims went unclaimed and arrived in St. Petersburg once more. We are so relieved and so surprised.

Next week, one more home series against the Falcons, off day on Thursday, then the start of the first road trip, which will get us into Boston and Milwaukee.

Fun Fact: Jerry Outram has five straight seasons with an OPS over 1, leading the CL four times in the same span.

And he would have led it five times out of five if not for missing 87 games with injuries in 2039. He won the batting title every year in 2038 and 2040-42, led the league in OBP, OPS, and WAR. He also took home all the decorative vases given out to the Player of the Year in those four years. He’s a terrible menace, a career .341/.445/.544 hitter that strikes fear into your heart every time, two weeks in advance.

At least he was a #1 pick and we didn’t select three Travis Simses before the damn Elks happened across him in the fifth round….

[Westheim]

Raccoons (4-2) vs. Falcons (3-3) – April 13-15, 2043

The season series between these two teams had ended up 5-4 in each of the last five seasons, with fortunes going back and forth a bit. Last year, Portland had maintained the upper paw. The Falcons had won three, then lost three so far this year, and were third in runs scored and second from the bottom in runs allowed, while the Raccoons’ games had been of the “blink and you miss the only run” variety for the most part.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (0-1, 6.00 ERA) vs. Chris Watson (0-0)
Jason Wheatley (0-1, 12.00 ERA) vs. Jose de Lucio (0-0, 5.14 ERA)
Corey Mathers (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Jerry Felix (0-1, 9.39 ERA)

Watson was the first southpaw to come up against Portland this year, and the only one in this series. He had also been skipped in the first week of the year and would thus make his season debut. Jesus Maldonado would thus get his early-days off day against de Lucio on Tuesday.

Game 1
CHA: 2B M. Martinez – LF Haertling – CF Besaw – SS Aparicio – 1B Cahill – RF Mujica – C Alicea – 3B Farfan – P C. Watson
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – RF Waltz – LF de Wit – P Clark

19-year-old phenom Miguel Martinez began the game with a double to center, but also ended the first inning when he ran through the stop sign at third base and was thrown out by Jay de Wit on Tony Aparicio’s single, causing more spontaneous celebrations on Aruba. Maldonado joined him with an outfield assist to end an inning in the second, when the Falcons had the bases loaded against a mildly unconvincing Brent Clark, and Martinez flew out to center with one out. Maldonado fired home to strike down Ramon Alicea, but the Falcons had already taken a 1-0 lead on two hits and two walks issued by Clark, who looked nothing like the stunning, pleasant surprise of last September. Maldo hit a jack to tie the game in the bottom 2nd, but Joe Besaw and Tony Aparicio went deep back-to-back in the top 3rd to give the Falcons a 3-1 lead. Clark didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, being yanked after nine hits and two walks, and leaving runners on the corners and two outs to Seth Green, who fell to 3-1 on Besaw, but then got a fly to left that de Wit handled for the last out.

After Green was batted for in the fifth inning, which the Raccoons concluded on three sad hits to the Falcons’ nine, the Coons went to Sauerkraut, who had a clean sixth, then a not so clean seventh, shedding two hits, two walks, and a Yamamoto error didn’t help, either. The Falcons scored another four runs in the inning, putting the game away. Things got worse still, with Zack Kelly torn up for two more runs in the eighth. Ed Haertling and Aparicio hit singles, and Mark Cahill whacked a double over Maldonado to get to a double-slam lead against Raccoons that were barely present. Van Anderson batted for Kelly in the bottom 8th, reached on an infield single, then scored on Castro’s double, which didn’t exactly make it all feel less bitter. More bitterness was delivered by Jon Craig in the ninth, who pitched to one batter, then removed himself with paw soreness.

…and then the bottom 9th dawned. Maldonado led off with an infield single against Nick Wright. Yamamoto walked in a full count, while Nettles batted for Kilmer, but flew out. Justin Waltz doubled into the gap in left-center, plating a run, 9-3. Wright walked de Wit, but whiffed Anderson. Carreno singled on a 2-2 pitch with the bases loaded, scoring Yamamoto from third base, 9-4, and now the tying run was as close as the on-deck circle… even though that was Chuck Jones in the vacated #3 hole, who had finished up the top 9th after the Craig injury. The game ended before we could hit for Jones, though, with Jose Castro grounding out to Martinez to end the game. 9-4 Falcons. Maldonado 2-4, HR, RBI; Anderson (PH) 1-2;

The Raccoons were now up to three injured players on the 25-man roster, with Manny still day-to-day with the back problem, and two relievers on top of that, with Nelson Moreno a holdover from Sunday and undiagnosed still.

Dr. Padilla still had no news by Tuesday on Moreno, but estimated that Craig would miss at least one week with the sore paw. I coolly rounded up to two weeks and sent him to the DL, unwilling to venture onwards with five relievers. Alex Ramirez was recalled from AAA, where the season was just starting and he had not appeared in a game yet.

Game 2
CHA: LF Haertling – 3B Farfan – SS Aparicio – 1B Cahill – CF Besaw – RF Mujica – 2B Shay – C Alicea – P de Lucio
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – 1B Yamamoto – C Sieber – RF Nettles – LF de Wit – CF Anderson – P Wheatley

Raccoons offense remained wholeheartedly absent on Tuesday, despite de Lucio’s best attempts to walk all of them, consecutively. Hits were what was missing – and that was the case for both teams. Through five innings, Falcons and Raccoons pooled together for five hits, and scored a lone run each in which the subject of scoring was plated when the #3 hitter grounded out in the third inning. But things got interesting in the bottom 6th, with the bases filling up when Nettles reached base by … hitting into a fielder’s choice that removed Sean Sieber from the bases, and then de Wit was hit by the pitch. The Coons pulled off a double steal, promoting an intentional 1-walk to Van Anderson, the sixth walk in total on de Lucio. And now what? Wheatley was up, pitching fundamentally alright, but that was over. Manny Fernandez grabbed a stick, fell to 0-2, then slapped a pitch up the middle for a 2-run single to center, somehow. Besaw’s throw home allowed Anderson and Manny into scoring position, leading to Carreno getting an intentional walk. Castro hit a sac fly, Jimenez hit into the third out with Aparicio, but the Coons were up 4-1. Alex Ramirez defended the lead while getting four outs, and Chuck Jones got two more from the 1-2 batters to complete eight and set up Josh Rella, who walked Aparicio to begin the ninth, but got a double play grounder from Cahill to clean up… at least until Besaw singled. Frank Mujica struck out, though, and the Raccoons evened the series. 4-1 Raccoons. Fernandez (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Wheatley 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (1-1);

A win is a win is a win.

By Wednesday, still no Manny in the lineup, but we were hoping for the weekend.

There was however no hope for Nelson Moreno, who was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation and sent to the 60-day DL right away, since he wasn’t expected back before August, and our 40-man was packed. All the stars I could have gotten for him when his bum shoulder was still in the minors…!

…and thus, the return of Travis Sims, and my will to live rapidly diminishing….

Game 3
CHA: RF Haertling – CF M. Martinez – SS Aparicio – 1B Cahill – LF Besaw – 3B Farfan – C Alicea – 2B Mujica – P Felix
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – RF Nettles – LF de Wit – P Mathers

The Falcons went triple, single, homer, single with their first four batters, pretty much putting the W in the books with a 3-0 lead against Mathers before the latter registered an out, especially with Portland again doing absolutely nothing in the early innings. The Falcons then got their next two hits both with Aparicio doubles in the left-center gap, one in the third inning, and one in the sixth. The latter was followed by a Cahill single and a run-scoring double play by Besaw, extending their lead to 4-0. The Raccoons amounted to five hits through six innings and zero runs, with the most notable occurrence being Maldonado being charged with two double plays. Travis Sims was handed the ball after Mathers held out for seven innings, and immediately hung one to Mark Cahill for a 400-footer in the eighth inning. It was a 2-piece, but one run was unearned thanks to a Castro error that put Aparicio on base. The Coons made up one run in the bottom 8th on a Castro double and Maldonado single, then had Maldonado end the inning being caught stealing. In the ninth got a leadoff single from Yamamoto and an RBI triple by Nettles gave the Coons a *second* run (gasp!), but Nettles was left on base with strikeouts from Waltz and Fernandez to end the game. 6-2 Falcons. Carreno 3-4, 2B; Maldonado 2-4, RBI; Yamamoto 2-4;

Raccoons (5-4) @ Titans (6-3) – April 17-19, 2043

No good thing had happened to the Raccoons in Boston in 300 years and I wasn’t convinced this time would be better. They were second in the division, half a game off the damn Elks, and were fourth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, which was a bit surprising given how much they had stunk last year, but it was early days yet and their rotation had an ERA over five…

Projected matchups:
Cory Lambert (0-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Ignacio del Rio (1-0, 2.08 ERA)
Jake Jackson (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Michael Donovan (1-0, 7.94 ERA)
Brent Clark (0-2, 6.52 ERA) vs. Ryan Kinner (2-0, 4.80 ERA)

Another southpaw here in Donovan. He was the only lefty the Titans had.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – RF Waltz – P Lambert
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – CF Vermillion – 1B C. Cortes – C D. Phillips – 3B I. Lugo – 2B M. Avila – LF Liceaga – P del Rio

The Titans grabbed a first-inning lead with a leadoff triple by Oscar Aguirre and a sac fly from Joe Ritchey, their new import, who was hitting .333 with 3 homers. Manny Fernandez was not 100%, but the offense needed him. Unfortunately, he grounded out to strand a pair in the third inning, and Lambert would do the same in the fourth. While Lambert did not allow another base hit after the Aguirre triple until Danny Liceaga doubled in the bottom 6th, the Raccoons could not do anything worth the breath to relate it or the ink to write it down, continuing steadfastly to trail 1-0. That only changed in the eighth, which saw the bottom of the order begin with a 2-base throwing error by Carreno that put Moises Avila on base, swiftly followed by three singles up the middle hit by Liceaga, Aguirre, and Ritchey. Avila scored, while Liceaga was thrown out at home plate by Maldonado, but with the left-handed Mark Vermillion up, the Raccoons went to Zack Kelly. Vermillion hit a deep fly to center, but Maldonado caught the damn thing. The Raccoons in the ninth inning got Yamamoto on base with an Ivan Lugo error, Kilmer with a single… and then a double play from Waltz killed it all. 2-0 Titans. Kilmer 2-3, BB; Lambert 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, L (0-1);

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – RF Waltz – LF de Wit – P Jackson
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – CF Vermillion – 1B C. Cortes – 3B I. Lugo – 2B M. Avila – C Kuehn – LF Liceaga – P Donovan

Jackson gave up his first run of the year on a walk to Ritchey and an RBI double by recent Raccoon Carlos Cortes, but the Raccoons flipped the score (!) in the second inning when Maldonado singled and Yamamoto barely reached the .200 mark again with a homer to left. It was his first of the year, and Jeff Kilmer joined him in that regard with a solo homer in the fourth inning, extending the lead to 3-1. Jackson grinded away at the Titans lineup, and when Carlos Cortes tripled to lead off the bottom 4th, he prevented the runners from scoring, striking out Lugo, getting a pop from Avila, and whiffing Paul Kuehn…!

While Jackson continued to scatter extra-base hits and somehow pitching around them, allowing a double to Liceaga to lead off the fifth, the Raccoons reached the corners with one out and singles from Maldonado and Kilmer in the top of the sixth. The Titans sent a right-handed reliever in Danny Tirado, and the Raccoons responded with Nettles batting for Waltz, who was 0-for-2. Nettles ran a full count, then ticked a single to left-center that scored a run. De Wit struck out, but Jackson, with two outs, fired a liner past Ivan Lugo for an RBI double…! 5-1, the first time we scored more than four runs in a game this season…! Will wonders ever cease?? Tirado walked Carreno to fill the bases, but Castro struck out to end the inning. Jackson filled the bases to begin the bottom 6th – so no, wonders would definitely never cease – and then somehow pitched his way out of it with an Avila sac fly, then a K and a grounder to short, staying ahead 5-2.

But there were another two Titans on base in the seventh inning, and this time Jackson was yanked with one out. Aguirre on second, Ritchey on first, Chuck Jones faced Vermillion, but lost him in a full count to load the bases. Cortes came up and the Raccoons brought a right-hander in, sending Alex Ramirez, who had Cortes 0-2 before Cortes barreled a ball to left – but into the maws of Jimenez, and a 5-4-3 double play bailed out the Critters…!

Manny, still sore, batted with Nettles and de Wit on the corners and one out against Jose Colon in the eighth inning, struck out, and Carreno grounded out to second to again not get a run home. Then came Seth Green for the bottom 8th and completely croaked, conceding two walks, two hits, and two runs before being yanked with runners on the corners – the tying and go-ahead runs, mind – and two outs. Josh Rella got a groundout from Ritchey to get out of the eighth with a 5-4 lead. Castro then opened the ninth with a single to right off Justin Johns, stole second, and… was stranded on three sad outs. A Vermillion double on the first pitch Rella threw in the ninth put the tying run in scoring position again, but at least Jimenez contained a Cortes shot with his body and got the first out at first base while Vermillion held. Lugo flew out easily to Nettles. Avila flew to Nettles less easily, and it required a bit of a run, but Nettles retired him, too. 5-4 Raccoons. Castro 2-5, 2B; Kilmer 3-4, HR, RBI; Nettles (PH) 2-2, RBI; de Wit 2-4;

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – CF Anderson – C Sieber – P Clark
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – CF M. Avila – LF C. Cortes – C D. Phillips – 3B I. Lugo – 1B Greeley – 2B Bensinger – P Kinner

The Raccoons broke out for a bushel in the second inning in the rubber game. Manny opened it with a jack, with Nettles, Yamamoto, Anderson, and Sieber also all getting on base. Single, walk, RBI single, 2-run double, and a 4-0 lead for Brent Clark! Allowing only one hit the first time through against an all-right-handed lineup, Clark then was eaten alive with fur and glove by the same all-right-handed lineup in the second run through the order. The Titans opened the bottom 4th with three straight singles, Phillips walked on nine pitches, and Lugo hit a 2-run double. Thomas Greeley tied the game with a sac fly. Clark walked Jason Bensinger, too, with Kinner bunting the runners over. That was it for Clark, who yielded for Alex Ramirez, who struck out Aguirre to end the ******* inning.

Kinner was still around in the fifth inning, with Maldonado drawing a walk off him with one out. Manny grounded out, advancing Maldo, who scored on Nettles single through the right side. Nettles stole second, then also scored when Yamamoto hit a blast to left. He was the first Raccoon with multiple homers in ’43, and also ended Kinner’s stint in a 7-4 ruckus. Ramirez pitched the fifth for a walk, after which we suffered through two nervous innings with Seth Green, who allowed three hits to Boston batters and nailed another, but somehow didn’t give up a run. We also survived an inning from Travis Sims, and Josh Rella put the Titans away without putting any of them on base. The Raccoons’ offense had gone home after the Yamamoto bomb. 7-4 Raccoons. Maldonado 2-3, BB; Nettles 3-4, RBI; Anderson 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Green 2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

April 17 – LAP INF Brian Bowman (.306, 1 HR, 8 RBI) will miss at least one month with a broken wrist.

FL Player of the Week: CIN INF Chris Strohm (.404, 1 HR, 12 RBI), batting .469 (15-32) with 1 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA SS Tony Aparicio (.491, 5 HR, 18 RBI), raking .500 (14-28) with 4 HR, 14 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Before you make up excuses that not everything is terrible – not only Nelson Moreno is out for the majority of the season. #55 prospect Victor Merino has torn a hammy in AAA, and will also miss three months.

Even after the outburst on Sunday – well, seven runs anyway – the Raccoons are still last in runs scored in the league. We’re hitting .253/.316/.355 as a team, or 10th/11th/11th as far as the CL was concerned. The pitching is even relatively good. But there are certain holes in the lineup, like a $15M hole on the left side. Ricky Jimenez had one hit this week in 18 attempts. His BABIP is .129, which I had Cristiano explain to Nick Valdes when he called and screamed into the telephone.

Apart from that we have to wait and see a bit. We’re waiting for an offensive breakout, and we’re gonna see the Loggers in Milwaukee starting on Tuesday, then the Knights at home next week. The Thunder will also be in on that homestand to complete the month. These three series will also bring up more left-handed batters than f.e. the Titans have, so we might actually use Sauerkraut once in a while…

The Knights have made a stupendous trade offer, Jamie King for Art Goetz (eh!) and Matt Waters (oh). Also, King is having … SOME issue. He was the 2040 FL Player of the Year with the Cyclones, hitting .347 with 33 homers and 95 RBI. Last year? .249 with 14 homers, 58 RBI. He shed almost 300 points of OPS. And he’s only 28! This year, he’s .265/.315/.347 out of the gate and remarkably pedestrian. His contract is up after this year, so the risk is limited, but we’re not gonna give up Matt Waters, who is probably hitting negative 75 points in AA as we speak, but I am too afraid to actually check.

Fun Fact: Nelson Moreno posted the third-worst season for a Raccoons pitcher by ERA last season.

Qualifying season, that is. His 5.01 mark trailed Jerry Morris (5.04 in 1979) and Bill Conway (5.15 in 2015) only. That does not include Jason Gurney’s tremendous 6.29 mark in 2032, where he fell one out short of reaching 162 innings to qualify.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-5) @ Loggers (5-8) – April 21-23, 2043

After an off day on Monday, the Raccoons ventured to Milwaukee to take on the Loggers, who were slow out of the gate and last in the North. They were sixth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed, with a -4 run differential (Coons: -6). The Loggers starters had given them little other than grief so far, but the Raccoons were last in runs scored, so there was that. We had lost the season series four years running, including 8-10 last year.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (1-1, 5.00 ERA) vs. Matt Peterson (0-0, 5.54 ERA)
Corey Mathers (1-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Chris Lulay (0-1, 5.27 ERA)
Cory Lambert (0-1, 1.23 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (1-2, 5.14 ERA)

Right, left, right, and all with an ERA over five.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Nettles – P Wheatley
MIL: LF Serad – SS Del Vecchio – 1B Brayboy – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – RF Hertenstein – C Sicco – 2B Simon – P M. Peterson

The offense continued to do nothing, and Wheatley continued to walk people, issuing free passes in the first and second innings, but not allowing a hit to the Loggers until the fourth. That hit, by Jared Paul, was an RBI double for the first run of the game, driving in Bill Reeves, who – sigh! – had drawn a leadoff walk. Including an intentional walk to Brad Simon with two outs and Paul on third base, Wheatley walked four in as many innings. He would finish with five walks in 5.2 innings before being lifted for the barely employed Sauerkraut, with the Raccoons still down 1-0. We had managed only two hits (same as the Loggers) at that point, none as impressive as the triple Maldonado ripped into the gap to begin the top 7th after Sauerkraut rung up Valentino Sicco to end the sixth. Manny struck out (as he did in every appearance against Peterson in this game), Yamamoto grounded out to third to keep Maldo pinned, but Jeff Kilmer relieved his poor old manager with a double up the leftfield line, tying the game with two outs, finally. Castro walked and Nettles grounded out, but at least we had gotten Wheatley off the hook…

The bottom 7th saw Sauerkraut, Sims, and Kelly pool together for two walks by the first two, then a Kelly K on Jonathan Fleming, who the Loggers boldly sent to bat left-handed against Sims rather than the certified coonskinner Ted Del Vecchio. Kelly rung him up, then did the same in a full count to Aaron Brayboy, ending the inning. Seth Green worked around a Yamamoto error in the eighth, but failed to pitch around his own leadoff walk to Adam Borchard to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Cesar Perez bunted the winning run to second base, and Scott Davison singled him in with one out to end the game. 2-1 Loggers. Maldonado 2-3, BB, 3B;

We walked eight in total, and two leadoff walks were the only runners that scored for the Loggers.

No lefty on Wednesday – Sergio Piedra was moved up to the middle game.

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Nettles – P Mathers
MIL: LF Serad – SS Del Vecchio – 1B Brayboy – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – C Sicco – RF Fleming – 2B Simon – P Piedra

Maldo remained the engine in the lineup, singling home the Raccoons’ Wednesday run in the third inning, the first marker in the game. Carreno scored it, having singled and stolen his fourth base of the year. Then Maldonado was caught stealing and the inning ended rather quickly. Fleming and Brad Simon answered with two leadoff singles off Mathers in the bottom 3rd. They were on the corners, and while Piedra popped up the bunt and was retired, T.J. Serad’s grounder to Carreno could not be turned for two, and the Loggers tied the game right away. Del Vecchio grounded out to keep it tied at one after three innings.

Carreno and Jimenez gave the Coons back-to-back 1-out singles in the fifth, with Ricky Jimenez bettering his average all the way to .140 with his bloop into shallow left-center. Maldonado flew out to center, advancing the lead runner Carreno to third base, which gave the Raccoons another lead when Manny grounded to the left side with two outs. Del Vecchio cut it off, but could not get off a throw to first base in time, with Carreno scoring on the infield single. Yamamoto ran a full count against Piedra, then singled to center, plating Jimenez from second base, 3-1. Piedra walked Kilmer to load the bases, then had Jose Castro at 0-2 before the Coons’ shortstop hit a chopper near the third base line. Manny eluded a reaching Jared Paul, and Castro legged out the throw to first base once the Loggers’ Gold Glover reconsidered his options, giving the Raccoons their second RBI infield single of the inning. Nettles hit a single to center to plate another run, 5-1, and then Corey Mathers got involved, singling a 3-2 pitch through the left side against a despaired Sergio Piedra. Two runs scored, 7-1, and the Loggers cut the strings on the puppet and sent right-hander Caleb Martin instead. Carreno flew out to left to end the 6-run fifth inning. Maldonado took him deep to left in the sixth, though, 8-1, and Manny and Kilmer got two more hits for one more run in that inning against Martin. Maldo hit a 2-run double off Giovenco in the seventh as the Raccoons kept piling on. One final run was driven in by Jay de Wit, batting for Jimenez in the ninth inning and doubling home Carreno for the final marker on the scoreboard. Corey Mathers and Travis Sims held the Loggers to six hits and one run in a rout. 12-1 Critters! Carreno 3-6; de Wit (PH) 1-1, 2B; Maldonado 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Fernandez 5-5, BB, 2 RBI; Kilmer 2-4, RBI; Castro 2-5, RBI; Mathers 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-1) and 1-4, 2 RBI; Sims 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Chris Lulay gave us a dose of southpaw on Thursday then, virtually guaranteed a shutout after we expended ALL of our week’s runs in the last game.

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Waltz – SS Castro – C Sieber – P Lambert
MIL: LF Serad – SS Del Vecchio – 1B Brayboy – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – RF Hertenstein – C Sicco – 2B Simon – P Lulay

Come game time, the Raccoons had the bases loaded with nobody out in the first, and didn’t even have to reach into the hits bucket to do so. Lulay walked the first two, and Maldonado reached on a Del Vecchio error. Not much came out of it – Manny Fernandez’ sac fly was the only run they got, with Yamamoto hitting into a fielder’s choice and Waltz whiffing outright to leave them on the corners. The Raccoons would draw three walks, but not get a hit through three innings, and Lambert was also not allowing a hit to the Loggers until Lulay singled off him to begin the bottom 3rd, after which things came apart real fast. After a walk to T.J. Serad, Brayboy singled in the tying run, and Lambert shed two more singles against Reeves and Daniel Hertenstein to fall 2-1 behind, then walked Valentino Sicco with the bases loaded. Dr. Padilla saw something at that point, jumped in, and removed Lambert from the game after a short conversation. I groaned. Sauerkraut would take over and struck out Brad Simon to end the inning, with the Loggers up 3-1 and the Raccoons bereft of another pitcher.

The Coons staved off the threat of the no-hitter when Jimenez hit a triple (and was stranded) in the fifth inning, while the Loggers broke the game open in the fifth inning, in which Sauerkraut basically retired nobody. He walked Reeves and Paul to begin the inning, then gave up an RBI single to Hertenstein, an RBI double to Sicco, and two more runs scored on a particularly gruesome throwing error by Yamamoto back to first base on Simon’s grounder. Sauerkraut barely handled Lulay’s bunt, then gave up another RBI single to Serad, 8-1, and was yanked after that. Alex Ramirez replaced him, but it didn’t really get better. Walk, single, sac fly. Single, walk, Sicco grand slam to right. That made 14 runs for Milwaukee, 11 in the inning, and I wished for October. Chuck Jones would end the inning after that, while Yamamoto’s error made the last seven runs in the inning unearned, two of the six on Sauerkraut, and all of the five runs on Ramirez. Van Anderson batted for Yamamoto leading off the sixth to send a bit of a message, walked, and scored on Justin Waltz’ triple. Castro brought in Waltz with a groundout, not that it particularly mattered, down by a dozen. In one of the more obtuse occurrences of this game, Chuck Jones had only his fourth Raccoons at-bat in his fourth season in this inning, and singled to knock out Lulay. It was also the final run of the game, the Loggers leaning back, and the Raccoons unable to add if they tried. But hey, at least we got to empty almost the entire pen once more… 14-3 Loggers. Jimenez 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Waltz 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Jones 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, and 1-1;

A roster move was upon us, with Cory Lambert (0-2, 2.60 ERA) DL-bound with shoulder tendinitis. He should be back in three to four weeks, Dr. Padilla opined.

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Knights (5-9) – April 24-26, 2043

The Knights were in fifth place, and just about to rally out of a 2-9 hole, having swept the equally frightful Condors (3-13) while the Raccoons exchanged blowouts in Milwaukee. The Knights were tops in OBP, but in the bottom three in homers and stolen bases, and seventh in runs scored overall. They were giving up the second-most runs in the CL, with a rotation with a 6.12 ERA, easily worst in the land. Atlanta had taken the season series in 2042, winning five of nine from the Critters.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (3-0, 0.93 ERA) vs. Bill Nichol (0-1, 9.26 ERA)
Brent Clark (0-2, 7.42 ERA) vs. David Farris (1-0, 4.26 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (1-1, 3.68 ERA) vs. Kurt Olson (0-1, 7.63 ERA)

All right-handers here … and of course Jamie King in the lineup, who was offered to us on Sunday for mainly Matt Waters, and we balked. Since then he’s torn up the Condors and hitting .313 again, and I was scored for my pitchers.

To fill the roster spot vacated by Lambert, the Raccoons brought back Jake White, who had a 1.72 ERA in AAA. Sauerkraut would have been a candidate to start until he was blown up, so maybe White would get Lambert’s starts instead. Seth Green was another option.

Game 1
ATL: RF Kristoff – 1B Jam. King – CF B. Oliver – SS Crim – C Horner – 3B D. Myers – LF Oshiita – 2B G. Ortiz – P Nichol
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Nettles – P Jackson

Jake Jackson was imploded for five runs in the first inning, including 2-run homers by Joe Crim and former Raccoon Dave Myers, then another two extra-base knocks by Dick Oshiita and Greg Ortiz for the fifth run. “Easily hittable” was not even beginning to describe it. Jackson would grind out four more innings in one of the more stupid starts we had seen in a while. He gave up another homer to Crim, a solo shot, but otherwise held the Knights very short, and struck out eight while walking nobody, which was the bane of all the other Raccoons pitchers that were routinely in trouble. The Raccoons had only two base hits through four, both Ricky Jimenez homers, a solo shot in the first and a 2-piece in the third inning that kept us in the game nominally, down 6-3 as Jackson departed, but that more or less ended when Zack Kelly was whacked around for four hits and two runs in the seventh inning. It made it an 8-3 game for the Knights, with a 13-2 total in terms of base hits. Slappy, be so kind and hand me my Capt’n Coma and Honeypaws. I need them both.

There was no recovery from this implosion either. The Raccoons got scoreless relief from Seth Green in the last two innings, but offensively remained confined to fewer hits than runs… but not to three runs. In the ninth inning they got a single from Carreno, who was caught stealing, then a walk drawn by Jimenez. Maldo was nicked. Manny popped out, making the second out, while Omar Gutierrez hit for Green in the #5 hole and whacked a 3-run homer to right to chase Nichol, one out removed from a complete game. Antonio Prieto, ex-Coon, got Kilmer to end the game for good. We had only five hits. 8-6 Knights. Jimenez 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Green 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
ATL: RF Kristoff – 1B Jam. King – SS Crim – CF B. Oliver – 3B D. Myers – LF Hester – C J. Herrera – 2B G. Ortiz – P Farris
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Gutierrez – RF Waltz – P Clark

Jimenez, now the team’s home run king with three on the season, rejoined the exclusive .200 club with a double in the bottom 1st, also sending Carreno, who reached on an error by Farris, to third base. Maldo popped out, but Manny singled to right, but against the strong arm by Kristoff the Raccoons had to hold the sluggish Jimenez at third base while Carreno scored. Yamamoto struck out and Kilmer would have grounded out, but Myers threw his grounder away for the Knights’ second error of the inning, bringing another run across, but Gutierrez then grounded out to end the inning, Portland up 2-0. The lead went bust in the third inning, with Clark walking two, giving up a 2-out RBI single to Crim, and then a 3-piece to Brian Oliver. When it rains, it pours, huh?

The tying runs reached scoring position right away in the bottom 3rd; Farris walked Jimenez, Maldo hit a double to left-center, and Maud encouraged me to have a cookie or two and maybe take the blanket off my head, but I refused. Alright, I peeked when I head LOUD contact off Manny Fernandez’ bat, and caught a glimpse of the ball as it vanished in the crowd in rightfield. His second homer of the year gave Portland a 5-4 lead in the third, and also made him the first Critter to reach double-digit RBI with 10.

That lead didn’t last anyway. Juan Herrera homered off Clark to tie the game in the fourth, and Jamie King singled – 12-game hitting streak! – and scored on a Myers double to give the lead back to the Knights in the fifth, 6-5. Can anybody on this team get an opposing hitter out?? – Maud, do we still have Preston Pinkerton’s number??

Clark ended up with a no-decision; Maldonado doubled to lead off the bottom 5th, then scored on a Kilmer sac fly with him and Yamamoto on the corners and one out evening the game at six. After a scoreless inning by Travis Sims (!) against the bottom of the order (still, !), the Raccoons got Waltz on base with a leadoff single against Sean Fowler in the bottom 6th. He advanced on a wild pitch, but pinch-hitter Stephon Nettles walked anyway in the #9 hole after the count ran full. Two on, no outs, top of the order: Carreno singled up the middle, but Waltz had to park it at third base, and now the Coons had run into the old three on, no outs trap. But Ricky Jimenez probably didn’t know about our three on, no outs misery? He had been in Cuba all the time! He also drew four straight balls from Fowler to give the Coons a new lead, 7-6, on the bases-loaded walk. Maldonado hit an RBI single through the right side, but Manny hit into a double play, 5-2-3…! Yamamoto was up to the call though, plating the two remaining runners from scoring position with a sharp single to right-center, 10-6! New pitcher Philip Wise yielded a single to Kilmer, another one to Gutierrez that scored Yamamoto, then struck out Waltz to get out of the Knights’ 5-run mess.

The mess got worse in the seventh, with Carreno on base and bidding for third base on a Jimenez single to center. Oliver threw the ball away, allowing Carreno to score, 12-6, and Jimenez into scoring position. Maldo snapped an RBI single, and Manny roped a 2-run homer to right in a bid to flay more and more flesh out of the Knights relievers’ bodies. Rich Ray briefly restored order when he entred the game for Atlanta, but loaded the bases with Nettles, Carreno, and Jimenez in the bottom 8th, bringing up Maldonado with two outs. Maldo thundered a base-cleaner into the gap in left-center for a 3-run double, extending the Coons’ lead to a dozen. They’d win by as many. 18-6 Critters!? Jimenez 2-3, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Maldonado 5-6, 3 2B, 5 RBI; Fernandez 3-6, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Yamamoto 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Nettles (PH) 1-2, BB;

(still sits with the blanket over his head) Can I look now, Maud?

Game 3
ATL: RF Kristoff – 1B Jam. King – CF B. Oliver – SS Crim – C Horner – LF Montes – 3B D. Myers – 2B G. Ortiz – P Olson
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – SS Castro – RF Waltz – C Sieber – P Wheatley

Wheatley pitched behind in the count a lot (and had more walks than strikeouts even to begin the game), but outlasted Kurt Olson, who left after two scoreless innings because of injury. It also started to rain in the third, so this was a bit of a busy rubber game, except that nobody had scored a run yet. Wheatley was a bit better the second time through, until Ortiz hit a 2-out double with nobody out in the fifth. PH Dick Oshiita walked in the #9 hole, but Justin Kristoff grounded out to keep the Knights off the board through five, with only two hits to their name – same as Portland at that point, but then the Coons hit three singles off Sean Fowler in the bottom 5th. Manny’s led off the inning and was of the infield variety, and he was forced out by Yamamoto, but then singles to left by Castro and Waltz filled the bags for Sean Sieber, hitting all of .118; he fell to 0-2, but then grounded up the middle and the ball got through between Crim and Ortiz for a 2-run single…! Wheatley bunted the runners over, and Carreno hit an RBI single to right to extend the lead to 3-0. Jimenez flew out to the fence in right to end the inning, Kristoff making the catch on the run and barely avoiding the fence.

Wheatley went seven shutout innings and was hauled in just as his control was coming apart again, conveniently hit for in the bottom of the seventh inning by Omar Gutierrez, who singled with one out and nobody aboard. He was then caught stealing before the 1-2 Coons both hit 2-out singles. Maldo grounded out – much noise for nothing. Chuck Jones retired three lefty batters in a row in the eighth to maintain the 3-0 lead, and while Yamamoto got on in the bottom 8th, he didn’t score, and the ninth was Rella’s. Oliver grounded out. Crim did the same, just as the rain picked it up. Adam Horner grounded out to Gutierrez at third base just before Rella could be washed off the mound in a landslide. 3-0 Coons! Carreno 2-3, BB, RBI; Fernandez 2-4; Yamamoto 2-4, 2B; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (2-1);

In other news

April 21 – Boston centerfielder Mark Vermillion (.333, 1 HR, 7 RBI) has two hits in a 10-4 win over the Indians, reaching the 2,000 hits plateau for his career. The 34-year-old, who has five Gold Gloves in a 15-year, 3-city career, hitting .292 with 129 HR, 814 RBI, and 300 SB, singles off rookie IND MR Tommy Gardner (0-0, 1.23 ERA) to reach the milestone, who was seven years old when Vermillion debuted for the Scorpions.
April 21 – The Falcons’ OF Seth Case (.250, 0 HR, 2 RBI) plays hero to clinch a 4-3 game over the Aces, getting hit by Gabe McGill (0-2, 10.80 ERA) with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to force in the winning run.
April 22 – RIC SP Omar Lara (2-1, 2.31 ERA) 2-hits the Washington Capitals in a 4-0 shutout, whiffing eight.
April 22 – NAS LF/RF/1B Sean Ashley (.328, 4 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three weeks with a sore shoulder.
April 24 – VAN OF Jerry Outram (.481, 1 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three weeks, having gone down to an oblique strain.
April 24 – Falcons phenom OF/2B Miguel Martinez (.431, 0 HR, 13 RBI), a tender 19 years old, has chained together a 20-game hitting streak with one knock in a 2-1 loss to the Indians.
April 25 – CHA OF/2B Miguel Martinez (.424, 0 HR, 13 RBI) goes hitless in a 7-4 loss to the Indians, ending his hitting streak at 20 games.
April 25 – Aces 1B/RF/LF Pat Gurney (.352, 1 HR, 14 RBI) replaces Martinez in the spotlight, hitting a double in a 4-1 win over the Crusaders to reach the 20-game hitting streak territory.
April 25 – LAP OF Juan Benavides (.393, 4 HR, 10 RBI) could miss two weeks with a bruised collarbone.

FL Player of the Week: NAS 1B/C Jeff Wilson (.500, 3 HR, 6 RBI), hitting .727 (8-11) with 1 HR, 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR UT Jesus Maldonado (.343, 2 HR, 12 RBI), batting .440 (11-25) with 1 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Jamie King, who we could have traded for with the Knights, had a 5-hit game by Wednesday (same as Manny), and now seems to be getting back on the horse. Another missed opportunity in Doom City! … at least he didn’t kill us outright on the weekend, that would have sucked.

Raccoons have three pitchers on the DL. Jon Craig will come off on Tuesday, Lambert will return in the second half of May or so, and Moreno… who knows, August?

Now, Jason Wheatley had two alright starts this week, dropping his ERA to 2.49, which sounds great, but while he is nowhere near the league lead in walks, he has offered 14 free passes against 10 K, and his FIP is a lofty 5.02, so I yet hold my breath on him being a star yet.

Next week: Thunder, damn Elks.

Fun Fact: Jared “Ottie” Ottinger looked like the next big thing when he pitched to an 11-11 record with 3.62 ERA in the 2037 season.

He’s now retired, says this One Hit Wonder card he got from Mr. Dobbs’ Base-Ball Card Co., and that he spent his entire professional career with the Raccoons, who took him #25 in the 2033 draft, then regretted it when he came apart at age 25 and was out of baseball at 28, finishing with 100 career appearances (86 starts) in the majors, a 29-30 record and 4.54 ERA.

Maud, we have to write to Mr. Dobbs. I regret nothing, and I never learn from my mistakes!

Also write them that I chipped my tooth on this concrete chewing gum in that package and they’ll hear from our lawyer.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (10-8) vs. Thunder (11-8) – April 27-29, 2043

There was always something going on in the Thunder’s games, with them having the second-most runs scored and runs allowed, with a -10 run differential. Their rotation had a 4.68 ERA, and their pen was almost a full run worse. Unsurprisingly, they had a bottom three defense as well. And yet, they had a winning record. We had beaten them five out of nine last season.

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (2-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Bill Dickinson (1-2, 6.88 ERA)
Jake White (0-0) vs. Alan Fleming (2-1, 3.99 ERA)
Jake Jackson (3-1, 2.96 ERA) vs. Juan Ramos (1-1, 5.96 ERA)

The series opened with a southpaw in Dickinson, the only one they had.

Game 1
OCT: RF Zurita – 3B Martell – C Adames – CF Kinder – LF E. Moore – SS Rowell – 1B A. Zacarias – 2B C. Vega – P Dickinson
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Waltz – P Mathers

The first pitch by Mathers nailed Angelo Zurita, and the Thunder scored a run almost as quickly, moving Zurita to third base on Al Martell’s single, and across home plate on Jesus Adames’ groundout, but Mathers at least kept Martell on base. Three doubles in the bottom 1st though helped the Coons score three runs. Jimenez, Yamamoto, and Kilmer all landed two-basers, with Maldonado drawing a walk in between, and Jose Castro walking with two outs, but then being stranded alongside Kilmer when Justin Waltz flew out to Ethan Moore, keeping the score at 3-1. The Critters then started the bottom 2nd with three straight singles from Mathers, Carreno, and Jimenez, loading the bases with nobody out. I looked on with foreboding, and not for no good reason – Maldo grounded into a force at home plate, Manny managed a sac fly for the highlight, and Yamamoto made an out on a pop.

With a 4-1 lead, Mathers continued to hit batters, dealing a welt to Matt Kinder to begin the fourth inning, but Moore grounded into a double play. Alex Zacarias drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and got nowhere, while Yamamoto made another clumsy error in the sixth to put a runner on base, but Mathers worked around that, too. Even a Rick Rowell double to right, leading off the top of the seventh, couldn’t shake Mathers, who retired Zacarias, Carlos Vega, and PH Dan Whitley in order to strand the runner on third base and keep the score at 4-1, because obviously the Raccoons had gone to sleep after the four early runs. So we didn’t think much about keeping Mathers in there when Zurita hit a leadoff double in the eighth, and while he retired two more, the outs by Martell and Adames were productive and Zurita scored, 4-2. When Kinder singled with two outs, the Raccoons went to Chuck Jones, who walked Moore, but got through Rowell, a .174 hitter, to end the inning. Pitching for Oklahoma at this point was Jon Craig, a right-hander, which was confusing, since I had been pretty sure that Jon Craig, a right-hander, was a Raccoons pitcher. Turns out, there are two of them! We had the white one, they have the black edition, a 27-year-old rookie that had a cup of coffee last year, but never crossed our paths. The Raccoons, after three doubles in the first, three singles in the second, got three times nothing in every inning after that, giving the ball to Josh Rella in the ninth. Zacarias, Vega, and John Peck went down in order, the last two on strikes. 4-2 Raccoons. Jimenez 2-3, BB, 2B; Mathers 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (3-1) and 1-3;

Our Jon Craig was activated from the DL on Tuesday at the expense of Travis Sims (1.50 ERA).

Game 2
OCT: 2B C. Vega – RF Zurita – C Adames – CF Kinder – SS Rowell – 1B A. Zacarias – LF E. Moore – 3B Martell – P Fleming
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Nettles – SS Castro – C Sieber – P White

The second inning was a busy one for Yamamoto, who made another error to prolong White’s stint in the top half of the inning, then hit a solo homer in the bottom half to put the Raccoons up 1-0. The lead came apart fast, with a leadoff single by Carlos Vega, then a walk offered to Zurita to begin the top 3rd. Sieber threw away the ball on a double steal attempt with one gone, conceding the tying run and moving the go-ahead run to third base, from where Matt Kinder singled him in, giving the 2-1 lead to the Thunder. White would not get past the fifth inning, conceding another two runs in the fifth, in which the Thunder’s first four batters all reached – walk, single, double, walk – before three poor outs killed the inning for them. And even getting that far for this little return took White 104 pitches.

The Raccoons were annoyingly silent. Castro reached base in the bottom 5th, stole second base, and was left on third. Omar Gutierrez pinch-hit for White with Castro on third and one out, but whiffed, and Carreno grounded out. Adames’ error put Yamamoto on second base with nobody out in the bottom 7th, and a Nettles single put runners on the corners and brought the tying run to the plate. Castro hit into a fielder’s choice, while Sieber barley hit a sac fly to right, but that was all the Critters got. Gutierrez, who had remained in the game over Carreno, flew out to center to end the inning, then also wove and error into a spotty appearance in the ninth inning, but Zack Kelly got around that. The Raccoons arrived in the ninth trailing by two and facing the 0.87 ERA of Brad Blankenship. Manny grounded out, Yamamoto flew out, and Nettles got nailed. Jay de Wit took a bat to hit for Zack Kelly in the #7 hole, but popped out on the first pitch. 4-2 Thunder. Nettles 2-3, 3B;

Game 3
OCT: RF Zurita – 3B Martell – C Adames – CF Kinder – SS Rowell – 1B A. Zacarias – LF J. Sanchez – 2B C. Vega – P J. Ramos
POR: 2B Carreno – RF Nettles – 3B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – CF Anderson – P Jackson

Kinder reached base to begin the second inning by getting his foot smushed with an errant fastball. He limped off the field and was replaced with Moore, who scored on a Zacarias homer that gave the Thunder an early 2-0 lead. Even without the homer, Jake Jackson didn’t have a good start – many long counts, often behind in the count, and he was already over 70 pitches after just four innings despite yielding only two runs. The Raccoons meanwhile hit into double plays in three consecutive innings, Kilmer killing Yamamoto reaching on an error in the second, Jackson forcing out Van Anderson with a bad bunt, then getting doubled up by Carreno in the third, and then Manny Fernandez chomping into a double play after Nettles reached base to begin the fourth. – No, Slappy, they’re not gonna score. Time to spruce up the Capt’n Coma with some wheel rim cleaner. (pours thick green liquid into booze)

Jackson got two quick outs in the fifth, then loaded the bases with Martell, Adames, and Moore. The Raccoons just wanted him to finish the inning by now, but wouldn’t even get that. He walked in a run against Rick Rowell (hitting a strong .138), then plated another one with a wild pitch. That took the grand slam away from Zacarias when he hit a belter out of leftfield. Buried 7-0, Jackson was yanked. With the game in the paws of Sauerkraut afterwards and thoroughly in the bin, Carreno and Nettles scrabbled together a sad run in the sixth. Sauerkraut loaded the bases in the seventh with Adames, Moore, and Zacarias, then got a 2-out grounder from Jorge Sanchez to Carreno. He tossed to first, Yamamoto dropped ANOTHER ******* ball, and another run scored. Vega struck out to end the inning and strand three. Sauerkraut covered another inning, 3.1 innings in total, on 50 pitches, only shedding the unearned run.

We still got *something* out of the game – the bottom 8th began with a Van Anderson double, and Jay de Wit was nicked hitting for Sauerkraut. Carreno hit a hard fly to deep left-center and it kept stretching all the way until it was outta here – first career home run for Arturo Carreno…! It still meant the Coons were down by a slam… One inning remained for the Thunder, and that was just enough time for Seth Green to ineptly load the bases, nailing Adames and walking Rowell and Zacarias. Somehow they also struck out twice and Jimmy Kuhn popped out to end the inning without a run coming across. Rowell hurt himself on a defensive play in the bottom of the ninth, but the Raccoons still went down in order. 8-4 Thunder. Carreno 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Becker 3.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Somehow we were only out-hit 6-5, but turns out issuing seven walks, three hit batsmen, and an error and a wild pitch didn’t ******* help.

And it is not going to get better this weekend…

Raccoons (11-10) @ Canadiens (15-7) – May 1-3, 2043

First in runs scored, the damn Elks were salivating over beating up the la-la Coons on the weekend. I bid the boys farewell at the airport, knowing I’d only get a few dog tags back. The Elks were also third in runs allowed, with a +40 run differential that was steadily growing. The only thing they had to straighten out was their bullpen, which had an ERA of 4.62. The Coons had beaten the Elks on Opening Day, then had lost the next two games in the first meeting between these teams in ’43.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (0-2, 8.35 ERA) vs. David Arias (4-0, 1.63 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-1, 2.49 ERA) vs. John Roeder (2-1, 3.60 ERA)
Corey Mathers (3-1, 2.20 ERA) vs. Matt Sealock (4-1, 3.93 ERA)

Roeder was the only left-hander in their rotation right now, while their only DL dweller was perhaps the best player in baseball, Jerry Outram, who was out with an oblique strain, putting his ridiculous .481/.580/.648 bat in the freezer.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – SS Castro – P Clark
VAN: CF van der Zanden – C Clemente – 2B Schneller – RF V. Vazquez – LF J. Becker – SS R. Johnston – 1B M. Hernandez – 3B R. Ashley – P D. Arias

There were no hits in the game – and no runners other than freshly-anointed Rookie of the Month Arturo Carreno on a leadoff walk in the first – when the Raccoons got two runners aboard on errors to begin the third inning. Dan Schneller fumbled a Castro grounder, and Arias threw away Clark’s bunt. Carreno struck out, but Ricky Jimenez came through with a single up the middle for a 1-0 lead, and Slappy and me approvingly clanged our bottles of booze together back in Portland on the trusty brown couch. It got better after that, with Jesus Maldonado ramming a 3-run homer to right, tying for the team lead in homers (3) and taking the team lead in RBI (a paltry 15). All four runs were unearned. The Elks’ first run was earned; it came in the fourth inning, a Timóteo Clemente homer to center after Clark had retired ten straight to begin his day, and whiffed four. Dan Schneller hit a single afterwards, but Clark then settled back in and retired Victor Vazquez and Justin Becker to get out of the inning, still up 4-1.

But Clark’s counts got long and the fifth and sixth took forever (although the damn Elks didn’t exactly threaten), and the Raccoons batted for him with one out in the seventh. He was at 100 pitches. Van Anderson singled in the spot, while Carreno added another single and Jimenez walked to load the bases against right-hander Mario Godinez. Maldonado hit another deep fly to right, but this time Vazquez caught it on the warning track - it was good enough for a sac fly, though, 5-1! Manny then slapped a 3-1 pitch through Ray Ashley for an RBI single, and Yamamoto’s 2-2 poker up the middle eluded the infielders for another RBI single. New pitcher Matt Fries gave up another RBI single to Nettles, before Kilmer flew out. After their second 4-spot of the game, the Raccoons divined to keep Anderson in the game over Nettles, and try to get two innings out of the chronically inefficient Seth Green. Asking for trouble, the Raccoons got trouble. Green got five outs, while hitting two batters, one each in the seventh and eighth, and gave up a single to Johnny Lopez in the bottom 8th, an inning in which Ricky Jimenez also chipped in an unhelpful error. Alex Ramirez bailed out Green by getting a pop out of Victor Vazquez, ending the eighth. Zack Kelly put the Elks away on four pitches in the ninth. 8-1 Raccoons! Maldonado 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Anderson (PH) 1-1, BB;

(sings jubilantly and tipsily with Slappy on the couch)

We cost the Elks first place, with Boston (!) scooting past, now on a 15-7 record.

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Waltz – P Wheatley
VAN: RF van der Zanden – C Clemente – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B J. Becker – 1B J. Lopez – CF Mann – SS R. Johnston – P Roeder

The Raccoons started the game with three straight hits, but didn’t get further than Ricky Jimenez’ RBI single that brought home Carreno and his leadoff triple as far as the R column was concerned. Maldonado singled, but Manny hit into a double play and Yamamoto flew out to left. The damn Elks got two leadoff singles in the bottom 1st off Wheatley, who came off a couple of good starts, but also met their end with a double play by Hernandez. A pair was on again to begin the bottom 2nd, Justin Becker walking and Johnny Lopez whacking a double to right. Jeremy Mann struck out, but both Ryan Johnston and John Roeder (…) brought in a run each with a grounder and single up the middle, respectively. Wheatley continued to drown in runners, offering a walk that was erased on a double play in each of the third and fourth innings, while Mann then reached on another single in the bottom 4th, but was caught stealing. After a clean fifth, Schneller singled with one out in the sixth. Hernandez and Becker made poor outs, though, and the game remained tight at 2-1, but with the Raccoons not getting on the horse against Roeder, scattering four hits after their early onslaught through the end of six, but not reaching third base even once.

Justin Waltz hit a blooper for a leadoff single in the seventh, then was bunted to second base by Wheatley. Carreno whiffed, Jimenez walked, and that was the end of Roeder, with lefty Ryan McConnell replacing him against Maldonado. He got a pop to end the inning, while the Coons got a 1-2-3 from Wheatley in his seventh and final inning. He was replaced by Jon Craig, who gave the damn Elks an unearned insurance run in a collaboration with Jose Castro that made me cringe – Castro threw away Angel Escobido’s grounder to begin the bottom 8th, putting a free runner on second base. Castro also didn’t have a hit all week (0-for-15) and was hit for to begin the ninth inning against lefty Alexander Lewis. De Wit slapped a single up the middle, then was forced out on Waltz’ grounder to short. Stephon Nettles batted for Craig, singled, and the tying runs were on base! Carreno struck out. Jimenez, unretired in this game, struck out… 3-1 Canadiens. Jimenez 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Maldonado 2-4; Kilmer 2-4; de Wit (PH) 1-1; Nettles (PH) 1-1;

Yamamoto got a day off on Sunday, Jose Castro very much got a day off on Sunday, Omar Gutierrez got that assignment, and Cristiano Carmona got sent to the gas station and the liquor store down the street to get more snacks and booze for the rubber game. I felt like I’d need the booze especially.

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – CF Anderson – SS Gutierrez – P Mathers
VAN: CF Escobido – C Clemente – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B J. Becker – 1B J. Lopez – RF van der Zanden – SS R. Johnston – P Sealock

Three hits and a run in the first again, with Carreno opening with extra bases again, this time a double to left. Jimenez legged out an infield single, and Maldonado plated the run… with a double play. Manny’s single after that was only statistical noise, and the inning ended with Nettles, and Melvin Hernandez doubled home Clemente to tie the game in the bottom of the inning right away. And just like the last few games, the Raccoons “burst” (sorta) out of the gate, then reduced themselves to snoozing immediately after. While Mathers did his very best (and much more than his scouting report would give him potential for), the Raccoons had inning like the fifth, where Omar Gutierrez drew a leadoff walk, was caught stealing, and then nothing else happened ever again.

The 1-1 game came untied in the sixth, but not for the Raccoons doing anything… or even reaching base. Mathers loaded the bases by hitting Clemente, a Schneller single, and a walk to Hernandez; oh, and nobody out. Kilmer then had a lapse and lost the 1-1 pitch for a passed ball, giving the damn Elks the lead, 2-1. Then Becker grounded to the left side, Jimenez had to hustle from playing rather deep, and had no play – infield single, another run across. Mathers angrily struck out Lopez and van der Zanden, but the game was in the bin even with Johnston popping out to strand runners on the corners. I was upgrading my Capt’n Coma supplements to a splash of hydrochloric acid.

Or was it? Sealock was still at it in the seventh, and with one out yielded a soft single to left-center to Kilmer. Anderson dropped another soft single into left and the tying runs were aboard. Gutierrez fanned, but Jay de Wit slapped a single through the right side in Mathers’ spot. This loaded the bags for Carreno… who popped out to Escobido in shallow center… (groan!) … In the eighth, singles by Maldonado and Nettles off McConnell and Sebastian Parham, respectively, put the tying runs on the corners with two outs, but Kilmer grounded out to Becker. Ramirez and Jones held the Raccoons in the game at least on paper with spotless relief against the damn Elks, with Lewis then back up in the ninth inning, facing the bottom of the order, which was in issue given that Lewis was a lefty. Anderson, over .300 in limited action, struck out, but Yamamoto and Waltz were out as pinch-hitters for the next two guys. Both reached – Yamamoto doubled to center, and Waltz walked in a full count, which marked the third straight inning that the Raccoons put at least the tying runs on base, but they had yet to score. Carreno grounded the first pitch to second base. Schneller went to second, but no double play was available – the tying runs were on the corners for Jimenez… who struck out. 3-1 Canadiens. Yamamoto (PH) 1-1, 2B; de Wit (PH) 1-1;

10 Raccoons had one hit each. The damn Elks had five in total.

We lost.

Sounds fair.

In other news

April 27 – The Capitals’ SP Corey Booth (1-2, 4.82 ERA) is going to miss at least four months with shoulder soreness.
April 29 – LVA 1B/RF/LF Pat Gurney (.346, 2 HR, 17 RBI) has his hitting streak of 22 games stopped by the Indians, going empty in a 5-4 win for Vegas.
April 29 – But a new hitting streak reaches 20 games, as CIN 3B Jesus Burgos (.402, 0 HR, 13 RBI) connects for two hits in a 9-3 loss to the Scorpions.
April 29 – The Titans roll out a stunning 26 hits in a 17-2 smashing of the Bayhawks, although only 1B/LF/RF Carlos Cortes (.365, 3 HR, 13 RBI) lands four base hits individually, but except for CF Mark Vermillion (.324, 2 HR, 11 RBI) who leaves early with an oblique strain, every Titans positional starter has at least two base hits.
April 30 – Aces SP Josh Henneberry (1-2, 4.50 ERA) 3-hits the Indians with nine strikeouts for a 3-0 shutout.
April 30 – Knights SP Kurt Olson (0-1, 6.75 ERA) is out for the year with a torn rotator cuff.
April 30 – The Pacifics acquire SS Tony Hunter (.143, 0 HR, 2 RBI) from the Buffaloes for MR Domingo Murillo (1-0, 6.75 ERA) and #61 prospect INF Adriano Chavez.
May 1 – SAC SP Danny Orozco (4-1, 2.85 ERA) 3-hits the Warriors, who also get routed for 14 runs in a shutout. SAC LF/RF Mike Preble (.358, 3 HR, 18 RBI) drives in six runs on three hits, including a grand slam.
May 1 – BOS RF/CF Joe Ritchey (.311, 4 HR, 9 RBI) will miss a month and then some more with a separated shoulder.
May 3 – CIN SP Melvin Lucero (2-1, 3.48 ERA) and CL Steve Bailey (1-3, 5.56 ERA, 5 SV) pitch a combined 1-hitter over the Buffaloes, 1-0, with only TOP 3B/SS Marshall Greer (.241, 1 HR, 9 RBI) hitting a single off Lucero.

FL Player of the Week: SAC LF/RF Mike Preble (.386, 3 HR, 20 RBI), hitting .583 (14-24) with 2 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS 1B/RF/LF Carlos Cortes (.388, 3 HR, 16 RBI), batting .483 (14-29) with 4 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SAC 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.341, 6 HR, 27 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: CHA SS Tony Aparicio (.459, 5 HR, 23 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: NAS CL Chris Henry (2-0, 0.77 ERA, 7 SV)
CL Pitcher of the Month: CHA CL Marcus Goode (2-0, 1.59 ERA, 8 SV)
FL Rookie of the Month: SFW RF Matt Diskin (.317, 2 HR, 9 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: POR 2B Arturo Carreno (.329, 1 HR, 6 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Carreno! I needed that bit of confirmation, that not everything I do is entirely meaningless and for the bottoms.

What else is new? Bitter losses against the damn Elks are not (2-4 this year), but somehow we outscored them this time. Not that it helped us any in the standings. No longer over .500! I feel like we won’t get back over, either.

Castro (0-for-15) and Manny (2-for-23) had absolute nightmare weeks, and somebody always seems to have one of those, leading to no scoring whatsoever, and sometimes not even baserunning for five, six innings in a row, which is consistent with an offense that can only get over four runs in a game about once in a fortnight.

There are no reinforcements in AAA that would help us get anywhere. No starting pitchers (all having control issues and Merino of course vanished onto the DL), and also no bats. Well. Steve Nickas and Nick Lando are both hitting over .300 in limited action. The question is whether we need either of those back.

…and whether they can have a love child that would then be named Nick Nickas.

We continue this road trip to New York and Sacramento, then will return home for a 2-week gig at the old ballpark.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons are only third in stolen bases with 21 SB, and with a middling 65.6% success rate.

The Crusaders and Loggers are having 31 and 28 SB, respectively, both with success rates over 75%. The most attempts on the Raccoons have been made by Carreno, who is 4-for-10 so far after 4-for-7 last year.

Arturo, not trying to curtail your creativity and your … “flair” … but maybe stop yelling before and while you go: “Here I come, here I come, dum-dudum-dudum-du-dum!” You’re out before the second dudum, and I find that dumb.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-12) @ Crusaders (13-11) – May 4-6, 2043

Winners of four in a row, the Crusaders welcomed the Raccoons for the first set of the year between these two teams. New York was third from the bottom in runs scored, but scoring off them was just as hard; they had a +1 run differential (Coons: +5). More low-scoring games, anyone? And while the Coons loved to steal bases, the Crusaders were in that game even more, leading the league with 31 bags in 24 games. The Coons had taken home the season series last year, 10-8.

Projected matchups:
Jake White (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Jeff Johnson (1-3, 7.25 ERA)
Jake Jackson (3-2, 4.66 ERA) vs. Ernie Quintero (3-0, 3.19 ERA)
Brent Clark (1-2, 6.66 ERA) vs. Paul Paris (2-2, 3.55 ERA)

We’d see all right-handers here.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – CF Nettles – RF Waltz – SS Castro – C Sieber – P White
NYC: SS Adame – 2B Briones – RF Platero – CF Melendez – 3B Nash – 1B Rudd – LF Graf – C H. Alvarez – P J. Johnson

Players went 0-for-15 with two walks issued by White the first time through both orders until Jeff Johnson singled up the middle to begin the bottom 3rd, which was swiftly followed by Alex Adame’s single, then a four-pitch walk to Mario Briones. Hooray, trouble! Jose Platero hit a sac fly to center, after which the remaining runners, with the pitcher roadblock removed, pulled off a double steal. That turned out not to factor into the line score much in the end – Bill Melendez rammed a 2-1 pitch by White outta here anyway. The Raccoons reached both the H and R columns on Manny Fernandez’ solo homer to right in the next half-inning, reducing the New Yorkers’ lead all the way to 4-1… The Coons would get Jimenez and Maldo on base to begin the sixth inning, but then Manny lined out to Briones, and Nettles bounced into a 4-6-3 double play. Waltz and Sieber were on base in the seventh inning; de Wit batted for White, who did not allow a run outside the damn third inning, but whiffed for the second out, while Carreno lined up the middle – and that ball was spectacularly caught by Alex Adame…! The Raccoons couldn’t get a break… and they were out-hitting the Crusaders, 6-4, but still trailed 4-1. The Crusaders also didn’t get another hit against Sauerkraut and Seth Green, who partitioned the seventh and eighth innings between them in a 1:2 ratio, but neither did the Critters against Johnson, who was replaced with closer Andy Hyden for the ninth inning, the Coons bringing up the 5-6-7 batters. Nettles grounded out. Gutierrez batted for Waltz and walked, but Jose Castro, in an entirely anemic rut, flew out to Bill Melendez. Van Anderson batted for Sieber against the right-hander… and ended the game with a strikeout. 4-1 Crusaders. Sieber 2-3;

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – P Jackson
NYC: SS Adame – C Alba – RF Platero – 2B Briones – CF Graf – 2B Nash – LF Rudd – 3B Melendez – P E. Quintero

Four singles and two stolen bases gave the Raccoons three runs in the top of the first inning; Carreno, Maldo, Nettles, and Yamamoto all landed base hits, the first two got a stolen base in, and the last two split the RBI’s, two for Stephon Nettles and one for Yamamoto, who drove in Nettles after the latter advanced to second base on Tom Rudd’s late throw to home plate that was too late to snatch Maldonado. Maldo would score again in the third inning, whacking a leadoff double over Joe Graf and scoring on two well-placed groundouts to extend the lead to 4-0, while Jackson, who had been shackled two starts in a row, was just *fine* the first time through, yielding two hits and allowing no runs to the Crusaders. Maldo hit *another* double in the fifth, but then with two outs and nobody on, and was also stranded when Manny couldn’t break out of his own funk.

Jackson had broken out though and cruised through the innings until Tom Rudd tagged him with a leadoff double to right in the eighth inning. John Davis batted for Quintero and got a single through the right side to score Rudd with one out, and while he was out on Adame’s fielder’s choice grounder, the Raccoons then moved to the pen, selecting Chuck Jones against Fernando Alba, hitting .386 with three homers from the left side. Jackson was on 100 pitches anyway. Alba singled to right-center against Jones, who got out of the inning anyway when Adame was slapped out on Nettles’ throw in a vigorously disputed close call at third base. The ninth was then Rella’s, with the Raccoons having done their best hibernation dance again in the last four innings of batting. Briones doubled to left with one out, Graf walked in a full count, and Randolph Nash sent another deep fly to left – but Manny had it at the fence. Tom Rudd was the tying run with two outs then, hitting .225 from the left side. He struck out. 4-1 Raccoons. Maldonado 3-4, 2 2B; Jackson 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (4-2);

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Gutierrez – P Clark
NYC: SS Adame – 2B Briones – RF Platero – CF Melendez – LF J. Davis – 3B Nash – 1B Rudd – C H. Alvarez – P Paris

Brent Clark hit a single in the third inning, which gave him more base hits than the Crusaders had the first time through. Briones singled in the fourth inning off Clark, so that was that, while the Raccoons scattered four singles in four innings, always finding a way into a double play when it counted. Maldo hit into a two-for-one in the first, and Manny, still in a dire slump, did so in the fourth. Yamamoto hit a leadoff single to left in the fifth, and Kilmer also grounded to left, but into a 6-4-3 double play. Oh well, send Clark to the rescue! After Omar Gutierrez walked with two outs in the top 5th, Clark ripped a Paris fastball to deep right, high, and gone – home run! Brent Clark! Outta here! … I hugged a stocky red-haired lady on the concourse in utter excitement. She was a Crusaders fan though, and hit me with her purse until a guard intervened.

The Coons had more runners on base in the sixth. Jimenez opened with a double to left, while Maldo walked. Manny hit a liner – right at Adame for the first out. He couldn’t get a break…! A full-count walk to Nettles loaded the bases with one gone, but Yamamoto fanned and Kilmer grounded out to Nash… Platero and Melendez hit back-to-back 2-out singles in the bottom 6th in turn, but were stranded on Davis’ groundout. A leadoff double off the fence in right by Gutierrez was also wasted.

Clark was done after seven innings, with Alex Ramirez filling the eighth inning with competence and another goose egg on the scoreboard for New York. Josh Rella was out for the ninth again, but pulled the tying run to the plate right away with a leadoff walk to Davis. Alba batted for Nash, but grounded into a double play, getting that tying run off the plate again. Rudd grounded out, making the last out for the second game in a row. 2-0 Critters. Jimenez 3-4, 2B; Gutierrez 2-4, 2B; Clark 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (2-2) and 2-3, HR, 2 RBI;

Paul Paris went the distance for a complete-game 9-hitter on the losing end while the Raccoons were left wondering why they didn’t just fill their lineup with pitchers…

Thursday was off – with Cory Lambert expected back in time to make the start the next time a fifth starter would be needed, the Raccoons sent Jake White (0-2, 6.55 ERA) back to AAA. Since the pen *right now* was doing alright, the Raccoons did not go for an eighth reliever, but instead opted for a left-handed bat from AAA, bringing up 1B Art Goetz, who was hitting .146 with the Alley Cats. That was with a .138 BABIP.

Raccoons (14-13) @ Scorpions (15-13) – May 8-10, 2043

Both teams were in fourth place, but the Scorpions were actually scoring the most runs in the Federal League, while giving up the fifth-most. Their rotation was the worst in the league with an ERA of almost five. We had lost two of three against them last year.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (2-2, 2.51 ERA) vs. Craig Czyszczon (2-4, 5.17 ERA)
Corey Mathers (3-2, 2.60 ERA) vs. Josh Vercher (1-2, 5.01 ERA)
Jake Jackson (4-2, 3.93 ERA) vs. Ruben Guzman (2-0, 4.83 ERA)

Again, no southpaw to square off against.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Gutierrez – P Wheatley
SAC: SS Banuelas – 3B Copeland – 1B E. Moreno – RF Porfirio – LF Preble – 2B A. Cedillo – CF Rogers – C Graham – P Czyszczon

Sebastian Copeland doubled to left, and Wheatley was generally off and walked Joreao Porfirio with two outs and Copeland at third base, then threw a wild pitch that almost took out Mike Preble’s legs, and surely scored Copeland for the first run of the game. Preble grounded out to end the inning, but it only got worse from here. Wheatley was taken deep by Alfonso Cedillo to begin the bottom 2nd, then had two outs in the second when a Maldonado error put the opposing pitcher on base. Wheatley allowed a single to Jesus Banuelas, then another screaming double for two more runs to Copeland. A rattled Wheatley walked Eddie Moreno before Porfirio flew out to Nettles on another 3-1 pitch… Down 4-0, the Raccoons looked like they had already lost. There would be another run off Wheatley, who allowed hits to Czyszczon and Banuelas in the fourth inning, then a Moreno sac fly, to fall 5-0 behind (three earned), but was not back for the fifth inning, while the Coons had nothing off Czyszczon through four innings, but then hit straight singles with their 6-7-8 hitters to begin the fifth inning. That of course forced Wheatley from the game, with Jay de Wit hitting for him and grounding into a fielder’s choice at second base, scoring Yamamoto. Carreno flew out too softly to be useful, but Ricky Jimenez hit an RBI single through the left side. Maldonado struck out to end the inning, still down 5-2.

The Raccoons went to Sauerkraut for long relief (or two innings anyway), while Manny hit a jack to right leading off the sixth, narrowing the gap to two runs, briefly, with Sauerkraut suffering a Gutierrez error in the bottom of the inning, with Andy Graham then scoring on Banuelas’ single off Jon Craig. That run, too, was unearned, and the Coons trailed by three, or as many runs as were unearned for the Scorpions. That problem solved itself with Alex Ramirez on the mound in the bottom of the seventh. Porfirio walked, Preble singled, and Phil Rogers whacked a 3-piece to left. Porfirio hit another 2-piece off Ramirez in the eighth inning as things kept coming apart entirely. The Raccoons loaded the bases in the ninth with three pinch-hitters reaching base – but Maldonado lined out to Rikuto Ito, ex-Coon, in right to end the game. 11-3 Scorpions. Fernandez 2-4, HR, RBI; Kilmer 2-4; Castro (PH) 1-1; Goetz (PH) 1-1;

You know what’s funny? We out-hit the Scorpions, 11-10. This team is finding every opponent’s big spot it can, but can never convert their own chances….

Frustration.

…at least Jose Castro broke an 0-for-21 spell….

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – 1B Goetz – SS Castro – P Mathers
SAC: SS Banuelas – 3B Copeland – 1B E. Moreno – RF Porfirio – LF Preble – 2B A. Cedillo – CF Rogers – C Graham – P Vercher

Vercher hit Ricky Jimenez and yielded 2-out singles to Manny and Nettles in the first inning, but Kilmer struck out, and so another nine innings of frustration began. Jose Castro kept climbing back to .200 with a home run in the second, though, putting Portland up 1-0 before Mathers slapped a shy single, then scored on a Carreno triple in left-center. Ricky Jimenez was robbed in the gap by Preble, but easily brought home Carreno with the sac fly, 3-0. That 3-spot was also the only Coons offense worth putting in the books through five innings against Vercher, while Mathers scattered runners at a steady rate, but got two double plays to help out with three hits and two walks through five innings of shutout ball.

Banuelas opened the sixth inning with a single to right, and had 15 stolen bases on the year. Mathers watched him closely while Copeland popped out, Moreno whiffed, and then Banuelas still stole #16 off him. Porfirio grounded out to end the sixth, though. The Coons reached the corners with another Castro single and Vercher hitting Jimenez for the second time in the seventh, but Maldonado then made a sad last out, and the score remained 3-0; same in the eighth when Manny and Goetz were on the corners, and Castro struck out to keep them there.

Mathers lasted eight innings, scattering a total of seven base hits for no runs whatsoever, though. Rella did the rest. 3-0 Critters. Jimenez 1-2, RBI; Fernandez 2-4; Kilmer 2-4; Castro 2-4, HR, RBI; Mathers 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (4-2) and 1-2;

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B de Wit – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – SS Castro – RF Waltz – C Sieber – P Jackson
SAC: SS Banuelas – 3B Copeland – 1B E. Moreno – RF Porfirio – LF Preble – 2B A. Cedillo – CF Rogers – C Graham – P R. Guzman

Banuelas tripled and Copeland singled him home for the first run of the game in the bottom 3rd. The Raccoons and Scorpions were both on three hits and a double play, but we had lacked the fortune of a triple through three innings. Manny’s leadoff single and stolen base in the fourth only got him to third base, where he arrived on Yamamoto’s groundout, then watched Castro and Waltz both strike out. In the fifth a leadoff walk drawn by Sean Sieber and a 2-out infield single rolled by Jay de Wit got runners to the corners, and then Maldo struck out… Copeland though doubled home Andy Graham, who had drawn a leadoff walk from Jackson in the bottom 5th. Once Eddie Moreno struck out, it was 2-0 at the end of five, with Portland once more out-hitting the opposition, 5-4, while trailing.

Top 6th. Manny walked to lead off, and Yamamoto singled up the middle. Sigh. Alright, I will try to fake excitement. I excitedly watched on (makes unsure paw movement) as both Castro and Waltz struck out in full counts, before Sieber walked in the third straight full count. That knocked out both pitchers – Guzman, as the game was about to get away from him, replaced by righty Steve McKeny, and Jackson, because down by a pair and with three on and two outs we HAD to hit for him – he ended up with just 73 pitches thrown. Nettles grounded out McKeny’s first pitch. Ya-ay. Co-ons…

The Coons went to Sauerkraut, who retired nobody to begin the bottom 6th and left with the bases loaded and Jon Craig trotting in. He lobbed an infield roller by Phil Rogers to home plate for an out, but yielded a run on Graham’s sac fly to center. Former Raccoons farmhand Craig Hollenbeck then ended the inning with a grounder. We finally got on the board in the seventh, with Carreno’s leadoff single off Aaron Morris, a stolen base, and two groundouts to give the RBI (and the team RBI lead) to Maldonado. The eighth began with a Yamamoto single to left, but Preble robbed Castro near the line. Van Anderson hit for “Blackout” Waltz (0-3, 3 K) and put a golden sombrero in the #7 hole. Sieber grounded to short, but Banuelas bungled the ball, putting the tying run aboard with two down. Ricky Jimenez batted against new righty Omar Benitez then, got hold of the 1-1 pitch and dished it down the leftfield line. Preble missed the cutoff with a bad route, and both runners scored to tie the game…! Carreno struck out after that to end the top 8th.

Once tied, neither team managed to untie the game before extra innings broke over them in the rubber game. Ramirez was pitching a scoreless ninth even with a Jimenez error in the bottom 9th. Jimenez had stayed in after pinch-hitting, with Carreno out of the game and de Wit at second. Jimenez grounded out to end the 10th after Sean Sieber had doubled off Justin Salerno, but that kept Ramirez around for a second inning against righty opposition. He kept the game going. Goetz then hit for him and singled to begin the 11th inning. de Wit hit into a double play right away… In for the bottom 11th came Zack Kelly, who had last pitched in Vancouver and had picked his nose all week. He relished the fresh air outside the pen, running three full counts in the inning. Jose Zarate doubled on one, Banuelas walked on another, and Copeland struck out to end the inning on the third. Moreno singled on another full count to begin the bottom 12th, but was doubled up and the game continued. Here was the concern – the Raccoons only had Rella left in the pen, and after that it would be Brent Clark. Monday was off again, but we had to get through this one first… When Jimenez doubled with one out in the 13th, the Raccoons urged to send Jeff Kilmer to pinch-hit against Salerno… but couldn’t pull the trigger. De Wit had to get a hit with two outs after Salerno was done with Kelly. Instead, Kelly hit a gapper to left-center that dropped for back-to-back doubles and a 4-3 lead …! YOU GO, ZACK!! (jumps up and down, freezes, then seeks out Dr. Padilla)

Gabe Blanco replaced Salerno, but gave up a single to de Wit, then an RBI double to Maldonado. Manny singled through the right side for the third run of the inning, while Yamamoto hit a sac fly. Manny stole second, but Castro flew out, giving a 7-3 lead back to Kelly. He retired the Stingers in order. 7-3 Raccoons! Carreno 2-5; Goetz (PH) 1-1; de Wit 3-7; Fernandez 2-6, BB, RBI; Yamamoto 2-6, RBI; Jimenez (PH) 2-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Craig 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Ramirez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Kelly 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0) and 1-1, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 4 – Capitals outfielder Jim McGuigan (.256, 3 HR, 10 RBI) could miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum.
May 5 – Cyclones 3B Jesus Burgos (.415, 1 HR, 16 RBI) keeps hitting, reaching the 25-game mark with his hitting streak with three knocks, a double and two singles, in a 7-5 loss to the Rebels.
May 5 – CIN 2B Thomas Gould (.267, 1 HR, 9 RBI) is suffering from back spasms and could miss up to two months.
May 7 – Cyclones CL Josh Boles (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 SV) saves his first of the year and the 500th game of his career. The 39-year-old has taken a backseat in the late innings this year, but the 3-time Reliever of the Year with three different teams (Raccoons, Gold Sox, Stars) has great Hall of Fame chances with a 69-81 mark and 2.94 ERA. He has struck out 1,241 batters in 1,039 innings over his 18-year career. The save comes in the 15th inning of the second game of a double-header.
May 7 – The Canadiens take three of four from the Titans with a wild pitch by Boston’s Justin Johns (1-2, 5.19 ERA) that scores pinch-runner Angel Escobido (0-for-24, 0 HR, 0 RBI) to give the Canadiens a 6-5, 11-inning walkoff.
May 8 – CHA SS Tony Aparicio (.429, 7 HR, 29 RBI) keeps raking, falling a triple short of the cycle with five hits and two RBI in a 9-7 loss to the Miners.
May 8 – Rebels 1B Manny Liberos (.233, 1 HR, 15 RBI) will miss the rest of the month at least with a broken foot.
May 9 – SAL SP John Gano (2-4, 3.38 ERA) scintillates in a Pacific Northwest duel, 1-hitting the Canadiens and whiffing 13 batters in a 5-0 shutout. VAN C Timóteo Clemente (.222, 7 HR, 19 RBI) hits a first-inning single for the only Vancouver entry into the H column.
May 10 – The hitting streak of Cincy’s 3B Jesus Burgos (.420, 1 HR, 21 RBI) reaches 30 games in a 4-1 loss to the Indians. Burgos hits a double in the eighth to stay afloat.
May 10 – NYC SP Jeff Johnson (3-3, 4.35 ERA) 3-hits the Rebels in an 8-0 shutout.
May 10 – LVA 1B/RF/LF Sal Ayala (.327, 6 HR, 18 RBI) rakes in a 13-4 rout of the Warriors. The 31-year-old bangs out five hits, including four for extra bases, a homer and three doubles. He drives in three runs.
May 10 – ATL C Adam Horner (.241, 1 HR, 8 RBI) will miss at least a month with a broken wrist.

FL Player of the Week: DAL 2B Hugo Acosta (.416, 1 HR, 17 RBI), hitting .636 (14-22) with 1 HR, 1 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 3B/2B Doug Richardson (.287, 3 HR, 17 RBI), batting .435 (10-23) with 3 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Coons had two pitchers this week slapping in the winning run for themselves, Brent Clark doing it with a jack in his start, and Zack Kelly doing it with a 13th-inning double on Sunday after rotting in the pen for eight days. Sunday was that game where you *almost* wished for that extra reliever that we didn’t call up, but Monday is off and then all things should shake out again – Rella did not pitch at all, and three relievers (Jones, Green, Sauerkraut) only pitched for one or two outs. Or none (Sauerkraut). Sauerkraut!! (shakes fist)

Alberto Ramos signed a late, late deal with the Buffaloes this week, inking for $470k.

Art Goetz wore #22 earlier with the Critters, a number since given to Jason Wheatley. He now dons #34, briefly displayed by 3B Eric Cox last year.

Two-week homestand up after the off day on Monday – we will host the Miners, Loggers, Indians, and Condors in that string. No off day until the road trip after, when we will rest on Thursday, the 28th, in between gigs in Vegas and Charlotte.

Fun Fact: Corey Mathers, who is 12-18 with a 3.32 ERA for his career, might be the most underrated starting pitcher we know of right now.

And also the unluckiest. And he’s only 24 somehow!

Mathers is rated 12/12/9 by Scout Guy, and OSA is close at 12/11/10. The highest he was ever scouted was a potential 12/13/10 in ’39. Scout Guy gives our #20 pick from ’39 a heartfelt “eh!”. He has four decent pitches, but none overwhelming. He is a groundballer with a sinker as his main pitch, so he appreciates a defensively-minded infield like we have. His BABIP against him is .250 for the year.

Nobody scores for him, but Raccoons fans are used to that.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons started the week with a day off and with a roster move, Art Goetz being sent back to St. Pete after hitting 2-for-6 in a brief cameo. Cory Lambert was activated from the DL.

Raccoons (16-14) vs. Miners (16-14) – May 12-14, 2043

This was a weird team. They were eighth in runs scored with some power, no speed, and then most of the power was in eight homers hit by catcher Giampaolo Petroni, with only 13 homers for the rest of the team. Their rotation was close to the best in the Federal League – but their bullpen had an ERA over seven, which was frankly staggering in the middle of May. Overall, they conceded the sixth-fewest runs in the FL. The Raccoons had lost two of three to the Miners last season.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (2-2, 5.17 ERA) vs. Israel Mendoza (2-3, 3.73 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-3, 3.03 ERA) vs. Bill McMichael (3-0, 3.48 ERA)
Corey Mathers (4-2, 2.11 ERA) vs. Roberto Pruneda (2-3, 4.24 ERA)

Two right-handers sandwiching a southpaw for the Miners here. We’d not see either ex-Coon Rich Willett (3-1, 3.56 ERA) or former Critters harmhand Jonathan Dykstra (1-2, 2.39 ERA), who they had received in the Kurt Wall trade many, many years ago.

Game 1
PIT: LF F. Rojas – SS Ponto – 1B Santillano – C A. Mercado – CF Burch – RF Duncan – 2B Lira – 3B Iverson – P I. Mendoza
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – SS Castro – P Clark

Devon Ponto doubled, Anton Mercado walked, and Kevin Burch got a welt from Clark – but Nick Duncan grounded out and stranded all three base runners as the week and the homestand got underway. The Coons had three singles from their 2-3-4 batters to stack the bases themselves in the bottom 1st, then added two more with a 2-run single by Shuta Yamamoto that touched Ponto’s reaching glove, but escaped, and another single from Stephon Nettles to load the bags, but I was more engaged with Maud being on the phone with somebody and making arrangement and I had a primal fear that she was talking to Nick Valdes, who’d potentially come over on the weekend. Kilmer hit a sac fly to get to 3-0, but Jose Castro grounded out, ending the first inning. Clark blew the lead at once, surrendering three runs on three hits and three walks in the top 2nd, and was over 70 pitches in a completely ****** outing – not quite as ****** as the prospect of a Nick Valdes visit on the weekend, though.

Clark lasted four dismal innings, then was hit for in the bottom of the fourth, coincidentally in a fat spot with Kilmer and Castro in scoring position on a single and a double, respectively, and one out. Jay de Wit’s fly to center was caught by Kevin Burch, but was good enough for the lead, and Arturo Carreno singled home Castro with two outs to extend that lead to 5-3. Jimenez struck out to end the fourth, then was the odd one out with Sauerkraut landing in the #2 hole to pitch long relief. The Miners were all over him with big swings in the fifth, with Burch doubling to center and Duncan singling hard to right. Nettles threw out Burch at home plate with a perfect rocket from rightfield, but the Miners tied the game on three more base hits and a de Wit error in the sixth instead. Jonathan Iverson singled to lead off, PH John Marz reached on de Wit’s clunker, and Ponto and Mercado landed RBI singles with one and two outs, respectively. De Wit at least partially made it up in the bottom of the inning, singling home Nettles with two outs to take the team’s third lead of the day, 6-5, and runs were tacked on in the seventh against Dan Minelli of the vaunted Miners pen. He walked Justin Waltz, hitting for Sauerkraut, leading off, then conceded singles to Maldonado, Nettles, and Kilmer before being taken behind the shed – in between there was also an intentional walk to Yamamoto, and Jay Coats would give up one more run on a Castro single to right before the inning fizzled out. Instead, Chuck Jones got ticked for three hits, including two doubles, and two runs in the eighth inning, all the damage done by lefty hitters, and that narrowed the score to 9-7 again. The baseball gods were having a good day, I was suspecting. Pittsburgh home run leader Giampaolo Petroni didn’t even get involved until the ninth inning, where Josh Rella nailed him with one out, bringing the tying run to the plate in Tony Lira, who grounded into a force at second base. Iverson grounded out, ending a messy game with a messy win. 9-7 Raccoons. Anderson (PH) 1-1; Maldonado 2-5; Nettles 2-4, RBI; Kilmer 2-3, 2 RBI; Castro 2-4, 2B, RBI; de Wit (PH) 1-2, 2 RBI;

Maud, anything new? – Anything I should know? – No?

Game 2
PIT: CF F. Rojas – SS Ponto – 1B Santillano – RF Marz – C Petroni – 2B M. Colon – LF Dirks – 3B Iverson – P McMichael
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Castro – RF Waltz – P Wheatley

Two walks in the first inning reinforced the sad truth that command remained a huuuge issue for Jason Wheatley at this stage, although at least Felix Rojas, who drew a walk in a full count to begin the game, was caught stealing before long. The Miners didn’t get a hit off Wheatley until Danny Santillano (.306, 1 HR, 18 RBI) raked a double to left-center in the fourth inning, then almost got a ninth homer from Petroni, but Manny Fernandez picked the missile off the top of the fence to end the inning instead. The Raccoons had just as much or little offense as the Miners in the early inning, but loaded the bags with two outs in the bottom 4th on walks drawn by Maldo and Kilmer around a Yamamoto single. Jose Castro flew out to Rusty Dirks to let the chance drift away.

Dirks drew a walk from Wheatley in the fifth, with Iverson following that up with a single. The runners were on the corners, but the Miners had McMichael bunt with one out, getting Iverson to second, but that helped them little when Carreno received an easy grounder from Rojas for the third out. Then Wheatley singled to center with one out in our half of the fifth – his first hit of the year – and Carreno and Jimenez followed with softer and softer singles. The only way for Maldonado to hit an even softer single would be by hitting the baseball in such manner that it transformed into a fluffy bunny which would then hop away adorably from the infielders, but instead he flew out to Dirks in shallow left, a move mirrored by Manny a mere minute later, and the Coons stranded yet another full set. Offense then arrived in unlikely form in the bottom 6th. After two poor outs, Castro hit a single and Justin Waltz, inches from a ticket to St. Pete, tripled in the game’s first run with a ball that stretched over a reaching Rojas in centerfield and then made it all the way to the fence. Wheatley whiffed to strand him at third, then gave up singles to put Mario Colon and Rusty Dirks on the corners with one out in the seventh. Zack Kelly replaced him, walked the bags full, then gave up the tying run on Tony Lira’s groundout, and three more runs on screamers for extra bases with two outs to Burch and Ponto, hanging the loss on Wheatley when the Raccoons found not a single base runner in the last three innings against the dramatically flammable Miners bullpen… 4-1 Miners. Yamamoto 2-4;

I like neither this game, nor Maud’s gauging whether I can stomach more bad news. – What is it, Maud? – Is somebody coming to visit? – You’re not saying yet?

Game 3
PIT: LF Duncan – SS Ponto – 1B Santillano – RF Marz – C Petroni – 2B M. Colon – CF Dirks – 3B Iverson – P Pruneda
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Nettles – C Sieber – SS Castro – P Mathers

While Maud banked it all on a win in the rubber game, the Raccoons ran into another long inning in the top of the second inning. Mathers was whacked around for four runs, the first driven in with the old dagger Rusty Dirks used as a bat, singling in Petroni and his leadoff double. Pruneda (…) and Nick Duncan had 2-out knocks and they took a 2-0 lead at the end of it. Pruneda hit another 2-out single against Mathers in the fourth, putting runners on the corners, but Nick Duncan struck out. The Raccoons had two base hits from Yamamoto (forced out by Nettles) and Sean Sieber in the bottom 2nd, but then ran out of both spit and skill again. Even a leadoff walk by Manny and a prompt balk by Pruneda in the bottom 4th led nowhere; three poor outs stranded Manny at second base.

Mathers was done after five innings and as many runs, serving up homers to Ponto (his first of the year) and Petroni (#9) in the fifth and final inning of this Thursday’s baseball ordeal. The latter counted for two. When Jose Castro hit a homer in the bottom 5th to get to 5-1, I instead eyed Maud and Cristiano whispering on the other side of the room. Something was up! Unfortunately, that thing wasn’t the Coons’ striped tails. They had only one base hit in the next few innings, while the Miners put two on in the sixth, three in the seventh, and eight in the fourth against a cavalcade of Raccoons relievers that could barely get anybody out. Sauerkraut was charged another run in the eighth, in which he left with the bases loaded, but Alex Ramirez somehow managed to clean up, then also pitched the ninth. The Raccoons still faced Pruneda in the ninth inning, when the right-hander stumbled over a procession of soft singles to get yanked with the bases loaded and one out, Gutierrez, Kilmer, and Carreno having all reached base. Right-hander Rich Kappel, who had gotten the save on Wednesday, but had a 5.87 ERA, came in to see Ricky Jimenez, who brought up the tying run when he hit an RBI single through the left side on the first pitch. Maldonado struck out, but Manny, with two down, hit a liner to left-center and it vanished in the gap! One run in! Two runs in! Three runs in! Bases-clearing double for Manny Fernandez! And now, Yamamoto up as the winning run…! …and he grounded out to short. 6-5 Miners. Yamamoto 2-5; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Kilmer (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Tell me, Maud. Who’s coming to visit? – By your concerned face it must be something I deeply resent. Is it a group of schoolchildren that won first prize somewhere? – Good. Is it the interior decorator that redesigned Cristiano’s boudoir all in mauve? – Oh, I was concerned. Is it the IRS to take our books apart and look at every single receipt from the last seven years? – No? – What a relief, because, Steve from Accounting and me have some dead bodies in … never mind.

Oh, it’s Nick Valdes.

I would have preferred the IRS.

Raccoons (17-16) vs. Loggers (19-16) – May 15-17, 2043

Dropping the last two games with the Miners also had the Raccoons sag below the surging Loggers into fifth place in the division. Nick Valdes was reasonably grumpy when he arrived, and demanded wins immediately. Cristiano Carmona showed me where it was at, as the Loggers had won seven in a row, were first in runs scored, and still ninth in runs allowed, but beginning to straighten that out, too. They were up 2-1 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Cory Lambert (0-2, 2.60 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (2-3, 4.63 ERA)
Jake Jackson (4-2, 3.89 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (2-1, 6.34 ERA)
Brent Clark (2-2, 5.35 ERA) vs. Sal Chavez (2-5, 5.19 ERA)

All right-handers here, although Bobby Freels had left his last game with a sore wrist and was as of yet questionable.

Game 1
MIL: SS Del Vecchio – 2B J. Cruz – 1B Brayboy – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – RF Hertenstein – LF Borchard – C Sicco – P Piedra
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Gutierrez – RF Waltz – P Lambert

Homers by Jared Paul and Valentino Sicco gave the Loggers a 2-0 lead by the second inning, with Nick Valdes correctly but unhelpfully pointing out that this was not how you won baseball games. Lambert did not strike out anybody through four innings, but allowed only one more hit and kept the Loggers at least within reach, which became key when Manny Fernandez hit a home run to right in the fourth inning, which came with Maldonado on base and tied the game at two. Euphoria was uncalled for though, with Nick pointing out that there were not enough runners on base to take the lead. Which was true, but also not helpful. Also, the Loggers got Piedra on base with an infield single in the fifth, and then got him all the way around on a triple by ******* Ted Del Vecchio that caromed around in the right-center gap with Maldonado and Waltz chasing after it in vain. Jose Cruz’ sac fly extended Milwaukee’s lead to 4-2 again. The following inning, another pair of homers by Paul and Daniel Hertenstein knocked him out of a 6-2 game.

No rally was forthcoming any time soon, although Maldonado did hit a triple in the bottom of the sixth inning. It came with nobody on, two outs, and ended with another sad sigh from me and aggravated grumble from Nick Valdes when Manny grounded out to first base. Piedra held the Raccoons to five scattered base hit through eight innings, then was hit for in the ninth in which Josh Rella had to fill in for no good reason, didn’t feel like it, and walked two batters before he allowed a 2-out RBI single to dismal Aaron Brayboy. It was an insurance run the Loggers didn’t particularly need. 7-2 Loggers. Maldonado 3-4, 3B;

Nobody below Manny in the lineup found a base hit.

Well, these *are* the people you are paying all those millions to, Nick. – No, really, they are. We haven’t hidden them anywhere. There is no slugger tugged away in the cupboard in Maud’s room. – Maud, get Steve from Accounting. – Yes, Nick, he has to bring the receipts. – You are worse than the IRS!!

Game 2
MIL: LF Serad – 2B J. Cruz – 1B Brayboy – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – RF Hertenstein – SS Del Vecchio – C Sicco – P Freels
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – CF Anderson – SS Castro – P Jackson

Three innings into a scoreless game, with Nick Valdes complaining that every batter that came to the plate for the Raccoons was earning too much of his precious money, an hour-long rain delay had the potential to create all kinds of chaos, but Maud came to the rescue, made tea and coffee to everyone’s desire, and I managed to slip a few sleeping pills into Valdes’ cocoa, which knocked him out clean through the middle innings once the game actually resumed.

When we heard Valdes’ moans again, the fat lady was just done singing the anthem in the seventh inning stretch. The game was tied at one, courtesy of a Manny Fernandez homer for Portland, and Jackson and Chuck Jones pooling together for four walks in the sixth inning for Milwaukee… We were out-hitting them 6-2, but we had yet to get rid of ******* Bobby Freels. Jose Castro doubling home Van Anderson (leadoff walk) in the bottom 7th quickly put Valdes back on his feet and had him applauding and congratulating himself for having the right players on the team after all! Waltz grounded out, Carreno hit a sac fly to go up 3-1, and Ricky Jimenez found a single up the middle, but Maldonado grounded out.

…and then the Loggers loaded the bases like nothing with nobody out in the eighth. Cruz and Brayboy singled off Alex Ramirez, leftover from the seventh, and when Zack Kelly came in against PH Jonathan Fleming, he nailed him. Jared Paul grounded out to first, advancing everybody and plating a run, but crucially Hertenstein popped out foul behind home plate on a 3-2 pitch. The Loggers weren’t gonna hit for Ted Del Vecchio, so the Raccoons sent Josh Rella in their second double switch of the game, voiding Jimenez from the #2 hole and putting Yamamoto in at #5 (second in the bottom 8th). Most importantly, Rella got a grounder from dismal Del Vecchio to Carreno, ending the inning on a 4-3 play. Nick Valdes applauded enthusiastically, though not so much when Yamamoto axed Fernandez’ leadoff single in the bottom 8th with a 4-6-3 double play grounder. At least Rella got three more outs in due time… 3-2 Critters. Maldonado 2-4; Fernandez 4-4, HR, RBI;

Slightly overjoyed in victory and perhaps as a reaction on the sleeping pills, Nick Valdes heartily embraced me after the game and snarled that I would have to meet his good business friends one day, like Igor, the Nagorno-Karabkhian, and especially “One-Eyed Joe”.

But only if we won the rubber game! Only then I’d be worthy.

That made it hard to root for Brent Clark…

Game 3
MIL: 2B J. Cruz – LF Serad – 3B Paul – 1B Brayboy – RF Hertenstein – SS Del Vecchio – CF Borchard – C F. Gomez – P S. Chavez
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – SS Gutierrez – C Sieber – P Clark

With me meeting some “businessman” from Nagorno-Karabakh on the line, the Raccoons found offense in an unlikely spot, as Sean Sieber drew a walk in the bottom of the third inning, then scored on Arturo Carreno’s homer to left for the first two runs in the rubber game. Brent Clark meanwhile was far from great, but didn’t allow a hit through four innings, but also allowed a run in the fourth inning. He nailed Jared Paul, walked Brayboy, they pulled off a double steal, and got the run on – of course – a Del Vecchio sac fly, but that left the Critters up 2-1 still. Of course then Sal Chavez had the first Loggers hit, a single up the middle – although the Coons were not off that badly, given that Chavez had given himself a win with a home run on Monday. Cruz and Serad then made outs, one to Manny, and one by flailing. Instead, Sean Sieber homered to right in the bottom of the inning, 3-1! Following inning, Nettles tripled home Maldonado with two outs, reaching a 4-1 score, but was stranded. The Loggers walked Yamamoto intentionally, then got Omar Gutierrez on a flyout to right.

Brent Clark made it through eight innings and never gave up a base hit to a position player and held his end in the box score, although it was less pretty with your own eyeballs, with numerous deep fly balls against him – they were all caught, including one off Adam Borchard’s bat where he bounced off the fence in rightfield. Clark was on 106 pitches through eight innings, and Josh Rella was not available, *and* Brayboy led off the ninth inning from the left side. The Raccoons scratched themselves behind their ears with their hindpaws, then sent Clark back out there just to see after Brayboy. He got a K on seven pitches. Then Seth Green, most rested righty, got the ball to get two outs before he’d give up three runs. He struck out Hertenstein, but walked Del Vecchio. Borchard, though, grounded out to Carreno. 4-1 Coons. Nettles 2-3, 3B, RBI; Sieber 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Clark 8.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (3-2) and 1-3;

In other news

May 12 – Tijuana’s INF Sergio Barcia (.209, 1 HR, 11 RBI) becomes the fourth CL player to hit three triples in a game, as part of a 5-hit, 5-RBI effort in a 10-8 loss to the Rebels, as if that wasn’t enough.
May 12 – Boston INF Thomas Greeley (.233, 1 HR, 7 RBI) lands his first major league home run for the only run in the Titans’ 1-0 win over the Stars.
May 13 – The Wolves expect 1B Bill Jenkins (.256, 8 HR, 20 RBI) to miss three weeks with a strained hip muscle.
May 13 – The Loggers land 15 hits and draw 11 walks in a 20-5 rout of the Warriors. Valentino Sicco (.295, 2 HR, 14 RBI) and Aaron Brayboy (.310, 6 HR, 29 RBI) both have three hits and four RBI.
May 16 – The Condors trade SP Josh Long (3-0, 3.48 ERA) to the first-place Gold Sox for five prospects, none of them appreciably ranked.
May 17 – The Cyclones split a double-header with the Miners on Sunday, and CIN 3B Jesus Burgos (.404, 1 HR, 23 RBI) splits his hitting too, getting a hit in the first game, but not the second, and ending his hitting streak at 35 games. The streak ties him for the seventh-longest all time, and the longest since Danny Serrano’s 39-game hitting streak in 2023.

FL Player of the Week: RIC RF Chris Robinson (.310, 3 HR, 13 RBI), batting .533 (8-15) with 3 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT C Jesus Adames (.317, 8 HR, 23 RBI), hitting .364 (8-22) with 3 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Yaay…! (claps paws with fake glee) I get to meet Igor, the Nagorno-Karabakhian. Thanks, Nick! Thanks, Brent! Thanks, Sean! – They’re gonna get rid of me, Maud, aren’t they?

Very mixed week, 3-3 in the W-L columns, and more runs allowed than scored. It was especially not a great week for the pitchers, with almost everybody delivering a clunker (including Clark on Tuesday). Wheatley was perhaps merely unlucky. He still soaked a loss. Well, he’ll get a shot at the last-place Indians on Monday.

We still have the best defense in the league, and our starters and relievers are both in the top 3 by ERA. That’s something! … and we’re only ninth in runs scored, which is perhaps a greater issue when your team is only three games out of first place. Theoretically, while the damn Elks are bumbling as they are, the Raccoons are competing at this stage. But to compete, we actually need offense. First, short, backstop are weak spots. Manny with his .255 BABIP is slowly coming out of a hole, but Waltz is probably getting axed before long. Same for Gutierrez, although he at least has a lefty bat.

We did have three rightfield candidates in AAA, all hitting *something*. Jose Casas was the youngest and the only switch-hitter, batting .289/.373/.482. But there was no sneezing at the two right-handers, Gene Pellicano (.310/.358/.397) and Juan Rosario (.258/.395/.419) either. Perhaps an on-base guy wasn’t what we needed. But nobody had more homers than Casas (only 3) either… Only Rosario was on the 40-man roster, having been claimed off waivers by the Gold Sox in March. The other two had been traded for in July last year.

Fun Fact: The list of CL players to hit three triples in a game includes a Hall of Famer, Martin Ortíz.

Ortíz did the honors on July 30, 2007, the year he won his second Player of the Year award and his first World Series ring at age 27. He would end up with six each of either sort in a career that saw him hit .294/.398/.465 with 377 homers and 1,670 RBI, princely for the Crusaders, who claimed him off waivers from the Loggers on April 14, 2001.

[Westheim]

There was a roster move … in the front office!

Gustaf, are you not too oily? What if Igor, the Nagorno-Karabakhian, and Nick Valdes’ other henchmen slip right through your hands as you try to defend me? – Ah, I see. – Yes. That sounds logical. – No, they can’t get away when you break them in half.

The Raccoons! Only hiring the best people. Including for the GM’s personal protection.

Raccoons (19-17) vs. Indians (14-23) – May 18-21, 2043

The Indians were frightful, locked into last place and well the worst team in runs scored in the CL, plating only 3.4 markers per game. They were average at conceding runs, which in turn meant that they were losing plenty. And then they were even in the upper half in home runs, f.e., but that .238 team batting average was somewhat gruesome and couldn’t be overcome with 26 home runs (t-4th and one dinger ahead of Portland) alone. We had won the season series three years running, with a 10-8 record last year.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (2-4, 3.00 ERA) vs. Luke Moses (1-4, 5.06 ERA)
Corey Mathers (4-3, 2.83 ERA) vs. Ayden Cobb (2-0, 2.84 ERA)
Cory Lambert (0-3, 4.37 ERA) vs. Orlando Altreche (2-3, 3.08 ERA)
Jake Jackson (4-2, 3.66 ERA) vs. Bill Drury (2-5, 5.21 ERA)

Their starters were all right-handed. Their only significant injury was outfielder Nick Crocker, who was out with a broken foot.

Game 1
IND: 2B E. Vargas – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – 1B Huber – CF B. Quinteros – SS A. Avila – LF Galvan – C J. Rose – P Moses
POR: 2B Carreno – RF Nettles – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – 3B de Wit – C Kilmer – SS Castro – P Wheatley

Wheatley retired the first six Indians he faced, then gave up back-to-back doubles to Nelson Galvan and Jacob Rose to begin the third inning. Both runners scored with two productive outs, while the Raccoons also got back-to-back doubles in the inning from, funnily enough, Wheatley and Carreno, but with one out, and without the benefit of a clutch hit either, and so Carreno was stranded in scoring position. The Indians tacked on two more runs in the fourth, as Dan Hutson hit a leadoff double and Bill Quinteros walked, then stole second, and Galvan clipped a 2-run single with two outs. The Coons would put a runner on base in each of their next four offensive innings and scored none of them through a combination of double plays, getting caught stealing, or just plain simply stinking. Wheatley was still behind 4-1 when he left after seven. Only a leadoff jack by Carreno in the bottom 8th got them back on the board and shortened the gap to 4-2. Maldonado joined in with another solo shot off Moses in the same inning, and Manny Fernandez hit a single, but was stranded. Seth Green and Jon Craig kept the Indians to their four runs, and the Raccoons had thus one more run to make up in the ninth (while leading vastly in base hits, 11-7) against right-hander Ruben Vela… and with the bottom of the order. Kilmer, Gutierrez, and Anderson made outs in order to give the game away. 4-3 Indians. Carreno 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 2-4, 2B; de Wit 2-4;

The ****** team hit for 21 total bases and still managed to land only three runs…

Say, Gustaf, can you also protect me against bad baseball? – Too bad.

Game 2
IND: SS Russ – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – LF D. Rivera – 1B Huber – 2B E. Vargas – CF Galvan – C J. Rose – P Cobb
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Sieber – CF Anderson – RF Waltz – SS Castro – P Mathers

Both teams had one base hit the first time through and only two base hits by the end of five innings. On the plus side, they weren’t exactly wasting anybody’s time. Nobody reached third base on their own merit until the bottom of the sixth, when Maldonado zinged a triple into the gap in left-center and reached their with one out. In a scoreless game, the Indians wanted no part of Manny Fernandez, walking him intentionally to get to Sean Sieber, who rolled a 1-0 pitch through the right side between Enrique Vargas and Adam Huber to bring in Maldo with the game’s first run and send Manny to third base. Van Anderson hit a sac fly to center, 2-0, while Justin Waltz grounded out poorly, which was something we were used to.

Mathers then walked Galvan and PH Roger Custello in the seventh inning and departed with the tying runs aboard and two down. Alex Ramirez then got a groundout from Andrew Russ on the only pitch he threw in this game, curtailing the Indians’ rally. Chuck Jones got the eighth and allowed a leadoff single to Mario Ochoa, but struck out Hutson, a right-hander, before getting Danny Rivera to wrap things up in a 4-6-3 double play. Portland then filled the bases in the bottom of the eighth in a slow ordeal that consisted of Ricky Jimenez’ leadoff double, a drilled Maldo, and an infield single by Van Anderson after two glacially slow outs against Chris Manley. Jay de Wit batted for the hopeless Waltz, took a 1-0 pitch to the thigh, and limped to first base, bitterly bickering, but no fight broke out while Jimenez scored with the third run of the game. Castro grounded out, leaving the remains to be picked up by Josh Rella. Adam Huber whiffed, Vargas grounded out, and Galvan lined out to Jimenez to end the game. 3-0 Raccoons. Maldonado 2-3, BB, 3B; Anderson 1-2, RBI; de Wit (PH) 0-0, RBI; Mathers 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-3);

Game 3
IND: SS Russ – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – LF D. Rivera – 1B Zuazo – CF B. Quinteros – 2B Sanderfer – C Custello – P Altreche
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – C Sieber – SS Castro – P Lambert

Carreno hit another leadoff jack, this time in the first inning, which was surprising, given that it was his fourth of the year, tied Maldo for second on the team list, and power hadn’t exactly been advertised in his scouting report. The Indians were *extremely* eager to put the ball in play against Lambert, who threw only 47 pitches through five innings, whiffed five, walked none, and allowed three hits, two of which dissolved themselves in separate baserunning incidents. On the other paw, the Carreno homer was the only Raccoons hit in the game until Sieber legged out an infield single with two outs in the bottom 5th on which a fumbling Andrew Russ could have been reasonably assessed a half-error. Castro then flew out to Quinteros to make the point moot.

Lambert worked fine on the mound until he didn’t, and the collapse game rather abruptly. He struck out two more in the sixth, then was taken deep by Hutson in the seventh inning to tie the game. Danny Rivera singled, Alvin Zuazo doubled him home, and Indianapolis had the lead. The Raccoons continued to do nothing, while Hutson would hit another homer off Zack Kelly in the ninth inning. Ruben Vela was brought out for the save opportunity in the bottom 9th, holding a 2-run lead against the top of the order. Carreno struck out. Jimenez lined out. Maldo singled…! …and Manny grounded out. 3-1 Indians. Lambert 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, L (0-4);

Dire.

Game 4
IND: SS Russ – RF M. Ochoa – 3B Hutson – LF D. Rivera – 1B Zuazo – CF B. Quinteros – 2B Sanderfer – C J. Rose – P Drury
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Anderson – C Kilmer – SS Gutierrez – P Jackson

The Arrowheads lost Andrew Russ to injury in the first inning, with Adam Huber filling in afterwards, but also loaded the bases with nobody out in the second inning as Jake Jackson was soul-searching and also zone-searching. Rivera, Zuazo, and Quinteros were stranded when Alex Sanderfer popped out and Jason Rose hit into a double play. Instead the Raccoons scored first when Van Anderson reached on a throwing error by Adam Huber that was good for two bases, then came around on Kilmer’s single to left-center. The unearned 1-0 lead didn’t stand, mostly because Jackson continued to be utter dog **** and getting whacked around for four hits in the third inning, including a leadoff double by the ******* opposing pitcher, and a pair of 2-run homers by Ochoa and Zuazo. The Coons countered with loading the bases and looking menacingly in the bottom of the third as Drury glanced a baseball off Ricky Jimenez, then conceded singles to Maldo and Manny, all with one out, but then contained themselves with a Yamamoto sac fly and Anderson grounding out…

While the Raccoons then hit into a double play whenever somebody reached base by accident (like Yamamoto on an error in the sixth), Jackson went seven, but still found time to allow another double to the opposing pitcher. Bottom 7th, Carreno walked and Jimenez singled, but with two outs, and Maldonado grounded out to short. Instead the Indians tacked on a run in the eighth when Sauerkraut retired nobody and departed with the bases loaded and nobody out. Alex Ramirez allowed a sac fly to Quinteros for the extra run, then walked Vargas with two outs. Jason Rose grounded out to short to end the inning with the score now 5-2. Manny drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, then was immediately doubled off by Yamamoto. Vela was at it again in the bottom 9th, but brought the tying run to the plate in Carreno after a pair of 1-out hits by Gutierrez and Nettles, the latter pinch-hitting for Chuck Jones. Carreno grounded out. Jimenez grounded out. 5-2 Indians. Jimenez 2-4; Gutierrez 2-4, 2B; Nettles (PH) 1-1;

Maud, I don’t think I mind the assassins anymore.

Justin Waltz, now a career .186 hitter (.180 this year) with a Nick Landoesque career OPS of .504, was axed after this traumatic series loss. The Raccoons promoted switch-hitting Jose Casas, hitting .297 with five homers (two this week) in St. Petersburg.

Raccoons (20-20) vs. Condors (10-31) – May 22-24, 2043

Wretched? Yeah. But probably good for two out of three against the shambolic Coons. The Condors were tied with the Critters for ninth in runs scored and were 11th in runs allowed (us: 2nd), with an unhealthy -64 run differential (yours truly: flat zilch). Their rotation was the worst with an ERA well over five. The pen was only marginally better. Their defense was creaky, they had the lowest team OBP in the league at .307, but were hitting the third-most homers, so I had no concerns for them to get out of their .244 hole, and .200 for their last 15 games. Last year, Tijuana won six of nine from the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (3-2, 4.53 ERA) vs. Edward Flinn (1-4, 4.79 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-5, 3.33 ERA) vs. Adam Howell (0-3, 5.76 ERA)
Corey Mathers (5-3, 2.48 ERA) vs. Matt Schwartz (1-2, 2.80 ERA)

Three more right-handers, as we missed their southpaw and worst punching bag, Tommy “Kitten” Kubik (1-6, 7.74 ERA) by a day.

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Barcia – RF Willie Ojeda – LF Toohey – 2B J. Matos – C Black – SS Kilgallen – CF R. Phillips – 1B Gibbs – P Flinn
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Casas – CF Anderson – C Kilmer – SS Castro – P Clark

Flinn ran four 3-ball counts in the first inning, resulting in a Carreno walk, a flyout to left, and two whiffs. That was already as much drama as a non-pitching Raccoon managed to create, with Brent Clark scattering a rich selection of runners, but the Condors being too inept to score anything from their two hits, two walks, two hit batters, and one error (Carreno) in the first five innings. Seven K’s through five innings surely helped Clark, too. The Raccoons barely landed two base hits, and didn’t reach scoring position through five.

While there was also on-and-off rain, that didn’t do in Clark, but three straight 2-out singles in the sixth did. Bryce Toohey, Jesus Matos, and Terry Black managed to get three hits in a row, and Toohey scored the game’s first run. Ex-Coon Matt Kilgallen grounded out, while the Raccoons then loaded the bases in the bottom 6th on a Maldonado single, a walk to Manny, and a 2-out error by Kilgallen that added Van Anderson after Casas struck out to fall to 0-for-3 for his career. Flinn walked in the tying run against Kilmer, then gave up an RBI single to Jose Castro to fall 2-1 behind. Clark batted for himself and grounded out, then struck out the side in the seventh, attempting to prove that he was worth it. Portland tacked on a run in the bottom of the inning, with Carreno getting on, stealing his way to third base, and then coming home on Manny’s sac fly. Clark came back out for the eighth inning, got a fly out from Willie Ojeda, but that was the only lefty hitter he could hope to see here and then he was lifted on 106 pitches. He had struck out a dozen and got a sizable applause from a thin crowd. Jon Craig replaced him, retired none of the two batters he faced, then was bailed out by Ramirez with the tying runs aboard. Rella offered a walk to Ron Gibbs in the ninth inning, but the remaining Condors made three poor outs on easy grounders and a pop over the infield. 3-1 Coons. Castro 2-3, BB, RBI; Clark 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, W (4-2);

Well, at least the pitcher was on… (shrugs)

With no off day until next Thursday, and no lefty coming up either, the Racccoons offered a seat to veteran Manny Fernandez on Saturday.

Game 2
TIJ: CF Phinazee – RF Willie Ojeda – LF Toohey – 1B Gibbs – 2B J. Matos – 3B Barcia – C Black – SS C. Rose – P Howell
POR: 2B Carreno – LF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – RF Casas – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – SS Castro – P Wheatley

Wheats struck out three in the first inning! …… while getting whacked for three hits and a walk, with two runs across, first a solo shot by Ojeda, and then a pile of runners gradually pushing each other forwards in one slow drag. He never got any better than that, consistently shuffling runners on base and threatening to drown in them in four of the five innings he pitched – the Condors went 1-2-3 only in the fourth. He was done on 101 pitches after five, with the Condors up 3-1 in the middle of the fifth thanks to solo jacks exchanged between Jose Castro and Bryce Toohey.

Jose Casas got his first major league hit, a single, in his sixth attempt in the fourth inning, but that inning led nowhere. He drew his first walk his next time up in the sixth inning, then as part of a 4-5-6 group that loaded the bases with one out against Howell. Yamamoto then whiffed, and Castro grounded out to Matos to strand everybody. In the seventh, Carreno and Manny (pinch-hitting for the pitcher in the #2 hole) had singles, and then Ricky Jimenez had a 5-4-3 bouncer to make it all go away. Doubles by Chris Rose and Willie Ojeda off Craig and Jones, respectively, scored a tack-on run for Tijuana in the ninth inning, not that it mattered. Against lefty Mario Benavidez, they went down in order in the ninth inning. 4-1 Condors. Carreno 3-4; Fernandez (PH) 1-1; Maldonado 2-4;

Mal Phinazee had a platinum sombrero in the leadoff spot.

The Raccoons merely sucked all the fun out of baseball.

Game 3
TIJ: CF Phinazee – RF Willie Ojeda – LF Toohey – 1B Gibbs – 2B J. Matos – 3B Barcia – C Pasko – SS C. Rose – P Schwartz
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Anderson – 1B Casas – C Sieber – SS Castro – P Mathers

On the seventh day, Corey Mathers divined to allow leadoff singles to Gibbs and Matos in the second inning, advance them with a wild pitch, and then concede their associated runs with a single up the middle to Mark Pasko and a Rose sac fly, digging himself a 2-0 hole that he would be impossible to retrieve from. The Coons got a free runner at second base in the bottom 2nd with Manny drilled by Matt Schwartz and sent to second on a wild pitch, but Van Anderson popped out and the next two pokers whiffed. Top 3rd, leadoff walk to Phinazee, then immediately an RBI double by Willie Ojeda to center. Toohey hit another double to right-center, 4-0, and Gibbs and Barcia singled to get another run home. Mathers was unceremoniously yanked after he walked Pasko to fill the bases with one out. Zack Kelly conceded another run on Rose’s groundout, while Schwartz struck out. Down 6-0, the Raccoons could have kept playing until next Wednesday, and couldn’t have rallied…

The only heroics that could be made out would be Kelly’s, who pitched 3.2 innings in twilight relief for no greater good, but at least didn’t concede more runs to add to the pounding. The Coons had one base hit against seven strikeouts through five innings, a Manny solo homer to center in the fourth. Van Anderson threw out a guy at home plate in the seventh when Sauerkraut struggled once again to get anybody out. Apart from those “highlights” Matt Schwartz completed a 3-hit shutout. 6-1 Condors. Fernandez 1-2, HR, RBI; de Wit (PH) 1-2; Kelly 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

May 19 – Scoreless through regulation, the Gold Sox scratch out two runs in the 10th inning of their game against the Wolves, getting away with a 2-0 road win.
May 22 – A crumpled ankle will put OCT INF Al Martell (.315, 0 HR, 20 RBI) out of action for most of the remaining season.
May 23 – RIC MR Alex Banderas (3-2, 3.00 ERA, 1 SV) gets a rare save opportunity and converts it for his 300th career save. The 32-year-old shuts down the Stars for a 4-3 win. Banderas was a closer for the Loggers, Indians, and Blue Sox in his career, and had gone 54-70 with a 3.97 ERA.
May 24 – SP Josh Long (3-0, 3.40 ERA) lasted all of 1.1 innings in his Gold Sox debut before coming out with a torn rotator cuff that would probably cost him the rest of the season, only a week after being acquired from the Condors for five prospects.
May 24 – Ruptured finger tendons might put LAP SP Tommy Iezzi (3-2, 3.65 ERA) out for the season.
May 24 – IND INF/LF Andrew Russ (.210, 0 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three weeks with an oblique strain.
May 24 – VAN OF Jerry Outram (.400, 3 HR, 15 RBI) is listed as day-to-day with a concussion.

FL Player of the Week: NAS 2B/SS Billy Bouldin (.320, 1 HR, 24 RBI), hitting .464 (13-28) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND 3B Dan Hutson (.241, 10 HR, 24 RBI), swatting .417 (10-24) with 4 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

This was the ********* ******* *** week in quite a while. I am frankly fed up with the team a bit here, tied for bottoms in runs scored in the league as they are now, but I have figured out a plan that will make them annoy me a whole lot less.

Maud has booked me onto the team flight to the next beating on the calendar in Vegas, but I’ll just abscond at the airport and board the flight to Cochabamba instead, just to get away from it all. - No, Gustaf, thank you, but I won't need your services and oiliness in Cochabamba. - It's the last place Nick Valdes and Igor, the Nagorno-Karabakhian, would look for me.

There I will then live, in a hut covered with banana leaves, wearing the same colorful woven skirt every day, and living off the land. In piece and tranquility.

Give or take the occasional earthquake, volcano, or military coup burning everything to the ground.

Fun Fact: Jose Casas is from Panama, like Cookie Carmona.

I hope the Panamanians figured out the brittle bits in their players by now…

…and that he can maybe hit more than .100 against big league pitching.

[DD Martin]

Wow that offense, can it get any worse? 2-5 against the Indians and Condors. Remember the good old days when Tijuana was the Southern Division beasts. Ah good memories

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Wow that offense, can it get any worse?

(opens snout dramatically)

(plainly) No.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (21-22) @ Aces (18-25) – May 25-27, 2043

After a horrendous week of going 2-5 against two sixth-place teams, during which the Critters scored approximately negative eleven runs (I counted!), they were off to Vegas to play a fifth-place team that had lost six games in a row, but somehow had a +1 run differential with an average number of runs scored and runs allowed. We had gone 0-9 against the Aces last year, and I had no significant expectations to not stretch that run of Vegas futility to 0-12.

Projected matchups:
Cory Lambert (0-4, 3.82 ERA) vs. Oscar Valdes (4-4, 3.16 ERA)
Jake Jackson (4-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Sal Lozano (2-4, 5.92 ERA)
Brent Clark (4-2, 4.06 ERA) vs. Tim Steinbach (1-1, 4.10 ERA)

We’d not score against two right-handers on either side of the southpaw Lozano.

Game 1
POR: 3B Jimenez – 2B de Wit – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – RF Casas – C Kilmer – SS Castro – P Lambert
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C Prow – 1B S. Ayala – RF Gurney – 3B D. Richardson – CF M. Roberts – LF J. Byrd – 2B Owen – P O. Valdes

Without the benefit of a strikeout, Cory Lambert retired the Aces in order the first time through the lineup, and even got a run of support from some of the scratch-off sniffers in the lineup, as Jose Casas hit a single up the middle in the second, then scored on Jose Castro’s 2-out double down the rightfield line. The Coons had at least one base hit in every inning to begin the Monday game, and they had two again in the fourth, with Yamamoto and Kilmer hitting singles, but standing parked in scoring position with two outs and Lambert down 0-2. Valdes tried to be too fine, and buried a breaking ball behind Lambert’s back paw. Lambert didn’t poke, and Kevin Prow didn’t coral it either, with Yamamoto scampering across home plate to make it 2-0 on the wild pitch. Lambert then struck out on a heater, then walked Sal Ayala in the bottom 4th after retiring the first 11 Aces to come up.

Top 5th, the Coons had the bags full with no outs (oh dear…) after putting their first three batters on via a single, a Brandon Owen error, and a four-pitch walk. We did not get another hit – shocker, huh? – as Manny and Yamamoto both hit ****** grounders for an out at home plate, then barely only a 3-unassisted play that allowed de Wit to score, and Casas grounded out to Owen. Lambert, who bunted into a double play in the sixth, maintained a no-hitter through 5.1 innings, or until he was taken deep by Oscar Valdes, the ******* opposing pitcher. That remained the only hit through seven against Lambert, but Owen’s single and Marc DeVita’s triple in the gap in right-center in the bottom 8th scored another run for the Aces. Alex Ramirez replaced Lambert, walked Angel Montes de Oca, but then got a convenient fly out from Prow to end the inning, the Coons still up 3-2. The bags were full again in the top 9th with singles by Kilmer and Castro off ex-Coon Dennis Citriniti, then an intentional walk to Ricky Jimenez after Nettles’ groundout moved both runners into scoring position. Jay de Wit ran a full count before hitting a comebacker for another out at home plate, and Maldonado grounded out to short… (dramatic sigh!) … Then we sent Chuck Jones into the bottom 9th, where we expected many left-handed batters. Sal Ayala struck out, but Pat Gurney singled to right on 1-2. He was doubled up by Doug Richardson, though, 6-4-3, as the Raccoons eeked out a win. 3-2 Blighters. Kilmer 2-4; Castro 3-4, 2B, RBI; Lambert 7.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-4);

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – RF Casas – SS Castro – P Jackson
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C Prow – 1B S. Ayala – RF Gurney – 3B D. Richardson – CF M. Roberts – LF DeVita – 2B Owen – P Lozano

While straight singles by their 3-4-5 batters scored a first-inning run for the Aces against Jackson, I had my doubts whether Sal Lozano was the same Sal Lozano that appeared in 13 games (12 starts) for the Coons three years ago, going 2-6 with a 4.84 ERA. He faced the minimum the first time through, walking Manny, who was caught stealing, and continued to deny the Raccoons base runners even after that. Vegas made it 2-0 on a Mike Roberts triple and Marc DeVita single in the bottom 4th, then doubled their output the next inning, getting the run going with Lozano’s single up the middle, a triple by Montes, a walk to Kevin Prow, and then finally an Ayala sac fly, 4-0. Pretty close to ballgame here, although Castro at least took the no-hitter away in the sixth inning with a single up the middle. And then he was doubled up on a bunt attempt on which Jackson slapped the ball right back to Lozano. That wasn’t Jackson’s last act of arson in the game; with DeVita on base in the bottom 6th, he served up a lazy hanger to Lozano, and for the second game in a row an Aces pitcher homered off a Raccoons pitcher. This one drove the dagger in pretty firmly, 6-0, and the manager strolled out there to inform Jackson that his presence was no longer required.

The Coons never got anything of substance off Lozano, but he was not back for the ninth inning, having run out of steam with a 2-hitter. Right-hander Dusty Behrens replaced him with a 6-0 lead, then allowed a 1-out walk and single, respectively, to pinch-hitters Van Anderson and Omar Gutierrez, with Chris Whalen overrunning the ball in centerfield to allow both runners into scoring position. Huh, boys? How about scoring a ******* run here?? Jimenez grounded out to Richardson at third base, which seemed like a pretty convincing “nah”. Maldonado though singled to center. Anderson scored, and Gutierrez was thrown out trying by Whalen. 6-1 Aces. Gutierrez (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – C Sieber – SS Castro – CF Anderson – P Clark
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C Prow – RF Gurney – 3B D. Richardson – CF M. Roberts – 1B DeVita – 2B Owen – LF Beaudoin – P Steinbach

Two sad teams flailed and failed away at each other for four innings before one of them somehow happened to get a run across home plate, and that was the Raccoons. Sean Sieber singled in the fifth, the third base hit for Portland, and the fifth in the game, leading off the inning. Castro flew out, and Anderson’s grounder was thrown away by Montes for a 2-base error, putting a pair in scoring position for Clark, who singled up the middle to plate Sieber. Anderson tried to have some, too, but was thrown out at home plate by Roberts. This definitely cost a run with the subsequent singles by Carreno (to center) and Jimenez (to left), which now only loaded the bases with two outs for Maldo instead of also scoring Van Anderson – but Maldo came through, powering a liner into the gap in right-center that made it all the way to the wall and allowed the bases to clear on a 3-run triple …! Steinbach, stunned, then walked the bags full again in a seemingly never-ending inning, which brought back Sieber, who grounded out to Owen, ending it after all, but with a 4-0 lead.

Clark 3-hit the Aces through six innings and had ample room to go a bit longer, while the Raccoons had three on and nobody out against Steinbach in the seventh, with Nettles at the plate. Between him flying out to right, Jimenez being thrown out at the plate by Pat Gurney, and Sieber’s fly to Justin Beaudoin, they scored no runs. Clark hit a single in the eighth, then survived having runners on the corners in the same inning when Gurney’s fly to right was tracked down at the rightfield line by Nettles … who also couldn’t slow down and smacked full-steam into the sidewall, which was about chest-high at that point. The inning was over, but so was Nettles game, with him limping off with the trainer eventually. Jose Casas took over, striking out to end a 1-2-3 top 9th. Clark returned for the bottom of the inning on 97 pitches, but after Richardson grounded out to third base was taken deep by Mike Roberts. DeVita flew out to right, Owen whiffed, the game was complete, but the shutout was gone. 4-1 Raccoons. Carreno 2-4, BB; Jimenez 3-5, 2B; Maldonado 2-4, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Clark 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-2) and 2-3, RBI;

Stephon Nettles did not incur any structural damage, but had a sore hip for all of Thursday’s day off, and was still listed as day-to-day to begin the weekend set.

Raccoons (23-23) @ Falcons (20-27) – May 29-31, 2043

Here was another losing team we could look bad against. The Falcons were up 2-1 in the season series, so chances were tremendous. They were seventh in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed, and looked pretty crummy as a whole. They were second from the bottom in home runs, with SS Tony Aparicio (.349, 8 HR, 37 RBI) leading the team by a good margin, but had a triplet of .340 hitters in that lineup with Aparicio, Joe Besaw (!), and phenom Miguel Martinez, who was still a month from turning 20, but hitting .344/.367/.503. He would have been a solid bet for Rookie of the Year – if the Falcons hadn’t pissed away his chance by giving him 322 less impressive at-bats last year.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (2-6, 3.53 ERA) vs. Adam Messer (4-4, 3.54 ERA)
Corey Mathers (5-4, 3.34 ERA) vs. Chris Watson (2-0, 2.38 ERA)
Cory Lambert (1-4, 3.52 ERA) vs. Oscar Flores (4-4, 3.54 ERA)

As in the last set: right-left-right. We would not get to see longtime Critter Bernie Chavez (2-3, 3.89 ERA), who pitched on Thursday for a no-decision in a game the Falcons lost.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – RF Casas – SS Castro – P Wheatley
CHA: 3B Farfan – 2B M. Martinez – CF Besaw – SS Aparicio – 1B Cahill – RF Turley – LF Case – C Alicea – P Messer

Wheatley started like a fire engine, striking out five of the first six batters he faced and not allowing a hit the first time through the order, only to succumb to 2-out singles by Jose Farfan, Miguel Martinez – who sent Farfan to third base, then stole second – and Joe Besaw in the bottom 3rd. Besaw drove in the pair that had preceded him, and I consigned myself to alcohol. The Coons had already stranded Manny and Yamamoto on the corners in the second inning when Casas struck out and Castro grounded out, and left Manny on base again in the fourth inning, in the bottom of which Wheatley walked the bases loaded, then gave up a sac fly to Messer…

The Raccoons got on the board with a Castro homer in the fifth inning, then had the tying runs on with Jimenez and Manny in the sixth, but Kilmer hit into a double play to bail them outta that scoring chance… While Wheatley got through six innings without falling further behind than he already had, he did not strike out any batter after his 5 K spree in the first two innings, and instead finished with as many walks. The Coons had nobody on in the seventh, then got a leadoff single from Carreno in the eighth before following that up with three groundouts that didn’t amount to a run. The Falcons put the game out of reach for a team as despicably pathetic as the Raccoons when Aparicio took Jon Craig deep to left in the eighth, and Zack Kelly followed that up by bleeding for a run on three hits. Kilmer hit a leadoff single in the ninth off Jon Ramsey. He was still on first base when the game ended, three ****** outs later. 5-1 Falcons. Fernandez 3-4, 2B;

There was no game on Saturday on accounts of rain, which actually set in during the last few pitches of Friday’s game and then persisted for about 36 hours. A double-header was called for Sunday, with the Falcons moving Oscar Flores ahead of Chris Watson. We stuck to our order of Cor(e)ys but arranged for every position player on the roster to get into the lineup – Nettles was back to 100% at this point.

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Nettles – 1B Casas – CF Anderson – P Mathers
CHA: LF Haertling – 2B M. Martinez – CF Besaw – SS Aparicio – 1B Cahill – RF Turley – 3B Farfan – C Alicea – P O. Flores

We opened quick, with Carreno singling and scoring on a Castro triple. While Jimenez popped out, Manny hit a sac fly, and we got three 2-out singles to load the bases after that… and an Anderson groundout to short that stranded everybody. More runners came quickly though, with Flores mishandling Mathers’ grounder into a free runner to start the second inning, then a Carreno double to center. Castro struck out, and Jimenez lined out to Apari- no, he dropped the ball! And everybody scrambled to the next base, including Mathers across home plate, 3-0…! Manny hit another sac fly for the second and final run of the inning, both runs being unearned. Top 3rd, leadoff walk to Nettles, who stole second, then a pitch that grazed Casas to add a second runner. The runners pulled off a double steal right after that, with the Falcons, annoyed, walking the .191 menace Van Anderson intentionally to bring up Mathers, who ran a full count before settling for a sac fly to Archie Turley, who also caught Carreno’s fly. Castro’s RBI single to left was not caught by anybody and ran the score to 6-0, with Flores hitting Jimenez and giving up a 2-run single to Manny before being taken behind the shed. Kilmer walked against Jonathan Ramsey, but Nettles grounded out to short, keeping it 8-0.

Ramsey struck out the side in the fourth, but allowed two singles and a walk in the fifth, which gave another RBI to Manny with a single to center and two outs. Mathers had a phase where he ran many long counts in the third and fourth inning, but was just out of that by the sixth when Joe Besaw hit a triple to center and scored on Tony Aparicio’s sac fly, getting Charlotte on the board in a 9-1 game. Maldonado found a 2-out, 2-run single when he pinch-hit for Mathers in the eighth inning – thus also maintaining his perfect attendance record in 2043, the only Raccoon to feature in every game – which emboldened us to go to Sauerkraut for two innings with a 10-run lead. Sauerkraut hadn’t pitched since the prior Sunday, and allowed two walks and two hits in two innings… but also spread them out as evenly as possible, and didn’t suffer any runs conceded. 11-1 Raccoons! Carreno 2-5, BB, 2B; Castro 3-6, 3B, 2 RBI; Fernandez 2-4, 5 RBI; Kilmer 2-4, BB; Nettles 2-4, BB; Casas 2-4; Maldonado (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Mathers 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-4); Becker 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K;

That was almost perfect – we got them to go rather deep into their pen and we only used up one of our long men / garbage disposal hurlers. What can go wrong in the last one??

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B de Wit – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – 1B Yamamoto – C Sieber – SS Gutierrez – P Lambert
CHA: LF Haertling – 2B M. Martinez – CF Besaw – SS Aparicio – 1B Cahill – RF Turley – 3B Farfan – C M. Cook – P de Lucio

For a start, we didn’t get to see the left-hander, and instead came up against a sneaky Jose de Lucio (1-4, 4.03 ERA) from the right side. Everybody still got to make a start, although de Wit was now at third base instead of Jimenez (who got bumped for an extra lefty bat in Nettles). He had been penciled in for leftfield duty, with Manny getting a rare game in right.

Carreno in the event reached on a bloop single to begin the game, stole second, and came around on de Wit’s triple to right. Maldonado made it 2-0 with a groundout, while Nettles reached on a Martinez error, but was caught stealing. A Martinez double and Besaw’s RBI single off Lambert cut the lead in half right away, and a pair of 2-out hits by Mitch Cook and de Lucio in the bottom 2nd put them on the corners until Ed Haertling struck out in a full count. Farfan and Cook had a pair of hits in the fourth off easily hittable Cory Lambert, but de Lucio struck out and Haertling popped out behind home plate to end that threat, still in a 2-1 game. It took back-to-back doubles by Mark Cahill and Archie Turley to actually tie the game in the sixth inning, with Turley scoring on two productive outs and Cook’s sac fly to give Charlotte the lead.

The Falcons had their fifth 2-hit inning in the seventh against Alex Ramirez, but stranded runners in scoring position yet again on a pop in foul ground. The Coons were familiarly silent, and when they got Gutierrez on base with a 1-out single in the eighth, the pinch-hitting Jose Castro found a double play immediately. The top of the order was up against Marcus Goode, the right-hander with almost as many walks (12) as strikeouts (14) and no cushion in the ninth inning. Carreno and de Wit made two soft outs before Maldonado drew a walk in a full count. Manny fell to 0-2, a strike from the end yet again, then slapped a single through between Cahill and Adam Shay to send Maldo and the tying run to third base. Nettles *also* fell to 0-2, then hit a dribbler between the mound and the third-base line. Goode was falling in the wrong direction and Farfan took his sweet time to come in – and he had no play …! Infield single, tied ballgame!

The Coons’ catching corps set out to un-tie the ballgame after that. Kilmer batted for a bleak Yamamoto and walked in a full count, the fourth and final 2-strike batter to reach base against Goode. Bases loaded, Sean Sieber struck out a 2-run single up the middle to give Portland the lead, 5-3, and Charlotte a new pitcher in righty Kyle Conner, who got Gutierrez to ground out, and Josh Rella into the game. The Falcons expired in three batters. 5-3 Raccoons. De Wit 2-4, 3B, RBI; Sieber 2-4, 2 RBI;

In other news

May 26 – Warriors SP Mike Kiah (2-4, 4.98 ERA) is expected to miss up to a full year with a torn rotator cuff.
May 26 – TOP RF/CF J.P. Angeletti (.310, 6 HR, 27 RBI) has suffered a strained hamstring and will be out for three weeks.
May 28 – Capitals 2B/3B Kenny Elder (.260, 2 HR, 5 RBI) hits for the cycle in the first game of a double-header against the Scorpions that will end up split between the teams, with Washington taking the opener, 8-4. The 33-year-old Elder gets one of every hit in five attempts, walks once, drives in one run on his homer, and scores twice. It is the 99th cycle in league history, the first-ever for the Capitals, and the second in a row against the Scorpions (Dallas’ Leo Villacorta, 2042).
May 28 – The Canadiens drown the Thunder, 14-3. VAN OF Jerry Outram (.417, 5 HR, 22 RBI) goes 4-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBI.

FL Player of the Week: RIC LF/RF Pablo Gonzalez (.382, 10 HR, 31 RBI), hitting .500 (12-24) with 3 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Jerry Outram (.402, 5 HR, 25 RBI), hitting .409 (9-22) with 2 HR, 10 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: PIT 1B Danny Santillano (.335, 6 HR, 32 RB), batting .373 with 5 HR, 24 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: TIJ LF/CF/1B Mal Phinazee (.236, 8 HR, 21 RBI), poking .295 with 6 HR, 13 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT CL Rich Kappel (4-1, 3.96 ERA, 17 SV), saving it at a 2-0, 1.59 ERA, 12 SV rate
CL Pitcher of the Month: MIL SP Matt Peterson (7-0, 2.69 ERA), hurling to a 6-0 record with 1.90 ERA, 39 K
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT OF Felix Rojas (.282, 1 HR, 21 RBI), batting .306 with 14 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: TIJ 1B Ron Gibbs (.290, 0 HR, 15 RBI), slapping .315 with 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We’re in fifth place, with a winning record, somehow. We’re also borderline unwatchable. Give or take 16 runs in a swept double-header on Sunday.

I think we should trade Manny and Maldo after all. But that would mean we get no-hit twice a week.

The Raccoons got an offer from the Buffaloes this week, with Tony Morales being offered a release from captivity in a distant land in exchange for first-rounder Bubba Wolinsky and a pretty irrelevant catcher from our farm. Now, Wolinsky at this point looked like one of those first-rounders that only make the majors in a Damani Knight capacity, which was annoying, while Tony Morales had a thick contract through 2047, which was not a problem *now*, but certainly down the road. Kilmer was already tied to the team for a good while longer (2046 being a team option only), and we had a 21-year-old hitting .315 with 5 homers in Ham Lake in Ruben Gonzalez. As much as I liked the Morales/Kilmer dynamic and as little as we thought we’d get out of Wolinsky at this stage, this was definitely not the right trade going forwards.

The Falcons, while we were already in town and with a pillow pressed on our snouts, offered Kyle Conner for Generos de Leon and a rather shadowy second baseman in Aumsville, Miguel Blanco, which I also wasn’t biting for. Conner struck me as a carbon copy of Nelson Moreno, and wasn’t Nelson Moreno all sorts of joy…?

We’d stay in the southeast for a few more days, visiting Atlanta starting on Monday. I’d go home from there, but the team was expected in Elk City on the weekend… We’d ALL go home for a week after that.

Fun Fact: The Capitals were the last team that had never hit for the cycle in their existence.

Now we’re just waiting on those Buffos to get a no-hitter.

[Westheim]

2043 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The 2043 amateur draft was merely two weeks away at this stage and the Raccoons had dutifully sorted through the Youth of America once more and had found 117 players for the shortlist (including three listed as both pitchers and hitters), and how could we do without the annual hotlist of about a dozen or so players that we’d take in a heartbeat. Players with * are high school standouts.

SP Kellen Lanning (12/12/9)
SP C.J. Benjamin (12/12/12)
SP Luke Schwartz (12/12/12)
SP Jeremy Baker (12/12/13)
SP Joe Wilson (12/12/11)
SP Garrett Guistino (11/13/13)

SP Barry Montgomery (16/16/12) *
CL Brian Grohoski (18/14/7)

C Nick Samuel (10/12/13)

UT Mike Proffitt (9/11/10)

OF/1B Mike Harmon (9/13/12)
OF Jim Vesey (8/12/8) *
OF Brent Cramer (13/8/9) *
OF Tony Lopez (12/12/12)
OF/1B Ken Crum (10/12/11)

Yes, it was more of a pitcher year, and some of our reports by Scout Guy were not necessarily in line with OSA or with the kids’ batting stats. The infielder selection was particularly dire, with Proffitt being of the super utility sort. But if you looked for a shortstop with any sort of bat, you’d be disappointed.

Montgomery was entered into the draft as a starter, but lacked a third pitch and looked more like a lights-out closer to me. Stamina and everything else was there, but was he worth the toss of the dice in the first round? OSA was particularly enthusiastic about Lanning and Benjamin, who were rated about 14 on average. The former was a righty, the latter a lefty. Neither had much stamina, but Benjamin was rather on the low end, rated at 6.

We’d have the #7 pick in every round in the draft, so one off this list was guaranteed to fall to the Critters.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-24) @ Knights (20-29) – June 1-3, 2043

New month, new Coons? The road trip continued into Atlanta on Monday, where the Knights were seventh in runs scored, but stricken with the worst flock of pitcher artists in the league (although the CL’s worst defense also played a role). They were bottoms in many categories, and their rotation had a 5.09 ERA. The Raccoons led the season series, 2-1.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (4-4, 4.40 ERA) vs. David Farris (6-1, 3.18 ERA)
Brent Clark (5-3, 3.60 ERA) vs. Tim Scott (0-0, 6.75 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-7, 3.63 ERA) vs. Brad Santry (4-6, 5.02 ERA)

Three right-handers, probably – the middle spot would require a gap filler. They had a few injuries, including SP Kurt Olson and regular backstop Adam Horner.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – RF Nettles – SS Castro – 1B Casas – C Sieber – P Jackson
ATL: CF Oliver – 1B Jam. King – RF Hester – 2B Crim – LF A. Montes – 3B L. Duarte – C Raymond – SS McKoy – P Farris

Jackson was skinned alive in the first as he kept putting up ****** start after ****** start. Jamie King walked, Billy Hester singled, and then the extra-base knocks started to drop in. Joe Crim hit a 2-run double, Andy Montes an RBI triple, and with two outs Bryant Raymond found another RBI single. The first Raccoons runner was Stephon Nettles, who singled in the second inning, then was thrown out bidding for a double. Jackson hit the opposing pitcher Farris to begin the second inning, and would not live to see the end of it, giving up another two runs on a Hester triple and a Crim single. The ball went to Seth Green, who would get 10 outs for the cost of three runs (two earned), all runs scoring on a Tyler McKoy homer in the bottom 5th. Carreno chipped in an error there, while nobody chipped in any sort of offense; the Coons had two hits through five innings, no runs, and nobody reaching scoring position either. Carreno would at least drive in the Critters’ first run in the eighth inning after a tiring Farris filled the bases on a hit batter and two walks. Carreno snapped an RBI single through the left side with two outs, then Jimenez flew out to Justin Kristoff to strand a full set. Maldonado hit a leadoff double in the ninth, then was stranded on second base… 9-1 Knights. Sieber 1-2, BB, 2B;

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – RF Casas – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – P Clark
ATL: RF Hester – 1B Jam. King – 2B Crim – CF Oliver – 3B D. Myers – C J. Herrera – LF Kristoff – SS McKoy – P T. Scott

Former Raccoon Dave Myers started at third base, but injured himself on the first play of the game, lunging and snatching a liner by Carreno. He was replaced by Lorenzo Duarte. Jimenez and Maldonado hit 1-out singles, but Manny struck out and Castro grounded out easily to end the top 1st. Casas was stranded on third base the next inning, hitting a leadoff single and stealing a base while his teammates had nothing to contribute. Carreno hit a single to begin the third inning, stole his way all the way to third base, and lo and behold, Maldonado released the knot with a 2-run homer to left, the first markers on the scoreboard. Clark didn’t allow a lot to the Knights early on, shedding two singles the first time through the order, and allowing a double with two outs to Brian Oliver in the bottom 4th. Duarte walked, but Juan Herrera struck out, keeping it 2-0.

The Knights had another hit and and walk with two outs in the fifth, but then brought up Jamie King, a vaunted slugger not that long ago. He hit a fly to deep left that eluded Manny Fernandez for a game-tying double. Crim struck out, but permanent damage had been done. Oliver hit another bomb to begin the bottom 6th, giving Atlanta a 3-2 lead. The Knights put another run on Clark in the seventh as McKoy drew a leadoff walk, got to second on Greg Ortiz’ pinch-hit grounder, and scored on a Hester single to center. Jon Craig would have to get out of that inning, but it got worse in the eighth inning, when Arturo Carreno hurt himself on a defensive play and left for the attention of Dr. Padilla, with Omar Gutierrez replacing him. Gutierrez didn’t get to bat; the 6-7-8 batters were up in the ninth against ex-Coon Antonio Prieto. Kilmer hit a double. Nobody else hit much of anything. 4-2 Knights. Maldonado 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Kilmer 2-3, BB, 2B;

Carreno headed for the DL with a strained biceps that would likely cost him all of June.

Anybody remember Nick Lando?

Game 3
POR: RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – 2B Gutierrez – 1B Yamamoto – C Sieber – P Wheatley
ATL: 3B G. Ortiz – 1B Jam. King – RF Hester – SS Crim – LF A. Montes – C J. Herrera – CF Oliver – 2B McKoy – P Santry

39-year-old Greg Ortiz, who I wanted to trade for about 47 seasons ago, and Jamie King went to the corners with singles to begin the first inning for Atlanta, and runs scored on Hester’s groundout and a Montes double with two outs. Shuta Yamamoto hit a 2-run homer with Omar Gutierrez on base in the top of the second, tying the ballgame. Both pitchers looked like they could be pushed over rather easily, and Santry put Manny and Castro on base to begin the fourth inning. Gutierrez grounded out to advance the runners, and Yamamoto, dumped to the bottom of the order, drove in another two runs with a single to center, giving the hapless Coons a 4-2 lead.

Wheatley labored hard, but not without success. He took 84 pitches through five innings, but struck out seven batters through those five innings, which was certainly a pointer in the right direction. The bottom 6th began with hard knocks, though. Hester shot a single into right, and Crim cracked a liner – into Yamamoto’s mitten, and the first-sacker beat Hester back to first sack, double play, 3-unassisted…! In turn Wheatley, with Yamamoto and Sieber on second and first, bunted into a 5-3 double play in the seventh. Nettles grounded out, nobody scored. He then walked Oliver in the bottom 7th, but got a McKoy grounder to short for another double play to get out of the inning, and to complete an ultimately fine outing.

More offense came in the eighth with Maldonado singling and stealing second. Manny ended up drawing a walk, and Castro snuck a 1-out single through the gap between the middle infielders for an RBI and a 5-2 lead. Gutierrez grounded out, Yamamoto flew out to Hester, and the inning ended. Wheatley had not been hit for, and when Justin Kristoff pinch-hit in the #9 hole, leading off, in the bottom 8th, Wheatley was sent back out to face him, and secured an eighth and final strikeout. Ramirez replaced him, got Ortiz, then put two lefty batters on base in King and Hester. Crim grounded out as the tying run… Josh Rella would secure the save with three groundouts. 5-2 Raccoons. Jimenez 2-4; Yamamoto 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Wheatley 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-7);

Raccoons (26-26) @ Canadiens (33-21) – June 5-7, 2043

The Raccoons went off into the frozen wastelands north of the 49th parallel, where they would happen to coincide with the summer weekend this year – lucky them! – and probably get slaughtered. The Elks were second in runs scored, third in runs allowed, and seemed to have the division almost under control now after some unruliness by various teams early on. They were up 4-2 on the Coons and I was not concerned that they would not reach 7-2 before long.

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (6-4, 3.11 ERA) vs. John Roeder (4-3, 4.60 ERA)
Cory Lambert (1-4, 3.65 ERA) vs. Joe Hicks (1-5, 3.96 ERA)
Jake Jackson (4-5, 5.16 ERA) vs. Paul Medvec (5-5, 3.49 ERA)

Roeder would be the only southpaw we’d get this week. We used the opportunity to sit a slumping Manny Fernandez.

I went back to the ballpark in Portland for this series, slumped into the cushions on the trusty brown couch, and told Maud that I wasn’t here and wouldn’t take any calls. I would take cookies, though. I looked at her expectingly, but was disappointed, as she hadn’t baked cookies ahead of the series.

Game 1
POR: LF de Wit – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – SS Castro – RF Casas – 2B Lando – P Mathers
VAN: RF van der Zanden – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – 3B J. Becker – 1B J. Lopez – LF Escobido – SS R. Johnston – P Roeder

Mathers walked two in the first, then struck out the side in the second inning, and didn’t allow a hit until the unavoidable Jerry Outram (.397, 5 HR, 26 RBI) singled off him with two outs and Timóteo Clemente (walk) on first base in the bottom 3rd. Dan Schneller flew out easily to Maldonado, keeping the game scoreless through three innings. While Mathers got his ERA under three with scoreless ball into and through the fourth inning, the Raccoons didn’t even find a base hit against Roeder until the fifth inning, when they got no fewer than EIGHT hits off Roeder, seven of them with two outs…! Jose Castro hit a 1-out single, and reached second base on Jose Casas’ groundout. Starting with Nick Lando’s single, the Raccoons kept battering Roeder senseless. Mathers, de Wit, and Jimenez all hit RBI singles to go up 3-0, and Maldonado hit a blast to left-center to double that mark. Kilmer doubled to left, Yamamoto singled him in, and that was enough for Roeder. Castro would sneak a single to left against southpaw replacement Jordan Antonio for the eighth straight hit before Casas struck out to make the second and third outs in the same inning in different at-bats.

Clemente and Outram again reached base in tandem in the fifth inning, but again with two outs and without Dan Schneller getting something on the board for them, either. The game got out of paws for good in the sixth inning when de Wit and Jimenez reached base with two down, and Maldonado took Antonio deep to left for his second 3-run homer in as many plate appearances. Slappy and me, without words, clanked bottles of booze together to approve of Maldonado’s antics.

Mathers would last seven innings before running out of steam, but he never allowed a run to the damn Elks, who then got to see Sauerkraut. The Coons were just bold enough to send him out there with a 10-run lead, and he also hadn’t gotten any play time in the Knights series. He walked the bases full in the bottom 8th, but somehow the damn Elks made poor outs around the three walks, with Ryan Johnston bouncing out solemnly to Yamamoto to end the inning. Maldo drew a leadoff walk in the ninth against righty Matt Fries, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Kilmer single. The bottom 9th began with Sauerkraut nailing Steve Jorgensen, then issuing a walk to Arnout van der Zanden. *Fine*! We’d go to Jon Craig. He struck out Clemente, then got a double play from Julio Diaz, who had replaced Outram with the game well out of reach to save the superstar’s juices. 11-0 Furballs!! Jimenez 2-5, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Kilmer 2-5, 2B, RBI; Yamamoto 2-4, RBI; Castro 2-4; Mathers 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (7-4) and 1-2, RBI;

Maud, cookies for tomorrow? Celebratory cookies? Something obscene? Like, impaled elks?

We got no such thing, but I saw Chad in the mascot outfit sitting on some stairs near the back entrance to the clubhouse, patting the head of his plush toy elk with the wiggling antlers. Traitors everywhere!

Game 2
POR: RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – 2B Gutierrez – P Lambert
VAN: RF van der Zanden – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – 3B J. Becker – 1B J. Lopez – LF V. Vazquez – SS R. Johnston – P Hicks

The Coons didn’t get a hit the first time through, then got three in a row with two outs in the third inning from Nettles (double), Jimenez, and Maldo (singles), scoring a run before Manny grounded out. Lambert meanwhile conceded his first hit on a single by Hicks (…!), then gave up a swift double to van der Zanden and a 2-run single to Clemente to find the trailing position in this game. The damn Elks doubled their output in the fourth inning; Justin Becker drew a leadoff walk, and Ryan Johnston hit a 2-out bomb to stretch their lead to 4-1.

The Raccoons had apparently scored all their runs on Friday, because they didn’t convert even the easy chances on Saturday. Maldonado raked a 1-out triple in the sixth with nobody on base, but was stranded with a walk to Manny, a bad whiff by Castro, and a poor fly by Kilmer. Hicks was fooling them left and right, piling up 10 strikeouts through seven innings before giving up a leadoff triple to Ricky Jimenez in the eighth inning and being excused further time on duty. Sebastien Parham replaced him, nicked Maldonado, and a miffed Maldo almost made a whole thing out of it while being gently nudged towards first base by the home plate umpire. The tying run appeared in the box in Manny Fernandez, who hadn’t landed a fat hit all week long, and had to settle for a sac fly to center, 4-2. Castro ended the inning with a 6-4-3 grounder. While Kelly, Ramirez, and Green held the line for the Raccoons through eight, the Raccoons would send 6-7-8 to the plate against left-hander Alex Lewis in the ninth inning. He had a K/BB of flat four, and a 2.36 ERA, and I was not concerned about a rally here. Kilmer, Yamamoto, and de Wit hit three poor grounders to end the game. 4-2 Canadiens. Jimenez 2-4, 3B, RBI; Maldonado 2-3, 3B; Fernandez 0-1, 2 BB, RBI; Anderson (PH) 1-1;

Below Maldonado, the starting lineup hit 0-for-18 with Manny’s two walks.

Jackson then had to get back out there for Sunday, and the bronze goal for him would be to do better than Monday (1.2 IP, 6 ER)…

Game 3
POR: RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – C Sieber – 2B Gutierrez – CF Anderson – P Jackson
VAN: RF van der Zanden – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B J. Becker – 1B J. Lopez – SS R. Johnston – P Medvec

Sean Sieber put the Coons on top with a solo homer in the second inning, but Jackson also gave up a leadoff triple to Dan Schneller in the same frame, although Schneller had to leave the game with an apparent injury; Steve Jorgensen replaced him. Melvin Hernandez got the tying run home with a groundout while Jackson continued to be rather not so impressive. He couldn’t get a bunt down in the third inning either after Van Anderson had opened the inning with a single up the middle, then slapped a single through the left side at 0-2, putting runners on the corners. Nettles popped out unhelpfully, but Jimenez gave the Coons the lead with a sac fly, 2-1, although Jackson had another implosion in him. He allowed a single to the opposing pitcher to begin the bottom 3rd, which was always such a red flag, and Clemente and Outram also reached before the Schneller replacement schnelled one outta here for a grand slam.

Jackson was yanked in the fourth after another two hits and a walk, and another run that made it 6-2 for the damn Elks. I was confidently assured that the Opening Day starter’s curse in Portland was alive and well, even though Chuck Jones somehow got out of the stinking inning after entering in a double switch and after allowing a bases-stuffing single to the unretireable Jerry Outram. Jorgensen grounded out to end the inning this time, though…

Jones gave up a homer to Johnny Lopez in the fifth, though, which extended the gap to five runs, and I had no hopes at this point, and no desires other than for lightning to drive from the sky and strike and kill me dead… No such mercy was in the cards for me, but instead I got the bottom 6th, in which Seth Green entered with two outs and nobody on, walked Clemente and Outram, then gave up a 3-run homer to Jorgensen, which gave 7 RBI to a player that hadn’t been in the starting lineup. That 3-run homer was the final exclamation mark on the game. The Raccoons couldn’t, and the ******* Elks stopped trying after that… 10-2 Canadiens. Kilmer (PH) 1-1; Sieber 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Anderson 2-3;

In other news

June 3 – DAL 2B Hugo Acosta (.399, 1 HR, 30 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak with a three-hit game in an 8-5 win over the Capitals.
June 5 – The Loggers empty a bathtub with 13 runs over the Titans in the first inning alone, romping them 17-3 in the end. MIL 2B/3B Jose Cruz (.295, 1 HR, 17 RBI) drives in six runs on three hits, including a bases-clearing triple.
June 6 – SFB 3B/1B Ramon Sifuentes (.296, 11 HR, 44 RBI) shines with four hits and five RBI in a 16-4 rout of the Condors.

FL Player of the Week: TOP 1B Chris Delagrange (.277, 11 HR, 36 RBI), hitting .455 (10-22) with 4 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR UT Jesus Maldonado (.335, 7 HR, 34 RBI), swatting .391 (9-23) with 3 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Hey, everybody’s favorite worst hitter is back, Nick Lando, thanks to Arturo Carreno coming apart for the time being and spending June on the DL. Lando hit .260 with one homer in AAA. He will slide back into the platoon role at second base that worked so not well at the start of last season when we waited for Cosmo Trevino to come off the DL in April. Going 1-for-3 against John Roeder on Friday actually got him to .200 for his career!

Well, and then he hit 0-for-2 as a double switch replacement in Sunday’s rout.

Cory Lambert took the 5,200th regular season loss for the franchise with his ho-hum appearance on Saturday. Not that it stinks more that the 5,200th came against the damn Elks. Every loss to the damn Elks stinks. We had two of them on the weekend. They both stunk.

Next week, 7-game homestand with the Titans and Pacifics. The team played 7-9 against a string of losing ballclubs. Let’s see how they can do against a string of winning ones! We might get as many as four of those, including the Rebels at the end, in a row here, before a weekend set with the Arrowheads.

Fun Fact: Jason Wheatley’s 3-7 record is not pretty, but we tend to not blame him for it.

The Raccoons are scoring 2.36 runs on average in his starts. He lost six games in a row before winning Wednesday’s contest in Atlanta, but allowed more than three runs only twice, and more than three earned runs only once, and then that was a 4-run game, in those six starts.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-28) vs. Titans (30-25) – June 8-11, 2043

The Raccoons returned home after a good waffling in Elk City, finding the Titans in for four games. Boston had lost four in a row, and were now four games out in the division. They ranked fifth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed with a modest +14 run differential (Coons: -5). We led the season series, 2-1, and hoped to stay afloat against the Titans that came in without Moises Avila, who was out with a torn quad. They were also without starting pitchers “Tuba” Turner and Ignacio del Rio, tearing a good-sized hole into their rotation.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (5-3, 3.78 ERA) vs. Michael Donovan (6-1, 4.84 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-7, 3.50 ERA) vs. Nick Myers (4-3, 3.72 ERA)
Corey Mathers (7-4, 2.80 ERA) vs. Emanuel Caceiro (4-4, 5.40 ERA)
Cory Lambert (1-5, 3.96 ERA) vs. Jamal Barrow (0-5, 6.40 ERA)

That would be two left-handers mixed in with two standard-fare right-handers. Donovan and Caceiro would be the lefties. The latter was an occasional reliever of three seasons being squished into a starter role here.

Game 1
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – C D. Phillips – LF C. Cortes – 3B I. Lugo – CF Tortora – 1B Greeley – 2B Bensinger – P Donovan
POR: 2B de Wit – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – SS Castro – RF Casas – P Clark

Oscar Aguirre and Joe Ritchey opened with a pair of singles, but Clark struck out Devin Phillips and got a double play grounder from Carlos Cortes, who I was happy to see had yet to hit his way out of a milk carton in Raccoons Ballpark. Instead the Critters scored first on Ricky Jimenez’ solo homer to left-center in the bottom of the first. That was Portland’s only hit the first time through against Donovan, who retired 11 in a row before Manny hit a 2-out single in the fourth. Kilmer grounded out to end that inning. Boston only got another hit and a leadoff walk in the fourth inning off Clark through the middle of the fifth, so the 1-0 lead was holding up… yet. The bushel of Joses at the bottom of the order stirred Donovan in the bottom 5th, though, with Jose Castro hitting a single through the right side, while Jose Casas hit a long fly to left – and that was outta here! First career homer for Jose Casas, and lifting his batting average all the way to a lofty… .171!

Clark issued two walks in the sixth inning, but the Titans continued to struggle with actual meaningful contact, though I didn’t approve of his teasing antics. Didn’t give up a run though, ending up with four hits in seven shutout innings, so I’d take that and shut up. Jon Craig faced the top of the order in the eighth inning and walked Phillips, but Cortes reliably grounded out again, keeping Boston shut out through eight. Donovan held out through eight innings on the losing side, only yielding six hits to the Critters in total, the last of which was a pinch-hit single by Nick Lando in the bottom 8th that dissolved in Jimenez’ grounder for a 6-4-3. Rella also walked a batter in the ninth, putting Cullen Tortora on base with one out, but otherwise got three manageable outs from the Titans. 3-0 Coons. Lando (PH) 1-1; Fernandez 1-2, BB; Clark 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, W (6-3);

Game 2
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – C D. Phillips – 1B C. Cortes – CF Tortora – 3B I. Lugo – LF Liceaga – 2B Bensinger – P N. Myers
POR: RF Nettles – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – C Sieber – 2B Gutierrez – CF Anderson – P Wheatley

Wheatley had another first inning that was … “complicated”. Aguirre walked, Ritchey singled, and Phillips doubled in a run before he even got an out, and that out was a sac fly. Down 2-0, he somehow wiggled out against the bottom half of the order, but not without walking the bases full, and the first impression once again was rather rough. He retired the first two in the second inning on strikeouts, then walked Ritchey and allowed singles to Phillips and Cortes, the latter driving in another run, 3-0. Jason Bensinger would make it 4-0 with a homer in the third inning. The Coons didn’t even get a base hit until the fourth inning, when Maldo and Manny hit a pair of 1-out singles, and nothing came of it once Castro bounced into a double play.

After the four runs in three innings, Wheatley managed another three scoreless in the middle innings, but after that was done with the game, having tossed 95 pitches, none of them all that amazing… Also not amazing was the offense, shut out through five, but a Danny Liceaga error in leftfield got Stephon Nettles on base to begin the bottom 6th. Jimenez popped out, but Maldo walked and Manny ripped a ball to the base of the wall in leftfield for an RBI double, and we had actually made it on the board…! The tying run was also at home plate now, but Jose Castro had yet to do anything other than harm to his own team and – holy mother of cows, what a shot to right! And outta here! Game-tying 3-run homer!!

With Wheatley off the hook, the ball went to Alex Ramirez in a 4-4 tie, and he retired the Titans 1-2-3 in the seventh. Myers held out into the bottom 7th, but after Nettles and Jimenez reached on walks, was yanked with two outs for Joe West, who got a groundout from Maldonado to end the inning. Chuck Jones did a 1-2-3 in the eighth, then saw Manny and Castro go to the corners with leadoff singles in the bottom 8th. Sieber poked the 1-2 from West to shallow center, and it dropped just in front of the hustling Tortora for an RBI single …! The inning was then killed by Gutierrez (K) and Anderson (4-6-3), giving the ball to Josh Rella for the ninth again. This one he blew, giving up a pinch-hit homer to Adrian Wade with one out… I sighed, and sought solace in Capt’n Coma. Aguirre and Ritchey made outs to keep the game tied at five, while Jay de Wit, facing Jose Colon, opened the bottom 9th with a single to left-center; he had pinch-hit for the pitcher earlier and had remained in the game over Jimenez, so Rella was in the #2 hole after Nettles, who grounded to Aguirre for a force at second base. Yamamoto hit for Rella, but hit into another force play at second. Maldonado was next and hit a loud fly to right. Very loud! Very fly! Outta here!! It’s a walkoff!!! 7-5 Furballs!! Maldonado 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Fernandez 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Castro 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Sieber 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Maldonado!!

Sometimes I just love the guys. That might be the Capt’n Coma overdose speaking.

Game 3
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – C D. Phillips – 1B C. Cortes – CF Tortora – 3B I. Lugo – LF Liceaga – 2B Bensinger – P Caceiro
POR: LF de Wit – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – SS Castro – RF Casas – 2B Lando – P Mathers

Maldonado’s star sunk again in the first on Wednesday, striking out with de Wit (single) and Jimenez (double) in scoring position, the first of three acts on the way to stranding the no-out runners in scoring position. Kilmer also whiffed, and Yamamoto floated out to Ritchey. Both teams poked away at each other inefficiently after that, with Mathers remaining stunningly resilient to the opposition, before the Coons put something on the board in the fourth inning. Castro drew a 1-out walk, and Ivan Lugo’s error put Casas on base, too. Nick Lando came to the plate, not burdened by any expectations, but clipped a single over Jason Bensinger to drive in Castro, who got a great read, from second base …! Him and Casas then pulled off a double steal before we wasted an out with a bunt, and Mathers hit a sac fly on a 2-2 pitch instead. De Wit grounded out, keeping it a 2-0 game. Somehow that woke up the Titans though, and a Lugo double and a Bensinger single scored them a run in the fifth inning.

Caceiro began the bottom 5th by hitting Jimenez really hard, but the Cuban rookie import eventually stork-walked his way to first base eventually. He then had a lot of time to score when Maldonado hit a replica of his walkoff the night before, a 2-piece to right that extended the lead to 4-1 and made me pretty giddy. Kilmer hit a double to right-center after that, but would be stranded by the mixed bag that was the 5-6-7 positions. Aguirre’s leadoff double and two productive outs then gave the Titans another run in the sixth as Mathers started to show some more cracks. He was clearly running out of funk by the seventh (not out of pitches though, only reaching the 80s); Tortora led off with a sharp single, and Lugo grounded out, but we had a hunch and sent Zack Kelly with the left-handed Liceaga up as the tying run. Kelly got the K, then immediately left for Ramirez, who popped up Bensinger to end the inning. Kilmer hit another double that went nowhere in the bottom of the inning, but so did Ritchey’s 2-out double off Ramirez in the eighth, and the Coons remained up 4-2.

Manny, who had this game off in a longer string of games with the lefty on he mound and all, pinch-hit in the bottom 8th after the runts of the litter, Casas and Lando, had slapped 1-out singles off Joe West, but grounded to short for an inning-curtailing double play. The Coons then needed a save, but Rella was not available after getting two opportunities in the last two games (and blowing one). After the right-hander Cortes, the Titans seemed to bring up three left-handed bats, so we rolled the dice and sent Chuck Jones. Cortes grounded out, but the left-handed Tortora singled through the left side. PH Paul Kuehn, switch-hitter, flew out to rather deep center. PH Tony Graham came up with two outs, still batting lefty (otherwise we might have gone to Craig). Kilmer was charged with a passed ball before Jones gave up an RBI single to Graham on 2-2, aaaand here was Jon Craig! Bensinger struck out to give Craig the save. 4-3 Coons. Jimenez 2-4; Kilmer 2-4, 2 2B; Lando 2-4, RBI; Mathers 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (8-4);

Could we actually pull off a 4-game sweep and hand the Titans an 8-game losing streak? That would require Cory Lambert to keep his stuff together.

Game 4
BOS: SS O. Aguirre – RF Ritchey – C D. Phillips – 1B C. Cortes – CF Tortora – 3B I. Lugo – LF Liceaga – 2B Bensinger – P Barrow
POR: 3B de Wit – RF Nettles – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 1B Yamamoto – 2B Gutierrez – SS Castro – P Lambert

Maldonado kept raking with utter disregard for pitchers’ feelings, hitting a solo shot to left in the first inning for an early 1-0 lead. Manny then walked and was caught stealing, which was too bad, considering Kilmer then hit his home run leadoff the bottom 2nd for only one more run. The Titans soon got to Lambert though, using the tried and tested strategy of walk, single, 3-run blast by Oscar Aguirre to take the lead in the third inning as Lambert was not really holding his end of the sweep calculation. The Coons couldn’t do much besides homering, and somehow the same was true for the Titans; the next run-scoring event besides a lot of poor outs was a Ritchey homer to left, 4-2 in the fifth, and then a Tortora homer in the sixth, leading off that inning. Doubles by Lugo (off Lambert) and Bensinger (off Seth Green) gave the Titans the first non-homer run in the game in the same inning, extending their lead to 6-2. The Raccoons got a non-homer hit in the bottom of the sixth, Nettles hitting an RBI single to plate de Wit, who had reached on a Bensinger error and advanced on a wild pitch. The middle of the order was no help until Kilmer hit an RBI single, 6-4, but Yamamoto popped out to end the inning.

Green pitched 2.2 innings without being charged with a run of his own, but also bunted into a double play to erase Castro in the bottom 7th. Nettles walked in the bottom 8th, then was thrown out at home by Mark Vermillion from centerfield on a Maldo double, and the inning ended with the Raccoons not scoring at all, which sucked. Sauerkraut pitched a scoreless ninth despite giving up a triple to Aguirre, which got Jose Colon back in the game for the bottom 9th. Their lead was still two runs, but the Raccoons would also cart up the bottom half of the order starting with Kilmer, who singled to left. Yamamoto hit a chopper on a 3-1 pitch, which made me groan, but it eluded Lugo for a single, which made me quiver and squeal immediately. And somehow they kept bobbling onwards, even when Omar Gutierrez fell to 0-2. The third pitch by Colon was taken into the gap for an RBI double …! So now the tying run was at third and the winning run at second base, and still nobody out…! Castro *also* fell to 0-2, then hit a long fly to right, but that was not gonna go out. Ritchey caught it, and Yamamoto scampered home to tie the game. Gutierrez crucially reached third base. Ricky Jimenez would hit for Sauerkraut here, but was walked intentionally. De Wit was up next, faced new pitcher Justin Johns, and hit a liner up the middle – AND BENSINGER CAUGHT IT!! NOOOO!!! Jimenez off the base! NOOOO!!! He was doubled off with ease, and the Titans sent the game to extras.

Zack Kelly walked Lugo, but got a double play grounder to get through the top 10th, and would tack on another inning, when the Coons’ 2-3-4 went 1-2-3 in the bottom 10th. The Coons still didn’t reach against Danny Tirado in the 11th, and when Kelly returned for the 12th he was taken deep by Paul Kuehn. Castro would lead off the bottom 12th against Tirado in the right-hander’s second inning of work. He drew a 4-pitch walk. Van Anderson and de Wit flew out, but Tirado allowed a soft single to Nettles, which brought up Maldonado with the chance to be a hero again. He fell to 1-2, then poked a roller up the middle that eluded the defenders and got Castro around to tie the game …! Manny then grounded out, extending the game to the 13th.

The Titans opened that inning with a Wade double off Josh Rella, and went on to fill the bags with a walk drawn by Aguirre and an infield single by Ritchey with two outs, but Kuehn grounded out to Gutierrez on a 2-0 pitch to strand all the precious runners. Rella allowed a leadoff single in the 14th, then was lifted for Jones, who got through the inning despite a Wade single, stranding runners on the corners when Bensinger grounded out. The Coons got Jose Casas in has pinch-hitter with one out in the bottom 14th. He drew a walk, knocking out a remarkably persistent Tirado, who was then lifted for Guillermo Vinales. De Wit singled off the new righty, moving Casas to second base. Nettles and Maldonado both flew out to end the inning, and the game dragged on, with the Raccoons seriously out of pitchers. Craig came in for the 15th, with only Ramirez left in the pen, and he was technically not available unless things got really dire. Thankfully, Craig was a long guy. He walked Aguirre in the 15th, the runner stole second and reached third on Kilmer’s bad throw, but Craig also struck out three and the Titans didn’t score. Portland didn’t reach in the bottom 15th, and neither did the Titans in the top 16th. The Coons got Omar Gutierrez on base to begin the bottom 16th with an infield single, and also got Gutierrez off base because he tweaked a hamstring on the run. Nick Lando replaced him. Lando stole second base, but Castro struck out and Casas was walked intentionally. Jay de Wit singled to right-center (with the pitcher in the #2 hole behind him!), and it was late on Aruba, but a party broke out when Nick Lando rushed around third base and made for home plate in time ahead of Ritchey’s throw …! 8-7 Raccoons! Nettles 2-6, BB, RBI; Maldonado 3-6, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Kilmer 3-7, HR, 2 RBI; Casas (PH) 0-0, 2 BB; Green 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Craig 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-0);

Kinda pyrrhic, this win, but I’ll take a 4-game sweep of the Boston Boogers!

We can always figure the rest out in the short night following this W.

Raccoons (31-28) vs. Pacifics (34-26) – June 12-14, 2043

The Pacifics were third in the FL West, 3 1/2 games out of first. The name fo their game was pitching and defense, with the fewest runs allowed in the FL, while they were only eighth in runs scored. It was all enough for a +40 run differential (Coons: +2). They were down at least one good starting pitcher in Al Scott, though, and their offense mostly relied on Juan Benavides (.367, 11 HR, 28 RBI). The Critters had won the last five series against them, the last two in sweeps; we hadn’t played them since 2040, we hadn’t lost a game to them since 2037, and we hadn’t lost a series to them since 2034.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (4-6, 5.71 ERA) vs. Joe Feltman (3-6, 3.92 ERA)
Brent Clark (6-3, 3.42 ERA) vs. Kevin Clendenen (7-4, 2.67 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-7, 3.71 ERA) vs. Mike LeMasters (7-2, 3.19 ERA)

Looked like a Southpaw Sunday coming up here! They had been off on Thursday, though, and had the option to skip a guy. LeMasters, a 26-year-old that had broken out last year, was their only southpaw.

Which got us to the state of the Raccoons’ bullpen. Even generously calculated, we had only four relievers available. Chuck Jones had pitched three days in a row. Zack Kelly and Jon Craig had pitched back-to-back, with long stints on Thursday. None of the three were available. If Jackson blew up early again, it was probably his soup alone to spoon out…

Apart from that, Omar Gutierrez was day-to-day with the hammy thing, which would probably bother him all weekend. The Coons had to play six more games before they’d get an off day, with regulars Maldonado and Castro yet to get a day off. The former would spot the latter (who would have been replaced by Gutierrez sans hamstring) to open the series, then probably get the other game against a righty off.

Game 1
LAP: LF Foss – 1B Wotring – 3B Bowman – RF Benavides – C Alvardo – 2B S. Pena – CF T. Romero – SS J. Rodriguez – P Feltman
POR: 2B de Wit – 3B Jimenez – SS Maldonado – LF Fernandez – CF Nettles – C Sieber – RF Casas – 1B Yamamoto – P Jackson

Jackson’s early innings filled me with much foreboding and soon enough Capt’n Coma, and that was without him actually allowing runs amidst three sharp singles and a nicked batter (Brian Bowman) in the first two innings. Tony Romero, briefly a Critter, had one of the singles, but was doubled off by Jon Rodriguez. The Raccoons had Maldo on with a single in the first, then got Sieber and Casas into scoring position with a single and a double in the bottom 2nd, all with one out. Shuta Yamamoto briefly stopped being useless and ripped a 3-2 pitch over Bowman for a 2-run double, then was stranded on second base.

Jackson put another two runners on base in the third without conceding a run, but I didn’t see this ending well at all. Even when Jimenez erred on base in the bottom 3rd and Maldonado homered to center, continuing a run in which he was simply en fuego, and extended the lead to 4-0… even then I was somehow sure that Jackson would yet blow up and blow it… and YET, he pitched five scoreless innings. Maldonado slapped a double to center in the fifth, getting to within a triple of the cycle by then. Manny walked after that, but Nettles popped out. Two down, Sean Sieber hit a liner into the gap in left-center. Maldo scored on the double, but Manny got a bad read and stopped at third base. Feltman walked Jose Casas to fill the bases, and Yamamoto had been helpful enough and popped out, keeping things at 5-0.

Then Jackson loaded the bases in the sixth. David Alvardo and Sergio Pena hit singles, and Romero walked, all with one out. The Coons would have been tempted to go to a reliever, but couldn’t afford it. Rodriguez grounded to second for an out there, but one run scored. Jon Sullivan then pinch-hit for Feltman and grounded out to Maldo. Jackson hit for himself to lead off the bottom of the inning, grounding out, then allowed another two 1-out singles to Wotring and Bowman in the seventh. Benavides struck out, and Alvardo grounded out to Yamamoto to end the inning – the last one for Jackson, who had been shoved around quite a bit, but still had only allowed one run. Maldo came to bat in the bottom 7th, but grounded out. The Raccoons had to be bold after that and went to Sauerkraut for the eighth and maybe even ninth…? He sure enough entered in a double switch that replaced Nettles with Van Anderson in center to make sure he’d not have to be pinch-hit for. He issued a walk to Romero in the eighth, but retired the Pacifics otherwise, and began the ninth with a K to ex-Elk Aaron Foss in the #1 spot. A walk to Wotring didn’t help, but Bowman’s grounder at least removed the lead runner. Benavides was up with two outs, but was a lefty hitter, and the Coons had no other lefty relievers available. Josh Rella was ready to come in to face Alvardo if Sauerkraut couldn’t remove Benavides – but Benavides struck out. 5-1 Raccoons. Jimenez 2-4; Maldonado 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Fernandez 2-3, BB; Sieber 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Jackson 7.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (5-6); Becker 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

In turn, Sauerkraut was now unavailable for the Saturday game, but some luck with a total of 14 Pacifics on base meant that we managed to regain most of our bullpen for the middle game of the series.

Game 2
LAP: SS Hunter – 1B Wotring – 3B Bowman – RF Benavides – C Alvardo – CF T. Romero – LF J. Sullivan – 2B Visser – P Clendenen
POR: 2B de Wit – SS Castro – 3B Jimenez – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – CF Nettles – RF Casas – 1B Yamamoto – P Clark

There were three base runners against Brent Clark the first time through, none on a base hit. Clark walked two, and de Wit made an error at second base for another runner, but the Pacifics didn’t score again. The Coons scored, in the bottom 2nd: Manny led off with a single, stole a base, Kilmer reached on a Bowman error, and Stephon Nettles found an RBI single in his bat for the first run of the game. Clenenden then struck out the two hopeless talents at the bottom of the order and got a groundout from Clark to escape the inning. The lead didn’t last, being erased on the Pacifics’ first hit of the game, an Alvardo homer in the fourth.

That was the only hit off Clark, who lasted only six innings, rubbing himself to little bits in a myriad of long at-bats in the middle innings. He would strike out nine and issue four walks. His bid for something countable in the W-L columns depended on offense in the bottom 6th, with the tied game seeing Castro singling and Jimenez doubling with one out. Both were in scoring position for Manny Fernandez, who hit a sac fly to get the go-ahead run across. Kilmer grounded out. Seth Green retired the 7-8-9 in order in the seventh inning to keep the 2-1 in order, but Ramirez had more trouble in the eighth. Tony Hunter, also a former Raccoon, hit a leadoff single to left-center, but was forced out by Wotring. With one out, Bowman drew a walk in a full count *and* Benavides was up! Not willing to go to a still tuckered-out Chuck Jones in that spot, the Coons let Ramirez do as he wished, which included getting to 1-2 on Benavides, who then smoked a liner – RIGHT INTO YAMAMOTO’S MITTEN!! And Bowman was caught off base and doubled off, 3-unassisted, to end the inning…! PHEW.

Van Anderson had entered in a double switch with Ramirez, then led off the bottom 8th with a homer off Clendenen, his first this year and second for his career. That was a welcome insurance run before the game was turned over to Josh Rella in the ninth, facing the 5-6-7 batters. He had Alvardo at 1-2 before nailing him, inviting the tying run to the plate. Foss batted for Romero, but grounded out, and Jon Sullivan whiffed. Jon St. Pierre pinch-hit for Preston Visser, ran a 3-1 count… and then undramatically grounded out to Yamamoto to end the game. 3-1 Critters. Anderson 1-1, HR, RBI; Clark 6.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K, W (7-3);

This was the first game Maldonado did not appear in this season.

Game 3
LAP: LF Foss – CF T. Romero – 3B Bowman – RF Benavides – C Alvardo – 2B S. Pena – 1B J. Sullivan – SS Visser – P LeMasters
POR: C Sieber – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Castro – 1B Yamamoto – RF Casas – 2B Lando – P Wheatley

Portland took a lead in the second inning again, with Yamamoto doubling into the corner in rightfield, then scoring on productive outs, Nick Lando’s sac fly in particular. Wheatley scattered three singles in the first four innings and struck out two, which was not outlandish, but surely pointed more in the right direction for him. That was until Lando threw away Sergio Pena’s grounder to begin the fifth inning, putting a free tying run on second base. Wheatley almost immediately faltered, nicked Preston Visser after Sullivan grounded out, and walked the opposing pitcher to fill the bags with one down and the top of the order approaching. Wheatley was attempted to be calmed down in a big mound conference, then saw Aaron Foss pop out in foul ground on an 0-1 pitch. Romero grounded one to Yamamoto… and Yamamoto botched it …! Nooo..!! Error, and the tying run scored. Bowman grounded out, but it was now a 1-1 game, the L.A. run being doubly-unearned.

Tattered Raccoons… although maybe they just looked tattered after I had exed an entire bottle of Capt’n Coma, cockroach included… continued to play, although they didn’t score any time soon. Wheatley remained on the millstone for 107 pitches and seven innings of 4-hit ball, and if not for that completely botched fifth inning would still be in line for a W. The Coons could still get him back in line, but had the bottom of the order up in the seventh, still facing LeMasters, also on a 4-hitter in the 1-1 game… but they actually did it! Jose Casas drew a leadoff walk, moved up on Lando’s grounder, and then came around on a pinch-hit single to left-center by Jay de Wit, leading to a carnival in Oranjestad. That 2-1 was all they got, though, and then it was off to the pen with Jon Craig and Chuck Jones, who combined for the eighth inning, then saw Jose Castro hit another late solo homer off a persisting starting pitcher to make it 3-1 again in the bottom 8th. Jones remained in the game for the ninth initially, facing off against left-hander Sergio Pena, who grounded out to Castro. Only then game Josh Rella against righty hitters. He walked Sullivan in a full count, causing me to groan, but Sullivan was forced out with Rodriguez’ grounder to short. St. Pierre batted with two outs in the ninth again, this time for LeMasters, and I hoped he’d end another game. He did – flying out to Jose Casas on the warning track while I squealed. 3-1 Raccoons! Yamamoto 1-2, BB, 2B; de Wit (PH) 1-1, RBI; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (4-7) and 1-2;

In other news

June 8 – 35-year-old CIN 2B/3B Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino (.388, 0 HR, 17 RBI) sprinkles four hits in a 5-4 win over the Capitals, the last of which is the 3,000th of his career, which started with those Capitals in 2027, and the milestone is a seventh-inning single off WAS SP Kyle Dominy (1-2, 5.48 ERA). Owner of eight stolen base titles and leading the Federal League in base hits (but not batting) three times, Trevino has batted .320/.364/.408 with 44 HR and 923 RBI for his career. His 707 stolen bases rank him second all-time behind Pablo Sanchez, with only 14 to go to tie the retired future Hall of Famer.
June 9 – DAL 2B Hugo Acosta (.392, 1 HR, 33 RBI) gets his hitting streak to 25 games with a sixth-inning triple in a 5-4 win over the Pacifics.

June 10 – The Canadiens will be without 2B Dan Schneller (.328, 9 HR, 35 RBI) for a month; the 35-year-old is out with a torn quad.
June 10 – NAS LF/RF/1B Sean Ashley (.308, 8 HR, 21 RBI) goes down with a torn meniscus and might miss up to three months.
June 11 – RIC OF/1B Alex Marquez (.270, 5 HR, 27 RBI) is going to miss a month with a strained hammy.
June 11 – Warriors 1B/2B Dustin Fruman (.234, 3 HR, 23 RBI) is out for the season with a torn posterior cruciate ligament.
June 11 – The Indians scalp the Canadiens in a 22-7 rout. IND 3B Dan Hutson (.252, 15 HR, 37 RBI) and C Jason Rose (.238, 4 HR, 20 RBI) drive in five runs each, and RF/2B/3B Alex Sanderfer (.162, 2 HR, 10 RBI) finds four hits and four RBI in his bat.

June 12 – SAC RF/LF Joreao Porfirio (.230, 6 HR, 18 RBI) has torn a meniscus and will miss a month.
June 12 – DAL OF/1B/3B Ricky Correa (.340, 5 HR, 45 RBI) has four hits and five RBI to lead his team in a 16-5 rush of the Condors.
June 13 – The hitting streak of Dallas’ 2B Hugo Acosta (.390, 1 HR, 37 RBI) ends at 27 games with an 0-for-3 in a 6-2 loss to the Condors.
June 13 – SFB SP Rafael Pedraza (4-8, 4.01 ERA) 3-hits the Blue Sox while claiming a 4-0 shutout win.
June 14 – Salem SP Ryan Bedrosian (5-4, 3.06 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout against the Indians. The Wolves win 4-0.
June 14 – The Buffaloes trade C Tony Morales (.339, 3 HR, 16 RBI) to the Falcons for two prospects.

FL Player of the Week: RIC LF/RF Pablo Gonzalez (.384, 15 HR, 43 RBI), batting .467 (14-30) with 4 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR UT Jesus Maldonado (.343, 11 HR, 42 RBI), slugging .417 (10-24) with 4 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Maldo! Second week in a row he notches the CL Player of the Week flower bouquet!

What the heck is this team? So terrible against losing teams, and now a 7-0 week against genuine teams that are at least on the fringe of serious competition?? 7-0! That doesn’t happen all the time!

And yet I don’t know how they’re doing it. Maldonado is OPS’ing a solid 1 by now, and apart from that? Sieber has a .833 OPS in limited action. Only Carreno (on DL though), Jimenez, and Manny Fernandez are even over .700. So we’re still in the bottom three in runs scored, plating only 33 runs even in a 7-0 week. The rest was all pitching, best defense, best pen, and a rotation that was at least competent and fifth in ERA.

The Raccoons could use a rightfielder that can hit at least a little bit. A right-hander for sure, maybe for an off-kilter platoon with Nettles. Never mind the constant disappointments by big name additions. An Eddie Jackson type of bat would already be a tremendous addition. Although, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly married to Stephon Nettles; a left-handed batter wouldn’t be the worst addition. On the trading block was 36-year-old Federal League stalwart Kyle Weinstein, hitting .240/.353/.459 (in 39 starts) on the last-place Caps. He was old and slow, but he could still hit. The problem was that he made $3.8M a year not only this year, but also next year (no option). Next year, my math says, and Cristiano confirms, he’ll be 37. Older, and slower. On the plus side, the Caps would give him away almost for free. Something like Seth Green or a stuck AAA outfielder like Ben Southall would be entirely enough for him.

So what’s next? We’ll go on the road to Richmond and Indy next week, then return home for a Loggers set before skipping down to The Bay for a weekend series before returning home immediately, hosting the Condors and (again) Titans in the next homestand long enough to get every starter a turn.

Curiosity: Jay de Wit’s pinch-hit single on Sunday secured the franchise’s 5,555th regular season win.

Fun Fact: Cosmo Trevino and Kyle Dominy were teammates on the 2040 Raccoons, which didn’t exactly get them into the history books.

So they teamed up for Cosmo’s 3,000th career hit. Fair game, boys! Fair game.

Cosmooo…! (sigh)

[Westheim]

2043 AMATEUR DRAFT

It was time to get out to New York first thing in the morning and come down on League HQ to sort through the parade of young pitching and hitting talent that tried to get paid for stick-and-ball games. The 2043 amateur draft was upon us and the Raccoons had compiled a shortlist of 117 players for the shortlist (including three listed as both pitchers and hitters), and also the annual hotlist of about a dozen or so players that we’d take in a heartbeat. Players with * are high school standouts.

SP Kellen Lanning (12/12/9)
SP C.J. Benjamin (12/12/12)
SP Luke Schwartz (12/12/12)
SP Jeremy Baker (12/12/13)
SP Joe Wilson (12/12/11)
SP Garrett Guistino (11/13/13)

SP Barry Montgomery (16/16/12) *
CL Brian Grohoski (18/14/7)

C Nick Samuel (10/12/13)

UT Mike Proffitt (9/11/10)

OF/1B Mike Harmon (9/13/12)
OF Jim Vesey (8/12/8) *
OF Brent Cramer (13/8/9) *
OF Tony Lopez (12/12/12)
OF/1B Ken Crum (10/12/11)

The closer we got to draft day the more I got attracted to the idea of maybe taking Barry Montgomery with our #7 pick (the reward for all the losing last year) in the first round. Even if he wouldn’t run into an ace, there was still the chance to get a lights-out closer out of the deal, which wasn’t the worst bargain.

The Capitals had the first overall pick, selecting high school outfielder Jim Vesey with it. The Titans also selected an outfielder with the #2 pick, taking in Tony Lopez. The Blue Sox made it 3-for-3 with the selection of Mike Harmon. Coming up fourth, the Warriors went for catcher Nick Samuel. The Aces used their #5 pick on outfielder Brent Cramer. That only left the Indians to pick ahead of the Critters, and they went for outfielder Josh Poupard, who was not on our hotlist.

And the Raccoons? Suddenly I felt dizzy. Why was nobody taking those starting pitchers, any of them? Shouldn’t we take one of the starting pitchers, the undisputed ones? Lanning? Or Schwartz? Or … or … and the worst thing was, I had forgotten Honeypaws at the hotel, and how could I make an informed decision, sitting there, staring, sweating, under the impatient looks of 23 other GM’s, the league brass, and our own Scout Guy, who tapped his fingers on the table rhythmically. Okay, Baker!! Why him?? I DON’T KNOW WHY!! DON’T ASK SO MANY QUESTIONS!! (breaks into tears)

At least I made the Pacifics happy, who drafted Montgomery at #8. Maybe we will look back on this day with great regret! Lanning went #9 to the Condors, and the Bayhawks took Ken Crum at #11. Brian Grohoski was a #14 pick by the Crusaders, one spot ahead of the Rebels’ selection of Garrett Giustino. The #21 pick was C.J. Benjamin by the Thunder. The Loggers took Luke Schwartz at #23, and Joe Wilson, taken by the Cyclones, concluded the first round proper.

That made super utility Mike Proffitt the only player from the hotlist that didn’t get taken in the first round proper, but I was still trying to bite a piece out of the table over not taking Montgomery with the #7 pick when the Pacifics snapped him up with the #8 pick. Proffitt slipped to the Bayhawks at #31, thus ending the hotlist watch part of this year’s draft bonanza.

The Raccoons did not have a supplemental round pick, so we only got back into the action with the #51 pick in the second round and took a well-rounded outfielder that could do a bit of everything in 23-year-old Matt Glodowski, a right-handed batter. Then I got back at the Pacifics by drafting another outfielder right out of their backyard in L.A. boy Daniel Wright. Yeah! (stands up and yells over at the Pacifics delegation) How you like that, punks!?

+++

2043 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#7) – SP Jeremy Baker, 22, from Rochester, MI – left-handed college stud throwing 92 with serious control, and adding a fine splitter, forkball, and a changeup that mostly served to confuse people when they had to get their knees out of its way
Round 2 (#51) – OF Matt Glodowski, 23, from Freeport, NY – well-rounded player suitable for all three positions on the green grass, with decent contact and power, some speed, and a strong throwing arm.
Round 3 (#75) – RF/LF Daniel Wright, 18, from Los Angeles, CA – another strong arm here for rightfield, but a bit less range and not much of a chance to play center competently. Speed and stealing was not his forte, but we saw a power bat with enough contact ability to make an impact with something, even if it was only harsh reality in AA in five years.
Round 4 (#99) – 3B/LF/RF Justin Benne, 19, from North Charleston, SC – a bit of a wild pick for a guy that wasn’t making a lot of contact against high school pitching, but if he made contact, he’d hit the ball into the next county over. Best case was a Mark Dawson type of player that could fill all the corners and whack 20 homers with a low-end batting average.
Round 5 (#123) – SP Craig Holliday, 20, from Pottsville, PA – right-hander with a 91mph fastball, a curve, and his idea of a changeup. Fairly durable and has stamina like a horse, so maybe he can work his way onto a major league staff that way.
Round 6 (#147) – C Andy Boyette, 19, from Bourne, MA – run-of-the-mill, mid-round catcher; more of a contact bat with little patience and sparse power, no speed, but his act behind the plate grades out fairly well
Round 7 (#171) – RF/LF/1B Josh McCracken, 18, from Houston, TX – lefty hitter with mediocre defense and not much power or plate discipline.
Round 8 (#195) – SS Sergio Cancel, 18, from Coahuila, Mexico – light-hitting shortstop with good defensive metrics as far as range was concerned, but slightly clumsy.
Round 9 (#219) – MR Scott Ebert, 21, from Nashville, TN – left-hander with a 90mph fastball and a good curve, but control over none of that.
Round 10 (#243) – INF/LF Zach LaCasse, 18, from Brooklyn, NY – potential super utility… and that was about all the good things about him, because he wasn’t exactly a defensive wizard and his bat hadn’t gotten him drafted earlier either…
Round 11 (#267) – MR Erick Hackworth, 21, from Toms River, NJ – this year’s Nick Brown Memorial Pick throws 90 with his left paw, and has a cutter and a bit of a crappy changeup. Control is terrible.
Round 12 (#291) – INF Brian Maloney, 20, from Strathcona, Canada – low-hitting loudmouth that decently fields at multiple positions
Round 13 (#315) – SP Hiroshi Arai, 19, from Tokyo, Japan – left-handed Japanese high-schooler we were instructed to draft at Nick Valdes’ insistence, so he could get a deal done with Hitoshi Arai, his father, who owned 58 large pollution factories. The kid wasn’t even good enough to be the Nick Brown Memorial Pick.

Baker and Glodowski were both assigned to Ham Lake after the draft as somewhat developed college seniors. The rest of the draftees went to Aumsville.

+++

Of course we also had to cull some players. Some known names would be pitchers Chase Gregson (2040, 4th round), who walked everything with and without legs, Ricky Baez (2042, 10th round), who was just plain bad, and position players were also axed, including 1B Art Goetz, 28-year-old lefty hitter, who batted .263 with 6 homers for the Raccoons, but had now faded to hit .180 in AAA. The Raccoons were to promote 1B Ricardo Bejarano from AA, and had to get rid of at least one of their leftovers in AAA (the other being Damian Salazar, who was also with three paws out the door). INF Tom McCullough (2040, 10th round) and LF/RF Gregg Throndson (2039, 5th round) were also let go for running out of talent in the low minors.

We also dumped a pair of scouting discovery catchers from Aumsville, the odd trash heap signing, and would probably drop a few more players down the road. We still had 102 players in the minors (three of them on the DL).

[Westheim]

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

+++

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bidding for an 0-6 week now?

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

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

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

Interlude: Trade

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other news

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

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

Complaints and stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-31) vs. Loggers (41-28) – June 22-24, 2043

The Loggers had snuck their way into first place in the division, and had stormed to first place in runs scored in the Continental League as well. Pitching-wise they were seventh, with a +52 run differential (Critters: +12). The season series was even at three. They had no injuries to bemoan, but the Raccoons got to activate Arturo Carreno on Monday and optioned Nick Lando back to St. Petersburg, so Nelson Moreno was now the only Raccoon on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Cory Lambert (1-5, 4.26 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (6-3, 3.64 ERA)
Jake Jackson (6-6, 4.96 ERA) vs. Sal Chavez (3-9, 5.61 ERA)
Brent Clark (7-4, 3.48 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (5-3, 5.13 ERA)

We definitely got the soft end of their rotation, though; and also three right-handers. Thursday would be our last off day before the All Star Game.

Game 1
MIL: CF Reeves – C Sicco – 1B Brayboy – RF Hertenstein – 3B Paul – SS Del Vecchio – LF Fleming – 2B J. Cruz – P Piedra
POR: 2B Carreno – 1B Ayala – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 3B Jimenez – C Kilmer – RF Nettles – SS Castro – P Lambert

The brief homestand began with a scoreless top 1st despite an Aaron Brayboy double to right, but the Raccoons scored a 2-out run in the bottom 1st, Maldo hitting a double to center and Many singling him home. The bottom 2nd then began with three singles by the 6-7-8 batters, stacking the bases for… Lambert. Cory Lambert had no hits and no RBI on the season, but slapped away at the first pitch and got it through between Jose Cruz and Ted Del Vecchio for a 2-run single…! Piedra faced only one more batter before being replaced for injury concerns; Adam Giovenco replaced him and gave up another run on Sal Ayala’s groundout. Lambert held the Loggers in check early on, although he also ran four full counts in three innings to explode his pitch counts northwards. The Raccoons meanwhile got Lambert, Carreno, and Maldonado on base to give Manny a thick chance with three on and two outs in the bottom 4th. Manny fired a ball into the gap in left-center that ran away from Jonathan Fleming for a bases-clearing double, and when Ricky Jimenez popped out to Daniel Hertenstein in shallow right, the Coons had a 7-0 lead through four innings.

The Loggers reached the board though by the fifth, with Jose Cruz hitting a 2-out RBI single to score dismal Ted Del Vecchio, who had reached on a full-count walk. In the sixth, Lambert allowed a leadoff walk to Bill Reeves, then a bomb to Valentino Sicco, 7-3. His pitch count also reached the 90s by this point. He would not retire another hitter, conceding a double to Brayboy and an RBI single to Hertenstein, then was yanked for Seth Green (in a double switch that put Omar Gutierrez at short), who secured three outs from the next three Loggers. The cookie continued to crumble, though. Green put two aboard in the seventh, and Chuck Jones came on to face Aaron Brayboy, but gave up a 2-run double to left. Hertenstein walked before Jared Paul struck out, but the score was now 7-6.

Jimenez and Nettles reached base in the bottom 7th, but de Wit lined out and Gutierrez flew out to deep left. In the eighth, the tying run reached when ******* Ted Del Vecchio legged out an infield single and got all the way to third base, but eventually Sauerkraut – in an unusually crucial situation – was called upon to face PH Brad Simon and secured a K that ended the inning. Bottom 8th, Carreno drew a walk from right-hander Ron Purcell, then stole second. The Loggers issued an intentional walk to Maldonado (despite Manny having 4 RBI in the game), but then saw Carreno take off for third base. Sicco threw the ball away, the insurance run scored, and Purcell lost Manny on balls after that. Jimenez struck out, but Kilmer slashed an RBI single to the right side, 9-6, and Nettles dinked one into left, 10-6. Van Anderson hit for Sauerkraut, but grounded out, and then Zack Kelly got the ball for the ninth (although we should have left Sauerkraut in there with a 4-run lead, really…). At least Kelly retired the Loggers on three batters with a walk and a double play included. 10-6 Raccoons. Fernandez 2-4, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Kilmer 2-4, BB, RBI; Nettles 3-5, RBI;

Game 2
MIL: CF Reeves – LF Serad – 1B Brayboy – RF Hertenstein – 3B Paul – SS Del Vecchio – C Sicco – 2B J. Cruz – P S. Chavez
POR: 2B Carreno – 1B Ayala – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 3B Jimenez – C Sieber – RF Nettles – SS Castro – P Jackson

There as not a lot of offense to go around in the Tuesday game, however. Through four innings, the Coons had one hit and the Loggers had two. Ricky Jimenez had once been robbed in the gap by Reeves, and that was about it. Del Vecchio (…) and Sicco then hit 1-out singles to reach the corners in the fifth inning, but Jackson, who seemed to have left his explosive phase behind him, struck out both Cruz and the opposing pitcher – the latter only in a full count – to end the inning. In turn then, Sieber hit a leadoff double to right in the bottom 5th, and was thrown out at third base by Hertenstein. Nobody else did anything much in the inning anyway…

Jackson struck out seven through six innings, then led off the bottom 6th with an out. Carreno, though, drew a walk, then stole his 14th base of the year. Ayala’s groundout advanced him, while Maldonado again got directions to first base right away. The Loggers continued to pick their poison with Manny Fernandez, who grounded out to Brayboy. I sighed and dug myself deeper into a box of Danish waffles somebody had dragged in. They tasted stale, much like this game.

Jackson then got stuck in the seventh; Paul singled, Sicco and Cruz walked, and that filled the bags. He remained in against Chavez, who struck out, but with the switch-hitting Reeves back up with two outs was hauled in for Zack Kelly, who walked in the game’s first run before getting a groundout from PH Adam Borchard. (stuffs another three waffles into his snout) Mmm. Stale!

At least Jackson didn’t get stuck with a stupid loss; Nettles and Castro tied the game with back-to-back 2-out doubles in the bottom of the same inning. Jose Casas pinch-hit for Kelly, dinked a ball near the leftfield line, and the Coons took a 2-1 lead on the single. The Loggers hung in there with Chavez, who continued to give up a gapper for an RBI double to Carreno. Ayala then flew out to deep center. Up 3-1, the Raccoons then ****** up the lead without having the Loggers hit a baseball. Chuck Jones came for the eighth, walked two, and departed. In came Seth Green, who walked Paul, Simon, and Sicco, tying the game, and departed, with three on and nobody out. In one of the more stunning collapses in recent times, Jon Craig waved in all the runs with a Jose Cruz single and a Felipe Gomez double, then retired the 1-2-3 batters while keeping those two stranded in scoring position. I could have been happier, though. Maldonado then led off the bottom 8th with a jack against Caleb Martin, narrowing the gap to 6-4. Martin walked Jimenez, but Sieber grounded into a double play. Nettles, Castro, and de Wit went down in order in the ninth. 6-4 Loggers. Maldonado 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Casas (PH) 1-1, RBI;

As far as stinking losses go, this one was pretty special.

Game 3
MIL: CF Reeves – 2B J. Cruz – 1B Brayboy – RF Hertenstein – 3B Paul – SS Del Vecchio – LF Borchard – C F. Gomez – P Freels
POR: 2B Carreno – 1B Ayala – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 3B Jimenez – C Kilmer – SS Gutierrez – RF Casas – P Clark

The Loggers went up 1-0 in the rubber game when Bill Reeves hit a leadoff double off Brent Clark and Kilmer threw the ball away on his stolen base attempt for third base. It didn’t get any better after that; Freels hit a leadoff single in the third inning, which was bad enough, but Clark then walked three in a row to push him all the way around, and gave up additional runs on a single, a groundout, and a wild pitch. That buried the Raccoons five deep, and the game was more or less over. Clark walked Gomez and Cruz in the fourth inning, trying to dig an even deeper hole, but he defense kept **** together as far as **** was actually still holding together. The offense had yet to do *anything*. They had a hit here, a hit there, but it took CLARK batting with two outs in the bottom 5th and hitting a single to score Kilmer that they actually reached the board. Carreno flew out after that, and Clark was out of the game after retiring the 7-8-9 batters in order in the sixth.

Maldonado tripled with one out in the bottom 6th, but Manny lined out to Del Vecchio for more frustration. Ricky Jimenez’ homer to left-center helped, but only narrowed the score to 5-3. That brief reprieve aside, the Racoons continued to deliver a team effort in sucking the joy out of baseball. In the eighth, Sauerkraut was pitching. He struck out Paul, but then conceded a single to ******* Del Vecchio, then walked Borchard. For the second time in the game, a Logger took off for third base and Kilmer threw the ball away, conceding another run on an error. Gomez popped out and Simon struck out to strand another Loggers run at third base, but being down 6-3 on pitchers that couldn’t throw a strike and catchers that couldn’t throw the baseball vaguely near the third baseman was bad enough, and Maud had to fight me for the blunderbuss all the way through the bottom of the eighth, which saw Jimenez doubled home Maldonado, but being left on base by Kilmer and Nettles. Josh Rella had to pitch the top 9th in a losing cause. He fumbled Reeves aboard on the team’s third error of the game, but Kilmer got a caught stealing for a change and not just a parade of E’s when Reeves took off for second base. The Loggers didn’t score, giving righty Cesar Perez a 2-run lead for the bottom 9th. De Wit hit for Casas, but lined out, while Jose Castro singled up the middle. Carreno grounded out. Down to their last out, the Critters got Ayala on base with a blooper to right. The ball fell for a single, Castro scored, and Maldo was the winning run in the box. Van Anderson ran for Ayala, but Maldonado grounded out to short in a ful count, ending the game. 6-5 Loggers. Maldonado 2-5, 3B; Jimenez 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Castro 2-2;

(looks into the giant hole in the drywall with Maud) Well, at least the blunderbuss still works!

Raccoons (38-33) @ Bayhawks (39-34) – June 26-28, 2043

Nothing good had ever happened at the Bay; the series opened the 17-game string without another off day before the All Star Game. The Baybirds were second in the South, half a game out, and ranked fourth in runs scored and third in runs allowed. They had a +50 run differential. We had swept them the first time around, squeezing them out 7-3 in total runs in a 3-game set in April. The Bayhawks had some important injuries with SP Jose Moreno and INF Victor Acosta.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (4-7, 3.33 ERA) vs. Mike Mihalik (8-3, 2.94 ERA)
Corey Mathers (9-5, 3.03 ERA) vs. Miguel Alvarado (10-3, 2.17 ERA)
Cory Lambert (2-5, 4.48 ERA) vs. Noe Candeloro (5-6, 4.50 ERA)

Not only a Southpaw Sunday, but another left-hander on Saturday, with Alvarado sitting second by ERA in the ABL.

Game 1
POR: 2B Carreno – 1B Ayala – CF Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 3B de Wit – SS Castro – RF Nettles – P Wheatley
SFB: SS J. Gonzalez – 1B D. Cruz – 3B Sifuentes – LF Ju. Brito – CF Caldwell – C J. Hill – RF M. Hall – 2B B. Nelson – P Mihalik

Wheatley got whacked around in the first inning, issuing a walk to Danny Cruz and three singles after that, conceding as many runs in the process. To say that he didn’t fool anybody would have been a bit kind to him, but the Raccoons at least loaded the bases with nobody out (oh-oh) in the second inning. Manny and Kilmer hit singles, and de Wit reached when Mike Hall dropped his fly to right. Everybody advanced a station when Castro hit a clean single through the right side, Nettles hit a sac fly, and Wheatley bounced into a double play… he then also cluelessly shuffled the bags full in the bottom of the inning, issuing another two walks and a single to Hall, Bob Nelson, and Jorge Gonzalez, giving up a sac fly to Danny Cruz before Ramon Sifuentes hacked out. Carreno and Ayala opened the top 3rd with singles, but the meat of the order collectively crapped out, and nobody scored.

The score remained 4-2 through the completion of five innings, with Wheatley allowing another walk and one more single, but getting double plays both times from the Baybirds’ next hitter. The Raccoons had a Wheatley single to lead off the fifth… then nothing else. Manny began the sixth with a single, then advanced on Kilmer’s grounder to short, having been in motion on contact, which was probably all that avoided the double play. That turned into a run on de Wit’s single to center, and also to the local circus marching its elephants through the streets of Oranjestad. Castro’ pop and Nettles’ whiff ended the inning, though. Wheatley led off the seventh with another single, representing the tying run. Carreno struck out, but Ayala hit a double off the wall in right to put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position…! Mihalik, reeling, walked Maldonado on five pitches to fill the bags for Manny, who looked ready to turn the game around, but popped out to shallow left, and Kilmer whiffed……

…which we took as sign by the baseball gods that the game was lost anyway. Wheatley pitched one more inning, finishing with five scoreless after the early brainfart innings. Nobody reached for Portland in the eighth, while Ramirez and Kelly held the Bayhawks to their 1-run lead in the bottom of the inning. The #9 slot led off the ninth against righty Bryan Carmichael, who had four walks in 28.1 innings and a 3.49 ERA, somehow. Gutierrez pinch-hit and popped out. Carreno whiffed. Ayala grounded out to short. 4-3 Bayhawks. Ayala 2-5, 2B; Fernandez 2-4;

Like I said, nothing good has ever happened at the Bay.

It would help, though, if we could stop walking everything with and without legs!

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – 3B Jimenez – 1B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – C Kilmer – LF de Wit – SS Castro – CF Anderson – P Mathers
SFB: SS J. Gonzalez – 1B D. Cruz – 3B Sifuentes – LF Ju. Brito – RF S. Martin – CF Caldwell – C J. Hill – 2B B. Nelson – P M. Alvarado

Playing unusually in rightfield didn’t become Manny Fernandez, who went to his left hard on a Danny Cruz fly in the first inning, made the catch, then remained used to his usual braking space in leftfield and instead ran into the sidewall. While I braced for the worst and that his detached head would roll out from behind the sidewall in a nook that has ward to see from the visiting GM’s suite, he soon appeared mostly in one piece, but bound for Dr. Padilla. He came out of the game, replaced by Jose Casas, who was now batting cleanup. I marked an L in the pocket schedule.

The Baybirds took the lead in the inning despite nobody being on; Sifuentes walked with two outs, stole second, and scored on Juan Brito’s single. Scott Martin reached on an error, but Corey Caldwell flew out to Anderson. The game then was tied in the top 2nd on a 1-out walk drawn by Jose Castro, Van Anderson getting nicked with a 1-2 pitch, and Sifuentes firing away Mathers’ grounder on another 1-2 pitch for a 2-base throwing error. Tied game, runners in scoring position, Carreno popped out to short and Jimenez rolled over to Sifuentes to throw the chance away… A Maldonado error then put John Hill on base in the bottom 2nd, with the runner on second base with two outs and Jorge Gonzalez hitting. He singled to right, and maybe the third base coach forgot that we had upgraded from Fernandez’ strong arm to Casas’ fatal arm there – Hill was waved around and thrown out at the plate. Sloppy game, all around.

Mathers threw many balls and had his pitch count rise quickly, but also singled home Jay de Wit after de Wit’s leadoff double to right in the fourth inning and after Castro and Anderson both were less of a help than a mustard stain on the wall. Maldonado hit a double in the fifth that indeed went unconverted, and de Wit had another leadoff knock in the sixth, this time a single through between Gonzalez and Sifuentes. He was caught stealing on a run-and-hit gone awry before Anderson and Mathers hit 2-out singles, which should have amounted to a run. Carreno grounded out though, and the score remained 2-1. Mathers would not bat again, having to labor hard for 108 pitches on a 3-hit, 1-run game (but with three walks) through six innings. But he held the lead – and Mathers had taken the decision in ALL his 14 starts so far this year, so how could the Raccoons lose now…? It was all in the stats! Jimenez led off the seventh with a single to right, and Maldo’s grounder to second base was flubbed by Nelson for the third Bayhawks error and fifth in the game. Having Manny hit here would have been great, but we got Casas, and he struck out. Kilmer got doubled up. Bob Nelson made ANOTHER error in the eighth, putting de Wit on base leading off once more. Castro grounded out, Anderson walked, and Sean Sieber hit for Jon Craig against Alvarado. He grounded out, two down, and Carreno fell to two strikes before hitting a ball to left, through Sifuentes, and up the line! A double, two runs score, and the Raccoons were up 4-1! The difference were all unearned runs, but I wasn’t complaining… Jimenez popped out. Chuck Jones held the Baybirds away in the bottom 8th, then faced Corey Caldwell to begin the ninth before he’d yield for Rella. He had Rella inherited a runner, nailing the lefty hitter with a 1-2 pitch. Rella ran a full count against Hill, who popped out above home plate on the sixth pitch, then another full count on Bob Nelson. Nelson flailed through the high fastball for the second out, and Caldwell was running and thrown out by Kilmer! Ballgame!! 4-1 Raccoons! De Wit 2-4, 2B; Mathers 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (10-5) and 2-3, RBI;

Mathers got the W even when Bob Nelson had a good claim to it!

It was quite the pyrrhic victory, too, with Manny Fernandez headed to the DL after the game. The good news was that he had “only” sprained a claw, and that 15 days would be sufficient to get him back healthy.

Jose Casas had been close to a demotion here, but got a reprieve when Manny went down. The Raccoons went back to Justin Waltz, hitting .304/.396/.513 in AAA in 29 games, same amount of games (but twice as many AB) as he had gotten with the Coons while hitting .180/.242/.262.

Game 3
POR: 2B Carreno – 1B Ayala – 3B Jimenez – CF Maldonado – C Sieber – LF de Wit – RF Waltz – SS Castro – P Lambert
SFB: SS J. Gonzalez – 1B D. Cruz – 3B Sifuentes – LF Ju. Brito – RF S. Martin – CF Caldwell – C J. Hill – 2B B. Nelson – P Candeloro

Corey Caldwell was nailed in back-to-back plate appearance when Lambert shackled him in the first inning on Sunday, but this time it was worth a run, with Caldwell batting with three on and two outs. Lambert had already walked a pair in filling the sacks, so we could claim inept pitching rather than ill intent. John Hill popped out to Jimenez after that. The game then dragged on in 1-0 fashion until Ricky Jimenez hit a bomb to left leading off the fourth inning, getting us even at one in the rubber game. It was also the start to a reverse-cycle for the team in the inning: Maldo tripled to right, Sieber doubled to right, and two outs later, Castro singled to left. Unfortunately Sieber was still at third base with Lambert batting with two outs, but Lambert came through for his third hit of the week, a single to left, extending the lead to 3-1 …! Up came Carreno, and he rammed another single to left, this one scoring Castro…! Ayala grounded out to the right side, ending the 4-run inning.

But the Bayhawks came right back, because, remember, nothing good ever happens at the Bay. Lambert remained off the rolls, a Castro error to begin the bottom 4th didn’t help any, and Caldwell and Hill singles put a run on the board. Nelson walked to fill the bases with nobody out, and PH Dave Martinez hit a sac fly, 4-3. Jorge Gonzalez grounded out, but Lambert just walked Danny Cruz to keep the bases occupied. He pitched to Sifuentes, gave up a grand slam to left, and that was that. The Coons were down 7-4 on runs, but up 7-4 on hits, and five runs in the inning were unearned. None of the three runs on Scott Martin’s homer to left off Seth Green in the sixth were unearned, and that one put the game away for good. The three runs on Bob Nelson’s 3-run homer off Sauerkraut in the bottom of the eighth, however, *were* unearned thanks to a Jimenez error that led off the inning. All in all, Sauerkraut gave up four runs in the eighth, his second inning of work, all unearned. 14-4 Bayhawks. Gutierrez 1-1;

In other news

June 23 – The Falcons score a run against the Aces in the 12th, 13th, and 14th innings. The last one is finally enough for a 7-6 walkoff win.
June 25 – TOP SP Jon Pereira (5-5, 3.86 ERA) is out for a full year with Tommy John surgery scheduled for a torn UCL.
June 25 – The Pacifics get 1B Mark Cahill (.228, 6 HR, 33 RBI) from the Falcons in a trade for two prospects.
June 26 – Dallas is dealt a blow, losing 2B Hugo Acosta (.382, 3 HR, 44 RBI) for a month with a strained hamstring.
June 27 – OF/1B Rich de Luna (.327, 2 HR, 33 RBI) is traded from the Cyclones to the Capitals for SS Doug Clevidence (.311, 0 HR, 13 RBI) and a prospect.
June 28 – Career Blue Sock 2B/SS Billy Bouldin (.310, 1 HR, 35 RBI) reaches 2,500 base hits on Sunday, an RBI single off SAC SP Raul Cornejo (3-2, 6.44 ERA) in an 8-2 loss to the Scorpions. The 2037 FL hitting champ and 3-time Gold Glover is a career .327/.362/.406 hitter with 20 home runs and 807 RBI. He has stolen 349 bases in his career.

FL Player of the Week: DEN SS/LF/1B Ryan Cox (.279, 6 HR, 38 RBI), batting .455 (10-22) with 1 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Jerry Outram (.371, 10 HR, 40 RBI), socking .345 (10-29) with 4 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Messy week. We easily made more errors than longballs. The same can’t be said for the opposition. There were nine unearned runs on Sunday alone and a dozen for the week. We made eight errors, the opposition made seven for the entire week.

Well, Arturo Carreno had a decent week – he extended a pre-DL hitting streak to 12 games and remains a nice presence atop the order (but didn’t have a multi-hit game all week either). It’s not quite half a season’s worth of plate appearances, but he has a .364 OBP, which isn’t horrible. We might slide him to #2 behind Ayala against right-handers… or we might not. I hate the thought of throttling his speed with the concrete-shoed Ayala. Speaking of the DL, Manny will be sorely missed until the All Star Game…

Justin Waltz went 0-for-3 to begin his injury-induced recall. I know he’s a bust. But right now, we don’t have nothing else. And Ayala had a 149 OPS+ for the Aces, and a 60 OPS+ for the Critters. Making more trades like that will not get us any farther either.

It’s back home now for a week with the Condors and Titans, then a road week with the Crusaders and damn Elks. The Crusaders are our four-and-four rival this year and will visit Portland after the All Star Game. The 3-game trip to Elk City will be the last visit there this season.

Fun Fact: Despite having only now tied his strikeout total with his walks, and getting some rough reviews, Josh Rella ties for the CL lead in saves.

Also add in that he is not exactly on a team that wins them in bunches. He had 8.1 K/9 last year, while walking a pile, and this year went down to 5.4/9. His BABIP is .171 at the same time and we’re bracing for the big knell, but as long as he’s 21-for-22 in saves, I’m not gonna twitch.

The only save he blew was the June 9 game against the Titans that Maldo then won with a walkoff homer in regulation.