Portland Raccoons (ABL) - Page 189

Westheim · 11-03-2021, 03:36 PM

2045 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Richmond Rebels (98-64)

The mood wasn’t great.

The Raccoons had scored eight runs in Game 1 and had lost. They had sent Wheats into Game 2, and had lost. Given that Game 4 beckoned to be troublesome to begin with, given the punching bag status of Adam Capone, a loss in Game 3 would already be the end.

In fact, things were so dire, Nick Valdes cancelled his trip to Portland and retreated to his mountaintop hideout, not wanting to be seen with his losing team.

Game 3 – Sadaharu Okuda (11-11, 4.08 ERA) vs. Steve Miles (9-12, 3.81 ERA)

How to stop the doubles and homers flood? Okuda would have to find something. Pairing the groundballer with Gurney at the keystone was bold enough for a back-to-the-wall Game 3. Somehow we had to out-hit the Rebels, though.

Steve Miles had started the only game the Raccoons had won in the June meeting, but had left the game in the first inning with a tender shoulder. He had still been hung the 9-0 loss. We could use something like that again…

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out Ebenezer Slouch, CEO of the Toxic Dumpling Company, an on-demand bakery that combined environmental cleanup with, well, baking dumplings. I am not sure of the connections here, but I would tend to blame Nick Valdes for this…

RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 2B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – RF A. Marquez – 3B Frazier – SS Aguilera – 1B Guillory – P S. Miles
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – 2B Gurney – C Kilmer – P Okuda

Gonzalez raked an RBI double in the first inning, driving in the unavoidable Clevidence with an unearned run that was blamed on Maldonado, who had fumbled his grounder. Herrera doubled and Manny walked in the bottom 1st, but Toohey grounded out to Frazier to keep them stranded.

Bottom 2nd, Waters worked a leadoff walk and stole second base. Gurney then ticked a single to left, with Waters having to stop at third base. Runners on the corners for Kilmer, our catcher ran a full count before striking a ball at Clevidence for a hard lineout. Okuda came through for a sac fly at least, while Baskins hit a soft single with two outs. Herrera’s grounder to Guillory ended the inning with another pair left stranded.

After an uneventful third inning, and with Okuda dealing as well as ever (5 K in 4 IP), the Raccoons got Waters on base with another walk in the bottom 4th. And leave it to Pat Gurney – he tried to live up to the “more offensive solution moniker”, and solved the 1-1 tie with a homer to right, putting the Coons up 3-1.

Another pair was on base in the bottom 5th, Herrera reaching on an error and Maldonado legging out an infield single. Manny’s fly to Gil Cabrera was caught, but advanced Herrera to third base. Toohey also flew out to Cabrera, but got the runner home from third base at least, 4-1. Maldo was then caught stealing to conclude the fifth.

Then the Rebels returned to being annoying as ****. Clevidence, the miserable pest, hit a leadoff triple to left in the sixth before Okuda struck out Gonzalez and Duncan, determined to keep him pinned there at third base. The count to Alex Marquez with two outs ran full, Okuda threw a challenge – and Marquez hit the challenge all the way to ******* Idaho to narrow the score to 4-3. The meltdown didn’t stop there. Aguilera legged out an infield single to begin the top 7th, Guillory singled, and PH Lance Harrison walked. Okuda had loaded the bases with nobody out, was yanked, and the Raccoons saw the lead go bust on Victor Gutierrez’ pinch-hit sac fly off Nelson Moreno. Crucially, Clevidence popped out for the second out, after which Chuck Jones came on for Pablo Gonzalez, but now walked the left-hander, gave up a 2-run single to Duncan, and only then did Marquez ground out to second base.

The Coons didn’t reach in the seventh, but put the tying runs aboard in the eighth. Manny was nicked by Kurt Crater and Toohey drew a walk; two on with nobody out, and these runs HAD to score. Waters singled on the next pitch, loading the bases … with nobody out. Doom. New pitcher Juan Ramos conceded a run on Gurney’s groundout, then walked Kilmer. Al Martell batted for Bob Ibold, but popped out. Baskins grounded out to Clevidence. The runs did not score…

The Coons used Josh Rella to keep the Rebels only one run away in the ninth inning, which was one use for a closer if your team never held a meaningful lead. Then it was Beggs against the 2-3-4 in the bottom 9th. Herrera flew out to Paul Moore in right. Maldo flew out to Marquez in center. Manny hit a double to right-center to put the tying run into scoring position. Beggs went cautious on Toohey, who eventually walked, bringing up Matt Waters, who fell to 1-2, then looked at a slider that notched the corner.

Rebels 6, Raccoons 5 – Rebels lead series 3-0

Gurney 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

With that, and Adam Capone pitching in Game 4, the series was as over as a series could be.

Game 4 – Adam Capone (4-4, 3.22 ERA) vs. Bill McDermott (7-5, 3.84 ERA)

McDermott was a rookie with little stamina and a mediocre pitching profile. Much the same could be said for Capone, who had been roughed up by the Thunder, and would need little encouragement to get roughed up once more.

The organist played a selection of the last tunes played on the Titanic before it went under in 1912 while the first pitch was thrown out by Carl Bean, a Raccoons veteran from the Decade of Darkness, who felt right at home with this playoff roster…

The Coons went with Carreno at second base again for the groundballing Capone. I went with Honeypaws in a firm clutch and a big box of tissues to brave out the inevitable elimination.

RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 2B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – RF A. Marquez – 3B Frazier – SS Aguilera – 1B Guillory – P McDermott
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – 2B Carreno – C Kilmer – P Capone

Again, Richmond went up 1-0 in the first, singles being hit by Cabrera and Gonzalez. Kilmer’s throwing error when Cabrera swiped second base also helped a bit…

Capone lasted once through the lineup and left in a 4-0 hole in the second inning. After Duncan hit into a double play to end the top 1st, Marquez opened the top 2nd with a homer to right-center. Frazier walked, scored on an Aguilera triple, and while Landon Guillory struck out, McDermott hit an RBI single. That was it for Capone, the wimp. Sean Marucci took over in long relief again.

Marucci pitched three innings before putting Clevidence (double) and Duncan (nailed!) on the corners in the top of the fifth inning. Actually, backup catcher Kevin Morris would take over for Duncan, who could hardly walk after getting smacked in the foot. Zack Kelly took over for Marucci, gave up a sac fly to Marquez, and then got Frazier to pop out to end the inning. And no, the Raccoons had done absolutely nothing in the meantime. They were on one base hit, and they were down 5-0, and it was all entirely over.

Al Martell led off the bottom 6th pinch-hitting for Jon Craig, who had pitched an accident-free inning for a change, and tripled into the corner in rightfield. Baskins grounded out to score him, but that was hardly reason to celebrate, given that the team was still down by a slam and made no moves to load the bases instantly.

A walk drawn by Waters and a 2-out Carreno single were enough to chase McDermott in the bottom 7th at least. Lazaro Ochoa, who had given up three meaningless runs in Game 1, came on to see after Kilmer, who promptly grounded out to short. Bob Ibold answered in style, giving up a leadoff jack to Marquez in the eighth.

Bottom 8th, weak outs from Gurney and Baskins, then a Herrera single. Maldonado struck out – except that Morris was called out for catcher’s interference and Maldo was sent to first base. Manny walked, filling the bases for Bryce Toohey. Kurt Crater came on, but walked Toohey on straight balls to force home a run, and now Waters came up as the tying run again. He hit a 2-run single up the middle on the first pitch to keep the line moving, narrowing the score to 6-4. And then Carreno popped out…

Jones and Moreno kept the Rebs off the basepaths in the ninth inning, before Jesse Beggs dawned on the Coons in the bottom of the ninth. Jonathan Dustal, heretofore unused in the World Series, hit for Kilmer and was nicked, promoting Gurney, who had stayed at second base, to the plate as the tying run, but he struck out. Baskins popped out to short. Herrera had been THE big addition the previous winter, and now was the final out in the World Series, potentially. He grounded to short. Aguilera to Thomas Gould at first for the out – no! He dropped the ball! Error! The Raccoons brought Maldonado to the plate as the winning run, somehow! Maldo took a ball, then slapped a ball through between Clevidence and Gould for an RBI single, 6-5. Herrera, the tying run, held at second base. Manny Fernandez hit the 2-1 pitch up the middle then. Clevidence over, the short toss to Aguilera – and Maldonado was truly and indeed out.

Rebels 6, Raccoons 5 – Rebels win series 4-0

Waters 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Martell (PH) 1-1, 3B;

(sits on Cristiano Carmona’s lap, incessantly crying onto his shoulder)

…

2045 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Richmond Rebels
(3rd title)

Westheim · 11-06-2021, 03:54 AM

Three days after Game 4 I not only woke up, but actually got up from the couch. Rinsed my stupid snout with booze, hailed a stupid cab to the stupid office in the stupid ballpark, and got back to stupid work. Somebody had to, and if I didn’t, Cristiano Carmona might think he’s actually in charge.

Maud already had many messages from Nick Valdes for me, ranging from upset to aghast, but also the only one that I was really interested in – our new budget for the 2046 season. The Raccoons would have $46.5M to play with, the highest ever for the team and a juicy $3.5M up from last season (although we’d get into why it wasn’t enough before long).

The new budget put us 9th amongst all ABL teams, up two spots compared to last year.

The five (or six) richest teams were the Miners ($54M), Gold Sox ($53M), Pacifics ($49.5M), Bayhawks ($49M), and Stars and Crusaders in a tie ($48M each). At the bottom of the league sat a sextuple, too, with a tie for 19th place between the Aces and Loggers ($35.5M each), Condors and Buffaloes ($35M each), Wolves ($34M), and Indians ($32M). The remaining CL North teams sat in t-7th (VAN, $47M) and 16th (BOS, $40.5M).

The average budget for a team in the league rose to $42.56M, rising $120k compared to 2044. The median team budget or 2046 was $42.5M, up $250k from last season.

+++

…and despite an additional $3.5M in the coffers, the problems were just beginning for the Raccoons, who for the big bullet points had the following issues: Maldonado was a free agent, Wheats was not only ERA champ, but also first time arbitration-eligible, and there were a few Ricky Jimenez-sized millstones around their necks, hindering movement in any meaningful direction.

Maldonado had already signaled that he liked Portland, but he liked a pile of dosh from anybody, so he would not be cheap at all to resign.

Then there was the issue of a $2M team option on Jeff Kilmer, which didn’t look very merited at the current moment.

Looking into the list of arbitration cases, we also found Corey Mathers in there along with Zack Kelly and Nelson Moreno for pitchers, as well as Jose Zarate, Pat Gurney, Arturo Carreno, Omar Gutierrez, Jay de Wit, and Jonathan Dustal. The latter three all had estimates for up to half a million, and Zarate even more than that. With dosh needed to keep Maldonado in the fold, all four of those were immediately candidates for axing.

Maldonado was also the only compensation-eligible free agent we had. The other three free agents were relievers Jon Craig and Nate Norris (the latter still recovering from elbow surgery) an infielder Al Martell. We had young, cheap (!) righty relieving aplenty in the system, so we’d let the pitchers go in any case to save yet more money. Martell was not hitting a lot per se, but was a lefty to complement Carreno (who was not going to be axed quite yet despite a horrendous season) and versatile on the infield, and if we could resign him for around half a million or a little more than that, we’d jump on the opportunity.

The big one was Maldonado, though – he kept the whole shebang here together.

The millstones? Probably Jeff Kilmer if we picked up that option. The Raccoons’ catcher since the last time they got knocked out of a World Series (in 2037), he had raked a few seasons early in his career, but had not produced a 100 OPS+ season in four years. Zarate had hit even less. Ruben Gonzalez might make a solid backup after all (his major league BABIP was .213, and .167 in ’45, and nobody could be that unlucky forever), but the Raccoons would be in the hunt for a new starting catcher.

Also, if we could find some idiot to take on the last two years and $6M on Ricky Jimenez’ contract, that would be amazeballs. That would also free up a permanent position for Maldo, so that him, Toohey, Manny, Baskins, and Herrera can all play at once without standing on each other’s paws.

What do we have? Among the hitting core, Armando Herrera is signed another five years, Manny another three (including a vesting option), Toohey five (including a team option), and Baskins would be a free agent after ’46. Matt Waters won’t be eligible for arbitration until next fall, sitting on just over two years of service time right now.

For pitching, even with Wheats potentially winning seven figures by a contract or in arbitration, the Raccoons still have a cheap rotation (also inefficient). Okuda is signed at $1M for another year, and Jake Jackson is signed for three more years, each at $1.5M (including a team option). Mathers will get whatever in arbitration, and Merino will still be on the minimum. Whether that is a good enough rotation will still need evaluation. Whether we can *afford* more is on an entirely different piece of paper.

The pen will be partially rebuilt, with Rella and Moreno remaining on the right side, as well as Kelly and Chuck Jones on the left. Chuck Jones was inefficient at the end of this season, and had a matching slash to his scouting report, so that one will be interesting to watch in the final year of that 3-yr, $3.21M contract he signed before 2044. The other three spots in the pen can easily be filled with Porter, Ibold, and Marucci, all on the minimum.

Which brings us to another dead body, Brent Clark, who is signed for $1M in 2046 and literally can’t get anybody out anymore. He might actually be movable if you can convince some slow-brained front office that he’s a valid starter for their 90-loss operation. At least I keep telling myself that.

One more interesting case will be Pat Gurney, a terrific bat off the bench, who has a seven-figure arbitration price tag to his name. The Raccoons would not want to let him walk, either, and the question was whether he could be kept around for a deal of two or three years at a reasonable price (Manny money, more or less).

Westheim · 11-07-2021, 01:20 PM

October passed, with me getting yelled at for gobbling most of the birthday cake for Cristiano Carmona that Maud had baked, but my defense was that I found it in the hidden fridge, and what’s in the hidden fridge I consider mine.

I also cried a bit during negotiation rounds with Jesus Maldonado, who had led the league in total bases this year, the team in homers and RBI, and made it pretty clear that he saw himself as one of the most valuable players in the league. He had always been among those most valuable players, even as a 16-year-old, when we signed him for $466k out of Venezuela, in what was then quite a precocious amount. Other teams had money, too, Maldo said with a sly smile, and I got back to whispering with Steve from Accounting behind our paws that he had to ******* find me more millions …!

Oh well, millions we found in the odd spot or another. The Raccoons would revamp their catching corps, parting with both of their regulars from the last two seasons. Zarate was a free agent anyway, and Kilmer was made one when we declined his $2M option for 2046, thus paying $400k of severance money and saving $1.6M towards the Maldonado extension fund.

The problem was not actually the Maldonado extension – we could easily add another, say, Armando Herrera-sized contract ($4.7M a year, remember). The thing was that we also needed a few things at the peripherals, like a new starting catcher. Free agents would be available in that regard, and I already had my eye on one. Manichiro Toki was 35 years old, but no signs of letting up were detectable yet. He was unlikely to be a type A free agent, and he was a lefty hitter, which would give Ruben Gonzalez automatic starts against southpaws next year. Toki was surely not a permanent solution – we still hoped that Gonzalez would *become* that, but the lights were dimming in that regard… At least Gonzalez was still above-average in his catcher abilities, so that was something that could at least keep him a backup job for the time being.

Other construction sites? I would not say no to another ace on the staff, although we were probably priced out of that market for this year. Then there was the question whether we were content with a Carreno/Martell platoon at second base, or whether an upgrade could be made either there or at shortstop, with Matt Waters then pulled over to second base.

And who will turn Ricky Jimenez into dog food with the least amount of noise?

One thing that quickly didn’t work out was Pat Gurney’s multi-year extension that I had gotten into my head. He saw that he was unlikely to become a regular on the team in 2046 either, and thus was utterly reluctant to sign anything extending beyond 2046, his final year of team control. He would eventually sign a 1-year deal for $1.3M.

Other new 1-year deals were inked by Zack Kelly ($400k), Jonathan Dustal ($500k), Nelson Moreno ($660k), and also Jason Wheatley ($925k), with the Agitator most upset with the missed opportunity to lock him up for life.

Oh, and then we committed some grand theft prospect.

+++

October 25 – The Raccoons swing SP/MR Brent Clark (47-48, 3.75 ERA, 11 SV), 3B Ricky Jimenez (.256, 33 HR, 166 RBI), and C Jose Zarate (.273, 12 HR, 99 RBI) to the Capitals for two prospects in 24-year-old right-hander Jeremy Chaney (1-0, 1.89 ERA, 2 SV), and 22-year-old outfielder Steve Petersen.
November 11 – The Indians trade SP Chris Volk (18-30, 5.49 ERA) to the Buffaloes for a prospect.

+++

Now those two prospects don’t come without issues. Chaney was a #9 prospect in 2043 after being picked #4 by the Knights in the 2042 draft, and only appeared in the Caps’ bullpen this year, doing *fine*. It was not like we were lacking for righty relievers, though. He did have two-and-a-half pitches, stamina, and we’d try to turn him into starting depth in AAA, him being a 90mph groundballer or not. Petersen was a #26 pick the same year, but had only now gotten to grips with the AA level. He was a lefty hitter with great defense and good speed, and had quite some gap power, but he was not a pristine slugger.

But we got all that dead weight shed off at once, which was such a relief! I don’t know what the Caps want with Clark, who looks like scorched earth to me, but their current plan for third base seemed to involve lots of fingers crossed that nobody would notice the gaping hole there, so Jimenez gives them a (princely priced) regular to stamp in there. That is *something*. Zarate would have been non-tendered if he hadn’t been crammed into this trade. BNN says this trade was a WAR loss for the Raccoons, but WAR can get it, I’ll rather take the $4M freed up by it.

Four of our arbitration cases did not sign new contracts with the team ahead of the arbitration period. Two of them, Omar Gutierrez and Jay de Wit were non-tendered entirely. Corey Mathers and Arturo Carreno meanwhile refused their offers of $680k and $420k, respectively. We offered $445k for Carreno in arbitration, and both players were awarded the team offer by the arbitrator.

+++

2045 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.369, 23 HR, 144 RBI) and OCT C Jesus Adames (.342, 26 HR, 107 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: RIC Omar Lara (21-9, 2.74 ERA) and POR Jason Wheatley (15-8, 2.37 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: LAP/CIN OF Armando Luis Herrera (.341, 8 HR, 42 RBI) and BOS SP David Barel (9-13, 2.80 ERA, 2 SV)
Relievers of the Year: RIC CL Jesse Beggs (6-4, 2.09 ERA, 52 SV) and SFB CL Jeremy Mayhall (9-4, 2.27 ERA, 46 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DAL Arthur Pickett – C PIT Giampaolo Petroni – 1B DEN Jason Robinson – 2B PIT Dan Schneller – 3B DAL Jose Rivas – SS CIN Chris Delgado – LF SFW Mario Villa – CF DAL Tylor Cecil – RF SFW Matt Diskin
Platinum Sticks (CL): P LVA Oscar Valdes – C OCT Jesus Adames – 1B SFB Dan Riley – 2B NYC Mario Briones – 3B VAN Dan Hutson – SS OCT Ryan Cox – LF ATL Billy Hester – CF VAN Jerry Outram – RF NYC Willie Ojeda
Gold Gloves (FL): P NAS Bill Herrmann – C SAC Anton Mercado – 1B NAS Alejandro Ramos – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B NAS Brad Critzer – SS PIT Ed Soberanes – LF LAP Jayden Lockwood – CF DEN Sandy Castillo – RF DEN Dylan Wright
Gold Gloves (CL): P CHA Nick Myers – C MIL Ricky Payne – 1B SFB Dan Riley – 2B ATL Glenn Sprague – 3B LVA Angel Montes de Oca – SS NYC Alex Adame – LF LVA Bob Montana – CF POR Armando Herrera – RF CHA Archie Turley

Dang! Wheats is Pitcher of the Year!

Next year’s version of the Opening Day starter’s curse will be cruel on him.

+++

Wait a minute, there’s one thing missing, isn’t it? What happened to Jesus Maldonado?

Jesus Maldonado didn’t sign the Raccoons’ 7-year, $35M offer, and instead elected to become a free agent.

(stares into the void with wet black googly eyes while absent-mindedly patting Honeypaws)

DD Martin · 11-07-2021, 08:57 PM

Love the money you freed up by the trade. Now to get Maldonado signed and find a C or two.

Westheim · 11-08-2021, 05:24 AM

After posting their first W of the offseason in a trade with the Capitals, the Raccoons also posted a Capitals-related L as soon as free agency arrived. The left-handed hitting catcher we had thrown a big black googly eye on, Manichiro Toki, formerly of Washington, was indeed rated a type A free agent. The Coons promptly stepped back – we weren’t going to burn our first-rounder on a 35-year-old catcher.

Unrelated, free agency had reduced the Raccoons’ surfeit of righty relief to near-nothing. As things stood in mid-November, we had a rotation of Wheats, Okuda, Jackson, Merino, and Mathers; plus a bullpen containing Rella, Moreno, Porter, Ibold, Marucci, Kelly, and Jones. The only other pitchers still on the extended roster were Adam Capone (grumble grumble), Tony Negrete, and Brad Barnes, all of whom might as well be reassigned to AAA.

The only catcher on the roster was Ruben Gonzalez, however. There were also only four players sorted into the infield category right now with Pat Gurney, Arturo Carreno, Ben Coen, and Matt Waters. Al Martell had also departed for free agency, but promptly also got an offer from the Raccoons once out there. For the outfield, riches: Baskins, Manny, Herrera, Toohey (who might really end up at first base), Anderson, Dustal, Pellicano, Shedd were all on the roster from September duty and/or the DL. Some cleanup was deemed required, and for a start Brian Shedd and Tony Negrete were sent back to AAA already in November, leaving only 26 players on the offseason roster.

Naturally, left-handed hitting catchers were a rare breed. I had Cristiano filter down the major league personnel to those that were basically competent hitters, not ancient, and were hitting lefty or switch, and we quickly whittled it down to five names, which already included fringe personnel, but also a few genuine stars.

Giampaolo Petroni was a Gold Glover and 3-time All Star on the Miners. He had just taken in his second Platinum Stick, and had banged 26 homers for a new career-high in 2045. Word was however that he was a bit of a **** and pitchers didn’t really like throwing to him, which was a bit of a red flag. Also, the Miners probably had their own designs with him and were likely not very interested in a deal.

On the Cyclones, Valentino Sicco had broken out in ’45 after languishing with the Loggers for a few years. The 27-year-old had hit for an .852 OPS and had a murder arm to throw out runners, but was quite clumsy and pitchers also didn’t rate him highly because he was moving around behind the plate so much during delivery.

For switch-hitters, there was Mark Pasko of the Condors, a rather ho-hum candidate. He hit .313/.351/.463 last year, and .242/.293/.341 this year. It was hard to know what you’d get. He probably graded average behind the dish, but had never amounted to 500+ PA either. Even more fringe was a 32-year-old career FL backup mentioned just for completeness, Roger Reyes of the Wolves, who probably held a job with the Wolves because the Wolves had lost all their fur and had forgotten how to howl. There was nothing to see there.

There was one more lefty, though. And he was well known in Portland. Tony Morales, 31, had caught for the Coons from 2035 through 2041, producing a steady string of above-average seasons. Never outrageous, but also quite reliable in hitting about .270 with 12 homers. He the became a free agent with the Raccoons in a valley in the early 2040s, signed a 6-year, $13.74M contract with the Condors, and had yet to produce anything for it. Three teams had so far partaken in paying off that salary, including currently the Falcons, and he was due another $2.44M annually in 2046 and 2047. He had never won a starting job for any of these teams (Condors, Buffos, Falcons), but when he played, he usually played well, except for a horrendous second half with the Falcons in 2043.

The Falcons wanted to get rid of him, too, better today than tomorrow. The money was not an issue, and in fact, they might pay up for the privilege of his removal. It would allow us to pair him with Gonzalez in a platoon, which would benefit both of them, just like him and the now-departed Jeff Kilmer had split the tab for a few years.

Of all the right-handed batters that were not obvious superstars on strong teams that had no vested interest in a deal, I was most interested in Felipe Gomez. He cost basically Morales money, but was signed to the Aces through 2049, which would be his age 36/37 season. He was quite steady, usually hitting just above league average. He was rated a good to very good defensive catcher, and word was he wanted out of Vegas. So that was a genuine other option here, but would not give us a platoon with Ruben Gonzalez.

Other interesting cases? Well, if the Maldonado reunion wouldn’t work out there was a third base option on the market that had just taken a fifth career platinum stick and was not rated a type A free agent, career Coons torturer Dan Hutson. Granted, he was already 35 (to be 36 in May), but he represented *an* option. He had led the CL in homers three times (2040-41, 2043), and had still smacked 26 this year. His third base work still rated as above average.

There were also a few options to upgrade on Arturo Carreno, really. Doug Richardson was a potential free agency option, and there was a Japanese free agent, Ryohei Hiraoka, 28, that had a solid profile; a patient bat with some power, very steady glove work, but unfortunately no speed and there were whole meme shows dedicated to his baserunning blunders. On the upside, he would be cheap and could be packed into AAA as insurance.

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November 15 – The Pacifics acquire C Kyle Templeton (.218, 8 HR, 39 RBI) from the Titans in exchange for SS/1B Jon Rodriguez (.273, 22 HR, 118 RBI).
November 17 – The Capitals acquire the Indians’ C Julian Diaz (.248, 2 HR, 93 RBI) for 2B/SS Joe Tindle (.254, 2 HR, 9 RBI) and a prospect.
November 21 – The Thunder win the services of ex-LAP OF Juan Benavides (.311, 142 HR, 616 RBI) for $26.88M over seven years.
November 21 – Former Blue Sock INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.286, 132 HR, 624 RBI) signs with the division rival Buffaloes for $22.28M over four years.
November 21 – Gold Sox right-hander Eddie Sotelo (21-12, 4.07 ERA, 35 SV) crashes his car into a stationary vehicle while drunk, messing up his shoulder well enough to miss the entire 2046 season.
November 22 – The Pacifics add RF Mike Hall (.287, 57 HR, 593 RBI) from the Crusaders – he also played for the Buffaloes in 2045 – in exchange for OF Aaron Foss (.281, 50 HR, 379 RBI) and an interesting but unranked prospect in C Angel Lara.
November 27 – The Cyclones swap C/1B Dan Rollin (.288, 20 HR, 121 RBI) to the Stars, along with a prospect, for outfielder Ricky Correa (.274, 45 HR, 339 RBI).

+++

New deals for former Raccoons? Dennis Citriniti will get $442k from the Stars; Jose Zarate landed with the Thunder for $318k; and the Loggers took in Sal Ayala for $1.08M;

Westheim · 11-10-2021, 01:55 PM

November 28 – 28-year-old OF/2B Alfonso Cedillo (.295, 142 HR, 528 RBI), who played for the Scorpions and Thunder in 2045, returns to the Federal League with a 4-yr, $16.16M contract handed out by the Pacifics.
November 29 – The Raccoons re-sign 29-yr old INF Al Martell (.258, 50 HR, 356 RBI) to a 2-yr, $1.2M contract.
November 30 – And the Raccoons re-sign another former player, coming to terms with 31-year-old OF/1B/3B Jesus Maldonado (.298, 121 HR, 686 RBI), who inks a new 7-year, $38.5M contract.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 12 players are selected in a single round. The Raccoons lose OF Steve Petersen to the Wolves. The Raccoons further lose MR Adam Bates to the Pacifics.
December 2 – The Miners sign 37-yr old ex-SFB SP Eric Weitz (212-143, 3.43 ERA, 2 SV) to a 2-yr, $5.08M contract.
December 2 – The Raccoons sign 28-year-old Japanese free agent 2B Ryohei Hiraoka to a $400k contract for 2046.
December 3 – The Critters acquire 31-yr old C Tony Morales (.269, 86 HR, 472 RBI), who already played for them from 2035 through 2041, from the Falcons for AA INF/RF Adam Byrnes. The Falcons also cover $500k of Morales’ 2046 salary.
December 3 – The Falcons trade outfielder Seth Case (.261, 53 HR, 248 RBI) to the Scorpions for right-hander Steve McKeny (9-9, 4.62 ERA, 2 SV) and a prospect.
December 4 – The Capitals ink ex-SFB LF/CF Jamie McGuigan (.281, 76 HR, 448 RBI) to a 6-yr, $19.24M contract.
December 4 – The Rebels send 2B/1B Thomas Gould (.265, 26 HR, 212 RBI) to the Scorpions for SP/MR Luis Castillo (1-3, 2.21 ERA) and a prospect.
December 4 – Boston trades OF Matt Watt (.237, 2 HR, 81 RBI) and a prospect to the Buffaloes for INF Tony Batista (.251, 27 HR, 177 RBI).
December 5 – Sacramento picks up CF Jayden Sutton (.247, 8 HR, 35 RBI) from the Capitals for C Jason Lindblom (.296, 1 HR, 23 RBI) and a prospect.
December 6 – The Bayhawks add a ringbearer in OF/1B Alex Marquez (.298, 79 HR, 367 RBI), while the Rebels receive SP Paul Medvec (60-49, 3.94 ERA) and a third-rate prospect.
December 7 – The Raccoons swap OF Jonathan Dustal (.263, 31 HR, 155 RBI) to the Crusaders for 30-year-old right-hander Aaron Hickey (36-31, 3.36 ERA, 3 SV).
December 7 – The Canadiens trade for the Aces’ SP Mario de Anda (11-7, 3.73 ERA), while Vegas receives a prospect.

+++

Because the baseball gods have a sense of humor, everywhere I go, I now have $1 notes falling out of my pants. Unfortunately, they all have the same serial number ending in 123-HAH-HAH, and can't be used to buy anything useful.

Well okay, I already bought seven chocolate bars at the corner store with them, and so far the old lady there hasn't noticed yet.

The deal with Maldonado is flat, $5.5M per season. The last year, ******* 2052, is a player option, like he’s gonna get a better offer at 38. There are not many better offers in the league. In fact, there is only ONE player in the league, as of the signing of this deal, that is compensated more handsomely than Maldonado, and it’s definitely not who you think it is. No, Jerry Outram makes $5.3M a year from the damn Elks. Somehow, nobody knows quite how, the league’s top earner is Boston’s Joe Ritchey, making $5.6M per season. He hit .217 with 15 homers last season. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that they’re gonna be stuck with that deal through 2048.

Maud, Maldo’s such a bum. Signing for less than what Ritchey gets. (Maldonado looks up from his plus-sized, golden food bowl that was part of the small print and stops chewing)

Hiraoka is more of an option compared to Carreno if he keeps struggling. He’ll be assigned to AAA initially.

Tony Morales meanwhile is back as the left-handed catcher – I think this will work VERY well with Ruben Gonzalez.

But over there is the pile of dimes, one of which I have received for every time I have been wrong on this job, and that pile of dimes will pay for Maldonado through 20-*******-48.

The Hickey trade does not seem to make a lot of sense, but we’re upgrading on Sean Marucci in the bullpen there, add a more experienced starting pitcher (97 of his 220 major league appearances were starts, though none in 2045), even though it means sacrificing a switch-hitting bat. Then again, where has Dustal been for most of the last two years? On the DL. With the trade, Adam Capone (grumble grumble) and Brad Barnes were reassigned to AAA, too.

Other former Raccoons? Mostly just Jon Craig signing up with the Miners for $660k in this period.

Westheim · 11-12-2021, 05:21 PM

December 10 – The Raccoons trade for the Gold Sox’ OF Nelson Mercado (.263, 47 HR, 242 RBI), sending AA SP Denis DeCenta into Denver’s farm system.
December 12 – Cincinnati adds a new closer type in Josh Livingston (64-53, 3.06 ERA, 214 SV). The 35-year-old ex-Knight signs for 3 years and $9.48M.
December 22 – The Gold Sox grab ex-PIT SP Israel Mendoza (94-108, 3.96 ERA) for two years and $4.6M.
December 25 – Richmond adds former Scorpions starter Josh Vercher (115-131, 4.14 ERA) for two years. The 34-year-old righty will take home $4.64M.
January 4 – Right-hander Danny Tirado (13-15, 2.95 ERA, 52 SV) is sent from Boston to Atlanta for a prospect.

+++

Scout Pat Degenhardt doesn’t like Mercado at all, proclaiming him a mess at the plate with a flaily swing, but Cristiano showed me his stats and he is a perfectly league-average hitter with adequate defense and great speed, twice taking 41 bags in a season. Hitting lefty, he totally replaces Van Anderson as backup outfielder on the current depth chart (Gene Pellicano being the right-handed counterpart to him). Plus, he is signed for a rather modest $950k for each of the next two seasons.

DiCenta meanwhile had cost $19k in a July IFA period a while back and had pitched to rather limited success in the minor leagues for the last four years. With plenty of young starting pitching ahead of him on the depth chart, we basically get Mercado for free.

When we weren’t looking, former Raccoon (twice!) Tony Hunter signed with the Capitals for $386k;

+++

2046 HALL OF FAME VOTING

Nobody was elected into the Hall of Fame this year – and nobody came even remotely close either. In fact, the majority of the players on the already small ballot failed to even reach the 5% threshold, and only five will be back next year. Full results:

LAP CF Justin Fowler – 1st – 27.6
TIJ SP Jeff Little – 4th – 19.0
MIL SP Chris Sinkhorn – 8th – 14.3
PIT C J.J. Henley – 6th – 6.8
??? C Mike Burgess – 3rd – 6.5
SFW CF Pedro Cisneros – 3rd – 4.8 – DROPPED
VAN LF Alex Torres – 1st – 4.4 – DROPPED
SFB SP Matt Huf – 2nd – 3.7 – DROPPED
SFW SP Pat Okrasinski – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
TIJ 1B Kevin McGrath – 2nd – 1.7 – DROPPED
TIJ SP George Griffin – 2nd – 1.4 – DROPPED
BOS SP Lorenzo Viamontes – 1st – 1.4 – DROPPED
DEN 2B Wayne Morris – 1st – 1.0 – DROPPED
LVA SP Abramo Archibugi – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED

Westheim · 11-14-2021, 05:22 AM

By January, the Raccoons more or less considered to have their team together for the 2046 season. Sure, an ace to add to Wheatley wouldn’t hurt, but aces didn’t come free. It had also not been a great winter for free agent starting pitching, and by early January the best options available on the market were Natanael Abrao and Lachlan Clarke, solid early-30s options, but not an ace for a team that had played in two consecutive World Series (never mind that Clarke would miss the first few months of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery, too).

An ace would have to come in a trade, and teams were notoriously picky with letting them go.

Me personally, I had taken a liking to English-born right-hander Arthur Pickett years ago when he was in the draft pool. He had gone #6 to the Stars back then, had first reached the majors in 2042, two years after the draft, and had stuck for good by 2044. He was already 27, but he had also been a late-comer to baseball and hadn’t started pitching in earnest until college. A righty groundballer with four pitches and decent control, Pickett had won 20 games with a 3.12 ERA last year, whiffing 180 in 213.2 innings in his first full season in the majors.

And the Stars were willing to talk game about a trade, but they also made it clear that only the juiciest slices of the Raccoons’ prospect list would do. Trading them a major leaguer of value was not even possible – Pickett made only a sliver over $1M from arbitration and the Stars were actually over-budget to begin with.

They were especially after Victor Salcido, a 19-year-old Dominican righty we had signed for $485k in the 2042 July IFA period. Salcido had pitched at all three minor league levels in ’45, with a 1.97 ERA in 12 starts in Aumsville, a 4.34 ERA in 14 starts in Ham Lake, and a 2.08 ERA in three starts as a filler in St. Pete late in the year, where he had walked 17 in 21.2 innings and somehow had not gotten destroyed for it, indicating that he would best start the 2046 campaign in Ham Lake.

And while Pat Degenhardt had a penchant to despise and rate own all of the players I liked and that were dear to me, he was writing sort of glowing reports about Salcido, apart from his control, which he rated as average even for the future. Salcido’s potential was rated 14/14/9 going forwards, compared to Pickett being a 13/15/14 *now*.

It didn’t really look like we could get any deal for Pickett without Salcido. There were also no obvious bad contracts on the Stars, except maybe the one for 36-year-old Mark Holliday, who made over $3M a year while pitching in a very average way, had a scouting report indicating that he should have retired yesterday, and was signed for two more seasons. But even if the Raccoons would pick up the tab on Holliday and then released him – Holliday had none of any of those schemes, exercising his 10/5 veto rights as soon as he got wind of the goings-on.

+++

January 6 – The Gold Six former Raccoons reliever Nate Norris (24-21, 4.08 ERA, 18 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.74M contract.
January 7 – Another addition for the Gold Sox is ex-PIT RF Troy Greenway (.278, 252 HR, 840 RBI). The 34-year-old joins for two years and $6.72M.
January 8 – Former Canadiens pitcher Matt Sealock (135-68, 3.19 ERA), inks a 3-yr, $6.56M deal with the Blue Sox.
January 18 – 37-year-old ex-OCT SP Natanael Abrao (93-97, 4.13 ERA) signs with the Falcons for two years and $6.72M.
January 22 – The Condors deal RF Justin Waltz (.215, 4 HR, 62 RBI) to the Miners for a prospect.

+++

Nope, no trade for Pickett. But their GM and me call each other every day at least once, just asking the other whether he will stop being so ******* stubborn, and neither is willing to say yes. This drama could stretch into February!

Westheim · 11-17-2021, 05:55 PM

Oh, and how the tug of war for Victor Salcido continued; soon enough not only with the Stars, but also with the Scorpions, and also the Miners. The more the other teams kept nagging me for the priced prospect, the more stubborn I became, hugged Honeypaws tighter, and drew a snoot whenever Maud told me someone was on the line.

The Scorpions pitcher in question? Craig Czyszczon – before you break your tongue, I’m told it’s pronounced “shone”. Polish people are weird – so many redundant letters. The right-hander had a groundball tendency, not exactly overwhelming stuff, but kept the walks and the homers down. He usually had a very fine BABIP because he pitched well to the defense. He was a bit of “me first” and very intelligent, the sort of evil genius that could make a team if things went well… or break it if not.

The Miners guy? Right-hander Ryan Person, who had only arrived there from Richmond this past season, missing out on a ring after parts of nine seasons with the Rebs, which were mostly sad seasons. Person had the distinction of having led the FL in both strikeouts and walks at different times. When somebody put the ball in play, actually, it usually remained on the ground (although he ha one season with 23 bombs away). The Raccoons did not have a high volume strikeout pitcher at this point – Person had rung up as many as 220 batters in a season. The current record for anybody on our payroll? Jake Jackson, 2041, with the Indians, merely 162 strikeouts.

Person and Czsz- … Szyzz- … Sizzles- … the Scorpions guy were both making around $2.5M; Person for one year, the other one for two. The latter would turn 30 in July, Person would be 31 before Opening Day. I’d like a high-K guy!

And the Miners would like to talk about Victor Salcido once more, says Maud. (picks up the speaker on the antique black-lacquered rotary phone on his desk) Hul-lo …?

+++

February 3 – The Titans sign former Aces 3B/2B Doug Richardson (.253, 89 HR, 403 RBI). The 28-year-old righty hitter receives a 3-year, $10.36M contract.
February 3 – In the same tune, the Titans trade 3B Ivan Lugo (.276, 19 HR, 235 RBI) to the Pacifics for 2B Gerardo Galaz (.254, 19 HR, 111 RBI).
February 5 – After one year with the Miners, 38-year-old 2B Dan Schneller (.293, 305 HR, 1,272 RBI) returns to the CL North with a 2-yr, $3.3M contract from the Crusaders.
February 5 – Ex-WAS C Manichiro Toki (.255, 97 HR, 469 RBI) inks a 3-yr, $4.86M deal with the Rebels.
February 6 – Richmond also thinks former Bayhawks lefty Jake Bonnie (35-39, 3.56 ERA, 65 SV) to be a key requirement to their title defense, signing him to the tune of $5.04M over three years.
February 10 – The Falcons deal OF David Vasquez (.281, 12 HR, 81 RBI) to the Wolves for MR Jose Santamaria (4-6, 4.58 ERA, 2 SV) and a prospect.
February 11 – The Crusaders sign former Gold Sox left-hander Jordan Calderon (49-33, 3.36 ERA, 30 SV) to a 2-yr, $2.6M deal.
February 13 – After splitting 2045 between the Scorpions and Pacifics, 35-year-old CL Antonio Prieto (51-52, 3.30 ERA, 164 SV) signs a 3-yr, $4.02M deal with the Falcons.

+++

New deals for old Raccoons? only Jeff Kilmer, who signed with the Caps for $432k (thus barely making more by playing FOR them than NOT playing for the Raccoons)

+++

Yes, I have been stuck on the trade screen for three days. I can’t make up my mind. Tomorrow I’ll throw a die to get it over with.

Westheim · 11-20-2021, 12:32 PM

So, what was it with the Raccoons? Were they in or were they … well, still in, but possibly not with enough pitching, just like last year, when it all fell apart in October?

+++

February 22 – The Raccoons acquire SP Ryan Person (92-74, 3.65 ERA) from the Miners in exchange for SP Corey Mathers (51-48, 3.78 ERA), SP Adam Capone (4-4, 3.22 ERA), and unranked A-level OF Antonio Ortiz.
February 25 – The Bayhawks sign ex-VAN 3B Dan Hutson (.256, 265 HR, 882 RBI), who joins the Bayside team for $780k in 2046.
February 26 – Boston sends LF/RF Dan Meyer (.267, 16 HR, 99 RBI) back to Cincinnati, receiving 1B Victor Chavez (.313, 37 HR, 241 RBI). Meyer had previously been traded from Cincinnati to Boston at the 2045 deadline.
March 9 – The Titans sign former Falcons closer Brad Blankenship (23-39, 3.35 ERA, 100 SV) on a $1.26M salary for 2046.
March 23 – Ex-SAC OF/1B Phil Rogers (.234, 124 HR, 458 RBI) is a late signing for the Crusaders. The 31-year-old right-hander signs for 3 years and $6.12M.
March 26 – The Raccoons sign ex-TOP C Jimmy Dalton (.224, 8 HR, 72 RBI), who spent all of last year in the minor leagues, to a $330k contract for the 2046 season.

+++

I claim that this solves the problem of not enough depth in the rotation. It also solves the problem of having half a dozen so-so and demi-prospects, and when the season gets long in the tooth in August, nobody that can even pitch out of the sixth inning. Several points were achieved in the Person deal that were dear to my heart – we didn’t shed a top 15 prospect (Salcido, Negrete), and we also didn’t end up with a sizable contract in AAA by involving Corey Mathers in the deal. Capone was 26, the oldest of the guys on the depth chart, which now still included Negrete, trade acquisition Chaney, and our own former first-rounder Bubba Wolinsky – and that was only the guys on the 40-man roster. And don’t you forget Aaron Hickey in the long man role!

Nobody took much interest in Brad Barnes all winter, so he remains a closer in AAA, while the retention of Victor Salcido might be the greatest victory of all if he lives up to the #6 prospect hype (do they ever…?).

Our budget room was whittled down to $1.3M with the Person trade, and I had also reached a state where I was content with the roster – which was all fine and dandy with pre-season camp mere minutes away at that point. The pitching roles were defined; and in the field we had a new catching duo (sorta!), Maldo at third, Toohey mostly at first, a platoon at second, and Matt Waters at short. Baskins, Herrera, and Manny were the outfield starters. That was a very good lineup, and if we could keep the broken legs to a minimum in ’46, we’d be a force to be reckoned with once again.

Dalton is a third-string catcher that has to get through waivers first upon the start of the season. We also signed another backup for AAA in late March, 29 like Dalton, and a career minor leaguer, in Bryan Deal, out of the Miners system. Deal’s deal was for meal money in the minors – Ruben Gonzalez aside, all remaining AAA catchers had jumped ship via minor league free agency at the end of 2045, so we had to restock from outside here. 26-year-old former fourth-rounder Rich Rabe would also be in the mix. Rabe was a an exceptionally good defensive catcher with the slight caveat that he couldn’t hit a cow if it was catapulted right at him. He hit .215 with seven homers in 126 games in Ham Lake last year.

And former Critters? Doug Levis, age 39, kept hanging on with the Thunder for $446k; the Pacifics chose to burden themselves with Damon DeOrio for $394k; the Gold Sox added Rich Willett for $466k; the Falcons threw $484k at Jose Cruz;

Westheim · 11-21-2021, 08:05 AM

2046 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2045 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Jason Wheatley, 25, B:R, T:R (15-8, 2.37 ERA | 38-30, 3.42 ERA) – Pitcher of the Year! I hear a guy from Bend, OR, broke the betting place to the tune of $65k on a $10 bet with that. Wheats roars from #5 starter in April of 2045 to the highest honor the CL had to dole out to pitchers (at least regularly), doing it with a perfectly balanced approach, keeping things on the ground and walks to a minimum (2.5 BB/9). He has five pitches, some very good, and the Opening Day Curse will without a doubt put him on a 6.50 ERA by the start of May.
SP Ryan Person *, 31, B:R, T:R (14-8, 3.71 ERA | 92-74, 3.65 ERA) – swapped from the Miners just before the season started, Person throws the heat and has led the FL in strikeouts twice, adding a new dimension to a Raccoons rotation that was not keen on high K totals the last few years. Will be a free agent after this season.
SP Sadaharu Okuda, 30, B:L, T:L (11-11, 4.08 ERA | 26-19, 3.73 ERA) – Japanese import signed on the cheap and throwing three pitches, including a 92mph fastball and a neat curve. He easily did the best of all our starters in ’44 and was thus assigned as the new recipient of the alive-and-well Opening Day Curse, which didn’t fail to disappoint with a worst-on-staff .311 BABIP and some wicked meltdowns.
SP Jake Jackson, 33, B:R, T:R (5-1, 3.18 ERA | 80-85, 3.77 ERA) – groundballer with three good pitches, including a 95mph fastball, who got befallen by our Opening Day starter curse in ’43 but recovered nicely for his career-best record, a high in 6.8 K/9, and a low in 2.8 BB/9 in ’44 before making ten fine starts before tearing a rotator cuff last year.
SP Victor Merino, 24, B:L, T:L (11-5, 3.07 ERA | 15-7, 2.98 ERA) – this lefty groundballer came a bit out of nowhere after so-so cups of coffee the prior two seasons. Pitched well in control fashion, lacking the big stuff for high strikeout totals, but at least that mixed well with the Raccoons’ plus infield defense. Unfortunately joined Jackson on the DL just before the playoffs, a.k.a. The Coming-Apart.

SP/MR Aaron Hickey *, 30, B:R, T:R (2-0, 4.69 ERA, 2 SV | 36-31, 3.36 ERA, 3 SV) – experienced swingman with excellent control (2.6 BB/9 for his career), who will get some bulk duties in the pen and might also be the go-to guy for spot starts without making roster moves.
MR Chuck Jones, 34, B:L, T:L (4-3, 2.72 ERA, 3 SV | 30-16, 2.91 ERA, 22 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. Last year of a rather expensive 3-year deal that has yet to backfire on us – but the writing is on the wall: he struggled in the last quarter of 2045, and his scouting report suffered some slashing. His K numbers are already well own (7.2/9 compared to 9.2/9 in ’44).
MR Zack Kelly, 30, B:L, T:L (3-3, 2.75 ERA | 18-8, 3.32 ERA, 6 SV) – left-handed sixth-year pitcher with balanced splits, throws 96 with a nasty curve to complement it. His stats took a bit of dip last year, with fewer strikeouts, except that he also came down and cut those 10 homers from ’44 in half, which is always nice for a reliever…
MR Bob Ibold, 25, B:L, T:R (2-1, 3.13 ERA, 1 SV | 4-1, 4.33 ERA, 1 SV) – very competent young right-hander that was cooked for dinner in his 2043 cup of coffee, but was only 22 then. 93mph heater, curve, and some natural sink to that fastball that keeps the infielders busy; could also be a spot starter with a crummy changeup to at least keep it interesting for the hitters (and he made three starts in AAA as recently as last year).
MR Preston Porter, 24, B:R, T:R (4-1, 3.25 ERA | 7-2, 2.66 ERA) – replaced Alex Ramirez during the 2044 season and quickly proved stinginess despite lacking obvious velocity (90mph), but keeps it on the ground and has a very nice curve; also exceptional control – he walked *three* batters in 28.2 innings in the majors in ’44, and while that number went up to a more reasonable 2.1/9 in ’45, he is still nothing to be concerned about. Just don’t bank on a strikeout from him (4.7/9 last year, 5.0/9 career).
SU Nelson Moreno, 27, B:R, T:R (0-3, 2.90 ERA, 3 SV | 39-39, 3.99 ERA, 4 SV) – that starting thing never worked out for Nelson Moreno, but in his second full season as a setup reliever he continued to be sturdy and to quell threat after threat. Struck out a career-high 10.0/9 while lowering his walks, and looks like a candidate to challenge Josh Rella should the latter’s star continue to flicker.
CL Josh Rella, 29, B:R, T:R (4-5, 3.99 ERA, 45 SV | 12-9, 2.98 ERA, 145 SV) – after a 2043 campaign in which he tied for the most saves in the CL in ’43 and then went 7-for-7 in saves in our 8-0 postseason sweep the year after, he hit a rough patch with some nasty blowouts in 2045. That doesn’t mean he’s broken, nor that you shouldn’t convert fourth-round infield picks into closers. It just means we’ll keep an eye on him.

C Tony Morales *, 31, B:L, T:R (.282, 2 HR, 16 RBI | .269, 86 HR, 472 RBI) – acquired from the Falcons, Morales returns to his stomping grounds from 2035 through 2041, where he is still remembered as a consistent above-average hitter and catcher, and we still wonder how on earth he’s been a substandard backup for three different teams in the last four years. We specifically wanted a lefty-hitting catcher again and the Falcons basically gave him away (along with that balloon contract) for free.
C/1B Ruben Gonzalez, 24, B:R, T:R (.125, 0 HR, 3 RBI | .165, 0 HR, 9 RBI) – to say that he has yet to show off anything that made him a prime target in the 2038 July IFA period would be an understatement, but then again his career BABIP is about negative a zillion, and that has to grow itself out at some point, right? He does bring pretty good defense and a fine throwing arm, and he hit for a .760 OPS in AAA in his age 22 season – the boy can’t be all rotten. Will mostly be in a straight platoon with Tony Morales.

RF/LF/1B Bryce Toohey, 30, B:R, T:R (.262, 23 HR, 93 RBI | .272, 101 HR, 375 RBI) – steady defensive rightfielder that continued a power outburst the last two seasons at ages 27/28 before he was acquired from the Condors. Hit a career-high 26 in ’44, not including the one in the 14th inning that claimed the Raccoons’ fifth World Series title. Moves to first base primarily this season, because we can’t ignore Derek Baskins’ top-of-the-lineup terror abilities and need to cram him into the outfield to make it all work.
1B/RF/3B/LF/SS/CF Jesus Maldonado, 32, B:R, T:R (.310, 28 HR, 106 RBI | .298, 121 HR, 686 RBI) – A World Series winner and a World Series MVP (not in the same season, though), Maldo spent a month or so as free agent before rejoining the Raccoons on the biggest contract ever doled out by the team ($38.5M over 7 years, or roughly half the annual GDP of his home country of Venezuela), and will – I hope – not break a leg as soon as he steps on the field on Opening Day. His defensive versatility of his younger years has suffered as he hit the wrong side of 30, but he can still fill in at center and short in emergencies, but is best confined to the corners at this stage of his career.
2B Arturo Carreno, 26, B:R, T:R (.246, 3 HR, 39 RBI | .260, 14 HR, 137 RBI) – good defensive second baseman, also hits like one, and will lose playing time to Al Martell in perhaps not a straight platoon, but they might split playing time fairly evenly. Since he’ll be at the bottom of the order, he might also be a frequent double switch target.
2B/3B/SS Al Martell, 30, B:L, T:R (.276, 2 HR, 32 RBI | .258, 50 HR, 356 RBI) – versatile infielder with solid defense and a lefty stick that was a Thunder regular at 21, then fell by the wayside by age 26. Picked up on the cheap as free agent last year and put together a fine season with spurts of production and long dry spells that somehow averaged out in the end.
SS/2B Matt Waters, 25, B:S, T:R (.247, 20 HR, 64 RBI | .245, 36 HR, 139 RBI) – good defensive shortstop that unexpectedly hit 15 homers in his first full season even though the leadoff package didn’t quite come together. Also stole 29 bases; had 20 homers and 23 bags last year, and is definitely a keeper, although the Raccoons would really wish for him to draw more walks. Him or Carreno. Somebody. Please.
1B/RF/LF/2B Pat Gurney, 28, B:L, T:R (.280, 9 HR, 56 RBI | .280, 70 HR, 344 RBI) – one of the best players in either league that does not have a starting spot in sight, Gurney is a surprisingly speedy corner guy that figures to get most of his playing time against right-handed pitching. Also has double-digit power when employed as a regular.

LF/CF Derek Baskins, 30, B:L, T:R (.343, 5 HR, 41 RBI | .299, 48 HR, 475 RBI) – strong defender, quick enough to steal a bunch of bases, and hit .300 quite a few times for the Buffos. Unexpectedly became the leadoff guy we were searching for on our infield when he hit .343/.385/.456 this year. The problem with him? Injuries. He played only 200 games as a Coon in two seasons, after a very high attendance record (44 games missed in FIVE years) with the Buffos.
CF Armando Herrera, 32, B:R, T:R (.289, 4 HR, 38 RBI | .312, 25 HR, 590 RBI) – the Raccoons’ eye-wateringly expensive star acquisition won eight Gold Gloves in nine seasons with the Wolves, and while he kept that string going, his offensive production faltered in the second half and he posted the very first sub-100 OPS+ of his career, 99 OPS+ for a .716 OPS. It was also the first time he failed to hit .300. The deals we make… Five years to go on this one.
LF/RF/CF Manny Fernandez, 36, B:L, T:L (.282, 11 HR, 60 RBI | .284, 181 HR, 1,021 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). Also won a Gold Glove at some point, so he can really do it all. Or could do it all. Manny is old, slow, and tired, and likes to sleep a lot between eating these days. Still has three years left on a new (cheap) deal inked before last season, and at least his 2045 production was totally in line with what he had put out for virtually all of his career, a steady 110-ish OPS+ machine with plus defense and middling table manners. With Baskins forcing himself into the lineup on a daily basis, he will mostly start in rightfield, as he had at the beginning of his career. 33 RBI short of Matt Nunley’s franchise record, too.
RF/CF/LF Nelson Mercado *, 30, B:L, T:L (.277, 2 HR, 29 RBI | .263, 47 HR, 242 RBI) – solid lefty outfield option coming over from the Gold Sox, also a tremendous base stealer and thus a prime pinch-running option.
RF/LF/CF Gene Pellicano, 26, B:R, T:R (.231, 1 HR, 2 RBI | .275, 7 HR, 30 RBI) – good defensive outfielder that hit quite a bit in AAA last year, but lasted only a brief stint in the summer and a few days in September before succumbing to injury. Hit for a 140 OPS+ in 46 games in ’44, which is probably a bit too much to expect, but he can bring the hurt to southpaws for sure.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
MR Sean Marucci, 26, B:R, T:R (0-0, 2.42 ERA | 2-0, 2.62 ERA) – optioned to AAA; perfectly decent right-hander we have no room for on the roster.
C Jimmy Dalton *, 29, B:R, T:R (.164, 2 HR, 6 RBI | .224, 8 HR, 72 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; signed as third-string catcher on the cheap, Dalton has to get through waivers to AAA first, a place he knows well after spending most of his time in the Buffaloes system there.
3B Ben Coen, 25, B:R, T:R (.250, 3 HR, 12 RBI | .250, 3 HR, 12 RBI) – optioned to AAA; did some fine work in the second half of the season, but there’s no room on the roster for him and Jesus Maldonado will handle the hot corner full time.
RF/CF/LF Van Anderson, 28, B:L, T:L (.286, 2 HR, 5 RBI | .247, 7 HR, 43 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; kind of a ho-hum player, flexible defensively, but not hitting much at all – at least not in the long run.

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

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Individual slumps and maybe not enough lefty options kept the Raccoons’ offense to mid-pack last year, but we made steps to at least address the latter issue. The former issue is at the mercy of the baseball gods…

Vs. RHP: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P
(Vs. LHP: LF Baskins (Pellicano) – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez (Pellicano) – SS Waters – 2B Carreno – C Gonzalez – P)

That makes three right-handers against righty pitching; they’re all bunched up (2-3-4), but it’s not like Manny or Baskins couldn’t break them up if needed. Manny ahead of Toohey could be a very legitimate adjustment. Pellicano might appear regularly against southpaws, either for Manny or Baskins, but not in the leadoff spot. Matt Waters would probably move up when Baskins gets subbed out.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The Raccoons went one win backwards in 2045 despite adding 2.3 WAR according to BNN, but at least still won the division convincingly. This year we have been adjudged to have stayed put, with a -0.1 WAR loss, 12th overall. I am not 100% on that, since the Ryan Person acquisition turned out almost WAR neutral, but gives us a clear upgrade over Corey Mathers and Adam Capone, whose non-performance in the playoffs will eventually be forgotten with excessive use of alcoholics. Maybe.

Top 5: Gold Sox (+8.1), Falcons (+7.8), Rebels (+7.4), Titans (+6.0), Loggers (+4.0)
Bottom 5: Warriors (-6.2), Scorpions (-7.0), Indians (-7.1), Aces (-9.2), Blue Sox (-10.6)

The missing CL North teams rank 7th (NYC, +3.4) and 19th (VAN, -5.1).

PREDICTION TIME:

The Coons won 95 after I banked on 98 last year, and again the word on the street is that this year they’ll win a hundred for the first time since 1996. Always a pessimist, I can’t get on that bandwagon quite yet. I’d be entirely content with another 95-win season and another division title, both things that should be achievable unless the entire team is stricken with the plague.

(looks skywards to check what the baseball gods are up to now)

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

After seven years of holding a top 3 spot in the prospect rankings, the Raccoons’ farm crashed from 3rd to 14th this time around. We went from nine ranked prospects (with seven in the top 100) down to seven ranked prospects, with four of those in the top 100.

Who has fallen by the wayside? Well, #41 Adam Capone expired upon turning 26, then was traded to the Miners for Ryan Person. #80 Ruben Gonzalez exceeded rookie limits. And #95 Arturo Romero was traded to the Wolves, so that certainly cut into the herd. In addition to that, last year’s #90 (Alan Puckeridge) and #194 (Shane Honig) were still in the system, but no longer ranked. So. Who remains?

23rd (-9) – AAA SP Tony Negrete, 23 – 2038 international free agent signed by Raccoons
48th (-42) – AA SP Victor Salcido, 20 – 2042 international free agent signed by Raccoons
62nd (new) – A 2B Rich Seymour, 19 – 2045 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
70th (+29) – AAA SP Bubba Wolinsky, 23 – 2041 first-round pick by Raccoons
114th (+44) – AAA SP Jeremy Baker, 24 – 2043 first-round pick by Raccoons
167th (new) – INT SP Alejandro Gutierrez, 16 – 2045 international free agent signed by Raccoons
196th (new) – A SP Danny Bethea, 21 – 2045 second-round pick by Raccoons

The team’s top 10 are completed by A SP Polibio O’Higgins (2043 IFA), AAA 2B John Castner (2041, 1st Round), and A SS/3B Lorenzo Lavorano (2043 fishing trip to the Dominican by Scout Guy).

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (new) – TIJ A LF/RF Tim Duncan, 19
2nd (new) – WAS AA SP Cory Ellis, 20
3rd (-1) – DAL AAA LF/CF Juan del Toro, 21
4th (+13) – PIT AAA 2B/3B Alex Vasquez, 20
5th (new) – MIL AA SP Jameson Monk, 20

6th (+1) – DAL AAA SP Adam Middleton, 22
7th (-2) – DEN AAA SP Luis Copa, 22
8th (new) – OCT INT OF Victor Mangana, 18
9th (new) – RIC A SP James Powell, 18
10th (-1) – LVA ML C Ray DeFrank, 22

All the new additions here were drafted in the 2045 draft, except for Mangana, who was signed in the 2044 July IFA period, but not ranked until this year.

#7 prospect Copa was traded from the Thunder to the Gold Sox in a deal for Ryan Cox last season.

Which players from last year dropped out? Top prospect Bruce Mark jr. made his major league debut early in the season and hung around with the Capitals while getting whacked for a 5-14 record and 5.89 ERA in his age 23 season. And he is the only one of the six dropouts from the top 10 to actually reach the majors… or even AAA.

Last year’s #3, the Warriors’ 3B/CF/1B Randy Wilken, stuck in AA and dropped to #14. One spot below him was the Gold Sox’ teenage international complex shortstop, who will make his professional debut with single-A Crestview this year, but the late arrival (he turned 20 in December) sagged him 26 spots to #30. The drop was even deeper for Portland’s AA pitcher Victor Salcido, #6 to #48. Nashville pitcher Andy Overy also remained stuck in AA and slid from #8 to #17. And the Loggers’ Will McIntyre, a versatile position player, remained in single-A all year and slid 23 spots from #10 to #33.

Next: first pitch.

DD Martin · 11-21-2021, 05:32 PM

That’s a big drop from 6 to 48 for Salcido

Westheim · 11-21-2021, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DD Martin

That’s a big drop from 6 to 48 for Salcido

The reasoning for it is probably that I held on to him stubbornly, which for a young pitcher is as career-ending as having your dominant arm torn off by a raging grizzly bear.

Westheim · 11-22-2021, 02:25 PM

Finally, baseball!

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Loggers (0-0) – April 2-4, 2046

The Raccoons were up against the Loggers to begin the season. We had taken 11 of 18 games from them in 2045, and hoped to keep that pace going at the very least while opening the season with a weeklong homestand. Everybody was healthy, and we hadn’t lost a game yet! Yay!

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (0-0) vs. Sergio Piedra (0-0)
Ryan Person (0-0) vs. Ruben Guzman (0-0)
Sadaharu Okuda (0-0) vs. Mackenzie O’Toole (0-0)

Three right-handers to open the season, but there should be a southpaw waiting on the weekend.

Game 1
MIL: CF B. Allen – LF Reeves – 1B Brayboy – RF Hertenstein – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – 2B Davison – 3B Paul – P Piedra
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wheatley

The first base runner of the season in a Raccoons game would be Ricky Payne, reaching by way of pain after getting drilled with a fastball in the second inning. The Loggers made something out of it, maneuvering the catcher around with singles by Ricky Espinoza and Jared Paul to take a 1-0 lead. The Coons had yet to cease slumbering – how dare they be called out to play on a Monday? – and settled for five strikeouts against a lonely Tony Morales single to center the first time through. Morales, the returnee, also had the second Raccoons hit of the season, a single to left in the bottom 5th, which led just as far as the first one had. Thus, when the Loggers scored two unearned runs on a gross botch by Armando Herrera in centerfield that put Bill Reeves on second to begin the top 6th, and Aaron Brayboy, the detestable scumbag, doubled him home right away, I immediately started to drink, and so did Honeypaws. A Daniel Hertenstein single and a run-scoring double play grounder by Payne ran the score to 3-0, and the Raccoons still had no concept of getting on base in any way, shape, or form. It took them seven innings to put a guy into scoring position, Matt Waters hitting a 2-out double to right. Morales walked behind him, but Al Martell was all too easily out at first base with a poor grounder, and the inning ended. Wheatley, who pitched seven decent, but unsuccessful innings, was replaced with Chuck Jones, who was taken deep by switch-hitter Reeves, another warning sign that maybe lefty relief was an area that should have been addressed in the offseason. For now there was little more to do than to accept an Opening Day shutout against the Loggers. The Loggers! 4-0 Loggers. Morales 2-3, BB; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, L (0-1);

Game 2
MIL: CF B. Allen – LF Reeves – 1B Brayboy – RF Hertenstein – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – 2B Davison – 3B B. Johnson – P Ru. Guzman
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Person

To say that Ryan Person and Tony Morales had yet to get on the same page was a bit of an understatement. The first inning on Tuesday so Person issue two walks in loading the bases with one out, while runners then scored on a wild pitch, a passed ball, and finally a groundout. Person was completely out of control in his debut, walking five Loggers in the first three innings (while whiffing up six), then bunted into a force with Al Martell somehow having reached base to begin the bottom 3rd. Guzman responded with a balk, then got taken well deep by Derek Baskins in right-center for the Coons’ first runs of a so far miserable season, and for the score to be shortened to 3-2. While Person was not beyond, nor beneath walking a sixth Logger in the fourth inning, Bryce Toohey did his best and tied the game with a leadoff jack in the bottom 4th, which at that point also gave us a full set of top 4 hitters that started the season batting 1-for-6… The inning continued with Manny – hitless yet – drawing a walk, and then Matt Waters found the leftfield line for a double, putting runners in scoring position with nobody out. Guzman lost Morales in a full count then, loading the bases with nobody out, and thus convincing me that an L was in the offing, even though Al Martell procured a lead with a sac fly to Reeves, 4-3. Person bunted the runners over, while Baskins flew out to leave them over.

Person then was yanked out of the fifth inning for allowing a single to Reeves, who stole second, throwing a wild pitch, and walking Brayboy, the seventh and final free pass of the day for him, leaving to the tune of runners on the corners and one out. Preston Porter ******* balked facing his first batter of the year, Daniel Hertenstein, tying the score at four, before ringing up Hertenstein and getting Payne to ground out to Maldo. Bottom 5th then, where now Guzman walked the bags full with Herrera, Toohey, and Waters, but also two outs. Morales lined out to Scott Davison to strand absolutely everybody.

By the sixth, pitching returned to basically competent, with both bullpens taking over and encouraging fans to open their eyes again. Nobody got much of a rally going against the Coons’ Kelly and Moreno in the seventh and eighth, but then Josh Rella entered a 4-4 tie in the ninth, walked leadoff man Davison, and that runner would come around to score on singles by Kyle Edsell and Brent Allen, giving the Loggers a lead before Jared Paul, pinch-running for Edsell, was caught stealing third base and Reeves popped out. The Raccoons were behind against Caleb Martin in the bottom 9th, and had Martell leading off, which was hardly the best proposition. Martell flew out to Pat Lovell in right, but Ruben Gonzalez singled in his first at-bat of the season. That made Baskins the winning run, but he had already hit a homer on the day, how many more could he have in his bat at this point? Turned out, one more – the game-winning blast on a lazy 1-2 offering by Martin that was never seen again. 6-5 Raccoons! Baskins 2-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Gonzalez 1-1;

Derek Baskins should be declared a State Treasure and must remain a Raccoon forever!

Game 3
MIL: 1B Edsell – 2B Davison – RF Hertenstein – SS R. Espinoza – LF Brayboy – C Payne – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – P O’Toole
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – 2B Carreno – C Gonzalez – P Okuda

The rubber game started with another pitching implosion, and it was Okuda this time. He had no control, no stuff, and no luck either, loading the bases with a single and two walks, then gave up runs on a Brayboy double (two) and a Reeves homer (three) for a quick 5-0 hole. The Raccoons looked like they’d rally when their 1-2-3 opened with straight singles off O’Toole, but then Toohey whiffed and Manny grounded to short, barely beating out the relay throw by Davison to allow Baskins to score with a run. And then Waters lined out to Edsell and that was that. Okuda, who had angrily retreated to the clubhouse during the bottom 1st to hit a giant gong in the corner and to scream into the case with his collection of origami raccoons, returned for some damage control after that, lining up zeroes after that ugly five that had already derailed another game.

Ricky Espinoza drove in the game’s next run with two outs in the top 5th, singling home Edsell, who had reached on a Maldonado error, and the run was thus unearned. Ruben Gonzalez then wasted his first career home run on this stinker of a game, hitting a solo shot to left in the bottom 5th. Okuda batted for himself afterwards, hit a 1-out double to right, and was then stranded by Baskins and Herrera… Disappointed, he was then taken deep by Payne in the sixth, and disappeared from the game soon afterwards.

Fitting the general mood, we then got an hourlong rain delay that merely delayed the inevitable with a 7-2 score in the bottom 6th. After the delay, Maldonado would have two more singles. The first drove in Baskins and Herrera with two outs in the seventh and narrowed the score to an almost interesting 7-4. The second came with the same score and the Coons down to their final out against Caleb Martin in the ninth, and also with nobody on base to begin with. Toohey struck out, and the Raccoons were back under .500. 7-4 Loggers. Baskins 2-4, BB; Herrera 2-5, 2B; Maldonado 3-5, 2 RBI; Pellicano (PH) 1-1; Ibold 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Condors (3-1) – April 6-8, 2046

The Condors had been out-scored 14-12 by the Bayhawks in their 4-game opening set, but had somehow taken three of the wins, which was something the Raccoons should perhaps look into in the future. The outlier had been former Coons farmhand Generos de Leon, getting dissected the ugly way on Thursday after a 3-0 start for Tijuana. The Critters had won the season series, 6-3, last season.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (0-0) vs. Pedro Quinonez (0-0)
Victor Merino (0-0) vs. Marc Hubbard (1-0, 1.13 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (0-1, 1.29 ERA) vs. Kellen Lanning (1-0, 1.29 ERA)

Quinonez was the first and only left-hander for the Raccoons this week.

Game 1
TIJ: CF J. Clark – SS A. Lopez – 1B Gibbs – RF Ito – C Pasko – 3B Barcia – LF B. Mendoza – 2B B. Oliver – P Quinonez
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – RF Pellicano – 2B Carreno – C Gonzalez – P Jackson

Quinonez sat down the first eight before Jackson singled, while Jackson also gave up a single to Quinonez in the third inning. As far as position players went, nobody was doing much of anything on either side, although the Raccoons reached the corners with one gone in the bottom 4th, with Herrera walking and stealing second ahead of a Toohey single. Matt Waters was hitting .182 in the early going, and the Raccoons needed a good whack – and got it, a 2-2 pitch dished over Jacob Clark in center for an RBI double, the first tally in the game. Toohey had to hit the brakes at third base, where he patiently waited while Gene Pellicano worked out a walk to fill the bases. Arturo Carreno hit a floater into shallow center that was uncatchable and landed for a 2-run single. Quinonez, unravelling, walked Gonzalez to refill the sacks, then gave up another single to Jackson for another run, 4-0. Baskins hit a sac fly, Herrera added an RBI single, and while Maldo popped out, Jackson now had a 6-0 lead to play with. He did so with good success for another three innings, giving up a total of five hits, but no runs whatsoever.

The Coons then saw a string of lefty hitters and thought that would be a good opportunity to see whether Chuck Jones still had a pulse in the eighth inning. Turns out, he hadn’t. The Condors, all lefties, hit him for four singles (one of the infield variety) and two runs before he was yanked in despair. With runners on the corners and one out, we went to Moreno. Ito hit a sac fly to left, and Mark Pasko whacked an RBI double to center. Sergio Barcia got on with a single. Could anybody here get an out? Benito Mendoza was hitless on the season, but that changed when he smashed a 3-run homer over the deepest bit of the fence in centerfield, flipping the score. A 6-0 lead had become a 7-6 heart attack. While I was breathing into a paper bag the Raccoons did absolutely nothing in the bottom 8th, and at least Bob Ibold didn’t make it worse in the top 9th. Facing righty Ben Arner in the bottom 9th, Nelson Mercado hit for Ibold in the #9 hole. He drew a walk in a full count, and Baskins hit a squiggler on a 1-2 pitch and legged it out for an infield single. Up came Armando Herrera, first half of the A-Cool-$10M-A-Year duo, and poked away at the first pitch, grounding to short. Jesus Banuelas threw the ball past Brian Oliver for an error, and the bags were full, but with nobody out – nooo! Maldonado also took the chance to swipe at Arner’s first pitch, getting the ball through the left side for a game-tying single. And Toohey? Toohey had been hit for with Gurney to give the poor guy some breathing space when the team had still been up by a ******* pawful and then some! But at least that was a lefty stick with the winning run 90 feet away. Arner hung in there, but Gurney made it quick, singling up the middle on the 1-0 pitch to walk off the Critters. 8-7 Coons. Maldonado 2-5, RBI; Gurney (PH) 1-2, RBI; Jackson 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K and 2-3, RBI;

It’s early, but … this team!

Game 2
TIJ: C T. Black – SS A. Lopez – 1B Gibbs – RF Ito – 2B B. Oliver – LF Reidinger – 3B T. Ruiz – CF J. Clark – P Hubbard
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Merino

The first three innings consisted of a solo homer by Alex Lopez (who?) and not much else. Maldonado tied the game with a home run of his own, the first downpayment on that $38.5M contract of his, tying it all up in the fourth inning. Then **** the fan a bit when Hubbard nailed Toohey with a high fastball. Toohey ducked at the last second, and the ball hit his shoulder before it glanced off his helmet, which went flying. Next to fly where the batting gloves, and then Hubbard’s jaw when he got clocked by a stomping Toohey, who was unsurprisingly ejected for the left hook he threw there, but so was Hubbard. Pat Gurney replaced Toohey, who was probably headed for a suspension, stole second base, but Manny Fernandez continued his season-opening run of futility with a poor out. Waters then singled off Jason Jacobs, and so did Tony Morales, bringing home Gurney for a 2-1 lead with two outs. Martell left on two with a flyout to Ito.

Merino held on, but also worked himself up with long counts and was done after six innings of 4-hit ball and 102 pitches. Jacobs was still doing long relief for Hubbard in the bottom 6th when Maldo and Gurney opened the inning with soft singles. Manny, 0-for-11 with three walks by now, opted to waste no time and ripped away at the first pitch. To left. High. Deep. Gone! 3-run homer!

The Condors then had leadoff singles in the seventh against Porter and the eighth against Kelly, but hit into a 6-4-3 both times. The Raccoons, who had blown a 6-run lead the day before, felt content with their 4-run lead this time, and didn’t even blow it then. Kelly got the first out in the ninth, and Hickey got two more to put the game away. 5-1 Raccoons. Maldonado 2-4, HR, RBI;

Somehow, over .500.

Not feeling fuzzy about it, though.

Bryce Toohey had a bit of a sore paw after hitting Marc Hubbard with it, but the good news was he’d be as good as new by the time his 4-game suspension would be up. That one began Sunday and would continue through the entire Knights series that would start on Monday in Georgia. Gurney would sub at first, and we also put Nelson Mercado in center for the Sunday game, wishing to give every position player at least one start in Opening Week.

Game 3
TIJ: LF Banuelas – SS A. Lopez – 1B Gibbs – RF Ito – C Pasko – 3B Barcia – CF Reidinger – 2B B. Oliver – P Lanning
POR: LF Baskins – SS Waters – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – 1B Gurney – CF Mercado – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wheatley

The weather forecast was grim, and we’d waste Wheats on it anyway. Maldo at least gave the Coons a lead with a first-frame solo shot, and by the second inning the rain arrived and Wheats had to sit out a 27-minute rain delay between a double by Pasko and a walk to Barcia, but got out with pop outs by Marty Reidinger and Brian Oliver. Bottom 2nd, the Coons loaded the bases with three singles by Mercado, Martell, and Wheats (!), presenting Baskins with a rich basket and one out. He fell to 0-2, but then cracked a liner *just* past Ron Gibbs, but good enough for a 2-run single. Waters added a run with a groundout, sitting down Wheats, while Maldonado hit a 2-out RBI double. Lanning lost Manny on balls, then allowed another RBI double to Gurney in left-center. Mercado ended the 5-run onslaught with a strikeout at 3-2, but the Raccoons were up 6-0 now. Now, when did that ever go wrong?

The Condors scored before they made another out, although again a Maldonado error helped put a chink in Wheatley’s line, following up singles by PH Ryan Phillips in the #9 hole and Banuelas with a throwing error. Wheats then buckled down and got out of the messy inning, still up 6-1. Defense continued to not hold up; Wheatley walked Pasko to begin the fourth, and while Pasko was replaced by Barcia on a fielder’s choice, what should have been the third out, a bouncer to Martell by Oliver, was thrown away for another free two bases. Jacob Clark pinch-hit with runners in scoring position then, jabbed a sharp one at Martell, who didn’t dare to misplay another ball, and somehow the inning still ended. Wheats was in a sticky mess of his own, finally, in the sixth inning – and by the way, no, the Raccoons weren’t tacking on in the slightest – loading the bags with a single and two walks and only one out. He crucially struck out Oliver there, then faced a righty PH Tomas Ruiz, who fell to 2-2, then clubbed a gapper that emptied the bases and made what had been 6-0 by now a 6-4 game. Banuelas grounded out to end the inning.

Wheats tacked on a 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts to somewhat salvage his day (looks uncertain and reaches for a bottle o’ booze), while the Raccoons looked like a threat to score for the first time in a while in the bottom 7th. Waters walked and stole second to begin the inning against righty Luis Ortiz, followed by Maldonado taking a disinterested walk from the Condors’ side. Manny singled to right, once again loading the bags with nobody out. Gurney hit an RBI single to center. Mercado hit an RBI single to right, and the Condors replaced their mauled righty with another run-of-the-mill righty, Cesar Perez. Tony Morales promptly hit into a run-scoring double play, and Martell flew out to left. Then they ran away with it in the eighth, whooping Perez with straight RBI knocks by Gonzalez, Maldo, and Manny, the middle one an RBI triple into the corner in right to complete the blowout. 12-4 Coons! Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Maldonado 3-4, BB, HR, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI; Fernandez 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Gurney 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Herrera (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 3 – SAL OF David Vasquez (.556, 1 HR, 3 RBI) is a triple shy of the cycle in his second game as a Wolf, going 5-for-5 in an 8-3 win over the Scorpions.
April 6 – Warriors LF/RF Mario Villa (.368, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has built a hitting streak begun in 2045 to 20 games with a single in a 5-3 loss to the Capitals.
April 7 – SFW LF/RF Mario Villa (.304, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has his hitting streak halted at 20 games with a dry effort in a 2-1 win over the Capitals.
April 8 – MIL SP Sergio Piedra (2-0, 0.00 ERA) and CL Caleb Martin (0-1, 5.40 ERA, 1 SV) pitch a combined 1-hitter in a 5-0 win over the Knights. ATL OF Bill Melendez (.143, 0 HR, 0 RBI) has a single to ruin the no-hitter.
April 8 – The Canadiens pick up OF Felix Rojas (.273, 1 HR, 1 RBI) from the Miners in exchange for RF/LF Victor Vazquez (.0-for-2, 0 HR, 0 RBI).
April 8 – The Warriors unload for 11 runs in the fifth inning and beat the Capitals again, 15-6. SFW 1B Manny Liberos (.318, 2 HR, 8 RBI) drives in six runs on three hits.

FL Player of the Week: DAL INF/CF Jose Rivas (.591, 0 HR, 1 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: POR UT Jesus Maldonado (.423, 2 HR, 7 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Was it worth waiting all offseason for this? Well, that’s an eye-of-the-beholder thing. Some people are just very much into getting lashed with a spikey whip on their naked bottoms.

The offense eventually realized that the season had begun after leaving Wheats to soak an Opening Day shutout loss, while the defense kept betraying him even when the team ran circles around the Condors to the tune of 25 runs on the weekend. They swept that series… after starting it by blowing Jake Jackson’s 6-0 lead. Also, poor Maldo, a single short of the cycle on Sunday…! He had to console himself with the Player of the Week nod.

Chuck Jones looks pretty much dead from up here, and his stats have a certain smell to it. This one could get hairy. If I remember right, I didn’t want a 3-year deal… or did I just want it to be cheaper? I could ask Steve from Accounting, but I hate being told that I’m wrong.

Yes, Maud, sorry, Maud …! (puts his open bottle of booze back on the coaster emblazoned with the Raccoons mascot)

Adam Bates, taken by the Pacifics in the Rule 5 draft in December, was returned to the Raccoons on Opening Day. The Wolves held on to Steve Petersen for the time being.

Next week, road trip to Atlanta and Elk City. We’ll have the first meeting with the Crusaders on the following homestand, which will last two weeks and almost but not quite cover the rest of the month.

Fun Fact: Robbie Peel, who retired after the 2043 season, was the only ABL player in history from Jamaica.

Hailing from Portmore, the left-hander’s family moved to the US when he was little and he came through the school system and thus the draft, being taken in the third round by the Knights in 2026, but ended up taken as a rule 5 pick by the Wolves and then traded to his principal team, the Miners. He would spend half of his 13-year career with Pittsburgh in two stints, leading the FL in saves (despite winning 14 games in relief!) in 2035. He was an All Star twice and a regular closer for his teams despite only managing 7.0 strikeouts per nine innings for his career.

Overall, he pitched to a 63-53 record with a 3.51 ERA and 236 saves, whiffing 621 batters in 798.1 innings.

That leaves only one player in the run of only-one-from-this-country series, and every Raccoons fan worth their whiskers knows him!

Westheim · 11-23-2021, 03:07 PM

Raccoons (4-2) @ Knights (1-5) – April 9-11, 2046

The Knights had scored a putrid 14 runs in the first week of the season, which was not exactly helping with winning games, and they were bottoms in the CL South at this point. In fact, as of Monday morning, the Raccoons stood to face two last-place teams this week. In addition to being bottoms (by a lot) in runs scored, they were also bottoms in runs allowed, with a starters’ ERA of almost six, and a bullpen ERA twice that much. The Coons had won all of two games from the Knights in ’45, but maybe we could overcome our own pitching and hitting issues and go on a bit of a romp here…

Projected matchups:
Ryan Person (0-0, 8.31 ERA) vs. David Farris (0-1, 6.14 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (0-1, 9.53 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
Jake Jackson (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Al Scott (0-1, 4.50 ERA)

Right, right, left, and Al Scott, who had turned down a thick Raccoons offer some years back, which I was still miffed over, was the ace of staff once through the rotation for them.

Game 1
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – 1B Gurney – C Morales – 2B Carreno – P Person
ATL: 3B Venegas – 1B Delagrange – RF Marz – LF Hester – 2B Crim – CF Melendez – C E. Thompson – SS J. Gonzalez – P Farris

Both teams had two hits apiece the first time through, with the Raccoons taking a 1-0 lead on a Pat Gurney homer, who would start the entire series at first base with Bryce Toohey suspended for all of it. Person especially didn’t walk a batter until the bottom 4th, when Billy Hester grinded out a walk with two outs, but was left on base. In fact, the main problem seemed again to be Jesus Maldonado’s aim from third base, as he fired away another grounder for a 2-base error, his third of the season, and this time it was on the opposing pitcher, with two outs in the fifth, and with Elliott Thompson on first base. Runners went to scoring position on the terrible, terrible throw, but Anton Venegas was kind enough to ground out to Carreno anyway to keep it a 1-0 Critters score. Venegas in turn botched a Baskins grounder in the top 6th, followed by a soft single to left from Herrera, and then a Maldonado drive over Bill Melendez for a 2-run double. Matt Waters would cash Maldo with a 2-out single, 4-0, stole second base, but was left there as Gurney grounded out.

Person was hurling well through six, so when Morales walked and Carreno singled to begin the top 7th, he was retained to bunt, which went quite badly and left Tony Morales out at third base. Carreno then sole third base, though, and Person snuck up to second in his wake. Farris got Baskins to two strikes, but gave up a sac fly to Hester at that point, with Hester retiring Herrera in a slide to end the inning and keep Person stranded. An inning later, the Raccoons dismembered Jon Salls to the tune of five singles, a walk, and four runs, with Nelson Mercado and Al Martell chipping in pinch-hit RBI singles. Facing lefty Russell Maratta in the ninth, Gene Pellicano got to bat for Manny Fernandez and mashed a solo homer to left. That put the Raccoons into double digits, and was their final squeak in the game. The same couldn’t be said for the Knights, who were shut out for 26 outs, but not 27 – Bill Melendez took Aaron Hickey deep with two outs in the ninth to give them a spoiler run. 10-1 Coons. Baskins 2-4, 3 RBI; Maldonado 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Pellicano (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Gurney 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Martell (PH) 1-1, RBI; Person 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – 1B Gurney – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Okuda
ATL: CF Venegas – 1B Delagrange – RF Marz – LF Hester – 3B Crim – SS J. Gonzalez – C Horner – 2B Sprague – P Freels

The scoring started like on Monday with a solo homer, but for the other team, Glenn Sprague taking Okuda deep to left in the third inning. The Raccoons had but one base hit through five innings, a Herrera single, and Herrera was caught stealing after it. The Knights in turn scratched out another run in the fifth, unearned, exploiting a 2-base throwing error by not Maldo, but Martell that put Jorge Gonzalez on base to begin the inning. Adam Horner promptly singled him home, 2-0, but was himself stranded by straight outs by the 8-9-1 bunch. Okuda was then chopped to bits for good in the sixth, allowing straight hits to Hester and Joe Crim (singles), a 2-run double to Gonzalez, and an RBI single to Horner before getting yanked off the mound. The Knights would add a Crim homer off Chuck Jones (…) in the eighth inning, while Portland added one more single by Nelson Mercado against Freels before drowning with the least possible bubbles on the surface as the Knights’ right-hander finished a 2-hit shutout. 6-0 Knights. Mercado (PH) 1-1;

I like to think that overall we might be somewhere between scoring ten runs a game and falling a double short of four bases …

Game 3
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Gurney – SS Waters – RF Pellicano – 2B Carreno – C R. Gonzalez – P Jackson
ATL: 3B Venegas – 1B Delagrange – RF Marz – LF Hester – 2B Crim – C Horner – C Melendez – SS J. Gonzalez – P Scott

The Knights lost Venegas to injury in the second inning while he turned a 5-U double play on the sloppy Coons; Pat Gurney had led off the inning with a double to left, then advanced on a deep fly to center by Waters. Gene Pellicano hit the ball hard after that, but Venegas made the snag, then dove back into the base just ahead of Gurney, colliding with the Critter and hurting his ankle, leading to his removal in favor of Sprague; but Gurney was ruled out to end the inning. The Knights meanwhile made *a lot* of noise against Jackson, hitting no fewer than four deep fly balls the first time through, but had all of them caught on or at the warning track. Trouble was brewing with Jackson for sure, and the Coons tried to get on the board first when Maldonado followed up a Herrera double with a single to right in the fourth. John Marz told them off by throwing out Herrera at the dish. Gurney singled, but Waters struck out, leaving the Coons with three hits and no runs from the inning. Jackson then allowed two soft singles to Marz and Hester, then walked Crim and Horner in a fourth-inning meltdown. One run in, Melendez added a second with a sac fly, and the Raccoons failed to make the board in the next few innings, either. Matt Waters then opened the seventh with a triple to center, which was a bit of a call to scoring, and since Jackson held himself down by two, promoted the tying run to the batter’s box. Al Scott did his best to extricate himself and had Pellicano at 1-2 before giving up a horrible chopper that nobody could reach before Waters scored and Pellicano legged it up to first base with an infield single. Then Carreno, Ruben Gonzalez, and Manny made weak outs in order.

Bob Ibold held the Knights close in the bottom 7th, but Scott made two quick outs of Baskins and Herrera in the eighth before Maldo hit a deep drive to right. It wasn’t long enough though, hit off the top two feet of the fence, and Maldo had to settle for a 2-out double and being 180 feet away as the tying run. Gurney grounded out to second to strand him. Moreno kept Atlanta away in the eighth, and the Raccoons came up against righty Mike Lechowicz in the ninth inning. Waters opened with a single to center to put the tying run on base again. Pellicano, who looked like his stick was hot, slapped a single to left, moving Waters to second. Mercado hit for Carreno, but struck out. Martell hit for Gonzalez, but flew out to Marz. Tony Morales was the last bat off the suspension-shortened bench, hitting for Nelson Moreno with two outs. And he grounded out. 2-1 Knights. Herrera 2-4, 2 2B; Maldonado 2-4, 2B; Gurney 2-4, 2B; Waters 2-4, 3B; Pellicano 2-4, RBI;

Six extra-base hits…! And… and this loss.

Ugh.

Raccoons (5-4) @ Canadiens (2-6) – April 12-15, 2046

I had to return home to Portland only to find that it had partially been rented out to the boy scouts doing camping exercises on the outfield grass. I wonder who had signed off on the campfires. The team travelled to Elk City meanwhile, playing the damn Elks in a long weekend set. They were still last in the North, but the Raccoons had a good chance to take that title by Sunday night. Elk City sat tenth in both runs scored and runs allowed with the worst rotation moniker having been shed by the Knights onto them. We beat them 11-7 for the last two seasons, each.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. David Arias (0-1, 14.54 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (1-1, 3.21 ERA) vs. John Roeder (0-1, 3.86 ERA)
Ryan Person (1-0, 3.18 ERA) vs. Mario de Anda (1-0, 1.23 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (0-2, 7.94 ERA) vs. Mario Godinez (1-1, 4.26 ERA)

Two right-handers were sandwiching two left-handers in this 4-game set for the damn Elks. Since we had an off day on Monday, we were in no rush to give out off days, although Maldonado, Waters, and Baskins so far hadn’t had one at all and might get sat down … or maybe not.

Game 1
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Merino
VAN: RF van der Zanden – SS O. Aguirre – CF Outram – C Julio Diaz – 2B Malkus – LF J. Becker – 3B K. Saito – 1B Bejarano – P D. Arias

Another 2-base throwing error, another unearned run, this time with Waters being the culprit. Justin Becker singled home Travis Malkus, and the damn Elks went up 1-0 in the second inning while I covered my eyes with Honeypaws’ tail. The Coons meanwhile went in order and quickly on just 32 pitches the first time through, but Baskins opened the fourth with a single to right before the no-hit threat could ever become a thing. And then Herrera hit into a double play. Instead, Merino allowed three singles to load the bases in the bottom 4th, walking a run against former Raccoons farmhand Ricardo Bejarano, and then allowed an RBI single to the opposing pitcher, with only a base-running gaffe by Kenichi Saito bringing an end to the damn inning.

Toohey hit a solo homer in the fifth to do *something* in his return from the naughty list, but Waters and Morales singles with one out were met with indifference by Morales and Merino, and only one of them could ever expect to be excused for that. Herrera got on the inning after that with one out, but Maldo flew out to Jerry Outram. Not Toohey, though – he hit homers in back-to-back at-bats to level the score at three!

Merino stubbornly held on to the tie through seven innings, even though Jerry Outram hit a double off him in the bottom 7th. His spot was up to lead off the eighth, and he was over 100 pitches, so he was hit for with Mercado, but the Raccoons didn’t reach until Herrera got on with two outs, stole second, and then was stranded by Maldonado’s grounder. Porter and Kelly held the damn Elks in the tie in the bottom 8th, after which Sebastien Parham struck out the side in the ninth. Kelly wasn’t as flashy, leaking Angel Escobido and Arnout van der Zanden onto the corners with two outs in the bottom 9th, and with Jerry Outram coming up… AND with Chuck Jones currently not a real option for ANYTHING. Outram ran a full count, then rammed the Coons out of the game with a single to center. 4-3 Canadiens. Herrera 2-4; Toohey 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Merino 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K;

Maud, I feel dizzy. – I know that Dr. Padilla is in the Arctic with the team. – Well, what happened to 911??

Game 2
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – 2B Carreno – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley
VAN: LF J. Becker – 2B O. Aguirre – CF Outram – C Julio Diaz – 3B Malkus – SS Price – RF C. Robinson – 1B K. Saito – P Roeder

Maldo was the first Coon to 10 RBI, doubling home Herrera for a 1-0 lead in the first inning. That lead didn’t last, because Wheatley didn’t get his stuff through customs apparently, and loaded the bags with nobody out in the bottom 2nd, allowing two singles to Rick Price and Chris Robinson, then nailing Kenichi Saito. Roeder struck out, but Justin Becker’s grounder was only good for one out an Price scored to tie the game. Oscar Aguirre then sent Pellicano back to make the catch for the third out on the warning track. After Outram and Diaz singles to begin the bottom 3rd, the Coons *did* turn the double play on Malkus’ grounder, 5-4-3, but Outram scored from third base anyway to give them the lead.

The Opening Day Starter Curse then took over fully in the fifth inning, where Wheatley simply retired nobody. Diaz infield single. Malkus single. Price double. Robinson single. Saito double. Four runs on the board, six in total, and nobody out. Roeder was only out on a grounder, and Saito scored on another groundout by Becker. Beaten and battered, Wheatley was lifted after five innings, down 7-1, and the Raccoons were once again being ****ing 1-hit on the way to their fourth straight loss. Toohey drove in Herrera for a run in the sixth, while the seventh was a dragged-out farce in which Carreno, Gonzalez, and Pellicano loaded the bases against lefty Jordan Antonio, only for Herrera to fly out easily to Becker to strand the whole bunch of them. Toohey would mash a 2-run homer in the eighth inning, but that merely made up for the arson damage committed by a just-as-bad Aaron Hickey in the bottom 7th.

Then the actual toying with heartstrings started again. Manny singled. Gonzalez was nicked. Gurney whacked a 2-run double. Suddenly the Coons were only three back, but Mercado also made a poor third out. Then, a Herrera triple to open the ninth, own 9-6 against righty Steven Wilson. Of course no actual rally took place. Maldonado hit a sac fly, which didn’t help, and neither Toohey nor Waters reached base. 9-7 Canadiens. Herrera 2-5, 3B, 2B; Maldonado 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Toohey 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Gurney 1-2, 2 RBI;

What’s up with the ******* defense? The damn Elks had 16 hits, and it was the third 11+ hits game this week for the opposition, not even counting all the ******* errors.

Game 3
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Pellicano – C Gonzalez – SS Martell – 2B Carreno – P Person
VAN: RF van der Zanden – 2B O. Aguirre – CF Outram – 3B Malkus – SS Price – C T. Phillips – LF F. Rojas – 1B K. Saito – P de Anda

Person was behind … everybody. He walked van der Zanden and Outram in the first inning before Malkus and Price popped out, hten also walked Felix Rojas in the second, but Rojas was caught stealing. Saito singled, a rare case of somebody actually putting the ball in play against Person, who actually struck out nobody the first time through against the three walks. Carreno was also caught stealing in the top 3rd after hitting a single, and the Raccoons were just pathetic, exemplified by Armando Herrera, who twice came after Baskins, who hit a single, in his first two at-bats, and twice hit into a double play.

It was zilch-all until the fifth inning, where the damn Elks put Rojas on with a single, Saito with a walk, and after de Anda bunted them onwards, van der Zanden had a poor groundout to Toohey, keeping the runners in scoring position for Aguirre. Of course, then it still had to go all wrong. Aguirre singled cleanly to right to score both runners, and when Outram grounded to first, Toohey then fired the ball away for a 2-base error to put runners back in scoring position. Person had Malkus at 1-2, but he just get ANY ******* STRIKEOUT. Instead Malkus singled up the middle, two unearned runs scored, and the Raccoons were down 4-0 and done once more. Chuck Jones replaced the regrettable person on the mound, but allowed another run on a sharp Price single, and failed his way to another run on his bloated ledger in the sixth. At this point, neither Honeypaws nor booze was any relief, and I was stuffing myself with fudge instead. The Raccoons didn’t score until down to their last out, having the bases loaded after already leaving them loaded in the eighth. Matt Waters plated a run, perhaps unwittingly, on his groundout to first base, and Derek Baskins hit a 2-run double after that. Of course, they still didn’t amount to something crazy like a win. 6-3 Canadiens. Baskins 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Mercado (PH) 1-1; Morales (PH) 1-1;

Maud, I will need the good rope after the Sunday game. – For, uh, decorating. – Yeah, and my next try will be even nicer!

There was no Sunday game. The Raccoons and the ******* *********** Elks waited out endless rain for five hours before the game was cancelled and postponed til later on in the year.

In other news

April 10 – Indians SP Bill Nichol (2-0, 1.13 ERA) 1-hits the Thunder with six strikeouts in a 4-0 shutout. Thunder OF Angelo Zurita (.276, 0 HR, 2 RBI) hits a double to begin the game after which the Oklahoma bats fall entirely silent.
April 12 – SFB OF/1B Alex Marquez (.375, 1 HR, 8 RBI) would miss a month at least with a broken rib.
April 13 – BOS 2B/3B Tony Batista (.129, 1 HR, 7 RBI) has six RBI in a 13-2 rout of the Indians, four of them coming on a fourth-inning grand slam, his only base hit in the game.
April 13 – The Warriors would be without RF Matt Diskin (.385, 1 HR, 6 RBI) for six weeks or more; the 24-year-old was out with a sprained thumb.
April 15 – OCT SP Ignacio del Rio (2-0, 0.36 ERA) flips a 3-hit shutout against the Bayhawks.

FL Player of the Week: LAP 3B/SS David Reid (.423, 5 HR, 16 RBI), swatting .423 (11-26) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA RF/CF Mike Roberts (.347, 3 HR, 8 RBI), batting .423 (11-26) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Sunday’s postponement was all that kept the Raccoons from dropping into sole possession of last place after playing a 1-5 round against two last-place teams. Nothing is working. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They are gross to watch. An abhorrence. Hardly palatable. I barely ate six pounds of fudge, and I am sick to my stomach because of them!

Monday is another day off for licking wounds and trying to collect insurance on the main culprits … (tugs on flimsy string that holds up an anvil over the door to Maud’s room) … and then we’ll start a 2-week homestand against the Crusaders and Falcons, then later on the Thunder and Loggers.

Pitching is ****, defense is ****, hitting is ****.

Everything is ****.

Fun Fact: 36-year-old Ignacio del Rio leads the league with an 0.36 ERA.

Cristiano, why don’t you just … I’ll tie a knot into your snout!

Del Rio, in his 16th season, was a Raccoon so far back it’s barely even true anymore. He was supposed to bring greatness to the team in tandem with Bernie Chavez and Raffaello Sabre, primarily. While Sabre was the best pitcher of the three early on, he is also the first to retire, hanging up the cleats this winter after not getting a major league gig the prior two seasons. Most of his 119-120 career with a 3.86 ERA was spent with Portland and certainly all the good parts.

Of the three, that all debuted fairly young around the 2031 season, del Rio was also the most difficult character and was disposed of before the team even reached the first of their two playoff appearances that decade in 2035. He was turned into Josh Livingston, setting off a chain of trades that brought the Raccoons, in order (not mentioning all players in the deals), Bryce Sparkes, Quadir Randle, Josh Brown, and finally the three-pack of Preston Porter (in the pen right now) and Justin Waltz and Generos de Leon, the latter two being eventually repackaged with another minor leaguer for Bryce Toohey.

From the Sparkes trade, another line branches off via Francisco Pena, Damon DeOrio, and Wyatt Hamill, who was finally traded for Gene Pellicano and Bob Ibold in ’42.

So not everything about del Rio was a waste of time and effort! We got, around three corners, quite a few current Raccoons for him, and not even the current worst offenders!

Westheim · 11-26-2021, 10:57 AM

Raccoons (5-7) vs. Crusaders (5-7) – April 17-19, 2046

After a week of getting pushed and shoved around and stepped on the tails and robbed of some stripes, the Raccoons returned home, licked their wounds, and waited for the Crusaders to show up on Tuesday. They were not scoring runs, second from the bottom in the league, but at least they weren’t routinely exploding with their pitching either, sitting sixth in runs allowed with a -7 run differential (Coons: +3). They had beaten us in the season series last year, 10-8, but at least we had taken the division ahead of them. Right now, we were both tied for fourth, three games behind the Loggers (the Indians had fallen out of the 3-way tie from week’s end on Monday, losing to the damn Elks).

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (0-1, 1.38 ERA) vs. Paul Paris (0-1, 5.00 ERA)
Victor Merino (1-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Carlos Malla (0-2, 7.36 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (1-2, 5.68 ERA) vs. Garrett Sutherland (0-0, 4.26 ERA)

Malla was the only southpaw on offer. They also already had quite a few injuries with Matt Peterson, Alex Adame, and Randolph Nash on the DL, and Dan Schneller being day-to-day, probably with old man pains. The Coons skipped Okuda after two days off and two horrendous starts to open his season.

Game 1
NYC: 3B Riario – C Alba – 2B Briones – 1B D. Hernandez – CF Rogers – LF Rico – RF Foss – SS Gates – P Paris
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Carreno – P Jackson

Fernando Alba doubled, Mario Briones singled, and the Raccoons trailed again in the first inning. Before long, Jake Jackson was written up for going to two strikes on everybody, and putting nobody away, which, along with other things that made me stark raving mad, led to two more (unearned) runs in the third inning as the Crusaders kept clipping away for singles, starting with pitcher Paul Paris in that inning, and when the Raccoons got a potential 6-4-3 inning-ender served up, Waters tossed that past Carreno for an error instead. Then a Dave Hernandez sac fly and Phil Rogers’ RBI double grew the gap to 3-0. A Maldonado home run to left briefly shortened the score in the bottom 3rd, but Prince Gates singled, stole second, and scored on another Paris single in the top 4th to get the Crusaders up to three runs out again.

Bottom 4th, Waters opened with a single to right, stole second, and was singled home by Tony Morales, 4-2. Carreno’s grounder escaped between the converging Briones and Hernandez for another single, and Jackson bunted the runners into scoring position for Baskins and with one out. Both Baskins and Herrera, though, popped out on the infield, and the chance was pissed away again. Instead, the Crusaders put a 3-spot on Jackson in the fifth. A single, a Manny Fernandez error, finally a 2-out, 2-run triple by Danny Rico. Then Chuck Jones appeared, and plated Rico with a wild pitch. Jones faced three more batters to begin the sixth inning – all reached base. Paul Paris slugged a double, Vittorio Riario reached on an infield single, and Fernando Alba clubbed an RBI single to right. It didn’t look like it back then, but that was the final run in the game, as the Crusades decided to save the rest of the bushel for Wednesday, while the Raccoons looked entirely discordant with reality, but still managed to strand six base runners in the last four innings. 9-2 Crusaders. Pellicano (PH) 1-1; Maldonado 2-5, HR, RBI; Morales 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Carreno 2-4; Ibold 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Six losses in a row, and the first bomb went off on Tuesday night. With a 20.25 ERA from seven appearances, a 4.50 WHIP, a scouting report that promised more to come, and not even a single ******* strikeout to his credit, the Raccoons front office called in Chuck Jones, their impregnable lefty for six years, from the locker room after the game and told him to fly to St. Petersburg. He had already been put on waivers.

There was no useful left-hander in AAA right now, so Sean Marucci was added to the roster.

Game 2
NYC: 3B Riario – C J. Ortiz – 2B Briones – 1B D. Hernandez – RF Willie Ojeda – CF Rico – LF J. Simmons – SS Gates – P Malla
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – RF Pellicano – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Merino

Waters hit a double in the bottom 2nd and scored on a Pellicano single, giving the Raccoons the rarest of treasures, a 1-0 lead. The Coons would also have two on with one out in the bottom 2nd, which Carreno solved with a double play grounder, and two in scoring position after Herrera and Maldonado hits with two outs in the bottom 3rd, but Toohey then struck out. The Crusaders, who had lost Phil Rogers to an injury in the ninth inning on Tuesday, saw Briones go down to a knee injury trying to field a ball in the third on Wednesday, but somehow kept finding new bodies, with Sean Calais to fill in at the keystone in this contest. He promptly singled his first time up, stole second, and was at third base in that fourth inning, with two outs and a 2-2 count on Hernandez. Merino unraveled from there, plating the tying run with a wild pitch before walking Hernandez, filled the bags with an Ojeda single and a walk to Danny Rico, and conceded the go-ahead run against Justin Simmons. Somehow, anyhow, Toohey picked a grounder for the third out after that, but FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

Yelling made no difference. Merino melted down for good in the fifth, loading the bases with a single and two walks, then walked in a run against Ojeda. Rico hit an RBI single. Simmons struck out, the first K for Merino in this ******* *** **** start. Gates flew out to Herrera, concluding five decrepit innings once more. Marucci was in the game by the sixth, allowed a leadoff single to the ******* opposing pitcher, which was something I was getting really tired of seeing, then somehow weaseled around that without giving up another run. The Coons, down 4-1, put the tying runs on base with one out in their half of the sixth, with hits by Herrera and Toohey, plus Waters walking. Pellicano and Gonzalez both popped out to the ******* Crusaders catcher. A Hernandez homer off Marucci made it 5-1 in the seventh, while the Raccoons arrived at the same unhappy place in the eighth inning, except that the tying run, Pellicano was now at the plate with one out, and with Herrera, Toohey, and Waters on base. However – Malla was gone. Righty John Steuer had put Waters aboard after Julian Ponce had walked the first two runners. Manny Fernandez and Pat Gurney had already been used, but Nelson Mercado was there to hit for Pellicano. He struck out. Tony Morales batted for Gonzalez and hit an RBI single up the middle, which was at least something else than utter and complete failure. Then Carreno bounced out to short, stranding the tying runs. Aaron Hickey pitched two scoreless at the end of regulation here, then was hit for to begin the bottom 9th by the last Coon on the bench, Al Martell, who singled off lefty Mike Lynn. From here, they had to go in order. Baskins struck out. Herrera hit into a fielder’s choice. Lynn walked Maldonado, so Toohey came up as the tying run with two outs. He grounded out to Gates. 5-2 Crusaders. Waters 2-3, BB, 2B; Pellicano 2-3, RBI; Morales (PH) 1-1, RBI; Martell (PH) 1-1; Hickey 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Seven losses in a row.

Game 3
NYC: 3B Riario – C Alba – 2B Schneller – 1B D. Hernandez – RF Willie Ojeda – LF Garris – CF Rico – SS Gates – P Sutherland
POR: 1B Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – LF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wheatley

Wheatley had gotten it into the snout the last time out, which was not any way to distinguish our starters right now, but at least allowed only one hit the first time through, and no runs. He also didn’t get anybody out on strikes, and the defense did most of the work. No Raccoon even reached base in the first three innings against Sutherland. Dan Schneller became the first K for Wheatley in the fourth, which was an unusual sight, but the future Hall of Fame candidate appeared as much over the hill as Chuck Jones at this point. Armando Herrera had the first Coons hit in the same inning, singling to left, then stole second base. When Maldo singled to center, Danny Rico was trapped between playing it safe and being a hero, and instead only nabbed a Silly Fool ribbon for his uniform, falling over the bouncing ball for an RBI single and an error.

The Coons declined the invitation to tack on after the error, but did get some more in the fifth. Armando Herrera doubled off the fence with Martell and Gurney in scoring position, cashing them both with a double, 3-0. Sutherland hit Maldonado, but Toohey grounded out to Gates at short, completing five frames. Wheats meanwhile maintained a wonky shutout, but at least got better in the middle innings and made some good pitches rather than good defense behind him work. Bottom 6th then, the Coons had their 5-6-7 on base with nobody out against Sutherland. Martell hit a sac fly, and Wheats hit into a double play… The scene repeated in the bottom 7th, with the 1-2-3 now reaching in order on a single and two walks. Sutherland was only yanked after walking in a run against Toohey on four pitches, with additional runs scoring on lefty Jordan Calderon’s walk to Manny, a Waters sac fly, and – after Morales walked – a Schneller error on Martell’s grounder. Wheats struck out, Gurney popped out, so nobody got a hit with a runner in scoring position in that inning, but we still scored four runs. While the Coons reached double digits when Waters doubled home Mercado and Manny against Lazaro Ochoa in the bottom 8th, Wheats was still going in the late innings, and tried to nip a shutout…! He entered the ninth on 92 pitches, facing the 3-4-5 hitters. He struck out Schneller as well as Hernandez, then handled a comebacker by Ojeda to finish the game. 10-0 Raccoons. Herrera 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Waters 2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Wheatley 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-2);

Fourth career shutout for Wheatley, and just when we needed it the most!

Raccoons (6-9) vs. Falcons (10-6) – April 20-22, 2046

The Falcons had opened the year in first place and were scoring the most runs in the league (6.3 per game!), but were also bleeding runs at an accelerated rate, ninth in runs allowed overall. The +31 run differential was impressive for week 3, though. Besides, a prolific offense is not what our staff can cope with right now… We won the season series last year, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Person (1-1, 3.94 ERA) vs. Oscar Flores (0-1, 4.05 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (0-2, 7.94 ERA) vs. Adam Messer (2-1, 3.57 ERA)
Jake Jackson (0-2, 3.57 ERA) vs. Justin Kaiser (3-0, 2.76 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday! Perfect timing for a team with only one lefty in the rotation.

Charlotte had a few injuries, too, with Ed Haertling on the DL, Chris Kokoszka in limbo, and Tony Aparicio day-to-day and uncertain at least for the opener.

Game 1
CHA: 2B M. Martinez – 3B E. Sandoval – LF Besaw – SS Aparicio – RF Turley – 1B Allegood – C N. Evans – CF Marroguin – P O. Flores
POR: 1B Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – LF Toohey – SS Waters – RF Mercado – 2B Martell – C Gonzalez – P Person

Person entered with 14 walks in 16 innings, pitched behind to virtually everybody, but somehow didn’t allow early runs despite scattering three singles and a walk to the other team’s pitcher in the first three innings. He didn’t get a K until he whiffed Nate Evans to end the fourth, while the Raccoons followed the basic premise of “do less, get less” offensively, behind held to a sad single until Flores slipped a bit and issued consecutive walks to Maldo and Toohey with one out in the bottom 4th. Matt Waters had no patience and singled to right on the first pitch, but Maldo hadn’t been ready for that and had to hold at third base. Nelson Mercado struck out in a full count, while Al Martell was ahead 3-1, then grounded out to Miguel Martinez.

The Coons arrived in a pinch in the bottom 6th of the still scoreless game, when with two outs Mercado and Martell singled and Flores followed that up with a nailer into Ruben Gonzalez. Person was obviously next. We weren’t keen on lifting him after six, but he was also a prototypically hitting pitcher and we kinda needed the runs. Manny Fernandez batted for him, got hit by Flores, and that pushed the game’s first run across. WHATEVER WORKS! (clonks bottle of booze on the table) Gurney struck out, stranding a full set, with Zack Kelly getting two outs to begin the seventh before walking Jordan Marroguin. With righty Sean Watson out to bat for Flores, Nelson Moreno came on and got an easy groundout to reach stretch time. Then the baseball gods had another chuckle; for the eighth, the Falcons put the tying runs on the corners in form of Miguel Martinez and Joe Besaw, both of which reached by infield singles…! Whyyyy. However, the baseball gods also hated the Falcons, or loved to toy with them, too, or whatever – Tony Aparicio, somewhat lame-legged, spanked a 1-1 pitch back to Moreno for a perfect 1-6-3 double play, and the inning ended, Portland still up by a skinny run. They added a second one off Steve McKeny in the bottom 8th, with Martell reaching, stealing second, and scoring on a pinch-hit single by Derek Baskins in the #9 hole. And with that, it came: a save opportunity for Josh Rella…! We had waited a while for that! In fact, Rella was so bored (having tossed a meaningless inning on Tuesday most recently) that he appeared on the mound with his shirt on backwards, having been scrambled from the ballpark’s tanning booth. Archie Turley, Mike Allegood, and Nate Evans went down in order. 2-0 Critters. Gurney 3-5; Waters 2-4; Martell 2-4; Baskins (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Falcons got more bad news than one shutout by Saturday, finding out that catcher Chris Kokoszka (.396, 0 HR, 8 RBI) was out for the year with a torn posterior cruciate ligament.

Game 2
CHA: 2B M. Martinez – 3B Watanabe – LF BEsaw – SS Aparicio – RF Turley – 1B Allegood – C Herbert – CF Marroquin – P Messer
POR: 1B Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – C Morales – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – RF Mercado – 2B Martell – P Okuda

The weather was iffy, and so seemed Okuda, giving up a double to Miguel Martinez to begin the game. The often-injured phenom strained an intercostal (whatever the heck that was) on the play and had to leave the game and head for the DL right away. Esteban Sandoval took over for him. Sandoval scored on Shintaro Watanabe’s single, and the Falcons landed three straight hits before finally striking out 1-2-3. Okuda struck out Omar Marroquin (MarroQuin – not related to Jordan MarroGuin!), then walked Messer (!!), and then allowed four straight hits for another two singles. I laughed nervously, but failed to self-suffocate with a pillow.

Rain then held Okuda to four ****** innings before Hickey allowed two more runs on four hits in the sixth as the game gradually swam away from the Raccoons once more, who at the midway point were down 5-0 in runs and 11-2 in hits. No, once again the Raccoons had to settle for the highlight of the game being scoreless long relief by some bullpen bum, in this case Sean Marucci, who pitched three hitless innings, heroically, and pointlessly. The team never rallied; in fact, they never even got a third base hit. 5-0 Falcons. Herrera 2-3; Marucci 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Game 3
CHA: 1B Allegood – 2B E. Sandoval – LF Besaw – SS Aparicio – RF Turley – CF Marroguin – 3B Watanabe – C Herbert – P Kaiser
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Jackson

Manny Fernandez flew out to Archie Turley in deep right to end the bottom 1st, stranding Maldonado, Toohey, and Waters, then hit another deep fly to left in the bottom 3rd with Herrera and Waters on base and two outs, and was denied again, now by Joe Besaw. Agony. Jake Jackson pitched four no-hit innings to begin the game, but had to draw first blood himself, plating Ruben Gonzalez with a grounder to right to get the first run on the board after Gonzalez singled, advanced on a wild pitch and Carreno’s grounder, and while I had little hope or confidence. Jackson added a fifth no-hit inning before the Falcons once more got all their hits at once, although the downfall started with a Maldonado error (already sounds familiar) and a walk to Allegood. After that the Falcons broke down the ballpark with three fat base hits, with Sandoval flipping the score already with a 2-run double. Besaw singled him home, and a fourth run would score on Turley’s single.

The Raccoons, down 4-1, stood, watched, and admired, while I marked an L into the pocket schedule already. And that is what we deserved, but there was another twist up the baseball god’s game plan. The bottom 7th should have ended after a Derek Baskins single with two outs, when Herrera grounded out to Aparicio – but Aparicio fumbled the ball for an error. Maldonado was next. Facing right-hander Kyle Conner, he fell 0-2 behind, then cranked a 395-footer to right-center to tie the game at once. After Moreno had a scoreless eighth then, Herrera held the game together for Rella in the ninth. Jordan Marroguin (not: Marroquin) hit a bloop single with one out, then stole second. When Watanabe hit a sharper single to center, Marroguin was sent around with the go-ahead run, but was thrown out by Herrera, and Herrera then also caught a Nate Evans liner to end the inning, giving Portland a chance to walk off in regulation. Carreno grounded out against McKeny, but Mercado singled in the #9 hole. Rella was hit for by Pat Gurney in the #1 spot, but Mercado stole second base on the first pitch by McKeny, who struck out Gurney eventually. Herrera was not done with making the $4.7M all worth it, though – batting with two outs he waited til 2-2 for his pitch, then singled to right-center. Mercado ran on contact and scored, walking off the Critters. 5-4 Raccoons! Baskins (PH) 1-1; Herrera 2-4, BB, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

In other news

April 16 – A 3-hit shutout by TOP SP Carlos Vasquez (1-1, 4.35 ERA) defeats the Capitals, 9-0.
April 20 – The Gold Sox beat the Cyclones, 6-3 in 17 innings, but the more impressive individual hitting results are found on the losing team. Cincy’s Chris Strohm (.409, 1 HR, 10 RBI) hits 5-for-8, while teammate Alvin Zuazo (.274, 2 HR, 12 RBI) drives in all Cincy runs on three hits.
April 20 – IND OF/1B Bill Quinteros (.283, 1 HR, 11 RBI) will miss two weeks with a finger sprain.
April 22 – Blue Sox OF/1B Mike Harmon (.257, 2 HR, 8 RBI) could miss a month with an elbow sprain.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF/1B Omar Gonzalez (.395, 0 HR, 9 RBI), batting .522 (12-23) with 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Jerry Outram (.387, 2 HR, 10 RBI), smashing .524 (11-21) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Chuck Jones cleared waivers and accepted his assignment to AAA on Friday, which is how you know they smelled it too. We are in the market for a new lefty reliever now, though.

As well as for a few starters, and some offense, and defense, and at this rate I will also chew off my claws and need something else to scratch the doorframe with.

Thunder and Loggers next week, although we have no trouble to look bad against anybody.

Fun Fact: The only ABL player from Luxembourg was Portland’s own Johan Dolder.

The right-handed outfielder was truly nothing special compared to the rest of the league. He was an Original Raccoon that hit .203/.270/.275 for his career, with four home runs (all in 1977) and 41 RBI. The Original Raccoons were so bad, this defensively unremarkable Luxembourger managed to get 448 plate appearances while hitting .209/.275/.284 that year. There was a reason why we were the dullest bulb in the chandelier in the league’s early years.

Dolder was wrapped up in a garbage trade with the Crusaders in January 1980. He made only one more major league appearance with them in 1981, then disappeared into obscurity. The Raccoons got various other disappointments in that trade, including Pedro Hermundo and Jayson Bowling. The latter was on the roster all through 1984, thus being part of a pennant winner in 1983 (although he hit just as little as Dolder), then was flipped for three prospects, none of whom reached the majors. Hermundo at least was wrapped up in a deal for Jack Pennington, who was flicked at the 1981 deadline for dead-ended Mark Dawson from Topeka, who broke out in Portland and won a home run title the following year, and played for the Coons for a decade.

So Johan Dolder was not entirely bad – he gave the Raccoons a true slugger, around six corners or so.

This concludes the set on only-one-from-X players. There is currently no professional minor leaguer that would join the set any time soon.

Westheim · 11-28-2021, 05:04 AM

Raccoons (8-10) vs. Thunder (8-10) – April 23-25, 2046

To put it mildly, neither of those two CLCS contenders from last year had gotten the start to the new season they had expected. While the Raccoons were mostly wholesale crummy, the Thunder couldn’t score a damn, sitting second from the bottom in board markers. They had also allowed the second-fewest runs, and had a 1.41 bullpen ERA for standouts, but in the end they were hugging an even run differential (-2), same as the Critters (+1), and both were under .500 as April was about to close out. Last year we had beaten them 9-6, 4-2 of those in the CLCS.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-1, 3.50 ERA) vs. Michael Donovan (0-2, 4.34 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. Ray Thune (0-1, 6.60 ERA)
Ryan Person (2-1, 2.86 ERA) vs. Juan Ramos (2-1, 2.81 ERA)

Donovan was the only southpaw for this series we’d come up against, with Victor Marquez (1-2, 5.04 ERA) having gone on Sunday for them.

Game 1
OCT: LF Zurita – 2B Ban – C Adames – RF Benavides – SS R. Cox – 3B Greer – CF DeMarco – 1B Levis – P M. Donovan
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Merino

Straight doubles by Ryan Cox, Marshall Greer, and Nick DeMarco to all directions on the field gave the Thunder a 2-0 lead to begin the second inning, while I kept wondering how it could continue to be going so very wrong. Both teams had four hits through three innings, but of course the Raccoons were not very smart about it once more and didn’t score. The closest they came were singles to put Pellicano and Maldonado on the corners with two outs in the bottom 3rd, but then Bryce Toohey fouled out to ex-Coon Doug Levis. Derek Baskins and Ruben Gonzalez hit 1-out singles the following inning, but were stranded by Carreno and Merino…

Merino grinded it out for seven innings and 109 pitches, allowing only three hits after the triple-double disaster, but that was enough to keep him up on the hook rather than on the score. He was pinch-hit for with Manny Fernandez in the bottom 7th after Carreno had opened the inning with a single to center against Jesse Allison. Manny grounded out, so did Pellicano. Herrera hit a single a step in front of Juan Benavides, the former Pacifics standout, and Carreno had to hold on third base. The tying runs were on the corners for Jesus Maldonado – and down 2-2, he found the hole between Cox and Jonathan Ban, knocking an RBI single to center. Bryce Toohey had hit the ball hard twice already, but had an 0-for-3 to show off. It got better now – blasting the first pitch by Allison to dead-center for a no-doubt homer, and giving Merino a posthumous 4-2 lead.

It didn’t last, because a parade of relievers retired next to nobody in the eighth inning. Nelson Moreno and Zack Kelly both put on a guy, Jesus Adames and Cox, respectively, then left Preston Porter to brave it out against a barrage of left-handed pinch-hitters, which would have worked better with a second lefty in the pen, maybe, or if the colossal ******* *********** ******* in the field didn’t make not one, but TWO errors behind Porter; Baskins overran a ball, Carreno threw one into Toohey’s hindpaws, neither play was made, and the Thunder tied the game before ex-Coon Jose Zarate flew out to Baskins to strand Brad Simon and another ex-Coon in Mal Phinazee on the corners in a 4-4 game. The abject misery was hard to describe. Carreno hit another leadoff single in the bottom 8th, but was ultimately stranded at third base. In the top of the ninth, Josh Rella delighted himself with getting two outs before walking Adames, Benavides, and Cox in order. I was barely containing myself from screaming obscenities with a lady present, which Maud appreciated not half as much as I appreciated how Ethan Moore hacked himself out to strand all the runners in the 4-4 tie. When the Raccoons couldn’t win the game in the ninth, they lost it in the tenth at frightening speed. Sean Marucci faced eight batters and retired one of them. When Hickey replaced him, it only got worse. The Coons scored two in the bottom 10th, not that I cared anymore… 11-6 Thunder. Herrera 2-4, BB, RBI; Maldonado 2-5, 2 RBI; Baskins 2-5; Gonzalez 2-5; Merino 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K;

Eight walks by relievers in three innings.

I have rarely ever seen the baseball gods this vicious.

Game 2
OCT: CF Tortora – 2B Ban – RF Benavides – C Adames – SS R. Cox – 3B Greer – LF E. Moore – 1B Levis – P Thune
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – R Fernandez – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wheatley

After Baskins grounded out, two singles and a walk filled the bags with Critters in the first inning on Tuesday night. Ball four to Matt Waters pushed home the game’s first run before Fernandez popped out and Morales struck out to strand three runners. The Thunder came back at once, with a leadoff jack – truly crushed – by Adames to tie it, and then Marshall Greer’s RBI double exploiting the walk Wheatley had issued to Cox to take a 2-1 lead. That became 3-1 in the fourth on a Cox double and a Greer single, and to be honest, last year’s Pitcher of the Year looked just like any other old tosser we were dropping on the mound this season…

He *did* open the bottom 5th with a single to left, though, which Derek Baskins quickly followed up on, so maybe we could at least get some pitcher-induced offense going here? Herrera popped out, but Maldonado singled to center, however the nature of Wheats’ slow hindpaws, aggravated by the face that he had gotten the face of a bacon ad over the winter, meant he had to slow down and park it at third base. Bags full for Toohey, who chopped a 3-1 pitch to the left side to cause me more agony. I howled, but somehow the ball made it through between Cox and Greer, and tied the score becoming a 2-run single…! The remaining runners were left on, however. But Wheats held the line through seven innings, allowing only the four hits that mostly caused the accumulated damage, then got his pointy black nose in the lead when Thune served up a leadoff homer to Maldo in the bottom 7th. Toohey doubled to right to send home the starter, but the tack-on run remained stranded against the bottom of the order and some stingy relief.

Wheats was back on it in the eighth, facing three more batters, of which Cullen Tortora hit a 1-out single. Wheats went out with a K to Jonathan Ban, then yielded for Zack Kelly against Benavides. Our sole surviving southpaw struck out the genuine threat, and the 4-3 lead lived into the next inning. Rella retired the Thunder in order, squeezing a W into the books after all. 4-3 Critters. Baskins 4-5; Herrera 2-5; Maldonado 3-5, HR, RBI; Toohey 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Wheatley 7.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (3-2) and 1-3;

Now we only have to figure out how to have Wheats start every game and we’re good.

Game 3
OCT: LF Zurita – 2B Ban – RF Benavides – C Adames – SS R. Cox – 3B Greer – CF Tortora – 1B Levis – P J. Ramos
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C Morales – RF Mercado – 2B Carreno – P Person

Still waiting on the first non-**** start by Ryan Person, the Raccoons were sorely disappointed on Wednesday. While he didn’t allow a run and didn’t walk everything with legs, including chairs and tables, Person needed 50 pitches to get through even three innings, running a myriad of long counts, walking one and whiffing four against one base hit. Nobody scored early, with the Coons bringing up the minimum against Ramos, who allowed a walk to Baskins, who was forced out by Herrera, who was caught stealing in the bottom 1st.

Then came the fourth. Person led off with a walk to Benavides, which was not so great. Adames grounded out, and Cox hit a single, putting runners on the corners. Greer inched out another walk, and with that Dr. Padilla was all over Person all of a sudden. After deliberation on the mound, he removed him from the game. I had a mild stroke. I missed Tortora plating the game’s first run with a groundout against Bob Ibold, who along with Hickey held the game close in the middle innings. Carreno opened the bottom 6th with a single to center, our first actual base hit in the horrendous, no-good game. Manny was batting ninth, entering the game in a double switch with Hickey the inning prior, but flew out to Zurita, and Carreno in fact wasn’t moved off first base the entire inning, and Ramos kept them off base except for a Tony Morales double in the eighth that also led absolutely nowhere. Preston Porter allowed a run on three hits in the ninth inning, doubling the gap the Coons had to make up. Right-hander Alan Fleming had the ball in the bottom 9th and got taken deep by Manny Fernandez, which would have tied the game without Porter’s gaffe, but now the Coons were still a run short. That was also where they remained, with only Herrera singling with one gone, and then getting forced out by Maldonado. Toohey popped out. 2-1 Thunder. Hickey 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Intense agony.

Also, pretty close to last place now.

Dr. Padilla reported that Ryan Person had suffered a forearm strain and that a DL stint was required. He *might* be fair to go in the second half of May. Or maybe not.

I was told everything was gonna be fine, and after clamoring “WHY WHY WHY” for three hours and being fed some sugar cookies, I went over replacement options with Cristiano Carmona. The schedule demanded a replacement by the following Tuesday. One option was Hickey, who was doing fundamentally alright, but while the 40-man crew in AAA was mostly ho-hum, including Jeremy Chaney and Tony Negrete, there was one guy doing fairly well with a 2.05 ERA and 22 K in 22 innings. 23-year-old lefty Bubba Wolinsky would get his first call-up, five years after being taken #12 in the 2041 draft!

There was no point in putting him on the roster already, though; the Raccoons would set him aside from pitching in AAA (his next turn would have been Saturday), and bring up left-hander Steven Johnston for the weekend set against the Loggers to help out the pen. Johnston had been through meager cups of coffee in 2043 and 2044 and had already been outrighted off the 40-man roster a while ago, but we were kinda needy and other pickings in AAA were slim as far as lefty relief was concerned. Chuck Jones? The climate change had not changed his pitching success in 2046, to put it mildly.

Raccoons (9-12) vs. Loggers (13-8) – April 27-29, 2046

The Loggers led the division – the Loggers! – while sitting fifth in runs scored and third in runs allowed with a modest +10 run differential. They had also beaten the Coons two out of three at the start of the year, and I didn’t see yet why that wouldn’t continue to be a thing…

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (0-3, 7.63 ERA) vs. Marvin Verduzco (1-1, 3.46 ERA)
Jake Jackson (0-2, 3.28 ERA) vs. Victor Padilla (3-1, 4.50 ERA)
Victor Merino (1-1, 3.24 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (5-0, 1.06 ERA)

We’d get two left-handed opposing pitchers in the set, and none of them on Sunday? Loggers, we need to talk about timing…!

With the Raccoons having put Person on the DL, the Loggers also had starter Jose de Luco there (possibly for the season with Tommy John surgery not having gone that well), as well as catcher Ricky Payne and righty Aaron Howell.

Game 1
MIL: CF B. Allen – 2B Davison – RF Hertenstein – SS R. Espinoza – LF Brayboy – 1B Edsell – C R. Rodriguez – 3B R. Johnston – P Verduzco
POR: RF Pellicano – CF A. Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Okuda

Okuda retired the first five, then put four straight on base, as things had been going all year long so far. Ryan Johnston singled home Kyle Edsell in the event, which consisted of two hits and two walks, including a free pass with two outs to the opposing pitcher. That sequence was not the only issue – throughout his appearance, Okuda got into an endless procession of long counts, exploding his pitch count to the tune of 85 pitches in four innings while trailing “only” 1-0. He trailed while the Coons got Waters on base on a Loggers error to begin the bottom 2nd, but failed to do anything with that. They then got Maldonado on base on another Loggers error to begin the fourth when Ryan Johnston skipped a throw and Edsell barely kept it in play. Bryce Toohey didn’t need no second invitation, hitting a crusher to left to flip the score, half earned, half not.

Wicked became absurd the same inning when Verduzco descended into walks to Waters, Carreno, and ultimately Okuda with two outs, while rain burst over the ballpark and brought on a 45-minute rain delay in the same inning. Despite four walks in total, Verduzco had only thrown 52 pitches twice through the lineup and resumed pitching after the rain delay, with three on, two outs, and Gene Pellicano in the box. He got the K. With his earlier excursions and the rain delay on top of that, Okuda was not brought back for the fifth inning. The Raccoons went to Ibold, who pitched a scoreless fifth before Verduzco allowed a single to Herrera and a homer to Maldo in the bottom of the inning, widening the score to 4-1. Ibold added another inning, throwing 19 pitches in total for six outs. Just saying, Sadaharu-san. Just saying.

Verduzco held out until there were two outs in the bottom 6th, when Derek Baskins reached with a pinch-hit single in place of Ibold and he was taken deep a third time, now by Pellicano, 6-1. After a scoreless frame by Marucci, Steven Johnston made his first appearance in two years and retired nobody. Daniel Hertenstein took him deep to left to begin the eighth, after which he walked Ricky Espinoza and the insufferable Aaron Brayboy. Nelson Moreno replaced him, allowed a single and a run, but maneuvered the Raccoons to relative safety still up by three. He had entered in a double switch, with the #9 spot leading off the bottom 8th, to perhaps facilitate a 2-inning save should the Coons tack on in the bottom 8th, which they did. Tony Morales singled to lead off the inning, was forced out by Pellicano, but Pellicano stole second off a sleeping Miguel Herrera, then scored on Nelson Mercado’s single – Mercado had pinch-hit to get Armando Herrera off his paws when the game looked bagged one pass through the lineup earlier. Moreno retired the first two in the ninth, then gave up a double to Hertenstein. He’d pitch to Espinoza, while it was Zack Kelly, who got ready for Brayboy, the lefty terror. He never entered the game – Espinoza went down on strikes. 7-3 Raccoons. Mercado (PH) 1-1, BB, RBI; Maldonado 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Baskins (PH) 1-1; Morales 1-1; Ibold 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-0); Moreno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

Game 2
MIL: CF B. Allen – 3B B. Johnson – RF Hertenstein – SS R. Espinoza – 1B Brayboy – LF Reeves – C R. Rodriguez – 2B Davison – P V. Padilla
POR: RF Pellicano – CF A. Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Jackson

Rodriguez, Davison, and Brent Allen all hit singles off Jackson in the third inning, all to left, leading to the game’s first two runs. The Coons amounted to precious little the first time through, but reached the board when Waters doubled home Herrera with two outs in the bottom 4th after the big guns in between had both fanned. Baskins flew out to Allen in deep center, stranding the tying run in scoring position, where it arrived again pretty fast in the bottom 5th with a walk to Ruben Gonzalez, then a balk being charged on Padilla. Nevertheless, three poor outs in a row stranded the tying run again, this time on third base.

Padilla left with an injury after strangling the Raccoons for six innings, while Jackson held out even beyond that, hoping to scratch out a win in April in his last chance to do so, but Ron Purcell retired the Raccoons’ 6-7-8 in 1-2-3 fashion in the bottom 7th. Jackson allowed a single to Edsell in the #9 hole in the eighth, but finished the inning, then was pinch-hit for as the Raccoons won back the right to poke. Pellicano would hit a single in the inning, then was stranded in scoring position when Herrera grounded out and Maldonado whiffed. The game then got away for good from Preston Porter, giving up a 2-run homer to ******* Aaron Brayboy in the ninth inning… 4-1 Loggers. Herrera 2-4; Toohey 2-4; Jackson 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, L (0-3);

Interlude: waiver claim

Signs of despair: your team makes a waiver claim on April 29. The Raccoons added a lefty reliever in Todd Lush (1-0, 2.70 ERA) this way, who had been tried to be snuck through waivers by the Titans. The Coons, having just seen Steven Johnston, that bum, almost explode a 5-run lead, had none of that. They added the 10-year veteran swingman, who was on a $710k deal and sent Johnston back onto waivers instead.

Raccoons (9-12) vs. Loggers (13-8) – April 27-29, 2046

Game 3
MIL: C R. Rodriguez – 2B Davison – RF Hertenstein – SS R. Espinoza – LF Brayboy – 1B Edsell – CF Reeves – 3B R. Johnston – P Piedra
POR: LF Baskins – CF A. Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – RF Fernandez – SS Martell – 2B Carreno – P Merino

The rubber game was against the near-impenetrable Sergio Piedra, off to a fabulous start, and I wasn’t quite sure how we planned to stop him from going up to 6-0. Herrera hit a single in the first, but was caught stealing, and while Merino got a decent start, he served up a leadoff double to Piedra in the third inning. Ricky Rodriguez struck out, then said something to the umpire that was enough to even get the catcher ejected without much fuss. This made a major leaguer out of David Nagel, the so far unchristened backup catcher, a tender 22 years old. An opening into Piedra? (whiskers twitch) Two grounders stranded the runner, for a start, and then the Coons took the lead in the bottom 3rd when, all with two outs, Merino singled, Baskins walked, and Herrera singled to score his own pitcher. Hertenstein threw home late, allowing the trailing runners to reach scoring position, and Maldo crammed the very next pitch into the leftfield corner for a 2-run double…! Toohey added an RBI double. It’s happening, Maud! It’s happening! (snickers)

Always remember, kids – the baseball gods don’t like snickering. They’ll turn on you in a heartbeat. Johnston homered off Merino in the fourth, and Hertenstein doubled home a run in the fifth to narrow the score down to 4-2 again. While Piedra returned to solid after an aggravated, but apparently constructive discussion with Nagel in the dugout after the third inning, the Raccoons started to drift down the Willamette again. Merino walked Edsell in the sixth, and with two outs Johnston ripped a double to center. Herrera cut it off ahead of the warning track though, and Edsell was slow as ****, and when sent around third base found himself thrown out at home by a good 25 feet, ending the inning.

On to the seventh, where the game entered the realm of the ridiculous for good. Piedra singled off Merino to begin the inning. Nagel was out on an easy fly, but the Coons then went to the pen and got Marucci. Scott Davison sent a grounder to short, but Martell and Carreno were clumsy in trying to turn two, Carreno had to step on second base again, and that was with Piedra already going into the base in steam hammer fashion. They collided, Carreno fell onto Piedra, who was ruled out, and also had to be hauled off on a stretcher, while Carreno fell soft and was no worse for wear. The Loggers, aghast, went down on a Hertenstein strikeout to reach the stretch.

Pat Gurney drove in Al Martell when he hit for Marucci in the bottom 7th, extending the scoreline against Ron Purcell, who was then also removed from the game for injury concerns. If you had trouble keeping score at home, it was now 5-2 Coons, while the Loggers had three injured pitchers and an ejected catcher, and a manager looking like his soul was trying to leave his body in the visiting dugout. Zack Kelly entered the game, giving the poor sod new life by serving up a leadoff jack to Espinoza, while Brayboy reached on a Manny Fernandez error. Oh boy. Exit Kelly, enter Porter, who got a 6-4-3 from Edsell to clean up on the bases.

With lefty Walt Wright in for Milwaukee, the Coons put three pinch-hitters aboard with one out in the bottom 8th, putting Pellicano, Gonzalez, and Waters on base for Al Martell, at which point only the also left-handed hitting Mercado was left on the bench. Martell struck out, Carreno popped out, and all the noise was for nothing again. At least Josh Rella put the Loggers away in order… 5-3 Blighters. Herrera 2-4, RBI; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1; Waters (PH) 1-1; Gurney (PH) 1-1, RBI; Merino 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-1) and 1-2;

In other news

April 23 – The Gold Sox announce the loss of OF Sandy Castillo (.271, 0 HR, 4 RBI), missing three weeks at least with a strained hamstring.
April 25 – PIT 1B Jesus Matos (.263, 0 HR, 7 RBI) has his 2,000th career hit in a 2-1 loss to the Pacifics. The 37-year-old with a .276, 176 HR, 916 RBI career lands the only Miners run of the 10-inning contest, an RBI double off LAP SP Aaron Bryant (0-1, 4.01 ERA) for the milestone hit. The 16-year veteran, who is a free agent at the end of the year, has two rings and was an All Star three times in his career.
April 25 – The Wolves collapse for 11 unanswered Capitals runs in the eighth inning on their way to a 12-5 blowout loss.
April 26 – The Stars win a rain-shortened 6-3, 6-inning game from the Buffaloes.
April 27 – The Warriors have themselves a comeback, walkoff win over the Pacifics, 4-3, on back-to-back, 2-strike home runs by Randy Wilken (2-for-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI) and Rick Urfer (.273, 2 HR, 6 RBI). Wilken’s game-tying home run comes in his major league debut. The 22-year-old was the #1 pick in 2044, and ranked as high as #3 on the prospect boards.
April 29 – Vancouver C Julio Diaz (.385, 1 HR, 14 RBI) and 2B/3B Travis Malkus (.306, 3 HR, 21 RBI) both go 4-for-5 with a homer, a double, and four RBI in an 11-3 rout of the Titans.

FL Player of the Week: CIN OF Dan Mathes (.356, 2 HR, 10 RBI), hitting .542 (13-24) with 2 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA UT Eddie Luna (.467, 2 HR, 6 RBI), breaking out bigly hitting .545 (12-22) with 2 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Yes, Cristiano, Okuda has the best strikeout rate on the team. – But he is 0-3 with a 6.52 ERA! – (aggravatedly points at the standings) Show me here where his 4.03 FIP and the .400 BABIP help us in the standings!!

Alright, we were at home for two weeks, barely played even-steven, and now we’re in last place. This is not how I envisioned pennant #3 to be built towards. We already made a waiver claim, and we’re already disenchanted with our big addition of the winter, who is by now on the DL. All that is left is hope that Dr. Padilla can stretch out that tossing paw of his…

Also, accomplished hitters like Matt Waters and Manny Fernandez and Bryce Toohey and Derek Baskins can’t hit this poorly for the entire season, can they? – Please nod, Honeypaws?

Better not to start on the defense at all.

So Bubba Wolinsky will make his debut come Tuesday, after Wheats’ regular turn. Marucci, who took most of the explosion on Monday in his face, will be returned to AAA. We’ll be in Boston for four games for the occasion (I hear Todd Lush knows his way ‘round town), and then skip by Richmond again. This can only be fun. We’ll also return home only briefly after that for one set against the Pacifics before heading back out East for another 2-week road trip after that. We only have six home games in all of May.

Fun Fact: Jake Jackson has the best FIP on the starting crew (2.91).

See, Cristiano, that’s why nobody takes you for full. Jackson is just as 0-3 as Okuda is. You can just as logically order our starters by hair color for all I care!

You like Wheats’ hazel curls? – Okay, Cristiano, now we’re talking game!

DD Martin · 11-28-2021, 06:41 PM

At least nobody is out running away and hiding. 11-13 and last place but just 3 games out and a good week away from the division lead.

Westheim · 11-29-2021, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DD Martin

At least nobody is out running away and hiding. 11-13 and last place but just 3 games out and a good week away from the division lead.

Sounds like a challenge, boys!

+++

Raccoons (11-13) @ Titans (12-11) – April 30-May 3, 2046

The Raccoons had picked up 11, 12, 13, and 14 wins from the Titans in the last four years, which was a trend I could totally remain behind for a few more seasons. The Raccoons were also borderline terrible in April, and needed something to flush their snouts of a losing month. Maybe the Titans, in Boston no less, would work. They were third in runs scored though and seventh in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (3-2, 3.79 ERA) vs. David Barel (2-3, 4.71 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (0-0) vs. Kyle Turay (1-0, 4.94 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (0-3, 6.52 ERA) vs. Hisami Furuya (3-0, 1.71 ERA)
Jake Jackson (0-3, 3.03 ERA) vs. Victor Mondragon (1-3, 7.55 ERA)

The series would open with the Pitcher of the Year facing the Rookie of the Year, who was also the only left-hander we expected to meet in the set.

Game 1
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Wheatley
BOS: LF de Luna – RF C. Jimenez – 1B V. Chavez – CF Ritchey – 3B D. Richardson – 2B T. Batista – C Youngquist – SS J. Rodriguez – P Barel

Matt Waters hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the first inning, ending it, and leading to precisely zero runs. He did better the second time round, coming up with Pellicano on second and Toohey on first and two outs in the top 3rd, and singled to right-center to tie the game at one run each, after Wheats’ hazel curls had been temporarily straightened with Joe Ritchey and Ryan Youngquist singles for a run in the bottom 2nd. The Titans went on to have Rich de Luna snag Derek Baskins’ drive to left, then loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom 3rd as Barel (…) and de Luna singled and Chris Jimenez worked out a walk against Wheatley. Victor Chavez flew out to Baskins in shallow left, Barel went home inexplicably, and was thrown out by a mile. Joe Ritchey grounded out to Maldonado, which was about $11M annually’s worth of two runners getting stranded in scoring position.

After the middle innings were an imitation of a tightly fought-over pitchers’ duel and the score on the board didn’t budge, the Coons opened the seventh with a Carreno single, then Wheatley bunting to third baseman Doug Richardson. The veteran went to second base for the juicy out, but was late, and all paws were safe! Pellicano then cranked a 2-0 pitch to the left side, where Juan Rodriguez knocked the sharp bouncer down, but had no play anywhere – which gave Portland the dreaded three on, nobody out, and probably negative eleven runs scenario we were thriving in. Nah, this time they actually caused some havoc. Armando Herrera was held to a sac fly by de Luna in left, but Maldo hit a ball off the wall for an RBI double, and Bryce Toohey was walked intentionally to refill the bases. Waters hit an RBI single to center before Baskins whiffed. Barel, however, lost Ruben Gonzalez on four balls, pushing in the fourth run of the inning, then allowed an RBI single to Carreno on another 3-1 pitch, and then was finally yanked. Emanuel Caceiro rung up Wheats after coming in approximately seven-thousand batters too late. Wheats’ pitch count was up there, though, and he didn’t feature past the seventh inning in this game, either. Todd Lush made his Raccoons debut in the bottom 8th – after being taken off Boston waivers – giving up a run on a de Luna double and a Chavez single. Maybe there was something to why he’d been on waivers? Hickey in the bottom 9th fared even worse, giving up singles to Richardson and Tony Batista to begin the inning and letting the Raccoons scramble for Josh Rella with a 4-run lead. Youngquist popped out to Toohey for the first out, and the second out came by fielder’s choice at second base on Rodriguez’ grounder to Carreno. PH Gerardo Galaz flew out to Gene Pellicano, ending the game. 6-2 Raccoons. Pellicano 3-5; Waters 3-5, 2 RBI; Carreno 2-4, RBI; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (4-2);

Game 2
POR: LF Baskins – SS Waters – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – C Morales – CF Mercado – 2B Martell – P Wolinsky
BOS: LF de Luna – RF C. Jimenez – 1B V. Chavez – CF Ritchey – 3B D. Richardson – C Whitley – 2B T. Batista – SS J. Rodriguez – P Turay

The major league debut of Bubba Wolinsky brought about a first-inning outburst entirely not of Bubba Wolinsky’s making, with the Raccoons getting homers from Toohey and Morales while scoring four runs on a rather hittable looking Kyle Turay, himself making his 14th career start. The four runs came together despite Matt Waters getting caught stealing after cashing Derek Baskins’ leadoff double with an RBI single of his own. Wolinsky allowed a double to Jimenez in the first and walked Chavez, but then settled in, got out of the inning, and while the Titans were sprinkling runners all over the place throughout the innings, much to my annoyance, as much as the persistent drizzle over the ballpark annoyed everybody in attendance, they couldn’t get a Boston Blue run on the board for quite a while. Instead, the Raccoons tacked on a fifth run in the fifth inning on doubles by Baskins and Maldonado.

Mercado walked, stole second base, and scored on Al Martell’s single in the sixth, extending the lead to 6-0, which was enough to get Turay yanked after all. That didn’t stop the scoring, though; Jeff Turi walked Maldo and Toohey in the seventh, then served up a deep 2-run double to Manny Fernandez, the only regular still mired in the sub-.200 muck after a slow start. And Wolinsky? Ticking off batters. He scattered five hits, mostly early in the game, and three walks, but also whiffed eight batters through eight innings. His pitch count was at 101, but with a sizable lead, he’d at least a chance for that once-in-a-lifetime debut shutout. But after a walk to leadoff man Youngquist and a Dan Whitley single in a full count, he was then hauled in, two outs short of the shutout. Preston Porter managed to pitch the Raccoons uncomfortably close to another Josh Rella appearance, giving up singles to Batista and Rodriguez and besmearing what had been a perfectly pleasant game until then, but found out of the mess on his own after an infuriating while… 8-3 Raccoons. Baskins 2-5, 2 2B; Maldonado 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; Toohey 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Fernandez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Morales 2-4, HR, RBI; Martell 2-4, RBI; Wolinsky 8.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

Still decent for a debut!

Game 3
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 1B Gurney – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Okuda
BOS: LF de Luna – RF C. Jimenez – 1B V. Chavez – CF Ritchey – 3B D. Richardson – C Whitley – 2B T. Batista – SS J. Rodriguez – P Furuya

Cristiano Carmona, who had remained in Portland with Boston being Boston and not exactly wheelchair-accesible, nor caring for becoming that, had told me to watch out for the close plays with Okuda, and how often the defender was just a few feet from the drop or it got inches past his glove. The Titans hit two singles like that right in the first inning, but didn’t score, and maybe there was something to a BABIP curse for Okuda after all, and we wouldn’t have to drown him in a barrel!

Of course then it was Okuda to score the game’s first run, opening the third inning with a single up the middle, just ahead of Derek Baskins going yard to center for his third homer of the year, putting the Coons up 2-0 in the third. Herrera singled and stole second, Pat Gurney reached on an error, and Maldo hit an RBI double to right before Manny was half-heartedly walked with first base open, setting up three on and nobody out. Waters hit a comebacker to Furuya to get Herrera forced out at home plate, but the Raccoons scored runs by a Tony Morales RBI single and Martell’s sac fly, building a 5-0 lead in a single inning.

…which appeared to be the ballgame. Okuda was stingy for four innings, then allowed a single and a walk each in both the bottom 5th and 6th, but without the Titans scoring on him, still. It took a Rich de Luna homer in the seventh to get them on the board, and then that was only a solo shot, and the Raccoons, who had gone to dinner after the 5-run third and had yet to return, were still up by four runs. Bryce Toohey batted for Okuda in the top 8th with Waters and Morales on base and one gone, and singled up the middle to load the bases against righty Ricardo Sanchez, who walked Baskins to force home a run, but then got Herrera wrapped up in a 4-6-3 double play to bail out of the jam.

Sanchez then came apart for two more runs in a messy ninth inning, but the worse news for Boston were that while Joe Ritchey threw out Pat Gurney at home plate, he also walked in from the outfield immediately, holding his throwing arm, which couldn’t be great, and I thought I heard a thud from the adjacent Titans GM’s suite at that moment. Unimpressed by individual agony, Zack Kelly put the game away in the bottom 9th. 8-1 Furballs! Maldonado 3-5, 2B, RBI; Waters 2-4, BB; Morales 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Toohey (PH) 1-1; Okuda 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-3);

Game 4
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 2B Gurney – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 3B Martell – P Jackson
BOS: 2B T. Batista – RF C. Jimenez – 1B V. Chavez – CF Ritchey – 3B D. Richardson – C Whitley – LF Liceaga – SS J. Rodriguez – P Mondragon

While Joe Ritchey stubbornly fought his way into the lineup while listed as day-to-day, the Raccoons still took another lead on a Toohey leadoff jack in the second inning. The Titans would tie it back up without Ritchey, getting a 2-out double from Batista in the bottom 3rd, and the RBI single they needed to cash him from Jimenez. Ritchey opened the fourth with a single to center, aching his way to first base, only to get easily doubled up on a Richardson grounder. The Raccoons offense that had spat out 22 runs in the last three games wasn’t igniting though, and it took another solo homer by Pat Gurney in the sixth inning to re-establish a lead, 2-1. At that point we were getting out-hit by Boston, 5-4. Toohey beat Ritchey in center for a 2-out double, but Manny grounded out to short to strand him. Ritchey struck out following a Chavez single in the bottom 6th, then broke his bat over his knee, which appeared to cause him more pain yet.

Adding insult to injury, Jackson singled home Matt Waters and his leadoff double with a 2-out single in the seventh, extending his own lead to 3-1, then pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh. Portland found another run in the eighth, Manny Fernandez singling home Gurney, who had split Ritchey and Danny Liceaga with a double. Jackson went eight without much molestations in the latter half of his outing, then handed the ball off to Josh Rella with a 4-1 lead. Rella sat down the 3-4-5 to complete the 4-game sweep. 4-1 Raccoons! Gurney 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Toohey 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 2-4, RBI; Waters 2-4, 2B; Jackson 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-3) and 1-3, RBI;

Tee-hee!

Alright, who’s next? Who wants some!?

Oh right. ****.

Raccoons (15-13) @ Rebels (10-18) – May 4-6, 2046

In a classic case of “too soon!”, the Raccoons had to return to Richmond, where the Rebels had whacked them for six out of seven in 2045, which the mathematically adept or those that hadn’t resorted to selective brain cell deletion by excessive amounts of booze will have figured out to have included a losing World Series tilt between the two teams. While the Critters had risen like yeast to third place in the North with the sweep of Boston, the Rebels had suffered the worse April, and their May had yet to see them turn it around. They couldn’t score, sitting bottoms in the league with under *2.8* runs per game, and while their pitching was still in shape, all the hurling in the world couldn’t overcome a 2.8 R/G offense. They had a -36 run differential, and it was my sincere hope that they’d nap through the weekend.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (2-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. Omar Lara (2-2, 3.40 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (4-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Zach Tubbs (4-2, 1.33 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (1-0, 2.16 ERA) vs. Bill McDermott (0-2, 7.50 ERA)

This set, too, would start with the lone southpaw on offer and then see only right-handers thereafter.

Game 1
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B J. Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C R. Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – LF Mercado – P Merino
RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 1B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – SS Aguilera – 2B L. Harrison – 3B J. Frazier – RF C. Morris – P O. Lara

Excused for the World Series disaster for injury-related non-participation, Victor Merino would try to keep the winning going for the Portlanders, which would require stingy pitching and some offense, which was initially provided by the backup outfielders; Nelson Mercado singled in the third inning, was bunted to second base by Merino, and scored on a 2-out single by Gene Pellicano into left-center before Herrera grounded out. Unfortunately, Merino would not recover from a leadoff double whacked up the rightfield line by Pablo Gonzalez in the fourth inning and surrendered the run on two deep-ish fly outs, Alvin Aguilera getting the sac fly for the 1-1 tie.

But the Critters clawed back, and again with the also-rans. Carreno began the fifth with a single to right, swiped second, and was then doubled home by Nelson Mercado. Merino chipped in a single, putting runners on the corners with nobody out, and Omar Lara, the Rebs’ 21-game winner from ’45, slipped into a meltdown, allowing additional runs on a Pellicano single, a wild pitch, and a Toohey double with two outs, then was hit for, down 5-1, in the home half of the inning. Too bad that Merino then tripped over Kyle Duncan in the sixth, serving up a 2-out, 2-run homer with a hanging breaking ball that cut the lead in half… The tying runs reached base immediately in the seventh with a Lance Harrison single and a walk to Josh Frazier, at which point Merino had the plug pulled and the Critters sent Bob Ibold, who restored order with a pop from PH Landon Guillory, then strikeouts on Paul Moore and Gil Cabrera.

Ibold and Kelly would combine for a scoreless eighth before the Raccoons actually yawned, stretched, and got back on the paws in the ninth inning against Willie Maldonado and, following a Mercado walk and a Manny single, Jesse Beggs. The latter got a groundout from Pat Gurney in the #1 hole, moving the runners to scoring position with one gone, from where they were cashed by Armando Herrera with a gapper for a 2-run double…! The tack-on runs kept Rella in the pen in favor of Preston Porter, at least until Lance Harrison’s jack narrowed the score to 7-4. When Rella came in then, he did so hurriedly after having warmed up, but sat down after the Herrera double. In the blink of an eye, the bases were loaded with a single, a walk, and a welt to Guillory in between, and two outs, and Doug Clevidence batting. The right-hander hit the most horrendous roller on a 2-2 pitch, and all the Rebels evaded a play on the infield single, scoring another run. With Pablo Gonzalez up, the Raccoons drew the lefty option in waiver claim (!) Todd Lush. Come on, Todd-boy! Show me what you got! He got Gonzalez swinging through a 1-2 pitch, which was alright damn fine by me. 7-5 Critters. Pellicano 2-4, 2 RBI; Mercado 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Fernandez (PH) 1-1;

Please don’t wake up their offense?

Desperate for a hot stick at the top of the order, the Raccoons would plonk Pat Gurney down in the outfield on Saturday. He was hitting .352/.397/.556 and maybe he should get more than two plate appearances per game.

Game 2
POR: RF Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wheatley
RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 1B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – SS Aguilera – 3B J. Frazier – 2B L. Harrison – RF V. Gutierrez – P Tubbs

Gurney promptly opened the middle game with a single to right, advanced on a wild pitch, also Herrera’s infield single, and when Maldo walked, the bags were full with nobody out. Tubbs walked Toohey to push home Gurney, and Manny singled home the other two before Waters’ single to center got us back to three on and nobody out. Tony Morales’ RBI single had everybody advance a station before a K to Martell actually meant that an out had been made after seven straight Critters had reached base. Wheats batted before he pitched, plating a fifth and final run with a groundout before Gurney flew out to left.

But once on the mound, Wheats wasn’t very good… he allowed a few deep flies in the first two innings, but it only became a problem once Tubbs opened the bottom 3rd with a single and then the defender stopped catching up with the baseballs. Gonzalez hit an RBI single, and after a walk to Duncan loaded the bases, Alvin Aguilera got a sac fly in deep center to shorten the score to 5-2. Frazier grounded out, stranding a pair. Wheats tried to mask pedestrian pitching with some offense, whacking a double off Tubbs in the fourth inning, which was the last straw for the Rebels hurler, but Juan Ramos conceded the run on Herrera’s 2-out single, 6-2. Maldo also singled, but Toohey grounded out. Wheats got worse and worse on the mound, walking the first two batters in the bottom 4th before PH Paul Moore hit into a 6-4-3 double play and Cabrera popped out foul. Gonzalez walked in the fifth, but Duncan whiffed and Aguilera popped out, and with that ended Wheatley’s day after five dreadful innings for three hits, six walks (1), and two runs.

Hickey and Kelly patched the next few innings together; the former put Cabrera and Clevidence on base in the seventh, but a double steal went wrong for Richmond and Cabrera was out at third for a big second out. Gonzalez then grounded out to end the inning for a real short-circuit, but the Rebels inched closer before long. Todd Lush appeared in the bottom 9th against Gutierrez, whom he walked, and Guillory, who hit a pinch-hit bomb, and that narrowed the score to 6-4 with nobody out. With the lead scrubbed down to 6-4, the Raccoons made another pitching change; Rella was unavailable, and the ball went to Nelson Moreno instead. He ended the game on three groundouts, two to Maldonado and one to Martell…! 6-4 Coons! Herrera 3-5, RBI;

With this W we took sole possession of second place, and had a chance of a tie for first by Sunday night with another win and a Loggers loss in Topeka.

Game 3
POR: RF Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Baskins – C R. Gonzalez – SS Martell – 2B Carreno – P Wolinsky
RIC: 3B J. Frazier – 1B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – 2B L. Harrison – CF P. Moore – SS Guillory – RF C. Morris – P McDermott

The Sunday game was picked for national TV, which wasn’t a great surprise, so we were already in for an overnight plane ride back home, so it could only get worse from there. Toohey’s error on Frazier’s grounder and Carreno’s fine feed and Clevidence’s infield single put Wolinsky in a first-inning pickle, but he extricated himself with a grounder for a double play from Gonzalez and a strikeout to Duncan. The same pair was on again in the third inning, then on a proper 1-out single and a walk, respectively, with Gonzalez flying out to center. Duncan ran a full count, then flew out to Gurney in right. The bottom of the order then actually did Wolinsky in by the fourth inning – Moore hit a double, and Chris Morris hit a homer to right-center, 2-0 Rebels.

And the Coons? Hitless at that point, and when Martell hit a 2-out double in the fifth, Carreno popped out to strand him. Wolinsky reached on an error to begin the sixth inning, Guillory being to blame, but was forced out by Gurney. Herrera’s soft single over Harrison put the tying run on base, but Maldo flew out to and Toohey whiffed to strand them. And while Wolinsky got very much stuck for good in the bottom 6th and left with runners on the corners, Morris would get himself caught stealing for the second out before Bob Ibold allowed the other runner to score on a McDermott single, 3-0. (looks skywards) Seven’s enough, huh?

There for sure didn’t appear to be a way for them to touch McDermott, who had been touched plenty, and not only in safe zones, in April. He retired the Critters 1-2-3 in the seventh, and walked Mercado in the eighth, but that runner also went nowhere nice. The Rebels removed McDermott on their own, bringing in Jesse Beggs for the ninth inning against the meat of the order, still in a 3-0 game. Beggs’ first pitch nicked Maldo for another runner that was for from being cashed. Toohey struck out, but Baskins skipped a single through the right side at 1-2, moving Maldo to second and bringing up Manny Fernandez as pinch-hitter for Ruben Gonzalez. Manny went up 2-0 before fouling his way to 2-2 before laying off another garbage pitch. At 3-2 Beggs saw the need for a challenge. Manny was up to hit and smashed a belter – high! …deep! ...******* OUTTA HERE!! TIES THE GAME!!

The thing was, the Coons did not scramble further after that, and they also kinda needed Hickey to get them to extras to get another chance, which he did – barely, surviving a long Morris drive as well as Pablo Gonzalez batting with two outs and Clevidence on second base in the bottom 9th. Top 10th, lefty Jake Bonnie got Gurney on a pop before Waters singled in Hickey’s spot – some defensive push games had Tony Morales catching in the #9 spot now – before Maldo hit a double next to Victor Gutierrez, and close enough to have Waters throw the anchor at third base. The Rebs had none of Toohey batting here, and instead waved him onto the open base, filling them up for a string of lefty hitters, although the Coons still had Pellicano on the bench – the last guy on there. But he didn’t bat for Derek Baskins, who was Critter enough to shove a single up the middle to break the tie, 4-3 …! That was all, with Manny hitting into a force at home, and Martell striking out. And here came Rella. Got Duncan on a grounder to third base. Harrison singled to center. Manichiro Toki, the catcher the Raccoons passed over when he was a type A free agent, hit a high fly to right – but Gurney caught it near the fence. Only Guillory, the plague dealer, left! He smacked a soul-draining RBI triple to left. Yikes. Morris grounded out, but … we hadn’t needed that. Tony Morales in the #9 hole, though? Hadn’t batted yet, and when he did, he found Carreno on first base and bashed a creamer off Willie Maldonado for a 2-run homer in the 11th! Waters walked and stole a base later on in the inning, but was stranded. The Raccoons went back to Nelson Moreno now, kindly asking for a better effort from him. Frazier singled with one out, which meant the Rebels stretched the lineup to Pablo Gonzalez as the tying run. The Coons hung to Moreno, and Gonzalez hung to making our lives a living hell, crushing a 2-run homer to tie the game again. Kyle Duncan made it back-to-back to take my soul away for good. 7-6 Rebels. Waters (PH) 1-1, BB; Baskins 2-6, RBI; Fernandez (PH) 1-2, HR, 3 RBI; Martell 2-5, 2B; Morales 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Hickey 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

In other news

April 30 – The Condors acquire INF Paul Laughren (.343, 0 HR, 5 RBI) from the Buffaloes, along with cash, for C Mark Pasko (.324, 0 HR, 5 RBI) and a prospect.
April 30 – MIL INF Brad Johnson (.162, 1 HR, 5 RBI) goes yard for the only score in the Loggers’ 1-0 win over the Indians.
May 2 – As the Knights score 12 runs in the sixth inning alone in a 20-4 rout of the Bayhawks, ATL RF/LF/1B Ernesto Hernandez (.275, 3 HR, 11 RBI) drives in NINE runs alone with two homers and a bases-clearing double.
May 2 – Richmond RF/LF Victor Gutierrez (.231, 2 HR, 3 RBI) beats the Capitals with a solo home run in a 1-0 Rebels game.

FL Player of the Week: PIT LF/RF Juan Brito (.411, 2 HR, 17 RBI), hitting .409 (9-22) with 1 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL 1B Chris Delagrange (.261, 3 HR, 14 RBI), swatting .400 (12-30) with 1 HR, 7 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.355, 5 HR, 29 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Aaron Brayboy (.341, 8 HR, 25 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: RIC SP Zach Tubbs (4-2, 1.33 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: MIL SP Sergio Piedra (5-1, 1.80 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: SAC OF/1B Pedro Leal (.333, 1 HR, 5 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA OF Jordan Marroguin (.329, 1 HR, 17 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Sunday sucked the fun out of an otherwise dandy 6-1 week. Maybe we should have Aaron Hickey close games for a while. That’ll teach Rella and Moreno!

Apart from that the game also ran way past my bedtime and I need some zzz on the plane home, otherwise Maud will be angry with me on Monday because I’ll be absolutely unbearable otherwise.

When back home we’ll see the Pacifics, then head right back out again to New York, where we’ll start our two-week road trip.

Fun Fact: While Jason Wheatley ties for the league lead in wins, Cristiano Carmona points out that Jake Jackson has the best pitcher WAR on the team.

WAR, what is it good for? – What is it, Cristiano? – Maldo leads the team and is second in the CL in batter WAR?

Such a fine stat!

Westheim · 12-01-2021, 04:50 AM

Raccoons (17-14) vs. Pacifics (19-13) – May 7-9, 2046

In their only brief skip home amidst six out of seven series played on the road, the Raccoons hosted the third-place Pacifics, who were about as far out of first place as the Critters were, 2 1/2 games behind the Gold Sox. This was the fourth straight year of us playing L.A., with a Coons sweep in 2043 followed by two 1-2 series losses. They came in fifth in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a +17 run differential (Coons: +21).

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (1-3, 5.13 ERA) vs. Joe Feltman (2-1, 3.56 ERA)
Jake Jackson (1-3, 2.66 ERA) vs. Marcus Wilkins (3-2, 4.46 ERA)
Victor Merino (3-1, 3.38 ERA) vs. Kevin Clendenen (2-2, 3.10 ERA)

Although the Pacifics had two southpaws in the rotation, they’d send neither of them against us; we only got right-handers for this set. There was also an off day waiting after this set, but the urgent need to get Pat Gurney into the lineup right now would probably spell the odd off day for righty batters going forwards.

Game 1
LAP: RF M. Hall – 3B I. Lugo – 1B W. Hernandez – 2B Bowman – CF T. Romero – SS Ramires – C Templeton – LF J. Richards – P Feltman
POR: RF Gurney – CF Baskins – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – C Morales – 2B Carreno – P Okuda

Okuda was shackled for five hits the first time through, indicating that either Cristiano’s rotten luck concept still held true or that he was ripe for the dumpster after all. Four hits were singles, but Kyle Templeton hit a 2-run homer in the second to give the Pacifics the lead. Feltman filled the bags in the bottom 2nd in response with Matt Waters’ infield single and two walks to Manny and Carreno, but by then there were two outs and Okuda was batting and struck out. Instead, Jaden Richards’ 2-out RBI double put the Pacifics up 3-0 by the fourth; Richards was the only lefty hitter in the lineup, but we had seen Okuda torn up by absolutely everybody already, and the fact that it was “only” 3-0 was also down to Matt Waters starting two 6-4-3s behind him already, while himself getting wrapped up in Manny’s 4-6-3 after hitting another single in the bottom 4th.

Okuda’s struggles lasted six and two thirds before he was replaced by Bob Ibold, who allowed his first earned run of the season in the eighth, conceding a double to Ivan Lugo and an RBI single to Brian Bowman. The struggles of the team as a whole against Joe Feltman never ended – he held them to five hits and no runs in a complete-game effort. 4-0 Pacifics. Waters 2-3, BB;

Game 2
LAP: C Alvardo – 3B I. Lugo – 1B W. Hernandez – RF J. Richards – SS Reid – LF Jay. Lockwood – 2B Ramires – CF T. Romero – P Wilkins
POR: RF Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Jackson

Bryce Toohey’s ninth homer of the year was all the scoring through five innings in Tuesday’s middle game, putting the Coons up 1-0 in the second inning. Ivan Lugo had a single off Jackson in the first, and Antonio Ramires hit another single in the fifth, and that was about it – if Toohey wasn’t going yard, the Raccoons amounted to just as much, two singles in five innings. Not that stuff was dominant – the two starters combined for four strikeouts after five. Jackson in fact didn’t have *it* especially, falling to 3-1 behind Wilkins to begin the sixth inning before the Pacifics pitcher kindly popped out to first.

Pat Gurney began the bottom 6th with a double to left, beginning another rounds of aches and pains to score a base runner that was entirely unsuccessful for the next four batters, of which Maldo was intentionally walked and Waters legged out a 2-out scratch single. That promoted Manny Fernandez to the plate, hitting .188 on the year, although we looked at the bench and struggled to find a more promising matchup. Cristiano Carmona kept blaming it all on BABIP, Manny’s being .186, even lower than his batting average. It had to grow itself out at some point, right!? He struck out, which, fun fact, didn’t budge the miserable BABIP, only the miserable batting average.

In turn, Jackson walked Willie Hernandez and allowed a single to PH Mark Cahill in the seventh, but David Reid then lined into a double play, 3-unassisted. With left-handed Jayden Lockwood up, the Raccoons went to Zack Kelly, only for L.A. to counter with Mike Hall. Kelly struck him out on three pitches anyway. Nelson Moreno had a 1-2-3 eighth, trying to recover from the shambolic 11th inning on Sunday, and maybe we could tack on a run in the eighth? Gurney singled against Jose Villalba, who walked Maldo with one out, then fell 3-0 behind Toohey, who inexplicably poked at a low pitch and grounded to second base for a fielder’s choice, barely legging out the return throw to first while I was biting into my fist hard enough for Maud to get the first aid kit to stop the bleeding. Waters would fly out to left, leaving Josh Rella to his own devices in the ninth inning. He struck out David Alvardo and Ivan Lugo before losing Hernandez on balls. Right-hander Jon St. Pierre had found his way into the #4 hole by now, so a decent exit was still possible for the Raccoons. Indeed – a third strikeout for Rella solved the problem. 1-0 Blighters. Gurney 2-4, 2B; Waters 2-4; Jackson 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (2-3);

Game 3
LAP: RF M. Hall – 3B I. Lugo – 1B W. Hernandez – SS Reid – 2B Bowman – C Alvardo – CF T. Romero – LF J. Richards – P Clendenen
POR: RF Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Mercado – C Gonzalez – 2B Martell – P Merino

Lugo’s double and Reid’s RBI single put L.A. up 1-0 in the top 1st, but the Raccoons turned the game in the same inning. Pat Gurney homered to open their batting for the day, and the next few Coons also all reached base with a walk to Herrera, a Brian Bowman error granting Maldo access, and then an RBI single for Toohey. The trailing runners advanced when Richards threw home, allowing Waters to bring home Maldonado with a groundout for the third and final run of the inning.

Three innings in, typical Oregonian spring weather led to an hourlong rain delay in the rubber game, Portland still up 3-1. Merino returned after the extended break, had a decent fourth, but allowed two singles amidst five sharply spanked baseballs in the fifth, and while he completed that inning to qualify for the potential W, he was not seen again after that after 81 pitches, split roughly half and half on either side of the rain delay. Hickey and Lush went on to botch together a scoreless sixth that saw Bowman and ex-Coon-briefly Tony Romero on the corners when Richards flew out to Pat Gurney to end the inning. The same frame, the Coons got Ruben Gonzalez and Gurney to the corners, also with two outs, with Herrera now facing Clendenen, who appeared still unfazed by rain. He gave up an RBI single over the shortstop, though, extending the Coons’ lead to 4-1. Maldo’s single tacked on another run. Clendenen walked Toohey, then was yanked, with Waters flying out to strand a full set. Lefty Tom Spencer conceded another Coons run in the seventh, giving up a 2-out triple to Arturo Carreno in the #8 hole, then waving him across home plate with a wild pitch. Scoreless relief by Porter and Kelly meanwhile kept the Pacifics away, regardless of the number of late-game tack-on runs. 6-1 Raccoons. Gurney 3-5, HR, RBI; Herrera 3-4, BB, RBI; Pellicano (PH) 1-1; Carreno (PH) 1-1; Porter 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Raccoons (19-15) @ Crusaders (13-19) – May 11-13, 2046

On to New York then, where the Crusaders were still struggling in the nether regions of the division, where the Coons had started the month. They couldn’t score for their lives, being bottoms in runs on the board in the CL (but had scored enough to beat the Coons two out of three this year), while being third-best in pitchcraft. Their run differential was an unsightly -22 though.

Projected matchups:
Bubba Wolinsky (1-0, 3.29 ERA) vs. Garrett Sutherland (0-2, 10.06 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (5-2, 3.40 ERA) vs. Jim White (4-3, 2.59 ERA)
Ryan Person (2-2, 2.84 ERA) vs. Jeff Johnson (1-0, 2.17 ERA)

Indeed, Ryan Person was ready to come off the DL by Friday. The Raccoons wanted another start for Wolinsky though, so he would go in the opener ahead of Wheatley, then get bumped back to AAA to make room for Person.

We would go without a lefty opponent this week; the Crusaders brought up three more righties, including Johnson on Sunday, who had six no-decisions in seven starts.

Game 1
POR: RF Gurney – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wolinsky
NYC: 2B Nash – C Alba – 1B Schneller – RF Rogers – LF Willie Ojeda – 3B Mujica – CF Foss – SS Gates – P Sutherland

To nobody’s surprise at all, the Raccoons did little against the much-battered Sutherland, scoring but one run in five innings while landing five hits. Pat Gurney doubled to lead off the third and was driven in by means of a groundout. Whee. At least Bubba Wolinsky left another calling card, holding the Crusaders to two hits and no runs in the first five innings, albeit walking three with patches of spotty control. Sutherland struck out three in the sixth, while Wolinsky opened with a walk to Phil Rogers, but then whiffed Willie Ojeda and got a double play grounder from Frank Mujica, who the Crusaders had acquired just this week. Martell opened the seventh with a double to center before being held back by two strikeouts. Herrera then singled, but Martell stumbled and had to park his bum at third base with two outs. Maldo then flew out to Rogers, ending another sad inning.

Wolinsky made it three times through the order, then was lifted with Prince Gates on first base after a single, two outs, and the top of the order coming back. Ibold came in, threw one pitch, Waters snagged Randolph Nash’s liner, and the seventh inning ended still with the Coons up 1-0. Portland then got Matt Waters to third base with one out in the top 8th thanks to a single off John Steuer, a stolen base, and a throwing error on the same by Fernando Alba. Manny and Morales both failed with poor groundouts … except that Dan Schneller dropped Steuer’s poor feed on the Morales play, conceding Waters’ run on the error. Whatever ******* works! Martell hit a single, but Derek Baskins, batting for Ibold, flew out easily to end the inning. Moreno put down the 2-3-4 batters in order in the bottom 8th, whiffing a pair, before *Kelly* got the ball for the ninth inning in a 2-0 game. The reason was Rella’s shakiness and Ojeda, Mujica, and Aaron Foss all being lefty batters. Rella was standing by, however, and would take over as soon as pinch-hitting shenanigans would start or Prince Gates would get to the plate. Ojeda promptly reached on a bloop single, but Mujica found another 6-4-3 to hit into, cleaning up the bags again. Foss, the former Elk, struck out, giving Kelly the save. 2-0 Blighters. Gurney 3-5, 2 2B; Herrera 2-4, BB; Martell 3-3, BB, 2B; Wolinsky 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (2-0);

Bubba was 2-0 with a 2.21 ERA in three games as injury replacement for Person, so he definitely moved up on the depth chart.

Also, first save for Kelly since ’44, and the seventh of his career.

Game 2
POR: RF Gurney – CF Baskins – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Mercado – C Morales – 2B Martell – P Wheatley
NYC: 3B Nash – 2B Schneller – 1B Willie Ojeda – RF Mujica – CF Rogers – C Alba – LF Foss – SS Gates – P J. White

Things got worse on Saturday. The Raccoons were being no-hit by Jim White by the time another rain shower hit and led to a 45-minute delay in the bottom 5th, with Wheats trying to find some stuff in his right shoulder attachment, but being wholly unsuccessful with that. He had allowed pairs of singles and had stranded those runners on the corners in both of the first two innings, then hadn’t allowed a hit again except for nailing Gates to begin the bottom 5th. Gates stole second, advanced on a bunt, and was back at third base with one Crusader down when play resumed. Nash hit a sac fly to Baskins, and New York went up 1-0. At least White had lost some brightness during the rain delay and Al Martell slapped a leadoff single in the sixth to banish the no-hitter beast. Then Wheats couldn’t get the bunt down, with Portland resorting to an 0-2 hit-and-run that at least saw him poke a grounder and Martell reach second base that way. Gurney grounded out, but Baskins singled to tie the score with two outs! Another single by Maldo chased White, with replacement Matt May striking out Toohey to end the inning.

The Coons also put Wheats in mothballs and brought in Todd Lush with four lefty bats in the middle five of the Crusaders’ lineup. After allowing a single to Ojeda initially, he got another double play grounder from Mujica (whom I would have shot already if the Coons had traded for him) and ended up pitching two scoreless in the 1-1 game. Herrera batted for him in the eighth, clocking a 1-out double to left, but again Gurney was not helpful… but Baskins was, singling to center to bring home the go-ahead run, again with two outs!

Alas, the lead didn’t last – Preston Porter blew it, giving up a solo homer to Nash in the bottom 8th. The Coons had nothing in the ninth, but reached extras when Zack Kelly pitched his second ninth inning in a row and struck out the side. Up against lefty Mike Lynn in the 10th, the Raccoons sent two pinch-hitters: Pellicano singled, and Carreno hit into a double play to piss it all away again. Aaron Hickey struck out the side in the bottom 10th to maintain the tie, which also persevered through a Maldo single and a Waters double in the 11th. Julian Ponce struck out Nelson Mercado, who was now 0-5 in the game after complaining about playing time earlier this week. I was complaining about production. Hickey held out for another inning, then was hit for with Manny in the 12th, the last bat off the bench for Portland. He batted after Ruben Gonzalez had put up the pressure on Ponce, hitting a gapper for a leadoff double in right-center. Manny struck out. Herrera grounded out. Carreno struck out. I sighed. Vittorio Riario *almost* ended the game in the bottom 12th – with Mujica on first he took a Bob Ibold pitch all the way to the fence – but not over it, and Mercado at least caught that one.

Top 13th, Maldo singled, Toohey walked, all against a tiring Ponce with one out. He still got Waters to pop out, but Mercado finally came through with SOMETHING, hitting an RBI single to right. New York went on to Lazaro Ochoa against Gonzalez, who singled, but even with the pitcher coming up, no pinch-hitter left, and two outs, sending Toohey from second base would have amounted to manslaughter. So the bags were full – and the Coons still found a pinch-hitter: Okuda! The Japanese lefty was an above-.200 hitter with 11 career RBI in 70 games, so definitely preferable to Ibold. And the ploy ******* worked! Okuda got to 2-1, then struck a single up the middle! Two runs scored! Coons!!! Herrera grounded out, while Rella took over a 3-run lead, struck out three in the bottom of the inning, and we wouldn’t make a fuss about how the batter that actually reached was reliever Lazaro Ochoa with a 1-out single… 5-2 Critters. Baskins 2-6, 2 RBI; Maldonado 3-5; Gonzalez (PH) 2-3, 2B; Pellicano (PH) 1-1; Okuda (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI (tah!!); Wheatley 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Lush 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Hickey 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Okuda’s also the guy that was bumped from the series pitching-wise when we gave the extra start to Wolinsky.

We’re also 11-2 for our last 13 games. This was our first extra-inning W of the year.

Game 3
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – RF Fernandez – C Gonzalez – 2B Martell – P Person
NYC: 3B Nash – 2B Schneller – 1B Willie Ojeda – RF Mujica – CF Rogers – C Alba – LF Rico – SS Gates – P J. Johnson

Manny hauled in a long Nash fly at the start of Person’s return to the mound, but also grounded out to third base with one out and Toohey waiting exactly there, costing, in combo with Gonzalez’ weak out, the Coons a second-inning run. Person walked nobody and whiffed three the first time through the order, being perfect in the process, which … (squints skywards) … sounded almost too good to be true. Meanwhile, Toohey was on third base again with one out in the fourth, reaching on a throwing error by Johnson and advancing on Waters’ groundout. Manny singled to right this time, livening up his batting average all the way to .183 (gnashes teeth) and giving the Critters a 1-0 lead. He then stole second, advanced on Gonzalez’ shy single, and scored on a Martell double to center, Gonzalez holding at third base on the latter play. Person struck out, Baskins grounded out, and the two runners were stranded. Nash then hit a leadoff single to center in the bottom 4th to take the perfecto away, but the next three Crusaders went down in order. Person walked Rogers in a full count to begin the fifth, making me feel dizzy, but again retired the next three without conceding the runner, completing five innings on 59 pitches – a perfectly fine effort so far!

Manny smacked a 1-out double to right in the sixth, which the Crusaders used to walk Ruben Gonzalez intentionally (!), whicih promoted Martell to the plate. Mind that only Martell was a lefty hitter between the two and that Johnson was very much still right-handed. Martell smacked an RBI single, Manny scooted home to score, and defensive confusion allowed the trailing runners into scoring position for Person, who struck out, and Baskins popped out to Prince Gates. Person kept dealing at least, but ran into a long bottom 7th after a leadoff walk to Dan Schneller and that shot up his pitch count. He bunted over Martell, who had walked facing Luis Villagomez, over in the eighth inning, with Baskins plating the runner with a 1-out double, which ran the score to 5-0 as the inning had begun with a Ruben Gonzalez homer to right-center. Herrera singled, but was caught stealing, and Maldo’s groundout left Baskins on third base. Person returned with the 5-0 lead, but on 91 pitches. Danny Rico and Justin Simmons hit singles off him in the eighth, and while he staved them off, he wouldn’t return for the ninth, fresh off the DL. The Coons loaded the bases in the ninth against Ochoa, Martell batting with Pellicano (running for Toohey), Manny, and Gonzalez aboard. He found his way into a double play, ending the inning. Todd Lush got the bottom 9th, got two outs from Schneller and Ojeda, then walked Mujica, and was knocked out on Rogers and Alba singles. One run across, Josh Rella was called away from his schnitzel dinner, gave up a run on a Rico single through the left side, but then popped out Gates to close out the sweep. 5-2 Raccoons. Baskins 2-5, 2B, RBI; Herrera 2-5; Toohey 3-5, 2B; Fernandez 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Gonzalez 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Martell 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Person 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-2);

In other news

May 8 – The Scorpions’ Sebastian Copeland (.267, 3 HR, 16 RBI) and Pedro Leal (.368, 2 HR, 10 RBI) both drive in five runs apiece in a 15-7 scorefest against the Loggers.
May 8 – Wolves C Morgan Kuhlmann (.191, 0 HR, 5 RBI) announces his retirement at the end of the season. The 38-year-old was twice the FL Player of the Year (2037, 2041), winning the home run crown in both seasons.
May 9 – Perhaps unrelated, the Wolves acquire C Jose Ortiz (.143, 2 HR, 4 RBI) from the Crusaders for INF Frank Mujica (.244, 2 HR, 13 RBI).
May 9 – DEN SP John Kennedy (5-1, 0.85 ERA) 2-hits the Thunder in a dominant display, claiming the 9-0 shutout win.
May 9 – SFW LF/RF Mario Villa (.364, 1 HR, 17 RBI) could miss a month or more on the DL, diving and missing a liner that then bounces into his jaw, fracturing it.
May 9 – The Capitals trade middle infielder T.J. Lujan (.266, 1 HR, 5 RBI) to the Condors for 35-year-old AAA 1B Alex Zacarias, who hit .266 with five homers last year.
May 12 – MIL LF/CF Bill Reeves (.328, 4 HR, 19 RBI) drives in two runs in the Loggers’ 12-5 win over the Titans, landing five hits, including a triple and two doubles.

FL Player of the Week: SAC 1B/3B Sebastian Copeland (.289, 5 HR, 22 RBI), batting .524 (11-21) with 3 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL LF/CF Bill Reeves (.336, 4 HR, 19 RBI), poking .571 (12-21) with 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Another 5-game winning streak, and a 12-2 run to rally into first-chasers position behind the Loggers, who swept the Titans on the weekend to maintain a 1-game lead. We will play the surprisingly third-place Indians and the Baybirds next week, so that will be a challenge.

Less and less I feel like the answer to “what the **** happened to Chuck Jones?” is gonna be Todd Lush. He looks more like a piece of evidence. Jones spent some time in the freezer in AAA, and has since at least struck out *somebody*, but he looks like he’s toast and should go home to Texas, which is a shame for a 34-year-old lefty that was still lights out at 33. His velocity is down to 87 – he was still throwing 92 last year!

Fun Fact: Today is not the anniversary of anything special in the ABL.

May 13 is a dull day. No cycles. No 3-homer games. No no-nos. No nothing!

11-03-2021, 03:36 PM	#3761
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	2045 WORLD SERIES Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Richmond Rebels (98-64) The mood wasn’t great. The Raccoons had scored eight runs in Game 1 and had lost. They had sent Wheats into Game 2, and had lost. Given that Game 4 beckoned to be troublesome to begin with, given the punching bag status of Adam Capone, a loss in Game 3 would already be the end. In fact, things were so dire, Nick Valdes cancelled his trip to Portland and retreated to his mountaintop hideout, not wanting to be seen with his losing team. Game 3 – Sadaharu Okuda (11-11, 4.08 ERA) vs. Steve Miles (9-12, 3.81 ERA) How to stop the doubles and homers flood? Okuda would have to find something. Pairing the groundballer with Gurney at the keystone was bold enough for a back-to-the-wall Game 3. Somehow we had to out-hit the Rebels, though. Steve Miles had started the only game the Raccoons had won in the June meeting, but had left the game in the first inning with a tender shoulder. He had still been hung the 9-0 loss. We could use something like that again… The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out Ebenezer Slouch, CEO of the Toxic Dumpling Company, an on-demand bakery that combined environmental cleanup with, well, baking dumplings. I am not sure of the connections here, but I would tend to blame Nick Valdes for this… RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 2B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – RF A. Marquez – 3B Frazier – SS Aguilera – 1B Guillory – P S. Miles POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – 2B Gurney – C Kilmer – P Okuda Gonzalez raked an RBI double in the first inning, driving in the unavoidable Clevidence with an unearned run that was blamed on Maldonado, who had fumbled his grounder. Herrera doubled and Manny walked in the bottom 1st, but Toohey grounded out to Frazier to keep them stranded. Bottom 2nd, Waters worked a leadoff walk and stole second base. Gurney then ticked a single to left, with Waters having to stop at third base. Runners on the corners for Kilmer, our catcher ran a full count before striking a ball at Clevidence for a hard lineout. Okuda came through for a sac fly at least, while Baskins hit a soft single with two outs. Herrera’s grounder to Guillory ended the inning with another pair left stranded. After an uneventful third inning, and with Okuda dealing as well as ever (5 K in 4 IP), the Raccoons got Waters on base with another walk in the bottom 4th. And leave it to Pat Gurney – he tried to live up to the “more offensive solution moniker”, and solved the 1-1 tie with a homer to right, putting the Coons up 3-1. Another pair was on base in the bottom 5th, Herrera reaching on an error and Maldonado legging out an infield single. Manny’s fly to Gil Cabrera was caught, but advanced Herrera to third base. Toohey also flew out to Cabrera, but got the runner home from third base at least, 4-1. Maldo was then caught stealing to conclude the fifth. Then the Rebels returned to being annoying as **. Clevidence, the miserable pest, hit a leadoff triple to left in the sixth before Okuda struck out Gonzalez and Duncan, determined to keep him pinned there at third base. The count to Alex Marquez with two outs ran full, Okuda threw a challenge – and Marquez hit the challenge all the way to *** Idaho to narrow the score to 4-3. The meltdown didn’t stop there. Aguilera legged out an infield single to begin the top 7th, Guillory singled, and PH Lance Harrison walked. Okuda had loaded the bases with nobody out, was yanked, and the Raccoons saw the lead go bust on Victor Gutierrez’ pinch-hit sac fly off Nelson Moreno. Crucially, Clevidence popped out for the second out, after which Chuck Jones came on for Pablo Gonzalez, but now walked the left-hander, gave up a 2-run single to Duncan, and only then did Marquez ground out to second base. The Coons didn’t reach in the seventh, but put the tying runs aboard in the eighth. Manny was nicked by Kurt Crater and Toohey drew a walk; two on with nobody out, and these runs HAD to score. Waters singled on the next pitch, loading the bases … with nobody out. Doom. New pitcher Juan Ramos conceded a run on Gurney’s groundout, then walked Kilmer. Al Martell batted for Bob Ibold, but popped out. Baskins grounded out to Clevidence. The runs did not score… The Coons used Josh Rella to keep the Rebels only one run away in the ninth inning, which was one use for a closer if your team never held a meaningful lead. Then it was Beggs against the 2-3-4 in the bottom 9th. Herrera flew out to Paul Moore in right. Maldo flew out to Marquez in center. Manny hit a double to right-center to put the tying run into scoring position. Beggs went cautious on Toohey, who eventually walked, bringing up Matt Waters, who fell to 1-2, then looked at a slider that notched the corner. Rebels 6, Raccoons 5 – Rebels lead series 3-0 Gurney 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; With that, and Adam Capone pitching in Game 4, the series was as over as a series could be. Game 4 – Adam Capone (4-4, 3.22 ERA) vs. Bill McDermott (7-5, 3.84 ERA)** McDermott was a rookie with little stamina and a mediocre pitching profile. Much the same could be said for Capone, who had been roughed up by the Thunder, and would need little encouragement to get roughed up once more. The organist played a selection of the last tunes played on the Titanic before it went under in 1912 while the first pitch was thrown out by Carl Bean, a Raccoons veteran from the Decade of Darkness, who felt right at home with this playoff roster… The Coons went with Carreno at second base again for the groundballing Capone. I went with Honeypaws in a firm clutch and a big box of tissues to brave out the inevitable elimination. RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 2B Clevidence – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – RF A. Marquez – 3B Frazier – SS Aguilera – 1B Guillory – P McDermott POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Fernandez – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – 2B Carreno – C Kilmer – P Capone Again, Richmond went up 1-0 in the first, singles being hit by Cabrera and Gonzalez. Kilmer’s throwing error when Cabrera swiped second base also helped a bit… Capone lasted once through the lineup and left in a 4-0 hole in the second inning. After Duncan hit into a double play to end the top 1st, Marquez opened the top 2nd with a homer to right-center. Frazier walked, scored on an Aguilera triple, and while Landon Guillory struck out, McDermott hit an RBI single. That was it for Capone, the wimp. Sean Marucci took over in long relief again. Marucci pitched three innings before putting Clevidence (double) and Duncan (nailed!) on the corners in the top of the fifth inning. Actually, backup catcher Kevin Morris would take over for Duncan, who could hardly walk after getting smacked in the foot. Zack Kelly took over for Marucci, gave up a sac fly to Marquez, and then got Frazier to pop out to end the inning. And no, the Raccoons had done absolutely nothing in the meantime. They were on one base hit, and they were down 5-0, and it was all entirely over. Al Martell led off the bottom 6th pinch-hitting for Jon Craig, who had pitched an accident-free inning for a change, and tripled into the corner in rightfield. Baskins grounded out to score him, but that was hardly reason to celebrate, given that the team was still down by a slam and made no moves to load the bases instantly. A walk drawn by Waters and a 2-out Carreno single were enough to chase McDermott in the bottom 7th at least. Lazaro Ochoa, who had given up three meaningless runs in Game 1, came on to see after Kilmer, who promptly grounded out to short. Bob Ibold answered in style, giving up a leadoff jack to Marquez in the eighth. Bottom 8th, weak outs from Gurney and Baskins, then a Herrera single. Maldonado struck out – except that Morris was called out for catcher’s interference and Maldo was sent to first base. Manny walked, filling the bases for Bryce Toohey. Kurt Crater came on, but walked Toohey on straight balls to force home a run, and now Waters came up as the tying run again. He hit a 2-run single up the middle on the first pitch to keep the line moving, narrowing the score to 6-4. And then Carreno popped out… Jones and Moreno kept the Rebs off the basepaths in the ninth inning, before Jesse Beggs dawned on the Coons in the bottom of the ninth. Jonathan Dustal, heretofore unused in the World Series, hit for Kilmer and was nicked, promoting Gurney, who had stayed at second base, to the plate as the tying run, but he struck out. Baskins popped out to short. Herrera had been THE big addition the previous winter, and now was the final out in the World Series, potentially. He grounded to short. Aguilera to Thomas Gould at first for the out – no! He dropped the ball! Error! The Raccoons brought Maldonado to the plate as the winning run, somehow! Maldo took a ball, then slapped a ball through between Clevidence and Gould for an RBI single, 6-5. Herrera, the tying run, held at second base. Manny Fernandez hit the 2-1 pitch up the middle then. Clevidence over, the short toss to Aguilera – and Maldonado was truly and indeed out. Rebels 6, Raccoons 5 – Rebels win series 4-0 Waters 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Martell (PH) 1-1, 3B; (sits on Cristiano Carmona’s lap, incessantly crying onto his shoulder) … 2045 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS Richmond Rebels (3rd title) Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here. Last edited by Westheim; 11-06-2021 at 03:54 AM.

11-06-2021, 03:54 AM	#3762
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	Three days after Game 4 I not only woke up, but actually got up from the couch. Rinsed my stupid snout with booze, hailed a stupid cab to the stupid office in the stupid ballpark, and got back to stupid work. Somebody had to, and if I didn’t, Cristiano Carmona might think he’s actually in charge. Maud already had many messages from Nick Valdes for me, ranging from upset to aghast, but also the only one that I was really interested in – our new budget for the 2046 season. The Raccoons would have $46.5M to play with, the highest ever for the team and a juicy $3.5M up from last season (although we’d get into why it wasn’t enough before long). The new budget put us 9th amongst all ABL teams, up two spots compared to last year. The five (or six) richest teams were the Miners ($54M), Gold Sox ($53M), Pacifics ($49.5M), Bayhawks ($49M), and Stars and Crusaders in a tie ($48M each). At the bottom of the league sat a sextuple, too, with a tie for 19th place between the Aces and Loggers ($35.5M each), Condors and Buffaloes ($35M each), Wolves ($34M), and Indians ($32M). The remaining CL North teams sat in t-7th (VAN, $47M) and 16th (BOS, $40.5M). The average budget for a team in the league rose to $42.56M, rising $120k compared to 2044. The median team budget or 2046 was $42.5M, up $250k from last season. +++ …and despite an additional $3.5M in the coffers, the problems were just beginning for the Raccoons, who for the big bullet points had the following issues: Maldonado was a free agent, Wheats was not only ERA champ, but also first time arbitration-eligible, and there were a few Ricky Jimenez-sized millstones around their necks, hindering movement in any meaningful direction. Maldonado had already signaled that he liked Portland, but he liked a pile of dosh from anybody, so he would not be cheap at all to resign. Then there was the issue of a $2M team option on Jeff Kilmer, which didn’t look very merited at the current moment. Looking into the list of arbitration cases, we also found Corey Mathers in there along with Zack Kelly and Nelson Moreno for pitchers, as well as Jose Zarate, Pat Gurney, Arturo Carreno, Omar Gutierrez, Jay de Wit, and Jonathan Dustal. The latter three all had estimates for up to half a million, and Zarate even more than that. With dosh needed to keep Maldonado in the fold, all four of those were immediately candidates for axing. Maldonado was also the only compensation-eligible free agent we had. The other three free agents were relievers Jon Craig and Nate Norris (the latter still recovering from elbow surgery) an infielder Al Martell. We had young, cheap (!) righty relieving aplenty in the system, so we’d let the pitchers go in any case to save yet more money. Martell was not hitting a lot per se, but was a lefty to complement Carreno (who was not going to be axed quite yet despite a horrendous season) and versatile on the infield, and if we could resign him for around half a million or a little more than that, we’d jump on the opportunity. The big one was Maldonado, though – he kept the whole shebang here together. The millstones? Probably Jeff Kilmer if we picked up that option. The Raccoons’ catcher since the last time they got knocked out of a World Series (in 2037), he had raked a few seasons early in his career, but had not produced a 100 OPS+ season in four years. Zarate had hit even less. Ruben Gonzalez might make a solid backup after all (his major league BABIP was .213, and .167 in ’45, and nobody could be that unlucky forever), but the Raccoons would be in the hunt for a new starting catcher. Also, if we could find some idiot to take on the last two years and $6M on Ricky Jimenez’ contract, that would be amazeballs. That would also free up a permanent position for Maldo, so that him, Toohey, Manny, Baskins, and Herrera can all play at once without standing on each other’s paws. What do we have? Among the hitting core, Armando Herrera is signed another five years, Manny another three (including a vesting option), Toohey five (including a team option), and Baskins would be a free agent after ’46. Matt Waters won’t be eligible for arbitration until next fall, sitting on just over two years of service time right now. For pitching, even with Wheats potentially winning seven figures by a contract or in arbitration, the Raccoons still have a cheap rotation (also inefficient). Okuda is signed at $1M for another year, and Jake Jackson is signed for three more years, each at $1.5M (including a team option). Mathers will get whatever in arbitration, and Merino will still be on the minimum. Whether that is a good enough rotation will still need evaluation. Whether we can afford more is on an entirely different piece of paper. The pen will be partially rebuilt, with Rella and Moreno remaining on the right side, as well as Kelly and Chuck Jones on the left. Chuck Jones was inefficient at the end of this season, and had a matching slash to his scouting report, so that one will be interesting to watch in the final year of that 3-yr, $3.21M contract he signed before 2044. The other three spots in the pen can easily be filled with Porter, Ibold, and Marucci, all on the minimum. Which brings us to another dead body, Brent Clark, who is signed for $1M in 2046 and literally can’t get anybody out anymore. He might actually be movable if you can convince some slow-brained front office that he’s a valid starter for their 90-loss operation. At least I keep telling myself that. One more interesting case will be Pat Gurney, a terrific bat off the bench, who has a seven-figure arbitration price tag to his name. The Raccoons would not want to let him walk, either, and the question was whether he could be kept around for a deal of two or three years at a reasonable price (Manny money, more or less). Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-07-2021, 01:20 PM	#3763
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	October passed, with me getting yelled at for gobbling most of the birthday cake for Cristiano Carmona that Maud had baked, but my defense was that I found it in the hidden fridge, and what’s in the hidden fridge I consider mine. I also cried a bit during negotiation rounds with Jesus Maldonado, who had led the league in total bases this year, the team in homers and RBI, and made it pretty clear that he saw himself as one of the most valuable players in the league. He had always been among those most valuable players, even as a 16-year-old, when we signed him for $466k out of Venezuela, in what was then quite a precocious amount. Other teams had money, too, Maldo said with a sly smile, and I got back to whispering with Steve from Accounting behind our paws that he had to ******* find me more millions …! Oh well, millions we found in the odd spot or another. The Raccoons would revamp their catching corps, parting with both of their regulars from the last two seasons. Zarate was a free agent anyway, and Kilmer was made one when we declined his $2M option for 2046, thus paying $400k of severance money and saving $1.6M towards the Maldonado extension fund. The problem was not actually the Maldonado extension – we could easily add another, say, Armando Herrera-sized contract ($4.7M a year, remember). The thing was that we also needed a few things at the peripherals, like a new starting catcher. Free agents would be available in that regard, and I already had my eye on one. Manichiro Toki was 35 years old, but no signs of letting up were detectable yet. He was unlikely to be a type A free agent, and he was a lefty hitter, which would give Ruben Gonzalez automatic starts against southpaws next year. Toki was surely not a permanent solution – we still hoped that Gonzalez would become that, but the lights were dimming in that regard… At least Gonzalez was still above-average in his catcher abilities, so that was something that could at least keep him a backup job for the time being. Other construction sites? I would not say no to another ace on the staff, although we were probably priced out of that market for this year. Then there was the question whether we were content with a Carreno/Martell platoon at second base, or whether an upgrade could be made either there or at shortstop, with Matt Waters then pulled over to second base. And who will turn Ricky Jimenez into dog food with the least amount of noise? One thing that quickly didn’t work out was Pat Gurney’s multi-year extension that I had gotten into my head. He saw that he was unlikely to become a regular on the team in 2046 either, and thus was utterly reluctant to sign anything extending beyond 2046, his final year of team control. He would eventually sign a 1-year deal for $1.3M. Other new 1-year deals were inked by Zack Kelly ($400k), Jonathan Dustal ($500k), Nelson Moreno ($660k), and also Jason Wheatley ($925k), with the Agitator most upset with the missed opportunity to lock him up for life. Oh, and then we committed some grand theft prospect. +++ October 25 – The Raccoons swing SP/MR Brent Clark (47-48, 3.75 ERA, 11 SV), 3B Ricky Jimenez (.256, 33 HR, 166 RBI), and C Jose Zarate (.273, 12 HR, 99 RBI) to the Capitals for two prospects in 24-year-old right-hander Jeremy Chaney (1-0, 1.89 ERA, 2 SV), and 22-year-old outfielder Steve Petersen. November 11 – The Indians trade SP Chris Volk (18-30, 5.49 ERA) to the Buffaloes for a prospect. +++ Now those two prospects don’t come without issues. Chaney was a #9 prospect in 2043 after being picked #4 by the Knights in the 2042 draft, and only appeared in the Caps’ bullpen this year, doing fine. It was not like we were lacking for righty relievers, though. He did have two-and-a-half pitches, stamina, and we’d try to turn him into starting depth in AAA, him being a 90mph groundballer or not. Petersen was a #26 pick the same year, but had only now gotten to grips with the AA level. He was a lefty hitter with great defense and good speed, and had quite some gap power, but he was not a pristine slugger. But we got all that dead weight shed off at once, which was such a relief! I don’t know what the Caps want with Clark, who looks like scorched earth to me, but their current plan for third base seemed to involve lots of fingers crossed that nobody would notice the gaping hole there, so Jimenez gives them a (princely priced) regular to stamp in there. That is something. Zarate would have been non-tendered if he hadn’t been crammed into this trade. BNN says this trade was a WAR loss for the Raccoons, but WAR can get it, I’ll rather take the $4M freed up by it. Four of our arbitration cases did not sign new contracts with the team ahead of the arbitration period. Two of them, Omar Gutierrez and Jay de Wit were non-tendered entirely. Corey Mathers and Arturo Carreno meanwhile refused their offers of $680k and $420k, respectively. We offered $445k for Carreno in arbitration, and both players were awarded the team offer by the arbitrator. +++ 2045 ABL AWARDS Players of the Year: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.369, 23 HR, 144 RBI) and OCT C Jesus Adames (.342, 26 HR, 107 RBI) Pitchers of the Year: RIC Omar Lara (21-9, 2.74 ERA) and POR Jason Wheatley (15-8, 2.37 ERA) Rookies of the Year: LAP/CIN OF Armando Luis Herrera (.341, 8 HR, 42 RBI) and BOS SP David Barel (9-13, 2.80 ERA, 2 SV) Relievers of the Year: RIC CL Jesse Beggs (6-4, 2.09 ERA, 52 SV) and SFB CL Jeremy Mayhall (9-4, 2.27 ERA, 46 SV) Platinum Sticks (FL): P DAL Arthur Pickett – C PIT Giampaolo Petroni – 1B DEN Jason Robinson – 2B PIT Dan Schneller – 3B DAL Jose Rivas – SS CIN Chris Delgado – LF SFW Mario Villa – CF DAL Tylor Cecil – RF SFW Matt Diskin Platinum Sticks (CL): P LVA Oscar Valdes – C OCT Jesus Adames – 1B SFB Dan Riley – 2B NYC Mario Briones – 3B VAN Dan Hutson – SS OCT Ryan Cox – LF ATL Billy Hester – CF VAN Jerry Outram – RF NYC Willie Ojeda Gold Gloves (FL): P NAS Bill Herrmann – C SAC Anton Mercado – 1B NAS Alejandro Ramos – 2B DEN Ivan Villa – 3B NAS Brad Critzer – SS PIT Ed Soberanes – LF LAP Jayden Lockwood – CF DEN Sandy Castillo – RF DEN Dylan Wright Gold Gloves (CL): P CHA Nick Myers – C MIL Ricky Payne – 1B SFB Dan Riley – 2B ATL Glenn Sprague – 3B LVA Angel Montes de Oca – SS NYC Alex Adame – LF LVA Bob Montana – CF POR Armando Herrera – RF CHA Archie Turley Dang! Wheats is Pitcher of the Year! Next year’s version of the Opening Day starter’s curse will be cruel on him. +++ Wait a minute, there’s one thing missing, isn’t it? What happened to Jesus Maldonado? Jesus Maldonado didn’t sign the Raccoons’ 7-year, $35M offer, and instead elected to become a free agent. (stares into the void with wet black googly eyes while absent-mindedly patting Honeypaws) Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-08-2021, 05:24 AM	#3765
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	After posting their first W of the offseason in a trade with the Capitals, the Raccoons also posted a Capitals-related L as soon as free agency arrived. The left-handed hitting catcher we had thrown a big black googly eye on, Manichiro Toki, formerly of Washington, was indeed rated a type A free agent. The Coons promptly stepped back – we weren’t going to burn our first-rounder on a 35-year-old catcher. Unrelated, free agency had reduced the Raccoons’ surfeit of righty relief to near-nothing. As things stood in mid-November, we had a rotation of Wheats, Okuda, Jackson, Merino, and Mathers; plus a bullpen containing Rella, Moreno, Porter, Ibold, Marucci, Kelly, and Jones. The only other pitchers still on the extended roster were Adam Capone (grumble grumble), Tony Negrete, and Brad Barnes, all of whom might as well be reassigned to AAA. The only catcher on the roster was Ruben Gonzalez, however. There were also only four players sorted into the infield category right now with Pat Gurney, Arturo Carreno, Ben Coen, and Matt Waters. Al Martell had also departed for free agency, but promptly also got an offer from the Raccoons once out there. For the outfield, riches: Baskins, Manny, Herrera, Toohey (who might really end up at first base), Anderson, Dustal, Pellicano, Shedd were all on the roster from September duty and/or the DL. Some cleanup was deemed required, and for a start Brian Shedd and Tony Negrete were sent back to AAA already in November, leaving only 26 players on the offseason roster. Naturally, left-handed hitting catchers were a rare breed. I had Cristiano filter down the major league personnel to those that were basically competent hitters, not ancient, and were hitting lefty or switch, and we quickly whittled it down to five names, which already included fringe personnel, but also a few genuine stars. Giampaolo Petroni was a Gold Glover and 3-time All Star on the Miners. He had just taken in his second Platinum Stick, and had banged 26 homers for a new career-high in 2045. Word was however that he was a bit of a **** and pitchers didn’t really like throwing to him, which was a bit of a red flag. Also, the Miners probably had their own designs with him and were likely not very interested in a deal. On the Cyclones, Valentino Sicco had broken out in ’45 after languishing with the Loggers for a few years. The 27-year-old had hit for an .852 OPS and had a murder arm to throw out runners, but was quite clumsy and pitchers also didn’t rate him highly because he was moving around behind the plate so much during delivery. For switch-hitters, there was Mark Pasko of the Condors, a rather ho-hum candidate. He hit .313/.351/.463 last year, and .242/.293/.341 this year. It was hard to know what you’d get. He probably graded average behind the dish, but had never amounted to 500+ PA either. Even more fringe was a 32-year-old career FL backup mentioned just for completeness, Roger Reyes of the Wolves, who probably held a job with the Wolves because the Wolves had lost all their fur and had forgotten how to howl. There was nothing to see there. There was one more lefty, though. And he was well known in Portland. Tony Morales, 31, had caught for the Coons from 2035 through 2041, producing a steady string of above-average seasons. Never outrageous, but also quite reliable in hitting about .270 with 12 homers. He the became a free agent with the Raccoons in a valley in the early 2040s, signed a 6-year, $13.74M contract with the Condors, and had yet to produce anything for it. Three teams had so far partaken in paying off that salary, including currently the Falcons, and he was due another $2.44M annually in 2046 and 2047. He had never won a starting job for any of these teams (Condors, Buffos, Falcons), but when he played, he usually played well, except for a horrendous second half with the Falcons in 2043. The Falcons wanted to get rid of him, too, better today than tomorrow. The money was not an issue, and in fact, they might pay up for the privilege of his removal. It would allow us to pair him with Gonzalez in a platoon, which would benefit both of them, just like him and the now-departed Jeff Kilmer had split the tab for a few years. Of all the right-handed batters that were not obvious superstars on strong teams that had no vested interest in a deal, I was most interested in Felipe Gomez. He cost basically Morales money, but was signed to the Aces through 2049, which would be his age 36/37 season. He was quite steady, usually hitting just above league average. He was rated a good to very good defensive catcher, and word was he wanted out of Vegas. So that was a genuine other option here, but would not give us a platoon with Ruben Gonzalez. Other interesting cases? Well, if the Maldonado reunion wouldn’t work out there was a third base option on the market that had just taken a fifth career platinum stick and was not rated a type A free agent, career Coons torturer Dan Hutson. Granted, he was already 35 (to be 36 in May), but he represented an option. He had led the CL in homers three times (2040-41, 2043), and had still smacked 26 this year. His third base work still rated as above average. There were also a few options to upgrade on Arturo Carreno, really. Doug Richardson was a potential free agency option, and there was a Japanese free agent, Ryohei Hiraoka, 28, that had a solid profile; a patient bat with some power, very steady glove work, but unfortunately no speed and there were whole meme shows dedicated to his baserunning blunders. On the upside, he would be cheap and could be packed into AAA as insurance. +++ November 15 – The Pacifics acquire C Kyle Templeton (.218, 8 HR, 39 RBI) from the Titans in exchange for SS/1B Jon Rodriguez (.273, 22 HR, 118 RBI). November 17 – The Capitals acquire the Indians’ C Julian Diaz (.248, 2 HR, 93 RBI) for 2B/SS Joe Tindle (.254, 2 HR, 9 RBI) and a prospect. November 21 – The Thunder win the services of ex-LAP OF Juan Benavides (.311, 142 HR, 616 RBI) for $26.88M over seven years. November 21 – Former Blue Sock INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.286, 132 HR, 624 RBI) signs with the division rival Buffaloes for $22.28M over four years. November 21 – Gold Sox right-hander Eddie Sotelo (21-12, 4.07 ERA, 35 SV) crashes his car into a stationary vehicle while drunk, messing up his shoulder well enough to miss the entire 2046 season. November 22 – The Pacifics add RF Mike Hall (.287, 57 HR, 593 RBI) from the Crusaders – he also played for the Buffaloes in 2045 – in exchange for OF Aaron Foss (.281, 50 HR, 379 RBI) and an interesting but unranked prospect in C Angel Lara. November 27 – The Cyclones swap C/1B Dan Rollin (.288, 20 HR, 121 RBI) to the Stars, along with a prospect, for outfielder Ricky Correa (.274, 45 HR, 339 RBI). +++ New deals for former Raccoons? Dennis Citriniti will get $442k from the Stars; Jose Zarate landed with the Thunder for $318k; and the Loggers took in Sal Ayala for $1.08M; __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-10-2021, 01:55 PM	#3766
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	November 28 – 28-year-old OF/2B Alfonso Cedillo (.295, 142 HR, 528 RBI), who played for the Scorpions and Thunder in 2045, returns to the Federal League with a 4-yr, $16.16M contract handed out by the Pacifics. November 29 – The Raccoons re-sign 29-yr old INF Al Martell (.258, 50 HR, 356 RBI) to a 2-yr, $1.2M contract. November 30 – And the Raccoons re-sign another former player, coming to terms with 31-year-old OF/1B/3B Jesus Maldonado (.298, 121 HR, 686 RBI), who inks a new 7-year, $38.5M contract. December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 12 players are selected in a single round. The Raccoons lose OF Steve Petersen to the Wolves. The Raccoons further lose MR Adam Bates to the Pacifics. December 2 – The Miners sign 37-yr old ex-SFB SP Eric Weitz (212-143, 3.43 ERA, 2 SV) to a 2-yr, $5.08M contract. December 2 – The Raccoons sign 28-year-old Japanese free agent 2B Ryohei Hiraoka to a $400k contract for 2046. December 3 – The Critters acquire 31-yr old C Tony Morales (.269, 86 HR, 472 RBI), who already played for them from 2035 through 2041, from the Falcons for AA INF/RF Adam Byrnes. The Falcons also cover $500k of Morales’ 2046 salary. December 3 – The Falcons trade outfielder Seth Case (.261, 53 HR, 248 RBI) to the Scorpions for right-hander Steve McKeny (9-9, 4.62 ERA, 2 SV) and a prospect. December 4 – The Capitals ink ex-SFB LF/CF Jamie McGuigan (.281, 76 HR, 448 RBI) to a 6-yr, $19.24M contract. December 4 – The Rebels send 2B/1B Thomas Gould (.265, 26 HR, 212 RBI) to the Scorpions for SP/MR Luis Castillo (1-3, 2.21 ERA) and a prospect. December 4 – Boston trades OF Matt Watt (.237, 2 HR, 81 RBI) and a prospect to the Buffaloes for INF Tony Batista (.251, 27 HR, 177 RBI). December 5 – Sacramento picks up CF Jayden Sutton (.247, 8 HR, 35 RBI) from the Capitals for C Jason Lindblom (.296, 1 HR, 23 RBI) and a prospect. December 6 – The Bayhawks add a ringbearer in OF/1B Alex Marquez (.298, 79 HR, 367 RBI), while the Rebels receive SP Paul Medvec (60-49, 3.94 ERA) and a third-rate prospect. December 7 – The Raccoons swap OF Jonathan Dustal (.263, 31 HR, 155 RBI) to the Crusaders for 30-year-old right-hander Aaron Hickey (36-31, 3.36 ERA, 3 SV). December 7 – The Canadiens trade for the Aces’ SP Mario de Anda (11-7, 3.73 ERA), while Vegas receives a prospect. +++ Because the baseball gods have a sense of humor, everywhere I go, I now have $1 notes falling out of my pants. Unfortunately, they all have the same serial number ending in 123-HAH-HAH, and can't be used to buy anything useful. Well okay, I already bought seven chocolate bars at the corner store with them, and so far the old lady there hasn't noticed yet. The deal with Maldonado is flat, $5.5M per season. The last year, ***** 2052, is a player option, like he’s gonna get a better offer at 38. There are not many better offers in the league. In fact, there is only ONE player in the league, as of the signing of this deal, that is compensated more handsomely than Maldonado, and it’s definitely not who you think it is. No, Jerry Outram makes $5.3M a year from the damn Elks. Somehow, nobody knows quite how, the league’s top earner is Boston’s Joe Ritchey, making $5.6M per season. He hit .217 with 15 homers last season. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that they’re gonna be stuck with that deal through 2048. Maud, Maldo’s such a bum. Signing for less than what Ritchey gets. (Maldonado looks up from his plus-sized, golden food bowl that was part of the small print and stops chewing) Hiraoka is more of an option compared to Carreno if he keeps struggling. He’ll be assigned to AAA initially. Tony Morales meanwhile is back as the left-handed catcher – I think this will work VERY well with Ruben Gonzalez. But over there is the pile of dimes, one of which I have received for every time I have been wrong on this job, and that pile of dimes will pay for Maldonado through 20-****-48. The Hickey trade does not seem to make a lot of sense, but we’re upgrading on Sean Marucci in the bullpen there, add a more experienced starting pitcher (97 of his 220 major league appearances were starts, though none in 2045), even though it means sacrificing a switch-hitting bat. Then again, where has Dustal been for most of the last two years? On the DL. With the trade, Adam Capone (grumble grumble) and Brad Barnes were reassigned to AAA, too. Other former Raccoons? Mostly just Jon Craig signing up with the Miners for $660k in this period. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-07-2021, 08:57 PM	#3764
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 895	Love the money you freed up by the trade. Now to get Maldonado signed and find a C or two.

11-12-2021, 05:21 PM	#3767
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	December 10 – The Raccoons trade for the Gold Sox’ OF Nelson Mercado (.263, 47 HR, 242 RBI), sending AA SP Denis DeCenta into Denver’s farm system. December 12 – Cincinnati adds a new closer type in Josh Livingston (64-53, 3.06 ERA, 214 SV). The 35-year-old ex-Knight signs for 3 years and $9.48M. December 22 – The Gold Sox grab ex-PIT SP Israel Mendoza (94-108, 3.96 ERA) for two years and $4.6M. December 25 – Richmond adds former Scorpions starter Josh Vercher (115-131, 4.14 ERA) for two years. The 34-year-old righty will take home $4.64M. January 4 – Right-hander Danny Tirado (13-15, 2.95 ERA, 52 SV) is sent from Boston to Atlanta for a prospect. +++ Scout Pat Degenhardt doesn’t like Mercado at all, proclaiming him a mess at the plate with a flaily swing, but Cristiano showed me his stats and he is a perfectly league-average hitter with adequate defense and great speed, twice taking 41 bags in a season. Hitting lefty, he totally replaces Van Anderson as backup outfielder on the current depth chart (Gene Pellicano being the right-handed counterpart to him). Plus, he is signed for a rather modest $950k for each of the next two seasons. DiCenta meanwhile had cost $19k in a July IFA period a while back and had pitched to rather limited success in the minor leagues for the last four years. With plenty of young starting pitching ahead of him on the depth chart, we basically get Mercado for free. When we weren’t looking, former Raccoon (twice!) Tony Hunter signed with the Capitals for $386k; +++ 2046 HALL OF FAME VOTING Nobody was elected into the Hall of Fame this year – and nobody came even remotely close either. In fact, the majority of the players on the already small ballot failed to even reach the 5% threshold, and only five will be back next year. Full results: LAP CF Justin Fowler – 1st – 27.6 TIJ SP Jeff Little – 4th – 19.0 MIL SP Chris Sinkhorn – 8th – 14.3 PIT C J.J. Henley – 6th – 6.8 ??? C Mike Burgess – 3rd – 6.5 SFW CF Pedro Cisneros – 3rd – 4.8 – DROPPED VAN LF Alex Torres – 1st – 4.4 – DROPPED SFB SP Matt Huf – 2nd – 3.7 – DROPPED SFW SP Pat Okrasinski – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED TIJ 1B Kevin McGrath – 2nd – 1.7 – DROPPED TIJ SP George Griffin – 2nd – 1.4 – DROPPED BOS SP Lorenzo Viamontes – 1st – 1.4 – DROPPED DEN 2B Wayne Morris – 1st – 1.0 – DROPPED LVA SP Abramo Archibugi – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-14-2021, 05:22 AM	#3768
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	By January, the Raccoons more or less considered to have their team together for the 2046 season. Sure, an ace to add to Wheatley wouldn’t hurt, but aces didn’t come free. It had also not been a great winter for free agent starting pitching, and by early January the best options available on the market were Natanael Abrao and Lachlan Clarke, solid early-30s options, but not an ace for a team that had played in two consecutive World Series (never mind that Clarke would miss the first few months of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery, too). An ace would have to come in a trade, and teams were notoriously picky with letting them go. Me personally, I had taken a liking to English-born right-hander Arthur Pickett years ago when he was in the draft pool. He had gone #6 to the Stars back then, had first reached the majors in 2042, two years after the draft, and had stuck for good by 2044. He was already 27, but he had also been a late-comer to baseball and hadn’t started pitching in earnest until college. A righty groundballer with four pitches and decent control, Pickett had won 20 games with a 3.12 ERA last year, whiffing 180 in 213.2 innings in his first full season in the majors. And the Stars were willing to talk game about a trade, but they also made it clear that only the juiciest slices of the Raccoons’ prospect list would do. Trading them a major leaguer of value was not even possible – Pickett made only a sliver over $1M from arbitration and the Stars were actually over-budget to begin with. They were especially after Victor Salcido, a 19-year-old Dominican righty we had signed for $485k in the 2042 July IFA period. Salcido had pitched at all three minor league levels in ’45, with a 1.97 ERA in 12 starts in Aumsville, a 4.34 ERA in 14 starts in Ham Lake, and a 2.08 ERA in three starts as a filler in St. Pete late in the year, where he had walked 17 in 21.2 innings and somehow had not gotten destroyed for it, indicating that he would best start the 2046 campaign in Ham Lake. And while Pat Degenhardt had a penchant to despise and rate own all of the players I liked and that were dear to me, he was writing sort of glowing reports about Salcido, apart from his control, which he rated as average even for the future. Salcido’s potential was rated 14/14/9 going forwards, compared to Pickett being a 13/15/14 now. It didn’t really look like we could get any deal for Pickett without Salcido. There were also no obvious bad contracts on the Stars, except maybe the one for 36-year-old Mark Holliday, who made over $3M a year while pitching in a very average way, had a scouting report indicating that he should have retired yesterday, and was signed for two more seasons. But even if the Raccoons would pick up the tab on Holliday and then released him – Holliday had none of any of those schemes, exercising his 10/5 veto rights as soon as he got wind of the goings-on. +++ January 6 – The Gold Six former Raccoons reliever Nate Norris (24-21, 4.08 ERA, 18 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.74M contract. January 7 – Another addition for the Gold Sox is ex-PIT RF Troy Greenway (.278, 252 HR, 840 RBI). The 34-year-old joins for two years and $6.72M. January 8 – Former Canadiens pitcher Matt Sealock (135-68, 3.19 ERA), inks a 3-yr, $6.56M deal with the Blue Sox. January 18 – 37-year-old ex-OCT SP Natanael Abrao (93-97, 4.13 ERA) signs with the Falcons for two years and $6.72M. January 22 – The Condors deal RF Justin Waltz (.215, 4 HR, 62 RBI) to the Miners for a prospect. +++ Nope, no trade for Pickett. But their GM and me call each other every day at least once, just asking the other whether he will stop being so ******* stubborn, and neither is willing to say yes. This drama could stretch into February! __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-17-2021, 05:55 PM	#3769
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	Oh, and how the tug of war for Victor Salcido continued; soon enough not only with the Stars, but also with the Scorpions, and also the Miners. The more the other teams kept nagging me for the priced prospect, the more stubborn I became, hugged Honeypaws tighter, and drew a snoot whenever Maud told me someone was on the line. The Scorpions pitcher in question? Craig Czyszczon – before you break your tongue, I’m told it’s pronounced “shone”. Polish people are weird – so many redundant letters. The right-hander had a groundball tendency, not exactly overwhelming stuff, but kept the walks and the homers down. He usually had a very fine BABIP because he pitched well to the defense. He was a bit of “me first” and very intelligent, the sort of evil genius that could make a team if things went well… or break it if not. The Miners guy? Right-hander Ryan Person, who had only arrived there from Richmond this past season, missing out on a ring after parts of nine seasons with the Rebs, which were mostly sad seasons. Person had the distinction of having led the FL in both strikeouts and walks at different times. When somebody put the ball in play, actually, it usually remained on the ground (although he ha one season with 23 bombs away). The Raccoons did not have a high volume strikeout pitcher at this point – Person had rung up as many as 220 batters in a season. The current record for anybody on our payroll? Jake Jackson, 2041, with the Indians, merely 162 strikeouts. Person and Czsz- … Szyzz- … Sizzles- … the Scorpions guy were both making around $2.5M; Person for one year, the other one for two. The latter would turn 30 in July, Person would be 31 before Opening Day. I’d like a high-K guy! And the Miners would like to talk about Victor Salcido once more, says Maud. (picks up the speaker on the antique black-lacquered rotary phone on his desk) Hul-lo …? +++ February 3 – The Titans sign former Aces 3B/2B Doug Richardson (.253, 89 HR, 403 RBI). The 28-year-old righty hitter receives a 3-year, $10.36M contract. February 3 – In the same tune, the Titans trade 3B Ivan Lugo (.276, 19 HR, 235 RBI) to the Pacifics for 2B Gerardo Galaz (.254, 19 HR, 111 RBI). February 5 – After one year with the Miners, 38-year-old 2B Dan Schneller (.293, 305 HR, 1,272 RBI) returns to the CL North with a 2-yr, $3.3M contract from the Crusaders. February 5 – Ex-WAS C Manichiro Toki (.255, 97 HR, 469 RBI) inks a 3-yr, $4.86M deal with the Rebels. February 6 – Richmond also thinks former Bayhawks lefty Jake Bonnie (35-39, 3.56 ERA, 65 SV) to be a key requirement to their title defense, signing him to the tune of $5.04M over three years. February 10 – The Falcons deal OF David Vasquez (.281, 12 HR, 81 RBI) to the Wolves for MR Jose Santamaria (4-6, 4.58 ERA, 2 SV) and a prospect. February 11 – The Crusaders sign former Gold Sox left-hander Jordan Calderon (49-33, 3.36 ERA, 30 SV) to a 2-yr, $2.6M deal. February 13 – After splitting 2045 between the Scorpions and Pacifics, 35-year-old CL Antonio Prieto (51-52, 3.30 ERA, 164 SV) signs a 3-yr, $4.02M deal with the Falcons. +++ New deals for old Raccoons? only Jeff Kilmer, who signed with the Caps for $432k (thus barely making more by playing FOR them than NOT playing for the Raccoons) +++ Yes, I have been stuck on the trade screen for three days. I can’t make up my mind. Tomorrow I’ll throw a die to get it over with. __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-20-2021, 12:32 PM	#3770
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	So, what was it with the Raccoons? Were they in or were they … well, still in, but possibly not with enough pitching, just like last year, when it all fell apart in October? +++ February 22 – The Raccoons acquire SP Ryan Person (92-74, 3.65 ERA) from the Miners in exchange for SP Corey Mathers (51-48, 3.78 ERA), SP Adam Capone (4-4, 3.22 ERA), and unranked A-level OF Antonio Ortiz. February 25 – The Bayhawks sign ex-VAN 3B Dan Hutson (.256, 265 HR, 882 RBI), who joins the Bayside team for $780k in 2046. February 26 – Boston sends LF/RF Dan Meyer (.267, 16 HR, 99 RBI) back to Cincinnati, receiving 1B Victor Chavez (.313, 37 HR, 241 RBI). Meyer had previously been traded from Cincinnati to Boston at the 2045 deadline. March 9 – The Titans sign former Falcons closer Brad Blankenship (23-39, 3.35 ERA, 100 SV) on a $1.26M salary for 2046. March 23 – Ex-SAC OF/1B Phil Rogers (.234, 124 HR, 458 RBI) is a late signing for the Crusaders. The 31-year-old right-hander signs for 3 years and $6.12M. March 26 – The Raccoons sign ex-TOP C Jimmy Dalton (.224, 8 HR, 72 RBI), who spent all of last year in the minor leagues, to a $330k contract for the 2046 season. +++ I claim that this solves the problem of not enough depth in the rotation. It also solves the problem of having half a dozen so-so and demi-prospects, and when the season gets long in the tooth in August, nobody that can even pitch out of the sixth inning. Several points were achieved in the Person deal that were dear to my heart – we didn’t shed a top 15 prospect (Salcido, Negrete), and we also didn’t end up with a sizable contract in AAA by involving Corey Mathers in the deal. Capone was 26, the oldest of the guys on the depth chart, which now still included Negrete, trade acquisition Chaney, and our own former first-rounder Bubba Wolinsky – and that was only the guys on the 40-man roster. And don’t you forget Aaron Hickey in the long man role! Nobody took much interest in Brad Barnes all winter, so he remains a closer in AAA, while the retention of Victor Salcido might be the greatest victory of all if he lives up to the #6 prospect hype (do they ever…?). Our budget room was whittled down to $1.3M with the Person trade, and I had also reached a state where I was content with the roster – which was all fine and dandy with pre-season camp mere minutes away at that point. The pitching roles were defined; and in the field we had a new catching duo (sorta!), Maldo at third, Toohey mostly at first, a platoon at second, and Matt Waters at short. Baskins, Herrera, and Manny were the outfield starters. That was a very good lineup, and if we could keep the broken legs to a minimum in ’46, we’d be a force to be reckoned with once again. Dalton is a third-string catcher that has to get through waivers first upon the start of the season. We also signed another backup for AAA in late March, 29 like Dalton, and a career minor leaguer, in Bryan Deal, out of the Miners system. Deal’s deal was for meal money in the minors – Ruben Gonzalez aside, all remaining AAA catchers had jumped ship via minor league free agency at the end of 2045, so we had to restock from outside here. 26-year-old former fourth-rounder Rich Rabe would also be in the mix. Rabe was a an exceptionally good defensive catcher with the slight caveat that he couldn’t hit a cow if it was catapulted right at him. He hit .215 with seven homers in 126 games in Ham Lake last year. And former Critters? Doug Levis, age 39, kept hanging on with the Thunder for $446k; the Pacifics chose to burden themselves with Damon DeOrio for $394k; the Gold Sox added Rich Willett for $466k; the Falcons threw $484k at Jose Cruz; Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-21-2021, 08:05 AM	#3771
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,465	2046 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2045 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions): SP Jason Wheatley, 25, B:R, T:R (15-8, 2.37 ERA \| 38-30, 3.42 ERA) – Pitcher of the Year! I hear a guy from Bend, OR, broke the betting place to the tune of $65k on a $10 bet with that. Wheats roars from #5 starter in April of 2045 to the highest honor the CL had to dole out to pitchers (at least regularly), doing it with a perfectly balanced approach, keeping things on the ground and walks to a minimum (2.5 BB/9). He has five pitches, some very good, and the Opening Day Curse will without a doubt put him on a 6.50 ERA by the start of May. SP Ryan Person , 31, B:R, T:R (14-8, 3.71 ERA \| 92-74, 3.65 ERA) – swapped from the Miners just before the season started, Person throws the heat and has led the FL in strikeouts twice, adding a new dimension to a Raccoons rotation that was not keen on high K totals the last few years. Will be a free agent after this season. SP Sadaharu Okuda, 30, B:L, T:L (11-11, 4.08 ERA \| 26-19, 3.73 ERA) – Japanese import signed on the cheap and throwing three pitches, including a 92mph fastball and a neat curve. He easily did the best of all our starters in ’44 and was thus assigned as the new recipient of the alive-and-well Opening Day Curse, which didn’t fail to disappoint with a worst-on-staff .311 BABIP and some wicked meltdowns. SP Jake Jackson, 33, B:R, T:R (5-1, 3.18 ERA \| 80-85, 3.77 ERA) – groundballer with three good pitches, including a 95mph fastball, who got befallen by our Opening Day starter curse in ’43 but recovered nicely for his career-best record, a high in 6.8 K/9, and a low in 2.8 BB/9 in ’44 before making ten fine starts before tearing a rotator cuff last year. SP Victor Merino, 24, B:L, T:L (11-5, 3.07 ERA \| 15-7, 2.98 ERA) – this lefty groundballer came a bit out of nowhere after so-so cups of coffee the prior two seasons. Pitched well in control fashion, lacking the big stuff for high strikeout totals, but at least that mixed well with the Raccoons’ plus infield defense. Unfortunately joined Jackson on the DL just before the playoffs, a.k.a. The Coming-Apart. SP/MR Aaron Hickey , 30, B:R, T:R (2-0, 4.69 ERA, 2 SV \| 36-31, 3.36 ERA, 3 SV) – experienced swingman with excellent control (2.6 BB/9 for his career), who will get some bulk duties in the pen and might also be the go-to guy for spot starts without making roster moves. MR Chuck Jones, 34, B:L, T:L (4-3, 2.72 ERA, 3 SV \| 30-16, 2.91 ERA, 22 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. Last year of a rather expensive 3-year deal that has yet to backfire on us – but the writing is on the wall: he struggled in the last quarter of 2045, and his scouting report suffered some slashing. His K numbers are already well own (7.2/9 compared to 9.2/9 in ’44). MR Zack Kelly, 30, B:L, T:L (3-3, 2.75 ERA \| 18-8, 3.32 ERA, 6 SV) – left-handed sixth-year pitcher with balanced splits, throws 96 with a nasty curve to complement it. His stats took a bit of dip last year, with fewer strikeouts, except that he also came down and cut those 10 homers from ’44 in half, which is always nice for a reliever… MR Bob Ibold, 25, B:L, T:R (2-1, 3.13 ERA, 1 SV \| 4-1, 4.33 ERA, 1 SV) – very competent young right-hander that was cooked for dinner in his 2043 cup of coffee, but was only 22 then. 93mph heater, curve, and some natural sink to that fastball that keeps the infielders busy; could also be a spot starter with a crummy changeup to at least keep it interesting for the hitters (and he made three starts in AAA as recently as last year). MR Preston Porter, 24, B:R, T:R (4-1, 3.25 ERA \| 7-2, 2.66 ERA) – replaced Alex Ramirez during the 2044 season and quickly proved stinginess despite lacking obvious velocity (90mph), but keeps it on the ground and has a very nice curve; also exceptional control – he walked three batters in 28.2 innings in the majors in ’44, and while that number went up to a more reasonable 2.1/9 in ’45, he is still nothing to be concerned about. Just don’t bank on a strikeout from him (4.7/9 last year, 5.0/9 career). SU Nelson Moreno, 27, B:R, T:R (0-3, 2.90 ERA, 3 SV \| 39-39, 3.99 ERA, 4 SV) – that starting thing never worked out for Nelson Moreno, but in his second full season as a setup reliever he continued to be sturdy and to quell threat after threat. Struck out a career-high 10.0/9 while lowering his walks, and looks like a candidate to challenge Josh Rella should the latter’s star continue to flicker. CL Josh Rella, 29, B:R, T:R (4-5, 3.99 ERA, 45 SV \| 12-9, 2.98 ERA, 145 SV) – after a 2043 campaign in which he tied for the most saves in the CL in ’43 and then went 7-for-7 in saves in our 8-0 postseason sweep the year after, he hit a rough patch with some nasty blowouts in 2045. That doesn’t mean he’s broken, nor that you shouldn’t convert fourth-round infield picks into closers. It just means we’ll keep an eye on him. C Tony Morales , 31, B:L, T:R (.282, 2 HR, 16 RBI \| .269, 86 HR, 472 RBI) – acquired from the Falcons, Morales returns to his stomping grounds from 2035 through 2041, where he is still remembered as a consistent above-average hitter and catcher, and we still wonder how on earth he’s been a substandard backup for three different teams in the last four years. We specifically wanted a lefty-hitting catcher again and the Falcons basically gave him away (along with that balloon contract) for free. C/1B Ruben Gonzalez, 24, B:R, T:R (.125, 0 HR, 3 RBI \| .165, 0 HR, 9 RBI) – to say that he has yet to show off anything that made him a prime target in the 2038 July IFA period would be an understatement, but then again his career BABIP is about negative a zillion, and that has to grow itself out at some point, right? He does bring pretty good defense and a fine throwing arm, and he hit for a .760 OPS in AAA in his age 22 season – the boy can’t be all rotten. Will mostly be in a straight platoon with Tony Morales. RF/LF/1B Bryce Toohey, 30, B:R, T:R (.262, 23 HR, 93 RBI \| .272, 101 HR, 375 RBI) – steady defensive rightfielder that continued a power outburst the last two seasons at ages 27/28 before he was acquired from the Condors. Hit a career-high 26 in ’44, not including the one in the 14th inning that claimed the Raccoons’ fifth World Series title. Moves to first base primarily this season, because we can’t ignore Derek Baskins’ top-of-the-lineup terror abilities and need to cram him into the outfield to make it all work. 1B/RF/3B/LF/SS/CF Jesus Maldonado, 32, B:R, T:R (.310, 28 HR, 106 RBI \| .298, 121 HR, 686 RBI) – A World Series winner and a World Series MVP (not in the same season, though), Maldo spent a month or so as free agent before rejoining the Raccoons on the biggest contract ever doled out by the team ($38.5M over 7 years, or roughly half the annual GDP of his home country of Venezuela), and will – I hope – not break a leg as soon as he steps on the field on Opening Day. His defensive versatility of his younger years has suffered as he hit the wrong side of 30, but he can still fill in at center and short in emergencies, but is best confined to the corners at this stage of his career. 2B Arturo Carreno, 26, B:R, T:R (.246, 3 HR, 39 RBI \| .260, 14 HR, 137 RBI) – good defensive second baseman, also hits like one, and will lose playing time to Al Martell in perhaps not a straight platoon, but they might split playing time fairly evenly. Since he’ll be at the bottom of the order, he might also be a frequent double switch target. 2B/3B/SS Al Martell, 30, B:L, T:R (.276, 2 HR, 32 RBI \| .258, 50 HR, 356 RBI) – versatile infielder with solid defense and a lefty stick that was a Thunder regular at 21, then fell by the wayside by age 26. Picked up on the cheap as free agent last year and put together a fine season with spurts of production and long dry spells that somehow averaged out in the end. SS/2B Matt Waters, 25, B:S, T:R (.247, 20 HR, 64 RBI \| .245, 36 HR, 139 RBI) – good defensive shortstop that unexpectedly hit 15 homers in his first full season even though the leadoff package didn’t quite come together. Also stole 29 bases; had 20 homers and 23 bags last year, and is definitely a keeper, although the Raccoons would really wish for him to draw more walks. Him or Carreno. Somebody. Please. 1B/RF/LF/2B Pat Gurney, 28, B:L, T:R (.280, 9 HR, 56 RBI \| .280, 70 HR, 344 RBI) – one of the best players in either league that does not have a starting spot in sight, Gurney is a surprisingly speedy corner guy that figures to get most of his playing time against right-handed pitching. Also has double-digit power when employed as a regular. LF/CF Derek Baskins, 30, B:L, T:R (.343, 5 HR, 41 RBI \| .299, 48 HR, 475 RBI) – strong defender, quick enough to steal a bunch of bases, and hit .300 quite a few times for the Buffos. Unexpectedly became the leadoff guy we were searching for on our infield when he hit .343/.385/.456 this year. The problem with him? Injuries. He played only 200 games as a Coon in two seasons, after a very high attendance record (44 games missed in FIVE years) with the Buffos. CF Armando Herrera, 32, B:R, T:R (.289, 4 HR, 38 RBI \| .312, 25 HR, 590 RBI) – the Raccoons’ eye-wateringly expensive star acquisition won eight Gold Gloves in nine seasons with the Wolves, and while he kept that string going, his offensive production faltered in the second half and he posted the very first sub-100 OPS+ of his career, 99 OPS+ for a .716 OPS. It was also the first time he failed to hit .300. The deals we make… Five years to go on this one. LF/RF/CF Manny Fernandez, 36, B:L, T:L (.282, 11 HR, 60 RBI \| .284, 181 HR, 1,021 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). Also won a Gold Glove at some point, so he can really do it all. Or could do it all. Manny is old, slow, and tired, and likes to sleep a lot between eating these days. Still has three years left on a new (cheap) deal inked before last season, and at least his 2045 production was totally in line with what he had put out for virtually all of his career, a steady 110-ish OPS+ machine with plus defense and middling table manners. With Baskins forcing himself into the lineup on a daily basis, he will mostly start in rightfield, as he had at the beginning of his career. 33 RBI short of Matt Nunley’s franchise record, too. RF/CF/LF Nelson Mercado , 30, B:L, T:L (.277, 2 HR, 29 RBI \| .263, 47 HR, 242 RBI) – solid lefty outfield option coming over from the Gold Sox, also a tremendous base stealer and thus a prime pinch-running option. RF/LF/CF Gene Pellicano, 26, B:R, T:R (.231, 1 HR, 2 RBI \| .275, 7 HR, 30 RBI) – good defensive outfielder that hit quite a bit in AAA last year, but lasted only a brief stint in the summer and a few days in September before succumbing to injury. Hit for a 140 OPS+ in 46 games in ’44, which is probably a bit too much to expect, but he can bring the hurt to southpaws for sure. On disabled list: Nobody. Otherwise unavailable: Nobody. Other roster movement: MR Sean Marucci, 26, B:R, T:R (0-0, 2.42 ERA \| 2-0, 2.62 ERA) – optioned to AAA; perfectly decent right-hander we have no room for on the roster. C Jimmy Dalton , 29, B:R, T:R (.164, 2 HR, 6 RBI \| .224, 8 HR, 72 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; signed as third-string catcher on the cheap, Dalton has to get through waivers to AAA first, a place he knows well after spending most of his time in the Buffaloes system there. 3B Ben Coen, 25, B:R, T:R (.250, 3 HR, 12 RBI \| .250, 3 HR, 12 RBI) – optioned to AAA; did some fine work in the second half of the season, but there’s no room on the roster for him and Jesus Maldonado will handle the hot corner full time. RF/CF/LF Van Anderson, 28, B:L, T:L (.286, 2 HR, 5 RBI \| .247, 7 HR, 43 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; kind of a ho-hum player, flexible defensively, but not hitting much at all – at least not in the long run. Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived or reassigned during the offseason. OPENING DAY LINEUP: Individual slumps and maybe not enough lefty options kept the Raccoons’ offense to mid-pack last year, but we made steps to at least address the latter issue. The former issue is at the mercy of the baseball gods… Vs. RHP: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Martell – P (Vs. LHP: LF Baskins (Pellicano) – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez (Pellicano) – SS Waters – 2B Carreno – C Gonzalez – P) That makes three right-handers against righty pitching; they’re all bunched up (2-3-4), but it’s not like Manny or Baskins couldn’t break them up if needed. Manny ahead of Toohey could be a very legitimate adjustment. Pellicano might appear regularly against southpaws, either for Manny or Baskins, but not in the leadoff spot. Matt Waters would probably move up when Baskins gets subbed out. OFF SEASON CHANGES: The Raccoons went one win backwards in 2045 despite adding 2.3 WAR according to BNN, but at least still won the division convincingly. This year we have been adjudged to have stayed put, with a -0.1 WAR loss, 12th overall. I am not 100% on that, since the Ryan Person acquisition turned out almost WAR neutral, but gives us a clear upgrade over Corey Mathers and Adam Capone, whose non-performance in the playoffs will eventually be forgotten with excessive use of alcoholics. Maybe. Top 5: Gold Sox (+8.1), Falcons (+7.8), Rebels (+7.4), Titans (+6.0), Loggers (+4.0) Bottom 5: Warriors (-6.2), Scorpions (-7.0), Indians (-7.1), Aces (-9.2), Blue Sox (-10.6) The missing CL North teams rank 7th (NYC, +3.4) and 19th (VAN, -5.1). PREDICTION TIME: The Coons won 95 after I banked on 98 last year, and again the word on the street is that this year they’ll win a hundred for the first time since 1996. Always a pessimist, I can’t get on that bandwagon quite yet. I’d be entirely content with another 95-win season and another division title, both things that should be achievable unless the entire team is stricken with the plague. (looks skywards to check what the baseball gods are up to now) PLAYER DEVELOPMENT: After seven years of holding a top 3 spot in the prospect rankings, the Raccoons’ farm crashed from 3rd to 14th this time around. We went from nine ranked prospects (with seven in the top 100) down to seven ranked prospects, with four of those in the top 100. Who has fallen by the wayside? Well, #41 Adam Capone expired upon turning 26, then was traded to the Miners for Ryan Person. #80 Ruben Gonzalez exceeded rookie limits. And #95 Arturo Romero was traded to the Wolves, so that certainly cut into the herd. In addition to that, last year’s #90 (Alan Puckeridge) and #194 (Shane Honig) were still in the system, but no longer ranked. So. Who remains? 23rd (-9) – AAA SP Tony Negrete, 23 – 2038 international free agent signed by Raccoons 48th (-42) – AA SP Victor Salcido, 20 – 2042 international free agent signed by Raccoons 62nd (new) – A 2B Rich Seymour, 19 – 2045 supplemental round pick by Raccoons 70th (+29) – AAA SP Bubba Wolinsky, 23 – 2041 first-round pick by Raccoons 114th (+44) – AAA SP Jeremy Baker, 24 – 2043 first-round pick by Raccoons 167th (new) – INT SP Alejandro Gutierrez, 16 – 2045 international free agent signed by Raccoons 196th (new) – A SP Danny Bethea, 21 – 2045 second-round pick by Raccoons The team’s top 10 are completed by A SP Polibio O’Higgins (2043 IFA), AAA 2B John Castner (2041, 1st Round), and A SS/3B Lorenzo Lavorano (2043 fishing trip to the Dominican by Scout Guy). Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are: 1st (new) – TIJ A LF/RF Tim Duncan, 19 2nd (new) – WAS AA SP Cory Ellis, 20 3rd (-1) – DAL AAA LF/CF Juan del Toro, 21 4th (+13) – PIT AAA 2B/3B Alex Vasquez, 20 5th (new) – MIL AA SP Jameson Monk, 20 6th (+1) – DAL AAA SP Adam Middleton, 22 7th (-2) – DEN AAA SP Luis Copa, 22 8th (new) – OCT INT OF Victor Mangana, 18 9th (new) – RIC A SP James Powell, 18 10th (-1) – LVA ML C Ray DeFrank, 22 All the new additions here were drafted in the 2045 draft, except for Mangana, who was signed in the 2044 July IFA period, but not ranked until this year. #7 prospect Copa was traded from the Thunder to the Gold Sox in a deal for Ryan Cox last season. Which players from last year dropped out? Top prospect Bruce Mark jr. made his major league debut early in the season and hung around with the Capitals while getting whacked for a 5-14 record and 5.89 ERA in his age 23 season. And he is the only one of the six dropouts from the top 10 to actually reach the majors… or even AAA. Last year’s #3, the Warriors’ 3B/CF/1B Randy Wilken, stuck in AA and dropped to #14. One spot below him was the Gold Sox’ teenage international complex shortstop, who will make his professional debut with single-A Crestview this year, but the late arrival (he turned 20 in December) sagged him 26 spots to #30. The drop was even deeper for Portland’s AA pitcher Victor Salcido, #6 to #48. Nashville pitcher Andy Overy also remained stuck in AA and slid from #8 to #17. And the Loggers’ Will McIntyre, a versatile position player, remained in single-A all year and slid 23 spots from #10 to #33. Next: first pitch. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 91 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.

11-21-2021, 05:32 PM	#3772
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 895	That’s a big drop from 6 to 48 for Salcido

11-28-2021, 06:41 PM	#3778
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 895	At least nobody is out running away and hiding. 11-13 and last place but just 3 games out and a good week away from the division lead.