Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (97-58) vs. Crusaders (79-76) – September 27-30, 2055

We were even for the year with the Crusaders, who ranked right in the middle of the CL in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a +2 run differential. The games literally didn’t matter – just keep all the limbs attached, boys…!

Projected matchups:
Phil Baker (1-2, 3.10 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (11-12, 3.91 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (9-9, 3.89 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (5-0, 3.12 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (7-2, 2.91 ERA) vs. Neal Hamann (7-7, 4.31 ERA)
He Shui (20-6, 2.68 ERA) vs. Edwin Sopena (15-11, 3.48 ERA)

One left-hander cropping up here, which would be Hamann.

These would be the last starts for Taki, Argenziano, and Shui. Don’t ask how Argenziano made the postseason rotation, it’s just sad. The weekend set would feature Brobeck, Kniep, and Baker again. Position players would continue to rotate in some form.

Game 1
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF D. Rivera – 1B Sevilla – LF Culp – C Seidman – 2B Russ – P Seiter
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 3B Venegas – CF Solorzano – C Philipps – P Baker

Baker was awful, walked two in the second inning, but only got smoked for runs in the third inning when Omar Sanchez singled with one out, and eventually stole second base – his 60th of the year – despite several throws to first base by Baker. Zach Suggs drew a 2-out walk, and RBI singles by both Danny Rivera and Raul Sevilla gave the New Yorkers a 2-0 lead before Nate Culp flew out to Pucks. Baker went on to walk Andrew Russ (gnashes teeth) and Sanchez in the fourth inning, but Prince Gates was rung up to end the inning. That was five walks in four innings, though, and more than 80 pitches, hardly something he’d want to put on his CV for his playoff roster application… He was batted for in the fifth inning after Solorzano and Philipps found ways on base with two outs, but Danny Munn popped out to end the inning, which fit right in with the previous battery on display for the home team, which had three base hits and two double plays hit into (Brass, Pucks) through five innings.

Pucks did single home the Critters’ first run though in the bottom 6th. The run was scored by Lonzo, who had singled and stolen his 71st base. 76 – the all-time record – was still on his mind apparently. Lonzo was caught stealing after another single in the eighth inning. That CS ended the inning, but it wasn’t like we had an abundance of chances and with the way things were going, his hindpaws had been our best bet to get a bum into scoring position. The Crusaders were then bold enough to try and ruin eight sturdy innings by Ben Seiter with one by ex-Coon Willie Cruz. He walked Pucks to begin the bottom 9th, putting the tying run on base. Matt Waters then belted a double to put even the winning run into scoring position. Ed Crispin batted for a hitless Anton Venegas and at least tied the game with a sac fly to Culp in left. Solorzano grounded out, moving Waters to third base. And Philipps singled to center, moving the winning run across home plate…! 3-2 Blighters. Lavorano 2-4; Ramsay 2-4; Philipps 1-2, 2 BB, RBI;

Eloy Sencion got the win, our 98th of the year and his third, for one out in the ninth inning after Reynaldo Bravo got into a bit of a mess.

Game 2
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF D. Rivera – 1B Sevilla – LF Culp – C Seidman – 2B E. Stevens – P J. Ortega
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Puckeridge – RF Munn – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – CF Solorzano – 2B Knight – P Taki

Taki had a 12.75 ERA in his last three starts, which wasn’t precisely playoff form, either. He retired the first eight in order before giving up a double to Ortega, so I didn’t yet know whether to laugh, cry, or drink. Probably the latter, since Matt Knight’s single to begin the third inning was the Coons’ only hit the first time through the lineup, and they scored no runs, which meant the Crusaders went up 1-0 in the fourth when Taki put runners on the corners with singles conceded to Zach Suggs and Danny Rivera, then a wild pitch with two outs to allow Suggs to score, which sugged. Culp ended up drawing a 2-out walk and I saw a big inning building, but Mike Seidman grounded out to Lonzo on the first pitch he saw, stranding a pair.

But Taki kept ******* up in the fifth, allowed another hit to the ******* pitcher, walked Sanchez, conceded another single to Prince Gates, and even after getting yelled at and then subsequently a pop to Knight from Suggs, a 2-run single by Danny Rivera to extend the score to 3-0. In lieu of nice pitching, Taki hit a sac fly in the bottom 5th after Crispin and Knight went to the corners, which at least got the team on the board. Brassfield’s 2-out single put the tying run on base. Lonzo flew out to center though and stayed off base quite hard in this game, which wasn’t helping with the pursuit of the all-time single-season steals record.

Pucks’ triple to right and Munn’s single to also right narrowed the score to 3-2 in the bottom 6th, after which Ortega quickly walked the bags full, bringing up Solorzano with three on and nobody out. The Raccoons tried their very best to make it one of the usual three-on, no-outs. Ramsay pinch-hit for Solorzano, but grounded into a force at home plate. Knight popped out to Rivera in shallow right. Waters batted for Taki and hit a bouncer to Raul Sevilla, which the first baseman inexplicably missed and kicked into foul territory. With two outs, the Coons were running of course, and Gowin scored from third base while Crispin was waved around from second base and scored ahead of Rivera’s throw to flip the score to 4-3 Coons. Brassfield grounded out to leave a pair on base, though. On top of that, Rukizuki blew the lead in no time in the seventh, conceding a leadoff double to PH Jeff Buss, then an RBI single to Prince Gates, then had to be guided out of the inning by Matt Walters. That didn’t mean we couldn’t find more established relievers to **** up, with Bak in for the eighth inning. He filled the bases with general cluelessness, then walked Gates with two outs to push home the go-ahead run for New York. Ryan ******* Harmer got him out of the inning, getting a fly to center from Zach Suggs to strand three more runners. Before anybody could accuse Harmer of basic competence, however, HE loaded the bases in the ninth inning. Bowen replaced him, gave up an RBI single to Erik Stevens, then a bases-clearing double to §%/)§$)&” Andrew Russ. The two combined for one out and four runs; Geoff Sather collected the remaining outs. 9-4 Crusaders. Brassfield 2-5; Crispin 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Knight 2-4; Waters (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

We should just face the Knights without pitchers entirely.

Game 3
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 2B Russ – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Culp – 3B Gates – C Seidman – RF G. Cabrera – LF Buss – P Hamann
POR: 1B Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Venegas – RF Munn – 3B Brobeck – 2B Waters – C Gowin – CF Tenazes – P Argenziano

Argenziano got slaughtered for five runs in the first inning, offering two walks and four hits to the Crusaders, for which there were hardly any words. Lonzo answered with a triple and scored on Venegas’ sac fly to Jeff Buss, which didn’t quite make up for the 5-run thrashing from the top of the inning. Argenziano remained trash, pitched three more innings, but got just whacked around more for another four hits, another walk, and one more run that Prince Gates singled home in the fourth inning. Ghastly. Luke Ostler pitched three scoreless innings after that, which thanks to a genuine lack of offense on the Raccoons’ part led absolutely nowhere nice. Prospero Tenazes hit a sac fly in the eighth inning after Matt Waters had hit a wallbanger double and had advanced on a passed ball. That was about the extent of our rally. 6-2 Crusaders. Lavorano 2-4, 3B; Ostler 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

I hear the Knights are already stitching that pennant which they’ll hang next year.

Game 4
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF D. Rivera – 1B Sevilla – LF Culp – C Lathers – 2B E. Stevens – P Sopena
POR: LF Brassfield – CF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – RF Munn – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – C Raczka – SS Knight – P Shui

The Raccoons loaded the bases in the bottom 1st without the benefit of either a walk or an outfield hit. Brassfield legged out an infield single and both Pucks and Crispin reached on errors by Erik Stevens before Matt Waters pressed a single through the right side for two runs. Jeff Raczka hit an RBI single for a 3-0 lead before Knight flew out to Culp. And I wasn’t sure whether He Shui was still bidding for his 21st win of the year, but he wasn’t pitching like it in any case. He was taken deep by Raul Sevilla for a run in the second, conceded one more on three singles in the third, and then put Sevilla on base by nicking him to begin the fourth, had him doubled off by Culp, and then served up a triple into the rightfield corner to Morgan Lathers (who?), whom Stevens scored with a single to center. That was a lotta hits for what I figured would be our starting pitcher for Games 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the CLCS…

It only got worse. The Raccoons’ lineup sucked, and so did Shui. Gates hit another single off him in the fifth inning, and Rivera belted a homer for the Crusaders to take a 5-3 lead. Now, this was a good time to start drinking senselessly! The ****** Critters had two on and nobody out (Ramsay singled, Munn walked) in the fifth inning, then Pucks and Crispin on with more walks in the seventh inning, and couldn’t get a knock with a runner in scoring position either time. They were just popping out, popping out, and popping out. Bak and Sencion pooled together to allow another run in the eighth, Stevens doubling home Sevilla. When Raczka opened the bottom 8th with a single, Lonzo pinch-ran for him, but Matt Knight doubled to left before he could get a steal off. Bum! This meant the tying run was at the plate, as if that was gonna help the Raccoons any. Chris Gowin batted for Sencion, singled home a run, but then Brassfield popped out. (annoyed sigh!) Pucks’ RBI single narrowed the score to 6-5, and Harry Ramsay hit a zinger to right against Ryan Sullivan. It fell in, and again the Coons only scored because there were two outs as Gowin came home from second base even on Rivera’s murder arm. Tied game – Sullivan threw a wild pitch, then walked Danny Munn intentionally, bringing up Crispin, who singled through the right side to bring in the go-ahead run. Waters found the same hole on the right side for another RBI single, but Lonzo grounded then out to end the 5-run inning. Hitchcock allowed a leadoff single to Omar Sanchez in the ninth, but finished the game with three straight outs from there. 8-6 Raccoons. Ramsay 2-5, RBI; Crispin 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Waters 3-5, 3 RBI; Raczka 2-4, RBI; Gowin (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Two wins this week, and both were grabbed by Eloy Sencion replacing a failed right-hander.

Raccoons (99-60) vs. Titans (67-92) – October 1-3, 2055

Final series of the season, and only three games to play til the CLCS, and we had yet to break any legs and necks. The Titans were just wanting it to be all over, sitting bottoms in the division and having the second-fewest runs scored and the fifth-most runs allowed. We had crushed them so far this season, winning 13 of the previous 15 contests.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (8-8, 4.60 ERA) vs. Chad Shultz (13-14, 4.54 ERA)
Craig Kniep (1-0, 6.63 ERA) vs. Noel Groh (2-4, 3.65 ERA)
Phil Baker (1-2, 3.20 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (2-5, 3.56 ERA)

No more southpaws, apparently.

Game 1
BOS: 3B Torrence – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – CF Weir – C R. Gonzalez – SS M. Navarro – 2B Tamargo – P Shultz
POR: RF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – P Brobeck – 3B Venegas – LF Tenazes – 2B Knight – CF Solorzano

Brobeck struck out with two on base to end the bottom 1st, but Prospero Tenazes hit his first homer of the season in the second inning for a 1-0 lead. Lonzo meanwhile had yet to steal a base since the one he took on Monday, and was still five shy of the all-time mark of 76 stolen bases. So the Titans probably knew what he was up to when he singled with one out in the bottom 3rd. But Shultz and Lonzo’s old teammate Ruben Gonzalez failed to keep him on first base – or second base! Lonzo swiped his way to third base, putting him at 73 for the year, a new personal single-season best! … From there, he scored on a wild pitch after Shultz walked the bags full with the Coons’ battery, but those two were left on base when Venegas floated out to Hector Weir. Lonzo made an error in the fourth, while Pucks hit into a double play with Knight and Solorzano on base, killing the bottom 4th. He batted again with Venegas and Knight on base and two gone in the bottom 6th, then whiffed. Thankfully he had already won the Batter of the Month award after last night’s game…

Brobeck pitched seven scoreless, which was a shocking amount of competence for ANY Raccoons hurler right now, before Lonzo resumed play after the stretch with a double to center against lefty Jim Peterson. He also couldn’t resist, and made an attempt at third base with a huge lead, but was shooed back to second by the veteran southpaw on the hill. He was stranded on base… Lillis axed the 1-2-3 batters in order in the eighth, but Larry Rodriguez yanked a leadoff triple off Hitchcock to begin the ninth inning. Uh-oh. Weir was the tying run at the plate, but his fly to left only got Rodriguez home while counting for the first out, and Hitchcock didn’t suffer any funny accidents after that. 2-1 Coons. Lavorano 2-5, 2B; Gowin 0-1, 3 BB; Knight 2-3, BB; Solorzano 1-2, 2 BB; Brobeck 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (9-8);

100 wins! And Lonzo needs three more steals!

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Navarro – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – C R. Gonzalez – CF Weir – 3B Ro. Jimenez – 2B Tamargo – P Groh
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – C Raczka – P Kniep

Lonzo didn’t get on his first time up, but Munn did with a single to right, and then scored on Ramsay’s homer to dead central, giving the Raccoons a 2-0 lead in the final start of the year for rookie Craig Kniep, who needed a good result, although he wasn’t even a serious candidate for the playoff roster. He faced the minimum the first time through, allowing a single to Rocky Jimenez, who was doubled up by Oscar Tamargo, and struck out a pair otherwise. Matt Gilmore doubled to left in the fourth for Boston, but a K to Eric Whitlow and a fly to Brassfield off Rodriguez’ bat ended the inning. Bottom 4th, singles by Munn, Rams, and Raczka added a run to the lead, 3-0, but that lead was in danger in the fifth inning. Weir doubled off Kniep, and the rookie walked the bases full with Tamargo and Will McIntyre, batting for Groh, who was out with an injury. Two outs, the count on Mario Navarro ran full, but Navarro then swung through a gutsy 70mph curveball to stab the inning very dead.

Boston made the board in the sixth with another double from Gilmore, now leading off, although despite a walk to Gonzalez Kniep seemed to have the inning dealt with, hanging a K on Weir to end the inn- … except that the ball got away from Raczka and everybody managed to advance a base. Kniep then struck out Jimenez, for reals though. Bottom 6th, Munn and Crispin and Waters loaded the bases with singles off David Barnes, but Tenazes hit into a double play while batting for Raczka. That killed that inning …

Kniep offered another double to Israel Santiago and another walk to Navarro in the seventh. He struck out Dave Gonzalez batting for Gilmore for the second out, but would not face Whitlow, a rather dangerous right-hander. The Raccoons sent Zakitori and Venegas for a double switch, the Titans sent left-handed Yoslan Valdez to pinch-hit, but the rookie outfielder grounded out to Waters to end the inning. The 3-1 score held into the ninth inning, where Hitchcock put the leadoff man on for the third time this week, but for the third time this week didn’t add anybody else afterwards, and put the game into the books. 3-1 Coons. Espinoza (PH) 1-1; Munn 3-4; Ramsay 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Raczka 1-2, RBI; Kniep 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (2-0);

Sadly, Lonzo went 0-for-4 and never put a paw on base in an offensive manner. He’d be in the lineup on Sunday, but hope was not exactly high now.

…and then, a left-hander in the finale after all! Yay, Southpaw Sunday with Mario de Anda (8-11, 4.34 ERA)!

Game 3
BOS: 3B Torrence – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – CF Weir – C R. Gonzalez – SS M. Navarro – 2B Tamargo – P de Anda
POR: 1B Brassfield – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 3B Espinoza – CF Monson – P Baker

Danny Munn’s solo shot in the first inning gave him 28 for the year, but he’d need to tie Craig Bowen for bombs in a game to catch up with Eddie Moreno now. Baker added a second run for himself in the bottom 2nd, hitting a 2-out RBI single to right with Pucks and Waters in scoring position. Both tried to score, but only one made it before Whitlow’s rocket arrived and Waters was slapped out to end the inning.

Baker had a nice time the first run through the Titans order, but then wobbled the bases full in the fourth, offering a single and two walks before Tamargo grounded sharply to right with two outs. Waters lunged and knocked the ball down, but had no play, and Rodriguez scored with Boston’s first run of the game. Baker hung a K on de Anda to bugger out of the inning then. The Raccoons also had the bases full with their 7-8-9 batters in the bottom 4th, who with two outs reached on a throwing error, an intentional walk, and another error. Not that glorious, nor was Brassfield striking out then. Although he didn’t do that until after de Anda plated a run with a wild pitch… Bottom 5th, de Anda walked the bags full with Munn, Pucks, and Waters, before Espinoza grounded to Navarro, who threw to Tamargo for one, and Tamargo threw short of first and the ball bounced off Rodriguez’ wrist for a third Titans error and another unearned Critters run… Jason Monson, who had been completely and utterly useless since coming over in July, then dropped a 2-run single into shallow center to run up the score. De Anda was disposed of, and Baker grounded out to end the inning after all.

Baker completed six, allowing another run on a Weir double and Gonzalez’ RBI single for a 6-2 lead. Sencion and Bowen combined for the seventh, which also saw Monson single home another RBI single, collecting Waters, who had whacked a double. Geoff Sather retired three in a row in the eighth inning, in which the Coons scored another two unearned runs with three singles and an Ethan Torrence error. Knight and Waters got the RBI’s. Ryan Harmer would get three more outs without accident in the ninth inning to complete the sweep! 9-2 Raccoons! Munn 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Puckeridge 2-3, BB; Waters 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Monson 2-3, BB, 3 RBI;

Sadly, another oh-fer for Lonzo, who thus finished the season rather anticlimactically in a slump…

In other news

September 27 – NAS INF Nick Nye (.303, 16 HR, 122 RBI) will miss the rest of the season after hitting his head on his garage door in the morning.
September 30 – The Gold Sox secure the final playoff spot with a 4-1 win over the Scorpions.
October 2 – SFW 1B Eddie de la Roca (.292, 6 HR, 15 RBI), a rookie on the Warriors, has quite a game with two homers and three singles, and two RBI in a 10-5 loss to the Pacifics.
October 2 – DAL 1B Jay Rogers (.276, 23 HR, 67 RBI) misses the cycle by the double in a 5-hit effort with two homers and four RBI as the Stars lose to the Scorpions, 9-6.

FL Hitter of the Month: TOP C Matt McLaren (.298, 25 HR, 78 RBI), hitting .387 with 4 HR, 19 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: POR OF/1B Alan Puckeridge (.302, 16 HR, 78 RBI), slapping .374 with 6 HR, 22 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: TOP SP Angelo Munoz (20-4, 2.40 ERA), hurling for a 5-0 mark with 2.13 ERA, 32 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: IND SP Enrique Ortiz (19-6, 2.87 ERA), throwing for a 4-0 record with 2.51 ERA, 28 K
FL Rookie of the Month: LAP OF/1B Jesus Espinoza (.391, 4 HR, 22 RBI), batting .478 with 1 HR, 14 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA 2B/SS Jordan Sanchez (.233, 4 HR, 17 RBI), hitting .327 with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Pucks!

So, nobody got hurt in the last week, we just kept pitching horrendously. I don’t even know who should join He Shui and Seisaku Taki in the playoff rotation. It’s just … all… blargh.

Shui won the wins title with 20, despite not winning any of his last three starts. Adkins had the ERA title locked away, and won it by almost a full run over Tan Brink.

Fun Fact: The 73 bases stolen by Lonzo this year are t-5th all time, and 2nd-most for a Raccoon in a season.

Alberto Ramos stole 74 bases in 2030, which tanks t-2nd all-time. Nobody to touch Hugo Acosta’s 76 in a year still.

Which brings us to the last glimpse on the career stolen bags title this season. Lonzo scratched *16* bases in the last four weeks, which even got him past the elusive Chris Navarro, who got only five bags nipped this month. Andrew Russ didn’t get anywhere this month, not even against the Critters.

19th – Cristo Ramirez – 424 – HOF
20th – Daniel Silva – 417
21st – Danny Flores – 413
22nd – Ronnie Thompson – 409 – active
23rd – Jose Rivas – 406 – active
24th – Lorenzo Lavorano – 395 – active
t-25th – Piet Oosterom – 393
t-25th – Andrew Russ – 393 – active
27th – Javier Rodriguez – 391
28th – Chris Navarro – 386 – active

Thompson, 37, stole only three bases all year, but would surely slaughter the Raccoons in the CLCS with the rest of the Knights.

Danny Flores stole 402 of his 413 bases with the Rebels from 2011 to 2022. He led the FL in thefts five times from 2013 through 2017.

Daniel Silva was one of those annoying middle infielders, light-hitting, stingy on defense (five Gold Gloves), that basically just existed to make the Coons suffer; he spent 16 years from 1994 to 2009 with the Titans, and then bounced around a bit longer. He led the CL in steals six times in a row from 1996 through 2001.

Cristo Ramirez finally was one of the key pieces for the first Loggers crew that amounted to more than to padding the other CL North team’s stats. He won two Player of the Year awards, two Gold Gloves, three batting titles, and led the CL in hits five times, doubles twice, and triples seven times. Never in homers OR steals, but sometimes having a 24-year career (1989-2012) would allow for some stats padding. He never stole more than 34 bases in a year, but stole double digits as late as his age 37 season. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot with a 95.3% approval rating.

+++

The Thunder and Aces finished the year with 163 games in the standings. I was a bit confused and stirred around, and found that their monthly records only added to 162 games. I changed the final results to those records in Paint.

I found a glitched box score in the middle of the season with a game between those two where there are only a few batters and pitchers listed with incomplete records. SOMETHING was double-counted there (a Thunder win), but I can't for the life of me find out more about it.

I hope this save isn't digging itself a shallow grave ...

[Westheim]

2055 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (102-60) vs. Atlanta Knights (95-67)

For the third time, and the second year in a row, the Raccoons and the Knights met in the CLCS. The Knights had never won the pairing, but they had won the season series (5-4), and what mattered more, they weren’t trying to play around a crater 20 feet across and 6 feet deep where once a rotation had been. The Raccoons had not played well at all in the last few weeks – especially on the pitching side, starting with long-term injuries to Raffy de la Cruz (once more) and Kennedy Adkins (sob), which soon spilled into the bullpen.

The Raccoons still finished with the fewest runs allowed in the league (557) and a +173 run differential on the sixth-best offense, which was a lot more than the Knights did with their league-high 779 runs scored and the #2 pitching staff in the CL – but that #2 pitching staff had allowed *113* more runs than the Critters. So what the hell was I even whining about? – Well, have you *seen* the Coons pitch, lately?

He Shui and Seisaku Taki were still standing, but had not won any of their last three or seven starts, respectively. Cameron Argenziano had filled in quite remarkably, but had shown signs of brittling late in the season. And Kyle Brobeck was hard to explain as a force of nature… those four would be the rotation for the postseason, but more on the roster later. Besides the two starters, we were without outfielder Ricky Lamotta, and Colby Bowen came down with an infection and a fever after the season ended, although he had not been a serious candidate for a roster spot anyway. He’d probably live, though.

The Knights had their own injuries. Jeremy Baker was missing from the rotation, but their rotation was almost five equally-scary guys. They had a distinct lack of Aces going on, but it was hard to find a pushover. However, with Baker gone, all their starters for the series figured to be right-handed, which could be a problem against the Coons’ lineup.

The Knights’ lineup was mostly right-handed, also thanks to Leo Villacorta (.263, 2 HR, 44 RBI) missing the playoffs with a quad strain. Backup catcher Marco Nieto was the third injury for them.

What was left was a formidable middle of the order with Willie Acosta (.301, 10 HR, 45 RBI), Pat Fowler (.287, 23 HR, 89 RBI), and CL home run champ Eddie Moreno (.312, 32 HR, 118 RBI), each having a different handedness at the plate: switch, left, right, in that order. Jon Alade was always a threat at the top of the order, and a fine centerfielder. The team had hit the most homers, but ranked 11th in stolen bases. The Critters had finished top 3 in either category. We had the best defense by whatever metrics the bobbleheads on the sports radio were basing their assumptions and reckless predictions on, while the Knights ranked 11th in D.

We were projected by most smart-alecks to have a narrow advantage for the series.

I wasn’t seeing it.

Okay, our playoff roster. There was not a lot of wiggle room, with 25 basically eligible players, which included only 11 pitchers: Shui, Taki, Brobeck, Argenziano; as well as Bak, Bravo, Lillis, Sencion, Tanizaki, Walters, and Hitchcock. The injury to Kennedy Adkins would allow for a substitution, however.

On the batting side, we had Gowin and Phillips behind the dish; Ramsay, Walters, Knight, Venegas, Crispin, and Lonzo on the infield; and Brassfield, Munn, Puckeridge, Solorzano (who had been on rehab when rosters expanded), Monson, and Tenazes for outfielders. One of the outfielders had to go and while Monson hadn’t hit a single silly thing since coming over in a trade, we opted for the late-inning defensive replacement rather than Prospero Tenazes’ muddled skill set. The freed-up roster spot would then be used to put… (sigh) … Ryan Harmer on the roster.

That right-handed side of the pen promised to be nothing but trouble…

[Westheim]

2055 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (102-60) vs. Atlanta Knights (95-67)

Thanks to the Raccoons finishing the season with the best record in baseball, we would have home field advantage for the entire playoffs (cough), and the CLCS would start at home.

Game 1 – He Shui (20-6, 2.81 ERA) vs. Bruce Mark jr. (8-11, 4.63 ERA)

There was a bit of a lineup question. Anton Venegas had struggled to finish the season, and Ed Crispin had delivered a few raking games. And we’d face a right-hander. It seemed like a no-brainer to put Crispin in the lineup at least until he’d go 0-for-12 or something.

Shui faced Atlanta only once in the regular season and was lit up for five runs in five innings by them in April for a no-decision. Mark faced Portland twice, once in April, when he dominated, and once in September, when the whole stadium caved in on him. He was 1-1 with a ghastly 7.84 ERA. While Shui hadn’t won any of his last three games, Mark had gone 0-3 in his last four outings.

Mark Roberts threw out the ceremonial first pitch as the Raccoons tried to channel some 2020s rings magic.

ATL: 3B R. Thompson – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Kirkwood – 2B E. Miller – P Mark jr.
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P Shui

Ronnie Thompson opened the series with a single to left-center. Two full counts after that netted the Knights a walk drawn by Jon Alade and a single scratched out by Willie Acosta. Pat Fowler fell to 0-2 after that, but then humped a 416-footer and the Knights had a 4-0 lead without making an out.

Worse yet, Shui did not get out of the first inning. Eddie Moreno popped another jack, and Chris Kirkwood and Eric Miller slapped singles. Mark’s sac fly put the score at 6-0 and the Raccoons, having been harmed enough, went to Ryan Harmer for garbage relief. Cristiano, check whether we can still put Mark Roberts on the playoff roster – quick!!

He’d really fit right in. Fowler and Moreno smashed another pair of home runs off the hapless Harmer in the second inning, and then the 6-7-8 batters whooped him for three singles and another run. 9-0. The game was toast, of course. Mark pitched seven and two thirds, scattering eight hits but only two runs, one of which he even balked in himself in a sticky third inning when it briefly seemed like the Raccoons might at least make it interesting again. But between four singles, the run-scoring balk, and a 2-out RBI infield single by Pucks, that was about that. The Coons didn’t mount a substantial threat against Mark beyond that, while expending not only Harmer for over 50 pitches but also the other garbage collector, Bravo, who pitched three-plus innings and was charged with one run. And then we still had to use Tikitaki, Sencion, and even Brobeck to get through the damn ballgame.

Knights 10, Raccoons 2 – Knights lead series 1-0

Waters 2-4; Venegas (PH) 1-1; Solorzano (PH) 1-1; Brobeck 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-1, 2B;

Well, that made an ugly slapping noise on the fuzzy cheek. It was a bold statement, but it could hardly get worse in Game 2…

Game 2 – Seisaku Taki (9-9, 3.91 ERA) vs. Esteban Duran (12-9, 3.39 ERA)

Duran had gotten a no-decision for 6.1 innings of 3-run ball in his only appearance against the Raccoons this season. Taki faced them twice, went 0-1 with a 3.09 ERA, and I started to wonder who the heck actually got a W against them from our pitchers…

Taki didn’t have to do much to improve on Shui’s abysmal outing… Get out of the first inning maybe?

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by Father Nicholas Mandelbaum of St. Aedwine of Deira and Bernicia over on 27th Street, where he sheltered all kinds of murderers and robbers from prosecution in his church.

Who makes these appointments??

ATL: 3B R. Thompson – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Kirkwood – 2B E. Miller – P E. Duran
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P Taki

Neither team changed its lineup, and why would the Knights? Their starting nine had absolutely *slapped* in the opener.

They also *slapped* to begin Game 2, as Taki had one of his first innings, walked Jon Alade, and was then taken quite deep to right by Pat Fowler, who now had 3 HR and 7 RBI in this already traumatizing series. The Coons had Pucks on base in the bottom 1st, but only briefly; they did however load the bases with nobody out in the bottom 2nd, the certified Portland recipe for more heartaches. Rams, Gowin, and Crispin were all on with a pair of singles and a walk, and then Matt Waters struck out. Oh boy. But: Taki singled through the left side for a run, and Brassfield singled to right for another, and the game was tied! Lonzo grounded to Ronnie Thompson, but broke up the double play with his hindpaws, and the go-ahead run scored in form of Crispin. The inning ended with Pucks flying out to center, and runners left on the corners.

Taki plunked Acosta with two outs in the third, gracefully putting another runner in front of Fowler, who had to settle for a sharp single to center, though, and the pair was stranded with a K on Eddie Moreno.

Both teams drew a leadoff walk in the fourth; while Pedro Almaguer was doubled up by Eric Miller’s grounder to Lonzo, the Coons just left Crispin stranded the old-fashioned way. The fifth was uneventful, and the score remained 3-2.

Taki then ran a 3-0 count against Fowler to begin the sixth inning, which gave me some nausea, especially when Fowler raked – but he popped out to Waters. Almaguer would hit a single with two outs, but didn’t get past first base with a fly out by Chris Kirkwood. Taki would complete seven innings with the lead still intact, then was pinch-hit for after the stretch, with Dave Hils replacing Duran at the same time. Instead, Brett Lillis jr. blew the lead in the eighth inning. After a K to Alade, he gave up a double to center to Acosta, and then an RBI single to Fowler. Yanked, he then had to watch Bak get outs from Moreno and Almaguer to keep the game at least tied.

Pro tip for the Critters: another hit or two might help. They just couldn’t get the ball to fall in; Lonzo drew a 2-out walk in the seventh, which led nowhere, and in the eighth Hils retired them in order in his second inning of work. Hitchcock got the tied game for the ninth inning, walked the leadoff man, which had already been an infuriating pattern in the last week of the season, then got two outs from Felix Rojas and Eduardo Avila. Ronnie Thompson, however, singled home Almaguer from third base with the go-ahead run. Alade drew ANOTHER walk, but the inning ended with an Acosta pop.

Righty David Hardaway was trusted with the ball to get the Knights up 2-0 in the series. Crispin grounded out to first. Waters struck out. Solorzano grounded out to short.

Knights 4, Raccoons 3 – Knights lead series 2-0

Taki 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K and 1-1, RBI;

Arf.

[Westheim]

2055 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (102-60) @ Atlanta Knights (95-67)

The series shifted to Atlanta, probably to never return as things were going.

Game 3 – Cameron Argenziano (7-3, 3.36 ERA) vs. Austin Wilcox (17-10, 4.03 ERA)

At least the matchup was “interesting”. The Raccoons went to Argenziano, who had been nothing but an afterthought in AAA when the season began and somehow wound up in line for a rather hypothetical Game 7 at this stage, while the Knights went to 33-year-old Austin Wilcox, who had not been particularly good as a Falcon for his first 21 starts of the season, but had cranked it up with the Knights. In the white shirt with red stripes he was 9-1 with a 3.12 ERA.

Can we just go home again?

Wilcox hadn’t faced the Coons with the Knights, but had beaten them with eight innings of 2-run ball as a Falcon in May. Argenziano had pitched against Atlanta twice after being called up, getting only one out in the sixth innings, and not a single decision. His ERA against them had been good though: 1.74;

The Raccoons still didn’t make an adjustment to the lineup. And to be honest, I also didn’t know which adjustment to make.

POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P Argenziano
ATL: SS W. Acosta – 3B R. Thompson – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – CF Alade – LF Kirkwood – C Almaguer – 2B E. Miller – P Wilcox

As the disaster continued to unravel unabated, Argenziano walked the first two batters he faced, gave up a double in the gap to Moreno, a 2-out single to Kirkwood, and three runs in total in the first inning. It was bad. I didn’t know what to do with my face anymore.

Top 2nd, the Raccoons had leadoff singles from Munn and Rams, but then dawdled around a bit until Waters drew a 2-out walk. That brought up the pitcher. Great. But Argenziano slapped a single past Eric Miller to drive home two runs, and Brassfield legged out an infield single to load the bases for Lonzo, who was a strong 0-for-8 in the series and popped out to Miller. 0-for-9, and still down a run. Actually, the Coons did flip the score in the third inning. Pucks doubled to lead off, but the magic only happened with two outs. Gowin singled home the tying run, and Waters would drive in the go-ahead run with a double after Crispin walked…!

Argenziano grounded out to short, stranding a pair in scoring position, and in between the Raccoons’ two 2-spots he had also issued back-to-back 2-out walks to the Knights’ 1-2 batters again, so I didn’t know which tall building to throw him off right now. He walked Eddie Moreno on four straight balls to begin the bottom 3rd before also going 3-0 on Jon Alade, who poked and hit into a double play. (blinks)

Don’t you get excited though, because Kirkwood then hit a slammer to left to tie the score at four.

Wickedly, Argenziano drove home another run with another 2-out single, off Amari Walker, in the fifth inning. Rams and Waters were on the corners when he came up and he just slapped an 0-1 pitch through between Acosta and Miller, 5-4. Brassfield then flew out to left, leaving two on base, and Argenziano just COULDN’T ******* RESIST and walked Moreno in the bottom 5th, his SEVENTH free pass of the game. No strikeouts. Alade popped out, but Kirkwood dished a double and tied the game again. Argenziano was yanked and was in line for the L once Almaguer drove home the go-ahead run with a single off Hyun-soo Bak.

Lonzo singled and stole second against Amari Walker to begin the sixth inning, but was left on base by the meat of the order. Lonzo was also batting in the seventh with two outs after Gowin, Waters, and Brassfield had all hit singles to load the bases against Hils, who had been removed with injury concerns. Morgan Aben replaced him, and he had gotten it *socked* by the Coons more than once this season. …but Lonzo grounded out to third base, and the inning ended in favor of the seventh inning stretch.

Portland went in order in the eighth, but Matt Walters held the Knights to their single-run lead. It would be Hardaway again in the ninth inning, and the 6-7-8 batters for the Coons. Gowin led off with a fly to deep center…! …alas, Alade. Gold Glover. Out #1. Crispin slapped a single past Miller, but Waters then slapped a ball right *at* Miller. Only the lead runner was out, but things grew dim. Venegas pinch-hit, and singled up the middle, moving the tying run to second base for Brassfield. He fell to two strikes, then hit a pop to shallow left. Rojas and Acosta converged – and neither caught the ball, courteously extending the invitation to make the 27th out to the other. The plonker scored Waters with the tying run, but Lonzo then grounded out to Brian Kaufman at third base to strand a pair.

A scoreless inning by Lillis sent the game to extra innings where the Coons’ 3-4-5 in the top 10th once more amounted to pretty much nothing. Three more singles broke the tie in the 11th inning against Eli Dupuis, however. Waters, Knight, and Lonzo partook in the slowly-building attack, and then Pucks dished a deep drive to right – that was caught by Moreno at the fence. Bugger. Hitchcock got the bottom 11th, and for once didn’t put the ******* leadoff man on base. He put the second batter on base, as Acosta singled to right. Lefty sticks were next, but the Raccoons had already used up all their lefty relievers. Felix Rojas singled to center, with the tying run to second and the winning run now at first. Oh, and what about Pat Fowler? SOMEBODY had to pitch to him…! Hitchcock did – and rung him up on three strikes! Moreno bounced out to Lonzo, and the Raccoons actually won a game…!

Raccoons 7, Knights 6 (11) – Knights lead series 2-1

Brassfield 3-7, RBI; Lavorano 3-7, 2B, RBI; Ramsay 3-6; Gowin 2-6, RBI; Waters 2-3, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Venegas (PH) 1-1; Knight (PH) 1-1;

We had 20 hits and we left 16 on base… The Knights had only ten hits, but also drew seven walks – all offered by Argenziano. Seven relievers paraded through the remaining 6.1 innings, and none of them offered a free pass.

Game 4 – Kyle Brobeck (9-8, 4.41 ERA) vs. Vic Harman (10-7, 3.29 ERA)

Despite making only 14 starts, Vic Harman had nevertheless almost qualified for rate statistics, pitching 161.1 innings between the starts and another 48 relief appearances. He had been a busy guy for sure, including four appearances against the Raccoons; twice he had pitched in relief in April. In July he threw a 2-hit shutout against us. And in August he lost on four runs in seven innings. Overall, 1-1 with a 2.12 ERA.

Kyle Brobeck had made three starts against the Knights, going 1-0 with a 3.44 ERA. He had won the 16-2 blowout on September 1, but the two no-decisions on his ledger the Raccoons had eventually lost.

Anton Venegas made his first appearance in the lineup for this series.

POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – P Brobeck – C Gowin – 2B Waters – 3B Venegas
ATL: 3B R. Thompson – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Kirkwood – 2B E. Miller – P Harman

Lonzo singled, Pucks hit a belter over the fence in right, and the Raccoons opened this crucial game with a 2-0 lead! …and then Brobeck started to take the mound. He walked Ronnie Thompson on straight balls and gave up an RBI double to Acosta, throwing half the lead away immediately. He hit a single himself in the second inning, but was left on base, then threw for another leadoff walk to Kirkwood in the bottom 2nd. Groundout, groundout, … wild pitch. Tied game.

Thoughts of murder.

Brobeck then really cranked it up. Thompson clanked a double, and Alade and Acosta drew 2-out walks to fill the bases. How the **** Fowler didn’t hit another one off the tee was beyond me, but he grounded out to Lonzo to strand all the runners and keep the game tied. Lonzo also bashed a triple to left-center in the third inning and scored on Pucks’ sac fly for a new lead, then also saw it blown to bits again right away when the Knights made fun of Brobeck with three straight singles to begin the bottom 3rd. That loaded the bases, and Miller’s grounder to short was taken to start a 6-4-3 double play by Lonzo, but the game was tied again. Harman grounded out. Lonzo remained the only guy on the team that wasn’t making my blood boil; Brassfield hit a 2-out double in the fifth inning, then was singled home by our adorable shortstop, 4-3. Brobeck then issued 1-out walks to Moreno and Almaguer and was unceremoniously disposed of. Nikituki hung a K on Kirkwood and got a grounder from Miller to tumble out of the damn inning.

But there were still a lot of innings that needed pitching. Bak pitched one of them, but not a second one. He filled the bases with the 3-4-5 batters to begin the bottom 7th, still in a 4-3 game, then left the mess for Kevin Hitchcock, who was the last remaining non-ridiculous right-hander to pick in this scenario. He didn’t get it done – all runs scored; one on Almaguer’s groundout, and two on a pinch-hit single by Felix Rojas. The Knights took a 6-4 lead.

Top 8th, the Knights cycled through their pen, which resulted in walks to Munn and Rams with two outs and then Ramon Montes de Oca coming in. Ed Crispin pinch-hit for Hitchcock against the right-hander, but struck out. Matt Walters then issued two walks in the bottom 8th as nobody seemed to be able to ******* PITCH ANYMORE, but the Knights neglected to score, then had to send out Hardaway again, facing the bottom of the Portland lineup in the ninth inning. Gowin popped out foul, except that Thompson dropped the ball and Gowin got another chance. This time, he singled to center. And Matt Waters rumbled into a double play, 6-4-3. Venegas flew out to left…

Knights 6, Raccoons 4 – Knights lead series 3-1

Lavorano 3-4, 3B, RBI;

(sits frozen, with his paws in position to strangle an imaginary pitcher)

Game 5 – He Shui (20-6, 2.81 ERA) vs. Bruce Mark jr. (8-11, 4.63 ERA)

Rematch of Game 1, which hadn’t been much of a match at all. In boxing terms, Shui had gotten his foot caught in the ropes entering the ring to begin with and had faceplanted on the board, knocking himself out in that miserable game.

He could hardly to worse in the first of up to three elimination games!

POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 2B Waters – 3B Venegas – P Shui
ATL: 3B R. Thompson – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Kirkwood – 2B E. Miller – P Mark jr.

Brass and Lonzo started the game with deep flies, but both were caught by Kirkwood and Moreno, respectively. Shui then took it upon himself to try and imitate that first inning from five days ago. Thompson singled to open the bottom 1st. Acosta walked. Shui balked. And he still had a chance to get out of the inning, but then Moreno dinked an RBI single into shallow right, Almaguer hit another RBI single, and Kirkwood hit another ******* RBI single. I didn’t even know what to say anymore. Miller grounded out to short, but the Raccoons were down 3-0 immediately in an elimination game.

While Shui merely lingered, Mark casually struck out the Coons in the second inning, but then hit a speed bump in the fourth. Leadoff walk to Pucks, and then Ramsay doubled him home with one out. Gowin grounded out, moving Ramsay to third base, and from there Waters drove him in. While Venegas grounded out, the Raccoons were back to 3-2. Atlanta answered in the worst way possible, by getting a 2-out infield single from Alade, and then an RBI double off the wall in center from Acosta. For crying out loud. At least Fowler didn’t pop another one over the fence, but grounded out in front of home plate.

Down 4-2 now, the Raccoons had a three-on, no-outs situation in the fifth inning. Shui singled, Brassfield walked, Lonzo singled again. Pucks hit an RBI single to right, but then Munn – in a black hole in this series and batting .053 – struck out, and then Ramsay clubbed a 3-2 pitch into a 4-6-3 store closer.

Shui was recycled for some fancy sneakers when he gave up a leadoff jack to Moreno in the bottom 5th. Reynaldo Bravo got three outs then, but Eloy Sencion in the sixth got none. Alade singled, Acosta doubled, Fowler walked, and the bases were full with zero retirements. That was gonna be the end of the season for sure. The Critters’ pen sent Kawasaki, who sent first-pitch splitter into Eddie Moreno’s knee, and Jon Alade was pushed across home plate. ******* brilliant.

Almaguer and Kirkwood then popped out and Miller grounded out to short, but the Raccoons now had to make up three runs in as many innings. They started by not reaching base against Ramon Montes de Oca in the seventh, but Pucks hit a leadoff double to right in the top 8th. Munn grounded out, dropping to 1-for-20, and Ramsay also dropped – after Eli Dupuis beaned him in the old noggin’. Ramsay picked himself up soon enough, but Luis Silva collected him and took him out of the game. Jason Monson pinch-ran, his first appearance in the series. Gowin was now the tying run at the plate, and hit an RBI single through the left side, 6-4. Waters hit into a fielder’s choice, and Crispin batted for Venegas with runners at the corners – and he walked. That filled the bases. Tyler Philipps pinch-hit for Brett Lillis jr. with two gone – also his first appearance in the series. AND DUPUIS HIT HIM, TOO!

The *****!! … (reconsiders) … Don’t you dare hitting one more batter to bring in the tying run, you ******!!

Brassfield struck out. (deflates visibly)

Even with eight relievers, the Raccoons also casually threatened to run out of pitchers at this point. The only relievers left were Hitch, Walters, and Bak – ALL had pitched two straight days. Walters got the ball with where we were in the lineup, struck out Acosta and Fowler, and then got a fly to center to end the inning from Moreno.

Who had also pitched two straight days? Hardaway. He did NOT come in for the ninth inning. Eli Dupuis was still in there, and the Raccoons could still turn the table on this game. Lonzo led off…! He also struck out. Pucks grounded out to Miller on the first pitch he saw. That got us to, uh, Danny Munn. 0-4 in this game, 1-20 for the series. Well, it was fun while it lasted…

Dupuis walked him. That brought up Jason Monson, who had hit nothing since being acquired from the Crusaders. But we had run out of players – the only guy left on the bench was Matt Knight. Monson had to bat. In his first at-bat of the series, he singled to center. Munn to second. The Knights – still held on to Dupuis. Chris Gowin was batting. Gowin hit the 1-1 to right … and… no… it wasn’t gonna. Moreno ambled under it, made an easy catch, and the Coons were sent home to be sulky for the next six months.

Knights 6, Raccoons 5 – Knights win series, 4-1

Puckeridge 2-3, 2 BB; Monson 1-1;

[Westheim]

(unhinges locked jaw from desk)

Fine.

(brushes through his fur)

Let's see whether the pain at least gets the damn Knights a damn ring after all the damn time.

+++

2055 FLCS

While the Raccoons threw one ball on a stick after another, there was also an FLCS going on. In that, the 101-61 Capitals had home field advantage after finishing the season with the most runs scored in the league, and the fewest runs allowed in the Federal League. Their run differential was a staggering +236. Best rotation, best defense, best OBP, but they weren’t really hitting that many home runs; behind Dan Martin (.314, 24 HR, 102 RBI) and Neville van de Wouw (.317, 20 HR, 71 RBI) it was getting dim in that department really fast. But the entire team excelled at getting on base, and was also mixing left and right bats rather well, making them very difficult to pitch to. Tony Llorens (15-8, 2.93 ERA) and Jordan Ramos (15-7, 2.65 ERA), the latter imported from Boston mid-season, led the rotation, and the bullpen was densely packed with quality arms.

On the other side were the Gold Sox, who had finished the season with a 96-66 mark and were certainly no slouches, although they ranked only third in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed in the Federal League, with a comparatively puny +104 run differential. Bill Joyner (.336, 20 HR, 96 RBI), Blake Mickle (.264, 20 HR, 86 RBI), and Ivan Villa (.284, 19 HR, 81 RBI) were supplying the power, and Bill Ramires and Jake Frederick were also hitting well over .300; they were second in OBP only to the Caps, and they led the league in stolen bases. Their problems were on the pitching side, where they had lost two of their regular starters, Jonathan Fenton and Chris Jones (10-9, 3.77 ERA) to injury and had to make do with a best ERA of 3.57 on 12-4 Nick Robinson. In fact, somehow nobody on that team had won more games than Salvatore Calderon (13-5, 3.80 ERA), and Robinson and Calderon were the only qualifying pitchers with ERA’s under four. The back end of the bullpen was strong, with Jim Cushing (4-2, 2.29 ERA, 43 SV) finding new life as a closer, but the middle relief options were less impressive.

One couldn’t help but put the Capitals as favorites for the series. The Capitals had also won the only previous FLCS meeting between the two teams, which had come only two years earlier, but had then lost to the Thunder in the World Series. This was the 14th playoff appearance for the Capitals, who had won the championship four times, and the 13th for the Gold Sox, who held six titles.

Combined with the Raccoons’ eight trophies, this put 18 prior rings into the playoffs – the odd ones out were the Knights with zero golden pennants dangling from their upper deck.

+++

DEN @ WAS … 4-6 … (Capitals lead 1-0) … WAS Alejandro Silva 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; WAS Jimmy Harris 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

DEN @ WAS … 1-7 … (Capitals lead 2-0) … DEN Jake Frederick 2-3, BB; WAS Shuta Yamamoto 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

WAS @ DEN … 0-7 … (Capitals lead 2-1) … DEN Bill Ramires 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; DEN Salvatore Calderon 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-0) and 1-3, HR, 2 RBI;

Calderon does it all, going the distance for a never-challenged 4-hit shutout and hitting a 2-piece off Caleb Martin (0-0, 18.00 ERA) in the eighth inning.

WAS @ DEN … 1-5 … (series tied 2-2) … DEN Vic Ayres 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; DEN Angel Montes de Oca 3-4, 2B; DEN Marty Serna 3-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

22-year-old rookie right-hander Justin Reif (1-0, 1.23 ERA) goes 7.1 innings of 1-run ball to even the series against the Capitals. The former #18 pick made 11 appearances during the regular season. He walks five, but is helped out by stingy defense that turns two double plays.

WAS @ DEN … 1-2 (11) … (Gold Sox lead 3-2) …

Blake Mickle (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI) walks off the Sox with a single that scores Brent Andrews (0-17, 0 HR, 1 RBI).

DEN @ WAS … 6-4 … (Gold Sox win 4-2) … DEN Bill Joyner 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; WAS Mark Haney 2-2, 2B, RBI;

+++

2055 WORLD SERIES

The Gold Sox rallied from an 0-2 deficit in the FLCS to brush the Capitals aside and advance to the World Series after all, getting – of all things – magnificent pitching from Game 3 onwards. They did not suffer any injuries, so they still had all their important pieces together, minus a starter or two.

The Knights advanced out of the CLCS also without further harm done to the roster, but were still missing a few key pieces in Jeremy Baker and Leo Villacorta. Additionally, all of their rotation was right-handed, and the Gold Sox lineup had only a few right-handed batters. This would be a great disadvantage for the team, which still hoped to somehow elope with their first ever World Series trophy.

These teams had met in the World Series before – the Gold Sox beat the Knights in 2052 in six games. This was Atlanta’s fourth attempt at winning the Classic. The odds just weren’t in their favor.

At all.

+++

ATL @ DEN … 7-6 (12) … (Knights lead 1-0) … ATL Willie Acosta 3-5, 2B; ATL Eddie Moreno 2-4, 2 BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; ATL Pedro Almaguer 3-6, RBI; ATL Chris Kirkwood 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; DEN Nelson Aguilar 4-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; DEN Bill Ramires 3-6; DEN Blake Mickle 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DEN Jake Frederick 2-4, 2 BB;

Hope springs eternal as the Knights rally out of an early hole and finally push the winning run across in the 12th inning against the Sox. Almaguer (.400, 0 HR, 3 RBI) drives in the winning run.

ATL @ DEN … 0-4 … (series tied 1-1) … DEN Ivan Villa 2-4, HR, RBI;

DEN @ ATL … 5-6 … (Knights lead 2-1) … DEN Ivan Villa 2-4, 2 RBI; DEN Blake Mickle 3-4, 3B; ATL Jon Alade 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; ATL Pedro Almaguer 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI;

David Hardaway (0-0, 4.05 ERA, 2 SV) almost blows his second save of the postseason and is rescued by Dave Hils (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 SV), who gets a groundout from Bill Ramires with the tying run on third base.

DEN @ ATL … 4-2 … (series tied 2-2) … DEN Brent Andrews 2-5, RBI; DEN Bill Joyner 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

DEN @ ATL … 1-2 … (Knights lead 3-2) … ATL Pat Fowler 1-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Fowler’s sixth-inning home run, his fourth in the playoffs, off FLCS hero Justin Reif (1-1, 2.13 ERA) is the game winner for crucial Game 5.

ATL @ DEN … 2-1 … (Knights win 4-2) … ATL Austin Wilcox 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-1); DEN Ivan Villa 3-4, 2B;

The Knights have just four singles, and their fourth- and fifth-inning runs to flip over an early 1-0 deficit require a Sox error and a wild pitch, respectively, to come together, but Wilcox’ strong start and David Hardaway’s fourth save of the playoffs squeeze out the Gold Sox, who have only six hits themselves.

+++

2055 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Atlanta Knights
(1st title)

[Westheim]

Nick Valdes was so disappointed about the CLCS exit that he didn’t show up in person, or even call after the season ended. He had his assistant Yozef call instead and wave through another $2M budget increase, which lifted the Raccoons from $58M to $60M to blow – still below the 2049 budget, though, which came off five straight pennants. This one came off zero straight pennants, as I was painfully aware of.

Despite the additional dosh, the Coons slid one spot in the budget rankings, from 8th to 9th for the new season.

Top 5: Thunder ($72M), Knights ($69M), Capitals ($69M), Crusaders ($65M), Gold Sox ($64M)
Bottom 5: Indians ($43.5M), Condors ($42.5M), Loggers ($41.5M), Wolves ($39.5M), Aces ($30.5M)

The Miners slid from 2nd place and $70M to $62M and a tie for sixth place. That tie was with the damn Elks, who sagged from ranking 3rd last year.

The bottom five were the same as last season, although the Condors and Indians traded places. Also, the Aces were obviously trying to win the championship with nothing but minimum salary players.

Finally, the Titans ranked 14th with a $49M budget. That covered all the CL North teams.

The average budget for a team in the league rose to $53.4M, up almost exactly $1M from last season, while the median team budget was $52M, up $1.75M from last season.

+++

Four players had options for the 2056 season, some player and some team options. First, the two in which the Coons would not have a say split themselves down the middle. Danny Munn picked up his $5.9M option for next season, while Kevin Hitchcock said nah to his $1.5M option, which was probably smart because he’d probably get more on the market. And the Coons would have to bid along because righty relief right now was a sore on this team.

So was pitching in general, but first let’s look at the team options. Seisaku Taki had gotten progressively “worse” (more like: less splendid) over his four years with the team, including a (hard-luck) 9-9 campaign with a 3.91 ERA this season, but there was no reason why we wouldn’t pick up his $3M option for the 2056 season. In fact it would be hard to find a finer pitcher for that money. And while the basic numbers for his ’55 season weren’t great, and first innings especially, he had posted career-best marks in BB/9 and K/9. He was also only 28 years old – you wouldn’t put that on the street willy-nilly.

The other team option was the second and final $1.98M option on the 10-year deal that Matt Waters had signed a good old time ago. He had recovered somewhat offensively in the second half after a year and a half that were rather dire. He’d be 35 years old, but so far his defense was still alright. Whether we wanted more of him at second base after his age 35 season… probably not, but let him swing the stick first. If he hit 28 dingers again as he did in 2053, I might get stupid enough to sign him again.

After that we still had four more free agents (in addition to Kevin Hitchcock) and six arbitration cases to talk about and there’d be some head scratchers in there. [Full pre-fiddling arbitration table at the bottom, as usual]

The free agents included Chris Gowin, who had been a riot in 2054, and rather mediocre in 2055, and was a type-B free agent. While his stick had amounted to only a 97 OPS+, he was still well above average defensively, so I was at least tempted to forego the draft pick and make an offer.

Ed Crispin had served loyally as a backup third baseman for two partial and five full seasons, batting precisely league average for his career with a 100 OPS+, although the individual seasons were quite up and down. He had never qualified with 502 PA, but had come as close as 404, and in his full seasons had gone with fewer than 327 PA only twice. He was also still relatively young (almost 29), and was a nice lefty stick to have around. His calamity was the lack of a second position, but he just lacked the range for the middle infield. So technically we’d like to keep him, but he was also a bit of a tall order for a roster spot on a team that still tried to figure out what to do with Kyle Brobeck as a whole.

The other two free agents were outfielders Ricky Lamotta and Jason Monson. The latter had sucked the cover off the baseballs on his third team in six months, and Lamotta was still laboring on his concussion that had ended his season in July. They were hardly world beaters, but Lamotta should at least be cheap as a backup if our heart so desired.

Arbitration then. No-brainers for lefty relievers on the list: Lillis and Sencion were very good and both would be in a contract year in 2056. Then there was backup catcher Tyler Philipps, who was never hitting much, and despite offering good D and the ability to play first base, was on the list for an upgrade. The Coons had a high-ranking catching prospect in Marcos Chavez, but he had only reached AAA in the September Shuffles and was not expected to contribute in a meaningful way next year.

Further on the arbitration front we had Harry Ramsay, who had been hurt and failing in the first half, and had then rallied to hit .312 overall in the second half. Only five homers for the year, though, plus four more in AAA, where he was stowed for 43 games while we were briefly disappointed by Pedro Rojas. New contract, sure, but we wouldn’t buy in for seven years right now.

Since we’re on it – do you remember who wanted a 7-year deal last season? Raffy. (sharply draws in air between his teeth)

In 2052, Raffy pitched to a 11-12 record with a 3.32 ERA in a full season of 33 starts for the Portlanders. Too many walks even then, but he only turned 22 during that season, so there was every reason to expect him to get better.

Since that 2052 season, in three years, Raffy had made just 43 starts, going 14-12 with a 3.54 ERA (rising though). In ’55, he had pitched under five innings per start. He was walking more and whiffing fewer than ever before. And the real knack was the injuries of course, because he wasn’t making 14 starts a year for being too pretty to send out in the rain. He was more too much made out of sugar. Tommy John, a shoulder strain, and now shoulder inflammation. Since the end of May 2053, he had piled up 21 months of injury time (including his expected return to throwing in February or March), well over half the time. His newest scouting report was mildly grotesque, and Luis Silva was running out snake oils to treat him with. That wasn’t to say that we’d not throw a million into the fire to keep him in the organization, but you’d be well advised to not expect any miracles.

And then, Brobeck. The SP/3B was barely hanging on as a pitcher, going 9-8 with a 4.41 ERA in 32 games (27 starts), walking almost as many as he whiffed. Right now he was being kept around more for novelty reasons and that he was two players in one roster slot, since he was also hitting .294/.359/.431 for a 119 OPS+ in 170 PA. For his career, he was even hitting for a 128 OPS+. He was a switch-hitter, but better against right-handers, so he wasn’t mixing well with Crispin to begin with.

The real question was whether the Coons wanted him to continue starting, and whether we could afford to not do it.

Because the crippling injuries to Raffy and Kennedy Adkins left the Raccoons markedly short in the starting department as the offseason began. Adkins would miss most of the season, and whether Raffy would actually be pieced together in time for the new season was a thing of its own. Well, you saw what we ran out for a playoff rotation, and how it got schnitzeled by the Knights. Good for them – they had waited for a ring long enough – but I was concerned about even breaking .500 right now…!

Even with a $60M budget we were not exactly drowning in dosh to sign replacements, since $17M were already earmarked for Danny Munn, Anton Venegas, and Kennedy Adkins, who’d be on the DL for most of his $5.3M next year. By the way, Anton Venegas was on the roster for the entire second half, but I can’t remember a single memorable at-bat after he missed June with a hammy. He hit .167 in September/October, and .222 in the abortive CLCS. You couldn’t expect any takers for that on the trade market and he, too, had a player option for 2057.

Another $11M and change were tied up for He Shui, Seisaku Taki (aka Our Rotation), Pucks, Waters, and Lonzo. So we were spending $28M and the odd dime over that on eight players, seven of whom were available, and had no bright young pitching to fill the numerous holes.

Cameron Argenziano had pitched to a 7-1 mark and 2.59 ERA through September 16, then went on to throw 11.1 innings for 16 earned runs in his final two regular season starts and Game 3 in the CLCS (and the Coons somehow won that one…). There had been reasons indeed why he had lingered in AAA as a 27-year-old. Even when he had produced superficially nice results in August and September, he had rarely produced Game Scores better than 60. He was not a starting pitcher on a team with ambitions, in April especially.

Craig Kniep hadn’t lost a game between his five starts in September, but had walked 6.3/9 regardless. Control was getting better for him, and he was a leading candidate for a spot in the rotation despite the flaws. Right-handed relief looked even worse. Hitchcock was a free agent, the Asian Brigade had been dismal in the last few months and the playoffs, and then you arrived at the Ryan Harmers and Colby Bowens already.

So, the Coons had major construction sites in the rotation, bullpen, catching, and the outfield. Whether the infield needed a rehash depended a lot on your opinion of Ramsay, and Waters was perhaps in his final year.

At least we got Lonzo! Lonzo and the three lefty relievers would get this team far…!

[Westheim]

The first phase of the offseason began with Prospero Tenazes and Jeff Raczka going through waivers to make room on the 40-man roster for the players that returned from the 60-day DL. No takers on those two, just like the last 27 times they passed through waivers.

The Raccoons also signed 1-year deals with all of their arbitration cases: Raffy de la Cruz ($925k), Brett Lillis jr. ($750k), Harry Ramsay ($700k), Eloy Sencion ($625k), Kyle Brobeck ($490k), and Tyler Philipps ($450k);

None of the free agents would come back; Ricky Lamotta was still numb in the skull, but thought he’d merit a 3-year deal, and Ed Crispin was also looking for $5M over three years. Chris Gowin asked for $33M and small change for eight years. I was also prepared to give a raise to Hitchcock, but not $21M over six years.

Nah.

More holes appearing.

One would be at catcher, where Chris Gowin kindly turned down the offer for salary arbitration.

The November International Free Agents didn’t tickle my fancy, and so I had to consult with Steve from Accounting to find out that we had $8,333,020 in budget space to replaced most of a pitching staff and a primary catcher.

+++

November 1 – Sacramento acquires RF/LF Chris Morris (.293, 103 HR, 601 RBI) from the Bayhawks, along with over $2M in cash, for C Tim Fuller (.282, 16 HR, 133 RBI).
November 1 – The Condors swap OF Tom Rock (.253, 16 HR, 88 RBI) to the Wolves for 33-yr old right-hander Bill Quinn (42-68, 4.61 ERA) and cash.
November 7 – The Buffaloes acquire OF/1B Pedro Leal (.266, 158 HR, 649 RBI) and cash from the Rebels for two prospects.

+++

Players of the Year: TOP C Matt McLaren (.310, 28 HR, 87 RBI) and ATL 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.312, 32 HR, 118 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: TOP SP Angelo Munoz (20-4, 2.61 ERA) and POR SP Kennedy Adkins (15-5, 1.64 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW LF/3B/1B/RF Steve Dilly (.261, 19 HR, 79 RBI) and POR MR Matt Walters (6-2, 1.42 ERA, 5 SV)
Relievers of the Year: SAC CL Tim Moore (6-1, 2.38 ERA, 41 SV) and POR MR Matt Walters (6-2, 1.42 ERA, 5 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P SFW Ricardo Montoya – C TOP Matt McLaren – 1B DEN Bill Joyner – 2B WAS Mark Haney – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS NAS Nick Nye – LF WAS Dan Martin – CF PIT Josh Abercrombie – RF LAP Matt Diskin
Platinum Sticks (CL): P POR Kyle Brobeck – C CHA Luis Miranda – 1B IND Bill Quinteros – 2B SFB Armando Montoya – 3B IND Bobby Anderson – SS NYC Zach Suggs – LF ATL Eddie Moreno – CF IND Mario Ceballos – RF CHA Danny Ceballos
Gold Gloves (FL): P LAP Jim Reynolds – C WAS Mitch Korfhage – 1B DEN Bill Joyner – 2B SFW Mike DeFusco – 3B RIC Danny Espinosa – SS WAS Jesus Nunez – LF WAS Dan Martin – CF LAP Noah Caswell – RF WAS Neville van de Wouw
Gold Gloves (CL): P LVA Noah Hollis – C OCT Eric Monaghan – 1B MIL David Worthington – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B NYC Prince Gates – SS VAN Dan Mullen – LF CHA William Kulak – CF IND Mario Ceballos – RF SFB Matt Brown

I am very glad that Matt Walters won the Rookie and Reliever of the Year awards (and quite unexpectedly!). Maybe I can then let Hitchcock walk and make Walters the closer without the Agitator calling for heads to roll.

Second to Kennedy Adkins in the Pitcher of the Year voting? He Shui. Thankfully votes were collected ahead of the CLCS.

[Westheim]

The longer I looked at the list of things the Raccoons needed to add to the roster, the more despaired I became. It just wasn’t possible to find quality replacements for everything with what dosh we had available, and Nick Valdes also wouldn’t open his pockets any further.

Now, a complete teardown of the roster was also now what I had in mind, but it looked like 2056 would be a lost year. Of course the Puckses and Lonzos and Brassfields and so on would all still be here in 2057 if they weren’t dropped down some well now, but f.e. Danny Munn was entering a contract year. There was no reason to believe that he was going to re-sign for less than $5M after his current $5.9M/year contract ended. So the plan that slowly came together in late November was not for a buying spree (which we could not afford anyway), nor for a teardown, but a retooling. The goal was not necessarily to be on top in 2056, but have a strong team in 2057, when Kennedy Adkins would be available again.

So, if some positions were not perfectly filled (looks at the rectangle behind the dish) for next year, that would not be so tragic. We’re putting a team together for 2057.

This would likely include Anton Venegas, who was in the last fixed year of his contract, but had a player option for 2057 that he was guaranteed to pick up, and no, there was not a team in the league ready to assume his contract after his invisible second half. At least he was still picking it at third base, where he’d mingle with Brobeck, unless I could find a way to turn Brobeck into something useful…

+++

November 21 – The Raccoons trade 31-yr old RF/LF Danny Munn (.256, 173 HR, 631 RBI) and 27-yr old SS/2B Matt Knight (.247, 7 HR, 68 RBI) to the Scorpions for a package including 29-yr old SP Sean Sweeton (75-57, 3.56 ERA, 1 SV), 30-yr old OF/1B Steve Royer (.279, 50 HR, 409 RBI), and 28-yr old MR Mike Lane (16-10, 3.34 ERA, 10 SV).
November 22 – New York picks up CF Carlos Mata (.258, 11 HR, 63 RBI) from the Capitals for C Morgan Lathers (2-for-5, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and a prospect.
November 23 – Richmond acquires OF/3B Jonathan Monroe (.259, 16 HR, 156 RBI) from the Stars for two prospects.
November 25 – The Blue Sox ink ex-POR CL Kevin Hitchcock (34-24, 2.86 ERA, 107 SV) to a 3-yr, $9.12M contract.
November 25 – Dallas also adds a closer in former Aces right-hander Trent O’Sullivan (49-81, 3.25 ERA, 379 SV), who signs on for $6.7M over three years.
November 25 – The Bayhawks snatch 1B/C Jon Mittleider (.300, 39 HR, 558 RBI) from their division rivals, the Condors. The 32-year-old signs a 3-yr, $6.06M contract.
November 25 – INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.272, 205 HR, 1,091 RBI), who played in 132 games and stole 16 bases as a 42-year-old, returns for another year with the Capitals on a $2.76M contract.
November 26 – At almost age 35, career Warriors LF Mario Villa (.340, 155 HR, 1,078 RBI) jumps leagues to the Crusaders for a 2-yr, $5.28M contract.
November 27 – The Raccoons send MR Hyun-soo Bak (13-7, 3.24 ERA, 2 SV) to Dallas for the services of C Matt Fiore (.279, 23 HR, 149 RBI).
November 28 – The Falcons scoop former IND 3B Bobby Anderson (.267, 110 HR, 716 RBI) on a 4-yr, $24.4M contract.
November 30 – The Stars get OF/2B Dave Roura (.246, 26 HR, 213 RBI) from the Thunder in exchange for outfielder Danny Barton (.274, 37 HR, 156 RBI) and a prospect.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 14 players are selected. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 2 – Longtime Blue Sox 1B Alejandro Ramos (.287, 250 HR, 986 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $14.4M contract with the division rivals Capitals.
December 2 – Ex-CIN/MIL 2B/SS Ricky Lopez (.238, 78 HR, 398 RBI) gets signed by the Stars for three years and $6.96M.
December 2 – The Falcons snatch ex-IND OF Mario Ceballos (.243, 25 HR, 231 RBI) with an offer of $4.68M over two years.
December 3 – The Capitals also add former Raccoons catcher Chris Gowin (.269, 54 HR, 333 RBI) with a bag containing $22.56M to be spent over six years. The Raccoons receive a supplemental-round pick for compensation.
December 3 – Vancouver inks ex-LAP INF Rick Price (.289, 108 HR, 759 RBI) for two years and $6.08M.

+++

Look out – the Falcons now have all the Ceballoses.

The big trade with Sacramento had coup potential, despite being almost neutral in terms of WAR (we gained just 0.4 WAR from the deal). The Raccoons took a hit to the middle of the lineup for sure, but they improved in various aspects. First, we got a bitterly needed starting pitcher that had another three years on his contract for less than $6M total. On the other paw, Steve Royer, a glove-first centerfielder, was surely overpaid at three more years of $3.12M annually. So those two would somehow add up. Mike Lane meanwhile was a very serviceable right-handed reliever, and the Raccoons had desperately needed one of those. He might assume setup duties.

Royer’s addition and switch-hitting bat would make him the centerfield starter and allow for Pucks to shift to the corner outfield, which was a much better defensive position for him, and then between him and Brassfield it would be Brass who had the slightly better arm (although none of the pair had a murder arm for rightfield), so Brass would go to right in a shift of positions. I hadn’t been keen on trading Matt Knight, but a defensive middle infielder was decidedly easier to find on the cheap than a quality starting pitcher… Danny Espinoza would not take over the role, since he didn’t play second base.

We had only ten position players on the extended roster at this point, which included just one catcher and two big maybes in Espinoza and Solorzano.

Then came the Fiore trade. There were ups and downs about him, mostly him being a lefty-hitting catcher and the fact that he was already 32 years old, having seen his youth wither on the vine that was the Buffos’ AAA team. Bak’s problem in the second half had been a hostile BABIP among fewer strikeouts, but we weren’t averse to trading some of the bits and pieces that had gotten us absolutely nowhere in the last months and the abortive CLCS.

Other paw prints under new contracts? So far only Ricky Lamotta, who joined the champion Knights for $438k;

[Westheim]

The Winter Meetings began with the Raccoons getting a right-handed bench bat for the infield in Adriano Chavez, who had been around six different teams in the last five years, so had lots of experience as an unloved rental. He was almost 33 years old, but he wasn’t supposed to hit the Raccoons to a World Series in the far or near future anyway.

+++

December 4 – 41-year-old ex-VAN 2B Tony Aparicio (.291, 288 HR, 1,518 RBI) signs a $4.52M contract for 2056 with the Buffaloes. Aparicio is 119 hits shy of 3,000 for his career.
December 7 – The Raccoons sign ex-SFB/MIL INF Adriano Chavez (.288, 7 HR, 356 RBI) to a $700k contract.
December 7 – Nashville signs up 39-year-old former Pacifics SP Brad Blankenship (131-147, 3.93 ERA) for a 2-yr, $6.24M contract.
December 7 – The Indians acquire SP Jeremy Fetta (9-11, 4.39 ERA) from the Aces, parting with two prospects, including #78 SP Hugo Saucedo.
December 7 – Right-handed swingman Noel Groh (17-48, 4.28 ERA, 10 SV) is traded from the Titans to the Crusaders for #40 prospect SP Justin Martin.
December 8 – The Scorpions add a closer, 30-year-old Willie Cruz (31-33, 3.19 ERA, 189 SV), who last pitched for the Crusaders, for $6.24M over two years.
December 8 – Milwaukee adds MR Tony Torres (10-2, 3.26 ERA, 1 SV) from the Scorpions for two prospects (including #52 CL Joe Hoke), while sending CL Dave Lister (14-32, 4.91 ERA, 119 SV) to the Bayhawks for two other prospects.
December 9 – The Loggers trade another pitcher to the Bayhawks in another trade, parting with SP Jeff Fox (27-19, 4.67 ERA) for a prospect.
December 9 – The Titans grab veteran right-handed SP Kodai Koga (102-114, 3.96 ERA) for 2-yr, $4.48M.
December 9 – 27-year-old RF/LF Dave Gonzalez (.246, 34 HR, 166 RBI) is dealt from Boston to Nashville along with a prospect in exchange for C Jorge Ortiz (.237, 35 HR, 164 RBI), who is 30 years old.
December 10 – The Indians get 25-year-old OF Chris Briggs (.246, 13 HR, 67 RBI) and a prospect from the Condors in a trade for C Manny Poindexter (.278, 38 HR, 345 RBI).
December 11 – The Raccoons acquire right-handed swingman Fernando Salazar (39-46, 4.25 ERA, 1 SV) from the Warriors for SP Phil Baker (11-10, 4.16 ERA).
December 14 – Denver picks up ex-OCT SP Victor Mondragon (111-125, 4.18 ERA) on a $1.88M deal.
December 15 – The Thunder sign the Capitals’ former starting catcher, 32-year-old Mitch Korfhage (.276, 43 HR, 351 RBI) on a 2-yr, $10.56M deal.

+++

The Salazar addition is not spectacular. We upgraded from one quad-A, swingman-type right-hander to another, if upgraded is even the correct term. Salazar sure has more stuff. Maybe getting a better defense behind him than he had in Sioux Falls for all those years will actually help him post good results. While he was planned in for the pen and as potential spot starter, he also still had all his options; the Warriors had taken him from the Condors in the Rule 5 draft many years ago, and had never optioned him to AAA.

Korfhage was on my radar because we had a need, and after a slow start to his career he had really put some nice seasons together recently, but he was not very adept behind the dish and the last thing we needed was a clumsy backstop. We already had clumsy hurlers…

These ex-Critters moved into new tree holes: Jason Monson, successless with three different teams this past season, inked with the Cyclones for 2-yr, $2.44M; the Condors added Paul Crisler for two years and $1.32M;

[Westheim]

My main concern in the second half of December was not last-minute presents – Maud had been doing my Christmas shopping including wrapping for years – but Mayor Smith calling into the office. She was thinking of the children and was requesting that we’d stop playing midweek day games outside of the holidays, so parents wouldn’t pick up their kids from school at noon for a “doctor’s appointment” at 1:05 PM any longer. I had none of that. First, I asked the mayor, whether she had ever been outside at ten at night on a rainy April evening, which of course she hadn’t – she had servants for errands of course. She threatened with a city ordinance, I threatened with our legal department – Chad’s uncle, who had much experience in litigating injuries real and perceived against any- and everybody in 15 Pacific and Midwestern states.

Besides that, the mayor complained about the unsavory neighborhood the ballpark was in, which was not a complaint I even understood. Right around the ballpark there was a scrapyard, three liquor stores, the city dump was just three blocks away, and just a bit up the banks of the Willamette was a wildlife preserve where birds were nesting and laying delicious eggs. What more could the Raccoons want from their ballpark infrastructure?

+++

December 18 – The Loggers sign former Blue Sox closer Ryan Dow (42-39, 3.15 ERA, 207 SV) to a 2-yr, $6.7M contract.
December 20 – The Knights add pitching, signing not one, but two formerly Canadiens hurlers in one go: SP Terry Herman (105-69, 3.51 ERA) gets $10.8M over two years, and CL Ruben Mendez (24-27, 3.53 ERA, 85 SV) grabs $12.2M over three years.
December 26 – 36-year-old veteran ex-NYC RF/LF Danny Rivera (.282, 342 HR, 1,473 RBI) snatches a 2-yr, $10M contract with the Bayhawks.
January 2 – The Crusaders secure the services of lefty closer Ben Lussier (29-36, 3.45 ERA, 169 SV) for $9.84M over three years. The 29-year-old was with the Warriors previously.
January 5 – Cincinnati inks ex-LAP SP Larry Broad (57-71, 4.53 ERA) to a 2-yr, $3.34M deal.

+++

What are the Raccoons doing? Well, we were trying to get a left-handed infielder to back up the left side or the guys up the middle (or, heck, both!), but haven’t been lucky so far.

Ed Crispin signed with Tijuana for $710k; Adam Bates went to Washington for $482k; Tony Lopez was off to Salem for $484k;

+++

HALL OF FAME VOTING RESULTS

The electorate enshrined closer Josh Boles in the Hall of Fame this year. The 3-time Reliever of the Year (2027, 2035, 2038) led the league in saves twice in 2028 and 2029, both with the Raccoons, his first major league team, which signed him on a minor league contract after he was let go by the Warriors, who originally drafted him with the #59 pick in 2022. They came to regret that decision, because not only did Boles sign games with the Raccoons, but also their division rivals in Denver and Dallas during his career. In fact, Boles pitched for eight major league teams, getting at least 40 saves for five of them, and 85+ for four. In total he saved 508 games in a 19-year career, going 71-85 with a 2.94 ERA, appearing in 1,114 games and striking out 1,296 batters. He made the All Star Game 11 times, and won two rings, both with the Raccoons in 2026, his rookie season, and 2028.

In fact, the greatly scattered record of Boles in terms of employers made it a bit hard to select a team logo on his plaque, but the committee went with the Raccoons, who he saved the 132 games for (most of all the teams he played for), got one Reliever of the Year award with, and won both of his rings with.

Boles was the 11th player inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Raccoon (most of all teams), joining, last chronologically but first alphabetically: Nick Brown, Angel Casas, Yoshi Nomura, Tetsu Osanai, Alberto Ramos, Neil Reece, Mark Roberts, Kisho Saito, Jonny Toner, and Grant West.

Full results:

POR CL Josh Boles – 7th – 82.5 – INDUCTED
POR LF Manny Fernandez – 3rd – 73.1
??? CL Chris Henry – 5th – 63.6
SAL C Morgan Kuhlmann – 5th – 16.2
PIT SP Roberto Pruneda – 3rd – 10.7
BOS SP Rich Willett – 4th – 6.8
SAL 1B Bill Jenkins – 1st – 6.5
SAL CL Rico Sanchez – 2nd – 6.2
DAL SP Eric Weitz – 5th – 5.2
CHA 3B Jose Farfan – 1st – 3.6 – DROPPED
DAL SS Jon Ramos – 3rd – 2.9 – DROPPED
SAC RF Carlos Cortes – 1st – 2.3 – DROPPED
CHA 2B Oscar Aguirre – 2nd – 1.9 – DROPPED
CIN SP Willie Gallardo – 1st – 1.3 – DROPPED
CHA SP Oscar Flores – 1st – 1.0 – DROPPED
RIC RF Joe Ritchey – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED
??? SP Josh Vercher – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

By the middle of January, the Raccoons had 30 players on the extended roster in some capacity or other, which included Adkins and Raffy, who were both still on the mend, and of whom only the latter was expected back for Opening Day. All in all the total included 18 pitchers and just 12 position players – and even then there was a bullpen spot behind Walters, Lillis, Lane, Tanizaki, Sencion, and perhaps Reynaldo Bravo that we had not decided on. This was while expecting Raffy to be in the rotation, and the last man in the pen would have to be a right-hander, of which after the departures of Hyun-soo Bak and Phil Baker were only three left: Harmer, Bowen, and new arrival Fernando Salazar. The latter’s role would largely be determined by what became of Raffy. If Raffy was not in the rotation, Salazar was the likely fifth starter behind Shui, Taki, Sweeton, and Brobeck. If not, he might be the long man in the pen.

Cameron Argenziano and Craig Kniep both figured to return to AAA with that arrangement. Argenziano had long been out of options, but Kniep had one more option left for the 2056 season. The last guy on the fringes of the roster was Geoff Sather, who had no hope as a left-hander and was assigned back to AAA at this point.

Unless a new right-handed catcher fell out of the sky yet, the Coons’ backstops were set, and the starting personnel in fair ground were pretty obvious. Rams, Waters, Lonzo, and Venegas on the infield, and Pucks, Royer, and Brass in the outfield. The leftovers were Daniel Espinoza, new signing-on-the-cheap Adriano Chavez, and lefty outfielder Carlos Solorzano, who had batted for a 65 OPS+ in spotty service in his rookie season. So the Coons had some breathing room in the outfield for sure.

There were four outfielders in AAA that were on the 40-man roster, and that didn’t even include well-travelled Prospero Tenazes, who was a career .260/.299/.331 batter and an expert at clearing waivers, and would also turn 30 in ’56.

The others were lefty corner outfielder Humberto Hernandez, who was going to be 28 in early April and had made seven appearances for the Raccoons in a spot of bother this year, but was not much of a consideration. The trio of 23- and 24-year-olds, however… OF Todd Oley had come over with Kniep from the Caps in July, and had hit .298/.356/.396 in 56 games for the Alley Cats, his first exposure at the AAA level, while also turning 23 years old within a month of his arrival in the organization. Center was the left-handed batters’ best position, although with more training to get used to the position he’d also be a frightening defensive rightfielder, possessing a killer arm to scare runners with. He also had great speed, stealing 30 bags between AA Lincoln and AAA St. Pete in ’55. It was more about *when* he’d come up this year, not *if*.

LF/RF Elijah Johnson had hit .278 with 9 homers in his first full AAA season (just 14 games in ’54), and LF/RF David Flores had missed most of the year with a broken kneecap, batting .262 with 2 homers in just 42 games. Johnson batted lefty with mediocre defense, while Flores was a switch-hitter with better defense, and also a keen eye, good enough for a .401 OBP in his short season, although he was not the fastest kid on the block and had stolen zero bases in zero attempts.

So one possible move was to bring up Oley, although he wasn’t pairing well with Royer, who was a switch-hitter with almost perfectly even splits. Oley’s splits were negligible in fact; it was hard to gain anything from platooning those two. The most pronounced splits among our current outfielders were actually on Pucks, who could really struggle against left-handed pitching. So, Oley spelling Pucks against southpaws and otherwise splitting time with Royer…? Don’t forget that Ramsay had similar splits to Pucks and Pucks could move to first base, too.

All this was well and fine, but maybe the Raccoons could use another guy actually hitting left-handers better than right-handers…

+++

January 14 – NAS 2B/SS/RF Jake Groff (.274, 10 HR, 117 RBI) retires from baseball at age 27 after two failed surgeries to properly glue his broken kneecap back together.
January 15 – Indianapolis acquires SP Bill Lawrence (16-21, 4.93 ERA) from the Aces for two prospects.
January 24 – SP Adam Middleton (82-61, 3.98 ERA), age 32 and most recently with the Canadiens, signs up with the Gold Sox for five years and $22M.
January 29 – Another starting pitcher signs with Denver, as the Sox sign up ex-WAS Tony Llorens (80-86, 3.51 ERA) on a 3-yr, $11.84M contract.
January 30 – The Raccoons sign up ex-NYC OF Oscar Caballero (.268, 59 HR, 526 RBI) to a $750k contract for the 2056 season.
February 1 – The Canadiens add ex-CIN SP Martino Barbiusa (51-54, 4.01 ERA, 2 SV) with a $1.38M offer for 2056.
February 11 – Vancouver also grabs former Crusaders starter Edwin Sopena (86-71, 3.70 ERA) with a hefty 5-yr, $29.7M contract.
February 15 – Erstwhile Cyclones outfielder Chad Williams (.294, 77 HR, 468 RBI), 31 years old, signs a 3-yr, $5.1M deal with the Crusaders.
February 16 – The Cyclones acquire RF/LF Rick Colwill (.290, 10 HR, 114 RBI) from the Scorpions for MR Taylor Stabile (55-43, 3.78 ERA, 23 SV) and a prospect.

+++

Caballero is a veteran switch-hitter, playing for his pension this year, who at age 32 was still a very good defender and had extra-base power, having led the CL in triples three times in a row from 2051 through 2053. He was also better at hitting left-handers, adding to the mix the Raccoons had going on in the outfield. The downside was that he had a real knack of getting hurt and had missed 33+ games each of his three seasons in New York.

To get Caballero onto the 40-man roster, which was choke-full, Humberto Hernandez was passed through waivers and DFA’ed, but there were shockingly no takers on a 27-year-old casual corner outfielder with less than two pawsful of ABL games.

Raffy started throwing in the second week of February. He was now 25, off the third straight injury-addled season, and I was not at all comforted by his first bullpen in earnest resulting in Matt Fiore spending most of his team retrieving balls from the backstop.

Past Dumpster Divers with new contracts: Shuta Yamamoto was back to the Caps for $950k; the Loggers got themselves Vic Scott for $470k; Eric Reese joined the Scorpions for $400k; the Knights added Ricky Jimenez for $520k;

[Westheim]

February 19 – The Rebs acquire C/1B Michael Lefebvre (.263, 32 HR, 221 RBI) for INF Jorge Henriquez (.257, 10 HR, 77 RBI) and a prospect.
February 22 – Vancouver signs up veteran righty reliever Kellen Lanning (128-73, 3.41 ERA, 9 SV) on a 2-yr, $3.02M contract. The 35-year-old former starter was with the Gold Sox in the last few seasons.
February 25 – In an odd deal, the Knights acquire INF Matt Wartella (.260, 3 HR, 70 RBI) from the Warriors for 39-yr old SP Dave Hils (188-176, 3.76 ERA, 3 SV), almost $2M in cash, and a prospect.
March 17 – The Indians add ex-BOS RF Will McIntyre (.275, 73 HR, 475 RBI) for 2-yr, $4M.
March 20 – Washington adds ex-LVA C Ray DeFrank (.254, 42 HR, 353 RBI) with a 2-yr, $3.92M deal.

[Westheim]

2056 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2055 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP He Shui, 30, B:R, T:R (20-6, 2.81 ERA | 38-14, 2.65 ERA) – four pitches, a 94mph fastball, and very good control. Won Rookie of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in his first season, but had to settle for the most wins last year while Kennedy Adkins took the Pitcher of the Year award. Posted the fewest walks per nine innings (1.9) in ’55. He also does all of this silently while minding his own business. Seriously, I don’t remember him saying a word even once. Might be mute after all.
SP Seisaku Taki, 28, B:R, T:R (9-9, 3.91 ERA | 50-39, 3.22 ERA) – right-handed groundballer that was imported from Japan to some success, like, uh, winning both Rookie of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in his debut season (like He Shui!), PLUS a Gold Glove. Taki has three very good pitches, throws 95, and should continue to be a delight, even though his ERA keeps creeping up every year. The good news is that he’s in a contract year. The bad news is… that he’s in a contract year (kinda, he’ll be under team control for an additional year, but at the mercy of the arbitrator).
SP Sean Sweeton *, 30, B:R, T:R (17-10, 2.91 ERA | 75-57, 3.56 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired from the Scorpions in the sweeping Danny Munn trade, Sweeton brings four good pitches, a solid track record for a slumbering team, and good behavior to the plate.
SP/3B Kyle Brobeck, 28, B:S, T:R (9-8, 4.41 ERA | 36-32, 4.31 ERA, 1 SV) – Brobeck is a weird, weird pitcher slash third baseman. He barely strikes out more batters than he walks, gives up long ones, often gets bogged down by the middle innings, but he’s also a career .316/.374/.439 batter that is now making a few dozen appearances at third base every season and would be a fabulous novelty star on a lesser team.
SP Rafael de la Cruz, 25, B:L, T:R (4-5, 4.09 ERA | 32-32, 3.66 ERA) – golden boy returned from his torn UCL in June of 2054… and struggled all the way to the end of the season. Came back to start 2055, then tore the next stupid thing. He has made only 43 starts in three seasons, and his control has gotten progressively worse, while strikeouts are going down. He constantly seems to be in a 3-2 count, meaning his starts are short thanks to low-ish stamina, and he went only 4.8 innings per start before keeling over in ‘55. Maybe I should have traded him for goodies at some point……….

MR Reynaldo Bravo, 24, B:R, T:R (0-0, 3.60 ERA | 0-0, 8.74 ERA) – good fastball/curveball, not such a great rotator cuff. Missed most of 2055 and made only a few token appearances in the Bigs over the last two seasons (11.1 IP total), but the stuff is there.
MR Takenori Tanizaki, 28, B:R, T:R (0-7, 2.95 ERA, 1 SV | 0-7, 2.95 ERA, 1 SV) – that ERA and that record don’t seem to match, but somehow he was always there to accelerate a meltdown, despite walking less than two batters per nine innings. Good splitter, strong control, and maybe better luck this time. Please.
MR Eloy Sencion, 29, B:L, T:L (4-2, 2.66 ERA, 1 SV | 20-5, 3.17 ERA, 8 SV) – fastball, vicious slider, and by now has firmly established himself in the majors after apparently forgetting how to pitch in 2052 and taking a nosedive all the way to Ham Lake as a 25-year-old. Pitched without many complaints last year, although of our three left-handed relievers he’s the one I’m least inclined to let run into the right-handed lumber factory.
SU Mike Lane *, 28, B:R, T:R (6-5, 3.36 ERA, 2 SV | 16-10, 3.34 ERA, 10 SV) – right-hander with a fastball and curve and quite variable results as far as his K/9 goes, which has been all over the place between 5.7 and 9.3 in his four seasons as a regular with the Miners and Scorpions, from where he was acquired along with Sweeton and Royer in the Danny Munn trade.
SU Brett Lillis jr., 30, B:L, T:L (5-2, 2.29 ERA, 6 SV | 15-14, 3.18 ERA, 12 SV) – second-generation lefty reliever in the Coons pen – well, whenever he’s not injured. Very steady, also against right-handers, and might split eighth-inning duties with Lane.
SP/MR Fernando Salazar *, 31, B:L, T:R (4-7, 4.66 ERA | 39-46, 4.25 ERA, 1 SV) – acquired from the Warriors, where he had been doing swingman duty for all five of his major league seasons, with his 184 career games split nearly halfway down the middle between starts (97) and relief appearances (87). Three nice pitches, and a fairly persistent K/9 around eight, which wouldn’t be too bad to have in the rotation. Often pitched to a meh defense with the Warriors, so maybe we can turn him around.
CL Matt Walters, 25, B:L, T:L (6-2, 1.42 ERA, 5 SV | 6-2, 1.53 ERA, 6 SV) – Rookie of the Year, Reliever of the Year without even being the regular closer, and who cares anymore whether this former #8 pick is technically a failed starter? Unhittable curve and a 94mph heater; more than five strikeouts to every walk in his 69.2 innings last year. More of that, please!

C Matt Fiore *, 33, B:L, T:R (.253, 6 HR, 27 RBI | .279, 23 HR, 149 RBI) – fine defensive catcher that lost his youth on the Buffos’ AAA team and has played only one season as primary catcher with the 2054 Stars, from whom he was also acquired in trade. Keen eye, with more walks than strikeouts in each of the last three seasons, but not enough speed to play around with that at the top of the order.
C/1B Tyler Philipps, 29, B:R, T:R (.213, 3 HR, 18 RBI | .236, 7 HR, 61 RBI) – excellent defensive catcher that debuted late in the 2051 season, then made the Opening Day roster behind Sean Suggs in ’52, but ended up spending most of his time in AAA again after an early demotion. Backup to Chris Gowin for two years, and currently anxiously eyeing what young Marcos Chavez is doing in AAA.

1B Harry Ramsay, 28, B:L, T:L (.312, 5 HR, 41 RBI | .282, 43 HR, 196 RBI) – missed the start of ’55 on the tail end of a kneecap injury, then didn’t hit when he returned and spent a few more weeks in AAA. Somehow has gone from hitting 20 homers in ’53 to just five in ’54, and also halved his doubles on over 70% of the number of at-bats. There’s probably a fine ballplayer somewhere underneath all this mess, but the question is whether we have the patience to do all the digging.
2B/SS Matt Waters, 35, B:S, T:R (.255, 12 HR, 61 RBI | .262, 225 HR, 873 RBI) – Waters went from winning the home run crown in 2053 to playing just 68 games due to injury in 2054, and when he played he did so badly, posting his worst-ever OPS+ (85) and shedding 53 points off his batting average. Bounced back somewhat in 2055, and is now in the final season of the huge 10-year contract he signed when the Raccoons were at the top of their 2040s dynasty. And not a minute too early – his range is diminishing and it’s unlikely that we’ll bring back a 36-year-old middle infielder after this season.
SS/3B Lorenzo Lavorano, 28, B:R, T:R (.309, 6 HR, 70 RBI | .288, 24 HR, 345 RBI) – Everybody loves Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend…! Has won five stolen base titles in five full (as in: not-injured) seasons, a Gold Glove at least once… and he keeps being a delight in the field and on the career steals list, which he’s racing up at the moment. He came close enough to the single season steals record in ’55 to call it a close miss, and starts the season with 395 bags taken and sitting 24th on the career leaderboard. Reminder: he'll not turn 30 until next May.
3B/LF Anton Venegas, 34, B:R, T:R (.267, 2 HR, 36 RBI | .306, 30 HR, 555 RBI) – is that contract commitment getting taller or is his production just shrinking? Venegas never got warm in ’55 and somehow has the biggest contract on the team. At least he can still pick it at the hot corner and adds flexibility with the ability to play leftfield.
3B/2B/SS Adriano Chavez *, 33, B:R, T:R (.324, 0 HR, 10 RBI | .288, 7 HR, 356 RBI) – used to be a regular with the Buffaloes in his 20s, and won a Gold Glove at shortstop as a 24-year-old, but bounced around five teams in the last four seasons, and now the Critters signed him on the cheap for backup duty.
RF/3B/2B Daniel Espinoza, 27, B:R, T:R (.293, 1 HR, 7 RBI | .293, 1 HR, 7 RBI) – leftover replacement from AAA from last year, Espinoza offers some singles-slapping and flexibility, but should be easily replaceable by somebody getting randomly hot in St. Pete.

LF/RF/1B/CF Alan Puckeridge, 28, B:L, T:R (.302, 16 HR, 78 RBI | .296, 79 HR, 435 RBI) – the Aussie recovered from an awful 2054 season by posting his fourth OPS+ of 130 or better in five full seasons, and reached double digits in each sort of extra-base hit. Also valuable on defense, and luckily signed on the cheap for another three seasons.
CF/RF/LF/1B Steve Royer *, 30, B:S, T:R (.250, 3 HR, 41 RBI | .279, 50 HR, 409 RBI) – the third piece in the Danny Munn trade effectively also takes his spot in the lineup (by body count, not actual slot) as he takes over centerfield with Pucks sliding to a corner – at least until we can come up with a different solution that might be listen to the name Todd Oley.
LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield, 23, B:R, T:R (.258, 11 HR, 47 RBI | .276, 15 HR, 69 RBI) – his first full season was marred by injury and a 150-point regression in OPS, so we’d have to wait and see what we’d have once he was really healthy again. The smart money was on ’55 being the aberration though and not his great ’54 debut as a 21-year-old.
LF/RF/CF Oscar Caballero *, 32, B:S, T:R (.262, 7 HR, 43 RBI | .268, 59 HR, 526 RBI) – value signing late in the offseason that offers decent hitting and still strong defense at all three outfield positions, and might do quite some spelling of Pucks (or by extension, Ramsay) against lefty pitchers.
LF/CF/RF Carlos Solorzano, 24, B:L, T:L (.217, 0 HR, 9 RBI | .217, 0 HR, 9 RBI) – had a few stints up last season, but ultimately didn’t really hit much. Solid defender, blistering speed, but he’s basically also looking over his shoulder at what Oley’s doing.

On disabled list:
SP Kennedy Adkins, 31, B:L, T:L (15-5, 1.64 ERA | 86-49, 2.72 ERA) – Good stuff, steady control, keeps it in the ballpark. Might win a Pitcher of the Year award one day, I said last year. Well, he won the Pitcher of the Year. He also shredded an elbow ligament in September and is not expected back before August at the earliest.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Cameron Argenziano, 27, B:R, T:L (7-3, 3.36 ERA | 8-11, 4.01 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; pitched superficially decently after replacing Raffy in the rotation, just don’t look at his FIP. Always had control woes and not enough stuff, and crumbled in his last few starts and in the CLCS.
SP Craig Kniep, 24, B:R, T:L (2-0, 4.91 ERA | 2-0, 4.91 ERA) – optioned to AAA; acquired from the Caps in July, his time is coming, and he wasn’t all bad in the five spot starts he made late in the 2055 season. Some more seasoning required, but he’ll probably be up once Raffy’s arm inevitably comes off again…
MR Colby Bowen, 27, B:R, T:R (0-1, 6.88 ERA | 0-1, 6.88 ERA) – optioned to AAA; unspectacular stuff and three homers surrendered in just 17 innings of late-season garbage relief.
MR Ryan Harmer, 28, B:L, T:R (1-0, 2.86 ERA | 4-3, 4.54 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; cutter, forkball, and no shortage of bad memories.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or disappeared in a landfill during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – CF Royer – P
(Vs. LHP: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – 1B Puckeridge (Ramsay) – LF Caballero – 3B Venegas – C Philipps – CF Royer – P)

Kyle Brobeck will continue to make starts at third base when convenient (as in, not the day before or after his starts as a pitcher), and if that’s against a lefty, then Venegas can move to left and both of Pucks and Rams can sit on the same day. Chavez and Espinoza could of course be used in just the same way. Solorzano might see playing time in place of Royer and Brass against right-handers.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

BNN wasn’t too fond of our offseason, rating the Raccoons 15th with a loss of -2.9 WAR, but that would still have us win the CL North quite comfortably, going by the 2055 records. But more than 7 WAR were lost in free agency (including even 2.3 from Ed Crispin), and the Danny Munn trade hardly added anything despite us getting three major leaguers back. All our three trades were slightly positive WAR-wise, and Caballero was a +2.0 WAR signing, the biggest individual positive event in our offseason.

Top 5: Falcons (+12.7), Rebels (+6.0), Gold Sox (+5.6), Buffaloes (+4.5), Canadiens (+3.5)
Bottom 5: Aces (-5.4), Capitals (-5.8), Titans (-6.7), Indians (-6.8), Pacifics (-8.2)

The Elks were the only North team in the plus. The Crusaders ranked 14th with -2.7, and the Loggers 17th with -3.3 WAR.

PREDICTION TIME:

The Raccoons won 102 games last year, third-most in a season for the franchise, and the third straight year of 94+ or more, with 94 also having been my call. Maybe we overperformed a little (just +1 in the luck column, though), but the pitching was certainly extraordinary in the regular season (cough!), and without Adkins there’s not gonna be a repeat of that.

I said in the winter that this was a transition year and we didn’t go all-in on some things because the call was not to win *this* year, but be in shape *next* year. That will probably include disposing of Brobeck and Raffy for medical or other reasons, and find a replacement for Matt Waters at the keystone. For now, though, the Raccoons should win 90 games again and be in the hunt for the division at least.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The farm system continued to sink into the undesired regions of the rankings, dropping three spots from 13th to 16th this year. This time, none of our top prospects from last graduated to the majors (not even close on that), but we went from 13 ranked prospects down to 12, and from five top 100 prospects down to four, and even of our three top 50 prospects, none ranked better than 42nd.

Uniquely, none of our 13 ranked prospects from last season promoted to the majors (permanently at least), or left the organization. Three slid out of the top 200: #120 SP Javier Simo (who was ranked while in the international complex, but tore up his elbow after promotion to Aumsville), 179th 3B/2B Richard Anderson, and #193 SP Josh Mayo.

42nd (-9) – AAA C Marcos Chavez, 23 – 2050 scouting discovery by Stars, signed as free agent by Raccoons
44th (+10) – AA SP Chance Fox, 21 – 2053 first-round pick by Raccoons
50th (new) – AAA CL Adam Harris, 21 – 2055 first-round pick by Raccoons
92nd (+4) – AA SP Ramon Carreno, 20 – 2051 international free agent signed by Raccoons

111th (-86) – AAA LF/RF David Flores, 24 – 2052 second-round pick by Raccoons
112th (+6) – AA OF Jose Estrada, 21 – 2051 international free agent signed by Raccoons
122nd (-81) – A 1B Forbes Tomlin, 20 – 2054 first-round pick by Raccoons
135th (-7) – AAA SP John Blevins, 25 – 2052 third-round pick by Raccoons
137th (new) – AAA OF Todd Oley, 23 – 2051 second-round pick by Capitals, acquired with Craig Kniep for Tommy Gardner, Brent Cramer, Brian Moore
155th (+8) – AAA CL Ricky Herrera, 24 – 2053 second-round pick by Raccoons
170th (-22) – AA CL Alex Rios, 22 – 2053 fifth-round pick by Raccoons
186th (+9) – AA SP Jose Villegas, 23 – 2050 scouting discovery by Raccoons

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (+2) – BOS AA SP Jason Brenize, 19
2nd (+2) – LVA AAA OF Jose Ambriz, 22
3rd (-1) – DAL AAA SP Ray Walker, 21
4th (+3) – SAL AAA SP Josh Elling, 21
5th (new) – TIJ AA OF Chad Cardwell, 19

6th (+25) – NYC A RF Javier Acuna, 20
7th (+46) – WAS AA SP Jon Reyes, 20
8th (new) – IND AA INF Matt Kilday, 19
9th (+1) – SFW AA CL Alex Flores, 21
10th (+16) – MIL ML CF/LF Steve Valenzano, 21

Cardwell had been the #1 pick in the 2055 draft, where Kilday had been taken at #4.

That leaves five top 10 prospects from last season that have yet to be accounted for, including the #1, Bayhawks OF/2B/3B Grant Anker, who battled injuries and hit .258 with 10 homers in single-A whenever healthy and was promoted to double-A for this year, now as the #21 prospect.

#5 prospect Jay Everett, a righty starter for the Condors, was promoted to the majors in June, made six starts for a 5.04 ERA, and then tore finger tendons and missed the rest of the season. He was on the Opening Day roster. The Blue Sox also brought their #6 prospect 1B Andy Metz to the majors, where they didn’t put him in the lineup ONCE that season. He batted .305 with four homers as a bench warmer.

#8 C/1B Andy Gomez batted .234 with 17 homers for the Falcons’ AA team in ’55 and won promotion to AAA for this year as a 21-year-old, but slid to #12 in the prospect rankings. Finally, the Caps’ #9 prospect, infielder Diego Mendoza, was traded to the Titans mid-season and played for four different teams at the single- and double-A levels. He was just outside the top 10 in #11, and at AA Arlington to start the season.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Crusaders (0-0) – April 4-5, 2056

Just a 2-game set to get warmed up for the season, and then immediately an off day afterwards, which almost felt like a waste of a precious off day. These two teams had split the season series right down the middle last year, and both teams pretended they had chances this time around, not only for the season series, but also for the division.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (0-0) vs. Ben Seiter (0-0)
Seisaku Taki (0-0) vs. Kyle Turay (0-0)

No left-handed pitcher in sight here.

Game 1
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Sevilla – 3B Gates – LF M. Villa – RF C. Williams – CF Pfeifer – C Seidman – P Seiter
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – CF Royer – P Shui

He Shui retired the side in order in the first inning, although every Crusaders batter only disappeared after running a full count, while the Raccoons’ top three in the lineup all reached base. Brassfield and Lonzo singled to left, and Pucks drew a walk from the 25-year-old righty Seiter, who had yet to get calibrated for the zone. The Raccoons, though, were already in midseason form: with three on and nobody out, Ramsay popped out, Matt Fiore lined out to Omar Sanchez, and Anton Venegas whiffed, leaving each and every runner on base stranded. And I opened the first bottle of Capt’n Coma of the new season…

Seiter would get the first Crusaders hit of the year with a third-inning single, but nothing came of that as both teams attempted to fill the scoreboard with goose eggs. Steve Royer was the only Coon to reach base in both of his first two plate appearances of the season, hitting a pair of singles in the second and fourth innings. Shui bunted him over once, but then batted with two gone in the fourth inning and grounded to Prince Gates, who fumbled the ball for an error, bringing Brassfield up with two on and two outs, but he miserably popped out to shortstop Zach Suggs on the first pitch, which sugged. The parade of zeroes lasted until the fifth inning when Pucks reached on a throwing error by Sanchez. The Crusaders progressively walked Ramsay with intent, but then got burned on Matt Fiore’s double to right, which brought in the team’s first run of the season, unearned as it was. Venegas added a sac fly for a 2-0 lead before the inning drizzled away. Speaking of drizzle… (looks skywards)

Shui went six scoreless, but the many, many 3-ball counts ran up his pitch count. Chad Williams then hit a leadoff single in the seventh, and he walked Mike Pfeifer before getting lifted with the tying runs on base. The Coons took the protective foil off the pen, and brought in Tanizaki and Lillis to retire the next three batters in order without allowing Williams to get as far as third base. Mike Lane had a scoreless eighth inning in his Raccoons debut, while the offense failed to tack on anything against Seiter, who went eight innings. Matt Walters then got into the ninth inning in his first outing as designated closer. Williams snuck a leadoff single to right on a 1-2 pitch, while PH Erik Stevens grounded out. Walters then cranked it up a bit – both Mike Seidman and PH Jose Ortiz struck out. 2-0 Raccoons. Ramsay 2-3, BB; Royer 2-4;

Game 2
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Sevilla – 3B Gates – LF M. Villa – RF C. Williams – CF Pfeifer – C Seidman – P Turay
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – CF Royer – P Taki

For the second day in a row, the Raccoons pitcher batted with two outs and a body or two on base, and reached on an error, this time by Zach Suggs. This filled the sacks in the bottom 2nd in addition to Waters and Royer, who were already on base. Trent Brassfield hit a ball to deep right, but beat neither Williams nor the fence, and the inning ended. The Coons would take the lead an inning later, though, with Pucks opening the home run race for the team with a solo shot to right, putting Taki up 1-0. The run didn’t last, thanks to Williams’ double to left and Mike Pfeifer’s single to center in the fourth inning, which tied the game back up real soon, and Zach Suggs going deep to right-center gave New York the lead in the fifth inning, 2-1. The Raccoons failed to react appropriately, and Taki continued to melt, with Williams and Pfeifer on base again in the sixth inning before Seidman walloped a 3-run homer to center, merely 435 feet before cratering. Taki finished the inning, but left being well-beaten afterwards. The Coons had only four hits at that point, although Matt Waters doubled home Ramsay, who drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, shortening the score to 5-2.

Reynaldo Bravo then showed up, faced four batters, and gave up four screamers for hits. Raul Sevilla was thrown out at third base trying to further extend a leadoff double against Brassfield, but then Prince Gates rapped a single, and Mario Villa and Chad Williams slapped doubles for two more runs. Fernando Salazar replaced him, but surrendered the third run of the inning on a Seidman single with two outs. The Crusaders would just keep raking against him – Sevilla banged a 2-run homer in the eighth off Salazar, and at that point it was just getting over with that game. Pucks singled off Ken Quisenberry to start off the bottom 8th, then stole second, the first theft for the team on the season. Matt Fiore drove him home, taking the team RBI lead with a lofty two, where he was then joined by Matt Waters after both him and Venegas hit more singles off Quisenberry. Carlos Solorzano batted for Salazar in the #8 spot, hit a sac fly to scrub the score down to 10-5, but Caballero then lined out to left.

Good judgment then did not prevail when the rain started in earnest in the ninth inning and the umps made everybody sit through an hourlong rain delay in a 5-run game. Brassfield singled off Ben Lussier when play resumed, then was forced out by Lonzo, who stole second base, though. Pucks whiffed, Tyler Philipps grounded out, and that finally ended a shoddy game. 10-5 Crusaders. Puckeridge 3-5, HR, RBI; Waters 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (1-1) vs. Knights (2-1) – April 7-9, 2056

Classic case of “too soon” – I was not yet over the way we got slapped out of the CLCS by Atlanta last year. The Knights had taken two of three from the Aces to start the season, dishing out 22 runs for 9 allowed, so I was already feeling a bit queasy. We had gone 5-9 against them last year, including 4-5 in the regular season.

Projected matchups:
Sean Sweeton (0-0) vs. Austin Wilcox (0-0)
Kyle Brobeck (0-0) vs. Vic Harman (0-0)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-0) vs. Bruce Mark jr. (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

The Knights started the season without a left-hander in their rotation.

Besides the three starters lined up here, the only Raccoons to yet see action in 2056 were Daniel Espinoza and Eloy Sencion.

Game 1
ATL: 2B Wartella – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Fink – 3B Ri. Jimenez – P Wilcox
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – CF Royer – P Sweeton

The Coons started with a 2-run first, getting singles from Brass and Lonzo, who went for the double steal, with the actual runs coming home on Pucks’ groundout and, following a walk drawn by Ramsay, a Fiore sac fly. Venegas was out on a roller in front of home plate, nicely played by Pedro Almaguer, leaving Rams on first base. It didn’t last. Pedro Almaguer drew a 2-out walk from Sweeton in the top 2nd, and then the bottom of the Knights’ order dished out the hits. John Fink singled to right, Brassfield threw the ball away, and Almaguer scored from first base on the first genuine display of clownshoes for the 2056 Raccoons. Ricky Jimenez tied the game with an RBI single, and Wilcox whacked a double before Matt Wartella kindly grounded out to end the inning, leaving a pair in scoring position. It was a 3-2 lead for Atlanta in the third inning, as Willie Acosta singled, stole his way to third base, and then scored on a wild pitch. Thank heavens for Capt’n Coma.

Portland tied the game in the bottom 3rd as Lonzo and Pucks went to the corners with 1-out singles, and Lonzo scored on Ramsay’s groundout. Fiore hit a rocket to deep left, but it was caught on the warning track by John Fink. The game remained wicked – Royer snuck an infield single with two outs in the bottom 4th, and Wilcox failed to get rid of the pitcher, either, with Sweeton singling past Wartella for two on with two out. Brassfield ran a full count before lobbing a blooper behind Willie Acosta that three defenders converged on, and yet it dinked between them for an RBI single, Royer scoring easily with two outs. Sweeton went to third base on the play, then scored on a wild pitch, while Lonzo doubled home Brassfield, 6-3. That was the end of Wilcox, who was replaced with righty Morgan Aben, who K’ed Pucks to end the 3-run inning.

Atlanta threatened again in the sixth with a Pat Fowler single and Moreno getting nicked by Sweeton. Almaguer grounded to Venegas hard enough to turn an inning-ending double play, though. Bottom 6th, Waters hit a leadoff single and Royer walked, with the pair bunted over by Sweeton. Aben whiffed Brassfield, and Lonzo lined out to Acosta at short to strand both of them. Sweeton stayed in for two more batters and one more out, getting lifted after a Jimenez double to left-center and once left-handed Mike Roberts pinch-hit for Aben. The Coons went to Lillis, who retired Roberts and Wartella without fuss, and got two more lefty hitters in the eighth, but allowed a single to switch-hitting menace Willie Acosta in between. Moreno then grounded out against Mike Lane, ending the inning. Walters struck out the side in the ninth … if you were willing to glance past a walk to John Fink. 6-3 Raccoons! Brassfield 2-4, RBI; Lavorano 3-4, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
ATL: 2B Wartella – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Kirkwood – 3B Ri. Jimenez – P Harman
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – P Brobeck – 2B Waters – C Philipps – CF Solorzano – 3B Chavez

Brobeck threw 10 pitches in the first inning, and 38 in the second, in which he walked four and the Knights wasted no opportunity to turn him into dinner. Pat Fowler got a leadoff walk, Almaguer singled with one down, Fowler scored from second, and then walks filled the bases. Harman knocked a 2-run single with the bases loaded, Wartella added another RBI single, and Acosta drew a walk after that before the inning ended with a K to Fowler in a 4-0 game. It remained 4-0 through five innings, which was as far as the Coons could drag Brobeck, and also a long time for them to get no base hits against Vic Harman, who walked Philipps at one point, but nothing was willing to drop in until Adriano Chavez lobbed a squeaker over Wartella for a single with two outs in the bottom 6th. Brass popped out, and the Raccoons remained well away from the board.

Harman allowed a 1-out single to Pucks in the bottom 7th, then walked Ramsay. Conveniently, the pitcher’s spot was up, for once, and the Coons sent Oscar Caballero, who got his first hit as a Critter and his first RBI with a single to right that brought in Pucks. Suddenly, somehow, the tying run was in the box. Matt Waters was up and – ho! What a shot! A 3-run homer to left-center, and this game was tied…!!

Back even at four, the Coons put Tanizaki out for the eighth inning. The master of losses in a tied game looked like begging for it, but he got two first-pitch outs before Roberts hit a pinch-hit single, also on the first pitch he saw. Jimenez flew out to left-center, with Pucks making a sliding catch to end the inning, to the approval of the home crowd, and Honeypaws and me were also politely applauding. Lonzo singled in the bottom 8th, but was caught stealing, which didn’t further our chances. Eloy Sencion got into his first game of the year in the ninth inning, but gave up a leadoff double to pinch-hitter Dave Lee, who advanced on Chris Baker’s groundout, and then scored on a balk. (bites into his fuzzy fist) Ramsay, Caballero, and Waters went down in order against Ruben Mendez in the ninth inning. 5-4 Knights. Caballero (PH) 1-2, RBI; Bravo 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

Still .500. So far we had not seen anything too shocking from our rotation, but now we’d send out the reassembled-again Raffy de la Cruz for the rubber game. (sharply draws in air between his teeth)

Game 3
ATL: 2B Wartella – CF Alade – SS W. Acosta – 1B P. Fowler – RF E. Moreno – C Almaguer – LF Kirkwood – 3B Ri. Jimenez – P Mark jr.
POR: LF Caballero – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 2B Waters – CF Royer – 3B Venegas – P de la Cruz

Raffy never batted. Part of that was no early offense by the Critters, but the much bigger part was that he needed 75 pitches for three innings, walking SIX and whiffing four, and looked completely gassed at that point. Eddie Moreno had also clonked a 3-piece off the foul pole after the prior two batters had been invited on base for free, so the Knights had a 3-0 lead. Portland made up a run in wholly unearned fashion in the bottom 3rd as both Lonzo and Pucks reached on 2-base throwing errors by Acosta and Almaguer, which was such a rally… Salazar then got the ball and whiffed five in three very different innings, allowing a walk and no hits (Raffy allowed two hits, not that it mattered much with all the other problems).

And yet, somehow, it was still a close game… Lillis had a 1-2-3 seventh and at that point neither team had more than two base hits. Waters’ leadoff single in the bottom 7th was the third for Portland, and then Mark jr. walked Royer, which put the actual tying run on base. Venegas singled past Wartella to load the bases, although with nobody out, so … (unscrews Capt’n Coma). Brassfield pinch-hit for Lillis, but struck out, and Caballero then spanked a ball into a double play, 6-4-3. (takes another big gulp)

Harry Ramsay inched the Raccoons closer with a solo jack off David Hardaway with two down in the eighth inning, narrowing the score to 3-2, and when the Knights went to lefty Jeremy Baker, the Raccoons batted Philipps for Fiore. Philipps hit a long drive, but it was caught by Moreno on the edge of the track, ending the inning. That was the last loud noise made by the Critters; Ruben Mendez retired Waters, Royer, and Solorzano without much commotion in the ninth inning. 3-2 Knights. Salazar 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

In other news

April 4 – ATL 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.800, 1 HR, 6 RBI) lands three hits and drives in six runs in a 15-1 rout of the Aces.
April 4 – The Falcons’ collection of Ceballoses, Danny and Mario (not related), rakes the Bayhawks for three home runs (Danny 2, Mario 1) and eight runs driven in (Danny 6, Mario 2) in an 11-1 Opening Day rout.
April 4 – Loggers RF/LF Perry Pigman goes 5-for-5 with two doubles on Opening Day, in which the Loggers need 12 innings to score a single run to beat the Titans, 1-0.
April 5 – SAL SP Blake Sparks (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will miss a month with a shoulder strain.
April 5 – VAN RF/CF Aaron Walker (.417, 0 HR, 3 RBI) could be out for at least a month after tearing his meniscus.
April 7 – The Stars beat the Blue Sox, 12-3, with 11 of their runs scoring in the seventh inning.

FL Player of the Week: LAP 2B/SS Jesse Sweeney (.500, 1 HR, 9 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.577, 3 HR, 13 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Not a great start to the season, and we’re bottoms in runs scored once more (but that was with only five games played). More concerning is the fact that nobody the first time through the rotation put out a good day’s work. Only Shui produced an ERA under four (zip, actually), and only Sweeton logged an out in the seventh inning (one, actually).

Lonzo scooped a pair this week to reach 397 robberies for his career, and we’ll talk more about that once he hits 400. Maybe next week!

The biggest concern is obviously with Raffy. He looked completely disheveled, and obviously walking two batters per inning is quite unsustainable. He’ll get another start next week, but I have a hunch that we’ll have to come up with some thing or other, and quick.

Hey, Raffy! Y’know what’s a nice occupation? Going door to door, selling kitchenware to annoyed housewives! – No? – Fine, try your luck with the Titans on Friday…

No off day next week, as we play seven more at home with the Thunder and Titans. That’s the only home games this month; a 4-city road trip will break out the Tuesday after.

The pair of pitchers the Raccoons passed through waivers arrived in St. Pete safely, if none too happy about their fate. With the way things were going they might be coming back sooner rather than later anyway…

Fun Fact: The Raccoons had only a Matt Fiore RBI single and Anton Venegas’ sac fly for offense, but they won their 6,700th regular season game on Opening Day anyway.

It’s the first time He Shui won a hundo milestone game.

+++

Just this for now, but unless I get caught up with some other game (looks at his Steam library and sneers) there’ll be a second week played this evening.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (2-3) vs. Thunder (4-3) – April 10-13, 2056

The Thunder had plated the fourth-most runs and allowed the seventh-most in their first week, but had also played two more games than the Critter bunch. Their rotation also had a combined ERA well over five after the first week, so perhaps we could suffer together for a bit. Last year, after losing the regular season series (not: CLCS) for eight straight years, the Raccoons had bopped Oklahoma City eight games out of nine.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (0-0, 7.94 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (0-1, 7.50 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (1-0, 3.38 ERA)
Sean Sweeton (1-0, 4.26 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (0-1, 9.64 ERA)

We’d see our first two left-handers in this series, which were the two fellas with the bloated ERA’s. The Thunder had three of them, the last one being Bubba Wolinsky (1-1, 4.09 ERA), but he had gone on Sunday and would watch from the bench in this series.

Game 1
OCT: SS Almadanim – 3B Soberanes – LF Weant – CF M. Harmon – 2B Ban – 1B Triplett – C Burnham – RF Ransford – P Zeigler
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – 1B Puckeridge – LF Caballero – 3B Brobeck – C Philipps – CF Royer – P Shui

The Thunder burst out of the gates with a single for Hélder Almadanim (what a name made out of leftover Scrabble letters…) and a bomb to left from Ed Soberanes, so the Raccoons were trailing right away. Tim Weant also hit a single before Shui got himself under control. After the Raccoons then put up two innings with a single and a double play blundered into, Lonzo and Brobeck being the guilty parties, Shui dumped a 2-out double in the bottom 3rd before Trent Brassfield rocked his first homer of the year, tying the game at two. Shui also retired *15* batters in a row after the first three Thunder of the game all landed hits, then doled out two walks in the sixth inning to get into some rather unnecessary danger, but Pucks caught a liner smacked by Jonathan Ban on an 0-2 pitch with two outs to end that top 6th. The Raccoons were smitten with a three on, no outs chance in the bottom 6th, getting singles from Brass and Lonzo and then Waters drew ball four in a full count. And this time we actually scored! Pucks drew another walk for a 3-2 lead, Caballero hit a sac fly, one run scored on a wild pitch, and then Philipps plated a fourth run with a groundout, going up 6-2 before the inning slowly faded away.

Also fading was Shui, walking another pair of runners in the seventh inning and this time he also didn’t pitch his way out of it. With two out and Dustin Ransford and Pat Stipp on base, Eloy Sencion came in to face Almadanim. Strike three at the knees settled the argument, but Sencion put his own pair on base in the eighth inning, conceding a 2-out double to Mike Harmon and a walk to the always tricky switch-hitter Jonathan Ban. Mike Lane got the ball, ahead 0-2 on Doug Triplett, and then still gave up a fly to deep center, but Steve Royer was there to make the catch. Reynaldo Bravo got through the ninth without help. He allowed a single, but never allowed the Thunder to rally the inning into a save opportunity, although for sure Matt Walters was standing by. 6-2 Raccoons. Brassfield 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Caballero 2-3, RBI;

Game 2
OCT: SS Almadanim – 3B Soberanes – LF Weant – CF M. Harmon – C Korfhage – 2B Ban – 1B Triplett – RF Barton – P A. Harris
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 2B Waters – CF Royer – 3B Venegas – P Taki

Taki used to be crap in the first inning, but by now had evolved to where he could be crap in any inning. This time around it was the top 2nd where he was torn a new one, starting with a leadoff walk to Harmon. Wild pitch, infield single for Mitch Korfhage, and a good inning was in progress. Ban hit a sac fly for a 1-0 lead, and Danny Barton hit a ringing 3-run homer for early depression and to fire Taki’s ERA well into double digits. The Coons had no hits the first time through, then found a pair of singles between Brass and Lonzo in the bottom 3rd. The pair did the double steal again, but Pucks struck out and, two down, Ramsay grounded out on a 3-0 count which gave me more rage than depression.

Taki went six, five of which were scoreless, but the one really really rancid one was enough to doom him, since the Raccoons managed only one base knock in the middle innings, a Ramsay single that ended up leading nowhere pretty whatsoever. Bottom 7th, there were faint outlines of a rally as Matt Waters began the inning with a leadoff single, and then Royer’s grounder to Ban was bobbled for an error. Venegas then lined out to Ban and Waters was caught off second base and doubled up. That was a 4-6 double play, and Ramsay hit into a 4-6-3 double play the inning after, following Lonzo and Pucks getting on base. That, too, brought the Coons’ time at-bat to an end. Lillis, Salazar, and Bravo pitched scoreless relief for the Critters, all in vain, since no rally ever came together without somebody opening the hatch while the submarine was submerged… 4-0 Thunder. Brassfield 2-4;

One step forward, one step back, and as Ruthie Billings from the annual barn dance back home knows, I’m a terrible dancer…

Game 3
OCT: SS Almadanim – 3B Soberanes – LF Weant – CF M. Harmon – C Korfhage – 2B Ban – 1B Triplett – RF Stipp – P V. Marquez
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – CF Caballero – 1B Ramsay – LF Venegas – C Philipps – 3B Chavez – P Sweeton

The rubber game started with a few zeroes on the board, f.e. Ramsay popping out to first baseman Doug Triplett with Brass and Caballero on the corners in the first inning to end the same, before the top 3rd became rather ridiculous. Sweeton saw Pat Stipp reach when Lonzo botched his grounder for an error, but Marquez bunted the ball back to Sweeton and he got the force at second base. Then he walked Almadanim to put a guy into scoring position anyway, and threw a wild pitch to make it a pair. He also struck out Soberanes and Weant to bugger out of the inning unharmed. Three shutout innings, it just wasn’t easy on the old nerves.

The game’s only run through five innings came together in the most unfathomable way, with a 2-out double to left for Philipps and an RBI single to center by Adriano Chavez. Whatever works, boys! Unfortunately, one run was not enough to make Sweeton a winner, since the Thunder scratched out one of their own in the seventh inning on singles by Stipp and Almadanim, interspersed with a Marquez bunt. Sweeton would pitch another inning, though, holding the 1-1 tie through the middle of the eighth inning, matching six scattered hits with as many strikeouts. It wasn’t enough to get a W, though, despite a pinch-hit double by Steve Royer in the bottom 8th. Venegas popped out to short after him, and the Raccoons left Waters and Royer with the go-ahead runs in scoring position. Instead, the top 9th saw Tanizaki put Ban and Triplett on base, and when Lillis came on to face the annoying Almadanim with two outs, he gave up a tie-breaking single in a full count, nicked Soberanes, and gave up two more RBI singles to left-handed batters before the Thunder actually ran themselves out of the inning. The home run Tyler Philipps then hit off Kevin Daley (snort!) in the bottom 9th was in itself rather pointless… 4-2 Thunder. Waters 2-3, BB; Royer (PH) 1-1, 2B; Philipps 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Sweeton 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;

Tanizaki for his career? Now a proud 0-8!

Raccoons (3-5) vs. Titans (2-7) – April 14-17, 2056

The Coons had yet to win a series this year, but here were the Titans, who had gotten smothered 16-2 by the Raccoons the previous year. The early going hadn’t been exactly great for Boston. They had lost five straight, and were bottoms in runs scored with 25 runs from nine games. On the other hand, they were allowing 55 runs, tenth in the CL, which meant that they were scoring 3.33 runs fewer than the opposition on a per-game basis. What a chance for the Coons to get rolling!

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (0-0, 7.20 ERA) vs. Jim Peterson (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (0-0, 1.15 ERA)
He Shui (2-0, 1.42 ERA) vs. Kenneth Spencer (0-1, 21.94 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (0-2, 6.75 ERA) vs. Chad Shultz (1-1, 5.25 ERA)

Peterson and Spencer were left-handed, and Spencer was a former Coons farmhand, who was not having a good time.

The Raccoons would give their middle infielders a day off in the opener, just because it was the first long stretch of games (ten in a row) and it seemed like a wise thing to do from time to time, according to this book I was reading “Managing Baseball Teams for Dummies”.

Game 1
BOS: 2B D. Diaz – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – 1B Witherspoon – C J. Ortiz – CF Tomasello – 3B Garris – SS R. Padilla – P J. Peterson
POR: LF Caballero – RF Brassfield – 1B Puckeridge – CF Royer – P Brobeck – C Philipps – 3B Venegas – 2B Chavez – SS Espinoza

The blue-hatted punks swatted Brobeck for four hits and two runs in the first inning, as Jorge Ortiz and Tyler Tomasello both grabbed a 2-out RBI on a single and double, respectively. Brobeck was left alone with the double he hit in the second inning, then gave up another 2-out run in the top 3rd, surrendering a double to Sam Witherspoon and another RBI single to Ortiz. He wasn’t fooling anybody, and the Titans racked up eight hits through six innings, at which point Brobeck still continued to pitch because the Raccoons had just two singles outside Brobeck’s own double and looked like they could bat all day and not get anywhere near Jim Peterson’s sweet spot. In that manner Brobeck covered eight innings on 102 pitches, then came to the plate in the bottom 8th with two outs and the Coons’ best chance yet, Brass on second, Pucks on first, and himself as the tying run. Brobeck took a single to left, Brass scored from second base, and the team was at least on the damn board. Lonzo pinch-hit for Tyler Philipps and shot a single up the middle. Pucks went for home and scored from second base, 3-2, and the trailing runners advanced into scoring position on Tomasello’s futile throw to the plate. All we needed now was Venegas doing any damn thing to make the $5M+ a year less silly against new lefty pitcher Donovan Little. He flew out, easily, on the first pitch… Eloy Sencion held the Titans close in the ninth inning, but Alex Diaz also retired Chavez, Waters, and Caballero in order in the ninth to put the game away. 3-2 Titans. Puckeridge 2-4; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brobeck 8.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, L (0-1) and 2-4, 2B, RBI;

I’m calm. (calmly unscrews another tiny bottle with laxative pills)

Game 2
BOS: CF Weir – LF M. Gilmore – 1B Witherspoon – C J. Ortiz – 3B Torrence – 2B D. Diaz – RF Tomasello – SS R. Padilla – P Koga
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 2B Waters – CF Solorzano – 3B Chavez – P de la Cruz

My mood was gloomy from the time I got up on Friday because if Raffy pitched only half as badly as he did on the weekend, we’d have to come up with a solution. The Titans sure tried to end his career with a lineup that had only two righty hitters in the 8-9 spots.

I closed my eyes when Raffy walked Matt Gilmore two batters in, but Gilmore was caught stealing and Raffy ended up throwing just 32 pitches in retiring Boston on the minimum through three innings, whiffing three of them. Okay, tell me more!

It worked for four innings, and then **** hit the fan on the highest setting. Top 5th of a scoreless (…) game, Jorge Ortiz walked, Danny Diaz walked, and Tomasello walked. Rich Padilla walked with the bags full and on four pitches. Koga struck out swinging for the second out. Hector Weir was down 0-2 before flying out to Solorzano. The Titans were still not having a hit (the Coons had ONE), but they had a 1-0 lead. Pucks would go one more inning, but then was complaining of a dead arm after 87 pitches of no-hit, 6-walk, 6-strikeout balls. Rich Padilla would hit a 2-out single off Tanizaki in the seventh inning to get rid of the game’s novelty factor. Now it was just an annoying stinker in which the Coons trailed 1-0, getting a Brass single off Koga and absolutely nothing ******* else. Pucks led off the bottom 7th with a single to right, then was doubled up by Rams immediately. Koga got the first two batters out in the eighth, then allowed singles to Chavez and Caballero, who went to the corners. Brassfield struck out, and I got some April despair. Matt Walters pitched a 1-2-3 ninth mostly because he was bored and hadn’t been used all week so far. Koga was still on the hill for the bottom 9th because he clearly had this. He wasn’t even removed after he walked Ramsay with two outs. Matt Fiore popped out to Ethan Torrence, and that was that. 1-0 Titans. Caballero (PH) 1-1;

(thousand-yard stare)

Game 3
BOS: CF Weir – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – C J. Ortiz – 3B Torrence – 2B D. Diaz – 1B Tomasello – SS R. Padilla – P Spencer
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – 1B Puckeridge – 3B Brobeck – CF Royer – C Fiore – LF Venegas – P Shui

Hits for Hector Weir and Jose Ortiz gave the Titans a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Alan Puckeridge’s 2-out, 2-run homer in the bottom 1st flipped the score in the Coons’ favor. The 5-6-7 batters then filled the bases against Spencer after that, but Venegas flailed over a 2-2 pitch as he was hitting a dreadful .120 to start the season. Lonzo was having a lean week, too, but when he forced out Brass with a grounder in the bottom 2nd he at least stole second base (#399!) and then scored quickly on a Waters single for a 3-1 lead.

After the bumpy first inning, Shui dealt for four hitless innings, nursing the 3-1 lead through five innings with one walk and four strikeouts on his ledger, then abruptly stopped retiring batters in the sixth inning. Weir singled, Gilmore walked, Whitlow hit an RBI double, and Ortiz also walked. Torrence fell into a 1-2 hole, then hit a game-tying single anyway. Five down in the inning, none retired, and Shui was yanked. The go-ahead run scored for Boston when Danny Diaz grounded out to first against Lillis, who got a pop from Tomasello, nailed Padilla quite good, and then struck out Spencer to end the ******* inning.

While I was still breathing into a paper bag, the Raccoons knocked out Spencer with 1-out singles by Venegas and Chavez in the bottom 6th. Left-hander Adam Gardner struck out Brassfield and Lonzo to wave the threat away. Waters and Pucks opened the seventh with singles against Gardner, however, and while Brobeck popped out, Steve Royer tied up the game with a single dinking into center in front of Weir. But Fiore and Venegas both flew out to left, and the misery continued, now in a game that was four-all. And that didn’t last long either: Bravo was still in from the seventh inning, but gave up a leadoff triple to Torrence and walked Diaz in the eighth inning. Witherspoon grounded out, moving Diaz to second base, and then Mike Lane came in. He struck out Padilla, then got PH Josh Garris to 0-2… and then gave up a 2-run single up the middle. And that was the ballgame. 6-4 Titans. Waters 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Puckeridge 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Royer 2-4, BB, RBI; Chavez (PH) 1-1;

(looks pale)

The Coons had 14 base hits in this game. The Titans had eight. And yet…

Game 4
BOS: CF Weir – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – 1B Witherspoon – 3B Torrence – 2B D. Diaz – C Burkart – SS R. Padilla – P Shultz
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 2B Waters – CF Royer – 3B Espinoza – P Taki

The weather was sketchy and so was what the brown team showed in the first few innings, with a crass Lonzo throwing error in the first inning and general wildness from Taki, who needed over 50 innings for three scoreless innings, to the offense being its usual hapless through two before Steve Royer whacked a leadoff triple in the bottom 3rd. Espinoza struck out, making me yearn for a lefty backup infielder, but then Taki ticked one to center for the game’s first run. Brassfield found another single to add to the bases, and Shultz ran a full count with Lonzo before leaving a pitch right in the bullseye part of the zone, and Lonzo wasn’t missing it. A *belter* to left, and into the stands with hurrah for a 3-run homer…!!

Fiore and Royer were on in the fourth inning for Espinoza, who remained hitless with a grounder to second that forced out Royer at second base. Taki batted with two outs and got his second RBI single of the game, slapping a 1-2 pitch to the left side of the mound, where it died a hero, as Fiore scored and Torrence, who had played back, not hustling in to make a play in time. Brass struck out, but we were up 5-0 through four innings. Shultz was not beaten to death yet and hit a leadoff single in the top 5th, but was also stranded on third base as the 1-2-3 went down in order against Taki, who would pitch another two innings for a Danny Diaz single and nothing else, piling up seven shutout innings, but thanks to the early long innings he was out of the game after that. The eighth was serviced 1-2-3 by Tanizaki, and Mike Lane did no worse in the ninth. 5-0 Coons. Solorzano (PH) 1-1; Royer 2-3, 3B; Taki 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-2) and 2-2, 2 RBI;

In other news

April 11 – The Falcons unload on the Canadiens for 12 runs in the second inning and then immediately give seven runs back. They hold on to win, though, 13-9.
April 11 – The Cyclones ravage the Stars for 28 base hits in a 15-9 win that nevertheless takes 16 innings to come together. Both teams are even after seven innings, then score a run each in the eighth, eleventh, and fifteenth innings before the Stars run out of pitching. Four players have 4-hit games, all on the Cincy side, of which 3B/SS Stephen Medlock (.310, 0 HR, 7 RBI) has the best day, going 4-for-8 with 3 RBI.
April 12 – Rebels RF/LF Willie Sanchez (.289, 3 HR, 5 RBI) burns the Warriors for a cycle, going 5-6 with a homer and 2 RBI in the Rebs’ 13-9 win. Sanchez also collects the four sorts of hits in descending order for a rare reverse-natural cycle.
April 12 – LVA 3B/1B/RF Alex Alfaro (.424, 3 HR, 10 RBI) goes ham on the Loggers, pounding out five hits and five RBI, including a grand slam, in the Aces’ 15-5 win over Milwaukee.
April 12 – Atlanta would miss OF Jon Alade (.194, 0 HR, 5 RBI) for a month; the 30-year-old was down with a sprained ankle.
April 13 – The Gold Sox might be without OF Bill Ramires (.286, 1 HR, 3 RBI) for half a season following the 27-year-old undergoing surgery for a small tear in his rotator cuff.
April 14 – Falcons RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.548, 3 HR, 17 RBI) has put a two-season, 20-game hitting streak together with a fifth-inning single in a 5-1 win against the Condors.
April 14 – VAN OF Kyle Hawkins (.441, 0 HR, 6 RBI) chops five hits for one RBI in the Canadiens’ 15-inning, 9-5 win over the Crusaders.
April 14 – LAP RF Matt Diskin (.429, 0 HR, 6 RBI) will miss three months with a torn hammy.
April 15 – Aces infielder Jeremy Welter (.241, 2 HR, 5 RBI) will miss at least three months after tearing ankle ligaments.
April 15 – ATL C Pedro Almaguer (.333, 1 HR, 6 RBI) draws a bases-loaded walk from OCT CL Kevin Daley (0-1, 3.38 ERA, 3 SV) to push in the winning a run in a 10th-inning, 1-0 walkoff.
April 16 – In another long game, the Rebels beat the Blue Sox, 6-5 in 15 innings.

FL Player of the Week: CIN LF/CF Juan del Toro (.412, 1 HR, 6 RBI), batting .469 (15-32), 1 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 3B/1B/RF Alex Alfaro (.385, 4 HR, 12 RBI), hitting .469 (15-32), 4 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I don’t know what to do with Raffy. I need expert advice. (looks at Honeypaws)

This was not a great week at all. We have yet to win a series, and losing three in a row to the Titans throws up a few question. The lineup has not had a good time so far, and we’re scoring just a scratch over three runs per game, second-worst in the league, and just a bit ahead of the Titans. The rotation actually reeled itself in this week and we got a few decent starts. Batting .243/.294/.327 as a team won’t do in the long run, though…

Two weeks on the road coming up: Indy, Vegas, Falcons, and New York on the schedule.

Fun Fact: Wednesday’s reverse cycle by Willie Sanchez was the first such occurrence in the league in 18 years.

The last batters to do it were Vegas’ Mike Hall against the Knights in 2038, and in an unlikely back-to-back occurrence, the Elks’ Jesse Lejeune against the Loggers in 2037 before that. Nobody has lined up the four hits the “right” natural way for even longer, going back to Dean Thompson of the Warriors against the Miners in ’32.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons’ 2056 season ended on their off day before flying out to Indianapolis in the afternoon. Trent Brassfield went for a morning session of hoverboarding with some friends, one of whom had his hoverboard suddenly malfunction. Brassfield was right behind him and couldn’t stop in time, crashing into the suddenly stationary guy and was thrown off and into the nearest rack for communal cargo bikes. He got some scratches and a bloody nose, but most importantly blew out his shoulder and Luis Silva was a bit mum about how he’d treat it, but assured me that Brassfield was for sure out for the season.

I wept, and more than Brass did.

Raccoons (4-8) @ Indians (3-9) – April 18-20, 2056

The North’s 1-2 finishers from 2055 had started the season 5-6 in the division, so there was a lot of room to tally for both of them, technically. Indy was tenth in runs scored and runs allowed so far, though, with a -33 run differential, which could be a small sample size or the first tolls of the bell. Their rotation had a 7.25 ERA, which somehow wasn’t even the worst in the league (the Condors: 7.41). We had won the division against them last year, partly because we won the season series, 11-7.

Projected matchups:
Sean Sweeton (1-0, 2.51 ERA) vs. Jeremy Fetta (0-2, 9.35 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-1, 4.85 ERA) vs. Salvatore Calderon (0-2, 9.31 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-2, 4.00 ERA) vs. Juan Vasquez (0-0, 4.00 ERA)

The Indians had been through two rainouts and as many double headers last week and their rotation was jumbled. They didn’t have any right-handed starters one way or another, though.

The Coons reflexively called up Prospero Tenazes for the Brassfield injury while the youngsters in AAA would sort out among them who’d actually get the roster spot in the long run.

Game 1
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – LF Caballero – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – P Sweeton
IND: 2B A. Rios – RF Perry – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B D. Sandoval – CF McIntyre – LF J. Garza – C Mi. Gilmore – SS Ed. Ortiz – P Fetta

The Raccoons scored a run in the first inning with singles from Lonzo and Ramsay, but I didn’t really show any reaction to it, nor did I feel any reason to get upset anymore when Sweeton got rapped for three runs in the bottom 2nd in the most stupid fashion. First, a leadoff walk to Dan Sandoval, always the bane of my existence, and then the Indians put out 2-out singles with Mike Gilmore and Edwin Ortiz to tie the game. Which was still acceptable, while the opposing pitcher fetting a 2-out, 2-strike, 2-run double into the gap in right-center was decidedly not.

Top 4th, the bags were full with the 4-5-6 batters, and there was nobody out. The bottom three were hitting negative eleven with lots of tears so far this season, and Matt Fiore promptly grounded a ball back to the pitcher, who got an easy out on Ramsay at the plate. Venegas at least tried to break out, though, crashing a bases-clearing triple over the head of Will McIntyre. Sweeton struck out, Royer flew out, but we had a 4-3 lead … at least until McIntyre and Jose Garza hit singles to begin the bottom 6th against Sweeton, and Mike Gilmore’s sac fly got the teams even at four. In between those two scoring events, the Raccoons had not only frittered away Venegas parking his thick bum at third base with less than two outs in the fourth, but another three singles in the two frames after that, and when Royer and Lonzo opened the seventh with another two singles, Pucks hit into a double play to Antonio Rios and Ramsay found Ortiz for a third out, leaving Royer, too, starved at third base. Sweeton got one more out from Rios in the bottom 7th before leaving for Eloy Sencion against the left-handed array starting with Jason Perry, who whiffed. Bill Quinteros, bereft of his longtime terror partner Bobby Anderson in this lineup, singled, and Sandoval homered to right to break the tie…

The Raccoons made up the deficit in the eighth when with two outs Fiore reached on an error by Quinteros, Venegas reached on a throwing error by Sandoval, and new pitcher Sam Heisler couldn’t put rakin’ Carlos Solorzano away. The pinch-hitter drove in the tying runs with a single to left, but Royer flew out to left. Right-hander Randy Slocum would give up straight singles to Pucks, Rams, and Waters in the ninth inning for the go-ahead run, though. Walters then came in for the same lefty group that had bopped Sencion earlier, but surely he'd cruise through the bottom 9th, huh? Perry singled. Quinteros singled. Winning run on base. Ay. A strikeout and a groundout followed before Walters nailed Jose Garza to fill the bases. Mike Gilmore, batting all of .171 as a switch-hitter, ran a full count before knocking a ball up the middle. Lonzo over, and a sure through to first to end the game. 7-6 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-5; Ramsay 4-5, RBI; Waters 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Solorzano (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – P Brobeck – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – LF Solorzano
IND: 2B A. Rios – C Mi. Gilmore – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B D. Sandoval – CF McIntyre – LF J. Garza – RF Lovins – SS Ed. Ortiz – P S. Calderon

Two in the top 1st, two in the bottom 1st. Two in the top 2nd, three in the bottom 2nd. Not runs, but batters reaching base, and all were stranded in a rather desolate display of RISP batting by both of the 5-6 teams in the North. It got better in the third; only Pucks with a single and McIntyre by getting nicked reached base … and were stranded. The Coons got further down on the LOB though by disappearing 1-2-3 in the fourth inning while Brobeck walked Ortiz, but that runner also was left out there to fend off the beasts for himself.

Things got only more sublime from here, with Carlos Solorzano appearing to hit a double to right in the fifth inning, except that the Indians appealed to first base and the ump brought up the puncher – Solorzano had indeed missed first base… and by at least two feet, too. Bottom 5th, Brobeck walked Gilmore (which gave him five on the day) and bruised Quinteros (two), was yelled at by the pitching coach in a conference, and then still bled with a 2-run double by Sandoval and an RBI single to center by Garza.

Portland scored a run in the sixth when Lonzo singled, stole second – #400, which was briefly acknowledged by the Indians on the scoreboard – and was brought home by Waters’ single to center, while Brobeck gave up a leadoff single to the ******* opposing pitcher. Calderon was on third base with two outs and Quinteros in the box, and the Raccoons brought Lillis, who secured a K to bugger out of the inning. The Coons didn’t reach base again facing Calderon until Pucks singled (and was stranded) in the eighth, while Lillis logged five outs across three innings before pawing it off to Bravo, who was … no bravo. He needed 31 pitches, two singles, a wild pitch, a walk, and somehow only one run to get the final two outs in the inning. Slocum retired the Coons in order in the ninth this time. 4-1 Indians. Lavorano 2-4; Puckeridge 2-3, BB; Lillis 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

(si-hi-hi-hiiiigh)

Game 3
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – LF Caballero – 3B Venegas – C Philipps – P de la Cruz
IND: 2B A. Rios – RF Perry – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B D. Sandoval – CF McIntyre – C Mi. Gilmore – LF French – SS Ed. Ortiz – P En. Ortiz

The Indians sent Enrique Ortiz (0-2, 12.27 ERA), but the Raccoons hadn’t exactly torn the two guys with ERA’s around nine to shreds so far, so I wasn’t exactly ecstatic. But the Coons would put their first three batters on base, and all three of them stole a base in the first inning, too. Royer scored on Pucks’ single, while Lonzo came home on Rams’ sac fly, but Pucks was left on base. Raffy had not allowed a base hit his last time out, but Rios singled off him on the first pitch on Thursday. Jason Perry walked (…), and Quinteros singled to right to fill the bases. 12 pitches in, we had the first mound conference, which at least *worked* as McIntyre grounded into a run-scoring, 6-4-3 double play, and Gilmore also grounded out to end the inning, the Coons still up 2-1.

Raffy tried his best to fail bravely forward and held the lead for a hit, but Ortiz was suddenly brilliant, striking out EIGHT in four innings, including the sides in the second and fourth innings. Raffy in turn began the bottom 4th with a single served to McIntyre, a wild pitch, and then a four-pitch walk to Gilmore. Bobby French found Waters for a 4-6-3, though, and Edwin Ortiz popped out to strand the tying run on third base again. Raffy got yet another double play from Perry in the fifth after Rios singled.

Ortiz had 11 strikeouts after K’ing Ramsay to begin the sixth, but then got bogged down and issued his third and fourth walks to Waters and Caballero, shooting his pitch count into triple digits. Venegas and Philipps did him no harm, though, popping out to short and flying out to right in order. Ortiz ended with 11 K, not returning for the seventh, but on the hook. Raffy did come back for the seventh, struck out Gilmore, but then walked French and was gone. Salazar would navigate through the rest of the inning, while Sam Heisler created trouble in the top 8th, allowing hits to Rams and Waters before plonking Caballero, which loaded the bases with one out. Fiore pinch-hit for Venegas, offering a lefty sub-.200 stick for a right sub-.200 stick against the right-handed Heisler, but also ultimately a double play grounder on an 0-1 pitch.

…and then Sencion, Lane, and Pucks conspired to blow the skinny 2-1 lead after Raffy had tried oh so hard to do it himself for so long. Sencion got Perry and Quinteros out in the bottom 8th, but Sandoval singled. Pucks overran the ball and gave the runner an extra base, while Mike Lane conceded the run on McIntyre’s single, then gave up another single to Gilmore for good measure before finally retiring Chris Lovins. Nobody reached in the ninth inning, sending this miserable game to extras. Adam Haller walked Rams in the top 10th for no greater effect, while Lillis walked Quinteros with one down in the bottom 10th. Sandoval struck out, but McIntyre rushed the first pitch to left-center for a double. Prospero Tenazes, by now in the game, made a nice play though and Quinteros was waved around anyway to brute-force an end to the game – but instead he was brute-forced out by sliding into Tyler Philipps’ knee and glove containing the ball at the plate and was ruled out, for the game to continue.

The Coons got two scoreless innings from Reynaldo Bravo while not coming near the bases themselves in the 11th and 12th, so Rams’ 1-out single off a long-going Haller in the 13th was their very next chance. Waters whiffed, and Rams was then picked off by Haller, who went five shutout innings with six strikeouts. Tanizaki pitched the bottom 13th so Haller’s efforts went unrewarded. Lefty Bill Dewan replaced him in the 14th. Caballero didn’t get on, which led us to use our last stick off the bench (and also meant that Walters, the last guy in the pen, was going to enter the bottom 14th no matter what, AND that He Shui wandered out to the pen to warm up between innings). Carlos Solorzano singled, then stole his first base of the year. The Indians walked TYLER PHILIPPS (.143, 1 HR, 2 RBI) intentionally to get to Adriano Chavez and potentially Prospero Tenazes when I wouldn’t have trusted either of those three to get a base hit, or to not lose my winning lottery ticket. Chavez popped out to Ortiz at short, and Tenazes grounded out to Ortiz. So Walters entered the tie, got three quick outs in the 14th, but the game dragged on. Rios hit a leadoff single in the bottom 15th and advanced on Garza’s groundout. Quinteros knocked a liner to the right side, but Ramsay leapt and snatched it!! What a game-saver! Sandoval whiffed to end the inning.

That was over 30 pitches for Walters, who was thus pretty much used up. His spot came up against Dewan with nobody on base in the 16th and two down, but we batted Brobeck anyway. He struck out. So that was how He Shui’s 69th career appearance was his first in relief. McIntyre hit another leadoff single, but was left at third base for the 69th time in the series. The 17th inning began in a ballpark that at this point was mostly occupied by people that were paid to be there. Dewan got Philipps and Chavez, but Tenazes singled over Rios’ tired head. Lonzo lined loudly to left … and light to lecherous Lovins. Bottom 17th, and I didn’t know who the **** Bob Keels was, potentially a loyal fan the Indians were rewarding with a one-day contract here, but he was catching now and drew a leadoff walk. Keels moved to second on a grounder, then to third on Garza’s single. And I was fine with Quinteros hitting a walkoff sac fly here. Just make it ******* end. He put a 2-2 pitch into play, but at Ramsay. Keels went for home! Ramsay went for home! Another noisy collision, and another fisting by the home plate umpire, and this game kept going. …for two more pitches, and then Sandoval hit a walkoff single to right. 3-2 Indians. Ramsay 3-5, BB, RBI; Solorzano (PH) 1-1; Bravo 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K; Walters 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

We didn’t score for the last 16 innings.

We had nine hits and 20 strikeouts. We did not have an extra-base hit.

I have a metallic taste in my mouth.

Which is good, because after three days, I’m finally feeling something again!

Raccoons (5-10) @ Aces (7-9) – April 21-23, 2056

The Aces were in the bottom three in both starters’ and bullpen ERA, as if that would help the Critters to score, and had given up the third-most runs in the CL so far. They were fifth in runs scored with a -11 run differential (Portlanders: -6). Their offense was rather average in most categories, but they had already shed two pieces of their lineup with Jeremy Welter and Ken Hummel off to the DL. Portland was 17-1 over two years against Vegas, with a perfect 9-0 last season.

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (1-2, 4.26 ERA) vs. Scott Evans (1-0, 7.20 ERA)
Sean Sweeton (1-0, 3.48 ERA) vs. Kris Robbins (0-1, 5.84 ERA)
He Shui (2-1, 3.26 ERA) vs. Josh Wilson (1-1, 4.05 ERA)

The Aces had two southpaws, and we’d miss them both unless they’d use their Thursday off to skip Jorge Quinones (2-2, 5.06 ERA) into the series. Yes, we had played an excess 17 innings in the last 24 hours. Oh well, only our pitchers were tired. THE HITTERS VERY ******* WEREN’T.

The Raccoons had to make a roster move, and not even because of the jumbled rotation. The off day on Monday meant that Taki could go on regular rest on Friday, but Sweeton would be on short rest on Saturday. But Shui had gone nearly two innings of futility with lots of on-base business on Thursday, and I didn’t feel well sending him one day’s rest either. So this above was ONE option, the other would be to spot-start Salazar (0-0, 2.45 ERA) on Saturday if he wasn’t needed in Friday’s game. Salazar had gone for two outs on Thursday, his only appearance in the Indians series. Craig Kniep was not an option for a spot start on Saturday; he had gone on Tuesday in AAA, just like Sweeton.

But the pen was in utter disarray now. Reynaldo Bravo (0-1, 5.40 ERA) had thrown 67 pitches between the last two days and would probably take all weekend to recover. So the falling piano hit him through no fault of his own. Bravo was sent to recuperate in AAA while we brought up a fresh reliever. And – hey-hey! – it was… Ryan Harmer. (takes an annoyed sip from an over-sized Caipi)

Game 1
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Caballero – C Fiore – 3B Chavez – P Taki
LVA: SS Veguilla – 2B J. White – RF Austin – 3B A. Alfaro – LF Kaniewski – CF Epperson – 1B Blair – C J. Dixon – P S. Evans

The Raccoons ended a 16-inning scoreless streak (gnashes teeth) with a Lonzo double, a wild pitch, and Pucks’ sac fly in the first inning, taking a 1-0 lead. Lonzo was later caught stealing in the third inning, but Caballero snuck a base in the fourth and was then doubled home by Matt Fiore for the game’s second run. It was 3-0 in the fifth with Lonzo scoring on another sac fly, this time hit to deep right by Ramsay with the bases loaded. The remaining runners, Pucks and Waters, were stranded by Caballero grounding out to Jim White. All the while, Seisaku Taki spent just 43 pitches to get through five innings, despite scattering five base hits. One runner, John Kaniewski ran himself out on the base paths, though, and the Raccoons also turned a pair of double plays for Taki to accelerate the collecting of outs. Jim White hit another single in the sixth, but was also stranded once Alex Alfaro struck out. Top 7th, Pucks reached leading off on Dave Blair’s error, then moved up on a wild pitch. Before we could score a run on that defensive mockery, we scored two when Matt Walters hit a belter to right-center to extend the lead to 5-0 with his second homer of the year, which also made him the first Coon to ten RBI, and who had that on his bingo card…?

Evans’ day was over, but the Raccoons grabbed another run off reliever David Zaragoza when Rams singled, Fiore doubled, and Adriano Chavez at least got the lead runner home with a well-placed groundout. Taki was still on a good pitch count through seven innings, despite another single by Gunner Epperson, while the Raccoons – despite leading by plenty, but not *a lot* – their starting middle infielders for the last inning-and-a-half, with Espinoza and Venegas getting into the game. Miguel Veguilla hit yet another single off Taki in the eighth, but was caught stealing, and Taki entered the bottom 9th on 90 pitches, facing the meat of the Aces order, and Aubrey Austin started with a zinger up the rightfield line that bounced barely fair, then off the sidewall and past a befuddled Prospero Tenazes. Taki rung up Alfaro, but walked John Kaniewski, and then gave up a fly to center that was deep enough for Epperson to bring in Austin, ruining the shutout with one out to go. Dave Blair grounded out to Espinoza at short to still give Taki a complete game. 6-1 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-4, 2B; Waters 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Ramsay 2-4, RBI; Fiore 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Taki 9.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-2);

That was a clutch outing from Taki! We really needed that one…!

With Fernando Salazar and the rest of the bullpen unused on Friday, the Raccoons called a pitching change for Saturday. Sweeton, who had thrown 113 pitches on Tuesday, was pushed back to Sunday, and Shui to next week, and Salazar made a spot start in the middle game of the set.

Game 2
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – 3B Brobeck – C Fiore – LF Venegas – P Salazar
LVA: SS Veguilla – 2B J. White – RF Austin – 3B A. Alfaro – LF Kaniewski – CF Epperson – 1B Blair – C J. Dixon – P Robbins

First inning, Lonzo singled, stole second, and then scored when Matt Walters lobbed a double to right. Just as I designed it! Then Salazar walked White, Austin doubled, and Alfaro socked a 3-run homer right away in the bottom 1st, which I now needed some scapegoat to blame it on. That would also be far from the last homer allowed by Salazar in this game. He was taken deep by Austin for one and by Epperson for two in the bottom 3rd, and then Kaniewski slapped another 2-piece in the fifth inning, running up an 8-1 score while the Raccoons had scored zilch while stranding five runners in the previous three innings… Ryan Harmer would get the ball before the bottom 5th was over and batted for himself in the sixth inning even with a guy on base, because what were our bench players gonna do? Strand Venegas any harder than a reliever?

Steve Royer’s leadoff triple in the seventh at least led to a run as he scored on a single by Lonzo, who was then again caught stealing. Pucks singled, as did Ramsay. Oh good, now we had lost a run. Brobeck batted with two outs, ran a full count against Robbins, and then livened up his 3-for-21 batting clip of the early going with a 3-run jack to right, narrowing the score to 8-5.

And for some reason we weren’t done yet. Aaron Erwin replaced Robbins and got out of the seventh, but put Venegas on base to begin the eighth inning. The Aces went to Cruz Madrid, the Coons this time batted for Harmer, sending Oscar Caballero, and Caballero socked another blast into the rightfield stands, and now we were back to 8-7…! And, hold on – here’s Steve Royer. And Royer, deep to center, and THAT ball was gone…!! Tied game after a 7-run rally inside three outs…! Lonzo reached on an error, but was stranded as the middle of the order didn’t get a hit between them, so we remained in an 8-8 tie for the time being. Tanizaki would retire Vegas 1-2-3 in the bottom 8th, while Matt Fiore hit a ninth-inning single off lefty Bob Kelly, but was also left on base. Sencion and Lane combined for a scoreless ninth, which gave everybody what we needed most – more innings.

Hits off Kelly by Royer and Lonzo put them on the corners to begin the 10th inning, which was a solid start. The Aces nailed Lonzo to the base to prevent him from running out of the double play, but in turn Austin couldn’t reach a zinger Pucks dished through the right side (although it would have been the catch of the year if he had actually made it from his usual position) and the Raccoons took the lead on the RBI double to right. The Aces went the nasty route then, intentionally walking Waters: three on, no outs. Kelly nailed Rams, pushing home a run, and while the team really failed at batting now despite sending out righty pinch-hitters with Philipps and Tenazes, Kelly waved home another run with a wild pitch. Thus it was a 3-run lead for Walters, and put the Aces away… though not without allowing two soft singles. 11-8 Furballs! Royer 4-6, HR, 3B, RBI; Lavorano 4-6, RBI; Puckeridge 3-6, 2B, RBI; Fiore 2-5, 2B; Venegas 2-6; Caballero (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Harmer 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

First Raccoons win for Mike Lane, first Raccoons home runs for Caballero and Royer, and maybe this W can energize the team, glue them together, and make them rally after the damn Elks, who were somehow already 6 1/2 games away.

Meanwhile, the Aces should wonder whether they have been getting tea-bagged by this team with its routinely sturdy bullpen for two+ years because they casually allow ten unanswered runs by a team that oughta be thoroughly beaten already…

Game 3
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Solorzano – 3B Venegas – C Philipps – P Sweeton
LVA: SS Veguilla – 2B J. White – RF Austin – 3B A. Alfaro – LF Kaniewski – CF Epperson – 1B Blair – C J. Dixon – P Jo. Wilson

Slight deviation from the usual plan – this time Steve Royer got on base in the first inning, stole second base, and then was singled home by Waters. Sweeton though was erratic; he allowed three hits and three walks through the first three innings. Still no runs, but that was also down to Gunner Epperson getting caught stealing, and Aubrey Austin hitting into a double play after Veguilla and White reached to begin the bottom 3rd. Alfaro then flew out to Solorzano in left. Kaniewski hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, was doubled off by Epperson’s grounder to Waters, but then Sweeton walked not one, but two batters before getting the third out from the pitcher. It was not the most nerve-conserving outing.

Sweeton got a taste of his own medicine in the top 5th, singling before being doubled off by Royer. He then had something entirely new – a 1-2-3 inning, whiffing Veguilla and White. In turn, it all came apart for good in the sixth inning. Alfaro socked a leadoff double to right, then scored with one out when Lonzo misfiled an Epperson grounder for an error, and that also tied the game, because the Raccoons had stopped the offense altogether. Dave Blair singled home the go-ahead run, John Dixon walked, and Sean Sweeton took a hike. Lane got out of the inning, but the Raccoons then flushed a return error by Veguilla which put Venegas on second base with one out in the seventh inning. Philipps and Chavez crapped out to end the inning, while Tanizaki in turn allowed a leadoff triple to White, and then the insurance run on Austin’s grounder to second base in the bottom 7th. Pucks’ 2-out single in the eighth didn’t lead anywhere, but Tenazes hit a single off Kelly in the ninth, batting for Solorzano with one out. And Venegas found Alfaro for a game-ending 5-4-3 double play… 3-1 Aces. Waters 2-4, RBI; Tenazes (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 17 – DEN 2B/3B Ivan Villa (.302, 1 HR, 11 RBI) puts out five hits and drives in three runs in an 11-3 win over the Pacifics. Villa misses the cycle by the home run.
April 17 – An elbow contusion put Aces OF Ken Hummel (.339, 4 HR, 14 RBI) on the shelf for the rest of the month.
April 19 – The Rebels score in every inning but two in their 16-5 win in Cincinnati. RIC C Michael Lefebvre (.250, 2 HR, 9 RBI) leads the team with five RBI on three base hits.
April 20 – CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.492, 3 HR, 19 RBI) is hard to retire and now has a 25-game hitting streak. The Falcons lost 2-1 to the Aces, but Ceballos hit a double in the first inning to keep the streak going.
April 23 – Crusaders INF Prince Gates (.203, 2 HR, 12 RBI) will miss at least three weeks after suffering a tear in his hamstring.
April 23 – The Blue Sox, 3-15 to begin the year, rue the loss of Player of the Week INF Nick Nye (.321, 4 HR, 13 RBI) to a torn labrum that would cost him at least three months of the season.

FL Player of the Week: NAS INF Nick Nye (.321, 4 HR, 13 RBI), batting .545 (12-22) with 1 HR, 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN SS/3B Dan Mullen (.378, 2 HR, 14 RBI), hitting .458 (11-24) with 1 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We lost a game to the Aces, in other words, the sky is falling.

Losing Trent Brassfield for the season is a terrible blow, and we obviously don’t have any youth player to replace him with, and I am not sure we can make a trade for him. So is that the season? We were building for next year anyway. So is that the plug on 2056? In April?

Those are some dark thoughts for April…

For the time being, the only AAA outfielder on the 40-man roster that was hitting an appreciable amount for the Alley Cats was David Flores, .289/.481/.474 in 12 games, and while that was a ridiculously small sample size, he couldn’t be far away from a despair call-up.

For now, six more road games in Charlotte and New York, and that will then complete the first month.

Fun Fact: Yes, it took us this long to notice that there’s two M. Gilmores.

And they’re both in the division. And have been for five years (pi times thumb). MIKE Gilmore on the Indians. And MATT Gilmore on the Titans. They’re not even playing the same position…!

(calmly gulps from his bottle of Capt’n Coma)

[alexsimon99]

Originally Posted by Westheim

The Raccoons’ 2056 season ended on their off day before flying out to Indianapolis in the afternoon. Trent Brassfield went for a morning session of hoverboarding with some friends, one of whom had his hoverboard suddenly malfunction. Brassfield was right behind him and couldn’t stop in time, crashing into the suddenly stationary guy and was thrown off and into the nearest rack for communal cargo bikes. He got some scratches and a bloody nose, but most importantly blew out his shoulder and Luis Silva was a bit mum about how he’d treat it, but assured me that Brassfield was for sure out for the season.

I wept, and more than Brass did.

Hoverboarding?!?!?!?!?!? This is worse than Bumgarner's ATV injury...

[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-11) @ Falcons (13-5) – April 25-27, 2056

The Falcons were second in the CL South as well as in runs scored and runs allowed in the Continental League with an impressively early +47 run differential. The question was whether the Coons should even disembark the plane. We had lost last year’s season series already, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (2-1, 3.26 ERA) vs. Alfonso Jewel (3-0, 0.82 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-2, 4.82 ERA) vs. Noah Hollis (1-1, 3.86 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (2-2, 3.21 ERA) vs. Art Schaeffer (4-0, 1.65 ERA)

The Tuesday opener would have the Critters face the first southpaw in over a week… and probably the only one this week.

Game 1
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – 1B Puckeridge – CF Royer – LF Caballero – C Philipps – RF Tenazes – P Shui
CHA: LF Kulak – SS Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – 1B Schaack – 3B B. Anderson – C L. Miranda – CF Conner – 2B J. Sanchez – P Jewel

Jewel sparkled, and the Raccoons didn’t. Matt Waters drew a walk, and that was it the first time through, while Shui struck out four in three innings, but gave up singles to Danny Ceballos and Jason Schaack to begin the bottom 4th, which also marked 29 straight games of hitting for the .467 torturer Ceballos, and then a run on former Indian Bobby Anderson’s 6-4-3 double play. Oscar Caballero took off the no-hitter with a 1-out single in the fifth, but didn’t get off first base, while Shui’s half of the fifth on the hill began with strikeouts to the 8-9 hitters, but then he gave up a wallbanger double to William Kulak and an RBI single to Ian Woodrome for a 2-0 score. Ceballos then popped out to end the inning, which in itself was a little victory. Top 6th, Shui strung a liner into Bobby Anderson’s mitten before the struggling Venegas reached on a dorkly double to right that first blooped behind Jordan Sanchez, who then tumbled into Ceballos’ path, and that kept the rightfielder from making a play. Matt Waters plated the runner with a 2-out single, 2-1, but was stranded by Pucks. Royer’s leadoff double in the seventh seemed to get the Coons somewhere soon; Caballero grounded out and sent him to third base, but Philipps struck out in his quest to reach sub-.100 depths. Again, a 2-out single got the run home, this one lobbed by Prospero Tenazes over the glove of Woodrome. Shui held the tie through six and two thirds, then was followed by Sencion, who was bombed by Schaack in the bottom 8th for a solo homer. Ex-Coon Steve Watson retired the Critters’ 4-5-6 batters in order to get the game over with. 3-2 Falcons. Shui 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K;

Game 2
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – P Brobeck – C Fiore – 3B Chavez – LF Solorzano
CHA: LF Kulak – SS Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – 1B Schaack – 3B B. Anderson – C L. Miranda – CF M. Ceballos – 2B J. Sanchez – P Hollis

The Raccoons had hit Hollis more than once as a Logger, surely they could find a few scraps in this game…! We started with an unearned run in the first as Lonzo reached on an error, stole his ninth base of the year, and then was doubled home by Matt Waters, the closest thing to a clutch hitter on the roster this month. Brobeck did his best bid to give the gift straight back, walked two of the three left-handers atop the Charlotte order in the bottom 1st, but Kulak was caught stealing and the inning fizzled out for the Falcons. Despite an eerie lack of stuff and much command, Brobeck managed to not only stalk his way around that early threat, but also around Bobby Anderson reaching on a 2-base throwing error by Adriano Chavez to begin the bottom 2nd, and then a leadoff double by Schaack in the fourth. That latter inning progressed with a walk to the lesser Ceballos – Mario – and then a shy single for Sanchez, but Hollis was hung with a K to end the inning with the bases loaded. At least that Brobeck did get done…!

The 1-2-3 got Brobeck in the fifth though, for 1-2-3 singles and just as many base runners for Schaack with nobody out – and yes, that was the 30th straight game with a hit for Danny Ceballos (.456, 3 HR, 21 RBI). Schaack hit another single to right to tie the game, and Anderson’s double play grounder brought in the go-ahead run for Charlotte, 2-1, but the major Ceballos was left on base, after a walk to Luis Miranda, when the lesser Ceballos flew out to Steve Royer.

The Coons’ sixth began with a Lonzo single and regressed when Pucks grounded to Sanchez for a double play, which was just the way things were going here… Brobeck was charged another run when he served up a triple to Hollis in the bottom 6th and Lillis couldn’t keep the runner on base, which was one of those depressing developments, but then the seventh saw the Coons… make two outs to begin the inning before Matt Fiore singled. The Raccoons would pump out another FOUR straight singles, driving in as many runs; one RBI for Solorzano and Royer, the latter tying the game, and then Lonzo drove home two with a single to center before Pucks grounded out to Schaack to end the attack.

The 5-3 lead held up for … no outs. Mike Lane gave up a double to Danny Ceballos, then a homer to Schaack to get the score even with nobody out in the bottom 7th. The lead was taken by the Falcons in the eighth, again, and off Sencion, again, this time with a Kulak single, Sencion’s own throwing error to put Woodrome on base, and eventually ****** Schaack’s sac fly to Solorzano. For the second day in a row as well Steve Watson kept the pillow firmly on our snouts in the ninth inning. 6-5 Falcons. Lavorano 2-3, 2 RBI;

Sole possession of last place!

Wheeeee.

Game 3
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – LF Caballero – 3B Espinoza – P Taki
CHA: LF Kulak – SS Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – 1B Schaack – 3B B. Anderson – C L. Miranda – CF M. Ceballos – 2B J. Sanchez – P Schaeffer

It was a Taki first inning, as he got bludgeoned for a double, a walk, and homers by Schaack (…) and Luis Miranda for a quick and depressing 4-0 deficit. While Taki gave up six hits in three innings, Schaeffer made it ten up, ten down before Lonzo hit a single to center in the fourth inning, but was stranded on base. Out of the blue, Oscar Caballero socked a home run in the fifth to narrow the score to 4-1, but Charlotte answered in no time: leadoff single for Woodrome, double for D. Ceballos – the D stood for devil – and then a sac fly for Bobby Anderson after Taki even got the K on Schaack.

But Taki hit a leadoff single in the sixth and moved up on Royer’s groundout. He scored on a Lonzo single, Lonzo reached second base, and then scored on another 2-out RBI single by Waters, which at the time brought the tying run to the plate, but Ramsay was dismissed on a pop to Anderson. Taki never retired Danny Ceballos, but Lillis did in the seventh inning for a nice change. The Raccoons couldn’t get untracked in the seventh or eighth innings, but the Falcons got another run off Salazar in the bottom 8th. The ninth this time featured Joe Gowin, our ex-catcher’s brother, against the heart of the order. Pucks whiffed and Waters popped out, and only Solorzano, pinch-hitting for Salazar in the #5 spot, reached on a glorious infield single with two outs. Matt Fiore doubled to right-center, and now the tying run was at the plate again in Caballero, who had a homer in the game already – but one was enough, and he flew out to Kulak in left-center. 6-3 Falcons. Lavorano 2-4, RBI; Solorzano (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (7-14) @ Crusaders (10-11) – April 28-30, 2056

Since splitting the first two games of the season, the Raccoons had mostly eaten glass, while the Crusaders… well… it wasn’t exactly humming with them, either. They were third in runs scored, fifth in runs allowed, but despite a +19 run differential were just around .500. They needed either more luck, or a more listless opponent. Luckily the Raccoons were here to help.

Projected matchups:
Sean Sweeton (1-1, 3.12 ERA) vs. Alex Murillo (1-1, 2.79 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-2, 2.93 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (3-1, 1.15 ERA)
He Shui (2-1, 3.12 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (2-1, 4.38 ERA)

Nothing but right-handed pitchers in this series, but no Prince Gates; the infielder was on the DL with a torn hammy, and starter Kyle Turay (2-2, 3.25 ERA) was day-to-day with back problems, which might yet cause a jumble in their rotation. Both Murillo and Seiter had pitched on Sunday in a double-header.

The Coons meanwhile were more games under .500 (seven) than runs (five). I wore my most clueless look as the week continued to unravel.

Game 1
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – 3B Venegas – LF Caballero – C Philipps – P Sweeton
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Sevilla – RF Buss – CF Pfeifer – C Seidman – LF Standard – 3B D. Wagner – P A. Murillo

Venegas tried his best to rally to .200 with singles in his first two plate appearances on Friday. The first let absolutely ******** nowhere, and was the only Critter appearance on base the first time through. The second came with two outs in the fourth and Waters on second and Rams on first base. Waters turned around and headed for the plate, while Ramsay aimed for third base on Venegas’ single to center. Mike Pfeifer gave up the run, but got Ramsay struck down in a rundown to end the inning. Sweeton had given up one hit so far, and walked Jeff Buss in the bottom 4th, but struck out Pfeifer to kept the Crusaders shut out. Another walk was extended to Mike Seidman in the fifth, but he, too, was stranded by the New Yorkers.

The Crusaders then tied the game in the sixth against Sweeton, and in the most facepaw way possible. Alex Murillo snuck a leadoff single into left, was forced out on Omar Sanchez’ grounder, but Sanchez stole his 13th base of the year, advanced on a wild pitch, and then scored on Zach Suggs’ groundout, which SUUUUGGED. The Portlanders answered with a hit for Ramsay and a hit into Caballero in the top 7th, and then Tyler Philipps’ masterfully executed, inning-ending 4-6-3 grounder to Sanchez. Adriano Chavez, batting for Sweeton, hit a leadoff single in the eighth and reached third base on Pucks’ 2-out single, but Waters popped out over home plate to end the inning. Waters went on to open the bottom 8th with a fumble of Jeff Standard’s grounder for an error, and Tanizaki ****** the bags full before giving up a sac fly to Suggs, which – well, yes.

Top 9th, Lussier pitching left-handedly, and the Raccoons trailed 2-1. Ramsay was up, but we wanted a righty stick and had to go with Daniel Espinoza, who was a steady oh-for-’56, but singled through the left side to get the inning going. Venegas walked. Caballero singled. Suddenly the bases were loaded…! And with nobody out. Tenazes batted for Philipps, and grounded sharply to Suggs, who threw home to get Espinoza out, which sugged. Matt Fiore batted for Tanizaki and popped out. Steve Royer was down to 2-2 when he hit a grounder up the middle – and through! Into center, and two runs scored! The Crusaders yanked Lussier, then brought righty Ryan Sullivan, who nicked Lonzo, then gave up two more runs on Pucks’ single. Waters walked, Espinoza singled home another pair, and by now the Crusaders were on right-handed garbage reliever Joel Luera, whom Venegas took to deep center for a 2-run double. Caballero walked. Tenazes was drilled. And Fiore struck out. But after being down to their final strike, the Raccoons EXPLODED for eight runs! Where had that been all month?? Ryan Harmer turned New York away in the home half of the ninth. 9-2 Raccoons!? Puckeridge 2-5, 2 RBI; Ramsay 1-2, BB; Espinoza (PH) 2-2, 2 RBI; Venegas 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Chavez (PH) 1-1; Sweeton 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K;

Tyler Philipps (.097, 1 HR, 2 RBI) found himself on waivers after this game. The Raccoons didn’t go to their hope at the position, Marcos Chavez, but instead called up a 25-year-old Oregonian, who had been the #241 pick in the 2051 draft, Matt Stanton, hitting .321 in 16 games with the Alley Cats. He was solid defensively, batted righty, and had catcher’s pace.

Game 2
POR: LF Caballero – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – CF Solorzano – P de la Cruz
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Sevilla – RF Buss – CF Pfeifer – C Seidman – LF C. Williams – 3B D. Wagner – P Seiter

Raffy remained highly erratic after an extended break between starts and began his outing with a full count and a walk to Omar Sanchez, whom Suggs doubled off with a grounder to short. Hits by Seidman, a double to left, and Chad Williams, a single to right, gave New York a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but the Raccoons made up the run in the fourth when Pucks forced out Lonzo, then stole second and was doubled in by Waters.

Waters doubled in Pucks again in the sixth inning, then with one gone and after the outfielder reached base on an infield single. This made it a 2-1 lead for Raffy, while Seiter walked the bags full, half intentionally to Rams, and half unintentionally with Fiore. Venegas then bumbled into a double play, 6-4-3, killing the inning. Raffy returned for the bottom 6th, nailed Jeff Buss and walked Mike Pfeifer, and then was depressingly yanked once again. Fernando Salazar replaced him, put Seidman on with a single, and then served up a grand slam to Darrell Wagner. Salazar continued to pitch and with two outs parked Sanchez and Suggs on base, then gave up another 3-piece to Sevilla. Wagner drove in another run against a hapless Eloy Sencion in the bottom 7th, with the left-hander being behind against every ******* batter he faced in the inning. Sencion also walked Sanchez to begin the eighth, then was removed for Harmer. Ryan Harmer did what he did best and stunk up the ballpark, walking the bases full before giving up 2-run knocks to both Seidman and Williams. 13-2 Crusaders. Puckeridge 3-4; Waters 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

More rolling heads then: Ryan Harmer (0-0, 6.23 ERA) was and remained a useless piece of **** and was exchanged for Reynaldo Bravo again.

Interlude: Trade

Fernando Salazar (0-0, 10.29 ERA) was refusing a minors assignment, so the Raccoons swung a deal with the Knights, who longed to divest themselves of LF Chris Kirkwood, a righty hitter batting .282 with 3 HR and 13 RBI, for reasons unknown. Kirkwood, age 32, was a free agent after the season, and was hopefully somewhat of a Brassfield replacement.

Kirkwood pushed Tenazes (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI) off the roster and onto waivers yet again. The empty bullpen spot went to Colby Bowen (6.23 ERA in 2055) for the moment, but I was eyeing a promotion for Craig Kniep at the next opportunity. He had pitched Friday, so that would be the middle of next week. Kniep had a 1.91 ERA in St. Pete.

Raccoons (7-14) @ Crusaders (10-11) – April 28-30, 2056

Chris Kirkwood had made precisely 900 ABL games as a Knight, with 88 homers and 401 RBI. Sounded good enough to bat cleanup. Waters and Pucks had the day off – there was no off day for the Raccoons in the following week.

POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – LF Kirkwood – RF Caballero – C Fiore – 3B Venegas – 2B Chavez – P Shui
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Sevilla – RF Buss – CF Pfeifer – C Seidman – LF C. Williams – 3B D. Wagner – P Groh

Noel Groh (1-2, 9.82 ERA) had seen some **** this season, but retired the Raccoons for no runs through three innings rather comfortably, a pace matched by Shui. Kirkwood struck out his first time up as a Critter, stranding Ramsay on base in the first inning, but singled in the fourth to get that inning going. Caballero and Venegas would fill the bases before Chavez slapped a ball through the left side for an RBI single and the game’s first run. Groh regained control with K’s to Shui and Royer, then had Lonzo and Kirkwood on base in the fifth before Caballero found a first-pitch, inning-curtailing double play. Venegas singled in the sixth, and Chavez rumbled into another double play, ending that inning, too. And Shui did his best, but Omar Sanchez was just out of his mind. He singled in the bottom 6th to begin the inning, then stole second, stole third, and scored the tying run when Fiore’s throw got away from Venegas. Bottom 7th, Shui retired the first two, then was bombed first-pitch by Williams for a 2-1 New York lead. Wagner singled. Nate Culp was nailed. Sanchez singled home a run. Suggs singled home two. Everything sugged. Shui sugged. Shui was gone. Bowen sugged, too, giving up a run on a Buss single and Seidman doubled in the eighth. 6-1 Crusaders. Venegas 3-3, BB;

In other news

April 24 – Six games are played on this Monday, three of which end 1-0. The Knights, Bayhawks, and Wolves defeat the Canadiens, Loggers, and Miners by that score, in that order. In the remaining three games, there’s an average of 12.33 runs scored.
April 25 – The Rebs’ 23-year-old Nicaraguan INF Miguel Portillo (.395, 0 HR, 10 RBI) more than doubles his season and career RBI total with six runs batted in during a 15-2 rout of the Stars.
April 25 – The Thunder send catcher Luke Burnham (.176, 0 HR, 2 RBI) to the Warriors for a minor leaguer and #188 prospect CL Juan Macias.
April 26 – SFW SP Shane Knox (1-2, 3.96 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in a 3-0 win over the Blue Sox.
April 27 – SFW SP Jason Palladino (1-1, 3.74 ERA) is expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 27 – Thunder OF/1B Mike Harmon (.224, 5 HR, 9 RBI) might miss most of May after suffering an elbow sprain.
April 28 – The Bayhawks turn away the Falcons for a 1-0 win, and in particular end the 31-game hitting streak of Danny Ceballos (.455, 3 HR, 21 RBI).
April 28 – VAN SS/3B Dan Mullen (.370, 2 HR, 14 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak thanks to a ninth-inning single in an 8-6 loss to the Indians.
April 28 – A torn labrum could end the season of DAL SP Mario de Anda (0-1, 2.16 ERA).
April 30 – The hitting streak of VAN SS/3B Dan Mullen (.343, 2 HR, 14 RBI) ends at 21 games with an 0-for-5 showing in a 6-0 win over the Indians.

FL Player of the Week: RIC RF/LF Willie Sanchez (.346, 6 HR, 17 RBI), batting .520 (13-25) with 3 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA 1B Jason Schaack (.333, 6 HR, 21 RBI), hitting .375 (9-24) with 3 HR, 9 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SAC 1B Steve Wyatt (.371, 8 HR, 21 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.474, 3 HR, 22 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: LAP SP Jim Reynolds (4-1, 1.54 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: CHA SP Art Schaeffer (5-0, 2.04 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: RIC LF/RF Matt Lewandowski (.301, 0 HR, 13 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL 1B Dave Robles (.297, 6 HR, 25 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Philipps. Salazar. Harmer. Tenazes. We killed four players this week, and I don’t think those were enough kills. 1-5 week, 22-36 in runs.

And I don’t know a lot of things right now. I know we want to bring Craig Kniep into the rotation, and beyond that… I mean, I can’t ******* KILL THEM all at once.

Won’t hurt trying, though. At least not me.

David Flores, the lead candidate for a call-up among AAA outfielders, was now out with a back strain suffered while hitting .302 with two homers. (sigh)

It’s not gonna lift anybody’s spirits, but I’m gonna lift a bottle of spirit to my fuzzy lips anyway and we’ll look at where Lonzo stands in the stolen base race. He had ten steals in April, which was hardly half of Omar Sanchez’ output – Sanchez stole five on the weekend against completely and blitheringly inept Raccoons – for this season, but on the career tally things didn’t look quite that bleak:

19th – Cristo Ramirez – 424 – HOF
20th – Daniel Silva – 417
21st – Danny Flores – 413
22nd – Ronnie Thompson – 412 – active
23rd – Jose Rivas – 406 – active
24th – Lorenzo Lavorano – 405 – active
25th – Chris Navarro – 395 – active
t-26th – Piet Oosterom – 393
t-26th – Andrew Russ – 393 – active

No spots were gained in April, but Rivas, 37, was a free agent at this point, and Ronnie Thompson stole only three bases with his new team, the Scorpions. He was 38 years old. Thompson and Lonzo were #5 and #6 among players on the leaderboard that had made an appearance in 2056. Ahead of them were only Alex Vasquez (550), Hugo Acosta (476), Alex Adame, and Omar Gonzalez (447 each).

Fun Fact: The Raccoons gave up 18 home runs in April.

Fernando Salazar gave up SEVEN of them.

[Westheim]

Maud made muffins on Monday, mostly mulberry ones.

Maud is the best.

Raccoons (8-16) vs. Canadiens (17-8) – May 1-4, 2056

Hey, what a great time to face the damn Elks for the first time this year! The Raccoons had fallen on the snout so hard in April that they didn’t know which end was in and which was out, and the damn Elks led the league with 5.5 runs per game and were at least average with their pitching staff. To be fair, everything outside their .286 batting average and .374 on-base percentage as a team was a bit meh and hum, but that alone was probably enough to flatten a team that couldn’t score its way out of a pothole. This duel to the death had ended up tied 9-9 in both of the last two seasons.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (0-2, 4.88 ERA) vs. Edwin Sopena (1-0, 5.14 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (2-3, 4.01 ERA) vs. Hyuma Hitomi (1-1, 4.76 ERA)
Sean Sweeton (1-1, 2.73 ERA) vs. Martino Barbiusa (3-1, 4.82 ERA)
Craig Kniep (0-0) vs. Anton Jesus (3-1, 3.38 ERA)

Nothing but right-handers to see here. No Alex Adame though; the ex-Coon was on the DL with a strained oblique.

Game 1
VAN: CF D. Moreno – SS Mullen – 1B Wheeler – C Waker – RF A. Walker – LF Magnussen – 2B R. Price – 3B Ashley – P Sopena
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Kirkwood – P Brobeck – 3B Venegas – C Stanton

Offense was absent the first time through for either team, with a single for Anton Venegas, who was swiftly doubled up by Matt Stanton, who was making his first major league start, while Brobeck walked a pair, but also had one runner removed on a double play. Damian Moreno hit a 2-out single in the top 3rd, but was left on when Dan Mullen grounded out. The Elks went up 1-0 in the fourth with the aid of a leadoff double by Jeff Wheeler, who was brought across by Aaron Walker, who then caromed off the fence in pursuit of a Matt Waters drive in the bottom of the same inning. The catch was made, but Walker was staggering around afterwards and seemed disoriented and was taken for concussion tests, to be replaced by Sadafumi Taniguchi, a 31-year-old rookie from Japan.

Rain arrived by the time Dan Mullen had another leadoff double in the sixth, which this time led nowhere even when Brobeck plunked Wheeler. The Coons in the bottom 6th stacked the bags with … well, walks to Stanton and Pucks, and in between a scratch single by Steve Royer. Lonzo had already popped out in foul ground, and Waters fell to 0-2 before ticking a ball over the second base bag into centerfield. Stanton and Royer scored to flip the score, and then the tarp came onto the field for intensifying rain, and remained there for almost 90 minutes, easily ending the day of both starting pitchers. When play resumed eventually, Jameson Monk got a double play grounder from Ramsay. Stingy relief by Sencion and Lane got the Raccoons through eight. Bottom 8th, and Steve Royer drew a 1-out walk off Brian Grohoski, then stole second base. Lonzo obeyed with a single up the middle, Royer scored, and we had an insurance run. Pucks hit into a double play, but Matt Walters axed the Elks in order to open the series with a win! 3-1 Raccoons. Royer 1-2, 2 BB; Brobeck 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (1-2);

Finally a win for Brobeck, but the hitting part isn’t sorting out for him so far this year. He’s batting .154 with 1 HR, 4 RBI…

Game 2
VAN: CF D. Moreno – SS Mullen – 1B Wheeler – C Waker – RF K. Hawkins – LF Magnussen – 2B R. Price – 3B Uranga – P Hitomi
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Caballero – C Fiore – 3B Espinoza – P Taki

Pucks’ solo jack gave the Critters a first-inning 1-0 lead, and the bags were full in the bottom 2nd with nobody out after singles by Rams and Caballero and Fiore’s fly to right getting dropped by Walker replacement Kyle Hawkins. Daniel Espinoza, who had been on the bus to Florida with three paws just a few days earlier then cranked a drive to left-center, high, and deep, and – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!

Oy, I needed that!

Back-to-back doubles by Jeff Wheeler and Tristan Waker gave the danm Elks a run in the third inning, but apart from that they drew blanks against Taki, who allowed only one other hit through six innings, but then walked Adam Magnussen at the start of the seventh. Jorge Uranga dropped a 1-out bloop single that Pucks misplayed to put the pair of runners in scoring position, but Taki rung up Taniguchi pinch-hitting in the #9 spot to maintain a firm grip on the Japanese of the Day crown. He didn’t face Damian Moreno with two outs and a pair in scoring position, though. We had Lillis for that. Moreno went down, and the Raccoons maintained a 5-1 lead, but Bravo allowed another pair of runners in the eighth inning. This time Walters appeared with four outs to collect against mostly lefty sticks, got called strike three past Magnussen, and retired Rick Price, Uranga, and Mark Mooney without trouble in the ninth inning on top of that. 5-1 Coons. Royer 3-4; Caballero 2-4; Espinoza 1-2, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Taki 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (3-3); Walters 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (6);

Daniel who? Not quite Daniel Hall, but I’ll take the runs, thank you.

Game 3
VAN: CF D. Moreno – SS Mullen – 1B Wheeler – C Waker – RF K. Hawkins – LF Magnussen – 2B R. Price – 3B Uranga – P Barbiusa
POR: CF Royer – LF Kirkwood – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – 3B Venegas – C Fiore – SS Espinoza – P Sweeton

The Elks scored first on Wednesday, and it was Hawkins with an unearned 3-run homer in the first inning. Dan Mullen reached on another Pucks error, which was one of those highly annoying things that left you clawing thin air in agony. With Lonzo getting a day off, Steve Royer got on base his first two times up and both times was doubled off by Kirkwood, which didn’t lead to a great deal of offense for us in the early going… or any runs at all. Royer hit a 1-out double in the sixth for his third at-bat, and Kirkwood had trouble finding a double play from there, but flew out to center, while Pucks left the runner on third base. That was about the offense for Portland through six, although an infield single by Ramsay shouldn’t go entirely unmentioned.

Sweeton finally gave up some earned runs in the seventh on a 2-run bomb by Jason Ashley, and after that the Raccoons, down 5-0, shrugged and threw in Colby Bowen to pitch the rest of the game, if feasible, before losing his roster spot to Craig Kniep. Bowen got out of the inning, Rams hit a solo jack in the bottom 7th, but Bowen then walked FOUR batters in the eighth inning and was yanked with two runs already home. Tanizaki got a groundout from Moreno to get out of the mess, while Barbiusa pitched a complete-game 8-hitter… 7-1 Canadiens. Royer 3-4, 2B; Ramsay 3-4, HR, RBI;

As anticipated, Bowen (10.13 ERA) was a goner, and Craig Kniep was called up to start on Thursday.

Steve Royer got a day off in the finale.

Game 4
VAN: CF D. Moreno – SS Mullen – 1B Wheeler – RF A. Walker – LF K. Hawkins – 3B R. Price – 2B Uranga – C Cass – P A. Jesus
POR: LF Kirkwood – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – CF Solorzano – 3B Chavez – C Stanton – P Kniep

Damian Moreno left the game with a sore foot in the first inning, and again Taniguchi was the replacement, while a solo jack by Dan Mullen in the third inning would turn out to be the only run scored through five frames in the game. The Raccoons had a Kniep single, a Solorzano double, and absolutely nothing else through five… Pucks’ 2-out single in the sixth led nowhere with Jesus hanging a K on Waters, while Kniep went six and a third before being chased by another rain delay. Sencion would see out the top of the seventh, while the Raccoons loaded the bases against Jesus – who was still on the hill despite the rain delay – in the bottom 7th. Rams singled, Chavez walked, and Caballero hit an infield single with two outs in the #9 hole. Kirkwood batted in that most crucial spot, and so far he was 1-for-12 as a Raccoon with no RBI’s. Flying out to Taniguchi in center put him at 1-for-13 with no RBI’s.

Magnussen and Mullen hit singles off Mike Lane in the eighth, but Tristan Waker, batting for Wheeler, hit into a double play to Lonzo. Waters’ double off Kellen Lanning in the bottom 8th went nowhere nice, but at least Lane and Lillis kept the damn Elks in place with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Left-hander Bernardino Risso got the bottom 9th for the Elks. Royer, Chavez, and Venegas went down in order. 1-0 Canadiens. Caballero (PH) 1-1; Kniep 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, L (0-1) and 1-2;

Boys! We had them right where we wanted them!! And then you went all like, nah, we’re not gonna…?

Whyyy??

Raccoons (10-18) @ Buffaloes (19-10) – May 5-7, 2056

The Buffos were the second division leader in a row to face for us, which was hardly fair and I shall file a complaint with the league office. Topeka was #3 in runs scored in the Federal League, and fourth in runs allowed, with a +29 run differential. They had the very best rotation in the FL, so I had doubts we’d ever get to see their rancid, tenth-ranked bullpen… These teams had last played in 2054, with Topeka sweeping that set. The Coons hadn’t won a series from the Buffos since 2044.

Projected matchups:
Rafael de la Cruz (0-3, 3.54 ERA) vs. Ben Karst (4-0, 2.06 ERA)
He Shui (2-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. Chris Ferguson (3-0, 3.00 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (3-3, 3.57 ERA) vs. Bill Hernandez (2-2, 3.54 ERA)

We’d avoid the token southpaw in their rotation and instead get another full slate of right-handers.

Us meanwhile now had six starters on the roster and yet to dispose of one. Brobeck’s turn would have been Sunday, but he’d be available out of the pen for the last games of the weekend instead.

Game 1
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – 1B Puckeridge – 2B Waters – LF Caballero – RF Solorzano – 3B Brobeck – C Fiore – P de la Cruz
TOP: CF Thayer – 2B Aparicio – SS de los Santos – 1B Liberos – LF M. Cox – 3B Blackshire – C Dye – RF Grewe – P Karst

Certified fossil Tony Aparicio hit a jack off Raffy in the first inning for a quickie deficit, but Portland flipped the score in the top 2nd with a leadoff walk for Waters, Solorzano’s RBI double, and after Brobeck singled a sac fly for Fiore. Raffy flew out to end the inning, then saw another one fly out off Jonathan Dye’s bat to tie the game again in the bottom 2nd. Raffy spent his second time through the lineup almost exclusively behind in the count, walking three, but then not giving up any hits and/or runs. The bad command never left him again in this outing, and after offering a leadoff walk to Manny Liberos in the bottom 6th he got a groundout from Matt Cox, and then was lifted after 91 pitches. Tanizaki got two more outs without conceding that go-ahead run, which gave Raffy a no-decision for his and my bothers.

The Coons had wasted a Waters double in the top 6th, but also got Solorzano on with a leadoff single in the seventh. Two productive outs moved him to third base, and with Venegas pinch-hitting and two outs, a wild pitch scored the go-ahead run for a 3-2 Coons lead. Venegas struck out on Tim Betty’s next pitch. Sam Turner and Nick Thayer hit leadoff singles against Lillis in the bottom of the inning, but Aparicio found a double play to hit into and Alex de los Santos popped out to Pucks in foul ground, stranding the tying run on third base. Thayer then couldn’t reach Royer’s leadoff drive in the eighth. The ball clanged off the fence for a leadoff triple, after which Lonzo struck out, Pucks walked, and Waters flew out to Thayer, and Royer just shrugged and dashed home despite the ball not being particularly deep, and narrowly scored the insurance run. Lillis and Lane (the latter on third straight day) wiggled through the eighth with traffic thanks to Lillis fumbling a ball for an error, but they kept the Buffos away – which was *great* because Walters gave up his first run of the season. Entering with a 2-run lead, he got two outs, then walked Aparicio and de los Santos, the two chewy right-handed batters. Liberos hit an RBI single, but 2054 Critter Matt Cox was rung up to end the game. 4-3 Coons. Waters 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Solorzano 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Kirkwood – 3B Venegas – C Fiore – P Shui
TOP: CF Thayer – 3B Blackshire – SS de los Santos – C McLaren – 1B Liberos – LF M. Cox – 2B S. Turner – RF Grewe – P Ferguson

Thayer single to left, Dave Blackshire single to right, and an Alex de los Santos homer to left, and the Buffaloes had a 3-0 lead without making an out against He Shui, who plainly sucked once more. He couldn’t even get a ******* bunt down when Fiore opened the third inning with a single, then went back out and gave up another run on de los Santos and Liberos doubles in the bottom 3rd, 4-0. Shui would not return after five innings, getting whacked around for eight hits, most of them hard, and some of them plenty long.

The Coons had all of two hits through five innings, besides the Fiore single constituting a Lonzo single. We had yet to reach as much as third base, but the visiting team actually got on the ******* board in the sixth inning. Royer opened with a single, stole second, and was driven home by Waters with a shy single and two outs, 4-1. Venegas then had a great sequence, making an error behind Bravo in the bottom 6th, then hit into a double play to erase Kirkwood’s leadoff single in the seventh. YAY. Just $5.9M a year, dear GM’s, and basically as good as new! Not that Bravo himself was any good. He pitched two innings, walked a guy, nailed a guy, and gave up a 2-out run in the bottom 7th on Matt McLaren’s single. The last few innings just ran away from us, and another L was punched in completely lackluster fashion. 5-1 Buffaloes.

(groans)

Game 3
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – RF Caballero – LF Kirkwood – 3B Espinoza – C Stanton – P Taki
TOP: CF Thayer – 2B Aparicio – C McLaren – 1B Liberos – LF M. Cox – SS Aredondo – 3B S. Turner – RF Grewe – P B. Hernandez

Taki filled the bags in the first inning, with Oscar Arendondo flying out to a running Kirkwood to strand the full set, then filled the bags yet again in the second and gave up a 2-run single to Aparicio. Thayer was caught stealing third base and McLaren grounded out to Lonzo to end that inning. While Lonzo singled in the top 3rd, he was caught stealing, but Aredondo singled, stole second, and was driven in by Sam Turner for a 3-0 score.

Neither side of the team could stop being crap. Caballero was on base in the top 4th, and doubled up by Kirkwood. Taki gave up hits to Thayer and Aparicio, and Thayer stole a base in between so scored another run in the bottom 4th. Matt Stanton got his first career hit in the fifth inning, the second single of the inning after Espinoza’s to lead off. Thayer misfielded the ball, and Espinoza didn’t stop at third base and scored instead, with Stanton to second base. From there, the Coons went strikeout, groundout, strikeout, but Taki ****** up another pair of leadoff singles to Cox and Aredondo in the bottom 5th, then got two outs without allowing the runners to score… and then served up a 2-out, 2-run single to Bill Hernandez anyway. Taki got one out in the sixth before being disposed of, and Sencion finished that frame before being pinch-hit for by Pucks, who hit a bomb off righty Joe Thomlison to negligibly narrowing the deficit from five to four runs. Royer singled, was caught stealing, and I had wet eyes.

Waters’ solo homer off Tim Betty got us to 6-3 in the eighth, after which Caballero doubled to center, Kirkwood walked, and Solorzano batted for Espinoza, drawing a lefty in Tim Abraham, but legged out an infield single, which put all the tying runs on base. The Buffaloes moved to righty Matt Biddle, so the Raccoons answered with Matt Fiore for Stanton. Fiore actually connected and didn’t just harm haplessly bypassing insects with his swing, sending a ball into the right-center gap. That was in, and one run scored, two runs scored, and here came Solorzano and was – thrown out. Venegas batted for Tanizaki, but popped out, and the tying run remained on base. Matt Walters kept the Buffaloes one run away – partially because with six relievers we were just a bit out of options. Righty Roberto Ramirez was on the mound for the top 9th. The Coons needed one to tie, two to lead, but Royer and Lonzo both grounded out to Aredondo. Ramsay singled to left, but there was nobody to pinch-run for him with. Waters popped out to Cox in shallow center, rendering that point moot anyway. 6-5 Buffaloes. Royer 2-5; Caballero 2-4, 2B; Espinoza 2-3; Solorzano (PH) 1-1; Fiore (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

In other news

May 1 – It’s 2,000 base hits for 34-year-old DEN 2B/3B Ivan Villa (.277, 3 HR, 14 RBI), who connects three tiems in a 12-9 win over the Stars to reach the milestone and then one more. Villa has batted .293 with 339 HR, 1,251 RBI, and 315 stolen bases in his career. The career Sock and 3-time Player of the Year got the marquee hit with a double off DAL SP Bobby Shenk (0-3, 7.85 ERA).
May 4 – Shoulder inflammation could end the season of SAL SP Brian Fuqua (4-1, 2.41 ERA) in early May.
May 5 – SFW 2B Mike DeFusco (.327, 3 HR, 9 RBI) could miss the rest of the month with a case of inflamed facet joints.
May 5 – An oblique strain should put WAS 1B Alejandro Ramos (.371, 7 HR, 19 RBI) out for the rest of May.
May 5 – The Thunder beat the Wolves, 1-0 in 11 innings. OCT 1B Eddie de la Roca (.222, 3 HR, 7 RBI), who the Thunder acquired in April, hits a game-winning sac fly in his seventh ABL game. The Wolves have only one single against Victor Marquez ((1-2, 4.72 ERA) and two relievers, with that hit belonging to 1B Jose Campos (.246, 2 HR, 9 RBI).
May 6 – The Falcons bomb the Stars, 16-4, with a particularly fine day for CHA 1B Jason Schaack (.325, 6 HR, 28 RBI), who drives in five runs on three hits while missing the cycle by the triple.

FL Player of the Week: PIT OF Josh Abercrombie (.341, 3 HR, 22 RBI), hitting .483 (14-29) with 1 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ LF Tim Duncan (.268, 8 HR, 25 RBI), stroking .423 (11-26) with 4 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Luis? Luis!? … What’s inflamed facet joints? – A-ha. – A-ha. – No, I’m hurting more in here. (puts paw over where his little black heart is pumping)

What’s that other paper you’re having there, Luis? – (reaches for paper but Silva is trying his best to not let the GM have it; finally he’s outwitted with a feint to left and a firm grab to the right) – Luis, what does that mean, “Setback for Adkins, not going to pitch again this year”?

I feel dizzy.

No, dismal is the word.

Both Prospero Tenazes and Tyler Philipps arrived in AAA unmolested early this week.

Off day on Monday, and then it’s 16 straight games, starting with a home week against the Wolves and Indians.

Fun Fact: I’m actively looking at the waiver wire now.

(big sip from oversized bottle of Capt’n Coma)

What? It’s the family value bottle!

[Westheim]

Woke up at four and couldn't go back to zzz.

There. Have at it.

+++

Raccoons (11-20) vs. Wolves (18-13) – May 9-11, 2056

The Wolves were something else. Sitting third in the FL West, four games behind the lead, they had given up the fewest runs in the Federal League, which wasn’t so absurd in itself, but they had also scored the fewest runs in the Federal League. They had scored fewer runs than the damn Critters, and they were scoring just a sliver over three runs per game, with a -14 run differential (Critters: -19). Something told me that they weren’t build to last, kinda like those condos in Florida where you just flip the walls back vertical after every storm that moves through. These teams had last played in ’53, with the better end for the Portland team, two games to one.

Projected matchups:
Sean Sweeton (1-2, 2.75 ERA) vs. Mike Pohlmann (1-3, 7.67 ERA)
Craig Kniep (0-1, 1.42 ERA) vs. Jeff Puccia (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-3, 3.51 ERA) vs. Zach Stewart (4-0, 1.10 ERA)

Southpaw in the final game on Thursday, unless they used the common off day on Monday to flip another lefty, Jeff Boyce (0-2, 4.72 ERA) into the series. How were they 18-13 with all those winless starters? Well, the pen was sucking up all the wins, somehow, with a 3-0 record and a zilch ERA on Coons castoff Raul Medrano f.e….

Game 1
SAL: C Carranza – 2B Humphries – 1B J. Campos – LF Hudson – 3B Wilken – RF Rock – CF Jo. Shaw – SS Keller – P Pohlmann
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 3B Brobeck – LF Kirkwood – 1B Ramsay – C Fiore – P Sweeton

One of the scoring-challenged Oregon teams burst out for four runs in the second inning, and it was your old Coons even! Chris Kirkwood socked a homer, his first since arrival, over the leftfield fence for the game’s first run, and Ramsay doubled to left. Fiore’s groundout made it two done, but Randy Wilken threw away Sweeton’s grounder to open a whole can of “uh-oh” and three unearned runs on the struggling starter three straight singles from the 1-2-3 batters following, with RBI’s for Lonzo and Pucks, before Waters flew out to center to end the inning. Joshua Shaw and Gabriel Keller would land hits off Sweeton in the third inning for a run, but the Raccoons put Brobeck and Ramsay on the corners in the bottom 3rd before the pitcher was at the plate with two outs yet again. This time, Pohlmann nicked him, filling the bases, then lost Royer to a walk in a full count, pushing home Brobeck to make it 5-1. Lonzo hit a sharp bouncer to third base, but right into Wilken’s paws, and that ended the inning. Ramsay drove in Waters and Kirkwood with a 2-out double to left-center in the fourth inning, ending Pohlmann’s day laden with seven runs (four earned) in under four innings.

While lefty Ben Peterson ended the Raccoons’ scoring shenanigans in long relief, Sweeton would go seven innings of 1-run ball despite managing to put the leadoff man on base in EACH of his last five frames – the Wolves just couldn’t ******* score any more than the Raccoons without the benefit of a Randy Wilken error or a plunked pitcher with two outs. Right-hander Jose Soto gave up another two runs in the bottom 7th as Fiore singled, Royer was dinked, and Lonzo and Pucks got another pair of RBI’s with a single and groundout, respectively. Reynaldo Bravo finished out the game, offering a leadoff walk in the eighth and ninth innings, which made it seven straight innings the Wolves had the first batter on base. In the seventh attempt, they finally scored the bugger on a 2-out pinch-hit single by Scott King. And that was the ballgame. 9-2 Raccoons. Royer 2-3, BB, RBI; Lavorano 2-5, 2 RBI; Waters 2-5, 2B; Kirkwood 3-5, HR, RBI; Ramsay 4-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Sweeton 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (2-2);

Pitching change for Wednesday – the Wolves brought Blake Sparks back from a rehab assignment to start the middle game of the series. The right-hander had logged one out in his first start of the year before leaving the game with a shoulder strain. Sparks, 28, was the 2052 FL ERA champ and had put up a 2.76 ERA in ’55.

Game 2
SAL: C Carranza – RF Rock – CF T. Lopez – 3B Wilken – LF Hudson – 1B S. King – SS Thatcher – 2B Keller – P Sparks
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Caballero – 3B Venegas – C Fiore – P Kniep

The Wolves’ leadoff-man-on-base streak extended to eight when Fernando Carranza drew a walk to begin Wednesday’s game, but was left on just like 86% of the others in the string. Andy Hudson went down to begin the second inning. Kniep walked a guy in each of the first three innings, but didn’t allow a hit or run, then bunted Venegas and Fiore into scoring position in his first turn in the box in the bottom 3rd; those two runners were the first to reach base for Portland, and had knocked the first two singles in the game. Royer’s sac fly to left and Lonzo’s single to center brought in the runners, 2-0, and while Lonzo was stranded on Pucks’ groundout, Matt Waters jumped a leadoff jack to right in the fourth, 3-0.

Craig Kniep maintained a no-hitter through five innings, as well as a manageable pitch count, but all that went out the window in the sixth. Firstly, Tom Rock hit a single. Secondly, Carranza and Tony Lopez drew walks on either end of that single. Thirdly, there was nobody out. A pep talk seemed to have no great effect at first, as Randy Wilken kept the line moving with an RBI single to center, and Andy Hudson’s groundout brought in a second run to narrow the lead to a skinny run, but then Kniep got pops from King and John Thatcher to strand a pair in scoring position. Not *great*, but could have been worse. I was still marking that as a “didn’t suck”. Kniep added another inning, then was hit for with Adriano Chavez, who hit a single, but was also left on first base by the Coons. Lane and Lillis put the eighth together for Portland, nursing the 3-2 lead, while Rams knocked out Sparks in the bottom 8th with a 1-out single. Caballero singled off Raul Medrano, but Solorzano had no success batting for Venegas. Two down, Matt Fiore ran into a hanger on 2-1, and didn’t miss that one – first homer, a 350-footer to right, and that created some breathing room on the scoreboard! Tanizaki got the ninth rather than Walters with a 4-run lead, and would not allow a runner in putting the Wolves away. 6-2 Raccoons. Waters 2-4, HR, RBI; Caballero 2-4; Fiore 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Chavez (PH) 1-1; Kniep 7.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, W (1-1);

The five walks weren’t great, but Kniep allowed only two hits along with it. Still a WHIP o’ one. It wasn’t his first career win (he went 2-0 in five games last September), but his first as probably-permanent starter.

The series finale got us up against Zach Stewart, the first lefty opponent the Raccoons faced since April 25, when we lost to Alfonso Jewel. This was also a start for Raffy, with Brobeck playing third base and being committed to long relief if Raffy again couldn’t cover six innings.

Game 3
SAL: C Carranza – 2B Humphries – CF T. Lopez – LF Hudson – 1B S. King – 3B Thatcher – RF Jo. Shaw – 2B Keller – P Z. Stewart
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – RF Caballero – LF Kirkwood – 3B Brobeck – C Stanton – P de la Cruz

Walk, double, walk, bases loaded – there was a crisis conference on the mound within 11 pitches. It didn’t work – the Wolves scored all the runs with Andy Hudson’s groundout and Scott King’s 2-run single before John Thatcher barged into a double play to get the sorry remains of Rafael de la Cruz off the hill. While Raffy lasted only four innings, walking five, the Raccoons were just as dismal at the plate. Lonzo hit into a double play in the first inning, Brobeck hit into a double play in the second inning, and Raffy bunted badly to force out Matt Stanton at second base in the third inning. Shambolic, top to bottom.

Bottom 5th, Stewart loaded the bases with nobody out as Stanton and Chavez hit singles, and then Royer got dinked once again. Lonzo almost took Stewart’s head off with a single right over the mound and into shallow center, and Stewart took a minute to regain his breath after the near-death experience. It was 3-1, the bags still full, and still nobody out for Waters, who led the team in RBI’s, and by plenty. Waters would bash a 1-1 pitch to deep center, Tony Lopez couldn’t catch up, and the bases emptied as the Raccoons flipped the score on a bases-flushing double…! Rams grounded out, Caballero walked, and Joe Humphries’ bobble of Kirkwood’s grounder allowed Waters to score from third base. Brobeck grounded out, dumping his average to .135, but advanced the runners into scoring position. Stewart was purged after he balked home Ramsay, and the 6-spot ended with a K hung on Stanton by righty Brendan Rodgers.

Brobeck went three scoreless innings, then went three batters while retiring nobody in the eighth. Lopez, Hudson, and King were on base, comprising the tying runs, and when lefty Julio Diaz pinch-hit for Thatcher, the Raccoons grabbed a spare Eloy Sencion. The Raccoons conceded a run on his grounder to short, which Lonzo and Waters spun for a 6-4-3 double play. Shaw popped out, killing the rally for good. While Matt Walters didn’t quite retire the side in order in the ninth, he was still dominant, getting all his three strikeouts by the whiff to complete the sweep. 6-4 Furballs. Royer 1-2, BB; Caballero 2-3, BB; Venegas (PH) 1-1;

This was our first sweep of the season…!

Raccoons (14-20) vs. Indians (11-23) – May 12-14, 2056

It gained us some gap on the last-place Indians, which … yaay. Indy had lost five in a row, and ranked solidly inside the bottom three in both runs scored and runs allowed in the CL. They had already piled up a -58 run differential, which made the casual observer wonder what the **** had happened to last year’s 1-2 in the division over the winter. Indy’s rotation had a 5.66 ERA, so maybe the Raccoons could even keep up the scoring, but we had lost two of three games the first time we had met this year.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (2-3, 4.30 ERA) vs. Enrique Ortiz (0-5, 7.24 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (3-4, 4.34 ERA) vs. Juan Vasquez (0-4, 7.24 ERA)
Sean Sweeton (2-2, 2.53 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (3-3, 3.66 ERA)

Only right-handers here, again.

Game 1
IND: CF Briggs – LF J. Garza – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B A. Rios – RF McIntyre – C Mi. Gilmore – SS Ed. Ortiz – P En. Ortiz
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Kirkwood – 3B Venegas – C Fiore – P Shui

After the annual performance of the national anthem by the Willamette Institute for the Limbless and Blind’s school choir moved everybody to tears – although I had a persistent buzzing sound in my fuzzy ears from the kids’ collection of differently tuned prosthetic voice boxes – the Raccoons went out and tried to extend their winning streak. Fun fact, by the way – Shui and Taki were now the worst starters in the rotation by ERA…? Chris Briggs drew a leadoff walk and Dan Sandoval doubled in the first inning, but Antonio Rios grounded out to Waters to strand them in scoring position, while the Coons took a lead in the bottom 2nd on a long homer by Chris Kirkwood. With Waters on base, that counted for two, but the inning continued: Venegas walked, Shui singled, and Royer’s single extended the lead to 3-0. Lonzo filled the bases with another 2-out single, while Pucks worked a walk to push home Shui with a run. Waters added yet another pair of runs with a single to left-center before Ramsay made the third out of the inning with a fly to Jose Garza, after already having made the first out with a pop to Edwin Ortiz.

The 6-spot should have made it a comfy game, but there was still a stack of left-handed hitters in that lineup and Shui hadn’t been right for a while. The Indians promptly sprayed four singles all over the park in the fourth inning, but crucially had Rios hit into a double play right in the middle of that sequence, holding them to one run before Edwin Ortiz struck out altogether, stranding a pair. But the Indians collected *another* four hits in the fifth inning, and this time hurt Shui for real, driving in three runs. Briggs and Garza singled, Dan Sandoval doubled in a run, and Rios singled home a pair before a K to Will McIntyre ended the inning. Shui at least removed the bottom of the order without accident in the sixth inning before the 6-4 lead (no, we hadn’t done anything worth waffling about since the 6-run second…) went to Lillis in the top 7th. Bill Quinteros got a single off him, and Mike Gilmore got a single off Lane in the eighth inning, but the Indians didn’t get past first base in either attempt on the 6-4 lead, but the Coons remained entirely listless, too. Thankfully Matt Walters blazed the side with three strikeouts in the ninth inning. 6-4 Raccoons. Waters 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Kirkwood 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Four in a row…! Keep it going, boys.

Please.

Daniel Espinoza showed up with pinkeye on Saturday, which left him day-to-day for at least the rest of the weekend.

Game 2
IND: CF Briggs – LF J. Garza – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B A. Rios – RF McIntyre – C Mi. Gilmore – SS Ed. Ortiz – P J. Vasquez
POR: CF Royer – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – LF Caballero – 3B Venegas – C Fiore – P Taki

Both teams missed chances early; Taki nailed Garza with an 0-2 pitch and Quinteros legged out an infield single to Ramsay in the first, but Sandoval then zinged a ball into a double play, 6-4-3, while the Coons put the 5-6-7 batters on base with one down in the bottom 2nd, but Fiore and Taki both popped out rather unhelpfully. The third inning brought no runners for either side, and the fourth inning brought rain. Taki had only thrown 38 pitches before the delay, but returned junk after a 35-minute interruption, was punked for five hits and four runs, and ultimately removed to the dumpster behind the ballpark, upon which Sencion finally ended the ******* inning with a K to Garza.

Bottom 5th, Fiore and Royer were on base with two outs when Lonzo got Portland on the board with a single to center, 4-1. Pucks drew a walk from Vasquez, who had more walks than strikeouts both in this game and on the season, but Waters popped out to short on a 1-2 pitch to keep all the tying runs stranded. Reynaldo Bravo pitched two scoreless innings despite making an error himself *and* Ramsay committing another one in the sixth inning. Rams was also batting as the tying run against Vasquez in the bottom 8th, but jabbed into a double play, which also didn’t exactly help with salvaging the small winning streak. Lane and Tanizaki held the Indians to their four soggy fourth-inning runs late, while righty Randy Slocum put Venegas and Fiore on base with singles to begin the bottom 9th. Kirkwood had been batting in the #9 hole for a while (Pucks had been lifted for long relief considerations), and would do so as the tying run. He rumbled into a 6-4-3 mood killer on a 3-2 pitch. Slocum, INSISTING on blowing the game, walked Royer, bringing up Lonzo as the tying run once more. Lonzo, too, grounded out to short, because we could insist HARDER…… 4-1 Indians. Venegas 2-3, BB; Fiore 2-4; Bravo 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

(lies face down in a wet spot on the carpet, but is still licking the puddle of spilled Capt’n Coma)

Game 3
IND: CF Briggs – C Mi. Gilmore – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B A. Rios – RF McIntyre – LF Perry – SS Ed. Ortiz – P Brink
POR: RF Caballero – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – LF Kirkwood – 3B Brobeck – CF Solorzano – 2B Chavez – C Stanton – P Sweeton

In a week of big innings, the Raccoons had another big inning right at the start of the rubber game, despite sending out something that could be generously described as a Sunday lineup. Caballero and Lonzo opened with singles, and Ramsay’s groundout and Kirkwood’s single both brought in a run. Brobeck singled, Solorzano smacked an RBI double through the right side, and Adriano Chavez brought in the fourth and final run of the inning by grounding out. Stanton popped out to end the inning. Sweeton appeared to run with that, lining up four zeroes on the board, even when the bottom 4th’s bases-loaded situation didn’t result in more runs; with Stanton, Caballero and Lonzo aboard, Ramsay hit a comebacker to Brink to kill the inning. McIntyre tripled to right in the fifth, but was stranded when Jason Perry popped out to short and Ortiz grounded out to second base.

Brink was knocked out in the bottom 5th, giving up a single to Kirkwood to begin the inning, and a 2-out single to Chavez to get the run home, 5-0. Southpaw Bill Dewan replaced him, but gave up a double to right to Stanton, who got his first career RBI with Chavez scoring from first base thanks to there being two outs on the board. Sweeton struck out, leaving the score at 6-0, but at 60 pitches and 12 outs to collect was not yet out of shutout considerations. Three straight singles to begin the sixth inning by Dewan (…), Briggs, and Gilmore didn’t help for sure. A wild pitch and Quinteros’ sac fly plated two runs rather quickly, and Sandoval and McIntyre knelled additional RBI hits, knocking out Sweeton before the ******* inning was over. Sencion got out Perry, the ******* tying run, to end the ******* inning for good. There couldn’t be no easy game with this ******* team!!

Sencion at least delivered the seventh as well, going four outs in total, before being chased by another rain delay, because why not!? (angrily shakes fist at the baseball gods) Chavez got his third RBI of the game off Adam Haller in the bottom 7th, singling home Brobeck for a tack-on run, 7-4. Lillis and Tanizaki put the eighth together, the latter getting a double play from Rios to erase Lillis’ runner, Dan Sandoval. In turn, Kirkwood hit into an inning-ending double play in the bottom 8th with Caballero and Ramsay on base. The Arrowheads had intentionally walked the latter. Tanizaki got McIntyre, a right-hander, to ground out to begin the top 9th, and only then yielded for Matt Walters. Strikeouts to Perry and Ortiz ended the game. 7-4 Critters. Caballero 3-5; Lavorano 2-5; Kirkwood 2-5, RBI; Brobeck 3-4; Chavez 2-4, 3 RBI; Stanton 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 10 – Aces SP Scott Evans (3-1, 3.79 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout with five strikeouts in a 7-0 win over the Bayhawks.
May 11 – Big day at the plate for ATL 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.347, 5 HR, 21 RBI), who goes long distance three times in an 8-4 win over the Gold Sox. Acosta drives in five runs with his three homers.
May 12 – OCT SP Alfredo Llamas (3-3, 4.01 ERA) shuts out the Bayhawks on just two hits in a 1-0 squeezer.
May 14 – 40-year-old TOP 1B Manny Liberos (.246, 3 HR, 18 RBI) gets his 2,000th career hit in a 7-4 loss to the Capitals, whom Liberos played for in 2054. The milestone knock is a leadoff single off veteran left-hander Mike Lynn (1-1, 5.79 ERA, 2 SV) in the eighth inning. Liberos, in his 19th year in the ABL, was well travelled in the FL East, having played for four of its six teams at one point of another. He won three Gold Gloves in his younger years and led the FL in doubles twice and in RBI once. Of his hits, 343 were home runs, and he had 1,357 RBI next to a .246/.350/.441 career slash line.
May 14 – With a triceps strain, PIT 2B/SS Ryan Spehar (.269, 2 HR, 17 RBI) is expected to dwell on the DL until the end of June.

FL Player of the Week: RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.370, 6 HR, 32 RBI), batting .480 (12-25) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.352, 6 HR, 25 RBI), slugging .526 (10-19) with 5 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

5-1 week! …although it should be noted that the Wolves had horrendous stats on the way in and lost a five-inning exhibition game to the wheelchair-bound boys of the Willamette Institute for the Limbless and the Blind on the way back home despite inherent advantages in leg kicks and sliding into bases. Yes, Cristiano snickered.

But he also snickers when the Raccoons lose to the Willamette Wheelers in the annual exhibition in March.

Besides that we’ve now fought the Indians to a draw, 3-3, for the year, so even though we’re up to fourth place for the moment, the team continues to befuddle me. Only a -4 run differential, though, which could mean anything. Hitting more would certainly help; we’re once more almost bottoms in OBP.

Aren’t we always bottoms in OBP…?

And we NEED to get something moving on the rotation front. Brobeck hasn’t made a start in a bit, but Raffy can’t even cover five innings on average, while walking almost a full batter per inning. Something’s gotta give between those two, but I can’t make myself send Raffy to AAA to MAYBE sort himself out; but probably the damage done by the multitude of injuries is terminal, despite twice-weekly massages and dances with flower garlands in their hair administered by Luis Silva… So what then? Move him to the pen? He’ll still walk everything with legs and without!!

Agony.

Four games in Milwaukee and three at home against the Baybirds next week. The Loggers games will be the last ones in-division for the month.

Fun Fact: The Knights last had somebody hit three bombs in a game in 2046, when both John Marz and Joe Crim achieved the feat during that season.

Marz hit three jacks in Atlanta against the damn Elks in a 9-8 game on May 30, 2046, while Crim grimly routed the Falcons in Charlotte, 13-4, on July 7. Nobody has hit three dingers against Atlanta since OKC’s Alex Serrato in 2026.

Infielder Joe Crim spent most of his career with the Knights in two different stints. He was an All Star once, but overall was batting a lot of league average or just below, going .266/.302/.393 for his career, connecting for 1,508 hits, 127 homers, and 750 RBI.

While John Marz was the better player, batting .275/.311/.452 with 1,810 hits, 247 homers, and 1,043 RBI, he was also a first baseman and occasional leftfielder and more was expected of him. While the big trophies eluded him, too, and he was an All Star only twice in his career, he led the CL in RBI with the 2037 Aces, the FL in bombs as a 2042 Miner, and won the Platinum Stick for first base as a 2047 Knight, which was his penultimate season in the majors.