Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (78-60) @ Loggers (62-74) – September 6-8, 2060

The Loggers were just trying to stay out of last place now, which was why they absolutely didn’t need the Raccoons to show up, who had beaten them in 10 outta 12 games played this year and had six more chances to inflict harm. The Loggers had the highest batting average in the league and the fourth-most runs scored, but were also giving up the second-most markers. Their -42 run differential hinted that they were perhaps not the worst team around, but a starters’ ERA pushing five precluded any ambitions.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (11-11, 3.66 ERA) vs. Roger Pritchard (12-8, 3.07 ERA)
Justin DeRose (10-8, 3.54 ERA) vs. Julian Dunn (13-12, 4.38 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (11-7, 2.95 ERA) vs. Larry Wilson (4-12, 6.85 ERA)

Pritchard was the only southpaw we were expecting here. Nobody expected pitcher Eli Dupuis and outfielder Perry Pigman anymore this year, as those two were holed up on the DL for the season.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ortega – SS Lavorano – LF Kozak – RF Brassfield – C Perez – 1B Starr – CF Caballero – 3B Gonzales – P B. Herrera
MIL: CF Franks – LF Lock – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – RF Milian – C M. Reed – 2B Garmon – 3B Lange – P Pritchard

A Lonzo double and a Brassfield single gave the Raccoons a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Corey Garmon and Scott Franks tied up the game with the same set of hits two innings later, and Franks, who already led the CL in stolen bases, swiped his 46th bag with Lonzo watching on before the inning ended on Matt Lock’s groundout. The Raccoons answered in the fourth; Brass and Perez hit singles to begin the inning, but Joel Starr struck out. Caballero, however, got the ball in between Lock and Franks in left-center for an RBI double. David Gonzales was walked with intent to fill the bases, but Bobby Herrera managed a sac fly to Franks to tack on a run before Bernie Ortega whiffed to end the inning, Portland up 3-1.

That lead lasted approximately five seconds before a throwing error by Lonzo and three Loggers singles hit by Fidel Carrera, David Milian, and Mark Reed drove in the tying runs in the bottom 4th, and that was even with Carrera being thrown out trying to get an extra base on Milian’s single. The following inning was another explosion of incompetence on the brown team’s side. First Kozak and Brass hit 1-out singles, but Perez hit into a double play to kill the effort, and then PH Roberto Arcos hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, with Pritchard removed. Herrera got two nice outs from Franks and Lock before Ortega dropped Dave Robles’ pop to put runners on the corners. Those runners were then put across home plate on a triple in the left-center gap whacked by Carrera, who then scored on a wild pitch before Milian grounded out. That made it 6-3 Loggers, four runs unearned, but somehow all deserved…

The Loggers held that 3-run lead in the following innings, but lost Fidel Carrera to an injury as he ran the bases against Ricky H. in the seventh inning. He was replaced by D.J. Belman. This didn’t help the Raccoons generate any offense, either; after getting eight hits and wasting most of them against Pritchard in five innings, they got zero hits against the bullpen in the last four and consequently never mounted a rally. 6-3 Loggers. Kozak 2-4; Brassfield 2-3, BB, RBI;

Fidel Carrera (.299, 17 HR, 66 RBI) would miss the rest of the year with a cracked kneecap. The 21-year-old had been quite the revelation for the Loggers this year, so of course he was hit by a falling piano…

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – CF Morris – C Maresh – 2B Bean – P DeRose
MIL: SS D. Miller – 2B Garmon – CF Franks – 1B D. Robles – C M. Reed – LF Arcos – RF D. Wright – 3B Belman – P Dunn

Brassfield again put the Coons up 1-0 in the first inning, this time with a sac fly with Christopher (walk) and Lonzo (single) on the corners, but the Loggers answered with a Robles sac fly of their own in the bottom 1st against DeRose, who also offered a walk to Garmon and a single to Franks, and then let Franks get further ahead in the stolen base table by paying him no mind and letting him take second for his 47th base of the year. Brass sighed and did it again in the top 3rd, where Christopher walked again and Joel Starr doubled to right. With the pair in scoring position, Brass grounded sharply up the middle, and while Garmon dove and knocked the ball down, he had no play – infield single, and the Raccoons took a 2-1 lead as Joe-Chris scored. Fowler then smashed one right into a double play to end the inning.

That lead, too, was immediately blown as DeRose gave up a triple to Danny Miller in the bottom 3rd and then had Bean throw away Garmon’s grounder for a game-tying error. Fowler whacked one into another double play in the sixth after Starr opened the inning with a double and the Loggers had seen enough of Brassfield and walked him intentionally. To annoy me even more, Franks then legged out an infield single and stole second base yet again in the bottom 6th, but was stranded. The 2-2 score then held through eight innings, as did both starting pitchers. The Loggers had two singles in the bottom 7th, but pinch-runner Matt Lock was caught stealing for a change and they ran themselves out of the inning that way. But the Raccoons remained inept, and the Loggers emptied their bench against Ricky Herrera in the bottom 9th. Robles and Marcos Chavez made outs, but then James Wilks singled and ran all around the bases on Ralph Lange’s 2-out double into the leftfield corner…. 3-2 Loggers. Lavorano 2-4; Starr 2-4, 2 2B; Brassfield 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Oley (PH) 1-1; DeRose 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

Yes, boys, get swept by the Loggers…

The Loggers…!!

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF Morris – 2B Bean – 3B Suriel – P Riddle
MIL: LF Garmon – 2B Pirandello – CF Franks – 1B D. Robles – C M. Chavez – 3B Lange – RF Lock – SS D. Miller – P L. Wilson

The Raccoons again took a 1-0 lead, but this time it took until the third inning when Lonzo led off with a triple – so yes, we had already scattered and stranded four base runners – and then scored on a wild pitch, because who else would bring him home but Larry Wilson?

Riddle held up for four innings, then was unhorsed in the bottom 5th in which the Loggers pushed three base hits to left, including two doubles by Garmon and Robles, with Franks hitting an RBI single in between and scoring on Robles’ 2-out double, but at least he didn’t steal another ******* base. The Raccoons were thusly down 2-1 again after five innings, but began the top 6th with singles from Armando Suriel and Riddle, who failed to get a bunt down fair twice, then swung away with Suriel sent, and found real estate in shallow right for his single, also sending Suriel to third base with the tying run. Christopher popped out to Lange, but Lonzo flicked a single to left to tie the game, then couldn’t try and steal a base himself, because he had the pitcher ahead of him. And then Starr rumbled into a double play…

It was the the bottom of the order that gave the Coons the lead back in the seventh, beginning with a 2-out walk Morris drew off Alex Diaz. Bean and Suriel then hit a pair of singles to bring him around to score. This was the first RBI of Armando Suriel’s 18-game career. Kozak then batted for Riddle to try and force the issue, but he popped out on a 3-2 pitch and the score remained 3-2. Ruben Mendez held that score in the bottom 7th, while Curt Therien allowed a leadoff double to the only batter he faced in the eighth, and it was Franks… Reynaldo Bravo then struck out Robles and Chavez, while Willie Martinez grounded out to Bean to end the inning without Franks making another advance, and Walters got around a David Milian single in the ninth to elope with a win on getaway day. 3-2 Critters. Lavorano 2-5, 3B, RBI; Starr 3-5, 2B; Morris 1-2, 2 BB; Suriel 3-4, RBI;

After this series, the Raccoons were rejoined by both Zach Stewart and Nick Nye coming off two rehab starts and straight from the DL, respectively.

Raccoons (79-62) vs. Indians (76-62) – September 10-12, 2060

The Indians were still eyeing third place and a first-division finish and had a chance to make a move in this final meeting of the year for these two outfits. We led the season series, 9-6, but they had the second-most runs scored, the sixth-fewest runs allowed, and a +64 run differential. They were without outfielder Orlando Ramos though, who was out for the season.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (4-1, 2.93 ERA) vs. Jarod Morris (9-8, 4.56 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-10, 4.47 ERA) vs. Kelly Whitney (0-0)
Bobby Herrera (11-12, 3.65 ERA) vs. Melvin Guerra (15-8, 4.81 ERA)

It looked like we’d get – besides three right-handers – the major league debut of 20-year-old Kelly Whitney, the #7 pick from the draft two years ago. He had gone 11-12 with a 3.45 ERA for AA Rochester this year, and while he looked like a menace in the making, we considered him underdone at this point. He had not made an appearance in AAA at all.

Game 1
IND: CF S. Thompson – LF R. Alvarez – SS Kilday – RF Lovins – C A. Gomez – 3B R. Vargas – 1B Ewers – 2B M. Weber – P J. Morris
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF B. Morris – 3B Gonzales – P Damasceno

For the third time this week, Brass put the Coons up 1-0, although this time it was with a fourth-inning home run after a lot of nothing from either team leading up to this. While Jarod Morris had walked the bags full in the third inning, the Coons hadn’t been able to find any hits in that inning, and consequently no runs, either. Lonzo had been nicked onto base in the bottom 1st, but was caught stealing, but at least Damasceno in his infinite wisdom also put Matt Kilday – another contender for the stolen base title – on base with a walk in the fourth and he promptly scooped his 45th base to Lonzo’s 41.

Damasceno hit a single in the bottom 5th, which led nowhere, then put the leadoff man on base with a single in both the sixth and seventh innings, but both times got somebody to hit into a double play, Ricardo Alvarez and Alex Gomez, respectively. Chris Lovins was the runner doubled up in the latter instance, and he went on to hurt himself on a defensive play after the stretch and was replaced with Ernie Mitchell. Mike Weber opened the eighth with yet another leadoff single against Damasceno, who got Blake McConnell to hit into a double play, but was then lifted for Ricky Herrera against the lefty top of the order. Jason Schaack was sent to pinch-hit for Steve Thompson, but didn’t get anywhere and the Indians stranded the tying run on base. The Raccoons couldn’t put anything of value together in the late innings, either. Starr hit a single to begin the bottom 8th, but was doubled up by Nick Nye, who was off the DL but still played like he was on it. At least Walters was alert and put away the Indians without much fuss in the ninth. 1-0 Blighters. Brassfield 1-4, HR, RBI; Damasceno 7.1 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (5-1);

Game 2
IND: CF S. Thompson – RF R. Alvarez – C A. Gomez – SS Kilday – 2B Ewers – 3B R. Vargas – 1B Callaia – LF McConnell – P Whitney
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – CF Caballero – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – P Fox

Fox retired the Indians in order the first time through, but then of course had to something stupid and nailed Steve Thompson to begin the fourth. Alvarez whiffed, but after Alex Gomez’ groundout, Kilday doubled in the run – the first one of the game against the “underdone” debutant. Fox walked Ewers before Vargas grounded out to Fowler to end the inning. The Raccoons had next to nothing against the 20-year-old on the hill. Brass hit a single in the second. Fowler hit a double in the fifth. Neither did so with a guy on base or would go on to be close to scoring.

The game then became plainly annoying in the sixth, in which Gaudencio Callaia singled home a pair with two outs after the Indians loaded the bases with a single, a walk, and an error by Starr. Blake McConnell grounded out, but by then the Indians were up 3-0. Foxie Brown went to the stretch, while the Raccoons languished. Caballero drew a walk in the seventh, which led nowhere. Ben Morris batted for the pitcher Erickson in the bottom 8th and singled, then was left on base by the 1-2-3 batters. Kelly Whitney was back on the hill for the bottom 9th, which began with Nick Nye, and Nye grounded out. So did Brass. Kozak batted for Caballero and singled up the middle. Fowler popped out to second base, and Kelly Whitney pitched a 4-hit shutout on debut. 3-0 Indians. Kozak (PH) 1-1; Morris (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, L (12-11);

Like I said, underdone.

(bleeds from the corner of his snout)

Game 3
IND: CF S. Thompson – 2B M. Weber – C A. Gomez – SS Kilday – 1B Ewers – 3B R. Vargas – RF E. Mitchell – LF McConnell – P M. Guerra
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Kozak – C Perez – CF Oley – 3B Bean – P B. Herrera

Like Fox on Saturday, Bobby Herrera pitched to the stretch, and like Fox, he was behind. Kilday doubled home Weber in the first inning, and that was still the score in the middle of the seventh, 1-0 Indians, as the Raccoons couldn’t do ******* anything. Three singles were scattered in six innings, including one by Tipsy Bobby, and all in different innings to ensure no actual threat could accumulate on base. Bean grounded out to begin the bottom 7th, but Fowler drew a walk in Herrera’s spot and Christopher then hit a scratch single. Immediately we had our thickest scoring chance of the game…! How exciting! Lonzo went into the box next, and ripped away at the first pitch he got, dishing the fastball into the left-center gap for extra bases. Fowler scored, and Christopher was waved around to score as well, giving Lonzo a score-flipping double! Starr was walked with intent, but Nye hit another double to score Lonzo and put two in scoring position, his first useful contribution since coming off the DL. Kozak’s pop and Perez’ fly ended the inning without another run scoring, though.

The eighth then was a mess; Weber drew a leadoff walk against LaBat, who got two outs, then left for Ryan Sullivan, who walked Ewers, then left with an injury. The Raccoons double-switched in Walters at that point with Brass replacing Kozak in leftfield, but glitched Vargas on base with another walk in a full count. It was three on and two out when Callaia pinch-hit and flew out to Brass in leftfield to end the inning. After a 1-2-3 bottom 8th, the ninth was not much calmer, beginning with Starr’s dropping of McConnell’s pop behind first base for the leadoff man to get on and the tying run getting to the plate. Walters rung up a pair here, but Weber snuck a single through the right side with two outs. Gomez was less lucky – he was rung up on the hard stuff. 3-1 Coons. Christopher 2-4; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (12-12) and 1-1, BB;

In other news

September 6 – The Stars romp the Gold Sox for 14 runs in the seventh inning alone on the way to a 17-6 win. DAL 3B/1B Dan Sandoval (.318, 15 HR, 108 RBI) drives in five runs on four hits, including two doubles.
September 7 – Knights SP Vic Harman (15-6, 2.38 ERA) throws a no-hitter against the Bayhawks, striking out six and offering no walks in the 1-0 win. The only Bayhawks base runner, Grant Anker (.274, 13 HR, 49 RBI) is hit by a pitch. It’s the second no-hitter for Harman, who also suffocated the Thunder on May 20, 2059, and the second this season after the Warriors’ Evan Alvey.
September 7 – DAL SP Ray Walker (9-12, 4.27 ERA) has his season end with an elbow strain.

FL Player of the Week: DAL RF/LF Tommy Pritchard (.369, 2 HR, 29 RBI), hitting .500 (15-30) with 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT 1B Andy Metz (.295, 24 HR, 84 RBI), bashing .455 (10-24) with 4 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I swear we still have an offense, but I can’t for my bushy tail’s sake tell you where it is.

Only one Raccoons closer has ever saved more games in a single season than Matt Walters. Nailing down #49 on Sunday, a four-out effort, Walters tied Grant West’s career high from 1992 as well as Angel Casas’ 2012 season. Walters is piercing through the wall of seasons by Casas and West, who otherwise hog all of the franchise top 10 for a single season. The top mark is Casas’ from 2010 – the year that ended a 13-year playoff drought – when he saved a whopping 54 games in 62 appearances. With three weeks left, Walters has all the chances to get there.

Y’know, if the rest of the Portland Dolts can score at least one measly run a game…

Road trip next, visiting Elk City (brr) and Oklahoma City. There is one more homestand after that, hosting the Condors and Titans, then another road trip to New York and Milwaukee. All remaining sets are for three games only.

Fun Fact: Vic Harman joins nine other pitchers that have thrown two no-hitters.

He is the fifth to throw both of them for a single team.

Henry Selph – BOS 1997 – SFB 2001
Brian Furst – OCT 2017 + 2018
Bryan Hanson – OCT 2020 + 2023
Jorge Villalobos – MIL 2024 – TIJ 2030
Ben Lipsky – SFB 2029 – CIN 2039
Victor Salcido – POR 2050 + 2051
Nick Robinson – DEN 2053 + 2054
Kyle Turay – BOS 2050 – NYC 2056
Kodai Koga – ATL 2050 – PIT 2058
Vic Harman – ATL 2059 + 2060

[Westheim]

The third-to-last week of the season began with the splendid, just splendid, news that Ryan Sullivan had a tear in his rotator cuff and was out for the season… and the next season as well, probably. Squee…

Noah Caswell in turn was sent on a rehab assignment for the last few games of the AAA season and would rejoin the team at the end of the week when the Alley Cats’ regular season would end. The Alley Cats had already clinched their division and qualified for the playoffs.

Raccoons (81-63) @ Canadiens (56-87) – September 14-16, 2060

The damn Elks had lost six in a row, and according to me could lose another three now for all I cared. The season series was 9-6 in the Coons’ favor against the team sitting bottoms in runs scored *and* runs allowed in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (11-4, 3.16 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (7-16, 4.39 ERA)
Justin DeRose (10-8, 3.39 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (9-16, 4.76 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (12-7, 2.95 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (12-5, 3.16 ERA)

Overy was the only left-hander on offer.

Game 1
POR: LF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – RF Brassfield – C Perez – 1B Starr – CF Caballero – 3B Gonzales – P Stewart
VAN: 2B Corpus – SS Younce – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – C A. Maldonado – 3B Whittington – LF Hambrick – P Overy

David Gonzales made an early move for Dolt of the Week, committing an error in the first inning that put Jose Campos on base along with Mark Younce, and extended the inning long enough for Stewart, in his first start back from injury and rehab, to give up a pair of 2-out RBI singles to Damian Moreno and Alex Maldonado before Thomas Whittington finally flew out to left. Stewart proved to remain very hittable, giving up a leadoff triple to Christian Hambrick in the bottom 2nd and an RBI single to Overy before Alex Corpus hit into a double play; and in the third inning had another pair of runners on base already when Overy and Corpus hit another pair of RBI singles. After ten hits allowed in 2.2 innings, Stewart was yanked, and replaced for J.J. Sensabaugh for garbage relief. At this point, the Raccoons had ZERO base hits, and when Brass hit a single in the top of the fourth, he was immediately doubled off by Angel Perez grounding to short.

The Raccoons had to rummage through the garbage bin in Elk City for a long time, but finally found some edible treasure in the sixth inning, even though that inning actually began with Jack Kozak doubling to left and being thrown out at third base… Lonzo then singled and stole second, while Nick Nye walked. Brass grounded out, but Perez’ single plated Lonzo, and Starr doubled home a pair before Caballero struck out to end the inning, the gap reduced to 5-3. Alas – J.J. Sensabaugh and garbage relief… he walked four batters in 2.2 innings, and put two Elks on base in the bottom 6th, and when Elijah LaBat replaced him he had nothing better to do than to walk the bags full with Maldonado and give up runs on a Whittington single to left and Hambrick’s sac fly to left. Overy grounded out, stranding two, but slam range was re-established. They added two more runs in the seventh inning against Erickson, who gave up a single to left to Corpus, which was also bobbled by Kozak for an extra base, and then a Jose Campos homer. The Raccoons put up another 3-spot in the eighth against Josh Costello; Brass and Perez singled, Starr walked, and the bags were full with one out. Caballero’s groundout brought in Brassfield, and Nick Fowler singled home a pair, but the inning ended with Jon Bean grounding out, and the Elks were still three runs ahead. Lonzo hit another single in the ninth inning, but was doubled up by Nye, and that was the ballgame. 9-6 Canadiens. Lavorano 2-5; Brassfield 2-4; Perez 2-3, BB, RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

Can we please not finish an even 9-9 with the damn Elks, who are last in EVERYTHING??

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – CF Morris – P DeRose
VAN: 2B Roldan – 3B Corpus – 1B J. Campos – CF D. Moreno – RF C. Cardenas – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – LF Needham – P A. Jesus

On Wednesday, the Raccoons took an unearned 2-0 lead, and right in the first inning as Starr reached on an error by Campos and then Nye singled and Brassfield zinged a double into the leftfield corner to cash in the pair of them before being left on base by Nick Fowler. Hard singles that Moreno and Younce whacked off DeRose in the second inning, as well as a wild pitch by said starting pitcher, helped the Elks to make up half of that deficit, and Rafael Roldan’s homer in the third inning did the rest…

Straight singles by Brass, Fowler, and Maresh allowed the Raccoons to take a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning, but Christopher was caught stealing after getting on base to begin the fifth inning, and the Elks were still whacking the ball hard against DeRose; they were just finding the defense on a somewhat regular basis. Nick Nye did not find the defense when he led off the top 6th with a jack to left, which made it 4-2 Coons.

DeRose’s *basic* pitching worked out as long as the defense was on the call, but they dropped after five innings. Fowler threw a grounder away in the sixth, which was not yet the end of the world, but in the seventh the Elks’ Alex Maldonado and Bobby Needham led off with singles and Christopher capitally threw away that second base hit to give everybody an extra base; Maldonado, who had already been gunning for third base, scored, and Needham went to second base with the tying run. Then Maresh threw away Jesus’ bunt for another two ******* bases, and the game was tied. Now the stinking Elk on second base was the go-ahead run. When Chris Sullivan pinch-hit for Roldan, the Coons brought Ricky Herrera to match the lefty stick, and Sullivan grounded out for the second out of the inning. Corpus whacked an RBI double with two outs, and when he then tried to steal third base, Maresh threw that ******* **** baseball away as well, allowing Corpus to score. One inning, three hits, three throwing errors, and four runs for THE ******* ELKS. “Clownshoes” Fowler then continued the ******** with a double play grounder following Brassfield’s leadoff single in the top 8th.

Jon Bean led off the ninth with a pinch-hit single, but was forced out by Christopher. Lonzo singled off Erik Swain, putting the tying run on base, and Starr drew a walk to fill the bases. Nick Nye grounded to short, but shortstop Tom Hetzel was not quick enough with his throw to second base and the Elks only got one out on the play while Christopher scored. Brassfield was next. With two outs, the count ran to 2-2, and then Brass socked one to right-center. Moreno missed it, and two runs scored, flipping the score to 7-6 Critters. Fowler grounded out. The bottom 9th saw Walters bidding for his 50th save of the year. Whittington and Juan Aragon grounded out before Christian Hambrick hit a single to left. Corpus grounded out easily to end the game, though. 7-6 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-5; Nye 2-5, 2 RBI; Brassfield 3-4, BB, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1;

Four errors in the game, but don’t be fooled. While they looked like blithering idiots in the field, they really *are* blithering idiots in the field…

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF Morris – 3B Bean – P Riddle
VAN: 2B Corpus – SS Younce – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – C A. Maldonado – 3B C. Sullivan – LF Hambrick – P Brink

Trent Field brassed his 11th homer of the year in leadoff jack form in the second inning for the first run in the rubber game, although the team was quick to tack on as Brink walked Angel Perez and then right away gave up another homer to Ben Morris, a wrapper around the foul pole in right. That was already it for offense in the first five innings. The Coons had only one more base hit, and the Elks had two, but Riddle had them well under control; even when Maldonado opened the bottom 5th with a double to right, Riddle rung up all of the bottom of the order to get out of the inning.

Riddle was bidding for 200 K for the season, too, at this point, though if the Raccoons stuck with a 6-man rotation he would only get two more starts after this. Entering with 177 K and up to seven on the day after mopping the floor with the 7-8-9 batters in the bottom 5th, he nevertheless faced another 11 batters in the game – and struck out none of them. On the contrary, the Elks got a run in the seventh with Chad Cardenas’ leadoff triple and Moreno’s RBI groundout, narrowing the score to 3-1, and then had the tying runs on the corners with 1-out singles from Corpus and Younce in the eighth when Riddle was yanked. Bravo came in very helpfully walked Campos to fill the sacks before giving up a sac fly to Cardenas, while Ricky Herrera balked before popping out Damian Moreno, ultimately stranding the tying run at third base in the inning. The Raccoons frittered singles by Brass and Perez in the ninth inning before bringing back Walters, who struck out Whittington, but then gave up a double to left to PH Manny Saunders. The veteran quad-A reserve was found astray of the bag though when Hambrick lined out to Lonzo, and the Raccoons got a game-ending double play that way. 3-2 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-4, HR, RBI; Morris 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (13-7);

Raccoons (83-64) @ Thunder (64-82) – September 17-19, 2060

Here was another team long out and in a real rut right now as the Thunder were stricken with a 7-game losing streak as the Raccoons came in. They had the third-most runs scored, but also the third-most runs allowed in the CL. The Coons led the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (5-1, 2.50 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (11-12, 2.90 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-11, 4.33 ERA) vs. Mike Chartrand (5-13, 5.13 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (12-12, 3.56 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (6-10, 4.55 ERA)

The Thunder had been off on Thursday, so they had wiggle room to skip somebody, but all candidates to pitch were right-handed.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF Morris – 3B Fowler – P Damasceno
OCT: CF Martaranha – 2B Woodrome – 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – SS O. Lira – C Burkart – RF R. Hummel – LF D. Guzman – P Aa. Harris

Lonzo stole his 44th base after forcing out Christopher and his leadoff single, which ended up salvaging a run in the opening frame once Nick Nye landed a 2-out RBI single in left-center. Brass’ groundout to third base ended the inning, while Nye was also instrumental to the two runs the Raccoons scored in the third inning. Following a 1-out double by Joel Starr, Nye drilled a triple into the left-center gap, then scored on Brass’ sac fly to Danny Guzman near the gap, but not quite stuffed down it enough for another extra-base knock. Guzman and Bernaldin Martaranha then answered with the Thunder’s first two hits in the game, a pair of singles, to get a run back from Damasceno in the bottom 3rd. Ian Woodrome worked a 2-out walk, but Christopher made a running catch on Andy Metz’ shallow fly to right to keep the tying runs from scoring.

Fowler reached on an error by Woodrome in the fourth inning, but DD struck out trying to bunt, which made for two outs. From there, Christopher drew a walk, moving Fowler to second base after all, and then Lonzo singled up the middle. Fowler came around to score, 4-1, and a double steal attempt by Christopher and Lonzo was met with a throwing error by Bruce Burkart, and another run scored as Christopher scampered home. Starr grounded out, leaving Lonzo on third base. Nye then opened the fifth inning with his second triple of the game, this one down the leftfield line, and scored again on another sac fly by Brassfield to get to 6-1, but hits by Guzman and Woodrome gave the Thunder a run back in the bottom half of that inning, and they got another one on a Burkart homer in the sixth. That was after Damasceno had struck Omar Lira in the ankle with a pitch that broke a bit much and pinch-runner Steven Spalding had been caught stealing. Damasceno got through that inning and collected another out from Travis Anderson in the #9 hole in the bottom 7th, then left for Adam Harris – his namesake long gone by then – who sorted out the top of the order. Erickson got two more outs after that before the Coons double-switched in Elijah LaBat for a potential 4-out save in the bottom 8th, with Gonzales replacing Fowler at third base. Ian Stone grounded out in Burkart’s deserted spot to end the inning, but Randy Hummel drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 9th of a 6-3 game – and then was doubled off, 6-4-3, by Guzman grounding to Lonzo. Travis Anderson struck out to finish off the game. 6-3 Raccoons. Christopher 2-3, BB; Nye 3-4, 2 3B, 2 RBI; Perez 2-4;

First career save for the 26-year-old Elijah LaBat in 67 games.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – CF Morris – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Fowler – SS Bean – P Fox
OCT: CF Martaranha – RF Whitlow – C Burkart – 2B Woodrome – LF Gillum – 3B McNeal – SS Spalding – 1B Metz – P Chartrand

The bags filled up in the top 1st on precious little as Morris legged out a 1-out infield single and Chartrand then walked the bags full. Appropriately, Brass popped out and Perez whiffed and nobody scored. The second inning threatened to be just as brilliant, beginning with Fowler and Bean singles. The two were bunted onwards by Foxie Brown, but Christopher then whiffed. Morris found a hole on the right side with two outs, though, and singled, and Eric Whitlow threw away the ball trying to kill off Bean at the plate, allowing Morris into scoring position, although Starr struck out to keep it at 2-0.

The Coons’ offense then took a nap and let Foxie Brown have a go at glory. He pitched a *fine* game, shutting out the Thunder through the early and middle innings. The first sticky spot actually came in the bottom 6th when Whitlow and Burkart opened the inning with singles, but were then kept from any advance on a K to Woodrome and easy pops by Brian Gillum and Josh McNeal. Fox also tried to jumpstart the offense with a leadoff single in the seventh. Joe-Chris drew a walk, and Morris’ groundout put the pair in scoring position for Starr with one out. Both him and Nye flew out to center; Starr got a sac fly out of it, but Nye just ended the inning.

Fox finished seven shutout innings, then was taken deep by his final batter, the leadoff man in the eighth, Martaranha, narrowing the score to 3-1. Ruben Mendez came on, hit Whitlow with a fastball, but then got Burkart to ground to short for a double play and rung up Woodrome. Matt Walters in the ninth allowed his almost customary single at this point, this one to McNeal, but retired three others to put the game away without a major crisis developing. 3-1 Critters. Morris 2-4, 2 RBI; Starr 1-2, BB, RBI; Fox 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (13-11) and 1-2;

That’s 52 saves for Matt Walters, and just two short of the franchise record for a single season held by Angel Casas.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – RF Oley – 2B Ortega – P B. Herrera
OCT: CF Martaranha – 2B Woodrome – RF Whitlow – 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – SS O. Lira – LF R. Hummel – C Burkart – P Ju. Juarez

The Raccoons had four hits in the first five innings and made three outs on the basepaths, which included Lonzo and Oley being caught stealing and Bernie Ortega being thrown out trying to go first-to-third on a Herrera single to end the fifth inning. The Thunder were just as listless on four hits and no runs against Tipsy Bobby, although they didn’t make quite as many voluntary outs.

Lonzo singled again in the sixth and this time stole the base, but received no support from Starr and Brass and was left in scoring position in a scoreless game. Lonzo had another hit in the eighth, but then didn’t get a jump and made no attempt while the inning ended behind him. The Thunder did get through Bobby Herrera in the bottom 8th; singles by Burkart, Ian Stone, and Woodrome plated them a run in the inning. Whitlow grounded out, and Ricky H. came in to relieve Bobby H. against Andy Metz, the switch-hitter, but the Thunder sent righty Brian Gillum, who flew out to Morris in center, stranding a pair in scoring position. Right-hander Jerry Washington then faced the 5-6-7 batters in the ninth. Fowler grounded out before Christopher batted for Maresh and drew a walk. Washington walked Oley as well before Kozak batted for Bernie Ortega and dropped a blooper on 1-2 into shallow right. Whitlow narrowly missed it, the ball hit off his shin, and Christopher was quickly whisked onwards to score the tying run, while there were still two men on for Nick Nye batting for Ricky Herrera. His grounder to left was knocked down by Lira, but there was no play, and the sacks were full for Morris, who grounded to second base, and Woodrome fired home with no hesitation, getting the out at the plate on Todd Oley. Bags still full for Lonzo – and he got his fourth hit of the day with a single up the middle! Two runs scored, Washington was knocked out, and lefty Ryan Hogues gave up another RBI single to Starr. Hogues threw a wild pitch to move the pair into scoring position, and Brass then singled to right-center to plate them. Armando Suriel, the fourth pinch-hitter of the 6-run inning, then grounded out, ending the onslaught. Adam Harris would finish off the game. 6-1 Coons! Lavorano 4-5, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-5, 2 RBI; Oley 3-4, 2B; Kozak (PH) 1-1, RBI; Nye (PH) 1-1; B. Herrera 7.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K and 1-2, BB;

In other news

September 13 – ATL SP Vic Harman (16-6, 2.29 ERA) follows up his no-hitter against the Bayhawks with a 3-hit shutout of the Falcons, taking the 2-0 win while going the distance.
September 16 – Dallas OF Chad Pritchett (.291, 13 HR, 76 RBI) will miss the rest of the year after breaking his foot.
September 17 – CHA OF/3B/2B Chris Tomko (.238, 8 HR, 62 RBI) drives in seven runs on three hits from the #8 spot as the Falcons apply the neutron disruptors to the Canadiens, who get exploded in a 20-6 rout.
September 17 – The only scoring in the Stars’ 2-0 win against the Buffaloes is courtesy of veteran 2B/1B Erik Stevens’ (.252, 4 HR, 59 RBI) 10th-inning walkoff home run.
September 18 – Buffos CF/LF Jose Ambriz (.309, 8 HR, 54 RBI) is out for the year with a tear in his hamstring.
September 18 – The home run hit by RIC 3B Bobby Anderson (.282, 12 HR, 57 RBI) in the first inning is all there is to beat the Wolves, 1-0.

FL Player of the Week: SAC RF/CF Will Buras (.260, 20 HR, 74 RBI), socking .407 (11-27) with 4 HR, 13 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND OF Steve Thompson (.312, 9 HR, 43 RBI), batting .542 (13-24) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Ricky Herrera, the sneaky bugger, scratched out another W on Sunday while getting just one out, and now has eight wins this year, well shy of the 11 last year.

Another 5-game winning streak, although we’re still behind by double digits because the Crusaders will win a hundred and then some, and all we’re doing is getting a terrible draft pick.

I know I promised Noah Caswell would be back from rehab by now, but we actually have a bit of an issue with getting him back on the 40-man roster. We kinda need… everybody on there…?

Final homestand of the year coming up, hosting the Condors and Titans. Come in, come in, and marvel at the Furballs before they become unsightly during cookie dough season…!

Fun Fact: Logger Scott Franks has probably run away with the stolen base title.

Unless Lonzo can pound out 15 singles and steal a base every time now, it’s probably that for the stolen base title. Franks dashed up to 52 this week, while Lonzo is at 46. And in between is still Indy’s Matt Kilday at 47.

Oh well, the Loggers like winning something too, occasionally… although… he’s also leading the batting title race… Run harder, Lonzo! Run!!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (86-64) vs. Condors (81-67) – September 20-22, 2060

The Condors were trying to win their first division crown in *26* years, and hadn’t finished in the first division in the South in *10* years, but they were already assured at least a tie for third place at this point. They led the Knights by 3 1/2 games, but they were not exactly a juggernaut in a meek CL South, ranking seventh in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed with a +49 run differential (Coons: +39). They did not excel in any offense or pitching category except batting average, which they ranked second in as a team, but had the third-best defense. The Raccoons were up 4-2 on them this year.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (11-5, 3.30 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (9-10, 2.94 ERA)
Justin DeRose (10-8, 3.51 ERA) vs. Jay Everett (9-9, 5.10 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (13-7, 2.93 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (12-10, 3.12 ERA)

These three starters were all right-handed.

Game 1
TIJ: CF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – SS C. Ramsey – C Samuel – 1B Sturgeon – 3B Frasher – RF Churricho – 2B Serrano – P E. Mauricio
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Kozak – C Perez – CF Morris – 3B Fowler – P Stewart

Marco Asencio, Alfredo Mendez, and Casey Ramsey all flocked onto base with three singles in eight pitches to begin the game, but Nick Samuel whiffed and they were held to one run on Jason Sturgeon’s sac fly to left before Eric Frasher also flew out to left as Zach Stewart continued to look vulnerable. Querubim Churricho opened the second inning with another single, advanced on a wild pitch, stole third base, and then scored on a single hit by the opposing pitcher, at which point I was becoming mildly annoyed with Stewart. Nye’s error put Asencio on base then, Mendez hit another single, but Ramsey popped out and Samuel flew out to leave the bases loaded. Stewart didn’t get through three innings, allowing yet more hits to Sturgeon, Churricho, Serrano, and Asencio in the top 3rd before getting the hook with three more runs in and two outs. J.J. Sensabaugh then got to take out the trash again, pitching four innings and was charged with three runs; Nick Samuel hit a 2-piece in the sixth, and Sensabaugh left with two on and two outs in the seventh for Adam Harris to face Asencio, and while Harris retired the batter, he didn’t do so until after he plated Frasher with a wild pitch… The Raccoons did nothing meriting a report for eight innings against Mauricio, except maybe that triple Nick Fowler hit in the fifth that came with nobody on, two outs, and didn’t lead to a run since Sensabaugh had garbage to take out at that point. The Coons only made the board in the ninth when Lonzo led off with a single, stole second base, and scored on Nye’s double to left. Nye was then left on by Bean and Oley, pinch-hitting against Mauricio, who ended up with a complete-game 5-hitter. 8-1 Condors. Morris 2-3, 2B;

This was perhaps the last start for Zach Stewart as a Raccoon after three years of decent, but injury-riddled service. He was a free agent, had gotten on the snout twice in a row, and we weren’t really sure whether extending a new contract was the smartest move at this point…

Meanwhile, Ryan Sullivan was moved to the 60-day DL, moving the 40-man roster squeeze issue a few weeks down the road, to activate Noah Caswell from his rehab assignment to AAA. The other option would have been throwing Todd Oley on waivers. Caswell had missed three-and-a-half months with torn ankle ligaments, to the point where Ben Morris had more at-bats than him for the season.

Game 2
TIJ: 3B Frasher – CF B. Fish – SS C. Ramsey – C Waker – 1B Sturgeon – RF Alf. Mendez – LF S. Moore – 2B Serrano – P Everett
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – P DeRose

The Raccoons drew three walks in the first inning on Tuesday, but couldn’t score, but took a lead in the third inning, which Joey Christopher led off with a double off the wall in leftfield. Lonzo’s grounder got him to third, and Joel Starr’s single to center brought him across home plate. Nye also singled, but Cas struck out. Everett then walked Brass with two outs, then Fowler with the bases loaded to make it 2-0… and then Maresh as well to force in another run! Thankfully he now came upon Justin DeRose, who was a frosty 1-for-45 for the season, with no RBIs, and with two outs. But this was baseball, and baseball was a harsh mistress and loved nobody. Everett got to 2-1 on DeRose, and then DeRose got the stick on the ball and dished it over Frasher and up the leftfield line for a 2-out, 2-run double…! Christopher would walk as well, but Lonzo then struck out to end the inning. The Raccoons would leave the bases loaded again in the fifth inning, then without scoring, while DeRose was more or less cruising, allowing only a run in the fourth inning when Sturgeon singled home Bobby Fish with two outs, but apart from that had a 3-hitter going through six innings. Sturgeon began the seventh with a pop to short, after which Alf Mendez singled. Moore grounded out, but Franklin Serrano doubled home the runner. DeRose then walked Jon Alade, then gave up another RBI single to Frasher and was yanked for LaBat, but the Condors answered with Jose Gutierrez to bat for Bobby Fish. The 35-year-old career quad-A player pumped a 3-run homer to left, Ramsey hit *another* homer right after that, and the Raccoons had successfully turned a 5-1 lead into a 7-5 deficit in the inning.

Curt Therien was then whacked around for another run in the eighth inning, which meant that when Joel Starr hit a 2-piece off Jose Lugo in the bottom 8th with Lonzo on base and one out, the Raccoons were still a run short. Caswell hit a 2-out single in the inning, but was left on first base. Righty Blake Lewis was then in for the ninth inning. Fowler grounded out, but Ben Morris hit a single in Maresh’s place. Jack Kozak batted for Ruben Mendez and ended the ballgame… by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play. 8-7 Condors. Christopher 3-3, 2 BB, 2B; Starr 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Caswell 2-5; Morris (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons, who were spiritually eliminated in May, were mathematically eliminated after this particularly infuriating loss.

Game 3
TIJ: CF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – SS C. Ramsey – C Samuel – 3B Frasher – RF B. Fish – 1B Churricho – 2B Serrano – P M. Clemente
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Gonzales – P Riddle

Leadoff singles by Asencio and Mendez and two productive groundouts gave the Condors a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Riddle, who had a big old struggle in this game. The leadoff batter was on in five of his six innings, sometimes because he just plunked him, like Bobby Fish in the second inning, and sometimes because some dolt behind him – *cough* Joel Starr *cough* – made an error. The Condors nevertheless didn’t add on a run through five before loading the bases with singles from the 5-6-7 batters to begin the sixth inning. Serrano hit into a double play, 6-4-3, that scored the second run of the game, and Riddle struck out Clemente, who had a 5-hit shutout on 56 pitches, to end the inning. The Raccoons had erased two of their runners with double play grounders, and Clemente actually hadn’t struck out anybody, we were just being that basic again…

Bottom 6th, and the Coons loaded the bases. Clemente nicked Lonzo in the shin, which prevented him from trying to swipe one after that, but soft singles by Starr and Nye made it three on and dreadfully nobody out. Cas lobbed the first pitch he got to left, though, where it dropped for an RBI single, cutting the deficit in half. Brass lined out to Frasher, but Starr had a hunch and retreated on contact, so the Condors could not get the double play, and then Angel Perez’ single to left-center drove in two runs, although Caswell was thrown out at third base on that play. Gonzales’ groundout ended the inning, now with Portland up 3-2. Bravo got around an Alf Mendez single in the seventh to keep it like that in the seventh, then was hit for with Ben Morris to begin the home half of the inning. Morris singled, was forced out by Christopher, but Christopher stole second and then scored on Starr’s 2-out double. Nye’s grounder ended the inning, and then Ricky Herrera got flogged by left-handers. Frasher had a deep fly out to left, and then Fish singled and Churiccho homered to right to tie the score at four in the top 8th.

Ricky H. finished the inning, but didn’t blunder into a win that way, because the Coons went down in order in the bottom 8th. Matt Walters then held the game tied in the ninth inning while grumbling about the lack of save opportunities. Justin Cullum, right-hander, got the bottom 9th, which the Raccoons began with pinch-hitters Bean and Caballero and ultimately two out and nobody on base before Christopher singled. Joe-Chris stole second base again, but Lonzo grounded to Ramsey to send the game to ext- no! Ramsey threw it away! It was into the dugout, and the Raccoons won the game on the mandatory two bases to the runner…! 5-4 Critters! Starr 3-4, 2B, RBI; Caswell 2-4, RBI; Morris (PH) 1-1;

Whatever works.

Also, the first W of the year for Matt Walters, who wasn’t pitching without a lead a lot and still was over 60 innings. He had thrown over 60 innings – since converting to a closer – since 2055.

Raccoons (87-66) vs. Titans (88-64) – September 24-26, 2060

The Titans wouldn’t make it – they came in with a magic number of one compared to the Crusaders, and it wasn’t likely that the Crusaders would lose ten in a row now. They had allowed the fewest runs in the CL, but clearly lacked offense, with a league-worst .239 team batting average and sitting ninth in runs scored, yet with a +94 run differential. They had smothered the Coons for the year, 11-4. They were without three regulars in Ted Lloyd, Denny Jurado, and rookie Eddie Marcotte, who had just shredded cruciate ligaments and was questionable for next Opening Day.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (6-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. Jayden Craddock (16-6, 3.03 ERA)
Chance Fox (13-11, 4.20 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (14-11, 2.99 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (12-12, 3.47 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (5-8, 3.88 ERA)

The Titans had only right-handed starters.

Game 1
BOS: LF A. Lee – SS J. Watson – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – RF Y. Valdez – 3B D. Mendoza – CF Tobin – 2B W. de Leon – P Craddock
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P Damasceno

The Raccoons had just pried Noah Caswell off the stretcher, then saw him make a headlong dive and catch on a Jonathan Watson fly to center in the first inning, wince, and shake out his arm, which got enough attention from Luis Silva and made me reach for the nearest bottle. He came out of the game and Oscar Caballero took over, and from having nobody on and two outs, the Titans then made three unearned runs out of a Jorge Arviso walk, a Lonzo error, Yoslan Valdez’ single and Diego Mendoza’s double before Mike Tobin popped out to second base…

The Coons stranded one in the first, two in the second, and … then finally got on the board. Christopher, Lonzo, and Starr began the bottom 3rd with straight singles, Starr driving home Christopher to make it 3-1. The runners did a successful double steal, but Nye’s comebacker was not quite as helpful, keeping the runners in scoring position while Craddock collected the first out. Caballero’s grounder and Brass’ single to center did plate the tying runs, however, before Perez popped out to end the inning. The Titans answered with three earned runs in the top of the fourth to knock out Damasceno, who was awful, walked Tobin, allowed a single to Willie de Leon, and then offered more walks to Andy Lee and Watson to force in the go-ahead run. Arviso lined out to Lonzo for the second out, but Rubin singled home two and that was the end for Damasceno. Adam Harris got Valdez to fly out to center to end the stupid inning. Harris and Sensabaugh both got five outs each to get to the stretch while keeping the score at 6-3. Therien had a scoreless eighth, but it was all a bit for nothing given how the Raccoons could not mount any offense even when Joel Starr hit a leadoff double in the bottom 8th. 6-3 Titans. Lavorano 2-4; Starr 2-4, 2B, RBI; Oley (PH) 1-2; Therien 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Noah Caswell had a bruised shoulder and would be day-to-day. He was unlikely to appear again this weekend.

The Titans won the game, but nevertheless were finished for the year since the Crusaders beat the Indians to clinch the division.

Game 2
BOS: CF Torrence – SS J. Watson – 1B M. Rubin – C Arviso – 3B D. Mendoza – RF Y. Valdez – LF Ma. Gilmore – 2B W. de Leon – P Musgrave
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – CF Morris – C Perez – 3B Suriel – P Fox

Portland went up quick on Saturday, with Lonzo getting nicked and Starr singling before Trent Brassfield whacked a 3-run homer over the fence in left. Fox was perfect the first time through, whiffing a pair, but before we could get any ideas gave up a double to Watson in the fourth inning, and then quickly surrendered that run as well on Rubin and Arviso singles before regaining control and getting out of the inning while stranding the tying runs.

The Coons answered in the same inning, and it again started with Musgrave nicking a batter, in this case Brassfield. Morris then walked, and Angel Perez’ 1-out single to left-center brought around Brass to score. Two pops by the 8-9 batters stranded a pair here, too. Boston replied right away, Ethan Torrence tripling home Matt Gilmore with two outs in the fifth inning, 4-2, and Rubin hit a leadoff jack in the sixth to take another run away. Arviso and Gilmore also got on base, but were stranded on the corners when de Leon grounded out to Lonzo. Fox held it together in the seventh for three groundouts, and Ruben Mendez had a scoreless eighth. But the Raccoons could not tack on anymore, their most valiant attempt being the bottom 8th. Nick Nye hit a 1-out single, but was forced out by Brass. Right-hander Mike Bell then gave up a double to right to Morris, and Brass tried to score from first base, but was thrown out at the dish by Yoslan Valdez to end the inning and bring in Walters, bidding for #53 with no cushion. He faced three right-handed pinch-hitters, two of which – Bill Dorey and Alan Leitch – whiffed, and one – Sandy Moreno – flew out to Brass in between those. 4-3 Raccoons. Nye 2-4; Morris 2-3, BB, 2B; Fox 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (14-11);

We faced Jason Brenize (12-6, 2.71 ERA) on Sunday in the rubber game. The 24-year-old was in his third full season and still struggling with control issues, with 4.0 walks per nine innings this year, which was just too much for a right-hander.

Game 3
BOS: CF Torrence – SS J. Watson – C Arviso – RF Y. Valdez – 3B D. Mendoza – 1B Dorey – LF Tobin – 2B W. de Leon – P Brenize
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Kozak – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – CF Caballero – P B. Herrera

Both pitchers gave up two hits and got out of the first inning with a double play, but the Coons still went up 1-0 because one of their hits was a home run to right-center hit by Lonzo! (grins like a kid) … but a walk to Diego Mendoza and Mike Tobin’s homer quickly flipped that score in the top 2nd … (reaches for the bottle of Capt’n Coma again)

Herrera allowed another run on a walk and a single in the third inning, and just couldn’t keep the Titans under wraps, with another runner in the fourth and two more in the fifth against him. The Raccoons were a bit silent until Fowler whacked a leadoff triple in the bottom 5th and scored on a sac fly hit by Maresh, but that only narrowed the score to 3-2. Herrera allowed another hit to Dorey and walked Tobin in the sixth, but got around against de Leon and Brenize and finished six muddy innings with “only” three runs allowed.

He was then quickly taken off the hook in the bottom 6th, which began with Joe-Chris eking out a leadoff walk in a full count. Lonzo grounded out, but Starr socked another double and that tied the ballgame. The Titans walked Nye intentionally here, then got an easy pop from Kozak, but Nick Fowler found the middle for a 2-out single to center. Starr was waved around third base and scored the go-ahead run, 4-3, and things were only getting worse for Brenize, who had gotten face music from the Raccoons more than once in his still brief career, then saw Maresh’s grounder to third base bobbled by Diego Mendoza to fill the bases. He then fell 3-1 behind Caballero, who then bashed a ball into the rightfield corner for extra-bases, and an awkward bounce away from Yoslan Valdez allowed him to not only clear the bases, but also slide safely into third base with hias 126th career triple. Bernie Ortega then grounded out against left-hander Gabe Hill, with Brenize slouching off, ostensibly defeated, although the last three runs on him were unearned. There were three innings left to pitch, but Ricky H. got four outs and Erickson collected two more without allowing a Titan on base. Tobin singled off Adam Harris to begin the ninth inning, but de Leon grounded into a double play after that. Manny Rubin struck out to end the game. 7-3 Critters! Starr 2-4, 2B, RBI; Fowler 2-4, 3B, RBI; Caballero 2-3, 3B, 3 RBI;

In other news

September 24 – The Buffaloes beat the Blue Sox, 7-3, to clinch the FL East for the second straight year.
September 24 – The Loggers beat the Canadiens, 2-1, with all the runs scoring in the 11th inning. MIL SP Julian Dunn (13-14, 4.34 ERA) goes eight innings and gives up the Canadiens’ only base hit, a single by RF/LF Chad Cardenas (.249, 12 HR, 61 RBI).
September 26 – LVA SP Steve Hunter (15-9, 3.01 ERA) has a 2-hit shutout against the Falcons, whiffing six in a 4-0 win.

FL Player of the Week: DEN RF/CF Chris Lauterbach (.280, 13 HR, 61 RBI), batting .500 (9-18) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC UT Omar Sanchez (.329, 2 HR, 59 RBI), hitting .542 (13-24) with 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Mixed week with soggy pitching and occasional offensive performances. We currently have the fourth-best record in the league, just behind the Titans. We can’t end up worse than the #23 pick for next year, but the best pick we could still get is #18, so we might just as well spit on it and win the last couple o’ games.

Lonzo will not win the stolen bases title, since Franks is still six bags ahead and there’s only six games left.

Matt Walters still needs one save to tie Angel Casas’ franchise record, and two to make a record of his own.

The Alley Cats beat the Buffalo Odyssey (SFW) in the first round of the AAA playoffs, and are currently 1-1 against Anaheim Nautilus (OCT) for the championship. Because of that, we will not bring up any more players to the extended roster. Our other minor league teams finished out of the money.

While two playoffs spots were taken this week, the Condors are still trying to end their drought in the South, but got 5 1/2 games ahead of the Knights, and a critical four-game set between those two teams coming up. In the FL West, everybody except the Wolves is still in theoretical contention, even the fifth-place Warriors, who will have their own four-game set with the Gold Sox starting on Monday. The Pacifics and Warriors are the teams with the “easy” games against the Wolves. There is also a makeup game scheduled for Monday after the nominal end of the regular season, where the Warriors will have to make up a game with the Capitals that could not get fit into any other hole in the schedule, setting up the possibility of a tie-breaker game on *Tuesday* and a delay to the FLCS.

The Raccoons will play the Crusaders and Loggers on the road to finish the season.

Fun Fact: The fifth straight Crusaders division title is their longest stretch in franchise history.

That might sound off given their previous periods of utter dominance followed by decades of doldrums, but even their most dominant period from 2007 through 2016, in which they won the World Series six times (2007-09 and 2013-15) had two holes poked into it. They came up two games shy of the Raccoons in 2010, and were only fourth and nine games out in 2012 when the Raccoons were Ray Gilberted out of a playoff appearance on the final weekend of the season.

Yes, that one still makes me mad.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (89-67) @ Crusaders (102-54) – September 27-29, 2060

The Crusaders had put the lid on it last week, and the Raccoons were just trying to not get embarrassed at this point against the league’s #1 offense and #2 pitching with a staggering +250 run differential. New York led the season series rather narrowly, 8-7.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (10-8, 3.66 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (18-6, 2.91 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (13-7, 2.93 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (9-13, 3.76 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (6-2, 2.98 ERA) vs. Milt Cantrell (10-10, 3.41 ERA)

Only right-handers to expect here!

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – CF Caswell – C Perez – 3B Fowler – 2B Ortega – P DeRose
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – C McLaren – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – LF Branch – CF Konecny – 3B V. Velez – P Seiter

While the Raccoons did not annoying thing where they got one base hit per inning and didn’t get anywhere, the Crusaders managed to load the bases with a Ryan Spehar double, a walk drawn by Matt McLaren, and Aubrey Austin’s soft single, and one out in the bottom 3rd, then scored all of them; two runs came in on Sean Zeiher’s double – both him and Austin were chasing 100 RBI, with Austin ahead 98-97 – and DeRose helped himself to a wild pitch to bring Austin across. The next inning was another crooked number for New York, starting with a Victor Velez double to left. Seiter struck out trying to bunt, but DeRose walked Omar Sanchez and after Spehar flew out gave up an RBI single to McLaren, and a 2-run, 100-RBI-obtaining triple to Austin. Zeiher flew out to deep right, but DeRose drilled Tommy Branch to begin the bottom 5th. DeRose was yanked after getting an out from Kelly Konecny, but Bryan Erickson waved that seventh run around against the bottom of the order, then began the bottom 6th with a walk to Sanchez, another walk, a McLaren single, and a bases-loaded walk to Austin before being disposed of in the nearest junkyard. Adam Harris did not provide ANY relief, or got an out. All three batters he faced got on base, and Reynaldo Bravo, who followed, gave up another two hits and two walks, waving in four more runs in the Crusaders’ 8-spot. Bravo was hit for in the following Coons’ turn at a goose egg, and J.J. Sensabaugh was dropped in to pitch the last two innings, instantly putting a pair on base with Branch and Konecny to begin the bottom 7th, and giving up the runners on a 2-out, 2-run single by Omar Sanchez, who in a 17-0 game then had the gall to try and steal a base. Angel Perez threw him out to end the inning, and I was on the phone with Maud before the Raccoons had another turn at-bat to file an official complaint about that weasely piece of ******* rat ***********. The Raccoons did not break up Ben Seiter’s shutout bid until there were two outs in the ninth inning when Fowler doubled home Brassfield, which would totally show them. 17-1 Crusaders. Fowler 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

Three in the third, three in the fourth, one in the fifth, eight in the sixth, and two in the seventh.

Tamiami, FL, I’m told.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 1B Kozak – 3B Fowler – C Perez – P Riddle
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – 1B Austin – C McLaren – RF J. Acuna – CF Konecny – LF Zeiher – 3B V. Velez – P Luera

Tyler Riddle was told to throw behind Sanchez, the piece of ****, on the very first pitch in the bottom 1st to send a message, but instead hit him in the shoulder, then threw away a pickoff attempt to give Sanchez second base, which sounded like the most Raccoons thing EVER. Sanchez then stole *third* base while I was coughing up blood, and scored on Austin’s groundout to give New York a 1-0 lead. The Raccoons would go on to see Perez draw a leadoff walk in the third inning, but then was forced out on a bad bunt by Riddle. Christopher singled to center, Lonzo grounded out, and the pair was stranded in scoring position when Nick Nye whiffed. On the other side of the box score and an inning later, Konecny hit a 1-out single and advanced on Zeiher’s groundout. The intentional walk to Velez was an option, but Riddle looked like he would handle him… but then gave up an RBI single. Didn’t matter though because Luera hit another 2-out single himself and the runner would have scored anyway. Don’t they always… Sanchez flew out to Christopher to leave a pair on base.

Riddle (single) and Christopher (walk) were stranded again in the fifth inning on Lonzo’s groundout, and the 9-1 spots were on base with two outs again for Lonzo in the seventh, then even with a better score after Joel Starr had batted for Riddle and had smacked an RBI double to left to score Fowler and reduce the deficit to 2-1. Christopher, ever statspadding his OBP, drew another walk instead of going to work, and Lonzo smoked a liner right into Luera’s mitten to end the inning. The Raccoons then used LaBat, Mendez, and Ricky H. to get through the next two innings without allowing another run to the Crusaders, but were still trailing as they entered the ninth inning against right-hander Jason Rhodes, and brought up the bottom of the order at that. A pinch-hit single by Ben Morris was as good as it got in the inning, coming with one out. Caballero and Christopher then made the final outs. 2-1 Crusaders. Morris (PH) 1-1; Starr (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Riddle 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, L (13-8) and 1-2;

Game 3
POR: LF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – CF Morris – C Maresh – RF Oley – P Damasceno
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – C McLaren – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – LF Branch – CF J. Alvarez – 3B V. Velez – P Cantrell

Lonzo tried to scoop #50 after drawing a first-inning walk (!), but was thrown out by naughty Matt McLaren, who then hit a single in the bottom 1st to move Spehar (also a walk) to second base. Damasceno walked the bags full against Austin, then gave up runs on Zeiher’s sac fly and Tommy Branch’s RBI single before getting Jose Alvarez to pop out to shallow right. The game got out of paw soon enough though, as Branch singled home two more with two outs in the bottom 3rd, which had begun with Spehar and McLaren getting on base yet again, and this time Alvarez added an RBI triple for good measure, 5-0. Velez struck out. Damasceno got nowhere in the bottom 4th either, putting Sanchez and Spehar on base with one out. LaBat proved not to be any sort of relief, either, walking McLaren to fill the sacks before giving up an RBI single to left to Austin. Kozak threw away the baseball for another run, and Zeiher hit an RBI single to left-center to get to 100 RBI just before Branch hit into an inning-ending double play, but the Crusaders had their second consecutive 3-spot for the second time in this series.

At this stage it was just about getting outta here with the tails attached, but LaBat gave up another run in the ninth inning on singles by Velez and Sanchez. The Raccoons also had only one base hit through six innings against Cantrell until Nick Nye hit a 2-out single in the seventh. Spehar fudged Fowler’s grounder for an error, and Morris and Maresh clipped a pair of unearned RBI singles for some participation trophies before Oley grounded out to strand a pair. Curt Therien threw two scoreless innings while allowing two hits and three walks and throwing over 50 pitches to make it even that far, which beggared belief.

Top 8th, and Cantrell was still going, but offered leadoff walks to Christopher, standing in for Terrific/ble Terrien, and Kozak, and Lonzo grounded out to advance them. Joel Starr probably nailed down the Coons home run crown for good with a 3-run homer to center, his 22nd of the year, and knocked out Cantrell along with that. In turn, Branch punked a homer off Bravo to begin the bottom 8th, and the Crusaders shoveled the bags full against another hapless tosser before Ricky Herrera came in with three on and two outs and struck out McLaren to finally SHUT THEM THE **** UP!!

Top 9th, and Morris drew a leadoff walk from Cory Leonard. Maresh and Oley both struck out though, so there was no reason to panic for the Crusaders with a 5-run lead. Caswell then batted for Ricky H. and singled, and Brassfield batted for Kozak and drew a walk. That filled the bases, and gave Rhodes a save opportunity, so he promptly spawned onto the hill to face Lonzo with three on, two outs, and Joel Starr in the on-deck circle as the tying run. A grounder to short ended the game. 10-5 Crusaders. Maresh 2-4, RBI; Caswell (PH) 1-1;

I don’t know who I hate more – this Crusaders offense or this Raccoons pitching staff…

The Condors won the CL South on this Wednesday with a 7-4 win against the Knights.

In the FL West, four teams were still in mathematical contention with the Gold Sox and Pacifics tied for first, and the Scorpions two games back, and the Warriors 3 1/2 games back. Only a single set of outcomes for the remaining bunch of games in that division would allow the Warriors to get into a tie-breaker for the division, though, and a 5-4 loss to Denver on Thursday ended their season, and the Scorpions lost to the eliminated Stars, 5-1, to themselves get into six-particular-game-results-just-for-a-tie-breaker territory.

Unfazed, the Raccoons traveled to Milwaukee for the last three games with the Loggers.

Raccoons (89-70) @ Loggers (72-87) – October 1-3, 2060

Portland had taken the season series already, 11-4, and all finishing positions in the division were doled out with the Titans having swept the Elks to nail the Coons into third place for the season. The Loggers were sixth in runs scored and had given up the second-most runs.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (14-11, 4.19 ERA) vs. Ernesto Culver (10-14, 4.95 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (13-12, 3.50 ERA) vs. Julian Dunn (13-14, 4.34 ERA)
Justin DeRose (10-9, 3.99 ERA) vs. Roger Pritchard (13-10, 3.49 ERA)

Dunn was still listed as day-to-day as the series began, so he was a potential scratch on Saturday. Pritchard was left-handed.

The Loggers were missing a whole bunch of players. Besides Dunn being questionable, they had Eli Dupuis, Brian Goldsmith (pitchers), Perry Pigman, Fidel Carrera, Mark Reed, and Roberto Arcos (position players) holed up on the DL.

Matt Walters kindly asked his teammates to give him another save chance to tie the franchise record of Angel Casas for a single season. I kindly asked them to just stop sucking.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Bean – P Fox
MIL: LF Garmon – 2B Pirandello – CF Franks – 1B D. Robles – RF Milian – C E. Sanches – 3B Lange – SS D. Miller – P E. Culver

The other team scored first on Friday, too, as Fox gave up a pair of 2-out singles in the bottom 2nd to Esteban Sanches and Ralph Lange, both on two strikes, and a throwing error by Caswell then allowed Sanches to score after initially going to third base where Jon Bean could not reach the terrible throw. Danny Miller grounded out one pitch later to end the inning, and Corey Garmon and Steve Pirandello poked 1-out singles in the next inning Fox walked Scott Franks, the future CL stolen base champ, loading them up, and Dave Robles dropped a bloop single between three Critters to get home Garmon for a 2-0 lead, but Pirandello was confused as to whether the ball had dropped in between all those paws and tails in shallow left-center and was caught in a rundown. David Milian grounded out to Bean to end the inning with a pair left on base.

The Raccoons then also were so kind to get on base for once with Christopher’s leadoff single in the fourth inning. Lonzo immediately doubled him up, and that was that. This remained their furthest advance while Chance Fox was pitching, which amounted to seven innings, in which the Loggers only got two more hits after the early troubles. Culver offered a leadoff walk to Brass in the eighth inning, bringing the tying run to the plate, and Perez singled to center on a 3-1 pitch to actually move a ******* runner into ******* scoring position. Jon Bean shoved another ball up the middle for an RBI single, 2-1, and Ben Morris batted for Fox and zinged another single past Pirandello to load the bases with nobody out. Uh-oh. Christopher hit a sac fly to Franks to get Perez home and take Fox off the hook, and Lonzo singled to right-center to bring Bean around with the go-ahead run. He then got his 50th stolen base of the year, but the Loggers got back at the Coons by now walking Starr intentionally, and Nye’s pop and Caswell’s grounder ended the inning with three runners stranded.

Bottom 8th, Adam Harris popped out Franks before Ruben Mendez blew the ******* lead with a walk to Robles, a Milian single, and Sanches’ sac fly to deep center. Ralph Lange grounded out to end the inning level at three. The top 9th saw David Gonzales land a pinch-hit single off lefty Sansao Tyson with two outs, but Jack Kozak struck out to end the inning. Bravo got three groundouts in the bottom 9th to send the game to extras, because we definitely needed more of this sort of bobbleball… Tyson was still around for the tenth and Bernie Ortega batted for Christopher, a ploy that netted the Coons a leadoff double to left and the go-ahead run in scoring position. Joel Starr singled him home after Lonzo fanned, and Nye hit into a double play, but here it was for Walters, the chance to tie Angel Casas. He struck out Matt Lock, then brushed James Wilks on base with a 3-2 pitch. Robles popped out foul to Perez for the second out. Milian grounded out to Nye, and Walters nailed down his 54th game of the year…! 4-3 Blighters. Ortega (PH) 1-1, 2B; Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, RBI; Gonzales (PH) 1-1; Morris (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K; Walters 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (54);

This save also assured Walters of sole possession of the most saves of any closer in the ABL this year as Topeka’s Bill Hernandez was stuck at 51.

Regular season saves, that is. (cough)

The Raccoons brought out the first suit again for Saturday. The season finale would probably see a bunch of reserves.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P B. Herrera
MIL: 3B Lange – 2B Garmon – CF Franks – 1B D. Robles – LF Milian – C E. Sanches – RF Wilks – SS D. Miller – P Dunn

Ex-Coon Julian Dunn was on the hill for the middle game, but didn’t fare great, offering two walks and a single to the first three batters he faced, and the Raccoons would score all three runners from three on, nobody out. Nye singled home a pair, and Brass got another RBI single. Bobby Herrera didn’t explode on sight, and the Raccoons added to their lead in the third inning, which Starr began by singling and Wilks continued by overrunning the ball for an extra base, allowing Nye and Cas to bring in the runner on two productive outs and extend the lead to 4-0. Dave Robles homered to left off Herrera to take a run away in the bottom 4th, but the Raccoons responded immediately. Joe-Chris got on base with a leadoff single in the top 5th, stole second, and after Lonzo’s grounder and an intentional walk to Joel Starr, scored on Nye’s sac fly to Franks, 5-1. Cas flew out to left to end that inning. Brass singled and stole second the following frame, but was left on by the bottom of the order.

All things looked quite well by the stretch, but the Loggers then punched Bobby Herrera for three hits and two 2-out runs in the bottom 7th as both Sanches and Wilks strung RBI hits in line drive form to right against him. Miller grounded out sharply to second to end the inning, now with a reduced lead at 5-3. The Raccoons got Nye on to begin the eighth inning, if only on an error by Garmon, and he stole second base, but again the next three hitters did nothing of note and the runner was left in scoring position. Herreras put together the bottom 8th; Bobby got two outs but also walked PH Willie Martinez, while Ricky struck out Franks to end the inning. The Coons went in order in the top 9th, then brought out Walters for the bottom 9th; this time sole possession of the single season franchise record for saves was on the plate. Robles flew out to Brass in shallow left. Milian whiffed. Sanches grounded out. 5-3 Raccoons. Starr 1-2, 2 BB; Brassfield 2-4, RBI; B. Herrera 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (14-12); Walters 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (55);

One more!

Game 3
POR: 1B Kozak – 2B Ortega – SS Nye – RF Brassfield – C Maresh – LF Caballero – CF Morris – 3B Gonzales – P DeRose
MIL: 3B Lange – 2B Garmon – CF Franks – 1B D. Robles – C E. Sanches – RF D. Wright – LF Wilks – SS D. Miller – P R. Pritchard

DeRose faced *one* batter, then left with an injury, so on top of the also-rans from the bench we got to put together a bullpen day to finish out the season. Sensabaugh got the ball and allowed a 2-out single to Franks, who stole his 56th base and scored on Robles’ subsequent single to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead, although the Raccoons would tie it up in the top 2nd, albeit with an unearned run. Maresh reached when Dave Wright dropped his fly in deep right, reaching second base. Caballero singled and Morris hit a sac fly to get the teams even again. Gonzales grounded out to end the inning. The Loggers were right back in front in the bottom 2nd when Miller batted home Wright with two sharp liners to leftfield, a double and single, respectively. Sensabaugh really fooled NOBODY, and Garmon whacked a leadoff double to left in the third inning, scoring on productive outs by Franks and Robles, 3-1.

But the game was tied again in the fourth. Nye and Brass got on base to begin the inning against Pritchard, and two groundouts by Maresh and Caballero scored the Critters their second run. Morris’ RBI single to center got us even at three. Morris stole second, Gonzales walked unintentionally, but Joel Starr’s season ended with a pinch-hit groundout to end the inning. Erickson pitched an inning then, while Pritchard finished five for Milwaukee, but then was also gone with an apparent injury. He got a potential posthumous win, though, when LaBat retired the first two in the bottom 5th, then gave up a triple to Franks and a 2-run moonshot, 433 feet, to Robles, the first-sacker’s 25th of the year. Bravo continued to not get anybody out and allowed another run in the sixth, as the Loggers extended their lead to 6-3.

The Coons looked defeated after a few innings of no offense, but Bernie Ortega doubled with one out in the eighth for a sign of life, however meekly. The Loggers brought a new righty, Alex Diaz, who allowed an RBI single to Nye, then was also swiftly collected with an apparent injury. Ralph Needham replaced him, got Brass to fly out to right, and then was taken deep to left by Chris Maresh, tying the score at six. Adam Harris pitched a second inning to keep the game tied in the bottom 8th, while the Loggers had another right-hander up in the ninth. James Murdock allowed a leadoff single to David Gonzales, who was forced out by Christopher. An 0-for-4 Jack Kozak fell to two strikes, then RAKED a 437-footer high above the left-center fence for his tenth homer of the year, and an 8-6 lead…! That 2-run lead would then got to Ruben Mendez in the ninth with Walters having very publicly been out two days in a row and right-handers galore coming up. Robles, Sanches, and Wright went down in order, the last two on strikeouts, to bring the curtains down on the season. 8-6 Raccoons. Harris 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (1-0);

Eight hits by eight different batters in this game – everybody from #1 to #8 in the lineup had one.

In other news

September 27 – TIJ SP Edgar Mauricio (10-10, 2.96 ERA) is lost for the season due to shoulder inflammation.
September 30 – Rebels SP Steve Hawkins (11-9, 4.67 ERA) 3-hits the Buffaloes in a 4-0 shutout.
October 3 – NAS SP Juan Sanchez (19-10, 3.04 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout against the Miners, striking out five in the 9-0 Blue Sox win.
October 3 – The Gold Sox clinch the FL West on the final day of the regular season with a 7-6 squeezer against the Stars, while the Pacifics land only two hits in a 9-1 rout loss to the Scorpions.
October 4 – SFW 3B/SS Julio Moriel (.325, 1 HR, 51 RBI) goes 2-for-4 in the Warriors’ Monday make-up win, 8-3, against the Capitals, snatching the FL batting title from a defenseless CIN 1B Marquise Saulsberry (.324, 13 HR, 72 RBI).

FL Player of the Week:
CL Player of the Week:

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.382, 3 HR, 43 RBI), batting .446 with 1 HR, 18 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: OCT 1B Andy Metz (.289, 29 HR, 97 RBI), punching .308 with 11 HR, 27 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS CL Ben Lussier (7-9, 2.84 ERA, 38 SV), going 3-1 with a 1.42 ERA and 8 SV, 15 K in 12 outings
CL Pitcher of the Month: LVA SP Steve Hunter (15-9, 3.01 ERA), toing 4-0 with a 1.62 ERA and 29 K
FL Rookie of the Month: LAP 1B/2B Alejandro Olivares (.291, 6 HR, 46 RBI), batting .294 with 3 HR, 15 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: LVA SP Steve Hunter (15-9, 3.01 ERA), toing 4-0 with a 1.62 ERA and 29 K

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons finished the season with 92 wins (felt like 82 though), and did not post a single losing month! The worst we did in any month this year was a 14-14 June, although to be fair we were only *really* good in two months: July (17-9) and August (17-11). The October sweep of the Loggers aside, we were never more than one won game above the .500 mark (in the sense that 14-12 in September was one win rather than a loss in one game above .500, f.e.).

Justin DeRose would labor a month on a back strain, but it’s not like we had any other appointments in October…

The Alley Cats lost three in a row to the Anaheim Nautilus to lose the AAA championship in five games. We might have given Jose Rosa another start against the Loggers at the very end there, but he came up sore in Game 3 and was unavailable. This was later diagnosed as a forearm strain, which was totally a thing you wanted your young starters to develop. At least he had all of winter to rehab that.

Lonzo finished the season with an even 50 stolen bases, 16 of those coming in the last quarter of a season in which he missed 30 games. His stolen base success rate was 70.4% this year, just a bit below is career rate (72.0%). It had been 71.1% in last full season in 2058. He is still at a point, where he could become career stolen base leader by his age 35 season.

1st – Pablo Sanchez (HOF) – 721
2nd – Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino (HOF) – 708
3rd – Guillermo Obando (HOF) – 686
4th – Alberto “Berto” Ramos (HOF) – 677
5th – Alex Vasquez (active) – 643
6th – Lorenzo Lavorano (active) – 627
7th – Rich de Luna – 570
8th – Omar Sanchez (active) – 532
9th – Chris Navarro (active) – 510
10th – Danny Ceballos (active) – 507

The active leader Alex Vasquez had just seven stolen bases in the last quarter, and 29 for the whole season. Omar Sanchez finished with 38 (gnashes teeth), 13 of those in the final quarter. The numbers were even lower for Chris Navarro (23/8) and Danny Ceballos (20/3), who traded places. Omar Gonzalez, the 38-year-old that had started the season in eighth place on the career table, only got some second-half bench duty with the Aces and stole two bags to get his career tally to 497, 11th all-time.

Fun Fact: The CL’s September Rookie of the Month is 28 years old and first pitched in the majors in 2057 with the Miners.

Those were only 4.1 innings though and he then disappeared in AAA again, only resurfacing this year after making one initial start for AAA Monmouth. Hunter originally was a #229 pick by the Miners. The Aces are his fourth organization.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons turn 12 years old today! I hear Maud has a pie in the oven and – … nevermind, I think Brassfield’s already found it.

Anyway, the Raccoons are now legally old enough fold explicit origami in Japan, drink red wine under adult supervision in France, and get married to a second-degree cousin in Alabama! Facts!

Since I have yet to get thoroughly sick of them, we’ll just continue on here. It’s not like I have anything else to do in life. … Unfortunately, the season ended yesterday, so the critterless playoffs later on will have to suffice for entertainment today, and maybe the opening post for the offseason.

[ayaghmour2]

Originally Posted by Westheim

The Raccoons turn 12 years old today! I hear Maud has a pie in the oven and – … nevermind, I think Brassfield’s already found it.

Anyway, the Raccoons are now legally old enough fold explicit origami in Japan, drink red wine under adult supervision in France, and get married to a second-degree cousin in Alabama! Facts!

Since I have yet to get thoroughly sick of them, we’ll just continue on here. It’s not like I have anything else to do in life. … Unfortunately, the season ended yesterday, so the critterless playoffs later on will have to suffice for entertainment today, and maybe the opening post for the offseason.

Happy birthday to those pesky critters! I wasn't here for all 12 of the years, though I'm sure there are plenty that have, but for however many years I've followed its been a blast! Hope you never get sick of them!

Though they might get sick if you let them mix that origami paper with the wine!

[Westheim]

2060 ABL PLAYOFFS

The 105-57 Crusaders entered the playoffs with the best record in the league, having won a dominant CL North by nine games. It was their fifth straight CL North title, a streak that so far had netted them one championship. This time they made the playoffs with the #1 offense and #2 pitching in the Continental League, as well as the best defense, and a whopping +258 run differential that beggared belief. They led the league with a .373 team OBP, and at that rate you could pummel teams without hitting homers; they were only sixth in bombs in the CL, and stealing bases overall was also not their best skill. But they arrived here with a pesky leadoff man in Omar Sanchez (.333, 2 HR, 62 RBI) and a fearsome middle of the order including Aubrey Austin (.298, 15 HR, 105 RBI), Sean Zeiher (.304, 18 HR, 101 RBI), and Tommy Branch (.253, 22 HR, 96 RBI). Only Branch was hitting under .270 in their most likely lineup for the playoffs. The rotation was all right-handed and led by the dominant Ben Seiter (19-7, 3.02 ERA), although Seisaku Taki (16-7, 3.31 ERA) was not far behind him. The rotation was so good, they had to cut down on Jose Ortega (15-9, 3.60 ERA) to trim it to four guys for the playoffs. Jason Rhodes had 38 saves and a 1.60 ERA as closer, and the bullpen was sturdy, although a bit “average” in middle relief. Veteran right-hander Noah Hollis, only employed as swingman for the last seasons by various teams, was the only injury.

The 90-72 Condors had the opposite of a 5-year streak of division titles, having ended a 26-year drought by winning the CL South four games ahead of the Knights. They did so with the sixth-best offense and fifth-best pitching, and a comparatively puny +72 run differential. They ranked second in the CL in batting average, but there was a lot of “alright, but not great” in their stats overall. They had tied the Crusaders for homers this year, and had stolen more bases, but those were probably not deciding qualities. Their rotation on the other hand had a sharp drop-off after Marco Clemente (13-11, 3.22 ERA) and Miguel Batista (16-10, 3.54 ERA), also owing to a late-season injury that had felled Edgar Mauricio (10-10, 2.96 ERA). Eric Frasher (.251, 20 HR, 70 RBI) led the power department from third base, and Jason Sturgeon (.325, 10 HR, 67 RBI), Tristan Waker (.258, 15 HR, 73 RBI), and others provided solid offense, but they lacked the big flashes in there. Same topic in the bullpen, where Brett Lillis jr. had saved 34 games with a 4.00 ERA, and the rest of the pen was not much better. Besides Mauricio, reliever Joe Cash and infielder Bob Palmieri were on the DL, but these were not exactly cornerstones of the team.

In the Federal League, the defending champs, the 99-63 Topeka Buffaloes had won the FL East by ten games and had clinched home field advantage for the FLCS with the #3 offense and the pest pitching in that circuit. They had a +146 run differential. They had the highest OBP in the Federal League, but like the two CL teams were only average in homers and stolen bases. They had the strongest rotation in the FL, though, and the second-best pen and defense. Miguel Romero (10-4, 3.08 ERA) had missed a month, but had the best ERA in the playoff rotation, although Pablo Lara (16-11, 3.57 ERA) and Ben Karst (16-9, 3.71 ERA) were the bigger names. Closer Bill Hernandez led the FL with 53 saves and posted a 1.52 ERA. In the lineup, Zach Suggs (.299, 23 HR, 19 RBI) put up the best numbers, supported by Dan Martin (.292, 18 HR, 105 RBI), Alex de los Santos (.280, 17 HR, 98 RBI), and veteran David Worthington (.226, 14 HR, 86 RBI). The bottom of the lineup was weak, though, and the Buffaloes would probably miss starting centerfielder Jose Ambriz (.309, 8 HR, 54 RBI), who was out for the year, quite dearly. Reliever Kyle Zanni was also out for the playoffs.

The Gold Sox had rallied from last to first in two years, finishing one game ahead with a rater modest 87-75 record in a tight FL West. They looked a bit like longshots, especially with that third-worst (!) offense in their league, although they were also giving up the third-fewest runs. In the end, though, that was only a +13 run differential. They had the best batting average in the FL, but almost nobody in that lineup drew walks. Despite playing in Colorado, homers were not there thing – sixth in the FL – and they were stealing bases instead. They had the best defense and second-best rotation in the Federal League, but their bullpen was an unmitigated disaster with a 4.69 ERA, second-worst in the FL. Nick Robinson (16-6, 3.01 ERA) spear-headed a rotation with three left-handers, and the lineup was also mostly left-handed. Nobody on the team had more homers than Chris Lauterbach (.277, 14 HR, 65 RBI) and Randy Wilken (.253, 14 HR, 65 RBI), and Bill Joyner (.330, 11 HR, 70 RBI) led the team in RBI.

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The Condors led all participants in playoff appearances with their 18th appearance, although it had taken them a while to find their way back to the party. The Crusaders were just behind with 17, while the Gold Sox and Buffaloes both made their 14th playoffs. Things were more lopsided in actual championships, though; there were 16 rings in the playoffs, but the Crusaders hogged eight of them and the Gold Sox six more. The Condors and Buffaloes only had a single championship each, in the latter’s case last year.

For previous playoff matchups, the Gold Sox and Buffaloes met in the FLCS before in 2003 and 2052, with both encounters seeing the Sox win the pennant. The Crusaders and Condors also met twice in the CLCS before, back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. The Crusaders won the first contest and the championship after that, while the Condors won the second one, but lost the World Series to the Pacifics.

For the World Series, the Condors’ only championship came in 2029 at the expense of the Buffaloes, while the Buffaloes’ only championship had come last year against the Crusaders.

Besides the Condors, all playoff participants had won a championship inside the last eight years, with the Crusaders winning it all in 2056, and the Gold Sox winning four in a row from 2049 to 2052. The 2056 Crusaders title was the most recent one for the Continental League.

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2060 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

TIJ @ NYC … 6-1 … (Condors lead 1-0) … TIJ Tristan Waker 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; TIJ Franklin Serrano 3-4, RBI;

DEN @ TOP … 1-2 (12) … (Buffaloes lead 1-0) … TOP Alex de los Santos 2-3, 2 BB, 2B;
TIJ @ NYC … 0-8 … (series tied 1-1) … TIJ Tristan Waker 4-4; NYC Matt McLaren 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; NYC Sean Zeiher 1-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; NYC Kelly Konecny 4-5, RBI; NYC Ben Seiter 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

DEN @ TOP … 3-4 (11) … (Buffaloes lead 2-0) … TOP Zach Suggs 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

NYC @ TIJ … 3-2 … (Crusaders lead 2-1) … NYC Ryan Spehar 3-4, BB; NYC Curt Goodwin 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

TOP @ DEN … 10-7 … (Buffaloes lead 3-0) … TOP Zach Suggs 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; TOP David Worthington 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; TOP Sam Burchell 2-3, BB, RBI; DEN Je-ju Seul 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; DEN Stephen Medlock 2-3, 2B, RBI;
NYC @ TIJ … 6-8 … (series tied 2-2) … NYC Aubrey Austin 3-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; TIJ Alf Mendez 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; TIJ Casey Ramsey 2-4, 2 RBI; TIJ Jason Sturgeon 3-5; TIJ Franklin Serrano 2-4, 2 RBI;

After needing 23 innings to put the first two games away, the Buffaloes put up a 6-spot in the first inning in Game 3 and competently manage the distance to the Gold Sox from there, while the Crusaders lead 5-1 in the sixth inning before Seisaku Taki (0-0, 3.86 ERA) and the bullpen suffer a meltdown.

TOP @ DEN … 10-4 … (Buffaloes win 4-0) … TOP Adam Peltier 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; TOP David Worthington 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; TOP Nick McLelland 2-4, BB, RBI; TOP Kellen Lanning 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, SV (1); DEN Natsu Nakamura 3-4, 2B;
NYC @ TIJ … 5-2 … (Crusaders lead 3-2) … NYC Aubrey Austin 4-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; NYC Ryan Spehar 2-3, RBI; NYC John Webler 2-4, 3B, 2B; NYC Ben Seiter 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI;

The Buffos put the lid on with a 5-run second inning, then tack on four more runs by the fifth inning. The Gold Sox never manage to threaten them again.

The Crusaders win the crucial Game 5, but lose Sean Zeiher (.333, 1 HR, 4 RBI), who strains his shoulder on a throw and is out for the season.

TIJ @ NYC … 1-6 … (Crusaders win 4-2) … NYC Omar Sanchez 2-3, BB; NYC Matt McLaren 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

+++

The two teams with the best records thus emerged to the World Series in a rematch of last year’s extravaganza. These were the two #1 offenses in their respective leagues, and both teams ranked in the top 2 of their league’s runs allowed, starters’ ERA, bullpen ERA, and defense. It might become a low-scoring affair – although the Crusaders scored 5.3 runs per game in the regular season and still scored 4.83 runs per game on the Condors in the CLCS.

While the Crusaders lost Sean Zeiher to knock a tooth out of their lineup’s grin, they would have their tough-as-nails, all-right-handed rotation up against a mostly right-handed lineup. By contrast, the Buffaloes had three righty starters, but the Crusaders’ offense was balanced, even though the Zeiher injury meant it got thinner at the bottom, with Chris Deeley (.219, 0 HR, 8 RBI) the most likely replacement in the lineup.

+++

2060 WORLD SERIES

TOP @ NYC … 0-1 … (Crusaders lead 1-0) … NYC Matt McLaren 1-2, HR, RBI; NYC Ben Seiter 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (3-0)

Speaking of low-offense, Game 1 sees only four base hits per side, and McLaren’s fourth-inning homer off Ben Karst (0-1, 1.65 ERA) wins New York the series opener.

TOP @ NYC … 0-7 … (Crusaders lead 2-0) … NYC Matt McLaren 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; NYC Milt Cantrell 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (2-0) and 2-3;

NYC @ TOP … 4-3 … (Crusaders lead 3-0) … NYC Curt Goodwin 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; TOP Dan Martin 4-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

The Buffos finally wake up and out-hit the Crusaders, 9-7, but can’t put the hits together for a critical amount of offense as the Crusaders take the lead in the first inning and never surrender it, although the Buffaloes have the tying and winning runs on the corners in the bottom 9th when the game ends with a strikeout by Jason Rhodes (0-0, 10.38 ERA, 3 SV) on PH Rafael Guzman.

NYC @ TOP … 4-6 … (Crusaders lead 3-1) … NYC Matt McLaren 2-4, RBI; NYC Javier Acuna 2-4, 2B, RBI; TOP Dan Martin 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; TOP Nick McLelland 2-4, 3B, RBI;

Ben Seiter (3-1, 1.41 ERA) finally loses a playoff game, giving up four runs in seven innings.

NYC @ TOP … 6-1 … (Crusaders win 4-1) … NYC Aubrey Austin 3-4, BB; NYC Javier Acuna 2-4, 2 RBI;

A first-inning 3-spot and six sturdy innings by Seisaku Taki (1-0, 2.77 ERA) allow the Crusaders to clinch their ninth championship!

+++

2060 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
New York Crusaders
(9th title)

[Westheim]

Before we get to the Raccoons for offseason business, first some unfortunate news. The day after the World Series ended, the Loggers and Perry Pigman held a tearful press conference in which Pigman, age 29, announced his retirement with his left throwing arm in an all new brace after he had fractured his surgically re-glued elbow again in rehab workouts and it was now busted beyond repair to be fit beyond everyday use again. In a nine-season career, Pigman was an All Star four times and won three Platinum Sticks. He was a .323/.398/.458 batter with 1,193 hits, 80 homers, 500 RBI, and 304 stolen bases.

The Loggers. The poor Loggers…

That left us with mess of our own to take care of. Once again, the Raccoons were out to look for a new head scout, as “Banjo” Pigg chose to retire after the last season. In his papers Cristiano found a scouting report he made for *me*, where I was apparently scoring high for eccentricity and stubbornness, and some red flags about how I was resistant to instructions from the coaches and manager. Cristiano couldn’t stop giggling, and so, since I was miffed after the Crusaders had gone ahead of the Raccoons in total World Series rings again, on the way home that evening I distracted him in the parking lot and then attached one of the rear wheels of his wheelchair to a lamp post with a bike lock and took the key home with me, so he’d learn his lesson.

Speaking of eccentrics, the office of Nick Brown, who was over 80 these days and wasn’t getting out a lot anymore, apparently, approved a budget increase from $55M to $58M for the new season. This lifted us from 14th to 11th among all teams in the league.

Top 5: Crusaders ($88M), Knights ($83M), Buffaloes ($75M), Thunder ($73M), Pacifics ($73M)
Bottom 5: Indians ($44M), Wolves ($43.5M), Cyclones ($42.5M), Loggers ($38.5M), Aces ($33.5M)

The top 5 were identical to the top 5 from last year, even in that order, and only the Crusaders got a substantial budget increase. The remaining CL North teams ranked 10th (BOS, $60M) and 19th (VAN, $46.5M).

The average budget for an ABL team now was $57.9M, which was actually *down* by about $200k from last season. The median budget was $57M, an increase of $1M over 12 months.

+++

So, well. Now it was just about working out how we’d undo a team that had won five straight division titles, four pennants and two rings in that span, and had $30M in pocket money compared to us, which would buy the best player in the league, four times.

The Raccoons, despite a lot of whining and cursing about the rotation, finished the year with the third-fewest runs allowed in the CL. The problem was again with the offense, which just didn’t work out – AGAIN. We only had a +17 run differential, so were actually fewer runs over .500 than we ended up being games over .500. Third in starters’ ERA, fourth in bullpen ERA. Seventh in defense, which was not outrageous considering that we spent much of the season with two infielders at positions they were capable of playing, but really hadn’t up to that point.

The idea had been that Joey Christopher and Lonzo made a serviceable 1-2 that would get on base (.388 OBP for Joe-Chris), and then plonk singles and/or steal bases to get something into scoring position. Lonzo missed 30 games, but hit .269 with 50 steals, which was not horrendous, although more would have been great. Behind that, we put together what we presumed to be a strong battery of five hitters that would all put up OPS+ values well in excess of 100 with (whatever the order might be on a given day) Nick Nye, Noah Caswell, Trent Brassfield, Joel Starr, and Angel Perez.

It worked out in the sense that they all put up OPS+ values over 100, but Perez and Cas barely did so, Brass and Nye couldn’t break 120, and between Nye, Brass, and Cas, the quintet spent an offense-depressing 160+ games on the DL. Nick Fowler was a solid plug at third base, although he faded late and finished with a 99 OPS+. The bench, except for backup catcher Chris Maresh, was overwhelmingly useless and hit well below league average, with the notable exception of Ben Morris, who got more at-bats than Caswell after a mid-season callup as injury replacement, ultimately appearing in 100 games and hitting .294/.369/.413 for a 118 OPS+, which was not bad at all for a 22-year-old. It also forced ourselves to think about whether he should really go back to AAA on his last option next April.

At the same time there was a real question what the rotation would look like next year, as well as the bullpen. The pitching staff remained in a state of flux despite the good ERA rankings, and it wasn’t gonna get better any time soon. Zach Stewart was an upcoming free agent, and his erratic second half (also, hurt) made the Raccoons wonder whether they should spend a lot on a 33-year-old. Ruben Mendez was also up for free agency after failing to trigger his vesting option, and the other experienced closer the Raccoons had signed last winter, Ryan Sullivan, would miss all of next year with the fried shoulder.

Other upcoming free agents included Chris Maresh (who was a type B free agent), Oscar Caballero, who was woeful his second time ‘round, and Lonzo, who was sure as heck going to get an offer, especially since he had no compensation attached.

Six more players were arbitration eligible. This included infielder Nick Fowler and David Gonzales, starters Justin DeRose and Duarte Damasceno, and relievers Reynaldo Bravo and Ricky Herrera, the old wins monster. That was five players with at least some use scenario… and David Gonzales.

Well, even Gonzales was not completely useless as a switch-hitting glove-first infielder, but whether that was worth burning half a million was an entirely different question.

So, the Raccoons looked at holes in the pitching staff, another search for a backup catcher, and potentially a glut of outfielders if Ben Morris was supposed to be on the roster. The early estimate was about $9M on paw to fix it all, which looked like a challenge.

[Westheim]

The first action of the offseason involved getting Ryan Sullivan back on the 40-man roster, which was the issue we had kicked down the road in September when Noah Caswell had come off the 60-day DL. Well, we were down that road now. It was hard to find somebody on the extended roster to just put on waivers, although J.J. Sensabaugh was an option. In AAA, the last eight spots were taken by the two young starters that had made spot starts this year, Angel Alba and Jose Rosa, two lefty relievers, Mike Goldfield and Brad Loveless, two first basemen that were blocked by Joel Starr but might have trade value, Joe Agee and Forbes Tomlin, and two young outfielders that looked like something, Felix Ayala and Miguel Ulloa. It hurt my fuzzy heart, since he was a Nick Brown Memorial pick, but Brad Loveless was the one ending up on waivers, despite posting a 3.19 ERA in 51 big league appearances across the last two seasons. His AAA numbers were actually worse, and he had walked 5.4 per nine innings with the Coons.

The good news then started with a new contract for Lonzo (Cristiano sighs in the corner), who got a 3-year deal worth $3.75M. The third year was a vesting option requiring him to stand upright for at least 120 games in ’62. Assuming he’d steal at least 40 bases a year, this would easily be enough to get him to the top of the career leaderboard for stolen bases… as long as something terrible happened to Alex Vasquez at the same time. Like, old age and slowness. (cough)

Nick Fowler also signed a multi-year deal, getting essentially the Lonzo contract without the vesting option for a third year, so two years at $2.5M total. Him learning third base properly under live fire had been an experience, but he was batting league average and even if we managed to find a slugging third baseman misfiled somewhere in our dumpster would still be a valuable bench piece. Contracts were signed quickly with a pair of relievers as well, Reynaldo Bravo getting $777k for 2061 and Ricky Herrera winning it all on the hill, but having to settle for $700k for his new contract. Before the end of October, we also clawed Ruben Mendez back from impending free agency with a $1.7M contract for 2061.

By November, arbitration was also avoided with the rest of the eligible candidates. Justin DeRose signed for $600k for the new season, which was a bargain for a starter that was about league average. Duarte Damasceno got $620k, and David Gonzales was retained for a puny $500k.

+++

October 28 – The Scorpions acquire SP Neil Mongillo (16-13, 3.55 ERA) from the Falcons for #121 prospect SP Alberto de Lon.
November 3 – 1B Jeff Andersen (.256, 18 HR, 103 RBI), who played for the Aces and Rebels in 2060, is traded to the Blue Sox, who send MR Danny Zepeda (20-11, 3.66 ERA, 12 SV) and MR Goffredo Merlin (5-1, 3.44 ERA) to the Rebels.

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2060 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: TOP 3B/SS Alex de los Santos (.280, 17 HR, 98 RBI) and NYC UT Omar Sanchez (.333, 2 HR, 62 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (12-5, 2.36 ERA) and ATL SP Vic Harman (18-7, 2.55 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: DEN OF/1B Natsu Nakamura (.281, 8 HR, 49 RBI) and MIL SS/2B Fidel Carrera (.299, 17 HR, 66 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: TOP CL Bill Hernandez (5-4, 1.52 ERA, 53 SV) and BOS CL Josh Carlisle (4-1, 0.76 ERA, 45 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): DEN P Coby Strutz – C NAS David Johnson – 1B SAL Belchior Fresco – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS TOP Zach Suggs – LF SFW John Kaniewski – CF RIC Antonio Cruz – RF CIN John MacDonnell
Platinum Sticks (CL): P OCT Mike Hall – C NYC Matt McLaren – 1B MIL Dave Robles – 2B ATL Willie Acosta – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS NYC Omar Sanchez – LF LVA Ken Hummel – CF NYC Tommy Branch – RF NYC Sean Zeiher
Gold Gloves (FL): P SFW Alex Dominguez – C NAS David Johnson – 1B TOP David Worthington – 2B LAP Jesse Sweeney – 3B SAC Victor Corrales – SS WAS Jamie Sherrick – LF LAP Jesus Espinoza – CF SAL Ruben Garcia – RF LAP Jesus Martinez
Gold Gloves (CL): P NYC Joel Luera – C BOS Jorge Arviso – 1B VAN Jose Campos – 2B ATL Willie Acosta – 3B ATL Nick Fox – SS LVA Miguel Veguilla – LF CHA Kyle Fisher – CF TIJ Bobby Fish – RF CHA Chris Tomko

No rewards. Nada. Sad.

[Westheim]

Chris Maresh did not go to arbitration with the Raccoons, and instead entered the free agent market with type B compensation attached, which would mean a supplemental round draft pick for us. Free top 50 pick, nothing to sneeze at.

Besides him, Zach Stewart and Oscar Caballero also became free agents, as well as a few guys from triple-A, including Cameron Argenziano, now 32 years old and with semi-regular appearances in the majors, usually out of despair, throughout the 2050s. Vernon Hudalla, who had hit .140 in 28 games for the 2059 Coons, also elected minor league free agency, as did catcher Matt Stanton, who last appeared with the Coons in 2058 in all of six games, Craig Kniep (2059, 3 games), Richard Anderson (2058, 31 games), and Carlos Solorzano (2059, 12 games). I’d live.

At this point, 30 players remained on the extended roster, including Ryan Sullivan, who would miss all of next season in all likelihood, so in fact, 29 players remained on the extended roster: 5 starters, 9 relievers, a singular catcher, nine infielders, and five outfielders – with Jack Kozak lumped in with the infielders, although he was getting most of his playing time in leftfield.

So, well. How are we gonna improve on that 92-win season that got us nowhere in particular? The rotation was an obvious construction project with the five remaining starters being Tipsy Bobby, Tyler Riddle, and then the perpetually infuriating Justin DeRose, Chance Fox, and Duarte Damasceno, who might be better employed as long man after all.

Otherwise we had Walters, Mendez, Ricky H., LaBat, and Bravo for competent or at least potty-trained relievers, although Bravo’s stats were getting more and more yucky with more than five walks per nine innings in both of the last two seasons. That was too much for a right-hander, but we also had only four healthy right-handed relievers on the 40-man right now, so he wasn’t getting fired just yet.

And then I had an innocent question – how could a team, which for the season employed players hitting roughly league-average OPS or better at seven of eight positions end up scoring the second-fewest runs in the CL?

It can’t possibly be Lonzo’s fault. Lonzo is amazing.

But there was no way to upgrade over Brass, Cas, Nye, or Starr. Perez was doing fine. Christopher was doing well enough in the leadoff spot. And Fowler had at least had a good half.

Okay, maybe we can just stop giving up any runs. Doubtful with the infield defense and age, but let’s pretend for a moment. The Raccoons, realistically speaking, needed a starting pitcher, and as usual I tried to get around burning our first-round pick.

Cory Ritter was a 27-year-old right-hander from Hawaii (aka Brownie Island) that had made his ABL debut at 22 and had since then… well, he had been abused a lot. He was a staggering 36-73 with 5.35 ERA for the Stars (shoebox factor) and Miners. The thing that looked off about his stats page was the BABIP column. Not once had he pitched to a BABIP better than .313, or .320 in a qualifying season. His career BABIP was .324. He was a groundballer – not that this saves you from giving up 20 dingers a year in the Dallas Thunderdome – with everything that wasn’t hanging and teasing people’s primal urges being hit on the ground. Did the Raccoons have the defense to exploit that low-hanging fruit? Well, not that low-hanging after all – he thought he was worth $3M a year. Last season with the Miners he had been 11-14 with a 4.47 ERA and 2.6 BB/9 and 6.3 K/9. 13 dingers – same as Tipsy Bobby. 3.78 FIP, which was not remotely close to Tipsy Bobby. And worse than DeRose, but ahead of Foxie Brown.

Another type B free agent would be Art Schaeffer, coming off 11 seasons with the Falcons. He was almost 35, and his walks were creeping up to 3.9/9 while whiffing his usual six per nine. Yes, he had superficially the better stats, like a 2.96 ERA last year, but in turn he had seen a .277 BABIP behind him on a team with two Gold Glovers. Also, his curveball was losing curve. It was more like … just ball.

If I could be convinced to be less of a draft pick hoarder, we could make a move for Ryan Musgrave (maybe, if we could save a million here or there on other projects), although he had shockingly low strikeouts. The 5.9/9 from his rookie season was the second-highest mark of his career. He had won an ERA title in ’58, and he was genuinely tough to hit around. Also didn’t engage in walk orgies like some other pitchers that may or may not be on the roster. (looks at DeRose and Fox).

In the end we were looking at groundballers in all three cases, which made my concerns about Ritter kinda moot. What BABIP’s had the five starters that were still on the roster posted with Portland in 2060? It wasn’t *that* bad. Three times .300 right on the mark, one .292, and only Fox was off at .319. Stewart had also been slightly high at .314.

Oh dear, decisions, decisions. Maud, I think I’ll need the magic eight ball…

[Westheim]

The Raccoons signed a new head scout in the middle of November. Steve Hansen was from the land of hockey (shivers) and had scouted for the Loggers for a bunch of years, so how far could be realistically get with him? – Steve, why is your office decorated with all sorts of sorts of Edmonton Boilers stuff? – But would it hurt you to hang ONE little Raccoons pennant in the corner…?

I question his loyalty already. We should trade him to the Elks. Preferably for a starting pit- … (looks at the Elks’ roster) … okay, I’ll come back to that later.

Buffing the rotation was a high priority even though the offense had been what had really let the Critters down in 2060 (and every year before that, ever). The thing was that the options on the market were not *that* exhilarating and we’d have to swing something via a trade, perhaps, although it turned out that we had one or two unexpected assets on paw. This included Duarte Damasceno, who had come back to Portland in a bit of a nothing deal two winters ago and had since played a bit of a nothing role as a quad-A starter since then, with 65 appearances (63 starts) split almost evenly between St. Pete and Portland. He had gone 12-11 with a 3.87 ERA with the big club – but that was more than three quarters of a run better than his FIP; …which Cristiano insisted mattered in some way and we should trade him for anything other teams would give us for him.

What we wanted was a true horse that could punch people out in line with Bobby H. and the rejuvenated Tyler Riddle. Groundballers were just such a finicky thing with this defense with three shortstops, all 30 or over. Can’t go wrong with strikeouts.

Two teams were actually not laughing me off the phone right away, the Thunder and the Gold Sox. The Thunder’s Aaron Harris had gone 13-13 with a 2.96 ERA this year, whiffing seven per nine and getting close to leading the league in fewest BB/9, which he had done once before in 2058. He was a former Rookie of the Year and had 29 years old was firmly established in the league. The right-hander threw five pitches, all of quality. There was not that *one* wipeout pitch, but the broad setup with a 96mph heater and four more offerings kept hitters uncomfortable and guessing, often wrong. Harris also had not missed a start since making his debut (as reliever) in 2055, and had taken the ball 171 times (!) in the previous five seasons. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was his contract for the next two seasons (2062+2063), where he would make $6.2M annually, almost double his $3.56M salary for 2061. The Thunder were however also demanding an arm and a leg in compensation beyond DD.

The Gold Sox were a bit more open to the idea of trading left-hander Nick Robinson for DD and something else, with the “something else” part not necessarily being AA outfielder Jose Corral, who at 19 years old looked like the real ****. Naturally, Robinson was the less impressive guy in anything but contract (two years at $3.72M each). He was older (32), he had less stamina, he was more susceptible to the home run, and he had a more selective arsenal, dominated by a 95mph heater and a nasty curveball. The slider was hit-and-miss (mostly hit) and there was a changeup, but he was really getting onwards with the first two. He was not racking up that many strikeouts because he pitched fewer innings (never more than 208.1 in his career), but he had led the FL in wins and ERA in different seasons, so he had to be doing something right. If Aaron Harris, who was as good and maybe better than Bobby H. and Riddle, wasn’t in the cards, Robinson was surely an improvement over DeRose and Fox and a close #3.

At this point the Raccoons had also made an offer to Cory Ritter, me in my general delulu state being confident that he just needed a change of wallpaper. There were also offers out there for a couple of position players.

We should now also have a talk about Jose Corral, our top-ranked prospect and #4 in the league before the start of the 2060 season. Corral, who would turn 20 in December, had been signed for $350k out of the Dominican Republic in the July 2057 brown-skinned teenager auction and… – Maud, why do you look so aghast? – Well, what else *is* it if we’re outbidding the other teams for 16-year-old boys from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic…? – Synonyms, Maud, synonyms.

Anyway, Corral had been signed for six figures, but not at an outrageous rate. He had made his pro debut in Aumsville in mid-2059, batting .250/.328/.378 in 81 games, with three homers and 45 RBI. He played just 12 games for the Beagles in 2060 before being promoted to Ham Lake, where he batted .269/.365/.415 for 115 games, hitting 51 extra-base hits including nine homers and driving in 49 runs. The kid had a stick! What he didn’t have much of was straightline speed or range, so he was not going to steal 30 bases a year (and perhaps not even three), nor was he ever gonna be a Gold Glove candidate. Very strong throwing arm, so he would not embarrass himself in rightfield. He had tremendous power potential ascribed to him.

All that was a lot of words to say that he wasn’t gonna be thrown into a deal just to improve the rotation by 6% to try and close a 13-game gap to the Crusaders, who seemingly pressed whomever into service in their lineup and still scored the most runs in the country. But if Corral was off the table, then Aaron Harris was, too, and with him the appealing option of confusing absolutely everybody by having not only two pitchers named Herrera but also two named Harris, and “A. Harris” at that. How about having four Nicks on the roster? And two Foxes with the offer we have out there to – (suddenly realizes he’s spilling all the beans and covers the babbling snout with both paws)

So while I was working on cramming half the roster into the “Nick Harris-Herrera” mold, Lonzo’s spot was still secure and I’d rather finish last than move him out of the #2 slot. – OVER MY DEAD BODY, CRISTIANO! MY VERY DEAD BODY!!

[Westheim]

Last Wednesday in November the Raccoons pushed more chips into the middle of the table and acquired Nick Robinson from the Gold Sox, as previously threatened, to further thicken up the rotation. The price was not immediately spirit-breaking.

+++

November 24 – The Raccoons acquire 31-year-old SP Nick Robinson (109-76, 3.32 ERA) and 24-year-old C Marcos Arellano (.214, 0 HR, 0 RBI) from the Gold Sox for 29-year-old SP Duarte Damasceno (18-11, 3.72 ERA) and two AA outfielders, #183 prospect OF/2B Miguel Ulloa and OF Scott Maynard.
November 30 – The Scorpions sign 35-year-old CL Willie Cruz (55-66, 3.25 ERA, 317 SV), who spent the last few seasons with the Cyclones, to a 3-yr, $9.12M contract.
November 30 – Sacramento also picks up UT Ricky Carbajal (.225, 18 HR, 90 RBI) along with a prospect from the Bayhawks for 3B Aaron Drobish (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI), a 27-year-old rookie.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 18 players are drafted. The Raccoons lose 24-year-old SP/MR Travis Glovinsky to the Indians, and MR Rich Read to the Buffaloes. The Miners make a staggering six picks.
December 1 – Titans 2B/SS Jonathan Watson (.217, 5 HR, 85 RBI) punches his throwing hand clear through a window pane during an argument with his wife and will miss nine months after surgery on cut tendons.
December 3 – The Raccoons sign ex-ATL INF/RF Nick Fox (.278, 27 HR, 289 RBI), a 31-year-old switch-hitter from Oregon, to a $1.6M contract for 2062.

+++

Nick Robinson came on for another starting pitcher that was sometimes sublime and often subpar, and two prospects from the dented can aisle, a $24k signing from the July IFA period and a sixth-rounder, respectively, although both had developed *some* upside. We were however not exactly short on centerfielders in the minors right now, and if it took those two to strengthen the rotation, so be it!

In practice Arellano, a fine defensive catcher, was likely to end up third-string in AAA on his last option, but Nick Fox was going to go on the big league roster. It would be a bit of a platoon with the other Nick (Fowler) at first base and he would also spell the other other Nick (Nye) at second some. We could also give Lonzo a day off and put Nick (the first one) at short in between the other Nick and Nick and behind the other other other Nick (Robinson) to REALLY confuse the crap out of everybody alike. It’s all fun and games until somebody gets nicked!

I miss Nick Brown.

Nick Lando, not so much.

He’s retired, I checked.

When the Crusaders announced their first big addition of the winter at the end of November, it wasn’t an addition, but a new 3-year deal for 35-year-old Aubrey Austin, who had been a free agent for all of two weeks.

Travis Glovinsky, a sixth-rounder in 2055, had gone 18-5 with a 2.12 ERA in Ham Lake last year, but he had done so with just two-and-a-quarter pitches, and on low stamina, and while he was good relief material we had considered him too far away from the majors to make another team bite in the Rule 5 Draft. Rich Read had been a supplemental-round pick in 2057, but had quickly washed into the bullpen. From there, much of the same was true that we just said about Glovinsky, except that he looked even greener. I wouldn’t be shocked if both players were returned to us eventually.

I would also not be surprised if Glovinsky threw a 3-hit shutout against the Coons in May. Because baseball is a cruel game that knows no boundaries.

[Westheim]

First a correction on the last bit of waffle: Nick Fox signed for $1.6M … *per year for two years*, so $3.2M in total. Luis Silva is very concerned that I am getting a bit doo-doo in the head. – Oh, leave me alone, Luis! My mental capybaras are undemonetized!

Anyway. Winter meetings. Let’s see for how big a pile of grapefruits we can trade Bobby Ricky Herrera.

+++

December 5 – The Crusaders acquire 26-year-old righty MR Alex Flores (13-16, 4.01 ERA, 16 SV) from the Aces for two prospects.
December 5 – The Falcons deal 2B/1B Jorge Caballero (.266, 4 HR, 46 RBI) to the Warriors for OF Alvin Huerta (.242, 17 HR, 118 RBI) and #79 prospect C Jerry Sandoval.
December 6 – The Raccoons sign ex-SAL C Tim Fuller (.271, 46 HR, 302 RBI) to a 1-year contract that will pay the 32-year-old experienced backup catcher a $1.3M salary.
December 6 – The Titans sign up ex-DEN LF/RF Bill Ramires (.275, 115 HR, 540 RBI) to a 2-yr, $3.54M contract.
December 6 – Veteran LF Juan del Toro (.320, 216 HR, 1,095 RBI) commits his age 36 season to the Rebels for $1.42M after two years with the Knights.
December 7 – Indy acquires SP Aaron Sciuto (22-25, 4.04 ERA) from the Stars for a package including INF Ricardo Vargas (.245, 8 HR, 68 RBI) and a prospect.
December 14 – The Titans scoop INF/LF/RF Jacob Bratlien (.277, 24 HR, 265 RBI) off the Blue Sox along with almost $1M in cash for MR Dave Parra (0-1, 5.17 ERA) and a prospect.
December 16 – Atlanta signs up 34-yr old ex-WAS SP Troy Ratliff (95-114, 4.05 ERA) for 2-yr, $9.76M.
December 20 – San Francisco splurges big on ex-DAL 3B/1B Dan Sandoval (.286, 103 HR, 473 RBI), luring the 29-year-old with a 7-year, $41.5M contract.
December 21 – The Knights acquire CL Alex Rios (7-5, 4.12 ERA, 12 SV) from the Aces for a prospect.
December 23 – The Indians sign up ex-POR SP Zach Stewart (73-74, 3.78 ERA) for 2061, paying him a $3.6M salary.
December 23 – Milwaukee adds SP Bob Ruggiero (65-95, 4.15 ERA) on a 2-yr, $3.04M contract.
December 25 – L.A. signs former Gold Sox closer John Penington (37-46, 4.47 ERA, 86 SV) to a $1.48M deal.
December 31 – The Scorpions bring in 36-yr old ex-WAS 1B Jay Rogers (.271, 194 HR, 770 RBI) on a 2-yr, $9.2M deal.

+++

The Raccoons’ bid for the services of Cory Ritter fell through when the right-hander resigned with the hopelessly buried Miners on December 19, inking a 4-yr, $16M contract, and while I had been willing to throw some dosh at that turnaround lottery ticket, eight figures hadn’t been on my mind. It’s not like we were devastated by this development, because the Ritter bid began before we clawed Nick Robinson from the Gold Sox, and since he didn’t look like a big upgrade (or maybe even a small upgrade) over the bottom pair in the rotation now, we didn’t raise our bid anymore. I am sure Justin DeRose and Chance Fox were quite happy with that development. That long relief slave job still beckoned.

J.J. Sensabaugh might just win that, but the Raccoons were still looking for essentially a Ryan Sullivan replacement, a right-hander that would not embarrass himself in the seventh and eighth inning. Bryan Erickson didn’t look like that kind of pitcher. But once again we had a squeeze of left-handed relievers with Ricky H., LaBat, Adam Harris, Curt Therien, as well as in AAA Brad “11th Round” Loveless, Mike Goldfield, and a couple of starters that weren’t hacking it as starters: Freddy Castillo, a $24k July IFA signing, and supplemental-rounder John Marshell, who had spent five years in Ham Lake.

There were a few more right-handed relievers with elite stuff out there, but they were either type A free agents (Jason Posey), or had offers on the table for $4M and up … PER YEAR! … That was not the sort of money the Raccoons even had available anymore. Steve from Accounting reported only $1.5M left in the budget, and there was $2.6M in cash lying around as a buffer that wasn’t supposed to be spent on salaries.

Nick Leigh, a 26-year-old that had gone 6-1 with a 2.04 ERA and one save for the Pacifics in 2060, promised to solve several issues. First, there were not enough Nicks on the roster, and second, he was making the minimum while having a 95mph heater and a befuddling curveball that made hitters lose their pants trying to whack it. Thing was that the Pacifics had it in their head that he was their new closer, and weren’t going to give him up for anything reasonable. Only unreasonable returns (Joel Starr) were acceptable to them.

Tim Moore, a career Scorpion with 331 saves (but only 18 of them in the last five years), looked like something that could help us out to bridge Sullivan’s absence, would cost only $1.28M for the last year on his contract, and the Stingers weren’t particularly attached to him at age 36 anymore, but Moore was to them and invoked his 10/5 rights.

Other ex-Coons with new contracts: somehow Ivan Ornelas fleeced the Cyclones for $4.26M over three years; Takenori Tanizaki joined the Miners for $900k; the Knights were the newest team to blow seven figures ($1.36M) on Steve Watson; Harry Ramsay stubbornly hung on to a job in the majors with a $492k offer from the Loggers; similarly, Pucks joined the Wolves for $530k;

Oh, and there’s a Hall of Fame ballot! …not that it fills me with much excitement.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons mostly concerned themselves with a selfmade scandal in January when they declared Tyler Riddle their Opening Day starter, snuffing Bobby Herrera, who had been the go-to guy for the season-opening game every year since coming over from Cuba for the 2058 season. Riddle had, however, performed better than Herrera in every tangible category the previous season, aside from games started (one fewer) and innings pitched (1.2 fewer, explained by the former item). The Agitator was not amused, but when was the Agitator ever amused? Sometimes they make it sound though like we’ve just traded peak Brownie for slightly used lawn chairs…

There was the odd offer to free agents still out there, but the Raccoons were banging against their budget cap and there was just no way we could add any more big names except through trades that would invariably make the lineup even worse.

And I say “make the lineup even worse”, implying the personnel in there is *bad*. When I look at the stats, though, and I have harped on about this numerous times this offseason, then almost everybody in there has an OPS+ of 100 or better. Except for Lonzo, though Lonzo should still get credit – in a hypothetical numbers game scenario – with bonus slugging for the bases he steals to get a real value comparison. The 29 net stolen bases (50 taken and 21 times thrown out)? Gives 57 extra points of slugging and *almost* a 100 OPS+.

Yes, Lonzo could absolutely murder an old lady in the park in brought daylight and I would defend him all the way to the gallows. This is how we do it with our favorite pets up here!

+++

January 1 – The Knights open the new year with the signing of former Falcons OF Kyle Fisher (.259, 32 HR, 306 RBI), promising $10.3M over four years to the 29-year-old.
January 6 – The Miners add ex-OCT SP Mike Chartrand (74-76, 4.29 ERA) on a 2-yr, $3.96M contract.
January 8 – The Indians sign ex-POR C Chris Maresh (.238, 60 HR, 320 RBI) to a $530k contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick in compensation.
January 11 – Pittsburgh fires off an $11.7M cannon to get ex-RIC CL Justin Round (37-25, 2.97 ERA, 156 SV) on a two-year deal.
January 12 – After a year with the Gold Sox, 37-year-old 3B Randy Wilken (.251, 293 HR, 1,137 RBI), who won the 2059 CL Player of the Year award with Boston, signs a 2-year, $9.44M contract with the Knights.
January 14 – The Knights are not done shopping yet, adding former Wolves SP Blake Sparks (126-117, 3.34 ERA) on a 4-year, $20.8M contract. Sparks, 33, pitched to a 6.20 ERA in 2060.
January 21 – After three years away, MR Mike Lane (41-40, 3.67 ERA, 69 SV) signs with the Raccoons for $1.7M in 2061. Lane, age 33, was with the Titans last year.
January 23 – The Crusaders add the Titans’ former right-hander SP Ryan Musgrave (54-55, 3.38 ERA) on a 4-year deal worth $27.2M.
January 23 – Sacramento signs ex-LAP CL Brad Walker (36-36, 2.95 ERA, 67 SV) to a $4.64M contract for 2061.

+++

Lane will cover the Sullivan absence nice enough, I think.

That leaves us with just one other Critter that got a new contract in January, and that was Juan Ojeda going to the Miners for $560k.

+++

2061 HALL OF FAME VOTING

In a rather unexcited news item, no players were inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2061. Along with 2058 it was the second non-existent Hall class since 2049, when a 9-year string of at least one player getting voted in started. There’s up and there’s down; the 2040s had five empty classes while inducting 11 players in total.

Full voting results:

??? SP Matt Sealock – 1st – 25.9
??? SP Mike LeMasters – 1st – 16.6
SAL C Morgan Kuhlmann – 10th – 13.0 – DROPPED
NYC C Fernando Alba – 2nd – 9.7
??? RF Juan Benavides – 2nd – 9.3
??? 2B Mario Briones – 2nd – 8.5
ATL SP Brian Buttress – 2nd – 6.9
CHA CL Josh Livingston – 3rd – 6.1
BOS SP Rich Willett – 9th – 6.1
PIT SP Roberto Pruneda – 8th – 6.1
??? SP John Kennedy – 2nd – 4.9 – DROPPED
SFB SP Kevin Nolte – 1st – 4.5 – DROPPED
VAN SP Bill McMichael – 1st – 4.5 – DROPPED
??? SP Juan Ramos – 2nd – 3.2 – DROPPED
??? CL Josh Rella – 1st – 2.8 – DROPPED
SFB 3B Ramon Sifuentes – 1st – 2.8 – DROPPED
RIC SP Zach Tubbs – 1st – 0.8 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

The Raccoons didn’t really have much more to do this offseason after signing Mike Lane, since they had already used up their budget, and then some. Steve from Accounting announced the budget deficit to be $350,730 and all that was left was the cash reserves of some $2.4M that Nick Valdes could withdraw at any moment anyway.

It wasn’t like there was budget room to be gained by swinging a trade. While the Raccoons had 14 players on the payroll that made seven figures, I would have struggled to point out any one of them as being surplus to requirements, not even Ryan Sullivan, who was likely to miss the entire season on the DL. That didn’t mean we didn’t *require* his services… Since Sullivan’s 2062 contract was a player option, it was entirely possible that he would not pitch for the Raccoons again.

The 14 millionaires aside, the Raccoons had only four players signed up to a non-minimum contract for six figures (Bravo, Ricky H., DeRose, Gonzales). Gonzales was likely to end up on waivers at the start of the season, although we had not yet quite made up our mind about the precise composition of the infield. Yeah yeah, there was Starr, Lonzo, that Nick, that Nick, and that Nick, but then there was the question whether Jack Kozak was gonna make the Opening Day roster (makes unsure paw movement) and whether he would count as an infielder or outfielder.

Outfielders on the extended offseason roster Brass, Cas, and Joe-Chris (all for sure), Morris (probably!), and Oley (eeeeeh). Since Brass was the only right-handed batter in that group, Jack Kozak had a pretty decent case to be the fifth “outfielder” in that mix. That left another spot open on the roster for an infielder like Gonzales, although we perhaps wanted a guy to spot Lonzo against right-handers, which would make Jon Bean the most likely filler. Also still hanging around the roster for no good reason and only leaving marmalade paw prints everywhere: Bernie Ortega and Armando Suriel. Gauge their chances to make the team from that previous sentence at your own leisure.

So, yeah, a real right-handed outfielder would still be a fine addition to the team. But will he play for free?

+++

January 29 – The Titans sign up former Wolves closer Jason Posey (61-53, 2.71 ERA, 296 SV) on a 3-yr, $19.2M contract.
January 29 – Ex-Vegas 2B/SS Jim White (.271, 65 HR, 533 RBI) gets a 3-yr, $7.44M contract with the Gold Sox.
February 4 – The Crusaders bring in 38-year-old former Buffaloes SP Austin Wilcox (189-170, 3.93 ERA) on a 2-yr, $12.8M contract.
February 5 – The Miners take the last type A free agent of the market, signing 29-year-old ex-RIC CF/RF Antonio Cruz (.284, 43 HR, 275 RBI) up on a $25.6M contract running for four years.
February 19 – The Indians spend $1.98M on ex-PIT CL Cruz Madrid (32-25, 4.08 ERA, 66 SV), who made one appearance in 2060 before heading for Tommy John surgery and was not going to make it to Opening Day.
March 21 – The Titans bring on ex-CHA SP Art Schaeffer (141-109, 3.32 ERA) on a 2-yr, $12M deal.

+++

The Raccoons did not make any signings in those last two months of the offseason, but there was one offer still out there for a right-handed reliever, 25-year-old Paul Barton, that had been left to rot in AAA by the Blue Sox and had elected minor league free agency. He had sought a minor league deal with major-league option, but the Raccoons offered a major league contract instead, because Barton had all his options and could be kept in AAA as reserve all year that way.

Yes, Steve from Accounting, I know, money money money! You sound like Nick! – What do you mean, which one??

Only one former Furball got another paying contract in this period, as Gaudencio Callaia joined the Stars for $530k.

[Westheim]

2061 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2060 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Tyler Riddle, 29, B:L, T:L (13-8, 2.93 ERA | 66-46, 2.98 ERA, 2 SV) – last year he signed as free agent from the Loggers after missing half of ’58 and all of ’59, and it looked bad enough for him at times that he could not get more than a 1-year contract, either. However, he put together a pretty strong season, leading the league in BB/9 and posting a career-high 8.2 K/9 in a qualifying season. His bothers won him a 4-year deal paying actual money.
SP Bobby Herrera, 30, B:R, T:R (14-12, 3.50 ERA | 38-35, 3.27 ERA) – Tipsy Bobby won a career-high 14 games in his third season over from Cuba, but posted his worst ERA at the same time. While that changeup and slider combo has been shown to work very well with him getting close to the 200 strikeouts mark for the last two seasons, overall his numbers were behind those posted by Tyler Riddle, and so he would not be the Opening Day starter for the first time in his ABL career.
SP Nick Robinson *, 32, B:L, T:L (16-6, 3.01 ERA | 109-76, 3.32 ERA) – truly elite pitcher brought onto the roster in a trade with the Gold Sox. Vicious curveball and very impressive stats, and he hasn’t missed a start in eight years while winning an ERA title in the FL in ’58.
SP Justin DeRose, 27, B:S, T:R (10-9, 3.98 ERA | 23-30, 4.12 ERA) – one of two Texan rookies acquired from the Crusaders for 2057 Opening Day man Kennedy Adkins and Oscar Caballero at the deadline in 2057, him and Sensabaugh were thrown right into the deep end and … it was much horror with both of them ever since. DeRose remains consistently inconsistent, but at least he toned the homers down last year and posted his first winning record, but also missed six starts due to injury.
SP Chance Fox, 26, B:L, T:L (14-11, 4.12 ERA | 34-24, 4.13 ERA) – former #3 pick and groundballer with iffy control, Fox was promoted from St. Pete in the middle of the 2058 season and got roughed up regularly, but pitched a few nice games as well. Also throws 96 with a nice slider and changeup. Led the team in W’s in 2059 and matched that win total in 2060, and actually made some improvements in BB/9 and K/9.

MU J.J. Sensabaugh, 28, B:R, T:R (1-0, 6.05 ERA, 1 SV | 9-9, 5.00 ERA, 1 SV) – basically a failed starter at this point, Sensabaugh once was the other half of returns in the trade that also gave us DeRose. He will not be expected to do any heroics. Just show basic competence when the starter has already been knocked out early and give us three innings to get everybody closer to going to bed.
MR Elijah LaBat, 27, B:L, T:L (1-2, 3.28 ERA, 1 SV | 1-3, 2.98 ERA, 1 SV) – cutter/curve left-hander that was taken in the supplemental round in ’56 and reached the majors for the first time in 2059, was on the Opening Day roster last year, but was demoted to AAA for the summer before rejoining the team much improved in the second half of the season.
MR Reynaldo Bravo, 29, B:R, T:R (2-5, 3.71 ERA, 1 SV | 12-18, 3.38 ERA, 3 SV) – good fastball/curveball, not such a great rotator cuff. But he’s been healthy for the last couple of seasons, and struck out 9+/9 most of the time. He had his struggles in 2060 though and got lit up a couple of times, thankfully while already being planned in as only the third-most prominent righty reliever out of that pen behind Ryan Sullivan and Ruben Mendez.
MR Mike Lane *, 33, B:R, T:R (8-6, 3.00 ERA, 3 SV | 41-40, 3.67 ERA, 69 SV) – Lane was with the Raccoons in 2056-57 and pitched generally with competence and few complaints. He went through some struggles in Denver and Boston in the interim, but looked much rejuvenated last season while the Titans tortured him for 87 innings out of the pen. Signed as Ryan Sullivan replacement on a 1-year deal.
SU Ruben Mendez, 34, B:R, T:R (2-0, 2.73 ERA, 1 SV | 49-50, 3.44 ERA, 175 SV) – was a free agent acquisition in 2060 and pitched very well with 1.9 BB/9 and five times as many strikeouts. The 96mph heat and the changeup have been working very well. Will be in a contract year this season, but the Raccoons look open to negotiate an extension despite his advanced age.
SU Ricky Herrera, 29, B:L, T:L (8-3, 3.21 ERA, 1 SV | 24-10, 2.79 ERA, 2 SV) – former second-rounder with a fastball/slider combo that has become Portland’s most notorious wins thief with 19 victories claimed between the last two seasons. Very sturdy on the hill, although his walks issued have seen some up and down over the years.
CL Matt Walters, 30, B:L, T:L (1-2, 1.81 ERA, 55 SV | 12-14, 1.77 ERA, 214 SV) – three Reliever of the Year titles, three times leading the CL in saves, including last year and by a landslide, also setting a new franchise mark for saves in a single season, erasing Angel Casas’ ancient mark of 54. Deceptive 94mph fastball, wipeout curveball that is guaranteed to corkscrew through swinging batters. Good boy. Loves snacks.

C Angel Perez, 25, B:R, T:R (.272, 13 HR, 72 RBI | .282, 16 HR, 103 RBI) – acquired with Jack Kozak from the Pacifics for mostly Jesus Martinez in July of 2059, Perez immediately made a bit of a splash, not necessarily in the power department, but with good work behind the plate and a steady supply of base hits and keeping the line moving. Did his first full season in ’60 and hit just above league average with a 102 OPS+, although we had hoped for a tad more. Runs like a catcher though, so he will probably continue to bat behind all the other big bats that actually have legs.
C Tim Fuller *, 32, B:R, T:R (.260, 3 HR, 23 RBI | .271, 46 HR, 302 RBI) – free agent from the Wolves, where he spent four years batting mostly competently, but for the last three years only as the backup. Good behind the dish, and best case is we have an adequate replacement for Chris Maresh, who was very fine behind Angel Perez last year, but had to go because of the compensation pick.

1B Joel Starr, 28, B:L, T:L (.310, 22 HR, 80 RBI | .304, 48 HR, 193 RBI) – while he’s already a bit older than prime prospect porn, he still won a Platinum Stick in his first full season in the majors at age 26 and became the Raccoons’ best hitter for good in 2060, when he not only put up a .901 OPS, but also played all but one game in a season where almost everybody else at one point or another hit the DL. Good steady bat with power, normal defense at first base, and while he’s not Lonzo by any stretch of the imagination, he can time the pitcher up and sneak a few stolen bases.
SS/2B/3B Nick Nye, 30, B:R, T:R (.297, 18 HR, 85 RBI | .313, 150 HR, 671 RBI) – THE Addition of the previous offseason! Nick Nye was a former FL Player of the Year and had won a sack full of titles and awards with the Blue Sox in the last few years, including bagging the FL homer crown in 2059. So of course in Portland he shed 42 points of batting average and cut his homer total in half. Portland things, I guess. That still made him perhaps the second-most batter on the roster, especially once multiplied with games played, and even then he missed 18 games.
SS Lorenzo Lavorano, 33, B:R, T:R (.269, 3 HR, 53 RBI | .280, 38 HR, 559 RBI) – Everybody loves Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend…! Has won seven stolen base titles in eight 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, where he currently sits sixth with 627 career thefts in 871 attempts – keep running, boy! After missing almost all of 2059 with a shoulder injury, he kept the absences down to 30 games last year, part hamstring, part suspension, and part more regular rest days to keep him alive.
3B/1B/2B/SS/RF Nick Fox *, 31, B:S, T:R (.291, 6 HR, 68 RBI | .278, 27 HR, 289 RBI) – free agent acquisition intended to be a more permanent (well, two years) solution to third base, where we have spent about half a decade now just fudging around without ever arriving at a productive solution (although Nick Fowler was not horrendous last year). Very good D on the corners, serviceable up the middle, but not much in terms of power and speed.
SS/3B/2B Nick Fowler, 30, B:L, T:R (.280, 6 HR, 43 RBI | .282, 27 HR, 236 RBI) – Fowler assumed regular third base duties early last year after coming over from the Crusaders, and thus missed out on a ring. Had a strong first half, but tailed off in the second half.
1B/CF/LF Jack Kozak, 26, B:R, T:R (.237, 10 HR, 39 RBI | .237, 10 HR, 45 RBI) – hit ten homers in half a season’s worth of at-bats while at the same time hitting for no average almost exclusively against lefty pitching and coming out below league average with a 97 OPS+. At this point he claims a roster spot with defensive versatility, even though his outfield defense has been the subject of rough reviews.
2B/SS/LF/3B/RF Jon Bean, 26, B:L, T:R (.248, 0 HR, 11 RBI | .252, 1 HR, 30 RBI) – part of the Raccoons’ ever-tingling carrousel of unimpressive quad-A middle infield talent, Jon Bean won the final spot on the roster mostly for being a left-handed alternative to give Lonzo a day off, although there’s also Nick Fowler and in the end he might not see much action after all.

LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield, 28, B:R, T:R (.266, 12 HR, 57 RBI | .278, 70 HR, 351 RBI) – sketchy defender that made a name with his stick as a 21-year-old before flaying a shoulder, and he’s chased that 151 OPS+ in 48 games ever since without getting remotely close. Still a tough out and a valuable right-handed bat that in 2060 drew almost as many walks as he struck out, but also missed almost 50 games with injury.
CF/1B/LF/RF Noah Caswell, 31, B:L, T:L (.264, 4 HR, 32 RBI | .290, 78 HR, 495 RBI) – exceptional defender and well-above-average hitter that was signed on a huge $36M contract as a free agent from the Wolves before the 2058 season. Four consecutive CF Gold Gloves in the Federal League leave no question about who will play that position on this roster! Okay he has yet to win one of those with the Raccoons, but we’re confident that he’ll catch some attention even on the wrong side of 30. 2060 was a tire fire for him, though, as he missed over 100 games on the DL and when he was actually playing he could never hit a groove and had by far his worst career season. Three more years on the contract to get the ship righted, or break through its bottom and pull the whole bloody thing to the bottom of the ocean.
RF/LF/CF/1B Joey Christopher, 25, B:L, T:L (.247, 5 HR, 33 RBI | .243, 7 HR, 57 RBI) – yes, that’s our starting rightfielder, stop snickering. Joe-Chris has a .380 BABIP in the majors in three partial seasons and a full one, including .388 last year in 156 games, more than half of his body of work in the majors. Also has a killer throwing arm in rightfield, and has considerable speed on the basepaths, although his career success rate for stealing is a paltry 56.5%.
CF/LF/RF Ben Morris, 23, B:L, T:L (.294, 3 HR, 30 RBI | .267, 3 HR, 32 RBI) – has drawn comparisons to Joey Christopher in the past, at least for his batting, but defensively he is more at home in center and lacks the thunderous arm. He did a fine job of spelling Noah Caswell during his long absence last year, and normally he’s too young to be wasted as a backup, but we clearly don’t know what we’re doing.

On disabled list:
SU Ryan Sullivan, 31, B:L, T:R (2-1, 1.79 ERA, 2 SV | 52-51, 3.06 ERA, 143 SV) – two stints as a Crusaders closer, two years in L.A., and now a 3-year deal with the Raccoons as free agent; also a devious curveball in addition to the 94mph fastball, all of which he’ll take to the 60-day DL for most or all of the season due to a torn rotator cuff before potentially voiding his player option for 2062. Lovely.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP/MR Curt Therien, 27, B:L, T:L (0-1, 4.00 ERA | 0-1, 4.00 ERA) – optioned to AAA; the British-Columbian throws four pitches, none too effectively, and he was unimpressive even just as a reliever with the Raccoons last year. Hasn’t actually started a game since 2058 and Ham Lake.
MR Bryan Erickson, 26, B:R, T:R (2-1, 4.44 ERA | 2-1, 4.44 ERA) – optioned to AAA; former eighth-rounder and basic flyball pitcher with a curveball that was mostly employed in garbage relief, but also lacked the length to do that on a regular basis and for multiple innings, so he couldn’t even stink up to J.J. Sensabaugh for that job at the shallow end of the pen.
MR Adam Harris, 26, B:R, T:L (1-0, 3.80 ERA | 1-0, 3.86 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; beset with control issues, he had a few nice outings in his annual pair of call-ups, but just like last year he drew the short end of the stick against Elijah LaBat for the second non-closing left-hander spot in that bullpen.
C Marcos Arellano *, 24, B:R, T:R (.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .214, 0 HR, 10 RBI) – optioned to AAA; the young Panamanian accompanied Nick Robinson over from Denver, and will be the new third-string catcher option held in reserve in AAA. Actually very adept defensively, but he just can’t hit a lick, not even in AAA.
2B/3B/SS David Gonzales, 28, B:S, T:R (.218, 1 HR, 9 RBI | .233, 3 HR, 31 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; was half of a failed third base platoon with Tony Benitez to begin the last season. Somehow hung on to a roster spot through two years following being taken in the Rule 5 draft, despite hitting absolutely nothing; defensively versatile and competent, but we now have more people like that that can actually out-hit a high school freshman.
2B/LF Bernie Ortega, 24, B:R, T:R (.255, 0 HR, 3 RBI | .263, 1 HR, 18 RBI) – optioned to AAA; hit very well for two weeks after first getting promoted into our general middle infield mess in 2059, but eventually petered out to hitting at replacement level, which he continued into 2060.
3B/RF Armando Suriel, 26, B:S, T:R (.264, 0 HR, 1 RBI | .264, 0 HR, 1 RBI) – optioned to AAA; lingered on the roster for two months last year for no particular reason, without hitting anything. Very good defender at third base, though.
RF/LF/CF Todd Oley, 28, B:L, T:L (.250, 1 HR, 2 RBI | .299, 2 HR, 37 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; agile defender that once hit .432 in 26 games, but all his other performances have never matched up.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or sold to the The Dalles Beer Drinkers during the winter.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano (Fowler, Bean) – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell (Morris) – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B N. Fox (Fowler) – P
(Vs. LHP: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – CF Caswell (Morris) – LF Kozak – 3B N. Fox – P)

That is very similar to the “dense lineup” I proclaimed last year. Well, dense they were, scoring the second-fewest runs in the CL. There are not many alternatives against southpaws, since we only have six right-handed bats (two catchers included) and the lone switch-hitter Nick Fox on the roster.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The Raccoons ended up in seventh place with +3.8 WAR according to BNN this winter, of which +3.4 WAR came from the Robinson trade, the only trade we struck this year. Zach Stewart (2.9) and Chris Maresh (1.2) were significant departures, but we also brought in three quality free agents with Fox (2.8), Lane (1.2), and Fuller (0.7).

Top 5: Miners (+14.1), Crusaders (+10.1), Knights (+7.7), Titans (+5.3), Scorpions (+5.1)
Bottom 5: Blue Sox (-6.2), Stars (-6.3), Gold Sox (-6.4), Capitals (-7.4), Rebels (-11.1)

The Indians came ahead of us in sixth place with +4.8 WAR and the Elks were right behind, eighth with +1.4 WAR. That left the Loggers, who were a rather middling 12th with -0.3 WAR. So basically everybody in the division got better. Yikes.

PREDICTION TIME:

I said they’d go 92-70 last year, and they went 92-70. They didn’t win anything in the grander picture, and Maud just informed me that it’s the same for me. Bother.

The Raccoons look fortified, but the Crusaders well out-spent us and I don’t see us being very close. We should win 90+ again, maybe even another 92-70. The Crusaders look like they’ll win 100+ again. And the Titans are also still there.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Coons gained a spot in the prospect rankings, going from 7th to 6th place among all the ABL teams. There was little organizational turnover in the personnel listed while we went from nine to ten ranked prospects, including six (rather than three) inside the top 100. The only actual departure from the system was #183 Miguel Ulloa, who had been part of the package the Gold Sox received for Nick Robinson. Everybody else was still in the organization, although #120 SP Victor Herrera, #182 SP Daniel Benitez, and #185 1B Alex Vargas were no longer ranked this year.

There were a few new odd additions to the list of ranked Raccoons prospects, including Rich Read, one of the players taken by other teams in the Rule 5 draft last December, as well as our last-rounder and #323 pick from 2060, Andy Marullo, who was being converted from a second baseman to a right-handed reliever. He struck out 10.2/9 in 31 innings with the Beagles last season, but walks were also … “significant”. No homers allowed, though.

5th (-1) – AAA RF/LF Jose Corral, 20 – 2057 international free agent signed by Raccoons
24th (+36) – AAA SP Angel Alba, 24 – 2053 scouting discovery by Raccoons
58th (+69) – AA INF/RF/LF Victor Morales, 19 – 2059 international free agent signed by Raccoons
62nd (-36) – A 1B Jon Herbert, 19 – 2059 first-round pick by Raccoons
87th (new) – A LF/RF Roberto Soto, 20 – 2058 scouting discovery by Raccoons
96th (new) – A SP Juan Arauz, 18 – 2060 international free agent signed by Raccoons

110th (new) – AAA MR Rich Read, 23 – 2057 supplemental round pick by Raccoons, taken in 2060 Rule 5 draft by Buffaloes but returned
133rd (new) – A MR Andy Marullo, 19 – 2060 13th-round pick by Raccoons (as infielder)
160th (new) – A LF/RF/1B John Bentley, 21 – 2060 first-round pick by Raccoons
199th (-30) – AAA 1B Joe Agee, 26 – 2056 first-round pick by Raccoons

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (new) – IND A SP Gabriel Rios, 19
2nd (+9) – CHA ML CL Manny Gutierrez, 21
3rd (new) – CIN A C Ryan Marty, 18
4th (+29) – TOP AAA INF/LF/CF Alex Rodriguez, 23
5th (-1) – POR AAA RF/LF Jose Corral, 20

6th (+1) – VAN ML SP Ken Nielsen, 22
7th (+7) – CIN A OF/1B/3B Dallas Baker, 22
8th (+17) – OCT AAA 1B Andres Valencia, 23
9th (new) – RIC A SP Marc Timmons, 19
10th (new) – BOS A CL Gil Huerta, 18

The promotion of Eddie Marcotte to the big-league Titans finally allowed for a new #1 prospect to be declared after Marcotte hogged that spot from 2058 to 2060. Last year’s #8 draft pick, Gabriel Rios, taken by the Indians, got the honors. He was joined in the top 10 by the #1 pick from 2060, Ryan Marty, debuting as the #3 prospect. 2059’s #1 pick, Dallas Baker, showed up on #7 on the list after being the #14 prospect in last year’s edition. The other two entries at the bottom of the list had also been taken in the first round in 2060, but a bit deeper down; Timmons had been the #21 pick, and Huerta had been the #16 pick.

Only two top 10 prospects from last year, the Pacific Northwest pair of Jose Corral and Ken Nielsen, were still in the top 10 this year, which means eight of the group had departed.

The Titans had held two of the top 10 prospects; three-time #1 Eddie Marcotte had spent all year on the major league roster, leading the CL in strikeouts while batting .233 with 16 HR, 66 RBI, and 27 SB before tearing cruciate ligaments in September. He was still on the shelf and expected to return in May. Their other entry, #8 Bryce Wallace, had slipped to #20 after a trying season in AA Arlington.

The Stars’ #10 prospect, SP Ian Peters, suffered through biceps and hamstring injuries and made only nine starts last year. He was still promoted to AAA for the new season, but sagged to #38 in the rankings.

The #2 prospect, the Indians’ SP Matt Martin, struggled so badly in his second pro season that the Indians pulled the plug on him and decided to convert him to a centerfielder. He was still ranked as the #12 prospect because BNN thought the Indians might come to their senses eventually.

The #3 prospect, Vegas OF Jake Evans, made it to the majors by May last year and batted .239 with 15 HR and 71 RBI for the rest of the year. He was followed a bit later by the Crusaders’ RF/LF Javier Acuna, the #5 prospect, who played half a season for AAA Lexington before joining the top club and batting .281 with 2 HR and 21 RBI in 50 games, some off the bench.

A bit more complicated story for the #9 prospect, catcher Nick Dingman, who played four games for AAA Akron before being promoted to the Blue Sox, where he hit .242 with 7 HR and 25 RBI before being traded to the Miners in July, where he hit another 7 HR and 25 RBI while batting .326; in total he played 86 games in the majors.

The #6 prospect, the Loggers’ Dave Wright, spent long enough on the bench with the Loggers to exceed rookie limits as a 21-year-old, but only got into eight games, batting .313 with one RBI, and now he was back to AAA Lubbock.

The Loggers…!

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Because I have the day off on account of accumulated overtime, here you go: two full weeks to start the new season!

+++

(sniff-sniffs with his pokey black nose) Ah! The smell of buttered popcorn on a cold and moist, windy evening. Must be Opening Day in Portland!

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Loggers (0-0) – April 4-6, 2061

The Loggers had finished fifth in the North last year and had not been able to do all that much to improve their team in the meantime, but had managed to bring in a new Opening Day starter in Bob Ruggiero, who had gone 3-8 with a 3.73 ERA with Cincy last year. On the other paw, at the bottom of their rotation they had struggling reliever Sansao Tyson penciled in, which told you a lot about how much you could expect from them this year. The Raccoons had gone out and beaten them, 14-4, over the course of last season.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (0-0) vs. Bob Ruggiero (0-0)
Bobby Herrera (0-0) vs. Ernesto Culver (0-0)
Nick Robinson (0-0) vs. Roger Pritchard (0-0)

First southpaw coming up in the third game of this series.

Game 1
MIL: CF S. Franks – LF Garmon – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – 2B Lange – C M. Chavez – RF Milian – 3B D. Miller – P Ruggiero
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B N. Fox – P Riddle

Scott Franks singled and Corey Garmon worked a full-count walk to begin the season, but the middle of the order then made three outs in a row against Tyler Riddle, who got Dave Robles to ground into a force at third base, well played by Nick Fox in his first chance as a Critter, then popped out boy wonder Fidel Carrera and whiffed Ralph Lange. Carrera was the 2060 Rookie of the Year in the CL despite three separate injuries limiting him to 98 games, but in those he had still managed to hit 17 homers and drive in 66 *Loggers* as a 21-year-old. The first Critter to reach base this year was Lonzo with a first-inning single, but nothing came of that either. Riddle would put Loggers on base with more leadoff singles in the second and third innings, with Franks being the culprit again in the latter frame. Garmon singled, Robles singled to drive in Franks from third base, and then the boy wonder unloaded a 3-run homer. Ex-Coon Marcos Chavez added a solo piece two batters later, and the Loggers held a pronounced 5-0 lead. Riddle wobbled out of the inning on his own, but was replaced with J.J. Sensabaugh for garbage duty in the fourth inning, which looked innocent enough at the time until the NWSN broadcast noted that not only was Riddle not in the dugout, but the head trainer Luis Silva wasn’t either.

Ruggiero would not be able to claim a win. He walked five Coons in 3.1 innings, giving up a run in the bottom 3rd after a leadoff walk to Joey Christopher, another walk to Joel Starr, and a wild pitch and Nick Nye’s groundout gave the Raccoons a run. After walking Angel Perez in the bottom 4th, Ruggiero came up with a limp and was also collected by his team’s trainer. Girolamo Pizzichini replaced him in a lengthy break, then struck out Fox for the second out. Sensabaugh hit a fly to left that Garmon dropped for a two-base error, after which Pizzichini balked Perez home from third base, 5-2. Christopher grounded out, leaving the unearned long reliever at third base. And that was only the fourth inning.

Landmines kept going off; Ralph Lange disappeared after five innings with forearm stiffness, being replaced with Dylan Campbell, a 23-year-old Rule 5er that made his ABL debut in this capacity. Ricky Pippin, *another* Rule 5 pick, made his ABL debut in the sixth inning, allowed a single to Brass and got an out from Perez, then ALSO left with the trainer for a shoulder injury. WHAT THE **** WAS GOING ON???

In between all the appearances the ambulance made, the Loggers got a run off Sensabaugh in three innings of work, while the Raccoons got their first stolen base of the year from Lonzo in the bottom 7th, when he reached on an error by Danny Miller, stole second, and was left to rot right there. Bravo, LaBat, and Lane would put the last three innings together in scoreless fashion, but the Raccoons weren’t exactly setting the Loggers’ pen on fire either until the bottom 9th rolled around and righty Randy Birnbaum (German for a pear tree) gave up a couple of pears, a leadoff single to Fox, then a 1-out RBI triple to Christopher. Lonzo’s sac fly was not immediately helpful, and Starr’s grounder to short ended a messy game. 6-4 Loggers. Brassfield 2-3, BB;

The Loggers made three errors, lost three players to injury, and somehow we couldn’t get in front of them. Oh-oh.

Luis, I will only take good news! – (Luis Silva walks out again)

Game 2
MIL: CF S. Franks – LF Garmon – SS F. Carrera – 1B D. Robles – C M. Reed – RF Milian – 2B Dy. Campbell – 3B D. Miller – P E. Culver
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B N. Fox – P B. Herrera

It was near freezing on Tuesday night and the Critters tried to keep warm with some baserunning. Lonzo singled off Culver in the bottom 1st, stole second base, and then saw Starr and Cas draw walks behind him before Brassfield pushed a 2-out, 2-strike pitch through the left side for a 2-run single. An error by Miller put Angel Perez on base, but Nick Fox flew out to Garmon in left to end the inning. Bobby Herrera allowed two singles and struck out four in a rather uneventful first run through the Loggers order, while the Raccoons would double their lead in the bottom 3rd when Nye got on base ahead of Caswell, and the centerfielder, who had struggled through a miserable, injury-riddle season last year, popped the Critters’ first home run in ’61 with a 2-piece to right-center. Bottom 4th, Christopher opened with a double to right-center, while Lonzo flew out to David Milian. Starr’s grounder to Dylan Campbell was thrown away for two bases and a run by the rookie, which was already the third Loggers error in the game and the sixth in 13 innings on the year for them.

Tipsy Bobby never tripped up in the game. In his first four innings he was mostly flashy with strikeouts, and one the Raccoons were up 5-0 he pitched more to contact with a pile of one- or two-pitch at-bats in the last couple of innings with which he gained length when he was at 89 pitches through six, and thus somehow managed to go two more innings on just 17 more offerings and while allowing a soft single to ex-Coon Harry Ramsay, who was then quickly doubled off. I like to claim that he planned it that way, but with these buggers you can never be sure. Perez hit a leadoff double off right-hander Larry Wilson in the bottom 8th. Ben Morris batted for Herrera after Fox’ groundout and put an RBI single into center to tack on to the lead. Morris was caught stealing before Wilson then loaded the bags with two outs and a walk to Christopher, a Lonzo single, and another walk to Starr, but Nye popped out to Dave Robles to leave them all stranded. Ruben Mendez got the last three outs in order. 6-0 Furballs. Lavorano 2-5; Caswell 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Morris (PH) 1-1, RBI; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

Pretty fine “I’m here, I can still pitch” statement from Bobby Herrera.

Meanwhile in Elk City, Ben Seiter was lit up by the Elks and the Crusaders lost their opener, so we were now half a game ahead of them. Success!

Luis Silva, I said I will only take good news! – (gets slapped by Maud with a rolled-up newspaper) – FINE. Tell me. – (big black googly eyes water up)

On Wednesday the Raccoons then placed Tyler Riddle on the DL with a partial tear in his labrum, which we’d do our very best to glue back together, but he’d miss two months plus rehab at the very least…

Angel Alba would probably fill the hole in the rotation, but there was no need to bring him up right away, since he would not make a turn until next week. Thursday was off, and then we could send out the other four guys before getting him involved. He was thus scheduled for Tuesday next week, which was also the day of the AAA opener, so he was right on schedule with getting prepared. For now, Bryan Erickson was brought up as extra righty reliever.

Game 3
MIL: CF S. Franks – LF Garmon – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – 2B Dy. Campbell – C M. Chavez – RF Milian – 3B D. Miller – P R. Pritchard
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – CF Caswell – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – P Robinson

Twice in the first three innings the Loggers would have a pair in scoring position and two outs against Nick Robinson, who made his Coons debut, and then brought up the Rule 5 pick Campbell. The first time he struck out, but the second time he rushed a single past Joel Starr or a 2-0 Loggers lead. Robinson was all over the place; while he struck out six in three innings, he also offered two walks and ran a pile of long counts, leading to him being over 60 pitches after just those three frames. He also bunted into a double play, and after the fifth began with a Franks single and he got a comebacker from Corey Garmon, threw that away for a 2-base error for another pair of Loggers in scoring position, just now with nobody out. He walked Robles, popped out Carrera, but Campbell got another RBI with a fielder’s choice grounder to Nick Nye. Mendez then replaced Robinson, but gave up another run on a Chavez single, 4-0, before getting Milian out.

The Coons didn’t get to Pritchard until the sixth inning when he started to leak a couple of walks and Nye plated Brass with a sac fly to left-center, but Lonzo and Starr, who drew a 2-out walk, were left on base by Jack Kozak. Cas and Nick Fox made it to the corners in the seventh, but Brass left them on with a grounder to short, and instead ex-Coons Marcos Chavez (double) and Harry Ramsay (homer) lit up Reynaldo Bravo in the eighth inning for two more runs. Pritchard went seven innings of 4-hit ball, and John Norris kept the Critters at bay for the final two. 6-1 Loggers.

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Bayhawks (3-1) – April 8-10, 2061

The Bayhawks had won three of four games from the Condors to begin the season in first place in the South. They were in the top three in both runs scored and runs allowed, but it was certainly early. The Raccoons had gone 6-3 against them last year.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (0-0) vs. Bill Grau (0-0)
Chance Fox (0-0) vs. Hector Montenegro (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (1-0, 3.00 ERA)

Southpaw to start the series, then two right-handers here.

Game 1
SFB: SS X. Reyes – CF Alade – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – 1B D. Williams – RF A. Walker – C Cantu – P Grau
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – C Perez – CF Caswell – 1B Kozak – LF Morris – 3B N. Fox – P DeRose

Kozak popped out after the Coons loaded the bases in the first inning, although this involved only a single by Perez and otherwise Nye reaching on a 2-out error and Caswell getting brushed by a pitch. San Francisco then took an earned 1-0 lead in the second inning with DeRose’s walk to Dan Sandoval, Dustin Williams’ double to right, and Aaron Walker’s sac fly. Jose Cantu grounded out to Nye to end that inning. Another miserably cold night only got darker and more miserable in the third inning, when Bill Grau led off with a double into the right-center gap and DeRose got waffled for another three hits before getting anybody out. Xavier Reyes singled, Jon Alade doubled, Grant Anker singled, and all in all three more runs scored in the inning.

The Raccoons hardly took place against Grau after their empty threat in the first inning, scattering only three more hits until the stretch and failing to get to third base even once. Grau pitched into the eighth before being lifted following a 2-out walk to Caswell, but reliever Travis Davis got Kozak to fly out rather easily. DeRose went seven (somehow) and then was competently followed by Lane and Ricky H., but the team was still down four into the bottom 9th until Ben Morris hit a surprise leadoff jack against right-hander Zach Johnson, who was immediately whisked for closer Ryan Dow then, who retired Christopher, Fowler, and Brass in order to end the game. 4-1 Bayhawks. Perez 3-4, 2B; Starr (PH) 1-1;

And that was last place with a 158-game string looming.

Game 2
SFB: SS X. Reyes – CF A. Walker – 2B A. Montoya – LF Anker – 1B D. Williams – RF Alade – 3B Sostre – C Redfern – P H. Montenegro
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P C. Fox

Aaron Walker’s double and Grant Anker’s sharp 2-out single put the Bayhawks in front in the first inning against Foxie Brown, although the Raccoons made up the difference in a 4-hit, 1-run bottom 1st that saw Christopher single and steal second, before Lonzo singled him to third base and was himself caught stealing. Starr’s sac fly tied the game before Nye and Caswell singled and were left on by Brass’ groundout.

Jon Alade drew a leadoff walk from Fox in the second inning, but had an awkward tumble into second base on Bill Sostre’s grounder and hurt his elbow, leading to his removal from the game in favor of Bobby Grewe. Alade was later announced to have suffered an elbow sprain and would miss a month.

Chance Fox at one point struck out four in a row, but at others looked easily punchable, although the score remained 1-1 for a while longer, also because Fox struck out to strand Brassfield on third base in the fourth inning, which was not something I was normally mouthing off about much, except that he then right away allowed a leadoff single to the opposing pitcher, which made me gnash the old teeth. In this case, though, Aaron Walker would end the inning with a 6-4-3 double play to erase Montenegro’s leadoff single.

The Coons briefly took the lead on a Joey Christopher jack in the bottom 5th but Grant Anker pulled the score back even with a home run of his own in the next half-inning, getting everybody even at two. Another scoring opportunity for the hometown team beckoned in the bottom 6th, though, which Cas began with a single to center, and Brass followed with a double to left. This knocked out Montenegro, with left-hander Zane Fenlon replacing him with runners on second and third and nobody out. Angel Perez got the intentional walk to make it a three-on, nobody-out trap, except that Nick Fowler got a 2-run single over Armando Montoya’s glove and Portland went up 4-2. Which was as good as it got with Fox bunting into a force at third base, Christopher popping out, and Lonzo flying out to Grant Anker… That lead, too, immediately went bust. Fox got one more out from Keith Redfern to begin the seventh, then allowed a single to Jose Escalera. Mendez replaced Fox, and things escalerad with a Reyes single, a double steal, and Aaron Walker’s 2-run single to left-center before the inning fizzled out. The Coons couldn’t score in the bottom 7th despite two walks offered by Fenlon, and instead the Bayhawks took a 5-4 lead on a pinch-hit homer by Dan Sandoval off Elijah LaBat in the eighth, and Escalera sprung another jack off Bryan Erickson in the ninth. That inning continued with a Reyes single, stolen base, and throwing error by Perez, and Aaron Walker getting a sac fly in for an unearned run. Bottom 9th, Ryan Dow allowed leadoff singles to Lonzo and Starr, which put the tying run in the box. Nye grounded out to advance the runners, which was not helpful in itself, and Cas popped out to short, which was not helpful at all. Brass’ grounder to short ended the game. 7-4 Bayhawks. Christopher 2-5, HR, RBI; Lavorano 2-5; Starr 2-3, BB, RBI; Caswell 2-3, 2 BB;

(sigh)

Game 3
SFB: SS X. Reyes – RF Escalera – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – 1B D. Williams – C Cantu – CF A. Walker – P Chalmers
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Fowler – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – P B. Herrera

Lonzo got his annual homer in with a solo shot in the first inning, although Starr walked and Brass doubled after that and Cas at least got another run home with a groundout for a 2-0 lead. The Bayhawks pulled a run back with singles by Sandoval and Cantu in the second inning, and Escalera and Anker erased the rest of the Coons’ lead with a pair of 2-out doubles up either line in the third inning. It was 3-2 Bayhawks by the fourth as Sandoval and Cantu went to the corners on a walk and a hit, and then Aaron Walker’s sac fly to center pushed them ahead.

Bottom 4th, Brassfield singled, which was the first Coons hit since the opening inning. Cas was not helpful, and Fowler’s groundout only moved him to second base, but here Tim Fuller had his first knock as a Critter, a game-tying RBI double to left. The inning ended with an intentional walk and Tipsy Bobby popping out. And the Coons’ starter just kept getting crowded; Anker and Montoya hit 2-out singles in the fifth to create another tight spot before Sandoval generously popped out on the infield to keep them from scoring yet again.

The grind never stopped with Herrera and he was lifted from the 3-3 game in the seventh inning after giving up a 1-out double to Xavier Reyes. Ricky H. replaced Bobby H., allowed a scratch single to Escalera to put runners on the corners, but then struck out both Anker and Montoya to keep the game tied at the stretch. Instead, Redfern and Dustin Williams spanked Mike Lane for leadoff doubles in the eighth to take a 4-3 lead for San Fran, but then left that extra runner in scoring position, while Lonzo hit a leadoff single against Travis Davis to begin the bottom 8th, then was doubled up by Starr… The Bayhawks then drove in another knife in the ninth inning when the Raccoons took the bubble wrap off Matt Walters, who was looking kinda bored, but gave up a leadoff single to Reyes and a 2-run homer to Anker to seamlessly joined in with the general sucking going on. 6-3 Bayhawks. Lavorano 3-4, HR, RBI; Brassfield 2-4, 2B;

What an opening homestand…

Raccoons (1-5) @ Falcons (2-4) – April 11-13, 2061

It was onto the road for a 7-game trip now, starting with three games in Charlotte, where the Falcons had the eighth-most runs scored and fourth-most runs allowed in the CL. They managed to be bottoms in both home runs *and* stolen bases, but the Raccoons had the league-worst OBP and had the second-worst starters’ ERA, while the Falcons were bottoms in bullpen ERA. Lots of room for improvement! This team, too, had been beaten at a 6-3 rate by the Raccoons last year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Robinson (0-1, 5.79 ERA) vs. Phil Baker (1-0, 1.13 ERA)
Angel Alba (0-0) vs. Cory Ellis (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
Justin DeRose (0-1, 5.14 ERA) vs. Andres Lopez (0-1, 4.50 ERA)

Lopez was the only southpaw in their rotation.

Alba was not on the roster to begin the series, but would replace Erickson after the Monday game. Alba had gone 12-9 with a 3.03 ERA in St. Pete last year, and 2-2 with a 5.32 ERA and too many walks with the Critters in a mid-season rotation filler spell of four games. The 24-year-old righty had looked improved when compared to that in training camp already.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – SS Nye – CF Caswell – C Perez – 3B Fowler – 2B Bean – P Robinson
CHA: CF M. Estrada – 1B Valcarcel – RF D. Ceballos – C L. Miranda – 2B Yoshikawa – 3B D. Espinosa – LF Bumpus – SS Leitch – P P. Baker

Robinson gave up straight singles to Mario Estrada, Jesus Valcarcel, and Danny Ceballos, swiftly followed by Luis Miranda’s bases-clearing double to plunge the team into another substantial deficit without even logging an out. In all, he allowed five hits in the first inning, and I began to look through the trade agreement with the Gold Sox for a very specific no-backsies clause. After that horrendous first inning, he only lasted four more, but at least did not allow any more runs. The Raccoons looked sufficiently buried, though, getting only two hits off Phil Baker in five innings. Joey Christopher even further reduced the offensive threat by getting caught stealing in the third inning, and after reaching on an error in the sixth, getting caught stealing there again.

When Joel Starr led off the seventh inning with a double to center, it was already the single-most impressive offensive display delivered by the team dressed in browns on this Monday, and – lo! – he was even driven in by Angel Perez with a 2-out single to get an ACTUAL run on the board! Fowler singled, too, but Jon Bean grounded out and that was the inning. Morris pinch-hit for Erickson and grounded out to begin the eighth, but Christopher singled his way on with one out before Trent Brassfield unloaded a 418-footer to left, which somehow tied the ballgame, but Starr and Nye grounded out to end the inning before they could accidentally take a lead. Mike Lane got around two Falcons singles in the bottom 8th, but Braden McCarver pinch-hit and hit a leadoff single off Bravo in the bottom 9th. Mario Estrada’s grounder to 2060 Gold Glover Nick Fox was taken for a force out at second base, keeping the winning run out of scoring position, although that point was soon moot after Jesus Valcarcel’s scratch single and a walk issued to Luis Miranda with two outs. In between Danny Ceballos, batting .500 at the beginning of play this Monday, had grounded out to advance the runners. Thus it was two outs and the bags full for Bravo against Takuro Yoshikawa, who lobbed a high fastball for the first pitch to center. Noah Caswell came on, I braced for extra innings, but Caswell dropped the ball and the Falcons gigglingly walked off on the error. 4-3 Falcons. Fowler 2-3; Kozak (PH) 1-1; Erickson 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Bryan Erickson (0-0, 3.00 ERA) was rewarded with a trip to St. Petersburg for the AAA opener while as intended Angel Alba joined the team to take the start on Tuesday.

Brassfield got the day off on Tuesday after Nye on Sunday and Lonzo on Monday. Joel Starr and Noah Caswell were penciled in for a rest day against the southpaw on Wednesday.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – C Perez – LF Morris – 3B N. Fox – P Alba
CHA: SS Snyder – 1B Valcarcel – LF D. Ceballos – 2B Yoshikawa – 3B D. Espinosa – CF M. Estrada – C McCarver – RF Tomko – P C. Ellis

Alba got a 2-0 lead before taking the hill thanks to Joel Starr’s first home run of the season, which came after Ellis walked both Christopher and Lonzo, and the former was thrown out at third base on a double steal because we were desperate for runs. Alba got Brendan Snyder to fly out before the bags filled up in the bottom 1st with a walk to Valcarcel, a Ceballos single, and Yoshikawa’s grounder being fumbled by Lonzo. Danny Espinosa hit a sac fly to center for the only Falcons run as Mario Estrada flew out to left to leave two runners stranded. Doubles by Morris and Alba (!) tacked on a run for a 3-1 Coons lead in the second inning, but the Falcons saw Alba’s stuff well and kept whacking away at him until they tied the game in the bottom 3rd with four hits by Snyder (leadoff single), Ceballos (single), Yoshikawa (RBI double), and Estrada (RBI single).

The fourth began with quick outs by Fox and Alba before Christopher singled with two outs. Lonzo then got a hanging breaking ball on a tee and bashed it *444* feet for his second homer of the year, a new 5-3 lead, and the home run lead on the foundering ballclub…!! LOOOOON-ZOOOOO!!!

That was the end for Ellis although Alba threatened to not go far behind, just unable to fool the Falcons with anything he had to offer. Ben Morris’ second homer of the year off Alberto Rivera made it 6-3 in the fifth, but Alba was almost lifted in the fifth after a 2-out double, then again in the sixth after Chris Tomko’s 1-out single, but when the Falcons sent soft-hitting Alan Leitch to bat in the pitcher’s spot, Alba faced the right-hander and got a 5-4-3 double play out of him, albeit sharply hit, to complete six messy innings.

The bullpens then did a pretty decent job for a couple of innings before the Coons flooded the bases in the ninth with Nye, Perez, and Morris all reaching against left-hander Matt Malone. When Tim Fuller batted for Nick Fox, the Falcons brought right-hander Manny Gutierrez, the game’s #2 prospect. Fuller put an RBI single through the left side, though, before Kozak struck out. Christopher clipped a 2-out, 2-run single to right, and Lonzo grounded out for his only retirement in the game. The Coons then tried their luck in the bottom 9th with J.J. Sensabaugh, who hadn’t pitched since long relief duty on Opening Day and was quickly bombed for a 3-run homer by Snyder, after which Matt Walters took over and finished out the game, but still didn’t get a save because he came in with only two outs to collect. 9-6 Raccoons. Christopher 2-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Lavorano 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Morris 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Fuller (PH) 1-1, RBI;

A win!!

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – 1B Kozak – CF Morris – 3B N. Fox – P DeRose
CHA: SS Snyder – 1B Valcarcel – LF D. Ceballos – C L. Miranda – 2B Yoshikawa – 3B D. Espinosa – CF M. Estrada – RF Tomko – P An. Lopez

After DeRose fell behind 1-0 on errors by Nick Fox and Angel Perez and pretty much nothing else in the first inning, the Raccoons began to claw their way back into the game in the top 3rd with Fox, who had so far not done much good with the stick, doubling to center and scoring on DeRose’s 1-out single up the middle. That tied the game; Christopher struck out, but Lonzo got hold of *another* baseball and bashed that one 441 feet for his THIRD homer of the season…!! That was 3-1 Coons, and let’s just say, an unknown crazy person dancing and singing and jumping around the promenade at the Falcons’ ballpark.

The middle innings were comparatively uneventful with no runs scored and not a lot of base runners either. The Raccoons would get Angel Perez on base to begin the seventh inning then, and while Matt Malone came in specifically for Ben Morris with two outs and Perez still on first base, he still gave up an RBI double to extend the Coons’ lead to 4-1. Fox flew out to center to end the inning, while a Morris error then put Danny Espinosa on base to begin the bottom 7th. DeRose struggled against the bottom of the order, then gave up a 2-out RBI single to PH Braden McCarver and was lifted for Ricky H. to face the left-handed Snyder as the tying run. He lost him on straight balls, but then had Valcarcel pop out to Lonzo instead which also ended the inning. Ceballos then reached against Herrera to begin the bottom 8th, legging out an infield single to Nick Fowler at third base. Ruben Mendez replaced Herrera, got three weak outs, and that ended the inning just as well.

Matt Walters then had his first actual save opportunity, nine games into the season, in the bottom 9th, trying to hold a 4-2 lead, but the pesky Falcons opened the inning with a pair of singles by Estrada and Tomko and immediately were on the corners. Adam Bumpus’ sac fly shortened the score to 4-3, and Alan Leitch reached on an error by Fowler, the FOURTH Coons error in the game. Valcarcel’s grounder to short was well handled by Lonzo, though, and a 6-4-3 double play ended the game and gave the Raccoons their first series victory of the season. 4-3 Coons. Starr (PH) 1-1; DeRose 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

Lonzo was fifth in the CL in slugging at this point. =)

That’s what you get when you mess with our best hitter!! Look, he’s tied for the CL lead in homers! He was in fact in the top 3 in home runs *and* stolen bases…!!

(giggles madly)

Raccoons (3-6) @ Indians (5-3) – April 14-17, 2061

The Indians were second in the North in the early going, just half a game behind the … Elks? Okay, it was very early. They had the fewest runs scored (Coons: second-fewest) and the second-fewest runs allowed, with a -3 run differential (Coons: -7). The funny bit was actually about the Coons’ stats at this point as we had the worst batting average and OBP, but the most homers in the league. Last year we had won this season series as well, 11-7.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (0-0, 4.26 ERA) vs. Melvin Guerra (1-0, 2.57 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 1.88 ERA) vs. Zach Stewart (1-0, 1.38 ERA)
Nick Robinson (0-1, 5.59 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (1-0, 4.22 ERA)
Angel Alba (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (0-0, 5.40 ERA)

The Indians had no fewer than FOUR left-handed starting pitchers. The only exception was Guerra, so all the left-handed sticks that never got a turn otherwise were crammed into the lineup on Thursday for the opener against him. The only right-handed batters in the lineup were Tim Fuller, because we had no left-handed hitting catcher, and the white-hot Lonzo.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – CF Caswell – LF B. Morris – 3B Fowler – C Fuller – 2B Bean – P C. Fox
IND: CF S. Thompson – 1B R. Alvarez – C Al. Gomez – SS Kilday – 2B Ewers – LF O. Ramos – RF Abel – 3B Gaxiola – P M. Guerra

Guerra offered three walks and yielded a stolen base to Lonzo, who had forced out Christopher, but didn’t allow a run in the first inning, with Fowler flying out to center to leave the bases loaded. The Raccoons still didn’t have a base hit, but two more in scoring position with one out in the top 2nd, as Jon Bean walked and then Fox’ bunt was thrown away by Guerra for two bases. Grounders by Christopher and Lonzo brought nobody across home plate before the inning ended. Starr led off the third with a single, and Caswell hit another soft single right after that. Morris’ grounder to Kevin Ewers was taken to second base for a force out, but Nick Fowler dropped a single into shallow left. That would bring in Starr, and because the ball hopped over Orlando Ramos’ glove, the Coons gained an extra base on that error and had runners on second and third and one out again. This time Tim Fuller hit an RBI single before strikeouts to Bean and Fox ended the inning for a busy Guerra. Fuller got another RBI single with two outs in the fifth inning to extend the lead to 3-0. That time he drove in Morris, who had drawn a walk from Guerra – what a novel concept – and had stolen his first bag of the year.

Since it was still a shutout on the Indians’ side there was reason to suspect that Foxie Brown was having a good day, and he indeed had one, allowing three soft singles and whiffing four through five innings for allowing no runs – and then it started to rain and we had a 45-minute rain delay, which was going to shortcut his outing. He still batted for himself in the top 6th when play resumed, but struck out against Jarod Morris. But Joe-Chris drew a walk and stole second, and while Lonzo grounded out, Starr also walked. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, but Caswell popped out to Steve Thompson in shallow center. Fox then faced three more batters in the bottom 6th, allowing a leadoff single to Willie Sanchez in the #9 hole before getting two more outs from Thompson and Ricardo Alvarez. Mike Lane then replaced him for the right-handed Alex Gomez, but gave up an RBI single anyway before Matt Kilday popped out to Cas in shallow center. Kevin Ewers and Chris Lovins then moved to the corners against Lane with a pair of hits to begin the bottom 7th. Kevin Abel’s sac fly narrowed the score to 3-2, and the rest of the lead was squandered by LaBat, who walked Robby Gaxiola and gave up a tying single to Sanchez. Steve Thompson’s sac fly gave Indy a 4-3 lead then before Alvarez struck out…

The eighth was uneventful while Lonzo led off the ninth against lefty closer Cody Kleidon. He broke up his 0-for-4 on the day with a leadoff single, putting the tying run on base, but stealing was out of the question against Kleidon, who was watching him with the eyes of a hawk, at least until Starr doubled to left and the tying and go-ahead runs reached scoring position. Kleidon then got Caswell to 0-2, but hung one and that baseball was never seen again, being blasted out of the park for a 3-run homer! Kleidon was gone; right-hander Ben Akman then allowed singles to Morris and Fowler, and another RBI single to Tim Fuller, his third on the day! Bean and Nick Fox made meek outs after that, but in that spot the Raccoons sent the struggling Nick Nye, batting .097 going into the day, to bat for Joe-Chris, and he found another RBI single into leftfield! That was the end for Akman, as the Indians went to Kelly Whitney to get out of the inning, which he did with a fly to left from Lonzo. Ricky Herrera then sorted out the bottom 9th… but not without allowing a hit to Thompson and a 2-out homer to Ricardo Alvarez… 8-6 Raccoons. Nye (PH) 1-1, RBI; Starr 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Caswell 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Fowler 2-5, RBI; Fuller 3-5, 3 RBI; C. Fox 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Winning streak!

And now let’s see how bad we can not hit a set of left-handers in a row…

Game 2
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Perez – 2B Nye – LF Kozak – CF B. Morris – 3B Fowler – P B. Herrera
IND: 2B M. Weber – 1B Ewers – SS Kilday – C Al. Gomez – LF O. Ramos – CF S. Thompson – RF R. Alvarez – 3B Gaxiola – P Stewart

Tipsy Bobby scattered five runners between the first three innings, although that included an error by Nick Nye creating issues on the first ball the Indians put in play against Herrera. Jack Kozak was having a bit of day, ticking off the hard parts of the cycle by the fourth inning. He hit a triple in the second inning, in which the Raccoons managed to not score despite the triple, while in the fourth he came up after Nick Nye had landed a hit off Stewart, and then whacked a 2-run homer for the first runs of the ballgame. Morris reached base with a single right after that, then stole second base, and scored when Bobby Herrera dropped in a single with two outs and two strikes against his former partner as 1-2 punch atop the Coons’ rotation.

Robby Gaxiola hit a sac fly after Herrera walked Thompson and allowed a double to Alvarez in the bottom 4th, so the Indians were getting on the board right after the Critters and shortened the score to 3-1. Not only was their rotation 4/5 left-handed, but they were also bringing up seven left-handed batters against Herrera, and he wasn’t coping so well. This came to a head in the bottom 5th; Herrera faced five batters, retired none of them, and was yanked after giving up a score-flipping 3-run homer to Kilday and then two more hits to Alex Gomez and Orlando Ramos. LaBat replaced him, got out of the inning, but not without allowing another run to score.

Top 6th, Morris got nicked by Stewart with one out. Fowler advanced him with a groundout before Noah Caswell batted for LaBat and socked an RBI double. Unfortunately he also knocked his own knee out of alignment on a slide into second base, and had to limp off with Luis Silva, to be replaced by pinch-runner Jon Bean, who was the tying run, but was stranded when Brass flew out. After Sensabaugh got slapped for two more runs in the bottom 6th, Ben Akman then got the ball in the seventh. The Coons made two outs, but then Perez singled, Nye walked, and Kozak singled. The tying runs were on for Ben Morris, who got ahead 2-0 in the count and motivated Akman to come more over the plate, which turned out to be a mistake when Morris whacked the 2-0 pitch for 322 feet, wrapping it around the right foul pole over the 309’ sign. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!

Travis Glovinsky, the right-hander the Indians had taken from us in the Rule 5 draft and not handed back (yet) then got the third out of the top 7th from Fowler. The 8-7 lead was then immediately blown by Sensabaugh, who gave up three walks and a hit in the bottom 7th when the Raccoons direly needed outs. Ruben Mendez and Nick Fox entered in a double switch, and Orlando Ramos grounded out to Lonzo to end the inning. It was now eight-all, and the Raccoons were running out of personnel. Mendez ached through the bottom 8th against a pile of left-handers, walking Alvarez and Gaxiola, but he also got two strikeouts, including on Mike Weber to end the inning, the game still tied. The Raccoons could not do anything against Kleidon in the ninth inning this time, while Mike Lane did not register an out in the bottom of the inning, allowing a leadoff double to Lovins, and then singles to Kilday and Gomez to lose the game. 9-8 Indians. Perez 3-5; Kozak 3-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Morris 2-3, HR, 4 RBI; Caswell (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

While Kozak missed the cycle by the double, Kilday missed the cycle by the triple, going 5-for-6 with 4 RBI against the Coons.

There were roster moves after this game. Noah Caswell went on the DL with a knee sprain as his injury history grew longer. He would miss a month perhaps. Also, J.J. Sensabaugh (0-0, 12.60 ERA) was axed after just three outings as garbage man. Felix Ayala, going 3-for-10 to start the AAA season, and Brad Loveless, the former Nick Brown Memorial Pick, were brought up from the Alley Cats as replacement; them being a righty-hitting centerfielder and a left-handed reliever was partially motivated by who and what we were playing right now.

Game 3
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Perez – 2B Nye – LF Kozak – CF Ayala – 3B N. Fox – P Robinson
IND: CF S. Thompson – 1B R. Alvarez – SS Kilday – 2B Ewers – RF Lovins – C Atencio – LF W. Sanchez – 3B Gaxiola – P DeWitt

The Coons began the Saturday game with two singles, but Starr’s double play grounder and a K on Perez quickly ended the inning without a score. Kevin Ewers meanwhile was the ONLY right-handed batter in the Indians’ lineup against Nick Robinson, who should now finally have a good game – and did! …sorta. Kinda. Well. The game was scoreless through five innings, because both teams couldn’t help themselves but roll a string of natural ones against the opposing left-handed starter, but Robinson finally found a banana peel to slip on and it was *the other left-handed starter*. DeWitt opened the bottom 6th with a single, was bunted to second by Thompson, and scored on a 2-out RBI single by Matt Kilday for the game’s first run. PH Orlando Ramos would double home Chris Lovins with another 2-out run the inning after, but the Raccoons and their *right-handed* lineup had yet to make any impression on DeWitt, who went seven innings of 3-hit ball before being inexplicably replaced by right-hander Juan Carrillo to begin the eighth inning. Christopher batted for Robinson to begin the inning and walked, then advanced on a wild pitch. Brass had two of the three hits against DeWitt, but grounded out. Lonzo had the third hit of the team so far, but was hit for with Ben Morris to gain *any* sort of leverage here. Morris’ single sure enough put the tying runs on the corners for Joel Starr, who hit a rocket to deep right, to the fence, Lovins back, jumping into the fence, and – he had the ball! …and obvious pain as he rolled around on the ground. Christopher scored on the sac fly, while Morris was shooed back to first base by Steve Thompson, who quickly arrived at the scene and took the ball out of Lovins’ glove. The Indians had to replace him with Alex Gomez – the catcher – but had already churned through their entire bench and didn’t have an outfielder available anymore. Perez whiffing rendered this a non-problem at least for *this* inning.

The Coons used Matt Walters in the bottom 8th, which didn’t work for him either and he gave up a homer to Steve Thompson to restore the two-run gap. The Raccoons went in order against Kelly Whitney in the ninth, and without bothering the shivering catcher in rightfield. 3-1 Indians. Brassfield 2-4, 2B; Morris (PH) 1-1; Robinson 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, L (0-2);

Game 4
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – 1B Kozak – CF Ayala – 3B Fowler – P Alba
IND: 2B M. Weber – 1B Ewers – SS Kilday – RF R. Alvarez – LF O. Ramos – CF S. Thompson – C Atencio – 3B M. Morales – P Fitzgibbon

Like his first time out, Alba got a multiple-run lead in the top 1st as Christopher led off with a double. Lonzo flew out, but Brass walked, and Perez and Nye hit a pair of RBI singles. Aggro baserunning on the Nye single allowed Kozak to bring in the third and final run of the inning with a groundout to second base. Ayala’s fly ended the inning, and then all the **** hit the fan at once. Alba nailed Weber with the first pitch he threw, and Brass dropped Ewers’ fly for an error. A wild pitch advanced the runners, and Kilday doubled home a pair on only the ninth pitch Alba threw, which was as good a time as any to go out and shake and yell some sense into the bloody rookie. But Alvarez legged out an infield hit, Ramos’ sac fly tied the game, and Steve Thompson cranked a 2-run homer to right. 5-3 Indians after one.

The Coons pulled a run back when Fowler hit a leadoff double in the second and scored on Lonzo’s 2-out single, but the Indians answered with two, getting Ewers on with a 2-out walk in the bottom 2nd. Kilday tripled home the runner, then scored on a wild pitch. The dire constitution of the bullpen was what kept Alba in the game at this point. While an off day beckoned on Monday, we were still extremely short on rested relievers unless we were wanting to bank on three innings from Brad Loveless. Alba even walked Ramos to begin the bottom 3rd, then whiffed Thompson and got a double play grounder from Atencio. Fitzgibbon was even yanked before him after four troubled and tedious innings against the Coons, after which Kevin Abel batted for him in the bottom 4th, but the very next batter, Weber, homered off Alba, and that was the end for the youngster and Loveless was inserted for garbage relief, although he would only log four outs before his spot came up in the sixth with Nye and Ayala on base against Jarrod Morris, and two outs. Joel Starr pinch-hit, grounded out, and everything was horrible.

Ricky Herrera gave up back-to-back doubles to Atencio and Miguel Morales, and thus another run in the sixth inning, before Lonzo took Kelly Whitney deep for a solo home run (!!??) in the seventh. I pinched myself three times in the furry cheek and the bulging tummy, but each time the run remained on the board when I opened my eyes again so it had to be true; Lonzo on four homers in 13 games was not a dream, right? The rest of the experience sure felt like a nightmare… Bravo and LaBat ended scoreless innings to get the day’s pitching done with at least, but the team never came close to scoring another run. 9-5 Indians. Lavorano 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Perez 2-4, RBI; Nye 3-4, RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 4 – The Falcons acquire UT Brendan Snyder, who hit .267 with one homer and 24 RBI in 2060, from the Buffaloes in exchange for a prospect.
April 5 – The Miners beat the Buffaloes, 4-1. All the runs score in the 10th inning.
April 6 – NYC SP Joel Luera (1-0, 0.00 ERA) throws a no-hitter in his first start of the season, facing the minimum 27 batters in a 2-0 win against the Canadiens. The only base runner for Vancouver is C Alex Maldonado (.200, 0 HR, 1 RBI), who is hit by a pitch and then doubled up by 2B/OF Rafael Roldan (.200, 0 HR, 0 RBI). This is the second career no-hitter for Luera, who previously no-hit the Indians in his final start of the regular season in 2058.
April 8 – TOP SS/3B Zach Suggs (.222, 0 HR, 1 RBI) would miss two weeks after suffering a mild shoulder strain in an on-base collision with another player.
April 8 – A walkoff home run by INF RF/LF/1B Chris Lovins (.222, 1 HR, 1 RBI) is the only score in the Indians’ 1-0 win against the Aces.
April 9 – PIT 3B Juan Ojeda (.400, 1 HR, 3 RBI) has a 5-for-5 day with a home run and three RBI in a 9-2 Miners win against the Wolves.

April 11 – PIT SP Cory Ritter (1-0, 0.00 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout with seven strikeouts in his second start for the Miners, beating the Warriors, 9-0.
April 12 – RIC SP Justin Martin (0-0, 3.00 ERA) could miss most of the season with a tear in his labrum.
April 14 – Scorpions C Nate Danis (.261, 1 HR, 5 RBI) will miss at least a month with a broken hand.
April 15 – OCT SP Ernesto Rios (1-1, 0.56 ERA) no-hits the Condors in a 2-0 win. Rios strikes out seven and walks two in the game. This is the second no-hitter of the season, and the first for a Thunder pitcher since Brian Frain no-hit the Falcons in 2038.
April 15 – 21-year-old Blue Sox sophomore OF/1B/3B Fernando Aracena (.413, 0 HR, 8 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after three hits, including a triple, in a 7-6 loss to the Capitals.
April 16 – The Capitals beat the Blue Sox 5-0 and suffocate the 20-game hitting streak of Fernando Aracena (.380, 0 HR, 8 RBI) right along with the rest of the team.

FL Player of the Week (1): SFW 1B Miguel Medina (.385, 3 HR, 10 RBI)
CL Player of the Week (1): OCT RF/LF Eric Whitlow (.542, 2 HR, 7 RBI)

FL Player of the Week (2): CIN RF/1B/LF John MacDonnell (.333, 2 HR, 8 RBI), hitting .393 (11-28) with 2 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week (2): IND INF Matt Kilday (.415, 1 HR, 9 RBI), hitting .455 (15-33) with 1 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Nobody in the league has more home runs than Lonzo!! Wheeeeeee!!!! – He was no competition for Player fo the Week though because he actually only hit 8-for-26 this week, it just happened to be that three of hits were dingers.

Okay, now that we have the good news out of the way… No team was worse during the first week of the season than the Critters, except for the pair of Sox teams in the Federal League, who posted a combined record of 0-13. As of the end of week two, only the Blue Sox have lost more games.

The Coons ranked bottoms in batting average and OBP, but all the Lonzo homers meant that we were sixth in slugging. Overall we had the eighth-most runs scored after a couple of 8-run efforts on the last weekend here. Our pitching staff was uniformly awful and beggared wholesale replacement. Somehow they had offered the fewest walks in the league, but instead they just kept getting bombed to Kingdom Come.

This could be a long, long year, although if the offense at least put something together we might be able to trade for prospects in the summer. Yaaaay.

Reliever Paul Barton signed up a couple of days into the season and was immediately assigned to AAA as planned. We could not bring him up after the Sensabaugh was put on waivers because he threw 57 pitches on the same day and wouldn’t have been useful for the rest of the weekend.

Two-week homestand looming, beginning on Tuesday, with the damn Elks, Aces, Thunder, and Loggers all scheduled to come to Portland and give us a good stomping.

Fun Fact: Joel Luera’s no-hitter on April 6 is the earliest in the year a no-hitter has occurred since Kodai Koga of the Knights no-hit the Aces on April 5, 2050.

Even earlier than that? Only two:

April 4, 2033 – SFW Pat Okrasinski vs. Wolves
April 3, 1996 – IND Dan George vs. Crusaders

Of these, the 33-year-old Okrasinski went down to a back injury in May of the same year and then would pitch for the Raccoons the following season on a rather cheap 1-year deal, going 13-9 with a 4.47 ERA in an otherwise not very impressive season for the Raccoons. Okrasinski held out until his age 40 season with two stints each for the Wolves and Miners, even though he was not a regular starter after the 2036 campaign. For his career he went 137-140 with a 3.90 ERA, one save, and 1,709 strikeouts in 2,482 innings across 499 games (336 starts).

[Westheim]

J.J. Sensabaugh arrived in AAA without getting claimed off waivers – oh joy – and then it got even worse with the damn Elks and their putrid stench invading the city.

Raccoons (4-9) vs. Canadiens (8-4) – April 19-21, 2061

Five straight season series wins, including 11-7, against the damn Elks were at least allowing me to sleep at night, occasionally, and I would recommend to the boys that they keep it that way. The Elks somehow were at the top of the division after finishing very much last in the North the year before. They ranked third in runs scored and second in runs allowed, which was actively bothering me. Losing this series was not acceptable.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (1-1, 2.63 ERA) vs. Martyn Polaco (0-0, 6.52 ERA)
Chance Fox (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (1-0, 2.13 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 3.93 ERA) vs. Jeremy Garvey (1-1, 6.17 ERA)

Polaco and Garvey were rookie southpaws that were 23 and a less enthusing 28 years old, respectively. Neither had shown his antlers in the ABL before the 2061 season. Nielsen was a *right-handed* rookie, had made only a few relief appearances last year, when he had been 21 years old, and was the #6 prospect in the league.

Game 1
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF Scarpa – 3B C. Sullivan – C A. Maldonado – 2B Roldan – P Polaco
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Perez – 2B Nye – LF Kozak – CF Morris – 3B N. Fox – P DeRose

Starr and Perez reached base with two outs in both the first and third innings, the second time even with Lonzo singling ahead of them, and both times Nick Nye ended the inning with a groundout as his terrible start to the season continued. Nobody scored in the early innings although both teams were generous with scattered base runners. The Elks would break through against DeRose in the fourth inning, getting a double to left from Chris Sullivan, who swiftly scored on Alex Maldonado’s single to center. Rafael Roldan’s infield single and a four-pitch walk to Polaco (…!) loaded the bases, and Danny Garcia’s sac fly brought in a second run for the damn Elks before Alex Corpus flew out to Kozak near the leftfield line. The Raccoons answered with singles by Morris and Fox to go to the corners with one out in the bottom 4th, then strikeouts by DeRose and Brassfield as they resiliently refused to score until Lonzo led off the fifth inning with a single. Polaco had a strong snap move to first base though, and stealing was not in the cards right now. Lonzo scored when he gained a base on Perez’ groundout, then came around on Nye’s 2-out RBI single to left. And then Kozak whiffed, because we really liked to whiff against that rookie, who was nevertheless lifted after five busy innings. DeRose lasted six, whiffing ten Elks, but was still on the hook.

After a scoreless seventh, Ruben Mendez put Elks on the corners with a pair of singles in the eighth inning. Elijah LaBat came in against the PH Matt Wartella, but walked him to fill the bases with one out, then gave up a sac fly to Maldonado for an insurance run. How lovely. The Coons answered with a run of their own in the bottom 8th… unearned as it as after Nye reached on a throwing error by Corpus. Nick Fox brought in the run with a 2-out single, but Tim Fuller grounded out to end the inning, and the damn Elks got another insurance against Brad Loveless in the ninth inning when the left-hander allowed the first two batters on base with singles. Thomas Whittington would score on Corpus’ sac fly, but Danny Garcia got doubled up 4-6-3 by Campos. Closer Erik Swain retired Brass and Lonzo without much trouble to begin the bottom 9th before Starr and Perez dropped hits to put the tying runs on the corners. The Raccoons brought Joey Christopher to bat for Nye, but got a foul pop to the catcher for their bothers… 4-2 Canadiens. Lavorano 2-5; Starr 4-5; Perez 2-4, BB; N. Fox 2-4, RBI;

12 hits, all of them singles…

Game 2
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF Scarpa – 3B Whittington– C A. Maldonado – 2B Roldan – P Nielsen
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Morris – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P C. Fox

Thomas Whittington hit a solo homer off Chance Fox in the second inning, which hurt a lot less than the solo homer that Ken ******* Nielsen hit off Chance Fox in the fifth inning; also, the score was 2-0 through five, and do I really have to divulge the grisly details? The Raccoons had their chances, like when Brass socked a leadoff double in the second, or when Ben Morris drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and then Starr popped out while Morris was running, and while the ball was well and truly for Whittington to grab, the third baseman looked away briefly at what funny business that base runner was doing, then couldn’t find the ball anymore and it dropped just inside the third base line for an error. Despite two on and nobody out, the Raccoons didn’t score there either, thanks to Brass’ 6-4-3 grounder mainly. Fox allowed another run to score in the sixth on a Whittington triple and Maldonado’s RBI single, and left without getting out of the seventh, with Danny Garcia in scoring position thanks to a single and a stolen base, his ninth of the year. Bravo struck out Campos to get outta there. Ben Morris snapped a solo home run off Alex Lodes in the eighth inning, but apart from that the Raccoons were just hopeless. 3-1 Canadiens. Brassfield 2-4, 2B;

Game 3
VAN: LF D. Garcia – C A. Maldonado – 1B Campos – CF Scarpa – 3B C. Sullivan – SS Wartella – RF D. Moreno – 2B Roldan – P Garvey
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – 2B Nye – C Fuller – CF Morris – 3B N. Fox – P B. Herrera

Bobby Herrera retired the Elks in order the first time through, whiffing three, while the Raccoons managed two walks off Garvey, and having Joel Starr hit into a double play. Herrera ended up retiring 14 in a row before losing Matt Wartella on a tight ball four in a full count, then struck out Damian Moreno to finish the fifth, so the Elks didn’t have any base hits through five innings, but don’t you worry, the Coons didn’t have any base hits either.

The first hit of the game was a single for … Garvey in the sixth, because why not, the baseball gods were obviously having a go at us. Garcia also singled, but Maldonado found the inning-ending double play. Nick Fox began the bottom 6th by legging out an infield roller for a single. Herrera bunted him to second, and Brass was walked intentionally. Lonzo’s grounder to second saw Brass forced out at second base, and the inning ended with Lonzo being thrown out at home plate on Starr’s RBI double to right, which at least got *a* run on the board. The Elks equaled the tally immediately in the top 7th. Campos legged out an infield single, which for him was a genuine achievement, and Tipsy Bobby walked Steve Scarpa, then couldn’t stem the tide and allowed the tying run to come across on Moreno’s 2-out RBI single. Whittington struck out, leaving on a pair. Bobby H. was then churned up on four straight 1-out singles in the eighth inning that gave the Elks a 2-1 lead and the bases loaded. Ricky H. replaced Bobby H. against the lefty barrage in the second half of the order, but the Elks answered Chad Cardenas batting for Sullivan and Corpus for Wartella, but the former struck out and the latter grounded out to second base, stranding three runners. Nevertheless, after five no-hit innings, Bobby Herrera then gave up EIGHT hits in another 2.1 innings…

The bottom 9th dawned with Aaron Hain getting the ball against the top of the order. Brass singled to center, and Lonzo also singled to center, which put the tying and winning runs aboard with nobody out. Joel Starr wasted no time, flicked the first pitch he got to left-center, and it fell in easily for a single, allowing Brass to score and Lonzo to go to second base. Next was Nick Fowler, batting lefty for the largely useless Jack Kozak. Hain labored him to a 2-2 count before making a very hittable mistake, and Fowler very much hit it, 374 feet to right to be precise. It was a walkoff! 5-2 Blighters. Starr 2-4, 2B, RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; N. Fox 1-2, BB; B. Herrera 7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K;

Raccoons (5-11) vs. Aces (9-7) – April 22-24, 2061

After that barely facial stripes-saving walkoff homer on Thursday, right away we had the next team in that was working itself out of a hole. Like the Elks, the Aces had faced last in their division the year before (actually, four years in a row) and were now off to a winning record, while the Raccoons… existed. The Aces ranked eighth in runs scored, but were allowing the fewest runs, just 3.38 per game, and had a +14 run differential. We had managed to lose the season series to them even last year, 4-5, but at least they came in with a few injuries as well as Ray Benner and Scott Laws were on the DL, and they had a pair of guys on the roster that were day-to-day in starting pitcher Dan Graham and first-sacker Jonathan Echols.

Projected matchups:
Nick Robinson (0-2, 4.32 ERA) vs. Steve Hunter (1-1, 1.66 ERA)
Angel Alba (1-1, 8.38 ERA) vs. Jesus Aquino (1-0, 3.86 ERA)
Justin DeRose (1-2, 2.75 ERA) vs. Kris Robbins (0-2, 5.31 ERA)

Hunter was another left-hander, the sixth in seven games, and so far we hadn’t done so brilliantly against them at 2-6. However, there wasn’t a pitching split known to man nor beast in which the Raccoons would emerge with a winning record at this junction, so why fuzz about it…

Game 1
LVA: 2B Chairez – SS Veguilla – LF K. Hummel – RF J. Evans – 3B A. Alfaro – CF Jad. Wilson – C Mathews – 1B Echols – P S. Hunter
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – 2B Nye – CF Ayala – 3B N. Fox – P Robinson

The Aces lost Andy Chairez to an injury suffered on a defensive play early on, but by then they were already up 2-0 thanks to a Jake Evans homer in the first inning after Robinson had given up a single to Miguel Veguilla to get him to the dish. Marco Cuevas, Chairez’ replacement, and Veguilla both hit singles in the third inning, but Veguilla was thrown out trying to steal and Ken Hummel struck out to end the inning. When he wasn’t getting singled to death Nick Robinson struck out eight Aces inside four innings.

And when the Raccoons weren’t busy sucking the air out of the ballpark, they actually took a lead against Hunter in the bottom 4th. Perez and Nye hit clean singles and Felix Ayala crashed the first home run of his career with a 3-piece to right; in fact, these were the first RBI’s of his career!

Now, the lead didn’t last, because the home team was filled with dunces. Top 5th, and Jonathan Echols singled with one out against Robinson. He stole second base, but even then, you got the pitcher up – do something! Well, doing something he did, and with that I mean Hunter singling home Echols with the tying run to get even at three… The go-ahead run then scored from Kyle Mathews getting on base with a leadoff walk in the seventh inning. Echols and Hunter couldn’t get it done, but the runner was then singled home by pinch-hitter and threateningly named Jim Fusselman. Not the first career RBI for him – but the second.

And the Coons? Starr hit a leadoff double in the sixth and was stranded, and Christopher drew a walk in the seventh and was caught stealing. They were just atrocious – AGAIN. After Lane and Loveless lingered long to load the bags with Aces in the eighth inning, but Echols struck out to keep three on without scoring any, the Raccoons saw Hunter nick Brassfield to begin the bottom 8th. Starr singled over Fusselman at short, and Perez grounder to short at least was slow enough to allow only for an out at first base, and the tying and go-ahead runs reached scoring position for Nick Nye, who was out on a comebacker with the runners freezing. Ayala fell to 1-2, then slapped a single next to Veguilla to at least tie the bloody ballgame! With Hunter still going, Kozak batted for Nick Fox, and dished a go-ahead single through the right side. Fuller batted for Loveless, but flew out to left to end the inning, and guess what, we still had Matt Walters with us, even though we never found a reason to use him…! He briefly threatened to show Matt Walters form, striking out Casey Burgio and getting Fusselman to ground out, then nicked Veguilla. Hummel doubled to left. And then Jake Evans struck out and everything was fine in the en- WHERE DID THE BALL GO?? Perez scampering after the loose ball, and there came Veguilla, and the game was tied… Alfaro flew out to left to end the inning, but that was another blown save for Walters, who six months after setting a franchise record for saves in a season was still hungover. In better news, Lonzo singled against Bill Lawrence, stole a base, and scored the winning run on a Perez single to walk the **** off. 6-5 Critters. Starr 2-5, 2B; Perez 2-5, RBI; Ayala 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Kozak (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Whatever works…

And not a lot works ‘round here.

Game 2
LVA: 2B M. Roberts – SS Veguilla – 3B A. Alfaro – RF J. Evans – LF K. Hummel – CF Jad. Wilson – C Burgio – 1B Fusselman – P Aquino
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Morris – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P Alba

While the Raccoons brought up the minimum against Aquino the first time through, the Aces took a quick lead on Miguel Veguilla’s first-inning home run, 1-0, then added two more in the third inning with a leadoff single by Mike Roberts, a balk, a walk to Alex Alfaro, an RBI single by Evans and an accompanying error by Brassfield in leftfield, and finally Ken Hummel made it 3-0 with a sac fly on the completely helpless appearing pitcher that somehow also managed to commit a throwing error in the second inning that DIDN’T lead to a run. Roberts hit another sac fly in the fourth after Alba walked Fusselman with one out and threw a wild pitch, then allowed a single to the opposing pitcher… It was gross, and the spectacle ended in the fifth inning with singles by Alfaro, Evans, and Jaden Wilson for only one out, but another run on the board. Reynaldo Bravo replaced the hapless starter, gave up another run on Burgio’s single, while Perez threw the ball to centerfield on the following double steal attempt, allowing Wilson to score, and Fusselman then hit yet another sac fly to get home the fourth run of the inning, and the eighth of the game. All on the other side of the box score in case you wondered.

The Raccoons scored a run on a Fowler sac fly eventually, but the game was of course long in the bin. Ruben Mendez got a few outs, then put on Hummel with a 1-out single in the seventh. The Coons shrugged and put in Loveless in a double switch, who wasted no time to concede the run on two more singles. Bottom 7th, and the Coons loaded the bases with Nye and Perez singles as well as a walk drawn by Fowler. One out, and Ayala and Christopher both popped out to short to end the inning… 9-1 Aces. Nye 2-4; Perez 2-3;

(pets Honeypaws a little more aggravatedly)

Game 3
LVA: 2B M. Roberts – SS Veguilla – 3B A. Alfaro – RF J. Evans – LF K. Hummel – CF Jad. Wilson – C Burgio – 1B Echols – P Robbins
POR: RF Christopher – CF Morris – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – SS Nye – 3B Fowler – C Fuller – 2B Bean – P DeRose

It was cold with a drizzle threatening to turn into sleet on the weekly Sunday night game on national television, and my mood was accordingly even before an hourlong delay was called after just two innings in the miserable (yet still scoreless) proceedings by a group of four old men in black coats that didn’t consider laying down their lives to allow an Aces-Coons game to continue in these appalling conditions. National TV and all the ad money be damned.

Play resumed when at least the rain subsided, although by then it was even colder. Both starters were still good to go for the third inning, having each thrown under 30 pitches for two scoreless frames. The Aces’ Kris Robbins frolicked at the chance to continue – he was retiring the Coons in order the first time through the lineup, whiffing SIX of them. The other three presumably froze to ******* death without ever making it to the batter’s box. Predictably the Aces scored first when Jake Evans homered to left in the fourth inning, 1-0, before the Aces beat DeRose’s numb skull in with four hits and two runs in the fifth inning. Joel Starr at least got a ******* hit with a single in the bottom 5th, stole a base, and was stranded at second.

Bottom 6th, and Jon Bean started it with a groundout, but Jack Kozak then doubled in place of LaBat. Christopher popped out before walks to Morris and Brassfield filled the bases with the tying runs, bringing back Starr, although his fly to left, while deep, was caught on the warning track by Ken Hummel, and I thought this was an appropriate time to shed a few tears about another carefully composed roster that couldn’t hit its ******* way out of a grocery bag. – (rustling noises under the table) – Lonzo, get out of the bag and get dressed, you hit for the next pitcher that comes to the plate. – No hissing, you can continue to nom cookies once we’re done losing!!

Jonathan Echols’ leadoff double off Lane allowed Vegas to tack on a run in the seventh, and two more hits off Lane and three off Ricky H. gave the Aces two more runs in the eighth. Walters then pitched a scoreless and equally pointless ninth inning. The Raccoons never even reached scoring position again. 6-0 Aces. Kozak (PH) 1-2, 2B;

In other news

April 18 – Rebels catcher Ramon Lopez (.333, 1 HR, 6 RBI) is expected to miss a month after suffering an intercostal strain.
April 19 – TIJ SP Aaron Sloan (2-1, 2.37 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout in a 5-0 win against the Aces.
April 20 – The Knights walk off on the Falcons in the ninth inning, 5-4, by virtue of an error, a single, an intentional walk, and with the bases loaded, ATL 2B/SS Ken Sowell (.238, 2 HR, 9 RBI) getting hit with a pitch by the Falcons’ MR Yoshinari Kuroiwa (1-1, 7.36 ERA).
April 21 – Titans SP Will Glaude (3-0, 1.80 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout to beat the Loggers, 7-0.
April 21 – Gold Sox and Wolves are tied at one run apiece from the third to the 13th inning before the Gold Sox break through with a 6-run inning to win 7-1.
April 22 – The Knights beat the Titans, 13-6, mostly on an 11-run seventh inning.

FL Player of the Week: WAS Joo-Chan Lee (.369, 0 HR, 5 RBI), batting .522 (12-23) with 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB RF/LF/1B Jose Escalera (.413, 2 HR, 13 RBI), hitting .462 (12-26) with 1 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

(deep sigh)

The amount of enjoyment you will draw from this season probably is directly proportional to your enjoyment of blazing trainwrecks.

But at least a good draft pick beckons!

Maybe the pitching needs shaking up. 3-0 with an 0.42 ERA in AAA is … Bobby Sneeze. Gesundheit. Okay, I’ll try again. How about 0-1 with a 3.07 ERA, but 20 K in 14.2 innings across two starts? That would be left-hander Freddy Castillo, almost 25 years old and signed as July IFA almost EIGHT years ago, and charitably described as a prospect by … nobody, really.

Oof.

Next up for free wins will by the Thunder and Loggers.

Fun Fact: We’re second in the CL in homers!

Yes. 16 in total, of which Lonzo has four and Morris has another four, which none of you had on your bingo cards, just admit it. Caswell had two before hitting the DL again, and then there’s single issues for Kozak, Starr, Fowler, Brass, Ayala, and Christopher. ZERO for Nick Nye and Angel Perez.

But Lonzo has four???

[Westheim]

Raccoons (6-13) vs. Thunder (8-10) – April 25-27, 2061

The last-place Raccoons met the fifth-place Thunder, who were giving up the second-most runs in the CL, but ranked fourth in scoring. The Raccoons were tied for the bottom in runs scored in the CL (as usual), and were giving up the fourth-most runs. The Critters had beaten the Thunder seven times out of nine tries last year, but right now they didn’t look like they could take candy off a three-year-old… The Thunder arrived without outfielder Bernaldin Martaranha and Danny Guzman, who were on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (0-1, 3.38 ERA) vs. Eric Barnes (1-1, 9.88 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 3.51 ERA) vs. Ernesto Rios (1-2, 1.09 ERA)
Nick Robinson (0-2, 4.56 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (1-2, 3.75 ERA)

The Thunder only sent up right-handers against us in this series.

Game 1
OCT: 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – 2B Woodrome – RF Whitlow – C Burkart – SS Medlock – CF Weant – LF R. Hummel – P Barnes
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Morris – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B N. Fox – P C. Fox

While Foxie Brown’s first three starts of the year had been fundamentally solid in the K/BB sense, he was out of sorts for this Monday night game and offered three walks the first time through, barely escaping having the bases loaded in the first inning when Stephen Medlock grounded out to Lonzo, and Tim Weant got himself caught stealing after getting a leadoff walk in the top 2nd. The Coons scored first, though. Lonzo singled and stole a base in the first inning, but was stranded and nobody else reached either until Lonzo came back up with a leadoff double in the fourth. This time Ben Morris drove him in right away, Brassfield walked, and Joel Starr killed the effort with a double play grounder before even Nick Nye’s struggles continued with another lame-duck groundout. Nick Fox hit a single in the fifth, also searching for that elusive .200 mark, but it was Lonzo to lead off the bottom 6th with another single, then racing to third base on another single by Morris, all with nobody out. Brass hit a sac fly, while Starr hit into a fielder’s choice, but with two outs got the early start when Nick Nye hit a fly to deep center that eluded Weant and fell for an RBI double. Perez grounded out to end the inning. Meanwhile Chance Fox had stopped the walking business after the first time through and instead struck out five while holding the Thunder to just one base hit, a double by Andy Metz, through six. He then walked Bruce Burkart to begin the seventh. Medlock whiffed, but Weant singled to shallow center. Randy Hummel hit a grounder hard and right at Starr, who started a 3-6-3 double play to get out of the jam. Infuriatingly, Fox then walked Barnes at the start of the eighth. He got Metz out, then left for Ruben Mendez to face Ed Soberanes and give up a single to the 37-year-old veteran. Ian Woodrome now found a 4-6-3 double play, however, and the Thunder choked themselves out of the inning again. Matt Walters then had a 1-2-3 ninth for once, striking out a pair. 3-0 Furballs! Lavorano 3-4, 2B; Morris 2-4, 2B, RBI; C. Fox 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 7 K, W (1-1);

That was the first double of the season for Lonzo, the Destroyer.

Game 2
OCT: SS Lira – 2B Woodrome – 1B Metz – RF Whitlow – CF K. Hawkins – 3B Medlock – LF C. Santiago – C Burkart – P E. Rios
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – LF Kozak – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P B. Herrera

Bobby Herrera gave up nothing but hard contact in the first inning, but the Thunder settled for an Ian Woodrome double and no runs. That was the only Thunder hit the first time through, and the Raccoons settled for a Morris single once through the lineup, neither team getting something worthwhile on the board. Nothing else appeared in the H column until Kyle Hawkins and Jack Kozak traded singles and getting stranded in the fifth. Morris singled and stole second in the bottom 6th, but was left on all the same. And it wasn’t that the two pitchers were cranking out the strikeouts, either. It was just a parade of poor contact, that top of the first inning aside. Tipsy Bobby had four strikeouts by the stretch, and Rios had just one.

Cesar Santiago and Bruce Burkart suddenly assaulted Herrera for a pair of hits in the eighth, but the Thunder didn’t hit for Rios with the go-ahead run on third base and one out, and he struck out, and then Omar Lira grounded out to Fowler. The Raccoons did hit for Herrera with Christopher in the bottom 8th, since Bobby H. was at 103 pitches, but went down in order anyway. Woodrome singled off Mike Lane in the top 9th for some faux threat, while Rios was still in the ballgame to begin the bottom 9th against the top of the order. He got groundouts from Morris and Lonzo, but walked Starr and allowed a single to Brass. Nick Fox batted for Kozak, but flew out to left, and the game went to extras scorelessly.

There were scoreless innings for Bravo and Ricky H. in the 10th and 11th innings, but Ricky Herrera came back in the 12th and allowed a single to Weant, right away followed by a Medlock triple that broke the scoreless yawner wide open, especially after Santiago’s sac fly. The Thunder brought in lefty Ryan Hogues for the bottom 12th, which began with Starr grounding out. Brass singled to center. Tim Fuller hit for Herrera, but flew out to left, followed by a Nye single that brought the homerless Angel Perez to the plate as the winning run. He flew out to center on a 3-1 pitch… 2-0 Thunder. Morris 2-5; Brassfield 2-5; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

Oh boy.

Game 3
OCT: SS Lira – 3B Soberanes – 2B Woodrome – RF Whitlow – C Burkart – CF K. Hawkins – 1B I. Stone – LF Weant – P Aa. Harris
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Morris – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – P Robinson

Robinson struck out nine and scattered five hits in seven innings of work, with one of those hits being a third-inning jack by Omar Lira for the Thunder’s sole run off him. It was barely enough to reach the stretch with a lead, which originated in the second inning when Brass and Starr reached base to begin the inning, advanced on Nye’s groundout and then scored on Tim Fuller’s double into the right-center gap. Two runs at once! Whoah, what riches!! That was about it for Coons offense, as the Portland Pathetics were held to three hits in six innings, the only other hit being a Morris double later on. When Nye led off the bottom 7th with a single to center, Fuller quickly hit into a double play. Nick Fox then doubled to center, but was stranded when Nick Fowler grounded out to Medlock at third base…

But the brown team still led, 2-1, and LaBat got two outs and Mendez one more in the eighth inning to keep it that way, not allowing a runner on base between them, and allowing Matt Walters to get ready. Christopher led off the bottom 8th with a single, but was caught stealing. Lonzo then singled as well, stole second base successfully, but was stranded regardless. Eric Whitlow drew a walk off Walters in the ninth, but the Thunder couldn’t get a hit and were somehow squeezed out for a series win. 2-1 Blighters. Fuller 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Robinson 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (1-2);

First Coons win for Nick Robinson, though hardly watchable.

Believe it or not, though, the Raccoons actually poked their fuzzy ears out of the bottom slot in the division with this game and with the Loggers losing on our off day on Thursday. However…

Raccoons (8-14) vs. Loggers (7-14) – April 29-May 1, 2061

…they would be in town to do something about that, and they had already beaten the Raccoons two outta three to begin the season. These were the two worst offenses in the league, and the Loggers were giving up the fifth-fewest runs. They had a -23 run differential, just one marker up on the Coons’ -24 mark.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (1-3, 3.24 ERA) vs. Ernesto Culver (1-3, 3.45 ERA)
Chance Fox (1-1, 2.42 ERA) vs. Roger Pritchard (2-2, 3.70 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 2.67 ERA) vs. Julian Dunn (2-1, 4.50 ERA)

Pritchard would be the only southpaw to come up against the Critters this week, who in the meantime decided to skip Angel Alba and his 9.00 ERA, making him available for relief in the first two games of the series.

Game 1
MIL: LF Franks – 2B Garmon – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – RF Milian – CF Wilks – C M. Reed – 3B Lange – P E. Culver
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – LF Ayala – P DeRose

The first chance for the Coons came in the bottom 2nd with a 1-out single for Perez and a Nye double to right-center, which put a pair in scoring position, a rare sight on this homestand. Like in their last game two days earlier, the Raccoons got a 2-run knock from their #7 hitter, this time Fowler with a single to right, and I considered them done for the day with that, but Felix Ayala hit another double and Justin DeRose then turned a 1-2 pitch around for a 2-run single of his own into leftfield…! Morris hit another double, and Lonzo then found the third 2-run single of the inning against a rapidly disintegrating Culver. Starr hit another single, but Brass and Perez struck out to then rather briskly end the hit parade, with Portland up 6-0.

Half an inning later, we had a one-run game on our paws. DeRose, the resentworthy piece of ****, nicked Ralph Lange to get going, and after Culver’s bunt imploded just as badly. Scott Franks singled home a run and reached second on a throw home, then scored on Corey Garmon’s single. Dave Robles grounded out, but with two gone, DeRose walked Fidel Carrera on four pitches, allowed an RBI single to David Milian, threw a wild pitch, and conceded two more runs on a 3-2 single by James Wilks before Mark Reed flew out to deep left. Jesus Christ on a motorcycle!!

The Loggers would tie the game in the fifth against Brad Loveless, who nicked Robles to begin the inning after DeRose had been DisPosed of, and Wilks knocked in the tying run with two outs. Kozak batted for Loveless with two outs and Brass, Perez, and Ayala hogging the bases in the bottom 5th, but grounded out rather gingerly, because why not…

While Alba was then pitching garbage relief from the sixth in a 6-6 game, the Raccoons were in scoring position again in the bottom of the inning, getting Morris on with a walk off Ricky Pippin, while Starr singled. Brass’ groundout moved them to second and third with two outs, and Angel Perez knocked out Pippin with the Coons’ fourth 2-run single of the game, stringing a ball past the reaching Rookie of the Year, Fidel Carrera. Alba would pitch a total of three innings in relief, offering 40 pitches and a homer served up to Robles that cut the lead in half in the top 7th. Lonzo and Starr hit singles in the bottom 8th, but Brass and Perez couldn’t get an insurance run across against righty Ryan Rigby. Walters then axed the Loggers in order, with two strikeouts, to put the game away. 8-7 Critters. Lavorano 2-5, 2 RBI; Starr 2-5; Perez 3-5, 2 RBI; Alba 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-2);

At this point the Loggers had to write off SP Girolamo Pizzichini (1-2, 3.14 ERA) for the year, the 26-year-old being out with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.

The Raccoons meanwhile were really close to losing their status as a credible big league team and be downgraded to AAA…

Game 2
MIL: CF Franks – RF Milian – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – 2B Lange – C M. Chavez – LF Wilks – 3B D. Miller – P R. Pritchard
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – 2B Nye – 3B N. Fox – LF Ayala – P C. Fox

Whenever the Coons had somebody on base on Saturday, they brought up Chance Fox and he tamely flew out, stranding three in the second inning and two more in the fourth inning. This still made for a tied, scoreless game despite a few deep flies by the Loggers early. Milian flew out to Brass on the warning track in the first, and Robles doubled off the wall, followed by an infield single by Carrera and Lange’s groundout to Lonzo. The Loggers then hit the odd single here and there, but didn’t make anything with those, f.e. Wilks leading off the fifth with an infield single and then right away getting doubled off by Danny Miller’s groundout to Nye. Milian hit a clean single to left-center in the sixth, but Robles’ 6-4-3 ended the inning. Fox then came up in the bottom 6th again with Nye and Ayala on base after having drawn walks, and two outs. He whiffed.

The game remained scoreless through seven; Lonzo singled with one out in the bottom 7th to send Pritchard home, and Randy Birnbaum nicked Starr with two outs, but got Perez to pop out to strand another pair of Critters. Fox didn’t get through the eighth inning then. Miller singled and Corey Garmon walked before Franks hit a grounder to short on which Lonzo and Nye couldn’t turn two to end the inning and instead runners were on the corners with two down and right-handed pinch-hitter Tommy Twineham, a 26-year-old rookie, coming up, which sounded like trouble. Mike Lane was brought in, ran a full count, then got Twineham to hack at ball four to end the inning with a miss.

FINALLY, then, the Raccoons broke through and scored in the bottom 8th. Nicks Fox and Fowler scratched a single and a 2-out walk together, and Ben Morris pressed a grounder through between Lange and Robles with just enough juice to get Fox around to score from second base with the game’s first run. Lonzo flew out to Franks, then sat down for the ninth with Fowler taking over short and Walters going into the #2 hole and giving up a leadoff double to Robles. Carrera’s fly to center allowed the tying run to third base, but Lange’s infield roller for the second out markedly did not allow the bumbling Robles to score from there. It was then the ex-Coon Marcos Chavez to bat with two outs. Walters somehow had no interest to challenge him and threw him garbage four times to walk him, then got Wilks to pop out to shallow right to end the game. 1-0 Blighters. Lavorano 2-5; Nye 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Ayala 0-1, 3 BB; C. Fox 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Chance Fox left seven on base. Sucker.

Game 3
MIL: LF Franks – 2B Garmon – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – RF Milian – CF Wilks – C M. Reed – 3B D. Miller – P Dunn
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – C Fuller – 2B Bean – RF Christopher – P B. Herrera

The Loggers rushed Bobby Herrera for four hits and three runs in the first inning, beginning with an infield single for Franks, but Garmon hit a sharp single after that, and Carrera’s RBI double, Milian’s sac fly, and Wilks’ RBI double brought in the runs galore. It sure felt like ballgame right then and there, and it didn’t get better, because not only did the Raccoons immediately not do anything to alleviate the situation, but the Loggers tacked on a run in the third inning with a Robles double and Milian’s RBI single, 4-0.

Herrera went six without an improvement in the score before the Loggers doubled the score in the seventh inning against mostly Brad Useless, who walked FOUR *and* made an error, giving up three runs on a pair of bases-loaded freebies and Robles’ sac fly to center, and when Bravo replaced him, Milian hit another RBI single to double the score to 8-0. Wilks grounded out to strand a pair. Nick Nye then picked this blowout and a pointless pinch-hitting appearance with two outs in the bottom 7th and Fowler and Christopher on base to hit a 3-piece, his first homer of the year, and it was barely May…

Hits by Miller and Franks against Ricky H. gave the Loggers another run in the eighth, while Fowler hit a sac fly after Starr and Brassfield got on in the bottom 8th. Fuller drove in Brass with a 2-out single, which got the Raccoons all the way back into slam range… 9-5 Loggers. Nye (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI;

In other news

April 27 – LVA SP Steve Hunter (2-1, 2.09 ERA) throws a 1-hitter against the Canadiens, striking out nine in the 5-0 win, with only a single by VAN 1B Jose Campos (.373, 7 HR, 18 RBI) between him and a no-hitter.
April 28 – Vancouver LF/CF Steve Scarpa (.342, 0 HR, 8 RBI) got a diagnosis of a frayed posterior cruciate ligament and was out for the season.
April 28 – NYC SP Ryan Spehar (.230, 0 HR, 13 RBI) suffers a shoulder injury in an on-base collision and will miss up to three weeks.
April 29 – Titans CL Jason Posey (1-1, 5.14 ERA, 4 SV) puts away the 300th game of his career, a 2-1 win against the Indians. Posey, age 35, got his first 296 saves for FL West teams, foremost the Wolves, and was an integral part of the bullpen of the Gold Sox that won four straight championships from 2049 to 2052. He was 62-54 with a 2.73 ERA and 798 strikeouts for his career and twice led the FL in saves.

FL Player of the Week: PIT C Nick Dingman (.289, 7 HR, 21 RBI), crushing it at .348 (8-23) with 6 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.422, 0 HR, 11 RBI), poking .565 (13-23) with 7 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: TOP INF Alex de los Santos (.333, 3 HR, 16 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: SFB RF/LF/1B Jose Escalera (.394, 2 HR, 16 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: CIN SP Cameron Parks (6-0, 2.25 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Vic Harman (4-1, 3.10 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: TOP RF/LF/1B Danny Hernandez (.356, 1 HR, 14 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: LVA OF/1B Jonathan Echols (.316, 1 HR, 10 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Chance Fox had a 1.87 ERA in April, much better than Harman. He struck out 30 batters in 33.2 innings, while keeping the walks to ten. Harman struck out 42 against eight walks, but also gave up six homers, while Foxie Brown gave up only three.

I’m not saying Fox should have been Pitcher of the Month, I’m saying I don’t see how Harman got there other than by business-as-usual as the reigning Pitcher of the Year for the CL.

Omar Sanchez signed a 6-year, $47.4M extension with the Crusaders this week. I wouldn’t want to pay $47.40 for anybody on this ******* roster. I’d rather have a donut with rainbow sprinkles on it. For $47.40, I can even get two of those!

The Raccoons take their sucking outta town now. Yes, even during this 4-2 week they still sucked! Six of our next seven years will be on the road. We start with a trip East to see the Titans and Miners next week, with six cross-country trips on the plate this month. Sometimes I feel that Honeypaws schedules these games, since he has nothing but disdain in his heart for humanity.

Fun Fact: Andy Metz leads the league with 10 homers.

The Raccoons can’t put together and three living and able players’ output to make up ten.

Bottoms in runs scored…! Feels like one of those summers where everything not nailed down gets traded for future disappointment.

Everything not nailed down or named Lonzo.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (10-15) @ Titans (10-14) – May 2-5, 2061

Neither team had gotten the start they wanted, with the Titans simply being cruddy in all regards, allowing the fourth-most runs and scoring the fifth-fewest runs so far. Their rotation was chasing an ERA in the fives, they had neither speed nor defense, and were being without Eddie Marcotte and Jonathan Watson due to injury. Boston had beaten the crap out of the Raccoons, 12-6, last year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Robinson (1-2, 3.82 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (3-1, 1.52 ERA)
Angel Alba (2-2, 7.94 ERA) vs. Jayden Craddock (1-3, 4.91 ERA)
Justin DeRose (1-3, 4.34 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (2-0, 2.13 ERA)
Chance Fox (1-1, 1.87 ERA) vs. Grant MacKinnon (2-2, 7.61 ERA)

These were all right-handers. The Raccoons missed golden boy Jason Brenize, who was not so much of a boy, nor golden, anymore, and off to an 0-4, 6.04 ERA start even without getting pummeled by the Critters.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – RF Christopher – P Robinson
BOS: RF Lloyd – 2B W. de Leon – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – CF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – LF Y. Valdez – SS Bratlien – P Glaude

A leadoff walk to Ben Morris, who stole second base, and a 2-out single by Brassfield gave the Raccoons a quick 1-0 lead to begin the four-game set, although Robinson had that fumbled by the second inning, when he could not retire any of the 6-7-8 batters with two outs and Jacob Bratlien singled home Diego Mendoza to tie the game. It was also raining by the third inning, and pretty soon the game went to an hourlong rain delay in the baseball god’s petty attempt to further derail the Raccoons’ pitching staff.

When play resumed, two Nicks and a Joey loaded the bases to begin the top 4th, bringing up another Nick with three on and nobody out against Glaude, who went to a full count on the opposing pitcher, then lost Robinson to a tie-breaking, bases-loaded walk. It was Glaude’s sixth free pass of the game. He rung up Morris, but gave up a run on a Lonzo single and another on Starr’s groundout. When he walked Brass with two outs, he was yanked for Adam Gardner, who got Angel Perez to pop out to Willie de Leon to end the inning. Robinson got through five rain-addled innings with the 4-1 lead, which Joel Starr extended to 5-1 with a homer off Gardner, his long-awaited second circuit blow of the year, in the top 6th. Reynaldo Bravo then stumbled into a bases-loaded situation in the bottom 6th before striking out Bratlien and getting a groundout from PH Matt Gilmore to leave three Titans stranded. Starr narrowly missed a second homer in the eighth inning, while LaBat and Mendez followed Bravo with competent relief, while the Titans’ Andy Younge and Gabe Hill exploded for four runs in the ninth inning. Younge first put Brass and Nye on base, then gave up a 2-run double to Nick Fowler, which was swiftly followed by Jack Kozak banging a pinch-hit 2-run homer off Hill. 9-1 Raccoons! Ayala (PH) 1-1; Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Starr 2-5, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-3, 3 BB, RBI; Fowler 2-5, 2 RBI; Christopher 1-2, 2 BB; Kozak (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – RF Christopher – P Alba
BOS: SS Lloyd – RF Y. Valdez – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – CF A. Lee – LF Ramires – 2B D. Mendoza – 3B Bratlien – P Craddock

Pretty soon, Angel Alba was only in the game to cover some more innings before his inevitable demotion to St. Petersburg. Manny Rubin took him deep his first two trips to the plate, and he offered three walks just the first time through the order, two of which scored: Ted Lloyd ahead of Rubin’s first jack, and Bill Ramires on a hit by Bratlien in the bottom 2nd. It was 3-0 after two, then 4-1 after three with Rubin’s second homer mingling with Ben Morris’ driving home of Joe-Chris, who got a bigger appearance in the box score in the fourth inning. Demoted to the #8 hole for simply neither hitting nor walking, Christopher came up with Perez and Fowler on base and two outs, and cranked a 425-footer over the fence in right, tying the score at four.

That tie didn’t survive another plate appearance by Rubin in the bottom 5th, where he doubled home Yoslan Valdez with the go-ahead run, then scored himself on a triple by Andy Lee, 6-4. That was the shambolic end for Alba, yanked for Brad Loveless, who was pretty much in line to be sent to AAA right along with him *either* for going long *or* failing to do so. He struck out Ramires, though, which at least ended the fifth inning, and then Diego Mendoza to begin the sixth before the inning degenerated into a clown show with two walks offered by Loveless in between two errors committed by him and Christopher. Somehow the Titans scored only one run before Rubin struck out to leave the bases loaded in the 7-4 game.

Christopher, Fowler, and Morris loaded the bases with the tying runs in the top 7th ahead of Lonzo, who stepped into the box with one out and with Craddock still hoarding the baseballs. Lonzo’s grounder to short was briefly bungled by Lloyd, which cost the Titans the double play. One run scored, while Morris was out at second base. Starr then popped out to Lloyd to leave the tying runs on the corners. The eighth was uneventful, and the ninth began with Jason Posey nicking Christopher to invite Kozak to the plate as the tying run, batting for Mike Lane. Kozak grounded into a fielder’s choice to remove Christopher from the bases, but Posey then nicked Morris as well. Lonzo, however, grounded to short again, and this time Lloyd had all his hands under control and the Titans did get the 6-4-3 double play to end the game. 7-5 Titans. Morris 2-4, RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1; Christopher 2-3, HR, 3 RBI;

Around this time Noah Caswell suffered a setback with his knee sprain and he would be out until the second half of May, and then probably need a rehab assignment, so things could not have been going much wickeder indeed.

Both Angel Alba (2-3, 8.72 ERA) and Brad Loveless (0-0, 3.68 ERA) were booted from the roster after the Tuesday game and replaced with two right-handed relievers, Bryan Erickson and Paul Barton, the latter making his ABL debut. He had posted a 2.08 ERA in St. Pete after initially being demoted there after he had signed a big-league contract at the end of the offseason.

Yes, we’d need a starter on Sunday. But we also only needed that fifth starter twice in the next 20 games, and would manipulate the roster rules a bit to get the most out of that 13th pitcher’s spot for the time being.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 2B Nye – RF Christopher – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – P DeRose
BOS: SS Lloyd – RF Y. Valdez – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – CF A. Lee – 2B D. Mendoza – LF Caron – 3B Bratlien – P M. Bell

Joey Christopher *really* wanted that spot atop the order back, even though he went about it in weird ways with his second 3-run homer in two days. This time he took Bell out of the ballpark in the second inning after Brass had reached on an error and Nye singled, for a quick 3-0 lead. Nick Fox then doubled and was singled home by DeRose for a 4-0 lead in the same inning. Tim Fuller added another run with a 2-out single that scored Brassfield in the third inning. This time Brass singled and Christopher walked before both pulled off a double steal. DeRose meanwhile wasn’t helping with the overworked bullpen issue and threw a staggering 61 pitches in three innings – without giving up a run. But he was behind everybody, walked two and nailed one, gave up two hits, and somehow the Titans couldn’t get ahead of this guy…

DeRose threw six shutout innings on 107 pitches in the end, holding a lead that grew to 6-0 with Tim Fuller’s first Coons homer in the sixth inning. And as soon as he was gone, the bullpen stepped on another rake that hit them full in the snout. Erickson came in, allowed three straight singles and a run on Lloyd’s groundout, then yielded for Ricky H., who struck out Valdez, but then was taken deep for a 3-piece by Jorge Arviso… The Raccoons would also have their first three batters on base against foundering Art Schaeffer (12.00 ERA) in the top 8th with straight singles for Nye, Christopher, and Fuller. Schaeffer walked in a run against Nick Fox, then another one against Kozak, then was yanked for Andy Younge, who put the pillow firmly on the snouts of the 1-2-3 batters and prevented the Coons from getting another run, let alone a hit with the bases loaded…

Bottom 8th, the Titans also put three on with nobody out against Bravo. Mendoza led off with a single and Bravo then walked the bags full against Anson Caron and Bratlien, at which point I was getting slightly annoyed with the lot of them. Alex Abecassis struck out, but Ted Lloyd singled home a run and Bravo was yanked straight for Matt Walters, who was faced with PH Isaiah Dickerson, but oversaw the right-handed batter grounding straight into a double play to kill the inning. Top 9th, and for the fourth straight half-inning a team filled the bags with nobody out. Brass doubled against Mike Pohlmann, who walked Nye, then threw a wild pitch before the intentional walk was doled out to Christopher. Again, no runs were scored from three on and nobody out, as Tim Fuller grounded into a force at home, Fox grounded out, and Kozak whiffed. At least Walters retired the Titans in order in the bottom 9th… 8-5 Raccoons. Brassfield 3-5, 2B; Nye 2-4, BB; Christopher 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Fuller 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Walters 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (6);

Can we get just ONE well-pitched game in Boston…??

Unrelated, Lonzo got the day off on Thursday, along with Morris.

Game 4
POR: RF Christopher – CF Ayala – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 2B Nye – C Perez – SS Fowler – 3B N. Fox – P C. Fox
BOS: RF Lloyd – 2B W. de Leon – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Mendoza – LF Y. Valdez – CF Caron – SS Bratlien – P MacKinnon

The three on, nobody out parade continued on Thursday. The top 2nd saw Brass on with a hit before Nye reached when Bratlien dropped his pop behind short, and Perez hit a scratch single. Finally, though, some mook broke through with a nock, and it was Fowler with a 2-run double to left, the first markers on the board in the game, and Nick Fox repeated the feat with a 2-run double to *right* immediately afterwards. Foxie Brown struck out before Christopher singled home Foxie Nick, 5-0, but the inning ended with an Ayala pop and Christopher being caught stealing. In a perfect world, Chance Fox would then have pitched a shutdown inning, but instead he gave up howling doubles to Rubin and Mendoza in the bottom 2nd, and surrendered the second run on a grounder and Anson Caron’s sac fly… The same area of the lineup gave Fox bothers again in the fourth inning when Arviso and Rubin hit leadoff singles against him. He then got two outs, but walked Caron, prompting a mound conference. Luckily Bratlien would chop a comebacker right at Fox, and he would take it to Starr to end the inning, still ahead 5-2, but Bratlien would bat again with two outs and two on in the sixth inning and then singled home Mendoza with another Boston run. Andy Lee would ground out to end the inning then, and it was also the end of Chance Fox’ outing.

Meanwhile, the Raccoons hadn’t done a lick on offense in the past four innings. MacKinnon lasted five after getting beaten bloody in the top 2nd, but by the seventh the Titans were back with Art Schaeffer, and whatever was wrong with him was deeply, deeply wrong, because in the blink of an eye the bases were full with nobody out yet again. Lonzo batted for Chance Fox here and got drilled, which got a run home and me grumbling, but Lonzo eventually dragged himself to first base in one piece. Christopher struck out, but Ayala got home a run with a groundout. The Titans hooked Schaeffer and went to Gabe Hill, but Starr romped a rocket through Rubin for a 2-run double against the southpaw, extending the score to 9-3. Brass grounded out to end the inning.

Paul Barton made his ABL debut for good in the bottom 7th, allowing a single to de Leon and a walk to Arviso, but got out of his own mess without making the score interesting again. The eighth was quiet, while the ninth saw Hill take more abuse by the Raccoons. Nick Fox singled, as did Christopher. Ayala hit an RBI double, and Starr’s grounder brought in a second run. Bean batted for Brass, and bashed an RBI single over the second base bag into centerfield before Ruben Mendez put the lid on. 12-3 Critters! Christopher 2-5, RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1, RBI; Perez 2-4, 2B; N. Fox 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (13-16) @ Miners (14-14) – May 6-8, 2061

The Raccoons had not seen the Miners the last two years, but had won the last four regular season meetings with them, each time two games to one. Of their six Rule 5 picks made last December, four were still on the roster, but somehow they were holding it together somewhat nicely in the FL East. They were fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed in the Federal League, with a -6 run differential (Coons: -8), although the bullpen was bleeding runs at a 5.58 ERA, and that was where three of the four remaining Rule 5ers were in, the other being catcher Danny Wallet. An ex-Coon, Takenori Tanizaki, was on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (1-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (1-1, 2.12 ERA)
Nick Robinson (2-2, 3.53 ERA) vs. Cory Ritter (3-2, 1.88 ERA)
J.J. Sensabaugh (0-0, 12.60 ERA) vs. Sean Sweeton (3-2, 5.35 ERA)

No southpaws this week, missing Mike Jacobs (2-2, 5.30 ERA) by a day. And yes, Sensabaugh on Sunday, because the Raccoons had nobody else that would merit a callup and getting waffled for his debut.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – RF Christopher – C Perez – 3B N. Fox – 2B Bean – P B. Herrera
PIT: 2B A. Vasquez – SS Mayer – 1B K. Price – C N. Dingman – CF A. Cruz – RF McIntyre – LF Kaneshiro – 3B A. Duncan – P Ju. Juarez

Lonzo was nicked and stole his 11th base out of spite in the first inning, but was left on base, while the only active guy he trailed on the all-time stolen base table, Alex Vasquez, was on the other side of the box score, leading off, but had only ONE stolen base on the year, and Lonzo was now only *six* bags behind him. But overall offense was slow out of the gate with only one hit per team through three innings, and no runs on the board. The Raccoons would take a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on an unearned run as Brass reached second base on a throwing error by Brendan Mayer before being singled home with two outs by Angel Perez.

Bobby H. had four strong innings, then stumbled and couldn’t get up in the bottom 5th. Antonio Cruz drew a leadoff walk, then stole second and reached third on Perez’ throwing error. Will McIntyre singled him home to tie the game before a slow and excruciating process began of Herrera painstakingly loading the bases with an Adam Duncan single and a full-count walk drawn by Vasquez. However, Mayer grounded out to Lonzo to end the inning and the score remained 1-1.

The Coons then couldn’t score from Joel Starr’s leadoff walk in the sixth, but got a leadoff double from Nick Fox in the seventh for another shot at the board. He was never advanced from there while Bean popped out, Herrera whiffed, Morris was plonked, and Lonzo flew out to Tomokazu “Tom” Kaneshiro. Instead, the Miners went up 2-1 in the same inning thanks to a pinch-hit leadoff triple by Angel Angulo, and a sac fly by another pinch-hitter, Mike Velazquez.

Top 8th, and three different Miners relievers put three Raccoons on base without retiring any of them in the interim. Starr and Brass singled, Kozak walked, and then Josh Doyle inherited that whole mess. Perez’ deep fly to center was caught by Cruz, but deep enough to tie the game at least. Fox lined out and Bean grounded out to fumble the rest of the runners into oblivion. Vasquez then hit a leadoff single off Bobby Herrera in the bottom 8th, made no motion to steal a base, and was doubled off by Mayer. A fly to center by Kevin Price ended the inning. The Coons then had Nick Nye hit a leadoff single in Bobby Herrera’s spot to begin the ninth inning, but Nye was caught stealing, and Ricky Herrera’s scoreless bottom 9th sent the game to extras, and extended the game in the tenth, in which nobody reached base on either side. In the 11th, Perez hit a single and was doubled off by Fox. The Miners got Price and Angulo on with singles against Ruben Mendez in the 11th, but were left on the corners when Kaneshiro struck out. The Miners could not even overcome Erickson in the 12th even when their battered Rule 5 reliever Ivan Rodriguez reached with a bloop single. Speaking of battered Rule 5 reliever, Rodriguez at that point had already pitched two scoreless innings. Rodriguez walked Kozak to begin the 13th, and Velazquez made an error at third base to add Perez to the bases with nobody out. Fox’ fielder’s choice grounder moved the go-ahead run to third base, and Jon Bean finally got the go-ahead run home with a sac fly to right-center…! An Ayala single in Erickson’s place put runners back on the corners, but Morris struck out to end the inning. Walters then put the Miners away rather briskly, for he still had dinner reservations. 3-2 Critters. Perez 2-5, 2 RBI; Bean 2-5, RBI; Nye (PH) 1-1; Ayala (PH) 1-1; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K; R. Herrera 2.0 IP 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Playing 13 innings without an extra-base knock usually does make for some chewy scoring…

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Morris – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – 1B Kozak – P Robinson
PIT: 2B A. Vasquez – SS Mayer – 1B K. Price – CF A. Cruz – RF McIntyre – 3B A. Duncan – C Wallet – LF Daniels – P Ritter

The Raccoons had four hits in the first, including a 2-run homer for Brassfield for the early lead, and then two 2-out singles by Perez and Nye, who were stranded on Fowler’s flyout. The 6-7 Nicks would hit a pair of singles in the fourth, but were stranded by Kozak and Robinson, and Christopher’s leadoff walk in the fifth went by way of Lonzo hitting into a double play. The Miners would have four hits off Robinson scattered across the first four innings, getting nowhere in particular with that, but then beginning with Ritter – of all people – began a four-hit onslaught against Robinson that would tie up the game. Ritter advanced on a wild pitch after his 1-out single, then scored on a Vasquez single. Mayer and Price also singled to bring in Vasquez with the tying run before Cruz grounded out and Will McIntyre whiffed.

In total, Robinson gave up nine hits in six innings, but held the 2-2 tie. The Miners also could not take the lead in the seventh when Fowler made a throwing error for two bases on Mayer’s grounder with LaBat pitching. Ex-Coon Juan Ojeda, batting .372 in limited action, got the PH assignment in place of Antonio Cruz, and the Raccoons brought Mike Lane against the righty stick, who popped out to Fowler to end the inning.

Top 8th, and the Raccoons got Ben Morris on as the leadoff man when he was brushed by Jim Reynolds. He stole second, but Brass walked behind him anyway. Perez’ grounder moved the two runners into scoring position, putting the go-ahead run on third base with one out for Nick Nye, and then Nick Fowler after an intentional walk was issued. Fowler grounded sharply up the middle where Mayer knocked down the ball on the lunge. A double play was not on the plate, but when Mayer dropped the ball from his glove, the Miners got nobody at all, and the Coons still had them loaded with a 3-2 lead. Starr batted for Kozak and dished a sac fly to deep center. Reynolds walked Ayala with two outs, but Christopher flew out to leave three on base. Paul Barton then retired three right-handed batters competently in the bottom 8th to hold the 4-2 lead, and Matt Walters fanned the side in the ninth inning to put the Miners away. 4-2 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Nye 2-3, BB;

One game away from getting back to .500 … and now we bring in Sensabaugh.

Weak move.

Erickson (1-0, 8.31 ERA) was sent out to make room on the roster.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – C Fuller – LF Ayala – P Sensabaugh
PIT: 2B A. Vasquez – SS Mayer – 1B K. Price – C N. Dingman – CF A. Cruz – LF Daniels – RF Kaneshiro – 3B A. Duncan – P Sweeton

The hope was not for a W. The hope was to get five innings, somehow, anyhow, out of Sensabaugh and then yoink him off the roster again right away. He walked two in the first, one more in the second, and somehow got a 2-0 lead on Ben Morris’ homer with Fuller on base in the third inning… after he almost bunted into a double play. He proved hard to hit though, as the Miners continued to struggle with and didn’t know what to do with his whiffleballs. They didn’t have a base hit through four innings, then saw Sweeton be surrounded by Critters on Ayala getting knocked and Morris drawing a walk, then Lonzo reaching on an error by Adam Duncan, Gold Glover, to make it three on and one out for Starr. Joel Starr began to have better swings and the balls were flying further than in April, but he didn’t get all of the first-pitch assault here and flew out to Kaneshiro near the warning track – but that was good enough to get Ayala home with a sac fly. The inning ended with Lonzo being caught stealing, keeping it a 3-0 game.

A Tom Kaneshiro double in the bottom 5th signaled that Sensabaugh might be in season now, and he walked the bags full against Duncan and Vasquez. After a mound conference, he managed to strike out a hitting-eager Mayer to get out of that jam, somehow. Sensabaugh would return for the bottom 6th, walking Price and getting Brassfield to track down a Nick Dingman drive, but then was lifted. LaBat entered with Nick Fox in a double switch that sent Fowler home and worked out of the inning against the 5-6 batters. He walked Duncan in the bottom 7th, but finished that inning, too.

Still up 3-0 in the eighth, the Raccoons tried to tack on against their former teammate Sweeton, who got Morris to strike out to begin the inning, but then allowed a Lonzo single and a Starr double, both to center, but the Miners’ Antonio Cruz’ throw in shooed Lonzo back to third base. Brass ran a 3-1 count, but fancied himself an RBI and strung a liner to shallow center for an RBI single, 4-0, and that knocked out Sweeton. Nye hit a sac fly off Ivan Rodriguez to get to 5-0. The Raccoons then sent in Barton for the bottom 8th again. He got two outs, then was plonked for three straight singles by Dingman, Cruz, and Nathan Daniels, and gave up his first ABL run. Ricky H. then rescued him, striking out Kaneshiro to get out of the inning. Rodriguez then began the top 9th by walking Fuller before allowing a single to Angel Perez, pinch-hitting for Ayala, and another walk to Fox. Three on and nobody out, thusly, for the umpteenth time – I counted! – this week. Morris drew a bases-loaded walk, but Lonzo then hit into a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play. Starr hit another ball hard and to an outfielder, leaving Fox on third base. The Coons were then trying to get Ricky H. the save he was in line with despite the 6-run lead. He did get it by finishing the game – but not without giving up a run on hits by right-handed batters McIntyre, who doubled to left, and Mayer, who hit a 2-out RBI single to right. 7-2 Raccoons. Morris 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Lavorano 2-5; Fuller 2-3, BB; Perez (PH) 1-1; LaBat 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

In other news

May 2 – A ligament tear in his thumb will cost ATL C Marco Nieto (.345, 0 HR, 4 RBI) at least a month on the DL.
May 5 – The Capitals have a 5-run rally in the bottom 9th to beat the Buffaloes, 7-6. The comeback is capped by an RBI single hit by WAS OF/1B Gunner Epperson (.364, 5 HR, 21 RBI).
May 8 – Scorpions INF Victor Corrales (.348, 4 HR, 32 RBI) misses the cycle by the homer in a five-hit, four-RBI effort during the Scorpions’ 16-12 slugfest win against the Bayhawks.
May 8 – The Crusaders acquire OF/1B Hector Weir (.278, 0 HR, 2 RBI) from the Gold Sox, along with a prospect, for catcher Curt Goodwin (.333, 3 HR, 13 RBI).
May 8 – Wolves C Ben Newman (.214, 5 HR, 14 RBI) hits a 2-run walkoff shot for the only scoring in the Wolves’ 2-0 win against the Condors.

FL Player of the Week: SAC 1B Jay Rogers (.339, 5 HR, 22 RBI), batting .400 (12-30) with 1 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC UT Omar Sanchez (.347, 0 HR, 11 RBI), hitting .517 (15-29) with 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Well, well, back to .500 after a 6-1 week! Also in runs scored: 139 for the fuzzy Critters, and 139 for all the mean guys out there.

This comes with the second-worst team batting average in the FL, the third-worst OBP, but upper-third ranks in homers and stolen bases. For sure there was room for improvements in the lineup, but not necessarily in the budget.

There were three players in AAA that were potential fill-ins at third base that were having an OPS+ over 100 in that league, and we knew all of them by name: Tony Benitez, David Gonzales, and Armando Suriel.

Prospects among the lot: zero.
Big-league PA’s between them: 1,003
Collective OPS for them in those: .585

Sensabaugh walked six in 5.1 innings of 1-hit ball, and didn’t allow a run on Sunday. I can’t decide whether we send him back to St. Pete or to Morrison’s, by favorite butcher in town.

The Coons will be in the Northwest next week. We will host the Warriors for three games, then play in Elk City on the weekend to start a grueling 4-city road trip that will see a 3-timezone trip after every station, all the way until they’ll be back home at the end of the month.

Fun Fact: 47 years ago today, two players both had 3-home run games.

The Warriors’ Jamie Wilson bombed the Scorpions for three homers in an 11-2 game in Sioux Falls, while the Knights’ Gil Rockwell – later a Critter – hit three home runs in a losing effort against the Bayhawks, who won the game 6-5.

This happened twice in the league. The other time it happened, on August 2, 2024, the Raccoons were involved, getting clobbered three times by the damn Elks’ Alex Torres.