Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[DD Martin]

And Scott from accounting says there is how many Pennie’s to splurge on bats, bats and more bats.

And yes I’m optimistic that the Portland brain trust can get the job done on a shoestring

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

And Scott from accounting says there is how many Pennie’s to splurge on bats, bats and more bats.

And yes I’m optimistic that the Portland brain trust can get the job done on a shoestring

Steve from Accounting says we'll have around $10M, maybe $11M, and your season tickets just got 10% more expensive.

And we could finish bottoms in runs scored with Rich Monck and Ramon Lopez, and we damn right can finish bottoms in runs scored without them!!

That's the spirit!

[Westheim]

There was not a whole lot of time left in October, and the Raccoons were looking for a new head scout, so things were naturally not going to get off to a fast start. Paul Barton cleared waivers, which wasn’t gonna do a whole lot for him in the long run. Meanwhile, from the sound of it, the Titans were about to fail to agree to an extension with Jason “Billions!” Brenize, but that didn’t make me entirely confident that we’d have a whiff at him in the upcoming offseason. Hey, at least he was used to not having any runs scored for him!

The train went off the rails fast, though, when our preferred candidate for the scouting job, Oscar Semchez, suddenly quadrupled his asking price, and the Coons couldn’t afford a shortstop for $1.5M a year, let alone some pencil pusher, so we were out of that conversation and instead had to go look elsewhere, having already lost precious time.

Things then got even more complicated when we were about to hammer out the contract with another scout, and suddenly Semchez’ signed contract fluttered in with the mail – at the old going rate. What an embarrassment, and a great base to start working from…!

And would do we do with the other contract now? – Fine, Maud, I’ll let our Legal department sort this out. (hands the papers to Chad, the mascot, who gives a big enthusiastic thumbs up)

The Portland Shambles did actually achieve a couple of things before the salary arbitration deadline, and settled with all their arbitration candidates (not: Barton). There were identical 1-year deals worth $575k for stickless Critters Pablo Novelo and Randy Tallent, $670k for Ricky McMahan, and $770k for Jesse Dover. Justin Dowsey had no interest in signing a long-year deal with this clusterfluff of a franchise and settled for $1.44M while counting the days until he’d be a free agent (1,095 – roughly – at this point).

But the big news was the 8-year, $19.6M deal that Nick Walla signed with the Raccoons that would carry him all the way through the 2075 season with the Critters. The deal started at $800k for the upcoming season and would have $600k tacked on every year until it reached $3.2M, the going rate for the last four years. It was heavy with incentives, but I wouldn’t be angry if Walla won a couple of Pitcher of the Year medals along the way… Walla thus replaced Jose Corral as the Raccoon due the most remaining dosh.

Neither Rich Monck nor Ramon Lopez accepted salary arbitration offers required to qualify us for compensation picks, and thus became free agents. Monck had been with the Critters for five years, winning a home run crown in ’64, and hit 131 home runs and had 477 RBI in total while batting .288. Lopez had been here two years, batting .263 with 25 homers and 134 RBI. In a better time, we would have tried to keep both.

Farewell also to Chance Fox, the #3 pick in the 2053 draft, who had made 276 appearances (243 starts) across ten seasons for the Raccoons, going 89-77 with a 3.79 ERA and a save. He collected 1,110 strikeouts in 1533 innings. In 2061, he was an All Star in an 11-9, 3.04 ERA season.

A number of minor leaguers also filed for free agency there, of whom Marco Campos, Jeff Applegate, Sandy Pineda, and J.J. Sensabaugh (!) had pitched in the majors for us. Sensabaugh, who had come in with Justin DeRose in a deadline deal in 2057 and had pitched quad-A duty for a decade, had compiled a 16-15 record with a 4.98 ERA in 93 games (29 starts) for Portland. He had made 224 appearances (115 starts) in St. Petersburg in that period.

+++

October 30 – The Warriors send SP Adam McDonald (33-43, 4.04 ERA) and cash to the Rebs for #134 prospect SP Matthew Stratford, who just three months earlier had gone the other way between the two teams in the Luis Olvera trade.
November 2 – The Thunder acquire 3B/SS Brian Robinson (.300, 22 HR, 239 RBI) from the Miners in exchange for OF J.D. Johnson (.273, 30 HR, 201 RBI) and a prospect.
November 7 – The Condors seem to have tired of the 2067 season’s #5 prospect, MR Matt Guadagno (4-2, 2.27 ERA, 2 SV), and send him to the Knights for two new prospects.
November 18 – The Titans send 2B/1B Rich Cabrera (.258, 96 HR, 398 RBI) to the Cyclones for UT Dave Canning (.231, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and #114 prospect OF Mario Valverde.
November 19 – The Raccoons trade 36-year-old veteran SP Ryan Musgrave (118-135, 4.03 ERA) to the Pacifics for 27-yr old CF/RF Eddy Ramirez (.248, 66 HR, 302 RBI).
November 20 – Portland snatches right-handed swingman George Kehoe (3-0, 2.13 ERA, 4 SV) from the Blue Sox for the price of 2B Ryan Bonner (.298, 0 HR, 19 RBI).

+++

Semchez’ review of our pitching staff was less than glowing and he considered Musgrave toast, so the Raccoons got something out of him before he could get buttered and jammed for a full season. Ramirez gives us a solid right-handed bat for the bench, and he’s on almost an identical contract to Musgrave, so the move wasn’t costing anything. On the other paw, we were now down to four starting pitchers.

Semchez also recommended purging Bonner, who had ****** defense and was a singles slapper that had to hit over .300 to be worth anything. In turn, the Quebecois Kehoe had a devastating knuckle curve, and while there were some yellow flags in his file, he had been a fairly good starting pitcher in AAA, but had never gotten a starting assignment from the Sox. He had only two-and-a-half pitches and mediocre stamina, but on the other paw … (dramatically flicks a paw around, palm up) … we had Cody ******* Childress posting a 7.01 ERA across a pawful of awful starts late this year.

Now, Semchez had indeed more ideas of whom to get rid of, but we still needed a minimum of 25 players to be viable, so we had to take this step by step… Hey, maybe we could sign a free agent!

Due to some savings on Nick Walla (and foregoing bothering with Barton any longer) the Raccoons managed to clear some more dimes off the books and would enter the offseason with just over $12M of budget room, plus $2.32M in cash. While that would certainly get a player or two acquired, it wasn’t gonna build a working team, so competing in 2068 was not even on the roadmap. Also… (points at the bucket in the corner of the office that catches a slow drip from the ceiling) …it’s getting wet in here in more ways than one. So that’s gonna cost some coins to fix.

Well a catcher was needed for sure, but right-handed backup catchers were a dime a dozen, and the big hole was probably at third base if you accepted that Carlos Gutierrez’ best position was second base and didn’t want to get rid of Novelo just yet – although Novelo could also play third base in case a slugging shortstop who was also a Gold Glover fell into our laps. And he could also sit his tush on the ******* bench.

How funny that we had seven infielders on the roster, and once you subtracted the set Starr and Gutierrez, you had five guys (Novelo, Arantes, Arredondo, Gates, Davis) that couldn’t hit a singular lick between them… Improvement would definitely come on the infield, because our starting outfielders had all hit for a 110 OPS+ or better (with a max of 117 on Dowsey, so keep your shirt on please) in ’67, and margins were slim with our limited funds and reluctance to give up (second-round) draft picks.

Unfortunately it appeared like Rich Monck was pretty much the best left-side-of-the-infield guy out there and clearly above-100 OPS+ guys were not going to be available just like that. Richmond’s Jason Turner was a type-A free agent. Longtime Boston infielder Diego Mendoza was on the market; batting right-handed he could balance a lineup that was left-handed to a fault last season, and that was before we went to a left-handed hitting catcher for a primary. However, expecting more than league-average batting from Mendoza would be foolish. He had won a Gold Glove at third base in ’63, and had led the league in doubles a few times and was good for double digit homers, but he was allergic to ball four and struck out a lot.

One suggestion was to go for both Mendoza and Jared Duhe – who had been traded for each other in May! – the latter still being on the Cyclones. Duhe was one of the best OBP guys in the league right now and would fit very well at short, with Mendoza at third base. Duhe would lead off and Jared Wilson would fit better in the #2 hole anyway, opined Semchez, attempting to make himself useful.

+++

2067 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.308, 33 HR, 126 RBI) and MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.354, 26 HR, 134 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (16-7, 3.39 ERA) and BOS SP Jason Brenize (22-6, 2.45 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW LF/CF/1B Beau Metz (.275, 9 HR, 63 RBI) and LVA RF/LF Alfredo Rosado (.306, 11 HR, 49 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: CIN MR Pedro Valentin (6-3, 2.51 ERA, 3 SV) and OCT CL Erik Swain (2-5, 1.64 ERA, 44 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P SAL Jimmy Nelson – C PIT Nick Dingman – 1B LAP Alejandro Olivares – 2B DAL Adam Yocum – 3B SAC J.P. Gallo – SS NAS Tony Gaines – LF SFW Danny Perez – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF NAS Austin Gordon
Platinum Sticks (CL): P OCT Danny Baca – C BOS Jorge Arviso – 1B MIL Cesar Ramirez – 2B MIL Tim Goss – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS MIL Fidel Carrera – LF LVA Victor Lorenzo – CF BOS Eddie Marcotte – RF MIL Carlos Dominguez
Gold Gloves (FL): P DAL Andy Canada – C SAL Fernando Contreras – 1B SAC Jon Barrientos – 2B RIC Alberto Bonilla – 3B DEN Dallas Stockton – SS SFW Tomas Guangorena – LF CIN Melvin Avila – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF RIC Willie Ospina
Gold Gloves (CL): P ATL Keith Thompson – C TIJ Mike Brann – 1B OCT Ian Stone – 2B CHA John Schmidt – 3B POR Rich Monck – SS CHA Trent Taylor – LF BOS Steve Humphries – CF OCT Coby Thore – RF SFB Jake Ward

Yay, finally a trophy! – and then right out the door with him. -.-

[Westheim]

A.J. Taylor had been taken with the #39 pick in the 2064 draft and had then immediately been named the #2 prospect at the start o the next season. The Raccoons got paws on him that July when they traded Josh Elling, Jack Kozak (who had completely disappeared, hadn’t he??), and Tetsu Kurihara to the Thunder or a package of him, Ricky Baca, and George van Otterdijk (who we might yet hear or see about next season).

Two-and-a-half years later, and Taylor was still being ranked in the top 5 of prospects. And I just didn’t know ******* WHY.

There was no major discussion to be had about his defense, which consisted of good range, a good arm, slightly clumsy paws, but surely enough to play a competent middle infield with the glove. He had the potential to be the next serial stolen base champion, too. But the bat…! The bat…! The Thunder had him in single-A Tempe until the Coons swooped in and put him in Ham Lake right after the trade. He had made 14 appearances with the Alley Cats this September because bodies were needed there after the Coons bolstered their collapsing roster, and we’d not go too deep into how he had batted .224 of mostly singles in those 14 games. It was the AA performance that was despairing me.

In 321 games at Ham Lake, A.J. Taylor, a top 5 prospect throughout, and 23 years old this coming March, had batted .219/.322/.336 with 20 homers and 106 RBI. And even then only 64 stolen bases. In other words, he had produced NOTHING.

It’s not like we were not sorely aware of this already, but Oscar Semchez came in and the issue of turning him into something, anything of value before it was too late was right at the top of his to-do list. Semchez urged me to get rid of Taylor at least three times a day, and it was frankly becoming somewhat annoying. Yes, Mom! Okay…! I’ll *do* it…!!

The other issue was the team chemistry, and Semchez had read enough about that to encourage personnel changes in that regard. The worst offenders for clubhouse malcontents were unfortunately three pitchers that kept the staff glued together and the guy that had hit nicely down the stretch (well, in August at least), and was now tapped to be the new starting second baseman. We had already floated Jesse Dover and Josh C (no, I can never remember his name, hence the “C”) on the shopping wire, where they generated no interest, and I wasn’t keen on axing the switch-hitting Gutierrez just yet, so to get somewhere here we had to deal with Shoma Nakayama. The stories about the rancid Raccoons clubhouse were so bad that even usually absent owner Adam Valdes phoned in to voice his concerns and demand action.

Thankfully, dangling a #3 prospect was a good way to get the attention of other teams’ GMs…

+++

November 23 – The Loggers deal SP Ramon Carreno (81-108, 4.08 ERA) and $1.5M in cash to the Crusaders for 30-yr old 2B Chance Brantly (.247, 4 HR, 19 RBI) and a prospect.
November 25 – In a jaw-dropping trade, the Raccoons send SP Shoma Nakayama (32-43, 3.79 ERA) and #3 prospect INF A.J. Taylor to the Cyclones for 30-yr old INF Jared Duhe (.264, 37 HR, 310 RBI), 28-yr old current FL Reliever of the Year MR Pedro Valentin (17-14, 3.05 ERA, 28 SV), and 27-yr old AAA SP Randy Rautenstrauch (16-14, 4.58 ERA).
November 26 – The Condors sign up former Rebels SS Jason Turner (.247, 118 HR, 560 RBI) for $6.88M over two years.
November 27 – Milwaukee acquires right-handed swingman B.J. Butrico (8-11, 4.01 ERA, 4 SV) from the Wolves for two prospects, including #176 SP Justin Miller.

+++

The Agitator was so baffled they failed to come up with new superlatives to describe the stupidity of the Raccoons front office, which was all fine by me. But there were a lot of items in that trade, and so far we had only talked about three of them. Duhe was going to slot in as leadoff man and in whatever position we’d finally need him in. The two pitchers were interesting because we added more sturdy relief in Valentin and his curveball that had batters look sillier than most breaking balls on the circuit.

And then there was Randy Rautenstrauch – yes, absolutely from the Jimmy Eichelkraut school of family names, and you hadn’t seen the unsteady look in his eyes yet! – who had an absolutely BAFFLING career trajectory so far. Rautenstrauch had been taken #6 in the 2061 draft, and you may recall that he was high on our draft board and mentioned in the hotlist, but the Coons were *good* at that time (imagine??) and didn’t pick until #21, where we’d get Jake Flowe from that year. From there, Rautenstrauch worked his way up a level each year and spent all of 2064 in the Cyclones’ rotation, going 11-9 with a 4.19 ERA. He hit a rough spot with control struggles the year after, went 5-5 with a 5.07 ERA before being returned to AAA – and never made it back. HOWEVER: over the last two seasons, which he had spent exclusively in AAA Glendale, he had gone 31-6 with a 2.76 ERA and improving control, and had NEVER gotten a call back. And I just COULDN’T FIGURE OUT ******* WHY!!

Anyway, he’d fit excellently into our puzzle of “Are they starters or are they not?” which gained increasingly more pieces as we moved along here. Him, and Rios, and Kehoe, and whatever still hung around the roster here – you got to fill the rotation somehow…!

Right now we had only those question marks behind Walla and Gaytan, which made you wonder whether a free agent starting pitcher was called for. Not a type A, of course.

If you wanted to keep your draft picks, then the best options around out there were about 32/33 years old and showing first signs of wear. Josh Elling could be reunited with the Raccoons as free agent, but was visibly losing his stuff already. Marco Clemente and Preston Young came with similar baggage. Loggers pitcher Girolamo “Pizza” Pizzichini was a free agent, but demanded too much money for our tastes, and now that I said “Pizza” I already had a couple of our outfielders climb up my legs with hunger in their eyes.

Then there was Alex Dominguez, who had gone 7-2 with a 2.30 ERA last year before tearing a flexor tendon in June. He was a toss-up for being ready on Opening Day, but if he could return to that performance he was certainly one of the best options out there. Huge gamble, though, unless you could get him on a 1-year deal to build value.

[DD Martin]

Would be curious to hear the scouting report from Semchez on ol’ Double RR.

I am a big character believer too, so casting off Nakayama could help in the long run.

Looks like you freed up another $3 million. Is that basher fella from Dallas on the market? I know if he is, he’s a type A but maybe that’s what Portland needs. Your #6 pick is protected isn’t it? So it would be your 2nd rounder.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Would be curious to hear the scouting report from Semchez on ol’ Double RR.

No idea which one you mean. Find all I could think of below.

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Looks like you freed up another $3 million. Is that basher fella from Dallas on the market? I know if he is, he’s a type A but maybe that’s what Portland needs. Your #6 pick is protected isn’t it? So it would be your 2nd rounder.

Tyler Wharton is going to be a free agent after *next* season. And Adam Valdes ain't gonna let me keep savings.

[DD Martin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

No idea which one you mean. Find all I could think of below.
.

Double R is your new guy Randy R. His name is too long to spell. I was wondering if there was a written scouting report.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Double R is your new guy Randy R. His name is too long to spell. I was wondering if there was a written scouting report.

There is!

Semchez is such a negative Nancy though... If you listened to him you might think that every single one of our players sucks!

[Westheim]

November 28 – That was quick! Top free agent SP Jason Brenize (161-84, 2.61 ERA) signs a 6-year, $53.8M contract with the Condors that ends his 11-year Titans career, in which he won seven Pitcher of the Year awards.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 11 players are taken after being left unprotected by their old teams. The Raccoons draft left-handed MR Jorge Ruiz from the Stars.
December 1 – The Bayhawks send 2B Matthew Selep (.283, 0 HR, 22 RBI) to the Rebels for two prospects, including #59 3B Alex Hernandez.
December 3 – Veteran 1B Andy Metz (.267, 266 HR, 977 RBI) signs a $3.96M deal for 2068 with the Stars. The 36-year-old Metz spent the last six seasons with the Condors.
December 4 – New York signs ex-LVA CL Jon Dominguez (51-56, 3.22 ERA, 292 SV) to a $2.64M contract for 2068.
December 5 – The Titans get RF/INF/CF Jared Robichaud (.257, 11 HR, 75 RBI) from the Stars for the cost of catcher Lorenzo Marquez (.270, 67 HR, 287 RBI) and a prospect.
December 5 – The Raccoons sign 33-year-old ex-DAL C Chris D’Alessandro (.258, 23 HR, 192 RBI) to an $800k contract for the 2068 season.
December 6 – Ex-Condors SP Marco Clemente (119-114, 3.56 ERA, 1 SV) joins the Scorpions on a 3-year deal worth $10.32M.
December 6 – Boston adds 3B Danny Miller (.252, 67 HR, 461 RBI) in a trade with the Capitals, who receive MR Josh Atkins (20-30, 5.04 ERA, 8 SV) and a prospect for the 32-year-old Miller.
December 7 – The Thunder acquire 31-yr old LF Grant Anker (.277, 194 HR, 833 RBI) from the Scorpions in exchange for 38-yr old right-hander Bill Hernandez (101-100, 3.60 ERA, 233 SV) and a prospect, #53 CL Sean Whitten.
December 7 – The Raccoons get 32-year-old ex-CIN/CHA INF Diego Mendoza (.266, 113 HR, 585 RBI) on a $2M deal for 2068.
December 8 – Oklahoma City snatches up ex-TIJ RF/LF Matt Ewig (.257, 83 HR, 407 RBI) on a 7-year deal worth $30.28M.
December 8 – The Loggers acquire SP Brett Bebout (59-36, 3.12 ERA) from the Condors, along with $2.44M in cash, for FIVE prospects, including #135 CL Eric Fracassa, #159 SP Aaron McClair, and #181 CL Juan Arguelles.
December 8 – New York sends catcher Victor Reyna (.259, 16 HR, 177 RBI) to Cincinnati for INF Jordan Hernandez (.267, 35 HR, 336 RBI) and a prospect.
December 9 – The Thunder bring in RF/LF Roberto Soto (.303, 89 HR, 323 RBI) from the Cyclones, along with $2.7M in cash, for 1B Bum-kyoo Su (.286, 4 HR, 18 RBI) and an unranked prospect, which sounds like robbery and likely is.
December 10 – The Condors continue to be hyperactive and deal CL Matt Nelson (26-25, 3.49 ERA, 73 SV) to the Canadiens for four prospects. The key piece is #19 prospect CL Tyler Reed.
December 10 – The Indians get SP Tony Lira (43-29, 3.53 ERA) and $1.1M in cash from the Falcons for rookie OF Jonathon Barber (.254, 4 HR, 11 RBI) and a prospect.

+++

The funny bit about the Brenize signing is that the Titans get a THIRD round pick for their bothers, since the Condors’ first-rounder was protected and they had already frittered away their second-round pick with Jason Turner earlier.

And no, Diego Mendoza is not going to replace Rich Monck’s production, but maybe less bickering through more and better leadership will make the guys focus on actually bucketing the damn water out of the boat that has accumulated over the last three years. Mendoza and Duhe were traded for another just six months ago, so that’s gonna be awkward on the left side of the infield.

While the Raccoons thus successfully filled up the area around the infield, our pitching plans remained vague in general and fuzzy at the corners. We were making a 1-year offer to Alex Dominguez, ready for Opening Day or not, that almost doubled in value during the Winter Meetings without Dominguez making a move in one direction or another, and after the Winter Meetings went a bit meh in this regard also began to feel for a former division rival that was only a type-B free agent.

In the middle of December the market around Rich Monck remained rather silent. I was gonna laugh about the Brenize compensation until the out-of-control Condors would sign Monck and leave us with a fourth-round pick for compensation…

Other Raccoons with new employment: Paul Barton got 2 years and $928k from the Thunder; Tetsu Kurihara also got two years and $1.92M from the Loggers; Jim White got $690k from the Pacifics;

Finally, the Hall of Fame ballot is out.

[Westheim]

December 22 – The Condors sign former Portland INF Rich Monck (.289, 212 HR, 746 RBI) to a 5-year, $21.76M contract. The Raccoons receive a first-round pick and a supplemental round pick for compensation.
December 23 – The Miners sign away former Caps closer Jason Rhodes (48-46, 3.28 ERA, 251 SV) on a 3-year, $8.76M deal.
December 24 – Just off the Titans, 1B Bill Joyner (.317, 214 HR, 1,171 RBI), 39 years old, signs a 2-year, $9.52M contract with the Rebels.
December 24 – Indy brings in SP Adam Molloy (15-12, 3.80 ERA, 1 SV), who pitched for both the Rebels and Miners in 2067, in a trade that leaves the Miners with #80 prospect (though the status would expire for next year) 1B Mike White (.228, 3 HR, 11 RBI) and another unranked prospect.
December 25 – The Pacifics sign ex-POR C Ramon Lopez (.268, 81 HR, 431 RBI) to a 4-year, $13.48M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental-round pick for compensation.
December 26 – SP Matt Asplund (61-53, 3.65 ERA), somehow already a type-A free agent at age 26, signs a 6-year, $44M contract with the Cyclones after leaving the Gold Sox.
December 27 – The Thunder sign up ex-VAN SP Ken Nielsen (85-65, 3.33 ERA) on a 4-year, $31M contract.
December 28 – The Thunder make it two in a row with another former Canadien, CL Jon McGinley (48-47, 3.19 ERA, 272 SV), who signs a 2-year, $10.56M contract.
January 2 – The Pacifics acquire OF David Blackham (.259, 19 HR, 89 RBI) from the Bayhawks for a pair of prospects.

+++

The Raccoons had BIG LUCK there, boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! We inherited the #21 pick from the Condors, but remember that they had previously already fudged away their second- and third-round selections, the latter infamously for Jason Brenize, and their own first-round pick was #7, right behind the Coons’ own #6 pick for 2068, and was thus protected. But the Condors in between their wild signing spree in early December and the Monck signing later on had seen Matt Ewig being signed by the Thunder, giving the Condors the Thunder’s forfeitable #21 pick – and that was what the Raccoons got now!

Wow!

I’m sweating. Also, compare that to the damn Elks, who had their two type A free agents, Nielsen and McGinley, signed for the Thunder’s second- and third-round selections. Yeah, the Thunder basically weren’t gonna draft in 2068!

There have not been any news on our own pursuit of additional pitching, except that the price tags keep getting bigger. Not to worry – there are still a few millions in the coffers.

Other former Furballs having new teams include: Angel Alba signing with Sacramento for two years and $3M; the Loggers got Sean Sweeton for $770k; and the Loggers also went out and gave Nick Robinson $3.92M over two years;

The Raccoons broke with the pathetic tradition of the last few years and named a closer for the new season, and it was acquisition Pedro Valentin who was designated as the new closer – although we’d remain flexible in the late innings, and would not shy back from using Valentin in the eighth and McMahan in the ninth if things aligned to make that the easier matchup.

[DD Martin]

So at the contract prices the big two ex-Raccoons signed for, is the front office happy with that decision? Has to help greatly you got that 21st pick instead of #7 in the 4th round. They signed for a little less than roughly $2 million combined than what they were getting last season.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

So at the contract prices the big two ex-Raccoons signed for, is the front office happy with that decision? Has to help greatly you got that 21st pick instead of #7 in the 4th round. They signed for a little less than roughly $2 million combined than what they were getting last season.

After 276 losses in three years, you're not happy at any point or time.

But I am relieved that we got the better pick. Also, Monck wanted out since he asked for more dosh from us, so ... (shrugs!)

I blame the clubhouse. The Raccoons have been trying to shift Dover over the last month, but there are no takers. I want to keep Josh C, so the new plan is to find another second-sacker to get rid of Gutierrez after all, so that the number of clubhouse cancers can be reduced to two...

[Westheim]

January 11 – At the ripe old age of 38, career Crusaders 2B/RF/3B/LF Omar “Tiny” Sanchez (.306, 19 HR, 938 RBI) makes the jump to the Titans for a $2.16M contract. Sanchez is tied for 11th on the all-time hits leaderboard and second on the all-time steals leaderboard, just six bases behind “Lonzo” Lavorano.
January 14 – The Capitals ink 33-yr old ex-OCT SP Josh Elling (119-113, 3.73 ERA) to a 4-year, $26.8M contract.
January 19 – The Raccoons sign former Warriors SP Alex Dominguez (78-73, 3.65 ERA) on a $2.6M contract for 2068.
January 19 – The Wolves acquire 2B/SS Carlos Cervantez (.260, 7 HR, 84 RBI) from the Gold Sox for SP Jon Cuadrado (9-13, 5.03 ERA).
January 22 – The Gold Sox sign former Canadiens OF/1B Chad Whetstine (.267, 58 HR, 312 RBI) for $1.62M for the next 162 games.
January 23 – Fringe SP Rob Wilkinson (7-12, 4.18 ERA) is traded to the Knights by Sacramento, with LF/RF/1B Steve Giles (.221, 18 HR, 67 RBI) heading to the Scorpions.
January 25 – The Capitals throw $28.9M over four years at former Buffos SP Justin Kent (82-64, 3.47 ERA).
January 28 – The Raccoons sign up 31-year-old former Thunder 2B/SS Ramon Archuleta (.268, 68 HR, 325 RBI) for a one-year deal and $2.66M salary.
February 6 – Portland adds another starting pitcher in former Loggers hurler Girolamo “Pizza” Pizzichini (50-58, 4.56 ERA), who signs for two years and a total of $8.8M.

+++

Dominguez was a real reclamation project, since while he had been an All Star three times in his career and was only 30 years old, he also had missed almost all of 2066 with a knee injury, and then half of 2067 with a flaked elbow. There were real questions about his efficiency going forwards, but the Raccoons had little to lose right now except a random right-hander off waivers, either now or on Opening Day… In fact, since the 40-man roster was already full, Leon Arantes had to go on waivers just to get Dominguez on the extended roster, which contained a whopping 36 players still in January.

Dominguez arrived still rehabbing the torn flexor tendon and was uncertain for Opening Day.

Juan Soriano was then waived when we signed Archuleta, who was the replacement for clubhouse issue Carlos Gutierrez at second base. The addition of Pizza – and yes, that is the only name by which I will ever refer to him now – then meant the demise of left-hander Sean Thomas.

By early February, we still had 17 pitchers and 19 position players on the bloated extended roster, and I was actively engaged in trying to trade one piece or another for maybe a prospect or something, but nothing really came together there. The Agitator muses where we’ll put all those starting pitchers. But maybe it’s the approach of flinging bodies at the wall for so long until somebody finally ******* sticks!

But overcrowding was a real issue by now, and we had 15 pitchers around that I really wanted to keep. Only Cody Childress and Cameron Bridges were still hanging around and were clearly gonna go back to AAA. But we now had no fewer than SEVEN starting pitchers on the roster that I had at one point or another promised that they’d be starters for us, some even while looking them in the big black googly eyes: Nick Walla and Tony Gaytan were set without a doubt; Alex Dominguez may or may not be recovered from the busted elbow on Opening Day; then there’s Gabriel Rios, and all the other additions of George Kehoe, Pizza, and Randy Rocking Rautenstrauch. I *think* at least that’s his middle name. There’s a lot of big names on the roster for sure. Many letters, wrapping all the way around the back of the jersey!

And we still had new closer Pedro Valentin, then the trouble kid Dover that nobody wanted, Josh C and McMahan for sure, last year’s faithful permanents Yamauchi and Holzmeister, and also Matt Schmieder, and the Rule 5 pick Jorge Ruiz. The list just didn’t want to end…!

The Raccoons also got rid of a couple surplus players in the low minors that had just gotten stuck. These included 2064 sixth-rounder Jesse James, left-hander Christian Olmo who had once cost $140k as a July IFA, and some more pitchers you never heard of; and a couple of position players in Aumsville including 2066 sixth-rounder Frank Ruggerio and 2063 fifth-rounder Steve Washington.

By the way, all waiver candidates cleared waivers and were assigned to AAA.

Raccoon Rescue wire: David Milian joined the Blue Sox for $3.72M over two years; Elmer Maldonado got $720k from the Miners; the Capitals would give Nick Nye $760k; the Bayhawks pounced on Juan Sanchez for $610k; Evan Alvey was signed by the Falcons for $3.44M over two years;

+++

2068 HALL OF FAME BALLOT

The Hall of Fame gained another member in 2068 in 19-year infielder Ed Soberanes, who in his career spent his time nearly evenly between both short and third, and the Thunder and Miners, with preference to the former in each pair, and with sprinkles elsewhere. The Miners were actually his first team, signing him for a $1.08M bonus as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2040. He made his debut in ’44 at age 20 and stuck immediately, and went on to hit for an OPS of .809 or more in 14 of his first 15 full seasons, and the outlier was an injury-addled year where he never got feet on the ground to begin with. Soberanes was a perpetual All Star with a dozen appearances at the showcase, and won seven Platinum Sticks and a Gold Glove for annual awards, as well the CL Player of the Year award as a 2051 Thunder, and a World Series with the same team in 2053. Soberanes was always a threat to hit .300, but never won a batting title. He won a home run and RBI crown in 2051 though, hitting .300 with 31 HR and 122 RBI. That was his career-best for home runs and runs batted in, but he with the exception of that one rotten year in ’55, he also hit 16+ homers every year from 2046 through 2058. He finished his career with a season of utility duty for the Scorpions in 2062. Overall, Soberanes batted .299/.390/.472 for his career, with 2,744 hits, 317 homers, 1,423 RBI, and 408 stolen bases.

Full voting results (with year and vote share):

OCT SS Ed Soberanes – 1st – 95.9 – INDUCTED
??? RF Bill Quinteros – 1st – 72.6
SFW LF Mario Villa – 4th – 59.6
DEN 3B Ronnie Thompson – 7th – 45.6
??? LF Eddie Moreno – 5th – 43.3
LAP RF Matt Diskin – 2nd – 24.4
DEN MR Kellen Lanning – 1st – 22.2
IND LF Danny Rivera – 5th – 18.5
SAC SS Chris Navarro – 1st – 14.8
DAL LF Omar Gonzalez – 2nd – 10.7
??? SS Rick Price – 1st – 9.6
IND SP Enrique Ortiz – 1st – 8.9
??? SS Alex Adame – 4th – 8.9
??? SP Matt Sealock – 8th – 8.5
??? CL Mike Lynn – 5th – 7.0
??? CL David Hardaway – 2nd – 4.8 – DROPPED
OCT SS Ryan Cox – 7th – 4.8 – DROPPED
LVA C Kevin Weese – 3rd – 3.7 – DROPPED
CIN SP Austin Wilcox – 1st – 3.0 – DROPPED
CHA SP Art Schaeffer – 1st – 2.2 – DROPPED
TIJ C Jon Mittleider – 2nd – 1.9 – DROPPED
OCT SP Alfredo Llamas – 1st – 1.9 – DROPPED
??? SP Seisaku Taki – 1st – 1.5 – DROPPED
ATL SP Esteban Duran – 1st – 0.7 – DROPPED
PIT SS Chris Jimenez – 1st – 0.7 – DROPPED
DAL 1B Jay Rogers – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

After ordering that last Pizza, the Raccoons were basically out of money. A couple of millions had also gone into reviving the scouting and player development departments that had been shrunk to make ends meet the last two years. Steve from Accounting reported just $590k left in the budget, and $820k in cash. If anything we might want to shed a contract before the season would start.

We had to contain ourselves with signing a few minor league free agents in March, releasing 2065 sixth-rounder Nick Reed, and then, since nobody was into acquiring Jesse Dover or Carlos Matas (who wasn’t gonna make the roster and didn’t have options), counting down the days.

Also not making the roster was left-hander Jorge Ruiz, who we had taken in the Rule 5 draft. He was returned to Dallas before the offseason even ended. This was an early hint that Gabriel Rios didn’t make the rotation and was instead the second lefty in that pen besides McMahan.

At least that saved us $363k for another minimum salary.

+++

February 14 – The Titans spend big on former Condors MR Joe Cash (46-31, 3.55 ERA, 52 SV), who will make $8.12M over three years in blue.
February 19 – Boston also adds former Stars closer Roberto Ramirez (76-81, 3.69 ERA, 417 SV) on a 2-year deal worth $2.26M.
February 25 – The Thunder sign up former Capitals outfielder Bryan Johnston (.288, 50 HR, 323 RBI) for three years and $8.32M.
March 5 – Vancouver signs a 2-yr, $9.16M contract with former Knights SP Vince Ellison (82-73, 3.75 ERA).
March 23 – The Scorpions trade INF/LF Jon Barrientos (.247, 19 HR, 123 RBI) to the Warriors for RF/LF Alex Barnes (.238, 95 HR, 374 RBI). The Warriors also receive a prospect.

+++

Ramirez was the last type-A free agent to go off the market. At this point, quite a few type B’s still remained, including useful players like Vince Ellison, Ralph Lange, Jonathan Vale, and Manny Rubin – but the count with Ramirez gone was that the Raccoons had five picks inside the top 50 for the 2069 draft: #6, #21 (both first round proper), #27, #37 (both supplemental round), and #46 (second round proper). While the last three were still likely going to be pushed back a little (the second-rounder for sure), this was a nice selection to look forward to. (And just to make a point, the Crusaders signed ex-Buffos infielder Alex Rodriguez the next day and pushed the #37 and #46 back a spot with that move)

Did we look forward to the new season?

(silence)

Why don’t we answer that in the season-opening post?

Which past Critters have found new employment late in the offseason? Trent Brassfield signed with the Titans for $2.81M; the Buffos took on Joey Christopher for $510k, and then added also Franklin Serrano for $560k; Tommy Branch joined the Capitals for two years and $4.8M; Cincy signed 40-year-old Dave Blackshire for $570k; the Condors went for Justin Cullum at a rate of $620k;

[Westheim]

2068 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2067 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Nick Walla, 27, B:R, T:R (10-10, 3.40 ERA | 30-31, 3.67 ERA) – what is it that Nick Walla is missing? He had five good pitches, but that one wipeout pitch was not in his arsenal. His homer numbers kept creeping up, but he was getting fewer strikeouts than two years ago. Nevertheless, we declared him our ace and boldly ventured forwards from there.
SP Alex Dominguez *, 30, B:R, T:R (7-2, 2.30 ERA | 78-73, 3.65 ERA) – comes off two seasons wrecked by injury to end his 9-year stint with the Warriors; has always had very fine control and good stuff with a 97mph heater and a strong splitter
SP Tony Gaytan, 24, B:R, T:R (9-16, 4.10 ERA | 14-24, 4.19 ERA) – gives up too many home runs, and shows major growing pains after probably having been rushed too aggressively to the majors; control is usually good, unless he randomly has a day where he can’t even throw it into the correct zip code.
SP Girolamo Pizzichini *, 33, B:R, T:R (2-4, 3.51 ERA | 50-58, 4.56 ERA, 1 SV) – another offseason addition coming off an injury season, “Pizza” turned his four-pitch mix with groundball potential into a pricey 2-year deal
SP Randy Rautenstrauch *, 27, B:R, T:R (no stats | 16-14, 4.52 ERA) – acquired from the Cyclones in the Duhe/Valentin trade, Rautenstrauch hasn’t pitched in the majors in two years after two rollercoaster seasons with Cincy in 2064-65. Has a great cutter and enough additional pitches to make it through games, and the infield defense should help him defensively by collecting all the groundballs he generates. Went 31-6 in AAA these two years, so we’re not completely out of bounds by hoping for the best.

SP/MR Gabriel Rios, 26, B:L, T:L (10-14, 4.21 ERA | 10-15, 4.15 ERA, 1 SV) – walked almost as many as he struck out in a season that was mostly spent in the rotation after coming over from Indy the previous winter. He got the best BABIP in the league despite not being rated a groundballer before the season. The fastball is 97 and great, and then the stuff gets icky, and the control is just not there.
SP/MR George Kehoe *, 27, B:R, T:R (3-0, 1.69 ERA, 2 SV) – Quebecois acquired from the Blue Sox with a devious knuckle curve, but also a flyballer; the underdeveloped third pitch, a changeup, and the short stamina are the main reasons why he didn’t get the fifth starter’s spot, but he’s sure in line should Double-R falter or Dominguez fall over again.
MR Manabu Yamauchi, 29, B:R, T:R (2-3, 3.57 ERA | 4-3, 3.38 ERA) – his second season in America was the first in which he spent all year in the majors. Generally pitched without major complaints, but his profile lacked sparkle and he just barely got the final roster spot over Jason Holzmeister.
SU Josh Carrington, 26, B:L, T:R (3-5, 2.59 ERA, 5 SV | 4-6, 3.75 ERA, 6 SV) – former #31 pick had a speedrun to the majors with 33 games in AAA and 13 more for the Coons in September of 2065, the year he was drafted, culminating in blowing a Closing Day lead with two homers in an Indians walkoff. After some back and forth in ’66 he spent all of last year on the big league roster, audtioning for the vacant closer’s role, but lost out to new acquisition Valentin, but we feel like his 98mph heater and slider will be even more effective this year. Hopefully his development on the hill outpaces the rate at which alienates teammates by being a scourge on society.
SU Ricky McMahan, 26, B:L, T:L (3-0, 1.76 ERA, 5 SV | 7-6, 3.56 ERA, 8 SV) – had some real development in 2067, reducing his walk rate by 65% (!!) while upping the strikeouts, becoming a contender for the closer’s job (which he still didn’t win), but he promises to be very efficient in a carousel of late-inning relievers, of which he was the only left-hander.
SU Jesse Dover, 26, B:R, T:R (2-3, 4.07 ERA, 23 SV | 12-17, 3.27 ERA, 55 SV) – like Josh C, Dover has a blazing fastball at 97mph, a slider, gets groundballs, and he’s a real clubhouse menace. They’re like evil twins that always show up together just before someone dies a gruesome death. Someone send help, please.
CL Pedro Valentin *, 28, B:S, T:R (6-3, 2.51 ERA, 3 SV | 17-14, 3.05 ERA, 28 SV) – acquired from the Cyclones with Duhe and Rautenstrauch, Valentin brings a GORGEOUS curveball and a 96mph heater that should make him a very good closer… if the Coons can get leads to him…

C Jake Flowe, 25, B:L, T:R (.273, 2 HR, 10 RBI | .278, 4 HR, 21 RBI) – spent most of the last season in AAA to hone his skills even when we were very early on banking on him to be the new primary catcher from this year onwards. The #21 pick in the 2061 draft had a good arm, but whether the bat was going to live up to expectations was so far rather speculative, since he only had 151 ABL at-bats so far.
C Chris D’Alessandro *, 34, B:R, T:R (.221, 1 HR, 10 RBI | .258, 23 HR, 192 RBI) – the veteran D’Alessandro was an indifferent hitter, but knew how to actually catch a ballgame and was there to teach Flowe another trick or two; D’Alessandro had been on and off the Stars’ roster for a dozen seasons, being everywhere from primary catcher (once) to third-string and in AAA all year, so he had stories to tell.

1B Joel Starr, 35, B:L, T:L (.267, 18 HR, 67 RBI | .272, 153 HR, 646 RBI) – stuck on the roster right now and proven to be untradeable for the third straight winter, Starr had little going for him anymore besides solid defense at first and an unbroken track record of 100+ OPS+ seasons – even though he has repeatedly cut it close…
2B/SS Ramon Archuleta *, 31, B:R, T:R (.264, 10 HR, 50 RBI | .268, 68 HR, 325 RBI) – next attempt at a new second baseman! Archuleta combined good defense with a persistent above-average bat with double-digit homer power and even some speed and signed a 1-year deal for a whopping $2.66M, a steep going rate for somebody signing in late January.
2B/3B/SS/LF Jared Duhe *, 30, B:R, T:R (.316, 9 HR, 58 RBI | .264, 37 HR, 310 RBI) – how the Raccoons got a new shortstop that was an OBP scourge and leadoff batter, a closer, and a starting pitcher (claws crossed!) in a single trade with Cincy will remain a mystery for a while longer, but Duhe had posted a .409 OBP in 2067, and we figured that this was exactly what we wanted, even though he had no speed to speak of. He still was able to nip a couple of bases here and there with timing his attempts very well.
3B/2B/SS Diego Mendoza *, 33, B:R, T:R (.285, 15 HR, 77 RBI | .266, 113 HR, 585 RBI) – was cheaper to sign as free agent than Archuleta; in his younger years with the Titans he led the CL in doubles a couple of times, but the speed had gone a bit in recent years, but the throwing arm and power were still there. Would play next to Jared Duhe, who he was traded for last May.
2B/SS/3B Pablo Novelo, 29, B:R, T:R (.229, 8 HR, 52 RBI | .248, 24 HR, 183 RBI) – one of the worst qualifying hitters in the league or two straight years, Novelo lost his gig as starting shortstop to Duhe, who had drawn almost as many walks in 2067 while getting traded in the middle of the year as Novelo had drawn in FOUR years in the majors.
3B/SS/2B/RF Manny Arredondo, 26, B:L, T:R (.200, 0 HR, 2 RBI | .218, 0 HR, 4 RBI) – bit of a nothing hitter, but versatile infielder with a left-handed stick, which had suddenly become valuable once the Raccoons acquired three right-handed hitting infielders, and which was the only reason why he hung around on Opening Day.

LF/RF/1B Justin Dowsey, 26, B:L, T:L (.286, 11 HR, 59 RBI | .271, 55 HR, 232 RBI) – Dowsey’s first season in Portland was … *fine*? Of course, so many people had fine seasons that the team easily finished bottoms in runs scored. Dowsey didn’t help by hitting just 11 homers, far below the 28 he knocked for the Indians in ’65.
RF/CF/LF Jaden Wilson, 31, B:L, T:L (.289, 8 HR, 61 RBI | .290, 60 HR, 405 RBI) – big disappointment in his first Raccoons season, crashing in terms of on-base percentage, stolen bases, power, and just general vibes, but things got noticeably better in ’67 with a recovery for his slash line and stolen base total, which he ran up to a career-high 36 on the year.
RF Jose Corral, 27, B:L, T:L (.244, 16 HR, 51 RBI | .266, 67 HR, 276 RBI) – there is a bit of a pattern developing where he hits reasonably well and then inevitably suffers an injury or two and misses 30 or 55 games. At least the stick and the arm are playing whenever we can actually get him into the lineup…
CF/RF Eddy Ramirez *, 28, B:R, T:R (.258, 10 HR, 61 RBI | .248, 66 HR, 302 RBI) – acquired from the Pacifics for his contract year despite sometimes sketchy defense, but he has mostly hit for league average for his career, and that would be nice for a guy that goes out against every left-handed starting pitcher.
LF/CF Marquise Early, 26, B:R, T:R (.221, 3 HR, 29 RBI | .213, 4 HR, 34 RBI) – Early was on the roster for much the same reasons as Arredondo, but with paws reversed.

On disabled list:

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Cody Childress, 27, B:R, T:R (0-2, 7.01 ERA | 0-3, 7.68 ERA) – optioned to AAA; nominally has three good pitches, although all we’ve ever seen from him is other teams whacking him good.
SP/MR Cameron Bridges, 23, B:S, T:R (0-0, 4.72 ERA | 0-0, 4.72 ERA) – optioned to AAA; pitched some garbage innings late in the last season, with the main problem being that he had only two-and-half pitches, and none of them were good enough to strike out major leaguers (yet?).
MR Jason Holzmeister, 23, B:S, T:R (4-2, 3.86 ERA | 4-2, 3.86 ERA) – optioned to AAA; squeezed off the roster with his fastball and sinker being sent back to minor league ball after he hung around the Coons roster for all of last year as Rule 5 pick from the Falcons. The final spot came down to him and Yamauchi, and we expected more stuff and better results from Yamauchi.
MR Matt Schmieder, 26, B:R, T:R (0-0, 1.54 ERA | 0-1, 5.26 ERA) – optioned to AAA; good curveball, until he hangs it, when it’s good for oohs and awes.
2B/3B/SS/LF Carlos Gutierrez, 24, B:S, T:R (.270, 3 HR, 20 RBI | .260, 3 HR, 31 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; good defense at least at the keystone, a tough at-bat, a torrid August, and significant speed – and yet the Raccoons placed this switch-hitter on waivers?? Might have something to do with the dead bodies Slappy found in his locker after the season ended…
3B/2B/1B/LF/SS Jacob Davis, 25, B:R, T:R (.353, 0 HR, 1 RBI | .353, 0 HR, 1 RBI) – optioned to AAA; filled in at third base when Rich Monck suffered his season-ending injury, but only had 17 at-bats, so no reason to get excited. The scouting report overall looks rather rough
3B/2B/SS/RF Gary Gates, 25, B:R, T:R (.164, 0 HR, 7 RBI | .164, 0 HR, 7 RBI) – optioned to AAA; the Raccoons had devices around this lightning-fast infielder with a singles stick for a while, although he was never a highly ranked prospect; was tossed into the water last year and promptly sunk.
RF/CF/LF Carlos Matas, 27, B:L, T:L (.246, 2 HR, 14 RBI | .238, 4 HR, 26 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; quality glove in the outfield, but he has never hit in the majors and probably never will.
1B/LF/RF/3B Jamie Colter, 26, B:L, T:R (.267, 2 HR, 12 RBI | .273, 8 HR, 47 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; surely not the worst type of contact bat and versatile on defense, but the Raccoons were not interested in spare left-handed bench bats at this point…
RF/LF/1B/2B/3B Randy Tallent, 31, B:R, T:R (.224, 3 HR, 13 RBI | .224, 26 HR, 129 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; lost out on the final roster spot to Marquise Early because his claim to fame was defense and being able to play seven positions, and new head scout Oscar Semchez’ new report on him just took 29% of that qualification away, ending four years on the roster for him after arriving as a waiver claim from the damn Elks.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or made to take the vows and sent to an abbey during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 3B Mendoza – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – P
(Vs. LHP: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr (Dowsey) – 3B Mendoza – RF Corral – LF Early – 2B Archuleta – C D’Alessandro – P)

The lineup can still be very left-handed – Arredondo starting for any of the infielders West of Starr makes it six lefty sticks – but at least we have some better quality for options against southpaw starters now.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

BNN fawned how the Raccoons made up +8.2 WAR in the offseason, which was the third-best winter for any time, and all of that despite losing -7.4 WAR right out of the gate with the free agencies of Rich Monck (5.0) and Ramon Lopez (2.4) alone. The rest of our free agents were rather mixed, and then the Pacifics trade of Musgrave for Ramirez was rather neutral. The Blue Sox trade for Kehoe was about +1.1 WAR, and then we fleeced the Cyclones for +5.4 WAR by sending Nakayama and busted prospect A.J. Taylor for three strong players. Of the five free agent acquisitions that followed, four were worth around 2-3 WAR: Mendoza (2.9) ahead of Dominguez (2.6), Archuleta (2.0), Pizza (1.9), and D’Alessandro (0.4).

Top 5: Loggers (+12.7), Capitals (+9.5), Raccoons (+8.2), Condors (+4.2), Rebels (+4.0)
Bottom 5: Blue Sox (-4.8), Warriors (-6.0), Gold Sox (-8.0), Cyclones (-11.9), Buffaloes (-14.9)

No CL North team in the bottom 5, but the remaining four were all somewhere in the middle with the Indians 6th with +3.9 WAR, Crusaders 8th with +3.2 WAR, the damn Elks 11th with +0.8 WAR, and finally the Titans were the only team to lose WAR, -2.7 wins and 16th in the rankings.

Of course last year the Coons also ranked fourth and gained 6.7 WAR and in the end it meant ******** nothing.

PREDICTION TIME:

70 wins on average for three years in a row. I expected 75 or less for the last two years, and both times the team was happy to deliver.

I don’t see how the offense was really fixed, Rich Monck’s departure being too big a hole to fill with some random 1-year infield rentals. The Coons can’t get any prospects developed (more on that in a second), and didn’t have the money for top free agents like Jason Brenize, or weren’t willing to spend a draft pick on any other type-A free agent besides Brenize.

The rotation has Walla, Gaytan (who was very much WIP), a reclamation project, a Loggers castoff, a triple-A lottery ticket, and two similar characters in long relief in the pen, where we still have two clubhouse cancers running the show, but maybe Pedro Valentin can at least close games efficiently.

None of this sounds inspiring, and the Coons will not break .500 yet again. 76-86.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Despite all the losing, the Coons’ farm system kept deteriorating, although this time we obviously shot ourselves in the foot by selling our stock in #3 prospect A.J. Taylor while he still had on-paper value. We went from 8th to 11th year-on-year in the rankings. We remained steady with nine ranked prospects, but of those we halved our top 50 prospects, and the top 100 prospects went from six to four.

Besides Taylor, #76 Gabriel Rios and #170 Jason Holzmeister lost eligibility for spending all year on the major league roster. #152 Alex Mercedes was no longer ranked. The other five were all still there, but on average slipped 35 spots.

5th (new) – AA SP Jimmy Wharton, 21 – 2067 first-round pick by Raccoons
62nd (-10) – A SP Crispino D’Urso, 18 – 2065 July IFA signing by Raccoons
87th (new) – AA SP Val Centeno, 21 – 2065 July IFA signing by Raccoons
99th (new) – AA OF Jesus Guerrero, 21 – 2063 July IFA signing by Raccoons
101st (-28) – AAA INF Josh Mireles, 22 – 2061 July IFA signed by Raccoons
103rd (+17) – AAA C Andrew Farlow, 21 – 2064 first-round pick by Raccoons
127th (-85) – AA SS/3B Phil Townsend, 21 – 2065 first-round pick by Raccoons
153rd (-68) – AAA INF Brian Hills, 22 – 2064 second-round pick by Raccoons
189th (new) – A INF Brian McFarland, 19 – 2067 second-round pick by Raccoons

Beagles SP Dave Tenorio, 19 and our third-rounder from last year, was the #10 prospect for the franchise, but outside the top 200. Of note, for the second straight year, AAA outfielder George van Otterdijk was ranked 11th for the franchise.

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

#1 (0) – PIT AAA SP Brian Jones, 21
#2 (new) – SAC AA CL Gustavo Vega, 21
#3 (new) – SFW ML OF Jordan Lopez, 23
#4 (+7) – TOP A OF Javier Velazquez, 20
#5 (new) – POR AA SP Jimmy Wharton, 21

#6 (new) – SAL AA OF/1B/2B Mike Raymond, 22
#7 (+10) – BOS ML LF/RF/1B Manuel Garcia, 23
#8 (new) – RIC AA OF Travis Bickerton, 22
#9 (+35) – NYC A 1B/LF/RF Raul Ledesma, 20
#10 (+45) – ATL ML OF Jorge Soto, 21

Brian Jones is the #1 prospect for the THIRD straight year – despite being sent back to AA at some point last season after already starting that season in AAA! And on top of that, he was the *only* player from last year’s top 10 that was still ranked in the top 10.

Jordan Lopez was the #1 overall pick by the Warriors in the 2067 draft, destroyed single-A ball and now was moved straight to the majors. The jury’s still out on that move. Meanwhile, Raymond was the #2 pick in the most recent draft, ahead of Vega at #3, Bickerton at #5, and Wharton at #6.

Garcia had been a top 10 prospect once before, ranking #5 in 2065, and had been in the top 20 for the fifth straight year. He was on the Opening Day roster to make his ABL debut.

A whole bunch of the nine former top 10 prospects had made their major league debuts and had exceeded rookie limits, led by former #2 SP Alex Diez, even though he had only pitched out of the pen for the Warriors, posting a 2.49 ERA in 19 games. Roberto Barraza (#4) almost spent the entire season as the Canadiens’ shortstop, batting .294 with two homers in 140 games. Former #5 Matt Guadagno pitched 64 games out of the Condors pen or a 2.44 ERA, and now was traded to the Knights. Ex-#8 Armando Curiel batted .262 with nine homers in 55 games for the Caps, but was sent back to AAA to begin the new season. Orazio Cecere went from being the #9 prospect to making 74 appearances for a 4.65 ERA out of the Falcons pen. And Aces outfielder Alfredo Rosado, who was ranked #10 one year ago, made it into 109 big league games, batting .306 with 11 homers and won Rookie of the Year honors in the Continental League.

For the remainder, the former #3 A.J. Taylor was traded from the Raccoons to the Cyclones and slipped to #12. Capitals third baseman Steve Dunn moved up to AA, but down from #6 to #13. Right behind him in both seasons was Wolves left-hander Bill Logalbo, who had made two relief appearances last year and was on the Opening Day roster, going from #7 to #14.

Next: first pitch.

[DD Martin]

I think the Raccoons have a chance at 500. The pitching should be better but Triple R in the #5 slot is a concern, expect Rios back in the rotation by Memorial Day. The top half of the order looks solid and the bottom half is what will decide the clubs fate.

The draft should be interesting with 5 picks in the first 50. Hopefully the scout does his job.

Good luck on the new season!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Titans (0-0) – April 2-4, 2068

Maybe Boston was not the best place to get the season started on a cold moist Monday in early April. The Raccoons had not taken the season series from the Titans in six years, and had lost to them 11 times in 2067. On the other paw, they had lost Jason Brenize, so who’s crying now??

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (0-0) vs. Mike Bell (0-0)
Alex Dominguez (0-0) vs. Tyler Riddle (0-0)
Tony Gaytan (0-0) vs. Bryce Wallace (0-0)

We would get our first left-handed opponent and first former Raccoon in the second game of the season.

Game 1
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 3B Mendoza – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – P Walla
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Robichaud – CF Marcotte – RF M. Garcia – C Arviso – 1B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – 3B C. Pena – P M. Bell

Jared Duhe singled in his first at-bat as a Critter and then was promptly stranded on base, so we were hitting on all cylinders already! Jared Robichaud then took Walla deep to right to give the Titans a quick 1-0 lead. Bell struck out the four left-handed bats you would hope would do the most damage over the course of the season in his first run through the order, but then gave up a Walla-banger double with one out in the third inning. Duhe’s groundout advanced Walla to third base, and a balk called on Bell scored him to tie the game before Jaden Wilson homered to right to give Walla a 2-1 lead. Things got even rougher for Bell in the fourth inning, which began with Justin Dowsey reaching when Eddie Marcotte dropped his fly ball for an error. Diego Mendoza extended a 14-game hitting streak to end the 2067 season with a soft single, and while Corral flew out harmlessly, Ramon Archuleta then parked a 3-run homer in the cheap seats in leftfield, followed right up by a solo jack that Jake Flowe popped over the fence in right for a 6-1 score! The Titans had seen enough of Bell at that point, but Walla wouldn’t get through five innings either. He allowed a leadoff single in the fourth, got around that one, but then was whacked for straight singles by Jeremy White, Cesar Pena, and PH Omar Sanchez in the bottom 5th before giving up yet more base hits to Eddie Marcotte and Manuel Garcia. Drowning in base runners, he was yanked from a 6-4 game with two outs and two on, having given up nine hits and struck out just one batter. Gabriel Rios appeared to face Jorge Arviso and gave up an RBI double, 6-5, before Danny Miller popped out to strand two Boston runners.

Rios blew the rest of the lead in the sixth inning, first failing to bunt after Corral and Flowe had drawn walks in the top 6th and then slapping one into a double play, and then got scorched for White’s single, a walk to Steve Humphries, and Robichaud’s 2-out RBI double to get the score even at six. Dover came in against Marcotte, just in time to give up a 2-run double to left, and that was that – seven runs given up in just two innings. The Coons would never get another base hit in the game after the collapse and were shut down by Tyler Gleason, Roberto Ramirez, and Cody Kleidon over the final three innings. 8-6 Titans. Flowe 1-2, BB, HR, RBI;

Good start! Actually much more depressing than I feared for!

Game 2
POR: SS Duhe – CF E. Ramirez – 1B Starr – 3B Mendoza – RF Corral – LF Early – 2B Archuleta – C D’Alessandro – P Dominguez
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Robichaud – CF Marcotte – RF M. Garcia – C Arviso – 1B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – 3B C. Pena – P Riddle

Dominguez had gotten ready to begin the season – mostly. He was all over the place and issued at least one walk in each of the first three innings. In the first two, he combined this attitude with at least one hit and one run allowed as well, as the Titans took another 1-0 lead on three hits in the first inning, and upped that to an unearned 2-0 lead when Diego Mendoza chipped in a suspicious throwing error against his longtime team in the second inning. Joel Starr went yard in the third for his first bomb of the year, reducing the score to 2-1, and the score flipped to 3-2 Portland in surely depressing circumstances for Boston in the fourth inning. Riddle got two groundouts before giving up a triple to Archuleta in the inning. An intentional walk to Chris D’Alessandro was called, but Dominguez’ fly to center was then dropped by Marcotte, who thus made his second stupid error in two days. This one cost the lead, and after a wild pitch by Jose Gomez, also the tie. Why Gomez? Riddle left the game with a blister after the Marcotte error – or maybe it was the severe internal bleeding from the backstabbing.

Dominguez went six innings on 105 pitches, with the second three frames MUCH better than the first three frames. I guess that’s what proper rehab is normally for? He maintained the 3-2 lead through six, then was hit for with Jaden Wilson to begin the top 7th, whom Gomez walked before being replaced with lefty Joe Cash. Wilson stole second, Duhe struck out, and a soft Eddy Ramirez single put runners on the corners for Starr, who lobbed an RBI single over the converging middle infielders into shallow center, 4-2. Mendoza flew out to left, and Dowsey whiffed batting for Corral, who started his season 0-for-6, leaving two runners on base. Relief by Cash was then sharp for the rest of regulation, as was relief by Josh C and McMahan on the Coons’ side, setting up Pedro Valentin with his first save opportunity as a Critter. White and Pena grounded out against him, and a K on Joe Washington ended the game. 4-2 Raccoons. Starr 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Archuleta 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B;

We had just six hits, the sixth being the Ramirez single. But at least this selection of relievers got nine outs for no base runners and two strikeouts in a total of 23 pitches.

Game 3
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 3B Mendoza – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – P Gaytan
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Robichaud – CF Marcotte – RF M. Garcia – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – 1B Joe Washington – 3B C. Pena – P B. Wallace

Both pitchers found different way to keep the door to the pantry shut in the first innings, with Gaytan stingy and nibbling, and giving up just one hit in three innings, while Wallace was wickedly wild, offering four walks and five strikeouts, but yielding no base hits, in the first four frames he pitched. Gaytan found trouble in the bottom 4th with a leadoff walk to Jared Robichaud, who was forced out by Marcotte with a grounder before both Arviso and Jeremy White hit soft singles to load the bases. Joe Washington flew out to Dowsey to leave a full set of runners on base.

The first hit for Portland was then ironically a dying quail that Gaytan rolled on the infield with one out in the fifth inning. Duhe then walked, and Wilson whacked a 2-run double before scoring on a Starr single, suddenly putting up a 3-0 lead against Wallace before Dowsey and Mendoza remained in hibernation and made the last two outs. Corral hit a leadoff single in the sixth and scored from third base with two outs when Gaytan hit a proper single to left to bring him home and extend his lead to 4-0. A Wilson single and Starr double off Roberto Ramirez added another run in the seventh.

Gaytan pitched great until he didn’t. He entered the eighth with a 3-hitter, but Humphries and Robichaud knocked him for leadoff singles, and then he knocked Marcotte to load the bases with nobody out. The Coons went to Dover, who waved all the runners home on a Garcia RBI single, a walk to Arviso with the bags full, and a double-play grounder to short by White. McMahan replaced him, but couldn’t get the lefty-hitting Washington out, giving up another RBI single, and suddenly the lead was down to 5-4. Danny Miller finally grounded out to end the ******* inning.

Top 9th, the Titans smelled the leaking oil and sent Kleidon to keep the Coons put, but he gave up a leadoff double to Jared Duhe. Wilson grounded out to the left side, which didn’t help at all, and Starr walked, which only set up a double play. Eddy Ramirez batted for Dowsey against the southpaw Kleidon, but whiffed, and Kleidon then filled the bases as well by hitting Mendoza. Pablo Novelo batted for Corral, but grounded out, and nobody scored for all the huffing and puffing. McMahan then remained in the game to begin the bottom 9th, with Omar Sanchez hitting lefty in the #9 hole. He grounded out, but Humphries humped him for a double to left. McMahan got Robichaud on a pop, and with two outs the Coons then sent Valentin after Marcotte. The slugger flew out to center, and the Raccoons eloped with a series win! 5-4 Coons! Wilson 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 2-4, RBI;

Meanwhile, of the four waiver cases the Raccoons put out on Opening Day, three arrived in St. Petersburg. The one that didn’t make it was Carlos Gutierrez, who was claimed by the Thunder, so we right away ran into him when he got his welcoming committee and pictures taken at the airport in Oklahoma City. How awkward!

Raccoons (2-1) @ Thunder (2-1) – April 6-8, 2068

With the Thunder, the Raccoons right away came up against the defending champions to close off this season-opening road trip. The Thunder had won two of three from San Francisco to begin the year and would have their home opener on Friday. They had already lost Danny Baca and Coby Thore to injury, and Matthew May was still hurt from last year. On the other paw, they had just stolen Carlos Gutierrez, so things were probably even. This was another hopeless season series for us, having lost it four times in a row, including 3-6 last year.

Projected matchups:
Girolamo Pizzichini (0-0) vs. Alfredo Picun (0-0)
Randy Rautenstrauch (0-0) vs. Jose Ortega (0-0)
Nick Walla (0-0, 9.64 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (1-0, 1.69 ERA)

Only right-handed starters to see here.

Game 1
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 2B Archuleta – RF Corral – 3B Arredondo – C Flowe – P Pizzichini
OCT: RF Almanza – 1B I. Stone – SS Palominos – C Bohannon – CF J. Parker – 2B C. Gutierrez – LF R. Soto – 3B B. Robinson – P Picun

Pizza had a first inning with very stringy cheese, allowing a single to Roberto Almanza and a walk to Martin Bohannon, but got around it. The Raccoons didn’t do a lot until the third inning, when Jake Flowe led off with a home run for the game’s first entry on the scoreboard, Pizza sliced a single, Duhe doubled, and Wilson hit a sac fly, 2-0. A single to center by Starr sent Duhe to third base, and set up another sac fly for Dowsey, who flew out to Roberto Almanza for his first RBI of the year while off to a 1-for-9 start. Archuleta doubled, but Starr was held at third base and stranded there when Corral ended the inning with a fly out to Johnny Parker.

The Coons turned two double plays for Pizza in the second and third innings, although he still gave up a run in the bottom 3rd on Almanza and Ian Stone singles. In the fifth, Brian Robinson got him for a 1-out triple, but a K on Picun and Almanza’s fly to Corral kept the runner on base; but he walked Stone to begin the sixth and then was taken deep by Jose Palominos to tie the game at three… He would have to settle for a no-decision as the Raccoons were not getting a lot off Picun in the middle innings and actually let him pitch eight innings. Rios followed Pizza and got five outs before a double switch brought in Josh C and Mendoza with two outs in the bottom 8th at Manny Arredondo’s expense. I felt the K that Carrington got against Palominos to be justification enough. However, while Carrington got out of this inning, he then began the bottom 9th with a leadoff walk to Bohannon, putting the winning run on base after Erik Swain had kept the Coons silent in the top of the inning. Gutierre zsingled with one out, and another walk to Daniel Richardson loaded the bases with one out. Robinson popped out, but Matt Ewig walked the teams off with a single to right. 4-3 Thunder. Starr 2-3, BB, 2B;

Fair. We keep he #21 pick anyway that we got from them by way of Tijuana for the Monck and Ewig signings.

Game 2
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 3B Mendoza – C Flowe – RF Corral – 2B Novelo – P Rautenstrauch
OCT: RF Almanza – 1B I. Stone – SS Palominos – C Bohannon – LF B. Johnston – CF J. Parker – 2B C. Gutierrez – 3B B. Robinson – P Jo. Ortega

Wilson walked and then three singles to right and right-center by Starr, Dowsey, and Flowe put two runs across in the opening inning, with RBI’s for the last two in the chain, before Corral flew out harmlessly to Parker to end the inning. However, the Thunder immediately turned Randy Rautenstrauch inside out, starting with an infield single for Almanza. The runner stole second and scored on Stone’s single, after which Rautenstrauch walked the bags full without getting anybody out. Bryan Johnston’s sac fly made it 2-2, Parker walked again, and Gutierrez’ bases-clearing double put the Thunder up, 5-2, before Robinson struck out and Ortega popped out…

The Furballs then answered with their own 5-spot in the top 2nd – and that despite Rautenstrauch bunting into a force to kill Novelo’s leadoff single. Duhe singled, Wilson doubled in a run, Ruhe scored on a wild pitch to Starr, who walked, Dowsey’s sac fly tied the game, and Mendoza homered to right, making it a 7-5 game in the second inning and Ortega was already gone. He made it through five outs (not: innings), which was one more than Rated-R, who gave up three more hits and a run in the bottom 2nd before getting yanked. Rios replaced him, got a double play grounder from Johnston to end the inning at 7-6, and then there was a rain delay of over an hour in the top of the third inning.

George Kehoe was then the last guy to see action this season, having only watched proceedings in the Coons’ first four games. He pitched three scoreless innings for the Critters while they kept running up the score against a wobbling Thunder pen. Corral drove in an extra run in the fifth inning, and after Wilson hit a 1-out single off Aaron Harris in the sixth, Starr struck an RBI double, Dowsey walked, and right-hander Danny Nava then gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to Jake Flowe that ran the tally to 11-6. The Coons then got two innings from Yamauchi, but for the price of two runs that the Thunder scratched him for in the seventh, but the Raccoons were still ahead by three into the ninth inning. No scoring against right-hander Javier Arocho meant that Valentin would appear for a save opportunity against the meat of the order. The Thunder went down in order…! 11-8 Furballs. Duhe 2-5; Wilson 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Dowsey 1-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Mendoza 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Flowe 2-5, 3 RBI; Corral 2-5, RBI; Kehoe 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Seiter was then a scratch in the rubber game and the Raccoons instead came up against Ken Nielsen (0-1, 6.00 ERA).

Game 3
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – RF Ramirez – P Walla
OCT: RF Almanza – 1B I. Stone – SS Palominos – C Bohannon – CF J. Parker – 2B C. Gutierrez – LF Ewig – 3B B. Robinson – P Nielsen

Sunday, the Raccoons took the lead in the third inning on a reverse-Walla-banger: Walla scored himself on a double that Jared Duhe hit off the wall with two outs in the inning. Walla was otherwise in trouble again with a couple of hits off him early on and the Coons felt coerced to intentionally walked Robinson with two outs in the second so he could get the third out in the inning from Nielsen instead. Which he did, but the Thunder loaded the bases with Stone, Palominos, and Bohannon in the bottom 3rd before Johnny Parker’s sac fly tied the game. Gutierrez then popped out to shallow center to leave a pair stranded.

A new lead was put together with Starr’s leadoff double and Archuleta’s RBI single in the fourth, 2-1, but Ewig took that away with a homer off Walla in the same inning, and with two outs Almanza walked, stole second, and scored on another single Stone bat off Walla, who would crawl through six innings with only two strikeouts and then leave on a 3-2 hook, which only threatened to get longer when Dover came in and allowed a leadoff, infield single to Almanza in the bottom 7th, then walked the bags full with Stone and Bohannon and just one out. McMahan came in for Parker and got a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Marquise Early hit a double in the pitcher’s spot in the eighth inning, but found now support and withered away as the tying run in scoring position. Josh C then had a tedious eighth inning, with a bunch of long counts after a leadoff walk to Gutierrez, but at least did not allow a run. The gesture was appreciated, though moot, since Erik Swain retired Starr, Dowsey, and Archuleta in order to finish the game. 3-2 Thunder. Early (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Bayhawks (1-5) – April 9-11, 2068

The Baybirds were coming off their worst EVER season with 108 losses, and it so far didn’t look like they were much improved. They had allowed the most runs in the CL so far, and were tenth in runs scored. Their deense was the worst, so was the rotation. They were second-worst in OBP, and not exactly impressive in other categories. For contrast to the two opening sets of the year, the Raccoons had won the season series from San Francisco for six years running, 7-2 in ’67.

Projected matchups:
Alex Dominguez (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. Preston Young (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Kelly Whitney (0-1, 11.12 ERA)
Girolamo Pizzichini (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Juan Sanchez (0-1, 12.27 ERA)

Two right, one left, and three ugly ERA’s.

Game 1
SFB: RF J. Ward – 3B K. Ball – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – CF Parrish – 1B Navarre – C H. Valdez – SS Leggett – P P. Young
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 2B Archuleta – RF Corral – 3B Arredondo – C D’Alessandro – P Dominguez

Dowsey got into the power game with a 2-run homer scoring Wilson in the first inning, but the Coons bungled the 2-0 lead right away behind 1-out hits by John Parrish (single) and Nate Navarre (RBI double), a wild pitch by Dominguez, and an error by Duhe to concede the tying run with two outs. From there, both teams laid down their weapons and were even on two runs on three hits through five innings, albeit with Dominguez running too many long counts again and sitting on a whopping 80 pitches through five. He then got burned in the sixth, first by the 5-6 batters again, walking Parrish and giving up a homer to Navarre that put San Francisco on top with two outs, and then another three straight hits from the bottom of the order that added another run, Young already being hit for. Yamauchi replaced Dominguez to get Jake Ward out and end the ******* inning, but then retired nobody to begin the seventh as Keith Ball and Ian Streng landed hits and Armando Montoya walked to load the bases. Dover replaced him and gave up a sac fly to Parrish, then winced and was collected by Luis Silva with some apparent discomfort. Kehoe had to end the inning and stranded the remaining runners. The Raccoons did not get another base hit until there were already two outs in the ninth inning when Dowsey hit a single off Steve Smith. Nothing came of that, and the team went down shockingly meekly. 6-2 Bayhawks. Dowsey 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Corral 2-4;

Dover was diagnosed with a mild abdominal strain that would render him day-to-day for a week or maybe longer. No point in a power pitcher that can’t power pitches, so he was off to the DL. The Raccoons recalled Jason Holzmeister, who hadn’t gotten into a game for the Alley Cats yet.

Game 2
SFB: RF J. Ward – 3B K. Ball – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – CF Parrish – 1B Navarre – C H. Valdez – SS Leggett – P Whitney
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 3B Mendoza – C Flowe – 2B Arredondo – P Gaytan

Tuesday’s game was quite unbelievable. The Racoons had no base hits against Whitney in the first three innings, but still managed to have Starr and Corral hit into double plays, while Gaytan struck out five in the first three innings, but was also battered for Streng and Montoya singles and a 3-run homer by John Parrish in the first inning. And that was not the last set of stats that wouldn’t make any sense in this game.

Hugo Valdez extended the score to 4-0 with a home run off Gaytan in the fourth inning. Gaytan kept piling up the strikeouts with the the intermittent rocket that needed defusal by an outfielder, and had 8 K through six innings, while the Raccoons still didn’t have a bleeping base hit through five against Whitney, who was hardly the pinnacle of pitchcraft. Jake Flowe then hit a leadoff single to right in the bottom 6th, but adjudged himself to be entitled to a double, and Jake Ward told him off and threw him out at second. Still no base runner! Whitney then walked Arredondo, and Gaytan bunted badly, getting the lead runner forced out at second base. Duhe then singled and Wilson walked in a full count to fool the bases full with two outs, bringing up Joel Starr, who got a juicy offering at 0-1, and peppered it high and deep to right – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!

With the game tied the Raccoons also got Dowsey on base with a single, and Corral on balls, but Mendoza flew out to left to strand a pair. Gaytan then returned for the seventh inning, and got another K on Valdez before being done upon reaching stretch time. He was hit for in the bottom 7th with Flowe on second base and one out, and this time Flowe had actually hit a double off right-hander Billy Thompson. Eddy Ramirez batted for Gaytan and singled to left, but Flowe had to be held at third base. Duhe popped out on a 3-1 pitch, Wilson walked on a 3-1 pitch to fill the bases for… uh, Starr! Alas, two grand slams in one game were too much asked for, and he grounded out to Montoya to leave the bases loaded.

The game remained tense, when tied at four in the eighth Carrington offered a leadoff walk to Streng, who was then doubled up by Montoya to Arredondo. Parrish, highly annoying, hit an infield single, stole second, and then was stranded when Josh C struck out Navarre. Bottom 8th, and after a Dowsey double and an intentional walk to Corral, the Raccoons asked 3-for-25 Diego Mendoza to bunt, which he did well enough and advanced the runners. Flowe knocked a 1-0 pitch up the middle for a 2-run single then, and was immediately doubled up by Arredondo to Keith Ball, 5-4-3. Valentin got the ball and allowed a single to Hugo Valdez to begin the ninth, but now Wally Leggett rolled into a double play. Francisco Roviva hit another single, but Jake Ward was rung up, and the Raccoons put the game away. 6-4 Coons. Starr 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Dowsey 2-3, BB, 2B; Flowe 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Ramirez (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons had an off day on Thursday, so it was not absolutely required to dole out extra off days. We still crammed all the righty sticks we could find into the lineup.

Game 3
SFB: RF J. Ward – 3B K. Ball – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – CF Parrish – 1B Navarre – C H. Valdez – SS Leggett – P Ju. Sanchez
POR: 2B Archuleta – LF Early – 1B Starr – CF Ramirez – RF Dowsey – 3B Mendoza – SS Novelo – C D’Alessandro – P Pizzichini

Two walks and a Leggett error meant the Raccoons had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom 1st after a 1-2-3 by Pizza to begin the afternoon. The Raccoons scored three, but almost scored none – Ramirez whiffed and Dowsey hit into a 4-6-…uuuh… bang-bang play at first base that was called the Coons’ way but could have been called either way, to be honest. That allowed Archuleta to score, and then Mendoza and Novelo both hit RBI singles, but Mendoza also ran into an out at third base to end the inning on the Novelo hit. Leggett then singled in a run in the top 2nd after Pizza walked a pair, but the Baybirds also ran themselves out of the inning with Hugo Valdez out at third base…!

Then the game suddenly started trundling along without either team putting up much threat, all the way through five and a 20-minute rain delay that was mostly an overreaction by a rookie umpire, and then went into the sixth where the Baybirds got another run out of Pizza with singles by Ward and Montoya, who was old but still pesky. Pizza kept pitching until he issued a 2-out walk to PH Dan Geiger in the seventh inning, and Holzmeister then offered no relief whatsoever, giving up the game-tying, 2-out triple to Jake Ward before Ball struck out to end the inning.

Kehoe and Steve Smith then tended to the 3-3 tie through the end of the eighth inning, after which we sent Josh C in to maintain the status quo in the top 9th, which he categorically didn’t, although it was a team effort between him walking a pair and Novelo ******* up a double play grounder for an error. Yamauchi then replaced him with the bases loaded and one out, gave up a sac fly to Jake Ward, and while the inning ended with Ball singling and Streng flying out to left, leaving the bases loaded, the Raccoons were now trailing against Roland wiser, a right-hander. Jaden Wilson batted for Ramirez, but flew out to Parrish in deep center, and Dowsey grounded out. Duhe kept the game going, singling in Mendoza’s spot. Jake Flowe batted for Novelo, but flew out to Ward in right-center. 4-3 Bayhawks. Duhe (PH) 1-1; Novelo 2-3, 2B, RBI;

In other news

April 2 – SAC SP Jay Williams (1-0, 0.00 ERA) shuts out the Wolves on three hits on Opening Day, claiming a 7-0 victory.
April 2 – SFW SP Luis Olvera (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and CL Lorenzo Lucatero (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 SV) share in a combined 1-hitter of the Pacifics in a 2-0 Opening Day win. 39-year-old INF Jim White (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI) spares L.A. from getting no-hit to begin the season with a single.
April 3 – IND 3B/2B Paul Weber (.750, 0 HR, 1 RBI) gets a double and two singles in a 5-3 win against the Crusaders, extending a 2067 hitting streak to 20 games.
April 4 – Rebels OF Juan Licona (.500, 1 HR, 1 RBI) will miss a month with a broken foot.
April 4 – The Miners beat the Buffaloes, 8-7 in 13 innings. Both teams score crooked numbers in the 11th and 13th innings, which are all 2’s until the Miners put up a 3 in the bottom of the 13th inning to walk off.
April 7 – This time SFW SP Luis Olvera (2-0, 0.00 ERA) finishes what he’s started, which is another 1-hit shutout for a 5-0 win against the Buffaloes. TOP OF/1B Joey Christopher (.667, 0 HR, 0 RBI) pinch-hits and singles in the fifth inning for SP Josh Barcellona (0-2, 4.91 ERA) for the only Buffos hit.
April 7 – NAS SP Edwin Moreno (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will rehab a partially torn labrum and miss two months at least.
April 7 – The Falcons end Indy’s Paul Weber’s (.333, 1 HR, 3 RBI) cross-season hitting streak at 22 games in a 5-0 win against the Indians. For oddity, the Falcons only score their five runs in the tenth inning.
April 9 – The Crusaders beat the Knights 4-0 with a combined 1-hitter between SP A.C. Stebbins (1-1, 2.57 ERA) and MR Jon Dominguez (0-1, 5.06 ERA). The lone Atlanta hit comes from UT Carlos Fumero (.308, 0 HR, 4 RBI) chipping a single.
April 10 – Denver CF/LF Matt Little (.333, 1 HR, 2 RBI) was diagnosed with a forearm strain and would miss at least six weeks.
April 11 – New York LF Jose Ambriz (.469, 4 HR, 9 RBI) shoots three home runs and drives in four runs in a 5-2 win against the Knights.

FL Player of the Week: SFW SP Luis Olvera (2-0, 0.00 ERA)
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Tyler Chenette (.769, 2 HR, 6 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Early reviews of the rotation are rough, with a 5.54 ERA that will hopefully correct itself a bit going forwards. The offense is just as tragic, batting for a .225 average and .307 OBP – both bottoms in the league. A bunch of multi-run homers put the Coons fourth in runs scored, but I’m not buying into it. Besides Starr, the Raccoons don’t have a qualifying batter hitting more than .242…

This does not include Jake Flowe, who started six of the nine games so far, and is a bit below the required 3.1 PA/G, but he’s been hitting .292/.320/.583 out of the gate. Probably also a mirage. Waiting for it to get worse.

Besides Starr and Flowe, only Archuleta and Wilson have an above-average OPS right now, so that’s how you are bottoms in all offensive categories all the time…

We have just started to look bad on this 12-game homestand though. There will be off days on either side of the coming Indians series, and next week we’ll have both the Loggers and Aces in for more fun of the wrong kind.

Fun Fact: Jose Ambriz’ three home runs in a 5-2 game mark the lowest run total in a 3-homer game in 11 years.

Back then Malik Crumble – afterwards a Raccoon for a bit – hit three homers in a 5-2 game against the Cyclones as well.

Nobody has ever hit three home runs in this league in a game in which his team scored only four runs (or three), but the 5-run thing has happened nine times in total now, including a few times against the Raccoons. Gabriel Ortiz of the Crusaders did it against the Coons in 2010, and the same was done by John Calfee of the damn Elks in 2024 – at the time when the Elks had 3-homer games against us every other Wednesday.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (4-5) vs. Indians (7-2) – April 13-15, 2068

The Indians had gotten really well out of the gate with basically not allowing any runs and a 2.37 ERA for their starters, which surely wasn’t gonna last. They had been seventh in runs scored, and the bullpen ERA had been more than twice what the starters had put up. Right-hander John Nesbitt had already hit the DL. Indy had won the season series in ’67, ten games to eight.

Projected matchups:
Randy Rautenstrauch (0-0, 40.50 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (1-0, 1.54 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-1, 5.91 ERA) vs. Justin Esch (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Alex Dominguez (1-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (2-0, 0.61 ERA)

Yeah… like that. DeWitt was the only southpaw in the group, and the only one who I would expect to hold up for six months.

The Raccoons would also *try* and get cute here for the first time. Since our next series was against the Loggers, and Rated-R would pitch the finale in that series on schedule, we’d try and hold over Gabriel Rios to take that start instead to fight that insane left-handed lineup. I’m sure we’d get our stuffings one way or another, but Rios was penciled in for that series, so wouldn’t be used for a ton of innings on Sunday, f.e.;

Game 1
IND: 2B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – CF Ma. Martin – 3B P. Weber – LF Menchaca – SS Baxley – P DeWitt
POR: SS Duhe – LF Early – 1B Starr – CF Ramirez – 2B Archuleta – RF Corral – 3B Mendoza – C D’Alessandro – P Rautenstrauch

The first hit in the game was Ramon Archuleta’s 3-run homer to left in the bottom 1st after DeWitt offered a walk to Marquise Early and Eddy Ramirez reached on a throwing error by Paul Weber. Those runs were all unearned on DeWitt since they came with two outs, but the same wasn’t true for the pair of runs that scored on Ramirez’ home run to left in the third inning, which also came with Early on base, this time after hitting a single, and which gave the Raccoons an unlikely 5-0 lead, although it should be mentioned that Rated-R was wearing the defense out with giving up screamer after screamer. He gave up three hits in the first three innings and struck out nobody, then suddenly rung up the side in the fourth inning. He outlasted DeWitt, who was removed after four innings, and survived a fifth-inning rain delay that was barely long enough to be worth mentioning, but finally gave up a 2-run homer of his own in the sixth inning, that one being mashed out of sight by Indy’s Matt Rogers.

Bottom 6th, the Raccoons loaded the bases with nobody out against right-hander Juan Pena as Archuleta doubled up the rightfield line, Corral walked, and Diego Mendoza dropped in a single as he tried to reach the .200 mark. We were tempted to hit for 1-for-12 Chris D’Alessandro, but the sixth felt a bit early to run out of catchers, so we didn’t – and D’Alessandro socked a 2-run double to left, 7-2, but after that three useless outs were made. Rautenstrauch got one more out, then gave up a double to John Baxley and was yanked. Gabriel Rios replaced him, got out of the inning without conceding the Baxley run, but was then given on the snout in the eighth with a walk to Tony Torres, an RBI triple into the gap by Rogers, and Matt Martin’s infield RBI single that reduced the gap to three runs again, but the Coons doubled the gap in the bottom 8th against Luis Pulido. Corral led off with a double, Mendoza walked, and then frantic pinch-hitting occurred, with four batters coming off the bench within six plate appearances. Flowe struck out, Wilson grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Dowsey hit an RBI double, Early singled in two, and Shamar King allowed a walk to Starr upon replacing Pulido, but then got Novelo to pop out to short. Somehow this still worked out for a defensive arrangement in the ninth inning, which Yamauchi 1-2-3’ed against the Indians. 10-4 Raccoons! Dowsey (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Early 2-3, 2 BB, 3 RBI; Archuleta 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Mendoza 2-3, BB;

Ten games in, we were scoring 5.2 runs per game. We were also almost given up that many, but why not focus on the ups for a moment…?

Game 2
IND: LF Spicer – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – CF Ma. Martin – 3B P. Weber – 2B W. Mejia – SS Baxley – P V. Perez
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Walla

On Saturday, both teams went down in order in the first inning, then scuppered a pair in the second inning, and one more runner in the third. Walla was still holding up on his end in the fourth inning, but Perez gave up a leadoff homer to Justin Dowsey in the bottom 4th that put the Coons in front.

Things became interesting in the sixth inning when Malcolm Spicer singled to lead off against Walla. Of course everybody in the ballpark remembered Spicer, who had won two stolen base titles with the Raccoons before having been flicked to Indy in the trade that had brought in Dowsey (of all people) and Gabriel Rios. He didn’t go before Tony Torres grounded out, which moved him to second base anyway, but then tried to make third base his third stolen bag of the season – but was thrown out by Flowe! Walla got rid of Alex Gomez, and so had another (oddly-shaped) 1-2-3 inning.

Dowsey came close to another home run in the bottom 6th, but was denied at the wall by Tony Torres, but Archuleta slapped a triple in the seventh inning and then scored on Flowe’s fly to Matt Martin for a 2-0 lead. Walla appeared to still have something, but a leadoff single by Wil Mejia put the tying run in the box to begin the eighth inning, and he was removed after Baxley flew out to Dowsey and left-hander Eddie Menchaca pinch-hit for Perez, which put three lefty bats up next. McMahan and Arredondo entered in a double switch, ending the days of Walla and Diego Mendoza, but McMahan failed the bags full with Menchaca and PH Miguel Falcon, then allowed Walla’s run to score on Torres’s sac fly. Josh C replaced him and got an easy groundout from Gomez to end the sticky inning, Portland still up by a skinny run.

Bottom 8th, Portland got Wilson on with two outs against Nick Leigh. He stole second, and Joel Starr worked a walk against the right-hander, bringing Dowsey up. With the count at 1-1, the run-and-hit was called, but Dowsey missed a pitch outside, which also unsettled Gomez enough to not have a shot at even Starr – but the runners were then stranded when Dowsey flew out to Martin on the next pitch. The Coons left Josh C in for the ninth inning, despite him having walked six batters in 4.1 innings prior to this game. The game exploded on him quite impressively with a leadoff wallbanger double by Rogers before Martin’s grounder was fired away for a 2-base error by Arredondo, which already blew the lead. Weber and Mejia then got the go-ahead run in with productive outs and I was opening the first bottle of Capt’n Coma of the year. Tony Lira sunk the Coons’ 5-6-7 batters to put the game away. 3-2 Indians. Archuleta 2-4, 3B; Walla 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;

(closes eyes and groans)

Game 3
IND: LF Spicer – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – CF Ma. Martin – 3B P. Weber – 2B W. Mejia – SS Baxley – P Esch
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Dominguez

Esch had only made one start for six scoreless innings so far this year, and he would run his tally to nine rather easily in this game as Jaden Wilson’s single was the only thing he gave up in the first three innings. Dominguez, however, was just as stingy, and struck out five while scattering three hits in four innings before Wilson led off the bottom 4th with another soft single. Starr then walked again, and Dowsey’s single to center loaded the bases with nobody out, spelling trouble for the Raccoons. Although we *did* score a run on the next play, we did it in the most Raccoons way possible, with Corral spanking a grounder to right that hit Dowsey – thus rendering him out – but at the same time this also brought in Wilson with the game’s first run. Archuleta made it 2-0 with a groundout to short, and while Flowe singled to right, Corral wasn’t sent against Tony Torres’ arm and instead held at third base. Mendoza whiffed to leave them at the corners, then. The Coons doubled their tally the following inning with a 1-out Duhe single, Wilson RBI triple, and Starr RBI single, before Dowsey crashed the party with a double play grounder.

Dominguez got around Spicer singling (and being forced out by Torres) and a walk to Gomez in the sixth inning before Corral extended the lead to 5-0 with a homer that chased Esch in the bottom 6th, although Paul Weber answered that call with a homer of his own in the following half-inning. Mejia then also reached base and the Coons brought McMahan to get out of the inning.

The melting continued in the eighth inning and George Kehoe, who allowed a single to Torres and another homer to Rogers to get the Indians back to within two runs. Matt Martin also reached, and Rios came in with two outs for the lefty bottom of the order. Wil Mejia flew out to Wilson to end the inning. At least Pedro Valentin held up despite Baxley reaching on an infield single to begin the ninth inning, which brought the tying run to bat. Menchaca, Spicer, and Torres all made soft outs, though, and the Coons took the series. 5-3 Critters. Wilson 3-4, 3B, RBI; Starr 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Corral 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Dominguez 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-1);

Joel Starr won the race to 10 RBI with his fifth-inning single. At the time, Dowsey, Archuleta, and Flowe were all at eight runs batted in.

Raccoons (6-6) vs. Loggers (9-3) – April 17-19, 2068

This matchup had gotten the Raccoons nothing but beatings the last three years, with 12 losses on average and a rancid 5-13 contest of the season series last year. The Loggers, who narrowly missed scoring a blinding one-thousand runs last year, were up to 80 already from 12 games (6.66 R/G), while giving up the second-fewest, despite their pen being off to the worst start in the CL with an ERA north of six. Mario Alaniz was on the DL, not that this took a lot of teeth out of the lineup… Amazingly they led the league in offense despite being bottoms in homers and stolen bases. I guess, batting .303 as a team will get you pretty far regardless of oomph…

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (0-1, 2.57 ERA)
Girolamo Pizzichini (0-0, 4.26 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (0-0, 16.20 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-1, 7.11 ERA) vs. Brett Bebout (0-0, 2.53 ERA)

We would not be shocked if Crist was skipped due to the off day on Monday. If so, B.J. Butrico (1-1, 2.77 ERA) would be next in line. All their starters were right-handed, which was not something that could be said about that murder lineup…

Game 1
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Goss – LF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – CF Merrill – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – P J. Lugo
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Gaytan

The Loggers didn’t **** around with Gaytan longer than absolutely necessary on Tuesday. They right away put a run on him in the first on singles by Dave Wright, Carlos Dominguez, and Fidel Carrera, and then got him for two more in the third inning when he also struggled to retire any of the lefty barrage that was amassed in line from the #2 hitter Tim Goss through the #6 Jonathan Merrill. Cesar Ramirez got him for a solo homer in the fifth inning, and he only made it through six innings in total because the sixth was against the right-handed bottom of the order.

No, the stunner on Tuesday was that the Raccoons were almost matching the pace after a few futile innings against Jose Lugo to begin the game. Jose Corral hit a 2-run homer with Dowsey on base in the fourth inning, and an inning later Duhe and Starr reached and Dowsey hit a sac fly to narrow the score to 4-3 again. Flowe singled in the bottom 6th to get the tying run on base, but was doubled up by the luckless Mendoza to end the inning. Also luckless: George Kehoe, who came up against the left-handed murder troupe in the seventh inning and was whacked around for two runs (one earned), with Mendoza very helpfully chipping in an error.

The Loggers ran out of centerfielders in the seventh inning; having removed Merrill in a double switch after the sixth, replacement Phil Reder then hit the ground hard diving for a Wilson drive to center with Early and Duhe on base in the bottom 7th. He made the catch, but left with a bruised forearm and was replaced by unskilled worker Rafael Murcia in center. Starr hit a sac fly, 6-4, but that was all the Coons got in the inning. Holzmeister then got the ball, retired Murcia and Wright, and then got two runs in the snout on Goss’ 2-out single and a Carlos Dominguez homer… Archuleta answered with a solo homer off Jimmy Ding(er)man in the bottom 8th, and back-to-back doubles by Novelo and Early clawed another run back, 8-6. Holzmeister was not scored upon in the ninth any further, and a leadoff walk Tetsu Kurihara offered to Starr in the ninth inning brought the tying run to the plate, although Dowsey was gone, with Holzmeister in his spot. Eddy Ramirez would pinch-hit, but flew out easily to Dominguez in left. Corral singled, promoting the winning run to the plate, and Archuleta put the tying run on base with another single to right. However, Flowe popped out to first, and Novelo grounded out to short to end the game… 8-6 Loggers. Duhe 3-3, 2 BB; Corral 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Archuleta 2-5, HR, RBI; Flowe 3-5; Novelo (PH) 1-2, 2B; Early (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Goss – LF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – CF Merrill – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – P Bebout
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – 3B Novelo – C D’Alessandro – P Pizzichini

Somehow Pizza survived a leadoff walk to Dave Wright in the first inning, while the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead with a Duhe single and Dowsey RBI double in the bottom 1st. Milwaukee turned that around real quick, though, getting Merrill on with a single in the second. Reber’s RBI double and Bebout’s depressing 2-out RBI single gave them a 2-1 lead.

Dowsey doubled again in the third inning to tie the game, chasing home Jaden Wilson with two outs, and Pizza got around another leadoff walk to Fidel Carrera in the fourth inning to at least stay in the tie. The Coons wasted an Archuleta double in the fourth, but Jared Duhe then socked a tie-breaking homer to right when he led off the fifth!

Pizza departed after 5.2 innings of hard work. I wondered why the Loggers didn’t hit him harder, since he had been with that team forever, and it wasn’t like he was just blazing them away. In any case he departed with two batters on base that Josh Carrington almost waved around when he entered against Tommy Guitreau, who fell behind 0-2 before Carrington threw a wild pitch and then walked Guitreau onto the open base, but then struck out Bebout to strand the full set. In any case, the Coons’ pen exploded on schedule in the seventh inning with Carrington’s leadoff walk to Wright, and McMahan proved no help when he entered in a double switch with Arredondo (who replaced Novelo at third base), gave up a single to Goss and a 3-run homer to Cesar Ramirez…

The Coons got the score back level with reckless baserunning in the bottom 7th as Arredondo singled and stole second, and when Duhe walked, both took off for a double steal. Guitreau’s throw to second got away from Carrera, and Arredondo scored while the tying run, Duhe, got to third base, from where Wilson brought him in with a sac fly, tying the game at five. Jimmy Ding(er)man then gave up a single to Dowsey and a 2-out double to Corral that brought Dowsey around to score, 6-5 Coons. Archuleta grounded out. Yamauchi got the ball and saw Kyle Reber ground out before Guitreau singled in the eighth, but Ricardo Vargas hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Right-hander Julio Robles got the bottom 8th and nicked Jake Flowe hitting for Yamauchi before giving up singles to D’Alessandro and Arredondo, and a run along with that. Duhe slapped another RBI single, but Wilson flew out to left and Starr hit into a double play, which gave a 3-run lead to Pedro Valentin. Wright struck out to begin the ninth, and the pitcher was in Goss’ slot. Yoslan Valdez, former left-handed Titans piece, grounded out on a 3-1 pitch. A strikeout on Dominguez ended the game…! 8-5 Furballs! Duhe 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Dowsey 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Arredondo 2-2, RBI;

Now for the interesting one!

Game 3
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Goss – LF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – CF Merrill – C Guitreau – P Butrico
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Rios

Gabriel Rios was ******* out of control and walked the bases full to begin the game. The Loggers only got one run on a sac fly after Rios was yelled at by the pitching coach, but that also included a hard lineout by Carrera to Archuleta that could have become expensive if it had been a foot higher. Rios threw 39 pitches in the inning, and Rated-R was on the way down to the pen after the first inning. When he wasn’t giving out freebies – those were the only three walks he allowed until a 2-out free pass to Carrera in the fifth – Rios wasn’t THAT bad: he did not allow another run in his outing, and ended up striking out six Loggers… but he also only lasted five innings, which took him 103 pitches, which wasn’t so bad considering we also had a 30-minute rain delay somewhere in between there...

Butrico meanwhile was pitching a no-hitter until Jake Flowe hit a 1-out single to center in the bottom 5th. Mendoza legged out an infield single, but Ramirez and Duhe made meek outs and the runners remained stranded. The Coons, despite only being down 1-0, then went to Rated-R, who surprisingly put out two nice innings… and then hung around for the eighth inning and promptly hung himself by the neck and tail in the nearest clothesline. Cesar Ramirez hit a leadoff double before Carrera flew out to deep center and Reber whiffed. We then called an intentional walk on Merrill to get to the right-handed Guitreau (who was not exactly harmless), but Reckless Randy walked him as well, and then was yanked for McMahan when Yoslan Valdez pinch-hit. McMahan **** the bed; he walked in a run against Valdez, then allowed straight singles to Wright and Goss for three runs, allowed another walk to Dominguez, and then Ramirez finally flew out in a full count… The Raccoons drew six walks in the game, but remained stuck on two hits and never scored a run. 5-0 Loggers.

Raccoons (7-8) vs. Aces (9-7) – April 20-22, 2068

We would conclude this very tiresome homestand with the Aces, who had won last year’s season series, 5-4, and now showed up leading the CL South while ranking third in both runs scored and runs allowed in the league. They were another team where the rotation had a much better ERA (almost two runs) than the bullpen after the first few weeks of the season. They were second from the bottom in home runs.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (0-1, 4.00 ERA) vs. Chris Monahan (2-1, 4.66 ERA)
Alex Dominguez (2-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. Ignazio Flores (1-1, 5.21 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-1, 4.95 ERA) vs. Josh Jackson (1-1, 4.58 ERA)

Flores was the only left-hander in this group, but the Aces came in rested with a day off and could skip another left-hander, Gabe Molina (1-1, 4.15 ERA) into the series.

Game 1
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – 3B Vic. Morales – C Haynes – RF Rosado – LF Lorenzo – 2B Rodewald – CF A. Warner – 1B L. Jimenez – P Monahan
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Walla

The Coons could not score early on despite being gifted runners to begin the bottom 2nd when Jose Corral reached on an uncaught third strike and Archuleta was nicked on base by Monahan. Meanwhile, Walla’s wonky start to the season continued. He was behind everybody in the first inning, giving up singles to Vic Morales and Chris Haynes, and then allowed a run when he walked Koji Hatakeyama and gave up an RBI double to Haynes in the third inning. At odds with his own body, he allowed straight singles to Vic Lorenzo, Matt Rodewald, and Aaron Warner – the last one of the infield variety – to begin the fourth before getting a double play, 5-4-3, from Leo Jimenez and an easy third out from Monahan to keep the damage to one run. The Coons had Corral and Archuleta on again to begin the bottom 4th, this time with singles, and again scored a wet fart, as Flowe flew out and Mendoza bungled into a double play.

After a throwing error by Flowe cost Walla a third (unearned) run in the sixth inning, the Raccoons loaded the bases with Dowsey, Archuleta, and Flowe, who finally hit a single, in the bottom 6th, bringing up pinch-hitters Marquise Early, who popped out, and Novelo in place of Walla, but he flew out to center, and **** remained ****. Holzmeister allowed another run on two hits in the seventh, but Yamauchi was not scored upon in the eighth. The Coons then put Archuleta and D’Alessandro on the corners in the eighth inning, both getting singles off left-hander Jesse Connors before Eddy Ramirez struck out against right-handed replacement Adam Johnson and stranded them. Josh C then had another rotten inning in the ninth, allowing another run on a walk and two hits, while the Coons trundled towards their second consecutive shutout. 5-0 Aces. Dowsey 2-4; Archuleta 2-3; D'Alessandro (PH) 1-1;

The Coons fell to last place in the division with this result, although the record was not *that* bad (yet) at 7-9.

Game 2
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – 3B Vic. Morales – C Haynes – RF Rosado – LF Lorenzo – 2B Rodewald – CF Caceres – 1B A. Alfaro – P I. Flores
POR: SS Duhe – LF Early – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – 1B Dowsey – CF Ramirez – 3B Novelo – C D’Alessandro – P Dominguez

Marquise Early’s first homer of the season ensured the scoring drought that had befallen the Raccoons didn’t extend beyond 18 innings, and Jose Corral nearly hit another run right afterwards in the first inning on Saturday. Dominguez retired the first seven batters he faced, which included striking out the side in the second inning, before walking Alex Alfaro in the third inning, but the tying run was kept on base; but in the fourth inning a Chris Haynes double to left-center and Vic Lorenzo’s single to left tied the game after all.

The rest of the middle innings consisted of futile poking before Alfredo Rosado opened the seventh with a single to right. He was forced out by Rodewald on a grounder to short, but Rodewald scored on a tie-breaking triple over the head of Ramirez that the long-ago Elk Aaron Warner smacked while batting for Jorge Caceres. Alfaro struck out, which was also the last batter for Dominguez, who went seven good innings, but was now on the hook. Kehoe replaced him in the eighth and immediately got in trouble drilling PH Leo Jimenez. Vic Morales’ 1-out single moved the lead runner to third base, from where he scored on Haynes’ groundout, but with two outs Alfredo Rosado ripped a first-pitch triple to extend the lead to 4-1 anyway. Kehoe walked Lorenzo before Rodewald grounded out to leave two on base. D’Alessandro and Wilson with a pinch-hit single scratched out a run against three different relievers in the bottom 8th, but the run was taken right back against Josh C, who walked another two batters while being ******* useless in the ninth inning. Reliever Tony Torres then struck out Archuleta and Dowsey in the bottom 9th before Jake Flowe hit a pinch-hit home run. Novelo singled, but D’Alessandro fanned to end the game. 5-3 Aces. Early 2-3, HR, RBI; Wilson (PH) 1-1, RBI; Flowe (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Novelo 2-4; Dominguez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (2-2);

Sigh.

Game 3
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – 3B Vic. Morales – C Haynes – RF Rosado – LF Lorenzo – 2B Rodewald – CF A. Warner – 1B L. Jimenez – P Jo. Jackson
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Archuleta – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 3B Arredondo – P Gaytan

Gaytan kept giving up runs, as he walked Haynes and conceded the run on a Rosado double in the first, and then was taken deep by Jimenez for a solo run in the second, but also drove in the Coons’ first run in the bottom 2nd after Novelo (single), Flowe (double), and Arredondo (intentional walk) loaded the bases with one out. Gaytan’s RBI single reduced an Aces lead to 2-1, and Jackson then lost Wilson on balls to tie the ballgame. Archuleta then hit a bouncer to third base that Vic Morales after some deliberation took back to the base for a 5-U force on Gaytan while Arredondo ambled home to score and give the Coons a 3-2 lead. Starr flew out to Lorenzo to end the inning. Gaytan kept stumbling over every pebble in the road, issuing a leadoff walk to Rosado in the fourth. Lorenzo forced him out with a grounder, but then was thrown out at the plate by Wilson on Rodewald’s double to center. Warner struck out in a full count to let Gaytan elope with the lead for another inning.

It was 4-2 after four with Starr doubling home Archuleta (who forced out Wilson) in the inning, and while Gaytan had a 1-2-3 fifth, he was then wrecked in the sixth. Morales and Haynes both hit leadoff singles in full counts, and Rosado doubled in another full count, plating Morales, while Haynes was thrown out at the plate as the tying run – but Lorenzo’s single then tied the game anyway. Gaytan hit Rodewald and then walked Warner on four pitches, and then was yanked with the bases loaded and only a baserunning out collected. Yamauchi replaced him, and first exploded the score with a bases-loaded walk to Jimenez, an infield single hit by Caceres, another knock by Hatakeyama, and then exploded his own arm and left the game. Holzmeister picked up the pieces in the 6-run inning, and the Coons were now down 8-4, then ****** the bases full himself by hitting Rosado and allowing hits to Lorenzo and Rodewald in the seventh. One run scored on Warner’s groundout, and a walk to Jimenez stacked them up again. Holzmeister was yanked and Kehoe surrendered three more runs on Nate Marazzo’s groundout and a 2-run single for Hatakeyama. Morales flew out to leave a runner on base in another 4-run frame.

The Aces then lost reliever David Gaither to injury, while the Coons did not allow any more runs in the last two innings, with McMahan and Valentin nobly trying to shut a door that had been blow out of its hinges long ago. 12-4 Aces. Starr 2-5, 2B, RBI; Early (PH) 1-1; Flowe 2-5, 2B; Arredondo 0-1, 2 BB;

In other news

April 12 – Loggers 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.324, 0 HR, 7 RBI) leads the team with four hits, including three doubles, and one RBI in a 13-1 thrashing of the Crusaders.
April 13 – LF/RF Ian Streng (.244, 2 HR, 4 RBI) could be missing from the Bayhawks lineup for months with a particularly gnarly concussion.
April 15 – NAS SP Josh Rivera (2-0, 2.77 ERA) could miss most of the season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 15 – The Crusaders out-slug the Loggers, 15-11, with all crooked-number innings for both teams: three four-run innings, four three-run innings, and a cute little two runs that New York started the game with. For Crusaders outfielders, Bryant Box (.309, 1 HR, 5 RBI) goes 4-for-7 with three RBI and four runs scored, and a triple shy of the cycle, while Jose Ambriz (.426, 5 HR, 14 RBI) goes unretired with four hits, two walks, two RBI, and five runs scored.
April 17 – CHA SP Edgar Mauricio (2-0, 0.87 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout with seven strikeouts against the Bayhawks, claiming a 7-0 win.

April 18 – Thunder RF/LF Roberto Almanza (.453, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak following a triple and two singles in a 4-3 loss to the Condors. The first six games of that streak still occurred in 2067.
April 18 – Scorpions 3B/SS/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.412, 7 HR, 18 RBI) hits a home run as the only hit for the Stingers in their 11-1 rout suffered against the Gold Sox.
April 18 – CIN 2B/1B Rich Cabrera (.500, 2 HR, 3 RBI) hits a 13th-inning walkoff home run to beat the Buffaloes, 3-1.
April 18 – Boston RF/INF/CF Jared Robichaud (.250, 2 HR, 7 RBI) goes yard to conclude a 12-inning, 5-3 win against the Indians.
April 18 – San Francisco beats Charlotte, eventually, by a score of 3-1 in 16 innings.
April 19 – WAS OF Alex Romero (.276, 2 HR, 14 RBI) cranks a walkoff grand slam to beat the Miners, 7-3 in regulation.
April 19 – The Condors end the 20-game hitting streak of OCT Roberto Almanza (.426, 0 HR, 6 RBI) in another narrow win for Tijuana, 3-2.
April 19 – The Bayhawks win another long one from the Falcons, 4-2 in 14 innings.

April 20 – LAP SP Joe Chalmers (2-2, 1.50 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout to beat the Blue Sox, 7-0.
April 20 – The Condors get socked for 20 hits in a 16-2 rout by the Loggers. MIL OF/2B Tim Goss (.366, 1 HR, 11 RBI) has three hits, with a home run, and drives in four runs to lead the charge.
April 20 – The Stars crush the Cyclones, 17-1. Five runs, most on the team, are driven in by DAL C Curt Goodwin (.310, 2 HR, 12 RBI) with the help of a grand slam.

FL Player of the Week (2): SAC 3B/SS/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.450, 5 HR, 15 RBI), pushing .632 (12-19) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week (2): IND 1B Matt Rogers (.357, 3 HR, 11 RBI), batting .545 (12-22) with 3 HR, 10 RBI

FL Player of the Week (3): LAP SS/2B Dustin Cox (.405, 0 HR, 6 RBI), clipping .577 (15-26) with 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week (3): ATL RF/LF Javier Acuna (.365, 2 HR, 9 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 1 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Nothing works. Nothing is fixed.

Nothing.

Well, we’re tying for first in home runs in the CL. It’s a team effort, since nobody has more than three dingers, but almost everybody in the lineup has one. That even includes Diego Mendoza, who is probably the biggest bust so far, although Eddy Ramirez and Rated-R aren’t far behind.

Pedro Valentin has yet to allow a run, which I am sure will come in time in a 3-2 game. No word on the Yamauchi injury, but we have a full Monday off day to figure it out before we start the road trip.

Any other teams besides the Loggers where we think we’d do better with Rios than Rated-R? The Condors are up there with a heavy left-handed lineup. The Thunder maybe, as well. In May the stars might align for back-to-back starts against the Loggers and Condors, so we will try to make that work.

Injury news from AAA include Josh Mireles missing most of April with a shoulder strain and Juan Soriano’s shoulder also exploded and he would miss at least half the season.

The Raccoons would take their L4 streak on the road now for two weeks well East of the Mississippi with the Falcons, Titans, Crusaders, and Cyclones. No off day between those games either. Yikes.

Fun Fact: The Wolves are off to a 14-5 start.

I mean. THE WOLVES.

They have scored the most runs in the Federal League. They also have allowed the most runs in the Federal League, and their run differential is +4. They have won every 1-run game they played. It’s not gonna hold up.

[Westheim]

Yamauchi was diagnosed with a mild calf strain and remained on the roster, listed as day-to-day. The same wasn’t true for Jason Holzmeister, who took his 15.75 ERA to St. Petersburg when Jesse Dover came off the DL in time for the road trip.

Raccoons (7-11) @ Falcons (8-11) – April 24-26, 2068

The Falcons were tenth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed to begin the year, and in fourth place in the South. The Raccoons were opening a 4-city East Coast swing here. Hopefully the Falcons would not bother our pitchers too much, although they somehow were second-worst in OBP, but second overall in stolen bases. They also had the best D in the CL, but had already lost relievers Orazio Cecere and Sal Gil to injury. The Coons had won six of the nine games against Charlotte last year.

Projected matchups:
Girolamo Pizzichini (0-0, 3.93 ERA) vs. Evan Alvey (0-1, 7.53 ERA)
Randy Rautenstrauch (1-0, 9.58 ERA) vs. Carlos Gomez (1-1, 3.86 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-2, 3.75 ERA) vs. Jason Morea (0-1, 4.91 ERA)

Ex-Coon Evan Alvey, who would not have made much more sense in the rotation than the pitchers we ended up going with, was the only left-handed starter in this set.

Game 1
POR: SS Duhe – LF Early – 1B Starr – 2B Archuleta – RF Dowsey – CF Ramirez – 3B Mendoza – C D’Alessandro – P Pizzichini
CHA: 2B Schmidt – LF T. Lopez – C O. Matos – 1B Savalli – SS Tr. Taylor – CF Barber – 3B Fountain – RF M. Padilla – P Alvey

Alvey got battered right out of the box with our straight hits from the first four batters he faced, and the Raccoons would score all four runs with a Duhe single, Early double, a 2-run single through the right side by Joel Starr, Archuleta’s RBI double in left-center, a wild pitch, and Dowsey’s sac fly. The Raccoons gave two runs right back though, unearned after John Schmidt reached on a Marquise Early error in left as they were, when Justin Savalli hit a home run to right off Pizza in the bottom 1st. Pizza remained unconvincing after that as well, put Oscar Matos and Savalli on the corners in the third inning, and then gave up a 2-out run on a single by Jonathon Barber. The Raccoons were disturbingly silent after the early onslaught until the fifth inning, when they got their next hit, a 2-out RBI single by Early to drive in Chris D’Alessandro and his leadoff walk, 5-3. That ended Alvey’s day, while Pizza kept struggling on, completing six innings, but for the cost of another run in the bottom 6th when Barber hit a leadoff double off the wall in center, and then was plated on productive outs by Elijah Fountain and Mario Padilla, so it was a 5-4 game through six innings, and the Falcons were actually out-hitting the Coons, 6-5.

Jesse Dover then returned in the seventh inning and got smothered. He got two outs before Oscar Matos hit a game-tying home run, and then failed Savalli on base with a single, walked Trent Taylor, and gave up a 2-run double to Barber before getting yanked.

Top 8th, and Cory Leonard walked Starr and Archuleta to give the Coons the tying runs on base with one out. Lefty John Robinson came in to face Dowsey, but hit him to fill the bases. Right-hander Mike Martin followed, and Jaden Wilson batted for Eddy Ramirez. His drive to center was caught by Mario Asencio, holding him to a sac fly, 7-6, and Jose Corral also batted for Mendoza, but likewise flew out and left the tying and go-ahead runs on base. The Coons then had a pair of 1-out walks *again* in the ninth inning when Alvaro Garza lost Flowe – who was the last guy off the bench – and Duhe on balls. Early struck out, and Starr bounced out to John Schmidt to end the ballgame. 7-6 Falcons. Early 2-5, 2B, RBI;

We had four hits before the Falcons got an out from Alvey, and then managed only the Early RBI single while they got their 27 outs.

Game 2
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – 2B Archuleta – RF Corral – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Rautenstrauch
CHA: 2B Schmidt – LF T. Lopez – C O. Matos – 1B Savalli – SS Tr. Taylor – CF Barber – 3B Mari – RF M. Padilla – P C. Gomez

Rated-R struck out four the first time through the Falcons lineup, but also gave up some screamers, such as a Taylor single after a leadoff walk to Savalli in the second inning. Barber’s groundout plated Savalli for an early Falcons lead, and Tony Lopez hit a home run in the third inning to extend the lead to 2-0. The Coons had a Joel Starr single in the first inning, and then … nothing until the fifth, when Corral and Flowe opened the inning with hits, and Gomez brushed Diego Mendoza to fill the bags with nobody out, but also with the pitcher up in the box. He stripped down Rated-R for a strikeout, also rung up Duhe, but Wilson came through for a game-tying single to right-center. Starr found the hole on the right side for a go-ahead RBI single, 3-2, but Dowsey grounded out to Schmidt, ending the inning. Schmidt then whacked a leadoff double to left in the bottom 5th, but three poor groundouts would keep him stranded at third base in the inning.

Ramon Archuleta was on base in the sixth, but also collided with Trent Taylor in an attempt to break up a double play on Flowe’s grounder to second base, which left him with a bum elbow and got him removed from the game after a consultation with Luis Silva. Novelo took over for him. Nobody had to take over for Rated-R for seven innings at least, has he went 99 pitches and struck out nine Falcons while keeping the 3-2 lead intact. McMahan took care of the eighth inning against the 2-3-4 batters, after which the Raccoons suddenly gained some length against Leonard in the ninth; Early batted for the pitcher and doubled, and then Duhe cranked a homer to extend the lead to three runs. 2-out walks to Starr and Dowsey and an RBI single by Novelo added another run. Corral grounded out, and the Coons then left Valentin in the pen and went with Josh C instead, who was completely outta whack through three weeks of the season, walking ELEVEN batters already in just eight innings of work. He walked two more in the ninth – but finished the game, somehow. 6-2 Raccoons. Wilson 2-5, 2 RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, RBI; Early (PH) 1-1, 2B; Rautenstrauch 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (2-0);

Some pieces were bent, some pieces were broken: the Raccoons had to send Ramon Archuleta to the DL for a sprained elbow, and had at least hope that he’d be back in 15 days.

The Raccoons called up the hot paw from AAA, Brian Hills, who was hitting .350. You might remember the name, since Hills had been up for six games in ’66 as a 21-year-old, had hit .150, and then had not been heard from all of last year. Him and Novelo might share honors covering in Archuleta’s absence, since Hills was batting left-handedly. Unlike Novelo and Duhe, Hills’ best position was shortstop, but perhaps this was due to a lack of XP on second base.

Marquise Early got an extra start after his .407 beginning to the season. We didn’t expect to see a southpaw for the rest of the week, so any extra time for him had to come at the expense of a left-handed batter.

Game 3
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – RF Dowsey – LF Early – C Flowe – 2B Hills – 3B Mendoza – P Walla
CHA: 2B Schmidt – LF T. Lopez – C O. Matos – 1B Savalli – SS Tr. Taylor – CF Barber – 3B Fountain – RF Asencio – P Morea

Hills drove in the first run of the rubber game with a groundout, plating Early, who had drawn a walk before Flowe had doubled to right in the second inning; Mendoza then left Flowe stranded on base. Duhe doubled and scored on a Starr single in the third inning to make it 2-0 for Walla, who looked better than in the first few starts, but then had Asencio and Morea on base with leadoff singles in the bottom 3rd. He struck out Schmidt and then got a comebacker for a 1-6-3 inning-ender to wiggle out of the jam, though.

The Gold Glover Schmidt then set up a big scoring opportunity for the Coons in the fifth inning. Duhe was already on base to begin the inning when Wilson grounded to second, but Schmidt threw the ball way past Savalli for a 2-base error that put a pair in scoring position with no outs on the board. Following this, the 3-4-5 batters for the Raccoons all spectacularly… popped out behind home plate. ALL THREE OF THEM!!!

ALL ******* THREE OF THEM!!!

At least Walla was in GREAT shape through five innings, with a 2-hitter, four strikeouts and just 53 pitches. Schmidt singled his way on base to begin the bottom 6th, but Lopez popped out and Matos hit into a 4-6-3 double play to take care of him. He was still cruising when the Raccoons somehow wobbled into a chance in the eighth, beginning with Dowsey having a fly to left dropped for two bases by Tony Lopez. Early was then walked intentionally. Flowe flew out harmlessly for the second out, while Novelo batted for Hills against the left-hander Ayahito Ochi and singled, but Dowsey had to be held at third base against Asencio’s arm. Thus, .127 hitter Diego Mendoza batted with three on and two outs – and flew out utterly harmlessly to Barber.

Bottom 8th, and both Elijah Fountain and Mario Asencio reached on the softest singles imaginable. Walla was yet hanging around and got a 6-4-3 double play grounder from Mark Reed, then plated the remaining runner with a wild pitch… Schmidt flew out, but with the mystique of the shutout and the comfort of an insurance run gone, Walla was then hit for to begin the ninth inning against Alvaro Garza. The Coons time-consumingly filled the bases with Duhe, Wilson, and Dowsey, and then Early quickly popped out to Schmidt to strand everybody. Pedro Valentin then gave up his first walk, beginning the ninth against Tony Lopez, and run, on Oscar Matos’ gap double in right-center. Matos, however, was left on base, so at least we got to go pointlessly to extra innings. (kicks a garbage bin nearby in utter frustration)

When Jake Flowe homered to lead off the tenth, the second attempt at a save opportunity then went to Dover. Fountain got on base with a single to begin the bottom 10th, but he then got three easy outs from Asencio, Tony Aldridge, and Schmidt, and the Coons took the series. 3-2 Blighters. Duhe 3-5, 2B; Flowe 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Walla 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Raccoons (9-12) @ Titans (11-11) – April 27-29, 2068

Things were not smooth in Boston, the team hitting only .237 to begin the season. They were seventh in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, with a -10 run differential. They had the third-most homers, but almost no stolen bases, the worst defense, and generally looked directionless. They were actually in fifth place, every team in the North besides these two having winning records on Friday morning. The Coons had won two of three games from the Titans at the start of the season.

Projected matchups:
Alex Dominguez (2-2, 2.88 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (2-1, 3.41 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-2, 6.39 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (1-1, 4.37 ERA)
Girolamo Pizzichini (0-0, 3.70 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (1-3, 5.97 ERA)

Only right-handers here.

The Titans had been off on Thursday. The Coons had no off day for another ten games.

Game 1
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – RF Corral – 2B Novelo – 3B Arredondo – P Dominguez
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Robichaud – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF M. Garcia – 1B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – 3B C. Pena – P M. Bell

Wilson walked and stole second in the first frame on Friday, and while Starr whiffed, the Raccoons then unpacked three straight 2-out singles, and Early and Corral drove in the first two runs of the game before Novelo popped out to first. Dominguez got run over to tie the game right away, though, walking Steve Humphries, who also stole second base, before giving up an RBI triple to Jared Robichaud and a sac fly to Eddie Marcotte. The Titans got another leadoff walk, drawn by Danny Miller, and then Jeremy White doubled to left in the second inning. Cesar Pena flew out to shallow left, holding the runners, while Bell struck out. Humphries’ fly to right was caught by Corral and ended the inning.

Yeah, the game was touch chewing for Dominguez, who just didn’t get comfy against the Titans this time around, but he hit a 2-out single in the fourth inning, joining Novelo on base, and then Jared Duhe knocked a ball into the rightfield corner for a 2-run double and a 4-2 lead. Wilson hit an infield single, but Starr grounded out to leave two on; the Titans then got a run right back when Dominguez put Manuel Garcia and Miller on the corners and White hit a sac fly, 4-3, but Miller remained on first with the 8-9 batters going down.

The Coons were out-hitting the Titans, 10-3, after an Early single in the fifth, but Flowe hit into a double play and the score remained a skinny 4-3, and that was soon blown with another leadoff walk by Dominguez to Humphries. Robichaud singled him to third base, and Marcotte’s groundout tied the game. Arviso then drew another walk, and that was the end for Dominguez. George Kehoe came in and got an inning-ending double play grounder on the first pitch to Garcia.

Kehoe got a total of six outs across three innings, but the Raccoons refused to score. McMahan got the last two outs in the seventh, still keeping the game tied. Early hit another single off Joe Cash to begin the eighth inning and was doubled off by Flowe AGAIN. Eddy Ramirez singled in place of Corral against the left-hander, but Novelo grounded out to strand him. Carrington then pitched an inning without walking everything with legs, and Diego Mendoza pinch-hit for Arredondo to begin the ninth and singled off former teammate Cody Kleidon. Dowsey batted for Josh C, raked a double that hit off the top of the wall in rightfield, and bounced away from Manuel Garcia far enough to allow Mendoza to go around and score from first base, breaking the 4-4 tie. Duhe walked, Kleidon got the next two, but then inexplicably balked in a run, and then walked Early. D’Alessandro then batted for Flowe, even though no double play presented itself anymore, and struck out. Valentin then struck out the side to put the game to sleep. 6-4 Critters. Wilson 2-4, BB; Early 4-4, BB, RBI; Ramirez (PH) 1-1; Mendoza (PH) 1-1; Dowsey (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Kehoe 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We out-hit them 15-5, and for that rate, this game was WAY too close! Granted, five walks and one strikeout from Dominguez didn’t help one lick.

There was also no way to sit Early on the bench right now, and everybody else had to take turns to accommodate him in the lineup. Joel Starr got a day off on Saturday – and then rain moved in and EVERYBODY got a day off on Saturday. A double header was scheduled for Sunday, optimistically, given that the weather was still rather dreary.

Game 2
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – RF Corral – 2B Hills – 3B Mendoza – P Gaytan
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Robichaud – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF M. Garcia – 1B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – 3B C. Pena – P B. Wallace

It was always great to have the first starting pitcher’s snout beaten in right in the first of 18 innings in a double-header, but Gaytan allowed three runs right out of the gate on a Robichaud single, a walk to Marcotte, Arviso’s double, a Garcia groundout, and Miller’s single; the latter three all got an RBI. Starr would drive in Duhe for a third-inning Coons run, while Gaytan lingered like a bad smell and then gave up another 3-spot in the fifth inning getting whacked around relentlessly. Humphries doubled on the first pitch of the bottom 5th, Gaytan got two (hard) outs, an then the 4-5-6 rushed him for three straight hits, Arviso and Miller each driving in another run. Gaytan was done after that inning, and the Raccoons made up a run in the sixth. Early walked to begin the inning, Flowe singled, and Corral hit an RBI double, but it was all a bit ****, and then, with runners on second and third and nobody out, Hills popped out to second, Mendoza whiffed, and Dowsey batted for Gaytan and grounded out to second…

It was all about getting the game over with at that point, down 7-2 once Yamauchi got the ball in the bottom 6th, threw away a grounder himself, and allowed an unearned run to score that way in the bottom 6th. Kehoe was then asked for the last two innings, walked the first batter he faced (Arviso), and was taken deep by Manuel Garcia right away. He then also walked White and Cesar Pena in the inning, but the Titans left those two on base. The Coons in the top 8th then loaded the bases against Joe Cash with straight singles by Flowe, Corral, and Novelo, which brought up Mendoza. Hopes were low, so the surprise was great when Mendoza cranked a homer to left – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

Of course the Raccoons were still three behind even after that blast to left, and it was five after Kehoe, the stupid little ****, walked Marcotte and gave up a homer to Arviso in the bottom 8th. Starr and Corral made it to the corners in the ninth inning, but that was as good as it got before the curtain came down. 11-6 Titans. Starr 2-5, RBI; Flowe 2-5; Corral 4-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Novelo (PH) 1-2; Mendoza 1-4, HR, 4 RBI;

Game 3
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Dowsey – LF Early – RF Corral – 2B Novelo – 3B Arredondo – C D’Alessandro – P Pizzichini
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Robichaud – CF Marcotte – RF M. Garcia – 1B D. Miller – 2B Jer. White – C B. Duncan – 3B C. Pena – P R. Montoya

It looked a lot like rain was imminent by the second game on Sunday, so the Coons wasted no time taking a lead with a Duhe double and Wilson singling him home with a ball into right-center. But Wilson was left on base, and then Pizza got two outs in the bottom 1st before he walked, walked, balked, walked, and finally gave up a bases-clearing ********* double to Jeremy White, which made it 3-1 Boston. Pizza issued another walk in the second inning, and needless to say his pitch count as blooming, with 71 pitches through just three ****** innings. He had a quick fourth against the bottom of the order, then walked another guy in the fifth and barely made it through that inning with a pulse. Through five, the Raccoons were up 5-2 in hits, and down 3-1 in runs…

Hitless relief by Josh C and Rios in the sixth and seventh, while Corral hit a single here and Wilson hit a single there only made the discrepancy go bigger, because the score stayed the same. But, sleep tight, because Jesse Dover came to the rescue, and even after Rios got another out from Robichaud to begin the bottom 8th, had himself completely obliterated on four hits for three runs. Down 6-1, the Raccoons made two quick outs in the ninth against Jose Gomez before Starr pinch-hit and walked. Flowe batted for Dover and singled. Duhe then also reached base with a 2-out walk, loading them up and creating a save opportunity for Kleidon. He threw two pitches, got Wilson to ground out to second, and that was the ballgame. 6-1 Titans. Wilson 3-4, BB, RBI; Corral 2-4; Flowe (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 24 – The Buffaloes score 12 runs on the Stars in the first two innings before Dallas gives it an honest go for a rally, but Topeka prevails, 17-14. DAL INF Adam Yocum (.281, 0 HR, 9 RBI) doles out five hits, with a triple and a double, while his teammate Tommy Pritchard (.300, 1 HR, 7 RBI) drives in six runs while missing the cycle by the single. For the Buffos, infielders Franklin Serrano (.360, 0 HR, 7 RBI) and Paul Labonte (.379, 0 HR, 6 RBI) both drive in four runs, Serrano also missing the cycle by the home run.
April 24 – Loggers 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.311, 0 HR, 9 RBI) will miss at least two weeks with a strained rib cage muscle.
April 24 – LVA SP Tim Henderson (3-0, 0.00 ERA) has his great start to the season unravel with a hamstring strain, which will sit him down for three months.
April 25 – Another blazing hot start derails with a broken kneecap that will probably cost NYC LF Jose Ambriz (.380, 6 HR, 19 RBI) the rest of the season.
April 26 – WAS INF Angelo Flores (.345, 2 HR, 15 RBI) hits a ninth-inning walkoff grand slam to beat the Scorpions, 6-2.
April 29 – The Blue Sox acquire C Jonathan Gutierrez (.316, 2 HR, 10 RBI) from the Capitals for 3B Rick Healey (.292, 1 HR, 6 RBI) and a prospect.

FL Player of the Week: WAS SS/2B Tyler Gilliam (.395, 3 HR, 12 RBI), hitting .545 (12-22) with 2 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT SS/2B Jose Palominos (.304, 5 HR, 16 RBI), slashing .417 (10-24) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The pitching is probably best described as “desolate”. We hardly have starters that can get anybody out, and the bullpen is somehow even worse – all of the three guys that we figured would be keystones again are absolutely woeful! Maybe Valentin can be turned into prospects at some point…

The offense has moments, even though they are not really high up in any metric except homers (tied for second in the CL) and consequently also extra-base knocks (third). But it all goes to **** when you give up 5.2 runs per game, which is exactly what we’re doing, while only scoring 4.5 runs ourselves. And those 4.5 runs are a marked improvement already…!

No, I’m not happy. I will probably never be happy again. Prospect watch was mostly limited to AA right now, where neither Jimmy Wharton nor Val Centeno were off to good starts, and Jack Hamel was off … to the DL altogether.

Four in New York, three in Cincy on the way home…

Fun Fact: The Condors signed up EVERYBODY and have the worst record in the league.

Injuries have been a thing for them, with Jason Turner on the shelf and Rich Monck was on the roster, but out with a knee contusion right now, but he had only been hitting .192 to start the season. However, their pitching was even worse. Big acquisition Jason Brenize was 0-5 with a 3.96 ERA and a .340 BABIP behind him (which he really wasn’t used to from Boston), and that was the second-best ERA in that rotation. Since “clicking” in 2060, Brenize had never lost more than eight games in a season, and his worst ERA had been 2.80, but his worst BABIP had also been .293!

EVERYBODY was getting hammered, the defense was terrible, the pen had an ERA over five, and they were already coming apart at the seams, even though catcher Mike Brann led the CL with eight homers.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (10-14) @ Crusaders (15-9) – April 30-May 3, 2068

The Crusaders were in a 3-way tie for the lead in the CL North, while the Raccoons were … (moves paws around for a bit, then just stares) … New York sat second in runs scored and third in runs allowed with a +28 run differential, so were they already out of their slump? Our pitching would probably find out real quick… As against the Loggers, the Coons had lost a dozen games on average to the Crusaders in the last three years, with 13 in ’67. New York had lost hot-hitting Jose Ambriz, perhaps for the season, last week, but that was their only injury.

Projected matchups:
Randy Rautenstrauch (2-0, 6.75 ERA) vs. A.C. Stebbins (2-2, 3.77 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Aiden Shaw (2-0, 3.10 ERA)
Alex Dominguez (2-2, 3.68 ERA) vs. Jarod Nesbit (3-0, 3.06 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-3, 7.12 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (3-1, 5.76 ERA)

Stebbins was the only southpaw the Crusaders had. Gaytan would pitch on short rest after being involved in the Titans double-header on Sunday, but he had been finished off in just 67 pitches there, and it wasn’t like regular rest was doing him any good…

Game 1
POR: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Dowsey – 2B Novelo – 3B Mendoza – C D’Alessandro – P Rautenstrauch
NYC: CF Box – 2B A. Rodriguez – 1B Starwalt – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – LF J. Parker – C Norwood – SS O. Vera – P Stebbins

The Raccoons jumped out to an early lead with Eddy Ramirez and Joel Starr getting on base before Justin Dowsey rocked a 3-run homer to right-center, but the Crusaders got level even quicker against Rated-R, who allowed a double to Bryant Box, Diego Mendoza put Alex Rodriguez on base with clumsy paws in addition to a wobbly bat, and then Danny Starwalt raked a 3-run homer to left. Kazuhide Takeuchi tacked on another homer, and Rautenstrauch got beaten around with more and more hits, and was yanked before the inning was over, down 6-3, with runners in scoring position, two outs, and Rodriguez batting again. Since Kehoe had thrown 41 pitches on Sunday, he was not available for long relief, which put in Gabriel Rios, who gave up six runs of his own in a second inning, in which he threw 56 pitches and walked five Crusaders, some with the bases loaded – and didn’t get out of that either. Yamauchi came in, drilled Johnny Parker to force in another 2-out run and make it 13-3, and then popped out Zachary Norwood.

Yamauchi was taken deep by Takeuchi in the fourth inning for a solo homer, but apart from that pitched as efficient garbage relief as you could even hope for anymore, scattering three hits over four innings, but then still got stuck in the bottom 6th and let with Box and Rodriguez in scoring position and the mean bean Takeuchi batting again. McMahan came in to collect a strikeout, and the Coons wobbled through to the end between him and Josh C, who still found time to issue another two walks along the way, but didn’t allow any more runs. The Raccoons never did anything with the sticks after the Dowsey homer, unless you want me to mention that they had another three base hits and bobbled into three double plays. 14-3 Crusaders. Starr 1-2, 2 BB;

The Raccoons then snapped a little. Rautenstrauch (2-1, 8.50 ERA) was on waivers by Monday night, and Gabriel Rios (1-2, 7.80 ERA) got sent to St. Petersburg outright. We called up 27-year-old Vinny Morales, who had gone 0-5 with a 5.01 ERA with the 2066 Coons, but had a 1.75 ERA and 6 K/BB after four AAA starts, which was as much as it took to win a job here now. The other spot went to command-challenged left-hander Sean Thomas, because we didn’t have a ton of options otherwise.

Vinny Morales was slotted into the series finale, which would see him go on regular rest, pushing Gaytan into starting in Cincy on Friday.

Game 2
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Early – 1B Starr – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – 2B Hills – P Walla
NYC: CF Box – 2B A. Rodriguez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – LF J. Parker – SS J. Hernandez – P Shaw

Winless Walla was on his best behavior on Tuesday, and the Coons took an early lead on Starr, Mendoza, and Hills singles in the second inning, going up 1-0. Walla allowed leadoff singles to Johnny Parker in the third and Alex Rodriguez in the fourth inning. Neither scored, despite a walk issued to Starwalt after the Rodriguez hit, because Takeuchi kindly enough hit into an inning-ending double play. Walla then failed at bunting in the fifth with Hills on first base and one out and eventually made an unhelpful out on a soft liner to Eric Frasher – but Jared Duhe and Jaden Wilson then hit back-to-back home runs, 4-0, so at least he didn’t hit into a double play like the 24 other numbnuts on the roster did all the time.

The stuff wasn’t really there for Walla, but he seemed like he was gonna make it work for his first W of the season. When Rodriguez hit another leadoff single in the sixth, Walla got strikeouts on Starwalt and Takeuchi again, keeping the runner on base. Walla then pitched into the eighth and crashed, allowing straight hits to Zack Cooper and Bryant Box, walked Rodriguez, and left with a run in and nobody out, and the tying run in the box. Dover replaced him, struck out Starwalt, but a passed ball then moved up the runners and allowed David Johnson to bring in Box with a sac fly to center. McMahan was brought in for Takeuchi again and got another K, ending the inning. Valentin then 1-2-3’ed the Crusaders in the ninth inning to get Walla into the W column. 4-2 Raccoons. Starr 2-4; Hills 1-2, BB, RBI; Walla 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-2);

Game 3
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – 2B Hills – P A. Dominguez
NYC: CF Box – 2B A. Rodriguez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – LF J. Parker – SS J. Hernandez – P Nesbit

Rodriguez singled in the bottom 1st, but was doubled up by Starwalt. David Johnson then began the second for New York with a single, but was ignored by the next three batters, but Jordan Hernandez singled to start the bottom 3rd and was finally drive in by Rodriguez with two outs. That marked the first run of the game, since the Raccoons were still feeling good about themselves after having won last night’s game. The Crusaders upped the score to 3-0 in the fourth with Johnson and Parker doubles and another RBI single for Hernandez.

The Coons got on the board with Hills’ 2-out triple to score Dowsey and his leadoff walk in the fifth inning. Dominguez left Hills on third base, while in the sixth inning the Coons made two outs before Corral was hit by Nesbit, Starr singled, and Dowsey drew a walk to fill the bases for Jake Flowe, who ran a full ground, then chopped an infield roller into play, and it died a hero for an RBI infield single when none of the Crusaders infielder could get to it quick enough to make a play, narrowing the score to 3-2. Nesbit walked in the tying run against Mendoza, Hills hit the go-ahead RBI single to center, but Dominguez finally struck out to end the 2-out meltdown for Nesbit. Dominguez was then almost undone with a Duhe error that put Frasher on base in the bottom 6th. Parker forced him out, made some circus on the base paths, but was ultimately stranded. Dominguez was done after six innings and 100 pitches, though, having allowed ten hits, but somehow being 4-3 ahead.

Nesbit was also out of the game, and left-hander Dan Graham put Wilson on base with one out in the seventh, but Wilson was caught stealing. Graham then put Corral and Starr on base, and the Coons then sent Marquise Early to bat for Dowsey – and got an RBI single for the effort! Flowe then flew out to right to end the inning. When Brian Hills then went deep to right in the eighth inning, 6-3, that left the AAA infielder a double shy of the cycle.

Kehoe had pitched a good seventh, but Thomas then came out, hit a guy, walked a guy, and gave up a run on Hernandez’ groundout. Dover then replaced him for a 4-out save perhaps and got rid of PH Chris Duhon to complete the eighth for the time being. The Raccoons would not tack on in the ninth inning, while the Crusaders then punched out with Box and Rodriguez against Dover, but Starwalt snuck a shy single with two outs in the bottom 9th. Johnson then grounded out to Mendoza to end the game. 6-4 Raccoons. Hills 4-4, HR, 3B, 3 RBI;

22-year-old Brian Hills hit his first ABL homer and had a career night, and wasn’t even the most-talked about 22-year-old for it. More on that below. We have another game to play here.

Game 4
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – 2B Hills – P Morales
NYC: CF Box – 2B A. Rodriguez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – LF J. Parker – SS J. Hernandez – P Waldron

Duhe and Corral singles gave Vinny Morales a 1-0 lead to begin his rather unexpected season debut, which he began by allowing a rocket lineout from Box to Hills, then walked Rodriguez, threw a wild pitch, and somehow had the defense pick up the pieces from there and make nice plays to retire Starwalt and Johnson. Takeuchi and Hernandez were on the corners in the second when Morales rescued himself with a K on Waldron. Starwalt hit into a double play in the third and Waldron bunted into a double play in the fifth to keep Morales going, who wasn’t fooling many and was allowing a lot of hard contact. The score remained 1-0 through five though, also because the Raccoons only got one base hit after the opening singles.

Top 6th, Wilson drew a leadoff walk and then Waldron clipped Corral to put two on with nobody out. Starr then flew out to Parker, Dowsey whiffed, and Flowe rolled over to Rodriguez to score precisely zero runs. In turn, David Johnson took Morales over the wall in the bottom 6th to tie the score at one…

The trouble kids Mendoza and Ramirez (the latter batting for Morales) then hit singles in the seventh, only to get stranded. Dowsey then hurt himself in the field, pulling down a rocket that Jordan Hernandez hit off Sean Thomas. That was with two outs, and it moved Frasher and his leadoff walk to third base. Waldron then grounded to short, where Duhe ****** up the play for an error and New York took a 2-1 lead. From there, Thomas allowed an RBI double to Box, then was yanked for Josh C, who walked the bags full, gave up a 2-run single to Johnson, then walked Takeuchi to fill the bases again. Kehoe replaced that turd, then walked in a run against Frasher and finally gave up a grand slam to Chris Duhon. Nine runs after a 2-out error. Hernandez then grounded out. ******* *********. 10-1 Crusaders. Mendoza 2-4; Novelo (PH) 1-1; Ramirez (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons left town, but not everybody left in the same direction. Technically we even left with 26 players.

Interlude: Trade

The Raccoons re-acquired Mike Hall, who sat unused at the far end of the Crusaders pen, having gotten just four outs for a zero ERA this season. The southpaw Hall had been with the Raccoons in 2064, pitching to a 3.28 ERA in 64 games. His stuff had diminished at 34 years old, but he was probably still better than whatever THIS (waves the last few box scores around) was.

The Crusaders got AA infielder Danny Lukes for it, who had been a tenth-rounder a while back and not remotely considered a prospect. They even chipped in $200k for Hall’s $1.14M salary.

Roster moves went along with the acquisition. Sean Thomas (0-1, 13.50 ERA) was right off the roster again, and Josh Carrington (2-3, 6.57 ERA) accompanied him to AAA with his 13.1 BB/9 that was genuinely bewildering. Jason Holzmeister returned to fill up the pen. There were no news on Dowsey yet and he was still on the roster on Friday.

Raccoons (12-16) @ Cyclones (12-15) – May 4-6, 2068

Cincy were hoping to gain some traction against the Raccoons, whom they had swept in the last meeting between those two teams in 2066. They ranked ninth in runs scored and tenth in runs allowed in the Federal League, with a -26 run differential. They were quite decent in terms of getting on base, but had neither speed nor power. Their pitching was troubled, but not quite the carousel that the Raccoons’ staff had become yet again.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-3, 7.12 ERA) vs. Shoma Nakayama (1-2, 4.99 ERA)
Girolamo Pizzichini (0-1, 3.99 ERA) vs. Blake Anderson (2-2, 3.03 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.77 ERA) vs. Jose Aguilar (2-1, 3.19 ERA)

Aguilar was the only southpaw here, and we’d see him on Sunday. All was well with the world.

Game 1
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – LF Early – 2B Hills – C D’Alessandro – 3B Arredondo – P Gaytan
CIN: RF F. Cruz – LF M. Avila – 1B M. Rubin – CF Schneider – 3B D. Baker – 2B Spurgeon – C Marty – SS Blackshire – P Nakayama

Starr and Early were on the corners to begin the second inning, but Starr was thrown out at home by Anthony Schneider on Hills fly to center for a cute 8-2 double play. Arredondo got on base though to begin the third inning and was bunted onwards by Gaytan. Jaden Wilson plated him with a 2-out single for the game’s first run, then was left on when Corral flew out to Fernando Cruz. Gaytan retired the Cyclones in order in the first two before Ryan Marty singled to center in the bottom 3rd. Dave Blackshire flew out easily to Corral, Nakayama bunted badly and got Marty forced out at second base – and what else would you expect from former Raccoons with a stick? – but Gaytan then lost Cruz on balls before Mel Avila popped out to Duhe and left a pair on base.

Gaytan continued to be decent and got around a Duhe error in the fifth inning to maintain the 1-0 lead, while Nakayama struck out seven through five innings, but Wilson singled, Corral reached on an error, and then Joel Starr awoke from a slumber and quadrupled the score with a huge 425-footer to right, 4-0! Top 7th, D’Alessandro hit a leadoff single, but was forced out by Arredondo. Gaytan failed to bunt, then hit a 2-strike single to put runners on the corners, but Duhe rumbled into a double play. Gaytan would deliver another shutout inning, but the pitch count went over 100 in the process and he was out of the game after that.

Holzmeister got two outs in the bottom 8th before walking Avila and Manny Rubin. McMahan came in as the fire brigade, not for the first time this week, and again got a crucial K on Anthony Schneider to end the inning. He would also retire Dallas Baker to begin the ninth, while the last two outs were then collected by Yamauchi for a combined 2-hit shutout! 4-0 Furballs! Wilson 2-4, RBI; Starr 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-3) and 1-2;

So Tony Gaytan booked himself a seat on team bus back to the airport on Sunday.

In the back, probably.

Game 2
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – 2B Hills – 3B Mendoza – P Pizzichini
CIN: RF F. Cruz – LF M. Avila – 1B M. Rubin – CF Schneider – 3B D. Baker – 2B Spurgeon – C Marty – SS Blackshire – P B. Anderson

Duhe walked, Wilson singled, and Corral parked a 3-run homer in the rightfield stands to begin the Saturday game. The Cyclones really put the pineapple on Pizza though with a leadoff walk drawn by Cruz and a Rubin homer in the bottom 1st, and then back-to-back 2-out triples by Baker and Austin Spurgeon to tie the game before Marty grounded out to Duhe…

Things calmed down slightly over the next couple innings until Rubin hit a leadoff double to left in the bottom 3rd and Schneider was called out on strikes, which he disagreed with quite vividly, and for which he was ejected from the game, leaving the Cyclones with Rafael Valencia in the cleanup spot, hitting .083. Pizza meanwhile hit into a double play after Flowe and Mendoza offered singles in the fourth, while Duhe reached base to start the fifth when Dallas Baker airmailed his grounder well over the head of Rubin for a 2-base error. Wilson singled to center, Valencia had the ball bounce off his chest, and Duhe would have scored anyway, but the second straight error allowed Wilson to second base. Corral flew out, Anderson walked the bags full with Starr and Early, and Flowe hit a rocket to right, but was denied by Cruz; the ball was deep enough for a sac fly though and Wilson came home, 5-3. Hills grounded out to leave a pair on, and Pizza allowed a single, walk, and balk in the bottom 5th, and somehow didn’t give up a run for it…

Mike Hall made his second-stint Coons debut in the bottom 6th when Will Buras batted for Anderson with Marty on second and two outs; he got a grounder to Starr to end the inning. He would get two more groundouts from Cruz and Avila, then handed it off to Dover in a double switch, Eddy Ramirez replacing Early in left with Dowsey still banged up. Dover got an out to complete seven, and Ramirez lifted a 2-out solo homer in the eighth to extend the lead to 6-3. Dover then completed the eighth in order against Cincy, after which Corral and Starr got on base to begin the ninth, and were orderly left on second and first base, respectively by Novelo, Flowe, and Hills. Pedro Valentin then closed the thing down in order. 6-3 Critters. Wilson 3-5, RBI; Starr 1-2, 3 BB, 2B; Early 0-1, 3 BB; Ramirez 1-1, HR, RBI;

On Sunday, Justin Dowsey was finally placed on the DL with a herniated disc. He was out for the rest of the month. The Coons had to bring up an outfielder, and Jamie Colter looked like the best bet for someone actually hitting down in AAA. He was knocking .350 with two homers down there.

Game 3
POR: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Corral – 2B Novelo – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Walla
CIN: RF F. Cruz – LF M. Avila – 1B M. Rubin – CF Schneider – 3B D. Baker – 2B Spurgeon – C Reyna – SS Blackshire – P Jo. Aguilar

The skies looked like they couldn’t be trusted, but the game began on time and with the Coons leaving Ramirez and Early on the corners in the first inning. There was a decent amount of Walla-whacking then going on, as Cincy took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 2nd on straight singles by Baker, Spurgeon, and Victor Reyna, who go the RBI, before Blackshire hit into a double play. Cruz doubled in the third, but was left on, and there was another single in the fourth, but now Reyna hit into the double play. Meanwhile, Walla hit a single himself to begin the top 3rd, but was double off by Duhe, then bunted badly to kill Mendoza’s single in the fifth inning…

No two puzzle pieces wanted to fit together for the Raccoons in this Sunday game, which included Walla’s own four paws. He threw a wild pitch in the fifth, but got away, and in the sixth allowed a run on Rubin and Spurgeon singles, then another one on Reyna’s 2-out RBI double to left. He ended up going seven innings while giving up ten base hits, which was decidedly too many, but then again the offense was entirely dead and had four hits for no runs against Aguilar through seven. Duhe homered to left against Marc Timmons in the eighth, and Starr singled with two outs, but was left on by Early. Holzmeister and McMahan put a scoreless eighth together to keep it a 2-run game, with left-hander John Faughnan entering in the ninth. He had 19 strikeouts to a singular walk through his first 15 innings of the year, but Corral dropped a leadoff single into right. Hills batted for Novelo, but whiffed, and Flowe fanned outright. Colter then batted for Mendoza – and got rung up on three pitches. 3-1 Cyclones. Ramirez 2-4, 2B;

In other news

April 30 – SAC SP Eric Stengel (3-2, 2.97 ERA) carries a no-hitter into the ninth inning with a 5-0 lead against the Pacifics, but walks two, and then gives up an RBI single to 3B/2B David MacFarlane (.248, 2 HR, 12 RBI). Inefficient relief and incompetent defense then let the Pacifics get back to within two with the tying runs on base without even allowing another base hit. All runs in the 5-3 game are on Stengel, but only one is earned.
May 1 – The Stingers’ SP Jay Williams (3-1, 3.75 ERA) completes his 5-0 game against the Pacifics in the ninth inning for a 3-hit shutout.
May 1 – The Warriors beat the Gold Sox, 1-0 in 11 innings, with a walkoff triple by 3B/LF/CF/1B Beau Metz (.247, 3 HR, 10 RBI).
May 2 – No-hitter! Just a tender 22 years old, SFW SP Alex Diez (2-2, 2.43 ERA) walks four and strikes out nine, and allows no base hits to beat the Gold Sox, 2-0. This is the first no-hitter in almost two full years when Sean Sweeton pitched his second career no-hitter with the Knights against Vancouver.
May 4 – The Knights beat the Buffaloes, 9-3, although it takes them 13 innings to break out with a 6-run decider.
May 5 – The Condors beat the Rebels, 5-4 in 14 innings.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.331, 8 HR, 30 RBI), batting .407 (11-27) with 3 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL RF/LF Javier Acuna (.374, 7 HR, 20 RBI), going .536 (15-28) with 3 HR, 5 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SAC 3B/SS/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.341, 8 HR, 23 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: VAN OF Tyler Chenette (.471, 4 HR, 21 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS CL Steve Keller (4-0, 0.56 ERA, 7 SV)
CL Pitcher of the Month: VAN SP Vince Ellison (4-0, 2.19 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT 1B Mike White (.292, 7 HR, 18 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA OF Jonathon Barber (.229, 3 HR, 17 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Oh boy, a winning week! What did I do to deserve this? Yes, it was only 4-3, but you gotta take what these buggers give you.

We made A LOT of roster moves this week, and I am not sure they will work out. (cough) Vinny Morales (cough). I have no idea what the **** happened to Carrington, but maybe the AAA coaches can figure him out. That aside, Rated-R went unclaimed and arrived in St. Petersburg by the weekend. Yay. Down there he promptly pitched 7.1 shutout innings for the Alley Cats.

(emphatic shrug!)

We’re home for a couple of days to play the Gold Sox now, after an off day on Monday. We’ll get beaten up by the Loggers on the weekend. I don’t think the Gabriel Rios plan is still on.

Fun Fact: The Warriors have the most no-hitters in the 2060s.

Just three though, don’t get excited. The Knights have two. Nobody else has more than one. For the Warriors, Alex Diez this week was preceded by Kenny Donnelly in 2064, and Evan ******* Alvey in 2060.

Last Raccoons no-hitter? Victor Salcido’s pair of no-no’s in 2050 and 2051. We haven’t even been involved in one against us since then. Tijuana’s Paul Paris no-hit us in 2051, but that was before Salcido turned out #2.