Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Beware. Long post. The mind was flowing freely this morning.

Salary arbitration were again scheduled for mid-November. We have six arbitration cases, and three free agents. The free agents are done with quickly. Jackie Lagarde, Juan Martinez, and Mauro Granados all were late additions to this 71-91 cast, none played quite convincing, and none of them will be brought back. Granados is the only player among them who is compensation eligible, a type B free agent. We will offer him arbitration to get the compensation.

The six arbitration cases include (service time; 1999 salary; estimate):
SP Jose Rivera (8-5, 2.58 ERA) – 4.003 - $330k - $600k
MR Antonio Donis (5-1, 1.76 ERA, 1 SV) – 3.167 - $190k - $219k
1B/3B/LF Cesar Gonzalez (.250/.356/.421, 19 HR, 81 RBI) – 3.141 - $650k - $822k
SS Conceicao Guerin (.304/.356/.389, 2 HR, 23 SB) – 3.034 - $120k - $399k
LF/RF Stephen Buell (.238/.311/.299, 1 HR, 14 SB) – 3.051 - $120k - $180k
OF Luke Newton (.238/.325/.362, 3 HR,) – 4.116 - $180k - $189k

Rivera is expected to get a hefty increase for being hurt half the season. We will have to swallow that, I guess? Can’t give up on him, but I wouldn’t want to sign him to a multi-year contract right now.

Donis comes in rather cheap, but has pitched himself into the closer conversation with Daniel Miller as the main adversary. There is no doubt about the abilities of Gonzalez and Guerin. We might want to try to sign Concie to a longer deal, four years, to buy out a year of free agency. We should be able to get that done for under $2M, which is the value of the contract that Marvin Ingall signed a few years back, also for four years.

Newton is a serviceable backup to Neil Reece, we have nobody else available (Taramillo – heck, no!) and will be kept around, especially since $200k or so sounds like a sound prize for a semi-decent backup outfielder.

Buell will get an offer, but more and more I am on the conquest to get him out of here. If you win a Gold Glove, you still lose your team 1.2 wins, and are NOT a shortstop or catcher, then there is no excuse. An outright pathetic .610 OPS is beyond terrible for a corner outfielder.

We submitted the following offers: Rivera $600k; Donis $240k; Gonzalez $830k; Guerin $375k; Buell $180k; Newton $195k; I think that Donis is severely undervalued at $219k, but $400k sounds like a lot for Guerin.

I hit up with Guerin in early November. He was all over a long term deal. 5 years, 5 millions. I almost choked. Let’s go to arbitration.

It made me think, though. What’s a top shortstop actually worth, especially one batting leadoff? The first guy that came to my head was Boston’s Daniel Silva, that little terror. The news were shocking: Silva had been awarded $420k through arbitration last year, and the Titans had already signed him to a 1-year deal for 2000, for a whopping $700k! Well, Silva has more power than Guerin and steals even more bases (31 in 1999, over 40 the two previous years). But that still means that the true value for Concie might lie in the region of $500k to $600k. We hurriedly adjusted our arbitration offer to $450k and hoped no one would notice.

What else did we do in early November? Well, it’s less than a month to the rule 5 draft and we have A LOT of young guys to protect. We started off by cleaning the 40-man roster of long time DL occupants. Miguel Lopez had already been put on the 60-day DL during the season, but Jose Rivera hadn’t. Also, Jason Kent, that no-good outfielder, and his bum leg, casted hip to foot for a busted knee, still lingered on the 40-man roster, and he was moved from the 7-day minor league DL to the 60-day DL as well. This was not a permanent solution, but I am always in when it comes to delaying problems for four months. I will gladly figure out what to do about the clogged 40-man roster in March.

Figuring in the departure of Lagarde, Martinez, and Granados, that made 33 players on the 40-man roster.
Young hotshots that HAVE TO BE put on the 40-man roster: SP Nick Brown, SP Tyler Sullivan, SP Dwight Williams, MR Juan Diaz, OF Cal Lyon, LF/RF George Wood
Young hotshots we WOULD LIKE TO BE put on the 40-man roster: SP Ray Conner, SP Julio Romero, MR Joe Key, INF/RF Eisuke Sato
Other players not on the 40-man roster: SP Esteban Flores, MR Dan Epps, C Brad Gray, C Wayne Lister, 1B Harry Jackson, 1B/2B George Morris

Doesn’t work out. But well. If we protect three young starters in Brown, Sullivan, and Williams, that should do, and we can live with losing Conner, Romero, and Flores. That thins out the issue slightly. Gray and Lister don’t need to be protected if we are going for an upgrade at backup catcher anyway. Fifield should be kept around. Jackson and Morris have no room in our plans. To be honest, even Sato hasn’t. We could scratch by, I think, by protecting the first group, plus Key. That’s 40. Unless I forgot something.

Oh yeah, minor league free agency. Of the guys listed above, Conner, Lister, and Gray were eligible for minor league free agency.

(shakes head) Well, you can’t have everything.

One thing to think about was a bigger deal with another team. What do we want? An impact bat at LF or RF. 20+ home runs, average OBP, .800+ OPS. Something like another Gonzalez or Reece. Handedness? So far the lineup might look like this (vs. RHP): SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece - ?? Gonzalez – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Mata - ?? ?? – P; With Ingall and Brady switched vs. LHP. Or Brady not playing at all against LHP. Now, in the middle of the order, that gives us (vs. RHP) Reece, right-hander, then switch, which means left, and another left-handed bat in Martin. While a left-handed bat would certainly make it a very difficult lineup to navigate for a right-handed pitcher, we would suffer vs. left-handed pitching. I think a right-handed bat would be a more balanced option.

So. A right-handed batter with 20 homers, .800 OPS, decent defense of course, that doesn’t strike out rabidly.

We can offer Buell, plus any of the score of prospects above, even a starting pitcher. A rotation has only five slots after all, and we already have six players taking swings at each other as it is.

So, Vince quickly compiled a list for me. (Searching for 20 homers and .800 OPS directly seems to be involving a subtle trick I do not master in OOTP. Instead I searched for POW 12+, K 12+, LF Def 8+.) It showed a dozen players, one of which (Gonzalez) already a Raccoon. There were a few players on there with contracts that made them unaffordable for the cash-strapped Raccoons: BOS Dave Reid and NYC Avery Johnson both were due to make more money than Neil Reece next year, and we can’t spend that much.

That left: WAS Jesus Rivera, TIJ Arturo Lopez, IND David Lopez, TOP Martin Horn, SAC Preston O’Day, LAP Owen Warner, SFW Roland Moore, ATL Jesus Árias, IND Carlos Paredes;

Of these, HR champion David Lopez, Paredes, and Rivera were certainly unavailable for the junk I had to offer, as they were still on minimum contracts or entering arbitration for the first time. Horn and O’Day were in their mid-30s and I was looking for someone a few years younger. Moore and Árias were bound for free agency. Thus the list rapidly condensed to two names: TIJ Arturo Lopez and LAP Owen Warner.

The Condors had already bought out Lopez’ final year of arbitration eligibility for $800k. That was just barely palatable for us. Lopez had however never had more than 378 AB in a season, failing to really break through. Warner had bounced between the AAA level and the majors as recently as last season, despite being already 30. He had signed a 4-year deal that was cheap in 2000 and 2001, but would escalate to $1.1M by 2003. Both batted left-handed.

Hum. How about rightfielders? It didn’t change the selection much. It added Boston’s Gonzalo Munoz to the mix, who was 23 and had been a rookie this year, batting for a .751 OPS. He was also a left-handed batter.

And what about third basemen? We only got four results according to Vince, including our Cesar Gonzalez. The other three players were David Lopez (again), as well as Indy’s Matt Brown and ROTY Takahashi Higashi.

Do we see us trading for Matt Brown?

We finally let go of the “doesn’t strike out rabidly” thing and went back to leftfielders. Vince was able to present a healthy selection of 39 names. Filtering for right-handed batters condensed the list to 13, including Neil Reece and a few guys mentioned before. Near the top of the list was MIL Bakile Hiwalani. We also turned up old friend Royce Green. I was tempted, but he was due $1.14M both of the next two years, and we just can’t…

However, money increasingly looked like the limiting factor in the quest. Going back to Tijuana’s Arturo Lopez. Yeah, he bats left-handed, but we have already established that it doesn’t look any better for right-handed batters if you can’t throw in any money. Kisho Saito’s retirement freed up $1.1M of budget space, but the six arbitration cases alone will eat up approximately $715k of that – without us taking any nasty hits in arbitration. Add the escalating contracts we already have, and of the $1.1M of “free” budget space, only about $300k remain unspent, and we finished 1999 already slightly over budget. We only got $300k more to work with this year. Taking on a $1M contract would require us to actually dump $400k in salaries, just to stay *slightly* over budget.

It’s not the greatest of jobs these days.

Lopez’ career OPS is .751. With him never having played a full season, it makes a $800k investment a bad idea. But whom can we add then!?

I have no clue.

[Westheim]

November 10. Salary arbitration.

I said this and that about doing such and such – provided we wouldn’t take nasty hits in arbitration.

We took three.

Buell, Newton, and Donis received our offers. The three expensive players got even more expensive. At times, drastically so. Guerin received $475k to our offer of $450k. Gonzalez received $893k rather than our offer of $830k. And Rivera … (chokes) … we offered $600k, and he received $750k.

So! Another quarter million bucks we didn’t have – down the drain! Where do we continue now? Besides opening some good old booze?

Mauro Granados elected free agency, as did Ray Conner, Wayne Lister, and Brad Gray. Fine! Go! Yukenallllg-go!! (throws the empty booze bottle at Granados’ empty locker)

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Attempts to move one of the roster spot-occupying slackers like Tom Goodchild and Brent McLaughlin were fruitless before salary arbitration. The Stars and Crusaders showed some casual interest, but the human junk they offered back had it’s own issues like minimum salary burdens attached, which was something I was trying to reduce as well. That was before and around the arbitration date. A bit later the Titans GM called, and we got rid of one the two, as we traded Goodchild for a reclamation project in 22-year old SP Lawrence Williams, who had missed most of the 1999 season with a torn rotator cuff. He was rule 5 draft eligible, and would not be protected.

At the same time I did some early cleansing in the minor leagues. One of the players released was failed prospect 3B Mark Kowalchuk, who most recently had failed to hit even in Ham Lake. He had not been on the 40-man roster anymore, but still had had a minimum contract attached to him. He was gone now, as were a few others, the only one to be mentioned before might have been outfielder Pacio Neira, also failing to get any better at age 25. This opened a spot on the 40-man roster to protect MR Dan Epps.

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November 16 – The Buffaloes surprisingly part with 28-yr old RF/LF/1B Corey Patel (.280, 144 HR, 570 RBI), who is sent to the Wolves for 27-yr old 3B Alfredo De Jesus (.274, 0 HR, 34 RBI). Sources indicate the Buffaloes GM has recently gone mental.
November 16 – The Crusaders acquire 27-yr old C Mike Olson (.258, 4 HR, 32 RBI) and a prospect from the Titans for 29-yr old 1B/3B Lorenzo Delgado (.228, 27 HR, 140 RBI).
November 18 – The Aces grab 25-yr old C Antonio De La Parra (.285, 16 HR, 220 RBI) from the Scorpions in exchange for 31-yr old OF Russ Cote (.206, 41 HR, 200 RBI).
November 19 – The Raccoons deal 25-yr old AAA INF Tom Goodchild (.063, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 16 AB) to the Titans for 22-yr old AA SP Lawrence Williams.
November 21 – 27-year old SP Steve Rogers (71-61, 3.30 ERA), who had been traded from Sacramento to Washington mid-season, re-signs with the Capitals for 5-yr, $7.4M.
November 22 – 26-yr old ex-IND SP Dan George (65-84, 4.03 ERA) signs with the Buffaloes for 6-yr, $6.16M.
November 23 – The Indians get back at the Buffaloes and sign ex-TOP INF Jesus Garcia for 4-yr, $5.27M. Garcia, 33, is a .252 batter with 160 HR and 884 RBI.
November 25 – The Indians deal 29-yr old MR Brian Morris (5-8, 3.94 ERA, 2 SV) to the Miners for two prospects.
November 26 – The Blue Sox give out the biggest contract in ABL history to ex-SFW CF John Hensley (.282, 120 HR, 576 RBI), who will make $10.68M over the next six years. The 29-year old, the 1994 FL ROTY, is a 4-time All Star and has five Gold Gloves.
November 28 – The Buffaloes win over former Titan 2B/3B Horace Henry (.284, 209 HR, 1,368 RBI). The 38-year old receives a 2-yr, $2.84M deal.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft. 24 players are taken. The Raccoons lose SP Esteban Flores (to Rebels) and MR Christian Proctor (to Gold Sox). Also claimed are ex-Raccoons 1B Esteban Baldivía and MR Day Grandridge.
December 1 – The Warriors sign 30-yr old ex-DEN MR Xavier Herrera (27-25, 2.86 ERA, 43 SV) to a 1-yr, $970k contract.
December 1 – Another reliever is off the table after the Indians and ex-DAL MR Arthur Joplin (33-28, 3.16 ERA, 191 SV) agree to a 2-yr, $1.34M deal for the 26-year old.

Proctor and Flores getting taken removes two of those lingering minimum contracts. Plus, we have better backups available in the three young SP’s we just added to the roster.

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Fixing something that is broken is often best left to experts. I would never dare to touch a broken TV set, or a seeping sink. There are experts for that. Who can help you with fixing a team that is so broken (financially), so broken (personally), and lacks basic ingredients for success?

Is that it? Do we just give up on 2000, play out another 90+ losses season and wait for Carlosito to write a bigger check?

[Orcin]

Personally, I think your talent is better than your recent record. I would continue to prune the roster of players with poor cost-benefit ratios and take your chances with the rest. You have an impressive amount of roster depth, which could become more valuable in-season when injuries hit other clubs.

[Westheim]

Thought experiment I did while failing to sleep last night: Concie Guerin’s career OBP is .342 – which is a bit on the low end for a leadoff batter, and a bit worse than Ingall f.e. (.351). But Concie has been getting better every year, and last year got on base 35.6% of the time. Neil Reece’s career OBP is .371, which is the best on the roster. But you wouldn’t bat Neil Reece leadoff.

So, Concie got on base at a .356 clip last season, having approximately 708 PA. That adds up to 252 times on base. He scored 88 runs.

The three seasons I constantly wet my pants over on-base terror David Brewer donning the brown shirt, he averaged a .420 OBP (roughly, not exactly, this will not be science). He had about 655 PA on average, and was on base 275 times. On average, he scored 93 runs, while stealing less bases than Guerin and with an arguably more successful team behind him.

The difference between Brewer and Guerin as leadoff hitters, comparing 1995-1997 and 1999, was five runs. The difference in their contracts this year is $1,125,000. [When I did this in bed and my mind was racing, without numbers in front of me, I estimated the difference to be 16 runs. Not that that would change anything.] The difference can not be paid for by any team in baseball. No team can afford to pay $200k or more for a single run.

Maybe we don’t have to spend the most money. Maybe we really just need to spend it wisely, split the cherries from the beans and give guys a chance.

There are some guys, however, who had had chances. And they failed. Buell. Tamburrino. Crowe. Those are the players we are looking to move during the rest of the winter. That would free up $600k to put elsewhere.

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There are also a few other things to sort out. Right-handed relief is one of those things. With Chubby Martinez and Lagarde not extended, Tamburrino on the shipment list, and Nordahl and Manuel Martinez scheduled for another round of seasoning in St. Pete, we have nobody left but Daniel Miller, Bob Joly, and Kelly Fairchild. Even by the numbers, we *need* at least one more right-handed reliever, better two.

Maybe Buell could be flipped for one. Tamburrino had no trade value, that was already well established. At best you could piggy-back him with someone. As winter meetings started in Boston on December 3, it was also soon well established that Mike Crowe had no suitors. Another undevourable piece of meat.

Buell was easiest to move and we got into talks with the Crusaders, Indians, and Miners on the first day of the meetings. Looking for right-handed relief, primarily, the Miners had the most interesting player in Paco Barrera, but weren’t willing to trade him for Buell.

On the second day of the meetings, the Warriors offered OF Paul Theobald for Antonio Donis. There were several issues with this offer. I was looking forward to adding a right-handed impact bat. Theobald was not exactly an impact player, since he didn’t hit home runs and was steadily degrading from a .893 OPS season with the Condors in 1996, even though he was only 30. He was also due in excess of $3M the next three years, and was thus unaffordable. Don’t even make me start on why I wasn’t going to trade Donis. Maybe the Warriors needed the salary space? They added two free agents the same day.

That was December 4. The same day, the Indians and Miners traded WITH EACH OTHER, as the Indians sent the reliever that was in talks as a trade bait for Stephen Buell, Kevin Rhodes, to Pittsburgh.

BOOZE!! I NEED BOOZE!!!

The deal with the Crusaders fell through because they wouldn’t trade MR Jose Hernandez for Buell, and had outlandish demands for a second player (think Ralph Ford and up from there).

That night at the bar, I resorted to loading up on Whiskey and a small bowl with these Italian of French or whatever cookies the bartender would readily fill up once I emptied them. He did so with the Whiskey, too. In time I was joined by the Capitals GM, who had his own problems after failing to re-sign their star pitcher Ramón Ortíz before the Gold Sox swooped in and signed him.

I woke up the next morning on the floor of my room with a head the size of a tow truck. Once I crawled down into the lounge to sober up on a few coffees, I eventually overheard the Bayhawks GM talk to someone how he was stunned that the Raccoons had managed to flip one of their outfielders for an ace right-hander.

Raced back up to my room, and really, there was contract. Apparently we had moved Buell for a right-handed reliever that night. Vince gave him 4.5 stars. Vince was sober, by the way. He was stunned, too.

For lunch (which didn’t come long after the coffee), the Salem GM invited me to the grill. Of course he had some business to do. He actually offered a fairly spectacular deal, with LF/RF Jeff MacGruder and MR Willie Young bundled up for - … Randy Farley.

MacGruder WAS an impact bat, having hit 29 home runs this season, and while he was left-handed – 29 home runs! He was also in discussions in the trade talks last year for Gabby De La Rosa, whom we eventually traded to the Stars for Cesar Gonzalez.

But… but Randy?

Now, Young was pretty much worthless for us. MacGruder had received a $950k contract in his final salary arbitration. And … and Randy?

The deal fell through. The Wolves were insisting on Farley, and were not after any of our other starting pitchers, even the prospects. They could have had any other starting pitcher on the roster, except Ralph Ford, but the Wolves insisted on Farley, and that was not a deal I could do. Randy was the real deal and slated to be our Opening Day pitcher. I just … I just couldn’t.

By now it was clear that a first rate bat was not in the books. Not in one sense, and not in the other (financially, and with the available personnel, you know). But - mind the thought experiment. Sometimes, first rate bats will cost so excessive amounts of money and/or talent they're not worth it. So, settle on a second rate bat? That’s what we did. It still has some pop.

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December 3 – The Gold Sox sign ex-WAS SP Ramón Ortíz (166-103, 3.29 ERA) to a 3-yr, $4.62M contract.
December 4 – The Warriors blow $9M on a single day, as they sign 27-yr old ex-LVA LF Javier Encarnación (.292, 47 HR, 408 RBI) for $5.7M over five years, and also add 32-yr old ex-IND CL William Henderson (53-50, 2.46 ERA, 358 SV) for $3.3M over three years.
December 4 – The Indians trade 25-yr old MR Kevin Rhodes (5-4, 4.02 ERA, 1 SV) to the Miners for their 17-year old Puerto Rican development player, OF Felix Gonzalez, and strike another deal with the Blue Sox, sending away 2B Alberto Burgos (.276, 3 HR, 47 RBI) for MR Momsilo Plavsic (4-6, 5.03 ERA, 3 SV).
December 4 – The Raccoons trade LF/RF Stephen Buell (.268, 8 HR, 125 RBI) to the Capitals for MR Elliott Meeks (19-14, 3.60 ERA, 15 SV).
December 6 – The Raccoons strike a deal with the Buffaloes that seems them acquire 28-yr old LF/RF Daniel Richardson (.268, 42 HR, 221 RBI) in exchange for MR Brad Tamburrino (22-15, 3.73 ERA, 17 SV), AAA LF/RF George Wood, and AA SP Tyler Sullivan.
December 11 – Although he’s 40 years old, he’s not done yet: Superstar CL Andres Ramirez (91-105, 2.51 ERA, 686 SV) signs a 2-yr, $2.28M contract with the Cyclones.
December 14 – The Canadiens sign the Crusaders’ former catcher, Antonio Clemente (.274, 29 HR, 336 RBI). The 29-year old gets a 2-yr, $1.42M deal.
December 14 – The Crusaders console themselves with ex-LVA C Andres Manuel (.268, 64 HR, 582 RBI), who signs a 1-yr, $620k deal.
December 15 – The Crusaders also take a risk with 38-year old ex-SFW SP Arnold McCray (224-197, 3.37 ERA), who signs on for 2-yr, $3M.
December 21 – INF Bob Hall (.276, 37 HR, 285 RBI) jumps onto the Bayhawks’ bandwagon for 2-yr, $1.83M. The 26-year old ex-Miner should help the team offensively as defensively.
December 24 – The Capitals and Raccoons exchange minor leaguers, with the Coons adding AAA SP/MR Felipe Garcia in exchange for AAA 1B Harry Jackson.
December 27 – The Gold Sox deal LF/RF Ramón Trinidad (.265, 19 HR, 140 RBI) to the Pacifics for MR Javier Gonzalez (7-8, 3.80 ERA, 5 SV).
December 27 – The Crusaders trade for the Falcons’ 26-yr old 2B Ron Brantley (.299, 1 HR, 19 RBI in 264 AB) in exchange for 31-yr old MR Jose Lopez (45-50, 2.99 ERA, 158 SV) and a non-prospect.
December 30 – The Cyclones are fired up over the addition of ex-BOS INF Haruki Nakayama (.277, 46 HR, 514 RBI), who receives a 3-yr, $2.58M contract.
December 31 – The Loggers sign their 29-yr old 2B/3B Jose Perez (.271, 72 HR, 434 RBI) to a 7-yr, $6.3M extension.

Meeks is in the second year of a 2-yr, $620k contract. Scouted 18/13/10 by Vince, his high octane fastball that reaches 99 mph and has a sink to it that results in lots of groundballs should be a perfect fit to us. BNN rates the deal a 2.9 WAR gain for us, too.

There will be a Daniel roaming left field again. Just like in the old times! Isn’t that great!?

While the prize for Richardson (who bats left-handed, but you CAN’T have everything) looks rather steep, it isn’t quite. Tamburrino is a pure dump. They would have done the deal readily with just Wood and Sullivan. They would have dealt for Nick Brown alone, but he’s the best bet among the three SP prospects we protected from the rule 5 draft just a few weeks ago. Sullivan was the second-best bet, and well Dwight Williams is home run-prone and won’t ever make it in Portland, but we don’t have to tell that to everyone right now.

This signing nails down our lineup for next year. SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Mata – P. In reality, Ingall might bat second against left-handed pitching, and we are looking into our options regarding a right-handed backup outfielder now. Luke Newton stays. Chris Parker won’t.

The Richardson deal generates another 5.0 WAR gain for us. We might lose some of the benefits in the long run (Sullivan might become a good pitcher), or even in the short run (someone’s gotta pay for Daniel by next November…), but just those two deals go a long way to improve the roster.

The Jackson-Garcia deal eases the glut at first base, while adding a versatile arm in Garcia, kind of compensating for the earlier trade in which we departed with Sullivan. The downside is that Garcia is on the 40-man roster and will cost $120k.

Another player I looked into before settling on Richardson is Trinidad, who was dealt by the Gold Sox on December 27. He is actually a right-hander, but I found is overall skill set vastly inferior to Richardson’s. Handedness isn’t all…

So far we have parted with 12 players this off season. While I always loved Chubby Martinez and Jackie Lagarde – although way more during their first stints – the only one I’ll be crying after is Kisho Saito.

Financially, the deals added salary, though, and we are now on the brink of going overbudget again. I hate the fact that the budget won’t show contracts of players not on the expanded roster during the offseason.

We still should have another $400k to $600k of room, even accounting for a contract offer to ex-MIL MR Andrew Schaefer, that’s been out there for a month now. I’m still looking into a right-handed backup outfielder.

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Some of the roster depth has been reduced, or maybe reshuffled is a better word. We upgraded our bullpen, we upgraded corner outfield, and it didn't cost us the world. Tyler Sullivan might break out, he might not. Before him in line was former 11th round (!!!!) pick Nick Brown.

At the bottom line: Meeks, Richardson >>> Tamburrino, Buell

[Westheim]

RACCOONS DRAFT HISTORY (as of December 31, 1999)

Players in bold = players currently in the Coons' system (majors or minors).
Players underlined = active major leaguers or players that have played in the majors this season.
Listed are the first five rounds from every draft, plus draft picks that made it to the big leagues from later rounds. In very rare cases a player from below the fifth round will be listed that doesn’t qualify under the previous stipulations, like when his call-up to the Raccoons’ roster could come soon.
This is merely an update of the last three draft classes and what else has happened since then. I intend to do a proper write-up at least of the old draft classes at some point, but you know me, heh, yeah …

The only really notable draft pick of ours that retired between updates, was Richard Cunningham.

1977 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - LF/RF Daniel Hall – Franchise poster boy! Forever in our hearts! After a career riddled with all kinds of big and small injuries, he retired after 17 major league seasons, all with the Raccoons, and a .263/.366/.437 career slash line, 1,886 hits, 223 home runs, 980 RBI, and 99 steals, as well as two rings. We will never forget you, Daniel! (sobs)
Round 2 - SP Jose Garcia – retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - 1B Matt Workman – Played 595 games at 1B for the Raccoons, including 404 straight starts before being traded with prospects for Tetsu Osanai. Never landed another job in the starting lineup elsewhere, and last appeared with the Wolves in 1988. Career stats: .271/.327/.390, 61 HR, 327 RBI in his career.
Round 4 - MR Miguel Bojorquez – Appeared in 39 games for the Raccoons between 1980 and 1985, before being claimed on waivers by the Blue Sox. Bounced around in the Federal League as a third-string lefty reliever until 1990. Career stats: 147 G, 11-7, 2 SV, 4.93 ERA
Round 5 - SP/MR Jorge Rodriguez – Was traded before the '83 season and has been with Boston in '83, L.A. in '85, and Oklahoma in ‘87. Career stats: 67 G, 0-2, 1 SV, 7.02 ERA.
Round 7 - MR Jason White – Was traded after the 1985 season for Marcos Costello, and after pitching for the Wolves and Loggers in ’86, bumbled around in the minors for eight years before retiring. 264 career games with a 4.14 ERA.

1978 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - MR Richard Cunningham – Nasty right-handed setup man that was blocked behind Grant West for almost a decade, but still devastated batters. Traded to Dallas in the 1988 firesale that started a dynasty, Cunningham became closer there for a few years. After 1992, he soldiered on to pitch for five more teams, remaining a reliable and competent pitcher until the very end. 1,072 G, 89-75, 2.86 ERA, 173 SV, 1,257 K.
Round 2 - MR Gary Simmons – Beaten up as a starter with the Raccoons in 1980-81, and was traded to Nashville after the 1982 season. The Blue Sox and later the Knights employed him as reliever exclusively and he remained competent in that role, ending his career after the 1993 season. Career stats: 623 G, 64 GS, 3.44 ERA.
Round 3 - 1B Johnny Snow – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - MR Marvin Large – Retired without reaching the majors despite 15 minor league seasons.
Round 5 - C Eric Gregory – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 7 - LF/RF Fernando Perez –ad four hits in 26 AB’s for the Coons between 1982 and 1984, was claimed by the Pacifics in 1985, but never appeared in the majors again.

1979 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - MR Grant West – Forever Portland’s local hero, West spent his whole career as a Raccoon, and being a fail-proof closer for 13 of his 16 seasons. Career stats: 905 G, 43-34, 522 SV, 2.12 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, and two rings.
Round 2 - SP Pepe Acevedo – Was shipped off to Cincinnati in the Jack Pennington trade before the 1981 season, and was in the majors for the Cyclones and Indians between 1984 and 1989 with a 43-37 record and 3.80 ERA, but never made it back after that.
Round 3 - MR Fletcher Kelley – Solid right-handed reliever, who was traded to Nashville in the Raúl Herrera trade, where he won two rings. Bounced between teams after 1987 and after three unsuccessful appearances for the 1990 Thunder, he only reappeared in 1994 with the Condors for 18 games of getting mobbed. Career stats: 433 G, 25-18, 7 SV, 3.80 ERA.
Round 4 - LF/RF Gary Carter – Had nine AB’s for the 1983 Coons, going hitless. Never played anywhere else.
Round 5 - C Dave Stewart – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 6 - MR Gilberto Soto – Pitched for the 1984-85 Coons. Career stats: 59 G, 4-2, 1 SV, 4.81 ERA.

1980 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - SP Carlos Gonzalez – Potentially great career that was derailed by injuries early and often. Gonzalez had to retire at the tender age of 30. Pitched for the Raccoons 1984-89 and the Titans 1990-91. Career stats: 145 G, 143 GS, 48-57, 3.91 ERA.
Round 3 - SP Ray Willis – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - 1B/2B Darren Campbell – Only had 86 AB’s for the Raccoons from 1985 to 1987 and never played for another big league team. Career stats: .209/.253/.244 with 0 HR, 7 RBI.
Round 5 - LF Jose Perez – Was taken by the Scorpions in the 1984 rule 5 draft and played for them from 1985 to 1987. Career stats: .221/.297/.277 with 1 HR, 20 RBI.

1981 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - 3B/2B Orlando Lantán – Hurt his knee shortly after being drafted and spent short stints with the Coons in 1985 and 1986, after which he was claimed off waivers by the Blue Sox, but never played for any other team. Career stats: .200/.261/.248 with 1 HR, 10 RBI.
Round 2 - C Greg Thornburg – Great defense, but never much of a batter. Had his 15 minutes of fame with the 1986 Aces, getting four AB’s with a double.
Round 3 - OF Kelly Weber – Backup outfielder 1984-1988, was traded to the Gold Sox for 1989, but only appeared in six games for them. Career stats: .251/.298/.320 with 5 HR, 112 RBI.
Round 4 - MR Pedro Vazquez – Right-handed fireballer with severe control issues, he made 69 appearances for the Raccoons between 1986 and 1992, before being claimed off waivers by the Wolves. Ended up in Vancouver in ’93 and appeared from them in two last games in ’94 before finishing his career in the minors. Career stats: 108 G, 1 GS, 4-5, 4.60 ERA, 2 SV.
Round 5 - CL Emerson MacDonald – Appeared for the Raccoons in 1986 and 1988, before being traded to the Pacifics in the trade for Jeff Martin. Last pitched for the Indians in 1991. Career stats: 100 G, 8-4, 3.96 ERA.
Round 7 - C Andy Reed – Had limited exposure with the Raccoons and Dallas as backup catcher. Career stats: .267/.341/.371 with 2 HR, 9 RBI.

1982 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - LF/RF Alejandro Lopez – When he didn’t click in the minors, he was traded to the Blue Sox in an 8-player deal in 1985, with whom he debuted the same year. Won two rings with the Blue Sox before being traded to the Condors in ’91, but was unsigned after ’92. He came back to the Raccoons as a scrap heap signing in May of 1993 and was a productive part down the stretch en route to his third World Series title. But he didn’t produce in ’94, was waived and claimed by the Canadiens, didn’t produce there either, and by now has retired. Career stats: .258/.305/.408 with 106 HR, 564 RBI, and 71 SB.
Supp. Round - INF Carlos Miranda – Versatile infielder, with us from 1985 to 1989, but never caught on anywhere else, being limited to 266 career AB. Career stats: .244/.301/.308 with 0 HR, 13 RBI, and 9 SB.
Supp. Round - OF Matt Olson – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - MR Jason Bentley – Another player that only appeared for the Raccoons, from 1985 to 1989. Good right-hander that at one point just lost it. Career stats: 238 G, 5-11, 3 SV, 4.01 ERA, 184 K.
Round 3 - C Odwin Garza – The Aruban’s claim to fame will be that he was included (with SP Manuel Paredes) in the deal that netted the Raccoons David Vinson and Miguel Lopez. Appeared as backup for the Raccoons in 1986-87, and for the Warriors 1988 and 1990. Career stats: .222/.292/.309 with 0 HR, 9 RBI.
Round 4 - 1B Mariano Duarte – Only made the Bigs after leaving as a minor league free agent, accumulating 51 AB for the Thunder in 1989, and one more in 1991. Career stats: .288/.403/.538 with 3 HR, 10 RBI.
Round 5 - RF/LF Paul Blake – Only appeared for the 1986 Raccoons. Career stats: .220/.265/.308 with 1 HR, 5 RBI.

1983

Round 1 - SP Scott Wade – Scotty has been as good a first round pick as you can make, debuting in 1985 as a starter. Despite lacking a third pitch, he won double digit games as a starter for 11 straight seasons before moving into a backend bullpen / swing man role in the last few years. In 485 career games (388 starts) he is 160-122 with a 3.49 ERA.
Supp. Round - C Miguel Carrasco – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - LF Wilson Martinez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 8 - 1B/3B Jose Lopez – Retired. Was released in 1985, but eventually bounced into a small cup of coffee with the 1991 and 1993 Knights for 18 career AB. Career stats: .111/.105/.222 with 0 HR, 3 RBI.
All others from this year are retired.

1984 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - MR Juan Santos – Shipped out for the in Portland short-lived Jose Sanchez after 1987, he didn’t make his debut until 1989 with the Scorpions, but was demoted and never heard from again in 1990, retiring after seven seasons in the minors. Career stats: 64 G, 2-6, 5.23 ERA.
Supp. Round - 1B Billy Mitchell – Blocked by the Hall of Famer Tetsu Osanai, he was traded after the 1988 season, and appeared for the Capitals and Falcons until 1994. Career stats: .296/.371/.466, 75 HR, 399 RBI.
Round 2 - OF Hector Medina – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - RF Jose Correa – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - MR Jorge Cavazos – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - LF/RF Jose Vega – Retired without reaching the majors.

1985

Round 1 – 1B/3B Joe Jackson – debuted in 1988, but was traded to the Falcons after that season for Justin Reader. Has been somewhat of their infrequent first baseman, spending all of 1993, some of 1994 and 1995, and most of 1997 in the minors. Was even traded to the Knights once, but appeared in 160 games for the Falcons in 1999 with a rather miserable 88 OPS+. Career .247 batter with 48 HR and 447 RBI.
Supp. Round - 1B Gabriel Ramirez – Retired without reaching the majors. Was at one point traded to Cincinnati for Glenn Johnston, which is a story in itself.
Round 2 - MR Jose Mendoza – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - LF/RF Antonio Morín – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - 1B/2B Dennis Gray – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - SP/MR Gerald Hickman – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 3B/2B Bartolo Ayala – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 6 - MR Mike Shaw – Retired. He was a control-challenged lefty reliever that appeared for the 1986 and 1988 Coons. Career stats: 37 G, 0-1, 5.40 ERA.
All others from this year are retired.

1986

Round 1 - SP Miguel Martinez – Retired. He was included in the deal for Neil Reece in the 1988 sales, which was another big W for the Coons. Was traded a few more times, pitching for the Thunder 1989-91, and then only resurfaced with the 1995 Warriors, was traded to the Gold Sox the same year, but didn’t appear in the Bigs after 1996 and retired two years later. Career stats: 72 G, 61 GS, 14-23, 4.71 ERA.
Round 2 - SP/MR Eugene Scott – after 14 minor league seasons, Scott is still holding out to get that callup to the big leagues. Has appeared in 540 minor league games.
Round 3 - 1B Vincente Rodriguez – Retired. Was a part of the deal for Jorge Salazar before the 1990 season, and played for the Indians from 1990-1993. Career stats: .257/.327/.362 with 16 HR, 106 RBI, and 14 SB.
Round 4 - RF/INF Ben Nash – Retired. Managed one hit in 12 AB for the 1995 Raccoons.
Round 5 - MR Keith Jefferson – Retired without reaching the majors.
All others from this year are retired.

1987

Round 1 - 2B/3B Hector Gonzalez – Retired. Was also included in the Neil Reece deal in the 1988 sales, and made his debut for the Buffaloes the same year. He appeared for them until 1993, then for the 1994 Gold Sox, but was left unsigned after that. Career stats: .233/.302/.334 with 38 HR, 360 RBI, and 15 SB.
Supp. Round - MR Albert Matthews – after his 1989 debut with the Coons it soon became apparent that consistency was not in his vocabulary. Was demoted and recalled frequently and alternated between mop-up and setup duties regularly. The Canadiens claimed him off waivers in 1995, and even made him their closer for a short time, but since 1997 he’s been with a new team every year. 457 career games, 23-33, 46 SV with a 3.80 ERA.
Round 2 - C Bob Armstrong – Retired. Primarily a defensive catcher, he spotted 26 AB (7 hits) for the Coons between 1992 and 1994, before being traded to the Falcons in 1996.
Round 3 - INF/LF/CF Terry Miller – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - SP Dennis Fried – appeared in 16 games for the Coons in 1990 and pitched so-so, before being included in the ill-fated Raul Castillo deal in 1991 (Castillo only played in three games for Portland due to injury). After being limited to relief appearances with the Blue Sox in 1991, he fought his way into the rotation in 1992 and has stayed there ever since, and after winning 21 games in 1996 was named the FL Pitcher of the Year. 134-91 with a 3.49 ERA.
Round 5 - MR Walter Weber – Retired without reaching the majors.
All others except for MR Gary Montgomery (10th round, free agent) are retired.

1988

Round 1 - LF Edgar Morris – was constantly hurt and struggled in our system and eventually became a free agent. Has made sporadic appearances for the Knights from 1995 to 1998, appearing in at most 93 games in a season (1997), landing 80 hits in 276 AB. Still with Atlanta’s AAA team that beat St. Petersburg for the 1999 AAA title.
Round 2 - INF Steve Caddock – despite the most limited skill set (a glove, nothing else), Caddock keeps re-appearing on the Raccoons for no discernible reason as a backup outfielder. He might be on the Opening Day roster in 2000; career .202 batter with a knack for dramatic home runs, of which he has seven.
Round 3 - MR John Smith – home run-prone southpaw that has yet to make the Bigs, currently a free agent.
Round 4 - C Freddy Lambert – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - LF/RF Chih-tui Jin – made his debut in 1993 with the Coons, but never got past backup status. He was traded to the Gold Sox with Esteban Baldivía after 1995 to acquire Liam Wedemeyer and Tzu-jao Ban, and instantly broke out. Hampered by injuries, he has nevertheless established himself as a .850+ OPS batter. Currently a .297/.406/.434 career line for him with 39 HR and 286 RBI.
Round 8 – SP Jesse Novak – was released by us in 1989, but caught on with the Blue Sox, for whom he debuted as a reliever in 1993 (one appearance). After a few more casual engagements with them, he spent all of 1996 in their rotation, going 12-14 with a 4.20 ERA. Since then has pitched occasionally for the Blue Sox and Rebels, always from the bullpen. 14-18 with a 4.58 ERA in 94 career games (36 starts).
All others from this year are retired.

1989

Round 1 - SP Eduardo Salazar – Retired. Always riddled with injuries, Salazar was traded after the 1992 season for the Miners’ Christian Proctor (didn’t work…). After making 17 starts for them in 1993, he saw limited use from the bullpen the next two years, and never appeared in the majors again. Career stats: 26 G, 22 GS, 10-7, 3.67 ERA.
Supp. Round - CL Gabriel De La Rosa – powerful right-handed pitcher that debuted in 1993 and soon carved out a permanent spot in our bullpen. He was traded to the Stars after 1998 to bring in Cesar Gonzalez, and was the Stars’ efficient closer in 1999. 351 career games (17 starts), 17-24, 76 SV, 2.41 ERA.
Round 2 - 1B Ruben De La Rosa – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - OF/1B Rodrigo Correa – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - SP Brendon Bell – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - MR Rafael Vazquez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 8 – C Ron McDonald – made sporadic appearances as backup for five years from 1994 to 1998, but never caught on. Was the Knights’ backup catcher in 1999 and batted .330 in 97 AB. For his career, he is a .252 batter with four homers in 302 AB.
All others from this year are retired.

1990 (note: this was the first draft over 12 rounds)

Round 1 - MR Daniel Miller – Shot through the minor leagues to make his debut in 1991, which he started with 15 innings without an earned run allowed. After posting a 6.43 ERA in 1994 he has gotten his crap together and has now been posting solid seasons for five years. Doesn’t overwhelm people, but manages to pitch to mostly poor contact. 483 games, 34-25, 39 SV, 3.11 ERA.
Supp. Round - SS/2B Jayson Kelley – Retired without reaching the majors.
Supp. Round - C Marcos Lozano – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - MR Leon Wright – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - LF/CF Francisco Reyes – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - SP António Donís – amazing stuff, unfortunately coupled with so-so control and insufficient stamina. Made 43 starts for the Coons between 1995 and 1997, going 13-16 with a 4.26 ERA, but was then converted to a reliever due to his frequent struggles to go even five innings efficiently. After struggling in a full relief campaign in ’98, he was much more reliable in ’99 and is the hottest contender for the closer’s job. 200 G (43 GS) with a 20-25 record, 3.79 ERA, and 330 K.
Round 4 - 1B Mark Logan – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 1B/2B/LF Michael Martin – Retired without reaching the majors.
All others from this year are retired.

1991

Round 1 - SP Gerárdo Ramirez – Retired. Severe control issues derailed his career. Was limited to 12 appearances for the 1994 Raccoons. Career stats: 12 G, 11 GS, 3-4, 5.34 ERA.
Supp. Round - LF/RF Paco Martinez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - 2B Pat Parker – appeared in 32 games for the 1993 and 1994 Coons before being traded to the Condors the following July for Mike Dye. He became the Cyclones’ 2B starter in 1996, batting for a .799 OPS, but was traded on to the Gold Sox, where he keeps being productive: .291/.371/.421 with 34 HR, 242 RBI for his career.
Round 2 - INF Michael Lloyd – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - MR Fred Carlton – despite having awful control, the Raccoons – historically starved for decent left-handed relief, gave him cups of coffee in 1998 and 1999. Has 19 career games with a 7.11 ERA.
Round 4 - 1B Steve Stevens – wild hacker at the plate, while not even showing signs of true power, Stevens was let go after 1994, and was picked up by the Indians. He appeared in five games in 1998 for them, drawing a walk, but didn’t have any hits.
Round 5 - MR Pancho Padilla – appeared sporadically from 1996 to 1998, before being traded to the Miners, where he got into 85 games in 1999, which allowed him to walk 72 batters. Control is entirely an alien concept to him.
Round 6 – LF/RF Kenny Crockett – Retired. When injuries culled down the Raccoons outfielders in scores in 1997, he was called upon to help, but mostly didn’t. Had one more appearance in 1998 and was later released. Career stats: 46 G, .287/.313/.404, 2 HR, 15 RBI.
All others from this year are retired.

1992

Round 1 - OF Luke Newton – first made his debut in 1995 and has been a backup since then. Strong defense, so-so bat work. When he had a chance of playing every day in 1997, he quickly got injured. .234/.319/.330 with 10 HR, 113 RBI in 1,070 AB so far.
Supp. Round - 3B Mike Crowe – inheriting third base from Ben O’Morrissey wasn’t the easiest of tasks, but three years later you can say that Crowe failed. After semi-decent seasons in 1997 and 1998, he was wholly ineffective and eventually banned to the bench in 1999. .241/.357/.324 with 15 HR, 112 RBI in 1,147 AB.
Supp. Round - SP Clinton Kennedy – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - 1B/3B/RF/LF Mark Kowalchuk – had Dawson-esque aura before the draft back then, but by now he is all but done. Batted 3-34 for the 1998 Raccoons and recently failed to even connect in AA ball. Recently released.
Round 3 - MR Kokei Kondo – awful control; the Wolves claimed in the rule 5 draft in 1997 and made him suffer through a horrendous 1998 campaign, where he issued twice as many walks than strikeouts; back in the minors now. 6.30 ERA in 40 games.
Round 4 - C Jorge Chavez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - OF Joseph MacKellachie – released in 1994, still active in the minors, but currently a free agent.
Round 7 – SP Jose Cervantes – released in 1996 after pitching poorly in AA for us, the Wolves picked him. After short stints in 1996 and 1997, he got a spot in the rotation since 1998, but with questionable success. 63 G, 14-29, 5.07 ERA.
All others from this year are retired.

1993

Round 2 - INF Brent McLaughlin – has made sporadic appearances as a backup infielder since 1997, but his bat is poor, to say the least. .190/.264/.259 with 9 RBI in 158 AB.
Round 3 - RF/LF Marvin Gregory – became a minor league free agent in 1999.
Round 4 - C Brad Gray – not the best game calling, terrible bat with a swing that has something of Swiss cheese, he never made it to the Bigs, and elected minor league free agency in 1999.
Round 5 - 1B Santiago Rodriguez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 12 – Pedro Perez – borderline southpaw that came from the last round to pitch to a 54.00 ERA in two appearances in 1999.

1994

Round 1 - LF/RF George Wood – spent a few years at AAA trying to hit enough to get noticed, but that never happened. He recently became one of the three pieces in the Daniel Richardson deal with the Buffaloes.
Round 2 - 1B Carlos Salazar – was up in AAA by 1997, but failed to hit there, and ended up being released in June of 1999. Still unemployed.
Round 3 - OF Cal Lyon – struggled for a long time to make it out of A ball, but is now in AAA and displayed a bat with some pop and 13 homers in 91 games in St. Pete in 1999.
Round 4 - SP Joe Key – in AAA, where he generates an alarming rate of walks with his changeup/cutter arsenal.
Round 5 - 1B Harry Jackson – more or less typical power bat, many home runs, many more strikeouts. Fell victim to a glut at first base for us, where he is at best the fourth choice now, and was flipped off to the Capitals.
Round 6 - SP/MR Manuel Diaz – after making his Raccoons debut in 1997 (6 G, 9.00 ERA), he was demoted back to the minors to work on his control, which has so far not been successful. Spent the entire 1999 season in AA Ham Lake.

1995

Round 1 - LF Manuel Villa – bust #1 from this draft went down with a concussion in 1996 and never quite came back the same. Currently in AAA with the Aces.
Round 2 - RF/LF Cory Stanford – bust #2 from this draft, just worse. Released soon, and played in all three minor league levels for the Mines in ‘99.
Round 3 - MR Bill Coles – bust #3, never made it out of AA ball, unemployed after being released this fall.
Round 4 - SP Julio Romero – his first few years as a professional were marred with terrible control issues, which by now seem largely ironed out. Spent 1999 between AA and AAA and looks forward to attack.
Round 5 - 1B/2B George Morris – in his fourth tour of duty in AA, in 1998, he suddenly found some pop in his bat, and hit 14 dingers, a number he almost matched with 13 in AAA this year. His first cup of coffee in the Bigs was sobering, however, as he batted 2-18 in six games.
Round 8 – OF Jason Kent – sporadically appeared as injury replacement between 1997 and 1999, without making himself welcome in the lineup. .188/.245/.229 with 1 HR, 8 RBI in 96 AB. Right now injured himself with a broken kneecap and on the 60-day DL.
Round 11 – SP Nick Brown – has gone from 293rd overall in the 1995 draft to the #12 prospect in the ABL, pitching for a 6-5 record with a 3.17 ERA in AA, and 6-1 record with 3.79 ERA in AAA this season. At only 21 years, he could break into the major leagues any moment now!

1996

Round 1 - MR Manuel Martinez – made his debut in 1999 after just 16 appearances in AAA ball, and pitched reasonably until being injured, and came only back in September. 20 games with a 3.45 ERA. His changeup and sinker are unfair to batters, but he levels the playing field with bad control that has to be beaten out of him.
Supp. Round - SP Dwight Williams – has developed a thing for giving up home runs, 32 this year in 23 AAA starts. Until he can learn to miss a few bats there is no point in giving him a call-up.
Supp. Round - INF/RF/LF Carlos Gomes – Retired without reaching the majors. Broke his elbow a month after the draft, and then tore his labrum the next September, forcing him to quit baseball.
Round 2 - 2B/SS Sergio Tirado – defensively serviceable, but quite uncontrollable at the plate, where he continues to strike out in amazing rates, limiting him to AA ball.
Round 3 - MR Juan Diaz – in AAA, also fighting the walks, which seems to plague many of our left-handed pitching prospects.
Round 4 - 1B Albert Martin – made a splash debut late in 1999, hitting for a .898 OPS in 26 games, enough to make him the prime occupant of first base from here on out.
Round 5 - SP Ralph Warren – after a strong rookie season in A ball, it has largely come apart for him, and he was demoted back to Aumsville late in 1999, before hitting the DL with radial nerve compression.

1997

Round 1 - MR Dan Nordahl – unquestionable great talent, hideous slider, future star? His 1999 debut was spotty at times, and he walked more than he struck out. At 20 years old, Nordahl still has some time to get things figured out.
Round 1 - C Julio Mata – another universally praised prospect after the draft, he initially struggled in the minors, but nevertheless made a strong debut impression in the last two months of 1999 for the Raccoons, batting .311/.364/.466 with 4 HR and 37 RBI. While that might have been a bit more than he will be able to repeat in the long run, we rest assured to have found our catcher for the next few years.
Supp. Round - LF/RF Jochen Funck – didn’t quite make the cut in his first tour in AAA this year, and was sent back to Ham Lake, where he nevertheless tortured pitchers to a .956 OPS with 20 home runs.
Round 2 - 1B Don Irvin – prototypical first baseman that was promoted to AAA for the first time very late in 1999. Irvin batted for 18 homers and a .820 OPS in AA in 1999.
Round 3 - SP Craig Rhodes – spent three years in A ball with nagging injuries and can’t throw faster than 86 mph.
Round 4 - MR Mauro Rodriguez – after two years finally mastered his own curve and struck out 109 in 147 innings in A ball before getting promoted to AA in September. Still rather dubious as a prospect.
Round 5 - SP/MR Antonio Toro – about to be converted to a full time reliever in AA ball, where he had a decent season despite pitching only 20 innings.

1998

Round 1 - LF/CF Chris Roberson – spent most of the year in AAA where he had a quite successful campaign, but not enough to be currently of any use to a big league team. Needs more seasoning, also needs to lose that arrogant look of his.
Supp. Round - SP Frank McGeraghty – struggled in AA with a 10-14, 5.91 ERA season. Walked 86 against 123 strikeouts and also gave up 32 home runs. Much work to be done.
Supp. Round - CL Scott Boone – was the closer for the AA team at 18 years old this year, saving 31 games with a 4.50 ERA. Potential is certainly there, it is just a matter of refining his mechanics to make him climb the ladder
Supp. Round - LF/RF Jesus Valle – the only sure bust of our top crop in 1998, Valle is batting poorly even in A ball and might have to move over as soon as the next draft takes place.
Supp. Round - OF Herb Rose – we thought he might have some more power, but that doesn’t show at all so far. Defense and basic batting skills are there, although his first promotion to AA ball went a bit rough for him this season, as he batted only for a .672 OPS in 230 AB.
Supp. Round - MR Sergio Vega – after his mean right-handed changeup devastated A level batting, he failed to do as well in AA, but at 19 years old has some more time to gain the edge.
Round 2 - C Pat McClellan – batted poorly for two years in A ball, but was promoted to AA halfway through the season anyway for organizational needs. He actually batted for a better OPS in AA. Might be more of a defensive catcher, but then again some pitchers complain to the manager that he is unable to communicate with them.
Round 3 - 1B John Morris – badly struggling in all regards in A ball.
Round 4 - OF Bryan Forrest – was released by the Raccoons this year, signed by the Loggers, and released again. Complete bust.
Round 5 - 1B/2B/LF/RF Reed Shaw – lacks basic batting skills, it seems.

1999

Round 1 - OF/1B Darwin Tyler – Failed to hit at all, unfortunately, batting for a .203/.250/.301 clip in 256 AB in Aumsville. Vince Guerra is at a loss about this.
Round 1 - CL Marcos Bruno – handled AA batting very well, striking out 45 in 32 innings and allowing only a 3.09 ERA against him. Scheduled for promotion to AAA in early 2000.
Supp. Round - 1B/2B Matt Love – convincing debut season in AA ball, and will move up to AAA in 2000. Steady bat with a good eye and high OBP ability.
Supp. Round - MR Mike Harvey – was easily hittable as an 18-year old in Aumsville, but struck out 37 to only 16 walks, so this is something to build on. Also started seven games, but we may use him as a reliever in the long run.
Round 2 - MR Bob Evans – struck out 60 in 33.1 innings in A ball, will get promoted to Ham Lake when the season starts.
Round 2 - LF/RF Jorge Rodriguez – decent debut season in A ball, batting .241 with 8 homers in 77 games. With a well developed glove and manners, he schmoozed himself into promotion to AA ball.
Round 3 - C Bob Wood – struggled to make the bat meet the ball, striking out 65 times in 211 AB in his A debut.
Round 4 - SP Ed Bryan – struck out 104 batters while going 4-9 with a 3.94 ERA due to some serious non-offense on the A level team, but for himself held his ground well. Has to work on the curve to get it closer to the zone.
Round 5 - SP Giuseppe Loffredo – works on three pitches, but his debut season was not necessarily spectacular.

---

I’ve said it a few times, I’ll say it again. Vince Guerra is amazing in combing foxholes all over the Latin American world and has unearthed quite a few gems there for us. In the drafts (since 1991), we are still missing a lot… If I look at that 1995 draft, I don’t know what dope we’d been doing, but we’d do good to stop it.

[Westheim]

January.

Still debating over that #5 starter. Lopez and Rivera will be back in the rotation for better or worse, along with Farley and Ford. That leaves a spot for Wade or Paco Martinez. Wade could also pitch long relief out of the bullpen, however. Martinez would be a waste to pitch out of the pen. Problem is, if we make Donis the closer, we need a second left-handed reliever, and that second left-handed reliever is not going to be Fred Carlton.

Other than that, our bullpen holds Miller, Collins, Meeks, Fairchild, and Joly. The latter two are leftovers, there to absorb damage while Nordahl and Manuel Martinez (I always want to call him Miguel…) start the season in Florida to get into better shape with control. But we need a left-hander. Even Andrew Schaefer, who’s been mulling an offer since December 3, is a right-hander.

I am not looking for a big name. I am looking for a cheap, stopgap solution for a few months, to get all other arms sorted out. The Raccoons will not contend in 2000 one way or the other.

The question is, will they contend the following year? We may be operating on borrowed time already. Meeks and Richardson will be free agents, as will be Miller, Wade, and Reece (our last three ring wearers). Barring unforeseen demotions, Farley, Brady, and Crowe will all be first-time arbitration-eligible. It doesn’t look like we can keep the cast together as it is already.

But let’s stop this. The point is moot. We don’t have money now, we don’t whether we will have money in nine months (but most likely, no, sorry son, but no, we will not).

This is a season where we throw all that young talent at the wall and see whether it sticks or it stinks. Mata, Martin, Brady, Ford, Farley, heck, even Guerin or Donis or Rivera aren’t that well established as major leaguers. If that’s a cast that works in combo with Reece, Ingall, and the few others that have a proper contract, then we might have a good result, and Carlosito might be willing to spend a bit more money on us. If not, well, then Richardson, and Meeks, and maybe even (and I will be permanently embittered by this) Neil Reece will walk away, and we go back to square one, rinse repeat, the only difference being that our youngsters will be young only for so long.

I also came up with a way to dispose of Mike Crowe: we don’t. He’s the right-handed bat off the bench, that gives us more freedom for that fifth outfield spot, which now can be filled by Chris Parker again.

Besides, Daniel Richardson’s injury history reads much like Daniel Hall’s. Lots of small nagging things that keep him off the field a week here, and two weeks there. There should be ample playing time for Parker.

When Vince Guerra presented me a list of left-handed relievers with decent scouting reports, I was surprised through how many of the guys we had been through only on page one.


January 3 – The Raccoons announce the addition of former Logger MR Andrew Schaefer (21-14, 4.03 ERA, 8 SV). Schaefer, 31, signs a 2-yr, $560k contract.
January 4 – The Indians try to improve their lackluster offense with the addition of 34-yr old LF/RF Roland Moore (.282, 76 HR, 436 RBI), who was with the Warriors in 1999. He signs a 2-yr, $1.65M contract.
January 10 – Traded from Tijuana to Topeka during the season, INF/LR/RF Rory Gorden returns to where he knows everything best. The .253 hitter with 101 HR and 683 RBI, signs a 4-yr, $4.63M contract with the Condors for his age 31-34 seasons.
January 10 – 31-yr old LF/RF Román Reyes (.273, 37 HR, 282 RBI) joins the Loggers on a 3-yr, $2.71M deal.
January 13 – Well-ridden workhorse Neil Stewart signs another big league deal at 36 years of age, inking with the Buffaloes for 3-yr, $2.58M. Stewart is 237-181 with a 3.44 ERA and could move past Hall of Famer Juan Correa if he keeps winning 15 games a year.
January 14 – The Capitals add ex-CIN 3B Ramiro Gonzalez (.304, 13 HR, 344 RBI). The 31-yr old iron man, regularly playing all or almost all the games in the season, will earn $6.29M over six years.
January 16 – The Coons have another new pitcher, adding southpaw MR Orlando Blanco (28-61, 4.83 ERA, 2 SV) to the mix. Blanco will make $200k for one season.
January 20 – The Scorpions sign 36-yr old Holden Gorman (61-49, 3.55 ERA, 115 SV) as their new closer, paying $3.25M for three years of service from the ex-Falcon.
January 22 – The Condors shell out $2.37M over three years for 35-yr old ex-Coon 1B Mauro Granados (.257, 110 HR, 633 RBI). The Raccoons receive a supplemental round draft pick.

Mauro Granados will don a new shirt for the eleventh time in a 12-year career (but only the ninth shirt in total), after playing for the Aces (1988-90), Condors (1990), Blue Sox (1991-92), Bayhawks (1992-94), Buffaloes (1994-95), Blue Sox (1995-96), Gold Sox (1998), Aces (1998-99), Scorpions (1999), and Raccoons (1999). He was born in Costa Rica – some people there don’t own this many shirts in a lifetime!

Schaefer signing on was merely filling a spot that was threatening to go to Bob Joly and his 6.75 ERA. Schaefer is serviceable in a 7th/8th inning role. Right-handed relief was adequately covered between him, Miller, and Meeks, with Fairchild and Wade ready for long relief roles. Unless Wade started. But I was not sold on that yet.

Before you choke on Blanco, he was a horrible starter for the Falcons early in his career. Of his 297 games, 102 were starts, and he ran his ERA as high as 6.75 in those seasons, and had WHIPS of 1.70 and over. As a reliever, he has settled down a lot, and should be way more productive. He is 33, by the way. He is also the stopgap solution I walked about. If Carlton does well, and Blanco doesn’t, out with Blanco.

[Westheim]

We weren’t going to do much in the last two months before the season. Vince would see Miguel Lopez and Jose Rivera pitch in simulated games as they came off the DL, make another trip to Santa Banana, and I would toss and turn each and every night over the question whether to start Scott Wade or use him in relief – which would make one domino piece or the other fall along with him.

I was actually mostly looking forward to see Vince combing through the Caribbean once more. He had already been there after the winter meetings and had come back with a 17-year old right hander from Venezuela, Salvadaro Soure, he was very keen about. That kind was blonde. I’ve never seen a blond Venezuelan before…

But Vince knows best, I guess.

Vince also looked at Miguel Lopez for quite some time in late February and early March. His scouting report came back rather grim. The 31-yr old Lopez, after three major injuries in six years, appears to have lost it for good. Good thing he’s under contract for another three years and due another $1,875,000.

His report on Rivera was even worse. While usually throwing 95-97 mph, Rivera failed to hit that during workouts with Vince – by a country mile. As he did with the zone. While there was still well over a month to get warmed up for the season, the outlook was most grim.

When Jason Kent came off the DL, he was immediately designated for assignment, since the 40-man roster was full. Nobody claimed him, a failed prospect with a crippled knee.

During March, I was surprised to find no catcher at our AAA level squad for the soon-to-begin season. We promoted non-prospect Jorge Defrese from AA there, but still needed another glove. Everybody seemed to hold out for a major league deal this season, though.

Well, I did *some* wheeling in late March. I don’t know whether it will have been for the better, though…

February 3 – The Pacifics agree with 27-yr old ex-NYC 2B/SS Jeffrey Nielsen (.276, 16 HR, 286 RBI) to a 1-yr, $432k contract.
February 4 – The Wolves add two starting pitchers, with a 2-yr, $1.52M deal for ex-ATL Scott Murphy (119-142, 4.33 ERA), who is 33, and a 2-yr, $1.34M contract for 30-yr old ex-RIC Edgar Rey (97-85, 4.00 ERA).
February 4 – Meanwhile, the Knights snatch up ex-Condor SP Harry Griggs (172-120, 3.51 ERA) at a 4-yr, $3.28M prize point.
February 13 – Well-travelled CL Javier Navarro (44-49, 2.43 ERA, 272 SV) hooks up with the Thunder for a princely 1-yr, $1.3M contract.
February 16 – 30-yr old MR Raymond Léger (20-20, 3.20 ERA, 8 SV) continues a tour of the CL North that saw him pitch for the Loggers and Titans in 1999, by hooking up for 2-yr, $1.46M with the Canadiens.
March 21 – The Raccoons announce a 1-yr, $230k contract for 37-yr old INF Nuno Andresen (.264, 56 HR, 938 RBI). Andresen has been with the Capitals from 1983 to 1999, amassing 2,191 base hits.
April 2 – The Rebels will bury their deceased owner, Antonio Fuentes, on the morning of Opening Day, before playing in Topeka the same night, it was announced. Fuentes had passed away on Saturday, April 1. His son Eric has inherited the team and has always said that he would be willing to spend more money than his father did.

Andresen takes Crowe’s spot on the roster. Batting-wise, they should not give or take each other much. Both batted in the .220 region (or below) last year. But Andresen adds a glove for all four infield spots. He’s a placeholder as we are having a keen look at our AAA team, where we have a pair of promising young infielders in Miguel Ramirez (all positions, but best at third), and Matt Love (1B/2B with the glove, but his makeup says leadoff-batting second baseman).

We also re-added C Brad Gray on March 27 on a minor league deal with major league option worth $200k. Now we have to take care of Mata and Fifield so they don’t get hurt, while we are looking for a replacement in April.

[Westheim]

2000 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 1999 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Randy Farley, 26, B:R, T:R (13-13, 2.80 ERA | 25-19, 2.94 ERA) – one of the three pieces (Brady, Parker) acquired in the David Brewer trade, Farley built and expanded on a splendid rookie season as a sophomore in 1999. He looks like the real deal and permanent building stone for any rotation.
SP Miguel Lopez, 31, B:S, T:L (1-2, 4.63 ERA | 69-49, 3.39 ERA) – every time he gets seriously injured, less and less of him comes back. Making only five starts in the first year of a 5-year contract, we are actually frightened to see him in live action for the first time since last April.
SP Jose Rivera, 27, B:L, T:R (8-5, 2.58 ERA | 38-23, 2.84 ERA) – the 1998 CL ERA champion was on the way to another strong season, when he tore the flexor tendon in his elbow in late July. Simulated games show greatly reduced stuff for the sympathetic right-hander from Santo Domingo.
SP Ralph Ford, 22, B:L, T:L (2-2, 3.97 ERA | 2-2, 3.97 ERA) – had a solid, if unspectacular debut in late 1999, striking out 32 batters in 34 innings. His stuff seems to be extraordinary, and we are confident that he will deliver a splendid rookie campaign.
SP Scott Wade, 37, B:R, T:R (5-9, 3.08 ERA, 13 SV | 160-122, 3.49 ERA, 52 SV) – continues pitching to poor contact with exceptional success, but it isn’t quite what everyone is looking for in a closer, and since we consider our longest-tenured Raccoon (with the retirement of Kisho Saito) to be wasted in long relief, he is back in the rotation at the expense of the flashy Paco Martinez. Wade enters his 16th big league season, and while he will have horrible days at times, he can pitch a 2-hit shutout just as likely.

MU Kelly Fairchild, 27, B:R, T:R (5-7, 5.39 ERA | 8-11, 4.83 ERA) – one year later, we are much wiser on his abilities, starting games being not one of them. Fairchild had a few decent outings in 1999, but mostly in the 18 games he appeared in long relief in, and not in his 16 starts.
MR Elliott Meeks *, 29, B:L, T:R (2-1, 3.53 ERA, 2 SV | 19-14, 3.60 ERA, 15 SV) – acquired from the Capitals for Stephen Buell, Meeks throws a blistering 99mph fastball with sink to it, that gets gladly sucked up by middle infielders. Sounds like a perfect fit for us.
MR Andrew Schaefer *, 31, B:S, T:R (6-2, 4.76 ERA, 1 SV | 21-14, 4.03 ERA, 8 SV) – added as a free agent, Schaefer pitched for the Loggers the last few year and is a decent 7th/8th inning alternative.
MR Orlando Blanco *, 33, B:R, T:L (1-0, 2.66 ERA | 28-61, 4.83 ERA, 2 SV) – a former horrible starter who was turned into a decent reliever, is the Raccoons latest experiment at finding a sufficient level of quality pitching from the southpaw side in their bullpen...
SU Daniel Miller, 31, B:S, T:R (4-1, 2.41 ERA, 17 SV | 34-25, 3.11 ERA, 39 SV) – was thrown into the closer’s role in the second half of the season, and while he pitched well enough in that capacity and only blew two saves, he is lacking the shutdown stuff that made a Grant West greater than gran(d)t, and common pitchers good closers. Settles into a setup role in 2000, where he may be most comfortable.
SU Mike Collins, 24, B:L, T:L (3-0, 1.95 ERA | 3-0, 1.95 ERA) – acquired from the Indians during 1999, Collins was a nightmare to watch at first before getting a bit better in September. Posted four times his Indians ERA in Portland. The stuff is there, however, it may be a mental thing, we hope.
CL Antonio Donis, 27, B:L, T:L (5-1, 1.76 ERA, 1 SV | 20-25, 3.79 ERA, 1 SV) – two years after we started his conversion to a reliever, he had a strong 1999 season with only minor hiccups and rode that record straight into the closer’s job for 2000 and possibly beyond.

C/1B Julio Mata, 24, B:R, T:R (.311, 4 HR, 37 RBI | .311, 4 HR, 37 RBI) – 1997 first round pick that made a splashy debut in the latter half of the 1999 season and looks like he could give us Vinson-esque continuity at a position that hasn’t seen such in a few years. Hopefully with un-Vinson-esque results, though.
C Gary Fifield, 27, B:R, T:R (.281, 4 HR, 18 RBI | .281, 4 HR, 18 RBI) – added as a stopgap when we traded Lance Branch to Sacramento mid-season, Fifield remains on the roster mainly because the Raccoons lack the funds to upgrade Mata’s backup. Does not excel in any one category.

1B Albert Martin, 23, B:L, T:L (.305, 5 HR, 12 RBI | .305, 5 HR, 12 RBI) – elite batting prospect that had a flashy September and figures to resolve the revolving door we have had a first base all through the 1990s; can hit for average, can hit for power, and can field slightly better than now-Hall of Famer Tetsu Osanai in his best days.
1B/2B/3B/SS Marvin Ingall, 31, B:R, T:R (.265, 6 HR, 66 RBI | .289, 33 HR, 241 RBI) – very solid season, giving his manager little to complain about, except maybe the 39 point drop in his average compared to 1998, and the 116 times he struck out. Both might be related. Forms a deadly double play combo with Concie, though, as both won a Gold Glove in 1999.
SS Conceicao Guerin, 26, B:R, T:R (.304, 2 HR, 63 RBI | .287, 6 HR, 145 RBI) – keeps getting better and better, winning his first Gold Glove, and batting .300 for the first time, despite a bat slump in the last two months.
1B/3B/LF Cesar Gonzalez, 27, B:S, T:R (.250, 19 HR, 81 RBI | .278, 86 HR, 330 RBI) – raced to 16 homers at the All Star break before stopping to hit altogether. Gonzalez is still considered a top rank power bat and could easily hit 30 without a slump in our park; he moves to third base with the emerging Albert Martin being unable to field anything on the move.
SS/1B/2B/3B Nuno Andresen *, 37, B:R, T:R (.221, 1 HR, 10 RBI | .264, 56 HR, 938 RBI) – Capitals icon with 17 years of experience in Washington that has been added for one year to improve the infield situation. Despite his advanced age, he is still an agile fielder, and can be expected to steal a base or have a key base knock once in a while.
1B/2B/3B/SS/LF Steve Caddock, 30, B:L, T:R (.163, 2 HR, 8 RBI | .202, 7 HR, 54 RBI) – retains a job for being defensively versatile, batting left-handed, not raising his voice without being asked for his opinion, which never happens, AND the Raccoons being broken beyond believe.

LF/RF Daniel Richardson *, 28, B:L, T:L (.292, 15 HR, 69 RBI | .268, 42 HR, 221 RBI) – the best bat the Raccoons could afford, Richardson could hit up to 20 home runs with ease in our park, and also contributes speed on the basepaths, and a remarkably good OBP ability while not striking out very often.
CF/LF Neil Reece, 33, B:R, T:R (.304, 15 HR, 81 RBI | .308, 138 HR, 676 RBI) – fantastic defense in center, fantastic at the plate – you can’t help yourself but love him. Minor injuries felled him late in the season, preventing him to appear in 150 games for the first time since 1993, but he reconquered the .300 plateau for the first time since ’95 and won his third straight Gold Glove for amazing work out there. Franchise keystone, entering a contract year.
LF/RF Clyde Brady, 23, B:L, T:L (.256, 8 HR, 47 RBI | .254, 18 HR, 80 RBI) – played a solid sophomore season without great ups or great downs, and continues to start in right, but has to watch other youngsters pushing up from AAA.
LF/RF/CF Luke Newton, 28, B:S, T:R (.238, 3 HR, 28 RBI | .234, 10 HR, 113 RBI) – great defender, but that’s largely it. His bat is just lacking, and he will probably never manage to grab a starter’s job anywhere.
LF/RF Chris Parker, 24, B:L, T:R (.232, 2 HR, 32 RBI | .236, 4 HR, 61 RBI) – like most corner outfielders, he suffered from the pest in 1999, failed to hit at all, and his fielding was so-so. Upgrades for his job are developing in AAA, so he has to show what he can do, quickly.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement: SP Paco Martinez (8-3, 2.72 ERA | 8-3, 2.72 ERA), MR Dan Nordahl (2-1, 4.61 ERA | 2-1, 4.61 ERA), and 3B Mike Crowe (.212, 5 HR, 39 RBI | .241, 15 HR, 112 RBI) were all demoted to AAA; they all have options.

Opening day lineups:
Vs. RHP: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Mata – P Farley
Vs. LHP: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – 1B Martin – RF Brady (Newton) – P Farley

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

Two years in a row the Raccoons failed to keep their talent together, before we thought we found adequate replacements for the personnel last year after coming out in third place in offseason WAR in the winter of 98-99.

We came out third again. The difference this time is that we didn’t lose key personnel and rather weeded out our cross-grown garden. The few key addition we made, in Meeks and Richardson, again propelled us to third place in offseason WAR.

Top 5: Wolves (+8.5), Blue Sox (+6.7), Raccoons (+6.4), Pacifics (+6.3), Crusaders (+3.3)
Bottom 5: Stars (-3.7), Falcons (-4.2), Cyclones (-5.5), Warriors (-6.9), Titans (-9.7)

PREDICTION TIME:

Expecting to slightly out-run a .500 clip last season, the Raccoons landed square on their pointy noses by May. The team dropped as much as 30 games below .500 before rallying in August and September, when it was long over and by far too late, finishing 71-91, or 14 games below expectations.

For the second year in a row, we have been improved on paper. We also have more depth, in case injuries cull down our rotation as it happened last year. However, the pitching was – while troubled – not the reason the Raccoons finished last for the first time in 18 years. The team utterly failed to score runs, and whether this need has been sufficiently addressed remains to be seen.

Richardson is a big upgrade over Buell in left, and Mata and Martin had splash debuts in the latter half of the year. Much depends on the general health of our key players, like Reece, and also how the middle infield combo fares. Ingall got worse in 1999, and shouldn’t drop below that production level. After years of struggling with all-glove teams, we are in the process of revamping our personnel to a more attacking outfit.

The Raccoons have so many young players, that it is almost impossible to estimate their chances at success. Like we all know, kids to the dumbest things. Neil Reece will have to channel his leadership abilities to keep the flock going in one direction. Even then, Mata and Martin may have overperformed in 1999, and we might be tempted to expect too much of them. Regardless, the tight budget prevent the Raccoons from adding first rate personnel for their key needs, and that is what keeps them far enough away from the top of the division.

The Raccoons will not be second-to-last in offense this season, but Mata and Martin might have more pedestrian second seasons, and we might still struggle to score runs overall. The Coons, relying on the young, the cheap, and the so-old-they-will-play-for-a-warm-soup, will have nothing to do with the division, and finish 75-87.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

We had the #4 farm last season, with 15 players in the top 200, and ten of them in the top 100, including two top 20 prospects in Nick Brown (12th) and Julio Mata (18th). Mata, along with Dan Nordahl, lost eligibility. We also traded away George Wood and Anthony Mosher. Manuel Martinez, Jesus Taramillo, and Aurelio Hernandez dropped out of the top 200.

3rd (new) – A CL Salvadaro Soure, 17 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
17th (-5) – AAA SP Nick Brown, 22 – 1995 11th round pick by the Raccoons
27th (new) – AAA MR Marcos Bruno, 24 – 1999 first round pick by the Raccoons
40th (new) – AA CL Bob Evans, 19 – 1999 second round pick by the Raccoons
67th (-10) – AAA OF Chris Roberson, 23 – 1998 first round pick by the Raccoons
68th (+53) – AAA OF/1B Edgardo Torrez, 23 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
80th (new) – AA SP Lawrence Williams, 22 – 1995 seventh round pick by the Miners, acquired in trade for Tom Goodchild
83rd (-4) – AAA INF/RF Miguel Ramirez, 21 – international discovery by the Crusaders, signed as minor league free agent
106th (-64) – ML SP Ralph Ford, 22 – 1995 first round pick by the Condors, acquired in trade for Ben O’Morrissey
128th (-41) – ML 1B Albert Martin, 23 – 1996 fourth round pick by the Raccoons
134th (+41) – AA CL Sergio Vega, 19 – 1998 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
172nd (-3) – AA INF/RF Eisuke Sato, 25 – international discovery by the Thunder, signed as minor league free agent

The Canadiens’ 18-year old Japanese prospect Juichi “Scorpion” Fujita is the #1 prospect despite being only signed since December and not having pitched professionally yet.

Next: first pitch!

[Westheim]

It’s a new season! It’s a new millennium! A new age has dawned for the world!

Will the Raccoons leave the shadows and take charge?

Raccoons (0-0) @ Loggers (0-0) – April 4-5, 2000

We start the season with a pair of games in Milwaukee before we will return home for a 2-week homestand. Starting the season against Triple Crown winner Martin Garcia is probably among the less desirable things to do…

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (0-0) vs. Martin Garcia (0-0)
Miguel Lopez (0-0) vs. Simon Walton (0-0)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – 1B Martin – RF Brady – P Farley
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – 2B Morales – C L. Ramirez – 3B J. Perez – P M. Garcia

After a leadoff walk to Jose Perez in the bottom 3rd of a scoreless game, Farley failed to make any out with Garcia’s bunt. Two on, no out, we already saw us start 0-1, before Perez took off and was thrown out at third base by Mata. The Raccoons left Mata on third base in the top 5th, then saw Neil Reece go down on a tumbling grab on the warning track in the bottom of the inning. He was carried off on a stretcher in visible pain, clutching his left arm against his body, it seemed, and as they carried him off the sands of the arena, they just as well dragged out our hopes for the season. Farley held out hope for support into the seventh, not getting any, and with Cruz on second and two out, was removed after an intentional walk to Jose Perez. The Loggers took the bait, and hit for Garcia with Román Reyes, while Mike Collins came out to face the left-hander. Collins issued a walk, and Meeks, who replaced him, walked Hernandez. 1-0 Loggers. Newton 1-1, BB; Farley 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, L (0-1);

Just as I imagined it would be.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – C Mata – CF Newton – RF Brady – P Lopez
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – SS Hernandez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – 2B Morales – CF Fletcher – C L. Ramirez – 3B J. Perez – P Walton

Simon Walton left with an injury after only two innings, leaving the Loggers’ bullpen potentially exposed the deeper the contest went. Lopez gave up two runs in the bottom 4th, but we were confident, since the Loggers had their bullpen covering seven innings, at least. And they covered, and they covered. Lopez left in the seventh, while they were still covering, and they had all ends covered very well, in stark contrast to the Raccoons, who came out with a bat on their heads and swung with a helmet. Kelly Fairchild gave up two more runs in the eighth, that was it. 4-0 Loggers. Guerin 2-4;

18 innings, eight hits, zero runs.

More good news on Thursday: Neil Reece had a badly sprained elbow, and was out for all of April, and most likely also for half of May.

What’s that flushing sound? Ah, right. The season has just vanished in the sewers.

The Forgotten Sewers of Oblivion.

Raccoons (0-2) vs. Thunder (3-0) – April 7-9, 2000

While we called up Jesus Taramillo and I watched Schindler’s List three times that night, just to lighten up my mood, the Thunder rolled into town, ready to steamroll us.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (0-0) vs. Lou Corbett (0-0)
Ralph Ford (0-0) vs. Varsik Deyrmenjian (0-0)
Scott Wade (0-0) vs. Aaron Anderson (1-0, 1.00 ERA)

Corbett gives us three straight southpaws to open the season against. After that comes a right-hander with an unpronounceable name (the radio broadcast crew will just call him Ivan the Terrible, which might turn out to fit well when pitching to the Uttercoons), and Anderson is another right-hander.

Game 1
OCT: RF Barnes – CF Humphrey – 3B S. Reece – LF Bonneau – 1B Higashi – 2B Grant – C Briggs – SS M. Jones – P Corbett
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – 3B Andresen – CF Newton – LF Parker – P Rivera

Lou Corbett’s 3-run triple in the top 2nd (yes, really) set the Thunder far ahead, 3-0, and a 3-run homer by ROTY Higashi the next inning sent Rivera for an early shower. It took the Raccoons until the sixth inning to score their first run of the season. Julio Mata hit a line drive home run off Corbett, leading off the inning. Of course it was too little, too late. Corbett pitched eight, mostly flawless innings, and with the early support never was in danger of having his season-opening game get out of hand. The Raccoons got a 2-run double from Newton late in the game, but again, too little, too late, as ever. 7-3 Thunder. Ingall 3-5; Mata 2-4, HR, RBI; Andresen 2-4; Newton 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Fairchild 4.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
OCT: RF Bonneau – LF Humphrey – 3B S. Reece – CF R. Green – 1B Higashi – 2B Grant – C Briggs – SS M. Jones – P Deyrmenjian
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – C Mata – CF Newton – P Ford

Ford was not exactly economical about his pitches, pitching in full counts, and with full bags, almost his entire outing. He was 2-0 behind in the third, when the Raccoons got their first sniff of what it was to lead a game in the season, when Cesar Gonzalez bombed Ivan the Terrible for a 3-run homer to dead center. Ralphie somehow made it through six innings without bursting into flames on the way, with the Thunder leaving pairs of runners on a few times, but they remained behind, 3-2. Then came Collins and Meeks, generally didn’t throw strikes either, and weren’t sufficiently dumb to be just lucky. Higashi singled home Briggs with two down, blowing up the slim lead the Raccoons had enjoyed. The team was then constantly on the verge of blowing up, with Blanco pitching a decent eighth, but Donis had wild ninth and tenth innings. In the bottom 10th, Brady reached on an uncaught third strike with one out and Hipólito Sendím pitching. Richardson lined out hard to Higashi, and Gonzalez continued a futile opening week with a strikeout. The Raccoons threatened to run out of arms, so it was probably for the better when Yohan Bonneau went deep off Andrew Schaefer in the eleventh. Sendím pitched a second inning, and ended up striking out five. 4-3 Thunder. Martin 2-5, 2B;

Game 3
OCT: RF Barnes – CF Humphrey – 3B S. Reece – LF Bonneau – 1B Higashi – 2B Grant – C Briggs – SS M. Jones – P Anderson
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Martin – CF Newton – LF Parker – C Fifield – P Wade

Both teams got a run in the first. Higashi then took Wade deep in the top 4th, but Newton tripled home Gonzalez to keep the game tied in the same inning. However, Wade was not on his game, it showed, and Sonny Reece showed him the door with a no-doubt 3-run home run in the fifth inning. Meeks appeared in the sixth, loaded the bags with two walks sandwiching a single without recording an out, and the rout was on for the Thunder. 10-2 Thunder. Guerin 2-4, 2B; Gonzalez 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Collins 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

So, five games into the season, the Raccoons have zero wins, 1.6 runs scored per game, lost their centerfielder, and all dignity. Good start!

Raccoons (0-5) vs. Condors (5-2) – April 10-12, 2000

No discussion of the Condors’ abilities is necessary. The Willamette Institute for the Limbless and the Blind’s boys’ baseball team’s abilities need on discussion when compared to the Uttercoons, and you want to discuss the CONDORS’???

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (0-1, 1.35 ERA) vs. Bastyao Caixinha (1-0, 2.25 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (0-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. Terry Murphy (1-0, 4.50 ERA)
Jose Rivera (0-1, 18.00 ERA) vs. Arnold Ralph (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

Game 1
TIJ: CF Dunphy – LF Sanders – 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – RF G. Davis – 1B Batlle – 3B Wallace – C Washington – P Caixinha
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – 3B Andresen – RF Brady – CF Taramillo – P Farley

The Coons scored a run in the first, but the Condors equalized in the top 2nd, when Farley issued a walk too many (he had already walked four unintentionally on Opening Day). Randyboy came through, however, singling home Brady with two out to claim a new 2-1 lead in the bottom 2nd. Caixinha would unwisely uncork a wild pitch later in the fifth inning that plated Guerin from third base. It was a dumb move, with Concie and Ingall in scoring position, one out, and Richardson and Gonzalez batting – they wouldn’t ever drive them home! Richardson grounded out, and Gonzalez fouled out. Farley had been in Terminator mode after driving in the go-ahead run and had amassed eight strikeouts through five innings, but wouldn’t strike out anybody else in the next three innings. Him pitching to contact got Donis into the game with the 3-1 lead needing protection in the ninth. Donis faced three left-handers, but Donis pitched to even better contact than Farley had. Richardson made a sprawling grab on Manuel Rodriguez’ fly to deep left that started the inning, but in the end, nobody got on, and the Raccoons actually got away with a W. 3-1 Coons. Guerin 3-4, 2B; Ingall 3-4, 2B, RBI; Brady 3-4; Farley 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (1-1) and 1-3, RBI;

May I note how we have played six games without scoring more than three runs in any of them? However, in winning in our sixth attempt, we dodged the Dallas Stars, who lost again, 4-2 to Cincy, to drop to 0-7 and being the only winless team in baseball.

Game 2
TIJ: 1B B. Boyle – LF Sanders – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Dunphy – SS J. Barrón – 2B Gorden – C Washington – RF M. Rodriguez – P T. Murphy
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Martin – CF Newton – RF Brady – P Lopez

Pitching to contact was a topic in itself – Lopez was ill-advised to pitch to contact in this start, because the Condors gladly accepted the invitation and burned him for three home runs, five runs total, in the first two innings. O’Morrissey, Gorden, and Sanders were the offenders, and Lopez was just beaten around out there. Murphy was perfect the first time through the Raccoons’ collection of numb nuts, before Marvin Ingall hit a lonely solo home run in the fourth. Between Schaefer and Mata the Raccoons suffered another meltdown culminating in two walks and a passed ball-induced seventh run for the Condors in the top 6th. The game was long out of hand, and the Raccoons would not have exceeded their run allotment (three, hard), if it hadn’t been for the Condors insisting on Murphy finishing the game, which got him mangled in the bottom 9th on hard 2-out hits by Richardson, Gonzalez, and Mata. Still, a sound defeat. 10-5 Condors. Richardson 2-4, HR, RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Taramillo (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
TIJ: CF Dunphy – LF Sanders – 1B O’Morrissey – 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – 3B Gorden – RF G. Davis – C Washington – P Ralph
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Martin – CF Newton – RF Brady – P Rivera

Through five innings of shutout ball, Jose Rivera looked not exactly like he was going to ace this. He resembled a dog that had fallen into a pool, paddling frantically just to stay alive. It worked, to some extent, and when Brady drove home Martin with a single in the bottom 5th, the Coons led 1-0. In an instant of going back out, Rivera had put Sanders on with a walk, and O’Morrissey doubled (but left the game hobbling). The Condors re-tied the score on a groundout, before Rivera lucked through another inning without getting blown up. In the bottom 7th, he was hit for with the bags loaded and one out, but Andresen and Guerin both fouled out. It was failure on a whole new level. It was … It was all clear when Mike Collins was effortlessly bowled over by the a walk to Mauro Granados, followed up by Bruce Boyle’s 2-run dinger. Richardson hit a solo shot in the bottom 8th to make the score look half as bad. When Martin accepted a leadoff walk from John Hatt in the bottom 9th, Taramillo ran for him and stole second while Luke Newton knotted himself up in the hit-and-run attempt because replacement catcher Dave Lee failed to get a throw off. Newton then failed to bunt for strike two, before swinging away for a game-tying RBI double. That put the W 180 feet away from home for Clyde Brady, who walked. Daniel Miller, who had pitched the top 9th, was used to bunt the runners over. Guerin was walked intentionally, and Parker hit for Ingall to counter the right-hander Hatt, and made an 0-11 start to the season into an 0-12 one by grounding into a force at home. That brought up Richardson, who struck out, and here we were in extras again. Miller returned for the top 10th, which started with an error by Caddock on second base, continued with bases loaded, no outs, Meeks replacing Miller, and the Condors sinking the bullpen with full force. To complete the humiliation, the game ended with Caddock getting picked off at first base. 7-3 Condors. Richardson 2-5, HR, RBI; Martin 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Brady 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Rivera 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (1-7) vs. Indians (5-4) – April 13-16, 2000

While they were batting .226 (11th in CL), the Indians had still scored 41 runs and had won their last four games. Their rotation had held up very well so far and ranked 4th. By the way, which team could be batting less than the Indians? Right, the Raccoons, .213, scoring NINETEEN runs.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (0-1, 2.20 ERA)
Scott Wade (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (1-0, 2.57 ERA)
Randy Farley (1-1, 1.23 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (1-1, 6.10 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (0-2, 5.91 ERA) vs. David Rios (0-0, 9.00 ERA)

Game 1
IND: SS Matthews – CF Maguey – C Cicalina – 1B D. Lopez – LF Quintela – 3B Whaley – RF Fisher – 2B J. Garcia – P Park
POR: SS Guerin – CF Newton – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Mata – RF Brady – P Ford

Ford was again not on top of his opposition, and it showed early, with a 3-run home run by light-hitting Adrian Matthews in the second inning. The Indians tacked on a run in the third, and while the Raccoons had runners on the corners with no outs in the bottom 4th, they didn’t score. Bottom 5th, Guerin was thrown out stealing, bottom 6th, Martin came up with three on, and one out, and popped out. Mata singled to left, but Brady harmlessly flew out. In between innings, Luke Newton had hurt himself. Meanwhile the Indians didn’t even need to hit to score runs. Elliott Meeks hit Matt Whaley in the eighth, and then issued three straight walks with little swinging going on by the readily awaiting Indians. 5-1 Indians. Guerin 2-4, BB; Taramillo 1-2;

Luke Newton was luckier than Reece, he had merely bruised his elbow on a diving play. He was about new the next day, but Taramillo still got that start.

Game 2
IND: SS Matthews – 3B Whaley – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – C Paraz – 2B J. Garcia – RF J. Valdez – CF Maguey – P Alba
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 3B Andresen – CF Taramillo – C Fifield – P Wade

Wade joined the control-impaired brigade as well, issuing two walks in the first, and while he wobbled out of that, he got hurt in the second on a 2-out RBI single by Alba. Yeah, sure, whatever works for the opposition… Although Daniel Richardson gave him a lead with a huge home run in the bottom 3rd, Wade was unable to go past the fifth inning. He was completely out of whack and had issued six walks by then. Still, the Coons somehow were up 3-2, and although Guerin got thrown out by Jose Paraz in the bottom 5th – with Paraz appearing as if to throw in slow motion every time – the Coons tacked on a run. That tender 4-2 lead was handed from Fairchild to Blanco to Miller to Donis, and miraculously four innings went by without any of them putting on more than one runner at a time. Nobody scored, either. Nor did the Raccoons down the road, but Richardson’s blast made the difference. 4-2 Raccoons. Richardson 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-4, RBI;

Game 3
IND: SS Matthews – 3B Whaley – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – C Paraz – 2B J. Garcia – RF Quintela – CF Maguey – P Mosher
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – 3B Andresen – LF Parker – CF Newton – P Farley

If I was confident about one thing, then that Randyboy would be able to out-pitch that outcast of ours. That didn’t imply enough offense to actually give him a win, but at least he could best Mosher with ease with his outright better skill set. Turns out, no, he struggled as well, having learned a thing or two from Wade. Issuing a few walks early, he at least made a cat-like play on Mosher’s sac bunt in the second inning and turned it into a double play, ending the inning. Top 3rd, Matthews led off with a single. Farley plunked Whaley, and eventually walked in a run with a free pass to dangerous .077 hitter Paraz. A David Lopez error gave the run and the tied score back to the Coons in the bottom of the inning. That didn’t make Farley any better, but the Raccoons started to feast on the Indians’ corner outfielders. When Carlos Quintela misplayed Chris Parker’s liner in the fourth, it plated two runs for the Raccoons and gave Farley an entirely undeserved lead, 3-1. Farley was out of the game after a leadoff walk to Jesus Garcia in the sixth, and Schaefer somehow wobbled through there without allowing the tying runs to score from scoring position. Things tended to escalate quickly with this team. In the bottom 6th then, the situation was reversed, with the bags full of Brownshirts, and Brady hitting for Schaefer with one out. Brady came through, singling home a pair, and Mosher was defeated right there. By the time Mata struck out to end the inning with three men left on, Ingall and Richardson had already singled home two more runs. For the second time in four days the Raccoons ended their offensive innings with a pickoff at first (this time Ingall was the donkey), but this time it happened in the eighth. The Indians failed to muster a counterattack. 8-1 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5; Ingall 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Brady (PH) 2-2, 2 RBI; Fairchild 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 4
IND: SS Matthews – RF Alston – C Cicalina – 1B D. Lopez – LF Quintela – 3B Whaley – CF Maguey – 2B Chevalier – P D. Rios
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Mata – CF Newton – P Lopez

The bus rolled over Miguel Lopez forcefully once more. For the second time this season he gave up three home runs, two of those to David Lopez, and five runs in total in six innings. While that was bad enough, the Raccoons – while having scored a run in the second on a Mata sac fly – were still looking for a hit against David Rios. Parker drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, and then Guerin hit a bloop into shallow left that finally put something into the Coons’ H column on the board. Then Brady singled up the middle and the tying run came up in Daniel Richardson. He hit a sac fly, Gonzalez hit almost into a double play that was broken up by Chevalier almost falling over his own feet instead of pivoting, and the Coons remained two runs short, 5-3. Orlando Blanco was hit for a run in the seventh, which was most unfortunate, because this way Richardson’s 2-run bomb in the bottom 8th fell one run short of tying this game, but a possible comeback in the ninth was permanently thwarted by Schaefer when he put all three men he faced in the top 9th on base, with a single by Cicalina and two walks. Miller failed to stem against the storm, and the Raccoons absorbed more runs. 8-5 Indians. Brady 2-4;

In other news

April 3 – SFB SP Tony Hamlyn starts the season as he ended the preceding one, being dominant. The 25-year old shuts out the Condors on three hits as the Bayhawks take Opening Day, 6-0.
April 4 – New Gold Sock SP Ramón Ortíz bests Hamlyn’s mark with a 2-hitter over the Stars, 2-0 Gold Sox.
April 5 – NAS INF Leborio Catalo (5-7, 0 HR, 4 RBI), who was hurt at the end of last season, goes down with a wrist sprain again, and will miss all of April.
April 5 – The Bayhawks’ Johnny Smith breaks Tijuana’s Arturo Lopez’ jaw with a pitch in the ninth inning of a 4-2 home loss for San Fran. Lopez (2-10, 1 HR, 2 RBI) will be out for at least a month.
April 10 – The endless injury history of TIJ LF Dale Wales (.360, 1 HR, 5 RBI) goes on and on and on. Wales will miss six weeks with a strained medial collateral ligament.
April 13 – A torn anterior cruciate ligament means that IND LF/RF Roland Moore (.286, 0 HR, 0 RBI) will not be able to return to the field this season.
April 14 – CHA OF Matt Adams (.367, 0 HR, 2 RBI) will miss a month of games with a broken wrist.
April 16 – 34-year old RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.333, 3 HR, 10 RBI), goes 3-5 in the Rebels’ 8-3 win over the Capitals. His third inning single off Frank Pierre marks his 2,000th career base hit. Most impressively for the Dominican left-hander who was signed out of Santiago by the Indians in 1984 as an 18-year old, he is not only the 39th player to reach the 2,000 hits mark, but also ranks second in career home runs with 321 (trailing an aching 38-year old Michael Root by 17), and 12th in RBI with 1,142.

Complaints and stuff

I’ve run out of adjectives to describe … THIS.

In Germany, we call such a miserable collection of failures “Gurkentruppe”. A literal translation would approximate a “squad of pickles”. You can’t really argue against that.

A few fast facts – the team slash line is .223/.285/.335, all worst in the CL, their 37 runs are second-to-last, slightly boosted by eight home runs, perhaps. The only other thing they rank upper half in are strikeouts, whiffing only 70 times so far.

On the pitching side, the picture is as devastating. 11th in starters’ ERA (4.68), 10th in bullpen ERA (5.18), 10th in runs allowed (60), 11th in strikeouts (64), and last in home runs (14) and walks (65) allowed.

Yes. They have walked more than they have struck out. They are that pickly.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (3-9) vs. Titans (5-8) – April 17-19, 2000

The Titans had not gotten a good start, scoring only 41 runs from their first 13 games. Their rotation had held up with a 3.73 ERA, while their bullpen had barely been scratched so far, ranking 2nd in the league with a 1.46 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (0-1, 6.30 ERA) vs. John Miller (2-0, 1.06 ERA)
Ralph Ford (0-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. Esteban Román (0-2, 9.00 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-1, 6.30 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (1-1, 1.64 ERA)

Román was a fairly unknown right-hander despite being already 33 years old. He had made most of his 73 career starts in the early 90s with the Gold Sox, and was 22-35 with a 5.32 ERA for his career.

Game 1
BOS: CF Elizondo – 2B Brewer – RF Thomas – 1B G. Munóz – C L. Lopez – SS D. Silva – LF Alonso – 3B Torres – P J. Miller
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – C Mata – CF Newton – 3B Caddock – P Rivera

Rivera walked Brewer, Brewer came around to score, the Titans led 1-0 in the first. While Ingall re-tied the score with a solo shot in the bottom 2nd, Rivera was beyond terrible. His control was goddamn awful, he pitched behind in the count by default, drilled two batters, and when Guerin made an error in the fourth, that was enough to collapse the whole godforsaken house of cards. Even though the Titans’ two runs in the inning were unearned, Rivera was soon sent for the showers. The Raccoons did what they did best: they went down silently, their only other run scored waved in by John Miller with a wild pitch in the eighth. 4-2 Titans. Richardson 2-4; Gonzalez 2-4, 2B; Meeks 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
BOS: CF Alonso – SS D. Silva – LF Reid – 1B G. Douglas – 2B Torres – RF Elizondo – 3B Delgado – C Williamson – P E. Román
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Fifield – CF Newton – P Ford

Another game, another headache. While Ford pitched semi-decently, Lorenzo Delgado still took him deep for two runs in the fourth after three frames of scoreless standing around on the field. The Raccoons then immediately rebounded when Brady, Richardson, and Gonzalez all got on base leading off the bottom 4th. An Ingall RBI groundout and a terrible bloop by Martin that somehow eluded Dave Reid for a single plated two runs, but Fifield then double played the team out of the inning, having merely tied the game, 2-2. The inevitable Daniel Silva would hit a double off Ford in the fifth, stole third about unopposed, and was brought home by Douglas to give the Titans the lead back. Ford settled for seven each in innings, hits, and strikeouts, with three runs allowed, and had to hope for offense now. He was hit for in the bottom 7th with Fifield on second after a single, and Newton on first having walked, and no outs. From our very richly composed bench, .056 batter Chris Parker came out to bat for Ford, and hit a double past Elizondo to tie the game. Román tried to wiggle out of the mess he was in, but surrendered sac flies to Guerin and Richardson. That still left Brady on base with an intermediate single, and Gonzalez shut the doors on the night for the Titans, releasing a thundering 2-run homer out of rightfield. The Coons left the bags full the next inning, and Meeks was then unable to finish the ninth. Donis came in with two on and two out, facing Silva. One pitch, Silva sent a hopper up the middle, and Ingall just barely managed to intercept it and lob the ball to Guerin to end the game. 7-3 Raccoons. Brady 2-5; Gonzalez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Newton 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Parker (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Taramillo (PH) 1-1; Ford 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-1);

Now, how about actually winning a series?

Game 3
BOS: CF Elizondo – 2B Brewer – RF Thomas – 1B G. Munóz – LF Reid – SS D. Silva – C L. Lopez – 3B Torres – P O’Halloran
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Martin – CF Taramillo – RF Newton – P Wade

Wade continued to show horrible control, walking two in the first, in which the Titans left the bags full without scoring, and another walk in the second that led to the first run of the game, driven in by Elizondo. Wade was taken deep by Josh Thomas in the third, but Cesar Gonzalez pulled the score back even with his second 2-run homer in as many days. Wade however merely lingered in there. It was once more the inevitable Daniel Silva, who did him in: hitting a 1-out triple in the sixth, Silva was easily scored by Luis Lopez, putting Wade back onto the hook. While Ingall singled to lead off the bottom 6th, Guerin bunted to get him forced out at second, and the Critters were quickly washed away in that inning, too. While the Raccoons put either their first or second batter on base in each of the last four innings, they never got even close to scoring. Instead, Schaefer and Collins issued a few more walks in a lost game. 4-2 Titans. Brady (PH) 1-1;

So, let the culling begin! Batting a strong .114 was not exactly what I had imagined or expected with Albert Martin. His head was the first to roll as he was demoted to St. Petersburg in exchange for Samy Michel. Yeah, back to that guy. He had slugged .600 in AAA through nine games.

Raccoons (4-11) @ Aces (3-12) – April 21-23, 2000

Misery meets suffering in the desert. The Aces weren’t scoring a lot, either, but didn’t trail the Raccoons by much (48 runs for the Critters, 41 for the Sand Gnats), though, but the main reason they were playing .200 ball in April was their rotation, which was being lit up constantly, with a bullpen that was simply overworked and collapsing just as rapidly. The Aces had given up 88 runs in 15 games, which is an average of almost six. Tell you, they were REALLY GLAD the Raccoons came to town.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (2-1, 1.37 ERA) vs. Dan Moriarty (0-3, 12.00 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (0-3, 6.48 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Jose Rivera (0-2, 4.60 ERA) vs. Rafael Barbosa (2-1, 3.04 ERA)

We opened the series on Friday, April 21. Eleven years to the day had passed since Daniel Hall scorched the Falcons for six hits in a 12-4 romp. Would the Suckoons outpace him, collectively?

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – LF D. Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Brady – 1B Michel – CF Newton – P Farley
LVA: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Wills – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – LF L. Jenkins – 3B Combes – C L. Paredes – SS J. Martinez – P Moriarty

The Raccoons had just painstakingly carved out the first run of the game in the fourth inning, when Farley stepped back onto the mound. He had struck out four and allowed one hit through three innings. This looked good. Gary Wills singled, stole second, and moved to third on Javier Vargas’ single. Wes McCormick singled home Wills. Lou Jenkins went deep. This didn’t look good. Another single, a walk, and an error by himself later, Farley was out. Gary Wills’ 3-run homer off Schaefer made it an 8-1 game. There was certainly nothing to salvage here. I resorted to make the best of the Dollar Dog special and devoured six, not quite matching the Aces’ offensive output. 8-1 Aces. Michel 2-4; Fairchild 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-1, 2B;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF D. Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – CF Newton – C Mata – 3B Andresen – P Lopez
LVA: RF Ghiberti – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – 3B J. Ramirez – SS Bradley – LF Moreno – 2B J. Martinez – P G. Richardson

The Aces decided to remove Alfredo Rios from the start of the middle game and give a spot start to George Richardson. Neither starter managed to see the third inning. Richardson was outright horrible, allowed five runs in two innings, including a run scoring on a balk, and one on a throwing error, while Lopez was uncomfortable from the start, allowed four hits, and while the Aces didn’t score off him by the bottom 2nd, the trainer had a look and signaled to take him out. With our long man having been expended the day before, we now had to piece the game together with the bullpen, but so had the Aces. The Coons would extend their lead to 6-0 in the top 3rd, when Elliot Meeks (!) homered off Tzu-jao Ban (well, that explains it). Before long, Meeks would give up a 2-run double to Ricco Ghiberti, though, so no reason to put him in the lineup frequently. Both teams left the bases loaded without scoring in the fifth, and while the Raccoons managed to hit into double plays with great accuracy from there, the Raccoons hobbled along, inning by inning. Daniel Miller was taken very, very deep by McCormick in the bottom 9th, which cut the score to 6-4, and perhaps was shaken after just two minutes earlier, Antonio De La Para’s splintered bat end had whizzed right past his head. Donis got the last two outs. 6-4 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Richardson 3-5, 3B, RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB, RBI; Michel (PH) 1-1, 2B; Schaefer 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Blanco 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

More relievers starting for the Aces, please?

Meanwhile Lopez got checked out and the injury was not that severe. He had a very mild case of shoulder inflammation and would miss only one start (which still puts you into predicaments, but at least we have Fairchild to suck up some damage).

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Michel – C Mata – CF Newton – SS Andresen – P Rivera
LVA: 2B J. Ramirez – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – 3B Combes – RF Moreno – LF Wills – SS J. Martinez – P Barbosa

Barbosa only faced Ingall (resulting in three times swung on and missed), before he left the game with an apparent injury. Ban came out, took the usual damage in form of a 3-run home run by Clyde Brady in the top 3rd, and vanished again. A 3-run lead was nothing to make a horrible Rivera comfortable, though. The Aces crumbled him for those three runs in the fourth inning. He had no stuff, no composure, nothing. Just like Lopez, merely throwing with that other crippled wing. Brady just barely missed a second round-tripper in the fifth, nobody else stepped up either, but the Aces plated a run on a groundout by Ghiberti. Although the Aces had to pitch back-to-back games with their bullpen, it didn’t break apart – other than the Coons’, who coughed up another two runs in the bottom 8th. The ninth saw Charlie Deacon trying to save a game, but the Raccoons ended up loading the bases with the tying runs, two down, and Richardson batting. Miracle comeback, anyone? Ah, Richardson flew out gingerly. 6-3 Aces. Ingall 2-4, BB, 2 2B; Caddock (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 18 – SFW SP Pat Cherry (4-0, 2.51 ERA) is in sterling form early in the season, and delivers a 3-hit shutout of the Pacifics that the Warriors win 4-0.
April 20 – DAL LF/RF Darrel Tracy (.360, 3 HR, 12 RBI) makes the history books during a grueling 18-inning marathon the Stars play against the Scorpions, and lose 10-9. Tracy makes outs his first three AB’s, but then connects for six straight hits against the Scorpions, plating two runs with a pair of doubles and four singles. For the 33rd time in ABL history a player collects six hits in a game, and it is the first time in the new millennium. Once before did a Star achieve six hits, when Gabriel Cruz connected six times in 1983 – also against the Scorpions.
April 20 – The Pacifics suffer a terrible blow, as their 1B Marty Battle (.256, 1 HR, 6 RBI) is out for the season with a torn posterior cruciate ligament.
April 21 – The Condors find themselves shut out and 2-hit by NYC SP Ramiro Gonzalez (3-0, 0.00 ERA).
April 22 – A week after Richmond’s Raúl Vázquez made it to 2,000 hits, he is joined in the club by WAS RF/LF Vonne Calzado, who goes 3-5 in an 8-7 win over the Wolves. The 32-year old Calzado (.314, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is the 40th member of the 2,000 hits club, hitting a ninth inning 1-out single off Tim Mallandain to get the Capital’s rally to the walkoff win started. Calzado, the eighth overall pick by the Thunder in the 1985 draft, made his debut in 1989 before ending up in Washington in 1996. Owning a career .850 OPS he has a claim to being one of the most productive players in the league.
April 23 – Oh glory, where have you gone: RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.306, 3 HR, 10 RBI) has suffered torn ankle ligaments in a slide and his out for at least a month.

Complaints and stuff

I wanted to play two weeks, but … but teams like this are the reason people take two packs of sleeping pills with half a bottle of Jack Daniels.

[Orcin]

But no matter how bad the team, gems like "The Forgotten Sewers of Oblivion" and "squad of pickles" keep us coming back for more baseball or whatever this is.

Starting against the Loggers, Thunder, and Condors was a bad draw, and then Reece got hurt... your luck is bound to change. (This coming from someone who claimed during the off-season that your team was better than its record.)

[Westheim]

While I would really love to grasp why every season in Portland is beginning in the most horrible way one can imagine (like, being 3-hit on Opening Day, lose 1-0, PLUS lose Neil Reece) … well … I would really love to grasp why …

That bein’ said, here’s that .300-some team you can’t stop watching.

Raccoons (5-13) @ Falcons (8-11) – April 24-26, 2000

The Falcons had suffered extraordinarily from an explosive pitching staff through the first three weeks of the season, surrendering 96 runs in 19 games, a mark that sat second-worst in the CL. Their offense was average at best.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (1-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (3-1, 3.60 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-2, 5.63 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (1-2, 6.38 ERA)
Randy Farley (2-2, 2.74 ERA) vs. Troy Watson (0-2, 7.31 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Brady – 1B Michel – CF Taramillo – P Ford
CHA: 2B H. Green – 1B J. Jackson – RF Lugo – SS M. Hall – LF Morton – 3B M. Munoz jr. – C McDaniel – CF A. Rodriguez – P Wilson

Ingall single, Guerin triple, and Wilson was adrift, surrendering three runs in the top 1st. While Guerin hit another triple, tying the franchise record with a pair in a game, Ralph Ford had his own struggles, liking walking three batters in the bottom 2nd. However, since Mark Hall got thrown out stealing after drawing the leadoff walk, the Falcons failed to score. That changed in the third. Ford was still horribly inaccurate and after giving up a sac fly to Jose Lugo, he also allowed a 3-run double to Munoz and the Falcons took a 4-3 lead. Samy Michel would take a soon-departing Ford off the hook with a game-tying leadoff jack off Terry Wilson in the top 6th, and we started back at square one. The Coons then had to dodge a bullet in the bottom 6th as a throwing error by Marvin Ingall put the go-ahead run on second base for the Falcons in form of Wilson – but the pitcher unwisely got himself thrown out trying to make it to third. Top 8th, the Coons got Mata and Brady into scoring position with one out. Taramillo, 0-3, was replaced by Fifield to counter southpaw Leonard Williamson on the mound. Fifield sent an exceptionally poor grounder to third base, which was sure to keep the game tied – unless Manny Munoz jr. threw it away. Jackson was nowhere near the throw, which itself was nowhere near first base, and vanished in the stands, as the Coons were awarded two runs. Orlando Blanco sure-handed put the tying runs on base to lead off the bottom 8th then. Miller came in, did nothing to defuse the situation, and the Falcons danced to their clubhouse as winners after a Hubert Green grand slam, and the following Tom Brooks 1-2-3 ninth. 8-6 Falcons. Ingall 2-5; Guerin 3-5, 2 3B, 2B, RBI; Mata 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Michel 2-4, HR, RBI; Meeks 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

How they are finding ways to ruin EVERYTHING, really EVERYTHING – is utmost miraculous!

The sorry remains of our assumed battery, Richardson and Gonzalez, went a combined 0-9 again, with a .100 OBP clip – Richardson was drilled by Wilson once.

Every five years, a Raccoon hits a pair of triples in a game. Guerin did it for the first time, and the feat had been achieved in 1990 and 1995 before, both times by Neil Reece. More on strange franchise records in the complaints section.

Also, with the Aces idle, and the Capitals overcoming five singles by Denver’s Zak Davidson to win 7-5, the Raccoons dropped to the worst record in the ABL.

Why don’t we hit game-winning grand slams anymore?

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – C Mata – 1B Michel – 3B Andresen – LF Parker – CF Newton – P Wade
CHA: 2B H. Green – RF Mashiba – CF Lugo – SS M. Hall – LF Morton – 1B J. Jackson – 3B Fugosi – C M. Castillo – P M. Hernandez

Guerin got on, was thrown out stealing. When Newton got on, Wade popped up a bunt. Mata hit a single, but never got past first base. That was already half a game’s worth of Raccoons offensive action, which frankly, was offending any decent Raccoons fans. Wade was wild once more, and despite not giving up actual hits through four, he was still 1-0 behind after three walks and a sac fly in the bottom 4th. Wade followed to bat after Newton’s 2-out triple in the fifth, but lined out softly to Joe Jackson. Miguel Castillo ended an unlikely no-hit bid with an infield single – not blaming Guerin, who almost knotted himself up undeknottably in an attempt to keep the ball in the infield. Guerin was thrown out once more, and that was it for the Raccoons’ offensive efforts, as they let the most marginal of pitchers in Miguel Hernandez pitch a 5-hit shutout. 2-0 Falcons. Newton 2-3, 3B; Wade 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, L (1-3);

The indignity.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Michel – C Mata – LF Richardson – CF Newton – 3B Caddock – P Farley
CHA: 2B H. Green – RF Mashiba – CF Lugo – SS M. Hall – LF Morton – 3B M. Munoz jr. – 1B Fugosi – C M. Castillo – P Watson

Steve Caddock made himself a valuable alternative to Cesar Gonzalez in this game, first tying the score with an RBI double in the top 2nd, and then by ejecting Troy Watson the next inning, when he hit a 3-run homer to shoot the score to 6-1. That wasn’t all in the inning, as Brady drove in two more, but stumbled turning first base and fell flat on his face after a prolonged struggle against gravity. Barely managing to drag himself to second base, Brady was out of the game, which by now was 8-1 Coons. Like anybody else on the staff, Farley struggled with control. He issued three walks in the first four innings, but ultimately was able to remember how to through a pitch into the zone, and was able to go deep into the game. In the eighth then, TWO errors by Caddock managed to knock out Farley in a very decent effort. Schaefer replaced Farley, but only surrendered an RBI double to Mark Hall. Collins faced Morton, gave up an RBI single. Then, Donis came out in the vain hope to collect five outs. After a poor grounder by Munoz that kept the runners pinned, Donis struck out Fugosi to quell the uprising. In the ninth, the Falcons didn’t even reach base. 8-4 Raccoons. Ingall 3-6, 2B; Guerin 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Brady 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Michel 2-5; Richardson 2-5; Caddock 2-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Farley 7.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (3-2); Donis 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (5);

Caddock. Why is he here? For the glove?

We had another off day after this game, which gave Miguel Lopez, who threw a bullpen session during the late innings without big problems, to come back in time for the opener back at home against the Loggers. Whether that would be good thing, we’d have to find out.

Clyde Brady in the meantime had banged his wrist in the third inning, but had only bruised it. He was listed as day-to-day.

Raccoons (6-15) vs. Loggers (15-6) – April 28-30, 2000

Is it worth the breath to explain why the Loggers will dump us to .250? While their starters had been struggling a bit so far (at least everybody not named Garcia), their bullpen had scarcely allowed any runs to score. Overall they were 5th in runs allowed, but their offense had stomped the league to the tune of 4.8 runs per game and that ranked tops in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (0-3, 5.89 ERA) vs. Roberto Herrera (2-2, 4.55 ERA)
Jose Rivera (0-3, 4.98 ERA) vs. Rafael Garcia (0-0)
Ralph Ford (1-1, 5.09 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (5-0, 1.18 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – SS B. Hernandez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – 2B Morales – CF Fletcher – C L. Ramirez – 3B J. Perez – P Herrera
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Michel – RF Newton – C Mata – CF Taramillo – P Lopez

Miguel Lopez was basically sunk by Bakile Hiwalani alone. The black-hatted malice struck him for three RBI by the fifth, which was the difference in a 4-1 game. Lopez was removed with a man on first and two down in the top 6th. Schaefer almost managed to have the run score, loading the bags with a single and a walk to Jose Perez, before Herrera made a groundout to Ingall. The Raccoons somehow carved out two runs against a tiring Herrera in the seventh, with Nuno Andresen delivering a pinch-hit RBI single for his first run driven in as a Coon. But they still trailed by one. Miller managed a scoreless eighth, but when Collins entered into the ninth, facing two left-handed batters to get started, the bases were loaded with Loggers in no time. Jorge Cruz sealed the deal with a grand slam off Elliott Meeks, who managed to load the bags AGAIN after that, issuing two more walks (in addition to the pair Collins had given to charity), and the Loggers didn’t turn it into a total rout solely for Román Reyes’ soft pop to Richardson that ended the inning. 8-3 Loggers. Andresen (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 2
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 2B Morales – 1B Baker – C M. Vela – 3B J. Perez – P R. Garcia
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Michel – C Mata – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – CF Newton – P Rivera

Our battery had a first inning for the ages, as Rivera issued three walks, a balk, and Mata contributed a passed ball to give the Loggers a leisurely achieved 2-0 lead. Although the Raccoons had no problems to hit the 37-year old Garcia, they also had no problems hitting into rally-killing double plays in both the second and third innings. Rivera was removed when he started hitting batters, with two on and one out in the top 6th of a game that was then actually tied 3-3 after Gonzalez had singled home the tying run in the bottom 4th. Elliott Meeks took over, allowed an RBI single to Miguel Vela, an RBI double to Jose Perez, and another two runs later, Blanco came in to face Cristo Ramirez. The Logger’s grounder was lost in translation by Michel, the bases were loaded, and Blanco would issue two walks before Baker flew out to Brady. Fairchild entered for the seventh, walked Vela, hit Perez, walked Reyes, and I took my eyes off as a Loggers-branded coal train crushed right through the middle of a Raccoons logo-bearing orphanage somewhere in a forgotten corner of the desert of deceased dreams. 11-6 Loggers. Guerin 2-4, BB, RBI; Mata 3-5; Richardson 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 3-5, HR, 2 RBI;

Raccoons pitching walked ten and struck out four in this game. For the week they have walked 31 and struck out 25, with only Farley’s game tilting the score slightly in favor of the strikeouts. It’s impossible to work with this corps of catastrophes.

With Martin Garcia starting the Sunday game, we’re 0-5 against the Loggers on the year.

Game 3
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – SS B. Hernandez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – 2B Morales – CF Fletcher – C L. Ramirez – 3B J. Perez – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Brady – 3B Andresen – CF Newton – P Ford

Ford was mainly fighting for his ERA here, since a drop to 1-2 was inevitable for him unless he managed to shut out the coal train. He walked Cristo Ramirez to start the game, and the Loggers appeared to go from there, but left two on without scoring in the first. But then something strange happened. Richardson on first with two gone in the bottom 1st, Gonzalez slapped a grounder in front of home plate in an effort of basic bat-meets-ball technique. Leon Ramirez jumped out and threw wildly over Cruz at first, putting two Raccoons in scoring position. Mata slapped a single to left, Gonzalez was waved home in some frantic scoring frenzy – you know, with a Triple Crowner on base it’s urgent – and was barely safe before Hiwalani’s throw home. Mata went to second, and HE was sent when Brady slapped a single up the middle, and HE beat Fletcher’s throw! The Patheticoons had just put three unearned runs on Triple Crown winner Martin Garcia, and now sent the rookie back to the mound. The rookie struggled badly with control, even hit Jerry Fletcher in the fourth, but the Loggers couldn’t cross the plate. Meanwhile the Coons loaded the bags in the fifth but didn’t score when Newton hobbled out to Hernandez. Ford had quick fifth and sixth innings making up for extended ball-throwing earlier. In the seventh, Leon Ramirez singled with one out. Then Perez bunted, which meant that the Loggers were taking out Garcia. Mark Smith flew out to shallow center, and the Loggers remained shut out through seven. Cristo Ramirez’ leadoff single in the top 8th put new pressure on Ford, who was closing in on 120 pitches and was being relieved. However, three of our right-handed options had been used extensively the last two days, leaving either Schaefer, the dork, or going to Donis directly. No, let Schaefer pitch for his job here. Two groundouts moved Ramirez to third, and then Cruz singled up the middle to plate the run: Schaefer had successfully soiled Ford’s line. Fifield delivered a pinch-hit single in the bottom 8th to plate Newton against lefty Bubba Cannon that put the just lost run back onto the board, giving Donis a full 3-run lead in the ninth and now we were actually confident. After Fletcher grounded out, Leon Ramirez singled to right, and Perez took Donis behind the moon with a towering home run.

And where’s your ****ing confidence now? Say! Where is it!?

Not having any alternatives at this point, Donis was left in to surrender Miguel Vela on a grounder, then faced Cristo Ramirez. The park was rocking after the Vela groundout and when Ramirez put the ball in play, and it grounded harmlessly to Guerin’s waiting glove, the party was on. 4-3 Raccoons. Brady 3-3, BB, RBI; Fifield (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-1)

And yet, we have still not won a series all year long.

Raccoons (7-17) vs. Canadiens (12-12) – May 1-3, 2000

Facing everybody’s favorite team was the harder the more terrible the Raccoons were. Could we stand the humiliation of losing to the Canadiens as well? Well, the fans gotta get used to it. Lots o’ more losing to come this season.

The Canadiens were really run of the mill, ranking in the middle of the CL in runs scored and runs allowed, with a -4 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (1-3, 4.50 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (1-2, 4.10 ERA)
Randy Farley (3-2, 2.37 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (0-1, 9.53 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (0-4, 6.00 ERA) vs. Jose Dominguez (4-0, 2.10 ERA)

Game 1
VAN: SS A. Simon – LF J. Durán – 1B Valenzuela – CF Ledesma – 2B B. Butler – C J. Lopez – RF J. Maldonado – 3B Sutton – P Dickerson
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – 1B Michel – CF Newton – P Wade

The Coons scored first, an RBI groundout by Gonzalez in the bottom 1st, while Wade allowed only one hit through four innings. What appeared to be a strong Wade-esque control start escalated in spectacular (or in 2000 terms: usual) fashion in the fifth. The Canadiens reeled off five hits off Wade, scoring three times, before Jorge Durán unloaded a 3-run home run to right center. Another game in the dust bin. While the Elks scored runs off Schaefer and Collins (business as usual), the Raccoons made their own pathetic attempts to get back into the game, plating four runs between the fifth and seventh, twice driven in by Cesar Gonzalez. In the bottom 8th, the Elks’ pen began to crumble, and when Arthur Simon made an error on a grounder by Nuno Andresen that could have ended the inning, and Fifield then drew a walk off new reliever Pedro Alvarado, the tying runs were on base with one out. Ingall did what he did best, slapping a Texas Leaguer into no man’s land, plating Michel. Guerin wore out Alvarado to work a walk, and now the tying run was on third in Fifield. Brady WAS looking for a decisive blow, but Alvarado failed to offer anything worth hitting at – and Brady walked. The game was tied, the bases were still full, and Gonzalez came up. And yet, this were the Raccoons. Gonzalez struck out, and Richardson went to 0-5 on the day with a grounder. Blanco pitched a clean ninth, and Mata singled to lead off the bottom 9th. However: our bench had been emptied. Michel and Taramillo had to get this done, because there was nobody to hit for Blanco in the #9 hole. However, Michel struck out, and while Taramillo singled, that didn’t get us any closer to scoring. Blanco was up, and there was a story around the league that he had once bunted a ball square up into his face, breaking his nose in high school. Was it true? Regardless, Blanco was told to swing away – can’t rely on Ingall singles forever. Blanco struck out, Ingall grounded out, and on we played. Blanco struck out the side in the tenth, and in the bottom of the inning, Gonzalez hit a 2-out triple. Richardson flew to deep center, but Maldonado caught the ball. Orlando Blanco pitched FOUR no-hit innings in relief – and in the bottom 12th it was again on Richardson to walk the team off with two out and Guerin on third. Juan Bello was pitching well in his second inning, and Richardson was about to set a new mark of futility on an 0-6 day. He took a strike, then swung and hit a ball to center – and this was gonna dink in! Guerin chugged home. 9-8 Raccoons!! Guerin 2-6, BB, 2 RBI; Brady 2-5, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Gonzalez 3-6, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Michel 2-5, BB, 3B, RBI; Newton 2-2, BB, RBI; Blanco 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Oooooooh, Blancooooo!

While Orlando Blanco (whose name by the way presents a sour taste to me after that failed first round pick we once made in Orlando Lantán – it still stings 18 years later) pitched a bear of a game here, it was over for Schaefer and Collins. I was sick of them.

Collins was demoted to St. Petersburg, while Schaefer was out of options and was designated for assignment. As replacements, Dan Nordahl and Juan Diaz were called up. Diaz was our 1996 third round pick and at age 25 it is time to jump into the water and see if you’re gonna swim.

Game 2
VAN: SS A. Simon – LF J. Durán – 1B Valenzuela – CF Ledesma – 2B B. Butler – RF Velasquez – C Clemente – 3B Sutton – P Kirkland
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – 3B Andresen – CF Taramillo – P Farley

Neither team did much through three innings, going down silently to the opposing pitcher. The Raccoons in fact didn’t get a hit until the fourth, a Gonzalez single. Richardson singled as well, and then Mata drummed a long fly to the gap in left center. Nobody got it, it was a double, and two runs were on the board. Mata would be scored by Taramillo, giving Farley a handy 3-0 lead. Mata would come up twice more with two out, two on, but wouldn’t be able to plate anybody. Farley looked unbeatable through five, before he issued a leadoff walk to Durán in the sixth, and the Canadiens chained up three singles while making only one out. The go-ahead run on first with the bags full, relievers were scattering in the bullpen, while Farley would be tasked with one more right-hander in Clemente, who sent a hard grounder to Ingall. Ingall collected it on the run to second, ran over the base, and had enough left in his body to turn and fire to first for the double play – AWESOME!! The park was up and cheering! Farley kept going, batting for himself in the bottom 6th, and hitting an eventually useless double, and pitched in the seventh, and eighth, where an error by Andresen with two out almost spelled doom. Bob Butler’s liner to deep center was caught by Taramillo, however, and the Coons escaped potential devastation. The Raccoons had their first two men on in the bottom 8th, but didn’t score, evoking Donis for the ninth. Velasquez reached on another Andresen error, and then Clemente singled. No outs. Jorge Lopez bunted the runners over, and Shaw and Simon both drove in single runs. Farley’s effort had just gone down the drain. Top 11th, Ingall made an error to put Maldonado on second base with no outs, with Nordahl pitching. The run was on third with two out and Durán up, who had knocked out Wade the day before. While his stroke off Nordahl certainly had the height for another homer, it didn’t have the length, and Taramillo got it to escape. That still didn’t make the Inepticoons score themselves, and Nordahl was back out there for the 12th, offering a leadoff walk to Valenzuela. Doom was approaching fast, until Mata took a 1-1 pitch to Ledesma to first, where Valenzuela had strayed off and Gonzalez nipped him out. Nordahl still couldn’t save himself and loaded the bags with two out for Maldonado. I needed an out here, and I turned to Blanco, who had pitched four innings the day before. Maldonado singled up the middle, and the Raccoons went down. 5-3 Canadiens. Guerin 2-6, 2B; Richardson 2-5, BB; Taramillo 2-3, BB, RBI; Farley 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Did you hear that popping sound? Those were all my hopes.

Farley’s, too.

Good news: Neil Reece is in full workout mode now and we think we can activate him early next week.

Game 3
VAN: C J. Lopez – SS Sutton – 1B Valenzuela – 2B B. Butler – RF Velasquez – CF Ledesma – LF H. Givens – 3B Shaw – P Dominguez
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 1B Michel – CF Newton – C Fifield – P Lopez

Richardson’s 2-out RBI single gave the Furballs a 1-0 lead in the first, but it didn’t live past Jose Valenzuela’s solo shot in the fourth. Lopez had been okay through three, but now lost control, allowing a single and walking a pair to load them up. Shaw grounded out shyly to him to end the inning just in time. Lopez came back with a quick fifth though, and then bunted Newton and FIfield into scoring position after their singles in the bottom 5th. Ingall whiffed, but Guerin hit a single to left that dropped a few feet in front of Henry Givens to plate Newton. Brady hit a huge fly to right that eluded Velasquez (who had made two sparkling plays in the game already) and bounced onto the warning track to plate both runners. Gonzalez singled home Brady, 5-1. Gonzalez then misfielded Givens’ grounder in the sixth – which wasn’t scored an error for miraculous reasons – and the Canadiens used the opportunity to claim two runs right back from the Raccoons. Leadoff man Arthur Simon reached on an infield single to be blamed on Ingall in the seventh, and that exited Lopez. Meeks came in, to provide actual relief for a change, while Simon was thrown out stealing third by Fifield. The Raccoons left the bags full themselves in the seventh, and with the way our bullpen was aching, we were facing the outlook of Fairchild pitching a 6-out save or go bust. The Elks got two on before Givens grounded out to Michel to end the eighth, but the middle infield did its job in the ninth, and the Raccoons actually took a series in 2000. 5-3 Furballs. Guerin 2-4, 2B, RBI; Brady 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Fairchild 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, SV (1);

Back to .333 – yaaaay. On our off day following this arousing series win, the Loggers and Indians played 13 innings in Milwaukee, eventually resolved in favor of the home team with a walkoff single by Cristo Ramirez. This actually lifted the Raccoons into fifth place, as the Indians plunged below them.

Raccoons (9-18) @ Buffaloes (14-14) – May 5-7, 2000

The Buffaloes had won their last five games, despite barely hitting their way out of a paper bag. Their offense ranked 11th in the Federal League, scoring 3.8 runs a game. At least they had the pitching staff to match that pace. Their hurlers ranked fourth in runs allowed, with the rotation even being second in ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (0-4, 5.00 ERA) vs. Dan George (2-2, 2.95 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-1, 4.20 ERA) vs. Manny Ramos (2-1, 4.36 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-3, 5.59 ERA) vs. Chris York (2-2, 3.29 ERA)

George will be the only left-hander we are going to face this week. York, 22, is described by Vince as the real deal. Also, after the Buffaloes will have stampeded over us, the Warriors are going to pick our sorry remains apart, so we didn’t draw too luckily for the first round of interleague games.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – CF Newton – 1B Michel – LF Parker – P Rivera
TOP: RF E. Sanchez – C C. Ramos – 2B Spinu – 1B Echevarría – LF Horn – CF Perri – SS Merritt – 3B De Jesus – P George

Brady threw out Eduardo Sanchez at home in the first to keep the Buffaloes off the board, but it was merely preventing the inevitable. Rivera sucked big time – once more – and had given up six hits and two runs by the second inning. The Coons got a run in the third, and former Indian Dan George loaded the bags with no outs in the fourth when Gonzalez doubled, Mata singled, and Newton walked. Michel struck out, and Parker almost hit into a double play, but the Coons scrambled to get at least the tying run home. Not that it helped Rivera any. He still sucked, and the Buffaloes took a new 3-2 lead in the fifth. He labored through six and was replaced with Andresen to hit leading off the top 7th. Andresen singled, and Guerin followed suit. Ingall fought reliever Ryan O’Quinn until he hit a game-tying double to right. Although Brady was up, the Buffaloes had southpaw O’Quinn put him on intentionally – because everybody knows the best way to shut down the Coons is to give them three on, no out, and let it roll – but by now the Buffaloes battery was in disarray. O’Quinn walked the go-ahead run in with a free pass to Gonzalez, before Carlos Ramos was guilty of a passed ball plating another run. The Buffaloes entered Hoshi Watanabe after O’Quinn put Mata on intentionally, reloading the bases, but Watanabe uncorked a wild pitch while pitching to Newton! Newton fought for a walk, reloading the bases AGAIN, but we were still holding out hope for an actual hit, you know. That never happened, but another walk and another wild pitch by Watanabe still gave the Raccoons a spacious 9-3 lead after allowing them seven runs on three hits. It was the death knell for this game – the Buffaloes only got one runner on against Nordahl and Miller on the way to the showers. 9-3 Coons. Guerin 2-5, 2B, RBI; Andresen (PH) 1-2, RBI;

For a 9-run game, the Raccoons did precious few at the plate. In essence, they were willingly accepting the walks offered by O’Quinn and Watanabe.

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – CF Taramillo – 1B Michel – P Ford
TOP: CF Perri – SS Merritt – 2B Spinu – LF Horn – 1B Echevarría – RF Gusman – 3B Hitchcock – C Hurtado – P M. Ramos

Gonzalez doubled home Ingall in the first inning to give Ralph a 1-0 lead. After that, the Raccoons masterfully left all chances to score additional runs unused, like leaving them loaded in the fourth. Ford pitched well, but eventually got into trouble, when he allowed three singles to the Buffaloes in the sixth, then balked in the go-ahead run with two out to fall 2-1 behind. Ford was removed in the seventh with Pedro Hurtado on second base, and while Meeks served up a high fly to Perri, Taramillo caught it on the warning track. The Raccoons couldn’t get anything going, until Mata drew a walk off closer Sancho Rivera to put the tying run on base with no outs. Parker ran for Mata, but was forced out by Taramillo’s weak grounder to second base. Rivera struck out Michel and Newton to end the game. 2-1 Buffaloes. Mata 2-3, BB, 2B; Ford 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, L (2-2) and 1-1, BB; Meeks 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Good news: Taramillo’s lackluster bat had stifled the last rally. He was sent back to St. Pete as we flew Neil Reece to Kansas to appear on Sunday. Our training staff had cleared the way for that during another examination on Saturday. Neil was alive and well, and wanted to play.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 2B Ingall – C Fifield – 1B Michel – P Wade
TOP: RF E. Sanchez – C C. Ramos – 1B Echevarría – CF Perri – SS Merritt – 2B H. Henry – LF Gusman – 3B De Jesus – P York

York had the Coons in his bag until he got hurt in some form or other, as he surrendered a single to Richardson in the fourth. Gonzalez went to third on the play mainly because York, who was to be the cut off man on the throw back in from Sanchez, couldn’t field the ball. Ryan O’Quinn reappeared and plated Gonzalez with a wild pitch, which was the first run of the game. The Buffaloes failed to immediately counter despite a leadoff double by Echevarría. To be fair to O’Quinn, he would strike out four batters over the next two innings, as the Raccoons completely failed to mount anything meaningful. Wade was left to fight for himself – but did so well. He came with the 1-0 lead into the ninth, and was to faced three right-handers. Scotty would remain in there, especially with Donis coughing up pairs of runs each of his last two outings. Perri grounded out to Guerin before it actually started to drizzle. Merritt ran the count full before he popped out to second, which left the venerable Horace Henry, who took Wade’s 106th pitch of the game to left for a single. That brought up Javier Gusman, and got Daniel Miller and Donis throwing in the bullpen. Javier Gusman singled, and with the right-hander Alfredo De Jesus up, Daniel Miller entered the game. He fell behind De Jesus, fell to three balls, came into the zone, and De Jesus hit a liner to left that bounced far enough away from Richardson to walk off the Buffaloes. 2-1 Buffaloes. Wade 8.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, L (1-4) and 1-3;

This team.

In other news

April 26 – OCT 1B/3B Takahashi Higashi (.260, 7 HR, 24 RBI), the reigning CL Rookie of the Year, will miss the next three weeks with an elbow sprain.
May 1 – History is made in Las Vegas, where Aces outfielder Wes McCormick (.316, 6 HR, 18 RBI) hits for the cycle while his team goes down rather silently as a whole in a 9-3 loss to the Bayhawks. It is the 28th cycle in ABL history, and the second by an Ace. Mark “Icon” Allen achieved the feat in 1984, also against the Bayhawks. It is the fourth time in history someone goes for the cycle against the Bayhawks, tying them for most with the Knights.
May 1 – OCT SP Vaughn Higgins (6-0, 1.52 ERA) is on pace for a fantastic season. While having won every start this year, he has now also delivered a 3-hit shutout of the Knights, as the Thunder win 6-0.
May 3 – Another shutout is pitched against the Knights, as OCT SP Lou Corbett (4-0, 3.13 ERA) stays undefeated in style with a 2-hitter.
May 4 – DEN SP Ramón Ortíz (1-4, 5.08 ERA) is out of order: the 32-year old has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation and should be out for three months.

Complaints and stuff

All Martin Garcia fans can sleep well – despite getting drawn a nose by the Raccoons in general and his own catcher in particular, he ran away with Pitcher of the Month for April, hurling to a 5-1, 1.02 ERA tune.

Scott Wade informed me already that he wants to extend his career beyond 2000. Also, Nuno Andresen would love to play more. I would love Andresen to hit more.

In more bad news, I can give you that pitching prospect Scott Boone is out for the season after surgery to relief radial nerve compression in his pitching elbow.

As promised, the franchise single game records in all 12 recorded categories:
AB: 7 – Greg Swift (1977), Matt Higgins (1995), David Brewer (1996)
H: 6 – Freddy Lopez (1977), Daniel Hall (1989)
R: 5 – Winston Thompson (1985), Ben O’Morrissey (1992)
2B: 4 – Glenn Johnston (1989)
3B: 2 – Neil Reece (twice, 1990 + 1995), Conceicao Guerin (2000)
HR: 3 – Ben Simon (1977)
RBI: 9 – Neil Reece (1990), Vern Kinnear (1993)
SB: 3 – Daniel Hall (1979), Matt Higgins (five times, 1989 + 1990 + 1991 + 1992 + 1993)
BB: 4 – Ed Sullivan (1977), Daniel Hall (thrice, 1981 + 1984 + 1994), Ramón Borjón (1982), Spencer Dicks (1983), Winston Thompson (twice, 1985 + 1988), Mark Dawson (1989), Ben O’Morrissey (twice, 1993 + 1995), Vern Kinnear (1994), David Vinson (twice, 1997 (2))
K: 5 – Mike Crowe (1998)
BB/P: 8 – Juan Berrios (1980), Román Ocasio (1981), Logan Evans (1981)
K/P: 12 – Steven Berry (1989), Kisho Saito (1995)

[Westheim]

Oddball notes as I am on my way to bed.

The great Craig Hansen retired after the 1999 season, having tied Juan “Mauler” Correa with 272 career wins. However, first place will soon switch hands if you ask Woody Roberts. The career Condor is struggling this year with a 5.36 ERA (just once in an 18-year career has he failed to post a sub-4 ERA, and that was a 4.03 mark in ’95), but has already won four games for a career total of 271.

Roberts already has the career record for strikeouts with currently 3,219. He is the only pitcher with more than 3,000 K. Atlanta’s Carlos Asquabal called it a day with 2,995. Next is still-active Arnold McCray (2,891), followed by some stranger named Kisho Saito (2,800).

The same pitchers find themselves on the list for most innings pitched. Hansen (4,392.1 IP) leads Leland Lewis (4,131.1), who was his team mate for a decade in Pittsburgh, Roberts (4,122.1), McCray (4,087), Bill Smith (4,063.2), and Saito (4,045). No other pitcher has over 4,000, and only a rapidly aging Neil Stewart is anywhere near the mark at 3,768.1;

The only two pitchers with more than 100 complete games for their careers are David Burke (113) and Neil Stewart (111). Burke also leads in shutouts with 35 despite having the shortest career of all the leaders but Correa. Next are Stewart (29), Bastyao Caixinha (24), Correa (21), and Saito (20).

The current top 10 in career homers are still fairly stacked with Raccoons. Michael Root (338) leads Raúl Vázquez (321), Gabriel Cruz (318), Mark Dawson (304), Anibal Rodriguez (282), Jeffrey Brown (270), Daniel Hall (223), Will Jackson (222), Tetsu Osanai (219), and Mark “Icon” Allen (215). Relief is on the way, though, as Jackson as well as 11th and 12th place Horace Henry and Preston O’Day are still active.

Jeffery Brown is the career leader in hits by a sound margin. His 3,484 base knocks lead Paul Connolly by 461. No other player has more than 3,000, although Diego Rodriguez (2,955), Dave Browne (2,884), and Dale Wales (2,817), who complete the top 5, are all still active.

Only eight players have hit 100 triples. Dale Wales (176) leads Roberto Rodriguez (163), Cristo Ramirez (154), Jose Martinez (128), Cipriano Ortega (108), Paul Connolly (107), Xiao-wei Li (103), and Antonio Rodriguez (102). Tomas Maguey has 99 and keeps stretching his legs.

Yeah, was looking for something entirely different while brushing my teeth, and ended up with that.

[Westheim]

By the way, I missed to include this earlier, but Andrew Schaefer cleared waivers (no wonder) and waived his 10/5 rights, accepting an assignment to St. Petersburg.

Raccoons (10-20) vs. Warriors (22-10) – May 8-10, 2000

We can savely assume that we are going to take another beating. The Warriors are 2nd with 177 runs scored in the Federal League, batting .299 as a team, which is tops. Neither do they give up runs. A strong pitching staff has limited the damage to 3.75 runs per game, and you can safely assume that the Raccoons aren’t going to scratch that mark.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (3-2, 2.11 ERA) vs. Pat Cherry (5-1, 3.46 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (1-4, 5.70 ERA) vs. Juan Sanchez (2-1, 6.62 ERA)
Jose Rivera (1-4, 4.91 ERA) vs. Luis Munoz (4-1, 4.29 ERA)

The Warriors also inked David Vinson late in the offseason. Vinson, 35, is batting a gruesome .139 …

Game 1
SFW: 1B Mateo – RF Flygt – 2B Heffer – LF Encarnación – CF Arroyo – C Vinson – SS M. Guzman – 3B Petipas – P Cherry
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 3B Caddock – P Farley

Javier Encarnación managed to misplay both opening flies by Guerin and Brady, which became a pair of doubles. Richardson drove in Brady with two down, giving the Raccoons an early 2-0 lead, while Farley struck out four his first time through the Warriors lineup. While Farley silenced the Warriors’ bats, the Raccoons got careless with the runners, leaving men in scoring position in the fourth and fifth innings. The sixth then started perfectly with an Ingall single. Mata, who had already extended a 10-game hitting streak with a double earlier, hit another double, and the Warriors put Caddock on to get a double play from Farley. Randyboy however was smarter than that and signed past Manuel Guzman to bring home the third run of the day. Two more runs scored on groundouts, before singles by Reece and Gonzalez re-loaded the bags, but Ingall’s fly to shallow right was intercepted by Flygt to keep the score at 6-0. When Farley lost his touch in the eighth, it came rather sudden. He walked Flygt, his first walk of the day, then allowed singles to Heffer and Encarnación, the latter already scoring Flygt. Blanco replaced him to face the left-hander Arroyo, but gave up an RBI double. Blanco rallied to strike out Vinson (who had by now reached the hattrick, plus a soft pop to Reece). Nordahl walked the bases full, but at least Richardson caught Bob Petipas’ deep fly before I could die from a heart attack. Nordahl was initially left in there for the ninth, struck out Ruben Melendez and Jaime Mateo and then also got Flygt, which ended the game already! 6-2 Raccoons! Reece 2-5; Gonzalez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Richardson 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Mata 2-4, 2 2B; Farley 7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (4-2) and 1-4, RBI; Nordahl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

No, I am not feasting on David Vinson’s misery. He was our catcher for almost a decade, mostly living off a fantastic sophomore season. And I know why I didn’t make him an offer to come back as protection to Julio Mata.

Dan Nordahl meanwhile earned his first big league save after 70 such achievements in the minors in the last three years. I am very sure that many more of the big league saves will follow with time.

Game 2
SFW: RF Theobald – 3B Petipas – C Melendez – SS R. Garza – LF Arroyo – 1B M. Guzman – 2B Mateo – CF A. Flores – P J. Sanchez
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – 2B Andresen – 1B Michel – P Lopez

Before the game it was noted, how weakly the components of the Warriors lineup had batted in their careers against Miguel Lopez: 16 for 109, or .147, with Melendez a shocking 3-37 against him (although with two dingers…). That was the old Lopez, the left-handed hero made of steel however. The new Lopez consisted of a wooden frame covered with canvas, which was delapitated and bug-infested, and gave up two walks and a single for a run in the first. The Raccoons had his back though, scored two in the bottom 1st, and knocked out Sanchez once Cesar Gonzalez hit his fifth homer of the year, which counted for three, in the bottom 2nd, 6-1 Coons. No, Lopez still wasn’t any good, pitching a wild game and only the fact that the defense made some nifty plays (with Richardson getting a special mentioning) helped him survive five hits and five walks in his six innings while not surrendering any additional runs. Jose Sotelo silenced the Raccoons in long relief on the other side of the box score, sitting down 11 straight Furballs – of which seven(!) struck out. Neil Reece’s bloop with two out in the seventh fell for a single – finally – and got Sotelo removed, and in an incredible display of dumb luck, once Gonzalez had drawn a walk off Nolan Hill, the next three Coons in order all hit soft singles to plate three more runs. Once Samy Michel flew deep to left, Arroyo caught him to end the inning… The Warriors didn’t get their bats up until the ninth when a terminally inept Kelly Fairchild issued four walks to have two runs scored. Nordahl finished the game by finally retiring Jaime Mateo. 9-3 Raccoons!! Reece 3-4, BB; Gonzalez 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Richardson 2-4, 2 RBI; Andresen 2-4, RBI; Michel 2-4;

Regardless of what happens in the final game (cue dramatic music), we have GIVEN those Warriors! Yay!!

The next morning, the Warriors used our press room to announce a 2-yr, $1.9M extension to Pat Cherry, just before we announced our signing of C Freddy Jackson to a minor league deal. Jackson, 35, is a 13-year big league veteran, who played most of his career for the Miners, and will now be assigned to the minors.

Ho-hoh. You didn’t see that one coming, eh?

Game 3
SFW: SS R. Garza – RF Flygt – 2B Heffer – LF Encarnación – CF Arroyo – C Vinson – 1B Mateo – 3B M. Guzman – P L. Munoz
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 1B Michel – P Rivera

Rivera was violently picked apart in the first inning, defense by Richardson holding the damage to two runs. He didn’t even finish the second. The trainer spotted him grimacing throwing the fastball and hauled him in. Meeks pitched through the third, and wound up on the potential winning side of the box score when the Raccoons torched Munoz for four 2-out runs in the bottom 3rd. Both teams would rather frequently leave runners in scoring position in the middle innings, while the score remained 4-2 for the home team. Remarkably it was our long and middle relief, which held up, and the back end, which didn’t. While Miller couldn’t do much about Manuel Guzman being safe on a drag bunt leading off the eighth, he also put Ramón Garza on base with another single. With left-handers up, Donis was broken out to collect five outs with the tying runs already on, which also left only Nordahl in the pen in case this one became tied. The Warriors countered by hitting the right-hander Melendez for Flygt, Melendez doubled, 4-3, and then Donis uncorked a wild pitch to tie the score. Heffer’s sac fly plated Garza, and we trailed, and we did so into the ninth. Caddock and Andresen on the bottom end of the lineup went down silently, before Guerin reached against William Henderson with an infield single. He stole second before Brady walked. The winning runs were on for Neil Reece, who was 0-3 in the game, but figured to counter Henderson, a southpaw, well. Well, no. Reece grounded out to Heffer, and the sensation of sweeping the Warriors did not come together. 5-4 Warriors. Guerin 2-5, RBI; Richardson 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Parker (PH) 1-1, 2B; Meeks 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Diaz 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-1, 2B;

Jose Rivera has been diagnosed with elbow soreness. While this could explain his complete ineptness through the first six weeks of the season, it is also not an excuse. He will be placed on the 15-day DL to heal off (hopefully). Normally, I would have gone to Paco Martinez for two spot starts, but he had been bowled over badly in his last outing, and so I went to good old (24 years old) Bob Joly, who was a decent 2-1 with a 2.38 ERA in AAA this year.

The game also ended Julio Mata’s 12-game hitting streak.

Raccoons (12-21) @ Titans (19-16) – May 12-14, 2000

The Titans were rallying from their sub-par start to the season and had a 5-game winning streak going as we came to town. For some strange reason they were badly struggling to score runs, their 129 counters ranking inferior even to the Raccoons’ challenged production. They could rely on their pitching though, which ranked fourth in the league with a 3.64 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-2, 3.93 ERA) vs. Sergio Gonzalez (4-3, 2.04 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-4, 4.78 ERA) vs. John Miller (3-2, 4.43 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-2, 2.17 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (5-2, 2.78 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – LF Richardson – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – C Mata – RF Parker – 1B Michel – P Ford
BOS: CF Alonso – SS D. Silva – LF Reid – 1B G. Douglas – 2B Torres – RF Elizondo – 3B Delgado – C Williamson – P S. Gonzalez

While Ralphie pitched seven innings allowing only two runs in the opener, including a solo homer to Glenn Douglas in the sixth, the gap couldn’t have felt any bigger. Sergio Gonzalez was absolutely shutting down the offense and whatever eluded him high and deep was sucked up by Luis Alonso – or an airborne vac cleaner posing to be Alonso – in centerfield. It wasn’t until the eighth that the Raccoons posed a threat, when Parker led off with a double. Brady hit for Ford and singled him home, cutting the gap in half (but it still felt way bigger). Guerin struck out, but Richardson got a single past Silva. Reece came up with two on, two down, and had been denied by Alonso twice already today. Keep it on the ground, Neil, we might get more outta that. Reece took the second pitch to the left side and it JUST BARELY SO eluded Silva, and with Brady activating rocket boost, Reece’s single tied up the game. Gonzalez managed to lob a 3-2 pitch over Torres then and it dinked into shallow right, scoring Richardson, and we had the lead! Ingall’s liner to right was intercepted by Douglas, but we were up 3-2. So, how’s the back end of that pen doing? Badly. Douglas reached against Daniel Miller, and Josh Thomas’ pinch-hit homer buried Miller under an ERA that suddenly was over nine. Yet, Miller didn’t lose the game. Chris Parker tied the score with a huge homer off Bill Corkum in the ninth, possibly saving his job for another day. The loss went to Nordahl, who led off the bottom 11th with a hit batter (Delgado), walked the bags full, struck out Silva for the second out, but then fell victim to Dave Reid’s single. 5-4 Titans. Parker 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Brady (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Mellow…

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – 1B Michel – C Fifield – P Wade
BOS: CF Elizondo – 2B Brewer – RF Thomas – 1B G. Munoz – LF Reid – SS D. Silva – C L. Lopez – 3B Torres – P J. Miller

Neither team had a hit through two innings. Miller walked two to get the top 3rd going, Wade bunted over the runners, and then the Raccoons enjoyed four straight base hits plating four runs. Following an error by Dave Reid on leadoff man Concie Guerin’s liner to left in the top 5th, Miller walked the bags full, and soon took more damage, as the Raccoons knocked him out with three more runs, which were all unearned. Up 7-0, Wade surrendered his first hit on a leadoff double by Munoz in the bottom 5th. Somehow Wade had lost composure between innings, and was now surrendering line drive after line drive. The Titans took him for a walk around the park, plating three runs in the inning and getting back into slam range. Move on to the sixth, and everything was back to normal for a Scott Wade now pitching on a very short leash. He would give up another run, in the eighth, but by then the Raccoons had already added another 2-spot in the top 7th, and the Titans weren’t going to get back into this game. 9-4 Raccoons. Reece 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Parker 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

You know what would be swell? Having a winning week. We haven’t had one this year… And while we will get the best man to give the ball to in the rubber game, the same will be the case for the Titans, and the Raccoons have had their share of issues with O’Halloran for the last years.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Brady – 1B Andresen – LF Newton – P Farley
BOS: CF Elizondo – 2B Brewer – RF Thomas – 1B G. Munoz – SS D. Silva – C L. Lopez – LF Alonso – 3B Williamson – P O’Halloran

An Ingall triple and Reece’s following RBI single gave the Raccoons the early advantage in the rubber game, even before Ron Williamson made a bad error on Gonzalez’ grounder to put two Coons in scoring position. Mata singled Reece home, and Gonzalez would eventually score on a passed ball. It all was very similar to how the Coons had toppled Martin Garcia a few weeks earlier. This time, they scored three runs, two unearned, in the top 1st. However, back then the Raccoons had enjoyed starling pitching and defense. That was not the case today. Farley allowed a pair of singles to Brewer and Thomas, before getting Munoz. With two down, he faced the inevitable Daniel Silva, who hadn’t done a lot in the series, but now doubled through Andresen to plate both runners. A passed ball on Mata cost another run once Luis Lopez hit, and it wouldn’t stop. Alonso drove Lopez home, and the Titans took a 4-3 lead. So much for getting your best men up to pitch. O’Halloran’s day ended with a 2-out, 3-run double by Cesar Gonzalez, tilting the score back into the Raccoons’ favor at 6-4. Brewer’s RBI single gave the Titans another run in the bottom 2nd, and Farley only escaped on a double play started by Ingall. Farley was knocked out in the fifth after ten hits and no strikeouts when – the inevitable – Daniel Silva legged out a grounder to break up a double play and bring in the tying run from third base. Both bullpens were wobbling, but neither team scored through eight. The Titans fielded Ramiro Román to pitch in the top 9th, and he issued a leadoff walk to Caddock in the #9 hole. Guerin singled, Ingall walked, and oh that’s gotta be it! No outs, bases loaded, Neil Reece up, how can that not end with multiple runs scoring? While he fell 1-2 behind, he didn’t whiff, but grounded hard to third for Caddock to be forced out easily at home. Gonzalez grounded to Brewer for another out at home, and that left business to Mata, who was a hero and drew a walk, forcing home Ingall. The Titans threw Bill Corkum into the mess to somehow get out with minimal damage. Clyde Brady flew to deep left – which was exactly where the pesky Alonso was playing, and he got that one, too. Donis had only a 1-run lead in the bottom 9th, and surely Dave Reid started the frame with a single to center. Douglas moved up the runner on a groundout, before Thomas flew out to Newton. That put up left-handers for Donis to swallow. The count ran full on Gonzalo Munoz, and I had my mouth full of sweets, which were excellent at the Titans’ park, and couldn’t swallow. Could Donis swallow him? 97 miles an hour right down broadway did the job – for the Furballs. Munoz never moved the bat. 7-6 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Ingall 2-4, BB, 3B; Brady 2-5, 2 2B; Miller 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Dan Nordahl got the win as the Raccoons won their first week all season long. In six games since his callup, he has collected a win, two losses, and a save, so you could rightfully say that he was well in the middle of the action…

In other news

May 9 – Topeka’s youngest bull is on the shelf for now. Chris York (2-2, 3.21 ERA) has been diagnosed with bone chips in his elbow and is most likely out for the season.
May 13 – A torn labrum means season over for CIN SP Albert Zarate (2-4, 5.27 ERA). Experts doubt the 35-year old, who has an injury history of quite some length, will ever come back.

Complaints and stuff

Odd stat: Scott Wade leads all CL pitchers in BABIP, with a .225 mark. So, this can mean two things. Either his pitching style and our infield work together very well, or he is due a giant blowup sooner than we would like to see.

Odd stat #2: Opponents slug .302 off Farley, which ties for fourth in the league, or for third, depending on whether demigods like Martin Garcia (.220 OppSLG) are included in the statistic.

Odd stat #3: BNN tracks 31 batting stats. No Raccoon features in the top 5 of ANY of them, not even in the negative ones.

Yes, we are that … that … that meaningless, there’s not even a word for it.

Not much else happened in Coon City and satellite’s thereof. How about a rundown of Gold Gloves amassed by the Raccoons over the years, by position? We have won 28 Gloves in 23 seasons (for obvious math reasons, the league average is 17.25), 17 of which have come from the three positions on the left side of the field.

P: 2 – Christopher Powell (1978), Alejandro Venegas (1988)
C: 1 – Werner Turner (1998)
1B: 2 – Wyatt Johnston (twice, 1977 + 1978)
2B: 3 – Ben Simon (1978), Angel Costa (1979), Marvin Ingall (1999)
3B: 6 – Cameron Green (1981), Mark Dawson (four times, 1986 + 1987 + 1988 + 1990), Ben O’Morrissey (1991)
SS: 6 – Ben Simon (twice, 1980 + 1981), Jorge Salazar (thrice, 1990 + 1991 + 1992), Conceicao Guerin (1999)
LF: 5 – Daniel Hall (1987), Vern Kinnear (thrice, 1994 + 1996 + 1997), Stephen Buell (1999)
CF: 3 – Neil Reece (thrice, 1997 + 1998 + 1999)
RF: nope

Our longest drought without any Glove was four years, 1982-85. Our longest drought at any position is … well, forever, in right field. Our longest active drought on a position we won a glove before, is 21 years, at first base.

Wyatt Johnston recently turned 57, by the way. Did you know that in the league’s inaugural season, he was the only player to start every game (all at first base by the way), and that the only other player to appear in all games, was fellow Raccoon Ben Simon? Bet you didn’t!

‘nuff number crunching. Doesn’t make this team any better.

[Westheim]

2000 AMATEUR DRAFT PREVIEW

The Raccoons will have a much more simple time at draft day than the last few years. We have the fifth pick in every round, plus the sixth of 41 picks in the supplemental round. Nothing more. Nothing less. No “7 out of 66” or other lottery pick masses.

This will be a very particular draft. Vicente Guerra studied the draft pool extensively and he says there are several Hall of Famers in there, and they are almost all outfielders. Vince states that this is the outfield-richest draft pool he has seen. Other areas are under-represented, especially catching and middle infielders with potential impact.

There is however one player in the draft that is very likely to get picked very high and with him you don’t draft for “in two or three years”, but for right now. He was batting .360/.457/.500 for Ohio State at the time the draft pool was officially released. It is already known he will demand more than $1M as signing bonus. He’s a corner infielder. Vince says, this guy is major league ready right now. Give him four weeks to warm up in AAA, or maybe even less, and then let’s go. With our homegrown problems to fill the corners competently, this would be a big fit. Problem is, between us and 22-year old Daniel Sharp are four other teams that will pick first. (OSA doesn’t rank him very good, though, yet BNN has him #4)

Top crop of the pool according to Vince:

SP Kevin Edwards (17/6/20)
SP Fernando Piquero (13/16/10)
SP Henry Becker (13/15/13)

RP David Sutherland (20/17/11)
RP Matt Cash (18/15/12)
RP Jeff Paul (18/13/10)

1B/3B Daniel Sharp (20/10/20)
1B/3B Alfredo Gonzalez (14/17/9)
1B Jens Carroll (19/5/12)

LF/RF Ron Anderson (20/16/18)
OF Rich Mason (14/13/13)
OF Hector Maestas (13/12/15)
LF/RF Apasyu Britton (15/6/14)
OF Jose Robles (15/7/13)
OF John Alexander (12/12/11)
OF Matt King (16/2/11)
LF/RF Justin Foster (15/4/11)
LF/RF Alejandro Rodriguez (16/1/15)

[Westheim]

The Raccoons are closing in on 1,900 franchise wins (although it is unlikely we will get it done this week, needing five wins), while Neil Reece is hunting 1,500 hits (needing seven), and in the longer run, Cesar Gonzalez has to hit nine dingers to make it 100.

Also, in a twist of events, world news and the complaints and stuff section will front this update. You will understand come Sunday.

Complaints and stuff

Today in your favorite soap opera “Bad News from the Coons Farm”: SP Nick Brown has suffered a ruptured ulnar collateral ligament. No 11th round to the majors, at least not this year, and with the time frame for recovery of “one year and up”, it may not be next year either.

Why are we even trying …?

Our old friend Jason Turner was on waivers early in the week, as he was pitching to a 1-3, 5.77 ERA tune this season. The Pacifics were using him in a swing man role, something I don’t think he’s made for, and he was swamped completely by a .405 BABIP. Although I would love to make an upgrade over Rivera in the rotation and to get our old friend Jason back home, I’m afraid we can’t swallow the $1.06M he’s due or rather the share of that for the remaining 4 1/2 months of the year. Our budget room was projected to be $548k at this point, and we haven’t drafted yet. Anyway, he was not claimed by anybody and assigned to the Pacific’s AAA team, the Loganville Bombardiers.

Neil Reece wants to talk contract, which makes me squeal like a happy piglet. However, I fear he might want many millions…

He’s gonna be 34 next year, but I think we might be safe on a 4-year deal. I wouldn’t want to go higher, though. Moneywise, I fear we might have to part with up to $6M to get this deal done. Given the escalating salaries all over the league, $5M would be cheap. No idea where I would fit $1.5M into the budget next year. It is *actually* only $400k more than he makes now, but you know Uncle Scrooge in Mexico, right?

Also, one correction: I mentioned before that Neil Reece, Daniel Miller, and Scott Wade were our last World Series heroes from the Good Days in Coon City™. This is not quite true, or rather only true for the *1992* championship. Miguel Lopez is the fourth player to hold a share in the *1993* championship. He made his debut in ’91, actually, but only pitched two games in ’92 and was not on the playoff roster. (Then again, Neil Reece played in a grand total of one playoff game(s) in the two successful title runs, missing the 1992 playoffs entirely and going down in the first game of the 1993 playoffs – both times due to injury – but he was physically present at least.)

In other news

May 15 – BOS MR John Bennett (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 4 SV) strained an oblique while legging out a single in an extra-inning effort against the Raccoons, and will miss about six weeks.
May 17 – WAS SP Steve Rogers (2-4, 5.30 ERA) keeps getting hurt every season. The 27-year old southpaw has ruptured a finger tendon and could miss as much as four months.
May 19 – Condors SS/2B Juan Barrón (.337, 1 HR, 20 RBI) is setting examples in consistency, having contributed hits in 20 straight games.
May 21 – The Miners expect SP Manuel Pineda (3-3, 4.32 ERA) to be out for the year with a torn labrum.
May 21 – Juan Barrón is held dry in a 5-1 win over the Canadiens, ending his streak at 21 games.

Raccoons (14-22) @ Crusaders (19-18) – May 16-18, 2000

A first rate rotation (something nobody had seen coming before the season) the Crusaders prevailed despite anemic offense. In a way, they were playing the low-score ball of the Indians teams of the 1980s. First in runs allowed, last in runs scored, with a +12 differential.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (2-4, 5.00 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (4-3, 1.82 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-0) vs. Cipriano Miranda (3-1, 3.31)
Ralph Ford (2-2, 3.71 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (5-2, 3.08 ERA)

Yeah, good luck beating that array. Also, the Indians lost on Monday, so we came into the series in fifth place in the standings.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – RF Brady – C Mata – LF Richardson – 1B Michel – P Lopez
NYC: RF J. Gonzales – 2B Brantley – C Manuel – LF A. Johnson – 3B Rush – 1B T. Mullins – SS Rigg – CF A. Diéguez – P R. Gonzalez

Miguel Lopez again demonstrated that he would be best written off entirely, as the Crusaders romped over him with ease, scoring one (unearned) run in the first, and five more in the second, which were all earned. With the Raccoons hitless at that point, I went to get ice cream. When I had had my fill, we were in the sixth, the Coons had managed four weak singles, and one run on a groundout by Reece. After three innings of shutout relief, the Crusaders hit four singles off Fairchild in the bottom 6th, two of which didn’t leave the infield, and upped the score to 8-1. It was a nightmare, but like most nightmares (except the big, general nightmare that it was to manage this squad of pickles) it eventually ended, even if in total disgrace. 8-2 Crusaders.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 1B Michel – P Joly
NYC: RF J. Gonzales – 2B Brantley – LF A. Johnson – 1B M. Berry – CF Latham – 3B Rush – C Olsen – SS Rigg – P Miranda

Guerin doubled home the first run of the game in the third. While I had expected Joly to get tied to a rocket and fired into the sun by the Crusaders, quite the opposite happened. The Crusaders failed to get a hit off Joly, and not only for three innings, but for four, five, six … the Raccoons upped to 3-0 in the top 6th with a big part in that being a Richardson RBI triple. The Coons added two in the top 7th, 5-0, while Joly issued a leadoff walk to the first of the three left-handers in the heart of the New York lineup, Johnson. Berry struck out, and then Latham hit one right to Guerin, 6-4-3 zip, seven innings, no hits. Bottom 8th: Bob Rush flew out to center. Mike Olsen grounded to Guerin for the second out. Ed Rigg ripped into a 2-2 pitch and lined to right, but almost exactly into Samy Michel’s glove. What was going on here!!?? With the bottom falling out of the Crusaders’ invincible bullpen and the score 8-0 in the top 9th, even some of the Crusaders fans clapped their hands as Bob Joly came back out. Andres Manuel pinch-hit to start the inning, but grounded out to Guerin. Jorge Gonzales sent a grounder to Ingall, out. That left business to Ron Brantley. Joly fell behind in the count, which reached 3-1 without Brantley swinging once. With the left-handers up next, Joly had to come inside. He did, Brantley knew, and Brantley made contact, with a grounder fired to left. But there was Cesar Gonzalez, he had a glove, picked it up, fired across, and Brantley was barely two thirds up the line. WE HAVE A NO-HITTER!!! 8-0 Raccoons! Guerin 4-5, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Brady 2-5, BB; Gonzalez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Richardson 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Joly 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 1-4;

BOB! ****ING! JOLY!

It’s like your grandmother pitching a no-hitter! (giggles amazed) I hadn’t seen this one coming from a mile away, and so did anybody else. When we called Carlosito in Mexico (who of course hadn’t watched the game…) he didn’t even knew who this guy was. =)

I remember 1984, when Bob “Butcher” Haines pitched a no-hitter for the Pacifics as a swing man going back and forth between the pen – of his 41 appearances that season, 15 were in relief. He won 13 games, but also saved 13 games! And he was not even quite as marginal as Bob Joly!

The Crusaders have been no-hit for the fourth time, while the Raccoons are now the only team with four no-hitters to boast about (only half the ABL teams have ever had a no-hitter pitched for them!). The 23rd no-no job in league history comes almost two years after the most recent no-hitter, which was also dealt by a Raccoon, Manuel Movonda. The Crusaders and Raccoons are the only teams to have no-hit each other (Carlos Guillén gave us the good news in 1985), other than the Crusaders and the Indians. New York’s Eric Edmonstone no-hit Indy in ’84, and the Indians got them back twice, with Larry Davis in ’92 and Dan George in ’96.

Bloody amazing.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B C. Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 2B Ingall – 1B Michel – C Fifield – P Ford
NYC: RF J. Gonzales – 2B Brantley – C Manuel – LF A. Johnson – 3B Rush – 1B T. Mullins – SS Rigg – CF A. Diéguez – P Sandoval

Both teams had their chances, and more or less dropped them all in the first few innings. The only exception was in the bottom 4th, when the Crusaders scored a run on a sac fly. Ford was suffering from ill control, issuing four walks through five frames, and he was removed when he walked Johnson to put two men on in the seventh. Miller entered to face the right-handed Rush, but the Crusaders countered with Mark Berry, who worked a walk. Miller was left in there when they didn’t remove Mullins, but walked him as well, making the score two-zip for the home team. The Coons had the tying runs on, but Reece flew out softly to Gonzales to end the eighth. The Coons failed themselves to a shutout loss on five hits. 2-0 Crusaders. Gonzalez 2-4, 2B;

With the big number on the doorstep, Neil Reece hit 1-12 in this series… he has not had an extra base hit all season. While he has hit some hard, deep balls, they weren’t hard enough…

Raccoons (15-24) vs. Knights (15-25) – May 19-21, 2000

What is this? A team with a WORSE record than us? The Knights were giving up almost five runs a game, 197 in total, which ranked 11th in the Continental League. Their offense was average. The Coons, at this junction, were 9th in runs scored, and 8th in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (2-4, 4.76 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (2-4, 5.54 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (2-3, 3.44 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (2-5, 5.97 ERA) vs. Johnny Collins (2-5, 5.94 ERA)

Game 1
ATL: 3B Pena – 1B J. Morales – 2B Palacios – CF G. Rios – LF Kinnear – SS Tanaka – C J. Johnson – RF Mendoza – P Howard
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – C Mata – LF Parker – 3B Caddock – P Wade

After retiring the entire Knights lineup once through, Wade ran into a problem in the fourth, when Palacios homered to give the Knights a 1-0 lead. The Raccoons hadn’t done a lot at the plate early, but got on base in the bottom 4th. A Parker double put two in scoring position with two outs, and the Knights walked Caddock intentionally to get to Wade, but they made their calculation without Wade. He drilled a liner to center that dinked in and scored two runs! Wade was pitching very well until he didn’t anymore in the seventh. Palacios led off with an infield single and Wade then nicked Rios. With two more left-handers following Rios, Blanco was brought in to face Vern Kinnear. The Knights countered with right-hander Will Taylor. Blanco surrendered hard hits to him and Sosa Tanaka, which got Wade onto the hook in a 3-2 game. Nordahl then collected three outs without Taylor scoring from third. The Coons came right back, although it took an error by Tanaka that allowed Guerin to score when Brady grounded hard, but playable to short. Reece singled up the middle and Brady went to third, still with one out. Gonzalez walked, but Ingall whiffed, leaving it to Mata to turn the score in our favor. The Knight sent reliever Colby Kirk to get rid of the sophomore catcher, but his first pitch was ticketed to shallow left and scored a pair! Miller got two outs in the first, before we brought Diaz for the left-handers. Palacios singled, and Rios went deep, and we were tied again. After Meeks got out of the eighth and pitched the ninth scoreless, the Coons could still walk off. Brady grounded out, but Reece singled and advanced on a wild pitch by Roberto Delgado, who went on to walk Gonzalez. Michel struck out hitting for Meeks, and while Mata singled to right, Orlando Mendoza was right on that ball. That left it to Andresen to make Coon City happy: first pitch, contact, up the middle, and into shallow center. 6-5 Furballs! Reece 3-5; Mata 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Andresen 1-2, RBI; Wade 6.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K and 1-2, 2 RBI; Meeks 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-0);

Two blown saves by left-handers in this game. Thank goodness we didn’t get Donis involved somehow. Also, since I mentioned that Nordahl wound up with lots of decisions, he would have gotten the win if not for Rios’ exploit of Juan Diaz.

Game 2
ATL: C J. Johnson – 1B J. Morales – 2B Palacios – CF G. Rios – LF Kinnear – SS Tanaka – 3B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – P Grams
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – C Mata – 2B Andresen – 3B Caddock – P Farley

With bad weather on the way, the Knights socked it to Randy early, plating three runs in the first inning, in which Farley just looked like he didn’t knew where he was. Or who he was… In the bottom 1st, the issues with our lineup came to light again. The Coons reeled off three straight singles off Grams, with Reece plating Guerin, before Gonzalez came up – who either walked, or whiffed, but never got any purposeful hits. He whiffed, as did Richardson, and Mata bounced out. The Raccoons got a run in the second when Jose Morales lost Farley’s grounder for a 2-base error. In the third, Reece singled and was on first for Gonzalez – who came up with an RBI triple in protest to my earlier thoughts, which he couldn’t possibly have heard. Gonzalez scored on Richardson’s groundout, giving the Coons a 4-3 lead. The Coons could have tacked on, but Tanaka made a fabulous play on Farley’s 2-out grounder to end the inning with runners on the corners. The Knights instantly set the engine in reverse in the fourth, loading the bags with no outs. There was nothing we could do anymore for Farley but take him behind the shed and send him to the big farm in the sky. With the left-handed core of the Knights lineup coming up, Blanco entered, which worked so-so, when Richardson’s error cost the tying run, but nothing more. The scorefest then continued off Grams. Brady singled with one out in the fourth, bringing up Reece, who was on 1,499 career hits, and no extra base hits the entire season (well, in May…). Grams looked washed up, threw right down the middle, and oh boy, will we see that shot in the highlight reels. Kinnear made only a few steps in the direction of the wall – GONE!!! HOME RUN!!! The park was about to explode as Neil Reece lifted his cap on the way to the dugout. Kelly Fairchild and ex-Coon Albert Matthews pitched some strong long relief to calm things down then, but Matthews then gave up three straight singles to start the bottom 7th, bringing up Andresen. The old Capital singled up the middle, plating two and removing Matthews from the contest, and the Raccoons rattled Daniel Perez as well when he was sent into battle. 10-4, runners on the corners with two down, Reece came up and to the utter amazement of a hysteric crowd singled to right, 11-4. The Knights failed to come back although they humiliated Diaz in the eighth, who allowed a hit, a hit batter, an error, and a balk for one run, which somehow was unearned. 12-6 Raccoons!! Brady 3-5, RBI; Reece 4-5, HR, 4 RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, 3B, RBI; Richardson 2-5, RBI; Mata 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Andresen 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Ingall (PH) 1-2, RBI; Fairchild 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Neil Reece! 1,501 hits later – STILL A WINNER!!

For the third game we have an overworked bullpen to think about, and Miguel Lopez being garbage this season, this meant that Bob Joly probably would be thrown into long relief – as grotesque as it was – after pitching a no-hitter on Wednesday. His next start would have been Monday, but Monday was an off day…

The final game of the series will be presented in a slightly different format, because it teaches you a thing or two about managing a team in the game of baseball. It was a game about losses.

Game 3
ATL: C J. Rodriguez – 3B J. Morales – 2B Palacios – 1B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – LF Kinnear – CF Bell – SS Pena – P J. Collins
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – 2B Ingall – C Mata – 1B Michel – P Lopez

First, we lost, 7-6. Delgado was pitching with a 2-run lead and the bases loaded in the bottom 9th, and no outs, facing Parker, who hit for Andresen in Richardson’s spot. Parker popped out. Ingall grounded out, leaving the Knights one run ahead and Newton on third as the tying run. Mata was batting – and struck out.

Second, we lost because of Miguel Lopez, in whom we lost all confidence. He was wild, utterly wild, allowing seven hits and five walks in 4.2 innings. But he didn’t actually take the loss.

Third, we lost because of Bob Joly’s no-hitter. The no-hitter wanted me to give Joly another start. Thus, when Lopez was chewed up and spat out again by the Knights, I didn’t go to Joly, but to Miller, who managed to escape a still boiling inning and pitched the sixth, too. And then we pieced together the game with parts of the bullpen, which at first seemed to work out, but didn’t.

Fourth, we lost because of Clyde Brady. His throwing error plated an unearned run on Orlando Blanco in the seventh, and gave the Knights a new lead just after the Coons had rallied from a 4-0 deficit.

Fifth, we lost because of Chris Parker. He popped out with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom 9th, making clear that it was an utter waste of effort and money to even take him onto road trips.

Sixth, we lost because of Bob Joly. He was put into the game in the eighth, with all other personnel reduced to fumes, making the entire effort redundant, and foolish, and then he was blown up in the ninth, allowed two runs to score after the Raccoons had re-tied the score in the bottom 8th, 5-5, and HE took the loss.

Seventh, we lost because of Cesar Gonzalez playing left field, or rather, because of bad managing and removing Daniel Richardson in the double switch that entered Daniel Miller. If not for that switch, we would have had Richardson batting with three on and no outs in the ninth.

Eighth, we lost because of Luke Newton making a fielding error in centerfield on a single in the fifth. That gave the Knights an extra base, and an extra run in sinking Miguel Lopez.

Wait. Why is Newton playing center??

Ninth, we lost because of Johnny Collins. He gave up a first inning 2-out double to Neil Reece, who pulled some or thing or other on his way to second base and was out of the game after that, potentially costing us one or more runs in the course of the afternoon.

Where does all this lead us? Well, most points at least, maybe except for the ninth?

Tenth, we lost because I am a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE manager, not abiding to the BASIC principles of managing a baseball team: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER may the benefit of one single player be put over the benefit of the whole team. NEVER, EVER. Bob Joly was the next starter in line, so in the case of an expended bullpen, that pitched 14.1 innings during the week, but half of those in the three days prior, and four plus innings still to be covered, you eventually have to throw in next day’s starter – ESPECIALLY IF IT IS AN OFF DAY!! Giving Joly a start helped the team to collapse in this affair, and Joly still was used up, because it couldn’t work out. It was a HORRIBLY BOTCHED PROPOSITION from the beginning. Only the most HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE managers would have even tried.

I’m a member in that fraternity. Mr. Orcin was right. The Raccoons are better than their record. While they might be marginal ability-wise, they are better than .400, but they can’t out-run their dysfunctional, disillusionist, dim-witted manager, who is HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE. And who sucks!

[Orcin]

Hmm... let me offer this nugget in your defense. You have to play for the whole season, not just one game. Sometimes, the staff takes a beating and you lose. But you come back tomorrow and try again.

Not working huh? Ok, better get the other half of that bottle of Jack then.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Hmm... let me offer this nugget in your defense. You have to play for the whole season, not just one game. Sometimes, the staff takes a beating and you lose. But you come back tomorrow and try again.

Not working huh? Ok, better get the other half of that bottle of Jack then.

Worked so well that I couldn't go to sleep at all last night. Tossed and turned, mind racing, and finally got up again and played out the following series just to find out about Neil Reece's injury. Proper update some time later today.

Oh yeah, I am going back to work tomorrow. Most likely horribly underslept (slept -mabye- three hours tonight). My supervisor's going to find me cuddled up under the desk at 10am, holding on to a mug of coffee and hissing "Neil Reeeece .....! Can't ... beeeee ...!"

Oh well. Everything for the team. Everything for Neil. If I could sooth his pain by rubbing the sore spot, I would normally do it, but it would be inappropriate in this case. (minor spoiler)

[Westheim]

Cherish this update - it's been epic for this league. Big things happened these two weeks. A few things shattered to dust. You will see.

Raccoons (17-25) @ Bayhawks (31-14) – May 23-25, 2000

Basically, we went down to the Bay to get stomped. The Bayhawks combined solid offense (5th with 192 runs) with a tough-as-nails pitching staff, which ranked 2nd in the league, and we would have to tackle without an undiagnosed Neil Reece.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-3, 3.58 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (5-4, 4.04 ERA)
Scott Wade (2-4, 4.73 ERA) vs. Henry Selph (6-1, 2.43 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-2, 3.21 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (5-3, 3.33 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – LF Richardson – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 2B Ingall – 1B Michel – CF Newton – P Ford
SFB: RF Javier – C G. Ortíz – 1B D. Carroll – SS B. Hall – LF Walls – CF Marquez – 2B V. Martinez – 3B T. Smith – P R. Sanchez

The stomping began with Ford, who had struggles in the first and was then physically worked into the dirt of the mound in the second inning, where he allowed four runs, and issued three straight walks at one point. That was basically enough to win for the Bayhawks, but they weren’t satisfied, ignored the white flags raised from the visitors’ dugout, and weren’t finished and done until they had shredded Dan Nordahl for three runs as well and managed to Daniel Richardson getting hurt on a head-long play. 7-1 Bayhawks. Guerin 2-4, 2B;

Richardson came up with a banged up elbow, which was sore and swollen the following morning. He was listed as day-to-day, but wasn’t exactly fit for battle. That complicated the Neil Reece situation with two outfielders sitting on the roster, hurt. No news were available on him, either.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Michel – CF Newton – LF Parker – P Wade
SFB: RF Javier – 2B H. Ramirez – 1B D. Carroll – LF W. Jackson – 3B B. Hall – CF Marquez – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Gomez – P Selph

Top 2nd, Michel doubled, Newton tripled, 1-0 Coons, no outs, yet nobody could be found who was bothered to bring Newton home. Wade allowed no hits through three before Ramirez hit a double in the fourth, but the Bayhawks didn’t score. Yet. Top 5th, Ingall got on in front of Brady, who doubled, putting two runs in scoring position with no outs for what sorry ashes remained from the offbeat heart of the lineup. The Bayhawks didn’t bite, walking Gonzalez to load them up for the young and the restless. Young players and a restless manager. Mata pulled a Parker and popped out, and Michel sent a perfect double play grounder to Jorge Gomez, who failed to turn it. That was the only run the Coons got, 2-0. Wade started to lose the white marbles with red string around them in the bottom of the inning, issuing walks to Gomez and Selph before Guerin bailed him out once more. When the end game, it game with force: five consecutive 2-out hits in the sixth inning, plating four runs, until Selph made the last out. That was Wade’s game. It didn’t even take four minutes, no time to warm up anybody. The Raccoons loaded the bags in the top 7th through dumb luck that another double play ball was misfielded with an error on Hector Ramirez, and while Michel failed, Newton’s line drive eluded Paco Javier to empty the bags with two out. Wade didn’t come back out, battered as he was. Diaz came out, put two on, and Brady’s defense helped stave off the Bayhawks before Daniel Miller could cough up the runs. With two on and two out in the top 8th, Gonzalez gladly accepted a walk so as not to be responsible for anything bad, and when Mata came up, he was fanned by Johnny Smith. That left Meeks with on cushion the in the bottom 8th, the Bayhawks tied the game, and that run came right back to the Coons in a top 9th with two walks and 2-out RBI single by Guerin. Closer Ryosei Kato then appeared to get Ingall and give his team a chance in the bottom of the inning against the weakly Donis, but the Birds managed only a single by Dave Carroll. 6-5 Raccoons. Ingall 2-4, 2 BB; Brady 2-4, BB, 2B; Newton 2-4, BB, 2B, 4 RBI;

Jose Rivera came off the DL for the Thursday game, sending Bob Joly … to AAA. Yes, really.

Still no news from Reece. It’s got to be terrible and I hadn’t slept much since Sunday. It’s been half a week, and we still don’t know what’s wrong. It’s gotta be terrible, oh no, they’re gonna amputate his legs, or worse …! (hides under the bed sheets, screaming)

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – LF Gonzalez – 1B Michel – 3B Andresen – CF Newton – C Fifield – P Farley
SFB: RF Javier – 2B H. Ramirez – 1B D. Carroll – LF W. Jackson – 3B B. Hall – C G. Ortíz – CF Cavazos – SS T. Smith – P Hamlyn

The Bayhawks took a lead in the first inning, and extended it to 2-0 in the third on a passed ball to be blamed on Gary Fifield, although Farley’s pitching was imprecise and left much to be desired. Farley however had a hand in the Raccoons first threat against Tony Hamlyn cruising home in two hours, when he hit a 1-out single through Bob Hall. Guerin hit a double through the same spot, although Hall was still standing there, and the tying runs were in scoring position with one out. Marvin Ingall put the first ball into play, a poor grounder, that hopped to the mound, then struck the mound, bounced OVER Hamlyn’s glove, and by the time Hector Ramirez changed directions it was too late – all hands were safe, including Farley, who had scored after a mad dash. Brady tied the score with another single, but that was it for the fifth. The tie didn’t live though: Ramiro Cavazos’ sac fly in the sixth put Farley on the hook again, and out of the game, since he was leading off the seventh. Parker made an out in his spot, Michel was left on third base the next inning, and Dan Nordahl had all life beaten out of him with three hard hits in the bottom 8th, and although we sent Donis, all runs scored. 7-3 Bayhawks. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Ingall 3-5, 2B, RBI; Brady 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

It took a long time for those doctors to locate the pain in Neil Reece’s leg. It didn’t come from the leg, it came from the groin. Once anybody had actually bothered to touch Neil’s soft parts, they found out he had a severe groin muscle strain and would be out until the All Star break.

**** life.

“Gotta stay focused. Gotta stay positive” – that’s what Neil said. While he was consoling me, cowering in the darkest corner of the office, weeping unconsoleably.

Of course he was DL’ed. Jason Kent was called up and added to the 40-man roster again to take his spot, because I was still remembering Taramillo failing, and Kent was batting over .300 at least in AAA.

Raccoons (18-27) vs. Condors (25-22) – May 26-28, 2000

The Condors were remarkably average. Vince thought they were worse than their talent level and they were due a breakout in the last four months of the season.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (2-5, 5.95 ERA) vs. Jose Maldonado (4-4, 4.06 ERA)
Jose Rivera (1-4, 5.19 ERA) vs. Bastyao Caixinha (4-5, 3.07 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Woody Roberts (5-3, 4.80 ERA)

The last game on Sunday could well be the Big Day. Woody Roberts had tied Juan Correa and Craig Hansen for the career record of 272 wins a week earlier, and would be trying to claim the lead all for himself on Sunday.

His chances could be worse…

Game 1
TIJ: 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – RF Wales – CF Dunphy – 1B O’Morrissey – 3B Gorden – C Washington – LF Aguilar – P J. Maldonado
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Michel – LF Parker – CF Newton – P Lopez

Miguel Lopez pitched a decent game, maybe for the first time this season. The Condors took some time to get to him, although Ben O’Morrissey eventually touched Lopez in the naughty spot, plating a run in the fourth. The Condors added a run in the fifth, in which Cesar Gonzalez failed to dig out a bunt by Maldonado, which contributed to the run. Lopez became stuck in the eighth, with two Condors getting on base. Meeks entered, struck out O’Morrissey and managed to extricate himself when Parker threw out Dale Wales at home on a Rory Gorden single to left. Bad news: Lopez still lost. The wholly inept Raccoons failed to get anything delivered against Maldonado, who coasted through eight innings on just three singles, before John Hatt took over for the ninth. The Raccoons had runners on the corners with Gonzalez batting, which pretty much rendered the point moot. Gonzalez’ lazy pop scored Guerin from third, but we would have needed a proper base hit, and didn’t get it, as usual. 2-1 Condors. Guerin 2-4; Lopez 7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, L (2-6);

Game 2
TIJ: 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – LF Wales – CF A. Lopez – 1B O’Morrissey – RF Sanders – 3B De Jesus – C Washington – P Caixinha
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Michel – C Mata – CF Newton – LF Kent – P Rivera

Rivera’s first start off the DL saw him offer only token resistance to the Condors’ bats. Alfredo De Jesus went deep in the second, giving Tijuana a 2-0 lead. The Raccoons scrambled to get anything done, but managed a run on two doubles in the bottom 2nd, and tied the game on a slap single by Marvin Ingall in the fifth. Rivera was somehow still pitching despite making no efforts to make the ball miss the bats. This changed quickly in the sixth, with the Condors rapping out three hits in quick succession, renewing their lead and knocking Rivera out of the game. Juan Diaz escaped runners on the corners with a sharp grounder off Sanders’ bat into the teeth of the infield that ended the inning. The Coons, now down 3-2, failed to capitalize on a huge throwing error by De Jesus that put leadoff man Gonzalez on second in the bottom 6th, and flip to the top 7th, it was GONZALEZ with a throwing error putting DE JESUS on second to start the inning. Fabulously, the Condors failed to score as well. Fairchild pitched two scoreless and we went to the bottom 9th. Richardson batted for Mata, but made a poor out. Parker then hit for Newton and – oh wonder – hit a high fly to right that just fit over the railing – tied game! We couldn’t get another run home, though, and the game went to extra innings. Blanco pitched a scoreless tenth and Ingall led off the bottom of the inning with a single to center. Hatt struck out Brady and Gonzalez and got Michel to roll out to his feet. The Raccoons left a man on in the 11th, the bases loaded in the 12th, and Daniel Miller’s second inning, the top 13th, also became his last, as Dale Wales and Mauro Granados wound him up with ringing doubles that plated a total of three runs. In the most bitter twists of irony, Miller even had to bat in the bottom 13th with the bench expended in their entirety, and hit a ****ing RBI single. 6-4 Condors. Michel 2-6, 2B; Parker (PH) 2-3, HR, 2B, RBI; Kent 3-5; Fairchild 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Blanco 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

More extra innings, resulting in more losses, bring more fun. Not.

Game 3
TIJ: 2B B. Boyle – SS J. Barrón – RF Wales – 1B O’Morrissey – LF Gorden – 3B De Jesus – C Washington – CF Aguilar – P Roberts
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Michel – LF Parker – CF Newton – P Ford

This was Woody Roberts’ second attempt at setting a new career wins mark – he had left his first attempt on Tuesday in a tied game (the Condors lost eventually). He certainly started on the wrong end of things, as Clyde Brady took him deep for an early 1-0 Coons lead. The Condors seemed to make this a temporary incursion at first, with O’Morrissey singling and Gorden doubling to start the top 2nd. De Jesus lined into a double play turned spectacularly by Ingall, however, and O’Morrissey was starved at third. Roberts then crumbled badly in the third. Ford singled to right, Guerin singled to left, and Ingall walked – bases loaded, no outs. Clyde Brady up, he lined to right. Wales made a strong play while on the run and – no!! Ford had made for home, was almost there, and had to scramble back, but was OUT by a MILE. Gonzalez then professionally grounded out to end the inning. That was it for offense. Ford and Roberts settled into shutdown mode for the next innings, with only one single (off Ford) through the sixth, after which the teams had combined for a total of five hits in the game. Nothing happened in the seventh. When the end then came, it came suddenly, and with a characteristic booming sound – that of a no-doubt home run. With Rusty Washington on first base, Gonzalo Aguilar clubbed a massive 2-run shot to left that flipped the score and put Roberts on top. The Raccoons had their bullpen (specifically Diaz and Nordahl) incinerated for three runs in the ninth, while an unfazed Roberts completed a 3-hitter, struck out a useless Cesar Gonzalez to end the game, and claimed history. 5-1 Condors. Ford 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, L (2-5) and 1-2;

Meanwhile, we are still waiting on that 1,900th franchise win.

Raccoons (18-30) vs. Aces (17-32) – May 29-31, 2000

Let’s have another go at a similarly fatally futile team for once! With the fourth-most terrible team in baseball hosting the most terrible one, all bets were gonna be off! Posting league-worst marks in both runs scored AND runs allowed, the Aces were certainly beatable – even for the Uttercoons!

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (2-4, 4.87 ERA) vs. Rafael Barbosa (3-5, 5.18 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-3, 3.19 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (1-2, 1.30 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (2-6, 5.44 ERA) vs. Carlos Guillén (2-7, 6.22 ERA)

Gotta watch that Guillén guy, though. He no-hit us 15 years ago. And 38-year olds are having their way with the Uttercoons recently.

Game 1
LVA: LF L. Jenkins – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – 3B Combes – 2B J. Ramirez – SS Bradley – RF Wills – P Barbosa
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Michel – C Mata – CF Newton – LF Parker – 3B Caddock – P Wade

The Aces left the bags full without scoring in the first inning, but cooked Wade pretty good in the second, with back-to-back homers by John Bradley and Gary Wills, and three runs in total. Wade lingered on into the sixth inning, in which he put two on with one out and was removed for Fairchild to cover any length of the remaining game. Any length came out to one third of an inning. Emperor Constantine XI stood at his bedroom window, watching calmly as the Ottomans had breached the walls of Byzantium, and his empire-in-name was collapsing into itself. Fairchild allowed three hits, and then with the bases loaded walked three, and for good measure also drilled Bradley. Further highlights included Cesar Gonzalez pinch-hitting against George Moore in the eighth with the bases loaded and one out, and striking out on a ball in the dirt. 10-2 Aces. Michel 2-5; Mata 2-4, 2B, RBI; Newton 2-3, 2 2B; Parker 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Blanco 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

Game 2
LVA: RF Ghiberti – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – 2B J. Ramirez – 3B Combes – LF Wills – SS Bradley – P A. Rios
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Michel – 3B Gonzalez – CF Newton – LF Richardson – C Fifield – P Farley

The junction at which the Raccoons fortunes departed for the terminal disaster in this game would be destined to be Gary Fifield’s errant throw into the outfield when Bernard Combes made for second base in the top 2nd. While Farley struck out Bradley at the same moment, the errant throw allowed Juan Ramirez to score, and Farley was so aggravated that Rios was able to puncture him further with a 2-out RBI double. While Guerin tied the game with his first homer of the season in the third, Farley brought in the go-ahead run in form of Richardson with a groundout in the fourth, and Brady homered in the fifth, Farley also exhausted himself remedying other people’s errors and was washed up after six innings, leaving with a 4-2 lead after having struck out eight. After Meeks and Miller each pitched scoreless innings and each fanned a pair, Donis came out and soon had two runners on base. We were on the verge of going down once again, when pinch-hitter Luis Paredes hit a grounder to Guerin for a relieving double play. 4-2 Coons. Gonzalez 2-3, BB; Farley 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (5-3) and 1-2, RBI;

Turned out though that this was the end for .150 batter Gary Fifield. He was demoted officially the following morning, and we called up 35-year old veteran Freddy Jackson to provide actual, competent backup to Julio Mata. Jackson had 1,090 career hits, mostly for the Miners and Condors.

Game 3
LVA: CF Ghiberti – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – 3B Combes – RF J. Ramirez – 2B Bradley – LF McCormick – SS Joseph – P Guillén
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Michel – C Mata – LF Richardson – CF Newton – P Lopez

Lopez and his dead arm tried their best against the Aces. A Combes sac fly gave them a lead in the top 3rd, while the Raccoons didn’t even get a man on base until Lopez singled in the bottom of the inning. The Raccoons then left the tying run on third base in Mata in the bottom 5th when both Lopez and Guerin struck out, and Lopez was instantly annihilated with three hard hits to start the top 6th. He left down 3-0 with Bradley on second base and one out, a situation in which Dan Nordahl managed to force Bradley home with a bases loaded walk to Antonio De La Parra. All the while the Raccoons were looking for a third hit in the contest. The only run they would eventually get out of one of those pesky 38-year olds didn’t award an RBI as Richardson bought it with some collateral damage in form of two outs in the seventh. The Aces then sent their sorry excuse for a closer, Charlie Deacon, for the ninth, and instantly the Raccoons were in the game with a walk to Brady and Gonzalez reaching on Deacon’s error, which brought up Michel as the tying run with no outs. Deacon walked him on four straight balls, and Mata was next in line. Don’t stir him, shake him!! Both Mata and Richardson only managed RBI groundouts, leaving fate in the .212 bat of Chris Parker, who hit for Newton and masterfully looked on as Deacon struck him out with fastballs down the middle. 4-3 Aces. Mata 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Violent frustration with his efforts – which led to three walks in this game – made Dan Nordahl and his ERA, which lingered just short of nine, the next victim of cleansing operations. He was demoted to AAA and replaced with Manuel Martinez. Nordahl was packaged with Jason Kent, who was sent down in exchange for Albert Martin, who had by now clubbed 11 homers in St. Pete and was considered warm enough to return. Michel would now be a pinch-hitter, while Gonzalez was declared auxiliary outfielder in addition to his titles of “makeshift third baseman” and “most useless bloke our budget can buy”.

Raccoons (19-32) @ Loggers (34-19) – June 2-4, 2000

The Loggers were rubbing their hands so hard, cackling with glee and eager to show us their second-ranked offense and fifth-ranked pitching staff (but carried by a lights-out bullpen), they had little black flocks all over their palms.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (1-4, 5.17 ERA) vs. John Woodard (5-1, 4.52 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-5, 3.62 ERA) vs. Roberto Herrera (6-4, 4.58 ERA)
Scott Wade (2-5, 5.31 ERA) vs. Juan Rodriguez (4-5, 6.42 ERA)

Nominally, this is manageable for the Raccoons. Well.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Gonzalez – LF Richardson – SS Guerin – C Mata – CF Newton – P Rivera
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 3B R. Morales – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – CF Fletcher – C M. Vela – 2B J. Perez – P Woodard

Rivera didn’t even hold up for one inning and got torched for three runs at a rapid pace. You had to give him kudos for driving in a pair with the bags full in the top 2nd after Luke Newton had failed, but – oh my. Rivera was knocked out in the fourth when Morales singled to push the score to 5-2, and that he didn’t lose the game was only credited to Woodard being almost as bad, and the Raccoons getting a break in the seventh. Down 6-3, Martin and Gonzalez reached to open the frame. As Bubba Cannon came out and retired Daniel Richardson, the runners moved up. Guerin then came through with a sharp single up the middle, both runners scored, and Fletcher threw home, enabling Guerin to go to second, from where Mata could score him with another single up into center. Tied at six, Newton walked, and then Freddy Jackson made his Raccoons debut as pinch-hitter for Daniel Miller, who had surrendered a run in the bottom 6th. Jackson struck out, however, and the Raccoons failed to take the lead. Meeks barely survived the bottom 7th, leaving a pair stranded, before the first two Raccoons in the eighth got on. Gonzalez followed, but of course failed and grounded to get Martin forced out. Runners on the corners with one out became bases loaded when Ricardo Medina plunked Richardson. Then Guerin hit into a double play. It looked like it wasn’t meant to be. The Raccoons weren’t meant to win. Ever again. In the top 10th then, Ingall was on third with one out. Martin hit a shy fly to center, and Ingall was in no mood to keep playing forever in vain hope for a run that would otherwise never be scored. Now was the time for men – for patriots! – to rise to the occasion, to take the banner and march on with pride, right into the smoke of cannons! He tagged and dashed, and narrowly avoided Fletcher’s grape shot – SAFE!! Donis came out for the bottom of the inning, and 0-17 Pedro Benitez pinch-hit for an infield single. The Loggers would however not get the ball out of the infield in this bottom 10th. The defense did its dirty work and helped a struggling Donis over the finish line. 7-6 Raccoons. Ingall 2-6, 2B; Martin 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Richardson 3-5; Guerin 3-5, 3 RBI; Diaz 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Meeks 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Next banishment. Jose Rivera and his 25c-per-bushel stuff were shipped out to St. Pete. Since he was out of options, this required designating the league ERA champion from TWO YEARS AGO for assignment. I couldn’t see other teams jumping onto his 5.77 ERA though.

We called up right-handed reliever Dan Epps for the rest of the weekend, because I wanted to get Bob Joly back up, but he was due to start Saturday, the day of our middle game in Milwaukee. Epps is a former fourth round pick by the Scorpions in 1994. He throws a dead straight fastball, so he’s little more than a stopgap solution for a few days.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – LF Richardson – 1B Martin – CF Newton – P Ford
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – C M. Vela – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – 3B R. Morales – CF Fletcher – SS J. Perez – 2B Baker – P Herrera

The Loggers took the lead in the first on a wild pitch by Ford, before a fielding error by Hiwalani had the Coons score two runs in the top 2nd. The joy was short-lived. Very short-lived. Ford started the bottom 2nd by drilling Morales. Fletcher singled, and he then walked Perez and Baker in succession to tie the game. While Herrera flew out, a run scored. Miguel Vela would eventually be a good host to Ralph, who was new in the league, and showed him around in the park – the left field bleachers, precisely. Not even two innings played, 6-2 Loggers. Ford was left in, loaded the bases once more in the third, and was then purged. Orlando Blanco threw a saving anchor as he got Herrera to line straight to Guerin who managed to convert for a double play. While the Loggers failed to strike against Blanco in the third or fourth, they pounded on Dan Epps, who in his debut was charged with two runs. The Loggers fans, long assured of a win, were hoping for their most sharpened battle axe, Bakile Hiwalani, to hit for a cycle, as he had doubled off Rivera, singled off Blanco, tripled off Epps, and led off the bottom 8th against Manuel Martinez – but had to settle for a line drive single to left. They nevertheless loaded the bags with no outs against Martinez, who was removed for Fairchild, who in turn waved all the runs in – and more. After a bases-loaded walk to Román Reyes Hiwalani had a good chance to come up again, as Fairchild was burning brightly. But Hiwalani came up with first base open. And no! Not you! NOT! YOU! As Fairchild issued four very wide ones, the home crowd got upset and started to litter the foul ground with debris, and at least two full cups of beer were hurled at Clyde Brady. After Cruz flew out to left to end the inning, the Raccoons went down in order in the top 9th in record time and then emptied the dugout in a hurry to barricade themselves in the clubhouse. 14-3 Loggers. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Brady 2-4, RBI; Martin 4-4, 2B; Blanco 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, IR 3-0;

I feel tired. And yet I can’t sleep anymore because of these Uttercoons.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Mata – LF Richardson – CF Newton – 3B Andresen – P Wade
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – C M. Vela – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – CF Fletcher – 3B J. Perez – 2B Baker – P J. Rodriguez

With increased police protection, both teams scored a run in the first, before Hiwalani singled home the go-ahead run in the third. Wade was looking more and more helpless, an impression that increased once a Guerin error cost another run in the fifth to bring the score to 3-1. In the top 6th, the Raccoons had two men on, but Newton lifted a soft fly to left – and Hiwalani made another error. That scored a run, moved two runners into scoring position, and the Loggers elected to walk Andresen to have Rodriguez, who had struck out eight Raccoons with his 6+ ERA stuff, face Wade or a pinch-hitter. Wade had already whiffed twice, but the bullpen couldn’t stand another prolonged struggle, and so Wade had to bat, and stunned and silenced the crowd with a single up the middle to take a 4-3 lead. Bubba Cannon entered and removed Guerin to end the inning. The lead lived zero innings, as Bartolo Hernandez’ 2-out, 2-run double put the score back right, 5-4 home team. The Racocons drew three 2-out walks in the top 7th, but Newton flew out and nobody scored. The rest of the game saw Richardson injure himself on a play, Miller surrender a run that was booked on Blanco, and the Raccoons being **** all around through eight. Then in the ninth, they faced Robbie Wills, who walked Martin and Brady, and a Baker error loaded them up with no outs. Parker and Newton scored single runs to tie the game. With two out and two on, Donis had to be hit for after pitching the eighth in a presumably lost cause. Cesar Gonzalez came out with a bat, even holding it the right way, ran a full count, and FOR ONCE hit a single that scored Mata. Guerin drove in another run to make it 8-6. The only arm remaining in the bullpen dangling from a decently warm body was Meeks’, so he was tasked with the bottom 9th. Although the repulsive Hiwalani hit him for a single, Meeks came through. 8-6 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-6, 2B, RBI; Brady 0-1, 4 BB; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Clyde Brady tied the franchise record with four walks in this game.

Daniel Richardson meanwhile tore ankle ligaments and will miss the rest of the month. GREAT! MORE!! MORE SWINGS RIGHT INTO THE NUTS!!!

In other news

May 22 – BOS OF/1B Dave Reid (.260, 2 HR, 19 RBI) has broken his elbow and figures to miss most of the remainder of the season.
May 24 – SFW INF/RF/CF Ramón Garza (.372, 3 HR, 19 RBI) will have to sit out for three weeks with a strained back muscle.
May 25 – SFW 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.325, 5 HR, 35 RBI) has two hits in a 3-1 loss to the Cyclones, connecting nevertheless for a 20-game hitting streak.
May 27 – SAL OF Jeff MacGruder (.310, 6 HR, 30 RBI) hits the DL with a broken finger and should be back by the All Star break.
May 27 – The Loggers announce a 2-yr, $2.2M extension signed with 37-year old closer Ricardo Medina, who was 371 career saves.
May 28 – The same day Woody Roberts in Portland became the first pitcher in ABL history to win a 273rd game, something else was done for the first time in the league: PIT LF/RF Jeffery Brown (.279, 0 HR, 9 RBI) hit safely for the 3,500th time with a third inning single off L.A.’s Rafael Zaragoza in the Miners’ 3-1 win. The 38-year old Brown, the 10th overall in the 1979 draft, and covered in accolades like the 1982 FL ROTY award, the 1988 and 1994 FL Hitter of the Year awards, three Gold Gloves, and eight All Star selections, is in his 20th season in the majors, 17 of which came with the Capitals, with whom he also won the World Series three times. Brown, a true iron man, has never missed more than 25 games in a season and continues to play every day in Pittsburgh. He is a true hero of the game of baseball!
May 29 – OCT OF Joey Humphrey (.367, 4 HR, 20 RBI) is out of the lineup with an oblique strain and could miss a month.
May 30 – Another day in the ABL, another record for the ages: Andres Ramirez (0-0, 2.59 ERA, 14 SV) sits down the Pacifics to protect a 3-2 Cyclones win, claiming his 700th career save in the process. The 40-year old Ramirez, taken 14th overall in the first round of the 1977 draft by the Warriors, has appeared in 1,507 games for seven different teams, amassing 1,786 strikeouts while pitching in relief for 24 years. Asked whether he wanted to challenge for 800, the Cuban southpaw laughed and wondered aloud how long team owners would want to pay for someone of his age when they could have younger guys pitching. Ramirez won three World Series in his career with the Warriors (1978), Wolves (1988), and Capitals (1997).
May 31 – The hitting streak of Dave Heffer (.327, 5 HR, 37 RBI) reaches 25 games. The 28-year old Warrior contributes one hit in a 5-3 loss of the Warriors to the Rebels.
June 2 – The Wolves get the better of Heffer, ending his hitting streak at 26 games. The Warriors lose 5-4, too.
June 2 – NYC Anibal Sandoval (7-3, 3.18 ERA) 3-hits the Indians as the Crusaders squeeze out a 1-0 win.

Complaints and stuff

While the team – lost in translation between egregiously incompetent pitching and infamously fruitless hitting – as a whole drifts dead in the water, we proudly announce that we have finalized a contract extension with Neil Reece, who will receive $5.2M over four years. Let’s hope he manages more than 58 AB a year until 2004… The deal includes a no-trade clause. (firmly hugs Reece) Till Death Do Us Part, Neil! TILL DEATH DO US PART! (Neil’s eyes are about to pop out) Oh. Neil. Watch that groin of yours.

I noticed how our pitching staff is composed in a majority of pitchers that I would have banished for excessive ERA values a few years ago. That was however, when we regularly had enough money to ship in quality replacements.

Also, Nuno Andresen again demanded more playing time. He told me after the middle game rout in Milwaukee, where the Raccoons had almost been skinned, flagellated, or worse, by the home crowd, but I think he wasn’t meaning playing in that hostile environment, old men love tranquility after all, but in general. Well, he shouldn’t be batting .208 as long as we can field a few .220 batters!

This repeated bitching about things! It pisses me off! Where I come from, there’s a term for that. Andresen is a Motzkuh! [motts-coo] There, I said it! Motzkuh! What it means? It’s a cow that keeps on mooing about the grass not being green enough, the fence not pretty enough, and the weather is too cold, and –

Oh well. Life sucks. (But so does death)

Odd stat #1: of our current pitchers, Daniel Miller is the most dangerous batter, hitting for an .834 OPS with five RBI in 31 AB, including three extra base hits. Can he possibly play a semi-compentent left field? The arm should be there…

Odd stat #2: of all the 306 players that have ever worn the brown shirt, only the following nine used all five vowels in their names: Raimundo Beato, Juan Berrios, Daniel Dumont, Conceicao Guerin, Mario Guerrero, Yoelbi Maurinha, Tetsu Osanai, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jesus Taramillo;

Aren’t English names just lame?
(Aren’t I just insane?)

[Westheim]

You never have quite the feeling that it gets hectic in Portland, or … or things change. You know. The Raccoons constantly suck, and suck pretty hard. And we start pretty much every week now with a banishment or with DL’ing another slightly productive player. (While I wouldn’t call Neil Reece *slightly* productive, he has had less than 60 AB’s this year…)

Mad stat: Neil Reece has not played in more than 14 of our 54 games this year. He has managed 0.6 WAR in these 14 games – in which the Raccoons played .500 baseball, and if you exclude the two games he left hurt in their early stages, they have played .583 ball in his games – which would have meant he was playing on a pace to achieve somewhere between 6 and 7 WAR for the year. OF ALL THE OTHER TURDS on the roster, only THREE batters have managed a higher WAR (plus two pitchers), despite playing in thrice as many, or even more games, as Neil Reece. These players are, sorted by WAR: Randy Farley (2.0), Concie Guerin (1.4), Marvin Ingall (1.2), Clyde Brady (0.9), and Ralph Ford (0.7). Why don’t we just shoot the rest?

Well, for starters, we DL’ed Daniel Richardson for the month, and re-added Jason Kent. We also sent down Dan Epps, and recalled Bob Joly. By the way, nobody claimed the $750k wreck Jose Rivera, about whose WAR we will not talk in public, and he was assigned to St. Pete. Y’know, $750k buys a very good sports car, and if you drive that off the cliff……

Raccoons (21-33) @ Indians (23-34) – June 6-8, 2000

The Indians were either riddled with horrible luck or were throwing games intentionally. They were 7th in runs scored, and 8th in runs allowed, with a -19 differential. How do you manage to be 11 under .500 with a -19 run differential!? I had no clue. We had split a 4-set very early in the season, and if the Raccoons managed to win this series, we’d jump up to FIFTH place in the division.

And the jokes will only get better from here – promised.

Projected starters:
Randy Farley (5-3, 2.89 ERA) vs. Steve Holcomb (3-6, 4.78 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (2-7, 5.56 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (6-6, 2.08 ERA)
Bob Joly (1-1, 1.74 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (3-5, 4.15 ERA)

All right-handers, and we might see three more right-handers on the weekend. You know, just when all the left-handed bats have dropped to the side…

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Gonzalez – LF Parker – C Jackson – SS Guerin – CF Newton – P Farley
IND: SS Matthews – RF Alston – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – C Paraz – 2B J. Garcia – 3B Whaley – CF Maguey – P Holcomb

If not for a wild pitch by Holcomb, who alternated wild and deadly innings in a start that lasted only six outings despite him only surrendering one run – THAT one run – the Raccoons hadn’t scored at all early in the contest. Their batting was mostly pathetic, with only Parker plating another run, in the eighth, and they left the bags loaded twice, once with Farley, and once when Andresen hit for Parker against lefty Arthur Joplin in the ninth. Farley had pitched not 100% dominant, but extremely controlled shutout ball at a quick pace the entire game. The biggest scare resulted from his own throwing error in the fifth inning. There was no way he was not pitching the ninth, although Donis’ eyes were begging. Nope, this is Randy’s. 2-hit, there was no way the Indians were coming back. Jamal Chevalier grounded out to Andresen, who remained in the game at third base. So did Adrian Matthews. That brought up Jose Valdez, who hit a soft single to right. Okay. Mound conference, but Randy was not going to give up the ball without a fight. Then he walked Brown. Oh ****. Next was Lopez. He was matching Lopez’ bat, so it was pointless to bring Donis *now*, since Lopez would counter him. Randy’s 2-0 pitch was taken high and deep to left. Jason Kent wasn’t gonna get it, but he got a very favorable bounce off the wall for a quick throw. The Indians sent Brown, the tying run, around third. Guerin’s relay to Freddy Jackson, who launched himself at the sliding Brown, and he is … --- OUT!!! 2-1 Raccoons. Martin 2-4; Parker 2-4, 2B, RBI; Guerin 2-4, 2B; Parker 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-3);

Like I said. Th-There was n-no way the Ind-Indians were going to c-come b-ba-back. (shivers)

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF Brady – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – LF Parker – SS Guerin – CF Kent – P M. Lopez
IND: SS Matthews – RF Alston – C Cicalina – 1B D. Lopez – LF Quintela – 3B Whaley – 2B Chevalier – CF Maguey – P Park

For a while it seemed like Miguel Lopez would actually pitch a decent ball game and the Raccoons would be in the race to claim the game as a whole. While Lopez allowed an Adrian Matthews homer in the third inning to fall 1-0 behind, and the Coons were doing absolutely nothing against Park, it was still only a 1-0 game. Then came the bottom 5th, Lopez was completely destroyed and the Indians moved out to a 5-0 lead, including another homer by Matthews. The Indians also destroyed Daniel Miller for good on the way to a crushing victory, while Chang-se Park pitched a 3-hitter. 8-0 Indians.

If Daniel Miller wasn’t out of options, I would demote him now. But I am a little bit less certain that he would go unclaimed as I had been with Rivera.

Also, his stuff is great. He throws 98. But … it just doesn’t work out for him anymore. We will watch this a little bit longer, for the rest of the month maybe. If it doesn’t get better than his Tamburrino-esque 7.40 ERA soon, however, he has to go. It would kill me, perhaps, but … plus, he is a free agent this fall. At this point, we would not re-sign him anyway.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Mata – LF Parker – 3B Andresen – CF Newton – P Joly
IND: SS Matthews – 3B Whaley – 1B M. Brown – LF D. Lopez – C Paraz – 2B J. Garcia – RF Quintela – CF J. Valdez – P Alba

Both teams were scoring early. While the Indians took Joly out for a run in the first, and in the third, the Raccoons were up 4-2 after four due some unusual clutch hitting by Ingall in the third (2-run double) and Guerin in the fourth (2-out RBI single). All seemed well with Joly until the seventh rolled around. Matthews hit a single, and then Brown’s grounder to third was not converted by Andresen, putting runners on the corners. David Lopez reached 50 RBI for the year – with the Raccoons fielding nobody with more than 26 (Brady) – with a booming moonshot to left, which gave the Indians a 5-4 lead. Although Diaz replaced Joly instantly and walked a pair, the Raccoons somehow wiggled out when Quintela grounded out against Miller. Ingall led off the eighth with a double off Iemitsu Rin, who then walked Martin, and Brady grounded to right to load them up for Mata. The youngster struck out, and if not for a passed ball on Urbano Cicalina, the Raccoons would not have scored, since Jackson whiffed in place of Parker, and Andresen flew out. Now, Cesar Gonzalez entered in the #9 slot and drew a 1-out walk in the ninth. When Guerin doubled to deep left, he ran, ran, ran, and was barely safe across home. The Raccoons had a lead, and now was Donis’ time to shine. In a quirky move, once he had surrendered Whaley and Brown, Lopez was walked intentionally to pitch to Cicalina. And it COULD have worked out. But the third pitch hit the catcher, and the Raccoons went down in flames – a familiar appearance by now – with singles by Ron Alston and Carlos Quintela. 7-6 Indians. Guerin 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

I …

I can’t find words.

Raccoons (22-35) vs. Blue Sox (30-29) – June 9-11, 2000

Despite playing over .500 by the slimmest of margins, the Blue Sox held a share of the lead (with the Buffaloes) in an incredibly poor FL East. All other teams in there were at least four below .500, and it wasn’t just a strong FL West, but a strong Continental League, which at this point had taken more than dozen games away from the Federal League in just the first session of interleague play.

The Blue Sox were posting a mostly .500 record, while playing average baseball, with a +11 run differential, a 6th-ranked offense, and 4th-ranked pitching staff. Their bullpen had a worse ERA than their starters, so maybe if we got those out early …?

Projected starters:
Ralph Ford (2-6, 4.30 ERA) vs. Dennis Fried (5-4, 5.63 ERA)
Scott Wade (2-5, 5.37 ERA) vs. Jim McDowell (0-0)
Randy Farley (6-3, 2.66 ERA) vs. Javier Cruz (3-3, 3.66 ERA)

That’s another three right-handers. McDowell, 31, will make his first career start. He had three relief appearances with the Bayhawks in the mid-90s. Meanwhile I would start a guy out of position for the first time in ages. I can’t even remember the last time it happened. But between Gonzalez, Andresen, and Caddock I can’t even break even in WAR terms at third base. Is it time to fire Andresen, trade Gonzalez for a bag of baseballs, and call up Mike Crowe? Is it THAT far??

Game 1
NAS: LF F. Jones – SS Townsley – 3B Catalo – 1B R. Vargas – CF Hensley – 2B P. Edralín – RF J. Douglas – C F. Hernandez – P Fried
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Mata – 3B Michel – LF Parker – CF Newton – P Ford

Ralphie didn’t cut it. The first three batters hit singles off him, and the former Warrior John Hensley doubled them all home in the top 1st. Ford got booked for two more runs in the sixth. Both him and Fried had struck out six through five innings, but it was the ex-Coon who wasn’t defeated right out of the gate. Fried, whom we gave up for a bag of bagels almost ten years ago, humiliated the Raccoons on their own field, and allowed two meager hits through eight innings. The horrible Blue Sox pen almost made a mockery out of the contest in the ninth, but the Raccoons were too terrible to even take advantage of a balk, a wild pitch, and fastballs belt-high down the middle. 5-1 Blue Sox. Ingall 2-4, RBI; Fairchild 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

At this pace, we might have the worst record in the league by the end of the week. Yay!

Game 2
NAS: RF F. Jones – C F. Hernandez – 3B Catalo – CF Hensley – 1B R. Vargas – 2B P. Edralín – LF Madrid – SS Burgos – P McDowell
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Michel – RF Brady – C Jackson – 3B Gonzalez – LF Parker – CF Kent – P Wade

This was Scott Wade’s 400th career start (his 500th game is due up later this month unless he’s struck by lightning) Bottom 1st. Debutee McDowell, barely past 30, loaded the bags with one out. Jackson struck out, Gonzalez struck out. Gonzalez would then hand the lead to the Blue Sox in the third, throwing McDowell’s bunt into the stands to award home to Alberto Burgos on second base. The Raccoons showed allrounder qualities in terms of ineptness once again. Although McDowell pitched a shoddy game and walked five, they were unable to bowl him over. Or even scratch him. It wasn’t until the seventh, that a walk to Jason Kent, who was then bunted to second by Wade, led to the tying run when Guerin rammed a triple into the right center gap. Nothing would we endorse more than an Ingall single with two down, but he grounded out. Wade pitched nine innings in 120 pitches, sitting down for good (and better or worse) with a tied score. The Coons however, had the bottom of the order up in the ninth, starting with Gonzalez. Of course, Gonzalez walked against Jose Escobar. Parker grounded into a force at second, after which Mata was broken out to hit for Kent against the left-hander Jose Escobar, who was delivering this inning. Mata was also the last batter in the inning, as he grounded wonderfully to short, and the band played on. Martinez failed to retire anybody in the 10th, Meeks walked a run in, too, and the band was done for the night. 3-1 Blue Sox. Ingall 2-5, 2 2B; Wade 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 3
NAS: RF F. Jones – LF J. Douglas – CF Hensley – 1B R. Vargas – 2B P. Edralín – C F. Hernandez – 3B Burgos – SS Townsley – P J. Cruz
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Michel – RF Brady – C Mata – LF Parker – 3B Gonzalez – CF Kent – P Farley

An awful Farley was ruthlessly torn apart by the Blue Sox with seven runs in four innings, all scored with two out and by various means, against none of which a helpless Randyboy, who walked four, had any recipe. Seven runs through four of course meant a lead of seven runs for the Blue Sox and a lost game, no matter who was pitching or – or for ****’s sake, Michael ****ing Jordan could have thrown basketballs at the Raccoonish blokes in the batter’s box and they couldn’t have ****ing hit it, let alone reach a ****ING BASE!! Through five, the Raccoons had one hit, a grounder back to him that Cruz himself had failed to field and on which Samy Michel reached first base unimpeded. It was about the same way the opposing team managed to reach base whenever Juan Diaz was pitching. After putting a man on in the eighth, he hit consecutive batters, before Fairchild came in to present a grand slam ticket to Felix Hernandez. “Closer” Antonio Donis couldn’t even close out a rout, and was booked for four more runs. 15-0 Blue Sox. Michel 2-4; Miller 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

(holds several forms in his hand, and a pen) Which is the form to file for your resignation? The blue one or the pink one?

In other news

June 5 – The Canadiens acquire 2B Horace Henry (.206, 2 HR, 5 RBI) from the Buffaloes for LF/RF Jesus Maldonado (.328, 2 HR, 11 RBI). The 38-yr old Henry had signed a 2-yr, $2.84M deal with Topeka just before this season.
June 6 – BOS 1B Glenn Douglas (.272, 1 HR, 12 RBI) has suffered a knee sprain that will keep him out of the game for about a month. The Titans compensate instantly by trading for Atlanta’s 1B/2B Jesus Zamora (.543, 0 HR, 10 RBI in 35 AB), giving up OF Luis Alonso (.259, 0 HR, 16 RBI) in the process.

Complaints and stuff

Good news of the week: 19-year old Gianni Tarquini, a Venezuelan import by Vince, who had pitched to a combined 7-23 in the last two seasons in A ball, threw a 3-hitter as Aumsville beat Orlando, 5-0. And in AA, Cesar Edralín, a 25-year old infielder, was named Batter of the Week. News reached him on crutches, for he has his right leg in a cast by now.

10 runs scored, 39 runs allowed. This is great news! I mean… this GOT to be the low point! It can not possibly get ANY WORSE THAN THAT.

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Slowly but surely, I am coming to the conclusion, that catchers’ arm ratings are purely cosmetic and complete bogus. Just ignore them. Run against whomever you want. The whole running game in itself is utterly broken.

The Raccoons for the second year in a row can’t even outpace a 50% steal success rate. How can that be, when the running is done mostly by Guerin (and last year Buell), and very selectively by others? I tend to run rarely against 16-20 arm catchers, and more often against 9-14 arm catchers. There are few catchers with lesser arms in the league, but in the third Indians game, they had Jose Paraz catching, and his arm rating is 4, and I tried to exploit that (he also caught the first game, but we didn’t get into a good position to steal then). So, mind that Paraz’ arm is a 4, and Alba’s hold is 12. Newton, a 12/19 runner, stole a pair off him, while Guerin, who is 16/20 for the running game, was thrown out in his attempt. And Paraz – with that *4* arm, and how much more than a bloody stump with a hook attached can a *4* arm be?? – had a 53% CS rate through this contest!

Then, Guerin was thrown out by Felix Hernandez in game 2 against the Blue Sox. Hernandez has an arm of *20* and has a 53% CS rate as well! How can that be??

Current Raccoons batters (and Stephen Buell) and their stealing success this AND last season combined (only as far as they were Raccoons, though!), plus their career success, and their current speed/steal ratings, which are now likely the lowest they have ever been (players without any attempts are ignored):
Guerin – 33/54 (61%) – 70/106 (66%) – 16/20
Buell – 14/27 (52%) – 46/76 (61%) – 20/19
Richardson – 5/6 (83%) – 41/54 (76%) – 14/20
Newton – 3/6 (50%) – 40/63 (64%) – 12/19
Parker – 7/8 (88%) – 10/12 (83%) – 15/15
Brady – 3/8 (38%) – 9/17 (53%) – 13/17
Reece – 2/4 (50%) – 15/32 (47%) – 12/10
Gonzalez – 1/3 (33%) – 11/19 (58%) – 9/12
Ingall – 1/1 (100%) – 2/4 (50%) – 5/11
Caddock – 0/1 (0%) – 0/1 (0%) – 9/3
Kent – 0/1 (0%) – 0/1 (0%) – 13/6

Ignore the bottom five maybe. Neil Reece was quicker in his early career, but after he ran for 0/5 in ’93 or so, I stopped using him this way. Most of his recent attempts may have come in double steal attempts trailing Conceicao Guerin. But ignore him now, and the four below him now, maybe also Parker and Brady. But you can’t tell me that a 20/19 runner like Buell stealing only 61% of all bases, with selective base stealing, makes any sense.

Excluded is Nuno Andresen, who has 234 stolen bases in 328 attempts (zero with the Coons), while always playing for the Capitals. He is now rated 9 SPE and 20 STE. I can’t access the ratings from the scouting reports from his early 20s, but I imagine the speed was higher. Nevertheless, he has a 71% success rate in his career, while potentially having a much lower speed than Buell?

This makes NO sense WHATSOEVER. It’s either broken, or the Raccoons have more rotten luck than even I was giving them credit for.