Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[pgjocki]

Absolutely incredible...is Diaz still on the roster after this performance?

[Westheim]

DIAZ?? DIAZ!!! THAT SON OF A --

(is struck in the neck by a tranquilizer bolt fired from Maud's crossbow)

Diiaaaaaaazzz ...!!!! (waves helplessly with his arms)

(Maud reloads the crossbow)

...

...

Sometimes, the game just throws you a red flag. The first game in the series was already quite the experience, and then this. Mild spoiler: the Coons actually won the game in overtime, but I was in no mental condition to finish the week, yelling insults at random...

I am yet not sure whether this is worse than the spectacular 19-walk, 9-inning bonanza they put up some 20 years back (which led directly to my first extended hiatus from the project). I found a then 125-year old NL record that they matched with that particular un-performance. Juan Berrios 2 IP, 8 BB. Gary Simmons 4 IP, 6 BB. Tony Lopez 1 IP, 4 BB. Ben Jenkins 2 IP, 1 BB.

I have yet to find any record of somebody throwing three wild pitches in one at-bat. I know the record for wild ones in an *inning* by a single pitcher is five, and four have most recently achieved by my beloved R.A. Dickey.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (64-85) vs. Bayhawks (84-65) – September 17-19, 2001

The Bayhawks had been eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday, so they were guaranteed to be mad. The Raccoons have managed to win just one of six games from San Fran this season, and are not projected to do an awful lot against the fifth-best offensive and third-best defensive team in the CL, and that team has won five straight games.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (10-13, 3.74 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (7-4, 3.69 ERA)
Randy Farley (7-10, 4.54 ERA) vs. Ricardo Sanchez (13-10, 3.35 ERA)
Cipriano Miranda (7-13, 4.13 ERA) vs. Harry Selph (16-11, 2.80 ERA)

Both Cavazos (back) and Torrez (welt near the wrist) were DTD and didn’t look like they’d see action in this series.

Game 1
SFB: RF Javier – LF Walls – CF Black – 3B B. Hall – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Perez – 1B I. Navarro – 2B Bulco – P Chapa
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – C Thomas – 2B M. Ramirez – RF Flores – P Ford

Ralph Ford was full of crap from the start, surrendering a 2-run home run to Luke Black in the first, two runs in the second, and finally another 2-run home run to Bob Hall in the fourth. Four innings, eight hits, three walks, six runs. Things like that had to be expected with the subhuman staff the Raccoons were forced to employ. The more amazing thing was that Ford was not loaded with the loss for his incompetent showing. The Raccoons had already plated three runs in the bottom 2nd, and added another pair in the fifth, both times with an RBI triple being involved in the inning, first by Ramirez, and then by Guerin. In the bottom 7th the game was already tied and there were runners on the corners with one out for an 0-3 Neil Reece, who lifted a fly to center. Black made the catch, but Jorge Defrese was sent from third base and scored. After Daniel Miller somehow brought the 7-6 lead through the eighth, we didn’t have Nordahl available, who had been used in Saturday’s blowout and then Sunday’s actual save. Manuel Martinez was selected to face the 4-5-6 batters and retired them in order with a pair of strikeouts. 7-6 Raccoons. Guerin 2-3, 3B, RBI; Martin 2-4, 2B; Flores 2-3, 2 2B, RBI; Joly 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

All good things…: Neil Reece fell dry, ending a 14-game hitting streak, and Conceicao Guerin’s season and bid for the stolen base title ended with a quad strain.

Game 2
SFB: RF Javier – LF Walls – 1B Carroll – 2B B. Hall – C G. Ortíz – CF A. Marquez – 3B Bulco – SS J. Perez – P R. Sanchez
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Roberson – SS M. Ramirez – C Mata – P Farley

When Kisho Saito was Ford’s or Farley’s age, being spotted four or five runs early was enough to let you lean back and enjoy. The opposition would not be coming back – ever. In the first inning of the middle game, the Raccoons’ left-handed batters loaded the bases before Chris Roberson rammed a bases-clearing double off the centerfield wall and went on to score on a Ramirez double. Palacios homered the next inning, and that was a 5-run lead for Farley. After three scoreless, but not amazing innings, Farley began to surrender nothing but hard contact. Some fell in, some didn't, and with two out in the fifth it was 5-2 and the tying runs were on base for Bob Hall. The pitching coach went out, reminded Farley that the bases were full and the guys in the red-and-white shirts were the bad ones, and Farley’s first pitch to Hall was wild. Hall lined out to Palacios eventually, but once the sixth commenced, the tying runs were in scoring position in the blink of an eye with an Ortíz single and a Marquez double. Farley was removed from the game and thrown from the top of the grandstands, while Marcos Bruno wiggled out of the jam with only the lead run scoring. The Raccoons hung onto that 5-4 lead by the barest thread, with the bases being loaded in the top 8th and only another nifty play by Palacios saving the score. The Raccoons loaded the bags in the bottom 8th with one out. Desperate for a good result, we gave a bat to Cavazos to hit for Juan Diaz in the #9 slot. He flew to left, just barely enough for a sac fly. 6-4, Sharp batting, and he launched the relieving bomb, a 3-run homer that just managed to escape the yard in left center. 9-4 Raccoons. Sharp 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Palacios 3-4, BB, HR, RBI;

It’s difficult to know what Daniel Sharp really is. He’s not a nifty third baseman. He’s not a leadoff hitter. He’s not a base stealer. He’s not a cleanup guy. What the heck is Daniel Sharp?

Game 3
SFB: RF Javier – LF Walls – 1B Carroll – 3B Foster – CF A. Marquez – 2B I. Navarro – C McDaniel – SS J. Perez – P Selph
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Roberson – SS M. Ramirez – 1B Heart – C Mata – P Miranda

Miranda went up against the game’s most recent no-hitter author, and a pitchers’ duel broke out. Neither team did anything even closely resembling hitting for six innings, with both Miranda and Selph spinning 2-hit shutouts, and not walking anybody either. When Jesse Foster hit a 1-out double off the right center wall in the top 7th it woke up quite a few thousand people at the park. Marquez singled, putting runners on the corners, by far the biggest threat of the whole game. Navarro’s groundout left the runners pinned, and Miranda then came back to punch out Dana McDaniel and keep the shutout going. The Coons got a 1-out double off their own by Brady, and the game’s first walk was intentional and to Roberson. Ramirez grounded out, advancing the runners, and Al Martin hit for .197 non-threat Max Heart. He sent a soft grounder to Ismael Navarro at second base, which Navarro lobbed to Carroll – who couldn’t catch it! The ball bounced into the dugout, and the Raccoons had two runs out of the blue. There was no reason for euphoria, though. Jose Perez doubled to start the eighth and then scored on Sharp’s 18th error of the season. Before anyone knew it, the Bayhawks had the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners and Martinez replaced Miranda, but gave up the game-tying single to Dave Carroll. Diaz came in to face Marquez, but the Bayhawks brought Luke Black to hit. Diaz’ first pitch was wild, too, and so was the third. And the fourth.

And the fourth.

Unfathomable.

The Bayhawks took a 4-2 lead with Selph still dealing in the bottom 8th, which was probably a mistake. The pitchers’ ether had been disturbed. Diaz, the abominable piece of ****, had torn the stuff continuum. Selph put a man on, then Palacios put him down with his second homer of the series, tying the score. The game went to extras, when Palacios was on third with one out and Brady batting. Reece was on first, so a double play was a likely outcome, but Brady lifted one out to left. It kept travelling and went deeper than at first thought. Tom Walls made the catch at the warning track, but that still enable Palacios to casually come home with the winning run. 5-4 Raccoons. Reece 3-5; Brady 2-4, 2B, RBI; Kent (PH) 1-1; Miranda 7.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

Three wild pitches IN ONE AT-BAT. Now I have seen everything. Diaz is the most unable, inept [here came more insults which have been redacted, thankfully] that has ever disgraced this brown-as-poo uniform, and we have a log of 326 players, 300 of which were most horrendous most of the time!

Gah!!

And still, they swept a team that would still be in playoff contention if the Thunder weren’t so damn good.

Baseball. Sometimes, you just can’t understand it. You just can’t.

Raccoons (67-85) @ Indians (70-82) – September 21-23, 2001

In theory, we can make a move for third place against the offensively inept Indians, with their second-worst offense in the CL, scoring 3.7 runs per game. We are 8-7 against them this year, and lost the season series only once since 1990.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (6-6, 5.27 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (6-16, 5.06 ERA)
Carl Bean (9-13, 4.52 ERA) vs. Chang-se Park (14-13, 3.30 ERA)
Ralph Ford (10-13, 3.96 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (11-17, 4.13 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – SS M. Ramirez – C Defrese – P M. Lopez
IND: CF Maguey – SS Matthews – C Paraz – LF D. Lopez – RF J. Valdez – 3B Whaley – 2B M. Jones – 1B J. Clark – P J. Diaz

The first start for Lopez in about a month was nothing to look back to. The Indians were up 3-0 after the first two innings, having scored one run themselves, with the other two counters being gifted to them equally divided between a Sharp error and a Lopez balk. Lopez left in the seventh, with Bruno conceding another run for him. The Raccoons had not done anything in seven innings, scattering five hits and three walks to achieve shutout status. The bottom came out of the bullpen in the bottom 8th between Bruno, Perez, and Joly, while the Raccoons took good care to not accidentally score. 6-0 Indians. Sharp 2-5;

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Torrez – C Thomas – SS McLaughlin – P Bean
IND: 2B Montray – SS M. Jones – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – LF Alston – 1B J. Garcia – CF J. Valdez – RF Lugo – P Park

Phil Montray tripled off Bean and scored on a single by Art Stevens (Jones had left with an injury in the top 1st) – and Carl Bean is trailing again! Amazing! How does he do that!? Bean’s bunt in the third inning was fielded to second by Chang-se Park, but McLaughlin beat out the throw and the Raccoons had a pair on with nobody out, a situation that Daniel Sharp favorably advanced with an RBI double, and Palacios and Reece would bring home two more runs, 3-1. There was not all that much going on for the next few innings. Certainly no Raccoons on base. Light rain visited the park during the sixth and seventh innings, but then moved on to a happier place, and Bean was still out there after seven. In the top 8th, Palacios got on to lead off, and then the supposed battery hacked itself out in quick succession. Bottom 8th, Art Stevens got on as the first man up, before Jose Paraz ended Bean’s hopes and dreams with a home run to center. Once Juan Diaz made an appearance that brought the Indians close to winning the game, Scott Wade struck out Juan Valdez to escape this eighth inning of hells, and also pitched the ninth starving Jose Lugo on third base and bring extra innings upon us. The Coons had two on in the tenth when Neil Reece double-played them out of that chance, and Bob Joly started the bottom of the frame with a walk to Paraz, and quickly loaded the bases with two more walks. Well, there was no point in bringing in actual pitcher NOW. Jesus Garcia drew the fourth walk to walk off the Indians. 4-3 Indians. Sharp 3-5, 2B, RBI; Wade 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Joly and Diaz. I made an appointment with a specialist for them.

That man is a tanner.

Game 3
POR: LF Torrez – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – C Mata – P Ford
IND: SS A. Stevens – 2B J. Ramirez – LF D. Lopez – RF J. Valdez – CF Maguey – C P. Fernandez – 3B A. Garcia – 1B J. Clark – P Alba

With the Raccoons leaving a few runners in scoring position early, the Indians used double power to take a 2-0 lead with solo shots by Art Stevens and David Lopez in the third inning. One run came back on an Al Martin homer in the top 4th, and when Mata led off the fifth with a double, things looked good, yet he was left on third base. In the bottom 5th, Palacios dropped a pop by the pitcher Alba, which didn’t turn into a run, and when Palacios made ANOTHER error in the next inning, Ford couldn’t bear it anymore and scored the Indians’ third run with a wild pitch. In the seventh, the Coons had nobody on with two down, and why hit for Ford now when there’s no hope? Ford chopped his second freak hit of the day, and then Edgardo Torrez finally logged a hit in his 12th career plate appearance, a single up the middle. Palacios then grounded to Ramirez, whose throw to first went wide and into the Indians’ dugout, spilling a few bats and balls. That awarded the Raccoons a run, and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position for Neil Reece. Beloved Neil singled up the middle past a launching Ramirez, and that plated two runs! Even Reece was scored after two more singles – a fine example of 2-out terror! Ford now had to pitch with a lead, freaked out again, and Marcos Bruno ended the seventh for him. Then Daniel Miller failed to deal with the eighth, putting two on with two out. Dan Nordahl came on right here, went to 2-2 on pinch-hitter Jose Paraz, before the catcher grounded a ball back to him. Nordahl picked it, threw to first – or more past it. Now the Indians were laughing, plating one run and putting the go-ahead runs in scoring position. Jesus Garcia walked before Phil Montray flew out to Torrez in left. The Raccoons got two runs off the Indians’ bullpen in the ninth with Brady and Ramirez driving them home, giving Nordahl a comfy 3-run cushion for the bottom 9th, which was led off by Stevens. Nordahl went to 2-2 on all batters he faced in the inning, including strikeouts to Stevens and Ramirez, before David Lopez grounded out to McLaughlin at short. 7-4 Raccoons. Reece 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Brady 2-5, 2B, RBI; Martin 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Ford 6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (11-13) and 2-3;

Danny Nordahl might be a pitcher with potential (carefully worded), and even a fast runner, but oh my god is he giving me headaches…

In other news

September 23 – Going down to the wire with the Titans, the Loggers lose RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.303, 2 HR, 61 RBI) to a partially torn labrum. Ramirez is out for the rest of the year.

Complaints and stuff

So, fourth place looks like it will be a lock for us this season. However, it will be a fourth place owed to the weakness of others rather than the strengths of ourselves.

We have shut down Nick Brown completely for the year (barring most unforeseeable circumstances). He was awful in his last start, but has also tossed 180 innings this year while missing most of April recovering from a ruptured UCL suffered in May 2000. We’ll need him next year, no need to use him up this year. He pitched to a .351 BABIP during his first sniff at the majors, so that 1.44 WHIP should be taken with a grain of salt. He pitched 41.2 innings here, allowing 41 hits and 19 walks against 50 strikeouts. The only thing bothering me heavily is the seven home runs allowed. This might stem from a lack of movement. 99-101 mph is awesome, but sometimes it won’t help.

Andrew Schaefer’s season stats for San Francisco: 5-1, 65 IP, 2.34 ERA, 24 BB, 75 K. Why do I even give a ****?

We’re running up on conclusion of the ABL’s 25th season, so it’s a time to reminisce.

Franchise leaders in hits collected (total career hits if different):
1st – Daniel Hall – 1,886
2nd – Neil Reece – 1,680
3rd – Tetsu Osanai – 1,548 (2,069)
4th – Mark Dawson – 1,313 (1,913)
5th – Ben O’Morrissey – 1,180 (1,945)
6th – Jorge Salazar – 1,142 (2,137)
7th – Matt Higgins – 961 (972)
8th – David Vinson – 871 (1,193)
9th – Marvin Ingall – 799 (919)
10th – Conceicao Guerin – 774

Concie kicked Pedro Sánz, a part of the abysmal early Coons, from the top 10 just over two weeks ago. Now he’s injured.

Franchise leaders in strikeouts (total career K’s if different):
1st – Kisho Saito – 2,322 (2,800)
2nd – Scott Wade – 1,417
3rd – Logan Evans – 1,022 (1,237)
4th – Jason Turner – 997 (1,399)
5th – Miguel Lopez – 927
6th – Christopher Powell – 774 (837)
7th – Wally Gaston – 684
8th – Grant West – 673
9th – Juan Martinez – 511 (556)
10th – Randy Farley – 505

The top 6 are starters (or were for most of their careers), while the next 6 were relievers before Randyboy started axing through them. He has already passed Richard Cunningham, Daniel Miller, and Jackie Lagarde this season.

25 years of ABL baseball, that’s also 25 years of Raccoons baseball. Maybe we might want to think about nominating a team of the quarter century, maybe even a full roster, five starters, seven relievers, two catchers, six infielders, five outfielders – if we can find that many players that have not annoyed us too much for the past generation. If you have any suggestions, a full roster or a partial one, submit them please.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (68-87) @ Canadiens (62-93) – September 24-27, 2001

The season series is 8-6 in favor of the Fuzzballs, a decent swing from our 2000 5-13 drubbing, but we need at least a split on hostile soil to nail down the season series. Should we get swept by the 8th-best offense and 9th-best pitching in the league, we might actually finish the season behind them, which is never a desirable thing to do.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (8-10, 4.62 ERA) vs. Cal Holbrook (10-7, 4.47 ERA)
Cipriano Miranda (7-13, 3.96 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (11-9, 3.96 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (6-7, 5.23 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (8-14, 4.18 ERA)
Carl Bean (9-13, 4.49 ERA) vs. Jose Dominguez (8-18, 5.13 ERA)

After three right-handers against the Indians, that’s four more right-handers. And why isn’t anybody testing young arms?

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Torrez – SS Morris – C Mata – P Farley
VAN: SS A. Simon – C Clemente – RF Velasquez – 1B I. Gutierrez – 2B Butler – LF T. Wilson – CF Wheaton – 3B A. De Jesus – P Holbrook

The Coons struck first, with a 2-out RBI single by Martin that plated Sharp, who had led off the game with a double. That lead didn’t live long, because Farley happened to us before soon, and Tony Velasquez gave the Elks a 3-2 lead in the bottom 3rd with a score-flipping 2-run homer. The score would get temporarily get re-tied by Edgardo Torrez’ first career home run in the sixth inning, but Farley and Mata gave up four stolen bases to the Canadiens, contributing to another run in the bottom 6th, and with two out and Dave Wheaton on third base, Farley was singled off by Cal Holbrook, 5-3. The top 7th saw some muscle flashed by the Critters with both Danny Sharp and Clyde Brady hitting home runs. Miller and Diaz tumbled through the seventh and the Elks put the go-ahead run on third base against Scott Wade, but with one out Alfredo De Jesus popped out to George Morris and Wade got out of the mess. Two out in the top 9th, Reece and Martin were on the corners when Wade’s turn came up in Torrez’ vacated slot. Chris Parker came out to hit against lefty Michael Campbell, and lined a single into right to break the tie, making the bottom 9th Nordahl time. He got Simon out before Antonio Clemente doubled over Neil Reece. Manny Gabriel had been installed at short for defense and became the focal point. Both Velasquez and Gutierrez singled past him – and both times the Raccoons didn’t get the out at home: Nordahl blew another game. 7-6 Canadiens. Sharp 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Brady 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Martin 2-5, RBI; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI; Mata 2-4, 2B;

Nordahl is 19/27 in saves/opportunities. Talk about a strong franchise closer…

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Cavazos – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Parker – C Thomas – SS M. Ramirez – P Miranda
VAN: SS A. Simon – C Clemente – RF Velasquez – 1B I. Gutierrez – 2B Butler – LF T. Wilson – CF Wheaton – 3B A. De Jesus – P Norris

All of a sudden the Canadiens drew 22-year old right-handed rookie George Norris from a hat. Norris was on his third cup of coffee, making his fifth career appearance and third career start in the Bigs. While he certainly proved hittable, the same was true for Cipriano Miranda. Ivan Gutierrez put the Elks up 2-0 in the first inning with a booming home run, but the Raccoons put up a 3-run third and led 4-3 in the sixth when Gutierrez hit a line drive double off a struggling Miranda, who then left the game with something being very wrong with his arm, it seemed. The troubled Raccoons bullpen imploded instantly, with both Vega and Perez unable to close out the inning, before Scott Wade gave up the first career home run of Jacob Morgan, which put the Canadiens up 7-4. Palacios hit a homer, tying Martin for the team lead with 24, in the seventh, 7-5, and in the eighth the tying runs were on with one out. Brady hit for Ramirez, walked, and Joly was hit for by another lefty in Jason Kent to face right-hander Pedro Alvarado. He grounded out, a run scored, but Sharp knotted himself up after that. We faced Anthony Duhamel in the ninth, down 7-6, and this was a closer with more losses than Nordahl! Cavazos got on, Martin got on, and then Parker – flew out. 7-6 Canadiens. Sharp 2-5, 2B, RBI; Palacios 2-5, HR, RBI; Cavazos 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Martin 2-5; Parker 2-5;

Neil Reece hacked for the first golden sombrero of his career in this game. Oh well, then the Canadiens will TAKE the season series, because who on this team even gives a ****?

Cipriano Miranda had a stiff back, which was in itself not that bad, but he was hampered by it. He would have been up for the season finale on Sunday, but we will look for a replacement for him.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Cavazos – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – SS McLaughlin – C Defrese – P M. Lopez
VAN: 1B D. Davis – 3B A. De Jesus – RF Velasquez – SS Butler – CF P. Taylor – C Esquivel – LF Wheaton – 2B J. Zamora – P Dickerson

Lopez struck out seven in six innings of work, but also gave up seven hits for four runs, including a 3-run home run to Bob Butler in the third inning. The Raccoons, who usually handled Daniel Dickerson rather well, didn’t get into scoring position until the fifth inning, where not even in the picture of the Canadiens’ romp to turn the season series around in their favor. Reece drove in Palacios with a 2-out single in the sixth, but that 4-1 deficit felt much larger. In the eighth then, we had Sharp and Palacios get the inning going with singles. If that was not progress! Neil Reece sneaked a single just past a diving Butler at short, loading them up with no outs. Dickerson remained in there, with Cavazos grounding out to first on the first pitch he saw, plating one run. Roberson popped out to shallow center, bringing up Martin with two out. Dickerson was STILL in there. And it cost the Elks: Martin went deep with a 3-run shot to left center, and the Raccoons took a 5-4 lead! We got an add-on run in the ninth. This time, Nordahl remained in the pen, with Marcos Bruno getting the call. After retiring Zamora, Bruno allowed a single to Antonio Clemente, then walked a pair – and another one. 6-5, three on, one out, it was obviously way too late, but Daniel Miller replaced Bruno, who had just gone mental. He struck out Bob Butler on three pitches, before lefty Tom Wilson hit for Phil Taylor. No, it’s Miller. The alternative would be Diaz. A ball, and then Wilson hit a ball hard to right. Cavazos ran after it and the ball actually curved towards him – and he made the catch! 6-5 Raccoons. Palacios 4-4, BB; Reece 3-5, 2 RBI; Martin 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Fifield 1-1;

We have locked down fourth place with this nailbiter, and are three behind the Indians. The Loggers and Titans are deadlocked at 101-58. They will both play on foreign soil on the weekend, the Titans in Indy and the Crusaders in Vancouver.

Game 4
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – LF Cavazos – RF Brady – 1B Heart – CF Torrez – SS M. Ramirez – C Mata – P Bean
VAN: SS A. Simon – C Clemente – RF Velasquez – 1B I. Gutierrez – 2B Butler – LF T. Wilson – CF Wheaton – 3B A. De Jesus – P Dominguez

Miguel Ramirez became the second player to hit his first career home run in this series, hitting a solo shot in the second inning. Bob Butler put the game back into a tie with a homer off Carl Bean in the bottom 2nd, though. The Coons’ top half of the lineup produced two runs in the top of the third, which Bean rode for a little while. Not all was sugar for the Coons’ assumed top hurler (or once assumed half of a pair of top hurlers, the other half of which had even suffered demotion this season), despite some strikeouts along the way. In the bottom 6th he loaded the bases and the Canadiens got a run on a Gutierrez sac fly to come back to 3-2. While Bean hurled another two scoreless frames, an insurance run did not materialize for the Raccoons, leaving Nordahl to take care of the 3-2 lead in the bottom 9th, with Velasquez leading off, and he hit a double. The inevitable was then dragged out unbearably long with Gutierrez flying out to Brady, but not deep enough for the runner to move up a base, and then Butler popped to Palacios for the second out. Righty Jose Esquivel pinch-hit with the season series on the line and drew a 5-pitch walk. Dave Wheaton was next, batting .349, but whom to we want to send to face that left-handed batting youngster? Diaz? Hah. Nordahl pitched, the count went to 2-2, but this was not a day for strikeouts. Wheaton grounded hard to short, but Ramirez made the play. 3-2 Raccoons. Sharp 2-4, 2B; Bean 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (10-13);

This series surely didn’t lack excitement. I have to change, I’m sweating.

Raccoons (70-89) @ Crusaders (60-99) – September 28-30, 2001

This series featured a horrible team and a slightly less horrible team. Yet, the slightly more horrible team led the season series 8-7. Would be nice to tie that up, boys. They really didn’t score runs all year long, being held to 3.6 runs per game. Not that the pitching had been spectacular, allowing 4.6 counters per game.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (1-0, 4.61 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (13-17, 4.03 ERA)
Ralph Ford (11-13, 3.91 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (6-13, 4.76 ERA)
Randy Farley (8-10, 4.73 ERA) vs. Mike Nelson (3-6, 5.80 ERA)

We will indeed not face a single left-handed starter in the last three series of the year.

Garcia was called up to replace Miranda, who couldn’t go on Sunday. He was obviously rested and we slotted him in at the top of the series.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – LF Cavazos – 1B Martin – RF Torrez – SS M. Ramirez – C Mata – P F. Garcia
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – 3B Walker – RF A. Johnson – 1B Breach – CF Latham – SS Rice – C F. Gonzalez – 2B Rigg – P F. Garza

Daniel Sharp figured in the runs in the opener, scoring when Francisco Garza committed a 2-out balk in the third for the first run of the game. In the fifth he launched a 2-run homer that brought the score to 3-0. Garcia had been rock solid through four innings, before putting two men on in the bottom 5th, but stalled them. In the sixth, two Crusaders were on again with one out and left-handers batting. Garcia surrendered Alan Breach, but then balked the runners into scoring position with Brian Latham batting, another lefty. This was trouble. Latham drew a walk, bringing up Gary Rice, a switch-hitter, who drilled the first pitch to the right side. And Martin made a sprawling catch on the liner, keeping three Crusaders stranded! In the seventh there were two on again, but the Crusaders failed to score yet again. In turn, the Furballs faced Toru Fujita in the eighth, who loaded the bags with no outs on two walks to Reece and Martin and a single to Cavazos between those. Torrez hit a 2-run double and the Furballs scored four total in the inning, which allowed a recently shaky Garcia to attempt another inning with a 7-run cushion. With two out, two New Yorkers got on again, and this time Garcia got the hook. One pitch by Manuel Martinez netted a grounder by Felix Gonzalez to Palacios to end that inning – the fourth in a row in which the Crusaders left a pair on base. Al Martin hit his 26th bomb of the year in the top 9th, bringing the score to 9-0. The Crusaders left only one runner on base this time around… 9-0 Coons! Sharp 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Cavazos 2-5; Roberson (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Garcia 7.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-0) and 2-3, BB, 2 2B;

What a pleasant surprise this was! Garcia might be worth some consideration when it comes to a starter’s job for next year. Although… he was only 9-6 with a 4.24 ERA in AAA, striking out 163 batters, but surrendered 28 home runs.

Milwaukee beat Vancouver 7-1, while the Titans broke up the Indians in the ninth to win 6-2, so those two remain tied, and we are now one game behind the third-place Indians.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Roberson – SS McLaughlin – C Thomas – P Ford
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – C Olson – CF Gonzales – 1B Rush – SS Walker – 3B Rigg – RF V. Gonzalez – 2B Rice – P Connor

A 2-out, 2-run double by Clyde Brady gave the Coons a lead in the first inning, but that was before Ralph Ford was brutally whacked by the offensively harmless Crusaders, who plated four runs in the bottom 1st, the last run coming in on a balk. In the top 3rd, Brady came up with two on and two out again. And wouldn’t you know it, this one was not a double – it was a home run! 5-4, all runs bradied in clydely! The Crusaders were on the edge of coming back from that blow in the fourth, when Sharp made a critical error, in the fifth when Ford put two on, and in the sixth, when they loaded them up, but Rice popped out to short, and they never scored. Neither did the Coons, but Brady was a triple shy of the cycle, but struck out in the seventh. Ford put two left-handers on at the start of the bottom 7th. Sooner or later, this had to go wrong. It went wrong as soon as Daniel Miller came in and surrendered a 3-run homer to Mike Olson. Now it was the Raccoons to leave runners on base at the most inopportune moments, runners on the corners in the eighth, to be precise, and nobody even got on in the ninth… 7-5 Crusaders. Brady 3-4, HR, 2B, 5 RBI;

That’s it with third place, since the Indians beat the Titans, 5-4, on a walkoff single by Ron Alston off John Bennett. Good news for the Titans: the Canadiens beat the Loggers in ten innings, 2-1, on a walkoff single by Jose Esquivel, defeating Robbie Wills, the CL save leader.

Also, Concie lost a share of the stolen base lead in the CL when Daniel Silva (grmbl) swiped his 34th bag of the year in the Titans’ loss.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Torrez – SS M. Ramirez – C Mata – P Farley
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – C Olson – RF A. Johnson – CF Latham – SS Rice – 1B M. Berry – 3B Rush – 2B Rigg – P Nelson

While Nelson faced the minimum through three, but gave up a hit, Farley faced one over the minimum without giving up a hit, and neither team scored. In the top 4th, both Sharp and Palacios singled to get things going. Reece grounded out, moving up the runners, but now Martin blooped a single into left that plated both Critters on base. Clyde Brady opened up the score a bit with his tenth home run of the season, 4-0 Coons. And INSTANTLY Randy Farley was blown off the mound by the Crusaders, who hit two triples in the bottom 4th and plated three runs off the lackluster starter. Farley didn’t get any better, either, just barely surviving the fifth, and in the sixth he allowed a double to Johnson before Palacios’ error plated the tying run. The innings escalated rather quickly: Farley put another man on before Martinez came in, but walked Ed Rigg to load the bases. Alan Breach then pinch-hit for a grounder to first, that Albert Martin somehow managed to misplay for two bases. Perez entered, provided no relief, and the Crusaders went on to score SIX RUNS in the inning, and ALL were unearned. And thusly ended the Raccoons’ season, with a complete and total meltdown on all fronts. With another run on Wade and two on Diaz in the eighth, the team showed its best side right at the end. 12-4 Crusaders.

Both the Loggers and Titans lost on the final day of the regular season, setting up a game #163 on Monday.

In other news

September 25 – The Buffaloes claim the FL East with a 7-3 win over the last-place Capitals, breaking a 19-year playoff drought for their third playoff appearance. Their drought included finishing fifth or sixth ten of eleven years between 1986 and 1996.
September 25 – In Dallas, Stars owner Anthony Fields dies suddenly in a local hospital. Control of the ABL franchise falls to his oldest son, Anthony Fields jr., who is said to be very controlling in financial matters, but lenient in terms of management style.
September 26 – TOP SP Chris York (17-9, 3.55 ERA) 3-hits the Capitals in a 5-0 win.
September 28 – Washington’s LF/RF Jesus Rivera (.337, 33 HR, 143 RBI) has hit in 20 straight games, knocking three base hits with a home run in a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh.
September 29 – Rivera’s streak is already over, as the Miners hold him dry in 4 AB on Saturday, ending his streak at 20 games.
September 30 – Topeka’s veteran reliever Lawson Steward (8-5, 3.52 ERA) has suffered a torn ligament in his elbow and could miss up to a full year. This could well be the end of his career, since the vesting option he had for 2002 will not trigger, since the 38-year old did not finish 40 games for the Buffaloes.
October 1 – Bryce Hildred and Marc Padgett face off in the Loggers-Titans tilt to decide the CL North. The Loggers lead 5-2 in the bottom 9th when Rudy Garrison hits a 1-out RBI single off Robbie Wills, who walks Gonzalo Munoz with two outs, and then falls to Josh Thomas’ first-pitch, 2-run double that sends the game to extra innings. There, Daniel Silva walks off his team with a bases-loaded single off Gabriel Garcia. The Titans qualify for their fourth playoff appearance, the first three coming consecutively from 1997 to 1999.

Complaints and stuff

On Thursday, the Raccoons were finally able to hold a press conference announcing a 4-year, $3.2M contract extension with Conceicao Guerin, who signed late on Wednesday. This buys out his last year of arbitration eligibility, and will keep him in Coon City for his age 28-31 seasons. He’s a career .282/.334/.371 batter with 116 stolen bases and excellent fielding, and in a career spanning 705 games he has gained 9.6 WAR from batting and 7.3 WAR from defense. With four full seasons and two partial ones that works out to about 3.7 WAR per full season. I will buy into THAT.

Franchise leaders in saves (career saves if different):
1st – Grant West – 522
2nd – Wally Gaston – 94
3rd – Daniel Miller – 55
4th – Scott Wade – 53
5th – Kevin Hatfield – 50 (52)
6th – Jackie Lagarde – 45 (85)
7th – Gabriel De La Rosa – 41 (138)
8th – Tzu-jao Ban – 39 (53)
9th – Antonio Donis – 29 (33)
t-10th – Richard Cunningham – 26 (173)
t-10th – Juan Martinez – 26 (27)

Yeah, like you know how when we had Grant West, we wouldn’t bother about the closer’s job for more than a decade? The other half of our history, we’ve switched closers every six weeks.

[Westheim]

2001 PLAYOFFS

For the second straight year, a 100-wins team didn’t make the playoffs, with the 102-61 Loggers being shut out by the 103-60 Titans in a game 163. Said Titans hands down had the best pitching in the Continental League, ranking first in all categories but bullpen ERA, walks, and strikeouts, and didn’t rank worse than third in any of those. However, they have lost two of their starters, Sergio Gonzalez and Steven Snyder, to injuries. Disregarding that, they still have a fantastic playoff rotation with Jason O’Halloran (23-10, 2.83 ERA), Jesus Bautista (18-12, 3.49 ERA), Juan Sanchez (13-6, 2.32 ERA), and Bryce Hildred (8-4, 2.47 ERA), who started only 16 games as injury replacement.

By a rather stark contrast, their offense is unspectacular. They had four double digit home run hitters, but none had more than 14. They have a single batter over .300 in Rudy Garrison, and they ranked merely sixth in slugging. However, this is a quirky team. They led the CL in walks, as well as in stolen bases. Daniel Silva won the SB title in the CL with 35 bags, and they can build a lineup with seven batters having an OBP of .347 or higher – and in many cases, much higher. They won’t out-drill you, but they will slowly encroach on you and suffocate you whilst you’re unable to move.

The Thunder are everything but this. They also enjoyed strong pitching, ranking close to the Titans, and had the best bullpen in the CL. Their four playoff starters all had ERA’s of 3.25 or less, and all won at least 14 games, with lefty Fabien Armand (17-9, 3.25 ERA) winning the most games on the staff. In addition to that, their offense played successful big ball baseball. They ranked either first or second in all categories of offense, notably except strikeouts (9th), and stolen bases, where they were dead-last. The lead-footed Thunder instead show off an array of dangerous power hitters, with outfielders Joey Humphrey (.363, 10 HR, 72 RBI) and Dan Henry (.296, 19 HR, 85 RBI) each slugging .490 or more, and eight players on the playoff roster slugged .425 or higher. They don’t have that one uber-slugger, but they have a very dense lineup that is hard to hack through.

However, they come in ailing. Closer Jimmy Morey is out for the playoffs, as is infield stalwart Bob Grant. David Vinson is nursing a sore thumb, but is on the roster. Morey might well be the biggest loss of all, having closed 282 games for the Thunder since 1994. His 2.9 K/BB can not quite be replaced by Sancho Rivera, despite his 2.25 ERA and saving 16 games with Morey on the shelf.

This is a difficult series to judge. The Titans might be in a lot of trouble to score a sufficient number of runs, although they always say that good pitching beats good hitting. Hard to say anything here. The Thunder might have a nose length’s advantage, but the series should go deep either way.

In the Federal League, the 112-50 Warriors killed every other team for four months, but finished the season a rather pedestrian 29-26 in the final two months. Their strength is on the pitching side, their staff occupying most first place slots for the Federal League except home runs allowed (2nd) and strikeouts (5th). They only allowed 614 runs all year and had two 20-game winners in Pat Cherry (21-9, 2.99 ERA) and Lucio Munoz (20-9, 3.47 ERA), with Johnny Collins (16-4, 2.53 ERA) not to be forgotten. In the back end of the pen, Ryosei Kato, Jose Sotelo, and William Henderson all had ERA’s of 2.17 or less, won an additional 22 games in the late stages, and Henderson saved 50 contests.

Their offense is built around being on base. Only two hitters, 1B Ramón Echevarría (.318, 17 HR, 69 RBI) and Ruben Melendez (.212, 16 HR, 90 RBI) hit more than seven home runs. The lineup has holes, however. Despite all the power, catcher Melendez struck out over 100 times and OPS’ed a meagre .644. Injuries have claimed outfielder Javier Encarnación and infielder Jaime Mateo, thinning out the bench significantly. They can not expect much help from their pinch-hitters. Also, they lean heavily towards right-handed batting, with only switch-hitter Echevarría and left-hander Luis Arroyo offering respite against right-handed pitching, plus ancient Hjalmar Flygt, another lefty, who can’t field anymore at 38.

The good news for the Warriors might be however that the 90-72 Buffaloes won 22 games less, and their left-handed pitching is in trouble anyway, and might easily burst into flames. The Buffaloes are not a good team by any stretch of the imagination. Their batters drew the most walks and their pitchers had the most strikeouts in the FL and that is it for top 3 rankings for them. They had the fortune to top a very weak FL East by going 36-19 in the last two months of the season.

Dan George had the best ERA for a starter for them, going 12-8 with a 3.30 mark, and they have only one reliever, Nesto Martinez and his 2.44 ERA, with a better mark. Even Roberto Delgado, who saved 36 games, allowed 3.79 earned runs per nine innings. Their offense is not very promising either. While they are good at getting on base, they have stolen the second-fewest bases, and also didn’t hit many home runs. It is not a terrible lineup, it won a division after all, but it is not a lineup that can be expected to do any structural damage to the Warriors’ pitching. The lineup around Lionnel Perri (.267, 16 HR, 99 RBI) and Matt Brown (.267, 13 HR, 74 RBI) leaves a lot to be desired, and they also miss their quirky shortstop Gabriel Rodriguez, who batted .327, and setup man Lawson Steward due to injuries.

Everybody expects a walkover.

2001 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Buffaloes @ Warriors … 2-3 … (Warriors lead 1-0) … TOP Jon Merritt 4-4, 3B, 2B, RBI;
Titans @ Thunder … 2-3 … (Thunder lead 1-0) … BOS Daniel Silva 3-5, HR, 3B, 2B, RBI;

Buffaloes @ Warriors … 4-7 … (Warriors lead 2-0) … SFW Luis Arroyo 3-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI, including walkoff grand slam off Roberto Delgado with two out;
Titans @ Thunder … 11-1 … (series tied 1-1) … BOS Jesus Bautista 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W;

Warriors @ Buffaloes … 2-7 … (Warriors lead 2-1) … TOP Manny Ramos 9.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, W;
Thunder @ Titans … 3-14 … (Titans lead 2-1) … BOS Rudy Garrison 3-4, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; BOS Daniel Silva 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI;

Warriors @ Buffaloes … 0-7 … (series tied 2-2) … SFW Pat Cherry is incinerated in 5-run seventh
Thunder @ Titans … 9-4 … (series tied 2-2) … OCT Tomas Cardenas 2-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI;

Warriors @ Buffaloes … 4-5 … (Buffaloes lead 3-2) … TOP Oliver Guzmán 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;
Thunder @ Titans … 2-3 … (Titans lead 3-2) … BOS Jason O’Halloran 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W;

The Buffaloes are what!?

Buffaloes @ Warriors … 1-0 … (Buffaloes win 4-2) … TOP Manny Ramos 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W; TOP Pablo Ledesma 1-3, BB, RBI;
Titans @ Thunder … 1-0 … (Titans win 4-2) … BOS Jesus Bautista 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W; OCT Vaughn Higgins, 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, L; BOS Daniel Silva 2-4, RBI;

The Buffaloes did WHAT???

…

2001 WORLD SERIES

With the odds-on favorite Warriors toppled in a stunning upset that has the whole country behind the charming, plucky Buffaloes, who came from 0-2 to win the series in six games, this series seems wide open all of a sudden. The Titans blasted through the Thunder in games 2 and 3 to make up an early deficit before Jesus Bautista pitched a game 6 shutout to seal the deal in the CL. Both game 6’s were dazzling 1-0 nail-biters.

It could go on this way in the World Series. With offense at a premium for both teams, pitching could carry the day, and Manny Ramos can win only so many games for the Buffaloes. The pitching is clearly better on the Titans’ side, who are in their third fall Classic after 1997 and 1998, winning over the Blue Sox in the latter year. The Buffaloes’ only World Series was a unsuccessful attempt at beating the Indians in 1981. To make things even worse for the Buffaloes, they lost outfielder Jesus Maldonado (.312, 12 HR, 72 RBI) to injury, opening the gap to the Titans even further. The Titans are heavy favorites to win the title, with many analysts seeing the series finish in Kansas.

But they DID beat those Warriors!

…

Buffaloes @ Titans … 3-7 … (Titans lead 1-0) … BOS Daniel Silva 2-5, HR, 3B, RBI;

Buffaloes @ Titans … 6-0 … (series tied 1-1) … TOP Dan George 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W;

Titans @ Buffaloes … 13-7 … (Titans lead 2-1) … BOS Daniel Silva 4-6, 2 2B, 3 RBI; BOS Vern Kinnear 3-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; TOP Manny Ramos is crushed in a 6-run first inning

BOS Josh Thomas was ejected after he slammed down his bat after getting called for a third strike in this game 3. He went right for the umpire and yelled in his face, and then started to swing at Topeka’s Pablo Estrada when he tried to pull him back from the umpire. The ABL office has suspended Thomas for the rest of the postseason.

Titans @ Buffaloes … 4-5 … (series tied 2-2)

Titans @ Buffaloes … 1-3 … (Buffaloes lead 3-2) … TOP Dan George 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W;

Game 6 will be between the recently ravaged Ramos and Boston’s Jason O’Halloran.

Buffaloes @ Titans … 4-7 … (series tied 3-3) … BOS Rudy Garrison 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; BOS Daniel Silva 1-4, HR, 4 RBI;

Silva’s second-inning grand slam knocks out Ramos with consecutive 6-run outings on him after that stellar FLCS. Can the underdogs come back from this? Chris York will have to chew through Jesus Bautista.

Buffaloes @ Titans … 2-3 (10) … (Titans win 4-3) … TOP Chris York 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K; BOS Ramiro Román 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W;

In the bottom 10th, Roberto Delgado walks Daniel Silva, who is bunted to second by Garrison. Mark Austin is walked intentionally, and Andres Manuel is down 1-2 before the runners take off to execute a double steal. The shaking Buffaloes hold a lengthy mound conference that results in an intentional walk to Manuel, bringing up Vern Kinnear, who puts the 1-0 pitch in play, a really slow trickler up the first base line. Delgado, whose momentum will take him almost straight to home plate, takes time to get there, and when he gets the ball, facing to first, he stands on the line and Kinnear blocks the throw, while Silva is coming home behind him.

2001 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
BOSTON TITANS
(2nd title)

[Westheim]

The picture of 32-year old Vern Kinnear, big yellow #16 on his blue uni, stomping on first base with the right fist raised high graces the Portland Agitator’s front page as well.

Portland fans got the message.

Carlosito didn’t.

Our 2002 budget will be barely less constricting than the 2001 budget, with $16.36M available, about $600k more than last year. The rumors of the Raccoons getting sold were entirely unfounded. (The Wolves got sold, though...) Which is terrible, because the Raccoons will remain terrible. It is October 22, 2001 – and we have already completed the 2002 season with a losing record.

While this is technically the sixth-smallest budget in the ABL, the difference to the third-smallest is miniscule, and beneath that are the perpetually perplexingly poor-playing Knights, and then the horrendous Pacifics, who have been slashed to $12.96M by their owners after repeated BS moves by routinely-fired GM’s. The team is still forecast to bleed money this season, and turn a loss of up to $4M.

More losses: Scott Wade knew he was finished, and called it a career. After 582 games (421 starts), going 170-141 with 53 saves and 1,417 strikeouts in 2,924 innings, Wade will go fishing. He is the third significant player to have spent his entire professional career in the Raccoons’ system, joining Daniel Hall and Grant West.

It also makes Daniel Miller the last player active during our first championship run in 1992, with Neil Reece the only other asset that was then in a full time role (but missed the World Series due to injury).

Around the sport, the Hall of Fame had one inductee this season, PIT SP Leland Lewis, who was the second overall pick in the 1979 draft and spent the next 16 1/2 years in the Bigs with the Miners. He had an unsuccessful attempt to prolong his career with the Aces in 1996. In total, he went 238-208 with a 3.45 ERA, and 2,664 strikeouts. He was a 6-time All Star and was the 1982 FL Pitcher of the Year, the year the underdog Miners went to the World Series, but lost. He won 11 or more games for 15 consecutive seasons, but never won 20.

In Cincy, 1977 first round pick Andres Ramirez ended his career at age 41, after having closed *770* games in a career spanning the entire history of the ABL, donning the uniforms of seven different teams (three of them twice), and winning two rings with the 1978 Warriors and 1996 Capitals along the way.

A few other players retired, most notably perhaps BOS SP Esteban Román and WAS OF Jesus Árias.

What on earth are we supposed to get done with this fraction of a budget? The Warriors, despite losing in the World Series every year, will be able to blow more than $27M this year. The Raccoons might be overbudget right after salary arbitration… Yes, here it comes. Another winter of selling inventory.

[Questdog]

I empathize with your plight of working with a constraining budget, but I have an idea on how to spend a little of that money.

Since 2002 will be the 10th anniversary of that wonderful 1992 squad that was the first furry bunch to earn immortality as World Series Champions, I think it would be awesome if the front office were to produce some sort of commemorative book about that team. Let's re-live those great days and see what all the significant players from that great team have been doing in the days since.

And I am sure the City of Portland and many of the local business owners would be willing to help defray the costs of such a worthwhile project.....

[Westheim]

October 3 – After getting the first set of bad news on Monday, the Loggers get hit even harder on Wednesday, with news that 38-year old MR Ricardo Medina (1-3, 2.81 ERA, 3 SV) is heading for Tommy John surgery and might miss all of the 2002 season, with his $1.16M vesting option being triggered.
October 15 – The Raccoons announce an escalating 4-yr, $3.35M deal with Randy Farley that buys out his arbitration years and one year of free agency.

After locking up Concie, I went after Randy. His 2001 was awful, but that was a team-wide phenomenon. He had four years in the Bigs, three of which were swell. There’s no reason to believe that he will not return to better form. Heck, Kisho Saito had a bad year soon after he came over to the Raccoons in the mid-80s, and we didn’t take him to the dumpster, either. Even Chris Powell’s first full year in Portland was HORRENDOUS, and he returned to head our rotation throughout the early 80s.

Originally I wanted to wait to the start of the offseason before making another move (with only one more move in the budget since our available funds for extension at our 2001 budget is close to squid), to see where we are money-wise and do a thorough evaluation of our complete 40-man roster plus meaningful prospects (like I did two or three years ago), but Randy is too good a pitcher to pass on. If you are going to pitch in the Bigs for 16 years, win 260 games and go to the Hall of Fame, you’re allowed a bad year early. And you will go to the Hall of Fame, right Randy?

Edgardo Torrez was named AAA Hitter of the Year, going .326 with 32 HR, 80 RBI for the Alley Cats before hitting .200 with 1 HR, 4 RBI in 25 AB for the Coons in September.

The look at the salary arbitration screen was sure to dash any hope that we could even keep this horrible cast together. We had six players up for arbitration, who were looking forward to collectively escalate their 2001 salaries of $2.6M all the way to $4.8M. Simple math indicates that it will be impossible for the Raccoons to match this.

Arbitration eligible players (2001 stats – 2001 salary – 2002 estimate – service time):
SP Carl Bean, 27 – 10-13, 4.41 in 212.1 IP - $800k - $924k – 4.085
2B Jesus Palacios, 26 - .290/.353/.468, 24 HR, 88 RBI, 13 SB - $650k - $1.155M – 4.019
OF Ramiro Cavazos, 27 - .284/.333/.446, 16 HR, 67 RBI, 3 SB - $480k - $998k – 4.037
LF/RF Chris Parker, 26 - .237/.302/.379, 6 HR, 24 RBI, 1 SB – minimum - $201k – 3.122
LF/RF Clyde Brady, 25 - .304/.404/.506, 10 HR, 48 RBI, 2 SB - $400k - $1M – 4.032
LF/RF Gilberto Flores, 28 - .237/.313/.362, 1 HR, 20 RBI, 4 SB – minimum - $201k – 5.135

A lot of pain is coming our way.

In addition to this, we have a pair of free agency eligible players:
SP Cipriano Miranda, 31 – 7-13, 4.04 ERA, 185 IP - $490k – type B
MR Pancho Gutierrez, 35 – 0-0, 5.65 ERA, 14.1 IP - $182k – no comp.

Gutierrez who?

Miranda would be interesting to extend because he could be comparably cheap. But we can’t even keep the players on board that we absolutely need, and we can replace Miranda comfortably with Nick Brown. It would be nice to have some backup around and start Brown in AAA, but such luxury can only be afforded by financially affluent teams.

Looking at our arbitration estimates, we currently have NO money for extensions. It is true. The offseason has started, and our budget has already been blown through.

The things I would like to do to Carlosito can not be properly put into words without alarming the authorities.

[Westheim]

In early October, I burdened Vince Guerra with paperwork. We needed a complete evaluation of our available personnel. We need to identify who is going to get us along in the near and mid-distance future – a difficult undertaking even when you can pay for all of the players on the roster. This will mostly be about culling expensive non-performers. And if we can’t find such players, we will have to cull players we love.

Again.

All players on the 40-man roster as well as actual and semi-hopeful prospects are included. They are listed with their current ratings (STU/MOV/CTL or CON/POW/EYE); prospects are listed with their current and projected ratings. In total we have 118 players spread over our four rosters and the DL. Those deemed meaningful are listed with their 2001 stats on all levels, and in case of players with a contract with their remaining contracts.

Further legend info:
EXP – Player is currently on the expanded roster
40MR – Player is on the 40-man roster, but not the expanded roster
NOR – Player is not on the 40-man roster, but not a prospect, and is rule 5 eligible
DL(x) – Player is on the disabled list (x indicates type of disabled list)
P – Prospect
P* – Prospect that will be rule 5 eligible this fall


STARTING PITCHING

RHP Carl Bean (27) – EXP – 14/13/14
Arbitration eligible ($800k in 2001)
ML: 33 GS, 10-13, 4.41 ERA, 70 BB, 153 K in 212.1 IP
Disappointed phenomenally in his first season in Portland, unable to stink up to the 212 K’s and the 20-win season with a 3.21 ERA he had for the Gold Sox in 2000. With Farley, we said that he just had a bad year. The same might well be true for Bean. However, we can only carry so many pitchers that just had a bad year and pay for them at the same time. Bean is a groundball pitcher, which might have further contributed to his struggles with us having defensively weak corner infielders.

LHP Nick Brown (23) – EXP – 20/13/6 – 20/13/10
Minimum contract
AA: 5 GS, 4-0, 2.16 ERA, 18 BB, 39 K in 33.1 IP
AAA: 16 GS, 9-5, 2.40 ERA, 45 BB, 156 K in 105 IP
ML: 8 G, 7 GS, 2-3, 4.54 ERA, 19 BB, 50 K in 41.2 IP
A former 11th round pick that missed most of 2000 with a ruptured UCL, Brown appears to be a lock for this rotation for next year, for having a magnetic arm and for being slavishly cheap. His ML numbers suffered from a .351 BABIP. His 100mph fastball has sink to it that generates a 65% GB%, making him vulnerable to a shaky infield.

RHP Randy Farley (27) – EXP – 12/16/11
Owed $3.35M through 2005
AAA: 5 GS, 2-2, 1.73 ERA, 10 BB, 50 K in 41.2 IP
ML: 29 GS, 8-11, 4.74 ERA, 68 BB, 108 K in 171 IP
His fourth year in the majors was an utter disaster, resulting in demotion mid-season. When he came back up, it was not all good, merely more tolerable. His stuff is good, he generates poor contact, but he is missing so often. We assumed him to be our #1 guy for the future, but sometimes assumptions are untrue.

LHP Ralph Ford (24) – EXP – 16/11/9 – 16/11/10
Minimum contract
ML: 33 GS, 11-14, 4.07 ERA, 97 BB, 167 K in 194.2 IP
Still trying to figure out this enigma, who improved from a truly horrid rookie season, but still didn’t live up to expectations. He tends to surrender more fly balls than most of our guys, and even though we had strong outfield defense, he got bitten. He might want to throw his terrorizing screwball more often to screw hitters. With a little less iffy control, 220 IP and 200 K would be easily attainable for him, but he keeps missing so often. Work for the pitching coach, right here.

RHP Felipe Garcia (24) – EXP – 13/11/11
Minimum contract
AAA: 24 GS, 9-6, 4.24 ERA, 40 BB, 163 K in 176.1 IP
ML: 8 G, 5 GS, 2-0, 3.60 ERA, 9 BB, 21 K in 35 IP
For a team looking for cheap players, Garcia is an intriguing option. True, he won’t pitch you into the playoffs, but that’s not really the goal in Portland. We’d be happy to get to .500, and can Garcia help us do that? Well, he might have to if we don’t win the lottery. In any case, he still has two options, so he is a very valuable asset even when stashed at AAA.

RHP Cesar Lopez (18) – P – 7/11/5 – 9/12/10
A: 11 GS, 4-1, 2.12 ERA, 22 BB, 65 K in 76.1 IP
AA: 10 GS, 5-5, 5.72 ERA, 42 BB, 32 K in 61.1 IP
Part of the Ingall/Palacios trade, Lopez was a highly touted pitching prospect before the season began. Then the season began and it quickly fell all apart for him. A level batters easily fell for his deceptive sinking fastball, but AA batters generally didn’t, and it loaded him with a truly ugly line in his resume.

LHP Miguel Lopez (33) – EXP – 11/10/12
Owed $650k through 2002
ML: 34 G, 22 GS, 6-7, 5.26 ERA, 1 SV, 56 BB, 112 K in 150.2 IP
Lopez’ career was once very promising, but was derailed by three major surgeries in less than five years. He’s merely a shell by now. A shell that might still end up in the rotation again. He generally can’t locate his stuff anymore, resulting in wildness, and when he gets it into the zone, it’s usually fairly square down the middle and easily driven. Pitching out of the bullpen did not make it any better for him, either.

LHP Frank McGeraghty (23) – P* - 13/6/7 – 13/6/10
AAA: 31 GS, 9-12, 5.80 ERA, 89 BB, 185 K in 184.2 IP
38 home runs allowed. There is really no hope that he sorts out his mess of four pitches that are all decent, but ultimately get driven to two states over.

RHP Cesar Miranda (24) – 40MR – 13/11/5 – 13/12/5
Minimum contract
AAA: 24 GS, 12-7, 5.52 ERA, 99 BB, 165 K in 159.2 IP
Completely out of control, we can’t see him ever pitching successfully in the majors. His arsenal of four pitches misses the zone everywhere, and if the hitter isn’t completely fooled, a patient approach will usually eventually net him a fastball right down Broadway.

RHP Cipriano Miranda (31) – EXP – 11/12/13
Free agent ($490k in 2001)
ML: 31 GS, 7-13, 4.04 ERA, 60 BB, 106 K in 185 IP
Acquired in trade from the Crusaders, Miranda performed more or less as expected. Safe for some nasty blowouts he was even among the best pieces in the rotation. We still can’t see us make a move to extend him, because we might easily get better and cheaper without him.

RHP Julio Romero (27) – NOR – 11/9/6
AAA: 8 GS, 2-3, 6.58 ERA, 25 BB, 46 K in 39.2 IP
Keeps getting injured, and also is not a terrific pitcher, either. Was at AAA for depth for years, but he gets progressively worse every season.

LHP John Simpson (22) – P – 12/14/5 – 14/17/8
A (SFW): 13 GS, 8-3, 2.41 ERA, 20 BB, 98 K in 93.1 IP
AA (SFW): 1 GS, 0-1, 22.09 ERA, 3 BB, 4 K in 3.2 IP
AA (POR): 11 GS, 5-3, 4.67 ERA, 41 BB, 54 K in 69.1 IP
AAA (POR): 5 GS, 3-2, 5.08 ERA, 18 BB, 37 K in 33.2 IP
Changed shirts more often than a pop singer in concert, but this acquisition for Elliott Meeks is one a decent path. Control is an issue.

RHP Dwight Williams (27) – NOR – 11/7/12
Minimum contract
AAA: 30 GS, 5-16, 6.18 ERA, 67 BB, 193 K in 201 IP
You thought McGeraghty was bad? Williams surrendered FIFTY home runs this year. Outfielders brought chairs out there to sit down – there was nothing to catch. Everything hit up was gone anyway. FIFTY home runs. We call that “depth”, chalk him up for next year’s AAA rotation, shrug, and move on.


RELIEF PITCHING

LHP Scott Boone (21) – P – 13/12/6 – 14/13/8
AA: 29 G, 17 GS, 5-10, 5.61 ERA, 1 SV, 68 BB, 73 K in 118.2 IP
Missed almost all of 2000 with radial nerve compression and seems to have lost effectiveness afterwards. He walked 28 batters in 52 innings in ’99 with a ratio close to 2 K/BB. That was not quite the case this year. To be fair, we don’t quite know what to do with him, even using him as a starter for some time.

RHP Marcos Bruno (25) – EXP – 20/13/12
Minimum contract
ML: 71 G, 5-5, 4.46 ERA, 2 SV, 50 BB, 58 K in 68.2 IP
Had a troubled rookie season and might have simply been overworked, especially in the middle of the season. We tried to keep him out of games for a stretch in August, not always to the best success. He throws fire at 98mph, but showed terrible control that don’t quite match up with his performance in the minors.

RHP Cody Bryant (19) – P – 14/12/3 – 18/14/5
A: 27 G, 0-3, 4.23 ERA, 16 SV, 8 BB, 44 K in 27.2 IP
2001 second round pick who struggled to hit the zone, but A level batters swung anyway. That might work out at the A level, but not higher up. Harnessing phenomenal stuff will be our main goal to have him achieve in the future.

LHP Ed Bryan (20) – P – 13/10/7 – 14/11/13
A: 13 G, 13 GS, 2-5, 3.14 ERA, 24 BB, 97 K in 80.1 IP
AA: 22 G, 3-1, 3.38 ERA, 1 SV, 19 BB, 28 K in 32 IP
Fourth round pick in 1999, Bryan moved up from the A level this season and was also moved to the bullpen since he can not throw anything else than a curve in addition to a 92mph fastball. That stuff may not be overwhelming, but as a left-hander he could bring himself into the conversation by next year. Vince is confident that he will reach the majors.

LHP Fred Carlton (28) – NOR – 13/8/8
AAA: 12 G, 2-1, 6.64 ERA, 1 SV, 15 BB, 28 K in 20.1 IP
Missed the latter half of the season with a strained hamstring, but the first half was no candy either. Appeared in 19 games for the Raccoons between 1998 and 1999, and was mildly horrible. Is easily hit against and often hit for distance. Vince advises to get rid of him for a bag of baseballs.

RHP Matt Cash (18) – P – 14/14/4 – 16/15/10
A: 12 G, 2-2, 2.70 ERA, 5 SV, 2 BB, 25 K in 13.1 IP
AA: 2 G, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 SV, 0 BB, 2 K in 2 IP
The #24 prospect in the league missed almost all of the season with shoulder inflammation. Pitches to poor contact with a 64% GB%. Will restart at AA, and while he might not be a future closer, he has a shot at the Bigs within two or three years.

RHP Tristan DeWinter (25) – NOR – 12/8/12
AAA: 19 G, 1-0, 3.86 ERA, 6 BB, 39 K in 32.2 IP
Tardy fastball that doesn’t reach 90mph, and little movement, adding up for being prone to the long ball. He actually surrendered more home runs than walks in 2001. Not really high on any depth chart except for cleaning the restroom in the clubhouse.

LHP Juan Diaz (26) – EXP – 14/10/8
ML: 71 G, 5-4, 3.55 ERA, 35 BB, 34 K in 38 IP
On the roster merely by necessity for the second straight year. We are actively looking into his removal, and not only since the 3-WP-AB he had in September. Vince agrees: he is so useless, we could flush him down the toilet, and nobody would notice.

RHP Dan Epps (28) – NOR – 15/5/14
Minimum contract
AA: 11 G, 0-0, 1.37 ERA, 4 BB, 35 K in 19.2 IP
AAA: 18 G, 1-2, 9.00 ERA, 8 BB, 32 K in 23 IP
ML: 4 G, 18.00 ERA, 2 BB, 3 K in 4 IP
Throws dead straight, resulting in a power surge in opposing pitching. He can throw it as hard as he wants, he won’t ever fool any batter above double-A. No reason to keep blocking roster spots with him.

RHP Pancho Gutierrez (35) – NOR – 9/14/15
Free agent ($182k in 2001)
AAA (POR): 40 G, 3-5, 2.91 ERA, 5 SV, 13 BB, 33 K in 46.1 IP
ML (NYC/POR): 13 G, 0-0, 5.65 ERA, 2 BB, 10 K in 14.1 IP
Acquired in trade from the Crusaders, he fell out of favor instantly and was dumped to AAA. We will not make a move to retain his services.

LHP Aurelio Hernandez (21) – P – 9/16/6 – 13/17/7
AA: 36 G, 2-4, 5.72 ERA, 15 SV, 22 BB, 27 K in 39.1 IP
One of Vince’s imports, from Costa Rica, Hernandez is an extreme groundball pitcher generating lots of poor contact by hitting the lower edges of the strike zone. If he hits them. That’s his main problem.

RHP Bob Joly (25) – EXP – 9/13/13
Minimum contract
AAA: 28 G, 5-4, 3.43 ERA, 10 BB, 34 K in 44.2 IP
ML: 26 G, 1-4, 5.14 ERA, 29 BB, 19 K in 35 IP
Years from now, baseball historians will endlessly marvel over how Bob Joly ever tossed a no-hitter in 2000, despite being such a terribly and endlessly flawed package of a pitcher. His stuff is poor, he doesn’t keep the ball down, he doesn’t miss the bats, either. And when he doesn’t give up home runs, he walks endless strings of batters. Any team that even considers him as a piece of their opening day roster, deserves him.

RHP Bill Lewis (27) – NOR – 15/9/13
AAA: 32 G, 3-3, 3.43 ERA, 2 SV, 8 BB, 50 K in 44.2 IP
Kind of a forgotten player, Lewis was a waiver claim off the Knights before the season began, but never got any attention whatsoever. He generates lots of fly balls however, and deep ones as well, with only a 37% GB%, and might not be well suited for the cozy confines in Coon City anyway.

RHP Manuel Martinez (23) – EXP – 19/16/10
Minimum contract
AAA: 11 G, 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 9 SV, 6 BB, 14 K in 12 IP
ML: 56 G, 3-1, 4.17 ERA, 2 SV, 26 BB, 32 K in 41 IP
Like everybody else, Martinez walked batters relentlessly in 2001. He has a devastating changeup that is hardly hittable, and his 99mph fastball has sink, overall resulting in a favorable 67% GB%. He might definitely be so much better now than his 2001 numbers show.

RHP Daniel Miller (33) – EXP – 16/16/10
Owed $720k through 2003
ML: 72 G, 1-4, 4.24 ERA, 15 SV, 43 BB, 43 K in 63.2 IP
With the retirement of Scott Wade, Miller is the longest-tenured pitcher on the Raccoons’ roster, debuting in 1991. He has also progressively gotten worse since a strong peak from 1995-1999, when he was able to hit the strike zone more often than not, and posted 4+ ERA’s in both of the last two years. It really gets worse: 2001 was the first time in his career other than a dismal 1994 that he surrendered more hits than he had innings pitched (70 in 63.2). Cornerstone of the bullpen by necessity and we’d better not trade him.

RHB Dan Nordahl (22) – EXP – 20/14/10 – 20/14712
Minimum contract
ML: 61 G, 6-4, 4.61 ERA, 20 SV, 38 BB, 49 K in 54.2 IP
I think sometimes we forget that Nordahl is only 22 years old. He’s still learning. He might be a future closer after all. He just wasn’t a closer in 2001, at all. He throws 100mph, has a nasty slider, and keeps the ball down on the ground, mostly. This is a boy to keep keying on, because he’s due a breakout season. Something that is rarely ever talked about (and even less frequently used) is his speed: he can pinch-run in certain game situations.

LHP Pedro Perez (26) – EXP – 14/11/7
Minimum contract
AAA: 16 G, 0-0, 5.22 ERA, 2 SV, 18 BB, 34 K in 29.1 IP
ML: 12 G, 0-1, 11.05 ERA, 6 BB, 4 K in 7.1 IP
Perez is one of the components of the question who on earth might be able to give us some decent left-handed relief. He is not the answer to that question. Despite throwing 97mph, he can easily be hit every which way.

RHP Lawrence Rockburn (21) – P – 10/14/6 – 12/14/12
AA: 14 G, 6 GS, 5-4, 2.62 ERA, 3 SV, 17 BB, 25 K in 55 IP
AAA: 9 G, 1 GS, 0-2, 9.45 ERA, 3 SV, 11 BB, 9 K in 13.1 IP
No, he’s really not a starter. He has some upsides, though, with a lively fastball sitting at 95mph, and an ability to generate groundballs.

LHP Mauro Rodriguez (27) – NOR – 8/12/9
AA: 24 G, 0-0, 3.68 ERA, 1 SV, 14 BB, 25 K in 44 IP
AAA: 16 G, 1-0, 7.28 ERA, 3 SV, 10 BB, 22 K in 29.2 IP
Another entry in the not-our-bullpen-lefty catalogue. Rodriguez doesn’t cut it, not even better than Diaz.

RHP Sergio Vega (21) – EXP – 17/12/7 – 18/12/8
Minimum contract
AA: 14 G, 3-3, 3.78 ERA, 4 SV, 5 BB, 26 K in 16.2 IP
AAA: 36 G, 2-3, 2.68 ERA, 22 SV, 26 BB, 51 K in 37 IP
ML: 7 G, 0-0, 4.26 ERA, 4 BB, 3 K in 6.1 IP
September callup, who did nothing to anger or please us. Has a fire arm capable of reaching 100mph, and in some way is similar to Nordahl in that both have control issues beyond the job description of a major league closer. Both also came up a year too soon.


CATCHERS

RHB C/1B Jorge Defrese (24) – EXP – 9/5/10 – 10/6/11
Minimum contract
AAA: .239/.328/.353, 5 HR, 28 RBI in 201 AB
ML: .264/.371/.340, 1 HR, 5 RBI in 53 AB
Defrese was not even the #1 choice in AAA when the 2001 season began. A ninth rounder in 1996 (the same year Nick Brown sprung out of the bottoms of the draft), Defrese made his debut largely through the failure of others (Mata), and while he did a solid job with a 101 OPS+, we see him as part of a question rather than an answer to it.

RHB C Gary Fifield (29) – EXP – 9/13/10
Minimum contract
AAA: .249/.327/.462, 15 HR, 47 RBI in 249 AB
ML: .167/.219/.250, 1 HR, 4 RBI in 60 AB
Can’t show his power in the majors, simply because he can not meet the ball in the majors. This results in him never getting anything else than cups of tea, satisfying nobody. In addition to that, he as a weak arm and is prone to errors, giving you a catching package that doesn’t give you anything but takes your money anyway. Is the most easiest to cut of our four big league catchers.

RHB C/1B Julio Mata (25) – EXP – 9/9/8
Minimum contract
AAA: .216/.294/.427, 9 HR, 30 RBI in 185 AB
ML: .167/.227/.210, 1 HR, 9 RBI in 162 AB
Whatever happened to Mata? After a splash 1999 debut, he was mediocre in 2000, and outright dismal in 2001. He couldn’t hit no ball, he sometimes couldn’t even catch no ball. He was our assumed franchise catcher, but we keep rotating the guys in and out on a weekly basis.

RHB C Mark Thomas (25) – EXP – 12/6/9
Minimum contract
ML: .253/.328/.377, 5 HR, 35 RBI in 324 AB
After starting as the backup in 2001, he quickly became the primary catcher when Julio Mata failed to out-hit his weight. Thomas is the defensively most adept of all our catching zoo, and has a good shot at carrying the starter’s job into the next season. He also has doubles power worth mentioning, hitting 23 two-basers last season.


INFIELDERS

RHB 2B Cedric Chateau (22) – P – 8/2/4 – 9/3/5
AA: .209/.279/.289, 3 HR, 19 RBI in 235 AB
Our 2001 draft is quickly looking like a disaster. Chateau failed to show both his bat and his defense, and neither his speed that he had displayed at college in his first professional season. We are puzzled.

LHB INF/LF/RF Manny Gabriel (25) – EXP – 13/4/11
Minimum contract
AAA: .286/.361/.402, 8 HR, 44 RBI in 381 AB
ML: .104/.241/.188, 1 HR, 6 RBI in 48 AB
You might think that a player that plays so well all over the field might be able to bat at least his own weight (175 lbs) and stay afloat as a super utility, but no, Gabriel didn’t even manage to do that and was swiftly demoted to Florida early in the 2001 season after coming over in a trade last winter. The only thing getting him onto our roster next April might be the fact that he’s dirt cheap to maintain.

RHB SS Rafael Galindo (18) – P – 7/1/3 – 13/3/9
A: .186/.235/.246, 1 HR, 16 RBI in 264 AB
Vince insisted on including him in the list. He is a quirky shortstop, light as a feather (155 lbs), but a mad dasher on the base paths. Problem was, he never got on base in his first professional year, after being taken by us in the eighth round of the 2001 draft. He managed to strike out once every four AB’s, though.

RHB 1B Juan Garcia (19) – P – 6/3/5 – 9/12/10
A: .218/.284/.338, 8 HR, 49 RBI in 426 AB
Puerto Rican dug out by Vince in 2000, Garcia is not quite the prototypical first baseman. Precisely, he’s not much of anything. His range is terrible, keeping him on the right corner, but at the same time he can’t drive the ball, yet still struck out 114 times.

RHB SS Conceicao Guerin (28) – EXP – 12/3/8
Owed $3.2M through 2005
ML: .283/.332/.378, 2 HR, 37 RBI in 579 AB
Missed a shot at the CL SB title in 2001, when he got hurt with two weeks to play and was stuck at 33 swipes. Generates runs by being quirky and sneaky on the base paths, coupling that with very strong defensive work at short for which he earned the Gold Glove in 1999. He will not hit walkoff home runs, but he is one of those glue type players, fixed spots on a roster that you can happily arrange your remaining personnel around.

RHB INF Max Heart (29) – EXP – 11/5/10
Minimum contract
ML: .191/.234/.255, 3 HR, 17 RBI in 157 AB
Rule 5 pick that had never played second base, and we stuck him there anyway. Did what was asked of him, but the results were poor and there’s no reason to expect improvement. He didn’t even steal bases as we expected. Well, he stole one. One. Should not hold out hopes to make the opening day roster, not even on the Issuecoons.

RHB 1B/2B Matt Love (25) – P – 10/2/6
AAA: .245/.294/.307, 5 HR, 39 RBI in 404 AB
Once promising prospect from around the corner in Beaverton that just didn’t work out at all. His power didn’t develop, and his eyes have gone worse it seems. We don’t expect to see him in a brown shirt ever, and we already had a couple of thousand “SHOW SOME, LOVE” signs printed as merchandise years ago. We’ll discard those in the landfill of our hopes and dreams, and leave Love himself there, too.

LHB 1B Albert Martin (24) – EXP – 13/13/10
Minimum contract
ML: .261/.324/.450, 26 HR, 89 RBI in 575 AB
No Tetsu for sure, but that’s not always a bad thing. For one, being Tetsu or not, he still finished second in the CL home run race that went to NYC Avery Johnson with 29 dingers. I wonder why he only hit 27 doubles in addition to that. He might have been cheated by bad luck there. One upside is that he strikes out comparably seldom when looking at other power monsters, with only 102 whiffs for him this year. Defensively, he holds his own. Being on a minimum deal one more time, there’s no reason to even discuss replacing him.

RHB INF Brent McLaughlin (29) – EXP – 7/4/9
Minimum contract
AAA: .257/.315/.363, 1 HR, 11 RBI in 113 AB
ML: .297/.386/.419, 1 HR, 9 RBI in 74 AB
Keeps reappearing. Might be an interesting choice as backup infielder rather than Max Heart, but that is about all one can imagine for a career .224 batter. His defense is strong, but he’s also not much of a runner.

RHB 1B/2B George Morris (28) – EXP – 11/6/6
Minimum contract
AAA: .298/.350/.490, 17 HR, 67 RBI in 449 AB
ML: .348/.444/.478, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 23 AB
Morris has never gotten a real chance in the Bigs, although Vince doubts that he might even approach ten home runs in a full season. His contact making abilities are too poor to have a chance at the big stage, and he is not a particularly thrilling backup option either.

LHB 2B Jesus Palacios (26) – EXP – 16/12/8
Arbitration eligible ($650k in 2001)
ML: .290/.353/.468, 24 HR, 88 RBI in 517 AB
Was a major driving force for the offense after a rocky April. Excellent defender, with his arm limiting him from doing good work at third base. Rarely strikes out. In a perfect world, you would seek a long-term extension for him. In the Raccoons’ world, you must consider whether you could find a cheap replacement.

RHB INF/RF Miguel Ramirez (23) – EXP – 9/11/11 – 9/11/12
Minimum contract
AAA: .288/.402/.518, 20 HR, 66 RBI in 330 AB
ML: .197/.263/.311, 1 HR, 13 RBI in 122 AB
Originally was part of the Ramirez/Love infield of the future, which might not happen. Well, it will not happen, because Love stinks, and Ramirez smells not much less. He can play five positions, but his contact making abilities grade out as poor.

RHB 1B Alejandro Rojas (21) – P – 8/7/11 – 10/13/14
A: .299/.407/.487, 7 HR, 23 RBI in 154 AB
AA: .228/.352/.406, 13 HR, 47 RBI in 303 AB
AAA: .222/.327/.556, 4 HR, 14 RBI in 45 AB
Came out of nowhere this season; another discovery from Costa Rica, Rojas is the prototypical first baseman. We have one of those already, but we are eager to see where Rojas is going to in 2002.

RHB 1B/3B Daniel Sharp (24) – EXP – 15/5/12 – 16/6/14
Minimum contract
ML: .301/.365/.418, 8 HR, 57 RBI in 591 AB
Icky defense (and he might do so much better at first base), but we still feel like we have third base locked down for some time. He’s not showing O’Morrisseyan or Dawsonish power from there, but he’s done enough of a good job to earn 3.4 WAR from offense this year. We won’t go into how his 20 errors cost countless games and even more WAR.


OUTFIELDERS

LHB OF/1B Chris Beairsto (22) – P – 8/10/10 – 8/13/13
AA: .373/.500/.784, 5 HR, 16 RBI in 51 AB
AAA: .226/.330/.480, 15 HR, 37 RBI in 248 AB
2001 first round draft pick that had a hard time in AAA. Vince admitted he had to downgrade him based on his struggles with entailed striking out 79 times as a professional. All hope is not lost, however, since I can consider hitting a home run every 16 AB’s in AAA a good reason to not give up on him.

LHB LF/RF Clyde Brady (25) – EXP – 13/12/14
Arbitration eligible ($400k in 2001)
ML: .304/.404/.506, 10 HR, 48 RBI in 237 AB
Tearing up his ankle on June 6, Clyde missed most of the 2001 season, but provides an excellent, almost electric package at the plate. Despite only appearing in 71 games, he batted for 23 VORP, and his defense doesn’t hurt him in right field. Keeping Clyde on board appears to be the #1 task for the offseason.

SHB OF Ramiro Cavazos (27) – EXP – 12/11/8
Arbitration eligible ($480k in 2001)
ML: .284/.333/.446, 16 HR, 67 RBI in 596 AB
Cavazos draws strength from gap power as well, hitting 37 doubles this season. His defense is excellent, although his arm is not the most potent, making him best suited for leftfield duties. With our outfield squeezed, however, he might have even better suited as a trade chip?

RHB RF/LF Jose Cruz (19) – P – 9/2/3 – 15/7/9
A: .251/.307/.341, 4 HR, 24 RBI in 311 AB
Our 2001 sixth round pick, Cruz showed some nice qualities, but also madly hacked for 86 K in those 311 AB. There is some potential there, but plate discipline has to be instilled in huge doses.

RHB LF/RF Gilberto Flores (28) – EXP – 9/8/7
Arbitration eligible (minimum contract in 2001)
ML: .237/.313/.362, 1 HR, 20 RBI in 160 AB
Rule 5 pick that even when established outfielders went down never challenged seriously for a starting spot. He needs less than two months to reach six years of service time, but I don’t think that that will happen for him as a Raccoon. He has no options but I doubt we’d cry when he got picked. His defense is okay, his arm is strong, and should he find himself on base, he can swipe a bag, too, but then again he was never on base all that often, and even then got thrown out 50% of the time.

RHB LF/RF Jochen Funck (25) – P* - 9/7/8 – 9/7/10
AA: .283/.368/.494, 20 HR, 83 RBI in 413 AB
AAA: .208/.273/.336, 4 HR, 13 RBI in 125 AB
The German kid just can’t cut it at AAA. Not having any other nice qualities and the Raccoons not quite starved for promising young outfielders, his path is leading towards the door.

SHB LF/RF/1B Dan Horning (24) – P* - 6/8/9 – 6/8/10
A: .269/.457/.500, 2 HR, 8 RBI in 26 AB
AA: .281/.405/.604, 7 HR, 20 RBI in 96 AB
In a horribly twisted way, Horning could be a leadoff hitter. He is consistently extorting walks from opposing pitchers, he has some speed, and he knows how to use those legs, too. But if you look at his swing - … ugh.

LHB OF Jason Kent (27) – EXP – 10/5/10
Minimum contract
AAA: .310/.385/.565, 12 HR, 30 RBI in 184 AB
ML: .277/.345/.400, 3 HR, 14 RBI in 155 AB
Kent’s stories is one of those sad ones no one wants to hear. A former eighth round pick he made his debut in 1997 after starting the season in A ball without ever batting in AAA. It could not go well. He has seen action in the majors every year since then, with the 155 AB we gave him in 2001 by far the most. He has never quite cut the cheese, any he didn’t do so by a mile. He might make a good backup outfielder for his versatility, but even poor teams could do so much better…

LHB OF Cal Lyon (26) – DL(60) – 9/5/3
Minimum contract
AAA: .231/.264/.470, 19 HR, 52 RBI in 334 AB
Out until next summer with a broken elbow, Lyon is currently not in the discussion for anything. You’d wonder whether he’d be in said discussion if he was healthy. While he is an agile player and strong defender, his bat is just meh. He went 3-29 in a cup of coffee in 2000.

LHB OF Rich Mason (22) – P – 9/5/6 – 9/5/7
AA: .248/.366/.406, 13 HR, 32 RBI in 315 AB
I’m not willing to discard this 2000 supplemental round pick just yet. Mason struggled with injuries all of 2001, and while Vince considers him not a thumbs up player by now, there are pieces to love. Mainly, you can love everything about him but his poor contact ability with a 28% strikeout rate.

LHB LF/RF Chris Parker (26) – EXP – 13/7/11
Arbitration eligible (Minimum contract in 2001)
ML: .237/.302/.379, 6 HR, 24 RBI in 211 AB
Was hurt some, and was horrible some last year after a promising 2000. Might get forced elsewhere by the likes of Chris Roberson. Ultimately, Chris Parker has been unable to cash in on big expectations everybody has had for him. All he does, he does merely average, and last year it was established that he was a tremendously bad pinch-hitter (0-29 to start the year).

RHB CF/LF Neil Reece (35) – EXP – 15/12/12
Owed $4M through 2004
ML: .311/.376/.446, 11 HR, 71 RBI in 540 AB
Franchise player that is on the way down from the top. His defense is letting up, but he isn’t actively costing runs yet. At the plate he has transformed a bit in the last years, away from the power hitter he was during his peak, and more towards a singles slapper, but he also hit for a career-high 30 doubles last season. So he is transforming quite a bit, but he is not anywhere near a burden to the team: his .311 average was his best since 1993.

RHB OF Chris Roberson (24) – EXP – 12/11/4 – 13/11/6
Minimum contract
AAA: .331/.368/.589, 22 HR, 70 RBI in 384 AB
ML: .312/.340/.543, 6 HR, 27 RBI in 138 AB
Flashy debut (remember Mata?), making himself a good argument towards not retaining Cavazos. He would fit into leftfield, perfectly, too, giving us a potent outfield with him, Reece, and Brady. If we can retain Brady that is. He can also steal bases, and the scouting report doesn’t quite say it all, since he also hit for 35 doubles with considerable gap power, and Vince gives him a 19 potential on avoiding K’s.

SHB OF Jesus Taramillo (26) – 40MR – 9/6/6
Minimum contract
AAA: .283/.335/.461, 7 HR, 31 RBI in 293 AB
ML: .000/.091/.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 10 AB
Can field and run like heck, but can’t bat for his sorry butt. None of his cups of coffee in the last three years failed to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

LHB OF/1B Edgardo Torrez (24) – EXP – 12/11/13
Minimum contract
AAA: .326/.433/.571, 32 HR, 80 RBI in 494 AB
ML: .200/.333/.360, 1 HR, 4 RBI in 25 AB
Minor league hitter of the year, Torrez tore up AAA pitching before getting a mixed callup in September. He is in the confused conversation for an outfield job, but Roberson was just better last year. Now, if we fail to be able to pay Brady……

RHB LF Mike Willard (23) – P – 12/2/6 – 16/2/12
A: .269/.353/.416, 6 HR, 47 RBI in 413 AB
It’s hard to imagine a position on any roster for this 2000 fifth round pick, but Vince tells me to have an eye on him. His range is limited, barring him from center, and his arm is limited, making things scarcely easier. He has no real power, but smacked 35 doubles in A ball.


This, I can glare at tomorrow in the office, while not doing ANY work. The Coons are more important.

There’s got to be a way to fix this mess. We have $16.36M available in total. Of that, $3.66M should go into scouting and development again (and that is merely last year’s budget), and we already have $1.37M locked up for staff, but three open coaching positions, so we’ll hit $1.8M or so there. That leaves about $10.9M to build a team that is mildly palatable on the field. Our 2001 payroll was around $10.8M and you saw how that played out. If all arbitration cases get their estimates, we’ll hit $12M. That is *without* Cipriano Miranda.

No, there’s no way to fix this mess.

We have FIVE players guaranteed any sort of money:
CF/LF Neil Reece - $1.3M ($4M through 2004)
SS Conceicao Guerin - $800k ($3.2M through 2005)
SP Randy Farley - $650k ($3.35M through 2005)
SP Miguel Lopez - $650k (last year of contract)
MR Daniel Miller - $350k ($720k through 2003)

That’s merely $11.92M of guaranteed contract value! Heck! The 1993 Raccoons probably had more!!

There are six arbitration cases (Bean, Palacios, Brady, Cavazos, Flores, Parker). The former four are important. Of those, I’d deem Brady most important. Although we have outfield talent, Brady is something special. If we could buy low on a long-term deal that would be swell. He made $400k in 2001. His $1M estimate is killing us. If we could meet halfway and sign an escalating 5-year deal, that would be amazing. Cavazos and Flores probably have to be dumped just to save bucks. Roberson can replace Cavazos. Flores can be replaced by your grandma.

There are currently 31 players on the roster making a minimum salary. That includes Flores and Parker, who are first time arbitration eligible. It also included a number of guys who aren’t on the roster anyway. Like Epps and Williams.

I don’t know. Is it right to key on Brady?

Is it right? Is it wrong? Am I wrong?

[Westheim]

Our relationship with Carlos Valdes in the almost 20 years he owned the team wasn’t necessarily always easy, but we got along. It was a form of mutual respect. We never had the most money in the league, but we had enough in the bank to make a key acquisition each year if we felt like it (and didn’t do something stupid).

Now, his satanic offspring is not somebody you can get around with, being as he is, lying on a pool in La Cucaracha, and not choking on his ****ing millions, which he’s not sharing with the Fuzzballs, in short: a total prick. I hate that prick. He’s like a wart on your foot. With a hair growing out of it.

A lot of late October was spent in the office, mulling our non-existing options. I turned my desk around so as to not have it face the door anymore, but rather the giant glass panel windows. Late October in Portland means rain. Lots of rain. Daily rain. All day long sometimes. You stare out into that rain, and there’s just no way out.

Clyde Brady had flown home to Texas in the first days of October (and why wouldn’t he?), but I called him a few times in mid-to-late October to check out where he was at. I wanted two things from him. A long-term deal to buy out his remaining arbitration years and as many free agent years as I could, and to undercut his 2002 $1M arbitration estimate.

The thing with escalating contracts is this: you have an issue with next year’s budget. Your salaries won’t fit in. And your players want to make millions. Out there, there are other teams that can happily pay millions. You can’t. So you have to entice them into signing a long-term deal. They won’t make millions *now*, but they will make the millions *later*. So a 5-yr, $5M deal might end up paying in succession $600k, $800k, $1M, $1.2M, $1.4M. And you undercut your salaries for next year with 200 grand here, and 300 grand there, and you fit that into your budget and … (pushes) SQUEEZE – IT IN – (shoves) REAL – TIGHT – … and everything comes up roses.

Except that it doesn’t. Nothing ever comes up roses. Always everything comes up tails. Two years later, the problem is even bigger. You can’t for your life fit all the salaries into your budget. So you cut scouting and development. You cut your minor league staff. You are still starting to lose players. Players you love. You make rule 5 picks. And then everything gets even worse.

Everything goes to ****.

The Raccoons have been doing this for almost a decade. It started in the last years of Big Carlos’ reign, when we increasingly signed players to lop-sided deals. It didn’t help. We lost David Brewer. We lost Royce Green. We lost Jason Turner. We lost Vern Kinnear.

Vern Kinnear.

And Vern Kinnear’s back and the yellow #16 and the raised fist were on the front page of the Portland Agitator, and IT WAS HURTING SO MUCH.

---

2001 ABL AWARDS
FL Pitcher of the Year: SFW SP Pat Cherry (21-9, 2.99 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Year: MIL SP Martin Garcia (20-6, 2.44 ERA)
FL Batter of the Year: CIN OF/1B Will Bailey (.328, 29 HR, 119 RBI)
CL Batter of the Year: OCT OF Joey Humphrey (.363, 10 HR, 72 RBI)
FL Rookie of the Year: DEN SP Victor Bernal (16-9, 3.45 ERA)
CL Rookie of the Year: OCT SP Luis Martinez (14-6, 2.78 ERA)
FL Gold Gloves: RIC P Doug Morrow, DEN C Johnny Johnson, WAS 1B Raúl Ortíz, SFW 2B Dave Heffer, DEN 3B Jose Perez, PIT SS Lorenzo Sepúlveda, SAC LF Aaron Jenkins, NAS CF John Hensley, NAS RF Juan Ortíz
CL Gold Gloves: NYC P Anibal Sandoval, TIJ C Carlos Ramos, CHA 1B Luis Soto, BOS 2B David Mendez, TIJ 3B Ben O’Morrissey, TIJ SS Juan Barrón, POR LF Ramiro Cavazos, BOS CF Rudy Garrison, SFB RF Paco Javier

---

October 28 – The Raccoons release 28-yr old AAA MR Dan Epps.
October 29 – The Raccoons and 2B Jesus Palacios avoid salary arbitration by agreeing to 1-yr, $1.1M deal.
October 30 – The Falcons acquire 25-yr old INF Nelson Chavez (.279, 18 HR, 90 RBI) from the Gold Sox in exchange for 25-yr old 1B/2B/LF Jeremiah Terry (.299, 1 HR, 27 RBI).
November 1 – The Raccoons and OF Gilberto Flores agree to a 1-yr, $210k contract.
November 14 – The Canadiens trade 31-yr old MR Ray Hoskins (39-30, 3.73 ERA, 19 SV) to the Rebels for 25-yr old INF Jim Phillips (.240, 10 HR, 89 RBI) and a minor leaguer.
November 14 – In trade, the Miners get 32-yr old C Rob James (.277, 87 HR, 709 RBI) and a minor league pitcher from the Stars in exchange for 30-yr old SS/3B Tom Smith (.281, 3 HR, 67 RBI) and a minor leaguer.

---

Four arbitration cases remained. Bean ($924k est.), Cavazos ($998k), Parker ($201k), Brady ($1M); we submitted $1M for Cavazos and Brady, $900k for Bean, and Parker got the same as Flores signed for, $210k.

We got three out of four. Cavazos was the one we missed on, as he received a tear-jerking $1,187,500 in arbitration. That’s … ugh.

Free agents have filed. Cipriano Miranda has elected free agency and is gone. Also gone are seven minor league free agents, including Bill Lewis, Tristan DeWinter, Dan Horning, Fred Carlton, Julio Romero, Julio Escalante, and Lawrence Williams.

With the arbitration process behind us, the Raccoons have $600k left to get something going. Oh wait, no, my bad.

We are $600k overbudget. We’re ****ing broke.

---

I had a flight booked down to Texas for October 27. The mountain was actually going to visit the prophet. But just from talking on the phone I got Clyde’s desire to sign a big deal for big money. I think the 4-yr, $7M figure was somewhere in the room, and I think I also fainted.

I also think I forgot to actually have the flight reservation cancelled and we didn’t even get half a refund on the $250 ticket. Great. Less money in the budget.

Vern Kinnear’s fist is haunting me. Vern Kinnear’s yellow #16.

Vern Kinnear dropped a World Series-winning single. For Boston. Everything's coming up tails.

[Westheim]

The hideously broken and terminally inept team of your choice does not have the best hitting in the world, but it would do. There are two things that we don’t have: qualified pitching, and money. We also have no catching, no defense at third base, and we lost all confidence, but we should start with qualified pitching and money.

With Miranda off to free agency, we have four starters from last year left over (Carl Bean, Randy Farley, Miguel Lopez, and Ralph Ford), who are all shaky, yet will cost an arm, a leg, and then still over $2.3M in 2002. Ford makes the minimum, and we will add Nick Brown to that mix on another minimum deal, so make that about $2.46M.

By contrast, our last place bullpen, which projects to be Nordahl, Miller, Diaz (ARGH!!), Bruno, Martinez, perhaps Perez, and if we’re really desolate Joly, would come us $1.17M. A cheaper bullpen you will have trouble to build. A more awful bullpen - … you will have trouble to build.

Our principal relievers’ performances in 2001:
Nordahl: 54.2 IP, 4.61 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 38 BB, 49 K
Miller: 63.2 IP, 4.24 ERA, 1.77 WHIP, 43 BB, 43 K
Bruno: 68.2 IP, 4.46 ERA, 1.72 WHIP, 50 BB, 58 K
Diaz: 38 IP, 3.55 ERA, 1.92 WHIP, 35 BB, 34 K
Martinez: 41 IP, 4.17 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 26 BB, 32 K
Wade: 94 IP, 5.27 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 43 BB, 66 K
Joly: 35 IP, 5.14 ERA, 1.91 WHIP, 29 BB, 19 K
Perez: 7.1 IP, 11.05 ERA, 2.32 WHIP, 6 BB, 4 K
Vega: 6.1 IP, 4.26 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 4 BB, 3 K

Yeah, that’s a tremendous bunch.

Now, we had some Spanish-speaking mook as pitching coach last year, who always talked a lot, but I wonder whether he ever said something more substantial than “Beisbol been berry good to Eduardo”. He was thrown into the Columbia River. We engaged in a bidding war for the Capitals’ pitching coach for eight years, Jose Castro in October. Yes, another Spanish-speaking mook, but this one at least knows what a slider is and doesn’t encourage our youngsters to “see wetter you can drow de curvy won”.

Bottom line is, we need help in the bullpen. We can not sign free agents since we are $600k overbudget, so we have to trade for fresh meat. And we have already established which player we are going to trade because we can easily replace him with somebody who might hit for the same or a tad more, defend just as well, and will receive 10% of the money. Ramiro Cavazos, our only Gold Glover in 2001, has to go. It’s really nothing personal. He had his highs and lows, but overall I liked his act.

It’s down to the Mexican Prick and his stubbornness, or ******edness, or both.

---

November 18 – The Loggers start recharging for another run at the CL North division, adding ex-CHA RF Taisuke Mashiba (.300, 70 HR, 442 RBI) for 3-yr, $3.54M. Mashiba sat out all of the 2001 season.
November 23 – Former Indian SP Chang-se Park (59-62, 3.55 ERA) becomes a Gold Sock for 5-yr, $10.52M.
November 23 – The Indians console themselves by trading for the Titans backup outfielder Christian Greenman (.226, 30 HR, 86 RBI), parting with SP/MR Ray Conner (4-6, 4.90 ERA).
November 26 – The world champions load up, adding not one, but TWO former Scorpions(!) in SP Joe Mann (96-72, 3.62 ERA), giving $10.96M over six years to the 30-year old righty, as he suits up in a blue shirt with yellow numbers, and the same outfit is handed to 28-yr old INF Masaaki Matsumoto (.313, 23 HR, 508 RBI), who will make $8.32M over four years.
November 27 – They keep going: the Titans lost outfielder Josh Thomas to free agency, but they add 31-yr old ex-DEN LF/RF Chih-tui Jin (.299, 66 HR, 433 RBI) for 6-yr, $12.48M.
November 29 – Former Buffalo INF Lance Hitchcock (.294, 10 HR, 246 RBI) signs for 3-yr, $3.64M with the Aces.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 16 players in total are picked over five rounds. It’s the Scorpions who are making everybody miss their dinner reservations. The Raccoons draft 27-yr old right-handed reliever Ricardo Huerta from the Pacifics.
December 1 – The Titans add a right-handed MR Nathan Harrison (7-6, 4.45 ERA, 3 SV) from the Gold Sox, parting with OF Luis Alonso (.261, 34 HR, 273 RBI).
December 3 – 33-yr old ex-BOS SP Sergio Gonzalez (89-105, 4.09 ERA) signs a 4-yr, $6.54 deal with the Capitals.
December 5 – The Indians trade 37-yr old OF Tomas Maguey (.274, 56 HR, 750 RBI) to the Miners for two prospects.

---

Huerta has appeared in 84 games for the Wolves and Pacifics since 1997. He’s 5-6 with a 4.94 ERA and one save, walking 50 and whiffing 87 in 118.1 innings. Better than Joly, I guess. Vince pointed him out, said “take that one, and none other”, and what’s another $134k in salaries when you’re over your budget, anyway?

The first trade I tried to line up was for the Gold Sox’ right-hander Scott Hood, who had saved 41 games last season. Vince was thrilled about him. I was thrilled about him. But initially the Gold Sox could not work the $1M in contract difference into their own sparse budget, and they did not have an easily flippable overpaid veteran either to make up the difference. Things got better after the first few high-caliber free agents were off the table, with a pile of money locked up in contract offers for them, but they were not interested in a one-for-one trade after all.

There are other teams showing faint interest in Cavazos, but it’s hard getting a deal done. I need a strong bullpen arm. We can fudge together some form of rotation, but the bullpen is cancerous…

What else? Gabby De La Rosa, whom we traded to the Stars for Cesar Gonzalez (don’t get me started) three years ago, re-signed after saving 97 games for them in the meantime. Also, the Gold Sox had Antonio Donis. Check out that the K column. We trade him and his K’s more than double. And that’s why it’s most important to have the Kleenex cupboard fully stacked at all time in the office.

Maybe it’s me. I’ve traded tons of relievers the last few years. Oh, they want another player in that deal? Well, pillage the bullpen! Take anything you’d like. Two for the price of one.

Yeah it’s me. I suck.

[Westheim]

25 years later...

If you're interested in any numbers, feel free to raise your voice. Or fingers. You know what I mean.

[Questdog]

Can we see good ol' Vern's career?

[Westheim]

Vern...

The Knights blew millions on him, then sat him on the bench to watch youngster Stephen Ware take over the job in 2000. Ware is .301/.411/.425 with 7 HR and 95 RBI in 266 career games.

Vern has this stuff down there, plus four Gold Gloves, but he's never been an All Star, befuddlingly.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Vern...

The Knights blew millions on him, then sat him on the bench to watch youngster Stephen Ware take over the job in 2000. Ware is .301/.411/.425 with 7 HR and 95 RBI in 266 career games.

Vern has this stuff down there, plus four Gold Gloves, but he's never been an All Star, befuddlingly.

What skin do you use to make the player profile page look like that? Is that a Mod?

[Westheim]

That's OOTP12 Vanilla.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

That's OOTP12 Vanilla.

This is the year to upgrade, man.....

[chucksabr]

It would be nice to apply od versions skins to the current version. Does anyone do skins as a mod?

[Westheim]

We couldn’t do anything (except for loading up on even more questionable relief pitching in the rule 5 draft), without trading one of the big money recipients. And it has been established that Ramiro Cavazos is the first man to leave this ship, because we have a stellar replacement in Chris Roberson. And should Roberson pull a Martin in his first full season assignment (remember how Martin sucked in early 2000? Or was it ’99? These dire straits are truly timeless…), we have another option in Edgardo Torrez, and maybe even Chris Beairsto.

The next guy to trade might be Miguel Lopez and replace him with Felipe Garcia in the rotation, but that’s not really an option now, and besides who’d want Lopez’ wretched, wrecked body on his payroll?

Fortunately, the Winter Meetings in Charlotte were coming up. If we can’t turn a wheel here, we’d struggle to move Cavazos at all. Then it’s into the “guys we love with all our heart” section and Clyde Brady, who should have more suitors. The other option would be Carl Bean.

It won’t come to the worst. Neil Reece got a no-trade clause, so he won’t go anyway until he’s 38.

Two pitchers in my eye were Denver’s Scott Hood, a right-handed closer type (and I’d pick him over Nordahl without twitching), and Topeka’s Ryan O’Quinn, a left-hander, but perhaps not a closer, but twice better than the scumbag Diaz. Neither team could readily swallow Cavazos’ $1.175M deal without sending a bigger contract in return, but then Cavazos wasn’t enough for them. C’mon! Do we have to trade a prospect to get back to zero!?

Well, as meetings started it wasn’t difficult to work out a straight salary dump with the Indians for Pablo Fernandez, a 24-year old catcher. We kinda have a few catchers already, however. No need to have FIVE on the 40-man roster. When I tried to get a reliever from them, they weren’t pleased. Unless they got Nick Brown. Yeah, nice try. Those CL North GMs. All crooks.

With the Buffaloes, it really was a money issue. They weren’t broke, like the Raccoons, but they weren’t wealthy, either. I wanted Ryan O’Quinn, and it would take at least one more player to get something together. We added Hoshi Watanabe, a right-handed reliever, a scratch infielder in Jim Johnson, and struggling starter Albert Zarate in various combos to the deal, but never could work it out quite to anybody’s satisfaction.

The Gold Sox weren’t keen on a 1-for-1 deal for Hood, and then I talked to the Cyclones, who had one interesting player in right-hander Paco Leoniedas (whom I was after before, but I can’t remember when…), but couldn’t cover the difference and didn’t really have any other good players fitting the Coons.

One day in, it looked a lot like our chances were best with the Buffaloes or Indians, and while the Buffaloes had the right kind of relievers, we still didn’t get anything done. The Indians at least had a players that could be packaged up somehow, and we ultimately got a deal worked out.

It was a deal that won’t bring us along, however.

Overall, these were the most boring winter meetings in years. I didn’t wake up with a headache and outside my bedroom even once.

Dezember 6 – The Knights trade for 31-yr old 1B Glenn Douglas (.277, 82 HR, 506 RBI), sending over 23-yr old OF Julio Jaramillo (.255, 0 HR, 9 RBI in 98 AB).
December 7 – The Raccoons trade 29-yr old INF Max Heart (.236, 6 HR, 40 RBI) to the Scorpions for 21-yr old pitching prospect Jack Berry.
December 8 – The Indians and Raccoons deal, with the Indians receiving 27-yr old OF Ramiro Cavazos (.273, 31 HR, 185 RBI), and sending over 28-yr old INF Albert Matthews (.269, 35 HR, 320 RBI), 26-yr old left-handed MR Kevin Jones (9-9, 3.70 ERA, 7 SV), and 24-yr old C Pablo Fernandez (.353, 0 HR, 1 RBI in 17 AB).
December 13 – Career home run leader, 35-yr old RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.307, 364 HR, 1,335 RBI) returns to the Continental League on a 3-yr, $6.42M contract given out by the Condors.
December 13 – The Titans add veteran southpaw MR Xavier Herrera (34-33, 2.99 ERA, 47 SV) for 3-yr, $2.24M. He was last with the Cyclones.
December 14 – The Buffaloes add a pair of relievers in ex-MIL John Hatt (36-29, 3.44 ERA, 86 SV) and ex-BOS Nick Lee (33-22, 2.72 ERA, 81 SV), who both sign 1-year deals. Hatt will earn $840k, Lee $690k.
December 16 – After a year in Dallas, 34-yr old 1B/2B David Brewer (.330, 80 HR, 842 RBI) lands in Cincinnati on a 2-yr, $3.64M contract.
December 16 – The Rebels land 29-yr old ex-SAC INF Felipe Rivera (.298, 27 HR, 409 RBI), agreeing with him on a 5-yr, $2.08M deal.

I knew he sucked, but I was surprised to see that Max Heart actually cost us *1.8* WAR last season. Not that it made much of a difference. But yeah, he might not have been the right player for us from the go. But we were desperate, and he was unprotected for the rule 5 draft.

The Cavazos trade filled our 40-man roster to the brim, and we have approximately 17 second basemen on there. Palacios is the starter (unless we need to shed more money, and it looks like that…), and I can’t really work out a way to sort the rest of the pack out. We might have a very good utility player in Matthews, who bats right-handed, so our other backup infielder should bat left-handed. In the outfield, we have Roberson, Reece, and Brady, which is right, right, left. The backups figure to be Parker and Flores, an even split. Torrez is too valuable to play fifth fiddle.

Apart from that, the Cavazos trade cost three WAR. Well, we traded a good player and got three fringe botchers. Sounds fair.

Fernandez is promising however. He is very solid in his catching, and he has a knack for power, mashing 32 homers in AA and AAA in 2001. But we have five catchers on the 40-man roster, and that is clearly over the top. We don’t really want to part with Mark Thomas or Julio Mata, but that means that Fifield and Defrese have to go, or at least ONE of them. None of them is out of options yet, but Fifield used his last option this season and will have to be demoted early if he stays around.

It’s a week until Christmas. The Raccoons are still overbudget, by $1,600, and are overcatchered as well. The fan base also winced when Cavazos was traded.

[Westheim]

Mostly did this update while watching Moneyball for the first time. Hideously overacted movie. The book was way more exciting. Nobody but Hollywood needed the sub plot with the child.

And a German-dubbed baseball movie is in general awful. We insist on translating EVERYTHING. We insist on translating things like “batter”, “pitcher”, and “runs”. I am stunned we didn't translate Oakland Athletics into "Die athletischen Eichenländer" ......

In the spirit of my side amusement, a wicked deal or two may be included in this update.

---

In mid-December, the Raccoons were still slightly overbudget and were looking for ways to dump money thanks to the Mexican Prick being a prick.

Between Reece, Palacios, Brady, Bean, Guerin, Farley, and Lopez we have only seven players that make more than $350k. If we want to add another strong relief arm or an actually qualified left-handed bat off the bench, we need money – or we find something in a trade.

Well, Reece has a no-trade clause, and wouldn’t be an option anyway. Neither are Brady, Guerin, and Farley real options. That leaves us with Palacios, Bean, and Lopez. We could not get anybody interested in Carl Bean except for the Condors, and they didn’t have a lot to offer in return (taking into account our sliver of a budget).

Who would trade for the wreck Miguel Lopez? The Capitals were remotely interested, but offered only a choice between a broken desk, a small pack of candy, or six baseballs in return. No, don’t get excited. We have to pick ONE of those items.

Then it’s on Palacios. That’s incredible bad news. We kind of counted on Palacios at second base so far. Without Palacios, we have a horribly wretched choice to make between Adrian Matthews, George Morris, Miguel Ramirez, Matt Love, and whatever other useless, money- and time-stealing sponks we can come up with.

Then, the few days before Christmas, I had Vince do the dirty work and compile a list of relief pitchers with things and qualities we liked. Then, the final list had three of our own relievers (Bruno, Martinez, and Miller) among the top 35 of the results.

Could it be that we were just unlucky? Maybe a new pitching coach will go a long way towards fixing what is wrong? Just pretend everything will be fine and everything will be fine?

No, we had to do SOMETHING. Sitting motionless on the railway tracks and staring calmly into the loco’s headlights was nothing that sounded remotely entertaining.

December 19 – The Titans shock the ABL and especially the still hopeful Bayhawks with the addition of ex-SFB SP Jorge Chapa (77-60, 3.45 ERA) on an 4-yr, $7.84M deal.
December 20 – Former Falcon SP Angel Romero (138-107, 3.43 ERA) signs with the Stars for 5-yr, $8.52M.
December 23 – The Bayhawks get back at at the Titans by adding 37-yr old ex-BOS C Andres Manuel (.267, 72 HR, 650 RBI) on a 2-yr, $2.12M deal. It will be Manuel’s fifth team, and the fourth team in four years after the Aces, Crusaders, and Titans.
December 26 – The Canadiens part with 25-yr old 1B Jose Valenzuela (.282, 29 HR, 167 RBI), sending him to the Buffaloes for C Pedro Hurtado (.252, 8 HR, 68 RBI), who is one year older.
December 26 – Journeyman SP Juan Sanchez (90-73, 4.10 ERA) returns to his 1999 team, the Cyclones, on a 2-yr, $1.8M contract, after pitching for the Warriors and Titans in between.
December 29 – The Condors acquire 26-year old 1B Hugues Cambria (.317, 14 HR, 48 RBI), who was a rookie in 2001, from the Rebels, parting with 26-yr old INF Aurelio Gomez (.222, 4 HR, 22 RBI).
January 10 – The Indians sign a 1-yr, $436k contract with old warhorse MR Jared Chaney (52-53, 2.93 ERA, 170 SV). The 36-year old spent the last few years with the Titans.
January 13 – OF Carlos Talamante (.235, 30 HR, 155 RBI) is dealt from the Pacifics to the Aces, along with a prospect, for MR Donald Sims (9-12, 3.71 ERA, 4 SV) and another prospect.
January 22 – The Raccoons and Cyclones agree to a deal that send 33-yr old SP Miguel Lopez (83-72, 3.78 ERA, 1 SV) and 19-yr old A 1B Juan Garcia from Portland to Cincy in exchange for 19-yr old A 1B Mun-wah Tsung.
January 31 – 33-yr old ex-WAS CL Jesus Longoria (71-50, 3.09 ERA, 267 SV), who is labelled as fragile by scouts, signs a 3-yr, $2.53M pact with the Loggers.
February 5 – The Raccoons deal C/1B Jorge Defrese (.264, 1 HR, 5 RBI in 53 AB) to the Knights for 25-yr old SP Ramón Meza (5-7, 6.36 ERA).
February 6 – Another deal is made between the Scorpions, who receive C/1B Julio Mata (.242, 12 HR, 112 RBI), and the Raccoons, who get 22-yr MR Kazuhiko Kichida, who pitched across three minor league levels in two organizations last year.

The Lopez trade (and maybe all three trades) might raise an eyebrow or two among the readership. First, Lopez is wrecked. Felipe Garcia might do a better job. Over the course of ten years from AAA to his age 31 season, he suffered a forearm strain, from shoulder inflammation, a torn rotator cuff, and a partially torn UCL, and in total missed about four complete seasons due to those and smaller injuries and ailments. It’s a miracle his arm hasn’t turned all black and blue and isn’t falling off.

Garcia is a non-prospect. Vince rates Tsung a 5-star potential first baseman, although I am skeptical. We might get something better out of this deal, we might not. All we know right now is that we are cutting a $650k dead arm. We can now turn those $650k (actually $648k) in budget space into something worthwhile. I hate our infield backup situation, and I continue to hate our bullpen no matter whatever Vince is thinking. On the field the product was crap last season.

I always liked Lopez. There was tremendous potential for him for a phenomenal career. Injuries killed all that. Maybe even that 5-yr, $3M extension, of which we now had the final year on our plate, was a terrible mistake. We knew he was wrecked all along.

The rotation is set for next season. Bean – Ford – Farley – Brown – Garcia. Sounds like trouble. Meza will only be part of the trouble if someone among those five goes down. He has options and has no place on an Opening Day roster.

Then we also gave up on Mata, who is added to the “why late season callups don’t matter” chapter in my biography. Getting progressively worse every year … I mean, he’s allowed to do that, even at 26, but not on my books. Kichida can well turn out crap, but Vince thinks he might turn into a “Chubby” Martinez like right-handed reliever: strong stuff, good control, durable. Every bullpen needs one or two of these guys.

With that, we have sorted out two of our five catchers, leaving Mark Thomas as the Opening Day man. I am yet debating on the backup role between Fernandez and Fifield. We know Fifield can’t do anything right, but he’s out of options and would have to be put on waivers. Fernandez on the other hand is not quite 100% ready. It’s a hard call, and it’s been mostly hard calls since David Vinson departed in 1997.

Since then (merely four seasons!), the Raccoons have employed the following catchers:
Julio Mata (238 games)
Werner Turner (140 games)
Mark Thomas (108 games)
Lance Branch (76 games)
Ricardo Castillo (74 games)
Gary Fifield (67 games)
Freddy Jackson (49 games)
Jorge Defrese (25 games)
Ron McDonald (22 games)
Mario Guerrero (12 games)

This is not only a lot for a team that before this mess went 14 seasons with just two primary catchers: Sam Dadswell and David Vinson.

Early February. Still looking for a backup infielder who offers more than a .212 average, as well as whether we want another relief pitcher from somewhere.

It’s a hard job…