Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Our 2006 budget was also outlined in the material from the satanic envelope. The Prick explained that he was consistently being disappointed by my outrageous inability to produce a winning team with the generous financial grant I was being given year in and year out, and while other teams were winning, we were merely existing. Our 2005 budget, $18.2M, was being raised to $18.4M in the hope that, as the Prick said, that would finally get me to sign the top player with the extra $200k to push those Osos Lavadores back into the playoffs and to a World Series rather now than 12 months from now.

And people keep wondering why I break into tears at seemingly random moments.

Our budget isn’t even half that of the Titans. It’s almost 10% less than the next-smallest (the Rebels’). It’s 25% less than any other team’s in the CL North.

But we have to win the World Series. Of course we have to.

Prick.

The following players are arbitration eligible or soon-to-be free agents. Last salary, arbitration estimate, and service time or compensation is given after the brackets.

SP Felipe Garcia (6-16, 4.57 ERA) – minimum - $230k – 3.060
MR Marcos Bruno (2-4, 2.36 ERA, 10 SV) - $300k - $340k – 5.000
MR Dave Williams (2-3, 4.43 ERA) - $225k - $250k – 3.134
C Curt Cooks (.179, 0 HR, 4 RBI) - $200k - $230k – 3.126
INF Brad Sheehan (.279, 2 HR, 28 RBI) - $190k - $230k – 3.113
OF Dave Wheaton (.276, 1 HR, 22 RBI) - $258k - $290k – 4.034
OF Edgardo Fernandez (.257, 4 HR, 39 RBI) - $326k - $360k – 3.166
OF Matt King (.181, 1 HR, 7 RBI) - $230k - $260k – 3.107
OF Edgardo Torrez (.202, 2 HR, 10 RBI) - $150k - $380k – 3.000
OF Christian Greenman (.245, 24 HR, 82 RBI) - $1.12M - $1.3M – 5.154

SP Ben Carlson (8-10, 4.48 ERA) - $300k – type-B free agent
MR Ricardo Huerta (8-4, 2.82 ERA) - $375k – type-B free agent
C León Ramirez (.253, 6 HR, 30 RBI) - $240k – no compensation

We have to cut down on the molasses at the bottom of the barrel. That means that we will non-tender Dave Williams, Matt King, and Eddie Torrez, as well as Leon Ramirez.

Williams had a good first season as a rule 5 pick, but blew up last season, first in the majors, then in AAA. With Moreno, Bryan, and Lucas all trying to fit into the bullpen, Williams no longer has to be paid. King is not remotely useful in any way, and Torrez seems completely washed up after the concussion he suffered late in the 2004 season. It breaks my heart, but we can’t feed him. We’re not the Salvation Army. We are probably a case where we need help from the Salvation Army ourselves.

Ramirez didn’t do anything meaningful, and we might go on with Bob Wood and pick up a backup for cheap, while watching the slow development of prospect Erik Ruff in the minors. Ruff hit .239 between AA and AAA, his 20 dingers in AA, but none in September in AAA.

We will make an arbitration offer to Carlson and Huerta. While I fear that Carlson might accept, I’m sure Huerta will look for a contract. We are still well stacked in AAA relievers, and while this also breaks my heart, we have to let him go to save money, all in order to help us land an impact bat.

How about a slugging shortstop?

Further plans for the offseason include unloading a few of our big contracts to find spots for Adrian Quebell and Bob Mays to compete in in the 2006 season. We could use a quality starting pitcher between Brownie, the Fat Cat, Ford, and whatever you want to make of either Garcia or Watanabe. Oh, sorry, my bad. Those cost money.

---

Yet maybe we won’t non-tender Eddie Torrez after all…

November 1 – The Raccoons and MR Marcos Bruno agree on a 2-yr, $680k contract extension that buys out Bruno’s last year of team control and one year of free agency.
November 6 – The Raccoons trade 28-yr old AAA OF Edgardo Torrez (.265, 32 HR, 122 RBI) to the Warriors for 26-yr old SS César Pena (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI in 16 AB) and 21-yr old AA LF/RF Roberto Pacheco.

The Warriors came up with the trade. It was either this one, or Alejandro Rojas and Keegan Crabtree for their not even remotely useful shortstop Pena, who has a bat like Yoshi Yamada, minus the glove and the legs. Pacheco is rather immobile with bad range in the outfield. Not sure whether we will get much from this trade. At least Pena has options.

In salary arbitration, we offered $240k each for Garcia, Cooks, and Sheehan, $290k for Wheaton, $360k for Fernandez, and $1.2M for Greenman. Turned out to be the right dose of no money and trying to hold on: we went 6-0, and not one extra dollar was wasted.

Ben Carlson and Ricardo Huerta both declined arbitration, making us eligible for two compensation picks in the supplemental round. But mind that Carlson wasn’t going to get signed last winter if not for the desperate critters.

Apart from that, raccoon life is hard. With significant raises to Brown, Brady, Martin, Ford, and others, we have about zero dollars available to make free agent signings. All improvement will have to stem from trades.

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The Great Old Man of Baseball, Dale Wales, retired at the age of 42. He appeared in 2,981 games in his career, batting .315/.383/.457 with 173 HR, 1,557 RBI, and 3,673 career hits. He was an All Star nine times. He was part of both Gold Sox championship teams in 1985 and 2003.

Wales at his retirement leads the ABL in games, hits, runs, RBI, and doubles. He retires 2nd in triples to Cristo Ramirez.

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2005 AWARDS

Player of the Year: WAS LF/CF Victorino Sanchez (.366, 16 HR, 80 RBI) and NYC OF Martin Ortíz (.311, 31 HR, 111 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: NAS Carlos Castro (20-8, 2.64 ERA) and VAN Pedro Alvarado (9-3, 1.13 ERA, 38 SV)
Reliever of the Year: TOP Ryosei Kato (5-2, 1.13 ERA, 43 SV) and VAN Pedro Alvarado (9-3, 1.13 ERA, 38 SV)
Rookie of the Year: PIT C Bartholomeu Pino (.290, 15 HR, 73 RBI) and VAN OF Jose Gonzalez (.238, 10 HR, 60 RBI)
Gold Gloves (FL): P RIC Jesus Cabrera, C NAS Felix Hernandez, 1B NAS Antonio Esquivel, 2B DEN Jose Correa, 3B SAC Sonny Reece, SS DAL Armando Rodriguez, LF SAL Fernando Guerra, CF DAL César Morán, RF DAL Tim Austin
Gold Gloves (CL): P POR Felipe Garcia, C VAN Fernando Diéguez, 1B OCT Tomas Cardenas, 2B MIL Bartolo Hernandez, 3B TIJ Nelson Chavez, SS SFB Juan Barrón, LF NYC Martin Ortíz, CF BOS Rudy Garrison, RF NYC Stanton Martin
Platinum Stick (FL): P DEN Victor Bernal, C DAL Rafael Garza, 1B RIC Paco Batlle, 2B DAL Hector Garcia, 3B NAS Cesar Gonzalez, SAC SS Dave McCormick, LF WAS Victorino Sanchez, CF WAS John Alexander, RF WAS Jose Gomez
Platinum Stick (CL): P VAN Joe Hollow, C IND Jose Paraz, 1B OCT Tomas Cardenas, 2B LVA Oliver Torres, 3B IND David Lopez, SS NYC Gary Rice, LF NYC Martin Ortíz, CF ATL Jose Morales, RF NYC Stanton Martin

[Westheim]

Where are we and where are we heading?

That’s the first question one should ask himself once the roster has been cleaned of gunk. And Ricardo Huerta. Honestly, if we were in a different situation, or if he had not been compensation eligible, we would have retained Huerta. But we need every draft pick we can get, and every minimum salary player we can fit, and so we have to let Huerta go after four years of exceptional service – especially for a rule 5 guy – in which he went 22-16 with 7 SV and a 3.12 ERA in exactly 300 innings. 2.9 WAR as well.

Where are we? In last place. That’s easy. For the first time since 2000, although we have always been helplessly hopeless since the winter of ’97. Where are we heading? That’s tougher.

First, we have no money. That’s a constant, but deserves to be mentioned. In terms of our major league roster, we have a stellar bullpen, even without Huerta, and a spotty rotation. Well. Nick Brown is as ace as they get, and the Fat Cat was pretty good after he was recalled late in the season. Ralph Ford can cover his hairy butt most of the time. Garcia and Watanabe are curios cases. Although Garcia’s career numbers indicate that it won’t ever get better with him (with his best ERA mark a 3.60 in 2001 when he only pitched 35 innings, and no better than 4.01 in 2003 when he pitched at least 100 innings in a year), Watanabe’s serious lack of both stuff and stamina make him nothing more than cannon fodder, either. He has 18 major league starts, nine each in both of the last two seasons, going 4-8 with a 3.08 ERA. He can’t strike anybody out, basically, and remains at the mercy of the defense. You don’t want to be saddled with either one of those two, much less both.

Looking for depth in the minors is a fruitless endeavor. What’s left of AAA starters includes a few failed prospects (Sergio Vega, Fernando Piquero), a scrub that nobody wants to trust a pen with (Tim Webster), and Cesar Lopez, who was a piece way back in the Palacios/Ingall deal with the Knights and who walks as many as he whiffs, while allowing a generous amount of home runs, running up a 5.79 ERA in AAA last year.

The only promising guys deeper down are Brandon Teasdale, our 2005 top pick, who’s out with Tommy John surgery until about July, and interestingly Ron “Flamebeard” Melchin, our 11th rounder this year, who pitched to a shoddy 5.60 ERA in A ball, but had decent numbers except for a crippling BABIP. Those 11th rounders, huh?

In terms of the lineup, the holes are tremendous. We got zero production from the middle infielders and catchers, although Yoshi Nomura warmed up quite a bit before his third and final DL stint (which is a story in itself) and finished with a .725 OPS, with almost equal shares OBP and SLG. We should not dump him just yet, never mind that he will only be 22 on Opening Day. Also, Whitebread and his notebook say that Nomura is projected to - … what? What’s that? I can’t read that. Hey, Whitebread! – What’s that number supposed to be? – Expected runs what? – Will he hit or will he not??

Whitebread says he will be good. He says that in way too many words.

Okay, who was actually any good offensively last year? Brady and Greenman both hit over 20 dingers, but slumped badly in the second half. Both are due $1.2M this year. There’s a flat million owed to Al Martin, who had a good average, but didn’t have his power stroke all year. (All three are in a contract year, which is also true for Ralph Ford and his $1.1M allowance. The only guy in the top 5 in salaries that is not going to walk is Nick Brown, who is signed through 2009.)

Although he struck out a TON, Daniel Sharp did quite well for himself WITH THE BAT, about matching his production from the last years. He has five full seasons under his belt. By now you can safely predict him to bat .290/.365/.390 with 7 HR and 45 RBI, which is good for about 3.5 WAR, of which he loses a random amount to his fielding. His fielding was hair-raising last year, but let’s not get into that.

Bottom line is: Sharp at third, and Nomura at second, and everything else is in a state of flux. We need to see what we could get in trades, but we would like to move at least one between Brady and Greenman, plus Martin, to make room for Quebell and Mays. That would save us $2M, and with that money we could pluck another gap, maybe even two. A slugging shortstop would be something. Yamada’s legs and glove are spectacular, but he led the team in strikeouts, batting for -1.0 WAR. If we could land that slugging shortstop, Yamada would be a good backup and pinch-runner, so we want to keep that in mind.

Of course, we could just continue to scrape by for another year, do nothing, and then have the big exodus in ’06. That would drown us in draft picks in ’07 (unless those guys tank so badly that we won’t get any), but what happened the last time we drowned in draft picks, in both 1998 and 1999?

Our first and supplemental round picks in 1998 yielded the following players: Chris Roberson, Scott Boone, Frank McGeraghty, Jesus Valle, Herb Rose, and Sergio Vega. You could call it the worst draft in human history and be right with it. We picked crap throughout the rounds in 1998.

In 1999, we picked Marcos Bruno, but then missed capitally with Darwin Tyler, Matt Love, and Mike Harvey. Bob Wood came from that draft, too. Yay, happy times. Not. At least three of the next four top picks were hits (Sharp, Nomura, Casas, with Beairsto in between).

There is currently no depth whatsoever in AAA. We really need good prospects.

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I am in the process of doing the draft history, but it takes ages. I didn't do it in six years...

[Westheim]

RACCOONS DRAFT HISTORY (as of November 16, 2005) – I really didn’t do this in six years!

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

1977 – Whole draft class is retired

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

1978 – Whole draft class is retired

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

1979 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - MR Grant West **HOF**– Forever Portland’s local hero, West spent his whole career as a Raccoon, and being a fail-proof closer for 13 of his 16 seasons. Career stats: 905 G, 43-34, 522 SV, 2.12 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, and two rings, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2000.
Round 2 - SP Pepe Acevedo – Was shipped off to Cincinnati in the Jack Pennington trade before the 1981 season, and was in the majors for the Cyclones and Indians between 1984 and 1989 with a 43-37 record and 3.80 ERA, but never made it back after that.
Round 3 - MR Fletcher Kelley – Solid right-handed reliever, who was traded to Nashville in the Raúl Herrera trade, where he won two rings. Bounced between teams after 1987 and after three unsuccessful appearances for the 1990 Thunder, he only reappeared in 1994 with the Condors for 18 games of getting mobbed. Career stats: 433 G, 25-18, 7 SV, 3.80 ERA.
Round 4 - LF/RF Gary Carter – Had nine AB’s for the 1983 Coons, going hitless. Never played anywhere else.
Round 5 - C Dave Stewart – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 6 - MR Gilberto Soto – Pitched for the 1984-85 Coons. Career stats: 59 G, 4-2, 1 SV, 4.81 ERA.

1980 – Whole draft class is retired

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

1981 – Whole draft class is retired

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

1982 – Whole draft class is retired

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

1983 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - SP Scott Wade – Although he lacked a third pitch, Scotty was able to scrape by during a 17-year run in the majors, debuting in 1985 and staying in the rotation until late in 1997, when his diminishing stuff made him a swing man to fill a hole wherever one opened up, although he was a full time starter again in his second-to-last season in 2000. After 582 games (421 starts), he finished with a 170-141 record, 53 saves, and a 3.63 ERA, plus two World Series rings, and retired as the third meaningful always-Coon after Daniel Hall and Grant West.
Supp. Round - C Miguel Carrasco – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - LF Wilson Martinez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 8 - 1B/3B Jose Lopez –Was released in 1985, but eventually bounced into a small cup of coffee with the 1991 and 1993 Knights for 18 career AB. Career stats: .111/.105/.222 with 0 HR, 3 RBI.

1984 – Whole draft class is retired

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

1985 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 – 1B/3B Joe Jackson – debuted in 1988, but was traded to the Falcons after that season for Justin Reader. On the Falcons he was infrequently their starter and then back to the minors, and a starter again. He was traded to the Knights in 1998, but returned for the 1999 season. He last appeared in 2001. Career stats: .244/.315/.355, 51 HR, 485 RBI, 78 SB.
Supp. Round - 1B Gabriel Ramirez – Retired without reaching the majors. Was at one point traded to Cincinnati for Glenn Johnston, which is a story in itself.
Round 2 - MR Jose Mendoza – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - LF/RF Antonio Morín – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - 1B/2B Dennis Gray – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - SP/MR Gerald Hickman – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 3B/2B Bartolo Ayala – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 6 - MR Mike Shaw –Control-challenged lefty reliever that appeared for the 1986 and 1988 Coons. Career stats: 37 G, 0-1, 5.40 ERA.

1986 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - SP Miguel Martinez – Retired. He was included in the deal for Neil Reece in the 1988 sales, which was another big W for the Coons. Was traded a few more times, pitching for the Thunder 1989-91, and then only resurfaced with the 1995 Warriors, was traded to the Gold Sox the same year, but didn’t appear in the Bigs after 1996 and retired two years later. Career stats: 72 G, 61 GS, 14-23, 4.71 ERA.
Round 2 - SP/MR Eugene Scott – Retired without reaching the majors. He held out in the minor leagues until 2000, hoping to finally break into the big leagues, but never made it.
Round 3 - 1B Vincente Rodriguez –Was a part of the deal for Jorge Salazar before the 1990 season, and played for the Indians from 1990-1993. Career stats: .257/.327/.362 with 16 HR, 106 RBI, and 14 SB.
Round 4 - RF/INF Ben Nash – Managed one hit in 12 AB for the 1995 Raccoons.
Round 5 - MR Keith Jefferson – Retired without reaching the majors.

1987

Round 1 - 2B/3B Hector Gonzalez – Retired. Was also included in the Neil Reece deal in the 1988 sales, and made his debut for the Buffaloes the same year. He appeared for them until 1993, then for the 1994 Gold Sox, but was left unsigned after that. Career stats: .233/.302/.334 with 38 HR, 360 RBI, and 15 SB.
Supp. Round - MR Albert Matthews – after his 1989 debut with the Coons it soon became apparent that consistency was not in his vocabulary. Was demoted and recalled frequently and alternated between mop-up and setup duties regularly. The Canadiens claimed him off waivers in 1995 and he has bounced around ever since, going from Vancouver to Sioux Falls to Sacramento to Atlanta, back to Vancouver, and back to Sacramento. Free agent. 737 career games, 32-52, 57 SV with a 3.93 ERA.
Round 2 - C Bob Armstrong – Retired. Primarily a defensive catcher, he spotted 26 AB (7 hits) for the Coons between 1992 and 1994, before being traded to the Falcons in 1996.
Round 3 - INF/LF/CF Terry Miller – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - SP Dennis Fried – appeared in 16 games for the Coons in 1990 and pitched so-so, before being included in the ill-fated Raul Castillo deal in 1991 (Castillo only played in three games for Portland due to injury). After being limited to relief appearances with the Blue Sox in 1991, he fought his way into the rotation in 1992 and has stayed there ever since, and after winning 21 games in 1996 was named the FL Pitcher of the Year. 236-160 with a 3.58 ERA.
Round 5 - MR Walter Weber – Retired without reaching the majors.
All others from this year are retired.

1988 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - LF Edgar Morris – Constantly hurt and struggled in our system and eventually became a free agent. He made sporadic appearances for the Knights from 1995, appearing in at most 93 games in a season (1997), but his last four games came in 1998. Career stats: .290/.357/.406, 4 HR, 41 RBI in 276 AB.
Round 2 - INF Steve Caddock – Caddock’s only nice quality was his able glove, but that was enough to have him appear frequently with the Raccoons between 1995 and 2000, with at most 298 AB in a season (1998). Once let go, he never caught on elsewhere. Career stats: .199/.271/.303, 11 HR, 69 RBI.
Round 3 - MR John Smith – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - C Freddy Lambert – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - LF/RF Chih-tui Jin – Made his debut in 1993 with the Coons, but never got past backup status, but broke out when he was traded to the Gold Sox with Esteban Baldivía to attain the services of Liam Wedemeyer and Tzu-jao Ban. Always hampered by injuries, he nevertheless put up a few wildly successful seasons with the Gold Sox, yet never made an All Star game. He had to retire in 2002 at age 32 after he tore his labrum in Titans service. Career stats: .295/.406/.445, 74 HR, 487 RBI, 25 SB.
Round 8 – SP Jesse Novak – After being released in 1989, he eventually caught on with the Blue Sox, debuting for them in 1993 with a single relief appearance. He spent a full season in their rotation in 1996 before being demoted to (rare) relief apperances and was traded to the Rebels, for whom he appeared a few more times until 1999. Career stats: 94 G, 36 GS, 14-18, 4.58 ERA, 3 SV.

1989

Round 1 - SP Eduardo Salazar – Retired. Always riddled with injuries, Salazar was traded after the 1992 season for the Miners’ Christian Proctor (didn’t work…). After making 17 starts for them in 1993, he saw limited use from the bullpen the next two years, and never appeared in the majors again. Career stats: 26 G, 22 GS, 10-7, 3.67 ERA.
Supp. Round - CL Gabriel De La Rosa – powerful right-handed pitcher that debuted in 1993 and soon carved out a permanent spot in our bullpen. He was traded to the Stars after 1998 to bring in Cesar Gonzalez, and was their closer from 1999 through 2003, never missing a beat. He served in a lesser role with the 2004 Stars and 2005 Titans. 715 career games (17 starts), 48-56, 209 SV, 2.54 ERA.
Round 2 - 1B Ruben De La Rosa – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - OF/1B Rodrigo Correa – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - SP Brendon Bell – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - MR Rafael Vazquez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 8 – C Ron McDonald – Retired. He never won a starting job and made sporadic backup service cameos with the 1994-1998 Raccoons and 1999-2000 Knights before fading into obscurity completely. Career stats: .242/.279/.342, 5 HR, 39 RBI.
All others from this year are retired.

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

Round 1 - MR Daniel Miller – Retired. Shot through the minor leagues to make his debut in 1991, which he started with 15 innings without an earned run allowed. He was a constant in the Raccoons’ bullpen from then until 2002, despite some control issues that never went away, with intermittent attempts at having him close in the post-Grant West era, but nothing good ever came of that. Lost it completely in 2002 and became a free agent, and spent one more season with the Blue Sox’ AAA team before going fishing. Career stats: 698 G, 39-35, 56 SV, 3.61 ERA.
Supp. Round - SS/2B Jayson Kelley – Retired without reaching the majors.
Supp. Round - C Marcos Lozano – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - MR Leon Wright – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - LF/CF Francisco Reyes – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - SP António Donís – If not for his very short breath, Donís could have been the most amazing starter, with dazzling stuff and an impeccable ability to keep the ball on the ground. But it was not meant to be, and so-so control didn’t help his cause either. Made 43 starts for the Coons between 1995 and 1997, going 13-16 with a 4.26 ERA, but was then converted to a reliever due to his frequent struggles to go even five innings efficiently. He found his place in the pen by 1999, and was trade to the Gold Sox after 2000 in a package for Carl Bean. The Gold Sox made two more attempts at having him start games, and he even had remarkable success in a 2005 season in which he started almost exclusively and went 16-7 with a 2.75 ERA. 508 G (92 GS) with a 67-52 record, 3.38 ERA, and 974 K.
Round 4 - 1B Mark Logan – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 1B/2B/LF Michael Martin – Retired without reaching the majors.
All others from this year are retired.

1991 – Whole draft class is retired

Round 1 - SP Gerárdo Ramirez – Severe control issues derailed his career. Was limited to 12 appearances for the 1994 Raccoons. Career stats: 12 G, 11 GS, 3-4, 5.34 ERA.
Supp. Round - LF/RF Paco Martinez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - 2B Pat Parker – After getting into only 32 games for the 1993-94 Raccoons, he was traded to the Condors for Mike Dye, but bounced from there to Cincy, where he was the second base starter in 1996, and on to Denver, where he had another three seasons before falling out of favor. Career stats: .292/.372/.422, 34 HR, 243 RBI, 23 SB.
Round 2 - INF Michael Lloyd – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - MR Fred Carlton – Had cups of coffee with the Furballs in 1998 and 1999, but awful control had him achieve nothing whatsoever in his brief career. Career stats: 19 G, 0-0, 7.11 ERA.
Round 4 - 1B Steve Stevens – The Curacaoan Stevens was released in 1994 for hacking madly and getting done little. The Indians picked him up and he got into the briefest stint in the majors, but never had a hit. Career stats: .000/.200/.000 in 4 AB.
Round 5 - MR Pancho Padilla – Control was never in his vocabulary and so he never held down an assignment for long. Spent 1996-98 with the Raccoons, 1999 with the Miners, and started 2000 with them before being sent to the Capitals, posting a 7.22 ERA in his final season in the majors. Career stats: 171 G, 9-6, 5.35 ERA, 2 SV.
Round 6 – LF/RF Kenny Crockett – When injuries culled down the Raccoons outfielders in scores in 1997, he was called upon to help, but mostly didn’t. Had one more appearance in 1998 and was later released. Career stats: 46 G, .287/.313/.404, 2 HR, 15 RBI.

1992

Round 1 - OF Luke Newton – Retired. Although given ample chances after his 1995 debut, Newton never gained a starting job if not for injuries, and when he gained one, got hurt himself. Was let go after 2000 and never signed by anybody. Career stats: .221/.309/.316 with 10 HR, 137 RBI, 41 SB in 1,350 AB.
Supp. Round - 3B Mike Crowe – inheriting third base from Ben O’Morrissey wasn’t the easiest of tasks, but Crowe failed rather spectacularly. After barely decent seasons in 1997 and 1998, he was wholly ineffective and eventually banned to the bench in 1999. After he became a free agent in 2000, the Knights and later the Warriors picked him up, but he has spent time in AAA every year since then. So far .245/.360/.317 with 25 HR, 193 RBI in 1,920 AB.
Supp. Round - SP Clinton Kennedy – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - 1B/3B/RF/LF Mark Kowalchuk – Retired. Reminded us of Mark Dawson before the draft, but never lived up to that and was out of baseball by 2001. Had a wildly unsuccessful stint with the 1998 Coons. Career stats: .088/.205/.088 with 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1 SB in 34 AB.
Round 3 - MR Kokei Kondo – Retired. Claimed by the Wolves as rule 5 pick, he spent the 1998 season with them, then was dropped quicker than hot coal due to insisting on walking batters. It was his only major league exposure. Career stats: 43 G, 6-1, 6.30 ERA, 1 SV.
Round 4 - C Jorge Chavez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - OF Joseph MacKellachie – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 7 - SP Jose Cervantes – Retired. Released in 1996 after pitching poorly in AA for us, the Wolves picked him up and even used him as full time starter from 1998 to 1999, but quickly got tired of his act. He never made another big league team. Career stats: 63 G, 14-29, 5.07 ERA.
All others from this year are retired.

1993

Round 2 - INF Brent McLaughlin – Despite not showing any ability at all, he managed to make cameos with the Coons from 1997 through 2003. Free agent, with a .225 bat.
Round 3 - RF/LF Marvin Gregory – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 4 - C Brad Gray – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 1B Santiago Rodriguez – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 6 - SP Ray Conner – After becoming a minor league free agent, Conner hooked up with the Indians and made sporadic appearances for them, then was traded to the Titans after 2001. He didn’t break out until 2005, his age 30 season, going 11-14 with a 3.79 ERA for the Titans. For his career, he’s 21-22 with a 3.98 ERA and one save.
Round 12 - MR Pedro Perez – currently a free agent, this southpaw was no help due to terrible control throughout his callups in 1999, 2001, and 2002, all with the Coons. In 38 career games, he has an 0-4 record and 8.57 ERA.
All others from this year are retired.

1994

Round 1 - LF/RF George Wood – after not cutting it in AAA he became a piece in the Daniel Richardson deal with the Buffaloes, bounced on twice more, but then debuted with the 2002 Thunder, but while he appeared for them every year since then, he never made it into more than 19 games in a season. Batting .269 with 3 HR and 14 RBI in 93 AB.
Round 2 - 1B Carlos Salazar – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - OF Cal Lyon – took long to get going in the minors, and when injuries depleted our outfield regularly in the early 2000s, he proved to be no help at all, batting .156 in 218 AB across three seasons.
Round 4 - SP Joe Key – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 1B Harry Jackson – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 6 - SP/MR Manuel Diaz – Retired. While he debuted in 1997, he only made it into six games with the Raccoons, and although he bounced around in the minors for a few more years after that, that was all that was to his major league career. Career stats: 6 G, 0-0, 9.00 ERA.
All other from this year are retired.

1995

Round 1 - LF Manuel Villa – Retired without reaching the majors. Bust #1 from this draft went down with a concussion in 1996 and never quite came back the same. Retired after failing in A and AA in 2002.
Round 2 - RF/LF Cory Stanford – Retired without reaching the majors. Bust #2 from this draft, just worse. Released soon, and played across all three minor league levels in all years from 1999 to 2001 with the Miners before getting dumped for good.
Round 3 - MR Bill Coles – Retired without reaching the majors. Bust #3, never made it out of AA ball.
Round 4 - SP Julio Romero – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 5 - 1B/2B George Morris – it took him four years to do anything with his bat in the minors, and he appeared very briefly for the 1999 and 2001 Coons before being let go after ’02. Eventually signed on with the Blue Sox and appeared as pinch-hitter for them in both of the last two years. Batting .252 with 1 HR and 16 RBI in 127 AB.
Round 8 - OF Jason Kent – sporadically appeared as injury replacement between 1997 and 2001, never getting over the hump to achieve usefulness with a .243/.312/.332 bat and 4 HR and 26 RBI in 325 total AB. Free agent on a grand tour of all provincial minor league towns.
Round 11 - SP Nick Brown – Brownie!!! Nick has gone from 293rd overall in the 1995 draft to the #12 prospect in the ABL by the late 90s and from there onto a quest to strike out every batter in the country! His stuff is blistering, and very occasionally he will lose control over it for a few weeks. After a slow debut late in 2001, he battled himself into the ace role and casually broke the franchise mark for strikeouts three years in a row. 56-44 with a 3.10 ERA and 962 K, and thankfully signed for four more years!
All others from this year are retired.

1996

Round 1 - MR Manuel Martinez – highly efficient strikeout guy with little stamina; debuted in 1999 for the Raccoons and quickly hurled himself into a key role in the bullpen before being traded to the Titans after 2004 for Christian Greenman and prospect Ryan Miller. 367 games, 13-10, 3.25 ERA, 9 SV.
Supp. Round - SP Dwight Williams – throwing dead straight had him surrender up to 50 home runs a year in the minors, and no team has ever dared to entrust him with a big league ball.
Supp. Round - INF/RF/LF Carlos Gomes – Retired without reaching the majors. Broke his elbow a month after the draft, and then tore his labrum the next September, forcing him to quit baseball.
Round 2 - 2B/SS Sergio Tirado – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - MR Juan Diaz – after his 2000 debut he spent the entire 2001 campaign with the Critters, but walked more than he struck out. A horrendous 2002 campaign, during which he achieved three-wild-ones-in-one-at-bat notoriety had him banished to the minors and dumped at year’s end, and he has bounced around since. 155 G, 6-7, 4.55 ERA, 1 SV.
Round 4 - 1B Albert Martin – prototype fielding-challenged slugging first baseman who made a splash debut in 1999, struggled and was demoted in 2000, and has been the first base starter for the Raccoons ever since reappearing mid-2000. After raging high-power campaigns in 2001-03 with a high mark of 32 home runs in ’02, he has let up considerably. .284/.342/.465 with 142 HR and 518 RBI.
Round 5 - SP Ralph Warren – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 9 - C/1B Jorge Defrese – received a callup in 2001 after more mixed results in the minors, and didn’t manage to impress in his 25 games with the Critters before being traded to the Knights for Ramón Meza. Spending 2002 exclusively in the minors, he has received callups every year since, but never had more than 101 AB’s in any of them. .245/.301/.339 with 6 HR, 35 RBI.
All others from this year are retired.

1997

Round 1 - MR Dan Nordahl – he did not become a star exactly, but he does throw the heat successfully, unless you want to have him close games. You could say he doesn’t have the guts. Was traded to the Warriors with Randy Farley before the 2005 season for Adrian Quebell. Career: 382 G, 24-22, 4.00 ERA, 126 SV.
Round 1 - C Julio Mata – when he debuted late in 1999 and batted .311 in 206 AB we sung praise for our new franchise catcher. Two years later he was dumped onto the Scorpions for Kaz Kichida. Has spent time in the minors every year since, with short callups in 2002-03 and 2005. Career: .242/.307/.348, 15 HR, 127 RBI.
Supp. Round - LF/RF Jochen Funck – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 2 - 1B Don Irvin – Retired without reaching the majors.
Round 3 - SP Craig Rhodes – spent time with nagging injuries early in his career. Became a free agent in 2003, spent a year in the Scorpions system, never made the Bigs and hasn’t pitched at all in 2005.
Round 4 - MR Mauro Rodriguez – auditioned for the Raccoons in 2002, but ran up a 7.13 ERA in 27 games and has not been seen in the majors since. Free agent.
Round 5 - SP/MR Antonio Toro – Retired without reaching the majors.

1998

Round 1 - LF/CF Chris Roberson – his bat never was quite what we hoped for and his Gold Glove defense wasn’t enough to keep him around, either – overall he was just not the second coming of Daniel Hall, or at least Vern Kinnear. He went to the Buffaloes in the dismal Pablo Ledesma trade before the 2003 season, but has struggled to maintain his spot even there. Bats .267 with 36 HR and 211 RBI for his career.
Supp. Round - SP Frank McGeraghty – always struggled badly with the long ball, and became a minor league free agent, and so far has not managed to get noticed in a good way in AAA.
Supp. Round - CL Scott Boone – since getting a sniff at closing in AA at age 18, it was all gone down the hill for Boone, first with injuries, then with confidence. During a callup to the Raccoons in 2003 he was beaten to a 7.36 ERA tune and has not resurfaced. Became a minor league free agent.
Supp. Round - LF/RF Jesus Valle – a quirky outfielder that just isn’t able to hit the slightest lick, he has also started bouncing from AAA team to AAA team.
Supp. Round - OF Herb Rose – why not draft two quirky outfielders sans any batting ability back-to-back? He was already released in 2002 and was not employed in 2005 at all.
Supp. Round - MR Sergio Vega – failed to convince anywhere above A ball, but still got auditions in the Bigs every year from 2001 through 2004, with 42 games (1 start) and an 0-2, 5.44 ERA outcome. Has recently been converted into a starter in AAA, also without success.
Round 2 - C Pat McClellan – always judged as a defensive catcher, he was so defensive he never hurt anybody with his bat and became a minor league free agent in ‘04.
Round 3 - 1B John Morris – slowly moved up to AAA, but was never considered for any bigger duties, and also became a free agent in ‘04.
Round 4 - OF Bryan Forrest – was released within a year, signed by a team, released, signed, released. No skills worth noting and currently a free agent.
Round 5 - 1B/2B/LF/RF Reed Shaw – couldn’t develop any batting skills and was released in ’02, but is still bouncing around.

1999

Round 1 - OF/1B Darwin Tyler – has just never hit anything since high school; it was enough to get 108 AB with the Coons in 2004, but batting .167 ensured he didn’t get a 109th AB. No defense, no batting, no other nice qualities.
Round 1 - CL Marcos Bruno – after a debut in AA, he rose a level each year and was on the 2001 Opening Day roster, never leaving. His nasty slider combined with a 98mph fastball with natural sink generate strikeouts and groundballs, and what more can you ask for? 329 career games, 18-20, 3.35 ERA, 50 SV.
Supp. Round - 1B/2B Matt Love – made it to AAA within a year, but hit a wall there. No great defense, and a bat that neither generates power nor a good average. Got 51 AB (.235, 0 HR, 2 RBI) between 2003 and 2004 before becoming a free agent this year.
Supp. Round - MR Mike Harvey – no control whatsoever, he managed to get into one AAA game (and got churned for a 16.20 ERA) before becoming a free agent this fall.
Round 2 - MR Bob Evans – traded to the Crusaders for Cipriano Miranda, he made his debut with them in 2001 and has been a fixed piece in the pen since 2003, managing a 4.44 ERA in 165 games while carefully trying not to walk too many.
Round 2 - LF/RF Jorge Rodriguez – adept glove on the outfield corners, but the bat never produced the power that is constantly being noted as being potentially high in the scouting report; appeared for 96 AB with the Coons between 2003 and 2004, hitting .250 with 3 HR and 12 RBI.
Round 3 - C Bob Wood – cut from the template for defensive backstops, Wood debuted late in 2004 to no hype at all and soldiered through a full rookie campaign in 2005 without ever getting noticed in any way, shape, or form. .217 with 4 HR and 31 RBI.
Round 4 - SP Ed Bryan – this southpaw’s stuff proved insufficient for him to be a starter by the time he reached the AA level and he was converted into a reliever – with some success, it seems. He first debuted in ’04 with the Coons and moved up for good early in ’05, posting a 2.23 ERA in 63 games.
Round 5 - SP Giuseppe Loffredo – never excelled at any level and became a free agent this fall.

2000

Round 1 - 1B/3B Daniel Sharp – put right at AAA after the draft, he only appeared in 30 minor league games before it was clear that he had his youth wasted there, was promoted to the Bigs, and never went away. While his defense as regular third baseman is best described as a nuisance, his bat is one of the steadiest in the major leagues. Career .290 batter with 37 HR and 257 RBI. 865 career hits, but he’s only just turned 28.
Supp. Round - OF Rich Mason – peaked at AAA in 2002-03, but failed to hit even .210 either year. Parked in storage at AA, where he occasionally gets to sport his shiny glove.
Round 2 - MR Matt Cash – it was a long, stony road for Matt “The Professor” Cash, with two seasons almost completely wiped out by injuries, but he finally made his major league debut in September of ’05, appearing in 10 games to a 0.96 ERA. His stuff was marveled about when he was drafted, although his shoulder woes took some bite off his fastball, so that back end bullpen job might just not materialize for him.
Round 3 - MR David Sutherland – command is a serious issue for him, and he appeared across all three minor league levels in 2005, and probably won’t get anywhere by constantly missing outside.
Round 4 - INF Alan Williams – has the most wonderful glove all across the diamond, crying out for a utility job – but he can’t even bat .200 in AAA.
Round 5 - LF Mike Willard – moved to AAA in 2003, and remains stuck there. He has a weak arm, limiting him to leftfield, and his bat is mostly good for chopping singles, resulting in an entirely messed up skill set.
Round 8 - 3B Steve Searcy – there is really nothing special about Searcy, who has an ordinary glove, ordinary speed, and a thoroughly ordinary bat. He debuted in 2005 but most mostly appeared as pinch-hitter or defensive replacement, batting .252 with 1 HR and 9 RBI in 123 AB.

2001

Round 1 - LF/RF/1B Chris Beairsto – we expected a pretty complete player with a decisive impact bat, and we got a half campaign of .241, 17 HR, 42 RBI in 2003, and a lot of heart stings and atrocious strikeouts swinging since then. .209 with 27 HR, 78 RBI for his career across parts of four seasons, and readily available in a trade, especially after batting .087 in ’05. We should have drafted Barney Manning instead.
Round 2 - MR Cody Bryant – This righty has allowed just nine homers in 272 innings in the minors, but still can’t progress to the Bigs: his control is totally non-existent, and he walks about half as many as he strikes out, and he strikes out plenty: 381 batters in those 272 innings.
Round 3 - 2B Cedric Chateau – complete bust, no abilities, whatsoever, released in 2004.
Round 4 - MR Stu Sharp – good curve, but we knew he’d need the changeup he was developing to get to the Bigs, and he hasn’t gotten it, and can’t throw it for anything but freebies. Promoted to AAA in late 2005, only to get romped.
Round 5 - SP Tim Webster – called a marginal southpaw when drafted, he made a marginal guest appearance in the middle of the 2005 season, going 2-4 with a 5.50 ERA for the Raccoons. Four pitches, all messy, and a 91mph “heater” won’t cut it.

2002

Round 1 - SS Ieyoshi Nomura – with limited range, he was converted to second base right away, and made it up to late season appearance with the Coons in 2004, and would have been the second base starter in 2005 for more than 79 games if he hadn’t been injured all the time. He has very good contact ability and gap power, and actually showed it late in the 2005 season. His defense, even moved to the other side of the field, is best described as adequate. Now .274 with 2 HR and 25 RBI in just under 400 AB.
Round 2 - MR Adam Riddle – blistering heat thrower, he made his debut in 2005, but only made it into three games for the Coons, allowing no runs. He is on the tail end of a swath of young relief studs we have nursed through the system.
Round 3 - LF Joe Spivey – we knew about the shaky defense but we expected more contact from his bat, but while he made it to AAA in 2003 for the first time, he has not been able to make a real mark there.
Round 4 - MR Tony Rodriguez – stuck in AA with little to show in terms of ability.
Round 5 - OF Mathew Page – even in the minors, he’s just a filler. He fields and runs reasonably well, but the bat is tragically unimpressive, with no power whatsoever.
Round 9 - INF Tom Ingram – the injuries to Nomura opened the door for another 2002 draft pick, but other than Nomura, there is little to marvel about for Ingram, who batted .196 in 107 AB, never walks, and often whiffs.

2003

Round 1 - CL Angel Casas – this god-sent sinker/slider righty was always going to be a major league closer, debuted just over 12 months after being drafted, and won the closer’s job out of camp in 2005. He missed two months to injury, but was almost perfect en route to 28 saves in 2005. For his young career, he is 3-2 with a 1.80 ERA and 31 SV, and yes, he is the real deal!
Round 2 - OF Santiago Trevino – debuted in AA, and never moved from there, some say because he’s butt ugly and is legally prohibited from holding his face into a camera, but it’s also the strikeouts getting more and more every year…
Round 3 - MR Matt Valentine – struck out 144 in single-A, but walked 69, as a swing man. He is not really a starter, lacking a third quality pitch, or any control whatsoever. That’s where the strikeouts come from. A ball hitters are notoriously bad at balls thrown at their ankles.
Round 4 - 3B/1B Jerry Lawson – his best asset is his arm, so he can play third base well, but he has no power, hitting only ten homers since being drafted, and generally you want a bit more on any corner spot. Currently at AA, where he was all year, and even batted .287.
Round 5 - SP Salvador Cardona – bludgeoned to a 8-15, 5.78 ERA tune in ’05 in AA, Cardona throws his fastball dead straight, resulting in 30 home runs off him in that horrid campaign.

2004 (note: this was the first draft in OOTP16)

Round 1 - C/1B Erik Ruff – winning a promotion to AAA during the ’05 campaign, he has yet to hit the “tons of doubles and homers” we envisioned after drafting him, but he hit for a .809 OPS in AA before the promotion, with 20 of either extra base hit we’re longing for. His catching abilities are about average, so he can only make the show with the bat.
Round 2 - 2B A.J. Altheide – struggling terribly and batting .200 at the A level
Round 3 - SP G.G. Williams – after posting a 5.63 in A ball, he was promoted to AA to fill a gap and got whipped to a 7.83 ERA, also appearing in relief eventually. We are convinced however, that he is a starting pitcher – just not a good one.
Round 4 - CF/RF Zaire Collins – a general inability to make bat meet ball had him post sub-.600 OPS numbers in both of his A level seasons.
Round 5 - INF/RF Kevin Rex – injured often, and when he’s healthy, he can’t bat a lick. Still in A, and while he can play well in the field, he might want to tone down on his 35% whiff rate.

2005

Round 1 - SP Brandon Teasdale – Before he could show much of his talents, he tore his UCL and headed for Tommy John surgery.
Round 2 - SP Pat Composto – 3-6 with a 4.41 ERA and severely disadvantaged by rusty fielding in his rookie season in A ball, Composto composted a 3.5 K/BB with his well mixed arsenal. Promotion to AA coming?
Round 3 - LF/CF Ed Caldwell – batted .197 and struck out 9.6 times as often as he walked. We have a bad feeling about this one.
Round 4 - INF Jamie Orr – potential utility guy, who chipped singles and didn’t do too much to immediately be hated by general management
Round 5 - INF Jamie Spicer – his arm is weaker than we thought and he might be limited to the right side of the infield, or maybe to sell peanuts after a .510 OPS in A ball.

[Trebro]

Did your scouts in the 90s take a PT job with the Clinton Administration and forget to do their job for you? Those are some really lean drafts.

(An aside, I am so bad at drafting, I actually let the AI do it so far in '16.)

[Texasborn]

Nick Brown is quite a story!!

[Westheim]

Late November and early December, including the Winter Meetings in Richmond, were a pain. Well, the biggest pain inside the buttocks was Whitebread, who during the meetings never strayed more than six feet from me, and always carried his ****ing notebook with all the blinking lights that drive people crazy.

Our main problem during these weeks leading up to and including the meetings was the fact that the Raccoons just plain simple had no ****ing money, whatsoever. I talked to half a dozen teams about this and that, and not once did anything come to fruition.

Look. All the other teams are after those juicy free agents. The Raccoons aren’t. The Raccoons have less than a million in budget room. You know what frequent .360 batter and ex-Capital Victorino Sanchez demands for a contract? $30M across seven years. He would suck up a quarter of our budget if we’d sign him. True, he’d probably add a quarter to our 2005 offensive output, but the times when we could get the David Brewers are long gone.

We’re trying to get the Colin Sabatinos and Darin Keppleys now. Those are decently ranked starting pitching prospects. Understandably, their teams, the Condors and Scorpions, respectively, are not in a mood to give them up, especially not in a trade for the core elements of our last place offense.

I was also looking into an upgrade at shortstop. Whitebread recommended looking into three players especially, NYC Gary Rice, WAS Adriano Lulli, and SFB Victor Flores.

Typical college kid. Spent how-many-years to get some degree on paper that I could manufacture in a copy shop in a minute, now thinks he knows it all. Rice was out of the question. He was a top player, who was entering his final year under team control. Even if we could lure the Crusaders into a (stupid) trade, we could never hold on to him, since he would command $2M or more next fall. Per year, that is. (Anyone remember the time when a retirement contract for Daniel Hall came at about $3.5M for eight years?)

But here that unterminable college kid (although falls from a window on the eighth floor are to be considered accidents, right?) sat when I was just trying to have another drink or six to help me ease to sleep, and squawked constantly about this and that. Between drinks #4 and #5 I finally got some insight into his ****. All those numbers and stats and things that came like a fountain from his educated, yet clueless mouth were referring to drinks and refreshments. He was especially hot on something that spelled wRC+. UNDOUBTEDLY that refers to wicked RC Cola! Plus. Perhaps a new formula. Hey, New Coke sucked, but herpaps RC Cola plus will he a bit annn- (snoozed off)

November 24 – The Condors sign ex-POR MR Ricardo Huerta (27-22, 3.64 ERA, 8 SV) to a 2-yr, $1.22M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round draft pick.
November 26 – The Knights add 26-yr old C Jason Clark (.240, 5 HR, 74 RBI) from the Cyclones in exchange for a middling prospect.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft; 16 players are taken across three rounds. The Raccoons lose AAA SP Fernando Piquero to the Rebels.
December 2 – The free agent signing period has started slowly, but now blocks start to fall into place: ex-DEN LF/RF Chris Parker (.276, 41 HR, 307 RBI) inks a 2-yr, $2M deal with the Bayhawks.
December 4 – The Bayhawks give a 2-yr, $2.24M contract to ex-MIL OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.312, 51 HR, 729 RBI).
December 4 – Another ex-Logger finds a home, as SP Ramiro Gonzalez (97-100, 3.85 ERA) signs a 6-yr, $10.78M deal with the Indians.
December 5 – The Blue Sox win the services of former Thunder 1B/3B Takahashi Higashi (.279, 116 HR, 616 RBI) at a price of $4.2M over three years.
December 10 – The Raccoons and Bayhawks agree on a trade that sends 26-yr old INF Victor Flores (.276, 10 HR, 215 RBI) to the Willamette, while three players are heading to the Bay: 31-yr old INF Brad Sheehan (.243, 9 HR, 99 RBI), 27-yr old AAA OF/1B Chris Beairsto (.209, 27 HR, 78 RBI), and 25-yr old AAA 1B Alejandro Rojas (.200, 2 HR, 13 RBI).
December 10 – The Bayhawks send 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.244, 27 HR, 123 RBI) to the Condors in return for SP Jeremiah Bowman (9-15, 4.96 ERA) and an unranked, but promising prospect in SS Jeremiah Irvin.
December 10 – The Miners deal 1B/3B Jerry Henry (.236, 27 HR, 133 RBI) to the Crusaders in exchange for two prospects, including #139 OF Manny Perez.
December 10 – 34-yr MR Nick Lee (49-34, 3.02 ERA, 85 SV) returns to the Crusaders, for whom he pitched in 2001, in a deal with the Cyclones, who receive three prospects, including #68 OF Brendan Reed.
December 10 – 32-yr old C/1B Urbano Cicalina (.294, 85 HR, 570 RBI), who already played for the Condors and Cyclones in 2005, is traded on to the Warriors. The Cyclones receive three more, unranked prospects.

[Westheim]

December 12 – The Raccoons acquire 22-yr old A SP/MR Ted Reese, a 2004 first round pick, from the Loggers, sending over 27-yr old OF Dave Wheaton (.287, 19 HR, 173 RBI) and cash.
December 17 – The Bayhawks sign 32-yr old ex-SAC SP Jose Dominguez (108-125, 4.33 ERA) at a 2-yr, $3.36M point.
December 19 – Raccoons and Cyclones exchange prospects, with 22-yr old AA LF/1B Matt Pruitt joining Portland’s fold in exchange for 20-yr old A C Pedro Salas.
December 19 – The Thunder spill $5.8M on a 5-year deal for ex-NAS C Felix Hernandez (.251, 54 HR, 472 RBI).
December 22 – Pay day for ex-ATL SP Larry Cutts (70-81, 4.45 ERA), who lands a 6-yr, $19.76M contract from the defending champions, the Falcons.
December 25 – After taking a ring with the Falcons, SS Conceicao Guerin (.277, 17 HR, 399 RBI) signs a 1-yr, $530k contract with the Crusaders to return to the CL North.
December 25 – Another former Knight switches uniforms: C Jorge Lopez (.275, 113 HR, 636 RBI) settles on the Crusaders and their 2-yr, $3.68M offer.
December 25 – 32-yr old ex-Titan INF Masaaki Matsumoto (.313, 29 HR, 734 RBI) lands a 3-yr, $5.66M contract with the Capitals.
December 27 – The Bayhawks flip 30+ outfielders with the Miners. Luke Black (.236, 61 HR, 261 RBI) is headed for the green-clad team, while Luis Alonso (.263, 53 HR, 446 RBI) joins the red squad.
December 29 – Career home run leader Raúl Vázquez (.305, 414 HR, 1,524 RBI) leaves San Francisco after a disappointing season and joins the Blue Sox for 1-yr, $750k.
December 31 – Ex-NAS MR Francisco Rodriguez (28-30, 2.54 ERA, 56 SV) will haul in $3M over the next two years as a member of the Scorpions.

How the Crusaders got Concie that cheap is beyond me. Honestly, had I had reason to expect him going for half a million, I would have brought him back rather than bother with Vic Flores.

Ted Reese’s third pitch, a changeup, is crap. Unless he can develop that, he won’t cut it as a starter, and might burn out as a bad copy of a right-handed reliever. Pruitt is a better prospect, though also unranked, with so-so defense, but a consistent bat that is good for a decent average and perhaps 20 home runs. He has a bit of speed, but not enough to make a pitcher nervous. We’re basically talking Clyde Brady in the first half of a season here, minus the glove. He also bats left-handed. A supplemental round pick in 2001, he will get his first sniff at AAA with the Alley Cats in 2006.

What else? We signed a 28-year old never-was as backup starter in AAA, and we are still after another starting pitcher who’s available for cheap and won’t get us very far, but is a potentially less gut-wrenching than Garcia/Watanabe. Because we didn’t learn from the Carlson disaster.

No results at all in our attempts to flip millionaires for prospects.

And now for something more important, and may I say that I am as happy as can be:

2006 HALL OF FAME VOTING RESULTS

LF Jeffery Brown – 98.8 – 1st – INDUCTED
SP Craig Hansen – 78.8 – 2nd – INDUCTED
SP Kisho Saito – 78.8 – 2nd – INDUCTED
SP Carlos Asquabal – 71.2 – 3rd
CL Domingo Rivera – 56.8 – 3rd
RF Michael Root – 55.6 – 1st
CL Jim Durden – 53.2 – 3rd
LF Diego Rodriguez – 52.0 – 1st
C Gabriel Rivera – 44.4 – 3rd
2B Dave Browne – 41.6 – 1st
2B Jeremiah Carrell – 36.0 – 3rd
SS Paul Connolly – 26.8 – 2nd
SP David Burke – 26.4 – 3rd
RF Yoshinobu Ishizaki – 21.2 – 3rd
SP Kiyohira Sasaki – 20.8 – 3rd
SP Arnold McCray – 16.8 – 1st
SP Harry Griggs – 10.4 – 1st
CF Antonio Rodriguez – 7.6 – 1st
CL Rick Evans – 7.6 – 3rd
3B Roberto Rodriguez – 6.0 – 3rd
CF Xiao-wei Li – 5.6 – 3rd
SP Bill Smith – 4.0 – 2nd – DROPPED
CL Domingo Alonso – 4.0 – 3rd – DROPPED
SP Joe Ellis – 3.6 – 3rd – DROPPED
3B Mark Dawson – 3.6 – 3rd – DROPPED
CF John White – 2.8 – 3rd – DROPPED
SS Eddy Bailey – 2.8 – 3rd – DROPPED
SP Robbie Campbell – 2.4 – 3rd – DROPPED
CL Jon Butler – 2.4 – 3rd – DROPPED
CL Scott Clements – 2.4 – 3rd – DROPPED
CL Raúl Vargas – 1.6 – 1st – DROPPED
2B Pedro Villa – 0.8 – 2nd – DROPPED
2B Yoshihito Ito – 0.0 – 1st - DROPPED

Due to this dynasty being migrated from OOTP 12 to 16 prior to the 2003-04 offseason, no proper HOF votings have taken place before 2004, and long-ago retired players reappeared on the ballot as far as they hadn’t been elected by the Secret Ninja Committee prior to 2004. As thus, nobody has been on the ballot for longer than three years.

[Westheim]

We continued to look – rather desperately – for improvements, be it on the farm or on the proper roster. Trade enough contracts away, and you can start filling holes, that’s the theory.

We eventually found a taker for one of our five seven-figure contracts. Well, for one of the four that are available. Brownie won’t go anywhere. Not as long as I live. (I don’t take very good care of myself, though)

The player traded was Al Martin, who had suitors, and we found a rather obvious place for him. I commented before how the Titans had a stacked lineup which had a very prominent hole at a traditional power position, with 1B Toby Frazier regularly batting eighth for them. The Titans were a perfect fit for Martin (who knows, maybe he’s the next ex-Coon to win a ring), and they were very keen to listen. They wanted to dump stuff on us, but I was after cherries, and we eventually got a deal done, and Al Martin was a Coon no more by the 10th of January.

That opened up some money to go hunting, actually. The most obvious position to upgrade was that of the catcher, where Bob Wood had honestly tried, but not excelled at any point. Whitebread didn’t like him and produced graphs showing why he didn’t like him daily, and he outright hated Curt Cooks, the only other catcher we had on the expanded roster. In AAA, we had Don Sharp. Don who? No relation to Daniel Sharp. Or Stu Sharp. We have lots of Sharp players, but no so many sharp players, it seems. Upgrading the catching position shouldn’t be so hard!

I put Whitebread on that. Compile a list of catchers, able defensively, not too old, and no more than $1M owed for no more than two more years. Vince used to take three days to bring me a report, Whitebread did it before I was done with my coffee. What is wrong with that kid!? Now I had to go back to work!!

Besides the Falcons’ playoff hero Eduardo Durango, who was probably not available, the list contained a few curious choices. F.e. there was Craig Bowen on the list, the Indians’ backup catcher, who was a career .197 catcher. Yet, he almost topped the list. Yes, he had extra base power, with 15 doubles and homers each in under 500 AB, but he is a .197 batter! Whitebread argued a lot with Bowen’s BABIP, and how he was hitting the ball to all fields. Yeah, well, he might do that, but those balls are still getting caught. In all fields.

The list also contained the Elks’ Fernando Diéguez, the Miners’ Bartholomeu Pino, and a few others, as well as free agent Luis Paredes, who had been first the backup, then the primary catcher for the Aces, but had fallen out of favor and had spent all of 2005 in the minors.

Somehow, there was no real impact player on the list. And this is really the best we can get?

On other fronts, we had made an offer to SP Paul Kirkland, who kept coming back wanting more money. We went from $250k all the way to $320k, and then he still claimed the Condors offered more, and I just let it be.

We are now after an ex-Coon, which can mean anything between Dennis Fried and Juan Diaz.

January 9 – The Condors trade 28-yr old INF Bradley Heathershaw (.253, 23 HR, 91 RBI) to the Thunder in exchange for 19-yr old #21 prospect OF Jamie Libby.
January 10 – The Raccoons trade 28-yr old 1B Albert Martin (.284, 142 HR, 518 RBI) and 20-yr old AA MR Glen Barnes to the Titans, receiving a bundle of prospects in return which includes 25-yr old RF/LF Jose Carlos Crespo (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI in 6 AB), 20-yr old AA 1B/3B Ricardo Martinez, and 22-yr old AA SP Cássio Boda.
January 13 – The Miners send 33-yr old 1B Roberto Vargas (.265, 55 HR, 379 RBI) to the Capitals, receiving four prospects in return, including #74 A 1B Lee Gibney and #77 AA CL Barry MacDonald.
January 15 – The Raccoons acquire 25-yr old C Craig Bowen (.197, 15 HR, 64 RBI) from the Indians, leaving them with 21-yr old AA RF/LF Roberto Pacheco.
January 22 – 32-yr old ex-SFW SP Randy Farley (98-88, 3.83 ERA) signs a big 5-yr, $13.8M contract with the Capitals.

When Al Martin was traded, fan interest crashed. We got angry letters, and even angrier emails. We were called names. Fans just don’t know what’s good for them.

In the package from the Titans, Martinez is the best prize. We might well use Crespo as backup in the upcoming season, since we currently have only four outfielders on our roster (Brady, Fernandez, Mays, Greenman), and AAA is dry and contains the Tylers and Rodriguezes nobody manages to love, or loves to manage. But Martinez is the main prize. His defense is … underdeveloped, but the bat is sound. He split 2005 evenly between A and AA, and while he hit .287 in A and .247 in AA, he actually slugged as much in either circus, just over .450. He is also speedy. Boda could develop into something, but could also well not.

The true mystery is why the Titans asked for another player in addition to Martin for those three, and included Barnes on the list, our 2003 last-rounder. Well, I’m glad I can do something else with them than just release them.

Of course, after that deal, we actually had money in the bank, exchanging Martin’s million for a minimum deal (Crespo) in the books. At the time of the trade, we had $1.8M preliminarily available (excluding minimum contracts off the major league roster, and we have a few…), of which $280k were offered to a player. With a million or a bit more in hand, you could start to offer contracts!

Also, at this point I decided against trying hard to move either Brady or Greenman. Brady can also be traded in July, right before he turns a .290/.380/.430 season into something ugly. Greenman and Mays might actually platoon in right, with the benefit that the player we want to see in action (Mays) bringing the left-handed bat. The only issue with an outfield consisting of Brady, Greenman, Fernandez, Mays, and Crespo is that the centerfield position is thinly covered. Sure, you can plunk any of the guys in there, but none would excel, probably.*

You will note that we flipped one of the guys we received in the Warriors trade involving Eddie Torrez to the Indians now. They didn’t want the other one (Cesar Pena).

---

* In terms of ratings, Greenman, Mays, and Brady all have CF ratings, but between them the best is a 6 (of 20). However, while Crespo has no CF rating, his outfield abilities are BETTER than those of the other three, and second only to Fernandez’. So, he has never played there, and boy do you hate having the kid learn it under live fire.

[Westheim]

SP Paul Kirkland, whom I ran after for six weeks, signed with the Condors at the start of February, one year for $336k. May he choke on every single bill. We got something else the next day.

February 3 – The Raccoons sign their former player SP Kelly Fairchild (39-63, 4.52 ERA), who spent the last four seasons in New York, for 1-yr, $275k.
February 3 – 34-yr old SP Seiichi Sugiyama (96-101, 4.51 ERA), who last pitched for the Capitals and lost 18 games each of the last two seasons, joins the Gold Sox for 3-yr, $3.9M.
February 9 – The biggest fish of the winter is finally caught: for $12.85M over five years, ex-WAS LF Victorino Sanchez (.360, 103 HR, 650 RBI) settles on the Thunder.
February 11 – The Crusaders add a veteran in 36-yr old INF Bob Grant (.296, 156 HR, 1,076 RBI), who will make $840k for one season. He last played with the Thunder.
February 15 – The Indians trade 30-yr old INF/LF Phil Montray (.256, 26 HR, 217 RBI) to the Pacifics in exchange for 33-yr old 1B Marty Battle (.273, 123 HR, 514 RBI), a non-prospect, and cash.
February 22 – That cash sure helped the Indians in orchestrating another move, as they sign 33-yr old ex-NAS 1B/2B Filippo Fugosi (.260, 39 HR, 267 RBI) to a 1-yr, $840k deal.
March 1 – The Crusaders trade for the Stars’ 29-yr old 1B Evan Winters (.264, 27 HR, 109 RBI) and give up 28-yr old 2B Todd Moultrie (.261, 7 HR, 87 RBI).

Victorino Sanchez is some mean beast. He is only 27 years old, but he already has 1,687 hits! Daniel Hall and Neil Reece needed a lifetime for that!! If the baseball gods grant him health, he might not stop in the 3,000 hits club. And because of him there's still movement in the free agent market. Quite a few teams were after him in the end, once he gave up on that hilarious $30M deal he desired. We could see some bigger trades be made even in March.

Fairchild had two good and one decent season in New York, but led the league in losses in 2003. But he’s better than on the late 90s Coons, when he routinely ran ERA’s in the region of five and up. He’s just here for the back end of the rotation, and it’s not like we have ambitions (or ability) anyway.

At the end of February, all of these players are free agents looking to make another dime: Neil Reece, Vern Kinnear, Royce Green, Ben O’Morrissey, and David Brewer. Oh, what could have been! Vinson and Salazar are retired, by the way.

[Westheim]

In the end, there was not all that much going on in March. We made one trade of a catcher that would have gone onto waivers otherwise, unloved Curt Cooks, and got a prospect with a lot of question marks in return.

None of our once-vaunted mid-90s position players found a new home.

March 11 – The Canadiens pick up 36-yr old ex-SFB OF Paul Theobald (.324, 35 HR, 755 RBI) for a 1-yr, $800k contract.
March 20 – The Raccoons send 31-yr old C/1B Curt Cooks (.271, 9 HR, 66 RBI) to the Pacifics for 21-yr old A 2B Jose Gutierrez.

[Westheim]

2006 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2005 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Nick Brown, 28, B:L, T:L (15-10, 2.91 ERA | 56-44, 3.10 ERA) – strikeout machine, with 212 or more strikeouts in every full season in the majors; the prime source of joy in Portland, and not all that bad for a second-to-last round pick.
SP Edgar Amador, 24, B:R, T:R (7-11, 4.01 ERA | 20-21, 3.81 ERA) – the “Fat Cat” is a serious groundball pitcher who is hard to homer off, and despite his gargantuan size he can field his own position; last year however, it was a struggle for him, as he had no control whatsoever over his pitches in the first half of the season and eventually was demoted to spend two months in AAA. He came back in the last quarter of the season and was much better then.
SP Ralph Ford, 28, B:L, T:L (6-14, 3.98 ERA | 52-85, 4.07 ERA) – gave up a career high 23 home runs in ’05, as his struggles rarely ever ceased; his W-L record is not only indicative on which team he has pitched his whole career, but it also tells a thing or two about his pitching, which includes many walks, and lots of extra base hits.
SP Kenichi Watanabe, 29, B:R, T:R (0-6, 3.00 ERA | 4-8, 3.09 ERA) – an international free agent added before the 2004 season, “Winless” Watanabe has pitched with even less luck and run support than any other pitcher before him, and also with a lower K/9 than anybody we dare to remember – in 110.2 innings in the Bigs, he has struck out only 47 batters.
SP Kelly Fairchild *, 33, B:R, T:R (5-7, 3.14 ERA | 39-63, 4.52 ERA, 1 SV) – Kelly always pitched much better for the Crusaders as when he was on the Raccoons in his 20s; except for leading the league in losses in 2003, he was a pretty solid part of the back half of the New York rotation since 2002, and we hope that this will hold true in 2006.

MU Kazuhiko Kichida, 26, B:L, T:R (2-3, 2.61 ERA | 3-3, 3.80 ERA) – if it stunk for all other reasons, but 2005 at least showed that Kaz could actually do something else than bloom up opposing leads; he held the shallow end of the rotation very well together and recommended himself for more regular duties, and also made a spot start.
MR Ed Bryan, 25, B:L, T:L (1-2, 2.36 ERA | 2-2, 2.23 ERA) – replaced a struggling Dave Williams very early in the season and pitched sufficiently well to never go away again, with a good K/BB (2.9), although he was home run prone, giving up six dingers in 42 innings, which happens to 92mph finesse guys when they drift into the middle of the zone.
MR Lawrence Rockburn, 25, B:R, T:R (3-1, 2.97 ERA, 1 SV | 4-3, 3.01 ERA, 1 SV) – this Canadian is the stock right-hander any bullpen needs a few of. Not overwhelming in any way, he was quietly trudging along in his first full season and did nothing to enrage general management.
MR Rémy Lucas, 27, B:L, T:L (3-0, 0.00 ERA | 3-0, 0.00 ERA) – this 27-year old Canadian came to the Bigs late, but when he came, he was impressive, allowing no runs to score in 8.2 innings of work late in the season and outpitched Matt Cash for the final bullpen slot, in which he is now the third left-hander, but his mean slider should help him to face right-handers as well.
SU Marcos Bruno, 30, B:R, T:R (2-4, 2.36 ERA, 10 SV | 18-20, 3.35 ERA, 50 SV) – excelled in 2005 with very few weak moments, and posted an 11+ K/9 for the second consecutive year which was instrumental in getting a lot of close leads from getting away; also subbed for Angel Casas when he was on the DL early in the season.
SU Domingo Moreno, 32, B:R, T:L (3-4, 3.86 ERA, 1 SV | 22-17, 3.08 ERA, 17 SV) – usually steady, although his fourth year in Portland was somewhat of an adventure, in which he completely lost it twice, including early in the season.
CL Angel Casas, 23, B:S, T:R (2-0, 1.30 ERA, 28 SV | 3-2, 1.80 ERA, 31 SV) – yes, it’s only a track record of 65 innings, and he missed two months to injury, but if Angel continues to pitch like he did last season, nominally his first full season in the majors, then Grant West might finally find rest in closer’s retirement, since we finally found a suitable replacement for a Hall of Famer.

C Bob Wood, 25, B:R, T:R (.211, 4 HR, 30 RBI | .217, 4 HR, 31 RBI) – Bob Wood tried, and couldn’t. Which was to be expected. After years of spending money and getting no production from their catchers, the Raccoons went cheap, and got no production, which was only fair. Our unwillingness to spend on catchers while getting no production from them keeps him in business.
C Craig Bowen *, 25, B:S, T:R (.199, 2 HR, 10 RBI | .197, 15 HR, 64 RBI) – acquired via trade with the Indians, Bowen sports a very manly moustache, if not a great resume. Our revamped scouting department liked him.

1B Adrian Quebell, 23, B:L, T:L (.356, 0 HR, 1 RBI | .356, 0 HR, 1 RBI) – Al Martin’s replacement hit no homers and drove in a single runner in 45 at-bats, his entire major-league experience. This might not be Bob Wood displaced by 90 feet, but he’s gotta show something soon. In any case, he is much more adept with the glove than Martin could ever have hoped to be.
1B/2B Ieyoshi Nomura, 22, B:L, T:R (.285, 1 HR, 14 RBI | .274, 2 HR, 25 RBI) – Yoshi started to show his ability to get on base (.357) in his first full season, which was still only a half season after three trips to the DL.
SS/3B/2B Victor Flores *, 27, B:R, T:R (.264, 2 HR, 42 RBI | .276, 10 HR, 215 RBI) – acquired in trade from the Bayhawks, but best known as 2001-05 Titan, Flores is a significant upgrade over the outrageously unproductive Yoshi Yamada at shortstop, with a steady glove on top of that.
1B/3B Daniel Sharp, 28, B:R, T:R (.290, 8 HR, 42 RBI | .290, 37 HR, 257 RBI) – everyday third baseman, never mind the stupid errors, in the field or on the base paths; performs consistently without any major hot or cold streaks.
SS/2B/3B Yoshi Yamada, 28, B:L, T:R (.208, 2 HR, 35 RBI | .208, 2 HR, 35 RBI) – set a Continental League record with 54 stolen bases despite reaching base 23.8% of the time, and was top notch with the glove, but the bat was indisputably bad. He has to settle into a defensive backup and pinch-runner role. He could f.e. run for Sharp or Nomura, stay at short, and Flores moves to the open position.
3B Steve Searcy, 24, B:R, T:R (.252, 1 HR, 9 RBI | .252, 1 HR, 9 RBI) – bounced back and forth between AAA and the Bigs, and hardly played; not a real defensive improvement at third base, and untrained anywhere else, with a bat that leaves you longing for much more.

LF/RF Clyde Brady, 29, B:L, T:L (.237, 22 HR, 74 RBI | .252, 100 HR, 434 RBI) – although he set a career high with 22 home runs in 2005, he continued the nasty trend of being completely absent from the scoreboard in the second half of the season. Also, he hasn’t batted .250 in four years, and there’s little hope for a reversal of this trend, while he is one of several free agents (with Greenman, Ford, Fairchild, and Moreno at least).
LF/CF/RF Edgardo Fernandez, 27, B:S, T:R (.257, 4 HR, 39 RBI | .275, 11 HR, 146 RBI) – very good defensive, at best average bat; he won the starting job in centerfield mainly by sucking less than the numerous competitors, and he is certainly no Neil Reece.
RF Bob Mays, 22, B:L, T:L (.267, 2 HR, 11 RBI | .267, 2 HR, 11 RBI) – limited exposure (90 AB) showed promise, and we are pretending that the K’s will go down and the bombs will go up while platooning with Christian Greenman.
RF/LF Christian Greenman, 30, B:R, T:R (.245, 24 HR, 82 RBI | .244, 101 HR, 308 RBI) – not liked in Portland, by anybody, his career best 24 dingers were a result of a career high 498 AB granted to him despite a not even middling batting average. He will platoon with Bob Mays until we get his sorry butt shoved through the door.
RF/LF Jose Carlos Crespo *, 25, B:S, T:R (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI | .333, 0 HR, 2 RBI) – six at-bats of major league service, nothing to get enraged about. Came over in a trade with the Titans.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Jose Carlos Crespo has a throat infection and will be unable to play in the first one or two games of the season.

Other roster movement:
SP Felipe Garcia, 28, B:R, T:R (6-16, 4.57 ERA | 23-39, 4.46 ERA) – DFA. His first full season without injuries or demotions was a nightmare, no stuff, no command, no luck.

Opening day lineups:
Vs. RHP: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – C Wood – P Brown
Vs. LHP: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Brown

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The only significant improvement is Vic Flores at short. We are giving the two most obvious power positions to rookies that have one home run between them after trading Al Martin for prospects. We traded for a few prospects, but who knows what will become of them. The Raccoons did not dismantle completely. We will leave that to the next offseason when everybody and their mother will be free agents.

Top 5: Pacifics (+7.4), Indians (+7.0), Canadiens (+6.9), Thunder (+4.2), Crusaders (+3.9)
Bottom 5: Raccoons (-4.3), Loggers (-5.4), Capitals (-6.6), Knights (-8.5), Cyclones (-8.5)

PREDICTION TIME:

It’s been nine years. Nine years of losing.

This will be the tenth.

There is just no reason to believe that it will get better. Our strong point is the bullpen, and everything else – apart from Nick Brown – is shoddy and makeshift. We don’t need injuries to fill our lineup with .200 batters. We do that from the start. It’s not even about Quebell and Mays hitting or not hitting. The whole lineup reeks of fish top to bottom, there is not one player in there you can key on. No mid-80s Hall/Osanai/Dawson heart of the order, not even a mid-to-late 90s Neil Reece to form an orderly line around. There’s Daniel Sharp trailed by a flock of .245 hitters – at best. The win-it-all Raccoons of the early 90s used Bobby Quinn (mostly around .755 OPS) as a constant backup. The early 90s Bobby Quinn would bat third for the 2006 Raccoons.

Unless the bled-dry Loggers manage to suck even more, the Raccoons will take the red lantern in early April and run with it, finishing desperately far out at 66-96.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Raccoons’ farm system improves four spots from 16th to 12th, despite one fewer (13 rather than 14) players ranked in the top 200.

The following ranked players from last year are no longer eligible: #24 Rémy Lucas (age), #111 Ed Bryan (service time), #113 Scott Boone (minor league free agent), #143 Pedro Salas (traded), and #187 Bob Wood (service time).

35th (+12) – AAA MR Pedro Delgado, 21 – 2002 first round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Bill Corkum and Rémy Lucas for Manny Gabriel and Dale Moore
40th (+41) – ML 1B Adrian Quebell, 23 – 2000 supplemental round pick by the Warriors, acquired in trade for Randy Farley and Dan Nordahl
53rd (+1) – AAA CL Adam Riddle, 24 – 2002 second round pick by the Raccoons
63rd (new) – AA 3B Ricardo Martinez, 20 – international discovery by Pacifics, acquired in trade from Titans with Jose Carlos Crespo and Cássio Boda for Albert Martin and Glen Barnes.
70th (+29) – AAA MR Luis Beltran, 26 – 2001 seventh round pick by the Raccoons
87th (new) – AA 2B Jose Gutierrez, 21 – international discovery by Condors, acquire in trade from Pacifics for Curt Cooks
95th (+30) – AAA MR Matt Cash, 23 – 2000 second round pick by the Raccoons
110th (new) – AA SP Brendan Teasdale, 21 – 2005 first round pick by the Raccoons
132nd (+9) – AAA SS Ryan Miller, 21 – 2002 first round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Christian Greenman for Mark Thomas, Manuel Martinez, and Freddy Rosa
134th (new) – AA SP/MR Ted Reese, 22 – 2004 supplemental round pick by the Loggers, acquired in trade for Dave Wheaton
166th (-9) – ML RF Bob Mays, 22 – 2001 supplemental round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Falcons with Pedro Salas, Gary Tucker for Conceicao Guerin
183rd (new) – AAA SP Cesar Lopez, 23 – international discovery by Knights, acquired in trade with Jesus Palacios, Manny Gabriel, and Butch Kaustrop for Marvin Ingall and Manuel Reyes
184th (-46) – AAA MR Cody Bryant, 23 – 2001 second round pick by the Raccoons

22-year old outfielder Jimmy Roberts, the Pacifics’ first overall draft pick in the 2005 draft, was the #1 prospect in the country.

Next: first pitch!

[Westheim]

(Intro: Ancient Egypt, steaming summer sun over a pyramid in mid-construction. The construction site is empty.)
Narrator: These Raccoons are brought to you by … Diarrhea – keeping people home from work since 2,460 BC

Raccoons (0-0) @ Loggers (0-0) – April 4-5, 2006

The two worst teams of last year’s CL North face off to start the new season in Milwaukee, with a duo of spectacular left-handers tapped for Opening Day duties.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Martin Garcia (0-0)
Edgar Amador (0-0) vs. Junior Diaz (0-0)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – 2B Nomura – C B. Wood – P Brown
MIL: LF Bayle – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – SS T. Johnson – 2B B. Hernandez – CF Wheaton – 1B M. Woods – C T: Phillips – P M. Garcia

Through three innings, both teams had one hit, with Bob Wood doubling for the Raccoons, but nobody scored. Then it was Vic Flores to make a critical error in his first game as a Raccoon, putting Tom Johnson on second base in the bottom 4th. Brownie did not have his good stuff ready for the opener, and struggled to remove the next two batters despite going to two strikes. Bartolo Hernandez walked, but Dave Wheaton eventually popped out, and we remained scoreless, at least until Mac Woods’ line drive home run that began the bottom 5th. The lazy Raccoons wouldn’t bother moving their paws in support of their ace until the seventh, which started with a Brady single and a Greenman double, instantly doubling their hits output for the game. Quebell whiffed, but Flores made up for his earlier bobble and lined a double into the rightfield corner that plated both runs and flipped the score in the Coons’ favor. Bad thing was, Brown’s turn to bat came up with two outs and runners on second and third. And we made a move and got Searcy to hit for him, who hit a liner on the first pitch, but more or less right to Jimmy Bayle. Raw Lockburn only allowed a walk to Woods in the bottom 7th, and in the top 8th Garcia was removed as soon as Sharp doubled. They went to Gabriel Garcia, a righty, who walked Brady intentionally, then threw a wild pitch and fell victim to Adrian Quebell’s single to left that scored two instead of one. Up 4-1, Flores made his second error in the bottom 8th to put Ken Wood on base, which put Marcos Bruno into a bad spot, which he worsened himself by drilling Aaron Tolwith. Yet, Bruno struck out Hiwalani, the Coons’ bane for so long, and got out of the inning, and this was also the final rock to climb over for the Coons in the season opener, as Angel Casas fired the Loggers into submission easily in the ninth. 4-1 Brownies!! Brady 1-2, 2 BB; Bowen (PH) 1-1; Brown 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

So that was some sick pitching. How sick? Brown’s two hits allowed were all the Loggers managed to put onto the board. Our three relievers were hitless.

33 K to go for 1,000 for a certain left-hander.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – C B. Wood – P Amador
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Wheaton – RF Hiwalani – SS T. Johnson – LF Bayle – 3B Tolwith – 1B M. Woods – C J. Reyes – P J. Diaz

Pitching ceased, and offense took over. At least the Loggers’ offense. The Fat Cat, who had enjoyed Mama Amador’s pork meals in the offseason, was terribly out of shape, and in the first inning walked Hiwalani and Johnson before allowing doubles to Bayle and Tolwith, falling 3-0 behind in a hurry. By the second inning there was then some light snowfall. The snow would call for occasional delays, but the Raccoons could hardly claim it the source of their troubles. The Loggers had to play in the snow, too. Bottom 2nd, Jesus Reyes got on, and when Bartolo Hernandez hit a single to left, Brady’s throw to home was off, and while Wood got to the ball, the ball also got to him, and devoured him with skin and hair. So, give Hernandez an RBI single, Brady an error, and Wood a new face, and let’s play on!

Amador got walloped for only 2.1 innings before we had enough. By then it was 7-0 for the Loggers. Kaz Kichida replaced him, allowed a single to Junior Diaz, the Loggers sent Reyes around third, but this time Brady’s throw was right where the music played and Reyes was out. Kichida did quite well over three innings but Mac Woods got on in the sixth and with the left-hander Wheaton up, Rémy Lucas came in to pitch. He got Wheaton, but boy, did he not get Hiwalani, whose home run made it 9-0. The Loggers loaded the bases with Critters in the top 7th solely through walks, yet Quebell flew out softly to right and nobody scored. The Raccoons would not score until they were down to their last out, Sharp being retired on a fly to center, but Bob Wood tagging and scoring from third base. 9-1 Loggers. Mays 2-4; Fernandez 1-2, BB; Kichida 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K;

Well, that was ugly. 160 to go.

Raccoons (1-1) vs. Thunder (2-1) – April 7-9, 2006

Although the Thunder were certainly one of the better teams in the CL South, the Raccoons had beaten them 6-3 in both of the last two seasons. Can we get a good jump here?

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (0-0) vs. Vaughn Higgins (0-0)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-0) vs. Luis Martinez (0-0)
Kelly Fairchild (0-0) vs. Aaron Anderson (0-0, 1.13 ERA)

Game 1
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – C F. Hernandez – RF Ayers – CF J. Gonzales – 3B H. Castro – 1B T. Cardenas – 2B Heathershaw – SS B. Scott – P Higgins
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – C B. Wood – P Ford

Ford issued one walk in the first, Higgins issued two, nobody scored. Ford struck out the side in the second, and the Coons had two in scoring position with no outs before Higgins struck out the side as well, and still nobody scored. Ford bested Brown’s K output by the third inning, and the Coons left Brady dying on third base in the bottom of that inning, before Felix Hernandez and Jorge Gonzales both hit doubles in the top 4th for a 1-0 Thunder lead. While the Raccoons tied the score in the bottom 4th, the top 5th saw the Thunder put three on with no outs when Cardenas singled, and then Bob Wood made a mind-boggling throwing error on Bradley Heathershaw’s poor grounder, before Ford drilled Burton Scott. While Higgins hit into a run-scoring double play to potentially limit the damage, Ford was taken well deep by Victorino Sanchez to fall behind 4-1. That score was still true in the bottom 7th. Ford’s spot was up first, but Crespo hit for him – yet before that: a rain delay. We’re in Portland after all. An hour later, Crespo doubled as the Thunder brought out their pen. Nomura would double, and Brady came up with an infield single. Now 4-2 behind, Quebell hit a sac fly, and then Bob Mays tripled off Bartolo Gomez and the game was tied and the go-ahead run at third base! Flores sent a low fly to left, where Sanchez came on and caught it – AND DROPPED IT!! Mays scored! Flores to second! And Fernandez singled up the middle, and Flores scored, as John Hatt oversaw that final play from the mound. Suddenly, a 6-4 lead! The top 8th saw Bruno strike out Max Nixon in the #9 hole before Sanchez singled off Moreno. Moreno whiffed Hernandez before we went to Casas, who hung a golden sombrero on Keith Ayers, and then went on to strike out the side in the ninth! 6-4 Coons! Nomura 2-4, BB, 2B; Brady 2-4, BB, 2B; Flores 2-3, BB, 2B; Fernandez 2-4, 2 RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-2, 2B; Ford 7.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (1-0); Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, SV (2);

Game 2
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C F. Hernandez – 2B Palacios – 3B Heathershaw – CF J. Gonzales – SS Nixon – RF Humphrey – P L. Martinez
POR: SS Flores – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Searcy – C Bowen – P Watanabe

Watanabe was all over the place in the first inning, walked three, struck out three, and somewhere in between surrendered a 2-run homer to Felix Hernandez. The Coons made up a run early, but still trailed 2-1, while the Thunder failed to repeat their early rousing success against Watanabe with more offense. They only managed two hits over the next five innings, not touching him seriously, but when he was done after six (also whiffing six), the score was still much to his disadvantage. Then Fernandez hit a leadoff double in the bottom 6th. Clyde Brady came up, and came through, a 2-run home run, the first for the Raccoons on the year! Top 8th, Marcos Bruno let Bradley Heathershaw on base with an infield single, but remained in the driver’s seat and struck out PH Antonio De La Parra to end the inning. Still 3-2 after the sorry performance in the bottom 8th, Angel Casas was called on to save it, but only faced one batter, striking out Vonne Calzado, but on that final pitch limped off the mound, then sat down on the grass while the trainer rushed out and I had a mild stroke in my office overlooking the park. We had burned through our bullpen at such a rapid pace, using three men in the seventh, that by now only Rockburn and Kichida were left available, and Rockburn it was. He walked Victorino Sanchez with two down (and we couldn’t seem to get him out much at all), but then struck out Tomas Cardenas to save this one. 3-2 Coons. Brady 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-3, RBI;

Angel Casas – strikes out seven of his first eight batters on the year, then suffers a calf strain and goes to the DL. We expect him to miss the rest of this month.

While Marcos Bruno will take over closing duties, we called up Adam Riddle from AAA, where the season hadn’t even started yet.

We’re 3-1, yet I want to cry.

Game 3
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C F. Hernandez – 2B Palacios – SS B. Scott – CF J. Gonzales – 3B Nixon – RF Ayers – P A. Anderson
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – CF Crespo – C Wood – P Fairchild

For the second day in a row, Clyde Brady gave the Coons a lead with an extra base hit, this time a first-inning, Sharp-scoring triple, but this time it didn’t hold up. While the Thunder were no better scoring on a walky Fairchild than on a walky Watanabe, they eventually got a triple of their own from Keith Ayers with one out in the fifth to put that tying run awfully close. Anderson singled, 1-1, and when Sanchez singled up the middle (seriously, we can’t get him out!), J.C. Crespo axed down Anderson at third base with a very accurate throw, and Cardenas grounded out so we could hold a tie for the moment. The Furballs tumbled on, with Fairchild insisting on pitching in on Felix Hernandez’ hands for a nasty sound and an injury replacement at catcher for the road team, and was yanked with runners on the corners and two out in the sixth. Kaz retired Max Nixon, two more in the seventh, and when Ed Bryan was brought in to face Sanchez, he walked him (…), but then got Cardenas. We had to pitch Adam Riddle in the eighth in order to have something available in a potential save situation in the ninth, and if not for Clyde Brady making two stupendously wonderful catches in the inning, the Thunder would have busted through the door. Instead the Thunder didn’t score, neither did the Coons despite a leadoff walk by Brady and two men on in the bottom 8th, and Rémy Lucas pitched the ninth and tenth, which of course included an instance of Victorino Sanchez roaming the bases (but ending up held on third in the latter inning), and also the rather surprising instance of the scoreboard lighting up after a Vonne Calzado single in the ninth to alert everybody to the 38-year old’s 3,000th career base hit.

In turn, we left Brady on second in the bottom 10th. After squeezing an inning out of Rockburn, who had gotten into all games but one this week, we faced Jimmy Morey, so we could forget about offense for a while. Moreno did the 12th, but tired quickly in the 13th (appearing in all games in this series), and hit Jesus Palacios with two out. Marcos Bruno was the only proper reliever left, but we also still had Edgar Amador, who had thrown only 66 pitches in his horrendous outing on Wednesday, and he was called onto here. His first pitch was taken to deep left by Bradley Heathershaw for a run-scoring double, and Morey was still in that game… Quebell hit a 1-out single, which prompted a PR appearance from Yoshi Yamada. Everybody in the league knew what Yamada would be up to. Morey fell 2-0 on Amador, then got a strike looking. On the 2-1, Yamada got the go sign, went, Amador flailed, but De La Parra only watched as Yamada was already sliding into second base. And he went again on the next pitch as Amador grounded out, but was safe at third and Vic Flores’ responsibility. Flores singled up the middle, and this game was TIED!

It remained tied, and Amador remained on the mound. Max Nixon was at second with two out in the 14th and Sanchez batting. With Cardenas batting .167 behind him, Sanchez was walked intentionally, but Cardenas livened up an 0-5 day with an RBI single. Turns out, no strategy could overcome Amador’s pitching.

Bottom 14th, Morey in his fourth inning of work, Wood made the first out, before Greenman doubled, but hurt his hand sliding into second base and had to come out, which was terrible, since all that was left on the bench was backup catcher Craig Bowen. But well, first we had to re-tie Amador’s mess. Sharp plopped out poorly, lowering his average to toddler’s weight, but Nomura singled up the middle, Bowen a poor runner, sent for home against Sanchez’ arm, and he – is – SAFE!!! WE’RE TIED AGAIN!! And Morey’s next pitch to Brady was wild, moving Nomura into scoring position, but Brady couldn’t help but walk, and Yamada grounded out. And the band played on.

We now had Bowen catch, moved Wood to first base, Flores back to short, and had the agile, wide-ranging Yamada play centerfield, while moving Crespo to right. Amador still couldn’t throw a decent pitch, Palacios reached leading off the 15th, but was left at third by his team, which now carried only two above-.250 batters in the lineup. Then, Amador led off the bottom 15th with a single, but was never moved, yet struck out the side, including Sanchez(!), in the top 16th. The first look was treacherous however, for Amador quickly set the game on fire again in the 17th. Cardenas walked, and De La Parra singled, runners on the corners, no outs, yet that lead runner was now relief pitcher John Hatt after Cardenas had also jammed something sliding in. But it was either Bruno or losing now, so we called on Marcos, with Nick Brown being sent to the bullpen to get warm. Bruno struck out Palacios (golden sombrero there), but was then hit by Heathershaw with an RBI double, that put the Thunder up for the third time in extras, and the second time by Heathershaw’s bat. They only got that one run, however, and that hadn’t done them any good the last two times. Yet now Brady was leading off and Bruno was third to bat in the bottom 17th, and nobody left to save his furry butt.

Yet – the Thunder now had playing John Hatt at first base, Heathershaw at short, and an ancient Vonne Calzado in right – all defensive liabilities. Bartolo Gomez was in his third inning of relief, and allowed a leadoff single to Brady. Yamada was up and grounded to first and Hatt COMPLETELY blew the play and failed to toss to Palacios covering first in due time: Yamada was safe, and Bruno held a bat. The thing was, Marcos was not a good bunter, at all. As late inning reliever he hardly ever took batting practice. So we told him to swing away! An inspiring at-bat developed between Gomez and Bruno, which ended with a full count, Bruno putting a slow roller into play, and De La Parra unable to play it in time – all hands were safe, and NO OUTS! And with Yamada at second base, any soft single will win this game! So it was clear that Flores would ground out to Palacios, who went home to dismiss Brady, which now put a terrible runner on second. Next, Crespo, batting 0-7, and putting a 3-1 pitch into play to left, Nixon lunging, THROUGH!! But Bruno had no chance to score and the bases remained loaded, now in a tie game, in the bottom 17th on very early Monday morning. Oh look, Bob Wood, also 0-7 on the day. His poor bloop to left was easily snagged by Sanchez, and Bowen grounded out to Palacios – and we still had to play on.

Top 18th, Calzado led off with a double, but Gomez’ bunt was terrible and Bruno took it to nail Calzado at third. Gomez, one of a dozen relievers now in play, stole second base against Bowen, moved to third on Sanchez’ groundout, and was left there when John Hatt couldn’t connect soundly. That would be it for Bruno, and unless we could walk off in the bottom of this inning, Nick Brown would makes his first relief appearance in four years.

And since all the Coons amounted to in the bottom 18th was a deep fly out by Brady, Brownie appeared in the 19th. He would be a tough mountain to climb for the decimated Thunder, striking out a pair in the 19th, then allowing a single to some guy or other (even the official scorer had snoozed off by now), but Bowen threw out the runner when he tried to steal in the 20th. Bottom 20th, a meek uprising as Jason Long allowed 2-out singles to Bowen and Sharp, bringing up Nomura against the southpaw. A ball here, a strike there, the count ran full before Nomura swatted a pitch to deep right. Would old Vonne get this one!? He sure tried!! But he would not be able to get it, for it was GOOOOONNNEEE!!!!

7-4 Brownies? Nomura 3-10, HR, 4 RBI; Brady 2-6, 3 BB, 3B, RBI; Quebell 3-5, BB; Lucas 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Bruno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K and 1-1; Brown 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

The game ended 1:16am Pacific.

In other news

April 7 – The Condors place CF Ramón Perez (.231, 0 HR, 0 RBI) on the DL with patellar tendinitis. He should be good after the minimum 15 days.
April 7 – 34-year old SFW Santiago Chavez (1-0, 0.00 ERA) fires a 3-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over the Capitals.
April 9 – In the 20-inning marathon in Portland that his Thunder lose 7-4, OCT RF Vonne Calzado (.500, 0 HR, 2 RBI) hits a ninth inning single off Rémy Lucas for his 3,000th career base hit. The 16-year veteran has been around since being the Thunder’s 1985 first round pick, also playing for Washington, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, and Vancouver, taking a ring with the Capitals in ’97. For his career, he has batted .333 with 141 HR and 1,195 RBI, and he has won two batting titles (1994, 2000), was the 1990 CL ROTY, and was to six All Star games. His 3,001 career hits are fifth-most overall, and second-most among active players (trailing Cristo Ramirez’ 3,361).
April 9 – PIT CL Paco Barrera (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 SV) closes the door on the Stars in a 4-1 victory, notching his 300th career save.
April 9 – TOP OF Javier Gusmán (.333, 1 HR, 5 RBI) will miss a month with a sprained ankle.

Complaints and stuff

A 20-inning game in which a guy gets his 3,000th hit? How often has that happened before! Complete box score for this mess: 20 inning bonanza here!

Dare I say though that I have no idea how we are supposed to make it through the next ten straight days with a game on? F.e. we blew out Monday’s and Tuesday’s starter. We can’t make it without getting at least one kid up from AAA, which means we have to DL Greenman with his battered hand. He would be unable to play for one week or so, but then we have to make it two weeks to get the roster spot. Felipe Garcia cleared waivers. Anybody up for him?

We also went to 137-127 all time against the Thunder, which works out to .519 and has them replace the Indians as CL team we have the best all time record against.

CL's Player of the Week? How about Freddy Rosa of the Titans. Yeah, that guy.

We resigned MR Scott Boone, who became a minor league free agent at the end of last year and was not picked up by anybody. He was reassigned to AAA.

[Westheim]

One week in, and our rotation was in shambles after that 20-inning game on Sunday that saw both the Fat Cat and Brownie appear in relief. Neither one was ready to start on either Monday or Tuesday, so we needed a bit of a plan. That plan included a spot starter on Monday, Ralph Ford pitching on Tuesday on short rest, then Brownie on Wednesday (although I don’t like my left-handers back-to-back), Watanabe (on normal rest) on Thursday, and then no Fat Cat until Friday, followed by Fairchild and Ford again.

To facilitate this, Christian Greenman went to the DL with the banged up hand, and we called up Tim Webster for the Monday start against the Condors.

Raccoons (4-1) vs. Condors (3-4) – April 10-12, 2006

Most numbers the Condors had put up after the first week were average, except for a league-worst .202 batting average. But hey, we got a few guys batting on the interstate (or underneath it!) as well.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (0-0) vs. Paul Kirkland (0-0, 5.14 ERA)
Ralph Ford (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (1-0, 2.25 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-0, 1.13 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (0-0, 3.60 ERA)

With Webster on Monday, we will actually start three left-handers in a row. Hum. You can’t have everything, I guess. Escobedo is the only left-hander the Condors are putting up, and Kirkland is the guy that pulled a Bill Smith this winter.

Game 1
TIJ: RF B. Miller – SS B. Boyle – 2B J. Diaz – CF Luxton – C Estrada – 1B T. Mullins – 3B B. Román – LF J. Thomas – P Kirkland
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Fernandez – SS Yamada – C Bowen – P Webster

Webster could have taken the chance and made something with it, but instead flunked out right away, surrendering a 3-run homer to Paco Estrada in the first, and a solo shot to Bartolo Román in the second. The Raccoons had to reorganize after getting about half their normal sleep, but by the fifth had crawled back into the game and cut the gap to 4-3, with Brady tripling and scoring in the first, and two runs in the fifth including a Craig Bowen homer. Webster managed to cling on in those middle innings, but most of the work was done by the defense. Bowen threw out a runner in the sixth, and in the bottom of that inning our young guns led off with back-to-back doubles to tie the score and have Bob Mays on second with no outs. The Scavengers would escape the inning after an intentional walk to Fernandez and eventually a double play hit into by Bowen, but the score was tied, and credit to Webster, no more deep fly balls for him after that early scuffle. When he allowed a leadoff hit to Robbie Luxton in the ninth, he was pulled for the little scraps of bullpen we had (and in a tied game!). Kichida replaced Webster, fell behind every batter he faced, but somehow escaped the inning with two on (AFTER Bowen threw out Luxton stealing). Bottom 9th, surprise, it’s Ricardo Huerta! Sorry, Rico, we gotta end this one here. Huerta struck out Bowen, but Crespo, who had entered with Kaz in a double switch bracing for extra innings, singled. Sharp couldn’t get anything done, but maybe Yoshi-N, Sunday’s hero, could do something about it. He took Huerta’s second pitch to deep left, a huge fly that Johnny Crum couldn’t haul in, it hit the dirt, it hit the wall, Crum bobbled it once, Crespo was a-running, and he – was – SAFE!!! 5-4 Coons!! Quebell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, HR, RBI; Crespo 1-1; Webster 8.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K;

YOSHIIIII!!!

YOSHIIIIIIII!!!!!!

Technically, he has now hit two walkoffs in one day, since Sunday’s marathon ended well past midnight. =)

Tim Webster had outlived his usefulness now, however, and we sent him back to St. Pete for an additional reliever. We will carry that reliever for a few days, then bring up an outfielder to rebalance our roster. The callup went to 23-year old Cody Bryant, our 2001 second-rounder, who is severely control-challenged. We hope for a good inning or two before we can return him to the swamps.

Game 2
TIJ: RF B. Miller – SS B. Boyle – 2B J. Diaz – CF Luxton – C Estrada – 1B T. Mullins – 3B B. Román – LF Crum – P Patrick
POR: SS Flores – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Fernandez – 3B Searcy – C Wood – P Ford

The Condors moved first with a Juan Diaz home run in the first inning, but the Raccoons came right back with three straight singles in the bottom 1st, starting with Nomura, while the third of those, Quebell’s, was mishandled for an error by Bill Miller, a push that eventually gave the Coons two runs in the inning. It rapidly got worse for Brian Patrick, who allowed a leadoff single to Bob Wood in the second, who scored on Vic Flores’ double, and then Brady cashed in two with his second home run of the season. The Raccoons turned the screws some more and moved out to an 8-1 lead by the fifth inning, and so far Ford had been very responsible with the lead, but he came apart – maybe a factor of going on short rest? – in the sixth inning. Robbie Luxton’s 3-run homer cut the lead to 8-5 and we had to cover 11 outs with the bullpen now. Riddle took over and exited the inning, but Adam Riddle’s stint was eventually short-lived when he drilled Johnny Crum in the seventh and left-handers came up. The Condors put men on the corners, but Moreno found a way out of there, striking out Boyle and getting a poor pop from Diaz. The Coons left two men on in their own half of the seventh, and Cody Bryant made his debut in the top 8th, surrendering Stanley Dougal with a lineout to center. Although the Coons didn’t score in the bottom 8th, keeping the score at 8-5, we stayed with Bryant, holding Bruno available in case it went all wrong. It went all wrong. Román walked, moved to second on a passed ball, to third on Crum’s groundout, and then Bryant walked Ron Brantley. Emergency, emergency! Marcos whiffed Bill Miller, allowed an RBI single to Boyle, but then struck out Diaz to get this one over with. 8-6 Coons! Nomura 2-5; Brady 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Wood 2-4, 2B;

With the Elks’ loss to the Falcons, the Raccoons took over first place in the division.

Game 3
TIJ: RF B. Miller – SS B. Boyle – 2B J. Diaz – CF Luxton – C Estrada – 1B T. Mullins – 3B B. Román – LF Crum – P Escobedo
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – 2B Nomura – RF Crespo – C Wood – P Brown

Juan Diaz struck out to end the first and unloaded something onto the umpire that the guy in black didn’t like, and Diaz was tossed right away. While Brown struck out five the first time through the order, the Coons had Sharp thrown out at the plate to end the third inning. Brown had two K’s sandwiching a 1-2 that brushed Diaz replacement Ron Brantley, and Paco Estrada would double him in with a 2-2 pitch taken into the corner in leftfield. That got Brown trailing, and next Ted Mullins singled to left, Estrada was sent, and now he was thrown out at home by Brady, who sent the fly on which Sharp tagged and didn’t score the previous inning. Brownie struck out 11 in this game, but it wouldn’t help him. He was tagged by Brantley with a 2-run homer in the sixth, and came up to bat with two on and two out twice in the game, and never got the ball passed the middle infielders. His turn was up again with Crespo on first and one out in the bottom 7th when Searcy hit for him, and the result was tremendous: a HUGE shot that went out of left center, and the Coons were back in this one, down 3-2! And Sharp doubled, and Brady singled, and this time Sharp was not thrown out, and the game was tied! The Coons managed to load them up and chase Escobedo in the process, with Yoshi Nomura facing Tom Brooks with the bags full and two out, the count ran full, and he walked!! While Crespo struck out, Nomura had pushed in the go-ahead run and put Brownie in line for this third win of the year after being hit for down by three. Now we just had to hold on: Rémy Lucas struck off half of the six outs we needed with a clean eighth. In the bottom 8th, Wood drew a leadoff walk. Yamada ran for him, while Mays batted for Lucas, and while Yamada never got a good jump, he scored on Vic Flores’ 2-out single. Flores was then thrown out stealing himself. With Bruno having been in four of the last five games, we picked Raw Lockburn for the ninth. Locks burning or not, Lawrence struck out the side in the ninth, and the Coons took their sixth straight! 5-3 Brownies! Sharp 2-5, 2B; Brady 3-4, 2B, RBI; Searcy (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, W (3-0);

Best team in baseball – your dearest Raccoons.

That will be one desperate tumble towards .400 from 7-1.

Raccoons (7-1) vs. Indians (5-4) – April 13-16, 2006

We’d have the Indians for four games, and they had so far stuck an arrow into opposing teams 32 times, but had surrendered just as much, which was on the shorter end of scoring. Their pitching had been excellent so far with a 2.56 ERA for the rotation and a 1.67 ERA for the bullpen. The Indians had gotten a few teeth knocked out however with prolific slugger LF/RF Ron Alston (.355, 4 HR, 12 RBI) going to miss three to four weeks with an intercostal strain.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (1-1, 1.80 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-1, 14.29 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (1-0, 2.08 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (0-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (1-1, 2.00 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-0, 4.38 ERA) vs. Bob King (0-0, 2.40 ERA)

One southpaw in there, Gonzalez, but that’s quite the formidable opposition.

Game 1
IND: LF J. Alvarez – SS Kilters – 3B D. Lopez – 1B Battle – C Olson – CF J. Lugo – 2B Harris – RF Martines – P Tobitt
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – C Bowen – P Watanabe

With Alston injured and Jose Paraz having the day off, this was Watanabe’s to lose. It didn’t help however that Curtis Tobitt immediately got the Coons into his metal deathgrip and didn’t allow much at all. Watanabe put up four scoreless, but it all fell apart horribly in the fifth with leadoff walks Lugo and Harris. Martines singled, and then Tobitt singled up the middle to plate the first two runs of the game. It didn’t get better, with an infield single by Jesus Alvarez reloading the bases, and there was still nobody out. Thankfully, Chris Kilters hit into a double play, and the Indians were limited to three runs in the inning. The Coons, however, were at zero, and didn’t score until the bottom 6th when Brady was plated by a Vic Flores single. Brady had singled himself, casually raising his average to .484. Fernandez walked to load them up with two out in the inning, giving Craig Bowen a HUGE at-bat against his former team. He missed an 0-1 pitch, but the umpire jumped out yelling and motioning – catcher’s interference! That pushed home a run, but the Coons didn’t get more with Searcy popping out in place of Watanabe. We were back to 3-2, but not for long. Robbie Harris’ leadoff jack off Cody Bryant got the Indians up 4-2 again, yet Clyde Brady raised his average to .500 in style with a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the inning, this one off Iván Lopez. That was as big a bite as the Raccoons would take in this game, however, and they couldn’t solve Tommy Wooldridge and Iemitsu Rin in the last two innings, with Brady making the final out. 4-3 Indians. Brady 3-4, HR, RBI; Quebell 2-4; Flores 2-4, RBI; Bowen 1-2, BB, RBI;

With this, Bryant was handed back to AAA, and we added corner outfielder Jorge Rodriguez, 28 now, who had batted .250 with 3 HR and 12 RBI over 96 AB between 2003 and 2004.

Game 2
IND: LF Martines – SS Kilters – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – CF MacKey – 1B Battle – 2B Fugosi – RF J. Lugo – P Moreau
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Crespo – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Amador

After the Critters got an unearned run in the first inning, the home fans got to cheer on the Fat Cat as he whiffed the side in the third inning, maintaining perfection pace, before he walked FOUR in the fourth to tie the game. This was still a no-hitter. The Indians were frustrated, the Raccoons were frustrated (mainly the GM), and after Kilters was tossed complaining about a marginal strike three in the sixth, David Lopez singled to get the Indians into the H column. Amador responded by walking the bases loaded and was removed for Rockburn, who flew out to the deep portion of the left field line, with Brady making a hustling grab and slowing down in time before adding his face to the wall out there. Things went south with Adam Riddle in the top 8th, however. After Lopez had given the Indians their first hit of the game, he also gave them their second, and it was a solo homer. The Coons’ order, clueless all day, had nothing at all against Wooldridge and Rin once more. 2-1 Indians. Flores 2-4; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

No matter what we do, we can never beat those Indians… Next loss gives them the division lead.

Game 3
IND: LF J. Valdez – SS Kilters – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – CF MacKey – 2B Harris – 1B Fugosi – RF C. Rey – P R. Gonzalez
POR: SS Flores – RF Crespo – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – 2B Nomura – C Wood – 3B Searcy – P Fairchild

Fernandez made a hero’s catch on Ramiro Gonzalez’ line drive in the top 2nd that kept three Indians stranded and the game scoreless. The bases were reloaded in an instant in the third, with a Valdez single, Kilters getting knocked in the ribs, and Paraz walking. Lopez’ double play scored the first run in the contest, and Fairchild walked another one before Robbie Harris made the third out. Kelly Fairchild hardly got anybody out in the game, and the Indians loaded them up again in the fourth, but failed to score. Gonzalez sat down the first ten Raccoons before Crespo hit a single, but nothing came out of that. Not much at all came off the Coons’ bats, in fact. We were on the other side of a 38-minute rain delay when Eddie Fernandez had an outrageous second hit for the Critters, a 2-out double in the bottom 7th. Once Nomura reached on Kilters’ error, runners were on the corners in the 1-0 game, and Iván Lopez replaced Ramiro Gonzalez, with Bob Mays batting for Bob Wood. Struggling with a .172 average, Wood had a liberating swing for a 2-run triple to dead center, but was left stranded there after Searcy walked and Rodriguez grounded out. Rémy Lucas walked his only batter, MacKey in the top 8th, but Rockburn came in and restored order. The Raccoons in turn couldn’t bring in Vic Flores after he doubled to start the bottom 8th, and so it was double-whammy when Jose Lugo, 1-for-12, hit a leadoff double off Marcos Bruno in the top 9th. The tying run on second base, Bruno struck out Valdez, before Kilters flew out to Rodriguez in rightfield. That left Paraz in the way of going to 8-3, and he went down on three pitches. 3-2 Critters! Mays (PH) 1-1, 3B, 2 RBI;

Close ballgames!

Game 4
IND: CF A. Solís – SS Kilters – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – 2B Fugosi – RF MacKey – 1B Harris – LF C. Rey – P King
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Fernandez – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Ford

The Indians scored first with a Filippo Fugosi home run in the top 2nd, but the Coons chopped four hits in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead, although it cost Fernandez, who got entangled with Kilters at second base and had to be removed for J.C. Crespo to take over in center. The Indians hit three doubles off a hopeless Ford in the top 3rd and retook the lead, 3-2. That was not the last score-flipping hit in the game. The next belonged to Danny Sharp, who into this game was batting so far below .200 that you had to worry about something being wrong, but he was unretired after three stints at the plate, with a 2-out, 2-run single in the bottom 4th giving the Coons the lead back, 4-3. Nomura and Ford scored on that one. Ralph Ford still struggled to maintain cohesion and the Indians reached scoring position in the fifth and sixth, but never got to him before he was removed with well over 100 pitches through six. Bottom 6th, the Raccoons had a bushel of singles to load the bases with Nomura, Wood, and Rodriguez with no outs. After Sharp chose this point to make a poor out to Claudio Rey in shallow left, and Flores joined him in that, it looked like we wouldn’t score at all until Bob King balked for a run to score and Brady plated two more with a single up the middle. The seventh saw Rémy Lucas strike out the side, and he also got Kilters to start the eighth, before Kaz came in, walked Lopez, but Paraz hit into a double play. Domingo Moreno however couldn’t seal the deal: MacKey got on, and Robbie Harris homered, bringing the score back to 7-5. Moreno then walked Rey, prompting an unscheduled appearance by Bruno, who allowed a single to Mike Olson before Marty Battle flipped the score for the final time with a huge 3-run homer. 8-7 Indians. Sharp 3-5, 3 RBI; Mays 2-4, 2B; Nomura 2-4, RBI; Rodriguez (PH) 1-1; Lucas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Okay. THAT … was a **** game. And we just can’t stop putting up such ****ty efforts against the Indians. This has been going on for years!

In other news

April 10 – It’s 200 career wins for BOS SP Jason O’Halloran (1-0, 3.21 ERA)! The 34-year old southpaw held the Knights at bay in a 3-2 win, going to 200-115 with a 3.29 ERA all time. The 2003 CL Pitcher of the Year has spent his entire career with the Titans, who drafted him in the first round in 1989.
April 10 – VAN OF Paul Theobald (.435, 0 HR, 3 RBI) has two knocks in the Canadiens’ 8-1 romp over the championship Falcons, reaching 2,000 career hits. The 1987 first rounder, taken by the Condors, gets the milestone hit, a single off Tommy Wilson, in the second inning.
April 12 – The Thunder announce that 1B Tomas Cardenas (.200, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for the season with a broken kneecap.
April 13 – DEN INF Jose Lopez (.472, 1 HR, 13 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going with one knock in an 8-1 clobbering the Gold Sox are handed by the Warriors.
April 13 – OCT C Felix Hernandez (.158, 1 HR, 2 RBI) will spent two weeks on the shelf with a bruised knees.
April 13 – WAS RF/LF Jose Gomez (.269, 0 HR, 3 RBI) has suffered a concussion and is assumed to be out for three months.
April 14 – LVA SP Anibal Sandoval (0-0, 0.71 ERA), who has pitched 250 or more innings in every one of his ten full seasons in the Bigs, is out for three months with shoulder inflammation.
April 14 – Salem’s southpaw Raúl Chavez (2-0, 1.80 ERA) spins a 3-hitter to beat the Scorpions, 3-0.
April 15 – The Wolves acquire 27-yr old OF Robbie Luxton (.233, 3 HR, 10 RBI) from the Condors, sending over 27-yr old C Blair Harris (.167, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and 23-yr old AAA INF Pancho Ybarra.

Complaints and stuff

Batting .423 with a 2 HR and 6 RBI, Clyde Brady was selected as CL Player of the Week.

The Condors are in trading mood very early in the season. They offered us outfielder Bill Miller on Sunday, longing for AAA players Mike Willard and Ryan Miller. Well, Ryan won’t go anywhere, and Bill Miller doesn’t help us in centerfield. He’s another corner outfielder, and that’s not really what we’re looking for.

Besides, I watched all episodes of “Still Standing”, and I just can’t imagine a player named Bill Miller on a physically demanding position on the field. Beer league pitcher, perhaps.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

The Condors are in trading mood very early in the season. They offered us outfielder Bill Miller on Sunday, longing for AAA players Mike Willard and Ryan Miller. Well, Ryan won’t go anywhere, and Bill Miller doesn’t help us in centerfield. He’s another corner outfielder, and that’s not really what we’re looking for.

Besides, I watched all episodes of “Still Standing”, and I just can’t imagine a player named Bill Miller on a physically demanding position on the field. Beer league pitcher, perhaps.

How 'bout King of Westeros? Can you picture him as that?....

I used to like that show and thought the Mom was pretty hot, especially since she was rather rude quite often....

Awesome start for the Washer Rats!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

How 'bout King of Westeros? Can you picture him as that?....

I used to like that show and thought the Mom was pretty hot, especially since she was rather rude quite often....

Awesome start for the Washer Rats!

Oh my - ...! He was King Robert! - ...

Yeah, that one went completely past me. Well, you know me. Many things go completely past me.

Of course the start isn't gonna last. Anyone remember 15 games over .500 on May 31, 2004?

[Westheim]

It’s the third week of the season and Nick Brown could be 5-0 by Sunday.

Raccoons (8-4) vs. Titans (4-9) – April 17-19, 2006

Before anyone gets excited, the Titans were bottom scrapers in mid-April before and still won the division. So far, their pitching had been atrocious, with 73 runs allowed in 13 games, which worked out to 5.6 R/A. They had only scored 51 times themselves, 7th in the league, but that’s only one run less than the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (3-0, 2.40 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (0-2, 9.45 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-1, 3.75 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (1-0, 3.94 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-1, 7.94 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (1-2, 4.00 ERA)

We will use our off day on Thursday to switch Ford and Fairchild, so that Fairchild will go in between our two left-handers from here on.

The Titans are still without Jim Brulhart (and will be for another three months), while we carry a dead guy on the roster in Eddie Fernandez, who has yet to be diagnosed any more precisely than having a boo-boo.

This also gives us a *significant* overhang of left-handed batters against left-handed starters. And we haven’t talked about the centerfielder with no experience yet.

Game 1
BOS: CF Garrison – 1B Heffer – C Rosa – 2B Metting – 3B M. Austin – SS Nichols – RF Arroyo – LF Walls – P Conner
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Wood – RF Mays – CF Crespo – 2B Nomura – P Brown

Sometimes death comes swiftly and is totally not expected to strike.

After Brownie had mowed down the first bunch of Titans that strayed to the plate, Rudy Garrison hit an innocent enough 2-out single up the middle in the top 3rd. Dave Heffer singled, and Freddy Rosa(!) singled, which already made it 1-0 Titans. Brown walked Metting, and the count was full on Mark Austin when he fouled out right next to the batter’s box to leave three men on the bases. Everybody knew that Brown would have walked him eventually. A clean inning later, Quebell hit a single in the bottom 4th that was followed by a lesson in why 37-year olds make bad outfielders. Bob Wood fired a fly to deep right, that not only eluded venerable Luis Arroyo, but also eluded him for long enough to become an RBI triple. Bob Mays’ fly to center was deep enough to have Wood beat Garrison’s arm, 2-1 Coons, and then a sudden assault by ex-Titan J.C. Crespo on ex-Coons draft pick Ray Conner made it 3-1, and also marked Crespo’s first career home run. Brownie was touchable however, like with a gargantuan home run by Rudy Garrison in the top 5th that cut us back to 3-2. But that shot was nothing to the butchering the Titans and especially Ray Conner suffered in the bottom of the same inning, comparable in scope perhaps only to the Polish Partitions. What started innocently enough with a walk drawn by Danny Sharp and could have ended with Brian Nichols had thrown Flores’ double play grounder past Kurt Metting, had a wild pitch added to it by Conner before all hinges fell off. Brady singled up the middle, plating both runners, and became the first Raccoon with 10 RBI on the year. Quebell got on, Wood hit a sac fly, Mays made the second out, but Crespo doubled and Nomura walked to bring up Brownie and complete a run through the lineup. Brown fired a line through Dave Heffer into the deepest, darkest corner in rightfield, and now we’re on those 37-year old outfielders again. Brownie slid in at third base, had a 2-out, 2-run triple, and Conner was dragged from the game a broken man, loaded with TEN runs after Vic Flores singled off John Bennett, who had already walked Sharp. Brady flew out to left, finally ending the destruction, but a 10-2 lead was not going to get away from the Raccoons anymore. Much the contrary, John Bennett, a deadly reliever a few years back, allowed two more runs in the sixth inning. 12-2 Brownies!!! Sharp 2-3, 2 BB; Quebell 3-5, 2B; Crespo 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (4-0) and 1-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Moreno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Woot!! Also: Brownie is the first pitcher with four wins in the ABL, although we might have to chalk up 25% of that to circumstances.

Game 2
BOS: 3B M. Austin – C Rosa – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 2B Metting – SS H. Ramirez – 1B L. Lopez – LF Walls – P M. Castro
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – CF Crespo – C Bowen – P Watanabe

Watanabe thought he was still tossing batting practice and surrendered a steady supply of ostrich eggs that were splattered all over the place with line drives for singles and a number of doubles. The Titans left plenty of runners stranded, one or more in each of the first five innings, and somehow scored only three runs from their nine hits off Watanabe, whose job was done in the sixth. However, the Raccoons were held hitless until with two outs in the fifth, when Crespo dumped a blooper into shallow left for a single. We got another runner in the sixth, stranded him, two in the seventh, stranded them – we just couldn’t get to Castro. The Titans scored a run off Adam Riddle in the eighth, but the Raccoons were shut out on four hits by Mauro Castro. 4-0 Titans.

We fell into a tie for first with the Indians (not that it is important…). Rosa and Garrison are both tough outs, batting .400+ into the third week of the season…

Game 3
BOS: 3B M. Austin – C Rosa – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – SS Nichols – 2B Metting – 1B A. Martin – LF Walls – P Chapa
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Wood – RF Mays – CF Crespo – 2B Nomura – P Amador

Al Martin was batting .154, but drove in the Titans’ first run with an RBI single in the second inning off a luckless Amador, who allowed four hits in the first two innings, all soft singles. Bad luck soon enough turned into “you didn’t leave THAT hanging THERE!?”, and Amador was chucked for ten hits and somehow only three runs over six innings, with a pair of runners left in scoring position twice by the Titans, once after a magnificent, body-selling catch by Clyde Brady in left, which ended the third. While the Raccoons got scoreless relief from Bryan, Rockburn, Moreno, and Kichida, the Titans’ Jorge Chapa refused to be molested by the puny Critters and allowed them scarcely anything, and the only Raccoon with an extra base hit in the game would be – ironically – Amador. Chapa went seven, and Risto Mäkelä and Manuel Martinez kept that door firmly shut. 3-0 Titans. Crespo 1-2, BB;

Um, if anyone hasn’t been counting … since socking Ray Conner for double digits on Monday we have already put up 20 scoreless innings. Oops.

More bad news were on the way with Eddie Fernandez definitely having an oblique strain diagnosed once our medical staff returned from golfing in Key Biscayne…

We have money for that??

Anyway, Fernandez was out for another good month, and that made our makeshift solution with Crespo in center somewhat untenable. In these difficult times, we made a quirky move and promoted OF Santiago Trevino from double-A. Trevino, 23, is an excellent defensive centerfielder, and has speed, but will likely not bat anything worthwhile. He hit .343/.343/.371 in nine games in double-AA this year, with no homers, but hit 16 the previous (full) season. He has spent all the time since being taken in the second round of the 2003 draft in AA, never progressing. Until now. He bats left-handed, further unbalancing our roster, and he’s butt ugly and has to wear a paper bag with two eye holes over his head during games so as to not invoke mass vomiting.

Raccoons (9-6) @ Aces (8-7) – April 21-23, 2006

We were still in a tie for first place after our off day (now with the Elks, yuck), while the Aces were already 3 1/2 out in the South. They had scored 77 runs (3rd in CL), and allowed 73 (t-8th), with both their rotation and bullpen ranking in the bottom half of the league. They had also been swept by the Falcons as we came in, including a 15-7 flailing on Thursday, so maybe that bullpen was still crying and ready to be conquered.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-0, 4.42 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (2-1, 5.23 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (0-0, 1.54 ERA) vs. Bob Bowden (2-0, 3.27 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. David Estrada (1-2, 6.00 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF J. Rodriguez – C Wood – CF Trevino – P Ford
LVA: SS Vieitas – 3B Warrain – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – RF R. Garcia – LF Messinger – CF F. Rivera – 1B Breach – P Pennington

The Raccoons continued to run up their scoreless innings streak, which was already at 23 when the Aces rattled Ford’s cage in the bottom 3rd. Jim Pennington led off with a double, which was bad enough, and after getting two outs, Ralph would issue his third walk of the day to Oliver Torres. Tom Turner fired a double into deep left that plated Pennington, but Brady threw out Torres at home plate to end the inning trailing only 1-0. Pennington was struggling with control just as well, drilling Vic Flores the first time through, and hit Clyde Brady in the wrist in the fourth inning. Brady was grinning in pain, but stayed in the game, but we had something coming for THEIR leftfielder, as Ford got one in on Forest Messinger. The Aces didn’t score then, and neither in the next inning when they had the bases loaded, but Ricardo Garcia popped out to Flores to keep three men on. The Coons FINALLY got something on the board in their 26th inning post-John Bennett, when Sharp and Nomura led off with singles in the sixth, and while Brady was denied a double by Garcia, Flores would chip an RBI single up the right field line before we left runners on the corners. Bottom 6th, enter Messinger, who was determined as he stepped in and hit a leadoff homer off Ford to get the Aces right back ahead. Ford got stuck in the bottom 7th and left Rockburn with two men on base, but Rockburn whiffed Turner and got Garcia to fly out to right. Still down 2-1, Brady’s leadoff single in the eighth didn’t lead anywhere in particular, and when Bob Wood led off with a single off closer Leonard Williamson in the ninth, Trevino’s bunt got him forced at second base, and the Raccoons went down without much fuss for the third straight game. 2-1 Aces. Sharp 3-5; Wood 4-4;

That sad loss had us drop to third, with the Elks leading the division. Bah.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Mays – SS Flores – 1B Quebell – C Wood – CF Trevino – P Fairchild
LVA: LF Covington – 1B Breach – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – CF Messinger – RF R. Garcia – 3B F. Soto – SS Vieitas – P Bowden

Bob Bowden had the first inning from hell, with a Nomura single, wild pitch, Brady walk, and then his own throwing error on Mays’ potential inning-ender eventually cascading into a Flores sac fly and then three straight RBI singles for an early 4-0 lead for the Coons. This also included Santiago Trevino’s first career hit.

And then came Kelly Fairchild. Martin Covington homered, and Fairchild gave up three more hits, two sharp, to donate half our lead for a good cause. And while Bowden appeared to reel himself in, Fairchild didn’t and Forest Messinger’s leadoff jack in the third inning already tied the game at four. But, surprise, Bowden was still prone to sucking. A funny double by Nomura was key to helping the Furballs to two runs in the fourth, and then in the fifth everybody was allowed hard contact by Bowden. He appeared to get out of the inning when Bob Mays lifted a soft fly to center, but Messinger had it glance off his glove for another two runs to score and the Raccoons took a 9-4 lead. Bowden was gone, but would Fairchild manage to cover five? Answer: yes, he would, even six, but it was all the defense’s merit. The Aces used Manny Silva to pitch in long relief, who got into the eighth before allowing singles to Quebell and Wood. Up came Trevino, who already had three hits on the day and now lined a double into leftfield to get the Raccoons to double digits, 10-4. The Aces failed to puncture our bullpen again, while we got one more run in the ninth. 11-4 Coons. Nomura 4-5, 2 2B, RBI; Flores 2-5, 2 RBI; Quebell 3-5, BB, 2 RBI; Wood 3-6, RBI; Trevino 4-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Riddle 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

More good(!) news: Angel Casas was activated from the DL before Sunday’s game. He had healed that calf quicker than anybody had anticipated originally! Adam Riddle went back to AAA.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Wood – RF Crespo – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – P Brown
LVA: LF Covington – 3B Warrain – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – RF R. Garcia – CF Messinger – SS F. Soto – 1B Breach – P D. Estrada

Brownie tagged early – specifically Martin Covington’s elbow. Covington came around to score, 1-0 Aces in the first, but an unearned run put the game even in the top 2nd, Trevino singling in Quebell. The Raccoons failed to do much at all offensively, and Brown didn’t have that thing that put him above mere mortals and struggled to get hitters removed with two strikes. A 2-strike leadoff double by Forest Messinger spelled trouble in the fifth and Francisco Soto scored him soon enough with an RBI single up the middle that eluded Yoshi-N. A leadoff single by Sharp and 1-out walk by Brady weren’t enough to score in the sixth, but maybe Crespo’s leadoff double in the seventh would get the Furballs moving? Nah, the 7-8-9 batters went down without much of a noise. Brown made it through seven hardly scratched, but the offense had to pick him up now. Sharp led off the eighth with another single and was run for by Yoshi Yamada, who was thrown out stealing, and in the bottom 8th the roof came down when Brown hit another batter and Oliver Torres would get a 2-out single to drive him in. Top 9th, Leonard Williamson – no chance. 3-1 Aces. Sharp 3-4; Searcy (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (4-1);

We had nine hits to their five. We need to check Brownie for stab wounds, especially in his back.

In other news

April 17 – Denver’s Jose Lopez (.385, 2 HR, 16 RBI) has his hitting streak killed by the Wolves after 23 games.
April 17 – The Indians deal 3B/1B Robbie Harris (.216, 3 HR, 5 RBI) along with a non-prospect catcher to the Condors for RF/LF Bill Miller (.245, 1 HR, 3 RBI).
April 21 – In a 14-0 drubbing the Knights receive at the hands of the Canadiens, VAN SP Juichi Fujita (3-0, 2.03 ERA) holds them to three hits.
April 21 – WAS INF Adriano Lulli (.333, 0 HR, 8 RBI) has chained together a 20-game hitting streak.
April 22 – Streak no more: Lulli goes 0-for-4 in the Capitals’ 2-1 win over Salem, ending his streak at 20 games.

Complaints and stuff

Well, the five wins for Brownie didn’t come together (for which I won’t blame Brownie), but he could reach his first little milestone on the way to greatness next weekend in a start vs. the Loggers. If he whiffs at least two (and he should, save for an earthquake, or worse, an injury), he will get to 1,000 strikeouts for his career at 28 years and 142 days of age. He has struck out 228 on average over the last four years: 3,000 K’s could well be attainable for him.

This might be the time to reprint the all-time strikeout leaders for this beaten-up franchise:

1st – Kisho Saito – 2,322
2nd – Scott Wade – 1,417
3rd – Logan Evans – 1,022
4th – Nick Brown – 998
5th – Jason Turner – 997
6th – Miguel Lopez – 934
7th – Ralph Ford – 900
8th – Randy Farley – 862
9th – Christopher Powell – 774
10th – Wally Gaston – 684

No other current Raccoon has even half Wally’s strikeouts. AAA Felipe Garcia has 341.

Note: I fudged up and didn't take the roster shot until after progressing to Monday, which is why all relievers are rested and Greenman is back on instead of Rodriguez, who went an unremarkable .125/.125/.125 in 8 AB, with 2 K.

[Westheim]

The week started with a roster move and Jorge Rodriguez being waived and designated for assignment as Christian Greenman came off the DL.

Raccoons (10-8) @ Falcons (14-5) – April 24-26, 2006

On to the defending champions, and how awkward is that to say about the Falcons. They were in first place in the South yet again, smothering the opposition with almost seven runs scored per game, and 129 runs in total. Almost their entire starting lineup was hitting .300 or better, with Fernando Chavez coming in at .403 even. That their rotation ranked ninth was not quite as important …

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-2, 4.00 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Gomez (2-0, 3.79 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-2, 6.75 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (1-1, 7.59 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-1, 4.01 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (0-2, 4.64 ERA)

We get to bypass Larry Cutts (4-0, 2.89 ERA), which can’t be a bad thing… These three are all right-handers.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS V. Flores – RF Mays – C Wood – CF Trevino – P Watanabe
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Rincón – C F. Chavez – LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 2B H. Green – 1B Tsung – SS Starks – P R. Gomez

With two out in the second, Watanabe might have hit a double over the leaping Javier Rodriguez to plate Mays and Wood for the first two runs of the game, but in no way was he able to withstand the impending onslaught of the Falcons, who had a leadoff home run by Jesus Flores in the bottom 2nd, then put runners on the corners with no outs. While Watanabe was able to wiggle out of there with a well-timed pop out, the wheels came off in the next inning, with Hubert Green’s double off the wall plating two and giving the Falcons a 4-2 lead, and it certainly didn’t help when Watanabe bunted into a double play in the top of the fourth. That even proceeded the complete annihilation of the road team in the bottom 6th. Errors by Wood and Flores, another play not made by Nomura, Ed Bryan not relieving pressure at all with a 2-run triple to Javier Rodriguez, who then even stole home against a completely clueless battery, helped the Falcons to put up a 5-spot and break out to a 9-3 lead. Kaz Kichida logged our last six outs, which included three registered on the warning track, one by each outfielder. 9-3 Falcons. Mays 3-4, 3B; Wood 3-4; Kichida 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Wood – RF Greenman – CF Trevino – SS Yamada – P Amador
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Rincón – LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 2B H. Green – 1B Tsung – C Durango – SS Starks – P T. Wilson

Daniel Sharp started the game with a single – and that was it for the Raccoons. Edgar Amador maintained the claim of being a major league pitcher for three innings, striking out four in a scoreless game, but issued two walks to start the bottom 4th and it just fell apart all too easily, with the Falcons greatly aided by the fact that Sharp couldn’t make any play on Mun-wah Tsung’s drag bunt, which was as great a drag bunt as they come from ex-Raccoons minor leaguers barely suited for play at first base. That prolonged the inning to help the Falcons score both their walkers, yet the Raccoons weren’t sentenced to trail in perpetuity yet. Nomura drove home Amador in the fifth after Amador had enjoyed the Raccoons first hit since – well – the first. Top 6th, Wilson’s ERA started to show and he surrendered an RBI double to Santiago Trevino in his third time through the order. The Falcons resorted to the great stupidity to intentionally walk Yamada, who had struck out twice and hadn’t looked any more ridiculous had he stepped into the box with a tennis racket in his hands. Amador batted for himself with the best bat on the pitching staff, flew to left center, where Flores made the catch, and when Bob Wood tagged and made for home, he was thrown out to end the inning. Amador held on to the 2-2 tie for no time at all, with grounders by Green and Tsung vanishing in the seams between infielders on either side of the diamond. Two on, no outs, Bryan and Bruno were rotated in, but a run scored. Eight men came to the plate in the bottom 7th, with two infield singles, a Quebell error, and Domingo Moreno having plainly nothing contributing for three more runs. Top 9th, down 6-2, a rally. Mays and Searcy had pinch-hit singles, which got the line moving. Mays scored on Sharp’s groundout, the first at-bat with actual closer Luis Hernandez in the game. Nomura made the second out, but then Brady and Quebell shocked the Falcons fans with back-to-back RBI doubles, with Quebell representing the tying run. And if Bob Wood had gotten anything into his swing… 6-5 Falcons. Quebell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mays (PH) 1-1; Searcy (PH) 1-1;

It’s called getting brushed against the stroke. Or struck with a brush, or whatever. It’s unpleasant.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS V. Flores – RF Mays – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Ford
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Rincón – RF J. Flores – 1B Tsung – 2B H. Green – C Durango – LF Reya – SS Starks – P Collazo

The Falcons stayed with their left-leaning lineup when Ralph Ford appeared on the mound, hinting at other team’s opinion of Ford perhaps more than anything else. Ford fell behind in the first after a David Rincón double and Mun-wah Tsung single, and it was 2-0 after two. The Falcons got two more doubles through five innings, but both those runners were left on, while the Coons did not even have hope until the top 5th when Craig Bowen was on second base with two out and Sharp rammed a pitch into deep center, where it was nevertheless caught by Rincón. Still held to two hits through six, the Coons had TWO runners on base AT THE SAME TIME in the seventh!! Whoah!! Mercy!! Will wonders ever cease!? Vic Flores had been hit with a pitch, and Bowen had walked again, bringing up Trevino, who fired a rocket into the gap where neither Rincón nor Jesus Flores could reach it and with Trevino’s speed this one became a game-tying 2-run triple! Searcy plated Trevino with a sac fly, 3-2 Coons, and Sharp and Nomura singled, but Brady’s drive to center was caught and the inning ended. Like the day before, the hard-fought achievement was blown up instantly. Moreno came in, walked Leslie Starks, allowed a double, and when Marcos Bruno relieved him, the relief was limited. The Falcons plated two, took a 4-3 lead, and didn’t look back. 4-3 Falcons. Nomura 2-4, 2B;

Raccoons (10-11) vs. Loggers (8-12) – April 28-30, 2006

From the best offensive team to the worst offensive team, and the Loggers weren’t too good at preventing runs either, ranking 7th in the league. By ERA, their rotation and bullpen actually ranked both in the bottom three. We had so far split the season-opening 2-game set.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (1-0, 3.06 ERA) vs. George Norris (0-3, 11.49 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-1, 2.73 ERA) vs. Dani Alvarado (0-4, 9.36 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-3, 6.45 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (4-1, 1.69 ERA)

We have another off day next week and use the chance to skip the completely hopeless Watanabe. And if we don’t beat AND beat up their first two guys, I will fall into a severe late-April depression.

Game 1
MIL: LF Bayle – CF Wheaton – SS T. Johnson – RF Hiwalani – 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – 1B M. Woods – C J. Reyes – P Norris
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF Mays – C Wood – CF Crespo – P Fairchild

Of course you also had to account for your own pushover on the mound, and in this case said pushover allowed a grand slam with no outs to Mac Woods in the second inning, after walking Bakile Hiwalani, allowing a double to Bartolo Hernandez, and drilling Aaron Tolwith. The score moved to 5-0 in the third, the run being unearned after a soul-squishing throwing error by Bob Wood. The Coons, through three, were looking for a hit against a guy with an ERA big enough to mark down a house on the far end of a rural road. That hit finally fell to the ground in the fourth, a Quebell single, and they got onto the board in the fifth, which Mays led off with a single, before the next two batters forced out to sorry sod in front of them. Then Fairchild, Sharp, and Nomura hit singles in succession, the latter two getting home a total of two runs. Brady then struck out. That mini-rally soon was negated by absolutely incredible non-pitching by Fairchild, Bryan, and Rockburn, who managed to cock up three more runs between the sixth and seventh, the last of those being balked in by Rockburn. The Raccoons would score two more runs in the bottom 8th entirely without their own right-doing, with Quebell being pitched into the ribs by Tim Poe, and Poe then delivering a wild one as well after Norris had walked Nomura to start the inning before leaving. 8-4 Loggers. Quebell 1-2, BB; Mays 1-2, BB, RBI;

That headache…

The Loggers made not one, but two trades the same night. Reliever Tim Poe (0-0, 2.70 ERA) was sent to the Stars after his mishaps, with OF Tim Austin (.289, 1 HR, 9 RBI) coming over along with #11 prospect A CL Jarrod Morrison! The Loggers also sent RF/CF Clint Philip, who was hitless in 10 AB, and a double-A infielder to the Rebels for 1B Paco Batlle (.322, 1 HR, 9 RBI).

Next is Brownie and his 998 K. It would be AWESOME if he could strike out Bakile Hiwalani for 1,000!

Game 2
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – SS T. Johnson – 3B Tolwith – C T. Phillips – P Alvarado
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF Mays – C Wood – SS Yamada – P Brown

Fate said no, and the first five Loggers all were retired on groundouts (but I won’t complain about THAT), and Brown didn’t get even #999 until fanning Tolwith to end the top 2nd. Before anybody went down for #1,000, Brownie drove in his own lead, a 1-out single in the third inning that scored Bob Wood, who had reached on an Alvarado error. Tim Austin, Logger for less than 24 hours, grounded out to start the fourth, which brought up Hiwalani again – but he grounded out as well. Paco Batlle, just arrived in the Continental League as well, then whiffed on a low slider for Brownie to reach the milestone.

Okay, enough with numbers, put a dent into their pitcher! However, the bottom 4th was the third inning in which they hit into an inning-ending double play. And as always, it got worse. Tom Johnson led off the fifth with a home run to tie the score, and Brown then had a 1-2 pitch ride in on Tolwith who was drilled, flung his bat and made for the mound. Brown met him a quarter of the way in from the mound, ducked under Tolwith’s swing, then elbow checked him into the ribs before the contents of both dugouts and bullpens tumbled all over each other. Brownie was tossed and we could see a suspension coming. Tied game in the fifth, but I retreated to the bathroom to cry furiously.

In that bathroom, I spared myself Mays and Yamada on the corners with one out in the bottom 5th, Yamada being caught stealing, and Kaz Kichida striking out. I also spared myself the 2-run seventh inning for the Loggers, fueled by singles rolling past either side of Yamada, an actual Yamada error, and Kichida throwing a run-scoring wild pitch. I also spared myself Tom Johnson’s home run off Rémy Lucas in the ninth, and of course a game-ending double play hit into Quebell. 4-1 Loggers. Flores 2-3;

On top of all that other ****, this was our 2,400th regular season loss. After the game, Yoshi Yamada was demoted to AAA, batting 1-for-19, stealing 1-for-4, and fielding like arse. We called up equally useless Tom Ingram, batting .167 in AAA.

Nick Brown was suspended by the league for eight games. As was Tolwith. Who gives a **** about Tolwith?

Eight games without Brownie!! I might as well just kill myself.

Game 3
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – SS T. Johnson – 3B Costello – C J. Reyes – P M. Garcia
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Greenman – CF Crespo – 2B Ingram – P Amador

It took the Raccoons 13 batters to actually reach base against Martin Garcia, and when Quebell finally hit a single to lead off the fifth, Craig Bowen was not to be denied with a double play. At that point, the Fat Cat had hung some fat pitches and had been taken deep once, with a few more hard shots giving the Loggers an as-good-as-won 3-0 lead through five. J.C. Crespo hit a leadoff single in the sixth, Garcia balked, then struck out three. Amador actually made it into the eighth before a Crespo error put him in a bad spot and got him removed at 108 pitches. The Raccoons couldn’t score even when Costello and Garcia made errors in the same inning, the bottom 8th, and Garcia put up a line like in old times, eight shutout innings on three hits and nine whiffs. Robbie Wills did the honors. 3-0 Loggers. Quebell 2-4; Amador 7.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (0-4);

In other news

April 24 – The Capitals’ Jose Escobar (0-0, 4.26 ERA, 6 SV) preserves a close lead for the 300th time in a 4-3 win over the Gold Sox.
April 26 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.306, 4 HR, 17 RBI) might miss only the minimum 15 days after being put onto the DL with a mild oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

Worst week ever. Just … worst week ever.

[Westheim]

A whole week without Brownie! Is there a point to keep on living!!??

Raccoons (10-14) vs. Canadiens (14-10) – May 1-3, 2006

The Canadiens ranked in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed, but their bullpen had been gagged, bound, and thrown onto the train tracks all of April, allowing a 5.13 ERA, which was soundly last in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-1, 3.82 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (4-0, 2.08 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (1-1, 4.70 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (3-2, 4.54 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (1-3, 5.01 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (0-4, 4.11 ERA)

This assuming that the Canadiens skip their only southpaw Carlos Camacho (2-0, 7.41 ERA). I would skip him, too, if I were them, and would instead gag him, bind him, and throw him into the deepest river.

Game 1
VAN: CF E. Garcia – SS Nakayama – 3B Suzuki – 2B Dobson – LF Theobald – 1B Trinidad – RF J. Gonzalez – C F. Diéguez – P Fujita
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS V. Flores – RF Mays – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Ford

The Coons overcame double plays hit into in the bottom 1st and 2nd as well as a 2-out triple by Enrique Garcia in the top 3rd to get Trevino on base in the bottom of the third inning, then have Sharp and Nomura come up with back-to-back 2-out doubles to give Ford a 2-0 lead. You could not expect this to last; Ralph Ford had left home this morning bringing neither his lunch box, nor his stuff, and the Canadiens were just due for a big knock after a while, especially since the Raccoons could not turn any double plays, while getting three turned on them by the fifth inning. The bottom 6th then automatically should have forfeited the game for the Elks. Juichi Fujita hit TWO batters (Nomura and Flores), threw a wild pitch on top of that – yet the Raccoons scored only one run and then let him run away. Ford remained a participant of the contest into the eighth inning, faced the only southpaw in the lineup to start that, Garcia, and surrendered a double. Law Rockburn replaced him, struck out Nakayama, and then tip-toed out of the inning with the Elks stranding a man on third base for the fourth time in the game. Fujita met a grisly end in the bottom 8th then, and finally, one might say. Nomura led off with a single, Brady added a bloop single, and Quebell a cheap one just in front of Garcia in center to load them up, before Fujita threw another wild one to bring in Nomura. After the Elks had him finish the current at-bat to Flores with an intentional walk, reliever Ralph Davis walked in a run against Greenman hitting for Trevino, and Wood brought in another run on a groundout. All the Elks got was a run off Domingo Moreno in the ninth. 6-1 Coons. Nomura 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Quebell 2-4; Flores 1-2, BB; Ford 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (3-1) and 1-2;

This strangely felt like one of those horrible body switch movies, with the Raccoons being the Elks and the Elks being the Raccoons, because THEY were the team that could absolutely do nothing right in the contest. Any which way, we ended our gut-tearing 7-game skid.

Game 2
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF Theobald – LF J. Gonzalez – 3B Suzuki – SS Rodgers – CF P. Flores – 1B J. Phillips – C F. Diéguez – P Camacho
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Greenman – 3B Searcy – CF Crespo – C Wood – P Fairchild

Nah, here came their left-hander. With the bases loaded in the bottom 1st, Greenman hit into an inning-ending double play and we were right in the fat of business. Kelly Fairchild pitched decently for three and two thirds before stopping the sick charade and getting lit up. With nobody on and two down in the fourth he allowed singles to Suzuki and Rodgers, a 2-run double to Pedro Flores, walked Jim Phillips and Fernando Diéguez, and only struck out Carlos Camacho once threatened with immediate poaching by the pitching coach. Astonishingly, this was not instant death for the Raccoons, with J.C. Crespo lifting a 2-run home run to re-tie the score immediately in the bottom of the inning. Clyde Brady’s awesome catch kept a runner pinned at third base in the top 5th, and the Raccoons had Greenman flunk out out bases loaded with two outs in the bottom 5th to not score. Kelly Fairchild opened the seventh with a walk to Diéguez, was removed for Rémy Lucas, but it just didn’t go right at all, and two runs scored once Jerry Dobson hit an RBI triple off him. Marcos Bruno registered five outs before his turn came up with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom 8th. The prime chance to do something against a 4-2 deficit against ex-Coon Albert Matthews was given to Daniel Sharp, who walked to make it 4-3, and Bob Wood lifted a sac fly to tie the score. Bob Mays, who had come on with Lucas in a double switch earlier, grounded back to Matthews, who completely missed the ball for an error, bringing up Yoshi with the bags yet full again, and while he fell behind in the count rapidly, he connected for a single to right and that gave the Coons the lead, 5-4! Flores made the third out, and Angel Casas got his first save opportunity since coming off the DL ten days ago. He could hardly fared worse to start the inning, with Enrique Garcia knocking a sharp double to deep right, before Haruki Nakayama popped out to short. Angel recollected, and Dobson and Theobald would go down swinging to end this game. 5-4 Coons! Flores 3-5, 2B; Quebell 2-4; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-1);

Crespo did something that few Raccoons had done recently when he hit a home run. How long had it been? How about Clyde Brady being the last Furball to go deep, on APRIL THIRTEEN. And we wonder why we’re losing.

And may I mention (perhaps I haven’t so far) that I hate Christian Greenman’s guts?

Game 3
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF Theobald – CF E. Garcia – 3B Suzuki – SS Rodgers – LF Richardson – 1B Nakayama – C F. Diéguez – P R. Taylor
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS V. Flores – RF Mays – CF Trevino – C Bowen – P Watanabe

Perhaps the Raccoons were due for another drubbing, so it was great to have Watanabe in there. The Elks went up 1-0 in the first, while in the bottom 2nd Quebell was tagged out at third after a leadoff double. Craig Bowen tied the score with a solo homer in the bottom 3rd, and then Watanabe hit a 1-out triple past Paul Theobald, but was starved there after Sharp and Brady walked, but nobody could come up with something productive. Daniel Sharp hadn’t made an error in the field this season yet, but made one in the fourth inning on Diéguez grounder after Nakayama had just singled between him and Flores with two out. Two on, two out was barely dissolved in the Coons’ favor when Rod Taylor hit one sharply to Sharp, who didn’t dare make consecutive errors. Both teams stranded a pair in the fifth and the score remained one-each, until Watanabe thought it was a good idea to walk the opposing pitcher going into the seventh. Taylor then stole second base, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on Dobson’s fly to right. Oh, the shame!

But the Canadiens still had to make do with a 2-1 lead with their wonky bullpen, which appeared in the eighth in form of lefty Juan Sanchez (13.50 ERA), who started a mix and match inning of three relievers facing three Raccoons, and retiring them all, Quebell, Ingram, and Mays all going down. No mixing and matching in the ninth however, as Pedro Alvarado faced three Critters to end the game on a double play hit into by Jose Carlos Crespo. 2-1 Canadiens. Nomura 2-4; Quebell 2-4; Bowen 2-3, HR, RBI;

And we’re in last place.

Raccoons (12-15) @ Buffaloes (15-12) – May 5-7, 2006

The Buffaloes’ run differential was zero, with their 106 runs each scored and allowed ranking 10th and 2nd, respectively, in the Federal League. Both their rotation and bullpen were putting up ERA’s in the 3.40 range, both marks ranking in the top 3. We have not won a series against the hairy bulls since 1997.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (0-4, 5.70 ERA) vs. Roy Floyd (1-3, 5.45 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-1, 3.11 ERA) vs. Jack Berry (2-2, 2.97 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (1-1, 4.34 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (3-0, 2.23 ERA)

Jack Berry was ours and was traded for a warm meal, and Tony Hamlyn is just unfair. This does not look like a series that will not make us cry.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – RF Mays – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – CF Trevino – LF Crespo – C Wood – P Amador
TOP: SS Simon – 2B Spinu – LF Perri – 1B Valenzuela – C G. Ortíz – 3B Merritt – RF J. Garcia – CF Roberson – P Floyd

Amador was all over the place with his pitches, and the Buffaloes quickly put a 2-spot on him in the second inning. Amador walked Lionnel Perri in the bottom 3rd, then had both Valenzuela and Gabriel Ortíz reach on infield singles in Yoshi Nomura’s area to load them up with no outs, before Jon Merritt hit into a double play to dissolve the issue. While the Fat Cat stopped sucking for a little while, the Raccoons, who had been dormant for the first four innings, hit doubles into either gap between Flores and Crespo to score a run in the fifth, and then Nomura hit a double in the sixth and scored on Quebell’s single in the sixth to knot the score. Amador almost made it through seven without coming up on the short side, but Chris Roberson’s leadoff single in seventh inning led to some successful small ball play and Georg Spinu singled him in with two outs to give his team a 3-2 lead. Floyd lasted eight innings for the Buffaloes, with the Coons getting a runner on in the eighth, but not doing much about it. In the top 9th they faced Ryosei Kato, when Vic Flores reached on an error by Spinu to represent the tying run with one out. Trevino struck out, but Crespo singled to left, Flores was sent and scored and the game was tied! Spinu then couldn’t hold onto Ortíz’ throw as Crespo stole second base, but Bob Wood struck out to get the Buffaloes into their half of the ninth, where Marcos Bruno held them dry, but when Kaz Kichida came on in the tenth inning, he had simply nothing, and Miguel Torres had a pinch-hit walkoff single that plated Ricco Ghiberti. 4-3 Buffaloes. Sharp 2-5; Crespo 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Searcy – RF Mays – C Bowen – SS Ingram – P Ford
TOP: RF J. Garcia – 2B Spinu – 1B Valenzuela – C M. Torres – 3B Merritt – SS J. Johnson – LF Talamante – CF Roberson – P J. Berry

Ford initially fared well against a lineup of all right-handers and faced the minimum through three innings, but Miguel Torres, last night’s hero, bolted a 2-run homer off him in the bottom 4th that put the Buffaloes 2-0 ahead. Julio Garcia’s leadoff triple in the sixth inning did not lead to a run when Spinu lined out to Mays in shallow right, Valenzuela grounded back to the mound, and Torres grounded out to Nomura, but Nomura made an error to start the seventh inning and that one would come around to hurt and score as the Buffaloes moved out to 3-0. All the while, I can assure you, the Critters took their at-bats in the prescribed order. There were just no results. Jack Berry took a 2-hitter into the ninth inning, allowed a leadoff single to Santiago Trevino, only for Clyde Brady to hit into a two-for-one. Berry walked three and whiffed eight. 3-0 Buffaloes. Ford 8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, L (3-2);

No relief pitchers got into this rather brisk affair, which lasted only two hours and eight minutes. And the sweep is already a sure thing with Hamlyn on tap…

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 3B Sharp – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Greenman – CF Crespo – 2B Ingram – C Wood – P Fairchild
TOP: SS Simon – 2B Spinu – LF Perri – 1B Valenzuela – C G. Ortíz – RF J. Garcia – 3B Sutton – CF Talamante – P Hamlyn

Flores singled, Sharp doubled, and the runners were brought in by Brady and Greenman as the Critters jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in the first. Of course, Kelly Fairchild yet had to throw a pitch in anger, and once he did, the Buffaloes quickly took advantage – the game was tied at two after as many frames, and Lionnel Perri’s 2-shot made it 4-2 for the upper-class cows in the bottom 3rd, with nobody out. While Fairchild lasted only five plus and was charged with five runs, the entirety of the Critters’ offensive output against Hamlyn between the second and seventh innings was Tom Ingram reaching on an uncaught third strike. The game would be called in the eighth inning after a sudden heavy rain came over the park and lasted for more than an hour, but let’s be fair, the Raccoons were in no position to make up a 3-run deficit given any length of time to bat. 5-2 Buffaloes. Sharp 2-4, 2B;

In other news

May 2 – TIJ CF Ramón Perez (.192, 0 HR, 2 RBI) hits the DL for the second time this season after breaking his wrist.
May 3 – BOS INF Daniel Silva (.200, 0 HR, 1 RBI in 5 AB), who had been demoted to AAA at the start of the season and just had been recalled, is out for a month with a broken rib.
May 4 – News leak out that CHA SP Larry Cutts (4-0, 2.74 ERA), who headed to the DL with a knee contusion the previous day, sustained the injury in the fight with a bouncer at Charlotte’s Pink Parrot nightclub.
May 6 – Tijuana’s INF Bruce Boyle (.267, 6 HR, 18 RBI) makes it to 2,000 career hits with a 2-run double in the ninth inning off Dan Nordahl in Sioux Falls, which turns out to be the winning knock in a 4-2 Condors win. Boyle, who was taken in the first round of the 1987 draft, has spent his entire professional career with the Condors, batting .264 with 133 HR and 890 RBI as well as 153 SB.

Complaints and stuff

Adrian Quebell was the Rookie of the Month for April, batting .271 with no homers and 11 RBI. Must be shortage of young players in the league. Him an Bob Mays in April: zero home runs.

It is cold outside and Clyde Brady is not hitting a lick. Something’s amiss. Does that mean he will tear up pitchers in July?

Marcos Bruno walked his first man on Sunday, Jose Valenzuela drawing a free pass with two out in the seventh. That came after Bruno had sniffed out 17 batters over 12.1 innings.

The Rebels took Fernando Piquero from us in the rule 5 draft this December, and he pitched to a 3.29 ERA in 13.2 innings for them, but his season ended with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow this week.

Tijuana’s Ramón Perez is a great player. Only problem is that he can not stay healthy at all. Imagine the young Daniel Hall, who was hurt often enough, with Jeremiah Carrell’s frail body (we still have a bowl with the dusty remains of his bobblehead), only twice as bad.

And I know something to completely ruin your mood. Ready? Neil Reece was signed in the middle of April, being picked up by the Bayhawks. He is now a Norfolk Expo.

That is single-A ball for you.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-18) vs. Warriors (16-16) – May 8-10, 2006

Average offense, average pitching for the Sioux Falls team, resulting in an average record, however, there was a twist to their pitching. The rotation tanked second in ERA over in the Federal League, but their bullpen was being crumpled to a 5.11 ERA, 10th in the FL. They had the best defense in their league, and Whitebread ranked Dan Nordahl as their best player. We haven’t seen the Warriors since 2000!

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-4, 4.50 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (6-1, 3.08 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-1, 2.67 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (2-3, 6.23 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-4, 5.35 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (3-4, 2.93 ERA)

Tuesday is the earliest Nick Brown can go after serving his suspension, and in case Watanabe lasts at least four innings in his start on Monday, Brownie will have the least innings pitched amongst all our starters until he takes the ball on Tuesday, the result of some odd quirks that have happened already this season, including pinch-hitting for him (to no avail) in the sixth (twice I think), and of course that 20-inning bonanza against the Thunder that derailed our rotation completely in the first week of the season. Interestingly, where he goes now, it will pretty much restore our rotation to the original alignment.

Our opposition consists entirely of right-handers.

Game 1
SFW: SS Mateo – C Cicalina – CF E. Clark – 1B Bovane – RF C. Ramirez – LF Durán – 3B J. Martinez – 2B Stein – P Alba
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF Greenman – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Watanabe

The Coons got a bushel of singles in the bottom 1st, Quebell driving in the first run of the game, his 13th RBI on the season, before Greenman had the bases loaded and hit into a double play – a common theme these days. And weeks. And sadly, years. Old foe Cristo Ramirez would get to Watanabe in the third inning with a 2-out, 2-run single, with the runners having advanced on a wild pitch just prior. Bottom 3rd, Sharp and Nomura reached base for Brady to hit into a two-for-one, but Quebell came up with another single to knot the score at two and to tie for the team lead in RBI with a paltry 14. The knot was solved pretty soon by Jamie Mateo with an RBI single in the top 4th, 3-2 Warriors then, and the Coons had Sharp and Nomura on base AGAIN in the bottom 5th and Brady hit into a double play AGAIN, this time ending the inning. Watanabe looked like he might get through six with only three runs allowed, but stone-old Jim Stein doubled off the wall in right with two out, bringing up Alba, an easy out, who singled up the middle to make it 4-2. Bottom 6th, and finally the line got moving. Quebell led off with a double, and Flores singled. Greenman had a prime chance for a double play, but accidentally hit an RBI single up the middle. When Craig Bowen walked, the bases were loaded and the bullpen got stirring for the Warriors. Too late: Trevino and Mays hit RBI singles and another run scored on Nomura’s groundout, as the Critters took a 6-4 lead with Watanabe in line for the W. Rockburn got two outs before getting a man on in the seventh, upon which Rémy Lucas came out and got the next four outs, handing the ball right to Angel Casas, who cut down the 1-2-3 batters 1-2-3 in the ninth. 6-4 Critters. Sharp 2-4, BB, 2B; Nomura 0-1, 3 BB, RBI; Quebell 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Flores 2-4; Mays (PH) 1-2, RBI; Lucas 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Since the Loggers were idle on Monday, we took sole possession of fifth place – YAY!!

Game 2
SFW: CF E. Clark – 2B R. Garza – 1B Bovane – LF Graham – C Cicalina – SS Mateo – RF Durán – 3B J. Martinez – P Huertas
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – LF Crespo – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Brown

Brownie hadn’t pitched in 10 days, so how would he fare? He struck out Earl Clark to start the game. Then the wheels came off. Ramón Garza singled. Raúl Bovane singled, and Dave Graham walked after a wild pitch. Before the nightmare ended, three runs would go onto the board. Bottom 1st, Sharp and Nomura got on before the music stopped to play there, too, and I went for the cupboard with the secret compartment that contained the liquor. Brown walked Huertas in the second inning, and the pitcher scored on two cheap singles between infielders. The Coons had a 3-run second, in which their ace contributed an RBI double, but it ultimately didn’t help, because that same ace was getting soaked. Urbano Cicalina led off the third with a double and was only nabbed for his eagerness for a triple, being met by Bob Mays’ throw at third base. The Critters trailed 4-3 into the sixth when Mays led off with a single, but was thrown out stealing. That was the last straw for Brown who did not reappear for the seventh, and neither did any brown-clad player potentially capable of wielding a stick. The Raccoons went down silently in this one. 4-3 Warriors. Nomura 3-4, 2 RBI;

For two innings, everything that was poked, fell in for the Warriors. Of course, the actual loss is Brownie’s own fault. You never walk the pitcher. You NEVER walk the ****ING pitcher!

Apart from that, he struck out seven, and it’s only 493 to go to the next milestone: 1,500 K. Hopefully without suspensions, but with some run support.

Game 3
SFW: SS Mateo – C Cicalina – CF E. Clark – LF Graham – 1B Bovane – RF C. Ramirez – 3B R. Garza – 2B Stein – P Crawford
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF Mays – C Bowen – CF Crespo – P Amador

Turns out, this was Edgar Amador’s last major league start in a brown uniform. He sucked colossally, fitting his appearance, and the Warriors sent ten men to the plate in the first inning, plating five runs on five hits and two walks. The second was led off by Urbano Cicalina, who had hit a 2-run homer in the first, put a 3-0 pitch in play and back to the mound, and Amador couldn’t dig it out. He also couldn’t make anything with Earl Clark’s grounder that came right back to him. The Warriors put up two more, and we made arrangements for our long relievers to get ready. Bottom 2nd, we had the bags full with one out, only for Daniel Sharp to hit into a double play. Amador allowed hits to Stein and Mateo in the third, which was enough, and Domingo Moreno appeared. Although he walked Cicalina, he got out of the inning without any more scoring, but 7-0 in the third is enough, I think. In a bitter twist, the Coons’ pen would put up six and two third innings of scoreless ball against the Warriors, which their puny offense of course could still not convert into a comeback, despite Bob Mays’ first home run of the season, which had been waited for by the followers longer than the second coming of Jesus Christ. 7-3 Warriors. Brady 2-5; Mays 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Moreno 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Edgar Amador (0-5, 6.64 ERA) was shown the door, he barely fit through it, took some squeezing. We added Felipe Garcia (1-3, 3.20 ERA in 7 GS in AAA) to the major league roster again. Well, that can only hurt again, but it would have been Garcia or Webster… Garcia will slot into Amador’s spot in the rotation, so he won’t go until next week.

Raccoons (13-20) @ Titans (18-17) – May 12-14, 2006

The Titans had picked up some momentum after being last two weeks into the season. The Raccoons on the other hand……

They were not the team of years past anymore, however. Their ace pitching was no longer ace, O’Halloran and Chapa getting romped regularly, and the rest of the rotation was spotty as well. The lineup failed to produce, and they ranked below average in both runs scored and runs allowed. Their bullpen was good, posting a 2.77 ERA, good enough for fourth in the league. And they’re 2-1 against the Raccoons this year.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (3-2, 2.96 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (3-2, 3.64 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (1-2, 4.76 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (3-1, 2.72 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-4, 4.75 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-3, 5.01 ERA)

O’Halloran will be our only southpaw this week, which Steve Searcy has been waiting for …

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – 1B Sharp – LF Brady – SS Flores – 3B Searcy – CF Crespo – RF Greenman – C Wood – P Ford
BOS: CF Garrison – 1B Heffer – LF A. Jenkins – C Rosa – 2B Metting – 3B M. Austin – RF Walls – SS Nichols – P O’Halloran

Nomura reaching for a triple in the top 1st got him thrown out at third base, which cost a run. Sharp and Brady both got on, Brady with a double, and they scored only once on Vic Flores’ sac fly then. And then Ralph Ford walked the first batter in his start, Rudy Garrison, who got collected in Dave Heffer’s double play, then walked Aaron Jenkins instead. That guy Freddy Rosa (.308, 5 HR, 22 RBI) hit a single up the middle, Ford plated Jenkins with a wild pitch, walked Metting, walked Austin, and somehow Tom Walls rolled out to Nomura to keep it at 1-1. Ford got thumped in time, though. Walls’ next at-bat was with two on and two out in the bottom 3rd and he singled in the go-ahead run. We walked Brian Nichols intentionally to bring up O’Halloran, who of course singled into right center, and two more scored. 4-1 Titans, to which they failed to add while Ford was still botching around on the mound, which only lasted through five innings. He allowed eight hits, walked six, and whiffed one. Offensively, no prizes could be won, but the bullpen and defense managed to reach new lows in the seventh inning, in which Rockburn started with facing Jenkins, who grounded to third, and Searcy pulled a Sharp and threw that grounder away. From there, Rockburn and Lucas would not register an out until Jenkins was back at the plate. Nine Titans up, nine Titans on, six Titans in, three Titans on in waiting. We had to bother Marcos Bruno in a 10-2 blowout, and he managed to get out of the ridiculous, steaming mess with one more run allowed on Jenkins’ sac fly before Rosa hit into a double play. Luis Lopez would add a homer off Kaz Kichida in the eighth in a thorough clobbering. 12-2 Titans. Flores 2-3, 2B, RBI; Crespo 2-4; Trevino (PH) 1-1, 2B;

There are no words.

Steve Searcy should be looking for a room in St. Pete. I have a hunch he might drop off a bus there sooner rather than later. In his bag will be the chopped up remains of Rémy Lucas, who faced six, and retired nobody, three hits, three walks.

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – LF Brady – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – RF Mays – 1B Ingram – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Fairchild
BOS: 3B M. Austin – SS Nichols – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – C Rosa – 2B Heffer – 1B L. Lopez – LF Arroyo – P M. Castro

A radically revamped lineup (NOT laid out with dice, as the Agitator would claim on Sunday) saw the Coons score four runs on Mauro Castro in the first four innings, breaking through in a 3-run second frame. Vic Flores, moved to the leadoff spot, drove in three of the runs, while surprisingly Adrian Quebell would appear in the cleanup spot before long as unlikely cleanup hitter Yoshi Nomura tweaked a hammy early in the game and left. Quebell replaced him, moving Ingram to second. The Titans had a few runners in scoring position early in the game, but never scored them, and Fairchild became the first Furball in some time to start and actually make an out in the eighth inning. There, however, Hector Ramirez and Brian Nichols hit singles, and with the left-handers coming up this was the time to ask Ed Bryan for a contribution. He got to 2-2 on both Rudy Garrison and Gonzalo Munoz. While Garrison struck out, Munoz fired a rocket to deep left, but Brady hauled it in just in front of the warning track. Against Bruno in the ninth, Heffer reached base with a single to right, but that was all there was to the Titans in this one. 4-0 Coons. Flores 3-4, 3 RBI; Wood 1-2, BB; Fairchild 7.1 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-2) and 1-2;

Yoshi Nomura was not badly hurt and was entirely fine the next morning.

And it had been a week for a Raccoons starter to get somebody out in the seventh inning, when Ralph Ford went the abbreviated distance in a loss to the Buffaloes.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – LF Brady – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Watanabe
BOS: 3B M. Austin – 2B Metting – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 1B A. Jenkins – C Rosa – SS Nichols – LF Walls – P Hildred

And suddenly, a pitching duel broke out. Neither team amounted to much early on, with the Coons having four and the Titans getting two hits through seven innings. The furthest advance by anybody was Clyde Brady being left on third base in the top 4th. Also the Coons had two men on base when Danny Sharp lined out to third base to end the first inning. Watanabe led off the eighth, but if anything, we wanted to have more of his pitching rather than a pinch-hitter. Watanabe at this point out-hit our entire bench with the sole exception of J.C. Crespo. Maybe Watanabe could – no. Flores made the second out before Brady hit an infield single to Kurt Metting, who only intercepted the ball at the edge between infield and outfield. Nomura with another single. Maybe now was the time. Adrian Quebell came up and chucked a soft liner over the jumping Nichols and into left center for an RBI double! Hey! Scoring! Danny Sharp lined a single to right, with Yoshi scoring easily, and Quebell being sent. Gonzalo Munoz’ throw was well off line and the Coons moved to 3-0. When Aaron Jenkins led off the bottom 8th with a single, we panicked and threw Marcos Bruno into the game. Freddy Rosa drove a ball to deep left, but Brady made a strong catch. Bruno would then erase Nichols and Walls on six pitches. Angel allowed a leadoff hit to Luis Lopez in the ninth, but that was again the last breath the Titans squeezed out before being forcefully expired. 3-0 Coons. Brady 3-4; Sharp 2-4, 2 RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-4);

In other news

May 10 – The Canadiens take a blow, losing their closer Pedro Alvarado (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 SV) to elbow inflammation. He might be out for three months.
May 11 – The season could be over for DEN SP Fabien Armand (1-3, 4.73 ERA), who has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation.
May 13 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.321, 4 HR, 17 RBI), who had just returned from a mild oblique strain, is out again with wrist tendinitis, and should miss another two weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Since getting put on a fork and roasted on Friday, the team has now put up 18 scoreless innings (on the plus side, that is) despite starting the guys on the shallow end of the gene pool. That’s nice, and now we hope for a recovery from Nick Brown on Tuesday.

Monday is another off day. We have a back-loaded schedule this year, with only one off day in September. But to be honest, having no days off in September is better than having no days off in May…

Then again, with this team, any off day can only be a good day.

Ryan Miller, potentially our actually best prospect (because who gives an ooze for BNN?), had started the year in AAA, struggled badly, and had gone back to AA for two weeks, where he shredded pitching .396/.434/.729 with 4 HR and 11 RBI. He is now back in St. Pete to work on that .175 average. If he manages to get the bat up (or walk a lot) there, then we might call him up in the second half of the season. Miller is really a shortstop and hasn’t played anywhere else for extended periods of time in his life, which makes him clash with Vic Flores, who will be arbitration eligible once more after this season. However, Flores can fill in all over the diamond, for struggling starters, for example. Both are batting right-handed, unfortunately, so the platoon opportunities are rather limited.

Oh, and I’m not sure whether I have mentioned it already, but I hate Christian Greenman’s guts.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-21) @ Crusaders (19-17) – May 16-18, 2006

Here were two teams that weren’t scoring and ranked in the bottom 3 in run production in the Continental League. The Crusaders had something the Raccoons didn’t, though, and that was a phenomenal rotation, almost top to bottom, which was the best in the league, and thus they were allowing the least runs total, despite a soft, eighth-place bullpen.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-2, 3.18 ERA) vs. Ángel Javier (5-0, 1.34 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (0-0) vs. Visar Logoreci (0-1, 6.14 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (4-3, 2.94 ERA)

How would Nick Brown go about with our 18-inning run of being unscored upon? I mean, a shutout will be pretty much what it takes to get him his fifth win of the year.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – SS Rice – C J. Lopez – 1B Winters – 2B Caraballo – P A. Javier

The Furballs struck in the first - … or maybe, were handed a gift by Gary Rice, whose throwing error allowed Yoshi Nomura on second base to start the game, from where Vic Flores singled him in before Brady double played us into another headache. Double plays and general ineptness became a theme on this day. The Raccoons would hit into two more of those through five. In the third, Nick Brown led off with a single, stole second base, and was left there. Another Crusaders error criminally was left unused in the fourth (and then, a double play…). The main story could have been Brown himself, who sat down the first 15 Crusaders he faced, whiffing six, before Evan Winters led off the bottom 6th with a home run to tie the score. From there on, the Crusaders managed to scatter a few singles, but couldn’t score on Brown again through eight. The Raccoons – don’t ask. They just did not take place at all through eight. In the top 9th, they faced Charlie Deacon, who was still a joke, but recently had been cruel to the Coons regularly. He faced Adrian Quebell, who had not hit a home run this season – and then jacked one to lead off the inning! The next three guys went down in a hurry, and Brown was on 101 pitches – but was ON, give or take a few singles. Plus, there were left-handers up at the start of the bottom 9th. Britton grounded out, and Brown whiffed Ortíz to get up a righty in Jerry Henry. Oh, what’s the worst that can happen? A hard grounder to left was not the worst thing for sure, and Flores intercepted it, played it to first, and game over! 2-1 Brownies!! Quebell 1-3, BB, HR, RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (5-2) and 1-3;

Brownie grabbed his eighth career complete game, expending 110 pitches, stole his first base of the year (and fifth total), and got his ERA soundly under three again. Stupid Evan Winters and his stupid homer. (In case you’re counting career wins, he’s got 61 now. Yeah, he could use playing on a winning team…)

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Crespo – C Wood – 3B Searcy – P F. Garcia
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – SS Rice – 1B Winters – C J. Lopez – 3B J. Henry – RF P. Javier – P Logoreci

Logoreci, of mixed Scottish and Albanian descent, made his second career start against the Raccoons and Felipe Garcia, whom nobody had longed to see again. Garcia walked the leadoff batter, Roberto Pena, who stole second and took third base just like that when Bob Wood’s throw ended up in centerfield. He conveniently scored on a groundout to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead. But if not for stupid errors, the Crusaders, who were lacking a potent bat in Stanton Martin, found it hard to hit even Garcia. Instead, Vic Flores flipped the score with his first home run in a brown uniform, hitting a 2-piece in the top 3rd, and Logoreci was under some more pressure in the fifth, when Searcy led off with a single, was bunted over, and the Crusaders elected to put Nomura on intentionally. It might have ended well if Francisco Caraballo hadn’t blown a Vic Flores grounder for an error that loaded them up. Logoreci had struck out Clyde Brady twice in the game, but this time Brady singled to make it 3-1, and Quebell walked to make it 4-1 before Mays hacked himself out and Caraballo made a play on Crespo’s grounder to end the inning. Shoddy defense to Logoreci’s detriment continued in the sixth, with a passed ball moving Bob Wood into scoring position early, but the kid also stopped getting people out then and was sent to bed by Flores with a 2-run double. The Coons moved out to 7-1 in the top 7th, but then began to chop away on the branch they were sitting on. Garcia began to serve beans, and the defense was no help either, with a shoddy non-play by Searcy. When Ed Bryan relieved Garcia in a 7-3 game, he threw a wild pitch that helped the Crusaders to plate another run. Moreno held on to the 7-4 lead in the eighth, and while Angel Casas warmed up again, it wasn’t meant to be today, either. Brady led off the ninth with a single off Nick Lee, went to third with a flying start on Quebell’s single, and scored on Crespo’s fly to center. Instead, Law Rockburn took care of the ninth. 8-4 Coons. Flores 3-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Brady 2-5, RBI; Searcy 2-5;

Vic Flores takes over the team lead in RBI with 19. Yoshi Nomura held it previously. Do we have any alive slugger at all?

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 1B Quebell – LF Brady – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Trevino – P Ford
NYC: CF R. Pena – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – C J. Lopez – 1B Winters – SS Guerin – 2B Caraballo – P Reeves

Initially I wanted to kick myself for being a short changer with intentional walks: runner on second with two out in the bottom 2nd, Ford was told to pitch to Caraballo, and the second baseman tripled to put the Crusaders 1-0 ahead. However, the good news(?), it wouldn’t have helped Ford one bit to pitch to Whit Reeves, whom he drilled, and Roberto Pena singled to make it 2-0 either way. In the top 3rd the bases were loaded with one out for Clyde Brady, who fell ten feet shy of a slam, or a hit, as he rammed a rocket to center that ended up in Pena’s glove. The run on the sac fly was all the Coons got in the inning, and for the foreseeable future. No, the Raccoons could not get a single lucky break in this game. Add to that Ford, who ran lots of deep counts early, never stopped doing that, and eventually walked a handful while barely getting through six innings. While the Crusaders didn’t add anything against him, the Coons trailed 2-1 and it felt like so much more. It actually became more in the seventh. Kaz Kichida faced only Caraballo, who reached, and Rémy Lucas so very not managed to keep him on. There was no action from the road team’s lineup until the ninth, when Yoshi doubled off Deacon with one out. Flores grounded out, but Quebell lifted a liner over Jerry Henry and into the corner in leftfield, plating Yoshi and bringing up Clyde Brady as the go-ahead run with two down, and Brady walked, but Daniel Sharp ran his line to 0-5 with a soft lineout to first base. 3-2 Crusaders. Quebell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bowen 3-4;

So many guys to demote on this team, and there is really NOBODY on the AAA staff that could even be remotely helpful. Our AAA team is 11-25 at this point… The pitching is already suspect, but the bats are barely scoring three runs a game. It’s so very pointless…

Raccoons (17-22) vs. Knights (22-18) – May 19-21, 2006

From the best rotation in the league to the worst: the Knights’ starters (and their bullpen, too!) were posting a 4.95 ERA at the first quarter post, getting drummed and drummed and drummed. How were they still four games above .500? Well, glad you ask. It’s all about run differential, and theirs was +23. They were scoring the second-most runs in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (2-2, 3.92 ERA) vs. Jong-suk Lee (4-3, 4.20 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (3-4, 3.98 ERA) vs. Vicente Perez (2-3, 7.36 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-2, 2.77 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (0-1, 5.57 ERA)

Game 1
ATL: SS Luján – CF Ware – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 1B A. Munoz – 2B J. Gutierrez – C J. Clark – 3B T. Pena – P J.S. Lee
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 1B Quebell – LF Brady – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – RF Greenman – CF Trevino – P Fairchild

Apart from Ware, this was a lineup that was batting .280 or more, and five guys were batting over .300. The world is just unfair.

Contrary to expectation, Kelly Fairchild didn’t explode on first contact, although Juan Gutierrez homered off him in the second inning. The Knights didn’t get more early despite having a man on in every inning, and Daniel Sharp even tied the score at one in the bottom 4th with a home run of his own. When Trevino led off the fifth with a double, he tried to get to third, but remained a try, and Jorge Garcia threw him out. At least he made a strong catch on Tony Pena to strand two runners in the top of the sixth and keep the game tied. Fairchild was done after six, running up over 100 pitches, and we started to mix and match with our relievers, using Rockburn and Bryan in the seventh, and Lucas and Bruno in the eighth to keep the Knights down. Could we please by a hit for $300? No, you can only buy vowels. Stupid rules set aside, Nomura led off the bottom 8th with an infield single very deep behind short that Antonio Luján had no hope on making a play on. Jong-suk Lee remained in to retire Flores, but then Quebell doubled to center. Brady unleashed a really ****ty grounder to first that wasn’t going to score anybody, and when J.C. Crespo hit for Craig Bowen, he went down looking. Moreno got only one out in the ninth before allowing a pair of singles, but the much-neglected Angel Casas came out to strike out Manuel Valdés before Stephen Ware popped out foul to end the inning. The bottom 9th saw their closer in the game, Manuel Reyes retiring Danny Sharp to get going. That brought up Greenman, who batted .098 and whose guts I was hating, and he doubled to left. Trevino grounded out, moving Greenman to third, and with two out we were forced to have Bob Wood bat, who had appeared with Angel in a double switch. He walked, and left making the third out to Yoshi, sending the game to extras.

By the 11th, we were on our last reliever, Kaz, which could not last long. When Nomura made an error on Tony Pena’s grounder to put on a man with two out, and Kaz drilled Desi Boyer, it had all the ingredients of a meltdown, but Valdés flew out softly to right then. Searcy’s leadoff single in the bottom 11th was dissolved in a Greenman double play. Kaz amazingly held on into the 14th, when Searcy hit another leadoff single, then got forced by Sharp. Greenman, the ****head, was not going to ruin the game. We had one more bat on the bench in rampantly unused Tom Ingram, and we’ll figure out who will play outfield while we will tumble onto defeat later. Ingram struck out, and then came Trevino. Yeah. Ingram played short then, with Flores moving to left, and an 0-6 Brady to right while we were getting the guillotine ready. We squelched out Kaz for five innings, the last of which he finished with a strikeout to Alejandro Rodriguez before the ambulance carted him off, and we got Kenichi Watanabe ready to pitch. But before that, the ambulance had to come back. Kaz had to bat in the bottom 15th with Nomura on second and two outs. He half stumbled, half fell into the first pitch that came his way from Clyde Henderson, poking it with the bat high to the right side. Gutierrez didn’t get it! It’s in shallow right! Nomura is flying, Nomura coming in, the throw – LATE! BALLGAME!!! 2-1 Coonlights!! Flores 3-7, 2B; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Searcy 2-2; Fairchild 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K; Casas 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K; Kichida 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-2) and 1-2, RBI;

Wicked game this is.

Pffff.

By the way, there were TWENTY-EIGHT hits in this game. The Coons left on merely eight, but the Knights stranded 15. I would like to go into more detail, but I gotta help put up the oxygen tent for Kaz.

Game 2
ATL: SS Luján – CF Ware – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 1B A. Munoz – 2B J. Gutierrez – C J. Clark – 3B T. Pena – P V. Perez
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Crespo – RF Mays – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Watanabe

The Raccoons scored first with doubles by Nomura and Sharp in the bottom 1st, leaving Sharp at third base to leave it at 1-0, which was not going to be sufficient with Watanabe handing out free bases with ill control. He made it through three before the Knights got to him for a run driven in by Gutierrez in the fourth. The scoring runner, Morales, had of course walked. Tony Pena’s double to start the fifth spelled more trouble and with a pitcher wildly adrift there’s little to do about that. Pena scored, the Knights were up 2-1, and where were the Critters? They were virtually gone until the sixth, when Sharpie hit a leadoff single. Quebell walked, moving the tying run to second base. Crespo whiffed. Mays popped out to short. Great, what’s the paper bag Trevino gonna do! Why, he hit a single up the middle and Sharp scored, tying the score at two. Watanabe didn’t get out of the seventh when Perez hit with two out and nobody on and singled. Ed Bryan retired PH Alejandro Rodriguez, the Coons had their first two men on in the bottom 7th, but Sharp hit into an inning-ending double play. Ugh, the pains!! Bottom 8th, Crespo hit a 1-out double. Mays sucked and was best replaced with a donkey in a suit, carrying two baskets full of fruit, and in the #7 hole was Rockburn, who had gotten the final out in the top of the inning. Steve Searcy hit for him and chipped a grounder to left and it got through!! Crespo scored, Critters up, who’s gonna close?

Angel had thrown 28 pitches the previous day, and Bruno had been out two days in a row. Kichida was still on oxygen support, which only left Lucas and Moreno. Nah, we’d take Angel. He allowed a 1-out double to Avery Johnson to make us sweat, but then got a strikeout in, and survived when Manuel Valdés grounded out on a 3-1 pitch. 3-2 Critters!! Nomura 2-4, 2B; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Trevino 2-3, RBI; Searcy (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brady 1-1; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K;

Casas noticeably didn’t have much at all. So, as we’re marking off his comfort zone, five outs on 28 pitches the previous day might lead to trouble the next day.

Nothing against nailbiters, however, we needed a great outing from Brownie on Sunday, with close to no bullpen in a well-rested state.

But on Sunday, it rained – and no Raccoon would throw any pitch. The game was rescheduled for August 25, as part of a double header in the middle of a 9-game stretch before our next-to-last off day on August 31.

In other news

May 15 – The Loggers will be without their ace, Martin Garcia (5-1, 1.52 ERA) for six to seven weeks after the southpaw has suffered a broken thumb.
May 19 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (5-0, 2.43 ERA) blanks the Loggers on two hits in a 5-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Adrian Quebell’s game-winner on Tuesday was his first career home run of course. He merely needed 184 AB and is on pace for four this year. A) The trades I do. B) We might want to look for a slugger somewhere.

We will have another off day on Monday, which will pretty much reset our bullpen and we will then resume from the top of our rotation with Brownie.

There was another point I wanted to make about Christian Greenman's guts, but I seem to have lost my notes.