Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Questdog]

Quebell is not the one you need to worry about for 2008. The Black Hole is the one you should be worrying about.....I predict he will be closer to .215 with 12 home runs and 43 RBIs than he will be to the numbers he put up last season. If he slugs .400, I will be surprised. Last year was the best year of his career and at 35 he is not going to build upon that, but will recede back to Chumpville, from whence he came.

I think everyone knows I am furry through and through and last season was wonderful. No one will be tickled more than me if I am wrong on the Black Hole and he has another stellar campaign and we win the division.

I like Quebell a lot, and it is not just because one of my daughters is named Adrienne....He is a budding young Keith Hernandez and exactly the kind of hitter I salivate over. A Mets fan maybe will have heard of Hernandez; if not, keep an eye out for the hair dye commercials......

[pjh5165]

I agree with Questdog about Quebell.

At worst he stays what he is now and you have a good defender at first with excellent on base skills. That's already valuable. If he realizes even a little bit of that power stroke he showed in the minor leagues (he's still pretty young, isn't he??) he becomes a perennial All-Star candidate. I think getting rid of him now would selling very low.

[Westheim]

February 3 – 33-yr old ex-OCT LF Wes McCormick (.271, 132 HR, 533 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $1.46M contract with the Condors.
February 4 – The Titans land OF Pedro Flores (.267, 16 HR, 396 RBI). The 37-year old, well-traveled Dominican signs a 2-yr, $1.98M contract.
February 4 – $270k lands the Condors 1B Jose Valenzuela (.279, 85 HR, 526 RBI) for one year. He spent 2007 with the Rebels.
February 6 – The Pacifics add 30-yr old ex-TIJ SP Curt Powell (66-68, 4.31 ERA) for 2-yr, $2.58M.
February 9 – Another addition in Boston, as 35-yr old ex-DEN 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.292, 50 HR, 795 RBI) is signed to a 1-yr, $880k deal. Heffer already played for the Titans in 2006.
February 12 – The Canadiens are going to spend $3.6M over the next two years for ex-CIN RF/LF Dan Morris (.320, 362 HR, 1,367 RBI). Morris is the active leader in career home runs, and overall trails only all-time slugger king Raúl Vázquez (416 HR), who is still looking for another engagement at age 41.
February 14 – The Raccoons land international free agent SP Jong-hoo Umberger, a 29-year old right-hander, for $3M over three years.
February 18 – The Crusaders add 33-yr old INF Bob Butler (.263, 126 HR, 644 RBI), who will make $720k in 2008.
February 21 – The last first-rate free agent is signed. 27-year old ex-SFW CF Earl Clark (.303, 53 HR, 431 RBI) is added by the Cyclones for 1-yr, $1.66M.
February 23 – The Canadiens sign MR Bill Corkum (42-43, 2.75 ERA, 199 SV) to a $254k deal.
March 4 – The Pacifics sign ex-LVA 1B Albert Martin (.283, 145 HR, 537 RBI) to a 1-yr, $212k contract.
March 25 – Ex-NAS RF Cristo Ramirez (.325, 69 HR, 1,233 RBI) signs a 1-yr, $310k contract with the Indians. Ramirez, 38, only needs 95 base hits to reach the career record mark by Dale Wales.

The turn Al Martin’s career took when we dropped him for Quebell saddens me to an unimaginable extent. I always liked him. I don’t like Quebell.

Prices drop in February. Umberger would have gotten $5M in January from me, when he wanted $9M. Now he had to settle for $3M because there were still no other potent suitors around. You can get along with a $1M mis-investment, but when you put $1.8M into - … well, that’s what Dominguez got last year and look how happy he made us. (grimly holds a survival knife onto Honeypaws’ throat)

Depending on whether he’s gonna kill it or get killed, our rotation will be one to drool over. If he gets killed, we still have semi-decent options. If anybody among our top 5 gets hurt, we will have Baldwin, Boda, Teasdale, even the chumps Webster and Carpenter in the quiver, and then there’s still another semi-decent guy in Cesar Lopez in AAA, and we have a very promising almost-20-year old in Ham Lake in righty Hector Santos, who was 5-11 with a 3.38 ERA in 22 starts last year, with 60 BB and 98 K in 133 IP. In A-ball, before that, he was 4-1 with a 2.15 ERA in nine starts, whiffing 66 against 20 walks.

We waived Yoshi Yamada to get Umberger onto the 40-man roster. Nobody wanted a piece of him. No surprise there.

[Westheim]

2008 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2007 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Nick Brown, 30, B:L, T:L (14-9, 2.68 ERA | 82-58, 2.97 ERA) – the left-handed part of our pair of co-aces had some struggles with command one year after missing significant time with a shoulder injury, but led the league with a 9.7 K/9 and set a new franchise mark for strikeouts with 243. He set the record for the fourth time in his career.
SP Kelvin Yates, 30, B:L, T:R (21-3, 2.37 ERA | 92-89, 3.43 ERA, 1 SV) – electric right-handed co-ace, who led the league in wins and ERA and still didn’t get Pitcher of the Year honors; reached almost 200 more strikeouts than walks in ’07; you rarely ever have to worry about him.
SP Javier Cruz *, 35, B:L, T:R (12-4, 3.28 ERA | 194-122, 3.73 ERA, 1 SV) – free agent fireballer with diverse pitch arsenal and pretty consistent career numbers; home runs might be a challenge for him, though.
SP Jong-hoo Umberger *, 30, B:R, T:R (rookie) – international free agent of South Korean and Austrian descent; mixes above-average fastball and cutter with evil sliders and changeups
SP Kenichi Watanabe, 31, B:R, T:R (5-5, 2.90 ERA | 17-29, 3.53 ERA) – Watanabe nibbles the corners, which sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t. Missed more than half of 2007 with an injury, but came back well in late September.

MU Kazuhiko Kichida, 28, B:L, T:R (5-5, 3.86 ERA | 12-13, 3.75 ERA) – there’s always that point somewhere in the season where you think Kaz has turned the corner, and then some violent outing happens in which he gets torn to shreds. Just not a reliable guy you can’t trust with a lead. He might snip walkoff singles in long marathon games from time to time, though.
MR Tom Watkins *, 32, B:R, T:R (5-3, 3.27 ERA, 2 SV | 14-34, 3.82 ERA, 58 SV) – free agent addition; you can certainly do a whole lot worse for your fourth-best right-handed reliever.
MR Lawrence Rockburn, 27, B:R, T:R (5-2, 2.18 ERA, 3 SV | 12-5, 2.49 ERA, 7 SV) – Raw Lockburn is consistently great in a seventh inning role, but can also be thrown into close situations. He has elite control, walking only 51 batters in 220 1/3 innings in his career.
MR Ed Bryan, 27, B:L, T:L (6-2, 2.73 ERA, 3 SV | 14-7, 2.50 ERA, 4 SV) – his numbers look pretty good, if you want to glance over the seven home runs he allowed, which were mostly big and all too often costly. He is demoted from the setup role in favor of addition Donald Sims.
MR Donald Sims *, 32, B:L, T:L (4-4, 4.19 ERA, 3 SV | 32-38, 4.00 ERA, 36 SV) – free agent addition designated for a left-handed setup role;
SU Marcos Bruno, 32, B:R, T:R (7-1, 1.44 ERA, 2 SV | 28-25, 2.88 ERA, 58 SV) – struck out 70+ for the fourth straight year, while never walking more than 20, and posting a .84 WHIP. Could be a closer for just about anybody.
CL Angel Casas, 25, B:S, T:R (6-1, 1.04 ERA, 48 SV | 10-6, 1.76 ERA, 120 SV) – as Angel is maturing, he gets more and more elite, nailing opposing lineups into the ground in the 2007 season; he would have broken Grant West’s mark of 49 SV in a year if not for the Coons’ collapse in September. His K/BB in 2007 was 8.2 – utter dominance.

C Craig Bowen, 27, B:S, T:R (.253, 21 HR, 74 RBI | .231, 46 HR, 168 RBI) – leading the team in moustache and posting the best catching performance we’ve had in a decade, Bowen had a fantastic breakout season and we can’t wait for more.
C Sergio Esquivel, 24, B:S, T:R (.264, 2 HR, 11 RBI | .254, 2 HR, 17 RBI) – once we dumped Bob Wood, Esquivel played a competent backup to Bowen, although he is not even a defensive upgrade over our primary.

1B Adrian Quebell, 25, B:L, T:L (.290, 5 HR, 42 RBI | .282, 17 HR, 120 RBI) – Quebell gives a good presence in the field and regularly appears on base, although he doesn’t quite generate a threat when there due to a lack of speed. His power is most disappointing for playing a traditional power position.
1B/2B Ieyoshi Nomura, 23, B:L, T:R (.242, 1 HR, 37 RBI | .271, 5 HR, 112 RBI) – Yoshi never got going and fell far off from his torrid 2006 campaign; his ceiling, we believe, is closer to the .745 OPS he hit for then than to the .617 he produced in ’07. His defense is at best average, though.
2B/SS Juan Barrón *, 35, B:R, T:R (.342, 1 HR, 33 RBI | .307, 32 HR, 853 RBI) – highly experienced and quite elite starting shortstop that arrived in trade with the Capitals; Barrón is excellent at getting on base as well as with the glove, winning four golden ones in his career, including the CL SS gloves in 2004 and 2005. Depending on the success of Yoshi, he might start at second base against left-handed pitchers.
3B Ricardo Martinez, 22, B:R, T:R (rookie) – showed prodigious power in AAA, but is not much of a defender, although he has some remarkable speed. He will be the third base starter to begin the year; if he struggles, we can still revert to Nelson Chavez.
SS Ryan Miller, 23, B:R, T:R (.238, 2 HR, 20 RBI | .227, 2 HR, 20 RBI) – labeled as the future after a January 2005 trade with the Titans added him when he was a prospect, Miller has yet to live up to the billing.
3B/2B/1B Nelson Chavez *, 31, B:S, T:R (.253, 9 HR, 61 RBI | .259, 48 HR, 304 RBI) – excellent defensive third baseman that was signed as a free agent, who might more play a backup role to Ricardo Martinez.

LF/1B Matt Pruitt, 24, B:L, T:R (.297, 11 HR, 61 RBI | .302, 14 HR, 77 RBI) – missed the first half of the year with injuries, but made his presence known in the second half. Not much of a defender, though, and there is still the possibility of moving him to first base at the expense of Quebell.
LF/CF Tomas Castro, 24, B:S, T:R (.321, 19 HR, 87 RBI | .309, 37 HR, 189 RBI) – another player who had quite the breakout year and currently has the longest guaranteed contract on the team, having been signed through 2012 at rather team-friendly terms; while he is not much of a defensive centerfielder due to an arm grading out as poor, he more than made up for his in-field shortcomings by wielding a pretty lumber in ‘07.
RF/LF/CF Luke Black, 34, B:R, T:R (.239, 31 HR, 107 RBI | .236, 105 HR, 432 RBI) – Duke Smack became the first Raccoon to hit 30 dingers or drive in 100 runs in a number of years, drawing profit from an excellent OBP bunch ahead of him, which should not grade out much worse in 2008. He also won the Gold Glove in right field. He has $1M vesting options for 2009 and 2010, requiring an appearance in 120 games to trigger.
CF/RF/LF Santiago Trevino, 25, B:L, T:L (.253, 1 HR, 16 RBI | .250, 1 HR, 30 RBI) – excellent defensive centerfielder with an uninspiring bat.
RF/LF/CF Jose Carlos Crespo, 27, B:S, T:R (.256, 9 HR, 35 RBI | .262, 17 HR, 93 RBI) – Crespo filled out every hole he was stuck in, playing all over the place, even in center, but produced more pleasant surprises with the bat than with the glove.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
MR Dan Parker *, 25, B:L, T:L (0-0, 4.64 ERA | 1-0, 6.29 ERA) – DFA. Was acquired from the Pacifics in early December, but ultimately we added a better guy in Donald Sims. He has a good slider and generates ground balls, so we would love to keep him in AAA as a backup, but he will most likely be claimed.

Opening day lineups:
SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – P Brown
2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – SS R. Miller – P Brown

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

We lost an incredible producer in Vic Flores (but added perhaps an almost as good player in Juan Barrón) and the longest-tenured Raccoon, Daniel Sharp, to free agency, tearing a hole into the left side on the infield. We will have to see how well Ricardo Martinez replaces Sharp, on whom we admittedly soured the last two years. The rotation should be much better at the softer bottom with the additions of Cruz and Umberger, who admittedly is a bit of a question mark. Overall, the Raccoons finished a flat zero in WAR gains, 13th overall.

Top 5: Thunder (+12.4), Wolves (+7.5), Blue Sox (+5.3), Scorpions (+4.2), Canadiens (+3.4)
Bottom 5: Bayhawks (-4.3), Rebels (-4.9), Falcons (-7.0), Stars (-7.9), Warriors (-11.2)

PREDICTION TIME:

The Raccoons smashed their way through the competition the first half of last season to race out to a 10 1/2 game lead in late June, sitting at 55-21 … and then played .500 ball from there and lost out on their first playoff appearance since 1996.

Their 2008 chances depend on how well they have patched their own weaknesses as well as what the Crusaders and Canadiens did. The Raccoons suffered from abysmal starting pitching outside of their co-aces and Watanabe (when healthy), which was addressed to satisfaction prior to first pitch. Other holes were stuffed as well.

The Canadiens dealt away a strong young CF Jose Gonzalez for what seems to be spare parts, and will try to plug the gap with an almost 38-year old Dan Morris. That could well turn out to be a folly.

The Crusaders’ biggest addition is 3B Sonny Reece, and the left side of the infield has been a sore for them for a few years. The other additions are mostly bits, and any team that signs Greg Grams (6.33 ERA in 2007) raises eyebrows about their seriousness. But they only lost one significant player in SP Jesus Bautista, too, and assuming Stanton Martin isn’t hurt most of the year again (thanks to Cássio Boda pitching too far in…), they remain serious contenders.

The race might be between the Coons and the Crusaders this season, the former holding the edge in pitching and the latter in offense. It’s too close to call up front, but either team might be good enough for 95 to 100 wins. Best guess: the Raccoons repeat their 98-64 season from 2007 and this time fare batter in head-to-head competition and beat the Crusaders by two games.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

While the Raccoons’ system improved from 13th to 10th this season, their number of ranked prospects decreased again, from ten to only eight, but this is due to a large part of the ranked prospects from last year migrating to the Bigs.

The following ranked players from last year are no longer eligible: #58 Ryan Miller (service time), #120 Jose Gutierrez (service time), #138 Cássio Boda (service time); we also traded #18 Dave Self (who dropped to #41). No other ranked players dropped off this year.

5th (+14) – AA SP Hector Santos, 19 – international discovery by Vince Guerra
29th (+38) – AAA CL Pedro Delgado, 23 – 2002 first round pick by the Titans, acquired in trade with Bill Corkum and Rémy Lucas for Manny Gabriel and Dale Moore
67th (-30) – AA OF Jimmy Eichelkraut, 19 – 2006 first round pick by the Raccoons
75th (+113) – AAA SP Cesar Lopez, 25 – international discovery by Knights, acquired in trade with Jesus Palacios, Manny Gabriel, and Butch Kaustrop for Marvin Ingall and Manuel Reyes
84th (new) – A SP Kevin Denton, 20 – 2007 first round pick by the Raccoons
93rd (-6) – ML 3B Ricardo Martinez, 22 – international discovery by Pacifics, acquired in trade from Titans with Jose Carlos Crespo and Cássio Boda for Albert Martin and Glen Barnes
133rd (new) – AA SS Dave Roudabush, 22 – 2004 eighth round pick by the Condors, signed as minor league free agent
154th (-26) – AAA SP Brendan Teasdale, 23 – 2005 first round pick by the Raccoons

The #1 prospect in the country remains 19-year old SS Tom McWhorter, the second overall pick by the Miners in 2006.

Next: first pitch!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Loggers (0-0) – April 8-9, 2008

With that, it begins. We will open the year in Milwaukee for a quick 2-game set before heading home for a 2-week homestand with 13 games. By the way, we will not face the Crusaders until the second half of May. For starters, though, cutting our teeth on 36-year old and still good Martin Garcia, who has 267 career wins, might not be a bad test… Overall the Loggers might have a hard time not finishing last, however, since aside from Garcia, they didn’t have much to brag about.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Martin Garcia (0-0)
Kelvin Yates (0-0) vs. Fernando Cruz (0-0)

Game 1
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – SS R. Miller – P Brown
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – 2B B. Hernandez – SS T. Johnson – 1B K. Scott – C J. Reyes – P M. Garcia

Juan Barrón hit a single in his first Coons AB, as did Ricardo Martinez, for whom it was obviously the first major league hit, but the Raccoons didn’t amount to a run at either opportunity. For the world always getting stranger, Adrian Quebell hit a solo home run in the third inning to give Brownie a 1-0 lead. Somehow the Loggers excelled at bringing Brown to the plate with two outs and Pruitt somewhere in scoring position, which happened each of the first three times the Coons went through the order, and Brownie never got the ball snipped somewhere nice, and made the final out three times. All was well when everybody was taken out to the ballpark. The Raccoons led 1-0 and Brown had faced the minimum, allowing two singles. That changed rapidly and brutally in the bottom 7th. First Aaron Tolwith and Bakile Hiwalani hit back-to-back doubles through Ricardo Martinez, and then Brown and Miller dropped good throws at bases on consecutive ground balls from Austin and Hernandez. The Loggers scored two runs to take the lead, and didn’t relinquish it in the last two innings, with no Raccoons getting back on base. This included Yoshi Nomura grounding out on a 3-0 pitch with one out in the ninth. 2-1 Loggers. Quebell 2-4, HR, RBI; Pruitt 3-3, BB, 2 2B; Brown 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (0-1);

If that’s a sign of things to come for this season … For everybody in baseball this might well be the worst day of their live. For me it was literally Tuesday.

Game 2
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – SS R. Miller – P Yates
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B T. Johnson – 2B K. Scott – 1B Lewis – P F. Cruz

With Brown back in the stall and cursing his luck, the Raccoons suddenly found some bats and produced two runs in the first inning against Fernando Cruz. While the Loggers managed to get runners into scoring position in the bottom 3rd only for Richardson and Hernandez to get chainsawed, the Raccoons then had Martinez on first in the fourth. With two out, a hit-and-run was called and Ryan Miller’s gapper in right center scored Martinez easily to make it 3-0. Kel Yates was more productive than Brownie the day before and singled up the middle, 4-0. The third 2-spot of the day was put up by Duke Smack with a home run in the next inning, running the score to 6-0.

It didn’t stay 6-0 for long. After Kel struck out four in a row, he walked two in the bottom 5th before J.R. Richardson emptied the bags with a rocket that dwarfed the Duke’s dinger to the far side of the 415’ sign in left center, instantly halving the distance between the teams. Yates was yanked when Bakile Hiwalani hit a leadoff homer in the bottom 6th, 6-4. Tom Watkins took over and retired five of the next six batters, the only guy reaching not his own making, as Quebell had a grounder spill out of his glove for an error. There were no consequences for this one, and Watkins and Bryan successfully turned the lead over to the back end of the pen, where Bruno was not scored upon, and neither was Angel Casas, who struck out the side on 12 pitches. 6-4 Coons. Quebell 3-5, 2 2B; Castro 3-5, RBI; Watkins 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Typical. Brown gets victimized by freak occurrences, and Kel gets blown out and still wins his start. Baseball is one wicked game, I can tell you.

All CL North teams started their year 1-1, so, eh…

Raccoons (1-1) vs. Thunder (1-1) – April 11-13, 2008

The Thunder had had a rainout in their season-opening matchup with the Aces, and so came in 1-1 as well. Close to everybody was 1-1 in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (0-0) vs. Manny Guzmán (0-0)
Jong-hoo Umberger (0-0) vs. Luis Martinez (0-0)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-0) vs. Santiago Chavez (0-0)

Both teams had a chance to skip their #5 guy, but maybe neither would do it? As far as we know, we’ll face right-left-right in this series.

Game 1
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C P. Ledesma – CF Reese – SS M. Garza – RF Covington – 3B Arreola – 2B Nixon – P Guzmán
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – P Cruz

The Thunder took a bite out of Javier Cruz with two runs scoring in the first inning, which was opened by a walk drawn by Victorino Sanchez. Down 2-0 early, the Raccoons rode Duke Smack’s game-tying shot in the bottom 1st to get back tied, and then had Bowen and Martinez reach to start the bottom 2nd. The Thunder were displeased when Yoshi took a borderline pitch in a full count and had it called ball four to load them up. The Coons however didn’t score, with Cruz flying out too shortly to center, and Barrón and Quebell going down flailing. Bowen and Martinez were on again with no outs in the bottom 4th, when Yoshi popped up a 3-1 pitch for the first out. Cruz then came through with a single over a leaping Max Nixon to plate the go-ahead run.

And the Coons kept reaching, despite Barrón and Quebell again ending the fourth on a sad note. Castro and Black reached with singles to start the bottom 5th, and while Pruitt and Bowen didn’t manage to get them in, Ricardo Martinez took a huge swing to power his first major league home run well outta left, a booming 3-run homer that jumped the Coons out to a 6-2 lead. After a shoddy start and despite three leadoff walks, Javier Cruz went seven in his Furballs debut, leaving with an 8-2 lead when Pruitt hit a 2-out, 2-run double off Junior Downey in the bottom 6th. In fact, he wasn’t the only pitcher having his Raccoons debut sprinkled with a bit of being walked over by Victorino, the master of on-base abilities, but when Donald Sims did it in the eighth, no damage occurred. 8-2 Coons. Black 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Martinez 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Cruz 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 2
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C P. Ledesma – CF Reese – SS M. Garza – RF Covington – 3B Arreola – 2B Nixon – P L. Martinez
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – SS R. Miller – P Umberger

… and the next Raccoons debutee getting knocked over in the first inning! Jong-hoo allowed two runs on consecutive hits by Ledesma, Reese, and Garza, but again it didn’t take long for the Raccoons to climb back in, but when they scored two runs in the bottom 2nd, their fortunes included an error by Ignacio Arreola and a wild pitch by Luis Martinez along with two singles by Bowen and Miller. Quebell doubled home Barrón in the bottom 3rd to take the lead and the Raccoons would walk the bases full before Matt Pruitt lined into an inning-ending double play. The Thunder left runners on third base in the third and fourth innings, while the Coons went to 4-2 in the bottom 4th when Barrón drove in Martinez with a double. Umberger after a few good innings was tagged for a third run in the sixth by a 2-out single off Max Nixon’s bat. He still looked sharp, though. Okay, he stays in until a man gets on base. No man got on base through eight again for the Thunder, so the game went right to Angel Casas, who held the Thunder at bay to save his second of the year. 4-3 Critters. Barrón 2-3, BB, RBI; Castro 2-4; Umberger 8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C P. Ledesma – CF Reese – SS M. Garza – 3B Arreola – RF J. Gonzalez – 2B Nixon – P S. Chavez
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 3B N. Chavez – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – P Watanabe

The Thunder scored their customary 2-spot in the first inning off Watanabe, who surrendered some pretty hard contact early. There was no timely bounceback from the home team this time, and neither did Watanabe stop bleeding. The Thunder scored two more in the second, and then stranded pairs of runners twice in the remainder of Watanabe’s shoddy five innings. The Raccoons managed only one run while Watanabe was pitching, Pruitt scoring Castro, who also stole the team’s first base of the season in this contest. The Thunder continued to be on the verge of blowing the doors off the park, putting Sanchez and Cardenas on with nobody out and Ed Bryan pitching in the sixth, but again didn’t score. C’mon boys! They’re beggin’ for a comeback!

But the Thunder wouldn’t let them. No Raccoon reached second base until the eighth, and then they scored only on an error to get back to 4-2, and it was a very slow crawl. Ignacio Arreola’s RBI double off Rockburn in the ninth inning put the Thunder up an impenetrable 5-2 with their closer coming out for the bottom 9th, Sancho Rivera. Ricardo Martinez reached with a pinch-hit single, only for Craig Bowen to hit in place of Nomura and find a way into the team’s third double play of the afternoon. Nope, impenetrable. 5-2 Thunder. Castro 2-4, 2B; Black 2-4, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1; Watkins 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

After opening week, there are no losing teams in the CL North. We’re t-2nd at 3-2 with the Loggers, trailing the 4-2 Crusaders. Everybody else is 3-3.

Raccoons (3-2) vs. Condors (2-5) – April 14-16, 2008

The Condors had a very young team. While there was potential in that, maybe many of those youngsters were a year away from really belonging. Comparing all ten starting pitchers, the Raccoons had the five oldest, and the Condors the five youngest, none of the kids older than 28 (Art Cox). Their bullpen had Ricardo Huerta, 35, and Charlie Deacon, 31, and then a lot of boys that didn’t need to shave. The mix wasn’t working – yet.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-1, 1.23 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (0-1, 8.44 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (1-0, 7.20 ERA) vs. Art Cox (0-1, 3.68 ERA)
Javier Cruz (1-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Micah Kirchberg (0-0, 4.50 ERA)

Game 1
TIJ: CF R. Perez – RF Tanner – 1B Valenzuela – 2B J. Diaz – LF Crum – SS Ybarra – C N. Thompson – 3B George – P J. Martin
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – P Brown

Brownie’s battle plan must have read something like “pitch the same, hope for better luck”. Ricardo Martinez made an error in the first that put him into a two on, one out hole, but he struck out Juan Diaz and Johnny Crum to exit the inning, then gave the rookie a grim look. At least there was more than just one run of support for him, for Matt Pruitt and Craig Bowen crushed back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the second inning for an early 2-0 lead. In the fourth, the Condors had Johnny Crum on first base after he leaned into a pitch. With two out, Nate Thompson grounded to third base, where Ricardo Martinez threw the ball - … I don’t know what he saw, but his throw was 20 feet up the right field line. The Condors got two in scoring position with two outs, and the #8 guy Will George up. We counted on George’s bad strikeout rates, but he put the ball in play, another grounder to third base …

… and Martinez made his third error of the game. Another wide throw pulled Quebell off the bag, a run scored, and Brown was irate on the mound! After Brown had a helpless Jaylen Martin as his seventh strikeout victim, Juan Barrón had to get between him and Martinez after the third strike was called, for the rookie was in active danger of getting his glove shove up his butt. Brown didn’t stop fuming in the dugout at all while Pruitt, Bowen, and Martinez went down 1-2-3 in the bottom 4th. Some pepper was taken out of Brownie’s own rear end when Quebell plated Nomura in the fifth with a single (Nomura had hit a leadoff double), and Castro’s single loaded the bases for the Duke. Black’s groundout and Pruitt’s 2-run single plated all the runners and staked Brownie to a 6-1 lead. The Condors removed one youngster for another, Colin Sabatino, who surrendered another homer to Bowen right away, 8-1. At the next grounder vaguely going in the direction of third base, Brownie, who was falling that way naturally as a left-hander, jumped after it, hissed back Martinez, and threw to first to nab Juan Diaz for the first out in the sixth inning.

Again Brown was mui excellente through six innings and then stuff happened in the seventh. Thompson and George got balls between people for two hits to start the seventh, and for a moment it looked like Brownie would come out, but he managed to get poor contact from left-handers Perez (who grounded out to first) and Tanner (who flew out more or less softly to right) and nobody scored. Recent Raccoon Ward Jackson put the first four Critters on base in the bottom 7th, but he only scored the one run, perhaps also because we hoped for another good inning from Brownie and had him bat and go to 0-for-7 on the year. With a 10-1 lead it was okay. Brown made a mental error on a 2-out grounder by Crum back to the mound in that eighth and then threw wildly to first himself, the Coons’ fourth error and the first not made by a rookie third baseman, but got out of the inning unharmed. Kichida pitched a scoreless ninth. 10-1 Brownies! Quebell 2-4, RBI; Castro 3-5, 2B; Pruitt 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Bowen 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Nomura 2-3, 2 2B; Brown 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (1-1);

Brown really needs to run his mouth against Martinez! In 15.1 innings he has only struck out 15 batters, that isn’t even 9 K/9! Sucker!

Martinez though better keep batting .381, because that’s about as much as he needs when he continues to field this way. He needed a basic rookie lesson and sat for Nelson Chavez in the next game, while doing some footwork stuff in the afternoon, when bench coach Jayden Cannon erected a giant white sign that read, in thick black letters, THROW HERE, and a downwards-pointing arrow, right behind first base, which was manned by Chad in the Raccoon costume. (Chavez already replaced him defensively in the opener, but not until after the seventh inning, which gave Martinez ample opportunity to scratch out at least one hit and not go oh-fer)

Game 2
TIJ: SS Ybarra – LF Crum – 2B J. Diaz – CF R. Perez – 1B Valenzuela – C P. Estrada – RF Ward – 3B George – P Cox
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Brown – 3B Chavez – 2B Nomura – P Yates

While Yates had more than 9 K/9, he also had way more home runs allowed than Brown so far this year, and kept adding to that. Ramón Perez got him for a 3-run rocket in the first inning, following a Crum single and a walk to Diaz. Duke Smack pulled two runs back with his third home run of the season in the bottom 1st, but the right-handed half of our pair of co-aces was scuffling badly.

Also scuffling: Art Cox. With Chavez singling and Nomura walking in the bottom 2nd, he also gave four wild ones to Yates to load the sacks, inviting Juan Barrón to flip the score with a 2-run double into left. Cox didn’t survive the inning, with his manager knocking him out with a golf club in the middle of Craig Bowen’s at-bat when a balk brought home the Coons’ eighth run, after Castro had doubled in a pair and had scored on the Duke’s single to center. After that 6-run inning, the 8-3 game was Kel’s to lose, and the Condors kept whacking away, Juan Diaz going deep in the top 3rd to get back to 8-4. That was the last run the Condors got off Yates, who eventually went six innings of 4-run ball, striking out 11. Something along those lines was amiss for sure. The Coons left runners galore in the middle innings until Yoshi Nomura hit a leadoff jack off Sabatino in the seventh. The game appeared all bagged until Kaz Kichida hurled eight straight balls to start the ninth inning. The tying run appeared in the hole, so we moved to scarcely used Marcos Bruno against Will George. Bruno threw strikes, strikes, strikes, and fanned the side with Wes McCormick and Pancho Ybarra also going down after George. 9-4 Critters! Black 4-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Nomura 1-1, 3 BB, HR, RBI;

With these outbursts, we’re t-3rd in runs scored. One more greenhorn coming!

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – RF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – CF R. Perez – LF Crum – C P. Estrada – 1B B. Román – 3B George – P Kirchberg
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Crespo – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – P Cruz

Rowan Tanner’s homer put the Condors up 1-0 in the first, which was an all too familiar occurrence yet again. However, another recurring them was quick turnarounds by the home team in Portland, and – boy! – was this one quick! Barrón got on with a single, and we tried a hit-and-run but Quebell flew out. Barrón got to second anyway on a wild pitch, then scored on Castro’s double, 1-1. That brought up the Duke, and – ooh!! – THE DUKE!! MAMMOTH HOMER!!

While that gave the Raccoons a 3-1 lead (and the Duke 11 RBI in 7 1/9 games), Cruz still wasn’t any good and got romped for two more runs in the top 2nd, re-tying the score. Hidden in the box score was the fact that Tomas Castro had outfield assists in both innings. Esquivel’s leadoff walk transformed into the go-ahead run, singled in by Quebell, in the bottom 2nd, but in the top 3rd Cruz put on Diaz with a walk, allowed Perez to reach on an infield single he couldn’t play, and then was taken well out of center by Johnny Crum. That was it for him, 2+ innings and six earned runs. Another run scored off Kichida before the inning was over, putting the Coons in a 7-4 hole. But if they could just nudge Kirchberg a little bit more - … then they’d face a ravaged pen again, and ours was comparably fresh! Kirchberg was nudged promptly when Martinez reached on an infield single and Crespo homered just inside the right foul pole.

So wait, that’s 7-6 visitors with no outs in the bottom 3rd? For wonderous reasons, scoring stopped here for a while. Ed Bryan was cast into long relief against a predominantly left-handed lineup and got seven outs before Pruitt hit for him with two on and two out in the bottom 5th, but flew out to Perez in deep center. While the Condors were suffocated by the Coons’ pen, the Raccoons got a man on here and there, but never got him around. In the seventh it was Martinez drawing another leadoff walk to no avail. In the eighth Barrón reached on a bloop single between Ybarra and Crum. The inning ended on a hard drive by Castro to right, caught by Wes McCormick. After eight, it was still 7-6, and with Bruno being spotless in the ninth, the score was still true in the bottom 9th, but here we had the advantage of the Duke leading off, and Charlie Deacon pitching. Unfortunately, the Duke struck out, Martinez was retired on a highlight reel catch by Crum, and Crespo went down silently. 7-6 Condors. Barrón 3-5; Castro 2-5, 2B, RBI; Martinez 2-4, BB; Bryan 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Sims 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

That was an awful game, and we abused our left-handed relievers quite badly for nothing. Unfortunately, our next opponent has some potent left-handed bats…

Raccoons (5-3) vs. Indians (6-3) – April 17-20, 2008

The Indians had been remarkably average so far with the 6th-best offense and t-7th for runs allowed. Their rotation was on the spotty side (and they had lost Curtis Tobitt to injury early on), while their pen was strong with a 1.52 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (1-0, 2.25 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (0-0, 2.57 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Bob King (1-1, 4.05 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-1, 0.59 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (0-1, 7.11 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (2-0, 6.55 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (1-0, 5.14 ERA)

That’s two righties, two lefties for us, which is important, as I want to give everybody a day off early on. Well, Pruitt had a day off already, so he doesn’t count anymore, but Castro, Black, Quebell, and Barrón will get a day of rest at some point in this series (another three games will follow right up with the Titans). I’m tempted to rest as many as possible on Friday with Watanabe pitching. I always tried to stretch this stuff out over half a week, but it weakens you for … half a week. By giving as much rest as possible in the same game, you hurt your chances for one game only. Any maybe the second suit can still win?

Game 1
IND: RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – LF Alston – C Paraz – 2B C. Aguilar – 3B Fugosi – CF A. Solís – SS Brantley – P Jimenez
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – P Umberger

The Duke – in flames – cannonaded a line drive for a 2-run home run off Jimenez in the first inning, and for once this wasn’t just to make up damage done earlier to our own guy. The Raccoons took a genuine 2-0 lead. In return, it was short-lived. Angel Solís’ 2-out RBI triple took a big bite out of it, and Ron Alston tied the score with an RBI single in the third. The Coons had two men on in the bottom 3rd with no outs but had the Duke hit into a double play this time, and while Pruitt walked, Bowen left him and Quebell stranded. For the Indians, singles kept falling in, while the Raccoons kept hitting into double plays, like Quebell did in the fifth. Umberger somehow stalked around various disasters while nursing the 2-2 tie more or less luckily until the Coons finally - … well, technically it didn’t fall in either, because it cleared the fence. Ricardo Martinez’ solo jack gave them a 3-2 lead in the bottom 6th, and then, with two outs, Nomura got on. Umberger had a good arm, but had never wielded a bat in his life, and it showed early on with comical hacks. But with the pen having gotten abused the previous day we weren’t going to hit for him with a lead in the sixth. And lo and behold, he sniped a single to left! That brought up Barrón, who singled up the middle, Yoshi was sent, and Solís’ throw was late, 4-2!

Quebell singled home another run before Umberger ran back out. He got two outs in the seventh before Stevens hit another bloop single. With Ron Alston up, we brought Donald Sims for one batter only. The count ran full, Alston grounded to the right side of the second base bag, and Yoshi just had no play at all. Marcos Bruno replaced Sims against Jose Paraz, and got a grounder to first for the last out of the inning and the 5-2 lead well alive. Facing Nobu Matsui in the bottom 7th, Yoshi Nomura found the bases loaded with one out after singles by Pruitt and Bowen and a walk drawn by Martinez. Yoshi grounded poorly to second, but poor enough for the Indians’ Aguilar to only get Bowen at second. That made it 6-2 and Bruno came up which was an issue. This was a place to score runs but we were in danger of running out of arms, although - … Angel hadn’t been used too often so far. Maybe he could pitch in a non-save situation of more than three outs here. Crespo hit for Bruno, flew out, then remained in for defense at Pruitt’s expense. Watkins pitched a scoreless eighth, then was hit for by Chavez with two out and two on in the bottom 8th, again to no effect, but Angel was perfect in the ninth to end this one. 6-2 Coons! Barrón 3-5, RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, RBI; Castro 2-4; Pruitt 2-4; Bowen 1-2, 2 BB; Umberger 6.2 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0) and 1-3;

By now, all teams in the North have a winning record! At 6-3, were t-3rd with the Loggers, one game back of the Crusaders.

And wow, the Duke! 13 RBI in nine games!

Game 2
IND: RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – LF Alston – CF Luxton – 2B C. Aguilar – 3B Fugosi – C Washington – SS J. Lopez – P King
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – RF Crespo – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – P Watanabe

Everybody except Quebell, who had an 11-game hitting streak going (that he stretched to 12 in his first attempt), got their mandatory rest in Friday’s game. Would it matter at all? Watanabe allowed four hard hits and two runs in the opening inning. Doubles by Quebell and Pruitt plated a run in the bottom 1st that the Indians pried back off Watanabe in the third, and they could have scored much more, but left men in scoring position in the second and fourth, and the bases loaded in the fifth. Watanabe also pitched a clean sixth before yielding for the pen at over 100 pitches. The Coons didn’t have many chances, and Pruitt was twice denied another extra-base hit by Robbie Luxton, both times with a man on base. The Duke’s off day ended in the seventh inning when J.C. Crespo tweaked a shoulder and had to leave the game. He led off the bottom 7th with a single, but Nomura hit into a double play right away. Home runs in the eighth inning put the game away, with Bryan allowing one to Luxton and Kichida being taken deep by Filippo Fugosi. 6-1 Indians. Quebell 2-4, 2B;

Gee, I hope we will at least win the other two games after that stinker. What’s wrong with Watanabe??

Crespo hit the DL with a sore shoulder. The minimum 15 days might suffice to nurse him back to usability. Hel-lo, Bob Mays (.283, 0 HR, 5 RBI in AAA)…

Game 3
IND: RF B. Miller – 2B Brantley – LF Alston – C Paraz – CF Luxton – 1B S. Stevens – 3B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – P R. Gonzalez
POR: 2B Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 1B Chavez – SS R. Miller – P Brown

Miller singled and Brantley walked before Ron Alston’s double play grounder somewhat defused another tense first inning, and the Indians didn’t score on Brownie. In fact, neither team scored the first time through the order. Ron Alston conquered Brown with a solo home run in the fourth inning, his third of the season. The Raccoons were clueless against Gonzalez, and when they did get somebody on, damn sure they found a way to hit into a double play. Without a doubt far and away their best chance presented itself to them when Angel Solís couldn’t get to another Pruitt drive to center and Pruitt was safe at third with a leadoff triple in the bottom 7th, representing the tying run. Two ****ty groundouts and Miller’s fly to center later, Pruitt trotted from third base into the dugout and Brownie broke a bat in the on-deck circle and was about to eat the donut when he was called to the mound by the umpire. The top 8th saw Gonzalez(!) reach on an infield single because Bowen was too clumsy to make a play. Ron Brantley walked on a dubious call before Brownie’s last man was Alston. He struck him out in a full count to end the inning.

SCORE SOME RUNS!!!

With only left-handed hitters on the bench, Bob Mays hit for Brown and went down flailing to start the bottom 8th. Barrón popped out before Ricardo Martinez reached on an infield single far behind short, where Jose Lopez was carried away by momentum and got nothing on his throw. Okay, the slammers come up, maybe Castro can keep it going and the Du- ooooh, Castro! Castro! Castro! CASTROOOOOOOO, HOME RUUUUUUUN!!!! One cameo appearance by Angel later, Brownie’s second win was in the books. 2-1 Brownies! Martinez 3-3, BB; Castro 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-3, 3B; Brown 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (2-1);

Add a Miller single to the honorable mentions and you have the team’s entire hitting output. That was a chewy game, but Tomas Castro came through for us when we really, really, really needed it. Brownie sat in the dugout ready to kill before Castro lifted his first shot of the season.

Game 4
IND: RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – LF Alston – C Paraz – CF Luxton – 2B C. Aguilar – 3B Fugosi – SS J. Lopez – P Escobedo
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – SS R. Miller – C Esquivel – P Yates

Barrón scored on Castro’s groundout to give Yates a 1-0 lead in the first, and Kel responded with five strikeouts and only one single (Alston for a 13-game hitting streak) the first time through the order. Quebell extended his own hitting streak to 13 games with a single in the bottom 3rd that followed Barrón walking and preceded a Castro single after which the Raccoons had the bases loaded with no outs. Throwing strikes became an increasing burden for Escobedo, who walked the Duke, allowed a single for another run to Pruitt, and then drilled Martinez outright, 4-0, still bases loaded, still no outs. Miller’s fielder’s choice scored another run, but the Coons ran out after that with Esquivel striking out when he lunged after bad balls trying to be a hero, and Kel grounded out to short, but was now 5-0 ahead. Said Kel then came out and walked Stevens and Alston as the first two men up in the fourth before whiffing Paraz and Luxton and getting a soft fly to Pruitt from César Aguilar. Yeah, something was off with him, and he faced Alston in the fifth with the sacks full and two outs after two singles and a walk to Stevens. Alston was down 0-2 and still managed to unleash a drive to deep right. Was it - … Would it - … It died on the track in Black’s glove, but for a long four seconds I felt like I was going to die right there.

And after that it got really ugly. Martinez hit a bloop single in the bottom 5th and stole second. Esquivel batted with one out against ex-Coon Manuel Reyes, who completely lost a pitch that struck a belatedly evading Esquivel beneath the helmet. The young Puerto Rican fell in an instant and remained motionless on the ground for 30 seconds while Jose Paraz and Kelvin Yates, who was in the on-deck circle hurried to check on him until both teams’ trainers came rushing to the plate. Esquivel was bleeding out of the mouth and after a lengthy delay was loaded on a cart and rushed right out to the ambulance in dreadful silence. Craig Bowen replaced him.

Kel singled to score Martinez and make it a 6-0 game, but failed to appear in the seventh inning for the first time this year, walking two more in the sixth. The Indians never scored on him, however. The Raccoons were up 8-0 in the bottom 8th. Fugosi had just caught a liner by Ryan Miller for the second out when the public address announcer told the attendance that Sergio Esquivel was in quite some pain, but was conscious and alert after a first check in the nearest hospital. All might be well after all in Portland. 8-0 Coons. Quebell 2-4, BB; Castro 2-5, 2B, RBI; Black 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Martinez 2-4, RBI; Yates 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 10 K, W (3-0) and 1-3, RBI;

Late on Sunday night, after Esquivel had been bombarded with all the semi-deadly rays modern medicine had to offer, we found out definitely that he had suffered a broken cheekbone and would be out for a while. He had also lost two teeth. Six weeks are a cautious estimate thrown around, but you would want him to play a certain amount of rehab games, too.

In other news

April 8 – SFW SP Dave Crawford (1-0, 0.00 ERA) opens his season with a 3-hit shutout in a 7-0 win over the Wolves.
April 9 – Boston’s veteran Jason O’Halloran (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 3-hits the Canadiens in a 6-0 shutout.
April 11 – LAP SP Raúl Fuentes (1-0, 3.00 ERA) might be out for the year with a fractured elbow.
April 14 – The Indians are dealt a terrible blow with news that SP Curtis Tobitt (1-1, 5.11 ERA), the CL’s reigning Pitcher of the Year, might miss more than half of the 2008 season with shoulder inflammation.
April 18 – LAP LF Ken Potter (.316, 2 HR, 6 RBI) could miss three months with a broken hand.
April 20 – SFW INF Jaime Mateo (.357, 1 HR, 7 RBI) already missed most of 2007 and is now out for the year with a torn medial collateral ligament.
April 20 – CIN RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.237, 0 HR, 2 RBI) is out until late May with a strained hammy.
April 20 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.319, 1 HR, 16 RBI) will have to sit out for a week with a mild shoulder strain.

Complaints and stuff

For the second time in this league, I accidentally simmed a game because I’m dumb and click wildly when it is not required. Won’t tell which game, though, although you might guess which it is since you should know my tendencies by now, which the AI didn’t adhere to.

Kunimatsu Sato batted .522 in opening week for the Scorpions to be named Player of the Week.

With Esquivel sidelined, our 2003 ninth-rounder Juan Rios, already 26, will make his not at all anticipated major league debut sooner or later. He will be added to the roster on Monday.

Daniel Sharp had signed with the Miners only to be slided to AAA by them at the start of the season. He was on waivers, and I was tempted, but then didn’t bite. Our third base situation was unhappy enough as it was in those first days of the season, but since then Ricardo Martinez’ bat has broken out quite a bit. Brownie still doesn’t like him.

No decisions out of the bullpen so far in 2008! That’s quite the surprise, but then the Raccoons plating the second-most runs is a mighty big surprise… It probably won’t last. We probably won’t bat .307 as a team for the year…

In theory, the Raccoons can win their 2,500th franchise game next week if they go 5-1 at least against the Titans and Aces. Who’s gonna win #2,500? And who are the winners of our previous 500’s milestones?

#500 – (April 1984) – Jerry Ackerman went seven innings in a 2-2 tie in Vancouver when Cameron Green provided the margin of victory in the 3-2 win with a solo home run in the top of the eighth; Ackerman won only two games the entire season, and only 33 in his career;
#1,000 – (September 1989) – Jason Turner, the only right-hander in the honorable group, has trouble all day, but somehow keeps the Loggers from scoring in a 4-0 victory in Portland, with Tetsu Osanai and Bobby Quinn driving in runs;
#1,500 – (June 12, 1995) – Miguel Lopez, a notoriously poor hitter, helped himself with a 3-run home run off Richmond’s Harry Selph in this 6-2 interleague road win, but lasted only six innings; Royce Green provided a cushion with a 2-run homer;
#2,000 – (August 26, 2001) – Ralph Ford pitched seven innings of 3-run ball on the final day of a dreadful homestand, as the Coons squeezed out a 4-3 win over the Aces, the winning run scoring in dramatic fashion on a Conceicao Guerin liner to center that Dick Bell appeared to catch before it bounced in, but the umpires called it a trapped ball regardless, allowing Brent McLaughlin to score the winning run;

*Exact dates for the first two games are unavailable because Chad spilled his cocoa over the notes, rendering them illegible.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (8-4) vs. Titans (10-3) – April 21-23, 2008

While the Raccoons’ .307 batting average wouldn’t last, the Titans’ 6.7 R/G wouldn’t either. Probably. They had been on fire offensively, but equally important their starting pitchers had so far posted the lowest ERA in the league.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (1-1, 8.00 ERA) vs. Jesus Elmore (1-1, 5.93 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (2-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (1-0, 1.80 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-2, 5.73 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (2-1, 1.21 ERA)

Following former Coons farmhand, right-hander Jesus Elmore, it will be two well-known southpaws. More left-handers might follow on the weekend in Las Vegas.

Oh, and the weather forecast for the week is dreadful.

Game 1
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B M. Austin – RF Brulhart – C Suda – CF Ja. Gusmán – LF P. Flores – 1B Ju. Gusmán – SS Heffer – P Elmore
POR: SS Barrón – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Cruz

The Titans came in with a 9-game winning streak and set an exclamation mark immediately, with Jesus Ramirez drawing a leadoff walk from Javier Cruz, who was not at all what we had imagined from our #3 starter early on in the season, and to underline that statement he instantly surrendered a 2-run homer to Mark Austin. While Cruz continued to suck himself out of favor, allowing another 2-piece to “Quasimodo” Suda in the third, the Raccoons had slowish Quebell, who had extended his hitting streak to 14 games, thrown out at home by Jim Brulhart in the second inning. While the Critters did get on the board with Pruitt’s RBI double in the bottom of the fourth, Elmore didn’t allow nearly as much to them as Cruz handed out for free. Jesus Ramirez would end his day with a solo home run with two outs in the sixth, then giving the Titans a 5-2 lead. Kichida was nicked for another run in the seventh, but the Raccoons actually had some juice left. In the bottom of the inning, Bowen and Nomura got on before Chavez and Barrón hit grounders for outs at second base, but Bowen scored. Castro then rapped a single to left, and Pruitt doubled to get us back to 6-4 with the tying runs in scoring position for the Duke. The Titans foolishly stayed with Elmore and paid for it dearly when the Duke hopped a 1-2 pitch over the second base bag into center, tying the score at six.

Ed Bryan was tasked with PH Rudy Garrison and the two lefties atop the order in the eighth, but Garrison reached with a single. Marcos Bruno inherited the runner at third with two outs, facing Brulhart, and allowed a hard grounder to short on the first pitch that Barrón played successfully into the third out – the last out on the day. Between innings, rain set in, and instantly got quite calamitous. The game went to delay and was ultimately suspended.

The next day, the skies were still gray and potentially just waiting to open up. The Coons went down silently in the bottom 8th, but Bruno was still in and pitched a perfect ninth, enabling a walkoff. The inning started with Santiago Trevino, who had come in for defense, but was the first of three batters to fly out. Bruno pitched another inning, and then Rockburn pitched three frames. The offense couldn’t pick up the sticks, however, facing another lockdown pen in the blue shirts. Nomura reached on an error by Dave Heffer in the 11th, but nothing came of that. Manuel Martinez was in his third inning when Luke Black reached on an error by Mark Austin to start the 13th inning. Ryan Miller hit for Rockburn, singled, but then Ricardo Martinez grounded a 3-1 pitch to short and HEFFER THREW IT AWAY!! Heffer’s throw went past double play partner Daniel Silva, and the Raccoons loaded the bases with no outs! And the best: before Craig Bowen could do anything stupid, Manuel Martinez’ next pitch was wild, got far away from Suda, and the Coons walked off! 7-6 Coons! Pruitt 2-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Black 2-6, 2 RBI; Miller (PH) 1-1; Bowen 2-5; Bruno 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; Rockburn 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

… and there’s the first decision for our pen this year. Took some time, and it’s a win, yay!

Of course we shredded our pen quite badly for Jong-hoo’s start that followed right after this. Also, with Bowen having already caught five innings on the day, we gave Juan Rios the start in the middle game for his major league debut, which gives us Bowen to pinch-hit.

Game 2
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Garrison – C Suda – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 3B M. Austin – RF P. Flores – SS D. Silva – P Conner
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – SS R. Miller – C Rios – P Umberger

Jong-hoo pitched well, and when another 2-run homer was hit in the first inning in Portland, it belonged to the home team; Tomas Castro bombed Ray Conner into an early deficit, then created a run in the third when he stole second base with two outs to get into scoring position, then scored on Black’s single to left to make it 3-0. While you were never out of the bushes with a 3-run lead, Umberger certainly made it appear like much more. The Titans just weren’t getting anything off him. Then the Raccoons swiftly doubled their lead in the bottom 7th with three consecutive 2-out RBI doubles by our 2-3-4 guys to get to 6-0. Umberger was still strong in the eighth, then was chased by rain. Donald Sims took over and spoiled the shutout party when he allowed a homer to Rudy Garrison in the ninth. 6-1 Raccoons. Quebell 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Castro 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Black 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Umberger 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (3-0);

Doubtful whether Jong-hoo, who has yet to walk a major league batter, would have completed the shutout, as he was already at 102 pitches when the game went to delay, but his performance went a great way to conserve the pen that had been squeezed already.

Juan Rios drew a walk his first time at the plate, but did not get a hit.

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Garrison – RF Brulhart – C Suda – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 3B M. Austin – SS D. Silva – P Chapa
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Black – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – RF Mays – SS R. Miller – P Watanabe

The Titans scored an unearned run after a Miller error in the first inning, but Watanabe also had his paws in loading the bases and Javier Gusmán sending Bob Mays all the way to the warning track with a drive to right, which was the sac fly that gave them the lead. Duke Smack’s sixth homer of the year gave the Coons a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the inning, only for Watanabe to implode in the third inning. Jesus Ramirez’ leadoff triple opened the gates, Garrison singled, Brulhart homered, and a Suda double gave the Titans an oddly shaped cycle four batters into the inning. They batted through the lineup in taking a 6-2 lead. Watanabe was yanked after Chapa’s single. Not all was lost: Ricardo Martinez’ 2-piece in the bottom of the same inning left the Raccoons down by only two, but Kaz Kichida was pitching, and that was a mixed bag as well… In the end Kaz pitched 3.2 innings in relief, allowing a solo home run to Brulhart, but the Raccoons didn’t get many men on base at all in the meantime. Bob Mays doubled and scored on Barrón’s single in the eighth, and against Manuel Martinez we got Black on base in the ninth when Ricardo Martinez hit another drive to deep center – but this one was caught by Gusmán. 7-5 Titans. Barrón 3-5, RBI; Black 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Martinez 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Kichida 3.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

Okay, we might have to watch our AAA guys for possible replacements sooner than we’d love to. Also, the Titans killed off Adrian Quebell’s 15-game hitting streak, keeping him 0-4 with a walk.

Raccoons (10-5) @ Aces (3-11) – April 25-27, 2008

After getting clobbered a bit by the high-octane Titans offense, we were hoping for some rest for the pitchers in this weekend set with the league’s worst offense. The Aces had scored 51 runs in 14 games, certainly not otherworldly good. They also had the worst ERA marks for starters and relievers, but weren’t actually allowing the most runs in the league.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (2-1, 0.77 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (1-2, 4.12 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (3-0, 4.24 ERA) vs. Joe Hollow (0-0, 5.27 ERA)
Javier Cruz (1-1, 7.98 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (1-2, 5.14 ERA)

Hollow will be another left-handed pitcher to climb over. I don’t like our setup with three left-handers in the top 5, but there aren’t many ways to make it work…

Game 1
POR: SS Barrón – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Brown
LVA: 1B McDermott – LF Cameron – RF R. Garcia – C Durango – 2B Dahlke – 3B Warrain – SS F. Soto – CF Messinger – P Pennington

First innings remained explosive with the Raccoons involved. Here they loaded the bases with one out and plated all three runners with a Quebell double and Martinez’ groundout. Brown allowed a run in the bottom 2nd, but Castro’s homer in the third put us back up by three. Then Pruitt doubled, and Black doubled, 5-1, but Black kept shaking his leg at second base after getting up, and after some conversation with the trainer out there, he left the game, being replaced by Bob Mays. Even then, Mays scored on a Bowen sac fly to get to 6-1 and we figured that should be enough for Brown, who after every batter he dispatched glanced over to third base, where the rookie was playing and whether he was picking his nose or having a snack instead of paying attention.

Of course it was enough. Brownie, if anything, threw a few too many balls. He found himself in a full count five times in the game, but resolved all but one of those in his favor. The last of the five was the odd one out, and cost a second run in the bottom 7th, when Forest Messinger hit a single off him that also got Brown out of the game. Law Rockburn surrendered the run after Sean McDermott’s third hit of the day. But the Coons had scored twice in the meantime, including a Bowen homer, and led 8-2.

But sometimes a 6-run lead is really not a 6-run lead. One wonky inning can make it a new game. Tom Watkins allowed three singles without retiring anybody in the bottom 8th, and aside from Eduardo Durango’s leadoff single, they were soft bloops that happened to fall in. Inaki-Luki Warrain’s single could have been caught by somebody with more range than Pruitt. Marcos Bruno came in to face the bottom of the order, went to three balls on all of them, struck out Francisco Soto and Eugene Carter, but the lefty Messinger walked to push in a run. Ed Bryan got McDermott on a hard grounder to Quebell to end the inning still up by five. And still, somehow we managed to turn this into a save situation. Bryan put two men on in the ninth, Kaz allowed an RBI single to Warrain, and it didn’t end until Angel handed a golden sombrero to Soto. 8-4 Brownies. Barrón 2-5; Castro 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Miller (PH) 1-1; Black 1-1, 2B, RBI; Brown 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (3-1) and 1-3, 2B;

While you shouldn’t need six guys to cobble together eight outs when you lead by seven runs, we will chalk this up in the W column and pretend it was all smooth sailing. In fact, the Raccoons took over the division lead with this win, their 2,498th in franchise history. That means that Cruz would be the one with a chance for the milestone. Uh, that’s gonna be interesting.

The Duke was diagnosed with a mild hip strain and was listed as DTD for a week. He can pinch-hit, but he can’t do a lot of running, so he will have to interrupt his so far torrid pace for a while.

Nick Brown reached 1,400 strikeouts (1,402 actually) with this game.

Game 2
POR: 2B Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – LF Castro – C Bowen – RF Mays – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – P Yates
LVA: 1B McDermott – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – CF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – 2B Dahlke – SS F. Soto – P Hollow

While Kel appeared to ace up and struck out six in three perfect innings, Santiago Trevino was in the thick of our offensive attempts. He singled home Mays in the second inning for the only early run of the game, and in the fifth was on base with a leadoff single. He was in motion with Yates batting, and when Yates singled, we had runners on the corners. From there, Joe Hollow continued to allow a few more hits, including a double to Martinez and a 2-run single to Castro as the Raccoons put up a 4-spot and took a 5-0 lead. Kel reached eight strikeouts when he sat down Soto, who had nothing but struck out so far in this series, and also struck out pitcher Dave Hughes, only for the ball to get away from Bowen. Hughes actually made it safely to first. Two singles loaded the bases, but Ricardo Garcia struck out, #10, to end the inning.

And yet, Kel would leave the game without retiring anybody in the seventh inning the entire season. Don Cameron and Logan Taylor drew full count walks, and then Tom Dahlke, not quite a masher, homered just inside the left pole to cut us back to 5-3 in a hurry. All efforts so far exploded in a ball of fire, as Rockburn put Artie Hill on base and was taken deep by McDermott to tie the score. Donald Sims allowed the go-ahead run to score in the same inning.

Top 8th, Castro singled, and Bowen doubled to put the go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs for the ragged part of the order to do something about it, facing Dane Sanders, a left-hander. The Duke hit for Mays, prompting the Aces to bring right-hander Greg Sampson, who popped up Black (but at least he didn’t have to run). Miller popped out, Trevino popped out. Quebell entered the game at first with the outfield reshuffling, and made an error on the first chance he had in the bottom 8th. Min-tae Yu’s home run off Watkins buried the Raccoons for good. Ricardo Martinez’ homer in the ninth was meaningless. 8-6 Aces. Martinez 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Castro 2-4, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4, 2B; Trevino 2-4, RBI;

You can’t lose games in ****ty ways like this one here and expect to make the playoffs. That was a ****TY PERFORMANCE ALL AROUND. I don’t know what the frack is wrong with our pitching!

Game 3
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – P Cruz
LVA: 1B McDermott – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – CF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – 2B Dahlke – SS F. Soto – P Valdevez

Francisco Soto tried to shake off a gruesome 0-8, 8 K record in this series, and doubled his first time up against Cruz, but was left on base as either pitcher faced only ten batters in the first three innings. Then the Aces sent 13 men to the plate in the fourth inning. Cruz was ravaged and raped, and eight runs were charged against him, the last two scoring against an equally **** Ed Bryan. The game was over right there. Soto singled in a pair in that disaster of an 8-run inning, then was beaned by Kichida – through sheer incompetence of course – in his next at-bat in the bottom 5th. Kichida also hit Warrain an inning later and allowed another run.

Down 9-0, I grunted when Adrian Quebell reached on an infield single to start the seventh inning. I didn’t grunt anymore when Quebell emptied a 3-run homer into the stands his next time – IN THE SAME INNING. Now it had been on the Raccoons to not let go and they put up their own 8-spot! Castro had singled, and Pruitt walked to load them up with no outs. Martinez and Bowen plated two apiece with doubles before Black popped out. Nomura singled, with a Trevino sac fly plating the fifth run. Barrón walked, finally prompting the shelving of Valdevez, and then came Quebell and peppered Sampson anyway to make it 9-8 for the home team. Castro struck out and the Coons went down in the eighth. Marcos Bruno chopped the Aces into tiny pieces for two innings, but they still had to get through Andrew Wills in the ninth, and that with the bottom of the order. Nelson Chavez led off in place of Bruno and grounded out, just like Nomura. Trevino singled up the middle to keep them alive, but Barrón flew out. 9-8 Aces. Quebell 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Bruno 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

****ty game. Two ****ty games in a row.

$1.8M put into a complete and utter piece of ****. Great deal.

In other news

April 25 – The Cyclones’ Jack Berry (3-1, 4.22 ERA) strikes out 16 batters in a 5-2 win over the Wolves.
April 27 – CIN SP Nathan O’Herlihy (3-1, 2.76 ERA) strained an oblique while playing some hoops with his brothers and will miss two weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Yep, Berry is the guy that I dumped as AAA prospect because he would get shelled with home runs.

Meanwhile, our pitching is completely ****ed up. Outside of Brown, Umberger, Casas, and Bruno at least. What the heck is wrong with Yates, and that rebuilt back end of the bullpen sucks balls like you wouldn’t believe. We can’t lose games like on Saturday! That’s gonna kill us off sooner than you would imagine.

And then there’s Watanabe and Cruz. Those two are completely out of it. What do we have in AAA? Teasdale and Lopez have big walk issues, and so we’re down to Boda and Baldwin. The latter has the better K/BB and ERA (3.30). And it sure looks like he won’t have to wait much longer to get into the Bigs again.

My god, what’s wrong with Cruz!!??

And you know what’s funny? We still have allowed the least runs in the Continental League. The league has a 4.10 ERA, same as last year, but last year’s 4.10 league ERA was the highest in history for the CL. It was also the 13th straight year the FL had a higher ERA than the CL. This season? Total mayhem. The CL is a total slugfest so far, and the FL is toiling away at a 3.55 ERA three weeks in. That would be the lowest in FL history, and only once did the CL have a lower ERA, 3.46 in 1982. All is nuts ‘round here.

How are 1,402 K for Brownie interesting? He needs 15 K to match Scott Wade’s franchise mark for second place. We will need a contract extension with him to get him to the all-time franchise lead, which is held by Kisho Saito, who whiffed 2,322 of his 2,800 major league victims as a Raccoon.

I need a nickname for Jong-hoo Umberger. "Doesn't Suck As Hard" could be temporary, and the best I can come up with is “Sapphire” for his miraculous eyes.

[Questdog]

Well, Black is already halfway to my season predictions for his output. I'll take all the credit for pissing him off and getting him fired up.....

Jung-Hoo looks like the real deal, but where the heck did that name come from? There should not be any Koreans named Umberger.....Are their any other Koreans with mixed up names?.... and was he named before or after the names were realigned?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Jung-Hoo looks like the real deal, but where the heck did that name come from? There should not be any Koreans named Umberger.....Are their any other Koreans with mixed up names?.... and was he named before or after the names were realigned?

He was an international free agent this winter, so he's brand new. He's not the only oddity in the player pool.

There is another Korean that doesn't sound Korean at all, Milwaukee's Dave Walk, but he's been in the league for a few years now (created under 16, though). There's also a Cuban free agent that was created this winter with an unusual first name, Dave Soto, and a Japanese one, Kanbu Butler.

There are also two German international scouting discoveries with English names, and those have been around for a few years (but also created under 16). Given the nature of U.S. bases in Germany, this doesn't strike me as odd (never mind that one of them was born in Potsdam in '87), but you are right that their names shouldn't be in the files.

That's all I could find in a hurry.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

He was an international free agent this winter, so he's brand new. He's not the only oddity in the player pool.

There is another Korean that doesn't sound Korean at all, Milwaukee's Dave Walk, but he's been in the league for a few years now (created under 16, though). There's also a Cuban free agent that was created this winter with an unusual first name, Dave Soto, and a Japanese one, Kanbu Butler.

There are also two German international scouting discoveries with English names, and those have been around for a few years (but also created under 16). Given the nature of U.S. bases in Germany, this doesn't strike me as odd (never mind that one of them was born in Potsdam in '87), but you are right that their names shouldn't be in the files.

That's all I could find in a hurry.

There are Americans born in Korea and Japan (where I was born) for the same reason that Americans are born in Germany. Nothing strange about that, but what IS strange is the mixing of a Korean first name and an American last name.....

P.S. Dave, Davy and David are pretty common Hispanic names. Dave Concepcion and David Ortiz come to mind....

[Westheim]

Raccoons (11-7) @ Falcons (12-7) – April 28-30, 2008

After getting clobbered by the lowly Aces, we’re heading over to Charlotte to have a look at the division leaders in the South. They had done it exclusively on offense, and I really mean that. They ranked third in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, and had a -1 run differential. Coons? Second in offense, first in runs allowed (somehow!), and +31.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-0, 1.61 ERA) vs. Jesus Hernandez (2-0, 4.09 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-3, 7.90 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (2-1, 4.50 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-1, 1.21 ERA) vs. Dylan Jones (0-1, 2.95 ERA)

All pitching pairs match hands in this series.

Game 1
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – RF Castro – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – C Rios – CF Trevino – P Umberger
CHA: 3B H. Green – CF Theobald – 2B J. Lopez – 1B Tsung – LF J. Flores – C Ishikawa – RF Walls – SS S. Moore – P J. Hernandez

Mun-wah Tsung’s error in the first was not cashed in on by the Raccoons despite it putting the leadoff man Barrón on base. Instead, Tsung doubled home Jose Lopez to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead in the bottom 1st. The response was quick then. After Ricardo Martinez had a pitch graze his uniform rather kindly, Nomura doubled and Martinez scored on Rios’ single up the middle, his first major league hit. Nomura was held in anticipation of someone being capable to at least put the ball in play, but Trevino, Umberger, and Barrón struck out in succession. Jong-hoo Umberger went 24 innings without one, but he finally walked Steve Moore in the second inning for his first career freebie. He repeated the gesture to start the bottom 5th, and then Martinez let loose a wild throw on Hernandez’ bunt to open a can of worms. Hubert Green drew a walk to load them up and Jong-hoo was knee deep in trouble. Tsung was the Falcons’ permanent hero with a 2-out, 2-run single after Theobald had struck out and Lopez had popped out to shallow center. Never mind him making another error in the sixth – the Raccoons couldn’t find a way to hit Hernandez, a rather unremarkable pitcher. Flatteringly it would be Bob Mays to get to Hernandez, hitting a home run in Umberger’s place in the seventh inning. That still left the Coons a run short, and the Falcons outfielders sucked up every ball not hit completely out of the park, and of those we had really not enough on this sour Monday. 3-2 Falcons. Mays (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Recent developments led to my visiting GM’s office in Charlotte being beleaguered by pitchers on Tuesday morning. Jong-hoo complained he had been hit for and that he had been left alone in Monday’s game. Javier Cruz moaned about our ballpark in Portland that didn’t suit his explosive style. Winless Watanabe whined that he was winless. Nick Brown threatened not to take the ball if Ricardo Martinez was in the lineup in his next start. Kel Yates whispered that he was scared of the seventh inning’s monster that was waiting to eat him alive.

Nah, all will be well.

Game 2
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – RF Mays – CF Trevino – P Watanabe
CHA: 3B H. Green – CF Theobald – C F. Chavez – 2B J. Lopez – 1B Tsung – LF J. Flores – RF Burke – SS S. Moore – P T. Wilson

Winless Watanabe did his all to stay winless. Tsung, the former Raccoons farmhand, tripled in two runs in the first inning, and our middle infield blacked out completely in the second inning. Barrón was charged an error and Nomura was chalked up to check him for paraplegia the way the Falcons rolled grounders right past him. By the time Watanabe threw a run-scoring passed ball in the bottom 3rd, the Falcons were up 5-0 and it was all over really hard. He was yanked in the bottom 5th after allowing a home run to Tsung (who was a single shy of the cycle) and walking Jesus Flores. The Raccoons trailed 6-0 with one hit against Wilson. Ed Bryan did the best he could to wave Flores around and the Falcons were up 7-0.

Whatever had happened in Las Vegas, it had all but killed the team. Maybe food poisoning. Maybe brainwashing. There were very few logical explanations for what the brown-clad team, whose members looked very much like they had shat their pants, was putting on display. Kichida struck out Tsung to deny him the cycle in the seventh, and the Raccoons put a 3-spot on Wilson when he was left in too long, but overall it was all too little in every regard. 7-4 Falcons. Trevino 2-3, 2 2B; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Kichida 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

No clue what’s wrong with Watanabe or Cruz. Their BABIP’s are .380ish, but the other guys are under .300 (Brown well under .300, Martinez here, Martinez there), and defense can’t possibly be THAT selective. The K/BB numbers also speak volumes, which are outright rancid for both.

Oh heavens, we need a good Brownie start!

Game 3
POR: 2B Barrón – LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – C Bowen – RF Mays – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – P Brown
CHA: CF Walls – 2B H. Green – 1B Tsung – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – RF Theobald – LF Reya – SS R. Sanchez – P D. Jones

Brownie was not smiling upon seeing the lineup card, but took the ball, and was spotted our first lead of the week in the third inning, when Barrón, Castro, and Martinez chained up 2-out hits to plate two runs for the Coons. Bowen led off the fourth with a shot to left, 3-0, and a Miller triple was converted into another run by Trevino’s sac fly. While Brownie had been perfect the first time through the lineup, Hubert Green drew a walk in the bottom 4th, then was thrown out stealing by Bowen. The no-hitter went overboard in the fifth with a leadoff double by Jose Lopez, who went to third on Luis Reya’s grounder to first. Pruitt made a launching stop, lobbed the ball to Brown at the bag, but the throw was low and Brown had to distort to try – and still couldn’t catch it. Reya was safe, but Brown got out of the inning when Ricardo Sanchez grounded out to Martinez, then was still pissed when he found out that he had been charged the error on the Reya play. When the Coons put a fifth run on Jones, he was removed for Carl Bean, who pitched the Raccoons into the ground for the next two-and-some innings. They didn’t score again, but Brownie entered the bottom 9th on 98 pitches and a mission, but faced the top of the order. Relief was certainly standing by. And then Tom Walls’ grounder to third base was mishandled by Martinez once, and twice.

Brown stood in front of the mound, handling that ball he had been tossed by the umpire, and stared straight down into the ground. Martinez looked like a wet dog left outside in the rain. Then the manager came out and removed Brown from the game, and Martinez had to fully expect to find his locker smeared with feces upon entering the clubhouse after whatever conclusion the game might find. It was a good one, though. Marcos Bruno got a double play from Green (well played by Bowen), and Tsung flew out to left center against Sims. 5-0 Brownies! Miller 2-4, 3B, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (4-1);

All other Raccoons starters (minus Brown) had one hit in the game. Also, no lockers were smeared, but when Martinez cautiously asked Brownie to pass the salt at the team’s after-game dinner, Juan Barrón had to keep Brown from shoving the shaker into Martinez’ eye.

Raccoons (12-9) vs. Loggers (11-10) – May 2-4, 2008

After losing consecutive series, the Raccoons will have to do something against a team that tied for last place in the North (yes, really). The Loggers were average in scoring runs, but had a pitching staff tying for third place in runs allowed and an above-average rotation anchored by never-aging Martin Garcia.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (3-0, 4.30 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (2-1, 4.58 ERA)
Javier Cruz (1-2, 10.31 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (1-2, 6.65 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-1, 1.59 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (3-1, 1.65 ERA)

After the righty Diaz, it’s two more left-handers. But thankfully we have nursed the Duke back to strength and will be able to play with less than 11 left-handed batters.

Game 1
MIL: 1B K. Scott – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – SS T. Johnson – LF J. Garcia – 3B S. Johnson – P J. Diaz
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Yates

Before the game, Kel sat in front of the couch in my office, pressing Honeypaws against his cheek and suckling his thumb. Still afraid of those seventh inning monsters.

Kel sat down the first eight before Diaz singled. Keith Scott’s double to right was thrown back in by Black, yet wildly, and the lead-footed pitcher scored from first base… What was worse than that shoddy play was the fact that the Raccoons had only two hits through five innings, and both were singles by Yates. He struck out nine and walked two against four hits in six innings. While everybody was eying the seventh, the top 6th saw the Raccoons finally amount to something. A Quebell walk was an unsuspicious start, but soon it was followed by a Castro single. While Pruitt got Castro forced out, Martinez singled to right to score Quebell. Bowen was hit by Diaz to load them up for Nomura with two down, but he flew out to center. And Kel? Faced Tom Johnson to start the seventh inning, in which he had yet to retire a batter on the season. When Johnson went down on three pitches, the home crowd erupted in cheers. While he finished the inning, the Raccoons left two men on base in the bottom 7th when Black flew out to Hiwalani and Yates didn’t get a decision. Law Rockburn lined up for the W after a quick eighth when Nelson Chavez drove in his first run as a Coon with a 1-out pinch-hit single to plate Pruitt from second base in the bottom 8th. Ryan Miller hit for Rockburn, right into a double play, to deny us a cushion. Angel Casas struck out Hiwalani, allowed a single to Tim Austin, but got a grounder to second from Alonso Baca for the game-ending double play. 2-1 Raccoons. Castro 2-4; Martinez 2-3, BB, RBI; Chavez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K and 2-2;

All of our eight hits were singles. It is not easy to score then… This was also the first game this week where we hadn’t numerous drives caught in the deeper regions of the outfield. Diaz was really the best guy we faced so far, but we will get a tough nut on Sunday anyway.

For the middle game, J.C. Crespo was activated off the DL, with a .174 batting Bob Mays going back to AAA.

Game 2
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – SS T. Johnson – 1B K. Scott – 3B S. Johnson – P Lloyd
POR: 2B Barrón – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – 1B Pruitt – C Bowen – LF Crespo – SS R. Miller – P Cruz

Aided by a J.R. Richardson misplay the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 1st that Alonso Baca’s leadoff jack – a no-doubter to deepest center – negated in a hurry. Spotted another lead, 2-1 after a Ryan Miller RBI double, Cruz without the slightest hint of shame walked the bases loaded with no outs in the fourth and escaped with a 2-2 tie after a miraculous play by Crespo in left and a lesser catch by Black whose arm intimidated Tim Austin into staying at third base and not trying to get home like Hiwalani had on the previous play. Sure enough the Loggers got a lead eventually, on Richardson’s homer in the fifth. The 3-2 score remained true until Cruz was removed with two outs and Keith Scott on second in the seventh. Ed Bryan entered to face the lefty Richardson, had to look at a badly struggling, .215 Aaron Tolwith taking a stick instead, and struck him out.

In the bottom 7th Crespo led off with a single past multiple Gold Glover Bartolo Hernandez. Miller didn’t help the cause, but Quebell hit a double in the pitcher’s spot. With one out we had a prime chance, but Barrón lined out to Spencer Johnson at third for the second out. Castro was cautiously walked, and Ricardo Martinez hopped a grounder over the mound, luckily to Lloyd’s off side. Hernandez was hustling in and – no play!! All hands safe, the Raccoons tied the game on a 2-out infield single! The Duke drew a bases-loaded walk before Pruitt grounded out. Bruno tended well to the 4-3 lead with a quick eighth, we didn’t score either, and it was Angel again with the 1-run lead. Quebell had remained in the game for defense and made the final out on Jaime Garcia’s grounder after Angel had struck out Baca and Johnson. 4-3 Coons! Martinez 2-3, BB, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1, 2B;

I wouldn’t call Cruz’ start “good” necessarily, but it’s a start.

Game 3
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – SS T. Johnson – 1B K. Scott – 3B S. Johnson – P M. Garcia
POR: 2B Barrón – 1B Quebell – LF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Crespo – SS R. Miller – C Rios – P Umberger

We expected Martin Garcia – 270 big league wins and counting – to be one hell of a customer, but they probably didn’t consider our catcher worth compiling a scouting report about. When they faced Juan Rios with Black and Martinez in scoring position in the bottom of the second and two outs, no thought was wasted on walking him. Rios took the first pitch into center and two runs were on the board! We were able to add an unearned run when Martinez was awarded home in the fourth inning on a capital throwing error by Spencer Johnson, who was hitting zero and probably had bought his spot in the lineup. Martinez himself had been graced by yet another pitch and had stolen second base before Miller’s grounder had been airmailed into the stands, and it was 3-0 Coons. The next inning it dawned on us that maybe Garcia was not as intimidating as we thought. Once the Duke powered a 2-run homer and the scoreboard sprung the Coons’ R’s to 5, we seemed to be close to a sweep.

Baseball is a fickle game, though. Umberger allowed hard flies to the outfield rather frequently, but while the Raccoons had been plagued by ill BABIP luck the whole series in Charlotte, this time the Loggers didn’t catch a break. Not one. The entire game. Instead, their eagerness to swing had Jong-hoo on just 79 pitches through eight innings! He struck out Richardson to commence the ninth before Hernandez and Hiwalani grounded out to Martinez and Barrón respectively. 5-0 Raccoons! Castro 2-3, BB, 2B; Black 1-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Martinez 2-3, 2B; Umberger 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (4-1);

Oh, let me look into your eyes once more, beauty …! (gently floats away)

In other news

April 30 – DAL 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.313, 0 HR, 16 RBI) raps six hits, two doubles and four singles, with one RBI in the Stars’ 8-2 win over the Cyclones. It is the 40th 6-hit performance in ABL history, and the third in the Stars records (Gabriel Cruz, 1983; Darrel Tracy, 2000).
April 30 – CHA 3B Javier Rodriguez (.260, 0 HR, 7 RBI) might miss seven weeks with a fractured hand.
May 1 – TOP SP Tony Hamlyn (2-3, 1.85 ERA) finds out that the best way not to get soiled is to pitch all the way, and 2-hits the Pacifics in a 2-hit, 3-0 shutout.
May 2 – LAP 3B Jens Carroll (.258, 0 HR, 7 RBI) will miss six weeks with a groin strain.
May 3 – It’s another 6-hit game! SFB INF Jose Perez (.337, 1 HR, 7 RBI) has six hits, also two doubles and four singles, with one RBI in the Bayhawks’ extra-inning 8-7 loss to the Condors. The fourth 6-hitter in Bayhawks history (Mike White, 1979; Hector Roman, 1983; Roberto Rodriguez, 1994) is also the first one in a losing effort since DAL Darrel Tracy’s in 2000. Only two other players were on the losing side in their 6-hit performance, the others being VAN David Brewer in ’89 and RIC Riley Simon in ’78. Of course, two 6-hitters in one week is nothing new. For what it’s worth, the Scorpions’ Martin Horn and Jared O’Molony achieved the feat in the same 20-0 drubbing of the Cyclones in 1996, with LVA Andres Manuel’s 6-hitter following five days later.

Complaints and stuff

Nick Brown’s stellar April (4-1, 0.96 ERA, 37 K) had him picked Continental League Pitcher of the Month. Hooray! To his greatest annoyance, he had to share headlines with Ricardo Martinez being anointed Rookie of the Month after clubbing .333 with 4 HR and 14 RBI. Apparently his five errors did little to pull him down in the eyes of the prize committee. Nick Brown was not smiling on the picture they had taken with an ABL guy before Friday’s game back in Portland.

After the April 30 games, Nick Brown led or had a share in all triple crown categories.

We all knew we weren’t going to hit .307 forever, and this week we were really bitten by rotten BABIP luck. That middle game in Charlotte was probably not in reach anyway, but we could have claimed the opener with just the odd blip of - … well, we’re one game out and that Duke is still holding court rather impressively.

Only ABL player with multiple 6-hit days? Bartolo Hernandez of these Loggers.

By the way, Mun-wah Tsung, was acquired from the Cyclones in 2002 for a rotting Miguel Lopez and a no-good first baseman in the minors, and dealt on to the Falcons in 2004 in an orgy of failed prospects that sent Jesus Elmore to the Falcons as well (although he’s now with the Titans…), in exchange for Matt King (ugh!) and Keegan Crabtree, who finally became a minor league free agent. And Tsung was merely the CL ROTY in 2006.

Ya, that was probably a bad trade.

Colin Baldwin is standing by. Winless gets another chance next week, but if he stinks up the joint again, he’s gone. He actually has another option, so we can keep him around and keep him warm in AAA.

Also, I teased you earlier with the two players that were Rookies of the Year as Raccoons and never went back to that. The winners were Vern Kinnear (1992) and Edgardo Torrez (2003). While Kinnear went on to enough of a career to snip a World Series-winning hit (blue shirt, yellow #16, and that raised fist…), Torrez is now a 31-year old stealing everybody’s time in double-A ball.

Also, so far in “Stats Time!”, we have mostly taken looks at the Raccoons, and after a while you’ve chewed through everything. How about a look at some of our division opponents? I will try to remember to weave this into future weeks as well, but for now, since we played them, let’s look at the Loggers’ franchise leaders!

WINS
1st – Martin Garcia – 270
2nd – Davis Sims – 125
3rd – Rafael Garcia – 115
4th – Judd Montgomery – 87
5th – Neil Stewart – 85

STRIKEOUTS
1st – Martin Garcia – 3,424
2nd – Davis Sims – 1,356
3rd – Rafael Garcia – 1,139
4th – Gary Simmons – 935
5th – John Douglas – 877

HITS
1st – Cristo Ramirez – 3,158
2nd – Bartolo Hernandez – 2,178
3rd – Jerry Fletcher – 2,071
4th – Bakile Hiwalani – 1,938
5th – Drake Evans – 1,379

HOME RUNS
1st – Bakile Hiwalani – 257
2nd – Drake Evans – 77
3rd – Jose Perez – 76
4th – Jorge Cruz – 74
5th – Jesus Jimenez – 71

STOLEN BASES
1st – Cristo Ramirez – 381
2nd – Bartolo Hernandez – 290
t-3rd – Jerry Fletcher – 137
t-3rd – Bakile Hiwalani – 137
5th – Edgardo Garza – 120

Unsurprisingly, these are mostly players from the last decade-plus. Only Simmons and Douglas left the team before 1988. Sims and Garcia were the front runners of a franchise that turned from perennially horrible to finally contending and winning from their debut in the late 80s until they both left after 2000. If you look past the terrific foursome that their four hits leaders were for a number of years, the Loggers never had much of anything in terms of batters, and there’s probably one Martin Garcia in a generation for each team, so his numbers will not be matched for some time, especially since they’ve made use of journeyman without growing their own guys for the last few years.

And hat off to everybody who kept counting and realized that for the first time a 500’s milestone in franchise wins was claimed by a relief pitcher. Congrats Lawrence Rockburn!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-9) vs. Canadiens (14-10) – May 5-7, 2008

The Elks had won their last four games in a row (same as the Raccoons) and came in with the third-best offense and average pitching. Their rotation even had a 4.44 ERA, a bit below average, but we wouldn’t face the weakest bits. In 2007, a disastrous 4-14 campaign against our mortal enemies cost us the playoffs, so this year will be all about revenge. Bloody revenge.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (0-4, 8.50 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (3-1, 3.48 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-1, 0.96 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (3-2, 3.74 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (3-0, 3.60 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (3-0, 4.01 ERA)

Seems like the Elks will skip Simon Pegler (0-4, 5.93 ERA), which is too bad. Also, one of their best players in 2B Jerry Dobson is injured and out until the All Star break.

Game 1
VAN: CF Fletcher – RF E. Garcia – 1B T. Ramos – LF Morris – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Palmer – P Fujita
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Watanabe

The Coons’ week started with Barrón throwing away Jerry Fletcher’s grounder to short and the Elks were in business immediately, scoring two runs off a hapless, and winless, Watanabe. The latter moniker wouldn’t change, for which there was a team effort underway. While the Duke hit a sac fly in the bottom 1st to cut an early 2-0 deficit in half, the team then had Bowen in that and Pruitt in the third inning strike out hacking with a runner on third base. Watanabe went on into the fifth when everybody and their mother got a hit off him, until he left with an injury. Tom Watkins waved in the runners that Watanabe had left on base and the Elks took a 5-1 lead. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the latter half of the game would see a complete dismantling of the Raccoons’ vaunted bullpen. Kichida was banged with a 2-run double by Gabriel Ortíz, Sims couldn’t retire anybody, and even BRUNO couldn’t retire anybody, and Ed Bryan made goddamn sure that those loaded bases were emptied properly. 12-4 Canadiens. Quebell 3-5, 2B; Castro 2-4, BB, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, 2 RBI;

Yeah, well. That was utter dog ****.

But I slept like a baby the following night. Must be that Watanabe left with a mystery injury and I could replace him without much tears.

Game 2
VAN: CF Fletcher – RF E. Garcia – 1B T. Ramos – LF Morris – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Palmer – P Pegler
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Chavez – P Brown

Pegler would suffice, the Elks thought, and he kinda did and kinda didn’t. He wouldn’t have, if he had faced April’s Nick Brown, allowing four runs in the first three innings. But apparently April’s Nick Brown had been struck by a bus at some point during the homestand and had completely forgotten how to pitch. He was at almost 70 pitches after two innings. He went only five, and walked six. While that was with eight strikeouts, he still walked SIX. Four of those walks came in the second inning, half of them with two outs and the bases loaded, to Fletcher and Garcia. That was AFTER a 2-out walk to Pegler to load the bases in the first place. He fell 5-4 behind in the fifth (one run on him unearned after another Barrón error) and left trailing.

The Elks went up 6-4 in the sixth against Rockburn, but Pegler was still involved in this game and walked Bowen and Chavez to start the bottom of the inning. Crespo hit for the largely ineffective Rockburn and singled to load them up with no outs. We took a lead on Barrón’s RBI single and a 2-run double off Quebell’s bat. Castro was put on intentionally before the Duke missed a slam by about 15 feet and was left with a sac fly. That 4-spot was enough for an 8-6 lead. The Critters added a run with Bowen’s leadoff jack in the seventh inning before leaving the bases stranded in the eighth. Bryan, Watkins, and Sims had somehow climbed over the opposing batters for two innings before handing the ball off to Angel, who issued his first walk of the season to Dan Morris (.358, 5 HR, 16 RBI) before retiring Suzuki and Ortíz to end the game. 9-6 Coons. Quebell 2-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Castro 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Nomura 1-1; Crespo (PH) 1-2;

Why on earth do games against the Smellfarts always turn not only ugly, but THIS ugly? Brownie hardly had six walks in April (okay, seven), and now he walks six of those Skunkpoos!? Argh!!

Also, I’m trying to squeeze some production out of the middle infield spot, where Barrón isn’t hitting much and has turned into an unexpected defensive tire fire, and the other two kids are even worse. Well, Chavez has hit close to nothing, but that’s because he has scarcely 20 AB after April thanks to Ricardo Martinez bursting out in spectacular fashion.

Next up is Kel, our only undefeated pitchers, and he had sweaty palms since the series started. I fear the worst.

Game 3
VAN: CF Holland – RF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF Morris – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Palmer – P R. Taylor
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Chavez – P Yates

In a back-and-forth affair, the Raccoons took an early lead on Ricardo Martinez’ first-inning, 2-out, 2-run double. Ortíz ripped a homer off Kel in the second, but the Raccoons came back with a Castro homer and then a 2-run single by Bowen in the bottom 3rd. That 3-spot was immediately pulled back after Ramos and Morris singled and Suzuki homered in the fourth. Yates completely lacked his biting stuff and was easily hit by the Elks.

Our disemboweled bullpen demanded to use Yates for as long as possible however, despite an off day coming up. He so-so clambered through six innings with that 5-4 lead until the Raccoons, facing ex-Coon Bill Corkum, loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom 6th, with Castro up next. Castro popped out in the other batter’s box, and when Corkum left with an injury, the chewed-up remains of another ex-Raccoon, Qi-zhen Geng appeared to force another pop out from the Duke and a poor groundout from Martinez. And now we left Kel to be mortally frightened by the monster of the seventh inning, resulting in a 2-out single by Jerry Fletcher that got him out of the game. Donald Sims was to face the left-hander Tony Ramos, who had already extended a 12-game hitting streak, but struck out to end the inning. Geng walked three in the bottom 7th, including Quebell with two outs and the bags full, but that was all the Coons got, as Castro failed again with the sacks stuffed. Sims gave a leadoff double to Dan Morris in the eighth and Bruno couldn’t keep the runner on base, as the Elks immediately snapped back to a 1-run deficit. And then even Angel couldn’t get it over with quickly. After retiring Michael Palmer and Fernando Diéguez, he allowed Holland and Fletcher on base with singles. Tony Ramos then grounded out to Nomura at second. 6-5 Critters. Castro 2-5, HR, RBI; Black 2-5; Pruitt 2-5, 2B; Bowen 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI;

Watanabe was diagnosed with a sore back. He would miss one start. But I am entirely unhappy with his performance. He was sent to the DL and we called up that non-kid we got from L.A., Colin Baldwin, almost 26 years old. He even pitched on Monday, lining him up perfectly with Watanabe. He was 5-1 with a 3.48 ERA and 40 K in 44 IP in AAA.

Raccoons (17-10) @ Buffaloes (11-17) – May 9-11, 2008

The last last-place team the Raccoons had encountered had spiked them badly, so caution was in order for this series, facing the team with the worst rotation in the Federal League (5.26 ERA). They were in the bottom four in both runs scored and runs allowed, but actually had a pretty good bullpen. The Raccoons have not won a series against the Buffaloes since 1997, and were swept the last two times the teams met, last in 2005. Overall we’re 28-23 against them.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (1-2, 8.64 ERA) vs. Juan Ortega (0-2, 3.56 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (4-1, 1.21 ERA) vs. Sergio Villafranco (1-3, 7.92 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (0-0) vs. Tony Hamlyn (2-4, 3.14 ERA)

Hamlyn will be the only southpaw we see this week (unless they skip Villafranco and we get to Dan George). He is 33 now and still one of the best pitchers in the game, but was raped for seven runs by the Capitals in his last start, making it only through four innings.

Game 1
POR: SS Barrón – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – LF Crespo – 2B Nomura – P Cruz
TOP: 2B Merritt – LF Perri – C M. Torres – 1B Echevarria – RF Wheaton – CF Talamante – SS O. Ramirez – 3B Charles – P Ortega

Our lineup had a grand total of 1 AB against Ortega coming into the game, and that was an unsuccessful one by Javier Cruz.

Cruz retired the first eight Buffs before allowing a single to Ortega and promptly walking Jon Merritt, but saved the situation with a K to Lionnel Perri, his fourth on the day. By then, the Duke had already conquered Ortega with a leadoff shot in the second and Nomura had also driven in a run in the inning for a 2-0 lead. Ortega pitched in pretty aggressively, resulting in Black and Castro getting hit early in the game. The latter instance came in the fifth, with a Black single then loading the bases with two out for Martinez, who struck out. The Buffaloes got a run off Cruz in the bottom of the inning and the 2-1 lead didn’t look like much at all. Cruz, on nine strikeouts, still was sent batting to lead off the seventh and reached on an error by Carlos Talamante. After Barrón had popped out, Quebell came through with a big 2-run home run to give us a much easier to go about 4-1 lead. Cruz struck out Jimmy Charles and Ortega in the bottom 7th to get to 11 whiffs on the day, which ended there for him after crossing 110 pitches. After Bruno’s quick eighth, a 2-out RBI double off Martinez’ bat in the top 9th moved the game out of save range, so Angel was kept in the pen. Instead, Bryan and Kichida finished the game with only a minor hiccup in the bottom 9th. 5-1 Critters. Quebell 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Black 2-4, HR, RBI; Martinez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB, 2B; Cruz 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (2-2) and 1-3;

First W against the Buffaloes since 2001! Woooott!!

The rest of the weekend was to be spent without Tom Watkins if at all possible. He was nursing a severe headache and would probably not be a good fit on the mound, much less on the road.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 2B Nomura – P Umberger
TOP: 2B Merritt – LF Perri – C M. Torres – 1B Echevarria – RF Wheaton – CF Talamante – SS Keeler – 3B Charles – P Villafranco

The Coons’ first inning lead was entirely born out of Villafranco’s errant pickoff throw to first base that allowed Matt Pruitt to take second and then score on Duke Smack’s single. The Duke was then a key piece in the team’s second run, which scored in the fourth inning. Black singled, then stole his first bag of the year. Villafranco, a bit unnerved, balked, moving Black to third, from where he scored on Bowen’s gapper in right center. The game remained close, with Carlos Talamante hitting a solo home run off Umberger in the bottom 4th to get the score to 2-1. Also, rain set in and led to a delay of almost half an hour after that fourth inning. That meant that Umberger was probably not going to go very deep into the game.

He did get through six, however, and an interesting situation developed in the top 7th. After a Bowen double and a Trevino single the Coons had runners on the corners with Nomura facing Villafranco. If Trevino could steal second off 2003 Gold Glover Miguel Torres, the Buffaloes might be tempted to walk Yoshi intentionally and we could hit Tomas Castro for Umberger. But Trevino never got a good jump and Nomura ultimately grounded out, keeping Bowen pinned at third. Castro still hit for Umberger, walked, right-hander Juan Carlos Bojorquez struck out Quebell, but Juan Barrón then came through with a single to left, scoring two runs! Bojorquez would not retire another batter, as in a terrific display of 2-out terror the Raccoons had Pruitt single to score Castro, Black walked, and then Martinez emptied the bases with a 3-run double! Bojorquez’ successor Victor Gonzalez allowed an RBI double to Bowen to complete a 7-spot on the Buffaloes’ staff, and the Raccoons put on the rout for good in the ninth inning, in which both the Duke and Trevino hit 2-run home runs off Ruslan Kolubidze. sailed smoothly home from there. 13-1 Furballs!! Quebell 2-5; Pruitt 2-4, 2B, RBI; Black 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Martinez 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Bowen 3-4, 3 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Umberger 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (5-1); Kichida 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, SV (1);

Adrian Quebell temporarily reached a .400 batting average after hitting safely in his first two AB in this game, but ultimately dropped back to .388, but that still leads the ABL easily. Meanwhile, Kaz Kichida, after seven years, 219 games, and 290 innings, logged his first career save, facing the minimum with the aid of two double plays.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Barrón – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – SS R. Miller – C Rios – P Baldwin
TOP: 2B Merritt – C M. Torres – LF Roberson – CF Talamante – 3B Charles – RF Meza – 1B Perkins – SS Keeler – P Hamlyn

Colin Baldwin’s ERA reached unpleasant highs early with a Chris Roberson (…!) home run in the first inning. The Buffaloes added another run in the second, and had hardly any problem hitting Baldwin in his Raccoons debut. It was mainly the defense that kept him from being completely annihilated, but that didn’t save the rest of the team from being ground to dust by Tony Hamlyn. Quebell reached on an error in the first, but was left on, and while Martinez hit a leadoff single in the second, he was erased in a double play. No Raccoon reached base from there straight through to the Duke taking a stealth route on base with a 2-out walk in the seventh inning – 16 straight batters retired. Martinez tripled on the very next pitch, representing the tying run in a 2-1 game, but Pruitt grounded out to first to end the inning. As if that was not already too much of what little of a chance they could get being wasted, Law Rockburn would continue a terrible struggle of a season by surrendering a pinch-hit 3-run homer to Ramón Echevarria in the bottom of the inning, which all but struck a shovel square over the team’s head for this game – and that was before Manny Meza took Bryan deep in the eighth. 6-1 Buffaloes. Martinez 2-3, 3B, RBI;

Blech. That’s the team’s third 4-game win streak that doesn’t go to five this year.

In other news

May 5 – TIJ CL Charlie Deacon (2-1, 4.61 ERA, 8 SV) saves his 300th game in a 7-5 win of the Condors over the Falcons.
May 5 – DAL SP Jose Flores (4-1, 2.91 ERA) will have to go on hold for two months after being diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis.
May 6 – Season over: RIC OF Brian MacNamara (.286, 0 HR, 7 RBI) faces surgery and a long rehab process after being diagnosed with a torn labrum.
May 7 – The Aces have to shut down 3B Inaki-Luki Warrain (.302, 0 HR, 5 RBI) with severe shoulder inflammation. He could be out for four months.
May 7 – Meanwhile, SAL SP Sylvain Mendes (0-3, 4.56 ERA) is lost for the rest of the season with a torn labrum.
May 8 – CIN SP Juan Garcia (4-1, 2.45 ERA) 2-hits the Blue Sox in a 9-0 rout.
May 9 – They keep falling: Tijuana’s SP Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (1-4, 5.45 ERA) needs surgery to relieve radial nerve compression and is out for the year.

Complaints and stuff

I’m ready to give up on Jimmy E and regret the trades for him I didn’t make. He’s batting an uninspired and entirely disempowered .211 in Aumsville. That dumbbell Whitebread and his stupid spreadsheets. I’ll have Slappy install a sun lamp in his half-office, that will probably kill him quicker than any poison.

The entire outfielder crop we drafted in 2006 is utter crap. The draft strategy next month will heavily involve my crystal ball again!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (19-11) vs. Warriors (18-12) – May 12-14, 2008

The Warriors appeared to have a decent bunch assembled, ranking in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League. They had won their last three games. These two teams had only played each other once in the last seven years, a two-games-to-one victory for the Warriors in 2006. Overall we had the second-worst all-time win percentage against them at .405.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-1, 1.69 ERA) vs. Ricky Mendoza (1-3, 4.28 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (4-0, 3.93 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (1-1, 8.10 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-2, 7.03 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (3-2, 3.97 ERA)

Their rotation contained only right-handers. Meanwhile let’s hope they don’t skip Morrison on Tuesday, since that would have us face Dave Crawford (5-2, 0.96 ERA) and I was not too thrilled about that prospect. Their closer? Dan Nordahl (0.67 ERA);

Game 1
SFW: SS O. Torres – 3B Pollard – 1B Bovane – RF A. Johnson – CF P. Taylor – C G. Lugo – LF L. Alonso – 2B Cowan – P Mendoza
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – CF Castro – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Brown

It was just going to be one of those months with Nick Brown, who was wickedly wild for the second consecutive start and it was clear from the start that it wasn’t going to end well, and it very didn’t. The Warriors loaded them up with two bloops and a walk, all with two outs, in the first, but didn’t score when German Lugo struck out. They did get there eventually though, squeezed a run across in the third inning, with another Raúl Bovane blooper key in the effort, and Brown got hosed for good in the fourth, in which the Warriors slapped him for four runs, the final exclamation mark being a Bovane home run. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ed Bryan conceded two runs in the sixth on errors by Martinez and Nomura. The Raccoons amounted to not much at all against Mendoza early on. He melted a bit in the seventh, loading the bases and plunked Barrón and walked Castro to bring the Duke to the plate as the tying run, but he grounded out to short to end the inning. It was already the Raccoons’ last straw. They didn’t reach base against the Warriors’ pen. 7-3 Warriors. Bowen 2-4; Crespo (PH) 1-1;

Well, Barrón has stopped hitting (and fielding) entirely. 35-year old shortstops, man. That gives us four complete blackouts among our six infielders. It was time to make a move, and we demoted Ryan Miller (batting .200 and not rising) in favor of 2B Jose Gutierrez. No platoon for the moment with Nomura (they do bat from opposing sites), but Gutierrez was batting .320 in AAA, and I wanted his bat in the lineup immediately.

Game 2
SFW: CF Matthews – C A. Ortíz – LF Graham – 1B Bovane – 3B Pollard – SS Guerin – RF L. Alonso – 2B Cowan – P Morrison
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Yates

The number of deep drives somehow sucked up by our outfielders in the first two innings alone was three, so Yates was to give up a few bombs sooner rather than later. The better was it that Jose Gutierrez sparked instantly and hit an RBI double in his first major league at-bat of the year, scoring Pruitt with no outs in the bottom 2nd. The inning ran longer than Bruce Morrison and the other Warriors would have liked. Bowen and Gutierrez scored on Quebell’s 2-out single, which was followed by a Castro triple and a Martinez double, both adding single runs for a 5-0 lead, and Martinez now had a 12-game hitting streak. Raúl Bovane kept snipping hits in a very annoying manner, but Yates kept surviving, and in the bottom 4th Morrison was knocked out after a leadoff jack by Quebell that made it a 6-0 game. The Raccoons added single runs in the next two innings, while Kel eventually ran into an RBI triple by Dave Graham in the sixth. That was the only run he allowed and he would gone eight innings or even more but when he walked a pair of batters in the eighth, including Graham, it was time for a move. Marcos Bruno retired Bovane to end the frame. The Coons churned out 18 hits in this one. 8-1 Critters. Quebell 4-5, HR, 3 RBI; Castro 4-5, 3B, RBI; Martinez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2B, RBI; Gutierrez 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Yates 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (5-0) and 1-4, RBI;

Game 3
SFW: CF Matthews – C A. Ortíz – SS O. Torres – LF Graham – 1B Bovane – RF A. Johnson – 3B Pollard – 2B Cowan – P Alba
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Cruz

Tomas Castro got on and scored in the first and third innings for an early 2-0 lead. Cruz walked a pair in the top 1st, then settled in, only to unravel after a fourth inning rain delay for rapidly worsening weather. The Warriors started to hit the ball hard. All balls went right to fielders in the fifth, but in the sixth a leadoff walk to Oliver Torres got the Warriors going and Bovane and Ron Pollard drove in runs to tie the score. Cruz retired Alba at the start of the seventh inning before we assigned Sims the string of four left-handers at the top of the Warriors order. Three of them reached, and the game blew up in our face forcefully, as the Warriors scored three runs with a 2-out, 2-run triple that Bovane (…!) hit off Bruno. In the eighth, Bruno would strike out the side, but the game was in the bin already. Well, we did bring up Bowen as the tying run in the bottom 8th, but he grounded out.

In the ninth, it was Dan Nordahl to try to nail down his seventh save of the season. Pinch-hitters Crespo and Trevino got on base with singles and nobody out. After that it was Nomura in the #9 hole, where he had entered along with the successless Sims earlier, and he hit another single that loaded the bases. Tying runs on, nobody out, two more left-handers coming up! Unfortunately, those two left-handers amounted to a strikeout (Quebell) and a sacrifice fly (Castro), getting us no closer to a happy end. Martinez’ fly out to Avery Johnson ended the game. 5-3 Warriors. Castro 2-4, RBI; Pruitt 3-4, 3B, RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1; Trevino (PH) 1-1;

Ugh! Frustrating series!! Glad they’re outta here. So are we, getting shipped up to Boston.

Raccoons (20-13) @ Titans (21-14) – May 16-18, 2008

We dropped to two games back on the Crusaders with the botch job we did against the Warriors, and the Titans made up some ground. If we don’t take this weekend 3-gamer, we’re going to drop into the middle regions of the division. We had taken two out of three against the CL team with our worst all time record against (.463) so far this season. They led the league in runs scored and were second in runs against, so they were probably not to be discounted for the division, which was still led by the Crusaders.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-1, 1.25 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (4-1, 2.40 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (0-1, 4.26 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (2-2, 4.35 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-2, 2.49 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-2, 3.76 ERA)

That’s two left-handers and a guy we just can’t seem to do good against. At least we don’t get 5-2 Jorge Chapa, who pitched Thursday.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – CF Trevino – P Umberger
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF Bayle – CF Ja. Gusmán – RF Garrison – 3B M. Austin – C L. Ramirez – 1B Heffer – SS D. Silva – P O’Halloran

Against O’Halloran, who had started the Titans’ current 5-game winning streak, the Raccoons left Castro and Black in scoring position in the top 1st, but got Gutierrez on base with a triple in the second. Trevino scored him on a groundout, but another chance was wasted in the third when Martinez extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single, then was thrown out stealing, and the subsequent singles by Black and Bowen went to waste, and Barrón was stranded on third base in the next inning. All the missed chances were definitely going to hurt, and when the permanent butt pain Silva reached on an infield single in the bottom 5th, you knew the time had come. He stole a base, was bunted to third, and scored on Jose Ramirez’ single. Ramirez also stole second base, but was stranded, yet you had to wonder whether Bowen had any arm at all.

Jong-hoo was a pathetic batter, but he actually managed to hit a single off reliever Jason Long in the sixth inning. That loaded the bases with two outs, leading to Quebell flicking the ball right into the ground in front of home. In a good break, Leon Ramirez (ex-Coon, no wonder!) failed to make a play, everybody was safe and the Raccoons reclaimed the lead. Castro’s following shot to right would have been a slam in Portland, but it wasn’t in Boston and was taken by Rudy Garrison to end the inning. Umberger went seven innings, struck out eight on 115 pitches, and left a 2-1 lead to the bullpen. With three left-handers due to bat, starting with Javier Gusmán, in the bottom 8th, Sims got the ball rather than Bruno. When Austin reached with a 2-out single, we skipped right to Angel, who was well-rested. He walked Ramirez before getting out of the eighth, and in the ninth walked the other catcher, “Quasimodo” Suda, and plunked Jesus Ramirez. Javier Gusmán ended the game with a triple into the corner in deep right. 3-2 Titans. Castro 2-4; Black 2-4, 2B; Barrón 2-2, 2 BB; Umberger 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K and 1-3;

Second straight games where the suckers leave 11 men on base. Everything’s going south.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Baldwin
BOS: 3B M. Austin – LF Bayle – RF Brulhart – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – 2B Heffer – C L. Ramirez – SS D. Silva – P Conner

After the Raccoons slowly and painfully had grinded out a run in each of the first three innings, Baldwin, wild and walky, made it all implode in one big blast, a 2-out, 2-run Brulhart triple in the bottom 3rd (common theme, huh?), with Brulhart scoring on a sac fly by Gusmán. Another inning, another run in the top 4th with a Gutierrez sac fly plating Bowen. The Coons didn’t score in the fifth despite a Martinez triple. Pruitt hit one far, but not far enough (far enough in Portland, though…), but Martinez, after a first inning RBI double and a third inning homer now had all extra base hits ticked off. Baldwin issued his fifth walk (against on strikeout) to Leon Ramirez at the start of the bottom 7th to get yanked. Lefty Rudy Garrison had a pinch-hit single off Ed Bryan, who then struck out Mark Austin. Bruno whiffed Jimmy Bayle to exit the inning. Martinez led off the eighth, looking for a single, but the Titans’ Ramiro Román threw him only junk for a 4-pitch walk. We loaded them up with an infield single by Pruitt and a Bowen walk. Crespo struck out before Quebell hit for Gutierrez to counter the righty Román and grinded out a full count walk. Barrón lined out to Bayle, leaving a flimsy 4-3 lead to become a flimsy 5-3 lead. Martinez came up once more in the ninth, two outs and nobody on, facing young lefty Matt Collins, and struck out. Angel struck out two in a perfect ninth. 5-3 Coons. Martinez 3-4, HR, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Brown
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B M. Austin – RF Brulhart – C Suda – CF Ja. Gusmán – 1B R. Vargas – LF Garrison – SS D. Silva – P Hildred

We had to fear the worst with Brownie after the last two games in which he went just 9 1/3 combined innings, but for starters, Bryce Hildred walked three men in the top 1st, with the Coons plating two runs. Whatever Brown was going to do, and he did plunk Gusmán in the second inning, he could not possibly do worse than Hildred. Martinez and Black opened the third inning with back-to-back doubles, and from there the inning just wouldn’t end for Hildred. He was yanked with a 7-0 score, a steady stream of base hits knocking him out for Jeremy Peterson, a former starter. He actually still had two men on with Martinez at the plate, who hit his second double of the inning, plating Brown and Castro, 9-0. And then the Duke doubled again, 10-0! Pruitt finally struck out to end that 8-run top 3rd.

Brown however at least tried to keep the game close, plating a run with a wild pitch in the bottom 3rd and allowing a 2-run homer to Suda to get the Titans back to 10-3, and in the fourth a leadoff walk to Vargas and extra base hits by Garrison and Silva cut the once formidable lead in half. The Coons were ready to disintegrate after errors by Peterson and Austin in the fifth put runners on the corners and they didn’t score, only for Brownie to strike out the 3-4-5 guys in order in the bottom of the inning. He struck out Silva to reach double digit K’s, but that was his last batter with a man on and two outs in the sixth. Rockburn faced pinch-hitter Jimmy Bayle and got a groundout to short. It was the Titans’ last at-bat. The skies had darkened in the middle innings and the rain started with two outs in the top 7th. It rained and rained and rained, the game was in delay for two hours, and with the Raccoons having to get out of town in this Sunday night game, we eventually had the win called early. 10-5 Brownies. Martinez 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Black 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-3, BB, RBI;

In other news

May 13 – OCT 1B Tomas Cardenas (.287, 3 HR, 13 RBI) goes onto the DL with back spasms and is not expected back within the next month at least.
May 13 – NAS 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.226, 1 HR, 5 RBI) is out for the rest of this month with rotator cuff tendinitis.

Complaints and stuff

Can a Pitcher of the Month award be revoked when the guy stinks up the joint to a double digit ERA the next month? It’s critical. I know somebody who has surrendered 14 earned runs his last 15 innings after surrendering FOUR in all of April.

Ralph Ford pitched a 5-hitter this week for the Knights. He’s 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA. Dan Nordahl signed a 3-yr, $5.8M extension with the Warriors two days after killing our hopes in the rubber game.

Also this week, the Capitals put infielder Adriano Lulli, a 28-year old recent Gold Glover and Platinum Stick wielder on waivers. We couldn’t claim him because the Pacifics were also claiming him and had higher priority, but you have to wonder whether everybody in the Capitals management floor headshotted each other and the last guy twitching pressed the “WAIVE!” button before expiring.

More and more I get the impression that this team won’t make the playoffs. We ARE second in runs scored and runs allowed, but … ugh. The pitching is … well, it isn’t bad overall, but they have a fatal tendency to implode in huge innings. Of course you could say it’s bad luck and bad luck will even out, so things are working in favor of the Coons, but … blech!

We will head down to New York for a 3-game midweek set, so watch out for more bad breaks.

One issue we will need to address is at shortstop. Barrón currently has no overly qualified backup with Ryan Miller being demoted. Gutierrez hit for two days, then vanished. Nomura can’t play short, and Gutierrez can’t either. Nobody can, really. We might want to exchange that Gutierrez for that other Gutierrez, the one that can play all positions. But that’s a left-handed batter. Ugh. Tough stuff…

Below, also, one hot rookie, possibly underscouted. Also, just when I wanted to dump Jimmy E somewhere roadside, he went 9-for-25 with one of each extra base hit in Aumsville this week.

Really, the one guy that pitches most consistently is Jong-hoo, who has been complaining that he can’t find a single joint in Portland that serves Kaiserschmarrn. I will have to do some research into what this actually is. Maybe we can capitalize on his early success and introduce a line of traditional Austrian food at the park. Fans will line up to take a - … do you take a bite out of a Kaiserschmarrn? Maud! Maud! I need something!

Boston Titans franchise leaders below. None of the pitchers debuted for them before 1991, pointing to the dire pointlessness to their existence throughout the 80s. The batters are more well mixed, and headed by a certain skunkhead.

WINS
1st – Jason O’Halloran – 234
2nd – Jorge Chapa – 110
3rd – Jesus Bautista – 99
4th – Bryce Hildred – 97
5th – Doug Morrow – 82

STRIKEOUTS
1st – Jason O’Halloran – 2,104
2nd – Bryce Hildred – 1,092
3rd – Doug Morrow – 986
4th – Jorge Chapa – 940
5th – Jesus Bautista – 902

HITS
1st – Daniel Silva – 2,047
2nd – Hjalmar Flygt – 1,800
3rd – Luis Lopez – 1,429
4th – Jose Martinez – 1,350
5th – Rudy Garrison – 1,291

HOME RUNS
1st – Luis Lopez – 165
2nd – Gonzalo Munoz – 146
3rd – Isto Grönholm – 92
4th – Mark Austin – 80
5th – Josh Thomas – 79

STOLEN BASES
1st – Daniel Silva – 373
2nd – Francisco Dominguez – 148
3rd – Vicente Elizondo – 120
4th – Rudy Garrison – 119
5th – Alejandro Espinoza – 112

[Westheim]

Random box score.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-14) @ Crusaders (24-13) – May 19-21, 2008

Okay, the time has come – our first matchup with the Crusaders in 2008, and the first since that rather depressing outcome of the final 4-set in the last week of the 2007 season, which didn’t quite go the Furballs’ way. The Crusaders had allowed the least runs in the league at 126 counters, about 3.4 per game, but their offense wasn’t very good. Outside of the Martin Brothers and leadoff man Roberto Pena there was not a whole lot to their offense so far, and they ranked 8th in runs scored with the second-worst batting average.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 3.45 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (2-3, 3.72 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-2, 6.34 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (4-1, 4.09 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-1, 1.25 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (7-1, 2.44 ERA)

Reeves led the league in wins, so we’d be pleased to see him stopped to let our three 5-game winners (Kel, Crystal Lake, and Brownie) catch up.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Yates
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B A. Munoz – SS Butler – C D. Anderson – P A. Javier

The Duke narrowly missed his 10th home run in the first inning, instead ramming an RBI double off the wall to score Quebell and have the Coons go up 1-0 in the first. Then came Kel, walked two and threw a wild pitch to tie the score in the bottom 1st. Our co-aces, huh?

Kel led off the third with a double on his own, therefore keeping his batting average over .500, and was left right there. Nobody reached until he hit another single, and was also stranded. The Crusaders were thrown another bone by him when he followed up Butler’s leadoff single in the bottom 5th with a wild pitch, then walked Daryl Anderson. Javier bunted them into scoring position, but Pena grounded out to Quebell and Ramón Garza struck out to end the inning. Kel went seven innings, spending over 100 pitches, with nobody scoring. Donald Sims struck out the Martin Brothers and got Sonny Reece to pop out to Pruitt in the bottom 8th, but Rockburn walked Munoz and allowed a 1-out single to Ming Kui in the bottom 9th. With runners on the corners and righty Marc Williams (1-for-14) hitting, Marcos Bruno came out, struck out Williams and got Roberto Pena to fly out to Black to move the game into overtime. It took Ricardo Martinez that extra chance to extend his 16-game hitting streak with a leadoff single against Scott Hood in the 11th inning. No Coon had reached scoring position for a few hours, but that changed with Pruitt’s 1-out double that put two Critters on second and third. Next was Bruno, who had entered in a double switch with Juan Rios, was hit for with Trevino, who got plunked. Barrón’s sac fly gave us the lead, but was all we got. Angel would have to make do with just the one run. Reece, Munoz, and Butler went down in order. 2-1 Coons! Rios 1-1; Yates 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K and 2-3, 2B; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Kelvin Yates was our best batter in this game, so you know it was one tough chew. At least we came out victorious. I want to give Chavez and Rios starts in the middle game with Martinez not being used to protect his hitting streak, which he didn’t get to 17 games until the 11th and final inning. No Raccoon reached third base between the first and the last innings.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Chavez – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – C Rios – P Cruz
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B A. Munoz – SS Caraballo – C D. Anderson – P Grams

Grams’ home ERA and Cruz’ road ERA added up to a sweet 16, so we expected some offense, somehow, despite our lackluster lineup. And… nobody scored. At least the Coons didn’t. We had runners on the corners in the third and Castro couldn’t get the bat to the ball, and then Pruitt and Black led off the fourth with singles, Chavez hit into a double play, and Barrón was no help either. In the fifth, Nomura drew a leadoff walk and Rios hit a single. Again, two on, no outs. Cruz bunted them over, Quebell grounded out to Grams, and Castro grounded out to short, and nobody scored. Hnnngghh!!

Not that the Crusaders were any better at batting. Cruz held them to two singles over five innings. Then Pena hit a 1-out single in the bottom 6th and stole second base unopposed when Rios dropped the ball before he could throw, and that happened for the second time in this game. Garza reached on Quebell’s error, putting men on the corners, but the Duke made awesome plays on the Martin Brothers, coming in nimbly on Martin Ortíz’ short line to shallow center, and making a play on the rightfield line against Stanton Martin to keep the runners in place and end the inning. Cruz made it into the eighth, where he hit Anderson, and Pena singled to knock him from the game. With lefty Ming Kui hitting again, for Garza, Ed Bryan came out, also going to face Ortíz. Kui struck out, and Ortíz rolled a 1-2 pitch to short for Barrón to make the inning-ending play. Still no runs! And both starters out of the game. And the Coons still couldn’t score! They went down in order to Iemtisu Rin in the ninth, which prompted us to have Bruno come out for the bottom 9th, which was led off by Stanton Martin, he struck him out, and sent the game to extras again. Jose Gutierrez hit for him with two outs and Barrón on second in the top 10th, and hit a grounder up the middle that eluded the middle infielders! Barrón came around and scored! Quebell singled, Gutierrez went aggro to third and was safe, but Castro grounded out to end the inning. Another 1-run lead for Angel, and he faced Rin to start the bottom 10th since the Crusaders were out of players. And… Rin singled. And stole second base. Ape Britton struck out, and Pena grounded out, moving Rin to third base. Listen, when their reliever scores, I’ll be pretty mad. It was Angel against Bob Butler, who hit a ball to deep left, but Crespo caught it just shy of the warning track. 1-0 Critters!! Quebell 2-5; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Cruz 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K;

Bruno with another win, and it’s a WIN and we lead the division, but come on, guys! It’s like watching somebody giving birth …! 16 hours of labor for one little result!

Now the problem might be that we go in against their best guy (sending our – on aggregate – best guy), and the back end of our pen is unavailable.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – CF Trevino – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Umberger
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B A. Munoz – SS Butler – C D. Anderson – P Reeves

Maybe we wouldn’t need that back end after all. Martin homered, Reece singled, Munoz doubled, and then Umberger threw a wild pitch with no outs in the second inning. The Crusaders scored three runs, and the Raccoons were not looking like they had read the scouting report on Reeves. Extra base hits galore continued for the home team with a Garza double and Ortíz triple in the bottom 3rd, and Ortíz scored on a strikeout / passed ball to Stanton Martin, who reached first base. Umberger was finally beaten to death in the fourth after a 2-out double and Pena’s subsequent home run that ran the score to 7-0. So much for leading the division.

Well, the game was lost, but the Raccoons made sure to lose in style. While not getting anything countable off Reeves in the first place, when Luke Black actually drew a walk in the seventh and made it to second base, he got doubled up on Barrón’s lineout to Garza. Martinez made an error, Bryan made an error, while the Crusaders hit seven of their ten hits for extra bases and destroyed the Raccoons outright. Reeves carried the 2-hit shutout into the ninth before Quebell walked and Castro singled. Robbie Wills replaced him and struck out Martinez, Black, and Bowen in order. 8-0 Crusaders. Castro 2-4; Kichida 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Martinez’ streak ended with an exclamation mark. That was some ****ty hitting in this series… They are lucky as all hell to come out with a series win, but it was never pretty. Oh no!

Raccoons (24-15) vs. Knights (20-20) – May 22-24, 2008

The Knights were second in the South and moving, carrying a 5-game winning streak. They did it in mysterious ways, since they were average run scorers, and had an average rotation, and their bullpen was actually awful. We stripped them 8-1 last year.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (1-1, 4.38 ERA) vs. Jim Turner (0-0, 8.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-2, 3.08 ERA) vs. Sadakuno Imamura (1-2, 7.32 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 3.16 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (5-1, 2.69 ERA)

Look who’s up on Sunday! He’s one of two lefties in the series, sandwiching the righty. We get their two worst and their best guy, which sounds fair. Their pen was stacked with former starters who should best retire.

Game 1
ATL: SS Kester – 1B Younger – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Keller – 2B Olvero – P Turner
POR: CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Baldwin

Jose Morales pumped a 2-run homer to get the scoring underway in the third inning, of course at the expense of Colin Baldwin, who didn’t look like the emphasis in his last name were on the final syllable. The Raccoons were retired in order by Jim Turner the first time through the lineup, while Jaime Kester struck out with the bases loaded to end the top 4th after hitting a single his first two times at the plate. They did show some life with Pruitt’s 2-out single in the bottom 4th, but he was promptly stranded when Black grounded out to third, and the Raccoons didn’t reach scoring position until the sixth, when Barrón singled and was bunted over by Baldwin. Barrón was then squarely left right there by Castro and Martinez. Baldwin was yanked after putting two men on in the seventh, with Morales almost jacking a 3-piece off Sims, but not only was he kept on the warning track, J.C. Crespo also made the catch.

Unbelievably, Jim Turner, not much of a pitcher, spun eight innings of 2-run ball before the Knights sent Clyde Henderson to close it out. He had a walk issue, but the Raccoons seemed to have a multitude of issues right now. Quebell led off the inning, pinch-hitting for Law Rockburn. He struck out. But then Castro singled, pulling up the tying run in Martinez! C’mon, rookie power! He struck out. Pruitt walked, though, giving the bat to Duke Smack. C’mon, Luke. This is the time to be a hero, be a savior, to - … walk? Henderson never gave him a pitch worth swinging at, and now faced somewhat less of a threat in Craig Bowen, who rolled a 1-0 pitch to Carlos Martinez for the nail in the coffin. 2-0 Knights. Rockburn 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

This is dangerous. You can hear the sirens burning, red lights turning. I can’t turn back now – I smashed the big fat bright red button on my desk to sound the level 3 alarm throughout the clubhouse, and sent for Grandma Umberger (actually, Grandma Kim) to be flown in from rural Korea. Jong-hoo says she has some secret sauce for some spicy-as-all-hell samgyeopsal. I hope that’s Korean for something I can actually swallow. I heard Koreans don’t just have a chicken for dinner. They have the entire chicken. With feet and beak.

But maybe a spoonful of secret sauce shoved between the batters’ butt cheeks will end their comatose state.

Game 2
ATL: SS Kester – 1B Younger – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Keller – 2B Olvero – P Ford
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Brown

In bad news, Imamura was skipped and Ralph Ford moved up to Saturday. In more bad news, it was clear early that Brownie wasn’t going to be resharpened yet and fell 1-0 behind after a Kenneth Younger double and a Jorge Garcia single in the first inning. In great news, Quebell and Martinez started our half of the first with singles, and Castro’s 2-run triple into the gap in right center was the single biggest clank we had hear all week! He scored on a groundout and the Coons loaded the bases for Brownie, who popped out for the third out. While Brown struck out the sides in both the third and fourth innings, he also had two men reach in the fourth, which unfortunately included a game-tying homer by Carlos Martinez. The Raccoons reclaimed the lead in the bottom 5th on Bowen’s leadoff jack, after which Barrón walked (Ford’s sixth walk in the game after 17 walks in 67 innings on the year) and went to third on Brown’s single to right with one out. In a horrendous break, Quebell lined a pitch right back into Ford’s glove and the Raccoons failed to tack on, and Jorge Garcia tied the score with a home run in the sixth. Brown somehow struck out ten without walking anybody into the seventh, when he issued consecutive 2-out walks to Gonzalo Munoz and Jaime Kester. Bruno came in to face Younger, ran a full count, but struck him out. Come the eighth, Donald Sims allowed a leadoff single to Morales before moving him into scoring position with a wild pitch. After a De La Parra single off Rockburn, Lou Urban would fly out to Castro (“to” being not meant in the way of “geographically close”) to end that inning. Angel Casas loaded the bases in the top 9th before striking out Garcia to escape another mess, but that actually presented a chance to walk off against righty Dave Jackson (6.06 ERA) with Bowen, Barrón, and Gutierrez. While that didn’t sound like much of a good opportunity in the first place, Bowen flew out pathetically on a 3-1 pitch and that one strike had been a pointless hack. Barrón came up, and hacked some more. At 2-2, he finally hit the ball, sent it soaring to deep right. Was it fair? Would it stay fair? The first base umpire waited a dramatic second or two, then signaled … fair ball! The Coons walked off! 5-4 Critters. Quebell 2-5; Castro 4-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Barrón 2-4, BB, HR, RBI;

More bad news. Our area scout in Korea told us that Grandma Kim’s neighbors saw her venturing into the woods on Wednesday to collect special herbs in the wilderness. Normally, the old lady is gone for a week when she sets out with her little herb basket, backpack, and copper pots clanging on the sides.

Also notice how none of our 5-game winners won a game this week so far, with all three wins collected by our two bullpen studs. But here came, strangely, Imamura in game 3 after all.

Game 3
ATL: SS Kester – C De La Parra – LF J. Morales – CF G. Munoz – RF J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Urban – 2B Olvero – P Imamura
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – 3B Chavez – P Yates

Antonio De La Parra hit home runs in both of the first two innings as Kelvin Yates was a complete disaster in the rubber game. After a solo shot in the first he had the defining moment in the third, crowing a 5-run frame with a 3-run home run. Not that easily visible in the box score were the two wild pitches Yates offered in the second even before all hell broke loose. The Raccoons had stranded runners on the corners in the bottom 1st against Imamura, who not only had a walk issue, but was more of a walking issue with a K/BB just barely over .5 … and while the Coons plated two runs in the bottom 2nd, they also stranded two runners when Pruitt lobbed out to left. They loaded the bases in the fourth, starting with a leadoff walk by Ricardo Martinez, who replaced Nomura (with Chavez shifting over) after Yoshi had left the game with an injured heel. Both Chavez and Quebell got on for Castro to bat with one out as the tying run. Castro grounded to Olvero for a force at second, but beat out the relay throw, 6-3, before Pruitt dumped a double into right, 6-5. Black and Bowen walked to reload the dishes for Barrón, yesterday’s hero, who grounded out to Urban.

Oh so close, Kichida was tagged with a run by Antonio Olvero singling home Jorge Garcia, who had drawn a leadoff walk, in the fifth. Kichida had to bat in the bottom 5th with nobody on and two outs, readily accepting strike three, since we were already short on players. He went into the seventh on the mound before putting two on. Sims ended that inning, but we were trailing by two. Those two runs had been on base with no outs in the sixth before ineptness had overcome the rest of the lineup once again. Trevino’s infield single to start the bottom 8th in a steady drizzle put the tying run at the plate at least, but we had three lefties up against left-hander Enrique Meneces. Castro singled, and then Pruitt hit one into the gap. Jorge Garcia brought the ball back in and Castro was thrown out at home, with Pruitt remaining at third base as the tying run for Black, who snipped the first pitch he saw to the left side, and past a diving Kester! Single, tied ballgame! Oh my god, what a nuts game!

One wild pitch and a Bowen groundout as well as a 60-minute rain delay once Bruno had thrown four pitches for one out, then got two more outs with four more pitches later, the Coons had another chance to walk off. Hey, Barrón’s leading off. He won’t do it twice, will he? Nah. But he singled to represent the winning run for Ricardo Martinez, facing righty Francisco Garza. Uh, double play. Kester then misplayed Chavez’ grounder for an error, but Trevino flew out. Another extra inning game!! Bruno dealt with the 10th competently and quickly. He was up third after Quebell and Castro in the bottom 10th, still facing Garza with more walks than strikeouts to his credit. With Quebell on first and one out, Gutierrez walked in Bruno’s place, bringing up the Duke again, and he walked again to bring up Bowen. Well, another walk will do just as well. While the count ran full, Bowen struck out to go to 0-5 with 26 men left on base, but look, there’s Barrón again! He took the first pitch he saw, grounded it up the middle, Olvero stretched in vain, and the Raccoons walked off again!! 8-7 Critters!! Quebell 2-4, 2 BB, RBI; Castro 3-5, BB, RBI; Pruitt 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Barrón 2-6, RBI; Nomura 1-1, 2B; Chavez 2-5; Trevino (PH) 1-2; Sims 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-0);

Yoshi’s sore a bit. But we have Monday off and he should be good on Tuesday against the Bayhawks. We might see a right-hander then.

In other news

May 20 – OCT CL Sancho Rivera (1-4, 4.35 ERA, 7 SV) has had a rough season so far, but chalks up his 300th career save in a 5-3 win over the Condors.
May 24 – SAC SP Carlos Castro (5-1, 2.31 ERA) will be shut down for three months with rotator cuff inflammation.
May 24 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.277, 1 HR, 19 RBI) will be sidelined for three weeks with a hamstring strain.
May 24 – LAP 1B Stanley Murphy (.306, 3 HR, 23 RBI) strained his achilles tendon and will miss two weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Juan Garcia pitched the first perfect game in ABL history, and it took only 31+ years! It is also the 28th no-hitter in the league, and the second for the Cyclones. Manuel Garza spun one in 1997. The Cyclones have no cycles to their credit (strangely!). Only four teams have less than two combined no-hitters and cycles. The Buffaloes, Garcia’s victims on Monday, have one cycle and no no-nos, while the Canadiens, Scorpions, and Capitals have none of any. Amazingly, the Raccoons lead overall with five no-hitters and two cycles.

Marcos Bruno won three extra inning games in a week. That HAS to be a new record SOMEWHERE.

Apart from that, this week was entirely exhausting. I mean, the Raccoons played like crap for most of the week. They got away with a 4-2 affair, winning by single runs all four times, all wins in relief, and three in extra innings, with two walkoffs. They were shut out on six hits total the other two games. For what it’s worth, we scored only 16 runs this week, and conceded 22. That’s a bad pace. And look at it! Look at it! They lead the division!! It’s totally crazy!!

It’s … nuts!! XD

Now where’s Grandma Umberger/Kim?

[Westheim]

On Monday the Elks beat the Aces, 5-3, while we were off, which moved them into a virtual tie with us. I don’t like that. I don’t like them.

Raccoons (26-16) @ Bayhawks (19-26) – May 27-29, 2008

Already sinking rapidly in the South, the Bayhawks had a leakage in their rotation and couldn’t get it fixed. Their starting five put up an ERA of almost as much, and the bullpen was average at best. The offense didn’t keep up, and this was a perfect recipe for a .422 team that wasn’t going to get any better. They are the last CL team we hadn’t played against so far this season. Watch out for 3B David Lopez, who has taken over the lead in the home run race with 11 dingers, batting almost .340;

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-2, 2.15 ERA) vs. Harry Wentz (2-4, 4.06 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. Tyler Sullivan (4-1, 3.64 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-2, 5.32 ERA) vs. Angel Romero (2-2, 5.76 ERA)

Yes, THAT Angel Romero. He’s 37 now. He was 35 when he stunk in Portland. We are sliding Cruz into the #5 hole utilizing the off day on Monday that would have been his usual turn in the rotation. That doesn’t mean he’ll get skipped regularly from now on, but this is a measure to separate the left-handed B-Boys in the rotation, Baldwin and Brown.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Umberger
SFB: LF Ware – RF Hudson – 3B D. Lopez – 1B I. Gutierrez – RF Keshishian – C P. Fernandez – 2B J. Perez – SS Nakayama – P Wentz

Both starting pitchers hurt another with singles in the third inning. While Wentz plated Jose Perez with his 1-out RBI single, the Coons’ Korean jewel had reached base with a single to start the top 3rd. Quebell also got on before Castro reached a 12-game hitting streak with a 3-run home run, the first tally in the game. Ivan Gutierrez’ homer in the bottom 4th further shortened the score to 3-2, but the Raccoons came back in the sixth. Barrón’s leadoff single was followed by a liner off Yoshi Nomura’s bat that escaped Tirgen Keshishian for an RBI triple, and while Umberger became the first of the two pitchers to not reach base safely in five attempts in the game, his groundout at least scored the runner from third to get the Raccoons to 5-2. The Raccoons had already stranded men on third twice (and had Black thrown out at home to end another inning) when Umberger was sent to bat with runners in scoring position and two outs in the seventh. Wentz struck him out on three pitches, but Umberger came back with a scoreless bottom 7th to make it not a bad move at all. He struck out pinch-hitter Urbano Cicalina at the start of the bottom 8th before leaving for Ed Bryan to face the lefty Stephen Ware, who hit a triple. Raw Lockburn struck out John Hudson before David Lopez, hitless in the game, grounded out to Nomura, and Angel saved the game without too much fuss. 5-2 Raccoons. Martinez 2-5; Bowen 2-4, BB, 2B; Barrón 3-3, BB; Umberger 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (6-2) and 2-4, RBI;

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – CF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – LF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Baldwin
SFB: CF Hudson – 2B J. Perez – 3B D. Lopez – RF Keshishian – 1B Nakayama – C P. Fernandez – LF M. Rodriguez – SS McCullough – P Sullivan

We probably knew what to expect from Baldwin once he took the mound for the bottom 1st and faced to the wrong side, staring at Tomas Castro far out in centerfield. Castro stared back with a blank expression. Baldwin’s start soon descended into chaos, with the leadoff man reaching in every inning, and there was another black hole, defensively, at third base, where Martinez did not only not make the extraordinary plays, but not even the basic plays. Somehow the picture remained hanging on the wall through four innings of only one run scoring (and one cut down at home by Crespo), and the Raccoons even took a 3-1 lead in a 2-run top 5th featuring a Martinez RBI triple (he scored on a passed ball), but in the bottom 5th Baldwin loaded the bases with no outs, featuring two walks, and it just blew up. Pablo Fernandez’ RBI single made it 5-3 Bayhawks with still only one out, and Baldwin was yanked. Watkins retired Manuel Rodriguez and Brandon McCullough to end the inning, but the damage was immense. Also considerable: the number of runners the Raccoons left in scoring position. One each in the first two innings, and two each in the fifth and seventh. Duke Smack’s leadoff jack in the eighth then had impressive length, yet insufficient weight to make up the difference, but he got another chance with two outs in the ninth of the 5-4 game, facing ex-Coons farmhand Salvadaro Soure, who had just allowed 2-out singles to Martinez and Castro, but here the Duke was too eager and got blacked out. 5-4 Bayhawks. Quebell 2-5, 2B; Martinez 3-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Castro 2-5; Black 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Watkins 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Tom Watkins’ elbow was balking after this game and it wasn’t better the following morning. We had him examined, but couldn’t find any structural deficiencies. The medical staff shrugged and filled in the form with the official ailment of “tender elbow”, which would render him diminished for the next week. The question was whether we would want to run around with a diminished pitcher for that long, or go to a replacement for two weeks. We have been using the DL quite aggressively so far this year and I’m not intent on changing that. Watkins was disabled, and a replacement was shipped in from Florida in the Alley Cats’ closer, Matt Cash. Now 25 and still walking people, it will certainly be a temporary assignment.

We also exchanged Jose Gutierrez and Ryan Miller again. Gutierrez’ novelty factor had worn off, and Miller had batted .320 with gap power in St. Pete, so we welcomed him back.

Game 3
POR: 2B Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – LF Castro – RF Black – 1B Pruitt – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – P Cruz
SFB: LF Ware – CF Hudson – 3B D. Lopez – 1B I. Gutierrez – C P. Fernandez – 2B J. Perez – RF M. Rodriguez – SS McCullough – P Romero

Angel Romero only logged eight outs before leaving with some tweak or other, and the Raccoons plated zero runs off him in their allotted time. Meanwhile Cruz tried to allow runs really hard, issuing two leadoff walks to Gutierrez and Fernandez in the second, from which Martinez dug him out by starting a double play, and then with a leadoff single to relief pitcher Lance Tinker in the bottom 3rd, which also dissolved in a double play with Barrón stretching to intercept a grounder, hauling it to the middle bag, and returnee Miller taking care of Ware at first.* No runs after three dissolved in a leadoff home run by David Lopez in the fourth, and this was not a deep one – it was an inside-the-parker. The park went completely nuts on the play, which was the only offensive highlight the attendance got to see the entire day. Cruz was unconvincing, but not tagged again, and the Raccoons firmly remained with their stance of not hitting anybody, no matter how scrawny they were, which obviously culminated in an ex-Raccoon pitching in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game: Rémy Lucas facing Castro, Black, and Pruitt. Castro struck out, as did Pruitt, and Black’s single was no help in staying out of another sour defeat. Bowen popped out to shallow center to end the game. 1-0 Bayhawks. Black 2-4; Cruz 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (2-3);

5-hit by a collection of marginal pitchers. Angel Romero for 2 2/3 innings, Lance Tinker from there through seven. Ken MacKenzie and Javier Montés-Ortíz (who??) in the eighth, and then … Rémy Lucas.

Losing always hurts, but this one was brutal. We also dropped to third in the division.

Raccoons (27-18) vs. Condors (21-26) – May 30-June 1, 2008

We are 2-1 against the Scavengers this year, and their league-worst pitching might provide an opportunity for our struggling offense to regenerate and find a way to score again. Their rotation was getting slaughtered outright to a 5.76 ERA, with a second-to-last 4.36 ERA mark on the pen. Scoring average runs was not a distinction either, and they had somehow been lucky so far to rank only five below .500.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (5-2, 3.34 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (2-2, 3.54 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 3.93 ERA) vs. Micah Kirchberg (3-2, 4.37 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-2, 2.19 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (3-5, 7.50 ERA)

We get their two best starters in the set, plus their worst (by ERA). At least we can bring the A Team, so if the hitters don’t feast on the Condors, maybe our own guys can survive their lineup. “A Team” should come with an asterisk, though, since they have all had their struggles in May…

Game 1
TIJ: CF R. Perez – RF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – C P. Estrada – 1B R. Morris – SS Ybarra – LF Ward – 3B George – P Sjogren
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – 2B Barrón – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – P Brown

We got our third straight southpaw to open the set, but before Jimmy Sjogren took the mound, the Raccoons attempted to destroy themselves in the first inning. After Ramón Perez grounded out, Brown drilled Rowan Tanner pretty square, then walked Juan Diaz. Paco Estrada’s single loaded them up, and while Ricardo Martinez never had a chance for two on Rob Morris’ grounder to third, his throw to Quebell was uncatchable and WAY over the first baseman’s head for two unearned runs. The Condors’ Ybarra and Ward got no more off Brown in that inning, but that was some early damage and Brown was as annoyed with Martinez as he was with himself. While Sjogren was perfect the first time through the Coons’ order, the self destruction continued in the fourth, following two innings of seven up, six down for Brown. Pancho Ybarra led off with a blooper to right that not only Barrón didn’t get, but that went through Black’s legs for another error. While Ybarra moved to third on a grounder he then stole home against a completely discombumbled battery that was not in sync with the universe, nor with another.

And the lineup didn’t fare any better. Bowen drew a walk in the fifth, but – the sign of a wannabe team one fraction of a second before shattering into a .500 outfit – the team didn’t get a hit until BROWN singled with one out in the bottom 6th. Quebell softly lobbed another single to right, and Martinez was safe on a pathetic grounder back to Sjogren. Bases loaded with one out for Castro, who drew a walk to push in the team’s first run. Black grounded to third, where Will George forced Martinez, but his throw to first was late and the Raccoons still had runners on first and second for Bowen, down 3-2. Bowen singled past Ybarra to tie the game when Castro easily went home from second base. A completely bewildered Sjogren, whose looks should have signaled every sane manager to sent him to the showers, walked Barrón to reload the sacks, only for Ryan Miller, hitless since his return, to line out to short. Brown went seven without logging a decision, with Rockburn and Sims holding the Condors at bay throughout regulation. The Condors’ manager seemed to have fallen asleep: Sjogren was back on the mound for the bottom 9th, entering play at 112 pitches. Didn’t matter – Coons couldn’t score.

Extras resumed with Sims, who was skinned when Nate Thompson hit a leadoff double and Perez walked. Rowan Tanner, another lefty, grounded out to first, but the outlook was dire. We sent for Bruno, who got a sorry bouncer in front of the plate from Diaz that Bowen converted for an out, and then obliterated Estrada to leave two runners in scoring position. We had to cope with Charlie Deacon, and did so quite poorly. Through 11 innings, the team totaled four hits, all in the sixth inning. Once Bruno yielded for Ed Bryan in the 12th, left-handed Johnny Crum hit a gigantic home run to get the Condors into the lead. Bowen’s leadoff double off ex-Critter Ricardo Huerta kept hopes above the “none” mark, but pathetic outs by Barrón and Nomura were followed by Wilton Walker’s miraculous play on J.C. Crespo’s pinch-hit grounder, and ended the game. 4-3 Condors. Bowen 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K and 1-2; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

5-hit again. Last week was obviously a fluke, and something has gone completely wrong. The team has been bad the entire month and now they are actively starting to lose games in droves. The ****ing Elks are already 2 1/2 games ahead. THE ****ING ELKS!!

Game 2
TIJ: SS Ybarra – RF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – CF R. Perez – LF Crum – C P. Estrada – 1B Ward – 3B I. Reed – P Kirchberg
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – C Rios – P Yates

The Raccoons’ efforts started with Quebell’s fifth home run of the year, and they scored two more runs in the inning on Barrón’s 2-out single that drove in Castro and Martinez. Too bad that Yates sucked colossally and gave back two runs instantly in the top 2nd, and general had no concept of the strike zone whatsoever. He still struck out nine, somehow, mainly attributable to the Condors loving to swing at crap, but there would not be a happy end at all. The Raccoons held a 5-2 lead after five, but blew it entirely in the top 6th. Yates was yanked after Ramón Perez tagged with him a 1-out, 2-run homer, and when Ed Bryan came in, Crum homered as well, taking him deep for the second time in two days. The Coons got Castro on in the bottom 7th only for Martinez to end the inning with a two-for-one grounder to Will George at third base, before the Duke hit a leadoff double off Jayden Reed in the bottom 8th. Pruitt was walked intentionally before Reed’s first pitch to Barrón was in the dirt and bounced off Estrada’s mask, allowing both runners to advance. They had to hold on Barrón’s poor grounder to the mound, however, and Nomura was walked intentionally to load them up for Rios, who was 2-3 on the day. Crespo hit for him anyway and lined a pitch to Ramón Perez in center. Black tagged and scored to break the tie before Bowen grounded out to largely waste a splendid chance. Our plight continued when Angel Casas allowed singles to Estrada and Ward as the ninth inning got underway. After George and Thompson struck out, Pancho Ybarra stepped in, hitless on the day. He tried hard, maybe too hard, to change his line, and Casas ended the game with his third K. 6-5 Coons. Castro 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Rios 2-3;

Donald Sims logged his first win as a Raccoon, while Juan Rios not only threw out his first base stealer (after not succeeding four times), but also stole a base himself! He scored on a Kelvin Yates double, but Yates’ line soon drowned.

And what about Bryan? God, he sucks! Our pen has allowed ten home runs this year. He has four all by himself. Dan Parker is really close to getting called up here…! In the short run, the battle plan for Sunday is for Matt Cash to face Crum in a tight spot. Why? Well, can he actually fare worse against him than Bryan??

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – RF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – CF R. Perez – 1B R. Morris – C P. Estrada – LF W. McCormick – 3B George – P Carter
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – SS Barrón – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Umberger

The Condors moved up Ron Carter (4-3, 5.13 ERA), not to our amazement. He didn’t give the Raccoons anything. And while the box score would say that Umberger was perfect the first time through the order, the Condors got sound contact off him from the start, but it took until Ybarra’s turn at bat in the fourth for them to hit one out of the park. That shot was the difference in a game in which the home team kept flailing and failing in embarrassing manner against a guy that usually walked more than he struck out, but now had a field day. Umberger was hit for in the bottom 7th after Yoshi Nomura’s 1-out triple, and the best Crespo could manage was a sac fly. Quebell’s 2-out double evaporated into nothing, and another guy wound up with nothing to show for a decent outing. When the Condors had Tommy Ward at second with two out in the top 8th, and Johnny Crum came out to pinch-hit, Rockburn remained in the game, getting Crum to foul out in the vicinity of first base.

Martinez stole second base after a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, to which the Condors responded with an intentional walk to Black. Pruitt hit a ball well to left, but had it caught by McCormick, while Martinez tagged to go to third base, from where he scored as the go-ahead run on Barrón’s following single. Nomura would draw a bases-loading 2-out walk from Carter to finally get him out of the game. Nelson Chavez hit for Rockburn with Huerta in as new reliever, and McCormick sucked up another potential double to end the inning. Angel struck out Tanner and Diaz before Perez flew out to Black. 2-1 Furballs. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Nomura 2-3, BB, 3B; Umberger 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K;

In other news

May 26 – It’s season over for LVA SP Joe Hollow (1-2, 6.11 ERA). The 32-year old is going to be shut down with ever worsening shoulder inflammation.
May 26 – Also out for 2008 is DEN INF Jose Correa (.285, 0 HR, 20 RBI), who won the Federal League’s Gold Glove at second base four out of the last six years. He has broken his elbow.
May 27 – The Titans are dealt a crippling blow when SP Jorge Chapa (6-2, 2.49 ERA) is diagnosed with a tear in his triceps. He might miss most of the remainder of the season.
May 29 – Another long term injury is reported for DAL SP Elwood Spurrell (6-2, 2.20 ERA). The 33-year old right-hander has suffered a fracture in his elbow and should be out for 2008. The 2.20 ERA is the best he’s ever had in his career – no wonder for a pitcher that led the Federal League in home runs allowed four straight years at one point.
May 31 – IND OF Robbie Luxton (.243, 7 HR, 21 RBI) needs to hit the DL with a knee sprain. The Indians hope that he’s going to be back by the second half of June.

Complaints and stuff

I think I know why the Capitals waived legit star Adriano Lulli two weeks ago. I *heard* - I don’t know if it’s actually true – that Lulli was caught with the hand in the cookie jar of the Capitals’ president’s youngest daughter, who’s scarcely 17 years old.

She had baked those brownies for a fundraising event and things escalated quickly.

Sergio Esquivel was sent on a rehab assignment to the Alley Cats this Wednesday. He’s recovered well so far from the beaning and now it’s time to test those old reflexes (which weren’t very good even before…).

Overall, it’s not going well. The lineup is lame. Black and Pruitt aren’t getting anything done right now, and Bowen and Barrón aren’t big helps further down. The bench is comatose at best. Overall, we’re dangling by the thinnest of threads.

Sole good news come from the monthly awards front, where Ricardo Martinez has been named Rookie of the Month for May (after already winning in April), with a .343, 1 HR, 17 RBI output. Thank heavens they don’t keep track of errors.

Odd stat: Of all pitchers against whom Bakile Hiwalani has more than 50 AB, he has the lowest batting averages against the following: Never-Coon Whit Reeves (.191), ex-Coon Randy Farley (.203), always-Coon Nick Brown (.224), and Brownie is the only one who has not allowed a home run to him, which is the more wonderous when you take into account that Hiwalani is a right-handed batter.

*Even I would normally abstain from “taking care of Ware”, but that was the PBP came up with and I couldn’t resist… I’m weak that way.

[Westheim]

2008 DRAFT POOL

The Raccoons will – for the first time in god-knows-how-long – not pick in the top 20 in the annual Amateur Draft. Their strong, but not strong enough, finish in 2007 has them stuck with the 21st pick in every round of the 2008 draft, plus the 14th pick in the 24-pick supplemental round as compensation for the signing of Daniel Sharp by the Miners.

At #21, you don’t have to salivate over the cream of the crop. You won’t get them anyway. And if you get one of those assumed future Hall of Famers at #21, they are most likely fake. Nevertheless, here’s a look at the potential top picks in the draft, which is soft on catchers and middle infielders, but has a few interesting pitchers, and a good selection of outfielders. Here’s the best dozen-some:

SP Noah “Bloody” Bricker (12/11/13) – 17 K/9 in high school and Whitebread points out his FIP of 0.04, whatever that means
SP Michael Colvard (11/13/11)
SP Kevin Woodworth (11/16/11)
CL Chris Spindler (17/13/9)

SS Tyler Gray (14/12/4) – Whitebread says something about the best high school WOBA in the country, whatever that means
3B Tom Thomas (14/7/16)
3B Mark Abraham (10/7/11)

OF Ryan Feldman (10/15/12) – consensus #1 pick?
OF John Kelsey (10/10/17)
RF/CF Chris Macias (10/9/11)
OF/3B Dave Carter (11/9/12)
OF Jason Seeley (9/10/14)
OF Justin Bellows (7/10/17) – don’t know how he’s a 7 contact and Whitebread has him 2nd in high school WOBA in the - … I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT WOBA IS!! (grunts)

Where does Noah Bricker’s nickname come from? Because you can’t hit that bloody bastard!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (29-19) vs. Aces (17-31) – June 2-4, 2008

So far we had lost two of three to a team that didn’t do anything particularly well. They were second from the bottom in scoring runs, they were allowing the third-most runs. They had the worst bullpen, but their rotation was no apple pie either, but two of the culprits for the 5+ ERA in the rotation, Jim Pennington and Joe Hollow, had recently gone to the DL and who knows what horrible things the replacements would do to our beleaguered lineup.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (1-3, 5.09 ERA) vs. Donnie Fitzgerald (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-3, 4.70 ERA) vs. Jack Thomas (0-0, 1.29 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-2, 3.12 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (5-3, 3.94 ERA)

All pitching matchups will feature opposite-handed competitors.

Game 1
LVA: 1B McDermott – SS F. Soto – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – LF Cameron – 2B Dahlke – CF Messinger – 3B Pollack – P Fitzgerald
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Baldwin

Donnie Fitzgerald, 33, made his 30th career start, the second of the year, and also the second since 2003. He would go seven innings against the Raccoons, but not because he was stellar, but more because the Aces manager didn’t seem to bother much anymore. Apart from Tomas Castro in the #2 hole being a total blackout, striking out twice against Fitzgerald after grounding into a double play on his ninth pitch of the game the first time up, seven of which had been balls, the Coons lineup saw Fitzgerald pretty well and drove the ball a good distance. They had numerous doubles caught by the Aces outfielders, but Black and Bowen left the yard for solo home runs, and while Black also left the bases loaded once in the game with a pop out, he legged out an infield single in the fifth to load the bases for Pruitt with two outs in a 3-1 game. Pruitt doubled to get to 5-1, which was perhaps the deciding blow. Baldwin, after being taken deep by Eduardo Durango in the first inning, pitched well and went into the eighth inning before the Aces put runners on the corners, a situation that Marcos Bruno mopped up with a key strikeout to Francisco Soto. 5-1 Critters. Quebell 2-3, 2 BB; Martinez 2-4; Black 3-4, HR, RBI; Chavez (PH) 1-1; Baldwin 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-3) and 1-3;

While Colin Baldwin had his first hit as a Raccoon, Nelson Chavez had his second pinch hit (in 17 attempts).

Game 2
LVA: 1B McDermott – SS F. Soto – RF R. Garcia – CF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – 2B Dahlke – C T. Turner – 3B Pollack – P J. Thomas
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – CF Crespo – P Cruz

The Duke gave the Coons the lead with an RBI single, scoring Barrón, in the first inning, but it didn’t last. After Cruz sat down the first eight (including striking out the side in the first), Jack Thomas’ 2-out double set up Sean McDermott in the top 3rd, who homered to right center to flip the score in the Aces’ favor, 2-1. In the bottom of the frame, the Raccoons had Quebell and Barrón on the corners with one out, only for Black and Pruitt to both strike out. Nothing worked the Raccoons’ way the entire game. They hit the ball hard, but neither out of the park, nor at least onto the green. The opposing outfield caught simply everything. Meanwhile, Quebell dropped a pop in the top 8th to give the Aces an extra out which they converted into another run on Law Rockburn. It wasn’t until the bottom 8th that a Raccoon had an extra base hit. With Barrón on first, Black doubled past Melvin Pollack into the corner, but Barrón had to hold at third base. Still, the tying runs were in scoring position with one out, with Pruitt coming up. The Aces stuck with their left-hander against Pruitt (and we didn’t have any appealing options on the bench). Thomas got to 2-2 before Pruitt lined to the right side, and OVER Howard Jones for a game-tying 2-run single! He was left on, Sims held the Aces down in the top 9th, but the chances for a walkoff in regulation were slim with Andrew Wills facing Crespo, a pinch-hitter, and Quebell in the ninth. The Raccoons kept getting robbed by everything that didn’t defeat an infielder, with Nomura and Quebell being retired on awesome catches by Logan Taylor.

Kaz Kichida was tasked with extra innings, but in the end we were content with one additional inning, which gave us more than we could stand seeing. After Pollack’s leadoff single, Kichida walked Durango in the #9 hole. McDermott’s grounder was taken by Bowen and thrown to third, except that it was miles away from third base and sailed into the stands. The Aces got their first run, but wouldn’t stop there. After getting two outs, Kichida allowed two runs on a Don Cameron single, then issued another walk and threw a wild pitch, bringing up Tom Dahlke, who crowned the whole affair with a 3-run homer to dead center. 9-3 Aces. Barrón 2-3, 2 BB; Black 3-5, 2B, RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2 RBI; Cruz 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K;

There’s losing, and there’s getting your groin charred with boiling acid. This was the latter. All runs in the 10th were unearned.

Slappy found me the next morning snoozing in the middle of his secret booze stash, but I had been alert long enough to place Kichida on waivers before passing out. Dan Parker joined the club. That gives us three left-handers in the pen, but Ed Bryan might not be here for much longer, either. We acquired Parker from the Pacifics this winter when we traded away Raúl Fuentes. He had cleared waivers at the very beginning of the season and had kept AAA hitters’ success to a minimum.

Game 3
LVA: 1B McDermott – SS H. Jones – RF R. Garcia – LF Cameron – 2B Dahlke – CF Messinger – C T. Turner – 3B Pollack – P Valdevez
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – C Rios – P Brown

In lovely Oregon summer weather (black clouds and driving rain causing a 45-minute delay in the second inning), Quebell tripled in the first, was stranded, then popped out to right to leave the bases stocked in the second inning, after Rios and Brown had kept the line moving. They did the same in the bottom 4th, or rather, they were the line that produced a pair of 2-out singles. This time, Quebell singled, but Castro fouled out. Seven hits, no runs, typical Brown start. Brownie in the meantime massacred the Aces, not allowing a well-hit ball out of the infield until with two outs in the fifth, and Castro took care of that. The bottom 5th had the Coons load the bases for the third time in the game, now with singles by Black and Pruitt, and Barrón drawing a walk. One out, Valdevez finally mended and threw a wild pitch to plate a run before Don Cameron could throw out Pruitt trying to score Nomura’s fly out to left.

Brownie reached double digit strikeouts when he whiffed Howard Jones to start the seventh inning. That was ten more K’s than he had allowed hits, and that gap only grew bigger when Ricardo Garcia flew out to Pruitt and Cameron went down on strikes. Bottom 7th, Castro with a leadoff walk was in motion when Martinez grounded to the mound, but was safe at first anyway. Castro held at second and thus couldn’t score on the following Black 6-4-3 grounder. But – finally someone came through! – Matt Pruitt doubled over Forest Messinger into center to score Castro anyway, 2-0 Raccoons, and it had taken only 11 hits to get there. Barrón walked, and Crespo hit for Nomura, but popped to short, and – oh! – Jones dropped the ball! Bases loaded for the fourth time on the day, this one came with two outs and Juan Rios batting, and he flew out to Messinger on the first pitch.

With Brownie working on his masterpiece, Tom Dahlke’s grounder to third base was not only mishandled, but completely abused by Martinez for a nerve-wrecking error. After Messinger struck out, Tom Turner catapulted a pitch into the gap between batter’s eye and the rightfield bleachers. Raccoons: 11 hits. Aces: 1 hit. And yet it’s a tied game. Now it was all going to ****. With two outs, Min-tae Yu had a pinch-hit single, and Castro couldn’t claim McDermott’s drive to center as the Aces took the lead. Brown left defeated, but that was only the beginning. After Rockburn ended the frame, he put Cameron on base in the ninth. Dan Parker was called on to face Messinger with two outs, but walked him. After Turner singled and drove in a run, Parker’s Raccoons debut was glorified by Melvin Pollack’s 3-run homer. 7-2 Aces. Quebell 2-5, 3B; Black -2,5; Pruitt 2-4, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, L (5-3) and 2-3;

There are no words.

It- … no. No, no. Slappy. Tell your cousin he has to fire up the still this weekend.

Raccoons (30-21) @ Loggers (21-32) – June 6-8, 2008

The jokes of the league crawled into Milwaukee for a weekend 3-game set with another desperately bad team. The Loggers had lost five in a row, were 11th in runs scored and 9th in runs allowed. They had been beaten four out of five times by the Raccoons this year, but I was having a gut feeling that this was going to be one of those weeks that make you regret you didn’t study harder as a kid and didn’t get a proper job.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 4.18 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (4-5, 2.63 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-2, 2.10 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (1-7, 5.53 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-3, 4.15 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (3-5, 5.11 ERA)

That’s two left-handers and then a right-hander. But they had an off day, they could use lefty William Lloyd (3-5, 5.11 ERA) just as well in the last game. The Raccoons suck hard against left-handers over the last month.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Barrón – LF Castro – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 3B Chavez – CF Trevino – P Yates
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B T. Johnson – 2B K. Scott – 1B Lewis – P M. Garcia

Again, the Duke took care of a lead, doubling home Quebell in the first inning, and again the lead didn’t hold up. The Loggers were up by the third with an inside-the-park home run by Tom Johnson and a conventional out-of-the-park home run by Hiwalani the countables on the home team’s side. Garcia was striking out Raccoons in droves, but Tom Johnson’s error in the top 4th allowed the Raccoons to tie it up again when Ryan Miller scored on Yates’ sac fly. When he wasn’t allowing home runs, Kelvin Yates pitched in 3-ball counts, so the misery train was further kicking up speed. Not that the Loggers didn’t find ways to turn those 3-ball counts into full counts and strike out eventually – they were in last place for reasons – but from time to time they lucked into one, and the next one came in the sixth, Tim Austin’s solo home run regaining them the lead.

The Loggers removed Garcia when Tomas Castro reached on a floater that dinked into shallow right before HIwalani could get to it, with two outs in the seventh. Leonard Williamson faced the Duke, and the Duke relished his appearance, powering a score-flipping 2-run homer! And that lead didn’t last, either. Sims put Richardson on base with a leadoff double in the bottom 8th, and Marcos Bruno uncharacteristically gave away two walks, and the lead, too. The Loggers left the bases full, then saw Micah Steele apparently turned into minced meat in the top 9th. Pruitt singled in place of Bruno, and Quebell walked. Barrón singled into left, softly enough for Pruitt to score and generate the third Coons lead on the night. And this one wasn’t held, either.

Once Steele had struck out Castro, Black grounded out, moving the runners into scoring position, but Steele awarded Craig Bowen the golden sombrero for an 0-5, 4 K evening. Angel was left with a 1-run lead, and loaded the bases with singles by Caleb Lewis, Aaron Tolwith, and Chris Delaney. Tolwith’s was especially bitter, as Casas forewent a sure out at first to nab – or rather, not nab – Lewis at second base. With one out, we needed a K facing Bakile Hiwalani, coonskinner deluxe, but the old adversary legged out an infield single to tie the score. Austin popped out before Alonso Baca’s drive to center was intercepted by Trevino to strand six Loggers in two innings, and send the game to extras. Like we needed to see more of this fecesball.

Nomura and Chavez made quick outs before Trevino drew a 2-out walk in the top 10th. Martinez hit for Casas, singled, and when Quebell singled to center, Trevino scored from second base. Oh look, another 1-run lead. What a novel concept. But here, Barrón rammed a double through Lewis at first base to plate another two runs, and we actually went to 8-5 before facing the dilemma of whom to trust with the ball. With right-handers up, Law Rockburn got the call over Ed Bryan and ended the game on three easy grounders to the left side. 8-5 Critters. Barrón 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; Black 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Trevino 2-4, BB, 2B; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Martinez (PH) 1-1;

Kaz Kichida cleared waivers and was assigned to the Alley Cats. Juan Rios also went to St. Pete in exchange for Sergio Esquivel, who had batted over .400 in seven games in his rehab assignment.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – SS Barrón – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – CF Crespo – P Umberger
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – SS B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C Baca – 3B T. Johnson – 2B K. Scott – 1B S. Johnson – P F. Cruz

Two out, two on in the top 2nd, J.C. Crespo, batting .174, was up in a 3-0 count against Fernando Cruz. While we were really not looking forward to Umberger batting with the sacks full, Crespo’s fly out to right was not any better, in fact it was worse, having Umberger lead off the third with a strikeout. Crespo sucking or not, Tomas Castro gave the Raccoons the lead with his solo shot in the following at-bat. But here was another case of a 5+ ERA pitcher not getting his punishment. Cruz scattered four hits over six innings and got finally a run in his support when Hiwalani singled home Richardson in the bottom 6th, tying the score. Top 7th, Martinez singled to start the inning. The Loggers gave a free pass to Esquivel(!!) to pull up Crespo with one out, but we sent Chavez with a stick, and his fast grounder defeated Spencer Johnson for the go-ahead RBI single. The Coons left two on once Castro struck out, and of course something stupid happened to blow the lead. Keith Scott and Jaime Garcia hit 1-out singles, before Scott scored on Umberger’s wild pitch. Aaron Tolwith hit a pinch-hit single, with Garcia waived around, but was thrown out at home by Castro. Umberger’s final opponent was going to be J.R. Richardson, whom he struck out to end the inning with a 2-2 tie.

While Umberger didn’t get a decision, Rockburn held the Loggers at bay in the eighth. We faced Micah Steele again, as obviously the Loggers weren’t learning lessons unless being indoctrinated repeatedly. Sergio Esquivel reached with a hopper into left for a 1-out single. Chavez grounded out, moving Esquivel to second base, with Quebell now batting for Rockburn. Adrian Quebell was nursing an 11-game hitting streak, but it kinda had to be, the only other batter left on the bench being Ryan Miller. Steele got to two strikes, but didn’t get a third. Instead, the Raccoons claimed two runs on a huge home run to left. Also for once, the Raccoons didn’t allow seventeen runs in the ninth inning, as Angel sat down Baca, Johnson, and Scott in order. 4-2 Raccoons. Castro 2-5, HR, RBI; Esquivel 2-3, BB; Chavez (PH) 1-2, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Umberger 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K and 1-2, 2B;

Law Rockburn now has as many wins as Brownie and Kel Yates.

Interlude: trade, waiver claim, and roster movements

Sunday was busy day for Portland beat writers. Which means the Agitator had a lot of condemning to do with two moves that were made.

First, the Raccoons claimed 1B/3B Daniel Sharp (.225, 0 HR, 3 RBI) off waivers by the Miners. They had only given him 40 AB in two months. Ryan Miller, batting 1-for-16 since being recalled from the Alley Cats, was sent packing again. That gives us ****ty coverage at shortstop again, but we’ll work something out for that, too.

Then the controversial move: the Raccoons traded for the Canadiens’ 37-year old OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.277, 1 HR, 18 RBI), who is due another $540k for this year, and hasn’t stayed off the DL since 2003.

The Elks had used him in right, and were looking for an upgrade at that position. So we traded them 24-yr old AAA RF Bob Mays, batting .311 with five homers in St. Pete, and legendarily squid whenever assigned to the parent club. They also get right-hander Tom Watkins (0-0, 2.51 ERA) right off the DL, and 21-yr old borderline prospect SP D.J. Fulgieri, who was going at a 0-5, 5.65 ERA rate in Ham Lake after being signed out of the home for homeless 11th round picks this winter. He had spun back-to-back shutouts in Aumsville in April. The consensus is that Fulgieri will reach the majors at some point, but a) not now, and b) not soon. The Raccoons need help REAL soon.

The Elks had asked for Mays plus either Hector Santos (another AA starting pitcher, but with lots more upside) or Jimmy E (still picking his nose in Aumsville), and I had been close to dealing the latter, but then worked out a package that cost Watkins in combo with a third-rate prospect. Fletcher is a right-handed batter that doesn’t strike out a whole lot, and will greatly help to balance the lineup against left-handed pitching. Despite his advanced age, he can still play all outfield spots, plus first base. He has a vesting option for $810k for next season that we will carefully try not to trigger.

With Fletcher’s arrival, J.C. Crespo got binned, batting .167 after pleasing outputs in 2006 and 2007. He was waived and designated for assignment.

Raccoons (30-21) @ Loggers (21-32) – June 6-8, 2008

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Baldwin
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C J. Reyes – SS T. Johnson – 3B Tolwith – 1B K. Scott – P R. Thomas

Both pitchers came to bat with two on and wo out in the second inning for their teams, and while Baldwin failed, Thomas singled home a run to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead, but the Coons would soon catch major breaks by defensive calamities committed by the Loggers. An errant pickoff throw by Roy Thomas scored the tying run for the visitors in the third inning, and in the fourth we had Bowen on second after a leadoff double when Barrón’s fly to left was dropped by a stumbling J.R. Richardson to get runners onto the corners. But for the second time this week the Raccoons didn’t score a runner on third with no outs, with Nomura lining out to Tolwith, and Baldwin and Quebell going down looking. And against a 5+ ERA pitcher…

Baldwin was yanked in the bottom 6th. Bowen had already thrown out a runner of his, Tim Austin, but Baldwin issued another single and a walk to the next two batters. Tolwith had already doubled off Baldwin, but doubled off Bruno just as well, and also scored on a wide throw by Castro getting him to third and the subsequent groundout. Sitting in a 4-1 hole after six, ineptly failing to hit a pushover pitcher, was not a new situation for the Raccoons, but it remained infuriating. They had the leadoff batters on in the next two innings, but hit into a double play (Quebell) or left the runner (Black) on third. To make an awful game complete, the Raccoons would lose Matt Cash to an injury in the eighth inning. 4-1 Loggers. Castro 2-4, 2B;

Cash left with an oblique tweak. He will be out for one week or longer, which triggers a DL assignment. We have Monday off, we’ll take a close look at remaining options at AAA then.

In other news

June 4 – TOP C Miguel Torres (.249, 2 HR, 22 RBI) has strained an oblique and will be out for six weeks.
June 6 – CIN RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.219, 2 HR, 10 RBI) goes back to the DL with a torn meniscus that will keep him out until late July. He already missed six weeks with a hamstring strain.

Complaints and stuff

Jerry Fletcher ain’t no Kisho, nor a Tetsu, but maybe it will still work out for us.

What a week. Not exactly how you’d imagine a wannabe-contending team going about things. We aren’t getting out of the rut.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-22) @ Indians (25-32) – June 10-12, 2008

And another team far off the pace, as we moved from Milwaukee to Indy for a midweek 3-game set. So far we are 3-1 on the season against the Indians, whose record was probably a bit worse than it should be. They were just below league average in both runs scored and runs allowed, but with a strong bullpen that was weighed down by a crummy rotation.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (2-3, 4.45 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (2-7, 4.78 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-3, 2.92 ERA) vs. Kevin Edwards (2-6, 5.15 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 4.14 ERA) vs. Bob King (6-3, 3.36 ERA)

We promoted Sergio Vega (yeah, I know, it’s tragic…) to take the place of Matt Cash, who was placed on the disabled list. It is possible that the Indians will skip Edwards, in which case they would move Ramiro Gonzalez (4-6, 4.46 ERA) into this series. In any case we start with the lefty Escobedo opposing us, which sees the Raccoons debut of recent addition Jerry Fletcher.

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – SS Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – CF Fletcher – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Cruz
IND: RF B. Miller – 2B C. Aguilar – LF Alston – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – SS J. Lopez – CF Martines – P Escobedo

The Coons managed to hit into double plays in the first two innings, while Cruz walked two in the first, but wiggled out, then allowed a leadoff double to Filippo Fugosi in the bottom 2nd, and wiggled out with three strikeouts. The Indians still took the lead in the third inning, having singles land safe and fair and square by Bill Miller and Cesar Aguilar, and Ron Alston hit a sac fly to Black in right. The Raccoons faced a pitcher of meager ability, and so nobody was surprised at all that they didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning, when Sharp singled to left, also moving Fletcher, who had walked for the second time in the game, to second base with no outs. Escobedo threw a wild pitch, then walked Bowen anyway to load them up, his fifth walk in the game. He had about lost it now. Yoshi Nomura drew another walk to tie the game before Cruz had the terrible luck to hit a hard grounder to Simon Stevens, who turned a double play, home-and-first. Castro came through with a 2-out, 2-run double, however, as the Brownshirts took a 3-1 lead. The next inning, Jerry Fletcher hit his first home run as a Furball, a solo shot to get to 4-1 on the board. Cruz got stuck in the bottom 7th, not retiring anybody with Felix Martines and Ron Brantley hitting singles right by Ricardo Martinez. Donald Sims relieved Cruz and ended the inning in three batters. The Coons added a pair of runs in the eighth, with Dan Parker giving one back on a Jose Paraz homer in the bottom of the same inning, temporarily running his ERA to a juicy 108.00 before the defense won him three outs he didn’t deserve. Trying to preserve the good parts of the bullpen didn’t do us any good, however, since Sergio Vega was also overmatched in the ninth. Angel Casas had to come out of the pen with two men on and two out, and Ron Alston batting. Angel saved the game, but didn’t close it. What? His first pitch missed outside, but Bowen saw Aguilar off first base and rocketed the ball to Daniel Sharp, who nipped the second baseman for the final out. 6-2 Critters! Barrón 2-4, BB; Chavez 1-1; Fletcher 2-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Sharp 3-5, 2B; Nomura 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, RBI; Cruz 6.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (3-3);

Sharpiiieee!!! That boy just needs steady at-bats to be good! Too bad he won’t get them. Game 2 will see Quebell at first, and Chavez at third, and Martinez nowhere near the field. By now I think Brownie is right. Martinez is a bad jinx for him.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – 3B Chavez – P Brown
IND: CF B. Miller – 2B Brantley – LF Alston – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – RF A. Solís – SS C. Aguilar – P King

This time around, the no-hitter ended in the first at-bat, with Bill Miller singling to center before he was caught up in a double play when Chavez dug out Brantley’s bouncer to turn two. The next four batters reached base then, with Alston and Paraz singling before Stevens walked and Fugosi got it. Ah, it was going to be one of THOSE games.

While Bowen tied the score with his eighth homer on the year in the top 2nd, Ron Alston got hit by Brown in the bottom 3rd, but was left on base. Brown was not talking to anybody, not even the pitching coach when he came out after that contact pitch, just glanced and nodded. It was obvious he had nothing. He struck out the side in the fourth (tucking a walk to Aguilar in between K’s), but he still had nothing. The defense held him in one piece, like in the fifth, when he had just given a 2-out walk to Alston (although, probably better than giving him something to hit) before Paraz drilled a ball to the depths of leftfield, where Matt Pruitt sold out and ate some dirt on a sprawling catch. The offense was anemic, however, and the game was still tied 1-1 in the seventh when Martinez hit for Brown with Nomura on second, Chavez on first, and two outs, and struck out on three pitches. In the ninth we got the very same situation again. After Tommy Wooldridge had shaved Bowen and Barrón, Nomura and Chavez both singled to center. Jerry Fletcher hit for Law Rockburn and walked, leaving Quebell to strike out. The bottom of the order, Solís and Aguilar hit two deep flies off Bruno in the bottom 9th, but both were caught near the warning track, sending the game to extras, with ten Coons hits against four Indians hits, and in the bottom 10th the results were similar with Roberto Pacheco and Bill Miller driving balls off Donald Sims. Top 11th, the Coons got their first two men on, Barrón and Nomura reaching against Leonardo Sosa. Danny Sharp hit for Sims with the runners in scoring position and struck out, but – finally! – Quebell came through with a full-count single to right, plating at least one run before Castro also whiffed. Angel retired the middle of the order to end the game. 2-1 Coons. Quebell 2-6, RBI; Pruitt 2-5; Nomura 2-5; Chavez 3-5; Bryan 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

It had been a few days, but Adrian Quebell’s hitting streak reached 14 games. And with seven strikeouts, Brownie took over the CL lead (at least for a day). With Umberger leading the ERA table, only the wins column doesn’t feature a Raccoon. Wonder why. But hey, maybe we can set up Raw Lockburn in a few more tied games…

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – CF Fletcher – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – P Yates
IND: CF A. Solís – RF B. Miller – LF Alston – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 2B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – 3B Kilters – P R. Gonzalez

Some things never change. Kel Yates continued to be a hot mess, the Coons lineup still resembled a tragic traffic accident, and the Raccoons just couldn’t sweep a series from any team. Yates was so far off, he appeared to be targeting a strike zone the next county over, and was spanked for four runs in the first three innings. The middle of the order did horrendous things to him, and as if Ron Alston was not enough of a killjoy as was, he also robbed a home run from the Duke in the fourth inning. That was before he pilfered one, the 221st of his career, off Yates in the fifth inning, ending a pitiful pitching performance with a 5-1 score. While Pruitt and Fletcher gained runs with 2-out base hits in the sixth, in both the fifth and sixth innings the Coons were denied by Angel Solís catching a deep drive with two men on to end the frame. Dan Parker faced four left-handers in the bottom 6th, with Chris Kilters singling, Parker throwing away Gonzalez’ bunt, before Quebell dug out Solís’ bunt himself. Parker then drilled Bill Miller really hard. The Indians would eventually only score one run when Barrón bobbled Alston’s grounder, but turned the double play on Paraz’, both of the sluggers facing Donald Sims. The Raccoons left another two men stranded in the seventh, the final base runners of the game. 6-3 Indians. Pruitt 3-4, 2 2B, RBI;

Quebell went squid-for-four and thus had his streak snapped. Another interesting development was the shuttle bus that carried the team to the airport after the game being ordered to stop at the side of the freeway. Dan Parker (21.60 ERA) was chained to the guard rail real tight. Then the bus drove off.

Raccoons (34-23) vs. Blue Sox (31-27) – June 13-15, 2008

Great, now we actually have to face a winning team. Just great! The Sox were seventh in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed in the Federal League, which were numbers quite similar to what the Indians were putting up. But in their case they had a half-decent rotation, but were plagued with a completely burnt out bullpen that was almost the worst in the league. All time this interleague series stands at 30-30, with the teams facing another the last two years. The Blue Sox swept the set in ’06, but we swept them last year.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-2, 2.14 ERA) vs. Stanton Taylor (5-3, 4.91 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-4, 4.29 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (2-5, 6.09 ERA)
Javier Cruz (3-3, 4.18 ERA) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (4-3, 4.37 ERA)

We will face three right-handers in this set.

The next reliever up here is 25-year old righty Claudio Salazar, who pitched to a 4.50 ERA in 15 games for us in ’06, but was not tapped in ’07. We will keep the carrousel going until we find someone who isn’t worse than Uncle Dick, and Uncle Dick has been dead for nine years.

It was still a beautiful summer in Portland, which meant more driving rain, hail, sleet, and just a little bit of frog blood. The opener of the set was postponed from Friday to Saturday for a double header, where it was just merely dark gray all around.

Game 1
NAS: 3B A. Esquivel – SS Higashi – 2B Spinu – RF J. Ortíz – CF Cavazos – C M. Thomas – LF MacDonald – 1B Kaustrop – P S. Taylor
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – SS Barrón – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Umberger

The series started with a 6-spot the Raccoons put up in the first inning, smashing Stanton Taylor into tiny little pieces. Ricardo Martinez hit a 2-run homer, Pruitt and Nomura drove in single runs, and Quebell and Castro drew bases-loaded walks before Martinez popped up with the bases loaded. For the Sox, it got only worse from there. Carlos Castro, fallen starter, pitched in long relief, but between the first seven men he faced in the third inning, he walked three, and two reached on infield singles, before Pruitt hit a single that actually reached the outfield. 10-0 Coons, next guy in please. Vicente Martinez started with a 2-run single to Barrón. That brought up Bowen, who catapulted a 3-run homer just fair in right. Fifteen-oh!! And this was only the third inning.

The Raccoons continued to score a run in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth. Fans were nothing short of delirious, and nobody particularly noticed that Umberger allowed four runs in seven and a third innings. Sergio Vega grabbed the last five outs in a rabid blowout. 19-4 Raccoons!! Quebell 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Castro 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Martinez 3-4, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Black 2-6, 3 RBI; Barrón 4-6, 2B, 4 RBI; Nomura 3-5, 2 RBI; Vega 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Whoooo!!! Offense!! And the good thing is, they burnt most of their pen in a futile attempt to cover this game here, and another game starts … NOW!

Game 2
NAS: C Hogarth – SS Higashi – 2B Spinu – RF J. Ortíz – 3B A. Esquivel – CF A. Hernandez – 1B Kaustrop – LF J. Alvarez – P Baker
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C S. Esquivel – 2B Chavez – P Baldwin

Just a few hours after a 19-run fun parade, the Raccoons looked like a dead hedgehog that had strangled himself in a loose clothes line against Jim Baker. While Baldwin was putting runners on base constantly, he always got to lefty Juan Ortíz with two outs and a runner on third base (and sometimes more), and struck him out twice, with Trevino shagging a fly the third time around, in the fifth inning. At that point, the Coons had amassed two measly hits. The bottom 5th saw Trevino and Esquivel lead off with singles, before Nelson Chavez came to the plate and grounded a pitch to the second baseman. Georg Spinu took a step in the wrong direction and then missed the grounder for an RBI single. That was all the glory, however. Baldwin struck out bunting, Quebell fouled out, and Barrón grounded out poorly to Butch Kaustrop. And doesn’t Butch Kaustrop just always pop up when you really don’t need him?

The bottom 7th had another leadoff single from Trevino, who then swiped second base, moving to third on Esquivel’s groundout. A hard grounder to first off Pruitt’s bat had been played masterfully by Kaustrop in the sixth, but in the seventh he missed Chavez’ rocket to right for another RBI single, 2-0 Coons. This time Baldwin got the bunt down, moving Chavez to second, from where he scored on Quebell’s single to center, 3-0. In the top 8th, with nobody on this time, Ortíz hit a 2-out double. Baldwin was replaced with Rockburn, who surrendered the run on a single hit by Antonio Esquivel, but struck out Anastasio Hernandez to end the inning. There, successfully bridged to Angel! Maybe we wouldn’t need him, however. Baker was also still in the game and allowed three straight singles to Pruitt, Black, and Castro in the bottom of the inning, with nobody out. Trevino struck out, Esquivel grounded one squarely to Spinu. Yeah. We’d need Angel. The Sox never saw a ball, and went down in a hurry. 3-1 Furballs! Castro (PH) 1-1; Trevino 2-4; Chavez 2-3, 2 RBI; Baldwin 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-4);

Woo-hoo, double header sweep! There’s another game on Sunday, though. We haven’t swept a 3-game set since the May 2-4 series against the Loggers.

Game 3
NAS: 3B A. Esquivel – SS Higashi – 2B Spinu – RF J. Ortíz – CF A. Hernandez – C M. Thomas – LF J. Alvarez – 1B Kaustrop – P Uenohara
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – RF Fletcher – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Cruz

Antonio Esquivel led off the game with a homer and Cruz walked Higashi before getting out of the first with a black eye. Cruz got better after that, almost got his legs kicked out under him by another gruesome Martinez error in the fourth inning, but Craig Bowen threw out Juan Ortíz stealing to regain the extra out and the Blue Sox didn’t score. The Raccoons had not gotten past first base in the first three innings, then loaded the bases with a Castro double, Martinez walk, and Pruitt single, with no outs in the bottom 4th. Jerry Fletcher ran a full count before drawing a walk that tied the game. Bowen grounded right back to Uenohara, getting Martinez forced out at home, but the Raccoons would get a sac fly from Barrón to take the lead before Uenohara also allowed an RBI single to Nomura and then an RBI double to Javier Cruz! Joy soon flipped into agony with Mark Thomas, the ex-Coon, hitting a leadoff bloop single to shallow left in the top 5th. Jesus Alvarez immediately emptied the bases with a cracking homer to left, 4-3. Cruz got stuck in the sixth and yielded to Ed Bryan with the tying run on first in Georg Spinu, and lefty Juan Ortíz holding a bat. Bryan kept and kept failing, Ortíz doubled, and the Blue Sox had runners on second and third. And now you want Bruno. But Bruno didn’t get it done. The tying run scored on Anastasio Hernandez’ groundout before Thomas fouled out to third, and we were tied at four. Black hit for Bruno with Bowen on third base in the bottom 6th, and two outs, but grounded out.

COME ON!! We want a sweep – finally!!

The Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 7th, but Bowen flew out to deep left and to Alvarez to leave another three men stranded. After Claudio Salazar had pitched a scoreless seventh, Law Rockburn held the Blue Sox away in the eighth and ninth, giving the team a chance to walk off in the ninth, with the top of the order up, facing closer Luis Hernandez, for whom the Sox hadn’t quite had a use so far in the series. Three quick outs later, we played extras. Sergio Vega struck out two in a scoreless 10th, but there was still Hernandez, and the Raccoons were still not getting things done.

We were about out of pitching when Castro drew a leadoff walk from Robert Parsons in the bottom 12th. Next up was Donald Sims after a double switch. We still had Chavez on the bench, but I didn’t feel like it was a good spot. When Sims came to the plate, everybody and their mother knew that Castro was going to take off as soon as possible. He went on the first pitch, Jason Hogarth was up like a shot and fired a rocket to second base – SAFE!!! Sims couldn’t get a bunt down, unfortunately, and Castro had to hold on Pruitt’s single, with Ortíz ready to use his Gold Glove arm to kill him at home. Parsons put two strikes on Fletcher before Jerry hit a grounder to short, AND PAST HIGASHI!! INTO LEFT!! CASTRO SCORES!! 5-4 Coons!!! Castro 2-5, 2B; Nomura 2-5, RBI; Sharp 1-2; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Vega 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; Sims 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-1);

In other news

June 11 – The Titans deal SP Bryce Hildred (2-5, 4.90 ERA) to the Gold Sox for 1B/3B Jesus Amador, 30, who only had 16 AB for the Sox this year, batting .375, and a minor league catcher.
June 12 – Suffering the entire 2008 season, TIJ SP Jorge Silva (3-6, 7.44 ERA) will undergo radial nerve compression surgery, which ends his campaign.
June 13 – DEN RF/LF Pedro Pujols (.358, 7 HR, 33 RBI) has forged a 20-game hitting streak with a 2-hit day in the Gold Sox’ 10-6 win over the Aces.

Complaints and stuff

Finally a 5-1 week, and a series sweep! You can’t ever move away from the pack if you keep playing 3-3 every week. Of course, the Crusaders went undefeated this week, and that’s not the only problem. Everything is so spotty. Nothing really works.

Nick Brown is winless in four games, Kel Yates in five. To be fair, Yates has been **** for the last four games, blooming his ERA by almost one and a half runs.

The week is not really over. The Amateur Draft will be this Sunday night, and we don’t really have a plan in place. You can’t really have a plan picking 21st. Picking second or fourth is better in terms of the juicy young talent you can get, but … It’s great to pick 21st!! XD

Tomas Castro stole three bases on Sunday, only the tenth time a Raccoon has stolen as many, and the first time in an extra inning game. Castro holds two of the 3 SB games, with five of those ten games by Matt Higgins between 1989 and 1993. Daniel Hall, Concie Guerin, and Yoshi Yamada are the remaining triple-swipers.

J.C. Crespo cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA.

Oakweeds is back in Ham Lake, going 0-for-8 in his first three games, but had a pair of 2-hit games on Saturday and Sunday. He turned 20 in late May. Time to man up, son!

Stats time – Indianapolis Indians career stats leaders!

WINS
1st – Jesse Carver – 135
2nd – Billy Robinson – 98
3rd – Miguel Sanchez – 76
4th – Manuel Alba – 71
t-5th – Curtis Tobitt – 70
t-5th – Robert Vázquez – 70

STRIKEOUTS
1st – Jesse Carver – 1,189
2nd – Dan George – 866
3rd – Curtis Tobitt – 799
4th – Chang-se Park – 781
5th – Billy Robinson – 779

HITS
1st – Angelo Duarte – 1,478
2nd – Ron Alston – 1,266
3rd – David Lopez – 1,210
4th – Gabe Taylor – 1,200
5th – Matt Brown – 1,102

HOME RUNS
1st – Ron Alston – 221
2nd – David Lopez – 217
3rd – Jose Paraz – 170
4th – Raúl Vázquez – 157
5th – Matt Brown – 145

STOLEN BASES
1st – Bill Taggart – 120
2nd – Angelo Duarte – 109
3rd – Esteban Hernandez – 96
4th – Raúl Vázquez – 95
5th – Tomas Maguey - 88

Odd fact about the Indians: Jesse Carver (1982-1991) is the only starting pitcher to spend more than seven years with them. Only two relievers outlasted him, Tim Hess (1985-1996) and Jim Durden (1987-1997). By contrast, they had nine position players to spend 10+ years with them, including current roster occupants Ron Alston and Jose Paraz.

Very odd fact about the Indians: only twice did the Indians score more than 717 runs (4.4 R/G) in a season, 1992 and 2003, with 755 and 760 runs, respectively. For comparison, even the usually offense-starved Raccoons have logged six seasons with more than 4.4 R/G (and four more *with* 4.4 R/G), in 1989, 1991-1992, and 1995-1997. Those years should ring bells, mostly.

By the way, did you know that the 1981 Raccoons scored only 519 runs, 3.2 R/G, and that there has been only one team more inept at plating people than that? The 1988 Scorpions were held to 505 runs. That team lost 112 games, the absolute low point in league history. No team has ever gone worse than 50-112. The ’81 Coons merely lost 97 games, which was more routine than anything back then.

[Questdog]

I am liking this Fletcher fella; I wonder if he is a straight arrow?....

Good pickup!

[Westheim]

I'm still surprised the Elks parted with him that easily. I feared it might actually cost us a valuable player. Of course D.J. Fulgieri can still turn into the next Martin Garcia, but ah... we have to stay in our window of opportunity, which is now (and '09) and not '11 or something like that.

I also like the Sharp pickup, which was stage 1 of an infield revamp, but now stage 2 has been put on hold for another week or so, since Nelson Chavez could feel a cold breeze when I opened the door for him to exit, and suddenly started to hit.

Problem with the current configuration is the wholly insufficient coverage at shortstop, where nobody has any experience or ability in particular (except old man Barrón of course). Can't put Quebell, Sharp, or Martinez there. Yoshi played like parts of three games there in his career, same for Chavez, if that many.

Where can I buy that Extra Roster Spot DLC?