Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Honorable_Pawn]

[Westheim]

Raccoons (14-8) vs. Indians (13-12) – May 4-7, 2009

Contrary to everybody’s expectation, Portland hadn’t been washed down into the Pacific in our two-week absence and there was still a park to play in. The Indians came in for four games, and we’d see how many we’d actually be able to get in, and how our slight mess of a lineup would work against their fourth-place rotation, fourth-place bullpen, and fourth-place number of runs allowed. They were eighth in offense, with a +2 run differential. The Coons’ was +25, thanks to the best pitching in league, despite the 12-run meltdown on Sunday in the City That Shall Not Be Mentioned.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-1, 1.57 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (3-1, 3.19 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-2, 4.32 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (0-0)
Greg Grams (3-0, 3.80 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (3-0, 3.62 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (2-1, 2.73 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (3-2, 3.35 ERA)

The Indians have just traded for the Rebels outfielder Brian MacNamara, who’s batting .222 in 45 AB.

Their rotation is everything but fixed after calling up Ramón Escobedo, who pitched on Wednesday, just like Jimmy Sjogren. Fluctuations entirely possible. Those two are also the only left-handers in their rotation. Closing for Indy: Salvardo Soure (8 SV, 0.75 ERA). Eight years later, I’m still regretting that trade with the Baybirds.

Game 1
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Theobald – 3B C. Aguilár – LF Morton – SS R. Miller – P Weise
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Esquivel – SS Howell – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Brown

MacNamara, just in, had the first of the three singles with which the Indians took a 1-0 lead in the top 1st. While Castro’s leadoff triple in the bottom 1st led to the tying run on an Alston sac fly to center, Brownie would continue to have trouble with the top of the order the entire day, especially ex-Critter Juan Barrón, whom he never retired. Still, the Raccoons actually took a lead with some creaky offense in a Brown start, with Castro scoring Manuel Gutierrez, who had drawn a leadoff walk, with a double in the bottom of the fifth. Trouble brewed in the seventh inning. Tom Weise singled with nobody on and two out, and Brown then walked Dave Heffer, hitting for MacNamara, in a full count. With Barrón back up, that was his day. Law Rockburn was tasked with the pesky middle infielder, entering in a double switch with Trevino (for Pruitt), with the pitcher’s spot due to lead off the bottom of the inning. Barrón struck a hard single to left anyway, loading the bases for Jose Paraz, who snipped the first pitch he saw up the middle where Rob Howell made a lunging grab and flung the ball to Correa JUST in time to get Barrón out and preserve the 2-1 lead. Rockburn held on in the eighth, and while the entirety of the Coons’ order did absolutely nothing against Weise towards the end of his eight innings, Angel Casas struck out Joe Morton and Bruce Boyle to start the ninth before Tom Walls singled up the middle. Ancient Daniel Richardson, not well-liked in Portland still after all these years, grounded out to Correa to end the game. 2-1 Brownies. Castro 3-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Esquivel 2-3; Brown 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (2-1); Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Yaaay, Brownie on #99! Now all will be well!

Game 2
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Theobald – 3B C. Aguilár – LF D. Richardson – SS R. Miller – P Sjogren
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C De La Parra – 3B R. Martinez – SS Howell – P Baldwin

Jimmy Sjogren was sent out by Indy for the second game and displayed some grave control issues right from the start. While Castro struck out in the bottom 1st, Jose Correa hit a single to right before Sjogren walked the entire middle of the order, pushing in Correa with the walk to Quebell, his 25th RBI. De La Parra, the fool, hit at the first pitch he got and grounded into a 6-4-3 to Ryan Miller, who came into this series batting .317 (…). Another strange at-bat occurred in the bottom 2nd. Rob Howell had singled his way on with one out and Baldwin was somehow trying to get him to second base. Although; you could always run on Jose Paraz’ clumsy claw. Howell didn’t get a good jump, though, and once Baldwin had bunted foul often enough to be down 0-2, Howell got the sign to run anyway. The Indians saw it coming, Paraz shot up on the pitchout and fired to second ba-… or maybe not, maybe he fired into centerfield. Howell ended up at third base and the fazed Sjogren then walked Baldwin, only for Castro to fly out to shallow left and Correa to strike out. Hnngh!

No less strange was the top 3rd in this game that qualified for the “wicked” moniker early on. Miller reached to start the inning on a clumsy Martinez non-play that got the sophomore third baseman charged with an error. Sjogren bunted into a double play before MacNamara singled to right where Black corralled the ball, saw MacNamara making for second base and threw him out with a perfect laser.

The madness was further enhanced by a 33-minute rain delay in the fourth inning that was a day behind schedule, and the fact that not only Baldwin spun six shutout innings in this climatically challenged game, but also that Sjogren, who was completely off balance in the first three innings, went on a strikeout spree in the middle three innings, and had whiffed nine Coons by the end of the sixth, with the score still 1-0, but at least the latter thing got taken care of by the off-the-hooks Raccoons pen. Richardson put two men on and Donald Sims served up a 2-out, 2-run double to Joe Morton to get his team into the trailing position, and this was not a team that trailed well right now. The 2-3-4 department was sat down without much fuss by Leonardo Sosa in the seventh inning, but at least Quebell’s whiskers were still twitching occasionally. His single to start the bottom 8th off Hélio Maggessi at least put the tying run on base, and when Maggessi misfielded De La Parra’s grounder for an error, we had two on. Pruitt hit for Martinez and almost into a double play, but we retained runners on the corners for Howell, who DID ground into that double play. Soure sat down the side in the bottom 9th. 2-1 Indians. De La Parra 2-4; Baldwin 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

I wonder what we’re paying Donald Sims half a million for after all. Ed Bryan was also good enough for those score-flipping multiple-RBI extra-base hits and costs only half the coins.

But anyway, it’s time for changes! The team stinks quite badly right now, and we gotta flick stuff around.

The first two players to be demoted this season were John Richardson (7.56 ERA) and … yeah … Ricardo Martinez (.167, 0 HR, 2 RBI). Martinez, with his glove, can’t bat like that. And Richardson, well, he might not be a permanent solution after all. Ted Reese (a 2004 supplemental round pick by the Loggers that arrived here in trade for Dave Wheaton and cash in 2005) took over the bullpen spot vacated by Richardson, while the third base situation was more of a problem. No AAA player suited our needs (or batted at least his weight; looking at you, Walt Canning!). In AA, there was Kevin Rex, who was a good defensive third baseman, and was drawing walks like crazy, but that still only made for a .646 OPS. Nah, an interim solution was required while I was cooking up something else. That something else might not be popular. Ximenes Lopes was called up as a third catcher for a few days only (hopefully).

Game 3
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – LF Theobald – 3B C. Aguilár – RF D. Richardson – SS R. Miller – P Escobedo
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C De La Parra – SS Howell – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Grams

MacNamara and Tsung were really mean to Grams in this start. The first two times through the order, MacNamara got on and scored, while Tsung drove in a run. Their 3-0 lead after the top 3rd was somewhat cut into by Ron Alston’s 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom 3rd, but Grams continued to have every single hair pulled out of his fur, one by one. In the fifth, Escobedo hit a leadoff single, Barrón walked, and Grams’ ****ty throw also put Paraz on base to load them up for Tsung. Ed Bryan was tasked with the left-handed first baseman and allowed an RBI single to him before Paul Theobald hit into a double play started by Gutierrez. When Castro got on in the bottom 5th and was immediately thrown out stealing, I resigned myself to fate and put in the just-arrived Ted Reese for some juicy long relief in his major league debut, which started with a strikeout to César Aguilár and ultimately a clean sixth before Correa hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. Ron Alston’s drive to right was caught at the fence by Daniel Richardson, but when Richardson bounced off the fence, so did the ball out of his glove and Alston had a double. Runners on second and third and no outs for Black, who better get that 15th RBI now! While he did, it was only on a sac fly, which wasn’t greatly advancing the cause, and while Quebell singled, we sooner rather than later found some expensive mook to hit into a double play (De La Parra), leaving the team short, 4-3.

The Indians were unfazed in general, added a run off Reese in the seventh, and things continued to splinter for the Raccoons with Rob Howell tweaking his shoulder on a throw in the eighth. He left the game, Correa moved over and Yoshi entered at second base, immediately getting a big spot at-bat in the bottom 8th. After a Black single and Quebell walking, the catching mook managed a little fister for an RBI single to left, bringing up Yoshi with the tying and go-ahead runs on first and second. Nomura’s liner escaped Richardson, but De La Parra was way too slow to score on the double, and the go-ahead runs were left on base once Gutierrez struck out, oh, and by the way, Escobedo was still pitching. Donald Sims managed to not blow up the game in the ninth and was hit for to start the bottom 9th with Hélio Maggessi facing Pruitt, who singled, but then Castro popped up a bunt. Basic baseball skills – sorely lacking ‘round here. Correa walked, putting the Coons a solid single by Ron Alston away from a walkoff, but Alston was not a singles man. His rip to center was no doubt outta here, and measured at 411 feet. Walkoff!!! 8-5 Raccoons. Alston 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 5 RBI; Quebell 1-2, 2 BB; Nomura 1-1, 2B, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Reese 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;

Today’s damage report has me report that Rob Howell strained his shoulder and will be out for the next three to four weeks. He was put on the DL.

We were scrambling for a shortstop yet again, with multiple things conspiring against the call-up for a proper shortstop. The Raccoons would continue to improvise for another day or two. Normally, we’d call up SS Dave Roudabush from AAA now, but he was not on the 40-man roster, and would add $150k to our expenses, and that must not happen right now. Not now. It can happen on the weekend. I’m working on a waiver claim, and you won’t believe…

But for now, Ricardo Martinez was placed on a plane yet again and flown back to Portland.

Game 4
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – 1B Tsung – C Paraz – RF D. Richardson – 3B C. Aguilár – LF A. Solís – SS R. Miller – P Tobitt
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C De La Parra – 3B R. Martinez – SS M. Gutierrez – P Umberger

Misery went on and on, with Jong-hoo Umberger pitching for only four outs before leaving the game with what looked like a hamstring problem. That sent the bullpen scrambling pretty madly, potentially sending Marcos Bruno into long relief, although Matt Cash was spewn out first by the bullpen gate and would be wrung out for eight outs on 41 pitches. In what was hastily developing into another wicked game, Ricardo Martinez had put the Coons ahead with a solo shot in the bottom 2nd, 1-0, but killed the fourth with a double play after the Raccoons had put their first two batters on base. Marcos Bruno entered as anticipated in the fifth inning with the hope of having him turn in three more scoreless frames. He did a quick fifth, but the sixth was less than pretty. Tobitt led it off with a single, Barrón also singled, and Paraz was plunked with a 1-2 pitch with two out, loading them bases and bringing up … Richardson. That old nightmare fell to 0-2 before cracking a bouncer hard to the right side – but we had a Gold Glover manning first base and Quebell intercepted the missile and made the play himself to end the inning. Bruno had less problems in the seventh and also spun 41 pitches in advancing the contest. In the bottom 7th there was actually some offense by the home team. Martinez hit a double, moved up on Gutierrez’ groundout and scored on Pruitt’s sac fly. Castro then got on, stole second, and scored on Nomura’s single to run the score to 3-0.

That was before Ed Bryan almost single-handedly blew the game. MacNamara singled off him to start the eighth and he whacked Barrón with a pitch. Tsung popped out before the Indians game within ten feet of a game-tying 3-run bomb by Paraz that Black sucked up on the warning track. Richardson singled to right to plate the first run, which led to Angel Casas to appear while Bryan was chased into the tunnel by a maddened manager. Casas got Aguilár to ground out to end the inning with the tying runs on base. The Critters didn’t add anything of value in the bottom 8th, but with De La Parra being hit for by Trevino, Ximenes Lopes made his Raccoons debut in the ninth inning, witnessing Angel sitting down the Indians in order. 3-1 Furballs. Castro 3-4; Nomura 2-4, RBI; Martinez 2-3, HR, 2B, RBI; Cash 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-0); Bruno 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (10);

Today’s damage report: mild hamstring strain only for Jong-hoo, and he might (again) not miss a start. He was listed as DTD to get started.

And then…

Waiver claim

On Friday morning, the Raccoons were awarded the contract of 1B/3B Daniel Sharp off waivers by the Buffaloes. Sharp, batting .281 with no dingers and 9 RBI in 24 games this season, is the first Critter with three distinct stints in the organization, playing for the Coons after being drafted in 2000 through 2007, then in mid-2008 after being claimed off waivers from the Miners (and before being dealt to the Indians), and now after the waiver claim off the Buffaloes.

What can I say. He has pictures of me and Honeypaws in an explicit pose.

One good game doesn’t make a revival, and Ricardo Martinez was handed back to AAA to get evaluated further. We also removed Ximenes Lopes from the roster and added SS Dave Roudabush, a Condors eighth rounder from 2004 whom we had picked off the scrap heap in December 2007. Roudabush was batting .280/.321/.427 with 0 HR and 9 RBI in AAA at the time of the call and should get most of the starts as long as Howell is on the DL. He bats right handed and is definitely not a base stealer, but has a sure glove.

Raccoons (17-9) @ Capitals (17-12) – May 8-10, 2009

The Capitals were in a virtual tie for the FL East lead while the Raccoons were 1 1/2 games out in their division. How exactly they were doing it was something to marvel about, but they were ninth in runs scored in the Federal League and absolute last in batting average, while only posting the fifth-least runs allowed. Their defense was especially shoddy and their rotation was stuffed with ex-Coons, too, so their success was a mystery. We hadn’t played them since 2006, when we took two of three from them. In fact, the Raccoons had taken four of the last five series between the teams.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (2-1, 3.31 ERA) vs. Dean Merritt (2-1, 5.06 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-1, 1.53 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (1-2, 5.63 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-2, 3.48 ERA) vs. Randy Farley (3-1, 3.11 ERA)

Who else is in their rotation? Kelly Fairchild (2-3, 3.78 ERA) and – since a recent callup – Carlos Sackett.

CARLOS SACKETT!!

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Cruz
WAS: 3B R. Garza – 2B Watts – LF Potter – CF E. Wood – 1B R. Vargas – C C. Ramos – RF Vázquez – SS Guerin – P Merritt

The Raccoons immediately scored two runs in the first inning that were supported by a Raúl Vázquez error (not the former standout slugger Raúl Vázquez) and driven in by a Quebell single. Javier Cruz was pitching with a bit of traffic on the bases early but at least didn’t have anybody on when Ken Potter homered in the bottom 3rd to get the Capitals back to 2-1. A scoring chance transpired for the Raccoons in the top 4th with singles by Sharp and De La Parra before Roudabush walked and Cruz came to bat with no outs and an 0-13 ledger for the season. A soft line caught by Thomas Watts got him to 0-14, but at least Castro hit a sac fly to Elvis Wood to bring in a run. Correa legged out an infield single to restock the bags upon which Alston doubled in a pair, and Black, after two strikeouts earlier in the game, drove a ball to deep left that got intercepted by Ken Potter. He was back at the plate against Dane Sanders in the sixth, having Correa and Alston on the corners with one out in the 5-1 game, and both runners were unretired in their first four plate appearances. The Count of Hack delivered his first RBI base bit in almost THREE WEEKS, and then that one still didn’t leave the infield, but carried Concie Guerin so far behind second plate that he couldn’t make any play anymore and Black had an RBI single. While that was our only run in the sixth, the Capitals kept crumbling, Roudabush hit a double for his first major league hit in the seventh and after Cruz also singled (hooray!), Castro drove Roudabush in with a single to right. Sanders walked Correa before Alston flew out to Potter in left, bringing up the Count of Hack once more, who floated a ball to Vázquez to end the frame. The Raccoons ultimately scored single runs in the last four innings, and the Capitals would give Rockburn and Reese slight scratches with single runs in their last two innings of batting, but the Raccoons came out well on top. 9-3 Critters. Correa 5-5, BB, 3 2B; Alston 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-6; De La Parra 3-5, RBI; Cruz 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K;

We had 19 hits in this game, plus six walks, and left 15 men on base. Well, a W is a W is a W.

Tyler Sullivan of the Bayhawks got roughed up for four runs in seven innings in a 4-3 loss to Los Angeles, which moved Nick Brown into the CL ERA lead.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P N. Brown
WAS: 3B R. Garza – 1B Legendre – RF P. Brown – LF Vázquez – CF E. Wood – C Case – 2B H. Ramirez – SS Guerin – P Ford

The game started with Castro singling and getting caught stealing before the focus turned to Nick Brown, who walked Ramón Garza, drilled Alexis Legendre, and walked Phil Brown to create a mess in no time. After Vázquez hit a ball to deep center that Castro shagged to hold the Capitals to a sac fly, Brown walked Elvis Wood before somehow getting out with a K to Aaron Case and Hector Ramirez’ foul pop that Sharp caught. While the Coons took a 2-1 lead in the top 3rd, Brown was a complete mess in this start. He walked Concie in the bottom of the second, then took Ralph Ford’s bunt and turned it into a double play before just shrugging and resorting to throw fire right down the middle and hoping for someone to make a play. Somehow this worked better than actually trying to pitch meaningfully, and Brown made it through six innings without another walk or another run and only three hits allowed.

Meanwhile the offense was creaking badly once more. The third inning outburst had been fueled by a Roudabush double, but when he hit another one to start the seventh, Nomura and Castro struck out, with Correa contributing a foul pop out. All that non-hitting magnified errors like Sharp’s in the bottom 7th. Rockburn had already allowed Guerin on base with a leadoff single, and Sharp had nothing better to do than throwing Ford’s bunt into the stands. With the tying run on third and no outs, Brown’s lead was dying quickly, and Rockburn walking PH Ken Potter on four pitches didn’t help at all. We moved on to Bruno, who struck out two, but also allowed a game-tying sac fly. Bruno logged another out to retire Wood in the eighth, before Sims took over and blew the game with a double to Case and a single to Guerin.

Down 3-2 and facing ex-Indian Tommy Wooldridge in the ninth inning, the Coons got singles from Pruitt and Roudabush before Nomura walked to load them up for Castro with one out. The count ran full, Castro struck out, Esquivel hit for Sims in Correa’s spot, looked at one strike, and another one, and then Wooldridge threw one in the dirt that almost unpawed the leaping Esquivel and escaped Carlos Ramos while Pruitt scampered home to tie the score before Esquivel was sniffed out by Wooldridge on the next pitch. Legendre’s double play prevented Cash from conceding a walkoff in the bottom 9th and we went to extras, where nothing happened in the 10th with the same pitching personnel. In the 11th, Chikara “Dodo” Iwase, a right-handed fireballer took over for the Capitals, and the Coons kept being made presents. Pruitt hit a leadoff double before De La Parra was put on intentionally, setting up Roudabush to strike out. Iwase’s first throw to Nomura was wild, however, moving the runners into scoring position. Nomura was then walked intentionally, loading them up for … Manuel Gutierrez. There had been some lineup shuffling, and now the Coons looked at a .167 batter and then either Cash or Trevino, who was batting not even .100 … Gutierrez struck out, Trevino flew out.

Bryan’s scoreless bottom 11th continued the “Dodo” Show, and he gave up singles to Alston and Black as the 12th inning commenced. Quebell grounded out to repeat that runners on second and third, one out situation, now with Pruitt batting, or maybe not, maybe they’d walk him outright. The catching mook came up, hit a crappy pop to right center, Potter caught it and struck down Alston at home. By this point I was cowering in a corner of the visiting GM’s suite with a bar of chocolate in each paw.

When Angel Casas pitched a scoreless bottom 12th, he was the last player not a starting pitcher that was thrown into the fray. We were out of relievers and pinch-hitters, and he was due to bat fourth in the 13th inning, coming up with Roudabush on first base and two outs and becoming the third strikeout victim of Iwase in a row, the final act of offensive futility for this team in this game. The Capitals walked off in the bottom 13th with back-to-back 2-out doubles by Ramirez and Guerin. 4-3 Capitals. Castro 2-4, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 2-2, 2B; Roudabush 4-6, 2 2B; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Cash 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

13 men left on base.

-.-

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – SS Roudabush – C Esquivel – P Baldwin
WAS: 3B R. Garza – 1B Legendre – RF P. Brown – LF Vázquez – CF E. Wood – C Case – 2B Watts – SS Guerin – P Farley

Elvis Wood’s first inning grand slam off the hapless Baldwin was enough for me to retreat from the suite and scour the premises for edibles. Nothing to see here.

Our recent bullpen usage prevented us from yanking Baldwin early, but he lined up zeroes after the slam through six innings before Garza and Legendre reached with one out in the seventh and prompted a move to a reliever that wasn’t completely gassed. That was Bruno, who walked Brown before Vázquez popped out to Sharp and Wood whiffed to end the frame. At that point, the not-too-well aged Randy Farley had spun a 3-hitter with one run allowed on a Castro RBI triple. But the Coons got the tying run to the plate at least in the top 8th after Correa had walked in Bruno’s place and Castro had flicked a blooper to shallow center for a single. Nomura batted with two outs against Farley and grounded out exceedingly poorly. The Raccoons couldn’t score, but the Capitals could, adding a meaningless run off Ted Reese in the eighth. 5-1 Capitals. Castro 2-4, 3B, RBI;

So, after stranding 28 total the last two games, we had a 4-hitter in this game done to us. Oh my.

In other news

May 4 – New York’s SP Pancho Trevino (4-1, 2.20 ERA) 3-hits the Titans in a 2-0 complete game shutout.
May 7 – The Capitals lose their ace for the season as Chris York (3-0, 2.63 ERA) goes down with bone chips in his elbow.
May 7 – Not quite for certain, but perhaps also out for the year: SAC 1B/2B/LF Dave McCormick (.324, 3 HR, 22 RBI), who has broken his elbow.
May 10 – The Falcons deal OF Pedro Estrada (.351, 2 HR, 7 RBI) to the Cyclones for 36-year old minor leaguer INF Max Heart and a non-prospect.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons stand at 2,598 regular season wins. Normally I’d say, hey, even that lineup (8th in runs scored…) can win two next week to notch 2,600, but then again we play the two teams that squared off in last year’s World Series, and I fear the worst. Or worse.

Kenichi Watanabe is lurking in AAA and posting semi-decent results.

[Texasborn]

Looks like someone's enjoying the game

[Westheim]

Raccoons (18-11) vs. Stars (16-15) – May 12-14, 2009

Despite the best offense in the Federal League the Stars was lumbering around .500, yet their fifth-best pitching and +42 run differential (better than the Raccoons’ +31!) hinted at some rotten luck that was probably about to end right now.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (2-1, 2.62 ERA) vs. Edgar Amador (2-2, 2.48 ERA)
Javier Cruz (3-1, 2.95 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (3-2, 3.04 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-1, 1.52 ERA) vs. Victor Bernal (4-0, 4.08 ERA)

Greg Grams was skipped on Monday’s off day, but was slotted in behind Brown for Friday to separate the left-handers in our rotation again, even if that means starting Baldwin on six days’ rest. It’s not like regular rest does him any good either. We get all the Stars’ right-handers in this set, starting with the Fat Cat, who hasn’t fared too well against the Raccoons in the past.

Game 1
DAL: CF C. Morán – 2B H. Garcia – 1B Berman – LF Alexander – C R. Garza – 3B Cowan – RF B. Speed – SS A. Rodriguez – P Amador
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Umberger

The Fat Cat didn’t retire any of the first four Coons he faced, already giving us a 2-0 lead before Count Hack had his drive to center of course caught by César Morán. This interrupted the hitting spree only shortly, however, with Sharp and De La Parra also driving in single runs in a 4-run first. In the top 2nd Umberger had a 3-pitch inning, with all three outs going 4-3. While that already indicated some pretty obvious inability to get pitches past anybody, and the Stars finally had their contact result in hits and two runs in the fourth, there were encouraging signs for the team as well, like old Count Hack hitting a solo home run in the bottom 5th. He WAS alive after all! Quebell would also contribute a home run, his ninth, later, as the Raccoons built a 7-2 lead, and there was something to be said about not fooling anybody since Umberger easily went into the ninth inning on a low pitch count, only to get colossally stuck after walking a pair. Law Rockburn relieved him with one out, only to have Baden Speed hit an RBI single off him. With that, it was off to Angel Casas, but the Stars scored two more runs on an Armando Rodriguez single and Yohan Bonneau’s groundout before the game was over. 7-5 Raccoons. Castro 2-5; Nomura 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 2-4; Quebell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Black 2-4, HR, RBI;

Luke Black ended a string of 15 games without an extra base hit (and some pretty grisly 5-for-41) in this game. And he hadn’t had a multi-hit game since opening week… With that recent development, Matt Pruitt remained on the bench for another day. (I know what I said last week about one-day revivals, no need to get all ethical on me.)

Game 2
DAL: CF C. Morán – 2B H. Garcia – 1B Berman – LF Alexander – RF Bonneau – C R. Garza – 3B Cowan – SS A. Rodriguez – P P. Miller
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 2B Nomura – C De La Parra – 3B Sharp – P Cruz

Before getting a chance at more hitting heroics, Black was charged a tough error in the first inning when a ball bounced off the glove on his stretched-out arm, while on the hustle. The Stars still didn’t score. While he didn’t immediately improve his line with some extra base magic again, Alston plated Correa after the makeshift shortstop’s triple in the first inning and walked in the third to be collected on Quebell’s tenth home run. While that gave Cruz a 3-0 lead, it was a flimsy 3-0 lead. The Stars had only two right-handers in the lineup, and Cruz was insisting on walking one of them, Dennis Berman, whenever given the opportunity. There was plenty of traffic, and the Stars reached scoring position in four of the first five innings, but didn’t score and stranded seven. Cruz started the sixth inning facing three left-handers starting with Bonneau and I didn’t have a good feeling in general. Bonneau led off with a double and scored on Joe Cowan’s single, before Cruz walked that other right-hander, Rodriguez, which got him yanked with the big red hook that was glowing after being held in the fire for an hour. Cruz didn’t even face the pitcher: Donald Sims came in right away, handled a poor bunt by Paul Miller, who was vying for the FL lead in strikeouts with a scorching outing, for a force out on Cowan at third base, before dropping Quebell’s feed to first on César Morán’s grounder. That loaded the bases for switch-hitter Hector Garcia, who was weaker against lefties and in a full count flew out to Alston. Bottom 6th: Alston grounded out, Quebell whiffed, Count Hack smacked one to left – outta here!!

THE ****, HE’S BACK!!

Then we had to blankly stare and see Donald Sims slowly load the bases with left-handed batters in the top 7th. Marcos Bruno appeared with two outs and the tying runs all on base and struck out pinch-hitter Ted Mullins, who was by now approximately 73 years old. The Stars still got a run off Bruno in the eighth when Morán hit a ball into the gap between Black and Castro and easily turned that ball into a triple. Bruno held them at 4-2 however, setting up Casas for another save attempt, facing the same part of the order that had torn up Cruz three innings earlier. This time the result were three groundouts. 4-2 Coons. Black 2-3, HR, RBI;

So Javier Cruz, despite walking five and being rescued in dire danger, clinched the 2,600th franchise win for the Raccoons! (Regular season only, there are only 39 postseason wins, though none since long, long ago)

Also, we stole one here, with the Stars out-hitting us 9-6 and also drawing more walks. That can only mean that Brownie gets slapped with hammers in the third game.

Game 3
DAL: RF Alexander – C L. Ramirez – 1B Berman – CF C. Morán – 2B H. Garcia – LF Cowan – 3B Nakayama – SS A. Rodriguez – P J. Flores
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Brown

While the Stars changed their rotation a bit to send lefty Jose Flores (3-4, 3.48 ERA) into this game (which also kept Pruitt out of the game), Brownie still led the Continental League in ERA (1.52 over SFB Tyler Sullivan’s 1.55 mark), but not the majors, being out-sparkled by L.A. sophomore Ernest Green’s 0.89 ERA.

Tomas Castro got on base with a single to start the bottom 1st … and that was all the Coons did to support Brownie, still bidding for win #100. No Raccoon would reach base until De La Parra singled in the bottom 5th, by which time Brown had struck out nine but trailed 1-0 after a homer hit by Leon Ramirez in the third. For what it was worth the Stars didn’t get THEIR second hit until Haruki Nakayama lobbed a floater into shallow right for a single in the EIGHTH, but they were still beating Brown soundly… 1-0. Brown finished the ninth inning, refusing to give up the ball until he was almost at 120 pitches, but the inning was perfect and ended with a K to Morán. What would the offense do? Jose Flores also started the ninth, on merely 79 pitches (or three less than Jong-hoo on Tuesday), facing Nomura batting for Brown and lining out to Berman. Castro grounded out to Nakayama before Flores issued his first walk to Correa. That brought up an – in this series – rather unproductive Ron Alston, who grounded out to Rodriguez. 1-0 Stars. Brown 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, L (2-2);

I am so ****ing mad right now, I can’t even bitch.

I am so ****ing mad right now, I can’t even moan.

I am so ****ing mad right now, I can’t even cry.

Raccoons (20-12) vs. Crusaders (22-10) – May 15-17, 2009

The Crusaders had lost two to the Gold Sox before having the third game rained out and rescheduled for June, moving the Coons back to two games out, which was great, since it meant we couldn’t end the week further back than five out. Hooray!

The Crusaders were second in runs scored and third in runs allowed in the league. Their bullpen was the best in the CL, but their rotation was sputtering quite a bit, like a 5+ ERA to reigning pitching king Greg Connor. Their 4.49 starters’ ERA ranked only ninth in the Continental League, but the rainout and their off day on Monday gave them a lot of room to rearrange their starters to do the most damage to the Raccoons, yet they were still all right-handers. We are 2-0 and a suspended 6 1/2 inning effort against them so far this year.

Projected matchups:
Greg Grams (3-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (5-1, 2.09 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (1-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (4-1, 4.33 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-1, 2.95 ERA) vs. Elwood Spurrell (4-0, 3.96 ERA)

Apart from an all-right-handed rotation, and one of their three closers on the DL, the Crusaders were also without Francisco Caraballo (.268, 4 HR, 21 RBI) who was yet to be diagnosed with an injury.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 2B M. Williams – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – C D. Anderson – P P. Trevino
POR: SS Correa – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – CF S. Trevino – C Esquivel – P Grams

Both pitchers bled runs early in the game, not in a case of a home run parade, but rather lots of people crowding the bases and shoving each other forwards. The Raccoons took a 4-2 lead through three innings, but it was in no way secure and Grams had not a lot of convincing stuff. While Pancho Trevino hit a single off Grams and stole a base, Santiago Trevino also managed a single (his second hit of the season!) and hit a sac fly to extend the lead to 5-2 in the fifth. But somehow (somehow!) Grams made it through seven innings without more damage inflicted on him, although the defense made a few nifty plays, with Pruitt and Esquivel showing some glove especially. The Raccoons were not doing much with the bats once the Crusaders bullpen took over, but Bruno and Casas were pretty much spotless, too, putting this one in the W column, the first one on the way to 2,700. 5-2 Critters. Nomura 2-3, BB; Pruitt 3-4, RBI; Sharp 2-4, 2B; Grams 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (4-0);

Brown: 2-2. Grams: 4-0. There is no justice. And I’m ****ing mad.

The Crusaders also placed Caraballo on the DL after this game, once the diagnosis of a hamstring strain became final. He’ll be out for about six weeks.

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – SS Ortega – C D. Anderson – P Spurrell
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – 1B Quebell – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

The Raccoons worked the power station early in this game, with Quebell smacking a solo dinger for his 11th of the season (also breaking a tie for second place in the CL with some guy nicknamed “Clockwork”) and Luke Black would romp a 3-piece in the third inning to give the Raccoons a new lead, 4-1, after Baldwin had spilled the earlier 1-0 advantage quickly. Baldwin never really became dominant in this start, also relying on the defense quite a lot, except for his complete evil charming of Roberto Pena, who struck out in all three at-bats against him. Baldwin allowed only three hits – somehow – through six and two thirds before crossing the 100 pitches mark and facing righty slugging catcher Daryl Anderson, when I suddenly remembered that there were still two right-handers in the pen that hadn’t even pitched yet this week. Ted Reese got a grounder to short before being immediately hit for in the bottom 7th. Esquivel singled, but the Raccoons didn’t progress past first base, keeping the score at 4-1. Now, Angel had pitched three of the last four days and I was not inclined to use him unless the score closed a bit. With that, and left-handers up first in the eighth, Sims got another assignment and this time delivered a perfect eighth. The Raccoons had a chance to tack on in the bottom 8th with an Alston walk and a Gutierrez single, but De La Parra struck out to strand a pair for the second time in the game. That handed the ninth inning assignment to Marcos Bruno, facing the 3-4-5 batters and all their collected medals. He walked Martin Ortíz before Stanton Martin and Sonny Reece grounded out. Instead of mopping up Paco Batlle with a fatality, Bruno walked him, bringing up switch-hitter Jorge Ortega (.320 in 25 AB). Was it time for Angel yet? Nah, Ortega had no power, and Angel can always come in to face Anderson. Ortega grounded out on the first pitch, and the Raccoons moved into a tie with the Crusaders atop the CL North. 4-1 Furballs! Quebell 2-4, HR, RBI; Pruitt 2-4; Sharp 1-2, BB, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Esquivel (PH) 1-1; Baldwin 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-3);

We might be t-1st, but I’m still ****ing mad.

There was also an asterisk attached to the fact that Ron Alston walked in the eighth inning. He did so on his off day, having to replace Luke Black after the latter got injured on a tumbling catch. He suffered a hyperextended elbow that would be tender for a week or two, which was the perfect nightmare in terms of what to do with him. He was not out completely, but was DTD, and two weeks is a long time to be hampered. There was no hope in refreshments coming from AAA. Well, there was Jerry Saenz, who was batting not too badly, but he was too weakly armed to play rightfield. Alston there was not much sugar either.

Ugh, that’s a tough one!

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – SS Davidson – C D. Anderson – P Reeves
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Umberger

Paco Batlle’s shot off Umberger put the Crusaders 1-0 ahead in the top 2nd, but by the completion of the inning the score had been flipped with Pruitt singling, Sharp hitting a triple into the gap in right center, and Roudabush driving in Sharp for his first career RBI. Correa tripled in the third, but wasn’t scored, with Ron Alston’s low liner caught by Sonny Reece, who nevertheless was injured on the play and replaced by Marc Williams, who promptly hit into an inning-ending double play when the Crusaders had the Martin Brothers on the corners in the fourth inning. Ron Alston hit a 2-run homer in the fifth, then threw out Roberto Pena at home plate in the sixth on a Julio Hernandez double. Mind though that that double was hit with nobody out and Hernandez moved up to third with the Martin Brothers coming up. Ortíz hit an infield single behind second base that Roudabush couldn’t turn into anything and Hernandez scored, before “Clockwork” gave an 0-2 pitch quite the ride to deep left. But with the outfield playing deep and the bomb just not quite deep enough, Pruitt made the play on the warning track.

Jong-hoo went seven and two thirds before the Martins were up yet again. Martin Ortíz came to bat with two outs and Pena on first base in a 4-2 game, and with Umberger close to 100 pitches and not having fooled anybody in a few innings, I snapped and went to Sims with Bruno in the wings. Bruno took over a tied game once Ortíz had walloped Sims’ first pitch over the rightfield wall with ease, and struck out “Clockwork”.

Robbie Wills cut down Quebell and Pruitt in the bottom 8th before Sharp, unretired on the day, singled softly to right. Yoshi hit for the complete blackout in the #7 hole and lined a single to left on an 0-2 pitch with Sharp staying at second base. Next was Roudabush, whom we couldn’t quite hit for here. He also fell 0-2 behind before making contact and chipping a single to right. Sharp was sent feverishly around third base despite the murder arm of Stanton Martin getting ready to unleash a missile towards home, Sharp ran for his life, rocket coming in, slightly off to the first base side, Anderson throwing himself into the sliding Sharp – SAFE!!!!

Esquivel struck out, handing a 5-4 lead to Angel Casas, who faced Ming Kui, one of the peskiest pinch-hitters we had ever known, and two more left-handers after that. Kui struck out, but Batlle walked in a full count. Zak Davidson sent a terrible drive to left center where Pruitt sold out to catch it, shoved his face into the dirt upon landing, but held onto the ball! Now it was on Jorge Ortega again, pinch-hitting in the #8 slot. He hit a first pitch and rather cheap single to right with Batlle chugging to third base. Melvin Dunn hit for Wills, owning a 1.583 OPS in 12 AB. Angel cut some off that with a K. 5-4 Furballs!! Sharp 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1; Roudabush 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Umberger 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Who’s number one!? Who’s number one!? The Crusaders didn’t win a game all week, but the Raccoons only lost one. That one…

I’m ****ing mad regardless.

In other news

May 16 – WAS LF/RF Ken Potter (.212, 5 HR, 17 RBI) will spend a month on the DL with a hip strain.

There’s also a drought in Oregon. Not one day of rain all week!

Complaints and stuff

Brownie turned in his 13th career complete game, which I was too ****ing mad to mention on Thursday, and I’m still ****ing mad.

There might be a solution to the Black dilemma in Ham Lake, though. Dave Green has to be put on the 40-man roster anyway this fall, and is batting .303/.400/.461. But even better: last year’s first-rounder Jason Seeley is mashing the cover off the ball, batting .330/.414/.652 with 6 HR and 24 RBI, but I wasn’t seeing him in the Bigs just yet. He got a promotion to AAA, though.

As we’re on AA prospects, SP Hector Santos (one of the last discoveries by good old Vince Guerra) might move up to AAA soon-ish, too. He is 2-3 with a 3.57 ERA and 45 K against 15 BB in 40.1 IP. The BABIP is not quite in his favor. He has not allowed a home run (and only allowed six in 175.2 IP last year in AA). He’s not quite 21 but I will look at him over the next two, three, four starts and then see whether we move him up. That slider. Umm-yum-yum. That slider!

Juan Barrón was on waivers by the Indians this week, but we’re broken. He wasn’t claimed and is now stuck on the AAA Chandler Wild.

And I’m ****ing mad.

[Questdog]

Did you mix up Quebell's doubles and home run columns?......seem to be backwards from what they were last year....

[Westheim]

MILESTONE FRANCHISE WINS

I did this last season when we notched 2,500 and recently I got interested in the other 100’s in history. I figured beforehand this would be hard for the early years with their sketchy reports (leaving the first two instances of the 100th win unclear, and the third was a bit of a puzzle to figure out), but I didn’t figure that I attributed #1,500 wrongly to Miguel Lopez before.

As always: oops.

*Exact dates before 1993 are mostly unavailable because Chad spilled his cocoa over the notes, rendering them illegible, and I can’t reconstruct happenings otherwise.

#100 – (June 1978) – No clue at all. Kevin Hatfield saved a 2-1 win against the Loggers.
#200 – (May 2, 1980) – One of relievers Bill Craig (unlikely), Tony Lopez, Paul Cooper. A 6-5 walkoff falls into the Raccoons’ paws when Ralph Nixon is hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom 11th in a game against the Crusaders.
#300 – (August 1981) – Carlos Morán is torn up by the Loggers who lead 6-0 in the fourth inning, but the Loggers suffer a 6-run implosion, capped by a Daniel Hall grand slam in the bottom 7th before Mark Dawson walks off the Raccoons with a ninth inning RBI double, handing the win to Wally Gaston.
#400 – (April 1983) – In his debut for the Raccoons, free agent acquisition Shayne Nealon does not allow a run over six innings while the Raccoons won 6-0, with two RBI’s apiece by Matt Workman and Mark Dawson, and Jason Short walks three times.
#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;
#600 – (May 1985) – With Logan Evans departed after six innings, Victor Castillo and Eddie Gonzalez slap back-to-back RBI doubles off the Indians’ Alex Miranda in the eighth inning, with long-time reliever Wally Gaston earning the win for the Raccoons.
#700 – (June 1986) – Miranda and the Indians again: Odwin Garza’s major league career had few highlights, but his RBI triple was the first blow against Alex Miranda in a 5-run second inning for the Raccoons. Vicente Ruiz gives up all the Indians’ runs in an 8-3 Raccoons win.
#800 – (July/August 1987) – Kisho Saito cruises for five innings before getting roughed up, but by then the Raccoons had already scored eight runs including big home runs by Daniel Hall and Tetsu Osanai in a 10-4 win over the Aces.
#900 – (August 1988) – The Raccoons are out-hit 11-7, commit three errors, but the Canadiens leave 16 runners stranded in a 5-2 Raccoons win. Jerry Ackerman is chased trailing 2-1 in the top 6th, but a 2-run homer by Tetsu Osanai flips the score in the bottom of the same inning and gives the win to Emerson MacDonald.
#1,000 – (September 1989) – Right-hander Jason Turner 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;
#1,100 – (April 1991) – David Brewer ruins Jason Turner’s day with two hits and 3 RBI that keep the game tied into the ninth inning in Vancouver before Neil Reece smashes a grand slam off pitcher Alejandro Lopez that hands the 7-3 win to reliever Roberto Carrillo.
#1,200 – (April 1992) – Raimundo Beato holds down the Falcons for five innings with a 5-0 lead before getting torn to shreds in the sixth inning. The Raccoons still hold on to win 6-4.
#1,300 – (May 1, 1993) – Boston’s Santiago Perez gives up four runs in the middle innings while Miguel Lopez goes seven shutout innings before being routed out of the eighth, but the pen holds the Titans to two runs in a 4-2 win.
#1,400 – (May 18, 1994) – After two blowout losses in the first two games in the series, the Raccoons hold the Titans tied long enough to force an extra inning escapade that is favorably resolved when Grant West’s two scoreless innings coincide with an errant pickoff throw giving Alejandro Lopez an extra base in the bottom 12th. Matt Duncan scores Lopez with a single, and the Raccoons walk off with a 6-5 victory.
#1,500 – (June 9, 1995) – All is well for Scott Wade in a matchup with the Scorpions’ young phenom Steve Rogers in this series opener, at least through eight innings. His shutout blows up in a hurry in the ninth inning, and besides Wade, Grant West, Daniel Miller, and Tony Vela are all tagged with runs as the Scorpions score a half dozen in the inning only to fall short, 7-6 Raccoons.
#1,600 – (June 23, 1996) – Somehow the Raccoons managed to work a 4-game losing streak into their 108-win campaign in 1996, and it ended with a 12-3 crushing of the Thunder (never mind the 14-2 crushing to the Raccoons in the series opener). Jose Rivera barely manages to go five innings and is hit for in the sixth, with the go-ahead run scoring just in time on a Vern Kinnear sac fly to net him the W.
#1,700 – (July 24, 1997) – Also known as Miguel Lopez’ near-no-hitter, the left-hander whiffs eight in a complete game 1-hitter that is only soiled by the Crusaders’ Armando Diéguez’ home run with one out in the eighth inning. The Raccoons win 5-1.
#1,800 – (September 18, 1998) – With the Raccoons and Knights, two desperate teams were playing out the stretch for a very long time: no scoring in the 11th inning. When Neil Reece draws a pinch-hit bases-loaded walk off the Knights’ Yosuke Memoto, 1-0, the win falls into the lap of Gabriel De La Rosa, who had pitched two innings, whiffing four.
#1,900 – (May 30, 2000) – While Randy Farley plates the winning run himself on a groundout that brings home Daniel Richardson, most of the damage in a 4-2 win over the Aces, also ending a 5-game losing streak, is done with home runs by Conceicao Guerin and Clyde Brady.
#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;
#2,100 – (May 3, 2003) – Although Felipe Garcia gives up all four runs the Canadiens plate in this game, and actually trails 4-1 after six innings, but two Jerry Dobson errors and an Al Martin home run in the bottom 6th pull out the game as the Raccoons win this one 6-4.
#2,200 – (June 6, 2004) – A 7-4 win in a Sunday rubber game against the Crusaders only briefly interrupts the Raccoons’ general mid-season collapse. The Raccoons chase NY’s Kelly Fairchild early while Ralph Ford holds off his own demise long enough to net the win.
#2,300 – (September 3, 2005) – Brad Sheehan’s RBI double is the lone tally in the early September game against the Indians, which gives the win to Ralph Ford, who pitches seven scoreless innings.
#2,400 – (April 22, 2007) – Two roughed up starters and a lot of mid-game madness produce a clogged scoreboard in a Sunday game with the Knights. Raúl Fuentes is chased early, but the Raccoons rally from a 6-1 deficit and score ten unanswered runs to get away with an 11-6 win that is credited to Lawrence Rockburn, who pitches two innings in relief.
#2,500 – (May 2, 2008) – Ten strikeouts and one run allowed in seven innings isn’t enough for Kelvin Yates to win the big milestone, since he only got one small ball run in support. Lawrence Rockburn picks up the 2-1 win over the Loggers in relief when Nelson Chavez plates Matt Pruitt with a PH single.
#2,600 – (May 13, 2009) – Javier Cruz is struggling badly in an interleague game against the Stars, walking five in 5.1 innings. However, some early extra base magic with a Jose Correa triple and home runs by Adrian Quebell and Luke Black scratch out enough runs, combined with good defense and poor RISP hitting by the Stars, for the Raccoons to win 4-2.

[rjl518]

come on Racs!!! go get im

[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-12) @ Loggers (12-24) – May 18-21, 2009

The Loggers were on a 3-game winning streak, so we’d better cover our heads. There was the thing with them still being 11th in both runs scored and runs allowed, but a streak is a streak. Yes, the Critters had their own 3-game winning streak. The Loggers were without SP Fabien Armand and veteran infielder Bartolo Hernandez, who were on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (4-1, 2.80 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (0-1, 1.80 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-2, 1.43 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (1-4, 5.77 ERA)
Greg Grams (4-0, 4.11 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (2-2, 4.59 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-3, 3.48 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (1-4, 4.98 ERA)

We get two right-handers first, two left-handers later. Huertas had pitched in single-A ball at the age of 31 this year, so he was probably not going to hold his ERA from two major league games forever. Brown’s matchup looks like a 13-inning game that ends 2-1 for any team on a passed ball.

The outlook on Luke Black was that he might be fine by the end of the week, and was not put on the DL and instead kept around for pinch-hitting, but he wouldn’t start any games, since he shouldn’t throw with that tender elbow.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – 3B M. Gutierrez – P J. Cruz
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – CF J. Garcia – 1B Hiwalani – C Baca – SS T. Johnson – 2B Tolwith – RF Delaney – 3B K. Scott – P Huertas

Neither pitcher looked like much. Castro doubled and scored on Correa’s single in the first, but three hits scored two runs off Javier Cruz right away in the bottom of the inning. Castro got on with a single in the third, stole second, scored on another Correa single to tie the game, and then Alston lifted his ninth bomb of the season to put the Raccoons up 4-2, only for Cruz to give up another run in the bottom of the same inning, and the lead didn’t hold past the fifth inning, when Bakile Hiwalani showed he wasn’t quite dead yet and rapped his third hit of the day, a 2-run homer off a hapless Cruz. The Raccoons failed to knock Huertas from the game despite putting Nomura and Castro on base to start the seventh inning, but this time Correa hit into a double play and Alston rolled one to Tolwith, who had been drilled by Cruz to start the sixth inning, leading to Cruz’ banishment. The catching mook hit into an inning-ending double play in the eighth, still against Huertas. Black hit for Gutierrez in the ninth, reached on an error, and then Nomura hit … into one last double play. 5-4 Loggers. Castro 3-4; Correa 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Well, this was really a game we shouldn’t lose. But … hnggh. The Crusaders had Monday off, shrinking our lead to half a game.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Brown
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – 1B J. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – SS T. Johnson – C Olson – 3B S. Johnson – 2B Jennings – P Bartels

Four singles and a walk led to three runs for the Raccoons in the top 1st, very uncharacteristic for a Nick Brown start. But you know what was the pure definition of a Nick Brown start? Rain. And it came in the second inning.

After a 32-minute delay, the first pitcher Brownie faced, Mike Olson, homered to right, the Loggers’ first offensive achievement in the contest. The Coons knew how to slug, too, though, and chased Bartels in the top of the third, plating another four runs off him, including a 3-run homer by Sergio Esquivel, yet Brownie was messed up after the rain and was tagged with a 2-run homer by J.R. Richardson in the bottom of the same inning. So that’s a 7-3 game and still six innings left. The Coons added two runs off long man Gabriel Caro in the middle innings, but Brown didn’t get out of the sixth, in which Hiwalani and Tom Johnson hit doubles off him. He left with a 9-4 lead, with Ted Reese replacing him, who allowed Johnson to score by walking Spencer Johnson before Esquivel threw away a Dave Jennings grounder. For a while the goal was then to have Reese pitch the game to conclusion, but he sucked himself out of a long save in due time. In the bottom 8th, with two out, Olson singled and Johnson doubled, which was enough danger to the W that Law Rockburn came in to strike out Jennings, which he accomplished, and then pitched a fairly quick ninth, too. This time the Loggers ended the game with a double play hit into, Joaquín Hernandez being the culprit. 9-5 Brownies. Correa 2-5; Alston 3-4, BB; Quebell 2-4, BB, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-5, 2 RBI; Esquivel 2-5, 3 RBI; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

When it really wasn’t pretty, it was good enough. Baseball was the strangest game, and so Nick Brown won his 100th career game in a shoddy outing that wasn’t quite a 13-inning, 2-1 affair. Him being 31 years and 162 days old, nobody should gamble on 200. But he struck out seven to run his career strikeout total to 1,656.

He lost the CL ERA lead, though, with this shoddy outing, dropping behind SFB Tyler Sullivan (1.76 to Brown’s 1.93), who also leads the league in strikeouts. His five wins tie him for second behind OCT Daniel Dickerson’s seven victories.

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Roudabush – CF Trevino – P Grams
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – CF J. Garcia – 1B Hiwalani – RF T. Austin – C Baca – SS T. Johnson – 2B Tolwith – 3B Jennings – P F. Cruz

Sharp was front and center in the first inning, first leaving two men in scoring position in the Coons’ batting half, then putting Richardson on base with a horrendous throwing error, but luckily the Loggers left their men at third base as well. Richardson struck out to leave the bases loaded in the bottom 2nd, with three hard singles hit off Grams to get them stocked in the first place. Again, the Raccoons would score first. Pruitt reached in the fourth, stole second base, moved to third on Sharp’s single and scored on a fly to left center by Esquivel. While Pruitt’s good timing and good enough pace had manufactured a run here, he stranded two in scoring position with a poor grounder in the next inning. Meanwhile Grams had hit two singles, but was pitching like an explosion in the lower half of the scoreboard was imminent. While the Loggers hit the ball hard, they hit them right at fielders in the middle innings. Hiwalani led off the sixth with a double and was stranded at third. In the seventh, Jennings hit a 1-out double and was at third base after Olson’s groundout, and with the left-hander Richardson up, Ed Bryan was called on, with the Loggers countering with Joaquín Hernandez, batting .185 as a right-hander. There were rumors that he had some pop somewhere, and Bryan was regularly bringing out the best in batters, but Hernandez flew out right to Trevino to end the inning.

The Coons had the bases loaded in the top 8th against their ex-farmhand Scott Boone, who walked Alston, allowed a single to Sharp, and walked Esquivel. In the hope of something other than a grounder, the Noble of Something hit for Roudabush, who got his BABIP readjusted pretty severely this week, but struck out, and Trevino made the third out, while it was beginning to rain. There was a 17-minute delay between halves of the eighth inning, after which Bruno sat down the 2-3-4 guys in order. Despite a Tom Johnson double in the bottom 9th, Angel Casas held on to the flimsiest of leads. 1-0 Coons! Esquivel 1-2, BB, RBI; Grams 6.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (5-0) and 2-3;

So, GREG GRAMS now ties for second place in wins in the league. There is just no justice in baseball! Meanwhile, Atlanta’s rookie Johnny Krom allowed three runs in 7 1/3 innings against San Fran to take over the ERA lead. How that? He started the year in the pen and had a 1.27 ERA that rose to 1.69 with this game, still lower than Sullivan’s ERA, and it’s currently a minimum innings issue for him. He will drop off the board again on Sunday.

Outside of that: the Crusaders have not won any of their last seven games.

Also, I’m trying to give everybody a day off somewhere this week (we’re in a 16-game block that ends in Tijuana on the 27th), and another lefty would be the perfect chance to sit Alston in the fourth game, but we still can’t have Black field. The hope is that he’s good on Sunday, when the next left-hander is scheduled against us, Oklahoma’s Takeru Sato.

Game 4
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Baldwin
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – SS T. Johnson – C Olson – 1B J. Hernandez – 2B K. Scott – P Lloyd

This was Colin Baldwin’s 27th birthday. While not allowing a hit through 3.2 innings, he then blew a 1-0 lead in a hurry when Tim Austin doubled, Tom Johnson walked, and Mike Olson and Joaquín Hernandez hit RBI singles before Keith Scott was kind enough to ground out. The Raccoons had one of those games where they would hit a single or two in an inning, then quickly strike out until they were done with it and hand it off to the other team. It wasn’t until the sixth that they scored another run when Sharp, Pruitt, and De La Parra reached base, all with two outs, and Sharp scored on DLP’s single to tie the game. Baldwin tried hard to untie the 2-2 score in the bottom 6th, hitting Hiwalani with a pitch and then walking Austin and Olson. Law Rockburn replaced him and got a fast grounder from Hernandez to Quebell, that our Gold Glover zinged to Roudabush first, who got one out, then zinged it back to Quebell for the second out, which was the third out in the inning.

Black hit for Rockburn to start the top 7th, doubled to left center, and was on third after Castro’s single. Castro stole second base (after being caught earlier in the game), before Black scored the go-ahead run on Correa’s fly to Hiwalani, whose arm was by now 36, too, and not as whipping as it had been with 26. The Loggers played with fire, walking Alston to get to Quebell, who hit into a double play. Always play with fire kids, it works!

Facing Boone in the eighth, Sharp led off with a floating single before Pruitt walked on four pitches. Boone’s second pitch to De La Parra was wild, moving the runners into scoring position with no outs, then went right back to the double play opportunity by walking De La Parra intentionally, bringing up Roudabush, who was 2-for-19 recently. But he was a right-hander. His grounder to Tolwith got Sharp killed at home, and was now had the bases loaded with one out. Esquivel hit for Donald Sims, and it was a bit ridiculous, but … GRAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

While that was a resounding knock, the Loggers didn’t lay down to die. Matt Cash faced Tolwith and Hiwalani to start the bottom 8th in a 7-2 game, and both singled. The next knock was Cash getting knocked down the dugout stairs with Ted Reese replacing him. After two outs, including a sac fly, Olson singled, and now we were in save range. Ah, come on! He will get Hernandez (.187, 0 HR, 8 RBI in 123 AB)! Pruitt almost broke both legs and three arms on a lunging grab for Hernandez’ liner, but the inning ended, which was at least a plus. Reese allowed a leadoff single to Scott then in the bottom 9th. OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! Chris Delaney hit a ball hard to right that Alston caught, and then Richardson hit a hard ball right at Correa, and that one ended the game. 7-3 Blighters. Castro 3-5, 2B; Quebell 2-5, RBI; De La Parra 2-3, BB, RBI; Black (PH) 1-1, 2B; Esquivel (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Reese 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Great, now it looks like the Noble of Something still can’t properly play on the weekend. Those doctors! Grr!! Rank incompetence is nothing new to this organization, though.

Raccoons (26-13) vs. Thunder (22-20) – May 22-24, 2009

Here came the best offense in the Continental League, 200 runs flat scored in 42 games. On the other side, they weren’t so effective, with the fourth-most runs allowed, but still a +14 differential. Their rotation was second from the bottom with a 4.82 ERA, but their bullpen was decidedly better than the Critters’.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-1, 3.04 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (7-2, 2.77 ERA)
Javier Cruz (4-2, 3.42 ERA) vs. William Raven (2-4, 5.04 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-2, 1.93 ERA) vs. Takeru Sato (3-3, 4.24 ERA)

Like I said before, Sato will the left-hander in this set. And I wanted to give Alston the day off, but with Black not being able to field. Ugh. Well, we’re not quite there yet.

Game 1
OCT: 3B Arreola – RF T. Reese – C Ledesma – 1B T. Cardenas – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – LF R. White – 2B Heathershaw – P Dickerson
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Umberger

Castro’s error cost an unearned run in the top 1st, but he scored on Ron Alston’s double play groundout in the bottom of the inning to get the Coons back even, at least until Dickerson’s blooper with two out on an 0-2 pitch scored Jose Gonzalez from second base to get the Raccoons back uneven in the top 2nd. Hitting into a double play, or leaving the runner at third base through other means, that was pretty much the Critters’ thing in this series opener. They achieved one or the other in each of the first four innings and kept trailing 2-1. In the bottom 5th we had Umberger on second, Castro on first, and Alston singled to right, but we had to hold Umberger at third base. Quebell popped a 1-1 pitch to second base, where Bradley Heathershaw – winner’s name or not – dropped the ball after rowing heavily with his arms after losing the ball in the sun. Everybody was safe, the score tied (with the Coons ahead 9-4 on hits), before Pruitt battled Dickerson for eight pitches and drew a full count walk to give his team a 3-2 lead. Nomura was then the one to ground to Arreola to keep all the runners (including the one at third base) stranded, except that Arreola’s throw bounced and couldn’t we caught by Heathershaw and all hands were safe again, and another run in. Sharp then struck out to end the inning for good and on the umpteenth attempt.

But worry not, Thunder fans, for Umberger blew the lead right away and thoroughly. Pablo Ledesma hit a leadoff jack in the top 6th, and Rodney White later tripled home Marcos Garza to even the score at four. In the bottom 6th, Arreola made another error that put Esquivel and Castro on the corners with one out. Correa hit into a double play.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAHHH!!! AAAAAA-AAaaa-Aaahhhaaa…!!! (scratching noises)

Another ****ty 0-2 bloop, with one out, hit off the ****ty Sims, got the Thunder started in the seventh, when David Clarke was the first of two pinch-hitters to reach base before Tomas Cardenas singled him in to get the Thunder ahead 5-4. Dickerson continued to pitch in the bottom 7th, over the 100 pitch mark, even after walking Quebell and not fielding Pruitt’s grounder vigorously enough to keep him off base. Yoshi Nomura tied the score with a howling liner up the left field line that bounced to the wall for a double and left him and Pruitt in scoring position with one out. Dickerson was still in there, got Sharp to pop out to left, then was removed for Alex Lindsey, whose first pitch was wild and plated the go-ahead run. Esquivel barely out-lobbed Garza’s reach for a single to left, plating Nomura, 7-5, and Lindsey continued to set his team’s bus on fire. Manuel Gutierrez singled, Castro singled, 8-5, and then Correa hit a gapper to left center to get to 10-5. 38-year old career wins king Aaron Anderson appeared in relief, walked Alston and Quebell, then had Pruitt single right through former Gold Glover Cardenas into shallow right for two more runs. It did not stop. Yoshi singled to left, 13-5, and now the Thunder brought a left-hander in Steven Anderson to face *Sharp*. Maybe they were TRYING to lose, but Sharp wouldn’t let them and lined out to left to end a 9-run inning, in which he made two outs, and wasn’t seen again in the game afterwards. Cash ended the game without getting set on fire as well. 13-5 Raccoons! Castro 4-6, RBI; Correa 2-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 3-4, BB, 3 RBI; Nomura 4-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Esquivel 2-5, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 2-2; Cash 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

(drinks another glass of water) That was certainly intense. But, as I always tell my middle-aged full-time-working single-mom neighbor in regards to their three half-grown boys who keep hitting baseballs into my back yard: yelling helps, and beating them with a chain helps, too!

Where Daniel Sharp (1-5, 2 K, 9 LOB) is? In the chain room. Why?

Luke Black played some catch after the Friday night game ended, and some more catch in the morning on Saturday. He was suddenly fine. Overnight healing – the best healing!

Game 2
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 3B Arreola – C Ledesma – 1B T. Cardenas – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – RF R. White – 2B Heathershaw – P Raven
POR: SS Correa – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF Black – LF Pruitt – 3B M. Gutierrez – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Cruz

Cruz struck out four the first time through the order before pitching to considerably more contact. The leadoff batter was on an awful lot for the Thunder, but they never got TWO men on until the sixth inning. The game was still scoreless but Ledesma hit a leadoff single and contact man Cruz than contacted with Cardenas to add a second runner. After Black just barely scraped a soft line off the top of the grass to retire Marcos Garza, Jose Gonzalez hit a hard grounder to Gutierrez’ side that the agile utility man still turned into a 5-4-3 double play. The Raccoons kept getting 2-hit by Raven, while Cruz didn’t get out of the seventh inning. Raven hit a single to center before Sanchez walked and it was time for a move. Ed Bryan was to face Ignacio Arreola, but the Thunder sent right-hander Jesus Martinez, batting .185, instead. Bryan walked him on four pitches before Ledesma hopped a bouncer to Correa just in time to get the force on Martinez and end the inning. Still no runs, which remained true with Bryan and Reese pitching the eighth, the Raccoons continuing to fail against Raven, and Bruno doing a quick ninth. The Thunder went to righty Vaughn Higgins for the bottom 9th, a failed starter that was an odd choice for a closer with his 5 BB/9. Yoshi led off with a single to center, but got forced on Quebell’s grounder. Quebell then got picked off, and Black struck out. Yay, more no-runs baseball!

No runs for no longer: Victorino Sanchez beat Gutierrez with a bouncer to start the 10th and Tomas Cardenas continued to show that Bruno of ’09 was not Bruno of ’08 and homered off him. The Raccoons remained true to their game plan and stunk all the way to the end with four hits in ten innings. 2-0 Thunder. Cruz 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

I gotta send Slappy to Dome Depot. We need more chains.

Game 3
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – C J. Martinez – RF T. Reese – 1B Clarke – SS M. Garza – 2B Heathershaw – CF R. White – 3B R. King – P T. Sato
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Brown

After the game started with a walk to Sanchez, David Clarke doubled him in with two outs. Brown would do his own 2-out batting, hitting a single off Sato with two down and two on in the bottom 2nd to score Sharp and tie the score at one. He was in the same situation in the fourth inning, but then didn’t miss Heathershaw’s glove. Through four, Clarke’s damage double was the only hit off Brown, with the Thunder popping up A LOT. Reed King hit a 1-out single in the fifth, but Sato’s bunt sprung right into Brown’s glove for an easy double play to end the inning. With the Raccoons leaving little beyond a numb impression at the plate, the Thunder eventually encroached on Brown for a seventh inning run that was mostly owed to Marcos Garza’s leadoff double. Maybe the single the Dennis Boland allowed to Correa at the start of the bottom 8th would get the team going. The Thunder quickly buried Boland and sent Steven Anderson, one of the participants in the meltdown on Friday. Alston struck out before the next guy, Junior Downey, a right-hander, was thrown at Black, who singled to left. Downey remained in, Quebell grounded out to move up the runners, and then Sharp had two strikes on him in an instant before snipping a 1-2 pitch over Garza’s head and into shallow left. With the runners in full flight, that flipped the score and the Coons took a 3-2 lead that had Brownie’s name on it. With the lead, Brown, who would have had a bit of room in his pitch count for a ninth inning in a tied game, made room for Angel Casas to face the 4-5-6 batters. Angel hadn’t blown a save yet this season, 15/15. Clarke grounded out to Roudabush before Garza singled up the middle. Bradley Heathershaw whiffed, pulling up Tomas Cardenas in the #7 hole, who took mighty hacks for long enough to end the game. 3-2 Brownies!! Correa 2-4; Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (4-2) and 1-3, RBI;

Brownieee. No, he doesn’t lead anything. Except the pitching rankings of my heart.

In other news

May 19 – SAC LF/RF Rodrigo Lopez (.318, 1 HR, 6 RBI) just can’t stay healthy. The 29-year old has torn a thumb ligament, his third injury of 2009, and his second trip to the DL, where he will dwell for the next month.
May 19 – NYC SP Greg Connor (1-4, 5.24 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $4.64M extension. The reigning CL POTY is 32 years old and would have been a free agent after 2009.
May 20 – The Falcons part with 26-year old 3B Javier Rodriguez (.266, 2 HR, 9 RBI), sending him to the Gold Sox for 33-yr old SP Jerry Lane (3-3, 6.81 ERA) and unranked, but interesting prospect INF/LF Rich Ibarra, who only started to play professional ball this season.
May 20 – LAP SP Brad “Topper” Smith (7-0, 2.29 ERA) 3-hits the Gold Sox in a 9-0 Pacifics rout.
May 21 – The Gold Sox and Pacifics play a 21-inning game, with the Sox walking off to a 9-8 win eventually. While the Pacifics burn three starting pitchers in the game, the Gold Sox’ 1B/3B Yuji Hashimoto (.304, 5 HR, 18 RBI) has six hits in 11 at-bats to technically become the 42nd player in ABL history with a 6-hit game, and only the second Gold Sock after Francisco Lopez in 1981. The last 6-hit game was a little over a year ago, SFB Jose Perez’ on May 3, 2008.

Complaints and stuff

So. That’s what a week with 13 double plays hit into looks like, while turning four. We lead the power rankings (ahead of the Wolves), however, we got off easy still.

Culprits in order of magnitude: Correa, Nomura, Quebell, and Black with two GIDP each, followed by De La Parra, Castro, Sharp, Alston, and Esquivel with one each. That’s a team effort!

So the only clean guys where Roudabush, Gutierrez, Trevino, and Pruitt. Well, you gotta make contact to hit into a double play, so really the only clean guy was Pruitt.

Last year Tomas Castro stole a dozen or so bases before getting caught. This year he’s 7/14. But as long as your generally unrewarded ace starter ties for second place in stolen bases on the team, all is well. It’s the definition of a team where one little gear wheel moves another without any friction whatsoever.

I guess.

Minors watch: Cássio Boda had some good outings recently (Watanabe not so much), and would be the first choice to replace a scuffling starter. Someone like Baldwin. There are currently no pen options in AAA, where the Alley Cats play sub-.500 ball. Jason Seeley hit .321/.367/.429 in his first week in St. Pete. Dave Green has now also moved up from Ham Lake. Hector Santos won two games on 12 IP of 11 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 19 K ball this week and should follow in due time. Ham Lake was the only team over .500 at this point, with the A-level Beagles getting pounded for a 9-29 record. There were a few (very few) good players on there, with outfielder Nick Robinson having a .808 OPS with nine homers and winning promotion to the Panthers.

Ricardo Martinez batted .408/.482/.490 over 13 games in AAA. In 15 games with the Coons, Daniel Sharp bats .346/.404/.442. Defense is a bad tie breaker between these two… And before we go into that, Rob Howell will start a rehab stint with the Alley Cats on Monday, and will probably rejoin us at the expense of Dave Roudabush by the weekend.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (28-14) @ Condors (15-29) – May 25-27, 2009

The Condors had the worst offense in the Continental League, scoring merely 3.3 runs per game. They had a solid rotation that got frequently soiled by both that non-offense and the second-worst bullpen in the circuit (4.74 ERA).

Projected matchups:
Greg Grams (5-0, 3.46 ERA) vs. Doug Thompson (3-4, 3.64 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-3, 3.47 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (2-4, 3.67 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (1-6, 2.83 ERA)

That Carter kid has quite the Brown-ish record. All three are right-handers.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Grams
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – 1B A. Martin – RF Ward – LF R. Anderson – 3B D. Jones – 2B Montray – CF P. Javier – P D. Thompson

Doug Thompson (.294) had the highest batting average in the lineup, with the #5 through #8 batters all hitting .200 or quite a bit less. Thompson would be the first Condor to reach, hitting a 2-out double in the bottom 3rd, but was stranded by Pancho Ybarra, preserving a 1-0 lead the Raccoons had scratched out in the top 3rd, as neither team did much offensively. Grams put the first two batters on in the fifth inning, leading to the tying run on groundouts. That was only the beginning, though. Grams allowed hard hits to the first three batters in the sixth inning, was yanked, with Ed Bryan taking over to face a string of left-handers, but allowed all runners to score and hand the Condors a 4-1 lead. And that was before Law Rockburn melted down completely in the eighth inning and was romped for three more runs. The Raccoons amounted to four hits. 7-2 Condors. Correa 1-2, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Oh well, this looks like one of those hard weeks. Better get the booze ready.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – SS Roudabush – C De La Parra – P Baldwin
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF P. Javier – 2B J. Diaz – 1B A. Martin – C Leach – 3B D. Jones – LF Ward – RF Libby – P J. Martin

The Raccoons, who had hit into two double plays on Monday, hit into double plays in the first two innings on Tuesday. Thanks to “Midnight” Martin walking a sufficient number of batters and a lucky single by De La Pancake, the Coons scored a run, but Foster Leach tied the score right away with a solo jack in the bottom 2nd.

The Coons manufactured a 3-run rally with two outs in the fifth that got started with a full count single by Correa before the Condors started to offer major help. After Al Martin had Ron Alston’s hard grounder get past him for an RBI double, Quebell blooped in Alston, before the Condors added a wild pitch, an error, and a passed ball to the effort, until Roudabush finally struck out to end the inning, 4-1 ahead. A bases loaded situation for the Critters in the top 6th was also error-assisted by the Condors’ Juan Diaz, but Quebell eventually flew out to keep all runners stranded. Black’s leadoff single in the seventh had him stranded right there, but Baldwin, Castro, and Correa all singled to start the eighth to load them up against right-hander Brian Furst, who was in since the sixth and not removed despite the left-handed big bats appearing. And why would they? Alston lined into a 9-5 double play (you see something new every day), and Quebell flew out to center.

While Baldwin kept erasing batters, Jayden Reed issued three walks to start the top 9th, putting on Black, Sharp, and Nomura. While Pruitt singled in De La Plaza’s place to score one additional run, the inning quickly descended into another “Who can fail the hardest?” and three men were left stranded. Baldwin in this scenario struck out to return for the bottom 9th, but Isiah Reed hit a leadoff single, and Sharp couldn’t make a play on Paco Javier’s grounder to put the second runner on. That was enough to call on Angel Casas, who then had the bags loaded after Alston plainly missed the catch on Diaz’ easy fly to left. Ultimately the damage was minor. Casas struck out Al Martin, and Lou Jenkins grounded out. 5-1 Critters. Correa 2-5, BB; Alston 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Quebell 2-5, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, RBI; Baldwin 8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (3-3) and 1-4, BB;

We casually stranded FIFTEEN runners. Booze alone can’t soothe this.

Matt Pruitt has a 12-game hitting streak we’re not caring much about so far.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Roudabush – P Umberger
TIJ: SS Ybarra – C Leach – 1B A. Martin – 2B J. Diaz – LF R. Anderson – RF L. Jenkins – 3B Montray – CF P. Javier – P Carter

The struggling Umberger got stuck four runs by the Condors in the first inning. YES, this WAS the worst offensive team in the league, but the Raccoons were trying hard to get rid of their lead at the same time. Ybarra reached on an infield single in Roudabush’s direction, Leach hit a clean single, Martin walked, and eventually Lou Jenkins yanked a 3-run homer to get to 4-0. Umberger never looked any good in the game, ending up allowing five runs in not quite six innings, but even worse was the offense. Castro was caught stealing again, and there was hardly anybody else on base. Ron Alston hit his 10th homer after Castro got caught stealing in that sixth inning. The Coons scored a run in the seventh on a Lou Jenkins throwing error, a wild throw that was meant to nab Pruitt going first-to-third on an Esquivel single, but instead waved Pruitt right around to score. Quebell and Castro got on with two outs to load the bases for Nomura, with Ron Carter still pitching, but his grounder was intercepted by Martin and the inning ended. After that, the Raccoons were shut down by that nightmare of a bullpen and took another horrendous loss. 5-2 Condors. Castro 3-4, 2B;

While Pruitt had a single to run his streak to 13 games, the Coons managed to blow their division lead against one of the most clueless teams around.

Raccoons (29-16) @ Aces (19-29) – May 29-31, 2009

We were 2-1 against the Aces on the season, who possessed the worst bullpen (worse than the Condors, which wasn’t that horrendous after getting a close look at it), and were allowing the most runs, with a below-average rotation. Their offense had them ranked fifth, but their run differential was -42. They also had lost seven games in a row, but help was on the way.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (4-2, 3.02 ERA) vs. Jack Thomas (3-3, 3.49 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-2, 1.97 ERA) vs. Jimmy Young (2-3, 4.37 ERA)
Greg Grams (5-1, 3.66 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (1-5, 5.49 ERA)

Jack Thomas is a left-hander, but the only southpaw we will get this week.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – SS Roudabush – P Cruz
LVA: 1B McDermott – 2B Moultrie – CF Cameron – RF R. Garcia – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – 3B F. Soto – P J. Thomas

Ron Alston tied Quebell for the team lead with his 11th homer, a solo shot in the first inning. Quebell and Sharp started the second with singles, with Don Cameron botching the pickup on Sharp’s ball to advance the runners into scoring position. Starting with a De La Pretense strikeout, the Raccoons elegantly eluded the scoring pressure and kept it at 1-0. Well, the Aces didn’t keep it at 1-0, Eduardo Durango homered (much a hitting catcher, huh!?), and after that Cruz folded quickly. The Aces had runners on the corners with two outs and Jack Thomas batting, allowed a 2-run double to center, and didn’t retire anybody from there. Down 4-1, he drilled Don Cameron with a 3-0 pitch, which was his ticket to the showers. Ted Reese struck out Ricardo Garcia to end the inning, but this was another desperate, joy-deprived game. In the fourth, Quebell and Sharp were on with no outs before De La Porridge, Roudabush, and Reese struck out in order. The Coons didn’t do a lick here. The best guy clad in brown was Reese, logging more than four innings on one run, and Bryan cocked up one more run in the seventh, and Rockburn’s locks kept burning, too. The game ended in style, with Castro hitting Trevino running from first base for the final out. 7-1 Aces. Quebell 2-3, BB; Sharp 2-3, BB; Trevino (PH) 1-1; Reese 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

Roudabush was dumped after this game, and Rob Howell, who hadn’t hit much in rehab in St. Pete, returned, to not hit much in Portland.

And only NOW will Nick Brown get his start. How can it get any worse with the Coons? No-hitter coming?

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Howell – P Brown
LVA: 3B F. Soto – 2B Moultrie – CF Cameron – C Durango – SS Dahlke – LF Hill – RF L. Taylor – 1B McDermott – P Young

The first inning saw Castro thrown out at home. Brown had a clean first, before the universe turned against and onto him at the same time in the second inning. Durango and Hill were in scoring position with one out when on consecutive pitches Esquivel allowed a passed ball, and Nick Brown’s next pitch was wild outright for two runs for the Aces. After Jimmy Young had six consecutive strikeouts following on that heart-piercing occurrence, the Raccoons at least nominally had a chance in the top 5th with singles to start the inning by Sharp and Esquivel. Howell flew out to right center, Brown and Castro popped out. It took six innings of torture (out-hitting the Aces 6-3 to no avail) before Sharp walked, Esquivel got smacked, Brown grounded out to get them into scoring position with two outs, and then Castro’s grounder defeated Sean McDermott to score both runners. And then Yoshi Nomura fouled out on a 3-0 pitch…

Those were all the poisoned helping hands that were stretched out to Brown, who got a no-decision for seven innings of 3-hit ball. Bruno and Sims held the Aces away to get the game into extra innings. The Aces got Tom Dahlke to third (and Howard Jones to second) against Matt Cash with one out in the bottom 10th. After an intentional walk to Ricky Avila, Cash struck out Tom Turner and Castro could be bothered to run after and catch Francisco Soto’s drive to center to extend the game. The Count of Hack in the 11th livened up an 0-4, 2 K day with a leadoff walk drawn off Greg Sampson and then scored on a looping double to right by Sharp. Esquivel singled, and Quebell hit for Howell and managed a sac fly to get us a 4-2 lead for Casas to nurse in the bottom 11th. 4-2 Blighters. Castro 2-6, 2 RBI; Alston 2-5; Sharp 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Esquivel 2-5; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Matt Pruitt’s 13-game hitting streak ended quite forcefully here. Can we please at least salvage a .500 week against bitterly pathetic teams? I’ve already eaten by way through two candy bar shops and a liquor store here…

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 2B Correa – C Esquivel – SS Howell – P Grams
LVA: 1B McDermott – 2B Moultrie – CF Cameron – RF R. Garcia – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – 3B F. Soto – P Pennington

Sharp scored on a Quebell double in the first before Grams was in trouble right away with two in scoring position and no outs in the bottom 1st. Alston snagged Don Cameron’s fly to shallow left, keeping the runners on, Garcia struck out, and Durango’s drive to deep center was sucked up by Castro. After Esquivel reached base in the top 2nd, Howell got drilled by Pennington, only for Grams to bunt in a very ****ty way to get Esquivel nailed by Durango at third. That was a wonky start, and Grams soon enough got torn to shreds. The Aces made him the second starter in the series to not see daylight after the fifth inning, knocking him out in three and two thirds with a 6-2 lead. They were happily hitting ringing doubles off him after an initial 2-run homer by Soto in the second. Ted Reese appeared and allowed four hard hits with two outs in the inning, running the score to an irrecoverable 9-2 for the Aces before Tom Dahlke mercifully fouled out to end the massacre. While the Raccoons weren’t doing anything against the pushover Pennington, Ed Bryan had another stellar outing in the bottom 7th, allowing three straight hits to load the bases, then walked in two runs. This was a rout and had been one for quite some time, and when Rockburn came in and allowed 2-run doubles to both Cameron and Garcia, it didn’t really matter anymore. Nothing really mattered. 16-3 Aces. Trevino (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Why even take the packaging off the chocolate? It just holds you back.

In other news

May 26 – PIT C Bartholomeu Pino (.269, 3 HR, 30 RBI) will miss a month with a broken foot.
May 27 – SFW C Henry McClendon (.243, 12 HR, 34 RBI) is dealt from the Wolves to the Warriors in exchange for MR Kevin Johnston (2-0, 1.42 ERA) and #7 prospect CL Ron Thrasher.
May 28 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.341, 12 HR, 45 RBI) will miss two weeks with a mild hamstring strain.
May 30 – The Stars lose SP Jose Flores (5-4, 2.86 ERA) for the season after the 26-year old has torn his rotator cuff.
May 30 – The Titans pick up SP Ron Carter (2-6, 2.80 ERA) from the Condors for two prospects.

Complaints and stuff

… which is the point where we congratulate the Crusaders for winning the division yet again, while we will now slowly sink into the middle of the division, where everything is relative and nothing is all that important.

Hector Santos was injured in his first AAA start, and will miss up to a month with a sprained ankle. (buries face in the hands)

Isn’t it ironic? We opened this week having played 12 different teams, and didn’t lose a game against only one of them: the Crusaders, going 5-0.

The Coons were close to breaking even in their franchise record, starting the week at 2,608-2,619 before getting whacked around by two hopeless teams.

After starting the inaugural 1977 season at 2-1, the Raccoons quickly dropped below .500 for their existence, and their first five horrendous seasons, all with 69 wins or less, ensured that it would take a long, long time for them to get back to .500. They were 398-574 after the 1982 season, not having turned a winning record.

But with 1983 came the Critters’ first pennant and only two losing seasons from there through to 1996. The Raccoons sprung over .500 late in 1993. Ben O’Morrissey’s walkoff home run against the Loggers on August 8 brought the team to 1,352-1,351 and while it was a bit of back and forth from there, and a few more good seasons were yet to come, but ultimately we hit 1997 and the dark times. The Raccoons soared to 87 games over .500 for their existence after winning the first two games of the 1997 season against the Canadiens (1,665-1,578), then plunged into oblivion. While it took them a while to completely ruin 14 years of hard work, they did it in style on the final day of the 2000 season, losing at home to the same Loggers they had perused to jump above .500 seven years before to drop below .500 at 1,944-1,945 with a season-closing 5-2 loss.

Things have been improving since lingering 85 games under .500 in the second-to-last week of 2006. They finished that year 2,389-2,472, gained 34 games in ’07, 24 games in ’08, and now had been really, really close …

… until getting all their teeth and claws pulled this week.

[Westheim]

Thankfully Sunday’s 16-3 crunching had happened in Las Vegas. We could have waited years and years for Slappy to clean the blood and the gore off our park if that had happened on home turf.

Raccoons (30-18) vs. Falcons (19-31) – June 1-3, 2009

Instead the Raccoons returned home to find out that another soundly-below-.500 team (oddly the Falcons) were waiting for them. They had knives in their beaks, and it would probably turn ugly. How exactly they, of the fifth-worst offense and third-worst pitching, were going to humiliate us I didn’t know yet, but life was full of surprises. The Raccoons had taken two of three earlier in the year from Charlotte.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (3-3, 3.12 ERA) vs. David Estrada (4-2, 3.64 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-2, 3.61 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (3-4, 7.68 ERA)
Javier Cruz (4-3, 3.55 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (1-2, 4.61 ERA)

To start the set, we got a puzzle from them. It would have been Steve Rogers’ (3-7, 3.93 ERA) turn on Monday. They sent David Estrada on short rest instead. Was something going on here?

Game 1
CHA: SS Reeve – 2B H. Green – LF Brulhart – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – RF Reya – 1B Heart – CF Burke – P D. Estrada
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

Max Heart, who had been a rule 5 pick by the Raccoons at the start of the decade, batting .191 then, had held odd jobs over the last few years, mostly in the FL, before being washed ashore with the Falcons now. His error gave them a chance in the bottom of the first inning, but Ron Alston timely hit into the first double play of the week and there would certainly be a few dozen more to come.

Baldwin was guilty of allowing the Falcons excessive contact in this start. Fernando Chavez homered his first time up and the Falcons hit a few more balls hard enough (including a Heart double) to take a 2-0 lead. Howell’s sac fly halved the gap in the bottom of the inning before the gaping hole we employed as luxury catcher struck out to end the frame with another man in scoring position, then conceded a run on a passed ball in the third, and struck out with two men on base to end the bottom 6th, with the Raccoons still down 3-1. Baldwin made it to the eighth before being relieved with one out, Ron Reeve on first base, and the right-handed mashing pair of Jim Brulhart and Jose Lopez next. Matt Cash, unscathed by Sunday’s holocaust, removed them both. Ed Bryan sucked in the ninth and had to be dug out by Law Rockburn. The bottom of the inning started with a Rob Howell double off Jeff Paul. Nomura drew a walk coming off the bench, but that was as far as the Coons got. Pruitt flew out to center, Castro whiffed, and Correa had another 0-5 day in rolling out to short. 3-1 Falcons. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Sharp 3-4;

Game 2
CHA: SS Reeve – 2B H. Green – 3B J. Lopez – RF Reya – LF Brulhart – 1B Mendoza – C Ishikawa – CF Burke – P Rogers
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Umberger

Even a true standout day in the field by Rob Howell, who made all the easy, challenging, and hard plays, as well as one or two (or three) impossible ones, couldn’t prevent Jong-hoo Umberger from allowing seven hard hits, most of them for extra bases, in seven innings. The Falcons plated two runs in the third, which Ron Alston negated with a 2-run shot in the same inning’s bottom, but then Brulhart hit a true moonshot in the fourth inning that put the Falcons on top 3-2, which didn’t change until Umberger was practically done after seven innings, with the Raccoons being held to two hits – including Alston’s shot – through seven.

Maybe Rogers could be enticed to walk in the tying run? So far only Jose Correa had walked – in each of his three at-bats – but Castro drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 8th, and then Correa also drew four more balls to tie a franchise record. The count on Ron Alston ran full as well, with a borderline call going the hitter’s way to load the bases and bring in Ryan O’Quinn in Rogers’ place. Luke Black managed to snip a single past Jose Lopez to tie the game, before Quebell went the exact other way for a 2-run double. Sharp was walked intentionally before Howell livened up his golden defensive day, that so far had seen him go 0-3, 3 K at the plate, with a run-scoring infield single. De La Picenza popped up before Yoshi Nomura got his second at-bat in the inning and made his second out in the inning. Angel Casas preserved the win that came on five hits and seven walks. 6-3 Coons. Correa 0-0, 4 BB; Black 2-4, RBI;

While the Crusaders are on a Refuse to Lose streak and lead the Coons by three and a half now, Ron Alston is closing in a bit on the CL home run lead, which is led by Dan Morris of the Elks with 15 bombs, working out to a pace of 49 for the year for him. Not bad for a 38-year old, whose only treat at this point in his career with two bad legs is his power stick. He is second on the career list with 393 dingers, 23 off Raúl Vázquez, who will enter the Hall of Fame ballot in a few years. (Ron Alston: 253 HR, 13th; trailing only Mark Dawson in terms of ex-Raccoons)

Game 3
CHA: SS Reeve – 2B H. Green – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – RF Reya – LF Brulhart – 1B Mendoza – CF Burke – P Lane
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Howell – P Cruz

The Falcons took another early lead, and even earlier than before in this series, with Jose Lopez knocking a 2-piece off Javier Cruz in the first inning. Light-hitting Ron Reeve left his own mark on Cruz’ pelt with a leadoff jack in the third, and Cruz shed another run in the fifth on a Luis Reya double. In between Quebell had hit a 2-run homer, but with the tying runs on in the fifth inning, Quebell and Black failed to get a hit. We had Esquivel on third with a double and Howell on first after his single with one out in the bottom 6th, when Matt Pruitt batted for Cruz. Pruitt made me throw my half-eaten donut at Honeypaws when he hit a 3-0 pitch into a 4-6-3 double play. Quebell grounded out with Alston on base, ending the bottom 7th. De La Penguin batted for Ed Bryan in the eighth inning, having Black (walk) and Nomura (single) on the corners with two out against Javier Navarro and actually managed to hit a single. The Coons came back to 4-3, with the Falcons going to their fourth reliever in an inning that had started with Ryan O’Quinn walking Count Hack. Castro came up against Sancho Rivera and grounded out to Reeve. Bottom 9th, Jeff Paul pitching. Correa grounded out before Alston and Quebell singled to represent the winning runs. That left the game in Black’s paws, he struck out, and Sharp grounded out to third base. 4-3 Falcons. Castro 2-4, BB; Alston 3-4, BB; Quebell 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Esquivel 3-4, 2 2B; Nomura (PH) 1-1; De La Parra (PH) 1-1; Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

This time, the Raccoons out-hit the Falcons 13-8, while going down. Yesterday they out-hit us 8-5. Wicked game.

Now where has that donut gone?

Raccoons (31-20) vs. Canadiens (29-22) – June 5-7, 2009

We’re 3-2 against them, but when you have issues already, the last thing you need is to have those smelling skunks invading your house. Their .278 batting average led the league, although they were only second in runs scored. Despite a rotation that got whacked relentlessly to a 4.50 ERA, 10th in the CL, they were average in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-2, 1.77 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (5-3, 3.67 ERA)
Greg Grams (5-2, 3.93 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (5-2, 4.67 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-4, 3.18 ERA) vs. David Peterson (4-6, 6.50 ERA)

Three right-handers here, and we miss their best guy, Juichi Fujita (2.99 ERA).

Game 1
VAN: CF Holland – RF E. Garcia – 1B T. Ramos – LF D. Morris – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Rodgers – P R. Taylor
POR: LF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Brown

Gary Rice’s leadoff walk in the top 3rd led to the first run of the game when Ross Holland doubled him in with two outs. That was the only hit Brown allowed in five innings while whiffing six, and the Raccoons amounted to a hit, six strikeouts and no runs despite four walks in five innings. Alston led off the bottom 6th with a blooper into shallow left center for a leadoff single. Quebell hit into a double play. That was it for offensive output, except for a Ken Rodgers error, until Alston hit another single in the bottom 8th against left-hander Kevin Jones, and then Quebell popped out, while Brown pitched into the ninth in his losing one-hitter, and finished the inning after issuing a walk to Enrique Garcia. Pedro Alvarado was out to close the game for the Elks. Sharp struck out, Pruitt flew out to center, and the Count … oh, the Count hacked until the game was over. 1-0 Canadiens. Alston 2-3, BB; Brown 9.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, L (4-3);

****ing team of ****ing ****s.

Despite my best efforts to suffocate myself with my own pillow that night, I couldn’t. You can’t do that on your own, it seems. And Honeypaws was still mad for the donut incident and refused to help me.

Game 2
VAN: CF Holland – C G. Ortíz – 1B T. Ramos – LF D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – SS Rice – 2B Rodgers – P Crawford
POR: SS Correa – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Esquivel – P Grams

“Hard Contact” Grams was whacked from the beginning, and Luke Black made two circus plays inside the first five outs, injuring himself on the latter. Despite Grams’ complete lack of stuff and entertainment value, and the Canadiens hitting the ball every which way, they couldn’t get any meaningful amount of actual hits and didn’t score through six innings, of course leading to an overall scoreless game. The bottom 6th was led off with singles by Correa and Nomura. If Alston, Quebell, and Pruitt wouldn’t be able to bring in at least one run, we’re gonna start a fire sale! Once Alston hit into a double play and Quebell grounded out to first base, I went to check the top prospects list.

Grams was removed in the seventh after a walk to Gary Rice and a hard single by Crawford. Donald Sims came out to face Holland, but the Elks hit righty Brian Nichols for him, who grounded out.

But stop the presses! The Raccoons scored a run in the bottom of the seventh, and even before they made an out! Pruitt singled, and we called a hit-and-run when Sharp hit a liner to right that bounced fair once, then turned into foul territory for a double, and Pruitt scored easily ahead of Josh Thomas’ throw in. Of course Sharp was left on base. Bruno struck out two in a perfect top 8th, then Yoshi hit a double to start the Coons’ half of the bottom 8th. An intentional walk to Alston and Quebell’s infield single loaded the bases, but Bruno was in Pruitt’s slot after Castro had remained in the game after hitting in the bottom 7th to improve the defense. De La Poquito and Sharp would hit sac flies to bring in a pair of runs. But in Portland, nothing was ever easy. When Angel Casas came into the ninth inning, he walked Thomas and Suzuki before he got anybody out. Gary Rice grounded to Quebell, who went to second to get the out on Suzuki. After that, Ken Rodgers and Enrique Garcia struck out. 3-0 Blighters. Nomura 2-4, 2B; Sharp 3-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2B; Grams 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K;

Wicked team. Wicked, wicked, wicked team. Grams logged 20 outs, of which 13 were fly outs, and none were in easy reach of infielders. By the way, Grams still leads the team in wins.

Game 3
VAN: CF Holland – RF E. Garcia – 1B T. Ramos – LF D. Morris – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – SS Rice – 2B Rodgers – P D. Peterson
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Howell – P Baldwin

The Raccoons put up seven batters with averages over .300 for this game, and most of them were left-handed against a right-handed pushover in David Peterson. They had nothing in the first, three singles and Pruitt thrown out at home in the second, and then a walk to Yoshi and a gapper into right center for an RBI triple by Quebell in the third. The Elks bounced back immediately with four singles for two runs in the top 4th, taking a 2-1 lead. Baldwin got his revenge in time, beating Holland with a full-count, 2-out RBI double in the bottom of the inning, which tied the score again.

Baldwin allowed as much contact as Grams the day before, but the difference was that Baldwin’s contact resulted in plenty of hits, eight in five innings. Contrary to Nick Brown, who was actually a good pitcher and knew what he was doing out there, they got run support, however. Ron Alston cracked one in the fifth for a 3-2 lead, and after Quebell walked, Pruitt’s double put both into scoring position with one out. Sharp was walked intentionally, and Esquivel hit into a double play. Okay, the chumps got SLIGHTLY more run support than Brown…

While Baldwin was done after six innings of 10-hit ball, the Coons hit into double plays again in the sixth and seventh. When Pruitt hit a leadoff double in the bottom 8th, the Elks did the only sensible thing with PH Jose Correa and walked him right away. Except that this time it didn’t work. While Esquivel struck out and Howell grounded out, Manuel Gutierrez (in since hitting for Baldwin and replacing Sharp at third) hit a really soft line over the second base bag, so soft nobody had a chance to catch it. Both runs scored, and Donald Sims pitched a quick ninth retiring three left-handers. 5-2 Coons. Nomura 0-1, 3 BB; Pruitt 3-4, 2 2B; Howell 2-4; Gutierrez 1-2, 2 RBI; Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Angel Casas appeared slightly tired and with all the left-handers I preferred Sims today.

In other news

June 2 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.280, 0 HR, 24 RBI) will be out with an ankle sprain until the All Star break.
June 3 – NYC SP Whit Reeves (7-1, 3.69 ERA) logs his 200th career win with six innings and change of 1-run ball in a 3-1 win over the Condors. The 34-year old right-hander, who was the 10th overall pick by the Scorpions in the 1992 draft, has lost only 119 games and has a 3.41 career ERA, and has struck out 2,017 batters. He was the 2000 FL Pitcher of the Year and an All Star five times.
June 5 – The Aces lose SP Jack Thomas (4-3, 3.23 ERA) for the season. The 27-year old southpaw has torn his labrum.
June 5 – CHA C Fernando Chavez (.308, 5 HR, 25 RBI) is also out, going to miss a month with a strained rib cage muscle.
June 7 – IND CL Leonardo Sosa (1-2, 5.55 ERA, 2 SV) locks up his 300th save in a 5-4 win over the Crusaders.

Complaints and stuff

No diagnosis on Luke Black, but potentially there’s a million off our 2010 books. Who knows. At THIS point, that might be the better option.

The Falcons debacle was the first home series we lost all season.

Gotta find a way to get Ricardo Martinez back onto the roster now that he’s batted .388/.442/.592 in 26 games in AAA. Maybe he can fill in at short?

Grams is a funny name if you know some German, because Gram is a slightly antique word for concerns, grief, agony. It describes pretty well what he does.

Meanwhile Nick Brown has the best ERA in the majors, and less than half the wins of the leader in either league.

[Westheim]

2009 DRAFT POOL

The 2009 draft is almost upon us and the pool for this draft is … strange.

There is a truck load full of potential stars among high school pitchers (well, about five or six perhaps), but the college pitcher collection was a bit on the dull side. Yet even among those high school pitchers on the top end of the list, there were a few who had scars on their elbows already, so it was a bit of a gambler’s year in the high school pitching market. When it came to batters, first base and second base were well represented with appreciable talent (although mostly questionable when it came to defense), but there was a rather small crop of potential catchers and outfielders, and at third base the situation was completely dire. It was a good year if your system was short on defensive centerfielders who had at least some batting potential, though.

Below is the dozen-or-so favorites of Whitebread’s formulaic analysis.

SP Bryant Roberts (12/12/13)
SP Jim Fortman (11/13/14)
SP Ian Van Meter (11/14/12)
SP Tony Harrell (13/16/10)
SP Mike Stank (10/14/11)
SP Milt Beauchamp (12/15/12) – college pitcher
SP Rich Hood (11/11/10) – college pitcher
SP/MR Chris Elenbaas (11/10/14) – short on the third pitch, and nobody can errorlessly say his name

CL Tim Edmonds (17/11/9)

2B Josh Downing (13/12/11) – looking for a 5-tool second baseman?
SS Erik Janes (15/2/10)
1B Jonathan Marsh (10/10/12)

LF/RF/INF Devin Hibbard (12/8/14)
LF Corey Martin (11/12/16)
OF Geoff Allen (10/5/9) – potential Gold Glover

The Raccoons are guaranteed at least one among this group, being in possession of the #14 (compensation for Craig Bowen) and #21 picks, as well as two supplemental round picks.

[Westheim]

Monday began with Luke Black being placed on the DL with a mild oblique strain. He would miss two to three weeks, which in itself would not void his $1M vesting option for 2010 unless he would incur another injury later or accidentally got superglued to the bench by somebody.

In some twisted way this was a blessing. It didn’t change all of our 2010 plans, and at the same time a roster spot opened to readmit Ricardo Martinez at least on a temporary basis. Why no outfielder? Because injuries and suckage had reduced our AAA outfielders to rubble, and now we had only Jason Seeley, Dave Green, and a bunch of scrum (including Chris Beairsto) there, and while both Seeley and Green were doing well after being moved up from Ham Lake, I had already broken a Yoshi Nomura by throwing him into a fire at age 20 in this decade and we didn’t have to repeat that clip any time soon.

The screams. I still hear his screams.

Raccoons (33-21) @ Titans (30-26) – June 8-11, 2009

We enter Boston for four games, having taken two of three games so far this season, with one postponement into later in the year. The Titans were second only to the Raccoons in runs allowed (202 vs. 190), so low scoring might go on for us. We were almost even in runs scored, them sixth (232 runs), and us seventh (230 runs).

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-2, 3.63 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (5-1, 2.29 ERA)
Javier Cruz (4-4, 3.78 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (5-2, 3.38 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-3, 1.69 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (4-4, 2.79 ERA)
Greg Grams (5-2, 3.47 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (3-6, 3.33 ERA)

A pair of righties, followed by a pair of lefties. We might have some issue with our left-handed lineup now with Luke Black out. We only have left-handed outfielders left! (The only right-handed batting outfielder in AAA is Joey McIntyre, batting .108)

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Umberger
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 1B Higashi – C Suda – CF J. Gusmán – RF Hayashi – 3B M. Austin – LF Britton – SS K. Sato – P Cabrera

While Castro singled, stole, and scored in the first inning, Umberger’s outing started with a Jesus Ramirez triple and a passed ball charged to De La Painful that tied the game on the 1-1 pitch to Takahashi Higashi. A Sharp error and “Quasimodo” Suda’s home run gave the Titans a timely 3-1 lead. Well, maybe these games wouldn’t be low-scoring after all. Maybe we’d get romped after all.

While Jesus Cabrera was the first starting pitcher to leave the game, it wasn’t quite his fault. He hit an RBI double against Umberger in the second inning, running the score to 4-1, but pulled something and was gone. Rémy Lucas replaced him, loaded the bases on a bloop and two walks in the third, but struck out Daniel Sharp before it could get ugly for him. For Umberger, ugliness never stopped. He wasn’t fooling anyone, and was knocked out in the sixth inning with five runs allowed. The Raccoons got the entire compliment of left-handers the Titans carried in the bullpen to take a look at once Cabrera was gone, and it wasn’t a sight to behold for Raccoons fans. The team had three hits against Cabrera, and only three hits the rest of the way. 6-1 Titans. Howell 3-4, 2B;

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Howell – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – P Cruz
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 1B Higashi – LF G. Rios – CF J. Gusmán – RF Hayashi – 3B M. Austin – C J. Silva – SS K. Sato – P Patrick

What looked like a no-doubt 3-run homer by Adrian Quebell in the first inning suddenly dropped down into the glove of Javier Gusmán on the warning track, and the Raccoons settled for a Pruitt RBI single in the top 1st, which Cruz readily gave back in the bottom 1st. Cruz pitched a bit of 2008 Brown game. Lots of full counts, with results varying. The Titans didn’t need many hits, drawing two walks and waiting for the inevitable gapper would probably be enough here. That gapper wasn’t that easy to come by early on, and instead Javier Cruz livened up his .040 average with a go-ahead RBI single in the fourth inning, 2-1.

The Titans got their first hits since the first inning in the bottom 6th. Gerardo Rios and Tokimune Hayashi singled for them to have the go-ahead runs on base, but Mark Austin struck out in a full count. Varying results occasionally yields good results. But all the long counts elevated his pitch count quickly (and there had been a very brief rain delay in the third inning, with the climate remaining moisty) and Cruz was hit for in the top 7th with one out, with Nomura grounding out. But after that Castro doubled and scored on Correa’s single to get the score to an exuberant 3-1. While Martinez added a run with a sac fly in the eighth, we had our favorite 7th-8th-9th guys lined up, ready and rested. While Rockburn got through his inning quickly, Bruno struggled, walked Ramirez to get started, got a double play, and then walked Rios. Donald Sims came in to remove Gusmán and end the inning. That handed things off to Angel with a 4-1 lead, and he retired Hayashi and Austin quickly before the rain came back. The umpires called a rain delay after Julio Silva fouled off the 0-1 pitch – this was outrageous!

Almost three quarters of an hour later, rain had subsided, and play had to resume. Angel Casas was one strike away, but allowed a single and tweaked something in his back. Ted Reese was the only rested reliever available, allowed a single to Kunimatsu Sato, and then Apasyu Britton grounded out. 4-1 Raccoons. Correa 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Pruitt 3-4, 2B, RBI; Trevino (PH) 1-1; Cruz 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-4) and 1-2, RBI;

Angel Casas had a tweak with what might be a mildly herniated disc in his back and is for now listed as DTD. It might take a week for him to come back to strength, so we won’t have our preferred 7th-8th-9th for some time. But if your ace closer is thought to miss a week, you don’t disable him for two weeks. You eat the medicine and play a man short.

Although! … There is an extra infielder on the roster, which we could convert into an extra reliever to help us. That isn’t too odd a though, I think.

By the way, Brian Patrick pitched a complete game 11-hitter here, not that anyone raved about it too much.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 1B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Howell – 3B R. Martinez – P Brown
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF J. Gusmán – RF Hayashi – C Suda – LF G. Rios – 3B Higashi – SS M. Austin – 1B Arroyo – P Chapa

The Coons jumped no Chapa for two runs on five hits (and an Alston double play) in the first inning, and Brown scored after singling in the second inning for an early 3-0 lead. But Suda hit him for a leadoff jack in the bottom of the inning and slowly but surely the worst defensive alignment we could possibly come up with outside of actually playing Ricardo Martinez at short started to show. Actually, proven Gold Glover Correa was the first Coon to make an error, still in the bottom 2nd, but in the third it was Sharp with a poor throw back to first that Brown couldn’t come up with that lousy lob, but was charged the error. The Titans capitalized on neither chance, but Rob Howell hit his first career home run in the top 4th (in his 368th AB), 4-1.

On top of shoddy defense, Brown went to hell as well by the middle innings. He drilled Austin in the fourth, then had a man on fifth and added two 2-out walks before bringing up Suda, who popped out to Alston on a full count, but Brown hit an RBI single in the top 6th, plating Martinez with two outs. Pitching-wise he crawled through the sixth and was then done. Mind that incomplete 7th-8th-9th string, though.

So after Esquivel drove in Alston with a 2-out single, but Martinez struck out to leave two men on in the top 7th, the 6-1 lead was handed to Ed Bryan, who retired two out of three left-handers before allowing a single to Gusmán. Cash came in, Hayashi singled, and then Suda grounded to short, with Howell’s throw going well over Sharp at first base for a run-scoring error. After that, the lefty Gerardo Rios was up. Sims came into the game in a triple switch, Quebell to first, Sharp to third, and Sims into the #7 hole, and Rios lined into centerfield to score two runs on the first pitch. Sims didn’t retire anybody in the bottom 8th, with Austin and Arroyo singling before Sims was taken out to get beaten to mush. Marcos Bruno took over, was 0-2 on PH Apasyu Britton before throwing a wild pitch for 1-2, and then allowed a game-tying 2-run double, and of course Bruno failed to leave Britton on base, either, ex-Coon Kunimatsu Sato driving him in. Good news, though: nobody needed to pitch the ninth anymore. 7-6 Titans. Castro 2-5; Correa 3-4, BB, RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2B, RBI; Sharp 2-5, RBI; Esquivel 2-4, RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K and 2-3, RBI;

I would entirely understand it if Nick Brown would bring a gun and kill everybody in the clubhouse. It’s his prerogative, I’d say. And Kisho Saito would long have slit their throats with his swords.

No love for lefties in Portland. And my seemingly sound mental state as I report on this is entirely fake and has taken me years of screaming at mirrors to maintain, but has mainly been achieved by throwing a 50 pound metal ash receptacle through my assigned suite’s glass door during this game. The splintering noise felt so good. The Titans are probably going to be replacing this with acrylic glass, though.

By the way, we had 15 hits, and they had seven, but they didn’t make a ****teen errors, either.

We flicked Ricardo Martinez (2-for-8 since being recalled) back to AAA for a few days to bring in an additional pitcher. It was John Richardson, though, who had maintained his ERA (7+) and K/9 (almost 9) in AAA, even starting a couple of games. We needed nothing in that regard, just pitch some innings competently, okay?

Game 4
POR: LF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Grams
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 1B Higashi – LF G. Rios – C Suda – CF J. Gusmán – 3B M. Austin – RF Hudson – SS K. Sato - P Conner

Wasteful RISP batting went on. While the Raccoons again scored in the first on an Alston sac fly, De La Porcupine would leave the bases loaded when he rolled out to short like a three-year old girl. Alston homered in the third, giving Grams a 2-0 lead, and although Grams opened every inning but one with a 3-ball count, the Titans didn’t get to him until the bottom 6th, in which he drilled Rios, was taken well deep by Suda, and then drilled Austin, and still somehow got out of the mess with a then reduced 3-2 lead. Despite lacking stuff at all (but striking out leadoff man Ramirez twice for some reason), Grams lived through seven innings and handed a flimsy 3-2 lead off to Rockburn and a tired Bruno, who faced mostly left-handers, but of course nobody would ever dare to ruin one of Grams’ leads. 3-2 Coons. Castro 3-5; Grams 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (6-2);

Raccoons (35-23) vs. Warriors (29-30) – June 12-14, 2009

Ninth in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, and with a bullpen that made even the Raccoons’ blush with a 5.47 ERA, by far the worst in baseball, the Warriors weren’t really getting back into contention. They hadn’t made the playoffs since 2001, but the Raccoons hadn’t taken a series from them since then, either. The last time we beat them was in 2000. Overall, we have the second-worst all-time record against them (18-27, .400), beating out only our embarrassing record against the Rebels (.278). The Warriors also came in with SIX players on the DL, including former Continental League regulars Bob Butler and Manuel Reyes, also veteran Oliver Torres, and another day-to-day starting pitcher. Martin Garcia (4-6, 4.78 ERA) had pitched on short rest on Thursday, and they would have another guy on short rest to open the series.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 3.17 ERA) vs. Ricky Mendoza (6-4, 3.72 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-3, 3.84 ERA) vs. Ken Harris (6-4, 3.76 ERA)
Javier Cruz (5-4, 3.58 ERA) vs. Jair Mauceri (0-2, 6.42 ERA)

Those are all right-handers, easing our pains with lineup construction a bit. Angel Casas does not figure like he will pitch on the weekend, so our pen remains a mess as well.

Game 1
SFW: CF Matthews – 2B A. Martinez – 1B Bovane – LF Graham – RF Zackery – 3B O. Rios – C J. Young – SS Spinks – P Mendoza
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – C De La Parra – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Baldwin

Colin Baldwin pitched to the best of his abilities, which held the hits to a minimum, but still saw him trailing 1-0 after five innings. The lone run was unearned after a Nomura error, as this particular week of hells continued. The Raccoons had a man on third base in Castro in the first inning, then lay dead for a while until Ron Alston launched his 15th rocket to lead off the bottom 6th, tying the contest. Baldwin turned in seventh damage-free innings before being hit for in the bottom 7th, an inning in which the Raccoons left Castro in scoring position once again.

Bottom 8th, Alston walked against Mendoza, ending his day. Lefty Francisco Rodriguez appeared, with Quebell singling to left, and Pruitt singling to right. Bases loaded, no outs. Howell hit for Nomura, but popped out to short. De La Penne struck out, and Gutierrez grounded out. The bottom 9th started with Esquivel hitting for Law Rockburn, who had maintained the 1-1 tie in the top of the inning. The Coons had Castro on third with two outs and Alston batting against Rodriguez, and rolling it right back to the pitcher for extra innings. Somehow the Warriors didn’t eat up Sims after a Quebell error in the top 10th. Bottom 10th, Dan Nordahl pitching, Quebell singled, Pruitt doubled. No outs, winning run at ****ING THIRD BASE!! Howell grounded out … to third. De La Pitcairn wasn’t pitched to for some reason. Well, the Warriors thought, what can happen with Manuel Gutierrez batting? It’s either a K or a double play. What’s that cracking sound? What’s that white object soaring to right there? WHO’S batting? GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!

5-1 Raccoons. Correa 2-5; Quebell 2-5; Pruitt 2-5, 2B; Gutierrez 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K;

It has happened. Donald Sims now has more wins than Brownie. And on a walkoff slam by Ahuachapan’s finest. Achapa-what? Right.

They are maddening. They are really maddening.

Game 2
SFW: CF Matthews – 2B A. Martinez – 1B Bovane – LF Graham – RF Zackery – 3B O. Rios – C J. Young – SS Spinks – P Harris
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS M. Gutierrez – P Umberger

Daniel Sharp started inning-ending double plays in both of the first two innings defensively, and led off the bottom 2nd with a double after Pruitt had left two on in the first, setting up an early crooked number this time. Esquivel and Gutierrez both hit singles and Correa would plate them with a 2-out single to take a 3-0 lead. Sharp bounced into a run-scoring double play in the third, 4-0, while Umberger also got another double play turned in the top of the inning, and another one in the fifth! Harris got a double play turned when Esquivel hit into it with two on and nobody out in the bottom 6th, but eventually Umberger knocked him from the game with a 2-out RBI single to get the score to 5-0. But Umberger couldn’t put men on base forever, eventually someone would get him, and someone was Orlando Rios, bashing a 1-out, 2-run double over Pruitt’s head in the top 7th. Umberger came back from that with strikeouts to Joe Young and Bob Spinks, who was 31 and owned a suitcase with many stickers from all over the States on it. Umberger completed the eighth inning with three quick outs, setting up Marcos Bruno for a save attempt, but Bruno was awfully tired. There were two left-handers among the first four batters, and we had a 3-run advantage, and so we started with … Ed Bryan. Yes, our pen is that badly burned out. Bryan was a strike away from a perfect inning before an 0-2 pitch bored in on Rusty Zackery. Rios almost hit an 0-1 pitch out then … almost. Castro, moved to left with Trevino in for defense, made a catch that Pruitt probably wouldn’t have made in the corner in deep left. 5-2 Critters. Alston 2-4; Pruitt 2-4, 2B; Umberger 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (4-3) and 1-2, RBI;

Bryan’s fifth save is his first since ’07.

The last time we swept the Warriors was the year Jason Turner tossed his no-hitter.

Game 3
SFW: CF Matthews – 2B A. Martinez – 1B Bovane – LF Graham – RF Zackery – C McClendon – 3B O. Rios – SS Spinks – P Mauceri
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Cruz

Offense was not just slow, it had glacial speed in this Sunday game on national television. The broadcasters were bored by the third inning. In the bottom 4th Alston reached on an error only for Quebell to hit into a double play. Sharp drew a leadoff walk and Howell singled in the next inning, and De La Pasquale chopped into a 6-4-3 without any mercy. The Warriors then catapulted themselves through Cruz in the top of the sixth, with a leadoff single by Jeffrey Matthews, who stole a base, moved up on a groundout, and scored on Dave Graham’s double. 1-0 Warriors, and where were the Coons? Castro singled to start the bottom 6th, Correa … double play. Cruz went eight and remained on the short side of the scoreboard, then was hit for with Nomura to start the bottom 8th, the first of three racing outs in the inning. In the top 9th it was on the Warriors to get a man on with an error (Quebell’s) before Zackery rolled a Reese pitch into a 4-6-3. With the bases cleansed again, Reese walked Henry McClendon and was yanked. Bryan came in, walked Rios, and then allowed three straight hard hits that blew the cover off the scoreboard. The Raccoons were held to one cynical run by Francisco Rodriguez and Dan Nordahl in the bottom 9th. 4-1 Warriors. Alston 2-4; Cruz 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, L (5-5);

Ed Bryan found a dead skunk in his locker after this game.

Thankfully I keep these things stocked well here.

In other news

June 9 – Aside from Portland’s Angel Casas, Vancouver’s CL Pedro Alvarado (3-1, 1.54 ERA, 11 SV) also goes down with an injury, missing about one week with shoulder soreness.
June 10 – SAL OF Pat Buckholtz (.295, 10 HR, 39 RBI) is out for the year after breaking his kneecap. Buckholtz hit for the cycle on the final weekend of the 2008 season.
June 14 – CHA INF Jose Lopez (.265, 8 HR, 32 RBI) cracks his 300th career home run in an 8-5 loss of the Falcons to the Rebels, a solo shot off Bartolo Ortíz. The 33-year old Lopez was a 1994 signing by the Capitals out of his native Puerto Rico and has led his league in home runs four times in his career. He has 1,218 RBI in addition to his career slash of .268/.334/.476.

Complaints and stuff

Monday: Draft! Today’s aspiring youth is tomorrow’s headache and Friday’s rage fit.

Entirely unrelated: Jimmy Eichelkraut is stuck on the A-level Poza Rica Thieves, stealing somebody else’s playing time with a .266/.331/.383 clip with one homer. He also batted .187/.244/.227 in 21 games for the double-A Nogales Nightriders this season.

This winter we successfully made a $2.5M bid for a hideous Dadaist painting at Suckeby’s that I just can’t figure out. I don’t know what to do with it. It’s not generating much countables for us. It doesn’t strike you with beauty, and it doesn’t have any easily discernible meaning. It even has a really, really ugly frame. Should we just stow it away in the attic and forget about it? And Maud’s promotional stuff that De La Purse would keep batters from stealing isn’t true either.

Speaking about stolen bases, Tomas Castro entered the week 7/16 (!!) in stolen bases, but swiped three off “Quasimodo” Suda and two more on Friday to get to 12/21, which is still yuck, but at least not outright shocking.

Angel *should* be good to pitch by Tuesday. We’ll be in Topeka, and have a game on Monday, with Thursday off.

Early last week, I *almost* designated Ed Bryan for assignment. *Almost*. The only thing that held me back was the lack of replacements where you could at least hope for a decent experience with them. And you know we’re broken, so we can’t add from the outside. Since then, he’s been quite well by his standards. I put him into Saturday’s save situation by accident, not looking right. But pssshhh, that’s a secret, don’t tell anyone. But maybe designating him for expunction from the league record wouldn’t be the worst idea I’ve had recently.

Jose Lopez is only the seventh player to reach 300 home runs in ABL history. Top 10 and significant other Raccoons:
1st – Raúl Vázquez – 416
2nd – Dan Morris – 393 (active with VAN)
3rd – Michael Root – 338 (HOF)
t-4th – Gabriel Cruz – 318 (HOF)
t-4th – Anibal Rodriguez – 318
6th – Mark Dawson – 304
7th – Jose Lopez – 300 (active with CHA)
t-8th – Bakile Hiwalani – 284 (active with MIL)
t-8th – David Lopez – 284 (active with SFB)
10th – Mac Woods – 274
…
13th – Ron Alston – 256 (active with POR)
t-17th – Daniel Hall – 223
20th – Royce Green – 220
21st – Tetsu Osanai – 219 (HOF)
46th – Ben O’Morrissey – 177
t-53rd – Neil Reece – 171
67th – Ben Simon – 156
t-72nd – David Vinson – 151
77th – Albert Martin – 148 (active with OCT)
t-80th – Luke Black – 145 (active with POR)
t-95th – Clyde Brady – 138 – (active with DEN)

Looking at the list, Ron Alston is pretty much the only 500 HR threat right now. He will turn 30 just before the All Star game, but he’s already half way there. A few more years in our shoe box wouldn’t hurt his cause, either…

Right now, however, Alston is struggling badly. He had multi-hit games back-to-back to end the week, but for seven days before that he batted 5-for-28. That three hits were home runs masked the issue a bit. Then again, he struck out only five times, but the contact he generated was mostly poor. Except for the three homers.

Rotten luck might be an explanation for a lot with this team. Our team slash is .276/.341/.401, or in relation to the Continental League: 1st/4th/4th!! But we hit for a lot of singles, and you need at least three to score a run, and we’re only in seventh when it comes to runs scored. We’re sixth in both extra base hits and home runs. In theory, our mix is great, but in real life, it’s not working. Add a shaky bullpen.

Uh, I mentioned the forbidden B-word with Nick Brown in the house.

I had him screened secretly, and Nick Brown in fact does not own a gun, which explains a lot of things. He does own a colorful handmade crossbow, bought of a street artist fair downtown, though. Are poisoned bolts a thing?

[Westheim]

2009 AMATEUR DRAFT

The Raccoons held four first and supplemental round picks including the compensation received for free agents Craig Bowen and Juan Barrón, with their top pick at #14, and their second and original first round pick coming at #21.

The Raccoons had a hotlist of 15 players, and a 106 boys long list of players that were at least in some remote way interesting. Below again, just the top 15:

SP Bryant Roberts (12/12/13)
SP Jim Fortman (11/13/14) – BNN #7
SP Ian Van Meter (11/14/12)
SP Tony Harrell (13/16/10) – BNN #6
SP Mike Stank (10/14/11)
SP Milt Beauchamp (12/15/12) – BNN #10; college pitcher
SP Rich Hood (11/11/10) – college pitcher
SP/MR Chris Elenbaas (11/10/14) – short on the third pitch, and nobody can errorlessly say his name

CL Tim Edmonds (17/11/9)

2B Josh Downing (13/12/11) – BNN #2; looking for a 5-tool second baseman?
SS Erik Janes (15/2/10) – BNN #1
1B Jonathan Marsh (10/10/12)

LF/RF/INF Devin Hibbard (12/8/14)
LF Corey Martin (11/12/16) – BNN #9
OF Geoff Allen (10/5/9) – potential Gold Glover

I was looking at a starting pitcher for sure. You can always use a starting pitcher prospect, right? My favorites – shall I say them? Some other team will hear it and pick them away from us! – might be Van Meter and Hood. Well, my favorite pitcher was actually Bryant Roberts, but Whitebread said he’d be the first overall pick unless the Loggers were stupid. Josh Downing would also be a sweet yield, but there was no way he would be around at #14.

Whitebread said a whole lot more besides how the Loggers would be stupid by not drafting Bryant Roberts, and well, apparently they’re stupid, because they made SP Tony Harrell the first overall pick in the 2009 draft. After that, the Aces took Josh Downing #2, and the Knights picked Devin Hibbard at #3. The top 5 were completed by Ian Van Meter going #4 to the Rebels and Jim Fortman #5 to the Buffaloes. Erik Janes followed that as #6 to Oklahoma. Bryant Roberts wasn’t selected until #9 (Gold Sox). Whitebread shook his head. So did I, looking at Whitebread.

The only players of our hotlist that were still left over when our first pick came up were pitchers Mike Stank, Rich Hood, Chris Elenbaas, and Tim Edmonds, first baseman Jonathan Marsh, and outfielder Geoff Allen. My earlier preference hadn’t changed, and Rich Hood it was. After all these years, I was longing for another Neil Reece, so when Geoff Allen was available seven picks later, we picked him. Only Marsh and Elenbaas were left over at our third pick and Elenbaas didn’t really have a good third pitch or even any potential third pitch, while Marsh was a first baseman. Period. Elenbaas went a few picks later, and our next choice with the hotlist depleted, SP Jonathan Toner, was claimed by the Cyclones one pick ahead of us.

2009 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#14) – SP Rich Hood, 22, from San Diego, CA – left-hander with four pitches that doesn’t throw too hard, but mixes his arsenal well. His best out pitch is a sharply dropping curveball that has the potential to earn him a ton of money.
Round 1 (#21) – OF Geoff Allen, 22, from Seattle, WA – everything athletic, you name it, Allen masters it; he runs like a leopard, he hurls balls like a howitzer, and he has a good eye for flight paths and is hardly ever fooled by a ball. The bat is a work in progress, and he won’t lead any home run columns, but if he can learn to lay off more junk, he could be an amazing, even if primarily defensive, centerfielder for many years.
Supp. Round (#43) – 1B Jonathan Marsh, 19, from Pomona, CA – while he has speed, he is so massively built that he is really not any good in the field, but he has a decent power potential and figures to be more or less the prototypical first baseman.
Supp. Round (#54) – INF/OF Brock Hudman, 19, from Glassport, PA – this strange beast has a high average/on-base bat without much power. He runs well and has good range, but a weak arm. He has played all over the place in high school and on exhibition teams, but he doesn’t really fit any position except perhaps leftfield and second base.
Round 2 (#80) – SP Lance Meyer, 21, from Huntingdon Beach, CA – right-hander with good stamina, three good pitches, but a control issue to beat out of him, and he seems to be a bit prone to the long ball
Round 3 (#104) – OF William Quinn, 20, from Miamisburg, OH – good defensive abilities, quick runners, unfortunately no home run power at all
Round 4 (#128) – SP Mark Grimes, 19, from Brooklyn, NY – there are four pitches, ill control, and a concerning tendency to allow hard, deep drives for this right-hander, who needs to get many things in order to climb the ladder
Round 5 (#152) – LF/2B Pat Rouse, 18, from Hawthorne, CA – another “have glove, will move around” player with a track record at five positions, but much like Hudman he doesn’t excel anywhere. He is an excellent base stealer and runner, and has a good eye, which might be aiding the slash line of this powerless switch-hitter.
Round 6 (#176) – C Ken St. Pierre, 18, from Brooklyn, NY – slightly obese and clumsy, this right-handed bat makes good contact and knows how to lay off crap. No power at all, though.
Round 7 (#200) – CL Chris Roberts, 21, from Moore’s Mill, AL – right-hander with a 92mph fastball, a slider, and bad enough control to walk more than five per nine innings for Long Beach State.
Round 8 (#224) – INF Dustin Tobin, 18, from Coconut Creek, FL – fits a bit of a utility mold, playing three positions around the infield competently, also runs a little bit.
Round 9 (#248) – SP Chris Mathis, 22, from Warminster Heights, PA – fastball, curveball, and really not much else, and he will probably move to the bullpen right away.
Round 10 (#272) – OF/1B Aaron Ellis, 20, from Charlotte, NC – good defense all across the outfield, sadly with no hitting skills whatsoever.
Round 11 (#296) – MR Andy Hackney, 20, from Jacksonville, FL – there’s a left-hander with a slider that likes to bite in on hitter’s ankles – unintentionally.
Round 12 (#320) – C Jordan Cole, 18, from West Melbourne, FL – another catcher with suspect defense. He has a good eye and being a switch-hitter going for him, although if you’re hacking like him and miss fat strikes, it’s not quite relevant from which side of the plate you’re doing it.

All guys will get their start at the A level in Aumsville. I don’t think our top picks, despite being college guys, should go to AA right away in this case. We also released a few guys, though no top picks, although 2004 first-rounder C Erik Ruff is pretty close to getting pelted. He’s in AA and sucks tremendously.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-24) @ Buffaloes (27-36) – June 15-17, 2009

The Buffaloes’ horrendous pitching (11th in runs allowed, 11th in starters’ ERA, 11th in bullpen ERA) was only marginally mitigated by an eighth-place offense. No, probably not mitigated at all. You could claim they were lucky to be only .429 at this point. We took two of three from them last season, which ended a 2-10 spill over four previous assignments. But since we completely owned them in the 80s (seven series, all carried by the Coons), we are still .556 against them overall.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-3, 1.67 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (2-8, 3.87 ERA)
Greg Grams (6-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Dan George (4-3, 4.15 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 2.88 ERA) vs. Alonso Alonso (4-6, 4.71 ERA)

We see two left-handers to start the set, and they will hide their two worst starters from us. The Buffaloes have spotted Tony Hamlyn, at 34 still arguably one of the best pitchers in the league, a total of 31 runs in 13 starts. Nick Brown (42 runs in 13 starts) and Hamlyn had a friendly chat a few hours before the game. “They hate your guts, too?” – “Yup.” – “Man.” – “’t’s hard.” – “Ya.”

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Brown
TOP: CF A. Smith – 3B Warrain – LF Perri – RF B. Román – SS Rivas – C A. Ramirez – 1B R. Moreno – 2B Durán – P Hamlyn

Two innings in, there were eight strikeouts and a scratch hit on the board (Pruitt’s). The Raccoons had a Castro single and a Correa double in the top 3rd, but Alston grounded out tamely to Pablo Durán. Rafael Moreno and Durán then rolled single through the holes between infielders to start the bottom 3rd and were in scoring position after Hamlyn’s good bunt. Brown struck out Arthur Smith and Inaki-Luki Warrain to kill off that threat, reaching six whiffs in three innings, but didn’t get any the next two innings while Hamlyn overtook him with Castro being victim number seven in the top 5th. But maybe a throwing error by Hamlyn could get the Coons going. He threw away Sharp’s grounder with one out in the sixth, trying to nab Quebell, whom he had just walked, at second base, which was double ironic since Sharp had popped up a bunt his last time at the plate. Instead, the Coons had two on, but Pruitt popped out to right, and Howell grounded out to Warrain. The game was still scoreless. Top 7th, Brown had singled up the middle (his second single on the day…), and Correa also singled to bring up Alston with two on and two out. The runners were in motion on a full count and Brownie scored when Alston singled to right. Quebell ended the inning with a grounder to Rivas, but now Brownie was up 1-0. The Buffaloes loaded the bases in the bottom 7th on a Rivas single, a Moreno double, and Dave Wheaton walking in a full count with two outs, and on a questionable call. Arthur Smith (.230, 4 HR, 30 RBI) was up, a right-hander. What a prickly spot. Brown claimed he still had something. Then he struck him out, his tenth and final whiff on the day. Law Rockburn replaced him, put two men on, Bruno came on and struck out Rivas and Ramirez to start what was planned to be a 5-out save now. The Coons left two more runners on base in the top 9th to increase the tension further. Robert Rucker and Pablo Durán fed grounders right back to Bruno for easy outs in the bottom 9th before he faced Aki Yamamoto, who hit a grounder hard at Yoshi Nomura at second base, who flipped it to first in time. 1-0 Brownies!!! Correa 2-4, 2B; Alston 2-5, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K, W (5-3) and 2-3; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (3);

That’s career win #102 for Brownie (high time…), and he also reached 101 K on the year, falling one short of knocking off another 100 K milestone, parking at 1,699 until Sunday.

And we don’t want to forget poor Tony “Ratface” Hamlyn (196-118, 2.61 ERA, 2,783 K), the poor bastard, who is probably longing for a trade more than any other enchained soul in the sport. But it will all be over soon: he’ll be a free agent this fall.

Brown’s numbers might pale compared to Hamlyn’s, but well, Hamlyn is three years older and debuted at 22 rather than 23, although you can’t blame Brown for rupturing his UCL just before his debut would have dawned on us … at 22. For what it’s worth, Brownie’s K/9 is better by almost a full whiff.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Grams
TOP: CF A. Smith – 3B Warrain – LF Perri – 1B Echevarria – RF B. Román – SS Rivas – C A. Ramirez – 2B Durán – P George

Ron Alston broke the tie with VAN Dan Morris for most home runs in the league by yanking his 16th shot of the season, a 2-piece in the first inning against ex-Indian Dan George. In the bottom 1st, Grams had already walked Warrain and Perri when he was 3-0 against Bartolo Román and the rightfielder grounded out to Quebell to end the inning. In the second, the first three Raccoons hit singles before they went K, K, F7 and nobody scored, but the Buffaloes starved two more as well. It wasn’t QUITE the pitching display seen on Monday. Accordingly the first starter was yanked in the fourth inning, and it wasn’t George. The Buffaloes plated two runs off Grams in the third, and already had two across in the fourth after an Arthur Smith double into the corner in right, but nobody out in the bottom 4th, by basically hitting the ball hard again and again and again. John Richardson – on the way out with Angel Casas back to 100% - replaced him and was taken deep by Ramón Echevarria in the same inning as the Buffaloes took a 6-2 lead. Even better, DAN GEORGE hit a home run off Richardson in the next inning. By now it was too late to give a ****. Richardson was going to suck up innings, then would get buried in a landfill, yet was eventually chased by a slight rain, but not before allowing another run. And on the way to the landfill, he could take Matt Cash right with him, who appeared for the bottom 7th, faced three, walked three, and was hooked as well. The offending runners would remain on base, but not through any Coons’ virtue. No, the rain got worse and eventually the game was called after a lengthy rain delay with Tom Reese still surrounded by Buffaloes. The Coons? Oh. De La Pursuit flew out to center with the bases loaded to end the top 5th, and Correa left a man stranded on third base in the sixth. 8-2 Buffaloes. Howell 2-2;

Interlude: Trade

I had seen enough of Richardson (that name just doesn’t bring much joy in Portland…) to have it with him. At first I considered waiving him to spare ourselves the remainder of his $150k minimum salary, but then I put him up for grabs at the desperate GMs’ blood bank, and the Thunder bit. Well, more teams bit, but I was especially looking for a right-handed outfielder at a minimum salary (for reasons…) and they even had two. 28-year old Keith Ayers was a career .293 batter with no power at all but good defense on the wings, while 27-year old David Clarke had quite some power, but no defense at all anywhere and his home runs came with a rate of 7.8 strikeouts for every walk, and 9.8 strikeouts for every home run in 400-some plate appearances.

So, the Raccoons flicked John Richardson (7.71 ERA), less than a year after picking him up from the Rebels in another trash trade, to the Thunder for RF/LF Keith Ayers (.391, 0 HR, 3 RBI in 23 AB).

Ayers, who is out of options would stay on the roster until Luke Black would return, and even start at least against left-handed pitchers, then would most likely get waived.

Raccoons (37-24) @ Buffaloes (27-36) – June 15-17, 2009

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Baldwin
TOP: 3B Warrain – C A. Ramirez – LF Perri – 1B Echevarria – RF B. Román – SS Rivas – CF Wheaton – 2B Durán – P Alonso

Perri was doubled in by Echevarria in the first to give the home team an early 1-0 lead, but the top 2nd started with a Pruitt double and went on nicely with a Yoshi single and a Sharp walk. No outs, but three on for Esquivel, whose best guess was a run-scoring double play and the Raccoons flattened out at 1-1 after Baldwin’s ****ty groundout. Top 3rd, Castro walked and Correa doubled, but it wasn’t quite enough to score for Castro, but after a take-it-easy walk to Ron Alston the bases were loaded again with no outs. This time there were countables added to the scoreboard. Quebell flicked a single to left to score one run, 2-1. While Pruitt’s fly to right was caught by Román, Correa scored for a sac fly, and then Yoshi’s high bloop dropped between Perri and Rivas to re-load the bases. Sharp’s sac fly was the last run coming in, 4-1, with Esquivel walking, but Baldwin grounding out. Two more were left stranded in the top 4th, in the bottom of which Baldwin lost his marbles. With one runner on base he walked both Durán (batting a strong .146) and Alonso to load the bases with two outs. Warrain bounced to Nomura, whose shoddy throw to Quebell flicked into the dirt right in front of Quebell’s stretched-out glove – and Quebell still somehow came up with it for the third out. Gold Glover, right there. The Buffaloes stranded two in scoring position the next inning, too. What a mess of a game!

The top 6th saw Alonso Alonso removed after Castro walked and Correa singled, Raccoons runners #14 and #15 in the game. Scruffy right-hander Jimmy Suver kept them right there, retiring the 3-4-5 batters in order, and quickly. Suver pitched another perfect inning after that, whiffing three, while I was waiting for the inevitable bad things to happen, but Baldwin got through seven unscathed, still up 4-1. Ayers hit for him in to start the top 8th, and singled in his first Coons AB. He moved up on a wild pitch by Bill Dean, who then walked Correa and Alston before Quebell hit a 2-run single to right. Dean didn’t get ahead of ANY batter, but somehow still got three outs when Pruitt and Nomura popped up over the infield. Missed chances aside, Bryan and Rockburn ended the game without allowing runs and without much more scares. 6-1 Coons. Correa 3-4, 2B, RBI; Quebell 2-5, 3 RBI; Nomura 3-5; Ayers (PH) 1-2; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, W (5-4);

The Crusaders lost two of three to the Cyclones, so we moved a game closer and we’ll get the CL North’s doormats over the weekend.

Raccoons (39-25) vs. Loggers (24-41) – June 19-21, 2009

Second-to-last in offense, second-to-last in preventing offense: the Loggers weren’t pretty to look at. Bakile Hiwalani and Bartolo Hernandez were their last leftovers from their glory days early in the decade, and at least the former was 36 and played like it, too. We are 3-1 against them this year.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (4-3, 3.69 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (3-5, 3.44 ERA)
Javier Cruz (5-5, 3.33 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (2-3, 3.66 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-3, 1.55 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (2-8, 6.13 ERA)

The preliminary rotation for the Loggers has them skip William Lloyd (3-6, 4.61 ERA), but we’ll see. Him and Cruz are their only left-handed starters with Fabien Armand on the DL.

Game 1
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – CF J. Garcia – RF Hiwalani – C Baca – 2B B. Hernandez – SS Tolwith – 1B K. Scott – 3B Jennings – P F. Cruz
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Ayers – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Umberger

For the third time this week, Ron Alston was the first player to light up the scoreboard, although it took until the third inning this time, but it was again a 2-run homer. He hit a single in the middle of a 2-out rally that resulted in one run in the fifth, and that was enough for the Loggers. When he was up again and Correa was already at second base with one out in the bottom 7th, they put him on right away. Quebell and Sharp popped out and nobody scored. Meanwhile, Umberger had been vintage 2008 Umberger, scarcely scattering the Loggers anything worth mentioning. He was almost at 100 pitches through eight innings with a 3-0 lead, and had started to lose control, issuing his first walk in the eighth, and with two out Castro had sucked up a hard drive to deep center by Quinn Burton. Angel Casas hadn’t pitched in almost two weeks and it was time. Richardson grounded out, Garcia popped out, and Hiwalani struck out. 3-0 Coons! Correa 2-3, BB, 2B; Alston 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 3-4, RBI; Umberger 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (5-3);

Alston and Morris are tied for the power lead with 17 dingers right now. You can safely ignore the Federal League completely, where WAS Aaron Case and SAC Sammy Cain are tied with 12.

Game 2
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – CF J. Garcia – RF Hiwalani – C Baca – 2B B. Hernandez – SS Tolwith – 1B J. Hernandez – 3B Jennings – P Lloyd
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Ayers – SS Howell – C Esquivel – P J. Cruz

Rob Howell scored Keith Ayers, who had tripled, for a solo run in the bottom of the second inning, while mostly failing continued in RISP situation – for both teams. The Loggers routinely put their leadoff man on base against Cruz, while the Raccoons left two on in the second and third innings. The Loggers even left them full in the fourth, Richardson led off with a single in the fifth, and they didn’t score again. A four-pitch walk put Bartolo Hernandez on to start the sixth inning, Tolwith (.197) was used to bunt, but Joaquín Hernandez and Dave Jennings both struck out. It was almost like nobody wanted to score… At least Cruz didn’t put Lloyd on when the seventh started, but sure as heck Richardson singled again. That was it, we called for Rockburn. He struck out Garcia, but allowed a double to left to Hiwalani, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. With a left-hander in Alonso Baca up next and the sirens blaring, Donald Sims appeared in the game, logged a K, and was then immediately hit for in the bottom of the inning, to no effect. Bruno walked two in a scary, yet scoreless eighth. By now the Coons’ lineup was hibernating quite hard, leaving things to Angel, who walked Richardson on four balls. Ugh!! Jaime Garcia struck out before Hiwalani gave a 2-2 pitch a mighty ride to left. Castro had replaced Alston there with Trevino in center for defense, and made the catch on the warning track. Alonso Baca ended the game with a groundout. 1-0 Critters. Cruz 6.1 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (6-5);

How they pull through by the barest thread of their whiskers …! The Loggers out-hit us 8-4, but somehow the Furballs prevailed. And there's something to be said about the ancient Hiwalani: he has hit balls hard six times in this series already, resulting in a double and five flyouts, but he’s probably due a slam in the luck lottery by now…

Also, the Crusaders were on one of their scuffling streaks and had by now lost all but half a game of their lead. If Brownie could make another 1-0 win work…

Game 3
MIL: LF J.R. Richardson – CF J. Garcia – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Hiwalani – 1B J. Hernandez – SS Tolwith – C Olson – 3B K. Scott – P Huertas
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Brown

With dark clouds hovering, Brown, coming in on 1,699 strikeouts, didn’t whiff anybody the first time through the order, but the Loggers loaded the bases in the second to give him a pretty good scare. Keith Scott got an intentional walk to try and knock down Huertas, but he also put the ball in play, grounding out to Sharp to end the inning. Bottom 2nd then, three on, no outs after an error by Joaquín Hernandez and Huertas issuing walks to Pruitt and Nomura. Sharp hit into a run-scoring double play before Esquivel singled in another run. Brown also singled, but Castro grounded out to end the frame at 2-0. But Brownie still wasn’t fooling anybody, not even a Logger, and they had runners on the corners in the third, which only got resolved favorably on a nifty grab by Sharp on Joaquín Hernandez’ grounder, but at least the umpire helped a bit and gave Brownie a low pitch in a full count to ring up Mike Olson in the fourth, establishing the milestone.

With that out of the way, the rain could start, and did so in the bottom 4th. Esquivel was on, Brown singled again, and Castro was up with one out, singling up the middle to load them up. Correa struck out, Alston struck out. It was yet to become worse, the rain forcing a 42-minute delay in the fifth inning with the Loggers just having scored on a Bartolo Hernandez single. Two on, one out, Brown was not going to come back into this one and would not be able to earn the win, just the loss if some bongo would serve one to Hiwalani. You should give it your best shot, and so we brought Marcos Bruno into this horrendous spot. The Loggers first pulled off a double steal with Garcia and Hernandez before Hiwalani rocketed a pitch into the right corner for a 2-run double. The Raccoons had Nomura thrown out at home by Richardson in the bottom 5th.

Keith Scott tripled in a run against Bruno in this hellish game in the sixth. When Esquivel(!) led off the bottom 6th with a triple off Tommy Costello, after which Gutierrez struck out, and the Raccoons were lucky that Joaquín Hernandez was as clumsy as he was, failed to pick up a nasty Castro grounder slow up the first base line, and Castro beat it out, plating Esquivel on the infield single. Correa walked, bringing up Alston, who took Brown off the hook with a single up the middle that allowed Castro to score and knot the board at four, but eventually the Blighters left the bases loaded when Nomura struck out – but no, strike three was never caught, a frenzy broke out, Correa slid past Olson safe and the bases remained stuffed, at least until Sharp flew out softly to center.

After Reese pitched a quick top 7th, all order broke down for good. Trevino hit for Reese with one out in the bottom of the inning and hit a blooper that fell into left center. Trevino went aggro for second base and Richardson’s throw was in time, but Tolwith missed with the tag and Trevino was safe. Castro was put on intentionally, inviting us to conduct our own double steal, with the weak-armed Olson not able to interfere. Dave Walk’s next pitch was wild, plated Trevino, and got the Coons to 6-4. Two pitches later, Correa grounded to the left side of the mound, right past the right-handed Walk, who fell past the pitch, and Correa legged it out for another infield single, but Castro stayed put. Alston walked, Quebell brought in a run with a groundout, and Pruitt, who really shouldn’t have come to bat in this inning, broke the score wide open with a 2-run double past Jaime Garcia, 9-4.

Except, we still had to pitch six outs, and made the fatal mistake of going to Matt Cash. He somehow got an out, but then allowed consecutive hard hits to Olson (single), Scott (double), and Burton (RBI single). In grave danger, we sent for Donald Sims to diffuse the situation before Hiwalani would get another chance. He walked Richardson (insert grave moaning here) before Garcia was out on a sac fly, 9-6. Bartolo Hernandez grounded out then to end the frame. Pitcher Eric Fontenot made an error in the bottom 8th that wasn’t enough to generate another rally. So it was 9-6 in the ninth. Casas had been out two days in a row and had had a hard outing the previous day. Rockburn, Bryan, or staying with Sims, but with Hiwalani leading off, a right-hander was desirable, so Rockburn came out of the pen, struck out Hiwalani in a full count, and ended the game in the minimum amount of batters. 9-6 Furballs. Castro 2-5, BB, RBI; Correa 2-4, BB; Pruitt 2-2, 3 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Esquivel 3-5, 3B, RBI; Trevino (PH) 1-2, 2B;

That’s only our second sweep of a 3-game set this year. The other came against the Crusaders. We remain in second place still, because … see the news.

In other news

June 16 – The Cyclones crash the Crusaders, 11-0, while CIN SP Nathan O’Herlihy (7-2, 1.88 ERA) tosses a 2-hit shutout.
June 16 – LAP CL Johnny Smith (2-2, 2.35 ERA, 17 SV) could miss up to three months with a forearm strain.
June 19 – Indy’s Bob King (7-7, 3.65 ERA) shuts down the Titans in a 8-0 shutout, tossing a 3-hitter.
June 21 – NYC CL Scott Hood (2-2, 1.45 ERA, 15 SV) ties down the Canadiens in the ninth inning of a 6-4 Crusaders win to log his 300th career save. Hood has a 2.10 ERA and 892 K in 698 IP in a career that started with the Gold Sox in 1999, only one year after being drafted out of college.

Complaints and stuff

Welcome to everybody’s favorite show “What’s the least offense you can put up and still play .600 ball and top the power rankings?” It for sure never gets boring… Except on Tuesday. Tuesday was boring and sucked. And I’m still sweating from Sunday’s game.

Luke Black’s oblique isn’t getting better. We thought we might get him back by mid-week, but it looks like he will miss the entire next week now.

We are eight wins away from breaking even with our franchise record. Next week: Crusaders, Knights. Ummmm. We have another off day next Thursday before the usual long stretch before the All Star Game. 17 games opened by a 3-city road trip. By the way, the Indians are our four-and-four home-and-away partners around the break this season.

2009 top pick Rich Hood already made two starts in Aumsville and logged 13.1 innings with 16 K and no runs allowed for two wins. Gonna watch that one. In AAA, Seeley and Green have cooled off badly by now. But Jimmy Oatmeal still sucks worse.

One more tidbit to last week: Manuel Gutierrez’ walkoff slam (which still sounds silly in itself) was the Raccoons’ first in over five years. How do I know? It unlocked a Steam achievement for 16…

Service announcement: I try to provide an update at least every other day, but due to having stuff to do and places to be, it’s quite possible that there won’t be an update for a few days. Don’t despair, I won’t throw myself off a cliff. Yet.

Maybe the following can keep you entertained:
• Who was the first Japanese pitcher to win a game for the Raccoons?
• Come up with a right-handed pitcher that spun seven no-hit innings against the Elks only to lose one-zip.
• Think of a player that played on the Raccoons and started exactly one game for them.
• Name a Raccoons Opening Day catcher that was actually drafted by the Raccoons.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (42-25) vs. Crusaders (43-25) – June 22-24, 2009

Here they come! We are 5-0 against the Crusaders this season (plus a still-suspended scoreless effort), but something tells me that at some point they might win one against us. Or three. The most productive offense in the league, combined with a concept that had them in the top 3 in avoiding opposing runners to score, could not be denied forever…

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (5-4, 2.75 ERA) vs. Elwood Spurrell (8-2, 3.61 ERA)
Greg Grams (6-3, 3.90 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (7-2, 3.84 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-3, 3.36 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (4-7, 4.00 ERA)

I’m having an eye on the Wednesday game, with two guys starting that divided all the Continental League pitching silverware between themselves in 2008 and are pitching rather commonly this year. We flicked Baldwin and Grams in our rotation for reasons relating to the All Star Game in three weeks. The long version reads that right now, Nick Brown would have started the last game before the break, but you can pretty much bet on him getting nominated, so I would want to rather not have him start that last game. Since it’s too hard to reshuffle Brown into the deck at a more convenient position, Baldwin and Grams get flicked, with Baldwin planned to start that last game on short rest.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – 3B Reece – 1B Batlle – SS J. Ortega – RF MacKey – C D. Anderson – P Spurrell
POR: CF Castro – SS Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C De La Parra – P Baldwin

Neither pitcher was exactly known for fooling hitters for strikeouts, and both lineups had high batting averages (with the Crusaders having benched a recently struggling Stanton Martin). The Coons climbed all over the amazingly named Elwood Spurrell in the first inning, plating three runs including a 2-piece by Quebell. Baldwin was surrendering some loud contact, too, but it took the Crusaders and their primarily left-handed lineup until the third inning to get a run off him. Daniel Sharp’s solo home run in the bottom 4th restored a 3-run lead, but when the fifth inning started with a Daryl Anderson single past Correa and Baldwin capitally airmailing Spurrell’s bunt, that put two men in scoring position with no outs, which is never a good spot to be in. Two batters later, the game was tied after singles by Roberto Pena and Julio Hernandez, together with some ill-advised throwing by Tomas Castro, and we were back to square one for a second, before Martin Ortíz’ double plated Hernandez and Baldwin’s day was over. As was mine. The Crusaders’ 5-spot gave them a 6-4 lead, and the Raccoons were in no hurry to get back into contention.

In the bottom 7th, still facing Spurrell and down by two, Sharp and De La Puzzle opened the inning with consecutive singles up the middle, but Trevino, Castro, and Correa hurried to make three quick outs on eight total pitches. That was too bad, since that started the bottom 8th with nobody on for Ron Alston’s 18th homer of the year, and left the Coons short at 6-5. With Pruitt on first and one out, Ayers batted for Yoshi against lefty Sammy Davis, who was swiftly removed for righty Lorenzo Flores, who still gave up a single, moving Pruitt to second base. And then, Sharp, and a double play, just before Ted Reese ran out of ability and allowed another run in the top of the ninth. Bottom 9th: Esquivel batted for De La Parliament and got hit by Scott Hood. After two fail at-bats, Correa grounded to short where Jorge Ortega ran out of ability just as well and made an error that brought Ron Alston to the plate as the winning run. Raccoons fans in the park were completely antsy now and were chanting for the slugger that had been imported 11 months earlier. He struck out anyway. 7-5 Crusaders. Castro 2-4; Quebell 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1; Sharp 2-4, HR, RBI; Bryan 2.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Maybe I want to think about an extra start for Colin Baldwin again…

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Patlle – SS J. Ortega – 3B M. Williams – C D. Anderson – P Reeves
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Grams

Grams loaded the bags in a hurry in the first inning before striking out Stanton Martin (so he WAS struggling!), got a pop from Batlle and also whiffed Ortega. Quebell missed another first inning homer by not all that much, plating Castro with an RBI double instead, but Quebell and Alston remained on base despite reaching scoring position with one out when Pruitt lobbed out to left and Sharp whiffed. But a 1-run lead with Grams close to it was as good as no lead, and the Crusaders landed three hits for two runs in the top 2nd to take a 2-1 lead.

The Coons had runners on second and third with one out in all of the first three innings, and managed a total of one run from there, a Castro single in the second. That tied the game, but Grams untied it at the very next opportunity. The Coons had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth and failed their way out of that, too. The Raccoons even managed to get Whit Reeves out of the game in the FIFTH inning by wearing him out, despite him still holding a 3-2 lead! Sharp hit into a double play to end that inning against Nobu Matsui, whose appearance mysteriously ended all offensive ambition by the home team. A Matt MacKey home run off Law Rockburn opened the score a bit in favor of the team that actually knew how to handle a RISP situation and also ensured that it would maintain a sound division lead beyond this miserable midweek series. 5-2 Crusaders. Castro 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Alston 2-4; Quebell 2-4, RBI; De La Parra 2-3; Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Yes, my plan with Ed Bryan is to either pitch him to death by exhaustion or wait for the first slight hint of failing to designate him for assignment.

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Batlle – 3B M. Williams – SS Davidson – C D. Anderson – P Connor
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Howell – P Umberger

Another day, another three on, no outs in the top 1st. Umberger walked Pena on four pitches, Hernandez singled, and Quebell simply missed a grab on Ortíz’ bouncer. While the Crusaders were satisfied with a Stanton Martin sacrifice fly and a double play that Paco Batlle hit into, the Raccoons started like a fire brigade with a Castro triple, an RBI double by Yoshi, and then came to a screeching halt and left Nomura at second base in a 1-1 tie. After that hectic beginning, both teams laid down for a while, before a sparkling play by Nomura in the fifth inning avoided a potential big inning for the Crusaders. Connor had reached with one out on a double to right, but when Roberto Pena lined a ball to second base, Connor was moving with his mind on scoring. He didn’t anticipate Yoshi catching that liner, but catching it he did and easily doubled Connor off second to end the inning. The Raccoons didn’t get a hit after the first until a Rob Howell single in the bottom 5th, but he was left on, as was Martin Ortíz in the top 6th (on third base), and three Critters in the bottom of the same inning.

With a bit of reserves in his pitch count and a recently much-used bullpen behind him, Umberger batted in the bottom 7th after Howell started the inning with a groundout. Umberger’s grounder was not fielded quickly enough by Connor, enabling Jong-hoo to reach with an infield single. It’s always those little things that tip games and doom the teams that allow them. Nomura hit a single with two outs, and then Alston uncorked a massive home run that forcefully broke the tie and gave the Raccoons a 4-1 lead! Umberger went eight before Angel salvaged at least one game in the set with a 9-pitch ninth. 4-1 Coons. Nomura 2-4, 2B, RBI; Alston 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Pruitt 2-3, BB, 2B; Umberger 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (6-3) and 1-2;

Could have been better, could have still been much worse. The RISP batting is awful, though, and that’s gotta change soon because we can’t just keep playing like that and hope that the Crusaders will mess up more wins than we do. We’re 1 1/2 back now and gotta do our part, and soon.

Raccoons (43-27) @ Knights (37-35) – June 26-28, 2009

It was hard to imagine, but the Knights led the CL South with their .514 team. They were hardly outscoring their terrible pitching with a productive lineup, ranking in the top 3 in the league in both most runs scored and most runs allowed. Bad defense also contributed to their issues, since they actually weren’t quite that bad in terms of ERA… We have taken two of three from them this season.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (6-5, 3.08 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (6-2, 3.82 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-3, 1.76 ERA) vs. Domingo Cruz (4-5, 5.13 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (5-5, 3.13 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (5-2, 4.23 ERA)

Krom and Butler are left-handers. None of their three starters for this set are older than 25 years. They certainly have potential and I wouldn’t mind flicking Grams for Butler for example. We have a chance to get even with the Knights with regards to our all time record. We were never ahead of them, but we open this set at 145-146 and a sweep is all it takes.

Catching up on previous years’ failures had to wait until Saturday however, with heavy rain cancelling the series opener on Friday, creating a double header on Saturday. I was tempted to flick our starters at first, because you assume Nick Brown has the higher chance to pitch with a lead in the late innings, but assumptions get you killed, or in baseball terms, his last start was bad and we didn’t make that move partly because of that.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 2B Correa – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Ayers – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P J. Cruz
ATL: SS Kester – 3B Bond – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – LF Ju. Garcia – 1B Jo. Garcia – 2B C. Martinez – C Delgado – P Krom

For the third game in a row, the Raccoons shuffled opponents onto all bases in the first inning in the first leg of the double header, starting with a Howell error that made me howl in my box. Julio Garcia scored a run with an infield single before Cruz struck out the next two batters. While Cruz found it hard to miss bats throughout this game, the Raccoons only got three hits and one run off Johnny Krom in six a and a third. Cruz logged only one more out than Krom, trailed 2-1 in the bottom 7th and was removed when he drilled Kevin Bond and Jose Morales hit a single. Donald Sims got Gonzalo Munoz to ground out to Correa. The Knights added a run off Reese in the eighth, but the Raccoons never got going and were held to three hits. 3-1 Knights.

Worse than the three hits is the fact that Tomas Castro was injured on a defensive play in the second inning and has to be evaluated. With a right-hander in the nightcap, Trevino will play in center.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS Howell – CF Trevino – P Brown
ATL: SS Kester – 1B Bond – CF J. Morales – 2B C. Martinez – LF Ju. Garcia – 3B Jo. Garcia – RF Keller – C Fowler – P D. Cruz

The go-ahead run for the Raccoons scored in the second inning when Domingo Cruz balked in Daniel Sharp. Howell had just bobbled into a double play and Trevino was almost down on strikes, but the Knights left us with that little gift right there. Brownie, who had struck out only two in his abominable last start, threw A LOT of balls, but the Knights were happily flailing. Brown had five 3-ball counts in his first ten batters, but walked only one and logged four strikeouts while maintaining a 1-0 lead through three innings. The Knights tried to help the Coons even further, with an error here and a wild pitch there, but no, no, this team was not biting.

Top 6th, Esquivel and Howell lined up 2-out singles of which one was right into the crease between Martinez and Bond and the other didn’t even leave the infield. Cruz threw a wild pitch to move them into scoring position with Trevino batting. The Knights forewent the .172/.197/.224 batter (58 AB) for the .278/.297/.278 batter (36 AB) from the same side, and while Brownie hit the ball the furthest of all batters in the inning, he still flew out to Julio Garcia, then blew the lead in the bottom 6th with doubles to Jaime Kester and Jose Morales.

Brown went eight, whiffed eight, then was reduced to watching the further developments. Trevino led off the top 9th with a floater that dinked in just fair in medium left for a leadoff single. He was the go-ahead run, and we sent Brown in to bat to get him to second base against right-hander Clyde Henderson. Brown failed to lay down a bunt, taking a strike on a poke, bunting foul once, then flew out to Garcia once more. Nomura grounded out and Pruitt walked, bringing up Alston, but he had already hit a 3-piece in a 1-1 game once this week, and what were the chances …? Another wild pitch, now by Henderson, even moved the runners into scoring position, but there was that unwritten rule that Nick Brown would NEVER receive ANY run support, and Alston lifted a soft pop to shallow left.

Except that Julio Garcia hadn’t read the memo, didn’t get to the ball in time (playing deep for a reason) and Kester couldn’t get out and Alston snipped a 2-run single that was followed by Quebell’s 2-run homer. Bruno worked around a leadoff double by Morales in the bottom 9th to end the game. 5-1 Brownies! Nomura 2-5; Sharp 2-5; Esquivel 2-3, BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (6-3);

I would have put my salary for this year and next year on Alston’s pop getting caught. Thankfully betting is outlawed. My track record at begging is pretty bad. Just look at our budget…

But at least we got through a double header using only three relievers, which is somewhat special. Bryan, Cash, Law, and Angel were all unused.

Tomas Castro was diagnosed with back tightness the next morning. He would not be able to play for up to two weeks, which required a trip to the DL. In his place we called up Ricardo Martinez while Luke Black started a rehab assignment to St. Pete that shouldn’t take more than two or three days.

Game 3
POR: 1B Sharp – 2B Correa – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – RF Ayers – SS Howell – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Baldwin
ATL: SS Kester – 3B Younger – CF J. Morales – 2B C. Martinez – LF Ju. Garcia – 1B Bond – RF Jo. Garcia – C Delgado – P Butler

What was easily the oddest lineup the Raccoons had put up so far this season still managed to strand five Coons in scoring position in the first five innings while not putting even half a paw on home plate. That RISP total was error-assisted by the Knights in the first place, but their appalling batting approach with runners in scoring position was getting worse and worse. While Baldwin did a good job of generating groundball after groundball and allowed only one hit in five innings, the Raccoons lacked orientation so badly that it was Rob Howell(!) with a home run to finally put something on the board in the top of the sixth, 1-0.

The Raccoons then started the seventh with De La Pistacchio’s third leadoff single of the game, with Baldwin bunting for the third time. He had gotten his catcher killed at second base once before, but executed nicely this time, and Butler then showed signs of melting with walks to Sharp and Correa just in time for the big bats to get a chance. Martinez lobbed a 2-2 pitch just over the leaping Kester for an RBI single, and Alston brought in a run with a groundout to extend the score to 3-0 before Ayers rolled out to end the frame. Martinez batted again with the bases loaded, and now two outs, in the top 8th of a 4-0 game after Sharp had singled in a run earlier in the inning. The Knights didn’t remove Butler on 124 pitches, and Martinez grounded out on #127.

Baldwin was on shutout course the whole time, having allowed only one hit to Morales early in the game and nothing since, but his control went away badly by the eighth. He walked two, and with two outs pinch-hitter Tommy Keller singled up the middle to score the Knights’ first run. Baldwin was out of steam it seemed, and we made a move to bring Bruno, who struck out Kester to get us to the ninth, and Angel Casas didn’t allow anything, either. 4-1 Raccoons. Sharp 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Howell 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; De La Parra 4-4; Baldwin 7.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (6-5);

In other news

June 22 – The Indians place SP Curtis Tobitt (7-4, 2.74 ERA) on the DL. The 29-year old has a tight shoulder, but two weeks of rest should do the trick.
June 23 – BOS INF/LF Mark Austin (.222, 1 HR, 28 RBI) celebrates his 2,000th career hit in a 7-4 Titans win over the Canadiens, a second inning single off Scott Spears. Austin, 34, was a 1995 first round pick by the Pacifics and has won three Gold Gloves and five All Star delegations in a career by batting .278/.379/.404 with 133 HR, 905 RBI, and 115 SB. He was part of the World Series-winning Titans squads in 2001, 2002, and 2004.
June 23 – Another bad knock for the Indians: C Jose Paraz (.283, 3 HR, 32 RBI) goes onto the DL with an oblique strain and might be out until August.

Complaints and stuff

AAA managers have petitioned the league office to force the Raccoons to permanently recall Ricardo Martinez from St. Petersburg. He does harm to pitchers while there.

Listen, guys. If you allow me a 26th roster spot, Martinez is back on the Coons without limitation. Right now I don’t know how it should work out. Okay, we’re hardly using Gutierrez at all. Still.

Our next 18 games are all against middling teams: Oklahoma, Indy, Boston, Smell Polution City. 10-8 won't do! Beyond that string lurk the Crusaders yet again, three at their place, plus the completion (hopefully...) of that suspended game that's 0-0 in the middle of the seventh since April.

Most home runs in a single season:
1st – Raúl Vázquez (1992) – 42
t-2nd – Ken Potter (2003) – 41
t-2nd – Dan Morris (1995) – 41
t-2nd – Michael Root (1989) – 41
t-5th – Ron Alston (2003) – 39
t-5th – Ken Potter (2004) – 39
t-7th – Royce Green (1994) – 38 *
t-7th – Marty Battle (1999) – 38
t-9th – Iván Gutierrez (2002) – 37
t-9th – Mac Woods (2003) – 37

*Royce Green is the only player in the top 10 to launch his dingers as a Raccoon. Just outside the top 10th is Ron Alston twice more with a pair of 36 HR seasons, and the next-highest Raccoon, t-15th Tetsu Osanai with his 35 bombs in ’89.

Ron Alston could smash a few edges of that home run board this year. We're not quite at the halfway point and he is right on pace for just over 40 bombs.

Offense is down in the CL again this year. From 1992 through 2006, CL ERA moved only slightly in a narrow band around the 3.90 ERA mark with a low of 3.77 in ’98 and a high of 4.00 in ’92 itself. The ERA was 4.10 in ’07 and 4.02 in ’08, but right now we’re slightly above 3.90 again, while in the Federal League, the ERA has been over four since 1995, and after trending to a 10-year low of 4.05 in ’05 has been on the climb again. This year the league has an ERA just over 4.20, which it topped only five times in history.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (45-28) @ Thunder (36-39) – June 29-July 1, 2009

Isn’t it amazing, that despite their shoddy record, the Thunder were also second in their division, and only half a game further behind the leader than the Raccoons? The CL South was a mess of gigantic proportions, and the Raccoons were a bit unlucky to be stuck behind the Crusaders for a few years now. They were pretty good at scoring runs, fourth in the league, but their pitching and defense was quite horrible, with the third-most runs allowed. However, the Knights last weekend had been even more pronounced in this regard, and we hadn’t exactly trampled their hurlers, either. We’re 2-1 against them, but we’re a crusty 14-13 against the CL South overall.

Projected matchups:
Greg Grams (6-4, 3.93 ERA) vs. Brad Osborne (3-5, 6.35 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-3, 3.09 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (1-5, 6.58 ERA)
Javier Cruz (6-6, 3.05 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (9-3, 2.24 ERA)

All our starting pitchers have six wins going into this week. Let’s see who blinks first? Meanwhile, Dickerson had almost half of the Thunder rotations’ 20 wins. I hate to think about it, but a decade earlier, I could have gotten Dickerson in a trade from the Elks, I think, but I can’t remember what the price for that would have been.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – SS Howell – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Grams
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – C Ledesma – RF Tom Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B Heathershaw – 3B J. Pena – P Osborne

The Thunder had runners on the corners in the second and third innings but resolved it with Osborne popping out to Pruitt first, and with Marcos Garza going down looking after that. The Coons had been retired in order by Osborne the first time through, however, and you could only scratch your head by now…

In fact, no Critter reached base until Quebell doubled to start the fifth inning of a scoreless game. Ricardo Martinez singled up the middle, just barely past Bradley Heathershaw, to raise his major league batting average to an inspiring .202, but was erased when Howell grounded hard to short. The Thunder couldn’t get two, though, and Quebell scored anyway for the first run of the game. Grams would single in Howell with two outs for a 2-0 lead. After that, Grams allowed a leadoff single to Osborne in the bottom of the inning and was immediately taken deep by Victorino Sanchez, then beaned the evading Tomas Cardenas in the very top of the helmet. The Thunder immediately broke out of their dugout, and the bullpen also cleared as everybody piled on top of another on the third base side of the mound. Both Cardenas, who swung at Grams’ dumb face but sadly missed, and the worst offender himself were ejected. Quebell escaped ejection despite sitting on Tom Reese’s face while tickling him for two minutes.

Sanchez singled in Juan Pena against Ted Reese in the bottom 7th, giving the Thunder the lead about half an hour after the National Guard restored order in the park. The Raccoons, intimated by flying bottles and lighters, didn’t go anything in the late innings and dropped to a sad .500 against the South. 3-2 Thunder. Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Sims 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Greg Grams was suspended for FIFTEEN games after that beaning. That’s a whole lot of games.

And with the way Grams was annoying me and with other arms ready in AAA … No, what I really want to say: be horrible at your day job, that’s one thing. Be a stupid prick, that’s another. Or in other words: if you want to be prick that badly, at least be a prick that it would be hard to just designate for assignment.

Interlude: trade

Or trade the prick. I put him up for grabs the same day, some teams bit, not even minding the suspension.

So, the Raccoons traded Greg Grams (6-4, 3.96 ERA) to the Condors for two A-level relievers. None of them is ranked, or even highly rated. One of them, 21-year old Dave Simpson, has four pitches, but various other problems, like bad command, and low stamina, and a rash in the groin area, and oh my god. Grams is gone, yay.

Hector Santos was so far holding his ground in AAA, but had a nagging oblique issue and besides, don’t rush the good stuff all the time. We called up Teasdale, since Watanabe had had a few bad starts now, and while Teasdale and Boda both had low-3 ERA’s, Teasdale had done it with much worse BABIP values despite walking more batters, however that worked out. Teasdale slides in behind Umberger for game 3, pushing Cruz to the next series.

Raccoons (45-28) @ Thunder (36-39) – June 29-July 1, 2009

Game 2
POR: 1B Sharp – 2B Correa – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – RF Ayers – SS Howell – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Umberger
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B Takizawa – C Ledesma – RF Tom Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B Heathershaw – 3B J. Pena – P L. Martinez

Victorino Sanchez singled to lead off the bottom 1st (and was yet to be retired in the series), but was thrown out stealing by De La Pasty. Once Takizawa singled, he advanced to second base on a balk, got to third when Reese singled, and then scored on a passed ball. Awesome team at work here!

De La Pregnant could probably hear we sharpening the knives, and with one dork already gone overboard this week, he doubled to score Trevino in his first at-bat, in the top 2nd. Umberger legged out another infield single and Sharp walked to load them up for Correa with two outs, but the result was an uninspiring groundout to Pena. On the other hand, Sanchez was finally retired in the bottom 2nd, grounding out to Sharp to leave two runners on base in a 1-1 game. While the Coons flew out to Sanchez in deep left twice in the top 3rd, Haruyoshi Takizawa actually managed to leave the yard to give the Thunder a 2-1 lead in the bottom 3rd.

Jose Gonzalez homered in the fourth, and Umberger scored Sanchez with a wild pitch and two outs in the fifth. In another nightmare of a game against a pushover pitcher, the Raccoons were completely unable to mount any offense. After being held to four hits on Monday, the Raccoons got held to four hits again by the next 6+ ERA pitcher, who casually pitched a complete game. Another run fell out of Ed Bryan in the seventh, and Juan Pena hit a 2-piece against Matt Cash in the eighth. 7-1 Thunder.

We have scored 47 runs in the last 15 games, going 8-7. Our pitching is awesome. Our offense sucks. What more than Ron Alston do you need!?

For starters, Luke Black returned. He had batted squid in 9 AB in St. Pete. Manuel Gutierrez was waived and designated for assignment.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Correa – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – CF Trevino – P Teasdale
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B Takizawa – RF Tom Reese – SS M. Garza – CF J. Gonzalez – 2B Heathershaw – C J. Martinez – 3B Arreola – P Dickerson

Dickerson pitched only one inning before leaving with an injury and reliever Dennis Boland took over, but only for an inning. Rodney White hit for him in the bottom 2nd in a promising spot with two outs, but bounced the ball back to Teasdale. Sanchez homered off Teasdale to start the third inning. The Coons of course hadn’t done anything so far.

Correa walked and Quebell singled to start the fourth inning, putting runners on the corners for Ron Alston. With a 1-0 deficit that was as good as you could hope for, yet Alston fouled out, Black struck out, and Sharp hit one into pitcher Alex Lindsey’s pocket. Nobody scored. Alright, try again. Top 5th: Esquivel singled, Trevino walked, Teasdale bunted them over for runners on second and third with one out for Yoshi, who struck out. With Correa batting, I had his ugly face in the crosshairs of the rifle I had smuggled into the park. His grounder went through Heathershaw’s wickets and into rightfield, plating both runners. If you really can’t be any good, at least be dumb-**** lucky.

Luck ended dutifully in due time. Sanchez snipped another single with two outs in the fifth before Takizawa and Tom Reese whacked back-to-back homers to give the Thunder another 4-2 lead. With the Blighters stuck at four hits once more, the Thunder doubled their output in the seventh inning. One run was charged to Teasdale before Donald Sims came in and was taken deep for three runs by Garza. Nomura had a single to start the eighth, Correa had another double play, and so on, and so on. 8-2 Thunder. Sharp 2-4; Esquivel 2-4; Cash 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

14-16 against the South. Daniel Dickerson had an oblique strain and would miss three weeks, and the Raccoons would have October off.

Raccoons (45-31) @ Titans (36-42) – July 2-5, 2009

Between themselves, these two teams combined for a 9-game losing streak, some of which was about to end, and some of which was just going to get worse. Hardly believable, there were still three teams with less runs scored than the Raccoons had in the CL, and one of them were the Titans. They were sixth in runs allowed. We are 4-3 against them in ’09.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (6-6, 3.05 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (5-5, 3.43 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-3, 1.71 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (2-10, 3.62 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (6-5, 2.98 ERA) vs. Jesus Elmore (5-3, 4.06 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-4, 3.26 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (3-9, 3.92 ERA)

The team will face left-handers bookmarking the right-handers in this set, which doesn’t mean squid, since they can’t out-do two runs a game anyway.

Game 1
POR: 2B Correa – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – RF Black – LF Ayers – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Cruz
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Britton – C Suda – LF G. Rios – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Higashi – 3B M. Austin – SS Sato – P Chapa

The Blighters got their daily run allotment in early when the bottom of the order score two runs in the second inning. Martinez and Trevino hit back-to-back doubles and De La Purse singled home Trevino. A fielding mishap by Gusmán in the third inning actually handed the Coons a third run, which was further than most of their fans could be bothered to count even on a sunny day.

Scorching cynicism aside, the team kept piling it on poor old Jorge Chapa, who seemingly couldn’t get anybody out in the fourth inning. Trevino and De La Pie reached, Cruz bunted them over, and Correa and Howell plated them with singles. When Quebell lifted a pop to leftfield, Gerardo Rios had it, then fell over his own feet and dropped the ball for an error. We’d get two more runs in on a Black double and Ayers groundout. Chapa was by then gone, and the team held an 8-0 lead with Cruz yet to allow a hit. Takahashi Higashi ended the bid with a 1-out single in the fifth inning, but nothing came out of that when Mark Austin hit into a 4-6-3. Cruz kept going with the shutout at least for another two innings until Gerardo Rios powered an uncatchable shot out of rightfield to perhaps start a rally from 8-1 down. The Titans put another two men on, but Kuni Sato struck out to end the inning. Cruz went eight before handing the 8-1 lead to Ed Bryan in the ninth, who put the first two batters on base, and allowed a run on his way out of the game. 8-2 Raccoons. Correa 2-4, BB, RBI; Black 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2B, RBI; De La Parra 2-4, RBI; Cruz 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (7-6);

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Correa – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Brown
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Hudson – C Suda – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Higashi – 3B M. Austin – LF Britton – SS Sato – P Carter

Two runs scored off Brownie in the bottom 2nd when the Titans got their first two men on and moved them around. Kuni Sato’s 2-out single with first base open was another sting in my side. While the Raccoons continued to behave badly against all pitchers not named Jorge Chapa and Black left two men in scoring position in the third inning, while Brown was singled to death in a 3-run fourth inning, shooting his ERA over two. He actually went into the sixth, and with two outs put one man on, two men on, John Hudson hit an RBI single, and ugh… Sharp saved him two runners with a launching grab on the rocket that “Quasimodo” Suda fired off a Rockburn pitch, ending the inning. Ron Carter, who never got any love, got lots of love in this game, with three more runs beaten out of Ted Reese by the Titans in the last innings. The Raccoons plainly sucked on offense. 9-1 Titans. Quebell 1-2, 2 BB; Trevino 2-4;

Just like that, Nick Brown (2.11 ERA) dropped from first to third in the ABL ERA rankings, behind SFB Tyler Sullivan (1.83) and LAP Brad Smith (2.07).

Have I mentioned that the Crusaders haven’t lost a game this week? I feel my summer depression coming, and it’s coming quickly this year.

But I know what to do. I was at the drug store on Saturday morning, loading up on Kleenex, Aspirin, and those green chocolate bars. You know, the ones with something all members of this team sorely lack: nuts.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Correa – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C Esquivel – P Baldwin
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Hudson – LF G. Rios – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Higashi – 3B M. Austin – C J. Silva – SS Sato – P Elmore

Baldwin did a good job for a while before suffering death by singles and two runs in the fourth inning. And with this offense, two runs was game over. Through five innings, the brown team managed one hit, one walk, and Nomura getting plunked. Ah, well. Nomura also led off the sixth inning, hit a ball over Gerardo Rios’ head, Rios fell down after losing balance, and Nomura scurried around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. Correa got on, Quebell hit into two, Alston reached on an error, and then that old man in the #5 spot hit his first home run in … how many moons exactly?

That 3-2 lead was threatened with a leadoff walk that Baldwin handed to Kuni Sato in the bottom 7th. The Titans had Elmore still in there, and had him swing away, and straight into a double play. Then Jesus Ramirez floated a single over Nomura, it went under Black’s glove for an error and Ramirez got to second base. Alright, you win some, you always lose more, and Rockburn pitched to John Hudson, the only right-hander in the upper half of the order. The Titans sent lefty Mark Berry to counter, but the .219 batter (and .056 when PH’ing) grounded out. The Titans also left Gusmán on second base against Sims in the eighth, the Raccoons left three afloat between the last two innings, but Angel Casas didn’t allow anything to reach base in the bottom 9th. 3-2 Critters. Nomura 2-3, HR, RBI; Baldwin 6.2 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (7-5);

Game 4
POR: 2B Correa – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – RF Black – SS Howell – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Umberger
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Britton – C Suda – LF G. Rios – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Higashi – 3B M. Austin – SS Sato – P Conner

Alston plated the first run of the game with a sac fly in the first inning. The 1-0 lead was in mortal danger once Ricardo Martinez fired Conner’s poor grounder over the first base dugout and Umberger walked two men to load the bases with one out in the bottom 3rd, but Suda hit into a double play quite readily. Suda would also be up with the next batter in scoring position. Quebell mishandled a Ramirez grounder with two outs in the fifth, Britton drew another walk, and Suda batted with two outs and two on, but grounded out to Martinez.

Umberger lacked control and stuff, striking out one batter in six innings, the Raccoons as a whole lacked glove, but the Titans lacked contact. Through six innings, they had eight runners on three singles, and no runs. That 1-0 from Alston’s sacrifice still stood, but Sato hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th. A bunt and a groundout later, he was on third base for Britton, a left-hander. We walked him intentionally to get to Suda, which was a mad gamble that resulted in a drive into the right center gap that Trevino just barely got his paws on.

By the way, we’re not skipping any Raccoons offensive highlights. There weren’t any.

Bottom 8th, Bruno replaced Umberger, who was on 100 pitches. After Rios popped out on the first pitch, Bruno walked Gusmán and Higashi singled. I saw the 1-0 lead sinking fast, but Austin hit one to Correa for a double play. Still no signs of life in the bats for the road team, and Angel took over in the ninth, struck out Sato, and got two more quick outs. 1-0 Critters. Umberger 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 1 K, W (7-4);

We just one a game in which we were held to two hits. The Crusaders crushed opposing teams all week.

In other news

July 1 – For TOP SP Tony Hamlyn (2-10, 3.50 ERA), the pain of being on a horrible team will stop for six weeks. He exchanged it for the pains of a fractured finger and a spot on the DL.
July 2 – The Warriors acquire SP Brad Osborne (3-5, 5.92 ERA) from the Thunder for INF Bob Butler (.281, 2 HR, 25 RBI) and a minor leaguer (ex-Coons eighth rounder 1B Tony Hernandez).
July 3 – PIT SP Miguel Rodriguez (11-4, 2.56 ERA) goes eight and two thirds in a 2-hitter with 15 strikeouts as he whacks the Capitals, 2-0.
July 4 – A stretched elbow ligament will put DAL CL Alfredo Becerra (2-4, 2.97 ERA, 16 SV) on the disabled list for the next 12 months.
July 4 – The Gold Sox pick up 25-year old OF Jaime Garcia (.239, 1 HR, 12 RBI) from the Loggers in exchange for 1B Hugues Cambria (.262, 2 HR, 13 RBI) and a non-prospect.

Complaints and stuff

Runs scored this week by POR: 18
Runs scored this week by NYC: 49

Any more questions about plans for October? A month ago we were 1st/4th/4th in the team slash in the CL. We’re down to 4th/6th/5th, and we’re down to 9th in runs scored. That’s not a playoff team. That’s the late-80s Raccoons that had a few tremendous players in the lineup and still couldn’t score their asses’ worth of runs. First place in all pitching categories except for bullpen ERA, home runs, and strikeouts doesn’t cure EIGHTEEN RUNS IN SEVEN GAMES. EIGHTEEN!!

Sorry for the yelling. I ran out of tears earlier around Wednesday.

The upside of booting Grams and moving Teasdale into the rotation is that it pushes Brownie back a day and he will make his last start on Wednesday before the All Star game, which works out more or less perfectly (or as good as we can arrange right now).

Grams is a dick, though.

The upside of the move for the scums is that they are on minor league deals and we were able to get our budget into the green zone. Don’t expect any fancy moves, though. Last July we picked up Ron Alston. We’re still choking on that money.

On June 30, the Loggers cleaned their front office once again, evicting both the manager and GM. The Loggers are quite a sad thing to look at in the North…

This is the first season of international free agent signings for the ABL in the summer. You know, those no-good 16-year old boys of coca farmers all over Central America. The signing threshold is $360k for all teams, which is more than the Raccoons even have available in their budget. We are after a 16-year old coca farmer junior from Panama who thinks he’s a pitcher. International free agent signings were inactive before because I messed up a setting for when the next IFA period should be in, which was always a year ahead of the current date… Because I suck, that’s why.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (48-32) vs. Indians (46-35) – July 6-9, 2009

3-1 on the Indians this year, the Raccoons welcomed their four-and-four partners around this year’s All Star break. The Indians had a 7-game winning streak going coming into this 4-game set, and ranked sixth in offense and third in pitching in the league. Their rotation was second only to the Raccoons’, so more low scoring was coming here.

Projected matchups:
Brendan Teasdale (0-1, 8.53 ERA) vs. Bob King (8-8, 3.83 ERA)
Javier Cruz (7-6, 2.90 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (7-6, 3.10 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-4, 2.11 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (5-5, 4.68 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (7-5, 2.96 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (8-5, 3.03 ERA)

Two right-handers, two left-handers, and we miss Curtis Tobitt, who had just returned from the DL after a short stint there with shoulder woes. Missing Tobitt is always golden.

Game 1
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – C R. Speed – RF D. Richardson – SS R. Miller – 3B C. Aguilar – P King
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Correa – 1B Quebell – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Teasdale

A fluke triple by Mun-wah Tsung gave the Indians a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Nomura was up with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom 2nd and bottom 4th. He grounded out the first time, and also the second time, but the latter occurred only after a run-scoring wild pitch by Bob King. Oh, our mighty offense.

But by then the Raccoons trailed 2-1, and Tsung hit another triple in the top 5th, but was stranded when Robbie Luxton struck out. Barrón and Tsung both made outs against Ed Bryan in the seventh to strand Aguilar and King in scoring position where Teasdale had put them. And no, the Raccoons really weren’t doing anything worth reporting. At least until they had their own fluke extra base hit, a Nomura double that bounced perhaps two inches to the fair side of the left foul line and became a double that also moved Daniel Sharp to third base after he had drawn a leadoff walk. Go-ahead run at second base with no outs, come on now! Correa fouled out on an 0-2 pitch, Quebell grounded out in the ****tiest possible way, and Alston flew out gingerly to left. Nobody scored. In the bottom 8th, Trevino and Black hit a pair of 2-out singles. Keith Ayers hit for Matt Cash and struck out, and nobody scored, and the Raccoons lost. 2-1 Indians. Pruitt 2-4; Black (PH) 1-1;

I need to kill all of them. Come on, teams. Shop is open. Take them all away. I don’t want to see them anymore.

Take Alston and his 5-for-41 streak first.

Game 2
IND: SS R. Miller – CF Theobald – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – C R. Speed – RF D. Richardson – 2B C. Aguilar – 3B Kilters – P Weise
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Black – SS Howell – CF Trevino – C De La Parra – P Cruz

Cruz struck out six of the first ten batters (two reached, but didn’t score) before Mun-wah Tsung hit a 2-run shot with Paul Theobald on base to irretrievably take this game away from the miserable Coons. Daniel Richardson, who probably never homered in Raccoons Ballpark in 2000, also conquered Cruz with a solo shot in the fourth inning. Offensively, the Raccoons were extremely absent until Daniel Sharp turned into a Weise pitch and homered in the sixth inning. Of course it was a solo homer. While Pruitt followed up with a walk, Quebell grounded out, but the bottom 7th started with another walk to Black, while Weise hadn’t walked anybody in the first 5 2/3 innings. Rob Howell’s infield single put the tying runs on, and after Trevino and De La Parra flew out uselessly, Ron Alston hit for Cruz, who had whiffed nine in a futile outing. At 1-1, Weise threw a wild pitch that advanced the runners to second and third. Two pitches later, Alston ticketed a soft line to center, tying the score with a 2-out, 2-run single.

Sims and Rockburn stuttered, but eventually the Indians left a runner on second in the eighth and hit into a double play to end the ninth, giving the Raccoons, who had left Pruitt on after a leadoff double in the bottom 8th, with a walkoff chance. Trevino hit a gapper to right center that Theobald couldn’t cut off soon enough and Trevino had a leadoff double! Ricardo Martinez batted for De La Parra, singling to right, but so hard that Richardson had it quickly and his arm was truly deadly. Trevino held at third. No outs for Alston. And long ball will do. Long ball, high ball, gone ball!! 6-3 Raccoons! Nomura 3-4; Howell 2-4; Martinez (PH) 1-1; Alston (PH) 2-2, HR, 5 RBI; Cruz 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 9 K;

I casually mentioned before that Tsung was a farmhand of ours a long, long time ago, right?

Crusaders lost today, too, so maybe the magnetic poles suddenly flipped?

Game 3
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – RF Theobald – SS R. Miller – C Bader – 3B Kilters – P Escobedo
POR: 2B Correa – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – RF Black – SS Howell – C De La Parra – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – P Brown

The poles were fine, but Brownie wasn’t quite early. He didn’t strike out anybody the first time through the Indians’ order, and got to two strikes only twice before the ball was put in play anyway or he walked Corey Bader. The Coons had opened the game in a hurry with back-to-back doubles by Correa and Sharp, which ended with Alston and Black flying out to Theobald and Sharp getting thrown out at home, but more offense than that lone first inning run was on the way. In the third inning, it was Brown to start the effort with a 1-out double. Sharp walked with two outs, and Alston doubled to score Brownie. Black legged out a slow grounder that Barrón couldn’t play in time to score Sharp for a 3-0 lead. Another run scored when Trevino’s groundout helped Martinez to get home after a fourth inning triple.

For Brown, things got a bit better the second time through the order. After Juan Barrón’s leadoff single in the fourth inning, he came back to retire six of the next seven, including three strikeouts, and that runner that reached was owed to Correa error. By the third time through the order, the Indians were stirring their sticks in vain. They couldn’t hit Brown anymore, and kept being held to two hits through eight innings. Brown had reached just over 100 pitches in retiring Brian MacNamara to end the eighth inning. For the Coons, the doubles had kept coming. Alston and Howell both hit doubles in a 2-run fifth, 6-0, and that was still the score through eight. With an extra day of rest before the All Star game, Brown at least started the ninth inning against Barrón, Tsung, and Luxton, or switch-left-left (but Barrón was better against left-handers). Barrón grounded out to Howell before Brown walked Tsung. Okay, let’s see Luxton, but get somebody ready. Luxton flew out in a high arc to Alston in extreme left, but not all that deep, bringing up Theobald. Brown was on 116 pitches, but assured he had some gas left. Have at it, Brownie! One strike, two strikes, hard grounder to Correa, effortlessly played to Quebell at first. 6-0 Brownies!! Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Alston 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (7-4) and 1-2, 2B;

That’s how you reclaim the league-wide ERA lead!! He spun his seventh shutout and 15th career complete game. His last shutout came in ’08, but it’s his third complete game this season against five underwater games, leaving him at a very modest and exact 120 innings at the break. If he would make another 14 starts at that rate (but can it possibly rain and drown that much?) after the break, he’d close the year on an almost career-low (for a full season) 213 innings, and that mark was set when he really struggled as a sophomore in 2003.

Game 4
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – RF Theobald – C R. Speed – SS Heffer – 3B Kilters – P Sjogren
POR: 2B Correa – 3B Sharp – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C Esquivel – CF Trevino – P Baldwin

Wednesday’s extra base power sting dissipated by Thursday. There was hardly any offense early on, with the Indians killing their soft efforts by hitting into two double plays. The Coons had little to nothing until Daniel Sharp hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 4th. He was stranded in stunning fashion, with Alston and Howell walking to load them up, but Black, Quebell, and Esquivel all failed.

Top 5th, Richard Speed drew a leadoff walk off Baldwin. Kilters reached on a Quebell error to put runners on the corners and the Indians had Sjogren swing away, flying out to Black in medium right. Speed, who had no speed, was sent from third base and knocked out at home by Black. Forward to the bottom 6th, where Alston hit a double to get started. The Indians decided on an intentional walk to Black, who potentially countered Sjogren if he could just meet a ball, to get to Quebell, whom Sjogren matched. Quebell flew out to shallow center, but Rob Howell yanked a 1-2 pitch into deep left and just past Luxton’s glove. Alston scored handily on the double, and Black was sent around third, arriving just ahead of Luxton’s throw to give Baldwin a 2-0 lead. After Sergio Esquivel(!) got an intentional walk, Trevino hit a bloop single to right to load the bases for … Baldwin. Yeah, have him bat. He’s .114, but he doesn’t have a bad swing at all. Baldwin struck out, and Correa popped out to second base. Oh well.

Not enough that we didn’t hit for Baldwin when it was due time, he also got romped by the Indians immediately. Theobald, Speed, and Heffer hit consecutive 1-out singles to knock him from the game. Sims replaced him, couldn’t preserve the lead anyway, and almost gave up a 3-run homer as well.

Still tied in the bottom 8th, Howell got on against Leonardo Sosa and stole second base. Esquivel got another intentional walk to get to Trevino, although Sosa was a right-hander. We left Trevino to bat here and lined up Pruitt to hit for reliever Ed Bryan after that. Trevino just barely stayed out of a double play on a bouncer that Sosa played to second base to get Esquivel. Pruitt grounded out regardless. All that failing had to backfire when ****ing Daniel Richardson hit a 2-out, 2-run homer off Marcos Bruno in the top 9th. The bottom of the inning started with a Corey Bader error that got Correa on base. Daniel Sharp stunned Salvadaro Soure with a game-tying jack to left, and we had a new ballgame, Alston up, and still no outs, but the middle of the order didn’t do squid, sending the game to extras.

Marcos Bruno pitched a second inning, this time without annoying incidents, and Soure was also back in the bottom, grazing Howell’s chest with the fourth pitch of the opening at-bat. Howell had stolen a base earlier in the game, and did so again here, on a run-and-hit during which Esquivel missed his part entirely. Esquivel was walked intentionally YET AGAIN, bringing up Trevino once more. Nomura hit for Bruno, flew out to left, and Martinez hit for an annoyingly successless Correa, grounding out. The Coons would get another leadoff batter donated onto base in the 11th, when Sharp reached on catcher’s interference with Hélio Maggessi pitching. Alston walked before Black hit a bloop into shallow center. Sharp held at third base as MacNamara was to that ball very quickly. Quebell was nursing a cold spell of his own, but set a minor highlight by walking off his team at the very least, with a single up the middle. 5-4 Coons. Sharp 2-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Howell 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-5; Baldwin 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Raccoons (51-33) vs. Canadiens (43-41) – July 10-12, 2009

The Elks were third in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed. The bullpen was solid, but the rotation had ups and downs like crazy and it all muddled out to a sixth-best starters’ ERA. The Raccoons were 5-3 against them on the season and could really use to win another series against their arch rivals.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (7-4, 3.05 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (6-7, 5.32 ERA)
Brendan Teasdale (0-2, 5.68 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (9-5, 3.02 ERA)
Javier Cruz (7-6, 2.96 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (6-7, 5.17 ERA)

We get two of their three strugglers, and miss Juichi Fujita, so that’s a plus. All their guys are right-handers. Infielder Gary Rice is still on the DL, but is eligible to return on Sunday. Meanwhile Trevino was sore on Friday and we had to put Luke Black in center, which was what sent him to the DL the last time.

Game 1
VAN: CF Holland – SS Rodgers – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – LF F. Jones – 2B Dobson – P Spears
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – CF Black – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Umberger

Luke Black made a tumbling catch in the first inning, sprained his thumb, and it looked like we had just gained $1M in budget space for 2010. When Umberger didn’t break our roster in half, he allowed a homer to Dan Morris, which was double-plus ungood with a struggling Ron Alston in the home run race. Pruitt pulled the Coons back even with a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the inning. Spears was then taken apart in the bottom 2nd, in which the Coons plated four runs off him, with a 2-run homer by Sharp at the very end of it.

The Elks were tumbling for a few innings after that early knock, but got back into the game in the fifth inning. Dobson dropped down a bunt and was safe against Sharp playing too deep to field it in time to start the inning, stole second base, and came home on Spears’ single past Nomura into center, and they got two more runs in the sixth in which Umberger just completely stopped retiring people. Sims came in at 5-3 and two men on, but of course had to allow an RBI single to Ross Holland and throw another wild pitch before Quebell did the hard work for him retiring Rodgers. The Coons, suddenly aware of the fragility of a 5-1 lead after two innings, had Quebell triple to start the bottom 6th. The first-sacker scored on Howell’s bloop to right, 6-4, which was not enough to prevent the pen from further blowing the lead. Reese allowed three hits in the seventh, Ayers in center made an error, and the Elks tied the score at six. Ayers further kept making himself replaceable by hitting into an inning-ending double play with two on in the bottom of the same inning.

The top 9th saw Ed Bryan in to face Morris and Thomas. Both reached with hard singles. Cash replaced Bryan and got a double play that Suzuki hit hard to Sharp, but Morris was on third base, and stranded there when Gabriel Ortíz struck out. The Coons didn’t reach, bringing us another extra inning affair. With our bullpen rapidly having been depleted in those middle-to-late innings we were basically down to Angel Casas. Bruno had spun quite a few innings lately. Casas covered the tenth on 11 pitches, but when Pruitt and Alston made outs in the bottom of the inning against Cris Pena (in his third inning!), Brendan Teasdale was sent from the dugout to the bullpen to start warming up, since Angel wouldn’t pitch beyond the 11th.

There was no 11th, though. Keith Ayers, pretty much the 25th man on the roster, fired a high liner across centerfield that just went over the wall. Walkoff! 7-6 Critters. Alston 2-4, BB; Quebell 2-4, 3B; Howell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

No, there’s no point trying to tape this. The Duke/Count of Wherever went to the DL and would stay there for the rest of the month perhaps, making it impossible for him to trigger his option for 2010. Hmpf.

While we put an outfielder on the DL, we called up a relief pitcher with the way the bullpen had been mangled in just two days after Brownie gave all of them some rest. Claudio Salazar joined us. He had a 3.79 ERA in 19 major league innings accumulated in 2006 and 2008.

That’s also three walkoff wins in four days (with Brownie’s shutout in between), and back-to-back wins for Angel Casas. Careful, Brownie, he’s 2-1 already, he’s gonna getcha!

Before the Saturday game, the Elks acquired utility man INF Steven Walker from Salem. They also got #7 prospect CL Ron Thrasher in a deal for 37-year old outfield ghost Freddie Jones, which is quite the haul…

Game 2
VAN: CF Holland – SS Rodgers – 1B D. Morris – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – C G. Ortíz – LF Southcott – 2B Dobson – P R. Taylor
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C Esquivel – CF Trevino – P Teasdale

Brenda was just awful, which was the fitting word to describe his misery. He struggled to get ahead of any batter, walked four and drilled one in five innings, and somehow only allowed two runs in the second, in which Clint Southcott’s RBI triple was the key piece. The Raccoons were dead-silent, with half of their runners through five innings reaching on the Elks’ two errors. Teasdale somehow suckered his way through six innings, walking five, without getting obliterated. Bryan was on the way to a big inning in the seventh when he got a double play turned, but Salazar had less luck in his season debut. Southcott, whom I was wishing only grisly things already, hit another RBI triple in another 2-spot in the eighth. Through eight and a third innings, the Raccoons had nothing against Rod Taylor, even with three errors made by the Elks defense. Then the Elks replaced him with Jose Escobar, and down to the final out, the Coons got singles from Esquivel and De La Parra, sending the Elks to scurry for closer Pedro Alvarado. Ricardo Martinez hit for Salazar, the last bat off the bench, and also singled, bringing up the tying run in Yoshi, who flew out awfully softly to center. 4-0 Canadiens. Howell 2-3; De La Parra (PH) 1-1; Martinez (PH) 1-1;

Teasdale has a foul smell to him…

Game 3
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – RF J. Thomas – 1B D. Morris – SS Rice – 3B Rodgers – C R. Hernandez – 2B Dobson – P Crawford
POR: 2B Nomura – 1B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Correa – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Trevino – P Cruz

Teasdale had walked five in six innings, Cruz walked five in just three, including three in the third, in which the Elks squeezed out the first run of the game on a single by Gary Rice. Somehow Cruz made it through six innings as well, walking six and whiffing four, and not allowing another run although he was damn well beggin’ for it. Agonizingly he was also the first Raccoon to reach base with a 2-out single in the third inning. The Coons had runners on the corners in the fourth when Ricardo Martinez grounded out to short, and didn’t do a whole lot otherwise until Ron Alston rung a giant gong to wake up the rest of the team with a solo homer in the bottom 6th, tying the score. A rattled Crawford walked Correa on four pitches, then served up the next bomb to Martinez and suddenly the Raccoons led 3-1 after the Elks had stranded a million runners.

Donald Sims was given the lead in the seventh and didn’t explode it in a hurry for once, and in the bottom 7th Quebell hit a 1-out double in his spot. Nomura was put on intentionally, Sharp walked unintentionally, and the Raccoons had a FAT chance with Crawford yet to be removed and Pruitt and Alston coming up. Pruitt lined the second pitch into a double play, which actually went 4-5. Not Yoshi on second, but Quebell on third base was doubled off. He had started running and never looked at the ball. The horrors!!

The horrors got worse. Gary Rice homered off Bruno to get the stinkin’ Elks back to 3-2, and Bruno walked a runner before Dobson lined a hard ball into left center. Trevino made a hero’s catch out there that kept the lead in one piece, and that was before the home team snuck out of another RISP situation in the bottom 8th, and Angel Casas was chainsawed for three runs in the ninth inning. Holland singled, Garcia doubled to tie the game, and Thomas yanked a homer to center.

Bottom 9th, down by two, Alvarado allowed a single to De La Parra before he walked Trevino, bringing up Quebell with no outs, which probably meant a double play was near. Four to six to three left De La Parra on third, with Keith Ayers batting for the broken Casas. His single up the middle brought up Sharp, who had hit a few dingers in the week, and that was exactly what we needed right now. Or maybe he can strike out instead… 5-4 Canadiens. Ayers (PH) 1-1, RBI; Alston 2-4, HR, RBI;

In other news

July 7 – DAL 1B/3B Dennis Berman (.300, 9 HR, 42 RBI) has completed a streak of 20 games with consecutive base hits, hitting a solo home run in the Stars’ 9-3 loss to Sacramento.
July 7 – RIC CF/LF Earl Clark (.347, 6 HR, 37 RBI) will be on the DL for a month with an oblique strain.
July 7 – The Crusaders add SP Ken Maddox (4-6, 5.48 ERA) from the Rebels for two second-rate prospects.
July 7 – The Blue Sox send CL Luis Hernandez (5-1, 2.12 ERA, 13 SV) to the Falcons for four prospects, none of them ranked in the top 100.
July 8 – Dallas’ Berman (.298, 9 HR, 42 RBI) already has his streak snapped at 20 games, going hitless in an 8-0 shutout that goes the Scorpions’ way. SAC SP Dan Moriarty (7-7, 3.74 ERA) spins a 6-hitter.
July 9 – Vancouver’s Dan Morris (.313, 22 HR, 61 RBI) belts his 400th career home run in a 10-4 Canadiens smashing of the Loggers, a solo shot off Roy Thomas in the first inning – on his 39th birthday! Morris is only the second player in ABL history to reach 400 home runs, trailing career leader Raúl Vázquez by 16 bombs. Vázquez retired in 2007. Morris, a first round pick by the Cyclones in 1991, is in his 18th major league season, and while his defense is shaky at best, those big arms still work. Despite being the most prolific active slugger, Morris has never led the league in slugging, but did lead in average (twice) and OBP (also twice) in his career.
July 9 – TIJ 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.233, 8 HR, 44 RBI) will miss four weeks with a sprained ankle.
July 10 – BOS SP Jorge Chapa (6-6, 3.80 ERA) has torn a finger tendon and is out for the 2009 season.
July 10 – The Wolves and the Pacifics beat a 13-12 mind-boggler that goes the Oregonians’ way, with two of their guys, Bill Miller (.286, 4 HR, 31 RBI) and Alberto Rodriguez (.293, 4 HR, 47 RBI), knocking five hits.

Complaints and stuff

29 runs in seven games! Almost major league average! Woooot!! What happened? Heck, I don’t know! We even dropped to 10th in runs scored. I have no clue. I only empty the bottles around here.

While Ron Alston was the Player of the Week, batting .423 (11-26) with 2 HR and 7 RBI, I did find out that Sharpie (slugging .708 this week) had switched to a new cereal with oat and raisins. The entire team was force-fed that one going into the break. It tastes like ashes with cat **** sprinkled over it. But it looks like this one has everything a little boy needs.

We have four All Stars, and it’s really no surprise, neither the number, nor who they are. Okay, I wasn’t quite sure about Quebell, but he gets his first All Star nomination, along with Nick Brown (4th), Ron Alston (7th; 1st with POR), and Angel Casas (3rd).

Hector Santos won’t be here so soon, allowing 13 runs in his last two games in AAA, shooting his ERA almost all the way to five.

In terms of outfielders, prospect Dave Green went to the minor-league DL with shoulder inflammation and should stay there for a while, and Tomas Castro didn’t quite make it back to the team before the break, but starts a rehab assignment on Monday to get him into shape and get him back here by Monday. For a few days I felt like Keith Ayers wouldn’t be with us much longer. He doesn’t have options. But then came Friday, and things … changed.

But Ayers is not a good piece after all. When Castro comes back, it might improve the offense over Trevino’s awful poking, but Ayers… Then again, there’s nobody at AAA that could possibly help us.

We signed 16-year old left-hander Alejandro Gomez out of Panama at a $158k price point. His stuff has natural sink, which is what good pitchers are made off.

Service announcement: I should get the 4-game set with Indy in tomorrow, but there will again not be an update from there until possibly Saturday. I appreciate your patience and that you aren’t flinging rocks at unreliable me … yet.

[Westheim]

All Star Game

ATL Jaime Kester was the ASG MVP with a 3-hit performance, including a home run, in the CL’s 7-1 win over the FL. The Federal League’s starter, DEN Antonio Donis, is routed for four runs in two innings as the CL makes things clear early on.

Adrian Quebell was the only starter for the Raccoons, going 2-5 with 2 RBI. Ron Alston hit for New York’s Martin Ortíz and homered Richmond’s Jean-Christophe Fernandes. Nick Brown pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one. Angel Casas was not used.

With Brown hardly into double-digit pitches in his appearance, we penned him in for Friday, the second game of our weekend series in Indy. Umberger would get the first assignment with Teasdale not getting the ball on the weekend. We also dumped the extra reliever, Claudio Salazar, who had to be put on waivers and designated for assignment. Tomas Castro rejoined the team by Thursday.

Raccoons (52-35) @ Indians (49-39) – July 16-19, 2009

We had just sent the Indians home with another three-of-four series, our second of the year, giving us a 6-2 edge against them. They were eighth in offense (Raccoons by now: 10th), and third in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (7-4, 3.21 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (8-5, 3.03 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-4, 1.95 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (5-6, 4.96 ERA)
Javier Cruz (7-6, 2.88 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (9-4, 2.72 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (7-5, 2.95 ERA) vs. Bob King (9-9, 3.74 ERA)

The placement of Curtis Tobitt in this series is highly speculative right now. And all those 7’s disturb me. Makes 8’s of them!

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – 2B Correa – RF Ayers – SS Howell – C De La Parra – P Umberger
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – 3B C. Aguilar – RF D. Richardson – C R. Speed – SS R. Miller – P Sjogren

Basically Umberger got whacked really hard before the weather showed mercy and allowed him out after four innings of 3-run ball, with four of five hits for extra bases and three walks on top of that. By far his worst offense was a home run that Daniel “Ass Hat” Richardson hit off him. The Raccoons had somehow lucked into a run in the second inning, but trailed 3-1 through the middle innings. There wasn’t slight hope until the eighth inning, when Castro and Sharp hit singles to get started. The Indians stayed with the southpaw Sjogren against Quebell and Alston, and he walked them both, pushing in a run and loading the bags with no outs. Once Correa and Nomura had shown that they were better sent to AAA, Howell at least drew a walk to tie the score, but nobody could be bothered to land a hit, and then Ron Alston made an error in the bottom 8th that allowed the Indians to score the go-ahead run again. Salvadaro Soure struck four Raccoons in the ninth inning: Castro into the hip, but three of them out. 4-3 Indians. Sharp 2-4, BB; Howell 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

They suck so much… They suck so much……

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – C De La Parra – P Brown
IND: CF MacNamara – SS R. Miller – 1B Tsung – RF Theobald – C R. Speed – 2B C. Aguilar – LF D. Richardson – 3B J. Lopez – P King

You always knew that bad things were going to happen in some way or other when Brownie was pitching, and this game was certainly no exception. Both pitchers came to bat with runners on the corners and two outs in the bottom 2nd and fell to 0-2. Brown struck out, but Bob King hit a looping fly that ran away from Alston and fell in for a 2-run double. Because that was the way Portland baseball was working. The horrendous Suckoons would not get another base runner until the seventh inning, when a Sharp grounder eluded Miller for a 1-out single. King crumbled, Quebell doubled, and the runs scored on a groundout by Correa and De La Parra’s soft liner that dinked into shallow center, which tied the game at two. Ron Alston’s double in the top 8th came with two out and started Pruitt from first base. He was sent as an expression of the general desperation surrounding our offensive innings, and was thrown out at the plate. Brown pitched eight innings without receiving any love whatsoever, and Marcos Bruno pitched a scoreless ninth to get the game to extra innings.

Something developed in the 11th with singles by Nomura and Pruitt off Helio Maggessi. Two on, no outs, Alston up, could be worse, like with Trevino up. Alston grounded a 1-1 pitch up the middle, but Barrón intercepted it quite deep behind second base and flung the ball to first base without aiming – bad decision. Tsung couldn’t come up with it, the ball was into the dugout, and the Coons were awarded a run and runners in scoring position on the error. What sounds like a comfortable position to score a few add-on runs developed into gnashed teeth, two outs, and the bases loaded with an intentional walk to Quebell. Rob Howell hit for De La Plague and hit a lucky blooper into shallow right just ahead of Richardson. Two runs scored. Angel Casas got groundouts to first, second, and third base in the bottom of the inning. 5-2 Coons. Pruitt 2-4, RBI; De La Parra 2-4, RBI; Howell (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Well, Brownie brought it on himself. No wonder he never wins when he gives up 2-run doubles to opposing pitchers all the time. No wait, those are the other buffoons. He did it for the first time this year.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – C Esquivel – P Cruz
IND: CF MacNamara – 2B Barrón – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – 3B C. Aguilar – RF D. Richardson – C R. Speed – SS R. Miller – P Weise

Tom Weise (8-6, 2.91 ERA) was moved into game three on Saturday to signalize that the Indians didn’t really know what they wanted with their rotation.

Tomas Castro started the game with a single, was thrown out stealing, and this cost the Coons a run right away. They could have had a 4-spot, but they had to settle for three, with four more hits coming against Weise in the inning. While Friday had been dry (Brown’s start dry? What witchcraft was at work here??), this game saw another early rain delay, 31 minutes in the third inning. The tarp was brought out after Alston had hit a deep drive just foul outside the left pole with Pruitt on first base in the top 3rd. By the time the at-bat resumed, Alston had lost calibration and instead had to chug out an infield single. One run scored in the inning when Correa’s grounder went inches past Barrón’s extended glove for a single to right, but the Coons stranded five between this and the next inning, but then ripped three singles to start the top 6th, loading the sacks. Alston flew out unproductively in that spot, but a passed ball and a Sharp single scored all the runners for a 7-0 lead, also knocking out the unsuspected Weise. All the while Javier Cruz was pitching a very controlled game and didn’t allow much hard contact, generating a load of poor groundballs and those were a feast for our infielders. The final line score had blowout proportions, with the Raccoons out-hitting the Indians 16-6. 7-0 Furballs. Castro 2-5; Nomura 2-4, BB; Pruitt 3-4, BB, 2B; Sharp 2-5, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, RBI; Correa 3-5, 2 RBI; Cruz 7.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (8-6);

Game 4
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – LF Alston – RF Ayers – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Correa – C De La Parra – P Baldwin
IND: CF MacNamara – SS R. Miller – 1B Tsung – LF Luxton – RF Theobald – C R. Speed – 2B Heffer – 3B J. Lopez – P Escobedo

Keith Ayers was just batting “cleanup” because I longed to separate the left-handers against Escobedo, then cleaned up Howell with a 2-run homer in the first inning after Alston had just struck out blinking (or possibly eating, I was blinking and eating at that point). Escobedo gave up quite a bit of hard contact in the first innings, leading to a Martinez leadoff double and him scoring in the second inning, but the Raccoons fell asleep after that (or were too concentrated on eating). Baldwin was so-so, needing rescue with the double play with a bunch of singles against him. Paul Theobald did hit into a double play in the bottom 4th, but that still scored Tsung from third base to get the Indians to 3-1. The Coons, with nobody on base, were one strike on Escobedo away from leaving the bottom 5th then Escobedo singled and in a hurry Brian MacNamara reached on an infield single (Martinez…) and Miller walked in a full count to pull up Mun-wah Tsung with the bags stacked. Tsung of course singled over Correa on a 2-2 pitch to tie the game before Luxton struck out.

The Indians got two more hits off Baldwin to chase him in the sixth, loading him with nine hits total, but at least Rockburn managed to get out of the inning without another disaster. Top 7th, Escobedo so far had only allowed six hits and no walks, but issued free passes to both Correa and De La Parcour when this inning got underway. Pruitt batted for Rockburn and grounded up the middle but reached on a Miller error to load the bases with no outs. Castro – K. Howell – pooped out (no typo). I knew where this was going and buried by wet face in my paws, not daring to look what Alston would glare at. From the sound he hit the first ball Escobedo offered him before the whole park went “Hhhh…!!” – GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!

While that sent Escobedo to read a good book, the issues just began for the Coons and their 7-3 lead when Sims entered the game and immediately allowed a double to MacNamara. Defensive heroics by Howell and Quebell kept the Indians from scoring in the inning, Sims wasn’t contributing anything nice. The Coons scraped together enough juice for another run in the top 8th before Ted Reese cut the ball for hopefully two clean innings on the way outta Indy. That worked – more or less – and Tomas Castro even hit his first home run of the season in his last AB of an otherwise forgettable series for him. 9-3 Coons. Alston 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2B; De La Parra 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Reese 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

Something borrowed, something blue, and sometimes something new: the Coons left TWO men on base in this game, while scoring nine runs!! I somehow only remember them ever doing the opposite…

In other news

July 14 – The Canadiens pick up 39-year old lefty Ray Hoskins (2-2, 3.38 ERA, 1 SV) and unranked outfield prospect Dave Carter from the Titans for 27-yr old 1B Tony Ramos (.323, 4 HR, 33 RBI).
July 15 – 1B Albert Martin (.256, 7 HR, 28 RBI) is sent with a non-prospect from Tijuana up to Sacramento in exchange for a minor leaguer.
July 16 – LAP LF/CF Jimmy Roberts (.279, 12 HR, 50 RBI) faces two weeks on the shelf after spraining his elbow.
July 17 – CHA SP Larry Cutts (8-9, 4.02 ERA) 3-hits the Condors in a 3-0 shutout.
July 19 – The Aces send LF/RF Don Cameron (.280, 3 HR, 47 RBI) to the Bayhawks for SP Shawn White (4-7, 3.17 ERA) and #69 prospect SS Brent Burke.

Complaints and stuff

Next week: three games plus change with the Crusaders, then back to the west coast to face the Bayhawks, who are one below .500 and even less away from the playoffs. Wicked division.

Salazar reached St. Pete safely without being taken by bandits. Do we actually care?

The Elks made a trade offer to us. They desire Sergio Esquivel and would give us Ricardo Huerta(!!), that twice-already-traded #7 prospect CL Ron Thrasher, and cash to nurse our piggy bank.

By now it’s safe to say that we had the crappiest offseason before the 2009 campaign that we possibly could have had assembled. Greg Grams has already been discarded for tomorrow’s discards, and that dumb bloke behind the plate annoys me about as greatly as the entirely useless piece of dog **** Correa. How can you sign and draft for this much redundant failure?

This team will never get back to the playoffs, never. I need to get fired, that would get the team in line.

But I still have those photos.

[Westheim]

Reason for the Raccoons' hitting curse found? Are they actually possessed by evil spirits?

More today at 11!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (55-36) @ Crusaders (59-33) – July 21-23, 2009

Last chance for the truth? They lead in so much stuff, f.e. runs scored (Coons: t-7th after a slight thrashing of the Indians), and were second to us in runs allowed. Their bullpen was miles better than ours with a 1.94 ERA (we use to approach that, though). We are 6-2 against them on the year.

Projected matchups:
Resumption of suspended game from April 23
Jong-hoo Umberger (7-4, 3.33 ERA) vs. Ken Maddox (4-7, 5.64 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-4, 1.97 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (7-9, 3.90 ERA)
Javier Cruz (8-6, 2.71 ERA) vs. Elwood Spurrell (11-5, 3.74 ERA)

Suspended game from April 23
POR: CF Castro – 3B Correa – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – C Esquivel – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 2B Caraballo – 3B Reece – 1B M. Williams – C D: Anderson – P Trevino

I – expectedly – messed this up thanks to the muddy UI. The game came back in the middle of the seventh, except that it showed a 3-out state in the top 7th. Hitting anywhere threw Brownie into the game and the bottom 7th commenced. While this is technically correct procedure (he hadn’t been removed in the original game!), I didn’t even get a CHANCE to remove him. Trevino was the starter on the original April date and continued pitching. Both him and Brown were on three days’ rest.

The Crusaders quickly broke the silence in a two-hits-each game. Brown walked one Martin Brother, and the other one made him pay with a bomb to deep left, and just like that it was 2-0 Crusaders. It wasn’t over, though. Scott Hood pitched in the top 9th, Castro hit a leadoff single, and Correa hit a double. No outs, tying runs in scoring position. Of course, the team ****ed it up. Alston hit a sac fly, nobody else hit anything. 2-1 Crusaders. Correa 2-4; Brown 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, L (7-5);

Of course this means that Brownie can’t start again in this series which is doubly annoying.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – SS Correa – 3B R. Martinez – C De La Parra – P Umberger
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS Davidson – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 1B Batlle – 3B Reece – C D. Anderson – P Maddox

2008 Jong-hoo Umberger had been special for his impeccable control and his stunning sink generating lots of easy infield fodder, none of which was evident or even hinted at in this game. While Umberger gave Stanton Martin a heck of a day (0-3, 3 K), everybody else had him for breakfast, while the Raccoons pulled all the stupid stunts from the book, one after another. Castro was on first base in the opening inning when Pruitt zinged a 3-0 pitch right into a two-for-one. Alston had a leadoff single in the second, then fell asnooze and was picked off. And it just went on like that. They scored a stray run in the fourth on a Correa sac fly, actually the first run in the game, before the Crusaders effortlessly bludgeoned Umberger for two runs in the bottom of the inning.

While the Crusaders stranded runners all over the place in the middle innings, the Raccoons had precious little to strand, but in the sixth inning at least go the game tied with a Ron Alston homer. Three straight singles by the next three batters, all with two outs, flipped the score even in their favor, 3-2, and while Umberger didn’t manage to blow it despite his very utmost efforts, Marcos Bruno almost managed, going to 3-ball counts on absolutely everybody in the eighth inning, from which the Raccoons emerged as leaders mainly for Francisco Caraballo’s extremely convenient groundball right into Correa’s paws, that became a 6-4-3. There was no rescue for Angel Casas, though, of whom Matt MacKey hit a leadoff triple that bounced on the first base bag before escaping all attempts to catch it and bring it back to the farm again. MacKey scored all to easily on Sonny Reece’s single, and the game was sent into a very unwelcome extension, in which the Raccoons used the extra time to display their hit-it-somehow-for-two-outs skills, although the Crusaders didn’t exactly sparkle either, with “Clockwork” Stanton being displaced into the Bottom of the Atlantic time zone and being handed a golden sombrero by Matt Cash in the bottom 12th. But whoever laughs last, laughs best. While the Raccoons were at their absolute worst in those extra innings and amounted to one hit in the last five innings of the game, Martin hit a 2-out single off Rockburn in the bottom 15th that was soon followed by another single by Martin Ortíz. When Caraballo’s bouncer eluded Rob Howell as well, “Clockwork” had long turned third base by the time Trevino got anywhere close to field the ball. 4-3 Crusaders. Cash 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

As you can see, there’s really no need to worry. Your wife can happily reserve tickets for whatever will be October’s opera premiere. No baseball shall be played in Portland.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – SS Howell – 1B Quebell – 2B Correa – C Esquivel – P Teasdale
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS Davidson – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 1B Batlle – 3B Reece – C D. Anderson – P Connor

Francisco Caraballo continued to move up the hate charts, although potentially you could also see something positive in his 1-out, bases-clearing double that blew the door out of its hinges in the bottom 5th, giving the Crusaders a 5-0 lead: Teasdale was catastrophically overmatched so badly by the Crusaders, allowed loads of hard contact, and then added four walks against only one strikeout, and that was against Greg Connor. Brenda got a sixth run charged against her when Ed Bryan once more allowed an extra-base hit to a left-hander, in this case a 2-out double to Sonny Reece, but for the bigger picture none of this was important.

When Matt Pruitt hit a double in the sixth inning he also contracted a hip strain and limped off the field. Those are the signs of not enough exercise – from base running for example. The Raccoons weren’t regularly doing any of that. Keith Ayers replaced him, didn’t score, and neither did Ted Reese when he doubled(!) in the following inning. Greg Connor pitched a 6-hit shutout in unmolested fashion. 6-0 Crusaders. Sharp 2-4; Reese 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K and 1-1, 2B;

Matt Pruitt was placed on the DL. 15 days might be enough, or it might be three weeks. Who the **** gives a lick at this point. Since we also discarded Brendan Teasdale back to St. Petersburg with his 0-4, 6.26 ERA non-achievement, there was some room for roster movements.

The open slot in the rotation was taken over by Cássio Boda, who was just more consistent than Kenichi Watanabe, who in his last six AAA starts had allowed five runs or more half the time (and also one run or less in the other three games, but…), and Hector Santos had severe walk issues even in AAA and was not ready.

Filling that outfield spot that would remain open for at least two weeks was not an easier task for a lack of candidates. In AAA, Green had gotten injured a while ago, and Seeley was in a rotten slump. There was Beairsto, the fool, and some more no-name scum. We eventually settled on a completely nuts solution and called up Pete Schipper from Ham Lake. Schipper had been the runt of the litter of the 2007 draft (picked in the 12th and last round) and had never held a starting job anywhere in the system, but was batting for an .802 OPS in 111 AB in Ham Lake this year. Despite scarcely any playing time, he had never hit for less than a .762 mark at any level in any year. He is a marginal fielder, not a good runner, and has hit some home runs here and there. He can fill either corner spot in the outfield, or first base, batting right-handed.

I bet 23 other teams had a good chuckle.

Game 4
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – SS Howell – 2B Nomura – RF Ayers – C De La Parra – P Cruz
NYC: CF R. Pena – SS Davidson – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 1B Batlle – 3B Reece – C D. Anderson – P Spurrell

Cássio Boda had been planned to start the Friday game in San Francisco, but plans are always subject to change. In this case, a rain delay that lasted almost two hours in the bottom of the fourth inning led to Javier Cruz not being able to go past 46 pitches in a 1-1 contest. There was still Caraballo on first base and one out, but with the generous help of Boda, the Crusaders bloomed that opening into a 3-run inning with a few well-hit balls.

The Coons got to see Nobuyoshi Matsui in the top of the fifth. The unlucky Japanese allowed six hits in the inning, including singles by Howell that scored one and two runs, respectively, as the Raccoons spooled down their entire order as they tied the game in this inning. Bring back Boda, and Martin Ortíz hit a homer that put the Crusaders on top 5-4 in the bottom of the frame…

The Crusaders would get another run off Boda eventually, while the Raccoons were silenced for two innings by Lorenzo Flores. But the problem with this Crusaders bullpen was that there was always another awesome guy coming after the one that just right now made you pull all your fur out. After Flores came Scott Hood, was unbeatable, and after that came closer Iemitsu Rin, not off the DL for long, and quelled all hope in just ten pitches. 6-4 Crusaders. Castro 2-4, BB; Sharp 2-5, 2B; Alston 2-4, BB; Nomura 2-4, 2 RBI;

Pete Schipper made his major league debut entering in a double switch, but grounded out in his only at-bat facing Scott Hood.

Raccoons (55-40) @ Bayhawks (47-49) – July 24-26, 2009

The blood clots and the lard stains, whatever was left over of the Raccoons after the Crusaders had smeared their guts all over their park for three days, were shipped off to San Fran after that disaster of a series, so we could find no hope against a team of the CL Loser Division, in which the sub-.500 Birds were actually just 2 1/2 games out behind the Knights and Thunder. Seemed like some teams WERE able to make a thoroughly second-division offense work despite not having any pitching to cover for it… We were 1-2 against them in 2009, and 14-16 against the CL Loser Division overall.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (7-5, 2.08 ERA) vs. G.G. Williams (1-4, 4.01 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (7-5, 3.05 ERA) vs. Tyler Sullivan (12-5, 2.07 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (7-4, 3.29 ERA) vs. Richard Williams (6-10, 4.72 ERA)

So Boda didn’t start after all after being burned in the Thursday nightmare, and Nick Brown had to go on some awkward form of two days’ rest. He had spun 40 pitches on Tuesday, but there wasn’t anybody else available. Two left-handers will start this set for the Baybirds. By the way, G.G. Williams is a former Coons farmhand. The 2004 third-rounder was half the price of Raúl Fuentes in March of 2007. Another one of those trades…

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Correa – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – P Brown
SFB: 1B Catalo – 2B J. Perez – RF Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C M. Torres – LF Guerra – SS McCullough – CF Covington – P G.G. Williams

Nick Brown wasn’t terribly amused by the offensive alignment of this game, and indeed was close to death by singles in the first innings, but always had a strikeout ready when he needed one really badly. The lineup wasn’t doing anything for him, and he also twice made the final out with men on base when his liners were caught by Don Cameron. In the bottom 5th of the scoreless contest, Leborio Catalo drew a 2-out walk before Jose Perez hit a high bouncer to third base. One capital throwing error by Martinez later, the Bayhawks had runners in scoring position in the most dire spot yet for Brown, but he struck out Cameron to escape.

The Coons would then score three runs out of the blue in the top 6th. Rob Howell hit a 2-piece in the inning, but Brownie was already at 91 pitches due to all the extra work. The sixth inning was going to be his last, but he didn’t get through when Fernando Guerra hit a 2-out double to right. With a right-hander up, Matt Cash replaced Brown and managed to make Brandon McCullough fly out to center. After not doing anything for five innings, the Raccoons’ offense then put another five runs on G.G. Williams in the seventh. He never logged an out there, as De La Potassium singled, Keith Ayers tripled, Castro singled, Howell singled, and Sharp went well deep with a 3-piece. In fact the first seven Raccoons all hit safely in the inning, with Alston and Martinez singling against reliever Don Davis before Correa had to ruin everything with a double play. Ed Bryan allowed another extra base hit to a left-hander (Martin Covington) in the bottom 7th, and Covington would score after doubling, but once the game was handed to Law Rockburn, the Bayhawks went down quickly. 8-1 Brownies. Castro 2-5, RBI; Howell 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Alston 3-5; Martinez 2-5; De La Parra 3-4; Ayers (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1; Brown 5.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (8-5); Rockburn 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Interlude: Trades!

Last year’s trade deadline blockbuster move was Ron Alston, this year’s … well.

The Raccoons traded C Sergio Esquivel (.268, 2 HR, 13 RBI) to the Canadiens for 35-year old right-hander MR Ricardo Huerta (1-1, 2.23 ERA) and #7 prospect CL Ron Thrasher, who is a 22-year old southpaw kicking butts in AA.

Nobody quite knows whether Esquivel can be a competent primary, and the Raccoons have too much money tied up in De La Penne to actively find out. A trade for a right-hander (who is of course no stranger to Coon City) and a demonically good closing prodigy is certainly a splendid chance in this case. We can easily cover the backup spot with comparable players from AAA.

We weren’t done, though. We did away with the chronically obnoxious MR Ed Bryan (2-0, 4.93 ERA, 1 SV), shifting his sorry butt to Richmond in exchange for 23-yr old lefty MR George Youngblood, who was struggling with control in AAA and was posting grisly ERA’s.

We might not gain anything with Youngblood, but at least we keep our budget on the green side by freeing up $110k that still would have been due to Bryan, who was out of options as well. Huerta, a generally reliable reliever who was a rule 5 pick originally and was on the team 2002-2005 and a free agent after this season, was a right-hander though, so we needed to make another swap.

So, roster moves from Friday to Saturday…
Gone: MR Bryan, C Esquivel
In: MR Huerta
Waived and DFA: MR Cash
Promoted: MR Beltran, C Lopes

Raccoons (55-40) @ Bayhawks (47-49) – July 24-26, 2009

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – SS Howell – 1B Sharp – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Correa – RF Schipper – C De La Parra – P Baldwin
SFB: 1B Catalo – 2B J. Perez – RF Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – C M. Torres – LF Guerra – SS McCullough – CF V. Diaz – P Sullivan

Martinez’ 2-run triple in the first inning not only gave the Coons an early lead, but also gave Nick Brown, who hadn’t been charged a run the previous day, the ERA lead in the Continental League back. Baldwin put the first two Birds on, but they wouldn’t score and he began to collect a lot of groundballs. The Coons had the bases stacked with no outs in the top 4th, only for their stupid not traded catcher to hit into a (run-scoring, but still…) double play. But Martinez seemed to have figures something out with his poke stick, nailing a Sullivan pitch for a 2-run homer in the sixth inning, further opening the score to 5-0. By that point he was also just the double short of the cycle, but in his eighth inning plate appearance softly lined out to Brandon McCullough, and while the Coons loaded the bases in the ninth inning, Ron Alston flew out to right to end the frame before Martinez could get another chance. Talking about chances, the Baybirds never had any, with Reese, Beltran, and Huerta following up after Baldwin’s seven scoreless. 5-0 Critters. Alston 2-5; Martinez 3-4, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (8-5);

Pete Schipper had his first career hit, a horrendous bloop that fell between Jose Perez and Don Cameron in the sixth inning.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – SS Howell – 2B Nomura – C Lopes – RF Trevino – P Umberger
SFB: 1B Catalo – C M. Torres – RF Cameron – 3B D. Lopez – LF Guerra – 2B J. Perez – CF Covington – SS McCullough – P R. Williams

Weak pitcher on the mound, no offense coming forth from the brown-clad team. Business as usual on this Sunday afternoon, with the Critters drawing three runners in four innings, two of which reached on an error, and one on a walk. Ximenes Lopes’ leadoff single in the fifth finally got something into the H column, and when Trevino doubled after him, the Coons had two in scoring position and no outs in a scoreless game, but Umberger was batting. After an obvious K it was Tomas Castro to ram a ball past Leborio Catalo that bounced all the way to the corner, enough time for a 2-run triple, but Castro didn’t score when Sharp walked and Quebell hit into one of his ****ing double plays.

The Birds put their leadoff batters on in both the sixth and seventh innings, but both times hit grounders to Nomura for 4-6-3 pain relief. Meanwhile Williams was still in the game in the eighth, but the Raccoons loaded the bases with one out against him, bringing up Lopes, who at least managed a sac fly before Trevino grounded out. Refusing to add to leads rarely goes unpunished, though. Umberger’s ****ty luck finally ran out in the bottom 8th with three hits in a hurry, which combined with an ill-advised throw home by Alston put the Bayhawks back in the game, trailing 3-2, with David Lopez on second base and one out. Donald Sims game out for the lefty Fernando Guerra, but old warhorse Freddy Rosa batted for him, grounding out. Jose Perez grounded out to end the inning. Angel Casas, continuing to struggle, drilled 2B Carlos Santos in the bottom of the ninth, but the Birds kept hitting awful grounders to get swept. 3-2 Coons. Howell 2-3, BB; Trevino 2-4, 2B;

In other news

July 23 – SFB 1B Leborio Catalo (.291, 1 HR, 27 RBI) goes 4-4 in a 13-6 loss of the Bayhawks over the Falcons, reaching the 2,000 hits mark along the way. The milestone hit for the 33-year old is a first inning single off the Falcons’ Larry Cutts.
July 23 – An Achilles tendon injury ends the season of DEN 1B/3B Yuji Hashimoto (.323, 15 HR, 66 RBI).
July 24 – OCT SP Daniel Dickerson (9-3, 2.22 ERA) will miss at least one start with an oblique issue.
July 25 – Charlotte’s INF Jose Lopez (.274, 16 HR, 58 RBI) scorches the Canadiens with five hits, including two home runs, a double, and 5 RBI, but the Falcons still lose the game, 14-12.
July 25 – CIN 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.341, 4 HR, 35 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak assembled after an eighth inning double in a 4-2 Cyclones win over the Gold Sox.
July 26 – The Warriors flip SP Bruce Morrison (5-7, 4.24 ERA) to the Wolves in exchange for #55 prospect SS Bo Hart, who is 21, but looks like 45.
July 26 – Georg Spinu’s hitting streak ends quickly, just as his Cyclones end quickly in a 5-1 loss to the Gold Sox.
July 26 – SAC LF Rodrigo Lopez (.283, 1 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three weeks with a herniated disc. His team mate SP Dan Moriarty (7-8, 3.61 ERA) is off worse, having his season end with shoulder inflammation.
July 26 – MIL SP A.J. Bartels (2-12, 6.93 ERA) has to have bone chips removed from his elbow and his out for the season.

Complaints and stuff

Quite some personnel exchange this week. Nothing too fascinating though.

The Cyclones wanted to trade strong pitcher Nathan O’Herlihy for Ron Alston, which was not a good trade, and the Titans wanted to grab Hector Santos in a shady trade of catchers. I told both to **** off.