[Westheim]

1991 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (96-66) vs. San Francisco Bayhawks (97-66)

The Raccoons were carried by their pitching for 5+ months before that went away, too, while their offense did not provide much spark past May.

The Bayhawks have a very balanced roster, but also on the pitching-heavy side. They take most first places in pitching categories that the Raccoons did not lead. Their main weaknesses were home runs allowed (6th, but the Coons were 11th in that) and walks allowed (last place). The Raccoons don’t draw walks as well as a few years ago, so whether that will help us, is all but open.

Their rotation features four good to great pitchers, with Chris O’Keefe leading the way with 19 wins, and none of their four starters for the series had ERA’s over 3.43, although Wilbert Rodgers and Pepe Martinez have inflated WHIP’s. Again, the Raccoons don’t draw a lot of walks and they didn’t hit any home runs at all (Tetsu leading the team with 14!). Their bullpen is about as strong as ours, and with a comparable starting rotation the pitching staffs are about equally tough.

Or would be, given the cave-ins suffered by Jason Turner and others late in the year.

The Bayhawks were 2nd in AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS in the CL. They are on base a lot, and while they were average in home runs, they can score plenty of runs (4th; POR: 5th) by just singling you to death. The Rodriguezes, Pedro and Roberto, are a dangerous pair, Zahid Mashwanis had put down a strong second half of the year, SS Hector Martinez was on base at a .394 rate, and they also had an aging Pedro Villa, who was still doing crazy amounts of damage. They did not have that one power slugger (like Tetsu Osanai in a good year), with INF Mike Powys leading the team with 14 HR and 77 RBI. Instead you could expect a lineup that was well balanced and had no obvious weak points. If anything, they had only three left-handers and one switch-hitter on the playoff roster. The left-handers were all outfielders, and Diego Rodriguez was not among them and maybe their best overall batter in the outfield. Few left-handers of course increase Scott Wade’s value greatly, as Wade has struggled with left-handers in epic proportions in his career. Must be his lack of a third pitch.

The Bayhawks have no injuries to cope with. Our only injury is OF Raul Castillo who made exactly three appearances for the Coons after coming in at the deadline, so we are not really affected, either.

If I look at our last five weeks, we did some royal fudging to our record and pride there, losing 22 of 33 down the stretch. There is no momentum here. Recently Jason Turner, Robert Vazquez, Scott Wade, Jackie Lagarde, David Vinson, Ben O’Morrissey, Antonio Gonzalez, and Jeff Martin have struggled in varying degrees.

Oh yeah. The Bayhawks went 20-8 in September. Momentum? For sure.