[Westheim]

Raccoons (56-74) @ Knights (49-80) – August 27-29, 2001

The only outfit in the CL to surrender more runs than the Raccoons, the Knights couldn’t count on their third-worst offense to make up ground, either. Their run differential was a whopping -190, and that was almost 100 runs worse than the already abysmal Raccoons’. The only thing they had going for them were no injuries of any kind to 40-man roster players – and they were still in last place. The season series was split at three.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (6-9, 4.57 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (9-16, 4.34 ERA)
Cipriano Miranda (7-12, 3.65 ERA) vs. Manuel Movonda (5-11, 5.07 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (7-16, 4.69 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Cavazos – RF Flores – 3B Heart – C Defrese – P Farley
ATL: RF A. Rodriguez – 1B Ingall – LF Ware – CF G. Rios – 2B J. Miller – C Fabián – 3B Verdon – SS Luján – P Howard

Palacios tripled and Reece singled him in to make it 1-0 in the top 1st, but Farley surrendered hits to the first three Knights coming up and the game was re-tied. Farley didn’t stop there, plating the go-ahead run for the Knights a frame later with a throwing error. Bottom 3rd, Ware walked, Farley hit Rios, and Miller singled. Bases loaded, no outs. That the Knights scored only one run was down to a great catch by Gil Flores alone. Farley was completely overwhelmed and useless. Down 3-1, the Raccoons had three on and no outs in the top 4th on a Flores walk, Miller error, and Defrese single, but that put Farley up. With our continuously ravaged bullpen, it was not the wisest thing to do to hit for Farley – useless as he was – and so he batted, hitting a sac fly, and that was all the team got with Guerin hitting into a fielder’s choice and then getting picked off first. Farley, the empty bottle, was ravaged for five runs (four earned) in five innings, plunking two batters in total and put seven of nine left-handed batters on base. The grave was shoveled already. The Raccoons would put a number of runners on base in the sixth and seventh innings, but were both times held to one run, while the bullpen didn’t exactly pitch shutout ball, either. Guerin was caught stealing in the eighth, and the Raccoons went down. 6-4 Knights. Reece 2-5, 2B, RBI; Cavazos 2-4;

Game 2
POR: 2B Palacios – SS McLaughlin – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Cavazos – RF Kent – C Thomas – P Miranda
ATL: RF A. Rodriguez – 1B Ingall – LF Ware – CF G. Rios – 2B J. Miller – 3B Verdon – C A. Alvarez – SS Luján – P Movonda

In icky weather, the Coons handled their first chance for an error when Kent completely missed Rodriguez’ fly, and Marvin Ingall then homered against his old team to make it 2-0 right away. Miranda angrily struck out the next three batters, but the damage was done. The game went into rain delay even before the second inning was over, and stayed there for 45 minutes. Movonda was in trouble the next two innings, with great catches by Cavazos ending both frames with three men left on in total and nobody scoring. Through four against Movonda, the Coons had as many hits as errors (two), but after Movonda put a runner on, the Knights replaced him. The rain delay had gotten to him. An error by Antonio Luján would load the bags for the Raccoons with one out and Roberson coming to the plate against left-hander Sammy Davis. The Knights stayed with Davis, and paid for it with a 3-run triple off the rookie’s bat, who was then scored by Martin with a sac fly. Miranda didn’t make it through the fifth either, with Ingall’s leadoff triple knocking him out (and Ingall now had the hard part for the cycle done). Diaz made no attempt to prevent the run from scoring once he relieved Miranda, allowing a huge fly to deep left that Cavazos got, but Ingall scored anyway. Top 6th, 4-3 Furballs, Kent walked and Thomas singled with one out, and then Neil Reece put his lunch aside for a second to come up with a pinch-hit, bases-loading single off righty Jose Perez. Yet, nobody scored, Palacios popping out to short and McLaughlin flying out to Ware in left. After Marcos Bruno put runners on the corners with one out in the bottom 6th, but wiggled out, the Coons loaded the bags AGAIN in the seventh, this time against Francisco Gutierrez, and with NO outs. Cavazos hit a grounder over the bag that Luján even managed to keep in the infield, but had no play: RBI single; Kent then lined out to first and Thomas found a way to hit into a double play. In the top 8th, Guerin drew a pinch-walk, stole second, Palacios was put on intentionally, they swiped one in tandem, and THEN the Raccoons were held to a run driven in by Roberson once Martin hit into a double play. The Knights got a run off Miller in the bottom 8th, getting the score to 6-4, and Nordahl would face the top of the lineup in the bottom 9th, with three of the first four left-handed (and we know that Ingall is the righty). Nordahl got a good start on a foul pop by Rodriguez, and Ingall flew out to Kent, before he invariably walked Stephen Ware in front of slugger Gerardo Rios. Rios however hit another soft pop and Palacios ended the game before it could get ugly. 6-4 Critters. Roberson 2-4, BB, 3B, 4 RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Reece (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Sometimes you wish the Coons don’t load them up. Once they load them up, everything goes to the dump. Loading the bases three times in this game, the Raccoons plated a total of five runs after those instances, but it was down to Roberson’s clutch triple, the game winning hit, for 80% of that booty.

Of course, with a .367/.386/.646 slash line in 19 career games, Roberson is ridiculously over-performing. CL pitchers will figure him out before long.

Game 3 would not only be the rubber game for the series, but for the 2001 year between those two teams as well.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – 3B Sharp – RF Flores – C Thomas – P Brown
ATL: 3B Verdon – 1B Ingall – CF Ware – LF W. Taylor – 2B J. Miller – C Fabián – RF G. Rios – SS Pena – P Cutts

The Coons jumped onto Larry Cutts in the first inning, furiously, plating four runs on six hits, including a 2-run double by Roberson and an RBI double by Flores. Sadly, Brown was not up to the task. In still mucky weather, with light rain coming in by the second inning, and the Knights got two runs off Brown early, including a solo homer by Tony Pena in the second. The Knights hit for their starter with two on and two out in the bottom 4th, but Luján made the third out with a grounder to Palacios. Brown yielded another run in the fifth before the rain forced a delay that knocked him from the game. The Coons added a run in the sixth, trying to save Brown the W, but Wade gave it back in the seventh. The next inning, Wade got the leadoff man Fabián before Miguel Lopez came in to retire Rios. Pena then singled, and Flores botched the pickup in right. That extra base cost Brown the W when Nick Verdon singled home Pena to tie the score. Lopez then struck out Ingall for his 100th K of the year. The baseball gods had a good chuckle, and that went on into the ninth. Bruno pitched for the Raccoons, and Palacios misfielded Stephen Ware’s grounder to put the winning run for the Knights. Bruno, distraught, walked Taylor on four balls, and then Miller grounded up the middle. Guerin held on to it, bases loaded, no outs. The season series was decided on a full count walk drawn by Pedro Fabián. 6-5 Knights. Martin 2-4, 2B;

Lopez was booked for the blown save on an unearned run, and Bruno got the loss on an unearned run. Huzzah, defense! Remember when that was a strength of the team? This year, we are a shocking NINTH in defense. We used to have FIRST locked DOWN!

Brown struck out six in his five innings of so-so work. He whiffs ten per nine innings, but at the same time he gets hit so awfully hard. He does NOT walk people in excess, which was my biggest concern before bringing him up.

Raccoons (57-76) @ Titans (86-48) – August 30-September 2, 2001

Here comes another beating. 9-2 versus the obese trash pillagers, the Titans were looking forward to having an easy weekend. 640 runs scored, 423 allowed. Nothing good can happen in this series.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (9-11, 4.35 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (3-4, 2.69 ERA)
Ralph Ford (9-12, 4.16 ERA) vs. TBD
Randy Farley (6-10, 4.67 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (15-9, 3.26 ERA)
Cipriano Miranda (7-12, 3.67 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (19-8, 2.74 ERA)

The Titans had lost starter Steven Snyder the previous week and weren’t not quite sure how to finish out the month. I have no illusions. Even if they would somehow send a 44-year old Wally Gaston in there, the Raccoons would still lose.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – RF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – C Defrese – P Bean
BOS: SS D. Silva – CF Garrison – 3B Austin – RF J. Thomas – LF Kinnear – 1B H. Ramirez – C Manuel – 2B D. Mendez – P Hildred

The first six Titans in that lineup were all left-handed batters, except for the switch-hitter Josh Thomas. Hildred, a former Raccoon, was perfect through three innings, striking out four, and remained perfect until Roberson shoved a single into leftfield in the fifth, but was never moved past first base. Bean held the Titans off the board on a 2-hitter through five innings. In the top 6th, Guerin hit a 2-out double, stole third base, but Palacios couldn’t get the ball past Rudy Garrison after that. Josh Thomas then doubled home Garrison in the bottom 6th to score the first run of the game. Bean finished eight innings, not allowing another run, and the Raccoons just couldn’t solve Hildred! And he remained in the game for the ninth, facing Jason Kent first up as he hit for Bean. Kent struck out, but the Titans now made a switch and went to closer John Bennett, who walked Concie. It was dodgy as all hell, but Concie had to run – and was thrown out. 1-0 Titans. Bean 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (9-12);

Mellow.

Chris Parker came off the DL at the most inopportune time right now. As much as I hated to demote Chris Roberson again, it was our only option right now, since the scrubs on the roster were either rule 5 picks or out of options, and while I don’t particularly care for Brent McLaughlin, the Raccoons are in no spot to shun even the most marginal talent.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – C M. Thomas – RF Kent – P Ford
BOS: CF L. Alonso – 3B V. Flores – RF J. Thomas – LF Garrison – C Manuel – SS D. Silva – 1B Walker – 2B D. Mendez – P Bautista

The Titans did the wise thing, moving up Bautista rather than sent a spot starter or call up someone early to take Snyder’s start. Hildred had sat down the first 13 Critters the night before, Bautista merely made it through a dozen, and then was taken deep by Albert Martin to lead off the fifth inning, breaking the scoreless tie with his 23rd shot of the season. Cavazos then doubled and was eventually scored on a Thomas groundout, 2-0. In the bottom of the inning, Ford gave up his third hit of the day to leadoff man Daniel Silva, a double into the corner in right. Silva was on third with one out and Mendez batting, and the cocky bastard went to steal home – but Thomas launched into him and tagged him out. It cost the Titans a run as Mendez grounded out to the second base side of short, which would have been enough to score Silva easily. The Titans then had runners on the corners with one out in the sixth – and AGAIN ran themselves out! Victor Flores went for second base, was safe, but overslid the back and was tagged out by Palacios on the second try! Ford then struck out Josh Thomas to exit the sixth, still up 2-0. The next inning, Silva would eventually steal one (his 28th of the year), but was left on base. We got an insurance run in the eighth to bring the score to 3-0. Bottom 9th, Ford was on 105 pitches, and we faced the 3-4-5 batters. If going to Nordahl, that would mean two left-handers with power AND a good eye, and struggling as the kid was, I was tempted to stay with the kid who had not allowed a run in eight innings today. Ralph Ford, our only chance to present a double-digit winner before September would hit us like a truck, walked Josh Thomas, his first walk on the day. Okay, plan change. Have Ford work the left-hander Garrison, and then bring Nordahl. The first pitch was high and a ball, but Thomas shot up and fired to first AND THEY PICKED OFF JOSH THOMAS!!! Ford however walked Garrison and we made the move. Manuel grounded into a fielder’s choice, and Luis Lopez pinch-hit for the pitcher in Silva’s vacated slot. I was happy to see Silva gone, but Nordahl walked Lopez on four pitches. Vern Kinnear was next, and he had already hit a game-winning grand slam against Coon City this month. Yet, he could technically not *win* the game right now – he was the tying run. And he walked. At that point, there was no faith left in Nordahl, and Daniel Miller was brought into the game. Three on, two outs, David Mendez batting, a right-hander, with little power, Miller struck him out. 3-0 Coons. Cavazos 2-4, 3B, 2B; Ford 8.1 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (10-12) and 1-3, 2B; Miller 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, IR 3-0, SV (14);

No walks through eight. Four walks in the ninth.

Last year, Grant West went to the Hall of Fame. Can we still get him back? Six years after he lost his effectiveness, we still have not found a reliever capable of dealing with the ninth for more than a month or two.

Rosters expanded halfway through this series. The last two years our AAA team made the playoffs, but this year, they are already eliminated, as are all of our minor league clubs. For this reason we had not called up many players in the last two years, but we dug deep this time, as we added four position players in Gary Fifield, Manny Gabriel, Miguel Ramirez, and Chris Roberson (obviously), as well as a few relievers in Bob Joly, Pedro Perez, and Sergio Vega.

Perez would try to lower that 60-something ERA he had right now, while Vega was added to the 40-man roster for the first time. This 21-year old right-hander had been among the swath of early picks in the 1998 draft, taken 67th overall then, threw 100 miles an hour, and had a changeup and a slider to complement the heat.

Chris Beairsto was not called up, batting .212 in AAA, albeit with 12 homers.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – 3B Sharp – RF Cavazos – C M. Thomas – P Farley
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B H. Ramirez – 3B Austin – RF G. Munoz – LF J. Thomas – C L. Lopez – CF Elizondo – 2B D. Mendez – P O’Halloran

Like the day before, the Critters scored first, and again on a home run, this time with Mark Thomas doing the honors in the third inning. They added another run in the inning, Reece singling in Concie, and Farley was un-hit against through three innings. That changed in the bottom 4th with Hector Ramirez’ starting the frame with a single, but he would be erased on a double play hit into by Mark Austin. However, there was not only one Thomas in the game, and the other Thomas longed to hit a long one as well. He did so in the fifth, pulling the Titans back to 2-1. The Coons put a few men on in the following innings, but never got to third base, and Martin killed two on, one out with a double play in the eighth. Farley surrendered two right-handers in the bottom 8th before we went to Diaz with Daniel Silva due up. Diaz got him to pop out to left, but the Raccoons still couldn’t tack on a run. Nordahl came into the 2-1 game with Farley looking worried from the dugout. Christian Greenman hit for Hector Ramirez, grounded out to short, and Austin and Munoz both grounded out to Palacios. Farley finally exhaled. 2-1 Coons. Reece 3-4, RBI; Farley 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (7-10) and 1-3;

The Titans and Crusaders flipped fringe players that night, with Steven Walker, batting .267, going to New York for MR Nick Lee (1-2, 2.60 ERA, 2 SV).

Game 4
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Cavazos – C Thomas – RF Kent – 2B Gabriel – P Miranda
BOS: SS D. Silva – CF Garrison – 3B Austin – LF J. Thomas – C L. Lopez – 1B H. Ramirez – RF Elizondo – 2B D. Mendez – P J. Sanchez

Juan Sanchez (11-6, 2.38 ERA) was no slouch compared to an O’Halloran or a Bautista, as the teams prepared for game 4, with only seven runs total being scored in the series so far.

Daniel Silva made the Raccoons pay for their disrespectful behavior the last two days. He got on and stole a base in the first inning, but was left on. In the third however, he had Mendez on base and homered to right center to put up the first runs of the game. While the Titans removed Sanchez, who started on short rest, after only four innings (!?), our battery had a real horrible day. Through four innings, there were three runs on Miranda, and three stolen bases on Thomas, depressing his CS% all the way to 24%. Miranda was knocked out in the fifth inning, being charged with another run, and had issued an uncharacteristic four walks, but this was to a lineup with just two right-handed batters. The Raccoons finally came to a run in the sixth, but once they loaded the bases against Orlando Blanco (that sucker), Sharp popped out to short to strand the triplet. The Coons got another run off Blanco in the seventh and Pedro Perez pitched a scoreless bottom of the inning. After a silent eighth we face Bennett in the top 9th, and Neil Reece hit a 1-out double to bring the tying run to the plate in Martin, who countered the righty on the mound. Martin got to three balls before grounding out, and then Cavazos couldn’t hit the ball out of the infield either. 4-2 Titans. Guerin 2-4, RBI; Reece 3-5, 2B; Cavazos 3-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI;

This was a stinking loss. We had 11 hits, they had six. Both teams walked five batters. So, why did we lose? 14 men left on base. So, this display of hitting-yet-not-hitting puts us at 4-11 against the Titans this year, which are more losses against them than every season since 1994, when we lost the series 4-14. Well, still time to get there. At least we avoided tying our all time worst season against a CL North team, 3-15 against the Crusaders in 1978.

In other news

The weather in Portland was nice. Mostly cloudy on Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures going up to 68°F, the sun really came out on Wednesday, when it got to 76°F, and then all the way up to 84°F on Saturday, September 1. With the Coons heading back home, we expect rain on Tuesday, with a few lightning strikes mixed in, and 48°F on Thursday, with the weekend having a 75% chance of hail, sleet, and snowdrifts at 18 to 25°F.

Complaints and stuff

I’m dumb as all hell. Can anyone explain to me why I didn’t assign Parker to rehab rather than demote Roberson pointlessly? No wonder this team is so fudged up – they have a GM whose brain consists of nothing but farts.

Last week I mentioned how hot Neil Reece was.
Last week: .391/.440/.565 with 1 HR, 5 RBI
This week: .360/.360/.440 with 0 HR, 3 RBI
Somehow, slapping mostly singles, it seems you’re cold. Odd. It felt like he had a .210 week. But as we established five lines further up, I’m dumb as all hell.

Nick Brown: 23.1 IP, 26 H, 14 ER, 4 HR, 11 BB, 28 K; the BABIP is .393, which indicates a defense being in trouble, and a pitcher being unfairly beaten up repeatedly. He has yet to win a major league start (remember his win came in relief in one of those 15-inning games). But boy, do I like the K/9 number: 10.8;

Brown will be shut down after two or three more starts. He only has pitched 161 innings, but he is coming off injury, and I also want to preserve him for a full rookie campaign next year. Miguel Lopez can easily take over the slot again.

Remember the slow start Milwaukee’s Martin Garcia, twice-defending Triple Crown winner, had? Well, he is in the picture! Two wins, seven strikeouts, and the twentieth part of a run off the pace.

One word on contracts and money. We currently have less than $600k for extensions. We only have three free agents, which includes Pancho Gutierrez, who will certainly receive no offer. Then there’s Scott Wade, who looks done to me, and Cipriano Miranda, whose record doesn’t say all about his performance. However, between him and Bean and Farley, I’d prefer to lock up the latter two, with all their shortcomings. Miguel Lopez is under contract for one more year, and we’re going to have Nick Brown in the rotation, as well as Ford, who will not accumulate enough service time to be a super-2 arbitration case. In short, we have Ford, Brown, Lopez, and two out of Bean, Farley, and Miranda. The former two are arbitration eligible, however, so Miranda looks like he’s out. Lopez doesn’t look tradable to me.

At the current estimates, which are obviously wonky, Bean and Farley might come a combined $200k more expensive than this year, but we also have to consider this flush of players that are arbitration eligible: Palacios AND Guerin AND Cavazos AND Brady! (And Gil Flores, too.) We have a few promising young outfielders, with Roberson, and Edgardo Torrez, and of course Beairsto. So you might want to go for your infielders and pitchers first, and Concie might be the most important of all of them.

But try to extend all of those seven (Bean, Farley, and the five position players), you’re easily down by another million, which is a million we don’t have. So we WILL take losses AGAIN this fall.

What a familiar melody …