[Westheim]

There were no good news to start the week. Kenichi Watanabe had (FINALLY) been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation. No structural damage, but he will have to be shut down completely for months, and might even be out for the remainder of the season. That put a significant crimp into our plans to just run away with a 120-win season…

For starters, there were no desirable starters in AAA for the suddenly opened spot for Monday’s game in Richmond. With that, the start was given to Kaz, who was rested, not having pitched since first replacing Watanabe on Wednesday, earning the win with 4 2/3 shutout innings. After that, I am looking at Cássio Boda to be called up. Boda is 7-3 with a 3.70 ERA in AAA, and our other promising prospect, Brandon Teasdale (5-3, 4.15 ERA), is having an almost one-for-one approach to walks and strikeouts, which certainly would not improve in the Bigs just yet. There are also old bones in Rhett Carpenter (2-3, 2.70 ERA) and Tim Webster (2-7, 5.19 ERA) strewn around, another prospect who had dropped off the radar in recent years in Cesar Lopez (3-5, 5.09 ERA) and a semi-decent swing man in Salvador Cardona (2-0, 0.90 ERA in 7 G, 2 GS) in AAA. In AA, there’s Pat Composto with a 5-3, 1.95 ERA mark, but we’re not madly desperate right now. Boda will do for the moment, and should get the call in time for perhaps the Friday game.

Before that, we issued a callup to Sergio Vega, bouncing between St. Pete and Portland, bullpen and rotation since 2002. He was 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA in just 11 innings in AAA this year. Ryan Miller was called up to take the spot of Flores. Miller was .289/.330/.399 with three homers in AAA. And that decision was not only made with much less words, but also much less pains.

Raccoons (46-16) @ Rebels (23-39) – June 11-13, 2007

The Rebels ranked last in runs scored while the Raccoons had made it to eighth in their league, while their pitching wasn’t all that bad at all, ranking sixth in runs allowed with a decent rotation but a fatally porous bullpen that ranked last in the league with a 4.09 ERA.

The Rebels are the single-worst opponent for the Raccoons in history, beating them up 25-8 over 11 matchups. We have been swept in the last three interleague series against them and haven’t won a series with the Rebels since our last championship season in 1993…

Projected matchups:
Kazuhiko Kichida (3-1, 0.56 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (3-6, 5.25 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-3, 3.07 ERA) vs. Johnny Collins (3-6, 3.38 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (8-0, 1.97 ERA) vs. William Raven (2-1, 3.33 ERA)

That’s all right-handers. I guess, the point of trying to give Vic Flores a day off is mute now, but Daniel Sharp has not had an off day, as has Castro.

Game 1
POR: LF Crespo – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Black – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – 3B M. Gutierrez – CF Trevino – P Kichida
RIC: CF MacNamara – LF J. Garcia – 1B G. Rios – C B. Campbell – RF J. Thomas – SS Luján – 3B N. Chavez – 2B Moultrie – P Kirkland

Kaz had a bit of a traffic problem in the first innings, requiring rescue by the double play in both of the first two innings, while Kirkland had early success with strikeouts, but in the fourth allowed a double to Ryan Miller, who then scored on Yoshi’s single for the first run of the game. That was about all the Raccoons managed to do against Kirkland, and also about all the balls they actually managed to hit out of the infield. Flores missing everywhere. Kaz had a strange game, pitching into the seventh inning without striking out anybody, ever. The Rebels tied the game soon after they fell behind, and in the bottom 7th they hit three singles off Kichida, with pinch-hitter Dan Franklin delivering the go-ahead RBI single. Ed Bryan replaced Kaz with two outs, allowed a deep drive to center to Julio Garcia, but Trevino made the play to end the frame. Kirkland had been hit for by Franklin, and three relievers cobbled together the eighth inning for them. In the ninth we faced Matt Ruffin, not a bad closer at all, with one run to make up. Gutierrez struck out. Bob Mays hit for Trevino and flew out to center. Tomas Castro then hit for Cody Bryant, who had gotten the last out in the eighth, and fired the second pitch he got to right. High, deep, outta here!! We went to extras, with Ruffin axing down Quebell and Bowen before Luke Black made him give up two 2-out solo homers in the game, this one giving the Critters a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning it was Angel then, pitching for the third straight day, and four out of five, but we had no other option readily available. So Angel had been around the last few days, and it really showed. He struck out Willie Davenport to start the inning before Garcia was only retired on a deep fly to left. Gerardo Rios singled, and Ramón Olivares walked. Josh Thomas launched a shot to deep center, where Crespo was playing. Will he – … Will it …? He caught it! 3-2 Raccoons!! Nomura 2-4, RBI; Castro (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Kichida 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K;

Offensively, this was not a good game, but it was enough for the tenth straight win for the team! Actually, that’s two 10+ winning streaks separated by a single loss, so you can figure out how we’ve been for the last few weeks.

Sergio Vega got the win in this game, pitching a scoreless ninth.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – 2B Sato – P Brown
RIC: CF MacNamara – 2B Moultrie – RF G. Rios – C B. Campbell – 1B Griffin – SS Luján – LF J. Thomas – 3B N. Chavez – P J. Collins

Three runs were scored in the second inning, and all were unearned. First the Raccoons took a lead on an error by Antonio Luján that put Luke Black on base in the top half. He would score on a groundout by Ryan Miller. In the bottom of the inning it was then Sharp to commit his tenth error of the year, allowing Luján to reach, before Josh Thomas obliterated a Brown pitch for a colossal 2-run homer. The score remained as such, 2-1 Rebels, into the sixth when the Raccoons had nobody on with two outs, but then put up some 2-out terror with a Bowen double, Miller RBI single, and Trevino RBI double to take the lead, 3-2. Brown delivered a shutdown sixth, and was on his way through the seventh with two outs and nobody on, when Sato threw away Nelson Chavez’ grounder. Dan Franklin played pinch-hitting spoiler like the night before and singled in the runner, which made it a 3-3 game, and no run against Brownie was earned. He completed eight in a tie before Crespo hit for him against Alonso Villegas to get the ninth inning underway and whacked a triple to center! Castro singled to shallow center to put the Coons ahead for the third time on the day, but it was also all they got in the inning, and there was no way that Angel would try to save this one. The bullpen coach had to sit on his back to keep him from storming onto the field. Facing a mix of all types of batters, we went with the best remaining option, Law Rockburn. Lefty Daron Griffin flew out on the first pitch, Trevino making an easy catch. The righty Antonio Luján struck out, but Rockburn walked switch-hitter Josh Thomas, bringing up another switch-hitter in Nelson Chavez, and he walked, too, which was highly unusual for Rockburn, who had issued only three walks in 30.1 innings so far. Ramón Olivares hit for the pitcher, a right-hander, so we would not go to Bryan. Olivares grounded to short, Miller had it, to first, ballgame. 4-3 Brownies! Quebell 2-5; Crespo (PH) 1-1, 3B; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (7-3) and 1-3;

Funny how Daniel Sharp has always had a good stick with a hole in the glove, except last year, when he didn’t even make a handful of errors, but couldn’t bat a lick.

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – CF Crespo – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Yates
RIC: SS Luján – CF J. Garcia – 1B Griffin – LF G. Rios – C B. Campbell – RF J. Thomas – 2B Moultrie – 3B N. Chavez – P Cabrera

We got a look at right-hander Jesus Cabrera (2-4, 4.14 ERA) in the final game of the set, as Kel was trying to defend an 11-game winning streak.

A Garcia double and Gerardo Rios’ single gave the Rebels a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Raccoons came right back in the top of the second. Starting with Crespo, they hit three singles to get going, already tying it up, and then Nomura doubled for the go-ahead run to score. From here it was all walks and strikeouts to the end of the inning, with Castro and Quebell drawing the former to push in another run, 3-1. This was never a secure lead since Yates allowed quite a lot of contact, and exploded in shame in the bottom 4th when Nelson Chavez and the pitcher Cabrera hit back-to-back homers to re-knot the score. The score was still tied at three when Yates was hit for to start the top 7th. Despite the rocky outing and the depressing home runs, he had struck out eleven almost casually, but had thrown over 100 pitches in an overall uneasy outing. Sato hit for him and walked, which led to Cabrera’s removal. Lefty Aurelio Hernandez had nothing better to do than to walk the bases full with one out, facing Black, who grounded the first pitch to short for a two-for-one, another depressing moment.

Nomura grounded to short with runners on the corners and one out in the eighth, but managed to stay out of the double play, and Crespo scored on the play to break the tie. That put Vega in line for the win again after pitching the bottom 7th, but he would not get it this time. Ward Jackson faced only two batters in the bottom 8th, walked Rios, and Adam Riddle gave up a 2-out RBI double to Davenport to get the game tied. The Rebels didn’t stop there, hitting two more singles off Riddle to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom 9th against lefty Sammy Davis, Quebell’s leadoff single gave the Furballs a chance. Quebell moved up on Sharp’s groundout, then to third when Davis uncorked a wild one! But Black struck out, and Crespo struck out, too, and that ended the Raccoons’ 11-game winning streak. 5-4 Rebels. Quebell 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Crespo 2-5, 2B; Miller 2-3, BB, RBI; Mays (PH) 1-1;

Well, that was just bad pitching. Kel brought it on himself. While Nelson Chavez is a good player that shouldn’t be hidden in the #8 hole, you never ever allow a homer to the opposing pitcher. It’s bad taste! The relief performance was outrageously terrible!

In preparation for the weekend series, Cody Bryant was demoted back to St. Petersburg, while we kept Sergio Vega after two good innings around for some more select use until we good improve ourselves.

In turn, Cássio Boda was called up to make his major league debut. This 24-year old Venezuelan right-hander mixes five pitches together, a 98mph heater, a changeup, a splitter, a fork, and a circle change. His control is decent, but he tends to hang all kinds of pitches from his arsenal, leading to more fly balls than you would like to see. He was an 11th rounder taken by the Buffaloes in the 2001 draft, was released in 2002 and picked up by the Titans, who packaged him up with J.C. Crespo and Ricardo Martinez (still at AAA) for Al Martin and a farmhand.

There was another thing developing in that Daniel Sharp came down violently sick and was unavailable as we opened the weekend set with the Loggers in Milwaukee.

Trade

With Marcos Bruno still out for another month, we made a move to shore up our bullpen a bit. On Friday the Raccoons thus acquired 37-year old MR John Bennett (2-0, 1.77 ERA) from the Titans. This cost us 3B/1B Juan Gusmán (the waiver claim that started the season on the roster, but never appeared in a game before Kunimatsu Sato signed), plus former third round pick Ed Caldwell and an international signing in INF/RF Carlos Miranda, both in A ball.

Caldwell is still destined for great things, according to scouts around the nation, but he is batting for a .545 OPS in A ball this year, going hard on his 21st birthday. We have other outfield prospects down there that deserve priority (Jimmy Oakweeds, anyone?), and if it bites us down the road, well, that’s baseball. We are living for this season now.

Bennett has spent his entire 16-year career in the CL North with the Loggers and Titans. He has 337 career saves, leading the league in the category four times, and a 3.01 career ERA. He will be a free agent at the end of the year, and will cost us half of our remaining budget space to put him into a 7th/8th inning role for the last 3 1/2 months (plus).

Bennett would not be on the roster for the opener in Milwaukee, but would replace Sergio Vega for Saturday.

Raccoons (48-17) @ Loggers (29-37) – June 15-17, 2007

The Loggers were last in the division, and 10th in runs scored and 9th in runs allowed in the Continental League. Their rotation was actually average. We were 3-1 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (0-0) vs. Junior Diaz (4-4, 4.12 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (6-1, 3.46 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (7-3, 4.11 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-4, 4.76 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (3-6, 4.55 ERA)

The eternal Martin Garcia will be the only southpaw on tap in this series, unless they shove Fernando Cruz (3-4, 4.75 ERA) into the series after skipping him midweek.

With Daniel Sharp unexpectedly hitting the bed, we put Ryan Miller on third base as an emergency measure. Miller has no professional experience at the hot corner. We’re doing a lot of emergency stuff right now with injuries and illnesses mounting quickly…

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B R. Miller – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – P Boda
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – C J. Reyes – LF J. Garcia – 2B Clemente – P J. Diaz

Miller got the first defensive chance of the game for the Raccoons, a hard grounder by Bartolo Hernandez, and handled it well. Boda struck out two, including Bakile Hiwalani, in his first inning in the Bigs, a wonderful introduction. Cássio hit an RBI single in the top 2nd, scoring Nomura, who had clobbered a bases-clearing double for a quick 3-0 lead just ahead of Boda, and Junior Diaz was deconstructed for half a dozen in the inning once Quebell hit a 2-out, 2-run double. Boda would hit singles his next two times up as well, driving in the seventh run of the game in the third inning, also knocking out Diaz in the process, and pitched competently enough to not allow the Loggers back into the game, which would have been hard to achieve for a single pitcher, since the Raccoons kept piling on and reached double digits in the sixth inning. The Loggers got onto the board in the bottom 6th in the most ridiculous manner, though. Reliever Wes Gardner homered to center off Boda, who looked after that rocket with a charming mix of amusement and disgust. Cássio went into the ninth but left the game after a leadoff walk to Aaron Tolwith. The Loggers brought Tolwith and Chris Parker into scoring position on the latter’s double (on which he also hurt himself), but Sergio Vega ended the game before Boda’s line could be tainted beyond the ridiculous homer. 11-1 Raccoons! Castro 2-6; Miller 2-5, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Nomura 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 5 RBI; Boda 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0) and 3-5, 2 RBI;

Vega boarded a plane to Florida right after the game and we added John Bennett to the roster. Daniel Sharp was still unavailable.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B R. Miller – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Fuentes
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – LF Wheaton – 1B C. Parker – 2B M. Clark – C T. Phillips – P F. Cruz

Cruz was moved into this middle game, which turned out to be a splendid decision by the Loggers. The Raccoons loaded the bases, but didn’t score in the first inning, and after that were largely absent. Bakile Hiwalani, silenced completely by Boda on Friday, drove in the first run of the game in the bottom 3rd, the first of back-to-back RBI base hits between him and Dave Wheaton that put the Loggers up 2-0. The Raccoons had Crespo thrown out at home on a Quebell double to end the fifth, and the Raccoons would fall short and strand two men in both of the next two innings, with Yoshi Nomura driving in a run in the sixth to get to 2-1.

The Loggers then attempted to lose the game without Raccoons hitting in the clutch. Tolwith made an error to start the top 8th, putting on Miller, and then Sato walked against Micah Steele. Leonardo Gonzalez replaced him, a left-hander, got two 2-2 on Yoshi, but eventually surrendered a single up the middle and into center. That ball was hit too hard, however, and Miller had no chance to score on Tim Austin. So, bases loaded with no outs and one run to make up, while the Loggers changed pitchers again and brought a right-hander in Dave Walk. And then the Bobos struck. Bobo Wood hit into a double play, home and first, and Bobo Mays made the third out to first base, and completed four consecutive innings of stranding two men on base in the ninth when a Castro single and Quebell walk was wildly not enough to beat Gabe Garcia. 2-1 Loggers. Castro 3-5; Quebell 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Nomura 3-4, RBI; Fuentes 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (6-2);

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – CF Crespo – 3B Sharp – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Dominguez
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – LF C. Parker – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Wheaton – C J. Reyes – 3B Tolwith – 2B K. Scott – P M. Garcia

Martin Garcia was on, and Jose Dominguez was not, that was the short version of the report for the rubber game. The Raccoons had Crespo reach on an uncaught third strike in the first inning, rounded up in a Sharp double play, and then nobody until a soft single by Quebell in the fifth. By then Dominguez had been socked well already. He would not get out of the fifth inning, trailing 4-0 with two men on base. Ward Jackson got a fly to left from Wheaton that Castro had run quite a bit for, but caught it to end the inning. Miller and Mays went down silently in the sixth before Castro snipped a single to right. Then Crespo singled. Sharp singled, and Castro scored. Duke Smack appeared as the tying run, hacked once, hacked twice, mashed on the third try, a wonderful comet to leftfield, and a line drive home run!!

While Garcia looked a bit shaken, understandably, the Raccoons went to Kaz in the bottom 6th, who retired absolutely nobody, but allowed two doubles and a walk. Law Rockburn actually managed to successfully clean up that steaming mess with only the one run scoring that had already been across, and the Loggers left the bases loaded with one cautious walk issued to Parker. Garcia, vying for career win #292, did not return, with Eric Fontenot taking over. He put Bowen on in the seventh, but Miller managed to hit into a double play before we could even set up a chance. The score was still 5-4 in the ninth when he were confronted with Gabe Garcia again, and Sharp was the first Furball up. This time around, Garcia didn’t fuss around for long. Sharp popped out to short, and then Garcia fireballed Black and Quebell back to the dugout. 5-4 Loggers. Black 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

We lost back-to-back games for the first time since May 1-2 in Vancouver. Conincidentally, that was also our last series loss, a 3-game sweep we had suffered in the cold, harsh North. Since then, the Critters had won 33 of 37 (or 32 of 35 prior to the loss on the way out of Richmond).

In other news

June 11 – OCT LF Victorino Sanchez (.340, 5 HR, 33 RBI) lands his 2,000th career hit, a sixth inning single off the Wolves’ Mark Jones in an 8-1 win for the Thunder. Impressively, he is only 28 years old and has won five batting titles already. Should the baseball gods decide to keep him healthy, he might not be content with only becoming the ABL’s career hits champions eventually, but might aim for the big four-triple-oh. Sanchez was signed out of Mexico by the Capitals in 1995 and made his debut at the tender age of 17.
June 11 – The Thunder acquire 1B/2B Kurt Metting (.276, 3 HR, 25 RBI) from the Blue Sox in exchange for 1B Roberto Vargas (.253, 2 HR, 10 RBI).
June 12 – Tests reveal a fracture in SAC SP Jorge Gine’s (4-4, 5.75 ERA) pitching elbow. Gine is out for the season.
June 14 – IND LF/RF Ron Alston (.391, 8 HR, 24 RBI in 87 AB) keeps having the year from hell and has now been placed on the DL for the third time with a broken wrist. He will be out for two to three months.
June 14 – TIJ SP Manuel Pineda (1-3, 7.52 ERA) has been diagnosed with a torn labrum, ending his season.
June 14 – The Condors deal OF Jesus Alvarez (.263, 5 HR, 19 RBI) to the Blue Sox for a prospect.
June 15 – As players keep going down to injury, BOS INF Bruce Boyle (.261, 6 HR, 32 RBI) will miss up to two months with a hamstring strain.
June 15 – The Wolves deal CL Aurelio Garcia (3-5, 4.11 ERA, 17 SV) to the Gold Sox, receiving five prospects in return, and SP Steve Rogers (6-2, 2.09 ERA) to the Falcons for veteran INF Bob Grant (.284, 1 HR, 20 RBI) and another prospect, #64 SP Micah McIntyre.
June 17 – Indy’s C Jose Paraz (.287, 6 HR, 34 RBI) signs a 5-yr, $15.2M extension.

Complaints and stuff

I thought Boda would be the 400th player to ever wear the brown shirt, but I apparently miscounted and the honors went to Ward Jackson already. Oh well, welcome #401.

Miller, Sato, Nomura, Gutierrez … that surviving middle infield is not very pounding. Where have you gone, Victor Flo-ho-res …?

Flores and Bruno are both still at least three weeks away from returning to the squad, so we have to keep patching things. But Matt Pruitt resumed baseball activities on Saturday, and we should bring him up in a few days.

Oh, and the team would have to play .330 from here on to manage a losing season. No-nonono, no boys! This is not supposed to be a challenge!!