[Westheim]

The Raccoons spent Monday travelling home, plus dumping Bill Conway onto a truck transporting livestock to Alabama, and he’d have to find his way to St. Petersburg from there, and getting Richard Williams out of DFA limbo and onto the major league club. He would take over Conway’s spot in the rotation, so his turn wouldn’t actually come up until the weekend.

Raccoons (55-45) vs. Thunder (70-25) – July 24-26, 2012

The badass Thunder were badass, which was really all there was to say about them. They were first in basically everything in the CL, except homers (7th) and stolen bases (10th), and their pitchers weren’t exactly masters of the strikeout (10th), but it was REALLY hard to poke holes into what they had. They had posted .720 marks or better EVERY month this season. They were actually struggling right now, coming in with just a .700 clip in their last ten games… They had swept the Raccoons aside with little ado in the team’s first meeting of the season.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (8-7, 3.76 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (10-5, 4.26 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-5, 2.70 ERA) vs. Edgar Amador (9-2, 2.87 ERA)
Shunyo Yano (3-8, 5.10 ERA) vs. Bob King (13-3, 2.00 ERA)

We miss their left-hander, Ed Michaels, who’s also the weakest link in their rotation. These are all righties, and Brownie will get to face the Fat Cat on Wednesday. Amador by now has blossomed up to 315 pounds, but apparently he gets the job done.

John Alexander was out for a few days with forearm stiffness. We were expecting him back on the weekend. Plus, by the weekend Michael Palmer and Sandy Sambrano should be able to start rehab assignments in St. Petersburg. Piecing this thing back together!

Game 1
OCT: 2B Farias – 1B J. Roberts – 3B D. McCormick – RF Reese – CF Matthews – C J. Martinez – SS Janes – LF A. Rodriguez – P Dickerson
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – RF Ayers – SS Whitehouse – P Santos

The Raccoons weren’t going to break out of their hitting slump in this series, that was painfully obvious early on. After three scoreless innings to start this affair, both teams put their first two batters on in the fourth. But while Tom Reese crashed a monumental 435-foot homer to put the Thunder 3-0 ahead, Jon Merritt for the Coons hit into a double play and D-Alex struck out to keep it 3-0. One inning earlier, Santos had bunted into a force of Whitehouse at second base. When Dickerson chipped a bunt back to him in the fifth, Santos tried to return the favor, didn’t retire anybody, but generated an unpleasant 2 on, no outs situation instead. The unstoppable Thunder put two more on him in the inning, with Tom Reese hitting a 2-out, 2-run single, and that was about it for Santos, except for the leadoff single to Jesus Martinez he conceded in the sixth. Thrasher came in and conceded the run in the most stupid way imaginable – as always – with a 2-out single on a 2-2 pitch by Daniel Dickerson, who quite definitely shut out the Raccoons on six hits in this opener. 6-0 Thunder. Pruitt 3-4; Quebell 2-4;

Well, that was a stinker. Their lineup actually tilts to the left, so this should give Nick Brown an easier time. But he still needs to hit a homer, too, to get a W here. A shutout alone won’t do… (Career home runs for Nick Brown: zero)

He would not face the Fat Cat, however, as the Thunder jumbled their rotation and sent William Raven (8-5, 3.54 ERA) instead.

Game 2
OCT: 2B Farias – C J. Martinez – CF Reese – RF M. Cruz – 3B D. McCormick – SS Janes – 1B J. Roberts – LF Matthews – P Raven
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF Carmona – SS M. Gutierrez – RF Fucito – P Brown

Brownie melted away in the first inning, however, starting with a Jesus Martinez singled before he walked two and drilled Erik Janes to force in a run before Jimmy Roberts flew out to center on a 3-1 pitch, which was a pretty dumb thing to do. The Coons also had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the inning, but Craig Bowen hit into a double play and that was that. Another bases loaded event was kindly sponsored by an error by Dave McCormick in the bottom 2nd. Gutierrez (infield single) and Brown (outfield single) had actual base hits, but the Raccoons were held to a sac fly by Yoshi Nomura.

Meanwhile the roster decimation for the Critters continued. Jon Merritt made a leaping grab in the third inning, came down awkwardly and appeared to roll his ankle. He limped off, leaving for Roudabush to take over…

In the fourth, Yoshi made an error to put the leadoff man Erik Janes on base. William Raven singled with two outs, his second hit off Nick Brown’s pitching-inept look-alike, but somehow he made it through another inning, then actually got a lead, 2-1, when Yoshi homered with two outs in the bottom of the inning. Alas, the lead didn’t last, which gets us back to the inept look-alike. Brown walked Tom Reese in the fifth, Manny Cruz hit a single, and then Brown hit consecutive batters to force in the tying run. He somehow escaped with two strikeouts to Roberts and Jeffrey Matthews, but only got one more out before he was finally chased in the sixth. Lawrence Rockburn inherited Emilio Farias on first base and made sure to get the Thunder in front with two hard hits to Martinez and Reese, putting the Raccoons 4-2 down. Keith Ayers came close to a pinch-hit 2-run homer in the bottom 7th, which would have tied the game, but “close” is no “cigar”, and the Raccoons eventually went down without a threat again. 4-2 Thunder. Quebell 2-3, BB; Gutierrez 2-4;

But at least Manobu Sugano hit another batter in the ninth – four hit batters, all by left-handed pitchers, has got to be a team record, but I’m too sad to look it up.

Jon Merritt’s ankle was no big deal after icing it overnight, and he was only lightly hobbled by Thursday morning, but that was not 100%. He was listed as DTD and would not be in the lineup for the last game of the set, and we’d see how things were on Friday. John Alexander however reported back to his unit and was back in the lineup for game three.

Game 3
OCT: 2B Farias – 1B J. Roberts – 3B D. McCormick – RF Reese – CF Matthews – C J. Martinez – SS Janes – LF V. Diaz – P E. Amador
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – SS Whitehouse – C D. Alexander – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Yano

The first inning saw some more of that slasher movie RISP hitting for the Coons, who had Yoshi and Carmona on to start their inning, and then had Pruitt fly out softly to left, Quebell popped to short, and Alexander flew out gingerly to shallow center. Erik Janes bombed Yano for a solo jack in the top 2nd, but at least got a bunt down in the bottom 2nd to shove Dylan Alexander and Gutierrez into scoring position with two outs. At this point, “Fat Cat” Amador had the game take a turn for the worse in an intensity that was normally reserved for current Raccoons pitchers, and not former graduates. Yoshi hit a soaring floater to right, not deep, but right at the line, and it actually dinked right ONTO the line and got past a tumbling Tom Reese. The ball dinked off the wall in front of the stands and stayed away from either Reese or Matthews for long enough to give Nomura a 2-run double. Carmona singled, moving him to third, and when Carmona took off to steal second base, Martinez unleashed a horrible throw into centerfield, allowing Yoshi to score and sending Carmona to third, from where Pruitt drove him in with a bloop single to center. Yano now had a 4-1 lead, although it was obvious for anyone that three runs weren’t enough. He walked Tom Reese to start the fourth and Reese scored right away on Matthews’ double, and a 2-run shot by Jimmy Roberts in the fifth got the teams even.

While Yano lasted the longest out of all starters in the series, six innings, he had still further expanded his ERA. His spot in the order came up in the bottom 6th, with the Coons having D-Alex on second with a walk, Gutierrez on first with a single, and nobody out. Jon Merritt grabbed a bat, hit into a double play, and Yoshi could barely salvage one run with a single up the middle, giving Yano a posthumous 5-4 lead, which nevertheless didn’t survive contact with Rockburn in the seventh inning. The Thunder took the lead before they made an out, with Manny Cruz and Emilio Farias hitting singles, Rockburn balking, then conceding the runs on another single by Jimmy Roberts. Reese got on – as always – and then a 3-run homer by Martinez cut Rockburn open top-to-bottom and also moved this game well out of the reach of a terrible team. 10-5 Thunder. Nomura 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Carmona 2-5; Gutierrez 2-4;

These Thunder. World Series Champions. There, I said it.

While they robbed me of the last bit of faith and hope, at least they didn’t empty my fridge and I still have my fudge bars. (opens fridge) WHERE ARE MY FUDGE BARS???

(Matt Pruitt and Adrian Quebell gallop past on the hallway, fudge on the snouts)

Raccoons (55-48) vs. Bayhawks (45-57) – July 27-29, 2012

The Bayhawks has lost five straight (some to the Titans), but they also had the most horrible luck in the league, playing seven games under their expected record. They actually had a +13 run differential with both offense and defense producing slightly more than the league average in runs. Their rotation was aching, however, 10th in the CL, and they had only won one game of six played against the Raccoons this year.

Projected matchups:
Rich Hood (4-4, 4.12 ERA) vs. Reynaldo Rendon (8-6, 2.79 ERA)
Richard Williams (1-0, 5.74 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (5-6, 4.34 ERA)
Hector Santos (8-8, 4.04 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (10-6, 3.78 ERA)

Three more right-handers. They don’t have anything else. Can you imagine these horrendous Critters even trying to hit a left-hander?

San Fran’s 1B Andrew Simmons had had a 25-game hitting streak at the end of last week, but it had already ended by the time they got here, without another game tacked on. The Titans had held him 0-5 when they beat the Bayhawks 7-5 on Tuesday.

Game 1
SFB: CF Holt – SS J. Amador – RF Alston – LF J. Gomez – 1B Simmons – C A. Ramirez – 3B J. Rodriguez – 2B Moultrie – P Rendon
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – SS Whitehouse – P Hood

Ron Alston ripped #22 off Hood in the first inning, putting the Birds 1-0 ahead, but the Coons rallied back right away against Rendon. This time they made something out of two on, no outs, despite Pruitt’s deep fly to center being caught by Jasper Holt. Quebell hit an RBI single, John Alexander hit another RBI single, and Carmona loaded them up with yet another single. Rendon was slightly sweating right now, made a mistake to D-Alex, and the Coons backstop made sure it was gonna hurt with a deep drive to the opposite field. GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

Now, could Hood go at least six without giving up six? How about that for a challenge! He might be playing for his job here. Maybe the Baybirds will talk about trading Rendon after all now. He allowed another run in the next inning, driven in by Quebell, and was gone after three. Ron Carter was ticketed for two runs with a 2-run single by Dylan Alexander in the fourth, and a Quebell sac fly in the fifth. Rich Hood had critical traffic in the second and third innings, but the Bayhawks stranded a man on third in the former and three all over the place in the latter, and through the middle innings, Hood had some easy going, and actually wound up pitching seven innings without conceding another run, and how was that for an improvement over what he had shown so far? He must have been doing something right in this game; when Micah Steele was put in for the eighth to get some pressure-free at-bats in, the Bayhawks immediately spanked him for two runs. D-Alex had none of that, hit a 2-run homer off Damon Barnett in the bottom of the inning, and the Raccoons cruised to an easy one. 12-3 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4, BB; Merritt 3-4, BB; Pruitt 2-5; Quebell 3-4, 3 RBI; J. Alexander 3-5, RBI; Carmona 2-5; D. Alexander 3-5, 2 HR, 8 RBI; Hood 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (5-4);

A soul-soother! Boy, did we need that one after four consecutive dismal losses. As far as Rich Hood is concerned, among his 11 major league starts he’s gone further than seven innings only once (7.1), and holding the opposition to one run is something he’s not done that often…

Game 2
SFB: CF Holt – SS J. Amador – RF Alston – LF J. Gomez – 1B Simmons – 3B J. Rodriguez – C A. Ramirez – 2B Moultrie – P Beauchamp
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – SS Whitehouse – P Williams

Richard Williams’ first Coons started went mostly well, although he got irretrievably stuck in the sixth inning, leaving with two outs and two on in a 1-0 deficit. Javier Rodriguez had opened the fifth with a double, had stolen third base, his 19th of the year, and then scored on Antonio Ramirez’ groundout. Ron Thrasher was assigned to clean up the left-handed Andrew Simmons, and got a grounder to short. But a day after pouring 17 hits onto Rendon and the bullpen, the Raccoons only managed to bring 16 men to the plate in five innings, with Jon Merritt hitting into a double play and Ricardo Carmona getting caught stealing to hold themselves as short as possible. They did open the bottom 7th with a pair of singles though, and that brought up Quebell, nominally still the cleanup man. But Quebell grounded out, and Alexander walked, with Craig Bowen hitting for Pat Slayton in the #6 hole with the bases loaded and one out, and Bowen rolled the first pitch into a double play.

While I wept in agony in one of the corners of my office, Jasper Holt tripled off Josh Gibson in the eighth and scored on a wild pitch. The Raccoons then made up a run on a donation when Ron Alston dropped a ball in right, before Angel Casas got to pitch the ninth in dire need of work. He retired Simmons, Rodriguez, and Ramirez in short order, and the Raccoons had a chance against Valentim Innocentes in the bottom 9th when Quebell doubled off the wall in right with one out. John Alexander grounded up the middle, but Todd Moultrie managed to get the glove on it and made a marvelous play to get Alexander at first. Options for a pinch-hitter for Angel Casas were few and far between. Jimmy Fucito grabbed a bat, but nobody expected him to get home Quebell from third. He popped out. Pooped out. Whatever. 2-1 Bayhawks. Quebell 2-4, 2B;

Rotten to the core…

Game 3
SFB: CF Holt – SS J. Amador – RF Alston – LF J. Gomez – 1B Simmons – 3B J. Rodriguez – C A. Ramirez – 2B Brazeal – P F. Ramirez
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF J. Alexander – RF Fucito – C Bowen – SS Roudabush – P Santos

The first time through the order the Raccoons had two runners and hit into two double plays, so back to the Aspirin. Santos was in trouble in the first after an error by Yoshi and a walk to Jose Gomez. Simmons drove a ball to deep left, but Alexander, spelling Pruitt for a day as we entered a long string of games, had that one caught. Santos struck out six in the first four innings, but also threw over 60 pitches, so he definitely wouldn’t go deep into this one. He ended up going six innings, and conceded a run on a Jose Gomez single in the sixth inning. That scored Jesus Amador, who had opened the inning with a single that dropped in front of Fucito in right, and that was also 66% of the Birds’ total hits off Santos in this game. Regardless, he was in a 1-0 hole, since the Raccoons offense once more did nothing at all. The suckers had Carmona reach with a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, the hit-and-run was on when Jon Merritt lined to Simmons, and that was a double play as well.

Bottom 8th, Bowen drew a 1-out walk. Pruitt hit for Roudabush and singled, at which point Gutierrez was put in to run for Bowen, who was the tying run, and Dylan Alexander hit for Steele in the #9 slot. D-Alex had waffled his second homer off Damon Barnett on Friday, but now – understandably… – struck out, which left things to Yoshi. He floated a 2-1 pitch to left, curving to the line, and Jose Gomez couldn’t catch up! It’s in! It’s extra bases! Gutierrez in to score! Pruitt in to score! The Coons have the lead! Carmona left him on second, and Angel Casas got to face the opposite-handed middle of the order in the ninth, and switch-hitter Gomez and lefty Javy Rodriguez both singled. With two outs, the Bayhawks dug through the detritus on their bench and found another left-hander, Omarion Thompson, to bat for Ramirez. Angel Casas had already struck out Alston and Simmons, however, and made it three with OT. 2-1 Blighters! Nomura 1-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Whitehouse (PH) 1-1; Santos 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K;

In other news

July 23 – The Indians place 1B Mun-wah Tsung (.266, 12 HR, 52 RBI) on the DL with a sprained thumb. The slugger should be out for at least a month.
July 25 – The Indians deal MR Brock Bose (3-0, 3.75 ERA) to the Canadiens in exchange for two middling prospects.
July 25 – The Condors receive C Miguel Torres (.228, 12 HR, 53 RBI) from the Warriors, parting with SP Doug Thompson (6-7, 3.60 ERA) and a prospect.
July 26 – The Canadiens pick up another reliever, Pat Treglown (2-3, 4.93 ERA, 4 SV) being traded for with the Wolves. The Wolves receive two unranked prospects.
July 27 – Another trade by a crumbling team: the Condors send swingman Colin Sabatino (3-7, 5.05 ERA, 3 SV) to the Rebels for two prospects, including #34 SP Scott Vigil.
July 29 – BIG TRADE!! The Indians sell the silverware now and trade SP Curtis Tobitt (10-5, 2.98 ERA) to the Titans for all the prospects they have, five in total, although only #45 AA SS Raúl Matías is actually ranked. Curtis Tobitt, 32, will be a free agent after the 2013 season.
July 29 – LVA CL Ryosei Kato (4-4, 2.68 ERA, 23 SV) is diagnosed with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. That might be the end of the road for the 40-year old right-hander.
July 30 – CIN RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.351, 10 HR, 59 RBI) figures to miss three weeks with a strained hamstring.

Complaints and stuff

Whenever you get as conclusively beaten as the Raccoons were creamed by the Thunder this week (20-7 runs total), you know you’re not a playoff team. After that sweep, we were 4 1/2 out, since the Titans swept the Bayhawks, and at that point it was also not necessary to further look for pitching or hitting, or anything other than something to calm down the voices in the head that told you to just kill yourself.

And so the Titans won the deadline. Curtis Tobitt is exactly the kind of player I wanted to trade for earlier (Rendon is not a bad guy, he just fell into a black hole on Friday, and look at what the Raccoons did the rest of the week…), but a generic lack of prospects (unless the Coons had been willing to part with Santos AND Carmona) prevented any meaningful deal.

Nobody wanted to trade for Craig Bowen, by the way.

In team stats, Dylan Alexander’s 8 RBI game on Friday is not a team record. Neil Reece, Vern Kinnear, and Craig Bowen each had games with 9 RBI. The next rank of 8 RBI D-Alex will now share with Daniel Hall, Mark Dawson, and Julio Mata, who is certainly the oddball in this group.

I told you earlier that Jimmy Eichelkraut batted league average (just over .700 OPS) for the Condors’ AAA team. Yeah, that’s over. In 220+ AB, he’s now at a .604 OPS.

Prospect watch. How would everybody like a continuation of the Brownie Dynasty? You know, at some point Nick Brown will go fishing, but in 2011 we picked a right-hander named Chris Brown in the second round of the draft. He is 11-9 with a 3.62 ERA in 20 AA starts this year, with 152 strikeouts in 154.1 innings. There is a problem: 68 walks. Little Brownie will turn 23 in August, but here might be the best pitching prospect out of Aumsville right now.