[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-33) @ Gold Sox (31-31) – June 15-17, 2015

The Gold Sox were dropping a bit after losing three straight. They were fourth in runs scored in the Federal League, but a horrid 11th in runs allowed, with more than five runs scored against them per game. Their rotation and bullpen were posting ERA’s around 4.70 alike.

This was the fourth straight year of us playing the Gold Sox, and if the pattern of alternating 2-1 series wins was to continue, the Gold Sox would win two of three from us this year. The last seven series had all resulted in 2-1 wins for a team, though not all alternating. The last sweep had happened in 2002 (for the Gold Sox), and the Raccoons hadn’t swept them since 1992.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-6, 4.34 ERA) vs. Willis Sanguino (10-2, 3.63 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-4, 3.89 ERA) vs. Randy Prater (1-0, 6.94 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-2, 2.08 ERA) vs. Brendan Teasdale (3-9, 4.53 ERA)

Prater would be a left-hander, unless he is going to be skipped, which looks possible. The Gold Sox had five players on the DL, including SP C.J. Fishel, 1B Mun-wah Tsung, and veteran infielder Jose Perez. Tsung led the team with meager six home runs, and the team as a whole was last in homers in the FL. They were playing small ball instead.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – LF Seeley – 1B Sambrano – P Conway
DEN: SS Oosterom – 1B E. Carter – LF V. Sanchez – CF R. Pena – C G. Brown – RF Hiscock – 3B Lulli – 2B Saunders – P Sanguino

Sanguino was 25 years old and had lost 18 games apiece in the last two seasons. This year, he was getting excessive run support, with the Gold Sox scoring five or more runs for him in the last 11 consecutive games, in which he had gone 10-1. And here, old Crusaders schreck Roberto Pena put the Gold Sox 1-0 ahead with a 2-out RBI single in the first inning. Piet Oosterom had initially singled and stolen a base. Cookie had also singled in the top 1st, but had been washed up in McKnight’s double play. Bergquist hit into a double play in the top 2nd, the Gold Sox scored Bill Hiscock after his leadoff double in the bottom 2nd, and Eugene Carter upped to 3-0 in the third with a solo shot to left.

At that point, there wasn’t much to hope for, and Sanguino was well looking like getting his five runs plus change again. But McKnight led off the fourth with a single to right, before Sanguino threw a wild pitch, walked Nunley, threw another wild pitch, and walked Richards. The bases were loaded with nobody out, but the Coons would be held to the run that scored on Dylan Alexander’s groundout. Bergquist walked onto the open base, Seeley hit into a force at home, and Sambrano grounded out to Matt Saunders to end the inning still down 3-1. Conway’s many wounds kept bleeding, and he allowed a single run in every one of his five desolate innings. The Raccoons had only two hits through six frames, but then got three in the seventh. Two were given up by Sanguino, and the third by Rick Gillespie, a 2-out, 2-run single by Matt Nunley that got the Raccoons back to 5-3. If they managed a comeback, they sure set it up in the oddest way, with Sandy Sambrano hitting a leadoff jack off Jerry Counts in the ninth inning. Sandy hadn’t homered at all since 2013. The Coons made it to the corners with two outs with singles by Cookie and Nunley, after which Chris Mathis had to be hit for with Ron Richards having been double-switched out earlier (and he had been 0-3 once more). The trust that Mike Bednarski enjoyed was sure impressive, since Danny Margolis got to grab the bat with the team down to the last out. He sent the first pitch to deep center, but not deep enough to beat Pena. 5-4 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-5; Nunley 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-4, HR, RBI; Reya (PH) 1-2;

Jason Seeley had an ugly 0-for-4, dropped his average to .203 and was rewarded with a designation for assignment. At some point you have to accept that a 28-year old career .236/.312/.375 batter will never help you with anything related to a stick. Once more, a great first round pick!

We promoted 26-year old Danny Ochoa from AAA. Ochoa, a left-handed Cuban corner outfielder and first baseman (more on that in the next sentence), had made over in a boat in the fall of 2013 and had been signed as an international free agent by the Raccoons, dwelling in AAA since then. He batted only .243 with ten homers in 2014, but this year he was hitting .368 with eight dingers in 57 games. With Seeley dudding it out, and Murphy hurting, Ochoa would get a few starting assignments at first base for this week, and after that we’d see where he’d stick. He notably does not play centerfield, so Cookie and Sandy are now our only options for that job.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Ochoa – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – SS Canning – P N. Brown
DEN: SS Oosterom – CF R. Pena – 1B E. Carter – LF V. Sanchez – C G. Brown – RF Hiscock – 3B Lulli – 2B Saunders – P Prater

Danny Ochoa’s first action in the Bigs was to hit into a double play to kill off the first inning after even Bednarski had managed to hit an RBI single to place Cookie Carmona for a 1-0 lead. The Gold Sox had two infield singles against Jason Bergquist’s so-called defensive ability, but Nick Brown wobbled out when Carmona caught Gary Brown’s deep fly to center. Brownie didn’t fool anybody, and didn’t get a strikeout until the fourth, when he whiffed old Thunder warhorse Victorino Sanchez and Gary Brown back-to-back after Eugene Carter’s leadoff single, the first hit against Brownie that actually left the infield. By then, the Coons were up 2-0, the run again scored by Cookie, who had singled, stolen second base (thanks to Saunders dropping Brown’s throw), and came home on Nunley’s double. Nunley added another run in the fifth, a 2-out single that scored Nick Brown from second base after his own single to start the inning, and the score was run up to 3-0.

Prater was out of the game by the top 6th. He walked Bergquist with two outs and Bergquist then took off to steal second base. Brown’s throw went into center, Bergquist scampered to third base, but the Gold Sox walked Canning intentionally in the now 2-0 count. Danny Munos replaced Prater and retired Brownie to end the inning. On the mound, Brownie had regained control after looking like nothing much in the first few innings. Between the sixth and seventh, he struck out the 3-4-5-6 batters in order, maintaining a shutout, and sat down the Sox in order in the eighth, which ended with a K to Piet Oosterom, which posed a bit of a dilemma. Brown’s season so far hinted at a catastrophic inning lurking right around the corner. The lead was only 3-0. And he had to lead off the top 9th.

Screw it. Let’s go for it. Brown picked up a K leading off against right-hander John Watson, but then the top of the order came through: Carmona singled, Sambrano lined over Carter and the ball raced up the line and made it to the corner. Bill Hiscock was a Gold Glover, but he had no chance against this one, which became an RBI triple, moving the game out of save range anyway. Nunley remained unretired when Watson nicked him, and Richards walked in place of Bednarski. Ochoa continued a black debut with a K, but Margolis drew a bases-loaded walk, 5-0, before Stan Murphy hobbled out to bat for Bergquist. He hacked out, ending the inning, but setting the stage for Brownie. Pena rolled out to McKnight at second base to start the bottom 9th; McKnight was playing there because Canning had no experience at the keystone and Murphy was not going to play the field with the bum knee yet, so Sandy was left on first. Eugene Carter tried to dent Brownie with a double, but Sanchez flew out to center and he remained at second base. It was Brown vs. Brown with two outs, and Gary Brown grounded over to Canning, who made a sure-handed play to end the game! 5-0 Brownies!!!! Carmona 3-5, 2B; Sambrano 2-5, 3B, RBI; Nunley 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Margolis 2-4, BB, RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (8-4) and 1-4;

BROWNIE!!!!

I will freely admit that I was fanboying hard over his 15th career shutout, and the first this season. It almost made me forget Danny Ochoa’s 0-for-5, 8 LOB debut.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – 2B Sambrano – P Toner
DEN: SS Oosterom – 1B E. Carter – LF V. Sanchez – RF Hiscock – CF R. Pena – C G. Brown – 2B Saunders – 3B Bleeker – P Teasdale

The skies were dark, hopefully indicating a swift end to Brenda’s start in this Wednesday game, in which he would face only one right-handed batter, and that would be Jonny Toner. But things do go funnily sometimes, and it was the Gold Sox with the first run of the game, right in the first inning. The run was unearned, since Piet Oosterom had reached on a colossal throwing gaffe by Danny Ochoa, who was running up his purge score at an alarming pace. By the middle of the fourth inning, the Gold Sox had one hit, a Danny Bleeker single, and were still up 1-0 with Ron Richards hitting into a pair of double plays. The Sox then led off the fourth with a hard single by Sanchez and a Hiscock double off the fence in left center, giving them runners in scoring position with nobody out. Pena flew out to Reya in right, Sanchez tagged and went and found himself thrown out with a laser beam. Gary Brown struck out to keep the Sox away in the fourth.

While offensive misery continued unabated for the Coons, Matt Saunders provided some cushion for the Gold Sox with a fifth-inning solo home run. Up 2-0, the Sox looked winners, while the Raccoons… (sigh). Ochoa led off the seventh by fouling out, running his career batting to 0-for-8, and D-Alex made another ****ty out before Sandy doubled. Toner dished a 2-1 pitch to left and through between Bleeker and Oosterom, scoring Sandy to FINALLY get the Critters onto the board. Cookie was hit by Brenda, bringing up McKnight, and this might have been a spot to finally bring a left-handed reliever, but the Gold Sox didn’t and McKnight punished them with a booming 3-run homer to right center, which flipped the score to 4-2 in Jonny’s favor. Amped up, Jonny struck out Brown, Saunders, and Bleeker in order in the bottom 7th. Oosterom hit a single in the eighth, and while Toner retired Carter, his pitch count had shot over 100 AND a string of left-handers was next. Sugano was called out of the pen and exited the inning with a grounder from Victorino Sanchez. The Coons were sat down quickly in the top 9th although Cookie actually singled and was caught stealing. Angel Casas got the ninth, walked Hiscock on four pitches, then got a double play grounder from Pena. And THEN … the skies finally opened and we had a quick rain delay with the Sox down to their final out. It was about half an hour before the rain let up and play resumed. With the right-hander Gary Brown batting, Angel remained in, and struck him out. 4-2 Raccoons! Carmona 3-4; Nunley 2-3, BB; Alexander 2-4, 2B; Toner 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (7-2) and 1-3, RBI;

Ochoa went 0-for-4.

Raccoons (29-34) vs. Crusaders (42-23) – June 18-21, 2015

There was probably no point in pretending that we were playing for anything here. Yes, if the Raccoons sweep the Crusaders at home in this long weekend set, they will be only eight games out. Hurrah, hurrah. As a matter of fact, the Crusaders continued to lead the league in many categories, especially offensively. They also had a top 3 pen, but had those mysterious struggles with their rotation that put up the second-worst ERA mark in the Continental League at 4.38; they had also dropped two of three to the Coons earlier in the season.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (0-6, 6.66 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (8-2, 3.02 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-3, 2.94 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (5-2, 4.84 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-7, 4.63 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (5-5, 4.05 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-4, 3.48 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (4-4, 4.88 ERA)

Maybe it was the two ex-Loggers in their rotation… one of them, Cruz, was also their only southpaw. The Crusaders were without their first baseman B.J. Manfull (.275, 7 HR, 32 RBI) for this series, who was nursing an abdominal strain. Also, serial killer Stanton Martin (.298, 17 HR, 64 RBI) was laboring on a sore ankle and might miss the first game or two.

Game 1
NYC: CF Paraz – SS J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – C Lowe – 2B Caraballo – 1B Roche – RF B. Miller – 3B Salinas – P J. Martin
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – 2B Sambrano – P Dickerson

While no obvious replacement was lying around, this Thursday night affair had a bit of a taste of final start for Dickerson, who had been torched every time he had been out recently. There was a bit of a bare minimum of qualifying criteria for him to stick in the rotation, like, make it five innings and get that hellish ERA down, but the Crusaders jumped on him for two runs on three hard hits right in the first inning. Things got slower after that, but the fact that they left a bushel of runners in scoring position also contributed. In the fourth, both teams left the bases loaded, with Carmona selling out on Bill Miller’s deep drive to end the top half, while Dickerson made the third out for the Raccoons after hitting a double in his first at-bat. The Coons remained shut out at that point, down 3-0, and it wasn’t until the fifth and Luis Reya’s 2-out RBI single that they got onto the board. Dickerson actually made it six innings on three runs (technically a quality start), and “Midnight” Martin as crumbling. Bottom 6th, leadoff double by D-Alex and a single by Sandy, putting the tying runs on the corners with no outs as Bednarski hit for Dickerson. He hit a fly to center for a sac fly, 3-2, and then Cookie doubled up the leftfield line, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position for McKnight. Both him and Nunley hit flies to deep center, but neither managed to beat catcher-turned-centerfielder Jose Paraz, with the Raccoons only getting the tying run home on McKnight’s sac fly.

Nevertheless, next thing “Midnight” knew was that he was on the hook. Thrasher pitched a scoreless seventh in which Martin Ortíz was caught stealing by D-Alex, who then batted against Alex Ramirez, who had replaced Jaylen Martin after Danny Ochoa’s double to left with two outs in the bottom 7th. Ochoa had already singled in his first two at-bats against Martin. D-Alex hit one deep to center, and FINALLY someone got it past the chump Paraz, and in for a go-ahead RBI double! Ramirez walked Sandy, allowed a hit to load the bags to Stan Murphy, but then was lucky that Jorge Ortega to the tips of his gloves onto Cookie’s grounder up the middle, just enough to make a play to end the inning at 4-3 for the home team. Entwistle and Sugano fiddled together the eighth before Angel Casas started the ninth with K’s to Miguel Salinas and Amari Brissett. Jose Paraz was not only defensive spoiler, but was also 4-for-4 on the day and hit Angel’s first pitch to deep right – but he was denied as well, as Reya made the play without much drama. 4-3 Coons. Nunley 2-5, 2B; Reya 2-5, RBI; Ochoa 3-4, 2B; Alexander 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Sambrano 2-3; Murphy (PH) 1-1;

Okay, I will admit I thought this one was a sure loss, especially against “Midnight”.

Game 2
NYC: CF Paraz – SS J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – C Lowe – 1B Roche – 2B J. Diaz – 3B Salinas – P F. Cruz
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Bednarski – LF Reya – C Margolis – 1B Ochoa – 3B Canning – P Santos

Hector Santos had started the season 2-0, but hadn’t won any of his last 11 games, which had not been his fault entirely. Unfortunately we had to play a lot of left-handed bats against Cruz, so he better be on top of his pitching…

… and the defense be better on its ****ing paws, too. Ochoa made a clumsy error on Paraz’ grounder in the first and the Crusaders had a free runner to start the game. While surprisingly nothing came of that, the second inning developed into pure horror. Drew Lowe started it with a high pop that dropped between the converging Reya and McKnight for a leadoff single. Frederic Roche then lined a single to the exact same spot, before Sandy made a scrambling play on Juan Diaz’ sharp grounder to second base, getting the out at first. That was about the last thing that went right for the Coons. Salinas hit an RBI single, and Cruz bunted him to second base. Santos then uncorked a wild pitch to plate the second run of the inning, and when Paraz put a 3-1 pitch into play, Ochoa’s feed to Santos was terrible and Santos dropped it – and was also charged with the error while Salinas scored. Francisco Caraballo – who had replaced an injured Jorge Ortega in the first – then fouled out to mercifully end the 3-run frame. The game entered a bit of a lull after that, which abruptly ended when Caraballo slugged his tenth homer of the season, a solo shot, in the fifth. In the bottom 5th Luis Reya would reach on an error by Roche, which made him the first Raccoons baserunner in the game, but he was swiftly reduced to nothing by Margolis’ grounder to short that was good enough for two.

Santos lasted as long as Dickerson the previous night, six innings with three earned runs, but trailed 4-0 with the team actively trying to get no-hit by Fernando Cruz, who for his career was 93-110 with a 4.09 ERA (no George Kirk, though). Bad Walt Canning spoiled the party with a bloop single in the sixth, scoring on Cookie’s 2-out double. Stanton Martin doubled home Paraz against Gallegos in the top 7th to restore the old gap, though. That one was crucial: Cruz spilled singles by Reya and Margolis in the bottom 7th, after which Bergquist hit for Ochoa to counter Cruz, and hacked away at the first pitch and hit it right in the sweet spot for a no-doubt 3-run homer that nevertheless left the Raccoons a run short, 5-4. The eighth was uneventful, with Cruz still holding out, but the ninth saw Ron Thrasher put on Paraz with one out. Marcos Bruno replaced him, but wouldn’t retire anybody for a while. Caraballo singled, Ortíz walked, and then Stanton Martin grounded to the right side. Bergquist intercepted it, the ball broke free again and bounced a few feet, bad throw to first, Sambrano stretched and got into Martin’s way and while evading, the veteran rightfielder took a bad tumble and left the game with an injury. He was safe though, a run scored, and the bleeding continued for another run driven in by Eduardo Durango. Salvadaro Soure hit Bednarski to start the bottom 9th, but that still didn’t create a problem for him. 7-4 Crusaders. Bergquist (PH) 1-2, HR, 3 RBI;

Terrible game for everybody involved. We delivered a big box of poo, but the Crusaders’ victory might turn out to be Pyrrhic. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think that all was well with Stanton Martin’s leg being bent 90 degrees, and all the screaming. – Well, Slappy says it was me screaming and that was Martin’s knee, but I disagree.

It’s good to have restocked on Capt’n Coma.

Game 3
NYC: 1B Roche – SS J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – RF B. Miller – C Lowe – CF Brissett – 2B J. Diaz – 3B Salinas – P Trevino
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – 2B Sambrano – LF Richards – C Alexander – P Conway

It’s Trevino and he’s after Brownie in the strikeout table – don’t whiff too often, boys!

The Coons left Cookie on third base in the first inning, but the Crusaders left them loaded in the second after getting singles by Miller and Brissett before Diaz walked to fill them up with one out. Reya caught Salinas’ poor fly in shallow right and kept Miller on his base, and Conway struck out Trevino to escape. Trevino only pitched three innings before getting hurt and being replaced with Ken McKenzie, and in those three innings he didn’t strike out anybody. McKenzie fell behind in the fourth, first conceding the second double of the day to Luis Reya, and then another single to Sambrano to drive Reya home.

But Conway didn’t respond too well to leading and created the worst mess in the sixth inning: bases loaded, nobody out. It started with Ortega’s bloop single, but then he walked both Ortíz and Miller. Sugano was sent in with two more left-handers coming up, blew the lead on Drew Lowe’s sac fly to center, but K’ed Brissett and got out of the inning with a 1-1 tie on the board. While the bullpen held up, with Entwistle getting five outs and Mathis pitching a quick and perfect ninth, the offense was completely paralyzed. D-Alex had a leadoff single in the eighth – nothing happened. Reya had a 2-out single in the ninth – not worth bothering. Extras started with a pinch-hit double by Paraz off Mathis, but now Paraz pulled up lame and was replaced by Soure (!) to pinch-run. The gamble, bold as it was, worked. With one out, Ortega and Ortíz had consecutive RBI hits, and Bruno replaced the fallen Mathis, getting a double play from Miller. Bottom 10th, Ron Richards’ first hit since Christmas was a double to lead off the inning, but the Raccoons were held to two groundouts to score him, and never put another man on base. 3-2 Crusaders. Carmona 2-5; Reya 3-4, 2 2B; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; Entwistle 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Uhm, we’re still winless in overtime this year.

Game 4
NYC: CF Paraz – 3B Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – RF B. Miller- 1B Roche – SS J. Ortega – 2B J. Diaz – C Durango – P Bartels
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Margolis – 2B Sambrano – LF Ochoa – P N. Brown

Ochoa cashed in his first career RBI with a sac fly in the second inning. With that, Sandy remained on first base with two outs for Brownie, who split Paraz and Miller for a double, but Sandy almost tumbled after tripping over second base and failed to score. Cookie’s floater to center hung for too long and was caught by Paraz, ending the inning with two left in scoring position. This gave the Coons a 1-0 lead, and Brown seemed to have everything working on this Sunday … and then it started to rain.

There was a 1-hour delay after the third inning, which was likely to cut both starters’ outings short. Brown came back for the fourth, worked around a leadoff single and kept the Crusaders at bay, and squeezed through six innings, but upon returning to the dugout then told the pitching coach that he could feel his arm going dead – the pen had to take over despite only one hit against Brownie and seven strikeouts to his credit. At least the team added a run in the bottom 6th on three soft singles, one of them of the infield variety, to hand a 2-0 lead to Entwistle, who had a quick and clean seventh inning. Bottom 7th, Canning grounded out hitting for Entwistle, but then Cookie reached with a single. McKnight hit a fly to deep center, but there was Paraz somewhere out it, so you could forget about that one. Actually, you could really forget about this one, because it was outta here!

Now the gambling part. With a 4-0 lead, Gallegos got to face the bottom of the order in the eighth inning (but his ERA was within a run of Entwistle’s, so…). He struck out Diaz, Durango popped out foul to Margolis, and PH Jesus Ramirez flew out to Cookie without generating any panic. The bottom of the eighth saw Kevin Wanless be about to have a perfect frame until Ortega dropped Ochoa’s 2-out grounder. The Coons now could have Gallegos bat and try the top of the order in the nin- … or we would rather bat for him and put Angel in a non-save situation, yeah, that sounded MUCH better. D-Alex grabbed a bat, slugged a 2-run shot to dead center, and then things started to creep up on Angel. Salinas drew a 1-out walk in the ninth. Ortíz grounded to McKnight, who bumbled the ball, losing at least one out. But thankfully, Stanton Martin was absent – it was Bill Miller to come up. While he grounded hard to the right side, Sandy was perfectly positioned, zipped to McKnight, who zipped to first – game over! 6-0 Brownies!!! Richards (PH) 1-1, 2B; Sambrano 2-4, RBI; Alexander (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (9-4) and 1-2, 2B;

In other news

June 20 – The Capitals acquire SP Wade Davis (6-5, 5.19 ERA) from the Scorpions, sending them two prospects, including #185 prospect 2B Ben Markel.
June 21 – DAL LF/RF Lionnel Perri (.270, 6 HR, 38 RBI) collects his 2,500th career hit, a single, in the Stars’ 8-7 loss the Wolves. Perri is a career .262/.357/.414 batter with 246 homers and 1,321 RBI. He has also stolen 233 bases, including an active streak of 13 consecutive seasons with double digit bags taken, and is a 5-time All Star.

Complaints and stuff

Jason Seeley went unclaimed and was assigned to the Alley Cats. On the other hand of the batting spectrum, Matt Nunley’s .346 batting average leads the Continental League at this point. He was as high as .358 this week, but didn’t fare too well in the Crusaders series.

As we are on Critters leading stuff, Nick Brown ties with Jaquan Wagoner (whose ERA is still miniscule at 0.73) for most wins in the CL, and Jonny Toner leads the majors in strikeouts. He has 112, while nobody else has more than 94. But while Cookie is slowly coming around with the bags taken, he has a huge deficit on the CL leader, and it’s not an old foe, no. A bit out of the shadows and with 29 steals the leader is MIL Victor Hodgers.

Run support in starts by pitcher:
Nick Brown – 70 runs – 5.0 R/G
Jonny Toner – 61 runs – 4.4 R/G
Bill Conway – 57 runs – 4.1 R/G
Hector Santos – 54 runs – 3.9 R/G
Daniel Dickerson – 32 runs – 3.2 R/G

Well, that's new!

I would really love to replace Dud Dickerson with Jeff Magnotta. But while Magnotta’s ERA in St. Petersburg is quite good (3.06), he has been riding a fairly amazing BABIP to get there. He barely strikes out FOUR per nine innings and walks almost as many. No reason to pretend that he can be (much) better than Dickerson at this point. It’s okay for Magnotta, who turned 22 in April, but we remain stuck with a fabulously expensive jack-in-the-box … with a broken spring.

Other starters in AAA: Chris Brown and Enrique Guzman have been horrendous, and while Francisquo Bocanegra has put up a 3-some ERA, he walks more than he strikes out. The fifth spot has been rotating, but nothing good can be reported there, either. In AA (…), there’s 21-year old Blake Kelly with a 2.61 ERA, but also hardly 2 K/BB.

So what is it then? More of the Dud? Bring up Chris Brown, who won’t get any better, and don’t care anymore? It’s not like the season wouldn’t be in the trash anyway…

Angel, what are you doing in here? – Yes, I said trash. – No, I don’t have any trash here. – No, don’t … get out of my paper basket! – Maud, I need help!