[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

What has Quinn dine since leaving the Raccoons?

I think you mean Quebell, because Bobby Quinn is long gone. Quebell is batting .267/.348/.373 as the Pacifics' first base regular, with 7 HR and 65 RBI. The OPS works out as the worst for him since his first full season in 2006, mainly because he hit less home runs than that only once, in 2007. His career slash is .288/.366/.432;

Compare that to Murphy, who, including this update, is a career .288/.373/.458 batter, with 100 more homers, and is putting up his worst qualifying season ever. His 2015 slash is as of August 30 merely eight points higher than Quebell's. Given that we threw three prospects with at least some upside into the deal, this one has to go down as a net loss even now.

+++

Raccoons (61-62) vs. Titans (45-80) – August 25-27, 2015

At 11-1 in our favor, the season series with the Titans was more than just bagged. These Titans were really, really bad, ranking ninth in runs scored, but dead last in runs allowed, with them conceding close to 4.8 runs per game. Their rotation was more rotten than their bullpen, but neither provided much excitement.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-6, 3.08 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (5-14, 4.53 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-4, 2.18 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (5-8, 5.14 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-10, 4.14 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (7-4, 4.48 ERA)

Southpaws will oppose another in the Tuesday opener, before the Titans will fling two right-handers at us. The order of Lee and Priest could flip just as well; both pitched in a double header on Friday in which the Loggers swept the Titans.

Game 1
BOS: CF J. Silva – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – CF X. Williams – SS Rentz – 3B Stephenson – P Krom
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – RF Richards – SS Hudman – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P N. Brown

Pitching in full counts all the time was not necessarily the key to a long and productive outing, but Brownie had six full counts in the first three innings. While the Titans were held to a single, a walk, and no runs, he had already reached 50 pitches. His pace would hardly improve after that, but he held the Titans off the board through five, and had a lead by then. The first five Coons in the bottom 4th would all reach base after a grand total of one earned base runner in the three innings before that. Sandy hit an infield single before Nunley walked, and he would score on Murphy’s single to left. That one was crisp, but how Jose Gutierrez could miss Richards’ sorry roller to right will probably remain his secret. That single loaded the bases with nobody out in a 1-0 game, a traditional fail spot for the team. Brock Hudman’s sorry blooper to center actually fell in front of Jose Silva for an RBI single, but after that Margolis hit into a run-scoring double play and the Titans escaped after waving Bergquist by and whiffing Brown, conceding “only” three runs.

Brownie remained ineffective, but the Titans didn’t make it onto the board until the sixth when they chained together a single, a walk, and then another single by Rodrigo Lopez to score a run and get the score to 3-1. We were close to replacing him before the seventh, which had the 7-8-9 batters up, but Brown insisted that he still had things under control. He struck out Tommy Rentz before Joe Stephenson grounded out easily to Hudman, and Johnny Krom was retired on a high pop to shallow right. While the Raccoons offense was trapped in Slumberland, Mathis retired Silva with a K and Gutierrez with a grounder before Ron Thrasher got the dangerous (18 HR, 78 RBI) Steve Butler. Angel Casas was tasked with protection of the 3-1 lead in the ninth, like Mathis opened the inning with a K and retired the Titans in order. 3-1 Brownies! Richards 2-3; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-6);

Teams combined for ten hits, with the Raccoons even having the upper hand at 6-4. It’s not that the pitching was any good. There were 13 K combined. It was just poor contact, poor contact, poor contact, for nine innings. Even the Coons’ fourth started with an infield single and a walk, and Richards’ single is at least one out in 99% of all cases.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF J. Silva – 3B Stephenson – P C.K. Lee
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Toner

The Titans blew out a visibly tired Jonny Toner early in the game, with one run in the second inning that scored after a walk to Rodrigo Lopez and a double by Xavier Williams, and then four in the third inning, of which however three were unearned, and the Titans got going on a bloop double by Chae-ku Lee in the first place. Mike Rivera grounded to Sandy quite harmlessly, but Sambrano nevertheless dropped the ball mid-throw, and that was the error that really got the Titans going, but Lopez also hit a 2-out, 2-run homer. Lee became Toner’s 200th strikeout of the season later in the top of the fourth, but down 5-0 there was nothing to celebrate here. The thing that continued to be properly showcased right when everybody had already had more than their filling was absolutely decrepit offensive dumb****ery. The Coons had Richards draw a walk and Reya hit a double in the bottom of the fourth. Most teams might actually be able to clamber back into the game with runners in scoring position and one out, but Murphy whiffed in embarrassing fashion, and Sambrano, who had **** to make up, slammed a ball into the ground right in front of home plate, which was a more than just convenient third out for Tim Robinson before Richards made it further than 25 feet down the line.

Toner came out after plating Rivera with a wild pitch, tossing only 4 2/3 miserable innings. In a bitter twist, Bill Conway would retire ten of the eleven batters he faced, but the Raccoons remained invisible through seven innings, only managing a really tasteful inning-ending strike-em-out-throw-em-out along the way. In the bottom 8th, however, with Lee well past his due date, the 1-2-3 batters in the order all managed singles, which got them on the board and left two on for Ron Richards, who belched a huge homer to right center to suddenly make it a game again. Alas, Sambrano, Alexander, and Canning saw no land against Valentim Innocentes in the ninth and the Raccoons then went down quietly. 6-4 Titans. McKnight 2-4, RBI; Reya 2-4, 2B; Conway 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Looks like I killed Jonny over the year. Whoops.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF J. Silva – 3B Stephenson – P Priest
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 2B Sambrano – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – P Watanabe

Rivera opened the game with a triple but ended up left on when Gutierrez grounded to Watanabe, Butler grounded sharply to Murphy, and Robinson struck out. Xavier Williams however would indeed score after his own triple in the second inning, negating a run the Coons had scored on three straight 2-out singles in the first inning. The Furballs had another wealth of singles in the second inning, slowly poking Priest to death. Ochoa and Alexander opened with singles, Watanabe bunted, and while the first run scored on a wild pitch then, Cookie, Nunley, and McKnight hit three more singles to put up a total of three runs in the inning and taking a 4-1 lead on eight singles. The lead was not to be forever. While Watanabe was fairly good through four innings, the Titans raked him in the fifth. Williams homered, and after that they came up with three more hits as Silva and Stephenson singled, and Zachary Thurman hit a pinch-hit RBI double. In all, they scored three in the inning and tied the score at four.

The Coons took another lead in the bottom 5th. With two outs, Sambrano hit a bloop double up the rightfield line, then scored on Ochoa’s single to center. Watanabe however was hammered out of the top of the sixth, with three hard hits tying the game once more and he was gone after Silva’s 2-out RBI double. Entwistle retired Stephenson on a grounder to McKnight to end the inning and preserve a 5-5 tie. The Critters would take the lead for the fourth time in the bottom 7th. Toshiro Uenohara allowed a leadoff single to McKnight, who was almost doubled off when Richards lined out to right on a hit-and-run, but remained in the game, then scored easily on Luis Reya’s double to center, which saw Silva fall down trying to make a flying grab going back, and scrambling back up cost precious seconds, which allowed McKnight to score from first, 6-5. Sambrano popped up, but Brock Hudman came through with a pinch-hit single to right center that scored Reya, 7-5.

Sugano was supposed to retire Steve Butler at the start of the eighth inning, but allowed a single to left. Mathis conceded the tying runner on a floating single to right by Tim Robinson, who was then doubled off when Rodrigo Lopez lined out to Hudman at the keystone (Sambrano had moved to left with Richards banished for defense). And then Mathis walked Williams, and when Silva grounded to short, Murphy dropped McKnight’s throw. The ****ing sucker. Bases loaded, two outs in a 7-5 game, and left-hander Sean McDermott pinch-hitting for Stephenson. Ron Thrasher entered the fray, threw two pitches and allowed a grand slam that hurt really bad. It was McDermott’s first homer of the season, too. Murphy led off the bottom 8th in the #9 hole and was rigorously booed by the home crowd even before flying out poorly to left. The top three in the order then all hit singles, with McKnight driving home Cookie, which put the go-ahead run on first base, with the tying run on second base. Margolis hit for Thrasher against lefty Bill Dean, but the Titans went right to righty Richardo Rocha, who got him to hit right into a double play. Marcos Bruno was then burned in the top of the ninth, allowing a leadoff triple to Rivera (…), drilling Gutierrez, and surrendering both runs on a 2-run double by Butler. Against Innocentes in the bottom 9th, the Raccoons had the ****ing tying run at the plate with one out after a Sambrano single and a Hudman double. When D-Alex walked onto the open base, the pressure increased, but – oy – there was Murphy. He flew out gingerly to center, with the fan base getting really mad by now. Cookie found a hole on the right when down to two strikes and plated two with a single, put the Coons were still a run short, the tying run was snail-paced Alexander at second, and we couldn’t run for him. Nunley was drilled with a 1-2 pitch, solving the distance problem, and McKnight came up, having four hits already in the game. He hit at the first pitch, a blooper to right center, and that was going to be in! Alexander scored, Cookie around third, the throw by Lopez to the plate and – OUT!! NOOOOO!!!!

Extras, which was not good news ‘round here. The Coons found themselves trailing again instantly after a leadoff jack by Xavier Williams, who now was on 11 bases for three hits. The Coons went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning against lefty Juan Sanchez. 12-11 Titans. Carmona 3-6, 3 RBI; Nunley 2-5; McKnight 5-6, 3 RBI; Reya 2-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-6, 2B; Ochoa 2-2, BB, RBI; Hudman (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI; Entwistle 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

We out-hit the Titans 21-14, but had only 24 TB to their 32 TB. Plus, the errors. Plus, why…?

Raccoons (62-64) vs. Knights (63-63) – August 28-30, 2015

The season series was even at three, so this was for the gold – at least as far as the Knights were concerned. Four games out in the South, they still had good chances. As good chances as you could have with the worst rotation by ERA and a middling bullpen, which put them in the bottom three in runs allowed. They were fifth in offense, though, but their run differential was an unsightly -19.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (7-7, 2.59 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (7-2, 4.25 ERA)
Jeff Magnotta (1-1, 5.06 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (10-4, 2.56 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-6, 3.01 ERA) vs. Shaun Yoder (10-4, 3.65 ERA)

Ford might be the only left-hander for us in this series. The Knights had used them out of the pen since acquiring him from the Thunder, but he is supposed to start this weekend against his old team.

Game 1
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B O. Torres – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – SS Hibbard – 3B Fraijo – C R. Speed – P Hogan
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Santos

The bottom 1st saw Cookie and Nunley make two quick outs, but then the Raccoons suddenly batted through the order and scored four runs. McKnight hit a triple, scored on Richards’ single, Reya doubled in Richards, Murphy singled home Reya, Sandy walked, and D-Alex hit an RBI double before Santos lined out to center. Santos had struck out the side in the first and retired the Knights in order on five strikeouts the first time through. They only got on base in the fifth inning, and then Josh Downing reached on a terrible throwing error by Matt Nunley. Santos stranded Downing when Devin Hibbard grounded out and he hung a K on Antonio Friajo. In the bottom of the same inning, the Raccoons threw up their second 4-spot of the game, this time scoring all runs on homers. McKnight hit one to start the inning, and after Richards and Murphy had reached on singles, Sandy Sambrano drove a ball that vanished just over the wall and just inside the right foul pole for a 3-run shot. That was the end for Hogan, who was replaced by Dave Hughes for long relief. Hughes broke up Santos’ no-hit bid with a 1-out single in the sixth and in a hurry the Knights were all over him. Oliver Torres singled, and then Gil Rockwell reached 100 RBI with a 2-run double right past Nunley (with the Coons’ team lead sitting at 70 RBI), and Jimmy Raupp upped the ante with a 2-run homer. Suddenly it was 8-4, and Santos got stuck in the seventh inning, leaving with two outs after walking Fraijo. He had struck ten, but was soon booked for a fifth run once the ****ing **** Entwistle got a ball into his paw. He allowed straight 2-hit singles to Vic Flores, Marty Reyes, and Oliver Torres, which got the Knights back to 8-6 with two on and Rockwell (34 HR…) coming up. Mathis took over, allowed another RBI single in an 0-2 count, and it was 8-7 once Raupp grounded out to end the inning.

The crowd (which was getting smaller every day now) was up in arms and was bitching from the seats – well, they had a point. Stanley Murphy’s leadoff jack off Fernando Hernandez jr. did little to please them, especially since the relief was only brief. Mathis put runners on the corners in the top of the eighth, then left Sugano to deal with it. Ken Potter pinch-hit with two outs in the top 8th. Potter was a switch-hitter, but better from the left. Sugano forced him to go to his weak side, but at the same time this was Sugano’s very weak side. Potter hit an 0-1 pitch really hard to third base, but Nunley did manage to contain it and end the inning. Bottom 8th, the Coons opened with a Nunley single to center and a McKnight double to left against right-hander Clyde Henderson. Here came the middle of the order. Richards walked, Reya fouled out. It didn’t look like the Coons would score with Murphy up, who predictably grounded to short … except that Devin Hibbard missed the ball and it rolled into left for an RBI single. D-Alex would drive in two more with a 2-out single. Bill Conway came in and plain failed. He walked two and drilled one, leaving this to Angel Casas with the bases loaded and one out. Downing ran a full count before striking out, while Hibbard hit at the first pitch he saw and rammed it to center. Cookie made a flying solo to catch that one and managed to avoid smashing his skull into the fence by a few inches only. 12-7 Blighters. Nunley 2-5; McKnight 3-5, HR, 3B, RBI; Richards 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Murphy 4-5, HR, 3 RBI; Alexander 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI;

Rest assured that I will trade Entwistle for a half-eaten bag of potato chips this winter. I hate that ****.

Of note shall be that the Coons scored 23 runs over the last few games and still came close to losing twice. It’s a madhouse, frankly.

Game 2
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B O. Torres – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – SS Hibbard – 3B Fraijo – C R. Speed – P Ford
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Richards – 2B Hudman – 3B Canning – C Margolis – P Magnotta

Remarkably, after Marty Reyes (.320, 12 HR, 58 RBI) ran a hitting streak to 19 games with a leadoff single, Magnotta managed to strike out Rockwell, which ran his K/BB to a grisly .25 … While that inning was scoreless, the bottom 1st saw Murphy desperately trying to win back some hearts with a 2-run homer to right. While Magnotta made it through five with the lead alive, the Knights upped the threat a bit every inning. They had another man on in the second, they had two on in the third, and they had two hits and a walk to score a run in the fourth. Richards made a pretty good play in the fifth to retire Raupp and strand the tying run at second base, but it was still 2-1 Coons after five. The sling was certainly getting tighter. The top 6th saw the Knights get their first two, Downing and Hibbard, on with singles. Fraijo flew out to deep center, moving Downing to third. Richard Speed was a career backup catcher batting .309 in limited exposure and right-handed, so the pitching coach felt Magnotta’s pulse, and the kid was confident that he could find his way out of there. Nope, he couldn’t. Speed walked, the bags were full, and Thrasher came on to face Ford with one out. The hope was for a K, but Ford actually hit the 1-2 pitch to shallow center. Carmona came on and made the catch, then unloaded for home, where Downing was headed. Margolis and Downing clashed, Margolis held on to the ball, and Downing was called OUT!

Some add-on offense would be nice, but the team sent clear signals that they were done for the day with that, and Thrasher created the next mess right in the top of the seventh with a leadoff walk to Reyes. Torres bunted, after which Bruno walked Rockwell. Raupp hit hard to third, but Canning started the double play to get the Coons outta there. Meanwhile I was aging a decade per inning. Bottom 8th, Bergquist hit for Bruno with one out and singled to left. A luckless Cookie had his second liner of the day caught by Rockwell, after which Sandy Sambrano also lined to left, but Rockwell damn sure wasn’t gonna get that one any time soon. The wall went to the corner, Bergquist was flying around to score, and Sandy slid in with a triple. WHOAH, OFFENSE!! Ford, still alive, struck out McKnight to end the inning, but was due a sour loss unless the Knights could break through Angel Casas this time. Ken Potter and Marty Reyes both found themselves in 3-ball counts before flying out to Reya, who had replaced Richards for defense in right. Torres then grounded out to Murphy. 3-1 Coons. McKnight 2-4, 2 2B; Murphy 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 1B O. Torres – 2B Downing – C Rosa – 3B Fraijo – P Yoder
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P N. Brown

Watching Nick Brown in this one was somewhere between odd and hard. The general ineffectiveness he had shown on Tuesday had gotten worse and he needed 47 pitches through the order once, which turned out to be two innings, including a leadoff walk in both, then three K in the first, but a Downing double and a Freddy Rosa sac fly in the second. After a clean third inning, he struck Jimmy Raupp bloody hard to start the fourth. Raupp, while shaken, was not easily defeated, stayed in the game, and scored after a wild pitch and a Downing single. The Critters were soul-searching for the first few innings, then loaded the bases on a few soft singles in the bottom 4th. D-Alex and Brown struck out in succession to leave the full complement of runners stranded. Brownie lasted six innings in this odd game, but struck out ten, including the side in the sixth (give or take a 2-out single by Torres), of those Raupp and Downing in full counts, and before that Rockwell for the third time in the game. When Hudman hit for Brownie in the bottom 6th, there were two outs, and Sandy Sambrano was the tying run on third base, having tripled again after Ron Richards had whacked a leadoff jack. Hudman however flew out softly to center, and the Coons remained 2-1 behind.

While Brown’s fate seemed sealed when Bill Conway got the ball for the seventh, it actually wasn’t until the eighth and Conway being removed after a 1-out walk that the game was thrown out of whack for good. Ron Thrasher was no good at all, allowed a single to Torres, a sac fly to Downing, and then a 2-run homer to Freddy ****ing Rosa. The Raccoons managed to escape into the night without much drama after that. 5-1 Knights. Sambrano 2-4, 3B; Brown 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, L (14-7);

Gil Rockwell hit for a golden sombrero in this game, which turned out to be surprisingly little consolation.

In other news

August 24 – CIN C Jayden Jolley (.258, 13 HR, 54 RBI) has broken his thumb and will miss a month, or maybe the rest of the season.
August 24 – OCT SP Bob King (12-9, 2.87 ERA) humbles the Bayhawks, who put up only three hits in a 9-0 Thunder rout. To add injury to insult, it’s definitely season over for SFB LF/RF Ron Alston (.339, 21 HR, 69 RBI), who has fractured a finger in the contest.
August 26 – ATL OF John Kelsey (.320, 9 HR, 58 RBI) is done for the year with a broken elbow.
August 28 – DEN SP Willis Sanguino (20-4, 2.97 ERA) reaches 20 wins in style, firing a 3-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over the Buffaloes.
August 29 – NYC 1B B.J. Manfull (.286, 17 HR, 80 RBI) collects five hits in the Crusaders’ 17-3 thrashing of the Falcons. He misses the cycle by the triple and drives in five with a homer, a double, and three singles.
August 30 – The Aces’ 38-year old LF/RF Jesus Flores (.273, 4 HR, 21 RBI) gets two base knocks in the Aces’ 5-2 win over the Titans, reaching 2,000 career hits. A fourth inning single off Johnny Krom gets the job done. Flores is a career .273 batter with 155 HR and 968 RBI who won World Series rings with the Falcons in 2005 and the Crusaders in 2013.
August 30 – The Loggers could be without RF/LF Justin Dally (.322, 26 HR, 81 RBI) for the rest of the season. The 27-year old left-hander has sprained an ankle.

Complaints and stuff

Those sprained ankles – the bane of society. I outlined my concept to treat the malaise already last week. The maestro won’t repeat himself.

I consider skipping Jonny Toner once in early September, because he’s been really crap the last few weeks. It won’t work on Monday, however, which will be his turn, and rosters won’t expand until Tuesday. I will also send DOWN Magnotta on September 1 to keep him in AAA until that season finishes, which should cut down on his service time and innings enough to allow him to get a full rookie campaign in in 2016. Hey, it worked for Nunley in ’14. The spare starts might go to Conway and some scum. Maybe Enrique Guzman will get a start, a 25-year old Dominican non-prospect right-hander that was once dragged in by Whitebread. I am not deterred by his 5.13 ERA in St. Pete. Why would I be? The alternative could be Chris Brown, and I don’t think everybody needs to go back there.

Bednarski should come off the DL in the first days of September, giving us that useless right-handed outfield back we’re so dearly missing. Other than that I won’t go too crazy, because we just don’t have any fancy prospects. Brandon Johnson will be back (non-prospect at 26), but I could fill an entire infield with AAA players batting under .200 in St. Pete. By the way, none of our minor league teams is even close to .500, and while we have some decent pitching, we just have NO offense anywhere. It’s a persistent curse.

And regular season franchise win #3,200 goes to … the rookie! Magnotta’s five-and-a-third on Saturday were good enough for the 3,200th for the Coons outside of October.

I said a bit ago that we needed this and so many wins to get to 3,200 for the regular season … which was wrong, since I managed to delete the Knights’ record from my all time table and had the Bayhawks in twice, so we were a game off the entire time. We would have need 6-1 two weeks ago, or 4-2 last week, or maybe stink a bit less overall… and I know that I suck, no need to point it out.

Also I can’t find the list right now that I made a couple o’ hundred ago of all the guys who picked up 100’s. I don’t know, I’m getting old.