[Westheim]

New year, new Coons?

Nah, the misery will doubtlessly continue.

+++

Raccoons (37-37) vs. Thunder (35-40) – June 27-29, 2022

The Thunder were second in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed, with a +25 run differential, so you weren’t expecting them toiling away five games under .500 necessarily. Oh well, here are your punching bags to climb back to the sunny side of the dividing line I guess. The Raccoons had already lost two of three games to them this year, and I was sure that this would continue. Well, they had one issue, a truly rotten bullpen with a 4.56 ERA. Get out their starters and hurt them late? Of course these Raccoons had a habit to score one or two early, and then go into hibernation…

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (4-7, 4.71 ERA) vs. Franklin Alvarado (6-2, 3.04 ERA)
Travis Garrett (6-5, 5.93 ERA) vs. Jose Vigil (6-8, 5.58 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-0, 1.10 ERA) vs. Bryan Hanson (7-6, 3.48 ERA)

Southpaw on Wednesday approaching, and apart from that the Thunder had regular second baseman Jeff Becker on the DL. He had been batting .268 with four homers before grisly breaking his leg.

The Raccoons made a roster change, activating Joel Davis from the disabled list and optioning Joe Moore back to AAA for the time being.

Funny thing about our two rightfielders entering this series: both Zach Graves and Hugo Mendoza were nursing a 1-for-21 stretch. Mendoza’s hit had been that walkoff home run last week.

Game 1
OCT: SS L. Rivera – 3B B. Marshall – C Pizzo – RF Branch – 1B W. Madrid – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – 2B Riley – P Alvarado
POR: LF Carmona – SS Stalker – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – C Rice – CF Stevenson – 2B Armetta – P Guerrero

For reasons beyond me, R.J. DeWeese was batting .333 with four homers in 60 AB, and the Thunder were now crazy enough to give him more at-bats apparently. This was only his eighth starting lineup assignment this year, and it was also the final year of his lavish 7-yr, $23.1M contract some idiot had signed him to a long time ago.

DeWeese would reach on Gil Rockwell’s error to start the third inning after Guerrero had retired the first six batters in a row. The unearned run would score, because the Raccoons failed to turn a double play on John Riley, who then stole second base and came home with two down on Lorenzo Rivera’s bloop single into shallow right. Bobby Guerrero would spill only four hits in seven innings in the game, including a home run by Mike PIzzo leading off the seventh, while getting absolutely no support whatsoever from the team around him. Gil Rockwell had hit a single in the second inning; when Guerrero’s term in office was definitely over after a 30-minute rain delay in the bottom of the seventh inning, that was the Coons’ only hit still, and they were haplessly trailing 2-0. Alvarado continued after the rain delay, throwing only 72 pitches in the first six innings, with John Riley dropping Tim Stalker’s pop-up to bring up the tying run – this was also the Raccoons’ first base runner after the Rockwell single… Nunley hit straight into a double play, and Mendoza also weakly grounded out, continuing his rotten stretch.

There was a Josh Stevenson double in the eighth that brought no success overall, but in the ninth Zach Graves landed a pinch-hit leadoff single against Ryan Corkum. Cookie forced him out on a grounder, but soon enough it was the third former Raccoon the Thunder had in their outfield to get into the focus. When Tim Stalker drove a ball hard, Jason Seeley appeared to make the catch running back, on the track, but then crashed into the fence and the ball came loose. Stalker was dashing hard, as was Cookie, routinely, and Stalker came up with an RBI triple. With one out, he was now the tying run and nominally there were good bats coming up. The very next pitch tied the game – a wild one that almost hit an evading Matt Nunley and allowed Stalker to score. But with Nunley grounding out and Mendoza going down on strikes, all that did was to send the game to extra innings. Brett Lillis was handed the ball and instantly fell apart. John Riley reached on an infield single with one out, and the Thunder would then rocket doubles off the wall; Jason Seeley with one out, Adam Baker with two outs. The Raccoons remained stubbornly hapless even in the tenth inning and readily lost the opener, one inning later than deserved. 4-2 Thunder. Olivares 1-1; Graves (PH) 1-1; Guerrero 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
OCT: SS L. Rivera – 3B B. Marshall – C Pizzo – RF Branch – 1B W. Madrid – CF Bareford – LF Hollingsworth – 2B Riley – P Vigil
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Rice – 2B Stalker – RF Graves – CF Stevenson – P Garrett

Travis Garrett lasted a raucous third of an inning, allowing a single to Bobby Marshall before Mike Pizzo homered to right. Garrett, inept as ****, then drilled Ezra Branch, who took objection to that and charged the mound. Garrett clocked him in the kisser with a right hook and someone on the Thunder ripped the glove from Daniel Bullock’s hand to beat Garrett repeatedly over the head with it. It took five minutes to sort out the resulting chaos, with Garrett and Branch ejected at the end of it. Matt Nunley escaped ejection despite a suspicious amount of human hair in his glove.

Logan Sloan replaced the ****ing *** **** Garrett as we merrily declared a bullpen day. He got out of the inning without the runner scoring – Luke Davis having replaced the ejected Branch – and would also be the only Critter to reach base the first time through the order, doubling to center. I looked at the clock at that point and decided this was the perfect time for a drink, or nineteen. Sloan lasted 4.1 innings, partially undone by a Tim Stalker error in the fifth inning, and left with the bases loaded after a walk to Davis, totally done after 68 pitches. Joel Davis got out of the inning when Willie Madrid flew out softly to right, then hit a 2-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning to plate Josh Stevenson, who had doubled ahead of him, bringing the score to 2-1, and the Critters tied the game in the bottom 6th on a run-scoring groundout by Tim Stalker, although in all honesty Matt Nunley had only reached third base because of a wild pitch… Stevenson scored again in the seventh inning, hitting a leadoff single, stealing second base and eventually coming around on Bullock’s sac fly. Now we were actually in the lead! Dew did the eighth, and MacCarthy came out for the ninth after two long and unsuccessful outings for Lillis in the last two days, and starting with the pinch-hitting DeWeese, plenty of left-handed batting to come up. MacCarthy walked DeWeese, outrageously, but Nate Brown in the #1 spot hit sharply into a double play. Baker singled with two outs, but Pizzo popped out to Nunley in foul ground, ending this weird-ass game with a W. 3-2 Critters. Stevenson 2-3, 2B; Sloan 4.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-1; Davis 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K and 1-1, RBI;

We should bat our relievers more often!

Travis Garrett and his 6.15 ERA were suspended by the league for nine games (same for Branch). This was the perfect excuse to throw the sucker onto waivers and then cross fingers for some illiterate hillbilly GM to pick him up. Garrett had no options left, so waivers were required to get him off the roster and were neither punishment nor unjust cruelty to creatures NO MATTER HOW HARD HE DESERVED THOSE.

Unable to pick between Dave Dyer and Ricky Martinez – both borderline incompetent even in AAA – we promoted 25-year old (…) Trevor Taylor to the big leagues to make his debut. He was already on the 40-man roster. He was also pitching in Ham Lake before promotion. He had a 3.48 ERA an 5-5 record for the Panthers. Originally a fifth round pick by the Wolves in 2015, he had been released without getting out of single-A ball and then signed by the Critters off the trash heap in February of 2018.

There was nothing about this guy justifying promotion to the major leagues. But we were down to the bare bones now.

Game 3
OCT: SS L. Rivera – CF Bareford – 1B W. Madrid – RF Seeley – C A. Baker – 3B B. Marshall – LF Hollingsworth – 2B Riley – P Hanson
POR: LF Carmona – SS Stalker – 3B Nunley – 1B Rockwell – RF Stevenson – 2B Pelles – CF Romero – C Olivares – P Gutierrez

The Thunder greeted Gutierrez with a Lorenzo Rivera double, Andy Bareford’s RBI single, and then Ruben Pelles threw away Willie Madrid’s double play grounder. That kinda game, huh? After Seeley grounded out, Gutierrez got a golden strikeout in a full count on Adam Baker, and when Romero caught Marshall’s fly to center escaped the inning with minimal damage after all. The Thunder would get leadoff singles in the next two innings, but wouldn’t score, either because the runner was caught stealing or because of a double play actually turned beginning with Pelles. The Raccoons had no base hits the first time through; Nunley walked in the first; Cookie reached on an error in the third. Nobody got even close to score. Nunley actually reached third base in the fourth inning; he drew a leadoff walk, Stevenson singled, but Pelles popped out and Romero grounded out to Marshall to keep them on the corners.

When the Raccoons actually scored in the fifth inning, their effort started with Gutierrez. Holding the Thunder to one run over five innings, Rico also hit a 1-out double in the bottom 5th, then scored on Stalker’s 2-out double to left center, tying the score before Nunley grounded out to short. All was dandy for Gutierrez through six, but the Thunder ripped him apart in the seventh. Baker led off with a single, he walked Bobby Marshall, and Steve Hollingsworth’s grounder narrowly escaped between Nunley and Stalker. All runs scored on Riley’s 2-run double and Hanson’s run-scoring groundout. The fourth runner stayed on; Noah Bricker struck out Rivera, and Bareford grounded out, keeping the damage on Gutierrez to four runs total. Of course that also hung him up for the loss. The Raccoons got Stalker and Nunley on base with 2-out singles in the bottom 7th, but Rockwell, even opposing a left-hander, cluelessly struck out to extend his daily futility to 0-for-4, just in time before getting double-switched out. But the Raccoons couldn’t go down without flickering up the pointless hope once more. After Stevenson reached base in the bottom 8th, as a result of two double switches the Coons had Graves batting seventh and Mendoza batting ninth. Both of them landed RBI hits! But that was not enough to make up a 4-1 deficit… 4-3 Thunder. Stalker 2-5, 2B, RBI; Stevenson 2-5; Graves 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Raccoons (38-39) vs. Canadiens (37-41) – June 30-July 3, 2022

We were up 5-2 against Vancouver this year, but these things could change quickly, I knew from experience. The Elks were one spot behind us in the North, and still ahead of the Loggers (…!?). They were sixth in runs scored, but only ninth in runs allowed. Their rotation was semi-decent, and honestly, I’d switch them five-for-five right now, but their bullpen was the most rotten thing in the land, even worse than the Thunder’s, and that one had already been pretty raw.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Nielson (3-1, 1.57 ERA) vs. Randy Jenkins (4-6, 2.95 ERA)
Frank Kelly (5-4, 3.30 ERA) vs. Matt Rosenthal (7-5, 4.26 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (4-7, 4.45 ERA) vs. Kevin Woodworth (8-6, 3.88 ERA)
Trevor Taylor (0-0) vs. Andy Purdy (0-0, 4.82 ERA)

We would get all their right-handers and miss only southpaw Greg Becker (3-7, 5.40 ERA). Also not on the menu this weekend: Ryan Holliman. The dangerous catcher was on the DL with a bum knee and would not come back until after the approaching All Star Game.

Game 1
VAN: CF Coca – RF Kim – LF A. Torres – SS Calfee – 1B M. Rivera – C D. Rojas – 3B Rickard – 2B Otis – P Jenkins
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Rice – 2B Stalker – RF Graves – CF Stevenson – P Nielson

Alex Torres scored in the first inning on John Calfee’s 2-out double after swiping his 34th base of the season. The Elks had three hits in that first inning, but Torres had none of those, reaching base by forcing out Man-su Kim. The Elks had three more hits off Nielson in the second inning, but didn’t score at all when Kim flew out to Graves with three on and one out, and Graves threw out the hustling Bobby Rickard at home plate. Rickard would strike out to end the top of the third, with Calfee and Dave Rojas having knocked two more singles off Nielson. In a perfect world, the Coons would score the odd run or two to make the Elks look even dumber, but when Cookie hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, stole second base (his 20th of the season), and reached third via a Nunley groundout, Dumbo Mendoza grounded a 3-0 pitch to Matt Otis to end the inning.

The Coons would eventually tie the score – Josh Stevenson’s leadoff jack in the bottom 5th doing the job – while the Elks had no hits off Nielson in the middle innings after eight hits in the first three innings. Nielson would eventually go seven, still holding on to the 1-1 tie, and got a no-decision. Attention shifted to John Calfee, who made two errors in the later innings of the game. The first put Mendoza on base in the sixth inning, with Mendoza lowering his average under .270 at that point, but didn’t result in a run. The second error came in the bottom 8th on Nunley’s grounder, leading off. With Rich Hood, recently removed from the rotation for reasons TOTALLY UNKNOWN, pitching and being left-handed, a memorable moment occurred, as Dumbo was not allowed to go to bat. Gil Rockwell batted for him. The attendance was stunned at Mendoza’s removal, so was Mendoza, but nobody was particularly surprised that Rockwell struck out against a career no-good.

A brief summer storm broke soon after that and play was delayed for an hour – yes, summer in Portland fell into the middle of the week this year! Brett Lillis had an uncharacteristically calm top of the ninth inning, handing fate to the bottom of the order in the bottom 9th. Pelles batted for Graves, with the rubber-armed Hood somehow still in the game, and doubled to left. After sad outs by Stevenson and Romero, Cookie drew a walk off right-handed replacement Juan Mendoza. Bullock also walked, loading the bases for Nunley with two outs. That count ran full, and the sixth pitch was not vaguely near the zone – Nunley scored a walkoff walk and the Raccoons clinched the opener. 2-1 Blighters. Carmona 3-4, BB; Pelles (PH) 1-1, 2B; Stevenson 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Nielson 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

Game 2
VAN: CF Coca – RF Kim – LF A. Torres – SS Calfee – 1B M. Rivera – C D. Rojas – 3B Rickard – 2B Otis – P Rosenthal
POR: CF Stevenson – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – C Rice – 1B Rockwell – RF Graves – 2B Pelles – P Kelly

Fans sensed the end times approaching as rumors ran rampant in the city on the first of July. Cookie was not in the lineup! Is he gonna be traded!? I heard Kelly is traded! No, he’s starting today! Raw craziness, and I was in the middle of it.

In cold hard facts, Calfee took a walk leading off the second inning, stole a base, and scored on Dave Rojas’ single for the first run of the game. Been there, seen that. Ruben Pelles levelled the score in the third inning, knocking a home run off Rosenthal, his fifth of the season. The Coons would then have leadoff singles the next two innings, only to hit into a double play in both of them. First up was Nunley in the fourth, whom Mendoza eight-balled back to the dugout, and in the fifth Rockwell got on with a liner to right, but this time Zach Graves also found a single. Pelles hit to short for two, but Frank Kelly kicked a ball through between Rickard and Calfee, getting Rockwell home with the go-ahead run! Kelly would make it through seven with the lead, allowing only five hits, with three of those on Dave Rojas’ ledger. Rojas had batted .274 in 124 AB last year, but had come into this game with a .161 average in 34 AB. Offense remained hard to come by for either team; Rockwell hit into a double play in the bottom 7th, after which Kelly steered through another inning, retiring Otis, Rosenthal (who was not hit for) and Coca in the eighth. Cookie batted for Kelly in the bottom 8th after Pelles’ leadoff single, but grounded to Otis for a force play at second. He stole second, though, Stevenson was walked intentionally, and Daniel Bullock knocked a single to right to load the bases – yeah nobody likes running on Man-su Kim’s arm. Nunley hit into a double play, the Critters’ fourth in the game… At least Brett Lillis held up… 2-1 Blighters. Nunley 2-4; Pelles 2-3, HR, RBI; Kelly 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (6-4) and 1-2, RBI;

And that, kids, was Frank Kelly’s 17th and final start as a Raccoon.

Interlude: Trade

Saturday morning news broke that the Raccoons traded SP Frank Kelly (6-4, 3.14 ERA) to the Blue Sox for 23-year old #23 prospect AAA SP Matt Huf, who was 6-4 with a 3.74 ERA for the Blue Sox’ triple-A team, but had made one scoreless long relief appearance for Nashville already this season.

The trade clearly indicated that the team was acknowledging defeat and was trying to get rid of assets for the next team of maybe-stars. Huf had been the #2 prospect prior to the 2021 season, but had missed time to shoulder woes and had dropped to #23 in the newest edition of the rankings. Huf, who had a 97mph heater and a wipeout curve, was moved right into the Coons rotation (which prior to Saturday’s game held pitchers with 23 big-league starts this year and 240 for their careers, and Bobby Guerrero held almost 90% of the latter) and would make his Critters debut early next week, maybe as early as Monday.

By the way, the name is both pronounced as and translated from German into “hoof” – y’know, the things on the horse.

Raccoons (38-39) vs. Canadiens (37-41) – June 30-July 3, 2022

Game 3
VAN: CF Coca – RF Kim – SS Calfee – 1B M. Rivera – C D. Rojas – 3B Rickard – LF Houghtaling – 2B Otis – P Woodworth
POR: LF Carmona – CF Stevenson – 3B Nunley – C Rice – RF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – SS Stalker – 2B Armetta – P Guerrero

Again Guerrero was charged with an unearned run early, as the Elks moved Tony Coca across home plate when Rice threw away Calfee’s grounder in the first inning. The lead changed quickly, however, with the Coons reeling off three straight 1-out hits in the bottom of the second inning. Rockwell and Armetta both singled, but in between Tim Stalker hit an RBI triple, and scored on the Armetta bouncer into rightfield to give Guerrero a 2-1 lead. The Coons would continue to find double plays, like Rice in the fourth inning, and Guerrero held up for a little while, but the Elks got their leadoff men on base in the fifth, in which Woodworth’s bad bunt and Coca whiffing derailed Otis’ leadoff single, and in the sixth, when Guerrero walked the quick Calfee. The Elks would however managed to pop up with each of their next three batters, letting the Coons get away with another 2-1 lead for the moment.

Otis’ 1-out single in the seventh put the tying run on base yet again. Woodworth bunted him to second base, after which Moises Berrones – the Elks’ primary pinch-hitter – batted for Tony Coca. Berrones, left-handed, was batting only .215, but was a left-hander and Guerrero was at 97 pitches. Sugano to the rescue! Berrones flew to pretty deep center, but into an out, Stevenson getting into position to end the inning. That was the only hitter for Sugano, who was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom 7th with Stalker on second, Armetta on first, and two outs. Zach Graves blew out easily to Berrones in rightfield. Cory Dew held the fort in the eighth; in the ninth it was on Joel Davis to secure the third straight 2-1 victory over the Elks, facing PH Chris Tanzillo in the #6 slot to begin the inning. Tanzillo struck out; Jeremy Houghtaling hit a ball to right, easy pickings for Mendoza, and Armetta handled Matt Otis’ grounder. 2-1 Raccoons. Stalker 2-3, 3B, RBI; Armetta 2-3, RBI; Guerrero 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (5-7);

I would not be mad about a fourth 2-1 win in this series…

Game 4
VAN: CF Coca – RF Kim – LF A. Torres – SS Calfee – 1B M. Rivera – C D. Rojas – 3B Onelas – 2B Otis – P Purdy
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Bullock – C Rice – 1B Rockwell – RF Mendoza – SS Stalker – 2B Pelles – CF Romero – P Taylor

There wouldn’t be another 2-1 win; while Trevor Taylor struck out his first ever major league batter, the Elks soon got to him. Kim singled, Calfee homered, and the Elks were up 2-0, but they wouldn’t be for long. Cookie’s leadoff walk in the bottom 1st was followed by Danny Rice’s home run and the score was levelled again. While hits would be scarce overall in the game, homers continued to fly away. Dave Rojas hit a real blast in the fourth inning to give the Elks a 3-2 lead, and that was also the tally in total hits through five innings between those two teams that had nothing going at all. When Taylor walked Calfee with two outs in the sixth that was already a rousing moment in the game, potentially pivotal – what would happen next!? Mike Rivera grounded out to Rockwell. Cookie even drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th – the drama! Bullock popped out, and Rice got drilled. That brought up the pair of bleeding sores in the middle of the order, and Rockwell struck out in a real hurry. Mendoza came up with two outs and was something like one-for-a-million in the last four weeks. And there was no reason to start hitting now – Mendoza struck out.

Taylor’s debut would end after seven innings, three hits, three runs, when Matt Nunley’s off day also came to an end in the bottom of the seventh inning. Stalker was on third after reaching on Alex Onelas’ error, and Romero was on first with a 1-out single. We were still down 3-2 and needed RUNS … NOW. But we weren’t going to get them. Nunley popped out, Cookie grounded out, the runners remained on the corners. Instead, Logan Sloan came apart in the eighth inning, allowed two hits, a walk, and two runs, but there was still enough time in the game to become hideously drunk without anybody noticing. Slappy – Slappy… is that the Captain Coma stash? 5-2 Canadiens. Taylor 7.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (0-1);

John Calfee broke a finger diving for Stalker’s grounder in the ninth inning. That was little consolation…

In other news

June 28 – The Canadiens pile up 22 hits against the Aces, but still need 13 innings to win; the final hit for them is a walkoff home run against LVA MR Danny Lobato (0-2, 4.24 ERA, 2 SV) hit by VAN C Chris Tanzillo (.217, 1 HR, 6 RBI), who goes 3-for-7 in the 10-8 victory.
June 28 – While the Titans only amount to a drag bunt base hit by 1B/LF/RF Gil Cornejo (.267, 2 HR, 30 RBI) off Andrew Gudeman in the seventh inning, the Condors still need nine innings to score a single run on 2B/SS Howard Read’s (.219, 5 HR, 23 RBI) walkoff home run.
June 29 – SAL RF/LF Nate Ellis (.303, 11 HR, 46 RBI) is expected to miss the entire month of July with a sprained elbow. The 28-year old hit .332 with 30 homers in 2021.
June 30 – SAC INF Trey Rock (.356, 0 HR, 17 RBI) is expected to miss three to four weeks after taking a hit to the shoulder in an on-base collision.
July 1 – Singles by Matt Jamieson and Robby Boggs as well as consecutive errors by Oklahoma City’s John Riley and Bobby Marshall help the Condors to an odd 5-4 walkoff win in ten innings over the Thunder.
July 2 – The Scorpions exchange outfielder John Staebell (.322, 2 HR, 10 RBI) for the Warriors’ MR Troy McCaskill (2-2, 3.14 ERA) and a prospect.
July 3 – The Aces score ten runs overall, but the Bayhawks score ten runs in the fourth inning alone in a 15-10 victory for San Francisco.

Complaints and stuff

The Crusaders put Adam Young on the trading block. I am waiting for a prank call in which their GM will over him to be, just as an insult. But can there be anything much more insulting than Dumbo Mendoza’s 1-for-32, 2-for-43 spill?

Travis Garrett went – unfortunately – unclaimed and arrived in St. Petersburg on Saturday. He is still suspended, but I can’t give a **** right now.

Alex Torres stole only the one base against us on the weekend, giving him 34 through 82 games this year. That is right near the all-time season-best, which was put up two years ago by Cincy’s Nando Maiello.

ABL SINGLE SEASON STOLEN BASE LEADERS
1st – Nando Maiello (2020) – 66
2nd – Danny Flores (2015) – 61
3rd – Javier Rodriguez (2006) – 60
4th – Danny Flores (2016) – 59
5th – Moromao Hino (1998) – 58
6th – Victor Hodgers (2015) – 57
7th – Andres Serna (1986) – 55
t-8th – Andres Serna (1990) – 54
t-8th – Yoshi Yamada (2005) – 54
10th – Moromao Hino (1996) – 53

Since we are on it already…

ABL SINGLE SEASON STOLEN BASE LEADERS
1st – Moromao Hino – 485
2nd – Diego Rodriguez – 460 – HOF
3rd – Martin Ortíz – 457
4th – Cristo Ramirez – 424 – HOF
5th – Daniel Silva – 417
6th – Danny Flores – 402 – active
7th – Javier Rodriguez – 391
8th – Paul Connolly – 366 – HOF
9th – Ricardo Carmona – 358 – active
10th – Xiao-wei Li – 357

There was a $409k bonus pool available to sign international free agents this year, but of course this was a soft cap. Go blow this year, be restricted next year. The Coons had no restrictions in place this season, because money had been tight in ’21. This year we had $640k easily available as the window open, and that was before the Kelly trade, which freed up about the same amount. If we want, we can go blow.

Trading down is not going to be easy though. I hear Dumbo Mendoza is going to execute his 10/5 rights and veto any deal, and nobody wants much of Cookie, who is simply not a power hitter in a power position, and will get 10/5 rights before the end of the month.

Fun fact: When Yoshi Yamada stole 54 bases in his only full major-league season in 2005, he was a Raccoon and part of our double-Yoshi middle infield.

Ah, 2005. Ninth consecutive losing season.

We are going back to that by the way.

Maud, why can’t I say that in the interview with the TV guys? – Is it all… - No, Maud, is it all about lying these days?