[Westheim]

All Star Game – July 10, 2012

Like I said, aside from Nick Brown nobody on this team made the All Star Game. It was Brownie’s sixth trip, and he was wholly unsuccessful, walking two and conceding a run in the fourth inning. The game took a good long while, 14 innings, until the Continental League broke through to win 5-4. Kel Yates was named MVP.

Swiftly ahead!

Raccoons (50-40) @ Crusaders (46-43) – July 12-15, 2012

The Crusaders had swept – one might be inclined to call it “swamped” – the Indians before the All Star Game, coming in with a 3-game winning streak. They were still second in runs scored, and ninth in runs allowed, despite the low-key 4-game set we played in Portland, in which the teams scored 23 runs combined. The Coons are fourth in runs scored and third in runs allowed by now.

Projected matchups:
Scott Spears (6-3, 2.71 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (4-10, 5.23 ERA)
Hector Santos (6-7, 3.97 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (7-4, 4.03 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-4, 2.80 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Moreno (3-12, 5.67 ERA)
Shunyo Yano (3-6, 5.04 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (7-7, 4.43 ERA)

That’s everybody’s best guess for their rotation, but I have actual reasoning for ours for this set:

Nick Brown threw 21 pitches on Tuesday. I was not entirely comfortable to start him on two days’ rest, but I would go on three games’ rest with him. We had an off day on Monday after this series, so we could skip one sorry soul until next Saturday. Yano had not gotten a start before the break, and I was really unhappy with both Hood and Santos. Since Yano had already missed a few starts and was too expensive to have him catch dust permanently, he would get a start, while Hood would take a seat. Between him and Santos I liked that we could start Santos in front of Brownie on regular rest. Spears went on five days’ rest on Thursday and Yano was tacked on at the back end.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Seeley – CF Castro – C D. Alexander – SS M. Gutierrez – P Spears
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Kester – CF Talamante – P P. Trevino

Spears was thumped in the first innings, four hits, all hard, for three runs, with a 2-run double by B.J. Manfull and an RBI double by Gabe Ortíz responsible for the counters. The Coons came back from that early deficit fairly quickly. Dylan Alexander hit his 10th home run in the second inning, 3-1, and in the top of the fourth Quebell opened with a single, Castro doubled off the wall in center, Trevino scored one run with a wild pitch, and the tying run came home on Gutierrez’ single to center. The inning would be prolonged on an error by Francisco Caraballo that put Spears on base, but the Coons left them loaded eventually, with the Crusaders chipping in leaving a pair in scoring position in the bottom 4th, in which Pancho Trevino had left a mark with a 1-out double. Jorge Orega singled, stole second, but they were left there when Caraballo fouled out and Martin Ortíz flew out to center. Yeah, this one could go either way, and Caraballo had a hand in it. He made another error in the fifth, this one putting Quebell on with one out. Seeley(!) was walked intentionally, then got forced out by a Castro grounder. D-Alex came up and ran a 3-0 count but had the greenest light available with Gutierrez and Spears behind him. He wonked the 3-0 real hard, deep center, deep, high, gone!

And the Crusaders kept melting. Down 6-3, Trevino walked Gutierrez, then was replaced by Dan Hutchings. Spears hit a 1-1 pitch past Caraballo, Gutierrez went to third, Stanton Martin fired a terrible throw up the leftfield line that was in nobody’s cover area, and Gutierrez let those paws fly and scored on the error, while Spears went to second base, from where he scored on Yoshi’s deep single to left, 8-3. Stanton Martin made everything worse for the home crowd by popping out on a 3-0 pitch to start the bottom of the inning, and things like this helped Spears to survive six laborious innings. The Raccoons’ pen scuffled a bit, with Rockburn making a mess in the ninth that he cleaned up himself, but the Coons rolled over the Crusaders’ pen for five runs in the last two innings, turning this game into a horrible rout. 13-3 Raccoons! Ayers (PH) 2-3; Castro 2-6, 2B, RBI; D. Alexander 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Gutierrez 2-3, 2 BB, 3 RBI; J. Alexander (PH) 1-1, RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The bottom of the order did all the work here. The top four in our lineup went a combined 3-for-20, with 1 RBI. The bottom five including pinch-hitters: 10-for-20, and 9 RBI.

It WAS a strange game. The Coons out-hit the Crusaders 13-12, but drew nine walks while giving up only a pair, and then there were those three errors, making four runs (all on Trevino) unearned.

We’re back in the lead in the North. And Spears is STILL undefeated as a Critter! And YOSHI – despite being carried off on a stretcher every other game – now has a 10-game hitting streak.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – SS M. Gutierrez – P Santos
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – CF Talamante – P P. Miller

Both pitchers had their issues, with the Raccoons pouring out a few runs early. Two in the first, and Yoshi reached an 11-game hitting streak with a 2-out RBI double in the third. Gabe Ortíz homered off Santos in the bottom of the inning, but the Raccoons got the run back on a run-scoring groundout by Gutierrez, who was then caught stealing, in the fourth. There was also a rain delay in the fourth inning that went more than half an hour, so there was lots of stuff going on…

Santos was nursed through six, with Francisco Caraballo doubling home Paul Miller, who had opened the inning with a single. That got the Crusaders back to 4-2, and the Coons might want to explore the idea of an insurance run or two. Instead, Miller hit Nomura to start the top 7th, AND WE REALLY WEREN’T IN THE MOOD FOR THIS ****!! Jon Merritt told Miller to suck it in the best way possible and walloped a 3-2 pitch in the tenth row in the leftfield stands, upping the score to 6-2 (which probably saved Caraballo a few teeth come the bottom of the inning). Merritt wound up having a really good day, coming up again with the bases loaded and two outs in the top 8th and hit another 3-2 pitch, this one off Charlie Deacon, for a 2-run single to center, 8-2 Coons. Amazingly, that didn’t get the Critters out of the woods. Micah Steele was brought in for the eighth. He had been shackled recently, and that trend continued with a pair of homers allowed to Caraballo and a true moonshot to Stanton Martin. Slayton appeared up by four to get the remaining four outs, but issued a double and a walk, and **** it, bring Angel. He struck out Kevin Bond to escape the mess in the eighth, and even though the Raccoons broke through Deacon and Jean-Christophe Fernandes for another four runs in the top of the ninth, Angel was retained for the bottom 9th, retiring the side in order. 12-4 Furballs! Nomura 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Merritt 4-5, HR, 4 RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2B; Whitehouse (PH) 2-2, 3B, 2 RBI; Santos 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 K, W (7-7); Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Pat Whitehouse had his first major league hit in this game, pinch-hitting for Josh Gibson in the eighth and hitting an infield single. He scored on Merritt’s single, too. Then there was obviously his contribution in the ninth inning, a 2-out, 2-run triple off Fernandes that sent Charlie Deacon’s ERA to 7.45;

Everybody seeing the Coons getting shut out with Brownie starting in game 3, after two orgies for 25 runs in the first two games, please raise your paws.

That’s a lotta paws.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – CF Seeley – C D. Alexander – SS Whitehouse – P Brown
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – CF T. Austin – P Bartels

Nope, no shutout. Merritt singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Pruitt’s single to get the Raccoons on the board in the first. Nick Brown entered with an outside chance at 21st place in the all-time strikeout table if he could find ten whiffs from the Crusaders somewhere, but things REALLY didn’t go that way from early on, and the only strikeout he got in on his first trip through the lineup was to the pitcher, A.J. Bartels. By then, Caraballo had tied the game with a solo homer. The score remained 1-1 through four, with the Raccoons mounting *something* in the fifth. Whitehouse led off with a single, but was forced on a bad bunt by Brown. The Coons still got a walk from Nomura and a Pruitt single to load the bases. That loaded the sacks, with Quebell running a full count against Bartels before swinging over a curveball, but it bounced off Ortíz’ chest protector and glanced off the side of his helmet and got a way to the backstop! Quebell really flung the paws on his way up the first base line and beat out a dazzled Ortíz to be safe – and Brown came home with the go-ahead run! Poor A.J. Bartels faced only one more batter: John Alexander went deep on an 0-1 pitch – GRAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

For the Crusaders, it kept getting worse. Whitehouse was on again in the sixth and bunted to second successfully this time by Brownie. Yoshi was 0-2 and looking for a hit, floating a soft line to center that Tim Austin dove on – and missed it! Austin was beat and had to race after it as it went all the way to the wall, and Yoshi had an RBI triple! Down by six, the Crusaders continued to make contact eagerly, but it was really bad contact all the way since Caraballo had dished that first inning home run. In the bottom 8th it was B.J. Manfull to hit a leadoff double, the first hard contact Brownie had allowed in a while, but the inning fizzled out again for the Crusaders as Ortíz grounded out to first, and Bond and Austin struck out. Yoshi homered off Hutchings in the ninth and Brown got a shot at the complete game, with 95 pitches through eight, but an 8-pitch walk drawn by Paco Batlle ended his bid right away. Steele replaced him and managed to get three outs without getting bombed. 8-1 Brownies! Nomura 2-4, BB, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 3-5, RBI; J. Alexander 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Whitehouse 2-4; Brown 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (9-4);

Atypical start for Nick Brown for sure. Odd bit: he allowed three homers in all of April and May. He’s allowed seven homers since.

Game 4
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – CF J. Alexander – RF Ayers – C Bowen – SS Roudabush – P Yano
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – CF Talamante – P Yates

Matt Pruitt killed the first with a double play, and the second by getting Yoshi forced at second base, while Yano was secretly trying to work the Crusaders back into the pennant race by allowing a single to Yates in the bottom 3rd, another one to Ortega, then a balk… Caraballo plated the first run of the game with a sac fly before Martin Ortíz also flew out deep to right, but Ayers made two good plays here to hold them to a single run. Yano struck out to strand a pair in the fourth, then allowed another two singles to Bond and Talamante in the bottom 5th to start the inning. Yates bunted them over, and Yano came back with a key strikeout (his first in the game) to get Ortega out. Caraballo grounded out to third to keep the Crusaders within easy reach, but with Yano the trouble never stopped. Martin Ortíz opened the sixth with yet another single, and then Stanton Martin livened up a dark series for him with a 2-run homer. Manfull doubled, and Yano was chased on ten hits.

If the Raccoons could just get a few hits…! No, they couldn’t and this was not going to become a sweep. Merritt reached base with a single to start the top 8th, and then Pruitt, Quebell, and J-Alex struck out in succession. This was the way things were going in this game. Ron Thrasher was pitching in the eighth and faced the fat part of the order. He walked Ortíz, and then Stanton Martin doubled off the wall in left – but he came into second base hobbling and then kneed down and was grinning, obviously in pain. That was probably WORSE for the Crusaders than losing six of eight to the Coons! Those Coons had their pen – Thrasher, Gibson, and Rockburn – waffled for three runs in the inning, and were themselves forcefully shut out on six singles. 6-0 Crusaders. Merritt 2-4; Roudabush 2-3;

Martin Ortíz’ leadoff single in the sixth was his 2,000th career hit. He has more awards than anybody can be bothered to list. Maybe we should mention that he has no Pitcher of the Year award. That’s about it. A pretty insane .290/.390/.457 hitter with 241 HR, 1,078 RBI, 335 SB, who in his career has led the league in both homers and triples (in different years, though), Ortíz is one of only two players to make $4M annually in the league.

In other news

July 13 – The Cyclones acquire LF R.J. DeWeese (.255, 13 HR, 40 RBI) from the Miners, parting with MR Ron Funderburk (2-0, 1.70 ERA, 2 SV) and #90 prospect AA SP Kevin Hall.
July 14 – DAL 1B/3B Dennis Berman (.317, 11 HR, 44 RBI) reaches the 2,500 hits mark with a leadoff single in the sixth inning of the Stars’ 6-1 win over the Scorpions. The hit comes off Antonio Pena. Berman, who split his career between the Cyclones and Stars, is a .284 batter with 252 HR and 1,113 RBI. He has three Platinum Sticks and a Gold Glove.
July 14 – Tijuana swingman Manuel “Doom” Rojas (4-7, 3.64 ERA, 1 SV) wrestles down the Falcons in a 1-0 game, pitching a 3-hit shutout.
July 15 – The Titans lose CL Tommy Wooldridge (0-1, 2.06 ERA, 19 SV) – the 33-year old has torn his rotator cuff and is out for the year – as well as 2B/SS Mike Rivera (.277, 0 HR, 21 RBI), who might miss a month with a broke finger.

Complaints and stuff

The only other $4M+ player? Sioux Falls pays Oliver Torres $4.04M this season, the last of five years he’s received as much. He’s never played more than 128 games in any of those last four seasons, he’s a complete wreck.

We’re back to .500 against the Crusaders all-time, 321-321, which leaves the Titans as the only North team we’re under .500 against: 306-334, which looks a bit sad.

I’m watching Ricardo Carmona closely in AAA, but he’s not making noise to get a callup. He was hurt for almost two months and returned in the last days of June. Since then his slash is consistently sinking. He’s not in the groove. Granted, it doesn’t take MUCH groove to be an improvement over our outfield. You have three guys that obviously don’t hit anything, and one that had a hot start and is by now so cold, to have a nice cold one just shove the can in his mouth for half an hour. That’s John Alexander of course. Pruitt is the only guy mostly motoring forward, but even his slash line keeps dropping. So Carmona might be an improvement after all.

Another improvement – doubtlessly – would be Sandy Sambrano, but he’s not likely to make it back this month. Same for Palmer. Colin Baldwin is even further off.

We signed 18-year old Dominican SS Tony Viera for $61,000 this week. He has great range, but not all that much of an arm. This is a tricky one. He might end up at second base. He can steal bases, and the bat has a hint of power in it, a potential 12/7/12 according to Calderón. I think that he has an actual shot.

Right now we have only one more offer out there. We were after two other starting pitchers, but missed out on a cheaper one, and I exited the bidding war for 18-year old Cuban SP Alfredo Mendoza when the price came close to $300k. Not that we can’t afford it right now, but we’d completely shoot us out of next year’s international free agent period, and I don’t even think as much of Mendoza as of Mercado, whom we signed earlier this month. The other player we’re after is a cheaper one, too, and we would not receive a penalty next year if we get him at the current price.