[Westheim]

Raccoons (53-41) @ Titans (52-39) – July 17-19, 2012

Big 3-game series in Boston in which the Raccoons can take the top dog spot in the North by taking two of three. They were so far 5-4 against Boston this year, outlasting their top 3 offense. The Titans had issues with their pitching, ranking only seventh in runs allowed and had the second-worst rotation with a 4.54 ERA. The Raccoons’ own rotation, which had sat 10th for a long, long while, had recovered to fifth place by now with a 4.05 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Scott Spears (7-3, 2.84 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (9-7, 3.66 ERA)
Hector Santos (7-7, 3.91 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (11-6, 4.12 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-4, 2.71 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (3-11, 5.20 ERA)

This series starts with back-to-back left-handed pitchers thrown at us by the Titans, and here’s also a real test for Scott Spears, still undefeated as a Critter.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – C D. Alexander – CF Seeley – SS Roudabush – P Spears
BOS: CF J. Gusmán – 1B Legendre – 2B J. Ramirez – C Suda – RF J. Flores – LF Hayashi – SS N. Chavez – 3B K. Williams – P Hamlyn

Hamlyn wasn’t the pitcher of years past anymore and conceded nine hits in the first five innings, striking out only five. The bad news for the Raccoons were that he got those strikeouts whenever he needed one real bad, and whatever offense wasn’t killed with a K, Matt Pruitt ruined with a double play in the first and a devastating foul pop in the third. The Coons were still up 2-1 after five, a homer aside (Dylan Alexander and Ken Williams responsible) augmented by Yoshi singling home Roudabush in the top 5th. Roudabush struck out to strand a runner in the sixth, and Quebell struck out to strand two in the seventh; meanwhile the Coons had lost Scott Spears to an apparent injury after getting a deep fly out to center from “Quasimodo” Suda. Rockburn stepped in and finished the inning, but Ron Thrasher blew the lead in the seventh inning, walking two and allowing a creeping single to rightfield to Javier Gusmán as the Titans took a 3-2 lead. “Dodo” Iwase didn’t concede anything to the Coons in the eighth, but Roudabush hit a leadoff single against Iemitsu Rin in the ninth, representing the tying run. John Alexander struck out, Yoshi singled, Merritt struck out. One idea would be to hit Bowen for Pruitt, the death of all offense in this game, but Bowen was an automatic strikeout and Rin was whiffing almost SIXTEEN per nine innings. Pruitt batted, grounded out, and everyone had known it before it had even happened. 3-2 Titans. Nomura 3-5, RBI; Merritt 2-4, BB; Quebell 2-4, 2B; Roudabush 2-4; Whitehouse (PH) 1-1;

In this infernal **** game, the Raccoons outhit the Titans 12-6, and still wound up with a bitter loss.

Ugh!

Jason Seeley went 0-4 with 2 K and lowered his slash to .212/.295/.316. It was time to roll the dice: Ricardo Carmona would make his major league debut on Wednesday! The main prize for the Jose Morales adventure last season was batting under .300 by now in St. Petersburg, but … well, sometimes ya gotta roll those old dice.

… except that he DIDN’T make his major league debut on Wednesday. Rain washed out the game, and a double header was scheduled for Thursday.

By the time it was Thursday, we also had the news on Scott Spears, who was diagnosed with elbow inflammation and would require being shut down for a few weeks. He ended up on the DL. Bill Conway would be recalled to take the spot in the rotation – AFTER the double header. We added an extra reliever in George Youngblood (2.86 ERA in 28.1 innings) for the double header. Conway was 3-0 with a 3.23 ERA, 17 BB and 58 K in 55.2 innings in St. Pete. He had last pitched on Monday, so he would be a fit for Saturday, but between him and Yano it was probably a wash…

We made one last change and flicked the order between Brownie and Santos for the double header. Nick Brown would probably use up less bullpen and give us more options in game 3.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – C Bowen – CF Carmona – SS Whitehouse – P Brown
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 1B Legendre – C Suda – CF K. Williams – RF Hayashi – LF Rosa – 3B Reece – SS N. Chavez – P C. Graham

Brown required five K to match Dennis Fried (a.k.a. the one that got away for nothing) in the all-time strikeouts table, didn’t get anybody in the first two innings and dug himself a hole in the third that consisted of a leadoff single by good, old Sonny Reece and himself misfielding a bunt by Chester Graham, but here he escaped with three strikeouts to Javier Gusmán, Jesus Ramirez, and Alexis Legendre. The Titans did get on the board, though, in the bottom 4th with a leadoff double by Suda, who scored on Toki Hayashi’s single to left center. While Brown equalized Fried with a strikeout to Reece leading off the fifth and rallied right past him with two more whiffs in the inning, the Raccoons’ sorry offense consisted of a pair of Yoshi Nomura singles and that was about it so far. Nomura didn’t get on in his third attempt (sucker!), and so this one looked like another one of those sour losses. Brownie allowed another run in his last inning, the seventh, on a 2-out RBI single by Sonny Reece, but was left quite definitely hanging in the breeze by his teammates. A Whitehouse single and an error put the tying runs on in the eighth, but Merritt struck out for the third time on the day, and in the ninth a 2-out homer by Keith Ayers came too late to be of any value. 2-1 Titans. Nomura 2-4; Whitehouse 2-3; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, L (9-5);

Ricardo Carmona went 0-3 in his debut, but pretty much everybody in this game posted an oh-fer.

The Titans removed Tommy Wilson from the third game, but we still got a right-hander with an unpleasant ERA, as Alex Lindsey (8-6, 5.12 ERA) took the ball. He had started three games against Portland this season, being peppered for 17 runs in total, but somehow he went 0-1 and the Titans won the two games in which he didn’t receive a decision, one of those being a Hector Santos start…

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – LF Castro – SS M. Gutierrez – P Santos
BOS: CF J. Gusmán – SS Rosa – 2B J. Ramirez – C Suda – RF J. Flores – LF Hayashi – 1B J. Gutierrez – 3B K. Williams – P Lindsey

Ricardo Carmona singled up the middle for his first major league hit, coming in the first inning just before Lindsey blinked out of consciousness for a while, drilled Merritt, and then walked Quebell and J-Alex to shove home a run. The Raccoons’ famous clutchness came into play, they scratched out a run on a sac fly by D-Alex, and then Castro struck out…

Castro soon enough excused himself from the game with a barking shoulder, with Pruitt taking the spot in left. Offensive ineptitude and general brittleness were soon joined by disjointed fielding, with a Merritt error and a downright stupid attempt by Santos to get the lead runner on Lindsey’s bunt creating a more than juicy chance for the Titans in the bottom 3rd. Gusmán hurled a ball to deep right, with J-Alex making the catch at the wall. Santos doubled in a run in the fourth inning, and didn’t allow a hit until Gusmán singled to lead off the bottom 6th, and at that point was already over 70 pitches anyway. The Raccoons had had the bases loaded in the top 6th, with Santos chipping in a single, but when Yoshi flew out to Hayashi (and dropped to 0-4), Dylan Alexander was thrown out at home trying to tag up and score. The Titans got on the board with a single by Jesus Ramirez and ultimately a sac fly, but Suda gave the run back in the top 7th, allowing Carmona, who had hit a leadoff double, to score on a passed ball. Santos finished seven strong innings, handing the Titans very little to work with despite some early hiccups, and Sugano, Steele, and Casas closed out the game competently. Carmona 2-5, 2B; Merritt 2-4, 2B; Quebell 3-4, BB, 2B; Pruitt 1-2, BB, 2B; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (8-7) and 2-3, 2B, RBI;

Castro aside, there was another casualty: Yoshi Nomura’s hitting streak ended at 15 games with an ugly 0-5. Castro in turn was diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis and ended up thrown onto the pyre of broken bodies. He might only miss the minimum 15 days on the DL, but the list (Baldwin, Castro, Palmer, Sambrano, Spears) was growing longer…

Raccoons (54-43) @ Condors (34-61) – July 20-22, 2012

While rotten to the core, arguably, the Condors had so far the upper hand in the season series, 2-1 over the Coons. They were dead last in runs scored in the CL, and their pitching was about mediocre. It was hardly a wonder they were 27 under .500 and 35.5 behind the romping Thunder. They also had a few injuries, including third baseman Dan Jones, but it was nowhere near as bad for them as it was for us.

Projected matchups:
Shunyo Yano (3-7, 5.05 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (4-7, 3.64 ERA)
Rich Hood (4-4, 4.01 ERA) vs. Doug Thompson (6-7, 3.54 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-4, 6.27 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (2-7, 4.88 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, and we miss “Midnight” Martin. I’m happy already.

We needed a replacement for Tomas Castro, and it wasn’t Seeley, who had been sent down and had promptly tweaked a hamstring. Not too serious, but he was not a good candidate for this weekend’s slate of games. Jimmy Fucito was added to the roster, but he was struggling in AAA…

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – SS Whitehouse – P Yano
TIJ: 3B Dasher – SS Eroh – LF Crum – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – 2B M. Miller – 1B R. Morris – C P. Fernandez – P Rojas

After Merritt popped out to first to strand runners in scoring position in the top of the first, Craig Dasher, whom we saw for the first time and who was batting a crisp .206 with no power to speak of, walloped a leadoff jack off Shunyo Yano. That was pretty depressing in the first place, but Yano then went on to retire the next 13 batters in a row before Matthew Miller hit a 1-out single in the bottom 5th of a 1-1 game. Rob Morris singled. Pablo Fernandez singled, the Condors took a 2-1 lead. Well, the pitcher’s up, perhaps - … or perhaps Manuel Rojas would hit a ****ing RBI double to take Yano apart. Another run scored on a groundout and Yano sat in a 3-run hole with an entirely unhelpful offense around him.

Top 7th, there was a chance for a comeback after all, although it had more to do with Rojas melting than with the Coons doing anything useful. Rojas simply walked the bases full before getting to Matt Pruitt with two outs. Those were the tying runs, and Pruitt could use a big knock, ranking behind both of our normal starting middle infielders in terms of home runs. He gingerly rolled an 0-1 pitch to Ron Eroh, and that was the inning. Baseball still got weirder, with Slayton pitching in his usual murky ways in the bottom of the seventh. Fernandez hit a 1-out single, advanced on a passed ball, and then Rojas singled to right (…), the Condors sent the runner, John Alexander hammered him out at home, but shook that old arm and held his side and also left the game. 4-1 Condors. Quebell 2-4; Whitehouse 1-2, BB;

Gettin’ down to the bones here!

Interlude: trade

Not a blockbuster trade, but on Saturday before their middle game against the Condors the Raccoons announced a deal with the Loggers that brought 32-year old swingman Richard Williams (1-0, 5.74 ERA, 1 SV) to Portland in exchange for 29-yr old AAA SP Greg Dodson and 21-yr old AA OF Martin Sorto.

There was little doubt that Richard Williams would line right in with the other troublemakers, but at least the price was negligible. Sorto was our ninth-ranked prospect, but wasn’t actually ranked in the country, and his performance in Ham Lake was entirely forgettable. Nobody needed Dodson much.

Williams was to slide into the rotation, and except for Brown and Santos he could replace just about anybody. We’d know more after this series was over… He remained designated for assignment for the rest of the weekend.

Raccoons (54-43) @ Condors (34-61) – July 20-22, 2012

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – RF Ayers – SS Whitehouse – P Hood
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B Dougal – 1B May – C R. Rodriguez – CF Feldmann – LF Eroh – RF Newman – SS M. Miller – P D. Thompson

Nick May doubled home Stanley Dougal to put Rich Hood into an early 1-0 hole in the first inning, but the Raccoons came roaring back with four hits and two runs in the top 2nd. That was about as much roar as they had shown in the last week. What they did show well at all times however was gross incompetence and rank stupidity. Hood issued a leadoff walk to Thompson in the bottom 3rd, somehow wasn’t punished for it, then issued another leadoff walk, this one to Rafael Rodriguez, in the bottom 4th. After a fielder’s choice hit into by Ryan Feldmann, the Condors came up with back-to-back hits by Ron Eroh and Will Newman to tie the game at two, and had two in scoring position with one out. Wonderously, Hood got a pop to Quebell from Miller, and was as good as out of the inning, Thompson grounded to Merritt, and Merritt THREW IT AWAY. NOOOOO!!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!??

It took two innings for the white spots I was seeing to disappear and for the people around be to regain their hearing. By then Hood had departed, leaving a runner on second for Micah Steele that of course scored anyway on a 2-out single by Miller, and the Raccoons trailed 5-2 after six, and 6-2 after seven after May homered off Gibson. There was some form of movement in the top 9th and it had an unearned smell to it. Whitehouse was dinked by Doug Thompson to start the inning, and when Manuel Gutierrez singled past the clumsy May, the Coons had two on with four to make up. Yoshi was out of the game, but continue breathing, it was not an injury, but a case of a double switch. Bowen hit for Gibson while the Condors sent reliever Tim Moray, recently anointed the new closer. Bowen hit the first pitch softly to center, a horrendous bloop that found a hole and became an RBI single. Nobody out, the tying run came to the plate in Carmona, who nursed an 0-4 day and flew out to center. Pruitt grounded to short, where Miller ate first dirt, then the ball, and the bases were loaded for Quebell and hopefully (…) Merritt.

And this sequence would soon rival the infamous Juan Diaz game from ten years earlier. Quebell took ball one, before Moray through a pitch in the dirt that escaped through Rodriguez’ wickets for a passed ball and Gutierrez scored, 6-4. Alright, the 2-0, in the dirt again and well off the plate and past Rodriguez again! Bowen scored! 6-5! Quebell, who still had not swung, had the green light under the condition that the 3-0 would come through his zip code. It did, and boy, oh boy, did Adrian Quebell give it a ride. Career homer #96 flipped the score, plus the current pitcher, and probably the Condors manager and his mother. The inning wasn’t even over! Dylan Alexander drew a walk with two outs against Jose Sanchez, who then threw a wild pitch of his own and conceded the run on Ayers’ single. Ayers was then caught stealing as we got a bit cocky. Angel Casas struck out the side after the most cruel 6-run turnaround I had seen in a while. 8-6 Blighters. Nomura 2-4; Bowen (PH) 1-1, RBI; Quebell 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Ayers 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 1-2;

What a bollocks game. How glad I am that our pitching is sound. Ha. Ha-hah.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Carmona – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – RF Fucito – SS M. Gutierrez – P Conway
TIJ: 3B Dasher – SS Eroh – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – C P. Fernandez – LF Newman – SS M. Miller – P Sabatino

Craig Dasher would have opened another game with a homer if Jimmy Fucito hadn’t picked the ball off the top of the fence in deep right. Instead the Coons scored first, D-Alex walking, Fucito hitting a liner over the shortstop that went into the gap for a double, and Gutierrez then brought home Alexander with a sac fly to center. The Condors came roaring back to tie the game in the same inning, and Ron Eroh homered in the third for a 2-1 Condors lead, while the Raccoons had Carmona caught stealing and Yoshi picked off first…

Conway didn’t survive the fifth inning, in which he was set on fire for four runs with Ryan Feldmann at second and two outs when Slayton came in. The useless dork Slayton walked the bases full before Merritt was actually fed a ball in play by Miller and got the third out. The Coons were down by five after six innings, but Sabatino ran into issues in the seventh inning. D-Alex hit a leadoff double, Fucito singled to left, and Gutierrez walked in a full count to load the bases. Keith Ayers hit for the pitcher and walked, forcing home a run, and then Yoshi split the outfielders with a marvelous gapper that emptied the bases with a 3-run double! Nomura scored on Pruitt’s single, tying the score at six, as the Condors were left wondering what in the heck was going wrong all the time. But just as quickly as the Coons had roared in, they roared out again. Rockburn was branded by Feldmann for a solo homer in the seventh, and that was only the start, because the incompetent setup chumps completely butchered the eighth inning, with Steele getting raked for four hits and four runs, including two bombs, left a man on base, and with two outs Thrasher was too **** to get out of that, walked a man, allowed a single, walked in a run. 12-6 Condors. Nomura 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Pruitt 2-5, RBI; D. Alexander 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Fucito 2-4, 2B; Gutierrez 1-2, BB, RBI;

And yes, this was the worst offense in the league, and yes, Micah Steele was brought in to help fortify the back end of the pen, and not my pre-existing heart condition.

In other news

July 16 – SFW SP Kurt Doyle(4-12, 4.92 ERA), just recently acquired from the Knights, is found to have a damaged elbow ligament and will be out until next season.
July 17 – Big, big blow for the Crusaders: RF/LF Stanton Martin (.335, 26 HR, 93 RBI) has a broken bone in his elbow and is definitely out for the 2012 season.
July 17 – SFB 1B Andrew Simmons (.258, 5 HR, 38 RBI) has manufactured a 20-game hitting streak.
July 18 – ATL 3B/2B Carlos Martinez (.244, 11 HR, 43 RBI) is placed on the DL. “Car-Mart” is shelved by shoulder tendinitis and will be shut down for a month.
July 20 – WAS RF/CF Victor Sarabia (.253, 6 HR, 37 RBI) has a broken thumb and is placed on the DL for about six weeks.
July 20 – Another thumb injury gets IND 2B Jong-beom Kym (.278, 10 HR, 41 RBI) on the DL. The 28-year old rookie and international signing has suffered a sprained thumb and will miss at least four weeks.
July 20 – SAL SP Tim Dunn (4-10, 4.28 ERA) 3-hits the Miners in a 6-0 shutout.
July 21 – CIN INF Bob Hall (.230, 5 HR, 34 RBI) gets his 2,500th career hit with a fourth inning single off the Stars’ Billy Lawson in today’s 10-7 Cyclones loss to the Stars. A 1991 first-rounder by the Miners, Hall debuted in ’92 and had since played for six teams, including four in the FL East. A consistent contact batter, he has amassed 178 HR and 1,190 RBI with a .276/.349/.416 slash in his career. He was an All Star twice and won a ring with the 2010 Cyclones.
July 22 – Bayhawks’ Andrew Simmons (.263, 5 HR, 39 RBI) has his hitting streak reach 25 games with a double in the Bayhawks’ 5-3 loss to the Crusaders.

Complaints and stuff

Micah Steele’s ERA in his last 22 games is almost nine. He by now is as tradable as Craig Bowen. Well, I know ONE free agent we’ll have this year…

I was trying to come up with a Ron Alston-sized trade before the deadline, but my overtures for pitchers like “Midnight” Martin or Reynaldo Rendon have been completely unsuccessful. There aren’t enough players in our system to get somebody like that. Well, if I was willing to bundle up Hector Santos, perhaps - … but why trade then?

Hector Santos, who is ten years Nick Brown’s junior, in ten years might well be where Nick Brown is right now. And with better control! His K/BB is certainly appealing!

Well, I guess the Crusaders are dead for the year, then. Pena is also out, and a few guys are scuffling, and their outfield replacements aren’t thrilling at all. Plus, the pitching…

But, good news! We can post this table again:

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS (excerpt, 10 guys ahead of Nick Brown, plus now with all active pitchers)

1st – Martin Garcia – 3,783
2nd – Tony Hamlyn – 3,415 (active)
…
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,121 (active)
…
8th – Chris York – 2,979 (active)
…
11th – Kisho Saito – 2,800 (HOF)
12th – Robbie Campbell – 2,763
13th – Leland Lewis – 2,664 (HOF)
14th – Manuel Movonda – 2,663
15th – Kelvin Yates – 2,648 (active)
16th – Kiyohira Sasaki – 2,640
17th – Craig Hansen – 2,578 (HOF)
t-18th – Dan George – 2,516
t-18th – Bill Smith – 2,516
20th – Angel Romero – 2,499
21st – Nick Brown – 2,459 (active)

Barring a grisly woodchipping accident, there are only two guys that Nick Brown can’t realistically catch in his career. Garcia of course, and York and Yates are both his age and are progressing at the same speed, but Kel is one bad injury away from having his lead on Brownie eaten up. Hamlyn is 37 and his pace has slowed down real hard, and Cruz will be 40 this winter and has a bad season and no contract for ’13.