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Old 06-07-2025, 02:55 PM   #4681
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Raccoons (49-68) vs. Cyclones (64-53) – August 17-19, 2066

I didn’t know a lot of things, but I knew that these were the final games against a Federal League opponent this year… Cincy had won six games in a row and was second in runs scored and third in runs allowed in the Federal League. They had a good team – but they were 11 1/2 games behind the Blue Sox and it didn’t look like they were gonna catch up anymore. These teams had played the last two years as well, the Coons both times winning two of three games. The Raccoons had in fact won the last FIVE series from the Cyclones, but that streak was in some danger now.

Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (4-2, 3.42 ERA) vs. Blake Anderson (8-9, 4.24 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-10, 3.90 ERA) vs. Sean Sweeton (13-8, 3.03 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (2-3, 3.99 ERA) vs. A.C. Stebbins (10-6, 3.60 ERA)

Sweeton, who was 40 years old at this point, had of course had some nice years with the Critters, and Stebbins was the only southpaw coming up here.

Game 1
CIN: SS J. Munoz – RF F. Cruz – 3B D. Mendoza – LF M. Avila – C J. Contreras – CF Valencia – 2B J. Hernandez – 1B D. Baker – P B. Anderson
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – C Lopez – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – 3B Colter – SS Novelo – CF Matas – P Alvey

Fernando Cruz hit his first homer of the season (in the majors; he had five in AAA) as the second batter of the game, putting the Cyclones up 1-0. Corral answered with a leadoff double for the Critters in the bottom 1st, but three poor outs stranded him on third base. In turn, Alvey drilled Jonathan Contreras and Jordan Hernandez in the second inning and was battered by Dallas Baker with a 2-run double off the wall, which he probably deserved at this point. Corral hit another double his second time up, but nobody besides him reached base in the first three innings.

Alvey pitched five innings in the 3-0 game before being chased by rain and we sat with our wet fur through another 1:15 rain delay. Anderson returned after the delay to finish five innings himself and qualify for the W. The Coons got a sixth inning from Yamauchi in 1-2-3 fashion before Piteira took over and allowed a leadoff double to Baker. He then got two outs from Mario Padilla and Jorge Munoz, then got collected by Luis Silva after shaking out his arm in a weird way. Cruz then doubled home the runner against Pedro Mendoza, 4-0, and big bopper Roberto Soto came off the bench and socked his 25th homer of the year off Mendoza in the eighth inning, a solo job to right that was outta here just on sound off the bat alone. The Raccoons never came even close to producing such a loud sound – and in fact they never got a base hit against Anderson and three relievers after the second Corral double in the third inning. 5-0 Cyclones. Corral 2-4, 2 2B;

Game 2
CIN: SS J. Munoz – LF M. Avila – CF F. Cruz – RF R. Soto – 3B D. Baker – 1B S. Jordan – C Heath – 2B D. Mendoza – P Sweeton
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 2B Arantes – CF Tallent – P Nakayama

Another game, another second-batter home run, this time by Melvin Avila. Cruz then doubled, but was left on base; however, the Cyclones would eat up Nakayama in a terrible third inning, in which Jorge Munoz first grounded out, but then the bags filled up with 1-out walks to Avila and Soto around a Cruz single on 0-2, and then runs scored on a passed ball, a Baker sac fly, and – after Steve Jordan walked – on singles by Josh Heath and Diego Mendoza, cranking the score up to 5-0 before Sweeton ended the inning by grounding out.

The Raccoons had a Tallent double the first time through, and a Jamie Colter double to begin the fourth inning. The latter run came around to score – (claps his paws together excitedly for all the offense!) – on a Starr grounder and Monck’s sac fly to center, 5-1. That run was put back on the board by Heath with a solo homer off Nakayama in the fifth, which was the starter’s last inning. And the gap wasn’t getting any closer from there; Quinones had a scoreless sixth before allowing a single to Steve Jordan in the seventh, and that run was surrendered by Cullum by serving up a double to Mendoza, 7-1.

Bottom 7th, and the bases filled up, even though it was in unearned fashion and with two outs as Sweeton walked Jake Flowe, Arantes hit a single, and then Tallent reached on an error by Baker. Ramon Lopez batted for Cullum and slapped a clean RBI single to shallow left for a run, but Corral then popped out to Jordan behind first base and the inning ended. Again the Cyclones immediately answered with another run, this time against Pedro Mendoza, who also didn’t seem like he could get anybody out. Cruz doubled home Munoz to make it 8-2. Sweeton continued into the ninth inning, where Spicer batted for Novelo to begin the inning and was brushed near the belly by an inside pitch. Spicer stole second base… but then was stranded by Flowe, Arantes, and Matas, as Sweeton finished a 114-pitch, complete-game 5-hitter, which wasn’t terrible at age 40! … 8-2 Cyclones. Lopez (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Raccoons remained an arm short for the final game of the series, as Piteira remained undiagnosed.

But at least Maud baked muffins! (dunks a muffin into a bowl with Capt’n Coma)

Game 3
CIN: SS J. Munoz – LF M. Avila – CF F. Cruz – RF R. Soto – 3B D. Baker – 1B S. Jordan – C Heath – 2B J. Hernandez – P Stebbins
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Arantes – 1B Caballero – 2B Gardner – CF Tallent – P Gaytan

Again the second hitter mashed a homer – but this time the second hitter from the bottom, #8 Jordan Hernandez, and it counted for two with Dallas Baker on base and two outs, as the Cyclones took yet another lead on the hapless Coons. That 2-spot made me way less angry than the one Gaytan allowed in the fourth inning, when he issued two walks and then the runners scored with two outs, one by one, on a Hernandez single and then a wild pitch… It wasn’t all bad about Gaytan in this game, f.e. he struck out seven batters in five innings, and for the first time this week the Raccoons starter got somebody out in the sixth! …and then he allowed another 2-run homer to Josh Heath with one out and was finally chased from the 6-1 game, the only Coons run comng in the bottom 5th on a Gardner single and Tallent RBI double. Another run came home in the bottom 6th as Corral led off with another double and scored on Lopez’ single to right-center, but that still left the team behind by a slam.

And again, that only got worse. Melvin Avila took Yamauchi deep for a solo homer in the seventh, 7-2, and when Tallent hit a 2-out single and tried to score from first base on a Spicer double to left in the home half of that inning, he was thrown out at the plate by Avila. Novelo and Lopez reached base in the bottom 8th before righty Pedro Valentin replaced Stebbins with two outs, right as the Coons arrived at Cullum in the #5 hole. Joel Starr came off the bench and struck a liner to center, but Cruz caught that on the slide and the Raccoons were turned away again. Surrendering, we then put Novelo on the hill for the ninth, and somehow he was able to get three outs in order when nobody else ******* could on this team…!! 7-2 Cyclones. Lopez 2-3, BB, RBI; Gardner 2-4; Tallent 2-4, 2B, RBI; Spicer 2-2, 2B;

Welp.

On top of everything else, add injury: Ubaldo Piteira was found to have a torn UCL, and was headed for Tommy John surgery. So he was off to the 60-day DL, and the Raccoons tried to paw through the detritus in AAA and brought up Paul Barton, who was currently on rehab in AAA for a meniscus he had torn in May while with the Critters.

Raccoons (49-71) vs. Crusaders (70-50) – August 20-22, 2066

The Raccoons were 3-8 against the Crusaders this year, with some box scores that deserved an R rating. New York had a 4-game winning streak (but they were still ten games behind Boston), and the Raccoons had now dropped seven in a row without making it seem like a major achievement. The Crusaders scored the second-most runs in our league, and also allowed the second-fewest runs, with a +143 run differential. The Coons were racing for -200, and were just 25 runs away from that, which sounded totally doable in a 3-game set now. The Crusaders also had injuries, mostly around the fringes on the roster, though. Ryan Spehar, Jose Ambriz, Victor Reyna, and relievers Ryan Harmer and Jarod Nesbit were all either on the DL or battling nagging injuries while hanging onto their roster spot.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (6-8, 3.77 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (11-4, 3.03 ERA)
Nick Walla (10-7, 3.41 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (7-6, 4.70 ERA)
Evan Alvey (4-3, 3.58 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (9-7, 3.16 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up in this series.

And beatings.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – RF Takeuchi – 3B B. Wilken – LF Menchaca – SS Blackshire – 1B Jose Alvarez – C Norwood – P R. Montoya
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Arantes – CF Matas – P J. Sanchez

For the fourth time in four attempts this week, the scoring started on a homer surrendered by the Raccoons’ starter, this time a solo piece to Eddie Menchaca in the second inning. While I found it worse to then give up a leadoff double to Ricardo Montoya in the third inning, at least Sanchez buckled down and kept that runner on base. The next time Montoya was up in the briskly proceeding game – thanks to one team just passing on offense – he found himself in a 3-0 game leading off the fifth inning. He then chomped a fat pitch into play, a bouncer to third base that Monck threw away for two bases. (facepaws) Omar Sanchez, he of the recently 3,000 base hits, and Kazuhide Takeuchi, last week’s CL Player of the Week, then hit singles to get the unearned runner home, and another unearned run scored on Ben Wilken’s RBI groundout, 3-0. Menchaca then grounded out to Leon Arantes to end the inning.

Bottom 6th, Colter led off with a single, and Ramon Lopez then pounded a ball over the wall to shorten the deficit to 3-2, which somehow felt like being reborn after a whole midweek series of falling behind quickly and then just continuing to lose until it was over. Monck then singled, but was left on first base until the end of the inning. Sanchez held the score through another inning despite allowing another hit to Montoya, which confused the crap out of me. Spicer batted for him in the bottom 7th, singled, was caught stealing, and then Corral homered to tie the game. Brilliant!

The Raccoons’ pen answered by giving up a 3-run eighth between three different relievers, which was … (buries face in paws again) McMahan was in first, allowing a 1-out single to Dave Blackshire, who pulled something and limped off the field, replaced by Willie Villafan, and then McMahan lost PH Eric Whitlow on balls in a ull count. Barton came in, struck out Zachary Norwood, then was replaced with Quinones when Cesar Santiago pinch-hit in the #9 hole, lining up a lot of lefty bats… to which Quinones served up three straight 2-out, RBI singles before Takeuchi grounded out. Quinones remained in the game in the ninth, ****** the bags full, and gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to another left-handed batter, pinch-hitter Jared Allen. (pets Honeypaws, trying not to strangle innocent bystanders) To put the cherry on top, Duarte Damasceno then finished off the game for New York… 8-3 Crusaders. Colter 2-3, BB, 2B; Spicer (PH) 1-2; Sanchez 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-2;

Roster move on Saturday: Joe Gardner (.214, 0 HR, 4 RBI) ended up on waiers, and the Raccoons started the clock on 21-year-old natural-born New Yorker Brian Hills, the #58 pick from the 2064 draft, who was hitting .321/.408/.484 in 58 games since promotion to St. Pete.

Game 2
NYC: RF Jose Alvarez – 2B O. Sanchez – CF Box – LF Takeuchi – 3B B. Wilken – 1B J. Allen – C Norwood – SS N. Cross – P Kozloski
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Hills – 2B Novelo – CF Matas – P Walla

Good news! On Saturday the scoring did NOT start on a homer by the opposing team! …instead Walla got lit up by Alvarez, Sanchez, Box, and Takeuchi with a single, a double, and another two singles, and with the aid of a wild pitch surrendered three runs before Monck started a 5-4-3 double play on Ben Wilken to eventually nudge him out of the inning. The battering of Walla never stopped, and the Crusaders wasted a hit in the second before Takeuchi doubled home Omar Sanchez in the third inning, as they rapped Walla for seven hits inside of three innings, and took a 4-0 lead. Walla hit a single, the second base hit for the Critters, in the bottom 3rd, and together with Colter getting hit and Lopez walking, the bases filled up. Kozloski then lost Monck on balls as well, walking in a 2-out run, but Starr floated out to Takeuchi and the inning ended…

Hills struck out his first time up, but then hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, only to be immediately doubled off on Novelo’s grounder to short on the next pitch by Kozloski. Carlos Matas then ended an 0-for-15 string to begin his spotty big league season with a 2-out double to left and scored on another single by Walla. Corral also singled, and then Jamie Colter uncorked a 3-run homer to right, and suddenly the Raccoons were on top, 5-4! The Crusaders dropped Kozloski, while Walla continued into the fifth, but continued to get shellacked and gave up the lead on a Box single and another RBI double for Takeuchi. He was then done after five ****** innings.

Paul Barton pitched a scoreless sixth and then got in line for the W when the Raccoons whacked Crusaders righty Jason Fick around in the bottom 6th. Matas hit a single, reached third on a Spicer single, but Spicer was then caught stealing, and Corral walked and Colter hit the go-ahead single to center, 6-5. Lopez grounded sharply up the middle; Nigel Cross dove for the ball and contained it, but had no play, and the bases were full for Monck, who struck out in a full count, but Fick was finally torn up by Starr with a 2-out, 2-run double and replaced with another lefty, Ben Caldwell, who walked Hills, but then struck out Novelo, both in full counts.

Pedro Mendoza continued to get nobody out, especially left-handers, allowing leadoff singles to Alvarez and Sanchez in the top 7th, and surrendering both runs on a Takeuchi single (which made three singles by lefty hitters off him) and Wilken’s sac fly, narrowing the Raccoons’ lead right back down to 8-7 before Menchaca struck out. Yamauchi walked a pair in the eighth and looked highly clueless. When the Crusaders, who had the pitcher batting second at that point, arrived at that point and sent lefty Cesar Santiago to pinch-hit with two outs, the Raccoons called on McMahan, who had pitched two days in a row, gave up a fly to center, but Matas was ranging over and made the catch to end the inning.

Bottom 8th, “DD” Damasceno walked Colter leading off. Tallent pinch-ran for him, but Lopez popped out and Monck got nicked without him getting a jump, and the inning ended with whiffs by Starr and Hills, which gave Dover the ball and the 8-7 lead. Box singled sharply on an 0-2 pitch to begin the ninth, and Takeuchi dropped a wheezer behind Hills for another single. Wilken popped out to Novelo at second base, and Menchaca ran a 3-1 count before grounding sharply at Novelo, and the Raccoons ended the losing streak by turning a 4-6-3 double play. 8-7 Critters. Colter 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Lopez 2-4; Matas 2-4, 2B; Spicer (PH) 1-1;

Takeuchi (.314, 26 HR, 97 RBI) had five hits in the game, a double and four singles, and drove in 26 runs … at least that was how it felt. The box score said it was only three runs. (hisses at Cristiano) Damn intellectuals!!

Game 3
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – RF Takeuchi – 3B B. Wilken – LF Menchaca – SS Spehar – 1B Jose Alvarez – C Norwood – P Seiter
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – SS Hills – CF Matas – P Alvey

As much as Takeuchi was raking, on Sunday he made a pretty gross throwing error in the first inning on the second of consecutive 2-out singles by Ramon Lopez and Rich Monck, that allowed Lopez to take another left turn at third base and score the game’s first (and unearned) run. Nothing great happened with Starr from there, but the Raccoons scored first for the first and only time this week…! The lead didn’t last long, since Alvy failed the bases full in the top 2nd and issued a 2-out wild pitch that plated Jose Alvarez with the tying run. Seiter and Box were stranded when Omar Sanchez struck out in a full count. Alvey then continued to achieve the dubious feat of hitting a triple without seeing your team score a run in the inning in the bottom 2nd; the heroics came with two outs and nobody on, but Corral apparently wasn’t interested and grounded out to first.

It hadn’t been Seiter’s best season by a wide margin, and this was far from his best start. He walked three Coons through four innings, then issued leadoff walks to Corral and Colter in the bottom 5th. Lopez struck out and Monck hit into a 1-6-3 double play to politely decline and let the old man live.

Top 6th, and Alvey put Menchaca on with a single, but Ryan Spehar – just off the stretcher – forced him out with a grounder. Alvarez walked, there was a wild pitch, then an intentional walk to Norwood to get Seiter to the dish with two outs – and then Alvey threw ANOTHER ******* RUN-SCORING WILD PITCH. Box was laughing so hard that he struck out to end the inning, but the Crusaders were now up 2-1, but the Raccoons also loaded the bases in the bottom 6th. Seiter walked Starr, Hills reached with an infield single, and Matas got on base on a Spehar error. Spicer batted for Alvey with three on and one out, grounded up the middle, and Sanchez got to it, but had only one out at second base on offer, while Starr scored with the tying (and unearned) run. Seiter then rung up Corral to exit the dicey inning.

Nobody else reached base until Seiter – who was still going on 120+ pitches – walked Hills with two outs in the bottom 8th. Matas dropped a dying quail single on the next pitch, and Jake Flowe batted for Cullum in the #9 hole, but the Crusaders still didn’t go to the pen, and why would they? Sanchez contained Flowe’s easy grounder, and the inning ended. In turn the ninth inning began with a gap triple in right-center for Jose Alvarez against Jesse Dover, but Santiago then struck out and another pinch-hitter, Mike Velazquez, hit a comebacker to Dover for the second out, with Alvarez hugging third base. Dover rung up Box to finish the inning without conceding the run from the leadoff triple and now the Coons had a chance to walk off against righty Dave Hyman. Corral grounded out, but Colter singled to center to put the winning run on base. Tallent pinch-ran for him again and stole second base before Lopez popped out. Rich Monck however had dinner reservations and ended the game with a single to left-center, Tallent coming around to score easily from second base on the play. 3-2 Critters! Monck 2-5, RBI;

In other news

August 16 – Dallas C/1B Jason Bothe (.280, 9 HR, 58 RBI), hits an RBI double in a 5-3 win against the Thunder to get his hitting streak to 20 games.
August 17 – Boston outfielder Steve Humphries (.295, 9 HR, 62 RBI) will miss the rest of the regular season with a quad tear, but there is hope to get him back for the playoffs.
August 17 – LAP SP Sergio Davila (12-6, 4.04 ERA) is out for the year with a torn triceps.
August 17 – The Crusaders beat the Capitals, 1-0 in 13 innings. 38-year-old New York corner outfielder Eric Whitlow (.286, 0 HR, 4 RBI) chops a walkoff single to end the game.
August 18 – CHA 1B Manny Rubin (.268, 19 HR, 84 RBI) strikes four hits, misses the cycle by a triple, and drives in five runs in a 17-7 blowout of the Wolves.
August 19 – The Wolves beat the Falcons, 2-0, but take 12 innings to do so.
August 20 – The hitting streak of Dallas C Jason Bothe (.276, 9 HR, 58 RBI) ends at 21 games with an 0-for-4 against the Pacifics, whom the Stars beat regardless, 8-7.
August 20 – In that same game, which goes 11 innings before Dallas prevails, LAP 1B Alejandro Olivares (.319, 15 HR, 62 RBI) clips five hits, including a homer and a double, and drives in four runs.
August 20 – DAL SP Alan Deakin (11-6, 4.06 ERA) is out for the season after coming down with a case of shoulder inflammation.
August 22 – While the Gold Sox-Warriors game is postponed, the remining five Federal League games all see the winner score double digits: the Cyclones beat the Caps, 10-7; the Rebs rush the Miners, 13-4; the Wolves also get 13 to beat the Stingers by 11; the Blue Sox thrash the Buffos, 14-2; and the Stars trump everybody with a 15-0 rout of the Pacifics, in which DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.334, 22 HR, 76 RBI) hits two homers and drives in eight runs.

FL Player of the Week: PIT 2B Roland Hood (.322, 13 HR, 66 RBI), batting .600 (15-25) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 1B/3B Alex Alfaro (.310, 8 HR, 49 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 1 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Another casual 8-game losing streak in the books, what else is new? Somehow we’re still at .500 for this month.

There really is not much to say here except that we keep finding new 21-year-olds to throw into the woodchipper. Maybe Hills can hit something! Somebody’s gotta hit something at some point, right??

Monday is off, then three with the Elks, and then four with the Condors, with a double header on Friday, all at home. We might be looking at a spot start by Quinones there, although throwing the game by using Vinny Morales from AAA would also be possible. It’s at least likely that Morales will be in Portland as mobile reserve between games. And don’t count out Sensabaugh, we’re not done sucking the air out of this season yet!

Fun Fact: 28 years ago today, the Condors’ Alvin Zuazo hit for the cycle in an 18-1 riot against the Bayhawks.

Zuazo was a quietly reliable first baseman and occasional leftfielder for 16 seasons in the majors, of which the first six-and-a-half were spent with the Condors, starting in 2033. Posting above-average OPS values in ten full seasons and a 106 OPS+ for his career, Zuazo then moved frequently and eventually played for three FL West teams, then three CL North teams, and then another three teams all over, for a total of ten employers out of 24 franchises. Across all this time, he led the league in something once, hitting .280 with 22 homers and 117 RBI to lead the FL in the last category at age 36 with the 2046 Cyclones.

Overall for his career, Zuazo batted .270/.343/.393 with 1,703 hits, 133 homers, 792 RBI, and 158 stolen bases. He won a ring in his final productive season with the 2048 Stars, and won a Platinum Stick for his 2046 heroics.
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Old 06-08-2025, 06:53 AM   #4682
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Raccoons (51-72) vs. Canadiens (59-64) – August 24-26, 2066

The damn Elks were in next on this extended 13-game homestand, bringing with them the #8 offense, second-worst pitching in the CL, and a 7-5 lead in the season series. Their starters and relievers had the same ERA as groups, 4.29, and they ranked ninth in a whole lot of major stats, including those ERA’s, defense, batting average, on-base percentage, and stolen bases. Seventh in homers, so perhaps bring a protective blanket if you sit in the outfield bleachers.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (7-11, 4.12 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (11-8, 2.79 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (2-4, 4.52 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (2-13, 4.36 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (6-8, 3.65 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (3-9, 5.59 ERA)

The damn Elks had not played a game in two days due to a rainout on Sunday and the common off day on Monday, so they could basically use every starter on the roster in this series. So we were working with best guesses here, which would include the left-hander Villegas on Thursday, but not seeing the other southpaw, Martyn Polaco (8-10, 5.16 ERA). The only person we would definitely not see in this series was first-sacker Rico Cordero, who was stashed away on the DL.

Game 1
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF Chenette – 3B Yue – P Nielsen
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – SS Hills – CF Matas – P Nakayama

Offense was minimal through the first four innings, especially on the Raccoons’ side, where Colter singled his way on base in the bottom 1st and was then doubled up by Lopez. Nakayama kept the Elks to low growth as well through four innings, where they had a runner on base in three of them, but never more than one runner and they never reached third base, although that streak ended in the fifth, which began with Starr fumbling a grounder by Tyler Chenette, and then Hsi-Chuen Yue doubled to left-center to put a pair in scoring position. Nielsen popped out, but Carlos Castro’s sac fly to center broke the ice they had brought from their dens in the tundra and the Raccoons were sent a-trailing again. Matt Kilday then grounded out to Arantes, who was getting another start over the foundering Pablo Novelo. Arantes then hit into a fielder’s choice to erase Starr, who was looking for redemption, and his leadoff single in the bottom 5th. Arantes stole second, but Hills struck out, Matas was walked intentionally, and Nakayama rolled over to Kilday to end the inning.

Lopez hit into another double play, this time erasing Corral, in the bottom 6th, and Nakayama’s pitch count was up there at 98 through six innings, so he wasn’t gonna last forever in this game, either; he struck out Chad Whetstine to begin the seventh, then allowed a bloop single to Chenette. Yue was likely going to be his last batter, but a 5-4-3 double play hit into completed seven innings for Nakayama. The last two innings were pitched by Quinones, who was still a potential candidate for the spot start in the double header on Friday, but he gave up a solo homer to Roberto Lozada in the ninth inning to double the score. The Raccoons then batted Tallent for Corral to begin the bottom 9th against Jon McGinley and he legged out an infield single. Colter’s grounder advanced him, and he scored on a Lopez single to center, but Monck flew out and Starr lined out to Castro to end the game. 2-1 Canadiens. Tallent (PH) 1-1; Lopez 2-4, RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (7-12);

Carlos Matas (.130, 0 HR, 0 RBI) went back to St. Petersburg after this game as the Raccoons were able to reclaim Jaden Wilson from the DL.

Game 2
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF D. Moore – 3B Yue – P Rath
POR: CF Wilson – LF Spicer – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Flowe – SS Hills – SS Novelo – P Gaytan

Novelo was the only right-handed batter in that lineup for the Critters, who got Spicer on in the first, and he stole second base, gained a base when Steve Varner’s throw got away from Castro, and then came in on Corral’s groundout for a quick 1-0 Critters lead; however, Gaytan soon found a way to rid himself of the burden of leading when he filled the bases in the second inning on a Varner single, a walk to Whetstine, nicking Dan Moore with an 0-2 pitch, and then giving up a run on Yue’s 1-out grounder to Monck. Rath struck out to leave two in scoring position, but Gaytan melted down further in the third inning. Getting two outs to begin the inning from the 1-2 batters, he then allowed a triple to Rick Atkins, walked Lozada, conceded one run on a Varner single, and another one by balking home Lozada from third base…

It only got worse from there, and the damn Elks scored three more runs in the fourth inning, which began with a four-pitch walk to Yue, which was always such a great opener. A Kilday triple and Rick Atkins’ homer exploded the score to 6-1, again with two outs. The Coons tried to drag Gaytan through another inning, but he nicked Varner now and gave up the run on Dan Moore’s 1-out single before getting disposed of. Barton struck out Yue and Rath to get through five innings, which Ray Rath did on four hits while facing an army of left-handed batters…

Speaking of useless, Pedro Mendoza came in for the sixth, again walked the first batter he faced, and then gave up a homer to Atkins, 9-1. When the Raccoons in that inning got runners on the corners with nobody out as Spicer doubled and Corral softly singled, Monck struck out and Starr smacked it into a double play to ensure no shortening of the gaping deficit was achieved… The meltdown only got worse in the later innings. McMahan got the ball in the eighth and offered another leadoff walk to Castro, then gave up singles to Kilday (on a bunt…), Atkins, and Varner, the latter two getting RBI’s, and another walk to Whetstine before getting shafted. Dover popped out Moore and got Yue to ground out, stranding the three inherited runners, but the ninth inning went to Novelo AGAIN, which was not a sign of a healthy pitching staff… Novelo got ****** up for another two runs, walking a pair and giving up two hits – Lozada doubled home the runs – but the thing that actually got me raging was the double steal that Castro and Kilday pulled off with a 10-run lead in the ninth inning. 13-1 Canadiens. Spicer 3-4, 2B; Flowe 2-4, 3B, 2B;

(picks random wood splinters out of his fur again)

Rich Monck was in a 4-for-38 rut and got the game against the southpaw off. I wish they could all just have a day off, and also that I didn’t have to see any of them ever again. Alas, there still were another 37 games to play.

Meanwhile, the Raccoons flew in no fewer than three AAA pitchers (Vinny Morales, Schmieder, and Thomas) as extra lard for the upcoming double-header.

Game 3
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF D. Moore – 3B Yue – P J. Villegas
POR: CF Wilson – 1B Caballero – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Tallent – LF Arantes – SS Hills – 2B Novelo – P Sanchez

Two batters were plunked in the first inning – and they were not Castro and Kilday, but Caballero and Corral. Regardless, the Coons failed to score, or even get close to scoring. The Elks instead scored in the second inning, in which Sanchez walked the leadoff man Varner. Moore hit a double, and Yue got a groundout to get the runner home before Villegas, hitting .031, popped out to leave Moore at third base. Kilday was then hit by Sanchez and doubled up on Atkins’ 5-4-3 grounder to Tallent, and the two benches began to chirp at each other, which wasn’t helped when in the fourth Sanchez gave up a leadoff homer to Lozada, walked Varner, and then plunked Whetstine, who slammed his bat down and yelled out to him something like “what the **** have *I* done to you??”; Moore flew out and Yue hit into another double play to keep the 2-0 score from escalating. And Corral’s 4-6-3 grounder after Lopez’ single to begin the bottom 4th kept the Raccoons from showing up on the scoreboard at ******* all.

Sanchez was wrung out for 116 pitches in six innings in this start, with constant traffic around him even though he only allowed two runs in his outing. The Elks stranded two more pairs in the fifth and sixth innings, the latter pair being unearned after an error by Sanchez himself. The Raccoons then had the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out in the bottom 6th as Villegas walked Wilson and Caballero briefly interrupted being comatose and doubled to center. Lopez with a groundout to short and Corral with a single to center then both brought in a run to tie the game, and before we could get any lofty ideas, Tallent’s grounder to short ended the inning in 6-4-3 manner.

The Coons then brought Yamauchi in a double switch (Colter replaced Corral in right) hoping for some length, but he walked Castro and Kilday on his first eight pitches, and only after getting yelled at struck out the next three batters to strand the runners, which in between pulled off another double steal, asking for another ******* beanball. Another double switch was made to put Barton in for the last two innings, now with Monck entering at third base and batting his customary fourth, and Tallent going to second base as Novelo had the rest of the day off. Barton’s second pitch was bombed into the stands by Whetstine to break the 2-2 tie, but he *did* pitch the last two innings. The Raccoons had nothing in the eighth, and in the ninth got Arantes on base with a 1-out single against McGinley. Starr batted for Hills, who was hitless in the series, and knocked the ball into a 6-4-3 double play to complete the sweep… 3-2 Canadiens. Caballero 2-3, 2B; Corral 1-2, RBI; Arantes 2-4;

Raccoons (51-75) vs. Condors (62-64) – August 27-29, 2066

There were four to play, including the make-up of the June 30 rainout, in this series against the Condors, who had a 3-2 lead in the season series. Both teams were in the bottom three in runs scored in the CL, although the Coons were really in a league of their own in terms of not scoring, and the Condors ranked sixth in runs allowed, for a -18 run differential. Mike Pinault and Felix Rivera were on the DL for them, as was outfielder Matt Ewig, who had recovered from a mild hip flexor strain, but the Friday double-opener was his 15th day on the DL and he was only eligible to return on Saturday.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (10-7, 3.59 ERA) vs. Brett Bebout (11-6, 2.84 ERA)
Jorge Quinones (3-5, 4.73 ERA) vs. Ryan Davis (9-7, 3.51 ERA)
Evan Alvey (4-3, 3.53 ERA) vs. Bruce Vanderven (4-10, 4.59 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-12, 3.94 ERA) vs. Ryan Singletary (9-12, 4.27 ERA)

Four games, four right-handed starters by the Condors, who had been off on Thursday and thus had no issues finding rested starters for the double-header and beyond (which was the pinch-point for the Coons, with no off day on Monday to buffer things out).

Quinones was still set up to make the spot start, even though Vinny Morales was on standby, as was Sean Thomas. The third pitcher called up as reserve, useless Matt Schmieder, was on the roster to begin the series, since Paul Barton (2-2, 3.27 ERA) was rewarded for pitching in consecutive games by getting a ticket to ride the waiver wire as the Coons’ pitching staff gasped for air even ahead of the double header.

Game 1
TIJ: C Brann – SS M. Moreno – 2B Nye – 1B Metz – RF Jes. Martinez – 3B Lange – LF K. Hawkins – CF Cardwell – P Bebout
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Colter – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – P Walla

The entire construction was reliant on Nick Walla putting together a decent-length outing in the first game of the double-header, and then he went out and nailed Mario Moreno, filled the bags with Nick Nye and Andy Metz, walked in a run against Ralph Lange with two outs, and then was bombed for a slam by Kyle Hawkins, who hit his first homer of the season right there. (kicks over the nearest table) THESE USELESS *****!!!

Colter singled in the bottom 2nd and was doubled off, 3-U, on Arantes’ liner to Metz, and in the bottom 3rd the Coons got Novelo on with a leadoff single before Bebout walked the bags full with two outs, but Monck grounded out to short to leave everybody on base.

The score remained 5-0 through five innings, but Walla then allowed a leadoff single to Metz and a double to Jesus Martinez to begin the sixth inning, and pitching assignments changed at that point. Walla was yanked, the Coons called on Mendoza for this inning, and Quinones, who had been in the bullpen anyway to ready himself for a start in the late innings, was instead told to get ready for garbage relief in the last three of the opener, Vinny Morales becoming starter of the nightcap once we figured out whom to gruesomely draw and quarter in town square to free up a roster spot. Mendoza remained useless, plating a run with a wild pitch and the other on a sac fly by Hawkins after an initial K on Ralph Lange, 7-0. Colter made the last out in the bottom 6th, so he left in the double switch that brought in Quinones for the seventh, Spicer replacing him in left. Quinones then allowed a leadoff single to Bebout, and conceded that run on more singles by Mike Brann and Nick Nye, 8-0. Arantes drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 7th and stole second, scoring on a pair of groundouts by Novelo and Spicer to get the Portland Pathetics on the board. That was the only run the Raccoons scored. Quinones finished the game on 39 pitches in three innings of garbage relief. 8-1 Condors. Monck 2-4, 2B; Flowe (PH) 1-1;

Garbage relief for a garbage team. Speaking of which, Spicer was caught stealing to actually end this game.

The Raccoons ended up erasing Schmieder from the roster without using him so they could activate Vinny Morales (0-3, 7.59 ERA) to catch another loss with his snout in the nightcap.

Game 2
TIJ: LF Arcos – SS M. Moreno – 2B Nye – 1B Metz – RF Jes. Martinez – 3B Lange – C Lippert – CF Cardwell – P R. Davis
POR: CF Wilson – RF Colter – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – C Flowe – LF Spicer – 2B Tallent – SS Hills – P Morales

Vinny Morales was probably the positive surprise of the week, even though he trailed from quite early on after giving up a solo homer to Jesus Martinez in the second inning, but he then kept the Condors to that one run for a while, even though he was not efficient and needed 80 pitches and two double plays to get through even five innings. The Raccoons in turn were still absolute shambles, getting a single and two walks from Davis in the first four innings, and erasing most of that on two double plays hit into by Tallent in the second and Starr in the fourth. However, Spicer doubled to right with one out in the bottom 5th and then immediately scored on a Tallent single to center to get the game tied at one.

Morales ended up going seven, allowing a leadoff single to Martinez in the top 6th before getting another six straight outs for 104 total pitches, which had to be chalked up as a moral victory even if the Raccoons didn’t score for him in the bottom 7th, which – surprise! – they didn’t, even though Spicer hit another double with two outs. Tallent this time flew out to Chad Cardwell in center.

Nye and Metz put themselves in scoring position with nobody out in the top 8th against the usually reliable Cullum, slapping a single and double, respectively, but Cullum then popped out Brann and got a K from Lange before being replaced with McMahan in a double switch (Caballero for Tallent at second base) for the lefty-hitting catcher Randy Lippert, whom McMahan rung up to kill off the runners in scoring position. Brian Hills, in a dire slump, then bashed a ball over Cardwell for a leadoff triple in the bottom 8th and scored on Wilson’s sac fly after Caballero fanned. Jesse Dover got the ball in the ninth and erased the Condors in order with two strikeouts to end the most recent 4-game losing streak. 2-1 Blighters. Spicer 3-3, 2 2B; Morales 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

The triple be damned, the Raccoons made more roster moves after the double header was over, and Brian Hills (.150, 0 HR, 0 RBI) was returned to AAA, while Jorge Caballero (.210, 0 HR, 6 RBI) went on waivers. Vinny Morales (0-3, 6.04 ERA) was optioned and Sean Thomas hung around as bullpen stuffing. Ryan Bonner and Marquise Early were also called up.

Game 3
TIJ: 1B L. Jimenez – SS M. Moreno – 2B Nye – RF Jes. Martinez – C Brann – LF Ewig – 3B Lange – CF Arcos – P Vanderven
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – 3B Colter – LF Spicer – SS Novelo – P Alvey

Wilson robbed Brann of a 2-run double in the first inning after Alvey had already littered on the bases, then opened the bottom 1st with a single, stole second, and scored, somehow, on two poor groundouts and a 2-out wild pitch for the game’s first run. Starr and Monck, who was in a death slump, then singled after all and Colter drew a 2-out walk as the inning just wouldn’t end. Vanderven walked in a run against Spicer, but Novelo finally struck out to leave three on base. Ralph Lange halved the lead with a homer to left in the top 2nd before Vanderven struck a liner for extra bases with two outs, but didn’t stop at second base as he should have and was thrown out at third base to end the inning. Alvey and Wilson then began the bottom 2nd with a pair of singles, but Corral hit into a double play and Lopez floated out to center for the third out, and nobody scored.

Top 3rd, and Alvey was in yet more trouble with a leadoff walk to Leonardo Jimenez and a Moreno double off the wall in right. The pair was stranded in scoring position, however, as Nye popped out on the infield and Alvey then rung up both of Martinez and Brann. Rich Monck hit a homer to right in this inning, extending the lead to 3-1, and MAYBE getting back on track. The inning continued with a Colter single, Spicer grounding out, and a 2-out Novelo walk, before Alvey hit his second straight single to center, and brought in Colter with another run! Wilson struck out to keep runners on the corners in the 4-1 game.

But we could not have nice things, and Alvey then completely blew the lead right in the fourth inning. He nicked Ewig – fresh off the DL – to get going, then allowed an RBI double to Lange, an RBI single to Roberto Arcos, another single to Leo Jimenez, and finally a sac fly to Moreno that tied the game. Nye also singled with two outs before Martinez struck out swinging to end the bloody inning. The Coons regrabbed the lead in the same inning with a 2-out rally against lefty Joe Cash, ironically with their lefty sticks, as Starr and Monck got on before Colter doubled home the go-ahead run with a liner to right. Spicer flew out to left, though, stranding a pair in scoring position, but Novelo hit a stray homer to tack on a run in the bottom 5th.

Alvey lasted five and a third innings before Kyle Hawkins reached on a Starr error and the Coons moved on to Yamauchi after 103 pitches from Alvey. Leo Jimenez hammered the game tied with a 420-footer to left at once, and it was a 6-6 game. Ex-Coon Takenori Tanizaki pitched in the bottom 6th and put Starr on base, but the Raccoons couldn’t score on him and instead had to wait him out leaving with an injury…

The Raccoons got Pedro Mendoza to wobble through the bottom of the order, including a single allowed to Arcos before Miguel Veguilla pinch-hit for a double play to keep the game tied. Portland went in order against Dave Lister in the bottom 8th before Dover walked Jimenez to begin the ninth, but also got a double play grounder from Nye to bugger out of there. Right-hander Matt Nelson then walked Colter to begin the home half of the ninth inning and that winning run was at third base after Spicer singled to right-center. Novelo made it short and uneventful from there, flying out to Arcos in deep-enough center to allow Colter to jog home with the winning run. 7-6 Critters. Wilson 2-5; Starr 3-5; Monck 3-5, HR, RBI; Colter 2-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Early (PH) 1-1;

No roster moves after this game, which I guess counts as news by now.

Game 4
TIJ: C Brann – SS M. Moreno – 2B Nye – 1B Metz – RF Ewig – LF Jes. Martinez – 3B Lange – CF Arcos – P Singletary
POR: CF Wilson – RF Colter – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B Arantes – C Flowe – LF Spicer – SS Novelo – P Nakayama

Maybe Monck was back on the horse, as he homered with Starr on base for a 2-0 lead in the bottom 1st, and I’m allowed to dream for five minutes at least once a week, right? Flowe and Spicer then led off the second inning with singles, but the 8-9-1 batters were less than helpful and the two runners were stranded on the corners before Arcos’ leadoff triple and a well-placed grounder by the opposing pitcher reduced the lead to 2-1 in the top of the third inning. Nakayama struck out the side in the fourth inning and got five strikeouts in total through five innings, while yielding three base hits. The Coons had six hits, but didn’t get another paw on third base after the second-inning disappointment.

A Brann double to left and Nye’s single to center then tied the game in the sixth inning before Metz hit into a 4-6-3 double play. The Raccoons had an answer though, even though Monck flew out to begin the bottom 6th. Arantes singled and Flowe doubled to right, putting a pair in scoring position, and both runners scored on Spicer’s single to right-center, 4-2! Ewig responded with a homer off Nakayama in the seventh, 4-3, and while Monck doubled in that inning, he was left on base.

Brann and Moreno then knocked out Nakayama with a pair of 1-out singles, going to the corners in the eighth inning. Cullum couldn’t keep the tying run on base, surrendering the lead on Nye’s groundout before ringing up Metz to strand at least Moreno in the 4-4 tie. Spicer singled and was caught stealing in the bottom 8th, but the game remained tied with McMahan’s scoreless outing that followed. The pitcher’s spot led off the bottom 9th against right-hander Nick Leigh, but Corral whiffed. Wilson doubled to center, meaning that a 3-game winning streak was just two bases away now. Colter struck out, but Starr’s single to right allowed Wilson to come around for the second straight walkoff win for the measly Critters…! 5-4 Coons. Wilson 2-5, 2B; Starr 2-5, 2B, RBI; Monck 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Flowe 2-4, 2B; Spicer 3-4, 2 RBI;

In other news

August 24 – The Wolves score 18 runs inside the first four innings and then fumble most of that on the way to a 23-11 blinder against the Pacifics. SAL INF/CF Jim Katzman (.282, 7 HR, 56 RBI) has three hits, including a grand slam, and drives in eight runs from the #8 spot to lead all players in this game.
August 24 – The Knights beat the Falcons, 2-1 in 12 innings. All runs score in the 12th inning, and the Knights have only two hits: a single by RF/LF/1B Steve Giles (.263, 3 HR, 7 RBI) in the second, and the 2-run walkoff homer by C Justin Hart (.324, 13 HR, 55 RBI) in the last inning. The Falcons have 11 hits.
August 24 – The Aces beat the Condors, 3-0, with all runs scoring on a pinch-hit home run by OF Phil LeVan (.341, 4 HR, 12 RBI).
August 24 – SAC SP Phil Nelson (7-11, 4.15 ERA) is done for the season after tearing his labrum. He is expected to be ready for Opening Day in ’67.
August 25 – Washington bombs the Buffaloes, 20-5, getting a 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-run inning inside their first five, but not in the correct order. Five Capitals hitters have three runs scored, four have three hits, and four have at least three RBI’s in the rout, with OF Matt McInnis (.316, 11 HR, 59 RBI) and 1B Pedro Parada (.273, 12 HR, 67 RBI) ticking all three boxes.
August 29 – The Canadiens win the nightcap of a rain-induced double-header in Atlanta, 2-0, both runs scoring on a home run by VAN RF/LF Roberto Lozada (.310, 16 HR, 76 RBI), who goes 3-for-4 in the game. The Knights had won the first game, 4-1, before that.
August 29 – PIT INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.302, 2 HR, 27 RBI) goes 7-for-10 across a double-header the Miners sweep from the Warriors, 13-5 and 7-6. Gonzales has a home run, a triple, five singles, and drives in three runs.

FL Player of the Week: DAL INF Adam Yocum (.371, 1 HR, 48 RBI), clipping .538 (14-26) with 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN RF/LF Roberto Lozada (.310, 16 HR, 76 RBI), bashing .462 (12-26) with 3 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

That was a very tiring week. With the hapless sweep midweek, the Raccoons have lost the season series against the damn Elks for the third straight season, and with a 3-game set to spare… The double header was exhausting, the Saturday game was exhausting, and while we have a 3-game winning streak now, I just want to sleep.

The player count for the season is up to 51, and we haven’t reached September yet…! Speaking of personnel surplus to requirements, Joe Gardner cleared waivers and was assigned to St. Pete again. Jorge Caballero and Paul Barton are still on waivers as of Sunday night.

Road week on the east coast coming up, with three games in Charlotte and four in Boston, just in case you feared we’d run out of beatings any time soon. The run differential temporarily bottomed out at -197 on Friday before we scratched out those three 1-run wins, so it’s still -194 and I don’t think we’ll still clear above -200 next Sunday…

Fun Fact: The Raccoons are TEN games above their expected record by runs scored and runs allowed.

TEN.

With that -194 run differential (exacerbated by the quadriplegic offense, which is how math works) the Raccoons oughta play 44-86 ball. Which sounds horrendous. We’re just winning too many close games (what a complaint to have!), which also hurts our draft position going forward, even when compared to this season.

The Warriors have probably crawled away with the #1 pick, and we’re not going to out-lose the Wolves and the Loggers right now with those pesky 1-run wins. Also, the Rebs and Aces are barely any better and we might actually come off worse than our #5 pick this season.
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Raccoons (54-76) @ Falcons (65-63) – August 30-September 1, 2066

The weeklong trip opened in Charlotte with the last three games against the Falcons, with whom we were currently having a tied season series. They ranked eighth in runs scored, but fourth in runs allowed and were solidly outside of where you could still dream about the playoffs. Notably, outfielders Cody Padgett and Tony Garcia were on the DL for them. Rosters would expand for the finale of this series.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (2-5, 5.18 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (7-9, 3.86 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (6-8, 3.63 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (13-9, 4.11 ERA)
Nick Walla (10-8, 3.87 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (10-15, 3.70 ERA)

Only right-handers in the Falcons’ rotation!

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – P Gaytan
CHA: 3B J. Schmidt – LF J. Black – C O. Matos – 1B M. Rubin – RF Nakamura – SS Tr. Taylor – 2B Duhe – CF S. Brown – P Jo. Lugo

The Raccoons quickly took a 1-0 lead with Ramon Lopez’ triple to right and Rich Monck’s single through the right side before Starr grounded out to end the top of the first inning, and Corral and Arantes got on base to begin the second inning before John Schmidt’s big throwing error on Novelo’s grounder to third base gave everybody two bases and a second run to the Critters. Gaytan, eager to stop losing, slapped an RBI single through the left side of the infield, and Jaden Wilson’s sac fly made it 4-0. Colter singled, as did Lopez, loading the bases. Monck dished a fly to deep center, but that was tracked down by Scott Brown, holding him to another sac fly, and Starr’s K ended the 4-run inning (two earned). On the hill, Gaytan opened with three fine innings of 1-hit ball, even though he ran a few full counts, which was always such a bugaboo for me.

Gaytan reached base again in the fourth, albeit on another error by Schmidt, and was quickly forced out by Wilson. Rich Monck went yard to right for his 18th homer to begin the fifth inning, 6-0, and Jose Corral narrowly missed a home run, hitting a 1-out double high off the wall in left. Novelo was walked intentionally with two outs, but Gaytan chipped another RBI single against Phil Baker before Brown robbed extra bases again, this time from Wilson, ending the inning with two left on base. All the baserunning appeared like it was taking its toll on Gaytan, who was getting hit harder in the bottom 5th, with Trent Taylor doubling to let and Jared Duhe getting a walk out of him, but Brown now hit into a double play to allow him out of that inning. The sixth was easier, even though Schmidt singled and was caught stealing. Schmidt then made a third error in the top 7th on another Novelo grounder, which put him and Leon Arantes on the corners with two outs for Gaytan, which by now should concern the Falcons. Jayden Craddock still hadn’t gotten the memo that Gaytan was a slugger now and got burned for a 2-run double into the leftfield corner on the first pitch he handed to Gaytan! Wilson then reached on a Duhe error (…!), but Brown remained master of his corner of real estate out there and took a Colter drive away to end the inning.

The Coons reached double digits when Corral singled home Monck in the eighth inning for a 10-0 lead, while Gaytan kept going out there every half-inning and got three more outs in the bottom 8th, but that would be all for him, despite a sparkling 3-hitter on the scoreboard, as he was on 110 pitches through eight. Sean Thomas would get the last three outs in order from the Falcons. 10-0 Furballs! Lopez 3-5, 3B, 2B; Monck 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Corral 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Arantes 2-5, 2B; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (3-5) and 3-4, 2B, 4 RBI;

Tony Gaytan!! (grins from fuzzy ear to fuzzy ear!)

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Spicer – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – P Sanchez
CHA: 3B J. Schmidt – LF J. Black – C O. Matos – 1B M. Rubin – SS Tr. Taylor – 2B Duhe – RF Nakamura – CF S. Brown – P Ledbetter

Both teams had two singles and a double play in the first inning – but the Coons did not score, while the Falcons got Schmidt and Black to the corners before Oscar Matos put them up 1-0 with a 6-4-3 double play, and then they hit another two singles with Manny Rubin and Trent Taylor before Duhe bounced out to end an inning that somehow only took 13 pitches from Juan Sanchez. Spicer singled, stole second, and was stranded in the next inning, while Sanchez remained adrift. Bottom 3rd, he allowed a leadoff double to Matos, walked Taylor and Nakamura, but Brown then popped out on an 0-2 pitch to keep the score at 1-0 through three. It was a dismal showing from Sanchez, though, and the pen was stirring in the fourth, although Sanchez would last through five innings eventually.

The Coons took him off the hook in the sixth with a Wilson double to lead off and a shy 2-out single by Monck, tying the score at one, and Sanchez retired the 6-7-8 batters in order in that inning before going to bed. Top 7th, Spicer led off with a double up the rightfield line before advancing on an Arantes grounder. Novelo walked unintentionally, and Colter struck out in Sanchez’ spot before Wilson flew out to Brown, who was always popping up where the ball was.

The Raccoons then had a complete meltdown once more in the bottom 7th, and it wasn’t only on Justin Cullum, even though he walked the ******* opposing pitcher to begin the inning. Schmidt singled Ledbetter to third, but Ledbetter also tore out a leg there and had to be run for with Raul Ontiveros, who scored on Black’s groundout. Schmidt then tried to steal third base on the first pitch to Matos, and Lopez threw the ball past Monck for an error, allowing Schmidt to score, 3-1. Cullum finished the inning against Matos and Rubin, then screamed and bit into his glove on the way to the dugout. Yamauchi got the eighth, allowed a triple to Taylor and an RBI single to Duhe, and was replaced with Mendoza, who got three groundouts from the bottom of the order. Jason Stine put the Raccoons’ Tallent, Spicer, and Arantes away in order in the ninth inning. 4-1 Falcons. Wilson 2-4, 2B; Spicer 2-4, 2B;

And then – snap! – September. The Raccoons could bring up even more players that weren’t worth oxygen nor vowels. There really wasn’t anything to write home about in the additions: Josh C, Barton, Soriano, and Vinny Morales for pitchers; Marcos Arellano as third catcher; and Manny Arredondo and John Bentley for extra sticks / bench warmers.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – RF Colter – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B Arantes – C Flowe – LF Spicer – SS Novelo – P Walla
CHA: 3B J. Schmidt – LF S. Brown – C O. Matos – SS Tr. Taylor – 2B Duhe – RF S. Gil – 1B J. Black – CF Fountain – P E. Mauricio

Walla remained off kilter and allowed a quick run on singles by John Schmidt, who stole second, and Scott Brown in the bottom 1st, then slowly and painfully filled the bases with yet more runners before getting a double play grounder to escape. He didn’t get into many good counts at all in the early innings, but at least the Falcons didn’t get any more hits to fall into the field in the early innings. The Coons brought up the minimum against Mauricio in three innings, but then exploited the sudden absence of Scott Brown in centerfield when Wilson led off the fourth with a triple over the head of Elijah Fountain, and then scored right away on a Colter double, also to center. Starr and Monck had productive outs to get Colter across home plate, flipping the score to 2-1 for Portland.

The defense kept Walla going, while Jaden Wilson led off another inning with a triple, going to right for three bases in the sixth inning. This time, Colter scored him with a sac fly, 3-1, and the Raccoons then filled the bases with the 3-4-5 batters as Starr walked, Monck reached on an error by Duhe, and Arantes hit a soft single. Jake Flowe, however, bounced into a 4-6-3 double play to prevent any tack-on runs from being scored.

Walla got only two more outs, allowing a leadoff single to Oscar Matos in the bottom 6th. The runner was caught stealing – second inning in a row after Schmidt had been caught stealing in the fifth – but Duhe hit another single with two outs and the Raccoons brought McMahan for the upcoming left-handers, of whom he retired Sal Gil to end the sixth, but Justin Black singled to lead off the seventh. McMahan got two outs, including Fountain forcing out Black, then was replaced with Carrington to face Schmidt, who singled on the only pitch Carrington threw. At this point, the runners were on the corners with two outs in a 3-1 game. Jorge Quinones entered the contest, and Schmidt attempted to steal second on the first pitch to PH Manny Rubin. Flowe’s throw went past Novelo, Fountain scored, Schmidt went to third base, and from there Quinones plated him with a wild pitch. Tied ballgame. (facepaws noisily) And then Rubin homered to left. (wails)

The Falcons then put another 3-spot on the terrific duo of Barton and Thomas in the eighth inning, the latter absorbing most of the brunt, giving up another homer to Elijah Fountain in the process. The Raccoons went in order in the last two innings against Mauricio, who went eight, and Alvaro Garza. 7-3 Falcons. Wilson 2-4, 2 3B; Arantes 2-3;

Raccoons (55-78) @ Titans (90-42) – September 2-5, 2066

I’d be surprised if the Titans, who led the division by 14 games, wouldn’t nail us into the losing zone for the year with a sweep, giving us 82 losses. Boston was on a 5-game winning streak, fourth in runs scored, but allowing the fewest runs by far in the CL. They had a +187 run differential, and should get to 200 easily in this set. The Coons were at -193. Funnily enough though, the season series was only at 6-5 for Boston. They were without Steve Humphries, who would return before October, and Cesar Pena and Jose Gomez, who would very much not.

Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (4-3, 3.77 ERA) vs. Matt Taylor (17-4, 2.53 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-12, 3.98 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (9-9, 3.12 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-5, 4.62 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (5-4, 3.83 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (6-8, 3.55 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (18-2, 1.76 ERA)

Another set with only right-handed opposition…

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Colter – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Alvey
BOS: SS I. Diaz – RF Joe Washington – CF Marcotte – 3B Z. Suggs – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – 2B Onelas – LF S. Leon – P Ma. Taylor

No runs were scored and the two pitchers both threw just over 30 pitches when on-and-off rain grew into an hour-sized rain delay in the middle of the fourth inning. Alvey had not allowed a hit to the Titans yet, while the Raccoons were on three hits against Taylor, and had persistently fumbled them, with two double plays and Monck pretending that he had doubled when in fact he only had a single to begin the top of the second inning, and finding himself thrown out at second base.

Colter and Novelo hit 1-out singles in the fifth inning, the latter then being forced out on Ryan Bonner’s grounder to short. Taylor inexplicably lost Alvey to ball four in a full ground, bringing up Wilson with three on and two down, after which he got what he deserved: a pair of 2-run doubles smacked by Wilson and Corral, another RBI single for Lopez, and five runs on the board for the Critters! Tah!

The Titans had yet to make it into the H column, which they did with Sergio Leon’s sixth-inning double, but the runner was left on base. Willie Mendoza, left-hander then allowed another run to the Critters in the seventh inning, giving up three singles to Corral, Monck, and Starr, the first-sacker netting the RBI that made it 6-0. Alvey meanwhile ran out of fizz in the bottom 7th, allowed a run on a walk and two hits, that RBI going to Marcos Onelas, before being lifted for Yamauchi, who conceded the runs on a Leon single and Andy Lee’s groundout, then walked Israel Diaz, threw a wild pitch, and walked Joe Washington, too. Bases loaded, Dover was sent in, but proved quite useless as well, giving up another two runs on a 3-2 single by Eddie Marcotte before Zach Suggs grounded out; now the Titans had had their own 5-run inning, and the pretty lead was sliced down to 6-5… McMahan struck out two in a 1-2-3 eighth, and the ninth went to Cullum after the Raccoons were unable to create any insurance runs against the Boston bullpen. The right-hander retired lefty pinch-hitters Bobby Ellwood and Jeremy Rushworth, but then allowed a double to right to Diaz. Joe Washington hit a fly to right, where Randy Tallent had ended up, and Tallent went back and made the catch on the warning track. 6-5 Coons. Corral 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Lopez 2-5, RBI; Monck 2-5; Bonner 2-4;

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – 3B Colter – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – P Nakayama
BOS: SS I. Diaz – 2B Onelas – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF Joe Washington – LF A. Lee – 1B Ellwood – 3B Macomber – P B. Wallace

Nakayama lost Diaz to a walk to begin his Friday out in the park, but Diaz tagged up to get to second base on Onelas’ fly out to Corral, and was thrown out for a 9-6 double play there. Bryce Wallace was the next batter to reach base with a 2-out single in the bottom 3rd, but was stranded; however, by this point he had not allowed a base runner to the Critters, but then walked Jaden Wilson leading off the fourth. Corral singled to right, sending Wilson to third base, from where he scored on another single by Lopez. Monck whiffed and Starr hit into a double play to end the inning then. A throwing error by Phil Macomber would put Novelo on second base in the fifth, but the Raccoons left him there.

Boston woke up in the sixth and tied the game when Diaz walked, stole second, and immediately dallied home on an Onelas single to left-center. Nakayama then took Marcotte’s comebacker to second base and got Jorge Arviso with another groundout to get out of this inning. He would get a no-decision for his efforts, as he was lifted in the seventh when Bill Joyner dropped in a pinch-hit single with two outs in Ellwood’s spot. Brendan Snyder then batted for Macomber, and was met with Pedro Mendoza and struck out.

Mendoza then put Zach Suggs on base to begin the bottom 8th. Diaz forced out the lead runner before Soriano came in for the right-handed Onelas and Marcotte and without blinking put them on base to make it three on and one out. McMahan was not available, but amazingly Quinones proved useful against Arviso, who hit a grounder to Colter at third base, who fired home to get the lead runner Diaz out, and then PH Sergio Leon grounded out to Novelo; and the game remained tied at one through eight innings. Starr slapped a single against Tyler Gleason in the ninth inning, but that was as far as the Raccoons got in those late innings.

The game went to extras when the Titans got the winning run to second base with two singles by Dustin Archambeau and Ivan Berrios with two outs in the inning, but then Diaz grounded out. The Titans had two on again facing Yamauchi in the bottom 10th as Onelas singled and Marcotte walked, but then Starr snagged a liner by Arviso, and Leon and Ricardo Alvarez made poor outs and the Titans let the Critters get away again. The Raccoons went to an all-new battery in the bottom 11th, double-switching in Vinny Morales and Jake Flowe. Morales needed six pitches to get three outs in the 11th inning. Onelas drew a walk in the 12th, but got nowhere, and Flowe led off the 13th with a single to right against Willie Mendoza. John Bentley was in the #9 spot after an earlier double switch and bunted him to second base. Marquise Early ran for Flowe from there, but Wilson and Corral both struck out and that was that; Arellano became the third catcher of the day then, and cost the game when he lost a 2-2 pitch to Damian Moreno between his useless legs when the Titans had runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom 13th, and Sergio Leon scampered home from third base with the winning run on that play. 2-1 Titans. Corral 2-6; Flowe 1-1; Nakayama 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K and 1-2;

Arf.

Jaden Wilson and Joel Starr each got a day off on Saturday.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 2B Arantes – CF Tallent – 1B Spicer – SS Novelo – P Gaytan
BOS: 2B Onelas – 1B Joyner – C Arviso – RF Joe Washington – LF A. Lee – SS R. Huerta – CF Ellwood – 3B Macomber – P Glaude

The Titans came apart for five runs right in the first inning; it started with hits as Corral singled, Colter doubled, and Lopez hit an RBI single. Monck grounded out to make it 2-0, and Arantes’ single plated Lopez to get to 3-0, but the next two batters, Tallent and Spicer, reached on errors by Macomber and Onelas to fill the bases, and allowed Novelo to drive in two more doubly-unearned runs before Gaytan struck out and Corral flew out to right. But the Raccoons then threatened to lay just as big an egg in the bottom of the inning. Onelas flew out to right against Gaytan to begin the inning, but then Joyner singled, Arviso walked, and Joe Washington reached on an error by Gaytan, who got mound counseling and then struck out Andy Lee, but Raul Huerta hit a sharp grounder to left that Novelo intercepted, but had no play on, and an unearned run scored. Ellwood popped out to Monck on an 0-2 pitch to end the inning with three Titans left on base.

To my great relief, Gaytan then settled in and did away with the Titans quite efficiently in the following innings. Through five innings, he didn’t allow another run, and the Titans never had more than one runner in an inning, and in the fourth they had none. Glaude soldiered on through five innings before being replaced with righty Luis Lerma, but Gaytan continued, striking out Washington and Lee in a 1-2-3 sixth, although his pitch count reached 88 by that point.

Top 7th, Colter and Lopez led off with knocks against Lerma and went to the corners. Monck lobbed a ball over the glove of Huerta for an RBI single, extending the lead to 6-1 and plating the first run since the opening frame of the game. Arantes hit another single to load the bases, from where Tallent tried to crash into a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play, but Huerta’s throw to Onelas was poor and Onelas had to stretch, taking away the chance for a second out. Spicer added a sac fly, but the inning ended with Novelo grounding out. Gaytan finished seven innings even though his middle infielders tried to backstab him, each making an error in the bottom 7th to put runners on the corners; but Joyner flew out to center to keep them there. The Titans did get a run off Sean Thomas in the eighth inning, which the left-hander plated himself with a wild pitch with two outs (…), but Carrington had a 1-2-3 ninth. 8-2 Raccoons. Corral 2-5; Colter 2-5, 2 2B; Lopez 2-5, RBI; Arantes 3-5, RBI; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (4-5);

That was 15 innings without allowing an earned run for Gaytan this week!

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Arantes – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – C Flowe – LF Early – SS Arredondo – P Sanchez
BOS: SS I. Diaz – 2B Onelas – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF A. Lee – 3B I. Berrios – LF Ellwood – P Brenize

Brenize axed the Raccoons quickly in the first, but was taken well deep to dead center by Rich Monck for his 19th homer in the second inning, giving Portland a 1-0 lead. Corral worked a walk, but was doubled up by Flowe, and the Titans tied the game back up in the bottom 2nd with an Arviso double, a Joyner grounder and Sanchez’ own wild pitch… Ellwood hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, but Brenize bunted into a double play there. Monck then drove another ball to the warning track in left in the fourth inning, but that one ended up being caught by Ellwood.

The Raccoons had no hits other than Monck’s homer until the fifth inning when Brenize, on six strikeouts, allowed a single to center to Jake Flowe, which was a thing that could happen even to the Jason Brenizes of the world, however, the homer that Marquise Early – MARQUISE EARLY!! – then hit to give the Raccoons a 3-1 lead was genuinely hard to explain. Brenize got mighty angry after that and cranked up the strikeouts, which included striking out the 4-5-6 batters in order in the seventh, AND the 7-8-9 batters in the eighth inning!

And Sanchez? He was still hanging around and also went through eight innings. He used the defense a lot more than Brenize, who struck out a dozen before getting pinch-hit for in a 1-2-3 Boston bottom 8th. Tony Castellanos came into the top 9th, allowed a single to Wilson and walked Arantes, and a double steal put the insurance runs in scoring position. Tyler Gleason came in, walked Starr half-heartedly, and then got an out at home from Monck and struck out Corral. Novelo batted for Flowe and struck a 2-run single to left. Early dropped a bloop single in shallow left, loading the bases again, but Ramon Lopez batted for Arredondo and grounded out to short, leaving three on base. That stopped the rally short of Sanchez, who then resumed pitching. Eddie Marcotte drew a walk in the bottom of the ninth, but the Titans couldn’t get the balls to fall in and ended up getting 4-hit by Sanchez on their way to dropping the series to the Raccoons! 5-1 Critters! Novelo (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Early 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sanchez 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (7-8);

In other news

September 2 – The Blue Sox lose their closer Curt Carter (7-2, 2.56 ERA, 33 SV) to ulnar nerve irritation that will keep him rehabbing for all of the winter.
September 3 – It takes 12 innings for a run, any run, to score in the Buffaloes’ 1-0 win against the Cyclones.
September 5 – A broken kneecap ends the season of Condors outfielder Matt Ewig (.260, 12 HR, 50 RBI).
September 5 – The season of Warriors OF/1B Soh Tanaka (.290, 3 HR, 47 RBI) ends with a torn ACL, which might cost him the start of the 2067 season as well.

FL Player of the Week: DAL INF/RF/CF Jeff Maudlin (.285, 5 HR, 62 RBI), batting .414 (12-29) with 1 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL OF/2B Tim Goss (.291, 5 HR, 51 RBI), clicking .545 (12-22) with 1 HR, 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.327, 23 HR, 80 RBI), batting .321 with 8 HR, 24 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC LF/RF Kazuhide Takeuchi (.311, 26 HR, 102 RBI), hitting .337 with 5 HR, 23 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (15-5, 1.95 ERA), going 4-1 with a 1.46 ERA, 46 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: NYC SP Jerry Washington (16-5, 3.08 ERA), throwing for a 5-1 record with 1.99 ERA, 33 K
FL Rookie of the Month: RIC LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.288, 8 HR, 37 RBI), batting .313 with 6 HR, 17 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: SFB OF Jake Ward (.289, 5 HR, 30 RBI), going .324 with 3 HR, 17 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Now, that was a stunning upset on the weekend, winning three of four games from the Titans, and losing the fourth game only in the 13th inning when it was easily winnable (and for quite a while) before that. Too bad it’s all wasted on a 96-loss season. Beating Brenize in the finale was also odd, especially with the Marquise Early homer out of the blue.

Of course the Crusaders somehow managed to get swept by the Indians, so the Titans didn’t even lose ground in the standings and are pretty much through to the playoffs already. There is no thrill to this September, really, with the closest “race” being 8 1/2 games with four weeks to go.

The Raccoons play the Indians and Loggers next week.

Fun Fact: Jason Brenize has allowed three runs only for the fifth time all year on Sunday, and two homers for the first time all season!

Am I unhealthily obsessed with Jason Brenize?

Well, if someone who just turned 30 is on his way to a sixth Pitcher of the Year award, maybe you want to circle on the calendar when he’s gonna be a free agent.

Stop huffing and puffing, Cristiano, he’s under contract through 2068.
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1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA | RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO

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Old 06-11-2025, 07:35 PM   #4684
DD Martin
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I know this season while expectations were low has to be a real bummer, but I am wondering if sometime in the near future you could list maybe the clubs bigger flop years. I don;'t even remember what was the worst club in team history.

At seasons end also could you post the all-time records for all clubs? My guess is Milwaukee and Salem have to be the bottom two clubs of all-time. Has Salem ever won the ABL title? Probably everyone has by now since you are 89-90 seasons in.
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Old 06-12-2025, 01:19 PM   #4685
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[No proper update today, as I was tired today and I’m still tired, and I just want to watch the Mets and then fall over… - but here’s some bits about the questions above]

The Aces actually have fewer regular season wins than the Wolves, but those three together are very much the worst teams in league history. However, the Miners are the one franchise that has never won a title despite 18 playoff appearances. Even those bottom three teams managed to each scratch at least two rings together.

The Titans are tops in runs won with 11 (might be 12 soon), and the CL North is stacked in also having the second- and third-winningest team in titles, the Crusaders (9) and Raccoons (8), respectively. In total the division has 35 of 89 World Series titles, each team getting at least a pair.

The worst Raccoons team by record came in 1979, the only team to lose triple digits, going 55-107. That team batted only .234, which was a bane of the early-day Critters (not that pitching was a-plenty…), while the current team’s .244 mark is the worst since the 2000 season, which was squat in the middle of the prolonged-worst version of the Raccoons, the 1997-2006 “Decade of Darkness” Coons, that grew out of the collapse of 1997, when the team went from 108 wins in ’96 (their best ever mark) to a suffocating 68 wins, and then didn’t get back to even 80 wins for a full ten years. Although there have also been other terrible teams, like 2032, the year where nobody could throw a pitch that wasn’t getting hammered. That team had a franchise-worst 4.68 ERA. A few of the Decade of Darkness teams came close to that, and this year we’re at a vomit-inducing 4.53, bound to be the fourth-worst ERA for any season by the Raccoons.

We have not been through even three consecutive losing seasons in over 30 years (getting bailed out by an 81-81 in year three once there), the last teams to be under .500 for that long being the 2030-32 Raccoons. Since then, only the 2052 Coons finished last in the North. We’re also currently 33 1/2 games out of first place, which would also be the biggest deficit since that 2032 season that keeps cropping up, when the Raccoons were 34 games out of first place. Worst-ever? 39 games back in 1979 and 2004, although in 2004 we didn’t even finish bottoms. The Titans just happened to choke out the division with a 117-45 record.

That’s that for now. If you want more stats, just do a squeak. Let’s see you with the Arrowheads tomorrow.
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1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061
1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA | RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO

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Old 06-12-2025, 03:43 PM   #4686
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Glad to see that the Raccoons are a model of a franchise in the over 89 years of league play. 2nd highest winning percentage (I wouldn't have guess that from all the CaptnComa that has been consumed over the years) and 3rd if titles won. Looks like 2nd in Playoff appearances too. Pretty damn good that the owner should take a look and say wow what if I gave this crew some real top dollar to spend.
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Old 06-13-2025, 12:02 PM   #4687
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Raccoons (58-79) vs. Indians (65-69) – September 7-9, 2066

Here was the one team the Raccoons played somehow well against in 2066, as we had won nine of the dozen games played with the Arrowheads so far. The Indians had won five games in a row though so maybe they’d just continue to stomp their way to .500 here. They ranked tenth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (10-8, 3.79 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (10-7, 2.73 ERA)
Evan Alvey (5-3, 3.81 ERA) vs. Joe Napier (9-11, 4.30 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-12, 3.89 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (7-8, 4.28 ERA)

DeWitt was the first southpaw the Raccoons would see in a while, and the only one in this series.

Game 1
IND: CF M. Martin – SS O. Aredondo – LF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – RF T. Torres – 3B P. Weber – C Atencio – 2B Falcon – P DeWitt
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 2B Arantes – 1B Spicer – RF Tallent – LF Early – P Walla

Portland scored first, getting two runs across in the second inning, which Arantes and Spicer began with singles, a double steal, and then a run-scoring groundout from Early, and a wild pitch by DeWitt that plated Spicer with two outs, two strikes, and Walla ready to flail himself back to the hill – which he did on the next pitch. There were another two singles for the Critters in the following inning, but Wilson and Lopez were stranded on base.

The Indians didn’t get a hit until the fourth inning when Danny Starwalt singled to left. Walla had already walked a pair and nailed Vinny Atencio by the time he got there, so it wasn’t like he’d been on a cruise up to that point, but the Indians failed to get any run across so far. DeWitt hit a double off Walla in the fifth inning, but also got no support and was stranded as Matt Martin popped out on the infield and Oscar Aredondo flew out to Jaden Wilson in center. Pablo Novelo added a run with a solo homer to left in the bottom 5th, 3-0, and apart from that Walla bravely lumbered into the eighth inning, where he gave up a 2-out solo homer to Starwalt, but then retired Tony Torres to finish the inning and got his pat on the tush. Justin Cullum then sorted out the Indians on eight pitches in the ninth inning. 3-1 Critters. Novelo 2-4, HR, RBI; Lopez 2-4; Walla 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (11-8);

The whole affair barely took two hours and a quarter.

Game 2
IND: CF E. Ramirez – C J. Edwards – 3B P. Weber – 1B Starwalt – LF M. Martin – RF Dowsey – 2B O. Aredondo – SS Jim White – P V. Perez
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – LF Bentley – P Alvey

Alvey crashed and burned right in the first inning, which began with Eddy Ramirez doubling and scoring on John Edwards’ single to center. Paul Weber grounded out, but Starwalt walked, Martin double in a run, Justin Dowsey plated another run with a single, as did Oscar Aredondo. Jim White reached when John Bentley dropped his fly to left, allowing Dowsey to score. Aredondo then was caught stealing and Victor Perez was actually retired to end the bloody inning. Jaden Wilson’s homer in the bottom 1st did little to scratch the Indians’ 5-0 lead, and Alvey then unceremoniously walked the bases full, all in 3-2 counts, to begin the top 2nd, and was quietly ushered off the mound. Two runs would score on a Matt Martin single off Manabu Yamauchi, who otherwise struck out two batters on his way out of the inning.

Bottom 3rd, and the Raccoons loaded the bases with nobody out in a 7-1 game. Spicer batted for Yamauchi, singled, stole second, and the bags then filled with a Wilson single and a walk drawn by Jose Corral. One run scored when Ramon Lopez hit a single, and another run scored when Victor Perez hit a Monck. Starr got another run home with a sac fly, 7-4, but Arantes then blundered into an inning-ending double play with a grounder to short.

Raccoons relief then was surprisingly scoreless for another inning of Soriano and two of Vinny Morales, but the offense failed to provide more rally through six innings. Josh Carrington had another scoreless seventh, allowing two hits and striking out as many. Bottom 7th, and Wilson singled his way on against Ignazio Flores. Tallent batted for Corral, but still whiffed against the southpaw; however, Ramon Lopez thundered a homer to left, and now we were in a 7-6 game. The Indians went to Justin Esch, whose first pitch struck a ducking Rich Monck in the shoulder, and at that point it was *on*. Monck peppered his helmet at Esch and stormed out there, getting a grasp of Esch’s shirt before being tackled by Paul Weber, and a bit of a melee ensued, at the end of which both Esch and Monck were ejected and the Raccoons brought in Manny Arredondo to pinch-run. He made it – with the tying run – to third base on a Starr double off Melvin Guerra, and there was still only one out. Arantes tied the game with a sac fly, but Starr was left on base when Novelo whiffed. Arantes then went to third base with his glove, and Arrendondo took over second.

Pedro Mendoza held the tie in the eighth and Dover had a 1-2-3 ninth in the 7-7 tie, but the Raccoons couldn’t get a paw up against the Indians’ pen now either. Arredondo was walked by Cody Kleidon in the bottom 9th, but Starr flew out to left to sent the game to extras. McMahan ached through the tenth, walking a pair, but also getting strikeouts where needed against PH Willie Valenzuela and Edwards to end the inning. Arredondo would hit a 2-out single against Victor Ramirez in the bottom 11th, but was caught stealing, while Paul Barton was employed for two innings, in the latter allowing a hit to Vinny Atencio, who was forced out by Jose Hilario. The quick runner Hilario stole second base and eventually went on to score with two outs… on a wild pitch by Barton… Joel Starr hit a leadoff single off Ramirez in the bottom of the 12th inning, but didn’t get any meaningful help from Arantes, Novelo, and Bentley behind him, and was stranded to end the game. 8-7 Indians. Wilson 3-6, HR, RBI; Lopez 2-6, HR, 3 RBI; Arredondo 1-1, BB; Starr 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Spicer (PH) 1-1; Colter (PH) 1-1; Yamauchi 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Morales 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Rich Monck was thus on the penalty bench for the rest of the week. The Raccoons were tempted to get Jamie Colter’s bat in the lineup by including him at third base, although his arm was kinda crap for that position.

Game 3
IND: CF M. Martin – SS O. Aredondo – LF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – 3B P. Weber – C Atencio – RF Wil Martinez – 2B Jim White – P Napier
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Colter – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – P Nakayama

While Nakayama faced the minimum the first time through in the rubber game, walking Wil Martinez before getting him doubled up by Jim White, the Raccoons grabbed an early 2-0 lead on a Lopez homer – but apart from those two runners, including Jaden Wilson, also only brought up the minimum against Napier. Matt Martin then singled up the middle to open the fourth inning, but was also immediately doubled up by Aredondo’s grounder to short. Starwalt drew a leadoff walk in the fifth – and the Indians hit into a double play for the third straight inning. Jim White became their first runner to not get wrapped up in a two-for-one, singling in the sixth inning, and was instead stranded on first base as Napier popped up a bunt and Martin flew out to center.

Ramon Lopez singled and stole second in the bottom 6th before the bags filled up behind him with walks to Colter and Arantes, bringing up Novelo with one out. The shortstop dropped a ball in front of Justin Dowsey for an easy RBI single and a 3-0 lead, but Spicer grounded sharply to Aredondo, who threw out Colter at home plate, and Nakayama whiffed to end the inning.

Starwalt and Weber doubles then got the Indians on the board in the seventh inning, narrowing the lead to 3-1, but the Raccoons were on the corners to begin the bottom 7th, as Napier issued his sixth walk of the day to Wilson leading off the inning, and Corral then singled to left-center. Ramon Lopez then crashed a 3-run homer to put Napier to bed, and extend the lead to 6-1 again. Nakayama added a scoreless eighth before Spicer singled his way on in the bottom 8th, stole second, and was thrown out trying to steal third base as well… Nakayama then returned to the hill on 92 pitches, but the pen was standing by ready. Their help (?) was not required as whilst Aredondo singled his way on base, Dowsey then flew out easily, and the Indians then found one more double play in their hearts on their way outta town, and Starwalt’s 4-6-3 grounder ended the game. 6-1 Critters. Lopez 3-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Novelo 3-4, RBI; Nakayama 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (8-12);

Nakayama’s complete-game 6-hitter took care of mathematically eliminating the Indians from postseason consideration. Only the Crusaders were left with a 12-game gap to the Titans, since the Elks had mathematically bowed out on Wednesday already.

Raccoons (60-80) @ Loggers (58-82) – September 10-12, 2066

The Loggers were already assured a losing season, while the Raccoons were still resisting. However, the Loggers had been a tough lot for us in recent years, including this time around, where they had already won the season series, 10-5 with these three games to spare. They continued to lead the CL in runs scored – and also in runs allowed, for a -61 run differential, as every day in Loggerland was basically an open house, free-for-all on the pitching staff; they were allowing 5.55 runs a game. Starter Nick Waldron remained on the DL and would remain there for the rest of the year, but apart from that they were healthy.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (4-5, 4.22 ERA) vs. Julio Robles (5-7, 5.32 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (7-8, 3.41 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (3-7, 5.26 ERA)
Nick Walla (11-8, 3.67 ERA) vs. Aiden Shaw (4-4, 5.05 ERA)

Another left-hander was spotted on Saturday for the middle game.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 3B Colter – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 2B Tallent – LF Spicer – P Gaytan
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Goss – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – LF C. Dominguez – CF Merrill – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – P J. Robles

For the third time this week the Raccoons would put up a 2-spot by the second inning to draw first blood. This time Starr singled and Novelo doubled to lead off the second inning, from where they scored on a Flowe sac fly and Spicer’s 2-out single. Spicer stole another base after that, his 39th this year, but Gaytan struck out. Himself he struck out four batters the first time through the Loggers’ order, but the second time through Tim Goss singled and Cesar Ramirez doubled him home to get a run in for Milwaukee with two outs in the third inning. Things got even tighter in the fourth as Jonathan Merrill and Kyle Reber got on base with one out, but Gaytan then managed to dazzle the Loggers battery with a pair of full-count strikeouts.

While he was doing *fine*, he was also on a numbing 92 pitches through five innings in the 2-1 game before Corral and Colter put a tack-on run together with a pair of doubles in the top of the sixth. Gaytan got another inning in with a walk to Merrill included, but that would be it for him. The Coons scored another run in the seventh as Tallent and Spicer got on base to begin the inning, and Tallent scored on two grounders to the right side by Arantes and Wilson, while Spicer was left on base when Corral bounced out to Cesar Ramirez. From there, the bullpen took over affairs, and allowed precious little to the Loggers; Cullum had a quick seventh, McMahan allowed a single in the eighth and got the first out in the ninth, and Juan Soriano then finished off the game while navigating around an error by Colter. 4-1 Coons. Early (PH) 1-1; Spicer 2-3, RBI;

Colter was by then in rightfield, though, so it was not a third base thing for him.

Game 2
POR: SS Novelo – RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Arantes – CF Tallent – LF Early – 2B Bonner – P Sanchez
MIL: 3B Reber – 2B Goss – LF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – RF C. Dominguez – SS F. Carrera – CF Merrill – C Guitreau – P T. Espinosa

Portland went up in the second inning again on Saturday, and in a peculiar way, with a Tallent double and a Ryan Bonner triple, both to center and over the head of Merrill. Bonner’s hit came with two outs and saw him stranded when Sanchez went down to Espinosa, who returned the favor with a K to end the bottom 2nd against Espinosa with Carlos Dominguez and Tommy Guitreau on base after hitting a pair of singles. Funnily enough the Raccoons had another triple and another run in the third inning. Novelo did the three-bagger honors, while Corral whiffed and Lopez plated him with a groundout.

Juan Sanchez then melted down in the bottom 3rd, running no fewer than five 3-ball counts. Kyle Reber led off with a single but was forced out by Tim Goss’ grounder to second. Sanchez then walked the bags full and allowed an RBI single to right to Dominguez. Carrera whiffed, and Merrill hit a comebacker to Sanchez, which he ****** for an error and allowed the tying run to score. And then he walked Guitreau to force a 3-2 lead onto the Loggers. Espinosa then flew out on a 3-1 count. The Raccoons answered in the fourth with straight singles from their 5-6-7 hitters, who filled the bases before Bonner lined out to Carrera and Sanchez hit into a double play. Oh boy!

The score flipped back to Portland in the fifth as Lopez tripled (!) home Novelo and scored on Arantes’ sac fly after Starr got an intentional walk, which put us up 4-3 again. Sanchez qualified for the win by crawling through five innings, and not one batter more. An extra run was gained in the top 6th on singles by Bentley and Corral, and then immediately surrendered by Yamauchi in the home half of the inning when he also allowed two hits to the Loggers, and then needed to be rescued by Quinones, who got another two outs in the seventh before walking Carrera and being replaced with Paul Barton, who got the last out there. Novelo then knocked a 2-run homer off Luis Palacios in the eighth, finding Ryan Bonner on base for the extra damage, 7-4.

The Loggers made those two runs up in unearned fashion against Carrington and McMahan in the bottom 8th. Guitreau singled leading off against the righty, who then misfielded Devin Willoughby’s bouncer for an error. Reber hit into a fielder’s choice before McMahan came in and gave up a 2-out, 2-run triple to Ramirez, of all people. Dave Robles popped out to short to keep the Loggers one run behind. The Raccoons failed to tack on in the ninth inning, but Jesse Dover slammed the door on the Loggers despite walking Dominguez to begin the bottom of the ninth inning. Pat Fowler, Mario Alaniz, and Guitreau then made straight outs to end the game. 7-6 Raccoons. Novelo 2-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Lopez 2-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Tallent 2-3, 2B; Bonner 2-4, 3B, RBI; Bentley (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 3B Colter – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 2B Bonner – LF Spicer – P Walla
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Goss – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – LF C. Dominguez – CF Merrill – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – P A. Shaw

Portland scored first again, this time on a pair of walks and Novelo’s dumb-lucky 2-out infield single that chased Corral home with a run before Jake Flowe could ground out to leave a pair on base; the Loggers were a bit more thorough in the bottom 1st and shredded Walla for three runs right away. The first four batters all reached base by a single, walk, and two more singles, and Merrill added another single after a K to Dominguez. Reber and Guitreau made outs, but three runs were in for Milwaukee. The Coons made up one run in the second when Spicer was drilled by Shaw, stole his 40th base, and was singled home by Walla, but on the hill the right-hander remained extremely useless. The second and third innings were busy, and in the fourth inning the sky entirely fell again on him. Guitreau led off with a single and was doubled home by Wright, after which Tim Goss reached on a 2-base throwing error by Novelo, plating Wright, 5-2, and Ramirez hit another single. That was curtains for Walla, who left with runners on the corners after allowing eight hits and two walks in just 3.1 innings. Quinones came in and picked up the pieces, but then – after Starr drove in Corral to make up a run in the top 5th – got shackled in the fifth instead, facing five more batters and giving up two singles, a double, a triple, and three runs. Sean Thomas replaced him, walked the bags full, and allowed three singles for another four runs before being purged without logging an out. Barton replaced him and gave up a 3-run homer to Reber, and another homer to Guitreau, at which point the score was 16-3, the Loggers had ****** the Coons for ELEVEN runs in the inning, and had only made ONE ******* OUT FOR IT.

More insult was added in the seventh when Jaden Wilson hit a leadoff single and then immediately was picked off first base in a 13-run deficit. Cesar Ramirez would reach 100 RBI for the season with a 2-run homer off Soriano in the bottom 8th; the right-hander Soriano walked three batters in the inning, the last two of which were somehow stranded. Aiden Shaw pitched a complete-game 9-hitter for the Loggers… 18-3 Loggers. Bonner 2-4; Arantes (PH) 1-1;

In other news

September 7 – The Condors lose catcher Mike Brann (.242, 9 HR, 36 RBI) for the rest of the year; the 28-year-old is out with a broken thumb.
September 8 – ATL SP Kodai Koga (12-10, 3.25 ERA) claims his 250th career win at age 42 in a 14-2 rout of the Titans. Koga makes it a complete-game 6-hitter for extra flair points.
September 8 – A broken finger might cost Thunder outfielder Coby Thore (.273, 7 HR, 27 RBI) not only the rest of the regular season, but also the playoffs.
September 9 – Lots of held breaths in Dallas right now, as star CF Tyler Wharton (.338, 24 HR, 88 RBI) goes on the DL with a strained rib cage muscle, but is expected to return before the end of the regular season.
September 10 – Condors 3B/2B Ralph Lange (.219, 5 HR, 35 RBI) goes deep for the only run in a 1-0 win against the Thunder.
September 11 – The Caps’ SP Danny Ortiz (9-12, 3.72 ERA) throws a 1-hit shutout against the Rebels for an 8-0 win. The only Rebs hit is a single by LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.278, 7 HR, 29 RBI) in the fourth inning.
September 12 – Fans in Pittsburgh get treated to a 19-13 win of the Miners against the Buffaloes, with Pittsburgh’s 2B Roland Hood (.322, 14 HR, 78 RBI) driving in seven runs on three hits, including a first-inning grand slam. The Miners also score multiple runs in every inning but the sixth, in which they do not score at all.

FL Player of the Week: CIN C/1B Jonathan Contreras (.306, 8 HR, 37 RBI), hitting .714 (10-14) with 1 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR C Ramon Lopez (.278, 13 HR, 68 RBI), socking .500 (9-18) with 3 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Ramon Lopez played only in four games, but they were all multi-hit games and in addition to the homers he also had a triple. His OPS jumped 38 points this week, which isn’t nothing in September.

For some of these pitchers, the death penalty would still be too good…

Malcolm Spicer now ties for the lead in steals in the ABL again, and leads the CL by three. And yet he’s costing us another 1.2 wins according to BNN’s WAR nonsense. Shut up and just look at him go…!

Cruz Madrid joined the Alley Cats for rehab this week. This is quite unexpected, as we thought he’d miss the entire season on his way to free agency. He will now remain with St. Pete for the rest of the AAA season – the team was already eliminated from playoff contention – and will then probably wind up on the Raccoons for the last couple of weeks.

In fact, none of the Raccoons’ minor league teams made the playoffs this year, and the Panthers and Beagles even finished last. Oh, oh, oh…

The string continues with the last homestand of the season, which will see nine games being played against the Titans, Baybirds, and Thunder. The last three series of the year will all take place on the road.

Fun Fact: Kodai Koga’s 250th win was also his 500th decision, as he had already made it to 250 losses before that.

He was now 250-250 with a 3.70 ERA across 4,511 innings and with 2,819 strikeouts in his career.

So what would his Hall of Fame chances be, considering that he had only a Gold Glove and two All Star nominations for silverware, and the only thing he ever led the league in was in 2056 with the Titans, where he simultaneously and confusingly topped the CL in both WHIP and losses with a 13-15 season for a 3.09 ERA and 1.13 WHIP.

Koga was not in the top 10 for career wins yet, sitting 11th with his 250 wins. The top 10 were as follows – and all of these pitchers were in the Hall of Fame; in fact, the only one of them to have pitched in the ABL in Koga’s already impressively long lifetime was #7 Jose Lerma:

1st – Tony Hamlyn – 308
2nd – Martin Garcia – 292
3rd – Aaron Anderson – 286
4th – Woody Roberts – 279
t-5th – Juan Correa – 272
t-5th – Craig Hansen – 272
7th – Jose Lerma – 270
8th – Bastyao Caixinha – 262
9th – Javier Cruz – 256
10th – Brad Smith – 254
11th – Kodai Koga – 250 (active)

Other active pitchers in the top 100 all-time included #23 Ben Seiter (235), #35 Sean Sweeton (214), and #95 Ricardo Montoya (180).
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Raccoons (62-81) vs. Titans (92-51) – September 14-16, 2066

The Raccoons entered this final set against the Titans with an 8-7 lead in the season series because baseball had funny ways of upsetting first-place teams, even if it was just mentally, and even though the Titans with their #5 offense and #1 pitching in the CL had a realistic chance of sealing the division even this week. They were, however on a really wretched run of 1-8 in their last nine games, beginning with losing the final two games of the series in Portland played two weekends ago. On the weekend, the Indians had swept them in a 4-game series in which the Titans scored only eight runs, seven of them in the series finale, which they lost anyway. There were some injuries, with Cesar Pena and Steve Humphries out on the Boston side, as well as a couple of fringe relievers.

Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (5-3, 4.44 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (9-9, 3.02 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (8-12, 3.75 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (18-4, 1.81 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-5, 4.03 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (5-6, 4.10 ERA)

Still only righty starters on that Boston team. At least Rich Monck had served his suspension and was back in the lineup to begin this week.

Game 1
BOS: SS I. Diaz – RF Joe Washington – CF Marcotte – 3B Z. Suggs – C Arviso – 2B Onelas – 1B I. Berrios – LF S. Leon – P B. Wallace
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – LF Spicer – SS Arredondo – P Alvey

For the first inning, both teams got a single from their #2 batter – Joe Washington and Jose Corral respectively – and then a double-play grounder to short from the #3 hitter, Eddie Marcotte and CL Player of the Week Ramon Lopez being the culprits. Rich Monck then cranked his 20th homer of the season to begin the bottom 2nd and open the scoring. The Raccoons saw Starr fly out after that before the 6-7-8 batters filled the bases with two walks and Spicer’s single up the middle. Alvey was batting with the bases loaded, at least until he was sent to first base for Gold Glover Jorge Arviso sticking his glove into his swing path and being called out for catcher’s interference, which pushed home Leon Arantes with a run. In reality, it was costlier, because it opened the floodgates: Jaden Wilson bashed a 2-run double through 40-year-old Zach Suggs, Corral hit an RBI single to right, and Lopez plated a run with a groundout before Monck’s fly to shallow left ended the inning, but the Raccoons had scored six runs. Joel Starr made it 7-0 with a leadoff homer to right in the third inning, and Arantes dropped in a single to chase Wallace from the game.

Eddie Marcotte, who had missed over 50 games on the DL this year, then rallied the troops for Boston. He got Alvey for a leadoff jack in the fourth inning, and for a 2-out, 3-run homer in the fifth after Alvey had lost two Titans on balls. Five innings were in fact all that the Coons got out of Alvey, his pitch count hitting 107 just getting through five innings. While the Titans got four innings of long relief from right-hander Jim Allen, the Raccoons went to Josh C for the sixth inning, where he retired the 6-7-8 batters in order, but the seventh was chaos again. Mendoza, Cullum, and McMahan cycled through pitching duties in that inning, allowed two hits, two walks, and two runs between them – both of which were charged to Mendoza, who allowed three runners, but only one was earned, because Joel Starr kindly also chipped in an error on Cullum’s watch. McMahan, always considerate to our guests, walked in a run with the bases loaded and two outs, facing Bobby Ellwood before Ivan Berrios grounded out to strand three more in a 7-6 game the Coons were desperately trying to lose. Top 8th, Monck mishandled Sergio Leon’s grounder to put the tying run on base with an error before McMahan walked Ricardo Alvarez. Israel Diaz grounded out, advancing the runners, before Chris Brown batted right-handedly for Washington. The Raccoons went to Jesse Dover, who got a comebacker that shooed back the runners and grabbed the second out, but then lost Marcotte on balls. And Brendan Snyder, too. And Jorge Arviso. And that forced in two runs and gave the Titans the lead. Ellwood popped out on the infield to end the misery. And that was before Soriano and Thomas ****** up another five runs (four earned thanks to a throwing error by Manny Arredondo, who was ALSO useless) in the ninth inning. 13-7 Titans. Corral 2-5, RBI; Monck 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Spicer 2-4;

The Raccoons went to the pretty unconventional step – in September! – to send Sean Thomas (0-0, 20.86 ERA) to the tannery. The 24-year-old had allowed 13 hits and 10 walks in 7.1 innings, and maybe it was him. He ended up on waivers even, and the Raccoons replaced him – with a sigh – with Rich Read. Which, y’know… yaaay…

Game 2
BOS: SS I. Diaz – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF Joe Washington – 2B Onelas – LF Ellwood – 3B Macomber – P Brenize
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Arantes – LF Early – SS Novelo – P Nakayama

Israel Diaz began the game drawing a walk and stealing second base and scored on productive outs by Joyner and Marcotte before Jorge Arviso popped one over the fence in left for a 2-0 score, so by now the Raccoons had conceded 15 unanswered runs in their last seven innings of tossing. That string ended two innings later in the bottom 3rd, which Marquise Early led off with a double. Novelo hit a shy single to put them on the corners, and after Nakayama did nada, Jaden Wilson dropped a single into shallow center to get Early across. Corral hit an infield single to load the bags, but Lopez popped out to shallow left. Monck with two outs hit a soft roller that died between the mound and third base, but Phil Macomber had played back and Jason Brenize was falling to the other side, and that ALSO became an infield single and tied the game at two! Starr grounded out sharply to Diaz, though, leaving three runners stranded.

Something felt off about Brenize, too, as he came in whiffing 232 batters in 214.1 innings, and through five innings here he struck out NOBODY. He definitely wasn’t on his game, but outside of that wretched third inning he didn’t allow any base hits to the Critters, either, until Joel Starr socked a 2-out double to center in the sixth inning. Arantes hit a soft single, Starr holding at third base, and then Marquise Early, who mindbogglingly had hit a homer off Brenize in the previous series in Boston, rammed a 2-run double off the wall in left to break the 2-2 tie in the Raccoons’ favor! Brenize finished that inning against the bottom of the order, but looked thoroughly disgusted with himself and was crowded by his manager, coaches, and trainer between innings, as they tried to find out what the **** was wrong with him. In any case, Zach Suggs hit for him, but struck out to leave Ellwood on second base in the top 7th, as Nakayama kept on trucking to the stretch, but also hit triple digit pitches by then and didn’t return afterwards.

A Wilson double and Corral’s RBI single extended the score to 5-2 in the bottom 7th. Marcos Arellano pinch-hit for Starr against the left-hander Willie Mendoza in the inning and singled, turning that batting average around just before it could slam into the .100 mark. The Raccoons then tried to get outs from Jorge Quinones, a foolish proposition that netted them a walk to Diaz and a 2-run homer by Marcotte, his third in the series and 16th on the year. The Raccoons answered with a Novelo double and Wilson’s 2-out RBI single in the bottom 8th, giving a 6-4 lead to… (blows) … all the half-decent relievers had been roughed up on Tuesday, so we went to Josh Carrington with the save opportunity, facing the bottom of the order starting with Marcos Onelas, He retired the Titans in order, even though Onelas and Macomber both hit long fly balls for outs. Ellwood whiffed in between them. 6-4 Coons. Wilson 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Corral 2-5, RBI; Arellano (PH) 1-1; Early 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-3, BB, 2B; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (9-12);

The Raccoons had now beaten Jason Brenize in consecutive games and were thus KINGS OF THE WORLD! Hah!!

The difference was that ten days earlier Brenize had still rung up 13 Coons and had given up only three hits, two of them homers. This time he was periodically very hittable and struck out NOBODY.

Game 3
BOS: SS I. Diaz – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF Joe Washington – LF A. Lee – 2B Onelas – 3B Macomber – P Glaude
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Colter – 3B Monck – 1B Tallent – C Flowe – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – P Gaytan

Pitchers had a good day at the plate as Tony Gaytan hit a shy single with two outs in the bottom 2nd that moved Arantes from second to third where he was left when Wilson flew out to end the inning, and then Will Glaude drew a leadoff walk from Gaytan to begin the third inning, and scored on Joyner’s homer to center that put the first two runs on the board. Glaude led off again in the fifth and hit a single off Gaytan, who, when he was not facing the pitcher, was almost pitching a halfway decent game. That time Diaz forced out Glaude with a grounder, while with two outs in the inning, Gaytan hit a snag and walked Marcotte, balked, and walked Arviso to fill the bases. Joe Washington then flew out to Colter on the first pitch he saw, stranding the whole complement on base. Randy Tallent had shortened the score to 2-1 with a fourth-inning home run, but in the fifth Corral singled and Monck doubled, but that wasn’t good enough for a run as the pair was now stranded by Tallent’s groundout.

Gaytan then washed out in the sixth inning, walking Onelas before arriving at the pitcher’s spot with two outs. This time he got a grounder from Glaude to Arantes… but Arantes threw the ball away and the Titans scored an unearned run. Gaytan was mentally done with the inning, walked the bags full, and then was replaced with Cullum against Marcotte, who cranked his fourth homer of the series in grand slam fashion. The three extra runs on Gaytan were unearned, but Cullum’s was earned for the homer. The slam also basically ended the game, since the Raccoons had the air sucked right out of them. Glaude went seven without much trouble, and it wasn’t until the ninth inning that the Critters scored a confused and unearned consolation run that involved a pinch-hit double by John Bentley, a balk, and an error by Diaz to come together. 7-2 Titans. Monck 3-5, 2B; Arredondo (PH) 1-1; Bentley (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Raccoons (63-83) vs. Bayhawks (74-72) – September 17-19, 2066

The Bayhawks were second in the South, but eight games out and without any real hope at this point with just 16 games to play. They were third in runs scored, but also allowed the third-most runs. Their run differential was -11, while the Raccoons were again approaching -200, being just five runs shy right now. Infielder Chad O’Donnell was the only injury for the Bayhawks. The season series was even at three.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (8-8, 3.36 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (9-12, 3.84 ERA)
Nick Walla (11-9, 3.81 ERA) vs. Jon Mendosa (10-9, 5.74 ERA)
Evan Alvey (5-3, 4.61 ERA) vs. Vince Vandiver (9-2, 3.35 ERA)

Again we would only face right-handed starting pitchers.

Game 1
SFB: RF J. Paez – CF J. Ward – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – 1B Navarre – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 3B Harvey – P Egley
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 2B Arredondo – P Sanchez

Sanchez faced an all-right-handed lineup, which didn’t impress him initially, until he allowed a single to Bill Harvey in the third inning and then a 2-out RBI triple to Juan Paez when the lineup flipped over. Jake Ward then tied the game with a single, erasing the two sac flies the Raccoons had gotten from Monck and Wilson in their first two batting innings. The Raccoons regained the lead with a solo homer by Joel Starr, his 15th on the year, in the bottom 3rd, while the fourth saw 2-out singles from Wilson and Corral, but then a heroic dive by Ward for a liner to center hit by Ramon Lopez. He made the catch, left a deep brown scar in the outfield grass, but the inning ended and the runners were stranded.

Throughout the middle innings, the Bayhawks eagerly made contact against Sanchez, for whom strikeouts were not in the cards except against the bottom of the lineup, but couldn’t get the balls to fall in and so only made lots of quick outs, which got Sanchez rather briskly through eight innings. Along the way, Corral hit another homer to right, extending the lead to 4-2, which it still was when Sanchez’ spot came up with two down in the bottom 8th and Spicer on second base. Arantes batted against lefty Bob West and dropped an RBI single into center. Jaden Wilson hit another single, but Corral grounded out to third base to end the inning and keep the score where a save was on offer for Jesse Dover. He turned away the 3-4-5 batters in order and quickly. 5-2 Raccoons. Wilson 2-4, BB, RBI; Corral 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Arredondo 2-4; Arantes (PH) 1-1, RBI; Sanchez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (9-8);

The Coons added another arm with Cruz Madrid, whose rehab chances in AAA ran out when that season ended on Friday. To make room on the 40-man roster, Applecore was put on waivers and DFA’ed.

Game 2
SFB: RF J. Paez – CF J. Ward – LF Streng – 1B Navarre – 3B D. Sandoval – C Haynes – 2B Jer. White – SS Harvey – P J. Mendosa
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 2B Arredondo – P Walla

Scoring started quickly after Nick Walla retired the Baybirds in order to begin the Saturday game when Wilson walked and Corral peppered a homer to right-center for a 2-0 lead. Lopez hit another single, but the Raccoons then made three straight outs, while the Baybirds got a run on three singles by Dan Sandoval, Chris Haynes, and Bill Harvey in the top 2nd. Mendosa struck out to leave runners on the corners.

For the next three innings, the Baybirds would get a single off Walla in each go, but never made it past first base with that runner, while about the most offense on the Critters’ side was Ramon Lopez getting hit by a pitch. Walla lost Ian Streng in a full count to begin the sixth inning, but struck out Nate Navarre and then started a 1-6-3 double play on a grounder by Dan Sandoval to bugger out of the inning. Novelo hit a single in the bottom 6th, but was left on base. Harvey’s 2-out double to right in the seventh created some noise, but the Bayhawks didn’t bat for Mendosa, and the made the last out to Novelo.

Walla got into the eighth, where Juan Paez hit a leadoff single to center, putting the tying run on base yet again. Ward’s groundout was the last action for Walla, Cullum replacing him against the 33 homers in the 3-4 spots, giving up a single to Ian Streng (13 bombs) before Nate Navarre (20) hit the first pitch he got to left. Spicer made the catch, Paez dashed for home plate on the play, and – he was thrown out!! Spicer kept the lead together, and the Coons remained with Cullum to begin the ninth inning after Mendosa turned them away in 1-2-3 fashion in the bottom of the eighth. Sandoval flew out to right, Haynes sent Wilson back to make a catch in deep center, and Jeremy White grounded out to end the game. 2-1 Blighters. Corral 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Arredondo 1-2, BB; Walla 7.1 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (12-9); Cullum 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (5);

Game 3
SFB: RF J. Paez – CF J. Ward – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 1B Jer. White – 3B Harvey – P Vandiver
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Colter – SS Novelo – 2B Arredondo – P Alvey

Alvey didn’t seem to gel with the right-handed lineup as much as the others, and Armando Montoya doubled home a run against him right in the first inning, but the Raccoons had the bases walked full by Vandiver between their first four batters in the bottom 1st, and Joel Starr launched a homer to right to leave a dent in the scoreboard – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!

Not that this fixed Alvey and his tendency to give up loud contact himself. Montoya was back at the dish with Ward on second and two outs in the third inning and struck a triple to center, narrowing the score to 4-2 before being left on base when Haynes grounded out to second. Adan Yniguez and Jeremy White were on base in the fourth inning and Alvey took forever to ache his way around those two runners to get out of the inning unharmed, and it would be another short outing for him…

The Raccoons didn’t get another runner on base until Novelo hit a single in the fourth inning. Arredondo added another single by Yniguez, but Alvey then popped out to end the inning, then went on to put Streng on base and give up a homer to Montoya to tie the score at four. This was the 300th career homer of the 35-year-old Montoya, and it also put Armando Montoya a single away from the cycle with four innings to spare, and the Raccoons were back to the drawing board, Rich Read replacing Alvey with the lead already blown. Read walked the bags full with the only three batters he faced before being disposed of, and Yamauchi struck out Harvey and got a fly to Colter from John Parrish, batting for Vandiver, to strand all those stupid runners and keep the game tied. Yamauchi also did the sixth, while Roberto Mendez, right-hander, was also in his second inning of work in the bottom 6th. Monck and Starr clipped singles, and Colter drew a walk to make it three on, nobody out. Novelo cramped into a 5-6 double play, but at least got Monck home with the go-ahead run…

Montoya led off the seventh inning against Josh C, who got him to 0-2 before allowing a grounder to the left side. Novelo dove and contained the bouncer, but had no play, and Montoya got the cycle on an infield single…! Carrington went on to get two outs before giving up a game-tying double to Jeremy White. He instead got in line for the win when Jaden Wilson got on base and Ramon Lopez fired a homer to left against Zachariah Alldred in the bottom 7th, 7-5 now. Monck narrowly missed another homer right afterwards, doubling on the next pitch, but he was left on base when Starr flew out to Ward afterwards. Cruz Madrid then made his first ABL appearance of the year. Missing five months of the season on the DL, he had pitched four scoreless innings on rehab and now added a scoreless eighth, allowing a single to Ward with two outs but nothing else.

Montoya led off another inning in the ninth and reached again facing Dover, but this time on a 2-base throwing error by Rich Monck… Haynes grounded out before Nate Navarre singled home the unearned run, 7-6. When Dover walked PH Jeff Yates and was taken deep by Dan Sandoval, those runs were earned, and he was yanked afterwards. McMahan finished the inning instead, while the Raccoons got a leadoff single from Ryan Bonner in the #9 spot to bring the tying run to the plate against Jose Salazar in the bottom 9th. Wilson and Corral passed on the opportunity, and that brought up … oh… Arantes. Convinced of victory looming, the Coons had pinch-hit with Flowe in the bottom 8th and had left him in the game over Ramon Lopez, whose spot was now occupied by an infielder – but an infielder that singled up the middle to get the runner home, and now Rich Monck came to the dish was the winning run…! He also grounded out to Montoya. 9-8 Bayhawks. Arantes 1-1, RBI; Monck 2-4, 2B; Starr 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Yamauchi 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 13 – A solo home run by WAS 3B/SS Danny Miller (.257, 14 HR, 56 RBI) is enough to beat the Miners, 1-0.
September 15 – TOP SP Coby Strutz (6-14, 4.33 ERA) 2-hits the Cyclones and strikes out eight batters in a 3-0 shutout.
September 15 – DEN SP Juan Ybarra (6-9, 3.67 ERA) and two relievers pitch a combined 1-hitter against the Pacifics for a 6-1 win. The sole Pacifics knock is a second-inning home run by LAP 3B/2B David McFarlane (.229, 7 HR, 55 RBI).
September 15 – The Blue Sox beat the Rebels, 6-4 in 14 innings.
September 16 – The Stars beat the Wolves, 3-2, to tie down the FL West with 16 games to spare.
September 16 – Sacramento’s Carlos Torres (8-7, 4.21 ERA) 2-hits the Warriors with 11 strikeouts for a 4-0 shutout.
September 17 – LAP SP Joel Luera (8-5, 3.16 ERA) is done for the year with a sore shoulder requiring him to be shut down.
September 18 – Visiting VAN SP/MR Dallas Samson (11-5, 3.76 ERA) drills OCT RF/LF Tony Rodriquez (.271, 1 HR, 32 RBI) with the bases loaded to give the Thunder a 10-inning, 5-4 walkoff win.
September 18 – The Aces beat the Titans, 12-4, on the strength of an 11-run fourth inning.
September 19 – Atlanta routs Milwaukee, 15-3, also scoring 11 runs in the fifth inning.
September 19 – The Indians beat the Falcons, 4-3 in 14 innings.
September 19 – The Gold Sox out-hit the Buffaloes, 13-5, but lose the game, 6-5. The Buffaloes make up the difference with nine walks issued by Denver pitching.

FL Player of the Week: NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.264, 35 HR, 91 RBI), socking .469 (15-32) with 5 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS OF Eddie Marcotte (.306, 19 HR, 73 RBI), raking .524 (11-21) with 6 HR, 16 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We consider using Vinny Morales to take Alvey’s remaining starts, because Alvey isn’t showing anything we want to see, and maybe Morales has something left on the tail end of the season. He’s not necessarily in the conversation for a roster spot come April, but it wouldn’t take a lot to improve on his earlier showcases…

Miracle of miracles, Sean Thomas cleared waivers and was assigned back to AAA.

Stolen base race, because we don’t have anything else to watch once again, and here Malcolm Spicer was now four bags clear of Vic Lorenzo and Bryant Box. Here was a 22-year-old that might conceivably win his second stolen base title in two full seasons, had batted .280 each time, and somehow all the schmart metrics (side eye to Cristiano Carmona) claimed that he was useless and below replacement level. Make it make sense!

Three more home games remaining against the Thunder, then one final day off, and a 10-game slog through Elk City, New York, and Indy to wipe up this mess.

Fun Fact: Armando Montoya (.294, 23 HR, 104 RBI) had the third Bayhawks cycle in this decade on Sunday.

Grant Anker and Jonathan Echols previously did the honors, against the Loggers and Knights, respectively. Neither of them also hit their 300th homer in the same game they cycled in, though.

A career Bayhawk with a healthy $56M in career earnings, Montoya had been the CL Rookie of the Year in 2053, and since then had won a ring with San Fran in 2061, and had collected six Platinum Sticks and five All Star nominations. He had led the league in hits and doubles once, and in triples and RBI’s twice each, but never in home runs, despite hitting in the high 20s four times in his career – and he was on 23 this season, so power definitely was still part of his game, even though his defense and his health record were spotty these days, and the speed had gone a good while ago.

Nevertheless, Montoya was at .287/.345/.482 for his career, with 2,282 hits, 449 doubles, 101 triples, 300 homers, 1,321 RBI, and 217 stolen bases.
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Old 06-16-2025, 03:47 PM   #4689
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Raccoons (65-84) vs. Thunder (84-65) – September 20-22, 2066

The Thunder had a chance to win the CL South while in Portland, although since the Raccoons could not win THAT division I didn’t particularly worry about that. Good for them! They had a 4-2 lead in the season series with their third-best pitching and sixth-best offense. Outfielder Coby Thore was the only injury case for them.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (9-12, 3.70 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (12-13, 3.77 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-6, 4.08 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (13-11, 3.83 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (9-8, 3.31 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (10-9, 3.36 ERA)

We would get two right-handers, a southpaw on (home) Closing Day, and none of the two ex-Critters they were carrying, Josh Elling (10-11, 4.47 ERA) and Tyler Riddle (15-6, 2.55 ERA).

Game 1
OCT: RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – CF J. Parker – LF Deisinger – C T. Anderson – 3B Bonilla – P Aa. Harris
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B Arantes – C Flowe – LF Spicer – SS Novelo – P Nakayama

Nakayama allowed a single to Jose Palominos in the first inning, but Harris stumbled for three hits and a run in the second as the Coons took a 1-0 lead on an Arantes single, Jake Flowe’s double to right, and Spicer’s sac fly. They also loaded the bases with two outs then as Novelo scratched out another single, Nakayama somehow walked, but Wilson flew out to left. The excitement of running the bases then led Nakayama to throw away Alberto Bonilla’s grounder to begin the third inning, but he worked his way around the error and the unearned runner was stranded at third base. Harris’ struggles also continued; after striking out Jose Corral to begin the bottom 3rd he allowed a single to Joel Starr (who gained an extra base when Roberto Almanza overran the ball, which soon stopped mattering), then lost Monck on ball four in a full count (see?). Arantes struck out, but Flowe raked a 3-run homer to right, the second bomb of his career. Spicer reached on another error, then scored on Novelo’s double in the left-center gap before Nakayama whiffed to end the inning, now up 5-0.

Nakayama allowed a run in the fourth on doubles down either line whacked by Palominos and Ian Stone, but that was about it for Thunder offense on his watch. Travis Anderson would hit a single against him in the seventh, but was left on base, and he held the Thunder to five hits through seven on exactly 100 pitches. The Thunder would get a leadoff double from Daniel Richardson against Juan Soriano, who somehow kept getting used in games, to begin the eighth inning, but Palominos’ groundout and a pitching change to Pedro Mendoza contained that runner as the southpaw rung up Stone and got Johnny Parker to fly out to somewhere where Jaden Wilson could grab the ball. Instead, Flowe banged a leadoff double off Juan Carrillo (another ex-Coon on the Thunder) in the bottom 8th and Spicer added a soft single to put runners on the corners. Novelo whiffed, but Ramon Lopez grabbed a stick and hit an RBI single over Richardson. A wild pitch, combined with Wilson’s groundout, plated another run, while Ryan Bonner grounded out to end the inning. In a don’t-you-dare assignment the Raccoons then pitched Rich Read against the 6-7-8 batters with a 6-run lead, which gave them a runner on base with a four-pitch walk and Read leaving the game with a “tired arm”. Carrington was next, walked Anderson (…!), gave up an RBI double to Bonilla, and then retired the next three batters while conceding one more run on Almanza’s sac fly. 7-3 Coons. Flowe 3-4, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Spicer 2-3, BB; Novelo 2-4, 2B, RBI; Lopez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (10-12) and 1-2, BB;

Rich Read might have a tired arm, but I have tired eyes. And a sharp knife in that drawer over there. Unless Maud hid it again.

In any case Read would spend the rest of the season on the DL. No replacement was called up.

Game 2
OCT: RF Almanza – C Bohannon – 1B I. Stone – CF J. Parker – LF Deisinger – SS Archuleta – 2B Curiel – 3B Bonilla – P J. Ortega
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – LF Bentley – SS Arredondo – P Gaytan

Tony Gaytan, while surely talented, remained frustrating to watch and got on the snout early and plenty in Tuesday’s game, allowing 2-out singles to Stone and Parker in the first inning before being taken quite deep to left by Jamie Deisinger for a 3-run homer, to which Bonilla added a solo jack an inning later, putting the Thunder up 4-0. Gaytan, on the brink of removal, then reigned himself in some in the next few innings, while the Raccoons didn’t have much going the first time through, but then got Lopez and Monck on base with a leadoff single and double, respectively, in the bottom 4th. Starr hit a sac fly, and John Bentley hit a 2-out homer to narrow the score to 4-3 again.

Deisinger drove in another run against Gaytan in the fifth after he again had fumbled a pair of 2-out runners on base, which Ramon Lopez would answer with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning, narrowing the score to 5-4 again … AFTER Jaden Wilson was caught stealing to remove a run off the bases and the board. Gaytan would go six and remain behind by a run, striking out three batters. He remained on the hook through a scoreless inning by Yamauchi, after which Wilson nearly hit a homer, but had the ball picked off the fence by the feisty Deisinger. McMahan and Cullum then fell apart for a 2-run eighth, as the Thunder opened with an Ian Stone triple, then threw in four pinch-hitters, most of whom reached base one way or another before Hyung-oo Chung finally grounded out to short from the #9 hole to keep runners on the corners. The Raccoons then did not seriously challenge again in the last two innings, but managed to lose Leon Arantes to an injury on a defensive play in the ninth… 7-4 Thunder. Lopez 2-4, HR, RBI;

Arantes was diagnosed with back soreness, which would leave him day-to-day for the rest of the week and stop us from wasting more at-bats on him for the time being. He remained on the roster, though.

Game 3
OCT: 1B I. Stone – C Bohannon – 2B Archuleta – SS Palominos – 3B D. Richardson – RF Kaniewski – LF Kozak – CF A. Torres – P D. Baca
POR: SS Novelo – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – CF Tallent – 1B Arellano – 2B Bonner – P Sanchez

Monck hit a sac fly in the bottom 1st after Novelo and Corral got on base, but the Thunder flipped the score quickly by filling the bases with Palominos (double), Richardson (single), and John Kaniewski (walk) in the top 2nd. Sanchez conceded a run on a wild pitch and one more on a sac fly by Alex Torres, while in between ex-Coon Jack Kozak, batting all of .162, struck out. The Thunder added four more runs in the third inning on a Martin Bohannon double, Ramon Archuleta’s homer, and then a 2-out, 2-run double by Alex Torres that drove in Kaniewski and Kozak to extend the score to 6-1 before Sanchez was chased during a 45-minute rain delay, because what else could be more fitting for the final game of the season in this old ballpark of ours?

The Coons got a scoreless fourth from Paul Barton before Randy Tallent doubled, strained an oblique, and left the game for Spicer (with Marquise Early sliding over to center), who was also left on base by the bottom of the order including Joel Starr pinch-hitting for Barton. Vinny Morales got the ball for two scoreless innings, perhaps as a tune-up for two more starting assignments at the tail end of the season, while Rich Monck doubled home a run in the bottom 5th to get back within slam range. In turn, Soriano got beaten up for two runs in the seventh, allowing a homer to Richardson, a single to Kaniewski, and an RBI double to Alex Torres. Quinones and Dover in a garbage assignment to keep him busy then added scoreless innings at the end, but again the Raccoons were without rally potential, and after six solid innings by the starter Baca fell rather meekly to a 3-inning save for Alfredo Picun, who struck out five against a singular hit, a pinch-hit double by Wilson that led nowhere. 8-2 Thunder. Monck 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Tallent 2-2, 2B; Wilson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Morales 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Randy Tallent was going to be out for at least one week, but might see some more action in the season’s dying days.

The Thunder came up short for the South, with both the Knights and Bayhawks surviving on a magic number of two on Wednesday night.

Raccoons (66-86) @ Canadiens (72-79) – September 24-26, 2066

The Raccoons were almost through their fifth consecutive season of not winning the season series against the dastardly Elks, already being down 10-5 in the season series. The string included four losses and one 9-9 tie. They ranked seventh in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed. Nick Vaughn was the only DL dweller for them.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (12-9, 3.70 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (13-10, 2.74 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (10-12, 3.62 ERA) vs. Nate Freeman (8-10, 4.25 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-4, 5.14 ERA) vs. Martyn Polaco (8-14, 5.07 ERA)

Polaco was one of two southpaws on staff, and the only one that could pitch in this series.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Colter – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Walla
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF D. Moore – 3B Spalding – P Nielsen

Offense was slow in the early innings, where no runs were scored, although the Raccoons had two hits and two walks against Ken Nielsen, but also hit into two double plays… Walla looked good, however, allowed only one hit the first time through the damn Elks’ order, and then struck out the 2-3-4 batters in order in the fourth. The middle innings passed without a base hit by either team as the innings breezed by. Jaden Wilson drew a walk and stole second base in the sixth inning, but for the lack of base hits he was also stranded there.

Rich Monck’s 21st homer of the year came to start the seventh inning and broke a scoreless tie. Nielsen then put both Starr and Colter on base and was lifted for Jesse Connors, who retired the bottom dwellers in the lineup and stranded the excess runners. Walla meanwhile had thrown 66 pitches in six innings and looked a-cruising, at least until the bottom 7th began with a Matt Kilday single to left and then Rick Atkins homering to left-center. Roberto Lozada and Steve Varner also reached, Monck bungled a grounder for an error, and another run was charged to Walla, who failed the bases full and left with Varner, Chad Whetstine, and Andy Friend surrounding him, two outs, and his head hanging in shame after a whole stewing mess of 39 pitches and three earned runs in the inning. Pedro Mendoza replaced him against Carlos Castro, was met with righty pinch-hitter Hsi-Chuen Yue, and walked in an (unearned) run. Kilday then flew out to Colter to end the inning. Another run was beaten out of Barton on three hits in the eighth inning. 5-1 Canadiens.

The Raccoons bravely laid down and took it… That will probably be the tag line of the season.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – LF Spicer – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Colter – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Nakayama
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF D. Moore – 3B Spalding – P N. Freeman

The middle game was also scoreless with a 1-hitter for Nakayama (and also Freeman) through three innings. The Elks got Varner and Whetstine on base in the fourth inning, but only with two outs and without Dan Moore being much help and popping out instead. The Raccoons’ top 5th began with Starr grounding out, but then Colter and Novelo dropped singles and Bonner was walked to fill the bases. Nakayama popped out to Lozada in shallow right, with no advance by the runners, before Jaden Wilson clipped a 2-run single and Spicer drew another walk. Ramon Lopez’ soft single plated Bonner for a 3-0 score, but Monck popped out to Kilday to end the inning with the bags still full. Nakayama then promptly also loaded the bases, because why would you just take a lead and run with it? Freeman singled, Castro walked, and Kilday singled the bases full with one down in the bottom 5th. One run scored when the Raccoons could only turn one out on Rick Atkins’ bouncer to Bonner, but Lozada grounded out to Starr to leave the other two on base in a 3-1 game.

Pablo Novelo and Steven Spalding hit into double plays in the sixth inning, while the Coons had three on and nobody out in quite the odd circumstances against Dallas Samson in the seventh. The right-hander allowed a soft leadoff single to Bonner, then misfielded Nakayama’s bunt for an error, then threw a wild pitch, and then walked Wilson intentionally when he was already 3-0 behind. Spicer batted in the juicy spot, fell 1-2 behind, but then struck a 2-run double to right to extend the lead to 5-1. A passed ball on Varner scored Wilson, and Lopez singled home Spicer, which ended Samson’s dismal appearance in favor of Josh Meighan, who got a 6-4-3 double play from Monck to stop the shenanigans.

Nakayama pitched six and a third before being relief efficiently by Quinones, Cullum, and Soriano to hold the Elks to a total of six hits and one run, while Ramon Lopez singled home Spicer one more time in the ninth inning. Spicer had stolen his 43rd base after forcing out Marquise Early to get on base. 8-1 Raccoons. Early (PH) 1-1; Lopez 3-5, 3 RBI; Starr 2-4; Bonner 2-3, BB;

For the Sunday southpaw game, the Raccoons had only five healthy right-handed batters left over – and two of those were catchers, so the lineup was half left-handed.

Thankfully the division title was no longer in play…

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Corral – 2B Bonner – P Morales
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B Whetstine – LF D. Moore – 3B Spalding – P Polaco

Vinny Morales was frankly terrible – in EVERY regard. He gave up six hits and a walk in the first three innings, allowing a pair of runs on RBI knocks by Varner in the first and Moore in the third innings, made a fielding error on a comebacker, somehow was dragged through by his defense, but for the cherry on top also bunted into a double play when Bonner skimmed another shy single in the top of the third, which ensured the Coons brought up the minimum against Polaco the first time through.

Wilson hit a single to begin the fourth and then didn’t really get anywhere for the rest of the inning. The fifth began with outs from Starr and Early before Corral was walked in a full count by Polaco, who then fell antlers-first into major embarrassment as he allowed an RBI double to Bonner and an RBI single to Vinny Morales, which took all of his lead away. Wilson hit another single, but was left on again when Novelo grounded out.

The defense dragged Morales through six innings on 99 pitches, allowing eight total hits to the damn Elks, but he held the 2-2 tie, even though the Raccoons didn’t get beyond a pinch-hit Bentley single in the seventh and no W would materialize for him – but a potential L developed for McMahan in the bottom 7th, who nicked PH Rico Cordero and then had to hand the ball to Carrington, who was taken quite deep by Rick Atkins for a 2-run homer and gave up two more singles before crawling out of the inning.

The Raccoons arrived in the ninth down 4-2 and then faced Jon McGinley again, who they had not done anything much against so far this season. Early and Arellano made outs to begin the inning before McGinley walked Bonner. Bentley then struck an RBI double to center, which suddenly put the tying run in scoring position for Wil- … uh, a pinch-hitter for Jesse Dover, which turned out to be Spicer, who singled to right, but Bentley didn’t have the legs to come around from second on a single in front of Roberto Lozada. Next up was Novelo, who didn’t futz around for long and singled clean through the hole on the left side, tying the game, and sending McGinley to bed. The runners would then take off for a double steal, but Robbie Lingard struck out Lopez to get out of the jam. Cruz Madrid held the tie to send the final Elks game of the year to extras.

Two innings by Yamauchi and a 12th inning by Barton held the scoreline while the offense did nothing while the Raccoons readied Evan Alvey to pitch red-eye innings until the game would tilt one way or another. He had a quick 13th, but then walked Atkins, allowed a single to Lozada, threw a wild pitch, and then issued a 2-out walk to Dan Moore. The bags were stuffed and cup-of-coffee holder Danny Nickel, all of 1-for-2 for his career, grabbed a stick. He hit a high fly to deep left – but too high and not deep enough, and Spicer made the catch on the warning track… and the game continued. The Raccoons shrugged and lost an inning later instead, when Mike Orphanos reached on a Novelo error, and Atkins knocked a walkoff double. 5-4 Canadiens. Wilson 2-4; Spicer (PH) 1-3; Bonner 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Bentley (PH) 2-4, 2B, RBI; Yamauchi 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

In other news

September 20 – The season ends early with a sprained thumb for Loggers 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.289, 14 HR, 94 RBI). He is accompanied on the DL by fellow middle infielder Tim Goss (.293, 6 HR, 57 RBI), who has suffered a concussion.
September 21 – DEN SP Juan Ybarra (6-9, 3.45 ERA) pitches 9.2 innings of no-hit ball against the Miners without getting offensive support before PIT 3B/SS Brian Robinson (.309, 2 HR, 53 RBI) gets him for a tenth-inning single. Nevertheless, it takes 13 innings for anybody to score a run as the Miners eventually beat the Gold Sox, 1-0. 30-year-old Miners third-string catcher Bill Saba (.364, 0 HR, 1 RBI) singles home the golden run for his first major-league RBI, and the Miners have only three hits all game.
September 22 – The Boston Titans win the CL North with a 3-2 win against the Falcons.
September 22 – The Condors beat the Loggers, 14-8, overturning a 7-run deficit with 10 runs in the eighth and another three runs in the ninth inning.
September 22 – As a manifestation that wins were hard to come by for the Warriors, they take 17 innings to beat the Rebels, 4-3.
September 24 – The Titans take 15 innings to beat the Crusaders, 2-1.
September 25 – The Thunder rush the Bayhawks, 8-0, to claim the CL South title.
September 25 – In a game with 30 base hits, the Loggers take 16 innings to beat the Indians by the paltry score of 3-2.

FL Player of the Week: NAS C David Johnson (.311, 30 HR, 115 RBI), batting .478 (11-23) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 1B/3B Alex Alfaro (.314, 13 HR, 69 RBI), hitting .524 (11-21) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Malcolm Spicer was now up five in the stolen base race. He should totally bat leadoff next year.

Meanwhile Cristiano showed me some paper about the FIP numbers of our pitching staff and it’s quite gross, especially compared to the more average-to-mediocre ERA’s as a whole. The best FIP’s of the 16 hurlers on the roster right now were:

2.56 (Madrid, so it doesn’t really count)
3.71 (Cullum)
3.84 (Nakayama)
4.03 (Walla)
4.10 (Dover, Mendoza, AND Quinones)
…and then it only got rougher from there. Basically, whatever your opinion on the defense was, you should probably apologize to them. Make it with a box of donuts.

Yes, one box per player.

(sigh)

One more week.

One more week, and then my pain will be over for the year.

Four with the Crusaders (probably gonna be ugly), and three with the Indians.

Fun Fact: Jason Brenize (18-6, 2.08 ERA) is oh so close to another triple crown.

He leads by a lot in ERA (46 points) and strikeouts (32). But he’s tied with his own teammate Matt Taylor for wins, and Taylor will get two more starts, and Brenize will only get one.

He probably wished now that he had skinned the Raccoons a bit harder this month…

Yes, my obsession with Brenize is unhealthy, but I am seeing somebody about it. (clonks a pair of bottles together with Slappy before wrapping his lips around the bottleneck)
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1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061
1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA | RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO

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Old 06-19-2025, 04:27 AM   #4690
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Raccoons (67-88) @ Crusaders (85-70) – September 27-30, 2066

Seven more games to the end of the season, and I’ve been asking for four months whether we’re there yet. The Crusaders had fallen well short of the division title this year (though not as short as the Portlanders!), despite ranking second in both runs scored and runs allowed and having a +150 run differential. Maybe the Coons would finally get to that -200 run differential in THIS series. The Crusaders were up 9-5 on the Raccoons for the year.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (5-7, 4.29 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (14-10, 3.95 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (9-9, 3.55 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (10-8, 4.42 ERA)
Nick Walla (12-10, 3.71 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (17-7, 3.05 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (11-12, 3.55 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (11-8, 3.16 ERA)

Another one of those „Oops! All righties!” series.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Colter – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – C Flowe – SS Novelo – P Gaytan
NYC: SS Vera – 2B O. Sanchez – CF Box – RF Takeuchi – LF Menchaca – 1B Duhon – 3B Blackshire – C Norwood – P E. Lee

Portland had the bags full with nobody out to begin the game as Jaden Wilson doubled over Bryant Box’ big head, Jose Corral walked, and Jamie Colter got a single past Omar Sanchez. Rich Monck put the Raccoons in front in the worst way, with a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play, and Joel Starr doubled in a second run before the inning ended with Leon Arantes, who was back from the sidelines. The lead was soon under threat, first when Crusaders rookie Omar Vera doubled to begin the bottom 1st but was left stranded, and then in the second inning with a leadoff walk to Eddie Menchaca and Chris Duhon’s double. The replacement level Crusaders lineup – only the 2-3-4 batters were really regulars throughout this season – got one run home with a fly ball by ex-Coon Dave Blackshire, but again stranded the double on base.

Gaytan was not particularly sharp and soon enough had to pitch in the rain and through a 30-minute rain delay in the fourth inning. Joel Starr had added a run with a solo homer in the top 4th, 3-1, but Gaytan kept putting runners on base, allowing hits to Duhon and Zachary Norwood, conceding a run, but Norwood was then thrown out at the plate by Wilson on Erik Lee’s 2-out single up the middle, denying the Crusaders the tying run. Gaytan went only five innings on a drawn-out 84 pitches, also factoring in the rain delay there of course. His W bid would disappear in the seventh inning with Jorge Quinones, who allowed a single to Omar Sanchez and then a score-flipping homer to Kazuhide Takeuchi, both lefty hitters.

The Coons went in order in the eighth, while Paul Barton then ran 3-ball counts to everybody, allowing a single and seeing Novelo bungle a double play grounder before Rich Monck started an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play to drag him through the inning. The Coons came up against Dave Hyman, righty, in the top of the ninth, who would face at least four lefty hitters beginning with Corral, who grounded out on the first pitch. Colter walked, but Monck lined out to Menchaca in left. Joel Starr was unretired in this game and remained so with a double to right, but Colter had to throw the anchor at third base with the ball already coming in when he got there. Ramon Lopez then batted for Arantes with two outs and punched a game-tying RBI single to left. Hyman further allowed a 2-run double to Jake Flowe, then was replaced with Matt Shapira, who gave up singles to Novelo and Spicer and another run. Southpaw Ben Caldwell then got Wilson out with a grounder to Blackshire to stop the 4-run rally. Cullum got the ball in the bottom 9th and moved the tying run to the plate immediately by giving up a double to ex-Coon Yukio Aoki and walking Oscar Rivera in the 2-3 spots before Takeuchi lined out, Menchaca whiffed, and Duhon grounded out to second-sacker Manny Arredondo. 7-4 Coons. Starr 4-4, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Lopez (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – LF Colter – 2B Arantes – 3B Arredondo – SS Novelo – P J. Sanchez
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 3B B. Wilken – RF Takeuchi – 1B Duhon – LF Menchaca – C Villafan – SS Vera – P Kozloski

Starr’s hot paw continued into Tuesday, where Jaden Wilson opened the game with a triple to center but was still on base for Starr’s 2-out at-bat after both Corral and Lopez popped out on the infield. Starr singled for a 1-0 lead, then was left on by Colter on Rich Monck’s day off. New York tied the game in the bottom 1st without the benefit of a base hit as Juan Sanchez walked the bags full with Omar Sanchez, Ben Wilken, and Takeuchi, after which Duhon’s grounder to Arantes got the teams even. Menchaca then also grounded out to Arantes to leave two in scoring position. The Purple Poopers took a 2-1 lead in the second as Box singled home Willie Villafan. Meanwhile, Sanchez couldn’t stay out of full counts, running FIVE of them in just two innings. The Crusaders had another runner in each of the next two innings, and both times hit into a double play to help out Sanchez more than he could help himself.

Sanchez then batted in the top 5th with the bases loaded and nobody out, whiffing after hits by Arantes and Arredondo and a walk to Novelo. The Raccoons ended up plating all the runners though and took a 4-2 lead on Wilson’s game-tying groundout and Corral’s 2-out, 2-run double to right before Lopez struck out. Sanchez needed 84 pitches for five innings, like Gaytan on Monday, then allowed leadoff singles to Takeuchi and Duhon in the sixth. Menchaca grounded into another double play and Villafan popped out to Starr to get Sanchez through six innings, which would be curtains for him.

Marquise Early hit a single batting for Sanchez in the seventh, then was immediately picked off first base. Yamauchi then retired the side in order in the bottom 7th before Lopez got on base and Starr hit a 2-run homer to right, doubling the Raccoons’ lead to 6-2. Pedro Mendoza walked Omar Sanchez and Wilken in the bottom 8th, then got another double play grounder from Takeuchi before Cruz Madrid got the last out of the inning from Duhon. Malcolm Spicer pinch-hit and singled in the top of the ninth, then stole two bases before getting stranded. The 6-2 lead then went to Josh C in the bottom 9th, and when he got stuck after just three batters, Jesse Dover, who inherited Villafan at second, Vera at first, and one down. He walked the bags full with Cesar Santiago, then struck out Box, two down. But control remained elusive, and he walked in not one, but TWO runs against Sanchez and Wilken before Takeuchi struck out on a 1-2 pitch… 6-4 Coons. Wilson 2-4, BB, 2 3B, RBI; Starr 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Arantes 2-3; Early (PH) 1-1; Spicer (PH) 1-1;

Spicer’s ninth-inning heroics put him at 46 stolen bases, seven up on the Box and Vic Lorenzo competition with just a pawful of games to play.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – LF Spicer – SS Arredondo – P Walla
NYC: SS Vera – 2B O. Sanchez – CF Box – RF Takeuchi – LF Menchaca – 1B Duhon – 3B Aoki – C Norwood – P Jer. Washington

Box wasn’t gonna catch Spicer by homering for sure, and both him (with Sanchez on base) and Takeuchi hit a baseball over the Walla off the Portland starter in the first inning for a blitz 3-0 Crusaders lead. Both of the home run hitters would strike out against Walla the next time around, while the Raccoons didn’t have much cooking against Jerry Washington in general. The rest of the Crusaders’ lineup didn’t do a whole lot against Walla either, but Takeuchi took him deep again for another solo home run in the sixth, which was also the last inning of Walla’s last start in ’66. The Coons were down 4-0 on two hits against Washington, who had however already thrown 92 pitches for some reason and left after a leadoff walk to Starr in the seventh. “DD” Damasceno replaced him, struck out Arantes and Spicer, and then allowed a shy single to Arredondo. The Coons sent Bentley to bat for Walla, and Bentley CLOCKED a 3-run homer estimated at 441 feet, because there was no way measuring it once it landed in the river behind the centerfield wall.

The score was thus shortened to 4-3, and the Raccoons got another two runners before Lopez popped out against Shapira. Three different relievers then retired the 4-5-6 batters in order in the eighth while the Raccoons got through eight getting one out from Soriano and five (!) from Quinones. Hyman then had another run at a save in the ninth inning, but put Coons on the corners with one out after both Colter and Bentley hit singles. Wilson lined out, which prevented the runners from advancing, and Hyman lost Corral on four pitches to load the bases. Ramon Lopez then popped out again to end the ballgame. 4-3 Crusaders. Colter (PH) 1-1; Arredondo 2-4; Bentley (PH) 2-2, HR, 3 RBI;

The top seven batters in the Coons lineup batted a sturdy 1-for-25 with four walks in this game.

The Loggers completed a sweep of the Titans on Wednesday as Boston was off the rolls right now. This left the Coons with half a game’s advantage over the Loggers, who were off on Thursday. They would play the Crusaders here in New York once the Raccoons would be outta town and on the way to Indy.

Game 4
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B Arantes – C Flowe – CF Early – SS Novelo – P Nakayama
NYC: SS Vera – 2B O. Sanchez – CF Box – RF Takeuchi – LF Menchaca – 3B B. Wilken – 1B J. Allen – C Norwood – P Seiter

Corral batted leadoff as Wilson got a day off and waved in the game’s first run when he dropped Norwood’s 2-out fly to right for an error in the bottom 2nd, allowing Takeuchi to score with an unearned run before Nakayama had to get the last out of the inning from Seiter instead. Seiter had pitched rather mundanely in 2066, and the Crusaders probably feared that at age 36 he was hitting the decline phase of his career. He scattered five hits against just two strikeouts to the Coons in the first four innings, but didn’t concede a run, while Nakayama gave up another 2-spot in the bottom 4th with a leadoff walk to Menchaca, Jared Allen’s RBI double, and then his own throwing error on Norwood’s comebacker that waved Allen in to score, 3-0. Seiter whiffed and Vera grounded out to end the inning.

The fifth inning saw both teams waste another runner before the Raccoons got Starr and Monck on base with soft singles against Seiter in the sixth. The veteran got Leon Arantes to 1-2, then gave up the 27-year-old rookie’s first career home run, a huge 3-piece to tie the game! Neither pitcher got a decision after that, as Nakayama was hit for with Wilson to begin the seventh. Corral got on base after Seiter had retired four in a row, three on strikes, but was forced out by Spicer, who instead stole another base and then was stranded by Starr. Seiter gutted it out for eight innings and 114 pitches, but the Coons had Mendoza and Madrid hold the fort in the seventh and eighth and the game was still tied at three into the ninth, with Hyman making another appearance. Randy Tallent hit a pinch-hit double in his first game action in over a week, Corral walked behind him, but Spicer forced out Corral again and Starr flew out to Takeuchi, and nobody scored. Ricky McMahan then got the ball for the bottom 9th and retired two batters before being taken deep by 40-year-old hangers-on Oscar Rivera to split the series for good. 4-3 Crusaders. Corral 2-4, BB; Starr 2-5; Monck 3-4; Flowe 2-4; Tallent (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Raccoons (69-90) @ Indians (80-79) – October 1-3, 2066

The Raccoons had gone 5-4 this year against half of the CL South, but had been beaten convincingly by everybody in the North – except for the Indians. The season series had long been won by the Critters, who entered this final series up 11-4 on Indy. Ninth in offense and fifth in pitching, the Indians had a +10 run differential. The Raccoons were still pretending like they wouldn’t crash under -200 on the final weekend of the season, entering at -192.

Projected matchups:
Vinny Morales (0-4, 4.83 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (9-9, 4.28 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-7, 4.25 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (12-9, 2.68 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (10-9, 3.54 ERA) vs. Vince Ellison (13-11, 4.48 ERA)

DeWitt was the final southpaw starter the Raccoons would see this year.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – 1B Starr – C Lopez – 3B Monck – RF Colter – 2B Arantes – LF Bentley – SS M. Arredondo – P Morales
IND: CF M. Martin – SS O. Aredondo – RF Dowsey – LF T. Torres – 3B P. Weber – C H. Valdez – 1B M. Rogers – 2B Jim White – P V. Perez

Joel Starr continued a hot week with a 2-run triple to plate Manny Arredondo and Vinny Morales, who had gotten on base with a pair of base hits, in the third inning. Those were the first runs of the game, and Starr then was immediately stranded by Lopez AND Monck, but Morales also wasted no time to give up a homer to Matt Martin in the bottom 3rd to narrow the lead to 2-1.

Blows were exchanged in the fourth inning as John Bentley hit another solo homer that was then answered by Hugo Valdez; the 23-year-old third-string catcher got the first home run of his career off Morales. The Indians then tied the game in the fifth as Martin singled to lead off, two outs were made, Tony Torres walked in a full count, and Paul Weber finally tied the game with a single to center. Morales gave up another RBI single to Valdez, falling behind 4-3, before Matt Rogers grounded out. Morales continued in the bottom 6th, where absurdly enough the Ar(r)edondos teams up for a 2-run inning for the Arrowheads. Manny Arredondo made an error to put Jim White on base, and Oscar Aredondo then clobbered another jack off Morales to extend the lead to 6-3. Morales was also done after that rocket.

Top 7th, and the Raccoons had the tying runs on with nobody out as Joe Napier walked Bentley, Arredondo doubled, and Spicer drew another walk batting for Carrington in the #9 spot. Wilson hit a sac fly to left, and Starr singled softly to right to fill the bases again. However, Lopez struck out on three pitches before Monck poked at a 3-0 and flew out to Justin Dowsey… Barton got the ball for the bottom 7th, struck out Weber, and then nailed Valdez with an 0-2 pitch. Rogers then singled to right, where Colter suffered the weirdest injury stretching for the rolling ball as it took an odd hop and tried to get by him. He was replaced with Tallent with what soon be diagnosed as 70% mild oblique strain and 30% phantom pain by Luis Silva. Quinones replaced Barton, struck out PH Mike White (batting for Jim White) as Rogers was taking off to steal second, and then Lopez’ throw to second got away from Arantes for an error, allowing Valdez to score from third base and Rogers to get to third base. PH Eddy Ramirez tripled in Rogers with a screamer to right before Martin made the third out of a confusing 2-run inning, Indy now up 8-4. Victor Ramirez pitched the last two innings for Indy without allowing a manor or minor rally to the Critters. 8-4 Indians. Starr 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Tallent (PH) 1-1; Arredondo 2-3, BB, 2 2B;

The Loggers beat the Crusaders, dropping the Coons into sole possession of last place in the North, and the worst record in the Continental League. We were tied with the Rebs on record, but there were still three teams in the FL West that all had worse records. The Coons could still end up anywhere from the #3 to the #6 pick next year.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Tallent – LF Early – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan
IND: CF M. Martin – SS O. Aredondo – RF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – LF T. Torres – 3B P. Weber – C H. Valdez – 2B Falcon – P DeWitt

Indy scored first on Saturday as Gaytan generously gave up runners in the bottom 2nd, in which Danny Starwalt hit a leadoff double and Torres drew a walk before two outs were made and the lead runner then scored on Miguel Falcon’s infield single. DeWitt then flew out to leave runners on the corners. DeWitt had struck out five of the first seven Critters before allowing singles to Bonner and Gaytan in the top 3rd, but recovered with more strikeouts against Wilson and Novelo to keep them stranded. Gaytan was nowhere near as good, or useful, filling the bases and giving up a 2-run single to Paul Weber with two outs, 3-0. Valdez then struck out.

DeWitt didn’t get the win because his control derailed in the fourth inning. He walked three batters from there, including Gaytan in the fifth, and was yanked after a final K on Wilson and a looong fly out to right by Novelo, one out shy of qualifying for a W. Lopez grounded out against Justin Esch to end the fifth. Gaytan kept going, allowing revenge to Weber, who hit a homer in the sixth, and then put Falcon and Mike White (not Jim White) on base. White hurt himself and was replaced with Wil Martinez, who along with Falcon was stranded when Martin grounded out to short. Gaytan was done after six and Soriano held the score at slam range in the seventh. The Raccoons got Starr and Monck on the corners in the eighth, but Tallent popped out to second and the inning ended when Corral batted for Marquise Early, but the Indians answered with lefty reliever Roberto Ponce de Leon, who got the strikeout on Corral. Evan Alvey pitched a scoreless inning for the Raccoons, while the Indians had six pitchers pool together for a 6-hit shutout. 4-0 Indians. Bentley (PH) 1-1;

A Stingers loss removed the #3 pick from consideration. Both the Rebs and Loggers were still in “luck of the draw” territory on Sunday, one win ahead of the Critters. Getting swept would give us the #4 pick for sure next year.

Mike White (not Jim White) was out for the season (well, one day) with a PCL strain.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – LF Spicer – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 2B Bonner – P Sanchez
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 2B Falcon – 3B P. Weber – 1B Starwalt – LF M. Martin – RF T. Torres – SS DeRosia – C F. Gomez – P Ellison

Indy was up 2-0 in the second inning on really nothing. Sanchez walked Starwalt and nailed Martin before the Indians poked for two meek outs. Freddy Gomez then hit a grounder in front of the plate that Flowe peppered away for a 2-base, 2-run error, and Sanchez had to get the last out from the pitcher instead. The Indians didn’t have a hit at that point, but then unfurled three straight singles to begin the bottom 3rd, with Weber driving home Ramirez to make it 3-0 against hapless Raccoons. Sanchez walked Starwalt, struck out Martin, and then got a 4-6-3 double play from Tony Torres to bail out.

Portland had a lonely hit (a Corral single) the first time through against Ellison, who allowed a single to Spicer on his first pitch of the fourth inning. He stole his 48th base of the season, gained third base on Monck’s soft 1-out single, and then came home on Corral’s groundout, 3-1. Monck was stranded by Novelo, and the Indians got the run right back with a leadoff single by Philip DeRosia, a walk to Gomez, and even with Ellison bunting into a 1-6-3 double play, as DeRosia scored on Eddy Ramirez’ infield single. Falcon grounded out, leaving it at 4-1.

Portland pieced together another run with a single, stolen base, and two groundouts in the sixth inning, but this time it was Wilson doing the running and scoring. 4-2 was all the Coons could do for Sanchez though, who went six-and-a-third before being replaced with Yamauchi, who allowed a pair of 2-out singles in the bottom 7th before McMahan got the third out on a pop from the pinch-hitting Rogers. Wilson hit a 2-out single in the eighth, but got nowhere else, and Dover held the Indians to the lead they already had in the bottom of the inning. Cody Kleidon, who had already finished the Saturday game, was then out for the save opportunity in the ninth, facing the 3-4-5 batters. Starr flew out to left, Monck flew out to center, and then Early batted for Corral and grounded out to DeRosia at short. 4-2 Indians. Wilson 2-4; Corral 2-3, RBI;

In other news

September 27 – Nashville clinches the FL East in idle fashion, as the Capitals eliminate the last remaining competition, the Cyclones, in a 12-6 game.
September 27 – The Canadiens beat the Indians, 9-2 in 16 innings. They also out-hit the opposition, 22-7.
September 27 – The Condors beat the Falcons, 3-0 in ten innings. The Falcons somehow can not push a run across despite a dozen base hits.
September 28 – In another lopsided extra-inning score, the Aces beat the Bayhawks, 11-5 in 11 innings.
October 1 – TIJ 3B/2B Ralph Lange (.242, 5 HR, 39 RBI) reaches a 20-game hitting streak with a first-inning, 2-run double and two hits total in a 7-4 win against the Knights.
October 2 – The hitting streak of Lange does not last to the end of the season as he goes hitless in a 4-3 defeat to the Bayhawks just one day later.

FL Hitter of the Month: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.309, 26 HR, 98 RBI), hitting .359 with 8 HR, 27 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.357, 20 HR, 105 RBI), socking .446 with 4 HR, 17 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS CL Elijah LaBat (4-5, 1.82 ERA, 47 SV), recording 11 saves while going 2-0 with a 2.35 ERA, 15 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Kodai Koga (15-10, 3.21 ERA), calmly going 5-0 with a 2.30 ERA, 25 K
FL Rookie of the Month: SFW INF Jimmy Madden (.306, 10 HR, 77 RBI), slapping .381 with 4 HR, 21 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: SFB OF Jake Ward (.296, 11 HR, 48 RBI), going .313 with 6 HR, 18 RBI

Complaints and stuff

(huge sigh of relief)

The team achieved a -202 run differential eventually. Always remember, kids: even when your goals are so far away and they remain just out of reach for the longest time, you will eventually get there if you just suck hard enough!

Going along with that wretched run differential was the worst record in the CL, one game behind the Loggers, and the #4 pick in next year’s draft, one game behind the Scorpions for #3.

Mathematically the team should have lost 102 games, BY FAR the worst in the league. Next-worst would have been the Wolves. While the Coons came nine games above their expected record, the Warriors ended up eleven games *under* theirs.

The Raccoons scored fewer than 600 runs for the first time since 2022, when the offense mainly consisted of Matt Nunley and Cookie Carmona, and half a season of “Tiger” Mendoza before he was traded to Cincy for what eventually turned out to be a bucket full of turds. Gil Rockwell led that team – in his final season – with 19 homers, two shy of Rich Monck’s team lead while posting a 94 OPS+ this year. Rockwell’s was 106.

Wickedly we also had three winning months (two by one game) while tumbling to a 93-loss season.

Malcolm Spicer won his second stolen base titles with 48 bags taken after 53 last year; including his cup of coffee in ’64 he now had 106 stolen bases for his career and he wouldn’t turn 23 until next May. He was also a .284 batter allergic to walks and his own glove, and worth -2.0 WAR for his career, but what the hell do I know? Spicer might be better off as the first baseman with some more exercise at that position, but the Raccoons had three years and $9.9M worth of Joel Starr in the way, who wasn’t likely to find a new team after two barely-above-average seasons.

Nod to Kodai Koga, winning his second Pitcher of the Month award. He won his first such award at the youthful age of 34 in August of 2058.

Jason Brenize wins his second triple crown in the CL in a tie for wins with his team mates Mike Bell and Matt Taylor, while in the FL Alex Quevedo wins HIS second triple crown, beating the entire rest of the league by over a full run of ERA! Quevedo (9.3) and Brenize (8.5) also post the highest WAR’s of all ABL players this year.

Fun Fact: Oscar Rivera, who hit the walkoff homer on Thursday at 40 years and 352 days of age, made all his ABL appearances in his 20s with the Raccoons.

Acquired with fellow prospects Willie Cruz and Eloy Sencion from the Gold Sox for mostly Dave Hils after the 2049 season, he made it into just 95 games from 2051 through 2053, his age 25-27 seasons. He batted .225 with 9 homers and 35 RBI in total, then was sent back to the Alley Cats for good and obtained minor league free agency after the ’54 season.

He then signed five minor league contracts (twice with New York) without getting a call back to the majors before making a return in 2058 at age 32 with the Capitals, for whom he would then fill that role of “can’t believe he’s still around” quad-A shuttle outfielder that would sometimes get many, but mostly few at-bats every year from ’58 through ’65 before being let go after that season. The Crusaders then signed him to a third minor league contract in May and he appeared mostly in AAA again before his late call-up here.

Rivera, who throughout his pro career had rented apartments in 18 different cities, still was short of 1,000 major league plate appearances. Overall he was a .220/.329/.360 batter with 173 hits, 25 homers, and 109 RBI. He had stolen six bases, four of those with the Coons.
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1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061
1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA | RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO

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Old 06-20-2025, 06:05 PM   #4691
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2066 ABL PLAYOFFS

Was the ABL in a spot of bother? The playoff field once more consisted of the Stars, Blue Sox, Titans, and Thunder, for the third time in the last five years, and in the other two years still three teams of that group had made the playoffs. A completely different set of teams had last made the playoffs in 2061.

The 101-61 Titans had run away with the CL North by 12 games, winning it for the fourth straight season. They had three 18-game winners with Triple Crown winner Jason Brenize (18-7, 2.24 ERA), Mike Bell (18-11, 2.74 ERA), and Matt Taylor (18-8, 3.08 ERA), and added a strong bullpen to that, predictably allowing the fewest runs in the Continental League. On offense, they had only finished sixth in runs scored, perhaps in part owed to the fact that two of their best players, Steve Humphries (.297, 10 HR, 65 RBI) and Eddie Marcotte (.296, 19 HR, 76 RBI) had both missed about 50 games of the season. Together with Jorge Arviso (.248, 16 HR, 71 RBI), Bill Joyner (.276, 16 HR, 77 RBI), and Joe Washington (.261, 15 HR, 74 RBI) they made for a thick middle of the order, although the lineup was a bit thin at the bottom.

The Thunder won 94 games and the South for the fifth year in a row, beating out the Bayhawks by 12 games as well. They had the #5 offense and #3 pitching in the league, and like the Titans lacked a 20-homer hitter, being led by Jose Palominos (.263, 19 HR, 82 RBI) and Ian Stone (.283, 18 HR, 77 RBI). They had come third in homers, but had no speed to talk about, but in total also had five players that had hit double-digit homers. Their rotation was led by Tyler Riddle (17-6, 2.44 ERA), although behind the veterans things became thin quite quickly. Danny Baca (13-9, 3.37 ERA) was the only other starter with an above-average ERA. The bullpen was however very strong, even though they only had one lefty reliever.

The 104-58 Stars had stomped their way to their fifth straight FL West title, distancing the Pacifics by 17 games and everybody else by *30*. They had smashed 856 runs, far ahead of the competition, and had allowed the second-fewest, with a +226 run differential that led the league. Alex Quevedo (20-6, 1.94 ERA) had won the FL pitching Triple Crown, and Andy Canada (13-5, 3.12 ERA) was a capable sidekick, but recent ace “Crabman” Walker (7-4, 4.17 ERA) had suffered through an injury-addled season and Alan Deakin was out for the season. The pen was perhaps the weakest point on the roster, grading average along with the defense. The core of the lineup however consisted o Tyler Wharton (.329, 26 HR, 99 RBI), Belchior Fresco (.266, 22 HR, 97 RBI), and Chad Pritchett (.303, 25 HR, 110 RBI), who were quite capable of glazing over a few weakness in other areas, especially when you considered that they had Xavier Reyes (.330, 3 HR, 62 RBI) and/or Andy Yocum (.377, 1 HR, 66 RBI) to drive in almost every time they stepped into the box. The Stars were very heavily right-handed in all aspects of their roster, with no true lefty batter in the lineup and no lefty starting pitchers.

Compared to the rest of the field, the 101-win Blue Sox barely scraped into the playoffs, taking the FL East by just ten games (cough). They had ranked fourth in runs scored and first in runs allowed in the Federal League, but there was a bit of good news / bad news here. All their position players were available, with a fearsome middle of the order containing Kris DiPrimio (.323, 19 HR, 82 RBI), Austin Gordon (.307, 26 HR, 100 RBI), Tony Roman (.266, 38 HR, 101 RBI), and David Johnson (.304, 30 HR, 115 RBI) – but their pitching staff had been dismembered by injuries and they had five pitchers (starter Josh Rivera, closer Curt Carter, and three more good relievers) shut down on the DL for the season. The remainder bullpen was partially suspect, and the rotation had to make do without a starter with a sub-3 ERA, now being led by Tony Marquez (15-8, 3.06 ERA) and Edwin Moreno (18-8, 3.21 ERA), who was the only left-handed hurler on staff. Gordon, Roman, and Wil Mejia were lefty hitters, and Rick Healey (.254, 17 HR, 58 RBI) was a switch-hitter.

+++

The Thunder extended their record for most playoff appearances in league history with their 27th October appearance, while the Titans were third-overall with their 23rd. The Blue Sox made their 20th postseason, and the Stars made the 18th playoffs in team history.

By actual titles, the Titans had the most in the league (11), while the title defending Stars and the Blue Sox both had six, and the Thunder had taken three rings so far.

The Thunder and Titans had met up six times in the CLCS before, three times bunched together in 2001, 2002, and 2004, and now did so for the fourth time in a row since 2063. The Thunder had even less luck in these matchups than against the Raccoons, as the Titans won all of these series – except for 2065, when the Thunder FINALLY prevailed.

Before meeting in the FLCS last year, the Stars and Blue Sox had also ran into each other in a compact timespan, four times in the 1980s. The Stars won those meetings in 1983 and 1988, and the Blue Sox won the 1986 and 1987 FLCS meetings, and in each of these cases the FL champions also won the World Series. Beyond that the teams also met in 2005 and from 2062 through 2064, with the Sox winning in ’05 and ’62 and the Stars taking the pennant in ’63 and ’64; the Sox lost these two World Series appearances, and the Stars lost in 2063, but won in 2064.

For potential World Series matchups, the Titans had faced the Stars in both the 2063 and 2064 World Series, splitting the titles between them, Boston in ’63 and Dallas in ‘64. The Titans also beat the Blue Sox in the 1998 and 2002 World Series. The Thunder lost their only World Series facing the Stars last season, but had never met the Blue Sox in the championship tilt.

+++

2066 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

OCT @ BOS … 3-6 … (Titans lead 1-0) … Joe Washington 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

The Thunder make a mess of the game and commit more errors (four) than they put hits together (three).

NAS @ DAL … 3-9 … (Stars lead 1-0) … DAL Xavier Reyes 3-3, 2 BB, 2B; DAL Tyler Wharton 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; DAL Belchior Fresco 1-2, 3 BB; DAL Tommy Pritchard 3-4, 2 RBI;
OCT @ BOS … 2-5 … (Titans lead 2-0) … OCT Martin Bohannon 2-2, 2 BB; BOS Bill Joyner 3-4, 2 2B; BOS Phil Macomber 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; BOS Jason Brenize 8.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

NAS @ DAL … 1-12 … (Stars lead 2-0) … DAL Jeff Maudlin 3-5, RBI; DAL Adam Yocum 3-4, BB, 4 RBI; DAL Belchior Fresco 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; DAL Juan de Luna 3-5, 2 RBI;

The Stars put out 16 hits (all singles!) and score in every inning from the third in a rout of the Blue Sox.

BOS @ OCT … 0-3 … (Titans lead 2-1) … OCT Danny Baca 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

25-year-old Danny Baca throws a 3-hitter to keep the Thunder in the race, offering a total of 103 pitches while outdueling Mike Bell (0-1, 3.86 ERA).

DAL @ NAS … 3-4 … (Stars lead 2-1) … DAL Jeff Maudlin 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; DAL Chad Pritchett 3-4; NAS Austin Gordon 2-4, 2B, RBI;
BOS @ OCT … 8-7 (11) … (Titans lead 3-1) … BOS Steve Humphries 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; BOS Joe Washington 3-5, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; OCT Roberto Almanza 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; OCT Johnny Parker 2-5, 2 RBI;

Veteran Franklin Serrano (.091, 0 HR, 1 RBI) hits a walkoff double for the Sox in the ninth inning.

DAL @ NAS … 2-4 … (series tied 2-2) … DAL Jeff Maudlin 3-3, BB; NAS Sergio Rubio 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;
BOS @ OCT … 4-7 … (Titans lead 3-2) … OCT Ramon Archuleta 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Boston’s Bryce Wallace (1-0, 2.08 ERA) pitches six innings of 1-hit ball, but uses 109 pitches to make it that far, however, the Titans are nine out removed from the World Series as he leaves the game before suffering a ferocious bullpen explosion between Tony Castellanos (0-1, 18.00 ERA) and fifth starter Will Glaude (0-0, 15.00 ERA).

DAL @ NAS … 4-3 … (Stars lead 3-2) … DAL Jeff Maudlin 2-4, 2 RBI; DAL Tyler Wharton 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; DAL Jason Bothe 2-3, BB; NAS Kris DiPrimio 4-5, HR, RBI; NAS Austin Gordon 3-5, HR, 2 RBI;

OCT @ BOS … 1-10 … (Titans win 4-2) … OCT Martin Bohannon 3-4, 3B, 2B; BOS Bill Joyner 1-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI;

The Titans dole out seven runs in the first inning, then turn the ball over to Jason Brenize (2-0, 1.17 ERA), who extinguishes the Thunder as humanely as possible while claiming the pennant.

NAS @ DAL … 5-3 (10) … (series tied 3-3) … NAS Kris DiPrimio 2-5, 2 HR, 2 RBI; DAL Andy Yocum 2-3, 2 BB; DAL Tyler Wharton 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; DAL Alex Quevedo 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K;

Two in the ninth to tie and two more in the tenth to win and extend the series to an all-or-nothing Game 7 for the Sox.

NAS @ DAL … 5-3 … (Blue Sox win 4-3) … NAS Franklin Serrano 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; DAL Chad Pritchett 1-4, 3B, 3 RBI;

„Crabman“ Walker (0-1, 4.80 ERA) strikes out 11 Sox, but also gets gradually grounded down for five runs in seven innings, while the Sox only dare to ask for 5.2 innings from rookie Jarrod Annear (1-0, 3.86 ERA) before piecing the rest together with the bullpen.

+++

2066 WORLD SERIES

The Titans had leaned more on their starting pitching than anything else in their 6-game dispatch of the Thunder in the CLCS. In any case they had not suffered any injuries and were at full strength for the World Series, where they might enjoy a slight advantage over the Sox and their heavy right-handed pitching staff, since four of the Titans’ most commonly used position players were lefty hitters (Israel Diaz, Arviso, Washington, and Joyner). The Blue Sox were still five pitchers short, but at least had not suffered any additional injuries, but it looked like the Titans had an advantage, including home field, which they won by luck of the draw, since both teams won an equal 101 games in the regular season.

+++

NAS @ BOS … 8-10 (13) … (Titans lead 1-0) … NAS Fernando Aracena 3-6; NAS Austin Gordon 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; BOS Eddie Marcotte 2-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; BOS Jorge Arviso 2-6, HR, 2 RBI;

In a jaw-dropping Game 1, and tied at two after seven innings, both teams score two runs in the eighth, FOUR runs in the tenth, and the Titans then finally break through on a walkoff homer by Marcotte. Willie Mendoza (1-0, 0.00 ERA) gets the W in long relief for three scoreless innings.

NAS @ BOS … 2-3 (10) … (Titans lead 2-0) … NAS Tony Roman 2-3; BOS Jason Brenize 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;

Another game, another extra-inning drama and Boston walkoff when Jorge Arviso (.182, 1 HR, 3 RBI) drives In pinch-hitter Bobby Ellwood.

BOS @ NAS … 8-5 … (Titans lead 3-0) … BOS Joe Washington 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Sergio Rubio 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; NAS Evan Mottern (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

This time the Sox take a 5-4 lead into the ninth inning that Roberto Navarro (2-2, 5.63 ERA, 2 SV) can’t hold onto and along with Tomas Restrepo goes down in a 4-run fireworks.

BOS @ NAS … 5-0 … (Titans win 4-0) … BOS Eddie Marcotte 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; BOS Joe Washington 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; BOS Matt Taylor 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-4;

Matt Taylor clinches the Titans’ 12th title with a complete-game shutout after getting two runs of support before taking the hill and all five within the first five innings of the game. The Sox are never in the picture and lose the deciding game early rather than late.

+++

2066 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Boston Titans

(12th title)
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Old 06-21-2025, 04:11 AM   #4692
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Having posted consecutive seasons of 90+ losses for the first time since 2000-01 (!), the Raccoons were almost guaranteed to not get any big contributions from owner Adam Valdes to rebuild the charred remains of the team. Much the opposite, the budget was slashed another $2M down to $57M. This dropped the Raccoons one more spot from 12th to 13th in the ranking of all 24 teams, but the chasm to the top teams was starting to become quite frightening. We were just $4M above the bottom 5 in the league, but by now we were $24M adrift of the top 5…

Top 5: Titans ($97M), Stars ($89M), Knights ($88M), Thunder ($85M), Crusaders ($81M)
Bottom 5: Miners/Falcons ($52M), Warriors ($51M), Loggers ($45.5M), Wolves ($43.5M), Aces ($42M)

The top 5 were the same as last season, although the Titans and Stars moved past the Knights, who had squandered the biggest budget in the league last year.

The remaining CL North teams could be found tied for 14th in a threesome of the Indians, damn Elks, and Bayhawks, all at $56M, basically the same as the Coons. The median budget went down another $500k to $58M, while the average budget surged a whopping $1.85M to $62.95M.

+++

The newest budget cut motivated some immediate and perhaps knee-jerk reactions. At this point we had to cut scouting by $1.2M and play development by half that just to stop the bleed at the top of the accounting sheet.

Savage cuts would have to be made to the roster, which was ever good news on a team that would have deserved to lose 102 games. To start with some bad news, Jorge Quinones, who piled up a 7+ ERA as a Raccoon, triggered the $1.42M vesting option in his contract and would hang around as a 37-year-old hot air blower in the bullpen next year. Yay!

On the bright paw, some savings could be made on the arbitration side, maybe. Six players were lined up there, including relievers Jesse Dover, Pedro Mendoza, and Ubaldo Piteira; shortstop-by-default Pablo Novelo; rightfielder Jose Corral; and super utility Randy Tallent; and how much do you REALLY want to spend on the comfort of a guy playing seven positions that is a career .224 hitter? Corral might turn into a useful player yet, and maybe we would try to tie him down with a 4-5 year contract. Novelo had been AWFUL, batting below replacement level and dragging his tush through on D alone.

Jesse Dover had saved 20 games without ever being officially named closer this season – officially the team had gone closer-by-committee all season! – and was professionally pissed off all the time. He had also walked 6.4 batters per nine innings, up sharply from 3.7 in ’65, and I was tempted to fish for something else with the superficial competence of his 3.12 ERA. Pedro Mendoza had been blissfully useless and would be 37 years old, and Piteira, perhaps a back-end of the rotation option for a team struggling for oxygen on Poverty Row, was going to cost nearly a million and would miss at least a couple of months to begin the new season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Both Mendoza and Piteira would be non-tendered, but the Raccoons would boldly waste more at-bats on Novelo and Tallent, probably.

For free agents, we had one veteran infielder that had dropped to AAA and hadn’t been missed in Jorge Caballero, and four more pitchers. This notably included three that had been very useful at one point or another, including starters Juan Sanchez (a type B free agent) and Chance Fox (longest-continuously-serving player on staff), although Fox had missed most of the season with his own shredded elbow and was not going to make Opening Day, either. The Coons were eager for that extra draft pick although Sanchez could potentially get A LOT in arbitration if he picked up the offer, but we also would not be averse to give Fox a one-year contract IF he’d sign for reclamation project money. Also on the list were two righty relievers, very reliable Justin Cullum and then Cruz Madrid, who had done nothing to earn that moniker and had also missed almost all of ’66 to injury.

If the Coons tried to swing Dover in a trade, then Cullum was a non-terrible option to replace him with as non-official closer… until you realized that he had gotten socked for the four years prior to his 2.13 Portland ERA, meandering from team to team and pitching to 4.30+ ERA’s exclusively in that period.

So we just kick out EVERYBODY??

How often do you have to salt the earth in the bullpen until something grows anew?
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Old 06-22-2025, 01:17 PM   #4693
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Still in October, the Raccoons got some extensions done with … players. Both Pablo Novelo and Randy Tallent avoided arbitration with new $540k deals for the 2067 season. The big news item was however a 5-year, $13.1M extension (plus incentives) that was signed with Jose Corral and that bought out his remaining arbitration years and three years of free agency. He would get $1.4M in 2067, $2.1M in 2068, and then $3.2M three times thereafter. It was not a very expensive contract to be honest. Corral’s own design included even less coins per season, but ran for seven years through 2073.

Next we sniffed around the shopping line a bit and found to no great surprise that offering certain corner infielders with sizable contracts and pedestrian production did not provoke excitement with the other teams in the league, but apparently the Knights were ready to part with Casey Ramsey for a half-eaten sandwich at this point.

We fielded a trade offer from the Bayhawks offering 2B/1B Jeremy White for Colter and McMahan, which was too steep a price for yet another misshapen puzzle piece for the M.C. Escher drawing that was our second base situation.

The month ended with the news that Chance Fox agreed to a $700k contract extension to try and piece his arm and career back together. The expectation was that he was going to miss the start of the season and maybe come back at some point in May after an extensive round of rehab in AAA. So, Walla and Nakayama, and Gaytan and Fox, that already made three-and-a-half pitchers for the 2067 rotation!

The damn Elks were then bold enough to approach the Raccoons about sending SP Nate Freeman over for prospects, including #91 C Andrew Farlow. Freeman was a decent pitcher that had somehow already been traded three times since being drafted in 2062, but this team was not going to trade any potentially useful prospects to the damn Elks while I was still able to draw a breath. Since Freeman made the minimum and the Elks were wildly over budget, no deal could be made otherwise.

The Raccoons never agreed to a 2067 contract with Jesse Dover, who felt he was entitled to a lot more than his $550k estimate. We let it come to a head, and he received $550k in arbitration. Dover had demanded $892k. Juan Sanchez was offered arbitration, but declined, and we thus became eligible for a compensation pick. Sanchez had gone 16-15 with a 3.64 ERA since the Blue Sox had sent him over in a trade last year. His departure cleared a $5.1M salary off the books.

The group of type A free agents was quite colorful and included three ex-Coons – Tyler Riddle (Thunder), Paul Labonte (Wolves), and Elijah LaBat (Caps) – as well as frequent CL North foes Ben Seiter (Crusaders) and Cody Kleidon (Indians), and ageless Kodai Koga (Knights). Of course the Raccoons did not have the means, nor the desire to forfeit a second round pick, by signing any of them. Although cleaning house had generated about $8M of budget space by the time the books were cleared, we entered the offseason with only three credible starting pitchers, a whole host of question marks in the pen, and a lineup that was just off from top to bottom and from which about everybody was available besides the top three of Wilson (although we had hoped for more), Corral, and Lopez.

Now we just had to find takers.

+++

November 4 – The Indians acquire the Gold Sox’ closer John Nesbitt (13-7, 4.04 ERA, 32 SV) for young C Hugo Valdez (.175, 1 HR, 2 RBI) and another prospect.

+++

2066 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.329, 26 HR, 99 RBI) and MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.354, 20 HR, 106 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (20-6, 1.94 ERA) and BOS SP Jason Brenize (18-7, 2.24 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW INF Jimmy Madden (.313, 10 HR, 79 RBI) and SFB OF Jake Ward (.293, 11 HR, 49 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: WAS CL Elijah LaBat (4-5, 1.82 ERA, 47 SV) and CHA CL Jason Stine (7-6, 1.76 ERA, 30 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DEN Matt Asplund – C NAS David Johnson – 1B NAS Kris DiPrimio – 2B SAC Alex Castillo – 3B DAL Xavier Reyes – SS SAC J.P. Gallo – LF NAS Tony Roman – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF CIN Roberto Soto
Platinum Sticks (CL): P BOS Matt Taylor – C ATL Justin Hart – 1B MIL Cesar Ramirez – 2B SFB Armando Montoya – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS OCT Jose Palominos – LF SFB Ian Streng – CF BOS Eddie Marcotte – RF NYC Kazuhide Takeuchi
Gold Gloves (FL): P DEN Ernesto Culver – C TOP Pete Kelbaugh – 1B WAS Pedro Parada – 2B CIN Jordan Hernandez – 3B NAS Rick Healey – SS RIC Jason Turner – LF CIN Melvin Avila – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF DEN Chris Tuck
Gold Gloves (CL): P MIL Luis Palacios – C VAN Steve Varner – 1B BOS Bill Joyner – 2B CHA Jared Duhe – 3B CHA John Schmidt – SS CHA Trent Taylor – LF BOS Steve Humphries – CF NYC Bryant Box – RF LVA Jorge Caceres
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Old 06-23-2025, 06:53 AM   #4694
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No rotation, no pen, no offense, and no (real) dosh to spend; looked like an impossible offseason, and maybe it was. We had already tried swapping Nakayama, Monck, and Starr right after the World Series, but had not found any takers at that point, and of course their contracts hadn’t gone down in the meantime. Monck had the biggest contract on the team now, making $5M in his contract year. Jaden Wilson had three years of $4.5M each going, Ramon Lopez was also in a contract year and making $4M, and after that came Nakayama with three years at $3.6M each, and then would still be under team control for another year. Joel Starr’s three years of $3.3M each (including a team option) completed the set of players that made more than $1.6M in ’67, so this wasn’t an overly expensive team to begin with – it was just that our budget was shot. Jose Corral had of course been signed to an extension that would eventually pay him $3.2M a year, but that in the future; this year he’d make $1.4M. There were only nine seven-figure earners on the team, including complete busts Quinones and Arellano, and only 13 guys that made more than the minimum…

There were 13 pitchers left on the extended roster after the free agency walk day, of which all of three were qualified starting pitchers that were going to be ready on Opening Day: Nakayama, Nick Walla, and Tony Gaytan; Chance Fox was expected to miss the opener. Beyond that you had a bullpen with Dover, McMahan, Alvey (or starter because poverty?), and then … uh… Josh C and Yamauchi…? We also had Vinny Morales around, who had definitely not given us signals that he was capable of playing in the majors at this stage, as well as Barton, Soriano, and Quinones.

The extended roster held 16 position players, including catchers Lopez, Jake Flowe, and Arellano (oh boy!); Starr, Novelo, and Monck as infield regulars with Arantes, Bonner, and Arredondo piling on top of each other for the second base job; and in the outfield Wilson and Corral in center and right, and then a right old mess of lefty-hitting corner outfielders Spicer, Colter, and Bentley, plus right-handed whiffer Marquise Early, and don’t forget super utility Randy Tallent.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…

Starr and Monck were dangled again in late November. Starr’s contract looked rather dead; the Falcons would exchange the $30M+ owed to Edgar Mauricio for it, but apart from that things looked dire. Monck’s situation was a bit less dire, with at least SOME offers, although those were also of the “contract’s not really worth it anymore” variant, although there were a few guys that could hit, including the Condors’ Andy Metz and the Titans’ Bill Joyner on offer. Those, however, were both first basemen, and we already couldn’t get rid of the one we currently had.

There was also this fixed idea in my head to move Spicer to first base where he could do less damage on defense, or so I chose to pretend. Out of curiosity we then dangled Spicer, to which the Indians responded with offering 25-year-old power hitter Justin Dowsey. He had ripped 28 homers in 2065, but just 15 this past season, despite getting more at-bats. He looked defensively competent, at least more so than Spicer. Cristiano Carmona was begging me to flip the switch, which automatically made me hold back.

No, Cristiano, I don’t wanna do it! – No, stop dialing the phone!! – Cristiano, make its top tooting! – Cristiano, I don’t– Hull-loo…?

+++

November 23 – The Indians trade CF/RF Eddy Ramirez (.245, 56 HR, 241 RBI) and $763k in cash to the Pacifics in exchange for OF/SS/1B Sam Dixon (.250, 3 HR, 21 RBI) and a prospect.
November 24 – The Knights make the first big free agent signing of the winter, pouncing on ex-CIN INF Jorge Munoz (.254, 18 HR, 221 RBI), one of the best OBP players in the league, for $42.2M over seven years.
November 25 – The Raccoons trade LF/RF/1B Malcolm Spicer (.284, 2 HR, 81 RBI), the twice-defending CL stolen base champion, and RF/LF/1B John Bentley (.308, 7 HR, 26 RBI) to the Indians for LF/RF/1B Justin Dowsey (.265, 44 HR, 173 RBI) and #63 prospect SP Gabriel Rios (0-1, 2.57 ERA, 1 SV).
November 28 – After two years with the Crusaders, 36-year-old SP Ricardo Montoya (180-75, 2.68 ERA) crosses the front lines and signs a $4.44M contract with the Titans.
November 29 – Indy acquires SP Danny Nava (29-22, 3.73 ERA) from Denver for two prospects.
November 29 – Boston picks up 2B/1B Jeremy White (.263, 22 HR, 112 RBI) from the Bayhawks for 3B Phil Macomber (.259, 22 HR, 141 RBI) and a prospect.
November 29 – The Canadiens get 3B/RF Danny Soto (.202, 7 HR, 44 RBI) from the Rebels for 2B/3B Hsi-chuen Yue (.238, 9 HR, 74 RBI).
November 30 – The Indians bring back their former catcher Alex Gomez (.249, 128 HR, 625 RBI), after two years in Vegas, on a 4-year, $21.12M deal.
December 1 – The Raccoons add free agent INF Mike Roberts (.240, 17 HR, 279 RBI), a career Aces infielder, for a nice round $1M.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 15 players change teams in the selection process. The Raccoons draft #94 prospect CL Jason Holzmeister from the Falcons.


+++

(makes big black googly eyes)

Every time there’s a police car siren going off in town now, I duck behind the couch, because I feel like they’re coming to get me. The Indians trade feels like such a robbery! What were they thinking??? (squeals) Look at Rios!! (squeals higher) Look at him!! Why?? How??

Yes, this will totally ruin our stolen base tally in 2067. Apart from that we replace two poor lefty-hitting corner outfielders with one that can actually hit, and do we dare to plonk Rios right in the rotation??

I am almost excited now!! (runs around the office, tail flying, and screaming with his paws in the air)

The Raccoons ALMOST brought back Trent Brassfield, now 34 years old, in the Rule 5 Draft, where he was left unprotected by the Capitals after spending the entire 2066 season in AAA, where he hit .319 with 11 homers. However, we took the right-handed Holzmeister, who was WAY underdone, with our first selection and then the Condors swooped in and grabbed Brass for themselves. The idea was less stupid than it sounded; the Raccoons needed a solid right-handed outfield bat for the bench, and Brass still had a glove.

Regarding departed Raccoons: Cruz Madrid got $610k from the Condors; the Stars would throw $1.022M over two years at Ubaldo Piteira; Pedro Mendoza signed for $1.02M and two years with the Titans;

(hears sirens in the distance and scrambles to behind the trusty brown couch)
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Old 06-24-2025, 03:27 AM   #4695
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Just quickly dropping in the Hall of Fame ballot here, because I'm stirring a couple of pots at the Winter Meetings and who knows how many players we will actually add in the next update.
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Old 06-24-2025, 04:21 AM   #4696
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Perpetually scared now, but ultimately content with the Indians trade just conducted, I let myself ride the waves of newfound confidence that it’d be alright into the Winter Meetings.

Everybody (well, the Rebs and damn Elks for sure) tried to give the Raccoons their unwanted right-handed relievers, preferably for prospects, which was not exactly what I had in mind. If anything, the farm needed to be stocked.

+++

December 4 – Gasps around the league as career Crusaders SP Ben Seiter (236-139, 3.34 ERA) signs a 3-year, $17.8M contract with the Thunder.
December 4 – The Rebels acquire 3B Sergio Rubio (.283, 10 HR, 49 RBI) from the Blue Sox for catcher Josh Richmond (.290, 4 HR, 29 RBI) and a prospect.
December 5 – The Thunder acquire OF Scott Franks (.309, 20 HR, 391 RBI) from the Loggers, who receive a prospect.
December 5 – In a different trade, Oklahoma City trades for OF/1B Vince Goll (.280, 43 HR, 304 RBI) from the Gold Sox, also receiving $1.18M in cash for their prospect.
December 6 – The Raccoons dump MR Jorge Quinones (61-76, 4.12 ERA, 8 SV) on the Rebels in exchange for 28-year-old switch-hitting catcher Justin Aguilar (.282, 41 HR, 210 RBI).
December 6 – The Condors get SP Aaron Ledbetter (47-46, 3.86 ERA) and $1.08M in cash from the Falcons for a pair of prospects.
December 6 – For two more prospects, the Condors get 3B Jon Schomer (.238, 10 HR, 55 RBI) from the Rebels. Richmond’s returns include #30 prospect 1B Keith Bevilacqua.
December 8 – New York tries to overcome the loss of Ben Seiter with the signing of former Blue Sox catcher David Johnson (.281, 259 HR, 924 RBI) for $14.9M over two years. The 32-year-old two-time Gold Glover led the FL in RBI in 2066.
December 8 – The Warriors get ex-NYC 1B/RF/CF Jared Allen (.281, 60 HR, 301 RBI) on a 3-year deal worth $9.52M.

+++

The Raccoons paid up almost a million bucks on the Rebels trade, but it got rid of a left-hander that had posted a 7.52 ERA with the Raccoons in the last couple of months of the 2066 season and added a catcher in his walk year, which paired him nicely with Ramon Lopez, whose contract was also up after 2067. Jake Flowe would then be reassigned to AAA, since we weren’t gonna run three catchers, and it would be better for him to get regular playing time; he had a paw in the running for the catcher’s job in 2068 for sure, but he had also played across three different levels in ’66, which entailed mostly sitting on the bench with the Coons.

That was the end of the Winter Meetings. The Raccoons had some other talks, and were nibbling on a pair of free agent pitchers, but neither of them signed during the festivities / orgies.

+++

December 16 – The Aces sign up former Miners closer Jon Dominguez (46-51, 3.31 ERA, 252 SV) on a $2.48M contract just for the 2067 season.
December 17 – The Raccoons add a veteran starter, 35-year-old ex-SFB SP Ryan Musgrave (109-122, 3.98 ERA), on a 2-year, $3.5M contract.
December 20 – The Capitals give a $1.9M deal to 43-year-old 3B/1B Steve Dilly (.248, 199 HR, 916 RBI), who batted .235 with 13 homers for the Rebs last season.
December 25 – The Thunder grab *another* former Crusaders starter, Jeff Kozloski (99-121, 4.24 ERA), on a 3-year, $17.6M deal.
December 25 – 40-year-old 3B Zach Suggs (.297, 396 HR, 1,570 RBI) returns to the Capitals after a year in Boston, signing a new $1.88M deal for ’67. Suggs has 94.9 career WAR and will play in his 20th ABL season. He has won three World Series rings, all with different teams.

+++

Yes, Musgrave had been rocked for a 6.29 ERA in 2066. But he had also been backstabbed relentlessly for a .367 BABIP. If you give up 16 homers along with that, you’re gonna suffer. Thankfully the Raccoons were about to build a solid defensive infield, which should work well with the veteran groundballer here. Musgrave would be on his fourth CL North team here after long stints with the Titans and Crusaders, and one year with the damn Elks before his Bayside excursion.

The calendar then ran out on the Raccoons, who were still in talks with a veteran lefty reliever, Ryan de Jong, but other teams had gotten involved with that and were driving up the price. Dover and de Jong would make for a nice righty/lefty pair at the end of the pen, alternating in the eighth and ninth according to the opposing lineup. That would really help the pen take some shape as we really didn’t have much substance behind them. McMahan and Alvey were probably in there for lefty and/or long relief, and then there was the mushy right-handed side that would consist of some miserable combination of Josh C, Yamauchi, the Rule 5er Holzmeister, Barton, and Soriano. Three spots were available for that group, and not getting de Jong would make it four…

There was not a lot of in-house relief options in the pipeline. Cameron Bridges had been a sixth-rounder in 2063 and had gotten up to the Alley Cats at the end of ’65. He had played the whole ’66 season there, but had gotten run for a 5.56 ERA with unrefined control and seven homers allowed in 45 innings. And he was our best backup unless you were banking on the Rich Reads and J.J. Sensabaughs. J.J. was now 34 years old, and would never go away.

As the year closed down, the Raccoons were far ahead on BNN’s offseason WAR gains board (+6.7 after the Musgrave signing), which prompted awkward questions from their staff how it felt to be winning the offseason, to which I clumsily replied that I didn’t know how winning felt at all right now. The Agitator reliably tore right into that of course…

Of course it wasn’t hard to overcome our miniscule WAR losses in free agency. Juan Sanchez had departed with +1.7 WAR. All other free agents together had combined for *negative* WAR. Bringing in Dowsey for Spicer and adding a pair of 2+ WAR free agents (Musgrave, Roberts) was OBVIOUSLY going to shoot us up the leaderboard, but that didn’t mean that a bright future was ahead quite yet…

I was not convinced we’d get close to .500 yet; just look at the roster – look at all the players we had now with the stereotypical sign of a snot-face, stubborn trouble maker: a modern-ish name starting with J; count all the Justins, Jasons, Jesses, Joshes, Jadens, Joels, Jamies, and Jakes, and then tell me we’re not gonna be the rowdiest clubhouse in the league again…!

No, Jose Corral was *fine*. Jose was holding the entire bloody lineup together.

Other past Raccoons with new hats on their heads: Paul Labonte got $1.14M from the Crusaders; Justin Cullum joined the Buffos for $500k; New York then also went out and spent $3.72M over two years on Ramon Carreno; Elmer Maldonado was back in the division, signing for $790k with the Indians; Indy also signed Nick Robinson for $2.36M;
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Old 06-25-2025, 05:26 AM   #4697
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January started slow for the Raccoons until the Bayhawks signed Juan Sanchez to a 1-year deal worth just $590k, and for that we received our supplemental round pick that would in fact be the #26 pick, since neither the Warriors nor the Scorpions, both picking ahead of the Raccoons in the usual order for the 2067 draft, would get a compensation pick from any source. So yeah, it sucked for Sanchez to take a 89% pay cut, but at least we were getting a #26 pick out of it!

By the middle of January there were somehow seven type A free agents still on the market, as talent was slow to clear this winter. That still didn’t mean the Raccoons would get involved. It wasn’t like they were suddenly free and wouldn’t cost a draft pick anymore…

Throughout the month we still tried to swing a trade for more prospects with the three assets that were still around and not on minimum contracts (Nakayama, Starr, Monck); but nothing was coming together, unless we wanted to take on an even bigger balloon of a contract. We even ended up offering Ramon Lopez eventually, but he didn’t get any takers at all.

Since we were not going to shed a part like Nick Walla, that pretty much told us that our offseason was over, besides chasing the odd piece like Ryan de Jong, whose price kept escalating to – for a reliever – dizzying heights throughout the month, and we eventually reached 2 years, $3.5M, at which point Steve from Accounting told me in no uncertain terms, this much and no more.

De Jong is from Walla Walla East, Steve? – (Steve nods) – Does that imply that there’s a Walla Walla West? – (Steve shrugs) – I wonder whether there would be a Walla Walla West, Washington, Waterworks there, then? – (Steve raises an eyebrow) – Steve, why is Nick Walla not from Walla Walla, Washington? – (Steve opens mouth, closes mouth, and then buggers out)

How are we going to piece the roster back together if we can’t get these questions answered…?

+++

January 2 – The Loggers acquire SP Jose Lugo (45-46, 3.36 ERA) from the Falcons in exchange for 1B Dave Robles (.265, 213 HR, 937 RBI) and a prospect.
January 8 – Former Wolves outfielder Javier Acuna (.265, 76 HR, 369 RBI) signs a 4-year, $26.9M contract with the Knights.
January 21 – Boston adds the division rival Indians’ former closer, Cody Kleidon (28-50, 3.29 ERA, 253 SV), on a 2-yr, $13.1M contract.
January 21 – The Buffaloes sign ex-WAS 1B Pedro Parada (.284, 61 HR, 415 RBI) to a 2-yr, $6.16M deal.
January 22 – Atlanta snatched ex-WAS CL Elijah LaBat (26-34, 3.45 ERA, 126 SV), who signs a $19.8M contract running for three years.
January 24 – Catcher Vinny Atencio (.287, 67 HR, 289 RBI) is sent from the Indians to the Blue Sox in exchange for infielder Wil Mejia (.285, 49 HR, 362 RBI) an a prospect, #194 INF/LF/RF Wayne Steidley.
January 25 – New York signs a 2-year contract worth $8.3M with former Wolves 3B/RF Eric Frasher (.246, 165 RBI, 639 RBI).
January 26 – The Titans get another high-profile pitcher, ex-OCT SP Tyler Riddle (143-85, 2.98 ERA). The 35-year-old signs a nice 2-year, $13.8M deal.

+++

I can report that Tommy Branch, who played half of last year with the Coons, landed with the Stingers for $670k. That was about as much as happened in the wider vicinity of this franchise in all of January.

Ryan de Jong is still out there.

So is Walla Walla.

+++

2067 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The Hall of Fame would have to make do without a big ceremony this year, as no player was elected to the holy shrine from this year’s ballot of options. Below the detailed voting results with year of eligibility and vote share:

SFW LF Mario Villa – 3rd – 53.8
??? LF Eddie Moreno – 4th – 46.6
DEN 3B Ronnie Thompson – 6th – 34.8
LAP RF Matt Diskin – 1st – 30.1
IND LF Danny Rivera – 4th – 24.4
DAL LF Omar Gonzalez – 1st – 17.2
??? CL Mike Lynn – 4th – 14.7
??? CL David Hardaway – 1st – 14.0
??? SP Matt Sealock – 7th – 11.1
??? SS Alex Adame – 3rd – 8.6
LVA C Kevin Weese – 2nd – 6.5
TIJ C Jon Mittleider – 1st – 5.4
OCT SS Ryan Cox – 6th – 5.0
??? 3B Randy Wilken – 1st – 4.7 – DROPPED
LAP SP Jim Reynolds – 1st – 3.9 – DROPPED
SAC 1B Steve Wyatt – 2nd – 3.9 – DROPPED
MIL SP Angelo Munoz – 1st – 3.2 – DROPPED
DEN CF Sandy Castillo – 4th – 3.2 – DROPPED
??? SP Kennedy Adkins – 2nd – 2.2 – DROPPED
CHA SP Andy Overy – 1st – 1.4 – DROPPED
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Old 06-25-2025, 03:27 PM   #4698
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Originally Posted by Westheim View Post

De Jong is from Walla Walla East, Steve? – (Steve nods) – Does that imply that there’s a Walla Walla West? – (Steve shrugs) – I wonder whether there would be a Walla Walla West, Washington, Waterworks there, then? – (Steve raises an eyebrow) – Steve, why is Nick Walla not from Walla Walla, Washington? – (Steve opens mouth, closes mouth, and then buggers out)
In my mind Walla Walla (West) would be a little place that is "part" of Walla Walla called College Place. I used to have an ownership in business (seniors housing) and we moved it from Walla Walla (literally on the wrong side of the tracks) to College Place. It's very nice area and is home to Walla Walla University (Wolves). It's a small school that nobody has ever really heard of but I used to work for the guy that at one time was the head basketball coach there in the 60's.

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Old 06-25-2025, 03:37 PM   #4699
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Originally Posted by DD Martin View Post
In my mind Walla Walla (West) would be a little place that is "part" of Walla Walla called College Place. I used to have an ownership in business (seniors housing) and we moved it from Walla Walla (literally on the wrong side of the tracks) to College Place. It's very nice area and is home to Walla Walla University (Wolves). It's a small school that nobody has ever really heard of but I used to work for the guy that at one time was the head basketball coach there in the 60's.
Isn't it a small world?

Confession: I went after de Jong instead of another left-hander specifically to introduce the Walla Walla West nonsense.
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Old 06-26-2025, 01:09 AM   #4700
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The Raccoons did not get Ryan de Jong – the Cyclones ratcheted the price up further in February, and the Raccoons pulled out there. He eventually signed with the Pacifics for just under $4M over two years, and the Raccoons were back to the mess they had already had in the bullpen ten weeks earlier.

The rest of the month was spent fending off advances from Atlanta, who desperately tried to get rid of Casey Ramsey and his remaining two years and $11.2M on his contract. All winter they had already willingly offered up his body (dead or alive) for whatever the Raccoons had floated out there. The last thing the Coons needed, though, was another bloated contract that was not going to be movable afterwards.

We then went to pursue left-hander Bob West on a six-figure deal, but negotiations about that proceeded at a snail pace once other teams got involved and the player did not sign before we crashed pokey-black-nose-first into Opening Day.

Unusually, we then spent March culling some of the worse excesses of organizational bloat in the minors, exclusively on the pitching side, and released a total of six pitchers, some virtually unknown, and some rather prominent. Heading the list in terms of major league experience was surely Rich Read (3-2, 4.52 ERA, 1 SV), who had been on the Portland hill for at least a few innings in each of the last six years and would pass waivers another 20 times if we tried to get rid of him in other ways. He was 29, out of control, and it was time to go. We also released 26-year-old Mexican left-hander Victor Herrera (0-2, 3.06 ERA), who had appeared in 22 games with the ’64 Coons and had since then lost all cohesion, had dropped down to Ham Lake, and was getting on the snout relentlessly there. In sad news, we also let go of the non-reincarnation of Brownie, 2061 11th-rounder Nick W. Brown, who had topped out at Ham Lake, and was never going to go any further as he was approaching his 27th birthday this season. 2063 Nick Brown Memorial Pick Barrett Krumland was also gone, he had never even made it out of Aumsville.

+++

February 4 – After three years in Atlanta, 43-year-old SP Kodai Koga (253-251, 3.71 ERA) signs on for another season with the Condors at $2.88M. Koga had already pitched for the Condors before his Knights stint.
February 7 – New York acquires 1B Danny Starwalt (.232, 115 HR, 457 RBI) and a prospect from the Indians in exchange for outfielder Eddie Menchaca (.286, 5 HR, 70 RBI).
February 12 – Indy sends SP Vince Ellison (68-62, 3.71 ERA) to Atlanta for INF John Baxley (.273, 5 HR, 131 RBI) and a prospect.

+++

Other Raccoons getting signed: Mike Hall got a 2-yr, $2.28M deal from the Crusaders; the Cyclones signed Jim White for $670k; Franklin Serrano landed with L.A. for $500k; Indy took on Takenori Tanizaki for $710k;
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1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061
1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA | RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO

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