Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (50-52) @ Aces (52-54) – August 1-3, 2016

August started with a series against a team that had played four more games so far. The season series was split at three so far. The Aces, who had won their last four games, were ranked seventh in both runs scored and runs allowed. While not having any particular weakness, they sure had no strengths either. In the 22 common offensive and defensive categories that the ABL tracked, the Aces didn’t rank better than fifth in *any* of them.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (7-7, 4.08 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (9-8, 4.40 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.37 ERA) vs. Garret Purifoy (2-0, 3.24 ERA)
Hector Santos (9-5, 2.53 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (8-7, 2.67 ERA)

The Aces are yet another team without a left-handed pitcher. With the established Nehemiah Jones on the disabled list, Garret Purifoy had taken a slot in the rotation. The 31-year old would make only his third major league start against the Raccoons here. His major league experience prior to his call-up to replace Jones had been limited to 17 relief appearances in 2014, also with the Aces, during which he had pitched to a 6.43 ERA.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C Baca – P Abe
LVA: LF Hubbard – CF Flack – 1B T. Ramos – SS Burke – C D. Rice – 2B Walsh – RF J. Alexander – 3B Reeve – P Hinkley

Abe didn’t exactly react well to facing six left-handed batters and was rapped hard and often by the Aces from the start. They scored a run in the first on three hits, and two more runs in the second, including a home run by ex-Coon John Alexander. Those were all the runs that the Aces got off Abe in six innings, but they also hit a few hard balls right at defenders. In the same time, the Raccoons managed only three hits off Hinkley, and one run, and that scored after Hinkley had loaded the bases entirely through walks, but with one out the best that Ronnie McKnight could come up with was a run-scoring groundout. Another scoring opportunity wouldn’t transpire until the seventh inning. Howard Jones hit for Abe and walked with one out, with Hinkley also walking Shane Walter (his sixth free pass issued in the game). Nunley singled to center, setting up R.J. DeWeese with two outs and the bases loaded.

What happened next can only be described with the assumption that the Aces were even more cursed than the Raccoons. Not only did DeWeese’s fly to center get dropped by Adam Flack to score the tying runs, no, the go-ahead run also came home when Rich Walsh’s feed to first on Young’s following grounder hit the edge of Tony Ramos’ glove and bounced back to the man at the keystone, who looked on in disbelief as the Raccoons took a double-unearned 4-3 lead. Also slightly disconnected with his team: William HInkley. He stayed in to allow an RBI single to McKnight, 5-3, all four runs in the inning unearned. It was not Ramos’ last error in the inning, either. With one out in the ninth inning he also thoroughly annoyed reliever Steve Rob by throwing away McKnight’s grounder. This loaded the bases, with DeWeese and Young lingering ahead of McKnight. Rob rolled up and died after smacking Ron Richards with an 0-2 pitch to shove home the Coons’ sixth, and fifth unearned, run in the game. Further damage was done by Sandy Sambrano with a 2-out RBI single and Jimmy Fucito also came up with a 2-run single, pinch-hitting for Kevin Beaver. 9-3 Critters. Fucito (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-5, 2 RBI;

All in all, seven of our runs in this game were unearned. That’s apparently what a ninth-place defense looks like.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C Baca – P Brown
LVA: LF Hubbard – CF Flack – SS Burke – 1B T. Ramos – C Diersing – 2B Walsh – RF M. Cook – 3B I. Alvarez – P Purifoy

The Raccoons didn’t run into a 3-hit shutout against the hardcore replacement pitcher Purifoy, who was charged with two runs in the first inning on Adam Young’s 2-out double that chased home Walter and DeWeese. While Nick Brown continued his no-strikeouts, lots-of-grounders ways in not quite perfect fashion – the Aces were only stopped by timely double plays in the first two innings – the Aces continued to not get much from their starting pitcher. Young and McKnight were on base in the fourth inning for an RBI double by Richards. Baca was walked intentionally to bring up Brownie with no outs and the bags full. In an 0-2 count he unfortunately made contact and rolled over to Rich Walsh for a run-scoring double play. Cookie then popped out – the ground was opening under him as he was now 1-for-16.

While Brown was not much to look at, the Aces continued to get foiled by the defense, while Purifoy merely made it through the middle innings by luck that the Coons didn’t get all of the junk he threw. In the fifth and sixth combined, they made no less than four outs onto or close to the warning track, and never scored, with Jimmy Hubbard making another spectacular catch running *in* when Brownie looped one to left with two on and two out in the sixth. Only in the seventh inning did finally someone whack a ball outta here, and it was DeWeese, ending Purifoy’s messy outing with a 2-out, 2-run homer to right. The Aces looked like they would finally score on Nick Brown in the bottom 7th when Brent Burke led off with a double to left center. Bobby Diersing’s 1-out infield single didn’t improve his situation until Rich Walsh whiffed and Mike Cook grounded out to Nunley, leaving the 6-0 shutout intact, and that on 80 pitches. The eighth saw the Aces go down 1-2-3, ending with a K to Hubbard, and Brownie would start the ninth on 91 pitches and a 7-0 lead (Cookie had opened the top 9th with an infield single, had stolen a base and scored on Nunley’s groundout). He faced three batters, retired none of them, and was replaced by Mathis with Adam Flack having scored on two singles after a leadoff walk. Bobby Diersing hit into a double play and Rich Walsh grounded to first to end the game. 7-1 Brownies! Walther 4-5; DeWeese 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Young 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Richards 2-4, 2B, RBI; Baca 1-2, 2 BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (11-6);

Both Cookie and Nunley were slumping right now, while Adam Young was starting to hit a bit more. The first two would get their obligatory day off a bit early during this 20-game stretch and sit out the last game of the series. Also a day off: Baca. We play the Loggers on the weekend, and while they do have a left-handed starter, Carlos Michel (6-4, 4.53 ERA), he will start on Wednesday and will thus miss our upcoming 4-game set, so there’s no point in leaving Margolis for later. It’s not like Baca is tearing out trees.

Game 3
POR: 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – CF Sambrano – C Margolis – P Santos
LVA: C D. Rice – CF Flack – 1B T. Ramos – SS Burke – RF Struck – 2B Walsh – LF A. Williams – 3B I. Alvarez – P Valdevez

If Hector Santos’ K/BB ratio of 6.1 was already impressive, Juan Valdevez’ of 9.1 was almost unbelievable. He had walked only 11 against 100 K this season, but allowed a double to left to Shane Walter to start the game. The run scored on Adam Young’s single although Young himself got himself thrown out on the bases, but Santos had a 1-0 lead with a probably pitching duel in the cards. Except that the duel never materialized – none of the pitchers was anywhere close to his top performance.

Santos allowed fat contact all the time to all fields. For four innings, the defense prevented damage, but by the fifth inning that came apart. Geoff Struck led off with a double, scored on a single by Ahmed Williams, and with two outs Valdevez doubled home the leftfielder. The Coons remained ahead, because Ronnie McKnight had whacked two extra-base hits off Valdevez already, including a 2-run homer in the third that was now keeping Santos afloat, 3-2. Valdevez was out of the game by the sixth inning in which the Coons had Sandy Sambrano (double) and Margolis (single) on the corners. Santos lined out softly to Walsh, but when left-hander Kevin Johnston replaced Valdevez, he allowed a 2-out RBI single to Walter, another single to McKnight, but Young flew out to right center and Struck with the bases loaded, leaving the score at 4-2.

Another run came home in the seventh inning in dubious circumstances again. Howard Jones drew a 2-out walk from Johnston before scoring on a stolen base, a wild pitch, and Rich Walsh not being able to play Sandy’s grounder, leaving him with an RBI single. Santos then didn’t get through the bottom 7th, knocked out after hard 2-out singles by Williams and Izzy Alvarez. Ron Thrasher came on with John Alexander appearing as the tying run in the box – and walked him in a full count. He ran another full count to Danny Rice atop the order, but Rice got greedy and struck out, ending the inning with the tying runs aboard. The score remained at 5-2 into the bottom 9th with Manobu Sugano being assigned the save opportunity with three left-handed bats coming up in Struck, Walsh, and Williams. None of them reached base. 5-2 Coons. Walter 4-5, 2B, RBI; McKnight 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Young 2-5, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Sambrano 3-5, 2B, RBI; Margolis 2-5; Santos 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; W (10-5);

R.J. DeWeese had back-to-back games with three strikeouts for the first time since singing with the Coons. We didn’t really see this coming after he had put up no strikeouts in the three games before that. However, in the 15 games before *that* (July 10-29) he had whiffed in *every* game at least once, and 24 times total. He had previously not struck out for three consecutive games once, in the May 23-25 series against the Bayhawks.

The single that Izzy Alvarez hit off Hector Santos was the first major league hit for the 21-year old Dominican, who was promoted to the major league roster Tuesday after Ron Reeve hurt his hamstring in the series opener. He was not placed on the DL – the Aces believed they’d have Reeve back by the weekend.

In parenthesis I shall state this as soon as we’re out of state: with Reeve batting .212 with a pile of strikeouts I’d rather hope for a life-saving amputation, but to each his own.

Raccoons (53-52) vs. Loggers (46-62) – August 4-7, 2016

While the Raccoons had put up their first 3-game sweep since doing the same to the Loggers in June, those same Loggers came in having been thoroughly humiliated by Nick Brown’s strikeout race partner, Pancho Trevino, who had spun a 3-hitter with 11 strikeouts against them on Wednesday. Not only were the Loggers, who had shown some promise last year, but had since dealt some of their few assets, firmly in last place in the North, and had lost five of seven to the Raccoons so far, no, they really didn’t have any pitching at all, allowing almost five-and-a-half runs per game, by far rock bottom in the ABL. Their fifth-place offense couldn’t cope, and their run differential was -99.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (4-5, 3.02 ERA) vs. Kurt Doyle (5-9, 5.55 ERA)
Chris Munroe (4-7, 3.58 ERA) vs. Tom Nelson (2-3, 3.55 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (8-7, 4.10 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (11-7, 3.80 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-6, 2.30 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (7-13, 6.09 ERA)

Like I said, lefty Carlos Michel went on Wednesday and disappeared without much whistle against Pancho Trevino. The set at hand is entirely right-handed.

We will not see ex-Coon Rob Howell in this series, as he’s on the DL with a quad strain.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Delgado – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – SS J.J. Rodriguez – 2B Best – P Doyle
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 3B Nunley – RF Fucito – C Baca – P Toner

A J.J. Rodriguez error on Matt Nunley’s grounder in the bottom 2nd would get the Raccoons going in the first game on their new homestand. This moved Young to third after his leadoff double, and Baca scored him with a groundout. Toner reached on an infield single – more shoddy defense here – before Cookie Carmona tried to break out of his slump with a rip and belted a 3-run homer to right! Four runs scored in the inning – all unearned. The cushion was sizable, but Toner was not wasteful with it either. While he had a few control issues and had his pitch count rise early on, he allowed only one hit through five innings while whiffing seven. A shutout was not in the books however as he needed 73 pitches to get there. While the Loggers couldn’t hit Toner, Kurt Doyle was charged with two more runs in the fifth inning, courtesy of back-to-back homers by DeWeese and Young. The wind seemed to have picked up a bit here, and the Loggers finally also got to participate; pinch-hitter Brad Gore socked a homer off Jonny in the sixth inning, but the Loggers remained behind by five runs while Toner pitched seven innings before departing. The distance remained the same to the finish, although both teams hit another 2-run homer: McKnight for the Critters off Robby Delikat in the seventh, and Tony Delgado for the Loggers in the ninth, hitting one off Kevin Beaver. 8-3 Raccoons! Walter 3-4, 3B, 2B; McKnight 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, HR, RBI; Young 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (5-5) and 1-3;

R.J. DeWeese hit his 20th home run of the season. The team gave him a VERY silent treatment.

We have now won six in a row, scoring 6.5 runs per game. I have a hunch that this will not hold up for much longer. Although, looking at the Loggers’ staff……

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – C T. Delgado – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – 3B Landeros – SS J.J. Rodriguez – CF Gore – 2B Best – P Nelson
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – 2B Bergquist – C Baca – P Munroe

A 30+ pitches first inning ended with Rodriguez flying out to Ron Richards with the bases loaded after Chris Munroe had not only allowed a leadoff double to Victor Hodgers, no, he had also smacked Mike Rucker pretty good. Steve Best tripled in the second, but was stranded after Tom “Dawg” Nelson popped out to Bergquist and Hodgers lined out to Richards. Hodgers’ consolation would be throwing out Matt Nunley at home to end the bottom 2nd. For five innings, both teams found all their offensive ambitions thwarted, which included Cookie Carmona hitting three singles and not finding someone to help him three times. The shutout was broken up by Chris LeMoine with a leadoff jack in the sixth inning. Munroe couldn’t get out of the inning and allowed a single to left to Rodriguez before walking Gore. Sugano was called on with one out and two on and failed completely, allowing a 2-run double to Steve Best and an RBI single to Nelson.

One inning forward, the Loggers would load the bases with nobody out against Will West, while not even getting a base hit. Mike Rucker reached on Walter’s error, and West walked LeMoine before hitting Ruben Landeros. West came back with a K to Rodriguez before yielding for Ron Thrasher with the left-handed Gore up. Three pitches were enough to get an inning-ending double play. Then it was the Coons’ time to have the bases loaded with no outs, right in the bottom of the same inning. Ron Richards walked, and then Bergquist and Baca singled. Adam Young hit for Thrasher, predictably struck out, and the Coons were held to two runs on a run-scoring groundout by Cookie and Walter’s RBI single to right. That put the score at 4-2 for the Loggers, but the Coons kept reaching: DeWeese socked a leadoff jack off “Dawg” Nelson to start the bottom 8th, reducing the Loggers’ lead to 4-3. Nunley singled after that but never moved off first, and the Coons would have to beat right-hander Troy Charters in the bottom 9th, starting with Jimmy Fucito pinch-hitting for John Korb in the #9 hole. Fucito struck out, and after Cookie’s groundout the Coons only got the tying run on once Walter singled to right. McKnight ended up with a miserable 0-for-5 day when his fly to deep left was just barely caught by LeMoine, ending the Coons’ winning streak at six games. 4-3 Loggers. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Walter 2-5, RBI; Nunley 2-4; Richards 2-3, BB; Korb 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Welp. Looks like a good point to give McKnight a day off. That will leave DeWeese as the only everyday starter without an off day since the start of the 20-day marathon.

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS J.J. Rodriguez – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – C Pace – 2B Best – P Cope
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 3B Nunley – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Abe

In an all-or-nothing start to his outing, Tadasu Abe faced a dozen Loggers in the first three innings, and allowed three hits while whiffing six. The game was still scoreless when Abe singled past Landeros into left with two outs in the bottom 5th, moving Baca to second base for Cookie, who was still stuck in the quagmire and rolled out easily to Rucker. Young killed the bottom 6th with a double play after Walter had reached with an infield single, and Abe was all done after seven innings and 110 pitches, still holding the Loggers shut out. The bottom 7th saw Howard Jones on base with two outs after getting hit by Cope, and then Gore, who was misplaced at third base, but was still playing there after hitting for Landeros in the top of the inning, misfiled Alonso Baca’s grounder for an error. Two on, two out, McKnight hit for Abe, because a better spot would never come … and grounded out to Rucker.

Top 8th, Hodgers hit a single off Chris Mathis and was at second base when the dangerous part of the lineup appeared, starting with Rucker, and they were all left-handed. Sugano was called on again and obliterated Rucker on three pitches for a massively important strikeout. Cookie led off the bottom 8th with a single, stole second against weakly-winged Tim Pace, but was stranded on third base. Still on runs for anybody. The Loggers stuck to Cope in the bottom 9th although he had nothing to win and everything to lose in a scoreless game, but then again the Coons led off with Ron Richards, so what good could happen to them? Indeed the game would go into overtime in scoreless fashion, only to see the top 10th begin with Ron Thrasher conceding singles to both Delgado and Hodgers. Rodriguez bunted them over, but Rucker failed and struck out before LeMoine grounded out to Sandy Sambrano at second base. Bottom 10th: Dave Walk allowed a leadoff single to Baca, then threw a wild pitch. Sandy walked, which didn’t matter much right now, but Cookie singled to center. Baca was too slow to score, but the bases were loaded with nobody out. Shane Walter lifted a pitch to right center, Hodgers hustled over – and missed it! Ball in, Baca in, ballgame over! 1-0 Blighters! Carmona 3-5; Walter 3-5, RBI; Baca 2-4; Abe 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K and 1-2;

We had ten hits, all singles. In fact, with the Loggers’ 11 hits also all singles, the teams combined for 21 base hits and 21 total bases. Might explain the slow rate of scoring here….

Game 4
MIL: 3B Landeros – SS J.J. Rodriguez – 1B M. Rucker – C T. Delgado – CF Cooper – RF Gore – LF Knowling – 2B Best – P McDonald
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 2B Jones – RF Sambrano – C Margolis – P Brown

Nobody had a hit the first time through either order, and after Brownie had retired the first ten Loggers, Rodriguez laid down a perfect bunt for a 1-out single in the fourth. He would be left on base, though. Walter had a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, but was also ignored by his teammates. The Loggers left runners on the corners in the fifth when McDonald fouled out. The batters had only reached base with two outs, Zach Knowling walking and Best hitting a single. Rodriguez tripled in the sixth with one out, but also didn’t score when Rucker grounded so hard to Adam Young that Rodriguez scampered back to his base, but Delgado also grounded out. It took the teams until the seventh inning this time to score any form of run, and again it was the Coons to get it done first. Cookie had been on with a 1-out single in the sixth and had taken second base by force, but had been left there. DeWeese then opened the seventh with a single and also saw a need for increased pressure on the base paths, taking off in a 1-0 count, just as Adam Young launched a liner to the corner in right. Gore wasn’t gonna spoil it, Young had a double, and the Coons were up 1-0 as the relatively speedy DeWeese came home standing up. Young – of course – was left on base after an intentional walk to Sambrano(!!), but that also meant that we had Brownie bat with two outs, resulting in a flyout to right center and Brad Gore. He had a perfect eighth after that, and Isiah Reed made an error in the bottom 8th, only for McKnight to hit into an inning-ending double play.

And now? It was 1-0, Brownie was still in the game, and the middle of the order was up, and I had this really hard aversion against replacing a lefty with a lefty. Plus: Sugano and Thrasher had both been out two days in a row, and the best we could throw up there would be Kevin Beaver, who had been socked by those Loggers already in this series. And so Nick Brown, who had already been rocked in a ninth inning this very week, remained in the game to face Mike Rucker, Tony Delgado (a righty), and Andrew Cooper, with three more left-handers behind those three in the lineup. This could only go so wrong – and did. Brownie ran 2-2 counts against Rucker and Delgado. Rucker singled to center and was run for with Hodgers, and Delgado got drilled. Right-hander Travis Griffen then hit for Cooper, and it was bed time for a certain baked dessert. Mathis came in and struck out Griffen, but of course Brad Gore remained in the game here and had already soiled a shutout in this set. However, I had little trust in Beaver to do any good here. This was Mathis’ now. Gore struck out, bringing up Knowling, who batted .318 in only 66 at-bats, and rung a walk from Mathis, filling the bags. Isiah Reed stepped in, another hardly used replacement, also batting left-handed. Another long count, 2-2, and then a breaking ball almost in the dirt – and Reed swung over it. Ballgame!! 1-0 Brownies!!! Young 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (12-6); Mathis 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, SV (5);

(exhales audibly)

In other news

August 2 – The Rebels get drummed 20-2 by the Warriors, with SFW RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.282, 5 HR, 34 RBI) contributing five hits and two RBI.
August 2 – The Knights score runs in every inning from the seventh through the eleventh inning against the Loggers to erase first an 8-2 deficit, and then another 9-8 deficit in the tenth, to walk off, 10-9, on a wild pitch by Sergio Alvarez (0-1, 6.23 ERA).
August 4 – 21-year old Bayhawks hotshot OF Dave Garcia (.269, 7 HR, 53 RBI) will miss two weeks with a sore wrist.
August 6 – At 40 years old, nobody expected LVA CL Manuel Reyes (5-3, 1.26 ERA, 26 SV) to hold down a closer job anymore, much less to reach major milestones. Still, Reyes hasn’t missed a beat this season, and with two thirds of an inning of work in a hot situation protecting the Aces’ 8-4 lead over the Falcons, Reyes has saved his 300th career game. On his ninth team, Reyes is 73-79 with a 3.55 ERA in 1,134 career appearances, all in relief.

Complaints and stuff

Note to self: keep Brownie out of the ninth inning.

Late-game drama aside, Brownie’s ERA is the lowest it has ever been, .2 runs under his mark from his Pitcher of the Year season (2009), and .17 runs under his best ever for a season (2012). He’s doing something right. Doing even more things right would be Sam McMullen, who leads the majors with a 1.58 ERA. Second overall? Brownie! One point ahead of “Midnight” Martin, but a point is a point. Much like a win is a win. Right, Jonny?

That aside, waiver claim and fifth wheel Shane Walter won the Player of the Week award by batting .567 (17-for-30) with 3 RBI this week. He’d play every day at second if we weren’t paying Howard Jones $1.82M for doing … nothing? Ha-hah, did you know that Jones is due $2.02M in ’17 and $2.44M in ’18 and that those coins are all guaranteed? Ha-hah, that’s a good one.

It’s true, though. (polishes the gun normally resting in the top drawer)

Cookie only has 24 steals for the season, but he’s only four off the CL lead, which is once again his old nemesis Mike Rivera on the Titans. The FL is closing in on 40, but the CL is lagging behind badly. Last year, Victor Hodgers stole 57 bases while batting .281. This year he is merely poking for a .234 clip and has an OPS under .600. He has only 20 stolen bases so far. Was the 25-year old Hodgers’ 2015 season one of those Yoshi Yamada campaigns, one and done?

By the way, Hodgers might have an English surname and speaks actually perfect English, but is *actually* Venezuelan. There’s a story to that, but I’ll tell that whenever he makes it onto the Raccoons’ roster (not that I’m actively campaigning for that). True fact: the Loggers received him from the Crusaders along with another prospect that has since fizzled out and retired in a 2011 trade for SP A.J. Bartels.

They’re probably still wishing they hadn’t waived Martin Ortíz (who hit a walkoff homer in extras against the Elks on Sunday like it's nothing) in 2001, who has since racked up more trophies than fit in a common condo on the California beach. I will only mention his six Player of the Year awards, and if he makes it to 40, he might need to grow another ****ing arm to fit all his ****ing rings.

No, not bitter. Not at all.

Next week: Elks for four, then off to Denver for three.

Down on the farm the common misery is already pretty bad, but from time to time there will be some special misery. This week, 2014 third-rounder Sam Armetta (still bungling around in single-A) was injured in an on-base collision that broke his elbow so thoroughly he could then rotate it 360 degrees without feeling pain. That one looks ugly.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (56-53) vs. Canadiens (63-47) – August 8-11, 2016

It would be a mild understatement to just formulate that 2016 hadn’t gone quite as we would have liked against our Northwest neighbors in the CL North. The Elks had drummed the Raccoons for a 9-2 score in their favor over the season series, including a 4-game sweep right here and right after the All Star game in which the miserable Critters managed to score only eight runs in total as part of a 6-game losing streak. As far as the ****ing Elks were concerned, they were seventh in runs scored in the league, but third in runs allowed, with the best rotation, which sported a 3.31 ERA, though much of the heavy lifting was done by two guys and the actual difference between their starters and ours amounted to .01 runs…

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (10-5, 2.54 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (14-3, 1.58 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-5, 2.89 ERA) vs. Armando Gonzales (4-5, 5.68 ERA)
Chris Munroe (4-8, 3.65 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (16-5, 2.80 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (8-7, 3.89 ERA) vs. Bill King (5-9, 3.76 ERA)

McMullen leads off this series as their only left-handed pitcher.

The worst the Raccoons had ever done against the Canadiens was 4-14, back in 2007. I think it’s time to brace for it…

Game 1
VAN: CF Holland – RF Rocha – 1B Gilbert – C Little – LF Cameron – 3B Irvin – 2B Hilderbrand – SS Tellez – P McMullen
POR: CF Carmona – SS Jones – 3B Walter – 1B Young – RF Fucito – LF Richards – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Santos

The Critters had won consecutive 1-0 games, and this one had the label of a potential pitching duel anyway, and certainly started out in the expected fashion. While the Raccoons struggled to navigate their way to even second base despite Cookie Carmona opening their efforts with a single in the first inning – only to get thrown out stealing by Morgan Little – Hector Santos made the Elks drop like flies, striking out eight over the first five innings against a single single, and the only time he was in mild trouble with a runner on second base was in the top of the second inning and a bad throw by Shane Walter was to blame.

The bottom 5th inexplicably saw Sam McMullen walk Margolis(!), then allow a single to Bergquist with one out. Santos bunted them over, giving Cookie a prime chance to give the Coons the lead, but he flew out to Ross Holland, who started the Elks’ movement in the top 6th with a 1-out single to center. Mario Rocha also singled, both pulled off a double steal, and when Ray Gilbert flared a ball to left, Ron Richards not only missed it, but also fell flat on his face and allowed both runs to score. Little also singled and the Elks would get Gilbert home with a groundout by Don Cameron, their third run in the inning, and given the way that McMullen was pitching this year the damage was definitely fatal, although the Raccoons would make it tense at the very end of the game, after another Elks run scoring on an outfielder’s error (this time Fucito in the eighth), on the other side of a 30-minute rain delay, and in front of a much reduced audience. While only scoring one measly run against McMullen in eight innings (a Young sac fly), the Raccoons got something going with two outs in the ninth against Pedro Alvarado. DeWeese hit a pinch-hit homer in place of Bergquist, getting them back to 4-2, after which both Sandy and Cookie singled to right, setting up McKnight to bat for Howard Jones. Another shot to right, another single, and Sandy scored, with Cookie moving to second base, from where he scored on Shane Walter’s blooper to center, the fourth consecutive single off Alvarado, who, save blown, was replaced by left-hander Orlando Valdez. Young promptly grounded out, and we had extra innings to play. John Korb removed Rocha, Gilbert, and Little 1-2-3 in the top 10th, but Valdez struck out Fucito, struck out Nunley, and - … and then Danny Margolis struck a walkoff homer to pretty dead center! 5-4 Raccoons! Carmona 2-5; Jones 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walter 3-5, RBI; Margolis 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; DeWeese (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 11 K;

****ing hell, Danny Margolis, the little twat!

Wheeeeeze…..!

Game 2
VAN: RF K. Evans – 3B Fellows – 1B Gilbert – C Little – LF Cameron – 2B Lawrence – CF Rocha – SS Irvin – P Gonzales
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – C Baca – P Toner

Jonny Toner faced the minimum in the first three innings despite a Mario Rocha single in the third, with Rocha getting doubled up on Jeremiah Irvin’s grounder to short. The Coons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the same inning after Toner drew a leadoff walk from Gonzales, Cookie doubled, and all the next three guys could come up with with runners on second and third and no outs was a groundout by McKnight that at least scored Toner. The lead didn’t live, because the top of the fourth saw Kurt Evans strike a leadoff single to center, and him scoring on Gilbert’s double over Cookie. That was before Jonny hit *three* Elks in the inning: Little, Cameron, and after Jaylin Lawrence gave the Elks the lead with a sac fly to DeWeese, also Rocha. Somehow, Jeremiah Irvin was tempted to stand 15 feet away from home plate with the bases loaded and two outs and struck out looking. For the Coons, the bottom 4th would consist of consecutive pop outs over the infield by Young, Nunley, and Richards. Just like Nunley was stuck in a pitch black hole with no way out where his bat was concerned, Toner was completely off the rolls now and tumbled through three more innings that were a disgrace for any Pitcher of the Year, and allowed one more run to the Elks in the fifth, when he got close to getting purged. The Coons as a whole would only get ONE ball out of the infield in the middle innings and didn’t get a base runner against the only weak link in the Elks’ rotation until Gonzales offered a leadoff walk to Young in the seventh. At least that brought up the tying run in Matt Nunley, whose tank, as we have pointed out, had a giant hole and had leaked all productivity. He wasn’t brain-dead yet, however, and with Gonzales struggling with control now held still for long enough to draw another walk. Gonzales threw a wild pitch to Richards en route to walking him, and now had the bags churning with Critters and nobody out. That’s when Alonso Baca started swinging… He ran a count to 1-2, kept raking, and by chance met a ball and belched it to deep right, and there was no doubt about that one. GRAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!

For odd reasons best not investigated further, the Elks considered Gonzales capable of ending the inning himself, but he yielded a double to Howard Jones, then was ordered to put on Cookie intentionally. That only served to bring up McKnight, who slapped a ball into the charred section of the stands that had been blazed by Baca’s rocket. Suddenly, the Coons had put up a 7-spot and held a huge lead. They managed to put up a 9-spot when all was said and done, Dustin Burke putting on Young and Nunley, who were doubled in by Ron Richards before Baca struck out. The Elks were stomped out by Seung-mo Chun in the last two innings. 10-3 Critters! Carmona 2-4, BB, 2B; Young 0-1, 3 BB; Richards 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Baca 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Jones (PH) 1-2, 2B; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-5) and 0-1, BB; Chun 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Up to TENTH in runs scored. Whew, the air quite thin up here …! (tumbles)

Game 3
VAN: RF K. Evans – 3B Fellows – 1B Gilbert – C Little – LF Cameron – 2B Lawrence – CF Holland – SS Tellez – P Ro. Taylor
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – C Baca – P Munroe

McKnight made it back-to-back games for homers, knocking a solo shot in the first inning to give Munroe a 1-0 lead. Taylor walked a pair in the bottom 2nd to bring up Munroe with the bases loaded and one out, but our rule 5 guy hit into a double play. The Coons were done for the moment with offense, and everybody was just waiting for Munroe to collapse. He had no clean inning in the first five, and the Elks reached scoring position four times – and never got a run home. Twice Munroe lost Ray Gilbert to a walk (better than a bomb…) with two outs, but then recovered with a strikeout to Morgan Little to end the inning. The Raccoons only did get back to scoring position on a nasty throwing error by Lawrence in the bottom 5th, which put Cookie on second base with one out, but McKnight grounded out and Walter flew out to waste the chance.

The sixth saw Munroe in his biggest trouble yet after a leadoff single by Don Cameron. Next he bungled Lawrence’s bunt, putting on two runners with nobody out, and those runners were moved over when Ross Holland bunted. Cesar Tellez then struck out with a huge swing before Taylor (coming in batting .275) popped out to DeWeese, and we could clearly see the Elks manager eating his cap in their dugout. But Munroe had to run out of his luck at some point. The Elks started the seventh inning with three singles, loaded the bases, and knocked him from the game. In an unbelievable turn of events, Ron Thrasher came in to get a pop to second from Little, and a double play grounder from PH Jesus Martinez, ending the inning yet again! The Elks had ten hits to the Critters’ three … and yet STILL trailed them one-zip!

Just when I thought we actually had this one, Sugano and Mathis combined for a perfect eighth. That was bad. It was the first inning in which the Elks had not put a man on base and now they would without a doubt kill us in the ninth. Quick, runs! Score some runs! Taylor retired the Coons’ 2-3-4 batters 1-2-3 in the bottom 8th, and Mathis remained in for the ninth, starting with T.J. Hilderbrand pinch-hitting for the unlucky Rod Taylor. He lined out with medium ferocity to Nunley at third, and it was the best shot the Elks got in the inning as Kurt Evans popped out to shallow center – no trouble there as Cookie didn’t even have to drop his sandwich – and Mike Fellows grounded out to Nunley. 1-0 Furballs!! McKnight 1-4, HR, RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1; Munroe 6.0 IP, 10 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (5-8); Thrasher 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, IR 3-0; Mathis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (6);

The police came after this game. The Elks had filed charges for theft against us. And you know what? Guilty! And gladly so.

Game 4
VAN: RF K. Evans – 3B Fellows – 1B Gilbert – C Little – LF Cameron – 2B Lawrence – CF Holland – SS Irvin – P King
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – 2B Sambrano – C Baca – P Abe

While Abe allowed substantial contact early on in the game, he was perfect through the first three innings thanks to outstanding plays by all three outfielders. The Raccoons had men on, including Abe with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, and although Cookie came up with an infield single behind him, the next three batters made three lightning outs against Bill King. The Elks got Kurt Evans on base with a leadoff walk in the top 4th, Gilbert singled, but was then thrown out on a double steal attempt, which helped the Raccoons out of the inning when Little flew out to Richards. The Elks then elected to put on Baca intentionally with two outs in the bottom 4th and Matt Nunley parked at second base, but King was solved again by Abe, who singled to right center and plated Nunley for the first run of the game before Cookie grounded out.

The Elks lost Don Cameron to injury when he defused a McKnight drive in the fifth inning. The sixth started with a threat as Matt Nunley doubled to left and Cameron’s replacement Simon Bown couldn’t get it. Bown was a 26-year old on his first tour of major league duty. Ron Richards was walked intentionally (!?) to get to Sambrano with nobody out, and Sandy worked a full count into a walk earned the hard way, filling them up for Baca. Now, where had I seen that before? Unfortunately, Baca grounded hard to Lawrence, who elected the out at home on Nunley. Abe however beat King for the third time on the day, singling to right to score a pair, and Baca would be plated with a McKnight double before the inning was over, running the lead to 4-0. Make that 4-1. Gilbert singled in the top 7th, the Elks’ second hit on the day, and both by the disgusting slugger of 2011 infamy. Little whiffed, but Bown dropped a single into right. Gilbert made for third, Richards’ throw was headed for Wyoming, and Gilbert scored with Bown to second. The inning turned into mist for the Elks before they could bellow twice: Sugano replaced Abe, but Bown was caught stealing third even before Lawrence could finish a 3-pitch strikeout. And then EVERYTHING went wrong. Sugano allowed a leadoff single to Ross Holland in the eighth and was replaced by Will West, who retired nobody between Irvin, Tellez (singles), and Evans (walk). The score was 4-2, the bags were full, and there was nobody out. With right-handers next, Mathis was called out from the pen, and in a continuing series of events designed to drive the Elks completely crazy, PH Jesus Martinez bounced a ball back to Mathis that the pitcher turned into a double play, home-and-first. This created the luxury of an open base to put Gilbert on intentionally. Gilbert hadn’t homered in the series yet, and it shall remain that way, please. This brought up Little, who had nothing but failed for four days, so of course Mathis hit him with a 1-2 pitch. Thrasher was brought into the game in a double switch, but the Elks hit Hilderbrand for Bown. Hilderbrand cracked a grounder hard to left, Nunley barely got it on the run and hurled it straight from the glove to second base – IN TIME, LITTLE WAS OUT!! Thrasher carefully negotiated around a leadoff single by Holland in the ninth to put this one away and sweep the ****ing Elks! 4-3 Raccoons!! Carmona 2-4; Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B; Abe 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (9-7) and 3-3, 3 RBI;

WHOAH!!!

Raccoons (60-53) @ Gold Sox (56-57) – August 12-14, 2016

The Gold Sox were 17 games out in the FL West despite playing almost .500, and also despite a +22 run differential that saw them in fifth place in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed in the Federal League. Somehow, the sum of all the parts was less than the individual parts themselves here. Somehow, this was the fifth straight year of us playing the Gold Sox. We had taken three of the last four series, including the last two. None of the four series had resulted in a sweep.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (12-6, 2.19 ERA) vs. Randy Prater (2-0, 5.72 ERA)
Hector Santos (10-5, 2.60 ERA) vs. Bryant Roberts (6-9, 3.95 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-5, 2.96 ERA) vs. TBD

Randy Prater was the first overall pick in the 2012 draft. He’s a 26-year old southpaw and wilder than the most ferocious whitewater stream in the deepest gorges of the Rocky Mountains. After cups of coffee in 2013 and 2014, he was employed as swingman in 2015, making 15 starts and 11 relief appearances for a 7.42 ERA with 68 walks in 83 innings. This year he has so far only pitched out of the pen, walking 29 in 28 innings over 25 games. The Gold Sox probably wished they could re-pick that one.

Unfortunately we will not get to see the strange mirage that is Willis Sanguino (8-12, 4.51 ERA), who led the FL in losses in 2013 and 2014 before leading them with 24 wins in 2015. He pitched on Thursday in a double-header that also engulfed the Gold Sox’ second lefty C.J. Fishel (8-7, 4.16 ERA). Right-hander Mo Robinson (11-7, 3.34 ERA) is laboring with a sore shoulder. Even Roberts would go on short rest on Saturday – I honestly have no clue who else would pitch for them, although I see a certain Bill Conway (2-1, 4.29 ERA) tucked away in middle relief in their bullpen. He has prateresque walk numbers, too.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS Jones – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – RF Fucito – 1B Sambrano – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Brown
DEN: SS Oosterom – C Fox – 1B Tsung – 3B Carroll – RF Candela – 2B Fletcher – LF Hiscock – CF Haynes – P Prater

Quite obviously and blatantly, nobody on the team had listened when Randy Prater had been discussed pre-game. Hold still and wait for him to drown in his own walks. They all went out and poked, and had nothing to show for it. Two singles and a walk in four innings, and no runs. Thankfully, Brownie was continuing his silently efficient, though not entirely comprehensible ways of achieving spectacular results with the shredded remains of his left paw, and the game was scoreless that far. It was Brownie’s turn to bat in the fifth when the Coons had put up their biggest chance yet, leadoff singles by Margolis and Bergquist to start the inning. Brownie bunted them over, Cookie choked and struck out, and while Jones walked NOW, there was nothing to be gained from that as Walter grounded out to Dave Fletcher to end the inning.

The Gold Sox had to ramp up the ineptitude a full notch to get the Coons onto the board, which they did in the sixth inning. DeWeese opened with a soft single and advanced on a wild pitch by Prater. Sandy grounded to short, Piet Oosterom made a wrong step and missed it, and DeWeese scampered home with the first tally in the game. Nick Brown found himself in another 1-0 game in the late innings, but kept holding up through seven. We faced fallen former starter Johnny Krom in the seventh and eighth inning. In the latter, DeWeese and Fucito hit consecutive 1-out singles to go to the corners for Sambrano, who sent a rock-hard ball that bounced only once to Oosterom at short – and Oosterom was eaten up again. Sandy got away with an RBI single rather than a double play (and still no error on the Dutch Antillean shortstop), but Margolis did actually find his way into the double play, hitting a grounder to Jens Carroll at third. We hit for Nick Brown in the top 9th (to no great effect) so as not to be tempted in the third consecutive ninth inning that would soon go awry. Instead, John Korb got the ball to face the top of the order in a 2-0 game, which sounded bad on paper, but he had been really – … after walks to Oosterom and Pat Walston, and no outs, Sugano came out to face Mun-wah Tsung, whom he struck out. Then Carroll hit an RBI single, and Julio Candela’s groundout moved the runners into scoring position with two outs. Sugano still in there (on the third day in a row), we walked righty Dave Fletcher intentionally to get to Bill Hiscock, who hit a 1-1 pitch to right. Oh-oh. High it was, deep it was, too. Oh-oh. Fucito hustling back, twisting and turning, taking position at the wall, it comes down – and it’s in his glove!!! 2-1 Brownies!!! DeWeese 3-4; Sambrano 2-4, 2 RBI; Margolis 2-4; Brown 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (13-6);

Seven-game winning streak anyone? Never mind that six of those games were by a single run, and three of those were 1-0 contests, and two walkoffs only occurred in extra innings…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Santos
DEN: SS Oosterom – RF Candela – 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – 2B Lawson – LF MacNamara – CF Haynes – P Conway

Mo Robinson reportedly didn’t feel 100%, and right up until 20 minutes before the game it was reported that he would pitch anyway – and then he didn’t. Bill Conway got the ball and got tagged right in the first inning. Cookie opened with a single to right, but was forced out on McKnight’s grounder to David Lawson. Nunley walked after that, and DeWeese hit a ball to right for an RBI double. Young and Richards both grounded out to the right side of the infield, but Young at least scored Nunley, 2-0. Santos also got rattled for a run when with two outs in the first Carroll hit a double to left center – his 2,000th major league hit – and scored on Tsung’s single, 2-1. Both teams had a leadoff double in the second, and none scored. Howard Jones was stranded at third, while Lawson didn’t stop and was thrown out by DeWeese at third base. Forward to the third, Young came up for the second time with Nunley and DeWeese in scoring position after a pair of singles and an ill-advised throw to third by Julio Candela allowing DeWeese to take an extra base, and one out. This time he got one in, looping over Lawson into shallow right center to plate both runners! That made it 4-1, and the Coons continued to rub dirt into their former teammate’s eyes. McKnight belted a 2-run homer in the fourth, and when Nunley singled after that, it was over for Conway, who had been charged with six runs, all earned, in 3.2 innings. Steve Dittman took over, walked DeWeese, but Young’s drive to left was caught by Brian MacNamara to end the inning.

It was not an easy 6-1 lead, though. For one, it was soon 6-2 when Tsung knocked a homer off Santos in the bottom 4th, an inning in which Santos allowed hard contact exclusively and got two great catches from DeWeese in leftfield to limit potential damage. Oddly, while Brownie had mostly cruised against the Gold Sox on Friday despite his diminished abilities, Santos, with all his stuff, kept allowing liners and deep flies. That fourth and also the fifth were very difficult for Santos, but just when the bullpen was about to get stretching after a single by Tsung in the bottom 6th, Tsung got himself caught stealing and Santos would pitch clean through seven before knocking against the high 90s in terms of pitch count and would have to be replaced anyway. The score remained 6-2 as Santos was hit for in the eighth, which didn’t lead anywhere nice, and Will West got two outs in the bottom 8th before Beaver took over. Beaver got three outs, and then collapsed. Lawson and Haynes got on base, and with two outs in the bottom 9th, Roy Fox pinch-hit and hit a hard 2-run single to right. The tying run came up in Oosterom, who nominally had no pop whatsoever, but still required a pitching chance to Seung-mo Chun for the right-hander, with Thrasher close to follow should Julio Candela make it to the box. Well, that happened. Oosterom singled, Thrasher came in, Dave Fletcher pinch-hit, ran an 0-2 count, and then double to right to tie the game. Carroll struck out, extra innings.

Both teams had the go-ahead (or winning) run on base in the 11th, and both had it thrown out stealing (Carmona for the Coons and Oosterom for the Sox). By then, the Coons were already on their second-to-last pitcher that was not off limits, John Korb again. Ron Richards’ solo homer in the top of the 12th gave Korb a 7-6 lead. He had already been unable to close Friday’s game, and now he had to face the meat of the order, starting with Carroll, and our only lifeline was Chris Mathis, with Sugano completely off limits after three days out in a row, which meant that we had no weapon against the four left-handed bats sprinkled between the #4 and #8 slots. Korb insisted of doing the worst possible job on earth and walked not only Carroll, but also Tsung to start the bottom 12th. Mathis had to come in right now, but continued right in Korb’s tracks by drilling Pat Walston. Lawson tied the game with a sac fly, his first major league RBI, and Adam Haynes’ 2-out single walked off the Sox. 8-7 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-6; Nunley 2-4, 2 BB; DeWeese 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Richards 2-5, BB, HR, RBI; Sambrano (PH) 1-1; Santos 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K;

Turns out, even while winning seven games in a row, they were still the same ****ing set of inept botchers. That bullpen! That bullpen! Now that this pen is completely cooked while blowing a 7-game winning streak, we need Jonny to stand tall in the Sunday game to limit further damage.

To make things even worse: while completely soiling a 4-run lead in the ninth inning, Kevin Beaver also triggered his $700k vesting option for 2017.

R.J. DeWeese reported feeling sore on Sunday morning and was left out of the lineup, but was available to pinch-hit.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Young – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – LF Sambrano – C Baca – P Toner
DEN: SS Oosterom – RF Candela – 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – 2B Lawson – LF Hiscock – CF Haynes – P M. Robinson

After the Coons went down in order in the top 1st, the Gold Sox immediately put Jonny Toner in a headlock. Oosterom doubled, Candela singled, and Shane Walter’s capital throwing error gave them the lead on Carroll’s grounder. It was their only run in the inning. With runners in scoring position, Tsung struck out and when Walston flew to left, Sandy was there and also threw out Candela making for home. While the Critters got nothing off the sore and suffering Robinson, Jonny kept bleeding hits, allowing another run in the fourth after leadoff singles by Carroll and Tsung, and then allowed two more hits in the fifth, but struck out Tsung to end that one before it could get ugly. It wasn’t until the sixth inning that the Coons got more than one runner in an inning. Singles by Cookie, Young, and Nunley scored one run, but Toner remained on a 2-1 hook, and looked mostly done after striking out the side in the bottom 7th. The Coons would bring up the top of the order for the eighth inning, and Cookie pressed the issue when he dumped a floater into shallow right center and made a dash for second base. Candela’s throw was late, and the tying run was in scoring position. Walter flew out to center, McKnight rolled over to first, and Young flew out to shallow right to waste this most golden opportunity, surrendering Jonny Toner into a bitter loss, in which he was charged another run after allowing a leadoff single to Carroll in the bottom 8th. Beaver ****ed up once more and conceded the run on Lawson’s double to right, and the Coons choked against John Watson in the ninth. 3-1 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-4, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, L (6-6);

In other news

August 9 – The Thunder lose SP Ray Taylor (4-6, 4.27 ERA) for the rest of the season. The 25-year old right-hander needs to have bone chips removed from his elbow.
August 12 – The Blue Sox walk off in the 10th inning against the Falcons, 7-3, on C Randy Garner’s (.287, 8 HR, 58 RBI) grand slam.
August 13 – PIT SP Tim Dunn (10-8, 3.94 ERA) 3-hits the Aces in a 3-0 shutout.
August 13 – Indians 1B Santiago Guerra (.247, 13 HR, 47 RBI) puts up five hits in his team’s 9-3 win over the Warriors, including three doubles for 4 RBI.
August 14 – VAN LF/RF Don Cameron (.321, 1 HR, 41 RBI) is out for the season with a broken kneecap.

Complaints and stuff

Oh look, another 11-game tailspin has begun. And they could have easily strung the winning streak to nine games if not for that ninth inning from hell on Saturday. Maybe the Sunday game - ... nah, they still didn't score enough to counter the two that Jonny gave up early. The offense. The bullpen. An amazing rotation, completely thrown to the dogs...

I think they’ll go about 3-10 the next two weeks, which includes four with the Crusaders, three with the Condors, and three with the Indians. They were also only 10th in runs scored for a two days, including a tie on the second day, and are now back down to 11th with 450 runs (3.88 per game). Still last: the Thunder with 437 runs (3.77 R/G).

Not to go entirely uncommented on shall be our 4-game sweep of the ****ing Elks, however. Hey, Elks! Uh-nuhnuh-nuh-nuuuuh-nuh! (obscene gesture)

2014 top pick SP Roger Kincheloe tore the flexor tendon in his elbow for the second time this week, so it’s probably best to mentally throw him onto the discard pile.

Jens Carroll, who had his 2,000th hit on Saturday against the Furballs, is in his first season with the Gold Sox. The 34-year old had spent most of his previous career with the Pacifics, with whom we won two rings in 2011-12. He’s a .294/.375/.404 batter with 63 HR and 745 RBI, and a 4-time All-Star.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (61-55) vs. Blue Sox (52-66) – August 15-17, 2016

Last interleague series of the year, and one that had seen alternating winners in the last four editions, with the Blue Sox coming out on top most recently in 2015. All four of those series had been 2-1 affairs (one way or the other), following back-to-back Raccoons sweeps in 2007 and 2008. This was really not a good Blue Sox team, either, which their .441 record hinted at already. They were also 11th in runs scored in their league (although they had still plated 24 more runs than the Critters in the more offensively-minded Federal League), but only had average pitching. The rotation was even quite decent with an ERA on the good side of four, but the bullpen had holes, more and bigger than Swiss cheese.

Projected matchups:
Chris Munroe (5-8, 3.47 ERA) vs. Evan Greenfield (8-10, 4.31 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (9-7, 3.73 ERA) vs. Kevin Clayton (6-5, 3.13 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-6, 2.09 ERA) vs. Matt McCabe (8-8, 4.28 ERA)

Three righties for the Coons’ left-handed armada of non-hitters to fail against.

Game 1
NAS: LF R. Allen – RF Calderon – SS Showalter – 3B A. Esquivel – CF Macias – 1B M. Garza – C W. Jones – 2B Eason – P Greenfield
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C Baca – P Munroe

From early on it looked like offense might have a chance in this game, despite two inept orders taking swings at another. Both pitchers walked a pair of batters in the first inning, and neither got much better than that. The Blue Sox were the first to break through against Munroe, and did so quite forcefully with a pair of 2-run homers in the third inning, hit by Chris Macias and William Jones. Ironically, none of the four runners that scored reached on a walk there. The Raccoons would not reach second base again until the bottom 4th, when DeWeese and McKnight hit singles, but Ron Richards found his way into a double play to end the inning. Bottom 5th, Cookie’s 2-out walk didn’t look like much, but soon enough Shane Walter singled and Nunley also walked, loading them up for DeWeese, who was the tying run. One run scored on a passed ball before DeWeese struck out. Munroe stuck around long enough to allow a 1-out double to rightfielder Nick Calderon in the seventh inning, which promptly turned into the Blue Sox’ fifth run on Seung-mo Chun’s watch as he allowed a single to Andrew Showalter, who then stole two bases on Baca to score on another single by Antonio Esquivel. The Raccoons would only go on to score a meaningless run in the bottom 8th on McKnight’s grounder to Bobby Eason that allowed DeWeese to come home from third base. The game ended on a recently frequent play: Cookie Carmona being thrown out at second base. This time he arrived in time, but overslid the bag. 6-2 Blue Sox. Jones (PH) 1-1, 2B;

The Raccoons had five hits, and only Howard Jones’ was for extra bases. They drew six walks, of which Cookie won half. They are also inept and make my eyes burn.

Game 2
NAS: LF R. Allen – RF Calderon – SS Showalter – 3B A. Esquivel – CF Macias – C Garner – 1B M. Garza – 2B Fuentes – P Clayton
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – RF Fucito – 1B Young – 2B H. Jones – C Margolis – P Abe

Both teams whiffed themselves out of fat chances early in the game. DeWeese and Fucito failed with Cookie and Nunley on base in the first inning, and the Blue Sox had two on with one out in the second when Abe ran consecutive full counts with Marcos Garza and Tony Fuentes. The former walked, the latter whiffed, and Kevin Clayton also went down swinging. The Sox continued to put their first two men on in the third as Roger Allen walked and Calderon singled to center, but then had Showalter strike out and Esquivel hit into a double play.

After four innings, both teams had hit into two double plays, but the fifth saw some scoring, finally. Matt Nunley got the Sox going with his second error of the game (the first had been double-played away), putting Allen on base to start the inning. Calderon bunted him over, Abe walked Showalter, and then fell to a 2-run double by Esquivel into the left center gap. Chris Macias flew out to center and Randy Garner grounded out to end the inning, with Abe’s day also over. Five hits, four walks, and six strikeouts had led to a whopping 105 pitches for him in just five frames. The Raccoons pulled one run back in the bottom 5th when DeWeese plated Cookie with a sac fly in foul ground; Cookie had stolen his 25th base after a leadoff single to left center in the inning. Still down 2-1, the Coons got seven outs from John Korb in long relief, with the seventh out only registered by Danny Margolis throwing out pinch-runner Mason Harp after Esquivel’s leadoff single in the eighth. After Will West finished that inning, and the Raccoons’ offense did literally nothing, Ron Thrasher completely failed in the ninth, walking two before allowing a single to Bobby Eason. While Ron Richards threw out pinch-runner Myles Beckwith at home plate on Eason’s single, Thrasher being yanked for Mathis only made things worth as Mathis threw a wild pitch and allowed another run on Showalter’s single. Clay Messer singled before Chris Macias struck out to finally end the inning.

With the team down 4-1 and Margolis leading off the bottom 9th against Logan Sloan and his meager 3.42 ERA, people started leaving. Maybe a little bit prematurely: Margolis walked, and Richards singled to right. Margolis misjudged that ball and made for third base, but arrived ahead of Eason’s throw. Worse for the Sox: Eason hurt himself and they were out of bench players, which ended with starting pitcher Jimmy Lee having to set up camp in rightfield. Cookie the tying run, no outs, a defense in trouble, now was the time to make a move! Cookie couldn’t come up with more than a run-scoring fielder’s choice that saw Richards out at second, but Walter singled to send him to third base, and that brought up the winning run in Matt Nunley, who popped out. DeWeese was walked in rather indifferent fashion, with Alonso Baca batting for Mathis in the #5 slot, running a full count for eight pitches until Sloan lost him, his third walk in the inning, and now Adam Young came up with the tying run just 90 feet away and the winning run on second base. Sloan had completely melted now, the Sox couldn’t get anybody up quick enough and Young hit a 2-0 pitch through the right side for a single. Walter scored, DeWeese scored, and the Coons had a walkoff! 5-4 Critters! Carmona 2-5, RBI; Baca (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Young 3-5, 2 RBI; Margolis 1-2, 2 BB; Richards 1-1, BB; Korb 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
NAS: LF R. Allen – 1B Messer – SS Showalter – 3B A. Esquivel – CF Macias – C Garner – 2B M. Garza – RF Beckwith – P McCabe
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 1B Young – 2B Sambrano – C Baca – P Brown

While the Coons left Cookie on third base in the first inning when DeWeese flew out to Beckwith in right, the Blue Sox again got the first run onto the board, scoring on Randy Garner’s groundout in the second inning after Esquivel and Macias had opened the inning with a single to left and a double to center, respectively. Brown would then walk Marcos Garza, but struck out Beckwith and got McCabe to foul out to limit the damage to one run that didn’t stand up for long, due to Cookie launching his sixth homer of the season, a solo shot, in the bottom 3rd. Brownie however had the location not working in this game. His pitches were up, not down, and consequently the Sox hit fly balls to the deeper outfield regions repeatedly. The Sox would hit three fairly hard singles off him in the fifth, bitterly with McCabe getting one to hit to left to start the inning, to take a new 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. The Blue Sox again had runners on first and second with one out in the sixth inning following Myles Beckwith’s infield single. McCabe turned to bunt, albeit badly, and Shane Walter got a force out at third base. Roger Allen came up, batting merely .218 but with a keen eye, and even at 0-2 we were quite sure that Brown would not get a strikeout (though Munroe had whiffed Allen once on Monday) against the eagle in the box. He didn’t – but Allen also made the third out, grounding out to Young at first base.

Brown was taken off the hook in the bottom 6th. DeWeese had walked, but had gotten forced on Richards’ grounder, resulting in the second out. Young and Sambrano came up with a pair of singles to plate Richards, however, tying the score at two before Alonso Baca lined out to Garza to end the sixth. Brownie was sent back to the mound for the seventh, though, with only 86 pitches on the odometer, though most of them had been not too good. The Sox got to see 11 more, hit three of them, two of those hard, but all three right at a fielder to go down 1-2-3 in the seventh, the bottom half of which would see Cookie stranded on third base by DeWeese for the second time in the game, this time with a foul pop. The Coons only scored in the next inning, with Young and Sambrano hitting singles off McCabe, who then fell to a 2-run double by Alonso Baca that beat the reach of Chris Macias in centerfield by inches. This set up a save opportunity, which in lieu of any better ideas was to be handled by Ron Thrasher, with left-handed pinch-hitter Colin Kendall to lead off, the first plate appearance of the season for the 30-year old. He lined out to center, Allen whiffed, and Messer flew out to Richards to end the game. 4-2 Critters. Carmona 2-4, HR, RBI; Richards 2-4, 2B; Young 2-4, 2B; Sambrano 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-2; Brown 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

Chris Mathis won back-to-back games.

Jimmy Fucito, batting .231, was waived and designated for assignment. We’d give the world for an efficient right-handed outfield bat. And there might be something coming up… But for now, we recalled Matt Stubbs, because, hey, maybe second time’s the charm. First time he had hit .174…

Raccoons (63-56) @ Crusaders (75-45) – August 19-21, 2016

Do I need to go into detail about how awesome the Crusaders are? I hope not. Everybody knows them, everybody has it up to here (holds hand horizontally in front of his nose) with them. Third in runs scored, first in runs allowed, yada, yada, yada. The Coons still held on to a 6-4 record against them in 2016, and the Crusaders had some considerable injuries with Curtis Tobitt, Jorge Ortega, Eric Paull, and Winston Jones on the DL for them. Also, Francisco Caraballo was hampered by back spasms and day-to-day.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (10-5, 2.60 ERA) vs. Albert Lorusso (9-9, 4.01 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-6, 2.93 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (13-2, 2.27 ERA)
Chris Munroe (5-9, 3.65 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (12-9, 3.38 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (9-7, 3.66 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (13-5, 3.07 ERA)

This is an odd series. It starts with a double-header, but it will not mess up the rotation or require a spot start due to being flanked by off days. We had one on Thursday, we will have another one on Monday. So everybody other than Brownie will have go in this set, and Brown will pitch Tuesday to start the series in Indy on five days’ rest.

The Crusaders have two southpaws lined up with Lorusso and Cruz, however, both Cruz and Choe would go on short rest for them. Knuckleballer Doug Thompson threw 149 pitches on Thursday, so he’s out of the equation, but they might get a spot start from Colin Sabatino (1-1, 4.12 ERA) if they so desired. Sabatino has thrown 43.2 innings over 22 games this year, all in relief. He started 60 games for the Crusaders between 2014 and 2015, with mixed results. While he went 25-20 combined, he owed all of that to the strong New York offense given his 4.92 ERA over the two seasons.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS H. Jones – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – RF Stubbs – P Santos
NYC: RF Bailey – SS Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – C Lowe – 3B Rivas – CF Brissett – P Lorusso

The walk-prone Lorusso issued two free passes in the first, but that didn’t help the Raccoons to score. I also made sure to give the Crusaders a really good look of Shane Walter, whom they had lost on waivers to the Raccoons earlier in the season and who had now (just a few days ago) gobbled up enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting race again, in which he came in ranking second. He quickly hurt them with a 2-run single in the third inning, scoring Cookie (fielder’s choice after Santos’ leadoff single) and Sandy (double). Santos managed to bunt into a double play his next time up, ending the top of the fourth, but at least he had allowed only a single hit to the Crusaders the first time through the order. While the numbers told a good story, the reality was that Santos gave the outfielders, and especially Cookie a workout. Carmona made three strong (and daring) plays in the first four innings…

When Cookie and Sandy opened the fifth by getting on base, Walter hit into a double play and DeWeese struck out, which for DeWeese meant that he had now left Cookie on third three times in the last two games. The oddity of baseball struck in the sixth inning, with the Raccoons still up 2-0 and Santos nursing a 2-hit shutout. The inning started with an error on B.J. Manfull that put Howard Jones on base, though Margolis quickly grounded to short to erase Jones in a double play. Bergquist singled and stole second base, prompting an intentional walk to Matt Stubbs. Lorusso then fell to a 3-1 count against Santos who got a pretty fat pitch to hit and looped it to left center, where it split Martin Ortíz and Amari Brissett and became a 2-run double! Santos’ shutout bid derailed on pitch count reasons in the bottom 7th after two walks to Miguel Salinas and Ortíz, though none of them scored. The top 8th then saw Santos even being hit for. With Margolis and Bergquist in scoring position and two outs, we longed for the death knell to the Crusaders’ comeback chances. Matt Nunley hit against right-hander Damon Barnett, but had his fly to left caught by Ortíz. Walter would hit a sac fly in the ninth to run the score to 5-0 before the bullpen collapsed once more in the bottom 9th. Sugano had already pitched the eighth, but continued here with lots of left-handed batting in the lineup. He got two outs, but allowed a double to Caraballo, who promptly left the game with an aggravated back. Frederic Roche pinch-ran, while the Raccoons sought to gain the final out from Will West, who failed in epic proportions, walking both Alex Rivas and Amari Brissett before allowing an RBI single to Masaya Arakaki. With the tying run appearing at the plate in left-hander Will Bailey, who had 13 homers on the year and 361 in his 18-year career, it was Thrasher time. Bailey struck out, and the first game went the Coons’ way, though not in desired fashion. 5-1 Raccoons. Sambrano 4-5, 2B; Walter 1-3, BB, 3 RBI; Margolis 2-4, 2B; Bergquist 2-3, BB; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (11-5) and 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – LF Sambrano – C Baca – P Toner
NYC: RF Bailey – SS Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Brulhart – 3B Rivas – C Durango – CF Brissett – P J. Martin

The first inning sure didn’t look much like the anticipated pitchers’ duel with Adam Young doubling home Nunley for a quick 1-0 Coons lead in the top half, before Jonny struck out two to get started before walking Ortíz, drilling Manfull, and allowing a single to Brulhart. With the bags full, Alex Rivas grounded out to McKnight. The Raccoons had their own opportunity with the bases loaded in the top of the third. Toner had led off with a single before Walter also singled and Nunley got slapped in the thigh. Young batted with one out, sent the first pitch to deep left, but it was caught by Ortíz, holding Young to a sac fly. McKnight hit a single to reload the bases, but Richards struck out on three pitches to release Martin from impending doom. The Coons added another run in the fourth after a 2-out double by Toner and subsequent single by Cookie, and another one in the fifth; with two outs, McKnight legged out an infield single to allow Shane Walter to come home from third base after having started the inning with a double to right center. The 4-0 lead looked rock solid with Jonny pitching, who suffocated the Crusaders to the tune of two singles over seven innings, although he also walked Ortíz twice and “Midnight” Martin (…) once, the latter one at the start of the sixth inning. He arrived in the bottom 8th on 100 pitches to find Roche batting for Martin, and Kevin Beaver – our third lefty and the only one that hadn’t pitched in the first game – was getting ready. Roche struck out before Bailey and Salinas flew out to left in non-threatening fashion. Toner batted for himself in a scoreless top 9th, still holding a 4-0 lead and he would at least get a shot for a shutout here, although two left-handed bats with 42 homers between them opened the bottom 9th. Ortíz lined out softly to Walter, but Manfull singled, and now right-handers were coming up. Todd von Lindenthal took Toner’s pulse, found he still had one, and he retained the ball to face Jim Brulhart, who flew out to shallow center, but when Rivas singled to right, it was over. Beaver came out for Durango and nailed down the double-header with a K. 4-0 Furballs! Walter 3-5, 2B; McKnight 2-4, RBI; Toner 8.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W (7-6) and 2-4, 2B;

Eduardo Durango threw out Cookie trying to take second base in the fourth inning. This was Cookie’s 100th time overall to get caught stealing.

With this Friday sweep, the Raccoons reduced their gap to the Crusaders to single-digits, 9 1/2 games precisely.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – RF Stubbs – P Munroe
NYC: RF Bailey – SS Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Brulhart – C Lowe – 3B Rivas – CF Brissett – P F. Cruz

A DeWeese error in the second inning allowed the Crusaders to take the lead in frustrating circumstances, as the slugger had dropped a 2-out pop by Fernando Cruz, the opposing pitcher. That was all the offense through five innings. Munroe allowed four hits in five innings to a mostly left-handed lineup, so he was doing pretty well, but the Coons’ offense was completely stillborn against Cruz, mounting a Sandy single and two walks in the first five frames. When Cookie led off the sixth with a single to left, it was reason for excitement. Then Sambrano hit into a force at second, and Walter into a double play. Okay, DeWeese leads off the seventh with a double to right! Excitement! Between Margolis grounding out to short, McKnight flailing out, and Bergquist looping one to Brissett, the Coons stranded him at third base. Good, good! Now he sees how it feels!!

Stubbs opened the eighth with a single to become the tying run. Munroe bunted him over, and he advanced further on Cookie’s groundout. Sandy Sambrano sent a hopper up the first base line that almost hit him in fair territory, but Drew Lowe was thrown off by Sandy’s dance moves around the bouncing ball and misplayed it the first time, which gave the speedy Sambrano enough time to leg out an infield single while Stubbs slid home safe behind Lowe to tie the score at one. Walter’s single sent Sandy to third and eliminated Cruz from the contest, but Helio Maggessi struck out DeWeese, as usual, to deny the Coons. Munroe got two outs in the bottom 8th but arrived at Ortíz already over 100 pitches and this was too dicey. Sugano came out, walked Ortíz and allowed a deep drive to center to B.J. Manfull that sent Cookie sprawling onto the track, but the damn ball was in his glove and the inning was over. Top 9th, Salvadaro Soure appeared with his 7.9 K/BB ratio and 1.12 ERA. Nunley hit for Margolis and singled to right, and McKnight also singled there. Bailey botched the pickup, allowing the two former Rookies of the Year to set up shop in scoring position with nobody out. Adam Young batted for Jason Bergquist, and the Crusaders weren’t keen on that. He was walked intentionally. Alonso Baca batted for Stubbs with the bags full, grounded to Brulhart, who fired home to not only get Nunley forced out, but Lowe’s throw also beat Baca at first. Ron Richards hit for Sugano and struck out.

And that was not the wickedest thing to happen in this game. After Seung-mo Chun overcame Brulhart’s leadoff single to survive the bottom 9th and the game went to extras, Soure retired Cookie on a grounder to start the top 10th before Sandy Sambrano whacked a no-doubter to right center to break the tie, his first homer of the season. Walter singled, DeWeese struck out (…!!), but Soure suddenly hit consecutive batters, Howard Jones batting for Chun and McKnight. That filled the bags for Young, and no place to walk him intentionally. Young hit a ball hard to right, out of the reach of Will Bailey, for a 2-run single! Baca struck out, leaving a 4-1 lead to save for Chris Mathis, who ended the Crusaders in three batters. 4-1 Coons!! Sambrano 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Young (PH) 1-1, BB, 2 RBI; Munroe 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Wheee!

**** Ron Richards though. What ***hole gave a contract to that ****er???

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – SS McKnight – RF Sambrano – C Baca – P Abe
NYC: RF Bailey – SS Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Brulhart – C Lowe – 3B Rivas – CF Brissett – P Choe

In a battle of Asian imports, the Raccoons got going first. DeWeese opened the top 2nd with a double to right and scored on McKnight’s single, 1-0, and the Coons got another run entirely on throwing errors in the third inning. Cookie reached base with a walk, made it to third when Drew Lowe threw the ball past Salinas on a stolen base attempt, and scored when Brulhart made a gross throwing error on Nunley’s grounder, but that was before Abe actively sabotaged the 2-0 lead in the bottom of the inning, walking the bases full just in time to bring up Martin Ortíz with two outs. Ortíz, like most on the Crusaders without an RBI in the series, grounded out to the one that hurt the Crusaders the most because they could use him the most now, Shane Walter, stranding Brissett, Bailey, and Salinas.

Abe continued with a walk to Manfull in the bottom 4th before even the weather hit a rough patch and a brief shower interrupted play for about half an hour. When play resumed, Abe walked Brulhart, his fifth walk in seven batters. Something had to be amiss! Oberst von Lindenthal went out to yell at him, while the Druid also went out and asked him to hold and squeeze a rubber ducky. Finding everything in order, he allowed him to continue. The Coons got a breather when consecutive grounders to McKnight by Lowe and Rivas resulted in three outs and Ivan Mena could investigate Abe further in the dugout with some of his more scientific toys, including a hula hoop and a bright pink waffle iron. That the Coons tore Choe apart in the top 5th also helped greatly. Cookie hit a double, Salinas made an error on Walter, and then Nunley’s RBI single was followed by an RBI double for DeWeese, his first run-scoring hit of the week. Choe was gone, with righty Richard Vincent allowing another run to score against Adam Young, running the score to 5-0. While Abe was technically still pitching a no-hitter, he walked Vincent (!!) and Salinas in the bottom 5th and was yanked. Kevin Beaver took over two runners with two outs and Ortíz in the box, and was bailed out by Cookie selling his life out there again in defusing a vicious rocket to center. Another few weeks like that and the Carmona family would have two kids in a wheelchair…

Bottom 6th, the Crusaders got their first hit, a Drew Lowe single with one out. Beaver had walked Brulhart before that, and then Brissett reached on a 2-out error by Walter at short (McKnight had departed in a double switch when Abe was removed). Frederic Roche pinch-hit, and Chun replaced Beaver, getting a grounder to Howard Jones at second base to end the inning. That was the only batter Chun retired, as his spot came up in the top 7th. Walter and Young had hit singles off Colin Sabatino, while Brulhart’s second error on the day (and the fourth on New York in total) had also put DeWeese on. Ron Richards hit for Chun only because Sabatino was a right-handed pitcher, snuck a ball past Manfull for an RBI single, though DeWeese was thrown out at home by Bailey on the play. Two outs, Sambrano singled to center, scoring Young, 7-0. Still three innings to pitch, so the Coons turned to John Korb in the hope for two, but he was drowning in runners before he even got one. Bailey grounded out to start the bottom 7th, but Salinas and Ortíz singled before Korb hit Manfull. Brulhart hit a sac fly to left, DeWeese’s throw home arriving late, before Drew Lowe walked to restock the bags. Rivas struck out, stranding three yet again and keeping New York down by six, and soon seven when Nunley pulled back the run that Korb had allowed with a sac fly in the top 8th. Korb got only two more outs before Arakaki singled to center in the bottom 8th. Will West was once again tasked with a nominally won game. Bailey grounded out to Jones (now at first after another double switch had brought in Bergquist at second along with West) to end the inning, and West finished the four-game sweep in 15 pitches. 8-1 Raccoons!!! Walter 2-5; DeWeese 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Young 2-5, RBI; Richards (PH) 1-1, RBI; Jones 1-1, BB, RBI;

Alonso Baca flailed himself a golden sombrero in this game.

Jimmy Fucito arrived in St. Petersburg without getting claimed or retiring … or throwing himself into the Mississippi.

In other news

August 15 – The Gold Sox rout the Falcons, 17-1, including a 9-run eighth inning. Julio Candela (.294, 2 HR, 28 RBI) has four hits, including two doubles, and scores four times. Mun-wah Tsung (.285, 16 HR, 78 RBI) hits a grand slam off Art Cox while going 3-for-6.
August 16 – TIJ LF/RF Domingo Nieves (.265, 5 HR, 27 RBI) will miss the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The 33-year old outfielder was acquired from the Falcons midseason by the Condors, but only had 3 RBI for them in 23 games.
August 18 – PIT SP Jeremiah Bowman (11-8, 4.23 ERA) 3-hits the Loggers in a 12-0 blowout.
August 21 – Cincy’s SP Ricky Mendoza (10-10, 4.58 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Buffaloes. The Cyclones win 3-0.
August 21 – The first career home run by IND SP Dan Lambert (7-10, 3.75 ERA; .135, 1 HR, 1 RBI) is the margin of victory in the Indians’ 1-0 win over the Canadiens.
August 21 – The Scorpions out-hit the Gold Sox, 13-10, but still get routed, 12-5. Scorpions pitching issues ten walks and a hit batter, and they also make two errors.

Complaints and stuff

First off: HOLY COON!! What the **** was that??

Not only are the Coons now 17-4 in August and third in the power rankings (without any power), no, Sandy Sambrano was also Player of the Week. Our glorified one-size-fits-all tool hit .579 (11-for-19) with a homer and 4 RBI. Oh yeah, and we’ve bagged the season series with the Crusaders at 10-4.

Sandy and Cookie also have been teammates for five years now, and this is only the second year that they have both homered in the same season, the previous being 2013. In just over 5,100 combined at-bats, they have 26 dingers (including Sandy’s time with the Aces).

Nick Brown is now just 14.2 innings away from triggering his 2017 option ($1.8M). As things stand right now, we would be slightly overbudget for 2017 with his option triggered, pending budget adjustments after the season.

The right-handed outfield bat that might come up soon is Alex Duarte, 23, who is hitting .251/.377/.328 in AAA. If he could translate this to the majors, he’d probably be a good #2 batter, and he’s also a good defensive centerfielder, though probably not a base stealer. The only issue with this 2011 eighth-rounder would be where the **** to play him, because we have three long-term commitments between R.J. DeWeese, Ricardo Carmona, and Ron Richards. Said commitments will total $34.5M after the end of this season, not counting Cookie’s 2023 team option. Ron Richards would be ****ing expensive to platoon a rookie with, but the way he is (not) producing we can’t even sell low enough to get rid of him.

Richards is also by far the guy with the strongest arm in the group. Between Cookie and Duarte there isn’t much to be gained from playing either in rightfield. R.J. DeWeese has *never* appeared in rightfield in a single inning, ever. He gives above-average defense in left, but only because he can hide his cotton candy arm.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (67-56) @ Indians (66-58) – August 23-25, 2016

The Raccoons’ 6-game winning streak would next be tested by the Indians, who so far had had pretty good success against Portland in 2016, beating them seven out of a dozen games, following a 13-5 thrashing handed to the Critters in 2015. The Coons had passed the Indians for 10th place in runs scored on the weekend. Their pitching allowed the third-fewest runs, with a stellar bullpen that had a 2.64 ERA going.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-6, 2.10 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (4-4, 3.25 ERA)
Hector Santos (11-5, 2.49 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (12-10, 4.28 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (7-6, 2.72 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (12-10, 3.38 ERA)

Handedness would match for all pairings of starters in this series.

While the Raccoons had Monday off, the Indians played a makeup game on Monday, with Tom Weise (13-10, 3.56 ERA) beating the Buffaloes 1-0 with a 6-hit shutout.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – RF Sambrano – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS Jones – 1B A. Young – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Brown
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Denny – 3B Tolwith – 2B Preto – P Lamb

Scoring didn’t start until the fourth inning, and then for the wrong team as Nick Brown had a 1-out meltdown and allowed singles to Nick Gilmor and Mike Denny before also walking Aaron Tolwith. While Sambrano gave his very best on Silvestre Preto’s pop to right, he couldn’t get Gilmor, who tagged and scored on the play. The same area of the batting order gave Brown more trouble the next time in the sixth inning. After Raul Matias drew a walk to start the inning, Gilmor and Denny hit back-to-back 1-out singles, but this time Cookie’s throw on Denny’s single to center was in time to kill off Matias with the second run at home. Unfortunately the relief was temporary. Old foe Tolwith hit a gapper in left center for an RBI double, putting the Indians 2-0 ahead. The Raccoons meanwhile were entirely dead in the water and had only three hits off Lamb in six innings. Howard Jones opened the seventh with a double, but also hurt himself and had to be replaced by McKnight. Between Young, Margolis, and Bergquist, the Raccoons would then get zero balls out of the infield, and McKnight was stranded on third base. That was the Coons’ last runner in scoring position. They got another man on against Lamb in the eighth, stranded him, and went down against Jarrod Morrison in the ninth without objecting. 2-0 Indians. Nunley 1-1; Brown 6.2 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K and 1-2;

Oh look, our offense is back.

Howard Jones hurt his hand sliding into second base, and will be day-to-day for the rest of the week.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – SS McKnight – RF Richards – C Baca – P Santos
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – C Denny – 3B Tolwith – 2B Preto – P Riley

The Critters burst out for the 4-spot in the first inning; after a Walter single and a Nunley double, DeWeese put the first run on the board with a hard single to right. Young struck out, but McKnight came through with a huge 3-run homer to rightfield. Another run scored in the second inning on a throwing error by Denny as Cookie – in slightly mental fashion – took off to steal third base with two outs and Walter behind him. Denny’s wild throw allowed Cookie to come home, while Nunley’s fly to center was caught to end the inning. The Indians were fed up with Riley as early as the fourth inning, pinch-hitting for him with Apasyu Britton with the bases loaded and one out, the left-hander also countering Santos, who had allowed two singles and a walk in the inning. Santos conceded a run on a groundout, then whiffed Josh Baker to keep a 5-1 lead, but things soon took a turn for the worse, when Silvestre Preto fell onto Cookie Carmona as the latter tried to break up a double play in the top 5th. Cookie had to leave the game, Sambrano replacing him, and Santos just barely made it through the fifth inning, allowing another three hits for a second Indians run, 5-2.

With no movement offensively for several innings, the Raccoons had to patch four innings with their pen. They got the sixth from Sugano, but Beaver walked two left-handers in the seventh and had to be bailed out first by Nunley starting a double play and then by John Korb. When the Coons finally did score another run in the top 8th on two bloops and a shy roller that escaped Santiago Guerra, Korb immediately made a mess in the bottom 8th. Throwing a wild pitch after a leadoff single by Denny, Korb allowed another single to right to Tolwith. Ron Richards’ throw home was abysmal and he was charged an error as not only Denny scored unimpeded, but Tolwith went to second base. Preto grounded out, but with Danny Young pinch-hitting, there would be three left-handers in a row, so Ron Thrasher was called on, but allowed singles to all three of them. That put the Indians back only by a single run, with runners on first and second and with only one out, with the middle of the order next. With Thrasher quickly binned, Chris Mathis got the ball, struck out Guerra, and got out of the mess when Gilmor grounded out to him. That only ended the eighth, though. After Joel Davis dispatched the Coons in the top 9th, there were another three outs to get for Mathis, and Raul Matias singled right away. Denny and Tolwith struck out before ex-Crusader Kevin Bond grounded to first – and Young blew the ball, which quivered out beneath his tail – the winning run was on. Left-hander Vinny Sarmiento would pinch-hit for Davis in the #9 hole, his first big league plate appearance at age 26. He floated Mathis’ first pitch to right, it fell in front of Richards, and pinch-runner Jeremie Ventura scored from second base to tie the game. Mathis didn’t get it done; Baker’s single loaded the bases, and John Wilson’s single to right walked off the Indians. 7-6 Indians. Carmona 2-3; Walter 3-5; Nunley 2-5, 2B; McKnight 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Richards 2-4, RBI;

There are no words.

The Druid quickly diagnosed what was wrong with Cookie, too. There were subtle clues, like the two eyes glaring in different directions and him repeatedly asking whether anybody had gotten the number of the milk truck that had hit him. Cookie had a concussion and was lost for the season.

There are … no words.

2011 eighth-rounder Alex Duarte was promoted from AAA. We had nobody to promote to bat leadoff, though.

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 1B Sambrano – CF Duarte – C Baca – P Toner
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – C Sarmiento – 3B Mathews – P A. Mendez

The first of 37 games constituting the string that the Raccoons had to play out with everything lost and forsaken pitted Jonny Toner against “Ant” Mendez, who came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom 2nd and promptly dumped a 2-run single into shallow left, the fourth hit allowed by Toner in the inning. That Jonny struck out ten in the first five innings merely served to explode his pitch count while the Raccoons got exactly one hit off Mendez in the same time frame. Toner then crapped out to start the bottom 6th, allowing a leadoff single to Guerra, a double to Gilmor, then struck Matias with a pitch. Bases loaded, no outs, for the ****ing rookie hero of Wednesday night. Toner whiffed him, but would throw a wild pitch to Mathews, scoring Guerra, before getting out of the inning, which was also his last, over 110 pitches for six innings of 3-run, 12-K ball. Mendez also hit a rough patch in the top 7th. DeWeese walked to get going, and Richards hit a single, the Coons’ second in the game. Sandy flew out, but Alex Duarte got his first big league hit with a single to left that loaded the bases. Baca grounded behind first base, but Mendez dropped Guerra’s feed for a run-scoring error, 3-1, and now Young was hitting for Toner. While he tied the game with a double to center, the Coons stranded runners in scoring position with Walter striking out and Nunley grounding out to Jong-beom Kym, the latter against reliever Fernando Hernandez jr… Thrasher immediately tried to blow another game, walking two in the bottom 7th before McKnight started a relieving double play, but Gilmor homered off Chun in the bottom of the eighth to give the Indians the lead back. Still stashed away in the #9 slot, Adam Young would hit ANOTHER game-tying RBI double in the ninth, this one off Jarrod Morrison and plating Duarte, who had singled again. Shane Walter, entirely useless for the entire series, walked onto the open base before Margolis struck out hitting for Chun. Extra innings, in which the Coons had McKnight in the 10th and Sambrano in the 11th caught stealing. Will West pitched two innings in relief before choking in his third, the bottom 11th, walking Mathews and Tolwith while allowing a single in between to Denny. Kevin Beaver came in to face John Wilson, but allowed a walkoff single. 5-4 Indians. Sambrano 2-5; Duarte 2-4, BB; Young (PH) 2-2, 2 2B, 3 RBI;

Raccoons (67-59) @ Condors (72-56) – August 26-28, 2016

The Condors were in the thick of the playoff race, half a game behind the Bayhawks in the South. They were fourth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. The season series stood at 3-3, with the Raccoons last having beaten them in 2013.

Projected matchups:
Chris Munroe (5-9, 3.45 ERA) vs. Kevin Woodworth (9-10, 3.41 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (9-7, 3.55 ERA) vs. Troy McCaskill (16-6, 2.28 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-7, 2.13 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (6-13, 3.89 ERA)

They only have right-handed starters. And we could run up with an entire lineup of double arm amputees and it wouldn’t matter.

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Duarte – C Baca – RF Stubbs – P Munroe
TIJ: 3B Dasher – SS Nelson – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 1B Gershkovich – C J. Vargas – 2B Lafon – RF Abraham – P Woodworth

Duarte made his first error in the second inning, a wild throw 20 feet off home plate that allowed Jose Vargas, who had previously doubled, to score unimpeded on Roland Lafon’s single to center, the first run in the game. With all the misery in the lineup, it was on Munroe himself to help him out of his deficit. The Condors had a man on in each of the next two innings, but didn’t score. Matt Stubbs singled to lead off the top 5th, then stole the first base of his career. With Munroe not required to bunt anymore, he swung away and lined to left, and Jimmy Oatmeal was far from getting to it. Stubbs sped around third and scored, game tied. The Coons would further get a single from Walter, but DeWeese struck out to strand runners on the corners. Craig Abraham hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, but was eventually caught stealing third base by Baca.

Both pitchers ended up going eight innings in this one. Woodworth retired the last dozen Coons he faced in order, while Munroe had a few more struggles, but denied the Condors in all their attempts and kept the 1-1 tie in place. In the ninth it was time to face Zack Entwistle and I would like it quite a lot if the Raccoons would tear him to pieces, but no luck was to be had here. Instead, the Condors walked off against Seung-mo Chun, who walked Mike Herrera to start the inning, and allowed a single to Lafon that sent the runner to third base with two outs. Matt Keeler was in the #8 slot, hitting .190, and grounded rather slowly up the third base line. Nunley did all he could, which wasn’t enough, Keeler collapsed past first base and Herrera scored. 2-1 Condors. Munroe 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K and 1-3, RBI;

Keeler seems to have suffered a leg injury.

Game 2
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Margolis – P Abe
TIJ: SS Lafon – CF Arnold – LF Eichelkraut – 2B M. Herrera – 1B Gershkovich – C J. Vargas – 3B D. Jones – RF Abraham – P McCaskill

The Condors took a 1-0 lead in the second inning again, Herrera leading off with a single, stealing second base, and coming home on Vargas’ groundout, and two innings later Vargas would come up with a single to right that scored Herrera and Gershkovich to put Abe in a 3-0 hole. The Raccoons by definition weren’t doing anything except munching their lunch packs in the dugout. Through five innings they would have as many hits, and two of those by Abe. Nunley had hit a single in the first, but when he came up in that fifth inning with two outs and Abe and Walter (who had doubled) in scoring position, he rolled one over to Herrera to end the inning. Abe lasted seven okay innings before Howard Jones (with a specifically padded glove on the sore paw) took a bat to hit for him leading off the eighth. It was the Raccoons’ best hit yet, a double into the leftfield corner, and the tying run at least appeared on the field for once… Not for long, though. Walter grounded out, and McCaskill whiffed Nunley and McKnight to end the inning. By contrast, Will West in the bottom 8th retired the first two batters, then walked Gershkovich and Vargas and allowed an RBI single to Dan Jones. McCaskill nursed his shutout into the ninth, but allowed another leadoff double to DeWeese, who moved up on Young’s groundout. Sambrano hit for Duarte and drove a ball to fairly deep center – of course into an out, but it was deep enough for DeWeese to score an honorary run. McCaskill was removed immediately, and after a pinch-hit single by Baca Zack Entwistle collected the last out from Danny Margolis. 4-1 Condors. Baca (PH) 1-1; Jones (PH) 1-1, 2B;

4-0, 4-1 … I don’t give a **** about ****ing participation ribbons…

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Sambrano – RF Richards – C Margolis – P Brown
TIJ: SS Dasher – C J. Vargas – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 1B Gershkovich – 3B D. Jones – 2B Lafon – RF Abraham – P M. Rojas

Two singles that escaped on the left side of the infield and a Mike Gershkovich double put Brownie in a 2-0 hole right in the first inning, so all hopes for at least one win in this week from hell could rightfully be consigned to the land of illusions. More damage occurred in the third inning as Vargas singled, Brown walked Jimmy Oatmeal, who had hit one of the two singles in the first, his first base hit in the series, and then Gershkovich came through again with a 2-run triple to the rightfield corner. Gershkovich came in to score when Richards dropped Dan Jones’ pop fly to right. The Coons had already left a runner on third base in the game, but the fourth saw a 1-out double by McKnight. Rojas then struck out DeWeese, although Vargas lost the ball and the Coons made it to the corners on the uncaught third strike. The best that Adam Young managed to do was a run-scoring groundout, and so this mild chance to climb back into the game went to hell as well.

Frustration was mounting, not only with me. The score was still 5-1 in the sixth inning, and the Coons had runners on the corners with one out again. Sambrano batted and flew out to right. McKnight tagged from third base against Craig Abraham’s murder arm, who had him beat easily. McKnight’s only chance was to knock out Jose Vargas – and he actually destroyed him with a dirty slide, ramming his (spiked…) foot right into Vargas’ stomach, and Vargas got another knock in the shoulder. While Vargas lay in the dirt, coughing blood, and McKnight retreated to the dugout, the broken catcher slowly raised his glove, ball still firmly grasped, before being carried off on a stretcher. This had no great effect on the game, which the Coons had already firmly lost. Brown went seven without allowing another run, striking out Herrera with runners on the corners to end the seventh. “Doom” Rojas pitched a complete game 5-hitter. 5-1 Condors. McKnight 2-4, 2B;

Brownie is now at 3,099 strikeouts for his career. And this is the first time he’s lost consecutive games since April 29 and May 4. Back then, the Coons scored TWO runs combined in the two starts for him rather than just one.

And after all the drama, the Condors announced late on Sunday that Jose Vargas would miss one week with a thumb sprain. What was with the coughed blood then??

In other news

August 23 – VAN 1B Ray Gilbert (.334, 27 HR, 95 RBI) solidifies his lead in the CL batting race with three hits in an 8-4 victory over the Titans, and on the side also knocks his 2,000th career hit, a 2-run single the bottom 7th off Matt Branch. The runs are charged to Harry Merwin. Gilbert is a career .314/.385/.498 batter with 259 homers and 1,062 RBI.
August 23 – Knights and Condors enter extra innings tied at three, but the Knights break out for eight runs in the tenth to claim an 11-3 victory.
August 24 – The Crusaders announce that they have lost their 14-year veteran INF Francisco Caraballo (.298, 7 HR, 42 RBI) for the season with a ruptured medial collateral ligament.
August 24 – The Condors beat the Knights, 8-7, in 17 innings, when Milwaukee’s Felix Colon issues a bases-loaded walk to Roland Lafon.
August 26 – ATL RF/LF Justin Dally (.295, 14 HR, 52 RBI) will miss up to four weeks with a calf strain.
August 27 – Denver’s Willis Sanguino (10-12, 4.40 ERA) hurls a 3-hitter at the Rebels, who lose 8-0 to the Gold Sox.
August 27 – The Pacifics beat the Buffaloes in a 13-1 rout, scoring all their runs just four innings of at least three runs each.
August 28 – LVA SP Adam Euteneuer (12-11, 3.73 ERA) spins a 1-hit shutout against the Indians. All that separates him from a no-hitter is Nick Gilmor’s single in the fifth inning. The Aces win 5-0.
August 28 – More injury worries about PIT SS Tom McWhorter (.299, 19 HR, 73 RBI) who could miss most if not all of the remaining regular season with a calf strain.
August 28 – DAL C Jamal White (.281, 15 HR, 75 RBI) has fought a sore back for a while, and he finally has to accept that he can’t push himself any further – this year. White is put on the DL by the Stars and will probably not return in 2016.
August 28 – Also to the shelf: CIN SP Brian Doumas (12-6, 2.95 ERA), who is dealing with a rotator cuff strain and could be out for the season.

Complaints and stuff

All is lost.

Maud planned playoff ticket promotions for about three days, and then all was lost. What a cruel world we have to exist in. If you have any mercy, please, take this sharpened rod covered in pesticides and drive it right into my eye. Here. (points) Right in here.

Ron Thrasher requested a trade. In his mind he is a closer (we saw how that worked out in April…) and other teams would see him as such, too. I hate to tell you this, Ron, but nobody wanted your ****ing bacon in July…

And that was on Tuesday, before he blew the Wednesday game. And before everything went to hell. We merely dropped 11 spots in the power rankings this week.

The Raccoons have lost the season series with the Condors for three straight years for the first time since 1999-2001.

Brownie had lost one of his last 14 starts before this week. Now he has a 2-game losing streak not *entirely* his fault. To really rub it in, though, the league named Mike Gershkovich Player of the Week…

It has also come to my attention that when the Coons had batting practice on the field in Tijuana on Saturday, R.J. DeWeese made rookie Alex Duarte serve him dinner near second base. Duarte had to wear a pink ballet costume and high heels, and well too much lipstick. Let’s see, DeWeese’s OPS has dropped under .800, so maybe lightning will strike sooner rather than later in leftfield.

[Westheim]

I had a Raccoons nightmare tonight, of the save file somehow breaking. All games then ended in ridiculous scores like 217-158. Woke up in slight panic.

Good news, OOTP still works as intended. Bad news, it’s still the ’16 Coons.

+++

Raccoons (67-62) @ Thunder (55-74) – August 29-31, 2016

Last series before roster expansion, and it was the final hurrah against the bottom-bound Thunder. The Raccoons had not exactly taken advantage of them so far in 2016, splitting the six games with them evenly. The last three season matchups had ended with 5-4 Raccoons triumphs. The Thunder ranked last in runs scored in the Continental League, and were only seventh in runs allowed. The pen was good, the rotation not quite.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (11-5, 2.52 ERA) vs. Antonio Quintero (2-3, 4.14 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (7-6, 2.80 ERA) vs. Ed Michaels (8-12, 3.58 ERA)
Chris Munroe (5-9, 3.32 ERA) vs. Jorge Gine (12-7, 2.68 ERA)

Lefty in the middle in this series, at least as far as the home team is concerned.

The gap between 11th (us) and 12th (them) in runs scored in the CL is only six runs, so I am confident that they can make that up and we take the red lantern with us before the month is over.

Rosters expand after the set, but we are off on September 1. Nevertheless, I long to shake things up with this lineup of fails. Combined with the Michaels appearance, we will fire the Tuesday game to the wind and rest as many of our left-handed batting starters as possible (we have five right-handed and one switch bat – Sandy – right now). Sorry, Jonny. Really, sorry, but they wouldn’t have scored for you anyway…

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – RF Sambrano – CF Duarte – C Baca – P Santos
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – RF R. Lopez – 1B B. Thomas – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – LF J. Flores – P Quintero

Quintero didn’t fare well at all in the opening inning. Walter singled, McKnight doubled, and then he threw a wild pitch to plate the first run. DeWeese walked, Young hit an RBI single, and another walk to Sandy filled the bags, and Quintero still couldn’t zero in on the general vicinity of the strike zone and Alex Duarte got his first big league RBI by holding still and drawing a bases-loaded walk, 3-0. Since Alonso Baca found it necessary to poke and hit into a double play to Emilio Farias, that was also the end point of the inning. Santos was in no way comfortable with the lead, and the Thunder started to cut into it sooner rather than later with Jesus Soto’s triple in the bottom 2nd. Erik Janes hit another deep fly that DeWeese caught, but the run scored anyway, and the Thunder were only two back. To add injury to insult, Santos clocked Jesus Flores three pitches later, necessitating the latter’s removal in favor of Earl Clark. That was the only early run off Santos, although the Thunder had their leadoff men on with singles in both the third and fourth innings. The top 5th saw the fall from grace for Quintero, who allowed a single to Shane Walter to start the inning, and then a 2-run homer to Nunley. Scoring continued with McKnight singling and scoring on Adam Young’s double, Sandy singled, and Duarte’s single plated Young, 7-1, and ended Quintero’s day for good. The middle innings were good for Santos, however, who got through them quick enough to make it to the eighth inning, where he got thoroughly stuck with runners on the corners after a double and a scratch single. Sugano would face Jalen Parks with two outs and got a grounder to short for the third out to close Santos’ line. The score remained 7-1 into the bottom 9th, where the Coons made their obligatory mess. Sugano got an out from Jesus Soto, then hit Erik Janes. Clark walked, bringing up right-handed pinch-hitter Armando Rodriguez. Will West came out, walked him, then allowed a 2-run double to Sean Young. The carrousel kept spinning, spewing forth Chris Mathis, who at least got closer to the finish with Farias’ RBI groundout. Rodrigo Lopez grounded out to McKnight to finally end the game. 7-4 Coons. Walter 2-4; Nunley 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-5, 2B; Young 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-3, BB, 2B; Santos 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (12-5);

So, 6-game losing streak ended, albeit narrowly… I also wonder what kind of lead would be big enough not to be put in danger in the late innings…

Jesus Flores was out for the series with a hand contusion.

Game 2
POR: 1B Sambrano – SS Jones – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – CF Duarte – 2B Bergquist – LF Stubbs – C Margolis – P Toner
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – RF R. Lopez – 1B B. Thomas – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – C D. Anderson – LF V. Diaz – P Michaels

Jonny had Farias, Lopez, and Bill Thomas all at two strikes in the first inning and retired none of them in a productive way. The first two singled to go to the corners, and Thomas’ sac fly put the Thunder up 1-0. That would be the only run Toner would allow in this outing, though a contributing factor for sure was the 50-minute rain delay early on that eventually held him to five innings, with him quite searching of the strike zone afterwards, also contributing to his early removal. Also searching: Michaels. Having allowed only three singles in the first five innings, he allowed one to Sandy Sambrano to start the sixth. Jones and Nunley walked after that, though by then Sambrano had already been caught stealing by Daryl Anderson, and the Coons only had them on first and second with one out for Ron Richards, a recipe for disaster if there was one. Richards struck out, Duarte grounded out to short, and Toner remained on the short end of the stick. John Korb pitched a perfect bottom 6th, before his spot came up with Margolis on first after a 2-out single in the top 7th. Aiming to mount a charge in the eighth, Korb was left in there, but actually singled, putting Margolis at third base for Sambrano, with Michaels still pitching, and Sandy grounded out to third.

The Thunder would ride Ed Michaels until it was too late, but in all fairness, they couldn’t have seen it coming. Howard Jones hit a leadoff single in the eighth inning. Nunley grounded out, but that still brought up Richards, a sure out if there was one. Swinging strike, foul ball, another foul ball – he’ll miss one soon enough. Or maybe not. Ron Richards clonked the fourth pitch of the at-bat, a soaring drive to right that vanished into the rightfield seats and collapsed the Thunder’s house of cards at once. Except that the Raccoons were just the same with their 1-run lead in the bottom 8th. Mathis was in, walked Farias to start the inning and then allowed a double to Lopez. Thomas struck out, after which we moved to Thrasher with lefties up, dire for another strikeout. Rodriguez hit for Soto, though, and walked onto the open base against Thrasher (36 BB in 46.2 IP now). Erik Janes and Cameron Konrath would put three runs on the board with a pair of singles, and although I felt like the Critters would never be heard from again, McKnight and Young came up with singles in the ninth against Micah Steele. With two outs, R.J. DeWeese (who had struck out three times on Monday), hit for Howard Jones against the right-hander, who couldn’t have closed a glass of jam as a Raccoon. The count ran full, DeWeese grounded to Rodriguez at second, and the throw to Bill Thomas was in time. 4-2 Thunder. Duarte 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Margolis 2-4; Young 1-1; Korb 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-1;

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Baca – P Munroe
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – RF R. Lopez – 1B B. Thomas – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – LF V. Diaz – P Gine

Our 3-year winning streak against the Thunder ended right in the first inning, where Chris Munroe allowed four hits to four batters in his first nine pitches, and although some Nunley D made two red lights flare up on the board in a 2-0 game, he walked Janes and allowed a 2-run double to Diaz to open the gates again. When Gine struck out, the inning ended with the Thunder up 4-0, which they double to 8-0 in the third inning, which was briefly interrupted by rain, but Munroe shouldn’t use that as an excuse. I’d give him the first run, that was unearned after a Adam Young error that allowed Jalen Parks to reach, but after that he allowed singles to Vinny Diaz and Jorge Gine (!) with two outs, followed by Sean Young’s 3-run blast to right. Parks made it 10-0 with a 2-run blast off Seung-mo Chun in the fourth, and if there had so far been no reports of offensive heroics by the Raccoons, then the reason for that was that there was nothing to report.

Gine struck out seven against two hits in the first five inning before suffering a small laps in the sixth inning. Walter walked, McKnight doubled, and then DeWeese scored two with a bloop single with two outs when it didn’t count for ass. Bottom 6th, down 10-2, Will West came out and got one out from three batters, though to be precise, Ron Richards got that out, throwing out Lopez going first-to-third on Thomas’ single, which also scored Farias, who in turn had hit a leadoff triple, while Lopez had been plunked by West. Three more runs scored in the bottom 8th against Kevin Beaver, who had already collected five outs, but was overwhelmed by the Thunder with three hits and three walks, the latter being consecutive to the last three batters he faced. Sugano ended that inning. 14-2 Thunder. McKnight 2-3, 2B;

You can’t be denied much harder than that. And as indicated, the Raccoons are now officially last in runs scored with 506. Thunder: 10th, 511. The Indians are in between.

Roster expansion

While our AAA team was getting beat up regularly, and the Coons weren’t competing for anything, there was no need to call up an excessive amount of personnel. There were also no prospects to test. The only one with a mild shot at a future, Duarte, was already here replacing Cookie Carmona on the field, but not in our hearts.

Nope, a standard package of two or three relievers at most, a catcher, and an outfielder would do. Tom McNeela and Brandon Johnson filled the bench spots, while Gary Dupes and Juan Gallegos would provide reinforcements to the giant hole in the bottom of the bullpen.

Raccoons (68-64) vs. Loggers (57-76) – September 2-4, 2016

The almost entirely pitching-less Loggers (670 runs allowed, just over five per game) had a -107 run differential with their seventh-place offense, and were probably in last place for a reason. The Coons were in position to take the season series for the third straight year. 2016 so far stood 8-3 in their favor.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (9-8, 3.57 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (13-7, 3.63 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-8, 2.24 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (9-15, 5.28 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-5, 2.46 ERA) vs. Carlos Michel (9-5, 3.90 ERA)

We get another southpaw on Sunday with Michel, who along with Cope is one of only two starters for them below the CL average ERA.

Nick Brown will enter the Saturday game with 189 innings pitched, requiring three outs to trigger his $1.8M vesting option, and also with 3,099 strikeouts, four behind Chris York for seventh all time. His possession of seventh place, if attained, will be short-termed in any case, since Pancho Trevino has almost caught him now. The Knight sits at 3,086, while Rod Taylor is coming with even bigger steps, sitting 17 away from joining the 3,000 club on Friday morning.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – 3B Landeros – CF Gore – 2B Best – P Cope
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Baca – P Abe

Abe came within two foul balls of an immaculate inning in the second, striking out Chris LeMoine, Tony Delgado, and Ruben Landeros in order. He walked Steve Best and Victor Hodgers in the third, but held the Loggers hitless, while the Coons took a 1-0 lead despite Abe bunting into a force on Baca in the bottom 3rd. Walter’s groundout advanced Abe to second base, from where he scored on Nunley’s soft single to center. While the Loggers also wouldn’t get a base hit their second time through the order, the Coons fared almost equally bad. Duarte was on base in the fourth, but was double-played away by Richards. Abe drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 5th, but was ignored. McKnight then opened the bottom 6th with a walk drawn off Brian Cope, but was caught stealing – just ahead of DeWeese’s 23rd homer of the season, which now only made it a 2-0 game. Abe’s no-hitter was broken up in the top 7th with a 1-out single by Tony Delgado, though Landeros’ grounder to Walter at second quickly ended the inning with a double play. Ron Richards provided some unexpected cushion with a solo homer in the bottom 7th, 3-0, and although Brad Gore drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, Abe continued to put Loggers away consistently, and after recent escapades by the relief corps would keep the ball in the ninth, although he would face the left-handed power division in the inning after Zach Knowling opened the inning popping up the first pitch for the first out. Mike Rucker singled to left, but Chris LeMoine struck out, leaving Delgado to dissect. That didn’t work, either, as Delgado beat DeWeese in left for an RBI double onto the warning track, and when Abe got a grounder to short from pinch-hitter Tim Pace, the sure-handed McKnight blew that as well for an error. Manobu Sugano would now replace Abe for Brad Gore, but the Loggers had read their scouting reports, too, and sent right-handed Corey Martin, a September call-up, to pinch-hit. The 29-year old hacker was in infrequent guest on the Loggers’ 25-man roster, getting all of 15 at-bats last year and so far none this year. When Sugano had him at 0-2, he threw a wild pitch two feet past Baca to allow the second run to score, before Martin looked at a fastball right down the middle. 3-2 Coons. Abe 8.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (10-8);

Ain’t feel no heartbeat anymore…

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – LF LeMoine – 1B M. Rucker – C Delgado – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – 2B Best – P McDonald
POR: 1B Young – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C McNeela – CF Johnson – P Brown

Brownie triggered his 2017 option with a perfect first inning, registering three outs on three grounders. The part of the fan base that was informed about these contractual details spontaneously burst into cheers. The Loggers soon quelled the cheers with a leadoff single by Rucker and the following Delgado double in the top 2nd, though they scored only one run on their free following grounders. Fans also waited for strikeout #3,100 in vain for an extended period of time. Brownie had none through three, through four… all the while the rest of the litter did the best to make the horrendous McDonald look as good as humanely possible. Not only did he come in with an ERA far over five, but also with 202 hits allowed in 170.2 innings, and 84 walks to 69 strikeouts. The Coons didn’t take advantage of any of that, and had one hit and one walk through four innings.

Finally, cheers in the fifth. After Andrew Cooper grounded out to short to start the inning, Ruben Landeros hacked himself out swinging, Brownie’s first in the game, and #3,100 overall. Steve Best went down looking right after that, and with the knot finally untied struck out the side in the sixth to pass the fallen Chris York (who was still not retired, but hadn’t pitched in the ABL in three years) for seventh all-time. Brownie made it six in a row – leading to some semi-drunken reveling in the cheap seats since there was really NOTHING ELSE TO CHEER A **** ABOUT – before the 4-5 combo undid him again with Rucker walking and Delgado hitting an RBI double, making it 2-0 Loggers.

The Coons would have BY FAR their best chance yet in the bottom of the seventh when Howard Jones hit a 1-out single and McNeela walked. This was Go Time. Shane Walter hit for Johnson and hit an RBI single to right center, and Sandy hit for Brownie and walked. Bases loaded, one out for Adam Young. Don’t you dare hitting into a ****ing double play. He rolled the first pitch he saw to Mike Rucker, who zinged it to second, but Rob Howell’s return throw was late – barely. The tying run scored, with Nunley coming up, and he also grounded out to Rucker. **** team.

Ron Thrasher lined up for the loss in no time at all. He issued a leadoff walk to Brad Gore. Victor Hodgers got Gore forced with a bouncer to Thrasher, but then stole second base anyway. Moving to third on Eric Kingsley’s grounder, he scored on Tim Pace’s double to left. The Coons pulled the run back, however, thanks to a DeWeese double and 2-out single by Howard Jones in the bottom of the inning. That last one was hit off Robby Delikat, a right-hander, who remained in to allow another single to center to Tom McNeela before Alonso Baca hit for Thrasher in the #8 slot. Looping a high pop to shallow center, the three converging Loggers defenders shooed another off and the ball fell in, with Jones scoring from second base to give the Critters an undeserved lead. A discombobulated Delikat walked Sandy to fill the bases, then also walked Young to push an insurance run home before Nunley grounded out to complete a dreadful 0-for-5. John Korb got the save opportunity over the inconsistent Mathis and allowed leadoff single to Delgado right away. Two groundouts later, PH Isiah Reed sent a rocket to deep right that Ron Richards defused while bouncing hard off the fence – but he held onto the ball, ending the game. 5-3 Blighters. Jones 2-4, RBI; Walter (PH) 1-1, RBI; Baca (PH) 1-1, RBI; Sambrano (PH) 0-0, 2 BB; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Ron Thrasher got the win, which will probably prompt him to squawk about wanting to be nominated as closer again.

Game 3
MIL: 3B Landeros – RF Gore – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – CF Cooper – SS Kingsley – 2B Best – P Michel
POR: 1B Sambrano – 2B Jones – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – RF Stubbs – C Margolis – P Santos

The Coons got an instant start with a Sandy single and Jones’ 2-run homer in the bottom 1st. McKnight and Duarte also hit singles, but Nunley rolled into a double play to end the first inning. Also a fast start wouldn’t mean there wouldn’t be an even faster disaster, and Hector Santos ran into such one in the top 2nd. Chris LeMoine and Andrew Cooper reached base with infield singles before Steve Best cranked a 3-run homer to right center, giving them a 3-2 lead. It was close to getting worse in the third, with Ruben Landeros singling to center and Brad Gore hitting a double to right to put runners in scoring position with nobody out, but Rucker grounded hard to Sambrano for the first out and Santos then got two pops to end the inning with nobody scoring. The fourth: more horror. Cooper drew a leadoff walk and Kingsley and Best hit singles to the right side. 4-2, runners on the corners, no outs, Best was caught stealing and Michel failed struck out, with Landeros grounding out to strand a runner on third base.

The Raccoons would have three on with two outs in the bottom 5th. Michel had followed a McKnight single with walks to DeWeese and Nunley, but that meant that Matt Stubbs was up, batting .184 in 38 at-bats with no RBI. But… Ron Richards, against a right-hander? That one wouldn’t work either… Stubbs batted, fell to 1-2, then snipped a bouncer to the left side that Landeros inexplicably missed, and two runs scored on the single to tie the score at four. Margolis’ single on the next pitch loaded them up for … Richards. Santos was done after 90 messy pitches in five innings, but he might get a win after all if Rich- … good joke. No, the Loggers managed to set fire to their own little house again. Michel threw a wild pitch at 1-2 to allow Nunley to score with the go-ahead run, and when Richards grounded to Steve Best on the next pitch, Best threw the ball wildly past Rucker, allowing two more runners to score. Michel, close to tears, was replaced with Robby Delikat, who immediately threw a wild pitch to Sandy, moving Richards to third. Sandy walked, but Jones grounded out, ending a nightmare inning for the Loggers with a 5-spot for the Coons, and a 7-4 lead. But the same Coons now had to get a dozen outs from their bullpen of horrors, though things certainly looked promising as the innings ticked past. Beaver and Chun both had scoreless innings, Sugano killed Rucker and LeMoine in the eighth before Korb whiffed Delgado. They had a chance to tack on some insurance in the bottom 8th when Jones walked with one out and McKnight singled, bringing up DeWeese against right-hander Toby Wood, with the Loggers seemingly convinced to make it through the game without another pitcher. Wood nailed DeWeese eventually, then with the bags full was 3-1 against Duarte, who found it necessary to swing and grounded to Landeros, but the Loggers only got DeWeese at second, and Jones scored. Nunley grounded out, but no further insurance was necessary, as John Korb finished the game quickly, needing 11 pitches for the last four outs. 8-4 Critters! McKnight 3-5; DeWeese 0-1, 3 BB; Margolis 2-3; Korb 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (3);

John Korb (2-1, 3.18 ERA, 3 SV) – who would have been dumped during opening week if just Lou Cannon (2-1, 3.28 ERA) had signed with us – has now saved back-to-back games.

In other news

August 29 – Bayhawks and Loggers have ten hits a side in their Monday night contest, and there are ten runs in the game – all by the Loggers in a highly unusual 10-0 rout.
August 29 – Crusaders and Aces engage in a 17-inning marathon that is decided in New York’s favor on Masaya Arakaki’s (.250, 1 HR, 3 RBI) 2-run homer off Kevin Johnston in the top of the 17th, giving the Crusaders a 5-3 win.
August 31 – NYC SP Fernando Cruz (13-10, 3.34 ERA) throws a 1-hit shutout against the Aces, allowing only a seventh inning single to Adam Flack in a 3-0 win.
September 1 – The Capitals blow leads of 9-3 in the fourth and 12-6 in the seventh as the Buffaloes score six times in the bottom 7th and twice in the eighth to beat them 14-12.
September 3 – The last-place Wolves haven’t had much to cheer about this season, but SP Jaden Joseph (7-10, 3.83 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout in a 6-0 win over the Scorpions to cheer up the fan base.
September 3 – Falcons and Aces are tied 1-1 through six before the Falcons break out four runs in the top 7th. The Aces counter with a 5-spot in the bottom 7th, but the Falcons top them with another 4-spot in the eighth and win, 9-6.

Complaints and stuff

So, Brownie triggered his option, although he can still pull a Saito Salto and retire in disgust.

I would.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS

1st – Tony Hamlyn – 3,952
2nd – Martin Garcia – 3,783 (HOF)
3rd – Woody Roberts – 3,313 (HOF)
4th – Aaron Anderson – 3,225 (HOF)
5th – Carlos Castro – 3,198 (HOF)
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,164
7th – Nick Brown – 3,106 (active)
8th – Chris York – 3,103 (active)
9th – Pancho Trevino – 3,086 (active)
10th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
11th – Rod Taylor – 2,983 (active)

The next-closest active pitcher would be Curtis Tobitt, 24th with 2,494 K. Next-closest current Critter? Hector Santos with 993.

Two of our single-A hotshot pitchers burst through 100 walks this week. I don’t think anybody should expect an appearance, much less a bobblehead, for Danny Arguello (the expensive international kid) or Travis Garrett (’15 second-rounder) at any point in this life.

Ah, pitching. Our top 3 have been playoff-worthy all season long (each in their way) and even Abe has been very good recently, and hey, come on, where would this team be without the never rewarded Chris Munroe? Best rule 5 pick since at least Ricardo Huerta in 2002. I can’t even remember any rule 5 picks we made in between. Huerta merely won 22 games in relief with consistently low ERA’s (3.30 or better) from 2002 through 2005.

We will need another starter in a few weeks, but it won’t be Jeff Magnotta, who is in the process of completely flaming out in AAA. 6-11 with a 5.52 ERA and 1.2 walks for every whiff. But at this point, we could also give the ball to Francisquo Bocanegra (10-10, 3.90 ERA) and take the loss…

I wonder whether Bob Joly is still tossing with his kids and would sign a contract. He’s got to be about 45 now, but you never know your luck…

[UltimateAverageGuy]

read this entire thread in 2 hours and LOVE it!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (71-64) vs. Titans (66-72) – September 5-7, 2016

The Titans were almost done with this season; though not mathematically eliminated, they sure hadn’t given an all too awesome presentation of baseball this year, despite putting up the fourth-most runs in the CL. Their pitching was horrendous, allowed the third-most runs, and doomed all their offensive prowess. Their run differential was a healthy -43. Despite all of that, they were 8-4 against the Raccoons in 2016…

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (7-6, 2.76 ERA) vs. Jonathan Ryan (3-6, 5.59 ERA)
Chris Munroe (5-10, 3.50 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (2-7, 4.87 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (10-8, 3.44 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (13-8, 2.91 ERA)

Between these three right-handers, the Raccoons had already given Fuentes a 3 IP, 6 ER start this season, but Ian Rutter had started three games against them and had gone 2-0, allowing five runs in 20 innings for a 2.25 ERA.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – CF C. Newman – LF X. Williams – P Ryan
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Baca – P Toner

In a wicked bottom of the first, Jonathan Ryan walked three batters, the first being Nunley, who scored on McKnight’s homer for a quick 2-0 lead. Then DeWeese and Young walked – both ended up being thrown out at home on singles by Duarte and Richards, respectively, and both so by Ezra Branch. We made a note: don’t run on Ezra Branch, and moved on emotionally. The Coons lengthened their score with an Alonso Baca homer in the bottom 2nd, 3-0, before they loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth inning. Richards, Baca, and Jonny Toner had singled to start the inning, bringing up the top of the order. Ryan was close to suffering complete disembowelment after two more singles by Walter and Nunley, both scoring single runs, with Nunley’s bouncer vanishing directly in Ryan’s pocket and the pitcher still wasn’t able to get any play done. With the bases still full, McKnight struck out and DeWeese hit into a double play, keeping the score at 5-0. So far the Titans had only one hit, a Jose Gutierrez single in the first inning, and had not had a base runner since the second, which contrasted somewhat sharply with Ryan’s final line, which would read 4.1 innings, 12 hits, four walks, and eight runs allowed, all earned. Alonso Baca bombed him with a 3-piece to end his day, collecting Young and Richards.

The Titans put their biggest threat yet up in the sixth inning when Xavier Williams’ liner fooled Alex Duarte in center and allowed Williams to slide into second with a leadoff double. Bunted to third, he saw Toner hit Mike Rivera with a pitch, only for Rivera – who led the CL in stolen bases and would probably win the title uncontested with Cookie Carmona done for the year – to be caught stealing second base. Gutierrez struck out, and the Titans were turned away in the inning, but it was the last time Toner made it through an inning unharmed. Tim Robinson knocked his 28th homer of the season, a solo shot, to center in the seventh, breaking up a shutout bid. It was also the first of three consecutive full counts for Toner, who seemed to be tiring, but struck out Branch and Tom Thomas anyway after the homer. He was replaced in the eighth after hitting Williams with one out, and Sugano got out of the inning, which saw Matt Pruitt pinch-hitting, but popping out against Sugano. Brandon Johnson came up with a pinch-hit, 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom 8th to run up double digits. 10-1 Critters. Walter 2-5, 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Richards 2-4, RBI; Baca 3-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Toner 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (8-6) and 1-2, 2 BB;

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – CF Blake – C Galan – LF C. Newman – P J. Fuentes
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Duarte – RF Richards – C Baca – P Munroe

Munroe struck out the side in the first inning, giving him 101 K in 150 innings on the season. He would whiff five the first time through, but also allowed a leadoff jack to Ezra Branch in the second inning, Branch’s 23rd bomb of the season. Branch also went on to steal his 18th base of the year two innings later after drawing the first walk off Munroe, but was left on second base. The Coons in the meantime had left runners on third base twice, Munroe striking out in the second and DeWeese popping out to Gutierrez in the third. Fuentes would have a five-hitter through five innings, having whiffed five. The Titans however got their second run in the top of the sixth when Steve Butler drew a leadoff walk, moved around on productive outs, and scored on Jonathan Blake’s single to center. The Coons had the tying runs on base in the bottom 6th, but Richards’ best guess was to ground to Butler for the second out. The runners DeWeese and Duarte moved up, but with the first base open and Baca having gone deep twice on Monday, he was not going to see actual pitches. Munroe’s spot came up, but with the situation dire and this being the sixth inning, Sandy Sambrano came out to pinch-hit … and struck out.

Fuentes was also done after six and Harry Merwin took his place in the bottom 7th. The 23-year old rookie right-hander, who had decent enough stats with a 3.88 ERA and a bit over 2 K/BB, blew the lead without logging an out, walking Shane Walter before allowing a 2-piece to Matt Nunley, who reached double-digit dingers with this equalizer. While the Coons got perfect relief from Chun, Beaver, and Thrasher to complete nine, the Titans stuck with Merwin for a while, despite him allowing McKnight to reach on a single right after the Nunley homer. McKnight took second base – with no outs – then was left there for dead. Merwin kept stirring until two outs in the bottom 9th when he allowed consecutive singles to McKnight and DeWeese, putting the winning run on second base. Right-hander Tommy Briggs replaced him to see Adam Young, who popped out to left, and we had extras. These opened with a leadoff shot by Matt Pruitt off Thrasher before Rivera tripled, so the ship was sinking fast now. The Coons would go through four relievers in the inning, with Will West walking Gutierrez, Sugano walking Butler and allowing another run on Branch’s groundout, and Chris Mathis blowing it open with a 2-run double by Tom Thomas going onto his ledger. Brett Dill ended the Raccoons in three batters in the bottom 10th. 6-2 Titans. Nunley 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-5; DeWeese 2-5;

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – C Galan – CF Mata – LF X. Williams – P Rutter
POR: 2B Walter – 1B Jones – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Sambrano – CF Johnson – C McNeela – P Abe

Rivera drove in the first run of the game with his 2-out single in the top 3rd that collected Alex Mata from third base, but the Coons got the run right back in the bottom of the inning thanks to Ian Rutter giving them a free runner to start with when he drilled Tom McNeela. Moved around on Abe’s bunt and a wild pitch, McNeela scored on Howard Jones’ 2-out single to left. Then McKnight was also hit, but DeWeese whiffed, as usual. Neither team was hitting much, with both outfits combining for five hits through five innings, and the Coons even held a slight 3-2 edge. Their half of the sixth inning started with Jones reaching base on Tom Thomas’ fielding error, so maybe something could be constructed with that new undeserved runner. Rutter’s next pitch was wild, moving Jones to second. With the count to McKnight at 3-0, a lot of strange things happened. First, McKnight swung, and Jones was running on Rutter’s movement, and we hadn’t called for any of this. When McKnight grounded squarely to Rivera at short, I missed a heartbeat or two, but Rivera was confused as well and was not quick enough to nip Jones at third base. McKnight was out at first, and DeWeese came up with one out and the go-ahead run on third. Rutter had completely lost control now, and ran another 3-0 count, and DeWeese ALSO poked at 3-0! His grounder eluded Gutierrez and went into rightfield, so at least the Coons took the lead, 2-1, though I had to wonder whether everybody was playing to their own designs by now or whether management and coaching still would get a say once in a while…

The Coons didn’t score again in the inning, and Abe got back out with a 2-1 lead. He made it through seven and two thirds on 100 pitches before Rivera hit a 2-out single and Matt Pruitt batted for Gutierrez, which put three consecutive left-handers (four if you allowed Rivera to count retroactively) against Abe, and that was too much to bear. While technically knowing better, the Coons gave the ball to Ron Thrasher (Sugano being unavailable), who struck out Pruitt to dispel the most immediate danger. The Critters stranded two in the bottom 8th (just as they had done in the seventh), leaving Thrasher with no cushion against 36 left-handed homers with 136 RBI, and 42 HR, 198 RBI total with Tom Thomas behind them. Butler and Branch ended up retired on scratch plays, so called because the Coons barely got the tips of their claws onto the balls as Duarte defused a pop that threatened to drop into shallow center to start the inning, and Sambrano – now at first – just barely managed to swipe and knock down a murderous bouncer before collecting it and outracing Branch to the bag. Thomas fouled out to Sandy to end the game. 2-1 Critters. Abe 7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (11-8); Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (18);

Raccoons (73-65) @ Canadiens (76-63) – September 9-11, 2016

The Elks were second in the North, but nine games out with a magic number of 14, so the race to the playoffs was as good as over. Their seventh-place offense hadn’t been enough to compensate their fifth-place pitching, or probably vice versa, anyway, the package wasn’t good enough. It had been good enough to beat the Raccoons, 9-6, in 2016, though. Three of the previous four series in ’16 had ended in sweeps. The Coons had endured two, a 3-game sweep in May and a 4-game sweep after the All Star game, but had swept them in four games in August. The 4-game sweeps had both taken place in Portland, so symmetry demanded that we now swept them for three.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-8, 2.25 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (0-2, 10.18 ERA)
Hector Santos (13-5, 2.60 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (18-4, 1.91 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-6, 2.68 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (18-8, 2.82 ERA)

McMullen is a left-hander, of course. Also, four of the CL’s top seven pitchers by ERA were going to show their craft in this series, and this did not include Toner, who would be in sixth place if he had the required number of innings. If he’d go at least 6.2 innings on Sunday, he would qualify at least temporarily for the ERA title.

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Sambrano – RF Richards – C Baca – P Brown
VAN: RF K. Evans – 3B Fellows – 1B Gilbert – C J. Martinez – 2B Lawrence – CF Petracek – LF Holland – SS Irvin – P Cabrera

This would probably be another one of those trying games. The Raccoons trying to figure out how to beat a beatable pitcher, and me back in Portland trying not to drink carbolic acid and walk off an open drawbridge. The Coons had two on with nobody out in the second inning after walks to Young and Sambrano, but Richards and Baca struck out in full counts, with Brownie striking out even before a full count. And I wasn’t going to blame Brownie here…

Brown had issued a walk to Mike Fellows in the first inning, but Ray ****ing Gilbert had hit into a double play, and Brown faced the minimum through four, with his turn coming up with Richards and Baca on second and first and no outs in the fourth. Bunting would probably not achieve much here, with Walter not exactly an RBI machine. He was told to swing, which was wrong as it turned out. Cabrera whiffed him, and then Walter singled, which only loaded the bases with one out for Nunley. Oh great, where’s the acid? Nunley lined out to Kurt Evans in right, but Richards made the dash for home and scored the first run of the game. McKnight flew out to deep right to strand another pair. Brown hit Jaylin Lawrence in the bottom 5th, but struck out Brian Petracek and Ross Holland to end the inning. His pitch count was getting up there quickly…

Brown reached 104 pitches in seven innings, issuing only another walk along the way. The Coons still couldn’t get a clue as to why Cabrera had been battered for 2.5-times the league average in earned runs in his five starts this season (he was coming back from injury, but had been rocked in ’15 already), and the score remained 1-0. It was the most horrendous, most horrible situation to be in. The top 8th saw three weak-ass grounders by the 3-4-5 batters against Cabrera. All were for outs.

Oberst von Lindenthal casually inquired to Brownie’s general state of consciousness as the anemic top 8th was in progress. Brown showed his teeth, indicating that biting was going to take place if anybody wanted to take the ball away from him. But… 104 pitches. With the next four, he walked the rookie Petracek. Holland bunted, but a pop by Irvin and a K to Steve Weisser on Brown’s 118th (!!) pitch ended that inning. The top 9th saw no runners against Aurelio Garcia, but Brownie had to appear on deck, hiding the game ball in his underwear to ensure nobody touched it. He was out there for the ninth inning, on 118 pitches, facing the top of the order in a 1-0 game. This was never going to work out… Pitches 119 and 120 were strikes to Kurt Evans, but then control evaded Brown and he walked him on four straight balls. Mike Fellows saw ball #5, then watched at a borderline pitch being called strike one. He gave the 1-1 a good whack up the leftfield line – foul. He gave the 1-2 as good a whack to left, but it bounced in front of Nunley, who made a bare-handed grab, zinged it to second, on to first – DOUBLE PLAY!!!!

Then the music stopped. The park fell dead silent. There was Ray Gilbert. The Coonkiller of the Year in 2011. 30 homers, 104 RBI. Right-handed batter. .977 OPS. Now, do we walk him? Brownie’s fingertips were blue already… Behind him was Jesus Martinez, batting .257 with two homers, but … but… but if the baseball gods really were going to give us this one, then we shouldn’t try to cheapen our way into it. This one had to be earned. Going the cheap route now would anger the baseball gods and Martinez would hit a walkoff homer. That’s how the game works. Oberst von Lindenthal went out there to feel Brown’s pulse, which resembled a jackhammer. As did mine as I was cowering on the couch at home in Portland, pressing my chocolate-smeared chin against my knees and rocking back and forth.

Nick Brown threw only one more pitch, his 129th of the game. Ray Gilbert didn’t get all of it, and sent a soft looper to right. Ron Richards was coming on leisurely, then saw that he had misjudged it and started to swing those paws harder and harder. He made a running catch. One instant later, Brownie was drowned in a huddle of teammates. 1-0 Brownies!!! Brown 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 9 K, W (14-8);

… and everybody! Three, four … OOOH HAP-PY DAAAY …! OH, HAPPY DA-A-A-AY!!

I also called Brownie in Vancouver after the game, but I don’t think he could comprehend just how happy I was. I cried way too much during the call.

Game 2
POR: RF Sambrano – SS Jones – LF Richards – 1B Young – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
VAN: RF K. Evans – 2B Lawrence – 1B Gilbert – C Little – 3B Fellows – LF Weisser – CF Rocha – SS Tellez – P S. McMullen

Tears of joy or not – the baseball season always moved on relentlessly and presented us with a Saturday afternoon family affair less than 16 hours after the final out had been logged by Ron Richards in last night’s no-hitter.

Not quite 16 hours later Hector Santos was unable to agree on a strike zone with the home plate official, walked three in the first three innings, including the first two batters he faced, but the Elks didn’t get the hard contact that Santos sometimes allowed and didn’t score. Santos also bunted into a double play to erase Margolis’ single in the third, leaving McMullen to see the minimum through three innings. Sambrano and Jones also made outs before the Coons loaded the bases with three soft singles in the top 4th, Richards, Young, and Duarte all reaching either with soft loops or with grounders that escaped just through the creases on the infield. That brought up Nunley, who almost struck out on a borderline call before drilling a 1-2 pitch to barely-fair right that happened to wrap around the inside of the foul pole. GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

The bat wasn’t all that there was to love on Matt Nunley however. There was also his delicious fish soup he occasionally fashioned in the clubhouse kitchen on off days, and of course the glove. When Santos opened the bottom 6th with a walk to Lawrence, Nunley not only leapt and spoiled Ray ****ing Gilbert’s liner, but also caught Lawrence 45 feet off first base and roped a throw over there in time for a double play. Santos would last only 6.1 innings before his ill control fired his pitch count over 100, ending his day with Mike Fellows grounding out in a full count. The Elks had only gotten a single hit off him, however. McMullen went eight for five hits and four runs, and the Elks only started swinging in the bottom 8th. Will West allowed a 1-out single to Martinez, and Evans bombed Sugano, 4-2, before Sugano walked Lawrence. On to Mathis with the sudden death entering the box, but Gilbert grounded to no man’s land between the mound and first base and Bergquist didn’t get a throw off in time – Gilbert hurt himself hustling, though. Regardless, the Elks had the tying runs on base, yet Mathis regained control with a K against Morgan Little, then ended the inning when Fellows grounded out to Bergquist.

The top 9th saw Dustin Burke allow a single to Howard Jones, then throw a wild pitch. With first base open, Young was walked intentionally after Richards had made the first out, and the Elks sent Pedro Alvarado to end the Critters’ shenanigans. We countered with R.J. DeWeese batting for Alex Duarte, and he got his third pinch-hit of the year, and his second pinch-hit homer, banging a brutal 3-piece to right! Alvarado walked Margolis, somehow, and Jason Bergquist beat Mario Rocha in center for an RBI double, giving the Critters their second 4-spot of the day.

But despite an 8-2 lead, the Raccoons managed to give the Elks the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 9th. One mistake was to bring in Gary Dupes, who got the first two outs on hard shots right at Howard Jones, but then imploded. The next three Elks reached base on him, and Kevin Beaver did nothing to diffuse the situation, allowing an RBI double to Lawrence and walking T.J. Hilderbrand. John Korb was the SEVENTH reliever for the Coons, but got a grounder to Jones on his second pitch to Morgan Little, ending the game. 8-4 Coons. DeWeese (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Nunley 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Santos 6.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (14-5);

Yup, SEVEN relievers for eight outs. Two retired nobody (Sugano, Beaver), and only two had perfect outings (Chun right after Santos, and Korb to notch another save). Well, at least we know that Gary Dupes will not be tendered another contract this fall.

Ray Gilbert (.335, 30 HR, 104 RBI) was out for the season with a groin strain. You don’t laugh at other people’s ailments, but I have cried more over other teams’ stars getting hurt.

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Sambrano – RF Richards – C McNeela – P Toner
VAN: LF Weisser – 2B Lawrence – C Little – RF K. Evans – CF Holland – 1B Hilderbrand – 3B Petracek – SS Irvin – P Ro. Taylor

Jonny was perfect the first time through the order, whiffing four, and also hit a single in the top 3rd that ended up involving him in Shane Walter’s double play grounder. While the Coons would have two on when McKnight walked and Young singled in the fourth, they still wouldn’t score, but the Elks got a head start to their half of the fourth when McNeela made a capital throwing error on Adam Weisser’s slow grounder that put Weisser on second base with nobody out. Although, honestly, where Weisser was didn’t matter as Lawrence banged a 2-run homer to center, and after that Jonny came apart at a rapid pace. Two of the next four reached, but instead of making it someway out of the inning against the bottom of the order he allowed an RBI double to Petracek, walked Irvin, and then allowed an RBI single to Rod Taylor. He hit Weisser to force in a run, then walked Lawrence to force in another – then was gone. Seung-mo Chun got Morgan Little to fly out to Richards to end the 6-run inning.

Needless to say, with Rod Taylor pitching, this game was over. He was maintaining a 3-hitter through six, while Chun at least got the Coons as far, but conceded a homer to Irvin in the bottom 6th to extend the score to 7-0. Taylor’s shutout bid didn’t end until the eighth. Nunley hit a 1-out double before DeWeese creamed a fastball for his 25th dinger of the season, but by then the cat was in the bag, and the bag was in the Fraser River. Taylor shrugged and retired another four Raccoons for a complete game 7-hitter. 7-2 Canadiens. Young 2-4; McNeela 2-2;

Oddly enough, five of the six runs on Toner were unearned, despite the bases being cleaned after the Lawrence homer.

The loss sealed consecutive losing seasons vs. the Elks, although this year (8-10) was not quite as bad as 2015 (5-13).

In other news

September 8 – The lead changes hand five times in the Knights’ wicked 12-11 win over the Thunder. ATL Jeffrey Walrath (.311, 8 HR, 39 RBI) homers twice and drives in five as the main contribution.
September 8 – With only five other games on the schedule, two of those end on first-pitch walkoff home runs. Indy’s SS Raul Matias (.265, 11 HR, 57 RBI) hits a bomb to beat the Crusaders, 4-3, while RIC OF/1B Jon Correa (.367, 1 HR, 8 RBI) hits a 2-piece to stave off defeat in the Rebels’ 10-inning, 5-4 victory over the Buffaloes. For Correa, 23, this is also the first career home run in the majors.
September 9 – Las Vegas’ Brian Benjamin (7-13, 3.83 ERA) and Manuel Reyes (6-4, 1.42 ERA, 33 SV) combine for a 1-hitter against the Bayhawks in a 5-2 win. The Bayhawks’ only hit is a 2-run homer by Dave Garcia (.263, 11 HR, 65 RBI) in the first inning.
September 9 – The Wolves get a single and four walks off Denver’s John Watson (5-7, 4.48 ERA, 37 SV) in the bottom of the ninth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 walkoff.
September 10 – NAS SP Joe Medina (12-13, 4.20 ERA) 3-hits the Cyclones in a 6-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Juan Berrios 1977 * Jason Turner 1989 * Manuel Movonda 1998 * Bob Joly 2000 * Jose Dominguez 2007 * Nick Brown 2016

We will arrange for an extra day off or two for Nick Brown after throwing 129 pitches on Friday. The minor league season will still be in progress when his next turn comes up on Wednesday, but John Korb might be good for another go.

But well. The open sore that Juichi Fujita left in 2010 is closed, Ray Gilbert has been banished as a foot note into *our* history books, and I think within another week or two I might regain a normal heartbeat.

Odd stat of the week: Tom McNeela had only 102 plate appearances (though some’d say that’s plenty enough…) this season, but managed to get hit by a pitch five times, ranking him second on the team behind DeWeese (13 HBP).

The Capitals were eliminated from the playoffs on Wednesday. Friday morning they had already cleaned house and canned their manager William Powers, who was in his fourth season with them, and their GM Rob Meeks, who had been doing the job over there for SIXTEEN years. Granted, the team made the playoffs just once in those sixteen years, but I know somebody with an even longer stretch with only one playoff showing.

Endlessly glad I have those photos…

I did lose a cup of coffee to getting cold in those last two innings, though…

[Questdog]

Oh my! A Brownie no-no! Awesomness!

I think, if he had not already, he has to have moved past the teacher's pet on the list of favorite furries.....

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Oh my! A Brownie no-no! Awesomness!

I think, if he had not already, he has to have moved past the teacher's pet on the list of favorite furries.....

That is a tough dilemma that I will weasel out of by stating that Brownie is our #1 pitcher of all time, and he's certainly had a better individual career than Mr. Hall, though Dan the Man is still our first overall draft pick, and he's the one who won the rings.

Nope, can't pick between those two. I can't even really pick between Daniel Hall and Neil Reece, so in fact I can't pick between those three.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (75-66) @ Loggers (59-84) – September 12-15, 2016

We had four games left with the as usual miserable Loggers, who were dead-last in runs allowed and had a -118 run differential by now. They had lost their last four games, and they had also lost 11 of 14 games with Portland this season. Fun fact: while the Coons were 8th in both batting average and OBP among CL teams, but ranked last in runs scored, the Loggers were last in AVG and OBP, but 7th in runs scored.

Projected matchups:
Chris Munroe (5-10, 3.48 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (13-8, 3.63 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (11-8, 3.34 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (9-16, 5.04 ERA)
John Korb (2-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. Carlos Michel (9-7, 4.41 ERA)
Hector Santos (14-5, 2.51 ERA) vs. Kurt Doyle (6-16, 5.15 ERA)

Michel is their sole left-handed starter. As expected, Nick Brown’s next start is pushed back to the weekend. His turn would have been on Wednesday.

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Sambrano – RF Richards – C Baca – P Munroe
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – 3B Landeros – CF Gore – 2B Best – P Cope

While the Raccoons had runners on the corners with one out in the top 1st only to have it end badly with McKnight getting doubled off on DeWeese’s liner to Mike Rucker, the Loggers took an instant 1-0 lead on Victor Hodgers’ home run to left center, and Munroe managed to tear an even bigger hole into the box score quite early, conceding a second run in the inning on Chris LeMoine’s double and Tony Delgado’s RBI single, and then in the second inning hit Brad Gore, threw away Brian Cope’s bunt, and allowed the third run of the game on Hodgers’ sac fly to left. Truth be told, Cope made the same throwing error in the top 3rd on Munroe’s bunt, putting him and Baca in scoring position with nobody out. Nunley’s sac fly and McKnight’s single scored two runs, but the result still left the Coons a run short and both teams nursed the resulting 3-2 Loggers lead to the sixth, where the Raccoons tied the game on Sandy Sambrano’s 2-out single to left, which scored DeWeese from third base, though in all fairness, that run was also donated due to a wild pitch by Cope earlier in the inning. The inning continued, however, with Sandy on first and Adam Young on second base after his own infield single, and Ron Richards ticketed a 2-0 pitch to center for a single. Young, with a flying start, scored, and the Coons held their first lead of the day, 4-3, extended to 7-3 when Alonso Baca crushed a 2-2 pitch in an all-or-nothing swing. He rolled ‘all’, a 350-footer to extreme rightfield.

The resulting 7-3 lead was less secure than it looked at first glance. Munroe made it through six and two thirds before Mike Rucker belted a solo homer to end his day. Will West came on, but was bombed by LeMoine for another homer right away – for both Rucker and LeMoine this was their 23rd homer of the season – before walking Delgado. With Ruben Landeros batting, Baca picked off an itching Delgado to end the inning, but West would just walk Landeros to start the eighth. Enough with this – bring Ron Thrasher! Unfortunately, Thrasher only made a bigger mess, allowing a single to Gore, then walking PH Zach Knowling, both left-handers. Thrasher would retire nobody. Instead he allowed a game-tying, 2-run double to Corey Martin, then walked Tim Pace hitting for Hodgers. Chris Mathis took over, got a double play grounder that nevertheless allowed the go-ahead run to score, and struck out Rucker to end the inning, but the Raccoons had successfully blown another sizeable lead. The Loggers’ idea of a closer was Dave Walk (2-5, 4.85 ERA in 55.2 IP, 23 BB, 38 K), who found himself in trouble quickly after walking Alex Duarte with one out and then allowed a double to Shane Walter, who was now the go-ahead run on second base for Nunley and McKnight. Both ran full counts and struck out. 8-7 Loggers. McKnight 2-5, RBI; Baca 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Yeah, Ron, you ****ing awesome closer. Get ****ed, ****er!

I honestly need to completely break down the bullpen and rebuild it from scratch for 2017, it’s been a continuous nightmare all year long…

Game 2
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Sambrano – RF Richards – C Baca – P Abe
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – 1B M. Rucker – LF LeMoine – C Delgado – CF Cooper – 3B Landeros – 2B Best – P McDonald

While Andrew Cooper started the game for the Loggers, he sprained his thumb on the first play of the game, a Shane Walter fly to center, and was most likely done for the season. He was replaced by Martin Sorto. The Loggers left Hodgers on third base in the first inning, in which he stole his 26th base of the season, but the real threat was in the second inning, which Delgado started with a leadoff double. At third with two outs, the Coons walked Steve Best intentionally, only for Jason McDonald to hit a liner to left for an RBI single. The Critters wouldn’t get a hit their first time through the order. In fact, their first two base runners were Matt Nunley, walking in both of his first two plate appearances. McKnight quickly got him forced on the latter occasion, but moved up to second on DeWeese’s grounder before Young hit a fly to deep center that Sorto couldn’t connect with. The ball was in for a double and McKnight scored, game tied at one for the moment, but a Sambrano single chased Young around to score as well, giving Portland the 2-1 advantage.

Both pitchers bunted into force plays on second base in the fifth inning. While Shane Walter killed the Coons with a double play grounder, the Loggers would get Hodgers on base with another force play before Rob Howell doubled past Ron Richards to allow the speedy Hodgers to score from first, 2-2. Rucker singled, Howell scored, Loggers in front again. Their lead didn’t live, either. While the Raccoons had chosen the intentional walk in the second inning, and it hadn’t worked, the Loggers did not choose the intentional walk in the seventh, and it didn’t work either. Sandy had stolen second base with one out, but Richards struck out in his typical useless fashion. Baca came up with Abe having just crossed 90 pitches in the bottom 6th. The Loggers chose to go with Baca despite the Raccoons’ bench being a who-is-who of baseball slasher movies, Baca singled to right, Sandy scored, and we were locked up at three. Abe batted for himself, ended the inning with a grounder to first, then started the bottom 7th only to allow a single to ****ing Jason McDonald again. When Knowling appeared to bat for Howell, Sugano was called on, but he conceded the run on a drive to center. A poor throw by Sambrano allowed Knowling to go to second base on top of McDonald scoring with the go-ahead run, but at least Sugano ended the inning with a K and a pop. To the top 9th, where Milwaukee’s closer of the day was Troy Charters (2-4, 3.34 ERA, 62 IP, 27 BB, 53 K), a right-hander that gave up a double to R.J. DeWeese right away. Young singled to move him to third, and he scored on Sandy’s sac fly to right, tied game. For Charters, hell was still in the process of freezing. Richards whiffed (…), but Baca singled, and when Howard Jones batted for Juan Gallegos he also managed to sneak a grounder through on the right side for a slow single that allowed Young to score from second base. Alex Duarte hit for Walter, who was 0-for-4 in the game and approximately 3-for-97 recently, ripped away at a 3-1 pitch by Charters and cranked it to deep right where Hodgers ran after it in vain – HOME RUN!!!

… and although the Loggers had removed both Rucker and LeMoine for defense, the Raccoons managed to get their fans excited in the bottom 9th, which they started up 8-4. Beaver got Hodgers on a pop before Knowling reached on a Howard Jones throwing error, and Paul Osterman (who??) walked. Eric Kingsley, batting cleanup, grounded to short to end the game before I could go completely mental, McKnight starting the 6-4-3. 8-4 Raccoons. Duarte (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Young 2-4, 2B, RBI; Sambrano 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Baca 3-4, RBI; Jones (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 3
POR: RF Sambrano – SS Jones – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B Young – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Korb
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – 1B M. Rucker – C Delgado – SS Howell – 3B Landeros – CF Gore – 2B Best – P Michel

Korb had only lasted 5.1 innings and had allowed all runs in a 4-3 win over the Scorpions in June in his first start of the season, but that had actually been enough for a W. One wondered how the Raccoons’ pen had pitched 3.2 innings without blowing a 1-run lead, but it was what it was. In the game at hand, the Loggers burned him for three runs (two earned) in the bottom of the third, which started with a Steve Best single to right, only for Michel to swing away and also single to right. That sent Loggers to the corners, and from here things went down steadily with a Hodgers double and a Duarte throwing error. Michel retired the first 11 Coons before Nunley hit a 2-out double in the fourth. DeWeese singled, and Duarte cashed both of them with a triple to left center. The Loggers countered with single runs in the next two innings to ruin Korb’s day for good. Rob Howell homered in the fourth, which was like getting salt rubbed in your eyes, and the Loggers exploited a Margolis throwing error to get another man across in the fifth and rebuilt their 3-run lead.

While the Coons did get the tying run to the plate eventually, they didn’t do so until they had two outs in the eighth, and then it was the King of K’s to bat with runners on the corners against a left-handed pitcher. Michel got a most obvious strikeout against DeWeese to turn away the charge, and they didn’t get another chance, even against Charters, the previous night’s victim, in the ninth. 5-2 Loggers. Nunley 2-4, 2B; Duarte 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Sugano 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

So, first career homer for Duarte on Tuesday, first triple on Wednesday – I think he’s ripe for a cycle on Thursday!

Game 4
POR: CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Santos
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – 1B M. Rucker – CF LeMoine – C Delgado – SS Howell – 3B Landeros – 2B J. Thompson – P Doyle

The Coons loaded the bases in the first inning for Adam Young to hit into a double play, while Rucker and LeMoine hit back-to-back bombs for the second time in the series, this time off Santos in the bottom of the first. While the Critters stranded pairs of runners in the third (DeWeese grounding out) and fourth (Santos grounding out), and hit into a double play to kill the fifth early on (Nunley…), the Loggers went to 3-0 on Santos when Doyle hit a 2-out RBI single in the bottom 5th. Top 6th, DeWeese led off with a single, Richards walked with one out, and again two were left stranded when Jones and Baca grounded out. Tony Delgado hit another homer off Santos in the seventh, running the Loggers’ lead to 4-0 despite them being out-hit 7-5. The game would fittingly end on a double play. Alonso Baca hit into that. 4-0 Loggers. Nunley 2-4; DeWeese 2-4;

I have successfully reached the point where I merely wish for the season to be over. Right now.

Raccoons (76-69) @ Bayhawks (82-64) – September 16-18, 2016

We returned to the Bay for the weekend, with the resident Hawks sitting one game out in the CL South and also one game shy of taken the season series, which stood 4-2 in their favor. They had the most runs scored in the Continental League with 714, but their pitching was not even league-average, putting them eighth in runs allowed, with the starting rotation dandling around in the bottom three in the league.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (8-7, 2.67 ERA) vs. William Raven (13-6, 4.32 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-8, 2.15 ERA) vs. Alex Maldonado (5-8, 4.99 ERA)
Chris Munroe (5-10, 3.51 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (7-4, 3.29 ERA)

The Birds were going to show us three right-handers. Heading into the series, Ron Alston (.343, 26 HR, 97 RBI) was officially listed as DTD with a tight back, but the Birds couldn’t really get away without playing him, despite an even bigger power threat in that lineup in 26-year old Chris Almanza (.281, 34 HR, 104 RBI).

Jonny Toner would have to pitch eight innings to qualify for the ERA race after even this game. Given his raucous performance last time out, I was not holding my breath at this point. I was much more eager to see Brownie’s start-after performance!

Game 1
POR: CF Duarte – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Baca – RF B. Johnson – P Toner
SFB: SS Ingraham – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF D. Garcia – LF Alston – RF Almanza – C D. Alexander – 1B McIntyre – 2B M. Robinson – P Raven

While the Bayhawks’ lineup held five batters with double-digit homers in the #3 through #7 slots, the Coons still hit a dinger first, with R.J. DeWeese’s 2-piece in the top of the first inning. Walter had singled and scored. Toner’s control was bad… He ran 3-ball counts to every batter in the second inning, resulting in a walk to Alston, but also two strikeouts and a groundout. Alston walked again in the bottom 4th, again to start the inning. This time it hurt, with Almanza hitting his 35th homer of the season to tie the score, and D-Alex hit one right after him to give San Francisco the lead with his 20th homer. And it would still get uglier. Toner walked Mike Robinson in the inning and then allowed a 2-run homer to Zach Ingraham, coincidentally giving the Bayhawks their sixth double-digit rocket launcher. His next eight pitches were all balls, and there we were again at Alston, who struck out. So, Jonny was through the fourth inning, richer by a 5-spot, although the poor sod sat in the dugout obviously not knowing what the **** had just happened.

But maybe victory could still be his. This sounded stupid, but Toner made it through the fifth inning without any base runners (which would have been instant death for him), then saw Nunley open the top 6th with an infield single and score on DeWeese’s triple to right – D wasn’t Almanza’s strong suit. McKnight’s sac fly brought the Critters to being only one run down. Young singled, Baca singled. Brandon Johnson grounded out, and the Bayhawks removed Raven for right-hander Clark Johnson. Ron Richards hit for Jonny Toner with runners in scoring position and two outs, *walked*, but of course Alex Duarte would fly out to Dave Garcia to end the inning with the bases loaded. So, no, victory wouldn’t be Jonny Toner’s, but the loss wouldn’t be, either. DeWeese took care of that, wonking his second homer of the day in the top 7th off Clark Johnson, casually reaching 11 total bases for the game, and since Nunley was on base, he gave the Raccoons a 6-5 lead, and Shane Walter added to the lead with a 2-out, 2-run double in the top 8th, plating Brandon Johnson and McNeela. Both runs were charged to Clark Johnson, who had walked Baca (who got forced by Johnson) and McNeela in the inning. In major news, Thrasher pitched a scoreless eighth rather than setting fire to a good lead, but Mathis in the ninth issued a leadoff walk to Dan Hoover in a full count. He ran another full count against Armando Chavez before Chavez struck out, with Hoover being thrown out at second base by Baca. DeWeese, clearly the man of the game, caught the last out, Javy Rodriguez’ fly to left. 8-5 Critters. Walter 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 3-5, 2 HR, 3B, 5 RBI; Chun 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (4-3);

Jonathan Toner has allowed 12 home runs all season. Five of those have come in the last three games. By now it is also not quite as important anymore whether he qualifies for the ERA title… The last two games have properly ruined our team result in that category.

Game 2
POR: 3B Walter – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – C Baca – 2B Jones – RF Richards – P Brown
SFB: LF Alston – 1B Eaton – CF D. Garcia – RF Almanza – C D. Alexander – 2B Ingraham – SS R. Miller – 3B J. Rodriguez – P Maldonado

Brownie’s no-hit bid for this week ended with Ryan Miller’s single in the second inning. At that point the Bayhawks had two on following a walk drawn by Ingraham, and Brown soon also walked Rodriguez to fill the bags with two outs and threatened a 1-0 lead given to him with a Howard Jones RBI single in the top of the inning. Maldonado however was among the worst-hitting pitchers in the league, batting .023 for the season, and softly bounced one to Brown to convert for an easy out at first base.

The Coons had a demanding scoring chance in the fifth inning. Jones had drawn a leadoff walk and Richards had singled to right. Almanza’s throw to third base had been poor, allowing Jones to walk in there and Richards to get to second. Brown was batting with no outs and hit a hard RBI single to center, 2-0, and Richards would score on Walter’s sac fly to make it 3-0, but the extra runs evaporated as quickly as they had appeared when Ron Alston singled and Pat Eaton homered to left in the bottom of the same inning, and Brown was completely dismantled in the sixth inning, in which nothing would work out anymore. D-Alex reached with an infield single, followed by two bloopers that fell in front of Richards. After a walk to Javy Rodriguez, Raul Claros singled as well, driving home the go-ahead run for the Bayhawks, and the bases were loaded with nobody out still. Brown was chased for Sugano, who struck out Alston, and Chun, who got a double play from Eaton, but the damage was still considerable and possibly fatal.

The Coons had no runners in the seventh against Jared D’Attilo, who remained in for the eighth, but allowed a leadoff double to Duarte, who was the tying run in a 4-3 game. Clark Johnson was back out again, which was a bit inexplicable given the next four Raccoons were all left-handed batters. McKnight singled on Johnson’s only pitch, prompting a (late?) pitching change to lefty G.G. Williams, the former Raccoons farmhand, who had a 3 K/BB against the fire-prone part of the lineup that was coming up. Oh heck, DeWeese had hit for 11 TB last night and had zero so far today, he was sure due for some! In a case of the glass not being quite half full nor half empty, DeWeese hit a 3-1 pitch to deep center, Garcia made the catch, but it was deep enough for Duarte to score and tie the game. That was as far as the music would play for the Raccoons; Young flew out, and Margolis hit for Baca, but popped out over the infield. Bottom 8th, Will West issued a leadoff walk to Ingraham, who was run for by Willie Ramos, who quickly took off. Margolis’ throw went to center, Ramos went to third, and we had a bit of a mess cooking. Miller grounded out to first, keeping the runner pinned. Beaver replaced West, prompting a right-hander to pinch-hit in form of Armando Chavez, who hit a 1-2 pitch for a double to left. Ethan Vasquez singled past McKnight to score Chavez, and the Raccoons were defeated. 6-4 Bayhawks. McKnight 2-4;

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Sambrano – C McNeela – RF Richards – P Munroe
SFB: 1B Eaton – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF D. Garcia – LF Alston – RF Almanza – C D. Alexander – SS Ingraham – 2B Claros – P C.K. Lee

Scoring started in the third inning. Following McNeela’s leadoff double the Coons made two outs before Walter singled to center to plate the runner. Nunley sent a drive to deep left, Alston didn’t get it, and Nunley upped the score to 2-0 with his double. McKnight hit an infield single to put runners on the corners for DeWeese, but DeWeese had hit for all the bases he could on Friday and struck out. The Birds’ only hit the first time through was a 1-out double by Chae-ku Lee in the bottom of the third, but he was left on third base by Eaton and Rodriguez. The Coons doubled their lead in the fourth when McNeela’s 2-out single to left was followed by a 2-run bomb by Ron Richards. All was well until the bottom 5th for Munroe. But then Raul Claros’ homer was followed by ANOTHER double for Lee, and this time Rodriguez got one past Young with two outs and plated Lee to get back to a more manageable 4-2 deficit for San Fran.

And somebody must have moved the fences in here… DeWeese hit a leadoff jack in the top 6th, 5-2, as the balls just kept popping over the fence. Munroe hit Alston in the bottom of the inning – actually the second time on the day he nailed Alston, who had only been hit three times the entire season before this game. The Bayhawks took objection. While nothing happened in the bottom 6th, Ron Richards was hit by Lee to start the seventh inning. That was certainly not a way to get me angry. Munroe bunted him over, and then Lee hit Walter. Maybe something was brewing here, and we certainly entered a part of the lineup where I did care about my players. For the moment, the escapade cost the Bayhawks another run on McKnight’s 2-out RBI single, 6-2, and Lee was removed for G.G. Williams after that. DeWeese grounded out to close the book on the top 7th.

Munroe didn’t get through the bottom of the inning. Walking Claros was a bad start to the inning, and he surrendered singles to Eaton and Garcia to allow a run to score and to bring up the tying run in Ron Alston, who was justifiably mad by now. Ron Thrasher was brought into the game to see after him, but walked him. The right-hander Almanza hacked himself out with the bases loaded, ending the inning with the Critters hanging onto a 6-3 lead. After an uneventful eighth inning, the Critters got their first two men on in the ninth with pinch-hit singles by Duarte and Jones, but Walter hit into a double play and Nunley popped out. The bottom 9th started with Will McIntyre pinch-hitting in the #9 slot. With two righties leading off, Mathis was assigned the inning, got McIntyre on a grounder, Eaton on a whiff, and Rodriguez rolled over to Young to end the game. 6-3 Coons. McKnight 2-4, RBI; McNeela 2-4, 2B; Richards 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Duarte (PH) 1-1; Jones (PH) 1-1; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 12 – A fractured thumb ends the season of Los Angeles’ Marc Thompson (.237, 7 HR, 47 RBI).
September 13 – Bayhawks and Condors both put up 15 hits to beat their respective opponents, the Knights and Thunder, by the same rare 11-2 score. The Bayhawks also homer four times in their game.
September 14 – 39-year old CIN RF/1B Juan Ortíz (.250, 7 HR, 25 RBI) reaches 2,500 career hits in a 7-6 loss to the Rebels. Pinch-hitting for Ricky Montalvo, Ortíz singles off the Rebels’ Dan Nordahl to reach the mark. Ortíz spent most of his career with the Blue Sox, winning the first of his three All Star selections and the FLCS MVP with them in 2005. He also has a Gold Glove and a Platinum Stick and has batted .275 with 356 HR and 1,464 RBI for his career, leading the Federal League in home runs in 2008.
September 14 – The Buffaloes rake the Capitals for eight runs on four homers by Todd Sanborn, Bill Adams, Jimmy Roberts, and Pedro Salas in the eighth inning. Unfortunately, they still fail to make up their 9-run deficit and lose, 13-12.
September 16 – DAL RF/CF Stephen St. George (.282, 9 HR, 56 RBI) tries to steal third base in the bottom of the 12th inning of the Stars’ game against the Rebels. Mat Saucier’s throw is wild and into leftfield, allowing St. George to scamper home on the walkoff error. The Stars win, 6-5.
September 17 – The season is over for WAS RF Victor Sarabia (.289, 5 HR, 39 RBI), who has suffered a badly broken ankle.
September 18 – 22-year old SAC RF/LF Pablo Sanchez (.329, 4 HR, 58 RBI) rocks the Capitals for five hits in the Scorpions’ 11-9 win, including two triples and a double. He drives in two and scores only once.

Complaints and stuff

We have reached last year’s win total with two weeks to spare, so chances are decent we will avoid another losing season, which would have started a streak. I worry about streaks of losing seasons. They scare me.

Nick Brown told me after the Saturday game that his consistently bad control was due to the long layoff between games. To be fair, I didn’t intend to give him three days off, but did for vanity reasons, wanting three Raccoons starters to finish near the top of the ERA leaderboard. This required Toner to start on Friday, though. Mind that there will be some double header complications coming next week, and I was worrying not getting Toner into the season finale if not starting him on Friday. So that’s why Brownie went from Friday to Saturday and that’s what hurt him throughout his entire start there.

And as usual, vanity killed, because not only was Santos thrashered by the Loggers on Thursday, but Toner suffered his second consecutive start from hell, so something’s clearly turning south with him. He’s had a very bad streak in last August, if I remember correctly, which I then attributed to abusing him early in the season. This year, his odometer isn’t very high up there, thanks to missing about six weeks due to injury, so maybe it’s just something with the moon phase or what do I – I’ve only done this job for 40 years, I can’t really know everything and anything…!

Never mind that Brownie also got shredded by the Bayhawks…

Why isn’t McNeela playing more often over Baca and Margolis? Because he’s around long enough to know that his current slash is fake. His career slash line is .251/.350/.330 in the majors, which is virtually identical with his AAA slash line of .249/.349/.337. Combined he has almost 2,900 plate appearances between the two levels, with close to 90% of those in AAA.

We have a double header on Monday, for which we will have two extra pitchers called up. Francisquo Bocanegra, 27, will make a start after going 11-12, with a 3.79 ERA in St. Pete this season, and we will also give a look to left-hander Nick Lester, 24. Lester was a ninth-rounder in 2011, and while his most impressive offering are his wild sideburns, he did have some success with a K rate of almost a full strikeout per inning pitched in AAA this year. Overall he went 2-6 with a 3.91 ERA and 4 SV. His main issue were 36 walks in 50.2 innings. Notably, Jeff Magnotta will NOT be called up anymore this season, but with the minor league season ending on this weekend, we also bring back Danny Ochoa, who did quite well for himself in the majors this season, but was squeezed out of a job due to too many left-handed bats in the clubhouse.

Jimmy Oatmeal hit his 30th homer on Friday. Who would have thought?

[Westheim]

Raccoons (78-70) vs. Falcons (66-82) – September 19-21, 2016

This was a 4-game set against the Falcons, who had not won any of the previous five games with the Raccoons this season. The series would start with a double header, for the first game of which the Falcons would be the home team as it had been rained out over in Charlotte earlier in the season. The Falcons were second-worst to the Loggers in terms of runs allowed, with the worst rotation overall. Their offense had them sixth in runs scored, and their run differential was just below negative triple digits at -94.

Projected matchups:
Francisquo Bocanegra (0-0) vs. Ron Carter (9-14, 4.75 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (11-8, 3.42 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (3-5, 5.48 ERA)
Hector Santos (14-6, 2.60 ERA) vs. Bobby Guerrero (13-12, 4.68 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-7, 2.90 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (12-10, 3.01 ERA)

All four pitchers are right-handers, unless they come up with somebody else to make a spot start.

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Duarte – C McNeela – RF Sambrano – P Bocanegra
CHA: 3B Pellot – CF Benson – RF Feldmann – C Holliman – 1B Quebell – 2B O. Sandoval – LF Mazur – SS Bowers – P R. Carter

The Coons got Nunley and McKnight on with singles, DeWeese walked to fill the bags, and Young hit into a double play to end the first inning, the utter turd. After that, out of the blue, a pitching duel broke out. No runner reached third base anymore through the fifth inning, and there were only three more hits until then, two of those by the Falcons off an otherwise spotless Bocanegra, whose downfall would come in the sixth inning. Alfonso Pellot hit a 1-out single to center and moved up to second base on Travis Benson’s grounder. With two outs and a 1-2 count on Ryan Feldmann, Bocanegra threw not one, but two wild pitches to plate Pellot and give the Falcons a 1-0 lead. Feldmann ended up walking, stole a base, and Ryan Holliman almost would have turned an 0-2 count into another walk, but grounded out to short at 3-2 to end the inning. Bocanegra’s day ended after a 1-out double by Oscar Sandoval in the seventh. Chris Mathis replaced him and completely borked the game by allowing a 2-out pinch-hit single to Troy Mugan to plate Sandoval AND an RBI double to Ron Carter after that. While the Raccoons did nothing to perhaps entertain their own fans that were stupid enough to pay for this farce, they instead sent Gary Dupes to pitch in the bottom 8th, which resulted in a leadoff double by Benson, and then two walks to load the bases. All runs scored against Kevin Beaver, and the fans had enough of the double header after only the first leg. 6-0 Falcons. DeWeese 2-3, BB;

Game 2
CHA: 2B Bowers – CF Huibregtse – RF Feldmann – 1B Quebell – LF Benson – 3B Moran – C M. Roberts – SS P. Hall – P Durr
POR: 3B Nunley – 1B Jones – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – RF Ochoa – C Baca – 2B Bergquist – P Abe

While Tadasu Abe sat down the first ten Falcons before Steve Huibregtse’s single (which ended up negated by Feldmann’s grounder to short that McKnight turned into a double play) in the fourth inning, the Coons scored runs on Denzel Durr in all of the first four innings. DeWeese found runners on the corners in the first and hit a single to left that plated Matt Nunley outright while Howard Jones scored on Feldmann’s throwing error. The score was stretched to 4-0 by Nunley’s 2-out RBI double in the second and Baca’s 2-out RBI single in the third. Matt Nunley’s 1-out solo jack in the fourth broke the camel’s back – the Falcons yanked Durr, who had still struck out five in 3.1 innings. The Coons would continue scoring for another inning when DeWeese hit a solo homer off Johnny Watson in the fifth, but the middle innings saw Abe struggling mightily. The Falcons whacked him for three hits, including two doubles, and two runs in the top of the fifth, and he also had men on the corners in the sixth before getting strike three past Benson. Ronnie McKnight made a rare error in the seventh inning, bobbling the grounder of leadoff man Allan Moran, but Bergquist started a double play on Mathew Roberts to erase the runner, which helped Abe to finish seven innings.

And again the pen popped up and immediately the entire game turned into a complete mess. Now it was Gallegos, who started the eighth with a 6-2 lead, and in four batters issued two walks and Huibregtse triple. Ron Thrasher inherited a 6-3 game with one out and runners on the corners, facing Adrian Quebell (.281, 16 HR, 80 RBI) as the tying run. Pitch to contact, Ron! He’ll hit into a double play! – Yeah, like **** he will. Quebell singled hard to right, 6-4, runners still on the corners, with a Dave Carter single and Thrasher walking Jose Jimenez producing a 6-5 game and the bases being loaded. Roberts hitting hard into a double play was all that saved Thrasher’s puny tail. The ninth was even worse. Thrasher hit Paul Hall with the first pitch of the inning to put the tying run on base, and with one out Tom Bowers reached on Jones’ error. That put runners on the corners, and with Oscar Sandoval pinch-hitting – a right-hander – desperation reached a high point and Thrasher was yanked for John Korb. Sandoval bounced back to the pitcher, with Korb nipping Bowers on second base while Hall held at third. Feldmann struck out. 6-5 Blighters. Nunley 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (12-8); Korb 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (5);

What do you say, Ron? How about John Korb being our new closer going forward and you WASH HIS ****ING SOCKS???

This was the seventh error of the season for McKnight – a career-high! Granted, this is only his second full season, but he only made six in 2015. In 2,303.2 total innings at short (which includes his cups of coffee with Cincy) he has made 14 errors.

Game 3
CHA: 2B Bowers – 3B Moran – C Holliman – 1B Quebell – CF Pearcy – RF Mugan – LF J. Jimenez – SS P. Hall – P B. Guerrero
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B Young – RF Richards – C Baca – P Santos

There was the double play that everybody was waiting for Quebell to hit into! After Santos’ wild throw to second base (and beyond) had put Ryan Holliman on base in addition to Allan Moran in the first inning, Quebell reliably grounded into a two-for-one to Sandy Sambrano, who had seen his share of misery with the now-Falcon over the years. Quebell was also instrumental in loading the bases with Critters in the bottom 1st, botching a Nunley grounder for his ninth error of the season. The first three all reached base on a walk, error, and single, respectively. The Coons ended up scoring only two despite another Quebell error, who dropped a foul pop by Duarte after DeWeese’s run-scoring groundout (for his 90th RBI). While Duarte didn’t get on base, Adam Young hit an outrageous RBI single, posing as a useful ballplayer. Doing everything in pairs apparently, Quebell hit into another double play in the fourth, then also erasing Holliman and his leadoff single. DeWeese also made an error in the fifth inning, giving each team two for the game, but since nobody was hitting all that much, the score remained 2-0 Coons for the time being.

The Critters would get runners onto the corners with no outs, however, in the bottom of the sixth inning. Duarte and Young hit a pair of singles, setting up Ron Richards for bad things to happen. Before Richards got a chance to fudge up, Guerrero hit him with the first pitch, filling them up for Baca instead. Guerrero’s line would explode in this inning, the Coons settling him with five more runs, all earned, as Baca hit an RBI single and Santos hit a fly to deep-enough left for a sac fly. While Sandy lined out to center for the second out, Nunley and McKnight hit singles to plate three more, the latter doing so against reliever Art Cox, who then choked DeWeese to end the inning with a 7-0 deficit.

The top 7th started innocently enough with Erik Pearcy reaching on an infield single. Santos collapsed instantly, though, allowing a hard single to Mugan and then a 2-run double to Jimenez. Although the tying run was still at breakfast for the Falcons, with the pen of horrors the Coons had concocted even a 7-2 game was far from a safe affair. At least Seung-mo Chun stranded Jimenez on third base, so it remained 7-2 for the time being. Chun also struck out Moran at the start of the top 8th, but then left with an injury and the Raccoons immediately started to leak out of their newly-torn hole. Will West put two out of three men he faced on base – as usual – and it was up to Sugano to deal with the switch-hitter Mugan, who was batting a glorious .203 (but had come to Portland batting .198). Mugan hit a hard RBI single before Jimenez’ looper was spoiled by Duarte in shallow center with no regards for personal safety, ending the inning. Somehow, nobody knew how, Juan Gallegos would pitch a scoreless ninth, allowing only one hit to the Falcons. 7-3 Coons. Sambrano 2-4, BB; McKnight 2-5, 2 RBI; Duarte 2-4; Young 3-4, RBI; Walter 1-1; Santos 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (15-6);

We have never won eight games in a season from the Falcons, so this is the chance to do that at least once in 40 years. (this is eight games in the regular season or overall; we have never faced them in the CLCS)

Game 4
CHA: 3B Pellot – 2B Bowers – RF Feldmann – 1B Quebell – LF Benson – CF J. Jimenez – C M. Roberts – SS J. Estrada – P P. Sanchez
POR: 3B Nunley – RF Ochoa – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B Young – 2B Jones – C McNeela – P Toner

The first saw Toner issuing a leadoff walk before a rapidly decomposing McKnight first turned a double play, then put Feldmann on with a missed grab that netted him an error. Shenanigans here, calamity there, the Coons scored first with some fine 2-out terror in the bottom 1st as McKnight singled, DeWeese doubled, and Duarte singled, plating two in total. The recently struggling Toner was far from fine and had another loooong second inning, and overall needed 84 pitches to get through five innings, including three walks while missing generously and every which way at various times. But at least he allowed only two hits and whiffed seven at the same time, which kept the Falcons shut out, and also hit an RBI single in the second inning in which the Coons’ lead grew to 4-0.

All the work went up in a puff of smoke in the top of the sixth. Feldmann, Quebell, and Benson rapped three singles in quick succession to start the inning, putting a run on the board and the tying run at home plate. Toner remembered a pitching lesson from Oberst von Lindenthal; shoveling a trench with his cleats, he took up a defensive position on the military crest of the mound, then threw pitches like one would throw a hand grenade. Jimenez, Roberts, and Juan Estrada were completely befuddled – all struck out. At almost 110 pitches, Toner clearly stated that he had nothing left when he reached the dugout, and we got the pen of horrors stirring. Nick Lester in his major league debut and Will West both got out the two batters they were assigned, before we turned to Kevin Beaver in bold hopes for a 5-out save against the #4 through #8 hitters, which included three lefties and two switch bats. Quebell flew out to DEEP center, and Benson grounded out HARD to Nunley, so at least the results were encouraging, even though the process of getting there was not – but that got better in the ninth. The Falcons ceased threatening and Beaver ended the game on two soft grounders and a K. 4-1 Coons. Nunley 2-3, BB; DeWeese 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Duarte 2-4, 2B, RBI; Toner 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, W (9-7) and 1-1, BB, RBI;

This was only Jonny Toner’s second RBI of the season, and the first one not coming on a home run, which is quite amazing when you consider that he’s probably the best-hitting pitcher we’ve ever had.

Despite the W in this game, the Raccoons were eliminated from playoff contention mathematically on this day as the Crusaders beat the Thunder, 4-2. Their magic number on the Indians and Elks was both one at this point, and they had the chance to clinch the North while they alone stood in the spotlight, facing the Titans in a makeup game on Thursday with the rest of the division idle.

In the event, Fernando Cruz exploded, the Titans romped them 11-2, but this could merely delay things.

Raccoons (81-71) vs. Indians (82-70) – September 23-25, 2016

We’d play for first clown’s honors (with the Elks still in the mix) in the North. Entering the series, the Indians had the worst offense in baseball, with the Coons momentarily 10th in the CL, but the difference was not overwhelming. They were giving up the least runs as well, with a +27 run differential (which arguably isn’t enough to make October), a category in which the Raccoons’ recent violent bullpen flare-ups had dropped them to third in the CL, but the difference here was also marginal and in single digits.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (14-8, 2.27 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (10-10, 3.23 ERA)
Chris Munroe (6-10, 3.53 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (15-13, 3.52 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (12-8, 3.39 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (5-8, 3.40 ERA)

There was Tom Weise! He had been suspiciously absent from the Indians’ last two series with the Coons, but he would not match up with Brownie, which always seemed to happen on these occasions. Lamb would be a southpaw on Sunday, but the Indians have extra pitching everywhere, so maybe there will be a change along the way.

The Coons had a diagnosis on Seung-mo Chun, who had a mildly tweaked ankle and was best held out of the weekend’s slate of games, although he was only listed as DTD and could be used if things got tough in a 19th inning or so…

Please no 19 innings, please no 19 innings, please no 19 –

Game 1
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – SS Matias – C Denny – RF Gilmor – 3B Tolwith – P Lambert
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B A. Young – C Baca – RF Richards – P Brown

Dark clouds overhead, though no rain in the forecast.

McKnight made his third error of the week in the third inning on Friday, putting Brownie’s old buddy Aaron Tolwith on base. Nunley helped out by playing Lambert’s bunt for a force at second base, the Indians didn’t score, and they had had better chances earlier with Santiago Guerra’s leadoff double in the second inning which never saw him move on to third base. The Coons would score first, getting Richards on with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd. Brown bunted him over and Walter hit a looping double to the rightfield corner to score him for the first run of the game. Walter came home after a Nunley single and on McKnight’s sac fly, 2-0. Then Young fudged a perfectly good throw by McKnight in the fourth – that one putting Guerra on with one out. Raul Matias singled, putting the tying runs on the corners, and the ship went down, although DeWeese spoiled Mike Denny’s drive to left. While Guerra scored an unearned run, things looked like they were getting better, until Brown came back to walk a pair to load the bases, then actually balked in the tying run.

Adam Young sure had **** to make good. He started not too badly in the bottom 4th. Finding Duarte on first base after a leadoff single, Young hit a liner that split John Wilson and Nick Gilmor and made it to the wall for an RBI triple, giving the Coons a new lead. Baca singled to score him, 4-2, and after Richards rolled out to Jong-beom Kym, Brownie walked and Walter singled to load them up for Nunley, who hit right into a double play.

And sure it started to rain in the top of the fifth just after Wilson’s 1-out infield single. Kym popped out at 3-1, and Guerra also popped up on a 1-1 pitch to end the inning, qualifying Nick Brown for the W should inferno break lose – never an impossibility in Portland. The Coons loaded the bases again in a drizzle in the bottom 5th as McKnight, Duarte, and Young all hit singles off Lambert, who had allowed 11 hits and a walk by now and was still hanging on somehow. Baca and Richards both walked in full counts to break him for good, and while Brown’s pitch count was already up there, he batted for himself because even a confused Brownie was better than any piece of our pen by now. Just as Jason Clements struck him out, the game was sent to a delay by intensifying rain and remained there for 45 minutes, ending Brownie’s day on the mound. John Korb inherited the 6-2 lead when the biggest storm had passed and pitched a perfect sixth inning, but Nunley’s throwing error quickly derailed him in the seventh, putting Tolwith on base for the second time in the contest. Sugano eventually got three outs on a K to Josh Baker and a double play from Wilson. Kym hit a leadoff single off Mathis in the eighth, but was left on third base (where the Coons had left a man in the bottom 7th), and the ninth was to be started at least by Nick Lester. He also finished the game, retiring Nick Gilmor, Tolwith, and Danny Young in order. 6-2 Brownies. Walter 2-5, 2B, RBI; Duarte 2-3, RBI; Young 4-4, 3B, RBI; Brown 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (15-8);

Ronnie, you breaking in a glove or something? Did you sear your paw on the frying pan? Lost your contacts? WHAT THE **** IS IT???

This W and an Elks loss through all three teams involved into a tie for second place. The Crusaders won to clinch the division, but the last nine games could become fun after all…!

Game 2
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Denny – SS Matias – 3B Tolwith – P Weise
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B A. Young – C Baca – RF Richards – P Munroe

Baker singled, Wilson homered, and the Indians were up 2-0 before I had even made myself comfy on my couch. While Munroe drove in a run in the bottom 2nd with a 2-out single to right, he continued to struggle on the mound and almost all the time had an Indian lying in ambush on a base, just waiting for a chance to fire an arrow into his cap. The Coons’ offense was sabotaged successfully by Young, who had had four hits on Friday, but by the fifth inning had stranded four with a pair of 2-out, 2-on strikeouts. While Munroe kept struggling, the Indians didn’t score anymore against him.

The bottom 6th saw Baca and Richards on the corners after opening the inning with singles. A worked-up Munroe was hit for by Howard Jones, whose floater to shallow right center fell in front of both Wilson and Gilmor and tied the game, but Walter’s double play and Nunley’s grounder to Kym ended the inning still in a tie. Young batted again with only one man on base, but two outs in the bottom 7th and grounded out to short. Tom Weise was still pitching in the bottom 8th and allowed a 1-out single to Richards. Ochoa pinch-hit, having gone 0-for-9 since his callup, but singled to center, and a wild pitch by Weise moved the runners out of conventional double play positions. But neither Walter nor Nunley got the ****ing ball out of the infield, both were retired on grounders, and the runners were stranded… Mike Denny’s home run off Gallegos broke the tie in the top of the ninth inning, with Jarrod Morrison allowing a leadoff double to McKnight in the bottom 9th. DeWeese grounded to the right side, but was narrowly out on first base, with McKnight moving the tying run to third base. Duarte struck out, and the honor of the final out in a complete cluster**** was on Young, who bounced to Steve Dykstra at second base to end the game. 3-2 Indians. Duarte 3-4, BB; Richards 2-4; Jones (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1;

Coons had a dozen hits, Indians had five. 0-for-5, 2 K, 7 LOB. Adam Young – of no use alive. Perhaps if I turned him into boots……. Nah, the loser wouldn’t even hold warm.

No Kyle Lamb on Sunday, but rather righty Josh Riley (14-12, 4.67 ERA) …:

Game 3
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Denny – SS Mathews – 3B Tolwith – P Riley
POR: 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Ochoa – 2B Walter – 1B Sambrano – C Margolis – P Abe

The Critters opened the first with three straight singles to set up DeWeese, who drove Riley’s third pitch to deep right center – forget it! GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

And that was already all there was to the game. The Indians, blitzed, didn’t know how to react and when they had collected themselves, Abe was five innings into a 2-hit shutout. The Coons would continue to pour out hits against Riley, but consistently and with great endurance stranded three sets of two between the second and sixth innings without ever scoring again. The game was by no means in the bag, but when another run came across home plate, it was half on both teams, but counted for the Critters. Ochoa had reached with a 1-out double in the bottom 7th and was still there after Walter had popped out. Sambrano also popped to shallow left, but Baker didn’t get it. Ochoa was dashing with two down, and Baker’s throw was rushed and outright pathetic – Ochoa scored handily. A Kym error brought up Abe, who had already a hit on his ledger in the game and rapped another one to left, plating Sandy from third base, 6-0. He now had two hits, or in other words as many as the Indians combined after seven innings. By the bottom 8th they were also on three errors, following Tolwith’s second in the game that put Howard Jones on base. Matt Stubbs hit for Ochoa against lefty ex-Coon Ed Bryan and hit a triple to right to score Jones. Abe faced the top of the order in the ninth, entering on 90 pitches. He allowed a leadoff single to Apasyu Britton, then walked John Wilson. Kym grounded hard to third, but Nunley was watching and started a 5-4-3 double play that left Britton on third with Guerra batting. The count ran full, Guerra struck out, and Abe had a shutout. 7-0 Coons. Nunley 2-5; DeWeese 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Ochoa 2-4, 2B; Stubbs (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; Abe 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (13-8) and 2-3, RBI;

Abe’s second complete game is his first career shutout.

In other news

September 21 – 38 years old, RIC MR Iemitsu Rin (5-2, 2.86 ERA, 2 SV) records his 400th career save in a 2-1 win over the Scorpions. The Japanese lefty, twice Reliever of the Year and four times a World Series champion (2007-10 with NYC (3) and CIN), is 67-56 with a 2.14 ERA for his career, which was spent mostly in the CL North with the Indians, Crusaders, and Titans.
September 22 – The Loggers not only blow their 5-4 lead over the Aces in the ninth inning, but actually allow seven runs to them to get drowned out at home, 11-5.
September 23 – SFW LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.323, 18 HR, 100 RBI) knocks four hits in the Warriors’ 7-6 loss to the Gold Sox and reaches the 2,000 hits mark. The 33-year old hits a single with two outs in the ninth against John Watson to reach the milestone, but can’t incite a comeback for his team. Morales is a career .329 batter with 268 HR and 1,083 RBI. He was an All Star ten times, Player of the Year three times, won two batting titles and led the league in slugging three times.
September 25 – Hector Garcia (.308, 13 HR, 83 RBI), long-tenured infielder for the just-eliminated Stars, breaks his hand sliding into a base and will miss the rest of the season.

Complaints and stuff

Tadasu Abe also was Player of the Week in the CL after two strong starts. He ended up 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA and 14 K in 16 IP this week. So, how about ROTY for him? That would give us three ROTY winners in a row! Who is the only other pitcher with a qualifying number of innings? Chris Munroe! Heard of that chap already… The only serious batting competition seems to be the Loggers’ Chris LeMoine (.267, 25 HR, 67 RBI). Hum, that could be close…

Brownie notched us a winning season on Friday, which is calming to know. No *streak* developing.

Overall I am not too worried about Toner putting up three starts between dismal and so-so in a row. After all, I have pronounced Nick Brown dead about 17 times in the last five years and he still has a shot at the ERA title and just spun a no-hitter at the ****ing Elks. I obviously know NOTHING about pitching. Which is still more than I know about hitting.

I said this week that the CLCS has never featured the Coons and Falcons. These two teams have produced winning seasons in the same year only SIX times: 1985-87, 1996, and 2007-08, the latter two years being the Coons finally emerging from the cellar, but not quite there, while the Falcons had their two most recent (and the last two of four consecutive) playoff appearances. They have not put up a winning record since then.

But we’re both not historically bad teams. The Coons are .509 all-time, and the Falcons .501 all-time. We just never were good at the same time.

Elsewhere, Yoshi Nomura (.345, 5 HR, 64 RBI) will miss the last week of the season with a herniated disc. He could still win the batting title in absentia if Dallas’ Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza collapses and drops five points of average. I miss Yoshi… he has 1,830 career hits and will be 33 on Opening Day so 3,000 are unlikely. He’s also never had 160 in a single season. Lots of 140’s and up 159 with the Capitals, but never 160.

The Coons can still pick up their 3,300th regular season win this season if they win three games in the last week, facing the Crusaders (in New York) and Titans. The last series will be at home, will be thoroughly meaningless, and we’ll have Ron Richards bobbleheads on Saturday that some smart soul ordered in April and I have tried to set fire to them repeatedly since then.

No Maud, it’s not personal. At least not with you. Stop crying now. Please. Please stop crying.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (83-72) @ Crusaders (95-60) – September 26-29, 2016

Well, in all the misery we are in, burst bubbles and deflated hopes and all, at least we beat the Crusaders over as many games as we had control over – regardless of the course of this 4-game set. The Coons had taken ten of the season’s 14 games with the Crusaders, it just had been every other team they couldn’t beat. The Crusaders were third in runs scored, pumping them out after starting the season really slow in that regard, and first in runs allowed, with a top three rotation and the outright best bullpen.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (15-6, 2.61 ERA) vs. Albert Lorusso (12-11, 3.61 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-7, 2.84 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (15-12, 3.49 ERA)
Nick Brown (15-8, 2.22 ERA) vs. Doug Thompson (10-8, 3.98 ERA)
Chris Munroe (6-10, 3.51 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (16-6, 2.84 ERA)

The series starts with us facing two left-handers, ahead of two right-handers. These might be the last left-handers we get this season, since we might not get to see Boston’s Kevin Poisson on the weekend.

Game 1
POR: RF Sambrano – 3B Walter – 2B H. Jones – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Margolis – P Santos
NYC: RF W. Bailey – SS Paull – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – CF W. Jones – C Lowe – 2B Casillas – 3B Rivas – P Lorusso

Santos showed bad control AND allowed fat contact, which was not something that mixed well with the lineup at hand. Although a few key pieces (like Francisco Caraballo) were absent from the Crusaders’ order, they immediately showed him who was boss with a Will Bailey double and an Eric Paull homer to start their first inning at the bat. The first three innings were an entirely muddled mess for Santos, who allowed another run on a Martin Ortíz double in the third before somewhat settling in and making it through six innings. Although he allowed leadoff singles to Ortíz and B.J. Manfull in the bottom 6th, he came back with three straight strikeouts to end a messy day – bound for a loss – on a high note. The Raccoons had been mostly idle against Lorusso, managing to get to even second base in only two innings, and they had scored only once on a rare enough Young double to right. Young hit another one of those into the same rightfield corner to lead off the top 7th, but the power train stopped right there. Instead, the Crusaders small-balled Juan Gallegos for a run in the bottom of the inning, and also scored a run on Nick Lester in the eighth. Ronnie McKnight’s homer off Helio Maggessi in the ninth was not even window dressing. 5-2 Crusaders. Young 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

Almost by surprise, the Druid declared Juan Medina healthy on Tuesday morning. If nobody remembers the 32-year old outfielder: he had been consigned to the 60-day DL after tearing his labrum on June 4, batting .271/.314/.344 for the Coons in 39 games (21 starts). He will be arbitration-eligible twice more, but even his switch bat might not be enough to keep him around with the emergence of Alex Duarte.

If I sound less than enthusiastic … yes, I would have preferred Cookie.

Game 2
POR: RF Sambrano – SS H. Jones – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B Young – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Toner
NYC: RF W. Bailey – SS Paull – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – CF W. Jones – C Lowe – 2B J. Ortega – 3B Rivas – P F. Cruz

Jonny sat 13 innings shy of a qualifying number of those for the season (although he had no chance to win anything, it was still a goal to reach for in a mess of a season), but his inexplicable struggles stretched on. He hit Eric Paull in the first inning, and by the fifth sat on three plunked batters. The Coons had taken a 1-0 lead in the second when Margolis had singled home DeWeese – only Margolis’ 14th RBI of the season – but Toner managed to ruin that tender lead in the bottom 5th. First he allowed a 1-out double on a 2-2 pitch to Cruz, then hit Paull again. Martin Ortíz was not to be fooled easily and hit a drive to left that banged off the wall for a 2-run double, flipping the score in New York’s favor, 2-1.

Bergquist had even worse production than Margolis this season, with only eight RBI heading into the game, maybe his last start for the Raccoons that were very tired of him. He found Duarte and Margolis on the corners in the top 7th after both had walked, with one out. While Cruz had shown a tendency to throw the ball in the dirt in the inning, also adding a wild pitch, Bergquist showed no patience and grounded to short. Paull to Ortega, to Manfull – yet Bergquist was safe. Legging out the return throw allowed Duarte to score the tying run. Toner would walk to move Bergquist to second, and the decomposing Cruz allowed RBI singles to both Sambrano and Howard Jones, and while Nunley made the third out in the inning, the Coons got another run off Alex Ramirez in the eighth, in which Duarte reached on a 1-out walk, made it to second for a stolen base when Adam Young fell asleep in a hit-and-run (after DeWeese had just been caught in an actual steal attempt), advanced on a grounder and scored on a wild pitch. But no 5-2 lead was safe. Paull singled off Toner to start the bottom 8th, and he then drilled Ortíz – his fourth hit batter on the day. Ron Thrasher came out with the tying run already at the plate, which was just begging for pain to be inflicted, yet the Crusaders allowed themselves to be retired on three groundouts (without scoring a run) and on just six pitches. Thrasher struck out Jorge Ortega at the start of the bottom 9th, than yielded for Chun with right-handers approaching. Unfortunately both Alex Rivas and Jim Brulhart singled, and panic rose anew. Sugano struck out Bailey, then got a grounder from Paull to Sambrano at second, only with the issue that the ball was too slow to be turned into the final out, Paull was safe and the bags were full for the winning run, merely Martin Ortíz, the player of his generation. A battle over nine pitches broke out in which the count ran full, the runners were in position, and Ortíz couldn’t find Sugano’s breaking stuff at the ninth pitch. 5-2 Coons. Ochoa (PH) 1-1; Duarte 0-1, 3 BB; Margolis 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Baca 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (10-7); Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B Young – RF Ochoa – 3B Nunley – C Baca – LF Richards – P Brown
NYC: 2B Salinas – SS Paull – LF M. Ortíz – RF W. Jones – 3B Rivas – C Durango – 1B Bailey – CF Hedglin – P D. Thompson

Brownie’s last one for ’16 saw him with less-than-slim chances for the ERA title. Even if he pitched a shutout, he would still require Sam McMullen to get blown out of the park in his last start later in the week.

In the event, Brownie had an RBI before he ever had a K in the game, but still was on shutout pace, plating Alonso Baca from third base with two outs in the top 4th, hitting a single to center. That put him and the rest of the Critters up 2-0, but both runs had been aided kindly by the Crusaders, who had allowed the first run with a Miguel Salinas error to put Walter on base leading off the top 3rd, and Thompson had thrown a wild pitch to get Baca to third base in the first place. Duarte would hit leadoff triple in the fifth, McKnight walked, and then they were left right there on three consecutive shallow fly outs. Brownie also got a walk onto his ledger before K’ing anybody, giving a free pass to Nick Hedglin with two outs in the fifth, also moving Will Bailey to second base. Thankfully, the pitcher came up and this time Thompson struck out.

The seventh inning would be the one that would make you want to quit baseball once and for all – once again. The Crusaders had already gotten a run in the bottom 6th on a remarkable Salinas homer. Remarkable, since he really wasn’t high on the power chart for them. The top 7th saw leadoff singles by Walter and Duarte before McKnight lined into a double play. While the Critters still got a run on Young single, the bottom 7th became the ultimate cluster****. Brown started off by hitting Rivas. McKnight didn’t help anybody’s case except the Crusaders’ when he made his fourth error in ten days on a grounder by Bailey, and after that Brown was beaten by three straight soft singles, including one by ****ing Doug Thompson, that put him 4-3 behind. Chris Mathis appeared to face Paull, got to see Manfull instead, and two pitches later it was 7-3 Crusaders. Mathis went on to hit Ortíz (and although I was kind of hoping for it, none of the Crusaders took an interest in smashing his useless skull) and threw a wild pitch, but failed in his blatant attempt to do even more damage. 7-3 Crusaders. Duarte 3-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Young 2-4, BB, 2 RBI;

Ron Richards sprained his elbow in this game on a late defensive action and will be out for the last four games. Not that I am crying all that hard.

Game 4
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Ochoa – CF Medina – C Baca – P Munroe
NYC: RF Bailey – 2B Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – CF W. Jones – C Lowe – SS Paull – 3B Rivas – P J. Martin

Munroe got clobbered early on, loading the bases in the first four Crusaders of the game before allowing a 2-run single to Winston Jones. The Crusaders had him right where they wanted him, then saw Drew Lowe and Eric Paull pop up for two easy outs. Salinas hit into a double play to end the second inning, but Ortíz and Manfull had hits to start the bottom 3rd and another run scored off Munroe, who allowed seven hits and two walks in the first three innings, while “Midnight” Martin was piling up corpses early on, whiffing five in three innings before Ochoa doubled with two outs in the top 4th. Medina singled to score him, Baca walked, and Munroe was outrageously hit to fill the bases before Walter and Nunley both found holes in the infield for RBI singles. With the game tied and the bags still full, McKnight ended a full count with a strikeout. Munroe hit Ortíz in the bottom 4th, which gave Ortíz three consecutive games with getting plunked, which wasn’t something I had seen in 40 years in the league.

Munroe would somehow last six, working himself onto the tail end of a 4-3 score after a leadoff double by Rivas in the bottom 6th. Martin bunted him to third, from where Bailey plated him with a deep flyout to right. The Coons had an actual comeback chance in the eighth after leadoff singles by Young and Ochoa before Medina, Baca, and Duarte all struck out, two of those against Martin (who whiffed 11 overall, more on that below) and Duarte against Maggessi. The tying run appeared on second base again in the ninth after a bad throwing error by Rivas which put Matt Nunley on second with one out against Salvadaro Soure, who threw a wild pitch to move Nunley to third before striking out McKnight. Up came DeWeese, and he also was behind the #8 ball in a hurry before lifting a 1-2 pitch to right – and into the final out to Jim Brulhart. 4-3 Crusaders. Walter 2-5, RBI; Ochoa 3-4, 2B;

Remarkable about this game was how the Raccoons managed not only one, but TWO golden sombreros in the game. DeWeese struck out in all of his at-bats against Martin before flying out to end the game, while McKnight hit a single off Martin, but struck out in his other three at-bats with him while also striking out against Soure.

Another thing you don’t see multiple times in 40 years…

Friday morning I had breakfast with Chad in my office in Portland. He was not officially invited, but he was sitting there, and that was comfortable because it gave me somebody else to talk to besides Honeypaws, who never responded. Well, the difference wasn’t that big. Chad still wore the mascot head… While I went on complaining about this and that, Chad sat entirely silent for almost 30 minutes. I was just finished with my toast and my list of 37 reasons while Ron Richards was killing me, when Chad suddenly mumbled under the giant coon head he was wearing. He said, he’d been having dreams and was living in constant fear. ‘What’s bothering you’, I inquired, half interested at best. It was serious, he claimed. He was worried about the government finding out about his glue consumption, and that he’d lose custody of his toy bear if the agents found him.

Whether he could then play with my toy raccoon, he asked. I assured him that this would be possible. But only if I was either comatose in a corner of the room or not physically present at all.

Raccoons (84-75) vs. Titans (82-77) – September 30-October 2, 2016

With three games left, the Raccoons could still land anywhere between second place and fifth place after a recent rally had seen Boston win seven games in a row and 15 of their last 18 (or as many as they had played since losing two of three to us midweek until September 7). They were fourth in runs scored, ninth in runs allowed, and were up 9-6 against Portland this season.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (13-8, 3.24 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (5-7, 4.20 ERA)
Hector Santos (15-7, 2.67 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (17-6, 2.87 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (10-7, 2.83 ERA) vs. Jonathan Ryan (3-8, 6.10 ERA)

Three right-handers, as expected.

The Coons were even for third with the Indians right now, one game behind the Elks, and two ahead of the Titans. Indy had to play in New York, while the Elks had an easy road to the golden banana with three games at home against the Loggers.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – LF M. Pruitt – CF Mata – P J. Fuentes
POR: CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – 2B Jones – RF Sambrano – C Baca – P Abe

The nightmare continued at rapid pace, with Sambrano getting caught stealing to end the bottom 2nd, before he allowed Mike Rivera to score from second base due to a throwing error in the top 3rd. Rivera had of course stolen second base without problems after a 2-out single off Abe. The Titans scored extra runs in the next two innings after leadoff extra-base hits; Tim Robinson doubled top open the fourth and scored, and Alex Mata began the fifth with a triple to right center. The Coons didn’t even get any hit until the fourth inning, and when they had leadoff singles by Sambrano and Baca in the bottom 5th and Abe bunted them over, Duarte and Nunley sure as hell came up with a pair of strikeouts. The Titans had a good chuckle, opening the sixth with another extra-base hit as Robinson slugged a jack, 4-0. Mata opened the seventh with a puny single, pinch-hitter Robert Mascorro singled to right, Sambrano committed another throwing error, and Mata scored handily, 5-0. Bottom 7th, again Sambrano and Baca on with singles and nobody out. Those singles came off reliever Harry Merwin, who allowed an RBI single to Ochoa and an RBI double to Duarte before knocking out Nunley with a hammer to the helmet. With the tying runs on base (Walter running for Nunley, who had departed on a stretcher) McKnight popped out, DeWeese whiffed, and Young flew out to center. 6-2 Titans. Baca 2-4; Ochoa (PH) 1-1, BB, RBI;

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – LF Mascorro – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – 2B J. Stephenson – CF C. Newman – P Spears
POR: 3B Walter – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Ochoa – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Santos

Santos got chopped horrendously with two outs in the second inning, allowing a double to left to Tom Thomas, walked Joe Stephenson, gave a single to Chaz Newman and then finally a 2-run single to ****ing Scott Spears, who also didn’t allow a hit the first time through the order, striking out two. While Shane Walter got a leadoff single in the fourth inning, the runner never got past first base, and nevertheless, Steve Butler had homered off Santos in the meantime, running the score to 3-0…

The Raccoons would draw a walk each in the fifth and sixth innings, also managing a double play in each inning. By the bottom 6th, a Ron Richards bobblehead was hurled at Alex Duarte in the on-deck circle. The Coons were totally doomed unless the Titans would somehow manage to miss Spears’ ‘best before’ date – and that they promptly did. He issued a leadoff walk to McKnight in the bottom 7th and McKnight took second base the hard way before scoring on consecutive groundouts. Then Ochoa walked. Spears remained in the game, allowed an RBI double to Jones, and was still allowed to face Baca, who blasted a home run to rightfield, flipping the score in favor of the home team, 4-3, completely out of the blue. Thrasher pitched a quick eighth against shell-shocked Titans, before it was on Mathis to get through the 6-7-8 batters, all right-handed, in the ninth. Of course he ****ed up. Tom Thomas almost homered right away, with his drive picked off the top of the fence by Sandy in rightfield. Armando Galan’s pinch-hit 2-out double put in another left-handed pinch-hitter in Xavier Williams, prompting a Sugano cameo that only resulted in walks to Williams and Jasper Holt after that. With the bags full and Jose Gutierrez pinch-hitting for Mascorro, John Korb was our last hope. At 1-2, Gutierrez grounded to third, Walter had it, and a true throw to first base later the Coons had BARELY staved off fifth place. 4-3 Blighters. Baca 1-3, HR, 2 RBI;

We had three hits. DeWeese had three plate appearances. Nick Lester got his maiden big league win, picking up Santos’ mess in the top of the seventh. THREE HITS AGAINST SCOTT SPEARS!!!

It’s okay. It’s all okay. One more game and I can think about trading all the losers to the Maputo Minesweepers…

Before the last game of the season, second place is unreachable as well, as the Elks have beaten the Loggers twice already. We’re still even with Indy. It will now be on Jonny to pitch at least six innings and give his all to get us at least a share of third place.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – LF Mascorro – CF Blake – P Ryan
POR: 3B Walter – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – RF Ochoa – 2B Sambrano – C McNeela – P Toner

Toner had struck out eight in four innings when the Coons finally got to make a move on Ryan and his 6+ ERA. Duarte walked and swiftly scored on McKnight’s double in the bottom of the fourth, with McKnight later coming home on Young’s sac fly for a 2-0 lead for the Coons, who were also playing for their 3,300th regular season win. Thomas’ groundout with Branch on first base ended the sixth inning, which put Toner onto the map of a top position in the ERA table, and on the side he had also struck out 11 in the game, still keeping the Titans short in a 3-hitter. A bit more in terms of run support might be helpful later, though, and DeWeese’s leadoff single in the bottom 6th saw him take an early start when Young batted against Ryan. Young got a soft line past Thomas into left for a double, and Mascorro took long enough to play the ball to allow DeWeese to score handily, 3-0. The bases became loaded after a Rivera error on Ochoa and then a 4-pitch walk to Sambrano, cranking up the pressure even more. Ryan plated a run with a wild pitch before the Titans walked McNeela intentionally (with nobody out), but Toner wrestled a full count walk from Ryan to run the score to 5-0 and finally get Ryan knocked from the game. There can only by one Jonny in here!!

Johnny Smith provided little relief and allowed two more runs to score against Walter and Duarte, and up 7-0 Jonny could pitch as long as he was comfy. He whiffed two in the seventh, but also got over 100 pitches. It’s okay, Jonny, just tell us when you’re tired. We’ve got a full pen of dynamite to your detriment out there. He was three short of the CL strikeout record for a game (his own, nonetheless…), and so even a first-pitch single by Mike Rivera in the top 8th was no reason to panic now. Or that he plunked Gutierrez. Butler, Robinson, Branch went down on strikeouts, putting Toner at 16! DeWeese’s homer off Brian Pilotte in the bottom 8th did not excite the crowd – stop batting, they want to see Jonny!

Tom Thomas was to lead off the ninth inning, and Jonny was on 122 pitches. Thomas fouled off three pitches before Jonny missed up twice. Thomas fouled off another high one, and Jonny threw another high one – but Thomas swung under that one – STRIKEOUT! Seventeen strikeouts!! Now bring Mascorro, who had signed out of an independent league only this last September. Five pitches, Jonny buried him, 18! That’s the ABL record (or a tie for it). Bring up Jonathan Blake, Jonny, and make him history as the first 19th strikeout in a game! Nope, Blake managed to get a poke on his 2-2, bounced to first, Young played it, game over. 9-0 Furballs!!! McKnight 2-5, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Toner 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 18 K, W (11-7);

Jonny threw 140 pitches in this game, but he has six months to recuperate from the effort. Oh, and it’s also his ninth career shutout. The shutout part got drowned out a bit.

In other news

September 26 – The Stars certainly have their share of fun with OF/1B Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza (.351, 36 HR, 131 RBI), who is only 25 years old and already has 130 career homers in the ABL. He socks the most recent three of them against the Pacifics in this Monday contest, beating them 6-1 almost by himself, plating five with two shots off Ozzie Pereira and another one off Edwin Balandran. This is the 32nd occurrence of a player hitting three or more home runs in an ABL game, and the first time ever that a Dallas Stars player has achieved the feat.
September 28 – The Pacifics clinch the FL West with a 5-0 shutout of the Stars. This will be their eighth playoff appearance, and their first winning the West four years in a row 2009 through 2012.
September 29 – The FL East is clinched by the Miners after a 13-inning, 1-0 thriller they win from the Capitals. Dave McCormick (.346, 15 HR, 81 RBI) drives home Geoff Stewart to lock them into the playoffs, their seventh appearance overall, and third consecutive.
September 29 – Dallas’ Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza (.351, 37 HR, 132 RBI) provides all the scoring with a home run in the Stars’ 1-0 win over the Pacifics.
September 30 – The Buffaloes have a 9-run eighth inning in an 11-1 rout of the Rebels, while the Scorpions top even that, plating ten runs in the fourth inning of their 18-3 massacre of the Warriors.
October 2 – The CL South is not decided until the 11th inning. The Condors entered the final day a game ahead of the Bayhawks, but lose to the Aces, 10-8. The Bayhawks play extras with the Thunder, but fall to two runs in the 11th and lose, 3-1, giving the Condors their ninth playoff appearances and their second consecutive.

Complaints and stuff

Alex Duarte was ROTM for September, batting .347 with 1 HR and 8 RBI. Unless I have forked again (which is not unusual), Duarte would still be ROTY-eligible in 2017, piling up only 40 days of service time.

Matt Nunley will get to watch the playoffs in a cast after breaking a finger when he fell on his hand when Harry Merwin beaned him. His brains are fine, I heard.

“Tiger” Mendoza won the Triple Crown in the Federal League. I wonder whether Santos and Toner would be enough to acquire him, or whether the Stars would need Cookie and Nunley as well.

We canned hitting coach Dennis Meehan on Saturday morning. He had a contract through 2018, but I wasn’t taking any of this double-golden-sombrero bull**** anymore. New attempt to find any useful coaching next year…

Wednesday’s implosion prevented Nick Brown from setting his best season ERA at age 38. The five earned runs the Crusaders handed him put him superficially even with his 2012 campaign with a 2.36 ERA, but on closer inspection this year is worse: 2.358 compared to 2.356 in ’12. Brownie, Toner, and Santos finished 2nd through 4th in the CL, while they were 2nd, 4th, and 7th in all of the ABL, which also somehow saw Brownie lead the league with three shutouts (tied with Bruce Mark, Alberto Molina), and the trifecta also took top 4 spots in opponents’ batting average and had all top 5 WHIPs in the CL. Jonny and Brownie were the only qualified pitchers allowing less than seven hits per nine innings, and Jonny was the only hurler with more than 10 K/9, and the only CL pitcher with more than 9 K/9.

The only other pitcher to strike out 18 in the ABL? Chris York, 2004. The same York that last threw a pitch in the ABL in ’13, but is still working his bones off in the minors. He’s the guy that Brownie passed a few weeks ago to become the career leader among *active* pitchers in terms of strikeouts. He will remain in that capacity over the winter, outlasting Pancho Trevino by a dozen strikeouts. Assuming he does not void his contract (which was a vesting option that triggered) for 2017, and that Trevino will indeed pass him, Brown could still become fifth all time next season with just 99 whiffs… unless Rod Taylor jumps past him as well, which is entirely possible if he only takes 99… Taylor whiffed 233 this year and the gap is only 111 between them.

What happened to A.J. Bartels? The ex-Crusader who spent April with Portland and was absolutely raped by batters? He joined the Buffaloes and returned to his solid self, pitching for a sub-4 ERA with Topeka. Of course he did.

And nope, there are no hitting merits to report on. BNN will put out those top 7’s in all probable and improbable categories, and only two of our batters feature in ANY, including MCS/HR – Most Colorful Socks per Home Run. Cookie finished t-2nd in stolen bases in the CL, and DeWeese featured in power stats: t-3rd in homers, 6th in RBI, 5th in ISO (all for CL only) … and 3rd in strikeouts. Chris LeMoine on the Loggers won the Crown of Doom, which should automatically disqualify him from ROTY contention.

[Westheim]

2016 ABL PLAYOFFS

Three quarters of the 2016 playoff field were identical with that of 2015, with only the 101-61 Pacifics disturbing the peace, yet their league-best record also saw them take home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Built entirely around pitching in their current form, the Pacifics had two of the very best starting pitchers in the Federal League, Brad Smith (17-8, 2.56 ERA) and Ernest Green (16-9, 2.69 ERA), with a pretty good supporting cast in Bruce Mark (18-10, 3.55 ERA) and Ozzie Pereira (15-12, 3.36 ERA). With a pen presided over by Arturo Lopez (5-3, 1.07 ERA, 43 SV), the Pacifics had allowed the least runs in the FL by a healthy margin, but their offense had not been very good, reaching only eighth position in terms of runs scored. They were almost completely power-starved, with only Jimmy Roberts (.312, 20 HR, 100 RBI) having any remote star aura around him, and only one more double-digit home runs hitter in Tom Reese (.232, 13 HR, 65 RBI). Their mark of 83 homers ranked 11th in the FL. They had one significant injury, with starting shortstop Marc Thompson (.237, 7 HR, 47 RBI) going to miss the FLCS, although he could be back in time for the World Series, should it come to that.

Opposite the Pacifics were the 95-67 Miners, repeat winners in the East. Their team was more or less constructed the other way round, with the second-most runs pumped out in the Federal League (almost 5.1 per game) in exchange for mediocre starting pitching that was headlined by Fred Dugo (15-12, 3.27 ERA) and youngster Pedro Hernandez (17-10, 3.44 ERA), followed by a sharp drop-off that even extended to the bullpen. While they had only allowed the third-least runs overall, their rotation especially had barely reached a league-average ERA, and their defense was also at best average. In turn, they had led the FL in home runs, with five double-digit swatters, led by Dave Carter (.287, 36 HR, 125 RBI) and Bartholomeu Pino (.244, 28 HR, 89 RBI). Also still going strong was veteran Dave McCormick (.349, 16 HR, 83 RBI). The Miners also had one injury, to setup reliever Tommy Wooldridge (4-2, 3.20 ERA, 3 SV), who tore a big hole into a patchwork bullpen.

Pitching rules in the playoffs, they say. The Pacifics might overcome the Miners on the strength of their rotation, but they will probably take six games to do so.

In the CLCS, the 100-62 Crusaders had taken yet another CL North title, and again it had been everything but exciting in September in that division, which had seen five teams over .500, but none close to New York. They had finished third in runs scored, but first in runs allowed, although their +143 differential in runs was not as huge as in some prior years. A decade later, there were still remnants of the old team that won three titles in a row from 2007 through 2009 around, most notably Martin Ortíz (.276, 27 HR, 86 RBI), but they were missing one other ageless veteran in Francisco Caraballo (.298, 7 HR, 42 RBI), who was out with a ruptured MCL, and also ace pitcher Curtis Tobitt (5-4, 3.32 ERA), who had had Tommy John surgery in June. The remainder of their rotation was strong neverless, headed by Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (17-6, 2.86 ERA), and they also had a deadly closer in Salvadaro Soure (7-1, 1.21 ERA, 45 SV), who led the best bullpen in the league. Offensively, power was dispersed throughout the lineup, from the #1 to the #8 position. The latter was expected to hold Alex Rivas, who hit 18 homers during the season and drove in 81. If you have that guy as #8 hitter, you can easily make it to your fourth title in a row.

Just like last year, the 92-70 Condors had squeezed into the playoffs by a single game. Not heading the league in any major, basic metric, they were fifth in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, which didn’t exactly radiate with greatness. They had led the league in stolen bases and that was pretty much it. No glaring weaknesses, but no major strengths. Their rotation for the playoffs held four pitchers with ERA’s between 3.32 and 3.81, which was good, but not great, and bizarrely their two better pitchers Manuel “Doom” Rojas (10-13, 3.32 ERA) and Kevin Woodworth (10-14, 3.40 ERA) had both turned losing records, while Michael Colvard (16-8, 3.80 ERA) had led the team in wins. Zack Entwistle had saved 45 games for them but only with a 2.53 ERA, and while they also had qualified setup relievers, the middle relief was murky. But the worst for Condors fans was yet to come, as they had lost slugger Jimmy Eichelkraut (.285, 31 HR, 83 RBI) to a knee sprain one week before the end of the season and their lineup now lacked bite entirely. Catcher Jose Vargas (.284, 12 HR, 69 RBI) led the power department, and outside of Ron Eroh (.312, 4 HR, 25 RBI) nobody had even come close to batting .300.

The Crusaders could not only become the first team to win four consecutive World Series (none other than them has even won three, and they did it twice), but also only the third team to win four consecutive pennants. The others were the 2001-2004 Titans (who won three titles) and the 1990-1993 Capitals (who won two). Given the Condors’ lack of oomph, the Crusaders look like a virtual lock for the Big Show.

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2016 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Condors @ Crusaders … 2-0 … (Condors lead 1-0) … TIJ Mike Gershkovich 3-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; TIJ Zach Boyer 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 H, 1 BB, 6 K, W;

Condors @ Crusaders … 13-3 … (Condors lead 2-0) … TIJ Craig Dasher 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI; TIJ Mike Herrera 5-6, 2B, 2 RBI; TIJ Mike Gershkovich 3-6, 2 RBI;
Miners @ Pacifics … 4-3 (11) … (Miners lead 1-0) … PIT Tom McWhorter 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; LAP Brad Smith 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 17 K;

Brad Smith’s 17 strikeouts are a new record for a playoff game, breaking NYC Jaylen Martin’s 16 K mark put up in 2015. It is only the third playoff game ever in which a pitcher strikes out more than 11. POR Nick Brown had whiffed 13 in a game in 2010.

Miners @ Pacifics … 3-4 … (series tied 1-1) … PIT Bartholomeu Pino 2-4, 2 RBI; LAP Oliver Torres 3-4;

Crusaders @ Condors … 5-1 … (Condors lead 2-1) … NYC Miguel Salinas 3-5; NYC Martin Ortíz 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

Crusaders @ Condors … 7-9 … (Condors lead 3-1) … NYC Winston Jones 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; TIJ Mike Herrera 3-5, 2B, RBI; TIJ Craig Abraham 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI;
Pacifics @ Miners … 5-4 … (Pacifics lead 2-1) … LAP Ross Irvin 3-5, 2 2B; LAP Ernest Green 7.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W and 3-4, 3 RBI; PIT Lowell Genge 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

Crusaders @ Condors … 1-2 … (Condors win 4-1) … NYC Jaylen Martin 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K; TIJ Zach Boyer 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K; NYC Salvadaro Soure allows a single to Dan Jones with one out in the bottom 10th. Jones steals second base and scores on Matt Keeler’s double into right center to clinch the pennant for the crass underdog
Pacifics @ Miners … 9-10 (10) … (series tied 2-2) …

Keeler is a 27-year old backup piece with 26 regular season hits in the ABL and a negative career WAR.

Pacifics @ Miners … 10-1 … (Pacifics lead 3-2) … LAP Jimmy Roberts 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; LAP Bobby Torres 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; LAP Brad Smith 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W;

Miners @ Pacifics … 6-3 … (series tied 3-3) … PIT Bartholomeu Pino 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; PIT Tim Prince 3-4, 3B; LAP Foster Leach 3-3, BB, 2B; LAP Errol Spears (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Pino’s slam (following a Torres slam in game 5) negates the Pacifics’ first-inning, 2-0 lead and extends the series to the maximum distance.

Miners @ Pacifics … 0-6 … (Pacifics win 4-3) … PIT Tom McWhorter 3-4; LAP Bobby Torres 2-4, HR, RBI; LAP Ernest Green 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W;

The Miners’ hits are all for singles, and they never even reach second base, erasing two singles with double plays, with one runner getting caught stealing.

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2016 WORLD SERIES

After a raging upset of the triple-defending champions from New York, the puny Condors made it to the World Series for the third time in their existence, and for the first time in 26 years. They have never won a World Series, falling to the Stars and Capitals, respectively, in their 1988 and 1990 appearances. Their chances on a title are certainly far greater than ten days ago, but they still aren’t great, given that they now face another team that ranked first in runs allowed in their league, and they are still without Jimmy Eichelkraut, who suffered a setback and will not be available for the series.

The Pacifics, who hold home field advantage in this Southwest Series, are in the show for the third time as well, but they were successful in their only two previous attempts in 2011 and 2012, beating the Crusaders and Thunder, respectively. Other than the Condors, the Pacifics have everybody available for the World Series, and are looking forward to continuing their perfect record in World Series appearances.

Overall, the Continental League holds 20 World Series titles, with 19 for the Federal League. This is the closest geographically that two World Series contestants have been to another since the 1989 Oregon Brawl between the Wolves and Raccoons.

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Condors @ Pacifics … 0-3 … (Pacifics lead 1-0) … LAP Brad Smith 8.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K, W;

A second-inning single by Roland Lafon and a fifth-inning walk drawn by Dan Jones is all that the Condors offense manages to put up against Smith.

Condors @ Pacifics … 1-3 … (Pacifics lead 2-0) … LAP Tom Reese 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; LAP Ozzie Pereira 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W;

Pacifics @ Condors … 2-1 … (Pacifics lead 3-0) … LAP Oliver Torres 3-4, 2B, RBI; LAP Bruce Mark 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W; TIJ Michael Colvard 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, L;

Pacifics @ Condors … 6-1 … (Pacifics lead 4-0) … LAP Oliver Torres 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; LAP Mike Getchell 2-3; LAP Ernest Green 8.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W;

Green no-hits the completely outmatched Condors for 7.1 innings before Dan Jones hits an inconsequential double. A leadoff single by Craig Dasher in the ninth leads to a 2-out run on Mike Gershkovich’s double, but the Condors get only one more pitch from reliever Edwin Balandran, on which Jose Vargas pops out to short.

This is only the fourth World Series to end in a sweep, and the first of the millenium. The other such occurrences were in 1977 (Cyclones vs. Bayhawks), 1986 (Blue Sox vs. Knights), and 1999 (Bayhawks vs. Warriors). On the other hand, World Series have gone to seven games 13 times in ABL history.

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2016 World Series Champions
LOS ANGELES PACIFICS
(3rd title)

[Westheim]

Last winter the Raccoons had shelled out dollars like there was no tomorrow. All that had netted tham had been a third place finish, and more bite marks in my desk. This winter would be different. For starters, we wouldn’t shell out dollars…

The Mexican Prick had his own way of saying that he appreciated my work. Well, he never actually said that, and he probably never would. His formal review of season goals that I received in October contained a lot of Spanish profanities for which there was no English equivalent, I guess, and overall he didn’t seem happy.

Neither was I, but what does it help?

In any case, my offseason moves were criticized, my roster composition was criticized, and there was still nobody watching our games (people like to watch a winner, maybe?). On top of that, we still had no real catcher (and hadn’t had one in 25 years), and why had Nick Brown not been signed to an extension yet? Uh, I don’t know? He’s 39 and might become hittable any minute now?

Bottom line, he wasn’t going to waste his hard-earned money on my colossal ways of mismanaging it. The budget for 2017 received a cut, down from $27.6M to just $27M. This would rank the Coons tied for 12th in the league (2016: t-9th) right at the median budget. The average budget was $26.7M. Top in the league were the Crusaders, who just kept spending like crazy, and would try to compensate the shame of their quick CLCS exit by packing another $3M onto their already insidiously huge budget, which would now be $47M, more than $10M more than the rest of the top 5, which consisted of the Miners, Stars, Warriors, and Pacifics. The league’s paupers would be the Buffaloes, Blue Sox, Loggers, Wolves, and Falcons, with the latter three’s budgets combined barely amounting to more than the Crusaders’.

In the North, the Crusaders of course reigned supreme, ahead of the Canadiens ($31.5M), Raccoons, Indians ($23.6M), Titans ($23.2M), and Loggers ($17.2M).

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Raccoons also had to cope with two personnel departures. Juan Calderón decided not to sign another contract with us after seven years of combing Latin America for us. A replacement was swiftly found, with the Mexican Prick referring one of his henchma- … human resource agents to us. Tomás Moralis had a good eye for people, he wrote, and had hardly ever missed on a target.

Also, Todd von Lindenthal had seen too much in one year with the Raccoons and decided to rejoin the military as a drill sergeant, but would also apply for deployment to a warzone as soon as possible, spitting that only a headshot could make him unsee the pile of garbage he had been subjected to last season.

Since I had also canned our hitting coach near the end of the season, we had to instantly replace our two most important coaches as well as our scouting director, which can only cause turmoil again.

There is also a mild budgetary issue for 2017. We are *COLLOSSALLY* overbudget. Jones, Santos, Abe, Young, Cookie, Thrasher – the list of players that would make more dough in 2017 compared to 2016 was a long one, didn’t even include arbitration cases yet (Toner!!), and combined with the budget cut we were hideously in the red. With that I mean that we were more than about $2M short of being ‘just’ broken – and that was without a full coaching staff.

Below would be the arbitration table. There is only one free agent, Alonso Baca, and he won’t be back, so we already have no catcher once again. The arbitration candidates include a few essentials (TONER!!) that are going to break the bank (TO-NER!!!!), but it will also be possible to skim the odd quarter million around the edges of the cake by dumping a few players like Canning and Bergquist. Medina might also be a guy that has no trade value and hardly fits the team.

None of this will heal our HUGE budget gap. We have two players making more than $1.5M that contribute ZERO to our efforts: Howard Jones and Ron Richards. I don’t consider either of them to be movable, but we need to get rid of at least one of them just to get close to a black zero.

[Westheim]

Disclaimer: I don’t speak any Spanish, and all the Spanish contained in this thread has been Google translated and is probably wrong.

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The last week of October was dreadful. Cookie had invited a few of his brothers to Portland and showed them around the park and the clubhouse.

They found me in the locker room. On one of the walls there we had framed, game-worn jerseys from a number of former Portland greats. Whenever I felt like I was alone in the premises I would go down there and take the framed jersey of Daniel Hall from the wall, sit down on one of the benches and just hold onto it.

Slappy, holding a mop like it had something to do with his job, unlocked one of the doors for Cookie’s group and so they found me there. Cookie, two guys about 20 years old in brand new jeans, Raccoons shirts and caps, and his youngest brother Cristiano, who was about 12, and was in a wheelchair. Cookie smiled. ‘Hi, Mr. Westfield!’ he said, turned to them and told them ‘Este es el Senor Westfield’. I couldn’t say anything and just held onto the frame with the Hall jersey before one of the older guys kissed a tiny silver cross he was wearing on a thin chain around his neck, the other exclaimed ‘Dios mio!’, and Cristiano came rolling towards me, popped a wheelie and exclaimed, ‘Look, Senor Westfield! Me got … una silla de ruedas nueva! Incluso tiene cuatro ruedas!”

I cracked, jumped up, and – still mangling the frame in my arms – ran out through the other door, crying.

That wasn’t even the worst bit. After melting down on the couch in my office, Slappy came in about an hour later and found me sucking my thumb. Without much ado, he went straight to where I had hidden the liquor, forewent bothering with a glass and just drank straight from the bottle before wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his very clean uniform. ‘Mena wants to see you, sir. There’s something with Carmona. He walked right into a door and now his vision is blurry again.’

Just like mine after too much crying, but – say, Druid – how’s that concussion of Cookie healing? Not too great, I hear.

While that was going on, the Prick’s selected scout, Tomás Moralis, didn’t arrive. He should have been here on the 24th, three days before Cookie’s set back with the concussion. The day after that I was in the hospital with Cookie, who was not 100% in control of himself and asked me, ‘Tía Teresa, Tía Teresa. Podré bailar de nuevo?’

It was right there, holding the hand of an awesome 25-year old centerfielder whose brain was slowly turning to broccoli, that Maud called be on my cell phone. The FBI had appeared in the office and they had a few questions.

Cookie’s room was on the second floor. Probably not enough to suffer fatal injuries, and the thing with hospitals was that usually medical professionals would be close by. So I drove back to the park. On the way in I saw Matt Nunley, who was here for a contract talk, playing (with his right hand still in a splint) left-handed catch with Cristiano outside the rear entrance to the clubhouse. When he saw me, Cristiano stopped his throwing motion and instead waved at me, smiling across the entire face. ‘Senor Westfield, Senor Westfield! Que tengas un buen diá!’. I waved back, but I was thankfully completely hollowed out inside by now and couldn’t even cry anymore. Matt Nunley also had keen eyes, shouting over that the Hall jersey was missing from the locker room. ‘Yeah’, I replied. ‘I already heard about that…’

Thankfully the FBI wasn’t there for what I though they were. Turns out that I will not go to prison after all for producing that bad check over $41.75 to our former air pump supplier back in 2002 – those had been some hard times.

Nope, turns out that two days ago a burnt out car with a body inside had been found near a highway in Arizona, with the deceased occupant identified as Tomás Moralis, who – they had somehow found out – had been on his way to this very address. Well, first: the Prick will not be amused. Second, am I next? Oh please, can I be next?? In the event, none of us proved very helpful in this case. None of us had ever seen Moralis before, nor had talked to him. Now I needed to find a new scout.

Madness cast aside, there was also some ‘normal’ baseball business going on. We signed a few arbitration cases in late October. Matt Nunley signed for $420k, John Korb for $440k (that one was more expensive than I had hoped for), and Manobu Sugano for $375k.

I am also in a horrendous spot with Jonny Toner, who is seeking a long-term contract (9-yr, $25M more or less), but the Raccoons can’t agree to that – the ABL doesn’t allow it. Since cost control is a premium target for the league to ensure all franchises are healthy (Loggers, anyone?), teams are strictly forbidden from adding more commitments if they were already overbudget (which we were, rampantly), and Jonny’s proposal would not only set us back further for 2017, but would also blow us out of the 2018 waters.

That one sucked, and Jonny had to sign a 1-yr, $900k contract. He was pretty pissed about it, and you normally never want to piss off your best pitcher.* Chris Mathis ($240k) and Shane Walter ($250k) also signed 1-year deals in early November.

I also managed to pull off a major coup in my few sane moments and snatched up Ken Richardson as new pitching coach. He had been the Crusaders’ pitching coach since 2009, coaching that staff to routinely great results.

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In miscellaneous news about the cruelty of the world, NYC SP Fernando Cruz (120-128, 4.02 ERA) had his kneecap broken with – irony! – a baseball bat in a mugging attempt. He will have to spend the entire offseason rehabbing and might not be ready for Opening Day in ’17.

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2016 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL OF/1B Hugo Mendoza (.350, 37 HR, 134 RBI) and VAN 1B Ray Gilbert (.335, 30 HR, 104 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: LAP SP Brad Smith (17-8, 2.56 ERA) and VAN SP Samuel McMullen (20-7, 2.10 ERA)
Relievers of the Year: LAP CL Arturo Lopez (5-3, 1.07 ERA, 43 SV) and NYC CL Salvadaro Soure (7-1, 1.21 ERA, 45 SV)
Rookies of the Year: PIT 2B/SS Tim Prince (.260, 8 HR, 78 RBI) and MIL OF/1B Chris LeMoine (.259, 25 HR, 67 RBI)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P PIT Jeremiah Bowman, C WAS Jose Flores, 1B SFW Stanley Murphy, 2B WAS Ieyoshi Nomura, 3B SAC Jason LaCombe, SS NAS Andrew Showalter, LF SFW Jose Morales, CF LAP Jimmy Roberts, RF DAL Hugo Mendoza
Platinum Sticks (CL): P POR Jonathan Toner, C CHA Ryan Holliman, 1B VAN Ray Gilbert, 2B ATL Josh Downing, 3B NYC Alex Rivas, SS ATL Devin Hibbard, LF SFB Ron Alston, CF OCT Sean Young, RF SFB Chris Almanza
Gold Gloves (FL): P PIT Pedro Hernandez, C TOP Pedro Salas, 1B SFW Stanley Murphy, 2B PIT Tim Prince, 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel, SS DEN Piet Oosterom, LF PIT Lowell Genge, CF SAC Ray Meade, RF SFW Ivan Flores
Gold Gloves (CL): P MIL Brian Cope, C SFB Dylan Alexander, 1B TIJ Mike Gershkovich, 2B MIL Steve Best, 3B CHA Alfonso Pellot, SS CHA Paul Hall, LF MIL Chris LeMoine, CF IND John Wilson, RF MIL Victor Hodgers

Oh look, we got a ****ing participatory ribbon.

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*Past merits not included in calculation!

[Westheim]

There was no need to find a new scout. The Prick found one for me. Gabriel Martinez looked like he came out of a second-rate 70s movie, cast into the role of a stereotypical gangster, unshaven, crummy, his eyes were quite tiny and cold, but he was finely dressed. The only thing missing was a cigar butt wedged into one corner of the mouth. He arrived on November 4, went straight to my office and announced briefly in broken English that he was here now. He would require a room, a computer, a prepaid phone, and a table of my daily routine.

I wondered what that last one was for, but he would not give an answer.

Cookie’s family was still around (minus Cookie), with varying player and management personnel keeping them entertained while he was in the hospital getting his brain unscrambled. The day after Gabriel Martinez’ arrival I already heard him shouting outside on the hallway. When I opened the door I came just in time to see a tearful Cristiano shouting ‘Eres un diablo!’ before wheeling off in the other direction. I desired to know what was going on. Martinez wouldn’t say anything. He just handed me a Ron Richards baseball card, torn in half, then calmly walked to his own office.

This might become a long year…

The following day I was looking for the scouting reports I had asked Martinez to prepare of our own 40-man roster, but couldn’t find them anywhere. I went over to his room, where he was on the phone, but as soon as he saw me, he ended the call and placed the cell phone display down on the table. ‘You want?’, he asked. ‘The scouting reports!’ My patience with him was running thin already. ‘I gave you one yesterday’, Martinez snarled. ‘If you want more, bring the card collection of the crippled kid.’

Two days later I heard Maud shouting in the office next to mine. When I went over there, she was furious with Martinez who was installing a camera in the shelf right opposite her. ‘Is for security’, he said before leaving, his business unfinished.

A very long year. A very, very, very … long … year…

I miss Vince Guerra.

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When I wasn’t busy with medical maladies or charred corpses or pretentious pricks or wasn’t buying Cristiano a new pack of baseball cards from my own meal money, or drove him and his two brothers to the airport to fly back to Panama in the middle of November, where the little guy wouldn’t let go of my arm and thanked me another 28 times for bringing piped water (in two flavors, warm and cold!) to his village by paying Cookie lots of dollares, there was still some actual baseball business to conduct … and it was actually even less fun than anything else going on.

As the arbitration deadline approached, it became more and more clear that the Raccoons were completely dead in the water as far as 2017 was concerned. It was absolutely impossible to add any talent to the roster, which was clogged by overpaid ‘veterans’ that did little to improve the team’s performance. Foremost we shall mention that there would be nine players making seven figures in 2017, and about half of them were clearly ripping us every time they cashed one of those checks. These are the highest paid players with their 2017 salary and the total contract value remaining, including all options except for team options:

LF/RF R.J. DeWeese - $3.3M - $19.8M through 2022
INF Howard Jones - $2M - $4.4M through 2018
SP Hector Santos - $1.8M - $9M through 2021
SP Nick Brown - $1.8M
LF/RF Ron Richards - $1.7M - $6.8M through 2020
SP Tadasu Abe - $1.4M - $6.6M through 2020 – would be arbitration eligible afterwards
OF Ricardo Carmona – $1.1M - $12.9M through 2022
1B Adam Young - $1M - $3.8M through 2019
INF/OF Sandy Sambrano - $1M

Only three additional players make at least half a million, including Jonny Toner ($900k), Beaver ($700k), and Thrasher ($500k).

But what, for ****’s sake, does Howard Jones do up there? How does he get two million for batting .226!? Who signed this loser?? Is this what we got for Jason Seeley?? By the way, Seeley batted .285 with 13 homers for the Cyclones and would be a real upgrade over Ron Richards, #2 on the money sink list. Add Young and Sandy, and that’s a quarter of our budget that’s going to players that are underperforming in the fast lane.

I did some pulse feeling with other GM’s in the first week of November and Howard Jones was completely untradeable. We were stuck with him. Ron Richards was probably also untradeable on his own, but it might be possible to somehow sweeten the deal. I even tried to talk a few teams into R.J. DeWeese, mainly teams with money, a desire to win, and here foremost the Bayhawks and Knights, who were going to lose great corner outfielders to free agency that very month, with both Ron Alston and Justin Dally ranking really high up there on the free agent board, right behind Player of the Year Ray Gilbert.

(barfing sounds)

Nope, I’m fine. Just a bit too much stress… Well, even the Bayhawks and Knights thought that DeWeese’s contract wasn’t really worth it and they weren’t tempted to send any meaningful package for him. We’re not talking a “Dingus” Morales kinda deal for four prospects of varying amazingness, but more like one good prospect in return. They weren’t doing that. They weren’t even willing to deal a setup reliever.

I also shopped Juan Medina, got no offers, and after that retracted our arbitration offer. Last thing I needed was him being awarded another half a million that had yet to be printed. With Duarte, Johnson, Ochoa still bumbling around the premises, we had three cheaper options to achieve more or less the same thing (less in Ochoa’s case since he was not an option in center) Walt Canning would also not receive an offer. Jason Bergquist got a $240k offer the week before the hearings. He signed the day before the hearings. He was the last guy on the list, and so for the first time in ever the Raccoons didn’t even offer to go to arbitration at all.

Maybe this will be a quick offseason, because we can’t do anything. Maybe it will be an even quicker offseason for me because I think Martinez is plotting to kill me. I can see him writing stuff into a notebook whenever I pass by his room.

+++

Clearing the arbitration estimates for Canning and Medina as well as a few other players that drew the minimum in 2016 but would only hold a minor league deal in 2017 allowed Steve from Accounting to present a clearer picture of our troubled state on November 14, the official free agency date. The Coons were in the soup by $1.9M, and had barely a quarter million cash since the Prick as usual had drawn everything not nailed down real hard to his Mexican accounts in October.

There was one team that couldn’t make offers fast enough after the free agency date and didn’t commit all its millions before I came calling. The Crusaders, of course, and their ****ing pile of coins. They were probably our saviors.

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November 16 – The Raccoons trade 31-yr old RF/LF Ron Richards (.254, 92 HR, 348 RBI) and 27-yr old SP/MR Francisquo Bocanegra (0-4, 5.47 ERA) to the Crusaders for 29-yr old MR Randy McMullen (3-2, 3.47 ERA) and 23-yr old AA MR Steve McConnell.
November 22 – The Bayhawks reunite with their 2015 closer, ex-OCT Micah Steele (48-57, 2.90 ERA, 265 SV). The 32-year old right-hander signs a 3-yr, $2.28M deal.
November 22 – 33-yr old ex-BOS LF/1B Matt Pruitt (.284, 68 HR, 477 RBI) inks a 2-yr, $1.17M contract with the Aces.
November 24 – The Canadiens acquire SP Kevin Clayton (35-49, 4.32 ERA) from the Blue Sox, parting with a second-rate prospect.
November 24 – The Condors ink ex-SAL/SFW SP Zach Hughes (55-51, 3.72 ERA) for $2.23M over two years.
November 25 – The first big name comes off the free agent board: 28-yr old ex-MIL/ATL LF/RF Justin Dally (.272, 108 HR, 452 RBI) signs a 7-yr, $23.3M pact with the Stars.
November 26 – Former Thunder SP Bob King (185-147, 3.50 ERA) joins up with the Crusaders for 2-yr, $5.28M. The 33-year old right-hander has CL North experience, having pitched for the Indians for nine seasons.
November 27 – Not idle in the North are the Canadiens, who sign ex-CIN CL Juan Jimenez (48-40, 2.78 ERA, 236 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.38M deal.
November 29 – In the first of two major corner outfield signings on this Tuesday, the Miners sweep up ex-DAL LF Victorino Sanchez (.354, 212 HR, 1,407 RBI). The 38-yr old had some health issues in the last years, but he is also the career hits leader with 3,732 base knocks, having passed Dale Wales during 2016. The Miners will reimburse him with $6.08M over two years for his troubles.
November 29 – The Thunder are determined to make 2016 look like an accident and sign LF/RF Ron Alston (.307, 460 HR, 1,536 RBI) to a 2-yr, $6.88M contract. The 37-year old Alston is merely the career home run leader and with his new deal in hand has a good shot at becoming the first ABL player to 500 home runs.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 11 players are taken over three rounds, with the Thunder being the only team to pick more than one. The Raccoons are not affected.

+++

In a few moves on the fringes of the 40-man roster a few players were DFA’ed before the rule 5 draft, including Matt Stubbs, Pedro Torruellas, and Brock Hudman.

Let’s be honest here. The Richards trade to the Crusaders is a pure salary dump and nothing else. It was never intended to be anything else. Bocanegra luckily is of no use to us since we have a clutter of left-handers that we have to pick from for two (or three?) bullpen spots for 2017, and Bocanegra was not a front runner. McMullen is close to useless in a major league setting, and McConnell was a ninth-rounder five years ago and nobody will hear from him again.

Richards is happy to get out of here, I am happy for him to get out of here, Gabriel Martinez didn’t like him anyway, nor does he like me – and McMullen (who led all players involved in the deal in WAR in 2016…) will find a way to the dumpster on his own, I assume. Even better: it opens up a spot for a minimum player in the Ochoa/Duarte/Johnson group. A perfect deal! (We were still broken and $300k short, but at least we were a heck of a lot closer now)

Playing Duarte in center is a real thing to mull about. While I think Cookie will lose value if he plays in rightfield (he does not have a very good arm), maybe he will lose less limbs over there.

Howard Jones remains untradeable, though. How to proceed from here is interesting. It seems like DeWeese didn’t do enough to justify his $3.3M annual salary (while not shabby, .253/.346/.473 is not exactly first rate for sluggers) and we will not be able to get a good return. That leaves two expendable players that make seven figures, Young and Sambrano. While I like Sandy and the versatility he brings, his bat has not been the source of much joy, and he only hit for .242/.337/.301 in ’16, and he has been getting worse every year since coming over.

Sandy Sambrano OPS values by year (2011 with LVA):

2011: .775
2012: .732
2013: .712
2014: .703
2015: .664
2016: .637

That’s a trend you’d expect from someone about 37 years old now, but Sandy will turn 29 in March. Versatility and a great glove at most positions will not carry him indefinitely, and at this point he has no chance to sign an extension. He’s rather pretty high up on the trade list, because while we would lack a super utility guy that carries a full set of gloves, we’d get pretty far around the infield with Jones and Walter around (with only one of those starting on most days). We are currently wasting a spot on Jason Bergquist, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Adam Young is merely the colossal disappointment of the decade, and I have to find out how he did it, hitting between 25 and 27 homers a year in San Fran and then SEVEN – ****ING SEVEN – in his first season in Portland. His trade value has yet to be adjudged, but can’t be too high. He did the magic trick to make 200 points of OPS disappear between his age 26 and 27 seasons…

Do I have a hand, or what?

[Westheim]

As an intermission in our Great Tragedy in Five Acts, here is the 2017 Hall of Fame ballot. Only one sod on there that ever wore a coonskin cap. Almost looks like we didn't have a lot of good players in the time frame between, oh, say, 1997 and 2006.

[Westheim]

Good news! Really good news!

You see, I headed the winter meetings, filled up Miners GM Wayne Ruby with cheap liquor, hit him over the head with a leaded bat, and he signed off on a deal that solved a lot of problems for us!

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December 3 – The Titans pick up 29-yr old ex-TIJ SP Zach Boyer (81-58, 3.66 ERA) on a 3-yr, $5.66M deal.
December 4 – The Raccoons acquire 29-yr old RF William Waggoner (.291, 43 HR, 227 RBI) from the Miners in exchange for 31-yr old INF Howard Jones (.261, 34 HR, 396 RBI).
December 4 – In a sweeping move, the Crusaders reacquire their former slugger, 37-yr old RF Stanton Martin (.298, 294 HR, 1,284 RBI) from the Stars, dealing them INF Jorge Ortega (.277, 0 HR, 206 RBI) and interesting yet prospect SS Manny Ferrer, who was unranked.
December 4 – The Scorpions shell out $11.24M over four years for 29-yr old righty SP Ian Rutter (62-72, 3.72 ERA), formerly of the Titans.

+++

Granted, Waggoner is basically Ron Richards in disguise and lost his starter’s job of old last year to rookie Lowell Genge, also missed six weeks with an injury, but here we have an unproductive player that makes $1M and will disappear after the season rather than an unproductive player that makes $4.4M over the next two years! Neither of them even managed to collect one point of WAR in ’16, and the trade was almost dead even.

This had a few ripple effects with the roster. With this deal, Cookie remains in centerfield, because Waggoner in center would be ugly to watch, while Shane Walter gets room for a full time spot, more or less. It *does* give us a fully left-handed batting starting infield for sure against right-handed pitching (which we saw over 80% of the time in 2016 after a resurgence of lefty opposition in 2015 that didn’t hold for long). Right now, Jason Bergquist is still around and would get starts at second against southpaws, with Walter either sitting or spelling somebody else around the diamond. The less immediate result in the outfield is that Alex Duarte will not get a starting centerfield assignment and with that might start the season in AAA. Waggoner is a southpaw. The trade does nothing to help us against left-handed pitching. In fact, Duarte was the only right-handed batter in the outfield mix to begin with unless we want to revisit the Jimmy Fucito scenario for the 27th time. You know, he didn’t click the first 26 times, but sometimes players get going at 27! Yeah, right? Well, too bad, Fucito will be almost 29 on Opening Day. Unless I am wrong once more, he could have elected minor league free agency, but actually stuck around, continuing to cheat us out of minor league meal money instead.

Of course, the big news are that we are now in the black with the 2016 budget and I can approach at least one free agent. What is our most dire need? Certainly a catcher. Or is it a closer? We have no remaining closer candidates on the roster, and I don’t think John Korb got his late-season record in saves through ability alone. Lady Luck owed him one. Or seven.

Well, good luck finding a catcher on the free agent market. The best option was in fact Raúl Hernandez, who had been on six teams in the last for years, including the Coons for half of 2014. He had batted .247 with 2 HR and 49 RBI between the Stars and Scorpions last season, and the mere fact that he was the only non-ancient, valid option on the market drove up his price.

I was trying to trade for Cory Roland on the Warriors, who was only a backup for them behind Jerrod Luckert, but looked like he could do good things for a team. He was still on the minimum and wouldn’t go to arbitration until after the 2017 season, despite already being 28 years old. I liked him as a really cheap attempt to fix the gaping hole behind home plate, where our best roll of the dice would have Margolis and McNeela platoon and combine for .217, 6 HR, 32 RBI.

The bullpen problem is not one to underestimate. Ron Thrasher, who was best described as ‘volatile’ before 2016 and was an outright arsonist *in* 2016, and Chris Mathis, who was either on or completely off from day to day, were the best candidates for the top dog jobs in the pen, and that already hadn’t worked out for an entire season at this point. Sugano was not closer material since he couldn’t bear to face righties, and what then? Beaver? Chun? I can’t remember a pen as porous as last year’s in this town! Shouldn’t have dumped Angel Casas, who promptly found his old form again in 2016 with the Warriors.

Then there was the peculiar case of recently rule-5-disfangled Chris Munroe. He had pitched 180.1 innings over 33 games, including 27 starts, for the Coons in 2016. 6-11, 3.59 ERA, so unlucky as all ****, with a 1.32 WHIP, which suddenly makes that ERA look a bit generous. His K/BB was just under 1.9, so nothing special, and he allowed 16 homers. Actually, he was about as liable as Santos to allow deep drives.

It’s one thing if a high-voltage fireballer who never walks anybody lets one soar from time to time, but Munroe throws 91 and mostly fooled pitchers and former Raccoons playing for other teams in shambles. The thing was that there was trade interest in this 23-year old right-hander, foremost from the Warriors, who would love to acquire Munroe for Roland. But then I’m not going to trade a pitcher who had a perfectly decent rookie campaign for a career backup catcher who is just one step above minor league meal money at 28.

While the Warriors were willing to negotiate further on that, there wasn’t anybody on the major league roster that would fit the Raccoons (their pen was just as bad as ours, except that they had a closer in Angel Casas), and while I was instructed by Gabriel Martinez to get two very specific pitching prospects in the deal, the Warriors, whose system was already barren, were reluctant to part with both of them. This was a tough spot to sit in. While I was happy that Munroe had performed the way he did, there were quite a few red flags for him. But the package of Roland (career .259/.337/.406 batter with 25 HR, 135 RBI) and one prospect was not good enough. The deal fell through.

+++

December 7 – The Indians trade 32-yr old SP Tom Weise (125-112, 3.47 ERA) to the Miners for 25-yr old LF/RF Lowell Genge (.252, 15 HR, 100 RBI) and a decent pitching prospect.
December 7 – In a trade inside the Federal League, the Cyclones send 26-yr old SP Graham Wasserman (4-14, 4.61 ERA) to the Scorpions for #61 prospect RF/LF Michael Matos and #75 prospect SP James Silmon.
December 8 – The Indians also acquire utility player Sandy Sambrano (.264, 11 HR, 275 RBI) from the Raccoons. The cost for the 28-year old switch-hitter is 26-yr old C Mike Denny (.245, 16 HR, 67 RBI).

+++

I loved Sandy Sambrano to bits for years. But he’s just not batting anything anymore, and … offense killed this team the last few years, not defense. Now, granted, Denny is not an offensive beast (and has never been a starter, but neither was Craig Bowen before he came here), but he’s not quite as bad as Martinez’ scouting report makes him look. OSA has him better with 9 contact, and a 7 contact guy probably wouldn’t approach .250 in the Bigs. So I don’t really know how Martinez does his work, but maybe he’s too busy cleaning his sniper rifle in his office and doesn’t actually spend enough time on player profiles.

This trade saves us another $600k+ in salary, which will come in handy since I’m after a new closer. He just doesn’t know yet that there’s a closer’s job available, so I can’t go into details. Somebody else is driving the price, which escalated a few times in just the last four days of the winter meetings. The Coons entered the bidding war as soon as Howard Jones had packed his **** and created budget room.

In a minor deal that didn’t make many waves, our old Ricardo Martinez was dealt from the Gold Sox to the Falcons for a completely forgettable right-handed pitcher, 35-year old Roberto Ramirez. Martinez’ great half-season in 2008 led to Danny Sharp’s ousting and even more tears on our part, because Martinez followed up 2008 with outright abysmal partial campaigns in 2009 and 2010 before being sent in the direction of Richmond. He has only 171 AB in the Bigs in the last four years, and has batted .199 over them. Overall, he’s a .249/.288/.381 batter who did virtually all his damage (to the opposite team) as a rookie in ’08.

Other former Coons with minor deals are Juan Medina getting $550k from the Rebels and Joe Cowan joining the Elks for $268k.

[orangebird]

I love all the detail these posts have

[Westheim]

Things progressed slowly after the winter meetings. We didn’t have a lot of money at all, barely scratching together $1.6M to plug holes with. Since the rotation was ostensibly fine and we had declared Mike Denny to be Craig Bowen 2.0, the infield was set and the outfield was set as well unless we found a way to chop William Waggoner into even smaller parts, the bullpen, which had ranked in the bottom third in the CL in 2016, needed some good attention.

We had a lot of relievers floating around, and none of them were too amazing. A left-hander was out of the question, since we already had four of those on the payroll (and it had been five before Bocanegra had been dumped) in Ron Thrasher, Manobu Sugano, Kevin Beaver, and late-season debutee Nick Lester. Thrasher and Sugano had seen better days and Thrasher’s control struggles in 2016 were the stuff of horror stories, while Sugano just could not retire any right-hander, Gabriel Martinez had declared Kevin Beaver the best of the group, and Lester’s value was hard to quantify, but his 2016 AAA WHIP of 1.60 in 50.2 innings was perhaps an indicator that spoke against anointing him closer in the near future. He was 24, he still had a year left before being minced into fodder.

The right-hand side didn’t look much better. Chris Mathis was erratic at least and annoying at worst, Seung-mo Chun had found his valleys, too, and after that it was John Korb, who was actually a pleasant surprise, one of very few, from the 2016 season. That didn’t make him more than a long reliever and spot starter, though (yet that job was undeniably his, since he had done a good job eating innings whenever required – ironically, the only guy in the pen that was sure not to be dealt before the season would start was the door mat, the innings eater…). Juan Gallegos and Will West shall be named, but not be considered, and we got rid of Gary Dupes by now.

Piecing together a pen from those pitchers was like working half of two different jigsaw puzzles into one harmonic picture, but with the help of about $1.6M it had to be done, somehow.

Unfortunately, neither Thrasher nor Sugano turned out to have any trade value, and the reactions of other GM’s to floating Beaver were lukewarm at best, and one or two tried to sneak another Howard Jones onto our roster. Since we were already short on right-handed pitching, I didn’t shop any of those, but rather went looking.

I quickly found Alex Ramirez, who had been about the #4 in the Crusaders’ bullpen and had thus lived a life in anonymity with them. Four years of not getting noticed, despite quite good results. He had lost seven games in relief in 2016, but his ERA had been 2.48, perhaps hinting at tough luck in high-leverage spots. He had struck out only 6.7 per nine in ’16, after five consecutive years of 8.3 or more, despite throwing in fewer games and fewer innings than four out of those five seasons. That was the lone anomaly in his track record. Somewhere between ‘quite’ and ‘very’ good, but never in the spotlight (though he had been an All Star twice, but thinking about it, the Crusaders were all All Stars by default).

Ramirez hadn’t been a regular closer in his career, but the numbers looked like a keen look was a responsible thing to do. When we started bidding on him during the winter meetings, he was at about $850k per year, insisting on three years. Well, he’s 30, not 38, so be it. The price rose quickly, however. It reached seven figures by the week following the winter meetings, and before Christmas he even turned down our $3.21M offer for three years, insisting on more money. I made a last-ditch effort before the holidays, offering all the coins we could spare.

+++

December 16 – The Thunder win the bidding for ex-RIC SP Brian Furst (80-103, 4.22 ERA). The 31-yr old right-hander commands a 4-yr, $13.64M contract.
December 16 – The Raccoons announce the addition of 33-yr old ex-BOS MR Jayden Reed (43-38, 3.70 ERA, 106 SV) on a 1-yr, $390k contract.
December 22 – 27-yr old SP Evan Greenfield (16-14, 3.93 ERA) finds himself traded from the Blue Sox to the Cyclones in exchange for two prospects, including #11 SP Alan Farrell.
December 24 – And more pitching is on the way for Cincy, as the Cyclones sign ex-PIT SP Fred Dugo (98-78, 3.51 ERA). The 29-year old will receive $17.6M over five years.
December 24 – The Rebels sweep up ex-DAL INF Ricky Avila (.253, 12 HR, 261 RBI), committing to pay the 28-year old $7.68M over the next three years.
December 27 – The Cyclones keep adding pitching with the addition of 37-yr old veteran reliever Tommy Wooldridge (78-55, 2.43 ERA, 289 SV), who also joins them out of the Miners’ pool of free agents. He will earn $2.24M over two years.
December 28 – The Raccoons announce the completion of the paperworks on the addition of 30-yr old ex-NYC MR Alex Ramirez (33-26, 3.38 ERA, 31 SV), who is expected to be their new closer. Ramirez will cash in $3.75M over three years.

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Reed is of the Thrasher type, and was a bit of a disaster as part time closer for the Titans in 2016. He is cheap however, and if gets his command together again, he would be a mild steal at $390k.

That was all the relievers were really needed to add, and all that we could add with the funds at hand. Steve from Accounting failed to count even $100k left in the coffers, but we did have to trade one of the three southpaws (minus Lester) before the season would start. There wasn’t room on the roster for all three between Thrasher, Sugano, and Beaver, and to be honest, I would prefer to get rid of one of the former two by now, because both of them were outright dangerous to our own cause in 2016. Beaver was merely dull…

We could use a right-handed batting utility infielder, that’s one thing we could make good use of. Right or switch. Other than that we are in no position to gain much by making more sweeping changes…

More ex-Coons sneaking onto rosters through back doors: Nelson Chavez (at age 40) signed a 1-yr, $298k deal with the Cyclones; Ron Sakellaris cheated the Rebels out of $1.56M for three years;

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2017 HALL OF FAME VOTING RESULTS

The Hall of Fame population grows by two in 2017, with one position player and one pitcher elected. Below are the final voting results, with percentage of votes and the year on the ballot listed for all players.

CIN LF Dan Morris – 1st – 97.3 – INDUCTED
BOS CL Javier Navarro – 2nd – 91.1 – INDUCTED
??? SP Jason O’Halloran – 1st – 72.7
CHA 2B Juan Barrón – 2nd – 60.4
SAC SP Whit Reeves – 2nd – 57.0
IND 3B David Lopez – 2nd – 56.7
SFB CL William Henderson – 6th – 43.7
NYC SP Anibal Sandoval – 3rd – 35.5
BOS LF Jose Martinez – 10th – 29.0 – DROPPED
OCT SS Bob Grant – 4th – 18.4
??? SP Jorge Chapa – 1st – 11.6
NAS 3B Leborio Catalo – 1st – 9.6
NAS CL Lorenzo Flores – 2nd – 8.5
BOS C Luis Lopez – 1st – 7.2
DAL CL Arthur Joplin – 2nd – 4.8 – DROPPED
MIL 2B Jim Stein – 4th – 4.1 – DROPPED
??? CL Leonardo Sosa – 1st – 3.8 – DROPPED
??? 2B Masaaki Matsumoto – 3rd – 3.1 – DROPPED
NYC RF Avery Johnson – 2nd – 2.4 – DROPPED
??? 2B Hubert Green – 2nd – 2.0 – DROPPED
DAL C Rob James – 3rd – 2.0 – DROPPED
??? SP Vaughn Higgins – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED

Both Morris and Navarro are the second inductees for their teams, joining Claudio Rojas and Hjalmar Flygt in that order.

Morris was the seventh overall pick in the 1991 draft and would debut the next year in the majors, spending his first 16 seasons with the Cyclones, who never seemed to win much during that time. After a tour through Vancouver and Los Angeles, the 11-time All Star Morris returned to Cincy just in time late in the 2010 season to make the playoffs with the Cyclones and beat the Raccoons in the 2010 World Series. He won two batting titles (1994, 2007), led the league in home runs twice (1995, 2006), and won two Player of the Year awards (1995, 1997).

While Morris spent almost all of his career with the same team, Javier “Baby Bull” Navarro was a frequent traveler, who spent time with no less than ten different teams in his career, including two tours of duty with the Indians, but he was the longest with the Titans, the team the Venezuelan right-hander signed with as an international free agent in 1987 and he debuted with in 1990, remaining with them until 1996, which unfortunately meant that he was no longer a member of their late-90s dynasty that dominated the league and won three World Series titles. Navarro never won a title, but made nine All Star teams and led the league in saves once in 2003 for the Wolves, a team that missed the playoffs by one game, and when they qualified the next year, Navarro had already moved on.

HALL OF FAME OUTLOOK

Next year will have a sizeable contingent appearing on the ballot, including most of the strong Loggers core that they had around 2000 and that never won anything, including Jerry Fletcher, Bakile Hiwalani, and Cristo Ramirez, with the latter two having good chances to make the Hall on the first ballot. Another shoe-in could be Javier Cruz, one of three Blue Sox on the ballot, who won 256 games and was Pitcher of the Year twice. The jury is out on Antonio Donis, who will appear on the ballot as a Gold Sock, and whose career path was odd to say the least, starting as a starting pitcher, dropping to the bullpen and closing for a short time, before rejoining the Gold Sox rotation at 33 just in time to lead his league in WHIP five times in the next seven years. He only won 169 games in his career, and only had 2,164 strikeouts, but between the lines a valid Hall of Fame case can be made out.

2019 could see four more Titans from their dynasty on the ballot, although those will be the secondaries that didn’t win championships on their own, as well as the last piece of the Loggers’ dynasty, Bartolo Hernandez. Chris York, who finally retired and last pitched in the Bigs in 2013, will also be up for election in ’19 and might be a borderline first ballot case due to his 3.81 ERA.

No Raccoons are going to appear on the ballot for the foreseeable future.