Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

It’s Christmas Eve. Chad has passed out on the couch, softly snoozing from under the raccoon head, with one of those red Christmas hats hung over the mascot head’s nose. Maud made all of us around here wear them, including Gabriel Martinez, whose hat was never seen again afterwards (I assume he killed it, then ate it, raw) and also pulled one of the hats over my head, and I wore it for about three seconds, a new world record. I hate everything that resembles simple joy. My joys are limited to winning World Championships.

I have not had joy in 25 years.

Maud didn’t mind, she was humming and singing and decorating all week before the holidays, which normally also wasn’t her style. I ended up learning from Steve from Accounting that the reason that she wore something other than gray for the first time in a decade was that she was going to have her first date* with an actual* living* man* since ’09.

*There are individual past experiences she has that warrant every single one of those asterisks…

And bless her, but we had some actual baseball business to conduct ‘round here, and the Raccoons were thoroughly active in December and locked up three new players for the coming season! But please, spare your excitement, Sam McMullen is not gonna be among them. Not by a mile.

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December 3 – The Miners acquire 32-yr old SP/MR Ed Michaels (55-59, 4.24 ERA) from the Thunder, parting with two prospects, and send two more prospects the Blue Sox’ way for 26-yr old MR Justin Stewart (4-4, 3.98 ERA, 1 SV). None of the four prospects are very special.
December 4 – The Rebels add ex-PIT CL Matt Collins (51-30, 2.61 ERA, 157 SV). The 35-year old left-hander will get $4.94M over three years.
December 4 – The Loggers get SP Troy McCaskill (44-30, 3.67 ERA) in a trade with the Condors, sending SS/2B Cameron Konrath (.266, 12 HR, 84 RBI) and a prospect to Tijuana.
December 4 – The Indians trade LF/CF Josh Baker (.257, 4 HR, 91 RBI) to the Capitals for C Nolan Mancuso (.231, 10 HR, 69 RBI). What looks like a switch of backups does also send promising, but yet unranked pitching prospect Killian Savoie to Indianapolis.
December 5 – The Raccoons pick up 27-yr old SS/2B Tim Prince (.266, 11 HR, 114 RBI) in a trade with the Miners, who receive 24-yr old AAA SP Chris Munroe (8-16, 4.52 ERA).
December 5 – The Loggers part with their closer Troy Charters (17-22, 4.39 ERA, 70 SV), sending him to the Dallas Stars for two prospects.
December 8 – The Warriors strike big in the pitching market, signing ex-VAN SP Sam McMullen (80-63, 3.25 ERA) to a 6-year deal that will earn the 29-year old southpaw $22.64M.
December 12 – The Pacifics sign ex-NYC INF Carlos Martinez (.257, 157 HR, 742 RBI) to a 2-year deal that will leave the 34-year old player with $1.88M.
December 14 – 34-year old superstar LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.329, 295 HR, 1,190 RBI), coming off the Warriors’ roster, signs a 2-yr, $7.12M deal with the Cyclones. There are health concerns with Morales, which probably prevented him from getting a longer deal.
December 15 – Another ex-Warrior is signed elsewhere, as 1B Stanley Murphy (.288, 292 HR, 1,217 RBI) hooks up with the Gold Sox. The 38-year old first baseman will earn $1.72M for one season of his precious services.
December 16 – 35-yr old World Champion 1B Alberto Rodriguez (.294, 132 HR, 972 RBI) is signed by the Scorpions for three years and $8.56M.
December 17 – The Raccoons sign ex-SFB LF/RF Eddie Jackson (.267, 58 HR, 388 RBI) to a 2-yr, $1.5M contract.
December 17 – After four years in Sacramento and New York, CL Helio Maggessi (56-35, 2.30 ERA, 164 SV) comes home to Indianapolis, having pitched for the Indians from 2006 through 2013. The 33-year old reliever will make a whopping $5.88M over three years.
December 20 – Moving inside the CL North, ex-IND C Dave Padilla (.281, 49 HR, 324 RBI) signs with the Canadiens, pocketing $6M over four years.
December 20 – The Crusaders also find themselves a new catcher in ex-PIT C Bartholomeu Pino (.266, 246 HR, 1,077 RBI). The 36-year old right-hander will receive $4.66M over three years.
December 21 – Former Thunder SP Brian Benjamin (49-61, 4.39 ERA) gets a 3-yr, $2.88M deal from the Stars.
December 23 – The Raccoons get pitching help with ex-Loggers SP Ricky Mendoza (107-98, 4.49 ERA). The 34-year old right-hander signs for one year and $450k.
December 24 – 32-year old right-hander Tim Winston (90-85, 3.82 ERA), a former Scorpion, joins the Rebels for 2-yr, $2.76M.

+++

Signed out of the Greater Hoboken Beer League by the Miners in December 2015, Tim Prince won the Gold Glove at second base and the 2016 FL Rookie of the Year award. He is a bit of an on-base type o’ guy and doesn’t really have any power. He is a right-handed batter, and there would be the possibility to have him start at second base and get Shane Walter to start at first base. Mendoza would start in right, or could even relieve Cookie in center and we move Cookie to right.

Also, Tim Prince is happy to be here.

This is a bit of a trade that only works out for us if Chris Munroe was really a flash in the pan. If the Miners realign him by bending his appendages into the correct positions, this was one of those all-time terrible trades, because Munroe looked like an actual gold grab in 2016, but couldn’t get anybody out last year. Prince doesn’t make the lineup better, except against left-handed pitching, where he makes it less one-dimensional and less prone to complete chokes.

This was at the winter meetings, with several other useful players that were either veterans who knew they weren’t getting a 6-year deal, or in one case a certified playoff dream killer, that the Raccoons were still after. None of them was batting left-handed. We had well enough left-handed bats, we needed more right-handed hitting.

I was after a number of free agents and we offered more or less every penny that was available at the time, bidding on five players total. One of those was 35-year old Clay Messer, who was able to competently man almost every corner position and was a right-handed batter, but we actually ran out of money and were out-bid by the Gold Sox for his services. Not that this was the end of the world. We’re talking about players that were on six teams in six years and that are willing to sign for $300k in December.

Not from that mold was Eddie Jackson, who had played a big part in beating the Critters in the CLCS in October. He was exactly the meaningful, right-handed bat off the bench and to sub out R.J. DeWeese, who was not pretty to look at against left-handed pitching at all, that the Raccoons had lacked between Margolis and Bergquist in 2017. And 2016. And …

And who knows, if he hits well in April, maybe I will not poison him.

Then there is Mendoza, whose output in the last few years was totally not pretty, but I keep thinking that bad defense hurt him with all those relatively high BABIP’s and that is something that should be helped on an infield with McKnight, Nunley, and the recent addition Prince or Shane Walter at second base. He looks like he has the potential to be better than Damani Knight, and that is all we could ask for right at the end of our budget.

Said budget room is still extremely tightly squeezed with two more offers out there to another infielder and a relief pitcher.

+++

Other former Coons and what they will be up to: the Crusaders signed William Waggoner for merely $434k during the winter meetings. A.J. Bartels gets $476k from the Elks to fool around in a pink hat in 2018. Brendan Teasdale got $236k from the Thunder.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Are you going into OOTP 18 soon?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

Are you going into OOTP 18 soon?

Nope. Not until it is rock solid and I don’t see any ‘this and that is broken/bugged/smells’ threads anymore. There are too many thousands of hours in this little project of mine to consign it to the ferocious fires of a version 1.00…

+++

New Year’s Eve brought news that the Warriors’ Bartolo Ortíz had retired after re-tearing his surgically repaired ulnar collateral ligament. He had originally had Tommy John surgery in July while still playing with the Loggers. Ortíz, 33, had spent most of his time in the ABL as a reliever, but had been a starter for a few years with marked success. He won the 2015 FL ERA title while going a marginal 16-3 for the Warriors.

In late December as well, Kevin Beaver – while still laboring laboring on the torn rotator cuff that put him out of action halfway through 2017 – who was at least questionable for the start of the season at least, the Knights pick him up anyway on a 2-yr, $1.4M contract. Good for him!

… except, no. In late January, Beaver announced his retirement after surgery turned out to have been a failure and he had to get his shoulder sewn together yet again just to be able to eat with knife and fork again in the future. A return to baseball was not in the cards, and the 33-year old lefty was thus out of baseball, the Raccoons remaining the last station on his major league journey that saw him rack up a 47-52 record with a 3.83 ERA and 56 saves. He appeared in 597 games for five different teams, four of those in the Federal League.

Ah. Sad.

That aside, January was relatively calm in Portland. There were no reasonable trades to do if you didn’t see sense in trading Matt Nunley for a box of bananas infested with tarantulas. We signed another right-handed reliever this month, and were engaged in a slow-motion bidding war for the services of an infielder coming off the roster of a division rival.

+++

January 2 – Career Star 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.316, 169 HR, 1,190 RBI) will remain in Dallas after his contract ends at the conclusion of the 2018 season. The 37-year old signs a 2-yr, $5.12M extension with the Stars.
January 5 – Former WAS MR Wade Davis (28-37, 4.40 ERA, 3 SV) joins the Raccoons on a 2-yr, $1M deal.
January 9 – Star pitcher Rod Taylor (197-138, 3.47 ERA) signs a 3-yr, $5.7M contract with the Pacifics. Taylor, 37, had spent his entire career with the Canadiens so far.
January 12 – After two years in New York, 34-yr old RF/LF Winston Jones (.290, 142 HR, 889 RBI) signs with the Gold Sox for two years and $4.64M.
January 13 – The Crusaders sign 24-year old Cuban defector INF Sergio Valdez to a 6-yr, $8.86M contract.
January 15 – The Indians pick up ex-CHA SP Pablo Sanchez (47-67, 3.71 ERA) on a 3-yr, $4.18M contract.
January 20 – Excellent defensive catcher Morgan Little (.247, 51 HR, 350 RBI) signs with the Rebels for 2-yr, $1.44M. Little was with the Canadiens for the last two-and-a-half years.
January 21 – Ex-NYC MR Salvadaro Soure (74-67, 2.05 ERA, 437 SV) signs a lucrative 2-yr, $2.48M deal with the Warriors.

+++

Valdez would have been a guy I would have liked on the roster, but his demand was too high to take a gamble, especially with more important holes to fill. Tim Prince is a much better solution.

Funny story about the #14 pick in the upcoming draft. It was originally the Crusaders’, but they forfeited it to the Gold Sox when they signed Jens Carroll. With the Sox now signing Winston Jones, they forfeit the pick back to where it came from. Since the Crusaders signed Tom Weise in the meantime to forfeit their second-round pick to the Miners, they are now left with the fascinating situation of having lost their second-round pick, but not their first-round pick despite that being in the latter half of the draft.

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2018 HALL OF FAME VOTING

Three players have been inducted into the Hall of Fame on the current ballot, and all of them are the third player for the team with whose cap insignia they are inducted into the Hall.

Garnering the most support from the voters was Cristo Ramirez, who spent his first 16 seasons with the Loggers and twice was the Player of the Year in the Continental League, in 1993 and 1998. In the former year, he led the league in slugging and OPS despite hitting only five home runs, knocking 15 triples and 48 doubles instead along with a .382 batting average. In total won he batting title three times, led the league in hits five times, in triples seven times, and in doubles twice, and also took home two Gold Gloves. He was an absolutely amazing player in his 20s, but started to decline right after turning 30. All his accolades were won in his 20s. Playing in the ABL from 1989 through 2012, he is only the second Hall of Famer to have played in the ABL in four decades, the other being career saves king Andres Ramirez (1977-2001).

Antonio Donis was a bit of a wild card on the ballot, given that he made 297 starts in his 713 appearances, and collected neither wins nor saves in any meaningful manner and his career 2.93 ERA was not really good for a relief pitcher. Donis struggled in his 20s after debuting with the Raccoons in 1995, with 43 of his first 70 appearances being starts. After that (and moving to the Gold Sox in 2001) he made only 18 more starts through his age 32 season (2004) and made his bread as a reliever with only 45 saves in his bank, including 28 in an otherwise fruitless 2000 campaign. The Gold Sox moved him to the rotation in 2005, where he was suddenly an instant success. Over the next seven years he would lead the league in WHIP five times, in ERA twice, and won three Pitcher of the Year titles at age 34, 38, and 39, the last two with the Thunder.

Despite not even netting the most votes among left-handed pitchers, Jason O’Halloran is the final inductee into the Hall. Spending 16 of his 19 major league seasons with the Titans, O’Halloran was a model for consistency and longevity. He led the league in ERA and WHIP only once, in 2003, the year in which he also won the Pitcher of the Year award. He was an All Star only four times, but convinced voters with a highly consistent career output, including 12 straight seasons of an ERA+ of 109 or better, including nine seasons of 122 or better, and 15 straight seasons without a single missed start.

A third starting pitcher, Javier Cruz, missed first-ballot induction by a single vote.

MIL RF Cristo Ramirez – 1st – 95.3 – INDUCTED
DEN SP Antonio Donis – 1st – 87.2 – INDUCTED
BOS SP Jason O’Halloran – 2nd – 85.7 – INDUCTED
NAS SP Javier Cruz – 1st – 74.8
SAC SP Whit Reeves – 3rd – 70.5
CHA 2B Juan Barrón – 3rd – 66.3
MIL LF Bakile Hiwalani – 1st – 35.7
SFB CL William Henderson – 7th – 35.7
NYC SP Anibal Sandoval – 4th – 12.8
IND 3B David Lopez – 3rd – 12.8
MIL CF Jerry Fletcher – 1st – 10.1
NAS CL Jose Escobar – 1st – 6.6
PIT CL Paco Barrera – 1st – 6.6
NAS CL Lorenzo Flores – 3rd – 4.7 – DROPPED
OCT 3B Takahashi Higashi – 1st – 3.9 – DROPPED
??? SP Jorge Chapa – 2nd – 3.5 – DROPPED
OCT SS Bob Grant – 5th – 3.5 – DROPPED
??? SP Larry Cutts – 1st – 2.3 – DROPPED
SAL SP Raúl Chavez – 1st – 2.3 – DROPPED
NAS 3B Leborio Catalo – 2nd – 1.9 – DROPPED
??? SP Johnny Collins – 1st – 1.9 – DROPPED
WAS LF Jesus Rivera – 1st – 1.9 – DROPPED
BOS C Luis Lopez – 2nd – 1.6 – DROPPED
DAL C Rafael Garza – 1st – 0.4 – DROPPED
DEN RF Pedro Pujols – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED
NAS LF Freddie Jones – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

There wasn’t really much to do in the latter half of a mostly boring offseason. I have already gone into how trades were hard to do with the way the roster was composed right now. Half the money was locked up with players we absolutely could not trade, and while we needed infield and bullpen help from the start, the only players with medium-sized salaries were infielders and relievers and trading those would have been a bit dumb to begin with.

So, with the absence of prospects in the system, except for Danny Arguello, who was always popular with other teams, we had to rely on the free agent market, and while we had signed a number of players so far (though nobody that would make anybody all giddy in their pants), there was one more player we were holding out for, another infielder to stretch the personnel there.

And dearest Joey Mathews of the Indians took a lot of time. Negotiations started in December, and by the time we packed stuff for preseason training, still weren’t concluded. Mathews certainly wasn’t special in any way, just like everybody else we had signed so far. Infielder, playing three positions well, but not much of a bat. He was a switch-hitter, but he’d be in a backup role. The 34-year old career Indian had only four seasons with a qualifying number of plate appearances, so he was used to playing second fiddle – or more like fifth fiddle.

While that deal was suspended in limbo for months and months and months, I had to busy myself signing minor league deals with a few roster washouts from elsewhere.

There was one more roster washout that remained available deep into February, and that was Jason Bergquist. Entirely unloved by the baseball community after batting less than .220 four times in his five major league seasons, Bergquist was an interesting option for what he was not – a major league caliber player. However, we lacked infielders in AAA. In the middle of February, we had four infielders signed to the Alley Cats, including no prospects, and one of those was already such a recent washout signing. If we could get Bergquist back onto the AAA roster, I would perhaps bother with him again, just as insurance.

It wasn’t like the major league roster was teeming with infielders, either. There were exactly six-and-a-half. Around the horn there were Nunley, McKnight, Prince, and Walter. Plus Moya and Petracek. And the Tiger, who was right now just as likely to play centerfield than anything else. Moya wasn’t likely to start the season on the major league roster and would be sent packing to AAA (provided he’d clear waivers) if we could get Mathews to sign.

But that took FOR-E-VER.

+++

January 28 – The Pacifics ink ex-PIT 1B Dave McCormick (.310, 188 HR, 915 RBI) to a 3-year deal. The 37-year old can expect to pocket $3.3M.
January 29 – The Scorpions shell out $3M over three years to ex-POR MR John Korb (21-18, 5.24 ERA, 9 SV), whom they intend to use as a starter.
February 23 – The Gold Sox come to terms with ex-DAL CL Patrick Mercier (55-46, 3.03 ERA, 213 SV), signing him to a 2-yr, $1.5M deal.
February 24 – The Raccoons add ex-IND INF Joey Mathews (.249, 49 HR, 342 RBI) to the roster. The 34-year old signs a 1-yr, $570k contract.
March 3 – The Crusaders add another pitcher in ex-DEN SP Ted McKenzie (63-79, 4.37 ERA), who signs on for $820k for the 2018 season.
March 26 – The Raccoons sign a 34-year old reclamation project in ex-RIC/LAP MR Barry MacDonald (24-23, 4.80 ERA, 7 SV), who will make $265k in 2018.

+++

Outfielder Matt Stubbs was waived and DFA’ed to make room for Mathews on the 40-man roster. I tried to trade any out of the fringe outfielder group (Stubbs, Johnson, Ochoa, Thomson), but the only team even remotely interested into some of them were the Capitals, but only if they could dump the dead contract of ex-Coon Cássio Boda onto us. Since our interest in AAA relievers in their mid-30s with half a million bucks of ballast was rather understandably limited, we passed on the notion. Stubbs cleared waivers after all and was reassigned to AAA.

MacDonald, whose last two changes of climate had been increasingly unsuccessful, was an extra reliever that would not make the Opening Day roster. I’m not quite getting it why he has absolutely no success, since his stuff is great on paper. He just gets punked whenever he takes the ball. If we can get him through waivers and he accepts the assignment to AAA, fine, and if not then the worst case scenario is a quarter million dollar simply having burned up somehow.

I’m sure the Mexican Prick will be understanding.

The timing of the MacDonald signing is perfect, however. It is late enough so he doesn’t have to be put on the 40-man roster before the season starts, lingering on the 10-day DFA list instead. Once the season begins, Ricky Moya will be waived and DFA’ed, we’ll use the open roster spot on the 40-man for MacDonald, then waive him instantly.

And more from the former Furballs: Bruce Morrison got $270k from the Knights. Matt Pruitt snatched $524k over two years from the Condors. Rob Howell becomes a Cyclone for $264k. Adam Riddle joined the Crusaders for $924k over two years. Pat Slayton hooked up with the Thunder for $238k.

[Westheim]

2018 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2017 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Jonathan Toner, 27, B:R, T:R (18-9, 1.94 ERA | 70-32, 2.35 ERA) – coming off his second Pitcher of the Year campaign, Jonny Toner will be trying to reach for that elusive triple crown again. For the second time in three years, wins were the thing where he got beat. Might just about be the very best pitcher in the league right now, and he has led the league in ERA three times in four years, in strikeouts twice, and in K/9 three years in a row, with the value steadily rising, reaching 11.4 K/9 in 2017.
SP Tadasu Abe, 26, B:R, T:R (22-10, 3.12 ERA | 35-19, 3.23 ERA) – huge arsenal that allows him to dazzle batters and keep them guessing; led the CL in wins despite being prone to home runs (20 conceded in ’17) in his sophomore season, which came a bit surprising.
SP Hector Santos, 29, B:S, T:R (13-6, 2.50 ERA | 80-60, 3.19 ERA) – sometimes a bit the forgotten man in the rotation, Santos silently led the league in WHIP in 2017 (for the second year in a row!), also thanks to a career-best BABIP (and the lowest in the CL), but his sub-1.5 BB/9 is also a great advantage to keep runners off base. While he failed to strike out 200 last season, he is surely among the best number threes in the game. His slider is the bane of batting, but unfortunately he tends to leave things hanging over the middle from time to time to get clonkered. He’s allowed 122 homers in 1,335 innings, with a career-high of 30 dingers in 2013, which then led the league.
SP Ricky Mendoza *, 34, B:S, T:R (10-11, 5.15 ERA | 107-98, 4.49 ERA, 1 SV) – the Raccoons’ annual attempt to fill the hole at the back end of the rotation hasn’t pitched to a sub-4 ERA since 2011, so the value to be gained here is still uncertain.
SP Nick Brown, 40, B:L, T:L (8-4, 4.53 ERA | 223-130, 2.86 ERA) – the stuff is really gone, and the only way for Brownie to make it through a game is by consistently feeding balls to the infielders. Whether he even keeps the spot in the rotation is entirely up in the air so far.

LR Chet Cummings *, 32, B:R, T:R (0-2, 5.73 ERA | 5-6, 4.12 ERA, 3 SV) – one piece (along with Kaiser) in the Adam Young giveaway, Cummings’ scouting report and track record indicate that he is primarily suited for long relief, and really nothing else.
MR Wade Davis *, 28, B:R, T:R (4-3, 3.90 ERA | 28-37, 4.40 ERA, 3 SV) – groundball pitcher with a basic splitter/sinker combo brought in as free agent to fill the ranks. No Jayden Reed-type numbers of strikeouts are to be expected, although Reed was cheaper than him last year.
MR Seung-mo Chun, 29, B:S, T:R (1-2, 2.88 ERA, 1 SV | 5-5, 3.30 ERA, 3 SV) – routinely handles the seventh inning with great consistency, but he lacks the stuff to put hitters away reliably in close situations, which in our view limits his value in later innings.
MR Jason Kaiser *, 31, B:L, T:L (2-1, 4.50 ERA, 1 SV | 7-6, 3.29 ERA, 2 SV) – Kaiser is a general purpose left-hander with pretty alarming walk numbers that was the other piece that came in return for Adam Young. If things go pear-shaped for Nick Brown (which is something we had to account for), then Kaiser might be the first guy to slide into the rotation.
SU Chris Mathis, 31, B:R, T:R (4-1, 1.56 ERA, 7 SV | 19-10, 2.59 ERA, 20 SV) – oddly unreliable in a closing assignment despite strong overall numbers, Mathis continues to be an enigma to his own front office. He has developed a reputation for streaking, with lights-out stretches alternating with several outings in a row in which he creates a mess or incinerates somebody else’s mess.
SU Ron Thrasher, 30, B:L, T:L (2-3, 2.29 ERA, 6 SV | 27-24, 2.71 ERA, 38 SV) – blessed with an executioner’s stuff, but saddled with a drunkard’s control, Ron continues to strike out 12.3 per nine innings (a career value) while walking close to as many. Terrible choice to bring in with the bases full and the tying run at third, but if you start an inning with him he usually has enough space for his faux-passes.
CL Alex Ramirez, 32, B:R, T:R (3-2, 3.63 ERA, 28 SV| 36-28, 3.41 ERA, 59 SV) – the luxury closer deal that Ramirez got did not pay off for the Critters in 2017, who got a very good first half of the season from Ramirez before he simply stopped retiring people. He is back in the closer’s role due to other options simply not available.

C Mike Denny, 27, B:R, T:R (.261, 17 HR, 67 RBI | .252, 33 HR, 134 RBI) – it was a mild breakout at best for Denny, who had been the backup in Indy for the first three years of his career, but he produced along the lines of what he had hit for them, and the Critters have to be grateful for even that. Has power, but also considerable contact issues, with 113 K in 444 AB in ‘17.
C Danny Margolis, 27, B:R, T:R (.244, 2 HR, 21 RBI | .239, 12 HR, 63 RBI) – this poor man’s backup catcher continues to stick around mainly because better options were not financially feasible for the Raccoons. Good defensively, but struggling to hit any meaningful amount. Despite that, he enters his fifth major league season, and when has a catcher ever lasted the Critters five seasons?

2B/3B/SS/1B Shane Walter, 28, B:L, T:R (.300, 8 HR, 62 RBI | .286, 20 HR, 217 RBI) – versatile infielder that was claimed off waivers by the Crusaders early in 2016 and soon took over at second base for the hapless Howard Jones, despite dropping 24 points of batting average in Portland. With no real first baseman remaining on the roster, Walter is expected to slot over there to make room for Tim Prince.
2B/SS Tim Prince *, 27, B:R, T:R (.275, 3 HR, 36 RBI | .266, 11 HR, 114 RBI) – coming over in a trade with the Miners that saw Chris Munroe depart to Pennsylvania, Prince is a pretty daft defensive second basemen (which should help our stuff-challenged starters a ton), and while he hits for some average, he doesn’t possess any significant power. Has yet to hit for a .700 OPS in two major league seasons.
SS/2B/3B Ronnie McKnight, 27, B:L, T:R (.254, 17 HR, 78 RBI | .269, 52 HR, 243 RBI) – a unicorn, combining a power bat with a top notch glove at the premium defensive position on the field. What is not to like about that?
3B Matt Nunley, 27, B:L, T:R (.319, 9 HR, 78 RBI | .294, 41 HR, 261 RBI) – after a lull in ’16, Matt finished third in the batting race in 2017 behind Cookie and some Adrian Quebell. Paired with excellent defense at the hot corner for which he is continuously not rewarded, he is everything a GM can hope for from a third baseman. Wishing him to hit 25 homers would be a bit overkill.
RF/3B/2B/1B/LF/CF Brian Petracek, 27, B:S, T:R (.256, 4 HR, 29 RBI | .247, 6 HR, 41 RBI) – super utility player that is able to fill in everywhere in the field, although he didn’t hit much at all after a good offensive two months at the start of the year.
2B/3B/SS Joey Mathews *, 34, B:S, T:R (.263, 9 HR, 57 RBI | .249, 49 HR, 342 RBI) – former Indian that is quite versatile on the infield, and while his 2017 production looks interesting, he also batted a grisly .203 the year before that.

LF/RF R.J. DeWeese, 31, B:L, T:L (.229, 25 HR, 100 RBI | .247, 249 HR, 818 RBI) – okay, DeWeese is an asshole and a real cancer to any clubhouse, but at least he hits homers and drives in runs, even though 2017 was his worst season by OPS since he was a sophomore with the Miners. Third year of his monster 7-year deal, and we are still waiting for one of those seasons where he leads the league in homers, which he did twice with the Cyclones.
LF/CF/RF Ricardo Carmona, 26, B:L, T:R (.344, 2 HR, 52 RBI | .329, 17 HR, 272 RBI) – after missing six weeks in the early season, Cookie only managed to qualify for the batting title late in September, but then seized the chance and took it, his .344 mark leading the CL by a bunch. What we would love right now would be a season where he stays healthy, bats .333 and steals 50 bases again. He has never appeared in more than 146 games in a season, and missed 112 games total between the last two years.
RF/LF/CF/1B Hugo Mendoza, 27, B:L, T:L (.335, 36 HR, 141 RBI | .329, 167 HR, 658 RBI) – pitchers cry themselves to sleep three days before even having to throw baseballs in his direction, he is that good; batting for average, batting for power, and amassing a whopping 8.8 WAR (which is a worthless stat) in 2017 between the Raccoons and Stars, from whence he came in a blockbuster deal in late June when the Raccoons went all in. Should Mendoza fall into another 4-week hole like he did last July, the Raccoons could be in another spot of bother.
LF/RF Eddie Jackson *, 33, B:R, T:R (.254, 12 HR, 61 RBI | .267, 58 HR, 388 RBI) – the Raccoons were out-bid for Jackson’s services prior to the 2017 season and it ended with him batting .429 for the Bayhawks in the CLCS to rip our collective heart out. There are totally no ill feelings towards him.
LF/RF Brandon Johnson, 28, B:L, T:L (.338, 1 HR, 11 RBI | .296, 1 HR, 17 RBI) – that he batted .338 and still didn’t get more than 139 AB despite being on the roster all season long in 2017 probably speaks a bit over the actual grim details of his scouting reports. Can also fill in for the centerfielder.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
MR Barry MacDonald *, 34, B:S, T:R (3-4, 6.28 ERA, 1 SV | 24-23, 4.80 ERA, 1 SV) – another reclamation project the Coons signed for next to nothing in late March and hope to squeeze through waivers to provide depth at the AAA level. Yes, we have even run out of relief prospects.
2B/3B/SS Ricky Moya, 27, B:R, T:R (.167, 0 HR, 2 RBI | .167, 0 HR, 2 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; defensive infielder with little batting prowess that was on the 40-man roster for much longer than any meaningful prospect ever would without breaking the major leagues.

Note: Tom McNeela is NOT DFA’ed to start the season, which would have been the sixth year in a row where he is designated on Opening Day. He was already DFA’ed during the winter.

Opening day lineup:
Vs. RHP: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Toner
(Vs. LHP: CF Carmona – LF Jackson – RF H. Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – SS McKnight – 1B Walter – P Toner)

We actually have options for left-handed opposition now, with only two left-handed infielders on the roster, and also Jackson walking on as spare outfielder that is right-handed. We have two switch-hitting bench players in Mathews and Petracek, so flexibility has returned, and both could be inserted to rest left-handed regulars against southpaws.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The worst WAR loss the Raccoons took was the departure of free agent William Waggoner (+1.7), who was not an everyday starter past the Mendoza trade anyway, but still was worth twice as much as Adam Young in 2017. While the relievers received in the Young trade brought on a total of zip WAR, the freed up budget space helped patch the manifold other holes. Remember that the Raccoons started the offseason with scarcely half a bullpen and only three infielders. There is no big addition to the team this year because resources were simply not available, due to a flurry of huge contracts on the roster already, but perhaps the Tim Prince trade will at some point turn out to be a stroke of genius (I sure hope so). Overall the Raccoons gained 1.9 WAR and ranked seventh, tied with Tijuana, in the BNN table.

Top 5: Pacifics (+7.9), Crusaders (+7.6), Rebels (+6.7), Canadiens (+5.0), Scorpions (+5.0)
Bottom 5: Blue Sox (-4.4), Gold Sox (-5.4), Aces (-6.6), Loggers (-8.6), Miners (-9.0)

PREDICTION TIME:

I picked the Raccoons to finish 16 games out behind the Crusaders last year, when in reality the Crusaders ended up 13 games behind the Raccoons, who made the playoffs more or less by surprise thanks to rebounds from players like Matt Nunley, a strong 1-2-3 punch atop the rotation, and the timely addition of “Tiger” Mendoza.

Those three things are still here, as are two question marks at the back of the rotation and a bullpen that looks like having been randomly drawn from a $5 bin at the convenience store. The rotation will get the Raccoons a fair bit, and the lineup should be strong from the start, and the bench is also better than in 2017. In turn, the bullpen has gotten worse.

With the Indians good on pitching, but with a few soft spots in their lineup, and the Crusaders still hampered by lots and lots of bad contracts, the Raccoons have a good chance for their first back-to-back in division titles in over 20 years, but they can probably not get away with a pile of significant injuries, especially to any of the top three of the starting pitchers.

Since neither the Indians nor Crusaders look like a threat to win 100 games, and the Raccoons’ lineup has teeth all over for a change, I actually fancy our chances here.

Prediction: the Raccoons will go 94-68 and make it back to the playoffs, with the Indians and Crusaders both around 90 wins.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Farm? What farm? The Raccoons drop from 18th to 23rd with their prospects, and there is really not much to like about the few ranked prospects they have. They had six ranked prospects last year, they still have as many, but their three top 100 prospects turned into a single top 100 prospect. The balance was traded away (#24 John Waker, #92 Ricky Cruz), and #162 Alex Duarte exceeded rookie limits without really getting noticed.

67th (+17) – AA SP Danny Arguello, 21 – 2013 international free agent signed by Raccoons
107th (new) – AA SP J.J. Rodd, 22 – 2014 tenth round pick by the Raccoons
124th (new) – A 1B Ruben Santiago, 19 – 2017 first round pick by the Raccoons
132nd (-1) – AA SP Ricky Martinez, 23 – 2011 international free agent signed by Raccoons
148th (new) – AA 1B Michael Wilkerson, 21 – 2015 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
183rd (-8) – AAA OF Andy Bareford, 23 – 2013 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons

The franchise top 10 were completed by unranked A OF Kyle Muller (4th Rd. in ’17), AA CL Mike Rehbock (2nd Rd. in ’17), A INF Sam Armetta (3rd Rd. in ’14), and AA OF/1B Dwayne Metts (3rd Rd. in ’16).

No, I still can’t draft. Stop asking.

The top 5 overall prospects this year are:

#1 VAN AAA OF Alex Torres (was #22)
#2 DEN SP Tommy Weintraub (was #3)
#3 TOP A CL Matt Duskin (newly drafted in 2017)
#4 SFW A OF Adrian Feliz (was #31)
#5 DEN AAA SP Warren Polito (was #6)

Weintraub has been in the top 3 for three years, and Polito has been in the top 6 for three years.

Last year’s #4 (LAP C Matt Dehne) and #5 (SAL OF/1B/2B) Quinn Jewell dropped to #9 and #6, respectively, while the top two from last year, TIJ SP Andrew Gudeman and NAS INF John Muller, have been promoted to the majors.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Double time!

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 3-5, 2018

The Raccoons were to open the season on Tuesday with nine straight games coming up at home before hitting the road for the second weekend of the season, and then straight into poisonous Elkland. But for now the 62-100 Titans came to town trying to bounce back from their second 100-loss season in three years. They had not enjoyed a very good offseason, and when your biggest addition to the roster is the #69 prospect as your fourth starting pitcher, you’re probably not gonna get far from the bottom. Rick Ling was 23 and would not encounter the Raccoons for his debut. In ’17, the Raccoons had gone 12-6 against Boston.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Zach Boyer (0-0)
Tadasu Abe (0-0) vs. Chris Klein (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Dave Priest (0-0)

Three right-handers to start the year. The aforementioned Ling would be their only southpaw starter.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – 2B Lawson – RF Blake – LF J. Avila – SS M. Rivera – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Toner

The first panic of the season occurred right in the first inning, where Jonny logged two outs before Tom Thomas and Steve Butler both singled to center and Derek Lawson walked in a full count. With the bags stacked, Jonathan Blake struck out to keep the Titans away. Toner turned it up a notch after that and would strike out two in each of the first four innings. The Coons’ first six batters were turned away by Boyer until he walked Shane Walter to start the third inning. Tim Prince’s first at-bat resulted in a force at second base, but Prince then took second base, from where he didn’t move while Toner grounded out. Cookie then singled to left past the diminishing reach of an aged Mike Rivera, and Prince scored easily from second base, the first run of the season for the Raccoons. Mike Denny added two more in the fourth, plating DeWeese (who had walked) and McKnight (doubled to right center) with another single to left. Boyer continued to melt, with Walter hitting a single and Prince walking to load the bases, but Toner grounded back to the pitcher and caused Denny to get forced out at home. Cookie then flew out to Jose Avila in left, leaving the score at 3-0. The Titans would make up a run in the sixth (after Toner struck out the side in the fifth, giving him 11 K) thanks to Alex Mata’s leadoff pop falling into shallow left. Tom Thomas beat R.J. DeWeese with a liner into the gap to score the run, but was himself left on third base eventually. Toner had no K’s in this or the seventh inning, but nevertheless batted in the bottom 7th with one out and nobody on. He singled to center, and Cookie was quick to add a single of his own. Matt Nunley had been 0-for-3 so far in the opener, but crashed a pitch to deep right, where it missed being a 3-piece by precious little and instead rammed off the wall and bounced away from Jonathan Blake for a 2-run double. Boyer’s line would get worse by another three runs in the inning thanks to an intentional walk to Mendoza, and unintentional walk to DeWeese, and when Bill Pollard relieved him, the actual relief was marginal. McKnight hit a 2-run double, and Walter hit a sac fly to leave Boyer burdened by eight runs total. Toner’s day ended after a 2-out walk to Armando Galan in the eighth inning, but Jason Kaiser cleaned up behind him and the Raccoons won the opener handily. 8-1 Coons! Carmona 2-5, RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 1-2, BB, RBI; Toner 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

The Coons only had eight hits in the game, so it’s not like we completely blew Zach Boyer, who was unlucky by an enormous amount.

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – 2B Lawson – RF Blake – LF J. Avila – SS M. Rivera – P Klein
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Abe

Not only was Matt Nunley quick to make his first error of the season, skipping a throw through the dirt on Thomas’ 2-out grounder in the first so that Shane Walter couldn’t come up with it, no, that error also snowballed into three unearned runs in a real hurry. Abe walked Steve Butler, and other than Toner on Tuesday didn’t get out of his 2-out jam. Lawson singled to center, scoring Thomas, and Blake doubled up the leftfield line to plate two more before Avila’s drive to deep right was intercepted by Mendoza to prevent more damage from occurring. While Nunley was also the only Furball to get a hit the first time through the lineup, hitting a single in the bottom 1st, he wasn’t the only one to make an error early on. Walter committed one that put Galan on base at the start of the top 3rd, although this time the Titans didn’t score. Nunley in fact had the Critters’ first two hits, hitting a triple in the bottom 3rd and scoring on Mendoza’s bloop single to left, but while the Raccoons out-hit the Titans 7-4 in the first five innings, they couldn’t catch up with them on the scoreboard, and Abe also threw 102 pitches in five innings. When he faced the right-handed Lawson at the start of the sixth, Lawson jumped on him for a leadoff jack to left, and that was it for Abe in this game. The Coons continued to hit singles and to not score anybody. They had two one-base hits in the sixth, another one in the seventh, and didn’t come any closer. Maybe McKnight’s leadoff double in the bottom 8th could turn out helpful! Well, maybe, but the bottom of the order fabricated a groundout, reaching on Butler’s error, and then finally a double play. While that did score the run, the Coons ran out of outs without threatening much *despite* Eddie Jackson hitting another leadoff double in the bottom 9th. He was never scored as the 1-2-3 batters grounded out 1-2-3 times against Matt Branch. 4-2 Titans. Nunley 3-5, 3B; H. Mendoza 2-5, RBI; Denny 2-4; Walter 2-4, RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

We out-hit them by the final tally of the season series from 2017, 12-6, but it was just not enough to crack them open…

Game 3
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – 2B Lawson – RF Blake – LF X. Williams – SS M. Rivera – P Priest
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B Walter – C Margolis – 2B Mathews – P Santos

Cookie took his first base of the season in the first inning on Thursday, which allowed him to score on Mendoza’s single to center, putting the Coons up 1-0 early. Mendoza was then caught stealing when DeWeese flailed badly on a hit-and-run, but even calling it was probably stupid. Hector Santos would only allow one hit in the first three innings, but then allowed two at the start of the fourth inning, sending Galan and Thomas to the corners with no outs. Steve Butler’s fly to left was contained by DeWeese, but deep enough to tie the game on a sac fly. At least Thomas was stranded, and the Raccoons got their own sac fly in the bottom 4th to grab a new lead at 2-1. Mendoza had drawn a leadoff walk, DeWeese had singled, and after McKnight grounded into a fielder’s choice, Walter’s fly to center allowed Mendoza to come home from third base.

But with Santos pitching, a 1-run lead never left you comfortable. Too many balls jumping off bats. While he had only allowed one really deep drive early on, he allowed two of those in the sixth, though Mendoza and Cookie took care. By the seventh, the contact he allowed got even harder until with two outs Xavier Williams yanked one past the wall, a game-tying 2-out home run, 2-2. Margolis hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, but got washed up in Mathews’ double play. Chris Mathis’ season debut was a good one, holding the Titans short in the eighth, and technically we were still waiting for our own first home run of the season. DeWeese hit a drive to right in the bottom 8th, two outs, nobody on against Priest, but it fell down before breaking the desired plane and also into Blake’s glove. While we got another inning from Mathis (although he hit Williams with two outs), the Titans stuck to Priest, who entered the bottom 9th on 92 pitches. McKnight singled on pitch #93, putting the winning run on base. Walter bunted into a double play, which led to more than one guy in the ballpark dropping his beer in shock (and I sure hoped that Slappy would get the booze stain out of my carpet), and even then Margolis drove a ball to deep right – and that one ended with Blake as well for extra innings. Alex Ramirez dealt with the Titans quickly in his own season debut in the top 10th, whiffing two, before the bottom 10th saw Mathews roll out against Branch, and then Eddie Jackson’s drive to center was denied recognition by Alex Mata. Cookie came up, lined to left center for a hit, and stretched his paws a bit to reach second base with a double, which ended up not mattering with Nunley walking in a full count. Mendoza came up, ran 2-2 against Branch and then peppered another deep ball to center. Mata ran after that one in vain – the Coons walked off when the ball came down in front of the warning track. 3-2 Critters. Carmona 2-4, BB, 2B; H. Mendoza 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-4; Santos 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; Mathis 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Twice in this series I let Cookie, Nunley, and Mendoza bat in order against the left-handed Matt Branch. If this continues to work with a 50% success rate, I’m probably fine with it. It never came to DeWeese’s spot to come up, which would be an automatic PH assignment for anybody, even if it’s Chad with the ****ing mascot head still on.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Falcons (2-2) – April 6-8, 2018

The Falcons had allowed 18 runs in their series with the Thunder, which was the most so far in the Continental League, but they had also played the most games, so there was that. Steve Huibregtse had somehow driven in six runs already to lead the CL, but I’m almost sure that that was not going to hold up. The Coons lost the 2017 season series against Charlotte, 3-6, and they were the team we had the worst all-time record against among all the CL South teams at 182-187.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (0-0) vs. Alex Vallejo (0-0)
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Bobby Guerrero (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 1.17 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (0-1, 7.20 ERA)

That is three more right-handed pitchers. Since I like to give everybody a day off in the first string of games of a new season, and we might not be able to get to the Aces’ southpaw after this series, we will weave in f.e. Eddie Jackson over the weekend already. So far, the only non-starting-pitcher on the roster not to appear in a game so far is right-hander Wade Davis, although Petracek has only gotten one at-bat.

Game 1
CHA: SS Good – 1B Myers – C Holliman – RF Benson – LF Huibregtse – CF Je. Stephenson – 2B J. Estrada – 3B J. Soto – P Vallejo
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – C Denny – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza

That Falcons lineup contained seven left-handed batters, and that was about seven more than Ricky Mendoza could cope with. The first two innings were already dances on the edge of the volcano, while the Raccoons also both times left a man in scoring position, but he retired none of the first five batters in the third inning. He drilled Matt Good, who had started the game with a bunt base hit and a stolen base, but didn’t get to stealing again with Ralph Myers homering to dead center to give Charlotte a 2-0 lead. Ryan Holliman and Travis Benson both singled, Steve Huibregtse doubled, 3-0, and then the inning graciously ended on consecutive pops to left by Jeremy Stephenson and Juan Estrada. Benson didn’t go the first time against DeWeese’s arm, but made for it the second time and was thrown out at home. The Falcons added a run with a Benson homer in the fifth inning, but Alex Vallejo suffered a meltdown in the bottom of the inning. Ricky Mendoza opened with a single against the opposing pitcher – always nice when it happens for your team – but was forced by Cookie, who then stole second base. Nunley singled him in – the Raccoons’ only hit in the inning, while Vallejo walked another three batters, but with the bases loaded and in a 4-2 game, Denny flew out to Huibregtse to end the inning.

Ricky Mendoza’s day ended in the seventh inning after a 1-out single by Holliman, the only right-handed position player in the Falcons lineup. Kaiser replaced him, but conceded the run on Benson’s double, putting the Coons down 5-2. The tying runs were on base with one out in the bottom 7th however. Vallejo reached eight walks on the day with free passes to the Tiger and Eddie Jackson, while McKnight hit a 1-out single. Denny struck out, and after that reliever Blake Parr got PH Brandon Johnson to fly out to center… While the Raccoons kept failing, the Falcons kept adding. Juan Estrada tripled off Chet Cummings to start the eighth, and given Cummings’ general lack of stuff or even good fortune for his entire career, that run was not gonna stay on base. The Raccoons never got back on base and lost this one handily. 6-2 Falcons. Nunley 2-5, RBI; H. Mendoza 0-1, 4 BB;

The Tiger tied a franchise mark with four walks that all remained without any effect whatsoever as he scored zero runs. Held by a flurry of batters, the mark was most recently attained by Sandy Sambrano in 2016. Clyde Brady and Daniel Hall have the most 4-walk games as Critters, each doing it three times in regulation games, but Hall had another 4-walk game that stretched into extras. The only player with two 4-walk games in the playoffs? Vern Kinnear.

I could not sleep at all before the Saturday game.

Game 2
CHA: SS Good – 1B Myers – C Holliman – RF Benson – CF Feldmann – 2B B. Reyes – LF Mugan – 3B Pellot – P B. Guerrero
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – 1B Walter – C Denny – LF Johnson – 2B Prince – P Brown

… and for good reason. While Brownie struck out Ryan Holliman in the first inning – his first K in five appearances – he also lost Myers to a single and Benson to a homer and was 2-0 behind instantly. The Coons made up a run in the bottom 1st, which again involved Cookie singling, stealing, and scoring, this time on a Walter single, but Brownie tasted stale and crumbled all over the mound. While he struck out Alfonso Pellot in the second – 2 K! The rage! – he had the bases loaded in the third inning with one out and looked a bit lost. Benson grounded to Prince, whose only play was at first, and the Falcons got a run to get to 3-1. Then Ryan Feldmann blatantly hacked himself out to waste a golden chance to break open the score early. My bitter tears caused a brief rain delay in the bottom 3rd, and Brownie soldiered on, even whiffing Matt Good along the way before frightful defense completely unwound him in the sixth inning. Holliman drew a leadoff walk, but when Benson chopped a grounder in front of the plate, Denny wildly launched a throw to centerfield for a 2-base throwing error. Nunley couldn’t come up with Ryan Feldmann’s grounder on a 3-1 pitch and it escaped for a 2-run single to left, although Feldmann wound up at second base thanks to Brandon Johnson’s hopeless throw to home plate. Brown finished on a somewhat high note, striking out Bob Reyes (5 K?? Wut??) and escaped when both Troy Mugan and Pellot popped out, but the Falcons still held a 4-run lead and the Raccoons’ offense was dozing against Bobby Guerrero, and quietly made it through the game without raising much fuss. The exception was when they faced Blake Parr. Walter hit another single to reach base with one out, after which Jackson hit for Denny and rolled into a highly deflating double play. 5-1 Falcons. Carmona 2-4; Walter 2-4, RBI;

Brownie took all five runs, but two were unearned thanks to Denny’s horrendous throw right out of a third-rate 90s slasher movie.

All of Chad’s movie recommendations are third-rate 90s slasher movies, so I know a thing or two about those…

Game 3
CHA: SS Good – 1B Myers – C Holliman – RF Benson – CF Feldmann – LF Huibregtse – 2B B. Reyes – 3B Pellot – P Durr
POR: 3B Nunley – 1B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – C Denny – CF Petracek – 2B Prince – P Toner

Matt Good drew a leadoff walk to start the game against Jonny Toner, but the Falcons soon enough crashed their effort with a strike-em-out-throw-em-out when Good went just as Ralph Myers whiffed on 1-2, but the Falcons just waited another inning to jump onto Toner. Feldmann singled, Bob Reyes was drilled, and with two outs Alfonso Pellot lined a ball up the rightfield line that Jackson had no chance to make a play on, and Pellot slid in with a 2-out, 2-run triple. The Raccoons’ first four batters all grounded out to Reyes before Jackson took a ball to left for a double. Mike Denny finally broke into the home run column, the first dinger on the team, a mighty shot to left, tying the game again at two. DeWeese would fly out to strand runners on the corners in the bottom 3rd, and in the following inning Toner’s turn to bat came up with Jackson on second, Petracek on first, and two outs. Myers mishandled his grounder for an error and the bases were loaded for Matt Nunley, batting leadoff on Cookie’s day off, and popping out to Reyes.

Toner struck out eight through five innings, including another clean sweep in the fifth, and finally got a lead in the bottom of the same inning. Walter hit a leadoff single, but was forced out on McKnight’s grounder. DeWeese, batting .125 early on, doubled to the base of the wall, but McKnight had a bad read of that. Benson got a very bad bounce (or no bounce at all) and McKnight could have handily scored, instead stopping at third base. While he scored on the following single by Jackson, if he had gone home, maybe DeWeese could have moved to third with a triple. For some reason I got really worked up about this, but when Denny singled to right, DeWeese scored anyway and the matter didn’t matter anymore. Durr was removed before the inning was over, with Jose Cappelletti allowing another run to score on Prince’s 2-out single, his first RBI for the Coons. Toner whiffed to end the inning with a 5-2 score. He mowed down the Falcons through the middle innings up to the seventh, then suddenly hit a wall in the eighth. Reyes, Pellot, and Mugan all hit singles. None were hard, but all came with nobody out, and Ron Thrasher inherited a tremendous mess with the score down to 5-3, and runners on first and second. Matt Good was tasked to bunt, which was an interesting call as he was batting .385 out of the gate. The 24-year old got the runners into scoring position, but there they died as Thrasher struck out Myers and got a pop from Holliman to short, holding onto Toner’s lead for now. The Coons scratched out an insurance run in the bottom 8th off southpaw Johnny Watson, who issued a leadoff walk to Tim Prince. Cookie hit for Thrasher, grounded out, but that moved the runner over. Nunley plated him with a single to right. The inning looked like it was going to end when Tiger Mendoza hit for Walter and grounded to the right side, but Myers couldn’t make the play and the Coons had two on with one out even before Watson balked, then walked McKnight. Bases loaded, with Mathews batting for DeWeese and hitting a sac fly for another run. While that denied Alex Ramirez a save opportunity for the moment, Seung-mo Chun couldn’t stand the fact and desired to help him out. He allowed a single to Feldmann, then a 2-run homer to Reyes, and Ramirez came into the ninth after all, collecting a groundout from Pellot for his first save of the year. 7-5 Critters. Nunley 3-5, 2B, RBI; H. Mendoza (PH) 1-1; Jackson 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Denny 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (2-0);

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Aces (2-4) – April 9-11, 2018

The Aces were in last place in the South, and had lost their last four games after going up 2-0 initially to start the season. Hey were fifth in runs scored, but 11th in runs allowed. None of this means much after one week’s worth of games. We won the season series two years in a row, both times with a 6-3 outcome. While the Falcons had been our worst team all-time in the South, we had enjoyed the best success against the Aces over 41 years, 194-175 total.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (0-1, 1.80 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (1-0, 1.50 ERA)
Hector Santos (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Enrique Guzman (0-0, 1.59 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (0-1, 7.11 ERA) vs. Clark Johnson (0-1, 9.53 ERA)

As expected, we miss their southpaw Alex Morin (0-0, 5.87 ERA), so this series has us against three more right-handed starters. The only players that have not been rested so far are McKnight and Nunley, and we’ll start with the former in the series opener.

The Raccoons will be closerless in this series, as Alex Ramirez suffered a cut on the hand repairing his garage door on Sunday night. At least that’s what we skillfully leaked out to the ravenous press. I understand that this injury was incurred during sexual intercourse as his dear wife hung feet up from the ceiling ventilator and continuously spanked him with a set of whips, some of which had spikes woven into the fabric. But hey, to each his own. We’ll close by committee during this midweek set.

(inspects spiked whip) Alex, is there a shop for that or do these get specially made? – I see. – No, I only have an account with Amazin.com…

Game 1
LVA: CF Hubbard – RF D. Brown – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – 2B R. Walsh – 1B A. Perez – SS Hebberd – C D. Rice – P Valdevez
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – C Denny – SS Walter – 2B Prince – P Abe

In another early disaster, Abe got the first two outs in the first inning and then got shackled. He walked Izzy Alvarez before Matt Hamilton singled. After a wild pitch, he walked Rich Walsh as well, and then fell to a 2-run single by Arturo Perez that went to shallow center. The Coons produced a run in the bottom of the inning after singles by Nunley and DeWeese before Jackson reached on Bill Hebberd’s error. Mike Denny singled to left, DeWeese was sent from second and was thrown out. Abe continued to be out of control, issuing single walks in the next two innings, and also made an error in the second inning. Mendoza dropped a foul ball for another error in the bottom 3rd, as the Coons continued to play sloppily as a whole. None of those walks and errors gave the Aces another run, but it was UNPLEASANT TO LOOK AT.

That didn’t change as the innings passed. The Coons twice had two men on and then found their way into an inning-ending double play, hit by Mendoza first and Jackson later. Abe dangled on the edge of the cliff with the tips of his claws almost constantly, and somehow fudged together 6.1 innings of 2-run ball, evicted after a walk in the seventh, with Kaiser cleaning up after him. He remained on the hook after seven. The bottom 7th saw Denny hit a leadoff single before Walter and Johnson made unhelpful outs. McKnight batted for Kaiser, singled to left, but that was only enough to move Denny to third base, and Cookie’s fly to left was caught by Max Erickson to end the inning. The Coons faced Steve Rob in the bottom 9th, still in a 2-1 game, with the 5-6-7 batters up against the right-hander that had a 1.50 WHIP but a zip ERA so far. Jackson popped out, Denny grounded out, Walter grounded out. 2-1 Aces. Nunley 2-4; Denny 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Davis 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

I seriously miss some power ‘round here, and how about some clutch hitting in general?

Game 2
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – RF D. Brown – 3B A. Perez – 2B Hebberd – C D. Rice – P E. Guzman
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Walter – 2B Mathews – RF B. Johnson – C Margolis – P Santos

The Critters got the early start in the middle game on Tuesday as Cookie drew a walk, stole second base, and came home on McKnight’s double. McKnight in turn moved up on Mendoza’s fly to center and scored on a wild pitch before the Coons recrowded Guzman with a 2-0 lead. DeWeese doubled, Mathews reached on an error, but Brandon Johnson extended his early-season futility to 0-for-8 with a grounder to Bill Hebberd, which ended the inning. He hit a single his next time up, which came with the same score, two outs, and nobody on and thus was not entirely helpful, especially with Margolis haplessly flying out to Dan Brown. But at least Margolis had thrown out a runner to end an inning earlier, so he still had his uses…

While the offense for the home team continued to be crummy and they had no other hits in the first five innings, the contact that the Aces made off Santos became increasingly louder in the middle innings. Adam Flack hit a hard single with two outs in the sixth, the fourth hit for the Aces, and then DeWeese, who had already sucked up two potential doubles earlier, dropped Matt Hamilton’s fly to left for a bad error that put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs. Brent Burke came up, Santos missed grossly twice, then came down the middle, but Burke flew out harmlessly to DeWeese to waste the gifted chance. A few fans had already snoozed off when Shane Walter whacked a solo shot in the bottom 6th, bringing the score to 3-0 in an inning that had started with synchronized strikeouts by Mendoza and DeWeese, with both dropping their ice cold batting average to .208 in unison. Santos made it through seven before Danny Rice hit a leadoff double to right in the eighth. With left-handed batter Max Erickson out to pinch-hit, and three more left-handers atop the order, Ron Thrasher was called out urgently. He did the work in the grimmest way possible, striking out Erickson, Jimmy Hubbard, and Flack in order. After a sad bottom 8th the ball was handed to Chris Mathis, who got two outs before Brown singled. Arturo Perez was 0-3 with 3 K, but avoided the golden sombrero with a fly to right center. It still ended the game – Cookie was there. 3-0 Coons. Santos 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0); Thrasher 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

The offense – after eight games – is really crummy. Denny, McKnight, and Nunley are the only regulars over an .800 OPS, and only Shane Walter is close among the rest. All three starting outfielders are batting under .230 for a start. Prince is batting .118, and the bench has been unnoticeable so far with the exception of Eddie Jackson, who has a .789 OPS. It is early, but it is not pleasant.

Game 3
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – RF Erickson – C D. Rice – P C. Johnson
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza

Tiger Mendoza hit his way into another double play in the bottom 1st, but that was okay, since Cookie had reached on an error anyway. While the Raccoons took cover after that, Ricky Mendoza faced another lineup loaded with left-handers, and the 6-7-8 batters were all left-handed batters and they all hit 2-out singles in the second inning to plate a run for Las Vegas. The Aces had their first two men on base in the third before Izzy Alvarez hit sharply into a double play that helped Mendoza out of there, but in the fifth the Aces did get their second run when Danny Rice, who had driven in the first run with a single, homered to center. The bottom of the order kept unwinding Mendoza, who didn’t make it through six. Hamilton had hit a 1-out single in the inning and was still on first after Burke’s out. Mendoza walked Rich Walsh, then allowed an RBI single to Erickson and was yanked before Rice could to more damage to him. Kaiser came in to face him and got a grounder to Prince to end the inning with a 3-0 deficit.

The Coons had two measly hits in five innings and looked thoroughly beaten. Cookie rolled out, closing in on .200 fast, Nunley grounded out, and Mendoza somehow walked. When DeWeese whacked a homer off Johnson, well outta rightfield, it got the Critters back to 3-2, and maybe, just maybe, this could spark some life. Before we could get an answer to that, however, the Aces crowded Kaiser and Chun in the seventh inning and scored another run on a sac fly by Hamilton after getting three singles to load the bases, two of those off Kaiser, who was charged the run. Wade Davis threw 15 pitches in the eighth inning, none of which were called strikes. He walked Walsh and Hebberd, but the Aces made outs in 2-0 and 1-0 counts three times total.

All those shenanigans were entirely unhelpful in trying to turn a 4-2 game around. The Critters would get a splendid chance in the bottom of the eighth, however. Cookie drew a walk in a full count against Ken Chilcott, a left-hander, and then made it to third when Nunley singled to left. Hugo Mendoza struck out, with Jackson batting for DeWeese. The Aces sent Garret Purifoy to throw with the right arm, but Jackson singled to right to plate Cookie and move Nunley to second. With McKnight next, the Aces brought another lefty in Brian Aschenbrenner, who got the K, before the fourth pitcher of the inning faced Denny, with Justin Guerin coming in. Petracek batted for him, struck out, and after the greatest pains taken to score one run that didn’t matter, the Aces just snipped another one onto the board in the top 9th with Adam Flack’s triple off Mathis to start the inning. He scored on Alvarez’ sac fly, and they even loaded the bases before Rice grounded out to leave three men on. 5-3 Aces. DeWeese 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

(clenches fist, then bites into it)

Raccoons (4-5) @ Canadiens (3-6) – April 13-15, 2018

Last place loomed for the Critters in their first excursion into the uncivilized northern wildlands, meeting the Canadiens who had the fewest runs scored in the Continental League (not even three per game), but the Raccoons were certainly not displaying any offensive prowess right now. The Elks’ pitching was fifth in runs allowed, so mostly sound. The Raccoons had lost the season series three years in a row, including a 7-11 shaming in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. R.J. Lloyd (0-1, 9.64 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (0-1, 2.30 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (0-2, 2.38 ERA) vs. C.J. Fishel (2-0, 0.77 ERA)

One of these guys is a left-hander, one’s middle name is Jolie, and one has actively failed as a Raccoon and will undoubtedly beat Jonny on Saturday, because the universe hates us.

I decided against skipping Brownie at the first convenient opportunity, because it was not completely bad for him in his first start, and it would also be humiliating for him. Whether conceding eight runs in two innings to the ****ing Elks will be more humiliating can be discussed later on. He’ll always have that no-hitter, though.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Brown
VAN: 3B Partyka – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – LF K. Evans – CF Rinehart – SS Grooms – P Lloyd

The Coons got a run in the first, Cookie singling, stealing, scoring, and he was now 5/5 in the theft game in ’18. Mendoza got the RBI with a single to right. The lead didn’t last because the Elks got three singles for a run off Brownie in the bottom of the second. The Coons had three singles of their own, Mendoza, DeWeese, and McKnight hitting them consecutively with one out in the top 3rd, but didn’t yet get a run, only loading the bases for Mike Denny, who technically still had a 1.021 OPS, but was also prone to whiffing or getting doubled up. In this case he lined out instead, and Shane Walter grounding out to Jose Gutierrez kept the bases teeming. More bases loaded drama in the bottom 3rd; Gutierrez singled, Ezra Branch walked, and Brown drilled Dave Padilla, but then got out of the inning when Jesus Ramirez whiffed and Kurt Evans rolled over to Prince. Brownie failed in the top 4th, bunting badly to get Prince forced out, then also failed in the bottom 4th, conceding two runs on a whopping five singles that were hit every which way. The Coons had the bases loaded again with a leadoff single by DeWeese and walks issued to McKnight and Prince in the top 5th when Brown’s spot came up with two outs. It hurt me greatly, but he was to be pinch-hit for. Joey Mathews came out and of course grounded out harmlessly. We didn’t know it at that point, but after knocking nine hits and scoring only one ****ing run from them in five innings, the Raccoons would only get one more base knock the rest of the way. The Elks also cooled down, but got single hits off Cummings and Thrasher in the bottom 7th to add a run to their tally. Not that the Raccoons had been close to bringing up the tying run at all. 4-1 Canadiens. Carmona 2-5; Mendoza 2-5, RBI; DeWeese 2-4; McKnight 2-4; Prince 1-2, 2 BB;

All hits were singles. It was the Raccoons’ fifth game of the year with no extra-base hits or at most one extra-base hit. They have lost them all.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – LF Jackson – 2B Mathews – P Toner
VAN: 2B Rinehart – CF K. Evans – C Padilla – RF Branch – SS J. Gutierrez – 1B J. Ramirez – LF Cameron – 3B Partyka – P Bartels

After Cookie reached on an error by Jeff Rinehart to start the game, the Raccoons rapped off three straight singles to plate two early runs for Jonny Toner, who as usual for all starters on the roster had things unravel for him with two outs in the bottom 1st. Padilla hit a single to center, Branch hit an infield single on Mathews, and then Gutierrez walked to load them up. Jesus Ramirez flew to center, Cookie had to hustle in, but made the grab to end the inning and strand three. Bartels got romped in the third. Mendoza singled, and McKnight doubled the lead with a 2-run homer. Walter singled, Jackson hit off the wall in left, in the same general direction where McKnight’s drive had gone over, for a double, and then Mathews got four wide ones, bringing up Toner, no bad hitter, with one out. Not to our amusement, Jonny poked at 3-1 and grounded into a fielder’s choice, but the guy that was out was Mathews, and another run scored. Cookie fouled out on the first pitch to continue his early-season slump, but it was now 5-0 and we should be able to avoid sitting in last place after this or the next game (ties excluded) if Jonny could pitch halfway decently for another bunch of innings.

Yeah, well. Mathews made a wild throwing error to put Rinehart on to start the bottom 3rd, causing an extra run of damage when Dave Padilla homered to left, right into the crater left by McKnight’s bomb, and it was 5-2. Mathews knew he had to make up as a fringe addition to the roster, and when he had Walter and Jackson on the corners in the fifth inning he raked a Scott Hanson pitch to deep right, planting a 3-run homer in a full count, 8-2. Jonny was not as sharp as in the first two games, however. He issued a few walks, and he struck out considerably less. When the Elks had two on in the bottom 6th with only one out on the board, he could have used a K on Don Cameron, didn’t get it, but at least Mathews made a good defensive play for the second out. Then Mike Partyka yanked the first pitch he got (Toner’s 98th already) to deep right. The Tiger’s stripes were in motion as he hustled after that one, robbing Partyka of a 3-run shot right over the edge of the fence! What a play! The Elks in agony! Toner was soon as well; he hit a single in the top 7th, remained in the game after that, and was witness to the proceedings just long enough to walk Rinehart and get bumped by Padilla with a 2-run homer, bringing the Elks back into slam range. Jose Gutierrez homered off Wade Davis in the eighth to further close the score and we had to get Thrasher into the game to remove the two left-handers before a crisis could break out. Chun also pitched in the eighth, striking out Partyka to end the inning. No insurance run was in the cards, and Alex Ramirez got his first feature length save opportunity of the season, starting with PH Tim Pace in the bottom of the ninth. The right-hander doubled on 0-2, after which Rinehart and Evans made hard outs to Johnson in right and DeWeese in left, respectively. Dave Padilla, who had two homers and 80% of the Elks’ damage, struck out to end the game. 8-5 Furballs. McKnight 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Walter 2-3, 2 BB; Jackson 2-4, 2B; Mathews 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

Hey, hey, look, more than one extra-base hit – automatic win for the Coons.

We shall not ignore the fact though that Cookie batted 0-for-6 to drop UNDER .200 for the season, and that was not only the most horrible performance on the day. Nope, that honor belonged to Mike Denny, who went 0-for-5, striking out … every … single … ****ing … time.

Game 3
POR: 3B Nunley – LF Jackson – CF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – 1B Mathews – 2B Prince – C Margolis – RF Petracek – P Abe
VAN: 2B Rinehart – CF K. Evans – C Padilla – RF Branch – SS J. Gutierrez – 1B J. Ramirez – LF Cameron – 3B C. Alexander – P Fishel

The Tiger got his first home run of the season with a 2-piece in the first inning, collecting Jackson, who had singled. That was before Tadasu Abe completely crapped out and walked four Elks in the first inning. The Elks still didn’t score because Padilla hit into a double play in between and Jackson spoiled Ramirez’ vicious drive to left at the plate, but come on, Abe! What is it now!? In an outing that was *interesting* to put it mildly, Abe drew a walk for himself in the second inning, while issuing one walk each in the bottom 2nd and 3rd, and a wild pitch in the latter. He had no strikeouts through three innings, but had thrown 64 pitches, and had not allowed a run. The best explanation at that point was that the Elk Grounds had become entangled in one of those space anomalies everybody knew from Starship Otherwise, and when Abe came to bat – still in a 2-0 game – in the top 6th with two on and two out against Scott Hanson, the best guess was to just let him swing and hit that inevitable 3-run homer. Or maybe the ballpark would break free from the anomaly at this precise moment – Abe struck out, then got a K (his first) in the bottom 6th right before allowing singles to Ramirez and Cameron, back-to-back with two outs. Time to end his misery. Mathis came out, of course blatantly walked 26-year old rookie Chris Alexander, and then was lucky that Mendoza was quick on the feet and could catch up with Mario Rocha’s pinch-hit soft fly to shallow center, spoiling it before it could tie the game.

There hadn’t been much talk about the Raccoons’ offensive exploits after the first inning, which had a reason of course, since there weren’t any such exploits. They barely existed, and reached scoring position only once before the eighth inning when Mathews hit a 1-out double to left. Lefty Jose Flores was pitching, so I wasn’t going to hit either spare outfielder right now for Prince (who grounded out) or Margolis, who would have grounded out, but Alexander threw away his roller and that allowed Mathews to scamper home with the third run of the game. Petracek flew out to end the inning, Kurt Evans making the catch in center. Cookie batted leadoff in the ninth, still against Flores, in the #9 hole, where Jason Kaiser had just spun a 1-2-3 eighth. Cookie splintered a bat, but reached on the resulting dying swan to shallow center, which was all we could hope for right now. After Nunley and Jackson made poor outs, Cookie was caught stealing, for the first time this season, ending the inning. Alex Ramirez drilled the rookie Alexander in the bottom 9th, but the tying run did not come up. 3-0 Blighters. Mathews 2-4, 2 2B; Carmona (PH) 1-1;

Nunley batted squid-for-five in the leadoff spot, so he’s the next guy that needs a talk. We are having a flurry of problems really early on……

In other news

April 2 – Eight Opening Day games see a rainout, two 1-0 games, a 2-0 game, a 3-0 game, and two 3-1 games. The Wolves’ 7-5 win over the Gold Sox sees as many runs scored than all but one of the remaining contests.
April 3 – Three outfielders have 5-hit games; LVA LF/RF/1B Matt Hamilton (.667, 0 HR, 2 RBI) does so in a 5-1 win over the Knights, hitting two doubles in his five hits, SFW RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.556, 1 HR, 3 RBI) gets ample opportunities in the Warriors’ 18-9 shootout against the Stars, including a homer and a double in his five knocks, and SAC OF Ray Meade (.556, 0 HR, 3 RBI) has one double in his five hits in a 14-0 blowout of the Pacifics, in which SAC SP Noah “Bloody” Bricker (1-0, 0.00 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout.
April 4 – The Miners are dealt an early blow with news that star shortstop Tom McWhorter (.111, 0 HR, 0 RBI) will miss most or all of April with a separated shoulder.
April 4 – After 14 innings of 1-1 ball, the Loggers and Indians are still tied at 1-1. The Loggers push a run across in the top 15th on Kyle Burns’ double, but never get an out in the bottom of the inning as Marco Garza doubles, two guys walk, and the Indians walk off on Jong-beom Kym’s single to center when Andrew Cooper’s throw back in is totally wild and escapes his teammates.
April 8 – New York’s SP Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (1-0, 0.00 ERA) allows only two hits in a 7-0 shutout of the Thunder.
April 10 – OCT LF Jose Jimenez (.360, 4 HR, 13 RBI) smacks three home runs in a 10-3 thrashing of the Loggers. Jimenez provides the margin of victory all by himself with a pair of 3-run shots off Ian Prevost and a solo homer off Luis Calderon. The 36th 3-homer game for a player is the first time ever that the Thunder are involved. It is also the seventh occurrence of the feat since the start of the 2016 season.
April 12 – LAP LF Jimmy Roberts (.278, 1 HR, 2 RBI) sprains a finger on a defensive play and will have to sit out for two weeks.
April 12 – Plantar fasciitis will put MIL OF Victor Hodgers (.400, 1 HR, 5 RBI) out for a month.
April 13 – No-hitter! Michael Foreman (2-1, 2.11 ERA) pitches the Loggers’ first no-hitter since Bill Warren in 1980, sniffing out the Crusaders on four hits and ten strikeouts in a 2-0 game. Foreman issues all the walks in the first three innings. If not for an error by Juan Ortíz, he would have retired the last 20 batters in a row.
April 13 – The Capitals go down without much of a sound in a 14-0 drowning at the hands of the Blue Sox.
April 14 – Cincy’s 2B Ieyoshi Nomura (.326, 1 HR, 6 RBI) gets his 2,000th career base hit in a 3-1 loss to the Rebels. Nomura singles off ex-Cyclone Shunyo Yano in the eighth inning to reach the mark.
April 14 – The Knights plate nine in the seventh inning to crush the Falcons in a 17-3 rout.
April 15 – The Bayhawks figure to be without LF/RF Chris Almanza (.286, 4 HR, 10 RBI) for a month due to a high ankle sprain.
April 15 – The Wolves score an innocent run in the top of the first inning against the Warriors, then go down silently while the Warriors score 18 unanswered runs in an 18-1 trashing, putting up a 6-spot and two 5-spots.

Complaints and stuff

I liked Starship Otherwise a great deal, really. I especially felt with the guys in the red uniforms. They always got the worst deal, and that is pretty much what I’ve been in forever and ever. Everything blows.

Yoshi… I miss Yoshi, badly. Interesting how he got his 2,000th hit off a former Cyclone, and both are former Raccoons. We know that well, because Yano was the price in the Jonny Toner deal with the Cyclones years back, but did you know that between the Rebels and the Cyclones, Yoshi and Yano were actually traded for another? Not only that, they were traded for another *almost* exactly one year after before the 2,000 hits game. The trade took place on April 17, 2017.

Who are the only Raccoons to strike out five times in a game? Mike Crowe, Concie Guerin, and now Mike Denny.

Well, well, ****ty news ain’t over. Danny Arguello, our lone remaining meaningful prospect, threw one inning to start the minor league season before leaving the game with great discomfort in the shoulder. Bascially it’s a bad case of inflammation and all gooey in there. The Druid recommended a clean cut and amputation, but we might try healing that out first. In any case, this season looks like it might be entirely lost for him.

This sucks.

The Thunder claimed Barry MacDonald at the start of the season, which does not really do any damage to us. Instead, we get that quarter million back. Even so, our budget room is just about $700k now, and since we would normally like to sign the odd international free agent in July, I really really really hope that the available player personnel will be enough.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (6-6) @ Crusaders (8-5) – April 17-19, 2018

After an off day on Monday we were forced to venture into the Purple Empire, which was not a pleasant place to be when the season had just started and they were reasonably close to the top of the division, which had been the case for a good while now. While they had already placed ex-Coon William Waggoner on the DL with a knee injury, and had plenty of old sins on the roster that made hitting and scoring runs for them hard (only ninth out of the gate in the CL), their pitching had been completely lights out and had only conceded 29 runs in 13 games, with the rotation being questionable as to whether they could maintain their 1.24 ERA. Right now there was only clinging onto hope that we had won the season series three years straight, including a rousing 13-5 record in ’17, and that things were gonna be alright somehow.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (1-1, 2.53 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (0-2, 6.00 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (1-1, 1.54 ERA)
Nick Brown (0-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (1-1, 0.39 ERA)

Only right-handers in this rotation, and they actually had only one left-handed reliever as well in ex-Coon Francisquo Bocanegra. I’d call that a weak spot.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Walter – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Santos
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – 2B S. Valdez – SS M. Salinas – RF Richards – C Roland – CF Brissett – P McKenzie

Weak spots had to exploited, but the Raccoons hadn’t gotten the memo. They hit into double plays the first two innings, and got nobody on in the third, which rolled around with them already down 2-0 after Cory Roland’s 2-piece in the bottom 2nd. Santos threw a lot of balls and was in plenty of 3-ball counts, yet walked nobody, only exploding his pitch count early on. Instead, he allowed sound contact, which resulted in three extra-base hits in the first three innings, including Ron Richards’ double ahead of Roland’s homer, and another double by Jens Carroll in the third. The Raccoons didn’t wake up until the middle innings. Tim Prince hit a double in the fifth (raising his meager average to .172) and scored on Cookie Carmona’s 2-out single, but Santos was bombed again by Cory Roland in the bottom of the same inning, this time with a solo shot. Back-to-back 2-out doubles by DeWeese and Walter served to pull the Coons back to within a run in the top of the sixth, but Santos gave that run right back as well, hitting Martin Ortíz to start the bottom of the inning. While Ortíz got forced by Sergio Valdez, Valdez stole second base and scored on Miguel Salinas’ 2-out single. Richards finally drew a walk from Santos before Roland grounded out to end the inning, but this game was also done with Santos after six embarrassing innings.

McKenzie held on for seven. When he was removed and Colin Sabatino took over in the eighth, Hugo Mendoza hit an instant homer, again reducing the gap to a single run. And there came Bocanegra! McKnight hit for himself and flew out to left before Jackson hit for DeWeese, which prompted another pitching change to Brian Page, who walked Jackson, then departed for Alex Lindsey, who got outs from Walter and Denny to end the inning. Ex-Coon Adam Riddle retired Prince, Mathews, and Carmona 1-2-3 in the ninth inning. 4-3 Crusaders. Prince 2-4, 2B; Davis 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

11th in runs scored now with under 3.5 counters per game. I don’t need a lot of words to express my unhappiness with that, and now the soft end of the rotation comes up. By the weekend, we’ll be last in the North…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Walter – C Denny – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – C Pino – SS M. Salinas – RF Richards – 2B Casillas – CF R. Hernandez – P J. Martin

“Midnight” Martin moved up into the middle game with Hwa-pyung Choe being skipped, and conceded a run right in the first inning when Mendoza tripled and scored on McKnight’s single to left. That was about the only squeal they gave early on, while Ricky Mendoza was surprisingly strong in the early innings, whiffing Carroll and Ortíz to start his day and retiring the first nine Crusaders in order. That streak ended by the fourth inning as consecutive full counts yielded Carroll on base with a walk, then scoring on Ortíz’ triple into the rightfield corner. Tied game became a 2-1 Crusaders advantage when Cookie sucked up Ray Gilbert’s drive in deep center, far too deep to get Ortíz with a throw. That Ortíz triple remained the Crusaders’ only hit in six innings, and they still drew the Coons a nose with it. The Raccoons hit into double plays in the sixth (Hugo Mendoza) and seventh (DeWeese) innings, and in the latter put two men on again with a Walter single and Denny walking. Joey Mathews hit for the ineffective Prince and grounded out to Tony Casillas to end the inning. Bottom 7th, Ricky Mendoza walked Bartholomeu Pino, then allowed a double past Shane Walter, hit by Miguel Salinas. That put runners in scoring position, from where they scored on consecutive groundouts by Ron Richards and Casillas, which gave the Crusaders a 4-1 lead on the strength of two hits.

Consecutive walks that “Midnight” issued to Eddie Jackson and Cookie Carmona at the start of the eighth inning brought up the tying run and only a sarcastic grin on my face. Damn sure another double play was in order. Nunley cracked a 1-0 pitch to the left side, Salinas leapt and grabbed it, and Jackson was off the bag and doubled off when Casillas beat him to take Salinas’ throw for a double play. I SURE DO KNOW SOME ****ING BASEBALL, HUH?? Mendoza singled, and McKnight hit an 0-2 to deep right, where it was caught by Richards, because of course. The game was not over just yet, with DeWeese and Walter hitting singles off Riddle to start the ninth inning. Johnson and Mathews failed aside from Mathews moving the batters into scoring position. Jackson was still batting ninth and grounded to left, where it escaped an aged Jens Carroll, a veteran of the Federal League. Both runners scored, but the Raccoons were still a run behind and the top of the order had been anything but stellar so far. Cookie hit away at the first pitch, grounded it hard to first – and past Gilbert! All the way to the wall! Jackson running like crazy, Cookie running like crazy, Richards with a late throw, a bad throw, and Jackson safe and Cookie at third with a game-tying RBI triple!! Colin Sabatino got Matt Nunley to fly out to shallow center, which ended the inning with the go-ahead run stranded at third base.

Ron Thrasher moved the game to extras, which were opened by Danny Margolis (now in the #3 slot) with a leadoff double to right center. There was no way running for him as we were out of catchers, and he was left on third base when McKnight whiffed and DeWeese and Walter grounded out against Sabatino. Thrasher walked a pair in the bottom 10th before being yanked in favor of Mathis, who got a double play from ****ing Ray Gilbert to escape the deadly jam. Ineptness for the road team didn’t stop after only ten innings. They produced three pops for three outs in the 11th, and in the 13th had McKnight on after being drilled by Bocanegra to start the frame. You can’t hit-and-run with DeWeese, who struck out regardless, and after Walter grounded out, we were stuck with Seung-mo Chun in the box – the bench was deserted. Chun struck out, leaving McKnight at second base, but delivered three shutout innings to extend the contest. The 14th saw Mathews with a leadoff single against Bocanegra. Jackson flew out to Roberto Hernandez in center, but Cookie walked on four pitches. Nunley deepened his slump with a K that got him to 0-for-6 on the day and .220 in total, and that left us with Margolis, a bad excuse for a backup catcher, but he came through with a fly to right that drifted out of Richards’ comfort zone and fell in for a single, Mathews scoring from second base to break the tie. Cookie went to third and scored on McKnight’s single, giving Alex Ramirez a cushion when he came out for the bottom of the inning. The inning began in hair-rising fashion (and did you ever see a raccoon with raised hair? Not a pretty sight!) when he started 3-0 on Salinas, who then actually poked(!) and singled(!). Richards popped out, and then Sergio Valdez grounded to short. Not many regulars were left in the game, but McKnight was, and he turned that 6-4-3 like hell. 6-4 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, 2 BB, 3B, RBI; H. Mendoza 2-4, 3B; Margolis 2-3, 2B, RBI; McKnight 3-6, 2 RBI; Walter 3-6; Jackson (PH) 1-3, BB, 2 RBI; Chun 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (1-0);

Adam Riddle as closer? Seriously?

Jaylen Martin had 26 strikeouts in his first three starts, but only one in this game.

And worst of all, we out-hit the Crusaders 16-7 and still took almost two games’ worth of innings to beat them. Maybe the five double plays we hit into had something to do with it… Nunley was in a pitch black hole now and would get a day off in the rubber game. Shifting people around we were able to throw in Eddie Jackson on the other side of the field. The beauty of defensive versatility!

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – C Denny – 2B Petracek – P Brown
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – 3B M. Salinas – 1B Gilbert – C Pino – 2B S. Valdez – RF R. Hernandez – SS Casillas – CF S. Young – P Bo. King

Bursting out of the woodwork, the Raccoons piled three runs on unsuspecting Bob King (1-1, 2.16 ERA) in the first inning as Cookie singled, Walter tripled, and Mendoza went deep, his third shot of the season and the first Coon to 10 RBI this year. Salinas reached with an infield single in the bottom of the inning, but Gilbert grounded squarely to McKnight for a double play. The Crusaders would plate two runs in the second inning, but those were unearned, with the box of doom opened when the useless Petracek dropped a harmless pop by Valdez. True, Brownie struggled to retire people and even drilled Sean Young, and couldn’t even whiff a pitcher, but DAMNIT PETRACEK!! The bottom 3rd saw Salinas reach on yet another infield single, and Gilbert hit into a double play AGAIN, which pleased me greatly, but there was not to be any joy around here! The next three batters all hit 2-out singles around the field, tying the game on Hernandez’, before Brown walked Casillas to load them up and then succumbed to a grand slam by an aggravated Sean Young.

Brown doubled in the fourth and scored on Cookie’s single, but while the Raccoons loaded the bases with the tying runs, McKnight’s fly to deep right didn’t make it out and didn’t even make it past Hernandez, ending the inning still short 7-4. The Coons would go on to leave runners in scoring position in the fifth (in which Jackson tripled) and sixth (Cookie doubled) and they had DeWeese and Jackson on second and first in the seventh inning when Denny grounded to short with one out. That would have been another death knell if Casillas would have handled it. He didn’t, throwing over Valdez’ head at second base, and the Raccoons had the bases loaded with the tying runs once more, with the score still 7-4. Mathews batted for Petracek in this situation, facing reliever Tom Nelson, who had just replaced King after the error. Mathews grounded weakly to first base, Gilbert donkeyed out on that play and all hands were safe on the second error in a row, with a run coming home, 7-5. Nick Brown had retired nine straight in the middle innings and was now hit for with – lacking a better idea – Matt Nunley. He struck out, Cookie flew out to right, and everything was in shambles once more. The eighth saw Nelson allow a leadoff single to Walter, which rolled just barely through between Valdez and Gilbert. Well, maybe we can see another double play! Mendoza came up, Nelson stayed in with Bocanegra probably exhausted, and Mendoza BLASTED a ball to left and OUTTA HERE!! Tied ballgame!! Mathis and Kaiser held the Crusaders at bay in the bottom 8th, and then they were stunned in the ninth when Mathews whacked a homer to dead center against Brian Page, which gave the Coons a late lead. Ramirez got ready in the pen, while Johnson hit for Kaiser and walked on four pitches. Cookie legged out an infield single, Walter singled cleanly to left and Johnson scored, 9-7. Mendoza didn’t get any meaningful fodder and walked to load them up for McKnight, who grounded sharply to Valdez at the keystone, but then legged out the return throw after the Tiger was forced out at second. Cookie scored, the Crusaders brought another right-hander in Richard Vincent, but he allowed another RBI single to DeWeese before Jackson flew out to right to end a 4-spot. At 11-7, Chun was put into the game, but was smoked on back-to-back doubles by the pinch-hitter Roland and Martin Ortíz, prompting his eviction in favor of Ramirez. He retired the next three to claim the series. 11-8 Raccoons. Carmona 4-6, 2B, RBI; Walter 4-6, 3B, 2 RBI; Mendoza 2-4, 2 BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; DeWeese 2-6, RBI; Jackson 2-5, 3B; Mathews (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI;

11 runs and 18 hits in this game, which saw little usable pitching. I still don’t know what to make of this team, but at least they came back from a 7-3 deficit and then held on.

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Knights (6-9) – April 20-22, 2018

The Knights were fifth in the South, one position worse than the Critters so far. They had the worst batting average, but were sixth in runs scored thanks to 14 home runs from their fearsome middle of the order, but they also had the worst bullpen and a Swiss cheese type of rotation. The Raccoons had won the season series for five years in a row, including 5-4 outcomes in the last three seasons.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (3-0, 2.95 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (2-1, 3.38 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (1-2, 1.59 ERA) vs. Drew King (0-2, 7.02 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. Jared D’Attilo (0-2, 1.47 ERA)

We continued to dance around every southpaw that got close to us, and these were another three right-handers. If King (or technically anybody) was skipped, we’d see Bruce Morrison (0-1, 6.55 ERA) in the set.

Game 1
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 2B Downing – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 1B Rucker – RF Raupp – SS Hibbard – 3B W. White – P Quirion
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Toner

Doubles by Cookie and McKnight gave Toner a 1-0 lead after the first inning. Cookie was caught stealing in the third inning, which cost a run at least; Walker got on after he was thrown out, and the Tiger hit an RBI double to move the score to 2-0. Toner didn’t allow a hit through three, but had walked Ruben Luna in the first and had drilled Devin Hibbard in the second. Luna would hit a 1-out single to right center, a soft liner that was out of everybody’s range, in the fourth inning, but was immediately doubled up when Gil Rockwell grounded to Tim Prince. The Knights would get onto the board an inning later when Toner lost the fastball and walked both Mike Rucker and Jimmy Raupp to start the inning. Two groundouts brought home Rucker before Wade White struck out with the tying run at third. Toner never regained command in a start that lasted seven innings, in the last of which drama broke out due to defensive shortcomings again. Walter dropped a feed from Prince to put Rucker on base with one out. With two outs, Jonny threw a wild pitch that was 40% a passed ball as well to move the tying run to scoring position, but Hibbard flew out to Cookie rather easily to end the inning. Another tying run died at second base for the Knights in the eighth. Marty Reyes doubled off Wade Davis, but Davis came back with a K to Josh Downing to end the inning. The Coons couldn’t pull anything out from beneath their stripey tails and the score remained 2-1 for the ninth, which had Luna, Rockwell, and Rucker up with some insane power, including left-handed bats on either end of that group. With Ramirez having been out the last two days, including a stressful outing the previous day in New York, the fresher Thrasher got the ball. He struck out Luna and Rockwell before right-hander Manny Cruz hit for Rucker, but flew out to Mendoza in right. 2-1 Furballs! Carmona 2-4, 2B; Walter 2-4; Nunley 1-2, BB; Toner 7.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (4-0);

Game 2
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 2B Downing – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 1B Rucker – RF Raupp – SS Hibbard – 3B W. White – P D. King
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – 2B Prince – P Abe

Ruben Luna’s fourth homer of the season gave the Knights a 1-0 headstart in the first inning, but the Coons came back with three singles from their first three batters in the bottom 1st, with Cookie scored by the Tiger. Unfortunately, things fell apart right away when McKnight hit into a double play and DeWeese flailed himself out in a full count. Abe walked nobody in the first three innings after walking six in three innings in his most recent start, and after he made the first out in the bottom 3rd, the 1-2-3 batters all reached base on two singles and a walk. That brought up McKnight again in prime double play territory, but he lined over Josh Downing for an RBI single. DeWeese replicated the result with a quick bouncer between Downing and Rucker, and Nunley hit a sac fly before Margolis struck out, keeping the score at 4-1, which proved insufficient for Abe to even survive one inning with. He drilled Luna to start the fourth, Rockwell took exception and homered, his fourth of the year as well. After that, Margolis committed a throwing error on Jimmy Raupp’s grounder, and Abe allowed hits to Hibbard and White to get the game tied. The Raccoons ****ed up in every way possible in the next two offensive innings, with Abe forcing Prince with a pathetic bunt, and when Cookie forced Abe he went on to get himself caught stealing. The following inning, DeWeese batted with one out and runners on the corners, but hit right into a double play. Mendoza and McKnight stranded a pair in the seventh. They did have lots of runners, but no runs, a pattern that had been true for most of the season so far.

Abe went seven in the 4-4 game, Thrasher held the fort in the eighth, and it was Ramirez in the ninth. He allowed two singles to Hibbard and White right away, with the runners going to the corners. Jeffrey Walrath and Marty Reyes both struck out, though White stole second base in the meantime. Downing then grounded to Nunley on a 3-1 pitch, and we were going to be out of the inn- … unless Nunley spiked the throw to have it bounce five feet in front of a despaired Walter’s glove, Walter couldn’t come up with it and it went up the rightfield line as two runs scored for the Knights. Bottom 9th, Mathews walked, Walter singled him in, but Rockwell took Mendoza’s fly to left to end the game. 6-5 Knights. Walter 5-5, RBI; McKnight 2-4, RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1;

12 hits to their eight, but ours were all ****ty singles, without exception.

Shane Walter was batting .424 at this point, and it helped his team squid. Three of his 25 hits had been for extra bases.

Game 3
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 2B Downing – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 1B Rucker – SS Hibbard – RF Mims – 3B W. White – P D’Attilo
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF Jackson – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Denny – P Santos

Cookie’s leadoff triple in the bottom 1st barely led to a run. Walter walked, and the Tiger’s fly to center was barely long enough to make it home safely against Reyes. McKnight struck out and Jackson fouled out to continue a mostly pathetic hitting display. The Knights crowded Santos in the second after a single by Hibbard and a double by Kyle Mims, which placed runners in scoring position with one out, but Wade White popped out to short and D’Attilo was shaved by Santos to escape. For the home team actual offense had to be jumpstarted by the pitcher, with Santos hitting a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd. Even then Cookie and Walter made outs before Mendoza drilled a ball into the right center gap. Santos got a headstart with two outs and scored on the double, with Mendoza coming home on McKnight’s single.

The resulting 3-0 lead was professionally massacred by Santos himself and nobody else in the fourth inning. Gil Rockwell led off with a hard single to right, and Santos walked Rucker right away. After Hibbard made an out, Kyle Mims whacked a 3-piece to left center, already annulling the Coons’ advantage, but Santos continued to get romped, with Wade White doubling to left, and Marty Reyes plating him with a 2-out single that put the Knights ahead 4-3. Was there hope? D’Attilo was everything but a great pitcher with a career ERA of 4.09, so there was perhaps the off chance for a comeback and to maintain a winning record. Bottom 5th, Cookie coaxed a leadoff walk in a full count. Walter ran a 3-0 count before slapping the ball to the right side. Downing didn’t get it and Walter had a single, which sent Cookie to third base. Mendoza flew out to shallow left on a 2-0 pitch, too shallow for even Cookie to score. He DID score the tying run on McKnight’s sac fly to deeper left. Jackson had a fluke single that sent Walter to third base and then Nunley – batting a paltry .209 by now – came up and also hit away at a 2-0 pitch, a drive to right that went past Mims and to the track for a 2-out, 2-run double that gave the lead back to the home team, 6-4. Santos was done, having thrown over 100 pitches in five innings, which had been a mess at times. Kaiser came in for two outs before allowing a double to pinch-hitter Walrath and got replaced by Mathis, who retired Reyes. With an abused bullpen, Mathis remained in the game for the seventh, which worked, and the eighth, which didn’t. After Mims’ 1-out single, Chun came into the game, but allowed another single to White before “Quasimodo” Suda crept out of a hole to pinch-hit and clonkered a harmless pitch into the rightfield seats for a score-flipping 3-run bomb. At the short end of a 7-6 score the Raccoons managed to get runners onto the corners against Jim Cushing in the eighth inning, but Cookie’s fly to left was caught easily by Rockwell to end the inning. Quinn McCarthy was a southpaw and in to close the game for the second straight day. Walter and Mendoza made quick outs before McKnight rolled a single past White with two outs. Jackson struck out. 7-6 Knights. McKnight 2-4, 2 RBI; DeWeese (PH) 1-1;

Sadness. This will be a season of infinite sadness.

In other news

April 19 – The Indians and Canadiens engage in a 13-inning thriller which includes both teams scoring single runs in the 11th and 12th innings. The Indians finally push through in the 13th with three runs, with the Canadiens scoring only one in response and are defeated, 10-8.
April 20 – Aces lefty Alex Morin (1-1, 4.35 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout in a 6-0 win over the Indians.

Complaints and stuff

Ronnie McKnight has a 12-game hitting streak. Shane Walter is batting .413 and locked up Player of the Week honors with a .571 (16-for-28) clip, plating four.

That’s about it. Offense sucks. Defense sucks. Pitching sucks. Nowhere near a playoff team’s performance.

I wonder how much longer I can look at Brownie decomposing in the rotation. Okay, he was really unlucky in his meltdown on Thursday, because the Crusaders hit five straight base hits with two outs, and Petracek’s error had already cost him before, but there’s only so many excuses to make before you have to swallow that frog… I think it’s a bit early still, and that he should get another two starts at least before the plug is pulled from life support, especially with no serious competition in AAA and I’m also not entirely sold on Donny Kaiser starting. Ryan Nielson is the only AAA starter who had a decent first two outings, with Damani Knight a distant second. We picked up a journeyman in 28-year old Charlie Cooper, who would really burn for making his major league debut, but … no.

Maud just told me his name is Cogger. – Maud, is it that important? – NOBODY will buy a ****ing uniform with that name on … EVER. – Don’t start to cry, I am not yelling at you. – I am … NOT YELLING AT YOU!!

Oh yeah, her date over Christmas? Didn’t go well. She is ours for another nine seasons or so.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-9) vs. Bayhawks (14-5) – April 23-25, 2018

Those guys. They had – as their record hinted at subtly – stormed out of the gate, scoring the most runs in the league and allowing the least, a decent recipe for success that one of these days the Raccoons (7th in runs scored, t-4h in runs allowed) might wanna look into.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (0-2, 5.68 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (1-0, 4.09 ERA)
Nick Brown (0-2, 6.19 ERA) vs. Joao Joo (1-3, 2.86 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-0, 2.54 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (1-1, 3.51 ERA)

These are their three worst starters by ERA, and Joo is their only left-handed starter. Their lineup is loaded with left-handed bats, and I have yet to figure out whether that is more better for Brownie than it is worse for Mendoza. Besides Jackson, who had helped kill the Raccoons in the 2017 CLCS, they were also missing Chris Almanza from their lineup. The 28-year old had swatted four homers in ten games, but was limping around on crutches with an ankle sprain.

The last two season series had both been won by the Bayhawks, 5-4 in their favor each time. We are not going to talk any more about that CLCS.

Game 1
SFB: RF McIntyre – 2B Ingraham – C D. Alexander – CF D. Garcia – SS Claros – 3B J. Rodriguez – LF Matthews – 1B J. Pruitt – P Caro
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – C Denny – P R. Mendoza

It took one out for the Bayhawks to load the bases; Zach Ingraham singled between McKnight and Nunley, D-Alex hit a blooper to left for another single, and DeWeese dropped Dave Garcia’s soft fly. By a miracle and nothing less, Mendoza escaped on consecutive pops by Raul Carlos and Javy Rodriguez. The Raccoons would actually strike first, with Shane Walter – hot to say the least – doubling to center in the bottom 1st and then swiftly coming home on the Tiger’s fifth homer of the season, a real rocket to right. The Coons doubled the score to 4-0 in the second when Denny reached on a Rodriguez error, Ricky Mendoza made it onto the base paths on a misplayed bunt blamed to Caro, and after Cookie’s groundout Shane Walter ripped a 2-out double to the rightfield corner to chase them home.

Too bad that Ricky Mendoza was that kid with matches that would sooner or later burn the house down. In the top of the fourth, the Bayhawks pushed a run across after Garcia’s double, a walk drawn by Jeffrey Matthews, and Jonathan Pruitt’s (Matt’s cousin) single. With two out, the pitcher Caro appeared as the tying run and drove a ball to deep, deep left, oh my **** that’s deep, oh for crying out loud DeWeese caught it right against the wall. The Birds would have Will McIntyre on to start the fifth after getting struck by a Mendoza pitch, and then Mendoza walked Ingraham. D-Alex’ double play bailed him out of that for the most part. But just as the game was threatening to flip, the Raccoons found a 3-spot in the bottom of the fifth. DeWeese drove in a pair with a double, including the Tiger, who had been hit by a pitch (not quite as ferociously as McIntyre, though), and scored on Nunley’s single, which made it a 7-1 contest. A Hugo Mendoza error cost Ricky Mendoza an initially unearned run in the sixth that turned into an earned one after a 2-out single, and rain chased him in the seventh, but the 7-2 game continued even after a rain delay exceeding one hour. And although that happened, and the Raccoons stranded two men in both the bottom 7th and 8th after the delay, AND tried to squeeze two innings from Chet Cummings, the runt of the litter, the Bayhawks failed to mount a comeback, or even a run. Defense had something to do with it, though: Cookie spoiled two extra-base hits in the ninth. 7-2 Raccoons! Walter 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; H. Mendoza 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4, RBI; R. Mendoza 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-2) and 1-2; Cummings 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

McKnight extended his hitting streak to 13 games. With the left-hander Joo up, he would have gotten a day off to cram all the non-left-handed batters into the lineup that we could, but opposing Joo was Brownie, and Brownie needed every bit of defense to improve his chances of not getting rocked. Mathews was perhaps a passable shortstop, but was it going to be enough?

Game 2
SFB: RF McIntyre – 2B Ingraham – CF D. Garcia – 3B Claros – SS R. Miller – C G. Brown – 1B J. Rodriguez – LF J. Pruitt – P Joo
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – LF Jackson – RF H. Mendoza – 1B Mathews – SS McKnight – 2B Prince – C Margolis – P N. Brown

Ingraham’s double and Claros’ single scored a Baybirds run in the first inning, and there was no way that defense could prevent that one from scoring, so there was that, but the Coons flipped the score in the bottom of the same inning. Walter continued to blaze any pitching he could find, hitting a 1-out single to left center before Eddie Jackson doubled past Dave Garcia to put two in scoring position. The Tiger struck out on a pitch in the dirt, but Joey Mathews’ well-placed bouncer eluded the guys on the left side of the infield for a 2-run single. Defense deserted Brownie at several points in the early innings, as Cookie dropped a fly by Joao Joo to start the third inning, and after McIntyre hit into a welcome double play, Ingraham reached with an infield single on the eighth pitch of a tense at-bat, Mathews not being able to dig the ball out of the dirt in time. But the Birds didn’t convert those opportunities, with the Raccoons being presented with a chance in the bottom 4th, with two singles and a walk offering a 1-out slam chance to … Danny Margolis. Well, it could be worse. There’s Brownie behind him (zip career homers). While Margolis didn’t hit that slam, he came pretty darn close, driving a 1-1 pitch to deep right and well past McIntyre. The ball bounced about 15 feet from the warning track and near the dirt, and the bases cleared on a 3-run double.

By the sixth inning, the Birds were hitting the ball really well. They hit three deep drives in the inning. After Garcia doubled, Cookie took the other two to end the frame and keep the 5-1 lead in one piece, but Brownie was a mere shadow by now, although he did hang the Goat of the Week award onto John Hudson, whiffing him in the fifth inning, but he would make it through seven innings despite Gary Brown opening his final inning with a leadoff double. Okay, two southpaws next, and it was never Coons philosophy to replace a lefty with a lefty. Rodriguez popped out, and Jonathan Pruitt flew to shallow center, with Gary Brown caught far off the base, completely misjudging the ball! Cookie caught the fly, then fired to Prince for the double play. After Brownie’s sufficiently lucky seven innings and McKnight’s RBI double in the bottom 7th to extend the lead to five runs, the bullpen delivered the mandatory near-explosion in the top of the eighth. I guess it’s in the league statutes somewhere that you can’t have a calm game even once, but Seung-mo Chun put two on with two outs in the inning, and when Thrasher came in to see after Claros, he walked him. The right-handed ex-Coon Ryan Miller had never done anything but sucking, so Thrasher remained in and Miller popped out on an 0-2 pitch, stranding a full set of runners. The Coons ended up adding a run on a wild pitch before Wade Davis had a relieving 1-2-3 ninth. 7-1 Brownies! Walter 2-5; Jackson 2-5, 2B; Mathews 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Prince 1-2, BB; Margolis 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-2);

Browniiiiiee!!

Hitting streaks are up to 14 (McKnight) and 11 (Mendoza) games, the longest current streaks in the majors.

Game 3
SFB: LF Matthews – 2B Ingraham – C D. Alexander – CF D. Garcia – SS Claros – 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Sarabia – 1B J. Pruitt – P Beauchamp
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – C Denny – P Toner

After Garcia and DeWeese exchanged solo home runs in the second inning, Jonny Toner hit a 1-out single up the middle in the third. Just for giggles he took off on the first pitch to Cookie and swiped second base successfully, but Cookie extended his futility in the series with a groundout to Jonathan Pruitt. Now at third, Jonny Toner still scored when Walter, continuing to bat .400+, singled to left center with two outs, and the Coons took a 2-1 lead that Toner blew instantly. He brushed D-Alex ever so slightly to start the fourth inning, then rammed an 0-2 pitch into Rodriguez real hard with two outs. Rodriguez lived to see Victor Sarabia single past Walter, and D-Alex scored from second base on the roller that was not kind enough to get into Mendoza’s general vicinity.

The middle innings passed uneventfully after that, but Jonny walked Rodriguez to start the seventh inning. More left-handers were to come where that one came from, but he struck out Sarabia at least. The count on Pruitt ran full, and Rodriguez was in motion when Pruitt lined to the right side. This time, Walter was there, caught the liner, and easily doubled off Rodriguez to end the inning. McKnight’s and Mendoza’s hitting streaks were still looking for extension, and at least the shortstop came up with a hit to start the bottom of the seventh, singling to center. DeWeese was delighted to still see the right-hander Beauchamp, whom he had already hurt once, and when he hurt him the second time with his second longshot to rightfield, Jonny Toner was in line for a W at 4-2, and so far he had claimed W’s in all his starts in 2018. Mike Denny also homered off Beauchamp with two outs, 5-2, and Toner was hit for in favor of Brandon Johnson after having thrown 99 pitches so far. Johnson rolled out (1-for-17 now), and Chris Mathis was in the game for the eighth, retiring the Birds in order. The bottom 8th brought the left-hander Mike Stank to oppose the top of the order. Cookie and Walter singled anyway, and a Sarabia error on failing to pick up Walter’s grounder sent both to scoring position for the Tiger, who was still looking for a hit – but was intentionally walked, which roused some hair with the crowd. With three on and no outs, McKnight struck out, Jackson hit for DeWeese and popped out to second, and Mathews batted for Nunley and struck out, all against Stank. Ramirez walked Dave Garcia in the ninth, but managed to not draw my wrath. 5-2 Coons. Walter 2-4, RBI; DeWeese 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (5-0) and 1-2;

That, I will admit, was a lot of fun.

Hitting streaks: McKnight has 15 games down, Cookie and Walter have ten apiece. Cookie has five hits in the last five games.

Raccoons (12-9) @ Titans (14-8) – April 27-29, 2018

The Titans came from last place and 100 losses to challenge for the lead in the North, at least in April. Looking at the roster left me unsure as to whether that was sustainable, and the numbers hinted at some luck at least. They were fourth in runs scored, but only seventh in runs allowed, and they were pretty lop-sided when it came to 1-run games, having lost only one of those, and they were also undefeated at home so far. The Coons had taken two of three from them at the start of the season.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (1-2, 2.25 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (2-1, 3.00 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. Rick Ling (3-1, 3.38 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (1-2, 4.85 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (1-3, 6.75 ERA)

Rick Ling is their resident southpaw. The 23-year old rookie is off to a decent start, although there are a few numbers I don’t dig, like the ten walks being opposed by only 13 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. That ratio as even better than what he did in AAA last season, walking 90 against 106 K in 192.1 innings.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Denny – P Abe
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Blake – SS Vasquez – LF Gaines – 2B M. Rivera – P Priest

After Cookie grounded out and Priest walked the bases full, DeWeese’s K and Nunley’s slow pop to right ended the first inning in disappointing fashion. The Raccoons would then go on and stranded pairs of runners in EACH of the next FOUR innings, and never scored while doing so. While untimely strikeouts had something to do with it, a certain share of the blame lay with Abe, who failed to bunt not once, but twice, and both times that extra base would have been tremendous to the team effort! His only blessing was that he held the Titans to two hits and shut out during those five miserable innings. Abe, Cookie, and Walter made three straight outs in the sixth inning for a change, just before Alex Mata’s leadoff jack put the Titans over the hump in the bottom of the inning.

The Titans made the grave mistake to remove Priest after a 2-out double by R.J. DeWeese in the top of the seventh inning. Priest trotted to the dugout, with those 42 rabbits’ paws all dangling from his belt, and when Brett Dill came in to face Nunley he conceded the tying run on a single to right, blowing Priest’s shot at the win. The Raccoons managed to fabricate a runner in scoring position through shear idiocy in the bottom 7th. Walter completely missed Mathews’ feat on PH Xavier Williams’ grounder, putting Williams on first with two outs, and then Denny tried to pick him off and threw the ball to rightfield. Williams at second with two outs, with lifelong annoyance Mike Rivera batting? Holy – why!? Thankfully, Abe had some left and whiffed him in a full count… When Dill walked Denny to start the top of the eighth, Petracek ran for him, while Jackson batted for Abe, but Eddie’s first pitch was a fly to center that helped nobody, and then Cookie managed to further soil his stat line with a perfect 6-4-3 double play grounder. The go-ahead run reached on a leadoff walk again in the ninth, and again there was not enough offense behind Shane Walter to take the lead. Mathis and Thrasher held the Titans away to get the game to extras. There, Matt Nunley hit a leadoff single off Harry Merwin in the 10th to represent a nominal threat, but Mathews and Margolis made poor outs, and Brandon Johnson’s grounder to short should have ended the inning, but Robby Vasquez threw it away. That brought up Cookie, who had his issues this April, but found the gap between Alex Mata in center and Carlos Cazares in right. While Cazares was to the ball quickly and Cookie retreated to first for a single, Nunley scored from second base to break the tie. Walter struck out to end the inning and his hitting streak unless Alex Ramirez would allow exactly one run. A leadoff walk to Williams was a thoroughly bad start, but he recovered by getting Rivera to pop out to second, and then whiffed Jose Avila and Alex Mata. 2-1 Raccoons! Carmona 2-6, RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-5, RBI; Denny 1-2, 2 BB; Abe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Can one have a duller name than Brett Dill? I guess Brett Dull would technically be duller.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – LF Jackson – RF H. Mendoza – 1B Mathews – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – C Denny – P Santos
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Blake – SS Vasquez – LF X. Williams – 2B M. Rivera – P Ling

Sad offense continued early on in the middle game. Cookie led off with a single for a 12-game hitting streak, but never got off first thanks to no hitting behind him and also no good jumps against Ling, as the little red-haired bugger had an eye on him. When the Coons made it to the corners in the second, Denny whiffed for the second out, and Ling feasted on Santos’ sweat to escape the inning. Santos faced seven left-handed batters, but didn’t seem to be bothered for the first three innings, but then walked Tom Thomas (the right-hander, ironically) and Steve Butler to start the inning. That gave him three walks in the game after two walks in his 25 innings earlier this season, but more importantly he worked his way outta there with a K, a pop, and a kind fly to Cookie! Thomas never got off second base. The Coons would eventually score first; the run was plated with two outs in the fifth, Mike Denny after his leadoff single scampering home on McKnight’s streak-extending double to deep right. Jackson grounded out to leave Ronnie on base, but the sixth started with Mendoza and Mathews both hitting singles off Ling, but the rookie was not done yet. He struck out Nunley, then got Prince to pop out. Mike Denny took a ball before Ling threw a wild pitch, which was actually very bad, because it took the bat away from Denny, who was swiftly put on the open base to draw up Santos with two outs again. But Ling missed twice low, then had to come up to not risk a walk to the opposing pitcher, and when Santos jabbed the 2-0 into play, the resulting grounder eluded Steve Butler, who manned first base like the Rock of Gibraltar, and the lucky single scored two for a 3-0 lead! Kudos to Ling, who remained in the game despite walking Cookie to restock the bags, because he actually would have made it out of there for a semi-decent result, if Mike Rivera hadn’t spiked the throw on McKnight’s grounder. Butler couldn’t morph his body around that rouge bouncer either, and two more runs scored as the ball almost took out the Titans’ pitching coach in the dugout.

The Coons looked really smart now with a 5-0 lead, but Hector Santos suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be a flyball pitcher. A flyball pitcher he became. Butler hit a 2-out double in the bottom 6th and Jonathan Blake homered right afterwards, and in the seventh Santos was thumped even by Mike Rivera, who hit a solo shot to bring the Titans back to 5-3. Luckily, this was where the Raccoons threw them the STOP sign. Wade Davis came in to replace Santos, retired Tim Robinson and Alex Mata, and when Thrasher and Ramirez followed on after that, they did not allow any base runners, either. 5-3 Raccoons. Mathews 2-3, 2 BB; Walter (PH) 1-1;

Note: Rick Ling (6’5’’) ain’t that little, but he sure is red-haired.

Another note: Mike Rivera has four home runs now in almost precisely 4,000 at-bats. Only Santos can give up dingers to that guy…*

Third note: the Raccoons took first place in the division after winning five straight games. They jumped the Titans with this game, and also zipped past the Indians, who were winless this week, but their Saturday game in Milwaukee had been rained out. These two teams had a double header on Sunday.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Blake – LF J. Avila – SS Vasquez – 2B M. Rivera – P Boyer

Boyer got whipped around a bit in the first inning, allowing three singles and two walks, but the only permanent damage came from DeWeese’s 2-out, 2-run single. While Nunley and Jackson got one, Denny feebly struck out to strand three, which was a bit of a theme in this series. While both pitchers’ pitch count would escalate quickly, runs would be hard to come by. In fact, while the two starters combined for 175 pitches, roughly evenly split, in five innings, the two runs from the top 1st were the only ones on the board, and the Titans were excruciatingly lucky that they didn’t even score upon Jose Avila’s leadoff triple in the bottom 5th. Mendoza walked Vasquez, then got a pop from Rivera, a bunt from Boyer, and DeWeese caught up with Mata’s fly to left to end the inning. After a quick sixth for both (although Ricky Mendoza hit Tom Thomas with a pitch), Denny made the first out in the seventh before we let Mendoza hit for himself and he promptly doubled. Yet, there was no joy to be had with Cookie right now, who still lacked his daily single and even struck out weakly here. Walter singled, sending Mendoza to third, and that brought up the other Mendoza with two outs, who was soul-searching in this series, but lined past Butler and up the rightfield line, just barely fair, for a 2-run double to run the score to 4-0.

Mendoza’s day on the mound was over after a leadoff walk to Avila in the bottom 7th. Jason Kaiser came out of the moist den that the Titans called visitors’ bullpen, and allowed the Titans’ first run of the game on his watch, conceding a single to Vasquez in the first place. Rivera bunted the runners into scoring position, but when Adam Albrecht pinch-hit for Boyer, his fly to right was never a threat to do major damage. Sure, Avila scored on the sac fly, but after Mata struck out, the Titans were still three runs short, four once Eddie Jackson homered off Brett Dill (…) in the eighth. The Titans kept nibbling and remained in the picture thanks to Kaiser walking Armando Galan at the start of the bottom 8th. Wade Davis replaced him, but allowed a double to Tom Thomas, then had to face three southpaws because Ron Thrasher had worked a lot this week and we wanted to stay away from him if at all possible. Steve Butler hit a sac fly, 5-2, Blake grounded out, and Avila hit a soft line that McKnight snagged effortlessly to end the inning. Since Alex Ramirez had been out three of the last four days (or in all of the last three games), Chris Mathis was tasked with the bottom of the order in the bottom of the ninth. He struck out Vasquez, but Rivera’s floater to left made it to the grass before DeWeese could get to it. Tim Robinson pinch-hit for Dill in the #9 hole, and at 1-2 grounded sharply to the left side. McKnight had no problems with that, zipped it to Walter, and on to Mendoza for a game-ending double play! 5-2 Critters! H. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson 2-4, HR, RBI; R. Mendoza 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (2-2) and 1-3, 2B;

Bad news #1: All relevant hitting streaks ended with this game as both Cookie and Ronnie went hitless.

Bad news #2: the Indians swept the double-header with the Loggers, putting both teams dead even at the top of the North.

In other news

April 25 – The visiting Knights pile 15 runs onto the Crusaders in just four innings, including 11 in the fourth, before the home team can even plate one. The Knights coast from there, casually winning 17-5.
April 27 – The Aces not only blow their 9-3 lead in the eighth inning over the Knights – they BLOW it. The Knights pile nine runs on them to come from behind and roar past them to a 12-9 victory.
April 28 – While the Knights thump the Aces, 11-0, the mood is still dark after ATL 1B Mike Rucker (.182, 2 HR, 8 RBI) is revealed to be out for the entire month of May with a broken wrist.
April 28 – The Gold Sox rout the Wolves, 13-1, on the strength of only 12 hits. Wolves pitching gives up eight walks to bolster the numbers for the Gold Sox.

Complaints and stuff

Swept the week! That helped me over the muddy start to the season for sure! They also scored five or more runs five times, which always helps with above-average pitching, and oddly the bullpen is first in ERA right now in the Continental League, while the rotation is middling. Well, there’s middling and there’s middling. Jonny can certainly do better than 2.55, but we also have the two question marks at the back of the rotation that delivered three decent-to-good games this week and went 3-0 between them.

By the way, no meeting with the Indians for another good while. They aren’t on our plate until a 4-game set starting on May 14. Next week it will be the Loggers and Stars on the road as we work our way back home. The Stars’ pitching is completely ablaze and I’d like to see how that works out for a few of our stragglers.

Then there’s DeWeese, who’s silently hitting .319, which is so far out of the ordinary that a HUGE slump is looming at some point in the season. He was also Player of the Week, batting .471 (8-for-17) with 2 HR and 7 RBI. For Rich Jackass DeWeese, .319 is merely 46 points over the best average he ever had in a qualifying season, .273 (with 30 HR and 89 RBI) in 2012 when the Miners traded him to the Cyclones halfway through the year. He batted .292 with the Cyclones after the trade, still mighty short of .319…

*Also: Dan Lambert, Ray Taylor, and Jaquan Wagoner;

Jason Bergquist signed a $213k deal with the Pacifics this week after refusing our offer for a minor league contract.

I completely missed this one earlier: when Jonny Toner beat the Elks in Vancouver two weeks ago, he claimed the 3,400th regular season win for the franchise.

Mr. Nick Brown (who is rumored to seek another extension) took career win #224, and I mention that despite the not-very-milestone number because at his age you never know when it’s the last one. For everybody, there comes the day where the sun stops rising every day…

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Can one have a duller name than Brett Dill? I guess Brett Dull would technically be duller.

Don't listen when they say you are washed up! You can still get off a decent one every now and then....

[Cheesetruck]

As a fellow OOTPer who lives and breathes by playing out every game for my team, I LOVE this thread! Love the updates.<3

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cheesetruck

As a fellow OOTPer who lives and breathes by playing out every game for my team, I LOVE this thread! Love the updates.<3

I still love doing them after all the years

I'd love it even more if we could turn this place into Title Town once again...

Originally Posted by Questdog

Don't listen when they say you are washed up! You can still get off a decent one every now and then....

... and next week, I will honor our dear and beloved owner with a poem for his birthday, unless he gets blown up by rival mobsters between now and Friday.

It's still not done yet, because I can't make line 16 end in 'brass pipe' which is the ONLY way this thing will ever rhyme!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-9) @ Loggers (9-15) – April 30-May 2, 2018

The Loggers were last in runs scored in the Continental League thanks to a real pauper’s lineup, and their pitching was at best average, although their rotation currently enjoyed a better ERA than the Raccoons’. Nevertheless, their sixth-most runs allowed was never going to turn them even into a midpack team given the gruesome offense that scored barely 3.3 runs a game. This was going to be the first meeting of the season between the two teams involved. The Raccoons had won the season series for four years in a row (and nine of the last eleven), but only by a 10-8 total tally in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-2, 4.70 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (4-1, 1.69 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-0, 2.55 ERA) vs. J.J. Wirth (1-2, 2.66 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (1-2, 2.03 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (0-2, 4.22 ERA)

While the Loggers employed only right-handed starters on their 25-man roster right now, they still had G.G. Williams (1-1, 5.14 ERA) on the DL, and he was eligible to be activated by Wednesday for the last game of the set. Also on the DL: Victor Hodgers, the base-stealing terror outfielder, and thank goodness for that.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Brown
MIL: 2B Betancourt – SS Burns – RF Gore – LF LeMoine – C O. Castillo – 3B Velez – CF Coleman – 1B McDermott – P Foreman

Foreman had almost nine K per nine innings, so he was not a pushover my any stretch in the early going, and struck out a pair in the first inning, which saw Cookie reach second base when Ian Coleman mishandled his single, although the Loggers’ centerfielder would redeem himself, throwing out Carmona at home when Mendoza also singled to center. There was an early rain delay in the second inning that didn’t affect Brownie too badly – he had a hard time getting people out regardless, and that even without the defense intentionally sabotaging him. Foreman hit a 1-out double in the bottom of the third inning, and David Betancourt coaxed a walk from Mr. Brown. Kyle Burns grounded to Tim Prince, who picked the ball, then dropped it when he tried to take it from the glove. No double play, instead bases loaded for the heart of the order. While Brad Gore popped out, Chris LeMoine and Orlando Castillo both hit hard singles to left, which plated a total of three unearned runs.

The Raccoons had the bases loaded after that right in the next inning. Walter flew out to start the frame, but then the Tiger doubled, McKnight singled, and DeWeese walked to over a full platter for Matt Nunley, who was still mired in a slump and OPS’ing under .600; he grounded out to first, where Sean McDermott only had the play on Nunley himself, after which Denny hopelessly struck out. He was giving DeWeese a real run for the team strikeout crown, and not in a good way. A misplay by Alberto Velez gave the Coons another chance in the fifth. Tim Prince had led off the inning with a single, and Velez tried to get him at second on Brown’s perfectly decent bunt. He didn’t – and the tying runs were on base. That’s where they remained, too, with the top three in the order making three top pathetic outs. Cookie grounded to short, barely staying out of the double play and leaving runners on the corners, and then Walter and Mendoza both popped out over the infield. Back to Mike Denny, who was not really a contributor at the plate, but spared Brownie a run by the weight of his body in the bottom 5th, in which David Betancourt tried to steal home with two outs and LeMoine batting. Now, LeMoine was the sole worthwhile player in the lineup, and although he had struck out once against Brownie in the game, a dinger was likelier than another K. The inning ended with Betancourt pinned under Denny and still short of home plate, and LeMoine an unhappy camper in the box. Brownie held up through seven, not allowing an earned run and striking out a frustrated LeMoine, who was probably longing for a trade, but hacked himself out in the sixth. The Coons got two hits off two different relievers to start the top 8th, with Cookie and Walter on base for Hugo Mendoza when southpaw Carlos Michel (0-1, 4.91 ERA) appeared. The former starter was walk-prone, but we needed a rip. Right now the Coons got neither, but Mendoza singled to left. However, not even Cookie was being sent on the arm of LeMoine that unleashed raw lightning. McKnight struck out, with Jackson hitting for DeWeese, which prompted an appearance of righty Julio San Pedro, who had Jackson at 1-2, then threw a wild pitch that got the Coons to 3-2, and took away the double play. It was the Raccoons’ last botched chance before going down in order to Troy McCaskill in the ninth inning. 3-2 Loggers. Carmona 2-4; Mendoza 3-4, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (1-3);

If the miserable sucker Prince doesn’t make that ****ing error, the Raccoons actually win this ****ing game. I know somebody whose stock is in free fall… That is true even if we disregard for the moment that even as things were, they still out-hit the Loggers clearly, 9-4.

Not that I’d know anybody to take his spot on the roster…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Margolis – P Toner
MIL: SS Burns – 3B Velez – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – RF Gore – C O. Castillo – 2B I. Reed – 1B McDermott – P Wirth

J.J. Wirth faced only two batters before leaving the game with an injury, forcing the Loggers into a bullpen game. Nevertheless, the Raccoons did absolutely nothing against Allen Harris until the fifth inning, with the Loggers pulling a 1-0 lead against Toner, who walked a pair in the second inning and the Loggers had a few productive outs there. Nunley opened the fifth with a double to center, the closest the Raccoons had so far come to a run. He also ended the inning on second base, with Mathews popping out and Margolis and Toner both flying out to LeMoine. Harris continued to pitch a bear of a game until he got forced out with one out in the sixth. Walter had doubled and Mendoza drew a walk in a full count, but the Raccoons still had to touch third base for the day. While McKnight’s grounder to first off San Pedro achieved that, it brought up DeWeese with two outs, and while he didn’t strike out, he also found his way into Sean McDermott’s glove. The Loggers were way closer to a second run than Jonny Toner was to extend his winning streak, and generated a threat in the bottom 7th merely by ill communication. With Isiah Reed on first and two outs, McDermott hit a floater to shallow center that fell in once Mathews and Cookie shooed another off. Toner struck out Coleman in the #9 hole, but the winning streak required two runs to score in the top of the eighth. Cookie was the only guy who reached base, and Mendoza struck out against Michel to end the inning. Top 9th, still down 1-0 for ****’s sake, and McCaskill back in the game. McKnight led off with a single, but then came two easy outs and the tying run was still on first. Mathews rolled a pitch between the infielders on the right for a single, and then Jackson – batting for Margolis – hit an infield single that filled the bases. Petracek (batting .133) grabbed a bat in place of Chris Mathis. Before he could even attempt to strike out, McCaskill’s first pitch was wild, McKnight came home, and the game was tied. Petracek ended up walking, Cookie came up, but he lined out to Velez at third base…

The Loggers left two on against Thrasher in the ninth, then stranded the winning run on second as well in the 10th inning against Wade Davis. But they had too many rookies stirring by now. Max Giese made an error to put Mathews on base with one out in the 11th, the second inning of rookie Jason Sherman in his second career outing. Denny was next, having entered after Margolis had been hit for. The living strikeout got a fat pitch down the middle and didn’t miss it, belching it over the leftfield fence for a 390-footer. Cookie reached base with a 2-out single, but was stranded, turning the 3-1 lead over to Alex Ramirez, who allowed a single to Brad Gore to start the bottom 11th before blowing the lead on a pinch-hit, 2-run homer by the last bench piece the Loggers had, Brad Tesch. The game went on with no reserves left, and Sherman still on the mound in the 12th. The Tiger opened with a liner into the left center gap that he legged out for a triple, then was stranded as McKnight grounded out to first, DeWeese struck out (of course he did), and Nunley grounded back to the mound. Ramirez put two on in the bottom 12th before somehow escaping on a double play, but he had to bat leading off the 13th, which was not going to end well in any shape or form. Chet Cummings pitched in the bottom 13th and managed to load the bases with just one out after singles by Orlando Castillo and Betancourt, a wild pitch, and a walk to Tesch, the donkey’s ass. Starting pitcher Ian Prevost had pitched the top 13th, now batted, and sent a fly to center that Cookie caught, but he didn’t catch Castillo racing home. 4-3 Loggers. Walter 2-6, 2 2B; McKnight 2-6; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Denny 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K;

So let’s review this. The Loggers used nine pitchers, all of them crummy, and you couldn’t beat them? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ****S???

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 1B Petracek – P Abe
MIL: SS Burns – 2B Betancourt – LF LeMoine – RF Gore – C O. Castillo – CF Coleman – 3B I. Reed – 1B McDermott – P McDonald

So the very best thing the Loggers could up with in terms of a starter for the Wednesday game turned out to be Jason McDonald (1-1, 4.09 ERA), who was starting on two day’s rest after having been assigned one game of the Loggers’ double header on Sunday. This was with G.G. Williams on the roster and Ian Prevost not having over-exerted himself in a quick 13th inning the previous night.

McDonald allowed two runs in the first inning as Cookie and Mendoza both reached base, pulled off a double steal, and then came home on a sac fly by McKnight and Jackson’s single, respectively. LeMoine spared McDonald more runs in the second inning when Mendoza drove a ball to deep left with two outs and the bases loaded and LeMoine sold out, making a soaring grab near the warning track. While the Coons napped after that, Abe retired the first dozen Loggers without problems, but then Brad Gore opened the fifth with a clean single to center. Castillo singled to left, Coleman grounded out to advance the runners. Reed’s fly to right was caught by Mendoza, but Gore scored on the sac fly, after which McDermott was walked intentionally onto the open base. And then Abe with two outs lost McDonald to another walk… That one, while totally inexplicable, filled the bases for Kyle Burns, who forced Mendoza into a good hustle to snag his pop to shallow right. Although I could certainly see the inning unravel for six runs in front of my eyes, it didn’t happen, and the Critters hung onto a 2-1 lead. At that score the game continued to dimple along with neither team doing much for the next three innings, with Abe going eight full innings of 3-hit ball. Well, the Coons still did nothing (really, NOTHING) in the ninth, and the 2-1 game then ended up with Thrasher, because the left-handed core was up in the bottom 9th and Ramirez had ****ed up across two innings the previous night, while Thrasher had thrown only one inning. He ran 3-ball counts on everybody! LeMoine struck out in a full count, but Gore walked. Castillo popped out on a 3-2 pitch, with Velez, a switch-hitter, coming on for Coleman. That count didn’t go to three balls, because Velez ended up completely fooled on a 2-2 lampoon that hit the dirt despite starting up in the zone. Velez swung through it, and the Coons salvaged one game from a HORRENDOUS series. 2-1 Blighters. McKnight 2-3, RBI; Abe 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (2-2);

Raccoons (16-11) @ Stars (13-15) – May 4-6, 2018

Eighth in offense and ninth in pitching, the Stars weren’t quite looking like a contender. Their rotation was decent, but their pen was the second-worst in the league with a tremendous 5.74 ERA. Neither power, nor speed was among their strong suits and they also had a number of injuries to their lineup, further weakening them. Mike Gershkovich and Zach Knowling were amongst those on the DL for them. These teams hadn’t met in three years. The most recent series in 2014 had been swept by the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-1, 3.73 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (3-3, 2.74 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (2-2, 4.22 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (2-3, 3.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-3, 3.60 ERA) vs. Chris Domingue (0-3, 6.06 ERA)

We avoid their left-hander, Andy Hackney (2-0, 4.66 ERA), who pitched on Wednesday.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Santos
DAL: CF R. Lopez – 3B J. Pena – RF Dally – SS St. George – 2B H. Garcia – C Schoeppen – LF Fraijo – 1B Contino – P Benjamin

The Coons didn’t get a hit until Santos singled with one out in the third, but after Cookie flew out to Justin Dally, who batted .383 with five homers, things got moving. Walter singled, Mendoza singled and plated Santos, and then McKnight went past the reach of Rodrigo Lopez in left center for a 2-run double for an early 3-0 lead. The Stars had a swift answer, drawing two walks off Santos in the bottom 3rd (which was always newsworthy, two walks by Santos in one inning), and Juan Pena hit a 2-out single to bring up the raker Dally as the go-ahead run. He sure raked, but he didn’t make contact and struck out, keeping the Coons 3-1 ahead. While the Raccoons didn’t take place in the middle innings, Santos had another two runners on base in the fourth, wiggled out of there, and the sixth started with a Dally drive to deep left. DeWeese, who had already ended the fourth with a strong grab on a liner, went back to catch the ball on the warning track, but the Stars still got a run in the inning on Stephen St. George’s single and Hector Garcia’s RBI double. Too bad for the Stars, Garcia hurt himself rounding first base and had to be replaced by fringe player Johnny Albert. After Casimiro Schoeppen’s deep fly out to right on which Mendoza had to hustle, the Raccoons maintained a 3-2 lead, but some offense would be nice. The Coons started the seventh inning with singles by Joey Mathews (who hit for Santos) and Cookie Carmona, but then failed to gain even another 90 feet as Walter, Mendoza, and McKnight all made poor outs. Wade Davis pitched a clean bottom of the inning, but then walked Pena to start the eighth. That pulled up Dally again; Kaiser came out to match him, but still allowed a single. Up by a run, two on, nobody out, Chris Mathis had to try and throw an anchor, but instead balked in an 0-2 count to St. George, with the Stars easily tying the game on a groundout. Ex-Logger Troy Charters was on it in the top of the ninth in a tied game, where we had arrived after two consecutive pops that kept Dally stranded at third base. Charters retired Prince to start the inning before conceding a double to Eddie Jackson. However, Cookie couldn’t do anything right by now and fouled out on a 3-1 pitch… (his single had been on a 3-0 pitch). Jackson was stranded, and when Chun made it through a scoreless inning, we had another extra inning affair on our paws. The Coons just couldn’t buy a hit, but the Stars got a 1-out single off Chun in the bottom 10th through Dally, who was run for by Ruben Chacon, who immediately took second base, advanced on St. George’s single, and the Stars walked off on Albert’s sac fly. 4-3 Stars. Walter 2-5; McKnight 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Cookie, honey, you’re trying too hard. Do you need a day off? No? Just let the hits flow out naturally. Please, I’m begging you, the team needs you to get on base any ****ing way.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
DAL: LF Chacon – CF R. Lopez – RF Dally – SS St. George – C Schoeppen – 3B Fraijo – 2B R. Mendez – 1B Contino – P Funderburk

The Raccoons got two fluke runs in the first inning. Cookie led off walking, and things could have gone badly when the Tiger grounded to short. St. George bungled the ball, however, and there were two on for when McKnight hit a blooper to left that escaped Chacon for a double, plating Cookie, while Mendoza came home on DeWeese’s sac fly to right. The Coons didn’t do any better in any regard, however, with Ricky Mendoza drilling Chacon to start his day, and then allowed a hard single to Rodrigo Lopez, which Jackson overran for an extra base. Runners on second and third, no outs, Dally struck out, sending a mumble through the park, but St. George got at least one run home with a sac fly before Schoeppen fouled out. Both pitchers were crowded badly in the second inning. Mendoza escaped thanks to the defense, but Funderburk allowed two more runs on 2-out singles by Walter and the Tiger, then conceded a leadoff jack to DeWeese in the third that put the Coons 5-1 ahead. That didn’t last long: Ricky Mendoza hit Lopez to start the bottom 3rd, and Dally pilfered the next pitch for a rocket to right that was well outta here and cut the lead in half, to 5-3. That wasn’t all: St. George singled, and Antonio Fraijo hit a howling double to deep right and into the corner to plate him, 5-4. John Contino stranded Fraijo on third as the tying run when he popped out to end the inning.

Cookie was on base in the top 4th, stole second, then was caught stealing at third, and Ricky Mendoza was rolled up for good in the bottom of the inning. He walked Lopez to get the Stars going, then allowed hard shots to left to Dally for a double and St. George for a single. Both plated the guy ahead of them and the Stars were ahead 6-5. Mendoza would not get his well deserved loss, for McKnight homered in the fifth off the equally miserable Ron Funderburk to tie the game again at six. Thank goodness for the Stars we had more completely inept pitching where Mendoza came from. Chet Cummings drilled Fraijo to start the bottom 5th, then quickly allowed a walk to Contino and an RBI double to Albert. With Cummings yanked, Wade Davis only made things worse, and the Stars emerged with a 9-6 lead from the inning.

Top 6th, Nunley, Denny, and Cookie all hit singles off Brent Beene, which put the tying runs on base with one out. Shane Walter rammed a bases-clearing double off the rightfield fence to make the Coons level again with the home team, but with the go-ahead run on second base, Tiger and McKnight failed to make proper contact against right-hander Ron Bartlatt, and the chance was wasted. Davis put runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning, Mathis appeared, managed to NOT ****ING BALK, and retired John Contino on a grounder to Walter, who had moved to short after two double switches to remove inept pitchers, which was an unusual move for the Raccoons, to see McKnight removed from the game. The seventh was the first inning in the game where actually nobody scored, and the eighth saw Kevin Cummings, a southpaw, issue a leadoff walk to Denny. We were running out of bench players, but Brandon Johnson batting in the #9 hole was no offensive relief, grounding to second base to get Denny forced. Cookie then singled to right and sent Johnson to third, runners on the corners with one out for Walter. Shane Walter took Cummings’ first pitch over Contino for a tie-breaking RBI single, and Cookie went to third. Then the Tiger hit into a double play. I had heartaches. Thrasher got the bottom 8th, allowed a 2-out double to Schoeppen, but struck out Frajio to complete his assignment. The ninth went to Ramirez, who had explicit instructions to not blow the tender lead or he would not even have to head for the team bus back to the hotel. He didn’t blow the lead – the 7-8-9 batters went down 1-2-3 for the Stars. 10-9 Furballs. Carmona 3-4, BB; Walter 3-5, 2B, 5 RBI; McKnight 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Denny 1-2, 2 BB;

(exhales) That was not a pleasant game.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Mathews – C Margolis – 2B Prince – P Brown
DAL: CF Chacon – 3B J. Pena – SS St. George – RF Dally – C Schoeppen – LF R. Lopez – 2B Albert – 1B Contino – P Domingue

Brownie got ruffled for three hits, a walk, and two runs in the bottom of the first inning, with the Stars making consistent, hard contact. In the bottom 2nd, they scored two more runs, and the 1-2-3 batters rocked Brownie for base hits on three consecutive pitches. Dally struck out to end the inning, but it was a most pyrrhic victory… The Furballs had no hits in the first two innings, but then got Prince, Brown, and Cookie all on base with nobody out in the third inning. When Shane Walter grounded into a double play, I died inside, and the Raccoons exited the inning with only one run scored once Mendoza grounded out to the pitcher. The run didn’t even matter because Brownie allowed a 2-out RBI single to Domingue right in the bottom of the inning. 55 pitches through three innings – and none of them good. He eventually ended up with 10 hits and two walks allowed in 4.1 innings before having to be dug out of another mess by Seung-mo Chun.

Down 5-1 after five innings with only two hits in the bank, the Raccoons looked as dead as usual against a pitcher with a 6+ ERA. Meanwhile, for the second day in a row, the Raccoons’ bullpen tumbled from mess to mess, but this time they didn’t allow a run while doing so, despite Jason Kaiser walking people and Chet Cummings hitting people and what not all. However, the offense was completely silent. Brownie stuck to the loss, because the Coons didn’t score another run until they were down to their last out. Matt Nunley’s pinch-hit homer was hopefully a step in the right direction for him personally, but it came too late to make any difference. 5-2 Stars. H. Mendoza 2-4; Nunley (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Sad week.

In other news

May 1 – The Cyclones tie the Blue Sox in the ninth inning, and the resulting tie is not resolved until the 16th inning when the Cyclones walk off, 6-5, on a home run by LF/RF Jason Seeley (.290, 3 HR, 7 RBI).
May 4 – LAP CL Arturo Lopez (0-0, 0.64 ERA, 8 SV) will be shut down for two weeks with elbow inflammation.
May 4 – Sacramento routs Boston, 15-2. Every starting position player for the Scorpions has at least one base hit and either an RBI or a run scored.
May 5 – MIL SP J.J. Wirth (1-2, 2.61 ERA) needs surgery to clear some major bone chips from his elbow. It looks like his season is over.
May 6 – The Blue Sox will be without 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.281, 3 HR, 20 RBI) for about the rest of the month. The 37-year old has strained a hammy and will miss about three weeks.
May 6 – The Capitals pile a pair of 6-spot in the seventh and eighth innings on the Indians to rout them late, 14-5.
May 6 – The Wolves’ game against the Falcons ends 1-0 in ten innings on a walkoff homer by RF/LF Rick Farmer (.300, 1 HR, 4 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Don’t ask me what went wrong in Milwaukee, I know exactly as much as you do. I only have my usual conspiracy theory involving the baseball gods, and nobody’s buyin’ that. Would have been cool to continue to have Jonny on a streak winning all games, but they couldn’t even score two runs when the Loggers had to go to their pen in the first inning. That one sure hurts, almost a week later!!

Of course nothing got better in Dallas. And the road trip started so well! Also, this was our first series loss to Dallas since 2004.

In more tremendous news, Jeff Magnotta was demoted to AA this week after running a 7+ ERA in April in AAA. Yeah, we might want to erase him from the happy prospect list. Do we have an actual list? I don’t know. I’d ask Gabriel Martinez, if he’d actually talk to me. He just glares at me, then makes a phone call in Spanish, and never stops glaring during that.

I might go on and dump Prince, who is terrible, and bring up 1B Russ Greenwald from AAA, who’s rapping out extra-base hits. He was our second-rounder in 2013, but was released in June of 2016. The Gold Sox ran him for a year, then released him a year and a day after he had been released by the Coons. We signed him to a minor league deal in early April, and since then he’s batted .263 with ten extra-base hits in 16 games. He’s a left-hander, so there’s that, but like I said, Prince is terrible, and his presence saddens me. He also does have options.

By the way, that Brandon Johnson guy is the same Brandon Johnson that batted .338 in 139 AB last season. He is getting evened out, I guess. We might consider Alex Duarte for a promotion, although the question would be where to play him. It’s not like space is infinite. Although, if we dump both Johnson and Prince, we could get Duarte into center, Cookie to right, and Mendoza to first. That almost sounds like a plan. Even Johnson has an option – not that we care that hard right now.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

These posts are absurdly well done.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-13) vs. Rebels (22-8) – May 8-10, 2018

That was some good start the Rebels were having there, which was a bit mind-boggling given that while they were hardly allowing any runs (3.4 per game, second-best in the FL), they also weren’t scoring a whole lot, ranking ninth in runs scored in their league. They were thoroughly mediocre in all offensive regards, with no particular weaknesses, but certainly no strengths. Both teams had squared off in the last two years, and the Raccoons had always gotten the short end of the stick, losing both series two games to one.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (5-0, 2.34 ERA) vs. Josh Knupp (3-1, 4.22 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (2-2, 1.85 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (4-0, 3.19 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 3.62 ERA) vs. Ian Van Meter (4-1, 1.72 ERA)

Right-left-right for this series. There will be no rendezvous with ex-Coon Shunyo Yano (2-3, 5.40 ERA). Him and Toner pitching against another would be some good fun. For the moment, we had to make do with meeting Adam Young, who was batting .269 with four home runs for the Rebels.

This was our first string of games longer than nine without an off day. We’d play 16 games in a row before the next off day.

Game 1
RIC: CF D. Flores – 1B A. Young – C J. White – RF Kimura – 2B B. Torres – LF Reya – SS Otis – 3B R. Avila – P Knupp
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – P Toner

The Raccoons got an unearned run in the first inning when Matt Otis fumbled Cookie’s grounder to short for an error, Cookie took second base, and eventually scored on Mendoza’s sac fly to Danny Flores. Another stolen base by Prince, who had drawn a leadoff walk, led to another run in the bottom of the third inning. Knupp balked Prince to third base, from where Jonny plated him with a grounder to short. Himself, Jonny was perfect the first time through the order, striking out four, but opened the fourth inning with a walk to Danny Flores, and then allowed three hits to Jamal White (single), Bobby Torres (double), and Luis Reya (another single) that tied the game. The Raccoons continued their futility from last week, and did absolutely nothing in the middle innings, a McKnight single and stolen base aside. Bobby Torres romped a homer to left to start the top of the seventh inning, putting the Rebels on top against Jonny, who hadn’t looked sharp since that walk to Flores in the fourth. Sharp neither: the lineup. Hugo Mendoza drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, which was about the sum of all efforts the Critters managed to put up in favor of Toner, who went eight innings but remained hanging on the hook. The Rebels had to contend with the bottom of the order in the ninth inning. Between Nunley, Mathews, and Margolis, zero balls left the infield. 3-2 Rebels. Carmona 2-4, 2B; Walter 2-4; Toner 8.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (5-1);

We can not ever have nice things, can we?

Game 2
RIC: CF D. Flores – 1B A. Young – C J. White – RF Kimura – 2B B. Torres – LF Reya – SS Otis – 3B R. Avila – P D. Butler
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – LF Jackson – RF H. Mendoza – 1B Mathews – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Abe

The only thing worse than Tuesday’s loss was probably going to be if Adam Young drove in the go-ahead run against the Raccoons – which happened in the third inning. Ricky Avila had hit a leadoff single, had been bunted over, advanced on Flores’ groundout, and then scored on Young’s sorry blooper into shallow left. The Raccoons had no hits the first time through the order, but Cookie hit a 2-out single in the bottom 3rd that amounted to nothing. The Tiger had a 1-out single in the fourth, quickly followed by Mathews’ roller to left that escaped Otis. Nunley hit a ball to right center that fell into the gap for a double. Mendoza scored, but Kimura had a monster arm and Mathews was held on third base, giving Denny, the living strikeout, runners on second and third with one out. He didn’t strike out. He fouled out. Prince was bypassed, and Abe was blasted by Butler to end the inning in a 1-1 tie.

On to the sixth, where Flores started with a groundout before Young hit a ball to right center that looked like extra bases. Cookie picked it up as Young turned second base in a wide arc and made for third base. Cookie knocked him out there, keeping the bases clean thanks to a perfect throw. Jamal White followed up that good development with a double to left center. Abe hit Kimura, then fell to Bobby Torres’ single to center that scored White. While two runs allowed in seven innings, where Abe eventually arrived, certainly was not bad, it was just not enough, was it? The Raccoons struggled to make sound contact even once. Cookie hit a single to center in the bottom 7th. There were already two outs, and McKnight’s gentle fly to Reya in left was the third. Mendoza was stranded on second base in the eighth inning after walking and advancing on Mathews’ groundout. Matt Otis hurt himself in the inning, but watching the Raccoons fail, fail, fail, and fail hurt a thousand times worse than any torn-off limb. The bottom of the order was up again in another 1-run game in the bottom of the ninth, with left-hander Matt Collins pitching for the Rebels. After Denny grounded out, Petracek pinch-hit for Chun in the #8 hole, and when Collins came inside, Petracek in turning managed to hold his fat butt into the pitch. The tying run was on base, where it remained when Walter struck out and Cookie flew out to center. 2-1 Rebels. Carmona 2-5; Abe 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (2-3); Kaiser 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

What the hell? That’s FIVE 1-run losses in the last eight games. They are also 2-6 in those games, and both their wins were by one run, too.

Okay, it was time for an injection of fresh blood. Tim Prince (batting all of .179) and Brandon Johnson (a glorious 1-for-23) were discarded on Thursday. Russ Greenwald (.282, 4 HR, 18 RBI) and Alex Duarte (.356, 1 HR, 19 RBI) were promoted from the Alley Cats.

Game 3
RIC: CF D. Flores – SS Cramer – C J. White – RF Kimura – 2B B. Torres – LF Reya – 1B Correa – 3B R. Avila – P I. Van Meter
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 1B Greenwald – C Denny – P Santos

The Rebels appeared to get going with two outs in the first when Jamal White singled and Kimura was yet again drilled with a pitch. Santos threw a wild pitch before Bobby Torres sent a drive to deep center, but Duarte got a glove on it to end the inning. Russ Greenwald walked in his first major league plate appearance, moved around to third base on two outs, and remained there when Cookie flew out to center. The Coons didn’t get an actual hit until Duarte singled to lead off the fourth, but before even the slightest amount of excitement could come up, Walter hit into a double play to Justin Cramer.

With Nunley on first and one out, Greenwald grounded to the mound in the bottom of the fifth. The ball went against Van Meter’s momentum and although Greenwald was as fast as first baseman typically were he legged out the throw to first, giving the Raccoons an outrageous TWO BASERUNNERS AT ONCE. Denny and Santos struck out in full counts to allow the fans to marvel at the sight for as long as possible. While Santos maintained a 2-hit shutout that he wouldn’t finish due to an advanced pitch count of almost 100 through seven innings, Van Meter held the Coons to as many hits through six innings (and remember that both of those were by the new arrivals). Yet, as proof that indeed wonders never ceased, the Raccoons managed to occupy the corners with one out in the bottom 7th thanks to back-to-back soft singles by DeWeese and Nunley! Hooray for really piling it on that pitcher! Said pitcher struck out Greenwald, and Mike Denny grounded out to Avila. Santos chewed through two more batters, the latter of which was Van Meter, who struck out, but Santos missed grossly twice in that at-bat, a sure sign that he was done. Thrasher replaced him to get the third out of the eighth in the scoreless contest. He entered in a double switch with the Tiger, who took over at first base and hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th. Van Meter got Cookie to pop out and whiffed Duarte before yielding for right-hander Ron Sakellaris, who allowed a single to Shane Walter that sent Mendoza to third base. However, McKnight struck out in a full count, and … things just continued to blow real hard.

Alex Ramirez kept the Rebels away in the top of the ninth before Sakellaris walked DeWeese at the start of the bottom of the inning. In a desperate move, Nunley was told to bunt and did that so outrageously bad that Jamal White had no problem nailing down DeWeese at second base. Eddie Jackson hit for Ramirez and singled into center in a soft line that Bobby Torres missed by perhaps four inches, before Denny came up and hit a bloop to shallow center that nobody reached. Another single, bases loaded with one out for Tiger. Well, if that … oh dear, please. I can’t take another failure. In the best sac fly of all times, Mendoza hit a 2-1 pitch to sufficiently deep center to plate the fool Nunley, and this game ended the Coons way after a sour 2:40 … 1-0 Blighters. DeWeese 1-2, 2 BB; Greenwald 1-2, BB; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Mendoza 1-1, RBI; Santos 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K;

That’s four runs on 19 hits for the series, which is not a lot of hits to begin with, and then it’s also pathetic clutch hitting whenever one of the fools got lost on the way to the dugout and ended up on second base or – lo and behold – third.

And now the Purple Pests come to town. I fear the absolute worst!

Raccoons (18-15) vs. Crusaders (18-17) – May 11-13, 2018

The Raccoons had won the first series of the season 2-1, but back then they had actually scored runs occasionally. Not that the Crusaders had bought into production with their far-and-wide biggest budget in the league. They had the worst batting average in the CL, and scored the second-least runs, although the Raccoons were in the fast lane on the way to the cellar and had actually only two more runs scored to their credit. While Portland had conceded the least runs overall, the Crusaders had the best rotation, so bad times were ahead without a doubt.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (2-2, 5.05 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (3-3, 3.55 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-4, 4.46 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (1-4, 4.37 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-1, 2.50 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (4-2, 2.60 ERA)

All their starters were right-handed. I would not completely disregard the possibility of Choe getting skipped again, which would move a completely unlucky “Midnight” Martin into the series. He had a 1.22 ERA and a losing record at 2-3. No worries, Jaylen. Your good old Coons got a fix for all your ills.

Game 1
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – C Roland – RF Richards – SS M. Salinas – 2B Casillas – CF S. Young – P McKenzie
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P R. Mendoza

Cookie hit a sad double in the first inning; sad because it was all alone in the box score by the time the inning concluded and Cookie trudged back to the dugout from third base. Instead, Miguel Salinas hit a random home run in the second inning to put the Crusaders on top, 1-0, and that was probably going to be the final score as well, which was a claim I would make confidently after all the **** I’d seen the last ten days. Go ahead, suckers, and prove your old GM wrong!

Rain ended up holding Ricky Mendoza to four innings, during which no further damage happened – on his pitching ledger. He did get Denny forced out with a failed bunt in the bottom 3rd after Denny had hit a leadoff single. McKenzie continued to pitch after the rain delay, which had taken just over an hour, and walked DeWeese and Duarte in the bottom 4th. Nunley singled to left, allowing DeWeese to score the tying run, but Denny then swiftly hit into an inning-ending double play. With the daily run on the board and thus an insufficient numbers of runs scored for a win, it was best to shorten the game by bringing in the runt of the litter, so Chet Cummings appeared for the sixth inning. The unthinkable happened: Ray Gilbert homered off Cummings with one out in the sixth, putting the Crusaders 2-1 ahead. When Duarte hit a single in the bottom 6th there were already two outs, so what was the best that could happen? Matt Nunley’s OPS was somewhere around .375, so of course he rammed a ball to centerfield and outta the ****ing place for a score-flipping 2-run homer.

Baseball! Where you never the **** know what’s gonna ****ing happen next!

Next, Denny doubled, but Mathews struck out batting for Cummings. Mathis pitched in the seventh, where Tony Casillas reached on an uncaught third strike, which was exactly the way in which horrendous teams tended to lose games or blow leads, or both. No fear right now, though, with pinch-hitter Sergio Valdez, April’s Rookie of the Month, grounding to Walter for an inning-ending double play. The Tiger thumped a solo shot in the bottom 7th before Wade Davis covertly worked to hand the win to the Crusaders. He allowed two hard shots to center to the only batters he faced. Duarte couldn’t catch up with Bartholomeu Pino’s, which was a double, but he caught Jens Carroll’s on a magnificent tumbling catch that if Cookie had attempted it would have certainly broken his neck. The run scored against Ron Thrasher, leaving the Coons dangling on a 1-run lead again, but surely the leadoff triple that DeWeese hit into the gap against Colin Sabatino to open the bottom 8th would lead to great things. While Jackson fouled out in Duarte’s spot, Nunley singled past Casillas to plate the run. Denny also singled, putting two on with one out, and two got stranded when Margolis flew out to center and Cookie struck out… Thankfully Ramirez ended the Crusaders in just three batters in the ninth, because I was out of pillows to scream into. 5-3 Critters. Duarte 1-2, BB; Nunley 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Denny 3-4, 2B; Greenwald (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – 3B M. Salinas – 1B Gilbert – C Pino – 2B S. Valdez – RF Richards – SS Casillas – CF Brissett – P Choe
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Brown

While ****ing Ray Gilbert came pretty close to a homer in the first inning, the Raccoons would actually score first. Cookie walked, Walter singled to get him to second, and he made it to third on Mendoza’s fielder’s choice. When McKnight flew out to Ron Richards in right, Cookie scampered home to claim a 1-0 lead. The Crusaders left the tying run on third base in the second inning. Valdez arrived there partly thanks to a wild pitch by Mr. Brown, who allowed only one hit the first time through the order (and struck out none). The Coons had runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom 3rd when McKnight hit a real rocket line drive off Choe, but also right into the mitt of Valdez, who raised it instinctively to protect his head and came up with the ball, somehow. Also, somehow the Crusaders tied the game in the fourth, although they had absolutely nothing cooking. Salinas got hit with a pitch to start the inning, moved up on two outs, and then scored on a balk…

Misery continued unabated meanwhile for the offensive department that saw the Critters somehow cough up a scoring opportunity in the fifth inning after a soft single to center with one out by Brownie, Cookie reaching on an error by Choe, and then Walter brutally slaughtered this beautiful thing with a plain old 4-6-3 grounder. Cookie tried to kill Casillas with any of his assorted limbs to break up the double play – in vain. Nope, they really had to wait for the Crusaders to take a lead, because what was better than losing to those pricks? They attacked suddenly with two outs in the seventh, PH Pedro Cruz doubling to left and Casillas knocking Brown’s first pitch to center for an RBI single. When Greenwald batted for Brown in the bottom 7th, there were two outs and nobody on. He got smacked by Choe with a 2-2 pitch, Cookie singled to left, Walter somehow had an infield single, and suddenly the bases were loaded for the Tiger, but a sac fly wouldn’t do this time. Maybe Choe was not a good matchup against him, and in any case he seemed scared. After two pitches well outside were called balls, Choe had to come in, which was exactly what Mendoza had waited for. The Tiger struck a pitch slightly up, yet pretty fat, and with a roar it raced across leftfield, a little ball, pretty damn high in the sky, as the crowd burst into ecstasy after two hours of not much major league worthy hitting being displayed. GRAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!

The Crusader nibbled on the pen right away in the eighth, with pinch-hitter Cory Roland doubling off Chun, the only batter the latter faced. Kaiser got two outs from Martin Ortíz (sounds familiar, but he’s playing like a quad-A player on two bad legs) and Salinas before Gilbert appeared. We tried to get some rest extended to Thrasher and Ramirez here, so Chris Mathis was grabbed from the pen to attempt a 4-out save. Gilbert knocked his first pitch hard to the left side, but Nunley was there and intercepted it masterfully and mid-pirouette made a throw to first that nailed Gilbert by three steps – magical! To put a cherry on top of that wonderful play, Nunley homered in the bottom 8th off Sabatino, but Mathis could have done without that. 6-2 Raccoons. Walter 3-4; H. Mendoza 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, W (2-4) and 1-2; Mathis 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (3);

That’s back-to-back games with 4+ runs each for the first time since April 28-29, the end of the 6-game winning streak that had be so elated for a second before the harsh, cold reality caught up with us again.

The slightest consolation is offered by the fact that the Indians are struggling as well and we are still only half a game behind them.

Game 3
NYC: SS M. Salinas – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – 2B S. Valdez – C Roland – RF Richards – 3B P. Cruz – CF S. Young – P Weise
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – C Denny – P Toner

Jonny opened the game with a walk to Salinas, but then clicked off the next ten batters in a row, including five strikeouts, before walking Gilbert in the fourth. With two down, Cory Roland singled to center, but Ron Richards’s grounder to first ended the inning with two men stranded, a feat the Coons had already achieved twice in the contest. After a silent bottom of the fourth, the Coons would again have two on in the fifth. With one out, Jonny hit a hard grounder to left that dipped off the end of the lunging Cruz’ glove and into shallow leftfield for a single, and then Cookie walked. Weise’s 2-1 to Duarte was called a ball despite being clearly above the knees which had the Crusaders bench up in arms immediately, which only got worse when Duarte drew the walk on the next pitch. Bases loaded for the Tiger. Now where have I seen that movie before? Nah, two slams in two days were a bit much asked, but the Coons grabbed the lead when he singled past Salinas, but Cookie slightly stumbled at third base and had to retreat to the bag, leaving the bases loaded for McKnight in a 1-0 game. Both McKnight and DeWeese struck out, and I had a bad feeling about another messy inning for Toner to unravel everything.

Sure enough it did. Salinas, Gilbert, and Roland all hit singles in the sixth, handily scoring a run to re-knot the score. Also, Toner was already over 100 pitches, so unless the Raccoons could find a run somewhere between the 6-7-8 batters – nah, whom am I kidding… However, Jonny soldiered through the seventh inning in reasonable time, allowing him another chance at a W in the bottom of that inning, which started with Mathews hitting for him and striking out, and it didn’t get better after that. By the ninth inning, Wade Davis was trying to hold on to the 1-1 tie, allowing a pinch-hit single to the corpse of Stanton Martin (who still existed, living somewhere beneath the Crusaders’ bench), a 1-out single to Sean Young that sent Martin to third, and then the Crusaders allowed Tom Weise to hit for himself. Of ****ing course he singled to left on the first pitch he got from Davis, which plated Martin with the go-ahead run, and Davis was getting completely torn up as Salinas walked, Brissett singled, 3-1, Gilbert hit a sac fly, 4-1, Valdez was drilled, and Roland singled, 5-1, before Stanton Martin fell asleep during his second at-bat of the inning and struck out. The Raccoons amounted to a leadoff walk by Nunley in the bottom 9th, and a game-ending double play hit into by Greenwald. 5-1 Crusaders. Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K;

The scum had four hits.

In other news

May 7 – The Pacifics-Loggers contest sees a whopping 32 base hits, with the Milwaukee team grabbing a sound majority of them, beating L.A. 14-5 on 21 hits. Ken Burns (.268, 1 HR, 7 RBI) and Brad Gore (.247, 0 HR, 13 RBI) both have four hits in the game, all singles for both of them. Burns scores four times, while Gore scores three times and drives in two.
May 8 – The Warriors will be without INF Jamie Wilson (.400, 6 HR, 26 RBI) for a month. The 30-year old is suffering from shoulder tendinitis.
May 8 – The Miners trade 27-yr old OF Jim Webb (.278, 2 HR, 14 RBI) to the Pacifics for SP Cody Zimmerman (4-3, 6.28 ERA), who is the same age. The Pacifics also receive a prospect.
May 9 – A wild pitch by DEN MR Patrick Mercier (0-3, 6.75 ERA) ends the Gold Sox’ 12-inning contest with the Canadiens with an 8-7 walkoff win for the latter.
May 13 – The Capitals amount to only one hit against the Rebels in an 8-1 loss, a seventh-inning double by outfielder Will Newman (.241, 3 HR, 13 RBI).
May 13 – In the second trade of the week the Pacifics are involved again, acquiring 2B Rich Mendez (.500, 0 HR, 6 RBI in 30 AB) and #88 prospect 3B Adrian Alvarez from the Stars in exchange for LF/CF Garrett Amundson (.298, 1 HR, 14 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

I should have guessed that after winning his first five starts of the season Jonny would not get another W until about July. Which is another ten starts or so away.

The last two weeks have been nothing but awful and disgusting. Nothing works, absolutely nothing. Somehow the whole division is under a blanket, which is the only reason the completely inept Raccoons are still second and only 1 1/2 games out. I don’t think I can consciously watch this ****ed up lineup for more than another two or three games before randomly shooting some of the offenders, which is a word that is related to ‘offense’, BUT I SURE AIN’T SEEING ANY OF THAT!!

Next week: Indians for four. That’s gonna hurt. Thunder after that.

Maybe I should… Chad? Chad! You sure have some glue somewhere? – I don’t care about the flavor. – I want to glue my eyes shut!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-16) vs. Indians (22-15) – May 14-17, 2018

Back in 2017, the Indians had lost 13 times to the Raccoons to end up one game short of the playoffs. They were certainly looking for revenge for that one in the first set between the teams in 2018, and one that would stretch over four games. Consistency was key for the Indians, who led the division despite not necessarily trumping the world in either offense or pitching. They had the fourth-most runs in the Continental League, but were only sixth in runs allowed. Their rotation was average, their bullpen was actually worse than average. A good offense could certainly pick them apart. Which was where those bloody Raccoons came in…

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (2-3, 1.96 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (2-2, 5.22 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (3-1, 1.69 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (2-2, 4.76 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (3-2, 4.84 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-4, 4.14 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (1-3, 2.79 ERA)

Broun was their left-hander, and we’d miss “Ant” Mendez (6-3, 4.05 ERA), who led the league in wins despite an odd-shaped ERA.

Game 1
IND: 1B O. Torres – C Mancuso – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – 2B Kym – CF J. Wilson – SS D. Ortega – 3B Dahlke – P F. Ramirez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 1B Greenwald – C Denny – P Abe

The Indians tried to pick a Raccoon off first base twice in the first inning. The first time, Nolan Mancuso made a horrendous throw that went to rightfield and moved Cookie to second. The second time, with Cookie and McKnight on the corners, McKnight was actually caught napping and the inning ended. The Indians had them on the corners with no outs in the top 2nd after Jong-beom Kym – just back from injury, hurray, hurray – doubled and John Wilson singled, but Abe came back with K’s to Domingo Ortega and Tom Dahlke before Felipe Ramirez flew out to right. Runners on first and third and no outs was also true for the Critters in the bottom 2nd, and they even loaded the bases when Russ Greenwald walked. Denny struck out, Abe struck out, Cookie grounded out to Kym. While the Raccoons actually got a run in the bottom 3rd on a sac fly by DeWeese, Abe, after striking out Gilmor and Kym to start the fourth, allowed a homer to dead center to John Wilson (on a 3-0 pitch!) to get the game tied again. After that, Ortega doubled, Dahlke was walked intentionally to get to Ramirez, who singled anyway, but Oliver Torres, approximately a hundred years old, popped out to Walter.

That was also the last pitch for Tadasu Abe, who was in discomfort after the inning and was sent for some good ol’ scrutineering by the Druid. There wasn’t a lot of juice in that bullpen and with five innings to go under any circumstance, we would need every ooze of blood from Seung-mo Chun’s body, no matter the results. Actually, the results were phenomenal: Chun pitched three shutout innings in relief of the fallen Abe, and the Raccoons even found a run on a bomb that Tiger Mendoza hit to right center in the fifth. Jason Kaiser failed to dispel the two left-handed G’s in the middle of the Indians’ order. While Lowell Genge grounded out, Nick Gilmor singled to left. Alex Ramirez was picked for a 5-out save at this point. While Pat Eaton came up with a pinch-hit 2-out single, Ramirez struck out Marcos Garza to end the eighth. The Raccoons had Duarte draw a 1-out walk in the bottom of the inning, but he was thrown out at third on Cookie’s single, leaving Ramirez cushionless in the ninth. The sucker insisted on walking a pair before blowing the lead through a 1-out Mancuso double. Genge struck out with runners on second and third, Gilmor was walked intentionally, and Kym flew out to Duarte, but the Raccoons were glaring at extra innings and couldn’t afford them. At least the Tiger reached on an infield single against Jarrod Morrison to start the bottom of the ninth. McKnight’s liner to left ended up with Genge, but DeWeese’s liner to right went up the line and was not to be caught. Gilmor cut it off fairly deep, the Tiger was emphatically waved around by the third base coach and sent to home where the ball arrived a split second late and the Tiger pounded his stripes on the plate to secure a walkoff for the Raccoons! 3-2 Furballs! Carmona 2-5; Mendoza 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; McKnight 3-5, 2 2B; DeWeese 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley 1-2, 2 BB; Abe 4.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K; Chun 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Denny struck out three times and was short of a dinger by ten feet the fourth time. He’s in a real ruckus right now. Also, Greenwald was double-switched out and was credited with four left on base, who came in two pairs. The latter occasion was a groundout, but after Mendoza’s homer in the fifth the Coons put another two on and Greenwald almost would have beaten John Wilson’s range in center for some serious damage.

That aside, ten hits, four doubles, three runs. Something just isn’t clicking.

Since we were in the middle of a 16-game stretch without an off day, we wanted to give everybody at least one day off. With Broun appearing in game #8 of the stretch, this was as good a time as any to just dump every non-left-hander into the lineup and give f.e. Cookie his day off. With the lineup below, the only regulars to get a day off afterwards were Walter, McKnight, and the Tiger.

Can we afford resting the Tiger at all?

Game 2
IND: 1B O. Torres – SS Nelson – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – 2B Kym – CF J. Wilson – C Mancuso – 3B Dahlke – P Broun
POR: 3B Walter – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF Jackson – SS McKnight – 2B Mathews – RF Petracek – C Margolis – P Santos

In a pitching duel (wasn’t every game now a pitching duel? And don’t you dare allow a run because you’re ****ing dead if you wear the brown shirt), Santos scattered a few singles early on and gave Alex Duarte a workout in center while the Raccoons didn’t get a hit until the fourth inning and then it was an infield single for Eddie Jackson that led nowhere but into dark woods full of horrors. Broun, who had walked three in the first four innings with no consequences, then would produce an actual scoring opportunity for the Critters in the bottom of the fifth. Walter hit a 2-out single – an ACTUAL single leaving the INFIELD! – before Duarte and Mendoza walked to fill the bags. But, as these things went, Jackson grounded right to Kym to end the inning… Broun ended up walking six total and didn’t get out of the sixth inning of a scoreless game, while Santos was more consistent and was through seven on just 82 pitches. Don’t matter if he opens the bottom 7th with a stick. It’s not like we have anybody capable of hitting anything. Heck, Santos hit a single! And Walter hit into a double play. Santos squeezed 107 pitches from his short-breathed lungs and tender arm, pitching a 5-hit shutout over the Indians … well, that was if the Raccoons could find a run in the ninth inning and with the bottom of the order. Well, Helio Maggessi walked Petracek to start things, and Margolis bunted him over. Cookie had already batted for Jackson in the eighth (unsuccessfully) and so Nunley hit for Santos. He grounded out to Kym, and Walter grounded out to the pitcher, as the team showed Santos the ****ing finger. Thrasher allowed singles to Phil Brown and Jong-beom Kym to start the top 10th and somehow wiggled his black ass outta there, while the Coons also had their first two on in the bottom 10th with Duarte singling and Mendoza walking. Cookie struck out, McKnight flew out to left, and Mathews grounded to second – and Kym missed it by inches. Into center went the ball, and across home plate slid Alex Duarte. 1-0 Blighters. Duarte 1-2, 3 BB; Santos 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K and 1-3;

Another game like that and I will turn into a certified murderer.

Game 3
IND: 1B O. Torres – SS Nelson – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – 2B Kym – CF J. Wilson – C Mancuso – 3B Dahlke – P Riley
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Denny – P R. Mendoza

After Aaron Nelson’s single, an error by DeWeese put two on and Ricky Mendoza into trouble that turned into a 2-run hole after Kym’s 2-out double into the rightfield corner. That 2-0 hole became a 3-0 hole in the fourth inning after three straight singles by Kym, Wilson, and Mancuso before the Indians ran themselves out of the inning and Denny struck down Wilson at third base. At that point, the Raccoons had zero hits, although Duarte bought them one with a leadoff single to right center in the bottom 4th. The Tiger flew out to center, McKnight flew out to right, DeWeese flew – oh, that’s pretty deep right … and outta here! Cookie’s RBI double tied the game with two outs in the fifth, and we were even again at three.

Cookie was stranded at second base just as DeWeese was after his 2-out double in the sixth, but at least Mendoza had a few quick and panicless innings, but just as I thought that he offered a leadoff walk to Marcos Garza in the seventh inning. Danny Morales hit into a force at second base, and when Jason Kaiser replaced Mendoza, the Indians hit right-hander Pat Eaton for Oliver Torres. Eaton singled, runners on first and second, and another right-hander was up in Nelson, but he was batting .221 and I wanted Kaiser for Lowell Genge really bad. Nelson grounded to third, Nunley getting Eaton at second base, but not the double play, but Kaiser struck out Genge to strand runners on the corners. The Raccoons got two on in the bottom 7th with singles by Mathews and Walter (hitting for Kaiser), but then it was Ricardo Carmona to hit into an inning-ending double play. Duarte’s awesome defense saved the hairy bums of both Wade Davis (who hit Kym) and Ron Thrasher in the eighth as the youngster made two awesome grabs in support of the two pitchers, first on Phil Brown’s drive to left center and then on Mancuso’s blooper that wanted to fall into shallow center. Like that wasn’t enough, Duarte bopped right-hander Joel Davis with a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th! Unfortunately, a) that was all in the inning, and b) ****ing Alex Ramirez allowed FOUR singles in the top of the ninth as the Indians tied the game on the one-base efforts of Garza, Ortega, Nelson, and Brown before Kym grounded out to McKnight to leave the bags loaded.

While I was drooling uncontrollably from the left side of my mouth and was crying furiously, the Raccoons did absolutely nothing in the bottom of the ninth to send another contest to extra innings. Mathis held the Indians away in the tenth, with Cookie opening the home half with a single. He took off right away and swiped second base before Duarte ever swung, but perhaps it was better to just let Duarte swing. His drive to right center eluded Phil Brown, and Cookie leisurely strolled home to secure the third walkoff in the series for the Raccoons. 5-4 Critters! Carmona 2-5, 2B, RBI; Duarte 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Mathews 2-4; Walter (PH) 1-1; R. Mendoza 6.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Thank heavens we got Ramirez. How many more millions? Roughly $2.1M. Oh dear.

Also oh dear: Tadasu Abe was diagnosed with a tear in a back muscle and will be out for a considerable amount of time. The Druid thinks he might be out for the season unless Abe subscribes to a treatment with Senor Mena’s collection of special ointments. They are indeed special. They can only be applied while wearing CBRN protection, otherwise the odors will knock you straight out.

This was an obvious trip to the disabled list for Abe, and the Raccoons, already kinda thin in terms of starting pitching, had to scramble for depth for as early as Saturday. We would turn to left-hander Ryan Nielson as his replacement, whom you might remember as Kevin Beaver’s replacement in the bullpen late last season (after the fall from grace of Nick Lester). He had actually never relieved in his minor league career and in seven starts for the Alley Cats this season was 5-1 with a 2.03 ERA.

Welp.

Game 4
IND: C Mancuso – 2B Kym – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – CF J. Wilson – 3B Dahlke – 1B Eaton – SS D. Ortega – P Lambert
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – 1B Greenwald – C Denny – P N. Brown

Mendoza had fallen behind on unearned runs on Wednesday, and so did Brownie on Thursday. Matt Nunley airmailed a throw on Tom Dahlke’s grounder that put the opposing third baseman on second base with one out in the second inning, and Brownie didn’t recover from that. Eaton singled, and Ortega’s groundout brought home Dahlke with the first run of the game. Earned runs followed soon and too many for be to keep watching. I retreated to somewhere dark and silent after singles by Mancuso and Kym, a 2-run single by Gilmor, and then John Wilson’s homer to right that put the Indians up 5-0. I saw a Dahlke error leading to an unearned run for the Raccoons in the bottom 3rd (Duarte scored after doubling initially) on the way out, then missed how Greenwald made an error to cost Brownie another unearned run in the top 4th. ****ty defense was the one thing that Nick Brown absolutely couldn’t cope with anymore, and it showed in the line score all too clearly. With the bullpen reduced to ashes already, Brown had to keep pitching until he had his allotment of around 100 pitches, and in this case that meant 6.2 innings of absolutely dreadful pitching, resulting in ten hits and seven runs, five of those earned. John Wilson – a left-hander no less – hit another home run off him. The Raccoons didn’t hit much of anything, except their fat butts on the edges of the dugout railing, until DeWeese hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the eighth. At that point, the Raccoons moved back to within three runs, 7-4 down. While Shane Walter hit a leadoff single in the bottom 9th against Maggessi, that was easily all the Raccoons amounted to in the inning. 7-4 Indians. Duarte 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Cummings 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Who’s up for more good news? Nick Brown felt unwell on Friday morning and went to check with the Druid. Things progressed from talking to touching to some electro-magnetical riff-raff I don’t understand since I don’t have a degree in electro-magnetical riff-raff and by game time on Friday night the Raccoons found out that Nick Brown had bone chips in his elbow and needed surgery. His season was likely over.

Get ready for Damani Knight (3-5, 3.81 ERA with Alley Cats) coming up. Get tissues.

Raccoons (23-17) vs. Thunder (14-27) – May 18-20, 2018

The Thunder ranked tenth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed, but the Raccoons were very close in one of those categories, and would be your guess which one that would be. While they had some pop and were second in home runs, they had all of two stolen bases and mediocre defense, too, so this was not an agile team. Fifth in the South, their run differential of -18 however hinted at some rotten luck hidden somewhere in that misery of theirs, so the Raccoons were probably in for a hostile sweep by scores of 3-2, 2-1, and 11-0.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (5-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. Brendan Teasdale (1-7, 5.53 ERA)
Ryan Nielson (0-0) vs. Brian Furst (5-4, 5.09 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 2.50 ERA) vs. Fernando Estrada (3-1, 2.96 ERA)

The season series with the Thunder has ended 5-4 one way or another for five straight years. The Thunder came out on top in ’16, the Coons did in ’17.

All righties, but that opening matchup is one of those that will break your heart, and probably not because of something Jonny (winless in three starts) does…….

Game 1
OCT: 2B Farias – SS Paull – 1B Manfull – C Parks – LF Cisneros – RF Struck – 3B Ruggeri – CF J. Jimenez – P Teasdale
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Toner

Cookie fouled out on a 3-1 pitch to leave the bases loaded in the first inning. Huh? Well, if Jonny lost this one, it was most certainly his fault, because the Raccoons piled four runs onto Brenda in the first inning. Cookie walked, Duarte singled, the Tiger doubled, and it just kept going until Cookie ill-advisedly poked to stop the rout at 4-0. Re: Jonny; while he didn’t allow runs early, his mind seemed to be off. He allowed no hits the first time through the order, but Emilio Farias hit a 2-out single in the third and Toner balked him over. No damage there, but after Jalen Parks doubled in the fourth, Toner also balked him to third base, but again bailed out thanks to superior stuff. In the fifth, Toner walked Brenda(!!), who despite conceding a 4-spot in the first still survived thanks to no add-on damage. While that changed with Tiger Mendoza’s forceful, no-doubt leadoff bomb in the bottom 5th that left out of right center in no time, the exits for the two starting pitchers eventually lay one out apart. That out was Ron Alston, pinch-hitting for Teasdale and batting a sad .174 even before popping out to Nunley, after which Toner – who threw too much crap in the game – also left the game, having covered only 6.2 innings in 110 pitches. They were shutout innings, but not the type of shutout innings that actually amounted to a shutout at the end.

Chun ended that inning, before the Thunder got onto the board in the eighth inning, knocking three singles off Jason Kaiser for a run. Mathis dug him out, inheriting one out and runners on the corners. He struck out D.J. Ruggeri, then got a pop from Jose Jimenez. The Coons also stranded runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning before Wade Davis inherited the 4-run advantage in the ninth. While he allowed two deep drives to right that both luckily ended up with Eddie Jackson, he got the game over with before we could hand another lead to Ramirez to fudge up. 5-1 Critters. H. Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Margolis 2-4, 2B, RBI; Toner 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K, W (6-1);

Finally a game that wasn’t teeth and nails for 10 innings! What a relief!

Ronnie McKnight will be the last regular to get rest, sitting with Ryan Nielson making his maiden start in the majors after 15 relief appearances in ’17. Then he had stumbled to a 4.91 ERA…

Game 2
OCT: CF Farias – SS Janes – 1B Manfull – 2B Paull – 3B Ruggeri – RF Struck – LF J. Jimenez – C Kizziar – P Furst
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Petracek – P Nielson

After two singles to start the game, the Thunder had B.J. Manfull hit into a run-scoring double play for a run that the Raccoons made up quickly when Cookie tripled and scored on Duarte’s single to center. Walter would come up with a 2-out single, but no lead materialized. Nielson struck out Furst and Farias to start the third inning before allowing a double to Erik Janes and two singles to Manfull and Eric Paull to fall behind again, 2-1. Nielson struck out five in his first five innings, but also allowed seven hits, and few of them were soft. He got another double play turned, again on Manfull, in the fifth inning which helped him out of a slight mess there, before the Raccoons took him off the hook for the moment at least, with offense coming from the unlikeliest sources, the moist nether regions of the order. The bottom 5th was opened with back-to-back doubles by Denny and Petracek, which put the go-ahead run on second base, too, but of course the Raccoons would not score that run… Nielson struck out, Cookie grounded out, and Duarte flew out to center…

The sixth was another maddening experience. Geoff Struck hit a 1-out single. Nielson threw a wild pitch to Jimenez before striking him out in a full count, then threw another wild pitch to Eric Kizziar before also striking out that guy in another full count. While that ended the inning, it also ended Nielson’s outing, with his pitch count over 100 now. Bottom 6th: the Tiger drew a leadoff walk, DeWeese singled to right. Goddamnit, score some ****ing runs now!! Walter struck out before Nunley rolled a short grounder up the middle, and it eluded Eric Paull and escaped into centerfield. Mendoza scored, 3-2 Critters in Nielson’s favor. Denny struck out handily, but Petracek found a place for a floater to fall in. With two outs, DeWeese had been running and scored, 4-2, before Greenwald hit for Nielson and popped out. Chun was the first man from the pen, struck out Furst, but allowed a double to right center to Farias. Thrasher replaced him and erased Janes and Manfull to get the seventh over with. DeWeese’ decently quick paws then came into play again in the bottom of the inning. He found runners on the corners with one out, but grounded to Paull. Mendoza was out at second, but DeWeese beat the return throw and that allowed Cookie to score with an additional run. The Thunder put two on against Chris Mathis in the eighth, but with one out Mathis got back-to-back whiffs from Jimenez and Kizziar to stall them. And if you ignored Alston’s leadoff single and the almost-homer by Manfull that Cookie caught with his cheek against the wall that ended the game even Alex Ramirez had a good outing… 5-2 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, 3B; Duarte 2-4, RBI; Petracek 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 3
OCT: 2B Farias – SS Paull – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF Struck – 3B Ruggeri – LF Hiscock – CF J. Jimenez – P F. Estrada
POR: LF Carmona – CF Duarte – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 1B Greenwald – P Santos

In a first inning straight from hell, not only did the Thunder put up a 3-spot with all runs scoring on Geoff Struck’s home run to right, but somehow they also managed to make two errors as Denny and Walter both dropped pops and Santos threw two wild pitches in the inning. While time would eventually heal many wounds, whatever Santos had on this dark Sunday could not and would not be healed. Jalen Parks hit a 2-shot in the third inning. Santos somehow made it through five absolutely distasteful innings with balls flying all over the park. The Raccoons did not a whole lot with the sticks against Estrada, and were so hopeless that it came as a mild shock when McKnight hit a 2-out single to plate Duarte in the bottom of the sixth inning, where they chained up three 2-out hits after amassing as many in the previous 5.2 innings.

Chet Cummings had three strong innings in relief, whiffing five and allowing no damage, but the Coons had no momentum and didn’t look like a potential comeback could happen even with divine intervention. Then came the ninth inning, right-hander Barry MacDonald, and a leadoff walk by the Tiger that was followed by McKnight’s double, which put the tying run into a spot where it was visible for the first time since Parks’ bomb. Shane Walter getting plunked moved Matt Nunley into the box as that tying run, and instantly things went south as Nunley popped out over the infield. DeWeese batted for Denny against the right-hander and drew a walk, pushing in a run, but Greenwald struck out for the second red dot on the scoreboard. Danny Margolis batted for Jason Kaiser although we had two switch-hitters available because we felt like a walkoff slam was more in the cards than another two or three lucky hits. Margolis struck out, but at least that shortened the pain. 5-2 Thunder. Duarte 2-4; H. Mendoza 2-3, BB; McKnight 2-4, 2B, RBI; DeWeese (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Cummings 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Jose Jimenez raked for a golden sombrero in this game, but it’s not like that gives us any bonus runs.

In other news

May 16 – 35-year old CIN LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.290, 6 HR, 21 RBI) smacks his 300th home run in a 3-for-5 effort in a 5-1 win over the Capitals. He reaches the mark with a solo shot off William Hinkley. An 11-time All Star and 4-time Player of the Year, Morales is a career .328/.430/.538 batter with 1,211 RBI and 121 stolen bases. Most of his career was spent with the Knights and Warriors.
May 17 – Long-time Canadiens starter LAP SP Rod Taylor (3-2, 2.68 ERA) nets his 200th career win although it wasn’t necessarily pretty in an 8-5 win over the Dallas Stars. Taylor spent his first 17 seasons with the Canadiens. Now 37, he is 200-140 with a 3.46 ERA for his career and has struck out 3,180 batters in his career, leading the league in strikeouts eight times, including seven times in a row from 2008 through 2014. Despite this obvious ability, he was never Pitcher of the Year in his career.
May 18 – The Blue Sox get mauled by the Pacifics in some 19-5 meat grinder action.
May 20 – The Indians acquire C Randy Garner (.289, 2 HR, 17 RBI) from the Blue Sox, parting with a second-rate prospect.

Complaints and stuff

The forbidden question shall be asked first: is season-ending elbow surgery actually better for Brownie? He really, actually, heavily wasn’t cutting it anymore.

In fact, the guy who comes out unscathed from this mess is me, because I didn’t have to make a hard decision! Yay, lucky me!

(wipes away a tear)

But I’m happy as a dog that got a new toy for “Dingus” Morales. He only appeared in 74 games for Portland, but he netted us Cookie after all.

While Duarte has been a six-pack of ‘ZZZZzzztt’, that new energy drink that claims to be lightning in a bottle (and when Chad emptied a can we couldn’t get him off the ceiling for 29 hours), and won Player of the Week honors batting .545 with 2 HR and 4 RBI, I don’t think Russ Greenwald gets us anywhere right now. Also because Duarte’s been a hit for now, pressing Greenwald into the lineup removes DeWeese eventually, and the bench is not where I want my annual $3.3M to see. Tim Prince’s OPS in AAA is .782 after nine games, with a lot of walks contributing significantly. I don’t know whether I want him back, but we really have no significant options. Danny Ochoa has a .919 OPS, but we’ve been there so often… We really don’t need another outfielder, we’re pretty full there at this point. Actually, a hitting catcher would be swell…

Next week, Condors and Aces, second and third in the South, respectively.

Every game a battle to the death. Every game… a battle to the death.

This week was exhausting, which was partially down to the Coons and also that I had to maintain two constantly crashing streams with the Yankees-Rays and NASCAR. It also took about five hours to play… Probably no update for a day or two as I will recuperate from this…

[Papi]

I have a fictional, 16 team league and I have the smallest budget and payroll, along with an owner who's an "economizer" as well as having his priority being "Profit." It's quite a different game when you don't have any money to spend. He increased my budget from 2.m to about 3m, which gives me about 1.7 for payroll, and makes me feel all of a sudden rich. like a kid who found $5 on the street. Do I save it, do I spend it?

Tangential, I know, but you've always managed the tiny payroll so well. You've had some amazing players, made smart trades, and this is always the first thread I check. Hope we get another 30 years!

[edtheguy]

It looks like Hugo has been trying to channel his inner Tetsu so far this year (Good try Mr. Mendoza - but you're not there yet - there's only one #1 in our hearts, you can still be like my 5th favorite though - hmmm, but that doesn't really work does it? There's no way I have fourteen favorites ahead of Danny boy...) Anyway, he better keep it up.

Oh, and great job as always, rest fast... um, I mean rest well... - we will be waiting eagerly for the next update!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-18) @ Condors (26-17) – May 21-23, 2018

This was the last series of the 16 straight games the Raccoons had around the middle of May, their first string longer than nine games this season. The Condors were second in the South, but had a better record than the Raccoons, who led the North in which five teams were under a blanket, more or less. They were barely average in scoring runs, but their pitching allowed the second-least amount of runs, and they were mostly feasting off that. This was the first matchup between the teams in the 2018 season. The Raccoons had won five of nine games against Tijuana in 2018.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (2-2, 4.30 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (4-1, 2.03 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-0) vs. Casey Hally (4-1, 3.16 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-1, 2.11 ERA) vs. Andrew Gudeman (3-2, 2.44 ERA)

We’d avoid their lefty and get three right-handers to contend with. Meanwhile their lineup is stashed with three switch-hitters, which tends to make matching pitchers difficult…

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B R. Jackson – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – C A. Gonzales – SS A. Rodriguez – P Menendez

Cookie made two strong plays right in the first inning, first coming in on Mun-wah Tsung, then going far back against Jimmy Oatmeal, after Rickey Jackson had hit a 1-out single. Josh Rawlings hit a triple to open the bottom of the second, but would not score thanks to Mike Herrera popping out to shallow center, Alfonso Gonzales whiffing, and after an intentional walk Duarte made a good play on Menendez’ liner to center to end the inning. Although Menendez retired the Coons in order the first time through, the Critters still got the first run of the game after Cookie’s leadoff single in the fourth. Advancing on a wild pitch and a balk, he eventually scored on the Tiger’s sac fly to pretty deep center. The lead was short-lived. Mendoza drilled Jimmy Oatmeal to start the bottom 4th, the second straight inning in which he hit the leadoff batter. Rawlings objected to that and homered to center, flipping the score, and Mendoza allowed another three straight singles and a run before striking out Menendez for the first out of the inning. Craig Dasher’s groundout plated another run, with the Condors leading 4-1 after four.

Time for some stupidity then. After McKnight fouled out to start the fifth, Walter doubled to center, but kept swinging his stupid pig stompers anyway and was thrown out by Herrera on third base. Way to break a slump, Shane. Way to break a slump. Ricky Mendoza didn’t make it out of the fifth himself, allowing a dinger to Oatmeal and a double to Rawlings (which left Rawlings a single short of the cycle) before being replaced by Chun, who stalled Rawlings at third base. But let’s be honest. Down 5-1 after five, the Coons were completely done. Just as I said that, Menendez loaded the bases in the sixth on Cookie’s second single and two walks drawn by Mendoza and DeWeese. McKnight with two outs sent a drive to deep left, but Jimmy Oatmeal spoiled it. Of course he did. While Rawlings was denied his fourth hit by Jason Kaiser, and Jimmy Oatmeal took some more fly balls to deep left to break my heart, the Raccoons made another out at third base in the game – the final one; Nunley singled with two outs in the ninth and DeWeese tried to reach third base from first. He didn’t. 5-1 Condors. Carmona 2-4; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

No bats go. No bats go.

Cookie was sore on Tuesday morning and was left out of the lineup, but was available for pinch-hitting.

Game 2
POR: CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF E. Jackson – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Knight
TIJ: 2B Sykes – C J. Vargas – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – 3B Rivas – SS A. Rodriguez – P Hally

Although Knight opened with a K to Harrison Sykes and also retired Jose Vargas in the first, the next three Condors all reached, with Rawlings’ RBI single giving them a lead. The Coons had one ****ing hit through five innings and didn’t merit being mentioned at all, really, but Knight sat down ten straight Condors after the RBI single and arrived in the fifth in quite decent shape. There, he issued a 4-pitch walk to Alex Rivas to get going, and the Condors were on the corners after Armando Rodriguez’ single to left center. Casey Hally however bunted into a double play, and Sykes fouled out, stalling Rivas at third base and keeping the game nominally close at 1-0.

R.J. DeWeese drew a 2-out walk in the seventh inning, which drew attention from the press box, since that was the Coons’ second base runner for the entire game. Eddie Jackson singled, but Walter flew out to center, ending the ‘threat’. From my suite and with my binoculars I could see the Agitator skunk in the press box giggling while typing on his magical flatbook thing. The Condors reached third base in the bottom 7th, yet that came only on a throwing error by Margolis, and Knight wiggled out of there. Margolis walked with one out in the eighth, and Knight remained in the game to bunt him over, because why the **** not? Alex Duarte had an oh-for going like just about anybody else, but knocked a ball to deep right where it eluded the quite capable Rawlings and made it to the wall for a game-tying RBI double. Offense? Well, a lone run does not constitute offense. Knight’s day’s work ended up being eight innings and maintaining a tie, which was quite fantastic for him, and we had the middle of the order up in the ninth to do damage to right-hander Brian Gilbert, but nobody reached of course, and Chris Mathis’ scoreless ninth sent the game to extras, where Danny Margolis’ persistent attempts to be a home run hero, which netted him a .180 batting average and getting his chocolate treats he kept in his locker switched with week-old cat poo every other day, FINALLY paid off. With Nunley on first after a bloop single, Margolis finally met a ball and rallied it across right center for a 2-run homer. Duarte also hit a solo shot off Gilbert with two outs, and Ramirez staved off the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the inning. 4-1 Raccoons. Duarte 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Knight 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

Three runs in an inning? Danny Margolis really goes off on the cat poo!

We made a roster change before the next game, sending away Russ Greenwald (.118). Brock Hudman, 28 and a utility infielder in AAA, was called up. He had last appeared for the Coons in 2015, and was a .280 batter in 164 major league at-bats. To get him onto the 40-man roster, AA SP Jeff Magnotta was waived outright and designated for assignment.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 3B Walter – 2B Mathews – C Margolis – P Toner
TIJ: 3B R. Jackson – C J. Vargas – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – 2B Sykes – SS A. Rodriguez – P Gudeman

Toner allowed a leadoff single to Rickey Jackson in the first, then whiffed two while mixing in two wild pitches. Oatmeal grounded out to strand Jackson at third, but that was not a good inning, especially between our battery. The first run was again the Coons’, and came in the third inning. Margolis led off with a single to right (pretty darn close to pushing Denny out of the way right now!), and when Jonny bunted, Tsung tried to get Margolis, and didn’t get anybody. Margolis scored from second on Cookie’s line drive double over Tsung’s head, and when Duarte walked the Coons had them loaded with no outs and the hammer division approaching. The Tiger lined out to short, where Rodriguez seemed to strain something as he tried to double off Cookie unsuccessfully. Rivas replaced him. After DeWeese’s fly to left, the Raccoons would have scored NUTHIN’ from three on, no outs if McKnight’s grounder to short hadn’t been bungled by Rivas for an unearned run. Walter hit a 2-run single, 4-0, before Mathews struck out. With Toner awesome and only struggling with Tsung, who hit singles in his next two plate appearances, but was all alone with that, and the Raccoons being as they were, the middle innings breezed past before Cookie singled in the seventh. Duarte grounded out for the second out to move him over, and then the Tiger hit a liner into the gap that split Oatmeal and Herrera successfully for an RBI double. Toner was suddenly hittable in the seventh, with Rawlings hitting a single and Herrera going deep to cut into the 5-0 lead for two runs. With a lengthy struggle to extricate himself from the seventh, Toner did not return for the eighth, although he eventually finished with back-to-back K to Adrian Quebell and Rickey Jackson. After Thrasher pitched the bottom 8th, the Coons picked up an insurance run when Mendoza drove in Cookie once more in the ninth. Thrasher remained in for the bottom 9th with Rawlings, who walked, and Herrera, who hit into a double play, not something I wanted a shallow-end right-hander go after. With them dealt with, Thrasher got to feast on Harrison Sykes and blew him away to end the game. 6-2 Furballs! Carmona 3-5, 2B, RBI; H. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Denny 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (7-1); Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, SV (3);

I didn’t plan to use Thrasher that way. He is too valuable to pitch two innings in a 4-run game, but it was not a 4-run game to start with. If the combo hadn’t been left-switch at the start of the inning, I would have gone to Wade Davis or somebody like that.

Raccoons (27-19) @ Aces (22-25) – May 25-27, 2018

The Aces had lost four straight games to drop from the playoff fringe in the South and were now 7 1/2 games out. They didn’t really have a place in the playoffs anyway with some gaping holes on the roster, like the league-worst bullpen. They were fifth in offense but were in the bottom three in terms of runs allowed, and they were trending to the bottom quite hard. Despite their struggles, they were 2-1 against the Critters in 2018.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-2, 2.59 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (5-1, 1.79 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (2-3, 4.83 ERA) vs. Enrique Guzman (2-4, 4.11 ERA)
Ryan Nielson (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Alex Morin (1-4, 5.09 ERA)

Morin is one of their two left-handers. We won’t get the other one, Brian Aschenbrenner (3-0, 4.37 ERA), who pitched on Thursday, our off day.

We subtly skipped a start by an injury replacement by moving Nielson, who’s turn would have been on Thursday, behind Santos and Mendoza, who thus went on regular rest. Damani Knight would slot behind Jonny Toner for a Tuesday start.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P Santos
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – RF D. Brown – C D. Rice – P Valdevez

Both teams had a single hit through four innings, despite both pitchers allowing plenty of hard contact. The Coons were up 1-0 on the strength of McKnight’s second-inning home run, while Santos hadn’t allowed a base hit until Matt Hamilton singled with two outs in the fourth. Shane Walter getting hit and Nunley’s single put two on with nobody out in the top 5th, but Denny hit into a double play, and handing Santos a bat with two outs was never a smart thing. The next base hit in the game didn’t come until the bottom of the seventh when Brent Burke singled to left with one out. He moved up on Rich Walsh’s groundout, after which the Aces pinch-hit left-hander Max Erickson for right-hander Dan Brown. Santos remained in there but allowed a line drive single to center. Duarte came in, Burke was sent around third, Duarte fired home, and DEAD AT HOME was Burke! Santos got one more out in the eighth on Danny Rice’ pop before left-hander Bill Hebberd pinch-hit for Valdevez. Thrasher came out (with two more left-handers atop the order), struck out Hebberd, but then was singled against by Jimmy Hubbard (not related, but very confused). Alex Ramirez was called out for a 4-out save when Mike Cook pinch-hit for Adam Flack. Cook popped out, after which the Coons started the top 9th with two outs before Ken Chilcott walked the Tiger and Jackson (hitting for DeWeese) with two outs. McKnight rammed a ball off the leftfield fence for an RBI double, but when Walter also lifted a fly there, Matt Hamilton caught it on the track. Ramirez finished the game with two strikeouts, then a Burke single, but got Walsh to pop out to end this contest. 2-0 Critters. McKnight 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Santos 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-2); Ramirez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (13);

Three hits. Three mighty hits. Hmmz…

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P R. Mendoza
TIJ: CF Hubbard – RF D. Brown – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – 1B A. Perez – C D. Rice – P E. Guzman

Both teams got a 1-out double in the first, but neither scored. The Coons went down quick, but Mendoza walked Izzy Alvarez and only escaped when Matt Hamilton flew out to shallow left, and Nunley made a blistering grab-and-spin to collect the third out from Brent Burke. The Aces had two more on in the second thanks to an error by Ricky Mendoza and a single by Arturo Perez, and this time it would be Hugo Mendoza to make a strong defensive play with two outs, swiping a hard grounder by Jimmy Hubbard and sprinting to first to end the inning. Ricky Mendoza was out of luck by the third, when Hamilton hit a 2-out solo shot.

So far, the Critters were asleep, but they woke up in the fourth. McKnight reached walking with two outs, Walter singled, and despite being down 0-2, Matt Nunley managed to rip a drive to right center. Stretching, it is stretching, it is gone! 3-run homer for Matt Nunley, perhaps the right thing to break out of his rut! Walsh was on for the Aces in the bottom 4th, but the inning ended on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Rice also involved. Speaking of strikeouts, while not all was roses for Ricky Mendoza, he did strike out eight batters through five innings, though none beyond that, and he didn’t get out of the sixth inning, either. The Aces had them on the corners with two outs and left-hander Danny Rice up, who had some power. Kaiser came in, allowed an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2, but then struck out Hebberd hitting for Guzman. While the lineup didn’t do much at all, Mathis and Thrasher had scoreless innings to advance the game to the ninth, where McKnight and Nunley reached base before Steve Rob threw a wild pitch with one out to move them into scoring position, with Eddie Jackson already hitting for Margolis. Petracek hit for Thrasher and whiffed in a full count against Rob before Cookie at 0-1 hit a floater to left that Hamilton tried to get to, but couldn’t. The ball fell in, hit Hamilton in the shin, and that extra two seconds allowed Nunley to score along with McKnight to extend the lead to 5-2. Duarte walked in a full count, and Rob ran another one against the Tiger, who was 0-for-4, but broke Rob with a bases-clearing triple up the rightfield line. Of course, getting an 8-2 lead over quickly would be asked too much. Chet Cummings faced five batters in the bottom 9th, and four reached base on three hits and a walk. With two runs in, runners on the corners, and one out, we still tried to bypass Ramirez and went to Wade Davis. He struck out Alvarez before Hamilton flew to right. Eddie Jackson made the play. 8-4 Critters. Duarte 2-4, BB, 2B; Walter 3-4;

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF E. Jackson – SS McKnight – 2B Mathews – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P Nielson
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – C Diersing – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – RF A. Perez – P Morin

The Raccoons left the bases loaded – where they arrived when McKnight was drilled with two outs and then stood at first base wincing – in the first inning when Alvarez made a mighty jump to snag Joey Mathews’ soft liner to left. Nunley opened the second with a double to center and ended the inning still nailed to second base, while Mathews started the fourth with that single to right we would have liked to have in the first. This time things ended well, however, with Nunley hitting another drive to deep center, and Hubbard didn’t get that one, either. Nunley had an RBI triple for the first run in the lefty shootouts, but Mike Denny blatantly failed in another RISP situation, grounding out to Alvarez and sending Nunley scurrying back to the bag. Nielson didn’t; singling to rightfield, he gave himself a 2-0 lead, and would end up scoring on a Duarte single for a 3-0 advantage. In the fifth, Mathews was tossed from the game for arguing strike three, giving Brock Hudman his first big league appearance in three years as his replacement at the keystone. Also, Nunley singled after that, putting him a dinger short of the cycle. Nielson meanwhile dominated the Aces and held them to one hit through 4 1/3 innings before eroding in the bottom of the fifth, allowing a single and then walking two. Morin hit a sac fly to center for the only hard damage in the inning, but the Aces were back to 3-1. Hubbard struck out to strand two.

The run was made up by the Furballs right away when Duarte and Tiger hit back-to-back 2-out doubles in the sixth, the first off Morin, the second off right-hander Joe Duerksen (which spelled Dirk-sen). Flack and Alvarez opened the bottom 6th with consecutive singles, but Hamilton hit into a fielder’s choice, and Bobby Diersing grounded to short for a double play, but Brock Hudman also hit into a double play in the seventh, and Nunley’s bid for a homer fell well short and into Hamilton’s glove. The Aces stranded a pair in the bottom 7th against Nielson, Chun, and Kaiser, but the Coons scratched out a run in the eighth. Cookie’s 2-out double was followed by a single by Duarte, running the score to 5-1, but we didn’t make it out of the game without touching the expensive cutlery. Walsh homered off Wade Davis in the bottom 9th, which drew the Aces to 5-2 with two outs to claim, and Arturo Perez singled on the very next pitch. With Hebberd pinch-hitting, Thrasher came in, already badly abused this week. Six pitches to Hebberd and Hubbard – six strikes; game over! 5-2 Coons! Duarte 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson 2-5; Nunley 3-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Nielson 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

May 22 – DAL SP Chris Domingue (3-4, 5.34 ERA) and MR Reynaldo Rendon combine for a 1-hit shutout of the Blue Sox in a 5-0 Stars win. Andrew Showalter breaks up the no-hitter with a seventh-inning single.
May 23 – New York’s legend LF Martin Ortíz (.281, 5 HR, 18 RBI) sends a note around the league that he is not dead yet. The 38-year old bangs three home runs in a 12-8 Crusaders win over the Aces, plating four runs in the game. The 37th occurrence of someone hitting three home runs or more in a game makes Ortíz the second player to achieve the feat twice. He previously hit three home runs in a game against the Canadiens in 2015. Stanley Murphy is the only other player to have two 3 HR games. Michinaga Yamada, Gabriel Ortíz, and Jesus Ramirez also achieved the feat as Crusaders in the past.
May 23 – The Scorpions lose SP Noah “Bloody” Bricker (4-3, 4.04 ERA) to shoulder inflammation. The 29-year old right-hander could miss most of the remaining season.
May 24 – IND RF/CF John Wilson (.236, 6 HR, 23 RBI) could miss the rest of the season with a broken kneecap.
May 24 – In a 12-11 slugfest that goes Vancouver’s way, the Canadiens and Knights combine for five blown leads, seven home runs amongst 35 total hits, and ten innings total.
May 26 – The Scorpions get mauled by the Cyclones, 15-4. CIN RF D.J. Fullerton (.321, 5 HR, 24 RBI) drives in six runs on two hits, including a grand slam.
May 26 – The Crusaders score a 7-6 walkoff win on a passed ball charged to the Condors’ Alfonso Gonzales.
May 27 – The Thunder’s two runs in the top 10th against the Loggers turn out to be insufficient as Milwaukee comes roaring back in the bottom of the inning and plates three runs for a 4-3 walkoff win.

Complaints and stuff

Jeff Magnotta went unclaimed. Surprise there. I thought everybody would be on the heels of a 25-year old ex-prospect with a 6.95 ERA in AA.

The offense was slightly more effective starting on Wednesday, which neatly coincided with a 5-game winning streak. Even then, that was only 21 runs in four games, so not outrageous by any means. But consider that those 21 runs are the most they scored in ANY 4-game stretch since April 23-27 and it gets dizzying. Hopefully we have that nasty slump out of the system now and things will get better.

Oh please, things, get better. I am very close to begging!

Casual notice that the Tiger leads the Continental League in RBI, which is something that literally never happens with the Coons, with only SAC Alberto Rodriguez with more RBI (44) over in the Federal League, and that is for a losing team. Jonny leads the league in strikeouts and ties for the lead in wins, but the ERA isn’t there right now. Juan Valdevez, who escaped destruction this weekend, leads the CL with a 1.72 ERA. In the FL, SFW Jose Acosta has a 1.38 ERA. Cookie is one bag behind Matt Good for the CL lead.

Next week: Knights, Titans. Those two just played another, with the Knights sweeping the Titans on the weekend. The Titans have lost five straight to crash to the bottom of the league. They were as little as 2 1/2 games out as late as Tuesday morning.

This week was almost exactly three hours. I like those! Nope, not tired at all of this in the bigger picture, but it's been a tough month with the Critters.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-19) @ Knights (21-28) – May 28-30, 2018

In a true mind boggler, the Knights had scored the most runs in the league while having the worst batting average, which only worked out thanks to them being first in both home runs AND stolen bases. Everything else on the roster was pretty dramatically bad. Their rotation was the second-worst with a 5.11 ERA, their pen was not much better, and their defense was the worst in the CL outright. Also, one of their sluggers, 1B Mike Rucker (.182, 2 HR, 8 RBI) was still on the DL and would not compete in this series. So far, the Knights held a 2-1 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (7-1, 2.15 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (3-5, 5.76 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-0, 1.13 ERA) vs. Jared D’Attilo (0-3, 4.33 ERA)
Hector Santos (3-2, 2.31 ERA) vs. Shaun Yoder (2-4, 4.97 ERA)

That is three right-handers, and D’Attilo has the best ERA in their rotation… we will miss last year’s Coon, Bruce Morrison (2-4, 4.39 ERA).

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – C Denny – P Toner
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 3B W. White – C Luna – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – SS Hibbard – 2B DeFabio – 1B Wittner – P Quirion

When Mike Denny accidentally hit a ball in the third inning, he hit it a ton and Gil Rockwell ran after it in vain as it escaped for a solo home run. That was the only run and pretty much the only threat either team put up in the first four innings, although Jonny ran a number of 3-ball counts and even walked two batters and also pitched with reduced stuff and whiffed only four to make up for it. With the stick, Toner loaded the bases in the fifth, hitting a single to left with Nunley on after reaching on an error by Devin Hibbard, and Denny on with a single. This brought up Cookie with one out, and Cookie continued to not be right and hit a pop to left. But Rockwell had to go back a little, and with the weak arm he had to being with, Nunley could score from third on the sac fly. Duarte hit an RBI single to center before Mendoza grounded out to end the inning with a 3-0 score. Toner would dip his ERA under two for the season with six shutout innings, with the middle innings less troubling for him than the early innings. The seventh was troubled, however, with Jimmy Raupp hitting a double to center leading off. Toner would throw a wild pitch and walked Mike Wittner with two outs, but then got an easy final out from pinch-hitter Jeffrey Walrath to complete seven shutout innings on well over 100 pitches. Chris Mathis dug his way through the Knights in the eighth despite a walk Wade White drew. In the ninth, the Coons had Nunley on after a single against Jim Cushing and one out, when Mike Wittner’s error led to a ball hopping merrily through foul ground and Shane Walter adding to the base running total. Denny singled, plating Nunley, and Mathews also singled hitting for Mathis to load the bags. We hoped in vain for a superb single from Cookie, who grounded into a double play to end the inning, but Chun kept the Knights shut out in the ninth and the winning streak continued. 4-0 Raccoons. Denny 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (8-1) and 1-2, BB;

That’s a 6-game winning streak, tied for the longest of the season. It slightly paints over Ronnie McKnight’s shame, who un-hit for a golden sombrero in this game.

Game 2
POR: CF Duarte – SS Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Petracek – P Knight
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 2B Downing – C Luna – LF Rockwell – SS Hibbard – 3B W. White – RF M. Cruz – 1B Wittner – P D’Attilo

D’Attilo filled the bases with no ball put in play, issuing walks to the first three Raccoons he saw. That brought up DeWeese, a kind costumer to get into a manageable double play situation with Eddie Jackson, but, well, D’Attilo walked him, too. With a run in, Jackson took care of a hit, hitting an RBI single to left, and Nunley then also hit a 3-1 pitch to the left side. Wade White’s throw sailed on Wittner, who couldn’t come up with it, and as the ball made its way through foul ground, two runs scored. Up 4-0, the bottom of the order made three quick and unproductive outs to miss an even bigger blowout early on. D’Attilo lived to tell about the horrors he had seen, then came to bat in the bottom 2nd with runners in scoring position and two outs after a Manny Cruz single and Mike Wittner’s double. He flew to right, Eddie Jackson waved his arms in aggravated fashion and looked like he was in panic, but found the ball at the last second and made the catch to end the inning.

The third had the Knights with a runner on first and two outs before hell broke loose. Gil Rockwell singled to right, sending Josh Downing to third base, from where he scored on a wild pitch by Damani Knight. Hibbard singled, plating Rockwell from second base, and Wade White also singled. With runners on the corners, Manny Cruz bombed the first pitch he saw to left center and well outta the place, with the Knights’ 5-spot outdoing the Coons’ 4-spot from the first inning. Downing’s solo home run in the fourth ended Knight’s terrible outing after only three and two thirds, and we looked at Chet Cummings to give us innings. When Duarte hit a leadoff single in the top of the fifth, it was only the second base hit for the Raccoons in the 6-4 Knights game, but Shane Walter would take care of that, rolling to Downing for a double play.

Despite their best attempts, the Raccoons were not entirely dead yet. Duarte, the only piece in the lineup still having any measurable pulse, hit a leadoff jack off right-hander Adam Harper in the seventh inning, putting Portland once again only one run behind. Before long the bases were loaded against Harper with a Walter single, Tiger walking, and Jackson hitting another single after DeWeese had taken an embarrassing flailout. Nunley grounded to third, White’s only play was on the offender, and the tying run scored, but when Cookie batted for Denny, the offending offense continued to be offensive and Cookie blatantly popped out to White, leaving the game tied at six with two in scoring position. Mathis pitched the bottom 7th competently, before Harper somehow was allowed to keep botching for Atlanta. Petracek flew out to center, but Margolis hit a double in the #9 hole, Duarte walked, and Walter beat Rockwell’s range with a double to left center that plated the go-ahead run, but for the second straight inning the Coons left a pair in scoring position when Mendoza and Mathews both were struck out by Joey Hopkins, replacing the luckless Harper. Davis held on in the bottom 8th, but Ramirez didn’t in the ninth – AGAIN. To be fair, Matt Nunley’s throwing error that put Downing on second with one out set up the blown save, but the double that Ruben Luna hit off Ramirez right afterwards and bounced on the track in leftfield was probably a walkoff in half the ABL’s parks. Rockwell and Hibbard were outs, and we had to play extras yet again. The top 10th saw the Coons on the corners after Margolis’ 1-out walk off Quinn McCarthy and Duarte’s subsequent single to center. While Walter’s single to right gave the Raccoons another lead, they would also strand a pair for the umpteenth time in the game. Closing the affair devolved to Jason Kaiser, with McKnight hitting for Ramirez with two outs and men on the corners in the inning, who at least faced a left-handed pinch-hitter to start the inning. Kyle Mims singled, which brought out the sweats once again, but Manny Cruz flew out to Cookie in left, and Jimmy Raupp struck out. “Quasimodo” Suda had been in the #9 hole for a while and singled to center, putting the Knights onto the corners for Jeremy DeFabio, who was at 2-2 when he sent a long drive to center. Duarte was twisting and turning as he made the dash back, then poked up with his glove – and somehow came up with that miserable ball! 8-7 Raccoons. Duarte 3-4, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Walter 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson 2-5, RBI; Margolis 1-1, BB, 2B; Cummings 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

That was our ninth extra-inning game of the season, and Ramirez’ fourth blown save. Better don’t convert that into how many grand he gets per blown save. Not a fun game overall, and after the early 4-spot I thought that I could do without biting off by finger nails for a day.

Actually, the finger nails and the fingers are long gone. I’ve chewed my arms down to about three inches from the elbows. This despite the fact that the Indians kept losing and the Crusaders were the last team within a handful of games (five or less) of the Raccoons.

Our pen had been sandpapered down a bit recently, and everybody was longing to get to the off day following this final game in Atlanta.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Santos
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 2B Downing – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – SS Hibbard – 3B W. White – C Suda – 1B Wittner – P Yoder

Santos started his outing with a 4-pitch walk to Marty Reyes, which is precisely the point where you get The Worries again. Downing was hit by a 2-1 pitch, Rockwell singled to load the bases and I was ready for a drink or sixteen. And just like that, Santos struck out two and got White on a fly to center on an 0-2 pitch. The next Knight to reach base was again Rockwell, but that was on a 2-out homer in the third inning. The Raccoons managed to hit into three double plays in the first five innings to kill any and each offensive opportunity except for in the fifth inning when DeWeese opened with a double to right and was plated by McKnight’s sac fly to knot the score. The Knights came up with some 2-out terror in the bottom of the inning to take another lead, but Cookie somehow faked his way onto base in the sixth, stole second off Suda, who was not anymore what he had once been with the Titans, and scored on the Tiger’s single to center. Tied again, the Coons got to the corners on Walter’s single, and DeWeese’s roller befuddled three Knights on the infield for long enough to allow Tiger to score with the go-ahead run, but DeWeese was out. Wittner dropped White’s feed on Nunley’s grounder, which kept the Coons alive and sent Walter to third as they were on the corners again for McKnight, who grounded out to short on the first pitch. Oh, just once in my life I’d like to witness a huge clutch hit.

Lots of strikeouts (two handful) and the odd walk had Santos reach 99 pitches through seven innings and he was a bit out of shape at that point. Wade Davis was brought out for the eighth inning, facing the 2-3-4 batters. While Josh Downing came ****ing close to a game-tying leadoff homer, DeWeese made a catch against the leftfield fence, but Davis struck out Rockwell and Raupp to complete his assignment. With the Coons not making it further than first with a Nunley single in the ninth, it was another 1-run assignment for Alex Ramirez to cope with in the ninth inning. McKnight’s range alone prevented a leadoff single by Hibbard, after which White struck out. Suda, however, singled hard to left and was run for by DeFabio, while Walrath hit for Wittner. With the count full and DeFabio running, Ramirez threw ball four in the dirt and Denny almost didn’t come up with it. Two on, two out, Manny Cruz pinch-hitting, which was a right-hander with some bearish power, but a .154 batting average in 39 AB. It was somebody to feast on for Ramirez. 2-1 pitch, long drive to left, deep to left, Cookie going back there, back there, and he had it. BARELY. 3-2 Furballs. Nunley 2-4; Margolis 2-3; Santos 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, Santos (4-2);

That’s an 8-game winning streak, forged from my sweat and tears.

Raccoons (33-19) @ Titans (26-28) – June 1-3, 2018

The Titans were in last place in the division, but were catching up after a dreadful spill in mid-May. They were however last in runs scored and bitterly needed help – which arrived just in time for the series in form of SFB RF/LF Chris Almanza (286, 5 HR, 16 RBI), who was traded by the Baybirds for INF/RF Robby Vasquez (.278, 1 HR, 14 RBI) and a prospect. Their pitching tasted like wet bagels and they allowed the fourth-most runs in the CL. Their run differential of -39 was a clear indicator that they were on the right side of .500, but too close to it. The Raccoons had so far won five of six games from them.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (3-3, 4.66 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (3-6, 5.13 ERA)
Ryan Nielson (2-0, 2.19 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (4-4, 4.25 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-1, 1.96 ERA) vs. Rick Ling (4-4, 4.07 ERA)

Jonny would face the lefty Ling on Sunday while we avoid their best guy so far, Chris Klein, who was 7-1 with a 2.54 ERA.

The Titans also had just called up a 30-year old utility player that had started the season in their minor league reserve. The name sounds familiar: Sandy Sambrano…?

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 1B S. Butler – LF Almanza – 3B T. Thomas – SS Lawson – RF J. Avila – 2B Sambrano – P Boyer

It didn’t happen too often recently, but Cookie opened the game with a single, advanced on an errant pickoff throw and eventually scored on Hugo Mendoza’s groundout for an early run. Both teams had the odd runner on after that, but a dicey situation didn’t arise until the bottom of the fourth when Ricky Mendoza issued 2-out walks to both Tom Thomas and David Lawson before facing a left-hander in Jose Avila. Nunley made a good play on his sharp grounder and ended the inning.

Almanza, just arriving on the Titans’ roster, left the game in the fifth inning after hitting the ground hard on catching a McKnight fly to left. Xavier Williams replaced him. Almanza had already missed a month of this season with an ankle injury, but this time it looked like back pain. The baseball gods had a good laugh about that one, with some drops falling from the sky. The sun made a brief reappearance in the sixth inning before rain returned in the seventh and eventually forced a delay of over an hour that knocked Ricky Mendoza from the game after 76 pitches with a man on first and one out in the bottom 7th. Ron Thrasher appeared when my hopes for a rain-shortened win were dashed. Strikeouts to Jose Avila and Tim Robinson ended that inning and kept the Coons afloat with their tender 1-0 lead. Just as Robinson trudged back to the dugout, the rain started yet again. Before a decision could be obtained by the forces of nature, McKnight hit a leadoff triple off lefty Matt Branch in the top 8th, the fourth hit for the Coons on the day and the seventh in the game. Branch lost Denny to a walk, which was hard to do, but then got an easy fly to shallow left from Eddie Jackson. Xavier Williams, a defensive rock, dropped the ball to the ground regardless and McKnight scored, 2-0. Just as Cookie stepped up to the plate, a second rain delay interrupted proceedings. Again the game didn’t end. After 45 minutes, play resumed with Cookie grounding to short for a fielder’s choice at second base, and after Duarte whiffed and Mendoza grounded to Robinson, the Coons stranded a pair. After Kaiser held on in the bottom 8th, Walter opened the top 9th with a single. Hudman batted for DeWeese against the left-hander and singled to center well enough to plate Walter. Titans pitching then collapsed; Petracek hit for Nunley but was put on intentionally (!?), before McKnight walked unintentionally. Denny hit an RBI single before Eddie Jackson hit into a run-scoring double play, which allowed the Coons to move out to a 5-0 lead and to send Chet Cummings into the bottom of the ninth, but Cummings just couldn’t pitch a meaningful inning without getting at least bruised. Steve Butler and Xavier Williams broke up the shutout with back-to-back doubles, and even though that was all the Titans did, Cummings stock continued to be pretty worthless. 5-1 Coons. Hudman (PH) 1-1, RBI; McKnight 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B; R. Mendoza 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (4-3);

Including the rain delays, this game that was largely starved for offensive heroics and thus should have passed quickly took almost four and a half hours, but the Coons now had a 9-game winning streak.

There was a change in the rotation for the Titans, who moved Dave Priest (2-1, 3.46 ERA) into the middle game after having skipped him on Thursday. This might remove Rick Ling from the series, so no southpaw for Coon City to fail against.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Nielson
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – LF Almanza – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – SS Lawson – RF Blake – 2B M. Rivera – P Priest

Cookie again knocked a hit to start the game, this time a double to left on which he exploited Almanza’s bad back. After Duarte’s single, the Tiger plated Cookie with a sac fly, but Walter hit into a double play. DeWeese chopped a homer to start the second before Nunley reached on an error for the third time this week, but nothing came of that anymore with consecutive groundouts by McKnight and Margolis, and Nielson whiffing. Margolis’ throwing error put Tim Robinson on second base to start the bottom of the second inning, but a pop, a whiff, and a foul pop ended the inning for the Titans. After not allowing a hit through two innings and retiring Alex Mata to start the third, a black hole opened and Ryan Nielson was swallowed whole by it. After the Mata out, Nielson allowed the Titans to reach with a single, walk, single, and walk; David Lawson struck out, but Nielson walked Jonathan Blake to tie the game, then hit Mike Rivera to give the Titans a lead. Priest flew out to Duarte to end the nightmare inning; Nielson had five walks and five strikeouts in three innings in the game. Nothing got better in the fourth. Mata singled to center and scored on Tom Thomas’ double, after which Nielson was removed from the game. Chun came in and allowed a single to Butler and a wild pitch to plate the fifth run for the Titans.

Initially, defensive shortcomings allowed the Coons to make a challenge in the fifth inning. Margolis hit a 1-out single, with Priest attempting to take Chun’s bunt to second base, which didn’t even work against Margolis, since the bunt was pretty good. Cookie grounded to short, but legged out Rivera’s throw to first to keep runners on the corners with two outs before most of the Titans around the infield toppled over another on Duarte’s infield grounder that he legged out for an RBI infield single. That pulled up the Tiger, who was also violently not hitting right now. Come on, Hugo – a 3-shot would be totally liberating! Priest wouldn’t let him and smacked him with a 1-2 pitch instead. Shaken, Tiger pawed his way to first, then to second on Walter’s single to center that chased Duarte home along with Cookie to tie the score at five. When DeWeese got hit by Priest, somebody threw a ball out of the Raccoons dugout. Then a glove flew out of the Titans dugout. Also unseen was the Raccoon that threw a bat from the dugout after that. But when the Titans threw out a sack with sunflower seeds and it almost like it was on any second now, Denny and Toner came scurrying from the Coons’ dugout and stole the sack before retreating to their assigned confines. There were still bases loaded with two outs for Matt Nunley, who was also due a breakout hit and knocked the 2-1 high to center. Mata had spoiled a few drives in the series already and ran after that with confidence that ended dashed when going back he missed Nunley’s ball by about five feet. DeWeese had been hit in the thigh and could not run fast enough, holding Nunley to two RBI on the double, but the Coons had the lead back, and immediately built on it when McKnight rammed a 2-run triple off the rightfield wall against Kanichiro Miura. Margolis grounded out to keep the score at 9-5 after piling a 7-spot on the Titans.

But before anybody gets cocky, the Raccoons instantly suffered their own pitching implosion. Chun retired nobody in the bottom 5th, and neither did Jason Kaiser. The first four Titans all reached base, putting the tying runs on for Tom Thomas in a 9-6 game. Chris Mathis’ first pitch was grounded to Walter for a run-scoring double play, which at least took the tying run off the bases, and Mathis struck out Almanza to stay at 9-7. The scare was far from over. Wade Davis got only two outs in the bottom 6th, with Thrasher having to clean up. Ideally, Thrasher would have somehow (somehow!) bridged the way to Ramirez without touching Chet Cummings, but instead he walked the bases loaded in the bottom 7th. Thrasher still had not been charged with an earned run this season. Here he faced Steve Butler, left-handed batter, with three on and two outs. Butler hit the first pitch high to center, but Duarte hardly had to move and made the catch. With a plundered pen, there were only two options left for the eighth: Ramirez and Cummings. The inning started with two right-handers, so the better option was perhaps to send Cummings and stick to him until there was trouble. Unfortunately the Coons did nothing offensively after their huge inning, and the score was still 9-7, so trouble could draw up quickly on Cummings, who allowed a single to Robinson on his second pitch, and then a double to Lawson on his fourth. There was hardly a way to fix that ****ing mess. Cummings was yanked, Ramirez came out, the last reliever from that pen, which closed up for the night. Ramirez’ second pitch was lined hard to right by Jonathan Blake. Robinson scored and Lawson tried, but was thrown out by Cookie Carmona. Blake went to second, hardly improving the overall situation, but Rivera grounded out to Walter, and Xavier Williams grounded out to Nunley to keep the tying run glued to third base. Harry Merwin held the Coons short in the top of the ninth, and Ramirez had no cushion, nor backup. It was him until the grim end. Nunley made a flying catch on Mata’s sharp liner to left to start the inning, while the last two outs were grounders to short that McKnight took care of. 9-8 Blighters. Carmona 2-5, 2B; Duarte 2-4, BB, RBI; Walter 2-5, 2 RBI; Hudman (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (15);

If this 10-game winning streak goes much longer, I will need heart surgery.

Some pitching, huh? Eight guys out there, two of which got no outs. This was the end for Cummings (4.50 ERA), who was completely unreliable in a tight spot, and even a long man has to get an important out from time to time. He found himself on waivers before the day was over.

Matt Schroeder had been a trash heap signing in March of 2012. Drafted in the fifth round of the 2010 draft by the Knights, he soon hurt his elbow and was released late in 2011. The Coons picked him up and he marched fairly quickly up through the system, reaching AAA in 2013, where he had remained ever since. He had started for a while with mixed success, but was now mostly relieving. He had a 2.57 ERA in four long man appearances this season and received his major league call-up two days shy of his 26th birthday. I’m sure his mom was happy, finally.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Denny – P Toner
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 1B S. Butler – LF Almanza – 3B T. Thomas – RF Blake – SS Lawson – 2B M. Rivera – P J. Fuentes

Cookie did not get on to start this game, which automatically killed off the Coons in the first. Actually, Mendoza’s double play roller after Duarte singled did. The second saw McKnight reach on a single and steal second base. Nunley rammed a ball through Tom Thomas up the leftfield line for an RBI double, but hurt his ankle sliding into second base. He hobbled off the field and was replaced by Petracek. Jonny Toner had three strikeouts before Blake and Lawson hit back-to-back 2-out singles in the bottom 2nd, but Mike Rivera popped out over home plate to end the frame. It was Jonny’s turn to lead off the top 3rd, where he wrestled a walk in a full count from Fuentes before stealing second base. Duarte walked with one out, and the Tiger stayed out of the double play and singled to center to plate Jonny, 2-0. The Coons left their two runners on when DeWeese twistered himself out on sliders, and McKnight grounded out to first. Two more were stranded (in scoring position) in the fourth. Petracek walked, Mathews singled, no outs, and no runs thanks to a K and two groundouts. Duarte was stranded on third base the following frame, and the whole experience was outright maddening, even more so when Lawson hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th and the miscarriage Rivera hit a double to deep right. Cookie tried in vain to get Lawson thrown out at home, which only served to move Rivera to third base with nobody out. Fuentes struck out, but that helped only marginally once Mata singled to left to tie the game. Mata stole second, Toner lost Galan to a walk, both pulled off a double steal on the hapless Denny, and Butler gave the Titans a lead with an infield single that Mathews failed to convert into an out. Mentally undressed for everybody to see, Jonny plated their fourth run with a wild pitch that boinked off the umpire’s knee and caromed hard into the depths of foul ground.

When Thomas popped out, the Titans were up 4-2 after their cavalcade of bull****, but they weren’t yet done completely blasting the Raccoons out of the park. The Raccoons had the tying run up in the sixth and seventh, but crapped out each time. Toner stumbled into the seventh, only to allow a single to Jose Avila and a walk to Alex Mata. Kaiser appeared to his relief, surrendering on eight pitches Armando Galan’s annual home run, a real cannon shot to left. Kaiser was done after Butler doubled to right, with Matt Schroeder making his major league debut in the ****tiest of circumstances. He walked Almanza right away before getting two outs on a pop and a strikeout. Lawson walked, and Schroeder was 3-0 against Rivera, the ****ing idiot, with the bases loaded, when Rivera swung and popped out. Hugo Mendoza would hit a 2-out, 2-run double in the top of the ninth, which was pretty much meaningless. Eric Rasmussen ended the game when Shane Walter grounded out, hitting for Schroeder. 7-4 Titans. Duarte 2-3, 2 BB; Mendoza 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Nunley 1-1, 2B, RBI; Mathews 2-4; Jackson 1-1; Schroeder 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

In other news

May 29 – 37-year old veteran 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.273, 4 HR, 21 RBI) connects for a home run off Denver’s Mo Robinson for his 2,500th major league hit. A Blue Sock since being drafted 37th overall in the 2000 draft, Esquivel has been through everything with them, batting .303 with 192 HR and 1,131 RBI along the way while collecting six Gold Gloves and a Player of the Year award in 2015.
May 29 – DEN SS/2B Piet Oosterom (.237, 1 HR, 11 RBI) will miss a month with a sore shoulder.
May 30 – New York’s 1B Ray Gilbert (.250, 8 HR, 28 RBI) is suffering from a sore shoulder. The 36-year old will probably not be available for at least two weeks.
May 31 – SFW SP Fernando Cruz (6-3, 1.68 ERA) spins a 1-hitter against the Capitals, claiming the win in the 7-0 shutout. The lone hit for Washington comes from Josh Baker legging out a drag bunt in the fourth inning.
May 31 – A broken elbow ends the season of CHA RF/LF Travis Benson (.258, 8 HR, 32 RBI).
June 1 – The Falcons trade for the Condors’ 1B Adrian Quebell (.261, 1 HR, 3 RBI), sending 3B Jesus Soto (.302, 0 HR, 7 RBI) and decent but unranked pitching prospect Alfredo Morua to Tijuana.
June 1 – A 6-6 tie after seven innings between the Gold Sox and Wolves blooms late with the Sox putting three on the Wolves in the eighth and another seven runs in the ninth for a 16-6 mood killer. Tim Bean (.269, 1 HR, 16 RBI) has five hits for the Gold Sox, driving in two.
June 2 – The 300 home runs mark is reached by DEN 1B Stanley Murphy (.327, 8 HR, 26 RBI) in the Gold Sox’ 3-2 loss to the Wolves. The home run comes off closer Mike Tharp. Murphy, the 2012 FL Player of the Year and winner of two World Series rings, including in 2011 with the Pacifics when he was both FLCS and World Series MVP, is a career .327 batter with 300 HR and 1,243 RBI. He led the league in home runs twice in his career, which was mostly spent with the Pacifics before shorter stints with the Raccoons and Warriors.
June 2 – The Stars fall to the Warriors in a tremendous rout that ends 17-1 in favor of the Sioux Falls team.
June 3 – NAS SS Andrew Showalter (.286, 9 HR, 30 RBI) is out for two weeks with an intercostal strain.
June 3 – The Warriors beat the Stars, 1-0, on a home run by Dave Fletcher (.232, 6 HR, 20 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Stan Murphy’s 1 1/2 years in Portland? The worst of his career. It’s not close.

Another week that kills those not used to the way games are played around here, or those with weak hearts. They played that 4-0 game on Monday that was almost casual, and after that it was nightmare upon nailbiter upon nightmare. Somehow they won five games, but the weak opposition was certainly a factor. Weak opposition will not be a thing next week against two winning teams in the Elks and Pacifics.

I would have preferred to call up Adam Cowen or Will West from AAA, but they had both been out for long outings the previous two days, and I needed somebody capable of taking the ball after the Saturday game bled the pen dry. Even if it’s Jonny pitching on Sunday and you can probably make it through there with only two or three pitchers – **** always happens when you need it least. Also, Jonny had had only two outings in which he retired somebody in the eighth inning the entire season, and none since May 8. Schroeder was the only other right-handed reliever on the 40-man roster. Happy him.

And didn’t **** happen, or what? It’s always that way. At some point, everything goes wrong.

… which is the point to bring the good news, finally, that Matt Nunley is not seriously hurt and might be good with a day of rest at most. We’ll see how he feels Monday morning.

This week we released Tom McNeela. The persistent third-string catcher was batting .157 in 89 AB in Ham Lake, which was a bad place to be for a 30-year old catcher in the first place. In the majors and across eight seasons, he was a .236 hitter with 2 HR and 23 RBI in 309 AB.

[Westheim]

2018 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The 2018 draft pool was going to be a bit lop-sided. There was lots and lots of pitching in there; not pitching we had tabbed as being of superstar quality, but a number of potentially good or serviceable major league pitchers. Even picking in the last quarter of the first round you could still be confident to grab something to hang your hope onto for two or four years.

The report that Gabriel Martinez compiled on hitters, however, was a bit appalling. There was but one catcher on our shortlist that was even remotely interesting, and it was not that easy to find a good outfield prospect, either. This was probably not going to be a draft where you could heal the serious ills down on the farm if your lower minor league teams weren’t hitting any balls. (sorrowful look on the face)

Well, Martinez found some time between snitching with hour-long phone calls to Mexico to compile the annual hotlist, and it is indeed lopsided. Players with an * indicate high school players:

SP Antonio Moreno (12/12/12) *
SP Adam Garrett (12/15/15) *
SP Jimmy Jackson (12/15/9) * - BNN #5
SP Mark Morrison (12/12/13) *
SP Pete Molina (11/14/14) *
SP Markus Bates (14/12/11) *
SP Travis Giordano (13/12/11) *

INF Guillermo Obando (17/6/12) * - BNN #7
1B Lee Breidenbach (11/14/11)
INF Jeff Christiansen (14/8/9)

LF/RF/1B Luke Gross (5/15/15) * - BNN #3

That last one is not a typo. Martinez rates him a 5 in contact. He has great success in high school because everybody throws right down the middle, and he has obvious power. But even right down the middle, he tends to swing over high fastballs – somehow – and he swings over stuff in the dirt anyway. He swings at everything. He swings at the kid in the first row dropping his popcorn. There is a solid case to be made that the kid will get eaten by sharks in professional ball unless somebody can seriously electrocute him and make him selective in his approach. He is incredibly tough and powerful, with the body of an ancient Greek demigod, but goddamnit he can’t hold still when the pimpled kid on the mound throws another 81mph fastball over his catcher.

Martinez deviates far from the BNN top ten, with only three common listings. The top two picks by BNN are outfielders, with LF/CF Adrian Reichardt in #2, who is high on our extended shortlist, but not something that made us giddy. The BNN #1 pick was mind-boggling. They picked Chris Hollar, a high school outfielder. Martinez showed me video. He was off the Gross mold, only worse in almost every regard. It was not a pleasure to look at him. How he made it to #1 was beyond Martinez, and also beyond me, frankly.