Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

I mean, how do you ... how-

I-

...

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I mean, how do you ... how-

Some of it is that Dallas plays like Coors Field, IIRC, but that does not explain half of it.....

[Westheim]

2018 ABL PLAYOFFS

While the Raccoons choked on their own breakfast and were not resuscitated by game time a sufficient number of times to overcome the scrappy Aces, there was also the FLCS going on in which the Rebels and Pacifics faced another. Both teams had sported identical 98-64 records during the regular season, and both were the two most recent World Series winners, the Pacifics in 2016 and the Rebels in 2017.

The Rebels were primarily built around pitching, with three starters that had roughly a 3.00 ERA, including 34-year old southpaw Dave Butler enjoying a career year with a 21-3 record and 3.01 ERA. Ian Van Meter (16-11, 2.92 ERA) and Josh Knupp (17-9, 3.06 ERA) were also not easy to overcome. In their pen, closer Matt Collins not only broke Angel Casas’ 2010 record for single-season saves (then 54), but absolutely smothered it, saving *63* games for Richmond in 76 appearances. He also had a 3-6 record, giving him only four appearances in which he didn’t win, lose, or save the game.

The Rebels’ offense was considerably less of a thrill. While they had been second in the Federal League in runs allowed, they had put up only the seventh-most runs. They were hitting for power, but they were hitting a lot of solo home runs, since they were considerably sub-standard in terms of getting on base in the first place. Tamio Kimura (.289, 24 HR, 94 RBI) and Adam Young (.309, 22 HR, 80 RBI) led the power department, while Danny Flores led the team with a .316 batting average.

The Pacifics had ended up in third place in both runs scored and runs allowed, sporting a team that was one hand well balanced, but on the other hand was relying on a select few players to perform at their best. So Jimmy Roberts (.316, 34 HR, 115 RBI) had 34 homers, but nobody else on the team had even half as many, and Roberts also had the highest batting clip among qualifiers on the team. In the rotation, Brad Smith sailed a steady ship with a 19-8 record and 2.50 ERA, but the next-best starter was 37-year old ex-ace Rod Taylor (11-9, 3.27 ERA) having a bounceback year after a nightmarish 2017. Closer Arturo Lopez (1-0, 0.81 ERA, 12 SV) went down in June and while Angel Casas (7-5, 2.71 ERA, 34 SV) had a plausible Hall of Fame case and struck out 101 during the season, Lopez’ demise ultimately tore a hole into the Pacifics pen that they never managed to fill.

Both teams played good defense. The Rebels had the better rotation and their best batters were left-handers, while the Pacifics could not offer a left-handed starter to counter those, so Young and Kimura might roam free in the series. The Pacifics had to count on Brad Smith getting his wins and the lineup mustering enough to outlast the Rebels, but the bottom of the Pacifics’ lineup was particularly dreadful thanks to injuries that kept out Dave McCormick (.296, 10 HR, 61 RBI) and Jaime Garcia (.297, 1 HR, 28 RBI). The Rebels looked quite like they could have the advantage in the series…

+++

Rebels @ Pacifics … 2-0 … (Rebels lead 1-0) … RIC Ian Van Meter 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

Rebels @ Pacifics … 6-14 … (series tied 1-1) … RIC Jamal White 3-5, 2 2B; LAP Marc Thompson 3-5, RBI; LAP Jimmy Roberts 3-5, 2B, 4 RBI; LAP Jim Webb 2-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; LAP Nick Herman 3-5, 2B;

Pacifics @ Rebels … 5-6 … (Rebels lead 2-1) … LAP Errol Spears 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; RIC Tamio Kimura 3-4; LAP Jamal White 4-4, 2 HR, 2B, 5 RBI;

Pacifics @ Rebels … 6-0 … (series tied 2-2) … LAP Jimmy Roberts 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; LAP Rod Taylor 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (1-0) and 3-4;

Pacifics @ Rebels … 0-1 … (Rebels lead 3-2) … RIC Ricky Avila 1-2, RBI; RIC Ian Van Meter 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-0)

L.A.’s Clint Southcott rips a triple leading off the ninth inning against Matt Collins, who proceeds to strike out Jon Merritt (42 years old!) and Nick Herman, while Errol Spears grounds out.

Rebels @ Pacifics … 4-3 … (Rebels win 4-2) … RIC Danny Flores 3-5; LAP Marc Thompson 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

The Rebels spot four quick ones on LAP Bruce Mark, then overcome Josh Knupp getting ripped for three runs in a sixth-inning rally. Matt Collins gets his fourth save of the series and his 67th of the year.

+++

2018 WORLD SERIES

The 98-64 Rebels had just scored 19 runs in six games against the Pacifics, but somehow had wiggled through thanks to their strong rotation. They had however received some bad news in that leadoff man Danny Flores had injured himself in Game 6 and was not diagnosed yet.

The 89-74 Aces had also lost an outfielder in the CLCS against the starved Raccoons, with Saverio Piepoli (.280, 15 HR, 82 RBI) out with a sprained ankle. Overall, their strength had been offense, ranking fourth in runs scored in the Continental League, while their pitching had been at best adequate, with not much help to be found outside Juan Valdevez (19-8, 2.80). Although – Clark Johnson (10-11, 4.48 ERA) had strangled the Raccoons alright…

This was the first World Series appearance ever for the Aces, who were still not favorites to win it. Critics pointed out their about average pitching and that the injuries had mounted for them, while the Rebels might get Flores back during the series.

Rebels in six!

+++

Aces @ Rebels … 3-6 … (Rebels win 1-0) … RIC Jon Correa 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI;

Correa replaces Flores in centerfield for the Rebels and immediately wins them Game 1.

Aces @ Rebels … 3-1 … (series tied 1-1) … LVA Danny Rice 4-4; LVA Nehemiah Jones 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (1-2) and 2-2, 2B, RBI;

Nem Jones beats Ian Van Meter with his 2-out RBI double in the seventh inning, which breaks a 1-1 tie, but the Aces lose Matt Hamilton and his 30 regular-season home runs to an oblique strain.

Rebels @ Aces … 6-7 (10) … (Aces lead 2-1) … RIC Justin Cramer 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; LVA Bill Hebberd (PH) 2-2, RBI;

Hebberd’s 10th-inning single plates Brent Burke and walks off the Aces after they had been down 5-0 after the first inning. They put up their own 5-spot in the fourth to put the teams level, 5-5, then overcome another deficit to force extras.

Rebels @ Aces … 8-7 … (series tied 2-2) … RIC Bobby Torres 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; LVA Max Erickson 3-4; LVA Bobby Diersing 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; LVA Danny Rice (PH) 1-1;

Both starters are spanked for five runs, but Richmond’s Dave Butler (1-1) outlasts Stephen Quirion to take the win in a game in which the Aces trail early, appear to come back several times, but always fall a run short, including leaving Rich Walsh as the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth.

Rebels @ Aces … 1-4 … (Aces lead 3-2) … LVA Max Erickson 2-4, 2 2B; LVA Juan Valdevez 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (2-1) and 1-3;

The Aces ride Valdevez’ final start into a match ball; while the Rebels score in the first, Valdevez chokes them after that and they only amount to three hits in the entire game against both Valdevez and closer Steve Rob, who saves his fourth game of the postseason.

Aces @ Rebels … 0-2 … (series tied 3-3) … RIC Ricky Avila 2-4; RIC Jamal White 2-3, BB, RBI; RIC Ian Van Meter 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (3-0);

Both runs score in the fifth inning. Matt Collins gets his seventh save of the playoffs and his 70th in the season.

Aces @ Rebels … 4-2 … (Aces win 4-3) … LVA Izzy Alvarez 4-5, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI; RIC Justin Cramer 2-3, BB, 2B; LVA Enrique Guzman 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0); LVA Ken Chilcott 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In a 2-2 game, a lengthy rain delay knocks out both starters in the fifth inning, after which the Aces’ bullpen outlasts the Rebels’, with Ron Sakellaris soaking the Game 7 loss. Sakellaris had a 5.55 ERA in the regular season, and allows seventh-inning singles to PH Rich Arrieta, Adam Flack – who scores Arrieta with the championship-winning run – and a triple to Izzy Alvarez.

2018 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Las Vegas Aces
(1st title)

[Westheim]

Somewhere down in Mexico, the Prick had a stroke that fall – or that was what I suspected once I got his usual insulting hate mail after the World Series ended, for I failed to make any sense out of the new budget the Raccoons received.

Being just barely over the average in 2018 and getting kicked out of the CLCS by the Aces (who had the fourth-smallest budget at $19M) with a budget of $28.8M, the Raccoons received a *raise* for 2019 and it was not a small one! Our 2019 budget would be $32M, a whopping 12% increase, and good for sixth in the league.

Maybe the Prick had cancer and got desperate to win a title, like his old man had done, twice. I should send flowers and a card. Yeah, I should.

But I won’t.

Like I said, the Coons now had the sixth-biggest budget in the league, scratching at the top 5, from which they were only half a million bucks removed. The top 5 budgets belonged to the Crusaders ($41.5M), Pacifics ($36.5M), Cyclones ($34.5M), Bayhawks ($34M), and Rebels ($32.5M).

The bottom 5 would be the Capitals ($23M), Blue Sox ($22.8M), Loggers ($18.4M), Falcons ($17.6M), and Wolves ($16.2M). The current World Series champions, the Aces – and I can to my own surprise say that without wincing – move only barely above this dark red zone with a $23.2M budget, good for 19th overall. The other CL North teams rank 10th (Indians, $28.8M), 13th (Elks, $26.6M), and t-15th (Titans, $24.2M).

The median budget is $26.7M; the average budget is $27.3M.

+++

After 23 1/2 years, 492 major league starts, 225 wins, 135 losses, a 2.89 ERA, and 3,166 strikeouts, and no championships, Nick Brown is a Raccoon no more, and also no ballplayer in general no more. He hung up the cleats and the glove and the ball after the World Series. He told me there were other things to reach for now, and other than the World Series ring he had been longing for for the last quarter century, these goals were attainable (mostly) with his own power, mainly driving expensive sports cars and procreation.

I wished him all the best and assured him that he was always welcome around the place. Then I spent three days in the basement with the 1993 team photo until Slappy accidentally scampered in there and got the scare of his life when I was wailing in the darkness (which hints at one of his secret liquor stashes being somewhere in here, because he sure as heck didn’t come down here to clean up). Maud dragged me back to daylight the following day.

The Agitator also took it hard, running a photograph of Brownie pitching in the ultimately unsuccessful CLCS, with a thick black border and the gloomy headline “THE END OF A STAR”. Supernovas happen, and we may all survive until the happy day of his Hall of Fame inauguration.

That was some years off. Until then, there were still two more steps to make with this team as long as we could fit all the good players under one hat. And all the bad ones, too.

+++

At the end of the day, our $3.2M budget increase would more or less serve to pay the phenomenal replacement level extravagancy we were employing in leftfield, and now we could use our old budget to build a team around that black hole in the lineup. Thank heavens that contract is at least flat. If it would escalate, the situation would do so as well.

The financial fluff brings us straight to the salary arbitration and free agency part of the offseason, and the Raccoons had 11 players in the business here. (See the full table before changes and before *eventual* compensation changes at the bottom)

With Nick Brown’s retirement (chokes up) – … With – … Damnit, Maud, stop cutting onions in here!!

With Nick Brown’s retirement, there are three free agents remaining, who were all 1-year budget solutions in 2018. Ricky Mendoza won 14 games as a starter, but was mostly taxing to watch. While we got our money’s worth for $450k with his 4.48 ERA and decent 133 K in 178.2 IP, we had another option to fill his spot in the rotation – more on that in a moment – and would not pursue him further. The same goes for Tom Dahlke, who was picked up off waivers by the Indians, but the Raccoons have too many second basemen as it is, and Dahlke didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Same for Joey Mathews, who won Player of the Week at one point in the middle of the season, and afterwards hit .176 for the last three months. The Raccoons will have Ronnie McKnight back to play short, and Shane Walter will move back to second base. Brock Hudman will be a cheap backup infielder, and we will look for another cheap one somewhere. Plus, Mathews is the only compensation-eligible free agent we have, and I prefer the extra draft pick over his services.

Walter and McKnight is already a critical topic. Both made $500k plus change in 2018. Both have estimated of $700k plus change for 2019. Both are crucial to our continued semi-success. Matt Nunley would have been in the same group as these guys, but he had signed an extension in September, $4.2M over four years, buying out his last year of arbitration and three years of free agency.

With Walter and McKnight, timing was of the essence. McKnight would be arbitration-eligible once more after the 2019 season, but for Walter this was the last time. If we could get him to sign an extension comparable to Nunley’s, it would hardly be a bad move – you can’t err far with a strong defensive middle infielder that missed the batting title by four points and was essentially a gift from the Midas-touched Crusaders. While he has no power (the eight homers he hit in ’17 were a career-high), he doesn’t need power to be productive, other than certain other players on the roster. ISN’T THAT RIGHT, R.J.??

Also on the arbitration list were both of our catchers. While neither had been an offensive force in ’18, there was no point in dropping either of them right now. Denny had a bad season, yeah, but that was deflating his value and that was good for our budget. Meanwhile, Danny would continue to be dirt cheap in his second-to-last year of team control. Yes, he is a career .241/.299/.335 batter, but then again Mr. DeWeese hit for only 44 points of OPS more than him this year, while making more than 13 times as much dough. And I do like his arm. Both stick.

Four pitchers are left on the arbitration bingo card. This includes Bobby Guerrero, who came over from the Falcons in a trade in July, and went 5-3 with a 3.89 ERA. The Raccoons have enough openings behind Jonny Triple Crown, Santos, and Abe. His $550k estimate was in the neighborhood of what Mendoza had made in 2018, and he had performed a lot better, going 15-13 with a 3.69 ERA combined between Charlotte and Coon City. I probably would not be crazy if I tried to get him for a 3-year deal now, which could turn out to be a huge bargain, but I would not want to go past that, unless we can have him REALLY cheap, say, under a million per season, but he probably won’t be that stupid.

Three relievers remain; Jason Kaiser pitched more or less every other day and still managed to pitch to a 2.26 ERA in 59.2 innings. There is a yellow flag up because he is already 32 and would not become a free agent until he’d be 35. The Rebels never loved him, but still held onto him firmly, and I intend to do the same. Seung-mo Chun has been quietly efficient in a fourth-right-hander role in the pen; neither would make a whole lot in arbitration, so these were no-brainers to keep. A no-brainer to NOT keep would be Chet Cummings, the final guy in the bunch. After turning in a 5.26 ERA and making more than Kaiser, or Chun, or even Guerrero, Cummings was not welcome anymore and would be the only guy among the eight arbitration cases to be handed his papers.

+++

Despite the $3.2M budget increase, the Raccoons would still have to be selective in their approach of the offseason, because a good part of the money was already running from our hands due to escalating contracts. Between Jonny, Cookie, Nunley, and Abe we were already down $1.45M, and there were a few more guys that would get more coin than in 2018 since I was also signing right-handed relievers to escalating contracts… Wade Davis and Chris Mathis came another $130k (combined) more expensive than in 2018, and then there would be arbitration cases.

Right now we had less than $2M in beer money, but I would try to find new homes for Alex ****mirez ($1.3M) and Eddie Jackson ($750k). I do not consider R.J. DeWeese ($3.3M for four more years, the last a player option), and Dumbo Mendoza ($2.6M for five more years, including the bedamned player option) to be very movable right now… those are the two most expensive players on the roster. Third place will be taken by Cookie and his $2.3M in 2019, which is the first year of five with the full contract value in the 8-year deal he signed after 2015.

The laundry list?

• Starting pitcher to slide in between Santos/Abe and Guerrero, preferably a southpaw
• Closer
• If Jackson is traded, a replacement for him for cheaper
• Backup infielder, not a left-handed batter
• Someone to actually drive in runs instead of Dumbo Mendoza

Gonna be an interesting winter.

[Westheim]

Shane Walter had a slightly different opinion of his value than I had and no extension along Nunley’s or with a slight bit of bonus coins came together. He was one of seven arbitration cases (all except for Cummings) that received extension offers in the week after the World Series ended. There was no long-term deal among those, but I managed to offer three years at a budget price to Bobby Guerrero, which was my first personal victory of the offseason when he signed it on October 31. The deal’s value was $2.4M, with $600k in 2019 and $900k the two years after that. I consider that a very good deal for what Guerrero brings to the table – outside of his rookie year and then again in a rough 2016 campaign he had always pitched to an ERA of 4.04 or better – and that he’s probably going to be our #5 starter unless I can’t find any upgrade over … (shivers) … Damani Knight.

Shane Walter ended up signing for $800k for one year, and would be a free agent after the 2019 season, which would doubtlessly drive his asking price in the next 12 months. Ronnie McKnight signed for $760k, Mike Denny for $620k, Jason Kaiser for $300k, Danny Margolis for $280k – all for one year.

The last arbitration case to settle was Seung-mo Chun, who signed for two years (which does NOT buy out his remaining arbitration years; he will be arbitration-eligible again after the 2020 season) with $300k in ’19 and $375k in ’20.

+++

Even before the arbitration date arrived, the Raccoons already were involved in the first big deal of the offseason; the first trade in which more than just fringe players were exchanged.

November 9 – The Raccoons acquire 29-yr old SP Cole Pierson (34-37, 3.69 ERA) from the Capitals for AA SP Danny Arguello and AA INF Sam Armetta.
November 15 – The Stars pick up 25-year old SP Mo Robinson (46-28, 4.03 ERA) from the Gold Sox, sending them two prospects including #92 OF Ricky Cruz*.
November 17 – The Loggers send C Orlando Castillo (.253, 21 HR, 115 RBI) to the Pacifics for a second-rate pitching prospect.

Now, I know I have been talking for five years about Arguello and how he’s going to be the next homegrown, front-of-the-rotation starting pitcher. And for five years that was true. But it ain’t true no more according to Gabriel Martinez and the Druid. Arguello pitched but one inning in all of 2018, missing the rest of the season with shoulder inflammation. According to the Druid, that shoulder was a minefield and prone to explode the next time he was going to open a glass of marmalade. He was damaged goods, and this was the perfect deal to get ANY value from the $500k investment into him in the 2013 international free agent period. The burst hopes and dreams were not compensation-eligible.

We dutifully informed the Capitals of his injury history, and Arguello passed their physical nonetheless. The other player in the deal, Armetta, is a 2014 third-rounder that has not hit anything in his minor league career and we were quite glad to get rid of him without making him homeless and despondent.

Not that I care that much about what becomes of dismissed minor leaguers.

The trade fills the Coons’ rotation for 2019 and 2020, after which Pierson would be a free agent. Pierson would come at a $390k price tag in ’19 that he had agreed upon with the Capitals brass before the deal, and which was his second-to-last year of arbitration. I say not bad for a 29-year old left-hander with a 92mph fastball, a mean splitter, and an admittedly only complementary changeup. The splitter was a wipeout pitch, though – if he could keep it out of the dirt in front of home plate.

Chet Cummings was waived and DFA’ed to make room on the 40-man roster for Pierson and went unclaimed, which certainly did not bode well for his future career, if he had any.

While that trade was swell for sure, we would soon receive bad news in salary arbitration. Trying to get the supplemental round pick for Joey Mathews backfired when Mathews took the Coons to arbitration instead of choosing free agency (which can be cruel to 35-year old middle infielders) and was awarded $598,500, taking a big chunk out of my offseason purse. Mathews’ move was probably going to shaft Brock Hudman into oblivion, since I was set to further reduce our population of second basemen one way or another, and Brian Petracek – while hitting nothing – was at least that super utility I was digging to have on my roster.

+++

2018 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: CIN LF Jose Morales (.345, 35 HR, 105 RBI) and SFB OF Dave Garcia (.342, 35 HR, 101 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: LAP SP Brad Smith (19-8, 2.50 ERA) and POR SP Jonathan Toner (23-6, 2.21 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: NAS INF John Muller (.306, 9 HR, 61 RBI) and NYC INF Sergio Valdez (.279, 12 HR, 73 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: RIC CL Matt Collins (3-6, 2.70 ERA, 63 SV) and POR MR Ron Thrasher (2-1, 0.70 ERA, 8 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P NAS Diego Mendoza Jr. – C CIN Jayden Jolley – 1B DEN Stanley Murphy – 2B CIN Ieyoshi Nomura – 3B CIN Eddie Moreno – SS SFW Jamie Wilson – LF CIN Jose Morales – CF SAC Ray Meade – RF DAL Justin Dally
Platinum Sticks (CL): P POR Jonathan Toner – C ATL Ruben Luna – 1B VAN Jesus Ramirez – 2B LVA Rich Walsh – 3B POR Matt Nunley – SS ATL Devin Hibbard – LF ATL Gil Rockwell – CF SFB Dave Garcia – RF VAN Ezra Branch
Gold Gloves (FL): P SFW Jose Acosta – C SAC Chris Ramirez – 1B DAL Mike Gershkovich – 2B RIC Bobby Torres – 3B TOP Henry Weber – SS SAC Gabriel Sauceda – LF SFW Gil Gross – CF PIT Ross Holland – RF DEN Julio Candela
Gold Gloves (CL): P IND Dan Lambert – C SFB Dylan Alexander – 1B POR Hugo Mendoza – 2B NYC Sergio Valdez – 3B LVA Izzy Alvarez – SS MIL Kyle Burns – LF MIL Chris LeMoine – CF TIJ Matt Jamieson – RF VAN Ezra Branch

Happy for Ron Thrasher (though not surprised, because he was better than any closer and it wasn’t even … CLOSE) and for Matt Nunley (who has won one piece of bling or kind of recognition in all of his five ABL seasons, since 2014 in order: ROTY, Platinum Stick, All Star, Platinum Stick, and again Platinum Stick), and Jonny Triple Crown just gives me an accelerated heart rate. He takes his third Pitcher of the Year award (after 2015, 2017) and his third Platinum Stick (after 2015, 2016).

Slugger won a Gold Glove… I almost managed to wrestle it from him to slay him WITH HIS ****ING GOLD GLOVE.

Going back to Toner for a second… what’s the most POTY awards anybody has wrapped up?

PITCHERS BY PITCHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

8 – Juan Correa (HOF) – 1977 1978 1979 1980 1982 1984 1985 1986
7 – Tony Hamlyn – 2002 2003 2004 2007 2008 2010 2013
6 – Brad Smith (active) – 2009 2011 2012 2014 2016 2018
5 – Martin Garcia (HOF) – 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001
3 – Antonio Donis (HOF) – 2006 2010 2011
3 – Jonathan Toner (active) – 2015 2017 2018

That is ALL the guys with three awards, and they total up not quite half the 84 awards that have been given out since the league’s inception. Tony Hamlyn pitched until 2015 and is not yet Hall of Fame eligible, but there aren’t any doubts over him blowing up the first ballot. Further award recipients for the Coons: Kinji Kan (1983) and Nick Brown (2009).

+++

*Cruz was one player in the package we sent to the Stars for Dumbo Mendoza. I was considering him a flameout back then, and so far nothing has happened to revise that opinion. That doesn’t change the fact that it was a stupid deal that I should be beaten for.

[Westheim]

I looked at our roster after free agents filed in mid-November and after the trade for Cole Pierson, and - … we may not make all that many moves from here.

At this point, there had been a few subtle roster changes aside from Brownie’s retirement, and the departures via free agency of Ricky Mendoza, Tom Dahlke, and Chet Cummings. Edwin Prieto had been reassigned to AAA already, since we’re not planning with him in any case. Also, Danny Ochoa had been waived and DFA’ed earlier to prevent AAA reliever Blake Kelly from electing minor league free agency, for which we needed the 40-man roster spot.

There were 13 pitchers left on the expanded roster: Toner, Santos, Abe, Pierson, Guerrero; Ramirez, Thrasher, Mathis, Kaiser, Chun, and Davis; also Matt Schroeder, who was probably replaceable, and Nick Lester, who was at best trade bait for a really drunk GM at the winter meetings.

We had two catchers left with Denny and Margolis; six infielders with Nunley, McKnight, Walter, Mathews, Petracek, and Hudman; and seven outfielders with DeWeese, Mendoza, Cookie, Duarte, Bareford, Jackson, and Thomson.

The only players even worth noting in AAA were relievers Adam Cowen and Will West (both righties), Tim Prince, and … ugh.

We DO have two prospects in AAA at this point that should be worth watching next season: SP Travis Garrett, 22, and OF Dwayne Metts, 23. The latter is a lefty-hitting strong defensive outfielder with base-stealing qualities and some on base skills, drawing walks at a good pace. Unfortunately there was no oomph in his stick at all. He had batted .257 with no power in Ham Lake, but he had used his nimble paws to collect 22 doubles and 10 triples, and had only made 14 appearances in AAA in September, batting .213, but half of his ten hits were doubles and triples. Metts was our third-rounder from 2016, while Garrett had been selected in the second round in 2015. He would be 23 as well by the start of the 2019 season and was a right-hander throwing 92 at this point. He had an outright nasty curve, a real wipeout pitch, and also had a forkball to screw hitters with. One issue was his tendency to issue walks, which hadn’t gotten better in the three years since the draft. In 224.2 innings between AA and AAA in 2018, he had walked 127 batters, while whiffing 199. I liked the latter number, I didn’t like the former.

So those two were worth watching, but they would not be useful to us early on in the season for sure. Neither was Tim Prince…

Now, where to improve the team further. The Agitator was lobbying for addition by subtraction, which concerned both yours truly and DeWeese. Nobody was going to trade for R.J. DeWeese, that much was for sure. And unless Gabriel Martinez finally succeeded in poisoning my lunch, I wasn’t going away, either.

I really was not into Alex Ramirez anymore (you may have noticed). I was blaming him for the CLCS loss. Him and Dumbo Mendoza, equal shares. But 11 blown saves in the regular season in 2018 alone were not guaranteed to attract suitors, especially for someone making $1.25M. Maybe the third time was the charm to move Thrasher into the closer’s role. But I refused to pay Ramirez $1.25M for slacking off in the eighth inning.

Well, as long as we can’t move DeWeese, it will be hard to make an actual improvement. Moving him would allow us to move Dumbo Mendoza to right, Cookie to left (where his mediocre arm would be less exposed), and then could look for a new first baseman to be perpetually disappointed by. But it wasn’t going to happen…

+++

November 18 – The Titans trade MR Eric Rasmussen (8-18, 4.63 ERA, 3 SV) to the Knights, receiving prospect CL Victor Diaz, who was ranked #69 overall in 2015, but has not been a ranked prospect since.
November 22 – In another trade, the Titans pick up 29-year old OF Justin Nickel (.227, 13 HR, 74 RBI) from the Buffaloes, parting with INF David Lawson (.276, 8 HR, 62 RBI).
November 29 – The Canadiens are excited to add ex-TIJ SP Zach Hughes (83-74, 3.49 ERA) on a 5-yr, $14.2M contract.
November 30 – 37-year old 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.304, 200 HR, 1,199 RBI), a career Blue Sock, signs a 2-yr, $5.76M contract with the Knights.
November 30 – The Bayhawks reinforce their rotation with the addition of 35-yr old ex-NYC SP Bob King (219-169, 3.53 ERA), who won 17 games both of the last two years and will make $5.68M over the next two.
December 1 – 27-year old ex-NAS SS Andrew Showalter (.306, 88 HR, 466 RBI) jumps ships in the FL East, signing with the Cyclones for $11.04M over four years.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: nine players are taken over two rounds. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 2 – The Indians swipe 33-yr old ex-CIN C Jayden Jolley (.265, 112 HR, 641 RBI), who receives a 2-yr, $6.08M contract.
December 2 – Another big name catcher signs on the same day, with ex-WAS C Jose Flores (.281, 186 HR, 742 RBI) signing a 2-yr, $5.28M contract with the Pacifics. The 35-year old Cuban had been with Washington for seven years.
December 2 – Four years and $6.88M buy former Bayhawks SP Milt Beauchamp (111-101, 4.10 ERA) for the Gold Sox.

+++

There was really nothing going on around here prior to the winter meetings.

Concerning former Raccoons, Ricardo Martinez scammed the Loggers out of $464k over two years. Bruce Morrison would get $366k from the Knights.

[Westheim]

I will not exaggerate when I state that the winter meetings were an enormous disappointment … on an epic scale … and having gone there turned out to be a mistake, because the air travel to get there and to get back (who wants to die in ****ing Nashville?) would have been better spent on boozing incessantly for the better part of a week, especially since I’m not always into Slappy’s cheap stuff.

Zero trades involving the Raccoons were made, and it wasn’t necessarily our fault. A few teams tried to leave me with crappy first basemen making meal money. I tried to get a few interesting right-handed relievers, including an opposite Ron Thrasher type as Gabriel Martinez described it in the Miners’ Jose Archuleta, a soon-to-be 28-year old Dominican pitcher with only seven appearances in the majors and a 17.05 ERA. Now, hear me out here. He got mauled for 12 earned runs on 14 hits and one walk in 4.1 innings in five games in ’17, which is not something bad pitchers usually do unless an oddly charming cosmic event is occurring, leading to reversals of magnetic fields and all the airplanes falling out of the skies.

The Miners clearly weren’t liking him, giving him a single inning in the just-buried season, in which he had struck out two. Control might be a problem for him, as it was for the young Ron Thrasher. But they also were not interested into any offers for Archuleta, who would probably die with that 17.05 ERA as well as with many regrets about not having listened to his grandfather to join the family shoe shining business. Thank heavens Yayo Gonzalo died of that common cold six years ago and doesn’t have to witness his pitiful career anymore.

When I announced to every GM who would listen (and also to those who wouldn’t) that R.J. DeWeese and Alex Ramirez were both readily available for little in return, the room usually fell silent for a moment before everybody burst into laughter.

‘Have fun with that DeWeese contract, Westfield!’ snarled J.J. Popoff, GM of the beloved Elks.

+++

December 5 – The Indians sign 32-yr old ex-PIT RF/LF Dave Carter (.274, 143 HR, 577 RBI) to a 4-yr, $11.28M contract, while their old outfielder RF/CF John Wilson (.271, 78 HR, 378 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $2.84M deal with the Crusaders.
December 7 – Ex-ATL INF Wade White (.287, 23 HR, 300 RBI) lands a big pay day at age 29, signing a 6-yr, $12.48M contract with the Buffaloes.
December 8 – The Rebels send five prospects to the Miners in exchange for SP Cody Zimmerman (75-80, 3.70 ERA), a 28-year old southpaw. Included in the package the Miners receive is #79 prospect SP Jared Williams.
December 8 – IND C Randy Garner (.270, 54 HR, 287 RBI), age 29, is sent to the Cyclones for 3B/2B Rey Umpierre (.273, 6 HR, 42 RBI) and a token prospect.
December 9 – The Aces send 2B Rich Walsh (.268, 45 HR, 276 RBI) to the Miners for SP John Key (38-56, 4.55 ERA) and unranked prospect CL Matt Goga.
December 11 – The Buffaloes keep shuffling and drawing card, signing ex-SFB INF Zach Ingraham (.281, 48 HR, 404 RBI) to a 3-year deal. The 31-year old right-handed batter will make $4.86M for his services.
December 11 – The Loggers send SP Brian Cope (31-26, 4.00 ERA) to the Miners. The 25-year old pitcher nets them 25-yr old 2B Tyler Stewart (.282, 1 HR, 39 RBI) and a second-rate prospect.
December 11 – The Miners also trade with the Cyclones, sending them SP/MR Chris Munroe (11-18, 3.85 ERA) for two prospects including #46 SP Dave Madonna.
December 18 – The Loggers have themselves a new closer, signing ex-ATL CL Quinn MacCarthy (27-19, 4.11 ERA, 35 SV) to a 3-yr, $2.73M contract.
December 18 – Milwaukee also manages to get a semi-decent prospect from the Knights in their trade for Loggers righty Luis Calderon (6-4, 5.23 ERA, 6 SV).
December 19 – The Miners splurge money on ex-IND RF Nick Gilmor (.280, 69 HR, 363 RBI), who signs for 4-yr, $5.98M.
December 21 – The Raccoons sign ex-TIJ 2B/SS Roland Lafon (.250, 25 HR, 220 RBI) to a 1-year contract. The 30-year old Canadian will make $250k as part of the deal.
December 22 – Former Pacific C Errol Spears (.292, 131 HR, 786 RBI) inks with Cincy for two years and $4.88M.
December 23 – More intra-Federal League movement of stars: ex-RIC SP Dave Butler (140-121, 3.81 ERA) gets a 2-yr, $5.84M contract from the Stars.
December 23 – 31-year old SP Zach Boyer (104-83, 3.55 ERA) returns to the CL South after two years with the Titans, signing a 4-yr, $12M deal with the Bayhawks. The Titans have to console themselves with ex-LAP SP Ozzie Pereira (73-71, 4.13 ERA), who gets a 2-yr, $2.32M deal.
December 24 – Crusaders fans find a present under their tree in form of ex-CIN SP Brian Doumas (72-52, 3.14 ERA), whom their team signs to a 5-yr, $15.2M contract.

+++

Maud hates me now. It’s been six weeks since the Pierson trade, and all she’s got is Lafon, who is – well – underwhelming at best. He did not play in the majors in 2018 *at all* to start with. He is a bench piece and he will be on the roster to start the season, however; we had a ton of second basemen around last year, and nothing ever worked out for us. This year nothing might fundamentally change, but at least we have a strong defensive option for the middle infield now, so we can use Lafon to supplant with McKnight and Walter on their off days and not open up all the boulevards up the middle.

Although, before Shane Walter is mad at me, I have to add this. Shane Walter had the extremely undesired distinction of spending 120+ defensive innings on every position in the infield in 2018, and more than half of his total defensive innings came at short after the McKnight injury. The eggheads point out that he had a slightly positive zone rating at short (as he had at every position), and while I don’t buy stat talk like that without ridiculing it, he surely passed the eye test at short, where he didn’t play a whole lot in the previous two campaigns which he (partially) spent with the Coons. In 2016 and 2017, he got 232 defensive innings at short, combined, but the Miners, his first major league team, actually played him a lot at short, making shortstop the position he’s played the second-most frequently on in his big league career with just under 1,700 defensive innings, behind roughly 2,650 defensive innings at the keystone, and ahead of the 1,550 at the hot corner. The least time he has spent at first, 232 innings, and most of those in 2018.

VERY good player – great to have on the team!

Walter. Not that Lafon guy. Even his name looks like there is at least one letter that’s gone missing.

+++

Elsewhere, Adrian Quebell netted a hardly justified $1.1M deal for 2019 with the Buffaloes. Quebell batted .222 with 2 homers in 119 games in 2018, and in 114 of those games he came off the bench.

William Waggoner got $720k from the Thunder. 39-year old Luis Reya spent time between the Rebels and Stars in 2018 and now got a $1.48M deal from the Cyclones.

Also, Joe O’Brian signed with the Knights for $278k. Who the **** is Joe O’Brian? He was the reliever we received in a side exchange of bullpen arms for Luis Beltran that was attached to the “Dingus” Morales trade to the Capitals in 2011. You know, the one that left us with Cookie Carmona.

[Westheim]

The Hall of Fame got flooded with new players with the Class of ’19 including five new players to join the hallowed place, including three pitchers and two position players.

With 87.3% of the vote and the highest in the voting process, CL Scott Hood (67-56, 2.07 ERA, 427 SV) was inducted into the Hall as a Gold Sock. Picked a modest 79th in the Amateur Draft, Hood made his debut for the Gold Sox in 1999 and wrestled his way into the closer’s role by 2001, continuing to pitch for the Gold Sox for six more years, becoming Reliever of the Year in 2004, before joining the Crusaders as a free agent for 2007 just in time for their first 3-peat to award him with the only three rings he won in his career. Hood was an All Star five times and led the league in saves twice, ending his career with the Titans in 2013.

Drafted in the fifth round of the 1990 draft by the Crusaders, it took a while for SP Javier Cruz (256-177, 3.78 ERA, 1 SV) to see his star rise. It took him five years and getting released by the team that drafted him, after which he hooked up with the Blue Sox, to reach the major leagues, which he then conquered in a real hurry. After leading the league in losses in his first full season in ’96, he would lead the league in wins the next two years, and took home Pitcher of the Year honors in both years. He also led the FL in ERA in ’97, missing the triple crown by eight strikeouts compared to SAC David Castillo. He settled into consistency mode after that, posting ERA’s in the 3-range in all but four of his last 14 seasons. He would win 20 games a third time in ’02, pitching for the consistently decent, but not good enough Blue Sox through 2006 before alighting on the long-sunk Raccoons’ ship on a free agent deal in 2007. Spending three more years with them and then two in Cincinnati before retiring after the 2019 season. In an 18-year career that saw him strike out 3,164 batters, he posted a losing record only four times, and he still ranks in the career top 10 in both wins (8th) and strikeouts (9th).

While Bartolo Hernandez debuted with the Loggers as a 20-year old in 1995 after being drafted #3 overall in 1993, he didn’t break out until 1997, quickly becoming part of group of players that helped the Loggers be relevant for the only not-quite-decade of their existence. Hernandez was an elite contact hitter that piled up 2,849 base knocks in his career, of which less than 500 went extra bases. He made up for that with his feet, stealing 344 bases in his career, and leading the league in steals once while leading in hits three times. The 3-time All Star, who also won five Gold Gloves in his career, stuck with the Loggers for 15 years total before finishing out his career with five teams in the last four years. A player of remarkable consistency, Hernandez hit .310 or better nine times, and .290 or better 13 times in his career, with a high water mark of .353 in the 2005 season, but never won a batting title. He is the second player of the Loggers’ semi-dynasty to be enshrined in the Hall, joining Martin Garcia, and he is the only player to connect for six base hits in an ABL game twice, having both big days as a Logger.

Whit Reeves (209-124, 3.38 ERA) from the Sunfish Capital of the World, Onalaska, Wisconsin, split his 16 year-career equally between the Scorpions and Crusaders, but chose to be inducted with the insignia of the team that drafted him 10th overall and had him debut as a 20-year old in the 1995 season. The right-handed Reeves was the FL Pitcher of the Year in 2000 and was an All Star five times, but led the league in a major category only once, posting the best FL ERA in his POTY season in which he also won a career-high 19 games. Joining the Crusaders as free agent for the 2003 season, Reeves initially posted two losing seasons before catching fire again. He also won three rings like Scott Hood, participating in the Crusaders’ 2007-09 3-peat before retiring after a partial 2010 season.

Switch-hitting middle infielder Juan Barrón (.303, 35 HR, 950 RBI) played for more teams than any other of the inductees after making his major league debut as a tender 18-year old all the way back in 1991 with the Falcons, batting .289 in 44 games for them. Although the #6 pick in the 1990 draft never led the league in anything else than in doubles in 1994 (but hitting a whoppin’ 60 of them that season), his high-average, high-OBP presence at the plate, coupled with strong defense that would yield four Gold Gloves for him eventually, and – in his early years – a propensity to steal 20+ bases, made him a much vaunted top-of-the-order batter. He spent his first 16 seasons all in the CL South, playing for the Condors and Bayhawks after his Falcons stint ended after the 1998 season, before signing with the Stars prior to the 2007 season, but he would be traded twice over the course of the 2-year contract, first to the Capitals in mid-season of ’07, and then to the Raccoons the following winter. He played two seasons as a backup with the Indians before retiring after the 2010 season. Barrón chose to be inducted with the Falcons, his first team and the one he spent the most time with.

+++

Complete voting results:

DEN CL Scott Hood – 1st – 87.3 – INDUCTED
NAS SP Javier Cruz – 2nd – 86.6 – INDUCTED
MIL 2B Bartolo Hernandez – 1st – 79.0 – INDUCTED
SAC SP Whit Reeves – 4th – 77.0 – INDUCTED
CHA 2B Juan Barrón – 4th – 76.3 – INDUCTED
??? SP Chris York – 1st – 58.8
??? LF Bakile Hiwalani – 2nd – 42.3
SFB CL William Henderson – 8th – 23.0
??? CF Jerry Fletcher – 2nd – 22.7
BOS CL John Bennett – 1st – 11.7
BOS 3B Mark Austin – 1st – 9.3
SFW 2B Dave Heffer – 1st – 8.6
NYC SP Anibal Sandoval – 5th – 7.2
IND SS Ramón Garza – 1st – 6.5
PIT SP Henry Becker – 1st – 3.8 – DROPPED
NAS CL Jose Escobar – 2nd – 3.8 – DROPPED
OCT 2B Bruce Boyle – 1st – 3.4 – DROPPED
IND 3B David Lopez – 4th – 2.7 – DROPPED
PIT CL Paco Barrera – 2nd – 2.4 – DROPPED
BOS RF Gonzalo Munoz – 1st – 1.4 – DROPPED
NAS SP Dave Crawford – 1st – 1.0 – DROPPED
BOS MR Ramiro Román – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

January 7 – Former Cyclones RF D.J. Fullerton (.298, 102 HR, 499 RBI) joins the Thunder for 4-yr, $10.4M.
January 9 – Ex-SFB/NAS RF/1B Will McIntyre (.301, 40 HR, 287 RBI) gets paid; the 29-year old right-handed batter nets a 4-yr, $8.6M contract with the Pacifics.
January 12 – The Blue Sox trade for the Rebels’ 2B/SS Bobby Torres (.266, 25 HR, 183 RBI); the 27-year old middle infielder is exchanged for MR Pat Goldstein (13-14, 4.79 ERA, 1 SV) and #63 prospect SP Ismael Gutierrez.
January 23 – The Stars pick up ex-MIL SP Jason McDonald (56-76, 4.24 ERA) on a 3-yr, $4.88M contract.
January 24 – After one year with the Crusaders, 30-yr old right-hander SP Ted McKenzie (73-91, 4.43 ERA) inks a 2-yr, $2.64M contract with the Capitals.
January 26 – The Raccoons sign ex-SFB MR Jeff Boynton (28-24, 3.47 ERA, 92 SV) to a 2-yr, $980k contract.

+++

Boynton, 29, is the last addition to the team except for ready and willing cushions for AAA. You know, UNLESS someone ends up trading for R.J. DeW- yah, it’s not gonna- … well.

Boynton was a closer for the Wolves as a rookie in 2014-15, which says more about the Wolves than anything else, but he also saved 35 for the Bayhawks in 2016 after they acquired him in mid-2015. His walks have always been kind of high, with a career 4.1 BB/9, and a K/BB that is not quite 2. For those reasons, I don’t see him as a closer or even setup reliever – too easy to create issues. So not only am I seeing him not ahead of Ramirez and Thrasher, but also not ahead of Mathis. But between Boynton, Wade Davis, and Seung-mo Chun we have the best right-handed middle relief corps you can possibly compile for a reasonable budget. The three guys combined will earn $1.34M this season and will probably cause me less agony than some guys making double that on their own…

To get Boynton onto the 40-man roster we had to waive and DFA somebody and after running out of AAA outfielders, we DFA’ed Ryan Nielson, one of last year’s insufficiently skilled rotation fillers. Boynton also takes Matt Schroeder’s spot on the Opening Day roster, so there’s that.

And no, there’s really nothing else going on in Portland right now. Oh, that is not entirely true. Maud asked me to invite all of you to the 3rd Self-made Straw Hat Festival next week. She is one of the organizers. She made me a straw hat. I’m not going.

The Gold Sox gave Chet Cummings $536k over two years when he didn’t deserve $28.50 for one year. Howard Jones will get $292k from the Elks. Jayden Reed signed for $1.53M over two years with the Knights. Manobu Sugano signed with the Pacifics for $260k. G.G. Williams hooked up for 2-yr, $1.2M with the Aces. We’ll probably see a bit more of Matt Pruitt, who signed for $266k with the Indians to continue scraping by.

[Westheim]

The foundations of Raccoons baseball were trembling on the following Saturday, when news broke of a deal that sent –

Nope, sorry. No excitement. I will just thoroughly apologize for the lamest offseason this town had seen in a long time. Not even spiced brownies could make you marvel at the first-gear winter the Raccoons ‘engaged’ in. After the trade for Cole Pierson, the Raccoons were content with signing a middle infielder and a right-handed reliever, which isn’t exactly how champions are made, but then the player material at hand had been pretty darn good in the first place.

Yes, the Coons fell short in the CLCS. But they were in firm control of the division by June and cruised for more than half the season. We have an entire infield of first- and second-level players (at least, in some cases, measured by what they have done for other teams…), plus Cookie Carmona, the best pitcher in baseball in Jonny Triple Crown, with a neat supporting cast of Santos and Abe, and a few relievers to die for. The team had not been easy to improve in the first place, and with the way that Alex Ramirez and R.J. DeWeese had been going, we had known beforehand that we would not be able to trade them.

+++

February 13 – The Pacifics sign ex-TOP SS Tyler Gray (.283, 45 HR, 337 RBI) to a 1-yr, $1.08M contract.
February 16 – The Gold Sox pick up 32-yr old ex-VAN SP A.J. Bartels (101-108, 4.45 ERA) for 2-yr, $1.86M.
February 16 – The Titans send 25-yr-old C Armando Galan (.232, 5 HR, 77 RBI) to the Wolves in exchange for MR Harley Molski (7-14, 4.07 ERA, 1 SV) and #61 prospect CL Javy Salomon.
February 21 – After spending his entire career with the Canadiens, CL Pedro Alvarado’s (91-81, 2.38 ERA, 612 SV) reaction to being discarded at age 39 is to sign with a division rival, agreeing to a 2-yr, $1.2M contract with the Crusaders.

+++

In Ex-Coonland, Pat Slayton got $250k from the Elks. Ron Alston – on his last leg – returned to the Indians after ten years away, signing a $476k contract. And in the last week before Opening Day, the Warriors gave Zack Entwistle $276k, the Bayhawks added Tom Dahlke for $274k, Joe Cowan inked with the Pacifics for $284k, and Juan Medina took $240k from the Cyclones to stay warm.

[Westheim]

2019 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2018 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Jonathan Toner, 28, B:R, T:R (23-6, 2.21 ERA | 93-38, 2.32 ERA) – here comes Jonny Triple Crown! The first ABL player to snatch one of those buggers in ages, Jonny won his fourth ERA title, led the league in K/9 for the fourth time, and in strikeouts and WHIP for the third time. He finally got the wins he deserved to nail down that triple crown that eluded him a few times before. About his repertoire it is sufficient to state that he throws raw filth that nobody can cope with. In addition to 98mph heater he also has a nasty curve and an off-the-charts circle change. If he feels like it, he throws a changeup, just for giggles. Best pitcher in baseball right now!
SP Tadasu Abe, 27, B:R, T:R (2-3, 2.55 ERA | 37-22, 3.14 ERA) – huge arsenal that allows him to dazzle batters and keep them guessing; missed most of the 2018 season due to a torn back muscle and only mustered 11 starts in the regular season, during which his walk numbers were quite badly elevated.
SP Hector Santos, 30, B:S, T:R (13-10, 2.67 ERA | 93-70, 3.12 ERA) – sometimes a bit the forgotten man in the rotation, Santos failed to lead the league in WHIP for the third straight year, but led the CL in BABIP for the second year in a row. Despite so-so stamina, he has become a bank to pitch 210 innings per season, sticking between 212 and 219 for the last four years. 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 144 homers in 1,547 innings, with a career-high of 30 dingers in 2013, which then led the league.
SP Cole Pierson *, 29, B:L, T:L (9-15, 3.59 ERA | 34-37, 3.69 ERA) – Pierson was picked up in a trade with the Capitals, who hardly ever scored for him, but nobody has ever gone to Portland and suddenly found run support. Pierson has two and two-thirds pitches, throwing his changeup at best selectively when nobody is expecting it anymore.
SP Bobby Guerrero, 29, B:R, T:R (15-13, 3.69 ERA | 48-50, 4.37 ERA, 2 SV) – acquired from the Falcons in a July trade, Guerrero was a reliable bottom-half-of-the-rotation starter that didn’t make a fool of himself during the regular season. He mixes his four pitches well, although his control could be better.

MR Jeff Boynton *, 29, B:S, T:R (6-7, 4.78 ERA, 2 SV | 28-24, 3.47 ERA, 92 SV) – this splitter thrower might be the Raccoons biggest free agent addition of the winter, and he’s not even close to the back end of the bullpen, which says more about the roster the Raccoons already had assembled than Jeff Boynton, who is a genuinely good reliever, but not a great one.
MR Wade Davis, 29, B:R, T:R (3-2, 3.86 ERA, 2 SV | 31-39, 4.34 ERA, 5 SV) – groundball pitcher with a basic splitter/sinker combo who enjoyed quite good success despite raw BABIP sabotage (.328) by an otherwise very good defense. Davis helped himself in his first Coons season with the best K/BB of his career, just over three, to not get completely buried by the defense.
MR Seung-mo Chun, 30, B:S, T:R (5-3, 2.81 ERA, 1 SV | 10-8, 3.12 ERA, 4 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, 32, B:L, T:L (2-3, 2.26 ERA, 2 SV | 9-9, 3.01 ERA, 4 SV) – the Raccoons abused the career nobody Kaiser, who entered his age 31 season with 87 big league appearances, by throwing him into 80 games during the regular season, and five more in the abortive playoffs. Granted, he only pitched 59.2 regular season innings, and the workload didn’t show in the stats, with very good 7.4 K/9 and the lowest BB/9 of any season where a team dared to put him on the active roster.
SU Chris Mathis, 32, B:R, T:R (4-0, 1.38 ERA, 4 SV | 23-10, 2.32 ERA, 24 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, 31, B:L, T:L (2-1, 0.70 ERA, 8 SV | 29-25, 2.46 ERA, 46 SV) – blessed with an executioner’s stuff, but saddled with a drunkard’s control, Ron continues to strike out more than a dozen per nine innings (a career value) while sometimes walking close to as many, although we are still marveling about his 2018 season, in which he made it to the final quarter of the season with a 0.17 ERA and won Reliever of the Year honors despite not even closing for his own team. If he hadn’t already failed as closer twice...
CL Alex Ramirez, 33, B:R, T:R (8-1, 2.48 ERA, 39 SV| 44-29, 3.30 ERA, 98 SV) – make no mistake; this luxury closer’s wins came from blowing wins and then getting sudden run support in the bottom of the inning, not from holding onto tied games. Ramirez has been a colossal disappointment, and we can’t wait for the season to be over so we can see his behind for good.

C Mike Denny, 28, B:R, T:R (.254, 7 HR, 47 RBI | .253, 40 HR, 181 RBI) – Denny could not repeat his power outburst of his first Coons season when he bombed 17 times in ’17, and did not offer significant offensive contribution in 2018. Good defense, but he is going to be a free agent and it doesn’t look like a long-term deal with the Critters is in the cards.
C Danny Margolis, 28, B:R, T:R (.246, 3 HR, 22 RBI | .241, 15 HR, 85 RBI) – Margolis is defense first as a catcher, and for being a perpetual backup he has hung onto the job for a remarkable amount of time by now. He is entering his sixth major league season, although he will not be a free agent until after the 2020 season.

RF/LF/CF/1B Hugo Mendoza, 28, B:L, T:L (.273, 22 HR, 95 RBI | .321, 189 HR, 753 RBI) – Dumbo Mendoza put up almost the worst season of his career and was a consistent choker with runners in scoring position. Moved to first base early in the 2018 season to free up rightfield for Cookie, Mendoza seamlessly followed the endless string of disappointments we had at the position for the last two decades, which I tend to call The Curse of Al Martin by now. Mendoza was a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer with the Stars, but now he’s more of a burden on our bank account than anything else; you can get an .816 OPS first baseman for less than the $2.6M we owe him for another five years.
2B/3B/SS/1B Shane Walter, 29, B:L, T:R (.338, 3 HR, 69 RBI | .297, 23 HR, 286 RBI) – versatile infielder that was claimed off waivers by the Crusaders early in 2016 in the best move the Raccoons made in a while. Missed the batting title by four points, and proved a capable replacement for Ronnie McKnight at short in the second half of the season. Contrary to popular belief, there are players that can raise their OPS year-to-year when playing for the Raccoons, and Walter is one of them, hitting for a .788 OPS in ’18.
SS/2B/3B Ronnie McKnight, 28, B:L, T:R (.273, 4 HR, 32 RBI | .269, 56 HR, 275 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? Well, I didn’t like the back muscle he tore in the middle of June, which ended his season after only 63 games. 2019 is about bouncing back to hitting around 20 dingers and taking home shiny Gloves for Ronnie!
3B Matt Nunley, 28, B:L, T:R (.292, 15 HR, 85 RBI | .293, 56 HR, 346 RBI) – excellent defensive third baseman that has yet to win a Gold Glove; Nunley hit for career-highs in home runs and RBI in ’18 after finishing third in the batting race in ’17, and hardly ever strikes out. Wishing for him to get 30 homers and 30 stolen bases on top of all that would be a bit much.
RF/3B/2B/1B/LF/CF Brian Petracek, 28, B:S, T:R (.201, 3 HR, 17 RBI | .235, 9 HR, 58 RBI) – super utility player that is able to fill in everywhere in the field, although he spent almost the entire season under the Mendoza line and to be fair we wonder what he’s doing here.
2B/3B/SS Joey Mathews, 35, B:S, T:R (.239, 5 HR, 38 RBI | .248, 54 HR, 380 RBI) – won a Player of the Week trophy in June and never hit anything after that, and when shown the front door after the 2018 season climbed back in through the bathroom window via salary arbitration that the Raccoons had offered to get a draft pick, then proved untradeable. Yes we are happy to have a 35-year old middle infielder sticking to the roster and making 600 grand.
2B/SS Roland Lafon *, 30, B:R, T:R (did not play | .250, 25 HR, 220 RBI) – strong defensive middle infielder that did not see any playing time after being stashed away in AAA by the Condors in 2018, after being a starter for them from 2014 through 2016, although with mixed results.

LF/RF R.J. DeWeese, 32, B:L, T:L (.222, 19 HR, 76 RBI | .245, 268 HR, 894 RBI) – DeBigMistake actually managed to get even worse compared to his already troubled 2017 season last year, which bodes very well for the next four years he’s still under contract for $3.3M – PER YEAR. His biggest asset by now is above-average defense; with the stick he merely competes for the title in strikeouts.
CF/RF Alex Duarte, 25, B:R, T:R (.276, 8 HR, 45 RBI | .269, 10 HR, 62 RBI) – the third time was the charm for Duarte, who had not-so-brief trips with the Raccoons in 2016 and 2017, but didn’t manage to stick. After Tim Prince’s early-season demise in ’18, he came up, took over center, and hit over .300 for a good while before fading late in the season, also missing time on the DL eventually. He is the new centerfield starter, and in his first (hopefully) full season has to show that he can be defensively efficient and put up that .738 OPS or better for more than 104 games.
LF/CF/RF Ricardo Carmona, 27, B:L, T:R (.317, 0 HR, 35 RBI | .327, 17 HR, 307 RBI) – Cookie finished third in the batting race and played in a career-high 148 games after a move to rightfield early in the season when Duarte was called up to play center. A dazzling player with a high-average stick who doesn’t swing at junk, Cookie also adds blistering speed to the mix and at 27 stands two shy of 250 career steals, a category in which he led the CL for the third time in 2018.
LF/RF Eddie Jackson, 34, B:R, T:R (.269, 4 HR, 34 RBI | .267, 62 HR, 422 RBI) – very qualified pinch-hitter and still decent as a corner outfielder, but with the level of talent on the team Jackson can’t get more than a support role right now – unless injuries strike.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
MR Nick Lester, 26, B:L, T:L (1-2, 8.38 ERA | 2-3, 7.90 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; scouts all over the country wonder how a generally decently rated left-handed reliever can produce such a consistent horror show as Lester has in his various cups of coffee. 21 walks in 27.1 innings is grim and does not warrant a spot on anybody’s roster.
MR Matt Schroeder, 26, B:L, T:R (1-2, 3.40 ERA, 1 SV | 1-2, 3.40 ERA, 1 SV) – waived and DFA’ed; made his debut mid-season in ’18 and went just over 20 innings with no earned runs charged to him, then went on to post an ERA near seven for his next 20 innings. Would have been on the Opening Day roster if we hadn’t gotten Boynton late in the offseason.
2B/3B/SS/LF Brock Hudman, 28, B:R, T:R (.250, 1 HR, 11 RBI | .268, 2 HR, 24 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; plays a number of positions, but is by no means a strong defender, neither is he strong hitter. Managed to spend the better part of the season on the Raccoons roster, but never stood out for anything.

Note: Also sent down among players that ended the 2018 season on the expanded roster are SP Damani Knight, Chris Thomson, and Andy Bareford, all of whom still had options.

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

Jackson is the only right-handed bench piece that is a valid substitute for any left-handed starter against southpaws. Between Mathews, Petracek, and Lafon there isn’t much offense to be had, regardless at whether the guy on the mound is lobbing it with his right hand, left hand, or his nose.

If Denny doesn’t pick **** up in April, we might also decide the catching assignment by opponent. Since Margolis has a damn fine arm to control the running game, we might start him over Denny against teams that are antsy on the bases, especially if we have the bottom of the rotation pitching.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The offseason passed and the Raccoons were hardly in the picture. The personnel is largely the same as in the 95-win season of ’18. We replaced Ricky Mendoza with Cole Pierson, Tom Dahlke with Roland Lafon, and Chet Cummings with Jeff Boynton – at least by roster spot. Of greater historical than current importance is the retirement of Nick Brown, but he hardly pitched in 2018 due to injury and was not a significant factor in anything anymore, sadly. Since no big shuffling took place, the Raccoons mostly stayed put, adding 0.6 WAR according to BNN, which puts them 13th in the league.

Top 5: Buffaloes (+7.4), Bayhawks (+5.2), Cyclones (+5.1), Gold Sox (+5.1), Indians (+4.3)
Bottom 5: Warriors (-4.7), Loggers (-5.4), Condors (-5.7), Titans (-6.5), Blue Sox (-9.0)

PREDICTION TIME:

Last year I said this…:

[…] 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.

It deserves being actually quoted word for word because not a single ****ing thing in it turned out to be of substance. The pen was great, the rotation fell apart as soon as we ripped April off the calendar, and the lineup never ceased being a pain in the arse (well, certain people were…). Well, good luck, more of that coming! Like I said, almost nothing has changed for the Raccoons, the same weaknesses are still there and are cashing mind-boggling checks.

Despite being wrong on all counts with the stuff above, I correctly picked the Coons to win the division, missing one game low at 94-68. The Crusaders and Indians were not close by the end, in fact nobody was.

The Indians have a very good rotation, but they lost Nick Gilmor from an already so-so lineup and filled it with experiments, of which a few more are in the bullpen. The Titans, Elks, and Loggers all figure to have varying degrees of horribleness in their pitching staff, and while especially the Loggers figure to have some punch in the lineup, none of those teams will be even close to the playoffs by July.

The big question mark are the Crusaders, who are still stinking of money, and still have huge amounts of it badly invested. 2019 will be the Coons’ best chance to make the playoffs for a while, not because of their own roster, but because of the Crusaders’. While they got a few liabilities like a completely wrecked Stanton Martin out of their system, they are still in for $9M to Martin Ortíz, Ray Gilbert, and Jens Carroll, who are a combined 113 years old. Amari Brissett will make $1.9M and was absolutely abysmal at the plate last season. These four contracts will be (finally, for them) over after the 2019 campaign. So far, for 2020, the Crusaders have only $10.1M guaranteed to “Midnight” Martin, Brian Doumas, John Wilson, Sergio Valdez, and Brian Benjamin. Everybody else is either on a 1-year deal, or arbitration-eligible and disposable, or on an option – the latter one is actually important, because they have a few vesting options out for old players (Ron Richards, Bartholomeu Pino, Pedro Alvarado) that will be worth $3.8M in ’20, and Tom Weise will have a $1.7M player option for next year. The Crusaders will buy every single free agent on the market next winter, because they can, but for this year, they are still weighed down by bad decisions made long ago, and the door should be wide open for the Raccoons to make their first three-in-a-row string of playoff appearances since 1991-1993.

Prediction: the Coons will still struggle with offense, Jonny will be denied another triple crown because of only 16 wins against his 1.97 ERA, but the Critters still win 96 games and win the division without breaking a sweat in September.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Prospects? We’ve got none. Please keep moving.

Okay, we got a few. Very few, actually. The Coons’ system was already 23rd last year, and we’ve taken the plunge to 24th this year, mainly because BNN is still keen on Danny Arguello (just like the Capitals) and we traded him for Cole Pierson.

We only had six ranked prospects before the last season, and that number dropped to four. From the ranked prospects before the ’18 season, the following have dropped off the list: #67 Danny Arguello (traded), #107 J.J. Rodd (traded), #124 Ruben Santiago (unranked), #148 Michael Wilkerson (traded), and #183 Andy Bareford (exceeded rookie limits). Okay, there’s a pattern. All traded prospects were turned into either Bobby Guerrero or Cole Pierson.

87th (new) – A SP Markus Bates, 19 – 2018 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
118th (new) – AA CL Mike Rehbock, 22 – 2017 second round pick by the Raccoons
125th (new) – A SP Pete Molina, 19 – 2018 first round pick by the Raccoons
152nd (-20) – AA SP Ricky Martinez, 24 – 2011 international free agent signed by Raccoons

The franchise top 10 were completed by unranked AA 1B Ruben Santiago (2017 1st Rd.), A 3B/SS Hugo Ochoa (2018 IFA), A SP Rico Gutierrez (2015 IFA), AAA OF/1B Dwayne Metts (2016 3rd Rd.), AAA SP Travis Garrett (2015 2nd Rd.), and INT INF Ismael Pastor (2015 IFA);

Yes, I am buying success with another spill into oblivion around 2022 through 2029.

The top 5 overall prospects this year are:

#1 SFB AA 3B/LF Shane Sanks (was #18)
#2 NYC AAA SP Mike Rutkowski (was #7)
#3 SAL AA CL Jorge Beltran (was unranked)
#4 TOP AAA CL Gregg Bell (was #8)
#5 NAS A SP Matt Huf (newly drafted in 2018)

Last year’s #1 (VAN OF Alex Torres) and #2 (DEN SP Tommy Weintraub) both made the majors for good in 2018. #3 (TOP CL Matt Duskin) dropped to #8, while #4 (SFW OF Adrian Feliz) dropped to #12. DEN SP Warren Polito, who was #5 in 2018 and in the top 6 since 2016 has dropped out of the ranks despite not having made his major league debut yet.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 2-4, 2019

The Raccoons faced the Titans to start the season and would do so to open a 9-game homestand. We had beaten Boston 12-6 in both of the last two seasons, after both of which they had ended up on the bottom of the division. They had finished in the first division of the North only twice in the last 12 years, a terrible fall from grace after taking the North eight times from 1997 through 2005. They did have a few good batters, sure, but their pitching was predicted to be horrendous for ’19, so they probably wouldn’t leave the basement any time soon.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Chris Klein (0-0)
Tadasu Abe (0-0) vs. Ozzie Pereira (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Rick Ling (0-0)

To illustrate the point, Ozzie Pereira was a 31-year old career drum skin, who had a winning record for his career thanks to pitching for the Pacifics the entire time. The ERA was semi-decent at 4.13 ERA, but in fact he was issuing too many walks and also had a case for employment as human catapult, because of his vulnerability to the long ball. We will bring our own moonshot producer on Thursday, with Santos facing the Titans’ only southpaw, sophomore Rick Ling, who went a respectable 11-15 with a 3.69 ERA in his rookie season.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – 2B Humphres – SS M. Rivera – P Klein
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – P Toner

Jonny Triple Crown struck out Alex Mata and Tom Thomas to start the 2019 season and had a perfect first, while the Raccoons got their first run quickly, with Cookie hitting a single, stealing second base, and then – after Shane Walter walked in a full count – scored thanks to a wild pitch and divine intervention on a Mendoza sac fly. The lead didn’t last, with Chris Almanza drawing a leadoff walk in the top 2nd, stealing second despite Toner trying to pick him off twice, and then scoring on Robby Humphres’ 2-out single to center. Mata also walked in the third, and also stole a base, this time with Denny spiking a throw that almost upended Ronnie McKnight, but Mata was stranded when Jonny struck out Thomas and Steve Butler. Toner hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, but ended up ignored by the top of the order, and Almanza ramped up the pressure with a leadoff double in the fourth. Denny showed that the third time was the charm, throwing Almanza out at third base on yet another steal attempt, and the Titans didn’t score in the inning. Toner struck out ten like it was nothing across the first five innings, and drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 5th to again not receive consideration from an otherwise arthritic performance of the Opening Day lineup; Toner was 40% of the team’s baserunners through five innings.

Opposite Toner, Chris Klein K’ed Nunley to start the bottom 6th, which gave him six terminal whiffs on the day. The problem of the Coons was less no contact, but bad contact; Mendoza’s walk at least put the go-ahead run on base again, and then McKnight reached on a dying blooper to right for a single. Duarte grounded to short, but Mike Rivera was carried away from second base and lost the double play, with only Duarte out at first and the runners now on second and third with two outs for R.J. DeWeese, which was hardly ever any good. In a full count, DeWeese closed his eyes (we have video proof!) and blasted a shot outta rightfield for a tie-breaking 3-run homer. Whatever works, boys, whatever works!

Toner completed seven before he suddenly buckled in the eighth. Mike Rivera hit a leadoff single to right center, and then Craig Dasher hit a pinch-hit homer to get the Titans back to within one. Thrasher replaced him, retired Mata on a soft fly to center, but then allowed a double to left to the right-handed Tom Thomas. Butler struck out, before the ball was moved to Chris Mathis, who got Almanza to ground out to third base. After the Coons’ 3-4-5 went down in the blink of an eye in the bottom 8th (with Jackson hitting for McKnight), Alex Ramirez came as close as one could to blow a 1-run lead without actually putting anybody on base. Tim Robinson hit a laser shot to deep right that Cookie spoiled in full flight, and Jose Avila hit a sharp bouncer to first that Mendoza just barely managed to swipe down and feed to Ramirez for the second out. An inch here and two there, and we’re tied. We weren’t however, and Humphres made the final out without much fuss. 4-3 Raccoons. Mendoza 1-2, BB, RBI; DeWeese 1-3, HR, 3 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, BB;

Roland Lafon made his Raccoons debut in the ninth inning, replacing McKnight at short.

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – 2B Humphres – SS M. Rivera – P Pereira
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – P Abe

After the flash flood of strikeouts on Tuesday, Abe did not whiff anybody until he arrived at Pereira on Wednesday, but he allowed only one hit the first time through and the Titans didn’t score. Neither did the Coons, who had runners in scoring position with one out and DeWeese batting after McKnight walked and Alx Duarte doubled in the second inning. DeWeese lined out to Avila, McKnight tagged and went, and was thrown out at home. Mike Denny, who would have received the intentional walk had McKnight not gone, to bring up the terrible hitter Abe with two outs and the bags full, led off the bottom 3rd with a single that barely escaped to the outfield. Abe’s bunt was from the textbook and the Titans got nobody out when they tried to get the glacially-paced Denny at second base, which put the 8-9 guys on with nobody out and the 1-2-3 coming up. In one full count, Cookie singled to right, loading the bases, but in the next full count Shane Walter fouled out. Nunley struck out on three pitches before Mendoza hit a 1-0 pitch to deep center. Mata was looking up and reaching, reaching, reaching, but not getting it. The ball went all the way to the wall, where it died, and with Cookie going full barrel from the first step, all runners scored on Mendoza’s bases-clearing triple that gave Abe a 3-0 lead. McKnight lined out to Humphres to end the inning.

In the fifth, the Titans made the third out at third base; Humphres had hit a 2-out single off Abe, then went to third when Rivera also singled. Duarte rocketed the ball to Nunley, who tagged out Humphres with enough time to have a slice of pizza in between. Mendoza came up with two on and two outs in the bottom 5th after Walter and Nunley had reached base, but struck out. The Coons had two on (in scoring position) and two outs again in the bottom 6th, this time with Abe next to bat. Joey Mathews was sent to bat in his stead as the Critters were looking for a knockout blow. They got a floater to shallow left that fell in front of Avila and scored DeWeese from third for a 4-0 lead. Pereira balked in Mike Denny, 5-0, before Cookie grounded out.

Jeff Boynton made his Raccoons debut in the seventh inning, and it was not a splash success. Butler hit a leadoff single, Boynton balked and allowed the run on two deep drives to right that Cookie spoiled. The Titans were on the board, but didn’t get any further in the eighth, in the bottom of which Brett Dill was in a world of trouble immediately. Petracek hit for Duarte and singled to center, DeWeese also singled, and then Denny was nicked by a 3-0 pitch. Despite three on and nobody out, the Coons got only one run on Eddie Jackson’s sac fly. Cookie grounded out and Walter popped out to strand a pair. Seung-mo Chun was up in the ninth, but got strafed; after two leadoff singles by Thomas and Butler, who went to the corners, Almanza hit into a run-scoring double play. Tim Robinson hit a HUGE homer, but Avila grounded out to end the game after all. 6-3 Raccoons. Mendoza 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI; Petracek (PH) 1-1; DeWeese 2-3, BB; Denny 2-3, 2B; Mathews (PH) 1-1, RBI; Abe 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

This is actually the first win for Tadasu Abe since last April. Shane Walter is 0-for-7 to start the year, but I am sure the constant pops will end at some point. And we’re the only North team to start 2-0, so that’s that.

Danny Margolis was the only position player not used so far, and would get the start behind the dish in the last game of the series.

Game 3
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – 2B Humphres – SS M. Rivera – P Ling
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Santos

Santos conceded three near-bombs in four pitches in the first inning, and somehow Cookie and Duarte played them all for outs, which was somehow efficient and scary at the same time. Eddie Jackson’s 2-out walk in the bottom 1st was the only instance of a Critter reaching the first time through the order, but Santos made less noise in the park as well in the following few innings. Cookie and Walter hit 2-out singles in the bottom 3rd, but Jackson grounded out to leave them on. The game remained scoreless through five. Butler hit another deep fly to center in the fourth, but Duarte had that one contained as well. Mike Rivera opened the sixth with a single off Santos that rolled over the third base bag – the second hit for the Titans and the fourth overall in the game. Rick Ling bunted up the third base line, but the bouncer was way too hard and right into Nunley’s eagerly waiting glove for a force out at second base. After Mata lined out to centerfield, Nunley mishandled Tom Thomas grounder to third for an error, and Santos responded with a bases-loading 2-out walk to Butler, which brought up the mashing Almanza. The count ran full, the runners went into motion, and Almanza swung over ball four to end the inning.

Santos maintained a 2-hitter through seven innings, but was pretty much gassed after that. The game was still scoreless, but Nunley’s leadoff double into the rightfield corner to start the bottom 7th was exactly what the Coons needed. Here it got weird: the Titans walked Duarte intentionally to bring up McKnight, who was 1-for-8 and a left-hander, but despite pronounced career splits for Ronnie, I personally would not have bet on his .195 career average against southpaws. Ling didn’t throw a strike until he hung a 2-0 breaking ball over the plate. McKnight hit it hard to right, but also well into Almanza’s comfort zone for the first out. Danny Margolis came up and hit a liner to right center – that one was decidedly NOT in Almanza’s comfort zone, and was in for a single. Nunley had gotten a good read and scored easily from second base with the first run of the game. Denny hit for Santos, but lined out to Tom Thomas at the hot corner. Cookie also hit a liner there, only higher and up the leftfield line for an RBI single. Walter grounded out, and the 2-0 lead was handed to Thrasher, who struck out Mike Rivera, then handled bouncebacks from Mike Cesta and Alex Mata for the other outs in the eighth. The Coons didn’t tack on in the bottom 8th, and Alex Ramirez was up against the 2-3-4 batters in the ninth. Tom Thomas struck out in a full count before Butler singled to left. Almanza was a strike away from a golden sombrero when he grounded hard to third. Nunley was all over that and got Almanza at first base, and Ramirez ended the game with a K to Robinson, sealing the season-opening sweep. 2-0 Critters! Carmona 2-4, RBI; Walter 2-4; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (3-0) vs. Bayhawks (2-2) – April 5-7, 2019

While the Raccoons had had a hard time generating offense – and where had we seen that before? – in their first series of the season, the Bayhawks’ pitching had been ravaged for 20 runs by the Condors, with their starters carrying a sparkling 6.18 ERA early on. They also had scored 19 runs, good enough for a tied second place this early in the season. They were led in RBI by ex-Coon Tom Dahlke, who had driven in five as starter at second base. We brushed the Bayhawks aside in 2018, winning eight of nine games, but sadly didn’t get to see them in the CLCS…

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (0-0) vs. Alex Maldonado (0-0)
Bobby Guerrero (0-0) vs. Bob King (0-1, 6.43 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (0-1, 10.50 ERA)

We will get three right-handed pitchers in this series.

Game 1
SFB: LF R. Allen – 3B J. Pena – CF D. Garcia – C D. Alexander – SS Claros – 2B Dahlke – RF Sarabia – 1B T. Ramos – P Maldonado
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – P Pierson

Cole Pierson retired the first seven batters of his Raccoons career before Tony Ramos hit a single in the third. Maldonado bunted the first baseman over to second base, after which Roger Allen singled hard to left. Ramos was sent against DeWeese’s arm, which turned out to be a bad idea when Ramos found himself thrown out at home by 15 feet to end the inning. The Raccoons, who so far had only a Cookie walk and a Walter double play to show for, got another leadoff walk from DeWeese in the bottom 3rd. Denny struck out, bringing up Pierson, who’s bunt was taken to second by Maldonado – but not in time. The Coons had two on, and before Maldonado pitched to Cookie they had two in scoring position, Maldonado being called out for a balk. Unfortunately, Cookie’s fly to shallow right ended up with Victor Sarabia and was too shallow to send DeWeese, and Shane Walter grounded out to Dahlke.

Dahlke’s bunt was taken to second base unsuccessfully in the fifth inning by Pierson, also giving the Bayhawks two on after Raul Claros’ leadoff walk. Pierson lost Sarabia in a full count, loading the bases with still nobody out. To Pierson’s credit – he gutted this one out. He got Ramos to pop out to short on the first pitch, struck out Maldonado, and then got help from Duarte who went back to grab Roger Allen’s fly to deep center, hit on another 1-2 pitch. The Baybirds had had three on, and scored none. However, this did not manage to gloss over the fact that the Raccoons remained hitless through five innings against Maldonado… Chances for a no-hitter were slim for Maldonado, though, who lost Cookie to a leadoff walk in the sixth, his fourth walk allowed in the game, which put him on 79 pitches with 12 outs left to collect. While Walter and Nunley made quick outs, Mendoza singled over Claros’ glove into left to dispel the notion for good, but it was not enough to get anything onto the board. Not that the Birds got on; while Sarabia hit a 1-out single to right to knock out Pierson just shy of 100 pitches in the seventh, Wade Davis came on to strike out PH Jimmy Raupp and Maldonado to end the inning. Chris Mathis was in trouble in the eighth; after striking out Allen to start the inning, he walked PH Willie Ramos and allowed a single to Dave Garcia. With D-Alex and Claros approaching, Ron Thrasher replaced him, but allowed Ramos to score on D-Alex’s first-pitch single past Walter into right. Claros walked before Dahlke hit into a double play with the bases loaded. Down 1-0, Mathews hit for Thrasher in the bottom 8th, but lined out to Robby Vasquez at short. Cookie walked, the fifth walk off Maldonado, but was thrown out on a hit-and-run ordered in which Walter didn’t hit – then walked two pitches later. Barry MacDonald replaced Maldonado after this sixth walk, and Nunley grounded out to Dahlke to end the inning. Boynton had a clean ninth to leave the Raccoons one run away for the bottom 9th, in which they faced Kevin Woodworth, right-handed setup man, who pitched in lieu of lefty closer Mike Stank, who was unavailable after three outings in four days. If that was not a Coons-sized opening! Starting with Mendoza’s poor grounder to Dahlke, the Raccoons made three pathetic outs to complete a pathetic game and their first loss of the season. 1-0 Bayhawks. Carmona 0-1, 3 BB; Pierson 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K;

Bright sides: still batting .200 as a team!

EXACTLY .200 …

Game 2
SFB: LF R. Allen – 3B J. Pena – CF D. Garcia – C D. Alexander – RF Raupp – SS Claros – 1B T. Ramos – 2B Vasquez – P Bo. King
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Mathews – SS Lafon – P Guerrero

Cookie made an error in the top of the first, singled and got caught stealing in the bottom of the first, and when Duarte tripled, nobody scored one Nunley and Mendoza amnesiaed their way to the batter’s box and back. Meanwhile Bobby Guerrero had walked Allen to start the game, but despite the error had gotten through the first. He wouldn’t get through the second like that. Raupp was issued a leadoff walk before the Bayhawks loaded the bases with singles by Claros and Ramos. Guerrero crapped out completely there and then and issued bases-loaded walks to not only Robby Vasquez, but also to Bob King, the opposing pitcher. Allen hit into a run-scoring double play, and the fourth run scored on Juan Pena’s double to right. Down 4-0, the Coons opened the bottom 2nd with singles by DeWeese and Denny, who went to the corners, but Mathews killed the effort right away by grounding sharply to Robby Vasquez, who had no trouble turning a 4-6-3 double play. A run scored, but there had been more in that inning for the Coons…

Guerrero was pinch-hit for in the bottom 3rd after three innings, three hits, five walks, and four runs. McKnight batted for him and reached on an infield single, scoring with two outs on Nunley’s double. Mendoza, the tying run, struck out. Despite knocking out NINE hits in the first five innings, the Raccoons failed to make up the four runs the Baybirds had puked onto Guerrero in the second… They made it to 11 hits when Denny and Mathews with two outs in the bottom 6th. That brought up Lafon. The Birds seemed disinclined to replace King at this point, so Shane Walter batted for Lafon. A crummy .143 out of the gate, Walter blooped a single to shallow center to load the bases. Up came Brian Petracek, who had earlier replaced Nunley at third in a double switch and popped out to Vasquez to end the inning, maddeningly. Despite him allowing a dozen hits, the Coons failed to knock out King across eight innings, then faced Stank in the bottom of the ninth, still down 4-2. Walter, Petracek, and Cookie were going to come up, and faced six pitches between them, resulting in two groundouts and Cookie’s single to center. Duarte came up, batting .143 like almost everybody in the lineup, and struck out to end the game. 4-2 Bayhawks. Carmona 2-5; DeWeese 2-4; Denny 2-4; Mathews 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Chun 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Boynton 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

13 hits for the Coons, six for the Baybirds. That’s all types of ineptness now, right?

Game 3
SFB: LF R. Allen – 3B J. Pena – CF D. Garcia – C D. Alexander – RF Raupp – SS Claros – 1B T. Ramos – 2B Dahlke – P Boyer
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Toner

Boyer had some years ago denied Jonny Toner a triple crown by winning one game more than the Raccoons’ ace, but not only had he been roughed up badly for seven runs and a loss in his first start of the season, he was also insta-drummed in the first inning. Cookie walked, Walter singled, Nunley lined out right to Dahlke, which was all that kept the bases from being loaded, or even worse for Boyer. It still didn’t help Boyer, who allowed a raw bomb to deep right, high and very much gone for a 3-run homer and an early Coons lead. Toner was close to stumbling into harm’s way in the second inning, issuing walks to Claros and Ramos before Dahlke grounded out and Boyer struck out to leave runners in scoring position. When Roger Allen hit a leadoff jack in the third to get the Baybirds back to 3-1, Toner’s ERA rose to a flat four, which was just wrong aesthetically. Pena singled, but Toner struck out the next three to stop the nonsense.

This was certainly not a vintage Toner start; he struggled with control not only in the second inning, but ran 3-ball counts consistently and used 81 pitches through four innings. Batting with runners in scoring position and one out in the bottom 4th, he hit a sac fly to center that almost would have been a 2-run double, but Dave Garcia made a marvelous catch to keep the Raccoons at 4-1 rather than 5-1. To start the fifth, Toner lost Allen on four pitches, although he would be thrown out trying to steal second base by Margolis. Garcia reached with an infield single with two outs, and that came in a full count, putting Toner at 96 pitches and still short of five innings. Before it got better, it got much worse with Mendoza mishandling D-Alex’ grounder for an error. Toner ran ANOTHER full count against Jimmy Raupp, who became his tenth strikeout victim, but that was also the end for Toner in a brief and schizophrenic start. The Coons, up 4-1, had to find 12 outs from a bullpen that had pitched six innings the previous day. Kaiser got only one, Chun got four, but then put two men on base in the seventh. With D-Alex the tying run, Thrasher came out, another full count, and Dylan Alexander struck out to strand the runners. Lafon led off the bottom 7th after entering along with Thrasher in a double switch to replace McKnight. Lafon hit Woodworth’s first pitch up the middle for what appeared to be a single, but Raul Claros made a fabulous defensive play to get him by a whisker at first base.

Thrasher struck out Raupp (who got a golden sombrero) and Claros in the eighth before Ramos worked a full-count walk. Alex Ramirez would have to get the last four outs and struck out Tom Dahlke for a good start. But before Ramirez could continue his day job, he had to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning after Mendoza had walked and Denny had hit a pinch-hit single. Ramirez came up with two outs and had not gotten a base hit since 2010 – his only career base hit – and so of course he snipped a 2-0 pitch up the middle and past Dahlke for an RBI single…! The top of the ninth was much less successful. Sarabia led off with a single, and Roger Allen’s hard liner went right into DeWeese’s glove in left. After Pena hit a softer single to left, Garcia hit the next rocket – right into Lafon’s glove! Maybe we could get another lucky out here? D-Alex grounded hard to Lafon, but no problem for the defensive infielder, who easily got Alexander at first. 5-1 Critters. Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Duarte 1-2, BB; Denny (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (3) and 1-1, RBI;

In other news

April 1 – Neither joke, nor fool, LAP LF Jimmy Roberts (.667, 1 HR, 2 RBI) knocks four hits on Opening Day in a 17-inning, 5-3 win over the Scorpions to reach 2,000 career hits. Roberts’ damage total includes a double and the game-winning 2-run homer off Logan Sloan in the 17th inning. A career Pacific, Roberts has batted .307 with 262 HR and 1,059 RBI since his 2006 debut, and has netted three World Series rings, the 2011 FL Player of the Year award, six Platinum Sticks, and seven All Star nominations. The actual milestone hit is an eighth-inning single off southpaw Justin Hess.
April 1 – SAL 3B George Roop (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI), 22 years old, is credited with a game-winning RBI in his major league debut when SFW CL Salvadaro Soure (0-1, 27.00 ERA) drills him with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Wolves walk off, 3-2.
April 2 – A strained posterior cruciate ligament puts CIN 2B Ieyoshi Nomura (.167, 0 HR, 0 RBI) on the DL early, but the 35-year old veteran is only expected to miss two weeks.
April 2 – In their season opener, the Loggers pump out 20 hits in a 17-5 thrashing of the Canadiens. MIL OF/1B Chris LeMoine (.600, 2 HR, 6 RBI) has three base hits, including two home runs, and drives in six.
April 5 – The Stars win their game with the Miners in ten innings thanks to 3B Miguel Salinas’ (.235, 1 HR, 5 RBI) walkoff slam. The final tally is 5-1.
April 6 – IND C Jayden Jolley (.538, 1 HR, 5 RBI) has his hot start to the season rudely abrupted. He suffered an elbow sprain in a game against the Condors and will miss a month on the DL.
April 7 – The Indians ride a 10-run third inning to a 15-3 victory over the Condors.
April 7 – Salem’s RF/LF Nate Ellis (.158, 1 HR, 3 RBI) will miss two weeks with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons were the last team to lose a game, which is not much consolation with the way the offense has seamlessly found back to its CLCS form. We are last in runs scored by a good margin with 19 counters from six games, with almost half of those coming home on three distinct swipes that each plated three, two by Mendoza and one by DeWeese.

Let’s just say that the pitching won’t be able to hold opponents to two runs per game for an entire season and that most of the Blighters need to pick their **** up PRONTO.

Then BNN came up with this neat bit:

ACTIVE PITCHERS BY ERA

1st – Angel Casas – 1.97
2nd – Arturo Lopez – 2.21
3rd – Helio Maggessi – 2.23
4th – Salvadaro Soure – 2.32
5th – Jonathan Toner – 2.33

Mind that Jonny ain’t a closer.

All our DFA’ed players reached AAA without being claimed.

Yoshi is in his 16th major league season after debuting at 20 (which was a mistake). He looked like a potential Hall of Fame candidate for a while, but I am not sure anymore. He’s a career .300/.381/.395 batter, so he’s not going in as a slugger (59 HR) for sure. He is also nowhere near the magic mark of 3,000 base hits, having amassed 2,167 so far. He has some assorted accolades as a 4-time All Star, 2-time Platinum Sticker, and he also has a Gold Glove, and almost none of this bling was won as a Raccoon, and he didn’t get good until he was 27, but IF he made the Hall, he’d probably make it as a Raccoon, because he was here for ten years, and is now on his second FL East team.

But like I said, he was fringe for a while, but I think he’s out by now.

I apologize for the bad shape of the season-opening post above, which originally contained several mistakes like Nunley batting twice against left-handers and several top rookie lists. However, you know that you subscribed to a chronic sucker, so I still don’t wanna hear any complaints. All botch jobs may or may not be fixed now.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (4-2) vs. Falcons (2-4) – April 8-10, 2019

Here were two teams that had scored precious little in the first week of the season, with the Falcons’ 23 runs outshining the Raccoons’ 19, if there was a thing like that. However, Charlotte had not gotten the great pitching the Raccoons had enjoyed, putting them in a 2-4 hole with 26 runs allowed. The Falcons’ best batter was probably catcher Ryan Holliman, although he was unavailable with an undiagnosed injury to start the series. Most of their lineup consisted of scruffy replacement parts that did not evoke a lot of excitement. The Raccoons had won five of nine from the Falcons in 2018.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alex Vallejo (1-0, 4.05 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Jimmy Boswell (0-0, 3.38 ERA)
Cole Pierson (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Zach Engels (0-0, 2.70 ERA)

All Falcons starters are right-handed. Engels is a 25-year old rookie who made nine starts in 2018 and barely avoided exceeding rookie limits.

Game 1
CHA: SS Good – 1B Fowlkes – C Magee – RF Benson – LF Huibregtse – CF Je. Stephenson – 2B J. Estrada – 3B Pearcy – P Vallejo
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – C Denny – P Abe

Matt Good drew a leadoff walk in the game, stole his way to third base for his first two bags of the season, but was left on with no help coming forth from Pat Fowlkes and Brandon Magee, who both struck out, with Travis Benson grounding out to Walter. The Coons left two in the first, but then brought up McKnight (single) and Denny (double) in scoring position in the second, with Abe batting with one out. He grounded to Juan Estrada for an easy out, but McKnight scored with the first run of the game. The lead didn’t last any amount of time, the Falcons coming back on Erik Pearcy’s leadoff double to right center in the bottom 3rd, and brought the third baseman around on productive outs. McKnight’s double in the bottom 4th was wasted when Alex Vallejo struck out Denny and Abe to end the inning, but the Coons would have the go-ahead run on base again in the bottom 5th after Cookie’s leadoff single to right center. He stole second base and reached third on Walter’s single to right, putting them on the corners for Nunley, who ran a full count and walked on a pitch that was right on the corner – but wasn’t called. The bases were loaded with nobody out for Mendoza, who had 7 RBI after six games and was probably not going to get another one until June. He popped out to Pearcy, because what else could have happened, but the Coons then were donated the lead when DeWeese got hit by Vallejo’s first pitch. To be fair, DeWeese made no effort to get out of the way. Duarte plated another run with a groundout to second, and McKnight flew out to center, leaving the score at 3-1 after five.

Abe’s strong start – three hits after five – was soon derailed by the marvelous Oregon weather. The sky had been depressingly grey the entire day, and spontaneously opened up for a rain shower in the sixth inning. After a 45-minute delay, Abe was knocked out after just having allowed a 2-out single to Magee. Both teams went to the pen, with Kaiser getting four outs from four batters to complete seven. Blake Parr was in the bottom 7th for the Falcons, allowed a single to center to Walter, a double to left to Nunley, and then Matt Good couldn’t get to Mendoza’s roller to left that escaped into the outfield, both runs scoring for a 5-1 lead, burying the Falcons for good. Mathis in the eighth and Wade Davis in the ninth ended the game without any panic creeping up on Coon City. 5-1 Critters! Carmona 2-5; Walter 2-5; Nunley 2-4, BB, 2B; McKnight 3-4, 2B;

We entered the game with four regulars batting soundly under .200, but three of them recovered to get over that dreaded line. Alex Duarte went 0-for-4 and is now stuck in a .143 mire. Kid looks like an off day would do him good!

Game 2
CHA: SS Good – 1B Fowlkes – C Magee – RF Benson – CF Feldmann – LF Huibregtse – 2B B. Reyes – 3B Pearcy – P Boswell
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Mathews – RF Jackson – P Santos

Santos had allowed only two hits in his first outing of the year, but was waffled for four hits and three runs in the second inning by the Falcons. Starting with Steve Huibregtse’s hard double, the Falcons rapped off three straight hits to start the inning, plating a run and putting Bob Reyes and Erik Pearcy in scoring position, from where Jimmy Boswell plated one with a groundout, and Matt Good quickly came up with an RBI single. The Coons got nobody on in the first two innings, but Boswell issued walks to Joey Mathews and Eddie Jackson to start the bottom 3rd. Santos bunted foul twice, then was told to swing and grounded to Reyes, who botched the play and all hands were safe as Cookie came up with the tying runs on base and nobody out. Cookie patiently drew a bases-loaded walk, pushing home a run, before McKnight struck out and Nunley lined out to Fowlkes. Santos at second hadn’t gotten the memo, was 60 feet off second base when Fowlkes’ throw arrived there and was doubled off to end the inning. The Coons would draw four walks off Boswell before they got their first hit, a Denny blooper into shallow left in the fourth inning. Santos allowed another run in the fifth inning, but the Coons had the tying run at the plate again in the bottom 6th, which Mendoza opened with a single to right, after which DeWeese drew the team’s fifth walk in a full count. The Raccoons managed to deliver a first grade butcher’s job with Denny hitting into a double play to Pearcy, and Mathews bouncing harmlessly out to short. Bottom 7th, next imperative scoring opportunity. Jackson singled to left to start the inning before Walter and Cookie made two outs. McKnight flew to left where Huibregtse committed a grievous error, and Nunley’s walk loaded the bags for Mendoza. Come on, Dumbo! Be a ****ing hero! Boswell lost him to a walk, his seventh, but DeWeese then grounded out to end the inning, now down 4-2. Mendoza, after shoving in the run in the bottom 7th, cost the Coons an unearned run when he dropped Mathews’ feed on a groundball to start the eighth inning, with Seung-mo Chun soon conceding the run to restore the 3-run deficit. To start the bottom 9th, Danny Margolis pinch-hit for Boynton in the #9 hole and whacked a homer off Ian Ward to get the Coons to back within two. Cookie grounded out to Good, but McKnight hit a drive to right center – and THAT was outta here! Now at 5-4, the Coons got Mendoza on with a 2-out walk, and DeWeese hit a drive to left – but not beyond Huibregtse, ending the game. 5-4 Falcons. McKnight 2-5, HR, RBI; Mendoza 1-2, 3 BB, RBI; Margolis (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

With this loss, the Elks moved into first place in the North. This is a scandalous development that has to be rectified immediately!!

The Falcons’ Ryan Holliman (.280, 0 HR, 3 RBI) was diagnosed with knee inflammation by Wednesday, putting him out for the rest of the month.

Game 3
CHA: SS Good – 2B B. Reyes – RF Benson – CF Feldmann – 1B Fowlkes – LF Huibregtse – C Magee – 3B Fleischner – P Engels
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – CF Duarte – P Pierson

The struggling Duarte came up with the bases loaded in the bottom 2nd and one out, after DeWeese, McKnight, and Margolis had reached on a single and two walks. Duarte ran a 3-1 count, felt the urge to swing, flew out to Travis Benson in right, DeWeese tagged and went for home – and was thrown out. That was the second out on the basepaths in two innings for the Coons, who had seen Cookie thrown out trying to steal second base in the first after he had reached on an error by Bob Reyes. Benson also wore out Pierson, hitting a double in the first before getting stranded when Ryan Feldmann lined into Nunley’s glove, and then hit a hard single in the fourth, only to get wound up in Feldmann’s double play grounder to short, but while the Critters got Mendoza (single) and DeWeese (walk) on base to start the bottom of the fourth, Margolis would hit into a double play to maintain a level playing field in a scoreless game, and in the bottom 5th the Coons only got moving with two outs, Cookie hitting a single, Walter doubling to left, but Nunley grounded out to Fowlkes to strand runners in scoring position.

The first run came onto the board with a real moonshot by Mendoza in the bottom of the sixth then. After innings and innings of failing, Mendoza’s 410-footer to right broke the scoreless tie. Pierson kept motoring, generating groundball after groundball and easily made it through seven innings with just three hits allowed. Engels’ last act was a leadoff walk issued to Cookie in the bottom 7th, after which Blake Parr was at it again after having been roughed up on Monday. Cookie stole second on a very close call, but was left on base as Walter grounded out, Nunley whiffed, Mendoza walked, and DeWeese also whiffed. The miserable offense was a great annoyance, and to make everything worse Brandon Magee would land a liner up the leftfield line barely fair for a 1-out double in the eighth. Franklin Velasquez tied the game with a pinch-hit single, and the Coons were and continued to be awful. Pierson got through the inning and had the lead returned to him in the bottom 8th; McKnight opened with a scratch single to right, then was bunted over by Margolis. Duarte squeezed a grounder through between Reyes and Fowlkes, and McKnight was sent against Benson’s arm that had murdered DeWeese early in the game. He didn’t get McKnight, who was safe with the go-ahead run. Top 9th, Ramirez was in the game. Reyes fouled out, Benson grounded out. Feldmann at 2-2 hit a ball to deep left, deep, deep, deep – and gone. Ramirez, that ****ing asshole, had his first blown save of the year. The bottom 9th yielded little, but McKnight hit another leadoff single in the 10th. Margolis was told to bunt again, because if it works once – nope, he didn’t get it down and struck out. Duarte singled, moving the winning run to second base, with Denny batting for Ramirez. Jimmy Van Meter had been in for the Falcons since the eighth and they were not inclined to remove him from the game just yet, so Denny did it for them, creaming a 1-0 offering to deep center and not only past the reach of Feldmann, but also past the reach of the ballpark. Walkoff homerun! 5-2 Critters!! Mendoza 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; McKnight 3-5; Duarte 2-4, BB, RBI; Denny (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Pierson 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K and 1-3;

The Elks were still in first place after this game, but at least it was not our fault. They had swept the Condors, while the Crusaders had been swept – romped almost – by the Thunder. And New York was where the Coons and their limping lineup would go next.

Raccoons (6-3) @ Crusaders (4-5) – April 12-14, 2019

Both teams ranked in the bottom 3 in runs scored, with the Crusaders having plated 34 to the Coons’ 33. They had the worst batting average at .211, and the worst on-base percentage at .281. They had hit 12 home runs however, virtually the only way to score for them, and six of those home runs had been mashed by RF/LF Manny Cruz, who had 8 RBI. They had allowed the fifth-fewest runs in the early going. The Raccoons had lost the season series in 2018, dropping ten of 18 games to New York.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (0-1, 12.00 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (1-0, 2.35 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Brian Doumas (1-1, 3.46 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (2-0, 0.77 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (0-1, 8.38 ERA)

We will get to see a southpaw in the set in Doumas, also frequent opponent Tom Weise, who got mauled in his first two starts of the year. They also still had only one left-hander in the pen and my opinion of Francisquo Bocanegra was unterstandably mixed. This should under normal conditions be a disadvantage for them against the Raccoons, but I can read our stats, too…

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Guerrero
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – RF Richards – 2B S. Valdez – 1B Manfull – LF M. Cruz – CF J. Wilson – C Roland – SS Casillas – P J. Martin

Neither team reached base in the first, and Mendoza opened the second with a shot to left that passed on the foul side of the pole by less than a foot. Mendoza ended up walking eventually, but was stranded. The Crusaders would score first thanks to Tony Casillas’ leadoff single in the bottom of the third. Casillas swiped second, was bunted over by “Midnight” Martin, and scored on a deep sac fly by Jens Carroll, who almost would have beat Duarte for a double to center. The Raccoons would have Mendoza and Denny on after fourth-inning singles, only for DeWeese to end the frame with a strikeout, completely fooled by Martin. The bottom 4th saw Guerrero, who had walked five in his last start and was again constantly pitching in 3-ball counts, load the bases with a walk, an infield single, a proper single, and then faced Martin with one out and the bags full. What was a good ticket to escape a messy inning turned into disaster when Guerrero balked in a run, then walked Martin onto the open base, and also walked Carroll to push in another run. Ron Richards’ sac fly put the Crusaders 4-0 ahead and the game was more or less over, even before John Wilson’s 2-run homer that knocked Guerrero from the game in the bottom 5th… When Seung-mo Chun replaced the completely awful Guerrero, he walked Cory Roland right away, struck out Casillas, but then allowed a ringing 2-out RBI double to Martin, who had a field day in a 7-0 game. The Coons would not get to Martin until the eighth inning when Cookie’s 1-out single was followed by Walter doubling to left center. Nunley grounded out to Sergio Valdez for the second out, with Cookie scampering home from third base. That was the end for “Midnight” in the game, but the Raccoons were also not going to mount any threat in the late innings. 7-1 Crusaders. DeWeese 2-4;

Our top three in the lineup are batting a combined .211 right now. I dare claim that this is a grave issue. Walter has zero RBI’s. Cookie has no extra-base hits.

HEY, YOU LOUSY ****S!! Stop hibernating, the CLCS has been over for six months!!

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – CF Duarte – 3B Petracek – 2B Lafon – P Toner
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – RF Richards – 2B S. Valdez – 1B Manfull – LF M. Cruz – CF J. Wilson – C Roland – SS Casillas – P Doumas

The Coons jumped out quick, with Cookie reaching on a soft single to start the game, and Denny whacking one outta leftfield to hand Toner two runs to work with before the rest of team retired for third dinner. Unfortunately Toner got blasted right in the first inning. He started by walking Carroll, but then conceded thumping drives to Ron Richards for an RBI double, and the returned B.J. Manfull for an RBI triple. Manny Cruz plated Manfull with a sac fly, and the Crusaders had a 3-2 lead before anybody had burped inside a trash can. It only got worse after that; Toner’s ERA was already mind-bogglingly close to five, but was fired up to almost six when Jens Carroll hit a 2-run homer in the second inning. Roland had walked to start the inning, and did so again in the fourth, but this time Casillas hit into a double play. While the Raccoons were more or less completely absent from the base paths after the first inning, Toner wasn’t allowing THAT many baserunners. But as soon as somebody got on, some ****ing Purple Pooper would damn sure come up with an extra base hit. With Richards already on, Toner lost Valdez to a walk in the bottom 6th, then got romped by Manny Cruz with a 2-out, 2-run double that left him with seven runs allowed from only nine baserunners. Raccoons pitching did zero in terms of getting better after Toner’s departure, with Wade Davis battered for three runs in the seventh inning. Those three runs came on a 1-out walk to Richards, Valdez’ RBI triple, a walk to Manfull, a run-scoring wild pitch, Cruz flying out to center, and John Wilson singling through Mendoza’s ugly legs to put the Crusaders into double digits. Roland Lafon’s leadoff single in the eighth was the Coons’ first base knock since the Declaration of Independence, and was followed by Mathews’ pinch-hit double to left, Cookie’s 2-out single to left, and then Denny’s second homer of the night, a deep shot to right. That gave the Coons a 4-spot to knock out Doumas, and the best thing about it was the great irrelevance of it all. Mathis allowed a run in the bottom 8th, and nobody gave a ****. 11-6 Crusaders. Carmona 2-5, 2 RBI; Denny 3-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Lafon 1-2, 2 BB; Mathews (PH) 1-2, 2B;

Also, Toner allowed only five hits, but those were for 12 total bases. I am tempted to file this one under a gypsy curse start, of which every pitcher has two or three each season. Everything that could go wrong for Toner in this game damn sure did go wrong. Of course, four walks won’t help your cause. He struck out six.

By the way, if you are wondering where Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting Martin Ortíz has been the last two days – he has not made a start yet this season and has only pinch-hit six times.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Abe
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – RF Richards – 2B S. Valdez – 1B Manfull – LF M. Cruz – CF J. Wilson – C Little – SS Casillas – P Man. Ortíz

The Coons got Manuel Ortíz (0-0, 3.38 ERA) rather than Tom Weise in the Sunday game as the Crusaders were willing to pull every crooked move for an early-season sweep over the Raccoons.

With Cookie and Mendoza reaching with first-inning singles, Denny batted with two outs and sent a drive to center, but yet another homer would have been too good to be true – the catch was made near the warning track by John Wilson. That was the closest either team got to scoring in the early going. Abe hit a leadoff single in the top of the third, but the top of the order happily bowed out of the heavy responsibility. For the second time in the week, Hugo Mendoza would produce a 1-0 lead with a home run, knocking a leadoff jack off Ortíz in the fourth inning, this one exiting in quick fashion to right. Ortíz struck out Denny and DeWeese after that before Nunley hit a drive to left. And Nunley was batting .146 and was probably close to cutting himself for he had hit into a number of unlucky outs with line drives already. Alas, this one wasn’t gonna fall in either. Manny Cruz hustled into the gap to make a running catch. Nunley flung away his bat in disgust on the way back to the dugout, and was observed to use foul language on the way back there.

More offense would instead come out of leftfield, or off the mound, or with any other clever word play that would actually work; Duarte opened the fifth with a double to right, and the Coons had a habit of not bunting with their pitcher with a guy at second and nobody out, because ever so often they’d strike lucky – just like now. Abe lined a shot over Jens Carroll and into the leftfield corner, running the score to 2-0 with an RBI double! The scissors soon opened further; Cookie grounded out and moved Abe to third, and Walter was brushed with a pitch and got first base. McKnight’s sac fly to left put the Coons 3-0 ahead, and they built further onto that lead with three straight singles to center or left center by Mendoza, Denny, and DeWeese, the latter two scoring a run each for a 5-0 lead. Nunley batted with two on and two out, hit a blooper to shallow center at 2-2, and was retired on a flying catch by Wilson, who made a roll on the ground after ending the inning with the blistering grab. Nunley was so unhappy that he smashed the Gaytirade barrel in the Coons’ dugout with his bat, turning the whole area into a sticky mess, splintered the bat against the guardrail to send shards flying and fellow Critters scattering and then shoved a hushed Cole Pierson, who dropped his candy bar, much to Nunley’s pleasure, before retreating – paws flying – into the tunnel to the clubhouse.

Good, now that he has that out of his system, maybe he’ll get a hit the next time up. For now, the Coons still had Abe pitching on 52 pitches after four innings and a 1-hitter going. He retired the 6-7-8 batters in order in the bottom 5th, with Nunley playing Casillas’ grounder for the third out, 5-3 the scoring, unleashing a zip line throw to first coupled with a bellowing cry that was proof of still unresolved inner trembling. Nunley’s next turn to bat came in the seventh inning, with Jackson on second, two outs, and an 8-0 score after the Coons had torn up Bocanegra for three runs in the inning. Right-hander Alex Lindsey came out after Jackson’s 2-run double, and Nunley knocked the first pitch he got to right and past the Gold Glover Valdez for a single. Jackson held at third, and Nunley yelled ‘****ING HELL YES!’ repeatedly all the way up to first base and continued to shout obscenities once there. Manfull, one of the Crusaders’ 25 Elder Statesmen, gave him The Looks, shutting him up.

Duarte would drive in Jackson, giving the Coons’ their second 4-spot in three innings, and they reached double digits on Mendoza’s 2-out RBI single that plated McKnight in the eighth. Abe was still holding the Crusaders to a single hit, but his pitch count was over 100 through eight. With the lead sizeable he would get a chance for the shutout, but any runner would end the game. Before we could go there, the Coons still had to bat in the top of the ninth, with Nunley up second in the inning against Tom Nelson. When Wilson spoiled another soft bloop to shallow center that he hit, Nunley tried to eat his bat, but Duarte and Abe wrestled it from him between the plate and the dugout. Duarte’s groundout ended the inning quickly, with Abe now facing the top of the order, 106 pitches into his start. Carroll flew out to Duarte in fairly deep center at 0-1, and Richards hit a 1-1 pitch to first for the second out, bringing up Valdez, who was batting .283 with a home run and had hit 12 in his rookie season. He was certainly trying to mash one here, but rammed the 1-0 pitch into the ground a bit in front of home plate. Walter got a really high bouncer for a convenient third out. 10-0 Raccoons! Carmona 2-5; McKnight 2-4, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 5-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Abe 9.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, W (3-0) and 2-4, 2B, RBI;

This was the fourth career shutout for Abe, and the second 1-hitter. He previously threw one against the Bayhawks, then whiffing 14, in 2017. Morgan Little hit a single to deny him the no-hitter today.

In other news

April 8 – IND SP Tristan Broun (64-72, 3.70 ERA) signs a 6-yr, $16.6M contract extension with the Indians, keeping him in a red cap until his age 37 season.
April 9 – A partially torn labrum puts LAP SP Bruce Mark (0-1, 4.35 ERA) on the shelf for the next three to four months.
April 11 – CIN LF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.314, 0 HR, 2 RBI) sustains a strained medial collateral ligament on the base paths and will be out for a month.
April 11 – Also out is SFW LF/1B Gil Gross (.238, 2 HR, 9 RBI), who suffered a finger sprain on a defensive play.
April 12 – After the Titans took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 12th inning, they still lose the game to the Loggers in a 5-4 walkoff when MIL 2B Tyler Stewart (.205, 1 HR, 6 RBI) hits the come-from-behind 2-run walkoff homer off Harry Merwin.
April 12 – Aces and Condors failed to score through nine innings, after which the Aces plate two runs in the top of the 10th, only to lose to the Condors’ 3-spot in the bottom 10th. A bases-loaded 2-run double by Domingo Nieves (.286, 0 HR, 2 RBI) ties the game before LVA RF/LF/1B Matt Hamilton mishandles Conor Shearing’s grounder for a game-ending error.

Complaints and stuff

The Sunday game was broadcast nationally by a new network, trying to appeal to middle-aged white men by filling their schedule with baseball games, almost-naked-ladies’ mud wrestling, and reruns of your favorite action TV shows of the 80s – and I must admit that I was also keen to tune in occasionally when I was alone at home and the darkness was about to crush me. Only to watch the B-Team and MacDriver again, of course!

However, I feel like the Nationwide Sports, Decadence, and Action Programme did not spend enough time thinking over their acronym.

Regardless, they got their money’s worth, because Matt Nunley alone delivered more swearing and obscenities in the Sunday game than the entire ticket of Saturday night’s Quagmire in Quebec pay-per-view event headed by ‘Mrs. Headlock’ Shirley Schultz and Daisy Dominatrix, a key event for a number of aspiring wrestlers – it was the last of the qualifying legs for the World Mud Wrestling Championships next month in Voronezh.

…

I read that in the Agitator, I think. Yeah, pretty sure that was in the Agitator.

…

Hey, who dropped cookie crumbs all over the floor in here?? (Cookie bursts out from behind the brown couch and hustles out of the open door)

...

ANYWAY. How frustrated am I? Somewhere between Nunley and Toner, I guess, and I am watching the waiver wire like a bobcat, keeping a low profile in the shadows only to burst out at the first sight of a career .241 batter with remote potential. Even with the 10-run outburst on Sunday, the Raccoons are still second-to-last in runs scored in the league.

Yes, we have the least runs allowed in the CL, but who can right now make sense in their heads about Jonny Toner having an ERA greater than Tadasu Abe, Hector Santos, and Cole Pierson COMBINED??

That aside, Dumbo Mendoza was CL Player of the Week, batting .524 (11-for-21) with 2 HR and 7 RBI.

We will travel home via Indy next week, then face the Knights on the weekend on our own lawn.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-5) @ Indians (6-7) – April 16-18, 2019

The Indians had started with average numbers, sixth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed. Their rotation had been quite wobbly with a 4.64 ERA that ranked tenth in the CL. They were fifth in batting average with a few players hot and a few ice cold, f.e. Cesar Martinez was batting .347 with four home runs. The Raccoons had won the season series for the last two years, with an 11-7 record in 2018.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (1-1, 4.29 ERA)
Cole Pierson (0-0, 0.63 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (1-1, 7.36 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-1, 5.50 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (0-2, 2.70 ERA)

The Indians have two left-handed starters; outside of Broun they have also Luis Guerrero (2-0, 5.02 ERA), who last started on Wednesday and who had his off day skipped on Monday, but could be brought into the series easily.

Bobby Guerrero would have been on tap on Thursday, but will be semi-skipped after the off day on Monday and will be pushed to the end of the line, making his next start on Saturday. That’s what you get for starting with a 12.27 ERA from two ****ty games.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Santos
IND: RF C. Martinez – 3B Umpierre – CF Genge – LF D. Carter – 1B J. Ramirez – 2B Kym – SS Eason – C Malone – P Lambert

Cookie and Walter opened the game with extra-base hits, each with a double up either line, and the Coons scored two with Walter coming home on a sac fly by Mendoza, but Santos surrendered an absolute bomb to Dave Carter, who came in batting .173, with two outs in the bottom 1st to get the game tied right away on the 2-run shot. Santos never was in anything else than a boatload of trouble in the game, although sometimes the defense helped throwing rocks at him. Shane Walter opened the bottom 2nd with a grievous throwing error, placing Jong-beom Kym on second base, but the Indians actually didn’t score then. A leadoff walk to Lowell Genge in the third, however, got them in motion, and they got two hard singles from Carter and Kym to drive in the run. While Hugo Mendoza tried to play himself back into some hearts and hit a game-tying home run in the fourth, Santos threw 98 pitches through four, forking himself in the foot with a 2-base throwing error that placed Lambert (of all people) on second base to start the bottom 4th. He somehow labored through, whiffing a pair sure helped, but was absolutely done after four innings, in which he somehow struck out seven.

After a scoreless fifth from Boynton, the Coons had McKnight on with a leadoff triple to center in the sixth inning. Mendoza was bypassed to get to Denny, who reliably hit into a double play, but at least the run scored, and a lead is a lead is a lead. Boynton had a quick and painless sixth, but after that Jason Kaiser allowed a leadoff single to Lowell Genge in the seventh. Carter struck out, and Jesus Ramirez hit a grounder to Walter for a 4-6-3 double play. Bottom 8th, Mathis in, and it was a bit of the same story. Mathis put Bobby Eason on with a 1-out single, but Josh Malone then hit to McKnight for two to end the inning. The Raccoons were never particularly close to an insurance run, and so it was Alex Ramirez with a 4-3 lead in the bottom 9th. Aaron Nelson grounded out to Nunley, but Cesar Martinez hit a drive to deep left. DeWeese totally sold out on the drive and made a flying catch before hitting the ground tremendously hard, but stood up unharmed, brushing the dirt from his pants, shirt, and face. This was great – Rey Umpierre hit a single to left with two outs and that might have scored the tying run if Martinez had gotten on. Lowell Genge’s strikeout ended the game instead. 4-3 Critters. McKnight 2-4, 3B; Mendoza 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Boynton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Coons had six hits to the Indians’ ten, and we also made the two errors, but somehow they never bit us. I guess we will call this one a lucky stolen win and never talk about it again.

Also, DeWeese on defense is an actual asset. You can’t say he doesn’t bust his butt for his $3.3M per year (sob), even if he’s an arse.

Nunley starts to worry me, though. Put up another 0-for-4 and is now batting .143. With Guerrero, the second southpaw, getting the Wednesday start, Nunley got the day off. It had to hit SOMEBODY, and it was Nunley, because his slash was ugly.

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Walter – CF Duarte – 2B Mathews – P Pierson
IND: RF C. Martinez – 3B Umpierre – LF D. Carter – CF Genge – SS Eason – 1B J. Ramirez – 2B Kym – C Mancuso – P L. Guerrero

The Raccoons scored a run in the first, Cookie walking, stealing, and scoring on Denny’s double into the left center gap. Mendoza walked after that, but Jackson killed the inning with a double play grounder to short. After a proper single by Walter and an infield single by Mathews, the Coons had runners on first and second with one out and Pierson batting in the second. Pierson failed to bunt twice, sliding to 0-2 before switching into batting mode, but Guerrero’s next pitch was wild, moving up the runners into scoring position. This allowed Pierson to score a run with a grounder to short, while Cookie ended the inning, grounding out to Kym in the now 2-0 game. Guerrero batted with two outs and two on against Pierson in the bottom 2nd, and Pierson was just as efficient as all our other starters except for Abe, which meant that he was not efficient at all. Guerrero lined over McKnight into left, but Cookie was on the ball immediately, keeping the lead runner Eason from scoring. With the bases loaded, Cesar Martinez struck out. Leadoff men kept getting on against Pierson, with Rey Umpierre singling in the bottom 3rd. Umpierre made it to third with two outs, then tried to steal home, but was killed off by Denny, ending the inning. Pierson ended up a good bit over 60 pitches after only four innings, then led off the fifth inning against Guerrero. He ripped at the first pitch, met it, and drove it to right and OUTTA HERE! Home run Pierson, 3-0 Coons! Whoah!

The Coons would strand pairs of runners in the fifth and sixth without scoring, but the Indians also neglected to pounce on Pierson allowing a single to Carter with one out and walking Eason with two outs in the bottom 6th. Jesus Ramirez was going to be Pierson’s last batter, a left-handed batter, and he grounded out to Mathews on the first pitch, Pierson’s 109th of the game, ending the sixth. McKnight hit a leadoff single in the seventh, but was caught stealing before Guerrero and reliever Kyle Lamb could walk the bases loaded for Shane Walter, who fouled out on the first pitch, but Duarte – also hitting well under .200 – was patient and drew the fourth walk of the inning with two outs, pushing home Denny, 4-0. Bottom 7th, Seung-mo Chun tried to get Cookie killed in left, allowing terrible drives to deep left to both Kym and Nolan Mancuso that Cookie both took in full flight and with reckless abandon. Chun pitched a scoreless inning, but it wasn’t really his fault. The Coons left Cookie on third base in the eighth, and still held the 4-0 lead in the bottom 9th. Thrasher came out with left-right-left the offering the Indians had to make, but it sure didn’t go according to plan, with leadoff man Genge reaching on a Mathews error. Thrasher walked Eason, and while he struck out Ramirez, Denny allowed a passed ball earlier and the runners were on the corners. Technically this was a save situation after the walk. We stuck with Thrasher after a consultation on the mound, but it only got worse when he threw four balls to Kym, loading them up and presenting Mancuso as the tying run. Ramirez came into the game in the worst situation, but Mancuso resolved it in the Coons favor when he grounded to short on the second pitch, 6-4-3 ended the game. 4-0 Furballs. Carmona 2-4, BB; Denny 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Walter 3-4; Pierson 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; Ramirez 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (5);

After the one left-hander, we’d also get the other one. Tristan Broun remained slated for the Thursday game. Now, Nunley pinch-hit in the middle game and walked when they brought a right-hander, but I didn’t want anybody to stay out two days in a row, and there was also a good chance for another left-handed opponent on the weekend, so we would put both Nunley and DeWeese in the lineup for Thursday.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Lafon – P Toner
IND: RF C. Martinez – 3B Umpierre – CF Genge – LF D. Carter – 1B J. Ramirez – 2B Kym – SS Eason – C Mancuso – P Broun

Cookie again drew a leadoff walk, but got picked off first base, with the Critters not scoring in the first in this game, but the main question was whether Jonny Toner had found his mojo again and could shake off the rotten luck of the last two starts. While the Indians’ leadoff man Martinez would hit a deep fly to right to start their first inning, which Jackson contained, Toner soon looked better than before. Neither team had a hit the first time through, and both pitchers were fairly dominant, with Broun whiffing four in the first three innings, and Toner being perfect and striking out five on 39 pitches. Perfection ended with Rey Umpierre’s single to center in the fourth inning, but the Raccoons didn’t get a base knock off Broun until the sixth, and then it was Toner to hit the fly to left that fell close to the leftfield line, ending up with a 1-out double. The Indians elected to walk Cookie intentionally to get a double play opportunity set up, but the Raccoons would set their runners in motion on the first pitch to Ronnie McKnight, Mancuso came up and fired to Umpierre at third base, but Toner was safe! So was Cookie, but the Coons still wouldn’t score, McKnight grounding an 0-2 pitch back to Broun, and Denny flying out to Martinez. Ah, the agony!

The pitching duel ended in the seventh inning, with Broun leaving with an apparent injury after DeWeese grounded out to Kym for the second out. Jackson, who had reached on an error by Umpierre, moved to second, but the right-hander Helio Maggessi got Nunley to ground out to Eason. Toner completed eight innings on 109 pitches, striking out nine batters, but the game was still scoreless. At least the 2-3-4 batters would be up against a Jarrod Morrison that had been ravaged to an 8.22 ERA in the early going. McKnight grounded out weakly, after which Walter batted for Denny. When he singled to right, it was the first hit by a Coons position player in the game. Mendoza promptly hit into a double play. Jonny Toner did not return for the ninth; Chris Mathis overcame a McKnight error to put the game into scoreless overtime. Mathis got another out in the bottom 10th before Jason Kaiser took over. Kaiser loaded the bases without hesitation, allowing singles to Ramirez and Malone before walking Matt Pruitt (who was batting .222). Wade Davis replaced him to try to salvage the game from Mancuso like Ramirez had done the day before, but Mancuso hit the first pitch to deep center and the game was over. Cookie caught it, it didn’t matter. 1-0 Indians. Walter (PH) 1-1; Toner 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K and 1-3, 2B;

Well, DeWeese and Nunley went 0-for-8 combined, so that was a good move… Let’s get outta here.

Raccoons (9-6) vs. Knights (9-6) – April 19-21, 2019

The teams had identical records, but the Knights led their division, while the Coons were a game back of the Elks, tied for second in the North. While the Coons were tied for last in runs scored, but survived on resilient pitching, the Knights were first in runs scored and saw their guys getting rocked reliably. They were 11th in runs allowed, with a +18 run differential overall, and while the rotation was still okay, the bullpen was an unbelievable mess, running up a 6.12 ERA. Their defense was also pretty bad thanks to numerous swat-first-field-later players in the lineup. The Coons had lost the season series in 2018, 4-5, ending a 5-year winning run against Atlanta.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (3-0, 0.44 ERA) vs. Leon Hernandez (1-2, 4.74 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (0-2, 12.27 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (1-0, 4.58 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-1, 3.50 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (0-0, 3.31 ERA)

The Knights had enjoyed an off day on Thursday, and were thus able to skip any of the three mediocre right-handers to bring in rookie Danny Martin (0-0, 0.84 ERA, 1 SV) into the series. The 25-year old lefty had so far done swingman duty in 2019, getting one start in five appearances. He had pitched in ten games (eight starts) in 2018, going a dismal 2-4 with a 6.56 ERA in 46.2 innings. If I’m the Knights and I saw the choke job the Coons delivered against Broun, I’m trying my luck here…

Game 1
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B Messer – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B A. Esquivel – RF Mims – SS Hibbard – 2B DeFabio – P L. Hernandez
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Abe

Ruben Luna and Gil Rockwell had six dingers apiece in the early going; Abe walked the former and got taken well yard by the latter in the first inning, putting the Coons in an instant 2-0 hole. The Raccoons opened the bottom 2nd with a Denny double to right, and DeWeese walked. Nunley hit a tremendous drive to center, only to be denied by Marty Reyes, leading to another bat being gnawed on and ravaged with tooth marks. Nobody scored thanks to Duarte flying out to shallow left and Abe whiffing. While Shane Walter hit his first home run of the season to cut the deficit in half in the third inning, the offense remained lackluster, and then the defense started to harm Abe. When Hernandez bunted with Devin Hibbard on first and one out in the fifth inning, Denny threw to second to get the lead run, but McKnight couldn’t come up with a ball that tailed away and curved into right center. The runners ended up in scoring position, and Clay Messer’s walk with two outs loaded the bases for Ruben Luna, who was unretired on the day and a left-hander. The count ran full, I couldn’t watch, but the park let go a sigh of relief when Abe struck him out, his ninth K in the game. Abe battled through adversity again in the sixth after allowing Rockwell to reach on a leadoff walk. Antonio Esquivel singled right away, and they were in scoring position with one out after Rockwell stole third, drew the throw, and Esquivel moved up when not attended to. Abe murdered Kyle Mims and Devin Hibbard, then got a grounder from Jeremy DeFabio to second to end the inning, but was thoroughly done and now needed help, but he sure as heck couldn’t get any from the Coons…

But he could get help from the Knights’ defense. After three relievers battled to keep the Knights from scoring in the top 7th, and Cookie – moved to center in a double switch that put Jackson into the #9 hole and leading off the bottom 7th – hustling back to grab a drive by Rockwell to save the furry bum of every single one between Chun, Kaiser, and Boynton, the Raccoons got two free runners in the bottom 7th. Jackson reached on an uncaught third strike after flailing and dumping his average to .115, and then Cookie reached on an error by Reyes in center. Shane Walter actually did something, sneaking a single through between DeFabio and Messer, and the bases were loaded for the middle of the order with nobody out and only one run needed to tie and two to pull ahead. McKnight sent a grounder to the short side of the second base bag that looked like trouble and potentially two; Hibbard just didn’t get it. The score was 2-2 after the RBI single, and Mendoza grounded to short as well. This time Hibbard was on it, and Cookie got thrown out at home. The bases remained loaded while southpaw Jayden Maness replaced Hernandez one batter too early. He walked Denny to force in the go-ahead run for Portland, and now DeWeese was *not* hit for – Mathews had already been ready, bat in hand. He struck out – hmz! – and Nunley continued to drown in a sea of futility, grounding out to DeFabio. Boynton pitched in the eighth until the Knights had them on the corners with two outs. Thrasher replaced him against pinch-hitting switch-hitter Jeffrey Walrath, who ended up grounding out to short to save the Coons’ lead, but the play was on McKnight, who got a quick first step, had the ball bounce into his glove perfectly and unleashed a perfect throw to JUST nip Walrath at first, ending the inning. After the Coons put up a sad donut in the bottom 8th, Ramirez was in the game for the ninth. Trying his utmost to protect a 3-2 lead resulted in a leadoff walk to Reyes, and a 1-out walk to Luna before he allowed Rockwell to hit another hard drive to center, and Cookie got that one, too, to save another reliever’s tail rings. Actually, the game wasn’t over: the veteran Esquivel batted with two outs and runners on the corners. Ramirez walked him on four pitches to load the bags, and with lefty Kyle Mims approaching, we had already used up our left-handed relievers. Mathis was still in the pen! Mathis came in, threw two pitches, and there was another drive to deep center. Cookie going back, back, deeper back, deeper back, FLYING GRAB AND IMPACT WITH THE GROUND! As he slithered across the outfield on his belly and stranded on the warning track, the second base umpire was out to check on the condition of the ball in the glove – he had it, game over, and after catching his breath, Cookie got up and was just fine. 3-2 Coons. Walter 2-5, HR, RBI; McKnight 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1; Abe 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 11 K;

Boynton got his second win of the week. Cookie got thoroughly checked out by the Druid. And Ramirez got yelled at.

Nothing new in the Northwest.

Game 2
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B Messer – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B A. Esquivel – RF Mims – SS Hibbard – 2B DeFabio – P Morrison
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Petracek – P Guerrero

Two scoreless innings dipped Guerrero’s ERA into single digits (hooray!) to start this game, while McKnight hit a solo homer to right in the bottom 1st for an early Coons lead, which didn’t last since they did not tack on (or even get on base) outside of McKnight’s dinger, while Guerrero conceded a double to Morrison with one out in the third, threw a wild pitch, and allowed the run to score on a sac fly to pretty darn deep left by Marty Reyes. The Coons didn’t get another base hit again until Margolis’ leadoff single in the fourth, and then tragic events unfolded as Nunley and Petracek both popped out over the infield. Guerrero grounded to short, Hibbard missed another one, and after the single by the pitcher, Cookie hit another one to right that scored Margolis to give the Critters a 2-1 lead. Walter was drilled by Bruce Morrison, whose last act in the game was conceding a bases-clearing triple to Ronnie McKnight that rammed off the centerfield fence and then hit the rushing Reyes in the leg to give Walter the time required to score and McKnight to go to third. Morrison ended up loaded with six, with Mendoza hitting a hard liner to center for an RBI single against Joey Hopkins before DeWeese grounded out to first base. The Coons were up 6-1 and Guerrero looked reasonably good so far.

Just as I thought that, Guerrero loaded the bases in the fifth with a 1-out single by Hibbard and walks drawn by DeFabio and Edwin Patino. The Coons escaped with a black eye; one run scored on Reyes’ fly to center that ended up with Petracek for a sacrifice fly, and Clay Messer grounded out to McKnight. But Guerrero’s stuff was about to run out. Ruben Luna hit a leadoff double in the sixth, this one going past Petracek, and neither him nor Guerrero made it out of the inning. After a walk to Esquivel and a single by Hibbard that put the Knights only 6-3 behind, Seung-mo Chun and Duarte entered in a double switch. Two pitches in, the rapidly devaluing Chun allowed a 2-run double to Jeremy DeFabio that Duarte couldn’t catch up with, everything we did was wrong and would backfire damn sure. Tommy Keller ended the inning with a deep fly out to left, but the sizeable 6-1 lead had been axed down to a single run. Chun, Mathis, and Thrasher wobbled through the seventh and eighth, while the Coons had absolutely nothing going once more. Thrasher was still in to start the ninth, although he looked nothing like the 2018 version of Ron Thrasher, but Ramirez had had that disastrous outing the previous day and at least he’d start against the bottom of the order. Jeremy DeFabio, Matt Wittner, and Marty Reyes struck out in order to put this one into the W column, barely. 6-5 Blighters. McKnight 2-3, BB, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (1);

Nunley broke another bat when Rockwell caught a drive to left in the fifth inning. It looked like a double in the gap. It wasn’t one. It dropped his average to .117. He made the last out in the seventh, again to Rockwell, and was removed in a double switch in the eighth. He didn’t like that and broke some more stuff in the clubhouse. Nothing irreplaceable, but Slappy was unhappy about having to clean up broken glass and stuff… I think we need to have a good man-talk soon…

Maud! – Maud, come in here, we… I need to brush up my social interaction stuff. – Nobody cares how you look, come in here now!!

Game 3
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B Messer – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B A. Esquivel – RF Mims – SS Hibbard – 2B DeFabio – P F. Ramirez
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Santos

Santos allowed no hits and struck out six the first time through the lineup although he walked Esquivel in the second, and DeFabio reached on an uncaught third strike to open the third. DeFabio was on third with two outs when Clay Messer grounded sharply in the direction of the third base bag. Nunley lunged and got a glove on it *and* managed to throw out Messer at first base, ending the inning. Nunley pumped his glove, but in short order was pissed again, grounding out to DeFabio on a 3-1 pitch to start the bottom 3rd. Duarte doubled past Rockwell, however, the first runner for the team, and then Santos lifted a ball up the rightfield line that Mims could not cut off; Duarte scored, and Santos had an RBI double. Cookie grounded to first, where Messer messered the play, putting runners on the corners with one out for Walter, who still didn’t know whether he wanted to be hot or not. Hitting the first pitch to left yielded an RBI single, after which McKnight K’ed and Mendoza popped out, leaving two on in a 2-0 game. While Luna broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the fourth, the Coons managed to stop Nunley from demolishing the park. DeFabio couldn’t get to Nunley’s 2-out grounder in the bottom 4th, which escaped to right for a single. Felipe Ramirez, a veteran of outspoken mediocrity, managed to walk both Duarte and Santos(!) to load them up before Cookie singled to center. Nunley scored, Duarte was sent and thrown out, and it was 3-0 after four.

Santos struck out 11 over six innings of dominance over a Knights lineup that managed only two hits so far, but there were a few things going on. First, Santos was over 90 pitches after obliterating Rockwell to end the sixth. Second, it had started to rain. I wasn’t completely opposed to a rain-shortened game, especially with the Coons ahead, since we had managed to ravage our bullpen this week despite allowing 2.2 runs per game, however in hell we had achieved that. However, the baseball gods would not cooperate, and while Santos got through seven, he was over 100 pitches after that and had nothing left. Duarte reached with an infield single to knock out Ramirez in the bottom 7th, and Santos was hit for with Jackson against the left-handed Maness. A full-count walk put two on to give the top of the order a chance to put the Knights away. Cookie grounded out to third, but that moved the runners to scoring position at least. Walter didn’t get to hit, being walked intentionally to get a double play set up, and while McKnight did ground to DeFabio on the first pitch, the Knight’s only play was at first base, and Duarte scored, 4-0. Mendoza grounded out to end the inning. The Coons had to pick six outs from mostly Wade Davis and Jeff Boynton now, and the meat of the Knights’ lineup would come up in the ninth and hopefully not before that. Davis got the ball for the eighth, but if possible, we’d use him to the end to spare everybody else. Davis promptly struggled, with Tommy Keller hitting a 1-out single and Reyes walking. Messer flew out to a hustling Cookie, who sold out to avoid the ball falling in, and did so successfully (including no sheared off limbs). Luna was a big danger factor, but he grounded out to Lafon, who had entered at second base in a double switch just now. The bottom 8th brought no add-on offense, but another rainy-day face from Nunley, whose drive to deep left was caught by Rockwell, his newest bestest friend, on the warning track, three feet from the fence. Nunley could hardly compensate when he made a 5-3 play to retire Rockwell to start the ninth, but in the bigger scheme of things Davis had a perfect ninth to complete the slow-motion sweep over the Knights. 4-0 Raccoons! Duarte 2-2, BB, 2B; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 12 K, W (2-1) and 1-1, BB, 2B, RBI; Davis 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

In other news

April 15 – Nashville’s SP Mike Lake (1-1, 1.69 ERA) spins a 1-hit shutout against the Rebels, striking out four. The only hit is a double by Ricky Avila in the third inning that doesn’t lead to anything. Lake, 23, pitched only mostly in relief in 2017 and 2018 and has made only his tenth major league start.
April 16 – LVA RF/LF/1B Matt Hamilton (.255, 0 HR, 6 RBI) will miss the rest of April with back soreness. The 25-year old who hit 30 home runs last season has yet to hit one in 2019.
April 19 – IND SP Tristan Broun (0-2, 2.10 ERA) will miss significant time after rupturing a finger tendon. Conservative estimates are four months for him to pitch again.
April 19 – The Condors’ RF/LF Danny Munn (.279, 0 HR, 4 RBI) is out for the season after tearing up his knee. He has been diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
April 19 – The Cyclones drum the Pacifics in a 16-2 rout, putting up 6-spots in both the first and the eighth inning. No Cyclone manages more than three runs scored, three runs batted in, *or* three hits in the effort.
April 20 – 21-year old CIN CF Nando Maiello (.173, 0 HR, 1 RBI) will miss up to two months with a torn meniscus.
April 21 – Wolves and Capitals play 17 innings before Salem’s Todd Jankowski (.200, 1 HR, 3 RBI) puts the Wolves over the hump with a 3-run home run in the top 17th. The Capitals get a run in the bottom of the inning, but come up short in a 4-2 loss.
April 21 – WAS 1B Andy McNeal (.295, 1 HR, 4 RBI) might miss a month with a sprained ankle sustained while running the bases.

Complaints and stuff

Four 1-run games! I feel drained. Ah, even the 4-0 on Wednesday was draining. Everything is draining! Why can’t they the **** hit a lick!?

Also, hide the stats from the children. They are not for them. PG-13.

I should just fill the lineup with pitchers…

Duarte has to watch out; Andy Bareford is hitting .273 in AAA with a homer and four extra base hits total. It’s not much, but it’s more than what Duarte has right now.

For the stat nerds: Jeff Boynton’s second W of the week in relief on Friday was also the 3,500th regular season victory for the Raccoons! The franchise is now 3,502-3,321 (.513) overall.

Martin Ortíz hit a walkoff single for the Crusaders on Sunday, beating the Condors in a come-from-behind 5-4 win. The legend ain’t dead yet, but it still has to start a game in 2019.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Oatmeal is slugging .812 after three weeks. He is hitting .420 with eight homers. Somehow, the Condors are in last place anyway with their 1-man show and the worst record in organized baseball this side of Mongolia.

Next week: Thunder at home, Titans on the road. The road trip will be one for three cities, taking us to Elkland during the following week.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-6) vs. Thunder (10-9) – April 22-24, 2019

Were the Thunder ready to climb out of the cellar? Ranking fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, the answer was definitely a clear ‘maybe?’ – but their bottom-three rotation certainly would not inspire confidence about their chances. They had the second-highest batting average in the Continental League and were tied for fourth in home runs, but had no speed and only five stolen bases. They had the second-best defense to the Raccoons’, who entered the 3-game set tenth in runs scored, and first in every pitching category that was vaguely important. The Raccoons had taken seven of nine from the Thunder in 2018, their second straight series win over Oklahoma.

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (1-0, 0.44 ERA) vs. Evan Greenfield (0-4, 7.65 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (0-2, 5.20 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (3-0, 1.01 ERA) vs. Jim Bryant (1-0, 2.59 ERA)

All right-handers from the Thunder, but Jim Bryant had left his last start with back spasms and was not yet a lock for the Wednesday game. The Raccoons would have Thursday off, offering a chance to either skip Bobby Guerrero of use him in long relief or extra innings, or to start them on Friday, whatever the heck we pleased.

Game 1
OCT: CF Stevenson – 2B Farias – RF Fullerton – LF Cisneros – 1B Janes – SS Paull – C Kizziar – 3B N. Brown – P Greenfield
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Pierson

Both teams scored a run in the second inning, and for both teams it was their cleanup hitter opening the inning with an extra-base hit to get things moving. Javy Cisneros doubled to left and came around after Erik Janes’ single and Eric Paull’s double play grounder, and Hugo Mendoza tripled to center and came home when DeWeese grounded out. The third started with a Greenfield single to left, and before long Pierson had the bases loaded on three singles with nobody out. D.J. Fullerton popped out, but Cisneros drew a walk to give the Thunder their second lead. Janes’ sac fly scored another run in the inning. The Coons would get Pierson and Cookie on board with singles in the bottom 3rd; McKnight doubled to the base of the wall in rightfield, but Cookie was thrown out at home to end the inning after Pierson had scored, keeping the Raccoons 3-2 short.

Pierson would not get out of the fifth inning, allowing two quick singles to Emilio Farias and Fullerton. The latter singled to right, Farias went to third base, but Cookie’s throw was nowhere near Nunley, allowing Farias to score on the error, with Fullerton to second. Pierson would not retire another batter, with Cisneros and Janes hitting singles to put him in a 5-2 hole with two on and one out. He got yanked, Jeff Boynton replacing him with yet another long relief assignment. He struck out Paull and Eric Kizziar to end the inning. Boynton would pitch 2.2 innings and struck out six, including the first five batters he faced, while the Raccoons pulled back to 5-4 when McKnight hit another 2-out double, and this time both runners scored, including the trailing runner Cookie. Too bad that Mendoza grounded out to Farias with the tying run in scoring position. There was a 66-minute rain delay in the eighth inning, but like the game that the Coons led last week and didn’t get called early, this one would be played to conclusion as well, despite the Thunder being unhappy with it. Alex Ramirez retired Oklahoma in order in the ninth, with the Raccoons bringing up the 5-6-7 batters against Mike Tharp, a lefty with a 4.50 ERA, so Eddie Jackson pinch-hit for DeWeese right away, and the pitcher was in the #7 slot, with Nunley having – to his extreme dismay – being removed in a double switch much earlier. Jackson batted .111, but cracked a fast bouncer through Nate Brown and up the leftfield line for a leadoff double, putting the Thunder into some real trouble. Margolis’ single put the runners on the corners, with Denny hitting for Ramirez and striking out. Alex Duarte was next, bounced a 1-0 pitch to Tharp, and Tharp started a 1-6-3 mood killer. 5-4 Thunder. Carmona 2-3, BB; McKnight 2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Margolis 2-4; Boynton 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K;

DeWeese dropped under .200 now with another fine effort of NOTHING in this game. This gives the Coons three starters and three bench players that are batting under .200 …

Game 2
OCT: CF Stevenson – 2B Farias – RF Fullerton – C Parks – 3B Paull – LF Gosnell – SS Pitner – 1B Mooney – P Furst
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Toner

Denny grounded out to strand McKnight and Mendoza on the corners in the first. After Toner overcame drilling leadoff man Eric Paull in the second inning by getting a double play grounder from Justin Pitner, DeWeese reached on an error by Farias in the bottom 2nd, leading off. He stole second base (the first stolen base for a position player other than Senor Carmona), but Nunley struck out and Duarte popped out to bring up Jonny, who singled hard to right, but DeWeese had to hold on third base against Fullerton’s arm. Cookie dropped to 0-2 before knocking a ball into play, and this was not an ordinary single. Cookie, who hadn’t homered at all in 2018, put the Coons in front with a 3-run shot to right center, a good bit to the far side of the 383’ sign. Toner allowed no hits, but walked one and ran five full counts in the first three innings, probably disqualifying from a no-hitter right away. Toner and Cookie had base hits again in the bottom 4th, with both ending up scoring on McKnight’s sac fly and Mendoza’s groundout, extending the lead to 5-0, and when he was up to bat with one out and Duarte on first in the bottom 5th, Toner was told to bunt, but reached first base safely anyway on a tardy Brian Furst, who was then knocked out by Cookie’s RBI single. Toner went to third, drew the throw, but was safe, with Cookie moving to second, and both ended up scoring again on Walter’s groundout and McKnight’s single over Farias. The Coons were up by eight after five innings, the Thunder had no hits, and Toner had thrown 78 pitches and run the bases excessively. Tim Mooney, reliever Ryan Corkum, and Josh Stevenson went down in order in the sixth on 11 pitches, which didn’t ease the growing conundrum, and the seventh was a major nightmare.

No, Oklahoma didn’t score. They also didn’t get a hit. But it took Toner 18 pitches to set them down, hitting Fullerton and with him at second and 2-2 to Paull and two outs, Toner threw a major wild pitch. Paull did ground out to McKnight, but Toner’s pitch count was absolutely wild by now. The crowd was chanting for Toner to continue his gem, and he came out for the eighth inning, which started with Chris Gosnell, a left-handed sixth-outfielder type, who batted .217, bounced a 2-0 quickly to right, but Mendoza stopped it and scrambled to first in time. Then Toner ran a full count on Pitner. The nightmare! The horror! Pitner walked! Nate Brown pinch-hit in the #8 hole and grounded to Walter, but he only got the lead runner. Bill Hiscock pinch-hit in the #9 spot and struck out. Toner’s spot to bat came up in the bottom 8th. While Duarte was batting with DeWeese at first base and one out, Joey Mathews could briefly be seen sticking his head from the dugout. He was hissed back down in there by the chanting crowd, and one guy threw popcorn at him. Duarte singled, the Thunder tried to get DeWeese at third, didn’t, and Duarte moved up. Toner came to bat, facing runners in scoring position, and was walked by a troubled Ed Michaels. Oh great, he has to run the bases again! Why!? The inning dragged on. The Coons scored three on the hapless Michaels, nobody cared.

Top of the ninth. Jonny Toner in on a whopping 124 pitches. Top of the order to bat, but William Waggoner would pinch-hit in the #1 spot to get going. The ****ing count ran full on Waggoner, and Toner lost him to a walk after EIGHT pitches. The crowd was still chanting and howling, but Ron Thrasher was now getting ready for real in the pen. Toner threw the first pitch to Farias into the dirt, and Denny barely contained it. The next pitch was center, but low, and Farias put it in play. Grounder to Walter, easy to handle, to second, out, to first, OUT!! Double play for Toner!! D.J. Fullerton was up as the Thunder were down to their last out in a 12-0 blowout. .260 with two homers and 12 RBI on the season. The pitching coach was out, checking Toner’s pulse. The whole place was a ****ing madhouse. Toner was nodding reassuringly, although he had not shown great command in the inning. Fullerton looked at strike one on the corner, then swung over a low pitch that would have been ball one for sure. Last strike before history! Come on Jonny! This is all yours! Do your thing here! The next pitch, #137, bounced in front of home plate, and boinked Denny in the mask before bouncing away. Okay, ehm, no harm done yet? Denny shook it off, 1-2 on Fullerton. Pitch #138 was a curve that started so high, Fullerton loosened almost immediately. That was not his pitch. And there he was wrong. The curve dipped into the zone. Fullerton was punched out. It was a no-hitter!!! 12-0 Furballs!!! Carmona 3-5, HR, 5 RBI; Walter 1-5, 2B, 4 RBI; McKnight 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-4, RBI; Denny 2-5; Duarte 3-5, 3B, RBI; Toner 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K, W (3-1) and 3-4, BB;

WHEEEEE!!!! WHEEEE!!!! WHEEEE!!! WHEEEEE!!!!!!

Can this be groundhog day, please?

With Toner’s extended outing, Guerrero would start on Friday, just to give Toner the extra day off, so that was sorted out by divine intervention and no hard decision had to be made. Toner will now start again on Monday in Elkland, and not on Sunday in Boston.

Game 3
OCT: CF Stevenson – 2B Farias – RF Fullerton – C Parks – 3B Paull – SS Janes – LF Hiscock – 1B Mooney – P Bryant
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – 2B Mathews – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Abe

Farias’ first inning single ended whatever idea Abe might have had about a special outing, but at least he kept the Thunder out of the R column in the first three innings. The Coons didn’t reach until the bottom 3rd against Bryant, who walked DeWeese and Duarte. Abe bunted them into scoring position, Cookie lined over Tim Mooney and all the way into the rightfield corner for a 2-run double, Walter singled, and McKnight plated Cookie with a sac fly to give the Coons a 3-0 lead. Abe shut the Thunder out on two hits for five innings, but they got back-to-back 1-out singles from Stevenson and Farias in the sixth. Both pulled off a double steal on Denny, and when Fullerton flew to deep center, one run was always gonna score. A good play by Duarte kept the Thunder to one run there on a sac fly, and Jalen Parks struck out to end the inning in a 3-1 score. This game was far from over, of course. The Coons did basically nothing in the middle innings, and Abe allowed a leadoff single to Paull in the seventh, but Janes right away hit into a double play. Abe ended seven on 92 pitches, and was pinch-hit for in the bottom 7th. DeWeese had tripled and Duarte had walked, presenting a chance with runners on the corners and one out. Nunley got to hit in place of Abe. There you go, Matt! Don’t look like you ate a bag of lemons. This is a vote of confidence! Go out there and murder them! Oh, you DID eat a bag of lemons? Okay, in that case- … but still murder them, please. Jim Bryant’s 1-1 was a bit high, but right in Nunley’s sweet zone. He hit the ball hard to deep right, Fullerton was racing back – but he raced in vain. This ball was OUTTA HERE!!!

The inning was not over. Left-hander Bryan Hanson replaced Jim Bryant, and immediately allowed three straight hits to Cookie, PH Jackson, and McKnight to load the bags. Mendoza hit a sac fly to plenty deep right, and Denny hit an RBI single for two extra runs before Mathews grounded out to short. Mathis pitched the eighth after that, and Kaiser put on two in the ninth, but the Thunder didn’t even get close to a comeback after the 5-spot in the seventh, and the Coons took the series after losing the opener. 8-1 Raccoons! Carmona 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Nunley (PH) 1-2, HR, 3 RBI; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (4-0);

Even with the homer, Nunley is still only hitting .137. He needs a major hot streak just to get over .200 …

Raccoons (14-7) @ Titans (8-14) – April 26-28, 2019

The Titans graced the bottom of the CL North by now. They had been swept by the Critters to start the season, and since then things hadn’t really improved that much. While they had decent, league-average pitching from their rotation, their bullpen was a hornets nest with a 5.58 ERA attached to it, and their offense was completely embarrassing. They sat on 84 runs after 22 games, which worked out to roughly 3.8 runs per game, the worst mark in the league. The Coons had used their 24 runs in the Thunder series to jump into the upper half in terms of runs scored.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (1-2, 10.38 ERA) vs. Rick Ling (0-1, 4.15 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 2.52 ERA) vs. TBD
Cole Pierson (1-1, 2.19 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (3-1, 1.98 ERA)

Ling was a southpaw, Klein was not, and for Saturday we had no clue. It would be the turn of left-hander Jose Diaz (1-1, 4.18 ERA), but the Titans had dropped word that he was removed from the rotation. They had called up SP Jonathan Ryan from AAA Toledo, but he had thrown 110 pitches on Wednesday, and wouldn’t be available for a Saturday start.

This from the team that tried to have the best pitcher of the league have his arm just drop off in a 138-pitch outing …

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – 2B Lafon – P Guerrero
BOS: 2B Humphres – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – CF J. Roberts – LF Turner – SS M. Rivera – P Ling

Both starters arrived with at least 50% more walks than strikeouts in this game, neither struck out a batter in the first three innings, and clearly neither was helped by an hour-long rain delay in the second inning. By then Guerrero had already walked two and allowed a run in the first inning, Tim Robinson plating Tom Thomas with a sac fly. Through three, Guerrero walked three batters, and Ling walked one, but then struck out McKnight and Denny in the fourth inning. Guerrero never got anything close to even useful and conceded two runs on three extra-base hits in the bottom of the fourth, three doubles to be precise, with the middle one hit by Ling with two outs. Guerrero didn’t make it through five innings and was saddled with another two runs in the bottom 5th, the Titans whacking the ball every which way. The Raccoons, down 5-0, were nothing but awful. By the seventh inning, in which Denny reached on a Thomas error and Mendoza hit into a double play, they had more double plays (3) than hits (2), and heck, the Titans had made more errors (3) than the Coons had hits. Eddie Jackson would try to set those crooked numbers straight and hit a solo homer to left off Ling, but the overall result was still miserable. The bottom 7th saw a Chris Almanza single off Wade Davis, and Boynton loading the bags with a walk to Jimmy Roberts and Brad Turner getting drilled. Mike Rivera lined out to Nunley and Ling was sent to bat and struck out to end the inning. The Critters put two on in the eighth, but that was that; Ling looked like a complete game win was in order for him, but Jackson came up with two outs in the ninth and hit another homer to left, this one ending Ling’s day. Harry Merwin came in and struck out DeWeese to put an end to this sad effort. 5-2 Titans. Jackson 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Duarte 2-3; Mathews (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Santos
BOS: 2B Humphres – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – CF Turner – SS M. Rivera – P Klein

Chris Klein got moved to start Saturday on short rest, with the mystery pitcher’s slot moving to Sunday. Klein found himself roughly greeted; after McKnight’s 2-out single, Mendoza put the Coons on top in the first inning with a 2-run homer to right. Santos would retire the first eight batters before Klein hit a single to left. What looked like a minor inconvenience became a serious issue after Robby Humphres reached when his grounder hit the edge of Walter’s glove, ran up his arm, and then jumped over his shoulder into rightfield, and Tom Thomas hit an RBI single. When Santos walked Butler, the bases were loaded for Almanza while we were still trying to figure out the **** how this had happened, but luckily Almanza grounded out to Walter, who made a sure grab this time. The Coons remained up 2-1, albeit just barely. While the Coons’ offense had already gone home and had no hits from the second through fifth innings, the bottom 5th was another abyss opening up, starting with Mendoza dropping a feed from Nunley to put leadoff man Humphres on base. Steve Butler singled, and when Almanza flew out to Cookie, Humphres went to third. Santos ran a 3-0 count on Tim Robinson, the bullpen got stirring, and then Robinson inexplicably poked and grounded out to McKnight at short.

Bottom 6th, and the issues would not stop. Jose Avila led off with a double to left center, but hurt himself and was replaced by Jonathan Blake. Brad Turner flew to left, Blake stayed put. Mike Rivera flew out to center, Blake stayed put again. Klein struck out, with Blake trotting to the dugout. The Raccoons had an actual living, breathing base runner in the seventh inning. DeWeese drew a 2-out walk off Klein, who was on nine strikeouts and lost him in a full count. Nunley grounded up the middle, but Rivera made the play to end the inning. For once, the Titans didn’t get their leadoff batter on base in the seventh, but with two outs Butler flew into the gap in right center. Cookie cut the ball off, but Butler was already turning second. Cookie unleashed a murderous throw to third base, right into Nunley’s glove, and Butler was out by INCHES!! WHAT A PLAY!! Still 2-1 Coons! Santos was hit for in a quick and sad eighth inning, and Chris Mathis inherited the lead for the eighth, but would only see Almanza and Robinson before Thrasher would come in. Mathis allowed two rockets; the first was caught by DeWeese, but the second fell into the wide open space between him, Duarte, and McKnight for a 1-out single. At least it was a slow runner! Thrasher came in, but ex-Condor Craig Dasher batted for Blake to counter him. Dasher singled over Walter’s stretched-out glove at 1-0, putting two on with one out, and Denny couldn’t come up with Thrasher’s first pitch to Turner. The ball bounced to the screen, and Denny was charged with the passed ball. Turner would ground hard to the left side – Nunley with a backhand play, Robinson twitching, Nunley hisses him back to the base and throws TO FIRST IN TIME!! OH THE EXCITEMENT!!! Rivera struck out – and the Coons were STILL LEADING THIS GAME.

Klein completed nine innings with ten strikeouts and no hits past the first inning, but was still on the hook. With Mike Cesta, a left-handed batter, pinch-hitting for him in the bottom 9th, Thrasher remained in the game, with Ramirez warm and waiting for his turn. Thrasher obliterated Cesta for another strikeout, and now it was on Ramirez to get the 1-2 batters. Humphres hit a vicious liner to center, Duarte came hustling in and caught it. Oh dear, one more. Ramirez served up a potato that Tom Thomas hit for 400 feet or maybe more, well outta leftfield, and the game was tied. Ramirez! YOU ****ING ***HOLE!!!!

The ****ing ***hole remained in the game even as the 10th inning broke. He walked Roberts with two outs, then allowed a drive to center to Brad Turner that Duarte could not come up with. Roberts circled around on the double, and the Titans walked off. 3-2 Titans. Santos 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K;

I need to trade this ****ing ****er or I’ll ****ing open his ****ing throat with a ****ing chainsaw. – (Ramirez stalks up and opens his mouth) – DON’T YOU TALK TO ME!!!

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Mathews – SS Walter – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Pierson
BOS: 2B Humphres – CF Cesta – RF Almanza – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 3B Dasher – LF J. Roberts – SS M. Rivera – P Ryan

Ryan made his season debut and allowed singles to Cookie and Mathews that sent them to the corners to start the game. I was not happy, because they would find a way to **** up whether they scored one or two or none or a thousand in the first inning. They scored one; Walter hit into a ****ing double play right away. The Titans made up the run in the bottom 2nd, landing three hard line drive singles on Pierson before Rivera hit a sac fly to get even.

Neither pitcher exactly applied for the All Star Game in this Sunday afternoon affair. Ryan surrendered a complete moonshot to Alex Duarte at the start of the third inning, but the resulting 2-1 lead was instantly blown by Pierson, who allowed three more hard hits to Humphres, Cesta, and Almanza at the start of the bottom 3rd. Two runs scored, and the Coons were wobbling towards a hard-to-digest sweep. They were idle until the sixth, when Mathews’ 1-out single was followed by Ryan losing both Walter and Mendoza with walks. The bases were loaded for Danny Margolis, who had a knack for these dramatic big home runs, or for just striking out and retreating to the dugout with his tail tucked firmly between his hind legs, no stripes visible, except for a single brown one. Or maybe he could hit into a double play to Dasher. Yeah, that happened.

The Raccoons continued to fail themselves through the innings until the eighth, when Jackson’s pinch-hit grounder rolled right through Rivera into left for a leadoff single. The score was still 3-2, with Davis having replaced Pierson during the bottom 7th to restore order. Jose Diaz balked, then allowed a single to Cookie, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Right-hander Jose Fuentes appeared. We had McKnight available, but Mathews had two hits in the game was batting .321. The count ran full, Mathews grounded to Humphres and was out at first, and Jackson never went for home plate. Lefty Nestor Munoz now replaced Fuentes, and both Walter and Mendoza bounced back to Munoz for easy outs at first base. Jackson never scored from third base where he had ARRIVED WITH NOBODY ****ING OUT!! Right-hander Desi Bowles was tasked with handling of the save situation. The Titans were certainly daring, trusting a volatile rookie with an 8.53 ERA in 11 appearances with a 3-2 lead. McKnight batted for Margolis to get going, lined hard up the leftfield line on the first pitch – but it landed foul. McKnight eventually singled on a 3-1 pitch, but now the rotten part of the order came up. DeWeese struck out (…), but Nunley singled to center. Nunley single! Nunley single! Sshh! Contain yourself, nothing has been won, and the Coons are still losing! Tying run at second, go-ahead run on first, one out for Alex Duarte, who hit at the first pitch and clobbered it to left, with Roberts hustling back, but – nope, OUTTA HERE!!!! A score flipper by Duarte, his second homer in the game, and both had given the Critters the lead! Bowles was gone, and Brett Dill got around a walk to Petracek to avoid bigger damage. In a clear signal, Ron Thrasher got the bottom 9th. He got Dasher on a soft line to McKnight, who remained in the game at short, and whiffed Roberts before losing Rivera to a walk. Ryan Anderson, whom we didn’t have much of a scouting report on, pinch-hit for Dill in the #9 hole, 1-for-12 on the season. Thrasher was about to victimize the rookie when Anderson hit an 0-2 pitch into play. Deep center, deep center. Deep center. Still deep center. Duarte’s out there somewhere, right? Duarte? Where is he? Gimme the old long glass! There he is! And he has the ball! Game over! 5-3 Blighters. Carmona 2-5; Mathews 2-5; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Duarte 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 22 – Lots of wailing could be heard around the Bay on Monday, as the Bayhawks put OF Dave Garcia (.313, 2 HR, 8 RBI) on the DL with a concussion. The 24-year old phenom is expected to be out of action for several months.
April 22 – Knights and Indians play 13 innings before the Knights come through with a 12-10 victory. Tied for the most RBI in the game with four is ATL SP Danny Martin (0-0, 4.30 ERA), who has two hits, but is scorched for six runs in four innings.
April 23 – Despite a moderately even hits column of 19-11 in the Knights’ favor, the Indians never score and are annihilated in a 17-0 blowout, with the Knights reaching double digits in the second inning. The Indians hit into four double plays.
April 24 – NYC 1B Ray Gilbert (.400, 1 HR, 3 RBI) hits his 300th home run in the Crusaders’ 3-2 victory over the Bayhawks, a 2-run home run off Zach Boyer in the eighth inning. Gilbert, who spent most of his career with the Canadiens after debuting with the Cyclones in 2004, is a former Player of the Year and a 5-time All Star, and has two Gold Gloves and a batting title. For his career he has batted .311 with 300 HR and 1,247 RBI.
April 24 – The Knights’ SP Drew King (2-1, 3.62 ERA) has a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. The 28-year old right-hander could be out for a full year.
April 24 – The Titans get destroyed by the Condors in a 15-2 rout. The Condors don’t score in the first two innings, then plate at least one run in every inning starting with the third. TIJ OF/1B Josh Rawlings (.254, 2 HR, 8 RBI) goes 4-for-4 with 2 RBI.
April 27 – The Bayhawks lose another starter as 2B/SS Raul Claros (.246, 2 HR, 12 RBI) goes down with a sprained ankle that could take six weeks to heal.
April 27 – The Cyclones trade LF/RF Jason Seeley (.243, 3 HR, 12 RBI) to the Blue Sox for MR Matt Rosenthal (1-2, 2.33 ERA) and SP/MR Jack Sander (1-0, 0.00 ERA). Sander, 23, was ranked #32 by BNN in the 2018 prospects report, but went unranked this season despite not making his major league debut until this month.
April 28 – RIC SP Shunyo Yano (1-1, 2.15 ERA) will miss five weeks with a sprained ankle.
April 28 – The Capitals look a bit beaten, down 9-1 to the Miners in the seventh inning, until they suddenly explode for a 10-run seventh and claim an 11-9 victory.

Complaints and stuff

Some numbnut made Eddie Jackson Player of the Week. He had five hits in six at-bats, with 2 HR and 2 RBI. I don’t know. They’re all drunk in New York.

However!

+++

Juan Berrios * 1977
Jason Turner * 1989
Manuel Movonda * 1998
Bob Joly * 2000
Jose Dominguez * 2007
Nick Brown * 2016
Jonathan Toner * 2019

Life is good.

The 12-0 score is tied for the highest in a Coons no-hitter with Berrios’, but the highest score ever in any of the 41 ABL no-hitters belongs to the guy the Coons tore up on Tuesday, Brian Furst, who won a 13-0 no-hitter last year against the Indians. Furst is one of only two pitchers (with Henry Selph) to throw two no-hitters, and the only to throw them for the same team. Jonny, there you have a life goal.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-9) @ Canadiens (17-7) – April 29-May 1, 2019

Second in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, the Elks certainly had gotten a great start to the 2019 season and owned the best record in baseball. Their run differential was only +19, so they had not exactly crushed the opposition. They were 8-2 in 1-run games, which was probably unsustainable, and their .372 team OBP was a bit wacko as well. They had a terrible defense, and their rotation was only pitching to a 4.30 ERA, so this was a vehicle that could fall apart any minute. The season series in 2018 had ended in an even split, and the Raccoons hadn’t actually beaten the Elks over a season since 2014, the last year of beating the **** out of Vancouver over six straight years.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (3-1, 2.83 ERA) vs. Zach Hughes (3-2, 5.67 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (4-0, 1.07 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (3-0, 2.31 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (1-3, 10.19 ERA) vs. R.J. Lloyd (2-1, 4.72 ERA)

Only righties for Vancouver. The Coons start the series with Jonny, who had an extra day off after throwing 138 pitches on Tuesday. I am sure everything will be fine.

The Coons will have Thursday and the following Monday off, but would play 16 straight games after that.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Petracek – P Toner
VAN: SS Roundtree – LF K. Evans – RF Branch – CF Rocha – 1B Pace – 2B J. Gutierrez – C Desan – 3B Grooms – P Hughes

Cookie and Walter opened the game with singles and pulled off a double steal, to which the natural reaction of Ronnie McKnight and Dumbo Mendoza was to strike out feebly. Mike Denny was also in a 2-strike count before he hit a liner into the left-center gap for a 2-run double, and Hughes had to get the third K from DeWeese instead. Jonny Toner afterwards was totally not okay and the bottom of the first inning instantly descended into a giant mess. Steve Roundtree drew a leadoff walk, Kurt Evans singled. Ezra Branch struck out, but Mario Rocha’s grounder to Walter was not going to net the Coons a double play, and Roundtree scored. Another single by Tim Pace and another walk to Jose Gutierrez loaded the bags before Mike Desan thankfully hacked himself out and left Toner up 2-1 with three runners stranded. While the Elks would not get another hit off Toner through five innings, he hit a guy and walked another in the second inning to create another tight spot before retiring them in order in the third, fourth, and fifth, but it took him 88 pitches to get that far. The Raccoons got offense form an unexpected slot in the lineup, as Petracek hit a 2-run homer in the fourth inning against his former team to lengthen Jonny’s lead to 4-1. Jose Gutierrez gave a ball a ride in the bottom 6th, but Cookie caught up with that. Toner’s spot led off the top 7th and he was hit for with Duarte (to no effect), so we had to turn to the pen for the last nine outs. Jeff Boynton ****ed up immediately, allowing a double to Desan, a triple to Chris Grooms, and a walk to Dave Padilla, while retiring nobody in the seventh. Mathis replaced him and got a foul pop from Roundtree, then yielded for Kaiser (with Thrasher a bit on the shot side of ‘not quite rested’), who conceded a run on an Evans single before whiffing Branch and getting Rocha to ground out, ending the inning with a slim 4-3 lead for the Coons. After Wade Davis’ clean bottom of the eighth, the Raccoons had a chance to tack on a run after Nunley hit a 1-out double off Pat Slayton (ex-Coon still clinging on to a career!) in the ninth inning. Petracek’s grounder to short and Duarte’s fly to Rocha ended the inning with Nunley still at second. For once it would not bite the Critters in the arse; Alex Ramirez had a quick and painless bottom of the inning, getting two grounders to short and whiffing Roundtree to end the game. 4-3 Raccoons. Walter 3-4; Denny 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (4-1) and 1-2;

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Abe
VAN: SS Roundtree – C Desan – RF Branch – CF Rocha – 1B Pace – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF A. Torres – 3B Grooms – P Funderburk

Alex Torres was a 21-year old former #1 prospect starting a game against Portland for the first time (that I remember). He was batting .238 with 1 RBI in limited action so far this season. He struck out to end the bottom 2nd of a scoreless game, leaving Pace on first after Gutierrez had just had a double picked off the fence by Eddie Jackson. The Raccoons had missed the bigger spot in the top 2nd, getting runners in scoring position with one out after a single by Duarte and a double by Nunley. Margolis and Abe both struck out after that. The Raccoons went on to have the bases loaded with one out in the third inning. Following Cookie’s pop to first opening the inning, Walter and McKnight hit singles to center and Mendoza walked in a full count. Jackson grounded to short, but Roundtree had no play on a hastily started Mendoza, and could only get Jackson at first, with one run scoring before Duarte could pop out to end the inning. Nunley hit a leadoff double in the fourth, his third double in the series (!), but was stranded for the third time, which didn’t help his general anger at the world. The Elks flipped the score in the bottom 4th, Desan hitting a leadoff single to center, followed by an Ezra Branch double and two run-scoring groundouts. An inning later, teams were even at five following Jackson’s 2-out, 2-run homer in the top of the fifth inning, and Chris Grooms scoring after a leadoff double, a bunt, and Roundtree’s sac fly in the bottom half.

The Coons got two unearned runs in the sixth of what was rapidly becoming a see-saw affair. Margolis reached on Grooms’ error with one out in the inning, was bunted over, and then Cookie’s single and Walter’s double both produced solo runs for a 5-3 lead, but the Elks immediately jumped back onto Abe. Gutierrez’ 2-run double to right tied the score in the bottom 6th, and Gutierrez eventually scored on an error by Mendoza, giving the Elks the 6-5 lead.

And this game wasn’t done being silly yet. After a comparably boring seventh inning, the Raccoons saw Nunley and Margolis go down in the eighth before DeWeese hit for Seung-mo Chun. Him murdering a pitch by Hunter Park for about 390 feet to right tied the score AGAIN, now at six, and the Coons continued to flog Park as Cookie and Walter hit back-to-back 2-out doubles to take a 7-6 lead in the game. McKnight hit a ball deep to left, but Rocha caught up with that one to end the inning. Rocha was also on with a leadoff single off Chris Mathis in the bottom 8th and was on second and racing when Dave Padilla grounded to the second base bag. McKnight cut off the ball on the run, threw on the run, and got Padilla by two steps to end the inning. A Duarte double in the top 9th went unused, and I didn’t feel well to put Ramirez into a 1-run game that had been wild for hours, but it was what it was. In the event, no Elk reached, and Roundtree struck out to end this game as well. 7-6 Critters. Carmona 2-5, 2B, RBI; Walter 4-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Duarte 2-5, 2B; Nunley 2-5, 2 2B; DeWeese (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Eight of our 14 hits went for extra bases, which is usually an indicator for a humming offense. It really isn’t, overall, but in time for the end of the month, the Raccoons have moved into a tie for the lead in the North, which is totally fine.

May will start with Bobby Guerrero trying not to get blasted yet again. He enters the Wednesday game with a 10.19 ERA, which is more than the ERA’s of the other four starters added together.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Mathews – P Guerrero
VAN: SS Roundtree – LF K. Evans – RF Branch – CF Rocha – 1B Pace – 2B J. Gutierrez – C Padilla – 3B Grooms – P Lloyd

McKnight went yard in the first to give Guerrero an instant 1-0 lead, and Guerrero allowed only one hit and made an error in the first three innings to manage that 1-0 lead, which the Coons didn’t add to, quite well. All that was out of the window by the fourth, which Ezra Branch led off with a score-knotting homer, and then Rocha singled and went onto score on Gutierrez’ single to right. Guerrero loaded them up with a 4-pitch walk to Padilla and by drilling Chris Grooms. Lloyd struck out, but Guerrero fell to a bases-clearing double by Roundtree, so far the goat of the series, that ran the score to 5-1, THEN drilled Kurt Evans! The Raccoons staff didn’t feel like bringing a left-hander in a blossoming blowout just to face Ezra Branch, and Branch flew out to center rather comfortably, but Guerrero’s numbers in the rotation were SERIOUSLY numbered after that 5-spot. Guerrero was hit for in the top of the fifth, and Seung-mo Chun got the next two innings. He issued leadoff walks in both of them; the first was erased on a double play, but the latter scored on Roundtree’s 2-out single in the bottom 6th, 6-1. Ron Thrasher got the last out in the inning, but walked Rocha with one out in the seventh. After another pitching change to Wade Davis, Rocha was caught stealing by Margolis (who had earlier entered in a double switch when Guerrero was subbed out), and the Elks could not add to their lead, but that was sizeable, and Roundtree would come through with a 2-out, 2-run single against Davis in the eighth on top of that, and a merciless set of umpires was not willing to let the Coons get away with a 7-run loss like that, no, they had to endure two separate rain delays adding up to almost two hours in the last innings before being allowed to file away their drop out of the first place tie. 8-1 Canadiens. Carmona 2-4; McKnight 2-4, HR, RBI; Mendoza 2-3; Jackson (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (17-10) @ Scorpions (15-13) – May 3-5, 2019

The Scorpions were in a tie for the FL West lead after having won five in a row. Our first interleague opposition of the 2019 season, they ranked fourth in runs scored with 137 in the Federal League, and third in runs allowed with 108. Their bullpen was stellar, posting an FL-best 2.34 ERA. The Raccoons were only seventh in runs scored in the Continental League with 116 runs, but had conceded the least runs overall, only 83 so far. We had not played the Scorpions the last two seasons, but in the last four series between the teams the Scorpions had won only a single game, and had been swept three times, going back to 2011.

The Scorpions came in hot, having minced the Gold Sox in a 16-3 blowout on Thursday. OF Pablo Sanchez (.358, 3 HR, 19 RBI) contributed five hits, including a 3-run homer off A.J. Bartels, and drives in seven total.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-1, 1.97 ERA) vs. Brian Simmons (2-2, 3.75 ERA)
Cole Pierson (1-1, 2.59 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (3-2, 5.21 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-1, 2.63 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (4-1, 2.21 ERA)

Yes, the Scorpions have two players named Pablo Sanchez. The outfielder, nicknamed “Vulture”, is the better player and a bit like the Bayhawks’ Dave Garcia in being a 24-year old first-rate outfielder that debuted as a teenager and was tearing up the league, but we were more familiar with the pitcher Pablo Sanchez, who was a swingman for the Falcons in the first half of the decade and was too irrelevant for a nickname.

That aside, Brian Simmons will be a southpaw at the start of the set. With the way in which DeWeese is (not) hitting, he gets another day on the bench. Nunley also sits because Walter was already out during the Elks series to get Joey Mathews some at-bats. Nunley’s average is trending upwards, however, which is a terrible thing to say of a .155 batter.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Walter – RF Jackson – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – 2B Lafon – P Santos
SAC: 2B Luna – 3B LaCombe – CF Meade – RF P. Sanchez – 1B A. Rodriguez – C C. Ramirez – LF Stross – SS Sauceda – P Simmons

Neither team managed any danger and only one hit the first time through the order, but when Ricky Luna hit a 2-out single in the bottom 3rd, the floodgates suddenly opened. Santos walked Jason LaCombe, then got bombed by Ray Meade, a 3-piece to left center. Pablo Sanchez then doubled, Alberto Rodriguez plated him with a single, and finally Chris Ramirez struck out to end the 4-run onslaught. Santos only lasted five innings, allowing another home run to Gabriel Sauceda in the fourth, this one being a solo hammer. The Raccoons had enjoyed two men on base in the top of the fourth, but that included Jackson getting drilled, and nothing had come of it. The Raccoons would not reach scoring position again until the eighth inning thanks to a single by Roland Lafon and Joey Mathews drawing a walk, but the top of the order could not find even one run against Simmons, a decent, but not great left-handed who effortlessly suffocated the Raccoons’ lineup and swallowed them whole. The Scorpions added three runs against the Coons’ pen, one on Kaiser, who allowed a leadoff single in the seventh and received no relief from Jeff Boynton, and two on Mathis, who had only his own stupidity to blame in wild pitching the Scorpions into scoring position after they got the first two men on. The Coons again had two on against Simmons in the ninth inning after singles by Jackson and Mendoza, but Denny’s pop and Margolis’ double play grounder ended the game and left Simmons with a 5-hitter. 8-0 Scorpions. Jackson 2-3; Mendoza 2-4;

It can not get much worse right now…

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Pierson
SAC: 2B Luna – 3B LaCombe – CF Meade – RF P. Sanchez – 1B A. Rodriguez – C C. Ramirez – SS Sauceda – LF Stross – P Rutter

Dumbo Mendoza got his first RBI’s of the week with a 2-shot in the first inning, almost straight to center. Cookie had singled initially, but by the time Mendoza stepped into the box it had been McKnight on first base… Ray Meade shrugged and fired his own 2-run homer in the bottom of the inning, and the Raccoons were again treading water at best. In the third, the Raccoons had Walter (infield single) and McKnight (walk) on base for Mendoza, who grounded to short, but legged out the return throw to stay out of the double play. The Raccoons remained in the inning, with two outs, but had the bases loaded when Rutter lost Denny to a 4-pitch walk. Unfortunately this brought up the .152 beast Nunley, who poked at the first pitch and grounded out to Ricky Luna to end the inning. Once again more efficient: the opposition; Sauceda hit a solo shot for the second time in the series in the bottom 4th, this one setting the Scorpions 3-2 ahead.

While McKnight was stranded after his 2-out double in the fifth when Mendoza struck out, the Coons had another chance in the sixth inning after Nunley’s double and DeWeese accidentally hitting a single to right. Runners were on the corners for Alex Duarte, who was batting a paltry .218, hit a soft line just barely over the jumping Luna’s glove and had it fall into shallow right for an RBI single. We rolled the dice for Cookie, letting Pierson bunt, but Cookie flew out to center to strand the go-ahead runs in scoring position. Contrast that with the Scorpions, who got a leadoff double by Ray Meade, got Sanchez on base with a single, and then Chris Ramirez hit a 3-piece to bury the Raccoons, who had eight hits to the Scorpions’ five, but trailed 6-3. Pierson was knocked out in the inning, and the continuously beleaguered Raccoons pen was close to breaking despite all the off days. Wade Davis walked the bases full despite having only two outs to collect in the following inning, the seventh, and was left out there to decide his own fate. Sauceda flew out to center to end the inning with nobody scoring, but Sacramento got a run off the hideously overworked Boynton in the eighth. Down 7-3 the Raccoons looked like they were beaten, but Carmona opened the ninth inning with a triple off Alfredo Mendoza, who allowed a run-scoring groundout to Walter, which brought William Kay into the game, the team’s closer. Hugo Mendoza singled, Mike Denny hit an RBI double, and suddenly with two outs the tying run came up in … Matt Nunley. The only valid option left on the bench was Jackson, but I wanted him to hit for DeWeese instead if Nunley could keep it going, which was too much to ask from a guy that had so much rotten luck he could cut himself with a spoon. He grounded out. 7-5 Scorpions. Carmona 2-5, 3B; McKnight 2-4, BB, 2B; Mendoza 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Denny 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI;

Maybe, just an idea, we should get someone in that won’t get blown out of the park. Might be worth a try.

Jonny to the rescue!

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – P Toner
SAC: LF Stross – 3B LaCombe – CF Meade – RF P. Sanchez – 1B A. Rodriguez – C C. Ramirez – 2B Green – SS Sauceda – P P. Sanchez

With McKnight on first, Mendoza hit another deep drive to center in another first inning, but this time had it caught by Meade. Mendoza came up again with two outs in the third, now with Walter on second and McKnight on first. Mike Green speared his bouncer to the right side and threw to first in time to end the inning. Instead, the Scorpions would take the lead. They didn’t have a hit the first time through the order, but got Doug Stross on with two outs in the bottom 3rd on a throwing error by Nunley. Jason LaCombe tripled to center to get them onto the board, and a sweep was looming. The Coons had two in the top 4th after DeWeese and Margolis hit singles, but Toner rolled out to LaCombe, which was more forgivable than his bottom 4th, in which he allowed singles to Meade and Sanchez to get going, and eventually scored Meade with a wild pitch to fall 2-0 behind. Dumbo Mendoza homered to lead off the sixth, which was a very Dumbo Mendoza thing to do, and left the Coons 2-1 behind with Toner having only three strikeouts through five innings, which was either him struggling (though four hits for Sacramento were not out of the ordinary), or the Scorpions lineup deserving more credit than it was getting so far.

Then there was the bottom 6th, in which Meade hit a leadoff double, and was on third base after Sanchez’ groundout and Rodriguez whiffing. Toner threw another wild pitch, plating Meade with one of those for the second time in the game. Yeah, well, it was probably Toner, given that we even had one of the best defensive catchers in the league behind the plate, and it still wasn’t helping him in this game.

And then there was the whole gypsy curse feeling I kept getting. Not only Nunley, the entire team was under a wicked spell. Prime example was the seventh inning, in which Margolis managed to reach base to lead off against Sanchez, albeit only on LaCombe’s bad throw in the dirt. Toner’s bunt was terrible and Margolis was forced out at second base, and then Cookie hit into a double play. In turn a pair of doubles by the bedeviled Sauceda and Stross plated another run against Toner and staked the Scorpions bullpen to a 4-1 lead. Noah Bricker was the first reliever in the game, but the right-hander put Mendoza and Jackson on with a pair of 2-out singles. The Scorpions felt threatened enough by all 160 points of batting average that Matt Nunley had to send a left-hander after him. Danny Munos had a 5.79 ERA, but Matt’s soul was forsaken. Mathews batted for him, walked in a full count, and then Denny was sent to bat for DeWeese. The Stingers’ pen flushed forth a third reliever, as Logan Sloan (5.40 ERA) had to look after Denny, who flipped a blooper to shallow center for a 2-run single, but Margolis struck out to end the inning and leave the Coons 4-3 behind.

And it could all have ended well – but Chris Mathis got forked in the bottom 8th, which started with a 4-pitch walk to Sanchez leading off, and Rodriguez promptly singled. Runners on the corners with no outs was a terrible situation, and Mathis went about it in terrible fashion, conceding one run on a groundout and another on a Sauceda single, then had to be dug out by Thrasher, and the Raccoons were three runs behind again, and still no wiser for it. 6-3 Scorpions. Walter 2-5; Mendoza 2-4, HR, RBI; Denny (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

In other news

April 30 – WAS SP Aaron Walsh (4-1, 3.18 ERA) 3-hits the Blue Sox in a 5-0 shutout and moves the Capitals into a 3-way tie for first place in the FL East.
April 30 – The Gold Sox hit four home runs against the Scorpions and still get murdered in a 19-5 thrashing. The Scorpions had two 6-spots in the fifth and seventh. SAC OF Ray Meade (.241, 5 HR, 18 RBI) has four hits, including two doubles and a home run, and drives in five runs.
May 1 – Stars right-hander Jason McDonald (1-4, 3.89 ERA) 2-hits the Warriors in a 6-0 shutout, finishing off a 3-game sweep that leaves the Stars in sole possession of first place in the FL West.
May 1 – The Aces walk off against the Bayhawks, 4-3, in the 16th inning thanks to an RBI single by 2B/SS Bill Hebberd (.268, 1 HR, 7 RBI).
May 2 – The Cyclones lose SS Andrew Showalter (.300, 0 HR, 15 RBI) for a month with a strained oblique.
May 5 – The Cyclones come back from an 8-5 deficit in the eighth inning by crushing the Loggers bullpen for ten runs in the bottom 8th and claim a 15-8 victory.
May 5 – In the second long game of the series, Crusaders and Blue Sox play 15 innings in Nashville, at the end of which the Crusaders prevail by scoring three time in the top of the 15th to claim a 6-3 win. The Crusaders had already claimed a 10-7 win in 14 innings on Friday.

Complaints and stuff

Starting May 0-4 is really not something that I had in my mind after taking the first two games in Vancouver. These last four games, absolutely nothing worked. These four games were one huge, blazing train wreck. It can not get that much worse. This time I mean it.

Regarding Guerrero, the best starter by ERA in St. Petersburg is Damani Knight. So that’s that, and be careful what you’re wishing for. Guerrero gets one more, I think, and if it’s another disaster, then we have to make a move. The good news is that he has options.

Regarding Nunley and the Lineup of Darkness, there are A LOT of players on this team that have a completely ****ty BABIP, and Nunley is their king – almost. Ignoring the bench pieces for a moment, we have three starters with outlandishly low BABIP numbers, and the bench is really grisly. There is a lot of potential in the offense, but for ****’s sake, they can’t find a hole.

Matt Nunley’s BABIP is .174 at the end of the week, with DeWeese (.220) and Duarte (.228) also not getting any break whatsoever. The only lucky golden boy on the team is Denny, who is dang close to the team lead in strikeouts, but is batting .306 thanks to a .371 BABIP.

This horror cabinet will have a 16-game stint before their next off day (following the one on Monday), with the first 13 games taking place at home. We get in the Capitals, Indians, Loggers, and Condors. There is potential for recovery in that list.

For tomorrow’s birthday party for the Raccoons’ fifth birthday, please pile up your presents on the table over there. Yes, the one Chad has passed out under.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-13) vs. Capitals (16-14) – May 7-9, 2019

Washington was fifth in runs scored in the FL, and tied for sixth in runs allowed, somehow, despite their rotation being merely eighth and their bullpen even only tenth in ERA. They were good in getting on base, but not necessarily in the power department, and they were lacking a number of positon players who were on the DL, including Will Newman, Andy McNeal, and former Raccoons last-rounder and now proud backup infielder Danny Zigay.

The two teams are even at .500 all time. The Raccoons have won he last series in 2017 and it has mostly been going back and forth with 2-1 series for a while. There has not been a sweep (by the Raccoons over the Capitals in that case) in any series between the teams since 2003.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (4-0, 2.04 ERA) vs. Jared D’Attilo (0-0, 3.18 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-2, 2.92 ERA) vs. Steve Kreider (2-2, 3.00 ERA)
Cole Pierson (1-2, 3.68 ERA) vs. Fred O’Quinn (2-1, 4.76 ERA)

The Raccoons send Bobby Guerrero and his sadness-inducing 10.38 ERA to the tail end of the line and he will not start again until Saturday. O’Quinn is the Capitals’ only southpaw in the rotation, but they have a lefty closer in Ben Marx, so forget about any late-game comebacks.

Game 1
WAS: CF Baker – 3B Albrecht – RF Stone – 2B Downing – LF Kopp – 1B J. Ortíz – C Giles – SS Menth – P D’Attilo
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Abe

McKnight homered in the first inning to give Abe a 1-0 lead that could have been a 2-0 lead if Cookie hadn’t been caught stealing two pitches earlier. Cookie also hit into a double play after an Abe single in the third inning, all of which didn’t help the offense, and while Abe did not allow a hit in the first three innings, the Capitals got a couple, together with two walks, in the fourth inning and plated a run on Terry Kopp’s single. Juan Ortíz, with two on and one out, sent a deep drive to left that DeWeese caught, and when Kody Giles grounded out to Nunley the Raccoons at least managed to stay in a 1-1 tie. Dumbo Mendoza hit a double in the bottom of the inning but pulled up at second with a sore hamstring and was removed from the game. Petracek ran for him and managed to score on Nunley’s 2-out single to right, putting the Coons ahead 2-1. Abe held on to this one while pitching seven innings and whiffing eight. He was hit for in the bottom of the seventh with DeWeese on second base and one out. In his place, Eddie Jackson grounded out to Dave Menth, and Cookie would ground out to Josh Downing, keeping the Critters in a 1-run game. Much to our dismay the top of the eighth saw leadoff man Josh Baker reach against Thrasher when Petracek, having replaced Mendoza at first, bumbled his grounder. Adam Albrecht singled, moving the tying run to second, but Jason Stone’s double play at least put two outs on the board. Chris Mathis was sent to face the righty Downing, who was batting .347, and retired him on an easy fly to left, ending the inning. The Coons still couldn’t find an insurance run, and Alex Ramirez threw three balls to Terry Kopp to start the ninth. Kopp then swung and singled to left, Juan Ortíz tried to bunt long enough to have two strikes and whiffed, but then PH Chris Grubbs grounded to short to – oh **** me, McKnight blew the play. That would have been the ticket to end the losing streak. Menth flew out to Cookie in center, after which William Jones grounded to Ramirez, who was so slow to play it that I could feel the continents continue to drift apart. Jones reached, the bases were loaded for Josh Baker, a .256 lefty with a .388 on-base percentage. He sent the 0-1 pitch to left center, Cookie was racing over and made the catch to FINALLY END THE GAME. 2-1 Blighters. Nunley 2-3, BB; Abe 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (5-0) and 1-1;

The injury to Hugo Mendoza was not serious at all. He would be held out of the Wednesday lineup as a precaution. He was available to pinch-hit, however.

Game 2
WAS: CF Baker – 3B Albrecht – RF Stone – 2B Downing – 1B J. Ortíz – LF Melhorn – C W. Jones – SS Menth – P Kreider
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Jackson – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Santos

Santos allowed hard contact right from the start, and the Capitals scored a run in the first inning on Downing’s 2-out double into the rightfield corner. McKnight led off with a walk in the bottom 2nd. Jackson struck out, but Nunley got a ball past Josh Baker for a double, and DeWeese ripped a liner beyond the reach of a lunging Ortíz and up the rightfield line for a 2-run double to flip the score (and to casually reach .200 again…). Although Duarte walked and Santos bunted two runners into scoring position, with two outs Cookie could not get a grounder past Downing and the score remained 2-1, but they would get a run in the third: Walter and Denny opened with singles, and Walter eventually scored on a 2-out wild pitch by Kreider. Santos was in trouble briefly in the fifth inning, in which Jackson bobbled a throw from Nunley to put the opposing pitcher on base with one out, and Santos then walked Adam Albrecht with two outs, but Jason Stone made a casual out to DeWeese to end the inning. The Raccoons countered with two runs in the bottom 5th, reaching a 5-1 score on a huge homer by Mike Denny, who collected Shane Walter, who had singled again.

Hector Santos collected five more outs before crashing through 100 pitches. He struck out the side in the sixth, and had Jones retired on a pop and Menth on another K in the seventh before Chris Grubbs batted for Kreider and singled up the middle on a 2-2 pitch. Jason Kaiser would end the inning for him, while the Raccoons would add single runs in the seventh (on a home run by Shane Walter) and the eighth (Mathews pinch-hitting and singling home Jackson). Dave Menth would whack a homer in the ninth off Wade Davis with the Capitals down to their last out, but that was all the damage they managed to inflict against the pen. 7-2 Raccoons. Walter 3-4, HR, RBI; Denny 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (3-2);

Then, unexpectedly, the series ended here. Some nasty weather moved in during the night, and it rained the entire day on Thursday, washing out the series finale.

This would jumble things for the Raccoons. The league found an early common off day for these teams and the Capitals would come back two weeks from now as the makeup date was plugged into the off day the Raccoons would have had on the tail end of their 16 straight games without one. That was no more; starting with the opener against Indy on Friday, we would now play 20 straight games before the next of day, with the Capitals home game tucked unpleasantly between the first two legs of our 3-city road trip to Vegas, Charlotte, and Atlanta in the latter third of the month.

Raccoons (19-13) vs. Indians (19-16) – May 10-12, 2019

Both teams were tangled up in a really close CL North, and we were both within two games of the Elks, who still clung on to the lead. The Indians were 7th in runs scored, sixth in runs allowed, and had a zero run differential. They had little power and no speed, relying almost exclusively on chaining together singles and walks. The Raccoons were up 2-1 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (1-2, 3.68 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (2-1, 7.79 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-2, 2.81 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (4-1, 3.00 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (1-4, 10.38 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (2-3, 4.12 ERA)

The lefty-lefty matchup we would have had to end the Capitals series remains true on Friday, with Pierson now facing southpaw Kyle Lamb. The Indians played a double-header on Sunday, with Lamb and Riley starting the ends of that event. I don’t see them skipping Riley or Lambert, and either way they wouldn’t get their second southpaw, Luis Guerrero (4-1, 4.47 ERA) into the series.

Indy had a number of significant injuries, with SP Tristan Broun (0-2, 2.10 ERA), C Jayden Jolley (.538, 1 HR, 5 RBI), and 1B Jesus Ramirez (.204, 1 HR, 4 RBI) all down and all having gone down quite early in April. The batters were expected to be back by next week, so the Coons were a bit lucky here.

Game 1
IND: CF Genge – 1B M. Pruitt – RF D. Carter – LF C. Martinez – SS Matias – 3B D. Jones – 2B Eason – C Mancuso – P Lamb
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Walter – C Denny – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Pierson

The Indians broke out for two quick runs, with Lowell Genge hitting a soft line to center for a single, Matt Pruitt walking on four pitches, and then Cesar Martinez plated them both with a long liner into the leftfield corner for a 2-run double. Pierson struggled badly, pitched almost constantly behind in the count, and sprinkled in more 3-ball counts than were watchable. He did not allow another hit until the fourth inning, but then was rapidly torn down in the fifth, which Lowell Genge opened with a double to center. Pruitt legged out an infield single, but hurt himself and was replaced by Ron Alston. The Indians continued to drum Pierson regardless, with Dave Carter plating a run with a double to right, and Raul Matias plating two with a single. Pierson exited after drilling Dan Jones, down 5-0 and with the Raccoons utterly hopeless against a terrible left-hander; Lamb had entered with 16 walks in in 17.1 innings, few strikeouts, and an ERA close to eight, and the Raccoons sat on one hit and a lot of frustration. Chun replaced Pierson and struck out Bobby Eason to at least end the starter’s misery with only five runs allowed in 4.2 innings. Even the one baseball god that didn’t outright hate the Raccoons couldn’t help but to resort to crying, which brought us a 25-minute rain delay in the sixth inning, like that was what everybody wanted, staying at the park for the horror show for longer than necessary. The Raccoons’ first hit since a Mendoza single in the first inning would be a 2-out double into the left centerfield gap by Roland Lafon in the eighth. It was also their last hit, as they went down completely invisibly against Lamb, who completed the 2-hit shutout on 102 pitches and reduced his ERA by more than two runs. 5-0 Indians.

We are now tied for 10th in terms of runs in the Continental League with the Titans, who are in last place, with 133 runs from 33 games. In last place, with 132 runs from 36 games are the Thunder, who are also in last place in their division.

SCORE SOME ****ING RUNS!!!

Game 2
IND: 3B D. Jones – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – RF D. Carter – SS Matias – 2B Kym – 1B Alston – C Mancuso – P Riley
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Toner

Bring a right-hander and see a completely different team. Well, okay, the Coons didn’t score in the first, but they loaded the bases on singles by Cookie and Walter, a walk drawn by Margolis, and then Nunley struck out, because the devil holds his soul and squeezes it whenever he comes to the plate, but they loaded the bases, which was almost as many runners as they got against the crappy Lamb all game long on Friday. The Indians also had the bases loaded in the top of the second, starting with Dave Carter drawing a leadoff walk. Jong-beom Kym doubled with one out, and the ghost of Ron Alston held still for a walk. Nolan Mancuso fouled out next to first base before Toner threw Josh Riley all the mean stuff and erased him from existence with a strikeout.

The Indians were wearing Toner out, who needed close to 70 pitches through three innings in all the long counts you didn’t want to see. Also in the category of “don’t wanna see” was the long homer that Lowell Genge hit off him in the third, and that he walked Carter and allowed a single to Matias with two outs after that before having to wrestle down Kym in a full count. Kym still put the ball in play, but grounded out to short. The Coons briefly spotted Toner a lead in the bottom 3rd when McKnight singled and Mendoza went yard to left, but Dan Jones re-tied the game at two with a 2-out double in the fourth. Walter had a 2-out RBI double to plate Duarte in the bottom of the inning, but the Indians broke up Toner for good in the fifth. Genge led off with a single before Carter and Matias hit back-to-back doubles. Matias drove in the other two to claim a 4-3 lead. When Toner lost Kym to a walk, his fourth in four-plus innings, that was all anybody could bear to watch. He was yanked with four runs charged and two more looming on the bases, although Mathis cleaned that one up. Toner would also not be responsible for a loss, which was as good a statement as one could make over this abysmal outing of his, with ****ing Dumbo Mendoza pulling him out with a leadoff triple in the bottom of the same inning. Margolis singled to left to plate him and knot the score again, now at four, although even that joy was not going to last any amount of time. Mathis walked Genge with two outs in the sixth, and McKnight bobbled another inning-ending ball to allow Dave Carter on base. Matias then whacked a 3-run homer on Mathis’ 26th pitch, and the Indians were up 7-4. All runs unearned, Mathis was replaced by Bobby Guerrero, as I was doubting that I could find another 3.1 innings from a continuously battered bullpen, and placing Guerrero in a lost effort and nixing his Sunday start seemed like the best solution.

Guerrero got out of the sixth without allowing another seven runs, which was that little victory I needed to step off the wobbly stool once more. The Coons put the tying runs on base with nobody out in the bottom 6th as Jackson, Cookie, and Walter hit three singles in succession off Riley. Of course they ****ed up, because they had to. McKnight hit into a run-scoring double play, and Mendoza flew out handily to Genge. Guerrero held the Indians at 7-5 despite loading the bases in the eighth. He fired home when Kym bounced to him with one out instead of trying for a risky double play, then struck out Alston to prevent the Indians from scoring. In the bottom 8th, Cookie got on with a 1-out single, which was a theoretical comeback chance turned into an actual comeback when Walter romped a homer off Joel Davis, well outta rightfield, to tie the score for the thirteenth time at 7-7. Of course, Guerrero wouldn’t get through nine now… Mancuso led off the ninth with a single before Danny Morales hit a liner to right that kept bouncing away from Jackson wherever he went out there, and Morales had a go-ahead RBI triple. Thrasher struck out Genge, and the Raccoons got a leadoff double from Margolis in the bottom 9th against right-hander Jarrod Morrison, who had 29 K in 20.2 innings, but also a 3.92 ERA, and now had to face two lefties and a wild card. Nunley struck out and DeWeese grounded out before Mathews hit for Thrasher, and also struck out, leaving the tying run at third base. 8-7 Indians. Carmona 3-5; Walter 4-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Mendoza 2-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Margolis 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B;

Maud, gimme that ****ing stool back. – Maud, I am serious.

Game 3
IND: 3B D. Jones – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – RF D. Carter – SS Matias – 2B Kym – C Mancuso – 1B Faulk – P Lambert
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Abe

The Raccoons advanced the line to undefeated Tadasu Abe (5-0, 1.93 ERA) in the Sunday game. For Abe, this would be regular rest, having last pitched on Tuesday against the Capitals.

Lowell Genge continued to fork up the Coons, hitting a solo homer in the first inning to instantly put them back into trailing mode. Matias homered in the second; those two now had six homers between them, and four in this series. The Raccoons didn’t reach under their own power in the first two innings, but Duarte hit a leadoff double in the third and came in to score on Cookie Carmona’s groundout, and in the fourth Mendoza tied the game with a homer to left center. In the fifth the Coons had them on the corners after a pair of 2-out singles by Carmona and Walter, but McKnight struck out. In turn the Indians’ Jones and Morales opened the sixth inning with consecutive soft singles to center, with Duarte misfield the latter to put the runners in scoring position with nobody out. Abe, who didn’t have his best stuff, or even his second-best, and had only three strikeouts so far, rallied to whiff both Genge, the demon, and Carter, but then fell to a bloop single in a full count by the ****ingly annoying Matias, who plated two and was now 7-11 in this series.

Abe went seven shoddy innings, and DeWeese hit a leadoff triple against Lambert in the bottom 7th, after which the best the Raccoons could manage was Eddie Jackson’s pinch-hit, run-scoring groundout to Kym, while Duarte and Cookie both struck out. Lambert continued in the eighth despite having crossed 100 pitches during the Cookie strikeout. Walter grounded out, but McKnight singled past Matias into center. Mendoza came up, still no relief in sight, and Mendoza absolutely blasted a shot to right that was SO – MUCH – OUTTA HERE!!! It flipped the score, kept Abe undefeated, and put the Raccoons ahead 5-4 in an attempt to salvage even one game from this miserable set. Of course Alex Ramirez would try mighty hard to blow that one. Cesar Martinez pinch-hit for Matias (for reasons only known to the Indians manager, but my personal experience says that Matias went into the manager’s lunch box, which is a no-no) to start the ninth and hit a mighty rocket to right, where Petracek had replaced Cookie for defense mainly due to his stronger arm, but he also had no problems catching up with that potentially devastating drive. Kym flew out to center, and Mancuso bounced out to first to end the game. 5-4 Blighters. Mendoza 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI;

In other news

May 7 – An 8-run second inning gets the Loggers on the right track in a 12-1 blasting of the Stars. No Logger has more than two base hits in the game, and 2B Tyler Stewart (.252, 2 HR, 18 RBI) is the only player to drive in three runs.
May 10 – The Loggers manage only three hits in 14 innings against the Crusaders, who win 1-0 thanks to an RBI single by INF Sergio Valdez (.307, 5 HR, 25 RBI) in the top of the 14th inning.
May 11 – TIJ SP Andrew Gudeman (2-2, 4.95 ERA) will be out three months with elbow inflammation.
May 12 – The Rebels’ SP Josh Knupp (2-3, 3.64 ERA) might be out for up to two months with chronic shoulder soreness.
May 12 – Two FL games end 1-0 with a home run the only tally: NAS RF/LF Myles Beckwith’s (.326, 3 HR, 23 RBI) home run is the only scoring in the Blue Sox’ 1-0 win over the Rebels, and the Buffaloes even walk off, 1-0, against the Miners on a solo home run by LF/RF Bill Adams (.310, 9 HR, 32 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Dumbo Mendoza reached double-digit dingers about six months earlier than last year. I still hate him.

The offense as a whole continues to be gut-wrenching. 4.15 runs per game hardly is sufficient, even with strong pitching, and the rotation has not been strong at all recently.

Guerrero was rescheduled to start on Tuesday, although he has thrown 53 pitches on Saturday and we might have to find a spot starter elsewhere or send at least Pierson on short rest. Meanwhile, Jeff Boynton picked up the W on Sunday, which is his fourth of the season, tying him with Toner for second on the team. Opposed to Ramirez last year, Boynton does not primarily leech wins by blowing other people’s leads. He has not been charged with a run in any of the games in which he got credited with the victory.

[Westheim]

Bonus Birthday Update, yaaaaaaaay!!!

+++

Raccoons (20-15) vs. Loggers (17-19) – May 13-16, 2019

This was the first meeting with the Loggers in 2019, and we’d play four in Portland. The 2018 season series ended up even at 9-9, but the Raccoons hadn’t actually lost a season series to Milwaukee since 2013. He Loggers had the highest batting average in the CL and were scoring the third-most runs (boy do I wish we’d do that!), but their pitching was between mediocre and crummy with a 4.52 starters’ ERA and overall the fifth-most runs allowed. They did however have a positive run differential at +8.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (3-2, 2.68 ERA) vs. J.J. Wirth (3-2, 1.99 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (1-5, 9.49 ERA) vs. Julio San Pedro (0-2, 7.79 ERA)
Cole Pierson (1-3, 4.35 ERA) vs. Ron Bartlatt (2-3, 3.74 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-2, 3.29 ERA) vs. Troy McCaskill (0-4, 7.42 ERA)

These were all right-handed pitchers.

Game 1
MIL: 1B Pagan – CF Coleman – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – RF Hodgers – 2B Stewart – SS Burns – C Wool – P Wirth
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Santos

The Raccoons got Walter and McKnight on with singles, Wirth threw a wild pitch, but Walter scampering home on Mendoza’s groundout was the only run they would get in the first inning before Denny struck out. The Loggers had an immediate response, putting two runners on base and in scoring position before Josh Wool grounded past a lunging Hugo Mendoza for a 2-run single. They had two more on base in the third, Alberto Velez walking and Victor Hodgers hitting a single to center. With two outs, Santos proceeded to drill Tyler Stewart quite good to load the bases. Kyle Burns was down 0-2 and grounded to the left side, it looked like it would get through the hole, but McKnight made an amazing play and flung bare-handed to first just in time to nip Burns and strand three batters. The Raccoons were terrible, or at best soul-searching for the 71st month in a row and just couldn’t find a hit when they needed it, and when Cookie was hit by a pitch at one point, Walter would hit right into a double play, because they were not to score, ever, while Santos was constantly in trouble. Burns singled and Wool walked on four pitches in the sixth, and they pulled off a double steal with one out. Santos struck out J.J. Wirth and had Antonio Pagan at 0-2, but then allowed a howling liner up the leftfield line for a 2-out double that knocked him out of the game. And maybe that howling was actually me.

The Raccoons would put the tying runs on base actually in the bottom 7th, but as usual it would not end well, because it never did. Nunley initially hit a 1-out single, but got forced by DeWeese’s grounder to Stewart. Duarte singled and Mathews walked, bringing up Cookie with a full plate and two outs, and Cookie harmlessly rolled one over to Stewart to end the inning. Bottom 8th, two men were on with one out; Jackson hit for Denny and struck out, and Nunley grounded out to the omnipresent Stewart. Chris LeMoine drove in Pagan, who led the Continental League with 15 stolen bases (including one in this game), with a 1-out single in the top of the ninth against Wade Davis, like the Loggers needed another run… When Shane Walter found runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom 9th against closer James Silmon, he lined out to … Stewart! 5-1 Loggers. Walter 2-5; Nunley 2-4; DeWeese 2-4, 2B;

Last in runs scored by now. The constant nightmare just won’t end…

Game 2
MIL: 1B Pagan – CF Coleman – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – RF Hodgers – 2B Stewart – SS Burns – C Wool – P San Pedro
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Mathews – SS Walter – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – CF Petracek – P Guerrero

The Critters scored in the first inning again; Cookie initially reached on an error by LeMoine, but was immediately forced out on Mathews’ grounder to Stewart. Walter singled, Mendoza walked, filling the bases, before Mike Denny drove a ball to deep left. A first-inning slam would have been too good to have, so Hodgers made the catch on the warning track, allowing only Mathews to tag and score. Jackson’s single scored Walter, but Nunley ended the inning with a pop to short. While Guerrero mostly pitched in bad counts, the Loggers could make only one ball fall in in the first three innings, and the Raccoons had a great opportunity to do some more damage in the bottom 3rd, an inning that featured the starting sequence of a Mendoza single to left, a Denny double to left, and then Jackson walking on four pitches. The bad news: it brought up the 7-8-9 spots with a combined batting average of sadness. Matt Nunley continued to get the absolute worst deal at every opportunity, hitting a blazing rocket right into Stewart’s (!) glove for the first out, but the Coons would tack on three runs on an RBI single by Petracek, and a 2-run single by Cookie Carmona, to take a 5-0 lead.

All of which only served as an inspiration to Guerrero to get blown apart immediately. The Loggers opened the fourth inning with a LeMoine double and then two straight singles, but ended up held to one run when they hit a couple of pops. The fifth inning only got worse, with the bases loaded with one out. Velez grounded to third base, where Nunley’s only play was at first base for the second out as one run scored. Guerrero’s simple response was to walk Hodgers, loading the bases AGAIN. That was enough. Guerrero was yanked, bringing Mathis in with the bases loaded with the tying runs. ****ing Tyler Stewart hit an infield single that carried Walter halfway to centerfield to plate one run, and then Mathis threw a wild pitch to plate LeMoine before Burns struck out, leaving the score at 5-4 in the middle of the fifth.

Both teams were in their pen before the fifth inning was over. The Raccoons would add to their lead in the sixth inning, in which Ivan Morales retired nobody before surrendering a 3-run bomb to Dumbo Mendoza that made things much cozier again at 8-4. In the meantime, Jason Kaiser struck out four before walking LeMoine, but the Loggers hit into a double play in that seventh inning, just like they would to in the eighth inning against Wade Davis. While this was not a save situation with a 4-run lead, Alex Ramirez was sent into the ninth inning, because the bullpen continued to be overworked by the continuously terrible rotation. Wool, Brad Gore, and Pagan went down in order. 8-4 Raccoons. Walter 4-5, 2B; Mendoza 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Jackson 3-4, BB, RBI; Petracek 2-4, RBI; DeWeese (PH) 1-1; Kaiser 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

Guerrero (1-5, 9.20 ERA) was done with this one. He was sent to St. Petersburg right the next morning, to be replaced by Damani Knight (0-3, 3.51 ERA).

Game 3
MIL: 1B Pagan – SS Burns – RF Gore – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – 2B Stewart – CF Coleman – C Wool – P Bartlatt
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 2B Lafon – P Pierson

Pierson faced the minimum through three inning, which included Alberto Velez singling in the second inning, but getting thrown out by Cookie trying to make it a double. Pierson flew to left with two outs and two on in the bottom 2nd, but LeMoine had no trouble making the catch. In turn, LeMoine’s sac fly in the fourth plated the first run of the game. Kyle Burns had walked, stolen second base, and had gone to third on Brad Gore’s single to center. The Raccoons failed to get on base after Pierson’s flyout in the second inning until McKnight walked in the sixth. Mendoza also walked, putting two on for Denny, who singled to center. McKnight with two outs ran all the way and scored handily to tie the game at one, but after that DeWeese struck out. Pierson kept hanging on, which was a pleasant change to the usual misery, and the Coons had another scoring chance in the bottom 7th. Duarte hit a leadoff single off Bartlatt, who lost Roland Lafon to a walk. Pierson was left in the game to bunt the runners to scoring position, bringing up Cookie, who was 2-for-11 in the series and was probably due a good knock by now. On 1-0, he fouled out… So much for being due. At least Shane Walter came through now and hit a 3-1 pitch to center, well in front of Ian Coleman, for a go-ahead 2-run single. Wool was charged with a passed ball before McKnight hit a 3-2 pitch through Pagan, allowing Walter to score from second base. Left-hander Chris Sinkhorn replaced Bartlatt, but allowed a single to Mendoza and then walked Denny. That brought up Eddie Jackson, batting for DeWeese, and not only did Jackson draw a bases-loaded walk, but so did Duarte, and two more runs scored to make the seventh a 5-spot for the Critters before Lafon struck out to end the inning. Pierson made it through eight innings on 93 pitches, and was allowed to hit leading off the bottom 8th, which was over quickly enough, and Pierson returned for the ninth. Pagan grounded out to Lafon, Burns popped out, and Gore grounded to short. McKnight’s throw to Mendoza was poor, but Mendoza scooped it, and Pierson had a complete game. 6-1 Critters. Duarte 2-3, BB, RBI; Pierson 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (2-3);

The bullpen really needed that. And so did I.

And Duarte. Andy Bareford had a two bad weeks recently, but has turned it around. He’s just waiting for Duarte to post two 0-for-4’s in back-to-back games.

Game 4
MIL: 1B Pagan – CF Coleman – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – RF Hodgers – 2B Stewart – SS Burns – C Almond – P McCaskill
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – P Toner

Toner retired the first ten batters, including six strikeouts, before Ian Coleman homered off him in the fourth. The Critters had had three hits in the first three innings, but no conclusive success, but got Mendoza on with a leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth. Duarte and Nunley failed to move the runner, but DeWeese crashed a McCaskill pitch for a 2-run homer to right, flipping the score in the Coons’ favor. McCaskill would sneak a leadoff single to center in the sixth inning, not with any kind of authority, but it was a single. Pagan was used to bunt, but with the tying run on second base, Toner got consecutive fly outs right to Duarte in center from Coleman and LeMoine, but then couldn’t cope with a triple into the corner by the blazing fast Hodgers in the seventh. Stewart grounded up the middle, McKnight cut off the ball, but had no means of keeping Hodgers from scoring and had to retire Stewart at first instead, and in the eighth another extra-base hit sunk Toner for good. Brian Almond had drawn a leadoff walk and scored on Coleman’s double. Toner remained in for LeMoine, who singled, Coleman scored, and the Loggers were up 4-2.

Cookie opened the bottom 8th with a sharp grounder to right, but this one also ended up with Stewart, as usual, before McCaskill walked Walter on four pitches. McKnight doubled to right center between Gore and Hodgers before Mendoza sent a hard grounder to third base. Velez missed it by inches and both runs scored to tie the game on Mendoza’s double. Jonny Toner now even had a chance to win it, but neither Duarte nor Nunley could get the ball past the infielders. Both teams had their closer in for the ninth inning. Ramirez allowed a hit, but got through the inning unharmed. Left-hander Quinn MacCarthy retired the first two (with DeWeese batting leading off and lining out Stewart, whom else?), before Eddie Jackson hit a floater into shallow right for a single. Cookie came up, 2-for-16 in the series, and hit a liner to left. LeMoine cut it off before it reached the corner, and Jackson had to stop at third base with no chance to score, leaving Cookie with a double. Walter had a 3-0 count going against MacCarthy, then poked and grounded to Stewart. Oh fine, Walter, hit it right to the guy who denied the Raccoons any good vibes the entire series! Stewart missed the ball, though, by inches, and the Coons walked off on Walter’s single to right. 5-4 Critters. Walter 2-4, BB, RBI; McKnight 3-4, 2B; Mendoza 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (23-16) vs. Condors (17-24) – May 17-19, 2019

The Condors were also in fifth place, like the Loggers, but they were a much worse team than the Loggers, who had given the Coons a mighty hard time. The Condors were at the very bottom of the league in runs allowed, with a mediocre rotation that was eighth by ERA, and the worst bullpen in the league with an ERA close to six. They were fifth in runs scored, but even that didn’t work for them, with Jimmy Oatmeal leading the league in home runs with 14, but had only 26 RBI. We beat the Condors in 2018, and it wasn’t close at 7-2.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (5-0, 2.35 ERA) vs. Luis Flores (3-4, 4.47 ERA)
Hector Santos (3-3, 3.10 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (2-3, 4.59 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-0) vs. Casey Hally (1-3, 5.57 ERA)

Flores was one of the Condors’ two left-handers. We would use this game to give an off day to the left-handed batters that had yet to receive one, even if it would harm Abe’s chances to stay undefeated. Ah, kid just needs to not allow any runs, then he’ll be fine!

Game 1
TIJ: SS Nieves – C J. Vargas – 1B C. Martinez – LF Eichelkraut – 3B P. Cruz – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – 2B Sykes – P L. Flores
POR: 1B Walter – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – C Denny – CF Duarte – LF Petracek – 3B Nunley – 2B Lafon – P Abe

Unfortunately, Abe allowed two singles and a run on Jimmy Oatmeal’s sac fly in the first, so the Raccoons had some work to do. The Critters got the bases loaded in the bottom 1st on two walks and Duarte’s 2-out infield single, but Petracek struck out. Abe allowed no more hits until the fifth when both Mike Herrera and Harrison Sykes hit 1-out singles, then pulled off a double steal against Denny and Abe. That was on a 2-1 pitch to Flores, which was a strike – and the next one rung up Flores. Domingo Nieves popped out and the Condors were starved in scoring position. In the sixth, Jose Vargas and Carlos Martinez hit singles to get to the corners with nobody out before Abe struck out the next three batters, and that still had him trailing 1-0 with the Raccoons doing absolutely nothing at the plate. After 13 strikeouts in seven innings, Mendoza hit for Abe in the bottom 7th with one out and nobody on against Flores. He grounded back to the mound, but Flores airmailed the throw to first and Martinez couldn’t come up with it. Mendoza reached second on the throwing error. Walter struck out after that, but Jackson singled to left. Mendoza was sent around third base, Jimmy Oatmeal unleashed a murderous throw home, and Mendoza was out. Bottom 8th, Denny reached on an error with one out. Against right-hander and ex-Coon Manuel Reyes, a venerable 43 years old, DeWeese batted for Duarte and singled, but Petracek hit squarely into a double play to end the inning. With the Condors failing to add on themselves despite chances like getting two on with nobody out against Boynton in the eighth, the score was still 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth. Cookie batted for Nunley against left-hander Tim Dunkin, singled to center on the first pitch, and when Lafon was told to bunt, Sykes failed to make the play on a really bad bunt. The winning run was on base, and the Raccoons now retained Jason Kaiser to bunt, but of course this time it went really bad and Kaiser got Cookie forced out on third base on a nice play by Dunkin and a REALLY ****TY BUNT. Once Walter walked, it didn’t matter anymore; the Coons had Eddie Jackson, a .318 batter in select exposure, at the plate and that was probably as good as it could get for them right now with three on, two needed to win, and one out. Dunkin ran a full count on him before throwing the sixth pitch low. Jackson tried to slow down his swing and - … borderline call to be made here, and everybody looked up to the third base umpire, who had his fists in his pockets and didn’t move. It was a walk, and the game was tied! McKnight came to bat, hitless in the game, and grounded sharply to first. Martinez fired home to nip Kaiser, but McKnight legged out the return throw, bringing up Denny, who didn’t fudge around and hit the first pitch up the middle, past Domingo Nieves, and the Coons won this one after the greatest pains. 2-1 Blighters. Jackson 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Duarte 1-2, BB; DeWeese (PH) 1-1; Carmona (PH) 1-1; Lafon 2-4; Abe 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 13 K;

I wonder how this happened. The Coons used to hit quite well in the 80s and 90s. They haven’t hit well in 20 years. No matter the personnel. It’s always awful.

I wonder how this happened.

Game 2
TIJ: CF Jamieson – C J. Vargas – 1B C. Martinez – LF Eichelkraut – 3B P. Cruz – RF Rawlings – SS Nieves – 2B Sykes – P Menendez
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Santos

After about ten pitches, I was sold that Santos would lose this one. These ten pitches were enough to encompass Matt Jamieson’s leadoff jack, Walter putting on Vargas with an error, and then right away a wild pitch by Santos. Duarte made a spectacular catch on Jimmy Oatmeal in the inning to prevent further damage in the early going. Well, except for the dinger that Nieves hit in the second; however, by the third inning, the Coons had a 3-2 lead despite not getting a base knock the first time through the order. Cookie tripled with one out in the bottom 3rd and scored on Walter’s single. Mendoza walked with two outs and Denny split Jamieson and Josh Rawlings for a 2-out, 2-run double to do the job.

While a 3-2 lead by definition was never comfortable, since any whack could end it being a lead, this one was especially – … with Santos pitching like he pitched, to fat contact almost exclusively, it felt more like a tie. He got through five innings, somehow, on 84 pitches and with only the two dingers in the Condors’ hits column, but, boy, did it feel like him getting strafed. Because he DID get strafed. The defense was just avoiding the worst and caught every deep drive that wasn’t too deep to be caught without a ladder. Jamieson had the Condors’ first hit that wasn’t utterly deep with a leadoff single, a liner to right, in the sixth inning, but miraculously the park didn’t collapse onto the misfits in brown right away, and Santos got out of the inning on a grounder by Vargas and two pops over the infield by the combined 24 dingers in the 3-4 slots. Santos made it through 6.1 innings, whiffing Pedro Cruz and reaching 105 pitches, thus departing. Kaiser came in to see after Josh Rawlings, who reached on an infield single, with Mathis following right afterwards. Nieves lined out to short, and Mathis found a way out of the inning. The Critters would get a tasty insurance run in the bottom 7th on singles by Mathews, Cookie, and Mendoza, the latter with two outs, but the Condors had them on the corners with no outs in the top 8th when Jamieson and Vargas both hit hard singles off Boynton. In the most wicked idea in a while, Ron Thrasher came into the game despite no left-hander anywhere close to the plate. We wanted whiffs now! Thrasher whiffed nobody, and Jamieson scored on a sac fly to center by Martinez right away, but the 3-4-5 batters all made outs and the tying run (Vargas) never budged at first base. No help came forward in the bottom of the inning, and Alex Ramirez had to save a 4-3 game without buckling, facing the 6-7-8 batters, starting with PH Alfonso Gonzales, who popped out to Joey Mathews at second base on the first pitch. Nieves ran a full count before dropping a single into shallow left, and Mike Herrera again put the first pitch in play. Hard to second, to short, to first, game over. 4-3 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, 3B; Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1; Santos 6.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (4-3);

You know, it really does feel like anything else rather than that, but the Raccoons not only have tied the Elks for the lead in the North with this win, they have also won five in a row.

I know, on the field it looks like they’re playing .415 and are heading for early holidays.

Game 3
TIJ: CF Jamieson – SS Nieves – 1B C. Martinez – 3B P. Cruz – RF Rawlings – C Gonzales – LF M. Herrera – 2B Sykes – P Hally
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – 2B Mathews – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – P Knight

The Coons burst out of the gates against Hally, with Cookie walking, stealing, and scoring on Walter’s double, and then McKnight hit a bomb to left center to put Knight up 3-0 in the first inning. Knight’s career ERA was 5.11, so more runs was always better. Knight retired the first four batters he faced before Rawlings romped a homer in the second inning. Oh well, it’s still 3-1. A blink of an eye later, the bases were loaded, and Knight drilled Hally with a pitch to force in a run. Jamieson hit a sac fly, after which the Condors ripped Knight for three straight 2-out singles, plating two more runs for a 5-3 lead. Rawlings sent a grounder to Mathews, who botched it for a run-scoring error, and Knight allowed two more singles and three more runs before getting bumped. Sykes popped up against Chun, ending the inning from hell with a 9-spot for the Condors, so that 5-game winning streak that never was one was history at least.

The Raccoons would go on to put pairs of runners on base in the second, third, and fourth innings, and never scored, while Seung-mo Chun was in for the long haul and got two at-bats (none with men on, however), while trying to log as many innings as possible without his fingers turning blue. He made it through four innings on 62 pitches, allowing no runs, but was clearly gassed and had to be removed with nobody on and two outs in the sixth. Wade Davis got four outs, Mathis did the eighth, the Condors didn’t score, and all the poo on the scoreboard was Knight’s alone. The Coons didn’t reach scoring position again until the bottom of the eighth on singles by Nunley and Cookie, but Walter popped out to Herrera in shallow left for the final out. Hally went eight innings and had an easy victory after all. 9-3 Condors. Carmona 3-4, BB, 2B; Walter 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-5; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Chun 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Seung-mo Chun shall be declared the Hero of the Day.

It is a hollow title, really.

In other news

May 14 – TIJ LF Jimmy Eichelkraut (.410, 14 HR, 26 RBI) knocks five hits, including a home run and a double, and drives in two in the Condors’ 10-7 loss to the Thunder.
May 14 – The Buffaloes’ 2B Chris Owen (.321, 3 HR, 18 RBI) hits a solo home run in the seventh inning to beat the Capitals single-handedly in a 1-0 game.
May 16 – The Warriors trade CL Salvadaro Soure (0-5, 9.87 ERA, 3 SV), who … has some issues… to the Buffaloes for two prospects.
May 16 – The Gold Sox score a 12-inning, 5-4 walkoff over the Pacifics with a wild pitch by LAP MR Jesus Lopez (1-2, 4.18 ERA).
May 17 – The Federal League sees three extra-inning walkoffs; the Stars win 10-9 in 11 innings against the Capitals on an ordinary single by 1B Mike Gershkovich, while the Wolves beat the Cyclones, 3-1 in 10 innings, on SS Devon Stephenson (.253, 2 HR, 10 RBI) going yard. The Rebels fall behind in the top 13th to the Pacifics, but then score two in the bottom 13th to claim a 4-3 win. 3B Jesus Soto (.268, 2 HR, 6 RBI) has the winning knock, a single.
May 18 – Although the Indians have 21 of the 36 base hits in the game with the Bayhawks, they still take a 12-10 loss. IND 3B Dan Jones (.246, 1 HR, 6 RBI) leads all players with four hits, all singles, and plates two.

Complaints and stuff

Really … I don’t know, what kind of week was it after all? It was not a GOOD week, that’s for sure! If there is a proof for the claim that there can be bad 5-2 weeks, this is the one. The whole week was just tumbling from one train wreck to the next, and somehow they pulled their masked heads out of the noose at the last second quite a few times.

Not Damani, though. Five runs on Knight were earned, so are you more mad at him for not making it out of the second inning, or are you more mad at Mathews for making the error that knocked the Raccoons completely out of the game? I say why not tie both of them down on an ant hill, covered in honey?

Back to the drawing board with the fifth starter’s spot, I guess. I wonder what Brownie is doing these days.

Nunley’s BABIP remains under .200; I don’t get it. How can the baseball gods be this cruel!?

And now: cake for everybody!

[Questdog]

First place cake tastes pretty sweet!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-17) @ Aces (20-23) – May 20-22, 2019

The Raccoons began what would have been a 4-city road trip, but would be interrupted after the stint in Vegas with the makeup game with the Capitals that had been washed out on May 9. The Aces were 6.5 games out in the South, apparently suffering from the World Series hangover still. They were ninth in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, with the second-best starters’ ERA in the Continental League, so there was still potential to right this ship. The Raccoons had beaten them in the regular season, 6-3, in each of the last three years. We will not go into details regarding their performance outside of the regular season.

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (2-3, 3.75 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (0-0, 0.79 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-2, 3.45 ERA) vs. John Key (3-5, 6.18 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (5-0, 2.23 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (4-3, 2.71 ERA)

The Aces only had right-handed starters after moving G.G. Williams (1-4, 3.68 ERA) to the bullpen in favor of Quirion, who would make his first start of the season on Monday after appearing ten times in relief so far.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Pierson
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 2B Hebberd – RF Piepoli – 1B M. Hamilton – LF D. Brown – C Diersing – SS Burke – 3B Arrieta – P Quirion

In their creative strife to find new ways to drive me crazy, not only did Ronnie McKnight make an error in both of the first two innings when he could have had an inning-ending double play both times, no, he also hit in a double play in the top of the first, and with his spot not coming up in the second, Nunley had to play his part; both grounded to Bill Hebberd to end innings. To make things even more horrendous, Pierson bunted badly to get Margolis forced out after reaching with a floater for a leadoff single to right in the third. Quirion, rusty perhaps, threw a wild pitch, walked Cookie, and then surrendered a 2-run triple to right to Shane Walter, whom he then also plated with a wild pitch, putting the Critters ahead 3-0. Nunley hit into another double play in the top 4th, Cookie was caught stealing by creaky-armed Bobby Diersing to end the fifth, and Pierson issued a leadoff walk to Quirion in the bottom of the fifth, AND I NEED A ****ING DRINK OVER HERE!!

Pierson had already allowed a run to score on Rich Arrieta’s 2-out double in the bottom 4th, cutting the lead to 3-1, with Arrieta then getting thrown out at third base. Pierson continued to struggle further, loading the bases with singles by Hebberd and Saverio Piepoli before Matt Hamilton – struggling as he came in with a .241 clip and only three homers – hit to Walter for a double play. Finally a ****ing break, and where’s MY ****ING DRINK??? What do you mean, I have to exchange for tokens first? Gimme – AAHH!!

At least Pierson steered relatively clear through 7.2 innings before running out of steam. Piepoli hit a 1-out single in the eighth, but Pierson retired Hamilton on fly to Cookie, who had to go back on the ball, but it was not close to a game-tying homer. With two outs, we went directly to Ramirez, who found it necessary to concede the inherited run on a base knock by Dan Brown. The top 9th saw McKnight on with an infield single, then saw McKnight picked off in a complete no-show from the shortstop. Ramirez got no cushion, but also got no skills, and with two outs the Aces flicked two singles off the bats of Danny Rice and Adam Flack to get to the corners. Enough messing around! Thrasher came in to see after Bill Hebberd and blasted him out with a cavalcade of unhittable sinkers that should have been called droppers instead. 3-2 Raccoons. Walter 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Margolis 1-2, BB; Pierson 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (3-3);

By the skin of their teeth…

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – P Toner
LVA: CF A. Martinez – SS Burke – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – 2B Hebberd – LF D. Brown – C D. Rice – 3B Arrieta – P Key

Nunley had the Coons’ first hit in the game, a 2-out single in the second that led to nothing. Reaching first, he growled at Matt Hamilton when the Ace tried to exchange a casual word with him, then went into Hamilton’s pockets to find sweets. There were no sweets, but at least I am glad that his personal drought is not affecting Nunley, batting all of .181, mentally. Nunley’s was the team’s only hit through four innings, and the Aces also didn’t reach base at all until Hamilton’s 2-out double in the bottom 4th; Toner had sat down the first 11 batters, whiffing four. DeWeese drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, after which Nunley fouled out behind home plate and flung his bat away in disgust, nearly taking out an unsuspecting ballboy. The Coons filled the bags with singles by Duarte and Toner, bringing up a struggling Cookie with one out. He plated the first run of the game with a sorry blooper that fell into no man’s land in shallow right center, uncatchable despite three defenders converging on it. John Key then ran full counts against both Walter and McKnight, and lost both to walks for two more runs, with Mendoza’s sac fly to left plating Cookie to make it 4-0. Denny reached on Brent Burke’s error on a bad throw, but DeWeese’s fly to left with the bases loaded ended up with Dan Brown to end the inning. Brown opened the bottom 5th with a single and Jonny drilled Rice to put two on, but didn’t concede a run; Rich Arrieta flew out to Duarte, and Toner whiffed Key and Armando Martinez to end the inning.

However, Duarte did not take his turn at-bat in the sixth inning after having hurt his thumb on the Arrieta play, with Eddie Jackson being subbed in and Cookie moving to center. The inning started with Nunley fouling out to Rice for the second time in the game, and this time he didn’t say anything to anybody and just sat in the far corner of the dugout for the rest of the inning, and the same when he grounded out to Hebberd against reliever Enrqiue Guzman in the eighth. The score was still 4-0 in the middle of the eighth, with Toner holding the Aces to two hits, but his pitch count had gotten a bit high in the middle innings. Higher than Chad, actually; he was on 95 pitches starting the eighth against Arrieta, and he would not throw 138 today… Arrieta snuck a single to center to start the inning, but never moved off first, but Toner reached 111 pitches. He DID bat leading off the top 9th with a nominally ample lead, flew out to center against G.G. Williams, and soon was back on the mound, but would be removed as soon as an Ace would set a foot on base. That turned out to be Piepoli, who hit a looper to center for a single after Hamilton had grounded out. Jason Kaiser replaced Toner, who was a bit annoyed at the lack of faith, but was not quite as suicidal as Nunley. Kaiser allowed another single, but kept the Aces off the board. 4-0 Critters. McKnight 1-2, BB, RBI; Toner 8.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K, W (5-2) and 1-3, BB;

The news on Alex Duarte after the game were unfortunate, but not too grim. He was diagnosed with a tear in a thumb ligament, but the Druid claimed to have a perfect recipe for that, but it involved Lepidocaryum bark which was hard to get and all. I made him shut up with a bundle of $100 notes. I was sure it was well invested.

Duarte was placed on the DL with approximate recovery time of three weeks. Andy Bareford joined us after flying in overnight. He was batting .308 in St. Pete.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P Abe
LVA: CF A. Martinez – SS Burke – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – 2B Hebberd – LF D. Brown – C D. Rice – 3B Arrieta – P Valdevez

Still undefeated Tadasu Abe gave the rest of the crew some work after allowing a leadoff single to Martinez in the bottom 1st, threw a wild pitch and allowed two RBI doubles to Burke and Piepoli to fall behind 2-0 immediately. Abe allowed another double to Rice leading off the second, but he remained on base. Nunley missed the pickup on Piepoli’s grounder slowly up the third base line in the third inning, then sat dejectedly on his bum after losing both his cap and his balance in the scoop. That run also was left stranded, but the Raccoons had been retired in order by Valdevez so far. They did not reach the second time through the order, either, by any means, while Abe continued to get rung up. Rice hit a 2-shot to right to get to 4-0 in the game, and they had runners on the corners in the sixth with one out until Hebberd was caught stealing and Dan Brown lined out hard to Nunley. Cookie grounded out to Hebberd in the seventh before Walter sent a soft fly to shallow center, Martinez came on, but didn’t get it. Walter had a single and the Aces’ home crowd was understandably disappointed. Walter made it to third on an errant pickoff attempt and then a wild pitch. McKnight homered on a 2-1 pitch, and suddenly this was a ballgame again, especially when DeWeese hit another one in the same inning, getting the Critters back to 4-3.

We had ourselves a ballgame for like five minutes. That was as long as it took for Abe to put Martinez on with a throwing error of his own in the bottom 7th, and when Thrasher appeared, he got lit up, allowing a walk and two hits, and THEN conceded a 2-out, 3-run homer to Dan Brown. All runs in the inning were unearned, but the Coons were capitally crushed now. McKnight hit another homer off Steve Rob in the ninth, but by then it didn’t matter anymore… 8-4 Aces. McKnight 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI;

Raccoons (27-18) vs. Capitals (22-22) – May 23, 2019

The Capitals were sixth in both runs scored and allowed in the Federal League now. This was the makeup game from two weeks earlier. Hector Santos (4-3, 3.07 ERA) would face Jared D’Attilo (0-1, 3.82 ERA). Both had started already in the first two games of the set, but hadn’t faced another. D’Attilo had lost the opener, while Santos had won game 2, which also hints at the Coons already having claimed the series with a game to spare.

This was our 3,333rd regular season loss, which is all I’m gonna say anymore.

WAS: LF Grubbs – 3B Albrecht – RF Stone – 2B Downing – CF Kopp – C W. Jones – 1B J. Ortíz – SS Zigay – P D’Attilo
POR: 3B Walter – 2B Mathews – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – C Denny – P Santos

The Coons scored first despite Walter getting picked off after his leadoff single. McKnight doubled with two outs, then scored on Mendoza’s single to left, arriving half a second ahead of Chris Grubbs’ throw. Rain had moved the game to this date, then continued to mess with it, with a brief, light rain coming down in the second inning, in which the Critters got another run on Walter’s 2-out single, plating DeWeese from second base. DeWeese homered in the fourth to run the score to 3-0, with Santos only having allowed the first hit to the Capitals in the top of that inning, a 2-out single by Terry Kopp, and they didn’t get another base runner until the seventh, when Josh Downing hit a leadoff single, and William Jones’ double play grounder to short ended up holding them to three batters in that inning, too. D’Attilo’s last act in the game would be to walk Santos with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but his replacement Adrian Valencia made things markedly worse. The left-hander allowed singles to Walter and Mathews to load the bases, bringing up McKnight with one out. Ronnie had recently found some oomph in his stick, but missed the knockout blow, flying out to Kopp in center, but that at least scored Santos for the fourth run in the game. Santos’ days were numbered after seven as he stood at 90 pitches, but pulled through on just seven pitches as Juan Ortíz grounded out to Walter, Danny Zigay (the former Raccoons last-round pick) whiffed, and Ryan Miller (the former Raccoons busted dream) grounded out to Mathews. Santos was on the mound to *start* the ninth, but especially with him it was the same rule as with Toner earlier in the week: one guy on, you gone! Grubbs grounded out on an 0-1 pitch, PH Kevin Banks grounded out on four pitches, and Jason Stone was the potential last out in the game. The pitching coach insisted on feeling Santos’ pulse, which was present, and Santos gave his all and struck out Stone to claim a shutout. 4-0 Coons! Walter 3-4, RBI; DeWeese 2-4, HR, RBI; Santos 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K, W (5-3);

This is only the third shutout and seventh complete game in Santos’ career. It is not an ability issue (3.10 ERA), but a stamina issue, so you can not blame him for being short on those numbers after 257 career starts.

The nine guys from the starting lineup all finished the game together, so Cookie did not appear in this one. Only McKnight and Mendoza remain as players to have featured in every game for Coon City this year.

Raccoons (28-18) @ Falcons (22-24) – May 24-26, 2019

The Falcons had already played the Coons in April and had lost two of three. Right now they were third in the South, but seven games off, as the South was not quite like the North, which had four teams under a blanket with the Raccoons ahead of the Elks by half a game as this series got underway. The Falcons were eighth in runs scored, sixth in runs allowed, and had the third-worst rotation in the Continental League. I wonder whether they would like Guerrero back.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (0-1, 27.00 ERA) vs. Alex Vallejo (5-4, 4.20 ERA)
Cole Pierson (3-3, 3.57 ERA) vs. Jimmy Boswell (3-2, 4.77 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-2, 3.03 ERA) vs. Zach Engels (4-3, 3.83 ERA)

Three more right-handers to sort through, and they also have only one left-hander, so this could be a chance for the Coons’ ninth-place offense to break out for a change.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – 2B Lafon – P Knight
CHA: SS Good – 1B Fowlkes – C Holliman – RF Benson – LF Feldmann – 2B B. Reyes – CF Stephenson – 3B Czachor – P Vallejo

You could have understood the Raccoons being a little tired and flat after spending 46 of the last 38 hours either in flight or on the field, but the Coons’ first four batters all reached base to present Denny with the bases loaded and no outs, and all Denny could manage was a run-scoring double play grounder. Bareford flew out to Jeremy Stephenson to end the inning. Damani Knight had not gone back to Portland, sparking rumors of his dismissal and/or deposition in a landfill in Nevada, but had instead flown right to Charlotte to prepare for this start in which we hoped he’d decrease that 27 ERA a bit. Knight certainly did well for himself the first time through; the only batter that reached (Ryan Holliman) did so on a Mendoza error. Not that the Coons were above mishaps; Cookie drove in Lafon with two outs in the second, 3-0, then after Jackson’s single was caught stealing third base. Matt Good hit a single off Knight in the bottom 3rd, was stranded, and Holliman hit a leadoff single in the fourth, but also ended an inning when he was caught stealing by Denny. Ryan Czachor, a rookie, hit a 2-out double to left center in the fifth, but Damani got Vallejo to get out of that.

The pattern with one hit per inning continued through six, before Knight retired Ryan Feldmann, Bob Reyes, and Stephenson in order in the seventh, the latter two on lazy pops on the infield. The Coons had Mendoza and Denny on with two outs in the top 8th. DeWeese hit for Bareford against right-hander Blake Parr, but grounded out to end the inning. Despite the 3-0 lead being tender, Knight remained in the game for the moment, with the bottom of the order up. He retired Czachor and Juan Estrada, but then the top of the order came up and we twitched. Kaiser came on, walked Matt Good, then was replaced by Boynton, who allowed a ringing double to left to Fowlkes. Ryan Holliman sent a drive to right, but Jackson caught up with it to end the inning. Boynton came close to a save after all; with two on and two out in the top of the ninth, the game entered a rain delay for a suddenly appearing shower from a single mean cloud in the sky. 47 minutes in delay, the game continued nevertheless. Jackson singled to load the bases against the rubber-armed Parr, but McKnight grounded out and again nobody scored. At least Ramirez sat the Falcons down 1-2-3 in the ninth. 3-0 Coons. Jackson 3-5; Mendoza 2-3, BB; Walter (PH) 1-1; Knight 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (1-1);

Is it rude to congratulate a player, and then tell him that he still sucks? Knight’s ERA now is 4.82, which is still substantially above league average. I guess we need another start from him trying to navigate closer to his true colors, but those should not be too far removed from his career ERA and that, sadly, is still over five.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Mathews – SS Walter – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – P Pierson
CHA: SS Good – LF Benson – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – 1B Fowlkes – 2B B. Reyes – CF Pearcy – 3B Czachor – P P Boswell

A quick first run flew on the board as Cookie walked on four pitches and then scored on Mathews’ drive to the very bottom of the rightfield wall, right into the kink between dirt and fence, which stopped the ball almost dead and left Feldmann no chance to get Cookie at home. Two flies to right by Walter and Mendoza moved up Mathews far enough to score, with Feldmann both times having to go back to make the catch. Feldmann had one of the best arms in the league, but it didn’t help him here as the Coons went up 2-0 early. The Raccoons added a run in the second (déjà vu?) when Nunley got hit (which was a valid way to get on base if all other things failed), and moved up on Bareford’s groundout. Pierson with two outs sent a drive to right, and his arm didn’t help Feldmann on that one either, since Pierson found the gap for an RBI double. Feldmann would continue to be a sad camper in rightfield; after Boswell walked both Mendoza and Denny in the third, DeWeese hit a huge homer right over Feldmann’s head that was not worth running after and boosted the score to 6-0. Sad fact about the Falcons’ pitching staff: the Critters scored their half-dozen on just three hits.

Meanwhile the Falcons had no hits the first time through the order, and Pierson faced the minimum. He did walk a pair, but got two double plays to cover the trails of those wild episodes. Boswell ended up loaded with seven, allowing singles to Pierson and Cookie to start the fourth. Mathews hit into a 4-6-3 double play, but Walter plated Pierson with a 2-out single, 7-0. Holliman in the bottom 4th hit a 2-out single to left center to get the Falcons into the H column, but the R column remained unoccupied for now. While Feldmann hit an angry shot over the fence in leftfield, that ball passed six inches to the left of the foul pole. He flew out to Bareford on the next pitch. Pierson remained unscored upon through six, and in the seventh drew a walk off Michael Colvard after getting three base hits before that. The Coons loaded the bases with McKnight hitting for an ineffective Mathews with two outs. McKnight rolled slowly up the third base line, nobody could get a play even on Nunley coming home from third, and the eighth run of the game scored. Walter’s single to center scored two more against Sean Balzer, and Mendoza also hit an RBI single as the game completely got out of hand at 11-0. McKnight didn’t stay in – Lafon entered at second – and Cookie was removed after the inning for Petracek, who made a hustling catch coming in right away. There was mild disappointment even in the Falcons crowd when Pierson grounded out in the eighth since you do not see a pitcher getting four hits that often, and he also wouldn’t get the shutout. The seventh and eighth were laborious for him, and he was at 110 pitches after eight, and that was too much, even with an 11-run cushion. Chun got the ninth, and the Falcons got nowhere in Chun’s first appearance since logging four innings the previous Sunday. 11-0 Raccoons! McKnight (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walter 3-6, 3 RBI; Mendoza 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Pierson 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (4-3) and 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI;

That’s three shutouts in a row!

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – P Toner
CHA: SS Good – 1B Fowlkes – C Holliman – RF Benson – LF Feldmann – 2B B. Reyes – CF J. Stephenson – 3B Czachor – P Engels

The Coons again got a run in the first inning after Cookie singled and Walter doubled, but this time Cookie didn’t score until McKnight hit a sac fly. That was all this time, with Mendoza grounding out to third, and DeWeese striking out. The Raccoons’ string of shutouts ended with Jonny Toner, unfortunately, and also did so early. He hit Matt Good with his first pitch, and then surrendered a Pat Fowlkes double right away. However, the Falcons also only got one run from runners on second and third and nobody out, Travis Benson hitting a sac fly to left with one out. The game was thus tied at one after the first inning. Good would be on base again in the bottom 3rd, hitting a double, but was stranded along with Holliman, who was the second batter in the game hit by Toner. The Coons had also left on a pair in the top 2nd, and in the fourth DeWeese hit a leadoff single, and Margolis hit a triple(!) to right, where Benson missed it on the first pickup at the wall. Unfortunately, that did not give the Coons the lead; DeWeese had been caught stealing already. Of all people, Matt “Cursed by the Black Skull” Nunley came through, flicking a single to shallow center to chase home Margolis for a 2-1 lead. Andy Bareford then provided a more substantial note, whacking a mighty shot to left that Feldmann was unlucky enough to have to watch scrape the top edge of the fence as it tried to break the ankles of the people in the first row of the stands there. 4-1 Coons in the middle of the fourth.

The rest of the middle innings was uneventful. Toner had whiffed only two in the first three innings, but got four in a row between the fourth and fifth, and did not allow much hard shots to the Falcons. He opened the seventh inning with the stick and singled on a soft line to shallow right, then stole second base. Engels, befuddled, balked him to third, then walked Cookie. The Furballs were looking for the finishing blow, but got only one run on a single by McKnight to left, 5-1, with the other batters either popping up (Walter, Mendoza) or striking out (DeWhiff- eh, DeWeese). Toner’s pitch count got up in the last few frames and he was hit for in the eighth, allowing only three hits in seven innings, but needing 98 pitches to get there. The 5-1 lead was then almost blown by the well-rested (!) pen in the eighth. Kaiser got only Good, and for the second time could not retire him. This time Good hit a leadoff single. Mathis replaced Kaiser, allowing a single to Fowlkes, sending runners to the corners. Holliman struck out, but Benson walked to load them up, after which Feldmann, the tying run, put all his frustration into one shot to left that sent DeWeese back in a real hurry. He made the catch at full steam to the leftfield line, bounced off the close sidewall, held on to the ball, but had no shot at Matt Good, who scored. Mathis allowed an RBI double to Bob Reyes then, getting yanked for Thrasher for the left-handed Stephenson, who was hit for with Brandon Magee, a right-handed batter, whom Thrasher murdered nevertheless, ending the eighth with the tying runs in scoring position in what was now a 5-3 game. Bernard Girard’s 1-out single past Mendoza in the ninth put Ramirez in danger of blowing the lead, but Matt Good hit a double play grounder to McKnight to end the game. 5-3 Raccoons! Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B; Nunley 2-4, RBI; Bareford 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (6-2) and 1-2, BB;

In other news

May 20 – Six-time and current Federal League Pitcher of the Year, LAP SP Brad “Topper” Smith (3-1, 3.30 ERA) has a sore elbow and will miss at least one start.
May 20 – The Knights walk off against the Wolves in ten innings, 4-3, when a pitch gets away from SAL C Armando Galan (.279, 2 HR, 16 RBI) to plate Antonio Esquivel with the winning run.
May 21 – RIC RF Tamio Kimura (.306, 8 HR, 26 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after hitting an RBI single in the first inning of the Rebels’ 7-5 win over the Gold Sox on Tuesday.
May 21 – The Scorpions are down to their final out and have the tying runs on base against the Miners in Pittsburgh, when RF Josh Fields (.250, 2 HR, 8 RBI) cranks a pinch-hit grand slam off the Miners’ John Watson to flip the score, extend the game, and eventually send the Scorpions home 4-3 winners.
May 21 – More injury news for the Pacifics, who lose LF Jimmy Roberts (.307, 5 HR, 23 RBI) to a thumb sprain that will take about a month to heal out.
May 22 – 24 hours later, Tamio Kimura’s (.299, 8 HR, 27 RBI) hitting streak is over, as he is held to no hits in four attempts by the Gold Sox. The Rebels lose, 9-8.
May 23 – The Knights beat the Crusaders, 1-0, on a solo home run by OF Jeffrey Walrath (.275, 4 HR, 13 RBI) in the seventh inning, and in Pittsburgh, the Miners have one hit through eight innings, but then chain together three singles in the bottom of the ninth inning to plate the only run in their 1-0 win over the Scorpions.
May 25 – LVA INF Brent Burke (.238, 6 HR, 18 RBI) is not your prototypical slugger, but on Saturday he became the 36th player to hit three home runs in a game, going deep thrice for five RBI in an 8-1 win of the Aces over the Indians. This is the 38th 3+-homer game in ABL history, the first ever 3-homer game for the Aces, and the Indians haven’t been part in one since Claudio Rey’s big day in 2004. They last were on the receiving end of it in 1980, being victimized by NYC Michinaga Yamada.
May 25 – The Gold Sox beat the Blue Sox, 9-7 in 14 innings. Teams enter extras tied at six before both teams score one run in the 12th inning. Dutch Antillean SS/2B Piet Oosterom (.276, 0 HR, 11 RBI) plates the winning runs for Denver with a 2-run double in the top of the 14th.

Complaints and stuff

Four shutouts in a week! This is the one case, where three or four runs per game will be sufficient to keep the black noses above the waterline. In this particular instance, ‘black noses above the waterline’ equals first place in the power rankings. After a slasher movie start to the month of May, in which the team lost six of eight games and was shut out twice, the Coons have turned it around with an 11-2 record in their last 13 games.

Bobby Guerrero has gone 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in two starts in St. Pete. Watching that one with interest.

Now, what makes the Elks so special. They start to stop being a fluke, and to start looking like a good team by now. Their pitching is abysmal, with a bottom three rotation and a second-division pen, but they are scoring like crazy. They have one starter in the lineup with less than a .265 average, and their OBP remains insanely high at .363. They are crushing opposing pitchers with their mass. Few home runs, not much speed, but runners upon runners upon runners.

The weekend sweep over the Falcons not only put away the season series at 5-1, but we also got back to .500 all time with them. They were the only team in the South against which we were under .500 at this point, which is odd, because when you try to think of powerhouse teams in the South, you might think of the Thunder, Bayhawks, and Condors (they dominated the 80s!) much sooner than the Falcons. There are only two CL North teams against which the Coons are all-time under .500; one is the Titans, where our worst stretch coincided with their best stretch and made for ugly results year for year – seriously, we went 67-113 against them from 1997 through 2006 – and against whom we’re nine wins short of .500. The other? The damn Elks! We are but one game under .500 against them.