Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Questdog]

Rough start.....but on the bright side: only a game and a half behind Vancouver.....

[Westheim]

I may have overreacted a bit yesterday. I mean, they show promise (apart from a batting plague in the outfield and the obvious struggles of some starters early on) and of course, 1-run games can easily go either way.

However, that's not the start I imagined. Period.

The Canadiens have trouble getting the bats up early on, if I remember correctly.

Plus, something went completely unmentioned yesterday! Christopher Powell's 8+ innings heroics yesterday earned him his 107th career win. Now, he went 7-6 with the Gold Sox before being acquired in trade by the Raccoons in 1977.

That makes Old Chris the franchise's first 100-game winner!!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (3-6) @ Crusaders (3-6)

Since sweeping the Indians over three to open the season, the Crusaders had not won a game.

Enrique Sanchez had caught Christopher Powell often enough to know how to hit him. He did so with an RBI double in the first inning that got the Crusaders 1-0 ahead. While Powell was less than dominant, he didn’t surrender any more runs the next innings. A 3-piece by Gustavo Flores put the Coons in the lead in the fourth, in the bottom of which Powell barely escaped a bases loaded jam. Hall walked to lead off the top 6th and was still on first with two outs. Lucero was up and hit one deep to center, over two outfielders trying to get it and the ball hobbled to the wall. Well, that’s gonna score Hall. Lucero went for three, while the Crusaders scrambled to get the ball in – Lucero was waived on to go home and arrived miles ahead of the ball – INSIDE THE PARK HOME RUN!! The Coons now led 5-1. The lead melted to half the size in the seventh with a 2-run homer off Emerson McDonald, but once Wally Gaston entered, the Crusaders were quickly subdued. West pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to save the 6-3 win. Dadswell (PH) 1-1; Dawson 2-5; Flores 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Lucero 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

An error by Dadswell put the Crusaders ahead in the first of the middle game. Lucero homered again to tie it in the third, but Evans threw a wild pitch to get a runner into scoring position (and then allowed him to score on a double) in the bottom 3rd and trailed 2-1. That was already one mistake too much. The Raccoons never got their bats up and landed only four hits, losing by the score of 2-1.

Ready for a scorefest? Vicente Ruíz (0-1, 7.15 ERA) faced Gary Nixon (1-1, 8.18 ERA) in game 3. As it turned out, only one side would score enough for festivities, and that was the home side. Ruíz was beaten for five runs, then left with an injury. The Raccoons left two on in three of the first four innings and trailed 5-0. Top 8th, the Moles trailed 5-1. Osanai doubled to start the inning, and Hall was intentionally walked for whatever reason with already an impressive 0-3, 2 K record that day. Walker grounded to short, two away, Osanai on third. Dadswell then homered to right, and next Sanchez homered to right center. If only that double play would not have happened. But it had happened, and because of it, the Raccoons lost, 5-4. Osanai 3-5, 2B; Dadswell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sanchez 3-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Two weeks completed, the Raccoons had lost every series, were 4-8, had lost six games by one run, already trailed by 5.5 games, and I was throwing daily tantrums.

At the start of the season, Dawson, Hall, and Osanai had combined for 377 home runs. They still do.

Ruíz was diagnosed with a sore shoulder and would not have to miss a start. We still elaborated whether that was actually good or bad news in the office.

Raccoons (4-8) @ Indians (3-10)

FINALLY. FINALLY a home run by one of the big three, Daniel Hall, for two, in the top 1st of the opener. The Coons led 4-1 after the third, then found ways to ground into inning-ending double plays twice in the next two innings. Kisho Saito took a long time to find his killer stuff, his first K didn’t come until out #15 of the game. He ended up going seven frames with only the one (unearned) run against him, and the score still 4-1. Another unearned run scored in the bottom 8th, but Wally Gaston had made the error himself there. West saved the 4-2 win, but was again wobbly and put two on. He hadn’t found his mojo yet. Barrios 2-4; Osanai 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (1-2);

Poor offense was an understatement for the middle game of the series. The Raccoons were 1-hit through seven innings, the Indians did get four hits against Carlos Gonzalez, but were also held safely off the plate in a scoreless game. Gonzalez himself then had a 1-out single in the top 8th, only the team’s second hit of the game. Barrios, who was tried in leadoff for the struggling Walker and Thompson, hit a long liner into the left corner, scoring the (for a pitcher) speedy Gonzalez from first, 1-0! Sanchez pinch hit for Lucero, but struck out. Hall in turn copied Barrios’ performance and hit an RBI double into the left corner. That was enough with a quick eighth by Gonzalez and a still slightly wobbly ninth by West. The Coons won 2-0 on five hits. C. Gonzalez 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-2);

WE TOOK A SERIES!! WOOT!!

Armando Sanchez finally stole a base as well – this feat took the Coons only 129 innings to achieve in the 1986 season. Piece of pie! The robbed bag also led to the first run of the game in the third inning. In another offensively poor game, the Raccoons were unable to follow up with things like f.e. a second run. The Indians tied the game in the bottom 6th with three straight hits off Powell (which still only made for six hits off Powell). Powell then hit Esteban Hernandez to lead off the seventh and was removed for David Jones, who got out of the inning. The Indians took advantage of a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th off Cunningham and scored the go-ahead run on a grounder with one out. Thompson drew a leadoff walk as well in the top 9th. Hall popped out, bringing up Osanai, who hit a 1-0 pitch by Dennis Columpton all the way over the diamond, over centerfield, over the wall, the scoreboard, and the outer fence into the parking lot. Wally Gaston closed out the game, 3-2 Coons on only five hits.

If nothing else, that sweep put the Raccoons at least a good distance away from last place.

Raccoons (7-8) vs. Knights (9-6)

Over seven innings, Logan Evans allowed all of three base hits against the Knights in game 1. Yet, his control was off, and two of those hits scored runners that had walked. One out, Gonzalez on second, Evans was pinch-hit for in the bottom 7th in a 2-2 game. Steve Walker singled to put runners on the corners. Barrios walked to load them up, and Thompson doubled between Michael Root and Tom McDonald – great hitters, but not so great fielders. These two and then three more runs broke the game wide open. But the Knights clawed back in, tagging Bentley for two runs before Cunningham retired the last batter. The Coons were now in scoring mood, crashing the Atlanta pen for a few more runs in the eighth. And then Cunningham was battered. Maybe the wind had shifted since the sixth … Mark Dawson threw a runner out at the plate (all the way from right) to end the game, 11-6 Raccoons. Thompson 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Hall 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Walker (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI;

Vicente Ruíz so far carried an impressive 8.22 ERA through three starts in 1986. He may want to get that down to under 8 by the All Star break or we’ll trade him for a broken broomstick.

Game 2 was Ruíz’ start. The first two Knights reached scoring position without problems. Michael Root then sent a high flyer to left, which Daniel Hall not only caught, but turned into a double play at the plate against Jeremiah Carrell. Hall doubled in Barrios for the go-ahead run in the bottom 1st, becoming the first Coon with double-digit RBI’s on the season. Osanai doubled in Hall to get to 10 RBI’s as well. While the Coons didn’t get another baserunner until the fifth, Ruíz struggled on all fronts. Three times up, he had walked Carrell three times by the fifth, and one run was in. Gonzalez then walked to start the bottom 5th, and Bill Stevens singled. Ruíz bunted along the left foul line, and a throw by Jesus Luna was hurried too much and went way past 1B Fred Rodgers. Gonzalez was in to score and two Coons in scoring position with nobody out. Barrios sacrificed Stevens in, but Ruíz was still on second with two down. Hall came up – another RBI double to left. Osanai drove him in again, 6-1. Ruíz went 6.2 without more damage, but was removed then with Carrell coming up again. Carlos Moran made him fly to Hall. Home runs by Osanai and Root were exchanged late, and the Coons prevailed, 8-2. Hall 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 3-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Ruíz 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (1-2);

This fifth win in a row put the Raccoons over .500 for the first time since opening day.

For a 5-game winning streak I also fiddled considerably with the lineup before game 3. Mark Dawson was not hitting a lot yet, and was given a day off for Steve Walker, who otherwise found no place in the infield at the moment. Gonzalez also managed to get done very little. Bill Stevens was close to forcing a platoon role for himself on the team (although he also was sub-.200).

Kisho Saito continued a string of walks by Furballs starters to Carrell in game 3. He also hit Michael Root in the first, and both of those came in to score on a double by Sean Bergeron. The Coons scored one in the third, but then remained hitless until the sixth. Lucero singled to start the inning, but was caught stealing. Stevens and Miranda then both walked and pulled off a double steal (if I WANT a SB somewhere, I WANT it). Barrios’ 2-out single tied the game before Walker fouled out. Saito allowed a double to McDonald in the eighth, and the runner came in to score against Gaston, so the Coons trailed – and lost, 3-2. Walker 2-5; Hall 2-4; Miranda 1-1, BB;

The problem with too many infielders deserving to start took care of itself in this game, with Winston Thompson going down to shoulder tendinitis. He would miss at least four weeks. Orlando Lantán was brought up as replacement.

Raccoons (9-9) vs. Thunder (14-5)

Oklahoma City led the CL South on the strength of pumping 113 runs in 19 games. The Coons at this point had the least runs against at 63.

The series opener was already a highlight. Carlos Gonzalez and Domingo Leon kept hitters guessing at almost all times. Dadswell once guessed right in the fourth for a solo home run off Leon. The Coons added a second run in the sixth, but left the bags full. Gonzalez was utterly amazing through six innings, dipped his ERA below 1 shortly in the seventh, before the Thunder squeezed a run in. Gonzalez then struck out the ninth batter of the day with the tying run on third to end the inning. He was removed for a pinch hitter, being completely toast, to start the bottom 7th. After Jones walked the leadoff man in the top 8th, Wally Gaston got out of the inning quickly. West struck out Marc Shaw to save the 2-1 win. AMAZINGLY pitched game for the Furballs! Dadswell 2-4, HR, RBI; Sanchez 2-3, 3B; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (2-2);

In what was easily among the best of Carlos Gonzalez’ performances to date, he made it to the Top 3 in the CL in K’s, ERA, and WAR.

The Thunder drove up seven left-handed batters against Christopher Powell. I feared the worst, but Powell was not that bad. The Thunder tagged one run on him in the first, but he was then solid, waiting for run support that never came, until the fifth derailed from him again. He pitched seven innings, trailing 3-1, then hit Guy King to lead off the eighth. Jones came in and made a mockery, surrendering three runs with a homer to Sandro Delgado. The Furballs scored one run in the bottom 8th with an RBI triple by Hall, but looked beaten into the ninth, with Thunder starter Wilson Cordova still in. Gonzalez drew a pinch walk, and Flores’ pinch hit single chased Cordova with two down. Lantán singled in a run, bringing the tying run to the plate in Steve Walker, but he grounded out to Dave Browne at second. 6-3 Thunder. Osanai 2-4, HR, RBI;

Oklahoma made Logan Evans pay for two walks in the first inning with one run driven in by Leonardo Costa, but Dadswell hit a 2-run double in the bottom 1st to get Portland atop. The lead went bust in the fourth. In the bottom of that inning, the Coons had Sam Dadswell on first with two out. Ricardo Gonzalez doubled to left center, but Dadswell was held at third – and Logan Evans came up to bat. But Evans shot one through the gap on the left side of the diamond and both runners scored! That still didn’t change the fact that Evans’ outing was sub par at best. He was wild to an unhealthy amount and needed 99 pitches through five frames. Hall reached on an error in the bottom 5th, then was caught stealing with Osanai at the plate. Osanai went on to go deep a few pitches later. That 5-2 lead held until the eighth, where the Raccoons jumped on reliever Jorge Mora for five runs, including a 3-bomb by pinch hitter Rodrigo Lucero. Bentley sat the Thunder down in the ninth and the Raccoons topped them, 10-2. Barrios 3-5, RBI; Lucero (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Osanai 2-5, HR, RBI; Dadswell 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Stevens (PH) 1-2, RBI; Cunningham 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

April 19 – TIJ Carlos Castro (1-1, 1.57 ERA) tosses a 3-hitter, as the Condors beat the Bayhawks 6-0.
April 21 – Vancouvers’ Bill Smith (1-2, 6.32 ERA) 3-hits the Titans in a 7-0 win.
April 21 – A foot fracture will slow down Las Vegas’ hot shot youngster Claudio Garcia (.306, 0 HR, 6 RBI) for three weeks.
April 22 – SFW SP David Castillo (0-2, 4.34 ERA) will miss half the season with a badly strained hamstring.
April 22 – TIJ SS Cipriano Ortega (.309, 0 HR, 8 RBI) is forced out of a game early with an oblique strain, will miss six weeks, and has his 19-game hitting streak blow up because of the injury.
April 23 – Veteran starting pitcher Augusto Trujillo, 36, is out with a torn flexor tendon, which will sideline him for at least one year. He is the second Warriors rotation member to go down this week. Trujillo had a 3.00 ERA through four games without any decisions.
April 29 – ATL C Steve Wall (.299, 1 HR, 12 RBI) is sat down by a rib cage muscle strain and will miss most of May.
April 29 – Salem’s Carlos Reyes (2-3, 2.77 ERA) 1-hits the Capitals in a 4-0 win. Reyes carried a perfect game into the ninth inning, before Yoshihito Ito broke it up with a 1-out single, a liner to left. There has never been a perfect game in the ABL.

Complaints and stuff

In what amounts to some of the best notes around the franchise, minor leaguer 2B Dani Perez was named A level player of the week in mid-April after a .458, 2 HR, 8 RBI run, and just was named A level player of the month at a .398, 5 HR, 23 RBI clip. (Outside the franchise, Chris Smith at age 38 was FL player of the week, going .440 with 2 HR and 8 RBI for the Pacifics; Smith was of course a late season addition to our 1983 playoff run)

OSA has now a 12/12/16 potential line for Perez in place. Nathan Bruce is less optimistic, and of course Perez has never hit more than .230 in three full years in A ball. But that might be his time. He was promoted to AA ball.

Our own offense has picked up some, including long balls, although there’s still a frightening zero in Mark Dawson’s long ball column. But of course he’s always been very streaky. He could slug six next week. We now tie for 1st in homers in the CL and are only 8th in homers conceded, so things reversed here clearly over the last two weeks. We are close to the top in most other pitching categories.

What else? Scott Wade is 6-0 with a 2.55 ERA in AAA. With Ruíz wobbling, something might be on here. Ruíz has options but also has 10/5 rights. Catcher Andy Reed slugs a flat 1.000 in AAA. Outfielder Paul Blake is .333 with 7 HR, 27 RBI there.

Further down, top draft pick Joe Jackson is batting .172 in AA ball. Uh-oh.

Next: road trip to Boston, Vancouver, and then Salem for an Oregon Brawl. The home part of that interleague week puts as against the Cyclones. And then it will already be time again for the draft pool.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (11-10) @ Titans (14-8)

Could this be the Titans’ year? They have a very young and still very productive team, offensively. Their pitching is so-so, though.

The series opener was one to forget quickly from a Raccoons standpoint. They left on ten runners in the first six innings, at least one in every frame, and two four times. The Titans took a 2-0 lead early on. Back-to-back doubles by Hall and Osanai then finally got a run in against Kinji Kan in the seventh. Moran loaded the bags in the bottom 8th with one out. Gaston walked in a run before he got out of the mess. Juan Miranda entered for the Titans in the ninth, up 3-1. Walker doubled to lead off and Hall pressed a hobbler through over second bag to put runners on the corners for Osanai – who struck out, as Miranda began to register three quick outs. 14 runners left on base in a first class nightmare. Walker 3-5, 2B; Hall 2-4, BB, 2B; Osanai 2-5, 2B, RBI; Sanchez 2-4;

We called up our 1982 round 5 pick, LF/RF Paul Blake, to replace the struggling Bill Stevens in the outfield. Blake, 26, had a 3 HR, 8 RBI game in April against AAA side Chula Vista, and could make an impact with Lucero and Gonzalez struggling in the outfield. His defense is not a good advertisement, though. He was inserted to start in right the next day.

A hit batsman (Hall) and three walks plated a no-hit run for the Coons in the top 1st of game 2. Walker had the first hit for the team in the third, and they loaded up the bags again on walks by starter Jose Garza. Up 2-0, the bags were full for Blake’s second career plate appearance. He walked for his first RBI. Next, Kisho Saito hit a 2-run single. But momentum swung right back into Saito’s face, when he couldn’t come up with Garza’s bunt in the bottom 3rd – and then the Titans reeled off hit after hit and tied the game. Saito was removed unable to get through the inning. Cunningham entered to do long relief in the 5-5 game. Armando Sanchez brought in a run in the top 6th to give Cunningham a lead, who was removed for PH Ricardo Gonzalez. Sanchez in the eighth and Hall in the ninth made great catches to take away extra base hits for the Titans, before Grant West struck out Barry Miller to end the game, 6-5 Coons. Walker 2-4, BB; Hall 2-3, BB; Sanchez 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Cunningham 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-0); Bentley 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We faced Eric McCullough in the rubber game, who had been an awful Furballs reliever, but was a decent Titans starter (much the same story as about half a decade ago with Bruce Wright). Osanai drove in Hall in the first for an early lead, but Carlos Gonzalez was bashed for three runs in the bottom 1st as the Titans batted through the order right away. The Furballs got one run back on a Bob Arnold error in the fourth, but Zahid Mashwanis homered off Gonzalez in the fifth to bring the gap to two runs again. Osanai homered to lead off the sixth in turn, and then the Furballs reeled off three more hits to load the bags with nobody out. Lucero worked a walk and the game was tied. Next, Lantán pinch hit for Gonzalez and singled JUST between the infielders on the left side. Dimian Barrios doubled to right and that finally removed McCullough as well. 7-4 Coons and still nobody out, but now Jose Ramirez sat down the Coons 1-2-3. Paul Blake had a pinch hit single for his first major league hit in the seventh. Now the Raccoons batted through the order. Dadswell hit a 2-piece right behind Blake, who came back to the plate and walked with two out. Up 13-5 after a 6-run inning, we gave the ball to Moran. He axed the Titans away, and also drove in a run in the top 9th. The Raccoons finished the romp in style, winning 15-5! Barrios 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 4-5, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Blake (PH) 1-1, RBI; Dadswell 3-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Sanchez 3-6; Moran 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, SV (1);

Raccoons (13-11) @ Canadiens (14-10)

We headed to Canada with both teams within 1.5 games of the Titans that still headed the CL North.

The Coons loaded the bags against Robbie Campbell with nobody out in the top 1st of the opener – then fizzled out as Osanai and Dadswell struck out and Dawsons grounder was more than just pitiful. Powell then instantly surrendered two in the bottom 1st. Armando Sanchez answered with a 2-run home run with two out in the second. Top 3rd, still 2-2, nobody on and two down, Mark Dawson stepped to the plate. He went deep against Campbell – his first home run of the season! It had taken him 95 AB’s to break the drought. The lead was not made to last though, since Campbell hit a 2-out RBI single off Powell in the bottom 4th. Powell couldn’t get out of the fifth at all, and was on the hook when Bentley allowed Raúl Herrera to score from third. The Coons left runners on the corners in the seventh, then put them there again in the eighth with nobody out after hits by Dawson and Barrios. Carlos Miranda made a poor out, but Flores pinch hit for Bentley and singled up the middle to tie the game. Sanchez then doubled in Barrios. Sanchez made quite some noise in his first game in leadoff this season. Walker had an RBI single, Hall had an RBI single, Osanai had an RBI single. Up 9-5, MacDonald put the first two Canadiens on in the bottom 9th, and West came in. West couldn’t get on top of them. Herrera drove in two with two out to make it 9-8 and represented the tying run at second. Ramon Gonzalez launched at the first pitch from West – popped it up and Flores easily caught it to seal the deal! 9-8 Furballs on all those offense! Sanchez 4-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Walker 2-5, RBI; Hall 2-4, BB, RBI; Osanai 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Dawson 2-5, HR, RBI; Barrios 2-5; Flores (PH) 1-2, RBI; Bentley 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Logan Evans was not sharp again and was beaten for two runs in the first. Raimundo Beato was perfect for 11 outs, before Hall singled to right, keeping a 10-game hitting streak alive. That was for some time all the Coons put up after scoring runs in a hurry the last few days. Osanai homered in the seventh, but by then the Canadiens had put up four already. They got one more chance in the eighth after Walker drew a 2-out walk to load the bags for Daniel Hall, but he flew out. Raccoons lost, 5-1, missing a chance to take second in the division. Sanchez 2-4;

Rain chased the starters in the fourth inning of game 3, but by then Ruíz had already given up two home runs and trailed 3-0. The Raccoons were held very short again. A stray homer by a glowing red hot Armando Sanchez and one run in the eighth driven in by Dadswell were far from enough to prevail against the Canadiens. Hall’s hitting streak also ended with an 0-3, BB day and the team lost 4-2 on only five hits. Sanchez 3-3, BB, HR, RBI; Dawson 1-2, BB;

Well, after a great start, this pivotal series became a huge disappointment.

Raccoons (14-13) @ Wolves (14-14)

Overall we were 5-7 against the Wolves, but had swept them when we had met the last time, two years ago. They were three over their pyth. record, with batting and pitching both having some gaping holes. That was the perfect trap for the Coons to fall into.

Kisho Saito went against almost-perfect Carlos Reyes to open the series. Walker broke up his perfect game here right in the first, which was the only hit for either team through three innings. Osanai and Dadswell had 2-out hits in the fourth, before Dawson drove in everybody with a home run to left. Saito battled around leadoff doubles twice in the fourth and fifth innings, then gave a leadoff walk to Reyes in the sixth, and Reyes was the one that came around to score to take a run away. After the homer to Dawson, Reyes was also rock solid on the mound, with no Raccoon reaching second base for three innings. Both starters went eight frames eventually, with the Raccoons on top 4-1 after an RBI double by Dadswell scoring Osanai in the eighth. West then stumbled in the ninth and Walker dropped a double play ball that could have possibly ended the game. With two unearned runs in, the bases loaded after an intentional walk to Luis Miguel Vargas, and two down, West got the catcher Sam Murphy to pop to Dawson to end the game, 4-3 Raccoons. Dadswell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (2-3) and 2-3;

No scoring early on in the middle game, and then the Coons left Osanai after a leadoff double on second in the fourth inning. The Wolves in turn converted their leadoff double in the bottom 4th to go up 1-0. Carlos Gonzalez responded with a frustrated home run to tie the score again in the top 5th, but got behind again in the bottom 5th. Two on, nobody out, Dadswell popped out in the top 6th, followed by Dawson precisely finding the right spot for a double play. Dimian Barrios then drew a leadoff walk in the seventh. On a hit-and-run, Paul Blake doubled to deep right and Barrios scored, tied again! With one out, Armando Sanchez and Steve Walker put up back-to-back RBI doubles. Hall was put on intentionally and Salem southpaw reliever Jose Amador then retired Osanai and Dadswell. Both teams had chances to score in the eighth. Cunningham got the last out there and with West unavailable after that dreadful ninth the day before, went on to log a 4-out save, including punching out the side in the bottom 9th. 4-2 Raccoons! Sanchez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Walker 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Hall 2-4, BB; Osanai 2-5; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (4-2) and 1-3, HR, RBI; Cunningham 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (1);

This a) put us past the Titans into second place in the division, and b) tied the all-time Oregon Mash at 7-7. Now, the next one is for bragging rights. The next one is for honor. Do those Raccoons have any honor?

With Chris Powell being less-than-great in his last few starts and a pair of consecutive Mondays off here, we went with Logan Evans instead in game 3. Paul Blake hit his first big league home run in the top 2nd. Hadn’t Mark Dawson grounded into a double play just before him… The Wolves came back into the game quickly and led after five, 2-1. Whatever chance there was for the Raccoons afterwards, they blew it. Mike Dye struck out the side for the Wolves in the ninth. 2-1 Salem. Sanchez 3-4, 2B; Dadswell 2-3; add to that Blake’s homer and you have all their hits.

Those Raccoons don’t have any honor.

Raccoons (16-14) vs. Cyclones (9-21)

The weak-hitting, generally incompetent Cyclones roughed up Vicente Ruíz for three hits and two runs in the first inning of game 1. The Coons rallied in the bottom 2nd where Osanai led off with a double and his team mates copycatted him nicely. Blake hit a double off the wall to tie the game, and Ruíz grounded for the go-ahead run (Barrios) scoring from third. But Ruíz was the wrong person to manage that lead – the Cyclones bashed him for three runs in the fourth inning and he was yanked. Bob Potter belted an unearned 2-run home run off David Jones in the fifth. Hall walked to lead off the bottom 6th. Osanai grounded to pitcher Jim Harrington, who bobbled the ball – no double play, instead two on. Another chance? AWAY WITH IT! Dadswell grounded into the double play much more competently than Osanai and Dawson flew out. Osanai hit a 3-piece in the eighth – to no avail, since the pen was bashed by the Cyclones regardless, with lightly hitting SS Alberto Ayala taking Richard Cunningham deep for three as well. In addition, Cunningham broke C Leo Smith’s wrist by fastballing it at 99mph. 11-6 Cyclones. Osanai 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-4, RBI; Barrios 2-4; Moran 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

I admit, I had calculated with a sweep here. By the Coons, on the Cyclones, that was. Well, you need a good team to sweep people.

Emerson MacDonald was demoted to AAA after walking the only batter he face in this game. Pedro Vazquez, our 1981 round 4 pick, was called up. At 23, he was consistently posting strong numbers in AAA, although he was not particularly overpowering anybody.

Well, we may still get to see that sweep.

Dannyboy got the Raccoons a lead with an RBI double past 1B Ben Simon (of course of ex-Coon 810-consecutive-games fame) in the bottom 1st. Kisho Saito was perfect for the first ten outs, before Benedict Allard dipped a looper into short center that fell between just about everybody. The Cyclones lost starter Greg O’Brien to injury early, but the pen did a great job of keeping the Raccoons off base throughout the contest. They didn’t threaten again until the eighth, but left Sanchez on third there. Saito had 2-hit the Cyclones that far, still holding on to the 1-0 lead. On 102 pitches and seemingly dialed in, he started the ninth. He walked Alberto Ayala, who was then bunted into scoring position and Saito was removed for Grant West. Allard singled past Walker to put runners on the corners. CF Pedro Ortiz jabbed at the first pitch from West and grounded it to the right side of the diamond. West hurried after it, zinged to Walker to force Allard, and Walker nailed Ortiz at first in a bang-bang play – 1-0 Raccoons!! Barrios 2-2, BB; Saito 8.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-3); Barrios’ pair of hits was 50% of their H production.

Carlos Gonzalez started game 3 with awful control. At 1.5 games behind and against a last-place team this was a no-nonsense game. Get a win. NOW!! He walked three in the first two frames, but struck out LF Robert Harris with the bags full in the second inning. He then grounded in the go-ahead run in the bottom 2nd, following a play that could have been a disaster easily. Walker and Ricardo Gonzalez had drawn 1-out walks. With Carlos Gonzalez being a good contact batter (for a pitcher), we tried a hit-and-run. CG never got close to Victor Macías’ pitch, but Clifton Greenan, a great defensive catcher, bobbled the ball for a split second, and Walker, not the fastest runner, was safe at third. The Raccoons pitcher then also figured in the team’s second run, scoring from second on a 2-out single by Armando Sanchez. Carlos settled in after the wild start to the night and pitched seven innings of shutout ball with a 2-0 lead. The top 8th came and the Coons tried very hard to blow the lead. Barrios made a bad throw on the first play that Osanai somehow managed to corral. He didn’t get Dawson’s wild throw on the next grounder. Two down, runner on second, Dadswell’s glove was nowhere near a good Wally Gaston pitch for a passed ball and the runner going to third. Gaston recollected himself, and struck out Bill O’Brien to end the inning. Top 9th: Bob Potter homered off Grant West to lead off. Trouble on the horizon. Osanai muffed a grounder by Greenan and the catcher was safe at first. Ben Simon, still a powerful slugger, came up. But he also still struck out in raw amoungs, and was K’ed. Allard grounded out, but advanced the runner to second. Robert Harris came up in a big spot again – and struck out again. 2-1 Coons!! Sanchez 2-4, RBI; Osanai 2-4; Dadswell 2-4; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 7 K, W (5-2) and 1-2, 2B, RBI;

It was our first series against Cincy since 1980 that did not result in a sweep (one by the Coons, two on them). Overall, we were 8-10 against them.

In other news

May 1 – The Titans trash the Crusaders 14-1, with LVA 3B Mark “Icon” Allen going 5-5 with 5 RBI, including two home runs. A 1982 first round pick, Allen is a dangerous hitter at age 24.
May 3 – SP Todd Raines’ career is over at age 25 because of a torn labrum. His only 11 major league appearances came in 1984 with the Raccoons, racking up a 5.85 ERA and 0-3 record. He was traded to San Francisco after the season, but never pitched in the majors again.
May 3 – Vancouver’s Juan “Mauler” Correa (5-0, 1.47 ERA) 1-hits the Loggers in a 7-0 win for the Canadiens.
May 8 – Veteran hurler ATL Bernard Lepore (1-3, 3.95 ERA) has been diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff and won’t be back until the end of September if he will return during this season at all.
May 11 – 26-yr old Vicente Torres of the Wolves (3-3, 4.74 ERA) faces a long road to recovery after suffering a torn rotator cuff. Kind estimates put him up for a 12-month stay on the DL.
May 11 – Miners infielder (and ex-Coon) Jayson Bowling (.276, 1 HR, 6 RBI) took a tumble down the stairs while sleepwalking and is out for a few weeks with an elbow sprain.

Complaints and stuff

Next: homestand against the Indians, Loggers, and Condors. After that comes a long and hard road trip starting in San Francisco and leading into Charlotte by May's end.

The Canadiens ARE a number in the division, and they are certainly a bigger one than the Furballs. Their pitching must be overcome first, and it is no conincidence that the Raccoons barely got the bats up in two of the three games last week. Unfortunately that is a sign of how the power is distributed in the division and with the Titans being strong, we could be in for some long seasons with our core aging away. Most of our key players are around 30 or older.

On more positive notes, glowing white hot Armando Sanchez was the CL Player of the Week (May 4-10) going .577 with 2 HR and 5 RBI. At that point he was batting .431 (!!!) after not batting anything in the first half of April.

Just moved up to AA, Dani Perez earned Player of the Week honors there! He went .417 with 4 HR and 7 RBI.

Osanai leads the league in homers, tied with Gabriel Cruz of the Stars. Sanchez would lead the batting race, would he qualify. Carlos Gonzalez trails only Juan Correa (2.3) in pitchers’ WAR with 1.5.

The issues: SP Vicente Ruíz is not getting anything done. He refuses demotion to AAA (I tried to convince him after his latest blowup). I really want Scott Wade to join the team in his spot. Ruíz can’t be moved and has no trade value at the moment. Or so I thought.

The Falcons are interested in him and offer two young guns for him, Bastyao Caixinha and Manuel Movonda. I’d be inclined to the latter because I can’t type Caixhj- Caihin- Xhgjlsd- for my life. Plus, Movonda’s at age 22 the better pitcher (that other guy is 24). Movonda is a 5-pitch hurler with good secondaries like stamina. He can lead guys. And his nickname is “Bam Bam”, for god’s sake. The Miners offer Ricardo Torres, another starter, but he has a walk issue, and I have issues with pitchers with walk issues.

Movonda could spend the year at AAA, and Wade take over for Ruíz. IF Ruíz would accept demotion, I would do just that, but he refuses, so …

[Westheim]

1986 DRAFT POOL

The Raccoons will draft 15th in this year’s amateur draft, in every round, no picks lost, no picks gained. Easy as pie. Well, you like to draft either 1st or last, to be honest, and if I’m really honest, I want to draft last.

Still. There were a few hundred young arms and bats to judge.

Main prizes according to Nathan Bruce and his staff:

LF Ruben Flores, 22 – good allround hitter with contact, power, gap all there, but has to work on catching balls at times
INF Rory Gorden, 17 – very versatile, good contact batter with gap power
SP Harry Griggs, 18 – only rated 13/12/8 potential-wise, but has four pitches that he knows to use effectively
SP Miguel Martinez, 22 – potential 13/14/13 with a devastating curve and changeup
1B Travis Shaw, 17 – somewhat of a strange first baseman with little power, but a magnetic bat, but he does have the troublesome defense covered.
MR Hakim Shikuku, 18 – knuckleball reliever, almost unhittable, and also has no idea about the location of the strike zone
OF Scott Strong, 22 – bat potential reads 20/18/20, good defense, running speed, hot bet for #1 pick

There are a few more promising starting pitchers in the draft, too, and a few potential sluggers, so we should get a good round 1 pick even at #15. Or maybe not. The last few years have not been too kind on our round 1 picks.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (18-15) vs. Indians (12-23)

Chris Powell and Alex Miranda featured in the series opener, with the latter having been abused for a 7.52 ERA so far this season. Powell struggled from the get-go, and the Raccoons trailed 2-0 in the bottom 2nd with two on, one out, and Powell to bat. He bunted to the left side, and Miranda made a terrible throw to first and out of play. One run in, and Sanchez tied the game with a single to left. The Raccoons ended up scoring SEVEN unearned runs in the inning and chased Miranda in the general direction of the showers. But even with a 5-run lead, Powell remained terrible. The Indians crept back to three runs back through four thanks to two home runs. Powell managed to wobble through the fifth, but was already pinch hit for in the bottom of the inning. Pedro Vazquez made his debut in the top 6th. Three batters up – three hits, two runs in, and the Indians brought in their runner against Wally Gaston to tie the game. Wally went into the eighth without any more problems. Mark Dawson singled in the go-ahead run again in the bottom 8th. West was too tired after two days of work and Cunningham tried to save the game – successfully. 9-8 Raccoons, but you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. They had 16 hits, all but one were singles. Sanchez 2-4, BB, RBI; Barrios 2-5, RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Walker 2-5; R. Gonzalez 2-4;

Great debut for Vazquez, really. 0.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, BS – we want more of that.

With the Titans playing and beating the Canadiens at the same time, 2-0, all three teams moved into a tie for first place.

Logan Evans continued where Powell and Vazquez had left off the day before. Two hits, three walks, and a Barrios error combined for five unearned runs in the first inning. The Indians added three more without Evans retiring a batter in the second. Evans exited. The rest of the bunch stayed on the field a few more hours, being slapped by a 13-3 tone. To add injury to insult, Daniel Hall was injured on a play in the ninth inning, trying to make an out of another whacking to Vazquez.

Hall was out for a month with a back injury. Kelly Weber was called up. Vazquez was demoted right back to AAA.

And now we called for Scott Wade. He was put in the rotation in the place of Powell, who went into the pen.

And Grant West was down with the flu.

There was still a third game to play. Vicente Ruíz apparently had heard somewhere that he was on the trading block. He spun six shutout innings, before putting two on with two out in the seventh. Cunningham got out of it, with the Raccoons leading 1-0 since the first, where Osanai had driven in the lone run. They added a second run off Armando Sanchez’ bat in the bottom 7th. Cunningham struck out the side in the eighth. After Osanai singled to lead off the bottom 8th, Tim Hess struck out the next three Coons, including Cunningham. With West still sneezing from the plague, we needed him to pitch the ninth as well. A not-too-well rested Wally Gaston was the only real fallback we had. We didn’t need him, Cunningham was ace – and STRUCK OUT THE SIDE!! The Coons prevailed, 2-0. Osanai 2-4, RBI; Barrios 2-4, 2 2B; Ruíz 6.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (2-5); Cunningham 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, SV (3);

Raccoons (20-16) vs. Loggers (12-23)

This was our first 4-game set of the season. The Loggers lacked a bit of everything, but the Coons now lacked Daniel Hall (in addition to Winston Thompson) and were struggling with their pitching.

But some things worked quite nicely. Tetsu Osanai hit a grand slam in the first inning. Kisho Saito gave a homer to Felipe Hernandez in the second, but overall had his fireballs ready in this start. By the fifth, the score still 4-1, he had already struck out eight. He fanned Elmer Brown in the sixth for #9, but then had to wait until the eighth to fan Ben Cox for #10. Next was Hokichi Endo, who went down on three straight pitches, and Saito had K #11, tying a Raccoons record held by himself. He tried to go for a shutout, but put two on with nobody out. Grant West came in, just out of bed, but a long double scored a run and put two in scoring position. With one out, a grounder scored the second run and the tying run was 90 feet away, but West then K’ed Chris McClinton. 4-3 Raccoons, but it was a close call. Barrios 2-4; Saito 8.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, W (4-3) and 2-3;

Since the Canadiens didn’t play and the Titans lost, the Raccoons moved into sole possession of first place.

Dadswell homered in the bottom 2nd to give Carlos Gonzalez a lead in game 2. Bad catching by Chris McClinton helped the Coons to score three in the third, and Gonzalez hit a homer off Neil Stewart to make it 5-0 in the fourth. Up 7-2 in the bottom 7th, we faced Jason White in relief for the Loggers. In 15.1 innings, he had a 9.39 ERA so far. Trading him away had been a wise decision. He still pitched a scoreless inning. Powell entered in the ninth for his first relief appearance since 1979. 1-2-3, the Loggers went down and the Raccoons had a 7-2 win. Barrios 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Dawson 3-5, 2B; Osanai 3-4, RBI; Dadswell 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; C. Gonzalez 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (6-2) and 2-3, HR, RBI;

Scott Wade made his first big league start of the season – and was instantly whacked by the Loggers, down 3-0 after the top 2nd. The Raccoons loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd. Weber grounded and Tony Flores fumbled the ball for an unearned run. Pitcher Mark Warburton also could not come up with Wade’s bunt for another error. Sanchez grounded – ANOTHER ERROR by Flores!! This one tied the game. The inning then fizzled out, and when Wade came back to the mound, he was battered again and yanked before registering another out. Moran surrendered a 2-run homer in the same inning, but the Raccoons were not beaten. Osanai, Flores, and Dawson all hit home runs by the fourth, to tie the game at 7-7. Ben Cox homered off Wally Gaston (the unlikeliest of imaginable combinations) to get the Loggers ahead again, 9-7, in the seventh. It was the first earned run against Gaston this season. Bentley pitched the last two innings – with four more runs across, only one was earned after an uncaught third strike on Flores and an error by Blake in right. Raccoons were beaten soundly, 13-8. Dawson 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Flores 3-5, HR, RBI;

With the Coons’ first AB in game 4, Armando Sanchez K’ed, didn’t like it, looked for trouble, found it, and was ejected. Well, that went well. Suddenly, we played Lucero, Weber, and Blake in the outfield – didn’t look like a contender’s outfield. But then it was Lucero, who tied the game with a leadoff jack in the sixth. He might be batting way below .200, but somehow drove in runs nevertheless. Barrios followed with a single and scored on a 1-out double by Osanai. The Loggers came right back to tie the game and Logan Evans left in a 2-2 tie. Cunningham pitched two scoreless and the bottom 9th started with Osanai, but his long drive to center was caught and Domingo Alonso struck out the next two to send the game into overtime. Cunningham added another scoreless frame. Miranda singled to get on in the bottom 10th. Walker grounded him over and Ricardo Gonzalez, who had 1 RBI on the season, was intentionally walked. Lucero was up, missed on a hit and run, but the runners were safe. One out, the tying run 90 feet away, but 0-2 on Lucero. They put him on intentionally. The crowd was on their feet. Barrios was next. He came up with an infield single and the Coons walked off! 3-2 Furballs! Barrios 2-5, RBI; Miranda 2-4, 2B; Evans 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K and 1-2, 2B; Cunningham 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-0);

Raccoons (23-17) vs. Condors (22-19)

With the talks with Charlotte intensifying, the opener of the Condors series could well be the last start that Vicente Ruíz would make for the Raccoons. He went seven innings, 4-hit the Condors in shutout manner, and now I really didn’t know whether to trade him or not. The Raccoons meanwhile scored only one run in the third, clinging on to that 1-0 lead when they came to bat in the bottom 7th. Two errors by the Condors gave them a chance with Barrios at the plate and two down. Barrios launched the ball to center, over CF Preston O’Day and brought both runners in with a 2-run triple. Dawson singled in Barrios and was then thrown out at the plate on an Osanai double. All those runs were unearned. Jones faced lefties in the top 8th. One batter reached on an error by Dawson, but Bentley ended the inning without damage. Kelly Weber had a pinch hit RBI single in the bottom 8th and West pitched a scoreless ninth with a walk to get him off the couch. 5-0 Furballs. Osanai 3-4, 2B; Flores 2-4; Weber (PH) 1-1, RBI; R. Gonzalez (PH) 1-1; Ruíz 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-5) and 1-1, 2B;

Winston Thompson was able to come back from the DL a day or two earlier than anticipated and Orlando Lantán was sent back to St. Petersburg after batting .143 during his stint. Great first round pick, really. I’m proud of myself.

Thompson returned to give the struggling Steve Walker some rest. Barrios moved to short, and we fielded seven lefty bats (including Kisho Saito) in game 2 against righty Woody Roberts. Saito struggled with control early on, putting two on with one out. Chad Fisher knocked a 3-0 pitch into a double play to end a possibly dangerous first. The Raccoons led 2-0 after the fourth. Saito started the fifth with a pitch to SS Juan Valentin’s knee, knocking him out of the game. Armando Sanchez dropped a flyer on the next play and the Condors tied the game in the inning with unearned runs. Wally Gaston came into a 3-3 game in the eighth and after a single walked the bases full with one out. Cunningham got out of the mess, but then had a long (yet scoreless) ninth inning himself with two 2-out singles putting pressure on. The Coons then had back-to-back 2- out singles against “Wacky” Booth in the bottom 9th, by Weber and PH Flores, but Sanchez grounded out and the game went to extra innings. Jones pitched two perfect innings there, but when he came out, complained about pain in his wrist area. By now, the Coons were unable to reach even first base. Moran hurled the 12th in perfect manner, yielding to Steve Walker to hit for him in the bottom 12th. Powell entered in the 13th and got through quickly, and now the Coons drove up their sluggers in the bottom 13th. The inning went 1-2-3. Thompson led off the bottom 14th with a single to left – the first Coons hit in six frames! And suddenly, things developed quickly. Ricardo Gonzalez, batting .164 with all of 1 RBI in almost 100 AB’s this season, doubled to right, and Thompson ran, ran, ran all the way home, and the Coons walked off, 4-3, with eight hits in 14 innings. Jones 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Last game on the homestand now. Despite the Furballs racking up a lot of W’s at home, the Canadiens had done so, too, and were still only half a game behind. The Titans had dropped to .500 by now, at 22-22.

Unfortunately, David Jones would have to be hampered by his wrist for about a week, which was really the most awful length to be day-to-day. We made a move, sending the lowly-hitting Carlos Miranda to AAA and called up - … yeah, well, whom? The only lefty reliever at AAA was Justin Neubauer. We still had Jerry Ackerman parked there in the rotation, but he was out of options and we were thin in starting pitchers anyway. He would not clear waivers, I was sure there. Desperate times: we turned to Mike Shaw, who was not on the 40-man roster so far, and was our round 6 pick from last year. He had aced A ball, and had just been called up to AA, where he had made one appearance, a start, allowing one run in 7.2 innings. He was added to the roster.

The Furballs gave Carlos Gonzalez a 3-0 lead in the first. Gonzalez was perfect through eight batters until pitcher Carlos Castro hit a double off the wall in left, where Kelly Weber also didn’t make a great impression. Things went downhill from there. Alberto Reyes hit a 3-shot off Gonzalez to tie the game in the fourth. Top 6th. With a runner on second and two down, Gonzalez faced RF Paul Dundee, hitting .352. We put him on intentionally to rather face Reyes again, figuring that a lightly hitting shortstop wouldn’t get two big knocks the same night. He singled to right to load the bags, but next up Jorge Salazar grounded to Thompson for a force at second and the inning was over. Sam Dadswell hit an enormous 3-run homer in the bottom 7th to make it 6-3 Coons. An error by Barrios created a jam in the top 8th with runners on the corners, one out, and Dundee up. I didn’t want to bring in Shaw to face that mighty lefty slugger, and went to Gaston, hoping for the best. Dundee grounded on the first pitch for a force at second, and the runner on third, Diego Rodriguez, retreated to the base. But Reyes singled in a run, and Salazar tripled in everybody. The game was tied. Mike Shaw made his debut in the top 9th, retiring PH Marc Leach. Nobody scored, and we had another extra inning game. There, the Condors scored after a leadoff walk, stolen base, wild pitch, and grounder between Mauro Fernandez and Carlos Moran and the Raccoons trailed 7-6 into the bottom 10th. They filled the bags with one out against “Wacky” Booth. Thompson then drew a walk and the game was tied. Flores pinch hit for Weber, but struck out, and Gonzalez grounded out to fizzle out the inning. Alberto Reyes homered off Jason Bentley in the 12th – it was unbelievable. Raccoons lost, 9-7. Barrios 3-5, BB; Dadswell 3-6, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Osanai 2-6, RBI; the Raccoons then got a total of one hit below fourth in the lineup.

Of course, the Canadiens won their contest, 2-1 against the Knights, taking first place. They may very well stay there through October.

In other news

May 16 – BOS John Fowler (3-3, 5.10 ERA) makes a first step to turn a horrible start into a good season by 2-hitting the Canadiens in a 2-0 win.
May 17 – Milwaukee’s SS Stephen Hall (.252, 2 HR, 17 RBI) will miss several weeks with a strained rib cage muscle.
May 19 – NAS CF Antonio Rodriguez may only be 20 years old, but the youngster is batting .362 and has a 20-game hitting streak chained up.
May 20 – Crusaders reliever Diego Lopez goes down to a torn flexor tendon and could be out for a full year. He ends the year with a 1.59 ERA.
May 21 – Two struggling veterans are traded. The Scorpions send 1B Alfonso Aranda to Indianapolis for outfielder Esteban Hernandez. Neither has set the world on fire in this season.
May 22 – William Williams, 37-year old starter for Sioux Falls, has a torn rotator cuff and is out for the season. He went 5-3 with a 3.41 ERA this season.
May 25 – Sioux Falls catcher Ed Hopper (.270, 4 HR, 16 RBI) goes to the DL with chronic back pains.
May 25 – The Blue Sox beat the Wolves 6-3, as Antonio Rodriguez misses the cycle by a single, but brings his hitting streak to 25 games.

Complaints and stuff

I’m still trying to get that deal for Movonda done, but the Falcons won’t accept anybody besides Ruíz and Tetsu Osanai. Now, Ruíz has pitched two good games. So we trade Osanai, right? He has a 13-game hitting streak, how un-coony.

Batting .448, with 2 HR and 8 RBI, Osanai was named CL Player of the Week the next day after the loss to Tijuana.

I previously had not even been aware of the scarcity of lefty relievers in my system. Well, there were three of them in A ball, but those were even less major league worthy than Mike Shaw. Mike who? Shaw.

Next: Bayhawks, Falcons, Knights, and Titans on the road – that could make for two looong weeks.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-18) @ Bayhawks (20-23)

Tetsu Osanai’s RBI double started the scoring in a 3-run first for the Raccoons, before we sent out Scott Wade (27.00 ERA, 4.00 WHIP). A terrible throwing error by Dadswell on a steal plated a run from third in the second inning, and the Bayhawks added one on Wade in the third. Still 3-2, the game was interrupted for rain for 20 minutes in the sixth, when the Coons had two on and the #8 hitter, Paul Blake, at the plate. Blake eventually continued from the 2-2 count to work a walk, loading the bags with nobody out and Wade up, for whom the rain ended the day now, especially in this big RBI situation. Mark Dawson pinch hit for him on his off day, and although the flyer was caught by CF Dave Burton, he added a run. The inning then fizzled out. 2B Tom Taylor homered off Chris Powell in the seventh to make it a 1-run game again. Cunningham and West finished the game, but West had a close encounter in the bottom 9th with two down and a runner on second, when Alberto Villanueva went into the gap and Ricardo Gonzalez made a heck of a catch to save his save, making him the player of the game. 4-3 Raccoons. R. Gonzalez 3-3, RBI; Scott Wade lowered his ERA to a flat 9, hurray!

The Canadiens were lazy that Monday, creating a tie for first, but the Canadiens had two games in hand, 25-17 to the Coons’ 26-18.

The Bayhawks brought their own double-digit ERA starter for game 2, Jorge Vazques, 0-3 with a 10.26 mark. In five starts, he had covered all of 16.2 innings. He combined it all, bad command, bad stuff, and bad fielding, which allowed the Coons to saddle him with five in the second inning. Vazques was gone after three. Which leaves us to discuss Logan Evans, whose own command was pretty bad as well. On the other hand he stepped into the box three times and hit safely three times, an RBI single, a double, and a sac bunt that was so good, he beat out the throw. The latter came in the top 5th and loaded the bases in time for hits by Sanchez and Thompson and the Coons upped to 9-1 in the inning. Evans gave away two of those four runs in a 3-XBH bottom 5th and almost got himself yanked despite a huge lead. He then managed to pitch a quick sixth, before exiting. The Coons added single runs each inning to get to 12-3 after the top 8th – a 9-run lead, the danger zone for this team. But Bentley made a great relief effort in covering the last few games and the Coons added some more in a 15-3 rout of the Bayhawks! Sanchez 4-4, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Thompson 2-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Flores 4-6, 4 RBI; Osanai 2-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Dawson 4-6, 2B; Walker 3-5, 2 RBI; Weber 2-5, 2 RBI; Bentley 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, SV (1);

Ruíz allowed a run in the first inning in what started out very wobbly. Osanai’s 2-bomb in the third turned the game and extended the bulky Japanese’s hitting streak to 16 games. That homer came with two down and was his 11th of the season. He added another 2-out RBI with a single in the fifth inning. Osanai drove in ANOTHER run in the seventh, but that came with one out, how lame. Ruíz was dominant through seven, but then put two on in the eighth, which scored against Shaw. Gaston and West came in to complete the sweep with a 5-3 win. Barrios 2-5, 2B; Walker 3-5; Osanai 3-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; R. Gonzalez 2-4;

The Canadiens had dropped one against Las Vegas to leave us in sole position of first place, but they made up half a game on our following off day to get the gap to half a game again.

Raccoons (28-18) @ Falcons (21-26)

The Falcons had problems scoring runs, but had a semi-capable rotation around veterans Joe Ellis and Billy Robinson, the latter of which had gotten a few beating already.

The Furballs faced Robinson and his 5.47 ERA first. But as things unfolded so often with this team, they found no way to hurt him. They took a 1-0 lead in the top 4th, but the Falcons scored five on two homers off Saito by the fifth. Three singles loaded the bags with Furballs in the top 6th, bringing up Ricardo Gonzalez. He hit an infield single to not only score a run, but bring his average over .200. The Coons got two more in and chased Robinson, now trailing 5-4. Powell entered in the bottom 6th, surrendered a 1-out home run to David Hicks (his second of the day) and then hit Gary Helton with a pitch. Helton stormed the mound and swung at Powell and the benches emptied. Both were ejected. The pens did great jobs on both sides – but that meant the Raccoons lost, 6-4. Sanchez 2-5, RBI; Blake (PH) 1-1; Osanai 2-4; Weber 3-4, 2B, RBI;

Christopher Powell was handed a 4-game suspension. Osanai’s 2-hit day meant he was now at .359 with 11 HR and 42 RBI – which was good enough by .005, 1 HR, and 6 RBI for the triple crown. Four more months to go.

Chad Ray (1-4, 6.06 ERA) took the ball for the Falcons in the middle game and no-hit the Raccoons through three. It took Tetsu Osanai (as so often in the last weeks) to produce some offense, in the form of a solo home run in the top 4th. A bloop single off the bat of Jonah Frank tied the game right back up, though, scoring Teo Colón from second. Carlos Gonzalez helped himself with a sac fly in the top 5th, 2-1 Coons. In the sixth, Walker sacrificed in a run, which chased Ray for the Falcons. The Coons chewed up the Falcons pen in the seventh, starting with a 2-out, 2-run double by Mark Dawson. They scored three there, and then three more in the ninth, while Gonzalez went the distance. In fact, all nine starters went the distance for the Coons in a 9-1 win. Dawson 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell 3-5, 2 RBI; C. Gonzalez 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (7-2);

It was the end of May. The Raccoons took the same place in both runs scored and runs against among the CL teams. That alone was not new. They had been last or close to it plenty of times in both categories. But they were actually THIRD in both categories with 235-190 runs scored/against. They were scoring almost 4.9 R/G! Who paced it? Tet-SUUUUU! More below.

We sent Paul Blake, batting .200 in 55 AB, to AAA and recalled Bill Stevens, who had been hitting .311 in AAA. Maybe he was better dialed in now. In addition to that, Mike Shaw went back to the minors, but to AAA. He had pitched 2.1 scoreless innings for the Raccoons. Orlando Lantán came up as sixth infielder again to restore the 13:12 playersitchers ratio I liked much better than the 12:13 we had rode the last week.

Scott Wade faced the guy with the impossible name, Bastyao Caixinha, who was 5-1 with a 3.32 ERA, in the rubber game. I will just call that guy Cash from now on. Both teams scored one run in the first inning, where Wade was so wobbly I already saw a blowout coming our way. Sanchez and Dawson both homered off Cash in the fifth to give Wade a lead. Wade was more solid after his early struggles and held the 3-1 lead through seven. Cash went back out to face Osanai to lead off the top 8th and while he got to him, Flores then doubled. The Falcons still left him in, maybe a consequence of their extended bullpen usage the day before. Walker was walked, and Stevens pinch walked for bases loaded. Thompson pinch hit for a force out at home, but Lantán then had a pinch hit RBI single in Wade’s spot with two out. We already had Grant West warming up with a 4-1 lead in the top 9th, two on, but two out. Steve Walker grounded to left, but the throw dipped off the end of Antonio Esquivel’s glove at first and out of play for an unearned run. West came in regardless in a 6-1 game, and continued a strange trend of giving up runs in non-save situations, falling to a leadoff triple by Colón. The Raccoons still won, 6-2. Barrios 2-5; Flores 2-5, 2B, RBI; Stevens (PH) 1-1, BB, RBI; Lantán (PH) 1-1, RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (2-0);

The Canadiens had been swept by the Condors – the Coons took a 2.5 game lead.

Raccoons (30-19) @ Knights (25-24)

The Knights had some pitching problems, properly illustrated by their 5-star ace Carlos Asquabal and his 5.69 ERA. Asquabal gave up a run in the first, but then struck out five of the next six Coons that dared to step in to the box. The Knights tied it off Logan Evans in the third. In the top 4th, Osanai stroked a single to left and with that completed a 20-game hitting streak! Down 2-1, the Coons then left the bags loaded in the seventh. Evans just couldn’t win games this season, a common plague for #1 seeds in the team’s rotation the last few years. Steve Wall’s 2-run triple in the bottom 7th blew the game open. Barrios had a hit to lead off the top 8th, but from there, the Furballs were sat down in order. 4-1 Knights. Barrios 3-4; Weber (PH) 1-1;

Game 2. The first was almost over for the Coons, when Dawson drew a 2-out walk. Osanai and Flores then added hits and the Coons ended up scoring three early on. Armando Sanchez made a good catch in the bottom 1st, then nailed a runner from third to end the inning before any damage could end up on the scoreboard. Sanchez then blew the game in the bottom 3rd, dropping a harmless flyer from pitcher Xavier Mayes. Next, Vicente Ruíz couldn’t come up with Jeremiah Carrell’s grounder and then the balls started flying and the Knights scored four in the inning. Ruíz was wrecked further and surrendered seven runs on the day, while Sanchez left in the fifth with a mysterious injury. Moran was also hit around late and the Raccoons lost another one, 9-5. Dawson 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-5; Stevens 2-4, 2 RBI;

Game 3, time to salvage one. Osanai took keep of many issues with a first inning 2-bomb, scoring Thompson, who had doubled. The next time Osanai faced Pedro Romero on the mound – home run to center, 3-0 in the third. Tom McDonald homered off Kisho Saito for the Knights’ first hit in the bottom 4th. When Osanai came up again, the Atlanta fans were not feeling well, but this time he accepted a walk. Top 6th, leadoff double by Lucero, who was hitting .156 at this point. Saito failed to bunt twice, then was told to hit and grounded to finally move Lucero over. Barrios’ grounder was right to third and Lucero was forced to stay put. Thompson then grounded right to first, but behind the bag. 1B Fred Rodgers shuffled the ball to Romero, and runner, pitcher, and ball arrived all at the same time. Everybody looks to the umpire, and he calls him SAFE! Thompson drives in the run. Saito left after seven, still 4-1 ahead. Cunningham struck out the side around two singles to sluggers Michael Root and McDonald. West saved it, 4-1 Coons. Thompson 2-5, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Walker 2-3, BB, 2B; Stevens 2-3, BB; Saito 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-4) and 1-3;

Now, the Canadiens had played – and swept – the Bayhawks and the gap was oh so close again.

Armando Sanchez sprained his ankle and went to the DL. He could well miss the rest of the month here.

In other news

May 28 – Veteran Miguel Sanchez (5-1, 3.04) 4-hits the Blue Sox as the Warriors romp to a 9-0 victory. Along the way, Sanchez chills Antonio Rodriguez’ 26-game hitting streak.
June 1 – Pittsburgh’s Ricardo Torres (5-3, 2.47 ERA) shuts out the Pacifics with a 3-hitter, taking the 8-0 win.
June 4 – Three days later, another strong shutout by a Miners hurler: Leland Lewis 2-hits the Gold Sox in a 5-0 victory, improving his season stats to 7-1 with a 2.55 ERA.

Complaints and stuff

MR David Jones signed a $120k contract for next year. I wanted more years to buy out his arbitration eligibility, but he didn’t bite. This contract saves me about $3.50 compared to his arbitration estimate for this fall.

Tetsu Osanai won CL Hitter of the Month honors for May 1986, going an astonishing .404 with 8 HR and 29 RBI. He also was Player of the Week ending May 31 (making it back-to-back weeks of dominance) going 13-28 with two dingers and 10 RBI’s. His .367 average for the season is only five points below what he batted for the Canadiens in the first half last year. I will now shut my pie hole about him being merely a .315 hitter for the Raccoons.

Remember the Osanai trade? We sent Matt Workman and two prospects. Workman is shredding AAA pitching, but doesn’t get called up. The prospects are still that, prospects, performing abysmally in the lower ranks. I bet people are chewing themselves up some 300 miles to the north from here.

With Sanchez out for the month, our outfield looks a bit scarce there. Dawson could find himself playing left or right frequently again, which would also get the other four more or less impressing infielders into play. Particularly strange is Winston Thompson’s H/BB/K ratio. He’s not hitting anything, and still is on base a lot. Compare for example to Mark Dawson. Dimian Barrios should be leadoff batter with Sanchez out, no matter what was going on otherwise.

Next: one more road series in Boston. Until the draft, we will then have a home week against New York and Sacramento.

[Questdog]

It's cool to be a 'coon!

Great stretch......it's good that you are looking to upgrade the rotation, but if you ever trade Tetsu, you will lose at least one season ticket holder.....

Tet....SU!....Tet....SU!.....(the fans shouting back and forth from the right foul lines to the left).......

[Westheim]

I don't think Tetsu's gonna be traded anytime soon. If I move for Movonda, then with Ruíz, but do you want to trade a veteran for a largely unproven rookie in the middle of a division race? Hummmmm...

By the way, Dimian Barrios appears to be a big win for the Raccoons with his .821 OBP and very good fielding. He was traded in exchange for Cameron Green.

Green is having a career year (how else could it have been?) going .281 / .420 / .410 (the first two career highs) appearing in every game for the Miners. His ZR has improved by +2.1 (to +0.8) and his EFF has also improved to above average. Of course.

No, no, I'm happy with Dimi. No, really.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (31-21)@ Titans (26-28)

By now, the Titan’s pitching had completely fallen apart. They ranked last in runs allowed in the Continental League, and by a good margin. We smelled a chance for a sweep here, with fearsome 1B slugger Isto Grönholm in a sub-.100 slump the last week, and two of their starting outfielders (Carlos Hernandez and Zahid Mashwanis) on the DL.

A Bob Arnold error helped the Coons to score an unearned run for a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the series opener. This was just a gentle start – the Raccoons lit up Titans starter John Fowler for two in the second and five in the third – mostly with walks. Dimian Barrios drew bases loaded walks in both innings. While everybody was doing well, Tetsu Osanai didn’t quite so and his hitting streak was in the gravest danger it had been in for a week. It took him four PA’s for a 2-out single in the sixth. The game was pretty much won by then, but Bentley and Moran both surrendered single runs in the last two innings. Still, the Furballs won, 10-2. Barrios 1-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Dadswell 2-4, 2B, 5 RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB; R. Gonzalez 4-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (8-2);

This was Ricardo Gonzalez’ first big ball of the season, on June 6th, in his 130th AB. He hit 21 dingers last year in 398 AB.

Eduardo German led off against Scott Wade with a huge home run – and things didn’t improve much for Scotty from there in game 2. He walked Carlos Gonsales (who was second in the batting race behind Tetsu), then added a fielding error. The Titans led 2-0 after the first. Wade was crushed for a total of six runs in the game, something the offense couldn’t make up. Osanai grounding into a double play in the top 8th also meant an end to his 23-game hitting streak. The Raccoons were 6-hit and lost 6-2. Barrios 2-5; Flores (PH) 1-1;

Tetsu Osanai’s 23-game hitting streak is the longest in the CL this year, 2nd in the ABL to NAS Antonio Rodriguez’, which went 26 games, and is also the first hitting streak of 20+ games the Portland Raccoons have ever seen!

Logan Evans was up for the rubber game. His ERA of 3.03 was okay going in, but somehow, he didn’t win games. This game pretty well illustrated why, in the bottom 5th. Evans had no-hit the Titans through four, but the Raccoons were held away, too, and the game was scoreless. Evans walked one before a flyer by Salvador Vargas dropped in just in front of Lucero in center. A 2-out walk to Wen Zhan loaded them up. Pitcher Eric McCullough then popped up to second base, and Walker dropped it. 1-0 Titans. An error by Lucero helped chase Evans in the seventh, and the Titans scored two in the inning – all unearned. Top 9th, Raccoons down 3-1 against Juan Miranda. Stevens led off with a double, Ricardo Gonzalez went into the left corner for another double. Tying run at second, nobody out. Lucero was up, but removed for Dadswell to pinch hit. He singled over 2B Manny Mora. 90 feet to go. Winston Thompson was up in the #9 spot, having come in earlier. He was not a threat with the bat, hitting .200 – but he did get to Miranda and singled past Mora to bring in Gonzalez and get Evans off the hook. Unfortunately, Miranda retired the next three Coons in order. David Jones held off the Titans in the bottom 9th to force extra innings. Lou MacKnight hit a double to lead off the bottom 10th against Wally Gaston, who then threw eight straight balls. Grant West came into the game in a seemingly hopeless situation. HE GOT THREE OUTS!! Well, Orlando Lantán, if not hitting for much, made two great plays for the first two outs, but West wiggled out of the jam and the game continued. The Raccoons left two in scoring position in the top 12th, when Stevens struck out, Gonzalez walked, and Lantán flew out. Top 13th: a 1-out walk by Barrios brought up West, who had gone three innings. Paul Blake pinch hit, the last bat off the bench, and struck out. Oh great. Flores then singled. Osanai, 0-6 on the day, came up – single to right, but Barrios had to stop at third. Mark Dawson worked a full count – then singled up the middle for two runs!!

We then prepared for a possibly epic bottom of the 13th inning. Grant West had saved games for Christopher Powell a number of times in his career. Now, he gave the ball to Powell after three inning of work. Powell and Moran were the only guys left in the pen, and Moran had worked hard the day before. It was either to become Christopher Powell’s first career save or a big stinging L. Bob Arnold flew out to center for the first out. Powell then faced reliever Holden Gorman, since the Titans’ bench was also empty! He got him to 1-2, before Gorman made contact, but rolled out to Barrios. This brought up Hjalmar Flygt, a dangerous lefty. Go Chris. 1-2 count to Flygt, he hit it, but not too well – the ball hopped to Barrios, who winged it to first – BALLGAME!!! 5-3 Raccoons, out-hitting those Titans 14-4! Walker 2-3, 2B; Flores 3-7, RBI; Dawson 3-7, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell (PH) 1-1; Evans 6.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K; West 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0); Powell 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (1);

Raccoons (33-22) vs. Crusaders (24-31)

This was a 4-game set at home, and if the Raccoons wouldn’t take at least three, there was a) a sound chance to lose first place to Vancouver, and b) a 100% chance for them to lose their 100th game against New York overall. The Crusaders lead the Coonskinners column with 98 so far. We also expected Daniel Hall to return from the DL either at the end of this series or in time for the Scorpions series after this one.

The opener saw Vicente Ruíz surrender a run in the first, which the Coons weren’t able to match for quite some time, being 1-hit through four. Stevens drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, followed by an infield single by Ricardo Gonzalez. This brought up Lucero, who struck out masterfully. Ruíz was up. With a 0-1 count, I called for a hit-and-run, which went well in an unintentional way. Ruíz hacked and missed with Stevens looking like a dead duck at third, hadn’t Enrique Sanchez thrown the ball past the bag. Stevens hustled home instead and the game was tied. After being down 0-2 now, Ruíz worked a full count against Carlos Guillen, THEN singled up the middle to get in Gonzalez with the go-ahead run! Ruíz then jammed in the sixth and was removed with two on and one out. Cunningham walked RF Stephen Walton and 3B Dan Payne, inexplicably, to tie the game. Peter Charles won the game for New York with a homer off Bentley in the ninth. 3-2 Crusaders. Walker 2-4;

The Canadiens had been idle and we thus kindly threw our half game lead away ourselves.

Game 2 pitted Kisho Saito against Hisanobu Higuchi (2-4, 6.35 ERA). Higuchi hit Osanai to start the bottom 2nd. Ricardo Gonzalez punished him appropriately. No, not with a line drive to the face – a 2-run homer to take the lead. Then, in the bottom 4th, with the score 2-1 after a run-scoring wild pitch by Saito, Higuchi hit Gonzalez with a man on. Now, this was asking for a beating. Saito totally accidentally had a pitch ride in on Dan Payne in the sixth. Guys in both dugouts were glancing at each other, some fingernails grabbing into railings. Things stayed calm. Higuchi led off the bottom 6th against Osanai – and the weasel hit him! Ricardo Gonzalez, who was in the on deck circle, gripped his bat a little harder. The home plate umpire officially warned both benches there – which was all that kept me from ordering Saito to throw his first pitch of the seventh right into the first guy’s face. If those Crusaders had possessed any decency, they would have taken Higuchi out by now, but he was still in there. Two on, two out, Osanai came up – and was K’ed. I don’t blame him, after two pitches two his (admittedly rather broad) frame. Wally Gaston didn’t find the strike zone at all in the eighth. Moran came in with a run in and two on board, and walked the bags full. Agony? No, he struck out the next two and got a flyout. Uff. A 2-run double by Kelly Weber provided some breathing room in the bottom 8th and the Coons won 6-2 after a good ninth by Powell. Barrios 2-4, BB; Thompson 2-4, 2B; Saito 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (6-4);

The Crusaders wore out Carlos Gonzalez quickly in the third game, as he needed almost 90 pitches to cover the first four innings, despite allowing only four runners and one run. He crawled through six on 116 pitches eventually before heading for the showers with a 3-1 lead. Lucero had provided much of it with a 2-shot in the third inning. Wally Gaston was required to go two innings with a depleted pen. After two bad recent outings, he accomplished again despite some ongoing wildness and got his six outs without damage to the lead, which was still at 3-1. West saved that one, 3-1 on only five hits. Barrios 2-4, 2B, RBI; Thompson 2-3; Lucero 1-3, HR, 2 RBI;

Scott Wade was perfect through four innings in the last game of the set. Top 5th: walk to Talip, walk to Younger, single to Wider, mayhem. I went out to talk sense to the boy. He struck out Norberto Farias. Alexander Avery popped out foul, and pitcher Mario Garcia flew out. Wow. Wade and Garcia engaged in a hitter’s nightmare, combining for eight hits and no runs through eight frames. Pedro Villa and Talip then singled off Wade to start the ninth. Cunningham came in, but Villa was sacrificed in. Garcia remained in the game to pitch the bottom 9th. He got Ricardo Gonzalez to ground to second. Next was Sam Dadswell, who belted a long flyer to right JUST FAIR over the wall!! Garcia left immediately. Joshua Bernard now faced Osanai and the latter popped out for the second out. Dawson and Thompson had singles up the middle, bringing up Weber, but he was replaced with our swiss army knife, Steve Walker, off the bench. Walker singled through on the left side and Dawson, a really slow runner, was waved on and ignited his pathetic afterburners, launching into home plate as Sanchez went to tag him and he was SAFE!!!!! The Coons walked off thanks to Walker and speedster Dawson, 2-1!! Dawson 2-4; Thompson 3-4; Walker (PH) 1-1, RBI; Wade 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Still one shy of a hundred!

Raccoons (36-23) vs. Scorpions (26-34)

Daniel Hall came off the DL. This was already great enough news to be happy. He did not have the kind of bounce-back season I had been hoping for, but the outfield had been just too anemic without him. Now, if he could add a notch or two of power, that’d be sweet.

There was something about the Scorpions I didn’t like: they were .733 against the Raccoons all time, being beaten only by the Rebels, who had never lost to us – EVER. (But would come up in August) In Esteban Hernandez, Hector Atilano, and Ralph Hoyles the Scorpions in any case had some very successful coonskinners on their team.

First up for the Scorpions was Parker Montgomery, who had a 4.40 ERA, but had gone 3-0 with a 0.89 ERA his last three starts. The Coons took a 1-0 lead in the first, not caring about them fancy numbers. Tetsu Osanai had gone 2-22 since the end of his hitting streak. He got his stuff together in the bottom 3rd, hitting a 2-run homer off Montgomery to get some streaks over with. 3-0 became 4-1 in the fourth. Then in the fifth the Furballs had a chance to blow the game wide open with bases loaded and nobody out. They didn’t score, as Hall struck out, Dadswell popped out, and Thompson flew out. Clutch hitting didn’t get much better later in the game, although they did score three in the seventh including a 2-run double by Mark Dawson. Evans no-hit the Scorpions through three, end went into the ninth with a 7-2 lead, and the game would have been over, had Osanai been able to catch a good throw from Thompson. Evans surrendered a RBI single after that and was gone. “Demon” West got the final out with a grounder to Barrios by Manny Vazquez. 7-3 Raccoons. R. Gonzalez 3-5, 2 2B; Osanai 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Weber 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Evans 8.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (5-5);

Game 2 had Ruíz throw three scoreless innings before rain aborted his outing. The Coons took a 1-0 lead on a balk in the bottom 3rd. Winston Thompson socked an uncharacteristic 2-run home run in the bottom 4th. With two out, David Jones came up after pitching the top half of the inning and everybody hustled to the concession stands for some more snacks. Well, they missed something. Jones doubled to deep left. Barrios walked, and Gonzalez singled, before Dadswell brought them all home with a 3-run double to the base of the wall in left center. Osanai singled him in, before Daniel Hall made the final out. Everybody, who left for mini donuts at 3-0, came back at 7-0 and wondered what had gone on. The Furballs added a few more later and shut out the Scorpions in a 10-0 rout. R. Gonzalez 4-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Osanai 2-5, 2B, RBI; Weber 2-4; Lantán (PH) 1-1; Jones 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-1) and 1-2, 2B; Moran 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (2);

The final game was between Kisho Saito and Miguel Rosado, the latter of which carried an ERA over 8. Who was blown up for five runs in the first three innings? Saito. No, really. The Raccoons didn’t even have a hit until the fourth inning. They were more than miserable, they were 1979 miserable. Powell was also shredded for four runs in the ninth. The Raccoons were destroyed, 11-2. Osanai 2-4, RBI;

Daniel Hall, who went 0-10 in this series and since coming off the DL, was injured again in the top 7th of that miserable game. Diagnosis pending.

In other news

June 7 – Season over for Denver’s Terry Worley (5-3, 4.72 ERA), as he will be out until the spring with a torn labrum, making for back-to-back years of season-ending injuries for the 31-yr old righty, who combines for only 25 starts in those two seasons.
June 8 – Salem trades outfielder Carlos León (.264, 3 HR, 23 RBI) to the Buffaloes for undistinguished MR Raul Chavez and a prospect. León is the only ABL player to hit for the cycle twice, doing so in the 1982 season.
June 8 – At age 39, ex-Coon Ralph Nixon is to change uniforms again. Paid richly for his utility role in Atlanta, he is traded to the Miners for MR Ivan Medellin.
June 13 – The Warriors blew through the Loggers in a 15-0 chopping, and also had Walid Dubois (7-4, 3.46 ERA) toss a 1-hitter against the opposition. The impossible Alex White had five hits in the game.

Complaints and stuff

At the beginning of this update, pitcher Ken O’Hoey was on waivers by Salem. Two years ago, I would have claimed him instantly, we had faced him infrequently when he was with different CL South teams for years. But he was aging and not aging well, having been blown up (in relief, even!) both last and this year. So we passed.

That could have been a happy update here, if not for that last game. Hall, after not hitting anything, has gone down again. Why!? WHY!!??

Also, they lost a game again to a pitcher that doesn’t even belong above AA ball. Disgusting! Disgusting unkempt suckers!! X-(

With Tetsu Osanai’s 23-game hitting streak, how many ABL teams remain that have never had a player with a 20-game hitting streak? You may expect a zero to come up here, but you’re wrong, the correct answer is one. The Buffaloes are the only team left out so far.

Dimian Barrios left me a note that he is perplexed not to have received a contract offer so far. Well, there’s an issue here. He’s making $396k this year. Currently I am unable to squeeze even that amount into the 1987 salaries, which are bloated by Christopher Powell’s $840k team option.

Next: another draft to collect more future suckers.

[Westheim]

1986 AMATEUR DRAFT

Instead of manually sorting through my shortlist, I tried to make Excel calculate a rough hotlist for me. Basically I’m taking the potential STU/MOV/CON or CON/POW/EYE values given by scouting and weight them, favoring stuff and contact, respectively, with extra points for very high stuff and contact values, while pitchers will get penalties for a very high MOV/CON ratio (one Logan Evans on the team is enough). Of course it’s 1986 and those fancy computer things are rather new, so this will be no more than an additional guideline to drafting.

F.e. the highest ranked pitchers by scientificistic calculations are Miguel Martinez (13/14/13) and Doug Morrow (13/16/11) with 53 points. (How would current Coons hurlers rank? Scott Wade would lead starters with 61.3 points. Evans, Gonzalez, and Ruíz would all achieve 50 points or less, so make of this what you think. Richard Cunningham gets a nifty 73.5, West 66.5; Christopher Powell in his prime in 1982 would have scored 47.0)

The batter calculations are even more wonky with no proper way for me to put defense and catching abilities into a good context at the moment and I won’t even go into detail. But it’s a good way to get at least a roughly sorted list.

This can thus only go horribly wrong, so let’s go right ahead here.

Without calculations or with it – OF Scott Strong is the #1 prize in this year’s draft. With the Coons drafting 15th in every round, they won’t get him. Many also rank SP Harry Griggs as potential #1 pick. They may have a point, but I’d pick SP Miguel Martinez ahead of him. Anyway. Let’s get this underway.

The Richmond Rebels had the first pick and took SP Harry Griggs over Scott Strong, who was left out for a while. The Aces picked 3B Manny Munoz jr. at #2, a bad copy of Cameron Green in our eyes, and the Bayhawks proceeded with SP/MR Wilbert Rodgers. Strong was picked at #8 by Oklahoma. Starting pitchers were picked left and right down to #14, when the Buffaloes went out of the way and instead picked MR Hakim Shikuku and what we ranked as top in that area with 20 stuff.

But that left SP Miguel Martinez in the pool. Looking at the other candidates, there were scores of corner infielders with decent ratings available. None of the catchers and outfielders was worth to be picked in the first round either. So, Martinez it was.

1986 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#15) – SP Miguel Martinez, 22, from Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. – 13/14/13 potential, labeled as potential Cy Young contender, has a mean changeup and a not much less mean curveball available; if he has a weakness, it may be his 90mph fastball.
Round 2 (#67) – MR Eugene Scott, 20, from Omaha, NE – has very good stuff, but has to stop throwing dead straight; nevertheless, we see a ton of potential in this young righty reliever
Round 3 (#91) – 1B Vincente Rodriguez, 22, from Cabimas, Venezuela – very good contact and gap abilities, also has power, now he only needs a glove to get some outs
Round 4 (#115) – 1B/RF/3B Ben Nash, 19, from Elkin, NC – no power to speak of, but otherwise very good allrounder;
Round 5 (#139) – MR Keith Jefferson, 18, from Argos, IN – lefty armed with a changeup, little stamina, could make a situational lefty eventually
Round 6 (#163) – 1B/2B Joel Smith, 21, from Lomita, CA – no power, but good contact and gap hitting, but his 2B defense is questionable and he will have a hard time finding a job at 1B
Round 7 (#187) – MR Clint Thomas, 21, from Nashville, TN – good stuff, but already has an injury history
Round 8 (#211) – 1B/3B Tony Griffin, 18, from Chandler, AZ – solid across the board, but solidness is not the road to the majors
Round 9 (#235) – SP Steve Windom, 21, from Gulfport, MS – has four pitches, masters none of them
Round 10 (#259) – SP Cedric Burke, 18, from Flemingsburg, KY – won’t cut it as a starter, but if he can develop his changeup, he may have an outside shot as long man out of the pen, if there’s need on a team. That’s lots of if’s.

All players started at the A level.

Off topic: Does the game routinely create pitchers with a 2-1 record and 13 SV in 15 appearances? That’s our round 5 pick. I fear he’s fake now…

[Questdog]

High school scorekeepers don't all know the rules......they gave him the win and the save in a couple of games.....

[Westheim]

I said we’d play the Rebels in August. That was wrong. We’ll play them now. We’re 0-6 all-time against them.

Raccoons (38-24) @ Rebels (26-36)

With Carlos Gonzalez on the mound, the Raccoons had their best shot at finally winning a game against Richmond right away in the first game. And they meant it, knocking out starter Cesar Sanchez in a 10-run second inning! Gonzalez cruised at first, but was whacked out of the game by the Rebels in the seventh after four straight baserunners. But while the Rebels scored three in the inning, they had no chance to recover. Jones, Moran, and Bentley ended the game, which eventually became a 13-4 blowout win for the Raccoons. Osanai 3-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Walker 2-4, HR, RBI; Weber 2-5, 2B, RBI; Lantán 3-4, BB, RBI;

17 runs in the first game, and the Richmond fans were hoping for more offense, but this time divided a little bit more in favor of their team. But the middle game was scoreless through five. The Coons had left the bags full in the fourth with Scott Wade making the final out. LF Luis Ramos tattooed a pitch by Wade in the bottom 6th to get his team up, 1-0. Wade was removed for Walker to pinch hit, leading off the seventh. Walker singled to left and Barrios walked to build a threat. Thompson made a terrible bunt that the Rebels used to force Walker at third. Dadswell walked to load the bases for Osanai. He squeezed a slow-motion grounder between SS Michael Smith and 2B Tom Nicks to score two runs for the Furballs. Gonzalez drove in a run, bringing up Kelly Weber with the bases loaded and the score 3-1. The Rebels brought in Luis Estrada to pitch to Weber – before even throwing a single pitch, Estrada balked and the Coons had another run, their last one in the inning. Cunningham, who had ended the seventh, and Gaston struggled in the eighth, but the Rebels scored only one run before Gaston finally struck out Michael Smith. West reliably closed out the game, 4-2 Raccoons. Dadswell 2-4, BB, 2B; Osanai 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; R. Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Weber 2-3, BB; Walker (PH) 1-2;

Daniel Hall was diagnosed with a sprained knee the same day and was out for another month. Oh my.

With Hall to the DL again, we called up LF/RF Gustavo Quintanilla, who had batted .281 with 9 HR, 49 RBI in AAA this season. We had acquired him from Las Vegas for MR Bill Craig and C Greg Thornburg this winter. He had originally been discovered by the Canadiens in his hometown Tijuana in Mexico in 1982.

Quintanilla got his first start right away in Richmond, playing left (where Mark Dawson had subbed for the injured Daniel Hall the last two days) and batting #8. He registered his first putout right away in the bottom 1st, plucking a liner by SS Kanteuro Takeuchi. Both teams scored two in the third. Quintanilla registered his first hit in the top 4th, a 2-out single. Evans was up and looked at a 0-1 strike, while Quintanilla stole second, then was awarded third on a balk by Sixto Calderon. But Evans eventually struck out and Quintanilla was stranded. Barrios then led off the fifth with a home run, his first in a brown uniform. Calderon was chased after allowing the next four Coons to reach base, including a 2-run triple by Osanai (it was quite a vicious triple if it allowed that huge body to make it to third base safely), then an RBI double by Dawson, who was then doubled in by Kelly Weber. Up 7-2, Logan Evans looked like a safe bet for the W, and chopped through the Rebels at high speed. Quintanilla would make another catch for the 27th out on a flyer by Angel Potter. Evans was still on the mound, finishing the 10-2 win with a complete game 5-hitter. Barrios 4-6, HR, 2 2B, RBI; Walker 2-5, BB, RBI; R. Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Weber 4-5, 2B, RBI; Evans 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (6-5);

From 0-6 to 3-6 – we could not have asked for more. While this sweep was certainly astonishing with 27 runs scored by the Raccoons, it didn’t help them a bit against the Canadiens, who swept the Gold Sox, 3-2, 8-7, 7-1. Oh, how to compete against that? (Anyway, we were 25-9 since May 14, and had not gained an inch of ground during the stretch) But they were human, too. While the Raccoons were idle the day after the Richmond series, the Canadiens fell to the Crusaders, 13-11.

Raccoons (41-24) @ Loggers (26-40)

Terry Reynolds did a good job of puzzling the Raccoons in the opener. Walker drove in Osanai in the second inning for a run that Ruíz gave away in the bottom 4th. Anyway, Ruíz was exhausted after only five innings. Jones was terrible in the sixth. The Loggers scored two, the latter of which in a violent home plate collision between Luis Rivera and Sam Dadswell. Rivera was safe after knocking the ball out of Dadswell’s glove, but was knocked off himself and carried off on a stretcher. Chris McClinton took Chris Powell deep in the eighth and the Coons lost, 5-1. Osanai 3-4; Dawson 2-4;

Ray Lee had socked a home run off David Jones in the sixth. He was a minor league Coon from 1977 to 1979 before being traded off to Tijuana with Ed Sullivan and Rob Pickett for Stephano Bocci and a pitcher. It was his 24th career homer in the majors in 1,100 AB.

Edgardo Garza hit a 2-shot off Kisho Saito in the bottom 1st for an early defict in game 2. The Raccoons left two on twice in the first three innings and struggled to get their bats up afterwards. They left two on again in the seventh. Through seven, the Coons trailed 3-1, despite out-hitting the opposition 10-6. Flores led off with a single in the eighth, but Kelly Weber, PH for Lucero, grounded into a double play. Paul Blake had a 1-out pinch-hit single in the top 9th – but was left there. 3-1 Loggers (while the Coons led 12-7 in hits). Stinging loss. Dawson 3-4, 2B; Osanai 2-4; Flores 2-4, RBI;

An RBI triple by Ray Lee got the Loggers ahead again in the bottom 1st of the last game. Quintanilla was hit by Anibal Guerra for a 0-outs baserunner in the third. He stole second, but was thrown out on Carlos Gonzalez’ terrible bunt. Barrios singled to put runners on the corners. Weber sacrificed in the tying run, before Dadswell doubled in Barrios. Next, Dadswell hobbled off with pain in his knee. Flores entered for him. In the 6th, Osanai missed #16 by a few feet, doubling to dead center. Mark Dawson looked on from the on-deck circle, then improved by those two feet with a 2-bomb to center, 4-1. Carlos Gonzalez went seven with that lead, then was pinch hit for by Steve Walker with two out and two on in the top 8th. Walker hit a flaming liner – right into the glove of reliever Munemori Suzuki. Cunningham and Bentley pitched perfect innings to end the game and salvage at least one game here, 5-1 Coons. Barrios 3-4, BB; Osanai 2-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Quintanilla 1-2, BB; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (11-2);

Carlos Gonzalez’ record in his last dozen games? 11-0. The lone no-decision was an eventual extra-inning loss to the Condors.

Thanks to some Crusaders offense, our gap to the Canadiens was still half a game, though.

Sam Dadswell was diagnosed with patellar tendinitis and would be out for 1-2 weeks. He was moved to the DL and we called up – well, whom? I had two pitchers in AAA. The by now known Andy Reed, and the untapped Odwin Garza, our round 3 pick in 1982. I selected Garza for two reasons. Reed had only one option year remaining, which I didn’t want to waste on two weeks before the All Star break. And Garza batted from the left side, and thus filled in for Dadswell quite well there. He was also a stellar defensive catcher and should make quite a few starts during his call up.

Since the organization was now down to eight active catchers (the ONE time you don’t draft one!!), I reached out to the free agent market.

Raccoons (42-26) vs. Indians (29-40)

Garza made his debut right away the next day against Indy, with righty Joe Brown on the mound. With a 5.68 ERA Brown had been whacked some already this year. His ERA actually was almost as much as those of his 1984 and 1985 seasons combined. An Osanai error led to an unearned run against Scott Wade in the top 1st. But Tetsu would make good for it the second he got a chance, with a leadoff homer to center in the bottom 2nd, his 16th of the year. Things got ugly in the fourth, when Dane Cubitt mowed down Winston Thompson to break up a double play. He was successful, and Thompson was hurt. Osanai came up to lead off the bottom 4th and the Hulk was mad enough to drill another home run, 2-1 Coons. That became a 3-2 lead by the top 6th. The bottom 6th was started by Dawson, who thought that he could do just as well what Osanai did. Wham, leadoff jack. Wade was gone after a 1-out walk in the seventh and Gaston, Bentley, and West held the Indians where they were. 4-2 Raccoons! Osanai 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Dawson 2-4, HR, RBI; Walker 2-3; Odwin Garza went 0-3 in his debut and allowed one stolen base;

Who has a 10-game hitting streak on? Tet-SUUUU.

Winston Thompson would be out for up to two weeks with an intercostal strain, winning him his second trip to the DL this year. They are dying like flies at the moment… We called up Carlos Miranda again.

The Indians tried to break through Logan Evans with an all-righty lineup. Evans had none of it and while he had two long innings to start the game, he still shut out the Indians when the Raccoons batted in the bottom 5th. Quintanilla reached with a 2-out single. He stole second with Evans at the plate, and Evans then singled to right to score the young speedster from second for his own lead. Flip to the top 6th, and pitcher Chris Gardner led off with a double. Evans struck out two, then walked two, but got out of the mess with a grounder to Walker by Guillermo Gonzalez. Evans walked the first two batters in the eighth and was gone. Cunningham threw a wild pitch to score the tying run. Powell pitched a scoreless ninth, before we looked at Tim Hess in the bottom of the inning. Killer stuff, a 2.00 ERA and a 5/1 K/BB ratio. He started out by walking Mark Dawson on four straight, but he was stranded on third for extra innings. Powell put on Cubitt with a 2-out double. Jones came in and surrendered a single to Angelo Duarte, which Ricardo Gonzalez got to and bolted home, where Cubitt was also arriving. Flores threw himself into Cubitt’s path – OUT!! It didn’t help them, though. The Indians got two runs against Carlos Moran in the 11th and won 3-1. The Raccoons had only six hits. Osanai 3-5, 2B;

Odwin Garza had his first major league hit in the rubber game, a second inning RBI triple to get the Raccoons 2-1 ahead, which was the opening knell to a 5-run rampage against our old Alex Miranda (has it really been nine years!?). That was already enough offense to run away with the game, despite the fact that Vicente Ruíz gave up three while pitching 6.1 frames. The Raccoons won 8-3. Grant West struck out the side in the ninth in a stay-warm appearance. Osanai 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

This was the 700th all-time win for the Portland Raccoons! Yes, they lost 829 times. Why are you asking such questions?

Raccoons (44-27) @ Aces (34-39)

Kisho Saito displayed dominant stuff in the series opener in Las Vegas. He struck out six through the first three innings with a 1-0 lead, then looked wobbly with a leadoff double by Mark Allen in the bottom 4th, but Saito fireballed through. Allen would homer off Saito his next time up, in the sixth, then cutting a 4-0 lead for the Furballs in half. When Allen was up again, the score was still 4-2, there were two out in the bottom 8th and nobody on and Saito still in the game. I felt like testing him there after Saito assured that he was far from being out of gas. Allen took him deep again. There, it went wrong. Next, Grant West blew the save in the bottom 9th, when Angelo Cardenas hit an RBI triple off him with one out. He held on to the tie to send the game to extra innings. The Raccoons lost in the 12th. Bentley put two on in his third inning of work, and Moran couldn’t get out, walking in the winning run with two out. 5-4 Aces. Barrios 2-5;

Game 2. Flores homered in the top 1st for a 1-0 lead for Carlos Gonzalez. The second was led off by Ricardo Gonzalez, who singled but was only on second with two down then. But there, Lucero and C. Gonzalez both walked to load the bags, bringing up Dimian Barrios, who grand slammed to right. The lead grew to 7-0 in the third, but that’s also where the Aces started to chip off with CG showing some lapses, getting to 7-4 down through six frames. The Coons left the bases loaded in the seventh. David Jones was tasked with the bottom 7th, but put on the two runners he faced. Cunningham came in. A Brad Brown grounder advanced the runners, but Cunningham then fanned Lowell Allen, bringing up the other Allen, Mark, who was by far the bigger threat here. Behind him loomed Claudio Garcia, who was a lefty and no peace of cake either. Allen was walked intentionally, at least creating force plays at every base. Garcia grounded a zipper to Barrios, who lobbed to Osanai to get the out at first. Cunningham and Powell then tossed perfect innings to end it. A leadoff triple by Osanai helped to score two more runs in the ninth, 9-4 Raccoons! Flores 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Osanai 3-4, 3B, 2B; R. Gonzalez 2-5, 2 RBI; Weber 1-2, BB, RBI; Lucero 2-4; Cunningham 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Armando Sanchez had recovered from his sprained ankle and was put back on the roster for game 3. Paul Blake, batting .211 was demoted to AAA to make room.

The rubber game was Wade’s, against Jarrod Schroeder, whose 4.68 ERA masked pretty well that he was actually a pretty good pitcher. But the Coons nibbled at him early on, reeling off three straight singles with two down in the first, before Armando Sanchez in his first plate appearance off the DL forced a bases loaded walk. Mark Allen continued to shatter Raccoons pitching, hitting a 2-piece off Scott Wade in the fourth, cutting down on our lead, 3-0 to 3-2. Wade was then destroyed in the bottom 5th, and a throwing error by Garza didn’t help a bit there. The Aces scored four in the inning, chasing Wade. But the Coons rallied. Weber led off with a single in the top 6th and they filled the bags with one out for Sanchez, who singled to left center, one run in, 6-5 Aces. Garza was next and also singled to left center and tied the game again. But with the bags still full, Lantán and Dawson both struck out to waste the chance. Wally Gaston was wrecked by the Aces in the bottom 6th for three runs – he had only surrendered two so far the whole season! For good measure, Claudio Garcia added a 2-run homer off Powell in the eighth and the Aces won the brawl, 11-7. The Raccoons had 16 hits, including 15 singles. Weber 3-6; Osanai 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Walker 2-5; Sanchez 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Garza 2-5, RBI;

The Canadiens matched us every day the last week, keeping the gap at .5 games all the time.

In other news

June 18 – The Falcons swap infielder Dana Cameron (.295 in 129 AB this year) to Washington for two pitching prospects.
June 20 – Steve Murray, the Canadiens veteran pitcher, who was foced into the pen, where he excelled with a 0.53 ERA, is out for a year with a torn UCL and will require Tommy John surgery.
June 23 – Topeka’s OF Thomas Martin (.362, 6 HR, 32 RBI) is out until September with a torn triceps. His .362 average led the batting race in the Federal League.
June 23 – Rebels 1B Ramon Diaz (.340, 2 HR, 34 RBI) breaks his hand and will be out for at least a month.
June 24 – Las Vegas’ Mark “Icon” Allen (.323, 12 HR, 34 RBI) misses the cycle by the triple as he goes 5-5 in a 6-5 win over Oklahoma.
June 25 – The Condors deal infielder Alberto Reyes (.280, 5 HR, 30 RBI) to the Rebels for SP Jorge Mora (4-7, 4.60 ERA) and a prospect.
June 25 – Dear lords. The Canadiens add veteran coonskinner Brian Adams (.247 in 77 AB) from Pittsburgh, sending MR Will Shelton to the Miners.
June 28 – IND Jesse Carver (6-9, 3.63 ERA) hurls a 3-hitter against the Condors in a 2-0 win.

Complaints and stuff

The Knights offered LF slugger Tom McDonald for Logan Evans – I declined. I would have grave problems filling my rotation without Evans. Plus, McDonald has only one effective position, clashing with Daniel Hall (if the latter one is healthy), so this was not going to work out.

Guess who was the Federal League’s Player of the Week ending June 21. Cameron Green. .476, two huge ones, 10 driven in. The same week however saw Tetsu Osanai grab another Player of the Week (I’m inclined to call that prize the “Weekie”) with .538, no home runs, 7 RBI’s. You win some, you lose some, eh?

Osanai gave the offense a terrific pace, hitting a mad .388 so far this season! With that last 11-7 loss to Las Vegas the Coons did something unprecedented. They vaulted over the Titans into first place in runs scored in the Continental League! 367 runs in 74 games, meaning almost 5.0 R/G for the Coons – this was outrageous! We had offense!

We added career minor league catcher Kyle Mullins, 29, off the free agent market to our system. He’s just there to absorb potentially devastating additional injuries.

We waived infielder Brandon Roland on June 16, the day after the draft. He had 30 AB’s in the majors in 1983, but by now is taking up only roster spaces. He cleared waivers and remained at AAA.

By the way, the Ruíz-Movonda trade is no longer on with the Falcons - for financial reasons. The Falcons blew their budget in the draft and are now a good $700k over-budget. This means they can't take on the (right now) $140k+ in remaining difference between Ruíz' and Movonda's contracts. Now, the Raccoons are over-budget themselves, by about $240k! We still have $64k in cash available. It *may* be possible to figure out a deal, where we take on another player on the Falcons' 40-man roster, add a non-roster prospect and cover the difference in cash, but I have not been able to get it working so far.

Next: two weeks until the All Star game, one at home against the Condors and Crusaders, then one away in Vancouver and Boston. We will have four more at home against the Canadiens right after the break, so there will be some action atop the division.

[blazertaz13]

After a slow start, it is nice to see the Raccoons playing nice ball prior to the all-star break. It also appears that the offense is helping the pitching as well. Good luck on continued success.

[Orcin]

OPS of 1.097? Wow! Where do I get one of those?

[Westheim]

I got mine here:

T

I don't know whether there are any more like that there. Consider me still puzzled that the Canadiens traded him for Matt Workman and two scrubs.

Imagine the Canadiens with Osanai and the Furballs without Osanai. No contest. He's costing a run here and there defensively, but halfway through the season (I've already completed one more week) he's on pace for 40 HR, 144 RBI. And batting frickin' THREE-NINETY???

There've been times, two Coons first basemen's averages together wouldn't have added up to that!

That also means he's irreplaceable, so if he breaks one of his enormously gigantic legs, we're in for a tumble in the general direction of .500

By the way, that trade for Movonda can't happen anymore this year. The Falcons have no poorly playing veterans with moderately expensive contracts on their roster, which we could cover with cash and prospects. That was a BIG MISS that will come to haunt me in the future.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-29) vs. Condors (43-32)

Logan Evans surrendered a 2-piece to Miguel Fuentes, the Condors’ catcher, in the top 2nd of the series opener, but we faced “Barbwire” Douglas here, who had been socked more than once by the Coons while with the Loggers. He got socked in the second inning right away with five runs for the Furballs (four were earned). Kelly Weber added an RBI single in the third and Douglas was out after four innings. Dawson added a 2-run home run in the bottom 5th for a 8-2 win. Logan Evans meanwhile was everything but ace and was lucky more than once for great defense behind him. He also loaded bags in the sixth with one out, but then got two slow and easy grounders to get out of the inning. Evans went seven frames, Moran covered the other two, and the Coons took an 8-2 win. Sanchez 2-4, BB, RBI; Flores 3-4, 2B; Dawson 4-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

The best news? The Canadiens lost 2-1 in Atlanta, which was the first loss for “Mauler” Correa this season, and this moved the Raccoons to No.1 in the CL North, just in time for the end of June!

The Furballs scored in three of the first four innings to give Vicente Ruíz a 4-1 lead through four. Ricardo Gonzalez dropped pitcher Jose Macias’ lazy flyer to right to lead off the top 5th, which eventually became an unearned run. Preston O’Day hit a 3-run homer off Ruíz in the sixth and the inning became worse when Ruíz put on two more and Jones could not get the third out in relief. Two more runs scored. Down 8-4, the Raccoons got one more chance in the bottom 9th. Two on with one out, “Wacky” Booth came in to face Mark Dawson. Dawson slowly grounded to third, where Mauro Fernandez never got a proper grip on the ball and threw it away. One run in, two in scoring position, Tetsu Osanai up next. He went into the deep right corner – but Jake Martin made an amazing catch on what became a sac fly. The crowd had been on it’s feet, but with Gustavo Flores up and two out, sat down again. Flores was hit by Booth, and that put the tying run on base, but Steve Walker grounded out. 8-6 Condors. Barrios 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Osanai 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Walker 2-5;

The Knights walked off in the ninth against the Canadiens, 3-2, to keep the Raccoons atop the CL North.

Kisho Saito sucked terribly in his outing in game 3. He surrendered 10 hits, 3 home runs, seven runs, three walks in 4+ innings. It seems like I have to reschedule extra whippings. Armando Sanchez hit a 2-piece in the bottom 5th, but even that made it only a 7-3 deficit. They had one more chance in the eighth, scoring one, before the Condors brought in Booth, who struck out Miranda with the bases loaded. Raccoons lost, 7-4, on six hits. Sanchez 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-4, RBI; Flores (PH) 1-1, RBI; Powell 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

We dropped back to second place and faced a pitching issue here.

Raccoons (47-31) vs. Crusaders (38-40)

The Crusaders were rallying and the Raccoons were crumbling, going more or less .500 recently. This was an important 4-game set, our last series before facing the Canadiens for four in Vancouver.

The opener saw Carlos Gonzalez struggle with control. The Raccoons had little offense on top of that, only scoring to start innings, as Dawson and Ricardo Gonzalez belted leadoff jacks in the fourth and fifth. Carlos Gonzalez was still pitching in the eighth, but the 2-1 lead got away from him violently and he was on the hook for a 3-2 loss when leaving. He remained there. 3-2 Crusaders. Barrios 3-4;

This was both our 100th all time loss against the Crusaders, as well as the end to Gonzalez’ undefeated streak.

Tetsu Osanai hit an RBI double in the bottom 1st to a) get his team 1-0 ahead, and b) complete his second 20-game hitting streak of the season. The Coons added single runs the next two frames as well, but Wade gave two back with a home run to ex-Coon catcher Enrique Sanchez. Wade wobbled through six with a 4-3 lead. Jones was tasked with a lefty to start the top 7th – four balls. Cunningham cleaned house after him. The Raccoons got two in scoring position with nobody out after two misplays by veteran LF Dan Younger in the bottom 7th. Dawson walked to fill the bags for Osanai, who was already 3-3 with 3 RBI on the day, but flew out here, scoring Barrios from third on a sac fly. The Coons scored one more in the eighth, and Grant West saved it. 6-3 Coons. Barrios 4-5, 2B; Sanchez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Osanai 3-4, 2B, 4 RBI; Weber 2-4, 3B; Quintanilla (PH) 1-1;

Logan Evans surrendered two runs in a messy first inning in game 3. Osanai restored the tie with a massive home run to right in the bottom 1st, 2-2. From there it was six shutout innings for both starters. Evans was pinch hit for to no effect in the bottom 7th, while Gary Nixon remained in to start the eighth for New York. That was not the best strategy, although Dimian Barrios socking a leadoff jack was pretty unforeseeable. Grant West made it tense in the ninth, walking Enrique Sanchez to lead off, then surrendering a single, but then got a K and a double play and saved the 3-2 win for Wally Gaston. Osanai 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Miranda 2-3;

Game 4 was more than just ugly. Ruíz was battered for six runs in the first two innings, yet five of them were unearned after stupid errors by Quintanilla in the first and Osanai in the second inning. This was with the foul rat Hisanobu Higuchi on the mound, once more, so it stung twice as hard. The foul rat shut out the Raccoons through six and even then it took Gustavo Quintanilla’s maiden major league home run to put something on the board. If there was a highlight in this terrible game, this was it, and Cunningham striking out the side in the top 9th. The hideously filthy rat also had held Osanai hitless, going to break his streak. In the bottom 9th, Mark Dawson was up with nobody on and two down. He popped to right, where Pedro Villa dropped the ball – and Osanai came up once more. HOME RUN TO CENTER!!! While this was great for the hitting streak, and didn’t help the team one inch. Raccoons lost, 8-4. Sanchez 3-4, BB, 2B;

Sam Dadswell was activated from the DL for the next series, sending Odwin Garza, who batted below .182 with 3 RBI, back to AAA.

Raccoons (48-33) @ Canadiens (49-31)

This is where things count. Everybody has to stop blowing – now. This will be the first of two 4-game sets this month, and if we get swept here, we can start to sell in preparation for the deadline. By the way, at the start of this season it looks like we will face all righties in this series: Campbell, Smith, Fa, and Correa. They combine for a 37-15 record and neither’s ERA starts with a number higher than 2. Campbell to tie us down, Smith to ram matches under our toenails, Fa to throw boiling oil over us, and then the “Mauler” to finally mercifully smash our furry heads with a sledgehammer.

The voices in my head…

Game 1. The Canadiens went first, scoring two with three consecutive 2-out hits in the bottom 3rd, starting with the highly annoying Raúl Herrera. They blew the game open in the seventh with five runs against Saito and Powell, then whacked Gaston in the eighth. The Raccoons offense? Did nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Raccoons were 3-hit, Tetsu Osanai’s hitting streak was over, and the Canadiens danced into the clubhouse after a 10-0 pounding over the Furballs.

Winston Thompson also came off the DL for game 2, and we sent .184 batter Orlando Lantán, indefinite draft bust, to AAA. Thompson was not put into the lineup for now.

How to beat the Raccoons? Put Raúl Herrera in the lineup, #1, he will single and then swipe two bags during the next plate appearance. Sam Dadswell was unable to even come close to nail him TWICE in the first inning and he promptly scored on Manuel Flores’ grounder. Art Garrett then hit a 2-out single, then stole second, his first bag of the season, against a helpless Dadswell. Garrett scored on the next single. Three singles for two runs, way to go. Ricardo Gonzalez, who was in right as the ineffective outfielder du jour, then reached Bill Smith for a 2-bomb in the top 2nd to get that shame at least tied up, and Osanai and Dawson drove in runs in the third for a 4-2 lead. That lead was tested in earnest in the bottom 4th. Carlos Gonzalez got two quick outs, before they piled up on the bags, with a walk, hit batter, and a single. Bill Smith was yanked right there for pinch hitter Brian Adams, an experienced coonskinner. Gonzalez got him to 2-2 and then struck him out to leave the bags loaded. Top 6th: Mark Dawson reached on a 2-base throwing error to lead off, before the Canadiens walked Walker, who was erased on a fielder’s choice when Kelly Weber grounded to second. Ricardo Gonzalez walked, which made Carlos Gonzalez face Carlos Lozano with one out and the bases loaded in the 4-2 game. Now, Gonzalez can do many things besides pitching. He can bat some, he can run some, and he has a skilled eye, and here he drew a HUGE bases loaded walk. Next, Dimian Barrios grounded into a double play. Carlos Gonzalez (I may start calling him Cargo for convenience) went seven with 100 pitches, before handing over to Cunningham and West, who only faced six batters, and K’ed three. 5-2 Raccoons to crawl back into the series. Sanchez 3-5; Osanai 2-5, RBI; R. Gonzalez 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; C. Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (13-3);

Tia Fa walked the first two Coons to come up in game 3, but Barrios unfortunately was caught stealing before Sanchez got his fourth ball. That cost a run eventually, as Dawson and Osanai both sent doubles to deep right behind them. The Raccoons went up 2-0. The obnoxious Herrera hit a 3-run home run off Scott Wade to obliterate that lead in the bottom 2nd. That’s where the scoring stopped for a long time, with neither team getting a chance until the seventh, where the Canadiens loaded the bags and got one run in against Wade to make it 4-2. The Raccoons tried to counter in the top 8th after being 5-hit that far. Dawson drew a leadoff walk and Osanai singled to right. Walker was 0-3 on the day and here we entered Winston Thompson to fight righty Luis Cruz on the mound. He grounded into a picture perfect double play. Kelly Weber scored Dawson from third with a single, but that was it. Wade pitched a perfect eighth and the Canadiens sent out Gerard Marquis to end it. He walked Ricardo Gonzalez on four straight and we sniffed a chance. Wade was up next, but he was actually a bad bunter and we brought in Dadswell as pinch hitter (Flores had started the game). He walked on five pitches. Dimian Barrios couldn’t lay the bunt down at 0-0, and neither at 0-1, then flew out. Armando Sanchez sent a hobbler past the left side of the mound and I flinched, but the defenders couldn’t get two, they couldn’t even get one, as everybody was safe – and the big guys up. Mark Dawson was a notorious double play hitter, though. C’mon, Mark, gimme at least one! He grounded, and the Canadiens got the force at home. Down 4-3, bases loaded, Osanai up with two out. A zipper got through on the right side!! Dadswell scored, but Sanchez was held at third with RF Brian Adams quick to the ball. Thompson struck out, but we had bought time. In the bottom 9th, Wally Gaston walked Herrera on a full count, and we could have packed up right there. Herrera on first and nobody out. Cecil Ward was next and drilled at Wally’s first pitch, but Dawson was right there to catch it and turn the double play!! The 10th was uneventful, but the Raccoons squeezed the go-ahead run in in the 11th. Sanchez reached on another infield single, stole second, then dashed home on a 2-out single by Osanai, who went to second. Grant West walked the leadoff batter, Miguel Guzman, in the bottom 11th, then got two outs, but Guzman went to second. And Herrera was up. 2-4 with a homer and three ribbies on the day, we didn’t chance it and went to Cecil Ward instead. Ward fouled off the first two pitches, then looked at a borderline ball. West glanced for a while, then focused, then STRUCK HIM OUT!! 5-4 Raccoons. Barrios 2-5, BB; Sanchez 2-4, 2 BB; Osanai 4-6, 2B, 4 RBI; Cunningham 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (5-0);

Game 4, winner leads the division. Logan Evans (7-5, 2.52 ERA) had to face the “Mauler”, Juan Correa (10-2, 1.90 ERA). With both Cunningham and West unavailable after pitching consecutive days, we were looking at a recently wobbly Wally Gaston to potentially close the game, and a 4+ runs win was not in the cards, so we faced another extremely difficult game here.

The game started as pitchers’ duel. Correa was perfect through ten batters, before surrendering a 1-out single to Barrios (who was moved to #2 for Sanchez as leadoff). Dadswell also singled, but Osanai’s shot to deep center was not deep enough and caught. Dawson sent a grounder past SS Art Garrett to score Barrios, 1-0. Garrett countered with a solo shot off Evans in the bottom of the inning and the game was very quickly very tied. After a scoreless fifth, Barrios got on in the sixth, but nothing came out of it. In the bottom 6th, Vicente Ramirez led off with an infield single and that was the beginning of the end. Evans balked with one out and Ramirez at second and that took even the intentional walk away with #8 Shimpei Iwamoto already up. Iwamoto lined a 3-1 pitch to deep left and the Canadiens scored two in the inning. Evans left in the seventh with two on (Bentley wiggled out there) after giving up 11 hits in 6.2 innings, and that was way too much to stand a chance against Correa, who had only surrendered one hit outside of the fourth, and not a single walk, so far. Kelly Weber led off with a single in the eighth, but he was left on as well. A home run off Bentley and a walk by Powell to Herrera, who deserved every bit of hating, added two more runs for Vancouver and they won 5-1. Barrios 2-4; Dadswell 2-4; Dawson 2-4, RBI; this only omits Kelly Weber’s single…

So, we split the series, but everybody saw pretty clearly, who was boss in the CL North. The Raccoons weren’t.

Raccoons (50-35) @ Titans (44-43)

Dawson and Walker were rested in the first game of the series. The Coons took a 2-0 lead in the third after three walks by John Fowler loaded them up. Vicente Ruíz pitched six frames of 2-hit ball before jamming badly in the seventh, still only 2-0 ahead. Manny Mora hit a 2-run triple against Wally Gaston to tie the game. There, the Raccoons still only had two hits themselves against Fowler, one of those 6+ ERA pitchers this team loved to lose against. Gaston walked two in the bottom 8th and Bentley surrendered a 3-run home run to Isto Grönholm to give Gaston not only a BS, but also an L. 5-2 Titans, three hits for the Raccoons.

Carlos Miranda went 0-4 in the game and, batting .180, was demoted to St. Petersburg, from where we called up 1B/2B Darren Campbell, who had gone 2-21 for the Coons last year.

The non-hitting Raccoons remained around in the next game. They only scored the go-ahead run in the second with the help of an error on Quintanilla’s 2-out grounder that brought in Dawson from third. Kisho Saito’s struggles continued, as he created jams every other inning – always to escape just barely. So, the game was 1-0 Coons through six, but again we only had three hits so far. Two down in the bottom 7th, Mark Dawson briefly turned into Cam Green with pitcher Jose Garza at bat. Garza grounded to third and Dawson threw it past Osanai. Eduardo German then sent a vicious flyer to right, but Quintanilla managed to catch it. Bullet dodged. But I was desperate for an insurance run, and when Osanai drew a 1-out walk in the top 8th, I made a (for me) very rare move and brought Lucero as pinch-runner. It didn’t work. Saito pitched a perfect eighth and remained in for the bottom 9th, with the 5-6-7 guys up and his last few innings had been good. The Titans went down 1-2-3, and the Coons won 1-0 with four hits on an unearned run! Sanchez 2-5; Dawson 2-2, BB; Saito 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (7-8);

This was the fifth shutout for Saito, and his second with the Raccoons. His first with us had come last year against Tijuana, a 2-hitter. It was also his first complete game of the year, and in fact the first time he had gone past the seventh since May, pretty much illustrating his struggles this year.

One more game ‘til everything breaks, or at least the schedule for three days. With Carlos Gonzalez getting nominated for the All Star Game, we scratched him from the lineup for the rubber game to avoid possible consequences we would not appreciate. Scott Wade started on short rest, but hey, major league baseball is no pony farm.

Besides, all our long guys were well rested to enter early, if necessary. The Coons scored one run in the first, then another one when Kelly Weber homered in the second. The Raccoons matched their hit total from the first two games by the third inning in this one. After three, the Raccoons led 6-0. Wade’s command was never there during his outing, but he did get a key strikeout on Mashwanis in the bottom 5th with two on and two out, on a full count. He was gone after allowing a run in the sixth after going to 3-ball counts repeatedly. All players going to the All Star game (see below) were removed by the seventh inning with the Coons leading 8-1. What could possibly happen? (hear a violin screeching intensely here) Nothing happened, although Moran could not pitch the 3-inning save I envisioned, struggling with control a bit. Cunningham and Powell also entered the game, and the Raccoons won 9-1. Thompson 1-1; Dawson 3-5, 2 2B; Walker 1-2, 3 BB; Weber 2-5, HR, RBI; Quintanilla 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Campbell (PH) 1-2, RBI;

1986 All Star Game

The Raccoons sent five players: SP Carlos Gonzalez, CL Grant West, 1B Tetsu Osanai, INF Dimian Barrios, and OF Armando Sanchez. The latter one really surprised me since he didn’t even have enough AB’s to qualify for the batting title, but at the same time he hit .340, so … well. The Canadiens also sent five, including three SP’s to tie for the lead in the CL. The FL was a bit more spread out with the Miners, Blue Sox, Buffaloes, and Stars all sending four players. Jack Pennington (NAS), Cam Green (PIT), Enrique Sanchez (NYC) and Alex White (SFW) all went to the game.

The Continental League walks off 3-2 in the ninth after entering the inning trailing. Armando Sanchez drove in the game winning run as pinch hitter. Dimian Barrios entered as replacement and went 0-1 with an intentional walk (right in front of Sanchez in the bottom 9th). Tetsu Osanai started at first and went the distance, going 1-4 with a solo jack. Grant West pitched a scoreless inning, Carlos Gonzalez did not appear.

We can thus rebuild our rotation with Evans leading Gonzalez, Saito, Wade, and Ruíz for the second half.

In other news

July 1 – LAP Hunter Frazier is most likely out for the rest of the season, suffering from ulnar nerve irritation. The 36-yr old went 6-9 with a 3.84 ERA this year.
July 4 – VAN 2B Melvin Greene (.332, 3 HR, 29 RBI) is out for about a month with a broken finger.
July 8 – Division rivals trade as the Indians acquire utility man Alvin Sutphen (.212 in 84 AB this year) from the Loggers for minor league SP Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed “A-Rod”. [That one amuses me.]
July 8 – SAC INF Hector Atilano (.348, 6 HR, 53 RBI) is not done with being amazing at age 35. He complete a 20-game hitting streak with an impressive 4-4 day, including a 2-run triple. The Scorpions still lost 10-7 to the Stars.
July 9 – The Miners lose outfielder Xiao-wei Li (.289, 1 HR, 33 RBI) for a month due to a broken finger.
July 9 – As the Gold Sox beat the Wolves 5-1, DEN 3B Claudio Rojas (.321, 0 HR, 27 RBI) also hits safely for the 20th consecutive game.
July 11 – Ralph Nixon is out with a herniated disc and will miss a month. The Miners should not be surprised. That man is 40 and mostly worked up by now. Nixon is batting .309 in limited exposure with the Knights and Miners this year.
July 13 – Just in time for the All Star Game, Hector Atilano’s hitting streak ends at 24 games in a 5-3 loss to Sioux Falls. In more bad news for the Scorpions, outfielder Larry Marshall (.241, 8 HR, 37 RBI) is hurt during stretching before their game and is out for the month with a strained rib cage muscle.
July 14 – From the category “Trades nobody understands”: Oklahoma City sends SP Ray Shaw (9-7, 3.12 ERA) to Nashville to get 1B Hector Roman, who has a total of 19 AB in the majors this year, spending most of the time at AAA.

Complaints and stuff

Jose Munoz, an infielder with the Raccoons’ A level affiliate, was A level Player of the Week going .500 with 2 HR, 9 RBI.

Daniel Hall came off the DL on the last game day before the All Star break. This created a pinch for me. Sanchez and Gonzalez were off limits and there was no question that Hall belonged to the roster. That left Weber, who produced well, Quintanilla, who produced surprisingly well, and Lucero – who didn’t. He had been great in a backup/defensive role the last two years, but not so this year. He was batting .183. He was 35, in a contract year and not compensation eligible and with the young talent knocking on the door, his time was over. He was waived and designated for assignment, cleared waivers, then waived his 10/5 rights and accepted demotion to AAA.

We have played 88 games this season. Daniel Hall has already missed 50. Uh-oh. Yes, he’s under contract for seven more seasons (incl. the vesting option for ‘93). Stop asking those unpretty questions.

The offense has been slow so far in July with only one game with more than six runs scored (the last one) and less than four on average. We’re still second in runs scored.

With the deadline coming up, the Raccoons will certainly be buyers, if anything. But: we can’t take on any salary (since we’re over-budget), and if there’s need for improvement, then it is in the rotation. Starting pitchers won’t come cheap.

Zero hour? The Canadiens come to town for four. We will go to the road after that, playing Indy and Oklahoma before returning home against the Bayhawks and Knights, with the latter series already taking place in August.

[Questdog]

What's the records in the league for the triple crown categories?

...wondering how many records Tetsu is on pace to set....

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

What's the records in the league for the triple crown categories?

All time records in Batting Triple Crown categories so far:
Batting avg.: Jeremiah Carrell (CIN, 1979) with .3944
Home Runs: Gabriel Cruz (DAL, 1984) with 35
Runs batted in: Ralph Nixon (NYC, 1978) and Tom McDonald (ATL, 1985) with 136 each

Only considering the Continental League, you get the following numbers:
Batting avg.: Claudio Rojas (SFB, 1984) with .3623 (ranks 8th overall)
Home Runs: Daniel Hall (POR, 1984) with 29 (ranks 3rd overall)
Runs batted in: Ralph Nixon (NYC, 1978) and Tom McDonald (ATL, 1985) with 136 each

And now we're only considering the Raccoons:
Batting avg.: Pedro Sánz (1977) with .308 (ranks nowhere near the happy zone) *
Home Runs: Daniel Hall (1984) with 29 (ranks 3rd overall)
Runs batted in: Mark Dawson (1983) with 119 (ranks t-14th overall)

* The team page gives that, but if I'm not totally stupid he's not even qualifying with too few plate appearances due to injuries that season (as in every season he was with us). Tetsu Osanai's second half of last year was a .315 outing, but also does not qualify for the team page. Next in line is Ralph Nixon with .299 in 1981.

That .299 or .308 mark (whatever) is going to be pulverized. Right now we have three batters over .300 (Osanai, Sanchez, Barrios), although only two (sans Sanchez) will qualify.

So, Tetsu should smash all the team records, and has a good shot at the CL AVG and RBI records as well, but Jeremiah Carrell's mark is a strong one to beat. He was (and still is) an elite contact batter. He leads the career batting average leader board with an incredible .3489 mark. Who's second there? Tetsu! (.3354);

Unfortunately for Carrell, he's as fragile as a porcelain ballerina and has not qualified for the batting title for four straight seasons. Despite playing since 1977, he ranks only 24th on the all time hits list with 1,333!

[Orcin]

Hey, let me see that Carrell bobblehead... That's neat, oh, whoops, sorry man. Wow, who knew those things could shatter into so many pieces!