Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

2048 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) vs. Dallas Stars (100-62)

Rematch time! I hope the Stars weren’t still holding a grudge from last year, when we won the World Series over them in five games. They previously beat us in six games in 1983, so this was the third time the two teams encountered another in the championship decider.

The Raccoons came in with roster changes; both Bob Ibold and Chris Robinson returned to the team after healing out their earlier injuries, and Danny Cancel and Matt Glodowski were dropped. The latter move was made despite half the Stars’ starters being left-handed.

How did we stack up against Dallas? For starters, they outscored us by 192 runs, which was a bit on the rough side, but also conceded 101 runs more than us. Their lineup was tremendous, but the key hitters like Juan del Toro (.369, 26 HR, 104 RBI) and Tylor Cecil (.310, 29 HR, 149 RBI) and Leo Villacorta (.310, 15 HR, 91 RBI) were all left-handed, which looked like it might yet play into the Raccoons’ paws, as we came in with three southpaw starters and another three lefty relievers. I also didn’t see any lefty reliever in their bullpen – and that bullpen had not been all that great to begin with. Of course, the Raccoons had only select left-handed batters, but Pat Gurney was raging hot, and then we’d have a prime joker bat on the bench in Chris Robinson, who I’d rather not have in the field against a prolific lineup like the Stars’.

The teams had met in the regular season, contesting a 3-game set in August in which the Raccoons won the opener, 11-5, but then lost two 1-run squeezers after that.

This series certainly could go either way, but probably wouldn’t be a borefest, huh?

[Westheim]

2048 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) @ Dallas Stars (100-62)

The Stars had home field advantage – the Raccoons had in fact been the bottom seed for the playoffs – so the first two games would be staged in Dallas this time, after Portland had seen the opener of the previous World Series between these two clubs. The Stars would lead off with right-hander Dave Hils, who had outdueled Jeremy Baker for a 1-0 win in the regular season, but would oppose Wheats on regular rest this time. Wheats had lost the rubber game of the series to Arthur Pickett, 4-3.

Game 1 – Jason Wheatley (13-7, 3.44 ERA) vs. Dave Hils (18-10, 3.30 ERA)

Derek Baskins was back in the lineup for the Coons, who struggled to fill that leftfield spot with goodness. Bryce Toohey was pencilled in for the starts against lefty hurlers, and I almost put him in here already, but then again he’d been rotten for the entire season and I didn’t see it changing now all of a sudden.

But couldn’t you say the same about Derek Baskins?

POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – C R. Gonzalez – LF Baskins – P Wheatley
DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 1B van Eijk – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 2B Sedillo – 3B Haney – C Rollin – P Hils

Neither offense got going early, in any way, shape or form. Herrera hit a single in the top 1st, and that was about it for the Raccoons in the first run through the lineup. Wheats gave up a single to Leo Villacorta in the second, but he was doubled up by Mario Sedillo, and in the third inning Omar Gonzalez reached with a 2-out walk, but got caught stealing by Ruben Gonzalez. Adame also had a CS on his ledger by then, having singled and ended the top 3rd when Villacorta had put the slab on him at second base.

A bad roller by Jesus Maldonado could perhaps give the Raccoons a start into the game? Mark Haney threw the grounder wildly past Govaart van Eijk at first base, and Maldo reached scoring position in the top 4th, the first Critter to do so in the game. He advanced on a Preble grounder, then went home when Waters grounded to Sedillo, who at first was about to throw the ball home, then reconsidered, then made a hasty throw to first that skipped past van Eijk for the second 2-base error of the inning. Pat Gurney pounced with an RBI single to left, and the Raccoons were up 2-0, both runs being very, very unearned.

The lead didn’t last, at all. Van Eijk opened the bottom 4th with a single, and del Toro unpacked a huge home run to right to level the score at two. Tylor Cecil reached on a Maldonado error after that, Sedillo singled, and Dan Rollin continued the Wheatley deconstruction with a 2-out, 2-run double to left-center. Those two runs were unearned, but they counted all the same as the Stars flipped the score to 4-2 at once.

Wheats tried to get back with a leadoff single in the fifth, and runners were on the corners when Herrera also singled. Maldo hit a long fly to center that stretched out of Juan del Toro’s reach for an RBI double, 4-3. Thing was – neither Preble nor Waters had hit much at all in the CLCS and both were under .200 now with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Preble flew out poorly to shallow center and Waters grounded out to short, stranding the precious runners, while the Stars completed the chewing-up of Wheatley with a walk drawn by van Eijk, and two RBI knocks by del Toro and Villacorta in the bottom 5th, extending their lead to 6-3.

The Coons looked very much defeated. Adame hit a double in the seventh, but was stranded by Herrera and Maldonado, and apart from that they allowed Hils to go eight innings. Righty Dale Mrazek took the baseball in the ninth inning. Martell grounded out, Wilson struck out, and Adame grounded out to make a quick end of it.

Stars 6, Raccoons 3 – (Stars lead 1-0)

Adame 2-5, 2B; Herrera 2-4;

That wasn’t pretty at all. I can’t imagine the agony of having to play them 18 times a year…

Game 2 – Bubba Wolinsky (7-2, 3.23 ERA) vs. Tony Martinez (2-2, 3.81 ERA, 1 SV)

Neither of the Game 2 starters had featured very big in the regular season meeting. Bubba hadn’t pitched at all, and back then Tony Martinez had still been the Stars’ long man. He had only made it into the rotation in September after an injury had taken out Arthur Pickett, the Englishman with the strong Yorkie accent, but even stronger changeup.

But here was finally a left-hander and a reason to jigger the lineup.

POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – LF Watt – 1B Toohey – C Wilson – P Wolinsky
DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 2B Sedillo – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 3B Haney – 1B van Eijk – C Rollin – P T. Martinez

The game started like the first one, with neither side doing much of consequence the first time through – almost. The Stars got a Villacorta single in the bottom 2nd, but also a double play grounder from Haney to Adame, but in the third inning they got a single from Dan Rollin, who was bunted to second by Martinez, then a 2-out RBI double by Omar Gonzalez to put the first run on the board. Sedillo grounded out to short to end three, with the Raccoons down 1-0.

The middle innings failed to see an uptick in offense. The Raccoons were retired in order in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings by Martinez, and at some point I became vaguely aware by the home fans’ snickering that Tony Martinez was working on an actual ******* no-hitter against us. Wolinsky almost matched his step though, getting nine outs in a row before Sedillo clipped a 2-out single in the bottom 6th. Del Toro then popped out to Matt Waters. It was still 1-0.

The only actual base runner for Portland so far had been Toohey, who had gotten nailed by Martinez, who began the seventh on 60 pitches, but gave up a 2-out single to Waters on a 1-2 pitch. Preble followed with a single to center, Matt Watt singled to left, Waters circled around to score, and out of the blue yonder we were tied! When Toohey walked, the bags filled up for Jeff Wilson, but he struck out, stranding three perfectly good runners on base.

Suddenly Bubba looked like he was in the driver’s seat. He continued to saw off the Stars, and exited a quick bottom 7th on just 72 pitches, while Martinez was now up to 90. It was a hard decision, but Bubba was not hit for to begin the top 8th, flew out to center, then got a lead anyway when Adame banged a jack to left-center, his second of the postseason. Moreover, Bubba batted again for himself in the ninth inning after a quick bottom 8th, and by then the score spreader had been applied to the game with a single by Waters, who stole second, an RBI double by Preble, and an RBI triple by Watt…! Wolinsky faced Adam Middleton with Watt and Toohey on the corners, then slapped a single to center to extend the lead to 5-1…! Adame grounded out after that, but there was no reason to bother the bullpen for the bottom 9th yet. Bubba went back to the mound on 86 pitches, giving up a leadoff single to Sedillo into center, and a single to right to del Toro.

Okay, when is the right point to panic and toss relievers at them? But Cecil hadn’t hit a lick against Wolinsky all game; no pitching change was made yet, and Wolinsky hit into a soft fielder’s choice, with runners now on the corners, but another lefty stick up in Villacorta. That one was still Wolinsky’s – but Moreno was up for Haney after that. The move was made after Villacorta popped out. Moreno threw just two pitches to Haney then, the second being caught by Watt in left, and the series headed to Portland in an even state.

Raccoons 5, Stars 1 – (series tied 1-1)

Waters 2-4; Preble 2-4, 2B, RBI; Watt 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Wolinsky 8.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (2-1) and 1-3, RBI;

Bubbaaaa!!

[Westheim]

2048 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) vs. Dallas Stars (100-62)

Home, sweet Home ……. Maud, remind me that when Nick is in the next time I need to ask him for a dome. – So that I can rhyme with home. – Oh Maud, you have no sense for romance.

Slappy, Maud just took the plate with my muffins and walked out. Is she mad about something?

Game 3 – Victor Merino (15-9, 3.60 ERA) vs. Noe Candeloro (7-3, 4.09 ERA)

Neither of these two pitchers had featured in the regular season series, but Candeloro was the second southpaw in a row. The Game 2 lineup had sure started out slow (if not dead from the hips up), but had broken through eventually and no changes were made. The Stars also stuck to their Game 2 lineup against another Coons southpaw.

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by David Brewer, Hall of Famer (though not with the brown cap), who played a few years for the Raccoons at the end of the 1989-96 dynasty, and now came back to pay homage to the Raccoons at the tail end of the 2044-48 dynasty.

DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 2B Sedillo – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 3B Haney – 1B van Eijk – C Rollin – P Candeloro
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – LF Watt – 1B Toohey – C Wilson – P Merino

Unfortunately, Merino was no good. He gave up two hits, a walk, and a run in the first – del Toro singling home Gonzalez – and two more this, another walk, and another run in the second, this time with Sedillo singling home van Eijk. He needed almost 50 pitches to make it even that far, and then was sort of lucky that the Stars stranded a pair each time.

Tylor Cecil hit a leadoff single in the third inning, but never got to move off first base. The Raccoons, however, were again nowhere to be found – Candeloro was perfect the first time through the order, whiffing a pair, while the rest made the weakest contact imaginable. Adame flew out to del Toro in right-center to begin the fourth, and Herrera grounded out, but then Maldo ripped a double to left – finally in the H column at least! Maldo also made it an entry into the R column, aggressively cutting around third base and racing home just in time on a soft Waters single to shorten the score to 2-1. From there, Candeloro lost both Mike Preble and Matt Watt on balls, filling the bases with two outs for Bryce Toohey, who was hitless in the postseason, but right now I’d also take him drawing from that .429 OBP he had – and he did! As Candeloro remained entirely out of whack, Toohey drew another four balls, and that pushed home Waters with the tying run! …and then Wilson struck out again……..

The game remained tied at 2-2 in the fifth, and Merino continued to pitch in the sixth, but was yanked after a 1-out single by Haney and a walk to van Eijk. Bob Ibold walked the bags full against Dan Rollin, but buggered out with a K and a fly to Herrera.

Matt Waters had played a silent CLCS, but he kept cranking it up in the World Series now, singling with one out in the sixth. A Preble groundout moved him to second, while Watt walked behind him. Toohey was back up, and how long would the Stars keep Candeloro on the mound? Long enough to end the inning with a K to Toohey at least…

Toohey was out of the game in a double switch after Ibold removed Sedillo to begin the top 7th, Gurney and Kuo taking over. Del Toro reached on an uncaught third strike to put the go-ahead run on base, but Kuo got weak outs from Cecil and Villacorta to keep him on first base after all.

Top 8th, the go-ahead run was back on base. Third base. With nobody out. Watt dropped a fly by PH Jamie King off Preston Porter for two bases, and a wild pitch did the rest. Van Eijk popped out, but Rollin’s grounder up the middle was good enough to bring in the run and give Dallas the lead again. Adam Middleton removed the 3-4-5 in order in the bottom 8th, which was not great. Porter got one out and Bonnie two in the top 9th, before Mrazek was out for the bottom 9th. Watt led off with a single to left, bringing the winning run to the plate in PH Chris Robinson, who whacked another single to center. Al Martell batted for Wilson, but hit a comebacker for a force out at second base, yet at least stayed out of a double play and the winning runs were still aboard for Gurney, who poked the first pitch up the middle and Villacorta lunged and he missed it and it was a single and we were TIED!! Coons!! Too bad that Adame killed the momentum by popping out…! Two outs, Herrera with a chance to end it, but he flew out to Cecil, and the game went to extras, even at three.

Maldo started a 5-4-3 double play on Rollin to bail out Mike Lynn with two aboard in the top 10th, then led off the bottom of the inning, still against Mrazek, who had somehow only thrown 15 pitches in that ninth inning. Maldo grounded out, but Waters singled into center, as did Preble, sending the winning run to second base for Watt, who floated out easily to Cecil. Ruben Gonzalez had entered the game in the #7 slot after Wilson’s removal, and while he was hitting .087 in the playoffs, he could not be batted for since we were now out of catchers. He flew out to del Toro, and the winning run was stranded in scoring position for the second time.

The 11th was uneventful, but Lynn was used up and the Raccoons were now out of lefty pitching and had to resort to a right-hander, Nelson Moreno, who was promptly torn to shreds. He nicked del Toro to begin the 12th, and was swiftly slapped around for a double by Cecil, a sac fly, and ultimately a 2-out single by van Eijk, falling two runs behind. The bottom 11th began with Brad Blankenship for the Stars, facing the 2-3-4 hitters. They all grounded out.

Stars 5, Raccoons 3 (12) – (Stars lead series 2-1)

Waters 3-6, RBI; Robinson (PH) 1-1; Lynn 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Worse yet, Nelson Moreno complained about a bum shoulder after the game. This was not a great time to have a bum shoulder! He was marked as day-to-day.

Game 4 – Jeremy Baker (11-7, 3.69 ERA) vs. Orlando Leos (11-9, 4.43 ERA)

It sort of was go time for the Raccoons now, given that we could ill afford to send Wheats back to the mound down 3-1 in Game 5. I didn’t blame Wheats necessarily – those were some monstrous left-handed hitters.

But it would help if we used our own chances from time to time, y’know…

First pitch duties were delegated to singer slash starlet slash Gobble personality Ke’Andra Gorlupski, who threw the ball about 35 feet. It didn’t even roll all the way to Ruben Gonzalez. She still spontaneously broke into what our legal department has told me I have to call “song”, but what made me admire deaf people and the peace and tranquility they got to enjoy at the same time.

And yes, that’s Robinson in the lineup. Poppa needs offense.

DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 2B Sedillo – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 3B Haney – 1B van Eijk – C Rollin – P O. Leos
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Robinson – 1B Gurney – LF Preble – C R .Gonzalez – P Baker

The Stars clubbed four singles off Baker in the first inning, and were held to one run mostly because Omar Gonzalez was caught stealing after opening with a single to center. Adame also opened the home 1st with a single, was not caught stealing, and reached third base on a Herrera double to center instead. Maldo tied the game with a sac fly, but Waters and Robinson were put out by Cecil and van Eijk, respectively.

Baker didn’t make it out of the third inning, getting whacked around for a 3-spot that was still ongoing when the hammer came down. Gonzalez and Sedillo hit singles, Cecil drove both of them in, Villacorta walked, Haney whacked an RBI single and the runners advanced on a late throw to home plate by Preble… it was a complete mess. Jake Jackson came in, waved the remaining runners across, and the Raccoons trailed 6-1.

Jackson threw 50 pitches for just 2.2 innings of relief, allowing a 2-run homer to del Toro in the fourth to bury the Critters for good. Not that they had made any rally motions in between – Leos was on a 3-hitter through five innings. Bonnie cocked up another run in the sixth, and when Maldonado actually hit a single in the bottom of the inning, he was immediately doubled up by Waters’ grounder to second to kill that inning, too.

The bottom 7th began with Robinson and Gurney singles before Preble drew a walk, which would certainly doom the very attempt. Ruben Gonzalez promptly spanked into a 6-4-3 double play, technically scoring a completely useless run. Toohey singled home Gurney as pinch-hitter, but even then we were still six runs short.

Emotionally we were so defeated that the bottom 8th began with Watt and Martell pinch-hitting or the old veterans in the 2-3 holes. Martell hit an infield single, after which Matt Waters homered to left, 9-5. (looks skywards) Really? Like that? … The inning fizzled out after that even though Robinson got on base as well. Leos kept pitching through eight despite getting whacked for a 5-spot by then, and even returned for the ninth or a 123-pitch complete-game 10-hitter, sitting down Gonzalez, Wilson, and Adame in order.

Stars 9, Raccoons 5 – (Stars lead series 3-1)

Maldonado 1-2, RBI; Martell (PH) 1-1; Robinson 2-4; Toohey (PH) 1-1, RBI; Hitchcock 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Well.

(sigh)

Game 5 – Jason Wheatley (13-7, 3.44 ERA) vs. Dave Hils (18-10, 3.30 ERA)

You’re my best horse in the barn, Wheats, and you know that. (pats Wheats’ shoulder before the start) And if someone can shut them down, totally, it’s you! (pats the other shoulder too) And remember, if we don’t win the title I have no excuse to ask Nick Valdes for many millions to buy new stars, and then I have to trade you to some godforsaken crap hole, like Sacramento. (pinches Wheats in the fuzzy cheek)

(Wheats looks bewildered)

The final ceremonial first pitch of the year in this ballpark – that much was for sure – was thrown out by Les Pounder, president of the Portland Food Bank. I had an account there, too, and it contained two hams and a box full of marmalades in tiny glasses.

DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 1B van Eijk – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 2B Sedillo – 3B Haney – C Rollin – P Hils
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Robinson – 1B Gurney – LF Preble – C R .Gonzalez – P Wheatley

Del Toro and Adame both hit singles in the first inning and attempted to steal; only Adame made it, and was then singled across by Maldonado for a quick 1-0 lead for the Furballs. Wheats ended up facing the minimum the first time through, while also getting drilled back-to-back with Adame with two outs in the bottom 2nd. That filled the bases with Preble already on, but Herrera grounded out to short to strand all three of them.

Waters hit another jack to extend the Coons’ lead to 2-0 in the bottom 3rd, while Wheats now started his second run through the Stars order, where it had started to go very wrong in Game 1. Del Toro singled again with two outs in the top 4th, but Cecil was rung up in a full count to end the inning, while the Raccoons scratched out another run with hits by Gonzalez and Adame in the fourth, going up 3-0.

Things got more ugly as the innings progressed. Wheats hit Sedillo in the fifth inning, which the Stars apparently objected to. In any case, Maldo got smacked in return to begin the bottom 5th, but with a breaking ball, which was a weird combo with the leadoff man. Maldo stole second, but would ultimately be left on base. Omar Gonzalez singled then and stole second with one out in the sixth. Van Eijk grounded out to short, but now the big guns were coming up, both del Toro and Cecil hitting over .350 with three homers each and a total of 27 RBI in the postseason. There was a mound conference, Wheats assured the pitching coach he totally had this, and then got del Toro to fly out easily to Preble in leftfield.

Preble hit a homer to right to greet Hils in the bottom 6th, 4-0. Wheats ran out of juice in the seventh then. Villacorta singled, but was forced out by Sedillo, who stole second. Mark Haney singled him across, 4-1, and then Rollin’s grounder to left was cut off by Adame, but it was too late to make a throw to any base… infield single, and the end for Wheats with Jamie King appearing as tying run and lefty pinch-hitter. The Coons went to Lynn, and Lynn gave up an RBI double that hit off the fence in left, maybe four inches from the top end of the padding there… Gonzalez went down on strikes, and somehow we maintained a 4-2 lead at the stretch.

The lead was only blown in the eighth. Lynn allowed a leadoff single to van Eijk, walked del Toro, and after Cecil grounded out, conceded the runs on a Villacorta single, evening the score at four. Those were all lefty hitters, by the way. While Bob Ibold came in from the pen after that disaster, I calmly put a block of soap into a sock and got ready to visit the clubhouse after the defeat that was now inevitable.

Ibold and Porter kept the game tied through the middle of the ninth, but could we actually find a walkoff hero? In Game 3, the answer had been a resounding “nope”, repeatedly. This time Toohey hit a 1-out single in the #9 hole against Mrazek, then was run for with Derek Baskins. Adame grounded out, moving the winning run and ticket to Dallas to second base. Herrera ran a full count, then walked. Maldo came to the plate, took a ball, then ticked a changeup through the right side. A hit! Baskins on the run! Baskins around third! Baskins for home! Baskins safe!! IT’S A WALKOFF!!!!

Raccoons 5, Stars 4 – (Stars lead series 3-2)

Adame 2-4, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, 2 RBI; Preble 2-4, HR, RBI; Toohey (PH) 1-1; Wheatley 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

Fine, Maud, here’s your rose-scented soap.

But next time I’ll whack him.

[Westheim]

2048 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) @ Dallas Stars (100-62)

Turns out, Game 5 left behind more carnage and devastation than that blown 4-0 lead. Bob Ibold had a burning sensation in his elbow after the game and was checked out on the off day. By the morning of Game 6 we learned that he had blown out his elbow good enough to miss significant time even next year, but the details were still fuzzy. In any case, he was placed on the DL and the Raccoons got to make a replacement pick, who turned out to be Adam Bates, who had already stowed himself away on some forgotten beach in Mexico and had to scurry to Dallas real fast.

Game 6 – Bubba Wolinsky (7-2, 3.23 ERA) vs. Tony Martinez (2-2, 3.81 ERA, 1 SV)

Reprise thus of the Game 2 matchup, which the Raccoons had won … eventually. Martinez had pitched a no-hitter for five innings and small change…

POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – LF Watt – 1B Toohey – C R. Gonzalez – P Wolinsky
DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 2B Sedillo – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 3B Haney – 1B van Eijk – C Rollin – P T. Martinez

The Coons took a lead really quickly with an Adame double and a Maldo homer in the top 1st. Waters also drew a walk, but was doubled up in a Preble-engineered 6-4-3, and then Wolinsky leaked Gonzalez and Sedillo on base to begin his outing, and Tylor Cecil doubled both of them home to tie the score.

Dallas took the lead in the second on a Rollin double and Gonzalez single, 3-2, and overall for his pitching in this sorta important Game 6 let’s just say that the difference to Game 2 was breathtakingly depressing.

But the Coons hung in there, Wolinsky cleaned up his act at least a little bit to keep the Stars within reach a while longer, and when he bunted Ruben Gonzalez to second base after a leadoff single in the fifth, Adame was up to the task and drove home the catcher with a game-tying single, all even at three now. Armando Herrera’s single put runners on the corners, and while Maldo was caught by del Toro in shallow center, Matt Waters underlined his ambitions for any sort of MVP award by romping a massive 3-run homer outta leftfield! Raccoooooons!! 6-3!

This was the end for Martinez, while Wolinsky retired that murderous 3-4-5 part of the Stars’ lineup in order in the bottom 5th. He arrived at that portion of the lineup again, still up 6-3, in the bottom 7th, but then with Sedillo on first and one out. Del Toro poked the first pitch into play, a sad-sack roller that couldn’t be turned into an out, and brought up Cecil the Slayer as the tying run. The Coons pen didn’t get called on, though. The Coons stuck to Wolinsky here. Cecil went up 2-1, but then grounded out to Waters, the runners reaching scoring position with two outs. Wolinsky then fought Villacorta all the way to a full count before Ruben Gonzalez managed to get paws on a foul pop right in front of the netting behind home plate, ending the inning…!

That was it for Wolinsky on 100 pitches, but Porter and Kuo put together a scoreless eighth to inch the team closer to an all-deciding Game 7. The offense certainly was conserving energies and hits for the day after, not getting on base much after putting up the 4-spot in the fifth inning. It was thus a 3-run lead in the bottom 9th, and the top of the order was up. The Raccoons went to Nelson Moreno, who had a creaky shoulder, but claimed to be fine after warming up in the pen during the top 9th. Omar Gonzalez flew out to left. Mario Sedillo grounded out to short. Mike Lynn, who had tossed in the pen and would have come in for the troublemakers in the middle of the order if the Stars had put a right-handed batter on base, slowed down his throwing. Moreno against del Toro? The first pitch was hit to left. Watt over ….. catch! Ballgame!

Raccoons 6, Stars 3 – (series tied 3-3)

Adame 3-5, 2B, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Waters 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Gonzalez 2-4; Wolinsky 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (3-1);

[Westheim]

2048 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) @ Dallas Stars (100-62)

The Stars had come from 3-1 down in the FLCS to beat the Miners, and now probably had their pants full fearing that fate was reversing itself. Also, the pitching matchup for the do-or-die game had been even enough that I didn’t have to gnaw my claws off hours before the game. Baker had been the one that had been flatout routed, but Baker was far away in the bullpen, where he hopefully would not do any damage beyond what we had already incurred.

Game 7 – Victor Merino (15-9, 3.60 ERA) vs. Noe Candeloro (7-3, 4.09 ERA)

The Raccoons stuck to their Game 6 lineup; as far as relievers were concerned, everybody was principally available, even those with bum shoulders like Nelson Moreno. (pats Moreno on the shoulder; Moreno winces)

POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – LF Watt – 1B Toohey – C R. Gonzalez – P Merino
DAL: LF O. Gonzalez – 2B Sedillo – CF del Toro – RF Cecil – SS Villacorta – 3B Haney – 1B van Eijk – C Rollin – P Candeloro

Adame opened with an infield single, but was forced out when Herrera hit a comebacker and the Coons never got that runner off first base in the opening inning. That wasn’t half what went wrong in the first inning, though, with Merino offering up a leadoff walk, then threw away Sedillo’s grounder for an error. Del Toro raked a 2-run double, Cecil singled him home, and only when Villacorta found Adame with a grounder did the Coons start to get outs. By then, they were 3-0 down.

The tying run was at the plate though by the third inning. Merino opened with a single in a desperate effort to make himself useful, and Adame reached on an error. Nobody out for Herrera, who hit into a 5-4-3 double play, and Maldo would ground out to Sedillo, who drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 3rd, but was caught stealing.

The Raccoons offense continued to be annoying. Watt and Toohey reached base with two outs in the fourth, but Gonzalez flew out to, well, Gonzalez, ending the inning. Merino in turn was yanked after a pair of 1-out singles by Haney and van Eijk in the bottom 4th. Hitchcock got the ball, walked Dan Rollin in a full count, then faced the pitcher with three on and one out. Candeloro won the championship with a 2-run double to center. Sedillo drove in two more with two outs, and it was 7-0.

It was over.

Although there was probably still a LOB record for Game 7’s that needed to be broken and the Raccoons totally went for that. Herrera and Maldo hit singles with two outs in the fifth, but Waters grounded out. The Raccoons didn’t reach in the sixth or in the seventh, while Joy-shan Kuo was dismembered for four hits and three runs in just ten pitches in the bottom 7th.

Candeloro was in the dugout, grinning, by the top 8th, in which Alejandro Villanueva allowed a leadoff single against Herrera, then a pair of walks drawn by Maldo and Waters. Oh good, three on and nobody out, just to **** with me. Preble hit into another double play, as if I needed one more. Herrera scored on the play, while Matt Watt singled home Maldo, as if it still mattered. Toohey ended the inning with a groundout.

The ninth began with the Coons down by eight, facing Adam Middleton. Pat Gurney drew a leadoff walk in place of Gonzalez, but Baskins and Adame made outs. Herrera hit a 2-out RBI single to shorten the gap all the way to seven. Maldo found Mark Haney with a grounder, Mark Haney found Govaart van Eijk with a throw, and the season ended right then and there.

Stars 10, Raccoons 3 – (Stars win series 4-3)

Herrera 3-5, RBI; Baker 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

+++

2048 WORLD CHAMPIONS
Dallas Stars
(4th title)

[Westheim]

The original plan was to flush Victor Merino down the airplane’s toilet somewhere over Utah, but after emptying a whole cart full of complimentary alcohols and braying nonsense for half an hour, the chief steward put me to sleep with a tranquilizer gun, and no Raccoons players ended up physically harmed until the team landed in Portland after losing Game 7 in Dallas in a landslide.

Thus, the offseason was upon us. I drew a snoot for a couple of days afterwards, but eventually sighed, changed into a clean shirt, got back to the ballpark, and threw myself into the pile of work that had to be done with the roster. And it was a pile indeed, although some things happened by themselves.

Two players with options for the final year split themselves halfway down the middle. Pat Gurney picked up his $1.85M option for 2049, while Joy-shan Kuo voided his 2049 option and chose to become a free agency, also showing little interest in signing a new contract with the Raccoons.

Kuo however was not the first subtraction from the expanded roster – because the first one was Manny Fernandez. The Raccoons’ #5 pick in the 2031 draft would be 39 years old by Opening Day, and had played less and less owing to mounting injuries in the last three years (he last reached 500+ PA in ’45), and after missing the final four months of the 2049 season decided to call it a day. Manny went home with a career .280/.335/.421 clip, as well as 2,122 hits, 198 homers, 1,110 RBI, and 189 stolen bases. He won a regular season MVP (2036), a playoff series MVP (2037 CLCS), a Gold Glove, four All Star nominations, three Platinum Sticks, and three World Series rings with the Raccoons, becoming one of their most prominent all-timers. Maybe not as peak as a Nick Brown – but certainly up there. He probably was not quite Hall of Fame material – except for the Hall of Fame of our hearts!

There will be more looking back at Manny during the new season for sure, but for now, the longest-serving Raccoons player had left the team. That honor devolved to Jesus Maldonado now, who had debuted in 2035, and was in fact the only player on the team now that had been with the Raccoons in the 2030s. Next up was Nelson Moreno, who had come up during the 2040 season.

(wipes a little tear away)

Well. Offseason business.

The good news was that Nick Valdes had taken a real liking to all the pennants we were piling up and wanted more and more of those. He increased our budget from $56M to $61M, another hefty $5M increase after one of the same size the previous year. Last year that made us fifth in the ABL, and now we’re tied for third place with the Gold Sox, and would trail only the two division winners from the Federal League. In order, the top 5 ranked:

Miners ($64M), Stars ($62M), Raccoons ($61M), Gold Sox ($61M), Bayhawks ($59M). Add the Thunder for a top-heavy six-strong lead group; they had a $57M budget.

The bottom of the league was brought up by the Aces ($37.5M), Blue Sox ($36.5M), Wolves ($33M), Falcons ($32.5M), and Loggers ($28.2M).

The remaining CL North terms sat tied for seventh (VAN, $51M), 13th (IND, $43.5M), tied for 16th (NYC, $41.5M), and in a tie for 18th (BOS, $41M).

The average budget for a team in the league rose to $46.3M, up roughly $1.3M from last season. The median team budget or 2047 was $43.75M, up $1.75M from last season.

So no matter how you spun it – money would not be an issue, but opportunity might yet be, and the question whether we wanted to blow the entire 2049 draft by gobbling up every type A free agent we could. Holes we would have for sure, because there was quite the list of free agents; we actually had more free agents than arbitration cases, which was also a subtle sign that your team is old, and you better have a good and steady supply of pain relief cream on paw.

For arbitration, we had three pitchers and three position players. The latter were Ruben Gonzalez, Matt Watt, and Gene Pellicano. The first two were obvious keepers. Pellicano had plunged into a hole of the most utter blackness last year, hitting .141 for the Coons, and then about .242 with a late rally for the Alley Cats after being dumped down there midseason. Since money was not an issue, we’d keep him around as a reserve (he had no options left now, but conveniently was already in AAA, not having gotten a call-up in September, which was just one step short of the death penalty in this franchise).

On the pitching side we had Merino (clenches his fuzzy butt cheeks briefly before relaxing again), Preston Porter, and Bob Ibold. Keeps, all of them, but Ibold we found out these days had a stretched elbow ligament, needed reconstructive surgery, and would miss most, maybe even all of 2049. So, he’d get his half a million or so of salary – but it was money flushed straight down the toilet, hoping that things would be better in 2050. Thankfully, we could afford such extravaganzas these days.

On the free agent side, we had seven players of which only one (Jake Jackson) was even a type B free agent. He was joined by Jake Bonnie, who had mostly pitched well in ’49, but who I had decided would be kicked to the curb last year already, so he’d be gone, catchers Wilson and Prow, midseason acquisition Chris Robinson, versatile infielder Al Martell, and leftfielder Derek Baskins.

The last two were probably the difficult ones. Robinson was pretty much washed up and a defensive liability and I was not inclined to keep him around. Baskins had never had much of an arm, mostly limiting him to leftfield duties, and had not hit a whole lot in ’48, either, while being pretty expensive. Martell had clipped .320 marks for the last two seasons and had been a flexible backup infielder with the team for four years now, usually getting into 100+ games and collecting 300+ plate appearances, except for ’47 when he missed some time on the DL and only had 76 games and 207 PA. Martell was probably the one I would want to keep around the most, and he should also continue to be rather cheap, having barely earned more in four years ($2.4M) than what Baskins had made of the Coons in only ’48 ($2.1M).

[Westheim]

The Coons had dosh, but what were their actual needs? Regarding the 2049 rotation, the question was whether we thought that Victor Salcido was ready for the big show, or whether we had to go out and grab a starter on the market to fill out the rotation behind wonderful Wheats and the array of left-handers, Wolinsky, Merino, and Baker. Salcido had made five starts, going 2-2 with a 3.33 ERA. In 27 innings, he had walked and whiffed ten batters apiece. The thing that bugged me was that in AAA, he had walked a lot more, 5.1 per nine innings, and that made me think nah, he’s not ready, and he’d have to start in AAA to begin the new season.

So, put a right-handed starter on the shopping list.

There wouldn’t be much established bullpen left either. We’d have only four of our regulars left: Moreno, Lynn, Porter, and Hitchcock. Kuo and Bonnie were headed for free agency, and Ibold would miss most or all of the 2049 season. The Adam Bateses and Steve Richardsons in the organization were roster fillers for a fourth-place team that was content with fourth place. The Raccoons were a first-place team that was eager to squeeze out one more.

Always squeeze out one more until you suddenly wake up and your well on your way to lose 97 games this year.

There would not be a catcher behind Ruben Gonzalez left, so that was another need, but the rest of the position player corps was still staffed with numbers. The starting infield group would stick together – Maldo, Adame, Waters, and the wicked pair of Gurney and Toohey around the diamond – IF we decided to work out a new deal with Al Martell, who’d be 33 next year.

In the outfield, we still had Herrera and Preble, plus Watt, who I couldn’t make up my mind about how to use him, and, well, technically he’s on the roster still, but nobody was seriously planning anything with Matt Glodowski, the 28-year-old debutee (to be 29 in January), despite him putting together an .803 OPS in 38 games (97 PA) there. He had also hit for a .343 BABIP, indicating that this success would be hard to replicate.

So that was a (righty, preferably) starter, three relievers, a backup catcher, two outfielders, and if Martell didn’t hang around, a versatile utility infielder. At the same time, digging deep into the free agent pool was one thing, but we also had to try and get a little younger. The team’s three oldest players (Manny, Jackson, Wilson) would all be gone, but it wasn’t like we didn’t have an army of 35-year-olds waiting in the wings, and most of them in key spots. Herrera and Maldo would both turn 35 just before Opening Day. They had two and four years left on their contracts, respectively. Preble would also be 35, but had only one year left.

That 7-year, $38.5M contract with Maldo began to weigh on my soul. Pat Degenhardt had already slashed his scouting report to bits, and then I looked at his numbers. He hit for a 1.108 OPS in April, .900 in May… and then basically slumped for the last four months, hitting a powerless .279 in June, and wouldn’t top a .255 average or .701 OPS after that. He raked .340/.389/.574 in the postseason, but that was also a small sample size thing. His defense was also letting up at a rate that gently nudged us towards clearing first base for him in the medium-term future. Two more years for Toohey, by the way. Last year was a team option, however.

+++

November 1 – The Falcons pick up 2B/1B Erik Stevens (.226, 9 HR, 67 RBI) from the Buffaloes, along with a prospect, for OF Jordan Marroguin (.261, 31 HR, 186 RBI).

+++

Endlessly relieved that the Falcons have broken up their Marroguin / Marroquin pair that kept confusing the living bejitters out of me.

By the time we reached awards season, the Raccoons had reached deals with all six of their arbitration cases, thereby avoiding that shoddy process. Five of them signed one-year deals: Merino for $660k, Watt for $550k, Porter for $470k, Ibold for $455k (and for nothing), and Pellicano for $400k. The exception was Ruben Gonzalez, who had his arbitration years and one year of free agency bought out on a 4-yr, $5.2M contract. It would start at $1M in ’49, and tack on $200k every year.

+++

2048 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL LF/CF Juan del Toro (.369, 26 HR, 104 RBI) and SFB C Sean Suggs (.326, 29 HR, 95 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DEN SP Gary Perrone (20-5, 2.30 ERA) and SFB SP Kevin Nolte (22-7, 2.06 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: LAP 1B Larry Rodriguez (.303, 34 HR, 93 RBI) and TIJ 2B/SS Chris Navarro (.308, 0 HR, 64 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: PIT CL Josh Livingston (6-4, 2.01 ERA, 49 SV) and IND CL Tommy Gardner (4-2, 2.49 ERA, 37 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DEN Gary Perrone – C NAS Jose Cantu – 1B LAP Larry Rodriguez – 2B RIC Lance Harrison – 3B PIT Ed Soberanes – SS DAL Leo Villacorta – LF SFW Mario Villa – CF DAL Juan del Toro – RF DAL Tylor Cecil
Platinum Sticks (CL): P VAN David Farris – C SFB Sean Suggs – 1B OCT Bill Jenkins – 2B POR Matt Waters – 3B POR Jesus Maldonado – SS OCT Ryan Cox – LF IND Danny Rivera – CF IND Bill Quinteros – RF VAN Jerry Outram
Gold Gloves (FL): P RIC Steve Miles – C SAC Anton Mercado – 1B SAC Steve Wyatt – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B SFW Jose Rivas – SS SAC Mario Coto – LF DAL Omar Gonzalez – CF PIT Jayden Ward – RF DAL Tylor Cecil
Gold Gloves (CL): P ATL Brian Buttress – C BOS Wade Gardner – 1B BOS Ed Haertling – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B NYC Brad Critzer – SS NYC Prince Gates – LF TIJ Mike Gray – CF ATL Jon Alade – RF BOS Leo Estrada

I had a hunch that this was Maldo’s third (all consecutively) and final Platinum Stick… and probably also Outram’s last one.

Matt Waters batted .303 with 31 HR and 93 RBI – and finished a teeth-gnashing second to Sean Suggs in Player of the Year voting. Which SUGGS…!! (bangs both fists on the desk repeatedly)

Sigh. All that remains is to pat our own backs that we at least picked him up on his bold 10-year contract proposal, and would have that stick around for as long as we ******* pleased for all of $17M.

[Westheim]

Nothing else of note happened until the arbitration date and when eligible players filed for free agency three days after. Jake Jackson was sad to not receive an offer, but gladly took the opportunity – the last one he’d get – to try and fleece somebody for a 3-year deal or something.

27 players remained on the extended roster – 15 pitchers and 12 position players, including only one catcher – after the departure of Jake Jackson, Al Martell, Derek Baskins, Chris Robinson, Jake Bonnie, Jeff Wilson, Kevin Prow, and on top of that a few minor leaguers, but nobody that actually made appearances for the big league club.

Said big league club stood at the crossroads, not knowing which way to turn. Should we try to squeeze out another run at the championship even if it meant sacrificing precious prospects that would be useful later? Or accept the inevitable and start to rejigger everything to get more prospects and give up the division to the Indians?

Well, why not both? I grandiosely announced to Cristiano, Slappy, and Honeypaws that true genius meant solving two diametrically opposite problems by taking whacks at them at once! Add sterling veterans AND trade for prospects at the same time! Cristiano and Honeypaws stared and blinked at each other, speechless all the same, but Slappy raised his bottle and toasted to me, so I took that as approval and threw myself fuzzy face first into a go-for-it-slash-rebuild.

This would either go REALLY well or REALLY bad. I don’t think there’s middle ground to be found here.

So, how to start? Well, we had needs. Turns out, starting pitching would be easy to find on the free agent market if you weren’t particularly attached to your first round pick, which for the Coons would be the #19 pick. We’d just have to hope that Jake Jackson signed somewhere nice (or, heck, Los Angeles) and we’d get that supplemental round pick.

+++

November 25 – The Titans swap C Wade Gardner (.248, 20 HR, 154 RBI) to the Scorpions for RF/LF Jose Platero (.235, 119 HR, 567 RBI) and a prospect.
November 25 – In a separate trade, the Titans deal SP Victor Mondragon (48-53, 3.84 ERA) and cash to the Capitals, receiving two prospects from Washington.
November 28 – Right-handed SP Jason Jacobs (14-21, 4.65 ERA, 1 SV) is traded from the Condors to the Warriors for #8 prospect SS Carmem Barrento.
November 30 – The Raccoons acquire 30-year-old LF/RF Eduardo Avila (.266, 74 HR, 418 RBI) and AA OF/3B Dante Gutierrez in a 5-player deal with the Pacifics, who receive SP Jeremy Baker (15-11, 3.59 ERA), SS Josh Floyd (.223, 1 HR, 21 RBI), and MR Joy-shan Kuo (12-8, 2.61 ERA, 16 SV).
November 30 – The Stars pick up C Anton Mercado (.261, 85 HR, 394 RBI), a former Scorpion, for $4.88M over two years.
November 30 – The Capitals acquire MR Ryan Dow (0-0, 4.43 ERA, 1 SV) from the Crusaders for two prospects.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 16 players are selected in the draft. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 2 – Dallas snatches ex-TOP INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.281, 152 HR, 733 RBI) on a 2-yr, $8.08M contract.
December 3 – OF Felix Rojas (.261, 50 HR, 287 RBI), formerly of Vancouver, goes to Las Vegas for $7.5M over four years.

+++

Wickedly, the Raccoons started out by shedding more pitching, with recently-emerged starter Jeremy Baker, reliever Kuo, and AAA quality shortstop Josh Floyd wrapped up in a trade for a very serviceable right-handed batting corner outfielder with 11 seasons of experience (including three cups of coffee) and a steady league-average bat and at least some speed. Certainly an upgrade over Glodowski, and if all went to hell then he’d have the decency to make himself thin as a free agent after the ’49 season.

But wait, I hear the Agitator clamor – shouldn’t be try to get LEFT-handed hitters? We already have Toohey, and Herrera, and Glodowski and so on for right-handed outfielders, and technically Gene Pellicano was still alive, too. But I can’t get into that, I must keep trading players while being slightly tipsy from Slappy’s homemade apple cider, all at 500 miles an hour, wheeeeeeee….!!!!

Slappy, this stuff is strong. (falls off the chair with great noise)

…

(grapples himself back onto the chair and leans heavily on the desk)

Anyway. Avila has some low OPS+ values for two of the last three seasons, but the same for his BABIP – the same plague that befell Bryce Toohey this year also caught up with Avila earlier, especially in 2046. Gutierrez meanwhile is not ranked or anything but could be one of those decent defense outfielders that don’t hit for much power, but know how to slap singles and draw walks. Bit of a Herrera/Watt crossover in terms of current Coons. He was probably still two years away though, turning 23 during the next season.

For pitching I was chasing after a right-handed workhorse, who had just won a ring (groans), and for money that would make Jesus Maldonado pay attention (and of course a first-round pick). To my great dismay, the Miners resigned their own free agent, Joe Feltman, for two years and $11M right away at the start of December, even before the winter meetings, which would make the market more competitive for the guy I wanted…

What else? Other Raccoons with new gobbling grounds? Only one so far: Jose Zarate joined the Rebels for $362k;

[Westheim]

The winter meetings were a crucial junction in the offseason in most years, but this year I felt like I had to split myself in four to cover all the bases at the Cleveland Municipial Airport Dulton Hotel. There were so many free agents that needed sugar-coating, and a couple GM’s that had to relieved of the burden of their prospects, or even established players.

I did waste some time here and there, though, f.e. with the Canadiens. The damn Elks had a left-hander I coveted, 28-year-old Tim Abraham, who had led the CL in saves in 2046 with the Condors, the only year he was a full-time closer to begin with. But they wouldn’t give him up for anything I threw at them, not that I had much to throw. I wasn’t throwing Rafael de la Cruz, for example. I was still being haunted by the good old Dennis Fried trade to the Blue Sox…

By the winter meetings, we were offering a total of $39M in contracts to players, of which $11.75M would be for 2049, with another 2.6M to spare, almost half of that cash.

+++

December 6 – The Miners sign ex-TIJ SS Tony Aparicio (.283, 179 HR, 950 RBI) to a 2-yr, $11.2M contract.
December 6 – The Condors in turn grab former Indians closer Tommy Gardner (30-25, 2.71 ERA, 177 SV) on a 3-yr, $9.04M deal.
December 6 – Right-handed former Rebels starter SP Marc Hubbard (77-88, 4.04 ERA) gets a 4-year contract with the Knights signed, which will see him earn $14.56M.
December 6 – Former Blue Sox SP Matt Sealock (167-102, 3.30 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $7.68M contract with the Warriors.
December 7 – Former Warriors RF Matt Diskin (.317, 130 HR, 620 RBI), only age 27, changes hats in division by signing a 5-yr, $26.48M contract with the Pacifics.
December 9 – The Raccoons sign former Crusaders closer Julian Ponce (105-86, 3.52 ERA, 126 SV). The 35-year-old left-hander will make $5.1M over three years.
December 11 – Portland goes on to sign right-handed SP Dave Hils (117-107, 3.65 ERA), a 32-year-old free agent coming off the Stars, for four years and $22M. The Raccoons forfeit their first-round pick to the Stars.
December 11 – The Crusaders add 1B/LF/RF Ed Haertling (.267, 92 HR, 528 RBI) as a free agent off the Titans, spending $8.96M over four years on the 31-year-old left-handed batter.
December 11 – The Capitals acquire the Loggers’ INF Ricky Espinoza (.278, 126 HR, 469 RBI) in exchange for three prospects.
December 11 – The Wolves add ex-SFB CL John Steuer (54-54, 3.26 ERA, 243 SV) for 2-yr, $2.92M. The 32-year-old Steuer had an injury-ravaged season and pitched in only six games for San Francisco.
December 13 – Dallas restocks on pitching with L.A.’s left-handed SP Mike LeMasters (126-87, 3.64 ERA), who is acquired from the Pacifics for five prospects, none ranked.
December 13 – New York sends lefty SP/MR Tony Negrete (9-20, 4.39 ERA) to the Gold Sox for two prospects, including #100 SS/3B Jesus Nunez.

+++

Stingy bullpen becomes stingier, the headline in the Agitator should have read, but instead they complained about the lack of Players of the Year on the roster. Well, I’m very sorry that Matt Waters got snubbed!

So Dave Hils is our new big addition. Big money for sure. Same money as Maldo as a matter of fact, and the contracts will expire at the same time. Hils throws 93 with the fastball, adding a sinker, slider, and changeup to the mix. He has exceptional control, walking just 1.5 batters per nine innings, and survived years and years of pitching in the Dallas shoebox or very decent ERA’s. He won an ERA title an CL Pitcher of the Year when he was still with the Crusaders in 2043, and he led the FL in pitcher WAR a second time in 2046, despite only posting a 3.81 ERA then. Hils *definitely* fortifies the rotation, which now consists of Wheats, Hils, Wolinsky, and Merino. Merino as #4 is pretty good!

Ponce promises sharp left-handed relief with a 90mph fastball and a treacherous curve. He is nominally a groundballer, but when he hangs one, he hangs one, and those are often not seen again, which made him give up 17 bombs across the last two seasons, which is a lot for a guy pitching only 129 innings in the same span. Fortunately, they were mostly solo shots. Him and Lynn give the Coons a truly dazzling pair of lefties, and there should always be a lefty alternative to Nelson Moreno now – more flexibility in the late innings, thus more saves and wins, that was the logic here. And I had a hunch that every game might count in ’49.

Former Raccoon with a new contract: Jeff Wilson and the Scorpions came together for $830k;

There is a Hall of Fame ballot out, by the way. We know some of the guys on there!

[Westheim]

The Raccoons were also scratching around on 29-year-old right-hander Ayden Cobb during mid-December; he had been with the Indians for seven years earlier, but had bounced around quite a bit in the last three years. Stamina was not his strong suit, but he had three quality pitches. Homer proneness also wasn’t great. Neither was the asking price, which was already over $3M when we got in there, and went to $4M and above during the winter meetings. At that point, we gave up that particular pursuit, because I was not too keen on doling out a $13M contract to a pitcher that figured to be #5 on staff when we had Victor Salcido *close* but not quite major league ready.

Pat Degenhardt made me a present for Christmas, a 16-year-old Dominican kid named Pedro Rojas, with as Degenhardt put it “awe-inducing power potential”. The other side of the metal had a tendency to whiff and that he played first base like he was clad in knight’s armor – somehow including the clanging noise of metal banging against metal when he just lifted an arm to pick his nose – but I had to admit, I was indeed a sucker for power potential, always been, and will be til the day I die.

+++

December 24 – The Raccoons sign former Thunder OF Angelo Zurita (.261, 29 HR, 312 RBI) to an $850k contract for the 2049 season.
December 24 – The Condors acquire OF Matt O’Reilly (.286, 11 HR, 88 RBI) from the Buffaloes in exchange for SP/MR Tony Granado (19-38, 4.39 ERA) and a prospect.
December 27 – The Cyclones sign ex-SFW 1B Manny Liberos (.247, 221 HR, 858 RBI) to a 3-yr, $11.88M contract. The 32-year-old Liberos brings three Gold Gloves with him.
December 27 – Former Blue Sox catcher Jorge Santa Cruz (.267, 174 HR, 822 RBI) links up with the Miners for three years and $5.48M.
December 27 – The Miners also add Thunder free agent INF/RF Joe Crim (.269, 110 HR, 625 RBI) on a $1.16M contract for ’49.
December 29 – Ex-SFB SP Rafael Pedraza (159-136, 3.84 ERA), age 35, inks a contract with the Buffaloes for 2-yr, $6.8M.
December 31 – 32-year-old right-hander SP Ruben Guzman (65-82, 4.14 ERA) escapes Milwaukee and signs a 5-yr, $26.5M contract with the Stars.
January 4 – A contract of $1.84M for ’49 wins the Bayhawks the services of ex-LVA RF/CF Mike Roberts (.290, 41 HR, 239 RBI).

+++

Zurita was one of those left-handed outfield bats that we desperately needed to balance the roster. Preble and Watt were switch-hitters, but all the other outfield candidates were right-handed. In fact, him and Gurney were the only left-handed batters on the roster! How can you put together a team with only two left-handed batters?? … There was a third switch-hitter on the roster in Matt Waters, so we could put as many as five lefty bats up against a righty pitcher, but that would put f.e. Armando Herrera out of work, which was not always desirable. Of course, since lefty-hitting catchers were rather rare and Maldo was gonna play every day whatever, we couldn’t stuff the lineup with more than six anyway.

We also signed some depth starting pitching with 25-year-old Andrew Clarke, a minor league free agent that had never seen major league action. Many moons ago he had been a third-round pick by the Wolves and a #86 prospect, but his star had dimmed since then. He had posted a 5.28 ERA in AAA last year, but that was also with a gross BABIP. He *had* command issues, tough.

…which was why we should definitely find a (preferably cheap and easily disposable) fifth starter to begin the season, so Salcido doesn’t have to start on the big league roster on Opening Day, and so that Clarke is not the next guy in line right away… Clarke himself had options and came with a $400k price tag, which was easily affordable.

Our #19 pick has now ended up with the Loggers, who received it as compensation from the Stars, who got it from us for Dave Hils. Still waiting on Jake Jackson to sign a new contract.

Old time Coons that would not come back to us all that quick? Josh Brown signed with the Warriors for $860k; Jake Bonnie went with the Condors’ offer of $760k;

+++

2049 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The Hall of Fame grew by three players with the most recent round of voting, all of them first-ballot entries.

Guillermo Obando spent 23 years in major league baseball, only six-and-a-half of which came with the Capitals, but that was actually his longest stint anywhere. Despite collecting five All Star nominations, four Platinum Sticks, and a Gold Glove, Obando never hung around for long. 12 distinct stints with nine different teams in total, including three stints with the Crusaders. He led his league in stolen bases four times, including three times with the Caps, and also led the FL in triples thre times. Despite a number of .300+ batting seasons, he never grabbed a batting title, and he was not a power hitter to begin with, never going deep more than six times in a season. For his career he slapped 3,304 base hits, seventh-most all time, and batted .285/.356/.364 with 40 HR and 1,030 RBI. He stole 686 bases, third-most all time in the league at this point.

Jose Lerma spent even longer in the major leagues, debuting in 2020 and holding out until 2043 like Obando for a total of 24 seasons, more than half of which as a member of the Buffaloes, the team with whom he also won the 2023 FL Pitcher of the Year award in a triple crown effort (20-9, 2.36 ERA, 204 K). It was the only time he led the league in wins or ERA, but he would top the CL in strikeouts in 2035 once more. A true workhorse, Lerma made 32+ starts for 15 consecutive seasons, and 655 starts overall before semi-retiring to the bullpen towards the end of his career. The eight-time All Star also grabbed a Platinum Stick along the way. He pitched to a 270-251 record with a 3.50 ERA and struck out a total of 3,848 batters. He also collected five saves.

Without a doubt the pitcher of his generation, Phil Harrington pitched in the majors from 2026 through 2043 (with 2041 missed entirely to injury) for a total of 17 seasons competed in. He piled up accolades like kids pile up candy at Halloween. Pitching almost his entire career with the Wolves, he grabbed a staggering nine ERA titles, eight strikeout crowns, and – a sign of the Wolves’ perpetual struggles – three times that he led the FL in wins. He won triple crowns each time the Wolves actually managed to squeeze out enough to make him a wins champ, in 2033, 2035, and 2039. He won the Pitcher of the Year award a mind-numbing nine times, and for good measure added Reliever of the Year titles both as a 23- and a 37-year-old (the latter with the Condors). He was an All Star by default, picking up 16 nominations – every year but his debut season. He won the World Series twice with the Wolves, in 2040 and 2041 – although he did not actually pitch in the latter season due to injury. For his stunning career, he went 226-76 with a 2.14 ERA and 3,126 strikeouts. He also collected 146 saves.

Full results:

SAL SP Phil Harrington – 1st – 99.0 – INDUCTED
TOP SP Jose Lerma – 1st – 90.2 – INDUCTED
WAS SS Guillermo Obando – 1st – 86.6 – INDUCTED
NAS 3B Jim Allen – 1st – 68.7
POR SS Alberto Ramos – 1st – 64.8
BOS LF Willie Vega – 1st – 15.3
LAP CF Justin Fowler – 4th – 14.0
TIJ SP Jeff Little – 7th – 12.7
TOP SP David Elliott – 3rd – 11.7
??? SP Andy Bressner – 2nd – 11.1
??? CL Ray Andrews – 1st – 9.1
VAN CF Tony Coca – 2nd – 7.8
NAS 1B Chance Bossert – 1st – 5.5
TOP SS Alex Majano – 1st – 5.2
PIT C J.J. Henley – 9th – 4.9 – DROPPED
LVA LF Tom Dunlap – 1st – 4.6 – DROPPED
??? SP Michael Frank – 3rd – 3.9 – DROPPED
SAL SS Jose Castro – 1st – 1.0 – DROPPED
CHA LF Graciano Salto – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED
SFW CL Gilberto Castillo – 1st – 0.3 – DROPPED
??? 2B Mario Hurtado – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

We reached mid-January without a fifth starter, without a backup catcher, with several holes in the pen, and according to the Agitator, no plan whatsoever.

Talks with the Crusaders about catcher Omar Ramirez – a lefty hitter and thus a commodity – and Prince Gates fell through. Gates was an excellent defender on the left side of the infield with a helpful stick (he hit .284 with 12 homers in ’48). The idea was to put him at third base, move Maldonado to first base, and then feign ignorance about the arising issue of what to do with Gurney and Toohey.

The Crusaders actually had a real interest in Bryce Toohey, also realizing that he had mostly been struck with rotten luck in 2048, hitting .219 with a .245 BABIP… although then there was his power being cut in half, from 24 homers down to 11. It had been his first below-average season ever in terms of OPS+ and it had come so suddenly (141 in 2047, 98 in 2048) that the general consensus seemed to be that Toohey still had plenty of life left. Maybe hang some new drapes around him to break him out of the perpetual jinx.

But Toohey was not enough to cut a deal. The usual suspects were brought forward with Rafael de la Cruz, Cesar Salcido, and Lorenzo Lavorano – who were all in the “over my thoroughly dead body” category. But luckily for us, they’d also take Matt Waters.

Nah.

So that’s how that month was wasted away without a breakthrough trade occurring. When January drew to a close, the Raccoons still didn’t have a full pen, a backup catcher, or a general clue what they were doing according to the Agitator. We did sign a fifth starter, though.

+++

January 9 – The Stars sign ex-SAL SP Justin Roberts (86-88, 3.79 ERA) to a 2-yr, $8.08M deal.
January 17 – The Thunder acquire SP Ben Lehman (7-18, 4.74 ERA) from the Condors, parting with unranked but promising prospect OF Dustin Ransford.
January 19 – Los Angeles adds ex-DAL SP Brad Blankenship (50-69, 3.79 ERA) on a 2-yr, $4.22M contract.
January 19 – LF/CF Joe Besaw (.302, 122 HR, 728 RBI) returns to the Crusaders on a $1.84M deal for 2049. The 32-year-old, most recently with the Capitals, already played for New York from 2038 through 2042.
January 23 – The Raccoons add former Warriors SP Chris Crowell (131-128, 3.69 ERA, 3 SV) on a 1-year deal worth $750k.

+++

Crowell’ll be that fifth starter placeholder to begin the season and can then probably be traded for a tenth-rounder should Salcido demand promotion. He is also the third Pitcher of the Year in the rotation after Wheats and Dave Hils, although I have to concede that Crowell, who is 36 and will be 37 in May, won his Pitcher of the Year award in 2035 when Jason Wheatley – a 7-year veteran in his own right by now – was a high school freshman.

Ayden Cobb meanwhile is still out there on the market after having turned down a 3-yr, $12.6M offer from the Coons. Not many eight-figure deals get signed in February.

Ex-Coon relocations? Nelson Mercado got $414k from the Knights; the Gold Sox picked up Jeff Kilmer for $452k;

[Westheim]

January 30 – The Raccoons reunite with right-handed MR Nate Norris (34-27, 3.80 ERA, 31 SV) for a 1-year, $1.1M contract. Norris spent the last three seasons with the Gold Sox after a previous 2-year stint with the Raccoons.
January 30 – The Bayhawks add 31-year-old MR Lazaro Ochoa (37-48, 3.92 ERA, 34 SV), a former Warrior, on a 1-yr, $2.2M deal.

+++

Nate Norris, now 33, makes sense as an addition. He is still a sturdy seventh-inning reliever, and maybe even better. Walks were up a bit for him in ’48, which is a weird thing for a veteran, and so I decided to overlook that problem. It’ll practically fix itself!

This was not the only pitcher getting a new contract with the Raccoons. We also managed to get a 4-year deal with Victor Merino signed that would start next season an buy out his arbitration years and two years of free agency, all at the slight cost of $5.5M total; $1M in 2050, then three instalments of $1.5M. It was a rather cheap contract for a quality pitcher that could also be turned into prospects at some point down the road.

That still left the catcher, backup infielder, and lack-of-lefty-sticks problems to fix. I was still very much looking forward to acquire Prince Gates and Omar Ramirez in a bundle from the rebuilding Crusaders where they could reunite with Alex Adame. The thing was, the Crusaders considered them (25 and 26 years old respectively) part of the shiny new bricks, not of the old shed that collapsed into itself and needed clearing.

Well, okay, they’d do the deal for Rafael de la Cruz. That sparkling 18-year-old #4 prospect that we had signed as a July free agent for $1.1M not too long ago (never mind the tax incurred…). That’s all – just that one pitcher. They’d even throw in Yataro Tanabe, 27-year-old lefty swingman for free in the deal.

But de la Cruz was up to 19/15/14 with his potential ratings at OSA, which was 1-2 points better in each category than what Pat Degenhardt gave him, and I was way too busy salivating over that. That’s Jonny Toner territory. De la Cruz, who went 8-8 with a 3.21 ERA while striking out 10.5/9 in single-A in 2048, and who was slated for a move to Ham Lake despite not turning 19 until July, was getting reviews up and down the league that were so glowing, you’d have no trouble reading a book next to him in an otherwise unlit room at 3am in the morning. He could be the next Jonny Toner (hopefully without the arm coming off at about 32) or Phil Harrington.

And for what? A lefty catcher that was not *that* amazing (and didn’t have that big a track record either), and an infielder that had an amazing glove, great base running qualities, and would superbly fit at third base if we moved Maldo to first, and who had hit .284 with 12 homers and 25 stolen bases in ’48 in his second qualifying season. Make no mistake – Prince Gates was no slouch. A former #6 pick he promised to be long term value and a pile of Gold Gloves eventually.

But how’s a strong defensive third baseman stacking up against what could be THE pitcher of the 2050s?

(turns around in the swivel chair an stares onto the muddy field of Raccoons Ballpark; nope, it hasn’t snowed in Oregon in about 20 years and it probably never will again)

(sighs)

+++

February 6 – The Bayhawks sign ex-NAS/VAN Ayden Cobb (82-85, 3.32 ERA) to a 3-yr, $14.88M contract.
February 9 – The Capitals add ex-LAP SP Raul Cornejo (57-63, 4.32 ERA) for $9.32M over three years.

+++

Other new old Critters deals: Chris Robinson jumped pennant winners with $970k from the Stars;

+++

Only this for my 10,000th post on the forums, like the Coons ten years in the making. I am really hung up at this trade and I can’t get unstuck.

On to 10,000 more, ever craven.

[Westheim]

February 11 – The Crusaders receive INF/CF Mark Haney (.269, 7 HR, 52 RBI) from the Stars in exchange for MR Luis Villagomez (15-21, 3.88 ERA, 38 SV) and #11 prospect SP Troy Henrikson.

+++

That was when I knew that the Prince Gates trade would never happen unless I’d give them de la Cruz. And I wasn’t gonna. But the Crusaders had caught up with our slight rotting scent, and they thought they had a shot. At least that was the only explanation that made sense to me at this point.

A catcher and a left-handed infielder thus had to come from someplace else.

+++

February 12 – The Raccoons acquire UT Eddy Luna (.264, 12 HR, 142 RBI) from the Aces in a one-for-one for 3B Ben Coen (.249, 4 HR, 25 RBI).
February 14 – The Titans send C/1B Justin Brooks (.254, 7 HR, 46 RBI) to the Raccoons for MR Adam Bates (0-1, 5.66 ERA) and A-level OF Rocky Jimenez.
March 11 – The Falcons get 3B/1B Randy Wilken (.256, 24 HR, 112 RBI) and a prospect from the Warriors, sending out SP Alan Fleming (94-70, 3.85 ERA) and cash.

+++

Boston’s Brooks was nothing special, but he was a quite capable defensive catcher and he had been hitting a bit in the minors, so there was hope. Ruben Gonzalez surely was the undisputed #1 here now. Bates was a run-of-the-mill righty and Jimenez had cost $14k to sign a few years back, so we weren’t quite selling out here.

Luna in turn was an actual super utility, something we had not really had in recent years, with only first-sackers moonlighting around the corner outfield positions (that, though, quite frequently). We had seen quite a bit of Ben Coen over the years, and I didn’t feel like we needed to see any more. Both of the players in the deal were 28, so I feel like we made an upgrade here. The Aces were cash-strapped though and were trying to get rid of everything not nailed down.

Former Raccoons with new contracts? Al Martell washed up in Vegas for $442k; Aaron Curl took $388k from the Falcons; Tony Romero snatched $454k from Sacramento;

Nobody’s rushing to sign Jake Jackson and give us a supplemental round pick, though.

[Westheim]

March 21 – The Raccoons sign ex-SFW MR Orlando Altreche (51-49, 3.91 ERA, 6 SV). The 33-year-old right-hander signs on for $575k for the 2049 season.

+++

…and that is the offseason. Didn’t REALLY set the world on fire there…

[Westheim]

2049 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2048 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Jason Wheatley, 28, B:R, T:R (13-7, 3.44 ERA | 81-49, 3.29 ERA) – 2045 Pitcher of the Year! Wheats roared from #5 starter in April of 2045 to the highest honor the CL had to dole out to pitchers (at least regularly), doing it with a perfectly balanced approach, keeping things on the ground and walks to a minimum (1.8 BB/9 last season). He has five pitches, some very good, and sort of broke the old Opening Day Curse in 2047; while his record regressed, and his K/9 went down a bit, his ERA improved and I felt no need to go after him verbally or with a bat. 2048 saw a really rotten April that plagued his ERA for the rest of the year, but reinforced a developed pattern of a rough first half and stellar service in the second half.
SP Bubba Wolinsky, 26, B:L, T:L (7-2, 3.23 ERA | 26-9, 3.27 ERA) – former #12 pick has yet to put a full season together without going down to injury or having to come back from it. Going into his fourth major league season, he’s never made more than 20 starts or pitched more than 120 innings. When he’s actually on the mound, however, the results are easy to approve of. Efficiently mixes five pitches, with the forkball his best offering.
SP Dave Hils *, 32, B:R, T:R (18-10, 3.30 ERA | 117-107, 3.65 ERA) – righty groundballer that beat us in the World Series with the Stars, so the least he can do to make it up to us is to win 20 games and right that wrong in a re-rematch with the Stars, huh? Four pitches, all plus, and quite exceptional control make him stand out from the crowd. Also won a Pitcher of the Year plaque a few years back.
SP Victor Merino, 28, B:L, T:L (15-9, 3.60 ERA | 59-35, 3.18 ERA) – lefty groundballer, and very much more of a control pitcher, lacking the big stuff for high strikeout totals, but at least that mixes well with the Raccoons’ plus infield defense. Actually stayed in one piece in 2047 and 2048 after going down to late injuries the prior two seasons. His ERA went up even though his homers went way down, but so did his strikeouts in an anomalous-looking 2048 season. The homes (four in 187.2 innings) sure look hard to replicate.
SP Chris Crowell *, 36, B:R, T:R (11-11, 3.43 ERA | 131-128, 3.69 ERA, 3 SV) – signed as a free agent and a bridge to Salcido, Crowell still offers a strong fastball and cutter in addition to other pitches, but sometimes just gets taken deep and deeper.

MR Orlando Altreche *, 33, B:R, T:R (5-6, 4.55 ERA | 51-49, 3.91 ERA, 6 SV) – free agent acquisition with a lengthy track record as an Arrowhead, Altreche at this point of his career looks a bit like a long man rather than a late innings tool.
MR Julian Ponce *, 36, B:R, T:L (6-5, 3.00 ERA, 33 SV | 105-86, 3.52 ERA, 126 SV) – cutter, curveball, and a groundball tendency should fit him in really well with the rest of what we have. Used to be a starter before transitioning into the bullpen with the Wolves in ’44. Actually led the CL in innings pitched as a 2040 Crusader.
MR Kevin Hitchcock, 26, B:R, T:R (1-2, 3.22 ERA | 2-4, 3.40 ERA) – the German right-hander saw a brief cup of coffee with the 2046 Raccoons, then became an injury replacement for Bob Ibold in 2047, holding the spot down well enough. Proceeds to pitch himself up the pecking order in the bullpen, although Ibold being out for most/all of 2049 surely also helps his case for more eighth innings.
MR Nate Norris *, 33, B:R, T:R (6-2, 3.36 ERA, 9 SV | 34-27, 3.80 ERA, 31 SV) – Norris returns to the Raccoons as free agent after three seasons in Denver. He previously had two strong seasons for the early-dynasty Coons in 2044-45, going 13-5 with a 2.43 ERA. Strong fastball / curveball combo.
MR Preston Porter, 27, B:R, T:R (2-2, 2.61 ERA, 4 SV | 15-8, 2.58 ERA, 7 SV) – keeps it on the ground and has a very nice curve; also exceptional control – he walked *three* batters in 28.2 innings in the majors in ’44, and while that number went up to a more reasonable 2.0/9 or so ever since, he doesn’t unnecessarily create a traffic jam on the basepaths, which we much appreciate.
SU Mike Lynn, 31, B:L, T:L (5-6, 3.77 ERA, 10 SV | 33-29, 2.78 ERA, 127 SV) – consistency is just hard to find, huh? Got whacked around and lost the closer’s job early in the 2048 season even after leading the CL in saves in ’47. Hard to make out a sole reason for that, because his K/9 remained over ten and his walks didn’t go up either. He is probably eyeing Moreno anxiously, waiting for a misstep.
CL Nelson Moreno, 30, B:R, T:R (2-5, 3.81 ERA, 39 SV | 49-48, 3.76 ERA, 56 SV) – that starting thing never worked out for Nelson Moreno, but in his fifth full season as a reliever he continued to be sturdy and quell threat after threat and eventually took over closer’s duties – even though he wasn’t stumble-free to be honest.

C/1B Ruben Gonzalez, 27, B:R, T:R (.248, 13 HR, 64 RBI | .254, 33 HR, 149 RBI) – pretty good defense and a fine throwing arm, and he hit for a .781 OPS and stole MVP honors in the World Series in his first full season in the majors. He improved more or less for an .802 OPS and CLCS MVP honors in ’47, and while he can fly entirely under the radar or months at a time, we very much like the double-digit homers he offers to the bottom half of the order. Amazing what you can get for $18k in the July IFA slave boy market …!
C/1B Justin Brooks *, 26, B:R, T:R (.274, 3 HR, 26 RBI | .254, 7 HR, 46 RBI) – acquired from the Titans, Brooks promises to be a solid backup, showing good catching abilities and at last a general ability to slap the ball in play for singles from time to time.

RF/LF/1B Bryce Toohey, 33, B:R, T:R (.219, 11 HR, 58 RBI | .266, 166 HR, 625 RBI) – decent defense at multiple corner positions, and a massive power stroke that can conquer any fence in the league. After winning a home run title in ’46, he unfortunately went down to injury late in ’47 and missed the playoffs, then had his very worst season on record in 2048, when the balls just plainly refused to drop in for him. The Raccoons returning to the playoffs might plainly require him to hit for more than a .698 OPS.
SS/2B Matt Waters, 28, B:S, T:R (.303, 31 HR, 93 RBI | .260, 99 HR, 370 RBI) – Home Run King! When we picked him up in tandem with Wheats in 2040, we didn’t quite expect *that*, but smacking 31 won him the CL power crown in 2048. More of that please! Obscene power aside, he’s a good defensive shortstop that can also totally steal 20 (and probably 30) bases in a season, but was moved to second base with the arrival of Alex Adame, and that is actually the position where he might end up winning a Gold Glove, too; also signed a long-term deal on his own volition during ’47, and which probably cost him eight figures with what he hit in ’48 (.910 OPS anyone?).
SS Alex Adame, 27, B:R, T:R (.322, 5 HR, 42 RBI | .287, 35 HR, 422 RBI) – twice a Gold Glover at short, Alex Adame was signed as free agent at the tender age of 25 two years ago, and it has proven to have been a good move already, I’d say… if only he didn’t miss 40+ games every season… at least broke his pattern of sucking offensively in even-numbered years in ’48, hitting for a career-best .807 OPS.
1B/3B/RF/LF Jesus Maldonado, 35, B:R, T:R (.278, 16 HR, 96 RBI | .295, 193 HR, 969 RBI) – I hate to say it, but this light be dimmin’… age is showing in all aspects with Maldo now, who regressed in average, power, defense, and even eating and pooping habits during 2048. And did I mention that there’s four more years on that mega contract of his? A World Series winner (three times!) and a World Series MVP (not in the same seasons, though), Maldo holds the biggest contract ever doled out by the team ($38.5M over 7 years, or roughly half the annual GDP of his home country of Venezuela). He needs a move to first base sooner rather than later, too, but first base is sorta log-jammed already.
1B/RF/2B/LF Pat Gurney, 31, B:L, T:R (.275, 9 HR, 47 RBI | .278, 99 HR, 473 RBI) – one of the best players in either league that does not have a starting spot in sight ™, Gurney is a surprisingly speedy corner guy that figures to get most of his playing time against right-handed pitching. Also has double-digit power when employed as a regular. With Toohey fading during the 2048 season (although that might have been BABIP related), Gurney might steal more playing time from the other big man at first base this season.
RF/1B/3B/SS/LF/CF Eddy Luna *, 28, B:L, T:R (.256, 3 HR, 50 RBI | .264, 12 HR, 142 RBI) – super utility with a keen eye and positive speed on the bases, of which he can also steal double digits. Acquired from the Aces, Luna figures to replace Al Martell, but offer even more versatility, which is required on a roster with three+ first basemen…

LF/RF Mike Preble, 35, B:S, T:R (.326, 29 HR, 89 RBI | .306, 195 HR, 800 RBI) – veteran corner outfielder that was acquired mid-season from the Aces and raked for a 1.001 OPS as a Critter. He will also immediately be in a contract year and probably not be extended given all the other geriatric issues on the roster, but we’ll appreciate him mashing a few dozen more during what could be our final run at glory for the time being.
CF Armando Herrera, 35, B:R, T:R (.319, 4 HR, 64 RBI | .314, 33 HR, 749 RBI) – the Raccoons’ eye-wateringly expensive star acquisition from the 2044-45 offseason won eight Gold Gloves in nine seasons with the Wolves, and while he kept that string going in 2045, he didn’t win the award after that; he’s also gotten up there in age, which is a recurring topic on this team these days... At least he keeps challenging for the batting title (he won one in the FL). Signed for two more years so we might want to look into giving him semi-regular off days to conserve his body.
RF/LF Eduardo Avila *, 31, B:R, T:R (.259, 5 HR, 50 RBI | .266, 74 HR, 418 RBI) – traded for with the Pacifics, Avila is a legit right-handed bat with decent defense on the corners that – should things not work out anymore this year – will have the common decency to disappear via free agency after the season.
LF/CF/RF Matt Watt, 30, B:S, T:R (.255, 3 HR, 36 RBI | .253, 8 HR, 169 RBI) – another former Ace that spent the full ’48 season with Portland, Watt can be effective in the leadoff spot, but sometimes also goes dark for weeks on end. Does offer defensive options, too.
LF/RF/CF Angelo Zurita *, 28, B:L, T:L (.254, 5 HR, 55 RBI | .261, 29 HR, 312 RBI) – good defensive outfielder that figures to get his share of at-bats against righty pitching. Only had one year quite above league-average in OPS (2047) with the Thunder, for whom he spent all of his major league career before signing on as free agent.

On disabled list:
MR Bob Ibold, 28, B:L, T:R (7-6, 3.71 ERA, 1 SV | 21-8, 3.76 ERA, 6 SV) – very competent right-hander that was cooked for dinner in his 2043 cup of coffee, but was only 22 then. 93mph heater, curve, and some natural sink to that fastball that keeps the infielders busy; could miss the entire season in his recovery from a torn elbow ligament.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Andrew Clarke, 25, B:R, T:R (no stats) – optioned to AAA; right-handed flyball pitcher with a knuckleball that is devastating only if it knuckles, and otherwise tends to fly. Signed as depth.
SP Victor Salcido, 23, B:R, T:R (2-2, 3.33 ERA | 2-2, 3.33 ERA) – optioned to AAA; a really bright young talent that we deemed not quite ready for prime time and best served by starting in AAA again, although his first five starts in ’48 were surely promising. Five pitches, with a confusing slider as the best piece.
MR Oscar Alcala, 26, B:L, T:L (0-0, 13.50 ERA | 0-0, 8.31 ERA) – optioned to AAA; marginal left-hander that so far has been rightfully marginalized on the success meter by the opposition.
MR Danny Cancel, 25, B:L, T:L (0-0, 0.00 ERA | 0-0, 0.77 ERA) – optioned to AAA; the superficially excellent ERA notwithstanding, it comes from only 12 outings and even fewer innings across two seasons, and he’s really little more than a ham-and-egger that fifth-place teams’ bullpens tend to be made out of.
MR Steve Richardson, 24, B:L, T:L (1-0, 6.75 ERA | 1-0, 6.75 ERA) – optioned to AAA; his debut in nine outings in 2048 could have been worse, but he should stop throwing meatballs down the middle if he wants to get anywhere in the league. His slider *is* a thing of beauty when thrown correctly.
RF/LF Matt Glodowski, 29, B:R, T:R (.291, 2 HR, 10 RBI | .291, 2 HR, 10 RBI) – optioned to AAA; corner outfielder that made his debut at 28 and did better than man(n)y, but ultimately doesn’t have enough to hold down a roster spot on a team that actually wants to win big once more.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or turned into duck food during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

The most obvious change compared to last year’s OD lineup is Toohey’s drop from the cleanup spot. But Matt Waters has surely earned himself that one…!

Vs. RHP: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney (Toohey) – RF Avila (Zurita) – C Gonzalez – P
(Vs. LHP: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – P)

Zurita can spell every outfielder and will do so regularly, mostly against righty pitchers, since the roster has continued to tilt the right-handed hitters’ way. Only Gurney, Luna, and Zurita are true lefty batters, with Preble, Waters, and Watt offering switch sticks. If Matt Watt is playing, he is likely to spell Herrera and bat leadoff with Adame second behind him.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

Five years, five pennants, three rings! What a dynasty!

The end his here, however. While on one paw we have young(ish) stalwarts like Wheats, Waters, Wolinsky, heck, Preston Porter for all I care, on the other paw the roster is old, brittle, on the downswing, and soon due for replacement. (Maldo, who’s not gonna be replaced any time soon in any way, belches mightily over his food bowl)

While last winter saw very little movement, this year we had to stuff quite a few holes and tears that showed up over the year. For ominous signs, Manny Fernandez retired after 18 years in the organization. Also, the end of the decade is nigh, and the Raccoons have a habit of starting a new decade in a slump… But there is no fewer than eight new players on the roster, even though that big deal (Gates, Omar Ramirez from New York) never came together – that one could have indeed turned the roster around quite a bit, but also would have required sacrificing the #4 prospect.

Overall we were scored ninth for the offseason by BNN, with a +1.4 WAR.

Top 5: Capitals (+13.2), Stars (+13.0), Miners (+7.2), Crusaders (+6.3), Bayhawks (+4.8)
Bottom 5: Blue Sox (-6.1), Condors (-7.2), Canadiens (-8.8), Loggers (-11.9), Titans (-15.4)

Looks like the CL North will get limper. We were actually second-best in division, with the only team missing above being the Indians, who came 15th with a stagnating -0.8 WAR in the offseason.

PREDICTION TIME:

One new addition in the front office is Ancient Roman High Priest Magister Apertus, who has his paws in a goat sacrifice, rummaging, and screams at me that the end is near.

Yeah, I got those vibes already.

If you need more signs, last year half the team (12 players) was 30+ on Opening Day, and that number only went up to 14 this year. Even our acquisitions are old, with five of eight new players being 30+ themselves, and nobody on the roster is 25-and-under anymore. Kevin Hitchcock at 26 years and 22 days as of Opening Day is the chick on the team, ahead of Bubba and Brooks, who share a birthday and will turn 27 on August 2. Seven players are free agents, and make that eight with a $3M team option on Toohey that right now looks unlikely to be picked up.

Last year I predicted 96 wins and another division title, being off by three, and ultimately the 93-69 Raccoons had to bow to the Stars in Game 7.

I don’t think the Crusaders will be quite there, but the Indians will for sure keep bothering us, and I don’t know whether we have more than 90 wins in us. The other three teams in the division look forsaken. We shall join them in a year or two.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Somehow our farm system keeps inching up a bit more despite the prolonged run of penannts. We were bottoming out at 16th in the farm rankings to years ago, but moved from 9th up to 6th this season.

Last season we had 11 ranked prospects, including four in the top 100. While our total number of ranked prospects has gone down to just seven (!), four of those are now in the top 50. Six of the eleven ranked prospects from last year are no longer ranked, including #142 Adam Bates (too old) and five players that were simply handed down the ranking, some of them quite steeply: #57 Polibio O’Higgins, #59 Brett Lillis jr., #151 Mike Snyder (these three are all in the AAA pen), #170 Joe Boese, and #191 Dario Medina.

3rd (+1) – AA SP Rafael de la Cruz, 18 – 2047 international free agent signed by Raccoons
42nd (+9) – AAA SP Victor Salcido, 23 – 2042 international free agent signed by Raccoons
45th (+73) – AAA 1B/LF/RF Alan Puckeridge, 21 – 2044 international free agent signed by Raccoons
47th (new) – AA 3B/2B Dave Blackshire, 21 – 2048 first-round pick by Raccoons
152nd (-27) – AAA SS/3B Lorenzo Lavorano, 21 – 2043 scouting discovery by Raccoons
164th (new) – AAA SP Andrew Clarke, 25 – 2042 third-round pick by Wolves, signed as free agent by Raccoons
199th (-20) – A RF/LF/1B Adam Samples, 20 – 2046 first-round pick by Raccoons

The franchise top 10 are completed by AA OF Curtis Scholl (2047 1st Rd.), A SP Carmen Argenziano (2047 2nd Rd.), and O’Higgins (2043 IFA).

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (+1) – TIJ MR LF/RF Tim Duncan, 22
2nd (-1) – SAL AA SP Blake Sparks, 21
3rd (+1) – POR AA SP Rafael de la Cruz, 18
4th (new) – CHA A LF/RF Danny Ceballos, 18
5th (new) – ATL A C Pedro Almaguer, 20

6th (new) – RIC A SP Vinny Santiago, 19
7th (+38) – SAC A SP Ernesto Rios, 20
8th (new) – MIL ML OF Dave De Lemos, 21
9th (+32) – VAN AA CL Anton Jesus, 20
10th (+29) – SAC A SP Willie Santiago, 21

Duncan was already the #1 prospect in 2047 before bowing to Blake Sparks last year. Santiago was the #15 pick in the 2048 draft, while de Lemos was the #1 overall pick in the 2048 draft, then missed half his rookie season with a concussion before getting promoted straight from A-ball to the majors by the Loggers for Opening Day. Uh-oh. The other new additions to the list were already signed in prior years but had never been ranked.

So while the top 3 stayed the same this year, none of the remaining top 10 survived on the list for this year.

There are success stories, though. For example, last year’s #5 prospect, WAS SP Cory Ellis, successfully integrated himself into the major league rotation, going 10-15 with a 3.79 ERA amidst no run support. And over in Vegas, 1B/LF/RF Aubrey Austin shot from starting in AA ball to not only debuting in the Bigs, but also to 91 appearances there, hitting .304 with seven homers. He had been the #9 prospect. Both obviously lost eligibility.

The #3 prospect, Pittsburgh INF Victor Corrales made it into 40 games with the Miners to lose rookie eligibility, batted .293 with 3 homers, but was assigned back to AAA to begin the year. #10 prospect Angelo Munoz made his debut in the Loggers pen and pitched in 33 games for a 6.00 ERA. This pair also lost rookie eligibility through service time.

And some simply sagged. Capitals prospect SP Kennedy Adkins pitched himself from AA to AAA, but struggled with injuries and fell from #6 to #15. Corner outfielder Oscar Rivera on the Gold Sox fared about as well, slipping from #7 to #11. SFW AAA SS Carmem Barrento went from #8 to #30 and also to the Condors in a trade.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Indians (0-0) – April 5-7, 2049

Once more, the season started against the Indians, who looked like the sharpest competition this year – and looked like they had a bit of a good chance, I thought as I looked at the stash of old man joint cream that Dr. Padilla packed for the season-opening 6-game road trip. We went 12-6 against the Indians last year.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (0-0) vs. Bill Nichol (0-0)
Bubba Wolinsky (0-0) vs. Bill Drury (0-0)
Dave Hils (0-0) vs. Enrique Ortiz (0-0)

The Indians would only offer righty pitching for this series.

Game 1
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley
IND: RF A. Mendez – SS Russ – CF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – 2B H. Acosta – 3B B. Anderson – C Pedraza – 1B de Castro – P Nichol

The Raccoons started the season by loading the bases in the first inning, putting Alex Adame on with a single – he stole his first base right away – before Maldo and Waters got walks drawn with one out. Mike Preble flicked an RBI single to shallow center for the first run of the year. Hugo Acosta intercepted a Pat Gurney grounder with a lunge, but couldn’t scramble and throw it to first in time, leaving Gurney with an infield RBI single. Eduardo Avila struck out, but Ruben Gonzalez found another soft RBI single before Wheats ended the inning with a fly to Angel Mendez. Now he just had to pitch better against the Arrowheads than last year, when they had constituted most of his problem zone – and did for sure, holding them to a Bobby Anderson single the first time through and no runners in scoring position whatsoever. That already beat the quintillion runs they stuffed him for on *last* Opening Day for sure!

Indy got a run in the fourth, though, when 2-out shenanigans amounted to a 2-out walk to Danny Rivera, a wild pitch, and an Acosta RBI single to get him home. Anderson struck out afterwards to end the inning. Perpetual pest Andrew Russ hit a single in the sixth, but didn’t get a steal off, no scored as the Indians stranded him at second base. But there was also no denying that the Raccoons had fallen entirely asleep after a raucous first inning with four hits and two walks against Nichol, who then allowed only one more hit and walk each through the next seven innings, and no runs. Wheats remained on, though – he nicked Anderson in the seventh inning, but kept that runner on base, and had a 1-2-3 eighth. His pitch count was attractive, and if only the Raccoons could have found some more offense, we would have been very comfortable with sending him for a complete game, but not with a 2-run lead and the middle of the order up in the bottom 9th. As things were, Ruben Gonzalez with two outs reached on an uncaught third strike against Sang-hoon Kim in the top 9th, bringing up Wheats’ spot and a pinch-hitter. Angelo Zurita grounded out, though. Come the bottom 9th, some things were out of order at first glance; Mike Lynn would pitch it, which could be explained with the fact that there was no natural right-handed batter among the Indians’ 3-4-5 hitters. Also, Maldo had gone missing, lifted for D with the insertion of Eddy Luna, while Zurita stayed in the game for D over Eduardo Avila. The mix worked out for a 1-2-3 inning. Bill Quinteros struck out, Danny Rivera grounded out to Waters, and Zurita snagged Acosta’s fly to put the Indians away for the day. 3-1 Raccoons. Gonzalez 2-4, RBI; Wheatley 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – RF Zurita – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – P Wolinsky
IND: RF A. Mendez – 2B H. Acosta – CF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – 3B B. Anderson – SS Russ – C Pedraza – 1B de Castro – P Drury

Adame had another single and stolen base in the first, but this time didn’t score. Him and Herrera wound up on the corners, but Matt Waters hit into a double play to kill the effort. Bill Quinteros doubled off Wolinsky in the first, but was stranded with a K to Rivera, before Preble romped a leadoff homer in the second, the Coons’ first bomb of the year. The second didn’t come much later – Bryce Toohey, having been left out of the opener entirely, socked a blast to left in his first at-bat of the year, making it a 2-0 lead. Gonzalez hit a single up the middle, but Bubba bunted into a double play to end that inning, too.

Bill Drury then went on to smash Maldo’s foot with a very wayward fastball. Maldo’s old man reactions weren’t quick enough to get out of the way, and he was left to limp to the dugout afterwards, accompanied by Dr. Padilla. Eddy Luna replaced him, stole second base, but was left on base when Matt Waters popped out. Rivera singled and was caught stealing in the fourth, while Waters improved himself to an RBI single in the sixth, driving home Herrera from second base to extend the lead to 3-0. Like on Monday, this was the point where the Indians got involved on the board. Bubba walked Quinteros to begin the bottom 6th, then gave up a homer to Rivera, which was the more disconcerting given that those were lefty hitters against the lefty Wolinsky. He retired Anderson, but Russ, the pest, then reached on a Waters error in the 3-2 game. Uh-oh. Alexes Pedraza and de Castro then both singled through the left side, with Russ getting himself thrown out at home plate on the second hit. Hah! Sucker! Somehow Bubba would boogie out of that mess then, remaining up 3-2. He was hit for in the seventh and did not return to the mound thusly, with Nate Norris getting the ball initially in the bottom 7th. He allowed singles to Mendez and Acosta, then was yanked. Quinteros singled off the left-handed Julian Ponce to make it three on and no outs for Indy in a 3-2 game. Rivera then grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, but that still tied the game. Preston Porter replaced Ponce, got Anderson to ground out, and thus stranded the go-ahead run on third base; all even at three through seven.

Back-to-back doubles by Pedraza and Aaron Brayboy (effortlessly snaps a piece of guard rail in half) off Porter broke up the tie in the eighth and gave the Coons their first deficit of the year. They had gone down silently in the top 8th, then faced Kim again in the top 9th. Waters stuck out. Preble popped out. Zurita struck out. 4-3 Indians. Herrera 2-4;

Where’s that offense we pay millions and millions for?

Well, for at least the rest of this week, I’d know where Maldo was – in the dugout, nursing a swollen foot. Dr. Padilla said it was only a contusion and he should be good to go after a week’s rest, which was right in the sour spot where you wanted neither between playing a man short for a week, nor lose an extra week on your (hopefully still) #3 hitter on merit. We swallowed the first bitter pill for the time being…

Game 3
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 2B Waters – LF Preble – RF Zurita – 1B Gurney – 3B Luna – C Brooks – P Hils
IND: RF A. Mendez – SS Russ – CF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – 2B H. Acosta – 3B B. Anderson – C Pedraza – 1B Brayboy – P E. Ortiz

Quinteros’ first-inning homer to right meant that the Coons did not score first for the maiden time this season, but the 1-0 deficit looked temporary when the Indians misplayed the first two Coons balls put in play in the top 2nd. Zurita reached on a Brayboy error, while Gurney singled to center, but Quinteros overran the ball for another error, putting a pair in scoring position with nobody out. And then the bottom of the order… struck out, struck out, aaaand… struck out. The Coons then only fell further behind by not scoring for another few innings before Brayboy hit a 2-run homer to right in the fourth. Hils would serve up another homer to Quinteros in the fifth, and besides getting romped for five runs in as many innings in his first outing as a Critter, also drew a walk in the top 5th and was doubled up by Matt Watt. Preble hit into a double play to erase Waters in the sixth. Sheesh.

Down 5-0, Zurita socked a leadoff triple in the top 7th, then was chased back to third base on a Gurney grounder near the third base line, which kept him from scoring, but Ortiz also allowed another runner on base by conceding the infield single to Gurney. A full-count walk to Luna meant that the Coons had the bags stuffed with no outs, which would surely end well. Justin Brooks remained hitless as a Raccoon, but drew a bases-loaded walk to force in our first run of the game. Bryce Toohey would hit for Orlando Altreche as the tying run, got nailed on the first pitch, and thus another run scored. Watt hit a sac fly, 5-3, and Adame slapped a soft single to left, loading the bases again for Waters. The 1-1 pitch was put into shallow center there for an RBI single, 5-4, and I wondered where the Indians only had that one reliever and were now out of them. Ortiz walked in the tying run against Preble, which was staggering, and it was even more staggering that he remained in the game still, AND struck out Zurita and got Gurney on a grounder to strand the bases loaded – although the game was now tied after all.

Bottom 7th, Ponce on the mound, and Quinteros started out by legging out an infield single, and also singling out a leg, having to limp away to his own dugout with an obvious injury. Philip Locke ran for him. Ponce struck out two and got Anderson on a fly to Watt to get out of the inning without Locke ever moving the go-ahead run into scoring position. Top 8th, and Brooks and Watt singles, next to a walk drawn by Adame off David Farris loaded the bases with two outs for Waters, who crunched a quick bouncer up the middle for a 2-run single…! Preble popped out, but it was 7-5 now. Ponce got two more outs in the bottom 8th, before Nelson Moreno was picked for a 4-out save in his first outing of the year. Alex de Castro flew out to Herrera, who came in along with Moreno in a double switch (Preble got an early start at packing his bag to head outta town), to complete the eighth inning. There was no tack-on offense in the top 9th, but there was also no significant rally by the Indians in the bottom of the inning. Ron Kurtz hit a pinch-hit single to center, but that was that. The game ended with a K to Rivera. 7-5 Raccoons. Watt 2-4, RBI; Adame 2-4, BB; Waters 3-5, 3 RBI; Gurney 3-4;

Raccoons (2-1) @ Bayhawks (3-0) – April 9-11, 2049

The Baybirds had rolled over the Knights to start the season and were now eager for payback for another CLCS loss against us. They had only scored 11 runs in three games, but had conceded only *four*, so I was a bit weary of more offensive struggles for us… Last year we had gone 3-6 against them in the regular season, with the aforementioned turnaround in the CLCS to make up for it, and then some.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (0-0) vs. Jesse Bulas (0-0)
Chris Crowell (0-0) vs. Ayden Cobb (0-0)
Jason Wheatley (1-0, 1.13 ERA) vs. Kevin Nolte (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

No lefty starter in sight yet.

The Coons made a roster move before the series began. Maldo’s foot was still thick and Dr. Padilla considered him unlikely to get playing again with a week, which already made it about ten days of inactivity for him. At this point, a DL stint became viable and he was parked there. Right-handed 25-year-old INF Tim Rogers was called up from AAA. He had been a 12th round pick in the 2042 draft (!) and had hit for a .747 OPS in St. Pete last season. No power, no speed, just versatility and a singles bat.

Game 1
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – P Merino
SFB: CF Fink – SS Dau – C S. Suggs – LF Crum – 3B Copeland – 2B Quiroz – RF P. Colon – 1B A. Marquez – P Bulas

The Coons didn’t score from their three singles they had the first time through, nor from when Herrera reached second base on a throwing error by Sebastian Copeland in the third. The good news was that Merino, while striking out to strand a pair in the top 2nd, held up on the mound and held the Bayhawks to even less in the early going. San Francisco didn’t get to three base hits until Pedro Colon dropped in a blooper with two outs in the bottom 5th. Alex Marquez then walked, but Bulas popped out and the game remained scoreless through five. Matt Waters and John Fink both drew walks in the sixth, and both were doubled up by the next guy in line, Preble and Todd Dau, respectively. A walk did break up the scoreless parade, though, and it was a 2-out walk issued by Merino in the seventh. That put Sergio Quiroz on base unnecessarily, and with two outs Quiroz scored quite easily on a pinch-hit double to left by Joe Ritchey. Merino got out of the inning, then was lifted for PH Matt Watt, who drew a leadoff walk to begin the eighth, thus putting the tying run on base. Bulas was lifted for right-hander Brad Barnes at that point, but gave up a clean single to Adame that sent Watt to third base with nobody out. When Zurita was sent to bat for Herrera, however, the Bayhawks countered with left-hander Bobby Nelson. It didn’t help – Zurita singled to right, tying the game, and Adame reached third base. Nelson then struck out Waters in a tense battle, but couldn’t quite get Preble removed, either – much the contrary, Mike Preble crushed a 3-run homer to left for a Critters lead…!

Mike Lynn then had a calm eighth, but the ninth was decidedly less calm. Up 4-1, Nelson Moreno allowed a single to Ken Crum, walked Quiroz, and gave up another single to John Hill. That was the tying runs aboard with one out, and lefty Dan Riley up. The count ran full, Riley singled to right, and two runs scored. Mike Roberts then grounded to Waters, but the Coons couldn’t turn two, only getting Riley at second. John Hill moved to third with the tying run, bringing up Fink with two outs. Moreno blew the save entirely by giving up a single at 1-2, with Dau flying out to Preble to send the game to extras and leaving me all frustrated. Nate Norris got the bottom 10th in a 4-4 tie, gave up a bloop double to Sean Suggs right away, but stranded that winning run on third base when Baybirds pitcher Jeremy Mayhall came up with two outs – and the Bayhawks had nobody left on the bench. Mayhall struck out, sending the game to the 11th, where Brooks batted for Norris in a 1-2-3 whitewash by Mayhall, thus also emptying the Coons’ bench. Kevin Hitchcock got the ball for the bottom 11th, gave up three singles and lost the game on Suggs’ 2-out RBI single. 5-4 Bayhawks. Zurita (PH) 1-2, RBI; Toohey (PH) 1-2; Merino 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K;

(bleeds from one corner of his snout)

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – SS Adame – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – P Crowell
SFB: RF M. Roberts – SS Dau – C S. Suggs – LF Crum – 2B Quiroz – 1B P. Colon – 3B Del Vecchio – CF Fink – P A. Cobb

For firsts this year, the Raccoons in the third inning had a runner caught stealing, good old Armando getting thrown out by Suggs, and also picked off a runner when Crowell caught Mike Roberts napping to end the bottom 3rd. Another scoreless tenseness fest seemed to be developing, with three ineffective Coons hits to two for the Baybirds at this point.

But the fourth began with Ayden Cobb – a Coons target his offseason if you can be bothered to remember – issuing leadoff walks to both Adame and Waters, then an RBI single to left to Pat Gurney for the game’s first run. Avila had gone 0-9 to start his Coons employment, but singled to fill the bases … with nobody out. (blows) But Ruben Gonzalez slapped a 2-run single through the left side, and then Eddy Luna landed another hit through the right side, loading the bases yet again and still with nobody out. Crowell struck out, a Watt groundout brought in a fourth run, and then Herrera popped out to end the inning. We did get an unearned run in the fifth; Adame reached, stole his fourth base, and eventually scored on a 2-out error by Todd Dau.

That was the point which Chris Crowell chose to randomly implode, loading the bases with the 5-6-7 batters to begin the bottom 5th, on two walks and a hit, after 2-hitting the Bayhawks with five strikeouts through four innings. Fink socked a deep sac fly to get San Fran on the board, while Ritchey pinch-hit for the wobbled Cobb, but flew out easily to Watt on the first pitch. But the explosion noises and special effects got louder from there. Roberts raked a 2-run triple, Dau singled, and it was time for the emergency parachute. The emergency parachute – Preston Porter – walked Sean Suggs, which sugged, but with two outs and two on got Watt to catch a Ken Crum drive to end the rally.

Top 6th, Luna opened with a single against Sebastien Parham. Porter was retained to bunt, but popped out. A Watt walk and a Herrera double to left scored a run, though, 6-4, and Adame’s hard single to left drove in two more, 8-4. Porter put two on, then turned to Ponce in the bottom 6th, with the left-hander getting a K on John Fink before conceding a run in conjunction with Ruben Gonzalez, who had the 2-2 pitch get away from him for a passed ball and Quiroz scoring from third base, 8-5. Riley eventually grounded out to Gurney. By the seventh, Nate Norris was pitching, and by the eighth he became the second reliever in the game to be ordered to bunt after a Luna single and fail at it, with the Coons not scoring in the inning. But at least Norris had a 1-2-3 bottom 8th to make up for that, maintaining a 3-run gap on the Baybirds. Top 9th, Lazaro Ochoa hit back-to-back batters to begin the inning, putting on Adame and Waters, but Gurney hit into a fielder’s choice. Angelo Zurita batted for Avila and socked an RBI double to left at least, while Gonzalez popped out, and Luna walked to fill the bases with two outs. Preble batted in that spot, belted the first pitch to deep center, and Fink didn’t get near it. The ball fell for a double, Gurney scored, Zurita scored, and Luna – was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Altreche then got the ball with a 6-run lead and made no moves to blow it. 11-5 Raccoons. Herrera 2-5, RBI; Adame 3-3, BB, 2 RBI; Zurita (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Luna 3-4; Preble (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Offensive outburst!

Could we have saved some for probably another pitching duel on Sunday? No?

Game 3
POR: CF Watt – 1B Gurney – 2B Waters – LF Preble – RF Toohey – SS Luna – C Brooks – 3B Rogers – P Wheatley
SFB: RF M. Roberts – SS Dau – C S. Suggs – LF Crum – 2B Quiroz – 3B Copeland – 1B D. Riley – CF Fink – P Nolte

The Coons had only one hit – a Waters double – in the first three innings, but the Bayhawks had two, both doubles. Copeland’s in the second led nowhere, but John Fink’s leadoff double would eventually give San Fran a 1-0 lead when he scored on productive outs by Nolte and Roberts. The thing was – Kevin Nolte, the reigning CL Pitcher of the Year, had the Raccoons’ little necks firmly squished between his mighty fists, and they weren’t doing much besides some frantic and panicked tail waggling. We had no base hits in the middle innings, and while Wheats was good, he wasn’t Nolte-great and his pitch count went up in the middle innings with a full-count each in the fourth and fifth. He nailed Suggs in the sixth, but that was with two outs and Crum flew out to Herrera to end the inning, the score still 1-0 on just three total hits in the game. The seventh was another 1-2-3 PR disaster for the Coons, while Wheats gave his all, struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh of his own, but then was at 107 pitches and wouldn’t go no further. His team had to dig him out now.

Eddy Luna’s 3-2 single to center to lead off the top 8th was only the third Coons runner on the day, but put the tying run aboard. Zurita batted for Brooks, but hit into a fielder’s choice for little actual advancement. Adame batted for Rogers, but flew out to Fink. Gonzalez batted for Wheats and singled to right, and sent Zurita to third base with the tying run. What would Watt do? Walk in a full count. Three on, two outs, Gurney up. The Baybirds stuck to Nolte. A ball, a strike. Another ball. And another ball – and this one Gurney had to evade, and it also eluded Suggs! Wild pitch! Zurita in to score, and Wheats was off the hook! Better yet, the Bayhawks halfheartedly put Gurney on the open base in a 3-1 count, but Waters grinded out a bases-loaded walk to push the go-ahead run across, and only NOW did Brad Barnes come in! Mike Preble hit a romper up the middle to drive in another two runs before Toohey struck out, and the Coons were now up 4-1…!

Zurita remained in right over Toohey, whose spot was taken by Mike Lynn. He only got two outs of the three batters he was assigned, walking Ted Del Vecchio, the unspeakably ghastly abomination. Hitchcock collected a K from Todd Dau to get out of the bottom 8th. Moreno then saved the game without as much drama and failure as on Friday… 4-1 Critters! Gonzalez (PH) 1-1; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-0);

There were only seven total base hits in this game!

In other news

April 5 – DEN SP Gary Perrone (1-0, 0.00 ERA) opens the season by firing a 3-hit shutout with seven strikeouts against the Scorpions.
April 5 – Opening Day kills the 21-game hitting streak that DAL LF/CF Juan del Toro (0-2, 0 HR, 0 RBI) has brought over from the previous season. The 24-year-old is held silent in two attempts by the Pacifics before injury is added to insult and he leaves the game with a sprained ankle in the Stars’ 4-0 loss. Del Toro is expected to miss most of April now.
April 6 – CIN SP Ross Mitchell (1-0, 0.00 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout on the Buffaloes in his second assignment as a starter in the majors after 187 bullpen appearances.
April 8 – Backup infielder Frank Mujica (0-3, 0 HR, 0 RBI) is traded from the Warriors to the Buffaloes in exchange for SP/MR Jeremy Ray (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
April 8 – The Titans win a rain-shortened, 8-inning game from the Loggers, beating them 3-1.
April 9 – Cincy loses SP Chris Jones (0-0, 6.35 ERA) for the season; the 24-year-old is out with elbow ligament damage.
April 9 – SFW LF/RF Danny Munn (.438, 1 HR, 4 RBI) surely tried, but to no avail; the 25-year-old has five hits and as many RBI while falling a triple short of the cycle in a 13-7 loss to the Blue Sox.
April 11 – Capitals SP Bruce Mark jr. (1-1, 3.38 ERA) strikes out 15 Pacifics in a 3-2 win for Washington.
April 11 – IND OF/1B Bill Quinteros (.455, 2 HR, 2 RBI) will be out for five weeks with a quad strain.
April 11 – The Crusaders walk off on the Aces, 4-3. All the game’s runs are scored in the ninth inning.

FL Player of the Week: DEN LF/CF Sandy Castillo (.448, 1 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: TIJ OF Tim Burkhart (.526, 1 HR, 6 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Given that we played the two strongest teams (probably) in the CL to open this week I am not too concerned with some early returns. We hit .238 as a team an the pen took some flak here and there, along with both new starting pitchers, but if that is the baseline we’d operating on, I would feel confident going forwards. Even with that .238 team clip and only three homers, we somehow put out 32 runs, which ain’t shabby.

And lighter opposition will crop up, f.e. next week the Knights and Titans at the beginning of a 12-game homestand that would also see us reintroduced to the Crusaders and Falcons afterwards.

You think Alex Adame’s four stolen bases this year are impressive? The Loggers have a rookie named Jose Delgado who has already stolen SIX. And that is with the Loggers, where getting four times at-bat in a game is a bit of a lottery.

Fun Fact: Jason Wheatley is the only pitcher with two wins in the Continental League.

Which is weird, given that relievers surely had chances to get into multiple games. But no reliever in either league has two wins so far, while in the FL there’s two starters with two wins, Richmond’s Omar Lara and Salem’s Darren McRee.

I hope April excellence won’t interfere with Wheats’ second-half excellence, though.

+++

How often have I written Lance Lynn so far and actually left it in there? I keep thinking “Let’s bring in Lance Lynn” whenever the need for a lefty arises… I suck

[Westheim]

I need to play in the morning more on the weekends. I penciled in the Critters for the time between F1 and NASCAR yesterday, but since the F1 race took so long for 50 minutes of red flag, the Critters got squeezed out. I am old (about half the Coons’ age!). I can play and pay attention to one sports thing and still grasp something. I can’t play and watch TWO sports things anymore and know anything afterwards. (Coons + Mets + NASCAR)

+++

Raccoons (4-2) vs. Knights (1-5) – April 12-14, 2049

Home opener! The Knights had scored all of 14 runs in their first week, solidly bottoms in the CL, and they had given up 27, which was still a bottom three value. As a team they had hit .209, and their fielding had also been the worst. They still had the hope that it was early days. We had won the season series, 6-3, last year.

Projected matchups:
Bubba Wolinsky (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (0-1, 2.25 ERA)
Dave Hils (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. Marc Hubbard (0-1, 6.43 ERA)
Victor Merino (0-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Larry Colwell (0-1, 9.45 ERA)

One day, I swear, we’ll see a lefty starter. But Brian Buttress had gone on Sunday and that was the only one they had, and we thus had to make do with another three right-handers.

Game 1
ATL: RF Hester – CF Alade – SS A. Venegas – LF Hertenstein – C Cass – 1B van der Zanden – 3B A. Ramires – 2B S. Davison – P Koga
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – RF Zurita – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – P Wolinsky

Kodai Koga had struck out ten in his first outing of the year, and retired the Coons in order the first time through, while a Scott Davison homer with two outs in the top 2nd put them up 2-0 on Wolinsky, who had given up a single to Arnout van der Zanden prior to the big fly. It only got worse from here. Koga retired 13 in order before walking Toohey, but continued his no-hitter through five, while Wolinsky was slowly slaughtered by the bottom of the order; the second time through van der Zanden singled again in the fourth and Davison doubled him home with two outs again. And in the sixth, Tyler Cass singled, as did Antonio Ramires. Davison batted again with two outs, hit an RBI single, and so did Koga. Billy Hester and Jon Alade hit another two singles, driving in another run, before Wolinsky was yanked with force. The Koga no-hitter lasted until the seventh, when Pat Gurney slapped a pinch-hit single through the right side. Ruben Gonzalez added another single right after, and then Eddy Luna popped out. That was the first and only squeak the Coons did all day. 6-0 Knights. Gurney (PH) 1-1;

Koga went the distance for a 2-hit shutout. Yikes.

Game 2
ATL: LF Hester – 1B Swift – SS A. Venegas – CF Alade – C Cass – 2B J. Lopez – RF Hertenstein – 3B A. Ramires – P Hubbard
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Gurney – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – RF Avila – P Hils

The Knights went up 2-0 even quicker in the second game on Tuesday, with a T.J. Swift single, Anton Venegas’ triple, and a run-scoring groundout by Jon Alade. Hils had been romped in his first start, and it didn’t look like much would change in th second one. Come the second, Jon Lopez singled, Hils walked Antonio Ramires, and after Hubbard failed to get a bunt down, still had the runners on first and second while facing Hester with two outs. He got to 2-2, then gave up a blast to right, 5-0. – Is there anything in the contract, Cristiano? – No? No return policy whatsoever? – Shambles.

The Coons scored a run with a Luna double and Avila RBI single in the bottom 2nd, then another one in the third when Herrera tripled and scored on Gurney’s groundout. I was lamenting Adame though, who had been on base to begin the bottom 3rd, and had been caught stealing on the first pitch to Armando Herrera. Hils’ day ended after four innings when his spot came up in the bottom 4th with Toohey, Luna, and Avila on base and one out. The tying runs went to Matt Waters, who had his first day off, was batting a soft .231 with a .624 OPS, fell to 1-2, and then UNCORKED one…! High to right! Deep to right! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!

That at-bat also ended Hubbard’s day out, righty Adam Brady taking over in the 6-5 free-for-all. He allowed a 2-out single to Herrera, then another homer to Pat Gurney, 8-5! Preble and Toohey also hit singles, but Gonzalez grounded out, ending a plenty long inning that had seen the Coons roar ahead with a 6-spot. Here we went to long man Altreche (who had pitched an inning on Monday), which necessitated ending Waters’ day off; he’d take over second, with Gurney to first, and Toohey’s spot going to the pitcher. Altreche pitched two scoreless before Herrera hit another single off Brady, stole second, and was driven in by Gurney, 9-5 in the sixth. Kyle DuPlessis replaced Brady, but would not retire a batter for a while. Preble singled, Zurita walked for Altreche to fill the bags, and both Gonzalez and Luna worked bases-loaded walks to push home runs. Avila struck out, while Waters’ grounder to short was fumbled by Anton Venegas for a run-scoring error, the last of four runs in that inning, 12-5. The Knights were slewn, but the Raccoons piled on three more in the eighth anyway; Waters doubled in one, Adame singled home two. Lynn, Porter, and Norris followed up Altreche’s shutdown innings with a scoreless inning each to complete the game. 15-5 Raccoons. Adame 2-6, 2 RBI; Herrera 4-4, BB, 3B; Gurney 3-6, HR, 4 RBI; Preble 2-4; Toohey 2-3; Luna 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Waters (PH) 2-4, HR, 2B, 5 RBI;

Notes include Matt Waters batting in five runs in the #9 hole, but not finishing the game. Tim Rogers pinch-hit for Porter in the eighth, then took over second base from Waters again, who thus wound up with a half-day off.

Game 3
ATL: 1B Hester – CF Alade – SS Venegas – LF Hertenstein – C Cass – RF van der Zanden – 3B A. Ramires – 2B J. Lopez – P Colwell
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Toohey – 3B Luna – C Brooks – P Merino

The Knights took the lead ever-quicker, with Billy Hester homering to right on Merino’s second pitch of the game to make it 1-0. That was all in the first, with the Knights’ rookie Larry Colwell presenting himself then. The #10 pick in 2047 had walked seven in his debut, and I hoped for a continuation there. Pat Gurney homered the game tied in the second, but a leadoff double off the wall by Daniel Hertenstein in the fourth opened another box of bother for Merino, who conceded the run on singles by Cass and Ramires, but those two were stranded with strikeouts to Lopez and the pitcher at least. The Coons would go on to strand pairs in the fourth and fifth, when Luna and Waters, respectively, grounded out with two aboard each.

Merino struck out seven, but also got hit for nine base knocks’ worth of grapeshot himself, which somehow turned only into two runs across six innings, but that was also enough to have him trailing against Colwell, who had walked only two Critters through five. He walked Toohey with one out in the bottom 6th after Gurney had already rocked a double, but Luna grounded out in a full count. The Raccoons sent Brooks to the plate, expecting an intentional walk, and the Knights didn’t disappoint. Armando Herrera then batted with three on and two outs, and got nailed by Colwell with the first pitch. Tied game! Me and Honeypaws high-fived while Herrera crept up to first base. Matt Watt was up next, whacked a drive to center and it was very obviously gonna go out – GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

And the inning wasn’t over. With lefty Tony Rosas replacing the fallen Colwell, the Slam City Slammers got Adame on with a single, Waters walked, and Preble doubled them home, 8-2. Gurney also hit another drive, but that one was caught to cap a 7-spot. To complete the Critters’ turn at scoring, Bryce Toohey would drive in another run – in EACH of the last two innings; he homered off Rosas in the seventh, then drew a bases-loaded walk from Nelson Garcilazo in the eighth. Ponce, Hitchcock, and Moreno offered blameless relief to complete the rout. 10-2 Coons. Watt 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Gurney 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Toohey 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Herrera (PH) 0-0, RBI; Merino 6.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

I like *that* offense.

Raccoons (6-3) vs. Titans (4-5) – April 16-18, 2049

The Titans had started 4-1, but had started to slip since. They were hitting only .209 as a team, and had taken over bottoms in runs scored from the Knights. But they had also allowed the second-fewest runs, 24 on each side, in nine games. They had only one homer, hit by infielder Alejandro Silva, who had entered the season aged 27 and with four major league games (with the ’47 Buffos) to his name. We had gone 13-5 against the Titans last year, and actually 13-5 on average for the last seven years!

Projected matchups:
Chris Crowell (0-0, 7.71 ERA) vs. Tony Ruiz (1-0, 4.76 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-0, 1.20 ERA) vs. Victor Scott (0-1, 7.94 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (0-1, 6.17 ERA) vs. Kyle Turay (0-1, 2.81 ERA)

Hey, southpaws! And the Titans had FOUR of them. Turay was the only exception.

Game 1
BOS: 2B B. Owen – SS T. Thompson – 1B C. Jimenez – C Youngquist – RF Platero – LF Mangual – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF L. Estrada – P T. Ruiz
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – RF Avila – 3B Rogers – P Crowell

Brandon Owen opened the game with a double, but Crowell still faced the minimum in the first inning. Tom Thompson grounded out to Rogers, and when Chris Jimenez flew out to Herrera, Owen opted to tag and go – and was thrown out at third base. Tim Rogers hit his first major league hit in the bottom 2nd, but the 2-out single led nowhere but clearing the pitcher’s spot. The Coons, who had already stranded a pair in the first, loaded the bags with Herrera and Preble hits, and a 2-out walk drawn by Toohey in the bottom 3rd, then took the lead when the 1-2 pitch to Gonzalez briefly tickled two fibers of his uniform. But rules are rules, even though the Titans skipper protested vehemently, and the Raccoons were up 1-0 on the bases-stuffed brushed-by-pitch. Eduardo Avila, though, dropped his average to .100 and raised the LOB to six with a pop to Owen…

The Titans roared right back with four singles off Crowell in the fourth, including three by the 1-2-3 hitters to begin the inning. Jimenez drove in the tying run, Ryan Youngquist popped out, Jose Platero hit another RBI single to give them a 2-1 lead, and then Jimenez was caught stealing and Ruben Mangual struck out. Crowell tried a comeback with a 1-out double in the bottom of the same inning, but Adame walked behind him and was then doubled up, 6-4-3, by Armando Herrera… In turn, Crowell waved home a 2-run in the top 5th with a wild pitch after he had almost gotten Jose Rodriguez stranded after the latter’s leadoff double to right-center. Leo Estrada grounded out, Ruiz whiffed, but by the time Owen grounded out, a wild 1-1 had already made it 3-1. Avila stranded another pair with a foul pop in the bottom 5th, and I was really despairing of him in particular early on and fast… and that was before he grounded out to end the seventh with the tying run on base again. *Run*, not *runs*, since Ruben Gonzalez had just singled home Waters to inch the Coons closer to 3-2.

Tom Thompson homered off Nate Norris to restore the 2-run gap in the eighth, while Gurney hit a 1-out single in the #9 hole in the bottom of that inning. He advanced on Adame’s groundout, then scored on a Herrera double to left. Herrera came up with a creaky knee however, and left the game under the supervision of Dr. Padilla. I winced, just like Herrera, who was run for by Zurita, who would also take over centerfield – Matt Watt had already been extended the previous time through the order. But first, Zurita scored the tying run on a Waters single off Dave Serio that dropped into no man’s land.

Tied game, Lynn got the ball in the ninth with the lefty bottom of the order up. The Titans hurled three pinch-hitters at him, who went down in order with two strikeouts. The game still went to extras when the Coons didn’t get past a Ruben Gonzalez single against Serio in the ninth. Serio then led off the top 10th batting against Lynn, and ******* singled. Owen hit a comebacker, which Lynn tried to turn for two, but threw away to get none. Two on, no outs, have fun, Preston Porter, while I open this bottle of Capt’n Coma. Porter struck out Thompson, but surrendered the runners on a Jimenez RBI single and Youngquist sac fly. Jim Cushing held off the Coons in the bottom 10th. 6-4 Titans. Herrera 2-5, 2B, RBI; Gonzalez 1-2, 2 RBI; Gurney (PH) 1-1;

Why is “stupid ****” not an official ABL stat, Cristiano? I’m sure we’d lead the league in it.

Saturday would have been a day off for Herrera with his balky knee, but the game was rained out, and he felt much better on Sunday when we’d play two and would pencil him in for one.

Game 2
BOS: CF Monson – 3B Massey – 1B Wheeler – C Youngquist – SS C. Jimenez – RF Platero – LF Mangual – 2B T. Thompson – P Turay
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – LF Toohey – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – RF Zurita – P Wheatley

The Titans switched the order of their hurlers, but the Raccoons did not, and Wheats got the opener on six days’ rest. He gave up a double to Jeff Wheeler in the first inning, but otherwise struck out five in the first three innings to continue a strong impression from his first two outings of the year. Nate Massey etched out a leadoff walk in the fourth, but was stranded on base despite swiping second. And the Coons? Four hits in the first four innings, none with a guy on base, and consequently no offense that would have lit up the board. Adame continued the trend with a 2-out, nobody-on single in the bottom 5th, and Waters got nicked. Gurney sent a drive to right-center, but was robbed by Jason Monson to end another inning in futility. Monson however hit a 1-out single to center in the sixth, stole second, and reached third when Gonzalez’ throw got away from Waters. Massey then brought in the run with another groundout. By this point I was chewing on a sturdy piece of wood and was about halfway through.

Toohey crashed a double through Massey to open the bottom 6th, putting the tying run in scoring position right away. The silly Coons stranded him right there, never getting another hit. Wheats pitched a seventh inning although Waters tried to further unhorse him with a throwing error, and that was it for him, 99 pitches of 2-hit ball, and no love whatsoever from the other 24 bums on the team. The Titans then caved Kevin Hitchcock’s numb skull in to the tune of four hits and three runs in the eighth inning, and the Raccoons easily banked a series loss, while Kyle Turay completed a ******* 8-hit shutout. 4-0 Titans. Adame 2-4; Toohey 3-4, 2B; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (2-1);

Sometimes I want to pack the entire team into the dumpster behind the ballpark and set the ******* thing on fire.

Wheats excluded.

Game 3
BOS: CF Monson – 3B Massey – 1B Wheeler – SS C. Jimenez – RF Platero – LF Mangual – C Cadena – 2B T. Thompson – P Barel
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – RF Avila – 3B Luna – C Brooks – P Wolinsky

We drew David Barel (0-2, 2.87 ERA) in the second leg of the double-header, but that was still a southpaw.

Bubba bested Wheats’ mark from the day’s opener, also whiffing five Titans through three innings, but doing it without allowing anybody on base. Barel retired the first six before walking Eddy Luna, then had Thompson throw away Brooks’ double play grounder to add a second runner. Wolinsky bunted into a force at third base, and I got up and got my coat. – Where I’m going, Maud? Home. – Because they annoy me! … Maud would go on to sit me down again, then soothed the throbbing in my temples with a little batting helmet full of vanilla-rhubarb ice cream. That didn’t help the offense, with Alex Adame hitting into a ******* double play to kill the inning for good.

Massey doubled in the fourth, but was left on, while Barel’s no-hit bid didn’t end until a fifth-inning single slapped by – of all Critters – Eduardo Avila. Luna scratched out a walk in a full count, but the battery was easy pickings to strand a pair there, and the game remained scoreless. Herrera drew a 1-out walk from Barel in the sixth, then stole second. He reached third base when Waters reached on a Jimenez error, putting them on the corners for Mike Preble, the team’s RBI leader. Before Preble could do anything stupid, Preble threw a wild pitch to chase home Herrera with the game’s first run. Preble struck out, Toohey grounded out, another inning having all the fun beaten out of it.

Bubba responded to the lead with a leadoff walk to Massey in the seventh, but then got a 4-6-3 double play from Wheeler and rung up Jimenez – his eighth on the day – to reach the stretch. His game ended when Justin Brooks rolled a 2-out single through the right side in the bottom 7th, and Pat Gurney would bat for Wolinsky, but grounded out. The ball went to Nate Norris, who got out a pair before nailing Jose Cadena with an 0-2 pitch. Leo Estrada hit for Thompson, drawing Lynn to counter the lefty stick. Estrada singled, but Barel struck out to kill the inning. The Coons’ top of the order went down without much noise in the bottom 8th, bringing Moreno in with a 1-0 lead. Youngquist pinch-hit for Monson to get things underway, popping out to Waters on the second pitch. Another two pitches flew out Massey to Herrera. Wheeler drew nine pitches, walked in a full count, then was run for with Tom Steffensen. Picking off the runner didn’t work, although Moreno tried twice. Striking out Jimenez did, though. 1-0 Blighters. Luna 0-1, 2 BB; Wolinsky 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W (1-1);

In other news

April 14 – The Condors solve a 1-1 deadlock with the Titans with a 16th-inning home run by Tim Duncan (.148, 1 HR, 4 RBI), taking a 2-1 victory.
April 15 – The Condors trade SP Kellen Lanning (1-1, 4.50 ERA) and MR Javy Santana (0-0, 0.00 ERA) to the Rebels for 1B/OF Gil Cabrera (.190, 1 HR, 2 RBI) and a prospect.
April 15 – The Warriors and Stars combine for a nine-inning game with 40 base hits, none of them a home run. The Warriors come out on top, 12-10, on 23 base hits of their own. All positional Warriors starters have at least two hits, and INF Julio Moriel (.500, 0 HR, 3 RBI) leads the team with four hits from the leadoff spot, and two RBI.
April 16 – ATL SP Brian Buttress (2-0, 0.95 ERA) 2-hits the Condors in a 6-0 shutout, whiffing ten and walking none.
April 16 – The Miners beat the Capitals, 2-1, despite having only one base hit to the Capitals’ eight. The lone hit is an RBI double by PIT CF Jayden Ward (.190, 0 HR, 3 RBI) in the bottom of the eighth inning, and Ward goes on to score on a walk, catcher’s interference, and bases-loaded walk issued to SS Tony Aparicio (.279, 2 HR, 9 RBI).
April 18 – RIC OF Ken Mills (.419, 4 HR, 10 RBI) ends a wild one with a walkoff single, giving the Rebs a 16-inning, 13-12 win over the Buffaloes. TOP 3B/2B Frank Mujica (.333, 1 HR, 5 RBI) has the best individual day with four hits and four RBI, both tying in-game highs, but to no avail.

FL Player of the Week: RIC OF Ken Mills (.419, 4 HR, 10 RBI), batting .524 (11-21) with 4 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ 1B/C Jon Mittleider (.383, 0 HR, 5 RBI), hitting .577 (15-26) with 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Could be better, could be worse. But it could really be better.

The team ranks first in runs scored, which still doesn’t change them being shut out twice this year, and going 3-3 only on charity by David Barel on Sunday night. What’s more perverted is that we’re first in runs scored while hitting .234, third from the bottom, and we’re only mid-pack with eight homers, either. Weird start to the season.

Crusaders and Falcons still to come on this long homestand, and off days on the next two Mondays.

Fun Fact: The scratch win late on Sunday was the 6,100th regular season win in franchise history.

Also one of the sketchiest hundo wins on record… Not the first 1-0 win though. Previously, Ralph Ford won a 1-0 game for #2,300 in 2005, and Kevin Surginer grabbed #4,100 in relief in 2026. Jarod Spencer and Brad Sheehan drove in the lone runs in those games, respectively, and I bet you a tenner that you haven’t thought of Brad Sheehan as a Raccoon (or much at all) for at least 40 years. You can be forgiven of course, given that he was here only two years and drove in all of 52 runs.

Still beats having to wait on the opposing pitcher to do your ******* job.

Bubba had already grabbed #5,900 for the Critters, two Aprils ago, but that had been a completely different ballgame, a 13-0 rout of the Aces.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-5) vs. Crusaders (7-5) – April 20-22, 2049

The Crusaders had won four games in a row and tried to get more from the Critters. Last year’s season series had ended up even, and the Crusaders smelled our roster getting older and our free agency addition igniting in all the wrong ways. They were second in runs scored, hitting a baffling .308 as a team, but eighth in runs allowed so far. SP Carlos Malla was still on the DL recovering from Tommy John surgery, and would remain there until at least July.

Projected matchups:
Dave Hils (0-0, 10.00 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (1-1, 3.38 ERA)
Victor Merino (1-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Jerry Felix (0-0, 2.84 ERA)
Chris Crowell (0-0, 6.10 ERA) vs. Jim White (2-1, 3.43 ERA)

Zeigler was another southpaw, but the rest of their rotation was all right-handed.

Game 1
NYC: 1B Haertling – SS R. Martinez – 3B Gates – C O. Ramirez – LF Besaw – RF Garris – CF Haney – 2B Nash – P Zeigler
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – RF Avila – 3B Rogers – P Hils

What the **** was wrong with Dave Hils? If only we knew. Ricardo Martinez homered the second batter up, and then he gave up another three hits, all well smacked, and conceded another run on a Josh Garris double before somehow getting out of the inning, only the first, though. By the third, it was 3-0; Hils allowed a pair of singles, then walked Garris to fill the bases completely, and Mark Haney to push in a 1-out run. Randolph Nash was so kind to pop out, and Zeigler went down on strikes, but I told Maud to start a letter to Nick Valdes, and begin it in bold print with the words “Look, we’re sorry…!” …

In total, Hils was wobbled for nine hits and three walks, and somehow only three runs in five ****** innings. The rest of the team was just as worthless, amounting to two base hits in the first four frames, and one of those had been slapped by Dave ******* Hils! The Crusaders continued their stomp, putting two runs on Orlando Altreche in the sixth on three hits, including another Martinez homer, before Matt Waters hit a 1-out triple in the bottom 6th. Preble singled him home, Toohey also singled, and then Ruben Gonzalez hit into a double play to kill the inning. Doubles by Prince Gates (no comment) and Joe Besaw, plus a 2-out single by Haney added two runs on Nate Norris in the eighth, as the free-for-all continued. Down 7-1, the Raccoons did rally for a 5-spot in the bottom 8th, three of the runs coming on a Matt Waters homer, and two more on another homer by Eduardo Avila to suddenly and abruptly end Zeigler’s day. Top 9th, the Crusaders answered with hits by Ed Haertling and Joe Besaw off Julian Ponce. Critically and dumbly, Bryce Toohey had also chipped in an error that put PH Aaron Brewer on base, moved Haertling to second base, and allowed Besaw to drive him home for an insurance run. I screamed into a pillow. Not that the bottom 9th featured any sort of rally… 8-6 Crusaders. Adame 2-5; Waters 2-5, HR, 3B, 3 RBI; Avila 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

We got crammed for 18 hits. Our defense and pitching was plainly atrocious, and atrociously plain.

Maldo came off the DL for the Wednesday game, and Tim Rogers (1-for-14) was punted back to St. Pete.

Game 2
NYC: 1B Haertling – CF Haney – 3B Gates – LF Besaw – SS R. Martinez – C Brewer – RF Foss – 2B Nash – P Felix
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – LF Toohey – C Gonzalez – RF Zurita – P Merino

Maldo returned with a single, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored when Waters hit another 2-out single for an early 1-0 Coons lead, which was a very novel concept I would have liked the team to explore some more going forwards. Instead, the lead was blown right away in one of the worst innings on record, the top 2nd, and yet that was with the Crusaders scoring ONLY one run. However, the scoring went: Waters error, infield single, Maldo error, RBI single, with Merino even turning Felix’ shoddy bunt for a force out at third base that ended up him saving a run and trailing. The agony with the Coons continued unabated in the bottom 2nd, in which Angelo Zurita hit a double, tried to stretch it to a triple, and was very much denied by Aaron Foss. After that, Merino hit a 2-out single and Watt walked, but Adame’s groundout left the Coons with no runs to show for.

It only got worse for Merino, who did pitch the third inning, but was then shown on TV going through motions in the dugout with Dr. Padilla, and by the time the Raccoons had to resume pitching in the 1-1 tie, Kevin Hitchcock fondled the baseball. Not that he was the only starting pitcher to be felled by injury – Jerry Felix didn’t return after five innings of 1-run ball, ostensibly having pulled a hamstring against the last batter in the bottom 5th, Alex Adame. Hitchcock pitched 3.2 innings of 1-hit ball, all futilely as far as a W was concerned. He left for Lynn to face PH Nick Crocker with Josh Garris on first and two outs in the seventh. Crocker flew out to Preble in left, Preble having come on with Lynn in a double switch, with Toohey to first and Gurney out of the game. Preble was the second batter in a row hit with a Kyle Conner pitch in the bottom 7th, putting him on base along with Zurita and two outs, but Matt Watt whiffed and it was all for nothing again. No gain, only pain.

Lynn also pitched the eighth efficiently, and Nelson Moreno had a 1-2-3 ninth against New York. Oh if only the Raccoons had more than five hits and one run…! Conner, the serial assailant from the seventh, was still around to start the bottom of the ninth against Bryce Toohey, losing him to a walk in a full count. Eddy Luna would pinch-run for him and got bunted to second by Gonzalez. Zurita flew out to Besaw, and Preble grounded out to short, sending the game to extras instead. Luna would take over third base, and Maldo moved to first, becoming the third Coons first-sacker in the damn game. Moreno got whacked in the tenth, then, giving up a run on a Nash single, Haertling double, and Haney sac fly. Right-hander Jeff Frank was then up against the 1-2-3 for Portland. Watt flew out on a 3-1 pitch, as if I needed more reasons to be mad at the bums. Adame grounded out, but Maldo – good ol’ Maldo! – singled. Waters sure tried to win the game, but settled for a single after one big hack that met no baseball, squeezing one through between the middle infielders Nash and Tom Labedz. In this situation, the pitcher’s spot was up and we had the choice between Justin Brooks and Eduardo Avila as pinch-hitter, both right-handed batters, neither hitting a lick so far. We went with Avila. He struck out. 2-1 Crusaders. Maldonado 2-4, BB; Waters 2-4, BB, RBI; Hitchcock 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

It's still early in the season – not even 10% of the games have been played – but I have a really bad feeling.

Merino had a mild shoulder tweak, not quite a strain, and was listed as day-to-day. We would not need a spot starter – five days from here was Monday, which was a day off. If he could go on Tuesday, he’d go, if not, he’d be skipped.

And if they kept playing like this I might have hanged myself in the broom closet by then anyway.

Game 3
NYC: 1B Haertling – SS R. Martinez – 3B Gates – C O. Ramirez – LF Besaw – CF Haney – RF Crocker – 2B Nash – P J. White
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – LF Preble – RF Zurita – C Brooks – P Crowell

Next first-inning homer, and it was Ricardo Martinez again to make it 1-0 New York on Crowell, free agent bust #2 in the rotation. Not that he annoyed me for long – by the second inning, he had a pinch in the elbow, Dr. Padilla collected him, and now we started to run out of pitching in an entirely different sense. Altreche would have to be tossed to the lions now, and the game altogether very much forfeited. Just get through it, somehow. Altreche stranded a runner left on by Crowell, then hit a 2-out single in the bottom 2nd after Jim White had nicked Justin Brooks. Matt Watt tied the game with a double to right, taking Crowell off a harsh hook, but Adame grounded out to Martinez, ending the inning and stranding runners on second and third. And all of that “excitement” crammed into just two innings…!

Orlando Altreche allowed two hits in the third, but the Crusaders had Omar Ramirez hit into a double play to kill the effort. Then it was Altreche’s turn to bat in the bottom 4th with Preble on third base and two outs in a tied game, and with Hitchcock and Moreno not available after tossing multiple innings the day before. The move was made anyway, Bryce Toohey pinch-hitting – and singling in the go-ahead run against Jim White! Nate Norris collected four outs before it was Ramirez’ turn again and we brought on Ponce in a double switch that removed Preble, as Armando Herrera entered the game in center, Watt moving to left. Herrera was one of two Coons to steal a base in the bottom 6th, the other being Zurita, who was nicked to begin the inning, stole second, moved up on a fielder’s choice by Herrera (Brooks had drawn a walk), and scored on Watt’s sac fly to deep left, 3-1. Haney and Nash reached base against Ponce in the seventh, but again the Crusaders found a double play to hit into, this time with PH Aaron Foss, 4-6-3.

Nothing good came out of the bottom 7th, but Ponce was hit for with Eddy Luna, who took over third base again, Maldo moving to first once more. The baseball went to Preston Porter, who was told that we needed to get six more outs without blowing a 3-1 lead, and he was the man to do it. A pair of 2-out singles by Gates and Ramirez (please, nobody say anything…) created danger in the eighth, but Besaw, who had knocked five hits on Tuesday, grounded out. Porter got two outs again in the ninth inning before creating a mess with a Nash double to center. Garris pinch-hit, and the Raccoons drew their last available reliever – Lynn. He flew out to Herrera to end the game. 3-1 Roadkills. Watt 3-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Toohey (PH) 1-1, RBI; Altreche 2.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-0) and 1-1; Ponce 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K; Porter 1.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Good news, bad news.

Good news: Thanks to some stellar relieving we didn’t get swept.
Bad news: The pen tossed 14.2 innings in two days and is now completely bombed out.
Good news: Wheats is next!
Bad news: He has yet to turn in the sour first half.
Good news: The Falcons are up.
Bad news: We haven’t won a season series from the Falcons since ’45 (three straight 4-5 losses).
Good news: They have three guys on the DL themselves.
Bad news: They’re all pitchers.
Good news: Our spirit is undefeated? Some crap like that.
Bad news: Crowell has been diagnosed with elbow soreness and needs to hit the DL.
Good news: Crowell has been diagnosed with elbow soreness and needs to hit the DL, and we can add a reliever for the Falcons series.
Bad news: I am still filled with much foreboding.

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Falcons (6-10) – April 23-25, 2049

Fifth in runs scored, fifth in the South. Their pitching wasn’t up to snuff, with the third-most runs allowed and a -10 run differential, but then again the Raccoons were rather selective about hitting…

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (2-1, 1.23 ERA) vs. Hiroyuki Takagi (2-0, 1.86 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (1-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Kurt Olson (1-0, 2.08 ERA)
Dave Hils (0-1, 8.36 ERA) vs. Koichi Miyatake (0-0)

Miyatake would make his debut on Sunday at age 30, or they might go with Joe Swindell (1-2, 3.63 ERA) instead. Regardless, all pitchers on offer were right-handers.

While the Agitator declared the Raccoons the most terribly and wrongly constructed roster in history, and their GM not fit for public consumption, I tried to shrug it all off, brought up Danny Cancel (0.77 ERA in 12 relief outings 2047-48) for the next three days, and tried to make the best of it. A strong outing by Wheats would go a long way to restore some order to the roster.

Game 1
CHA: CF M. Martinez – 2B E. Stevens – 1B Sevilla – RF Allegood – 3B Thibault – C M. Castillo – LF Caballero – SS Woodrome – P Takagi
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – RF Zurita – P Wheatley

Despite a Miguel Martinez single to open the game, he got himself caught stealing, and Wheats got through the first unharmed. Takagi wasn’t as lucky, with Alex Adame singling and stealing second base, and Jesus Maldonado hitting his first jack of the year, a 2-piece to right for a 2-0 Coons lead. Matt Waters made it back-to-back with a real blast to center, 3-0, and Preble hit a double, but was stranded by Toohey and Gonzalez. Wheats brushed Mike Allegood with a 1-2 pitch to begin the second, but got a double play from Bobby Thibault. The Coons got to 5-0 in the bottom 2nd; Zurita doubled to right, and Herrera homered to left as Takagi got a real socking. That was the last homer and the last run of him, however; he lasted four innings, while the next homer and run came off Wheats, a solo shot by Ian Woodrome in the fifth that narrowed the score to 5-1. That was one of only three hits allowed by Wheatley in the game, the last being a leadoff single by Caballero in the eighth, who was also the last batter Wheats faced. Ponce replaced him, got a groundout, then handed it off to Hitchcock for hopefully another five outs. The runner was stranded on a pop and a groundout, but Erik Stevens and Mike Allegood hit singles in the ninth that made it a save situation with two outs to go, and the Coons went to Moreno – there were left-handed bats up, but Ponce had been used and Lynn had been burned when Porter didn’t finish last night’s game on time… Moreno procured two pop outs on two pitches, however, ending the game with a Coons win. 5-1 Raccoons. Herrera 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Waters 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Preble 2-4, 2B; Zurita 2-4, 2B; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (3-1) and 1-3, 2B;

Yes, that was the start we needed!

…but we also could use another one like that. (blinks at Bubba, who blinks back, confusedly)

Game 2
CHA: CF M. Martinez – LF Caballero – 2B E. Stevens – 3B Wilken – 1B Marroquin – RF Allegood – C Gowin – SS Thibault – P Olson
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – CF Herrera – C Gonzalez – RF Avila – P Wolinsky

With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom 1st, Armando Herrera legged out an infield roller to bring in the game’s first run after Olson had walked the bags full with Adame, Waters, and Gurney. Gonzalez hit a deep fly to center, but it was actually caught by Martinez to strand a full set, but the Coons added two more in the bottom 2nd. Avila and Watt reached base, pulled off a double steal, and were singled in by Adame, who was thrown out trying to reach second base instead.

3-0 was the score through five, with Bubba looking dandy, but then came the sixth. An Adame error put Martinez on base, and the unearned runner scored right away on a Caballero double. Caballero, however, tore out a leg and had to be replaced with Woodrome. Erik Stevens flew out in a 10-pitch battle, with the runner going to third base, before another full count saw Randy Wilken walk, and then there was *another* full count to Omar Marroquin (now without the confusing Marroguin by his side), but he struck out. Needless to say, this inning was exploding Wolinsky’s pitch count. Allegood would be his last batter, fell to 1-2, but smacked an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2 on Wolinsky’s 97th pitch. Nate Norris replaced him, got a groundout from Chris Gowin, and that ended the inning. The seventh saw a 1-2-3 by Hitchcock, while left-hander Andy Overy allowed a leadoff double to Maldonado, a walk to Waters, and then got a double play from Gurney and a groundout from Herrera to avoid actual damage…

And then Porter became the daily **** muppet and blew the doors off the ******* game. He retired Woodrome to begin the eighth, but then blew the lead on back-to-back doubles to left by Stevens and Wilken. Raul Sevilla singled home the go-ahead run, and Ron Gibbs smashed a pinch-hit homer. At that point we correctly deduced it would be best to use Cancel, if only to save the relievers that were worth a damn at least on paper for the inevitable rubber game. He allowed three runners, but no runs while getting the last five outs. The Coons batted in the bottom 9th against righty Armando Romero, and actually got the tying run to the plate after walks to Waters and Brooks. Gonzalez batted, but with two outs, and grounded out to Wilken. 6-3 Falcons. Adame 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Maldonado 2-5, 2B; Gurney 1-2, 2 BB; Toohey (PH) 1-1; Luna 1-1;

11 hits, eight walks, a dozen left on base. Arf.

Game 3
CHA: CF M. Martinez – 2B E. Stevens – RF Allegood – 1B Sevilla – 3B Thibault – C M. Castillo – LF Marroquin – SS Woodrome – P Miyatake
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – LF Preble – RF Toohey – 3B Luna – C Brooks – P Hils

Sunday did bring the debutee Miyatake, who scattered three singles the first time through, but didn’t allow a run, with Dave Hils popping out to strand runners on the corners in the bottom 2nd, which was still acceptable as long as he pitched like somebody remotely worthy of his princely compensation…! …which worked out for three scoreless innings to begin the rubber game, and then it all went in the ******* again in the fourth. 2-out infield single by Thibault, a full-count walk to Manny Castillo, and then a triple in the gap by Marroquin, the fiend. With two outs in the fifth, Stevens singled, and Allegood and Sevilla rammed back-to-back RBI doubles to the right side. There were again two outs in the sixth before the **** storm started. Straight hits by Woodrome, Miyatake (…) and Martinez, a walk issued to Stevens, and then finally the hook. Lynn gave up two more runs on an Allegood single, walked Sevilla, and then somehow struck out Thibault.

Did I mention that Miyatake was pitching a shutout, 7-0 at that point? No? Do I have to? I don’t want to.

The goddamn ******* awful Raccoons continued to do absolutely ******* nothing. Besides getting ever harder raped, of course. Lynn put two on in the seventh, and they were stranded. Cancel put two on in the eighth and they were stranded as well. Porter put two on in the ninth, and … well, Miyatake hit another RBI single, and Erik Stevens blasted a 3-run homer. Preble hit a single in the ninth, but there was no use to it. Miyatake finished a 5-hit shutout in his debut. 11-0 Falcons.

…and at age 30!!

In other news

April 22 – Aces CL David Williams (1-2, 12.60 ERA, 2 SV) has bone spurs in his elbow and needs them required surgically. He should miss most of the season.
April 23 – The Gold Sox crush the Miners in a 21-5 blowout, with 13 runs scoring in the sixth inning for Denver. Two Gold Sox drive in five runs apiece: C/1B Fernando Alba (.333, 3 HR, 14 RBI) and INF Edwin Zuniga (.288, 2 HR, 12 RBI).
April 23 – A broken thumb will keep OCT SS/1B/LF Ryan Cox (.259, 2 HR, 10 RBI) on the sidelines for a month.
April 23 – Wolves and Blue Sox play TEN scoreless innings before the Wolves break through for a run in the top of the 11th – only to lose, 3-1, on a pinch-hit, 3-run homer by NAS LF/RF/3B John Jager (.229, 1 HR, 5 RBI).
April 24 – Condors 2B/SS Chris Navarro (.368, 1 HR, 5 RBI) is a triple shy of the cycle in a 5-for-5 against the Crusaders, with Tijuana netting a 7-1 win. Navarro drives in only one run with the home run, which is actually his first major league home run in 888 at-bats.
April 25 – IND SP Enrique Ortiz (1-3, 2.56 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Indians for a 6-0 win.

FL Player of the Week: NAS OF/1B Mike Pfeifer (.329, 1 HR, 10 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ 2B/SS Chris Navarro (.383, 1 HR, 5 RBI), batting .536 (15-28) with 1 HR, 2 RBI

Complaints and stuff

There are so many writings on the wall here that I don’t even know where to begin, but I think the bitter end of this week is actually the best place to start with. When you find yourself opposite a real scrub, a 30-year-old debutee – admittedly from Japan, who didn’t cross oceans until ‘47 – that pitched in the minors for two years without much success, and get obliterated to the degree we were, then maybe it’s time to consider taking your fall vacation a month earlier than usual.

We’re not doing anything. The offense is bad. The defense is bad. The pitching is spotty. Wheats and Merino are doing great. Wolinsky did great on Saturday before losing his pants and the game. But Hils and Crowell have been outright disasters, and by the way –

Were you concerned about Maldonado’s contract before? Fear no longer, we signed a worse one with Hils! Hah! (giggles like a madman)

We are also 9-9 with a run differential of… – if you had to guess, what would it be? I was sure it was around -15, but Cristiano showed me the calculations he did three times and we’re a +7 actually. We certainly FEEL like a -15.

In good news: the Titans signed Jake Jackson on Thursday, finally giving us our compensation round pick. At this point, it figures to be the #34 pick in the draft in seven-ish weeks.

I think that is all the good news I can spare right now, except that it looks like Merino will NOT miss a start and can go on Tuesday in Oklahoma City, first stop on a 2-week road trip that will also lead through Indy, Milwaukee, and Richmond.

Fun Fact: Only Armando Herrera, Eduardo Avila, and Eddy Luna have a zone rating appreciably above zero right now.

Let’s not get too much into who is at the bottom of the list, prorated by games played. (cough) Maldo (cough)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-9) @ Thunder (10-9) – April 27-29, 2049

The Raccoons scuffled into Oklahoma to face a team they had beaten only twice in all of 2048, but at least it hadn’t been all roses for the Thunder either. They were fourth in runs scored, but ninth in runs allowed, they had no speed whatsoever, and their defense was drawing rather rough reviews. On the plus side, they led the CL in homers with 16. On the minus side, they had already shed a key player, Ryan Cox, to injury.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-0, 1.69 ERA) vs. Danny Orozco (1-1, 3.00 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-1, 1.24 ERA) vs. Juan Ramos (1-1, 4.13 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (1-1, 2.96 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (3-1, 3.20 ERA)

Ramos was a righty in a lefty sandwich here.

The Coons used the common off day on Monday to not lose any sleep over a fifth starter; instead Danny Cancel was kept around a bit longer. Merino, who was fine to pitch on Tuesday, got an extra day of, and Wheats and everybody behind him would go on regular rest. We thus only needed a replacement pitcher for Saturday.

Game 1
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – P Merino
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – SS Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – LF Humphreys – RF Benavides – C Adames – CF M. Allen – 2B Schmitt – P Orozco

Mike Preble doubled home Maldo (who forced out Herrera) and Waters with two outs in the first inning for a quick lead, and the bases filled up in the second when Orozco allowed a single to Gonzalez, Merino to reach by his own errant throw to second base, and Adame on another single, all with one out. Armando Herrera added a run with a groundout to Bobby Schmitt, but Maldo's fly to left was caught by Steve Humphreys. Mike Allen answered with an RBI double in the bottom 2nd, and that was only the beginning of the Thunder’s rally to destroy my and Victor Merino’s soul. The bottom 4th was the disemboweling inning here. Humphreys hit a 1-out single that didn’t look like that much, but then Merino threw not one, but TWO wild pitches to Juan Benavides, who then plated Humphreys with a grounder to the left side, 3-2. Two outs, bases clean – single, single, walk, and a first-pitch, 2-run single with the bags stacked from the ******* opposing pitcher. Score flipped, Angel Montes de Oca hit another single up the middle, and the inning only ended by Herrera throwing out Bobby Schmitt at home plate.

Top 5th, the Raccoons had the bags full of their own again, and again in unearned fashion, Maldo reaching on an error with one out. Waters walked and Preble singled, bringing up Toohey with a fat chance. He tied the game with a grounder to the left side that Montes had to whack to first base to get anybody at all, and then Eduardo Avila showed some life after all and singled home two more with a clean single to center, 6-4. J.J. Hendrix replaced Orozco, while Avila stole second, which led to a free pass handed to Ruben Gonzalez. Merino, his fuzzy ears still ringing from the atrocity of the previous half-inning, then slapped an RBI single through a hole on the infield, 7-4. Adame singled to left, Humphreys overran the baseball for an error, and another run scored. Herrera flew out to center, so the Thunder’s 3-spot had been thoroughly countered with a 5-run fifth.

But Merino wasn’t fixed. He ran into another whacking in the bottom 5th. Leadoff double for Jonathan Ban, and then Humphreys hit a 1-out RBI single. A walk to Benavides was the end for Merino, who couldn’t turn a ******* 8-spot into a W. Neither could Nate Norris, it seemed. He ran a full count to both Jesus Adames and Mike Allen. The first popped out, the second smashed a 2-out, 2-run double, 8-7. Schmitt reached on a Maldo error. Somehow Jim Price popped out to strand the tying run at third base and keep it 8-7.

Top 6th, more bags full, more drama. Maldo led off with a double, Preble walked, and Toohey got smacked in the wrist by Elijah Powell, and that one neither looked nor sounded good. He left the game with Dr. Padilla, which was becoming a common sight to see, and Pat Gurney ran for him. The Coons got nothing out of the ordeal when Avila hit into a 6-4-3 double play. The 8-7 lead then turned out to be not quite enough in the bottom 6th, which became the third riot over some brown-clad corpse in three innings. Jonathan Ban homered the game tied off Norris, and Humphreys hit a 2-out single. Julian Ponce then replaced Norris, gave up two singles, a double, and three runs without retiring anybody, and was then yanked again. Cancel walked Schmitt, gave up a fifth run (in the inning, not overall) on a Carlos Lara single, and by then it was 12-8 and I had quite enough of all of them. The Thunder did in fact not, and Bobby Schmitt would hit another 2-run homer off Cancel before the game finally ******* ended. 14-8 Thunder. Adame 2-5, RBI; Waters 2-4, BB; Preble 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

To sum it all up, we lost A) the game, B) Danny Cancel for throwing 40 pitches and thus losing uselessness as garbage reliever for the rest of the series, and C) Bryce Toohey to the DL with a bruised wrist that would cost him about three weeks.

Oy vey.

Steve Richardson was called up for assorted palooka reliever duties, while … oh man, anybody remember Evan Van Hoy!? The first-sacker, scrum corner-outfielder was brought back for some bench-warming duties. He had 15 games of big league experience, five of them in the 2047 postseason, where he had somehow hit a home run and had a 166 OPS+.

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – 1B Gurney – CF Herrera – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – 2B Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – RF Benavides – LF Humphreys – CF M. Allen – C Adames – SS Jo. Jackson – P Ju. Ramos

Initial signs were discouraging, with Preble driving home Maldo and Waters with two outs in the first inning, which was exactly how Tuesday’s **** fest had begun. The lead didn’t last; while Wheatley put a runner on base in each of the first two innings, but pitched around those, there was no pitching around, no coloring nicely the huge moonshot that Ban hit off him in the bottom 3rd, and with Montes on base to boot. That tied the game; the Coons had Waters on base with a leadoff double then in the fourth, but couldn’t get him in, while the Thunder lost Juan Ramos to injury in the same inning. I hadn’t been aware at all of baseball being played with 50% more landmines this year……

Jesus Adames doubled home Humphreys with two outs in the bottom 4th to hang Wheats on the hook, and he was to remain on that during his time in the game. The Raccoons did zero in the fifth or sixth innings, and while Preble and Herrera got on base in the seventh, Gonzalez and Zurita made hapless outs to strand them – the latter while pinch-hitting for Wheats with two outs. Nobody came to his rescue in the eighth either, but at least Hitchcock and Richardson kept the Thunder where they were, up 3-2, and thus Matt Waters’ leadoff single off Brian Grohoski in the ninth put the tying run on base. Preble ran a full count before plonking a chopper near the third base line that saw three Thunder converging and none making a play, leaving Preble with an infield single, Waters to second. And then Gurney struck out, and Herrera hit into a double play…. 3-2 Thunder. Waters 3-4, 2B; Preble 3-4, 2 RBI;

The Thunder lost Juan Ramos (1-1, 4.18 ERA) to an abdominal strain. And the Raccoons were losing hope altogether.

Game 3
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – C Brooks – P Wolinsky
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – SS Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – LF Humphreys – RF Benavides – C Adames – CF M. Allen – 2B Schmitt – P V. Marquez

The Thunder opened with two singles to left and a Maldo error to fill the bases with nobody out. Bubba struck out two, but also walked in a run against Benavides for an early 1-0 deficit in the first inning. While the Raccoons looked dead from the waist up AND the waist down in the first run through the lineup, the second time around actually brought (unearned) improvement. Maldo hit a single in the fourth, Waters reached on Schmitt’s errant throw, there was a balk called on Marquez, and then Gurney snuck a 2-out grounder through between Schmitt and Ban for a 2-run score-flipper to go up 2-1. Gurney then was caught stealing.

A hit and stolen base from Avila, a throwing error on Adames, and a sac fly by Justin Brooks extended the score to 3-1 in the fifth inning before a half-hour rain delay complicated things, but ultimately didn’t seem to have done much to Bubba, who returned with two quick and precise innings, retiring six post-thunder Thunder with three strikeouts mixed in. On 81 pitches, he batted for himself and struck out with Gurney and Brooks on the corners and two gone in the top 7th, then returned to the mound, getting a K, a grounder, and a pop from the 6-7-8 batters to complete seven innings of 3-hit ball. He returned for the bottom 8th when the Thunder sent a lefty pinch-hitter in Luppe Timmerman to begin the inning, but of course gave up a leadoff triple, because we could not have any nice things. Preston Porter conceded the run, but maintained a 3-2 lead. Nelson Moreno saved the game … but not without nailing the tying run on base in Benavides… 3-2 Coons. Gurney 2-4, 2 RBI; Brooks 2-2, RBI; Wolinsky 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (2-1);

Raccoons (10-11) @ Indians (13-9) – April 30-May 2, 2049

The Arrowheads had won five in a row, and while they were only fifth in runs scored and third in runs allowed, I feared simply the worst and nothing less. Yes, we were up 2-1 on them after winning the opening series of the year. But that was also pretty much since when things had started to go downhill.

Projected matchups:
Dave Hils (0-2, 9.15 ERA) vs. Enrique Oritz (1-3, 2.56 ERA)
Cesar Salcido (0-0) vs. Bill Nichol (2-2, 3.44 ERA)
Victor Merino (1-0, 4.43 ERA) vs. Brian Jackson (1-1, 2.48 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday – and that was about the only bright side here.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – CF Herrera – 3B Luna – C Gonzalez – P Hils
IND: SS Russ – 2B de Castro – LF D. Rivera – 1B Brayboy – 3B B. Anderson – CF Locke – RF Poupard – C A. Pedraza – P E. Ortiz

Bad signs continued with early offense from Mike Preble, who hit a 3-run homer in the top 1st this time, but should really just shut it up to reroll the momentum dice here, or however the **** baseball actually worked… There were three base runners against Hils the first time through the Indians order, and none of his making. Waters committed not one, but TWO errors, and Alex Pedraza was walked intentionally with two outs in the bottom 2nd to get the last out there from Ortiz, which Hils did. While Hils pitched behind in the count A LOT, the Indians didn’t get a hit until Aaron Brayboy (makes the soft drink in his right paw boil through sheer hatred alone) singled in the bottom 4th, but the Indians didn’t get off first base in the inning, either. When they finally started to go to work on Hils in earnest, he collapsed like a house of badly cut playing cards. Pedraza hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, then was tripled in by the abomination that was Andrew Russ. Alex de Castro hit an RBI single, then was caught stealing, but the tying run returned on base with Danny Rivera’s 2-out single. Brayboy surprisingly grounded out, ending the fifth with the Coons up 3-2, but with the Coons also not having hit a thing since the first inning…

Hils continued, putting Philip Locke on with an error of his own in the bottom 6th, but Locke was then immediately caught stealing by Ruben Gonzalez. Josh Poupard struck out, completing the inning. We took it in small steps from there, with Pedraza and Ortiz being weakly retired to begin the bottom 7th. Russ hit a single… but de Castro had no power, so we would try to squeeze the last out with Hils before a southpaw would come in for the middle of the order… and then Russ squeezed the last out himself, also getting caught stealing. Hah! Sucker!!!

Watt and Maldo got on base in the eighth, but were stranded when Waters grounded out. Lynn then took the ball and 3-2 lead, got de Castro and Rivera out, but walked Brayboy in the bottom of the eighth. Norris rung up Bobby Anderson, the only righty hitter in a string of five from #3 through #7. Facing Sang-hoon Kim in the top of the ninth then, Armando Herrera hit a 1-out single to left and Eddy Luna walked. Angelo Zurita batted for Gonzalez, but struck out, and Pat Gurney had pinch-hit for Hils and had taken over first base from Maldonado earlier, but now popped out to strand the runners. Zurita remained in the game over Preble, the Coons’ only offense, so it was Moreno putting the Indians away or die. A strikeout on Locke, then two pops on the infield ended the game. 3-2 Raccoons. Watt 2-3, BB; Maldonado 2-4; Preble 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Hils 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-2);

The Indians then moved Brian Jackson ahead to pitch on Saturday – boo! The Raccoons in turn moved Steve Richardson, who had appeared only once, to make room for Cesar Salcido.

Game 2
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – RF Avila – C Brooks – 3B Luna – P Salcido
IND: SS Russ – 2B de Castro – LF D. Rivera – 1B Brayboy – 3B B. Anderson – CF Locke – RF Elkin – C A. Pedraza – P B. Jackson

Salcido retired the Indians in order in the first, the was briefly dismayed by a wallbanger double for Brayboy to lead off the second. The runner was stranded though, with a Locke groundout, the two strikeouts, both strike threes called. Salcido then opened the top 3rd of a scoreless game with a single. Adame was nicked in the ribs by Jackson, then took an elbow and a knee in a collision at second base with de Castro on Herrera’s grounder to short. He was out – both on the ump’s call and by appearing disoriented and in pain, and was replaced with Pat Gurney taking over second base and the #1 spot, and Waters moving over to short. At least we took the lead; runners on first and third, one out, Maldo fell to 1-2, then poked a single to center, bringing in Salcido with the game’s first run. Jackson hit Waters, then gave up a 2-run double to left to Preble, who was piling up RBI’s this week, having reached 22 for the season by now. Avila hit an RBI single, 4-0, but then Jackson struck out Brooks and Luna to get out of the inning.

Salcido, who hit another single his next time up, but was doubled off by Gurney, then got around a leadoff walk in the third, but allowed a run on three singles in the fourth, 4-1. That blip aside, Salcido in his sixth major league start looked AMAZING. He allowed six hits in total, but whiffed nine batters in seven innings of 1-run ball…! The Coons then got Waters and Avila into scoring position, but Brooks popped out and Luna whiffed to kill the top 8th before the bullpen croaked again. De Castro singled off Hitchcock, Ponce walked Rivera and gave up a 2-out, 2-run double to Brayboy, before Preston Porter barely got out of the inning still up 4-3… No tack-on offense came forth, and the Coons sent Norris against the bottom of the order in the bottom of the ninth. He got rid of Steve Elkin and Alex Pedraza, then walked Steve Lapinski, allowed an RBI double to ******* ********* Andrew Russ, and the game went to extras when Josh Poupard struck out.

Now, there was a scoring chance in the top 10th. Sang-hoon Kim was out, walked Maldo to begin the inning, and then Waters looped a double near the rightfield line. Runners in scoring position, no outs! The ghastly Indians elected sabotage, walking Preble intentionally to give us a fatal case of three on, no outs. An Avila sac fly was all me got, with Zurita and Luna making pathetic outs to strand a pair. Mike Lynn tried his paws on a save then in the bottom 10th. Up 5-4, he struck out Rivera, then … nailed Brayboy (although I wanted to punch him in the face as well, there was a time and a place!), walked Anderson (Jon Sullivan ran for Brayboy now), and then threw a pitch in the dirt that Ruben Gonzalez failed to contain. The tying and winning runs were in scoring position now with one out – but Jordan Santiago also struck out. And then Elkin walked. Bases loaded for Pedraza, a righty batter. The Coons went all in and brought Moreno, third day out in a row. Strikeout – worth it. 5-4 Raccoons. Waters 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Avila 2-4, 2 RBI; Salcido 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K and 2-3;

Adame had a bruised wrist (like Toohey), but it didn’t swell to the size of a watermelon (unlike Toohey). He was listed as day-to-day until perhaps the middle of next week, and was not in the lineup on Sunday against righty Josh Henneberry (2-1, 4.61 ERA).

To compensate, Evan Van Hoy was returned to AAA without having gotten into any of the games he was up for. The #37 pick from 2045, Rich Seymour would replace him. A right-handed second-sacker that was mostly a defender and a hitter a distant second, he would probably grab a few starts here, including right away on Sunday. He was hitting only .211 in AAA in 17 games, but had spun a .775 OPS in Ham Lake for most of ’48. He was also only 22.

Game 3
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – SS Waters – RF Preble – 1B Gurney – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – 2B Seymour – P Merino
IND: SS Russ – 2B de Castro – LF D. Rivera – 3B B. Anderson – 1B Santiago – RF J. Sullivan – C J. Rose – CF Locke – P Henneberry

The game started for Merino like the last one had ended, with him getting whacked in the snout. Three hits scored a run on a Brian Anderson double, and that was after de Castro had been caught stealing, which spared Merino some early damage for sure. He settled down some after that, which was really good for my nerves, and the bullpen too.

The Coons? The only one to reach the first time through was Rich Seymour, who drew a walk, the was stranded. Herrera opened the fourth with an infield single for the first actual base hit for Portland. He never got off first… And then Merino turned sour again as well, walking two in filling the bases and giving up a 2-run double to Philip Locke to fall behind 3-0. He remained crap for the rest of the game, giving up another run in the sixth on a Santiago double and a Jason Rose RBI single, 4-0.

The Arrowheads put another run on Altreche on three hits in the seventh, while the Raccoons continued to be utterly unable to hit Josh Henneberry – the infield single by Herrera aside. The Raccoons didn’t get an outfield hit until the ninth, but that one was at least ******* outta here, broke up the shutout thusly, and sent Henneberry to bed. Matt Watt had walked to start the ninth, and Matt Waters added a few watts with a 2-run homer to left. That was it, though, David Farris whiffing both Preble and Gurney to send the Critters back to .500; 5-2 Indians.

In other news

April 26 – VAN SP Terry Herman (2-0, 0.57 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over the Condors. All the offense comes from a home run by Bob Mancini (.318, 3 HR, 13 RBI) in the top of the ninth inning.
April 27 – The Blue Sox deal 2B/SS Chris O’Keefe (.136, 2 HR, 7 RBI) and a prospect to the Scorpions to get the services of SP Ryan Person (0-2, 6.28 ERA, 1 SV).
April 28 – CIN 1B/LF/RF Jose Rivera (.375, 0 HR, 1 RBI) was out for the season with a ruptured achilles tendon.
April 28 – Boston announce that OF Leo Estrada (.233, 0 HR, 1 RBI) required surgery for a partially torn labrum and could be out for the rest of the year.
May 1 – The Pacifics lose SS Jorge Gonzalez (.326, 0 HR, 4 RBI) for the season with a broken kneecap.
May 1 – The Titans beat the Loggers, 2-1, all runs being only scored in the 13th inning.
May 1 – The FL has its own game going to extra innings without a score, with the Capitals eventually beating the Blue Sox, 1-0 in 11 innings.
May 1 – VAN OF Angel Escobido (.273, 2 HR, 10 RBI) singles home Bob Montana (.276, 0 HR, 2 RBI) to walk off the Canadiens, 3-2 over the Crusaders, in the 16th inning.
May 2 – Sioux Falls loses 21-yr old INF Julio Moriel (.402, 1 HR, 6 RBI) to a partially torn labrum. He might miss all of the remaining season.

FL Player of the Week: DEN INF Ivan Villa (.345, 9 HR, 27 RBI), socking .423 (11-26) with 5 HR, 14 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC LF/CF Joe Besaw (.421, 5 HR, 18 RBI), batting .520 (13-25) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.396, 6 HR, 24 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC LF/CF Joe Besaw (.402, 4 HR, 15 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Mike LeMasters (5-0, 2.60 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Brian Buttress (3-0, 0.93 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: TOP OF Alex Vazquez (.407, 0 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN SP Terry Herman (2-0, 0.57 ERA)

Complaints and stuff

There are some defensive issues that have dropped us to 11th in defensive efficiency, which is also leading to regular riots on our pitching staff. And it’s not just Maldo – nobody is playing otherworldly defense. I’ve seen some boys on the varsity team of the Willamette Institute for the Limbless and the Blind playing better with their prosthetic legs and their guide dogs…

We’re now even in runs scored and runs allowed, too, because we really love losing by eight or so. Yes, my mood is getting darker and darker.

Maybe seeing the Loggers starting on Monday will help. They are 5-20, with a -58 run differential, and have the worst defense in the league. Could become a real clownshoes series…

Fun Fact: Jerry Outram is alive and well.

.355/.495/.513, which ranks him 4th/1st/6th in the CL, and his OPS is third only to Joe Besaw (!) and Julio Diaz, his teammate on the damn Elks. A distant fourth with a .900 OPS? Matt Waters.

Outram, 34, had looked like the hellfire might be dimming on him after missing most of 2047 to injury and starting only 90 games in 2048 (coming off the bench 59 times), but so far he’s been a regular, starting all but one game for the Elks, and his OPS is back to pre-injury levels.

Not that he NEEDS another couple of seasons with a 1.000 OPS to make the Hall of Fame… His plaque’s already chiseled.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-12) @ Loggers (5-20) – May 3-6, 2049

The Loggers were milling around in sixth place in the division, which had again become something of a regular feature. They had more or less nothing. Last in runs scored, last in runs allowed, last in starters’ ERA, last in defense, last in on-base percentage… you get the idea. We had won the season series five times in a row, 12-6 the last time around.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (3-2, 1.80 ERA) vs. Ryan Clements (0-4, 11.94 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (2-1, 2.87 ERA) vs. John Morrill (1-1, 3.46 ERA)
Dave Hils (1-2, 7.42 ERA) vs. Gabe Butler (1-3, 5.30 RA)
Victor Salcido (0-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Noah Hollis (1-2, 4.04 ERA)

The only southpaw coming up was Butler; meanwhile, looking at the pairing in the opener, and knowing our luck and the disdain of the baseball gods for the mighty obvious, wasn’t that ever going to be a 2-1 Loggers win…?

Alex Adame, day-to-day with a bruised wrist, was not in the lineup on Monday either.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – 1B Gurney – SS Luna – C Brooks – P Wheatley
MIL: LF J. Delgado – C T. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B E. Hernandez – 2B Malkus – CF de Lemos – RF Lovell – 3B M. Grant – P Clements

Of course Clements, who came in with 33 hits and seven strikeouts in 17.1 innings, allowed a Preble double, but struck out four in the first two innings. There were two singles off Wheats in the first inning, but after Jose Delgado got on, Tony Sanchez hit into a double play to ruin the effort. Justin Brooks then reached on a throwing error by Sanchez, making it to second base to begin the top 3rd, third on Wheats’ groundout to Mike Grant, and across home plate on Matt Watt’s single through the right side. That was it for the inning, and by the fourth inning we reached that 2-1 score that I had envisioned from the start. Zach Suggs opened the inning with a single to left, Ernesto Hernandez doubled to right, and two RBI groundouts flipped the game on its head.

While I was breathing heavily, and the Coons were on only two hits against ******* RYAN CLEMENTS, Matt Watt managed a leadoff walk in the sixth. Herrera popped one to Travis Malkus, who was kind enough to drop the ball for another error. Whatever works, boys. Whatever works. Maldo grounded out, advancing the runners, and Waters lined out to Suggs and Preble grounded out to Malkus on a 3-0 pitch, stranding the runners. Instead, the Loggers tacked on a run in the bottom 7th when Dave de Lemos singled, stole second, advanced on Pat Lovell’s groundout, and scored on Grant’s sac fly to center, 3-1. Clements was out of the game by the eighth, by the Loggers’ volition rather than by necessity after the Raccoons had scattered his body parts in all cardinal directions, as would have been mine. Two outs in the top 8th, Maldo and Waters flicked singles to go to the corners against righty Kyle McRay, who had an ERA ten full runs lower than Clements. Preble was down 0-2 when McRay buried a ball in the dirt that got away from Sanchez for a passed ball, allowing Maldo to score and the tying run to reach second base, but Preble grounded out in the end. Wheats had enough and hit the buffet after seven, too, with Preston Porter holding off the Loggers’ brutal assaults (not really) in the bottom 8th. Righty Angelo Munoz was then up for the ninth. Gurney grounded out. Luna flew out to right. Zurita grounded out. 3-2 Loggers.

I am starting to hate this team.

Game 2
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Zurita – C Gonzalez – P Wolinsky
MIL: LF J. Delgado – CF B. Allen – SS Z. Suggs – 1B Lovell – RF McIntyre – 2B Malkus – C Nagel – 3B Velasquez – P Morrill

Without the obviously cursed Wheatley on the mound, the Raccoons instantly scored in the first inning. Adame singled, stole second, and there were more singles to come. Maldonado legged out one of the infield variety to get to the corners with Adame, and Waters hit a clean RBI single to right, 1-0. Preble socked an RBI double to center. Gurney made a soft out in shallow left, but with two outs Zurita drew a walk and Ruben Gonzalez singled home a pair, 4-0. Bubba batted before being bound to chuck the ball himself, but struck out, ending the inning. He also wasn’t going to get a lefty batter in this game at all, the Loggers’ lineup consisting solely of righty and switch-hitters. He managed to not only blow the lead, but also fall behind in the bottom 1st. Pat Lovell hit a 3-run homer with Brent Allen and Zach Suggs on base, and runners just kept coming, as Wolinsky retired basically nobody. Jorge Velasquez and the ******* opposing pitcher both hit 2-out RBI singles to flip the score to 5-4 Loggers. Delgado grounded out to end the inning – the first of many – and I already had enough of baseball for the day.

After the early onslaughts, both pitchers not only managed to stick in the game and complete at least five frames, but there also wasn’t a run for either side until there were two outs in the bottom 5th, when Will McIntyre socked another homer off Wolinsky, a solo job to get the Loggers to 6-4. Nate Norris allowed two hits, but no runs in the bottom 6th, before Herrera and Watt hit a 1-out single and double, respectively, putting the tying runs in scoring position. Adame grounded out, plating one, and Maldo grounded out, stranding the other… The suckage didn’t stop yet. The Raccoons longed for Orlando Altreche to pitch the seventh and eighth, but he lasted only four outs against five base hits – no runs, albeit with an asterisk, as when he was yanked in favor of Porter against Pat Lovell, the bags were teeming with three Loggers and one out. Lovell brought in an insurance run with a groundout, which was as good as it got for the Coons. McIntyre singled home two, Malkus singled, and Dave Nagel raked a 3-run homer. 12-5 Loggers. Gonzalez 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Herrera (PH) 1-1; Avila (PH) 1-1;

(stares into an unspecified distance)

Game 3
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 3B Waters – LF Preble – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – 2B Seymour – P Hils
MIL: LF J. Delgado – CF B. Allen – SS Z. Suggs – 1B E. Hernandez – RF McIntyre – 2B Malkus – C T. Sanchez – 3B M. Grant – P Butler

Suggs tripled, which sugged, and scored on a Hernandez single to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead in the first, but a Preble homer tied the game and the Coons got to three on and nobody out with singles by their 9-1-2 hitters in the top 3rd. Butler hung a curve to Maldonado, who was old and slow, but had no problems catching up with hangers. The ball was never seen again. GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

Up 5-1, we were still pitching Hils, so there were no guarantees, to put it mildly. Mike Grant hit a 2-out double to drive in Travis Malkus with a run in the bottom 4th, and de Lemos batted for Butler as the tying run, but struck out, leaving Sanchez and Grant in scoring position in a 5-2 game. Suggs singled home Delgado for another run in the fifth after the Coons had wasted a Maldonado wallbanger double in the top half of the inning. Rich Seymour didn’t fare much better when he hit a 2-out double for his first major league hit in the sixth, with Hils plainly grounding out behind him.

Hils lasted six and a third, and the Raccoons got through eight with help from Ponce and Hitchcock after that, maintaining the 5-3 lead. Seymour and Brooks did nothing against Bubba Poss in the ninth, but then Alex Adame tripled to left with two outs. Herrera grounded out to Malkus on the next pitch, though. The Coons inserted Gurney and Luna for defense on the corners then, and Moreno as the closer – Seymour stayed at second rather than Waters – and right away Travis Malkus hit a double to left-center. Sanchez struck out, but Pat Lovell hit a pinch-hit RBI single. Preble’s throw home allowed Lovell and the tying run to reach second base and made me gasp for air, but Moreno got through Nagel and Delgado and put away a much-needed win for the Coons… 5-4 Raccoons. Adame 3-5, 3B; Herrera 2-5; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI;

Nope. Feel nothing.

Game 4
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – SS Waters – 2B Gurney – RF Zurita – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – P Salcido
MIL: LF J. Delgado – C T. Sanchez – SS Z. Suggs – 1B E. Hernandez – RF McIntyre – 2B Malkus – CF de Lemos – 3B M. Grant – P Hollis

A 2-out walk to Suggs, an outfield single by Hernandez, and an infield single by McIntyre loaded the bases for the Loggers in the bottom 1st, but Salcido eloped on a foul pop from Malkus to Luna before incurring actual damage. The Coons then hit four singles in the top 2nd and didn’t score. Waters was caught stealing before the bags filled with Zurita, Gonzalez, and Luna, and then Salcido grounded out to Suggs, which sugged. Gurney actually stole his first base of the year in the fourth after hitting a leadoff single, with Angelo Zurita then doubling him home with a drive into the right-center gap, 1-0. Gonzalez popped out, but Luna singled to put runners on the corners for Salcido, who grounded to short for a 6-4-3 inning-ender.

Salcido, basically a kit still, then descended into wildness in the bottom 4th, issuing leadoff walks to Hernandez and McIntyre. Malkus popped out on a 3-1 pitch, after which the pitching coach managed to rejigger him to throw strikes. De Lemos flew out to center, and Grant whiffed to end the inning and keep the runners from scoring. Delgado doubled in the fifth, but strikeouts by Sanchez and Suggs kept him aboard and the lead in one piece. But Salcido’s luck or talent or jizz or whatever ran out in the sixth when he leaked two runners aboard again, and then de Lemos flipped the score with a 1-out triple into the right-center gap. Grant walked and was caught stealing, and Noah Hollis popped out to strand de Lemos at third base, but the damage was done.

Salcido was hit for in the seventh to no great effect, but after Nate Norris kept the Loggers where they were in the bottom 7th, Matt Watt opened the eighth with a triple off Hollis, putting the tying run 90 feet away. Herrera’s groundout to Grant was thoroughly unhelpful, but Maldonado slapped a single through the left side to at least tie the game. He stole second base, his first bag of the year, but would have scored anyway on Matt Waters’ homer to right, which put the Coons atop again, 4-2. That one turned out to be the difference; Lynn allowed a runner in the eighth, but Moreno didn’t even concede that much to the Loggers in the ninth, and the Coons buggered out with a split. 4-2 Raccoons. Waters 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Zurita 2-3, 2B, RBI; Luna 2-3;

The Raccoons would return Victor Salcido to the minors after this game, and while he had walked five in a trying outing, I had a hunch that he would return for good before long. But Chris Crowell came off the DL now, and we had to stuff him *somewhere*.

Raccoons (14-14) @ Rebels (12-14) – May 7-9, 2049

The Rebs had won two of three from the Raccoons last year, and represented more of an offensive challenge. They were fourth in runs scored, but bottom three in runs allowed, with a -4 run differential (Coons: -5). They also had a bevy of injuries already, with hitters T.J. Lujan and ex-Coon Ken Mills on the DL, Chris Morris and his .900+ OPS day-to-day, and a couple of no-name relievers down too.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-1, 4.78 ERA) vs. Zach Tubbs (1-2, 7.28 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-3, 2.14 ERA) vs. Steve Miles (2-0, 5.52 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (2-2, 3.96 ERA) vs. Kellen Lanning (4-2, 3.86 ERA)

Righties galore in this series.

Game 1
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – 3B Luna – C Brooks – P Merino
RIC: RF C. Morris – CF V. Vazquez – 1B W. Hernandez – 2B L. Harrison – 3B R. Sifuentes – C J. Jimenez – SS A. Aguilera – LF Krall – P Tubbs

Joey Krall had arrived in Richmond in a minor trade with the Wolves just earlier this week, and gave the Rebels a 1-0 lead I the bottom 2nd with a 2-out, 2-strike single through the left side, driving home Ramon Sifuentes after the Raccoons forewent the intentional walk with a .208-hitting lefty stick up against Merino. Bitten again, then. That was the only run in the game’s first five innings, with the Raccoons held to a pair of 2-out singles by Avila and Luna in the second, after which Brooks had grounded out meekly. Brooks also made a 2-base throwing error that Merino had to work around in the third inning.

The Coons then got consecutive 3-0 counts from Tubbs to begin the sixth inning, and poked each time. Merino grounded out, which left me aghast. Adame, however, got a fat one and homered to left to tie the game at one at once. Herrera struck out, and Waters hit a deep fly but was robbed at the fence by Krall. Top 7th, Preble singled to right to get it going, and Tubbs nicked Gurney, who was the forced out on a grounder by Avila. Luna came up with runners on the corners, and singled to center at 3-2 to make it 2-1. The Coons pulled off a double steal, but Brooks’ bleak day continued with a K, forcing a move to send a pinch-hitter for Merino. Maldo grabbed a stick, raked the first pitch into the gap for a 2-run double, and three pitches later – one of which nicked Adame, and one on which Herrera popped out – was back in the dugout and done for the day.

On the other side of the box score and with Merino gone, Altreche and Ponce conspired for a seventh-inning run driven in by the ailing Chris Morris, 4-2, Next to fail was Hitchcock, issuing two walks and allowing a 2-out run on an Alvin Aguilera single. Lynn came on to face Krall, who was hit for by righty hitter Josh Frazier, but he grounded out to Adame. Top 9th, singles by Luna and Zurita, and a walk drawn by Ruben Gonzalez in the #9 hole with one out, loaded the bases against former Raccoons closer Josh Rella. Adame singled to left-center, driving home two, then stole second. Herrera hit another RBI single, putting Rella to bed. Waters hit an RBI single off Greg Hansen, but the left-hander restored order against Preble and Gurney; still, it was a 4-spot, and a 5-run lead, neat and convenient with Moreno having been out two days in a row. It gave the ball to Porter instead, who had a 10+ ERA to scrub down after running into multiple whackings, and got at least out of double digits with a scoreless inning, allowing only a hit to Victor Vazquez with two outs, but no runs. 8-3 Raccoons. Adame 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Luna 3-4, RBI; Zurita (PH) 1-1; Maldonado (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Merino 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-1);

Saturday brought rain in rough amounts, and no baseball was to be played. A double header was scheduled for Sunday instead. Wheats and Wolinsky would go back-to-back, which at least gave hope that they would not exhaust the bullpen. Monday was off, and thus we had the option of using Crowell as an extra long man, should things go haywire after all, and then he could still catch three days’ rest and then go after Hils and Merino next week.

Game 2
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Zurita – C R. Gonzalez – P Wheatley
RIC: RF C. Morris – LF V. Vazquez – 2B L. Harrison – 1B Cahill – 3B R. Sifuentes – CF Krall – C J. Jimenez – SS A. Aguilera – P S. Miles

Wheats was spotted a 3-0 lead on five first-inning hits; singles by Watt, Adame, and Waters (this for an RBI), interrupted by a Maldonado double play, a 2-run homer by Preble, and then another single by Gurney. For the second time this week, the Raccoons then had a big first inning blow up in their face even bigger. Wheats was slaughtered. A leadoff walk, then five hits, all loud, and five runs for the Rebels. Wheats, visibly mad at himself, struck out the 1-2-3 batters in the second, but of course the damage had long been done.

And credit where it was due – the Rebels didn’t get another hit off Wheats, who took the 5-run first personally and made it his mission to carve up as many of them as possible for as long as his manager (and the dastardly cruel baseball gods) would allow. The Coons scattered plenty of runners in the meantime, but the score remained 5-3 through five, with a runner stranded each inning. Waters and Preble then went to the corners with leadoff singles in the sixth, but we couldn’t get past a Gurney sac fly. Ponce retired the Rebels in order in the bottom 6th, and the Coons finally took Wheats off the hook in the seventh; Herrera singled in Ponce’s place, then went in a hit-and-run as Watt doubled into the leftfield corner, and rather easily scored to even things at five. Adame singled home Watt for a 6-5 lead, the 12th hit off Miles, and also the last one, with lefty George Youngblood taking over. Maldo singled, there was another double steal, and then Waters hit a sac fly to tack on a run, 7-5. Preble was walked intentionally to get to the lefty hitters behind him, only for Youngblood to glitch Gurny aboard with a 4-pitch walk. Zurita was hit for with the bags stacked, with Avila grounding to Ramon Sifuentes on the first pitch. The Rebs got the out at second, but the throw to first was late, and another run scored. Gonzalez grounded out to end the inning. Up by three now, Norris had a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning, and while the Coons had two on, they didn’t score in the ninth, so Nelson Moreno took the ball in the bottom of the ninth – if the Raccoons had tacked on, Norris would have remained in the game to finish it to save Moreno for the nightcap. Instead, Moreno saved this one. Mark Cahill hit a leadoff double, but that was as much as the Rebs got off him, and they stranded Cahill on third base, too. 8-5 Critters. Watt 2-5, 2B, RBI; Adame 2-5, RBI; Maldonado 2-5; Waters 3-4, 2 RBI; Preble 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gurney 2-3, BB, RBI; Herrera (PH) 1-1;

A bit lost in translation, since we had other issues, Lance Harrison’s double in the first-inning rape of Wheats got him a 20-game hitting streak. Harrison was hitting .368 with 4 HR and 22 RBI this year.

For the nightcap we went max substitutions – all of the first game’s bench was in the starting lineup. Only Watt, Adame, and Gurney did double duty.

Game 3
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – SS Adame – 1B Gurney – 3B Luna – RF Avila – C Brooks – 2B Seymour – P Wolinsky
RIC: RF C. Morris – CF V. Vazquez – 1B W. Hernandez – 2B L. Harrison – 3B R. Sifuentes – SS A. Aguilera – C Kuehn – LF P. Gonzalez – P Lanning

Two down in the first, Gurney singled home Herrera, went to third base on a single by Eddy Luna, the scored on a wild pitch. Luna moved to second, the was sent home on a ground-rule double by Avila. The inning ended with Brooks grounding out, so for the second time on the day, the Raccoons sent their starter out with a 3-0 lead. Wolinsky started by throwing five balls; four for a walk of Morris, and one more that nicked Vazquez. I released a groan that was clearly audible on the broadcast of the game. Willie Hernandez kindly hit into a double play before Harrison reached 21 with an RBI double to right. Sifuentes flew out to Herrera in pretty deep center, so it was “only” 3-1 after one this time. But, bottom 2nd, another leadoff walk to Alvin Aguilera, then a Paul Kuehn single. Pablo Gonzalez grounded out to move them up, and then Wolinsky bled a 2-run single to the opposing pitcher to get the game tied. I wept.

The bottom 3rd began with four straight raked hits for the Rebels, putting them up 5-3 after all, and getting Wolinsky yanked. Altreche came in, and Crowell got up in the pen to pitch the bulk of another thoroughly tear-jerking game. All Raccoons games were thoroughly tear-jerking these days, even though Altreche got two outs with a strike-em-out-throw-em-out on Aguilera and Sifuentes. Kuehn then singled home a run anyway, 6-3.

Lanning wouldn’t get the W either, getting yoinked in the fifth. Herrera had driven in a run in the fourth, and Luna was at second base with two outs in the fifth when the Rebs surrendered him. Greg Hansen was back, but gave up an RBI double to Justin Brooks. Seymour grounded out, ending the inning, then was removed in a double switch that put Crowell in the #8 hole, with Waters’ half-day off ending halfway through (quarter-day off?). Crowell pitched two scoreless before batting and whiffing with two on and two out in the top 7th, but we had to somehow finish the game pitching-wise. Of course he then immediately gave up a homer to Willie Hernandez, 7-5. Matt Waters offered a counter-home run to lead off the eighth inning against Ricky Contreras, who was immediately lifted for Javy Santana. Watt walked, was forced out by Herrera, who was caught stealing, and I was ready to go home. Crowell went 3.2 innings before yielding for Lynn with Aguilera on third and two outs in the bottom 8th, and lefty Ethan Moore pinch-hitting. Lynn got him on a grounder, and it remained a 1-run game for the ninth, with Rella returning from his Friday socking to try and close this one out. He walked Gurney and Luna to begin the inning, but Avila bounced a quick one to Sifuentes – so quick that Sifuentes had time to tap third base AND toss to first for a 5-3 double play. Preble popped out in Brooks’ spot, but by that point in time I was already headed for the exit. 7-6 Rebels. Watt 1-2, 3 BB; Luna 4-4, BB; Brooks 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Altreche 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

May 3 – VAN RF Jerry Outram (.354, 3 HR, 11 RBI) contributes an RBI single in a 4-3 win over the Titans for his 2,000th career base hit. The serial Player of the Year with too many accolades to mention them all, now 34 years old, is a career .336/.450/.528 hitter with 265 home runs, 1,014 RBI, and 121 stolen bases.
May 4 – The Cyclones doubly obliterated, falling to a 2-hit shutout fashioned by WAS SP Sean Fowler (2-2, 6.04 ERA) while also getting blasted for 17 runs in a real rout. Washington’s Ricky Espinoza (.318, 0 HR, 10 RBI) has five hits and as many RBI in the riot.
May 4 – Bayhawks slugger Ken Crum (.333, 5 HR, 20 RBI) socks two singles and three doubles, with one RBI, in an 11-inning, 9-8 win over the Thunder.
May 5 – A home run by TOP C Brett Banks (.230, 7 HR, 17 RBI) is the only score in a 1-0 win over the Miners.
May 7 – The Loggers trade 2B/3B Travis Malkus (.289, 2 HR, 9 RBI) to the Buffaloes for two prospects.
May 8 – DEN SP Gary Perrone (4-2, 1.74 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Bayhawks, claiming the 5-0 victory.
May 8 – Vancouver acquires 1B Sterling Henderson (.340, 7 HR, 20 RBI) from the Capitals for MR Eddie Sotelo (0-0, 0.00 ERA) and interesting, but unranked outfield prospect Julio Caballero.
May 8 – Neither the Loggers nor Wolves score through ten innings, then both score two runs in the 11th inning. The game ends on a walkoff sac fly by Wolves MR Matt Otte (1-0, 5.60 ERA), who gives himself the win by bringing in Mike Gray (.276, 2 HR, 5 RBI) with his team out of bench players.
May 9 – Season over for MIL MR Miguel Herrera (1-5, 6.60 ERA, 1 SV), who has to have bone spurs removed from his elbow.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF/1B Omar Gonzalez (.388, 1 HR, 19 RBI), hitting .467 (14-30) with 1 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB 2B/SS Sergio Quiroz (.321, 3 HR, 16 RBI), slashing .519 (14-27) with 1 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

While we were in Milwaukee, I started to pay attention to the waiver wire. Our pitching certainly qualifies as being able to benefit from some reinforcement by replacement level players.

The season is over. The dynasty is over. The Loggers were 5-20 before the Raccoons tumbled in on their way to blissful oblivion, and got within a few inches here and a couple o’ feet there to sweep the dismal Critters. Nothing is clicking right now, and the most soul-soothing thing to do at this point is to look ahead to what will be.

Victor Salcido, who somehow has Cesar as a first name in my head, but no, his paperwork says Victor, is somewhat mercurial right now, whiffing 15 and walking six in 13 innings across two fill-in starts for Chris Crowell. No matter what Crowell does from here, we want to get Salcido back sooner rather than later and work an opening somehow, probably via trade (although there’s always the chance of somebody’s arm coming off…).

Many reasons for the struggles, but an ungodly .320 BABIP against our pitchers is one key component. Only two Raccoons hitters, individually, have a .320+ BABIP (Watt, Luna), and most of them are *well* below .300. In ascending BABIP order, Seymour (who cares though), Avila, Gonzalez, Gurney, Herrera, Adame, Preble, and Zurita are all under .280, with Avila and Gonzalez hovering around .220 and the others in the .260 to .280 band.

So is it ONLY luck? The other teams having it all and us having none? Well, our defense has gone into the toilet, especially relative to three-or-so years ago. Maldonado and Herrera have gotten old and regressed a lot, and Zurita aside, the corner personnel was not exactly great defensively. The starting middle infielders were good-to-great, but there were big holes to either side of them – especially with Toohey on first, although he’d be on the DL for another week or so.

Monday is off and will be the best part of next week. The Stars will come to Portland for some unwelcome coffee table, and after that it’s gonna be a stupidly scheduled single-city cross-continent trip to New York before we’ll be back home the week after, hosting the two outta-country teams back-to-back.

Fun Fact: Opposing teams hit .191 off Wheats, second-best in the CL.

David Barel’s oAVG is even better at .172, and he allows 5.36 H/9 to Wheats’ 5.94.

But the really funny thing is that neither of those two has a winning record, both sitting at 3-3. Wheats’ getting wobbled on Sunday dropped him from the top 10 in ERA in the CL, but Barel’s ERA is a stellar 1.48 … which isn’t even the best on his own TEAM, with Kyle Turay (3-1, 1.31 ERA) also around the Titans and leading the CL and baseball altogether.

Titans on the way up? Well, somebody’s gotta rise when the previous champ is getting stomped into the dirt by the rabble, don’t they?