Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

I tried to find a nice picture of a raccoon with a ring in his paws, but had on real luck on Google.

So instead here's Wheats, Lonzo, Crum, and Lillis jr. in a snapshot from the celebratory banquet!

Offseason probably starts tomorrow.

[Westheim]

The more the things are changing, the more they stay the same. (looks over to Chad, who in a rare instance doesn’t have the mascot head on, but instead has managed to get a World Series ring stuck on his nose and is trying to remove it with all four paws while in a state of panic)

The Raccoons nipped a set of rings – the fourth for Wheats and Waters, making them undisputed RING KINGS of Portland, having a share of 50% in the team’s all-time championships. And, err, we’ll get to them bunch in a moment…

It would definitely be an offseason of changes for the team with the departure of a few key members around here, none more important than Dr. Padilla, who resigned his position and moved to Chihuahua with one of the Warriors’ ballgirls. It’s okay, I hear she’s almost 19. The Raccoons would eventually sign a replacement, Luis Silva, who had been the Scorpions’ head trainer for a few years, but somehow looked like Dougie Howser’s younger brother, but I was shown all the paperwork and apparently he had graduated from the world-renowned Harworth Institute of Homeopathy with an additional degree in Chiropractic at the age of 17 – he was a natural, Cristiano assured me.

I don’t know, Cristiano. When I have my headaches, I need something that blitzes it out of me, not three drops of orange juice in a gallon of water.

Winning rings always brought out the best in Nick Valdes – or at least more dosh to work with. The Raccoons’ budget was increased by $5M to $58M for the 2055 season, which allowed for a jump from being tied for 12th to sole possession of 8th place in the financial rankings.

Top 5: Thunder ($73M), Miners ($70M), Canadiens ($68M), Crusaders ($67M), Knights & Capitals (tied, $61M)
Bottom 5: Condors ($43M), Indians ($40M), Wolves ($39.5M), Loggers ($37.5M), Aces ($33.5M)

The only team from our division not mentioned yet would be the Titans, tied for 13th with the Buffos and $49.5M.

The average budget for a team in the league rose to $52.4M, up $1.32M from last season, but the median team budget was $50.25M, a rather erratic $2.75M drop compared to a year before, when it made a jump of $4.75M compared to ’53.

The first item on the offseason agenda was Matt Waters’ 10-year deal from a long time ago, which would enter into its ninth season, the first with a team option. Granted, his 2054 had been horrendous, missing 94 regular season games and the CLCS, while hitting only .228 with 6 homers, but he had more than made up for that in the World Series, batting .393 in a takedown of the Warriors. Given that his contract amounted only to $1.98M annually, which wasn’t an outlandish sum anymore, the Raccoons readily picked up the option for his age 34 season. Voiding the option would have cost $600k per remaining year, so we really only paid $780k for his services this year.

There were five free agents and six arbitration cases to mull over. Some no-brainers, some head spinners. A lot had been made of Jason Wheatley being in a contract year, and the Raccoons had never managed to sign him to an extension, mostly because his scouting report was pointing downwards, and his contract demands were pointing in the other direction. He wanted five years at $24M, and that was not a rate I could offer him with the scouting report on paw. And it wasn’t just the scouting report – you could see the decline already. Strikeouts were down, hits were up. Let alone the repeated nagging injuries. I loved Wheats to bits, but I couldn’t do it. If he wanted a 5-year deal, he had to look for it elsewhere.

Arthur Pickett and Dave de Lemos had only ever been signed to 1-year deals. Both were hurt a lot, and when they played, they were varying degrees of league average (Pickett more so than de Lemos and his .615 OPS). Kevin Daley was on the free agent list. He had saved 79 games and blown 11 during the two years on the team, and that is without managing the absolute panic he caused in Game 5. The Coons, generally unhappy with their right-handed relievers, were not particularly interested in an extended engagement.

The last guy on the list was outfielder/first-sacker Ken Crum. He had been with the Raccoons for four years, leading the league in doubles in 2052, and winning a Gold Glove and an All Star nod otherwise. He also came with a scouting report that was adorned with lots of little red stickers with exclamation marks on them, in his case mostly pertaining to defense. He was only going to be 33 next August, but his range had been downgraded to a 6, and the main issue was that the Raccoons couldn’t move him to first base, where he was expected to have a few more good years ahead of him, since we were invested in Harry Ramsay there. Well, unless Ramsay’s leg came off yet. I wasn’t keen on losing a switch-hitting .293/.360/.466 bat, but I also wasn’t keen on Crum’s extension proposal of 3-yr, $12M. Certainly more modest than Wheats’ – and if Wheats made that sort of request we’d be having a talk right now – but I’d love to at least sneak a team option into there…

The six arbitration cases included our two principal left-handed relievers, Brett Lillis jr. and Eloy Sencion, who had done nothing to incense me all year, formidable slugging catcher Chris Gowin (for the last time), bit-playing third baseman Ed Crispin (same), and the spectacularly broken and depressing Raffy de la Cruz. They were all going to be back in some capacity. Mikio Suzuki, also eligible for the final time, would not be. It was long past due that we moved on from a left-handed outfielder hitting below replacement level. He was also into his 30s by now and his defense was letting up. We could certainly find a much better defensive centerfielder for what he'd cost in arbitration ($750k) that would hit the same amount of nothing.

The real depressing part of the start of the offseason? Only Wheats was compensation-eligible.

[Westheim]

Raffy was seeking a 7-year deal, which made me wince ever so slightly. He had not come particularly close to even pitching six innings per start since his return from injury, and I wasn’t much encouraged that it would get better any time soon. He had to settle for an $850k extension for 2055, while Chris Gowin got $1.66M and Ed Crispin just $540k.

The pair of left-handed relievers settled for $600k (Lillis) and $540k (Sencion).

With a heavy heart I had to refrain from making offers to both Wheats and Ken Crum, who were both appearing to come apart rather early, but the Raccoons were not inclined to tie $4M+ annually to a disintegrating body for multiple to many seasons. Yes, I am weeping just as much as you do. Maybe more.

Wheats went 156-106 with a 3.38 ERA for the Coons in 13 big-league seasons, winning a Pitcher of the Year, two ERA titles, and a franchise-record four rings (tied with Matt Waters). On top of that, in 16 playoff appearances (15 starts), he went 6-6 with a 2.91 ERA. But he had now been slashed from a peak 14/14/15 rating to just 11/14/13 and I couldn’t help but expect him to plunge from here.

We were offering arbitration to him, however, because I wanted that draft pick, and even if he did pick us up on the offer, then there was at least hope that he’d keep it together for one more season for whatever the arbitrator would deem fair (probably $4M-ish), but we wouldn’t be on the hook for $24M – but he declined the offer and became a free agent, along with Crum, Daley, Pickett, de Lemos, and Suzuki. Furthermore, former big-league Critters Adam Samples and Mike Snyder elected minor league free agency (among six other players, including 2048’s #325 pick C Zach Morrison, who sure held on longer than most 13th-rounders). Snyder had last appeared for the Coons in 2053, Samples in 2052.

+++

October 23 – The Stars acquire OF Tyler Tomasello (.249, 34 HR, 252 RBI) from the Miners in a straight exchange for SP Josh Swindell (65-86, 4.36 ERA).
October 28 – Oklahoma City picks up outfielder Dustin Ransford (.267, 9 HR, 131 RBI) from the Aces for a prospect.
November 2 – Richmond acquires lefty SP/MR Michael McLaughlin (7-7, 2.56 ERA, 1 SV) from the Indians for two prospects, including #131 prospect C Danny Werman.
November 3 – 29-year-old RF/LF Chris Morris (.292, 100 HR, 559 RBI) is traded from the Blue Sox to the Bayhawks with a prospect for same-aged C Jorge Ortiz (.240, 29 HR, 138 RBI).

+++

So the main goal for the offseason now was to put *a* rotation together. The Raccoons were left with just Shui, Taki, Raffy, and then … Brobeck, who had at least a case to make… and after that it was already down to Phil Baker as fifth in line. Baker had a 4.41 ERA and 5.3 BB/9 for his (admittedly not extensively-sized) major league career: 30 games, 22 starts, 126.2 innings across three years. He was also 26 and wasn’t gonna get any better, but I’m sure he’d cherish his 2054 ring forever. For what it was worth, he pitched to a 2-0 record and five innings of 1-hit ball in the CLCS before being dumped off the roster for Arthur Pickett, who didn’t even appear in the World Series.

The prospect front was not too encouraging in this regard, at least in the short run. No purposeful reinforcement could be expected in 2055. 23-year-old Jesus Guzman, a Venezuelan lefty that cost $33k to sign in 2047, had reached AAA in August, but Eric Hartwig’s scouting report was rather hard on him. He had posted a 2.68 ERA in 25 Ham Lake starts before promotion, though. In any case, Guzman was a finesse lefty without overpowering stuff. He was a real groundballer. The best starter prospect in the system was without doubt the #3 pick from 2053, lefty Chance Fox. He had turned 20 in July and had reached Ham Lake in August. He was developing nicely, but he was years away.

Despite the departure of Kevin Daley, the bullpen still looked *fine*. Between Hitchcock, Bak, Lillis, Walters, and Sencion, we had five very decent relievers on paw, and the question was whether we’d find a closer to plonk down at the end of the set, or whether we’d try to work it out by committee in the late innings. Right-handed relief was needed, though, since the above group contained three southpaws. I was already on a Japanese free agent, but it wasn’t reasonable to expect anything from Antonio Alfaro (and Raul Medrano and Ryan Harmer had been outrighted off the 40-man roster the day after the World Series altogether – no takers, though). Brobeck and/or Baker might slide into the pen, assuming a sufficient number of starting pitcher additions could be tracked down.

Our catcher pair was still in place, and the starting infield of Rams, Waters, Lonzo, and Venegas was also still intact – with one caveat: Rams was going to miss the first month of the season and perhaps longer recovering from the broken kneecap, but we were not going to make a signing for *that*. In all likelihood, 1B Pedro Rojas would make his debut on Opening Day. Rojas, a lefty batter who’d turn 23 in February, had been a scouting discovery by Pat Degenhardt and had worked his way to AAA by late 2052. He posted similar slash lines of around .300/.400/.400 there for the last two seasons and deserved a chance. He was entirely unranked as a prospect so far, although he really should be at least in the top 200 by April. Remarkably, he was a first-sacker with enough speed to be a base-stealing threat, but had yet to hit double-digit homers in a pro season.

Ed Crispin, Matt Knight, Naughty Joe, Dave Blackshire… backup infielders were still plenty on the extended roster, plus Ryan Allred in AAA – the only position player currently on the 40-man that was not on the extended roster.

Only four outfielders were left on the extended roster: Brassfield, Pucks, and Coxie figured to be the starting outfield, unless we could swing for a significant centerfield upgrade (in a defensive sense). Prospero Tenazes was the only other outfielder getting paid. There were two corner outfielders in AAA that were at least hitting something, but were both casual fielders: Elijah Johnson (the #22 pick in ’52) and Humberto Hernandez (fifth round in ’50), the latter having put up a .308/.394/.476 slash in 79 games last season. Hernandez would also turn 27 during Opening Week, and he was Rule 5-eligible, and I was not really inclined to protect him for protection’s sake at that age.

The top free agent under 35 was probably Zach Suggs, whom the Loggers could not afford to pay any longer. He had batted .304 with 23 homers last year, and that had been his worst season among the last three, so expect the Loggers to plunge to sixth place this year. Starting pitcher options were plenty – but most were type A free agents. That list included Logger Angelo Munoz, Elk Andy Overy, and Crusader Jeff Johnson. The exceptions were Jesse Bulas and Victor Mondragon, both 35, who had both been limited by injuries recently. Mondragon in particular made only 28 starts between the last two seasons and two different teams thanks to repeated woes in all areas of his throwing arm. He figured to be a value addition though, especially if you were looking for potentially *two* free agent starting pitchers – which depended on how much you loved Kyle Brobeck’s act.

Brobeck made 38 appearances (18 starts) this season, pitching 138 innings for an 8-5 record, 3.59 ERA (but 4.76 FIP), a save, and batted .306/.388/.396 with 1 HR, 17 RBI while also moonlighting around third base in 24 games. His defense there was not amazing – he cost nearly half a win in under 200 innings of being a non-pitching infielder, or almost all the WAR he gained from batting more than every fifth day. The entire package had been worth just 0.3 WAR…

…but the Raccoons nevertheless overcame Kyle Brobeck to win rings anyway!

It might still be the year where you have to burn that #21 pick to stay valid…

+++

2054 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: TOP C Matt McLaren (.317, 27 HR, 77 RBI) and ATL 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.315, 4 HR, 76 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAC Mike McCaffrey (17-7, 2.71 ERA) and POR SP He Shui (18-8, 2.48 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.294, 24 HR, 89 RBI) and POR SP He Shui (18-8, 2.48 ERA)
Relievers of the Year: NAS CL Tommy Gardner (9-8, 2.51 ERA, 36 SV) and POR CL Kevin Daley (4-2, 2.31 ERA, 36 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P RIC Eric Braley – C TOP Matt McLaren – 1B SAC Steve Wyatt – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B PIT Victor Corrales – SS SAC Alex Adame – LF LAP Salvatore Rodrigues – CF PIT Josh Abercrombie – RF LAP Matt Diskin
Platinum Sticks (CL): P VAN Anton Jesus – C POR Chris Gowin – 1B ATL Jay Rogers – 2B SFB Armando Montoya – 3B IND Bobby Anderson – SS ATL Willie Acosta – LF VAN Adam Magnussen – CF VAN Damian Moreno – RF IND Bill Quinteros
Gold Gloves (FL): P DAL Thomas Turpeau – C PIT Michael Lefebvre – 1B DEN Bill Joyner – 2B PIT Alex Vasquez – 3B SAL John Thatcher – SS WAS Jesus Nunez – LF WAS Neville van de Wouw – CF LAP Noah Caswell – RF PIT Tyler Tomasello
Gold Gloves (CL): P NYC Jeff Johnson – C MIL Chris Thomas – 1B OCT David Worthington – 2B OCT Jonathan Ban – 3B LVA Mark Tauzin – SS VAN Dan Mullen – LF IND Jose Garza – CF OCT Jayden Ward – RF VAN Aaron Walker

Not sure what the award awarders were watching all year long, but probably never a ninth inning of a Raccoons game…

He Shui scooped two of the major awards, while Willie Acosta, who is probably not even a household name, snatched the Player of the Year award in the CL, beating out his teammate Jon Alade and the Coons’ Chris Gowin. How exactly Acosta’s .315 average with 4 homers was superior to Gowin’s .313 clip with 19 homers somebody will have to explain to me.

The two CLCS teams had zero Gold Gloves between them.

[Westheim]

Anybody remember that I’ve been trying to trade for Kennedy Adkins for the entire 2050s decade…?

+++

November 21 – The Scorpions trade for the Warriors’ 2B/SS Ryan Harris (.266, 6 HR, 50 RBI), parting with MR Josh Penington (16-16, 4.73 ERA, 23 SV) and a prospect.
November 24 – For a $350k signing bonus, the Raccoons add 22-yr old Cuban super utility Arturo Bribiesca to the organization.
November 26 – The Loggers deal OF/3B Bryant Law (.240, 7 HR, 61 RBI) to the Capitals for 2B/SS/LF Miguel Cruz (.194, 0 HR, 1 RBI).
[b]November 27 – The Raccoons acquire 29-yr old SP Kennedy Adkins (71-44, 2.92 ERA) from the Buffaloes in exchange for 28-yr old OF Matt Cox (.252, 98 HR, 402 RBI), 27-yr old Dave Blackshire (.238, 2 HR, 11 RBI), and 27-yr old AAA MR Jim Larson (3-5, 4.85 ERA).
November 29 – Former Knights first-sacker Jay Rogers (.270, 78 HR, 343 RBI) hooks up with the Stars for a $18.56M contract over four years.
November 29 – Ex-TOP LF/RF Nate Culp (.271, 222 HR, 717 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $10.32M contract with the Crusaders.
November 30 – The Wolves send SP Zane Fenlon (22-23, 3.73 ERA) to the Capitals for #24 prospect SP Josh Scarbro.
December 1 – 2B Tony Aparicio (.291, 277 HR, 1,452 RBI), who will be 41 in April, signs one more $6.6M contract with his most recent team, the Canadiens.
December 1 – The Knights sign a pair of 36-year-old position players; former Buffalo 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.276, 401 HR, 1,429 RBI) agrees to a 2-yr, $10.6M deal, while ex-NYC 3B/2B Ronnie Thompson (.281, 12 HR, 717 RBI) will take in $1.04M for one year.
December 1 – Ex-LAP C Eric Monaghan (.244, 102 HR, 470 RBI) winds up with the Thunder thanks to a 6-yr, $19.24M deal.
December 1 – The Blue Sox trade right-handed swingman Rafael Mendoza (6-13, 4.65 ERA) to the Miners for a prospect.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 16 players are selected. The Raccoons lose MR Raul Medrano (0-1, 4.57 ERA) to the Wolves.
December 2 – The Rebels bring ex-POR SP Arthur Pickett (156-104, 3.77 ERA) back to the FL East, signing the 36-year-old to a 3-yr, $6.3M deal.
December 2 – The Knights acquire 1B Dale Haracz (.266, 41 HR, 218 RBI) from the Loggers, who receive INF Robby Gaxiola (.292, 4 HR, 31 RBI).
December 5 – Portland adds a big-time closer in former Blue Sock Tommy Gardner (57-59, 2.53 ERA, 401 SV), who signs for three years and $9.9M.
December 5 – The Bayhawks add left-handed ex-VAN SP Andy Overy (71-63, 3.84 ERA) for 4-yr, $15.84M.

+++

Oh no. Not Medrano. How will I live. (causally keeps nomming chips with the use of his left hindpaw)

The Buffaloes had a young team that was nevertheless not any good. They didn’t have a real way forward. It was unlikely that they were going to be good any time soon, which wouldn’t be helped by this trade either. Matt Cox had his worst season in recent memory in Portland, and while I was not actually trying to get rid of him, it was quite convenient that the Buffos were interested in him. The rest of the deal was finding the least painful combination of throw-ins – at times Matt Walters, Eloy Sencion or Matt Knight, as well as various AAA pitchers were part of the conversation as well as AA infielder Richard Anderson, who seemed thoroughly stuck where he was and like a weird request for the Buffos to have.

Adkins was under contract for five more years and $24.52M. $3.32M in ’55, then $5.3M annually until 2059, which was a player option year.

We sign Tommy Gardner for three years – or one for every Reliever of the Year award on his mantelpiece. The idea here is simple: Tommy Gardner ends games. It’s that easy. 11 straight years as a closer for three different teams, including five for the Indians, which we surely still remember.

There is still money left over, but we have also yet to settle on the fifth starter (Brobeck or nah) and whether we make a splurge for another outfielder that might cost us our first-round pick after all… although the options were slim in that regard.

[Westheim]

Forgot this yesterday - there's a Hall of Fame ballot out. Rico Sanchez is the only former Raccoon that appears on the ballot for the first time, and he only lasted half a season - before being shipped off with Ryan Bedrosian and others in the deal that brought Wheats and Waters from the Knights.

[Westheim]

By December, the Raccoons were really looking for outfield options after making some significant pitching upgrades. We had Brassfield, we had Pucks… and … uh, Tenazes? Down in AAA, David Flores, 23, and Humberto Hernandez, 26, were options for backup corner outfielders. Flores was a switch-hitter, Hernandez a left-handed batter.

…and the real problem was the free agent market, which had a lot of pitchers (especially in the top echelon of talent) and outfielders were few and far between.

So where does that leave us? Give Ken Crum a call? Among free-agent outfielders of any description, Ken Crum ranked third by career OPS among players with at least 500 career games. His .796 OPS was only beaten by Dave Lee (.799) and Juan Benavides (.835). Lee was a 13-year Buffos veteran, so had rarely come up against the Raccoons before, and had won two Gold Gloves in the mid-40s, but by the current decade had slipped first onto the DL and then onto the bench, getting only 112 at-bats last season. He’d be 36 in March. Still beat Benavides, who would be 40 before the end of the year. He had spent seven years with the Thunder, winning a home run crown in 2047 while in Oklahoma City. There wasn’t much left of his legs, though, and he should not get anywhere near an outfield at this stage.

Just behind Crum was 34-year-old Felix Rojas, another left-handed corner outfielder that had seen better times, and then Brent Cramer, who was only 29 and a genuine centerfielder. He had smashed the CL in 2050, winning the batting title and Player of the Year award with a .340/.438/.514 slash line. He hadn’t played a full season since, with knee, wrist, hamstring injuries, and with simply not hitting a lick. The Bayhawks had him the last two seasons. He batted .227/.306/.325 in 110 games in ’53, then was left to rot in AAA Baton Rouge last year, making only three appearances for San Francisco.

Could that somehow be fixed with a fresh coat of paint on his uniform? We all had our doubts. On the other paw, he’d be nearly free to sign and – again – he had won the CL Player of the Year just *four* years ago…! He wasn’t even 30 yet…!

While you were mulling over that, also consider that the relative dearth of impact outfielders on the market allowed Ken Crum to increase his price tag from about 3-yr, $12M to 4-yr, $16M, which was not the direction I was hot to go in.

We also *really* didn’t have anything that I was willing to trade anymore. When I came knocking on the Falcons’ door about Ethan Whitehead, an excellent defensive outfielder with a career OPS of a whopping .643, they looked at my roster and then just told me nah.

I was beginning to feel a bit queasy. Crum gone. Cox gone. Waters coming off a terrible season. Ramsay out for at least a month. Basically no centerfielder. It didn’t really same like a walk in the park of a title defense campaign…!

+++

December 6 – The Loggers acquire SP Juan Mercado (41-37, 4.33 ERA) from the Aces for two prospects.
December 6 – Veteran closer Mike Lynn, age 37, signs a 2-yr, $6.08M contract with the Capitals. Lynn, last with the Gold Sox, is 71-59 with a 2.48 ERA and 336 SV for his career.
December 7 – Indy deals SP Pete Becker (4-9, 2.82 ERA) to the Capitals for #84 prospect SP Hugo Saucedo.
December 9 – Oklahoma sends 2B/SS Ryan Spehar (.259, 1 HR, 27 RBI) to the Miners for a package of 3B/1B Doug Triplett (.242, 15 HR, 80 RBI) and a prospect.
December 11 – The Crusaders snatch up former Loggers INF Zach Suggs (.301, 141 HR, 594 RBI). The 28-year-old right-handed batter signs a 4-yr, $28.4M contract.
December 11 – The Thunder sign ex-POR CL Kevin Daley (85-86, 3.45 ERA, 91 SV) to a 3-yr, $9.24M contract.
December 11 – Being 42 years old on Opening Day does not prevent ex-VAN INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.272, 194 HR, 1,022 RBI) from cashing another $1.2M contract with the Capitals.
December 14 – Cincy adds ex-MIL 2B/SS Ricky Lopez (.232, 69 HR, 356 RBI) for a $1.06M contract.
December 17 – The Raccoons sign 27-yr old Japanese free agent, right-handed MR Takenori Tanizaki, to a $900k contract.
December 17 – Ex-Loggers keep dispersing, with 27-yr old righty SP Angelo Munoz (65-67, 4.05 ERA) inking a 7-yr, $31.92M deal with the Buffaloes.
December 19 – The Canadiens add ex-SAC 3B/SS Alex Adame (.291, 45 HR, 712 RBI) for $20.4M over four years.
December 19 – The Knights pick up ex-WAS SP Bruce Mark jr. (106-102, 3.31 ERA) for 2-yr, $5.95M.

+++

It’s an Asian pitcher almost every year now, huh? Taki at first, then Shui and Bak, and now another Japanese hurler in Tanizaki, who was said to have excellent control and to keep it on the ground with a 90mph fastball and a splitter.

It’s probably little consolation for the Loggers, but at least Munoz and Suggs gave them additional first-round picks, the #14 and #23 selections. The latter had wandered from the Knights to the Buffos to them.

New contracts for old Raccoons: Juan Jimenez got $470k from the Wolves; the Loggers grabbed back Dave de Lemos for $416k;

[Westheim]

The Raccoons’ pitching plans were more or less complete by December, but the lineup and bench still had certain holes. Only 13 position players were on the not-very-extended roster, which included Harry Ramsay, who’d not be available before May, Jeff Raczka as third catcher, and Naughty Joe as somebody that should stay far away from the major league roster. Not on the roster was AAA 1B Pedro Rojas, so effectively we had 11 position players around, definitely missing two outfielders unless we wanted to add another AAA bum to Prospero Tenazes and sign just one more outfielder.

The problem was not dosh – the problem was that there were on high-profile outfielders available unless we wanted to go back to Ken Crum who’d surely stink defensively in a few years’ time. In any case we made an insurance signing in late December, bringing back Ricky Lamotta, who had spent most of 2050 with the Raccoons after getting claimed off waivers by the Loggers. He hadn’t hit much then, but he was still a valid defensive outfield and third base option. Lamotta had bounced around the CL quite a bit for a decade now, but 2050’s 399 PA with the Raccoons were still the most that he had ever gotten with anybody in a season. His old #12 was no longer available; he was assigned #21 instead and Naughty Joe, who was grimly robbed of the same number, was outrighted off the roster.

All the while I kept sniffing around Charlotte’s Ethan Whitehead – also really a defensive centerfielder – but they were not impressed by the grab bag of failed relievers I was offering, and no deal came together.

All other things failing, Pucks will keep starting in center, but then Lamotta or Tenazes can replace him in the late innings (or Pucks slots to a corner and Brassfield goes home.

Around the holidays, I changed gears. Screw centerfield, we’d keep botching with Pucks and the right-handed soup of the day against southpaws. Let’s grab a corner outfielder. And not a right-hander, because I felt we had enough right-handed batters on the roster: only Waters, Crispin, and Pucks were non-right-handed batters projected to be on the Opening Day roster at this point (not counting thusly Rams and Raczka).

Suddenly Ken Crum was an option again, but he had increased his price to 6-yr, $26.4M and while the dosh was technically there, we were now looking at a 38-year-old Ken Crum staggering around when his D trend was a concern even now. Interesting switch-hitting options were DEN Bill Ramires and SAC Jason Monson, but we didn’t have the prospects to swing for either one of them. Same for left-handed NYC Omar Sanchez. OCT Mike Harmon could *maybe* iced loose from them, but with him you were automatically buying 50 games on the DL, at least. He whacked 22 homers last season, in just 114 games. And then there was free agent Mike Allegood, longtime Falcon. He was 31, a very good defender in the outfield corners and third base, and passable in center in a way that Pucks was passable in center. Allegood had a few really good seasons in the past, but had batted .291 with 8 homers with the Falcons last year.

When I went to the Thunder for Harmon, he immediately invoked his veteran 10/5 rights, so that was that.

There was one more option. SFB Danny Munn was a lefty making $5.9M twice more (2056 was a player option, but let’s be real), and was a consistent 120 OPS+ stick. He had averaged 20 homers from 2049 through 2053 between the Warriors and Bayhawks, but had hit only 14 last year, making only 99 starts. His defense wasn’t much better than Ken Crum’s, but at least he wouldn’t linger until 36+ on our roster; he had just turned 31. His weight was an issue, so it would probably not get better in Portland, the world capital of easily accessible trash cans.

+++

December 21 – 38-year-old ex-WAS 1B Manny Liberos (.245, 316 HR, 1,254 RBI) rejoins the Buffaloes on a $2.52M contract.
December 22 – The Capitals console themselves with former Condors SP Larry Colwell (84-68, 3.45 ERA), who signs a 5-yr, $23.2M contract.
December 23 – The Raccoons sign ex-TIJ/OCT OF/3B Ricky Lamotta (.273, 21 HR, 175 RBI) on a cheap $650k deal.
December 25 – The Crusaders get pitching help by signing former Caps SP Kyle Turay (123-109, 3.43 ERA). The 31-year-old would make $33.6M over six years.
December 25 – Former Buffos INF Mark Haney (.249, 27 HR, 270 RBI) gets signed by the Capitals on a 3-yr, $9.52M deal.
December 28 – After two years in Vancouver, 35-yr old SP Jesse Bulas (101-95, 3.88 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $8.64M contract to be with the Capitals.
December 28 – Portland signs ex-SFB CF Brent Cramer (.269, 60 HR, 326 RBI) on a $525k deal.
December 29 – Nashville scoops up 39-yr old ex-OCT/WAS 3B/1B Ramon Sifuentes (.282, 218 HR, 1,133 RBI) on a $2.28M deal.
December 30 – The Raccoons acquire 31-yr old LF/RF Danny Munn (.256, 145 HR, 543 RBI) from the Bayhawks for 25-yr old MR Antonio Alfaro (9-5, 4.09 ERA, 1 SV) and 26-yr old AAA MR Jason Mack.

+++

On board is Danny Munn, and I hope I get plenty of occasion to call him Danny Fun! He will be the rightfield starter, with Brassfield, who was the weaker arm, in left, and Pucks in center. It’s not the greatest defensive outfield for sure, and if you’re a Ricky Lamotta on the roster, you should see quite a few late innings on the field, especially if the team is leading.

Cramer would be 30 in January and in St. Pete in April. Even with a 120 OPS+ for his career, nobody wanted him near his major league team right now and we could try him out down there. But – ssshh! – he doesn’t know about the April part of the plan yet.

[Westheim]

It was the new year. The Raccoons had thrown dosh around in December and were down to $2.4M in budget space. That used to feed an entire All Star caliber outfield, but now it was just barely enough for ten weeks of Danny Munn. Worst case – it’d be the ten weeks he’d inevitably spend on the DL!

+++

January 7 – The Falcons sign ex-RIC SP Austin Wilcox (107-110, 4.01 ERA) to a 2-yr, $11.7M deal.
January 10 – The Rebels instead take in former Miners SP Jerry Cruz (75-90, 4.20 ERA) with an offer of $4.8M over two years.
January 24 – The Miners ink ex-POR SP Jason Wheatley (156-106, 3.38 ERA) to a 2-yr, $7.92M contract. The Raccoons receive a supplemental-round pick in compensation.
January 29 – The Miners also sign former Crusaders starter Jeff Johnson (177-149, 3.49 ERA), who commands a $10.2M deal over two years.

+++

Oh, Wheats… you could have gotten that deal from us as well………

Needless to say that I was sobbing for the rest of the month. I was inconsolable! Maud tried everything, from brushing my fur, to putting on my favorite cartoons, to cooking the biggest bowls of pudding for me, but I would just put one paw into it, smell it briefly, and then hang the whiskers again, as well as the pudding paw off the couch, pudding dripping on the floor.

Would life ever be filled with joy again…!? – Looking at the news around Portland, no. Lots of people put the head into the oven along with the muffins in that final week of January… All my fault, according to the Agitator.

The #13 pick for the 2055 draft, the highest forfeitable pick possible, changed hands twice in a week in January, from the Falcons to the Rebs to the Miners; and then a third time when the Miners snatched up Jeff Johnson, sending the pick to the Crusaders.

New deals for long-ago Critters: the Caps added Ricky Jimenez for $492k and Shuta Yamamoto for $1.24M;

+++

The Hall of Fame got a new member in 2055, with Willie Ojeda being elected in his first appearance on the ballot.

Ojeda went from signing with the Condors for food and shelter to making nearly $50M in the ABL, putting together a 20-year career that saw him win two batting titles with the Condors, leading the CL in OPS once and being a serial winner of All Star nominations (11) and Platinum Sticks (7), although he never managed to get his team to win the World Series. Ojeda was consistency, failing to .300 just once in a 14-year span from 2034 to 2047, and would hit double-digits homers *and* triples along with that most of the time. In his 20s, he was also a prolific base stealer, although that ended abruptly after he turned 31 and a few injuries. Ojeda, after 15 seasons with the Condors, managed to play in every other division as well, even though his FL East stint was just nine games with the Buffaloes in his final season in ’49.

TIJ RF Willie Ojeda – 1st – 91.9 – INDUCTED
??? CL Josh Boles – 6th – 69.2
POR LF Manny Fernandez – 2nd – 62.4
??? CL Chris Henry – 4th – 47.8
SAL C Morgan Kuhlmann – 4th – 22.0
LAP CF Justin Fowler – 10th – 14.2 – DROPPED
SAL CL Rico Sanchez – 1st – 12.5
PIT SP Roberto Pruneda – 2nd – 12.2
BOS SP Rich Willett – 3rd – 6.8
DAL SS Jon Ramos – 2nd – 5.8
CHA 2B Oscar Aguirre – 1st – 5.4
DAL SP Eric Weitz – 4th – 5.1
TOP 1B Chris Delagrange – 2nd – 4.7 – DROPPED
VAN C Timóteo Clemente – 2nd – 3.1 – DROPPED
LAP SP Joe Feltman – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
??? CL Alex Banderas – 1st – 1.4 – DROPPED
SFW 2B Jesus Matos – 1st – 1.4 – DROPPED
SAC SS Jesus Banuelas – 2nd – 1.4 – DROPPED
ATL SP David Farris – 1st – 0.7 – DROPPED
SFB CF Mike Hall – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED
TOP CL Ricardo Ordas – 1st – 0.0 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

The rest of the offseason finished without direct Raccoons involvement. We only picked up another two dumpster divers, discarded ex-prospects that presented one upside or another, and that was it.

No miraculous healing for Harry Ramsay, who would not return before May, but at least nobody broke their little neck skiing or some other crap. I felt like the Coons would need all paws on deck for the upcoming title defense.

+++

February 2 – The Stars ink former Raccoons 1B/LF/RF Ken Crum (.284, 134 HR, 693 RBI) on a 3-yr, $5.88M contract.
February 9 – Pittsburgh grabs 35-yr old right-handed CL Dale Mrazek (54-53, 3.42 ERA, 348 SV) on a 3-yr, $2.73M contract. Mrazek spent the last two seasons with the Condors.
February 27 – L.A. signs 36-yr old SP/MR Justin Johns (65-85, 4.36 ERA, 32 SV) for 2-yr, $3.08M.
March 10 – Right-handed CL Zack Stahl (71-71, 4.00 ERA, 134 SV) settles on the Buffaloes for a $3.4M contract. He split 2054 between the Aces and Wolves.

+++

Who else? Nelson Moreno and the Loggers were to team up for $3.34M over two years; Victor Merino was off to Salem for $462k; Wade Gardner went to the Miners for $910k;

[Westheim]

2055 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2054 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP He Shui, 29, B:R, T:R (18-8, 2.48 ERA | 18-8, 2.48 ERA) – the Coons keep finding good pitching in Asia, with last year’s main import casually winning the Rookie and Pitcher of the Year awards, the ERA title, an All Star assignment, and the World Series. More of that, please. Has four pitches, a 94mph fastball, and very good control. He also does all of this silently while minding his own business. Seriously, I don’t remember him saying a word even once. Might be mute after all.
SP Kennedy Adkins *, 30, B:L, T:L (16-12, 3.04 ERA | 71-44, 2.92 ERA) – if I want something, I get it – eventually, sometimes. The 30-year-old elite left-hander was on my wishlist for a decade, and I finally blackma- convinced the Buffos to let go of him. Good stuff, steady control, keeps it in the ballpark. Might win a Pitcher of the Year award one day.
SP Seisaku Taki, 27, B:R, T:R (9-11, 3.48 ERA | 41-30, 3.01 ERA) – right-handed groundballer that was imported from Japan to some success, like, uh, winning both Rookie of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in his debut season (like He Shui!), PLUS a Gold Glove. Taki has three very good pitches, throws 95, and should continue to be a delight, even though last year showed him struggle for stretches. Everybody struggles at times, though?
SP Rafael de la Cruz, 24, B:L, T:R (5-5, 3.98 ERA | 28-27, 3.60 ERA) – golden boy returned from his torn UCL in June… and struggled all the way to the end of the season. Sometimes he strikes people out, sometimes he walks them. He constantly seems to be in a 3-2 count, meaning his starts are short thanks to low-ish stamina, and he went only 110.2 innings in 19 starts in his return. Maybe I should have traded him for goodies at some point……….
SP/3B Kyle Brobeck, 27, B:S, T:R (8-5, 3.59 ERA, 1 SV | 27-24, 4.27 ERA, 1 SV) – Brobeck is a weird, weird pitcher slash third baseman. In 2054 he got all of a World Series ring, a win, a save, a homer, and a stolen base while pitching in 38 and batting in 56 games. He hit .306/.388/.396 with the stick in 154 at-bats, the most he gobbled up in a season so far, and is a career .329 hitter. I guess we could do worse for a fifth starter / long relief candidate…?

MR Takenori Tanizaki *, 27, B:R, T:R (no stats) – just keep buying Asian free agents! Tanizaki throws a splitter and a fastball for grounders, and has very good control on his resume. I will also never get his name straight, even if he were to pitch for this team for ten years.
MR Matt Walters, 24, B:L, T:L (0-0, 1.85 ERA, 1 SV | 0-0, 1.85 ERA, 1 SV) – technically a failed starter (and former #8 pick), but while his arsenal is small, it still contains an unhittable curve and a 94mph heater; still working on control, but he could be a closer candidate in the not-too-distant future, but if he ever gets the changeup for a third pitch going, he’ll not have mercy with merely mortal batters anymore.
SP/MR Hyun-soo Bak, 27, B:S, T:R (8-4, 2.49 ERA | 8-4, 2.49 ERA) – the second Asian import of 2054 came from Korea and has a fastball, slider, and splitter to offer. While he is an option for spot starting, he did not do so at all in his debut season, but gained the higher-ups’ confidence quickly and ended up in many close situations as evidenced by getting 12 decisions in relief.
MR Eloy Sencion, 28, B:L, T:L (6-0, 3.11 ERA, 1 SV | 16-3, 3.29 ERA, 7 SV) – fastball, vicious slider, but if you were to look for this left-hander, who debuted in the majors in 2050, on the 2053 Opening Day roster rundown, you’d be out of luck. Nothing worked for Eloy Sencion in 2052, posting an 8.04 ERA in the majors after a flashy pair of seasons in 2050-51. He dropped as far as AA, and was not remotely near the big league portion of the depth chart as the 2053 began, starting out in AAA. When Brett Lillis jr. went down to injury early on, he was somewhat reluctantly recalled and somehow just worked again, making 52 appearances without major complaints. He put up nearly identical stats in 2054, and hasn’t lost a game in relief since that dismal 2052 season.
SU Brett Lillis jr., 29, B:L, T:L (4-2, 2.81 ERA, 2 SV | 10-12, 3.40 ERA, 6 SV) – second-generation lefty reliever in the Coons pen – well, whenever he’s not injured. Very steady, also against right-handers, and might split eighth-inning duties with Hitchcock, or even get the odd save assignment against left-handed opposition.
SU Kevin Hitchcock, 32, B:R, T:R (7-4, 2.86 ERA, 11 SV | 25-23, 3.05 ERA, 81 SV) – the German right-hander had to slot into the eighth inning role after the Raccoons added Daley in 2053, and it’s not gonna get any better for him with Daley gone, although he has largely pitched without complaints thanks to a 1.4 BB/9 mark in ’54 and generally allowing few home runs. Very good cutter/slider combo, generating groundball after groundball. One of only two Raccoons on the roster that still has 2040s rings with the team on his paw, for 2046 and 2047, although he only pitched seven games for the former team.
CL Tommy Gardner *, 34, B:R, T:R (9-8, 2.51 ERA, 36 SV | 57-59, 2.53 ERA, 401 SV) – signed on a 3-year deal, Tommy Gardner is well known to Raccoons fans everywhere for closing games for the Indians for five years while we were winning those five straight penannts; four great pitches, but unfortunately no stamina, otherwise those three Reliever of the Year awards might have been Pitcher of the Year awards.

C Chris Gowin, 28, B:R, T:R (.313, 19 HR, 75 RBI | .274, 41 HR, 260 RBI) – very fine defensive catcher the Falcons didn’t know what to do with and dumped onto the Raccoons for odd bits and pieces that didn’t fit anyway. Broke out in his second season in Portland, smashing almost as many homers as he had for his hole career previously, and whacked for an impressive 146 OPS+. No complaints, except that he’s in a contract year and might want a lot of dosh to keep doing this.
C/1B Tyler Philipps, 28, B:R, T:R (.261, 2 HR, 18 RBI | .245, 4 HR, 43 RBI) – excellent defensive catcher that debuted late in the 2051 season, then made the Opening Day roster behind Sean Suggs in ’52, but ended up spending most of his time in AAA again after an early demotion. Since then he’s been backup to Gowin without making much of an impression.

1B Pedro Rojas, 23, B:L, T:L (no stats) – with Ramsay on the DL for at least another month, we’d have a debutee on Opening Day. Rojas was a weird one for a first-baseman: he didn’t have much power, but in AAA was drawing 20% more walks than strikeouts, and he was stealing double-digit bases. Very fine glove for first base, too, but neither range nor a throwing arm to move him elsewhere.
2B/SS Matt Waters, 34, B:S, T:R (.228, 6 HR, 30 RBI | .262, 213 HR, 812 RBI) – Waters went from winning the home run crown in 2053 to playing just 68 games due to injury in 2054, and when he played he did so badly, posting his worst-ever OPS+ (85) and shedding 53 points off his batting average. There’s two years left on his old 10-year contract, so there’s still time for redemption. (Although hitting .393 in the World Series, when he returned to the team, does count for something!) With Wheats gone, Waters is the last Raccoon that has a version of each of the 2040s trifecta of rings.
SS/3B Lorenzo Lavorano, 27, B:R, T:R (.283, 6 HR, 69 RBI | .283, 18 HR, 275 RBI) – Everybody loves Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend…! Has won four stolen base titles in four full (as in: not-injured) seasons, a Gold Glove at least once… and he keeps being a delight in the field and on the career steals list, which he’s racing up at the moment. Maybe 400 bags is too lofty a goal for this year – he starts it at 322 – but I’m willing to let myself be positively surprised by him.
3B/LF Anton Venegas, 33, B:R, T:R (.282, 2 HR, 54 RBI | .309, 28 HR, 519 RBI) – his first half was very good, the second half not so much, and he put up a 98 OPS+ in the end, so perhaps the overall package wasn’t exactly worth $5.7M a year, but now we’re stuck with him. Still a very good third baseman, though, and he stole almost as many bases (31) as his age was last year (32/33), so there’s that.
3B Ed Crispin, 28, B:L, T:R (.262, 2 HR, 26 RBI | .254, 31 HR, 201 RBI) – once upon a time one of the returns from the Rebels in the deal that sent Josh Rella away, Crispin’s a good defender at the hot corner, which is about as many good things I have to say about him. He’s just kinda *there*, and will probably disappear as free agent after the season, because “kinda there” doesn’t have to cost seven figures. Nice complement to the right-handed Venegas, though, so he might still get the regular one or two starts each week after all.
SS/2B Matt Knight, 27, B:R, T:R (.229, 4 HR, 27 RBI | .238, 6 HR, 52 RBI) – slaps singles, and was a bit lost as a decent defensive shortstop (and even placed on waivers last Opening Day), but started to learn second base in AAA before Matt Waters went down to substantially miss the second half of the regular season, and thus was able to slide right onto the open position.

LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield, 22, B:R, T:R (.323, 4 HR, 22 RBI | .323, 4 HR, 22 RBI) – debuted just early enough in 2054 to ruin his rookie eligibility for this year, but it was tight down the stretch and we couldn’t have done it without him and his .895 OPS in 48 games. Not a great defender, but should be solid enough for a long time in leftfield, and if he draws walks for a .411 OBP like in his short debut season, then he might actually be a great leadoff option.
LF/RF/1B/CF Alan Puckeridge, 27, B:L, T:R (.252, 10 HR, 56 RBI | .295, 63 HR, 357 RBI) – the Aussie nearly doubled his career homer total in 2053, appearing in all 163 games the team played in while hitting for a .312/.374/.508 slash line. That led right into a crash back to below-100 OPS+ territory, much like with Waters, although Pucks stayed on the field, appearing in 159 regular season games, even though he came off the bench 38 times, which was more often than in the last three years combined.
LF/RF Danny Munn *, 31, B:L, T:L (.264, 14 HR, 57 RBI | .256, 145 HR, 543 RBI) – the Michigander slugger was acquired from the Bayhawks for less than you would have thought, although perhaps missing some time to injuries in his three years there could have influenced a desire to get rid of the $5.9M annually. Competent defensively on the corner, he is mostly here to mash the ball far; no speed, and not enough patience at the plate sometimes.
RF/LF/3B/CF/1B Ricky Lamotta *, 30, B:R, T:R (.270, 4 HR, 40 RBI | .273, 21 HR, 175 RBI) – Lamotta returns as a super utility and cheap free agent, five years after spending most of the year with the team as a waiver claim. Defensive replacement in the late innings perhaps, and could spell Pucks against lefty starters.
CF Brent Cramer *, 30, B:L, T:R (.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .269, 60 HR, 326 RBI) – Player of the Year in 2050, not making a single appearance in a starting lineup in 2054, while still being in his 20s. It was a fall from grace for the ages for Brent Cramer, who signed a cheap redemption contract – and was not expected to make the roster, but we got wind that he would refuse an assignment to the minors, so culled Prospero Tenazes instead.

On disabled list:
MR Reynaldo Bravo, 23, B:R, T:R (0-0, 47.25 ERA | 0-0, 47.25 ERA) – good fastball/curveball, not such a great rotator cuff. Might miss most of the year having that stitched back together; gave up 7 runs in 1.1 innings in a rather brief debut in ’54.
1B Harry Ramsay, 27, B:L, T:L (.261, 14 HR, 69 RBI | .273, 38 HR, 155 RBI) – has 20+ homer power, good contact ability, and in ’54 drew more walks than he struck out. He was also on the DL twice, and starts the year on the DL still working his way back from a broken kneecap, and is not expected back before May.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Phil Baker, 26, B:R, T:R (2-1, 1.91 ERA | 9-8, 4.41 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; has made odd appearances since exploding after making the Opening Day roster in 2053. Pitched fairly well last year, got two wins in relief in the CLCS, but was squeezed off the World Series and the Opening Day roster. Walks too many, doesn’t strike out enough. Pitching depth at best.
MR Luke Ostler, 26, B:L, T:R (0-0, 4.15 ERA | 0-0, 4.15 ERA) – optioned to AAA; unspectacular righty with serious control issues that struck out nobody in 4.1 innings of September work.
MR Geoff Sather, 25, B:L, T:L (0-0, 7.45 ERA | 0-0, 7.45 ERA) – optioned to AAA; the ERA doesn’t tell the story, because Sather struck out 10.2/9 and walked only two batters in 9.2 innings of work, but if you just pitch 9.2 innings, getting on the snout good once or twice is all that it takes. Has the misfortune to rank behind three very good left-handers already on staff.
C Jeff Raczka, 31, B:L, T:R (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI | .223, 4 HR, 29 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; good old boy that has made scarce appearances as third and fourth catcher for six years running, but never makes an impact. All of a .598 OPS for his career, spanning 112 games.
LF/RF/CF Prospero Tenazes, 28, B:R, T:R (.263, 1 HR, 5 RBI | .257, 2 HR, 7 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; run-of-the-mill outfielder, offensively as defensively.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or disappeared in a landfill during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

I wish there was another left-handed bat in the top half of the lineup… although a healthy Harry Ramsay would give us options there.

(Vs. RHP: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – P)
Vs. LHP: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – 2B Waters – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 1B Phillips – P)

One more options on days at least one day away from Brobeck’s start would be to have Brobeck on third base, Venegas in left, Brassfield on first, and rotate things around that way against left-handers.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The Raccoons took a few losses with Wheats and Crum and Pickett and Daley… the additions of Adkins, Munn, and Gardner don’t quite make up for those WAR losses, and thus the Raccoons were only tied for 16th with the Gold Sox and a -3.1 WAR offseason. That doesn’t account for Pedro Rojas hitting 20 homers in April, though – hah!

Top 5: Capitals (+12.4), Stars (+5.8), Knights (+5.3), Thunder (+5.3), Cyclones (+4.1)
Bottom 5: Aces (-5.7), Wolves (-5.9), Buffaloes (-6.2), Loggers (-7.4), Scorpions (-10.6)

The remaining CL North teams were ranked 12th (NYC, 0.0), 14th (IND, -1.9), 15th (VAN, -2.7), and 18th (BOS, -3.8). Cruddy division?

PREDICTION TIME:

For the second straight season the Raccoons were awful for the first two months, then gradually took off over the summer. Should we turn the heat in the clubhouse on in April? Are they stiff and asleep when they go out to play?

In both years the team ended up winning 94 games, which was enough for one tie-breaker loss and one set of rings. And this year? Nobody seems to have improved much in the division, so the goal almost has to be to win it again.

Last year I had them at 88 wins, and while there’s the odd question mark in the rotation, the pen looks sturdy, and the lineup has been reinforced. 94 wins for the third straight year then!

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Raccoons’ farm dropped from 9th to 13th, which was at least partially due to two of the team’s three highest-ranked prospects graduating to the majors and losing rookie eligibility for this year. That would be #25 Matt Walters and #37 Trent Brassfield for you. The only other player falling out of the top 200 was #175 Reynaldo Bravo, who surely wasn’t helped by either his performance in three relief appearances or by missing up to 12 months with a torn rotator cuff.

But we still have the same number of ranked prospects this year – 13 – although overall their average rank is a bit worse. Last year we had four top 50s, seven top 100s; this year it’s three and five, respectively, and then four in each block of 50 youngsters below that.

25th (+15) – AAA LF/RF David Flores, 23 – 2052 second-round pick by Raccoons
33rd (+57) – AA C Marcos Chavez, 22 – 2050 scouting discovery by Stars, signed as free agent by Raccoons
41st (new) – A 1B Forbes Tomlin, 19 – 2054 first-round pick by Raccoons
54th (-25) – AA SP Chance Fox, 20 – 2053 first-round pick by Raccoons
96th (-16) – AA SP Ramon Carreno, 19 – 2051 international free agent signed by Raccoons

118th (new) – A OF Jose Estrada, 20 – 2051 international free agent signed by Raccoons
120th (+50) – A SP Javier Simo, 17 – 2053 international free agent signed by Raccoons
128th (new) – AAA SP John Blevins, 24 – 2052 third-round pick by Raccoons
148th (-11) – AA CL Alex Rios, 21 – 2053 fifth-round pick by Raccoons
163th (-7) – AA CL Ricky Herrera, 23 – 2053 second-round pick by Raccoons
179th (-30) – AA 3B/2B Richard Anderson, 22 – 2050 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
193rd (-89) – AAA SP Josh Mayo, 24 – 2049 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
195th (-97) – AA SP Jose Villegas, 22 – 2050 scouting discovery by Raccoons

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (new) – SFB A OF/2B/3B Grant Anker, 18
2nd (new) – DAL AA SP Ray Walker, 20
3rd (new) – BOS A SP Jason Brenize, 18
4th (-3) – LVA AA OF Jose Ambriz, 21
5th (-1) – TIJ AAA SP Jay Everett, 22

6th (+8) – NAS ML 1B Andy Metz, 23
7th (-4) – SAL AA SP Josh Elling, 20
8th (new) – CHA AA C/1B Alex Gomez, 20
9th (-2) – WAS A 3B/2B Diego Mendoza, 20
10th (+12) – SFW AA CL Alex Flores, 20

Anker went from #1 pick in the 2054 draft to #1 on the 2055 prospect list. Brenize was the #2 pick, Walker was the #6 pick, while Gomez was a scouting discovery for the Falcons in 2051 and had never been ranked before. He made his pro debut last year, hitting for a .774 OPS in single-A.

With six new additions to the top 10, there also had to be six players that dropped out.

Last year’s #2, TOP 3B/SS Alex de los Santos, was on the Opening Day roster and appeared in 159 games for Topeka, batting .232 with 12 homers. The Cuban still had potential to do better, though. He was the best success story to be found here.

Two players dropped just outside the top 10, but made good strides forward. Last year’s #8, Justin Round, saved 35 games for AAA Newark but didn’t get a call-up to the Scorpions’ big tent until now; he was on the Opening Day roster as the #12 prospect. Similarly for #9 Aaron Harris, who went 14-8 with a 2.89 ERA for AAA Anaheim and was now added to the Opening Day roster by the Thunder.

Also just one position down from #10 to #11 was New York AAA SP Joel Lura, despite injuries and getting blasted in five starts for AAA Lexington, the level he was assigned to again now. He dominated AA during a reassignment there, however.

On the downturn were two more former top 10s: single-A outfielder Mike Walker on the Pacifics had been ranked #5 12 months ago, but sagged 29 spots to #34 for hitting just .236 with 5 homers and still being stuck in single-A Stockton. A rather mysterious disappearance was made by #6 prospect Levi Harre. The now-22-year-old made 30 starts between AA and AAA in the Warriors system, pitched to a 3.18 ERA on aggregate, and still found himself plunging to #100 on the new prospect list.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Titans (0-0) – April 6-7, 2055

The season started with a 2-game set in Boston, so the Raccoons would only play five games in the first week. Boston finished fifth in 2054, and for the second year in a row won only five games against the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (0-0) vs. Kenneth Spencer (0-0)
Kennedy Adkins (0-0) vs. Jamie Guidry (0-0)

Only left-handed pitchers on the Boston side, and one on the Coons side, as Adkins gave them a southpaw again after a full season of 162 regular season starts by right-handed pitchers.

Game 1
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – 2B Waters – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 1B Philipps – P Shui
BOS: LF Weir – RF McIntyre – CF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – C R. Gonzalez – 2B Roura – SS Marroguin – 3B Ro. Jimenez – P Spencer

First Raccoons hit of the year? Lonzo with a single in the first inning. First Raccoons RBI of the year? He Shui, with a sac fly with the bags stacked in the second inning… although the whole inning had only begun with Matt Waters reaching on an error. Lamotta and Philipps also got on, as did Venegas with a 2-out single to fill the bases once more. Unfortunately, Lonzo popped out and the game remained tied at one, courtesy of a first-inning run for Boston when Hector Weir doubled on Shui’s first pitch of the season and then scored on a 2-out single by Larry Rodriguez. Ruben Gonzalez, the ex-Coon, also doubled, but Dave Roura grounded out to Waters to keep two in scoring position. The 1-1 score held firm for a good long while, but in the fifth inning the Coons would get both Venegas and Lonzo on base. They moved up on Trent Brassfield’s groundout, and then Chris Gowin hit a bouncer off the warning track that escaped over the wall into the bullpen for a ground-rule double and a 3-1 lead. But the Titans kept hitting doubles off Shui – they had seven hits through five innings, four of which were doubles, the fourth of which was a leadoff double by reliever Noel Groh in the bottom 5th. He scored on Will McIntyre’s sac fly to shorten the score to 3-2 again. Ricky Lamotta tried to answer with a leadoff triple to left in the sixth inning, but was stranded right there at third base. Philipps and Shui both grounded out to Rocky Jimenez, and Eric Whitlow chased down Venegas’ liner to centerfield.

Shui held the 3-2 lead through seven innings, but was hit for with Pucks for no greater effect than a strikeout on lefty Jim Peterson’s belt in the eighth inning. Kevin Hitchcock pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning before David Williams put Venegas on base with a leadoff single in the top 9th. Venegas stole second base – the first by a Coon this season – and reached third when Lonzo legged out an infield single. Brassfield whiffed, Williams left with an injury, Lonzo stole second base off Alex Diaz, and then both runners scored for the second time on a Chris Gowin hit, this time a single through the left side. Tommy Gardner’s first save attempt took only three batters; while Matt Gilmore hit a single for Boston, he was doubled up by Jose Nieto to end the game. 5-2 Raccoons. Venegas 3-5; Lavorano 3-5; Gowin 2-4, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Lamotta 2-4, 3B; Shui 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – 2B Waters – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 1B Philipps – P Adkins
BOS: LF Weir – RF McIntyre – CF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – C R. Gonzalez – 2B Roura – SS Marroguin – 3B Ro. Jimenez – P Guidry

Hits by Lonzo and Brassfield, then a walk to Chris Gowin loaded the bases in the first inning, and Guidry continued to struggle, also walking Matt Waters to force in the game’s first run. He struck out Danny Munn, but gave up a 2-run single to Lamotta before the inning ended with Philipps. The Coons would up the hurt to a 4-spot in the second inning, despite starting the frame with two outs. Then Lonzo doubled, Brassfield singled him home, Gowin singled, Waters hit an RBI single, and Munn doubled home a pair before Lamotta grounded out. That was all for Guidry, who had a rather forgettable start to the season.

And Adkins? The Raccoons’ priced import gave up a first-inning triple to Hector Weir, who scored on McIntyre’s sac fly, then walked two batters with two outs in the first inning before Roura grounded out to strand those. The second inning was quick and clean, but it was also a false friend. Adkins would walk FOUR more Titans in five laborious innings, and was only lucky that the Titans never got another hit with runner(s) on base, stranding six runners in total between the third and fifth innings. The Titans got a run off Matt Walters in the bottom 6th, 7-2, but the Raccoons claimed back two against lefty Danny Easter in the seventh inning. Slowly filling the bags, they then got RBI’s from Ed Crispin’s 2-out bases-loaded single, and a walk drawn by Brent Cramer, 9-2. Easter struck out Lonzo, but then was still at it in the eighth inning, hitting Matt Knight and giving up hits to Gowin and Waters to fill the bases with nobody out. Pucks batted for Munn, but struck out, yet Lamotta and Philipps both hit RBI singles. Will Glaude replaced Easter, but surrendered another run on Crispin’s groundout before Cramer struck out in the #1 spot. The Titans hit right back, loading the bases against Kyle Brobeck, who was supposed to go the final two innings without blowing the 10-run lead, but was battered with a bases-clearing double by Larry Rodriguez, then hit a double himself in the ninth inning without the Coons scoring a run from it. Weird player, him. Brobeck’s second inning was a 1-2-3 to complete a little sweep to open the season. 12-5 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-6, 2B; Brassfield 2-4, RBI; Gowin 3-4, BB; Waters 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Munn 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Lamotta 3-5, 3 RBI;

All the first series in the North ended in sweeps. The Indians brushed away the Loggers, and the Indians broomed off the damn Elks.

Raccoons (2-0) vs. Aces (1-2) – April 9-11, 2055

The Aces had dropped two of three games against the Thunder to begin the season. They had been outscored 19-9, but had a homer to the Coons’ zero. The Coons had stolen five bases, though, while the Aces had zero.

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (0-0) vs. Bill Lawrence (0-0)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-0) vs. Noah Hollis (0-0)
Kyle Brobeck (0-0, 13.50 ERA) vs. Josh Wilson (0-1, 8.44 ERA)

After the all-lefty treatment in Boston, the Raccoons’ first home set would see them face off only against right-handers.

Pedro Rojas had only pinch-hit once so far, grounding out, but was in the starting lineup for the Friday opener.

Game 1
LVA: 2B J. White – C DeFrank – RF Austin – LF Kaniewski – SS Welter – 3B Howington – CF J. Harris – 1B Blair – P B. Lawrence
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – P Taki

Taki had one of those first innings, giving up a single to Jim White, a double to Ray DeFrank, both to leftfield, and then walked Jeremy Welter and Brian Howington after White scored on a groundout, but at least kept the bags full when Jonathan Harris struck out. The Raccoons didn’t answer right away, but then Pucks led off the bottom 3rd with a jack to right, the teams were even again. Pucks, too, had only pinch-hit in the series in Boston, but maybe he should start more often! Lawrence walked Taki with one out, then gave up a double to Venegas that put a pair in scoring position for Lonzo, and Lonzo lobbed a single over Welter’s glove for an RBI single and a 2-1 lead. Venegas scored on a balk, Brassfield whiffed, but with two down, Gowin singled home Lonzo from second base with a single to left. Munn grounded out, but the Coons were now up 4-1.

Taki, once past the first-inning jitters that we had seen routinely in the last years, was on and threw five more shutout innings, but throwing north of 30 pitches in the first eventually kept him to six innings. Bak followed him in the seventh inning and pitched around a Lonzo error to keep the 3-run lead in one piece. Lillis had the eighth dealt with on seven pitches, and after that Matt Waters (no L) drove in Brassfield with a 2-out single in the bottom 8th to take off the save chance. Matt Walters (with L) got the ball in the ninth rather than Tommy Gardner then, walked Jonathan Harris to begin the inning, but got Dave Blair to fly out easily to left, and then struck out Jarred Lytle and Jim White to end the game. 5-1 Raccoons. Venegas 2-4, 2B; Gowin 3-3, BB, RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, HR, RBI;

Also still undefeated? The Indians and Crusaders.

Game 2
LVA: 2B J. White – C DeFrank – RF Austin – LF Kaniewski – SS Welter – CF Epperson – 3B Howington – 1B Blair – P Hollis
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – P de la Cruz

Bottom 1st, Lonzo singled, stole second, and dazzled home on a Brassfield single, just like I enjoyed it! Brassfield also stole second base later in the inning, but was left on base by Gowin and Munn. The lead was quickly gone as Raffy allowed singles to Jeremy Welter and Gunner Epperson (now, THAT’S a name!) in the second inning, and the former scored on Brian Howington’s groundout. At least he kept Epperson on base. Welter kept being a problem, welting a homer his next time up in the fourth inning, and that was after Raffy gave John Kaniewski a welt with a fastball, so that one counted for two runs and a 3-1 deficit.

That remained the score for the six innings Raffy lasted; the Raccoons had only three hits off Hollis through five, and a 2-out Lonzo single in the sixth was not enough to get Raffy off the hook, either. The seventh inning saw Takenori Tanizaki (or something like that) make his ABL debut and gave up a walk, but also got a strikeout, and most importantly didn’t give up a run. Hollis gave up a run in the seventh – being taken deep to right by Danny Munn for the slugger’s first homer as a Critter. That was a solo shot, getting us back to 3-2. Tanizaki struck out Kaniewski, which was a snoutful for sure, to begin the eighth, then yielded for Eloy Sencion, who retired the next two batters in his season debut.

Pedro Rojas then had his first major league hit – a leadoff double to right-center in the bottom 8th that put the tying run in scoring position; and remember, that he was a good runner, too! He wasn’t scoring any time soon, though. Brent Cramer drew a walk batting for Sencion, but then Venegas flew out to right and Lonzo popped out to first. Two gone, Brassfield fell to 1-2, but then got a lazy curve on a stick, and – BOY! – was that ball gone! HUGE 3-run homer to left-center, and the score was flipped…! Gowin grounded out, and the ball went to Gardner, who in his second attempt blew his first save with hits given up to Howington and Dave Blair on his first three pitches, then a 2-out single to PH Jonathan Harris when the pair was in scoring position. That tied the game at five, and required more heroics in the bottom of the ninth inning against right-hander Adam Eutsler. Munn flew out to deep center, but Waters doubled to left. Pucks was gone, with Cramer having remained in center for defense. Matt Knight pinch-hit for Gardner, but flew out to Aubrey Austin in right. It was the rookie Rojas with two outs then. Liner to right, then, over Blair, and past Austin, and easily enough to score Waters from second base with a walkoff double…! 6-5 Critters! Lavorano 2-4; Brassfield 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Rojas 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

At this point, we were the only unbeaten team in the North.

And the CL.

And the ABL!

Game 3
LVA: 2B J. White – C DeFrank – RF Austin – LF Kaniewski – SS Welter – CF Epperson – 3B Howington – 1B Blair – P Jo. Wilson
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – C Philipps – 1B Rojas – 3B Crispin – CF Cramer – P Brobeck

John Kaniewski hit RBI singles in the first and fifth innings against Brobeck, driving in Ray DeFrank and Aubrey Austin once each against Brobeck, who hit a double in the bottom 3rd, but wasn’t scored – nor was Pucks with a leadoff triple in the second inning – and was down 2-0 after Kaniewski struck for the second time, and had expended 92 pitches just to get through five innings, missing often and in all directions. He had a quick sixth at least, then batted for himself to begin the bottom 6th and flew out to left. Brassfield singled, which was only the third hit for the Coons in the game, but they had blossomed late on Saturday as well (and then had dropped all the blossoms in the ninth…). Lonzo hit a ball between Kaniewski and Epperson for a double, parking the tying runs in scoring position. Only Brassfield scored as both Waters and Pucks made outs and the inning ended with Lonzo left on third base.

Brobeck was squeezed dry for a seventh inning, holding the 2-1 score, but remained on the hook when Pedro Rojas was left alone with a single in the bottom 7th, and stranded on third base after stealing second base on a botched hit-and-run with Ed Crispin. Matt Walters had a scoreless inning next, then was hit for with Venegas, who grounded out. Brassfield hit a single to left, though, and the tying run was on base again. Wilson crucially threw a wild pitch, then gave up a single to Lonzo. Brassfield made for home, Kaniewski’s throw was well late, and Lonzo snuck up into scoring position while the Aces were slow to make a second attempt at a play on him. He was stranded, though, as both Waters and Pucks flew out to a corner outfielder. Hitchcock would get the ninth in a 2-2 tie after Gardner had been overcome in a long ninth inning the day before. It was quite the inning. There was an error by Waters, a hit batter, a wild pitch – and a strikeout to DeFrank that ended the inning with Howington and White in scoring position. (blinks)

That brought back Eutsler in the bottom 9th, which hadn’t gone too well for the Aces the day before. Danny Munn hit for Philipps and hit a single to right to put the winning run on base. Rojas flew out, but Crispin snuck a ball up the middle for a single, with Munn stopping at second base. A walk to Brent Cramer filled the bases. Chris Gowin, a double play threat, admittedly, would pinch-hit for Hitchcock. The count ran full between him and Eutsler before Gowin punched a 3-2 pitch to deep center. Oh, that one looked good! That one looks good! (grabs and shakes Slappy) GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!! … 6-2 Furballs!! Brassfield 2-4; Lavorano 2-4, 2B, RBI; Munn (PH) 1-1; Gowin (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI;

In other news

April 5 – LAP RF Matt Diskin (.750, 1 HR, 4 RBI) dishes out three hits on Opening Day in a 10-4 win over the defending pennant winners, the Warriors. The middle one, a 2-run homer off SFW SP Ricardo Montoya (0-1, 12.46 ERA), is the 2,000th hit of his career, which is in its 13th season, comes off his only prior team, and makes him a career .324 hitter with 251 bombs and 1,104 RBI.
April 5 – Wolves reliever James Murdock (0-1, 27.00 ERA) ends Opening Day with a walkoff balk to give the Gold Sox a 3-2 win in nine innings.
April 7 – The Scorpions put MR Juan Valencia (0-0, 9.00 ERA) on the DL with a shoulder injury allegedly suffered while windsurfing. Valencia, who pitched in 84 games last season, is expected to miss the rest of the month.
April 9 – BOS SP Kenneth Spencer (0-1, 4.15 ERA) could be out for the season with a serious case of shoulder inflammation.
April 9 – The Titans are shut out by SFB SP Kodai Koga (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who allows only three hits and whiffs six in a 6-0 win.
April 9 – IND OF Mario Ceballos (.364, 1 HR, 3 RBI) hits a home run for a 1-0 Indians win over the Falcons.

FL Player of the Week: DAL C Henry Howie (.529, 4 HR, 9 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: POR C Chris Gowin (.563, 1 HR, 9 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Only undefeated team in the league! (grins stupidly)

Also, a walkoff slam in the first week means we’ve got destiny on our side, right? Right? I don’t know why I choose a walkoff slam to hang my hopes onto, because I could literally use any other thing. We have the CL RBI leader. We have the CL stolen base leader. Ryan Harmer isn’t on the roster to harm our chances. Brassfield has nice blueish-green eyes. Any of those mean just as much. When the baseball gods hate you, they hate you. When they love you, life is great.

The Raccoons will be home for two weeks here. We’ll face the Condors, Crusaders, and Loggers for the rest of the homestand.

Just to help everybody recall where Lonzo is on the chase up the all-time stolen base leaderboards:

39th – Chris Navarro – 338 – active
40th – Willie Ojeda – 332 – HOF
41st – Clement Clark – 331
42nd – Felix Rojas – 330 – active
43rd – Angel Montes de Oca – 328 – active
44th – Lorenzo Lavorano – 326 – active
t-45th – Felix Marquez – 325 – active
t-45th – Lorenzo Rivera – 325
47th – Raúl Herrera – 321

So the two newest players in his crosshairs would be the ABL’s mintest Hall of Famer, the recently-elected Willie Ojeda, and 28-year-old Chris Navarro, who has yet to make an appearance in the starting lineup with the Crusaders, while 42-year-old Felix Marquez is on 26 at-bats with the Caps. None of the four actives other than Lonzo here has a stolen bag so far this year. We’ll probably look at the progress once a month going forwards.

Fun Fact: Seisaku Taki took the team’s 6,600th regular season win on Friday.

…which also means that the Raccoons managed to cram a whole ring-winning season in between two hundo wins, since #6,500 was taken by Victor Salcido in September of 2053.

[Westheim]

Three series today, three more tomorrow. IF one of you get me a cake for energy!

+++

Raccoons (5-0) vs. Condors (3-4) – April 12-14, 2055

The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the dumpster behind the ballpark smelled extra pleasant on Monday morning, as the Raccoons entered the second week of the season undefeated and with the Condors coming up next. The Condors had not won any of their nine games with the Raccoons last year, but they had started the season decently enough with the fifth-most runs scored and the fifth-most runs allowed. Only one homer for them, but the best defense in the league a week into the new campaign.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (1-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Victor Scott (0-0, 7.20 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Nick Young (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. Gabe Hill (0-1, 10.38 ERA)

Something wicked was brewing: an entire 3-game set against only left-handed starting pitchers. Hah!

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Chapa – 2B D. Mercado – LF T. Duncan – 1B Witherspoon – C Lehman – CF Hildebrand – RF M. Allen – SS Medlock – P V. Scott
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – CF Lamotta – 1B Philipps – P Shui

Shui walked a pair, but didn’t allow a hit the first time through the Condors’ lineup, while the Raccoons got an early lead with a second-inning home run hit by Matt Waters. They tacked on in the third inning, which Venegas opened with a double, only to be swiftly scored on Lonzo’s single. Brassfield doubled, and while Gowin popped out, Waters walked to fill the bases… which allowed Pucks to hit into a double play to end the inning. Tim Duncan opened the fourth inning with a single, but was left on base, and when Mike Allen singled leading off the fifth, he was doubled up by Stephen Medlock. The Condors couldn’t hit, the Raccoons stopped hitting, and I nodded off for a bit in the sixth and seventh until Medlock rudely awoke me with a homer to left-center that made plenty of noise in the eighth inning, cutting the Coons’ lead in half. Shui finished the inning, however, and then Chris Gowin drew a 1-out walk off Aaron Erwin in the bottom of the eighth. Ed Crispin ran for him, but this turned out to be pointless effort; Matt Waters whacked another home run and the Raccoons tacked on two runs that way, and Tommy Gardner resisted the urge to blow the 3-run lead in the ninth inning. 4-1 Raccoons. Waters 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Philipps 1-2, BB, 2B; Shui 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-0);

Game 2
TIJ: 2B D. Mercado – 3B Chapa – LF T. Duncan – C Lehman – 1B Witherspoon – SS Medlock – CF V. Velez – RF Groom – P N. Young
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – P Adkins

Adkins had been a mess in his first start, and gave up a run right away when Domingo Mercado opened the Tuesday game with a triple to right and scored on a sac fly, but the Coons had Lonzo, Lonzo reached base, stole another base, and scored on Gowin’s 2-out single to tie the game right there in the bottom 1st. It was certainly a different start for Adkins, who had walked six the week before, but in this start walked only one batter, Tim Lehman in the fourth inning, and otherwise struck out eight. I wasn’t entirely happy with the pitch count, which rose fast and reached 102 after just six innings, which meant the end for him. The Raccoons scattered seven hits – all singles – through five innings, leaving as many on base, but nobody reached base in the bottom 6th and Adkins had to settle for a no-decision. Tanizori Tikitaki pitched a clean seventh, and Lillis a scoreless eighth, even though he needed Danny Munn to make a catch while bouncing off the fence. Hitchcock killed the middle of the order with two strikeouts in the ninth inning … but the Raccoons had yet to find the winning run, and they’d bring up the 6-7-8 batters for the bottom 9th, facing Erwin again. And there was Matt Waters again. And there was Matt Waters, peppering another home run off Aaron Erwin again…! 2-1 Critters! Venegas 2-4; Waters 2-4, HR, RBI;

There would not be an off day this week, so eventually everybody would get a day off. We also didn’t expect a left-handed starter in the four games against New York that were coming up, so the right-handed batters could wait a day longer.

Game 3
TIJ: 3B Chapa – 2B D. Mercado – LF T. Duncan – 1B Witherspoon – C Lehman – CF Hildebrand – RF M. Allen – SS Medlock – P G. Hill
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – 3B Waters – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 2B Knight – C Philipps – P Taki

Taki and first innings… Luis Chapa and Domingo Mercado both hit singles off him, each stole second base in turn, and both would be doubled home by Sam Witherspoon for a quick 2-0 lead for the Condors. The Coons again made up one run right away (only that this time it wasn’t enough to tie the game) with singles by their 1-2 batters and Waters bringing home Venegas with a groundout, but Lonzo was left in scoring position.

While Taki settled in, the Raccoons couldn’t get untracked yet. Lonzo was on base with a 2-out infield single in the bottom 3rd, but was caught stealing. The bottom 4th began with Brassfield grounding out, before Hill lost a fastball that homed in on Matt Waters’ fuzzy ears. Waters shrieked, turned at the last moment, but couldn’t get out of the way and was beaned, collapsing in the box at once. I wailed, and while Waters sat up after a few seconds, he looked like his bell had been very much rung and was removed from the game. Ed Crispin would take over his spot and third base. Hill, somewhat shaken, walked Munn on four pitches, but then got out of the inning with a Lamotta grounder and by putting up a K before the Night.

Taki ran up eight strikeouts through five, then got taken off the hook when Philipps drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, he bunted him over, and Venegas socked an RBI double to left. Lonzo’s RBI single to left-center flipped the score to 3-2 Coons. That was still the score in the seventh when Jayden Durant nailed Venegas in the shoulder, and by now we would be glad if the Condors could get outta town. Taki would go eight innings and strike out ten batters, which was nothing to complain about as a whole, it was just those damn first innings… Gardner got three groundouts in the ninth inning to complete the sweep. 3-2 Raccoons. Venegas 2-3, 2B, RBI; Lavorano 3-4, RBI; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1; Taki 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (2-0);

When I went to see Matt Waters after the game, he looked at me with an innocent smile and wondered out loud why Mommy wasn’t answering the phone. Didn’t look like he’d be back to normal within a few days, so he was off to the DL.

Our new head trainer, Luis Silva, prescribed him daily baths in his own mixture of oils, which confused me slightly. Dr. Silva, isn’t the injury in his head? Do we have to press him under water? – No, I’m not a doctor. Are you?

The Coons brought back Naughty Joe, which was such a thrill. His old number #21 had been given to Lamotta, so he was assigned #49 now.

Raccoons (8-0) vs. Crusaders (8-1) – April 15-18, 2055

Unstoppable force against unmovable object? These two teams had gone 16-1 so far in the new season, and I was no expert, but with a 4-game set up for the weekend, SOMETHING had to give. New York had two 4-game winning streaks on the season, ranked first in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, but with a rotation with an ERA near five, which was a weird mix. The pen was sturdy, but they ranked in the bottom half in defense. Prince Gates was already on 12 RBI. The Coons had won the series last year, 10-8.

Projected matchups:
Rafael de la Cruz (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Alex Murillo (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-0, 5.00 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (1-0, 5.40 ERA)
He Shui (2-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Kyle Turay (2-0, 1.69 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (1-0, 1.64 ERA) vs. TBD

Three right-handers, and then another one in Edwin Sopena (2-0, 5.25 ERA), if he recovered of a mild calf strain in time for Sunday, or another one in Jim White (1-0, 8.00 ERA) if the Crusaders would send him on short rest, or whatever else they’d want to throw at us.

Yes, it was first vs. second, but it was also April. I had no qualms sitting all of the top-half-of-the-lineup guys in this series.

Game 1
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – LF D. Rivera – RF Culp – 1B Sevilla – C Kissler – 2B Russ – P A. Murillo
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – 3B Crispin – 2B Knight – P de la Cruz

The series didn’t get going all too well for the Raccoons. Knight made an error in the second inning that put Danny Rivera on base, Raffy walked Nate Culp, and then got taken deep by Raul Sevilla for a 3-0 deficit. He retired the next three batters, but had two runners around him again in the third inning when both Prince Gates and Zach Suggs reached on errors by Crispin and Knight, which sugged. Raffy pulled through that one, though, but with all the errors and the extra stressful pitches his pitch count was escalating almost all by itself. At least he got even in the fourth inning, quite literally – after Danny Munn opened the inning with a homer to narrow the score to 3-1, Gowin and Pucks socked consecutive doubles to scrub off another run. Pucks then went for home on a Rojas single, but was thrown out by Nate Culp. Rojas went to second, but Crispin popped out. Knight was walked intentionally, bringing up Raffy with two on and two out, and tying the score with an RBI single to right-center. Brassfield legged out an infield roller that filled the bases, and Lonzo flipped the score all the way round with a dinker behind Suggs for an RBI single, 4-3. Danny Munn got a second RBI in the inning by drawing a full-count walk, and that was the end for Murillo. Ken Quisenberry took over, but gave up a 2-run single to left to Gowin before getting Pucks to strike out to end the 7-run onslaught.

Raffy would last six innings… but gave up an RBI triple to Sevilla in the sixth inning after a leadoff walk to Culp and surrendered two more runs that way, Sevilla scoring on Aaron Kissler’s groundout, getting New York back to 7-5. In the seventh and eighth, the Coons ran into Neil Hamann, who didn’t allow anything much across two innings, but Walters and Hitchcock also sawed off any Crusaders attempts to get on base. It would be Gardner and the bottom of the order in the ninth inning then. Kissler grounded out. Andrew Russ (snarls!) whiffed (grins). Mike Seidman extended the game with a pinch-hit single, but was left on base when Omar Sanchez grounded out to Knight to end the game. 7-5 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-5; Munn 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gowin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Boese (PH) 1-1;

Lonzo got Friday off, and then it would probably be Brassfield and Gowin to the bench on Saturday – that would sit everybody down at least once.

Game 2
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF Culp – 1B Sevilla – C Kissler – LF G. Cabrera – 2B Russ – P Seiter
POR: 3B Venegas – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – SS Knight – 2B Boese – P Brobeck

Brobeck threw two scoreless innings, giving up two hits, but when he returned for the third inning, he issued a leadoff walk to Russ, then left with some sort of physical complaint. I made an annoyed noise, while the Raccoons readied Hyun-soo Bak for a few innings. The Korean hadn’t pitched so far this week, surrendered Russ’ run for a 1-0 Crusaders lead, but would go on to throw three innings on 30 pitches without giving up a run of his own, and when that job was done and over with was also the only Raccoons batter with a base hit in the box score, having hit a single to right in the third inning. Lonzo would bat for him in the bottom 5th after a walk to Matt Knight and a single by Naughty Joe put runners on the corners with one out, but lined out to short. However, Venegas singled home the tying run, the trailing runners made it to scoring position when the ball was fumbled by the Crusaders, and then Trent Brassfield came through with a 2-run single to right to take a 3-1 lead. Danny Munn found another hit, but Gowin flew out to center to end the inning.

Matt Walters got an inning done, and then the rarely-praised replacement middle infield put another run together in the bottom 6th when Knight doubled and was singled across by Naughty Joe. The Coons pen continued to clamp down on any attempts to score; while Sencion in the seventh and Tazinaki in the eighth inning both put a runner on base, neither allowed that runner to third base and completed their assigned innings. Hitchcock got the ninth, got the first two out, then gave up a double to Sevilla. On the very next pitch, Kissler grounded out to Knight to end the game. 4-1 Critters! Knight 2-3, 2B; Boese 2-4, RBI; Bak 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0) and 1-1;

To my utter amazement, Luis Silva wrapped Kyle Brobeck’s bum ankle in a wet towel filled with an assortment spring blossoms over night, and he was as good as new on Saturday morning. No DL stint necessary, and he might even get a turn at third base before his next turn on the hill!

The Crusaders made a trade between games, acquiring longtime Falcons infielder Erik Stevens (.256, 0 HR, 4 RBI) from L.A. for C Aaron Kissler (.250, 0 HR, 2 RBI) and non-prospect Joe Jones, who they had signed just four days ago, a week after the former 10th-rounder had been released by the Raccoons.

Game 3
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF D. Rivera – LF Culp – CF Monson – 1B E. Stevens – C Seidman – P Turay
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – LF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – C Philipps – CF Cramer – 2B Knight – P Shui

While the game was scoreless early on, the two pitchers had very different days. Through four innings, He Shui gave up five hits, but also struck out five and didn’t allow a run. Especially impressive I found strikeouts to Rivera and Culp to end the fourth inning after Gates and Suggs had singled their way to the corners, ending the inning that way. Shui was also the only Raccoon to reach base the first time through against Turay, and he did so only on an error by Zach Suggs. Danny Munn got into the H column with a solo jack in the fourth, giving Shui a 1-0 lead. Rojas doubled the same inning, but was left on base.

New York was back on the corners in the fifth inning, and then with nobody out. Omar Sanchez drew a leadoff walk, then reached third base on Gates’ single. Suggs struck out, and Rivera lined out to Rojas, who stepped on first base to double up Gates astray, ending the inning. Instead, the Raccoons scratched out another run on singles by Knight and Venegas in the same inning, with Shui bunting Knight to second base on his turn. The Crusaders were still shut out through six, but Shui had been a busy bee and was on 98 pitches by that point. Seidman lined out and Turay whiffed, and that would be it for him; he was lifted for Sencion with Omar Sanchez up. Sencion got out of the inning, but then allowed singles to Suggs and Rivera in the eighth inning. The Raccoons could not bring Hitchcock – two on and one out with a right-hander up was HIS spot – since he had been out two days straight, and didn’t want to send Gardner, also busy this week, for a 5-out save. Norizaki it was, and the Japanese “rookie” got a double play grounder from Culp to kill the inning. Gardner was then in the game for the ninth inning. Jason Monson struck out, but Erik Stevens dropped a bloop single between Knight and Munn. No problem, though – like Culp the inning before, Raul Sevilla would find Lonzo for a double play to end the inning and the game. 2-0 Coons. Munn 2-4, HR, RBI; Shui 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (3-0);

Game 4
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – CF G. Cabrera – SS Z. Suggs – LF Culp – 3B Gates – 1B Sevilla – RF Monson – C Seidman – P Sopena
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Brassfield – 1B Rojas – CF Puckeridge – 2B Knight – P Adkins

Sopena pitched, the calf be damned. The Coons brought Lonzo in the first and Pucks in the second into scoring position, but stranded either of them. Adkins also seemed to have constant traffic, with a runner on base in each of the early innings, and he had quite a few full counts, too, taking 50 pitches for three shutout innings. Whether it would matter much, was a different question entirely, because the weather was iffy from the start on Sunday, and by the fourth inning the sky was dark and starting to leak a few drops. The game remained scoreless, though, neither team managing to overcome the other pitcher, but in the bottom 5th, with a rain-shortened game a real possibility after there had already been a 20-minute rain delay between the fourth and the fifth innings, the Raccoons put Pucks and Knight in scoring position with a leadoff walk and a double to right, respectively. Adkins gave himself the lead with a sac fly to center, while Venegas smacked a double to left to bring in Knight from second base. Lonzo grounded out and Munn flew out to deep left, keeping the score at 2-0.

Adkins had a quick sixth, while the Coons then walked the bags full in the bottom of the frame. Gowin and Pucks walked under their own volition, while Knight was put on intentionally after a wild pitch advanced the runners with two outs. The Raccoons were in a bit of a pinch here, with the pen not exactly bored recently, but Adkins was also near 90 pitches and there were two outs. But we already had the lead – Adkins was sent to bat, whiffed, but then pitched another inning with two strikeouts before sitting down after seven shutout innings and 110 pitches.

Lillis walked Sanchez and gave up a single to Suggs in the eighth, but then Culp popped out to short to end the inning. Bottom 8th, Trent Brassfield provided some cushion with a leadoff jack off Sopena, extending the lead to 3-0. Rojas walked and Knight reached on an error to keep the inning going. Brent Cramer popped out as pinch-hitter with one gone, but Ed Crispin hit for Venegas with two down and singled to right to get home another run. Lonzo flew out to center, giving a 4-0 lead to Hyun-soo Bak, who put the first two New Yorkers on base as Gates singled and Sevilla walked. That gave us a save opportunity, but we reeeeeally didn’t want to use another reliever. Monson hit into a double play, which took the save off, and Seidman struck out to complete a stunning four-game sweep. 4-0 Furballs! Venegas 2-4, 2B, RBI; Crispin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Puckeridge 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Adkins 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (2-0);

A dozen up, a dozen down!!

Raccoons (12-0) vs. Loggers (5-7) – April 19-21, 2055

The Loggers had been rained out on Sunday, so arrived with a day off for this three-game set, the last on the homestand. While the Raccoons had conceded the fewest runs in the league, the Loggers had scored the fewest runs, in both instances under 2.5 per game. They were fourth in runs allowed, but that made for a -15 run differential already (Critters: +35). We had to make good for last year, when the Loggers beat us 10 out of 18 games.

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (2-0, 1.93 ERA) vs. Luke Moses (0-2, 5.65 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (1-0, 5.25 ERA) vs. Juan Mercado (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-0, 4.91 ERA) vs. Jeff Fox (0-1, 12.15 ERA)

Mercado, Fox, and Tyler Riddle (1-1, 2.57 ERA) were left-handers, although with the unscheduled day off on Sunday they had some leverage for this series.

Game 1
MIL: 3B T. Edwards – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Callaia – C C. Thomas – LF E. Cobb – CF Starnes – 2B de Kok – P Moses
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Brassfield – 1B Rojas – CF Puckeridge – 2B Knight – P Taki

The clouds were still suspect on Monday, as was Taki’s first inning. He walked Robby Gaxiola and Gaudencio Callaia, and Chris Thomas singled home a 2-out run to put the Loggers on top. Eric Cobb grounded out to Venegas to strand two, while Venegas opened the bottom 1st with a wallbanger double in right. He was thrown out at the plate on Lonzo’s single, but Lonzo advanced to second base on the throw home and scored when Munn hit another single. Gowin found a double play to end the inning, but the Coons went up 2-1 the inning after when Knight managed to break up the double play when he grounded to short with one out and Rojas and Pucks on the corners; the run was unearned thanks to Gaxiola’s bobble that had put Pucks on base.

Then the offense just died. Taki kept a 2-hitter through six, while the Raccoons hit a few more scattered singles, but never reached even third base anymore. Then Chris Thomas shocked the ballpark by hitting a jack off Taki in the seventh inning, which tied the score at two. A run off Taki AFTER the first inning?? What was this sorcery!!?? Taki finished the inning, but had to settle for a no-decision; with the 2-3-4-5 batters all left-handed and up for the eighth inning, the Raccoons sent Walters. He retired the first three of them in order, but had not come on in a double switch and was thus hit for to begin the bottom 8th. Crispin flew out to Perry Pigman in his spot, but Venegas reached base, stole second, and when Moses walked Lonzo, he was yanked for righty Kyle Conner. Munn whiffed, Gowin grounded out, and the game remained tied. Hitchcock had the ninth, gave up a single to Eric Cobb, but the pinch-runner Bobby Rivera was doubled up by Dennis Starnes’ grounder to short, and the Coons still had a shot to walk off with a single run. Brassfield grounded out against Conner, as did Rojas. Pucks with two outs flew to center. Stretch! Stretch! Is it…!? GONE!!! 3-2 Critters! Venegas 3-4, 2B; Taki 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

13-0! Will madness ever stop…!?

Game 2
MIL: 3B T. Edwards – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Callaia – C C. Thomas – CF M. Martinez – LF E. Cobb – 2B de Kok – P J. Mercado
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 3B Crispin – C Philipps – 2B Boese – P de la Cruz

Once again, a deficit; Gaxiola singled to right, Pigman doubled to left, and just like that the Loggers had another 1-0 lead. However, the Coons also once more came right back. Venegas singled to center, stole second, and scored on a Lonzo single in the bottom 1st. That remained the score all the way to the rain delay in the bottom 4th. Raffy had bother enough with just the Loggers, without the weather getting involved. He threw 55 pitches in four innings, relying quite a bit on the defense to make plays. He returned to the mound after a 30-minute rain delay for the fifth inning, got two outs, then threw away Travis Edwards’ grounder for a 2-base error just when a quick 1-2-3 was within reach. At least Gaxiola sailed out to center where Lamotta made the catch and the go-ahead run was stranded at second base. Gaudencio Callaia came just as far in the sixth inning on a single and a stolen base, with Miguel Martinez grounding out to Crispin.

Both teams were on just three hits in the middle of the sixth, but Brassfield singled into shallow center to begin the bottom 6th, but then it took two outs for a Crispin single to even move that go-ahead run to second base. Mercado lost Philipps on balls, then lost the ball itself, getting replaced with righty Dan Bell. With three on and two outs, the Raccoons sent Pucks to hit for Naughty Joe, but he grounded out to Teo de Kok. Instead the Loggers scored in the seventh. Dennis Starnes singled, stole second, reached third on Philipps’ errant throw, and then scored on a suicide squeeze, which was quite the way to see a 13-game winning streak slide into the shredder. Raffy was stuck; he got two fielders’ choices, but was lifted when he looked like he was heaving rocks to the plate; Bak entered with Rojas in a double switch, since the #9 spot was up next, but on his first pitch Edwards was caught stealing to end the inning. He offered a leadoff walk to Bobby Rivera in the eighth, was lifted for Lillis, but Rivera stole second and scored on two productive outs, 3-1. And the Coons? Went down to Nelson Moreno, of all right-handers, in the bottom 8th. Tzatziki pitched a scoreless ninth, but the Raccoons had to make up two runs with the bottom half of the lineup just to get even against righty Dave Lister. Gowin, Philipps, and Knight went down in order. 3-1 Loggers.

Noooooo…!!! (sobs into Honeypaws’ fuzzy belly)

Just when I thought we might go 162-0!

Game 3
MIL: LF B. Rivera – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Callaia – C C. Thomas – 2B F. Vazquez – 3B T. Edwards – CF M. Martinez – P J. Fox
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Puckeridge – CF Lamotta – 1B Rojas – 2B Knight – P Brobeck

Brobeck was hit by a truck right away, giving up a walk to Rivera, a double to Gaxiola, and the runs on productive outs. Thomas hit another double, Felix Vazquez drew another walk, but Edwards grounded out to Lonzo to get it over with. Brobeck never got his crap together in this game, giving up singles to Callaia and Thomas in the third inning, then a 2-out, 3-run bomb to Edwards. He also had to drive in the team’s first run himself with a 1-out RBI single to score Pedro Rojas in the bottom 3rd, 5-1. A Gaxiola error put Venegas on, and Lonzo walked, loading the bases and bringing up Brassfield as the tying run. Fox got a crucial strikeout, then had Miguel Martinez chase down Gowin’s fly to end the inning.

Brobeck retired nobody in the fourth, allowing hits to Fox and Rivera, then a walk to Gaxiola, and was ax-iola-ed. Walters retired the three left-handers in the 3-4-5 spots, conceding one more run on Callaia’s groundout, 6-1, then added three more outs in the fifth inning. Sencion was next, had a scoreless sixth, but then put Pigman and Callaia on the corners, and had one of those runs surrendered by Hyun-soo Bak with a sac fly to right. The Coons had nothing.

Which made it all the more confusing that when the rain, that had hung around for almost a week now, made a reappearance in the seventh inning and extended the seventh-inning stretch to a whopping 127-minute rain delay, and despite the Loggers up by six the game was not called…! There was hardly a soul left in the stands after two hours, though, and who could blame them? The Raccoons had nothing in the bottom 7th, but Nelson Moreno walked Brassfield with one out and then gave up a double to Gowin in the bottom 8th. Pucks struck out, Munn grounded out… nobody scored. The ninth was no better; Ed Crispin hit a 2-out double, but was stranded when Naughty Joe, last guy off the bench, grounded out. 7-1 Loggers. Puckeridge 2-4; Walters 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

April 13 – The Crusaders trade 2B/SS Chris Navarro (.222, 0 HR, 4 RBI) to the Scorpions for OF Jason Monson (.348, 1 HR, 5 RBI).
April 13 – Elbow ligament damage costs RIC CL Adam Bates (0-0, 4.50 ERA) the entire 2055 season.
April 13 – The Scorpions scored a staggering 13 runs in the fourth inning against the Rebels, whipping them 17-4 at the end of the day. SAC SP Josh Barbieri (2-0, 1.76 ERA) goes 7.1 innings for the win, and drives in four runs with the stick, poking a double and a single.
April 14 – Another week, another walkoff balk. This time RIC MR Ryan Bolin (1-2, 7.71 ERA, 1 SV) twitches the Scorpions’ LF Josh Spath (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI) across for an 11-inning, 3-2 loss.
April 15 – The Knights get a double-whammy, losing OF/1B Jon Alade (.237, 1 HR, 6 RBI) with a sprained ankle for a month, and 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.290, 1 HR, 2 RBI) for at least two weeks with a knee contusion.
April 16 – MIL SP Josh Costello (1-1, 0.82 ERA) shuts out the Titans on three hits for a 7-0 win.
April 17 – In a game with only six total base hits, SFB INF/LF/RF Adam Peltier (.238, 1 HR, 5 RBI) lifts a home run for a 1-0 Bayhawks win over the Falcons.
April 18 – SAC C Kevin Weese (.388, 0 HR, 5 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak with a single in a 6-3 loss to the Gold Sox.
April 20 – The Thunder beat the Knights, 7-5 in 16 innings. Both teams were even at four after six innings, then scored a run each in the 14th before the Thunder broke through in the top 16th and kept the store closed in the bottom of the inning.
April 21 – For the second time in five days, the Bayhawks’ Adam Peltier (.254, 3 HR, 8 RBI) goes yard for the only run in a 1-0 win, this time against the Condors.
April 22 – The Crusaders destroy the Indians, 17-0, including a 7-run seventh. Amazingly, no Crusaders batters has more than two RBI, and they only have 13 in total, since the Indians also manage to mix in a cavalcade of errors and wild pitches.

FL Player of the Week: DEN OF Bill Ramires (.373, 3 HR, 11 RBI), batting .462 (12-26) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN C Tristan Waker (.463, 1 HR, 5 RBI), slapping .591 (13-22) with 1 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

2-game losing streak! The sky is falling! Aaaaack!!

Okay, perhaps 13-0 was not sustainable. I am surprised we got that far. We’re still first in runs allowed, but we don’t have scored that many runs overall. In fact we have only scored 15 runs in our last six games.

First multi-city road trip starts on Friday, with a difficult trip to the Thunder and Knights. We will host the Titans and Indians after that.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have won 13 straight games against the Condors.

That’s all three this year and all nine last year, and the final meeting in 2053, a 3-0 win for Taki on August 3. The day before that, the Condors had swamped the Raccoons, 15-2, but we were now paying them back bit by bit.

[ayaghmour2]

What a start! Is this the longest win streak to start a season for the Raccoons? Have to imagine it's up there!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by ayaghmour2

What a start! Is this the longest win streak to start a season for the Raccoons? Have to imagine it's up there!

Pretty sure it is! 13 straight is the team record at any point in OOTP 16, I think, since I don’t have the achievement for 15 straight wins and I would be whining every day if I had ever made it to 14. I feel like we had 13 before, just not to start a season. I remember 9-0 at some point, but not more.

+++

Raccoons (13-2) @ Thunder (6-9) – April 23-25, 2055

The Thunder had struggled out of the gate, playing .400 ball with the #9 offense and pitching each in the CL. Defense hadn’t been good, rotation and pen equally mediocre, and they had only three stolen bases, but they led the CL in longballs with 16. The Raccoons had not won a regular season series (tee-hee) from the Thunder in eight years, but at least kept winning CLCSes against them.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (3-0, 1.25 ERA) vs. Bubba Wolinsky (1-1, 5.28 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (2-0, 1.00 ERA) vs. Victor Mondragon (0-1, 4.26 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (2-0, 2.14 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (0-1, 3.18 ERA)

Yet more southpaws – both ex-Critter Bubba Wolinsky and Zeigler were throwing lefty, so by the end of the week the Raccoons would still be half and half in facing left-handers and right-handers on the year, having seen nine of each sort.

Game 1
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 1B Rojas – 2B Knight – P Shui
OCT: 2B Ban – 3B Triplett – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – RF Harmon – C Monaghan – LF D. Ramirez – CF Ward – P Wolinsky

The Raccoons took a lead early; while Brassfield was left on base after a first-inning double, three singles by Munn, Lamotta, and Knight gave the team a 1-0 lead in the second inning, and in the third Brassfield found Lonzo on base and bashed a home run to left-center to extend the lead to 3-0. Shui didn’t allow a hit through four innings, but Mike Harmon ticked a leadoff single to center in the bottom 5th, then scored on Ward’s 2-out single, 3-1. While Bubba didn’t make it out of the sixth inning, but didn’t allow another run actually, Shui looked like he could pitch a while longer, but started running 3-ball counts in the sixth inning, and while he got double play grounders in both the sixth and seventh innings to eliminate single Thunder runners, he would not be back for the eighth. Hitchcock got rid of the bottom of the order in the eighth inning, letting nobody on base, but Gardner offered a leadoff walk to Jonathan Ban in the ninth inning. Doug Triplett struck out as the tying run, but Ed Soberanes found Lonzo for a double play to end the game. 3-1 Coons. Lavorano 2-5, 2 2B; Brassfield 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Knight 4-4, 2B, RBI; Shui 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (4-0);

Game 2
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Brassfield – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – 2B Knight – P Adkins
OCT: 2B Ban – 3B Triplett – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – CF Harmon – LF D. Ramirez – C Burnham – RF Ransford – P Mondragon

Pucks, Rojas, and Knight all hit singles with two outs in the second inning. Pucks didn’t go to third base on Rojas’ single, but then tried to score from second base on Knight’s knock, but was thrown out at the plate by Danny Ramirez, which ended the inning. While Adkins walked a pair in the first inning, he kept the store closed in the early innings, and the Raccoons came back from being retired 1-2-3 in the third inning to load the bases 1-2-3 in the fourth inning. Danny Munn drew a walk, and Gowin and Brassfield snuck singles through the infield to get to three on, no outs. Munn wouldn’t score, because Pucks grounded into an awful force at home plate, but the bags remained full, and Pedro Rojas forced in a run by drawing a walk. Knight whiffed, but Adkins slogged a double past Triplett to drive in two more runs. Venegas flew out to Mike Harmon to leave a pair in scoring position in the 3-0 game.

Adkins kept the Thunder short, giving up just two base hits through five innings, although one was a single to Mondragon, which I always found annoying. The Coons tacked on in the sixth. Pucks reached base, then scored from first on a double that Rojas wedged into the rightfield corner, 4-0. After Mondragon’s single in the fifth, the Thunder only reached base again when Rojas made an error in the seventh inning, which Adkins completed without fuss, and then retired another three in a row in the bottom 8th. The Coons kept it at 4-0 through nine, and Adkins was back out for the meat of the order, but put Ed Soberanes and David Worthington on base, and while he struck out Harmon, he looked gassed and was hauled in. Ramirez struck out against Tommy Gardner, and Pucks snared an easy fly to center by Luke Burnham, ending the game. 4-0 Critters. Puckeridge 3-4; Rojas 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Adkins 8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (3-0) and 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

…and they win and they win and they win…!

Game 3
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – C Gowin – 3B Brobeck – RF Puckeridge – CF Lamotta – 2B Boese – P Taki
OCT: 2B Ban – 3B Triplett – SS Soberanes – RF Harmon – C Monaghan – 1B R. Cox – LF D. Lee – CF Ward – P Zeigler

Brassfield drove in Lonzo with a first-inning single for an early lead; Lonzo had knocked his third double of the series to get into scoring position. Brassfield also singled home the team’s second run; after Gowin in the first and Lamotta in the second ended innings with double plays, Naughty Joe reached by getting nicked to start off the third inning. Venegas reached on an error to put them on the corners with one out, but Lonzo whiffed. Not so Brassfield, who hit a single over Soberanes to extend the lead to 2-0. Gowin hit a pop to shallow right – but neither Ban nor Harmon made it there, and the ball fell in for a 2-out RBI single…! All this came without the usual first-inning panic with Taki, who retired the Thunder in order in the first, and kept them off the board in following innings as well.

The Raccoons had the bags full with Lonzo, Brassfield, and Gowin in the fifth inning and one out, but Brobeck whiffed and Pucks grounded out to add no runs. Naughty Joe did not feature in that inning, but hit into double plays in both the fourth and sixth innings to kill potential runs before the seventh inning featured no naughty second baseman while Brassfield doubled, Gowin was walked intentionally, and after Brobeck hit into a fielder’s choice, Pucks knocked a 2-out RBI single to right-center, 4-0. Ricky Lamotta grounded out, ending another inning with personnel stranded, and the Thunder sniffed an opening after Eric Monaghan and Ryan Cox started the bottom 7th with singles off Taki, one to left and one to right. Dave Lee grounded out, advancing both of them, and then Jayden Ward hit a single up the middle, plating the runners and cutting the lead in half to 4-2. Taki finished the inning against Zeigler and Ban, but was hit for with Brent Cramer for no gains in the eighth. Two gone, Venegas then singled to right, and Lonzo singled to left, putting runners on the corners. Brassfield cashed another guy with an RBI single to left-center, but Gowin’s fly to deep left was caught by Lee to end the inning. With Taki gone, Bak and Walters combined for a scoreless bottom 8th before another run was tacked on top begin the ninth inning against fellow Korean right-hander Hyeok Kim, who was taken quite deep by Brobeck. Lillis got the ninth with a 4-run lead, but Monaghan singled and Lee drew a walk. Hitchcock got the ball against PH Luke Burnham, walked the bags full, but ended the game when Jonathan Ban grounded out to Matt Knight at second base. 6-2 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-5, 2B; Brassfield 4-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Brobeck 2-5, HR, RBI; Puckeridge 2-5, RBI; Lamotta 2-5; Taki 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-0);

Raccoons (16-2) @ Knights (9-10) – April 26-28, 2055

On to Atlanta for the second and final destination on this road trip. The Knights had yet to find their footing as well, but had a +3 run differential despite being just under .500. They ranked third in runs scored, but were seventh in runs conceded, with a very brittle bullpen. This team, too, had little to no speed. The Raccoons had won the series four years in a row, but it had always been close, and last year we had only gotten them five out of nine. Atlanta had a host of injuries already, like the Critters, with Jon Alade, Willie Acosta, and Ronnie Thompson all on the DL, and Leo Villacorta day-to-day with a thigh ailment.

Projected matchups:
Rafael de la Cruz (1-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Bruce Mark jr. (1-1, 5.16 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-1, 7.71 ERA) vs. Joe Byrd (3-0, 1.16 ERA)
He Shui (4-0, 1.26 ERA) vs. Esteban Duran (1-3, 3.57 ERA)

Only right-handed pitchers coming up in this series!

Game 1
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – LF Brassfield – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – 2B Knight – C Philipps – P de la Cruz
ATL: RF Stipp – 1B Riley – LF E. Moreno – 2B E. Miller – CF G. Pena – 3B Villacorta – C Nieto – SS Visser – P Mark jr.

The Knights welcomed Raffy rather rudely, batting through the order in the first inning. Raffy didn’t retire any of the first five batters, giving up three hits, a walk, and nailed a guy, giving up two runs already. A third scored on Villacorta’s sac fly to deep left, while Marco Nieto grounded out. Preston Visser walked, but at least Bruce Mark jr. struck out to leave three on in the 3-0 game. The Raccoons answered with three hits to begin the top 2nd, getting Brassfield and Pucks into scoring position with a leadoff single and double, respectively, but after Rojas hit an RBI single to right, Knight and Philipps choked and left runners on the corners.

It remained 3-1 Knights for the duration of Raffy’s start, which was only five innings. It was a real drag, he walked five batters against as many strikeouts, and I wondered whether he’d ever piece it back together. I sighed deeply. Both teams were stuck on four hits as the game went to the later innings, with the Raccoons through seven walking as many batters, Tanzania Tanizuki and Matt Walters taking over in relief from Raffy, but both erring here and there with their pitches. Mark had no such problems; he was on one walk and ten strikeouts through eight innings. Bak held the Knights within reach with a scoreless eighth, which brought in David Hardaway for the ninth inning against the 3-4-5 batters. Munn and Brassfield both flew out to Eddie Moreno, and only Pucks reached base with a walk. A strikeout to the rookie Rojas ended the ballgame. 3-1 Knights. Puckeridge 2-3, BB, 2B;

Game 2
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – 1B Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – 2B Knight – CF Cramer – P Brobeck
ATL: RF Stipp – 1B Riley – LF E. Moreno – 2B E. Miller – C Almaguer – CF G. Pena – 3B Villacorta – SS Visser – P J. Byrd

Dan Riley both hit an RBI double and left the game with a hip ailment in the first inning, in which Brobeck was whacked for another RBI double by Eric Miller on the way to giving up two runs. It didn’t get better any time soon; like Pat Stipp in the first, Preston Visser drew a walk and scored in the bottom 2nd, driven home by Stipp in turn, 3-0. Now, the Raccoons got Lonzo to hit a gap double and Munn to whack a huge 2-run homer in the third inning to put something on the board, then put Crispin and Knight on the corners with leadoff singles in the fourth inning of a 3-2 game. That brought up Brent Cramer, who at the end of April had yet to find a base hit. He grounded out to Eric Miller. While that brought the tying run home, it didn’t improve a whole lot on that .000 batting average. Byrd struck out Brobeck and Brassfield to block the go-ahead run from scoring.

There was no defending a 1-out walk to Danny Munn in the fifth inning, nor Pucks’ clear-as-day RBI double into left-center with two gone. Munn scored, and the Raccoons were up 4-3. Crispin singled to left, but Pucks was thrown out at the plate by Eddie Moreno, ending another inning with dismay, and Brobeck gave the lead right back with more shoddy pitching and an RBI knock for Moreno, chasing home Stipp in the bottom 5th…

Villacorta and Ken Mills drew walks off Brobeck in the bottom 6th, chasing him with two outs, with Stipp facing Prettiwacki. The Japanese rookie got a K to end the inning, keeping the score flat at four. Top 7th, the Raccoons poured out four hits against Morgan Aben… without scoring a run. They were all singles, Brassfield was doubled off when Lonzo shot a bouncer at Miller, and then Munn, Gowin, and Pucks loaded the bases in an orderly procession with two outs. Ed Crispin ran a full count, then floated out to Moreno in left to keep everybody starved on base, and Moreno went on to take the Coons’ Waitoonutti deep to right to give the Knights a 5-4 lead in the bottom 7th.

Aben continued in the top 8th, retiring Knight and Venegas before yielding to Dave Hils. The former Critter walked Lamotta hitting in the pitcher’s spot, then was taken WAY deep by Brassfield, his fourth home run of the season being a score-flipper, 6-5. That lead was promptly blown by Sencion and Gardner in the bottom of the eighth inning. The former allowed a 1-out walk to Visser, the runner advanced on Eli Dupuis’ bunt, and then Pat Stipp hit a single up the leftfield line against the closer, chasing home Visser from second base, and we were all even again at six. Kenny Leon grounded out to end the inning. Nobody reached in the ninth for either team, so extras were upon us. Top 10th, Ramon Montes de Oca walked Knight, Pedro Rojas hit a single… and then Lamotta rumbled into an inning-ending double play. For ***** sake…!

Bak pitched for the third straight day to get the Raccoons to the 11th inning, where the Coons made two outs before Montes de Oca walked Munn, Gowin doubled, but Munn’s feet were made of lead, so he had to stop at third base. Pucks then fell to 1-2, and then hit a pop that fell into Miller’s mitten. At this point I was ready to go home, and was getting ready to do so when Montes de Oca hit a leadoff double off Lillis in the bottom 11th. The Knights had no bench left, but they had a reliever carrying the winning run at second base with nobody out. The winning run remained on second base; with Stipp flying out to left, Leon flying out to right, and Rojas grounding out to Knight. Montes de Oca threw a fourth scoreless inning, and Lillis put four straight Knights on base in the bottom 12th. Miller, Marco Nieto, and Leo Villacorta all hit singles. Preston Visser drew a walk in a full count. Ballgame…. 7-6 Knights. Brassfield 2-5, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Munn 2-3, 3 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gowin 3-6, 2B; Puckeridge 2-6, 2B, RBI; Crispin 2-6; Rojas (PH) 1-1;

Well, that sucked. Hard.

It also killed the pen for Wednesday, only Hitchcock having escaped duty in this game. Thankfully we had He Shui up for Wednesday, so who needed a bullpen…?

(nervous giggle)

Game 3
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – LF Brassfield – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – C Philipps – 2B Knight – P Shui
ATL: RF Stipp – 1B Riley – LF E. Moreno – 2B E. Miller – C Almaguer – CF G. Pena – 3B Villacorta – SS Visser – P E. Duran

Things kept going “eeeeh”; Venegas hit a leadoff single to begin the game on Wednesday, but was forced out by Lonzo, who was in turn caught stealing. Then Munn homered to center. Brilliant. However, Pucks walked, reached third base on a Philipps single, and then scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead in the second inning. I wanted to cackle with glee, but then Knight made an error in the bottom 2nd, putting Pedro Almaguer on base before Gustavo Pena singled. Shui pitched around this threat with a pop by Villacorta and a K on Visser, but I should perhaps contain my schadenfreude until we had a W on the board… Duran (!) and Riley singled in the third inning… but were left in scoring position by Moreno and Miller.

Pucks peppered a 97mph heater out of the park to break into the middle innings, extending Portland’s lead to 3-0. Then there was a bit of an explosion. Shui put Pena and Visser on the corners with singles in the bottom 4th, but at least there were already two outs on the board, so what could possibly go wrong now? (points at pitcher in the box. Duran singled. Stipp doubled. Riley singled. Moreno singled. Miller finally ******* struck out in a full count to strand two runners, but the Knights had turned the game around and now held a 4-3 lead. The Knights tacked on another run in the fifth with a Pena double, a wild pitch, and an RBI groundout by Villacorta. Shui was gone after that, and the Raccoons stranded the tying runs on base in the sixth inning, when Pucks and Rojas hit singles, and one more runner in the seventh, with Venegas reaching with two outs. Brassfield and Pucks hit singles with one out in the eighth against Vic Harman to put the tying runs on base yet again. The Knights went to lefty Amari Walker, but he gave up a single to Rojas that loaded the bags and then was replaced with Dave Hils. Crispin batted for Philipps, singled to right, the ball ticking slightly off Miller’s glove, and Pucks saw that looking back from second base and figured the ball would go foul and he could score. He could not – the ball went to Stipp, and Stipp threw him out at the plate (after Brassfield scored). Rojas and Crispin moved into scoring position, and the Raccoons got desperate, hitting Chris Gowin in place of Matt Knight. That, finally, was a great move – Hils threw a sinker that didn’t sink, and Gowin thrashed it for 380 feet to left for a score-flipping 3-run homer…!

That put a potential W on Hitchcock… and also had Hitchcock bat for himself to get a few more outs outta him in the bottom 8th. He flew out, then grounded out Visser and struck out Leon and Stipp in the bottom 8th. The Raccoons frittered away another two base runners in the ninth, then sent Gardner into the bottom 9th against the 2-3-4 batters. Major calamity ensued. Leadoff walk to Dan Riley, a Moreno double to put the tying runs in scoring position, and they scored on singles by Miller to left and Almaguer to right. Tied ballgame, and still nobody out. Gustavo Pena hit into a double play, moving the winning run to third base. Felix Rojas pinch-hit in that spot, hit a liner to center at 2-1, and Pucks couldn’t reach it. 8-7 Knights. Venegas 2-5, 2B; Puckeridge 2-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Rojas 2-4; Philipps 2-3; Crispin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Knight 1-2, BB; Gowin (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Hitchcock 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

(checks his watch) It’s not quite May, and I am already tired of our new closer.

(deep sigh)

Raccoons (16-5) vs. Titans (7-13) – April 30-May 2, 2055

The Titans were in the bottom three in both runs scored and runs surrendered, with a quickly building -33 run differential. The Coons had swept them over two games to begin the season, and hoped to get back on track against the fifth-place team in the division.

Projected matchups:
Kennedy Adkins (3-0, 0.68 ERA) vs. Jordan Ramos (1-2, 5.19 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (3-0, 2.25 ERA) vs. Jim Peterson (1-1, 4.05 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (1-2, 4.18 ERA) vs. Chad Schultz (2-2, 3.64 ERA)

We’d see only one of their three southpaws, Peterson on Saturday. At least we had the day off on Thursday to rest the battered bullpen.

Game 1
BOS: LF Weir – 2B Roura – CF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – RF McIntyre – C R. Gonzalez – SS Marroguin – 3B Ro. Jimenez – P Jo. Ramos
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Brassfield – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – 2B Boese – P Adkins

Lonzo singled, stole second, and scored on Gowin’s 2-out single – so far, so nice – in the bottom 1st before Ramos also loaded the bases with walks to Brassfield and Pucks. Pedro Rojas hit a soggy grounder to second to end the inning as the scandalous wasting of chances continued unabated. Rojas would hit another grounder to Dave Roura to end the third inning, then stranding Munn and Brassfield, who had both drawn yet more walks off Ramos. **** walks, boys! Hit homers!

At least Adkins was perfect through three innings, but as soon as I thought about having a good pitcher on the hill, he gave up doubles on consecutive pitches to Larry Rodriguez and Will McIntyre to begin the fifth inning, and the game was tied at one. At least McIntyre was stranded at third base, a position soon taken over by Lonzo when he zinged a leadoff triple over Eric Whitlow’s head in the bottom of the inning. Munn struck out. Gowin grounded out to third baseman Rocky Jimenez. Brassfield flew out to Hector Weir. OH **** MY ***!! – No, Cristiano, don’t call Gustaf. Please don’t.

Top 6th, more agony. Jordan Ramos hit a leadoff single up the middle, and when Adkins got a comebacker from Weir, he threw it away for two bases. Nobody out, runners in scoring position, and I spontaneously burst into tears. On the plus side, Adkins struck out the next three batters. On the other paw, he balked in the ******* go-ahead run as well… The Raccoons reached the corners in the bottom 6th with Pucks and Naughty Joe, one out, and the pitcher batting. In another sign that baseball was stupid and not worth your emotional investment, he fell to 0-2, then slugged a double to right that tied the game and moved a naughty go-ahead run to third base, still with less than two outs. For once, the Coons actually came through. Venegas hit a sac fly to left-center plating Naughty Joe, and Lonzo’s single brought in Adkins with another 2-out run. The inning ended with Lonzo being caught stealing between Will Glaude and Ruben Gonzalez. The Critters got another inning from Adkins, although Rocky Jimenez then slapped a leadoff single to center in the top 8th. When Dave Gonzalez pinch-hit, the Raccoons went to Lillis jr., who ended the inning with two grounders to Naughty Joe, one for a double play and Weir simply for the third out. More offense then came from where you wouldn’t have looked for it, as the Coons threw their bench at Alex Diaz in the bottom 8th. Cramer walked, and Tyler Philipps hit a jack to left, 6-2, which was the final for this game, breaking a 3-game losing streak. 6-2 Raccoons. Lavorano 3-5, 3B, RBI; Philipps (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Adkins 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (4-0) and 1-3, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
BOS: CF Weir – SS Marroguin – RF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – C R. Gonzalez – 2B Roura – LF D. Gonzalez – 3B Ro. Jimenez – P J. Peterson
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – C Gowin – 3B Brobeck – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 2B Knight – P Taki

Leadoff walks in the third inning came in to score; Dave Gonzalez was the only Titan to reach base the first time through, but was singled home by Weir with two outs, while Venegas was doubled in by Brassfield to tie the score at one. That was after the Coons opened the bottom 1st with two singles and ended it with another double play grounder from Gowin, and Lamotta and Knight were also left on base in the second inning. Against Taki, Roura drew a walk in the fifth, but apart from that the Titans were a bit out in the rain against him. They struck out a dozen times in six innings, although this obviously also escalated Taki’s pitch count to nearly 100, and he was nowhere near a win. Then Ruben Gonzalez reached with nobody out in the seventh when Gowin flung his infield roller away for two bases. Roura struck out, #13, but Dave Gonzalez singled. Taki remained in against Will McIntyre. Just get more strikeouts! He didn’t, McIntyre grounding a fast one to Lonzo, who started a 6-4-3 double play.

That was it for Taki, who foolishly got his hopes up when Ricky Lamotta lashed a 1-2 pitch into the right-center gap for a leadoff triple in the bottom 7th. When Knight grounded out pathetically to third base, I was almost ready to throw a few of them suckers into the Willamette. Thankfully, Pucks pinch-hit for Taki and hit a sac fly to center for a 2-1 lead. From there, with two outs, Peterson filled the bases with the 1-2-3 hitters on a hit and two walks, bringing up Gowin. At least there was no double play in the cards anymore…! He popped out to Roura instead…

The lead was blown in the eighth. Sencion got two outs, then put Jordan Marroguin on base with a hit. Hitchcock came on, nailed Whitlow, and gave up an RBI single to Larry Rodriguez. Ruben Gonzalez flew out, but we were tied again and we were not due another base hit with a guy on base until next Wednesday… Actually, Brobeck and Lamotta hit singles in the bottom 8th to go to the corners with one out. The Titans were still not removing Peterson, who got a comebacker from Knight and took it to second base for a fielder’s choice and the second out. Philipps pinch-hit and walked, filling the sacks for Venegas, who was surely gonna hit one into the nearest mitten. He didn’t – he hit one into a mitten worn by a fan, 430 feet away in left-center, almost out of the ballpark – GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

That was the W – Walters would take care of Boston in the ninth inning, retiring the side in order. 6-2 Raccoons. Venegas 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Lavorano 2-4; Brassfield 2-4, BB, RBI; Lamotta 2-3, BB, 3B; Taki 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 13 K;

Hitchcock, the old backstabber, thus tied for the team lead with Shui and Adkins and four wins each. Should have been Taki up there, though!

One more to end the week, then.

Game 3
BOS: CF Weir – LF M. Gilmore – RF Whitlow – 1B L. Rodriguez – C R. Gonzalez – 2B Roura – SS Marroguin – 3B Ro. Jimenez – P Shultz
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – 2B Knight – CF Cramer – P de la Cruz

The horror continued and only got worse with Raffy, who walked FOUR batters in the first inning, in addition to giving up a single. Ruben Gonzalez singled home Matt Gilmore, a second run scored on a wild pitch, and somehow Rocky Jimenez could be coaxed into grounding out with the bases loaded after 37 ****** pitches. He walked Marroguin to begin the second inning, and Weir singled home that runner after a bunt by Shultz, 3-0. He also struck out to keep Rojas, Knight, and Cramer stranded in the bottom 2nd. Chris Gowin pumped a 2-run homer with Munn aboard in the bottom 3rd, but the Titans just **** another three runs on de la Cruz, who was yanked with two outs in the fourth inning, having given up six hits, six walks, and six runs, with two more runners on base. Tuzinuki Zakinuti entered the game, got through Roura, and then bunted with Knight and Cramer (who had singled home Rojas’ leadoff walk) on the corners in the bottom 4th. Venegas’ sac fly narrowed the score to 6-4, but Lonzo grounded out to strand Cramer. Munn and Rojas were on base and stranded in the fifth, and Brassfield singled for Tanikori in the bottom 6th, but was also stranded on second base as The Suck continued. Instead, the Titans scored a tack-on run in the seventh when Roura whacked a leadoff double against Bak and scored on Marroguin’s groundout. I burped, then opened another bottle of Capt’n Coma.

Munn’s leadoff jack in the bottom 7th made it 7-5, and the Raccoons got Rojas on base with two outs and stranded him, then Venegas in the eighth, and stranded him as well, all the while piecing together sad innings with a grossly overworked bullpen. David Williams axed Munn, Gowin, and Pucks in order in the ninth inning to give the Titans their first win over the Raccoons in ’55. 7-5 Titans. Rojas 2-2, 2 BB; Brassfield (PH) 1-1; Crispin (PH) 1-1; Tanizaki 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

In other news

April 23 – The 23-game hitting streak of SAC C Kevin Weese (.375, 0 HR, 5 RBI) ends in a 5-3 win over the Blue Sox.
April 25 – IND SP Jimmy Charles (3-0, 0.92 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Bayhawks. He strikes out seven batters in the 4-0 win.
April 25 – It will be a month on the DL for Aces 1B/RF/LF Aubrey Austin (.219, 3 HR, 7 RBI), who left Sunday’s game with a knee sprain.
April 27 – MIL 1B/RF/LF Gaudencio Callaia (.277, 1 HR, 20 RBI) misses the cycle by the double as he unpacks four hits and four RBI in a 15-3 rout of the Condors.
April 30 – The Knights rally for seven runs in the ninth inning to overturn a Bayhawks lead for a 10-9 win.
May 2 – The Loggers lose Gaudencio Callaia (.267, 1 HR, 24 RBI) to a broken thumb. He is expected to miss the rest of the month.

FL Player of the Week (3): SFW 3B/SS Julio Moriel (.333, 0 HR, 5 RBI), batting .542 (13-24) with 2 RBI
CL Player of the Week (3): ATL 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.220, 5 HR, 21 RBI), socking .333 (10-30) with 3 HR, 10 RBI

FL Player of the Week (4): TOP 1B Manny Liberos (.421, 5 HR, 18 RBI), hitting .643 (9-14) with 2 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week (4): SFB LF/INF/CF Xavier Reyes (.429, 0 HR, 8 RBI), batting .481 (13-27) with 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: TOP 1B Manny Liberos (.408, 3 HR, 14 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC INF Prince Gates (.360, 4 HR, 19 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: RIC SP Eric Braley (4-0, 1.38 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: SFB SP Milt Cantrell (5-0, 1.54 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: SFW LF/3B/RF/1B Steve Dilly (.273, 2 HR, 11 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: TIJ C Tim Lehman (.278, 3 HR, 16 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

I wonder whether we’d do Raffy a favor if we smothered him with a pillow. He’s awful. He’s ghastly. I don’t think he’ll piece it together again. Worse yet, between him and Brobeck, we have two problem spots in the rotation, and little leeway in terms of AAA personnel to bring in some fresh blood.

Regardless, we’re still at .750 and four games clear in the division. I wonder whether a team that started terribly both of the last two years and then turned it around for 94 wins, will now somehow tank to go 56-82 the rest of the way…

Harry Ramsay started a rehab assignment this weekend. We’ll give him at least a week with the Alley Cats. Matt Waters should rejoin the team to begin the new week.

The schedule has one more home set with the Indians, then three trips east of the mountains for the rest of the month, which makes no sense to me. We’ll be in Richmond on the weekend.

Fun Fact: 27 years ago today, the Warriors’ Edgar Gonzalez hit three home runs in a 5-2 win over the Scorpions.

Gonzalez was a versatile infielder with a 15-year career mostly in the Federal League, logging 2,400+ innings at all infield positions but second base, and over 6,700 innings at short. He was a the rare slugging shortstop, regularly hitting 25+ doubles and 10+ home runs, but had no speed. He hit for an OPS+ of 112 or better in every qualifying season, 11 times in total, but never led the league in any category, and only made a single All Star appearance for accolades. He never won a Gold Glove, and speed was also not his thing, nipping just 19 bases for his career. He batted .279/.371/.400 however, with 1,562 hits, 119 homers, and 735 RBI.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (18-6) vs. Indians (14-10) – May 3-5, 2055

The last time the Coons had played the second-place team in the division, they had brushed the Crusaders aside without much effort, but very elegant handling of the broom. Now the Indians were in for three games, bringing with them the #4 offense and #3 pitching in the CL. Well, the rotation was good – the bullpen had a 5.30 ERA, but you had to get there first. This has been a 12-6 series for the Raccoons in 2054.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (0-1, 7.32 ERA) vs. Chris Edwards (0-3, 3.63 ERA)
He Shui (4-0, 2.41 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (2-2, 3.66 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (4-0, 0.81 ERA) vs. Bill McDermott (2-1, 3.11 ERA)

That would be three right-handed pitchers.

Matt Waters was registered as unconcussed and activated from the DL and Naughty Joe returned to AAA. Luis Silva claimed that he was as good as new, but I had my doubts. – Matt, your tongue is… – No, your tongue is hanging out all the time. – What do you mean, is it better now? You look exactly the same as before!?

Game 1
IND: CF M. Ceballos – 2B A. Rios – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C Poindexter – RF Kokel – LF French – SS Ed. Ortiz – P C. Edwards
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Rojas – P Brobeck

While Brobeck increasingly not even hit like a batter, but also pitched like one, the Indians went down in order in the first three innings. The Raccoons had Pucks on with a single in the second, but really put the pressure on in the bottom 3rd, even though Pedro Rojas was forced out on a bad bunt after drawing a leadoff walk. Our fault – why bunt with Brobeck to begin with? Venegas and Lonzo then quickly filled the bases with a single and walk, respectively, bringing up Trent Brassfield with three on and one out, and he shot a 2-run single through the right side past a diving Antonio Rios. Danny Munn added a run with a single to center, as did Pucks with two outs after Chris Gowin had flown out. Waters whiffed, ending a 4-run third inning.

Chaz Kokel ended the no-hit bid with an infield single on a 3-2 pitch in the fifth inning, but also tore out a leg when he stamped on the bag awkwardly. Even to the medically untrained eye, that was a hammy and a month on the DL. Jason Perry replaced him and scored when Bobby French socked a home run to right, 4-2. The Coons left runners on third base in both the fifth and sixth innings, which along with leaving Kyle Brobeck on the hill came back to hurt them in the seventh inning. Edwin Ortiz and Dan Sandoval hit 2-out singles off Brobeck in the seventh, but he remained in to face Mario Ceballos, who had looked nothing but silly in his first three attempts against Brobeck. Here, he socked a 2-run double to center, and who was the silly one now? The game was tied, Brobeck was gone, and before long, the tie was gone as well, as Hyun-soo Bak allowed a single to Antonio Rios and then a 2-run double to Bill Quinteros. Bobby Anderson popped out, but now the Indians had a 2-run lead… briefly. A 2-out rally consisting entirely of a Munn double and Gowin RBI single in the bottom 7th reduced the gap to one, and in the eighth the Coons had Waters on with a leadoff single and moved him to third base and… left him there when Venegas flew out to Ceballos. Hitchcock kept the Indians close in the ninth, after which Rich Knowles came in to face the Raccoons in the bottom 9th. Lonzo flew out to center, but Brassfield walked, which put the tying run on base. Munn grounded up the middle, second baseman Nick Fernandez had a play – but bobbled it! Error, and the winning run was on! Manny Poindexter then lost the first pitch to Chris “Double Play” Gowin, taking off the double play and moving the runners into scoring position. The Indians half-arsedly walked Gowin from there, loading them up for Pucks. Knowles was out of sorts by now, walked Pucks, and the game was tied at six! Comeback boy Waters popped out to shallow center, which didn’t allow for going bananas at home plate – but Pedro Rojas laying off four balls and drawing a walk sure did! 7-6 Critters! Munn 2-5, 2B, RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, BB, 2 RBI;

Game 2
IND: LF J. Garza – 2B A. Rios – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C Poindexter – CF M. Ceballos – RF French – SS Ed. Ortiz – P Brink
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Rojas – P Shui

The Coons made another mess out of situations with runners in scoring position. They left a pair in scoring position in both the second and third innings, wasting walks for Munn and Gowin, then hits for Venegas and Brassfield, respectively. Rojas flew out to center to end the second, and Munn grounded out to Quinteros to curtail the third.

The middle innings were a real pitchers’ duel; the Coons didn’t reach base, while the Indians had one of their three total hits off Shui through six innings, but they also had two double plays on their ledger and hadn’t reached third base yet. Shui looked fine at 73 pitches, walking one and striking out five, but then Bobby Anderson began the seventh inning with a double to left-center, and scored on Poindexter’s groundout and Ceballos’ sac fly to Danny Munn. Pucks singled in the bottom 7th, but was also caught stealing, and that didn’t get the Raccoons any closer to a run. Pedro Rojas hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th. Brent Cramer batted for Shui, zinged one to Rios for a double play, and that was it for that inning. Top 9th, the Indians threatened with two hits off that Japanese import I could never remember the name of, it wasn’t Saito, though. Quinteros and Anderson went to the corners with one out, bringing on Brett Lillis jr. with one out – now that was a name I could remember! – and getting two strikeouts against Poindexter and Ceballos to prevent the Indians from getting an insurance run. No Rich Knowles in the bottom 9th today – Brink would try to finish his shutout, facing the same part of the lineup that had started the ninth the day before… at least until Lonzo singled to left. Off the hill was Brink, on was right-hander Mike Mensch. Lonzo, in a bit of a slump, had a huge urge to steal second base, but didn’t take off… but he caused Mensch enough disruption that he walked Brassfield on four pitches, so that was that. So the winning run was on again and here was Dan- the runners take off!! Poindexter’s throw was late! Double steal!! …and then came the agony. Munn struck out. Gowin popped out. Pucks drew another walk to prolong the misery. Waters batted with a full buffet and two outs. The count ran full, and then he popped up a ball on a defensive swing that refused to get away from the plate. Poindexter positioned himself under it – and made the catch. 1-0 Indians. Shui 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (4-1);

Arf.

The Raccoons then were to give the slumping Lonzo (that hit in the ninth was his only hit in three days) and Gowin a day off on Wednesday, stacking with the scheduled off day on Thursday, but it turned out everybody got a day off when the weather turned Oregonian and it rained all Wednesday long.

Raccoons (19-7) @ Rebels (14-14) – May 7-9, 2055

The Rebs were third in the FL East, scoring the fourth-most runs but also giving up the second-most markers in the Federal League. Their rotation was solid, their pen was cruddy, and their defense was woeful. They didn’t steal bases, and they didn’t hit homers, and they were bottom three in OBP, and yet they were scoring runs. Sounded like they had the odd gypsy curse laid on the opposition – we needed to be alert. This series had taken place in both 2052 and 2054, each time with the Raccoons sweeping the Rebels.

Slightly unfair: the Raccoons came in on two days’ rest, while the Rebs had not only played, but had also seen their pen getting run through the cotton gin in a 12-5 loss to the Wolves on Thursday.

Projected matchups:
Kennedy Adkins (4-0, 0.81 ERA) vs. Jerry Cruz (1-0, 4.10 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (3-0, 2.06 ERA) vs. Pablo Paez (0-3, 7.11 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (1-3, 5.60 ERA) vs. Eric Braley (4-1, 1.84 ERA)

Another set with only right-handed pitchers – looked like we had used up our allotment of southpaws for the year.

Harry Ramsay was hitting .393 in 8 games of AAA rehab. The opener here would be the last game for Pedro Rojas before he’d be switched back with Rams, but he had at least generated some awareness for himself.

Game 1
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 1B Rojas – P Adkins
RIC: LF Velasco – SS Henriquez – 3B D. Espinosa – RF W. Sanchez – CF Cooke – 1B Leal – C J. Ortiz – 2B Malkus – P J. Cruz

Rojas singled home the tying run in the second inning, getting Munn across with two outs. Both Munn and Gowin had hit singles. The inning ended with Adkins flying out to Willie Sanchez, who had driven in Andres Velasco in the bottom 1st, with Adkins having walked Velasco on four pitches to begin the bottom 1st. Velasco drew another walk with one gone in the third inning, but was left on base then, while the Raccoons loaded the bases with three soft singles by Gowin, Waters, and Rojas – the latter hitting an infield single even. All that did was bring up Adkins with one out, so I didn’t have an unhealthy amount of hope, and he hit a comebacker for a force on Gowin at home plate. Venegas grounded out to Danny Espinosa, and all three runners were left on base. Another leadoff walk by Adkins to Willie Sanchez instead set up the Rebs for a 2-1 lead in the bottom 4th. Pedro Leal drove in the runner with a 1-out single to right.

Lonzo’s leadoff single in the fifth put the tying run on base. Lonzo was antsy to go again, but didn’t get a move on before Danny Munn peppered a jack to right-center, which flipped the score to 3-2 Coons and was also good enough for me. Cruz didn’t see out the fifth inning, and right-hander Casey Spinney gave up a single to Adkins in the sixth when there were already two outs. Spinney ticked Venegas with a ball, and Lonzo singled to left-center. Adkins didn’t take prisoners and went on contact, scoring from second base, 4-2. Brassfield grounded out to leave on two. Another pair was stranded in the seventh when Pucks and Waters were left on as Rojas grounded out to short. Adkins meanwhile didn’t give up a lot after the fourth inning. Jacob Alaimo singled off him in the seventh, but mostly the Rebs went down with little prowess; Adkins racked up his K count to 11 in seven innings, including Velasco and Jorge Henriquez after the Alaimo single to end that inning. Ricky Lamotta singled in Adkins’ place in the eighth inning, but was left on base.

Hitchcock got the ball in the eighth. He retired Espinosa and Manny Cooke, but gave up a double to Willie Sanchez in between. When a left-hander, Jason Noble, pinch-hit in the #6 spot, the Coons sent Lillis, who got a fly to Lamotta in centerfield to end the inning. Tommy Gardner then got the ball for the ninth inning. Jose Ortiz singled. Alex Murillo was nailed. Alaimo struck out, but then he walked the pesky Velasco and the bases were loaded in the 4-2 game. He got a bit of a yelling-at from the pitching coach, then struck out Henriquez for the second out. Espinosa was at 2-2 before grounding up the middle – and the bloody thing went through. Two runs scored, another lead blown, and I was also ready to blow a fuse. Gardner was yanked at one, and Eloy Sencion gave up a walkoff single to Willie Sanchez on the only pitch he threw. 5-4 Rebels. Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Munn 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Waters 2-4, 2B; Rojas 2-4, RBI; Lamotta (PH) 1-1; Adkins 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 11 K and 1-3;

Getting closer to the “this team sucks” stage.

Rojas (.279, 0 HR, 6 RBI) was then exchanged with Rams, because that would totally fix the pitching.

Game 2
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – C Philipps – P Taki
RIC: SS Henriquez – C J. Ortiz – RF W. Sanchez – 3B D. Espinosa – LF Leal – CF Cooke – 1B Malkus – 2B A. Murillo – P Paez

Taki had another one of his first innings, giving up a sharp single to Henriquez and a double to Ortiz to begin his game, although the Rebs held themselves to one run, with Willie Sanchez grounding out hard to Ramsay. Espinosa’s groundout did get home a run, but Leal flew out. While Taki was the only runner the Coons put on the first time through against a pitcher with a 7+ ERA, the Rebels swamped with again in the third inning. Henriquez and Sanchez singled, as did Espinosa, driving in a run. Leal walked, Cooke’s groundout plated another run, and ex-Coon Travis Malkus flew out to deep right, making it 3-0 Rebs after three innings.

Henriquez’ homer extended the Rebels’ lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning, while the Raccoons remained completely hapless. When Taki hit a leadoff single in the sixth, he had half of the team’s four hits against Paez. Venegas popped out, and Lonzo hit into a double play in a staggering display of collective incompetence. Taki was done after six when the Raccoons actually got on the board in the seventh inning on singles by Brassfield, Rams (who was forced out by Pucks), and Waters; then loaded the bases once Paez walked Philipps. Ed Crispin batted with two out and the tying runs on base, Paez balked in a run, but Crispin flew out to Sanchez in right… Paez added another scoreless inning, and Mike McLaughlin killed off the Coons for good in the ninth. 4-2 Rebels.

Shambolic.

Game 3
POR: RF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – 3B Crispin – CF Cramer – P de la Cruz
RIC: SS Henriquez – C J. Ortiz – RF W. Sanchez – 3B D. Espinosa – LF Leal – CF Cooke – 1B Malkus – 2B Butts – P Braley

The good: Raffy didn’t allow a hit the first time through. The bad: he walked two Rebs. The ugly: somehow this amounted to 53 pitches. Just as bad was the Raccoons’ offense, which generated a Pucks single to begin the first inning and a double by routinely useless Brent Cramer to start the third inning, and didn’t manage to bring any of the two runners across.

The Coons finally broke through in the fifth inning. Cramer hit a 1-out single, was bunted to second base by Raffy, and then driven in when Pucks sent a ball to carom off the sidewall in rightfield on the first bounce for an RBI triple. It was the first run in the game, and Lonzo struck out to keep it at one. The Rebs were still without a base hit at that point, but got Jose Ortiz on base with a 2-out double in the bottom 6th. Sanchez grounded out to Rams to end the inning, however. Raffy hung around for the seventh, at least until Pedro Leal singled on an 0-2 pitch. Bak struck out Cooke, while Noble batted for Malkus, but popped out against Lillis, ending the inning.

Top 8th, Lonzo singled and stole second off Ryan Bolin. The left-hander then walked both Coons catchers, Philipps hitting for Ramsay, to load the bases for Matt Waters, who snuck a single up the middle to send home Lonzo, 2-0. Venegas batted for Crispin and hit a terrible bloop for an RBI single, 3-0. Cramer struck out, while Knight was struck by a fastball in Lilils’ spot and that forced in another run, as well as Bolin out of the game. Pucks faced another lefty in Omar Anaya, grounded to second base, and John Butts fumbled the ball, allowing another run to score. Lonzo crowned the crooked-number inning with his second single and a pair of RBI’s in centerfield, while Brassfield flew out. Kevin Hitchcock got the ball for the eighth and stuck it into Butts with a K, before giving up a single to Alaimo, but that was all the Rebels put out there in the eighth, although hits by Velasco and Espinosa would plate a late run in the ninth against Matt Walters. 7-1 Critters. Puckeridge 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Lavorano 2-5, 2 RBI; Philipps (PH) 1-1, BB; Venegas (PH) 1-2, RBI; Cramer 2-4, 2B; de la Cruz 6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (2-3);

In other news

May 3 – WAS SP Sean Fowler (4-1, 1.63 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts against the Rebels. The Capitals don’t win 3-0, which would have been too poetic, but 5-0.
May 4 – OCT 3B/SS/RF Ed Soberanes (.256, 3 HR, 10 RBI) is expected to be out until August with ruptured finger tendons in his throwing hand.
May 5 – LAP C Todd Eaton (.350, 0 HR, 9 RBI), a 24-year-old waiver claim and rookie, bangs out four hits and drives in five runs against the Gold Sox, but the Pacifics still lose 9-7.
May 7 – DEN OF Bill Ramires (.387, 5 HR, 27 RBI) has put together a 20-game hitting streak with a first-inning single in a 3-2 win over the Aces.
May 9 – The Falcons acquire 1B Jason Schaack (.319, 2 HR, 14 RBI) from the Warriors in exchange for C/1B Esteban Sanches (.340, 0 HR, 8 RBI).
May 9 – The hitting streak of DEN OF Bill Ramires (.373, 5 HR, 27 RBI) ends in a 4-2 loss, as he goes hitless in four at-bats against Aces pitching.

FL Player of the Week: WAS OF Dan Martin (.304, 6 HR, 19 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND 1B/LF/RF Bill Quinteros (.292, 4 HR, 19 RBI), smacking .500 (9-18) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Losing week. (glares at Tommy Gardner)

The rainout against the Indians on Wednesday would be made up in the most cruel way possible, with a double header squat in the middle of what already was 17 straight games without an off day in the run-up to the All Star Game in July.

We will host the Scorpions to begin next week, and then have a road trip to Milwaukee and Elk City upon us. The Elks started quite badly, but are now 9-4 since the last week of April, and 7-2 in May, so that series could be all the wrong sorts of “interesting”.

Lonzo had a bit of a slump from last week into this week, and he merely tied with three other players for the CL and ABL lead in stolen bases (including the Loggers’ Robby Gaxiola, so maybe we should start to keep that guy off base…?), but he still keeps storming up the career leaderboards in stolen bases, nipping eight bags since the last times we looked at it, jumping four spots!

35th – Ed Soberanes – 345 – active
t-36th – Bartolo Hernandez – 344 – HOF
t-36th – Danny Zarate – 344 – HOF
38th – Chris Navarro – 343 – active
39th – Dave Heffer – 341
40th – Lorenzo Lavorano – 334 – active
41st – Willie Ojeda – 332 – HOF
42nd – Clement Clark – 331
43rd – Felix Rojas – 330 – active
44th – Angel Montes de Oca – 329 – active
45th – Felix Marquez – 328 – active

The four new players on Lonzo’s radar include active, but now injured Ed Soberanes, along three retired guys, two of whom started their careers in the previous millenium. Bartolo Hernandez was a Loggers standout with several Gold Gloves that led the CL in hits a few times besides all the stolen bases, while Dave Heffer played with the Warriors for a decade, got three Gold Gloves, but in the second half of his career was handed around a bit and played on a different team for 11 consecutive seasons, including two more stints with the Warriors, and two stints with the Titans. Finally, there’s catcher (!) Danny Zarate, who retired just over a decade ago, and was most prominent as a Condor in relation to us, although he also had a few productive years with the Gold Sox.

After that group, the gaps start to grow bigger in between players on the list, f.e. there’s 21 stolen bases between 26th and 27th on the list, which is where Lonzo would most likely end up if he has a “normal” season. There are ten active players ahead of Lonzo now.

Fun Fact: Kevin Hitchcock ties for the lead in wins in the CL.

When the Raccoons had their comeback win against the Indians on Monday, the W went to Hitchcock, who was then (and still is now) 5-0 … tying for the league lead with San Fran’s Milt Cantrell, the Pitcher of the Month. Nobody got added to that duo all week long, either. “Hitch” (or would he prefer “Cock” for a nickname…?) even had the better ERA (0.zilch!), so – MOVE OVER, MILT!!

Cristiano, why are you cackling with glee?

[JackOnAMacYT]

Sorry for the Off-Topic post, but I just realized your from Germany. Which might explain you being a Mets fan, because the Mets are a popular choice for fans in foreign markets, at least I think. Also, your english is great for someone from a non-english country! Probably better than mine, and i'm from the US!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by JackOnAMacYT

Sorry for the Off-Topic post, but I just realized your from Germany. Which might explain you being a Mets fan, because the Mets are a popular choice for fans in foreign markets, at least I think. Also, your english is great for someone from a non-english country! Probably better than mine, and i'm from the US!

Eh, I ended up with the Mets more by coincidence, being bored out of my bum during a week off work during World Series time (c.2009/10-ish). Well, only Wikipedia told me that it was World Series time. I knew nothing about baseball, and mused, well, who won the World Series the year I was born, and found the 1986 Mets on Youtube.

Needless to say that the incessant suffering of the common Mets fan meshes very well with what I do here.

The English has probably gotten better over the years. A few years ago I even gave up insisting that the possessive "it's" was a thing.

Mostly I'm just an XXXL raccoon (active at night, fuzzy, eats everything in sight) and keep being bored out of my bum, so here's the Coons!

+++

(walks into the office on Monday morning and stops dead in his tracks, then paws it back into Maud’s adjoining room)

Maud, who is the man on the trusty brown couch? – You know exactly what I mean, Maud! The young black man with the blonde dreadlocks! – The one that sits where Slappy always sits! Thinking of it, where *is* Slappy!? – MAUD, I NEED MY SLAPPY!!

Maud explained to me that Slappy needed minor surgery for an ingrown claw and that he had arranged a placeholder for the 3-game homestand against the Scorpions while he recovered, his nephew Ja’qoani. I was utterly unhappy, sniffed at the youngster, judged him to be of about single-A age and not ready for the big leagues, and then waggled my furry bum off into the other corner to pretend to work hard on something, but really only moping until it was game time on Monday night. I needed my Slappy…!

Raccoons (20-9) vs. Scorpions (20-12) – May 10-12, 2055

I also needed Kyle Brobeck to get his crap together against the #1 offense in the Federal League, just one game behind the pennant-defending Warriors in the FL West. Sacramento was fifth in runs allowed, with no apparent weakness to their game, except for a tenth place in home runs in the FL. I don’t know, having a .371 team OBP probably makes up for that... They had a +46 run differential (Critters: +43). These teams had last met in 2051, when the Raccoons lost two of three games to the Scorpions.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (0-1, 7.18 ERA) vs. Josh Barbieri (3-3, 3.76 ERA)
He Shui (4-1, 2.16 ERA) vs. Ernesto Rios (2-1, 3.35 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (4-0, 1.12 ERA) vs. Mike McCaffrey (2-2, 3.05 ERA)

Only righties coming up against us in this set.

Maud, I’m not comfortable sitting next to Ja’qoani. I don’t even know him. Maybe he doesn’t take well to my antics…! – Yes, Maud. – Yes, Maud. – Maud, you don’t have to yell so lou-… Yes, Maud, I will sit down and be a darling. – Yes, Maud. My very best behavior.

Game 1
SAC: SS C. Navarro – 3B Burgos – C Weese – 1B Wyatt – RF Colwill – 2B R. Harris – LF Spath – CF Royer – P Barbieri
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – P Brobeck

That was the same Chris Navarro that Lonzo was chasing up the stolen base leaderboards, but neither of them reached base the first time through the order, with Navarro grounding out to Lonzo, while Lonzo flew out to Josh Spath after Venegas’ leadoff single in the bottom 1st – both would reach base their next time up, and both would be doubled off. Venegas stole second, and would score on a 2-out single by Danny Munn for an early 1-0 lead. Also a brief one, once Brobeck walked Steve Wyatt and gave up a triple to Rick Colwill in the second inning. Ryan Harris’ groundout flipped the score to 2-1 Scorpions, and I opened the first bottle of Capt’n Coma of the week.

The Stingers had only three hits through five innings against Brobeck, including that silly triple, but he also offered four walks, and was somewhat lucky for the defense making a few good plays behind him, including two double plays, dragging him through five innings. Venegas drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, but was caught stealing this time, and I spontaneously reached for what would usually be Slappy’s right hand next to me, but was now Ja’qoani’s. He didn’t resist as I squeezed it for emotional support, because I needed all of that that I could get. Between Ja’qoani’s paw, a bottle of booze, and Honeypaws on my lap, I could hardly watch as Lonzo legged out a 1-out triple to right-center for what would have tied the game, and been a 3-2 lead one Brassfield grounded out to second base to get Lonzo home, but the Coons had to settle for a 2-2 tie through five.

Brobeck held out until the seventh, which he began with nicking Steve Royer, who was forced out on a bad bunt by Barbieri. When left-hander Pat Fowler appeared to hit for Navarro, we went on to Lillis, who got two comfy flies to outfielders to end the inning. We didn’t get anything of Barbieri in the bottom 7th, but Hitchcock – still co-leading the CL in wins! – pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts, which oughta have been the Raccoons’ command to take a lead in the bottom 8th. Brassfield’s single chased Barbie with one out, but Juan Valencia then got the Stingers out of the inning – no win for Hitchcock today…! The ninth saw Gardner retire three in a row, which was weird to see, since he could never do that to end a game, but at least the Raccoons had a chance to walk off with a single run. Ricky Lamotta pinch-hit for Rams against the lefty Valencia to begin the bottom 9th and singled, but Pucks was robbed by Adam Bumpus on a drive to right-center, which was snatched on the run by the replacement outfielder. Waters popped out, Philipps struck out, and the game went to extras. Torizaki gave up a run in the 10th inning on Omar Gonzalez’ leadoff double and two productive outs, RBI going to Jesus Burgos, and now the Raccoons had to find something against Tim Moore. Venegas singled. Lonzo singled! Winning runs on base! Brassfield to right – no, caught by Colwill. Munn grounding to short, and that was gonna end it, 6-4-3 style. 3-2 Scorpions. Venegas 2-4, BB; Lavorano 3-5, 3B; Lamotta (PH) 1-1; Puckeridge 2-4;

(sobs onto Ja’qoani’s shoulder)

I arrived before Ja’qoani on Tuesday and wondered whether he had already fled the country, but remarked to Maud how patiently he was taking my suffering and antics with the Raccoons losing. She mumbled something about maybe that being a family thing and then pretended to take a phone call.

Game 2
SAC: SS C. Navarro – 3B Burgos – C Weese – LF O. Gonzalez – 2B R. Harris – 1B P. Fowler – RF Royer – CF Bumpus – P E. Rios
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – C Philipps – CF Cramer – P Shui

I was back in emotional support territory when Lonzo singled and was caught stealing in the first inning on Tuesday night, with rain in the forecast for some point during the evening, so a quick lead would have been desirable, but neither team would reach third base for a long, long time. Navarro and Lonzo both reached base in the fourth inning, and both were doubled off *again* by Burgos and Munn, respectively. Omar Gonzalez hit another leadoff single off Shui in the fifth, but was doubled up by Ryan Harris’ grounder to short before Shui walked the next two, but got a K on Bumpus to end the inning. By this point I was monologuing onto Ja’qoani all the harm the Raccoons had done to me emotionally over the last few decades, starting with that second tie-breaker game against the Loggers in 2020 that was lost by Nick ******* Lester.

The Scorpions took the lead in the sixth when Ernesto Rios hit a leadoff single, advanced on a Navarro groundout, and scored on Burgos’ single to right-center, making Rios not only the first runner to third base, but also home plate in the game. Gonzalez’ 2-out single also brought in Rios, and the Raccoons were 2-0 behind, but put the tying runs on the corners in the home half of the inning on singles by Brent Cramer and Anton Venegas. Lonzo singed Navarro’s glove with a liner for the second out, but Trent Brassfield bashed a 3-2 pitch into the left-center gap and that one finally fell in for a double, and both runners scored, making up the deficit immediately! (puffs Ja’qoani firmly in the shoulder!) Coooons!!

The go-ahead run was left on base when Munn grounded out, though, and the seventh was mostly uneventful. The Scorpions then got Navarro on base with a leadoff single, and he stole second base in the eighth inning. Shui continued with a K on Burgos, but lost Kevin Weese on a 3-2 pitch, the catcher knocking an RBI single to put the Stingers on top again, and Shui out of the game, as well as me grabbing Ja’qoani’s muscular upper arm to sob onto it. Bak got a double play from Gonzalez to end the inning, and the Raccoons got a prime comeback chance in the bottom 8th. Rios gave up a leadoff single to Cramer, then another single to Pucks into rightfield. Steve Holbrook overran the ball, allowing both runners into scoring position. Venegas’ sac fly to center tied the game, but Lonzo lined out again and Brassfield popped out to leave Pucks on base in a 3-3 tie, and I was moping again. Ja’qoani laid his arm around me and promised me that all would be well eventually and that I should cheer up. But I don’t wanna cheer up! I want the Coons to win! (stomps on the floor with a hindpaw!)

Eloy Sencion put the Scorpions away on six pitches in the top 9th, which kept the game tied, while Rios on 109 pitches was sent back in for the bottom 9th. He brushed Munn with a pitch, then gave up a single to Rams. Ed Crispin pinch-ran for Munn once he was at second base. Waters flew out in shallow center, allowing no advance, while Philipps was nearly hit for with Chris Gowin, but was then allowed to hit for himself. He was the last batter of the game, dinking a single into center. Crispin got a great read, went for broke and home plate, and scored handily ahead of any throw the Scorpions might have made. It’s a walkoff! 4-3 Critters! Lavorano 2-4; Ramsay 2-4; Cramer 2-3; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1;

(throws Honeypaws in the air and squeals, then rubs his paws together with glee)

That was fun, Ja’qoani – can we do it again tomorrow??

Game 3
SAC: SS C. Navarro – 2B R. Harris – C Weese – 1B Wyatt – LF O. Gonzalez – RF Colwill – 3B Holbrook – CF Royer – P McCaffrey
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 2B Knight – P Adkins

Both pitchers retired the first two batters they faced, then walked another two. While Adkins then gave up a run on Omar Gonzalez’ single up the middle, Chris Gowin drew another walk, and Ramsay stranded all the runners with a pop to Steve Wyatt. **** walks. Hit bombs! The Scorpions were at least getting hits where they needed them. They began the third inning with a Harris single, a Weese double, and then got the runners across with two productive outs to take a 3-0 lead. The Coons in the bottom 3rd had Venegas and Lonzo on base to begin the inning, then made two meek outs again. Gowin drew another walk, I grew restless, and then Rams fell to two strikes before getting nicked by McCaffrey to force in a run. Pucks flew out to Steve Royer, and another three runners were stranded. I flung a few choice expletives at the TV, upon which Ja’qoani slid a little closer to be on the couch, put his arm around me, and asked me whether I thought he appreciated this potty-mouthed language. And to be honest… maybe!?

Lonzo singled home Matt Knight with two outs in the fourth inning; Knight had drawn a leadoff walk, the fifth walk issued by McCaffrey. Lonzo stole second, reached third base when Brassfield’s grounder was mishandled by Holbrook for another error, Munn walked to fill the bases, and NOW Chris Gowin would be allowed to draw another walk, because that would push the tying run home at least. So of course he bounced the first pitch to Navarro for a kindergarten-grade out. The tying run was also left on third base in the fifth inning, by then against the Scorpions pen, with McCaffrey having run out of juice.

While Justin Round and Mike Lane shut down the Critters from the fifth through the seventh, Adkins went eight innings despite various struggles, but was still 3-2 behind when the bottom 8th began against righty Tom Creger. He allowed a single to the only batter he faced, Knight. With lefty Juan Valencia coming in, Ricky Lamotta pinch-hit for the pitcher, but popped out. It was back to a righty, Mike Siwik, for Sacramento, and the Raccoons answered with Ed Crispin in place of Venegas, but he grounded out. Knight reached second base, however, and Lonzo came through with a single to left, scoring Knight with two outs for the second time in the game, and getting us even at three. Brassfield flew out to left, but Tommy Gardner held the Stingers in check in the ninth, but so did Siwik. For the second time in the series, extras, and I was whiney about it, so Ja’qoani suggested that perhaps I should take my nap now. Nah, not before the 16th.

Little happened before the bottom 11th, which began with Crispin hitting a single off Tim Moore, who was in his second inning of work. Lonzo fanned, and Brassfield reached on another Holbrook error. Moore struck out Munn, and Gowin bounced a 1-2 pitch up the middle, but Navarro was on top of it, and the game continued with the 12th inning. Hyun-soo Bak gave the Raccoons three innings from the 11th through the 13th, then was hit for by Cramer to begin the home 13th. Cramer popped out against Alberto Cuellar, but Crispin stuck a triple into the rightfield corner. One out, the W just 90 feet away, and Lonzo batting. Good! Except that they wanted no part of Lonzo and put him on with intent. Then they put on Brassfield without intent, in a full count. Notably, Cuellar was the Stingers’ last reliever thanks to the wild relieveroo in the eighth inning, and they didn’t have next day’s starter up and ready yet. Munn was in the box, hitless on the day. Munn ended the game with a single to center! 4-3 Blighters. Crispin (PH) 2-3, 3B; Lavorano 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; Knight 2-5, BB; Bak 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (2-0);

That was the last game with Ja’qoani on the couch, because the Raccoons were off to the road for a week, and Slappy would be back the week after, being activated from the DL.

Maud, do you think Ja’qoani can visit us again some time? – What do you mean, “maybe when his day job allows”? What *is* his day job? – Why are you not saying anything, Maud?

Yes, Cristiano? – He’s a counselor at the Willamette Institute for the Limbless and the Blind? For emotionally disturbed children? – What does that have to do with *me*?

(Cristiano rolls off giggling)

Raccoons (22-10) @ Loggers (13-20) – May 14-16, 2055

The last-place Loggers were up 2-1 in the season series, so that was weird. They were also bottoms in runs scored, with under 3.9 markers per game, and a decent sixth in runs allowed, but with a -26 run differential. Gaudencio Callaia was on the DL, so that was not gonna help their offense, either. Maybe it would help our pitching, though!

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (3-1, 2.63 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (2-2, 2.98 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (2-3, 4.54 ERA) vs. Josh Costello (1-4, 4.91 ERA)
He Shui (4-1, 2.39 ERA) vs. Jeff Fox (2-3, 5.64 ERA)

We had off days on both sides of this series, and the decision was made to take Brobeck out of the rotation entirely until the weekend after. He could do long relief if required, but otherwise he’d get a few starts at third base, f.e. in the series opener against the left-handed Riddle, and maybe also on Sunday against the equally left-handed Jeff Fox.

Game 1
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – C Gowin – 3B Brobeck – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Lamotta – P Taki
MIL: LF B. Rivera – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Worthington – C C. Thomas – 3B T. Edwards – 2B M. Martinez – CF Starnes – P Riddle

Putting Brobeck in the lineup directly led to a 1-0 lead in the second inning as Brobeck opened the inning with a single, advanced on a Munn grounder and a wild pitch, and then scored easily on another single for Matt Waters. Lamotta grounded to short then, with Waters colliding with Miguel Martinez at second base. The ever-brittle Martinez took a knee to the thigh and limped off, but was said to only be day-to-day later on. Miguel Cruz replaced him. Waters was out on the play, and the Coons had the inning end with Taki’s groundout.

Taki was whiffing five through three innings, but three of those strikeouts came in full counts, which wasn’t ideal. He also offered a leadoff walk to David Worthington, the former Thunder, and Chris Thomas added a single. The runners advanced on Travis Edwards’ groundout, and Cruz tied the game with another groundout. Dennis Starnes floated out to leftfielder Anton Venegas to keep the score at 1-1. The bottom 5th began with a Riddle single up the middle, and escalated rapidly from there. Robby Gaxiola singled home the pitcher, stole second (…), and scored on a Worthington double to left with two outs. Then Thomas homered to left. 5-1. And that was basically the whole ballgame. The Raccoons had nothing going, and the Loggers added a run off Sencion in the seventh with Gaxiola and Pigman singles. 6-1 Loggers. Ramsay (PH) 1-1; Gowin 2-4; Brobeck 2-4; Lamotta 1-2, BB;

Game 2
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P de la Cruz
MIL: LF B. Rivera – 3B Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Worthington – C C. Thomas – SS F. Vazquez – 2B T. Edwards – CF Starnes – P Costello

Portland went up 2-0 in the first inning on singles by Lonzo, Rams, and Pucks, the latter two getting RBI’s, while Danny Munn chipped in sticking his fat bum into a wayward breaking ball to get on base with two outs and, eventually, score. Raffy walked Gaxiola (…), who stole yet another base (…), and then conceded the run on a Worthington single with two outs, so the lead was halved right away.

But the Raccoons scored Lonzo and guy that got plonked again in the third inning. That time the second was Gowin, and Pucks and Crispin were the batters with the 2-out RBI singles before Waters flew out to right. Raffy? A 31-pitch third inning with two walks, a single, two strikeouts, three full counts, and no runs, somehow. It was ghastly to watch. He had a clean and quick fourth, then began the fifth with a single to Costello (…!!) and a double that Bobby Rivera whacked into the gap in left-center. Middle infield D held the Loggers to one run on a Gaxiola groundout, and the Raccoons remained up 4-2, while Raffy would be done for the day after 95 once again depressing pitches.

At least the Critters kept adding runs with two outs. Crispin and Waters started the sixth with hits, and Lonzo was nicked with two outs by Costello before Chris Gowin hit a punishing 2-run single to left. Munn grounded out, and then Brett Lillis jr. came on for the sixth and retired… nobody. Thomas, Felix Vazquez, and Edwards reached on a walk and two hits, and then Hitchcock got the ball with the tying run in the box. He popped out Starnes, gave up one run on Eric Cobb’s groundout, but then had Munn in the right spot to catch Rivera’s fly to end the inning. The Raccoons clawed the run back with two outs in the seventh. Rams opened the inning with a double off Sansao Tyson, and scored after Pucks grounded out and Crispin hit a sac fly to center. Waters and Brassfield reached base afterwards, but Knight grounded out to short to end the inning.

Matt Walters was hoped to go two innings then, but didn’t; he walked Thomas and Starnes in the eighth inning, which made for a 4-out save chance with Dave Robles, a righty hitting .158, already announced as pinch-hitter. Gardner got the ball, and a strikeout to end the threat for the eighth inning. He would not allow a runner in the ninth inning, either, and the Raccoons evened the series. 7-3 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-4; Ramsay 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Crispin 2-4, 2 RBI; Waters 2-4, 2B;

Game 3
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – RF Puckeridge – 3B Brobeck – 2B Waters – CF Lamotta – C Philipps – P Shui
MIL: 2B T. Edwards – 3B Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Worthington – C C. Thomas – SS F. Vazquez – LF E. Cobb – CF Starnes – P J. Fox

Venegas singled to left. Lonzo singled to left. Brassfield whacked a 3-piece to left! Now, that was a start to a ballgame that I could get used to! Then, Pucks singled, Brobeck singled, and Waters… struck out. Ricky Lamotta hit an RBI single to center, and that was it before the battery whiffed the Coons out of the inning and Shui to the hill with a 4-0 lead. The Loggers made up a run immediately in the bottom 1st with a Pigman single, stolen base, and Worthington’s RBI single. Things got more interesting in the second inning. Lonzo drew a 1-out walk, and then scored again on a Brassfield extra-base knock, a triple to right-center. Now, that knocked off the hard half of the cycle entirely, and it was only the second inning! Pucks and Brobeck stranded him at third base, though. Another run scored in the third, though, when Waters and Lamotta went to the corners and Philipps’ grounder to short got Waters home, but was also a double play, but Philipps did get an RBI in the fifth inning. Then Pucks and Waters were on second and first, and Philipps sent a 2-2 pitch with two outs through between the two defenders on the left side for an RBI single. That made it 7-1 and was the first run not off Fox, but Roberto Alvarado. Shui added an RBI single, but Venegas flew out.

The Loggers got back at Shui in the bottom 5th, though, whacking him around for three hits, two stolen bases, and three runs to get back within slam range. Brassfield had flown out in the fourth, and grounded out in the sixth, which killed my cycle euphoria. Eric Cobb’s leadoff jack in the bottom 7th narrowed the gap to 8-5, and ended Shui’s day. Brobeck went to the hill, while Crispin took third base. A Robles single, Edwards double, and a walk to Gaxiola loaded the bags with the tying runs, Pigman socked a 2-run double, and Brobeck didn’t last the inning even after Worthington popped out. Lillis came in, got to 1-2 on Thomas, and then gave up a score-flipping single to the opposing catcher. I died inside.

Same for the team. They didn’t reach in the eighth inning, remaining a run behind. The ninth would be Dave Lister facing the 3-4 batters and what was now the pitcher’s spot. Brassfield singled to left, which still left him short a double for the cycle, but by now this was for a naked win and nothing else. Pucks hit into a double play, so we couldn’t even get ******* that. Danny Munn grounded out to end the game. 9-8 Loggers. Brassfield 3-5, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Puckeridge 2-5; Lamotta 2-4, RBI;

In other news

May 11 – VAN CF Damian Moreno (.350, 1 HR, 10 RBI) will miss about six weeks with a broken finger.
May 12 – LAP SP Ivan Torres (3-2, 4.00 ERA) could miss the rest of the season with a torn rotator cuff.
May 14 – SAC SP Sean Sweeton (5-2, 2.53 ERA) 2-hits the Wolves in a 7-0 shutout.
May 14 – Gold Sox OF Bill Ramires (.361, 5 HR, 27 RBI) has been diagnosed with a strained rib cage muscle, and is going to miss a month at least.

FL Player of the Week: NAS INF Nick Nye (.317, 5 HR, 33 RBI), hitting .423 (11-26) with 2 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT 1B/SS Ryan Cox (.328, 6 HR, 17 RBI), batting .542 (13-24) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Not. Good. Not at all.

There’s losing to the Loggers, and then there’s blowtastically surrendering an 8-1 lead. Never mind all the other problems, like a closer being unable to pitch with a lead of between one and three runs. For our last 22 games, we’re 10-12.

It’s not gonna get better with a set in Elk City, then a stopover in Portland to play the Baybirds before we’ll have a cross-country trip just to Charlotte and back. Who made this schedule??

Fun Fact: Robby Gaxiola now leads the league in stolen bases.

I mean, it would help if we could keep the bugger – .225/.386/.333 – off the bases for once… He stole three bases against the Coons this weekend with three hits and four walks, also drove in four runs.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-12) @ Canadiens (18-19) – May 18-20, 2055

The Elks were in the process of rallying out of a rotten start, which they would probably not interrupt for the Raccoons, who had a losing record since ending their 13-0 start to the season. Please don’t meet them in the middle, boys? In hard facts, the Elks had won four straight, ranked third in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed, and had split the season series right down the middle with the Raccoons in 2054.

Projected matchups:
Kennedy Adkins (4-0, 1.49 ERA) vs. Hyuma Hitomi (2-3, 4.30 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (3-2, 3.33 ERA) vs. Adam Middleton (2-2, 4.19 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (3-3, 4.42 ERA) vs. Jesse Lausch (2-3, 3.96 ERA)

Only right-handers from the Elks, and I started to wonder whether that as a desirable scheme for this team.

Game 1
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – P Adkins
VAN: 2B Aparicio – 3B Adame – 1B Wheeler – RF A. Walker – CF K. Hawkins – LF Magnussen – SS Mullen – C Julio Diaz – P Hitomi

The Raccoons did what they did best, loading the bags with a Brassfield hit and walks drawn by Munn and Gowin in the first inning before Ramsay grounded out to piss it all away. Lonzo hit a single in the third, stole second, and reached third base on an infield single on which Trent Brassfield tore out a leg, so that was a nice way to start the week for sure. Lamotta took over for him, got forced out by Munn’s comebacker, and Gowin whiffed to leave Lonzo on third base. Lamotta took to centerfield, but lasted only two innings before taking a hard landing as he snatched a Kyle Hawkins drive that ended the bottom 4th and kept the game scoreless, with Jeff Wheeler stranded at third base now. Stretcher off Lamotta, bring in Brent Cramer, but outfielders were kinda getting scarce now… In all fairness, the baseball gods hung the next injury on 41-year-old Tony Aparicio, who hurt himself fielding a Danny Munn grounder in the sixth and was replaced with Jorge Uranga. The very next batter, Chris Gowin, then hit a jack to left for a 1-0 Coons lead, so maybe we’d get something besides a Verdun-sized casualty list yet today…

Lonzo was on in the seventh, but was picked off, while Danny Munn whacked a jack to right off Alex Mancilla in the eighth to double the lead. Adkins allowed only two base hits through seven innings, but when Rams and Pucks reached as well in the top 8th and his spot came up with two outs, the Raccoons batted Ed Crispin for him. Mancilla walked him, then fell to 3-1 on Venegas, who grounded out to third base to strand another one of those delightful full sets. Eloy Sencion handled the 6-7-8 batters in the bottom 8th, and then I closed by eyes and hugged Honeypaws a little tighter when Tommy Gardner entered the game with a 2-0 lead. Juan Aragon grounded out, but Jorge Uranga doubled to center. Tristan Waker grounded out, moving the runner to third base. Lonzo handled Jeff Wheeler’s grounder for the final out. 2-0 Coons. Lavorano 2-5; Brassfield 2-2; Puckeridge 2-3, BB; Adkins 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (5-0);

Adkins might have been able to complete the shutout – he had only 82 pitches thrown – had the lead in the top 8th been a little bigger.

Luis Silva could only massage one mangled body at a time; by Wednesday morning, Ricky Lamotta was confirmed to go on the DL with a hyperextended elbow for at least two weeks, but Brassfield was not processed yet. Welcome back, Prospero Tenazes…

Game 2
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – 3B Brobeck – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – P Taki
VAN: 1B Wheeler – 3B Adame – LF Magnussen – C Waker – 2B Aparicio – RF A. Walker – CF T. Turner – SS Mullen – P Middleton

Aparicio was back in the lineup on Wednesday with a sore elbow, although at his age everything should be sore by default, shouldn’t it? Taki gave up a run in the bottom 1st on two doubles, a passed ball, and a lot of facepalm from me in Portland, curled up on the couch at home, in other words, a normal day at the office for Taki… For Portland, Lonzo and Rams both hit singles in each of their first two at-bats in the game. Neither came in the same inning, or with somebody on base, or with some other Critter being even a semblance of help, and they never even reached third base, let alone scored.

Lonzo’s third single came with nobody out in the top 6th and finally somebody on base, as Venegas had also hit a leadoff single ahead of him and moved to second on his dunker into shallow left. Gowin was up to the task and jammed into a double play, and after Munn walked, Rams popped out foul to end the inning. Up to here, Taki had pitched rather well with four scoreless after the routinely shoddy first, but then got slapped around for four singles and two runs in the bottom 6th, which was probably a case of “ballgame”. Taki was followed by Tikitaki, then Walters, neither allowing another run, but the Raccoons also just couldn’t buy a run against Middleton through seven, then Bernardino Risso in the eighth. Ruben Mendez got the save chance in the ninth against the middle of the order. Gowin grounded out. Munn whiffed. Ramsay flew out to left. 3-0 Canadiens. Lavorano 3-4; Ramsay 2-4;

Game 3
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – LF Puckeridge – CF Cramer – 2B Knight – P de la Cruz
VAN: 1B Wheeler – 3B Adame – LF Magnussen – C Waker – CF K. Hawkins – 2B Aparicio – RF A. Walker – SS Mullen – P Lausch

Mullen tripled home Hawkins (infield single) and Aparicio (walk) in the bottom 2nd as de la Cruz continued to smell, much the same as the lineup. Matt Knight hit a triple and scored on a passed ball in the third inning, which was precisely what it took to get on the board with this team. It was Thursday afternoon, and the Raccoons had yet to put a ball *in play* to score a run this week. Their only other at-bat with a man on so far in this game had been Pucks following up a Ramsay single with a double play in the top 2nd.

The no-runs-on-balls-in-play remained true even as the Coons flipped the score in the fourth inning on back-to-back bombs by Gowin and Munn, 3-2. Raffy couldn’t hold the lead, however; he struck out an impressive eight through five innings, and still managed to look awful, giving up seven hits, three walks, and three runs, the latter when Aparicio singled home Adame with two outs in the fifth inning. Aaron Walker grounded out to short to end the inning, stranding hooved creatures on the corners. Wheeler would get a 2-out bloop single off Raffy in the sixth, but Adame then grounded out to Venegas, so at least Raffy made it through six with a tie.

…or maybe a win? Lausch was still going in the seventh, but if you listened* well enough in Portland, you could hear a 2-out jack Pucks pumped to right in the top 7th, giving Raffy a 4-3 lead again. Brent Cramer doubled Lausch out of the game, and Mancilla surrendered a fifth run on Knight’s 2-out RBI single. Waters walked for Raffy, but Venegas grounded out. Two more runners, Gowin and Rams, were stranded when Pucks grounded out in the eighth inning, but at least Lillis and Hitchcock did a fine job in holding the lead through eight. Tommy Gardner, though, was gonna get himself murdered before long. Leadoff single by Adame in the bottom 9th, and from there it went dismal really soon. Magnussen RBI double, Waker RBI single, tied ballgame, and nobody out. Hawkins walked, but Aparicio hit into a double play, moving the winning run to third base. Aaron Walker whiffed, bringing on extra innings.

The 10th inning saw Lonzo single, steal second, and get starved at third base, while the Elks faced Hyun-soo Bak and Uranga singled, Adame singled, and with two outs, Magnussen singled to right. Uranga started from second base, turned third, and I reached for the Yellow Pages, because I could never remember the number of Madame Suzanne, who would listen to your aches and pains for $100 an hour, or that of a good hitman to get rid of closers, but Danny Munn actually threw out Uranga at the plate, and the band played on. The Coons began the 11th with singles from Rams and Pucks off Dan Lawrence, and the urge to pinch-run for Rams was there, but we only had one bat left on the bench (Crispin) and the pitcher’s spot was near. Tenazes flew out to center, moving Rams to third base, but Knight popped out to Uranga, and Crispin grounded out to Uranga to waste all the hits and oxygen.

Top 12th, Venegas hit a leadoff single off righty Ben Arner, then tried to steal his way into scoring position for two outs, never getting the jump. He stopped with Munn batting, because with Munn’s power stroke, first base *was* scoring position. Munn ran a full count, then thumped a fastball for 387 feet to left-center to break the 5-5 tie…! Danny Munn? No, DANNY FUN!! The Raccoons stuck to Matt Walters, who had pitched a seven-pitch 11th inning, and was now up against the bottom of the order. Mullen hit a 1-out single, then moved up on Uranga’s groundout. Wheeler batted as the tying run with two outs, and the first pitch was mashed to deep right. Uh-oh. Munn back to the warning track, Munn right at the fence……. and it came down in his glove, no more than five feet from the wall…! 7-5 Critters. Lavorano 2-6; Munn 2-6, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Ramsay 3-6; Puckeridge 2-5, HR, RBI; Knight 2-5, 3B, RBI; Walters 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (25-13) vs. Bayhawks (24-16) – May 21-23, 2055

The Baybirds held first place in the South, which hadn’t been the case in a few years. They did so on the third-most runs scored and the second-fewest runs allowed, although their pen was remarkably creaky with an ERA over four. Best D, but a pretty lean .322 team OBP, especially for a team with the #3 offense. Even the Critters were reaching base on a better clip! San Francisco had won six of the nine games against the Raccoons last year.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (4-1, 2.95 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (3-1, 2.36 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-2, 7.29 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (4-0, 2.73 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (5-0, 1.30 ERA) vs. Bob Ruggiero (2-4, 4.66 ERA)

Right, left, right. Mike Allegood (.293, 5 HR, 27 RBI) entered with a 20-game hitting streak.

So, Luis, what’s with Trent Brassfield? I haven’t heard anything in a few days. – What do you mean, he’s still soaking in lotion??

Game 1
SFB: LF C. Morris – CF Caban – 2B A. Montoya – 1B Allegood – SS Peltier – C Redfern – RF Felix – 3B Hoogendoorn – P Koga
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – RF Munn – LF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – CF Cramer – C Philipps – P Shui

Pitchers’ duel! There were only four hits through five innings – for both teams combined – and three of those were on the Baybirds’ side of the box score. With one of them, Kodai Koga singled home Jorge Felix with two outs in the fifth inning, but on the bright side, I had my Slappy back to lean against for comfort if Capt’n Coma and Honeypaws were no longer sufficient for the purpose. The only Coons hit was a Philipps double, at least until Venegas hit another double in the bottom 6th. That one came with nobody out and with He Shui on first base after he drew a leadoff walk off Koga, so Lonzo came up with a pair in scoring position. A run was imperative – and Lonzo dutifully singled through the right side to tie the game, then was caught stealing. At least Rams raked an 0-2 pitch to right for the go-ahead RBI…!

Former Critters farmhand Adam Peltier hit a deep fly to left in the seventh that Picks pucked off the fence, and Shui maintained the 2-1 lead on just over 90 pitches; so there weren’t many left for him, and when Cramer singled and stole second and Philipps walked with one out in the bottom 7th it made the decision to pinch-hit for him that much easier. Crispin grounded out to Peltier, Venegas grounded out to Armando Montoya, and it remained a 2-1 game. The Coons wished to stay clear of Gardner for this game, so needed to keep Hitchcock for the ninth. The eighth had to be pieced together with Torizuki-or-what’s-his-name and a lefty of choice. Crispin made an error that put Adam Hoogendoorn on base to begin the inning, which was just awesome. Koga bunted the tying run to second base, and then Lillis came on for Chris Morris, but got Chris Baker, a right-handed batter, instead. Baker lined out to Lonzo on a 3-2 pitch, and then we went to Hitchcock after all. Armando Caban popped out to right, and that ended the inning. No insurance runs came about, but Montoya, Mike Allegood, and Adam Peltier went down in order in the ninth inning. 2-1 Raccoons. Cramer 1-2, BB; Philipps 1-2, BB, 2B; Shui 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (5-1);

Allegood’s pop to short in the ninth inning ended his 20-game hitting streak.

Trent Brassfield was finally moved to the DL on Saturday after three games of a short bench. The diagnosis was rough: six weeks would be lost to an oblique strain. The Raccoons just didn’t have a true outfielder worth a call-up in AAA anymore, and went for a former $11k signing as international free agent from TEN years ago, 26-year-old RF/3B/SS Daniel Espinoza, who was a bit player hitting .271 with one homer in 31 games in St. Pete. He counted as warm body and nothing else. He batted right-handed.

In reality, Venegas would play a bit more in leftfield now and Ed Crispin would get more regular turns, but Matt Waters made a rare appearance at third base against the left-hander on Saturday.

Game 2
SFB: CF Caban – C Redfern – 2B A. Montoya – SS Peltier – 1B Whitehurst – RF C. Morris – LF Felix – 3B Hoogendoorn – P Overy
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – 1B Ramsay – 3B Waters – RF Puckeridge – CF Tenazes – 2B Knight – P Brobeck

From the start, the Bayhawks hit the ball hard against the struggling Brobeck, but the defense held him in the game. Nathan Whitehurst hit a double and he walked Chris Morris in the second, but then Jorge Felix hit into a double play. Instead the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead when Prospero Tenazes doubled home Matt Waters in the bottom 2nd, but the struggles with Brobeck never stopped. The third was clean, but the fourth saw Keith Redfern and Montoya single past either side of Matt Knight before Whitehurst drew a 1-out walk to fill the bases. Things looked desperate with a 3-1 count to Morris, who then grounded right *at* Knight for an inning-killing double play. Home half of the inning, Tenazes, the old slugger, had another 2-out RBI knock, then a single to get home Ramsay, who had led off with an infield (!) single.

The Bayhawks made up a run in the fifth with Felix and Overy (…) doubles, but Overy hurt his quad in the process and was out of the game. At least Chris Morris remained in it – he found another inning-murdering double play to Knight in the sixth when the Bayhawks had Peltier and Whitehurst on the corners. Peltier had reached on a Waters error, but that was not supposed to talk up Brobeck’s pitching, which was rightfully atrocious. He came to bat once more in the bottom 6th, but had yet to get a hit this week; Waters, Pucks, and Knight were on base with two outs, and he dinked a 2-run single to right against Sam Geren…! Venegas grounded out, but even up 4-1, Brobeck didn’t get back on the hill. Matt Walters struck out the side in the seventh, but Bak drowned in the eighth. Caban and Ismael Jaramillo hit singles, he balked them into scoring position, and Peltier whacked a 2-run double. Sencion gave up the lead altogether with an RBI single by Allegood, batting for Whitehurst, for whom he had been specifically inserted.

Bottom 8th, Antonio Alfaro faced the Raccoons. Tenazes hit a 1-out single with nobody on, and Crispin batted for Knight and walked against the former Critter. Danny Munn batted for Sencion, but both his drive and Venegas’ were caught by outfielders and nobody scored. Tommy Gardner’s two singles allowed were nothing out of the ordinary in the top 9th, but not allowing any runs sure was (looks on glumly), so the Coons were still a run short of a walkoff in the bottom of the inning against lefty Victor Flores, another former Raccoons reliever. Gowin hit a 1-out single, but Rams found the double play at short, and another game went to extras. Gardner pitched a second, consecutive, scoreless inning – would wonders ever cease – with nobody reaching for San Fran in the 10th. Matt Waters, now at second base, drew a leadoff walk from Flores in the bottom 10th. He moved up on Pucks’ groundout and Tenazes’ fourth single of the game, although he had to stop at third base against Matt Brown’s arm in rightfield. Ed Crispin shoved a single through the right side, however, and that ended the ballgame…! 5-4 Raccoons. Ramsay 3-5; Tenazes 4-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Knight 0-1, 2 BB; Crispin (PH) 1-1, BB, RBI; Gardner 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-2);

Atlanta passed San Francisco in the South on Saturday, while the Raccoons maintained a 3-game lead over the Indians. Those two were the only winning teams in the North at this junction.

Game 3
SFB: LF I. Jaramillo – RF M. Brown – 2B A. Montoya – SS Peltier – 1B Whitehurst – C Redfern – CF Caban – 3B Hoogendoorn – P Cantrell
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – RF Munn – CF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P Adkins

The Baybirds moved to Milt Cantrell (6-0, 2.39 ERA) on Sunday, who now held the lead in wins in the CL without tying with Kevin Hitchcock. Adkins had the chance to tie him by the end of the day, but faced an all-righty lineup. Lonzo stirred up a run in the bottom 1st, hitting a single off Cantrell, stealing two bases, and scoring on Keith Redfern’s throwing error on the swipe of third. The Baybirds came right back, though, with two hits and a walk drawn in the second inning. Armando Caban singled home Peltier, that persistent thorn in my side, with one out, before Hoogendoorn popped out and Cantrell grounded out to strand two. It was 3-1 by the third inning; Brown singled, Montoya tripled, and Whitehurst hit another single. The all-righty lineup appeared to have Adkins’ number with five hits and three runs through three innings.

Adkins grinded his way to the stretch without allowing another run, but the Raccoons got there without another BASE RUNNER. It was Lonzo’s wild dash in the first… and literally nothing else against Cantrell, who looked poised for 7-0, but finally gave up a single to Danny Munn leading off the eighth inning. Pucks popped out, but out of the blue entirely, Ed Crispin socked an RBI triple to center, and suddenly the tying run was 90 feet away for Matt Waters, who grounded out poorly, and then Brent Cramer, pinch-hitting with two outs and grounding out to Whitehurst… if only Whitehurst would have contained the ball. It dinked off his glove, off his leg, and into foul ground, allowing Cramer to reach first base and Waters to score on the error, tying the game at three and keeping Adkins out of the L column. Venegas walked, but Jorge Felix snared Lonzo’s liner to shallow left, ending the inning. And all for nought – Adam Hoogendoorn socked a 2-out homer off Brett Lillis jr. in the ninth inning, and Cantrell wound up with a 4-3 lead anyway after finishing the bottom 8th. The Raccoons were up against Patrick Jones, a righty, in the bottom 9th, with Ramsay starting the inning. He flew out to left, Gowin popped out to right, and Munn went down on strikes… 4-3 Bayhawks.

In other news

May 18 – DEN C Ben Bodkin (.250, 0 HR, 4 RBI) hits a 13th-inning walkoff single to beat the Warriors, 1-0.
May 19 – SFB 1B/RF/LF Mike Allegood (.293, 5 HR, 27 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak with a 2-single game in an 8-4 win over the Thunder.
May 19 – Dallas OF Chad Pritchett (.246, 3 HR, 13 RBI) shines with four hits, two doubles and a homer included, and a handful of RBI’s in a 15-1 rout of the Wolves. Infielder Lance Harrison (.327, 2 HR, 12 RBI) also has four hits, missing the cycle by the home run, with four RBI, and leaves the game with an injury suffered on the basepaths.
May 19 – The Aces rally with a 10-run eighth inning for a 16-8 comeback triumph against the Condors.
May 21 – OCT SP David Barel (1-1, 4.24 ERA) is out with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow and will take at least a full year to recover.
May 21 – The Gold Sox beat the Rebels, 2-1. All the runs score in the 13th inning. After Richmond takes a lead initially, DEN 1B Bill Joyner (.285, 3 HR, 22 RBI) wins the game for Denver with a 2-run walkoff double.
May 22 – DAL CL Sam Gibson (3-2, 3.97 ERA, 6 SV) will miss two months with elbow tendinitis.

FL Player of the Week: WAS 1B Shuta Yamamoto (.238, 2 HR, 23 RBI), batting .440 (11-25) with 2 HR, 12 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 1B/RF/LF Aubrey Austin (.282, 5 HR, 14 RBI), scratching .667 (8-12) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

That week was decent enough. Two series wins, including one over the dismal Elks. We still had the best record in the league, but the Caps by now tied us with being 13 over .500, albeit with four more games played. Nobody had played fewer games than the Raccoons, in fact.

Adkins didn’t beat the Bayhawks on Sunday, but he had the best ERA in baseball right now at 1.59, just ahead of the Rebs’ Eric Braley (1.64), and over half a run clear of New York’s Kyle Turay (2.20) for the closest competition in the CL.

Losing Brassfield until probably July sucks, especially since there’s not really anything behind him in AAA. We were actually pretty close to axing Brent Cramer, but now he’ll hold over at least until Lamotta comes off the DL in early June.

Lonzo is on pace for 72 steals this year… but Robby Gaxiola is on pace for *73* for the Loggers.

Next week, that pointless trip to Charlotte, and then we’d be right back home for a 6-game homestand with the Condors and Thunder.

Fun Fact: Only one batter has more home runs than Danny Munn this season.

That would be Atlanta’s Eddie Moreno. The 36-year-old journeyman was hitting .239 with 13 bombs and 48 RBI, which wasn’t shabby for just behind the first quarterpost.

+++

*”lauschen” is one word for “listening” in German. Like I have said many times, I largely write these posts for my own amusement and don’t expect anybody to find anything here even remotely funny.

So funnily enough for me, the Elks starter’s name would be a fictional-universe alternative for the Audi car brand, which evolved from the original name from one of Auto Union’s constituent brands, Horch. Audi, Horch, and Lausch would all have the meaning of “listen!”. And now we have successfully reached the era of 1933-45 Germany, so my job is done here now.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-14) @ Falcons (20-25) – May 25-27, 2055

The Falcons were in fourth place in the South and were just below average in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a -15 run differential. Their defense and starting pitching ranked 11th in the CL, with the rotation pushing a 5 ERA, and they had the fewest home runs with just 15 dingers from 45 games. We had won the season series in 2054, five games to four.

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (3-3, 3.46 ERA) vs. Austin Wilcox (3-5, 5.12 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (3-3, 4.43 ERA) vs. Felix Castano (1-3, 4.50 ERA)
He Shui (5-1, 2.76 ERA) vs. Josh Clem (1-2, 5.55 ERA)

Only right-handed starters for this series; the Falcons had no injuries, but even then they had nobody with more three homers, only two guys batting higher than .253, and while Castano’s ERA was the best in their rotation, he didn’t even qualify by innings pitched.

Game 1
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – RF Munn – CF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P Taki
CHA: LF Kulak – SS Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – 1B Schaack – C L. Miranda – CF Whitehead – 3B Sivertson – 2B G. Vazquez – P Wilcox

The good news were that Taki had a 1-2-3 first inning, and all was gonna be well! The bad news were that Taki instead drowned in the second inning this time around. He nailed Jason Schaack, and then gave up two singles and a run right away. Ex-Coon Mitch Sivertson grounded to third base where Crispin committed an error, conceding a second run, and Gerardo Vazquez added a third run with an RBI single. William Kulak walked and Ian Woodrome brought in a fourth run with a groundout before the inning ended with Danny Ceballos grounding out. The Raccoons had nothing much through four innings, then actually loaded the bases with Crispin, Venegas, and Lonzo singles in the fifth. Ramsay grounded out, however, and nobody scored. An inning later, Gowin, Pucks, and Crispin hit singles to fill the bases *again*. This time Matt Waters drove in two with a single up the middle, but Tenazes and Venegas made poor outs to keep the tying runs on base.

With Taki gone – he didn’t allow much outside of the rotten second inning – the Coons sent Bak in for the bottom 6th, and two singles off him and a Lonzo error led to an unearned run for Charlotte in the bottom 6th. Lonzo also had a rotten game, running a 3-0 count to begin the seventh inning and then popping out to Vazquez. The Raccoons would have only one more base runner when Crispin got drilled in the eighth inning and posed no threat at all. 5-2 Falcons. Crispin 2-2, BB;

Daniel Espinoza made his debut as pinch-hitter in this game, lining out as pinch-hitter.

Danny Munn was completely lost in this game, and now was second in homers in the CL with a .197 batting average, which was also a thing.

Game 2
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – RF Munn – CF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – 2B Waters – P de la Cruz
CHA: LF Kulak – SS Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – 1B Schaack – C L. Miranda – 3B J. Frazier – CF Whitehead – 2B G. Vazquez – P Clem

The Raccoons disappeared in order against Clem in the first three innings, while the Falcons beat four hits out of Raffy and a first-inning run on Kulak’s double and Ceballos’ RBI single. It took 11 batters to get the Raccoons into the H column with a Lonzo single in the fourth, but he was stranded on first base, not getting a jump, and not getting and help from Rams and Gowin, either.

It was still 1-0 through five, which looked way more decent than Raffy actually was; he gave up seven hits through five innings, and a few more drives that were luckily caught. He also began the sixth with grounding out, but then Venegas and Lonzo went to the corners with a pair of base hits. WHAT A RUSH OF OFFENSE!! Lonzo stole second base, but the Raccoons barely got Venegas home to tie the game on Rams’ sac fly to right. Gowin grounded out meekly. Bottom 6th, Ethan Whitehead walked, Gerardo Vazquez singled, and the Coons went to the pen with the pair in scoring position and two outs. Lillis came in with a triple switch, Rams going home and Pucks moving to first base, while Cramer took over centerfield, but Kulak flew out to Venegas on a 2-1 pitch to dispel the threat on paw.

The Raccoons then took the 2-1 lead in the seventh inning. Pucks singled, then scored when Crispin rushed a triple up the leftfield line. A funny bounce off the sidewall fooled Kulak and allowed Pucks to score and Crispin into third base in the first place, and that was also where Crispin was stranded as Waters grounded out to Clem and Cramer popped out to Josh Frazier, ending the inning and bringing on the stretch… The Raccoons had nothing in the eighth and a 2-out double for Pucks in the ninth, but at least Lillis and Hitchcock got the 2-1 lead to the ninth without any hiccups. Tommy Gardner it was, then. The Falcons threw all lefty bats they had at him; Manny Castillo and Billy Hester both grounded out to Pucks at first base, but Kulak doubled to right. Oh, here we go! Actually no – Woodrome struck out to end the game and level the series. 2-1 Coons. Lavorano 2-4; Puckeridge 2-4, 2B;

Danny Munn continued to be not much fun and dropped to .192. Both him and Waters, also struggling with the .200 mark, would get a day off in the rubber game. First lineup assignment for Danny Espinoza then…?

Game 3
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – C Philipps – 2B Knight – RF Espinoza – P Shui
CHA: LF Kulak – SS Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – 1B Schaack – C L. Miranda – 3B J. Frazier – CF Whitehead – 2B G. Vazquez – P Castano

Now Shui was brutalized in the first inning; the Falcons battered him four hits, a walk, and three runs before Gerardo Vazquez struck out to strand Frazier and Whitehead, finally. When Tyler Philipps and Matt Knight hit 2-out singles in the second inning, that brought up Espinoza as the tying run, but he was quite humiliated by Castano for a K, but he’d hit a 2-out RBI single to plate Knight in the fourth inning. That then cut the gap to 4-2, but Shui ended the inning with a pop to short. Rams had hit a sac fly to score Venegas in the third inning, but Shui just kept melting and had given the run right back in the bottom of the third inning, and the Coons’ fourth-inning run was also matched right away by the Falcons, who started the bottom 4th with a bloop single by Vazquez and then effortlessly moved him around with more hits for Kulak and Woodrome. That was all for Shui, four innings, nine hits, five runs, blargh.

It only got worse. Nikinaki and Sencion had scoreless outings, but Luis Miranda hit a 2-run homer off Matt Walters in the seventh inning to extend the Falcons’ lead to five. Ian Woodrome did Miranda one better in the eighth, crashing a 3-run homer off Hyun-soo Bak. 10-2 Falcons. Cramer (PH) 1-1; Lavorano 2-4; Knight 2-3, 2B; Espinoza 2-4, RBI;

Raccoons (28-16) vs. Condors (22-25) – May 28-30, 2055

The Condors were in third place in the South, and I wondered how and why. They were 11th in runs scored, 10th in runs allowed, had a -39 run differential, and no matter which angle you took to look at them, it was horrendous. We had swept them in the first series of the year, and of course it was 13 straight wins across three seasons for the Coons against the Condors.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (0-2, 6.41 ERA) vs. Steve Hawkins (4-0, 3.45 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (5-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (4-5, 3.32 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (3-4, 3.63 ERA) vs. Mike Jacobs (2-5, 7.88 ERA)

Of course sending out Brobeck for the opener was not exactly a bid to continue any kind of positive streak.

Southpaw Sunday, though, so at least we had that going for us.

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Chapa – 2B D. Mercado – LF T. Duncan – 1B Witherspoon – C Lehman – SS Medlock – RF M. Allen – CF Briggs – P S. Hawkins
POR: LF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Tenazes – P Brobeck

Ignoring a Tim Duncan single, Brobeck struck out the side in the first inning, which wasn’t taken well by Domingo Mercado, who objected noisily enough to strike three to get the rest of the evening off, to be replaced by Tyrese Sheilds. The Raccoons then got three hits and three walks off Hawkins in the bottom 1st while scoring the bare minimum of runs… two of them. Lonzo and Rams were in scoring position and scored on Gowin and Crispin singles, but Gowin was also picked off first base in between for the second out. Munn and Waters, the old strugglers, walked the bags full, but were all left on when Tenazes grounded out to Luis Chapa. Brobeck would hit a leadoff double in the bottom 2nd, was left on second base by the top of the order, then offered a leadoff walk to Hawkins and fooled that runner around to score in the inning, driven in by Sheilds. The bags were full again in the bottom 3rd with Gowin leading off with a single, Crispin drew a walk, and Waters got a soft single after a K on Munn. Tenazes’ turn was up again, and he hit into a double play…

Then Brobeck ******* ****** up the ******* game completely. Sam Witherspoon tripled to center to begin the fourth inning and Tim Lehman’s sac fly tied the game right away. Then there was a Mike Allen double, walks to Chris Briggs and Hawkins, for ***** sake, and Luis Chapa dropped a 2-out, 2-run single between Lonzo and Tenazes. Sheilds flew out to Munn, but the Condors were up 4-2 and the Raccoons were getting close to collective punishment. Brobeck was done after five absolutely atrocious innings, while the Coons had Lonzo on with a single in the fourth, and Crispin on with a single in the fifth, and never got them anywhere. The team couldn’t even score a ******* run when Tenazes socked a leadoff double to left in the sixth inning, at which point I kissed the Condors-conquering streak goodbye and instead wrapped by fuzzy lips around the neck of the nearest bottle of booze.

Nobody from the home team reached in the seventh inning, but Danny Munn hit a leadoff single in the eighth against Jim Woods, who was lifted for Juan Carrillo, who retired the next two. When Brent Cramer batted for the pitcher, the Condors sent lefty Gabe Hill, but Hill gave up a gapper for a 2-out RBI triple, 4-3, but Pucks grounded out. Hitchcock denied the Condors a tack-on run in the ninth, with Leonardo Ramos getting the ball for the bottom 9th. Lonzo grounded out to second. Rams singled, but Gowin struck out in a full count. Crispin was the last guy standing, and grounded out to third base to kill the streak. 4-3 Condors. Ramsay 2-5, 2B; Gowin 3-5, RBI; Cramer (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI;

********.

Game 2
TIJ: RF Chapa – 2B D. Mercado – LF T. Duncan – C Lehman – 1B Witherspoon – SS Medlock – 3B Sheilds – CF V. Velez – P J. Juarez
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – LF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Cramer – P Adkins

Lonzo singled, stole second, and scored on Pucks’ 2-out singe, with Gowin having drawn a walk in between. Danny Munn struck out, stranding a pair, and I immediately growled because the entire week had been like this now. Thankfully Slappy was back and knew exactly the spot where he had to pat me behind the fuzzy ears to calm me down. And Capt’n Coma was also a reliable friend, as always.

1-0 was the score through four, and Adkins didn’t actually allow a base hit through four innings, walking one and whiffing three. When the Condors did get a hit in the fifth inning, they got three singles at once, loading the bases with Stephen Medlock, Tyrese Sheilds, and Victor Velez, for crying out loud. Now, Juan Juarez struck out, which made two outs in the inning, and brought up Luis Chapa, the soft-hitting utility. He hit a liner to left, but Pucks came over aaaand made the catch… (raises bottle) On Pucks! (clonks bottles with Slappy)

Then the Raccoons also had three on in the bottom 5th… and with nobody out… and it was a bit shambolic. Waters hit a single. After that, Witherspoon fumbled Cramer’s grounder for an error, and when Adkins bunted, Sheilds inexplicably tried to beat Waters to third base, and was well beaten. Three on, no outs, top of the order coming up against Juarez – come on, boys! At least two runs, NOW!! Juarez, fazed, walked Venegas on four pitches, which was fine by me. Lonzo hit a liner to short, but Medlock *narrowly* missed the ball, and Lonzo had an RBI single! Y’know what, boys? Keep at it. And then Rams struck out, Gowin popped out, both in full counts, and I sighed deeply. Pucks hit away at the 2-1 pitch and sent a liner to Witherspoon – who couldn’t swipe it fast enough! Up the line, extra bases, and Pucks drove in three with a bases-clearing double! Five runs in the inning, but zero Pucks given! Tah!!

The inning ended with Munn flying out to right against Juan Carrillo, but Adkins had a 6-0 lead, so I felt like we were in good paws… although he was up to 72 pitches after the lengthy fifth. We’d get seven more outs from Adkins, but he was taken deep by Duncan in the sixth for one run, and gave up a leadoff double to Velez in the eighth, and that runner came around to score on a groundout, a walk issued to Chapa, and Mercado’s sac fly. That was it for Adkins, with Hitchcock coming in, and he struck out the pair of Tims in the 3-4 spots to keep the lead at 6-2. Since the lead was four for the ninth, we sent Lillis into the ninth inning. Witherspoon singled on his very first pitch, but that was as far as the Condors got, making three poor outs from there. 6-2 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-4, RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, 2B, 4 RBI; Adkins 7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (6-0);

Adkins added nine points to his ERA, all the way up to 1.68. Sucker.

Game 3
TIJ: 3B Chapa – 2B Sheilds – LF T. Duncan – 1B Witherspoon – C Lehman – SS Medlock – RF M. Allen – CF Briggs – P M. Jacobs
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – C Gowin – 2B Waters – 1B Philipps – CF Tenazes – 3B Espinoza – P Taki

Taki conceded a four-pitch walk and a single right afterwards in both of the first two innings, but without allowing a run. He rung up two to recover in the first, and started a 1-5-3 double play on Mark Jacobs in the second inning to end that inning. When it was his own time to bunt after an Espinoza single in the bottom 3rd, Lehman threw the ball away for two bases, and the Coons had a pair in scoring position with nobody out in a scoreless game. The runners scored on a Venegas RBI single, then a double play grounder by Lonzo, which at least made it 2-0. Pucks tripled, but Gowin struck out, ending the inning. While not all was sugar cubes with Taki pitching – he allowed the Condors to reach the corners again in the fourth inning before popping out both Chris Briggs and the pitcher – the same was true for the offense. Waters was on to begin the fourth, then was doubled up by Philipps. Tenazes then doubled, Espinoza was walked intentionally, and Taki reached on Witherspoon’s next error. That loaded them up for Venegas, but he grounded out to Medlock in a week that just kept piling up the missed chances.

The Coons only tacked on in the sixth and only on another throwing error, now by Medlock. Waters singled and stole second base to open the frame, while Medlock then threw away Philipps’ grounder for two bases and a run, 3-0. That was all, the inning ending with Taki, who was already on 104 pitches through six busy innings, but got the seventh pieced together on six pitches to end his outing. Bak retired the 4-5-6 without fuss and with two strikeouts in the eighth inning, and Gardner and Lillis were getting ready for the ninth inning. The plan was to actually send out Lillis first, with the next six spots in the Condors lineup being either a lefty stick or a pitcher. Allen, Briggs, and PH Jon Mittleider went down in order and without as much as a squeal, and the Coons took the series. 3-0 Critters. Waters 2-4; Philipps 2-4, 2B; Espinoza 1-2, BB; Taki 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (4-4);

First save of the year for Brett Lillis jr.!

In other news

May 27 – LAP RF Matt Diskin (.275, 8 HR, 28 RBI) will miss at least one week with shoulder tendinitis.
May 28 – Los Angeles acquires 2B/SS Lance Harrison (.279, 2 HR, 12 RBI) from the Stars for three prospects.
May 29 – The Pacifics thrash the Miners for 11 runs in the fifth inning of a 14-7 football score.
May 30 – CIN LF/CF Juan del Toro (.347, 5 HR, 22 RBI) hits for the cycle with an at-bat to spare in a 9-8 win over the Gold Sox, collecting every type of hit once and driving in three runs. It’s the second consecutive ABL cycle that occurs with the Cyclones as the road team, after Dallas’ Chad Pritchett had hit for the cycle almost exactly one year ago with Cincy as the visiting team in Dallas.

FL Player of the Week: LAP LF/RF/1B Salvatore Rodrigues (.308, 4 HR, 22 RBI), batting .519 (14-27) with 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Aaron Walker (.261, 6 HR, 32 RBI), batting .478 (11-23) with 3 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

3-3 week. May hasn’t been much good for us, and June will have a tough travel schedule with three separate trips across the mountains and two to east of the Mississippi, as well as just nine home games overall. Two of them on the tail end of the Thunder series that will kick off next week, after which we’ll go to Boston and New York.

We have six Raccoons leading the All Star Fan Votes right now. Chris Gowin leads catchers and is the only position player. The other five were pitchers: Adkins and Shui were 1-2 for starters, and Hitchcock, Gardner, and Walters were 1-2-3 for relievers.

Is there any pitching help in AAA, especially a Brobeck replacement? Sadly, not really. Phil Baker is doing halfway decent, but they all have too many walks, too few strikeouts, and an ERA that doesn’t promise much good if promoted. Besides Baker, there’s also have-been-heres Cameron Argenziano and Josh Mayo, former third-rounder John Blevins, and a $33k signing from July ’47 in Jesus Guzman.

Fun Fact: Seventh career save for Brett Lillis jr. on Sunday. He is now just 296 short of his dad.

Brett Lillis, who was a Raccoon twice in 2019 and from 2021 through 2024, got 303 career saves in 796 outings. He got only two in his first half-season with the team in ’19, but then was a regular closer for three-and-a-half years in his second tour of duty, compiling 127 total saves between those years. He saved games for five different teams in his career, most of them for Cincy: 151, just under half his career total.

Lillis sr. was an All Star twice, both in seasons in which he wore the brown shirt, although his 2019 nomination was as a Cyclone and he was only added in a trade after the All Star Game. His other All Star season was in ’23.

The funny thing about how we got Lillis sr. the first time was that outfielder Alex Duarte was wrapped up in the package to Cincy that got him here, and they somehow managed to be teammates on the Raccoons briefly in late 2021 then, when Duarte was claimed off waivers from the Crusaders, but only appeared in 14 games with Portland the rest of the year.

[Westheim]

2055 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

We had reached the end of May, which meant that the annual amateur draft was about two weeks away. The Raccoons would have the #21 and #38 picks, and four picks in the top 100 in total.

132 players made the shortlist out of the 360-strong draft pool, with one player in there that we had listed both as a pitcher and position player. And of course, there was also a hotlist (*denotes high school player):

SP Miguel Romero (11/16/11)
SP Alfonso Calderon (11/14/10)
SP Tyler Chilcott (13/12/11)
SP Mike Bell (11/13/14) *

CL Adam Harris (17/12/15)

SS/3B Ben Stine (17/10/7) *
1B/LF/CF/2B Steve Anderson (15/13/15) *
SS/2B Jason Turner (11/13/16) *
INF Matt Kilday (13/1/13) *

OF Chad Cardwell (15/14/16) *
RF/LF Austin Gordon (14/14/7) *

A weird set, with all the position players on the list being high-schoolers, but all but one of the pitchers being in college. Was there much point in musing about them after all? The Raccoons only had the #21 pick (but rings that were still warm, so I wasn’t crying), and while I’d like us a plus-defensive infielder with a .330 stick and some power like Ben Stine, there was no reason in hoping for him to fall to us.

One word should be lost about some oddities; the first being that player we had listed both ways, 3B/RF/1B/MR Armando Suriel, who was a strong defender with a murder arm (duh), but had a rather mediocre stick (switch-hitter, though!). He threw a 90mph heater and a slider, though, which still made him a mediocre righty reliever at best, but you’d get two lottery tickets for the price of one at least.

The other curiosity was a 21-year-old right-hander, Carlos Torres, from Santiago, Chile. Stuff was good, control and stamina not so much, but he had a chance at least to make it to a major league rotation at some point. Maybe not on an overly ambitious team. We had him rated 12/10/8. There’d be worse, say, fourth-round picks to make.

There had been only two Chilean ABL players in history, none in this millenium. The most of a career between those had been had by INF Diego Mendoza, who was a bench player for the Blue Sox between 1986 and 1993, never making it to 300 PA in a season and hitting .283 with just two homers and 86 RBI. The other Chilean on record was an outfielder named Leonardo Hernandez, who made 17 appearances, all of the bench, with the Canadiens from 1980 through 1982, and went 0-for-10 with the stick, and somehow also managed to go 0-for-2 in stolen bases.