Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Questdog]

I wanted to come reciprocate the jinx you hexed on the Jays, but it seems someone beat me to it....

[Westheim]

Raccoons (74-75) vs. Knights (74-75) – September 19-21, 2039

Here were two fourth-place teams, one of which was two games out and the other was sixteen and a half games out. Was there any justice left in the world?? The Knights had lost five in a row, and were eighth in runs scored and third in runs allowed in a Continental League that was an entire mess. The Raccoons had already taken the season series, up 5-1.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (11-8, 3.08 ERA) vs. Brad Santry (14-10, 3.49 ERA)
Drew Johnson (11-9, 3.43 ERA) vs. Danny Orozco (11-13, 3.60 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (8-13, 3.56 ERA) vs. Alex Aguilar (7-6, 3.48 ERA)

A righty, a lefty, a righty … I wasn’t expecting any heroics anymore. The Knights had a flurry of injuries, which had felled Graciano Salto, Jesus Matos, Nate Nelson, Adam Horner… and the list went on a bit longer still. Their lineup looked like what was left of the Texans after the Alamo.

Game 1
ATL: RF Hester – LF Inoa – C Guadalupe – 1B J. Weber – CF Hawthorne – SS Thomson – 2B Cerezo – 3B Maneke – P Santry
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – 1B Maldonado – RF Greenway – CF Hooge – C Morales – SS Williams – LF Cronk – P Sabre

I honestly didn’t know half the hitters in their lineup, but nevertheless, Mario Guadalupe singled home Luis Inoa after the latter’s 1-out double in the first inning anyway. The Raccoons did nothing, besides striking out eight times against Brad Santry in the first five innings. Sabre got only three batters through five, but added the two guys that had poked him for the run in the first when he retired the Knights 1-2-3 in the sixth and Justin Weber in the seventh. Justin who?

He still looked like he was gonna get ****** for all the effort, until Juan Cerezo and Weber made two outs between them in the bottom 7th and put Hoogey and Morales on the corners with nobody out. Santry walked Elijah Williams to fill the bags, which made it a guarantee that the Raccoons wouldn’t score, so Cory Cronk could bat no matter what. Except that Santry had gone off the rails now and walked Cronk on four pitches, pushing home the tying run. Brad Ledford zinged an RBI single to give Sabre, for whom he batted, a 2-1 lead and chance for the W. Berto hit an RBI single and Cosmo added a sac fly before right-hander David Farris restored order. So the Raccoons turned it over to the bullpen, and in this case Antonio Prieto, who faced the 7-8-9 in the top 8th, allowed singles to Cerezo, Chris Maneke, and Lorenzo Celaya, then was yanked to be beaten to ******* death. David Fernandez replaced him, was countered by right-handed batter Zachary Krumholz, who I had never heard of but who somehow had ten homers on the year. He hit his 11th off Fernandez, dead to center, and I fell where I stood, dead onto the couch. 5-4 Knights. Greenway 1-2, 2 BB; Williams 2-3, BB, 2B; Ledford (PH) 1-2, RBI; Sabre 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K;

Some butt wipe revived me, and made me sit through the Tuesday game, too, though. Probably Cristiano, that know-it-all.

Game 2
ATL: RF Hester – LF Inoa – C Guadalupe – 1B J. Weber – CF Hawthorne – SS Thomson – 2B Cerezo – 3B Maneke – P Orozco
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – C Kilmer – RF Greenway – CF Maldonado – LF Ledford – SS Williams – 1B Monge – P Johnson

George Hawthorne, Juan Cerezo, and Chris Maneke all singled off Drew Johnson all hit a single in the second inning and gave the Knights another 1-0 lead. The Critters had only one hit the first time through against Orozco, but Kilmer and Greenway opened the bottom 4th with singles to right, and Maldonado did them one better with a double down the line to tie the game. Brad Ledford batted with two in scoring position and nobody out, hit a fly to the fence that was caught by Luis Inoa for a sac fly and a 2-1 lead. Williams singled off Orozco, 3-1, Monge singled, and Johnson bunted into a force at third base. Berto slapped another RBI single, 4-1, which was also the point they had reached on Monday before everything had turned up **** again. And notice how they never hit a 3-run homer anymore? They probably hadn’t hit one since May, and nobody had noticed. Trevino popped out to end the inning.

George Hawthorne hit one out, but that counted for one run in the sixth, shortening the lead to 4-2. Like Sabre, Drew Johnson lasted seven innings, then had to close his eyes and brace for impact. Cosmo reached base on a Hawthorne error in the bottom 7th, stole second base, and went when Jeff Kilmer singled to center. He was thrown out at home plate. Top 8th, Mauricio Garavito retired the 1-2-3 batters in order, so that meant crushing desolation would come in the ninth today. Chris Miller walked Hawthorne with one out, then got a pop from Keith Thomson and a grounder from Travis Sheaffer. Kilmer threw that grounder away for two bases rather than going 2-3 for the final out; that put the tying run in scoring position. Miller struck out Maneke to finally end the game. 4-2 Raccoons. Kilmer 2-4; Maldonado 2-4, 2B, RBI; Williams 2-4, RBI; Monge 2-3, BB, 2B; Johnson 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (12-9);

Game 3
ATL: 2B DiNatale – LF Inoa – C Guadalupe – 1B J. Weber – CF Hawthorne – SS Thomson – RF Sheaffer – 3B Maneke – P A. Aguilar
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – C Kilmer – CF Maldonado – SS Caskey – 1B Kilgallen – P Chavez

Matt Kilgallen hit a long shot to left with two outs in the bottom 2nd, putting the Raccoons up 2-0 after Maldonado had singled and stolen second base. Both teams had also made an error already, so it was a choppy game between two choppy teams. That was all through five innings – pattern to the series almost – with Bernie allowing only one base hit through five. He allowed another one to Chris Maneke in the sixth. Aguilar struck out, Devin DiNatale (who??) hit into a fielder’s choice, and Bernie fell to 3-0 against Luis Inoa, then hung a stinkerball and Inoa hit into the next county over, tying the game at two. Oh, Bernie! You’re so … You’re so Bernie!!

Bernie also held out through seven. Jon Caskey drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 7th. Kilgallen flew out to center, and Bernie was kept around to bunt, sending the go-ahead run to second base, from where Berto singled him home to take the lead, 3-2. Cosmo grounded out after that and Bernie returned to pitch in the eighth inning. Sheaffer grounded out. Maneke sent a long drive to right, I sighed, but it came down in Greenway’s mitten on the warning track. Bernie exited the eighth with a strikeout. Despite scoring the go-ahead run, Caskey was hit for with two outs in the bottom 8th. Ed Hooge popped out in his spot, stranding Greenway and Kilmer on base. Chris Miller then blew the lead within two pitches, getting taken so deep by Mike Edwards it actually hurt. Who the **** WAS MIKE EDWARDS??

Inoa doubled right after that, but was somehow stranded, while the Raccoons, who had removed Berto for defense for no greater good, had to bat again, so there was more disappointment on the way…! Right-hander Rich Ray was up to pitch in the bottom 9th, and Kilgallen, Williams, and Joel Hernandez were retired in order, and it didn’t get that much better in the 10th, either. Garavito did the last out in the ninth and the whole tenth, and Pena pitched a 1-2-3 in the 11th for Portland. Jermaine Campbell came out for the 12th, with Justin Weber ripping a leadoff double off him. He walked Hawthorne, but then got a double play from Antonio Guerrero, with Weber to third base. At the plate was switch-hitting leftfielder Jordan Guidry, and if we were in Atlanta, I’d be convinced they’d be picking these folks right out of the stands. Guidry flew out to left. Bottom 12th, Nigel Owens nicked Williams, and Joel Hernandez bunted him to second base. As the drag continued, Cosmo popped out, Manny walked, and it would be Greenway with two outs, which used to be a fun time, but this year nothing was fun, and he struck out.

Campbell was then torn apart for two walks, two doubles, two runs in the 13th, before being yanked for Brent Clark, who allowed a single to Weber, walked Hawthorne to force in a run, and then somehow oversaw the Knights failing themselves out of the inning. Bottom 13th, Owens still around. Kilmer reached, was forced out by Maldonado, but when Tony Morales pinch-hit and singled, the Raccoons got the tying run to the plate. Owens threw a wild pitch, then gave up a sharp RBI single to center to Kilgallen. With the winning run up, Brad Ledford hit for Williams, ran a full count, then shot a ******* double up the leftfield line to tie the goddamn game. The Knights went to Farris in a tied game, but the Raccoons were also running out of players and couldn’t hit for Joel Hernandez anymore. The sucker popped out in foul ground on the first pitch, and Cosmo grounded out, running his day further into the ground at 0-for-7, and the damn game continued after the score went from 3-3 to 6-6. For the 14th, the Raccoons scratched the remains of Antonio Prieto out of Monday’s crater, and put him back on the mound. Billy Hester hit a single in the #9 hole, but was caught stealing. The Raccoons also got a 1-out hit off Farris, Greenway hitting a double to left. Kilmer grounded out. Maldonado hit a grounder up the middle, Guerrero missed it, and Greenway was waved around to score and end the game. 7-6 Raccoons. Greenway 3-7, 2B; Kilmer 3-7; Morales (PH) 1-1; Kilgallen 2-6, HR, 3 RBI; Ledford (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Chavez 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K and 1-2;

What is an entirely stale win, that makes nobody happy?

This is an entirely stale win, that makes nobody happy.

No, Maud, I’m fine. Just kill the light when you leave. – (is left sitting in the utter darkness once Maud kills the light)

Raccoons (76-76) vs. Indians (64-88) – September 23-25, 2039

At least I had the comfort of knowing that the Indians had even less fun than us. That was something to build on. That, and booze. (takes mighty glug). They were dead-last in the North, second from the bottom in runs scored, and the worst outright in runs allowed. The only thing keeping them from reaching a -200 run differential was playing the Raccoons three times on their way out. And yet, they were assured a split in the season series, coming in with a 9-6 lead…

Projectd matchups:
Steve Fidler (5-7, 4.61 ERA) vs. Jake Jackson (10-17, 3.70 ERA)
Ryan Bedrosian (15-4, 3.21 ERA) vs. John Nelson (9-14, 4.55 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (11-8, 3.02 ERA) vs. Joe Robinson (5-7, 3.95 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday again! We’d be nothing without traditions!

Game 1
IND: CF D. Gonzales – RF A. Torres – 3B Hutson – 1B Dodson – C E. Thompson – LF Trawick – SS R. Johnston – 2B Bainer – P J. Jackson
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Hooge – C Morales – 1B Monge – SS Nickas – P Fidler

Troy Greenway was thrown out at third base after a leadoff double in the bottom 2nd, and inning which progressed to see Morales and Monge in scoring position with two outs before the Indians walked Steve Nickas with intent and got Fidler to strike out. Fidler at least allowed no hits through the first three innings before hitting Alberto Torres to begin the fourth. Before long, Fidler balked, Dan Hutson singled up the middle, and a wild pitch scored Torres. The Indians got an RBI single from Jake Trawick, Ryan Johnston reached base, and whoever Jeremy Bainer was, he hit a 3-run homer to left. Fidler retired the pitcher on a grounder, then was not seen again after an hour-long rain delay that only served to prolong everybody’s suffering.

Top 5th, Travis Sims got involved, which ensured defeat, and in style, too. Leadoff walk to David Gonzales, who stole his 42nd base, then a 2-run bomb by Alberto Torres, 7-0. A Dan Hutson single, then two walks drawn by Elliott Thompson and Trawick loaded the bases. Sims was bluntly told that nobody was going to come and rescue him, then nailed Ryan Johnston in protest to force in a run. Bainer singled to center, Ed Hooge overran the ball, and two more runs scored. It was already 10-0 on consecutive 5-spots, but Sims allowed two more runs on Gonzales’ 2-out, 2-run single. Torres then grounded out to keep it a modest 12-0, and by the way, the damn Arrowheads had only seven base hits in the game. Jared Ottinger’s two scoreless after that and a pinch-hit single by Cory Cronk that removed Ottinger from the game had a solid shot to qualify as the highlights of the evening. And then Jon Caskey hit into a double play. They were ******* disgusting and every single one of them should be ******* purged. Everybody but Chris Lancaster, who pinch-hit for Cosmo Trevino out of spite in the bottom 8th, and hit a ******* homer off Jake Jackson. Chris Lancaster was our ******* hero!! At least more than Francisco Pena, who was grabbed by the tail, swung around overhead by the Indians for a few spins, and then flung into the nearest solid sidewall for two runs in the ninth. 14-1 Indians. Lancaster (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Greenway 2-3, 2 2B; Monge 2-3, 2 2B; Hernandez (PH) 1-1; Cronk (PH) 1-2; Ottinger 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Slappy asked me whether I’d seen a ghost because I was so silent.

No, Slappy. Just no will to live anymore.

Normal stuff, y’know.

Game 2
IND: CF D. Gonzales – RF A. Torres – 3B Hutson – 1B Cassell – C E. Thompson – SS R. Johnston – LF Garbinski – 2B Bainer – P J. Nelson
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Maldonado – 1B Monge – C Lancaster – SS Williams – P Bedrosian

David Gonzales opened the game with a single before Bedrosian hit Torres and walked Hutson. Ryan Cassell crashed a bases-clearing triple in right-center, then scored on Elliott Thompson’s single. 4-0 and not an out on the board. Bedrosian then got three of those without conceding another half-dozen runs, which was very nice of him, and the Raccoons put the 2-3-4 batters on base in the bottom of the inning. Maldonado hit an RBI single, Monge hit a run-scoring grounder, and Lancaster popped out to strand the tying runs in scoring position. Ah, I see. He’s very much a single-use hero.

Bedrosian allowed a leadoff single to Bainer in the second. Nelson’s bunt was thrown away by Alberto Ramos, and the Indians scored a run on a Torres single with one out. Maldonado’s throw home allowed the runners to advance, leading to a sac fly after that, burying the Raccoons by a slam once more. Williams, Ramos, and Fernandez all reached in the bottom of the inning – and Greenway grounded out to have them all stranded. Maldonado and Monge went to the corners with base hits to begin the third inning, and Maldonado scored when Lancaster boogied into a 4-6-3 double play.

The Raccoons accepted to suffer through four innings of an unwound Bedrosian before going to the destitute, derelict pen again. We didn’t even have a rested long man anymore! Prieto was sent in for the fifth and was taken deep by Elliott Thompson, 7-3. The Raccoons lingered for a while before their 3-4-5 batters rapped straight singles with one out in the seventh against Nelson, bringing the tying run back to the plate in Danny Monge, who OBVIOUSLY hit into a 6-4-3 double play. There was a Trevino knock, a stolen base, and a Greenway sac fly in the ninth inning against Alex Banderas, but it was too little, too late, and too sad. 7-5 Indians. Ramos 2-5; M. Fernandez 2-4, BB; Greenway 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Maldonado 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Ledford (PH) 1-1; Campbell 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

For Sunday, the Raccoons fielded mostly a joke lineup, out of spite. There was no taking this serious anymore anyway.

Game 3
IND: CF D. Gonzales – SS R. Johnston – 3B Hutson – 1B Cassell – C E. Thompson – RF Garbinski – LF Zimmerman – 2B Bainer – P J. Robinson
POR: 2B Caskey – SS Williams – CF Maldonado – C Kilmer – LF M. Fernandez – 1B Kilgallen – RF Cronk – 3B Hernandez – P Sabre

Poor Sabre. But it was his own fault. We didn’t DRAFT him. He signed voluntarily, when he was 16 and didn’t speak a lick of English.

And Indy took a 1-0 lead in the first – unearned. Thompson singled in Hutson, but Ryan Cassell had reached on Kilgallen’s error in between. The Raccoons answered with straight singles from the 1-2-3 hitters to tie the ballgame in the bottom 1st. Kilmer then hit a ******* triple, but was also stranded on third base, which he reached with zero outs on the board… Top 2nd, leadoff walk drawn by Jason Zimmerman, who stole his first base, then scored on Bainer’s single. Jeremy Bainer was probably going to be Player of the Week, and at this pace… (throws another half a bottle of Capt’n Coma down his throat) … I’d not be alive to bear witness, thank god.

The score was 4-2 after a Williams double and Maldonado RBI single, and Sabre held on for a little bit, fighting with the 3.00 mark for his ERA, got under it when Ryan Johnston grounded out to begin the fifth inning, and then immediately gave up two singles, a balk, and a sac fly to Thompson. So much for a sub-3 ERA – back to 3.04 …! The Raccoons got Kilmer and Manny aboard with 2-out singles in the bottom 5th, then saw Kilgallen knock out Robinson with a triple off the fence in right-center. Cory Cronk walked against right-hander Tony Rivas in the 6-3 game, but Joel Hernandez flew out to end the inning. Sabre allowed another two singles in the sixth and was removed after the inning, with over 100 pitches on his ledger and his spot leading off the bottom of the inning.

Jon Caskey then hit a home run to left off Terry Weaver in the bottom 6th, getting up to 7-3, his first bomb of the season. The Critters got scoreless innings from David Fernandez in the seventh, and somehow also from Ottinger in the eighth. Pena got the ball in the ninth, and groundout, strikeout, flyout went the Indians’ 3-4-5 hitters. 7-3 Raccoons. Caskey 2-4, HR, RBI; Williams 3-4, 2B; Maldonado 2-4, 2 RBI; Kilmer 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI;

In other news

September 19 – SAL SP Phil Harrington (21-5, 1.82 ERA) beats the Rebels in a 4-2 game, whiffing eight in as many innings for his 200th major league win. Harrington, 34, is a 7-time Pitcher of the Year (probably eight soon-ish) with two triple crowns and 2,831 strikeouts in 2,299 innings. He is 200-66 with a 2.11 ERA for his career, and please keep in mind that he wasted two seasons of his career as closer, saving 87 games, too.
September 19 – SFB RF/LF/1B Dave Martinez (.270, 15 HR, 68 RBI) drums in six runs on four hits as the Bayhawks rush the Loggers in a 12-6 game.
September 19 – VAN OF Ryan Phillips (.261, 12 HR, 72 RBI) hits a walkoff single off LVA MR Ricardo Sanchez (1-4, 4.94 ERA) to give the Canadiens a 2-1 win over the Aces in the 18th inning. The run is unearned thanks to an error by INF Jason Bensinger (.281, 4 HR, 30 RBI).
September 20 – Topeka right-hander Jon Bleich (4-9, 3.51 ERA, 23 SV) makes a spot start and shuts out the Stars on three hits. The Buffaloes win 7-0.
September 25 – TIJ SP Jimmy Driver (12-6, 2.83 ERA) is out for the season with elbow inflammation.
September 25 – 37-year-old NAS CL Casey Moore (7-4, 3.28 ERA, 28 SV) might miss a full season for a partially torn UCL even with a rehab approach.

FL Player of the Week: NAS LF/RF Sean Ashley (.301, 28 HR, 123 RBI), hitting .400 (10-25) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND 3B Dan Hutson (.278, 34 HR, 100 RBI), batting .481 (13-27) with 1 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Only one more week. It will be a week of agony – four games in Elk City, anyone? – but then it will finally be over.

Well, that week and then watching the damn Elks go back-to-back. The Titans are two games away from elimination, and the Raccoons won’t be a help to them. We’re also firmly nailed into fourth place in the division, so that’s depressing.

The Alley Cats swept the Rebels-aligned Albion Vanquishers in the first round of the AAA playoffs and were now up against the Cyclones-affiliated Glendale Sports for the championship. They lost the opener, 6-4, and why would they win anything? They were little Raccoons after all. Little ones, but still, hopelessly inept. They all are.

They all are.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons hit three home runs this week, every one of them by a player that hit their first home run of the season.

And it’s SEPTEMBER.

Kilgallen, Lancaster, and Caskey. Lancaster hit the first of his career.

Probably also the last one.

[Westheim]

“I told you so.”

Gustaf, more muscular, oilier, and with longer blond hair than ever hung his head in dismay while Cristiano, who sat in his wheelchair wearing a jester’s costume, complete with bells on his red-and-yellow hat, maintained his shrugging pose to make his words linger longer. Honeypaws and I had decided that we couldn’t be alone when the damn Elks clinched in our faces and we needed company. And what other company did I know than Cristiano and Gustaf?

Raccoons (77-78) @ Canadiens (95-60) – September 26-29, 2039

Only a modestly terrible 6-8 in the season series, the Raccoons had to get beaten up by the #1 offense in the league once more. Or four times more. It depended on how you were counting it. The damn Elks were also second in runs allowed, and there was nothing good about this series at this point in time…

Projected matchups:
Drew Johnson (12-9, 3.39 ERA) vs. Michael Donovan (8-6, 4.63 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (8-13, 3.51 ERA) vs. Eric Weitz (17-11, 3.38 ERA)
Jared Ottinger (3-2, 6.57 ERA) vs. Matt Sealock (19-4, 2.79 ERA)
Ryan Bedrosian (15-5, 3.37 ERA) vs. David Arias (14-8, 3.82 ERA)

The damn Elks would send a southpaw and three right-handers with a magic number of two.

Game 1
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Caskey – CF Maldonado – C Kilmer – RF Greenway – 1B Monge – SS Williams – LF Kilgallen – P Johnson
VAN: CF Foss – 1B J. Lopez – 2B Sprague – C Clemente – LF DeVita – SS Sibley – RF M. Reyna – 3B Schneider – P Donovan

Donovan started with two walks into this game, but thankfully the Raccoons found their way out of the pressure cooker with a fielder’s choice by Maldonado and a double play hit into by Jeff Kilmer. The Raccoons did little else until Kilmer and Greenway reached in the fourth and Danny Monge, the most useless .300 hitter ever, smashed into a double play. In between, the damn Elks had an Aaron Foss double off Johnson but nothing that would make them winners. I sighed on the vibrant pink couch between Honeypaws and Cristiano, who had the feet up on the seat of his wheelchair and had Gustaf – who was not into baseball to begin with – bring selfmade cookies from the kitchen. They smelled weird, but both me and Honeypaws dug into the box until being advised by Cristiano that I was only supposed to have one cookie. – That’s a bit scroogey, isn’t it, Cristiano? – Mm. Mm. Not bad though. – It feels like… it feels like I can taste the rainbow?

With some rainbow in the system watching the scoreless game dragging on wasn’t all that bad anymore. Yes, the Raccoons couldn’t hit, run, or field for their lives, and Kilgallen hit a triple and was stranded anyway, but so what… - Hey, Cristiano. – What I always wanted to tell you … (giggles) … your hair smells soooooo nice …!

Not smelling nice were Johnson and Brent Clark in the bottom 7th, in which they walked the bases full between themselves, and then had to wait on Johnny Lopez to get robbed by Berto with three on and two outs, and still a scoreless game on the board. Prieto got himself around Glenn Sprague’s leadoff double in the eighth, still maintaining the no-score, while I was eagerly kissing what I thought was Honeypaws, but was really a fuzzy pink pillow. Top 9th, Tim Zimmerman allowed a leadoff single to Troy Greenway, then a double to Monge – go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out! Brad Ledford hit for Elijah Williams, but was walked intentionally, and Cosmo hit for Kilgallen instead, hitting an infield roller that nobody could play for anything, and the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on the bases-loaded single. I giggled manically. Morales and Berto then hit into consecutive force plays at home plate, and Caskey lined out to Ray Ashley at third base, but I kept giggling. Miller retired Ryan Phillips, Ramon Cabral, and Jesse LeJeune, the old pest, in order in the bottom of the inning to end the game, although me giggling wouldn’t yet end for a long time… 1-0 Critters! Kilmer 1-2, BB; Greenway 2-3; Kilgallen 2-3, 3B; Trevino (PH) 1-1, RBI; Johnson 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

(comes to his senses at eight the next morning, finding himself tucked in with Honeypaws on the couch)

Honeypaws?

What happened?

Is this real life?

Game 2
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – CF Hooge – C Morales – SS Williams – P Chavez
VAN: CF Foss – 1B J. Lopez – 2B Sprague – C Clemente – LF DeVita – RF R. Phillips – SS Sibley – 3B Ashley – P Weitz

Cristiano and me watched two teams scatter seven hits in the first three innings and the most inefficient way possible, reaching third base only twice between them, and never scoring. The misery included a double play turned behind Berto, and Cosmo being caught stealing in the first inning. When Greenway and Maldo opened the fourth with singles, I had an indifferent feeling. Ed Hooge hit into a fielder’s choice, but stole second base. However, Morales grounded out to first, Williams was walked intentionally, and Bernie flew out to center, stranding three. Cosmo and Manny were on in the fifth, but Greenway and Maldonado couldn’t find a place to drop the ball into in the goddamn stadium. Berto finally caved and cave up an RBI single to the opposing pitcher in the first, scoring Ray Ashley, who had singled and stolen second base, and that put the Elks up, one-zip. – Say, Cristiano. Have you ever thought of just running away? – Okay, let me rephrase that.

Timóteo Clemente tripled (!) and Mark DeVita homered in the bottom 6th, putting Bernie in a 3-0 hole the offense would never, ever dig him out of. That was before Francisco Pena put damn Elks on the corners in the bottom 8th and David Fernandez balked a runner home to tack on a run. *Dusty Kulp* retired the Coons in order in the ninth inning. 4-0 Canadiens. Trevino 2-5; Hooge 2-4; Kilgallen (PH) 1-1;

And there it was. Them clinching in our face.

I sat for a while on the couch, crying silently, while Cristiano and Gustaf watched some weird show where a half-naked Japanese guy made it his mission to either smash or eat everything he encountered on his travels.

Then I went home to he alone.

Game 3
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Maldonado – C Morales – SS Caskey – 1B Cronk – P Ottinger
VAN: CF Foss – 1B J. Lopez – 2B Sprague – C Clemente – LF DeVita – RF R. Phillips – SS Sibley – 3B Ashley – P Sealock

Greenway singled home Manny Fernandez for a first-inning run, but Ottinger got shackled right away, walking Aaron Foss and allowing a single to Johnny Lopez that sent Foss to third base. Glenn Sprague hit the first of three long fly balls in the inning, all of which were caught, but tied the game with Sprague’s sac fly. Top 2nd, Caskey reached base to begin things, but was forced out by hideously terrible Cory Cronk. Ottinger’s bunt was misfielded to put a second runner on, and Berto hit a single to left to plate Cronk for a 2-1 lead. Cosmo grounded out, but Manny ripped a 2-out, 2-run double to left, extending the lead to 4-1 before the inning ended.

It sounded like a challenge for the charred remains of the guy that used to be Ottie and celebrated (at least by stupid kids) in Portland. Clemente tagged him for an RBI single as the 2-3-4 batters reached in order in the bottom 3rd, cutting it to 4-2, and the damn Elks got Sealock (…) and Foss on with singles in the fourth, but couldn’t topple Ottinger yet. Through the end of five the Raccoons did nothing more, then got Caskey and Cronk on base with a leadoff walk, a stolen base, and a Sibley error, setting them up on the corners with nobody out in the sixth. Cronk stole second base before Ottinger hit a sac fly, sending Cronk to third base, and Berto dropped another RBI single to make it a 6-2 score, and got *another* RBI single with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh as the Elks’ pen came apart too. That was the second run of the inning. A Sibley error had already waved in Troy Greenway, who had smacked a leadoff double off Natanael Abrao. Cosmo struck out to strand a full set, up 8-2. Ottinger was still around, and completed seven innings with nine hits against him, which was… oh well. Brent Clark had a run shaken out of him on three hits in the bottom 8th, but nobody did anything against Jermaine Campbell in the ninth. 8-3 Raccoons. Ramos 3-5, 2 RBI; M. Fernandez 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Greenway 3-5, 2B, RBI;

In terms of draft pick, this was not helping. There were now 12 losing teams in the league, and the Raccoons were tied with two other teams at 79-79 for #13, with another three teams still within reach. That’s right, the 81-77 Falcons were looking at the #18 pick next year… For now they were leading the last competitive division though, with the Aces and Bayhawks both one game behind.

Game 4
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – C Kilmer – CF Maldonado – SS Caskey – RF Cronk – 1B Monge – P Bedrosian
VAN: LF Foss – SS Sibley – CF Outram – 2B Sprague – RF R. Phillips – 1B DeVita – C James – 3B Ashley – P D. Arias

Jerry Outram came out of the field hospital just in time for the playoffs. He was hitting .351 with 16 homers but was assumed to be ice cold. He singled in the bottom 1st, but that was all the Elks did in the first inning. For Portland, Maldonado hit a triple in the second, and was stranded, then came up with Cosmo, Manny, and Kilmer on base and two outs in the third, and whiffed miserably. Bedrosian held the damn Elks to two singles through four, then saw the Raccoons put Berto and Cosmo on the corners after he himself made the first out in the fifth inning. Manny Fernandez cracked a grounder to the right side, Sprague to Sibley to DeVita – inning over. The Raccoons even got friggin’ Caskey & Cronk to the corners in the sixth, and then ******** Danny Monge struck out…! – Boy, Honeypaws, Caskey & Cronk sounds like the first private investigator show on TV, ever!

Bedrosian kept his side of the scoreless box score up through seven innings, although he didn’t get a strikeout until PH Jacob Kolbe was rung up in a full count to end that seventh inning. He finished eight innings on 107 pitches (and another strikeout), but then would have required some ninth-inning offense from the crew. Cronk struck out. Ledford grounded out. So did Greenway. The Raccoons kept being utterly useless at the plate and it was a matter of time for the damn Elks to win the game. They did so in the 11th inning, when Glenn Sprague took Mauricio Garavito deep to right-center. 1-0 Canadiens. M. Fernandez 2-5; Bedrosian 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K and 1-3;

So now we’re… (counts on all four paws) … tied with the Rebs and Buffos for #11, #12, #13?

I don’t know, it’s ridiculous. The Falcons in the South dropped into a 3-way tie with the Aces and Baybirds, too. Madness!

Thankfully, we’ll have the Loggers left on our plate, and have sucked colossally against them for the entire season.

Raccoons (79-80) vs. Loggers (86-73) – September 30-October 2, 2039

It wasn’t particularly close, either – 6-9 on paper, but it felt more like 3-12 and still bleeding profusely. They were fundamentally flawed, too, just like the Coons, lacking meaningful offense. They were eighth in runs scored, struggling badly with batting average and power, and fifth in runs allowed with a +7 run differential (Coons: +28).

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (12-8, 3.02 ERA) vs. Sal Chavez (15-9, 3.40 ERA)
Drew Johnson (12-9, 3.25 ERA) vs. Joe Feltman (15-12, 3.22 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (8-14, 3.52 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (11-6, 2.86 ERA)

All right-handers for the final weekend set.

The Raccoons also finally gave up on Cory Cronk (6-for-56) and put him away at the far end of the bench. There was no point to anything, and especially not to him.

Game 1
MIL: 3B Paul – 2B V. Acosta – SS Del Vecchio – C F. Gomez – RF Leyva – 1B Torri – LF Prestwood – CF M. Aguirre – P S. Chavez
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – CF Maldonado – RF Greenway – LF Ledford – SS Caskey – C Morales – 1B Kilgallen – P Sabre

Home runs by Ted Del Vecchio, that miserable rat *******, and Tony Morales was basically all the offense the first time through, with Sabre whiffing four in the 1-1 tie so far. Issuing a leadoff walk to Victor Acosta and a single to Del Vecchio (grumble grumble) in the fourth was detrimental to Sabre’s effort though, with the Loggers ultimately taking the lead on Rico Leyva’s sac fly. That event didn’t kick off a flurry of offense for either side, either – Sabre held on to the 2-1 deficit, whiffed nine through seven innings, and was hit for after Tony Morales and Matt Kilgallen hit back-to-back 1-out singles in the bottom of the inning. Manny Fernandez grounded to second base, leading to a force play at second base, and Berto came up with runners on the corners and two outs, and flew out to Kenta Yoshioka in center…

Worse yet, Campbell gave up two singles in the eighth, the Loggers were on the corners, and Joseph Ronan pinch-hit for Leyva. The Raccoons answered with David Fernandez, and Cosmo missing Ronan’s grounder for an RBI single. Troy Greenway tumbled and fell on a throw to third base, then couldn’t get up, and had to be replaced with Hoogey going forwards. Fernandez allowed an RBI single to Justin Nelson, walked Tyler Prestwood, and then gave up a bases-clearing double to Ivan Vega to suck all life out of the game. Travis Sims was tagged for a run in the ninth, too, you know, the cherry on top. Sal Chavez went the distance with a 9-hitter, having runners on the corners in the ninth, but the problem was solved with having Danny Monge hit for Sims… and striking out to end the game. 8-1 Loggers. Trevino 2-4; Caskey 2-4; Morales 2-4, HR, RBI; Kilgallen 2-3; Kilmer (PH) 1-1; Sabre 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, L (12-9);

We’re now out of the discussion for a winning record at 79-81.

We’re in the discussion for a protected pick, currently in a … 4-way tie with the Rebs, Buffos, and Thunder. The latter of those can still achieve a 4-way tie for the actual ******* CL South.

Jon Caskey also tore or strained or broke something on the base paths in the ninth inning. Dr. Padilla would probably take care of that, but I just can’t anymore… (closes lips firmer around the beck of his Capt’n Coma bottle)

Game 2
MIL: 3B Paul – 2B V. Acosta – SS Del Vecchio – LF J. Nelson – C F. Gomez – 1B Park – RF Prestwood – CF M. Aguirre – P Feltman
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – CF Maldonado – RF Ledford – C Morales – 1B Monge – SS Nickas – P Johnson

Up was Feltman, who was September Pitcher of the Month in the Continental League with an ERA under one.

Highlights, if you wanted to go out on a limb, included Drew Johnson giving up a leadoff double to Felipe Gomez in the top 2nd, then striking out the next three guys to strand him. Nobody scored until the fourth, when Cosmo singled, stole second, and came around on Maldo’s single. Johnson, solid til here, collapsed immediately and walked Travis Park to begin the fifth. Tyler Prestwood forced him out, was caught stealing, and then the Loggers STILL got Mike Aguirre on with a walk, their goddamn hero pitcher with a 2-out single, and then we saw Jared Paul sink a gapper for a 2-out, 2-run double. Acosta struck out. I longed for the offseason to arrive.

Berto singled home Nickas to tie the game in the bottom 5th, also with two outs. Not that Nickas had reached base under his own power – the Loggers had merely been too slow to turn two on him, only getting Monge at second base. Berto stole second, but was stranded when Cosmo flew out. Johnson was gone after six, but Feltman pitched into the eighth, allowing a leadoff single to Berto, who stole another base, his 30th of the year, far behind Trevino, who had 46 and one paw on the swipe trophy. Manny singled with one out, putting them on the corners for where we should have Troy Greenway, but had to make do with Maldonado, but Feltman eased the pain by breaking the tie himself with a wild pitch…! Maldo walked, and Ledford singled to load the bases for Tony Morales, who hit an RBI single up the middle before Monge and Nickas made the usual piss poor outs. Miller put the game away. 4-2 Coons. Ramos 3-4, RBI; Morales 2-4, RBI;

In the South, the Falcons and Bayhawks were tied for first, with the Aces having fallen a game out. The Raccoons remained tied for the #12 through #14 picks with the Rebs and Buffos, but the Thunder had lost to get to another thick tie one game further down the order.

Game 3
MIL: 3B Paul – 1B Ronan – SS Del Vecchio – LF J. Nelson – C F. Gomez – RF Leyva – 2B B. Cruz – CF M. Aguirre – P Piedra
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF M. Fernandez – CF Maldonado – RF Ledford – C Morales – 1B Kilgallen – SS Williams – P B. Chavez

Like so many games in this dull final week, nothing happened in this one’s early innings. The Raccoons had Manny and Maldo aboard in the first inning, but Ledford didn’t get them in. When the Raccoons poked their striped faces over the dugout railing again in the fourth, they reached scoring position with Morales and Kilgallen with two outs, prompting a cowardly walk to Elijah Williams and then a K by Bernie Chavez, who through four had allowed four hits and had whiffed as many. The Loggers then got a guy on third base in the fifth inning on a pitcher’s single, a wild pitch, and a balk, but somehow the baseball gods decided to not let the hammer come down yet, and Joseph Ronan flew out to center to strand Piedra.

Bottom 5th, Berto with the leadoff single. He stole second, then came around on a Cosmo single, which was about how I had always intended those two to function. Maldonado doubled home the runner and scored on Tony Morales’ single to get up to 3-0 in the inning. Back to Bernie, who in the sixth allowed a single to Justin Nelson, then back-to-back blasts to Gomez and Leyva. Three here, three there, tied ballgame. (hits head against doorframe repeatedly)

The #9 spot got better when Cronk batted for Bernie in the bottom 6th. Right-hander Cesar Perez fell to 3-0 against him, but Cronk steadfastly made an out, poking and grounding out to short. After that followed three entirely desolate innings where the Raccoons remained who they were, and the Loggers pretended to not being able to whack any between Francisco Pena, Brent Clark, and Travis ******* Sims. That actually sent the game into overtime. The Raccoons turned to Steve Fidler, who hadn’t gotten that final start because of Ottinger, and who allowed a leadoff single to Del Vecchio (hiss!!), another single to Gomez, a walk to Bob Cruz, and finally a 2-run single to Yoshioka. The Coons sent the 3-4-5 against Raul de la Rosa in the bottom 10th. Manny singled to right, advanced on Maldonado’s groundout, but not on Ledford’s fly. The season ended with Rico Leyva snatching Tony Morales’ fly to right on the warning track. 5-3 Loggers. M. Fernandez 2-5; Maldonado 2-5, 2B, RBI;

In other news

September 26 – The Loggers beat the Crusaders, 13-1 … in 10 innings. After holding a 1-1 tie through regulation, the Crusaders’ pen implodes for 12 runs in the top of the 10th.
September 26 – CIN RF/LF Juan Brito (.276, 16 HR, 77 RBI) is out for the year with a strained hammy.
September 27 – The Blue Sox clinch the FL East with a 5-3 win over the Capitals.
September 27 – Pittsburgh SP Roberto Pruneda (14-15, 3.03 ERA) 3-hits the Cyclones for a 1-0 win, whiffing five.
September 28 – RIC 3B/2B Guillermo Obando (.270, 1 HR, 24 RBI) lands two hits for 3,000 in his career. The 39-year-old part-timer is a career .286/.357/.367 with 38 homers and 945 RBI for his career, and 658 career steals, second all-time and one of only four players with more than 500.
September 28 – The Wolves’ CL Chris Henry (6-8, 4.18 ERA, 41 SV) puts away a 5-4 win over the Stars for his 300th career save. A journeyman closer for four Federal League teams (and the Indians for half a season), the 31-year-old right-hander has a 3.19 ERA with a 53-68 record for his career.
September 29 – The Bayhawks’ 1B Salvador Ayala (.308, 9 HR, 38 RBI) has hit in 20 straight games after singling in a 2-0 win over the Thunder.
September 30 – The hitting streak of SFB 1B Salvador Ayala (.302, 9 HR, 38 RBI) ends right away with an 0-for-4 in an 8-3 loss to the Knights.
October 2 – The Falcons rush the Thunder on Closing Day, 9-2, then have to wait 10 innings for the Knights to walk off on the Bayhawks, 5-4, giving the Falcons the crown in the CL South.
October 2 – DEN INF Wayne Morris (.289, 5 HR, 79 RBI) lands his 2,000th career hit on Closing Day. The 35-year-old goes 1-for-4 in a 2-1 loss to the Stars. He’s a .291/.353/.390 hitter with 83 homers and 829 RBI in a career primarily spent with the Gold Sox and Loggers. He was a Gold Glover twice in his younger years, including once at shortstop.

FL Hitter of the Month: WAS 1B Adam Avakian (.296, 23 HR, 79 RBI), hitting .333 with 9 HR, 21 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: IND 3B Dan Hutson (.275, 34 HR, 101 RBI), hitting .351 with 5 HR, 18 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SAL SP Phil Harrington (22-5, 1.87 ERA), pitching for a 4-0 mark with 1.66 ERA and 51 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: MIL SP Joe Feltman (15-12, 3.22 ERA), pitching to a 5-0 record with 0.92 ERA and 35 K
FL Rookie of the Month: DAL C Pacio Torreo (.271, 18 HR, 75 RBI), hitting .344 with 2 HR, 13 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: IND RF/LF Alberto Torres (.295, 4 HR, 20 RBI), hitting .333 with 3 HR, 14 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Phil Harrington also won his third triple crown. Even Jonny Toner only had two!

The Alley Cats came from 0-2 and 1-3 down in the AAA championship series to force a Game 7. And they WON IT!! Fiorenzo DeSanctis (who cost all of $15k seven years back) spun 6.1 innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball in a 4-1 win over the Glendale Sports. It is their fourth AAA title and they’re also the only minor league team of ours that has ever won their league championship…

Raffaello Sabre lost on the weekend, but has now a *winning* record for his career! It is the first time he has finished a season as a regular AND a winning record. He was previously 3-2 after two cups of coffee in 2030 and 2031.

Jon Caskey cracked a rib at the end there. Troy Greenway was still being processed at the glue factory.

We ended our measly existence in a 4-way tie for two protected and two unprotected picks. Gee, I can’t wait to see how the league’s gonna screw us over with that one!!

Fun Fact: Cosmo Trevino led all of the ABL in stolen bases this year with 46.

It’s his eighth stolen base title and the second-lowest total of sacks taken that turned out enough for the crown. He previously stole 41 bags for the title in ’37, his first year with the Critters. Everything else was 50+.

[DD Martin]

Thank god that miserable season is over!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Thank god that miserable season is over!

But didn't you like their surgical precision? After the early rush and falter of the sunnier pastures of April, they oughta have been within at most five games of .500 at all times!

And usually below it.

[pgjocki]

Looking at your team stats is depressing. Outside of the bullpen you should be a top 5 team.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

2039 ABL PLAYOFFS

The 100-win Blue Sox were both the only team to crack triple digit wins this season as well as the only playoff participant that didn’t take part in last year’s October bonanza (when the Miners won the FL East). While they led the league in batting average, OBP, stolen bases, and runs scored, their pitching had ranked fourth in the FL. Sean Ashley had hit .307 with 28 home runs, while the rest of the team was less power-happy and nobody else in the mostly right-handed lineup had more than 13. They had three .300 batters though, and would have had four if Chance Bossert hadn’t gone down with a torn quad. Hitting .343, Bossert was out for the FLCS, but might become available for the World Series, if the Sox made it that far. They sported an entirely right-handed rotation that quickly became mediocre behind Kevin Stice (13-5, 3.06 ERA), and the bullpen was also without major highlights, and losing closer Casey Moore to injury also hadn’t advanced their chances.

Opposite them were the 95-win Wolves, who’d try to get one round further than last time. They were a bit the opposite of the Blue Sox; they had allowed the fewest runs in the Federal League, with the best rotation (although having Phil Harrington and his 22-5, 1.87 ERA mark aboard certainly distorted things) and the best defense. The pen was no slouch, ranking second in ERA in the FL. On the other side, the team had ranked third in runs scored. Their game was power, with four guys hitting 15+ homers, led by Jose Rivera (.325, 23 HR, 74 RBI), while almost the entire lineup had hit at least eight during the season. They had completely given up on speed, ranking bottoms in stolen bases and putting all their faith into the single, walk, 3-run homer approach. Their lineup was balanced with three right-handed and four left-handed batters and switch hitter Jose Castro (.259, 22 HR, 83 RBI) on top of that. They had one lefty starter, the runt of the litter, in Juan Garcia (16-10, 4.00 ERA). From a balance point of view they appeared to have the edge against the Sox.

Over in the CL, the Canadiens won 97 games and led the North for most of the year, only briefly cruising behind the eventually collapsing Titans in the second half of the season before winning the group by six games. They were the CL’s Blue Sox in leading the subleague in runs scored, while sitting third in runs allowed. They combined the top OBP with the second-most dingers, and also had the second-best pen by ERA, but their rotation and defense were merely “decent”. Matt Sealock (19-5, 2.91 ERA) and Eric Weitz (18-11, 3.26 ERA) were expected to carry the team on the pitching side. The lineup was dense through the #6 spot, everybody hitting double-digit dingers, and they were lucky enough to get Jerry Outram (.344, 16 HR, 38 RBI) back in time before the playoffs. Outram had missed 87 games with a torn rotator cuff after hitting .377 with 32 homers last year, when he won every MVP title available to him. The Canadiens had no other injuries to complain about.

For the second year in a row, they’d face the Falcons, who at random emerged from a tumble-dried CL South, not really knowing themselves how they’d done it. They won merely 83 games, even one fewer than last year, and only clinched the division on the final day of the regular season. They had come second in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed though, with their crummy bullpen leading to a .403 record in 1-run games, so the 83-79 record was at least partially deceptive. There were no blatant weaknesses to their overall performance as a team, ranking in the above-average to good area in all major offensive and pitching metrics, but never reaching first or second place in any of them, which was also a form of art. Jose Farfan (.312, 19 HR, 112 RBI) and Mitch Cook (.242, 20 HR, 92 RBI) were not overly spectacular as offensive leaders, and the lineup thinned out a bit at the bottom, where an injury to Tony Aparicio, their starting shortstop, moved a 40-year old Brett Blades into the lineup, somehow (though at third base). Jose Lerma (14-13, 3.35 ERA) was their only right-handed pitcher and spear-heading the rotation with Rafael Pedraza (16-12, 3.33 ERA). This could be a disadvantage for them; while both CLCS teams had only one lefty starter, the Canadiens paired that with a mostly left-handed lineup, but the Falcons’ was mostly right-handed.

In this field, the Blue Sox had the most playoff appearance with their 14th October participation, tying for fifth among all teams. The Falcons made the playoffs for the tenth times, the Canadiens for the eighth time, and the Wolves for the sixth time. The Falcons and Wolves had one title each, while the Sox and the defending champs from Vancouver had three rings apiece.

The Canadiens and Falcons had met twice in the CLCS. Both times (1982, 2038), the Canadiens had ended up winning the championship, so they liked that pattern. It didn’t mesh well with the Blue Sox’ and Wolves’ mojo though. They had met twice in the FLCS. Both times the winner of that series had gone on to hoist the trophy; the Wolves in 1989, and the Sox in 2037.

Experts considered the FLCS almost a toss-up with a tiny edge for the Wolves. They also wished the Falcons a speedy recovery after getting mauled.

+++

2039 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

SAL @ NAS … 1-6 … (Blue Sox lead 1-0) … SAL Armando Herrera 3-4; NAS Stephon Nettles 3-4; NAS Sean Ashley 3-4, HR, RBI; NAS Sean Fowler 9.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

SAL @ NAS … 6-3 … (series tied 1-1) … SAL Kyle Weinstein 4-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Billy Bouldin 3-5, RBI; NAS Jorge Santa Cruz 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI;
CHA @ VAN … 4-7 … (Canadiens lead 1-0) … CHA Brett Blades 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; VAN Glenn Sprague 4-5, HR, RBI; VAN Jerry Outram 2-4, 2 RBI; VAN Ryan Phillips 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

CHA @ VAN … 0-6 … (Canadiens lead 2-0) … CHA Oscar Aguirre 3-4; VAN Johnny Lopez 3-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI;

NAS @ SAL … 4-2 … (Blue Sox lead 2-1) … NAS Jim Allen 2-5, HR, RBI; NAS Rodrigo Canas 2-3, BB; NAS Kevin Stice 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0); SAL Jeremy Camden 3-4, 2 2B;

NAS @ SAL … 6-7 … (series tied 2-2) … NAS Sean Ashley 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; SAL Morgan Kuhlmann 3-5, 2B; SAL Bill Jenkins 3-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; SAL Jeremy Camden 2-3, 2B, RBI;
VAN @ CHA … 3-0 … (Canadiens lead 3-0) … VAN Ramon Cabral 3-3, 2B; VAN Timóteo Clemente (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

The Canadiens break through only late in the game to take a 3-0 lead, while the Sox are inches from a 3-1 lead after themselves breaking a 4-4 tie in the top of the 9th inning against Salem’s Chris Henry. Their closer Tim Hale, however, retires nobody, and is sunk on Bill Jenkins’ second homer of the game, a 3-run walkoff deed to even the series.

NAS @ SAL … 4-1 … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … NAS Sean Fowler 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-0);
VAN @ CHA … 9-0 … (Canadiens win 4-0) … VAN Jerry Outram 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; VAN Fernando Alba 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; VAN Brian Schneider 3-5, 2 RBI;

The Falcons are entirely smothered on the third straight shutout in the series, despite striking out not even once against Michael Donovan (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and two relievers. It’s lame-*** out after lame-*** out for a sweep.

[off day]

SAL @ NAS … 6-3 … (series tied 3-3) … SAL Jose Rivera 2-5, HR, RBI; SAL Bill Jenkins 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; SAL Bob Zeltser 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

SAL @ NAS … 5-6 (13) … (Blue Sox win 4-3) … SAL Armando Herrera 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; SAL Morgan Kuhlmann 2-3, 3 BB, RBI; NAS Jim Allen 2-6, HR, 2 RBI; NAS Vincenzo Battaglia 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Tim Hale blows another ninth-inning lead to allow the Wolves to force extra innings, tied at five. Kuhlmann walks, Jenkins singles, Mike Cole reaches on an error, and Zeltser hits a sac fly to extend the Wolves’ futile chase another four innings before their right-hander Miguel Salazar gives it all away. Justin Fowler’s pinch-hit double to open the bottom 13th spells trouble aplenty. Joe Graf walks, Jon Sulllivan hits a comebacker into a double play, which at least puts the Wolves one out away from another chance with Fowler on third base – at least until Salazar with the toe on the rubber drops the baseball and is called out for a balk, which plates Fowler and sends the Blue Sox to the World Series.

No, the Blue Sox didn’t know how to react at first either.

+++

2039 WORLD SERIES

After that lucky break, the Blue Sox would have home field advantage in the World Series. Not that it was all going smoothly – while they got back Chance Bossert, they lost Sean Ashley on the morning of Game 1 when he kicked a soccerball around with a few team mates, stumbled, fell, and broke his foot. That was a major blow to the team, with Ashley having batted .296 with two homers and seven RBI against the Wolves.

Then there was still the problem of their all-righty rotation against a mostly-lefty lineup that had done pretty well for themselves in the previous 166 games. The Canadiens still had no injuries to complain about, came in with four days’ rest rather than one, and analysts really liked their chances.

The call is Canadiens in six.

These teams had never met in the World Series before.

+++

VAN @ NAS … 2-4 … (Blue Sox lead 1-0) … VAN Ryan Phillips 3-4, 3B; NAS Chance Bossert 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; NAS Billy Bouldin 3-4, 3B; NAS Andy Montes 3-4, RBI;

Sean Fowler (1.44 ERA) goes to 3-0 in eight solid innings of work. Eric Weitz (1-1, 2.45 ERA) goes the distance for the Canadiens, despite being constantly tickled for a total of 13 hits.

VAN @ NAS … 5-7 … (Blue Sox lead 2-0) … VAN Johnny Lopez 3-5, 2B; VAN Jerry Outram 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; NAS Billy Bouldin 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

NAS @ VAN … 3-0 … (Blue Sox lead 3-0) … NAS Kevin Stice 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

Two of the Canadiens’ three hits go for leadoff doubles, but each time Stice buckles down and starves the runners to give the Blue Sox an entire pile of match balls.

NAS @ VAN … 4-11 … (Blue Sox lead 3-1) … VAN Glenn Sprague 4-6, 2B; VAN Jerry Outram 3-4, 3B; VAN Fernando Alba 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; VAN Jacob Kolbe (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

In an adverse reaction to a 3-0 advantage, Nashville’s Tim Hale is blown out for a 6-spot in the first inning and the Blue Sox never recover from it. Half their runs are unearned – all the Canadiens’ runs are earned.

NAS @ VAN … 1-9 … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … VAN Fernando Alba 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; VAN Marc DeVita 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; VAN Ross Sibley 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; VAN Eric Weitz 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-1) and 1-2, RBI;

Well, that looks like a fatal swing of momentum. Even Sean Fowler was blown up for five runs rather fast!

VAN @ NAS … 3-6 … (Blue Sox win 4-2) … NAS Jim Allen 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; NAS Andy Montes 3-4, 2B, RBI; NAS Tony Lira 1-2, BB, RBI;

Back home, the Blue Sox are screamed to a championship by their home fans. They never trail in Game 6 despite blowing a 2-0 lead early, but then move away in the Battle of the Matts, with Nashville’s Hose (2-0, 4.91 ERA) outliving Vancouver’s Sealock (1-1, 6.75 ERA), who is charged with all six runs in 6.2 innings of work. Hose also allows all the runs his team gives up in the clincher.

+++

2039 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Nashville Blue Sox
(4th title)

[Westheim]

While the playoffs were raging, Dr. Padilla diagnosed Troy Greenway with a strained triceps, so no amputation required. By the time winter would come, he’d be able to get into snowball fights with his kits again; he’d had a litter of four this year! Also, the Condors shipped Kurt Wall (.271, 10 HR, 49 RBI) to the Scorpions in a waiver deal for infielder Bob Nelson (.280, 1 HR, 7 RBI), which was weird.

Even wickeder was the Blue Sox announcing right away that Sean Fowler, who had gone 3-1 in the playoffs, missing most likely the entire 2040 season with a torn UCL. He had gone 10-11 with a 4.66 ERA in ’39, and was 101-94 with a 3.95 ERA for his career.

Nick Valdes could not be reached when the offseason began, apparently involved in a hostage situation in Burkina Faso. We were only able to talk to his assistant, Dimitry, who nodded off for us to spend the same amount of dosh as last year ($41M), but wouldn’t tell us either whether Valdes was held hostage or was holding hostages himself.

$41M had been enough for 11th in the league, but we were down to 12th this season. The top five in the league would be the champion Blue Sox ($55M), Capitals ($54M), Titans ($48M), Elks ($47.5M), and Condors ($46.5M).

At the bottom end were the Buffaloes ($32.5M), Thunder ($32M), Loggers ($31.5M), Rebels ($26.8M), and Indians ($26M). The CL North would be completed by the Crusaders in 17th place with a $35M budget.

The average budget was $39.7M, up a whopping $1.1M from 2039. The median budget amounted to $39.5M, a quarter million less than last year.

The first decision to come up was the team option for Raffaello Sabre, which was $2M. This was a no-brainer – of course we’d keep him while trying to mend the team one last time and getting an entirely new bullpen. We had a thick slate of arbitration cases anyway, and four free agents, and we’d start with those.

Drew Johnson had come over in May in the deal that disposed of Alex Majano, a trade the Raccoons absolutely won. Manajo hit .233 for the Miners, but Johnson went 10-7 with a 3.01 ERA for us. That was his best single-season performance (except for ’36 with the Aces) if you ignored the four starts he made for Pittsburgh, and you could not expect him to do that again. The .238 BABIP had surely helped… The Raccoons would not spend their millions on him. He had made $1.8M and asked for the same for another three years. While his career ERA was 3.97 that also factored in 165 relief appearances especially early in his career. He had regularly posted a 5-ish ERA as a starter. We could get that by bringing back Ottie for a sixth of the price…

We would also let go of David Fernandez, who had been here basically all of the 2030s after being taken in the fifth round in 2027. But for being a left-hander that almost never reached 60 innings, Fernandez gave up too many homers. Nine bombs in both of the last two seasons, three times in his career. Eight homers four years back. I wasn’t looking at his ERA here, because he’d sure been at 3.41 rather than 4.31 with less of a conflagration around him. It was just time for a new warm body. Chris Miller had been a doorstop when we needed one, but was a vile character nobody liked, and would also be out the door.

Elijah Williams had hit precious little for two years, and while he was a very good defensive shortstop, he’d be 34 on Opening Day. The upside was that he’d be cheap. But Cristiano pointed out that his zone rating at short had already regressed dramatically. He had gone +10.4 and +5.6 for the Cyclones in 2036-37, respectively, playing only 50-some games at short either season. He played the same amount of innings at short last year for a +1.7 ZR, and this year had double the innings for +1.9. Cristiano was very much against resigning him. I contemplated resigning Williams just to tick off Cristiano.

None of the free agents were compensation-eligible.

Then there was a flush of eight arbitration cases (all visible below) that were mostly no-brainers. We’d definitely keep Bedrosian, the catchers, and the three outfielders in the bunch (which doesn’t mean we’re not gonna trade, say, an outfielder for a reliever or two). Ed Hooge was getting a bit up there in price for a fourth outfielder, but he had value one way or another.

The Coons would split with Joel Hernandez, who had done nothing worth writing home about and was too expensive for a defensive third baseman and too poor at the plate to yield anything but a Travis Sims caliber of reliever.

The weird case was Ottinger, also the only super-2 case. And we’d keep him – likely. Probably. Which was probably burning 350 grand, but he pitched to a 3.62 ERA and 11-11 record in the majors just two years ago. He had a decent amount of stuff, pretty fine slider actually. He was a flyball pitcher, but not like Bernie was a flyball pitcher and nobody thought of getting rid of Bernie because of the flyballs. The question was to what degree a 27-year-old righty could figure out control issues at this point (5.1 BB/9 in majors this year, 4.3/9 career). Chances were slight, but for $350k or so we’d take a flyer.

And somebody’s gotta pitch mop-up next year, too.

+++

Service announcement: My mouse died mid-playoffs. It still moves the cursor, but doesn’t register left-clicks anymore and right-clicks barely if at all. So I gotta get a new one and it’s Sunday (and some Amazon people over here are striking, so there’s that). While I’m on the laptop, I can still play, but they don’t make touchpads like they used to and it annoys the crap out of me to use it while going through X number of player profiles. So I’ll try to cobble something together the next two or three days, but I won’t have much enthusiasm.

And yes, I have another mouse on the PC, but to change it back and forth I’d have to crawl into the dusty nether regions of my entertainment center, where the demons live, and I don’t feel like it.

[Westheim]

First of all we learned that the Raccoons’ name was not drawn out of a hat when the league distributed protected draft picks for half the teams in the 4-way tie of us, the Rebs, Buffos, and Condors. The two FL teams got the protected picks, the two CL teams got ****-faced. At least the GM of one of them did.

Task #1 was finding an entirely new bullpen for next year, and after turning over and looking under every pillow on the trusty brown couch I found exactly zero suitable relievers. I did find some cookie crumbs though, and they were still good.

It wasn’t like we had no relievers for next season – we had a whole pile of them. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that we’d run up the second-worst bullpen ERA in the CL and that was more or less what had torn the season apart. Not to the tune to 17 games, perhaps, but let’s just say we could have stayed relevant past Decoration Day.

As usual, no other team was interested in our trade chips, including such juicy options as Danny Monge’s $1.7M contract for 2040. He was merely the most useless .300 hitter in the sport – come on, guys, don’t be so picky!! There were sure plenty of relievers on other teams that I would like to get. And every other team seemed hellbent on getting Jesus Maldonado or Nelson Moreno. Same old story, huh.

The Raccoons announced a string of 1-year extensions to arbitration candiates during the awards season. Bedrosian ($1.2M) and Ledford ($500k) signed for the estimate. Hooge ($830k) and Kilgallen ($400k) just below it.

+++

October 24 – The Miners acquire 30-yr old 3B/2B Ben “Nine Fingers” Freeman (.279, 98 HR, 541 RBI) from the Cyclones for infielder Jason Fodor (1-for-3, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and a nothing prospect.
October 30 – The Thunder pick up SP Casey Pinter (18-24, 4.69 ERA) from the Crusaders for a prospect.

+++

2039 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: PIT 1B Danny Santillano (.331, 38 HR, 118 RBI) and OCT 1B Danny Cruz (.297, 36 HR, 96 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: SAL SP Phil Harrington (22-5, 1.87 ERA) and VAN SP Matt Sealock (19-5, 2.91 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: DEN 1B Mark Cahill (.293, 18 HR, 98 RBI) and IND 1B Pat Dodson (.285, 27 HR, 92 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: RIC CL Yeom Soung (4-4, 2.34 ERA, 39 SV) and VAN MR Jordan Calderon (4-1, 2.94 ERA)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P RIC Mike Mihalik – C LAP Ernesto Huichapa – 1B PIT Danny Santillano – 2B TOP Felix Marquez – 3B NAS Jim Allen – SS SAC Jesus Banuelas – LF NAS Sean Ashley – CF CIN Jayden Lockwood – RF SAC Carlos Cortes
Platinum Sticks (CL): P CHA Rafael Pedraza – C CHA Mitch Cook – 1B OCT Danny Cruz – 2B SFB Dan Schneller – 3B IND Dan Hutson – SS MIL Ted Del Vecchio – LF POR Manny Fernandez – CF BOS Mark Vermillion – RF POR Troy Greenway
Gold Gloves (FL): P SAC Al Scott – C SAC Hector Alvarez – 1B DEN Mark Cahill – 2B TOP Felix Marquez – 3B NAS Jim Allen – SS SAL Jose Castro – LF TOP Derek Baskins – CF SAL Armando Herrera – RF DEN Juan Benavides
Gold Gloves (CL): P TIJ Bill Quintero – C CHA Mitch Cook – 1B BOS Jose Garcia – 2B MIL Victor Acosta – 3B BOS Antonio Gil – SS OCT Jimmy Kuhn – LF ATL Luis Inoa – CF NYC Joe Besaw – RF BOS Moises Avila

[Westheim]

(sits around the table with Slappy, Cristiano, and Chad, who is in full mascot costume, playing poker; Chad has the most chips in front of him, while to the side Steve from Accounting sits, boozed out and in his underwear, the only thing he hasn’t lost playing)

After the awards season was over, the Raccoons signed 1-year extensions with Tony Morales ($770k), Jeff Kilmer ($950k), and the master of disaster, Jared Ottinger ($333k), and then were done with salary arbitration. Nobody in this group sought a long-term deal, and neither did the Raccoons seek them right now. It was all about seeing whether the ship could be righted first…

(eyes his six of clubs and nine of spades and what’s on the table, the ten and five of hearts and the queen of clubs, then stares into Chad’s giant mascot eyes) Fine, Chad. Here’s ten. And I’ll raise you twenty. – (Cristiano throws in his cards, blowing) – (Slappy shakes his head)

There was also a grim scouting update on Jermaine Campbell. Briefly put, his stuff was gone, and his career as an efficient closer ended in his age 32 season, the first one the Raccoons paid him for. He was due another $2.6M this year, and had a now worthless $2.6M team option for ’41. Well, it was worth $600k – the buyout. We also found out that other teams had gotten wise to it, too, and his contract had rather rapidly become unmovable. He’d be in our pen in 2040, whether we wanted it or not.

(Chad goes along and demands to see; shows his six of clubs and nine of spades; Chad reveals his pair of queens, then rakes in the pot) – I don’t get it, Chad. You always play like you got nothing, and then you got everything, and you never even blink! (stares into the unmoving mascot eyes) – Blink, like a person!

So the plan would be to find a few great relievers on the free agent market. Three or four would do, I’d wager. Some unexpected help potentially arrived via Cuba, from which several pitchers were washed ashore in time for the free agency window to open in mid-November. The Raccoons went after a righty and a lefty, both in their late 20s. The left-hander was more of a dubious case, but the right-hander, Alex Ramirez, looked like a really solid deal for an ABL reliever, and that was the kinda guy we’d be after here.

(gets dealt new cards by Cristiano, the two of diamonds and the jack of hearts; Cristiano reveals the seven of clubs as well as the nine and ten of hearts on the table) – (squeals involuntarily)

Some players filed for minor league free agency, including Will Luna, who had 12 games up here a few years ago, hit nothing, and never returned. We also released 28-year-old, sixth-string catcher Matt Hartley, who had a similar story to his major league career.

There were of course established players floating around, too, and the Raccoons took the scent of former Wolves closer Rico Sanchez and started to follow that. He wouldn’t be cheap, but not as ******* expensive as Jermaine Campbell, while being twice as useful. Also, not a type A free agent.

(eyes Chad full of distrust, then goes along with five, while fighting his shaking left hindpaw)

A source of dismay was finding out that nobody was particularly keen on either Ed Hooge or Brad Ledford, with one of those two being pencilled in as trade bait. That would get Matt Kilgallen onto the roster as a second super utility. We also needed to find a shortstop in absence of Elijah Williams, and short was like Kilgallen’s fifth-best position. We could just as well put Berto back there, in the long run.

One reliever was found in a low-key deal with the Scorpions. We picked up 27-year-old left-hander Chuck Jones (6-5, 3.30 ERA, 2 SV) in a deal for 24-yr old Fiorenzo DeSanctis, who had started and won Game 7 of the AAA championship in September. DeSanctis had once cost $15k in a July signing period. He was a Game 7 winner, but he was also a groundballer with two-and-a-half pitches, which was good, because he was also dumber than dung and couldn’t count to three when the catcher would show three claws for a sign. His major league prospects were limited. Jones was not exactly lights out, but better than his numbers with the Miners suggested. We poured over his stats and found that he faced WAY too many right-handers. More than two thirds of the batters he faced in ’39 were righties, and he was walking them at a rate of almost 1-in-5. We’d take note of that and use him accordingly.

(everybody throws in another ten, besides Slappy, who folds, after which the eight of hearts is revealed) (squeals and drools)

Not much else happened in the week after the free agency filing date, but I was well involved in trading for– No, Maud, not now, I have Chad by the throat here, I can’t talk to the Blue Sox about Campbell now!

(raises Chad by 30, with Chad going along; Cristiano folds, then reveals the fifth card on the table, the seven of diamonds) (frowns) ... You wanna see, Chad? Fine. (shows his cards) It’s a straight! Not a pretty one, but I wi–

(Chad shows his two cards; it’s the other two sevens, giving him four of a kind)

(screams in agony and falls off the couch into the dusty corner)

(keeps screaming while Chad rakes in the chips)

[Westheim]

What the Raccoons needed, besides a mascot that was actually likable, was also a defensive shortstop. We were bidding for the services of Rico Sanchez, who was the rare breed of finesse closer that needed some sort of D behind him or else it would all fall apart. Berto and Monge were serviceable defenders on the corners, Cosmo wasn’t exactly a Gold Glover up the middle (his defense was best described as mediocre), and somebody had to hold it all together with his four paws. Elijah Williams had done that well initially, but was getting long in the tooth and had been granted free agency.

+++

November 19 – The Raccoons acquire left-handed MR Chuck Jones (6-5, 3.30 ERA, 2 SV) from the Scorpions in exchange for 24-yr old AAA SP Fiorenzo DeSanctis.
November 25 – The Raccoons sign former Wolves CL Rico Sanchez (33-30, 3.34 ERA, 123 SV) to a 3-yr, $3.6M contract. Sanchez, 28, did not save any games in 2039 while pitching to a 2.61 ERA.
November 25 – Former Wolves SP Dylan Channel (56-49, 3.72 ERA, 2 SV), age 30, signs with the Rebels for 4-yr, $8.94M.
November 26 – The Cyclones win the favor of ex-WAS SP Jeff Horstmeier (68-59, 3.86 ERA), who signs a 7-year deal worth $20.72M.
November 28 – The Raccoons acquire switch-hitting 27-yr old SS Tony Hunter (.256, 8 HR, 69 RBI) from the Gold Sox, who would receive 28-yr old SP Steve Fidler (15-13, 3.64 ERA, 1 SV) and 21-yr old AA SP Matt Kaplan.

+++

While the Raccoons got Sanchez, the Wolves signed themselves Joel Hernandez to a 2-yr, $634k contract, but I was pretty content with that turn of events. Sanchez is really a weird guy in that his stuff is not overwhelming, but he could hit a fly in the left eye with it at any day of the week. He had been the Wolves’ closer until ’38, but was displaced when they added Chris Henry from the Warriors as a free agent last winter. Henry was more of a stuff pitcher (but also a groundballer) with less in the control department.

The addition of the finesse closer made a strong defensive shortstop even more important. The free agent market didn’t hold a high-leather shortstop that could be expected to break .200 in the batting column. And, well, the guy was gonna bat eighth most of the time, so a thick stick wasn’t exactly a requirement. We needed that glove, though. The Gold Sox had two players that would fit the mold, in Tony Hunter (27), and Lopo Malfati (23). Hunter was the better overall player, although Malfati could play other positions as well (though that was not exactly a high bullet point on our list of requirements).

The Sox insisted on some form of prospect. They wanted Nelson Moreno (well, don’t we all?), but could be negotiated down to Matt Kaplan, our 2037 second-rounder, whose scouting report had already taken a beating. Fidler was almost a throw-in. Steve Fidler had been branded to have broken out in ’38, his age 27 season (yellow light goes off right here), pitching to a 2.61 ERA with a .271 BABIP behind him. This year, he got an even *better* BABIP – and yet his ERA doubled. I enthusiastically stamped him a [ONE HIT WONDER], then wrapped him up with another failed high draft pick and shipped them off for Tony Hunter, who was the better player between himself and Malfati, but the Sox wouldn’t trade the younger Malfati for this package. Fine, we’ll take the better one then.

This move also left us with really only three starting pitchers, not that Fidler would have been any help, dead or alive. Behind Bedrosian, Bernie, and Sabre was a gaping void. Ottinger?? … And no, Nelson Moreno would not be the answer quite yet. Missing half the year in Ham Lake was unfortunate, and he was not ready for prime time. He would start the new season in St. Petersburg, but we didn’t expect the finished product to arrive before September for a cameo at the earliest. Various other young starters were even further behind. These were your Vince Burkes, Corey Mathers (both older than the 20-year-old Moreno), and Victor Merino, who had done very well in Aumsville at age 18, but was still years away from the majors.

The Raccoons’ depth chart for starters outside of the fixed top three was now pretty much Ottie (4.39 career ERA; 5.68 in RELIEF in ’39), Jose de Leon (6.51; 10.13), and Nelson Fonseca (6.10).

The rest of the starting troupe in AAA had little to offer. There was 22-year old Angelo Montano, a $235k left-hander signed in the July 2034 IFA period. He had made it to AAA only at the end of the season, going 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in three starts in which he walked 13 compared to 14 K. In Ham Lake, he had gone 12-10 with a 3.40 ERA and 139 K against 81 walks.

Apart from that there was only a pair of 30-year-old no-good-for-nothings, also both left-handers. Ernesto Rivera was a career AAA player who had erred into two games with the Raccoons this season and had pitched two thirds of an inning for five earned runs on his ledger. Jon Hass had been a trash heap pickup a few years back and now refused to leave for the food and shelter being on the Alley Cats offered. He had pitched to a 4.04 ERA in a swingman role in AAA this year, walking seven per nine innings. Rivera had walked 6.1/9.

So we had nothing. An argument could be made to hide Ottinger in the #5 hole and skip him as often as feasible, but we needed at least one decent starting pitcher to even get to that patchwork solution.

Most of the type A free agents on the market were starting pitchers, which didn’t exactly help with this task…

+++

December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: Ten players are taken across two rounds. The Raccoons select 23-yr old SP Will Cormack from the Crusaders.
December 1 – The Crusaders sign 2B/1B Mario Briones (.278, 59 HR, 444 RBI) to a 6-year contract worth $20.72M. Briones spent his major league career so far with the Aces.
December 1 – The Gold Sox add 29-year-old ex-SAC/TIJ SP Ignacio del Rio (94-101, 4.01 ERA) for three years and $4.86M.
December 1 – 27-year-old left-hander Sal Lozano, fresh out of Cuba, signs for $300k with the Raccoons.

+++

No, Cormack’s not the answer. He’s gonna get lit up. But drafting him made me feel better and made me eat less cookies, so I did it.

[Questdog]

I like Tony Hunter a lot! I could sure use him in Jacksonville! OBP is pretty dern good, too!

[Westheim]

Before we go back into the thick of it, here's the Hall of Fame ballot I forgot to post yesterday after it didn't fit into the top post anymore ...

(spontaneously also fails to use italics signs on both ends of the post)

Hey, you know what kind of **** show you signed up for here. There's a sign at the door!

[Westheim]

Jimmy Driver (Condors), John Nelson (Arrowheads), Jon Pereira (Cyclones), Andy Jimenes (Pacifics) – those were just a few of the starting pitchers left over at this point. Not all were upper-echelon. But all of them were type A free agents, and the Raccoons would not sign away their #13 pick if they could help it in any way, shape or fur.

We nevertheless found a guy to go after, but things dragged on in early December to the Winter Meetings, held for once not in an ABL city, but in Miami amidst a snacky 75 Fahrenheit and in a hotel with a huge bar with great booze and, for entertainment, a whole host of brand-spanking-new AI flamingo-trons. Those things were so real, at one point I would have sworn I had traded Manny Fernandez for the Blue Sox’ 2037 rings, only to notice that the flamingo in a top hat and bowtie was internally dialling customer service because for all the circuits and motherboards in its head it couldn’t figure out a way to sign the deal…

That was the fun part of the week in Miami.

Money started to be in short supply for the Raccoons, who had a few costly investments they could not get rid of, like Danny Monge, the most useless .300 hitter. Actually, he wasn’t even that, having slipped to a .299 average right at the end of the season. Nobody wanted a piece of that old bum and his $1.7M deal for 2040. The Miners might have been tempted, but only if we took another old bum with a similarly-sized millstone around his neck in return. Nah, thanks, we’re good.

The problem got bigger during the Winter Meetings because what was a $1.2M/year offer to our preferred non-type-A free agent starting pitcher soon developed into a $1.44M/year bid once the Cyclones and maybe other teams got involved. At this point we were actually getting near maxing out the budget. I raided the provisional player development budget to have some temporary monopoly money to throw around.

+++

December 6 – The Rebels get C Fernando Alba (.303, 19 HR, 70 RBI) from the Canadiens for SP Mike Mihalik (40-27, 3.77 ERA) and a prospect.
December 6 – The Knights sign 35-year-old ex-CIN SP Jon Pereira (63-76, 3.82 ERA) to a 1-yr, $1.74M contract.
December 6 – The Aces acquire OF Ozzie Burgos (.288, 31 HR, 205 RBI), age 29, and cash from the Scorpions for MR Omar Benitez (1-0, 4.42 ERA) and a prospect.
December 7 – The Scorpions sign ex-LAP C Ernesto Huichapa (.288, 196 HR, 741 RBI) for 2-yr, $7.68M.
December 8 – The Warriors ink 37-yr old outfielder Tom Dunlap (.298, 139 HR, 730 RBI), who most recently played with the Condors, to a 2-yr, $5.68M deal.
December 9 – The Titans resolve a glut at first base by trading 1B Jose Garcia (.259, 21 HR, 142 RBI) to the Knights for SP Alex Aguilar (47-65, 4.08 ERA), who is already 36 years old. The Knights also receive a prospect.
December 9 – 27-year-old 2B Tony Lira (.222, 19 HR, 113 RBI) is traded to the Loggers, while the Blue Sox receive MR Mike Leeth (1-1, 4.43 ERA) and a prospect.
December 10 – The Miners acquire SP Francisco Colmenarez (145-120, 3.51 ERA) from the Capitals for little-used sophomore 2B Logan Arnold (.250, 0 HR, 23 RBI) and a pitching prospect.
December 16 – The Cyclones sign ex-RIC SP Chris “Tuba” Turner (59-59, 3.98 ERA) to a 3-yr, $4.56M contract.

+++

In the end it wasn’t enough. “Tuba” Turner had been the starting pitcher we had been after, which was a repeat of the 2030 draft scenario, where he was right near the top of our hotlist, but was taken #2 by the Falcons. (The Coons ended up drafting Ed Hooge at #16 that year)

While the bidding was going on we were also trying to dump Danny Monge on the Crusaders in a complicated deal that was consistently shredded by either team going overbudget, while tying up enough resources so we wouldn’t be able to put cream on our offer to Turner, who ended up in the other league.

In its most pain-free variant, the Crusaders deal would have sent Monge to New York with Cory Cronk and Quadir Randle, who we had acquired during the season in the only meaningful deconstruction trade that got done. We would have received left-hander Julian Ponce and a scrub first-sacker / lackluster corner outfielder in Tom Rudd, which wasn’t the worst deal in the world, except that it also required us to throw in cash, because the Crusaders were just as broken, and it never worked out.

At this point, everything was in tatters. It was a week before the holidays, the Raccoons still had a gaping hole in their rotation, and that was even WHILE counting Jared Ottinger as fifth starter, which was a pretty gracious move while that little sucker had done nothing to indicate recently that he was worth even a minimum salary, let alone the attention and oxygen! (Ottinger, who has been licking a sugar cane in the corner, freezes and gets watery eyes)

Ugh! Baseball! It would be much more fun without other teams messing with you!!

+++

December 17 – The Raccoons add another Cuban free agent in 30-year-old right-hander MR Alex Ramirez, who signs on for 3 years and $2.1M.
December 20 – The Canadiens add 35-yr old ex-DAL CL Josh Boles (57-64, 2.94 ERA, 409 SV) on a 3-yr, $7.36M contract.
December 22 – The Wolves spill $9.2M over two years on former Pacifics stalwart SP Andy Jimenes (135-128, 3.94 ERA).

+++

At this stage, the non-type-A free agent market for starters had been picked thin. Even among type A’s only John Nelson, Donovan Mason, and Jimmy Driver remained, and only Driver seemed like he was worth the bother.

The top non-type A free agent on the market was without much doubt 36-year-old left-hander David Elliott, who had been with the Indians in the 20s and then with the Buffos for over a decade. He had always had fine control but his stuff and velocity were obviously diminishing now. He still had the guts to ask for a 3-year deal worth $13M. *Thirteen*. Yes. And no, he wasn’t gonna get it, because the Raccoons weren’t gonna have it.

Technically there was also Josh Long of Loggers and Baybirds pedigree, who was recovering from surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow, but was going to be ready by Opening Day. Our scout guy warned us that even at 31 his curve was not what it once had been, and Long asked for $4M a year, which the Raccoons still didn’t have, nor would have.

Man, Will Cormack’s chances in percent to be a ******* major league pitcher this year are approaching double digits …

Another wicked idea was to have Brent Clark be a starting pitcher. Cristiano forwarded that. He had a 90mph cutter and a stinging curve, and his repertoire included a slider and changeup which were both terrible but might keep people guessing long enough to make it through five innings. He had the stamina to do it, and after all the bullpen additions he figured to be without a spot going forwards. He had appeared in 28 games for the Coons this past season, pitching to a 3.20 ERA with 4.3 BB/9 and 8.9 K/9.

It was a plan guaranteed to end in Ottingeresque stats, counseling sessions for Clark, and a welt on Cristiano’s forehead.

Of course any of these ******ed schemes actually coming to fruition would mean that the Raccoons were not going to be a contender for anything but the bloopers section of the sports highlights again. Three starting pitchers weren’t going to be enough any way you counted them.

Add in the fact that of the three, two were free agents after this season (Sabre, Bedrosian), and the third one (Bernie Chavez) had a team option for ’41 and nothing else.

It was getting ******* dark in Portland at a frightening pace.

[Westheim]

The 2030s ended eventually. The Raccoons ended it staring at the picture hanging crooked, with a big crack in the glass and bits of the frame spotted with dirt – pretty much the same way they had started it. The decade had yielded two playoff appearances, no rings, and the nagging question where and when it had all gone so wrong again.

No easy answers were available at this time.

Sometimes you only find out much later. Sometimes you never find out. We still don’t know what happened in ’97 – records and video footage remain buried in the gargantuan landslide that buried a 108-win team under hundreds of feet of slosh.

January was a month of futility (more of that, hah!) where the Raccoons continued to dump Danny Monge for anything with an arm, and were entirely unsuccessful – almost. The Raccoons got it done at the end of the month, after two weeks of back-and-forth with several teams, and it cost quite a bit, but nothing that would drive tears into our googly black eyes.

+++

January 2 – Ex-TIJ SP Jimmy Driver (102-71, 3.46 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $8.8M contract with the Knights.
January 7 – The Blue Sox sign up ex-TOP SP David Elliott (189-141, 3.21 ERA) to a 3-yr, $12.36M contract.
January 11 – At age 39, 3B/2B Guillermo Obando (.286, 38 HR, 945 RBI) signs a 1-yr, $1.5M deal with the Condors. Obando played for the Rebels the last two years.
January 15 – Former Bayhawks starter Josh Long (139-118, 3.44 ERA) inks a 5-yr, $23.24M deal with the Capitals.
January 22 – The Crusaders trade MR Greg Kesinger (0-1, 1.80 ERA) to the Condors for two prospects.
January 31 – The Raccoons pick up OF Stephon Nettles (.258, 1 HR, 55 RBI) from the Blue Sox for 33-yr old 1B/C Danny Monge (.300, 59 HR, 426 RBI), 29-yr old MR Antonio Prieto (23-18, 3.36 ERA, 9 SV), 26-yr old RF/LF Cory Cronk (.087, 0 HR, 5 RBI), and the rights to 23-yr old Rule 5 pick Will Cormack.

+++

See, David Elliott didn’t get $13M. I’m always right, aren’t I?

(opens another bottle of Capt’n Coma)

Preface: Stephon Nettles is a weird player that doesn’t fit our team. Now, there is still reasoning behind this move, believe me. (takes another big gulp of Capt’n Coma) He was a silent, private guy, didn’t talk much, and didn’t fight to get into the first row of the team picture. He didn’t like the buzz, he just wanted to play baseball. Well, this is Portland – it’s never about what’s going on down on the field, it’s always about who’s been found sleeping in a dumpster recently. (picks pieces of a banana peel out of his fur)

He was also an outfielder, of which we had plenty. There were two trains of thought now involving him and Jesus Maldonado, given that we had no first-sacker anymore. One of them was going to play first base. Maldo had the experience there, and Nettles was the more agile outfielder, so it was likely going to be Maldo.

The batting corps thus took shape with Manny, Nettles, and Greenway across the outfield, and Ed Hooge and Brad Ledford continuing to be backups – the Sox would have taken any of them just the same as Cronk, but only Cronk was a sub-.100 hitter in the majors and why punch *that* entirely unnecessary lottery ticket? There were further outfield options in Maldonado and Matt Kilgallen, but Maldo would start at first base and Kilgallen was pencilled in along with Jon Caskey as infield backups. Cosmo, Berto, and new acquisition Tony Hunter held the other starting assignments.

This gave us a pair of middle infielders that were both switch-hitters, and Berto continued to be subbed for with a right-hander against most southpaws, and for D in late innings – with Caskey, that was; Kilgallen’s arm was probably not enough to play third base on a regular basis and he had never played there before. Unfortunately Nettles was a left-handed batter, with no variety in the outfield anymore – all five of the group were lefty batters now. Yes, Maldo could zoom out there, with Kilgallen then an option to play first base. But like the last few seasons we’d have a hard time to send up fewer than two lefty bats against a lefty starter.

Kilmer and Morales behind the dish? No notes. Keep living your dreams.

The Nettles trade also freed up $2.4M in dosh for the Raccoons, which was enough to refill the plundered player development budget and make a desperate last-ditch lunge for a starting pitcher worth (or at least demanding) seven figures. And yes, Nettles is a sub-par hitter – but Monge was the worst .300 hitter on the ******* planet.

And somebody’s gotta bat eighth.

+++

February 1 – The Thunder sign ex-NAS CL Wyatt Hamill (34-30, 3.38 ERA, 83 SV) to a 3-year deal that will make the 33-year-old the sum of $5.76M.
February 5 – The Raccoons announce the addition of 32-year-old right-hander SP Kyle Dominy (97-103, 3.75 ERA) on a 1-yr, $1.72M contract. Dominy was a staple of the Federal League, pitching 11 seasons for the Rebs and Gold Sox.
February 9 – The Blue Sox ink ex-SAL SP Donovan Mason (56-40, 3.64 ERA, 28 SV) to a $1.88M contract for 2040.

+++

Now there’s a fine selection for a #4 starter! Probably a bit expensive for a #4 starter but there was not much left for a selection and we had to get the ball moving here. There wasn’t much left that could reasonably be called a #4 starter (except for type-A free agent Donovan Mason, who was at that point the last one left over). He was perfectly decent, stuff wasn’t great, and the corners and edges showed some wear and tear. The breaking ball wasn’t what it was and his K/9 had never been high and was going down, and the walks went up, too, but this was the last year we could get anything done with the Bernie Chavez era Raccoons, and he’d be gone afterwards.

Yes, Maud, you should rephrase that for the actual press release. – Yes, you can use “thrilled”. – “Excited”, too. – Sure, “we look forward to see him pitch”. All that ta-dah. Rather him than Stinky O’Bummerson.

Oh, high, Ottie.

And yes, we don’t have a fifth starter, which is why we keep feeding Ottie after all.

Fun fact: only three first-round picks were signed away this off-season. The Loggers’ #19 pick went to Oklahoma, and the Wolves lost their #22 pick to the Pacifics, but got the Blue Sox’ #24 pick. Only five top-half, second-round picks stayed with their original owners, and there was some token movement even further down the order. The Raccoons, who held the highest forfeitable pick at #13, had steered well clear of type-A free agents all winter.

Former Raccoons finding new tree holes to snooze in: Kurt Wall got $2.04M over two years from the Wolves; it was only $880k for 2040 for Josh Weeks and the Scorpions; and only $376k for Dave Myers, who hooked up with the Caps; Drew Johnson commanded all of $600k from the Buffos;

+++

The light did not shine on the Hall of Fame either – no players would be inducted this year:

SFW SS Jamie Wilson – 5th – 66.7
MIL SP Chris Sinkhorn – 2nd – 59.7
CIN 3B Eddie Moreno – 5th – 59.3
??? CL Jarrod Morrison – 8th – 25.5
??? SP Ian Van Meter – 8th – 23.0
WAS SP Eric Williams – 1st – 11.1
??? SP Ernest Green – 7th – 10.3
TOP CL Mike Baker – 3rd – 7.0
IND RF Cesar Martinez – 1st – 7.0
NYC SP Mike Rutkowski – 1st – 6.2
BOS C Keith Leonard – 2nd – 5.8
NAS C Pat Walston – 9th – 5.8
LAP C Dylan Allomes – 1st – 4.5 – DROPPED
MIL SP Morgan Shepherd – 1st – 4.1 – DROPPED
OCT SP Luis Flores – 2nd – 3.7 – DROPPED
LVA LF Matt Hamilton – 1st – 2.5 – DROPPED
SFW RF Justin Quinn – 2nd – 2.5 – DROPPED
SFW SP John Rucker – 1st – 1.2 – DROPPED
CHA SP Greg Gannon – 1st – 1.2 – DROPPED
OCT 3B Lorenzo Rivera – 1st – 0.8 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

After the Dominy signing, the Raccoons had a bit of dosh left. It wasn’t much – but it was something. Was it enough to get a fifth starter, and was there a fifth starter that would be enough? The bar wasn’t that high – be better than Ottie. Don’t cost an arm and a leg. At most, an arm *or* a leg.

To be honest, no. The free agent market had disappeared by mid-February and other teams continued to be unimpressed with what the Raccoons were willing to cut loose, which still did not include Nelson Moreno.

The pinnacle of stupidity were the Scorpions, who when asked for either Al Scott or Lachlan Clarke – decent, but not good and certainly not great starting pitchers – would ask for Bedrosian in return. But … to be honest… (leans in a bit) … their GM has a bit of a drinking problem… so… you know…!

No, Maud, I don’t have a drinking problem! – I drink heavily, yes. – Well, do you see any *problem* with it?

(framed picture of the 2028 championship team randomly falls off the other wall, glass splintering everywhere)

+++

February 16 – The Raccoons add ex-NAS MR Rafael Zacarias (31-16, 3.78 ERA, 12 SV) on a $495k contract for the 2040 season.
March 17 – The Gold Sox trade for Indy’s SS Ryan Johnston (.244, 43 HR, 250 RBI), with 2B/SS Enrique Vargas (.197, 3 HR, 24 RBI) going the other way. The Sox also receive a prospect in the deal.

+++

Another run-of-the-mill right-hander here for the team, replacing Pena in the bullpen. Zacarias had good stuff, but meager control. He could be used as long man, if you could stomach watching him walk four guys in three innings. Or in one.

Ex-Coons in new places: Ben Feist signed with the Pacifics for $356k; Chris Miller joined him there for $560k; the Stars would get Bob Zeltser for $870k;

And that was the offseason! The good half of the year is now to commence. At least until the Raccoons are 16-25 and it’s all in the bin two weeks before Memorial Day.

[Westheim]

2040 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2039 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Ryan Bedrosian, 28, B:R, T:R (15-5, 3.24 ERA | 63-50, 3.86 ERA) – this right-hander combines very good fastball, changeup, and splitter pitches and keeps it on the ground. Had a rough start to his Raccoons tenure in ’39, but settled in nicely after April, while everything else was coming apart. Free agent at the end of the year.
SP Raffaello Sabre, 31, B:L, T:R (12-9, 3.00 ERA | 81-78, 3.64 ERA) – he won’t ever win a strikeout crown, and by now we’re entirely content with having Sabre being a steady bee working away at the opposition and with a little help from his defense he can be a very good pitcher; and then there’s times where he just can’t get anybody out. Often decent, never good enough. Free agent after the season.
SP Bernie Chavez, 31, B:R, T:R (8-14, 3.55 ERA | 89-81, 3.70 ERA, 1 SV) – 94mph, curve, slider, and the tendency to hang something from time to time; by now you know full well what to expect of Bernie Chavez, an ERA somewhere between not-good-enough and oh-dear-it-keeps-growing, 50 walks, 160 strikeouts, and 20+ balls disappearing into a sea of reaching arms.
SP Kyle Dominy *, 32, B:R, T:R (9-10, 4.13 ERA | 97-103, 3.75 ERA, 3 SV) – basic right-hander with a basic arsenal employed on a 1-year basis. He came pretty expensive for what he is with his 3.5 walks and 5.2 strikeouts per nine innings…
SP Jared Ottinger, 27, B:R, T:R (4-2, 5.68 ERA | 29-28, 4.39 ERA) – the horror with “Ottie” never ended in ’38, even after an assignment to the penal battalion in St. Petersburg, and he didn’t get better in ’39 either after spending most of the year there. He just kept being whacked around mercilessly, and never found into a groove anymore. The Raccoons basically ran out of money before filling their rotation with actual starting pitchers…

MR Brent Clark, 25, B:L, T:L (1-0, 3.20 ERA | 1-0, 3.20 ERA) – the fifth-rounder (2036) was one of the more pleasant surprises of 2039 (there weren’t many). Good stuff, could use better control.
MR Rafael Zacarias *, 29, B:R, T:R (4-2, 3.58 ERA, 2 SV | 31-16, 3.78 ERA, 12 SV) – tough stuff, meager control, but such is the nature of free agent acquisitions in February. Ex-Blue Sox material coming in on a 1-year deal.
MR Chuck Jones *, 28, B:L, T:L (2-5, 2.71 ERA | 6-5, 3.30 ERA, 2 SV) – this southpaw should be kept away from right-hadned bats, which his previous employers, the Scorpions, decidedly didn’t do. Very good numbers against lefty bats for Jones, who throws 92 and keeps it on the ground.
MR Mauricio Garavito, 38, B:L, T:L (1-3, 3.83 ERA, 1 SV | 38-38, 3.24 ERA, 16 SV) – left-hander with balanced splits that was claimed off waivers by the Bayhawks early in the 2029 season when Jeremy Moesker turned out to be a turd. Has it really been this long?? And will he ever go away? Actually yes – he’s gotten long in the tooth and it’s likely that this will be his final season, with stuff disappearing (although control was also better in ’39). He’ll at the very least be a free agent after 12 seasons with the Critters.
MR Jermaine Campbell, 34, B:L, T:R (4-5, 4.61 ERA, 25 SV | 41-46, 2.83 ERA, 359 SV) – after spending $10.4M on a closer, the Raccoons got maybe $3M worth of closing out of him. Campbell’s stuff disappeared in a puff of smoke left behind my eight homers in 56.2 innings last year, with his K/9 crashing by almost 40%. Is toast, and thankfully his contract makes ’41 a team option that will not be picked up.
SU Alex Ramirez *, 31, B:R, T:R (no stats) – washed ashore from Cuba and signed up on a 3-year deal. 94mph cutter, curve, and some garbage to distract from those two good pitches, hopefully getting him far…
CL Rico Sanchez *, 28, B:R, T:R (3-6, 2.61 ERA | 33-30, 3.34 ERA, 123 SV) – the main new attraction in an almost entirely revamped bullpen is this Venezuelan righty, who was in the services of the Wolves before being superseded for the closer’s role last year. Miffed, he took his ball and went up I-5 and signed a 3-year deal. Sinker, slider, finesse groundballer.

C Jeff Kilmer, 28, B:R, T:R (.330, 10 HR, 54 RBI | .273, 30 HR, 139 RBI) – now here was a kid that we were happy for not having drowned in a barrel when it looked like that was all that could end his misery anymore. Kilmer had a breakout offensive season in 2038 and then actually added another 124 points in OPS in ’39. He will get even more starts in 2040 compared to Morales, who started 86 times to Kilmer’s 74 in ’39, but the ratio could be the other way round now.
C Tony Morales, 25, B:L, T:R (.272, 12 HR, 53 RBI | .269, 44 HR, 244 RBI) – keeps turning in just slightly above average seasons, and whenever he looks like he’s about to break out, he gets hurt. He’s also been around for quite a while for turning only 26 at the end of the month. The Raccoons are still hopeful he’ll find another level of power stroke at some point.

CF/RF/3B/SS/LF/1B Jesus Maldonado, 26, B:R, T:R (.283, 8 HR, 56 RBI | .270, 26 HR, 220 RBI) – It’s hard to forget this one: .411/.431/.571 and a 2037 World Series MVP award while playing on the losing team. If you can get THAT together, you must at least make it to the All Star Game at some point, don’t you? So far no luck for Maldonado in that regard, but at least he is now a regular above-average hitter. Very versatile, which is his undoing, since he could probably win a Gold Glove in centerfield if he wasn’t plugging holes elsewhere all the time. This year the hole is first base, and it’s gonna be here all year long.
2B/3B/SS Enrique Trevino, 32, B:S, T:R (.292, 2 HR, 62 RBI | .322, 41 HR, 785 RBI) – so Trevino is not a permanent .350 batter, it turns out – only when he misses two months on the DL. Solid defender, great on base presence and ideally suited for the #2 hole, with Berto already at second base in the best of all scenarios … IF both of them can lay off the DL.
SS Tony Hunter *, 27, B:S, T:R (.254, 5 HR, 42 RBI | .256, 8 HR, 69 RBI) – slick shortstop acquired from the Gold Sox in a trade, replacing Elijah Williams, who was getting older and slower and less rangier. Hunter gives us two starting switch-hitters (with Cosmo) and another potential base stealer (double digits shouldn’t be a problem). His bat revolves more around getting on base then getting people in that are on base already, so if one of the 1-2 guys fails he could jump in. Right now he’ll have to be batting at the bottom of the order.
3B Alberto Ramos, 34, B:L, T:R (.288, 0 HR, 50 RBI | .301, 20 HR, 593 RBI) – after two years, Berto made himself an adequate third baseman after no longer being agile enough to play short, his position for 13 major league seasons. Offensively he remains the same – a high-OBP leadoff man able to steal 30 bases even while fighting nagging injuries and getting incrementally phased out against lefty pitchers altogether.
3B/SS/2B Jon Caskey, 26, B:R, T:R (.272, 1 HR, 7 RBI | .244, 2 HR, 12 RBI) – takes over the Joel Hernandez job of subbing Berto in late innings and getting into the lineup against southpaws. Can also play the middle infield, which is good, because the former first-rounder (2034) sure hits like a middle infielder.
1B/CF/2B/LF/SS Matt Kilgallen, 28, B:R, T:R (.356, 1 HR, 13 RBI | .260, 4 HR, 130 RBI) – quirky super utility player which I like to have on the roster, who can cover multiple positions adequately. Was picked up from the Knights last winter, but spent most of the year banished in St. Pete, appearing in only 26 games for the Critters.

LF/RF/CF Manny Fernandez, 30, B:L, T:L (.283, 18 HR, 86 RBI | .289, 93 HR, 546 RBI) – as close to a 5-tool player as the Raccoons could ever find, especially in a draft. 2036 Player of the Year! Unfortunately he seemed to be gaining weight in all the wrong places and his power dropped badly (he hit half the homers compared to 2036-37) in ’38. Under contract through 2044, so maybe we will want to try and slim him down again…
RF/CF/LF Stephon Nettles *, 25, B:L, T:R (.253, 0 HR, 7 RBI | .258, 1 HR, 55 RBI) – very good defensive centerfielder who is hitting in a light fashion, but somebody’s gotta bat eighth, right? Acquired in trade from the Blue Sox.
RF/LF Troy Greenway, 28, B:L, T:L (.282, 23 HR, 78 RBI | .287, 144 HR, 458 RBI) – 42 homers became 23 homers as first and second place battles became drifting like deadwood in fourth. Greenway’s not a great defender, and he still hit for a 137 OPS+, but he’s being paid lavishly to hit closer to 42 homers rather than 23 homers.
LF/RF/CF Ed Hooge, 30, B:L, T:L (.284, 3 HR, 24 RBI | .272, 39 HR, 218 RBI) – no matter what Ed Hooge does, it’s never enough for a permanent starting assignment, isn’t it? The one time he reached a qualifying number of plate appearances was in 2036, when *everybody* was on the DL. Solid allrounder that doesn’t really excel at any one thing, and so is permanently branded as fourth outfielder. Will be a free agent after this season.
LF/RF Brad Ledford, 29, B:L, T:L (.266, 6 HR, 31 RBI | .272, 36 HR, 172 RBI) – was mainly used as a pinch-hitter since it is genuinely hard to fit him into the lineup and he’s having the same so-so defense that Greenway brings to the table…

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
MR Sal Lozano *, 27, B:L, T:L (no stats) – optioned to Alley Cats; free agent out of Cuba that was signed on the cheap before the Raccoons got other additions during the winter.
MR Francisco Pena, 26, B:R, T:R (0-0, 4.42 ERA | 2-2, 4.82 ERA, 1 SV) – waived and DFA’ed; the last remnant of the Jimmy Wallace trade to the Falcons keeps being a hopelessly unreliable bust machine, with high walk totals and little mitigating factors…
MR Travis Sims, 27, B:R, T:R (4-2, 6.41 ERA | 8-4, 4.60 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; fastball, splitter; basically a signal to the fans that it’s time to go home because that 6-run deficit isn’t gonna get any smaller today.
2B/3B/SS/LF Steve Nickas, 26, B:S, T:R (.200, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .214, 1 HR, 13 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; defensive infielder that can’t bat with or for anything whatsoever.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived or reassigned during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

The changes to the lineup are quite subtle indeed. The top half remains unmolested on paper.

Vs. RHP: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – C Morales (Kilmer) – SS Hunter – CF Nettles – P
(Vs. LHP: SS Hunter – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Greenway – 1B (CF) Maldonado – 3B Caskey – CF Nettles (1B Kilgallen) – P)

The lineup against left-handers suffers from all regularly pencilled-in outfielders being left-handed batters (and Maldo was the only exception before). Moving Maldonado to center against left-handers and putting Kilgallen on first base reduces the number of lefty bats to two.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

It was a rough ride in the tumble dryer at times in ’38. The bullpen was a catastrophe, which is why there’s only two survivors from last Opening Day in there. Clark made his debut in ’39 and four guys were shipped in during winter time. It all looks a bit rickety and held together with band-aids. Ottinger in the rotation was a desperate move. But we got rid of Monge (although that deal actually cost WAR; although WAR is a useless stat that can kiss my furry bottoms, more on that in a second), and got younger and better at shortstop, at least from a defensive standpoint – which is important when you also add a finesse closer and other groundballers. Neither Berto nor Cosmo will win a Gold Glove; Troy Hunter’s got a lot to do here!

BNN sees the Raccoons fifth in offseason WAR gains with a meager +2.3 while much of the league lumped together in the +2/-2 band (13 teams in total). The Troy Hunter trade was worth lots of WAR!

Then again, we were declared to have won the offseason last time with +10.9 WAR and then shed 14 wins and two positions in the division. So **** WAR, I’ll measure up my guys by batting average and actual wins in the box score, thank you!

Top 5: Cyclones (+9.5), Warriors (+6.0), Crusaders (+3.6), Scorpions (+3.3), Raccoons (+2.3)
Bottom 5: Bayhawks (-3.0), Canadiens (-3.1), Aces (-5.5), Condors (-9.6), Indians (-9.8)

The other teams in the CL North came in 9th (MIL, +0.4) and 14th (BOS, -1.1).

PREDICTION TIME:

Last time I was already skeptical whether the pitching would hold up (and it didn’t), but was more worried about the rotation than the pen (neither were great, but the pen was way worse). I refrained from actually going for a win total last time around, but rejected the 102-ish target set by BNN.

This time BNN is at 82. And the GM?

The GM wants to believe that the Bernie Chavez era Raccoons have won last hurrah in them before it inevitably falls apart after this season. Bernie Chavez is the only useful starting pitcher signed for ’41, and that’s only a team option. The pen… well, all the band-aid…! The lineup can be hit and miss, we’ve seen all that.

It won’t be enough. The Raccoons might win 87, but will fall way short. If injuries strike, especially the rotation, which lacks any depth whatsoever, they might easily race for 90 losses.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Raccoons’ farm system surprisingly upgraded from 13th to 4th place this year, despite a rather liberal treatment of prospects as trade bait (like last year’s #137, Matt Kaplan, and #200, Cory Cronk).

Of the remaining four ranked prospects the Raccoons had last year, three are still ranked, with #190 MR Zack Kelly having crashed and burned in both St. Pete and Ham Lake at age 24. He was no longer ranked, but still in the system.

8th (-6) – AAA SP Nelson Moreno, 21 – 2035 international free agent signed by Raccoons
17th (+68) – A SP Jose Arias, 18 – 2038 international free agent signed by Raccoons
39th (new) – AA 3B/2B Quadir Randle, 22 – 2036 supplemental-round pick by Buffaloes, acquired from Capitals for Bryce Sparkes, Jose Alaniz
62nd (new) – INT SP Tony Negrete, 17 – 2038 international free agent signed by Raccoons
64th (new) – A SP Victor Merino, 19 – 2039 international free agent signed by Raccoons
114th (new) – AA SP Corey Mathers, 21 – 2039 first-round pick by Raccoons
127th (+26) – AA SP Vince Burke, 23 – 2037 first-round pick by Raccoons
171st (new) – INT C Jose Ortiz, 19 – scouting discovery by Raccoons
174th (new) – INT C Ruben Gonzalez, 18 – 2038 international free agent by Raccoons

Completing the franchise top 10th, but unranked, is MR Josh Rella, who was our 2039 fourth-rounder, and was converted from a middle infielder right away. He did very well in Aumsville, and not so great in Ham Lake at the end of the year, but will start the year in AA again.

The top 5 overall prospects this year are:

#1 NAS A 1B Alejandro Ramos (was #17)
#2 SAC ML 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (was #4 and starting the year in A-ball)
#3 SFB A SP Kevin Nolte (newly drafted)
#4 LAP AAA SP Kevin Clendenen (newly drafted)
#5 RIC AAA LF/RF Pablo Gonzalez (was #31)

Last year’s #1 guy, the Falcons’ left-hander Pablo Vazquez, made it into one game in the majors last year, allowing one run in 2/3 of an inning. That on top of a 6.87 ERA in AAA dropped him to #12 on the new prospect list. The other Falcons top 5 pitcher, Emmanuel “Warthog” Lizarraga, dropped from #3 to #9 without getting a double-digit ERA in the Bigs. Last year’s #5, Caps outfielder Eduardo Avila, exhausted his rookie allowances in the majors, so far hitting .219 with one home run.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Titans (0-0) – April 3-5, 2040

2039 had all been about the Titans needing puffy handwarmers and using the Raccoons to make them. They had taken 14 of 18 games from us last year, and I didn’t exactly feel the winds of change having arrived as far as that was concerned.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Bedrosian (0-0) vs. Rich Willett (0-0)
Bernie Chavez (0-0) vs. Javy Santana (0-0)
Raffaello Sabre (0-0) vs. Leonhart Becker (0-0)

Right-hander, right-hander, Sauerkraut.

I already feel the anger rising in me.

Game 1
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – C Morales – SS Hunter – CF Nettles – P Bedrosian
BOS: RF M. Avila – 3B Gil – CF Vermillion – LF W. Vega – C Dear – SS Bunyon – 2B Toney – 1B Vadillo – P Willett

Absolutely nobody got a hit in the first three innings; Willett walked one, Bedrosian walked two, and there wasn’t much going on offensively on Opening Day. Maybe even the Raccoons’ Opening Day pitcher curse would arrive late this year! In terms of further hitting, Willett hit Cosmo with a pitch in the fourth inning, but Trevino was caught stealing by Matt Dear in what had been an overly predictable move by the Raccoons. The first base knock of the game did not arrive until the fifth inning, when Maldonado led off and slapped a 3-2 pitch through the left side for a single. Yay, offense! Tony Morales slapped another ball through the right side, and the Raccoons were on the corners for Tony Hunter, who hit into a fielder’s choice, but good enough to get Maldo home from third base for the Critters’ first run of the season. Stephon Nettles got on with an infield single, but Bedrosian struck out and Berto flew out to Mark Vermillion in center to end the inning. Ricardo Vadillo then hit a Boston single with two outs in the bottom 5th, but that was as far as they got through five.

That was about it through six, with Willett nicking Manny Fernandez in the top 6th without great effect. Tony Hunter walked to lead off the seventh, stole second base, then was doubled in by Nettles, though, so that was a 2-0 lead for us. Willett got through Bedrosian and Berto before conceding a gap RBI double with two down to Cosmo. Fernandez grounded to Vadillo, who fudged the ball, bringing up Troy Greenway with runners on the corners, but he grounded out easily to Mike Toney. Bedrosian struck out Willie Vega to begin the bottom 7th, giving him seven on the day, but Donovan Bunyon hit a single with two outs before Toney lined a ball right into Berto’s mitten to end the inning.

Bedrosian lived through seven and a third before walking John Davis in the #9 hole. The Coons went to new import Alex Ramirez against Moises Avila, who walked in a full count, then made another move to Chuck Jones, another new import, against the guys to follow. Gotta test that new bullpen! Jones faced only Antonio Gil, who spanked a grounder to Tony Hunter that ended up going 6-4-3 and ended the inning. THe bottom 9th was no less of a problem. Rico Sanchez was out for his first Coons game, and allowed a leadoff single to Vermillion before whiffing a pair. Chris Murphy then pinch-hit and singled, bringing up the tying run with two gone and runners on the corners. Mike Toney was in the box, and popped up the first pitch. Hunter snagged it, and the Raccoons had a winning record. 3-0 Coons! Maldonado 2-4; Nettles 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bedrosian 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

I liked that. More of that, please.

Game 2
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – C Kilmer – SS Hunter – CF Nettles – P Chavez
BOS: RF M. Avila – 3B Gil – CF Vermillion – LF W. Vega – C Dear – SS Bunyon – 2B Toney – 1B Vadillo – P J. Santana

Bernie Chavez struck out four of his first five batters this season, but critically not Willie Vega, who tripled leading off the bottom 2nd. Bunyon brought him home with another base hit, giving Boston an early 1-0 lead. Santana would open the third with a single to center, but Bernie struck out another two on his way out of the inning. The Raccoons’ offense had yet to arrive, but Manny Fernandez slapped a 1-out double to left with one gone in the fourth inning. Troy Greenway was halfheartedly walked, while Maldonado reached on Mike Toney’s error, loading the bases for Jeff Kilmer, who got ahead 3-1 against Santana, and the Titans weren’t keen on walking in the tying run. Santana was to challenge Kilmer, but Kilmer remained on top of him and hit a shot to left, that was very much outta here. GRAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

Bernie Chavez went to work immediately in his attempt to get rid of the resulting 4-1 lead. Willie Vega hit a leadoff double off him in the bottom 4th, then scored on Toney’s 2-out single to make a run for it, even though the Critters’ defense visibly resisted the idea of giving up more runs and saved Bernie’s bacon twice in the fifth, before the bottom half tacked on another run on a flush of singles in the sixth, with Nettles singling home Maldo to make it 5-2. Vega singled off Bernie in the bottom of the inning, but was doubled up, 6-4-3, by Matt Dear, who however was 3-for-4 in catching Raccoons trying to steal a base and had already nipped both Berto and Cosmo in this series.

Bernie Chavez pitched seven innings on 101 pitches without blowing the lead, so there was that. Top 8th, Greenway singled, Kilmer walked, and Nettles had another 2-out RBI single against left-hander Peter “Graveyard” Gill. Jon Caskey hit for Chavez at that point, but grounded out, then remained in at third base, making a nifty play behind Jermaine Campbell in the bottom 8th. Campbell went 1-2-3 on the Titans; Mauricio Garavito allowed a 2-hit hit to Dear in his season debut, but also escaped the ninth inning unharmed after that. 6-2 Raccoons. Kilmer 2-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Nettles 3-4, 2 RBI; Chavez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
POR: SS Hunter – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – 3B Caskey – CF Hooge – P Sabre
BOS: RF M. Avila – 3B Gil – CF Vermillion – LF W. Vega – C Dear – SS Bunyon – 2B Toney – 1B Vadillo – P Becker

Sabre got torn apart for six hits in the first inning. The first three batters all hit singles to take a 1-0 lead for Boston. Vega grounded out, but Dear also singled to left. That scored Gil, while Vermillion was thrown out at home by Fernandez for the second out, but Sabre allowed another two hits to Bunyon and Toney, and one more run, before Ricardo Vadillo flew out to center. Not the start for someone who was probably the most steady we had ever seen him in ’39! While the Raccoons’ offense got absolutely nothing done against Sauerkraut Becker, Sabre never stopped being bad. The defense patchworked him through the next two innings, but after Vadillo hit a leadoff single in the fourth, Sabre also fumbled Becker’s bunt, putting two on with nobody out. Avila and Gil made outs in the shallow outfield, but Vermillion knocked in a run with a 2-out single, 4-0, and that was the end for the ravaged Sabre. Brent Clark induced a pop from Willie Vega to escape the inning.

Top 5th, Hoogey opened with a single against Sauerkraut, and when Clark was used to bunt, Matt Dear threw that one away, moving runners into scoring position with nobody out. Tony Hunter then clipped the southpaw from Germany for an RBI single to left, with Clark cautiously held at third base. Cosmo was up as the tying run, but flew out in shallow right. Manny hit a sac fly in center; that ball was so deep, even Cristiano Carmona would have made it home in time, let alone Brent Clark. Kilmer doubled home Hunter after that, but the Raccoons stopped at 4-3 when Greenway grounded out. Mike Toney then countered with a huge homer off Clark in the bottom of the inning, extending the Boston lead to 5-3 again.

Berto pinch-hit and singled in the #9 hole to begin the seventh inning, but was doubled up by Hunter to short-circuit the inning. The Raccoons were retired in order in the eighth inning, but Jones and Ramirez were keeping the Titans just two runs away for the ninth inning, where we’d face right-hander Gilberto Castillo. Maldonado grounded out. Ledford hit for Caskey, but flew out to center. Hoogey flew out to right. 5-3 Titans. Hunter 2-4, RBI; Ramos (PH) 1-1;

Well, we couldn’t expect to beat Boston like a drum forever. Two outta three ain’t bad! It’s more wins than the damn Elks have so far (zero).

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Knights (1-2) – April 6-8, 2040

Home opener time! The Raccoons would host the Knights, who had scored 15 runs in their first set, but had also given up 16, the most in the league at this stage. The Critters had won seven of nine from the Knights for two straight years.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Dominy (0-0) vs. Jon Pereira (0-0)
Jared Ottinger (0-0) vs. Chris Lulay (0-0)
Ryan Bedrosian (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Brad Santry (1-0, 2.35 ERA)

One more southpaw to come up here, which would be Lulay on Saturday.

Game 1
ATL: CF N. Velez – LF Inoa – C Horner – 2B Matos – 1B J. Garcia – 3B B. Moore – RF Hester – SS Holmes – P J. Pereira
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – 1B Maldonado – C Morales – RF Ledford – SS Hunter – CF Nettles – P Dominy

The Knights would take the lead in the second inning, putting Jose Garcia (single), Bill Moore (walk), and Billy Hester (single) on base with one out against new Coon Dominy, who then handled Ryan Holmes’ comebacker for a force at home plate before giving up a 2-out, 2-strike, 2-run single to the opposing pitcher. And NOW it’s a season!

Maldonado’s leadoff jack in the bottom half of the inning got the Raccoons back to 2-1, after which Morales singled, then bowled over Jesus Matos in a collision at second base on Hunter’s potential 6-4-3 double play grounder. Morales was out on merit, and Matos was out as well, but on account of injury. Andy Montes replaced him. Stephon Nettles hit a single with two outs, and Dominy hit a 2-out RBI double to left, tying the game at two. Berto added an RBI single, 3-2, before Cosmo flew out to Luis Inoa, but an Adam Horner home run tied the game right away in the third inning. Montes doubled, but somehow was left on base, and Nelson Velez walked in the fourth, but was doubled up by Inoa. The Raccoons’ expensive addition wasn’t faring all too well, walking four and whiffing three through four innings. He’d retire the Knights in order in the fifth, then walked Moore to begin the sixth, but sat down the next three, ending his Coons debut with a K to Pereira while keeping the score knotted at three.

While the Coons also got decent relief from Garavito and Campbell, the offense produced little of value. There was the odd single, but we either found a double play to hit into or Cosmo got caught stealing again… By now the Raccoons had attempted five stolen bases, and had been through out four times. Raul Sanchez had a walk and two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth inning, keeping the game still tied, but Hooge, Berto, and Cosmo made outs in order in the bottom 9th against righty Ruben Vela, and the game went to extra innings. Brent Clark held the Knights away in the 10th inning, while Vela was good for another three outs. The end came in the 11th, with Rafael Zacarias allowing a single to Ryan Holmes, then a homer to Dominique Dichio, that weird guy that cropped up every three years or so to hit a highly annoying homer off some hopeless Critter. Matt May opened the bottom 11th by clipping Hunter, bringing up the tying run right away. Nettles and Kilgallen both lined out to Montes before Berto singled to left, moving Hunter to second base. Cosmo grounded to Montes with two outs, who now fumbled the ball and loaded the bases for Manny Fernandez with two outs. And Manny grounded out to the pitcher. 5-3 Knights. Ramos 2-6, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

No-no, the bullpen is totally reworked and *fine*.

It’s *fine*.

The Raccoons would have more irregular lineups through this series, since the policy was still to give everybody a day off in the first week, and the team would not have an actual day off until the third week of the season, too. We also didn’t get to see Lulay as expected, but the Knights went back to Brad Santry, who had pitched on Monday.

Game 2
ATL: CF N. Velez – LF Inoa – C Horner – 1B J. Garcia – RF Montes – 3B B. Moore – SS Holmes – 2B DiNatale – P Santry
POR: 3B Ramos – SS Hunter – CF Maldonado – RF Greenway – C Morales – LF Hooge – 1B Kilgallen – 2B Caskey – P Ottinger

The return of Ottie to the rotation brought thousands of kids to the ballpark who had no idea what they had signed up for. He actually retired five Knights in a row to begin the game, whiffing two, before Bill Moore hit a double. Nothing came of that, but by the third inning Santry hit a double off him, too. Again the Knights failed to pounce, but at least Santry was also sitting down strings of Critters – seven in a row before Devin DiNatale threw away Caskey’s grounder for a 2-base error in the bottom 3rd. Jared Ottinger came up and crashed a home run to right-center, and the entire ballpark went nuts. Even Slappy clapped!!

Unfortunately, Ottinger, who heard “Ottie! Ottie!” chants when he returned to the mound for the fourth inning, still had to pitch. Jose Garcia hit a 1-out single in the fourth, and Montes hit a deep fly out. With two down, Ottinger walked Moore, and gave up a run on Ryan Holmes’ single. DiNatale then popped out, which the stupid kids took as a sign that everything would be alright. In the fifth, the 1-2-3 batters loaded the bases on two walks and a soft single. Garcia was batting with one out, and the pitching coach tried to talk skill into Ottinger, who fell to 2-0 before giving up a 2-run double to right. Montes hit a sac fly, 4-2, and Ottinger threw a wild pitch at 0-2 to Bill Moore with two outs. Garcia went to third, and Moore went down on the next pitch, which hit him in the shoulder before the carom struck him in the helmet. Dichio replaced him as pinch-runner and at third base, while Alex Ramirez replaced a dismembered Ottinger in a double switch (Manny entered in place of Ed Hooge). Ramirez got Holmes to ground out, ending the damn inning. DiNatale then homered off him in the sixth instead, and Jermaine Campbell got torched for two runs in the eighth, while the Raccoons had no offense to offer except for that Ottinger home run until … well… maybe Sunday? 7-2 Knights.

And a losing record has been attained!

Yay.

Game 3
ATL: CF N. Velez – LF Inoa – C Horner – 1B J. Garcia – 3B B. Moore – SS Holmes – RF E. Martin – 2B DiNatale – P Lulay
POR: SS Hunter – 2B Trevino – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – RF Greenway – 1B Kilgallen – CF Nettles – 3B Caskey – P Bedrosian

Bedrosian opened his second start with a walk to Nelson Velez, who was then doubled up. In the second, he nailed Jose Garcia, conceded a single to Bill Moore, and then walked Holmes. Three on, no outs, mound conference. Evan Martin hit a long fly to right that Greenway reduced to a leaping grab and a sac fly at the fence, and when DiNatale lined to right, Cosmo made a lunging grab, caught Holmes off his base, and flung the ball to Matt Kilgallen in time for a 4-3 double play. The Raccoons’ offense the first time through was nothing more than Nettles drawing a leadoff walk, stealing second base, and being left to fend off the monsters there for himself.

Nettles then hurt a claw on a defensive play in the fourth inning and came out of the game with Horner (leadoff walk) and Moore on the corners again. Maldonado replaced him, while Holmes and DiNatale both popped out to piss another chance away. The Raccoons maintained zero base hits on their ledger until Maldonado singled with two outs in the fifth, then swiftly got caught stealing because a light drizzle had set in and he wanted to get back into the dry dugout.

Bedrosian failed his way into the seventh, still only 1-0 behind, then left after 101 pitches with DiNatale on second and two outs. Chuck Jones rung up Nelson Velez to end the inning. Manny erred onto base with a single in the bottom of the inning, but nothing came out of that either. Maldonado hit a 1-out single in the eighth, then was kept from trying to steal when I subtly knocked on the window overlooking the Field of Sadness with the barrel of the blunderbuss. Caskey walked. Berto batted for Chuck Jones, fell to 0-2, then still floated a ball into shallow center as the drizzle got worse and became actual rain. Maldonado went, Velez didn’t get there, and Maldonado scored to tie the game at one. Three pitches later, the game went to an hour-long rain delay with Tony Hunter down 1-2 against Lulay, who was knocked out by the advent of ill weather that might have ended the game before Berto’s single. When play resumed, still in a drizzle, 66 minutes later, Hunter worked a walk, which brought up Cosmo with three on, one out, and Ruben Vela pitching. He struck out in a full count, but Manny Fernandez drew four balls in four pitches to push home the go-ahead run with two outs! Then Kilmer grounded out – but Rico Sanchez sat down three in a row to put the game away! 2-1 Furballs! Maldonado 2-2; Ramos (PH) 1-1, RBI;

In other news

April 2 – IND SP Jake Jackson (1-0, 0.00 ERA) spins a 6-hit shutout over the Loggers in a 2-0 Opening Day win.
April 2 – The Buffaloes beat the Miners, 6-4, on only three base hits. Drawing six walks and getting hit twice helps about as much as the grand slam by 1B Chris Delagrange (1-for-4, 1 HR, 4 RBI).
April 3 – The Aces’ only hit in a 2-1 loss to the Bayhawks is a home run by C Danny Gomez (1-for-3, 1 HR, 1 RBI).
April 4 – The Buffaloes walk off on the Miners, 5-4 in 17 innings, on a sac fly by SS/1B Justin Lamphere (2-for-3, 0 HR, 1 RBI).
April 5 – OCT SP Sebastien Parham (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will miss the entire season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. The 25-year-old right-hander faced just two batters in his first start.
April 6 – The Condors’ new addition, RF/LF Roy Pincus (1-for-4, 0 HR, 0 RBI) will miss most of the season. The 36-year-old has suffered a broken kneecap.
April 6 – IND RF/LF David Gonzales (.429, 0 HR, 2 RBI) would miss four months with a pretty bad concussion.
April 6 – The Titans erase a 5-3 deficit in the ninth inning against the Bayhawks before walking off on a grand slam by C Matt Dear (.188, 1 HR, 5 RBI) for a 9-5 victory.

FL Player of the Week: TOP INF/RF/LF Felix Marquez (.522, 1 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: IND SP Jake Jackson (2-0, 0.00 ERA)

Complaints and stuff

First, Stephon Nettles’ claw will be fine. It’s just a blister, says Dr. Padilla. He might be able to play on Monday. Maybe we’ll give him a day off anyway.

Whether anything else will turn out fine is a bit up in the air. The Raccoons scored 19 runs in the first week, second from the bottom in the CL. Troy Greenway and Manny Fernandez are batting 3-for-38 between them. It’s not like the top of the order is much better; Berto and Cosmo are 9-for-44, and 1-for-3 in stealing bases. Hooge and Ledford are under .200, and so is Tony Morales, and Caskey, too. Matt Kilgallen has no hits at all. The entire offense has been down to Kilmer, Nettles, and Maldonado. Those three were good enough for three wins, somehow.

Maybe Jared Ottinger can be turned into a first baseman…?

All players waived and designated for assignment on Opening Day (Pena, Sims, Nickas) went unclaimed and were assigned to AAA afterwards.

The Raccoons signed “depth” for the rotation this week, too, adding 25-year-old right-hander Cory Lambert for $275k. He had never pitched in the majors so far, and would be assigned to the Alley Cats, too, given that AAA had been his home for the last four years. He had originally been a fifth-round pick out of high school by the Baybirds in ’33.

Elsewhere, ex-Coon Dusty Kulp got two years and $1.3M from the Capitals in the first week of the season.

Fun Fact: 63 years ago today, Samuel Serra of Dallas hits for the very first cycle in ABL history.

The game was a 20-10 spank-out over the Miners. Serra, a first baseman, hit .337 with seven homers that first season, but then gradually was reduced in production and was flushed out of the majors by the time he was 31 in 1982. He hit .293 with 22 homers and 153 RBI for his career, all spent with the Stars.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Thunder (2-4) – April 9-11, 2040

The Thunder had the worst pitching and defense and the most runs allowed after the season’s first week, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. They had also lost Sebastien Parham to injury for the year, which probably meant more. And Oscar Mendoza had 8 RBI after the first week, which was probably not indicative of him going to notch a total of 216 by the end of September, either. The Coons had lost six of nine games to Oklahoma City last year.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (1-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Casey Pinter (1-0, 2.25 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (0-1, 7.36 ERA) vs. Alan Fleming (0-0, 4.50 ERA)
Kyle Dominy (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Aaron Bryant (0-0, 1.59 ERA)

We were looking at two southpaws in this set, one at either end, and the right-handed Fleming in the middle. The 25-year-old had made 27 career appearances in the majors, posting a 5.88 ERA – but this was going to be his first starting assignment.

Game 1
OCT: CF Ringel – 3B McWhirter – C Adames – 1B D. Cruz – 2B Martell – LF Marz – SS Nieblas – RF Heskett – P Pinter
POR: 3B A. Ramos – 2B Trevino – CF Nettles – C Kilmer – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – SS Caskey – P Chavez

Slappy wisely handed me a bottle of One-Eyed Jack’s as soon as a Danny Cruz bloop single and Al Martell’s long homer to right put the Thunder up 2-0 in the second inning. Bernie struck out four the first time through, so it wasn’t all bad with him, it was just the usual rotten luck and bad timing with bombs that we had witnessed for an entire decade now… Portland got on the board in the bottom 3rd, with Caskey and Berto reaching the corners with a pair of singles and one out. Cosmo remained luckless and grounded out, but it was enough to get Jon Caskey across for a run. Nettles struck out. Kilmer then led off the fourth with a triple in the left-center gap and barely made it home on the least-egregious of three egregious outs the next three batters made, Maldo’s sac fly in not-very-deep center. Both Greenway and Fernandez grounded out to Cruz, running their combined string of futility to 3-for-42.

Despite all the thoughts of doom I had in my head, the Raccoons took the lead in the fifth. Jon Caskey legged out an infield roller near the third base line for a single to start the inning, was bunted to second by Bernie, and then scored on Berto’s single in shallow right-center, 3-2, before Cosmo flew out to center (also cursed…) and Nettles grounded out to Al Martell. Now, the lead still didn’t *last*, thanks to the Thunder unravelling Bernie Chavez with three straight singles, all soft and exasperating, to begin the sixth inning, loading the bags with no outs on the board. Bernie remained in there to face the right-handed John Marz, who hit a bases-clearing double, and that was that. Singles by Bill McWhirter and Jesus Adames and a 2-run double off the fence by Danny Cruz added two runs against Rafael Zacarias and got the right-hander’s ERA over 20 in the seventh inning.

Bottom 7th, Coons counterattack? Manny drew a leadoff walk and Caskey singled. Brad Ledford struck out, but Berto ripped an RBI double to left, 7-4. Cosmo plated a run with a groundout, and Nettles dropped an RBI single, 7-6. Right-hander J.D. Hamm balked Nettles into scoring position, but Kilmer’s liner was snatched by Cruz and the inning ended. Nevertheless, both teams looked like ready for collapsing completely now, but the eighth inning saw both strand a runner in scoring position for no greater gains. In the ninth, the Coons sent Mauricio Garavito. Ethan Moore walked, Jesus Adames went deep to center, and that was another 3-run gap on the board. The Coons made quick outs with Ledford and Berto in the bottom 9th against the left-handed Wyatt Hamill before Cosmo singled to right and Nettles singled to center. The tying run appeared once more in Jeff Kilmer. And Jeff Kilmer grounded out. 9-6 Thunder. Ramos 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Nettles 3-5, RBI; Caskey 3-4;

*hcks!*

Slalalappy, tell your friennnd, One-Eyed Jackkssss…. that … that… that I truly annn deeply lovvvvim.

*hcks!*

…

Tuesday brought rain and precluded seeing another game like that, but also gave us a double header on Wednesday. The Raccoons would front their effort with Sabre, as intended, while the Thunder put Aaron Bryant, the left-hander, into the early game.

Game 2
OCT: LF E. Moore – 2B McWhirter – C Adames – 1B D. Cruz – 3B Martell – SS Kuhn – CF Heskett – RF O. Mendoza – P A. Bryant
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Caskey – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – RF Maldonado – LF Hooge – 1B Kilgallen – SS Hunter – P Sabre

Again, the other team scored first… Sabre issued a leadoff walk to Danny Cruz in the top 2nd, and Brian Heskett would single him home with two outs. In between there was even a Martell single and a double play grounder by Jimmy Kuhn, and another single by Oscar Mendoza afterwards, but at least Bryant made the third out. Like in his first start, Sabre couldn’t have looked any less sharp. He had only one strikeout in that abortive outing last week, and didn’t get one here until Mendoza went down hacking with Martell and Heskett aboard and two outs in the fourth. That was with the Thunder on six hits to the Critters’ zero, and just before Ed Hooge retired Bryant on a sliding catch to end the inning. Nettles would hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, then was doubled up by Kilmer as the team continued to show off anti-baseball of the finest sort.

Sabre failed his way through five before bunting Kilgallen (single) and Hunter (walk) into scoring position in the bottom 5th. Those were the tying and go-ahead runs and the Raccoons approached the situation professionally – both Berto and Caskey popped out. Oh, I think I meant “pathetically” in the last sentence. Tough to think when you’re dense on One-Eyed Jack’s.

Sabre got through seven on luck alone, with eight hits against him, but remained on the hook because the team was completely inept. Hoogey hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, but was forced out by Kilgallen. Tony Hunter singled. Troy Greenway would bat for Sabre, fell to 0-2, then put the ball in play, right at McWhirter, 4-6-3 went the Coons. In short, they were impossible to digest without brainhammers. Both Berto and Nettles drew walks in the bottom 8th, but nobody could find a ******* base hit in their pants and the inning ended with the pair stranded in scoring position. While Jermaine Campbell and Chuck Jones held the Thunder to a 1-0 lead only, the Raccoons encountered Hamill again in the bottom of the ninth. Hooge struck out, but Kilgallen singled and Hunter walked, putting the winning run on base. Manny batted for Jones and zipped a SINGLE up the middle, loading the bases for Berto, who hit a 2-0 to left. No problem for Marz, but Kilgallen scurried home to tie the game. And Caskey struck out to keep it from ending… The dismal Coons stranded another pair in the 10th against Hamill, with Kilgallen grounding out to short after Maldo and Hoogey had reached. They’d get another pair aboard in the bottom 11th, with Tony Morales landing a pinch-hit single with one out, and Caskey reaching on a ******* uncaught third strike with two gone. That gave Nettles another poke against righty Gary Martin. He dropped a single in shallow center, and Tony Morales had gone on contact with two outs and scored just ahead of Ethan Moore’s throw. 2-1 Blighters! Nettles 2-5, BB, RBI; Hooge 2-5; Kilgallen 2-5; Fernandez (PH) 1-1; Morales (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 Bb, 2 K, W (1-0);

Do we really have to play another game, Maud? – But I wanna go home …!!

Game 3
OCT: LF E. Moore – 2B McWhirter – 1B D. Cruz – 3B Martell – SS Kuhn – CF Ringel – C Urfer – RF O. Mendoza – P Fleming
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – CF Nettles – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Morales – SS Hunter – P Dominy

Danny Cruz went deep to center with Ethan Moore having singled and stolen second base in the third inning, giving the Thunder a 2-0 lead. Oh, goodie, and I already worried we couldn’t get to play another one from behind… The Raccoons didn’t get a hit until Cosmo was hit in the arm in the bottom 4th, with Greenway chipping in a single with two outs in the inning, getting himself all the way to 2-for-23 for the season. Maldonado hit an RBI single, Manny Fernandez hit into another pathetic groundout to end the inning. Tony Morales hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 5th to tie the game at two.

The slow grind continued with Greenway drawing a 2-out walk in the sixth. Maldonado doubled him home to take the lead, then went home aggressively on Manny’s single to make it 4-2. Fleming was out of gas, it seemed, and the Thunder got the pen going … too late, as it turned out. He walked Tony Morales, then gave up a 3-piece to Tony Hunter in a 5-run explosion. The Raccoons also almost waited too long to ditch Dominy, who gave up three straight hits to the 1-2-3 batters with two outs in the following half-inning. Brent Clark struck out Al Martell to bail out of that jam, still up by a slam. Portland scratched out two runs in a meltdown by lefty Brian McAllister in the bottom 7th, with one run brought home on a Greenway groundout (his first RBI of the year) and another one with a wild pitch. McAllister was allowed to continue fudging around in the bottom 8th, shuffling the bags full with Tonys and a wild Jon Caskey. One run scored on Cosmo’s groundout, another one on Nettles’ single, before Jake Bonnie replaced McAllister and ended the Coons’ tacking-on. 11-3 Raccoons. Nettles 2-5, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Morales 1-2, BB, HR, RBI;

Raccoons (5-4) @ Canadiens (6-2) – April 12-15, 2040

The schedule knew no mercy and sent the Critters into the land where the sun don’t shine for a long weekend set that would make nobody happy. Well, maybe the damn Elks. They had started 0-2 but hadn’t lost a game since, and were ready to continue their stomping over the poor Critters. They were second in runs scored (5.1 per game) and also in runs allowed (3.0 per game). The only problem they had was little on-base speed and a few guys in the bullpen treating bloody noses, but apart from that the Raccoons, who had lost 10 of 18 games against their most bitter rivals last year, looked ripe for a hoofing.

Projected matchups:
Jared Ottinger (0-1, 7.71 ERA) vs. Mike Mihalik (1-0, 5.14 ERA)
Ryan Bedrosian (1-0, 0.64 ERA) vs. Alexander Lewis (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (1-1, 5.25 ERA) vs. Matt Sealock (1-1, 3.18 ERA)
TBD vs. Eric Weitz (1-0, 1.84 ERA)

Both Raffaello Sabre (0-1, 3.38 ERA), who would be due on Sunday, and Kyle Dominy had tossed about 100 pitches on Wednesday. We were reluctant to send either into the fray on short rest, but then again we also didn’t quite know how to make it work otherwise. Lewis on Friday was the only southpaw opposition in this set.

Game 1
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – CF Nettles – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Morales – SS Hunter – P Ottinger
VAN: 3B R. Ashley – 1B J. Lopez – CF Outram – 2B Sprague – LF DeVita – RF R. Phillips – C D. James – SS Sibley – P Mihalik

Portland somehow scored first, with Berto opening the series by poking a single before a wild pitch moved him to second base. Cosmo hit an infield single, was antsy on first base while Nettles fanned, then drew a wild pickoff throw that allowed Berto to score and sent Cosmo to second with the error charged to Mihalik. Greenway struck out and Maldonado flew out to end the inning. Then it was the damn Elks’ time to bat, and they tore Jared Ottinger apart immediately and without hesitation. Johnny Lopez walked, Jerry Outram singled, one run scored on a sac fly by Glenn Sprague, and with two outs Marc DeVita walked, Ryan Phillips singled, and Derek James doubled – four runs in all in the first inning before Ross Sibley popped out. In the bottom 2nd, he walked Mihalik to get the inning underway, allowed a single to Lopez, and finally a 3-run blast to Outram. With the score 7-1, Ottinger (to be 0-2, 16.50 ERA) was yanked and immediately dumped onto waivers. There was no point in feeding him anymore.

Campbell allowed another run in 1.2 innings after that, allowing three hits and two walks (and that for just $2.6M!). The game was in the bin, no question – Tony Morales’ sac fly in the fourth did not bring about a spring thaw. Down 8-2, the Raccoons gave the ball to Rafael Zacarias, hoping for length. They got three innings for the cost of two runs that would only hurt in the heart, but not in the standings… Meanwhile, the Raccoons’ offense produced double plays to suck all life out of me and Honeypaws on the couch at home in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, and came pretty damn close in the eighth and ninth. Nettles plated a run with a groundout against Jordan Calderon in the ninth. Then Greenway struck out to end the game with two aboard. 10-3 Canadiens. Ramos 2-5; Trevino 2-5; Nettles 2-5, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, 3B; Garavito 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

To make up the numbers, the Raccoons called up 26-year-old Nelson Fonseca from St. Petersburg to make the start on Sunday. He had been 0-1 with a 6.10 ERA in the Coons pen last season. In AAA he had been 7-4 with a 3.13 ERA in 30 games (14 starts). He had not yet appeared in 2040.

Game 2
POR: SS Hunter – 2B Trevino – RF Nettles – C Kilmer – CF Maldonado – LF Hooge – 3B Caskey – 1B Kilgallen – P Bedrosian
VAN: 1B J. Lopez – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Sprague – LF DeVita – RF R. Phillips – 3B Cabral – SS Sibley – P A. Lewis

The Raccoons were barely present in the early innings, while the damn Elks got Phillips (walk) and Ramon Cabral (double) into scoring position in the second inning. Sibley, batting .095 and the only weak link in that lineup right now, grounded out and the game remained scoreless early on. To anybody’s surprise, the Critters scored first again – Cosmo drew a leadoff walk in the top 4th and Nettles singled. Kilmer and Maldonado flew out, with the Raccoons sitting on the corners until Ed Hooge clipped an RBI single to right. Caskey grounded out, stranding a pair, and the damn Elks immediately tied it back up with a leadoff double for Jerry Outram and enough productive outs to shuffle him around. Sprague and DeVita were back on base in the sixth and in scoring position, too. The Raccoons had twice gotten the third out from Sibley with two outs and two aboard, but didn’t trust their luck a third time. This time he was walked intentionally and Lewis made to bat with three on and two gone in the 1-1 game. He struck out, which was also Bedrosian’s last act in the game, having thrown 104 pitches.

A total lack of offense kept Bedrosian from becoming a posthumous winner, too, while Alex Ramirez and Brent Clark at least kept the game tied. Clark was still on it in the bottom 9th, getting Sibley out with a grounder before walking ancient plague Jesse LeJeune in the #9 hole. Johnny Lopez popped up then, with Jon Caskey erring around in circles under the ball, which then fell behind him for an error, moving the winning run to second base. Timóteo Clemente singled to center after that, with Maldonado having to play it *perfectly* to catch LeJeune at home – but he overran the ball, and the damn Elks won the ******* game on consecutive Coons errors. 2-1 Canadiens. Bedrosian 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K and 1-2;

Is that right, Honeypaws? 151 more games? – Oh bloody **** me, I can’t take another 151 games of THIS.

Game 3
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – CF Nettles – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – C Morales – SS Hunter – P Chavez
VAN: 3B R. Ashley – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Sprague – RF R. Phillips – 1B J. Lopez – LF M. Reyna – SS Sibley – P Sealock

I remained unimpressed when the Raccoons scored first for the third game in Ice City in a row. Maldonado got on, stole second, and was driven in by Tony Morales with two outs for a 1-0 lead in the second inning. I just knew that the thick end was coming. The same inning, Bernie Chavez walked Ryan Phillips, and Johnny Lopez and Miguel Reyna drove him in with a pair of singles, tying the game at one before Bernie boogied outta there, barely, against Sibley and Sealock. Berto found his way on base and stole second in the top of the third, but was ignored by everybody else. Jerry Outram rammed one out against Bernie – quelle surprise – in the bottom of the third, and the Raccoons were a-trailing again.

Top 5th, Tony Hunter opened with a single, putting himself aboard as the tying run. Bernie failed to bunt before poking a 2-strike single, which was dandy. Berto grounded out, advancing the runners into scoring position against Sealock, with Hunter coming home on Cosmo’s high out to right for a sac fly. Nettles popped out in foul ground to strand Bernie Chavez, though, but the next thing you knew was Bernie coming apart at the seams entirely and getting shackled for four hits, two walks, and two runs in the bottom of the same inning, and that was WHILE Manny Fernandez picked a wannabe 3-run homer by Jerry ******* Outram off the top of the fence.

Honeypaws had seen enough and tried to flick us over to the Nature Channel, so we had a fight over that. When I finally put him in his place and got back to NWSN, I caught a glimpse of Berto’s inning-ending 5-3 play that saved Jermaine Campbell from amidst a sea of base runners in the bottom 6th. Top 7th, Hunter and Hooge reached base from the 8-9 slots, then advanced on a wild pitch; they were the tying runs, but Berto popped out, yet Cosmo finally landed a good hit, a single in left-center that tied the score at four.

Chuck Jones kept the game tied in the seventh, despite walking two, including switch-hitter Johnny Lopez. Alex Ramirez walked Clemente and Outram in the eighth, but bailed out on Sprague’s double play grounder. Josh Boles pitched for the damn Elks in the ninth and nailed Ed Hooge for a start. Berto, Cosmo, and Nettles then made poor outs in order. Garavito came out for the bottom 9th, and retired Phillips before allowing a double to Lopez. Derek James popped out, so maybe we’d be fine after all. I mean, it was Ross Sibley, left-hander, batting .074, with two outs! … and Sibley hit a single on 3-2, Lopez dilly-dallied home, and the Raccoons remained winless and listless in Ptolomaea. 5-4 Canadiens. Hunter 2-3, BB; Hooge (PH) 1-1;

Game 4
POR: 3B Ramos – 2B Trevino – CF Nettles – RF Greenway – 1B Maldonado – C Morales – SS Hunter – LF Ledford – P Fonseca
VAN: 3B R. Ashley – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Sprague – LF DeVita – RF R. Phillips – 1B J. Lopez – SS Sibley – P Weitz

Random starter Nelson Fonseca was randomly brutalized for four hits, most of them sharply slashed, and three runs in the first inning as it became more and more clear that nothing and nobody would be able to save this crew of misfits. The Raccoons did next to nothing; Brad Ledford hit a single the first time through, and Greenway walked in the fourth inning, but was doubled off. Fonseca failed forwards without complete dismemberment, but conceded a run in the fifth, which Eric Weitz, silently dominant, opened with a double to left, a situation from which his team scored him easily for a tack-on run, 4-0. Johnny Lopez went yard in solo fashion the following inning, 5-0. Fonseca was charged with an unearned run in the seventh, which scored on Brent Clark’s watch after he had already left the game. Maldonado had made the error. Weitz struck out eight in as many innings, never came even close to allowing a run, but was hit for in the bottom 8th and the ball went to left-hander Jordan Calderon in the ninth. Trevino popped out. Stephon Nettles reached on a Sibley error. Troy Greenway reached on a Ryan Phillips error. Maldonado struck out. Jeff Kilmer hit for Tony Morales … and struck out. 6-0 Canadiens. Ledford 1-2, BB;

In other news

April 9 – The Aces’ SP Willie Gallardo (1-1, 1.10 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders on four strikeouts in a 2-0 shutout.
April 9 – At age 33, former Scorpions CL Chris Wise (38-40, 2.83 ERA, 229 SV) returns to the Crusaders on a 3-yr, $3.96M contract.
April 11 – The Rebels are bludgeoned, 21-8, by the Wolves. Every Wolves position player gets a hit and scores a run, and only one doesn’t get an RBI. Jeremy Camden (.304, 2 HR, 9 RBI) drives in five on three hits. Jose Castro (.314, 0 HR, 6 RBI) and Armando Herrera (.325, 0 HR, 7 RBI) each have 4 RBI on three knocks.
April 14 – WAS SP Jerry Banda (1-0, 3.32 ERA) will miss at least two months with a torn triceps.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF/1B Melvin Hernandez (.400, 3 HR, 11 RBI), hitting .565 (13-23) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS OF/2B Moises Avila (.388, 0 HR, 7 RBI), going .565 (13-23) with 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I wish I could still cry, but after four days of THAT I have no tears left to shed.

Manny Fernandez and Troy Greenway, who went an awesome 3-for-38 last week, even improved on their performance this week, hitting a combined 4-for-35. Nobody on this team has more than one home run. Or more than four extra-base hits. And only Maldonado and Kilmer have more than TWO.

Base stealing? 50% success rate.

And I haven’t even started on the pitching yet.

Potential 2041 Opening Day starter Nelson Moreno’s first start in AAA was a scoreless 8-inning appearance against the Toledo Discoverers for the win! … In his second start, the Cumming Rainstorm shoved him a 6-spot.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons haven’t had an extra-base hit since Tony Hunter’s seventh-inning leadoff double on Thursday.

(opens mouth)

(closes mouth)

(grabs Honeypaws and rolls into a sobbing ball on the couch)

[Questdog]

It is awfully early to be already looking to next year, but it does not seem premature, either......

Reading about a sweep at the antlers of the the Elks is not my favorite way to start the day.......