Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Questdog]

I was just thinkin' about ol' Dan, the Teacher's Pet, and was wondering what he was up to these days. Any job openings for him in Portland or has he already been hired and I have forgotten? He could be a hitting coach, but would probably be best qualified to be the trainer. He spent so much time with one that he surely must have learned a thing or two. But maybe not, since he kept getting hurt again. At least bring him in to pass out the bobble-heads.....

[Westheim]

I will forward your suggestions to Maud who's looking into promotions for next year already. So far we ain't got much aside from Rich Hood Hoodie Night, which... kinda requires that he makes the '13 Coons, right?

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Raccoons (88-62) vs. Knights (66-82) – September 17-19, 2012

The Knights weren’t really scoring much, ranking 10th in offense, and they also weren’t pitching very well, sitting in 9th in runs allowed. Well, they had two good starters, but the remainder of their staff was mostly meh and disregardable. Nevertheless, the season series was tied at three and our 6-year streak of handling them for a season series win was in danger.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (14-8, 2.50 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (3-4, 5.24 ERA)
Scott Spears (10-4, 3.00 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (9-10, 2.97 ERA)
Rich Hood (7-6, 3.60 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (12-13, 3.38 ERA)

Butler is their only southpaw, and we’re drawing him. He made a start before this season against the Coons and tossed a 5-hit shutout. Uh-oh.

Game 1
ATL: LF M. Reyes – RF McIntyre – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Rockwell – SS Hibbard – CF Arnette – 2B Hilderbrand – C C. Delgado – P Baker
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – P Brown

A terrible team-wide explosion ripped through the Raccoons in the second inning, which started with Gil Rockwell grounding out, but then Brown walked Devin Hibbard, and things got in motion. Pat Arnette sent a bouncer up the middle that should have been had by Nomura, but wasn’t, and then T.J. Hilderbrand grounded behind first base. Brown hustled over, but Quebell threw behind him, and the ball went onto a fun carom tour around the area behind home plate, putting the first run in and placing runners in scoring position. A wild pitch by Brown and a groundout by Carlos Delgado ran the score to 3-0. What a way to start a homestand, the final of the year, with the Elks just 1.5 games behind!

The damage was not permanent, however. The Alexanders combined for two runs in the bottom 2nd when D-Alex walked and J-Alex homered, and in the fourth Sambrano led off with a single, stole second base, and scored on Quebell’s single. Dylan Alexander then killed the inning with a double play, and in the fifth Brownie hit a double with two outs, but was left on by Yoshi. Top 6th, Rockwell doubled, the Knights’ first hit since the second inning, and was promptly brought in by Hibbard single that eluded Palmer on his right side. Nick Brown was hit for in the bottom 7th still trailing 4-3, with Ricardo Carmona on second base and two outs. Pruitt hit for him, rolled a slow ball past Jim Baker, and Devin Hibbard had no play – infield single. Yoshi had another big chance here, and this time beat Rockwell’s range with a hard shot to right, a game-tying RBI single! Could Palmer come up with – nah. After leaving the go-ahead run on second base in that inning, the Coons did the same in the eighth (then with Sambrano, who swiped another bag), and when Bill Conway didn’t explode on contact in the top of the ninth, they still had the chance to walk off. Ricardo Carmona hit a leadoff single, and that was it, and so we went to extras. Sandy Sambrano was hit by Patrick Mercier in the bottom 10th, putting the winning run on first again with one out. Would we get him to steal another base? Heck, run him. Sambrano came THIS close to being doubled off when Quebell hit a liner to Rockwell, but it didn’t matter, since Keith Ayers pinch-hit and grounded out. Merritt was left on second in the 11th, and the Knights finally shrugged and said “okay, if you don’t want to, we’ll win this one”. Thrasher put the first three men on in the 13th, including a single, a walk, and a hit batter, and when John Alexander bobbled Carlos Martinez’ soft fly to right, the go-ahead run scored. It was also the winning run, with Tomas Castro being stranded with the tying run in the bottom of the inning. 5-4 Knights. Sambrano 2-5; Castro (PH) 1-1; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K and 1-2, 2B; Conway 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Mathis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The Raccoons out-hit the Knights 11-5 in this game, and still managed to lose. Ron Thrasher is just a piece of ****. LUCKILY, the Elks got romped by the Falcons, 9-2, and the Titans were squeezed out by the horrendous Condors, 4-3.

Game 2
ATL: CF Arnette – SS Hibbard – LF M. Reyes – 1B Rockwell – 3B C. Martinez – RF McIntyre – C Ledesma – 2B K. Rodgers – P McKenzie
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – RF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C D. Alexander – CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – P Spears

Spears continued to plainly suck, had no control whatsoever, and when the Knights hit a ball, it usually travelled a bit. Hibbard homered in the first, 1-0, and in the second inning Spears had a runner on first with two outs and the pitcher Ted McKenzie batting. After a ringing double to right and a 2-run single by Pat Arnette the Coons sat in a 3-0 hole yet again and took their time to admire the well-crafted masonry of the walls down there. Too long. Carlos Martinez hit a 3-run homer in the fifth inning, with Marty Reyes and Gil Rockwell having drawn 2-out walks just previously from the awful Spears, whose day not only ended in disgrace, but also, obviously, defeat.

McKenzie, whose record indicated that he never got any run support, was fabulous all the while and maintained a 1-hitter into the late innings. That lone hit had been Sambrano in the first, a single, and he had been thrown out at second base when Quebell slept during the hit part of a hit-and-run. The home crowd, in an understandably miserable mood, not only had to endure a serious case of Canadiens Comeback Anxiety, but also a brief rain delay in the eighth inning. By then, McKenzie had already run out of breath, and when play resumed left-hander Jim Turner – lo and behold – conceded the Raccoons’ second single of the day, Carmona snipping one into rightfield. Carmona would score after moving to third on an error by Devin Hibbard and a wild pitch charged to Turner, coming home on Yoshi Nomura’s sac fly, but that was not only too late, but also too little. 6-1 Knights. Williams 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

When all you can say about a game is that your third-rate long reliever was not charged a run …

Fascinatingly, nobody wants to win the North at all. The Titans dropped another one to Tijuana, 5-2, and the Elks rallied from three down in the seventh, only to fall to a terrible error by rookie Kurt Evans that plated two more for the Falcons in the eighth, and Charlotte won 6-4.

And NOW comes the left-hander. We are a completely dismal .357 against left-handers this year…

Game 3
ATL: LF M. Reyes – RF McIntyre – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Rockwell – SS Hibbard – CF Arnette – 2B Hilderbrand – C C. Delgado – P D. Butler
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – LF Pruitt – RF Gentry – P Hood

Rich. You know where you’ll be sent to if you lose this game, right? You’re damn right. You’re gonna go back to da hood!

Rich Hood had 2-strike counts going against the first three batters, who all would go on to smash hard base hits. A wild pitch and two walks later, the Knights were up 2-0 and the sweep was ripe for their taking when they somehow popped out twice and T.J. Hilderbrand lost his helmet shoveling after a 3-2 pitch in the dirt. Yep, it was to be another one of those ****ing no-fun games. The Raccoons left two on in the first, Pruitt homered in the second, a solo shot of course (his sixth of the year and his first in over THREE MONTHS), before somehow Gentry and Hood reached base with one out, too, and our prized single flickers at the top of the order flicked back-to-back foul pops instead. Gil Rockwell, who had struck out often enough for a Golden Sombrero on Monday, homered off Hood in the fifth, 3-1, and Hood did not reappear after the inning. Yoshi Nomura scored in the bottom 5th after a leadoff triple, albeit just barely, 3-2.

Sometimes it’s the guy you don’t trust with anything to surprise you. The guy who can’t hold his own fork without having it rubberbanded to his paw. The Keith Ayers type of player. Those that are out at home at the most terrible of moments. The Coons had Brett Gentry on with a 2-out single in the bottom 6th and needed someone to hit for Josh Gibson, who had pitched a scoreless top of the inning. Oh well, can as well send Ayers, at least he’s a right-hander. And he PEPPERED a 1-2 pitch, high fly to left AND GONE!! Flipped the score, Ayers, with his sixth homer of the year (while failing as much as Pruitt in much fewer at-bats), and the Raccoons immediately tacked one on when Yoshi doubled (ending a homer short of the cycle) and scored on a Palmer single. Ohmygod-ohmygod-ohmygod – we need a competent pitcher now! Why is Micah Steele on the mound, holding a ball? Will McIntyre hit a rocket that bounced once off the dirt and almost killed Yoshi, who had it glance off his glove (still better than his face) and was charged a heartless error. Then Martinez singled. Oh, here we go. Suddenly, Rockwell hit into a double play, and once Gentry risked life and body with a lunging grab close to the wall in deep right to retire Devin Hibbard, the evil spirits were banished for another inning. Sugano and Angel Casas, who struck out McIntyre and Martinez to end the game, salvaged at least one W in this depressing set. 5-3 Raccoons. Nomura 3-5, 3B, 2B; Quebell 2-4, 2B; Gentry 2-3, BB; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Our competition also avoided sweeps, with the Elks beating the Falcons 5-3, and the Titans riding Alex Lindsey for a well-pitched 3-1 win over the Condors. Thusly, as the Titans make their way out west, we still lead them by 3 1/2, with the dangerous Elks back 1 1/2. And as a reminder, it’s them with the game in hand, not us.

Raccoons (89-64) vs. Titans (85-67) – September 21-23, 2012

Sixth in offense and fourth in defense, the Titans didn’t have the most convincing arguments for extended play this season, with a rather pedestrian run differential at +50. They had an excellent bullpen, but the rotation was still below average even after the midseason addition of Curtis Tobitt. The Raccoons had handled them 8-7 this season, and needed to win this series really hard. NOBODY wants to go to Vancouver a win from now and face the Smelling Feet on equal terms. We have a Nick Brown start aligned for that set and I don’t trust anybody right now other than His Epicness.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (12-10, 3.42 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (14-10, 2.80 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 4.40 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (18-8, 3.88 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-8, 2.47 ERA) vs. Melvin Andrade (15-11, 4.68 ERA)

Now, that’s a rather tentative schedule for starters. If I’m the Titans, and look at what the Raccoons are doing against left-handers (usually nothing), then I’m skipping Andrade and send Tony Hamlyn (17-12, 3.01 ERA) into the Sunday game. They should send Hamlyn anyway, handedness aside, but it’s the perfect storm – for THEM. The Raccoons, who have hit meagerly the entire month (4.4 R/G), would then have to deal with absolute beasts on either end of the series, with another left-hander in the middle.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 1B Legendre – 2B J. Ramirez – C Suda – RF J. Gusmán – LF Hayashi – 3B N. Chavez – CF Baez – P Tobitt
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – RF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C D. Alexander – CF Carmona – 3B Merritt – P Santos

Alexis Legendre walloped a very early Hector Santos pitch for a very early home run and the Raccoons were shoved right back into the gutter. The Elks were playing at the same time at home against Indy, so wins were likely to be accumulated up there in the Land of Frost, so the Raccoons had to come up with SOME GODDAMN THING.

But for starters, they had Michael Palmer thrown out at home on Quebell’s double to end the first inning. Santos, who usually walked a man every fortnight, issued leadoff walks coupled with 1-out single in both the second and fourth innings. He got out the first time, but was grasped by the cold grey claw of the Curse of Former Raccoons when Nelson Chavez hit a bouncer that gigglingly made its way away from Yoshi Nomura and into rightfield for a single that loaded the bases. Marcos Baez, batting a crisp .116, grounded to Quebell for the second run to come home, before Santos struck out Tobitt – who came in batting .288!! – for the second time with two men on in the game.

Bottom 4th, Palmer hit a leadoff single, and Sandy Sambrano struck out. Quebell doubled again, but this time it wasn’t even close to sending Palmer. The runners remained in scoring position with one out as Pruitt came up and bounced the ball back to Tobit, with Palmer coming a few steps down the line, Tobitt motioned to shoo him back, and then looked to second where Quebell scrambled back AND NOW PRUITT WAS SAFE AT FIRST!! Bases loaded!! C’MON, D-ALEX, ****ING SHOW ME HOW IT’S DONE!! Nope, a sac fly was all the Coons got in this inning, and they remained behind, 2-1. “Quasimodo” Suda however handily hit a 2-run bomb off Santos in the fifth to send the youngster to the showers. Bottom 5th, Castro walked in his place, but was rounded up in Nomura’s double play. Then Palmer singled, and Sandy drew another walk. Quebell flew to center, the ball dinked in front of the rushing Baez, hit his upper arm and bounced into the gap, Palmer in to score, tying runs in scoring position with two outs for Pruitt, a situation I had tried to avoid and/or had been disappointed by a few times already this evening. Pruitt promptly grounded out to Jesus Ramirez on the first pitch. That was about it. Pat Slayton allowed a run to an evil 2-out concoction of Chavez (who went 4-4) and Marcos Baez in the eighth, but the Raccoons never motioned again. Well, technically they had the tying run at the plate with two outs in the bottom 8th after D-Alex had singled off “Dodo” Iwase, Gentry had singled off Dan Parker, and then Dusty Balzer threw a wild pitch, but John Alexander popped out anyway. The game ended with Iemitsu Rin picking Michael Palmer off first base. 5-2 Titans. Palmer 4-5; Quebell 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Gentry (PH) 1-1;

The Elks scored a run in six consecutive innings to make up an early 5-spot by the Indians and then some, winning 6-5 and moving to within half a game of the crappy Coons.

Maybe an appeal for decency will help? Nah, I’m not begging them. I have some self-respect left and I need to preserve that for an important oppor-

PLEASE WIN THE LAST TWO GAMES OF THE SET! PLEASE!!

Game 2
BOS: SS Rentz – 1B Legendre – C Suda – CF K. Williams – LF Hayashi – 3B E. Salazar – 2B M. Rivera – RF Thurman – P C. Graham
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Gentry – C D. Alexander – RF Ayers – P Baldwin

Through three innings, a Sandy Sambrano single was the sole output – offensively – by either team, while the Elks in Vancouver had thrown up (literally) a 4-spot in the first inning. Alexis Legendre hit a fly to the warning track in the fourth that Ayers didn’t get and that took a high bounce off the wall, and when Legendre saw that halfway to second base he put the head down and dashed on to third base, where Jon Merritt awaited him and tagged him out after a murder throw by Keith Ayers. Sandy then hit an ACTUAL triple in the bottom of the inning and scored on Quebell’s sac fly, bringing home the first run of the game, but Legendre would hit another double his next time up with two outs in the sixth, and that one scored Tommy Rentz to tie the game. Bottom of the inning, Yoshi led off with a hard line to right that was nevertheless caught by Zachary Thurman. Palmer then singled to center, and for a moment we were tempted to send him stealing, but then Sambrano already rammed another ball up some unassuming gap, this time in left center. Palmer with a big lead scored, 2-1 Coons, and Sandy was in with a 1-out double, and HE was now a homer short of the cycle (Career homers: 3 in almost 1,000 AB, and all with Vegas).

At this point the Elks were just done with blowing the lead generated by their 4-spot from the first inning, and things looked not quite as drab and dreadful in Coon City for once. What we needed was some insurance, and Quebell CONQUERED Chester Graham’s 1-0 offering – NO DOUBT, that one’s OUTTA HERE!!! 22nd homer for Quebell on the season, and a 4-1 lead for Baldwin! Said Baldwin allowed a double to Ken Williams to start the top 7th (oh, the silent screams…), then walked Toki Hayashi. For fur’s sake – Eddie Salazar hit into a double play, oh thank the fluffy heavens! Mike Rivera popped out to end the inning. The eighth also started with a runner on second base when Jon Merritt committed his 21st error of the year (why did we ever let go of Ricardo Martinez again?), but Micah Steele miraculously enough pulled through before the Critters loaded “Dodo” Iwase and ex-Furball Adam Riddle for four runs in the bottom of the inning that started innocently enough with a Sambrano single and another stolen base – but no homer and no cycle. Chris Mathis conceded a run in the ninth (his first in the Bigs), but the Titans weren’t going to come back from this one. 8-2 Raccoons. Sambrano 4-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Bowen (PH) 1-1, RBI; Castro (PH) 1-1; J. Alexander (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (5-4);

The Elks survived some late game madness to beat the Indians 9-7, which keeps them half a game behind, but the Titans are back 3 1/2 again. The Crusaders were – if already realistically – also mathematically eliminated by now.

C’mon, we need that rubber game!

There’s a problem, though, and it is left-handed, has six Pitcher of the Year awards, 3,494 career strikeouts, and listens to the name of Tony Hamlyn. No clue what happens next weekend, but this is the biggest regular season game the Raccoons have played since that ill-fated Monday after-season affair in which Keith Ayers was out at home and that sent the Coons home in the 16th instead to game 163 against the Crusaders.

Brownie – we need your ALL!!

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 1B Legendre – C Suda – CF K. Williams – LF Hayashi – 3B E. Salazar – SS Rentz – RF M. Rivera – P Hamlyn
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C Bowen – LF Gentry – RF Ayers – P Brown

“Quasimodo” Suda came too close for comfort to a homer in the first inning, but Sambrano made a leaping grab at the wall in left center, to nip that very high fly to prevent it from doing damage. Damage was instead done to Hamlyn in the first. Yoshi hit an infield single on which Tommy Rentz got carried far away by momentum and couldn’t get anything on his throw, after which Palmer grounded to short for what looked like two, but ended up only being the lead runner. Quebell, Merritt, and Bowen all hit 2-out singles to bring home two early runs! Brown, whose control had been iffy for a few weeks now, walked two in the top 2nd before Rentz hit into a double play to end the inning. He then had a quick third and struck out the side in the fourth*, but issued a leadoff walk to Hayashi in the fifth inning. With the Raccoons settling into a submissive role in their halves of innings, we could not need no runners on base, but before long Rentz singled, and the Titans had the tying runs on the corners with one out – and then Rentz took off to steal second base – THROWN OUT BY CRAIG BOWEN!! HOLY ****!! WHAT A MISTAKE!! Craig Bowen lasered down Tommy Rentz with grim determination then took off the mask to get a better look at the humiliated rookie that crawled back to his dugout, with the home crowd cheering – for once – for the impressively mustached, but severely overpaid backstop.

The inning ended on Mike Rivera’s easy fly to left and the Titans remained off the board, and Brownie finished seven on just over 100 pitches before his spot came up with two outs and Brett Gentry on third base in the seventh inning. That was a spot to call a pinch-hitter, but all our right-handers were engaged (minus Roudabush and Canning, and come on…), so Matt Pruitt had the dubious honor to try and not be Hamlyn’s 3,500th career strikeout. One whiff. One glare. One chop, high to left, dropping – IN! Gentry scored, and Pruitt had a double when Hayashi took a bad route on the blooper, 3-0 Brownies! Yoshi Nomura ran a full count against Hamlyn before grounding the ball hard to the right side and past a diving Ramirez! Into right! Pruitt around third base and Rivera had no shot at him, another run scored!! Raccoons!! Raccoons!! Raccoons!!

And we were off to mix and match (after a wild pitch, intentional walk, and Sandy’s groundout to short that ended the inning), sending Josh Gibson in for two batters at most in the top 8th. WE NEED THIS GAME!! And the Elks were LOSING right now! COME ON COONS!! COME ON COONS!!

Gibson walked Salazar before Rentz flew out. Manobu Sugano now replaced him to face Mike Rivera, who singled up the middle, but the Titans then sent ****ing Freddy Rosa to hit for Hamlyn. I KNOW ROSA VERY WELL. He’s NOT GONNA GET A HIT – and he struck out. Ramirez grounded out to Yoshi, inning over, two left on. The Coons tacked on a run against Ricardo Rocha in the eighth with a Quebell double and a J-Alex sac fly the primary components. Slayton pitched the ninth in competent fashion. 5-0 Brownies!!! Nomura 2-4, RBI; Quebell 3-4, 2B; Carmona (PH) 1-1; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K, W (15-8);

AWESOME!!! AWESOME!!! SO ****ING AWESOME!!!

BROW-NIE! BROW-NIE! BROW-NIIIIEEEE!!!

In other news

September 17 – SFW OF Jose Morales (.336, 21 HR, 65 RBI) might not play again this year with an elbow contusion.
September 19 – NYC 1B B.J. Manfull (.313, 19 HR, 99 RBI) has his campaign end early with a back strain.
September 19 – A torn labrum might be a blessing in disguise for BOS SP Tommy Wilson (5-18, 5.47 ERA) who will not have to be clobbered any more this year.

Complaints and stuff

Can I hear a triple “BROW-NIIIIEEE!!!”, please? That – was – some – game!!

The Elks came back once again on Sunday, but the Raccoons remain very much alive. The Titans, not so much.

Put your pants on, Loggers, we’re gonna have some dance right now!!

With Manfull (and before that, Stanton Martin) down and out, Adrian Quebell is the player with the most RBI still standing in the Continental League. Yep, nobody with 100 RBI in the CL. Over in the Federal League, SFW Gil Gross has driven in 130!

I do fear for Tommy Rentz’ well-being, though. He doubtlessly got the soaps-in-sock treatment by his team. And the coaches. And his girlfriend…

When was the last time the Raccoons and Canadiens finished 1-2 in the North in any order? - 1993. That was a good year. It actually happened five consecutive times from 1989 through 1993 (4-1 for Coon City!) and three times in the mid-80s (merely 1-2 there).

*Lost in all the madness is the fact that Nick Brown once more broke the Raccoons single season strikeouts mark held by himself plenty of times when he struck out Ken Williams to end the fourth inning. And no, Hamlyn did not get #3,500, stopping one short when Pruitt hit that fatal bloop double.

[Questdog]

This is getting hairy!

[Sam_15]

Been following for a while, and I gotta say, THIS is intense. And seeing brownie come up big like that actually made my heart tickle with excitement!

[Westheim]

And so it comes down to this, the final week of the season. The Canadiens have not made the playoffs since 1990. And I want them to suffer for longer. Much much longer.

Raccoons (91-65) @ Loggers (55-101) – September 24-26, 2012

The miserable Loggers (remember that they were around .500 well into May?) had won only 12 games since the end of July, and only wanted it to me over. Please, let it be over, they yawned. They had the worst team ERA, an impossibly bad bullpen with a 5.35 ERA, bottom two ranks in walks allowed and strikeouts, and the offense didn’t look any better than that, although they were ninth in runs scored. No, no hope. They were a really, really, really bad team – with injuries! And the Raccoons had run them 10-5 after a rocky start.

Projected matchups:
Scott Spears (10-5, 3.31 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (6-10, 5.29 ERA)
Rich Hood (7-6, 3.66 ERA) vs. Melvin Alvarado (1-3, 3.57 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-11, 3.52 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (6-20, 4.28 ERA)

The one thing that worries me is the pair of left-handers we’re going to face in Alvarado and Cruz. They are not THAT bad, and Cruz had not lost any of his two starts against the Critters. If things are going according to plan, Spears makes his last start of the season, because we will have Brown, Baldwin, Hood, and Santos aligned for up to four games in Vancouver.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – 3B Merritt – P Spears
MIL: CF Brissett – 1B Pace – LF Dally – SS Luján – RF Gilmor – 2B O. Sandoval – C Lemberger – 3B F. Cuevas – P R. Thomas

Yoshi hit his 40th double of the year to open the game and scored eventually on Quebell’s groundout, before the Raccoons started to play ****ball again and hit into inning-ending double plays in the first, third, and fourth innings. And while the Loggers’ lineup was distilled of the essence of sadness, they managed to rout Scott Spears anyway. He was already in a tight spot in the first inning, and in the second, but there was no rescue after a leadoff single by pitcher Roy Thomas (…) and another single by Amari Brissett in the bottom 3rd. Justin Dally’s double equalized, and Antonio Luján brought in the go-ahead run with a groundout, and another run scored after two more leadoff singles in the fourth. The scoreboard offered a grim look at the Elks drubbing the Crusaders in New York, so we had to drag this one out of the dreck, but a John Alexander triple didn’t lead to anything, and if you don’t score with triples, when are you going to score then?

The Coons were still down 3-1 after six, with Spears already hiding under a towel in the dugout. Merritt wrestled a leadoff walk from Roy Thomas in the top 7th, and George Youngblood, who had cleaned up Spears’ mess in the sixth inning, was hit for with Tomas Castro, who clocked a hard drive to right center and into the gap, then chased Merritt around the base paths. Jon Merritt scored, and Castro slid in at third base with an RBI triple, and was now the tying run, and Yoshi Nomura didn’t have to be asked a lot – he singled to left, tied game. The Loggers began to slide, Palmer doubled, and Yoshi scored on a Sambrano sac fly to take the lead for Coon City, 4-3, but Nick Gilmor made a strong catch on Dylan Alexander to end the inning with Palmer still on second and Quebell (int. walk) behind him. Sugano was assigned the seventh against the top of the order, but remained stuck after a 2-out walk to Justin Dally. Steele replaced him to look after the right-handed Antonio Luján, who clanked the 1-1 pitch to deep left. Bloody - … no! no! no! No, Castro caught it AT THE ****ING TRACK after replacing Pruitt for defense. Oh well, thought Steele, I’ll blow it in the eighth then! And waked Gilmor, and allowed a single to Oscar Sandoval to start the bottom 8th. Ron Thrasher would have to deal with that mess, struck out Tommy Lemberger in a full count, also struck out Suketsune Ito, and then Kurt Phillips hit a HARD line to right, John Alexander threw himself at that rocket and managed to contain it – inning over! Yoshi drew a leadoff walk against Tim Poe in the top 9th, was run for by Carmona, and Carmona was caught stealing, and nobody scored. Angel Casas was up against the top of the order in the bottom 9th and struck out the side. 4-3 Critters. Nomura 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Palmer 3-5, 2B; J. Alexander 2-4, 3B; Castro (PH) 1-2, 3B;

The Elks crushed the Crusaders, 9-2, while the Titans beat the Indians on “Quasimodo” Suda’s walkoff homer in the 12th inning, 6-4, so everything stays the same in the North. POR in first, VAN .5 GB, BOS 4.5 GB. Of course, the Titans are about to run out of time. Both Northwest teams have to start losing right now for the Titans to retain a chance. The best outcome of our weekend series for the Titans would be the Elks to take two of three, but even then the Titans would have to win all their games now to force a game 163.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – RF Ayers – P Hood
MIL: 1B Pace – 3B Sharp – SS Luján – RF Dally – 2B O. Sandoval – C R. Hernandez – LF Hodgers – CF Gilmor – P M. Alvarado

The Elks trailed 2-0 in New York as this game began, and Rich Hood was in mortal danger as early as the first inning after an infield single by Sharpie and a proper single by Luján, but somehow the Loggers failed themselves out of the inning when Palmer started a nice double play on Dally’s grounder. The completely unloved Craig Bowen would give the Raccoons a lead in the top 2nd, scoring Adrian Quebell with a single to right. After Ayers drew a walk, the bases were loaded (Merritt had also reached on a single), Hood hit a ball hard to the left side, but Luján made a leaping grab, but then Alvarado walked in a run against Nomura anyway. 2-0 remained the score after Palmer grounded out to short, but not for long. Sambrano was caught stealing in the top 3rd, and in the bottom 3rd the Loggers cooked Hood completely. With one out, he walked Tim Pace, allowed singles to Sharp and Luján, walked Dally to force in a run, then balked to tie the game. Oscar Sandoval hit a 2-run single – it was AWFUL all along. Hood was yanked in the next inning after Nick Gilmor’s leadoff double and a walk to Tim Pace, trailing 4-2 with two on and one out. Sharp’s double off Josh Gibson brought in the next run, and Pace scored on Luján’s sac fly, 6-2. From there, all was lost. Neither did the offense do anything – except for the eighth, when we had Pruitt and Bowen in scoring position and J-Alex hit for Ayers with two outs and went down flailing against TED REESE – and the parade of long relievers / failed starters that followed on Gibson’s insufficient appearance plated an unearned run with a throwing error (Williams) or loaded the bases and somehow didn’t get set on fire (Williams as well, also Youngblood/Conway in the seventh), OR was drummed for a 2-run homer by Raúl Hernandez, a whimsical .218 batter with no power. That was also Conway, in the eighth. 9-3 Loggers. Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Quebell 2-5; Pruitt 2-4; Bowen 2-4, 2B, RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1;

Things nevertheless remain the same in the North. The Titans lost 8-6 to Indy, and Martin Ortíz’ first-inning, 2-run homer stood up in the Elks’ game in New York, beating them 2-0. With their loss, the Titans are mathematically eliminated. It’s down to the Northwest now.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – RF Gentry – P Santos
MIL: CF Brissett – 1B Pace – SS Luján – LF Dally – 3B Sharp – C R. Hernandez – 2B O. Sandoval – RF Gilmor – P F. Cruz

Another left-hander (I had the horrors before the game ever began and couldn’t sleep all night), and the Raccoons needed to win this one DIRELY, with the Elks having a game in hand on the following off day for the Critters. If we win this one, two out of three will always be enough on the weekend. If we lose this one, we might need to win three, and …

And the Coons had Yoshi and Palmer on base in the top 1st, and then Sambrano, Quebell, and Merritt all hit the ball hard and deep, and all three were caught. Brissett, Gilmor, Brissett, for those scoring at home. Amari Brissett then promptly singled off Santos to start the bottom 1st. Santos had been a mess for most of September, 1-3 with a 3.60 ERA and no outs logged in the sixth inning, and promptly threw a bean to Antonio Luján that never came down anywhere. The Loggers led 2-0 on the massive homer, and the Raccoons glanced at the scoreboard and saw that second place was awaiting them if they couldn’t come up with something. A pair of triples in the top 3rd was exactly the right medicine. Yoshi had led off with a walk, scored on Sambrano’s triple, who himself came in on a wild pitch. Merritt then tripled, but was left on base… In turn, relief was temporary, with Quebell not only not scoring Sambrano from third with one out, but also getting the Loggers going with a grievous error when trying to pick up an easy roller by Brissett at the start of the bottom 3rd. The Loggers promptly socked two more singles off Santos to take a 3-2 lead, he walked Sharp to load the bases, but then Hernandez struck out and Sandoval grounded out to third base. Still, it was all a right mess.

It was about to get worse before it could get better. Santos was right at 90 pitches after five innings, and thus would not log an out in the sixth for the fifth consecutive game. Plus, Jon Merritt hurt himself on a defensive play in the bottom of the fifth inning, handling an at first glance casual grounder. Walt Canning, batting a great .063, replaced him. The Raccoons looked a bit adrift in the top 6th until Craig Bowen out of the blue socked a 2-out homer to tie the score at three. Cruz then walked Gentry, and Jason Seeley hit for Santos, and ALSO turned on a bad pitch and yanked a go-ahead 2-run homer! The Raccoons were ahead! But for how long? Slayton managed an accident-free sixth, but in the seventh all possible setup candidates conspired to give me a tear in a major artery. Sugano walked the leadoff man, PH Chris Harris before getting Brissett. Steele replaced him and allowed singles to Pace an Luján, the latter scoring a run, before leaving without anybody retired on his watch. On to Thrasher, who smacked Justin Dally to load the sacks in a 5-4 game. Oh dear. Then Sharp struck out (he was batting soundly under .200 against Portland, compared to .292 overall), and Raúl Hernandez was retired on a bouncer back to Thrasher. OH MY GOD. STOP ****ING UP!!

No. Oh dear, no. Sandoval led off with a double against Thrasher in the bottom 8th, representing the tying run too close to home plate for comfort. Date Tate’s bloop single moved him to third with one out before Josh Gibson replaced him and struck out Phillips. Edgar Alires came out to pinch-hit, a left-hander, but I wasn’t buying into Youngblood after is previous outing. Alires singled to center, tied ballgame, and Hernandez won it for the Loggers with a double that scored Daniel Sharp in the bottom 9th, cocked up by Conway. 6-5 Loggers. Bowen 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

The Elks blew their slim lead late, but still beat the Crusaders in ten, 3-2, and the Raccoons now sat in a really ****ty hole.

Thursday was a bit of good news, bad news. Jon Merritt was still in pain with a bad back and was unable to play on the weekend at least. Good news had the Elks lose 8-6 in New York, making the final weekend set a Best of 3, no strings attached.

Raccoons (92-67) @ Canadiens (92-67) – September 28-30, 2012

Here it comes. They are third in runs scored and runs allowed, with the second-best rotation. We are fifth in runs scored and second in runs allowed, with the fifth-best rotation. We lead the season series, 9-6, and have won it the last three years. But we need an 11-7 to make this one here a nice experience.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (15-8, 2.39 ERA) vs. Brad Osborne (10-10, 4.39 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (5-4, 4.07 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (16-7, 3.02 ERA)
Rich Hood (7-7, 3.97 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (16-13, 3.78 ERA)

Left-hander in the middle game, but I am even more worried about Rod Taylor who’s way better than his ERA indicates, and Rich Hood has been a bit like a used piece of gum recently. He was stuck everywhere where you didn’t need him, mostly the fourth inning.

It should be understood right away that if we don’t take the opener, there’s no hope. And I feel like we have a better shot against Krom than against Taylor. Although, looking at the numbers, Taylor faced the Critters twice in 2012, and never made it out of the fifth inning, saddled with a 13 ERA.

Listen, Nick. That Sunday game against Hamlyn – that was a blast. I need another one of those.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – RF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – 3B Roudabush – P Brown
VAN: CF Holland – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 3B Suzuki – 2B T. Pena – SS Lawrence – C M. Thomas – P Osborne

Brownie got a headstart when Osborne walked a pair in the first, and while Quebell struck out both Palmer and Sandy scored on back-to-back 2-out singles by Matt Pruitt and Ricardo Carmona, 2-0 in the middle of the first. And then Brownie … walked Ross Holland, and Kurt Evans hit an infield single. Oh ****ing hell. Ray Gilbert grounded out, Don Cameron popped one up, and Mitsuhide Suzuki grounded out to Palmer, and the runners were stranded in scoring position. That Nick Brown had NOTHING was pretty clear pretty soon, and it was not pretty at all. The Elks had their first two men (Osborne and Holland) on in the third with singles, and the baseball gods themselves barely knew how he wiggled out of that mess, but Evans popped out, Gilbert flew out to right, and Don Cameron went down swinging, Brown’s first strikeout in the game. In between the Coons had wasted a Brown single in the top 2nd with a double play, and Palmer had been caught stealing in the third.

Bottom 4th, Suzuki opened with yet another single, stole second (of course), Tony Pena singled, runners on the corners, and then a wild pitch (oy) and a Palmer error (oy!) and we had a tied game, with the go-ahead run on second base and nobody out. Good defense would keep Jaylin Lawrence on third base in the inning, but who was going to save us if not Nick Brown?

Well maybe Dave Roudabush. Yeah, actually. Roudabush hit a leadoff single in the top 5th, was bunted over by Brown – at least that worked – and then scored on Yoshi’s single. Coons ahead again! The next inning it was Roudabush to bat with two outs and runners on the corners. He grounded to short, but at least Lawrence made an error now and Pruitt scored, 4-2. Despite sucking badly, Brownie batted with two outs, since the bullpen had shown its very best side in the last two games in Milwaukee, and at least he didn’t allow hard contact, just singles. He grounded up the middle, and Tony Pena made the play to end the inning. Lawrence hit a 2-out single in the bottom of the sixth and tried to make it two, but Pruitt threw him out at second.

SOMEHOW Nick Brown made it through seven with the 4-2 lead, the baseball equivalent of a penniless man wandering into a restaurant and getting to eat for free. Whom to trust in the eighth, with right-left-right up? A damn good question. Steele was dog ****, period. So Slayton got the ball. He got the right-handed parts Gilbert and Suzuki, but Don Cameron had doubled with one out. Lefty Jose Mendoza hit for the relief pitcher, with Sugano replacing Slayton, and at 2-2 a hard grounder to right, but Quebell threw himself in front of the ball and made the play to end the inning. D-Alex’ insurance homer in the top 9th was not needed in the end: Angel Casas made short work of Lawrence (K), Thomas (5-3) and Joey Koka (4-3). 5-2 Brownies! Nomura 3-5, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, RBI; Carmona 2-4, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (16-8) and 1-2;

How the hell did this game not blow up? I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Okay boys! We need ONE more! ONE more! Can you give me ONE more?

There was a little thing, though. There would be no Johnny Krom. Rod Taylor was moved up to this game to start on short rest, and that could only mean that Juichi Fujita (20-8, 3.50 ERA) was going to start the last game on short rest, too. And that was probably not a bad move by the Elks.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – RF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – 3B Roudabush – P Baldwin
VAN: CF Holland – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 3B Suzuki – 2B T. Pena – SS Lawrence – C M. Thomas – P R. Taylor

Rod Taylor led the league in strikeouts with 258, and he started murdering the Raccoons right away, sitting down the first ten Furballs with half a dozen strikeouts. Baldwin allowed two singles in the first, but no runs, and had four strikeouts after three innings. Palmer was the first Coon to reach, hitting a 1-out single in the fourth. Sambrano walked on a close call in a full count, and then Quebell singled to load them up for Pruitt, who struck out, but Carmona clubbed the first pitch. Pena leapt after the liner, but it was too high and INTO THE GAP! Palmer in to score, Sandy in to score, Quebell in to score, Carmona standing up at third base – bases-clearing triple!!

Cut down on the euphoria, though. Baldwin was tagged for a run in the bottom 4th, and Michael Palmer came out of the game with an arm injury after an awkward throw on Mark Thomas’ grounder that bounced well before it reached Quebell and almost escaped the first-sacker for unfathomable calamity. The Elks whipped three more singles and another run off Baldwin in the fifth, and now only trailed 3-2. Roudabush was on base in the fifth and seventh, Baldwin bunted him into scoring position twice, and he was always left on second base. Bottom 7th, Juan Medina hit for Rod Taylor – the 28-year old’s first plate appearance of the year! – and hit a leadoff double. WHY!!?? Ross Holland dropped down a drag bunt and legged it out for a single, and Medina scored from third on Kurt Evans’ sac fly to right, tying the game. Holland would be caught stealing, but the damage was done. The Coons stranded two more in the eighth before having to face closer Pedro Alvarado (103 K in 69.1 IP…) in the top 9th, and he struck out the side. Bottom 9th, Ron Thrasher pitching, and thus mortal danger even without someone in the batter’s box. Leadoff single by Jaylin Lawrence. Mark Thomas struck out. Single by the ****ing Clint Southcott. Holland struck out. Left-hander Alonso Baca batted for Alvarado. 0-2, grounded up the middle, Yoshi over, to first – extra innings.

The Coons were fooled by Pat Treglown in the 10th and 11th, while Steele in the former and Youngblood in the latter had men on, but the Elks couldn’t push through. Southcott, the arse, hit into an inning-ending double play, 3-6-3, in the bottom 11th, which tasted good. Then, the top 12th, and runners on base! Roudabush led off with a single, and then Castro was hit by Treglown, who then struck out Yoshi Nomura for a golden sombrero and an 0-6 day. Then John Alexander hit into a double play. Bottom 13th, Sugano was in his second frame, Suzuki drew a leadoff walk. Mark Austin tried to bunt him over, but Sugano went the aggro way and got Suzuki at second base, and the Elks were kept from walking off again. The winning run was on second again in the bottom 14th when Slayton replaced Sugano to face Ray Gilbert, the slugger. Slayton walked both him and Cameron to load the bases with two outs, and now we had to throw in Angel Casas, who never threw a pitch. Instead, he twitched on the rubber, a tiny little muscle tic, but the second base umpire called him out, hollering “That’s a balk!!” – and it was game over. 4-3 Canadiens. Roudabush 2-5; Castro 1-1;

Angel.

Why.

Why did you forsake me.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – RF Sambrano – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – CF Carmona – SS Roudabush – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Hood
VAN: CF Holland – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF Cameron – 3B Suzuki – 2B T. Pena – SS Lawrence – C M. Thomas – P Fujita

Rich Hood had not completed six innings in four consecutive starts, and had allowed 3+ runs in his last six starts. Juichi Fujita was Juichi Fujita.

Carmona singled with two outs in the second and was caught stealing, giving the Raccoons an 0/4 pace in stolen bases this week. Hood retired the first six before Lawrence and Thomas hit singles to start the bottom 3rd. Fujita bunted them over before Holland lined out hard to Yoshi and Evans flew out to Pruitt. The Coons also had two singles in the top 4th, Yoshi and Pruitt, before the useless Quebell and Alexander struck out. Instead, Ray Gilbert rammed a leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning, no doubt about that one, his 29th on the year, and the Raccoons were sent spinning in a 1-0 deficit. While the Raccoons failed to mount anything even remotely resembling offense, Ray Gilbert whacked another one his next time up, 2-0.

Time was running out at a frantic pace. Three innings left, and Fujita had yet to break a sweat. Dylan Alexander hit a 2-out single to left in the seventh, but Carmona bounced out harmlessly. Fujita batted in the bottom 7th, two outs and nobody on against Steele – and singled. ****ING ASSHOLE STEELE!! Youngblood managed to retire Ross Holland, but there were only six outs remaining, and Fujita still looked like everything was under control. Castro hit for Roudabush to start the top 8th and singled to center, and the Gutierrez singled to right! Oh dear, the tying runs on with nobody out! John Alexander batted for Youngblood, but flew out harmlessly to right. Yoshi hit into a fielder’s choice, getting Gutierrez nipped at second base. Sandy walked, and Fujita was still in there! And why would they remove him? One strike to Pruitt, two strikes to Pruitt, three strikes to Pruitt and the inning was over. Top 9th, Pedro Alvarado (106 K in 70.1 IP…). Quebell singled to right, Alexander struck out. Carmona singled to right, tying runs on first and second. Castro hit a 2-1 pitch to deep left, Don Cameron racing back, and that one was – gonna be - … NOOO, HE CAUGHT IT!! A pinch-hitter for Gutierrez was needed. On a broken bench, Craig Bowen was the best of the rest. He flew out to center. 2-0 Canadiens. Carmona 2-4; Castro (PH) 1-2;

In other news

September 26 – The Miners clinch the FL East behind a strong performance by 24-game winner Miguel Rodriguez, beating the Capitals 5-1. It is the Miners’ fourth playoff appearance, and the first since 1995. They have never won the World Series.
September 26 – Topeka’s SP Brian Patrick (10-12, 4.33 ERA) 3-hits the Blue Sox in a 7-0 shutout.
September 28 – The Knights’ Pat Arnette (.268, 4 HR, 40 RBI) has a double in the Knights’ 9-2 defeat at the hands of the Falcons, extending a hitting streak to 20 games.
September 29 – OCT INF Emilio Farias (.358, 1 HR, 101 RBI) breaks the single season hit record held by 1990 Rebel Manuel Doval, knocking three hits against the Aces (in a 5-4 extra inning loss) to reach 248 hits in total for the season.
September 29 – WAS SP Chris York (16-6, 3.59 ERA) wins his 200th game with a 7-inning shutout performance in the Capitals’ 2-1 win over the Blue Sox.
September 30 – PIT 1B Steve Butler (.342, 25 HR, 110 RBI) will miss the playoffs after hurting his wrist.

Complaints and stuff

There are no words.

[English_Ray]

Ouch.

[Questdog]

Oh my goodness gracious.......that may have been the toughest finish ever with a bleepin' balk costing us a game......

Well, at least you have a story to tell the grand kids that they won't believe.

"Come on, Pops! An umpire would never call a balk in a game when the pennant is on the line! And the wining run on third with two outs in the bottom of the 9th? That would be stupid!"

The bases were friggin' loaded, who was he trying to deceive; no one was going to steal any bases......that ump needs to be investigated for bribery.....

Gee-willickers!

I've hated those metrosexuals from north of the border for a long time, but never as much as I do now.......

[Sam_15]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

I feel like you've done a remarkable job putting the pieces back together and moving forward. However, with how the season seems to be going, I can't help but shake the feeling you're being set up for heartbreak -- say, eliminated on the last week of the season.

Painfully prophetic.

[Westheim]

Last words before the void consumes us all and we have to watch the Elks in the playoffs.

L.A.'s Ernest Green (11-12, 3.96 ERA) pitches a 7-inning, 1-run gem on October 1 to beat the Stars 5-1 in the FL West tie-breaker game, thus lodging the Pacifics into their seventh playoffs overall, and their fourth consecutive appearance. They are of course the defending champions.

That's all for today at the very least. I am thoroughly shattered by the final weekend's results.

[Questdog]

Here's for the Thunder clapping down on those moose-heads and giving them the whooping we were hoping to take.....

[Westheim]

2012 ABL PLAYOFFS

Usually everyone had their own favorite for the playoffs at the end of the season, but this time there was really ONE favorite…

The 110-52 Thunder had stomped over the Continental League all year long, beating teams left and right without budging much. They led the CL in most meaningful offensive categories, with the most runs scored and least runs allowed, a staggering +240 run differential, the best rotation, the third-best pen and third-best defense, but they had not hit many homers (8th) and didn’t steal bases at all (11th), but if almost your entire lineup could hit .280 or more with doubles power, why would you need to steal bases? Despite starting pitchers Antonio Donis and Edgar Amador on the DL for the playoffs, the Thunder still had a formidable bunch left over with Bob King (20-6, 2.14 ERA), the #1 bet for Pitcher of the Year, and Daniel Dickerson (17-7, 3.98 ERA), the main victim of shoddy defense, whenever it happened. Jimmy Roberts (.285, 30 HR, 89 RBI) and Dave McCormick (.298, 17 HR, 96 RBI) were the main factors in their offense. Regrettably, leadoff man SS Erik Janes (.331, 7 HR, 72 RBI) was also on the DL for at least the CLCS.

The 94-68 Canadiens had stepped over the Raccoons on the final weekend of the season to make their first playoff appearance in 22 years. They ranked consistently in the top 4 in most offensive and defensive categories, including fourth in runs scored and third in runs allowed. They had played the best defense in the CL, and they had a good and healthy pitching staff with Rod Taylor (16-13, 3.78 ERA) and Juichi Fujita (21-8, 3.39 ERA) the most prominent starters, and Pedro Alvarado a top notch closer, putting away 48 games with a 1.51 ERA during the season. They had two starters on the DL, though, both position players, with SS Gary Rice (.283, 16 HR, 62 RBI) out for the CLCS at least, and outfielder Enrique Garcia (.307, 3 HR, 33 RBI) out for the entire postseason. They still had 1B Ray Gilbert (.301, 30 HR, 95 RBI) and a supporting cast including Don Cameron (.304, 7 HR, 80 RBI) left, but overall most of their lineup was hitting .250 with little or no power, giving the Thunder a great advantage.

Thunder. Thunder. Thunder. Thunder. Always Thunder. If the Thunder lose the 7-game set, dark witchery will have been involved. (Curiously, the Canadiens had beaten them 5-4 in the regular season, something that the Indians also achieved)

In the FLCS things were not quite as clear cut, with the FL West-winning and title-defending 99-64 Pacifics, who had only made the playoffs in a tie-breaker game against the Stars, on one side of the bracket. They had conceded the least runs and had scored the third-most with a +189 differential, and their rotation with Brad Smith (16-9, 3.39 ERA), J.J. Wirth (15-12, 3.24 ERA) and Bruce Mark (19-10, 3.12 ERA) was as good as any. They had an odd quirk in that their bullpen was mostly left-handed, but it hadn’t hurt them earlier in the season… Stanley Murphy (.301, 34 HR, 120 RBI), Jimmy Roberts (.325, 28 HR, 99 RBI), and Josh Thomas (.259, 16 HR, 63 RBI) had really raked pitching and anchored the lineup, but they also had almost two thirds of the team’s total homers. Also, with Adriano Lulli and Jens Carroll both of the Pacifics’ established third basemen had been lost to injuries, and it looked a lot like their starter at the hot corner in the playoffs would be 31-year old Ramón Diaz, who had appeared in a total of 11 major league games in his career. That aside, it was a good lineup, but not without some weaknesses near the bottom.

Opposing the Pacifics were the 94-68 Miners, who made their first playoffs in 17 years, the longest drought in the FL East (now handed over to the Rebels, who were looking at 15 years of not participating). The Miners had been second in runs scored, and third in runs allowed, while also being second in both homers and stolen bases, but their offense had been chopped to pieces by injuries. Mohammed Blanc (.373, 3 HR, 29 RBI), Steve Butler (.342, 25 HR, 110 RBI) out among others. Butler was most sorely missed as the cleanup man. SS Tom McWhorter (.317, 24 HR, 94 RBI) was now expected to anchor the team in the #3 hole, with Dave Graham (.264, 12 HR, 45 RBI) behind him. A mostly right-handed pitching staff contained the winningest FL pitcher this year, Miguel Rodriguez (24-5, 3.10 ERA), but the bullpen was porous at times, ranking only eighth in ERA during the season. Even closer Kevin Wanless had an ERA of almost four.

The Miners are mostly composed of right-handed batters, so the Pacifics might run into problems with their own bullpen. Then again, the Pacifics had beaten the Miners 8-1 over the course of the season. Something doesn’t gel for the Miners against the Pacifics, so maybe the Pacifics will take this one in six innings.

…

2012 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Canadiens @ Thunder … 0-3 … (Thunder lead 1-0) … OCT Daniel Dickerson 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W;

Canadiens @ Thunder … 2-3 … (Thunder lead 2-0) … VAN Ross Holland 3-5, 2B; OCT Tom Reese 2-4, HR, RBI;
Miners @ Pacifics … 0-2 … (Pacifics lead 1-0) … LAP Victor Flores 2-4, HR, RBI; LAP Brad Smith 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W;

VAN Don Cameron broke his hand in this game, putting the Canadiens at even longer odds to come back from an 0-2 deficit.

Miners @ Pacifics … 4-1 … (series tied 1-1) … PIT William Waggoner 3-5, 2B; PIT Dave Carter 1-3, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; PIT Miguel Rodriguez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W;

Thunder @ Canadiens … 4-2 … (Thunder lead 3-0) … OCT Jimmy Roberts 2-5; OCT Dave McCormick 3-5, 2 RBI; VAN Mark Austin 2-3, BB;

Thunder @ Canadiens … 0-2 … (Thunder lead 3-1) … OCT Ed Michaels 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, L; VAN Mark Thomas 2-4, 2B, RBI; VAN Mitsuhide Suzuki 2-4, 2B, RBI; VAN Rod Taylor 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K, W;
Pacifics @ Miners … 2-9 … (Miners lead 2-1) … PIT William Waggoner 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; PIT Dave Graham 3-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; PIT Micah McIntyre 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W;

The Miners hit five home runs total, four of them off Bruce Mark, in this game.

Thunder @ Canadiens … 0-3 … (Thunder lead 3-2) … VAN Juichi Fujita 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W;
Pacifics @ Miners … 5-0 (11) … (series tied 2-2) … LAP Stanley Murphy 3-4, BB, RBI; LAP Ernest Green 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; PIT Fred Dugo 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K;

Pacifics @ Miners … 4-2 … (Pacifics lead 3-2) … LAP Victor Flores 3-4; PIT Marc Williams 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Canadiens @ Thunder … 4-1 … (series tied 3-3) … VAN Mark Austin 1-1, 3 BB; VAN Johnny Krom 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, W and 1-3, 2 RBI;

Canadiens @ Thunder … 0-1 … (Thunder win 4-3) … VAN Rod Taylor 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K; OCT Dave McCormick 2-4; OCT William Raven 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;
Miners @ Pacifics … 2-4 … (Pacifics win 4-2) … PIT Dave Carter 2-3, BB; LAP Eddy Mendoza 1-4, 2B, 3 RBI; LAP J.J. Wirth 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W;

Tom Reese scores on Jesus Martinez’ groundout to walk off the Thunder in the ninth inning in an odd series that saw only 25 runs total (that’s as in both teams combined), while Eddy Mendoza’s bases-clearing double in the second inning is enough for the Pacifics.

…

2012 WORLD SERIES

After that odd first round, in which in 12 of 13 games the teams combined to score six runs or less (mostly less), the higher-seeded teams from either league have advanced to the World Series, where the 110-52 Thunder will have home field advantage over the 99-64 Pacifics. The Thunder were champions in 1994 and 2000, their most recent of four World Series appearances. The Pacifics get there for only the second time, but they are perfect after their 2011 championship.

The Pacifics were not necessarily the better team, but there might still be something up their sleeves to give them a distinct advantage over the Thunder, and it’s that left-handed bullpen. The Thunder lineup is more than half left-handed, and that could get them into trouble in the late innings of games. Neither team suffered additional injuries in the championship series.

The Thunder both outscored and allowed less runs than the Pacifics. The teams did not face another in the regular season. This is quite a close series. The Thunder need to score early, because they might not get a chance late, yet while scoring was not their strong suit at all in the CLCS, the same was true for the Pacifics. But at least L.A. managed three runs per game. The Thunder didn’t even score TWO runs per game in the CLCS!

Best guess: Pacifics in six, but there will be one game in which the Thunder rout the Pacifics.

Pacifics @ Thunder … 7-6 … (Pacifics lead 1-0) … LAP Eddy Mendoza 2-5, RBI; LAP Ramón Diaz 3-3, 2 RBI; OCT Jeffrey Mathews 2-3, 2 BB; OCT Armando Martinez 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; OCT Jesus Martinez 3-5, 2 RBI;

Yep, that Diaz guy is that 31-year old with no experience whatsoever.

Pacifics @ Thunder … 2-0 … (Pacifics lead 2-0) … LAP Eddy Mendoza 5-5; LAP Brad Smith 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

Thunder @ Pacifics … 8-7 … (Pacifics lead 2-1) … OCT Dave McCormick 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; LAP Jimmy Roberts 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; LAP Ryan Milk 2-2;

All runs were scored by the fifth inning, and neither starting pitcher (William Raven and J.J. Wirth) made it out of the fourth.

Thunder @ Pacifics … 4-5 (13) … (Pacifics lead 3-1) … OCT Jesus Martinez 3-5, BB; LAP Eddy Mendoza 4-7, 2B, 2 RBI; LAP Willie Davenport 3-4; LAP Ryan Milk (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

The Thunder blow a 4-0 lead in the seventh inning, and Eddy Mendoza, who makes a case for World Series MVP, walks off the Pacifics in the 13th inning.

Thunder @ Pacifics … 4-3 … (Pacifics lead 3-2) … OCT Myeung-beon Kim (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; OCT Bob King 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W; LAP Bruce Mark 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K;

Pacifics @ Thunder … 6-4 … (Pacifics win 4-2) … LAP Stanley Murphy 3-5, RBI; OCT Vinny Diaz 2-4, 2 RBI;

L.A.’s Jimmy Roberts hits a 2-run homer off Ed Michaels in the top of the first inning. The Pacifics keep adding on and the Thunder don’t start the scoring until the seventh when they’re down by six – too late. A great season – wasted.

…

2012 WORLD CHAMPIONS
Los Angeles Pacifics
(2nd title)

…

During the playoffs, old friend Randy Farley signed a new 2-yr, $4.48M contract with the Capitals. Farley will be 39 before Christmas, so this will be an interesting one to watch. The last time he pitched to a sub-4 ERA was 2009.

[Westheim]

We are all getting old and older, and the Mexican Prick is no exception. Although the Raccoons failed in spectacular (read: deflated) fashion at the end of the 2012 season, they nevertheless got a budget increase for 2013, although, as he put it in his traditional October letter of hatred, “finishing up 93-69 is certainly nothing to write home about”.

Tell me about it.

The Coons’ 2013 budget will be $27.8M, up from $26M in 2012. This puts the Raccoons 10th in the league, yet only fourth in their division behind the 1st place Crusaders ($36.5M), 5th place Titans ($32.5M), and 6th place Canadiens ($31M). The Thunder ($35.5M), Pacifics, and Cyclones ($33M each) complete the top 5. The rear is brought up by the Gold Sox ($20M), Condors ($19.6M), Falcons ($18.4M), Loggers ($17M), and Wolves ($16.2M). The average budget is $25.4M, the median budget $23M.

Extra money is a splendid thing, and let’s have a look where we want to blow it on. First up, as usual, is the salary arbitration, where deserving players are best held short and underpaid, and if it’s just by a nickel. The Raccoons have seven arbitration cases and four free agents this year, listed in this order with 2012 production, service time, 2012 salary, and estimate / compensation eligibilty:

MR Pat Slayton, 27 – 2-2, 1.93 ERA – 2.136 – minimum - $240k
MR Kyle Mullins, 30 – 1-0, 5.34 ERA – 3.116 - $290k - $320k
INF Manuel Gutierrez, 32 - .203/.259/.278 – 5.169 - $275k - $310k
INF Michael Palmer, 30 - .286/.345/.348 – 5.114 - $470k - $577k
LF/1B Matt Pruitt, 29 - .294/.343/.396 – 5.167 - $460k - $550k
OF/INF Sandy Sambrano, 24 - .276/.372/.360 – 4.097 - $258k - $600k
CF/RF Santiago Trevino, 30 – (entire season in AAA) – 4.029 - $290k – no est.

SP Scott Spears, 32 – 10-5, 3.38 ERA - $232k – type-B
LF/CF Tomas Castro, 28 - .267/.322/.405 - $1.2M – no comp.
MR Lawrence Rockburn, 32 – 3-3, 3.80 ERA - $425k – no comp.
MR Micah Steele, 28 – 6-3, 4.18 ERA - $478k – no comp.

Often there’s a lot of talk about what to do with him and him and how and uh – not this year. Almost all cases are pretty much clear.

We will start with the free agents – none of them will be retained. Steele was a huge pain in the butt after being acquired from the Loggers, while they got at least ordinary production out of Ted Reese and Gil McDonald.

Tomas Castro is *constantly* injured. He has not appeared in more than 130 games in ANY of the last five seasons, and not in more than 111 in any of the last three. He is blatantly expensive, too, and we have younger guys pushing to the front, most notably of course Sandy Sambrano and Ricardo Carmona. There’s just no room to keep waiting for Tomas Castro to heal up finally. Law Rockburn falls into the same category of having been brutally efficient, but the last two years he really went down the drain, with his performance and with his health. We got A LOT out of the 2001 deal for him (the Thunder received Butch Kaustrop, which is one of those funny stories in Raccoons lore), but he is no help on the DL and he was no help when he was healthy last year.

Spears will get an offer because of the pick, but ultimately I think we got lucky of the strong midseason performance before he was injured. After he returned form the DL, he was more or less unwatchable.

Through the door as well without offers are Kyle Mullins (also in the pain in the butt category) and Santiago Trevino, who only ever had one tool (defense) and we have something far more exciting making the rounds in Carmona. ALSO gone, long-surviving utility infielder Manuel Gutierrez, whose range has diminished and who used to have the odd useful hit when making starts because of injuries, but that’s more or less over.

So, the only four players to get offers are Palmer, Pruitt, Slayton, and Sambrano.

I am completely uncertain how the outfield will shake up for next year. I want to commit to Sambrano and Carmona, who have that high-OBP, high-speed thing going for them that the Raccoons have rarely ever enjoyed, and certainly not from TWO players at once. By default, Sambrano has to play in the outfield, as long as we have four highly skilled (or highly paid) players occupying all infield positions – at least for one season. Adrian Quebell’s contract will run for a while, but Palmer and Nomura are free agents after 2013, and Jon Merritt has a player option for 2014 – although you’d bet he will execute it when the time arrives.

So Sambrano might end up at second base by 2014, which wouldn’t be all bad, although I’d really like to keep Yoshi around if possible. After all he might just be the best second baseman the Raccoons ever groomed themselves – so David Brewer comparisons are not allowed here. Of course Brewer was a special kind of talent, and it is so regrettable that that mid-90s team imploded the way it did.

But that’s talk for the 2013-14 offseason. We are not there year. We have a bit of a room full of broken glass and rusty nails on the floor with the way 2012 ended, and someone stole our shoes. The 2012 offseason might be about carefully negotiating a minefield, but so far there are a few things we can say for sure: there will be a squeeze in the outfield (just like last year), and we definitely need at least one right-handed starting pitcher (mind that we already have three left-handed hurlers with Brownie, Baldwin, and Hood) and a pair of setup men to bridge the gap between the Gibsons and Thrashers to Angel Casas via free agency.

We also need an idiot to take Craig Bowen’s contract off our – … ah just forget it.

By the way, Angel Casas is also on the list of free agents after the 2013 season, plus John Alexander, and the 2014 campaign is the one for which Nick Brown has a player option. It MIGHT be that 2013 is the Coons last chance for a while…

But we will delve into our prospects later on this offseason.

It’s not a big project to talk about…

…

PORTLAND RACCOONS – FRANCHISE HITS LEADERS

1st – Neil Reece – 1,983
2nd – Daniel Hall – 1,886
3rd – Tetsu Osanai – 1,548 (HOF)
4th – Mark Dawson – 1,313
5th – Daniel Sharp – 1,267
6th – Conceicao Guerin – 1,185
7th – Ben O’Morrissey – 1,180
8th – Adrian Quebell – 1,159
9th – Jorge Salazar – 1,142
10th – Yoshi Nomura – 1,105

Yoshi passed both Marvin Ingall and Clyde Brady for 10th place in the final two weeks of the 2012 season.

…

Among notable retirees this winter is Javier Cruz, sixth in career strikeouts with 3,164, who spent the last two years with the Cyclones, but was a rock-solid part of the Raccoons rotation from 2008 through 2010. He was Pitcher of the Year in consecutive seasons way earlier, in 1997 and 1998 when pitching for the Blue Sox. He made four All Star teams, but none after 2003.

Antonio Donis, our 1990 third-round pick that didn’t quite work out as starter or closer, was traded to the Gold Sox and then actually – after years of pitching in relief – became a stud starting pitcher at age 33, also hung it up. He led the league in WHIP five times in his last eight seasons, walking almost nobody. The fact that he spent half his career as a reliever cut into his strikeout totals, 2,164 whiffs for him. He was a Pitcher of the Year three times in 2006, 2010, and 2011, the latter title coming when he was 39 years old. He missed almost all of the 2012 season with an injury and decided to let things be.

Also retiring, Jerry Fletcher, who was acquired by us from the Canadiens in 2008 in an effort to shore up the outfield, which didn’t really work out in the end. He was the 1997 Player of the Year when he was part of that group of elite Loggers players that came up together and gave that team the only seven or eight years of its existence that weren’t completely depressing.

Ricardo Huerta also retired at 38. Huerta was a rule 5 pick taken off the Pacifics prior to the 2002 season who pitched completely good relief for a rotten team back then. He went on to have a pretty good career even after becoming a free agent, although he wore a new jersey almost every year. He spent another season as a Coon in 2011, but was already trending downwards then. He made the 2007 All Star team as a Gold Sock, although he was not even their closer.

…

Odd stat: Josh Gibson did not allow an earned run in his last 26 outings of 2012.

Also, this. Team trainer Octavio Herrera has retired and I am after a voodoo magician from upper Venezuela to replace him. I hear he knows a few spots in the jungle where the most wonderful “special effects” plants are growing… and if we don’t get the pitching staff shored up I will need a tune-out here or there next year.

[Westheim]

Matt Pruitt ($550k), Michael Palmer ($580k), and Pat Slayton ($247k) all signed 1-year deals before the end of October. To be honest, I didn’t want any longer deals with them. Matt Pruitt is playing a power position without any power, Michael Palmer has a very good glove with a bat that nets plenty of singles and a bit of speed, but he’s entering his 30s and most of these things will go away then, and Pat Slayton ranked just below Steele and Mullins on the charts of nuisances, but we can’t just dump everybody, can we?

But we can dump some. Not Craig Bowen, though. But we can dump Shunyo Yano.

I shopped him casually on the side while getting a few other things in order, and actually got a few takers, like the Thunder, who offered Dave McCormick, a genuinely good infielder, who however is also genuinely expensive. Yano, who hadn’t pitched after September 4 simply because he was really bad, and who finished his rookie season with a 5.03 ERA, was actually something the Cyclones were looking at.

A trade was swiftly executed for 2009 supplemental round pick, 53rd overall, 21-year old SP Jonathan Toner. He is a right-hander with a 98mph fastball with natural sink, generating lots of groundballs, a nasty curve … but then things start to get iffy. His control is a mess, and he walked 130 batters in 219.2 innings between AA and AAA in 2012, while striking out 190. Also, the add-on pitches for starter survival are still not good at all. The changeup doesn’t do much, and the circle change is something he can’t throw into a specific zip code.

HOWEVER. Yano is gone – and he was not really in our mind at all for the 2013 season, because the right-hander to the three left-handers I mentioned earlier was always Hector Santos, and that fifth spot was always open. That frees up $1.2M in salary for ’13, with more money in later years and $3.9M dumped in total. And I was always going to add another starting pitcher either via free agency or via trade.

As we are on the topic of trades, I have a very specific candidate in mind. We might sit on lots of outfielders right now, but there could well be some movement before the snow melts. Well, that’s not really building up the drama. The snow hasn’t even fallen yet.

We also signed that weed wizard from Venezuela. Nobody’s gonna feel pain on this team ever again.

Side note: Jimmy Oatmeal got 11 AB with the Condors late in the season. He hit nothing, but was drilled once for a .000/.091/.000 slash.

+++

October 30 – The Aces make two trades, sending 25-yr old SP Ian Rutter (16-26, 4.09 ERA) to the Titans for two prospects including #22 INF Ricardo Marrero, while also parting with 26-yr old MR Chris Spindler (10-4, 3.02 ERA, 6 SV), who is sent to the Canadiens for #93 prospect C Chris Ramirez.
November 3 – The Raccoons trade 26-yr old SP Shunyo Yano (7-10, 5.03 ERA) to the Cyclones for 21-yr old AAA SP Jonathan Toner.
November 5 – The Stars trade 28-yr old SP Brendan Teasdale (12-21, 4.79 ERA) to the Gold Sox for 29-yr old 3B Dave Hamilton (.248, 16 HR, 70 RBI) and minor leaguer Rich Walsh [also a former Raccoons draft pick, who was released early on].

+++

2012 AWARDS

Player of the Year: LAP 1B Stanley Murphy (.301, 34 HR, 120 RBI) and SFB LF/RF Ron Alston (.338, 32 HR, 97 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: LAP SP Brad Smith (16-9, 3.39 ERA) and OCT SP Bob King (20-6, 2.14 ERA)
Rookie of the Year: PIT RF William Waggoner (.306, 14 HR, 61 RBI) and OCT SS Erik Janes (.331, 7 HR, 72 RBI)
Reliever of the Year: DAL CL Salvadaro Soure (3-6, 1.41 ERA, 44 SV) and VAN CL Pedro Alvarado (3-3, 1.51 ERA, 48 SV)
Platinum Stick (FL): P DAL Jose Flores* – C WAS Jose Flores* - 1B LAP Stanley Murphy – 2B SFW Oliver Torres – 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel – SS PIT Tom McWhorter – LF RIC Earl Clark – CF LAP Jimmy Roberts – RF SAC Xavier Alvarez
Platinum Stick (CL): P BOS Curtis Tobitt – C BOS Hideaki Suda – 1B VAN Ray Gilbert – 2B OCT Emilio Farias – 3B OCT Dave McCormick – SS MIL Antonio Luján – LF NYC Martin Ortíz – CF SFB Jasper Holt – RF SFB Ron Alston
Gold Glove (FL): P PIT Fred Dugo – C PIT Bartholomeu Pino – 1B SAL Frederic Roche – 2B TOP Jerry Dobson – 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel – SS DAL Armando Rodriguez – LF SAL Jonathan Pruitt – CF DAL César Morán – RF TOP Jim Brulhart
Gold Glove (CL): P BOS Melvin Andrade – C MIL Raúl Hernandez – 1B SFB Andrew Simmons – 2B MIL Oscar Sandoval – 3B TIJ Dan Jones – SS LVA Tom Dahlke – LF NYC Martin Ortíz – CF NYC Roberto Pena – RF NYC Stanton Martin

Why not give those Crusaders ALL the awards outright, right now, for 2013?

*Yes, actually.

[Westheim]

A few days before players without a contract for 2013 could file for free agency, the Raccoons took the last player they had an interest in retaining off the salary arbitration list. Switch-hitting Sandy Sambrano agreed to a contract that not only bought out his remaining arbitration years at $625k in 2013 and $875k in 2014, but also signed on for three additional years at $1M each, carrying that contract through the 2017 season, the longest guaranteed contract the Raccoons have on the books now.

There are a lot of things to like about Sandy Sambrano, a quirky player that plays the outfield corners and first base very well, centerfield and second base pretty damn good, and can fill in at short and third base, combines this with a high average, high OBP bat, and the ability to steal a significant amount of bases; 40 sacks in a full season don’t seem impossible.

So Sandy Sambrano was not the outfielder that we are going to drop from the team this winter. Hum, who could it then be?

Free agents filed on November 12 and three days later the arbitration hearings took place. Scott Spears was our only candidate, and he filed for free agency, making the Raccoons eligible for a supplemental round pick if he signed on elsewhere.

Coming into the offseason proper, the Raccoons were definitely looking for a high-level, established, right-handed starting pitcher, a pair of competent shutdown relievers, including at least one right-hander, and we could also really use a slugging right-handed outfielder (onto the pile of outfielder we already had, and of which almost nobody did any meaningful slugging).

That brings us the outfield glut that had to be resolved one way or another. Let’s see, what is there to like, or rather not:

Matt Pruitt – not much defense, not much power (51 HR in five season’s worth of at-bats), not much speed; at some point in the past he looked like there was much more to come, but it hasn’t; signed for $550k in ’13
Sandy Sambrano – just locked up, versatile in the field, with a constant on-base presence and blistering speed, signed through 2017 for $4.5M
Ricardo Carmona – has all the tools except for home run power (which is entirely absent) and he might well have a breakout season if given the chance to play every day at age 21
John Alexander – did not become the second coming of Luke Black; hit for some of everything, plays all three outfield spots more or less well, and for $500k he’s incredibly cheap
Keith Ayers – what’s he even doing here? The fact that all our personnel is batting left-handed has been a BIG factor, but he’s a career .677 OPS batter, and at some point you just have to concede defeat. Signed for $300k in ’13.

There’s some Brett Gentry, some Jimmy Fucito, even the ghostly shadow of Jason Seeley dangling off the fringes of the roster, but whom are we even kidding. In AAA, there’s Mike Cook, 22, but he only played in a handful of games there in September after batting for a .800 OPS in Ham Lake for almost the entire minor league season. He’s another season away, I guess. He’s also a right-handed batter, and definitely confined to a corner.

The needs in the bullpen are also obvious. Angel Casas is Angel Casas (and a free agent 12 months from now), but between the sixth or seventh inning and him was a persistent nightmare in 2012. There were a few good things happening. Manobu Sugano was a good grab (picked from the same international free agent class that spew forth Shunyo Yano), and there was some solid low-key relief from Josh Gibson. When Ron Thrasher doesn’t have his tail on fire, he can also be a beast, but said tail is on fire all the time since he mindlessly sways it into the fireplace in the clubhouse during his pre-game feast ALL THE TIME. We need to restructure a lot of things around these three and Angel.

The oft-beaten horse of Pat Slayton and his uselessness is not properly expressed in the stats. He will happily pitch a clean inning or even two in a meaningless effort. But bring him in with runners on base, possibly the tying runners, and mayhem breaks lose.

By the way, has it become apparent already that I am intending to shaft Matt Pruitt?

Did I also mention that the Raccoons have the staggering sum of FIVE MILLION DOLLAR available to blow this winter?

+++

November 16 – The Loggers trade LF/RF Pedro Estrada (.285, 54 HR, 453 RBI) to the Thunder in exchange for 1B David Clarke (.274, 16 HR, 105 RBI) and #91 prospect C Orlando Castillo.

+++

Another pointless trade by the Loggers. Clarke has no position, he can’t even play first base. Estrada was one of their few good players. The yield for them in this trade is downright abominable.

Meanwhile, the free agent class for starting pitchers is not overwhelming. There’s Daniel Dickerson, who’s still good, but who’s also a wreck. There’s William Raven, and there’s Toshiro Uenohara of the Blue Sox. But if Ralph Ford shows up in the top 5 of free agent starting pitchers, you know that it’s a thin class.

So I’m back looking at trades, and that brings us back to our most barren farm and how there’s nothing on there that could entice a team to part with a stud. Of course I was after “Midnight” Martin again. Of course the Condors won’t trade him. He’s more or less all they have, but the good news for “Midnight” is that he will only have to waste another year to that rotten team. He’s a free agent after the 2013 season. How many millions will the Raccoons have then?

Then there’s Jaquan Wagoner of the Aces. Definitely a late bloomer, this soon-to-be-29-year-old went to arbitration for the first time this fall, receiving $690k. He flustered the Raccoons in all three of his starts against them in ’12, and really had a breakout year. Interesting little fact: Wagoner and Nick Brown were taken with the same pick, #293, in the amateur draft, eleven years apart, but while Brownie was an 11th-rounder, Wagoner came out of the LAST round.

But again… the paucity of even a handful of glitter prospects in our system makes it outright impossible to acquire a top notch starter from any of the teams that cough blood right now.

The Raccoons are limited to what the free agent market can give them, and the worst case scenario is probably actually shelling out $3M (which is the low estimate) for many years for a guy that’s on the covers of a medical book about arm injuries AND the cover of a medical book about back injuries. Before Daniel Dickerson, the poster boy for the latter tome was another Daniel we know quite well.

[MarkCuban]

OOTP Adventure Book:
Westheim, in the offseason in front of you lie three, just three, doors. Which one do you enter?:

Door 1: says "you go out in a blaze of glory, trade all your prospects for one more shot at the Championship... and start the torched-earth rebuild next year". Turn to page 88.

Door 2: says "you decide to "rebuild" with proven prospects and trade the full-timers, starting the rebuild early". Turn to page 67.

Door 3: says "you stand pat this offseason, and hope all the crusaders get injured again, and hope that your team can hit above their weight". Turn to Page 74.

[Westheim]

There was – despite all the injuries – something very attractive about Daniel Dickerson. Maud attested him to a have a wonderful butt in those uniform pants, while I was a bit more into his pitch arsenal and stats.

Although … that IS a very nice apple shape …! My!

Well, back to ERA’s and … things. Entering the offseason, and with their inability to achieve a meaningful trade with a suffering team for a first-line starter, the Raccoons had the choice between a select few starting pitchers that were free agents.

One of those was William Raven, the Thunder’s 29-year old right-hander, who might be overlooked by the competition, because the Thunder used him as a swingman so regularly. He made 11 relief appearances between the last two seasons, but also made 55 starts, and overall went 26-12 with a 3.54 ERA. His stuff is not too overwhelming and he had yet to reach 120 strikeouts in a season. In turn, since a few wild years with the Rebels in the late 2000’s, he had gotten better with the control and wasn’t walking too many. He was also a groundball pitcher, but he also had not too much stamina, comparable with Hector Santos perhaps. So there were drawbacks to Raven.

Then there was Toshiro Uenohara, a 33-year old former Blue Sock. Good news, he had cracked 120 strikeouts a number of times in his career. The bad news, he never had beaten 130. He was also a groundballer with a 94mph fastball (Raven’s was 92), and a splitter/curve combo, plus a slider that was more of a desperate measure than anything else. He was very similar to Raven in many aspects, including similar walk numbers, but his ERA’s in recent years had been much higher, with a 5.26 ERA mark in ’09 and 4’s in the following two years. How much of those was to blame on the Blue Sox’ BABIP’s they subjected him to in those years (.340, .330, .312 in order), was anybody’s guess, but he was really not prone to home runs, allowing 15 home runs TOTAL in the last three years. Bad news: his stamina was no greater than Raven’s, maybe even a bit lower.

So, Dickerson, huh? Mr. Applecheeks was 35, right-handed, and was also allowing few home runs and his K/BB was usually around 3.5, but it was 4.5 in ’12, although he hadn’t beaten 150 K in five years (although: injuries…). All those injuries had made his arm a bit dull, but he had a phenomenal sinker (better than Nick Brown’s, but it wasn’t Brownie’s primary pitch, who also had a mostly straight fireball which was what most of his home runs came from; it was Dickerson’s primary, though) and could generate a massive amount of groundballs. He could strike a fly in the eye with utmost precision, but the secondary stuff had suffered greatly over the years, as his arm was held together mostly my surgery scarring, and he was perhaps best described as a 2.5-pitch pitcher with a good changeup, a so-so slider, and a curve that was out of his control by now. No stamina problems though, at least until his next DL stint. He was the ONE pitcher whom you trusted with suffering a torn windpipe while winding up for a pitch…

There was a fourth interesting right-hander available, 31-year old Jim Pennington, also a former Blue Sock. He had also been victimized by the Blue Sox defense the last three years since arriving there from Las Vegas (where the situation had hardly been better), and was mostly putting up consistent year-to-year numbers, which unfortunately included a K/BB barely exceeding 2.

All of those four, except for Raven, were type A free agents. Raven was not eligible for compensation. Technically, there was also Ralph Ford on the market, who certainly still had very good stuff at 35, but was also still prone to juice balls that ended up crashed to the next county, plus command issues, and I wasn’t willing to run out four left-handed starters, to be honest.

Bwah, decisions!

Going for a right-handed outfield bat was no pleasure, either. Well, there were candidates available of course, but I was looking for a real home run threat, and things were … complicated.

For example, I really like Mike Bednarski of the Aces (and he likes our pitchers a lot…), but the Aces were so poor and so strapped for money, they couldn’t even afford the most basic castoffs on the Raccoons’ roster, even when trading Bednarski’s (not huge) contract. I also tried to trade for the Aces’ right-handed reliever Zack Entwistle, but even that deal fell through. They weren’t happy with Matt Pruitt, or with Keith Ayers (well, who would be happy with Keith Ayers?), and they just wouldn’t greenlight such a trade. The Condors had Ryan Feldmann, who was less of a raw power guy, but the Condors were just as broken as the Aces and no trade was forthcoming.

Of course, trades would be possible with those teams for any of the players mentioned. IF the Raccoons were willing to part with one of: Ricardo Carmona, Sandy Sambrano, Hector Santos, maybe Rich Hood. Our recent acquisition Jonathan Toner also had the Aces interested, but that was not a deal I was looking forward to do.

The Titans were interested in Jason Seeley in a trade for Toki Hayashi, who was not much of a glove man, but had drilled 27 homers in ’12, and the Raccoons hadn’t beaten 22 in three years. My home run obsession might be a bit of a problem, but I have reason, I claim. We are lined up to have THREE high-OBP guys atop the order in ’13. Carmona, Sambrano, Yoshi. That’s three guys who either have achieved a .390 OBP or are totally expected to it in their first full season. But we need someone to drive them in behind them. Adrian Quebell is doing what he does, mixing double plays and home runs at a 1:1 ratio more or less, and then we’re down to Dylan Alexander, who was really streaky in 2012 with two hot months in the summer, but little in the four other months. Another home run bat in the third outfield slot is needed, with Palmer and Merritt, whoever that may be, to round out the bottom of the order.

… unless we shake things up and trade Michael Palmer along with Tom McNeela to the Titans for Toki Hayashi. They would actually do that. Lacking a replacement shortstop (Dave Roudabush sure ain’t it!), however, we have to consider the market. Oh look, Rob Howell is available!

There were actually a lot of ex-Raccoons available. Vic Flores was on the market as was Kuni Sato, but both were in their mid-30s, and mid-30s shortstops don’t mix well with my chronic depressions.

Let me see the Aces once more. They also want a centerfielder. They really want prospects, I hear. Can we somehow…?

+++

November 23 – The Raccoons strike a deal with the Aces, acquiring 26-year old RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.278, 56 HR, 244 RBI) for 22-yr old AAA OF Mike Cook.
November 23 – The Thunder sign 36-yr old ex-CIN RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.328, 308 HR, 1,397 RBI) for 3-yr, $8.52M.
November 23 – Meanwhile the Thunder’s former closer Arturo Lopez (35-41, 2.45 ERA, 221 SV) hooks up with the Warriors for 3-yr, $4.32M.
November 26 – The Cyclones add ex-LAP CL Francisco Rodriguez (63-61, 2.71 ERA, 213 SV). The 32-year old lefty will make $4.02M over three years.
November 27 – Next addition for the Warriors, who spend $5.28M over two years on 35-year old ex-IND C Jose Paraz (.269, 232 HR, 889 RBI).
November 27 – After Arturo Lopez went north, ex-SFW INF Oliver Torres (.313, 36 HR, 611 RBI) goes south. The 35-year old signs a 2-yr, $5.68M contract with the Thunder.
November 30 – The Blue Sox sign ex-MIL INF Antonio Luján (.267, 84 HR, 625 RBI) to a 2-yr, $3.04M deal.
December 1 – Ex-BOS MR Chikara “Dodo” Iwase (34-23, 2.76 ERA, 64 SV), who comes with type A compensation attached, signs a 2-yr, $1.46M deal with the Capitals.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: nine players are selected. The Raccoons are not affected.
December 2 – The Crusaders restack their bullpen with the addition of ex-SAC CL Johnny Smith (73-58, 2.19 ERA, 425 SV) for 3-yr, $1.42M.
December 3 – The Loggers spend most of their money on 31-yr old ex-NAS SP Jim Pennington (90-106, 4.31 ERA), agreeing to pay him $9.1M over five years.
December 3 – The Stars sign ex-NAS SP Ralph Ford (144-169, 4.04 ERA) for 2-yr, $2.36M.
December 3 – Meanwhile the Pacifics find a closer replacement and sign 34-yr old Jeff Paul (55-43, 2.69 ERA, 101 SV) for 3-yr, $3.3M. Paul was with the Capitals the last two years.

+++

There was one unprotected right-handed reliever in the rule 5 draft that I was perhaps interested in, the Warriors’ Steve Rob, but the Blue Sox picked him before the Raccoons had a chance to even do so.

For the Blue Sox, the 2013 Amateur Draft will be the kind of draft that can rebuild a franchise. They have a protected first round pick, and FOUR type A free agents. Ford and Pennington have already signed, giving them the #22 pick by the Stars, and the first pick in the second round the Loggers held, plus two supplemental round picks. When the Raccoons had six combined first round picks (incl. supplemental round picks) in 1998, they drafted a bucket half full of water, a box with old people’s nail clippings, a pile of bile, a blunt fruit knife, a pack of broken bathroom tiles, and an endless chewing gum with rhubarb flavor. The first one is Chris Roberson, a semi-serviceable outfielder if your expectations happen be really low who’s still around somewhere, I guess*, and the last one is Sergio Vega, who will probably still be in St. Petersburg by the time he’s 50.

Whenever the Warriors’ closer du jour is the topic of some conversation or other, I get a bit nostalgic. That’s where Dan Nordahl went, who just couldn’t close games in Portland, but did so very well in Sioux Falls (must be the hostile media…), and they also signed Andres Ramirez, the Hall of Famer closer, who did the biggest chunk of his grisly work (770 SV!) for them. Ramirez was “the other guy” when the Raccoons had to make their choice for their first ever draft pick, besides “Dan The Man” Hall.

How much I would love to be engulfed in flames of love for an outfielder again. Hall, then Neil Reece, then I was into Royce Green hard for a bit before a grisly shoulder injury and our shrinking pockets removed him from the roster, and there were brief flickers for Duke Smack and for Ron Alston, before they unraveled and betrayed us, respectively. They don’t count. Hall, Reece, who’s the next one?

It won’t be Mike Cook, that’s for sure.

The ceiling of Cook (who was one of four prospects sent back by the Capitals for Jose Morales last year) is as of yet undetermined, but might be “high”. He has a power stroke, but he also hasn’t hit for much average above the A-level, with A LOT of strikeouts. Bednarski only has three seasons in the majors under his belt, and was a regular only for the last two, but in those he stayed under 100 K/year while smacking 48 homers and running an OPS of almost .810. He has a murder throwing arm, making him ultimately suited for rightfield, which fits well with Carmona and Sambrano. The only thing he really doesn’t have is speed, and also range. There will be doubles past his tiny glove, and lots of them. Batting him behind Quebell might make him the most dangerous #5 hitter in the league. (Don’t understate the abilities of B.J. Manfull! Don’t tease him!)

Bednarski will make $650k this year and is under team control through 2014 only with three years and three days of service time. (hmpf!)

Then it wasn’t even rule 5 draft day, and we were already better than before!

The next day Craig Bowen was hospitalized after getting involved in a mugging on the streets of Portland, but the offseason would be long enough to heal out that quad strain…

Funny bit: the Warriors and Thunder have now exchanged the #21 pick twice. It went from the Warriors to the Thunder when the former signed Arturo Lopez, but was forfeited back to the Warriors when the Thunder signed Oliver Torres.

The Raccoons have offers out there and are currently about to lose their #19 pick to the Thunder.

+++

*728 career hits, and the 139 he had for the ’02 Coons a lonely record; he had three hits in nine games for the Miners in ’12 and for reasons unknown was not on the postseason roster.

[Westheim]

The 2013 Hall Of Fame ballot is out. I call first ballot Hall Of Famers for Raúl Vázquez and Dennis Fried, a.k.a. The One That Got Away.

[Westheim]

I talked about Dan Nordahl briefly the last time. Well, he was the point of trade talks with the Warriors during the Winter Meetings in Cleveland, where they’re building a new baseball stadium right now, and owners were called up to vote on expansion for the 2015 season, which they swiftly called “nay!” at, 14-10.

Anyway, Nordahl. A first-rounder for the Coons in 1997 that had been one of the two pieces to go to Sioux Falls in a 2005 trade for Adrian Quebell (the other being Randy Farley), had been really awesome ever since leaving Portland, and I was still looking for some oil to smear the different parts of the bullpen with. Nordahl would be exactly the right brand of lubricant right now, a Marcos Bruno-type of reliever, but as soon as he got wind of the talks he let his GM know that he had 10/5 rights and was not going to go back to backwoods Oregon.

+++

December 5 – The Raccoons announce that they have finalized the addition of 35-year old SP Daniel Dickerson (146-124, 3.35 ERA) on a 3-yr, $9.6M contract. The Raccoons forfeit their first-round pick to the Thunder.
December 5 – The Titans sign ex-NAS SP Toshiro Uenohara (73-73, 4.36 ERA) for 4-yr, $9.76M, and also re-sign outfielder Javier Gusmán (.269, 132 HR, 803 RBI), who had initially become a free agent, for 2-yr, $3.24M. *
December 5 – The Bayhawks send 1B/3B Jesus Amador (.249, 65 HR, 471 RBI) to the Falcons for unranked outfield prospect Chris Almanza.
December 6 – The Cyclones sign ex-TIJ 1B Tomas Cardenas (.282, 117 HR, 627 RBI) to a 3-yr, $3.76M deal.
December 6 – Trade between the Falcons and the Crusaders, who send 3B/2B Jaime Kester (.263, 26 HR, 274 RBI) to Charlotte for #71 prospect CL Troy Charters and another prospect.
December 8 – The Bayhawks acquire INF Zachary Richter (.275, 10 HR, 98 RBI), a 29-year old right-handed batter, from the Blue Sox for MR Felipe Ramirez (13-13, 3.76 ERA).
December 12 – 1B/3B/RF Kevin Bond (.264, 52 HR, 392 RBI), a 31-year old that was with the Crusaders for three years, signs a 1-yr, $890k deal with the Miners.
December 16 – Ex-NAS CL Robbie Wills (72-67, 2.34 ERA, 439 SV), who already was with the Crusaders from 2007 through 2009, returns to the Crusaders on a 3-yr, $4.26M contract.

+++

The Dickerson contract is flat, and $3.2M is the very most the Raccoons will ever have paid to a player in a single season, easily beating out the $2.2M Nick Brown is receiving annually right now. There’s a quirk in that the third year of that deal is a player option, and when Dickerson appears in 200 innings he will make an additional $300k.

That’s bloody expensive, sure, but it’s also the top free agent pitcher on the market this year. This also answers the general undecidedness among the fanbase whether the Raccoons are about to go forwards or backwards. If signing Dickerson for almost $10M doesn’t invoke the image of Jeb Stuart pointing ahead with his sabre and yelling out “Onwards, boys! Tonight we’ll have dinner in the Yellow Tavern!”, then I don’t know.

How bloody expensive precisely? Well, here are the top 5 earners for 2013 right now, before all free agents have signed:

$3.4M – NYC Martin “Megavolt” Ortíz
$3.36M – DEN Victorino Sanchez
$3.24M – BOS Tony Hamlyn
$3.2M – POR Daniel Dickerson
$3.16M – SFW Jose “Dingus” Morales

With his $2.2M deal Nick Brown isn’t even in the Top 25 in the ABL.

All type A free agents except for pitcher Tommy Briggs have signed already, and right now – with a lot of type B free agents still out there – the Blue Sox have TEN of the first 44 picks in the 2013 draft. That’s gonna be watered down a bit by the end of the winter, but that’s still impressive.

The Raccoons stand to have A LOT of free agents next fall, but probably not four type A free agents. Maybe none. Maybe Nick Brown voids his option and we’re really in trouble.

The Agitator was not amused that we signed Dickerson, forfeiting our first round pick in the coming draft, but the Agitator wouldn’t have been amused if we hadn’t signed him, either. The Agitator is not amused that I am breathing, but if I would keel over dead, the Agitator wouldn’t be amused either, clamoring that now an even denser moron would take over the reins. You can’t please some people, can you?

+++

*I don’t usually report on free agents that re-sign with their original team, but it fit in nicely here.

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I talked about Dan Nordahl briefly the last time. Well, he was the point of trade talks with the Warriors during the Winter Meetings in Cleveland, where they’re building a new baseball stadium right now, and owners were called up to vote on expansion for the 2015 season, which they swiftly called “nay!” at, 14-10.

How did that dastardly Portland owner vote? He seems like a "loose cannon".

Originally Posted by Westheim

The Agitator was not amused that we signed Dickerson, forfeiting our first round pick in the coming draft, but the Agitator wouldn’t have been amused if we hadn’t signed him, either. The Agitator is not amused that I am breathing, but if I would keel over dead, the Agitator wouldn’t be amused either, clamoring that now an even denser moron would take over the reins. You can’t please some people, can you?

I miss seeing the agitator's "fine journalism" on a semi-annual basis. I enjoy their lack of credibility and blatant disregard for integrity.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

How did that dastardly Portland owner vote? He seems like a "loose cannon".

I'm not allowed to disclose how I was instructed to vote (he can't leave Mexico for ... "security reasons"), but I voted "Yay!" instead just to feel that little victory inside my strangled heart.