Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

October 7 – SFW LF/RF/1B Hjalmar Flygt (.361, 11 HR, 82 RBI) and MIL OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.351, 4 HR, 57 RBI) win their respective leagues’ batting titles.
October 30 – The Canadiens trade 25-yr old OF Drew Edwards (.282, 15 HR, 120 RBI) and prospect 1B/3B Andrew Wells to the Wolves for 30-yr old MR Jesus Morales (9-5, 3.43 ERA, 2 SV) and 21-yr old MR Tom Watkins (0-1, 5.33 ERA in 18 G).
November 6 – Gold Glove Awards are given out, with two Raccoons being honored: LF Vern Kinnear wins the award for the third time (1994, 1996), while CF Neil Reece wins his first major league Gold Glove award.
November 7 – More happy news from the Portland Raccoons front office: contract extensions have been signed with INF Marvin Ingall (for 4-yr, $2M) and MR Gabriel De La Rosa (4-yr, $1.4M)! For both players, this covers their last two years of arbitration eligibility and two years of free agency.
November 7 – Rookie of the Year awards are given to DEN 1B Gabriel Silva (.328, 6 HR, 41 RBI) and NYC 1B Mark Berry (.295, 17 HR, 49 RBI).
November 9 – The Raccoons announce a contract extension to SP Miguel Lopez, who receives a 5-yr, $3M contract. The contract buys out Lopez’ final year of arbitration eligibility and four years of free agency.
November 10 – Pitchers of the Year are NAS SP Javier Cruz (22-3, 2.81 ERA) and BOS SP Jesus Bautista (18-10, 2.12 ERA).
November 11 – And the best Hitters of the Year have also been announced: CIN LF/RF Dan Morris (.329, 29 HR, 109 RBI) and MIL OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.351, 4 HR, 57 RBI).
November 11 – The Canadiens trade for 2B Ramon Corona (.292, 1 HR, 114 RBI) and a minor leaguer, sending 3B Guy Hopper (.244, 1 HR, 10 RBI in 90 ML AB) to the Knights.
November 18 – The Knights acquire 36-yr old LF/RF Bob Arnold (.288, 20 HR, 435 RBI) from the Miners for a minor leaguer. Arnold was also with the Raccoons – twice.

Somehow I am stunned that Neil Reece has not won a Gold Glove before. He has collected as much as 3.0 WAR from his fielding alone, and you have to take into account that he is somewhat injury-prone and has played in more than 137 games just once in his career (147 games in 1993). Factoring in all that he has done in the majors so far, he has collected 41.7 WAR at age 31, and one third of that comes from fielding.

The contracts signed by Ingall and De La Rosa are flat, while Lopez’ is slightly back-loaded. Even giving that, we got Lopez for rather cheap. However, he has already lost two seasons to injuries, so you never know how much any given start will cost you in the end…

As far as the imminent David Brewer trade was concerned, I had a certain pitcher in my eye. However, it was impossible to work out the deal before free agents would file and teams would clean their books from old contract, since the current team of said pitcher was already overbudget. Said pitcher was a young left-hander, which probably wasn’t fitting too well on our roster right now with Saito and Lopez already here, but Saito is heading to the final year of his contract, and nobody knows whether a) he wants to keep pitching and b) we want him to keep pitching for us. (Although b) is not that much in doubt…)

So with Lopez, Ingall, and De La Rosa taken off the arbitration schedule, only Santana, Tamburrino, Kondo, Wedemeyer, and Utting remained. I offered the arbitration minimum of $171k for Santana and Kondo (their estimate), plus $200k for Utting, $240k for Tamburrino, and $500k for Wedemeyer.

While we were waiting to hear from the arbitrators, BNN entertained us with some statsy stuff:

Active pitchers with most career wins:
PIT Craig Hansen – 260
ATL Carlos Asquabal – 239
TIJ Woody Roberts – 239
IND Robbie Campbell – 232
POR Kisho Saito – 226

Ha. Kisho.

In the end, all our offers were met. That doesn’t change the fact that I see Santana, Kondo, and Utting as potential trade bait, although I have to admit that Jai Utting’s super utility profile elevates him above all the other powerless .260 batting corner infielders in the league.

Furthermore, all players that were offered salary arbitration instead of free agency (Lara, Kinnear, Green, Ramos, Vinson, Aycock) declined arbitration and were granted free agency on November 20. Now the winter can officially begin!

[Westheim]

In late November, there was quite some interest into pieces of our rotation from other teams, as the Indians, Scorpions, and Pacifics all tried to trade for either Jose Rivera or Miguel Lopez. Unfortunately, they were only willing to give high-prized post-peak players away (and the Pacifics offered C Lance Branch, but I have other plans), so I didn’t bite. Nobody could muster the money for David Brewer at that time, since everybody was totally fixated on those juicy free agents (half of them ex-Coons…). Besides, we are a man short in the rotation, and I can’t send certified starters away.

It turned out to be very hard to move David Brewer, mainly because of a lack of teams with budget space, and I wasn’t willing to take on any old warrior, either.

Well, the Canadiens had space. And a desire to have Brewer back.

Yeah. I’d rather saw off both of my arms!

November 23 – The Canadiens deal 28-yr old SP Lucio Munoz (16-27, 4.73 ERA) to the Warriors for 25-yr old RF/LF Henry Givens (.257, 13 HR, 123 RBI).
November 25 – The Aces divest themselves of rapidly aging, 38-yr old outfielder Xiao-Wei Li (.287, 44 HR, 798 RBI) and send him along with a non-prospect to the Stars, receiving 28-yr old 3B/SS George Waller (.286, 41 HR, 401 RBI) and a minor leaguer in return.
November 29 – The Aces move quick on their former player and now free agent OF Royce Green (.289, 125 HR, 462 RBI) and sign him to a 4-yr, $4.56M deal. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round draft pick.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 23 players are taken over three rounds. The Raccoons lose AAA MR Kokei Kondo to the Wolves.
December 1 – The Warriors add ex-SAC 2B/SS Jim Stein (.315, 48 HR, 628 RBI) for 5-yr, $5.69M.
December 5 – The Scorpions sign 34-yr old ex-SAL MR Tim Hess (54-57, 2.36 ERA, 122 SV) to a 3-yr, $1.56M contract.
December 7 – Three titles later, ex-WAS LF Jeffery Brown (.330, 243 HR, 1,350 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $3.48M contract with the division rival Miners. Brown, who spent his whole 17-year career with the Capitals, voices his desire to win three more rings.
December 8 – At age 39, SP Craig Hansen (260-190, 3.30 ERA) signs another contract, 2-yr, $2.12M, to play for the Knights. Hansen, who spent his career with the Miners and Rebels, hopes to make a launch at becoming a 300-game winner.
December 10 – Ex-SFW MR Raúl Vargas (55-59, 2.26 ERA, 334 SV) signs a 2-yr, $1.12M contract with the Bayhawks.
December 10 – In addition to that, the Bayhawks add 32-yr old 1B Carlos Guzmán (.301, 38 HR, 258 RBI) in a trade with the Condors. 32-yr old OF Antonio Rodriguez (.291, 92 HR, 940 RBI) is heading to Tijuana, and minor leaguers are also exchanged.
December 10 – Coveted 27-yr old ex-LAP SP Angel Romero (76-66, 3.45 ERA) inks with the Falcons for 5-yr, $5.17M.
December 10 – The Crusaders acquire C Antonio Clemente (.265, 17 HR, 231 RBI) from the Warriors, and send over MR Ivan Lopez (44-42, 2.65 ERA, 154 SV) and a minor leaguer.
December 10 – The Canadiens trade for the Pacifics’ 25-yr old 3B Raymond Sutton (.270, 4 HR, 34 RBI) and a non-prospect, sending MR Jose Torres (5-9, 5.34 ERA, 4 SV) and a minor leaguer to California.

That was also the day the winter meetings in Cincinnati kicked off. It was certainly a busy day, and I was talking, too.

The rotation issue is a problem. Right now, we have Saito, Lopez, Rivera, … Flores?? … and then it ends completely. Lara didn’t re-sign, Ramos didn’t re-sign, and De La Rosa is only a stop gap solution. You might argue that we can put Scott Wade back into the rotation. We’re not gonna win anyway next season, why bother? By the way, next season will also be the final year in Scott Wade’s contract, besides Saito’s.

In AAA, there’s Kelly Fairchild. Well. He was spanked even in AAA last season (7-14, 5.12 ERA). Putting Fairchild into your rotation is like conceding defeat … before the gates have even opened on the 1998 season.

There’s Anthony Mosher, whom we got from the Bayhawks a year ago (for the dismal Tim Mallandain), but who also struggled to a 6-8 record with a 4.72 ERA in AAA. Apart from these two, there’s Ralph Ford, our blue chip SP, and he’s off limits, just starting AAA this year.

The other issue was David Brewer, whose flipping huge contract was hard to frigg. Or so. In a perfect world, we would combine the two issues.

The pitcher I really really really wanted was San Fran’s Tony Hamlyn. He had gone 13-12 with a 3.15 ERA in his rookie season now. A 22-year old Canadian southpaw with killjoy stuff, Hamlyn fit right into what I needed badly, and wanted even worse-ly…?

But the Bayhawks were unable to squeeze Brewer’s contract into their budget. How much of that was due to them having free agent contracts on the table? No one knew. Hamlyn was to make the minimum, so we were trying to cover up $1.4M for a team that was barely even with its budget. It was impossible. By the time I had enough players to come to Portland in the deal, their GM Al Johnson thought I was completely nuts. It was not working out.

The other team I was talking to were the Condors. Here I was after 23-year old right-hander Randy Farley (who admittedly was one level of excellence below Hamlyn, but we couldn’t get Hamlyn, so we’d better stop crying now). Farley had not yet appeared in the majors but was basically ready, posting a 16-7 record with a 2.65 ERA in AAA this season. Vince Guerra rated him a POT 12/15/14, one to two points below Hamlyn across the board, but the soft skills, stamina, GB% and so were great. Randy was a bright kid, who forewent an extended academic career for playing baseball. I love guys like that.

The problem was that I was trying to milk the Condors for all they had. We had no catcher for next season, so I was after their 32-yr old veteran Freddy Jackson to fill the spot. The Condors had no blue chip prospects to go after, unfortunately, at least according to Vince. To be honest, Farley was their top prospect.

The Condors wouldn’t trade Jackson and Farley for just Brewer. And here we tried to strip each other of our underpants, and it didn’t lead anywhere nice. I went to bed at 2am, without a trade.

I didn’t meet with the Condors the next day, and when we regrouped on the 12th, the Condors had made some shady moves and were overbudget.

Whatever the issue was, it cleared by Sunday, the last day of the meetings. GM Carlos Aguila called me back in the early afternoon to meet again. We started again with Brewer for Farley (scrapping the convoluted 7-player deal we had worked out a few days earlier), but I was not happy with just that. In the end, I squeezed not only the current #20 ABL prospect (Farley) out of the Condors, but also the #80, LF/RF Chris Parker.

December 11 – The Condors send 32-yr old OF/1B Erwin Hooper (.269, 61 HR, 394 RBI) to the Capitals for 27-yr old MR Shane Sweet (0-4, 3.42 ERA, 3 SV).
December 12 – The Indians grab 32-yr old RF/LF Eneas Spinelli (.263, 81 HR, 442 RBI) from the Condors, and trade 27-yr old OF Luis Maldonado (.245, 40 HR, 182 RBI) to them.
December 14 – The Raccoons trade the ABL’s top earner, 30-yr old 1B/2B David Brewer (.342, 63 HR, 647 RBI) to the Condors for 23-yr old AAA SP Randy Farley, 22-yr old AA LF/RF Chris Parker, and 21-yr old AAA RF/LF Clyde Brady.
December 14 – The Miners acquire 25-yr old 1B/2B Hector Ramirez (.294, 12 HR, 201 RBI) from the Thunder for 30-yr old MR Luis Herrera (24-54, 4.56 ERA, 4 SV). Both teams also exchange minor leaguers.
December 16 – 37-year old ex-CIN 2B/SS Paul Connolly (.272, 130 HR, 1,257 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $1.7M contract with the Aces. Connolly is 23 hits removed from breaking into the 3,000 base knocks club.
December 17 – The Aces keep adding, inking 33-yr old 2B Germán Roldán (.263, 33 HR, 464 RBI) to a 2-yr, $1.42M contract.
December 17 – 1996 POTY SP Dennis Fried (98-71, 3.66 ERA) signs a 5-yr, 5.66M extension with the Blue Sox.
December 19 – Former Crusader C Ruben Melendez (.232, 111 HR, 496 RBI) decides to join the Warriors on a huge 6-yr, $6.72M deal.
December 21 – The Raccoons and Warriors strike a deal that sends 26-yr old 3B Gabriel Rodriguez (.284, 2 HR, 26 RBI in 141 AB) to Sioux Falls for 29-yr old C Werner Turner (.272, 16 HR, 190 RBI) and 22-yr old AAA MR Bob Joly.
December 22 – The Scorpions take on former Canadien 1B/LF Salvador Mendez (.346, 9 HR, 381 RBI). The 29-yr old receives a 4-yr, $4.72M contract.
December 22 – The Pacifics land ex-CHA CL Alex Byrd (43-29, 2.51 ERA, 139 SV) at a 2-yr, $1.13M price point.
December 23 – The Cyclones stock up on pitching with the signing of ex-PIT SP Marc Padgett (76-69, 4.27 ERA) to a 3-yr, $2.31M deal.
December 25 – The Miners find a replacement for Padgett in ex-CHA SP Luis Guzmán (135-98, 3.38 ERA). The 35-yr old gets a 3-yr, $2.13M deal.
December 25 – Former Pacific SP Bastyao Caixinha (182-156, 3.42 ERA) returns to the CL South by signing a 3-yr, $3.6M contract with the Condors.
December 27 – 36-year old LF/RF Michael Root (.293, 338 HR, 1,465 RBI) squeezes a 2-yr, $2.08M contract out of the Stars. Root, last with the Cyclones, has become a defensive liability that about negates his still potent bat. He is the career home run leader in the ABL.
December 31 – The Raccoons sign 31-yr old ex-LVA C Mario Guerrero (.263, 10 HR, 221 RBI) to a 1-yr, $200k contract.

So, let’s have another look at those prospects!

#20 ABL prospect Randy Farley, 23, was the Condors’ first round (5th overall) draft pick last season. He started out at AA and pitched a full season in AAA last year, going 16-7 with a 2.65 ERA and 175 K in 210 IP. He could be a workhorse with high stamina and tends to keep the ball on the ground, too. This young right-hander will start the season in our rotation.

#80 ABL prospect Chris Parker, 22, was the Falcons’ seventh round pick in 1994. He struggled his first year and was released, to be picked up by the Condors. His left-handed bat swung for a .906 OPS in AA last year, where he was an All Star. He batted only .196 in 11 games in AAA, but he will surely correct that this year. A solid defender, Parker has great speed and range, and can be as much of a threat on the bases as at the plate. He is not yet on the 40-man roster.

Unranked RF/LF Clyde Brady, 21, got a callup late September and thus is on the 40-man roster already. A natural left-hander and corner infielder, Brady tore up both AA and (to a lesser extent) AAA last season, hitting a combined 22 dingers. His corner outfield defense is very good and nothing to complain about, although he is a bit less agile than Parker.

Both Parker and Brady will start at AAA next season. Given that we have close to zero outfield depth, Brady is up there along with Miranda and Kent when it comes to getting an injury callup.

With winter meetings over, we still had no catcher – well, we had two, but I didn’t want a part of either one – and backup outfield was wonky as all hell. Same for the bullpen.

Then I got a call from Sioux Falls. The Warriors wanted to have Gabriel Rodriguez and offered C Werner Turner, who was expendable after they had signed Ruben Melendez a few days earlier. Turner fit well into my needs and was bound to be a free agent at year’s end. They initially offered a different pitcher, but I wanted either Bob Joly or Nolan Hill, another right-hander. They would only give up Joly, and that’s fine. He will start in AAA. An international discovery from Canada, Joly was ranked as high as #47 on the prospect list a few years ago but had since faded.

The starting outfield of Buell – Reece – Newton was set. There was no reason to sign some expensive slack or trade for it. We trade only for prospects or by-catch. After that, we only had Roberto Miranda (who managed to have a sub-.400 OPS last year) and Jason Kent. Kent had been quite good last year, but had never even played at AAA. One of them was going to have a shot at a backup spot anyway, and Kent certainly had his nose ahead of Miranda. We might add a free agent for cheap as the fourth man in the new year, or we might just keep truckin’ with Miranda, and don’t give a heck. Both play all three outfield spots capably. Kent had a better bat, Miranda was a qualified pinch-runner… besides, we still have Jai Utting on the roster as super utility man. We don’t HAVE to carry five outfielders!

We don’t even have to carry 25 players. The Willamette Institute for the Limbless and the Blind has this 17-year old outfielder on the school team, Davey. He’s only got two fingers and can’t swing a bat for his life, but I gotta tell you, he can tell the funniest jokes all day long. Might lighten up the mood in the dugout during those 8-game losing streaks we’re gonna be having.

By the way, 1997 is history, and Vern Kinnear, David Vinson, Sidney Aycock, Hector Lara, and Jose Ramos are all still unsigned. We may not have eight first and supplemental round picks after all…

The mood, it is very dark and hopeless…

I don’t have to mention that nobody will come to the park next year? Fan interest was in the high 90s last November. It is 68 now. Quite bitchy, these fans. I suspect another Agitator campaign, I need to arrange for a dead skunk shoved into their overnight mailbox. Right now, we have successfully shed some 15 WAR in the offseason. If I can find a way to send Reece and Saito to Siberia, we will reach replacement level, huzzah!

Could be lonely at the park. Well, I still hope you lot will show up…

[Westheim]

And here comes 1998. On January 2, the Agitator ran a story about how the Knights were rumored to leave Atlanta, and how Chicago was constantly courting teams to come there, and then also asked whether the Raccoons would come out of the doldrums before Chicago got a team.

We had set our catching corps straight with the trade for Werner Turner and the addition of Mario Guerrero. There is no clear #1 between those two. That Turner will make almost twice Guerrero’s salary is no indicator of a ranking. Together they will cost $580k as placeholders. Depending on how Julio Mata does this season, one or none of them may be resigned when their contracts are up.

The trade for Turner sent 3B Gabriel Rodriguez to Sioux Falls. Now, under different circumstances, Rodriguez might have been an option as the 3B starter, but Rodriguez had been through a few teams at age 26, and had never even remotely caught on anywhere. The 98 AB he got between Tijuana and Portland last season are the most he has had in any season. Remember, he was a throw-in in the deal that sent Ben O’Morrissey to Tijuana, while 19-yr old Ralph Ford had been the main prize.

Owner Carlos Valdés, not quite recuperated from last year (and it took A LOT of lying in the sun at the pool in his home in Mexico to even calm him down) – but then neither am I – is unhappy with the current roster composition, notifying me to get the weaknesses at first, third, short, and right fixed. Not trying to offend you, Carly, but no words about our rotation who won a grand total of 25 games last year, or our atomic meltdown of a bullpen? Did you fall asleep at your pool while compiling the list!?

Truth be told, the Coons went 68-94 last year. That’s horrible. Since then, we have dropped 15 WAR. So while I belief that Randy Farley will be reasonably effective and earn his 2 WAR, and Crowe and Guerin, playing a full season, might help as well, we are seriously looking into the abyss of losing a hundred in ’98. I will be looking for a starting pitcher to replace Esteban Flores. If you make five starts and don’t win any, it can be the offense just as well (and the Coons’ was merely average), and Kisho Saito f.e. has a stretch of five games where he doesn’t win any about every year. So it’s not always the pitcher.

If you start 11 games, and go oh-seven, however……

At the moment I have Jose Rivera, who missed most of last year hurting, as the #2 guy. Not that I think Rivera is a #2 guy, but I want someone to split our best two starters, Saito and Lopez, who are both left-handers, and I don’t want the rookie to do that (Farley), and neither do I want the guy who is still looking in every nook and cranny for his first big league win.

Oh, boy. This is getting one of those posts where the mind just wanders aimlessly about …

Well.

It’s January 1. Factoring in all the players on the 40-man roster that are already / still here, we have about $2.16M to spend on a respectable right-handed starter, and a backup infielder. The reason for the first is that Flores in the rotation has no thrill to me. The reason for the latter is that we currently have five infielders aligned with Weeds, Ingall, Guerin, and Crowe around the diamond, and Utting as a super utility man. Crowe and Weeds can’t play up the middle, so we need someone to pluck in there on defense if needed. It would be really helpful to get a left-handed bat for the job, since except for the lefty Wedemeyer, all the others bat right-handed. Among our outfielders, Buell and Reece are right-handers, Kent and Miranda are left-handers. Werner Turner is a right-handed batter. Guerrero and Newton are the only switch-hitters we currently have. Since Kent and Miranda are not that likely to play at the same time (if we don’t sign a replacement for one of them anyway…), that leaves us a bit too weak from the left side of the plate. A left-handed backup could easily spell both middle infielders against a right-handed pitcher. In AAA, Steve Caddock would fit the mold cast here, as long as you don’t mind a .138 batter.

Conceicao Guerin, 24, is a particular case. The stereotype defensive shortstop, he batted .266/.333/.321 last season. In 272 ML AB, he has no home runs and only one triple. Don’t even expect a double (he has 10). Still, batting .266 ain’t shabby, however, his defense was not very good last year. He played 486.2 innings at short, and made 8 errors for a .966 fielding percentage that doesn’t thrill me. His ZR was a nice +5.4, though, so in a full season of some 1,200 innings, he might make 1 to 1.5 WAR from defense. But those errors were a lot, to be honest.

I went back to Jorge Salazar, who manned hell’s corner for seven and a half years for us. Actually, let’s discard 1997 entirely, because he was traded early in the year and the Miners used him mostly at second base. Let’s look at his numbers 1990-96, on defense (his offense was markedly better than Guerin’s, despite no power either) I remembered him to be so much better. Was I mistaken?

Jorge Salazar – Defensive Values at SS for POR, 1990-96
1990: 1,242 IP – 7 E - .990 PCT - +20.3 ZR
1991: 1,114 IP – 8 E - .985 PCT - +15.6 ZR
1992: 1,253 IP – 10 E - .985 PCT - +13.7 ZR
1993: 1,155 IP – 10 E - .983 PCT - +6.3 ZR
1994: 1,266 IP – 14 E - .979 PCT - +3.0 ZR
1995: 1,170 IP – 6 E - .990 PCT - +6.8 ZR
1996: 892 IP – 15 E - .966 PCT - -3.3 ZR

So, yes and no. Salazar’s first three years were nothing but outstanding, and he still held up well in his mid-30s. The last year, meh, not so much. Maybe I am spoiled by the high level of play we got from Salazar for most of the decade.

Like I said, the mind wanders. It is still January 2.

January 2 – The Pacifics have a new closer in 32-yr old ex-TIJ Jared Chaney (42-39, 2.83 ERA, 160 SV), who has agreed with the team on a 2-yr, $842k contract.
January 3 – The Loggers sign ex-SFW CL Ricardo Medina (62-59, 2.45 ERA, 275 SV). The 34-year old signs a 3-yr, $2.57M deal.
January 3 – In turn the Warriors draw away CL North veteran OF Luis Arroyo (.277, 95 HR, 478 RBI). The 28-year old ex-Canadien will earn $4.98M over five years.
January 6 – The Canadiens trade 26-yr old SP Nick Jacobson (2-6, 4.11 ERA) to the Indians for 18-yr old prospect 2B Sixto Garcia.
January 7 – The Condors agree to a 2-yr, $1.32M contract with ex-POR C David Vinson (.246, 88 HR, 457 RBI). The 32-yr old type A free agent gives the Raccoons a supplemental round pick and the Condors’ second round pick.
January 12 – The Warriors get a new closer, signing 28-yr old ex-PIT Lawrence Bentley (36-29, 2.28 ERA, 181 SV) to a 3-yr, $2.7M contract.
January 24 – The Raccoons trade 31-yr old AAA C Nori Kondo (.245, 11 HR, 129 RBI) to the Gold Sox for 26-yr old RF/CF Jorge Villegas (.238, 31 HR, 134 RBI).
January 24 – The Pacifics and 33-yr old ex-CHA SP Fernando Chavez (121-133, 3.88 ERA) agree on a 3-yr, $2.14M contract.
January 27 – Ex-POR LF Vern Kinnear (.263, 72 HR, 397 RBI) signs a 5-yr, $5.3M contract with the Atlanta Knights. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round pick.
January 27 – The Portland Raccoons announce the signing of 26-yr old SP Bryce Hildred (2-0, 3.18 ERA), whose big league career is limited to six relief appearances for the Stars in 1995. He receives a 1-yr, $150k contract.
January 30 – The Crusaders add 30-yr old OF Alejandro Olvera (.265, 49 HR, 312 RBI) on a 2-yr, $1.44M contract. Olvera has bounced around, playing now for his fifth different team since 1994.
February 5 – The Pacifics sign ex-IND CL Javier Navarro (33-40, 2.49 ERA, 204 SV) on a 1-yr, $920k deal.

When David Vinson was taken on by the Condors, I decided to pitch another offer to Vern Kinnear should he still be around mid-February. It may not be wise, it may not be financially prudent, but … but he’s Vern Kinnear, and has 20 Gold Gloves and I love him. Well, the point became moot before the end of the month, but … hmz.

The pick we received for Vinson is the 17th pick in the second round. The Condors had already forfeited their first round pick to the Pacifics earlier, when they signed SP Bastyao Caixinha. That’s unfortunate, but won’t matter if all the other free agents will be washed ashore someplace or other. Ramos, Lara, and Aycock are still unsigned.

Two weeks after the Vinson signing I got a proposal from the Gold Sox. It was Villegas for Kondo right away. I was shopping Kondo anyway, so this was a natural fit. Villegas is going to replace one between Miranda and Kent and I have not decided which one will be sent down yet. Both have several options left.

I had Vince Guerra filter all remaining free agents with good defense up the middle in the infield, and for batting left-handed. The number of results: zero. Steve Caddock’s stock is on the rise.

The Hildred signing is one of those shrewd moves I make occasionally that have not clicked in 15 years. The last one was Winston Thompson, I think. His AAA stats were not very thrilling apart from 208 K last season, but Vince Guerra liked him, so why not. He has no options and he isn’t even a threat to Esteban Flores, so we may waive him regardless to get him onto the AAA team in April.

Draft day forecast: right now the Coons are due to have four of the first 45, six of the first 64, and seven of the first 75 picks. Pick your favorite number. And I still hope to get another pick or two (or three?) for Lara, Ramos, and Aycock. On the other hand, if Lara or Ramos are still around at the end of March ........

With the preseason beginning, and good Vern Kinnear being knighted, fan interest has reached 64, and is falling further.

Anyone still reading?

Anyone?

[dynaboyj]

I'm sad to hear that Nori Kondo's gone. I liked him while he was around. At least Wedemeyer is still with you, and a bunch of new prospects. I'm looking forward to the rebuild.

[Westheim]

February 9 – 30-yr old SP Hector Lara (86-123, 4.27 ERA) returns to the Crusaders for 3-yr, $2.47M. The Raccoons receive a supplemental round draft pick.
February 9 – The Warriors ink C Sidney Aycock (.274, 19 HR, 222 RBI) to a 1-yr, $456k contract. The Raccoons receive another supplemental round draft pick.
February 9 – Career saves leader Andres Ramirez (83-99, 2.55 ERA, 607 SV) at age 38 receives a 2-yr, $1.58M contract from the Condors. Ramirez comes of a World Series title with the Capitals.
February 10 – Because the damage to the ligaments in his elbow is too extensive to ever return to pitching effectively again, 28-yr old SP Ramon Sotelo (60-76, 3.62 ERA) is forced to retire. The Venezuelan right-hander spent his entire career with the Wolves, who signed him at the age of 17. The former #5 prospect spent more than three of his ten years as a professional recuperating from injuries.
February 18 – 38-yr old ex-IND SP Robbie Campbell (232-171, 3.31 ERA) jumps onto the Cyclones’ bandwagon on a 1-yr, $580k contract.
February 27 – 31-yr old left-handed MR Javier Ortíz (21-14, 3.40 ERA, 9 SV), who had suffered severe skull fractures in an off-field assault last August, announces that he has lost virtually all eyesight in his left eye, whose socket had been shattered in the attack, and retires from baseball. Ortíz appeared in 312 games for the Indians, Titans, and Pacifics.
March 6 – The Condors add 32-yr old ex-VAN 1B/3B Jesus Galindo (.262, 10 HR, 65 RBI) to a 1-yr, $362k contract.
March 8 – The Raccoons agree to terms with 34-yr old ex-PIT SP Manuel “Bam Bam” Movonda (149-145, 3.78 ERA). The Colombian right-hander signed a 1-yr, $425k contract. The Raccoons forfeit their second round draft pick to the Miners.
March 18 – The Condors keep splurging money at people, signing 30-yr old ex-LVA CL Cory Maupin (32-34, 2.82 ERA, 170 SV) to a 1-yr, $670k contract.
March 28 – Veteran OF Clement Clark (.308, 55 HR, 755 RBI), who spent the last few years with the Crusaders, joins the Thunder. The 35-year old receives a 1-yr, $372k contract.

About fifteen years later, we have come full circle. Around 1984/85, I was trying to get the Falcons to trade Movonda for one of my starters, we actually HAD a deal – and I didn’t pull through. The thoughts haunted me for years. Oh, what could have been!

Now, Movonda is a Raccoon and our new #2 starter. For what it’s worth. He pitched to a 4.96 ERA and 1.54 WHIP last season, and everything that made me make an offer was the .349 BABIP he suffered from. We surrendered our own second round pick rather than the second round pick we got from the Condors.

And by the way, whom else will these Condors sign!? They have like 80 players a salaries of a billion dollars by now! Their roster strikes horrible fear, and they gobbled up ex-Coons David Brewer, Ben O’Morrissey, and David Vinson in the last few months, plus a-little-longer-ex-Coons Roberto Carrillo and Toru Fujita – that’s right, one of the SACs, the Single Appearance Coons. Whom else do they have? Woody Roberts, Bastyao Caixinha, Harry Griggs, Andres Ramirez, Cory Maupin, Bruce Boyle, Jesus Galindo, Raúl Solís, Chun-mei Liang, Rory Gorden, Dale Wales, Antonio Rodriguez, Luis Maldonado, Martin Horn, Serafim Laborinhos … they can’t even fit them all onto the roster! Those are your 1998 champions, right there. I’ve got five on it!

The rotation is now fixed at Saito – Movonda – Lopez – Farley – Rivera. Esteban Flores and Bryce Hildred are no longer needed, but neither has options left. One possible move would be to have Flores pitch as mop up / swing man and instead send Pancho Padilla (who has one last option) to AAA. Hildred will be waived anyway. Worst thing that can happen is that we won’t have to pay the $150k for the seventh guy on the depth chart – at best.

With Jose Ramos going unsigned, we are looking at having six of the first 57 picks in the 1998 draft, and eight of the first 85.

The draft will be the high point of the year. It could only be topped by Kisho Saito pitching a no-hitter and striking out 15 in the same game.

[Westheim]

Let’s review the pre-1997 season post for the payroll table in entirety.

Originally Posted by Westheim

Payroll table time. Be assured this ain’t pretty. The following is our payroll structure on the eve of the 1997 season. As usual, players on the minimum are omitted. Players that either have more than six years of service time or have less than 1 1/2 years of service time are omitted from the appendix.

1B/2B David Brewer - $1.5M ($6.2M through 2000)
SP Kisho Saito - $1M ($2M through 1998)
OF Neil Reece - $950k ($4.2M through 2000)
INF Jorge Salazar - $945k (will be free agent) #
3B/1B Ben O’Morrissey - $900k ($6.2M through 2002)
-
OF Royce Green - $821k (will be free agent) #
LF Vern Kinnear - $550k (will be free agent) #
SP Miguel Lopez - $480k (will be arbitration eligible) *
C David Vinson - $450k (will be free agent) #
1B Liam Wedemeyer - $380k (will be arbitration eligible) *
-
MR Andres Otero - $350k (will be free agent) #
INF Marvin Ingall - $300k (will be arbitration eligible) *
CL Tzu-jao Ban - $270k (will be free agent) #
SP Scott Wade - $270k ($550k through 1998)
MR Gabriel De La Rosa - $210k (will be arbitration eligible) *
-
MR Daniel Miller - $200k ($1M through 2000)
MR Jose Ramos - $164k (will be free agent) #
C Nori Kondo - $159k (will be arbitration eligible) *

* Service times (y.d): Ban (5.153), Ramos (5.077), Green (5.019), Kinnear (5.008), Lopez (4.073), Wedemeyer (3.118), Kondo (3.076), De La Rosa (3.008), Ingall (2.163)

In addition to that, the following players will be (or could be under the super 2 clause) arbitration eligible: Salcido (1.153), Newton (1.116 – unlikely)

We will have 17 players on a minimum contract. Total payroll amounts to approximately $11.8M (plus $1.8M for staff), which is too much for a $16.4M budget to remain competitive in the “soft” areas of scouting and development. I will have $2.9M in those and we are still overbudget.

Hard year ahead, and don’t even get me started on the flock of players that will stretch their open hands out to me once fall kicks in.

Yeah, thank god we kept the flock together, huh? You will hardly find any name again on the 1998 table:

Players on the minimum are omitted. Players that either have more than six years of service time or have less than 1 1/2 years of service time, or have signed a contract that will outlast their arbitration eligibility are omitted from the appendix.

OF Neil Reece - $1.1M ($3.3M through 2000)
SP Kisho Saito - $1M (will be free agent) #
SP Miguel Lopez - $550k ($3M through 2002)
INF Marvin Ingall - $500k ($2M through 2001)
1B Liam Wedemeyer - $500k (will be arbitration eligible) *
-
SP Manuel Movonda - $425k (will be free agent) #
C Werner Turner - $380k (will be free agent) #
MR Gabriel De La Rosa - $350k ($1.4M through 2001)
CL Scott Wade - $280k (will be free agent) #
MR Brad Tamburrino - $240k (will be free agent) #
-
MR Daniel Miller - $230k ($800k through 2000)
INF/LF/CF Jai Utting - $200k (will be arbitration eligible) *
C Mario Guerrero - $200k (will be free agent) #
MR Alonso Santana - $171k (will be arbitration eligible) *
RF/CF Jorge Villegas - $171k (will be arbitration eligible) *
-
SP Bryce Hildred - $150k (will return to minimum contract) *

* Service times (y.d): Turner (5.034), Tamburrino (5.000), Wedemeyer (4.118), Villegas (3.095), Utting (2.169), Santana (2.153), Newton (2.116), Rivera (2.003)

In addition to that, the following players will be (or could be under the super 2 clause) arbitration eligible: Donis (1.167)

Quite a difference, huh? Well, we rank a sound 22nd in payroll this season for a reason after going from $11.8M in player payroll all the way down to $8.6M.

[Westheim]

1998 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 1997 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Kisho Saito, 37, B:L, T:L (12-13, 3.06 ERA | 226-166, 3.17 ERA) – workhorse and strikeout machine doing his job at the top of the rotation, entering his 14th full season with the Raccoons. Well, that strikeout thing is slowly eroding away from him, but last year he mostly suffered from insufficient run support and could have easily won 16 games with a better offense behind him that betrayed him in close games. Last year of a huge 6-year contract.
SP Manuel Movonda *, 34, B:R, T:R (14-11, 4.96 ERA | 149-145, 3.78 ERA) – acquired as free agent, he struggled some the last two years with the Miners; still strikes out 170-something routinely, but has lost much of his pinpoint accuracy and command.
SP Miguel Lopez, 29, B:S, T:L (11-10, 3.48 ERA | 58-34, 3.25 ERA) – struck out only 122 batters last season after missing most of two of the three seasons prior to injury; there may be some doubt about his effectiveness right now, but it didn’t affect his ERA and WHIP (1.18); in first year of 5-year contract.
SP Randy Farley *, 24, B:R, T:R (rookie) – acquired in the David Brewer trade, Farley was 16-7 with a 2.65 ERA in AAA last season; works a slider and a changeup, but is not 100% yet on his control.
SP Jose Rivera, 25, B:L, T:R (2-4, 4.45 ERA | 16-10, 3.28 ERA) – missed most of last season to injury, making only ten starts; won 14 games out of nothing in ’96; he usually is well enough when he mixes his arsenal properly.

MU Pancho Padilla, 24, B:R, T:R (2-1, 5.81 ERA | 5-1, 4.73 ERA) – has struggled with the walks, and the big hits, excessively during his callups in the last two years, pitching in 53 games with 50 walks and 59 strikeouts in 59 innings; whether he can be effective even in mop-up service remains to be seen.
MR Alonso Santana, 30, B:L, T:L (2-1, 3.28 ERA, 1 SV | 10-13, 4.39 ERA, 1 SV) – was mostly ineffective last season, walking six per nine innings, and was supposed to leave, but we couldn’t really find a replacement; southpaw relievers have been our Achilles heel for some time now.
MR Daniel Miller, 29, B:S, T:R (6-6, 3.29 ERA | 27-22, 3.42 ERA, 20 SV) – struggled badly with the walks last season, which left him unproductive for chunks of last season.
MR Brad Tamburrino, 28, B:R, T:R (4-5, 4.44 ERA, 4 SV | 14-10, 3.51 ERA, 16 SV) – acquired in mid-season he was initially lights out until the second we put him in the closer’s role. From that point on he was just lit up, lit up, and lit up. Will be a free agent for the first time after this year.
SU Antonio Donis, 25, B:L, T:L (0-9, 4.54 ERA | 13-18, 4.07 ERA) – his dazzling stuff didn’t help him when he started last year in the rotation; he just doesn’t cut it as a starter due to him getting spent within four or five innings. Had more success when relieving late in the year.
SU Gabriel De La Rosa, 27, B:R, T:R (4-7, 2.70 ERA, 15 SV | 19-13, 2.16 ERA, 38 SV) – can be relied on to be effective, but he just can’t stand the pressure of closing, it seems; we have certainly tried to make him comfy in the ninth, but to no avail.
CL Scott Wade, 35, B:R, T:R (5-10, 4.98 ERA, 6 SV | 154-104, 3.52 ERA, 6 SV) – his wonderful starting career as a 2-pitch guy came to an end abruptly last season, when he just couldn’t get anybody out as a starter; he went 6/7 as a closer late in the year, and looked much better in the shorter outings.

C Werner Turner *, 29, B:R, T:R (.289, 4 HR, 23 RBI | .272, 16 HR, 190 RBI) – acquired in trade from the Warriors for Gabriel Rodriguez, Turner has not been a primary catcher since 1994; is a defensive catcher for the most part.
C Mario Guerrero *, 31, B:S, T:R (.291, 0 HR, 10 RBI | .263, 10 HR, 221 RBI) – signed as free agent for one season, after spending his career with the Aces; was the primary catcher a few years in the mid-90s, but has spent most of his career as a backup.

1B Liam Wedemeyer, 28, B:L, T:L (.260, 24 HR, 109 RBI | .276, 129 HR, 454 RBI) – huge power threat, terrible self-control at the plate (159 K in ’97), but very decent defense for an oomph monster, Wedemeyer, who is still arbitration eligible, continues to be a major factor in whether his team wins or loses.
1B/2B/3B/SS Marvin Ingall, 28, B:R, T:R (.292, 7 HR, 68 RBI | .297, 17 HR, 139 RBI) – finally became a starter last season after we divested us of Jorge Salazar, and was incredibly effective in the role; he’ll start at second base, inheriting for the traded David Brewer.
SS Conceicao Guerin, 24, B:R, T:R (.266, 0 HR, 21 RBI | .265, 0 HR, 26 RBI) – starting shortstop with very good defense, although not as good as advertised (8 errors in 83 games last year), with a so far surprisingly decent bat.
3B Mike Crowe, 27, B:R, T:R (.250, 3 HR, 24 RBI | .240, 4 HR, 29 RBI) – took over as third base starter once Ben O’Morrissey was shipped out in the middle of last season, but got hurt before the season was over and couldn’t show all that he’s got. Nobody claims he’s as good as O’Morrissey, not even Crowe...
1B/3B/LF/SS/2B/CF Jai Utting, 30, B:R, T:R (.265, 4 HR, 50 RBI | .271, 10 HR, 139 RBI) – after arriving as a waiver claim off the Knights’ roster mid-season, Utting was used mostly as a super utility guy, and will continue to be used as such this season.
1B/2B/3B/SS/LF Steve Caddock, 28, B:L, T:R (.138, 1 HR, 4 RBI | .143, 1 HR, 6 RBI) – won a job by batting left-handed and possessing strong defense all over the infield, and not because of his batting proficiency.

LF/RF Stephen Buell, 22, B:R, T:R (.285, 3 HR, 53 RBI | .288, 4 HR, 64 RBI) – this hotshot can move over to left, his by far better position, with Vern Kinnear – sadly – departed; Buell has a sporty glove, and a very good contact bat with doubles power, although he may not live up to Kinnear’s numbers in home runs.
CF/LF Neil Reece, 31, B:R, T:R (.281, 11 HR, 64 RBI | .313, 106 HR, 528 RBI) – fantastic defense in center, fantastic at the plate – you can’t help yourself but love him. Unfortunately the injury bug keeps chewing on him, and he has not played a full season since ’93 without heading to the DL. His home run power also seems to erode, since he hasn’t challenged the 20 dingers in a few years.
LF/RF/CF Luke Newton, 26, B:S, T:R (.282, 2 HR, 27 RBI | .254, 4 HR, 60 RBI) – great defender, he never got his shot at starting until last season, when all the big boys were hurt, and Newton finally made starts all the day – and then got hurt himself and labored on a sprained ankle for months. He will be back starting in right at least against the left-handers.
RF/CF Jorge Villegas *, 27, B:L, T:L (.228, 7 HR, 41 RBI | .238, 31 HR, 134 RBI) – acquired in trade from the Gold Sox for Nori Kondo (who will certainly hit for the cycle soon), Villegas tends to try to do too much too often, resulting in more K’s than necessary.
RF/LF/CF Jason Kent, 24, B:L, T:L (.296, 1 HR, 5 RBI | .296, 1 HR, 5 RBI) – jumped AAA entirely last season, going from Ham Lake to Portland without intermediate stop, and performed above expectations in a limited capacity. He will be used mostly as a pinch-hitter with our starting three not necessarily in need of defensive replacements.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
The following three players were waived and designated for assignment to start the season:
SP Esteban Flores, 24, B:R, T:R (0-7, 4.70 ERA | 0-7, 4.70 ERA) – made 11 starts last year, not winning even one of them; we might lose him on waivers, but I can’t see him being more effective as a mop-up and I’d prefer him to recollect himself at AAA.
SP Bryce Hildred *, 27, B:R, T:R (did not appear | 2-0, 3.18 ERA) – signed as free agent before we added Movonda, and is expendable now; limited to six relief appearances in his big league career.
C Ron McDonald, 26, B:R, T:R (.180, 1 HR, 1 RBI | .234, 2 HR, 16 RBI) – got his chance last September, didn’t use it; with clearly better defensive and offensive options shipped in, he’s become expendable.

Opening day lineups:
RF Newton – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – SS Guerin – C Turner – P Saito

The Raccoons disintegrated for good over the winter, losing an astonishing 10.7 WAR to free agency and trades with the following big contributors: Royce Green (-2.3), Hector Lara (-2.5), Vern Kinnear (-2.5), David Brewer (-5.9); our only upside of significance comes from Manuel Movonda (+4.1) –

Top 5: Warriors (+9.3), Condors (+9.1), Knights (+9.0), Aces (+3.0), Bayhawks (+1.9)
Bottom 5: Miners (-6.0), Indians (-6.4), Capitals (-7.2), Pacifics (-9.2), Raccoons (-10.7)

Of all of our free agents, only Jose Ramos remains unsigned. I think he might be an upgrade over at least Pancho Padilla, but he still insists on getting $600k a year, and as long as he has that one on his mind, he won’t return to the fold.

PREDICTION TIME:

Our dynasty, 1989-96, is gone. Saito and Wade are the only players left over from even prior to that, and the only other players that were on the roster for a significant part of the 1992 championship campaign are Neil Reece and Daniel Miller. (Miguel Lopez had a cup of coffee in '92, but wasn't a regular until the next year) So in the space of five years, we have flipped 21 of the roster spots, and Saito and Wade could find the end of the road this season. No wonder I feel strangely detached from the current crew.

Last year was a blazing, high speed train wreck, with the loco-on-fire derailing, ploughing through a orphanage, and ending up – upside down – in a run-down strip club on the interstate. And there is little hope that 1998 will be any better, except that there won’t be shattered expectations.

This team may be hard-pressed not to lose a hundred games, although much depends on the rotation rather than the offense. How will Saito hold up at 37? Will Movonda return to his younger self? How will Farley hold up under fire? Will Lopez and Rivera be effective, or will they be hurt? The offense won’t do a whole lot for this team (I’m not expecting more than about 4.3 R/G), so the rotation has to be spot on. And, well...

Prediction: the Coons will battle the Indians for last place, and will run away with it at 64-98.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Just last year, our system was ranked as “dead” by BNN, 21st out of 24 organizations. There was quite an upswing in that judgement this year, as the Coons’ farm jumps back up to 8th after loading up on youngsters and drafting well last June.

We had only five players in the top 200 this time last year, of which one (Guerin) is no longer eligible due to exceeding his AB allotment. The other four are still in the top 200, and were joined by … THIRTEEN newcomers! Should we really expect a much-needed shot in the arm of that caliber, so soon? What with our swath of picks in the upcoming 1998 draft? Will we own the top 200 all by ourselves next season?

27th (new) – AA CL Dan Nordahl, 19 – 1997 first round pick by the Raccoons
40th (new) – AA SP Nick Brown, 20 – 1995 11th round pick by the Raccoons
50th (+16) – AA MR Manuel Martinez, 19 – 1996 first round pick by the Raccoons
54th (new) – AAA SP Ralph Ford, 20 – 1995 first round pick by the Condors, acquired in trade for Ben O’Morrissey
57th (new) – AAA LF/RF Chris Parker, 22 – 1994 seventh round pick by the Falcons, acquired from Condors in trade for David Brewer
67th (new) – ML SP Randy Farley, 24 – 1996 first round pick by the Condors, acquired in trade for David Brewer
95th (-14) – AAA LF/RF George Wood, 22 – 1994 first round pick by the Raccoons
101st (new) – AAA C Julio Mata, 22 – 1997 first round pick by the Raccoons
114th (-39) – AAA 1B/2B Samy Michel, 21 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
118th (new) – AAA SP Anthony Mosher, 23 – 1993 first round pick by the Bayhawks, acquired in trade for Tim Mallandain
121st (new) – A OF/1B Edgardo Torrez, 21 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
125th (new) – AA OF Jesus Taramillo, 22 – international discovery by Vicente Guerra
156th (new) – AA INF/RF Eisuke Sato, 23 – international discovery by the Thunder, signed as minor league free agent
173rd (-45) – A INF/RF Miguel Ramirez, 19 – international discovery by the Crusaders, signed as minor league free agent
184th (new) – AA 1B Albert Martin, 21 – 1996 fourth round pick by the Raccoons
185th (new) – AAA INF Tom Goodchild, 23 – international discovery by the Bayhawks, signed as minor league free agent
200th (new) – A SP Ray Conner, 23 – 1993 sixth round pick by the Raccoons

A curious choice by BNN for #1 prospect is 25-yr old 1B Roberto Vargas in the Titans’ organization, who has managed to grab all of 19 major league AB’s so far. Admittedly, he hit two home runs and OPS’ed 1.466 in those.

Next: first pitch!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Indians (0-0) – April 6-8, 1998

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (0-0) vs. Chang-se Park (0-0)
Manuel Movonda (0-0) vs. Dan George (0-0)
Miguel Lopez (0-0) vs. Manuel Alba (0-0)

Game 1
POR: RF Newton – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – SS Guerin – C Turner – P Saito
IND: CF G. Flores – 2B M. Carter – C Cicalina – LF D. Lopez – 1B M. Brown – RF Spinelli – SS J. Martinez – 3B Whaley – P Park

The season got off to a hot start. Saito went to 3-ball counts on the first three batters he faced, but struck out two and nobody reached. He also led off the top 3rd with a single, eventually leading to a 2-run homer by Neil Reece, and Reece threw out Chang-se Park at home to end the bottom 3rd after Saito had put him on with a throwing error by himself with one on and one out, to keep a 2-1 lead in place. Werner Turner was left on base in the fifth after a leadoff double, but came through again in the sixth with the bags full and two out, singling into right to plate a pair. Weeds came up with a 2-out RBI single in the seventh, enlarging a lead for Saito, who was not allowing a whole lot on his part after that unfortunate error, and even drove in a run in the eighth when the Coons faced Roberto Herrera, who walked three in the inning, and allowed another three runs. Saito in turn was dazzling the Indians, scattering only a few singles past the wild third inning. He cruised through the innings, got through the eighth with a double play, and while he put on Lopez in the ninth, he remained in and retired the next three Indians to open the season with a 103-pitch complete game! 8-1 Raccoons! Reece 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Guerin 2-4, BB; Turner 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 2-4, RBI;

Kishoooooo!! Saitoooooo!!

Our starting nine finished this game. There was just no need to remove anybody. By the way, while our new Turner starts off .600, our old Turner got the Opening Day assignment for the Pacifics in Salem, where Jason pitched seven innings in a 10-0 L.A. rout, fanning eight. Glad to see him get off running, too!

Game 2
POR: RF Newton – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – SS Ingall – C Turner – P Movonda
IND: LF G. Flores – C Cicalina – 3B M. Brown – LF A. Roldán – 1B D. Lopez – CF J. Thompson – SS J. Martinez – 2B Chevalier – P George

“Bam Bam” Movonda’s Coons debut took place on a terrible gray, soggy day, in an on-and-off drizzle, and got off to a bad start, too, as Movonda was tagged for two runs in the first inning. He labored on from there, not allowing runs, but also not looking great, and didn’t strike out anybody until his 24th batter, when he got Jim Thompson to end the bottom 6th. Crowe had already dug him out before that, converting David Lopez’ quick grounder for a third-and-first double play. That was his last batter, as Utting hit for him in the top 7th, but continued a 4-hit shutout futility the Raccoons were putting up against an occasionally wild, but effective Dan George. We would put the tying runs on base to start the eighth, when Cesar Salcido walked Marvin Ingall (quelle surprise), and Reece singled off Sandy Ingram. Dennis Lauzon appeared as the third reliever in the inning to face Weeds, walked him, and now an 0-7 Stephen Buell stepped in, facing ANOTHER pitcher in Kevin Rhodes. Here I opted for the left-hander to counter Rhodes, and Jorge Villegas made his first appearance in brown. His first AB resulted in a game-tying 2-run single, but a timely double play hit into by Mike Crowe ensured that we didn’t take a lead. De La Rosa and Donis each walked a batter in the eighth, but the Indians failed to convert that chance, eventually sending the game to extras, where the bloop-and-blast strategy was successfully employed by Reece and Weeds to give Scott Wade an appearance with a 4-2 lead to protect in the bottom 10th. Thankfully, we brought Caddock as defensive replacement. Once Wade had walked a pair and faced the left-hander Roldán with two down, Caddock made a play the way less agile Wedemeyer wouldn’t have made at first, and Caddock delivered a throw to the hustling Wade JUST in time to nip Roldán and end the game. 4-2 Coons! Ingall 2-4, BB; Reece 2-4, BB; Villegas (PH) 1-2, 2 RBI;

We would flick some spots in the last game of the opening set to get everybody warm.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Utting – C Guerrero – RF Kent – P M. Lopez
IND: CF G. Flores – 2B M. Carter – C Cicalina – LF D. Lopez – SS J. Martinez – RF Spinelli – 1B T. Thompson – 3B Whaley – P Alba

Another day, another 2-run homer, this time in the first and off the bat of Liam Wedemeyer. That got Lopez ahead early, and two wild pitches by Manuel Alba in the second inning were greatly helping the Coons to plate two more. Not that Miguel Lopez didn’t have his share of struggles. While the Indians were as offensively inept in the whole series as advertised, didn’t get a hit off Lopez until the fourth, and only two in total as long as he was in, Lopez still fought his own control more than anything else, walked four and threw a wild pitch that plated the Indians’ only run against him. He still went seven, but these hadn’t been seven great innings. The Coons hadn’t scored since the early assault either, and the score was 4-1 with Lopez done and six outs to collect. Tamburrino collected the first three of those, the Coons didn’t reach late in the game, and Wade came out to get three outs still up by three. When Jai Utting put leadoff man Urbano Cicalina on base with a massive throwing error, right there was that “uh-oh” feeling. Lopez grounded out, and Wade struck out Martinez, but then Matt Brown appeared as a pinch-hitter in the slot that Spinelli had vacated after a double switch. You didn’t want Brown to homer here, but you also don’t want to entertain the tying run coming up, even if it was light-hitting Jamal Chevalier in the #7 slot. Wade went about Brown carefully, enticing him to swing at sliders tailing in at his knees. Five pitches later, Brown was called out looking. 4-1 Raccoons! Ingall 2-5, RBI; Lopez 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

A sweep! How sweet!

However, let’s not get carried away. The Indians seem like they could well beat us to last place this year. Worthy opposition is looming just around the corner, however.

Raccoons (3-0) @ Bayhawks (3-0) – April 10-12, 1998

The Bayhawks had creamed the Thunder in the opening series, and I had a ton more respect for them than for the Indians. The Bayhawks have a strong team, but I still think the Condors will rule this division for the next few years.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (0-0) vs. Charles Bywaters (0-0)
Jose Rivera (0-0) vs. Kenny Frye (0-0)
Kisho Saito (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (1-0, 1.13 ERA)

Hamlyn was the guy I originally wanted for David Brewer, but it didn’t work out because the Bayhawks were so cash-strapped. I have a strong feeling that the punishment he will deal us the next 15 years will start right now. He’s the only lefty we’re up to this weekend.

Game 1
POR: RF Newton – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – SS Guerin – C Turner – P Farley
SFB: RF Javier – 1B C. Guzmán – 2B Chandler – LF P. Perez – CF Marquez – C G. Ortíz – 3B J. Gomez – SS Powys – P Bywaters

For his major league debut, the Bayhawks threw five left-handers in the first five slots at Randy Farley. The result was a mighty struggle for Farley, who held on to a 1-1 tie for some time, but was overwhelmed in the fifth. He loaded the bags with a 2-out walk to Pedro Hernandez, then faced right-hander Gabriel Ortíz – and walked him as well. That was five walks for him in 4.2 innings, and his exit ticket. De La Rosa entered and threw one pitch to Jorge Gomez, which the Bayhawk grounded sharply to third, but Crowe made the play. The Coons had left runners on the corners in the third and had hit into double plays the next two innings, and now trailed 2-1. Turner singled leading off the seventh and Caddock bunted him over after entering in a double switch. Newton singled and allowed Ingall to tie the game with a sac fly. Back-to-back home runs by Russ Cote and Pedro Perez off Antonio Donis got the Bayhawks right back in front in the bottom 7th, 4-2 down then. Buell and Crowe were on with one out in the eighth. Bywaters was still in there and Villegas hit for Padilla in the #7 hole. While Villegas grounded to second, Pedro Hernandez at short dropped Mike Powys’ throw (there had been some defensive switching going on), and the bases were loaded with one out. There, Turner grounded into a picture-perfect double play. Alonso Santana’s first outing of the year led to another home run, by Paco Javier, and we had our first L handed to us. 5-2 Bayhawks. Newton 2-5; Ingall 2-4, RBI; Crowe 3-3, BB;

Liam Wedemeyer came down with an inner ear infection overnight here, and would be out for several days with that. That opened a slot for Jai Utting to make a couple of starts at first, but of course didn’t help us too much on offense.

Game 2
POR: RF Newton – 2B Ingall – 3B Crowe – CF Reece – LF Buell – 1B Utting – SS Guerin – C Guerrero – P Rivera
SFB: RF Javier – 1B C. Guzmán – 2B Chandler – LF P. Perez – CF Marquez – 3B P. Hernandez – C G. Ortíz – SS Powys – P Frye

Utting immediately had a big hit, an RBI double that was the keystone in our 2-run second inning, which also gave a wobbly Rivera a 2-1 lead. We didn’t get a single man on the next three innings, before three singles in the sixth led to a run. San Fran got that run right back after Javier’s leadoff triple in the bottom 6th, cutting the lead back to 3-2. Rivera held on through the seventh which ended with Powys getting intentionally walked with a runner on second and two down, and the Bayhawks brought Cote, who hit the winning home run the day before, to hit for Kenny Frye. Cote lobbed out to left. Donis came in for the bottom 8th and blew the lead in a hurry by being horrible and left two on in a tied game with one out. Santana struck out Alfredo Marquez and Tamburrino got an easy grounder from Hernandez, but the damage was done. Top 9th, a Buell double, an IBB to Guerin, and a proper walk drawn by Guerrero loaded the bags. Villegas struck out in a PH appearance and Newton grounded out, opening the door for extra innings once Miller sat down the Bayhawks in order in the ninth. Once in the 10th, Ingall led off the frame with a home run, and we got another run between Buell and Utting in the inning. That brought in Wade, who allowed a single to PH Ramiro Cavazos and then balked him to second base, but held up and saved it. 5-3 Raccoons! Ingall 2-5, HR, RBI; Buell 3-4, BB, 2B; Utting 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rivera 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – LF Buell – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Utting – SS Guerin – C Turner – P Saito
SFB: CF Cote – C G. Ortíz – 3B P. Hernandez – 1B Chandler – RF Marquez – SS Powys – LF Javier – 2B J. Gomez – P Hamlyn

Dim the lights, the pitchers’ duel is on! The first guy to reach in the game was actually Saito with a 2-out single in the top 3rd. Ingall’s single put Saito at third, but Newton grounded out. Saito was perfect through three, then fell to Russ Cote’s third homer of the season. That was the only hit Saito allowed for a whole while. The Raccoons struggled to get on base, and needed Mike Crowe to reach on an error in the seventh to get a chance. Conceicao Guerin’s triple tied the game with two out, and Werner Turner muscled a double over Cote in center to get the Coons into the lead. Saito then singled, but Turner had to hold. Ingall thus had them on the corners against a suddenly reeling Tony Hamlyn, and lined out to Marquez in right. While Turner had given Saito the lead, he would also take it away from him again. In the bottom 7th, Ortíz led off with a double, and then Turner made a throwing error that put runners on the corners with nobody out, and Saito couldn’t get out with his lead alive. The Bayhawks tied the game. Saito was hit for in the ninth after Turner drew a 2-out walk. Caddock ran for Turner, while Guerrero did the hitting part, but flew out to left.

We went to extras, as De La Rosa pitched the ninth and tenth. Pat Chandler was on first base with two down in the bottom 10th when Cavazos rammed a double into the gap in right center, which Neil Reece played well on the carom off the wall. Chandler rounded third base and Reece lasered the ball back to the infield, Ingall with the relay, to home, the tag – OUT!! Then came the 11th, the Coons left a pair on base, and then a Caddock error and two walks by Padilla loaded the bags with one out. Miller came in and got Hernandez to pop out – and then did the same to Chandler. MILLER!! Yet by now, we had only four men in the lineup that were batting in excess of .136, so the chances were slim to win this one. Top 13th, Reece doubled, Crowe got four wide ones, and then Guerin hit a 2-out bloop, but Reece had to hold. Bases loaded, and of all people career .140 batter Steve Caddock stepped in. And struck out. Miller was squeezed out for 42 pitches, but the Raccoons just wouldn’t score, and at some point somebody had to absorb a loss. We left two on in the 14th, and Guerin’s double in the 15th also went unconverted. In the 16th, Powys’ throwing error put Marvin Ingall at second with one out. Luke Newton – batting a healthy .167 – had to come through, since the bench was empty and the #3 hole was occupied by Tamburrino. Newton flew out, and so did Tamburrino. We squeezed one inning out of Santana in the bottom 16th, and would probably get one out of Wade, and then it would be Miguel Lopez from the 18th on? Actually, Santana retired Marquez to start the 17th, and Wade then struck out Powys and ex-Coon Tony Vela, who had just pitched three innings. Wade then didn’t feel like leaving – we were talking about a starter for 15 years after all. He pitched the 18th, the 19th, and the game went on. Top 20th!! Bob Robinson pitching, Jason Kent led off with a single. Up came Guerin, lined over the shortstop, and INTO THE GAP!! The runners churned around the bases and Guerin came up with an RBI triple!! The first scoring since 12 innings and some four hours!! Caddock, Guerrero, and Ingall were then wholly unable to score Guerin from third with no outs. Wade remained in the game for the bottom 20th. Powys singled to lead off. Then Robinson bunted, and Guerrero threw that away. The winning runs for the Bayhawks were in scoring position with nobody out, and I was opening the chocolates. Jorge Gomez popped out, keeping the runners in place. Dan Woods, a left came up, and grounded a 1-2 pitch viciously to the right side, but Caddock at least made that play. That brought up Pedro Perez, the veteran left-hander, against a much stretched-out Scott Wade. He walked him, as Wade was not hitting the zone anymore. In the pen, only Donis had not been used. Bringing him in was like forfeiting the game. Miguel Lopez could throw a few pitches and still start in a few days, right? He had tossed lightly in the bullpen anyway. He allowed a single to Ortíz on the first pitch that tied the game. And then another one to Hernandez. 4-3 Bayhawks. Reece 3-9, 2B; Kent 2-5, 2B; Guerin 5-9, 2 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K and 2-3; De La Rosa 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Miller 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; Tamburrino 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Wade 3.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (0-1);

What a killer.

Wow. That one stinks…

Of course it was a Saito start, so what did I expect. Offense!?

Raccoons (4-2) vs. Thunder (1-5) – April 13-15, 1998

If there was a thing that stood out about the Thunder so early in the season, it was their league-worst rotation with a 5.75 ERA. But most of the guys had only made one start, so we better wouldn’t rely on our monster offense whiffing their way through there before the 18th inning…

Projected matchups:
Manuel Movonda (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Jon Robinson (0-1, 4.91 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Lou Corbett (0-1, 5.14 ERA)
Randy Farley (0-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (0-1, 2.70 ERA)

Armand was a 23-year old Canadian, who had entered the league as international free agent this winter. The scouting report sure looked decent, but I was not in the mood to give out a 4-yr, $3M deal to somebody who had never thrown a pitch in anger outside the Lands of the Elks. The Thunder eventually spent $1.33M on him for three years. Those were three southpaws we were facing, by the way.

Game 1
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – 1B Browne – 2B Grant – LF Barnes – LF Camacho – 3B Valentin – CF C. Clark – C Guidry – P J. Robinson
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – 3B Crowe – CF Reece – 1B Utting – SS Guerin – LF Buell – C Turner – P Movonda

How to play with a dead bullpen? Have your starter go nine. Movonda, the Colombian beauty, had rehearsed the script thoroughly overnight. He retired the first 11 batters, and kept the Thunder off third base for longer than my wildest dreams would have went. Supported by a 3-run second inning by the Coons (before they started to leave droves of runners aboard), Movonda cruised, and the Thunder didn’t touch third base until the seventh, when Iván Camacho ended up there after a 2-out single by Juan Valentín. Clement Clark flew out gingerly to Buell, however. Movonda sat the Thunder down in order in the eighth and in a 4-0 game with Guerin on first and two down in the bottom 8th was sent to bat. He stunned the Thunder with an RBI double, then scored on Ingall’s double. Top 9th, Movonda struck out grizzled Civil War veteran Dave Browne, then fell to 3-0 on Bob Grant, before Grant lined out to Guerin. Artie Barnes grounded out to Crowe, as Movonda stowed away the Thunder in exactly 100 pitches. 6-0 Raccoons! Ingall 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Crowe 2-4; Buell 2-4, 3B; Turner 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Movonda 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Yes, PEAK PERFORMANCE!!

Movonda, the Colombian beauty, in his 397th start only pitched his seventh shutout, and the first since 1995 after his trade to the Miners. It’s his 23rd complete game.

Game 2
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – 1B Browne – 2B Grant – RF Barnes – LF Camacho – C Briggs – 3B Valentín – CF L. Hernandez – P Corbett
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – 1B Utting – CF Reece – C Turner – RF Villegas – LF Buell – 3B Caddock – P M. Lopez

Another day, another stellar pitching performance! Miguel Lopez went eight innings of shutout ball and just couldn’t make a run at it for he was running out of puff (116 pitches through eight) and the run support had been scarce. To be precise, the run support had been Marvin Ingall’s leadoff jack in the first, and once Buell lined out hard to deep center with the bags full to end the first, the Raccoons had been as horrible at the plate as the Thunder. The 1-0 still stood when Guerin hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, then stole second base. Utting grounded out to short, Guerin had to hold, and Reece was not pitched to and put on first instantly. Turner struck out, and with Corbett still in there, the lefty Villegas was hit for by Mike Crowe. Corbett through him a pitch to drill, and Crowe didn’t disappoint, pummeling the poor baseball for a massive 3-run homer out of dead center. Corbett’s very next pitch was right into Stephen Buell, who took offense to that and charged the mound. Things got ugly very quickly, despite the Thunder infielders immediately jumping into the fray to keep Buell and Corbett apart. Both were ejected, Kent ran for Buell, but the inning quickly fizzled out. Donis was assigned protection of the 4-0 lead in the ninth, and did the job in five pitches for three easy grounders. 4-0 Coons! Guerin 2-4; Turner 2-4; Crowe (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Lopez 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-0);

Stephen Buell was handed a 4-game suspension just as Liam Wedemeyer stopped seeing everything twice, so we still had to play a man short. I still blame Lou Corbett, and Buell being 22 and thinking the world is all his.

It’s now up to Randyboy to shut the Thunder out for the series.

Game 3
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – 2B Browne – RF Barnes – 3B Grant – CF L. Hernandez – 1B Valentín – LF C. Clark – C Briggs – P Armand
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – C Turner – LF Newton – RF Villegas – P Farley

Randyboy started out like most starters early this season, by being perfect through three innings, and the offense also continued their ways of scoring a run in the first, leaving the bags full and then retreating to sleep. Unfortunately, while Farley no-hit the Thunder into the sixth, they then reeled off three singles in quick succession and the game became tied. Newton’s leadoff walk and a 2-out RBI double by Ingall gave Farley a new lead in the bottom 6th, 2-1, but he walked the leadoff man Valentín in the seventh and was removed. Santana and Gabby De La Rosa worked out of the inning, and the score was still 2-1 into the ninth. Wade came out facing three left-handers starting with Lucio Hernandez. He struck out the first two before Ingall mishandled Ivan Camacho’s grounder and the tying run was on base. But Jason Briggs grounded to Crowe, and Mikey made the play. 2-1 Raccoons! Ingall 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Farley 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-2; De La Rosa 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

So, we are a swell 7-2 now, but the two teams we swept, the Indians and the Thunder, are right now a grand total of 2-16 this season, so we may not fall into manic reactions right now. If anything, we can praise our pitching, which has simply been lights out so far, allowing *17* runs in nine games! (And quite a few were unearned)

Raccoons (7-2) vs. Crusaders (1-8) – April 17-19, 1998

The Crusaders’ pitching was plainly raped early in the season, allowing 66 runs in nine games, with the rotation having a 7.13 ERA and barely beating out the 5.70 ERA bullpen. Their .225 batting average also didn’t scream ELITE at you…

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (0-1, 3.00 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-0, 0.53 ERA) vs. Hector Lara (0-1, 7.36 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (1-0, 1.20 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (0-2, 8.71 ERA)

We will face yet another left-hander to start this series, which will make for five straight left-handed starters fielded by three different opponent teams.

Game 1
NYC: 2B Rigg – C Clemente – LF A. Johnson – RF Latham – 3B J. Ramirez – CF Olvera – 1B Delgado – SS J. Vega – P R. Gonzalez
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – C Turner – RF Villegas – LF Newton – P Rivera

The Crusaders didn’t have much pitching, but the Raccoons didn’t have a world of offense, either. For once, we didn’t score in the first, and in the innings following that, we didn’t either. The Crusaders were on the verge of taking a lead in the fourth, but Jorge Villegas threw out Alejandro Olvera at the plate to end the inning. Apart from that, double plays killed all offensive efforts in this game. In the bottom 6th of the scoreless contest, for example, Ingall led off with a single, and Guerin erased him and himself right away with a grounder to short. Then Reece singled, and Weeds struck out – not, because Antonio Clemente couldn’t come up with the ball at all. The play was ruled a passed ball, and the freak occurrence had two Coons on for Mike Crowe. Gonzalez uncorked a wild pitch, putting our runners in scoring position, and then Crowe hit the ball about four feet, and Clemente nipped him at first after taking a nap halfway through the play. Rivera pitched eight shutout innings and was still hung out to dry when Utting hit for him to lead off the bottom 8th. Utting hit an infield single. Next, Ingall dumped a ball into right. Brian Latham had tried to catch it, but then missed it entirely and Ingall came up with a double. Two runners in scoring position, nobody out, Guerin fouled out… oh come on. Reece was put on intentionally, bringing up Weeds, who rammed Gonzalez’ first pitch into deep left for a 2-run double. Another run scored on a sac fly, giving Rivera a 3-0 lead rather late, and Wade a save opportunity. He surrendered hard contact twice, but gave the Crusaders only one base with that (Utting made the other play), and then came back to strike out left-handed power station Pat Jenkins to end the game. 3-0 Coons!! Ingall 2-4, 2B; Reece 2-2, 2 BB; Wedemeyer 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Utting (PH) 1-1; Rivera 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
NYC: SS J. Vega – C Escobedo – LF A. Johnson – 1B T. Mullins – 3B J. Ramirez – 2B Lammond – RF P. Jenkins – CF Diéguez – P H. Lara
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Villegas – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – SS Guerin – C Turner – LF Kent – P Saito

Saito picked a bad day to pitch his next start, as the weather was not quite cooperating, but the dark clouds weren’t only there for impending rain, but also for Saito derailing his own effort. After Guerin’s 1-out triple (his third of the year) went for naught in the bottom 2nd once Turner walked and Kent double-played the Coons into the dugout, Saito came apart in the top 3rd, with a throwing error and enough errant fly balls for the Crusaders to plate four runs – somehow all unearned. Saito pitched seven, the last one in a steady drizzle, and saw the other eight brownshirts in the lineup do – nothing. Nada. Zero. The Crusaders put two more runs on the useless Padilla in the eighth, while the Raccoons’ offense had obviously missed the bus to the park. 6-1 Crusaders. Crowe 2-3, BB;

Of course, a Saito start. Well, if the first 10 games might have fooled a less battle-hardened and pain-exposed manager than me, I knew this was coming. Now the plunge towards .400 can begin.

Game 3
NYC: 2B Rigg – C Clemente – LF A. Johnson – RF Latham – 3B J. Ramirez – CF Olvera – 1B Lammond – SS J. Vega – P F. Garza
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Caddock – RF Newton – C Guerrero – P Movonda

Another day in Portland, where the offense again missed the bus, and the Colombian beauty tried in vain to win a game all on his own. Said bus missed by the brown-clad offense rolled over Movonda in the sixth inning when in a heretofore scoreless contest Jose Ramirez snipped a 3-run home run that put the game all but out of reach of the Inepticoons that kept drunkenly tapping to the plate for no apparent reason other than to disgrace themselves. We actually did not get a scoring chance until the eighth, when an Ingall single and a Guerin double brought the tying run to the plate with one out. Reece rolled out to first, and Weeds flew out to left. And so things went down the drain. 3-0 Crusaders. Ingall 2-4;

Oh yeah. And there’s gonna be a hundred and fifty more of that comin’ your way.

In other news

April 12 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (1-1, 6.52 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Canadiens. The Thunder win, 10-0.
April 13 – SFW CF John Hensley (.182, 0 HR, 4 RBI) hits the DL for about six weeks with an elbow sprain.
April 15 – NYC 1B Mark Berry (.400, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is out for three weeks with a strained back muscle.
April 17 – MIL RF/LF Cristo Ramirez signs a 6-yr, $7.2M extension with the team.
April 17 – Shoulder soreness should keep 36-yr old TIJ SP Woody Roberts (2-0, 3.00 ERA) on the shelf for a month.
April 19 – The Indians lose C Urbano Cicalina (.316, 0 HR, 3 RBI) to a quad strain for about six weeks.

Complaints and stuff

With the sweep in the opening series we have now won 200 games against the Indians, the first team the Raccoons have reached that mark against.

It was a good start to the year. On our off day mid-week we signed a good-looking 18-year old Costa Rican named Alejandro Rojas. He’s a bulky 6’ 0’’ first baseman just short of requiring a wheelchair to move around, but Vince Guerra showed me some video of him crushing balls in the San Pedro school league and I was hooked on the boy. He was assigned to the A level team in Aumsville.

By the way, the three guys we waived at the start of the year all cleared waivers and were assigned to AAA.

However, things quickly took a swing for the horrible on the last weekend here. The offense is … how to describe it best? It’s like watching old people having sex. Yeah, that’s about it.

It should also be noted that our player payroll is NOT 22nd in the league at $8.6M as mentioned in the salary post above. That discounted the minimum contracts that were not on the 40-man roster anymore (we have quite a few of these, actually, after the mad waiving last September), and our true payroll sits at $9.1M, 19th in the league.

[kingtut313]

8-4?!
the coons cant be stopped! book the parade!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (8-4) vs. Loggers (9-3) – April 21-23, 1998

Despite batting .301 as a team, a mark that topped the CL, the Loggers had only scored 52 runs (9th). On the other hand, their pitching rivalled only the Coons’, allowing 31 runs in 12 games, including an 0.35 ERA mark out of the bullpen.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (2-0, 0.60 ERA) vs. Davis Sims (1-0, 4.15 ERA)
Randy Farley (1-0, 2.53 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (2-0, 1.71 ERA)
Jose Rivera (1-0, 1.20 ERA) vs. Rafael Garcia (1-0, 3.00 ERA)

It is true. We always play both the Garciaces in every series. Fabulous.

Game 1
MIL: CF Fletcher – 3B Nakayama – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – C L. Ramirez – 2B J. Perez – 1B D. Evans – SS M. Jones – P Sims
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – SS Guerin – 3B Crowe – C Guerrero – P M. Lopez

Disgusting Bakile Hiwalani brought the Loggers ahead early with an RBI single in the first, in which Lopez was much adrift. The Raccoons looked bad for only two innings before a walk by Crowe and Guerrero reaching on an error presented a scoring chance in the third inning. Ingall took control of our team home run leaderboard with a sound shot out of right, and the Coons were 3-1 on the upswing. Unfortuantely, Lopez was no good, allowed the game to be tied through Drake Evans’ 2-run home run in the fourth, and was then defeated for good by Davis Sims’ 2-out RBI single in the sixth. Mike Jones’ throwing error put the go-ahead runs in scoring position for the Coons in the bottom 6th, but Guerrero grounded out poorly. The Raccoons drew nine walks, but couldn’t get anybody across. A throwing error by Guerrero helped the Loggers to increase their booty in the eighth off innocent Miller and less innocent Santana. 6-3 Loggers. Ingall 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Tamburrino 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Marvin Ingall was the only reason we didn’t get no-hit. No other Raccoon had an H. 39 PA, 2 H, 9 BB, 5 K, 10 LOB. Ingall also has a 12-game hitting streak.

Game 2
MIL: CF Fletcher – SS B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – C L. Ramirez – 2B J. Perez – 1B D. Evans – 3B M. Jones – P M. Garcia
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – C Turner – LF Buell – RF Villegas – P Farley

Farley didn’t allow a hit through three innings, then was rattled by Bartolo Hernandez hitting an unlikely home run leading off the fourth. Worthy of every bit of hatred, Hiwalani doubled under Crowe’s glove to score Ramirez, 2-0 in no time. Stephen Buell’s stray homer (which finally gave him an RBI after 38 AB without one) in the fifth inning only made this a close game at a superficial glance. Martin Garcia was sawing the Raccoons in half with ease. Up 3-1, he left after eight innings, having fanned nine. Ricardo Medina came into the game, drilled Guerin, and Reece singled to put the tying runs on base. Wedemeyer grounded into a fielder’s choice to Reece’s detriment, but with runners on the corners, Crowe singled to left, 3-2. Two on, one out, Kent hit for Turner, grounded to right – and PAST Jose Perez! Weeds stomped around third and made it home far ahead of the throw, and we were tied! Crowe singled, and then, with the bags full - …….. Villegas struck out and Newton rolled on to second, and we got to play extra innings again. But thankfully, this one didn’t take long. Scott Wade walked Jerry Fletcher to start the 10th, Ramirez doubled him in, and Medina whiffed Ingall and Guerin, before Reece grounded out in the bottom half. 4-3 Loggers. Kent (PH) 1-1, RBI; Buell 2-4, HR, RBI; Farley 7.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – C L. Ramirez – 2B J. Perez – SS Nakayama – 3B M. Jones – P R. Garcia
POR: 3B Crowe – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – RF Villegas – SS Guerin – C Turner – P Rivera

The Raccoons filled the bags in the bottom 1st before Villegas fouled out for the inning to conclude scorelessly. That was about it for them. Jose Rivera did what he could to save himself, and despite walking three Loggers in the sixth he managed to pitch seven shutout innings, and was not rewarded other than avoiding the loss. Donis appeared to start the eighth, walked pinch-hitter Ricardo Rivera, walked Cristo Ramirez, gave Bakile Hiwalani a belt, and then left with no outs collected, leaving everybody to expect him to absorb a – well-deserved! – loss, although Tamburrino and Reece held the damage to one run. Bottom 9th, Raymond Léger pitched. Villegas led off with a single, but then Guerin popped out. Kent hit for Turner and grounded out, moving Villegas to second base. Steve Caddock, batting a frightening .071/.188/.259 appeared as a pinch-hitter for Gabby De La Rosa, worked a 3-1 count and then foolishly took his big swing. Except that there was nothing foolish about it. Léger threw right down Broadway, Caddock hammered into the poor ball and the despiseful Bakile Hiwalani ran after it in vain as the shot dinked in two feet behind the left field wall. Three seconds of stunned silence later, the park burst into cheers as the Brownshirts erupted from their dugout to mob walkoff hero Caddock. 2-1 Raccoons!! Newton (PH) 1-1; Caddock (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Rivera 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 2 K;

Steve Caddock’s second career homer raises his 99-AB career slash line to a much healthier .141/.250/.232; like they say, it gets easier in your second one hundred at-bats.

Raccoons (9-6) vs. Condors (11-5) – April 24-26, 1998

Here came the ex-Coons to town, with O’Morrissey, and Brewer, and the gods only knew whom else. This was the team that was the odds-on favorite to win it all for this year. Their rotation was a bit shaky so far (5.13 ERA, 10th in CL), but that was nothing that couldn’t be cured by a weekend trip to Portland. They led the league with 86 runs scored already.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (1-1, 0.38 ERA) vs. Bastyao Caixinha (1-2, 5.32 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (1-1, 2.05 ERA) vs. Jose Maldonado (0-0, 5.65 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (2-1, 2.18 ERA) vs. Harry Griggs (2-0, 5.32 ERA)

Game 1
TIJ: 2B Brewer – C F. Jackson – RF Wales – LF Horn – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Galindo – CF L. Maldonado – SS Gorden – P Caixinha
POR: 2B Ingall – 3B Crowe – CF Reece – LF Buell – 1B Utting – C Turner – SS Guerin – RF Villegas – P Saito

Nothing new in the Pacific Northwest. Kisho Saito through six innings held on to a 4-hit shutout, and himself had 50% of his team’s hits. No Coon had reached third base so far. After a leadoff walk to Crowe in the bottom 7th, Reece’s fly to deep center was intercepted by Luis Maldonado, and the Raccoons put two on, but still didn’t reach third base. Two line drive singles that dinked in in front of onrushing defenders put runners on the corners with two down in the top 8th. O’Morrissey was up to bat next, and I knew how this was going to end. One rip later, two runs were in, and this was how things were going at the Willamette. 3-1 Condors. Utting 2-4; Newton (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (1-2) and 1-2;

Marvin Ingall’s hitting streak found its end here, after 14 games of excellent bat work.

The Inepticoons successfully reached last place in runs scored (51 in 16 games, or 3.2 R/G) with this shameful display of … ineptness. Kisho Saito was not amused, the Queen was not amused, and I was throwing a tantrum in my office until the XXL baseball I furiously launched from my fists of anger bounced off the plexiglass windows and struck be unconscious at around 1:30a.m.

Game 2
TIJ: SS Boyle – 2B Brewer – RF Wales – LF Horn – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Galindo – C Vinson – CF Gorden – P J. Maldonado
POR: 3B Crowe – CF Newton – 2B Ingall – 1B Wedemeyer – C Turner – LF Kent – SS Guerin – RF Villegas – P Movonda

Movonda started the game in stellar fashion, striking out six in the first four innings, and a world of support … from Werner Turner’s leadoff homer in the second inning. Yeah, that was all, and the opposing pitcher’s RBI double with two down in the fifth thus tied the game back together. The Raccoons, a team completely lacking any dangerous hitter at this point, had to rely on the occasional long ball to get anything done, and Liam Wedemeyer came up with a rocket of a line drive home run in the seventh inning. We actually managed another run on a Movonda sac fly in the eighth, and yes, I was going to bring him back out for the ninth. Movonda had allowed three hits and had fanned eight so far, and he didn’t look like he was going to explode in another inning. In succession, he struck out David Brewer, struck out Dale Wales, and struck out Martin Horn! 3-1 Raccoons! Movonda 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (2-1);

Game 3
TIJ: 2B Brewer – C F. Jackson – RF Wales – LF Horn – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Galindo – CF L. Maldonado – SS Gorden – P Griggs
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – C Turner – 3B Utting – SS Caddock – RF Villegas – P M. Lopez

Werner Turner again plated the first run of the game, and even earlier than the day before, and then even TWO runs, with a 2-out, 2-run single that just by a hair bounced away from Rory Gorden and into shallow left center. What a rush of offense!! While Lopez was wild, but the Condors didn’t convert, Wedemeyer hit a homer in the fourth, 3-0, but the Coons had Caddock and the fourth run thrown out at home by Luis Maldonado, who made a good play on Villegas’ 2-out double and ended the inning. A terrible Lopez was finally knocked up for two runs in the fifth inning, as the Condors reminded everybody in attendance that they were actually playing for first place and had the means to do it. While we removed Lopez before he could burn the house down, and actually scratched out single runs in the sixth and seventh, the bullpen still had to hold on to that 4-2, then 5-2 lead. Miller pitched a perfect eighth, but Wade made it a bit more prickly in the ninth. After striking out Maldonado, Gorden singled against him. With two out, Gorden was on second, and Brewer slung a high fly ball to deep left. Stephen Buell charged after it and made a launching grab – ballgame! 5-2 Raccoons. Wedemeyer 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Buell (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 21 – LVA SP Rafael Barbosa (2-0, 0.69 ERA) fans 11 and allows only three hits in a 6-0 shutout over the Thunder.
April 22 – Season in danger for L.A.’s hope, SP Jonathan Dumont (2-1, 3.06 ERA). The 22-yr old has a torn labrum and could miss the whole year with that.

Complaints and stuff

3.3 R/G. The pitching won’t hold up forever! The last time we were in the 3.3 R/G region? That was 1981. A full 3.2 R/G for a 65-97 finish. Huzzah. Good times ahead.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (11-7) @ Aces (9-10) – April 28-30, 1998

The Coons, in 18 games, had only accumulated 102 total runs in their games (scored AND allowed), and now faced the Aces, who had scored 95 runs all by themselves, third in the league, and had allowed 86 (8th), and where Royce Green was sitting on 7 HR and 17 RBI three weeks into the year. We started a long road trip here, 13 games in 13 days.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (1-0, 2.50 ERA) vs. Jou Hara (0-1, 8.50 ERA)
Jose Rivera (1-0, 0.82 ERA) vs. Alejandro Venegas (1-1, 3.54 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-2, 1.13 ERA) vs. Dan Moriarty (1-1, 5.13 ERA)

Ex-Coon Venegas and rookie Moriarty were left-handers. We had a much better lineup against southpaws right now, with none of our left-handed batters doing much in the way of damage to the opposition.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – C Guerrero – SS Guerin – P Farley
LVA: LF Preston – 3B Petipas – 1B J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – SS MacKillop – C Manuel – CF R. Green – 2B G. Roldán – P Hara

Farley drove in the first run of the game with a 2-out single in the top 2nd, and held the Aces at bay early on, but a pair of line drive singles and a Royce Green single between Guerin and Crowe tied the game in the fourth. Farley then threw a wild pitch with two out and Hara batting to fall 2-1 behind. Luke Newton reclaimed the lead, improving on his paltry .175 average with a 2-run homer in the fifth. It was a shaky 3-2 lead that was tested in the bottom of that inning, and in the sixth as well. There, the Aces had runners on the corners and one out when German Roldán hushed a fly ball to shallow center. Reece came in, caught it, then annihilated Steven MacKillop at home to end the inning. Top 8th, one out, two Furballs in scoring position for Conceicao Guerin. His infield single didn’t score anybody, but loaded the bags and removed both starters, as ex-Coon Qi-zhen Geng replaced Hara, and Farley was hit for with the bags full. Villegas drew a walk to force in a run, but we only got one more on Ingall’s groundout. Santana got two outs in the bottom 8th against Mashiba and MacKillop. Then Tamburrino came out and walked Manuel and Green. De La Rosa replaced him, allowed a single to Roldán, then walked PH Joe Douglas to force home a run. Guys? Dan Preston then struck out. Oh wow. Wade only put on Mashiba with a 2-out single in the ninth, and managed to save this one. 5-3 Raccoons. Ingall 3-5, RBI; Buell 2-5; Crowe 2-4, 2B; Guerin 2-3, BB; Farley 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – 3B Crowe – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – C Turner – SS Guerin – RF Villegas – P Rivera
LVA: LF Preston – 3B Petipas – 1B J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – SS MacKillop – C Manuel – CF J. Douglas – 2B G. Roldán – P Venegas

Both teams in the first inning had a pair in scoring position with two down. Buell lined out, while MacKillop lined past – ironically – Buell, and the Aces plated three in the first inning. The Raccoons never came close again, pairing horrible offense with a horrible pitching showcase on this Wednesday. Rivera lasted only five innings, allowing five runs, and Pancho Padilla was tagged for another two runs in the seventh. All the Raccoons had was an RBI triple by Werner Turner. 7-1 Aces. Reece 2-4;

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – 3B Crowe – CF Reece – LF Buell – 1B Utting – C Turner – RF Newton – SS Guerin – P Saito
LVA: CF J. Douglas – 3B Petipas – 1B J. Vargas – LF R. Green – RF Mashiba – 2B G. Roldán – C Lozano – SS Connolly – P Moriarty

The game was over in like ten minutes as far as the Raccoons were concerned. Saito allowed a single to Douglas, then was taken deep by Petipas. While he struck out Royce Green, Turner couldn’t come up with the ball, and Green reached, contributing ultimately to two more, unearned, runs. Saito didn’t last past the fifth inning either, surrendering another 2-shot to Javier Vargas en route to his worst outing of the year. The Inepticoons left the bases loaded in the fifth and in the sixth, refusing to score for poor old Saito. They had the bases loaded AGAIN in the eighth, down 6-2, with old Richard Cunningham responsible for two runners, and Geng for the third, with Neil Reece batting with one out. Geng scored a run with a wild pitch, then Reece struck out, and when Weeds was sent to pinch-hit, he made another pathetic out. Bottom 8th, Padilla was put in, managed to hit a batter and put two on, and was removed for good. Santana entered, walked the bags full, and never retired a batter en route to a Javier Vargas grand slam, a Green walk, and a Mashiba single. Wade had to come out to get the last two outs. 12-3 Aces. Ingall 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Buell 2-3, BB; Guerin 2-4, RBI;

Slowly, but surely the bunch is showing its true face. Let’s recapitulate. Kisho Saito was ineffective and surrendered a pair of long balls, and otherwise was robbed by Turner, who couldn’t come up with a strikeout ball to prolong the horrid opening frame.

Both left-handed relievers came into the game to face a left-handed batter, and both walked said batter. Santana faced four batters, and didn’t retire ANY. Except for De La Rosa, every reliever took part in the scuffle to cover nine outs, and every single one of them with the sole exception of Brad Tamburrino (who was hit for by Weeds) did one or more of the following things:
a) Walk their first batter (Guilty: Donis, Santana, Wade)
b) Drill a batter (Guilty: Padilla)
c) Put enough runners on to require rescue by the next sucker in line (Guilty: Miller, Donis, Padilla, Santana)

This kind of relieving is hard to put up with if you have the 1996 Coons’ offense, but these were the 1998 Coons, and they couldn’t score runs for their meekly lives.

That brings us to the offense. They had the bases loaded in THREE innings in this game. They scored ZERO runs in these situations. Solely Qi-zhen Geng scored a run for them with that wild pitch.

They are HORRIBLE. They SUCK. They are HORRIBLE. They SUCK. THEY SUCK.

The plunge to .400 has begun.

Raccoons (12-9) @ Indians (8-14) – May 1-3, 1998

The Indians were not their usual self this season. The last few years they had usually scored little and lived on pitching, but this year their pitching was horrid, and their offense was above-average. Oh, they had merely scored 55% more runs than us…

Projected matchups:
Manuel Movonda (2-1, 1.74 ERA) vs. Dan George (1-1, 4.50 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (3-1, 2.30 ERA) vs. Johnny Collins (0-1, 8.22 ERA)
Randy Farley (2-0, 2.52 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (0-1, 5.97 ERA)

Game 1:
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Newton – CF Reece – LF Buell – 1B Wedemeyer – C Turner – 3B Utting – SS Guerin – P Movonda
IND: C T. Thompson – SS J. Martinez – 1B M. Brown – RF A. Roldán – CF J. Thompson – 3B Whaley – LF Spinelli – 2B Chevalier – P George

Leadoff triple by Stephen Buell in the third, Wedemeyer walked, Turner hit into the double play, and Utting lined out. No score. Movonda struck out five in the first three innings, and through 3.2 innings, the only runners the Indians had, reached on Guerin errors. Yes, two of them. The latter proved fatal, when Jim Thompson came up with the Indians’ first hit of the game, and RBI double. Movonda pitched a gem of a game, running up the K’s, and his team merely scored on a Matt Whaley error in the fifth. That tied the contest. When Wedemeyer had runners on the corners with two out in the sixth, he whiffed. Ingall doubled with one out in the eighth, was on third after Newton’s groundout, and then Reece – FINALLY CAME THROUGH. Single up the middle, Ingall scored, and Movonda had a 2-1 lead. Buell had an infield single, but Wedemeyer – again – struck out. Movonda completed eight innings in the game, blowing through the 120-pitch mark as he struck out Jose Martinez to end the eighth. With left-handers looming in the ninth, he wouldn’t come back. Since neither Santana nor Donis could be trusted, Scott Wade had to take on Brown, Roldán, and Thompson. Matt Brown fired a high fly to deep left – but Buell got it. Wade allowed less noise in surrendering the other two then. 2-1 Raccoons. Reece 1-3, BB, RBI; Buell 2-4, 3B; Turner 2-4, 2B; Movonda 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (3-1);

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Villegas – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – SS Caddock – C Guerrero – P M. Lopez
IND: SS J. Martinez – RF Spinelli – 2B M. Carter – CF G. Flores – 1B Kan – 3B Whaley – C T. Thompson – LF A. Roldán – P J. Collins

Johnny Collins walked four in the first inning, including the first three batters. The Raccoons scored once, a Buell sac fly, his second RBI of the year. Gilberto Flores’ 2-run homer got the Indians ahead, before in the top 2nd, with one out, Collins walked the bags full again for Reece, who hit into a double play. The Coons had two runners in the third on HIT BY PITCH and ****ING CATCHER’S INTERFERENCE, AND DIDN’T SCORE. The Raccoons had nine of their first 18 batters reach – without ever landing a hit. That string was broken by Ingall in the fourth with a single to center. Villegas walked (#8 by Collins), and then Reece grounded to short, but Martinez threw it away. Bases loaded. LISTEN, WEDEMEYER!! ****ING BASES LOADED!!! Despite his best efforts, he failed to hit into the double play, scoring Ingall on a groundout. Oh yeah, and then Buell struck out.

I couldn’t take it no more. I was vandalizing the clubhouse with an aluminium bat and eventually was overwhelmed by Indians personnel and ended up sedated. Which was a good thing. The final tally for Raccoons hitting that day read 1-28, 10 BB, 6 K, 13 LOB.

5-3 Indians. Ingall 1-2, 3 BB, RBI;

That’s right, Marvin Ingall kept the team from being no-hit for the second time this year. And it was ****ING MAY THE SECOND.

It was time to make changes. Jason Kent was sent to AAA, batting .190. Mario Guerrero was designated for assignment, batting .069. We brought up Ron McDonald and Clyde Brady as replacements. McDonald was there to fill up the spot. Brady was brought up with a .859 OPS in AAA, and was designated the starter in right field. He was one of the three pieces in the Brewer trade (with Farley and Chris Parker). Let me tell you that Chris Parker could follow soon with an even better OPS in AAA, but he’s not on the 40-man roster, and I might have to move a piece or two before we can add him. It will probably not surprise anybody to hear that there are another half dozen or so players who are on the verge of getting exiled. This includes would-have-been leadoff man Luke Newton, who has options.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Villegas – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – C Turner – SS Guerin – P Farley
IND: LF G. Flores – SS J. Martinez – 1B M. Brown – RF A. Roldán – CF J. Thompson – C T. Thompson – 3B M. Carter – 2B Chevalier – P Alba

Lo and behold – the Raccoons got a pitcher out of the game after two innings. A 2-run homer by Wedemeyer, a 2-out RBI single by Turner (both in the first), and a 2-out, 2-run single by Crowe in the second had Manuel Alba pinch-hit for in the bottom 2nd. Progress! Farley in turn regressed, struggling badly with his control. While we were up 5-1 after two, Farley had already walked three. While he managed to cover six innings of 2-run ball, it was a tense outing for him, since there were runners on base almost all the time. The early offense off Alba held up, as the bullpen did not go up in flames for once. 7-2 Raccoons. Villegas 1-2, 3 BB, HR, RBI; Brady 2-3, BB, 2B; Caddock (PH) 1-1; De La Rosa 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Clyde Brady in his debut actually reached four times, also taking a pitch to the buttocks.

Raccoons (14-10) @ Titans (12-13) – May 4-7, 1998

The Titans were average in so many categories, it was hard to name all of those. They were however very much a small ball team, hitting only nine homers so far, but they led the league in walks taken by batters. Meanwhile the Raccoons continued to sit at 3.3 R/G…

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (1-1, 2.33 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (1-1, 3.86 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-3, 2.19 ERA) vs. Glenn Ryan (3-2, 3.52 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (3-1, 1.38 ERA) vs. Bill Smith (2-2, 3.41 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (3-2, 3.03 ERA) vs. Henry Selph (2-2, 2.61 ERA)

Jason O’Halloran was the only left-hander in the group of four that we were to face. Marvin Ingall had not had a day off so far this year, and was not unlikely to take a seat in a game after the series opener.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – 1B Utting – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – C Turner – SS Guerin – P Rivera
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Henry – RF Thomas – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – LF Reid – CF Elizondo – 3B Elliott – P O’Halloran

Top 2nd, bases loaded, one out, Guerin struck out, and Rivera flew into a soft flyout. Top 3rd, Utting on first, Buell doubled, but that wasn’t enough to score Utting. Crowe grounded out to the annoying Daniel Silva. Werner Turner would actually give the Raccoons a lead with a solo shot in the fourth inning. Rivera then came out again, drilled Henry, walked two more, and somehow got two pop outs to escape a bases loaded jam. Rivera was … well, he didn’t surrender any runs, and allowed only one hit through six innings, but in turn had also the one HBP to Horace Henry, and finished with SIX walks. NO strikeouts. Miller appeared in the seventh, walked Pat Elliott, and Donis readily surrendered the run, bringing the score to 2-1 Furballs. De La Rosa was tasked with the eighth inning, and walked a pair before Reece in center had to stretch them old bones to intercept a Pat Elliott fly ball that was ticketed for the warning track. Wade didn’t walk anybody, but also hit Horace Henry, who was looking a little bruised by then, with two down. That brought up Josh Thomas, who sent a 2-2 pitch to the ground and past Wade’s leg. Ingall made a nifty grab and zinged the ball to first – out! 2-1 Raccoons. Ingall 3-4, BB, 2B; Buell 2-3, 2B, RBI; Turner 2-4, HR, RBI;

Nine walks, two hit batsmen, merely three strikeouts. Great pace by those pitchers, really.

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – CF Newton – LF Buell – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – C Turner – SS Caddock – P Saito
BOS: CF Alonso – LF Walls – SS D. Silva – RF Reid – 1B G. Douglas – 2B Henry – C J. Silva – 3B Elliott – P Ryan

Horace Henry took out his frustration on Kisho Saito, knocking a 2-run home run in the second inning. Henry was REALLY angry. The next time he came up, he slapped another one, again for two. The long ball was an issue for Saito recently, as was zero run support. This was such a game. Saito surrendered five runs in six innings, got nothing in return, and was heading for his fourth loss of the year in a game that was over very quickly, despite Glenn Ryan leaving with an apparent injury in the fourth inning. 7-1 Titans. Crowe 2-3, BB, RBI; Turner 2-4; Miller 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

This was the final appearance for Pancho Padilla in the brown uniform, too. He faced five batters in the seventh, and surrendered one. That’s not mop-up, that’s crap. Thanks for coming, don’t hit your butt in the door on the way out. Don’t forget that 11.37 ERA of yours.

We called up Kelly Fairchild, who had made his big league debut with one start (and not a good one) last year. He had pitched in long relief in AAA so far, with very good results. There’s a ball, Kelly, let’s see whether you can beat an 11-ish ERA.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – C Turner – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – SS Guerin – 1B Caddock – P Movonda
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Henry – RF Thomas – C L. Lopez – 1B G. Douglas – LF Reid – CF Walls – 3B Elliott – P B. Smith

A combined 74 years of age took the mound in this game, with Bill Smith having hit the big four-oh recently. Clyde Brady got his first big league RBI with a 1-out RBI single in the second inning. That tiny lead got away from Movonda with 2-out doubles by Thomas and Lopez in the fourth. We were tied again, but the Titans again lost their starter before his time, as something was wrong with Bill Smith after five and he didn’t return. We faced former Raccoon Andres Otero, and loaded the bags with one out in the top 6th. Guerin up meant usually a strikeout was imminent, but while Guerin fell to 1-2, he then made contact and fired a double over Dave Reid that plated two runs. We didn’t get any more, as Caddock was put onto the empty base, Movonda struck out, and Ingall grounded out sharply to Elliott. Brady’s sharp grounder to first was converted by Douglas for the final out the next inning. The Colombian Beauty entered the bottom 7th up 4-1, and the Titans put two runner in scoring position with no outs. Movonda came back to surrender the next two batters, conceding one run – and then it still blew up for him. The Titans got hits from Elliott and Luis Alonso, tied the game at four, and that was that. There was still a chance for Movonda to actually win the game, since he finished the inning. Guerin then singled to lead off the eighth, stole second, and was on third once Caddock grounded out. But he never scored, as Villegas and Ingall grounded out too short to make a dash. Bottom 9th, Donis was pitching, issued a single, and a walk, and with two down we walked Henry intentionally, filling the bags, and that prompted Donis to walk in the winning run against Josh Thomas. 5-4 Titans. Ingall 2-5; Turner 2-5, 2B; Guerin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

So, the Colombian Beauty has also been touched up. That leaves us with a full roster of fails. I would try to list everybody batting sub-.200, but I don’t have enough space here.

Game 4
POR: 3B Crowe – C Turner – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – RF Villegas – SS Guerin – 2B Utting – P M. Lopez
BOS: CF Alonso – LF Walls – SS D. Silva – CF Reid – 2B Henry – C J. Silva – 1B L. Lopez – 3B Elliott – P Selph

Mike Crowe had his hand in the first two runs of the game, running the score to 1-1 through three. First, his throwing error plated Julio Silva in the second inning, then he came back with a solo shot in the top of the third. The Titans had two men in scoring position with no outs in their half of the fourth after a Julio Silva single and Luis Lopez double. Miguel Lopez got two pop outs, then fell to Luis Alonso’s 2-run triple. Half that damage was brought back in with Werner Turner’s solo homer in the fifth, but solo home runs could do only so much for you. Top 7th, the Raccoons loaded the bags and chased Selph, and Villegas had the all-important AB against Otero here … and grounded out to Henry. Miguel Lopez lasted only six frames and left on the hook. In the eighth, another chance began to blossom with a single by Guerin, and a pinch-walk by Caddock. Crowe grounded out. Turner grounded out. Glenn Douglas put the game away with a towering 2-run homer in the bottom 8th, off the hand of Kelly Fairchild. 5-2 Titans. Crowe 2-5, HR, RBI; Turner 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Guerin 3-4, 2B;

Can’t we just quietly disband and spend the impending summer at the lake, lying in the sun, a cold one in one hand, and a box of cookies in the other, and just not bother?

Raccoons (15-13) @ Blue Sox (16-11) – May 8-10, 1998

The Blue Sox allowed the second-least runs in the Federal League, which filled this grief-stricken manager with much foreboding. I saw the Willamette foaming with much blood, and expected a grand total of Raccoons runs of no more than five in the 3-game set. Themselves, the Blue Sox were 7th in runs scored in the FL.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (3-0, 2.61 ERA) vs. Javier Cruz (6-0, 1.13 ERA)
Jose Rivera (2-1, 1.91 ERA) vs. Rafael Lopez (0-2, 10.50 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-4, 2.93 ERA) vs. Dennis Fried (2-0, 2.11 ERA)

Three more right-handers up. Yes, Kisho, you drew the auto-loss.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – 3B Crowe – LF Buell – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Newton – C McDonald – P Farley
NAS: LF F. Jones – SS Nielsen – 3B Catalo – 2B Valdes – 1B Matthews – RF Madrid – CF Lee – C F. Hernandez – P Cruz

Stephen Buell actually drove in a runner that wasn’t himself with a 2-out single plating Farley in the third inning. That gave the Raccoons a shaky 1-0 lead, that went up in smoke in a 4-run fifth, which included a 2-run triple by Leborio Catalo. Nominally, the Raccoons got close again in the eighth with a 2-run homer by Crowe, but there was only so much home runs could do for you. No Raccoon reached base after that, and they went down yet again. 4-3 Blue Sox. Ingall 2-4; Crowe 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Buell 2-4, RBI; Guerin 2-4;

We finally fell out of second place with this loss here. We hadn’t had any business there anyway.

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – 1B Wedemeyer – C Turner – SS Caddock – P Rivera
NAS: LF F. Jones – SS Nielsen – 3B Catalo – RF McGuire – 2B Valdes – 1B Matthews – CF Lee – C F. Hernandez – P R. Lopez

Home runs by Buell and Wedemeyer gave the Raccoons a 4-0 lead in the top half of the first inning. Once the bottom half of the inning concluded, the game was tied again. Rivera sucked hard, couldn’t get anybody out, and was on the shortest leash there was after Ingall came up with another 2-run homer in the top 2nd, which was the end of the day for Rafael Lopez. A leadoff walk to Mauro Valdes in the third got Rivera yanked, and with the score still 6-4, Fairchild appeared. He pitched into the sixth before he ended up with a runner on second, and then drilled ex-Coon Esteban Baldivía. With left-handers Freddie Jones and Jeffrey Nielsen coming up, we sent for Santana. Santana, the piece of ****, walked them both. De La Rosa then got Catalo to ground out to Ingall. The Coons, who had scored a few runs on a rapidly dissolving Blue Sox pen, now led 9-5. De La Rosa got us four outs in total, and the same amount would come from Donis for the last four outs in the game. The Blue Sox pen clearly came off worse in a trashing. 11-5 Raccoons. Ingall 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Brady 2-5, 2B; Buell 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Crowe 2-4, BB; Caddock 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Fairchild 3.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0); De La Rosa 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Donis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Three homers off a starting pitcher – can we call that progress? The team ranks 4th in home runs, and they still score the very least runs. So, no. No progress. An 11-run game is nice, but they must not follow it up with another 2-1 loss now.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Buell – C Turner – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Guerin – 3B Caddock – P Saito
NAS: LF McGuire – SS Matthews – 3B Catalo – C J. Rodriguez – 2B Valdes – 1B Edralín – RF F. Jones – CF Lee – P Fried

Saito came out of the box with a few parts missing, was reeling badly, and required extensive defensive support. Top 2nd of a scoreless game, singles by Turner, Weeds, and Guerin loaded the bags with no outs for Caddock. His sac fly was all we got. One run was however not gonna help a helpless Saito in this start, as the Blue Sox held a line drive bonanza, and somehow found gloves more often than they should have. Appropriately, it was a 2-out, 2-run single by Fried that hobbled up the middle and through that flipped the score in the fourth. The Coons came right back onto the bases. Saito singled to start the fifth, and Ingall doubled. After Brady struck out, Reece hit a fly to center that enticed Saito to tag and race home, where the ball arrived a lot earlier than him. Saito was determined to not lose another one, bowled over Jose Rodriguez, and knocked loose the ball. He scored, the game was tied, but no more once Buell grounded out. After tumbling all over the place like a drunkard for six innings, Saito was hit for to lead off the seventh, Villegas struck out for him, and while Brady singled, and Reece reached on an error, Buell grounded out, and that’s no W for you, Kisho-san. De La Rosa appeared in the seventh, went to two strikes on the first four batters he faced, failed to fan any, and instead loaded them up. A vicious grounder by Rodriguez was converted into a saving double play by Guerin, still 2-2 the score. An ill-advised throw to third by Freddie Jones then gave the Coons a break in the eighth. Weeds had been at first base on Guerin’s 1-out single, but went to third, drawing Jones’ throw, which was nowhere near the bag in time, but Guerin advanced to second. Caddock then flew out to Logan Lee, but it was enough to score Wedemeyer to break the tie. Gutsy, clawing performances by Miller in the eighth and Wade in the ninth held on to that win. 3-2 Coons. Ingall 2-5, 2B; Turner 3-5, 2B; Wedemeyer 2-3, BB; Guerin 2-4;

Werner Turner has a 12-game hitting streak going.

In other news

April 29 – IND SP Chang-se Park (1-3, 4.09 ERA) could be out for the season: the 24-year old Korean has suffered a fractured elbow.
May 4 – DEN 2B Pat Parker (.315, 0 HR, 8 RBI) has suffered a concussion and might be out for three months.
May 4 – TOP 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.358, 1 HR, 15 RBI) might miss a month with an oblique strain.
May 6 – TIJ SP Harry Griggs (3-2, 4.93 ERA) sparkles in a 2-0 win over the Falcons, allowing two hits and fanning 11.
May 6 – LVA Rafael Barbosa (4-0, 1.63 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Bayhawks in a 6-0 win. In the same game LVA C Andres Manuel (.303, 0 HR, 12 RBI) breaks his thumb and is going to miss at least one month.

Complaints and stuff

So let’s see. Stephen Buell spent all of April not scoring any batter but himself, and he did that exactly once with a solo home run. That was his single RBI.

On May 1, Nori Kondo, who was recycled for Jorge Villegas, had a 5-hit game in a 15-3 drubbing the Gold Sox handed to the Stars, with a homer and four singles. Getting closer to that cycle. By the way, at that junction, the Gold Sox were in first place, and Kondo was batting .324 …

Farm report from Vince Guerra on May 2: Julio Mata batting .167 in AAA, was demoted back to Ham Lake. Dan Nordahl ran up a 4.33 WHIP(!!!!!!!) in AA, was scanned toes to hair, no damage found, would get another outing or two. (He has since rebounded some, although the overall numbers are still abysmal)

I don’t even want to go into much detail regarding everybody batting below .200 on this roster. Reece, Weeds, Newton, Utting, Villegas … no wonder we’re ranking last in a number of offensive categories.

The pitching has mostly been solid if you want to ignore Pantyhose Padilla, left-handed relief, and Rivera having almost twice as many walks as strikeouts. Positive news about the offense, any?

Marvin Ingall leads the league in offensive WAR with 1.7 – and that’s it.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-14) vs. Stars (18-13) – May 12-14, 1998

Here came the power department. The Stars were scoring 6.0 R/G!! That was 183 runs in total, compared to the Raccoons’ 106. It was their rusty, crusty pitching that held them in a tie for first in their FL West. Here came a tough task for the Raccoons’ pitching. We already know that the offense won’t get to the opposing staff for a sufficient number of runs…

Projected matchups:
Manuel Movonda (3-1, 1.96 ERA) vs. Manny Ramos (3-1, 4.22 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (3-3, 3.03 ERA) vs. Chang-bum O (5-1, 2.91 ERA)
Randy Farley (3-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. Manny Rios (3-1, 5.17 ERA)

Game 1
DAL: RF Hino – CF D. Rodriguez – 1B Woods – 3B C. Gonzalez – 2B Morales – C James – LF Monnier – SS Robertson – P M. Ramos
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Caddock – CF Reece – LF Buell – C Turner – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – 1B Wedemeyer – P Movonda

Leading off the top 3rd, the Colombian Beauty threw an 0-2 pitch to Markus Robertson that went right down the middle, and Robertson rammed it to right for a double. The Stars brought him in to score, and that was where Movonda lost the game. Never mind the Mac Woods homer that made it 2-0 in the fourth. Manny Ramos, not the cream of the crop as far as pitchers were concerned, surrendered the first 17 Raccoons he faced until Wedemeyer sneaked a single into right. Of course he was left on third base. Ramos carried a 3-hitter through eight innings and with a 2-0 lead was left in for the ninth. Ingall singled to get things going. And that was it. Ramos shut out the Coons on four hits and seven K’s. 2-0 Stars. Movonda 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, L (3-2);

Now, you can’t ask for more than what Movonda did in this game. From Movonda at least. But you can ask for some friggin’ support from these batters.

Oh, it’s batters minus one, by the way. Stephen Buell is the first Raccoon to hit the disabled list this season, suffering a separated shoulder on a sprawling catch. He should come back in early June. This was the entry ticket to Chris Parker to make his big league debut, batting for a 1.059 OPS in St. Petersburg. He is the last of the three pieces received in the David Brewer trade to make it to the Bigs. He would have ended up here soon anyway because I am getting tired of Luke “.160” Newton.

Parker is a left-handed batter, leaving only Reece as right-hander in the outfield. Despite batting .200-ish, he is still penciled in every day (because who would be instead!?), and he still gives us defense. Parker is mainly a leftfielder and may start all games (apart from rest) there until Buell can return.

Game 2
DAL: RF Hino – CF D. Rodriguez – 1B Woods – C James – 2B Morales – 3B C. Gonzalez – SS Robertson – LF Li – P O
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – LF Parker – RF Newton – 1B Wedemeyer – C McDonald – P M. Lopez

Miguel Lopez was currently nowhere near the level of Movonda when it came to pitching. It showed in the middle game. The Stars took the lead in the first, and Lopez surrendered three for a 4-0 score in the fourth inning, although in all fairness, a 2-base throwing error by Ron McDonald played a big share in that and made all three runs unearned. Lopez was hit for after surrendering five runs in five innings, as the Raccoons scored two runs in the bottom 5th (aided by an O wild pitch). While it looked like the Coons were just hanging in there, they never did, not when the score was 5-2, nor when it was 6-3. They had nothing going. Alonso Santana then faced four batters in the ninth, all of them reached, and the Stars plated two more runs before Scott Wade got out of the inning. 8-3 Stars. Ingall 3-5, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-3, BB;

Chris Parker went 1-4 with a single in his debut. While it was the first game for him, it was the last for Alonso Santana, who mastered walking left-handed batters on four straight to perfection. He would however not display it in Portland any longer. Appearing in 11 games, he allowed seven hits and eight walks, collecting a mere 19 outs. A 2.37 WHIP is bad enough. When it comes with a .267 BABIP it is your retirement notice. He was designated for assignment.

We called up Fred Carlton from AAA, our 1991 third round pick, who was 24, but really nothing special. He would make his debut, while I had an offer out for a free agent who had last pitched as a swingman for the Titans.

Game 3
DAL: RF Hino – CF D. Rodriguez – 1B Woods – 3B C. Gonzalez – 2B Morales – C James – LF Monnier – SS Robertson – P Rios
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Parker – 3B Crowe – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Reece – C Turner – SS Guerin – RF Brady – P Farley

The Raccoons took the lead for the first time in the series, when Crowe homered off Manny Rios in the first inning. Then they left on three men in the third, as Turner flew out to the warning track for the final out, and scored only one run with two on and one out in the fourth inning. Farley had tossed four no-hit innings, but a leadoff jack by Rodrigo Morales rendered that point moot quiet soon in the fifth inning. Weeds and Reece singled their way on to start the bottom of the inning. After Turner struck out, Guerin sneaked one through into left field, and Weeds bowled through third base and made it home in time, Jean-Claude Monnier didn’t even attempt a throw. We left two on here, and then had two on with two out in the sixth, with Reece batting. He bounced a 3-1 grounder to Morales at second – and Morales missed it completely. The Coons got a break, two runs, and Farley pitched into the eighth before he was removed after Gustavo Infante hit a single pinch-hitting. De La Rosa collected the final four outs in a win. 5-1 Raccoons. Crowe 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Wedemeyer 3-5; Reece 4-5, 2 RBI; Guerin 3-3, RBI; Farley 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (4-1) and 1-4; De La Rosa 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

We had 15 hits in the game, and left 13 men on base. Still a so-so display of offensive (in)ability, but at least Weeds and Reece got much-needed infusions into their batting averages.

The Warriors claimed Alonso Santana. The Warriors are dumb.

Raccoons (18-16) @ Loggers (22-12) – May 15-17, 1998

Here were two teams that tied for first place when it came to allowing the least runs in the Continental League. The difference was in the offense again, as the Loggers’ ranked sixth, and where ours ranked has been beaten to death by now.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (2-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Jorge Casas (3-2, 4.20 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-4, 2.94 ERA) vs. Tim Butler (3-1, 4.42 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (3-2, 2.00 ERA) vs. Davis Sims (3-1, 3.52 ERA)

That’s three right-handed hurlers. That should help our young left-handed outfielders. I hope. I really hope. Because I have no reason for confidence. So I can only hope. Against hope. Uah.

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Parker – 3B Crowe – 1B Wedemeyer – CF Reece – SS Guerin – RF Brady – C Turner – P Rivera
MIL: CF Fletcher – SS B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – C L. Ramirez – 2B J. Perez – 1B D. Evans – 3B M. Jones – P Casas

Two on, two out, Neil Reece came to bat and flew to center. Fletcher came on, but couldn’t get it and missed it altogether, as the ball bounced to the wall. Parker scored easily, and Wedemeyer was waved around third base, but Fletcher brought the ball in. Wedemeyer collided with Leon Ramirez, and went 0-2. He was thrown out, and hurt, too. Utting replaced him. The game soon became tied, 2-2, in the fourth, the runs for the Loggers unearned after an error by Chris Parker. The Coons took it to Casas in the fifth with three runs, but that still wasn’t enough. Rivera failed to retire anybody in the sixth inning, and Donis came in to face Drake Evans in a 5-3 game with the bags full and nobody out. Evans was batting a scary .163. Yeah, of course the tying runs scored. But other players were failing sometimes, too, even certified Coonskinners like Bakile Hiwalani. His error dropping a Reece fly in the seventh made it 5-5, two on, no outs, into 6-5, two in scoring position, no outs. When Elliott Meeks got Guerin to flop out to shallow center, Fletcher got to it, Jai Utting tagged and headed home, and Fletcher’s throw was way off. He might have nailed Utting, but now we were at 7-5, runner on third, one out. And now came Clyde Brady’s big moment: he jacked his first major league homer. 9-5! OFFENSE!! But it wasn’t over yet. While we were running out of bullpen at frightening speed, Daniel Miller got two outs in the seventh, then walked two. And I was going for Scott Wade here to get a ground ball, and he did, from Leon Ramirez. Wade was supposed to finish this game with a 7-out save. It was quite an adventure. The Loggers put a runner on third base with one out in the eighth, but a hissing grounder off Mike Jones’ bat was converted into the second out by Utting, and the run didn’t score in the inning. In the ninth, the first two Loggers got on, and Wade plated their first run with a wild pitch. Another single crawled through between infielders, and then with two out Wade even made an error to bring Drake Evans to the plate as the tying run. Evans thought about having Wade make another play for an error, but his grounder was converted to first this time. 9-7 Raccoons. Ingall 2-5; Crowe 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Wedemeyer 1-1; Reece 2-4, 2B, 4 RBI;

We had no news on Weeds that evening. Also, the Scorpions were awarded Alonso Santana. The Scorpions are also dumb.

Game 2
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Parker – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – C Turner – SS Caddock – 1B Utting – P Saito
MIL: RF C. Ramirez – 3B Nakayama – CF Fletcher – LF Hiwalani – C L. Ramirez – 2B J. Perez – SS M. Jones – 1B D. Evans – P Butler

Proof that 24 of the players on the roster were conspiring against Kisho Saito: Neil Reece made a silly error in the first inning to put a second man on with nobody out. Then Caddock had a grounder off Fletcher’s bat roll past him. Bags full, no outs, and the Loggers plated a pair early. Saito would settle in in the second inning, pitched seven innings, recorded the last six outs with a K, allowed only three more runners, and still lost the game. Tim Butler tossed a 5-hit shutout. 2-0 Loggers. Crowe 2-4, 2B; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, L (1-5) and 1-2;

More good news: Liam Wedemeyer is scheduled to miss a month of play with a torn quad. So, he was put on the DL, and Samy Michel was called up as replacement.

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – RF Villegas – C Turner – LF Newton – P Movonda
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalanai – C L. Ramirez – 2B J. Perez – SS Nakyama – 3B M. Jones – P M. Garcia

Martin Garcia (5-1, 2.17 ERA) was moved up into this game. Oh joy. The Colombian Beauty’s game was in the L column as soon as Jerry Fletcher hit a leadoff triple in the first. The Raccoons sucked the air out of an empty plastic bottle, while Movonda was hurt when the repulsive Hiwalani scored Fletcher in the first, and the Loggers plated a pair in the fifth with a liner through Michel. Movonda was hit for in the seventh with Utting, who struck out and we left another man at third there. Fairchild and debutee Carlton failed in the seventh, and Miller offered little relief, walking in two runs. 5-1 Loggers. Michel 2-3, BB; Newton 2-3, BB, 2 2B;



In other news

May 11 – DEN SS Zak Davidson (.350, 0 HR, 20 RBI) is diagnosed with a sprained ankle and may miss up to six weeks.
May 12 – SAC OF Joey Humphrey (.336, 0 HR, 17 RBI) is the next player to sprain an ankle and should be out for a good month.
May 17 – TIJ LF Dale Wales (.284, 1 HR, 14 RBI) is expected to miss six weeks with an elbow sprain. The Condors also lose 1B/2B David Brewer (.285, 2 HR, 13 RBI) to an oblique strain, but Brewer shouldn’t miss much more than a week.

Complaints and stuff

Jason Turner pitched a 5-hitter against Indy this week. He’s 4-2 with a 3.88 ERA, and I miss him.

During this week, I got an actual headache. They are driving me nuts. The pitching is so good (for most of the staff), but the hitting… the hitting… This lineup would rack up a dozen strikeouts in tee ball, for crying out loud.

They are so driving me nuts…

Raccoons offense ranks through May 17
AVG – .241 – 10th
OBP – .308 – 11th
SLG – .352 – 8th
OPS – .660 – 10th
R – 124 – 12th
H – 313 – 8th
XBH – 86 – 9th
HR – 26 – t-1st
BB – 121 – 11th
K – 212 – 4th
SB – 16 – 9th

Raccoons pitching ranks through May 17
ERA – 2.83 – 1st
SP ERA – 2.69 – 1st
RP ERA – 3.19 – 8th
R – 127 – 2nd
H – 282 – 1st
OBAVG – .228 – 1st
BABIP – .261 – 1st
HR – 18 – 6th
BB – 126 – 4th
SO – 206 – 9th

They are driving me nuts…

[alexsimon99]

Loved reading up on the Coons and seeing how it progressed. Excellent writing and it's been awesome to follow.

I gotta make one comment: has ANY team in this league ever had a stretch as good or better than the 31-4 stretch you put together with Portland? I can't seem to think so, but I haven't paid close enough attention to know for sure.

[Westheim]

Thanks for enduring 50 pages of uneducated trading, cursing, and failing!

I mostly don't watch the other divisions much during the year, but I am quite certain that no CL North team has ever won 31 of 35, apart from the Coons. Maybe the Capitals when they won 116 games in '91? I don't know. You need a damn good team to do that.

Right now, the Coons are more likely to score 31 runs over a 35-game stretch........

[Westheim]

I was sitting at my desk rather unmotivated right now and checked after those 1991 Capitals. While we only have the weekly or bi-weekly standings to work with, and they did in some way best the Coons' 31-4 mark with a long run of 59-10, including a 29-4 stretch that became 35-5 at the next update.

A new update might be coming for the Coons tonight (in my time zone at least) if I feel like watching the Cardinals game. I mostly play OOTP side-by-side with real baseball right now, and the stupid necessity to work for food limits me to day games during the week. I don't like the Cardinals.....

[alexsimon99]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I was sitting at my desk rather unmotivated right now and checked after those 1991 Capitals. While we only have the weekly or bi-weekly standings to work with, and they did in some way best the Coons' 31-4 mark with a long run of 59-10, including a 29-4 stretch that became 35-5 at the next update.

In the "modern" baseball era (1901-present) there are very few teams who come close to this. Best 35 game stretches by franchise:
Cubs: 33-2 (1906)
Yankees: 31-4 (twice, 1941/1947)
Royals: 31-4 (1977)
Giants: 30-4-1 (1912)
Athletics: 30-5 (three times, 1914/1931/2002)
Pirates: 30-5 (twice, 1902 (to start the year!!)/1909)
Cardinals: 30-5 (three times, 1930/1942/1944)
Tigers: 30-5 (1984)
Dodgers: 30-5 (2013)

Every other team is 29-5-1 or below. So, if you compared the Coons streak to the rest of modern baseball (1901-present), only one other streak is better and three others tie the Coons.

Just to give a sort of historical significance to that streak, which I'm still in shock over

[Westheim]

Raccoons (19-18) vs. Canadiens (11-25) – May 19-21, 1998

Whatever struggles the Raccoons were experiencing, it was certainly worse for the Elks. Not that I was griefing for their pity too much. They had ZERO pitching. They didn’t have a lot of offense, but they had ZERO pitching. They had already allowed 256 runs – that’s a whopping (whipping) SEVEN RUNS per game. Never before has a team been so ridiculously bad on the mound.

And here come the Coons.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (3-4, 3.09 ERA) vs. Jose Dominguez (1-5, 6.27 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-1, 2.82 ERA) vs. John Collins (1-6, 7.17 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-5, 2.57 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (2-5, 7.84 ERA)

Jose Rivera had struggled badly his last few starts and as such would be skipped here. Besides, I really wanted Kisho Saito to win a game every two months or so. This is not in violation of the “one player’s needs ain’t more important than the team’s needs” rule. There was an off day before this series, Rivera was walking them in droves, and Saito had this look on his face…

Game 1
VAN: 2B B. Butler – SS Shaw – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – CF Ledesma – RF Moore – C Castillo – 3B P. Williams – P Dominguez
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – LF Parker – C Turner – SS Caddock – P M. Lopez

And here come the Inepticoons. Ingall and Brady singled in the first, the runners were on the corners, and the Raccoons failed to score in the inning. And the next. And the one after that. And then Bill Mosley hit a 2-run homer off Lopez in the fourth inning, and Lopez walked Ledesma, who then clobbered Marvin Ingall on the next play, and Ingall was knocked out. Mosley doubled up on Lopez the next time he came up, 3-0 Elks, and the Raccoons logged their first hit since the first inning on Neil Reece’s leadoff single in the bottom 6th. Michel singling, and Parker walking loaded the bags with one out for Turner, who found a way to ground one to Travis Shaw, and the inning was over. Patrick Williams’ bomb in the seventh got the attendance rid of Lopez, and when Daniel Miller came in he issued three 2-out walks before Caddock rescued him with a nice catch on Ledesma’s line drive. Neil Reece then held the game in reach (theoretically) in the eighth with a nifty catch followed by a kill throw to home plate, getting two outs in one swoop. Still down 4-0, the bullpen entered for the Canadiens, and suddenly – an opening! The tying runs were aboard in a 4-1 game and two out for Conceicao Guerin, who was now in the leadoff spot, when he squeezed a single past Shaw to plate a pair. McDonald hit for Carlton in the #2 slot against Juan Bello (7.98 ERA) – and lined out. The Canadiens responded by putting four runs on a helpless Tamburrino in the ninth. 8-3 Canadiens. Ingall 1-1, BB, 2B; Guerin 2-3, 2 RBI; Brady 2-4; Newton (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 2
VAN: CF Ledesma – 3B Sutton – 1B Mosley – C J. Lopez – RF J. Wilson – LF J. Moreno – 2B Darke – SS Shaw – P J. Collins
POR: 3B Crowe – SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Michel – C Turner – LF Parker – 2B Caddock – P Farley

The Coons got the first run of the game with Michel’s first career RBI, a 2-out RBI single. Then they started to fail again. While Farley only struck out left-handed batters in this start, Michel tripled with one out in the fourth – and was left on. Meanwhile John Collins struck out nine – obviously hibernating – Raccoons through the first five innings. It was a clutch performance by Farley that didn’t let this one get away, and then in the bottom 7th, we finally got a big knock, a 2-run homer by Steve Caddock to make it 3-0. All was well for Farley, who pitched a scoreless eighth, and came back out for the ninth. When Lopez singled to lead off the ninth, Wade was getting ready, but Joe Wilson hit into a double play, and Farley then popped up Moreno, and Caddock got that one. 3-0 Raccoons. Crowe 2-4; Michel 2-4, 3B, RBI; Farley 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (5-1) and 1-3;

That’s Randyboy’s first career shutout of course, being a rookie, and never having gotten through the eighth inning before. Are the Condors regretting the trade yet? David Brewer is batting .285/.354/.423 so far, but he was also very slow out of the box two of the three years he was with us, and always ended up with minimums of .322/.412/.421 for an average 5.5 WAR from the plate. He has 0.6 offensive WAR so far this year.

Game 3
VAN: 3B B. Butler – C J. Lopez – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – CF Ledesma – RF Moore – SS Shaw – 2B Darke – P Marquez
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Crowe – CF Reece – 1B Michel – C Turner – LF Newton – 2B Utting – RF Villegas – P Saito

Saito and the W were intentionally parted by the defense already in the first. A pair of errors by Guerin and Crowe allowed the first and fourth Canadien on base, and Saito barely came out only 1-0 down when he got Travis Shaw to ground out. Saito was visibly disgusted by his teammates, then was blown up without assistance in the third inning on a 3-run bomb by Bill Mosley. The Raccoons had exactly one producer in the lineup, Neil Reece, and they went down hard, and took Saito with them. 6-3 Canadiens. Guerin 3-5, 2B; Reece 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Villegas 2-4;

Instead, they hit into three double plays.

We also got the diagnosis on Marvin Ingall, who had been absolutely blazing terrific the first two months of the year. Well, that was over now. He was out until the All Star break with a strained oblique.

WE AIN’T GONNA WIN A SINGLE ****ING GAME FOR SIX WEEKS.

Free agent signing

The same day of game 3, the Raccoons added a replacement for the chased Alonso Santana. They announced the signing of 32-year old Brooklynite Dave Beck, a southpaw reliever, on a 1-yr, $180k contract. Beck was the Titans’ eighth round pick in 1984, and made his debut as September callup for the Canadiens in 1989. He stayed with them through 1994, and since then has pitched for the Bayhawks and Titans. He has a 4.53 career ERA, but has decent K/BB and was very good the last two seasons.

He was added to the roster in time for the following series, at the expense of Fred Carlton.

Raccoons (20-20) vs. Falcons (20-21) – May 22-24, 1998

The Falcons had a good rotation, which ranked fourth in the league, but they suffered offensively, scoring only a hair over four runs a game. Well, that’s still four more than a certain bunch of suckers I know about.

Projected matchups:
Manuel Movonda (3-3, 2.25 ERA) vs. Carlos Castro (4-3, 2.53 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (3-5, 3.42 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (4-3, 4.14 ERA)
Randy Farley (5-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. Angel Romero (5-2, 2.10 ERA)

That’s three left-handers. Reece is the only RHB in the outfield now. Hum. Parker is sucking anyway. He will start in the first game, and if he continues to fail, he will be demoted for a right-hander. That was the thought, at least. However, the only right-handed batting outfielder on the AAA roster was George Wood, who was not on the 40-man roster, and who was also struggling. Argh!! And no more AA experiments. By the way, as Ingall was DL’ed, we called up infielder Brent McLaughlin, just to have a body on the bench. But maybe we should really call up a first baseman, have Michel play second, and go from there. I don’t know. I have lost any clue I ever had.

Lopez hadn’t pitched very far in his game, but Farley was also starting on short rest. We’d take it slow with him in his start.

Game 1
CHA: CF R. Garza – SS J. Barrón – 1B H. Green – 3B M. Hall – LF Encarnación – 2B P. Villa – RF Cleveland – C D. Smith – P Castro
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – CF Reece – 2B Utting – RF Newton – C McDonald – LF Parker – P Movonda

Movonda surrendered a pair of runs in the first inning, leading to Utting coming up with the bags full and one out in the bottom of the inning. Utting slapped a single into right, getting Guerin home, but Newton then got doubled up. It was a Javier Encarnación error in the third inning that put Samy Michel on second base for Neil Reece, and Reece zinged a single up the middle to score the young Canadian, and the game was tied again. That tie lived until Samy Michel’s next AB, and here said young Canadian launched his maiden big league homer, putting Movonda up 3-2. All was going well for Movonda now until the seventh. Duane Smith singled on with one out, and then Castro came up to bunt. He bunted to the left side and Crowe had a long way to go on that one – and didn’t make the play. Castro’s bunt base hit put the Raccoons and Movonda in somewhat of a predicament, as the top of the lineup came up with the go-ahead runs on. Movonda was going to pitch to Ramón Garza, however, as Garza was a right-hander, and Barrón a switch hitter. Garza poked at the first pitch, grounded hard to third, but right to Crowe, who never missed a beat on this one and converted it into a 5-4-3 double duty. Then came the bullpen, and blew it. De La Rosa walked Green and allowed a double to Hall in the eighth, and Donis surrendered a sac fly to Christian Dunphy, who hit for Encarnación to counter Donis. The game went to extra innings with Scott Wade pitching. Guerin got on leading off the 10th, but was caught stealing in a pitchout. With two down, Michel and Reece singled, bringing up Utting with right-hander Holden Gorman pitching. Yeah, I didn’t quite like my chances with the bench. Utting grounded out. Beck made his Coons debut in a scoreless 12th, and Turner then hit for him leading off the bottom 12th, whiffing. Guerin grounded out, and we had Fairchild warm up for the 13th and beyond (undoubtedly 20, at least), when Mike Crowe stepped into the box. Crowe homered – it was a walkoff!!! 4-3 Raccoons!!! Guerin 3-6, 2B; Michel 3-5, HR, RBI; Reece 2-5, RBI; Parker 2-5; Movonda 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; Wade 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

So, Dave Beck actually won his first appearance as a Brownshirt. Let’s build on that!

Game 2
CHA: CF Dunphy – 2B J. Barrón – 3B H. Green – LF Cleveland – C J. Rivera – SS R. Garza – 1B P. Villa – RF S. Vargas – P Wilson
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – CF Reece – C Turner – LF Newton – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – P M. Lopez

Christian Dunphy was batting a frightening .153, yet somehow Miguel Lopez managed to throw him four low ones that Dunphy didn’t go after for a 2-out, bases-loaded walk in the second inning. Bottom 2nd, “Loudmouth” Wilson walked Werner Turner, and then quickly left the game with an apparent injury. Brady got on, and then McLaughlin doubled to tie the game. As reliever Leonard Williamson came apart, a huge 2-out, 2-run single by Guerin and another knock by Crowe plated a total of four runs in the inning. Bad control and composure were problems Lopez fought with as much as the Falcons in general in this game, though. Although the Coons tacked on a run in the fourth, Lopez came close to getting removed in the fifth, after which he had four walks on his ledger, and had balked in one of the two Falcons runs in the inning, bringing the score to 5-3. Lopez was yanked in the sixth after putting two men on, and Tamburrino got out of the inning with runners on the corners. Miller pitched a quick seventh, but then allowed a pair of 1-out singles in the eighth. Beck came in, and rescued the lead, although one run scored. With Wade unavailable, we were now only up by one run, but that was before the bottom 8th. Here the strained Falcons bullpen exploded for good. Reece walked, Turner singled, and they just came apart piece by piece although McLaughlin hit into a double play. The inning continued with RBI hits by Caddock and Guerin, a walk by Crowe, and another big hit by Michel, before Reece struck out. Six runs scored, Kelly Fairchild found a way to get bombed by Jesus Rivera, but the Coons won. 11-6 Raccoons. Guerin 4-5, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Turner 2-3, BB; Brady 1-2, 2 BB; Caddock (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 3
CHA: CF R. Garza – 2B J. Barrón – 1B H. Green – 3B M. Hall – LF Encarnación – RF A. Lopez – 2B P. Villa – C D. Smith – P Romero
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – CF Reece – C Turner – RF Brady – 2B Utting – LF Parker – P Farley

In wet conditions, Garza’s leadoff triple soon enough led to a run for the Falcons. The Raccoons looked bad against Romero until the fourth when Reece and Turner slapped singles to start the frame, and Brady and Utting added two more one-basers to take a 2-1 lead – and no one out! Parker grounded out, but Farley pressed a single up the middle, plating Brady, and when Guerin singled, the bases were loaded with one out. But Crowe popped out to right, yet deep enough to make it a sac fly, and Michel grounded out to Green. Still, that was a 4-1 lead here. Farley didn’t make it through the sixth after Green and Hall had 2-out base hits and Green scored, 4-2. Donis replaced him and actually didn’t blow the game for once. A Turner error cost another run in the seventh, 4-3, and the Falcons were smelling a chance to avoid getting swept. But that was before Neil Reece was introduced to reliever Brian Morris. His towering home run restored a 3-run gap, also collecting Mike Crowe, who had walked, and that looked much more comfy for us. The Coons loaded the bags with two out, prompting the appearance of Luke Newton to hit for Brad Tamburrino, but he grounded out to Green, and that was that. The bullpen had to get six outs with a 6-3 lead, and Miller came in, struck out Barrón, but Green doubled. Hall grounded out, moving Green to third and bringing up the left-handers in the #5 and #6 holes. Beck had been out two days in a row already and Donis had been used. We’re up by three, have Miller pitch to Encarnación (who was a potential power threat), and then we can still bring Wade for a 4-out save. Miller ran the count full on Encarnación, and then struck him out. DANNYBOY!! Thus Wade had only to collect three outs – and needed only five pitches to do so. 6-3 Coons! Reece 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Brady 3-4, RBI; Utting 2-4, RBI;

Free agent signing

This happened on Monday, an off day, but why not shove it in here? We signed C/1B Ricardo Castillo to a minor league deal. Castillo was a backup for the Miners from 1991 to 1996, batting .231 in 878 AB. The most AB he had in a season were 307 in ’94, when he hit eight homers and still came out with a .661 OPS. However, he’s not here for fantastic offense. Basic offense from the backup catcher slot will do. For now, he is assigned to AAA, but I am getting tired of Ronald McDonald in a hurry.

Castillo also is no investment into the future. He is 31. Use him while his body is still warm.

In other news
The other 23 teams played, too, but nothing worth noting occurred.

Complaints and stuff

Healthy for six weeks, and then RAM-BAM-BAMM!! Buell, Wedemeyer, Ingall – all down. That’s terrible. We are now fielding a lineup with at least three sub-.200 batters every day, and that does NOT include the pitcher!

By the way, Ingall still leads the CL in batter WAR with a 2.0 mark. I am increasingly embittered by that oblique strain. He will also drop out of the batting title race in second place behind VAN Forest Hartley. BITTERNESS. Other leaders are Movonda (3rd in ERA, pitcher WAR), and Farley (t-2nd in wins).

And it is good to see Neil Reece coming off life support. Even the brainless zombies on the roster are only half as scary to watch without their head. That’s probably not doing Neil any justice, but he’s not really been a major factor these two months. Also a shoutout to Consuela (or so) manning short, batting about twice as much as the expectation on him.

And YET … they are STILL … above five-double-oh.

Below, and never gonna win 250 unless he gets traded, Kisho Saito. I am really pissed. He hasn’t gotten any run support in YEARS.

Also watch his K/BB, which pales in comparison to the Colombian Beauty’s: Movonda has struck out 49, and walked FIVE this season.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-20) @ Knights (20-23) – May 26-28, 1998

The Knights were ranking below average in most of the prime offensive and pitching categories, but they were not exceptionally bad in any one of these. No Canadiens pitching, which you could readily score a kazillion runs against. ‘cept you’re the Coons, then … The Knights had won their last four games.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (2-1, 2.92 ERA) vs. John Miller (1-3, 3.05 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-6, 3.00 ERA) vs. Craig Hansen (2-4, 6.46 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (3-3, 2.28 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (3-3, 3.22 ERA)

Kisho Saito is up against time- and ageless Craig Hansen, who’s had it hard so far this year. Yeah, I have a flash of what’s coming already…

Stephen Buell might come back on the weekend, but I am not yet sure whether he should spend a week in AAA to get his shoulder going again. It’s not like we need offense. (rolls eyes)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – LF Parker – C Turner – 2B Caddock – P Rivera
ATL: CF Árias – 3B Morales – 2B Palacios – LF Kinnear – RF Sakaguchi – C J. Johnson – 1B V. Martinez – SS Tanaka – P J. Miller

The Coons battered John Miller for five hits and three runs in the first inning. Then Rivera came out – and had the favor returned. Five hits, three runs. It was a horrible start for Rivera. While Miller struck out six through five innings, Rivera walked six and was hit for in the top 6th with Turner on second and one out. Newton grounded out, but Guerin’s RBI triple with two out gave the Coons a 4-3 lead. The Knights had left tons of scoring chances unused, stranding nine against a horrible Rivera. A Reece homer in the seventh and McLaughlin driving in a run as a pinch hitter with two down in the eighth enlarged that lead to 6-3, and the bullpen was holding up, as Beck entered in the bottom 8th, struck out the first two batters, then put three men on, a run scoring. Scott Wade appeared with two down and the tying runs on, and didn’t surrender anybody as the Knights escalated the affair into a 6-run inning. 9-6 Knights. Guerin 2-5, 3B, RBI; McLaughlin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Crowe 2-4, 2B, RBI; Parker 2-5, RBI; Turner 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

I am already having a snoot full of them.

With Saito pitching next, I know exactly what’s coming, especially with a 6+ ERA pitcher appearing for the opposition. 8-0 Knights seems like a good guess. I am by now fully expecting the Rabicoons to lose every Saito start until the poor sod finally retires.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – LF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – C Turner – RF Villegas – 2B McLaughlin – P Saito
ATL: 2B Palacios – 3B Morales – LF Sakaguchi – RF Hatch – 1B J. Jackson – CF Árias – C J. Johnson – SS Tanaka – P Hansen

Humiliating Saito started early, as the Knights were up 1-0 when Hansen stepped in to bat leadoff in the third inning. Saito ran the count full, then – despising to walk such a lowly batter like Hansen, who was a career .161 batter – surrendered Hansen’s second career homer. The park was adance. Saito surrendered another home run to Hollis Hatch in the fourth, 3-0, but went seven innings while fanning eight. His team was … yeah, somewhere in the building, but not actively participating. Then, the top 8th. Reece and Crowe led off with singles, bringing the tying run up in Samy Michel. He grounded out, forcing Crowe. Turner then grounded hard to third, and Morales didn’t get it. The Coons were finally on the board, and had the tying runs on base for Jorge Villegas, who walked, three men on, and Caddock hit for McLaughlin to counter Hansen, who was still on the mound. Caddock struck out. Saito was begging to bat, but nope, we have qualified personnel for that! While I was dodging Saito’s swings, Chris Parker roped a single into shallow center that scored the second run. Nesto Martinez replaced Hansen to pitch to Guerin, who grounded out. 4-2 Knights. Reece 3-5, 2B; McLaughlin 2-2, BB; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, L (1-7);

The Retardicoons left four runners on third base in the game. No wonder Saito has recently often been seen carving his team mates’ likenesses from little blocks of wood, then removing their heads with a chainsaw.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Caddock – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – C Turner – LF Newton – RF Villegas – P Movonda
ATL: CF Árias – 3B Morales – 2B Palacios – LF Kinnear – RF Sakaguchi – C J. Johnson – 1B J. Rojas – SS Tanaka – P Howard

The Colombian Beauty was overrun by a stomping crusade of Knights early in the final game of the series. The Knights sliced him for five runs in 3.1 innings, and Tamburrino just barely got out of there before the damage could become any bigger. Nominally, the Coons were still in the game after scoring a pair of runs in the third (another Guerin triple the deciding factor), and Reece homered in the sixth to shorten the distance to just two runs, but c’mon, you know whom we’re talkin’ about! Fairchild’s attempt at long relief was sabotaged by a Guerin error, and Miller pitched in the seventh to a tune of three walks, a wild pitch, and more dumb luck than he deserved as the Knights scored only once. 7-5 Knights. Reece 2-4, HR, RBI; Villegas 3-4, 2 2B;

Raccoons (23-23) @ Thunder (27-21) – May 29-31, 1998

There was about no scoring in the Coons’ games this season, as they continued to rank 12th in runs scored and first in runs allowed, but the Thunder weren’t all that different. They ranked 10th in runs scored, and 4th in runs allowed. Of course, there you had a 4.2 R/G team (OCT) and a team that had to tear off several limbs to get even close to 3.7 R/G. They weren’t. We had swept the Thunder in our April series.

But April was long gone.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (4-5, 3.56 ERA) vs. Lou Corbett (4-4, 3.26 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-1, 2.43 ERA) vs. Larry Davis (1-3, 2.52 ERA)
Jose Rivera (2-1, 3.20 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (3-3, 2.59 ERA)

The Thunder are on a 5-game roll. Yay, lucky us.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Michel – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – C Turner – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – LF Utting – P M. Lopez
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – LF Camacho – 2B Browne – 3B Grant – 1B Carroll – C Briggs – RF L. Hernandez – CF C. Clark – P Corbett

The Raccoons took an actual lead in a game with Samy Michel’s third-inning, 2-run home run off Lou Corbett, but of course it didn’t live long. Lopez was torn up in the fourth, as the Thunder tied the game, and he faced Corbett with two down and a man on. In pitcher’s paradise, Corbett homered to set the Thunder ahead 4-2. The Thunder made it 6-2 in the fifth and that was as good a time to flick off the radio or leave the park and do something useful like mowing the lawn. Corbett crumbled, and a pinch-hit homer by Luke Newton brought the score back to 6-5 Oklahoma in the seventh inning, and the Coons got two on for Crowe – and Corbett made him his tenth strikeout victim of the day, and it ended the inning. If you had gone to mow your lawn, you thankfully missed Dave Beck being shredded for four runs in the seventh inning. 11-5 Thunder. Michel 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Reece 3-4; Newton (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI;

We may safely erase “pitching” from the “things we’re good at” list, which is now empty and can be discarded.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – LF Parker – 2B Caddock – C McDonald – P Farley
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – CF C. Clark – 2B Browne – 3B Grant – LF Camacho – RF L. Hernandez – 1B J. Valentín – C Briggs – P L. Davis

The Thunder were close to scoring a few times early on, and finally got to Randy Farley when Caddock and Guerin failed to turn a double play on Juan Valentín with the bags full and one out in the bottom 4th. Briggs made the third out, but 1-0 Thunder it was. Runners on the corners with no outs in the top 5th, Larry Davis turned that into a nice massacre as he faced McDonald, Farley, and Guerin, and sat them down all. You couldn’t pitch much more magnificent than Farley two months into your rookie season but you could also hardly have less offense behind you. The Coons failed utterly badly for five innings. Reece sent one deep in the sixth that just ended up in Lucio Hernandez’ glove, but Hernandez was helpless when Samy Michel unleashed an actual bomb that tied the game in the seventh. Farley soldiered on in the tie, went nine innings, including a 3-pitch ninth, but the Coons were still failing. The band played on, and Caddock led off the 10th with a double of Hipólito Sendím. Villegas struck out in McDonald’s place, but then Newton had another PH appearance and hit a single (so Farley was out of the game). Jimmy Morey came in to pitch in the highest danger, but Guerin hit a looper to shallow right – and Hernandez did NOT get it. Caddock scored, we were in business. Morey walked Brady and Reece, and the bags were still full until Crowe and Michel made poor outs. Scott Wade did not blow up this time. 3-1 Raccoons. Michel 2-5, HR, RBI; Caddock 2-4, 2B; Newton (PH) 1-1; Farley 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (7-1);

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – LF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Michel – C Turner – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – 3B Utting – P Rivera
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – CF C. Clark – 2B Browne – 3B Grant – LF Camacho – RF L. Hernandez – 1B J. Valentín – C Guidry – P Armand

The Raccoons got Armand out of the game quickly in the rubber match. A couple hard hits by McLaughlin and Utting were key pieces in a 3-run second inning, and Neil Reece and Clyde Brady had solo home runs in the third to make it 5-0. Brady also threw out Lucio Hernandez as the Condor tried to stretch a double in the second inning. The Condors didn’t get a lot off Rivera, who was totally turned around from his last start and carried a shutout into the eighth, before with two down, PH Ted Winters doubled home a run. We entered the ninth up 6-1. The Thunder had a lot of left-handers around, so Dave Beck entered the game. He faced four men and left after Ivan Camacho’s 3-run homer had come down somewhere behind the batter’s eye. Donis appeared, walked Hernandez and plunked Carroll. De La Rosa appeared. Guidry singled. Bases loaded, one out. Jason Briggs hit a grounder to De La Rosa, who failed to get any out. 6-5, bases loaded, one out. Jose Sanchez was next, and hurled a low flyer to shallow right. Clyde Brady zoomed on as Carroll went back to tag third base. Brady made the play, Carroll went, Brady unleashed a thunderbolt and Carroll waaaaaas ………… PUNCHED OUT AT THE PLATE!! 6-5 Raccoons!! Brady 3-4, HR, RBI, 2 OF Assists, SB; Rivera 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-1);

BRA-dy! BRA-dy! BRA-dy!

Gotta root for SOMEONE.

In other news

May 26 – CYCLE!! The Loggers are butchered by the Condors, 9-2. Especially unstoppable in the game was LF/RF Martin “Funky” Horn (.257, 5 HR, 34 RBI), who has four base knocks, one of each variety, and drives in five. It is the 24th cycle in ABL history and the Condors are the first team to have players achieve the feat three times, as Horn joins Thomas Martin (1988) and Bruce Boyle (1992) as cyclers for the club.
May 26 – RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.341, 10 HR, 35 RBI) is heading for the disabled list with a mild hamstring strain. A 15-day stay should do for him.
May 28 – Outfield’s getting’ thin for the Rebels: RF/CF Jesus Gonzalez (.294, 3 HR, 16 RBI) has a broken hand and will miss six weeks.
May 29 – CHA SP Angel Romero (6-3, 2.16 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders in a 4-0 Falcons win.
May 31 – The Loggers lose OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.330, 1 HR, 16 RBI) to a broken hand. The 27-year old righty could be out for up to three months.

Complaints and stuff

When has there ever been a team horrible enough to allow home runs to opposing pitchers TWICE in a week? We don’t have to go into any other detail. THAT stat tells enough you have to know about this sucker bunch.

There were a few guys sucking a little less this week, and one of them was Neil Reece. He was actually pretty good, and good enough to be named Player of the Week, yay!!! Reece went 12-27 with 3 HR and 5 RBI and has been Player of the Week for the eighth time in his career.

But that’s not all, folks. The CL Pitcher of the Month and Rookie of the Month awards both went to the same guy. Who could that be? How about Randy Farley! He made six starts and pitched to a 5-1 record and 2.08 ERA in May!

Huzzah!

But back to being grumpy. As they are slowly but surely descending to a losing record, the offensive shortcomings are getting more and more obvious, especially with Ingall, Buell, and Wedemeyer out. Not that the team would have scored any WITH them, but the replacements were even worse. Just look at that outfield. Good grief!

[Westheim]

The draft is only a few weeks removed from us. The Raccoons are in a prime position to load up on talent with a myriad of picks in the first sixty-something. What kind of draft will it be? Will we would together a team that will win three straight titles 2003-2005? Can’t tell now, but from looking at the draft it becomes apparent that there are certain areas that can’t be filled with blue chips this time around. F.e. there are a good number of decently scouted starting pitchers and catchers around, but no sure-thing stars, and the situation for power infielders is especially dire. However, relief pitching and outfielders are richly represented. The following are about the top players on our wishlist:

SP Frank McGeraghty (18/7/15)
SP Rod Taylor (14/7/9)
SP Daniel Dickerson (11/17/13) – highest bonus demand in the draft at $2.1M

RP Scott Boone (20/18/18)
RP Sergio Vega (20/15/14)
RP Tom Brooks (14/17/15)
RP Luis Valdes (16/15/10)

C Craig Bowen (9/13/16)

1B/3B/LF Jon Merritt (16/5/18)
1B/3B Bob Phillips (12/9/10)

LF/CF Chris Roberson (20/18/9)
LF/RF Lou Jenkins (16/20/10)
LF/RF/1B Will Bailey (14/14/13)
LF/RF/CF Herb Rose (14/8/13)
LF/RF Jesus Valle (14/12/10)
LF/RF/1B Emery Parkinson (12/14/12)

We have the #4 pick, followed by the #28 pick, and then four between #50 and #69, all in the supplemental round, plus finally #86 (the second round pick received from the Condors for David Vinson, not our actual second round pick, which went out of the window for signing Manuel Movonda), and #97 in the third round, so a total of eight top 100 picks.

Gotta get a good harvest!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-24) vs. Condors (29-21) – June 1-3, 1998

The Condors were going fairly strong this season, but they were struggling badly with their rotation, which ranked 10th in the CL. In return, their bullpen was 2nd, and their mark of 207 runs scored put them 5th in the league.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (1-7, 3.09 ERA) vs. Juan Lara (3-4, 6.05 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (3-4, 2.82 ERA) vs. Arnold Ralph (2-3, 4.41 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (4-6, 3.82 ERA) vs. Woody Roberts (2-3, 4.86 ERA)

We get three right-handers and we will have the Thursday after this series off. We will be subjected to 20 straight days without an off day after that.

Game 1
TIJ: 2B Brewer – C F. Jackson – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Horn – SS Gorden – 1B Galindo – RF L. Maldonado – CF A. Rodriguez – P J. Lara
POR: SS Guerin – RF Newton – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – LF Parker – 2B Caddock – C McDonald – P Saito

Saito was not pitching very effective, expending himself for 111 tosses through six innings in this start, and while the Condors crowded him twice, including in the sixth, he did not allow any runs, which was always a good strategy to not lose a game. That still didn’t make him a winner. Juan Lara allowed one hit through five inning, and Saito was hit for leading off the bottom 6th, which saw the Raccoons load the bags with two out, and then Michel struck out. The bullpen imploded as soon as Saito was out of the game, starting with Dave Beck and continuing with Daniel Miller, Gabby De La Rosa, and Kelly Fairchild. 3-0 Condors. Crowe 1-2, 2 BB; Saito 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

Dave Beck was a Raccoon for 11 days now. 6 G, 4 IP, 9 H, 4 BB, 3 K, 11 ER for a 24.75 ERA. You know what? That’s enough. So, the Raccoons designated him for assignment the same night. Get that sucker outta here!!

We recalled Fred Carlton from AAA, but in all honesty, two things are a possibility here: a) I don’t give a crap about the relief corps on this orphanage ablaze here, and b) if all left-handers keep walking left-handed batters, I can use right-handers anyway.

Game 2
TIJ: 2B Brewer – RF L. Maldonado – SS Boyle – LF Horn – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – 1B Solís – CF Gorden – P Ralph
POR: SS Guerin – LF Newton – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – 1B Utting – C Turner – 2B Caddock – P Movonda

For some early excitement, Clyde Brady climbed the fence to rob Ben O’Morrissey of a homer in the second inning. In bad news, that still put the Condors 1-0 ahead, since Horn scored on the sac fly. Horn had been hit by Movonda, had stolen second, and advanced to third on Turner’s wild throw to second. The Raccoons tied the game in the third. In the fifth, Guerin reached on O’Morrissey’s error to start the inning. The hit-and-run was on, and Guerin went to third as Newton singled up the middle. Runners on the corners, no out, the Coons got only one run on a Crowe single as Reece and Brady struck out. The Coons were leaving them on in droves again, while the Condors didn’t get on at all. They actually got a second base runner on a walk to Luis Maldonado, but apart from that, the Colombian Beauty was keeping his dishes empty. Two down in the top 8th, with the attendance slightly antsy, Rory Gorden hit a poor grounder that didn’t get far. He dashed for first, Turner shot up from behind the plate and sent a rocket to first – OUT! On 109 pitches, Movonda came back out in the 2-1 game for the ninth, still having allowed only two base runners. Jesus Galindo lifted a calm fly to right and to Brady. That brought up David Brewer, who extorted a walk from Movonda. Luis Maldonado grounded an 0-1 pitch back to Movonda, who went to second with it to get the lead runner. That brought up Bruce Boyle, and the count ran full, and HE worked a walk. Movonda was visibly running out of steam. He would have one more chance with Martin Horn as he tried to keep this in place. Horn was eager to swing, missed once, then hit the 1-1 offering. Horn, who had just cycled the previous week, launched a big shot to deep left. Is he gonna …!? Luke Newton was after that flyer, reached up, and nabbed in on the run!! WE HAVE A NO-HITTER!!!!!

WE HAVE A NO-HITTER!!!

THE COLOMBIAN BEAUTY HAS NO-HIT THE RUFFLED FLAMINGOS!!!

2-1 Raccoons. Guerin 2-4; Newton 2-3, BB, RBI; Crowe 2-3, BB, RBI; Movonda 9.0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (4-4);

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

This is the 22nd no-hitter in ABL history, and for the very first time, the no-hitting pitcher has conceded a run in the effort, albeit an unearned one. The Colombian Beauty joins Juan Berrios (1977) and Jason Turner (1989) as No-No-Coons.

All hail Movonda! Whooooooo-(raises hands)-ooahhhh, MOVONDA!!! Where can we take out this flush of euphoria? Let’s ignore the fact that the ship almost went down due to insufficient offense! Which team can we batter into submission tomorrow? Oh, those same Condors again.

Game 3
TIJ: 2B Boyle – C F. Jackson – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Horn – SS Golden – RF L. Maldonado – 1B Brewer – CF A. Rodriguez – P Roberts
POR: SS Guerin – LF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Michel – RF Brady – C Turner – 3B Utting – 2B Caddock – P M. Lopez

In a massacre, Miguel Lopez registered six outs while being sledgehammered for ten hits and eight runs, the last two given up by Fairchild, who was also raped with bats, and the Condors led 11-0 after the top 3rd. It was probably futile at this point to go into detail about the Raccoons’ hitting fortunes. Let’s just say that even a 5-run sixth inning for the Raccoons failed to spark any excitement, and that we also got some retarded relieving again from Donis, who took over from Miller, who failed to get through his second inning, with two down and the bags full and wild pitched and walked two runs in. 15-6 Condors. Reece 2-6, RBI; Utting 2-5, 2B, RBI; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI;

More euphoria: The Rebels have claimed the sucker Dave Beck. I will have to write them a thank you card or send some chocolates, I think.

Also: Stephen Buell started a rehab assignment in AAA after coming off the DL to rebound from the separated shoulder. If all goes well, he should be here on Sunday or early next week.

Raccoons (26-26) vs. Indians (22-32) – June 5-7, 1998

Despite batting a lowly .245 as a team, the Indians were scoring runs, ranking 6th with 233 taps on home plate. Their rotation however was abysmal, ranking 11th with a 5.20 ERA in the Continental League. We were 5-1 against them this year, so maybe we could bungle ourselves back to a winning record here – however, then it was up to Farley and Rivera, since the team had proven not to win any Saito starts under any circumstances.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (7-1, 2.24 ERA) vs. Dan George (4-4, 3.56 ERA)
Jose Rivera (3-1, 2.89 ERA) vs. Nick Jacobson (2-3, 5.65 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-7, 2.84 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (1-7, 7.55 ERA)

If you could take a moment of your precious time to marvel at the ERA numbers of the third matchup. (marvels) Thank you for your time.

Game 1
IND: 3B Whaley – 2B M. Carter – C Cicalina – 1B M. Brown – CF J. Thompson – LF Fisher – RF Paredes – SS Chevalier – P George
POR: SS Guerin – LF Newton – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – C Turner – 2B Utting – RF Villegas – P Farley

In his first start since being named Pitcher of the Month for May, Randy Farley got stomped. First, the very undistinguished Matt Whaley clubbed a 2-out, 3-run homer in the second inning, and then Jim Thompson upped the score with a 2-piece in the third inning. Yes, that’s our new gem! In murky weather and the occasional light drizzle, Farley didn’t get through the fifth and left on a 5-3 hook. The Indians however were playing mildly horrible in the field. Bottom 7th, Utting reached leading off when Matt Whaley botched the pickup on his harmless grounder. Utting moved to second on a passed ball on Urbano Cicalina (with two wild pitches on George in the game), and then Martin Carter made an error that allowed Clyde Brady, who hit for Tamburrino, to reach. That brought up Guerin with nobody out, and Guerin shocked the attendance with a massive 3-run homer to left center! That gave the Coons a lead. De La Rosa struck out Cicalina in the eighth, before Donis put on Brown, but retired the next two batters. Scott Wade came out with the 6-5 lead, and two grounders to Guerin and a fly to Reece did it. 6-5 Raccoons. Guerin 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Turner 2-4, RBI; Tamburrino 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-0);

That W was entirely on the Indians, who made three errors, including two in the crucial seventh, and Dan George threw the two wild ones, plus the passed ball on Cicalina. We will take it anyway.

Game 2
IND: LF G. Flores – 2B M. Carter – C Cicalina – 1B M. Brown – CF J. Thompson – RF Spinelli – 3B Whaley – SS Chevalier – P Jacobson
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Michel – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – C Turner – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – LF Parker – P Rivera

The offense got going instantly, as Cicalina homered off Rivera in the top 1st, but Neil Reece set the score straight with a 2-run shot in the bottom of the inning, plus the Coons added another run after a Crowe single, Turner double, and Brady groundout. Rivera struggled early in the contest, giving up lots of hard contact, but the outfielders took care of everything that wasn’t too deep, and the Indians didn’t score again against him. Turner drove in Crowe with a double in the fifth, putting us up 4-1, and Rivera went seven innings of 2-hit ball to put himself into position for a deserved win. The 3-run gap was untouched after Werner Turner’s solo home run in the seventh was countered by Carlos Paredes’ pinch-hit home run off Daniel Miller in the eighth. But Wade in the ninth put the lead to a real test. He walked the leadoff man, Matt Brown, then walked Enéas Spinelli with one out, and threw a wild pitch to bring them into scoring position. A Whaley single scored a run, and at this point the pitching coach went out to inquest into Wade’s well-being. Wade was assuring, and got a a run-scoring groundout from Chevalier, and Tadashi Kan popped out to Newton in left. 5-4 Raccoons. Guerin 2-4, BB, 2B; Turner 3-4, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Brady 2-4, RBI; Rivera 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (4-1);

Game 3
IND: LF G. Flores – RF Spinelli – C Cicalina – CF J. Thompson – 2B M. Carter – 3B Whaley – 1B T. Thompson – SS Chevalier – P Alba
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Michel – 3B Crowe – LF Parker – C Turner – 2B Caddock – P Saito

As was to be expected, facing a 7.55 ERA pitcher, scoring was a pain for the Raccoons. They went down silently through three innings, then botched together an unearned run in the fourth when Brady reached on an error by Chevalier, and ultimately Parker hit a can’t-get-me 2-out bloop single into shallow right to plate him from third. Saito sat down the first 15 Indians that dared to step in at the plate before Terence Thompson singled to left to lead off the sixth. Thompson got as far as third base after a Flores single, but didn’t score. Parker provided some more offense with a 2-out, 2-run double in the sixth, and Saito continued to click off batters. In the eighth, Terence Thompson lined hard right at Saito, with the ball making a bee-line for the area between Saito’s eyes, except that Saito got the glove up and caught the heater before it could knock him out. The Indians were still on the outside looking in through eight, and Saito – on just 85 pitches – came back out for the ninth with a 3-0 lead, and faced Tadashi Kan as pinch-hitter to get started. Kan worked a walk, before Gilberto Flores flew out to the warning track in center. That set the tone for the rest of the game. Spinelli also flew out to Reece, but not as deep, and then Cicalina sent a big fly to deep center, where Reece had to stretch those old bones some more, but made that catch as well. It was a shutout! 3-0 Raccoons! Parker 3-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-7);

SAITOOOO!!! A week short of his 38th birthday, Kisho has pitched his 19th big league shutout (20 if including playoffs), and 49th career complete game. He plans to do that every fifth day now to get that record straightened out. Saito was reported to have kissed Parker after the game, but whether that’s true, I don’t know…

Next, odd scheduling will have us play four in NY, before we head back home to play the Wolves, and then go back onto the road for ten more road games all over two countries. Well, if you so please.

Raccoons (29-26) @ Crusaders (24-31) – June 8-11, 1998

Although it sounds unlikely, we had passed the Crusaders in terms of runs scored the last week. THEY were now in the cellar with 202 runs to our (can I hear some drums?) 203. Their young rotation was performing well, and ranked 6th overall in the league, while they were 7th in runs allowed.

They also had no injuries at this point, while we were still without Wedemeyer and Ingall (on the DL), but Stephen Buell was due to come back by Tuesday or so. I was just not sure whom to demote at this point.

Projected matchups:
Manuel Movonda (4-4, 2.50 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (3-6, 3.40 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (4-7, 4.83 ERA) vs. Cipriano Miranda (4-3, 4.56 ERA)
Randy Farley (7-1, 2.71 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (6-5, 2.67 ERA)
Jose Rivera (4-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (5-4, 4.00 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – CF Newton – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – LF Parker – C McDonald – P Movonda
NYC: 2B Rigg – C Clemente – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – RF Latham – 3B J. Ramirez – SS J. Vega – CF Olvera – P R. Gonzalez

The Colombian Beauty’s no-hit bid lasted only one batter this time, before Antonio Clemente doubled to left. The Raccoons sucked badly at the plate, taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth on some shoddy fielding by Ed Rigg that led to a 2-out RBI infield single for Clyde Brady. That was all, and once Movonda hiccupped in the sixth, there was no way to save him. The Crusaders took the lead on Avery Johnson’s 2-out homer, and Movonda allowed three more hits before being removed. Donis struck out Olvera and Gonzalez to escape the jam down 3-1. The Coons swung at pitches in vain until with two out in the eighth an error by Vega put Guerin on second base. From there, the Coons cobbled a run together, but John Hatt killed the rally with the go-ahead runs on base by getting Samy Michel to ground out. Brady singled to lead off the ninth against Hatt, and McLaughlin bunted him over. Parker struck out, and Turner, hitting for McDonald, flew out to center. 3-2 Crusaders. Brady 3-4, RBI;

It was go time, as Buell was coming back onto the roster. In the end, although he dug out Saito on Sunday, it was Chris Parker who was demoted. In 63 AB, he had hit .238/.262/.270 with 13 K and no dingers. I had expected a lot more from him. Newton and Villegas however had also been seriously considered for demotion.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – C Turner – 2B Caddock – 1B Utting – P M. Lopez
NYC: LF Lyons – C Escobedo – RF A. Johnson – 1B T. Mullins – CF Latham – 3B J. Ramirez – 2B Rigg – SS J. Vega – P Miranda

The Raccoons squeezed out a few single runs in the early innings, with a Reece sac fly cashing in Guerin in the first, a big Brady home run in the third, and Lopez himself breaking a 0-21 futility run with a 2-out RBI single up the middle in the fourth. Lopez shut out the Crusaders inning by inning, until he ran into Ed Rigg, who smashed a 2-run homer off him in the eighth. That cut the lead to 3-2, and De La Rosa replaced him and finished the eighth. In the ninth, Scott Wade struck out Avery Johnson, and then gave up two huge flies to deep center to the next two batters. Thankfully, we had Neil Reece out there. 3-2 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Lopez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (5-7) and 2-3, RBI;

For the first time in ages, at least eight of our starters each had a hit in this game. The exception was Neil Reece, who went 0-2 with two walks and that sac fly, that technically won the game just as much as his two catches in the ninth. Besides, he can’t do as many things wrong as would be necessary to make me stop loving him.

(dances and wiggles off, singing) Toooo-gether for-eeeever …

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Michel – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – 2B Caddock – C Turner – RF Villegas – P Farley
NYC: 2B Rigg – C Clemente – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – RF Latham – 3B J. Ramirez – SS J. Vega – CF Olvera – P F. Garza

Farley in June was not Farley in May, as he continued to struggle in this start. The Crusaders put two runs on him in the first, and the Raccoons were … physically present, but more like a sleeping cat, not like a roaring tiger eating up pitchers exposed on mounds. A leadoff double by Farley in the sixth led to our first run, but nothing more, and Farley gave that run right back with a solo homer to Mark Berry in the bottom of the inning to trail 3-1. Once Farley was removed after six innings, the offense died completely. We had the leadoff man on in the ninth with Buell, and that was it already with Hatt saving this one. 3-1 Crusaders. Turner 2-4;

3-2, 3-2, 3-1 … would you have guessed that these are the two most piss poor offensive teams in the league if I hadn’t told you before? By the way, all time this was our 1,700th loss.

Game 4
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – 2B Caddock – 1B Utting – C McDonald – P Rivera
NYC: 2B Rigg – C Clemente – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – RF Latham – SS J. Vega – 3B Delgado – CF P. Jenkins – P Sandoval

Rivera was solid, holding the Crusaders to an early run, and then kept them in reach, despite loading the bags in the sixth and only escaping thanks to a fine play by Guerin on Lorenzo Delgado’s grounder, for a team that once more collectively left one of their own out on the mound to die. They had two hits through six frames, and probably needed a few errors to get them going. Or maybe a dink? Reece led off the seventh with a bloop that dropped into no man’s land for a single, and that would certainly get - … ah, stop kidding. Buell struck out, Crowe struck out, Caddock rolled one to Vega. It went like that all game long. Sandoval almost fell asleep pitching a 4-hit shutout. 1-0 Crusaders. Villegas (PH) 1-1; Rivera 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, L (4-2);

I’m confused. Boys, Saito’s turn is TOMORROW.

Whoah, this offense. Back to 12th place now (209 runs to the Crusaders’ 210), I had filled some bricks into an old potato bag, yet by the time I entered the lockers after the game to take some swings, everybody had fled already. Yes, I am too cool for socks ‘n soap.

Raccoons (30-29) vs. Wolves (33-27) – June 12-14, 1998

Some things were suggesting that the Wolves were fake, and let’s start with their -16 run differential, the fact that they were scoring runs, but were doing it with black magic, apparently, since their offense was 9th in batting average in the Federal League and no other stat suggested that they got their runs naturally. Their 9th-ranked pitching staff consisted of a merely okay rotation and a still escalating radioactive explosion they called bullpen, which was 11th in the FL with a 4.46 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (2-7, 2.54 ERA) vs. Alonso Lopez (4-4, 4.18 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (4-5, 2.66 ERA) vs. Seiichi Sugiyama (2-3, 4.57 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (5-7, 4.61 ERA) vs. Jose Cervantes (2-1, 1.42 ERA)

Cervantes was our seventh round pick in the 1992 draft. He was released two years ago for being awful in AA. Since then, he’s 4-7 with a 5.32 ERA for the Wolves in 14 starts in the Bigs. All three starters we are scheduled to face are right-handers.

Game 1
SAL: 3B Quintero – C M. Castillo – RF MacGruder – SS Liu – LF V. Hernandez – CF D. Edwards – 1B J. Lopez – 2B Metting – P A. Lopez
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Buell – C Turner – 1B Michel – 2B Caddock – 3B Utting – P Saito

Master Kisho appeared to shovel his own grave early on. He plunked Castillo in the first, but the Wolves made nothing of that, yet when Saito put the two leadoff men on base in the second, and then retired the next two, that brought up Alonso Lopez, and the Coons were again bitten by the opposing pitcher with a 2-out RBI single to left. Saito then got Quintero. Bottom 2nd, Michel was on first with two out, but didn’t score on Utting’s double. Saito had to bat, and worked a walk against Lopez. That loaded the bases with two down for Guerin, who better plated someone here. Guerin turned into a 1-1 pitch and sent a fly ball to deep center, and it carried, and carried, and Drew Edwards at one point stopped running. OUTTA HERE, GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAMMM!!!! Unfortunately, that didn’t fix whatever was wrong with Saito. He drilled Castillo AND MacGruder to start the third inning, and the Wolves got a run back. Thankfully, Alonso Lopez was coming apart even more hurriedly, issued a single to Reece, then walked Buell and Michel in the bottom 3rd. Bases loaded, another grand slam might have been asked a bit much from Steve Caddock, but we warmly welcomed his 2-run single into left, and that was it for Lopez. Grizzled veteran and longtime starter John Douglas replaced him, and proceeded by walking Utting, which gave Saito the bases full with one out. However, both Saito and Guerin popped out foul to end the inning. We added an unearned run in the fourth on a Kuang Liu throwing error plating a run with two down, and Saito nursed that 7-2 lead through six. He faced leadoff man Jeremiah Mullins in the seventh, but when Mullins reached with an infield single, Saito was removed. It had not been his game, and Miguel Castillo surely wouldn’t take a third HBP from Saito. Up 8-2 through seven, I put in Kelly Fairchild for the eighth, which was a lot like asking for it. He promptly hit Kuang Liu with a pitch – our fourth HBP in the game… The Wolves sure enough loaded them up against Fairchild with two down, and once lefty Jesus Flores appeared as pinch-hitter, Donis came out of the pen, and got a grounder to escape the jam. Miller pitched a less complicated ninth to get the W in Saito’s column. 8-2 Raccoons. Guerin 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Reece 2-5; Buell 2-3, BB; Caddock 2-4, 2 RBI; Utting 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;

So that’s more runs in this Saito start than in all of the last (4-game!) set, where Saito was NOT pitching. Things are getting more complicated here, it seems. You can’t even count on them botching it up anymore!

After this game, Samy Michel was demoted back to St. Petersburg. He had gone 4-38 since May 31, which was very unfortunate after he had romped over opposing pitching the first two weeks after his callup. However, 4-38 was pitiful, even on this team. Jai Utting was on the roster anyway, so we could just as well use him at first. Liam Wedemeyer was estimated as another week or so away at this point, and it probably was not a bad idea to have Utting collect a few more AB. McLaughlin might also get a few more chances now. We added outfielder Jason Kent at this point, who was OPS’ing just over .900 in AAA. Basically, we had no infielders left on the 40-man roster that weren’t already here. Also, Luke Newton and Clyde Brady had some experience playing first base in the minors, so it was not that we were playing *that* shorthanded on the infield.

Game 2
SAL: 3B Quintero – C M. Castillo – RF MacGruder – 2B J. Cruz – CF D. Edwards – SS Liu – 1B Metting – LF J. Flores – P Sugiyama
POR: RF Brady – LF Newton – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – C Turner – SS Caddock – 1B Utting – 2B McLaughlin – P Movonda

The middle game became somewhat of a nailbiter since while neither pitcher was very brilliant, neither team was able to chain offense together to bring one of those runners in. In the fifth for example, McLaughlin was hit leading off, bunted to second by Movonda, and then Brady walked. Newton got Brady forced with a groundout, sending McLaughlin to third, and then Reece grounded hard to third, but Roberto Quintero made the play. It was like that in this game. Bottom 6th, still scoreless, Crowe walked, and Turner hit a double. The runners were in scoring position with one out for Jai Utting, who made sound contact – and it flew outta here. Utting put the Coons up 3-0 with his first dinger of the year. Movonda was dealing out there, too, struck out ELEVEN through eight innings, but his spot to bat came up in the bottom 8th with two down and two on. Only up 3-0 and with an elevated pitch count, we did not take the risk. Buell hit for him, flew out to center, but then came Wade and retired the side in order in the ninth. 3-0 Raccoons. Caddock 2-3, BB; Utting 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Movonda 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K, W (5-5) and 1-2;

The Colombian Beauty fell one whiff short of the franchise record of 12 K’s, jointly held by Steven Berry and Kisho Saito. 11 strikeouts in a game are still very good: five pitchers have achieved 11 K’s a total of nine times for us: Logan Evans and Antonio Donis did it once each, Movonda and Jason Turner did it twice, and Kisho Saito three times.

Game 3
SAL: 3B Quintero – C M. Castillo – RF MacGruder – 1B J. Cruz – SS Liu – LF V. Hernandez – 2B Metting – CF D. Edwards – P Cervantes
POR: SS Guerin – RF Kent – CF Reece – LF Buell – 3B Crowe – C Turner – 2B Caddock – 1B Utting – P M. Lopez

More of the same in game 3, which is meant to read: no offense from either team. Except that the weather was moist and it was drizzling. Typical Oregonian summer. Through five innings all of Oregon totaled one hit (Metting with a single in the third). Cervantes was thus still pitching a no-hitter when he came up to bat leadoff in the sixth. He drilled a Lopez offering to deep left, Buell didn’t get it, it fell in for a double, but Cervantes appeared to have pulled something turning first base. The trainer came out and Cervantes limped off the field. To make things worse, the Wolves didn’t score the run, and the game remained nuthin’-nuthin’. The Wolves even failed to score after a 1-out triple by Liu in the seventh, while the Coons were STILL H-less. Bottom 7th, Ricardo Huerta took over from Kilian Carrier in relief of the no-hit bid. He walked Reece, Crowe, and Turner to load them up with one out. Caddock grounded into a double play, first and second. Top 8th, leadoff triple by Drew Edwards, and Miguel Lopez finally lost the marbles, and wild pitched him home. De La Rosa and Carlton pitched in the inning as Lopez was removed, and now the Coons were 1-0 down and still hitless. Jai Utting grounded out against James Jenkins, before John Douglas came in and got Clyde Brady out. The count on Guerin ran full, and then he hit one to the left side, and between Liu and Pedro Barrón – GONE the no-hitter! That still didn’t stop the losing effort. McLaughlin lined out to first in place of Kent. Still down 1-0 into the bottom 9th, Neil Reece led off against Nick Lee, the fifth reliever of the day. Reece once more showed why he was the New Franchise. His leadoff jack tied the game. Lee had trouble throwing strikes unless he threw right down the middle. Buell sent one to deep right, but MacGruder intercepted it. Crowe walked, bringing up Turner. He grounded hard to third, and threw Barrón, it rolled all the way to the wall, as Crowe was cutting around the bases with huge steps, rushed home, and the throw back in didn’t arrive at the plate until Crowe was safe, into the dugout, had been cuddled, and everybody was in the clubhouse to celebrate a cherished sweep of the Oregon Brawl. 2-1 Raccoons!! Reece 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Turner 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Lopez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K;

This was the 12th regular season Oregon Brawl. We swept the affair for the third time after 1984 and 1988. We are 20-16 overall against the Wolves.

Trade

Already on Tuesday – but not reported for insignificance – the Raccoons and Canadiens struck a deal. The Raccoons send C Mario Guerrero to the Canadiens for 22-yr old AAA SP Paco Martinez, who is not considered a hot prospect.

This removes $125k salary due from our books, and was worth every cent of it.

In other news

June 9 – CIN SP Raúl Chavez (2-4, 6.38 ERA) sparkles with a 3-hit shutout over the Buffaloes in an 11-0 Cyclones blowout.
June 9 – BOS C/1B Julio Silva (.382, 3 HR, 26 RBI) goes 5-5 in a 13-6 romp of the Titans over the Loggers, and misses the cycle by the double.
June 10 – The trading season has started! The Aces acquire 33-yr old 1B Mauro Granados (.261, 8 HR, 35 RBI), who already was a Las Vegan from 1987 to 1990, by sending 34-yr old C Pedro Lozano (.302, 0 HR, 7 RBI) to Denver.
June 13 – VAN SP Manuel Hernandez (2-5, 6.38 ERA) spins a 3-hitter as the Canadiens prevail against the Blue Sox, 1-0.

Complaints and stuff

1,000 posts! Wooot!!!

(coughs) Back to serious seriousness now.

MOVONDA!!!! Still thrilled about that no-hitter! Come on here, Colombian Beauty, and let me cuddle you!! (Movonda resists, strikes me down with a flower vase, flees, and locks himself in the bathroom)

…

Marvin Ingall dropped off the batting average leaderboard after the Indians series due to losing eligibility. He led the batting title race at that point. I am sulking.

Kisho Saito wants a new contract, and to be honest, I don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t get one. However, we have to be extremely cautious when it comes to the length of said contract. We might even offer him two years, but under no circumstances should he be signed for longer than that – at least right now. I would also hate to offer more than $1M that will be 39 next June, but it will come down to negotiating I guess. We have only $6.8M lined up in salary for next year (this year: $9.1M), with Movonda, Wade, Turner, and Tamburrino the other free agents.

To be precise, we have only FIVE contracts in place to post-team control players for next season. Those are Reece, Lopez, Ingall, De La Rosa, and Miller. These alone combine for $2.8M. There would well be room for a $1M deal for Saito. Then, we don’t know whether we can bring Movonda back. Also, Ralph Ford is 3-6 with a 4.23 ERA in AAA, but a .323 BABIP suggests it is not all his fault. Still, right now he does not seem like he will be ready this September or next April, and we are in no hurry with him. He won’t turn 21 until next month.

As we’re talking about prospects, Dan Nordahl is 1-2 with 11 SV and a 4.00 ERA and 1.67 WHIP in AA. The numbers look awful, but the most awful number is a .488 BABIP. FOUR-EIGHTY-EIGHT!! Do they teach fielding at all in Ham Lake!?

We will play in Cincy on Monday, but the main event on Monday is certainly the draft. I am hot on that.

…

Another look at our ranks in the league, four weeks post the May 17 stats. The rank in parenthesis is for the rank the team held on May 17, with the current June 14 rank in front of it.

Raccoons offense ranks through June 14
AVG – .246 – 10th (10th)
OBP – .313 – 11th (11th)
SLG – .361 – 8th (8th)
OPS – .674 – 11th (10th)
R – 222 – 12th (12th)
H – 529 – 10th (8th)
XBH – 147 – t-8th (9th)
HR – 45 – 1st (t-1st)
BB – 198 – 11th (11th)
K – 357 – 4th (4th)
SB – 23 – t-9th (9th)

Raccoons pitching ranks through June 14
ERA – 3.23 – 1st (1st)
SP ERA – 2.92 – 1st (1st)
RP ERA – 4.08 – 9th (8th)
R – 230 – 2nd (2nd)
H – 491 – 1st (1st)
OBAVG – .237 – 1st (1st)
BABIP – .270 – 1st (1st)
HR – 38 – 9th (6th)
BB – 205 – 4th (4th)
SO – 358 – 10th (9th)

Nope. Not getting better at the plate. Also, the balls started to fly a lot more in Portland the last month.