Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

The Critters expected record at the break is their actual record. The Crusaders are two games over their expected record, but that still doesn’t change the standings. The only meaningful difference in expected record is over in the FL East, where the Capitals are +5 and would be fourth in the division behind the Rebels and Buffaloes that way.

+++

All Star Game

Charlotte’s John Wilson was 3-3 with a 2-run homer in the game to win MVP honors, while the CL beat the FL clearly, 8-2. Although he allowed a run, Nick Brown claimed the W when the CL offense tore up William Kay and Helio Maggessi in the top of the fourth inning. Jonathan Toner also allowed a run, while Hector Santos pitched a scoreless inning. Dylan Alexander pinch-hit, failed, and stranded a pair.

Having three of their starting pitcher engage in the All Star Game presented a slight issue for the Raccoons, who had to get the rotation to work out afterwards. Bill Conway hadn’t been nominated despite leading the CL in ERA (wicked game, this is), so he was picked to go first, with the idle Dickerson after that. Brown, Santos, and Toner will resume pitching in order after that. Dickerson will go on regular rest, while Brown will be on three days’ rest, but only threw 18 pitches in a glorified bullpen session. We might limit him to 100 pitches on Saturday, but that should be all babying necessary.

Raccoons (50-37) vs. Loggers (34-52) – July 17-20, 2014

The Loggers weren’t much better off than ten days earlier, much the opposite. They had won only three of their last *nineteen* games, an ugly spill if there was one. They had the worst pitching, and the offense had dropped to tenth (from eighth) in a week’s time. Never mind the Raccoons still having scored 15 less runs than them. For the season, the Raccoons were up 5-1 on the Loggers, plus that suspended no-hitter of Bill Conway’s.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (5-3, 2.38 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (5-10, 4.88 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (4-3, 4.39 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (11-5, 3.78 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-4, 2.78 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (6-9, 5.74 ERA)
Hector Santos (9-4, 2.47 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (2-12, 6.26 ERA)

The Loggers are still right-handed throughout. Again, Conway and Dickerson get the first two starts out of the break by necessity rather than design, while the Loggers are free to align their guys as they please. At least all Critters are healthy again including Cookie Carmona, who got only a pinch-hit at-bat in that malodorous Titans series.

This will be the only series of a 4-game homestand before we’re heading east to face the Crusaders. We have both remaining Thursdays in the month off, but will have to play 20 straight games starting August 1.

Game 1
MIL: 2B J.J. Rodriguez – LF Knowling – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – CF Enriquez – 3B D. Jones – SS Kingsley – C Leach – P B. Morrison
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C Alexander – P Conway

Juan Jose Rodriguez slapped a blooper for a leadoff single, so gone was the no-hitter – for today. He swiped second base off slow-motion D-Alex before scoring on Justin Dally’s single to right. Despite getting a free Cookie on second base after Dan Jones’ grisly throwing error that started the bottom 1st, the Raccoons neglected to score him, but there were bad news for the Loggers in the next inning. Ron Richards drew a leadoff walk before Quebell pilfered a pitch by Morrison and yanked it for a 2-run homer. Given Quebell’s track record, the Loggers were probably in for three more homers by Quebell in this series…

The Coons had the bases loaded to start the third inning. Cookie and Sandy singled both, and then Matt Nunley was hit by a 2-2 pitch to fill them up, but after that the Raccoons were held to consecutive sac flies, 4-1. The Loggers had Dan Jones lead off the fifth with an infield single, he stole second, but was left on. Rodriguez opened the sixth with another infield single, but finally D-Alex got a throw off on the next attempt to steal a bag and cut him down. Conway lasted seven on just over 100 pitches before being hit for in the bottom 7th. Nunley popped out to strand runners on the corners, after Howell had hit into an inning-ending double play in the sixth. It would have been entirely possible to create another insurance run or two, but now we had to watch as Zack Entwistle allowed a leadoff single to Eric Kingsley in the top 8th. Not to worry, though, Foster Leach hit into a double play and the Loggers didn’t score. Bottom 8th, Bednarski led off with a bloop single. Southpaw Orlando Valdez struck out Richards, but Quebell doubled, putting two in scoring position. The Coons got a run on an error by Rodriguez, 5-1, when Howell grounded there. Bergquist hit for D-Alex and struck out before Danny Margolis hit for Entwistle and crushed the first pitch for a long shot to left and outta here! 3-run homer Margolis, and this game was definitely in the bag! The run that Chris Mathis allowed in the ninth was hardly noticeable. 8-2 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, 2B; Sambrano 2-5; Richards 1-2, BB, RBI; Quebell 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1; Margolis (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Conway 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-3);

Game 2
MIL: SS O. Sandoval – LF Knowling – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 3B D. Jones – 2B Roncero – CF Gilmor – C Leach – P Caro
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Quebell – SS Howell – C Alexander – P Dickerson

The Loggers threw everything left-handed with a pulse against Dickerson, trying to see what would stick. At first little did, and the Coons took a 1-0 lead on a Carmona triple and a passed ball (and nothing else) in the first inning. Dickerson was then shattered in the fourth inning, which the Loggers opened with four straight hits, all by left-handers or left-handed-hitting switch-hitters, and had a 3-1 lead with Nick Gilmor at second and nobody out. Gilmor wouldn’t stay on base, either, scoring on consecutive groundouts. Offensively, the Raccoons didn’t matter until the fifth, when Cookie singled, stole second, and scored on Sandy’s single, 4-2. Nunley singled, moving Sandy to third, and maybe someone would be kind enough to – uuuuuh, Bednarski! Huge shot to left, long shot, outta here! Score flipped, 5-4 for the Coons on that 3-run homer. Richards walked, but Quebell’s drive to right ended up with Justin Dally. Bottom 6th, however, D-Alex showed signs of life with a home run to center, 6-4. Better yet, his next time up against right-hander Ricardo Munoz, he hit one to right! That was a leadoff jack in the eighth after some stingy relief work by Constantino, Sugano, and Sakellaris. Angel Casas faced the bottom of the order in the ninth, and it still resulted in a mess. First, Gilmor reached on an infield single that D-Alex didn’t play quite vigorously enough. Leach hit into a double play, but Angel walked J.J. Rodriguez. Sandoval then drove a 3-1 pitch to deep left, where LUCKILY, the Raccoons had replaced Richards defensively. Cookie was in left (and Seeley in center) and Cookie made a play on the warning track to end the game. 7-4 Critters. Carmona 2-5, 3B; Nunley 2-4; Alexander 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI;

That’s two wins in two games, and zero ground gained on New York.

Game 3
MIL: 2B J.J. Rodriguez – LF Knowling – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – CF Enriquez – 3B D. Jones – SS O. Sandoval – C Leach – P Patrick
POR: CF Carmona – SS Howell – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Brown

Brownie hadn’t won a game since June 2 (All Star games excluded), but he certainly got off well in this game, striking out five his first time through the order, with the only runner conceded owed to a Quebell error. The Coons offensively had already stranded four in their first two innings, and Brian Patrick walked a pair (Nunley, Bednarski) in the bottom 3rd just like he had in the bottom 2nd. Richards flew to deep center, but Victor Enriquez made the play, before Quebell grounded softly up the middle and past the reach of Rodriguez for 2-out RBI single. D-Alex then stroked a massive, 420+ ft homer to right center, perhaps hinting at resurrection for deceased catchers being a thing, while also handing Brownie a 4-0 lead. If he didn’t win this one, it would be on him alone … or the weather.

The inning actually wasn’t over yet. Bergquist singled, Brown singled, and then Carmona hit one into the corner in left for an RBI double. Howell lined hard to right, but Dally threw himself into the path of that blazing ball to put the lid on a 5-run inning. Vintage Brownie struck out eight through five innings, but it took him over 70 pitches, so a shutout was not in the books, despite the only runner for the Loggers still coming from that error. But no. The Loggers’ first hit came quickly, a pinch-hit double over Quebell by Victor Hodgers in the sixth. This actually turned out to be Brown’s last inning. Long at-bats to Zach Knowling and Justin Dally resulted in nothing good, an RBI double and an RBI single, respectively, and Vintage Brownie was not a thing past the fifth inning.

Bottom 7th, Kevin Cummings was pitching in trouble for the Loggers. Cummings, a left-hander, allowed a bloop single to D-Alex and a double to Bergquist with one out. Merritt hit for Zack Entwistle, but grounded out to Dan Jones, holding the runners. Rodriguez got the final out on Carmona’s grounder. Mathis pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and with a 5-2 lead, three left-handers up, and Friday’s near-disaster fresh in mind, Ron Thrasher got the assignment for the ninth inning, which became much less of a potential issue when Ron Richards doubled home Nunley with two outs in the bottom of the inning, since we were now out of save range. Thrasher struck out Knowling and Dally, but lost Mike Rucker to a walk. Enriquez popped out to first to end the game, though. 6-2 Brownies! Alexander 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Bergquist 2-4, 2B; Brown 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (9-4) and 2-3;

With his first W in almost seven weeks, Brownie tied Santos for the team lead in wins and came up one short in team strikeouts. He’s still the fourth-best pitcher by ERA on his team, but Sam McMullen had pulled a Santos and had been obliterated for six runs by the Titans on Thursday, and the Raccoons now had ALL Continental League starting pitchers with a sub-3 ERA!

ALL FOUR!!

And we still haven’t gained ground on the Crusaders.

Game 4
MIL: 2B J.J. Rodriguez – SS O. Sandoval – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – CF Enriquez – 3B D. Jones – LF Hodgers – C Leach – P Euteneuer
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – SS Taylor – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Santos

Santos started the game with three straight 3-ball counts, which was mildly outrageous. J.J. Rodriguez walked in a full count before Sandoval lined out to Nunley in another full count. Blind baserunning by Rodriguez turned this into a double play as Nunley unleashed a rocket to first. Dally then walked on four straight, but Mike Rucker struck out. Victor Enriquez made the third out at third base in the next inning, going aggro from first base on Foster Leach’s single. While no actual damage had been done, it was hard to not notice that Santos was totally off, and he had been off ever since that heel issue in the start in Milwaukee.

For the moment, the Loggers didn’t score, but the Coons did. Bednarski crashed a 2-run homer off poor Euteneuer in the third inning for the first tallies of the game, before the Coons also ran themselves out of an inning with Bergquist being thrown out trying to take third base in the fourth inning. He had swiped second before that. Santos ran numerous more full counts, which all ended in strikeouts, two of those to Euteneuer. He made it to the seventh, but not out of it. There, Dally led off with a single to center, but Rucker hit into a double play. Then Enriquez doubled, and with the tying run at the plate, it was time to make a move. Sugano replaced him and got a grounder to Bergquist from Dan Jones, ending the inning (Bergquist had to make a risky throw, though, picking the ball bare-handed and firing while turning…). The Coons had two deep drives by Sambrano and Bednarski in the bottom 8th, but neither made it to the wall, or onto the ground even. Angel Casas had to deal with the top of the order in the ninth, and struck out three, but not without issuing a walk to Dally in front of Mike Rucker, who still had more homers than any Raccoon. 2-0 Critters. Bednarski 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (10-4);

The Indians ended up swept by the Crusaders, too, so indeed no ground was to be gained on them before we headed east.

The Raccoons scored just enough in the sweep to make up the 15 runs they trailed the Loggers offense by and tied them for tenth place in runs scored in the CL. Yeah, we’re relevant, baby!

Raccoons (54-37) @ Crusaders (59-34) – July 21-23, 2014

The Crusaders were fifth in runs scored, which sounded like a typo, and second in runs allowed, trailing of course the Raccoons. Neither team had injuries to complain about, and this was all about who was actually boss in the North. So far, the Crusaders held a 5-4 edge over the Raccoons in 2014.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (8-5, 2.72 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (8-3, 3.06 ERA)
Bill Conway (6-3, 2.32 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (9-5, 3.00 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (5-3, 4.52 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (8-7, 4.92 ERA)

They also only have right-handed starters. Two games with a 4-game winning streak come in, only one can get out.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Toner
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – 3B Salinas – CF Brissett – P Trevino

The Coons got off good when Cookie singled and Sandy doubled, but a Nunley sac fly was all that came out of that situation in the first inning. The lead didn’t stand; the Crusaders flipped the score in the bottom of the first. Jesus Ramirez hit a leadoff double, scored on Martin Ortíz’ sac fly, and then Stanton Martin homered off Toner to give his team the lead. Enter Rob Howell and the next score-flipper, this one a 3-run homer in the top 2nd, after Quebell had doubled and D-Alex singled. That inning continued with a walk drawn by Toner, and the Raccoons continued to crowd Trevino until he hit Bednarski to load the bases. With two outs, Richards came up and drew a 5-pitch walk, forcing home a run before Quebell struck out. 5-2 Coons, so much for that vaunted pitching of anybody!

The Crusaders’ vaunted pitcher didn’t make it through the fourth. He was already in trouble in the third inning when Carmona hit into a double play (now, that was rare!), but Richards raked a 3-run homer in the fourth to blow the score to 8-2 and Trevino was gone. Robbie Wills came in with one out, but Quebell had a hit, Howell was walked intentionally, and then Toner really scorched a bouncer to Miguel Salinas, who had to grab twice, then looked at Quebell going home, still threw to first and didn’t get Toner! Safe at first, the run scored!

That made it a 9-2 game, but Toner found his own troubles in the bottom 6th. Francisco Caraballo and Martin Ortíz both hit singles to start the inning before Stanton Martin got hit by Toner. Bases loaded, nobody out, left-handed batters coming up. Toner got to face B.J. Manfull, who hit an RBI single, and that was it. Sugano replaced him and did a fantastic job, surrendering a run on Eduardo Durango’s double play, but Salinas grounded out to Sandy rather easily, and the Coons were still up 9-4 with nine outs left, but the crumbling continued with Sugano, who allowed a leadoff single to Amari Brissett in the bottom 7th, and Brissett scored on Jorge Ortega’s pinch-hit double. Ramirez grounded out before Entwistle took over, got a grounder from Caraballo and struck out Ortíz. After an error by Stanton Martin in the eighth the Coons had runners in scoring position but Rob Howell grounded out to end that inning. The Coons held on, though. Entwistle completed the eighth, and Thrasher allowed a leadoff hit to Salinas in the bottom 9th, but then struck out three to end the game. 9-5 Raccoons! Richards 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Quebell 3-5, 2 2B; Alexander 3-5; Howell 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Entwistle 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Hey, we gained a game! Hooray!

But now we had to beat Paul Miller, who was fifth in ERA in the CL. Since Toner had been charged with four runs, a good game by Miller would blow up our awesome ERA quartet. Yeah, the things I worry about…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Conway
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – 3B Salinas – CF Brissett – P P. Miller

Both teams fielded the identical lineup compared to Monday, but there was much less early offense. The Coons had a leadoff double by Richards in the second inning, but outside a walk by D-Alex, nothing came together and Rob Howell hit into a double play. Caraballo then made a throwing error on Conway’s casual grounder that started the third inning, putting the pitcher on second base. Cookie singled, moving Conway to third, and Sandy walked to fill the bases. Nunley came up and drilled a 2-1 pitch to deep center, but not deep enough to beat Brissett. Still, the first run came home on the sac fly before Bednarski hit into a double play. That came back to bite the Coons quickly, with Brissett hitting a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, and Conway quickly fell to a triple by Ramirez, who then scored on a groundout by Caraballo. That gave New York a 2-1 lead.

An erratic Miller was issuing plenty of walks, two more in the fourth. Howell hit a 1-out single to center, loading the bases, but all that did was to bring up Bill Conway, who was a glorious 1-for-35 on the season. He struck out, and Carmona, who had gone 1-for-6 on Monday, lined out to Stanton Martin. Top 5th, next try. Sandy whiffed leading off, but Nunley and Bednarski hit singles to go onto the corners for Ron Richards, who had been brought on to replace Quebell’s constant double plays and hit a 1-0 pitch over Ramirez into shallow right center for the game-tying RBI single (he would hit into a double play in the seventh, though). Quebell struck out (…), but D-Alex singled to left center, and Bednarski scored in full flight, 3-2 Coons. That lead was in danger pretty quickly. Conway struck out Miller to start the bottom of the inning before he walked Ramirez and Caraballo in full counts, his first free passes on the day. Martin Ortíz singled hard to center, Ramirez was sent, but was thrown out at home after a rocket fired by Carmona, and Cookie also caught Stanton Martin’s drive to center to end the inning.

Conway was done after six, having thrown 95 pitches, but the seventh promised plenty of left-handed bats and Sugano was back at work. He struck out Amari Brissett, Drew Lowe grounded out, but then Nunley bungled a grounder by Jesus Ramirez. Sakellaris came on in a double switch (Seeley replaced Richards for defense, with Cookie going to left) and got Caraballo to fly out easily to Bednarski on the first pitch. He got two outs in the eighth before he hit Manfull. Thrasher replaced him, as Kevin Bond hit for Ken McKenzie in Durango’s spot, but scandalously walked both him (after which the Crusaders ran Jorge Ortega for Manfull) and Salinas. Ken Wood (2-for-22) hit for Brissett, a right-handed batter, scorched a 1-1 liner to left AND NUNLEY LEAPT AND HAD IT!!! Inning over! Three stranded! The Coons would get Sandy on with a single off Micah Steele in the ninth, he stole second, but was stranded by Bednarski and Merritt. Angel Casas had to get through the ninth without a cushion, with Drew Lowe opening the inning with a groundout to third. The Coons took a hit there, though, since Nunley felt a pinch in his shoulder after a hurried throw and had to be replaced. Merritt had not stayed in the game, yielding to Angel instead, so Sandy had to move over to the hot corner. Bergquist took over at second and made a nice play when Jesus Ramirez grounded there on a 3-0 pitch. The Crusaders manager barked at Ramirez as he returned to the dugout, especially with Caraballo hitting a double after that. Having to pick between the Martin Brothers as the go-ahead run, the Raccoons elected to walk Ortíz intentionally to get to the right-handed “Clockwork” Martin instead. Stanton Martin doubled into left center, Caraballo scored, Ortíz held, and Ortega grounded out to strand the runners, but we had extras on our paws. Thanks, Angel. Really.

Top 10th, Quebell hit a leadoff double and D-Alex walked. Howell hit into a double play and Seeley was just plain useless and flew out to shallow left. The Raccoons had Mathis in for the bottom of the inning, whose first batter was … J.C. Crespo! He was batting .200 with a homer in his first big league exposure since 2011. He struck out and Mathis kept the Coons alive. Top 11th, Cookie led off with a single. A hit-and-run moved him to second as Sandy grounded to short, and then Bergquist hit a murderer’s double past a helpless Salinas, plating Cookie with the go-ahead run. That would be all offensively, and Entwistle got the ball for the bottom of the inning, facing the top of the order. Ramirez struck out, but Caraballo singled and Ortíz walked. Martin hit a grounder to third where Sandy made a nifty play, threw to second, and the relay beat Martin – game over! 4-3 Raccoons! Carmona 2-6; Sambrano 1-3, 3 BB; Bergquist 1-1, 2B, RBI; Bednarski 2-6; Richards 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB; Alexander 1-2, 3 BB, RBI;

WHAT. A. GAME.

I’m soaked with sweat. And a bit of champagne. Don’t mind that grin from cheek to cheek.

Nunley was not seriously hurt (claimed the Druid) but his barking shoulder was probably putting him out of action for the rest of the week, maybe even longer. Jon Merritt had not gotten a start since the All Star Game, so the old man was rested and could jump right in.

For the third game, we still were in a bit of a pickle. Dickerson starting was one thing, but Sugano had pitched four out of five days (including three straight), and Thrasher three out of four, so Sugano was definitely ruled out for this game. Thrasher might be available.

And then – a twist! And the twist was rain. Game 3 was washed away and rescheduled for August 26, a double header to start a 3-game set back in New York.

That gave the Raccoons two consecutive days off while moving to San Francisco for the weekend set with the Bayhawks.

Raccoons (56-37) @ Bayhawks (48-45) – July 25-27, 2014

There was always action in Bayhawks games, as they led the league in runs scored, but were 10th in runs allowed. Their rotation was 11th with a 4.78 ERA, and the pen was little better. The mix was working not too well; they were second in the South, but barely over .500, but they were 2-1 against Portland in ’14.

Contrary to everything above, the Bayhawks had just been 1-hit by the Falcons’ Steve Kreider (4-9, 4.07 ERA) on Wednesday, the only hit coming from pitcher Reynaldo Rendon.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-4, 2.79 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (11-5, 4.15 ERA)
Hector Santos (10-4, 2.33 ERA) vs. Alex Maldonado (3-7, 5.88 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-5, 2.91 ERA) vs. Jared D’Attilo (4-7, 4.01 ERA)

Those are three right-handers again.

As the opportunity presented itself, the Raccoons skipped the struggling Dickerson, moving on to whatever Brownie was doing right now.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – SS Taylor – P Brown
SFB: LF Blanc – C G. Ortíz – RF Alston – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Ingraham – 3B J. Rodriguez – 1B A. Martinez – CF D. Garcia – P Beauchamp

Brownie started the game with a walk and a balk before Gabriel Ortíz singled past Merritt, giving the Baybirds runners on the corners, but “Monte” Alston bounced back to Brown for a double play and Juan Gutierrez struck out to dispel the danger. Cat-like defense aside, Brownie batted in his own lead, landing the fourth straight 1-out single off Beauchamp in the top of the second inning. Carmona’s sac fly made it 2-0, but Brown was whacked in the bottom of the inning. The Bayhawks had three straight hits to start that inning, and didn’t leave Brown off the hook until all three had scored. It was a bad struggle for Brown all along, and he needed over 80 pitches for four innings.

At least there was some offense in the fifth. Richards singled and Bednarski doubled, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out. And then D-Alex struck out and Quebell flew out to right. Oh for ****’s sake! The Coons then had the bases loaded in the sixth, but lefty Mike Tharp struck out Richards to keep them short. Brown somehow made it through six despite walking four and getting whacked otherwise as well, but the bullpen crapped out in the bottom of the inning and conceded two runs that were charged to Thrasher, who failed to remove either of the two left-handers Gabriel Ortíz and Ron Alston.

Top 8th, another scoring opportunity, created by ex-Raccoons relievers. Palmer Taylor hit a 1-out single off Adam Riddle, and Law Rockburn hit Jason Seeley. When Carmona singled off Ryosei Kato, the tying runs were on base for Sandy Sambrano, with the fourth reliever in four batters coming on in left-hander G.G. Williams. Sandy singled, 5-3, Richards hit a sac fly, 5-4, but Bednarski popped out. Ex-Coons farmhand Salvadaro Soure was the guy to beat in the top 9th, but it would have be done by the chronic strugglers. Soure cut them to pieces in a hurry. 5-4 Bayhawks. Bednarski 2-5, 2B; Taylor 3-4, 2B;

The Crusaders won, of course, since they win every game. That was a very winnable contest, and the offense ****ed up capitally, stranding ten runners, including a set of three and two sets of two.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
SFB: LF Blanc – SS Ingraham – RF Alston – 1B A. Young – 2B J. Gutierrez – C Lefebure – 3B Holt – CF D. Garcia – P Maldonado

The bases were loaded as early as the second inning after D-Alex’ single and consecutive walks to Quebell and Merritt. Bergquist came up with one out, flew out to center, and that sac fly was all the Coons got with Santos striking out. Santos struck out four in a row himself before Jasper Holt hit a 2-out single in the bottom 2nd, but was caught stealing by Alexander. The Raccoons gave Dave Garcia a workout with lots of flies to deep center, with none falling in for anything, but at least Ron Richards hit a solo homer in the fifth to give Santos a 2-0 advantage, this one leaving the park to the right side. There was also action in Santos’ at-bats. He had killed the fourth inning with a terrible bunt, but when he came up with Bergquist on first and two outs in the sixth he lined a ball hard to the corner in right, plenty enough for Bergquist to score on the double, 3-0.

Through six, Angel was rather dominant, allowing three hits against seven strikeouts. In the seventh, the Bayhawks came close to toppling him. Adam Young homered, Gutierrez got on, and Jasper Holt’s 2-out RBI triple was enough for a headache, but Santos escaped on a flyout to Carmona, still up 3-2. Maybe it would have been better to take him out after that, but Santos was back out for the eighth, and boy, did it go wrong. Gabriel Ortíz hit a leadoff single, Zach Ingraham singled with one out, and when we did hurriedly go to Manobu Sugano, the game was already running away from us. Sugano was no help, allowing a sac fly to Alston, tying the score, and a double to Armando Martinez, breaking the tie. Soure had another 1-2-3, and the Raccoons had a losing weekend on their empty paws. 4-3 Bayhawks. Merritt 0-1, 3 BB; Bergquist 2-3, RBI;

Do I even mention what the Crusaders did? Everything sucks.

Prior to Sunday, the Bayhawks even added more to their killer bullpen, trading for the Titans’ Tommy Wooldridge (3-5, 2.73 ERA, 27 SV), which cost them four prospects.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Merritt – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Quebell – C Margolis – SS Howell – P Toner
SFB: LF Blanc – C G. Ortíz – RF Alston – 1B A. Young – 3B J. Rodriguez – SS Ingraham – 2B A. Martinez – CF D. Garcia – P D’Attilo

The Coons had early offense when Bednarski hit a 2-run double in the first, and more offense would be a good thing with Toner struggling badly. The Coons left runners on the corners when Carmona and Sambrano failed in the top 2nd, the Bayhawks made up a run in the bottom 2nd, and had two on in the third when Young singled to right. The Birds sent D’Attilo from second base, but Bednarski threw him out to end the inning, preserving the 2-1 lead. Thankfully Ron Alston (.343, 18 HR, 69 RBI) was no help at all for the Birds, hitting into a double play in the first and popping out in the third.

Top 4th, two more stranded in scoring position, Margolis (walk) and Carmona (single) left on by Sambrano. By contrast, the Bayhawks got 2-out singles from Armando Martinez, Dave Garcia, and … Jared D’Attilo in the bottom of the inning to tie the score. Bednarski singled and Richards walked in the fifth before Quebell struck out and Margolis rolled over to Martinez for the routine pair left on base. The game blew out in turn in the bottom 5th, with a leadoff single by Ortíz, and Toner hitting consecutive batters. Javy Rodriguez hit a ball to the corner, two runs scored, Toner’s game was over, and when Entwistle finally appeared to get out of the inning, Dave Garcia’s grounder to short was not played by Howell, and Garcia had a 2-out RBI infield single. Entwistle surrendered two more hits and three more runs in a colossal 6-run meltdown. The Raccoons managed to strand pairs again in the seventh – of course it was Quebell, the ****ing dork. Those were also the last base runners in the game for them. 8-2 Bayhawks. Bednarski 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Richards 1-2, 2 BB;

In other news

July 14 – The Cyclones think that they have lost SP Brian Doumas (7-2, 3.43 ERA) for the season with shoulder inflammation.
July 14 – PIT 3B Tom Thomas (.278, 1 HR, 19 RBI) is out for the year with a broken elbow.
July 17 – Recently acquired WAS SP Brian Benjamin (8-8, 4.06 ERA) throws a 4-hit shutout in his second start for the Capitals. The victims are the Buffaloes, who are held dry in a 7-0 game.
July 18 – The Knights acquire 1B Tomas Cardenas (.300, 13 HR, 49 RBI) from the Cyclones, parting with 3B Antonio Luján (.274, 3 HR, 21 RBI) and a pitching prospect.
July 19 – Cyclones and Blue Sox combine for 17 hits in a game that goes ten innings and ends as a 1-0 Cyclones win. R.J. DeWeese (.260, 20 HR, 81 RBI) singles home Julio Silva to win the game.
July 22 – The hitting streak of Oklahoma’s Emilio Farias (.382, 1 HR, 35 RBI) ends at 24 games in a 2-1 win over the Knights.
July 22 – NAS SS Andrew Showalter (.339, 7 HR, 56 RBI) swats five hits with a triple and two doubles, plating four in the Blue Sox’ 8-4 win over the Buffaloes.
July 23 – Los Angeles’ SP Bruce Mark (6-9, 5.47 ERA) carries a perfect game into the eighth inning against the Warriors, only to allow three singles and a walk in the inning. The Warriors get only one run and no other base runners against Mark, who ends up with a complete-game 3-hitter in the 3-1 Pacifics win. In the same game, Tony Hamlyn (12-4, 2.99 ERA) is the losing pitcher, but strikes out Jens Carroll and Luis Reya in the first inning to first tie, then pass Hall of Famer-to-be Martin Garcia for the all time strikeout lead.
July 23 – MIL 1B Mike Rucker (.244, 17 HR, 58 RBI) is out for the season with a broken ankle.
July 25 – It’s the 200th career win for SAC SP Juichi Fujita (10-5, 4.76 ERA), who beats the Blue Sox despite surrendering four runs in a wild 12-8 game. Fujita is 200-122 with a 3.47 ERA for his career, with 1,992 strikeouts.
July 25 – The Capitals acquire SP Colin Baldwin (1-5, 6.50 ERA) from the Stars, sending them C Casimiro Schoeppen (.236, 2 HR, 12 RBI).
July 25 – The Pacifics find themselves in a good old 18-3 rout at the hands of the Miners, who pour out 23 hits, with 4-hit days for Dave Carter and Joe Chappelle.

Complaints and stuff

With Toner tarred and feathered, not only was our ERA quartet blown up, but Curtis Tobitt had also snuck past Brownie, so we didn’t even have the top three anymore. That was not our main problem, though. The main problem continued to be total dorks like Quebell and Alexander killing offense at every opportunity. There’s also Cookie Carmona being 5-for-28 in his last six games, but I blame those other two.

Vic Flores was on the waiver wire early in the week, but I passed. We have good memories with him (2006-07), but he hasn’t hit convincingly in a while, and the Pacifics probably know why they have him on waivers, batting for a paltry .640-ish OPS. We are probably better off with Howell and looking to throw money for an improvement late in July elsewhere. But it’s actually hard to improve things. After the addition of Richards, the only positions where a tangible improvement could be made by one player is either middle infield spot or at catcher, but D-Alex had something of a renaissance after the break, and slugging middle infielders remain notoriously hard to find. That’s why the Miners are probably glad they took Tom McWhorter in the 2006 draft rather than Jimmy Oatmeal. McWhorter’s OPS is over .900 while playing a slick shortstop.

Besides, the capital fudging the team was guilty of in San Francisco should have beaten any playoff aspirations out of the fan base. Go find something to do with your October, right now. With the Crusaders never losing, we can stop worrying.

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Westheim

The Critters expected record at the break is their actual record. The Crusaders are two games over their expected record, but that still doesn’t change the standings. The only meaningful difference in expected record is over in the FL East, where the Capitals are +5 and would be fourth in the division behind the Rebels and Buffaloes that way.

Figures the Crusaders are hitting above their weight. :roll eyes: But they really are the Yankees, willing to outspend everyone else and rack up a ridiculous amount of wins.

Either way, I'd seriously consider shutting down Toner early, or at least watch his innings carefully. You don't want to hurt his continued development.

How are the boys in AAA doing? Particularly, what is Graham Wasserman up to? Nothing good, I bet.

[Westheim]

Dun-dun-duuuuuuh...!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

How are the boys in AAA doing? Particularly, what is Graham Wasserman up to? Nothing good, I bet.

Graham Wasserman is 5-12 with a 4.70 ERA and a 1.2 K/BB in AAA, so thankfully we don’t need starting pitching.

+++

The trade deadline kept zooming up on the Raccoons, who led the CL in pitching in most categories (they will never lead it in home runs allowed, which makes a ninth place in home runs hit that bit more sad), while ranking a paltry 11th in runs scored, and their lead on the last-place Falcons was … TWO runs.

The Raccoons might still have a chance at catching up with the Crusaders, who had gone 17-6 in July so far (and 17-4 against non-Raccoons), but they needed another bat.

That bat would have to be - … well, in a perfect world Adrian Quebell would stop ****ing up and we’d be fine. But wishing on a star was not how baseball worked, so let’s have a look at what we had. The outfield was definitely set as it was. Ron Richards was on the surface not overly flashy, but secretly had hit .340/.456/.585 since the trade with the Aces and had driven in 14 runs. (Quebell and Alexander combined since addition: 10 RBI) Matt Nunley was set at third base, also having a strong rookie season, batting .298/.359/.469 while adding solid defense to the job. Rob Howell however had batted a very Raccoons-like .229/.315/.292 since coming over, and wasn’t cutting it. Bergquist had mostly moved over for Sandy to play. D-Alex had a hit a few homers recently, but his performance was still nothing to enjoy. And then there was Quebell, who was already only hitting for a .752 OPS, but with runners in scoring position managed to drop that to a decidedly non-slugging .660, and with the bases loaded – cover your children’s eyes – was batting .167/.143/.167 …

Say, are there any first basemen worth trading in some spares for?

While I was busy on the phone for most of Monday, trying to arrange for a trade for the first baseman on a Federal League team that had thought it had a dynasty and was now double digits out, there was also the possibility of instead finding a slugging middle infielder.

Ya, good luck with that.

And so the era of Adrian Quebell at first base in Portland ended on July 27 with an 0-for-4 with 2 K in that dismal 8-2 defeat by the Bayhawks.

Trade!

On Monday, the Raccoons acquired 34-year old 1B Stanley Murphy (.273, 13 HR, 46 RBI) from the Pacifics, parting with 32-year old 1B Adrian Quebell (.257, 9 HR, 43 RBI) and three prospects of varying potential: AA SP David Tingley (our 2011 first-rounder), AA LF/2B/SS Tony Viera (international free agent in 2012), and AA RF Ruben Cervantes (international free agent in 2011). All three were 21 or 22 years old. Tingley’s K/BB was appallingly bad for a first-rounder in his fourth professional season, but the Pacifics were greatly interested. Viera might be the best of the bunch. Cervantes looks like a clumsy Matt Pruitt to me.

Initially I had tried to shed Jason Seeley and go with four outfielders in August, but the Pacifics – rightly so – had no interest in him. After a hot April he had returned to being the total dud he always had been.

Quebell had been our first base regular since 2006, normally hitting for more than an .800 OPS, but in recent years he had produced more and more double plays and less and less clutch performance. Despite never missing more than EIGHT games in a full season, he had never made it to 100 RBI, despite hitting as many as 64 extra-base hits (2010). He had ruined Al Martin’s career, and he was close to completely ruin my nerves. He had to go.

While Murphy had been with the Pacifics organization since being the #7 draft pick in the 2001 draft, Quebell had been acquired in a trade with the Warriors in 2005, in which we sent Dan Nordahl and Randy Farley to Sioux Falls.

Murphy sheds a bit of defense, but has a better hitting record. In a notable change he bats right-handed. His 2014 .273/.345/.457 performance in 2014 was his worst in many years, and Calderón was convinced that hard luck was involved, so things couldn’t even get any worse on the Portland Hardlucks. He also had missed three weeks with a back injury in May, keeping his countables down. He had 73 XBH as recently as 2012, a year in which he achieved the rare feat of starting 163 regular season games. His career slash of .293/.376/.468 has led to 235 homers and 963 RBI for him and he was the 2011 FLCS *and* World Series MVP before landing Player of the Year honors in 2012.

There’s one big drawback, and that is his $2.76M paycheck that is promised to him for 2015. We will have to work something out, I suspect.

… and thus the middle of the order suddenly got very crowded!

Raccoons (56-40) vs. Condors (50-49) – July 28-30, 2014

The Condors continued to play average baseball, sixth in offense, seventh in defense, which was decidedly better than anything they’d done recently. They were also 2-1 on the Raccoons in 2014.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (6-3, 2.35 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (11-4, 3.40 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (5-3, 4.52 ERA) vs. Michael Colvard (4-8, 3.70 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-5, 2.87 ERA) vs. Blaine Barnard (9-5, 3.90 ERA)

That’s three more right-handers as we miss their southpaw Eric Knight (3-3, 4.82 ERA) by a day. The average age of their rotation is 26, and they are not bad at all, so maybe the Condors can have something going in the next few years.

Neither team has injuries to start the series, as Matt Nunley reported fit for duty on Monday morning.

The Raccoons can win their 3,100th regular season game this week if they lose at most one game between the Condors and Knights. They are also only four losses away from being defeated 3,000-times. I REMEMBER EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE LOSSES, YOU SUCKERS. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Like June 30, 1995. Esteban Baldivía hit into a double play with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom 8th, David Vinson flew out to right (surprised he got a ball THAT far!), and the Crusaders scored two in the ninth to beat us 3-1. EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Dasher – SS Eroh – LF Newman – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – C J. Vargas – 2B Valles – 1B McDermott – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Conway

Ron Eroh homered in the first and there was not much in Conway’s pitching that made a long outing likely. The Condors readily piled up singles, but either ran themselves out of innings (Craig Dasher being thrown out by D-Alex in the third), or brought up the pitcher at the worst moment to strike out and strand a pair, like in the fourth. The Coons finally tied the game in the bottom 4th, in which Boyer walked Nunley and Murphy, the first two batters up. Ryan Feldmann contained Richards’ drive to center and Bednarski struck out, but D-Alex came up with a 2-out bloop single to plate Nunley before Taylor flew out to left. Jimmy Eichelkraut (.193, 2 HR, 12 RBI) made a pinch-hitting appearance in the top 7th, but grounded out to short. Conway finished the inning, not having allowed a hit in his last three frames after the shaky beginning, and then actually got in line for a W when Taylor drew a walk in the bottom 7th. With Merritt batting for Conway, Boyer threw a wild pitch, then allowed a double into the gap to the veteran right-hander, plating Taylor comfortably from second base. Cookie (who was in a dreadful slump) and Sandy failed to get Merritt in from second base, and then Sakellaris blew the lead when he walked Eroh and conceded an RBI double to Will Newman in the top 8th. Angel Casas wobbled in the ninth, walking Sean McDermott, who was then also thrown out by D-Alex.

Extra innings were the result of an especially anemic offensive day for the Raccoons, who managed THREE hits in regulation, and none until the 11th when Eroh narrowly missed Bednarski’s bouncer up the middle. Richards, who had walked for the third time in the game, moved up to second on the 1-out single. D-Alex had already prevented the team from losing with his arm, but could he make the Coons winners with the stick? Dave Shannon got him to ground into a double play, inning over. Chris Mathis in the 12th, his third inning, was singed by Ezra Branch’s 2-out, 2-run homer, and the Raccoons went down like rocks in the bottom of the inning. 4-2 Condors. Alexander 2-5, RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Conway 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Four hits for the suckers in this one. FOUR. Murphy had three strikeouts. Exactly like I imagined it. EXACTLY.

Carmona went 0-for-6. I think we’re in trouble.

Game 2
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B Lafon – LF Newman – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – SS Valles – C Bedinghaus – 1B McDermott – P Colvard
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Dickerson

The Coons scored two runs on one hit in the bottom of the first inning, and weirdly enough that hit got things started when Sandy singled after Carmona had continued his drought with a grounder to Roland Lafon. Sandy swiped second before Nunley walked, and then both took off with Murphy batting. The throw was supposed to go to third, but the Condors’ Bill Bedinghaus tried to get Nunley instead, but threw the ball over Melvin Valles into center. Sandy scored, Nunley to third with his first career steal, and from there he scored as Murphy flew out to deep left. The score quickly jumped to 4-1 thanks to homers by Branch (in the second) and Bednarski (in the third), for both it was the 16th dinger of the season. Bednarski’s came with Murphy on base, his first Coons hit being an infield single blamed on Craig Dasher. Murphy’s next hit was a proper single in the fourth inning, moving Nunley to second after the youngster had singled home Sandy Sambrano, 5-1, but those two were left on base when Will Newman made a sprawling catch on Ron Richards’ drive to left.

Dickerson was wildly adrift and not fooling anybody. The Condors made contact so reliably, but also so poorly, that Dickerson spent NINE pitches in the fifth and sixth innings COMBINED. He didn’t make it out of the seventh, however. McDermott singled with one out before Jimmy Oatmeal walked on four pitches. The two pulled off a double steal (how do we like them apples?) before Dasher’s groundout to short scored a run. That put the score at 5-2 with Oatmeal on third, and Entwistle was brought on in a double switch (Richards vacated, Howell came in, Sandy and Taylor moved). Entwistle got Lafon to ground out, and the 3-run distance was maintained, and the game was safely brought home to end a 4-game losing spell when Entwistle also pitched the eighth, whiffing two, and Angel Casas allowed a single to McDermott but otherwise struck out three in the ninth inning. 5-2 Coons. Sambrano 2-5, 2B; Murphy 2-3, RBI; Bednarski 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Dickerson 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, W (6-3) and 1-3; Entwistle 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Cookie is now 6-for-38. I’m suffering. Yet, it is – didn’t I just mention the Portland Hardlucks? – hard luck all the way. Among his 32 outs are TWO strikeouts. 30 times he found a fielder.

Game 3
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 1B Jaeger – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – C J. Vargas – SS Eroh – LF Eichelkraut – 2B Lafon – P Barnard
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – 3B Merritt – SS Taylor – C Margolis – P Brown

Brownie was sent into a tailspin early on with a walk to Dasher and a really massive homer by Kevin Jaeger right in the first inning. Oatmeal walked in the second inning, but was thrown out by Danny Margolis, his first victim in the Bigs. Not that it helped Brown any. Lafon hit a double with two outs in the inning, and then Barnard hit a blooper to shallow center that fell well in front of Carmona and plated Lafon, 3-0. Another out on the basepaths bailed out Brown in the third; Bednarski threw out Jaeger at third base on a single by Ezra Branch. Bottom 3rd, Cookie hit a single to right, stole his 30th base of the year, Sandy was nicked, and Ron Richards as the tying run – struck out.

Nick Brown had long lost – he just didn’t know it yet. Carmona’s single remained the lone Raccoons hit for way too long, and the Condors lengthened their lead in the sixth in a gigantic fail that involved just about everybody. Brownie hit (and hurt) Eroh with a 1-2 pitch, Oatmeal singled (…!), and then Merritt threw away Lafon’s grounder. Two unearned runs scored in the inning, and the Coons didn’t get onto the board until the bottom of the inning, when Merritt hit an RBI double in an attempt to escape his expected punishment for the throwing error (spending the off day in the team’s iron maiden). That moved him and Bednarski into scoring position with one out, and next Kevin Jaeger couldn’t come up with Taylor’s grounder, which escaped up the line for a 2-run double. The tying run appeared at the plate with one out, but Margolis grounded out and Nunley flew out to center as Brown’s miserable day ended.

Bottom 7th, the moment of truth came. Cookie opened with a single and Sandy walked, putting on the tying runs with the next three batters combining for 47 home runs on the season (though only 21 with this team). Barnard was still holding out, having struck out one over six-plus innings. Ron Richards rolled into a double play, and Murphy bounced out to the pitcher. The moment of truth had gone. 5-3 Condors. Carmona 2-5; Bednarski 2-3, RBI;

Mike Bednarski has an entirely worthless 12-game hitting streak.

(shrugs helplessly)

Raccoons (57-42) vs. Knights (41-60) – August 1-3, 2014

Last in the South, last in runs allowed, and eighth in runs scored, the Knights were a sorry thing to look at. Their bullpen ran a 5.35 ERA, which was the worst in the CL by miles and miles, and the rotation was not a sight to behold either. The Raccoons had already ripped the season series from them, 5-1, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get swept here. At least the Knights could point at six players dwelling on the DL, some for months, and all of those they had counted on.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (10-5, 2.48 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (4-8, 4.90 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-6, 3.32 ERA) vs. Steven Quirion (2-3, 5.04 ERA)
Bill Conway (6-3, 2.29 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (4-1, 2.60 ERA)

That’s three right-handers again. Southpaw Dave Butler cashed in his fourth W (not outweighing his 12 losses) on Wednesday.

Game 1
ATL: CF Arnette – 3B W. White – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – 1B T. Cardenas – SS Hibbard – C Luna – P Hogan
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Santos

Cookie hit a leadoff single in the first only to get doubled off when Sandy lined out to Tomas Cardenas, who then singled home Jimmy Raupp in the second inning to give the Knights the lead. Things quickly got worse in the third inning. Pat Arnette drew a leadoff walk, Wade White tripled and scored on a wild pitch, and then Gil Rockwell homered. That was 4-0, and Santos quickly had two more batters on base to worry about. Only Carmona’s quick feet prevented Ruben Luna from landing a 2-run double to center, instead making the third out. The Raccoons showed some faint sign of life in the bottom 4th, which opened with a Cookie double and two quick singles by Sandy and Nunley. 4-1, tying run at the plate with nobody out, and Murphy had yet to land an extra base hit … or a double play with the Coons. He rolled a sorry ball over to Hogan, but Hogan slipped once while trying to make a play – costing him the play. Murphy had his third hit as a Coon, and his second infield single. What an addition! Now, let’s be glad the bases are loaded, because I was already scared there would not be some ghastly offensive cluster**** in this game. Bases loaded, no outs, three more wannabe sluggers to go. Or maybe two. Richards struck out, and Bednarski found a way for a 4-6-3 to hit into.

I don’t remember much else about the game, but Maud found me the next morning, huddled up on the couch with eyes red and swollen, a Daniel Hall bobblehead clutched in each fist, and there was a huge crack in one of the walls. The box score indicated I hadn’t missed much in my blinding fury. Apparently the Raccoons had had the tying run at the plate with two outs in the ninth, but it had been D-Alex, so… 5-2 Knights. Carmona 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-3, BB, RBI;

Game 2
ATL: CF Arnette – 3B W. White – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – 1B T. Cardenas – SS Hibbard – C Luna – P Quirion
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Merritt – SS Taylor – C Margolis – P Toner

The Coons had only Nunley on first with a 2-out single in the first inning, but somehow the Knights managed to create danger when Devin Hibbard misfiled Bednarski’s grounder (his 17th error) and Steven Quirion threw a wild pitch. Not to fear, Atlanta fans, Ron Richards dutifully struck out. Give credit to Jonny Toner, however; he realized that he was going to be left for dead out there unless he would manage to concede negative runs, so he had to take care of himself. Batting with two outs and Merritt on second base in the second inning, he cranked a Quirion pitch to deep left – and outta here!! LOOK AT THAT, YOU SUCKERS!! THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE!! Maud poured me another cup of the calming tea that Ivan the Druid had cooked up before the game, then tightened the ropes that fixed me to the chair a bit more.

Not that Toner didn’t have his issues. He was perfect through two, but then walked Hibbard in the third. Well, Hibbard was caught stealing, but Luna was then hit by Toner with a 1-2 pitch. Quirion’s bunt was bad and Merritt got Luna forced out, and Toner STILL couldn’t get out of the inning as Pat Arnette and Wade White hit consecutive singles to load the bases. Up came Gil Rockwell, 34 homers heavy, and ran a 3-0 count … before grounding out to Taylor. EVERYBODY in the park was stunned, even the couple hundred Knights fans. Merritt drove home a run in the third, but Toner’s pitching was becoming a problem. Luna was on in the fifth inning, only to get rounded up on another bad bunt by his pitcher, leading to a double play. Two outs, Arnette homered, getting the Knights back to 3-1, and then Toner walked White, allowed a soft single to Rockwell, and walked Raupp. Josh Downing flew out to deep left center, Cookie’s quick paws saving Toner’s hairy butt.

Two on with one out and Richards batting was not good enough to create a run in the bottom 5th, but maybe Palmer Taylor’s leadoff triple in the sixth could be turned into a run? Ha-haha-haaah!! (mad laughter) Ha-hah. No. Cut down your sick jokes!! Margolis popped out, Toner lined out to Downing, and Cookie found Arnette to keep Taylor stranded and lengthen the lines at the beer stands, and Maud dropped some sleeping pills into my not-so-calming tea to kill off the incessant barking and cussing. And all this was with the Raccoons actually WINNING. Toner went eight, and Angel had a 1-2-3 ninth. 3-1 Blighters. Sambrano 2-4; Nunley 2-4; Merritt 2-4, RBI; Toner 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (10-6) and 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

The Crusaders lost to the Bayhawks, 5-2, their first loss since the Coons had left New York.

By the way, we’re now last in runs scored. Thanks, Stanley. Also, Bednarski’s 13-game hitting streak ended.

Game 3
ATL: CF Arnette – 3B W. White – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – 1B T. Cardenas – SS Hibbard – C Luna – P Huertas
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – C Alexander – SS Howell – RF Seeley – P Conway

The Knights scored two runs right out of the gate. Conway drilled Arnette, White singled, they pulled off a double steal and scored on Rockwell’s groundout and Jimmy Raupp’s single, respectively. The Coons weren’t going anywhere in particular in the bottom 3rd when Cookie got brushed with a pitch to give them a 2-out baserunner. Sandy singled, Nunley singled, Cookie scored, 2-1, and then Murphy walked to fill the bags. Richards hit a liner to right center for an RBI single, tying the game, and Gil Rockwell’s limited range cost the Knights when D-Alex’ floater to left landed safely in front of him. Two runs scored, and the Coons held a 4-2 lead. Conway promptly set out to **** around with that lead, walking the first two Knights in the fourth inning, and a run promptly came home on Huertas’ sac fly. Seeley was thrown out at home by Raupp in the bottom 4th, costing a run there, and Conway opened the fifth with a walk to Wade White. The headache was unbearable.

Murphy was close to his first double play as a Critter in the bottom 5th, but Hibbard made another clumsy error, giving the Raccoons two on with nobody out (Nunley had drawn a leadoff walk). Ramón Huertas had no strikeouts through four innings, but now whiffed the left-handers Richards and Alexander before Howell flew out to Raupp. Top 6th, Ruben Luna’s 2-out double didn’t prompt the Knights to hit for Huertas, the tying run in scoring position be damned. Conway couldn’t kill him at 2-2, he popped to short, and Rob Howell dropped the ball. AAAAHHH!!! USE TWO HANDS, ASSHOLE!!! YOU SU-

Which was the point where Maud was out of options, with families in the park on the Sunday afternoon affair, the glass windows decidedly being not soundproof, and Ivan’s “medicine”, reportedly good enough to lay a tiger to rest for 72 hours, really just not working. She shoved a Daniel Hall Bobblehead into my mouth and swiftly taped over the bottom of the bobblehead and my cheeks to keep it in there, to at least muffle the obscenities. Good choice, Maud, good choice! When Sugano replaced Conway in a double switch (out went the ****er Howell), he walked Arnette in a full count, then walked White in a full count, forcing home the tying run. My head was bright red and the rope-replacing chains started to crack. Sakellaris came in and struck out Rockwell.

Bottom 6th, a renaissance? Bergquist hit a 1-out single after coming in defensively for Howell (Sandy had gone to short). Cookie walked to move him to scoring position and when Sandy singled through between Downing and Cardenas, Bergquist had a good enough lead to score, restoring the Coons lead. And here came the big bats. Nunley walked on four pitches, loading the bases, which was in theory fine. Murphy still had no double plays on his ledger, and that continued to be so, but his fly to left was caught by Rockwell, and Cookie scampering home on the sac fly was the last run in the inning. Again, not a knockout. Murphy hit another sac fly his next time up in the eighth, where the Coons stranded two more, and despite the 7-4 lead Angel did not come out. Thrasher was in the game and had logged two outs in the eighth, but the top of the order and the pesky Arnette and White were up, both left-handed hitters. Thrasher K’ed them both, but then walked Rockwell. Only now did Angel get into the game and struck out Raupp to end the game and take the series. 7-4 Furballs. Carmona 2-3, BB; Sambrano 3-4, BB, RBI; Bergquist 1-2; Sakellaris 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-3); Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

In other news

July 28 – The Scorpions trade for the Rebels’ SP Tim Winston (4-5, 5.03 ERA) and cash, parting with an infield prospect, and send #37 prospect SP Cameron McSweeney to the Loggers for MR Orlando Valdez (2-2, 3.50 ERA). Since being drafted in 2010, McSweeney has been traded from the Cyclones to the Raccoons to the Stars to the Scorpions and now to the Loggers.
July 28 – The Titans send LF Earl Clark (.294, 5 HR, 26 RBI) to the Miners and receive four prospects, all in single-A.
July 28 – Another rout takes place in the Federal League as the Stars pound the Blue Sox for 25 hits in an 18-2 beating. Roberto Pacheco, Armando Rodriguez, and Jesus Amador all have 4-hit games for Dallas, and every player on the lineup card has multiple hits (except pitcher Jesus Cabrera, who has one) and at least one run and one RBI.
July 29 – The Scorpions acquire INF Victor Flores (.244, 2 HR, 22 RBI) from the Pacifics for LF/1B John Gartner (.333, 2 HR, 29 RBI) and a prospect.
July 30 – Oklahoma’s Ed Michaels (8-6, 5.18 ERA) 3-hits the Indians in a 2-0 shutout.
July 31 – CIN SP Rich Hood (6-11, 5.96 ERA) is out for the year and maybe longer with a torn rotator cuff.

Complaints and stuff

The most amazing pitching ever assembled – and it just isn’t enough, is it?

Stanton Martin hit TEN homers in July and was the CL Hitter of the Month (and Player of the Week). No Raccoon was in the running for any award except maybe Dylan Alexander as Best in Show at the 2014 Portland Dud Parade. Now that Quebell was gone, especially.

Cameron McSweeney came in when Rob Howell (and Logan Taylor) were sent out in 2011, but was then parted with Brendan Teasdale for Dylan Alexander. We might have spared ourselves the hassle, you might say.

In the 2001 draft in which the Pacifics picked Stanley Murphy at #7, the Coons selected Chris Beairsto at #2… yeah, I don’t know how I still have a job.

[Questdog]

Well, I must say I am sad to see Adrian go. One of my favorites and the same name as my oldest daughter.....

Not saying, the trade is bad, just sad....

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Trade!

On Monday, the Raccoons acquired 34-year old 1B Stanley Murphy (.273, 13 HR, 46 RBI) from the Pacifics, parting with 32-year old 1B Adrian Quebell (.257, 9 HR, 43 RBI) and three prospects of varying potential: AA SP David Tingley (our 2011 first-rounder), AA LF/2B/SS Tony Viera (international free agent in 2012), and AA RF Ruben Cervantes (international free agent in 2011). All three were 21 or 22 years old. Tingley’s K/BB was appallingly bad for a first-rounder in his fourth professional season, but the Pacifics were greatly interested. Viera might be the best of the bunch. Cervantes looks like a clumsy Matt Pruitt to me.

Initially I had tried to shed Jason Seeley and go with four outfielders in August, but the Pacifics – rightly so – had no interest in him. After a hot April he had returned to being the total dud he always had been.

A definite frustration trade here -- Portland is back six games, Toner in particular is starting to fade, and New York has been on fire -- I don't think you can win the division this season.

Bad move. All three guys could pan out eventually, and at least one will come back and bite you in the furry tush.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Well, I must say I am sad to see Adrian go. One of my favorites and the same name as my oldest daughter.....

Not saying, the trade is bad, just sad....

Let's just remember Bobby Quinn and not worry about that other guy anymore.

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

A definite frustration trade here -- Portland is back six games, Toner in particular is starting to fade, and New York has been on fire -- I don't think you can win the division this season.

Bad move. All three guys could pan out eventually, and at least one will come back and bite you in the furry tush.

First, the Coons were five games out, and we've blown bigger leads than that. Secondly, with the insane starting pitching we have going, even a modest offense that scores around 4.5 runs per game would be enough to send the Critters onto a winning streak.

You can say that about ANY trade that involves dealing prospects for a player. If anything, Vic Mercado in the Ron Richards deal might be the very best of the bunch we dealt for offensive upgrades.

Frustration was involved indeed. I have watched Quebell fail with runners on base forever now.

People say that RBI's are not a relevant stat (anymore). I disagree. They are relevant in the context of the lineup. Nobody expects Carmona to have 100 RBI at the top of the order. (Or: Lance Leadoff (.310/.390/.400, 5 HR, 50 RBI) is not a worse batter than Sammy Swinger (.245/.300/.490, 27 HR, 110 RBI) because he has less than half his RBI) But Quebell, who started the season batting fourth behind Cookie, Sandy, and Bednarski - all three of whom get on base at a clip of .360 or better - mathematically has any of those three (or even several of them) reach at a rate slightly better than 75% at any given run through the lineup. While there are instances where Cookie gets caught stealing, or is driven in by one of the other guys, or Sandy makes the third out, or Bednarski homers, Quebell still came up with a men on base almost 60% of the time.

And what did he do? Nothing! If a middle-of-the-order guy, who is healthy, and with nobody on base can swing a bunch, has 43 RBI at the end of July, while batting behind such a top of the order, he's actively and actually killing you. D-Alex is the same, by the way. Just look at the numbers for the team offense. Lots of 7th places in there. Where is the team as a whole? Last in runs scored.

Everybody needs a scape goat, and Quebell is mine. And then D-Alex, and Bednarski, in descending order. Nunley has been moved to third because he hits lots of doubles, but he doesn't connect with the top two either, which is utterly frustrating.

The Raccoons are stranding runners at a completely bonkers rate. They need someone to drive Critters home, finally!

Lastly, I don't know why you are particularly obsessed with Toner, but he threw 219 innings in 2012 (all in the minors), and 214 innings in 2013 (partly in the minors), so he's probably not going to dry up so soon. He's been blown up for 5+ earned runs four times this season, once in each month. He also leads the league in shutouts. If anything, he's inconsistent. The only starters we have that have not allowed multiple 6+ ER games this year are Brownie and Conway. In fact, neither of them has allowed more than 4 ER in any game.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Let's just remember Bobby Quinn and not worry about that other guy anymore.

You need to find a Katie to play for the team and then you will have had all three of my children represented.....

Or maybe you already have.....anyone with K.T. for initials?

[Westheim]

494 Raccoons on record, and no K.T. in sight.

+++

Raccoons (59-43) @ Falcons (46-60) – August 4-6, 2014

The Falcons were bottom of the league in batting average, but still had scored more runs than the lovely Critters, though admittedly they had played four more games already. The difference was nine runs. Despite being in the doldrums overall, they had the fourth-best rotation, but it was just not good enough. Like the Coons didn’t know a thing about that. The series for 2014 was tied, with each team having swept the opposition once.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (6-3, 4.37 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (10-6, 3.05 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-6, 2.94 ERA) vs. John Key (3-7, 4.69 ERA)
Hector Santos (10-6, 2.64 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (8-9, 3.64 ERA)

And here … another full set of right-handers. Meanwhile, the Raccoons are two wins away from #3,100 in the regular season, so Brownie could be the first one to grab it.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – SS Taylor – C Margolis – P Dickerson
CHA: RF Puckett – C Lewis – 1B J. Garcia – LF J. Jimenez – 3B C. Martinez – SS Dahlke – CF DeBoer – 2B Best – P J. Silva

Cookie Carmona opened the week with a single to right, swiping second base, and being stranded at third. And in a very crisp 2:08 loss, Carmona was the only Raccoon to ever reach base on his own merit in the entire game. He did it again on a third-inning single, and that was the Coons’ last base runner. Dickerson pitched an eight-inning complete game, conceding an earned run in the bottom 2nd on Jose Jimenez’ leadoff triple and a Carlos Martinez single, and an unearned run when Taylor threw away a grounder from Jimenez and allowed Jorge Garcia to score in the sixth inning. Jorge Silva pitched a 2-hit shutout. And that was really ALL there was to this game. 2-0 Falcons. Carmona 2-4; Dickerson 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, L (6-4);

This was the Raccoons’ 3,000th regular season loss.

The hotel has a really nice bar. I think I’ll spend the rest of our days in Charlotte there and just forget that my ancestors evolved from being mere beasts.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Howell – 2B Bergquist – P Brown
CHA: LF J. Jimenez – C Lewis – 3B C. Martinez – RF Nieves – CF Charles – SS R. Miller – 1B Puckett – 2B Best – P Key

The Coons somehow scored a run in the first. Carmona got on with an infield single, was forced by Sandy, but Sandy made it to third on Jon Merritt’s 0-2 single, and Murphy plated him with a single to left. With two on, Bednarski and Alexander plain failed. Can’t trust any but the top two, clearly. Cookie was on with another single to lead off the third, and Sandy found the corner with a vicious liner, and out there in rightfield, Domingo Nieves was not exactly gifted with a rocket launcher. Sandy easily had a triple, and Cookie scored to make it 2-0. Merritt walked, and Murphy grounded to short for a double - … or maybe Steve Best would drop Ryan Miller’s throw, and the Falcons got nobody. Sandy scored, and there were two on with nobody out for Bednarski, who struck out, and D-Alex wasn’t getting things done, either.

Now, some runs were on the board, one way or another (mostly one, by the speedy leadoff guys, and little the other, big hits that count for lots), and it was on Brownie to make them stand up. He didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings, but walked two against three strikeouts, but Nieves had a leadoff single in the fourth before being washed up in Jimmy Charles’ double play grounder to Rob Howell. He got out of that one, but the lead would evaporate with a loud bang in the fifth inning. A leadoff walk to Steve Best, who stole second base, got things rolling slowly before suddenly double, single, double – and we’re tied. Bottom 6th, leadoff single by Charles, who was forced out on Miller’s grounder, but the Falcons still took the lead on another huge double by Chris Puckett.

Somehow, SOMEHOW, Brown still wound up with a chance for the win by completing seven. The top 8th was led off by Murphy with a single, which chased John Key. Bednarski failed as usual before Nunley lobbed a floater to shallow center for a pinch-hit single. Charles misfielded it for an extra base, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out. The Falcons left the bases loaded in the bottom 8th against Mathis (who left with an injury) and Sugano, but what did it matter? That’s when Danny Margolis led off the ninth inning against Cris Pena with a double, with the top of the order next. Pena had Carmona at two strikes when Carmona hit a liner to left center, and it went past Charles – Margolis scored, and Carmona to second! Then the Falcons walked Sandy intentionally, Merritt, Murphy, and Bednarski collectively ****ed up, and the Falcons walked off in the 10th inning on a 2-out walkoff single by the reliever Pena off Constantino. 5-4 Falcons. Carmona 4-5, 2B, RBI; Murphy 2-5, 2 RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Margolis 1-2, 2B;

Chris Mathis was diagnosed with a tender shoulder, which sent him to the DL. He might be fine after the minimum 15 days. We called up Sergio Vega, the endless reliever, to fill the open spot. Vega had a 3.69 ERA with the dismal Alley Cats, doing some starting, some relieving, and some closing.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – SS Taylor – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
CHA: RF Puckett – C Lewis – 1B J. Garcia – LF J. Jimenez – 3B C. Martinez – CF E. Anderson – SS Dahlke – 2B Best – P Carter

Santos was broken down into lots of tiny pieces as early as the second inning. Jimenez led off with a double, Martinez singled him in, and scored on Eric Anderson’s single. After two outs, Ron Carter plated the runner with a single to center, then scored himself on a huge double by Puckett before finally Russell Lewis struck out to end a horrendous 4-run inning. While Ron Carter sat down the first 13 Raccoons in this game before Murphy singled to center, only for Taylor to hit into a double play, Santos lasted six innings, and never allowed a runner outside of the five hits that led to the four runs in the second inning, whiffing seven. No further Coons runners until Murphy was up again. He hit his first Raccoons home run in the eighth inning, but it came in a hopelessly lost game. Then Taylor singled and Alexander hit a ball into the left center gap that made it all the way to the wall unimpeded, and together with a weak throw in by Jimenez, Alexander had an RBI triple. Yet, Bergquist failed, and Bednarski, hitting for Thrasher, flew out gingerly to right, ending the inning. The Falcons banged up Ron Sakellaris for two return runs in the bottom 8th, but the Coons had Cookie on to start the ninth. He took second base and scored on Jon Merritt’s pinch-hit single. Richards hit a soft single against Cris Pena, as the Falcons scrambled to seal the sweep. Murphy came up as the tying run with one out, flew out to center, and Palmer grounded out to second base. 6-3 Falcons. Merritt (PH) 1-1, RBI; Murphy 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

There’s nothing you can do but shrug. And pour yourself anodder one-ne.

*hggs*

Raccoons (59-46) vs. Indians (51-57) – August 7-10, 2014

The Indians were really nothing special, ninth in offense, third in pitching and defense, and unlucky to boot, but whatever they did, it worked against the Confusicoons, whom they had beaten five out of seven times this year.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (10-6, 3.18 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (9-5, 3.63 ERA)
Bill Conway (6-3, 2.40 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (5-9, 5.04 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (6-4, 4.08 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (6-7, 3.74 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-6, 3.04 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (8-9, 3.05 ERA)

They have two southpaws, but we’ll miss Chester Graham (7-6, 3.54 ERA). Broun is the other one.

While the math is not that hard, the Raccoons are still two shy of 3,100, and Conway would be the candidate to – ah, whom am I kidding?

Besides, we already started to weave in a few off days in this long 20-game stretch. There isn’t anybody left over to give a day off except for Murphy, Carmona, and Sambrano, at least this week, and the youngsters might not need a day off until next week. Murphy didn’t start on August 2, the second day of the 20-game stretch. All the older guys will get at least two days off in this stretch. Not that anybody’s hitting anything. Minus Cookie. I like Cookie. I like Cookie so much, I’m now crumbling cookies into my booze. Lotsa cookies in lotsa booze.

Game 1
IND: CF J. Wilson – C Padilla – RF Tanner – 1B S. Guerra – 2B Kym – 3B Mathews – LF Phillip – SS Bowers – P Weise
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – SS Taylor – C Margolis – P Toner

Toner was missing generously inside as well as outside in this game, up and down too, and the Indians had almost constantly somebody on base, but they didn’t get them home early on. Neither did the horrendous Raccoons, who had markedly less runners in general. Toner ran 3-ball counts in every inning, but it ended up costing the Indians first, who felt they were getting the short end on the calls by the home plate umpire. When Joey Mathews was called out on strikes to end the fourth inning, he slammed down his bat and barked some thing or other, for which he got tossed. Ryan Dawson replaced him.

The Coons broke through in the bottom of the fourth inning, which started with Sandy’s leadoff infield single. He stole second base before Murphy walked against Weise. Mike Bednarski hit a 2-out double to left, scoring Sandy, and then Palmer Taylor chipped a single to left center, which plated both runners once Taylor faked to second base far enough to draw a throw there, then lingered long enough for Bednarski to hustle home for the third run before being tagged out. A shutdown inning would have been swell, but Toner put the first two Indians, Clint Phillip and Tom Bowers, on with hits in the top 5th and somehow got out of the mess with just one run allowed – yet that one scoring on a wild pitch. Sandy led off the bottom 6th with a single, was caught stealing before Nunley singled, and that cost a run, since Stan Murphy then went well deep to right center, his second Critters dinger, running the score to 5-1. Toner managed to get through seven, before Thrasher came out for the top 8th. He faced three batters and put the two left-handers on as John Wilson singled and Rowan Tanner walked. Entwistle came in to face Santiago Guerra, ran a 3-1 count, and then Guerra singled to right. The Indians sent Wilson, but Bednarski threw him out. Jong-beom Kym grounded out to Sandy Sambrano then to end the inning. We tried to have Entwistle finish the game, but with two outs in the ninth the Indians put two on again. Angel Casas was called on and K’ed John Wilson to end the most recent spill. 5-1 Raccoons. Sambrano 2-4; Nunley 2-3; Bednarski 2-3, 2B, RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (11-6);

Game 2
IND: CF J. Wilson – 3B Mathews – RF Tanner – 1B S. Guerra – 2B Kym – LF A. Chavez – C Denny – SS Bowers – P Lambert
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Conway

The Coons had a leadoff double by Cookie in the first, Sambrano reached on Bowers’ error, and then … pop, pop, pop. Three pops ended the inning. Cookie had another leadoff double in the third inning (that one to right, after the first one went to left), and was stranded AGAIN. Conway, undeterred by the abundant failure, struck out Mike Denny in the second inning, the fourth Raccoons starter to reach 100 K in 2014.

And then the Coons actually did get on the board. Ron Richards opened the fourth with a seeing-eye single past Kym before Lambert lost Bednarski on four pitches. Dylan Alexander hit a really hard bouncer through a diving Guerra and up the line for an RBI double. Howell got four wide ones, which was spectacular since there were no outs and Howell had batted .206 since being acquired, but up came Conway, a rabid 1-for-41 … with an RBI (more than Quebell had, right?). He popped out to Bowers, but Carmona legged out a grounder to short to stay out of the double play, allowing Bednarski to score, and Sandy singled to plate another run. They pulled off a double steal, but Nunley flew out to end things in a 3-0 score. The Coons tacked on a run in the sixth, which started with Rob Howell getting plunked. Nunley’s 2-out double drove him home. Conway pitched a 1-hitter for a while, but Denny and Phillip had singles in the eighth inning, and with the adversely-handed top of the order up, Sugano was called on. He was 1-2 against John Wilson who then lined out HARD to Ron Richards, who had moved over to right in a double switch that moved Bednarski out of the game and Seeley into centerfield. Mathews flew to deep left, but Carmona was there well in time. Seeley hit a triple in the bottom of the inning and scored on Cookie’s groundout, scoring an additional run that in the end didn’t make the difference as the Indians remained three-hit and shutout. 5-0 Coons. Carmona 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-5, RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B, RBI; Seeley 1-1, 3B; Conway 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (7-3);

Conway also managed to pop up a bunt in his last plate appearance, ending up at 1-for-43 for the season, or a juicy .023 clip.

We also made up a game on the Crusaders with this win. Never mind the three we lost while in Charlotte.

Next up is the left-hander Broun. We’ll take the opportunity to rest Cookie. Sandy will bat leadoff this Saturday.

Game 3
IND: CF J. Wilson – C Padilla – RF Tanner – 1B S. Guerra – 2B Kym – LF A. Chavez – 3B Mathews – SS Bowers – P Broun
POR: CF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – 2B Bergquist – SS Howell – C Margolis – P Dickerson

Dickerson was all over the place from the start and the Indians loaded the bases on two hits and a walk in the first inning, only to leave them stranded when Armando Chavez struck out, seamlessly lining up with what the team had done in the first two games, one run in 18 innings. There was no offense through three, but the fourth opened with back-to-back walks to Kym and Chavez. Mathews rolled into a double play, before Bowers got four wide ones to bring up Broun, who grounded real hard to the right side, but Bergquist made the play and the Indians were left in the rain again. Chavez walked again with one out in the sixth inning, which was the fourth involuntary free pass issued by Dickerson. The game was still scoreless, but he was hauled in, the walk being finalized on his 100th pitch. In came Constantino and he single-handedly blew up the game. He walked Mathews, and allowed a single to Bowers. Broun struck a pitch hard to right; Bednarski caught it, but Chavez scored easily. Then John Wilson hit a massive 3-run homer and the Coons were sent trailing 4-0.

Well, technically the Raccoons had the tying run at the plate in the bottom 6th. Sandy singled, Merritt singled, Murphy walked. Richards came up with one out, had already a double play grounder on his ledger, and all he managed was a meager sac fly. Bergquist flew out to end the inning. Well, and Constantino had already been unable to provide long relief – or even ANY relief – and next up to get drummed was Sergio Vega. Top 7th, Guerra singled, and then Vega walked the next two. Bases loaded, no outs, a passed ball was charged to Margolis, scoring a run, and Vega walked the bases right full again. Tom Bowers singled in a run, Broun struck out, before Sugano was called on to restore order. And HE threw a wild pitch! Wilson scored another run with a groundout, Padilla singled right through the dumbass Howell, and we had a real rout on our hands. Wilson would cream another one off Angel Casas in the ninth inning. Since nobody got anybody out, the closer was pressed into service in a blowout and got licked. 10-3 Indians. Merritt 2-4;

Game 4
IND: CF J. Wilson – C Padilla – RF Tanner – 1B S. Guerra – LF A. Chavez – 3B Dawson – 2B Mathews – SS Bowers – P A. Mendez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Brown

The continuing demise of Nick Brown was to clearly to see in the first inning. John Wilson, who had whacked two homers on Saturday and 14 on the year, hit the first pitch of the game so hard at Sandy, he almost shot a hole into his trunk. Sandy still played it for an out. Padilla and Tanner were down 0-2, but Padilla tripled and Tanner popped out. Guerra lined hard to left, but right to Nunley, somehow bailing out Brown, and all of that in ten pitches. The Coons in the first had Cookie and Sandy on … and left them there. Carmona and Nunley were on in the third inning, and Murphy lined into a shoestring double play on which neither Raccoon returned to his base, because nobody got a good look at how in hell Joey Mathews made THAT play. In between, Nick Brown had struck out five in a row (the #5 through #9 batters), before the Arrowheads went back to make hard contact in the fourth, but didn’t score. Bottom 4th, Richards singled, D-Alex doubled. Taylor was bypassed to bring up Brownie with one out. He had batted like a maniac in the first months of the season, but since then had dried up. One strike. Two strikes. Horrible swing. My eyes, they’re hurting! Next pitch … *clank*! … a liner up the leftfield line coming down – FAIR!! Into the corner! Richards in, Alexander in, Taylor in, a bases-clearing double for Mr. Nicholas Brown!!

One more run came on the board after Sandy walked and Nunley singled, plating Brownie, who was tantalizingly close to his tenth win of the season. And wasn’t it about time? He had a clean fifth, then had a 2-out single that loaded the bases in the bottom 5th and chased Alejandro Mendez. Jason Clements retired Carmona to end the inning. Wilson and Padilla opened the sixth with singles, and John Wilson was shoved home to get the Indians on the board, now 4-1 for the Coons. They then lost one to two runs in the bottom of the sixth, depending on how you’re counting. Sandy reached leading off, but was thrown out when Nunley failed the hit-and-run, THEN doubled two pitches later. Jason Clements threw a wild one before Murphy and Richards both struck out with the runner on third.

And things continued to go against Brown. In the seventh, he began to get squeezed by the blind-as-a-bat umpire and the Indians got two on with leadoff walks by Chavez and Dawson. Mathews flew out to center, and Bowers flew out to right. Chavez tagged from third, but was killed at home by Bednarski, ending the inning. Brown completed eight innings under 100 pitches despite two walks and eight strikeouts, owed to the fact that the Indians had made rapid contact (and equally rapid outs) in select stints in this game. But with a 3-run lead he’d only come back for the ninth if the team could scratch out some add-on offense in the bottom half of the eighth. The top of the order was up, and Cookie, Sandy, and Merritt went down in order against the southpaw Anthony Bryant. So it was off to Angel, who returned the 1-2-3 favor to the Indians. 4-1 Brownies! Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B; Taylor 2-3, BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (10-6) and 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

Normally I would have yanked Brown in the seventh after the back-to-back walks. At least this Brown, not the prime Brown. But the pen had had a rough day on Saturday, he was still around 80 pitches, and the walks came out of nowhere.

It was an odd game for him. He really looked alternatingly amazing and atrocious. How the Indians didn’t topple him we’ll never know.

In other news

August 4 – In a wild one, the Pacifics and Rebels clobber each other for 41 hits and 27 runs over ten innings. The game goes to extras tied at 12-12, the Pacifics score a run in the top 10th, but the Rebels walk off with four singles in the bottom of the inning, winning 14-13. Nine different players have 3-hit games, but nobody has a 4-hit game.
August 8 – MIL RF Justin Dally (.268, 10 HR, 48 RBI) might be out for almost all of the remaining season with a sprained ankle.

Complaints and stuff

So, franchise win #3,100 went to Bill Conway. Hooray, hooray. Yes, the Charlotte series beat all the remaining enthusiasm out of me. Completely - … (whiffing motion with one hand) … out of me. Que sera, sera.

We also got to witness first-hand the rare occasion of a pitcher being named Player of the Week. Of course it was Jorge Silva. He upped his Monday shutout with eight scoreless against the Aces, winning his fourth straight. He whiffed only seven in 17 innings, and six of those were Coons.

And it was unfathomable before the season, but Conway might deserve any little acknowledgement, as irrelevant as #3,100 might be, the most. Despite having no flash whatsoever about him and now competition in the wild beard department from Murphy, Conway has been insanely consistent. He also has not lost in his last eight starts, allowing only 12 earned run. The real crime is that he only won two of the games. But well, that’s what (offensively) last-place teams do, right?

This offensively last-place team at least as Cookie Carmona, who blazed back into the SB lead in the ABL and now leads with 35, three ahead of Mike Rivera, and four ahead of the FL leader Danny Flores.

Meanwhile, our offensive additions mid-season, and the difference in their slash lines after the trade compared to what they batted for their old team:

Rob Howell -.104/-.062/-.111
Ron Richards -.016/-.004/-.082
Stanley Murphy -.064/-.070/-.108

We’re in last place by nine runs, by the way.

Brownie is at 2,743 strikeouts now, 20 behind Robbie Campbell, and just 30 behind Kel Yates, who has been so bad for the Elks (5.51 ERA, more walks than whiffs), they demoted him to AAA Drummondville in late July! Beyond that, at 2,800 K, is Master Kisho, who as of today is exactly 1,000 K behind Tony Hamlyn, who's at 3,800 total. Of course he’s the first guy to get there.

Meanwhile, Dickerson - … it’s not pretty, is it? I will cry over those $9.6M forever. And the $3.2M for next year are a PLAYER option, so …

Edited the second-to-last paragraph which made no sense before.

[Questdog]

Well, it might be time to switch off the Beatles and put on something else......maybe the Mozart Requiem....I still got a feeling, but it ain't a good one no more.....

maybe take waivers out on Dickerson and see if anyone will bite.....

Gotta stay ahead of those Elk-diddlers, though, so no pouting!.....

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Brownie is at 2,743 strikeouts now, 20 behind Robbie Campbell, and just 30 behind Kel Yates, who has been so bad for the Elks (5.51 ERA, more walks than whiffs), they demoted him to AAA Drummondville in late July! Beyond that, at 2,800 K, is Master Kisho, who as of today is exactly 1,000 K ahead of Kisho at 3,800 total. Of course he’s the first guy to get there.

Meanwhile, Dickerson - … it’s not pretty, is it? I will cry over those $9.6M forever. And the $3.2M for next year are a PLAYER option, so …

On what ballot will Brownie get elected into the hall? That question is really pressing.

Hm... you know, I wouldn't cry over spilt millions until the cows come home -- 3.95 is normally pretty average, but pitching seems to be on the decline in the ABL this year. Dickerson may unwisely choose to opt-out and take less money for more years.

Of course, you could always get the mascot to provide some incentive for Dickerson to decline... he sure wouldn't like waking up covered in fluffing.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (62-47) vs. Loggers (42-67) – August 11-14, 2014

Poor Loggers. Poor, poor Loggers. And poor, poor Loggers fans. They are really suffering. The team is bottom three in both runs scored and runs allowed, with the worst rotation. That worst rotation will now face the best rotation, but then again the Coons can’t score for the stripes on their tails. It has worked out splendidly against the Loggers in 2014, however, whom we’ve beaten nine out of ten times.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (10-7, 2.79 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (2-15, 6.84 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (11-6, 3.09 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (5-13, 4.63 ERA)
Bill Conway (7-3, 2.27 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (3-2, 4.06 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (6-5, 3.95 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (12-9, 4.37 ERA)

More right-handers! Foreman is a 23-year old rookie who already made a handful of starts in 2013, but then got clobbered for an ERA of almost 7 and went 0-4.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Leach – 1B Roncero – LF Knowling – SS O. Sandoval – CF Gilmor – 3B J. Thompson – 2B J.J. Rodriguez – P Euteneuer
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Santos

Victor Hodgers led off the game with a single to left, moved up on Foster Leach’s groundout, and when Alexander threw away the ball on his attempt to swipe third base, Hodgers came home easily for an unearned 1-0 Loggers lead. The Raccoons’ response was unexpectedly swift and painful for the well-drummed Euteneuer. Cookie got them going with a double, Sandy singled, and after Nunley popped out over home plate, Stan Murphy slugged a no-doubter to leftfield, a truly huge 3-run homer. Richards went on to reach, and with two outs, D-Alex made up for his earlier mishap and clocked a 2-shot off poor Euteneuer to give Santos a 5-1 lead, which the right-handed tended to well enough. Euteneuer made it to the fifth inning, but was then knocked out by Ron Richards’ solo homer that ran the score to 6-1. Matt Crisler came into the game in relief, but was soon in trouble. Bednarski walked, and when D-Alex sent a double play grounder to Jim Thompson, who tried to turn two, but threw wildly to second base and the Coons had two on with the error. Thompson then immediately looked bad again when Rob Howell hit an RBI double through him. Santos himself then batted in another run with a single to right, upping his batting average to over .100. The rout got worse for the Loggers, who gave up another 3-spot in the seventh when Jim Pennington filled the bases and then was really unlucky that Matt Nunley, who batted with two out, hit a terrible bloop to left that fell in between Zach Knowling and Oscar Sandoval and scored two, and Murphy hit another RBI single after that. Santos breezed through the middle innings with lots and lots of poor contact made early by the Loggers, and had an extremely rare chance at a complete game, facing the top of the order in the ninth, coming in on 86 pitches. Hodgers and Leach made quick outs before Silvestro Roncero reached on an infield single. Two pitches later, Zach Knowling popped out to third. 11-1 Raccoons! Carmona 2-4, BB, 2 2B; Murphy 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Richards 2-5, HR, RBI; Alexander 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Howell 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Santos 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (11-7) and 1-5, RBI;

This was Hector Santos’ second complete game in 104 major league starts.

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Leach – 1B Roncero – CF Enriquez – LF Knowling – 3B D. Jones – SS Kingsley – 2B J. Thompson – P B. Morrison
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Toner

Offense was a bit harder to come by in the Tuesday game, with no run coming onto the board until the fourth, when Ron Richards jacked a 2-run homer off Morrison. That was only the third hit for the Raccoons in the game, but they still did well better than the Loggers, who had so far been a dozen up, a dozen down against Toner, and things didn’t get better for them in that second turn through their order. The Coons had Cookie on base with a 2-out walk in the fifth, he actually stole second base on a botched hit-and-run with Sandy, but Sambrano struck out a pitch later and Cookie was left on second base. The bases were loaded in the sixth after a Nunley single and a pair of walks, but they were left loaded once Rob Howell made the third out with a flyout to Knowling. The Loggers made three more groundouts in the top 7th, but Foster Leach’s grounder to right was only intercepted by Murphy with a diving play. Not content with humiliating the Loggers on the mound, Toner hit a double in the bottom 7th and scored, upping his lead to 3-0. He struck out Victor Enriquez to start the eighth inning, but then Knowling found the gap for a 1-out double, and the perfect game was blown. Toner, angry, struck out Dan Jones and Eric Kingsley, and once he returned to the dugout took a good bite out of the railing. The Loggers would get one more runner against Toner once Hodgers hit a 2-out triple in the top of the ninth, but Toner ended the game with a K to Leach. 3-0 Raccoons. Toner 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K, W (12-6) and 1-3, 2B;

… and that’s his fourth shutout!

We also made up on the Crusaders! Half a game. They were rained out. (buries face in the hands)

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Leach – 1B Roncero – CF Enriquez – LF Knowling – 3B D. Jones – SS O. Sandoval – 2B J.J. Rodriguez – P Foreman
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – 3B Merritt – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

Hodgers continued to be a thorn in the Coons’ side. He had another leadoff single, then stole two bases, and Alexander juggled the ball twice in helpless fashion. Conway issued a walk and two more singles to concede two runs in the first inning. J.J. Rodriguez also stole a base solely off Alexander in the second inning, but he was stranded on third base. The Coons’ offense was suspiciously absent when not facing the abysmal and surely chronically depressed Adam Euteneuer, and they didn’t get onto the board until the sixth inning, when Cookie’s leadoff walk eventually led to a balk-supported RBI groundout by Richards. By then, the Critters had already lost Jon Merritt to injury, with his 38-year old body slowly decomposing, and Nunley was back on his day off. He got three grounders fed for three outs in the top 7th, then drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 7th, which ended on Taylor’s double play grounder. Merritt, before keeling over, had been rolled up in Alexander’s double play grounder, both to J.J. Rodriguez. Bottom 8th, Seeley hit for Bergquist against Foreman to lead off, and singled past Dan Jones. Bednarski grounded out batting for Manobu Sugano, but then came Cookie and sent a high line to center, well past the reach of Victor Enriquez! That’s in, to the wall, Seeley comes in to score, Cookie around second, and into third base standing up! Tied game, go-ahead run on third base, and Sandy brought him home with a sac fly! The elation suffered a bit in the ninth, because Angel Casas almost made a horrendous mess, putting on Knowling with a 1-out double and then drilling Oscar Sandoval with a 3-0 pitch (not much difference there…), but pinch-hitter Tim Pace popped out to Nunley to end the game, thankfully. 3-2 Critters! Carmona 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Merritt 1-1; Nunley 1-1, BB; Seeley (PH) 1-1; Conway 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Those five hits in the post game rundown are everything the Coons managed. That was probably the slimmest 3-2 win you can pull out without actually getting two on with an error and a walk and then whacking one 345 feet right up the line.

Jon Merritt had some sort of elbow soreness and Ivan the Druid advised to shut him down for at least two weeks and wrap the ailing elbow with some king of purple leaves he was ordering with express shipment from Ecuador.

While Sandy was capable of backing up third base, he had only the odd inning of experience there. With Merritt to the DL, we called up 2009 supplemental round pick Brock Hudman, a 24-year old right-hander who was best described as a utility player, who could play about any position except catcher if there was really a need for it. He was batting .302/.339/.382 in AAA. Theoretically we could have recalled Walt Canning (despite hitting woes even in AAA) but he was dealing with a calf issue that would render him hampered for the rest of this week, and that was really not something I was looking forward to. Hudman was on the 40-man roster anyway, and he would also get his first start right away in the Thursday game so Matt Nunley could finally get another day off.

Game 4
MIL: SS O. Sandoval – RF Gilmor – 1B Roncero – CF Enriquez – LF Knowling – 3B D. Jones – C Pace – 2B J.J. Rodriguez – P Caro
POR: CF Carmona – SS Taylor – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – 3B Hudman – P Dickerson

Dickerson barely made it far enough in the game to witness Murphy hit into a double play with runners on the corners in the first inning to waste a chance there, and got one out in the second, but was left to stalk around the mound awkwardly after just 19 pitches with some sort of cramp or strain leading to his swift removal.

(claps hands in ironic excitement) Bullpen day!

Constantino got the ball first and finished the inning. He was in line for the W quickly when Bednarski romped a 2-shot to left center in the bottom of the inning, but then started the third inning by drilling Gabriel Caro, the opposing pitcher. The Loggers put two on, but couldn’t break through, and they put two on again in the fourth, but then brought up Caro with two outs, and Caro struck out this time. The Coons then broke through Caro in the bottom of the inning, despite another double play hit into by D-Alex. Bednarski hit a 2-out single and scored on Bergquist’s double into the right center gap. Brock Hudman came up and hit an RBI single for his first major league hit, Constantino singled, and Carmona hit another single past Jones to plate Hudman; that made it 5-0 after four. But Constantino quickly ran out of steam in the fifth inning, walked Nick Gilmor and was replaced with Thrasher, who walked Roncero, but then reeled things in and retired the next four batters before the 5-0 game was handed off to Sergio Vega, who had suffered through an abysmal season debut (0.2 IP, 5 ER). He improved markedly … but how can you get worse from there? Vega, the folk hero of 2013, got the last out in the sixth, but only one more out in the seventh before he had filled the bases with walks. Entwistle wiggled out, conceding only one run on a sac fly. He was hit for in the bottom of the inning, and the pen continued to struggle as the Loggers brought up the tying run in the ninth inning. Sakellaris had put Clint Harris and Nick Gilmor on with singles, and Angel Casas came in with one out. Roncero grounded to short, but the Coons only got Gilmor, leaving runners on the corners, which turned into bases loaded once Enriquez walked. Knowling came up and he had put the hurt on the Coons in this series (him and Hodgers, and absolutely nobody else), but now struck out on three pitches to seal another 4-game sweep. 5-1 Furballs! Carmona 2-4, 2B, RBI; Alexander 2-3; Bednarski 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Constantino 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (4-4) and 1-2; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Dickerson had a mild hamstring strain. He is so far uncertain for his next start on Tuesday against the Miners. We MIGHT need a spot starter.

Raccoons (66-47) @ Gold Sox (52-61) – August 15-17, 2014

After facing a bottom three team in the Continental League in runs allowed, we’d now get a bottom three team in runs allowed from the Federal League. The Gold Sox were bleeding runs left and right, just barely less than five per game, 11th in the FL. The offense ranked ninth, wildly not enough to keep up with that kind of inept pitching. This is the third straight year we play them, and both teams claimed a 2-1 series in these two years, with the Gold Sox emerging on top in 2014.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.94 ERA) vs. David Peterson (7-9, 4.35 ERA)
Hector Santos (11-7, 2.62 ERA) vs. C.J. Fishel (7-5, 3.62 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (12-6, 2.90 ERA) vs. Bryant Roberts (4-10, 4.29 ERA)

Fishel will be a left-handed starter to overcome. I plan on giving Hudman another start against him, exploiting third basemen’s opposite-handedness to the max.

With the Gold Sox is Joe Cowan, who batted nothing for the Coons, and is crashing it .292/.393/.462 for the Gold Sox.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Brown
DEN: SS Oosterom – RF Hiscock – C E. Carter – 1B Tsung – CF R. Pena – LF Cowan – 2B Saunders – 3B Bleeker – P D. Peterson

Brown’s pitching was not very convincing early, but he opened the top 3rd with a single to right that soon saw the bases flocked with Cookie (single) and Sandy (walk), and nobody out. Nunley hit the first pitch to deep right, to the track, but just couldn’t get it past Bill Hiscock. Brown scored on the sac fly, but that was all, with Murphy hitting into a double play. Nick Brown could hardly get anybody out, despite SIX left-handed batters in the Gold Sox’ lineup. With Eugene Carter reaching on a single in the bottom 3rd he failed to remove either Roberto Pena (the ex-Crusader) or Joe Cowan in 2-strike counts, both hit 2-out singles, and the Gold Sox tied the game right back. Plus, **** just went wrong in the most stupid ways. Peterson hit a 1-out infield single in the fourth, bringing up Piet Oosterom, who was down 0-2 when Brown threw a wild pitch, then lost him to a full-count double into right center, plating the pitcher with the go-ahead run. The former ace only lasted five innings and almost got run over in the fifth, too. A walk by Pena, another single by the ****ing Cowan, and then a pitch right into Matt Saunders… The bases were loaded when Danny Bleeker struck out, and Peterson popped out to end the inning.

The sorry black-and-white photograph of Nick Brown allowed nine hits, walked two, and probably got off easy with just the two runs allowed, but in turn it also looked like he’d be stuck with the loss. The team did absolutely nothing offensively outside of a 2-out triple by Cookie in the seventh that was not converted into the tying run by Sambrano, who grounded out to short on the first pitch. The top 9th saw a leadoff single by D-Alex off Andrew Wills. He was now the tying run and Rob Howell ran for him. Taylor and Bergquist genuinely failed to do something productive. Cookie drew a 2-out walk, bringing up Sandy Sambrano again. Wills quickly got the upper hand on him, a strike, another one, then suddenly a fly hit to right center. Probably Hisco- no, he just can’t get there! Did he misjudge it? A more or less harmless high, soft fly to right center dinked in and raced to the wall! Howell in to score, Cookie in to score, Sandy to second – the Coons have the lead!!

Angel had been out two days in a row and was creating suspense even when rested, so the plan for the surprise bottom 9th was to split it between Sakellaris, who had pitched the eighth, and Thrasher, with two right-handers (Carter and Roy Fox) followed by four left-handers. Aaaaand… Sakellaris completely ****ed up. Carter singled to left, Fox doubled to left, and Thrasher had a tremendous pile of horse **** to clean up. The Gold Sox hit right-handed Manny Perez for Pena, who was down 1-2 before he singled to left to plate the tying run. Jose Valenzuela hit for Cowan, singled to center, and it was game over. 4-3 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B; Nunley 3-4, 2B, RBI; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

(shrugs) What the heck would there be to say?

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – 3B Hudman – SS Howell – P Santos
DEN: SS Oosterom – RF Hiscock – CF R. Pena – 1B Tsung – LF Cowan – 3B Bleeker – C Fox – 2B Saunders – P Fishel

… and another pitcher that struggled right out of the gate. Bill Hiscock homered in the first, after which Pena singled and Tsung got clocked by Santos. Somehow, he made it out of that mess with only a 1-0 deficit. Santos’ pitch count would suffer tremendously at the hands of seven left-handed batters (including Fishel). The Coons tied the score in the third when Sambrano singled home Howell, but in a week that had already seen a few injuries, Fishel piled on when he struck Danny Margolis right into the hand in the fourth inning. Margolis went down and out of the game, and D-Alex’ direly needed day off ended right there.

There were two on with one out in this fourth inning, with Hudman lining out to left. Howell singled to center, scoring Bergquist with the go-ahead run, but D-Alex managed to get himself run down between second and third on – I don’t know what he was doing there. He looked a bit like he had not expected to get into the game and had nipped away at some shrooms to tune out from the daily misery. For Santos, the suffering lasted only one more inning. Murphy drove in a run with two outs in the top 5th, but Santos was bopped by Hiscock again in the bottom 5th, a leadoff jack to get the Gold Sox back to 3-2. Another laborious inning later, Santos was over 100 pitches and was not going to be back for the sixth. Also: rain started to fall. Top 6th, D-Alex on a trip led off with a huge fly to deep right which hit off the base of the wall. Hiscock took his time, D-Alex turned second base, the throw in had him beat at third base, Bleeker tagged him out, but D-Alex kept running around third and across home plate and into the dugout grinning at the manager and calmly stating that he scored and that the Flower Zebras had now won. While there was much to object to in his statement, he was ultimately right in one thing. The team had indeed won, they just didn’t know it yet. The inning fizzled out when Nunley grounded out hitting for Santos, and between innings suddenly there was lightning across the sky and thunder cracking. The game went into rain delay without the Raccoons taking the field again, and with the storm raging for hours, the game was called eventually. 3-2 Flower Zebras. Sambrano 1-2, BB, RBI; Murphy 1-2, BB, RBI; Alexander 1-1, 2B; Howell 2-3, RBI;

Danny Margolis had his thumb broken by Fishel. He will be out for a month at least and we called up Pedro Torruellas, who was only a backup in AAA, but the primary now that Margolis had been called up had been Tom McNeela, batting a slick .199 at age 26. With Margolis I thought that we’d do with some kind of brace or cast with him, but Ivan apparently has decided that it would be best just paint the thumb green and sing to it.

Whatever works.

Not much does.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – C Torruellas – P Toner
DEN: SS Oosterom – RF Hiscock – CF R. Pena – 1B Tsung – C E. Carter – LF Cowan – 3B Bleeker – 2B Saunders – P B. Roberts

Scoring started with a second-inning leadoff jack by Ron Richards, his 21st of the season, and he also scored in the fourth inning after hitting a single followed by Taylor’s double and Bergquist’s RBI groundout. Toner’s regular perfect game bid ended early in the second inning, but at least he held the Sox at bay, although he was also fighting an elevated pitch count early, needing 39 pitches the first time through the lineup, but he made it through five innings (coincidentally also exactly 18 batters once Bryant Roberts bunted into a double play) on 71 pitches, and that was 30 or more less than Brown and Santos had done the last two days.

Richards led off the top 6th with a double, putting him a triple short of the cycle. The bases filled quickly with nobody out, Taylor singling and Bergquist walking against Roberts. Torruellas had a history of power in the minors, but when he swung at a 3-1 pitch against a clearly melting Roberts I let out a squeal. Not too deep to right, Hiscock had – Hiscock dropped it! Oh, one run in, and now it rolls away, two runs in on the error! Toner K’ed, but Cookie hit a sac fly to center, 5-0, and chasing Roberts. Eddie DeBlock came in and surrendered an RBI triple to Sandy Sambrano, who immediately popped up after sliding into third base and began to stretch his leg, grimacing. Nooooo, not Sandy!! Didn’t help anything to cry over it, he came out of the game. Hudman was thrown at first base, with Murphy supposed to get his first day off in 15 days.

With the team slowly withering away as far as the bodies were concerned, at least Toner held on for seven shutout innings, but made it to 110 pitches in the course of the seventh. Sergio Vega got into the 6-0 game in the eighth as we hoped for something other than walks (six walks against four outs logged), and if in doubt, Sugano and Trasher were ready to replace him quickly. Again, Vega failed blatantly. Jose Valenzuela hit a leadoff single, Oosterom grounded out, but then he walked Hiscock. Sugano was leaving the pen before Hiscock even made it to first base, and Sugano finished off the Gold Sox in 19 pitches. 6-0 Critters. Carmona 3-4, RBI; Sambrano 2-4, 3B, RBI; Richards 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Taylor 3-4; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K, W (13-6); Sugano 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

We’ll be without Sandy next week after he’s been diagnosed with a quad strain. I saw Ivan stitch facial features onto a puppet, about one foot big and fashioned from what looked like an old dark brown sack … and I was really too afraid to ask.

In other news

August 16 – The Cyclones and Condors engage in a 25-run game with only 26 hits between the two teams. The Cyclones prevail 14-11 in a game that also sees 16 walks, but no errors.
August 17 – OCT INF Emilio Farias (.362, 1 HR, 43 RBI) has been dealing with chronic back soreness for a while and will be shut down for a few weeks to have him available for the stretch drive and the playoffs. He Thunder expect him back in about three weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Well, that was a rough week in terms of health! No fatalities, but we did take a bit of a beating with four injuries, although two are minor, and the other two were to non-regulars.

Jonathan Toner was the CL Player of the Week, going 2-0 with 21 K over 16 shutout innings. (Doesn’t look tired to me.)

Who are the Raccoons pitchers that have thrown four shutouts in a single season? Jonathan Toner and Jason Turner (1989). That’s it. A number of Raccoons hurlers have had three shutouts in a season: Kisho Saito (twice, 1988 and 1992), Nick Brown (2009), Jose Rivera (1999), Randy Farley (1998), Scott Wade (1995), Kinji Kan (1983), Logan Evans (1981).

Technically, Toner is not a rookie anymore. Turner and Farley turned in their top shutout seasons as rookies. Kisho Saito also had a 3 SHO season as an Elk.

Cookie Carmona reached 150 hits on Thursday. The Raccoons have had a 200 hits player five times in their existence, and it’s really not who you’d think it was. Four times the feat was achieved by first basemen in the 80s, three times by Tetsu Osanai (including the record of 229 hits in 1989), and once by Matt Workman. The only other 200 hits instance was in 2007, when Tomas Castro managed to not shed an arm and a leg for an entire season and collected 202 hits.

I just hate how OOTP can’t sort out rain-shortened games and Santos gets credited for a complete game in the most rugged mess he pitched in on Saturday. Can this be THIS hard??

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I just hate how OOTP can’t sort out rain-shortened games and Santos gets credited for a complete game in the most rugged mess he pitched in on Saturday. Can this be THIS hard??

If he pitched the whole game, he should get a complete game, even if it only goes 5 innings.

P.S. 2nd best record in baseball! But no playoffs....

[Trebro]

Originally Posted by Questdog

If he pitched the whole game, he should get a complete game, even if it only goes 5 innings.

P.S. 2nd best record in baseball! But no playoffs....

I'm honestly surprised the Agitator hasn't been, well, agitating for expanding the playoffs. Not the first season the Raccoons could benefit from extra teams.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

If he pitched the whole game, he should get a complete game, even if it only goes 5 innings.

P.S. 2nd best record in baseball! But no playoffs....

Ha, fact. I got that mixed up with no-hitters, of course. What a GM we have here! In my defense it was late / late-enough-to-be-early and I was just so hanging on.

And there's only so much non-offense your $25M pitching can cover for when the other team has 60% more to blow on players.

Originally Posted by Trebro

I'm honestly surprised the Agitator hasn't been, well, agitating for expanding the playoffs. Not the first season the Raccoons could benefit from extra teams.

The Agitator is busy with a lot of things, mainly calling for my public drawing and quartering. After that, set fire to the dismembered parts, and stone whatever is left over.

+++

Raccoons (68-48) vs. Miners (68-50) – August 18-20, 2014

Here were two teams with almost identical records, one of which led its division by some margin, the other being more or less a playoff afterthought by now. We’re of course the latter. The Miners ranked third in runs scored in the FL, fifth in runs allowed, with a top 3 rotation, but a wonky bullpen. Offensively, the Miners were thumping it, leading the FL with 117 home runs. The Raccoons haven’t won a series against the Miners since 2005. The last meeting between the teams went 2-1 in Pittsburgh’s favor, back in 2012.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (7-3, 2.29 ERA) vs. Miguel Rodriguez (15-4, 3.14 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (6-5, 3.90 ERA) vs. Jeremiah Bowman (14-6, 3.28 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.96 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (4-9, 5.30 ERA)

The Miners have an all-right-handed rotation. Speedy on-base terror Earl Clark was on the DL with knee woes, but that didn’t make the Miners’ middle of the order look any less impressive, with three 20+ dinger hitters in Tom McWhorter (25 HR, 84 RBI), Steve Butler (23 HR, 83 RBI), and Bartholomeu Pino (21 HR, 69 RBI). Not only did we have nobody with more than 60 RBI for the team (Richards’ total was of course split between here and Vegas), but we also had nobody with even 18 HR for Portland (ditto).

Looks like Dickerson can make his start, which is great, since neither Constantino, nor Brown and Santos on short rest sounded like splendid ideas.

Game 1
PIT: RF J. Hudson – 3B Walter – SS McWhorter – LF D. Carter – C Pino – CF Stewart – 1B Carbajal – 2B Rivas – P M. Rodriguez
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

Alex Rivas’ double with the bases loaded, followed by Rodriguez’ sac fly, gave the Miners a 3-0 lead in the second inning over the Coons, despite their pitcher Rodriguez walking people left and right. Carmona and Nunley had drawn walks in the first, only for the middle of the order to collectively tune out of proceedings. Carmona singled in a run with two outs in the second inning, and when D-Alex drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 3rd, the bases were loaded for Taylor, and Rodriguez was on six walks already. And yet, one pitch later he was out of the mess, with Taylor grounding a room service double play to Tom McWhorter, and I had my Monday rage a bit earlier than usual. When McWhorter made a throwing error to put Bergquist on base to start the bottom 4th, Conway failed for the second time to get a bunt down, dropping his average to .021, and Bergquist was left on. Bottom 5th, Murphy hit a leadoff single and Richards drew the seventh walk off Rodriguez, who was over 90 pitches in the fifth inning. The melting process accelerated with a 4-pitch walk to Bednarski. Bases loaded, no outs. And of course – no luck today. Alexander plated one run with a grounder to first, Taylor bounced right back to the mound, Bergquist was ignored, and Conway struck out. 3-2 Miners after five. And just when Maud was worried enough about my alternatingly bright red and pale white face to get the oxygen bottle from the cabinet in the corner, Murph and Richards hit back-to-back homers in the bottom 6th to flip the score. Those of course were solo shots.

Astonishingly, Rodriguez made it to the seventh inning despite walking TEN and whiffing seven. Conway pitched seven-plus, putting the leadoff man on in the eighth, the Miners’ first base hit after their 3-run second inning. Sugano came in to clean up. The Coons got Cookie on base with an infield single in the bottom 8th, but he didn’t get a jump against the former Gold Glover Pino and Hudman (hitting for an 0-3, 3 K Nunley) and Murphy were no help either. Angel Casas allowed McWhorter on base with a leadoff single in the ninth, but Dave Carter rolled into a double play before Pino (also 0-3, 3 K) lined a full count pitch to Hudman, ending the game. 4-3 Critters. Carmona 2-4, BB, RBI; Murphy 3-5, HR, RBI; Conway 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (8-3);

Outside of Cookie, Murphy, and Richards, nobody had a hit for the home team and they made precious little out of their ten walks. Let’s whistle softly while chalking it up in the W column and then never talk about the game again.

Game 2
PIT: CF Waggoner – 3B Walter – SS McWhorter – 1B S. Butler – LF D. Carter – RF J. Hudson – C Carbajal – 2B Chappelle – P Bowman
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson

McWhorter made his second 2-base throwing error in the series on the first Portland at-bat of the game, putting Cookie in scoring position where he would then wither away with no attention paid to him by Nunley, Murphy, and Richards. Dickerson was not flashy at all on the mound, but at least made it past 20 pitches. The Coons had Cookie on with a leadoff single, but he was caught stealing by Jesus Carbajal, which cost the Critters a run when Nunley doubled into the gap. Murphy also came close to a double, but was robbed by John Hudson after being retired deep in left by Carter in the first inning. The Coons then did take the lead in the fourth on a wild-pitch-enabled sac fly by Taylor, scoring Richards. That was it with offense for the Coons. Dickerson pitched seven silent shutout innings, Sakellaris did the eighth, and the ninth saw the top of the order come up. William Waggoner, Shane Walter, and Steve Butler were all left-handed batters, and for a bit I contemplated sending Thrasher into the game. But no, here comes Angel, and he hung a 1-2-3 on the Miners. 1-0 Raccoons! Taylor 1-2, RBI; Dickerson 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (7-5);

This was the 399th save for Angel Casas.

Sergio Vega was designated for assignment on Wednesday as Chris Mathis came off the DL and was sorted back into the bullpen. Let’s just say that I liked the 2013 Vega better than the 2014 Vega.

Now, Brownie. 2-5 in his last 13 starts, despite a low-3 ERA.

Game 3
PIT: CF Waggoner – RF J. Hudson – SS McWhorter – LF D. Carter – 1B S. Butler – C Pino – 2B D. McCormick – 3B Rivas – P Funderburk
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Taylor – SS Howell – P Brown

Carmona and Murphy both had doubles for an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, and they weren’t the only guys to hit the ball hard off Funderburk. Brown was better than recently early on, despite a Miner on base in all of the first three innings. But the hits they had were rather soft, one was an infield single, and Brownie ended two innings with glaring strikeouts in full counts. Bottom 3rd, Nunley hit a leadoff double before Murphy grounded to McWhorter, who flubbed it for his third error since coming to town. Runners were on the corners for Richards with no outs … at least until Murphy was picked off… (breathes heavily) … Richards lined out to Butler at first base, but Bednarski singled to left to FINALLY score Nunley, 2-0. The next inning, the Coons had two on after Taylor singled and Howell was hit by a pitch, and we rolled the dice and let Brownie swing away … right into a double play. Cookie came through with a bloop single into left to still plate Taylor and make it 3-0 in the fourth.

Another run trickled onto the board in the fifth, a really huge solo homer by Richards, before Brownie found his first serious trouble in the top 6th. Hudson had a soft single to center to get going, and while Brown kept finding 2-strike counts, he couldn’t get people struck out. He had 4 K the first time through the order, and only one since. Here, McWhorter grounded out with two strikes, and Carter was hit with two strikes. Butler then drilled a 1-0 pitch to deep right, deep, deeeep, but it fell into Bednarski’s glove right in front of the wall. Pino, rake-happy, struck out, stranding a pair. He picked it up for the seventh, despite another leadoff single by Dave McCormick (the former Thunder). Funderburk struck out with a foul bunt, and Waggoner was then blasted by the heat, Brown’s eighth K and the last in the game, as he had crossed the 100 pitches mark in the inning. And as soon as he was out of the game, the bullpen ****ed it up. Mathis came out for the eighth, allowed a leadoff single to Hudson, but then got two grounders that both times killed off the lead runner at second base. Thrasher came in for Butler, hit him, then conceded a 2-run double to Pino, almost a homer. McCormick was retired on a strong defensive play by Alexander, who when McCormick dinked a ball in front of home plate, slinged a rocket up to first to end the inning, 4-2. Bottom 8th, Funderburk was somehow still there. Bednarski singled. D-Alex singled, very gently, past McCormick. Taylor … double play. Seeley hit for Howell, who was 2-for-2, but I desired the lefty bat. Seeley ripped and missed twice before he ripped and didn’t miss, a HUGE fly to deep right, wrapping around the inside of the foul pole for a pinch-hit 2-run homer!! Entwistle axed the Miners in the ninth and sealed the sweep. 6-2 Brownies!! Carmona 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bednarski 2-4, RBI; Alexander 2-4; Howell 2-2; Seeley (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Torruellas (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, W (11-6);

This sweep extends a streak of consecutive decades in which he have swept the Miners at least once, which goes back to the 80s. Sweeps occurred in 1989, 1997, 2005, and now in 2014.

Raccoons (71-48) @ Canadiens (66-55) – August 22-24, 2014

The malodorous Elks were sixth in offense and fourth in pitching in the Continental League. Much the opposite to the Miners we just played, the Elks were power-starved and in the bottom three in homers in the CL with 70 bombs. They weren’t really excelling in any category, and they were 4-7 against the Raccoons in 2014.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (12-7, 2.65 ERA) vs. Dustin Burke (5-12, 4.56 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-6, 2.76 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (13-5, 3.32 ERA)
Bill Conway (8-3, 2.36 ERA) vs. Hunter Park (8-6, 2.95 ERA)

McMullen is a southpaw, the only one we get this week, but we could get one or even two in Oklahoma next weekend. For the Coons, Sandy Sambrano is still out. He might be available by Sunday. Jon Merritt must remain on the DL until Wednesday next week at least.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Taylor – SS Howell – P Santos
VAN: C M. Torres – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF E. Garcia – 3B Suzuki – 2B Lawrence – CF Luxton – SS Paull – P Burke

Cookie opened the series with a double into the rightfield corner, but it took until two outs were made for him to score. Ron Richards singled to right. After that, Bednarski walked, and Alexander reached on an error by Mitsuhide Suzuki. Burke, befuddled, thinking he was out of the inning, threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded to score a second run for Santos before Taylor struck out. The Critters continued to crowd Burke as Rob Howell hit a leadoff single in the second. Santos struggled to get a bunt down. At 0-2, Howell took off in a run-and-hit, Santos didn’t even swing, the pitch was low, and Miguel Torres’ throw was bad and Howell was safe. Cookie hit a bloop single, and the bags were full. And then Burke plunked Nunley! Two more runs came onto the board on RBI groundouts by Murphy and Richards, running the lead to 5-0.

But the Elks weren’t the only team in the park that could create a mess… Bottom 2nd, Enrique Garcia hit a leadoff single. Suzuki grounded to short, where Howell somehow kept the ball in the glove for long enough to get a pizza, and Suzuki had an infield single. Jaylin Lawrence flew out to left before Santos whacked Robbie Luxton to load the sacks. While Carmona disregarded his own life real hard as he dashed across the outfield to make a headlong play on Eric Paull’s drive, Santos still ****ed up the inning when he served a 2-out, 2-run double to Dustin Burke, pulling the Elks right back to 5-3 before Miguel Torres struck out. While the Raccoons killed their further offense with a Murphy double play in the fourth, the Elks got Suzuki on via the HBP to start the bottom 4th. Lawrence singled, Luxton singled, Richards’ throw was ****ty enough to not only not get Suzuki at home, but also allow both runners to get into scoring position with nobody out. Paull got the tying run home with a sac fly. Santos finished the inning (other than Burke, who was hit for with Ross Holland), but back home in Portland, I was knotting a rope with his name on it.

He still didn’t get the ball in the fifth. The Coons had two infield singles in the top 5th to load the sacks against Bill King, and Santos’ spot came up with two outs. Seeley grounded out to Lawrence in his spot. Bottom 5th, Mathis allowed singles to Kurt Evans and Ray Gilbert to get going. Garcia grounded out before Mathis hit Suzuki – the second time Suzuki got hit and the third Elk overall. With two lefties up, this was a spot for Sugano, who lasered out Lawrence and Luxton to end the inning. Bottom 6th, another leadoff single, now by Paull off Constantino. That one came around to score on another sorry bloop into right, just like Paull’s, by Kurt Evans, giving the Elks a 6-5 edge. Could the Coons get the bats restarted? Before we could get an answer on that, Lawrence homered off Constantino in the seventh to put the Coons in a 2-run hole. Howell had a hit in the eighth, which didn’t lead anywhere nice, but against Pedro Alvarado we had Nunley on with a leadoff single. Hey, here come the big guys! While Richards walked with one out, Murphy struck out, Bednarski struck out, and Alexander struck out. 7-5 Canadiens. Carmona 3-5, 2B; Howell 3-4;

Well. ****.

The only thing worse than that ninth inning showing was Miguel Torres, who failed hard enough for a platinum sombrero.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS Howell – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – 2B Bergquist – C Torruellas – 3B Hudman – P Toner
VAN: C M. Torres – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF E. Garcia – 3B Suzuki – 2B Lawrence – CF Medina – SS Irvin – P McMullen

The Coons’ early offensive production was largely limited to Ricardo Carmona getting on and getting caught stealing (denying him #40), while Toner was generally blazing it, but when the Elks put the ball in play they tended to find holes between the infielders. They got runners onto the corners with no outs on two singles to lead off the fourth inning, and Toner didn’t get out of that. While Juan Medina grounded out to Bergquist for a force at second base, the relay was not in time, and Suzuki scored from third anyway. Irvin and McMullen struck out to end that inning, giving Toner half a dozen. The Critters were not necessarily bothered by the 1-0 deficit. They did get runners onto the corners in the sixth, but Murphy grounded out way too casually to evoke any sense of urgency. Toner had long fifth and sixth innings, almost reaching 100 pitches while not conceding a run. He did hit a total of three batters in the game, one in each of those innings, and Suzuki got hit for the third time in the series.

Toner managed to finish another long seventh inning, then was hit for with Nunley. Brock Hudman had just hit a single past Ray Gilbert to start the eighth inning, and Nunley singled to center to become the go-ahead run. Come on, guys, help Jonny Toner! Carmona grounded rather softly to left, but STILL PAST SUZUKI! Hudman was called back after already turning third base, with Enrique Garcia getting to the ball really fast. BASES LOADED. NOBODY OUT. GET – **** – DONE!!! Howell fell to two strikes, then knocked a liner to right, hard line, falling, and in before Evans got a claw on it. One run scored, tied ballgame. Bednarski popped out to short. Murphy faced reliever Chris Spindler, grounded to short, Irvin, to Lawrence, to Gilbert. YOU ****ING ASSHOLES!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!!

The Elks had a single off Sakellaris in the eighth, but left their man on. Top 9th, some holes in the walls in a certain office in Portland, and I was hammering nails into a bat to then go to work on Murphy’s locker after that farce in Vancouver would be concluded. Top 9th, Pat Treglown pitching. Juan Calderón was not quite sure how he was surviving in the Bigs with his flashless stuff. Ron Richards led off with a double, representing the winning run once more. Bergquist was walked intentionally, but the Coons countered with a bunt that Torruellas executed perfectly, moving the runners to scoring position. Brock Hudman was next, except that Seeley hit for him against the right-hander. For the second time this week, Seeley came through with a BIG pinch-hit that plated a pair, a soft single to left that fell in perfectly to get both runners home, and the Coons had the lead. The inning fizzled out quickly, but here came Angel, looking for #400! Irvin hit a 1-out single, but Luxton struck out. Ross Holland hit for Torres, singled hard to right, where Bednarski corralled it, and Irvin was making for third! Bednarski unleashed a terrible rocket, which hissed over an aweing Bergquist to third base and that runner was not gonna make it. Perfect throw, tag by Nunley, and HE – IS – OUT!!! 3-1 Blighters! Carmona 4-5; Bednarski 2-4; Seeley (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-2; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Taylor – SS Howell – P Conway
VAN: CF Holland – RF K. Evans – 1B Gilbert – LF E. Garcia – 3B Suzuki – 2B Lawrence – C Dunn – SS Irvin – P Park

Cookie led off with a single, couldn’t get a jump once more, but when Sandy singled softly between he first and second baseman he took off for third base, got there with time to spare but drew a throw that allowed Sandy to move up to second base, and Hunter Park was in trouble in a hurry. And here came the fail parade. Nunley grounded out to first, Richards walked, and Bednarski hit into a twin killing. Nobody scored, as usual. In response to that, the singles-flicker Ross Holland hit a leadoff jack off Conway, and here we go. Carmona doubled to start the third inning, and was left stranded just as well. Howell hit a leadoff double in the fifth, which brought up Conway, whose offensive ineptitude was limitless and he got Howell killed with a terrible bunt that was an easy out at third base. Cookie, seemingly broken, rolled over to short for a double play. Great, now he starts with that ****, too.

The hapless Coons, down 1-0, then shed a Nunley, when their third baseman tweaked an oblique on a defensive play and was replaced by Hudman after five innings. Of course Hudman had to come to bat in the eighth when the Coons were down 2-0 (another run on Conway in the sixth inning) and had just placed Seeley and Sambrano on with singles. Hudman rolled right over to short, another double play, another rope to get a knot into. The Elks came close to smashing through Constantino and Thrasher in the bottom 8th to put the game out of reach, but with the bases loaded Juan Medina’s soft lob to shallow left was caught by Ron Richards who hustled like the devil was after him. That ended the inning, but Alvarado was already salivating. 61 innings and 103 strikeouts, but Richards hit a leadoff single. Bednarski hit a single! And Taylor hit into a double play. 2-0 Canadiens. Carmona 2-4, 2B; Sambrano 2-4; Richards 2-3, BB; Seeley (PH) 1-1;

The annoying dumpster rats had ten hits, four double plays, and left ten on base. No wonder they won’t make the cut.

Nunley will live, but he’s uncomfortable and will most likely miss the Crusaders series. He’s listed as DTD. Of course his injury and that to Merritt mean that we will go into the blindingly important Crusaders set with a green utility infielder not especially adept at anything except breathing on the hot corner.

Or we roll the dice and send Sandy there. That would get Seeley into the lineup, who’s had a nice week, if we shuffle things a little bit.

In other news

August 20 – CHA SP John Key (4-7, 4.15 ERA) and CL Cris Pena combine for a 1-hit shutout of the Warriors, who only amount to a fifth inning single by 2B Ivan Flores.
August 21 – ATL INF Wade White (.273, 2 HR, 24 RBI) is out for up to a month with a tear in his hamstring.
August 21 – The Aces and Bayhawks are tied at four after six innings, then play ten more frames before the Bayhawks get away with a 5-4 win in 16 innings.
August 23 – The Stars have 14 hits against the Scorpions, hit into three double plays and have two runners caught stealing, but still emerge with a 1-0 victory.
August 24 – Pittsburgh’s SP Jeremiah Bowman (15-7, 3.04 ERA) allows only three hits in a 7-0 shutout of the Buffaloes.

Complaints and stuff

Cookie Carmona was Player of the Week, batting 14-for-27 (.519) with no homers and 2 RBI, and he only took one base, but he had three doubles in those 14 hits.

No, the Crusaders don’t ever lose. They were down by SEVEN against the Loggers on Sunday, and still pulled out a 9-8 win. They are on pace for their second consecutive .750+ month, and us poor fuzzballs are going to be walked over this coming week. The purple knights are completely healthy, by the way.

Nick Brown is at 2,756 strikeouts, and he might get two starts next week, so he should get past Robbie Campbell (7 K away) with ease. Kel Yates sits frozen at 2,773, cooking on low flame in Drummondville. Wherever the heck that is.

The situation is complicated for next week, however. We have Monday off, then go to New York for four games, opening with a double header that will be split between Brownie and Dickerson. One of these two has to go on short rest on Saturday, which is just shy of the roster expansion date. Either that or … Constantino. (shivers)

Angel wants a new contract. Oh, I’d love to, but … (exhales heavily) … I don’t know. While I’m going to spend the next two months gnashing my teeth over this (not that I would have to gnash my teeth over anything else in October), here’s some silly numbers:

ABL CAREER SAVES LEADERS

1st – Andres Ramirez – 770 (HOF)
2nd – Lawson Steward – 593 (HOF)
3rd – Grant West – 522 (HOF)
4th – Jim Durden – 519
5th – William Henderson – 498
6th – Rick Evans – 496
7th – Pedro Alvarado – 487 (active)
8th – Robbie Wills – 486 (active)
9th – Domingo Rivera – 482
10th – Paco Barrera – 468
11th – Domingo Alonso – 456
12th – Javier Navarro – 455
13th – Ian Johnson – 431 (active)
14th – Scott Hood – 427 (active)
15th – Johnny Smith – 426 (active)
16th – Ryosei Kato – 422 (active)
17th – Charlie Deacon – 418 (active)
18th – Juan Miranda – 417
19th – Mike Dye – 415
t-20th – Jon Butler – 411
t-20th – Luis Hernandez – 411 (active)
22nd – Angel Casas – 400 (active)

Further down, there’s f.e. Dan Nordahl in 29th place with 352 SV and Salvadaro Soure in 35th with 333 SV. Nordahl lost his closer’s job last year and has only picked up four between this and last season. The trade that sent him and Randy Farley to Sioux Falls for Adrian Quebell was probably a huge mistake, but then again our thing here wasn’t working out and Angel was already emerging as closing beast at that point. Maybe moving Nordahl was the right move after all, just not the right trade.

Finally, what’s up on the farm? AAA SP Graham Wasserman (6-15, 4.63 ERA) finishes the season on the DL with shoulder soreness. A level lower, SP Jeff Magnotta’s first-glance numbers are uninspiring (9-11, 3.65 ERA), but he’s struck out 100+ more than he walked in a full AA season, and he’s just 21. SP Damani Knight was still stuck in single-A two years after being drafted and was close to getting released after the draft, but there was an opening in AA, and he fought into the rotation there and had a respectable 4.14 ERA. Maybe he’ll come around still. He’s 22.

In Aumsville, SP Rich Gould (8-13, 3.30 ERA) walked over 100 in his first full season, but also struck out 163. This year’s top pick SP Roger Kincheloe (2-9, 5.09 ERA) was roughed up well and left his last start with an injury. Last year’s tenth-rounder, SP Jeremy Homer, worked his way into the rotation and went 6-9 with a 4.12 ERA, but shows some promise. Who know’s, he’s a late-round lefty. (strokes a Nick Brown Bobblehead that will be handed out in September)

Throughout the system, the hitting prospects have been gallingly pathetic, and all our minor league teams run horrendous losing records around or below .400 … we have really NO well-performing position players ANYWHERE in the minors. The lone exception might be AA outfielder Chris Thomson, our 2012 ninth-rounder, who hit for a .839 OPS in 61 games in AA in two stints. In between, he stunk it up in AAA for a month-plus. There is also the case of Andy Bareford, the 2013 top pick, who hit for a .788 OPS in single-A to start the season, but was victimized in AA after a promotion in early June. He’s on the DL with a rib cage injury now and might not make it back this season.

Nope, no hitting, nowhere.

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Trebro

I'm honestly surprised the Agitator hasn't been, well, agitating for expanding the playoffs. Not the first season the Raccoons could benefit from extra teams.

I do think the league is in dire need of realignment and/or expansion. I always thought the divisions were way too geographically far-flung. It detracts from the old-school feel of the league. There is no logical reason for the Portland, Oregon based Raccoons to play away games in Boston, Massachusetts.

I'd argue for moving two teams from the CL (Charlotte and Atlanta) to the FL and then expanding by four teams:

FL East: Charlotte, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Washington, Nashville and Richmond
FL West: Topeka, Sioux Falls, Salem, Sacramento, Denver, Los Angeles and Dallas
CL North: New York, Boston, Indianapolis, Expansion Team A, Expansion Team B, Expansion Team C, Expansion Team D
CL South: Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Portland, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Tijuana, San Francisco

A few tweaks could really bring the divisions together per se. For example, you could swap Salem (Oregon) for Milwaukee, and the alignment would work even better -- but I wanted to keep the CL and FL mostly intact.

The principle remains the same: more expansion teams will lead to lopsided divisions, with teams in the CL South able to pick up easy wins over non-division teams and remain competitive regardless of talent -- increasing the difficulty for Portland to make the playoffs.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

I do think the league is in dire need of realignment and/or expansion. I always thought the divisions were way too geographically far-flung. It detracts from the old-school feel of the league. There is no logical reason for the Portland, Oregon based Raccoons to play away games in Boston, Massachusetts.

I'd argue for moving two teams from the CL (Charlotte and Atlanta) to the FL and then expanding by four teams:

FL East: Charlotte, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Washington, Nashville and Richmond
FL West: Topeka, Sioux Falls, Salem, Sacramento, Denver, Los Angeles and Dallas
CL North: New York, Boston, Indianapolis, Expansion Team A, Expansion Team B, Expansion Team C, Expansion Team D
CL South: Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Portland, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Tijuana, San Francisco

A few tweaks could really bring the divisions together per se. For example, you could swap Salem (Oregon) for Milwaukee, and the alignment would work even better -- but I wanted to keep the CL and FL mostly intact.

The principle remains the same: more expansion teams will lead to lopsided divisions, with teams in the CL South able to pick up easy wins over non-division teams and remain competitive regardless of talent -- increasing the difficulty for Portland to make the playoffs.

7-team divisions are the worst alignment that MLB ever had. It is impossible to create a satisfactory schedule with them for a season with 162 games. When the American League had such an alignment (1977-1993), the teams played stupid schedules that saw them play more games out of the division. This increases the chance that a team with a losing record will win a division title. In fact, for several years the AL East was markedly superior to the AL West and this seemed likely to happen, though it never did, thankfully. Also, since time began, a basic principle had been that each team should play the same schedule as their opponents. When the leagues split into 2 divisions, the principle remained that each team should play the same schedule as the other teams in their division. But with 7-team divisions, this is impossible to satisfy in 162 games and the idiots in charge of the A.L. decided that the tradition of 162 games (at that time only about 15 years old) was more important than the tradition of competitive balance (at that time 100 years old). In fact, 162 games was not a tradition and merely a byproduct of following the principle of competitive balance, which, in a game where differences of 1 or 2 percent are enormous over the long season, is essential for fairness.

Also, a 4th place team in a 7-team division is in both the 1st and 2nd division, which is ridiculous.

Also, the meaning of your concluding sentence escapes me. I cannot argue against the logic of it, because I cannot even figure out what exactly it is suggesting to be logical.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Also, the meaning of your concluding sentence escapes me. I cannot argue against the logic of it, because I cannot even figure out what exactly it is suggesting to be logical.

I gave up at Vancouver being in the CL South, which has a Braves/Reds-in-the-NL-West touch to it.

+++

Raccoons (72-50) @ Crusaders (82-41) – August 26-28, 2014

Basically, the Raccoons had ONE chance at making the North a race again: sweep those goddamn invincible Crusaders under the ugly rug in their own house. That sounds easy enough on paper. Never mind them leading the league in offense and being second only to the Critters in runs allowed. They had scored a completely ridiculous 133 more runs than the Raccoons, 622 to 489. We were just by a whisker above four runs per game. They were at 5.1 runs per game. They have gone 37-11 in July and August. Like I said, sweep them like it’s nothing. We’re 6-5 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (11-6, 2.84 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (11-7, 3.36 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (7-5, 3.63 ERA) vs. Kevin Wanless (9-6, 3.95 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-7, 2.88 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (15-5, 3.16 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-6, 2.70 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (13-7, 4.41 ERA)

Look how Sabatino is pitching like the last **** and still has a better record than Hector Santos. Those four are all right-handers by the way.

The series starts with a double header on Tuesday. Brown gets slotted ahead of Dickerson into the opener par my rationale that I like the pitcher that I assume to use up less bullpen to go first. Whoever between those two throws less pitches will go on Saturday on short rest, then packaged with Constantino to facilitate an early exit. Never mind the strings attached, just sweep them Crusaders.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 3B Hudman – P Brown
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Salinas – C Durango – CF Brissett – P P. Miller

The Coons got off to a rabid start with a Cookie Carmona double and a walk by Sandy. Richards doubled up the rightfield line to plate both of them and scored on D-Alex’ single. 3-0 in the first, what was not to love about that? Well, for example the way that Jesus Ramirez absolutely creamed a Nick Brown pitch in the Crusaders’ first at-bat of the game to hit a leadoff jack and right away cut into the lead. While Ramirez’ dominance of Brown officially became habitual by the third inning when he whacked another homer off him, the Coons could already have extended their lead in the second inning if Mike Bednarski hadn’t hit into his own habitual inning-ending double play. The Crusaders scored the game-tying run in the bottom 5th also in power fashion. The stomach-turning fact was that Brown’s third meatball of the day was wonked out of leftfield by none other than the pitcher Paul Miller. That wasn’t the last punishment that Miller handed to Brownie. He also rammed a ball through Brock Hudman for a 2-out RBI single in the sixth inning, the final nail in the Raccoons’ coffin, although the Crusaders had already taken the lead earlier on Miguel Salinas’ RBI single that plated Stanton “Clockwork” Martin after his leadoff double.

Down 5-3 after six, the Raccoons hadn’t had a baserunner in some innings when Brock Hudman hit a leadoff single in the seventh. Matt Nunley was begging to get a bat and hit for Nick Brown, dropping a ball into shallow center for another single, which scored Hudman, who had advanced on a wild pitch. Cookie singled to right, no outs in a 5-4 game with two on. When Sandy rolled a ball to Ramirez at second, Cookie took out Francisco Caraballo to break up the double play. Bednarski also managed to find Ramirez, but this ball was very slow and Ramirez had to grab twice before he could make a throw to first and Bednarski beat it out! Infield single, Nunley scored, and we were tied! Ron Richards got to face Miller despite Ken McKenzie, a southpaw, warming up in the pen and rattling at the chainlink fence to get into the game. Richards hit a hard grounder up the middle on the first pitch from Miller, into center, and Sandy scored easily. The Raccoons are on top! Murphy then hit into the double play that killed the nice run. That wasn’t the only thing that was killed that afternoon. The other thing was Ron Thrasher. He inherited a runner with two out from Entwistle in the seventh, killed that off, then also got the switch-hitter Miguel Salinas and the following lefties in the bottom 8th. Amari Brissett drew a 2-out walk before PH Drew Lowe wonked a double to center (Seeley was there and couldn’t get to it, as Richards had ironically been replaced for defense, with Carmona over in left) and Brissett had been running from the get-go and scored the tying run. Then came Ramirez and crashed his third homer of the day. And now it was indeed game over. 8-6 Crusaders. Carmona 2-4, 2 RBI; Richards 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Hudman 2-4; Nunley (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Well, ****.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 1B Murphy – RF Richards – SS Taylor – LF Seeley – C Torruellas – 3B Hudman – P Dickerson
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Salinas – C Lowe – CF Brissett – P Wanless

Lowe, who had driven in the tying run in the eighth inning a scant 60 minutes earlier, hit a 2-out, 2-run double in the second inning to get something onto the board. The Coons had left the bases loaded in the first inning when Seeley had popped out to Ramirez, but got a new chance in the fourth inning. Taylor singled, Seeley walked, putting the tying runs on with one out. Here, Torruellas and Hudman hit back-to-back RBI singles to center to tie the score, and Dickerson brought home the go-ahead run with a groundout to short before Carmona fouled out. Unfortunately there was the little issue with Dickerson, who sucked hard, and conceded three singles to Stanton Martin, B.J. Manfull, and Miguel Salinas to start the bottom of the same inning. Bases loaded, nobody out, ****ing hell.

… and at first things went really well! Dickerson got bat**** lucky when Lowe lined out to Hudman and Stanton Martin was ALMOST doubled off, but then the Coons couldn’t turn the double play on Amari Brissett’s grounder, which scored the tying run. Then Dickerson completely butchered things by walking Wanless on four pitches (Raccoons and opposing pitchers, huh?) before conceding a 2-run single to Ramirez. Another run scored when Caraballo’s grounder to short was airmailed to center by Palmer Taylor, and that was also the end for Dickerson. Down 6-3, we could just as well send Constantino, who in the fifth invoked haunting memories of Juan Diaz when he drilled Manfull, balked, and threw a pitch past Torruellas. Salinas couldn’t swing anymore from laughing so hard and gladly took a 1-out walk, and somehow Constantino even got out of the inning without a run scoring. Like another one would have mattered. Actually, he coughed up a run in the sixth after he made a throwing error. Cookie homered in the top 7th for a faint sign of life before the Raccoons crumbled for another (earned) run after an error in the bottom of the inning, this one on Seeley’s botched pickup in left. That one was on Sugano, but Sakellaris also allowed a run in the eighth when the Martin Brothers shackled him with two outs. 9-4 Crusaders. Torruellas 2-4, RBI;

Boy, boy, you lot are playing a bit like a second-place team…

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Sambrano – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Salinas – C Durango – CF Brissett – P J. Martin

It was Santos against “Midnight” Martin – and a pitching duel broke out, which was a nice change of circumstance for a team that had been battered for 17 runs the previous day. The Coons had only a Murphy single the first time through, while Santos twice had somebody reach scoring position but always found a timely K to bail out. Murphy hit a triple in the fourth, the second baserunner for the brown-clad team, and actually scored on D-Alex’ single up the rightfield line. Santos only was in real trouble in the fifth inning, when Eduardo Durango opened with a bloop single to right, swiftly followed by Amari Brissett’s bloop double to left. That put runners in scoring position with nobody out, but Santos struck out Martin and Ramirez before Caraballo’s drive to right was caught by a hustling Bednarski. In the sixth, Sandy Sambrano was charged with two errors, first for not catching a foul pop by Martin Ortíz (who would still strike out), and then he clumsily bobbled a grounder by Stanton Martin. Santos got around that, too. But that was also the end for Santos, who had thrown 98 pitches. Nunley hit for him in the top 7th and struck out, stranding Bergquist on first base. From there, Thrasher got four outs and Entwistle got two to set up Angel Casas, while “Midnight” Martin was still at it in the top of the ninth and coughed up a leadoff jack to … Stan Murphy! D-Alex whacked another homer! The Crusaders realized they had gambled wrong and removed him after the second thunderbolt, but the damage was done. Angel Casas pitched a comfy 401st career save. 3-0 Coons. Murphy 3-4, HR, 3B, RBI; Alexander 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Santos 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (13-7); Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Bednarski was the only other Critter with a hit.

Brock Hudman, batting .227, was sent back to AAA after this game as Jon Merritt was activated off the DL.

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 3B Merritt – 2B Taylor – SS Howell – P Toner
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Salinas – C Durango – CF Brissett – P Sabatino

Toner had two Crusaders on base in each of the first three innings, but twice they hit into a double play to kill their momentum. The Coons also had Jon Merritt hit into a double play in the second, but in the top of the third got Taylor and Howell on base. Toner bunted them over, and they scored on Carmona’s sac fly and Sambrano’s single for a 2-0 lead. More offense came in the top of the fourth, which D-Alex opened with a double. Taylor and Howell hit singles, 3-0, before Toner struck out. Carmona singled to right with two outs, but Taylor was held against Stanton Martin’s left-shoulder-mounted howitzer. Sabatino then engaged in a lengthy at-bat with Sandy Sambrano with the bases loaded, which ended with a full count walk, shoving home the Coons’ fourth run.

While Toner calmed down after the nervous first three innings, Sabatino never got better. The Coons were on him again in the sixth, with Taylor and Howell reaching on a walk and a single, respectively. Toner bunted them over once more before Cookie Carmona clanked a pitch down Broadway for a huge 3-run homer to right center! While that was all for Sabatino, seven runs in five and a third, Toner filed for seven shutout innings on 112 pitches. The Crusaders only made it onto the board when they were down to their last out. Eduardo Durango homered off Chris Mathis. 7-1 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Taylor 2-3, BB; Howell 2-4, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1, 2B; Toner 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (14-6);

That was the first time the Crusaders lost back-to-back games since August 2-3 (against San Fran), with the previous instance before that being July 21-22 … to the Coons. If Mathis hadn’t served the fat pitch to Durango, they would have suffered consecutive shutouts for the second time this season, following consecutive 1-0 losses to the Elks on July 12-13.

Raccoons (74-52) @ Thunder (67-61) – August 29-31, 2014

The Thunder were four games behind the Bayhawks, or as you might say: the South was an actual race at the doorstep to September. They had won three straight against the Knights, which was a bit like winning 13 of 14 from the Loggers and feeling good about yourself. They were third in runs scored despite bottom three ranks in homers and stolen bases. They led the CL in on-base percentage. Their pitching was worse than average, with an especially bad bullpen. They also had a flurry of injuries, with SP Ralph Ford, SP Wes Yates, 2B Emilio Farias, LF Jose Gomez all out, and CF Tom Reese ailing with a bad knee. The season series was tied at three.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (8-4, 2.37 ERA) vs. Bryan Robbins (2-3, 5.50 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (7-6, 3.93 ERA) vs. Ed Michaels (9-9, 5.18 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-6, 3.00 ERA) vs. Jorge Gine (9-9, 3.50 ERA)

This series starts with a pair of southpaws for Oklahoma, but at least we miss Curtis Tobitt (13-8, 2.71 ERA), which should count for something.

Dickerson had been knocked out early on Tuesday and so had to go on short rest. Brown had only lasted six innings as well, but had thrown over 110 pitches. Dickerson, who had thrown 82 pitches, was paired with Constantino, who was supposed to pitch long relief once Dickerson had thrown 80-85 pitches. That low pitch count was a nod to Dickerson’s general brittleness. If Brownie had gone on short rest, I would probably have given him more in the 90-95 pitch range.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Merritt – 2B Bergquist – P Conway
OCT: CF Reese – LF Britton – 1B Bailey – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – RF V. Diaz – 2B Dowdy – P Robbins

Safe for switch-hitter Jalen Parks, the Thunder managed to come up with an entirely left-handed lineup. Neither team amounted to a hit the first time through the order, but Robbins walked three while Conway walked two. Conway came to bat in the top 3rd with Merritt and Bergquist having drawn leadoff walks, but ever the black hole at the plate he bunted into a force play at third base, and the Coons still couldn’t buy a hit. Parks had the first hit in the game, a single following Will Bailey’s leadoff walk in the bottom 4th. Conway struck out Jesus Soto, Erik Janes popped out foul, and Vinny Diaz went down looking to quell the threat.

The Coons also got their first hit with nobody down, a Bednarski single, softly hit to right, in the top 5th. Bergquist walked, which brought up Conway with two on and two out, batting a crisp .020. He can’t hit, he can’t bunt, let’s just have everybody moving and close our eyes. So the runners took off, CONWAY ACTUALLY HIT A PITCH, and grounded it to left and through between Janes and Soto!! A single! A single! A single for Conway, and it scored Bednarski!! Cookie scored another run with a single, Sandy walked to load them up, but despite Robbins shaking and shattering, Richards and Murphy failed, and they let him off the hook with only two runs scored in the inning with two sorry shallow flies.

While Robbins walked six over as many innings, Conway had ill control himself and was yanked after a leadoff walk, his fifth on the day, in the bottom 6th. Sugano replaced him and got out of the inning. The Coons left the bases loaded in the top 7th, again with the middle of the order ****ing it up. Sugano’s spot came up in the top 8th, but he had gone through two innings quickly, and the left-handed bats never ended in this lineup, so we were eager to retain him. Well enough, Bednarski and Merritt were on base with nobody out and Sugano laid down a good bunt to move them to scoring position for Rob Howell, who hit a Tommy Costello pitch in a full count up the middle, and plated both runners, which was enough insurance not to bother Angel Casas and finish the game with another inning from Sugano and then a quick ninth from Mathis. 4-0 Raccoons. Bednarski 3-4; Merritt 1-2, 2 BB; Howell 2-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Sugano 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 3B Merritt – SS Howell – C Torruellas – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson
OCT: CF Reese – LF Britton – 1B Bailey – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – RF P. Estrada – 2B Dowdy – P Michaels

The Thunder got on the board first against a sparkless Dickerson, with back-to-back 2-out RBI hits by Pedro Estrada and Elijah Dowdy in the second inning. The Raccoons had a chance to counter in the third when Carmona hit a 1-out triple. Sandy walked and Bednarski singled, getting them back to within a run, but Murphy failed with a sorry grounder for a fielder’s choice, erasing Bednarski, and Merritt fouled out. Dickerson was completely useless and didn’t even make it through five innings on his pitch allotment, but given a pitch count or not, after Jalen Parks’ RBI single in the fifth that ran the score to 5-1 for the Thunder he most likely would have been removed anyway. That brought in Constantino, whose long relief was admittedly the highlight of the day from the Raccoons’ perspective, despite Carmona swiping his 40th base, but he made that one only in his second attempt against Parks. The marquee sack came in the eighth, which saw two on with one out against right-hander Steve Rob when Murphy hit into a double play. The Thunder got a run off Constantino in the bottom 8th, but it really was on Rob Howell’s lazy defense. Years ago, Concie Guerin would have made both plays on the grounders that eluded Howell for singles, and that while having a plate with a piece of cake in one hand, and not dropping a single calorie. 6-1 Thunder. Carmona 3-4, 3B; Bednarski 1-2, BB, RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1, 2B; Constantino 3.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Not only was this Carmona’s 40th stolen base, but he was also caught for the 20th time. He swiped 45 bags last year, being caught 28 times, and he was 14-for-22 in 2012 when he debuted. The Raccoon fan adept in calculus will realize that he sits at 99 career steals, as many as Daniel Hall had in his entire career.

By the way, Sunday is his 23rd birthday! Have one, Cookie!

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Brown
OCT: RF P. Estrada – SS Janes – 1B Bailey – CF Reese – C J. Martinez – 3B J. Soto – LF V. Diaz – 2B Bauer – P Gine

The Thunder sure had balls, still showing six left-handed bats to Brownie. They were clearly taunting him. Brownie, go get them!

Cookie walked to start the game, but didn’t get a chance to take off before Sandy hit a double to left center. Collective failure by the 3-4-5 batters held the Coons to one run on Murphy’s grounder to short. Then came Brownie and threw a complete mess of a first inning that lasted 31 pitches and which ended with the bases being left loaded on Jesus Soto’s grounder to first after a leadoff double by Estrada and two walks issued. No strikeouts. At least he had a quick second, and Carmona had a double and scored on another groundout, this time by Nunley, in the top 3rd. Brownie would strike out Bailey, Reese, and Jesus Martinez in order between the third and fourth innings, which tied him with Robbie Campbell for 13th all-time, and Bailey would be the next K to take the spot all for himself when he eagerly hacked out in the sixth inning (despite nobody on base).

After the outright ghastly start to the game, and a leadoff single by Estrada in the third inning, Brown retired the next FIFTEEN batters in flawless fashion until his spot came up with Taylor on first and nobody out in the eighth inning. His bunt was quite bad and Taylor was forced. Cookie grounded out, but Sandy was drilled and Nunley recovered from being 1-2 behind Steve Rob to single to right, just hard enough for Bill Bauer to have no chance, and just soft enough for Nick Brown to score from second base against Pedro Estrada, 3-0. Murphy walked to load them up for Richards, the Thunder didn’t bring a lefty, and Richards and Bednarski tore Rob in half with a pair of 2-out singles that plated three more runs. With that extra cushion, Brown continued to pitch and retired the side in the eighth on just eight pitches, giving him 100 for the game. He had Taylor on first again in the ninth, bunted successfully, but this time the Coons didn’t get things moving against closer Robert Parsons (no, I didn’t get it either). Brownie came back out for the bottom 9th, which saw Janes, Bailey, and Reese due up, all left-handers (and I have always been averse to replacing a lefty with a lefty). Erik Janes popped out to Ron Richards on the first pitch! Bailey struck out again, and Reese took the second pitch to hit it to left, high, but not deep at all, Richards had it – it’s a shutout!! 6-0 Brownies!!! Sambrano 2-4, 2B; Richards 2-4, 2 RBI; Taylor 2-4; Brown 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (12-6);

UN-believable! Brownie threw 31 pitches in the first inning, and then 77 for the rest of the game! How …!!??

Whatever dark magic was at work here, this was Brownie’s 14th career shutout, and the first this season. It was his first shutout of the Thunder.

In other news

August 26 – CHA LF/CF Jose Jimenez (.288, 13 HR, 56 RBI) is out for the season with a torn labrum.
August 26 – WAS LF/RF Danny Munn (.251, 17 HR, 53 RBI) has come down with shoulder soreness and will miss about four weeks on the DL.
August 27 – SAC SP William Kay (8-13, 3.38 ERA) sparkles with a 1-hit shutout of the Gold Sox, who are routed 10-0. Eugene Carter’s seventh-inning single breaks up the no-hitter.
August 28 – Indy’s 37-year old RF Juan Ortíz (.269, 19 HR, 55 RBI) is out for the season with a hamstring strain.
August 29 – A 20-game hitting streak has been completed by PIT 1B/3B Dave McCormick (.332, 6 HR, 23 RBI), who has an RBI single in the Miners’ 5-4 loss to the Stars.

Complaints and stuff

Thanks for coming and see you next year! (shakes hand of leaving fan) Thank you, thank you. (shakes another hand) Always a pleasure. (shakes another hand) Thank you, see you in April. (shakes another hand) Nice hat, Sir! See you in April.

We went 19-11 in August and lost 3 1/2 games on New York. (shrugs) It’s just not meant to be. If it’s consolation, that assembly of ball killers in the middle of their order gets old. They’re all over 30, and except for B.J. Manfull they are all 34/35 or around that.

Regardless of overall misfortunes, Jonathan Toner was CL Pitcher of the Month with a 5-0 record and a crisp 0.60 ERA, whiffing 46 batters in 45 innings!

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS

1st – Tony Hamlyn – 3,826 (active)
2nd – Martin Garcia – 3,783
3rd – Woody Roberts – 3,313 (HOF)
4th – Aaron Anderson – 3,225
5th – Carlos Castro – 3,198 (HOF)
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,164
7th – Chris York – 3,103 (active)
8th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
9th – Arnold McCray – 2,900 (HOF)
10th – Bastyao Caixinha – 2,844 (HOF)
11th – Kisho Saito – 2,800 (HOF)
12th – Kelvin Yates – 2,773 (active)
13th – Nick Brown – 2,766 (active)
14th – Robbie Campbell – 2,763
15th – Pancho Trevino – 2,714 (active)

Chris York has so far missed the entire 2014 season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow that he suffered exactly one year ago. He is rehabbing that old wing right now and should be back with the Capitals in September.

PORTLAND RACCOONS STOLEN BASE LEADERS

1st – Matt Higgins – 220
2nd – Conceicao Guerin – 193
3rd – Tomas Castro – 143
t-4th – Daniel Hall – 99
t-4th – Ricardo Carmona – 99
6th – Sandy Sambrano – 81
7th – Armando Sanchez – 78
8th – Yoshi Yamada – 68
9th – Ben O’Morrissey – 63
10th – Ken Clark – 57

The entirely forgettable Ken Clark, still in the top 10… He batted .211 between 1980 and 1981, so I assume he stole a base every time he made it on base in the first place.

I miss Concie. He retired two years ago, a career .272/.328/.348 batter with 1,555 hits and excellent defense. He also stole 20 bases each year in his first stint with the Coons, which was entirely within the dark years. .272/.328/.348 is really not good (although his first career half were markedly better than the last half, so we got way more than a .676 OPS then), but in the context of those teams he was a really bright spot. He even had five 4+ WAR seasons. But WAR is useless, as I use to say. Still. Of his 36.8 career WAR, 31.1 came with the Coons.

Jesus Ramirez became the third Crusader to hit three homers in a game, and the second to do it against the Raccoons after Gabriel Ortíz in 2010. The other instance was way back in 1980, Michinaga Yamada hitting three against the Indians.

Funny thing. You know who is the only other player to hit three home runs against the Raccoons and who also did it against Nick Brown? True story! Stanley Murphy. And Murphy hit all three of his bombs off Brownie, and not just two like Ramirez. Not so funny: Aumsville SP Roger Kincheloe was diagnosed with a torn flexor tendon and is out until next summer.

Home runs are NOT up for Nick Brown overall. He has allowed ten this year. He always had between 11 and 18 in the years between his two big injuries, with an abnormally high 8 HR allowed in the nine starts he made last year. He was simply crusadered on Tuesday… And he almost would have WON that game if a certain other left-hander hadn’t thrashered it.

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Questdog

7-team divisions are the worst alignment that MLB ever had. It is impossible to create a satisfactory schedule with them for a season with 162 games. When the American League had such an alignment (1977-1993), the teams played stupid schedules that saw them play more games out of the division. This increases the chance that a team with a losing record will win a division title. In fact, for several years the AL East was markedly superior to the AL West and this seemed likely to happen, though it never did, thankfully. Also, since time began, a basic principle had been that each team should play the same schedule as their opponents. When the leagues split into 2 divisions, the principle remained that each team should play the same schedule as the other teams in their division. But with 7-team divisions, this is impossible to satisfy in 162 games and the idiots in charge of the A.L. decided that the tradition of 162 games (at that time only about 15 years old) was more important than the tradition of competitive balance (at that time 100 years old). In fact, 162 games was not a tradition and merely a byproduct of following the principle of competitive balance, which, in a game where differences of 1 or 2 percent are enormous over the long season, is essential for fairness.

Also, a 4th place team in a 7-team division is in both the 1st and 2nd division, which is ridiculous.

Also, the meaning of your concluding sentence escapes me. I cannot argue against the logic of it, because I cannot even figure out what exactly it is suggesting to be logical.

If you're aiming for balanced divisions, this is bad. If you want to increase the difficulty level, unbalanced divisions are good -- they make it more difficult in the superior division to make the playoffs.

Logically, teams should be geographically close to over teams in their division. In the CL, a team from Oregon and Western Canada play in a division with New York and Boston. Culturally and Geographically, the regions are completely alien.

Originally Posted by Westheim

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

If there is expansion planned -- at least in the short term -- you'd want to stay at 28 teams. Westheim stated he is against a wild card -- so, with a two-division set-up, the only option is seven-team divisions.

The schedule would need to be re-aligned somewhat -- however, with an odd number of teams, each team has an even number of division opponents -- guaranteeing an even number of home-and-away games between division teams.

I've attached a sample schedule here.
28 interleave games (2 x 14)
56 cross-division games (8 x 7)
72 Division Games (12 x 6)
-------------------------------------------
156 Total Games

The other option would be three divisions: 5-teams, 4-teams, and 5-teams. The team with the best record would receive a bye, and the other two division winners would have a play-off. This would allow the league to keep its integrity.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

If you're aiming for balanced divisions, this is bad. If you want to increase the difficulty level, unbalanced divisions are good -- they make it more difficult in the superior division to make the playoffs.

Logically, teams should be geographically close to over teams in their division. In the CL, a team from Oregon and Western Canada play in a division with New York and Boston. Culturally and Geographically, the regions are completely alien.

If your intention was to clarify the concluding sentence of your previous post, I am still befuddled.

Culturally? Vancouver and Tijuana are closer culturally then?......and not so close geographically either. At least Vancouver and Portland are northern teams playing in the North Division, currently.

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

If there is expansion planned -- at least in the short term -- you'd want to stay at 28 teams. Westheim stated he is against a wild card -- so, with a two-division set-up, the only option is seven-team divisions.

The schedule would need to be re-aligned somewhat -- however, with an odd number of teams, each team has an even number of division opponents -- guaranteeing an even number of home-and-away games between division teams.

I've attached a sample schedule here.
28 interleave games (2 x 14)
56 cross-division games (8 x 7)
72 Division Games (12 x 6)
-------------------------------------------
156 Total Games

The other option would be three divisions: 5-teams, 4-teams, and 5-teams. The team with the best record would receive a bye, and the other two division winners would have a play-off. This would allow the league to keep its integrity.

Phew! Only 72 games in the division is almost guaranteeing that at some point, a losing team will make the playoffs. And the other idea of 3 divisions is throwing competitive equality out the window. The clubs in the 4-team divisions have a much easier road to the playoffs than the teams in the other divisions. In real baseball, they did this with the NL Central being a 6-team division and the AL West only having 4 teams. I contemplated suing baseball as my Reds had to beat out 5 teams to win a division title, while the AL West teams only had to beat out 3 others. Ridiculous.....

P.S. I am starting a petition at www.uselesswebspacefiller.org to get the FL and CL to eliminate interleague play. You can offer your support by clicking the PayPal button and donating what you can afford ($50 suggested).