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Old 11-17-2016, 04:59 PM   #2081
Westheim
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I still want to catch up, but your pace is brisk, to say the least.

+++

Without much attention paid to it, Richmond’s Danny Flores had tied the single season steals mark by Javy Rodriguez already on September 27. He now has another week to put up his own mark.

Raccoons (76-79) vs. Indians (78-77) – September 28-October 1, 2015

To say that the Coons had been kinda awful against the Indians in 2015 would be a slight understatement at a 4-10 record coming into the 4-game set at hand. At first glance, these four games were for nothing at all, but actually the Raccoons currently held a protected 2016 first round pick and the Indians didn’t. Ah, the dilemma at hand – except that recent results suggest that the Raccoons will score like seven runs against the league’s second-best pitching staff. The Indians nevertheless ranked last in runs scored, 39 runs behind the eighth-place Coons.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (9-9, 2.82 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (11-12, 3.05 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (7-12, 4.58 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (14-9, 3.30 ERA)
TBD vs. Tom Weise (12-11, 3.55 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (17-5, 2.22 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (8-15, 5.23 ERA)

If Nick Brown (17-8, 2.76 ERA) can go on Wednesday, he’ll go. If not, it will be Francisquo Bocanegra (0-3, 7.88 ERA) to take the start. Toner remains on regular rest for his last start; Brownie would then instead face the Loggers on the weekend, to the detriment of Watanabe, who is currently slated to pitch in the season finale. Kyle Lamb would be the only opposing left-hander at hand.

Game 1
IND: CF J. Wilson – C Padilla – RF Gilmor – 1B S. Guerra – SS Matias – LF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – 2B Mathews – P A. Mendez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – 3B Taylor – P Santos

The bottom of the first was another one of those reminders that these 2015 Raccoons had been plagued by the most lousy RISP hitters in the history of the league. Cookie singled, Sandy doubled, they were in scoring position with no outs, and remained there. McKnight struck out, Richards popped out, Murphy was actually sledgehammered by Alejandro Mendez, and Reya rolled over to Joey Mathews to end the inning with three on base. Failure would move from the batter’s box to the basepaths afterwards as Cookie was caught stealing by a catcher that hardly caught anybody in the third inning, and Murphy hit a double and was thrown out at third base in the fourth. The latter one stung especially hard, since Luis Reya then came up with a homer to right center, the first score of the game, and it could have been 2-0 Coons.

Santos held the Indians to three hits over five innings, but John Wilson led off with his second single of the day in the top of the sixth. In a hurry, the Indians tied their previous output as Dave Padilla singled to right, and Nick Gilmor hit an RBI double past Reya. Santiago Guerra and Raul Matias then also unleashed rockets. Guerra’s to deep right was caught on the track by Reya, but the go-ahead run scored handily from third base, and Gilmor came home on Matias’ sharp single to left center. The pitching coach went out to check on Santos’ pulse, who claimed to be fine, despite having his cap lodged in place on his scalp with an arrow that had gone right through the left eye of the little raccoon on the logo. Like all innings from hell, this one eventually ended, too, with the Coons down 3-1. The bottom 6th saw Santos’ removal on the grounds of the team longing for offense, especially with the bases loaded and two outs. Actually all runners had reached with two outs, as Mendez had walked Reya and Alexander before Taylor had singled. Danny Ochoa hit for Santos, and grounded out to Mathews like all ****ty corner outfielders did ‘round here. The Coons were beaten already, they just claimed ignorance; Murphy had runners on the corners with two outs in the seventh and rolled over to the shortstop Matias. The Indians then proceeded to set fire to Juan Gallegos, who walked a pair in the eighth and was then taken deep enough for the ball to reach the stratosphere when Manny Cruz walloped a 3-run homer to left. Another run scored off Marco Gomez in the ninth, the bottom half of which would fittingly end with Murphy flying out to center with two runners on base. 7-1 Indians. Carmona 4-5; Richards 2-5; Reya 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Alexander 2-2, BB; Canning (PH) 1-1;

While the result might not seem like it, the Raccoons out-hit the Indians, actually, 13-11. Which doesn’t change much about the fact that I gotta kill them all. Except for Cookie, the poor sod.

With this loss, we would need six straight wins to maintain our streak of winning seasons, which had run to eight, the longest in franchise history.

Also, we now held the #8 pick, three games back of an unprotected pick. Also, we hadn’t lost more than 12 games to the Indians in 34 years, but I had a hunch that it was comin’.

Game 2
IND: CF J. Wilson – C Padilla – RF Gilmor – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – SS Matias – LF M. Cruz – 3B Mathews – P Lambert
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – 3B Hudman – CF Seeley – C McNeela – P Watanabe

Manny Cruz had come into the series batting under .190 with four homers on the season, but by the second inning had his second dinger, victimizing Watanabe with a solo shot for the first run of the game. That was about all that was to the game through four innings, especially from the home team’s side. In the top 5th the Indians managed to load the bases with no outs despite contributing zero, almost. Cruz drew a leadoff walk, but then Mathews reached on Sambrano clumsily faceplanting himself on intercepting his grounder, costing him any play and some dignity and resulting in an infield single, and then Watanabe himself threw poorly to first on Dan Lambert’s bunt, pulling Murphy into foul ground, which finally put the third man on – and the top of the order was next. While Wilson and Padilla hit hard drives off Watanabe, both were retired on daring plays with Cookie and Seeley, respectively, yet both scored a runner tagging third base and making for home, enlarging the Indians’ lead to 3-0. That was it for the Coons once more. The most excitement they managed to create in the entire game were doubles by Keith Chisholm in the eighth and Ronnie McKnight in the ninth, each with less than two outs, yet neither leading to a run. 4-0 Indians. Chisholm (PH) 1-1, 2B; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (7-13);

Still at #8, and now four games behind the #13 pick, held by these very Indians. Also, TIJ Zach Boyer won his 18th by now, so the chances for a triple crown for Jonny Toner – which depend anyway on his ability to drive in enough runs himself for a W on Thursday – become slimmer.

The Indians moved right-hander Josh Hatfield (4-9, 5.03 ERA) into the third game, which will probably negate the southpaw on Thursday. Also, Brownie was pain-free when he ate his morning cake on Wednesday, so he was sent in to start – everybody going out there now will make their last start of the season.

Game 3
IND: 3B D. Jones – C Padilla – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – CF J. Wilson – SS Dawson – LF M. Cruz – P Hatfield
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Richards – LF Chisholm – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 3B Taylor – P N. Brown

McKnight’s 2-run homer in the bottom 1st helped overcome the Indians’ run in the first inning that had scored after Padilla’s 1-out double and two following singles by Guerra and Gilmor. Nick Brown really didn’t look like much early on. Ryan Dawson walked to start the second, but was caught stealing. Cruz (Cruz!!) then singled, and Hatfield’s bunt was misfielded by Brown for an infield single. He then walked Jones … and Padilla, tying the game. Jong-beom Kym struck out, but Santiago Guerra didn’t. He hit a grand slam to left, silencing the entire park in one mighty stroke. Down 6-2 now, the Coons had the bags full with McKnight batting and two outs in the bottom 2nd, but McKnight chose to roll one softly to Kym and ended the inning. The score was still the same in the fifth inning when the Indians loaded the bases again just in time to bring up Cruz. Brownie had allowed singles to Guerra and Gilmor, and then had drilled Dawson. He was about to get yanked from his season finale when Cruz hit a soft lobber over his head, but Brown actually managed to leap and snag it, then found Dawson far astray from first base and doubled him off to end the inning.

Brown managed to get through six, somehow, but the Coons were still hopeless. Bottom 6th, Richards started with a pop to short that Ryan Dawson managed to drop. Chisholm’s following single was already their best guess at a run since McKnight had fistbumped Kym, but Murphy quickly managed to pop to Dawson, and that lad didn’t dare to drop another one. When D-Alex was done fouling out (…!!), Reya hit for Taylor and walked. Bednarski hit for Brownie with two down and the bags full and was gracefully erased by Hatfield’s 112th pitch. The Raccoons would have runners on second and one out in the bottom 7th, prompting Richards and Chisholm to both have themselves retired on more ****ed up pops over the infield. When Cookie and McKnight hit doubles in the bottom 9th, most of the paying customers were already heading for the exits, and few turned back. 6-3 Indians. Carmona 3-5, 2B; Sambrano 2-4; McKnight 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Bocanegra 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Well, the GOOD news is that we can stop worrying about ending up with anything other than a losing record, OR a non-forfeitable first round pick. This all-out wretched performance secures us both! (turns to Indians luxury box attendant) Say, do you have sleeping pills to take with this chardonnay?

Cookie makes a late dash for 200 hits, however. He sits at 192, and has eight in the series.

Game 4
IND: CF J. Wilson – LF M. Cruz – RF Gilmor – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – SS Matias – C Malone – 3B Dawson – P Weise
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Richards – LF Chisholm – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – 3B Taylor – P Toner

Jonny, did you know that we have never lost 14 games to the Indians? – No? – Well, you know now.

You gotta hand that kid one thing – he listens. Jonny struck out pairs of Indians in each of the first three innings, allowing only one hit. Simple Arithmetic indicated that the K hung on John Wilson to end the third was also the one that tied him for the franchise mark for a single season with good old Brownie. The Coons, who had had one runner as well (Chisholm singling and getting doubled up by Bergquist in the second) saw Margolis and Taylor drop quickly in the bottom 3rd before Toner walked. Cookie doubled to right, extending a hitting streak to 12 games and putting two in scoring position for Sambrano, who lifted a soft line to shallow right center where nobody could get it, plating both runners with the 2-out single. McKnight scored Sandy with a double off the wall in right, and Richards reached on an infield single before Chisholm grounded out. Jonny was now 3-0 ahead, and opened the fourth inning with a K to Cruz, robbing Brownie of his franchise mark. He reached a nice round 250 when he obliterated Jong-beom Kym to end the inning. While Jonny’s K rate dipped in the fifth, when he got only one Arrowhead, he came back with two in the sixth, but don’t look at the pitch count, please. The Coons broke out with three runs in the bottom 6th, running the score to 6-0 after the inning had started with straight singles by Chisholm, Bergquist, and Margolis.

In the end it was the weather that clobbered Toner’s K parade. It started to rain in the bottom 6th and by the top 7th the monsoon was on – it was October (read: winter) in Portland after all. Driving rain forced a delay north of an hour and of course knocked Jonny from the game after whiffing a dozen and allowing only one hit. When play resumed, the Indians promptly got a base runner against Marcos Bruno when Bergquist botched Gilmor’s grounder. Nothing came of that, and the Indians only threatened again in the ninth inning when Sugano had the urge to walk a pair and Entwistle upon relieving him surrendered a drive to deep left to Guerra. Chisholm caught that, though. 6-0 Critters. Carmona 3-5, 2B, RBI; Sambrano 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Chisholm 2-4; Toner 6.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 12 K, W (18-5); Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

With three to play, the Miners hold a 1-run lead over the Rebels. The Warriors are three ahead of the Stars. And in the South, the Condors lead the Knights by one and the Thunder by three. All seven of these teams get to play a team with a losing record on the weekend – no direct duels, unfortunately.

As far as Jonny is concerned, he has the ERA and strikeout titles nailed down. But the wins title depends on whether he can hold onto a share of the lead. Of all his competitors, only Tijuana’s Zach Boyer won his first start of the week, and is thus the only guy who can ruin the triple crown for him. He will most likely pitch on Saturday, opposing San Fran’s Joao Joo (13-9, 3.79 ERA).

Raccoons (77-82) vs. Loggers (80-79) – October 2-4, 2015

The Loggers needed one win to beat out the Coons in the final standings for the first time since 2004. So far, things hadn’t gone in their favor against Portland in 2015, as they had already lost the season series, 10-5. They were seventh in offense, but had the second-worst pitching of the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (6-13, 5.16 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (15-13, 4.73 ERA)
Hector Santos (9-10, 2.87 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (11-8, 4.05 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (7-13, 4.45 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (6-4, 4.30 ERA)

Graham should be our final left-hander of the season. We will have faced southpaws 46 times, roughly doubling the instances in either of the last two to three years.

The Loggers’ Victor Hodgers entered with 57 stolen bases, three shy of the single season record by Javy Rodriguez.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Yu – LF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – CF Cooper – C Leach – P C. Graham
POR: CF Carmona – SS Hudman – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – 3B Canning – C Margolis – P Conway

Lo and behold, Stan Murphy drove in two with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom 1st, pasting a single to left center. Cookie and Richards had singled and Bednarski had walked ahead of him. Of course you were expecting Conway to squander a 2-0 lead quickly, and he couldn’t get a clean inning in, or even one that didn’t break out the sweats. The Loggers got a run in the third inning on Justin Dally’s 2-out RBI single which gave Dally a 14-game hitting streak, slightly topping Cookie’s 13-game streak that had already been prolonged at that point. The Loggers had runners in scoring position with two outs and Hodgers batting in the fourth, which looked like a truckload of trouble, but Hodgers fouled out to end the inning in harmless fashion. Conway walked Mike Rucker with two outs in the fifth, and then Victor Enriquez singled through Bergquist, Rucker went aggro to third – except that Bednarski’s throw beat him and Canning tagged him out to end the frame. The Coons finally showed up on the radar again with Brock Hudman’s leadoff double in the bottom 5th, but – oh, surprise – nobody could be found to drive him in.

Conway arrived at the end of his luck in the sixth inning. Foster Leach hit a 2-out single, followed by Chris Harris’ pinch-hit double. Again two in scoring position for Hodgers, and this time we sent Thrasher. Which was a mistake. A bad mistake. Victor Hodgers lined a 2-out, 2-run single to right, flipping the score, and after Yu grounded out to end the inning, Thrasher would also concede the 29th homer of Dally’s season to start the seventh. Great southpaw, much fun to be had with this little ****. The Coons pen kept crumbling, conceding single runs in each of the last three innings, while the offense was toothless as usual. Even a 1-out triple by Seeley in the bottom 9th was not enough for a too-late, last hurrah. 6-2 Loggers. Murphy 3-4, 2 RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1, 3B;

This one nails us into fifth place for good. We could have reached a tie for fourth before.

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Yu – LF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – CF Cooper – C Leach – P Euteneuer
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – C Alexander – 3B Hudman – P Santos

Cookie extended his streak to 14 games at the first opportunity with a leadoff single to left in the first inning, his 197th hit of the season. While McKnight would get him forced out there, at least our shortstop would drive in the first run of the game in the bottom 3rd, singling home Sambrano, who had doubled. We had an eye on the scoreboard, too. Through three in San Francisco, the Condors (and Boyer!) were up 1-0 as well.

For four innings, Santos had the Loggers well under control, although Dally did extend his hitting streak as well to 15 games. But the fifth inning again showed its teeth. Oscar Sandoval, Andrew Cooper, and Foster Leach opened it with three singles, tying the score at one and leaving plenty of runners for others to do damage. Unless after Euteneuer’s bunt Santos would show dominance and whiff both Hodgers and Yu, which he did. But the game was still tied, and considering the lengths and pains it took for the Critters to score even one run …! Accordingly, the 1-2-3 in the order made 1-2-3 outs in the bottom 5th. And if even they couldn’t buy a hit… Meanwhile at the Bay, Boyer was still up 1-0 in the top of the sixth.

In the top 6th up close and personal, Mike Rucker hurt Santos with his 37th homer of the season, a solo shot for his 120th RBI, to put the Loggers 2-1 ahead. Santos did not retire another batter, and instead allowed another three hard line drives for three hits and two runs before being removed to be stashed away in some dark corner until the spring. Mathis got a double play from Foster Leach, but the Loggers now led 4-1. Euteneuer had been everybody’s mattress in 2014, but now looked pretty strong … until he didn’t. Hudman and Chisholm had singles to lead off the bottom 7th and went to the corners for the 1-2-3 guys. Just as Cookie hit to Enriquez for a run-scoring groundout, the entire park moaned and groaned – in San Francisco, Craig Dasher had hit a 2-out, 3-run double off Joao Joo, giving Zach Boyer a 5-0 lead. Nobody took much notice of Sandy’s and McKnight’s singles, which got the Coons back to 4-3 before Richards and Reya failed and left runners in scoring position. The scoreboard was enough to kill everybody’s mood – including Jonny Toner’s, who disappeared into the bowels of the stadium to be sad by himself. That game in San Francisco was over just as Marcos Bruno wiggled out of a jam in the top of the ninth, the Bayhawks remained shut out. The Coons were still down 4-3 in the bottom 9th, facing Kevin Cummings. Chisholm led off with a single, Cookie hit another one. Sandy struck out, McKnight flew out to left. Bednarski hit for Bergquist in Richards’ vacated slot. Bednarski singled to left, Chisholm was sent around third, Martin Sorto threw home, nice throw, Leach tagged, nice tag, and he was out. 4-3 Loggers. Carmona 2-5, RBI; Sambrano 2-5, 2B; McKnight 2-5, 2 RBI; Richards 2-4; Bednarski (PH) 1-1; Chisholm 2-2;

Not quite Keith Ayers, but I still feel like dying tonight. Maud hid the bleach, though.

Zach Boyer spun a ****ing 6-hit shutout to soil Jonny’s dream. Just come to Portland next year, Zach. We’ll find some backup infielder to rub sand in your ****ing eyes.

The Loggers tabbed right-hander Michael Foreman (8-11, 4.15 ERA) for the finale. We stuck to Watanabe, who will be 39 in October and might make his final ever big league start here. For his career, which started in this very town in ’04, he is 65-91 with a 4.18 ERA. That “Winless” moniker came from somewhere!

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Yu – LF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – CF Cooper – C Leach – P Foreman
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Chisholm – C Alexander – 3B Hudman – P Watanabe

It would not be a fun experience, this last Portland outing for Watanabe. He allowed a single to Yu in the first before walking three straight. The Loggers could have had his tail right there and then if Sandoval hadn’t hit into a double play and held them to one run. Yu drove in a run with two outs in the second, but at least Foreman also walked the bases loaded in the bottom 2nd, although the Raccoons failed to do more damage than a sac fly by Brock Hudman. Bottom 3rd, Cookie extended his hitting streak to 15 games with an infield single (#199), upon which McKnight bombed to right and flipped the score to 3-2 for the home team. The bottom 5th was led off by Cookie, with the crowd standing up and clapping in anticipation of at least this milestone, a little thing compared to the missed triple crown. Cookie obliged and lined a double into the gap between Hodgers (who had a miserable series and was still at 57 SB) and Cooper, reaching 200 hits for the second year in a row. McKnight scored him with a single, running the score to 4-2, and while the Loggers had been right up Watanabe’s throat early on, they largely left him alone in the middle innings and let him complete seven frames. The Coons scratched out a run in the bottom 7th. Originally getting on Ochoa with a single hit in Watanabe’s spot, they hit into two force plays before Bednarski plated Cookie with a 2-out single, himself batting for Richards against southpaw Carlos Michel, who would be hard pushed again in the bottom 8th, but despite loading the bases with one out allowed only one run on a pinch-hit infield single by Danny Margolis. Now up by four, Bocanegra ended the game. 6-2 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, BB, 2B; McKnight 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Bednarski (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1; Margolis (PH) 1-1, RBI; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (8-13);

Watanabe’s three hits allowed were the only ones the Loggers got in this game.

Jonny Toner would have been available to pitch in relief in a tied game late, but it didn’t come to that.

In other news

September 28 – The Stars critically lose 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.306, 7 HR, 45 RBI) for the final week of the season. The 35-year old frequently hurting switch-hitter is out with a bruised foot.
September 28 – The Canadiens beat the Crusaders, 3-1, despite being out-hit 12-3. Two of Vancouver’s hits are doubles, including a 2-out, 2-run double by Juan Medina (.321, 2 HR, 65 RBI), while the Crusaders hit a dozen singles.
September 29 – The Wolves’ SP Kurt Doyle (10-9, 4.98 ERA) 3-hits the Scorpions in a 7-0 shutout.
September 29 – PIT 2B/3B Joe Chappelle (.238, 10 HR, 52 RBI) raps out five hits, including two doubles, in the Miners’ 10-3 win over the Cyclones.
September 30 – Warriors rookie Tyler Nodelman (5-4, 2.82 ERA) spins a 2-hitter in a 6-0 shutout over the Gold Sox, which conveniently also puts the Warriors only one win away from clinching the FL West.
October 1 – This is less convenient for the Warriors: SFW CL Arturo Lopez (8-3, 1.24 ERA, 41 SV) is out for the year with a torn triceps.
October 1 – The Falcons beat the Thunder 1-0 in regulation with a walkoff homer by Aaron Case (.212, 6 HR, 23 RBI) off Steve Rob.
October 2 – The Warriors clinch the FL West with a 5-2 win over the Wolves, their ninth playoff appearance and the third consecutive.
October 3 – RIC OF Danny Flores (.312, 8 HR, 63 RBI) sets a new stolen base mark for a single season by taking his 61st base of the year in the Rebels’ 6-5 loss to the Buffaloes. With Jon Merritt at the plate, Flores swipes second base against the Buffaloes’ Ian Norman and Pedro Salas in the fifth inning.
October 4 – Both the Condors and Miners only clinch their divisions on the final day of the season. The Condors lose 3-1 to the Bayhawks, but the Knights also lose to the Falcons, 9-7, to hand the division to the Condors. In the FL East, the Miners crush the Capitals in the latter half of a double-header, 14-2, to beat the Rebels by a single game.

Complaints and stuff

What a ****ed up week. What a –

Thank heavens and the baseball gods – cruel and evil as they are; especially Ivor, the small, fat, ugly god – that it is over. I couldn’t have made it through a single additional game or inning.

I am still ringing with myself on whether to extend a contract to Ron Richards. There is not much 5-star batting to be had in the upcoming free agent class. There’s some power to be had, but it’s mostly old or swinging freely. I will be hot after R.J. DeWeese, who can hit a ton, but also led the FL in strikeouts the last two years. Is that the #4 hitter we want? Are the 13 dingers he hit more than Richards this year really worth another 50 K? Their OPS is almost identical. For his career, DeWeese has 60 points more of OPS, though.

Oh god, I will do everything wrong again.
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Old 11-17-2016, 08:39 PM   #2082
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I don't think anybody is reading every word I write....at least I hope they have better things to do....skimming is certainly acceptable. I have been hot on the Beavers of late, but my failure to upgrade their starting rotation in the off-season has me a bit bummed and that thread will likely get slowed down in favor of the Liberty League thread soon, which is a lot more work and I can't post to it at anywhere near the same pace....
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Old 11-19-2016, 02:25 PM   #2083
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How big is the miss that Jonny Toner suffered when Zach Boyer shut out the Bayhawks on Saturday? There have only been TWO triple crowns claimed in ABL history. The first was by Tetsu Osanai in 1986, his first full season as a Raccoon, when he batted .341 with 31 HR and 121 RBI. The latter was achieved by Tony Hamlyn (more on him in the playoff introduction) in 2010, going 23-5 with a 2.00 ERA and 270 K for the Cyclones. You might remember this season as the last time the Raccoons made the playoffs and the World Series, losing to those same Cyclones, although Hamlyn himself only got two no-decisions in that series, coming up even against Javier Cruz in Game 3 and Jong-hoo Umberger in Game 6.

I don’t know … that walkoff homer in the last game that the rookie Dave Fletcher hit off Angel is not so present in my mind than that infamous ending to the 2009 season. Keith Ayers out at home – that one will be in my head forever. Even though it was not the actual end of the game, and we only played to get into a tie-breaker at all, that one was a nastier knock than Fletcher’s.

By the way …

Quote:
Originally Posted by blazertaz13 View Post
Thanks to the Coons, I broke my sobriety streak of a whopping four days. Then again as a Cubbies fan I am used to saying wait until next year.
You got something to say right now? :-P

+++

Three days into the 2015 playoffs, the Raccoons announced a contract extension with RF/LF Ron Richards, who batted .270 with 22 HR and 73 RBI in 2015, and is a .256 batter with 81 HR and 306 RBI for his career. Richards will receive $1.7M annually through 2020, with the last year a vesting option that requires 500 PA in 2019.

5-yr, $8.5M is a lot of dough for somebody who merely irritated me the least of the assumed sluggers. He only has two .800+ OPS seasons, and one of those (2015) just barely. While he does have raw power and does not strike out a whole ton, he has yet to slug .500 in a full season. He has no speed, and his defense is on the poor side. The main reason that he gets the extension is the fact that this free agent class is on the poor side as far as impact batters are concerned. I mean – Stanton Martin is a free agent, but he’s 36, and he was brittle even at 29. The Coons, just barely survivors of the three-year-long Daniel Dickerson nightmare, will not shell out big bagels to an injury-prone player over 35 this quick again. Richards has going for him that he’s good and could still scratch on becoming great – at least at the plate – and that he’s already got a locker in Portland.

I intend to go after R.J. DeWeese with the big net this winter. While DeWeese is a free swinger that will strand just as many as Murphy and Bednarski, he’s also one of the prime power threats around. Neither him nor Richards are good defenders, but at least they are split between the positions they are more palatable at. Richards played on his weak side (leftfield) for most of the season, running up a grizzly -10.8 ZR and also made a few clumsy errors. He’s a bit better in right. DeWeese is a decent corner outfielder in terms of mobility, but has a weak arm, so he’s better suited to leftfield.

I have no clue where to get a good first baseman…

+++

2015 ABL PLAYOFFS

In terms of the 2015 playoffs, the ABL had some of the same old stuff that turned up to play most every year, and also a team that hadn’t been to the show in more than 15 years. Potential Hall of Famers like Larry Cutts and Kelvin Yates had come and gone since the Tijuana Condors had last made a playoff appearance.

The 85-77 Condors had squeezed through a mediocre, but tight CL South to their first playoff ticket since 1998, and they hadn’t made it to the World Series since 1990 – before the career of the great Martin Garcia, a damn-sure Hall of Famer by the coming January, had even begun. They had made the World Series twice, but both times lost, to the Stars in ’88 and the Capitals in ’90. The Condors of 2015 lacked a particular strength, with the team fourth in runs scored, and merely sixth in runs allowed. They did okay in basically all categories, but didn’t excel in anything. Their starting pitching was mediocre on paper, with a worse-than-league-average ERA of 4.23, but they had three starters with ERA’s of 3.75 or better, with CL wins champion Zach Boyer (19-8, 3.34 ERA) leading the way. The bullpen was competent, but lacked the multiple layers of shutdown erasers their CLCS opponents had. The lineup presented more players of average caliber. The Condors lacked any .300 batters, with Jimmy Eichelkraut (.291, 18 HR, 72 RBI) leading the team in all triple crown categories. But there was also nobody with less than a .259 average in that lineup, with four guys hitting double digit homers, and everybody had 39 RBI or more. They were able to chain singles together and ruin a pitcher’s day in a matter of minutes, but again, they came up short in comparison to their CLCS opponents, the Crusaders.

The 100-62 Crusaders was in some way a continuance of the dynasty that had broken out in 2007 and had won six pennants and five world championships since (with Stanton Martin, Martin Ortíz, and Francisco Caraballo key cogs in the title machine for the entire duration of their title spam), and in some ways wasn’t. For once, this incarnation of the team, while stomping the CL North, had some horrendous pitching with a rotation lingering near the very bottom of the CL until late in the season and only migrating vaguely close to average (but definitely not reaching it) in the last six weeks. They had always been able to rely on their sterling bullpen, however, which led the league with a 2.66 ERA mark. Their rotation should be a reason for concern, however, given that Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (18-7, 2.90 ERA) aside, they had no starting pitcher under or even near the league ERA average of 4.07; the offense was nothing to be concerned about, though. Even with some second-tier personnel missing from the playoffs with Amari Brissett and Miguel Salinas, the Crusaders could rely on their big bumpers in the lineup, with Caraballo (.291, 16 HR, 90 RBI) leading off now, and Martin Ortíz (.324, 22 HR, 113 RBI), Stanton Martin (.293, 22 HR, 96 RBI), and B.J. Manfull (.271, 19 HR, 99 RBI) cleaning up one way or another. The Crusaders ranked last in stolen bases … and simply didn’t care. They scored the most runs by a good margin.

Even without the Crusaders’ powerhouse offense, there is an ugly trend going against the CL South that has lasted for some time. Until 2000, when the Thunder beat out the Loggers in the CLCS and won the World Series eventually, the South had won only 9 of 24 CLCS against the North (38%). Since then, only *two* CL South champions made it out of the CLCS and into the World Series, a paltry 14%, variously falling to the dominant dynasties of first the Titans (four times), then the Crusaders (six times), with some Indians and Raccoons (once each) sprinkled in. The Falcons ended the Titans’ run of four consecutive pennants in 2005 (and won the World Series against the Blue Sox), and the Thunder overcame the Canadiens in 2012, but came up short against the Pacifics in the final showdown. Overall, only *four* times a CL South team got to hoist the World Series trophy at all: the aforementioned Falcons in 2005, the Bayhawks in 1999, and the Thunder in 1994 and 2000.

And although past history from the 2000s was probably indeed irrelevant for this CLCS, then perhaps the Crusaders’ 8-1 record against the Condors in 2015 should count for something… Stanton Martin had slugged .629 against them. The Condors’ best OPS against the Crusaders was Ezra Branch’s .680 mark.

Over to the Federal League!

With the same record as the Condors, 85-77, the Miners were a bit like the Condors: an all-around decent-to-good team with few key strengths or weaknesses, that made it through a weak division only on the final day of the season. While they ranked second in home runs, and fourth in runs scored overall, the Miners’ pitching had been largely average. Fred Dugo’s 3.34 ERA led the starters, while the middle relief options were a bit lacking in sparkle. They did have a great closer in Tommy Wooldridge (5-3, 2.19 ERA, 40 SV). Offensively, no qualifying bat had even reached a .275 average for them, which was partly owed to numerous little injuries plaguing their #3 hitter Tom McWhorter (.282, 25 HR, 77 RBI), and partly to the fact that they just weren’t built for suffocating an opposing team. They let the ball fly, with another 25+ HR player, Dave Carter (.271, 26 HR, 94 RBI) batting cleanup, and three more batters with 10+ dingers. At least they did not have any meaningful injuries, missing only their backup infielder and veteran Aurelio Gomez.

The three-time repeating FL West winners, the 94-68 Warriors, *did* have clear strengths and weaknesses. Pitching was their strong suit, and hitting really wasn’t. They conceded the least runs in the Federal League, but only ranked tied for 10th in runs scored. They were ninth in batting average, and walked a bit, but lacked the power or the speed to make the most out of their opportunities. Their pitching staff was led with Tony Hamlyn (12-8, 3.46 ERA), whose 40 years since birth began to show, as he only pitched 179.2 innings and struck out only 90 and was likely to retire after the playoffs, having fallen short of 4,000 career strikeouts. The rest of their rotation consistent of good pitchers, including rookie Tyler Nodelman (5-4, 2.82 ERA). Both their rotation and bullpen had led the league in ERA, separately. And here was where the problems already started. The Warriors had lost their closer Arturo Lopez (8-3, 1.24 ERA, 41 SV) in late September, and starter Bartolo Ortíz (16-3, 2.53 ERA) on September 1. They were rumored to assign closing duties to 36-year old Dan Nordahl, who had missed the entire season due to an elbow injury. And even worse, LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.325, 18 HR, 99 RBI) was laboring on a knee injury, which would keep him out of at least the first few games in the FLCS, ripping a huge hole into an already thin offense. While they had five more players with 12 or more homers, only Gil Gross (.287, 22 HR, 91 RBI) came close to a season output that deserved the moniker of being able to carry a team. Due to Morales’ and other minor injuries, their starting centerfielder was likely 37-year old Pat MacDonald, who had not gotten substantially more than 100 at-bats with any team since 2008.

Like in the CL, the regular season comparison between the two FLCS teams was rather lopsided, with the Warriors beating the Miners seven out of nine times. Jerrod Luckert slugged .529 and Tim Winston was unscored upon in 12.2 innings in two starts, which he both won. The Miners had two good outings by starter John Key, who claimed one of their two wins, but had a hard time coming up with a productive bat against them, with lots of .170 to .220 bats showing up in their lineup when reduced to just the nine games against Sioux Falls. However, the injuries weigh heavy on the Warriors, and one might imagine that the Miners could be able to just outlast them and squeeze through in a series of low-scoring, tight games. This series could go seven games, with the outcome perhaps depending on Jose Morales’ healing capability. If he stays grounded long enough, this set is definitely a toss-up.

The CLCS is easy on paper. Despite only one strong starting pitcher, the Crusaders should be able to simply out-thump the Condors and continue the South’s misery. Crusaders in five! … even though outside of their own fanbase everybody was pretty sick of them turning up in the World Series every year.

+++

2015 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Miners @ Warriors … 15-3 … (Miners lead 1-0) … PIT Tom McWhorter 4-5, BB, 2B, RBI; PIT Dave Carter 4-6, 2B, 2 RBI; PIT Joe Cowan (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; SFW Tony Hamlyn gets blasted for seven runs in 5.2 innings, with four more runs each on Damon Barnett and Kaz Kichida

Miners @ Warriors … 0-2 … (series tied 1-1) … SFW Jamie Wilson 3-3, BB, 3B;
Condors @ Crusaders … 1-2 … (Crusaders lead 1-0) … NYC Jaylen Martin 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 16 K, W;

“Midnight” Martin’s 16 strikeouts break the record for a playoff game of 13 strikeouts that had been put up by the Raccoons’ Nick Brown in 2010.

Condors @ Crusaders … 2-3 … (Crusaders lead 2-0) … TIJ Ryan Feldmann 2-3, BB, 2B; NYC Stanton Martin 2-5, 2B, RBI; NYC Fernando Cruz 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K; Martin walks off the Crusaders with a single off Brian Gilbert

Warriors @ Miners … 3-4 … (Miners lead 2-1) … SFW Gil Gross 2-4, HR, RBI; PIT William Waggoner 3-4, HR, RBI;

While “Dingus” Morales returned to the starting lineup after pinch-hitting in the second game of the series, Dan Nordahl blew the Warriors’ 3-1 lead in the bottom 9th and is charged with three runs on five hits

Warriors @ Miners … 6-7 … (Miners lead 3-1) … SFW Ivan Flores 2-5, 3B, RBI; SFW Jamie Wilson 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; SFW Kevin Bond 3-3, BB; SFW Pat Eaton (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; PIT Tom McWhorter 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; PIT Jeremiah Bowman 7.0 IP, 10 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K; Miners blow 6-0 lead in the eighth, but walk off when Joe Chappelle scores on Dave Carter’s grounder, making Dan Nordahl a loser again
Crusaders @ Condors … 7-1 … (Crusaders lead 3-0) … NYC Martin Ortíz 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; NYC Shane Walter 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; NYC Pancho Trevino 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W;

Warriors @ Miners … 1-4 … (Miners win 4-1) … PIT Fred Dugo 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W; the Warriors amount to only two hits as they are eliminated
Crusaders @ Condors … 7-5 … (Crusaders win 4-0) … NYC B.J. Manfull 5-5, 2 2B, 4 RBI; NYC A.J. Bartels 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W; TIJ Cory Roland 3-4, HR, RBI;

+++

2015 WORLD SERIES

While much has been said about the Crusaders and their five championships in the last eight years, nobody has written a lot about the Miners as a World Series team, which might be down to the fact that they had not been to the World Series since 1982, then losing to the Canadiens. They had made the playoffs four times in between appearances on the biggest stage, but had always been eliminated in the FLCS: by the Gold Sox in 1985, the Scorpions in 1995, the Pacifics in 2012, and the Warriors in 2014. The first three in the list had gone on to win the World Series, but the Warriors became the latest victims of the Crusaders.

This is the 39th World Series. So far, each league has won 19 titles.

The Miners and Crusaders didn’t play another during the regular season. While their numbers of runs allowed are almost equal, and both were ranked fourth in their league, the Crusaders outscored the Miners by 84 runs. That alone is a clear indicator for the Crusaders’ advantage (as if the 15 additional wins weren’t …), and there is something else working against the Miners, aside from Joe Chappelle suffering from a bum shoulder and missing the first two games in New York (the Crusaders had not suffered any injuries in the CLCS): their lineup was more tipping to the right side, at least in their key batters, and the Crusaders would show them three right-handed starters. But the Miners only had right-handed starters available, who would face the brunt of the left-handed Crusaders onslaught, which included Martin Ortíz and B.J. Manfull as well as several other batters including Shane Walter nearer to the bottom of the order, and backup catcher Drew Lowe, who might get playing time in the series. Ortíz and Manfull sandwiching Stanton Martin would force them to go after Martin with pitches at the edges of the zone, which was a recipe for disaster. Then, the Crusaders much maligned starting pitching came up really strong in the CLCS, which they swept from the sorry Condors conceding only nine runs (eight earned), and only three runs were charged on the starters…

I can’t help… Crusaders in six or less. Likely less.

+++

Miners @ Crusaders … 4-6 … (Crusaders lead 1-0) … PIT Tom McWhorter 3-4, RBI; PIT Dave Carter 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; NYC Francisco Caraballo 3-5, 2B; NYC Drew Lowe 3-5, 2B, RBI; NYC Martin Ortíz 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; NYC B.J. Manfull 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Miners @ Crusaders … 3-2 (10) … (series tied 1-1) … PIT Dave Carter 2-5, HR, 3B, RBI; PIT Bartholomeu Pino 2-4, RBI; PIT Joe Cowan 2-4, RBI; PIT Jeremiah Bowman 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K; NYC Stanton Martin 2-5, 2 2B;

Crusaders @ Miners … 8-5 … (Crusaders lead 2-1) … NYC Martin Ortíz 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; NYC B.J. Manfull 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

New York’s SP Pancho Trevino also has two hits and drives home a pair while pitching a shutout before imploding for all the Miners’ runs in the seventh inning.

Crusaders @ Miners … 3-6 … (series tied 2-2) … NYC Drew Lowe 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; PIT Jesus Ramirez 3-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Crusaders @ Miners … 9-5 … (Crusaders lead 3-2) … NYC Martin Ortíz 2-4, BB; NYC Stanton Martin 2-5, 3B, RBI; NYC B.J. Manfull 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; PIT Dave Carter 3-5, 2 RBI; PIT Jesus Ramirez 3-5, 2 RBI;

The Crusaders blow out Jeremiah Bowman for seven runs in less than two innings, while “Midnight” pitches six shutout frames before the bullpen falters. Their 9-0 cushion holds up, however.

Miners @ Crusaders … 6-2 … (series tied 3-3) … PIT Bartholomeu Pino 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI; PIT Fred Dugo 9.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W; NYC B.J. Manfull 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

This time, the Miners build the early lead and the Crusaders don’t score until it is too late, in this case the ninth inning. Game 7 will have Pancho Trevino (2-0, 3.29 ERA) facing the Miners’ Hunter Park (1-1, 6.60 ERA).

Miners @ Crusaders … 2-5 … (Crusaders win 4-3) … PIT Jesus Ramirez 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; NYC Francisco Caraballo 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; NYC Shane Walter 3-4; NYC Pancho Trevino 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K, W;

Blech.

2016 WORLD CHAMPIONS
New York Crusaders

7th title
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Old 11-20-2016, 06:12 AM   #2084
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Much of our offseason strategy depended on the annual fall hate mail from the Mexican Prick. While the Coons had already handed an extension to Ron Richards – somewhat reluctantly – they had to know the amount of budget room available before going out on a spill.

While I knew damn sure – 20 years of crying teach you something – that the Prick would take money away, the impact in the end was relatively mild. He still wanted to see the Raccoons win a title on his watch, although he still doubted that the personnel at hand – so, yours truly – was thoroughly incompetent.

Speaking of personnel; before the end of the playoffs, the Raccoons waived and DFA’ed Josh Gibson and Juan Gallegos in an attempt to get them on minor league meal money and off the budget for 2016. Also, the entire coaching staff of the major league team was culled after already most of the minor league staff was let go.

The 2015 budget had been $28.6M, the Raccoons’ biggest ever, although it hadn’t done them much good. For 2016, the budget was set at $27.6M, one million lower. The Coons went from being tied for seventh in all of the ABL to being tied for ninth. The average budget was $26.5M, while the median budget was $27.1M.

Far ahead in the league were the Crusaders with their $44M budget, a third more than any other team, with the Miners’ $33M ranking a distant second. The Thunder, Warriors ($32.5M each), and Stars ($31M) completed the top 5. The rear was brought up by some reliable participants in the Knights ($21.8M), Indians ($21.4M), Wolves ($19.4M), Loggers, and Falcons ($18.2M each). In the North, the Coons ranked third behind the Crusaders, Canadiens ($29.6M), and ahead of the Titans ($27.2M).

+++

How to improve a 78-84 team? Well, there were two ways. You could actively pursue better players, or you could hope for the slack to drop of the roster by itself. The Critters could do both. Reducing themselves by a few bad investments (Dickerson, cough, cough) worked as addition by subtraction, and then there were still plenty of coins left to sprinkle about. Our shopping list, however, would be a real long one… but more on that later.

First we had to take a look at the salary arbitration and free agent cases as a whole. Was there anything else we wanted to salvage? [see graphic at the bottom of the post]

For starters, there were only six arbitration cases, and at best half of them had any value to us. Obviously, we were going to keep Cookie Carmona tugged in neatly in our embracing arms, and Manobu Sugano was a strong performer in his limited role as situational lefty (given his flammability against right-handed hitting). With Canning and Seeley it was more indifference. They were not going to be contributing players on a winning team, ever, but they would still provide cheap backup. Neither had options. Also with no options: Tom Constantino, who didn’t even perform well in AAA, and shelling another $320k on that was a tough choice. With Gibson, the choice was easier. He was STILL burning from being set alight in the last few weeks of the season. No way we were going to fork over $300k for those charred remains.

Then there was Cookie. The kid’s a star already, and there are no questions left to be answered as to his obvious talents. He could rake 200+ hits annually and easily challenge for the career hits leadership at some point down the road. What DID surprise me when I approached him about his 2016 salary was that he had no interest in talking about his 2016 salary in particular – but rather wanted to sign a deal for as long as possible, which is rather unusual for 24-year old budding superstars.

You see, Cookie is a good guy. He also has nine younger siblings down in Panama, and his father has a bad back and doesn’t exactly break the bank as a part-time shoe shiner. Cookie’s gotta take care of his family, and the Raccoons were to be the ones forking over the checks to do so. Once he had told me all about his family, his next-oldest brother Alfredo, who was a skilled car mechanic and could turn any two wrecks into a working car, his sister Marguerita, who read to the blind in the little spare time her 12-hour day job in a run-down laundry (that she had to walk ten miles to get to and back home at night) left her, and his youngest brother Cristiano, who was in a wheelchair with a missing front wheel and was constantly falling over, my eyes had all watered up and I was close to doubling his entirely reasonable contract dem- … no, they weren’t demands. They were more like suggestions. He also looked like he was almost too afraid to ask for anything than food and shelter.

Once I had signed off on his proposal of eight years for so-and-so many millions (who cares for money? Cristiano needs a new wheelchair!) and he had dashed home to his tiny Portland apartment to call his family in Panama (in case their 1960s rotary phone was not broken currently…), I curled up on the brown couch in the office and wept well into the night.

+++

Free agents had to wait until the following day and after Maud had somewhat restored an emotional balance in me by feeding me three servings of vanilla pudding with a spoon.

One slight baby burp later, I was on the personnel at hand, which included more or less the remainder of our bullpen, the three failed sluggers, and mid-season pickup Kenichi Watanabe.

None of the nine players would be back with us. I was all sick of Mike Bednarski, Stan Murphy, and Luis Reya – the latter having done an acceptable job as top bench piece that played more than anticipated, but spent the last two months of the season bitching and moaning about not being cherished. All were compensation eligible, if only as type B free agents. All were offered arbitration. Watanabe was also a type B, but at almost 40 years old, this was a dangerous game. We could use the extra supplemental round pick since I fully expected to blow several of our picks from the second round down…

Marcos Bruno had done fairly well, crumbling in the last six weeks of the season to finish with a rather meh 4.06 ERA. He was 39 and this was probably his last hurrah anyway. Then there was Conway, who was as irritating as a pitcher could be. Remember that he would have won the ERA title in 2014 if the season had ended on August 31. There was no relying on him, not even in long relief. Then there was another case of capital disappointment with Zack Entwistle, whom I don’t even want to talk about. Also, Dickerson. GET OUTTA HERE!!!

The final piece was Angel Casas, who had survived on 1-year deals for the last couple of seasons. While he had gone unscored upon for six weeks in the middle of the season, he had imploded spectacularly several times at the end of the year. He was 33, he probably still had all his tools, but I was longing for a restart in the closer role. By now I knew that Ron Thrasher was definitely not the answer, but Angel Casas probably no longer was it, either.

The only issue was that he was not compensation eligible, which irked me. Maybe we could get him cheap, and if we uncovered a closer in free agency, he could pitch setup to the new addition? This was a tempting one… uh… well, no need to make a decision on October 24; there’s another three weeks before the free agency date…
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Old 11-21-2016, 02:54 PM   #2085
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Before the month was over, Cookie signed his 8-year, $14.61M contract – his original proposal, which I just nodded off, tearfully – and Cristiano’s new wheelchair was already on order.

The contract adds roughly $500k annually to his $160k minimum salary from 2015 through 2019, from which he will earn $2.25M flat through 2023. However, that last year is a team option with a $700k buyout. Again, his proposal. He also has incentives for winning awards. Cookie will stay a Furball through his age 30 season at least (excluding the option) and age 31 most likely (including the option). His body of work so far – he has turned 24 only on August 31 – is a tasty clip of .328/.363/.432 with 9 HR and 183 RBI. Well, HR/RBI is probably not very important for him. He does have some other yummy numbers, though: how about, for a 24-year old, 656 hits, 99 doubles, 41 triples, and 110 stolen bases?

The only thing not delightful is his SB%, which is a paltry 55%, and the fact that he has so far never played in more than 146 games due to injuries.

We also had a new hitting coach, 53-year old moosehead Dennis Meehan, who had so far taught hitting in the Scorpions’ system for eight years, with on the surface good results. This was his first big league assignment. A sharp contrast to that was former Miners pitching coach Todd von Lindenthal, who also signed on and brought over a decade of experience with him. He was 65 and probably signed his last, 2-year deal.

Manobu Sugano also bowed out of arbitration and signed a $350k deal on November 1. Jason Seeley and Walt Canning both signed $240k deals for 2016 just a few days before the arbitration date. As we non-tendered Tom Constantino and Josh Gibson, we were thus out of salary arbitration this fall – unless some compensation-eligible player would pick us up, and I was keeping an eye on Watanabe.

I decided against a new contract for Angel Casas, who would be 34 next June. Ever since getting his arm caught in a wood chipper in 2013, he had not been as effective anymore as before, and let’s be honest, describing him as “effective” pre-2013 would have been an outrageous insult. Since the injury, his ERA had doubled, his strikeouts had dropped, and ninth innings were a nervous affair. The part with no compensation stunk, but it was what it was. A reduced role won’t work for him since he totally expects to be a closer next year, and I am having doubts.

I had doubts about a lot of things, actually. I still had no clue where this team was heading in the next season, and much would depend on the offseason. There was however the old issue with not a whole lot of qualified free agent hitting available. Yet, the Coons also would have a hard time finding pieces in a trade. We didn’t have any quality players just lying around here, and the farm had been pillaged a long time ago. There was hardly anything of value on our minor-league teams, to the extent where I would be hard pressed to name you even a precise handful (so, five) minor leaguers with good-to-great chances to become a major league regular. To be frank, there were barely three. Our BNN top 5 prospects included both Francisquo Bocanegra and Jeff Magnotta, scrap heap signing David Tucci, some random Dominican outfielder in our international orphanage, and SP Ricky Martinez, the top prospect according to BNN in our system, who had pitched to a 4.27 ERA in his first single-A season at age 20. Well, at least better than Roger Kincheloe and Danny Arguello, that little luxury hustler. It was really wildly not enough to attract a 2008 Ron Alston kinda player. By the way, all the guys just mentioned by name are pitchers. The batting faction would be enough reason to overdose at least twice.

‘Oh, it can’t be that bad’, you’ll say. Oh, yes, the hell it can! According to BNN, the most promising professional hitters in the Coons’ system are a pair of AA outfielders, Alex Duarte and Andy Bareford. The former at least has a knack for walking a lot. The latter hit .233/.288/.332 in 135 games. Bareford was a supplemental-rounder in 2013. Duarte was taken in the eighth round, not giving a ****, in 2011, and figures primarily as a defensive centerfielder who might be able to bat first or second, although base stealing is probably not in the cards given his 31% success rate in ’15.

Oh dang, it will probably go to hell. We’ll probably wander the desert for a decade again.

Yet there are almost eight million bucks wanting to be thrown at something. I still want to go after R.J. DeWeese – though I heard the Cyclones are not exactly eager to let him go and try to sweeten an extension for him – and worst thing will be that it all goes south in ’16. Which is where I want to recall 2011, and how I flipped a first-round pick for Cookie Carmona, Jason Bergquist, Mike Bednarski (…), and assorted supplements via the detour of “Dingus” Morales (and in Bednarski’s case, prospect Mike Cook).

Yeah, like I could hit by head that lucky twice…

Stanton Martin will be a free agent. While it would be the sweetest move to snap him away from the Crusaders, he’s 36 and chronically injured. Post-Dickerson, we’ll refrain from signing players like that for a while. There was an interesting catcher going to hit the market in Pat Walston. The still-Blue Sock had a bat that would result in about 40 extra base hits, including homers in the low 10s, while batting around .280. Strong arm, but not good at stopping wayward breaking stuff. Signing him would be a contrast to the defensively capable, but offensively culpable, and also financially ridiculously overpaid Dylan Alexander. D-Alex was due another $4.25M over three years, generously already factoring in the buyout of his 2018 team option. It was Craig Bowen all over again. D-Alex could be Walston’s late-inning defensive replacement (making him paid at an even more blinding rate), but in general the pairing wouldn’t work due to both batting left-handed. I didn’t dig the serious downgrade in defense – Walston, who had started 132 games in ’15, had committed more errors and more passed balls than all of the Raccoons’ catching combined, while also throwing out less base stealers than D-Alex. Since it would be hard to get rid of Alexander, Walston was a bad fit.

+++

November 3 – The Thunder acquire SP Antonio Quintero (6-10, 5.24 ERA) from the Falcons for a decent prospect.
November 7 – The Indians pick up 26-year old SP Josh Riley (10-12, 5.55 ERA) from the Scorpions, who receive #59 prospect SP James Silmon and #113 prospect C Craig Frasier.

+++

2015 ABL AWARDS

Player of the Year: NAS 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.339, 18 HR, 110 RBI) and NYC LF Martin Ortíz (.324, 22 HR, 113 RBI)
Pitcher of the Year: SFW CL Arturo Lopez (.8-3, 1.24 ERA, 41 SV) and POR SP Jonathan Toner (18-5, 2.16 ERA)
Rookie of the Year: SAC OF Ray Meade (.301, 18 HR, 91 RBI) and POR INF Ronnie McKnight (.278, 20 HR, 91 RBI)
Reliever of the Year: SFW CL Arturo Lopez (8-3, 1.24 ERA, 41 SV) and NYC CL Salvadaro Soure (4-5, 1.66 ERA, 47 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P NAS Matt McCabe – C RIC Jamal White – 1B CIN Juan Ortíz – 2B LAP Dennis Berman – 3B NAS Antonio Esquivel – SS PIT Tom McWhorter – LF SFW Jose Morales – CF PIT Dave Carter – RF SAC Pablo Sanchez
Platinum Sticks (CL): P POR Jonathan Toner – C CHA Ryan Holliman – 1B VAN Ray Gilbert – 2B NYC Francisco Caraballo – 3B POR Matt NunleySS POR Ronnie McKnight – LF ATL Gil Rockwell – CF ATL Marty Reyes – RF MIL Justin Dally
Gold Gloves (FL): P CIN Allen Harris – C SFW Jerrod Luckert – 1B SFW Mike Gershkovich – 2B DAL Hector Garcia – 3B SAC Jason LaCombe – SS DAL Ricky Avila – LF TOP Bill Adams – CF SAC Ray Meade – RF SFW Ivan Flores
Gold Gloves (CL): P TIJ Frank Guggenheim – C SFB Antonio Ramirez – 1B LVA Raúl Bovane – 2B LVA Rusty Beard – 3B CHA Steve Best – SS POR Ronnie McKnight – LF BOS Xavier Williams – CF SFB Dave Garcia – RF IND Nick Gilmor

Not bad for a fifth-place team!

… which begs the question how a team with three Stick winners (plus the ignored Cookie, who hit for more average but no power than Reyes) could suck so dang bad at scoring runs…

Fun fact: Jonny Toner’s OPS of .709 is only 40 points under Ryan Holliman’s and 43 points under Ronnie McKnight’s. Maybe a partial answer to the previous question is embedded in here.

True fact: For the first time ever, Furballs have won back-to-back ROTY titles. Matt Nunley won in 2014. Other winners of the award: Vern Kinnear (1992), Edgardo Torrez (2003), and Jong-hoo Umberger (2008);

Previous CL team with back-to-back ROTY’s where the 1978-79 Loggers and 2009-10 Knights (the latter including Carlos Delgado and Gil Rockwell). Umberger is the most recent pitcher to win the award in either league. No FL pitcher has been ROTY in *fourteen* years. The most recent winner, 2001 DEN SP Victor Bernal, has already retired a few years ago.

In terms of Pitchers of the Year, the Raccoons have had only three, despite all the great pitching they had in their history. For once, while they had a Japanese pitcher win the award, it was Kinji Kan in 1983. Kisho Saito NEVER won a POTY award. Brownie won one in 2009, and now Jonny Toner. The most CL POTY awards were won by Martin Garcia (five), but Tony Hamlyn (seven) and Juan Correa (eight) have more for their careers, though only some of them were gobbled up in the CL, in Hamlyn’s case only two, his first with the ’02 Bayhawks and his last with the ’13 Titans.
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Old 11-22-2016, 11:38 AM   #2086
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Originally Posted by Westheim View Post
By the way …


You got something to say right now? :-P

+++
Sorry for the delay, I was still celebrating. After I came to I was wondering if it was a dream or not. Apparently it wasn't.
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Old 11-22-2016, 05:06 PM   #2087
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In good news, all our four compensation-eligible free agents elected to hit the market, and nobody clung on to the roster.

That already moves us swiftly ahead to the international free agent, with the pleasant surprise of the arrival of 24-year old Japanese right-hander named Tadasu “Barraduca” Abe. He throws six pitches, all of good quality, keeping hitters guessing eternally. There was a good chance any given batter would not see the same pitch and location twice from him the entire game. Calderón can’t stop drooling. His price should be steep, but beyond Jonny Toner, Hector Santos, and Nick Brown we have a huge void in the rotation longing to be filled.

Besides – … we’ve got the bucks! … Isn’t that an odd sentence to hear from the Raccoons GM at the start of the offseason? According to Steve from Accounting, I had over $8M to splurge around!

Well… for this year at least. Due to the escalating deals for Santos, Alexander, and Cookie, as well as the fact that Jonny Toner will be arbitration-eligible next year, we actually have more money committed to the 2017 roster right now than to the 2016 roster. This would still be true (although just marginally) if Nick Brown would miss the criteria for his $1.8M vesting option for 2017. He needs to pitch 190 innings, and he only made it to 205 this year thanks to a lot of nagging injuries, including three starts he aborted due to hamstring issues alone. Young people don’t appreciate enough that they can jump about without pulling a muscle. Poor Brownie…

The roster had a bit of a cleansed look to it on November 17, the day all eligible players officially departed into free agency. We had only eight pitchers left on the active roster (16 position players, though), and there were numerous gaps waiting to be filled.

But enough of the pointless babble. There were sleeves to pull up and scouting reports and career stat sheets to dive into. Of course I have already given a very rough outline of what I was looking for in general. A certain Cyclones slugger was really high up on my list, despite his obvious shortcomings.

Explained in as few words as possible, he was a free swinger that would hack at everything coming roughly his way. You were advised to not throw him a fastball anywhere in the lower half of the zone, because that ball would break the plane of the outfield wall in lots of tiny bits. He was ridiculously vulnerable to breaking stuff, if well executed. He had led the FL in strikeouts in 2013 and 2014, but at the same time had drawn over 80 walks in both years. The numbers were only slightly down in 2015. And he had only been issued 11 intentional walks in these three years combined!

So his batting average was not the greatest, only .233 in 2015 f.e., but where he really made it up was his power production. He had hit for 70 extra base hits in 2014, and 68 this year. These 138 XBH included 68 homers, a category he had led the FL in twice now. His sophomore season aside, he had always hit for more than an .800 OPS, sometimes significantly more, approaching .900 in 2012-13.

I had to have him. He was obviously a type A free agent, but we had a protected first round pick (the joys of losing!!), and with four type B’s out there we could probably live with blowing picks in the following rounds (not that I expected Watanabe to get picked up, although you never know what the Loggers are forced to do…).

I jumped into that bidding right away!

Then there was that Japanese pitcher that had entered the free agent market, 24-year old Tadasu Abe. 95mph cutter, paired with a curve, a slider, a change, a splitter, and a forkball. Granted, much of his breaking stuff did roughly the same thing. The splitter was something to marvel about especially. He sometimes hung the curve or the changeup would do much, but overall he had great control. Head scout Juan Calderón was rallying up and down the hallway outside of my office, holding up a sign that read “SIGN!!”, which seemed very logical to Chad, who on the second day of the offseason joined him in full mascot costume, holding up a Raccoons shirt. Well, it had “Raccoons” on the front. In his little, permanently sniffing-damaged brain it probably made sense…

Given that our starting pitching depth right now went like this:

Jonny Toner
Nick Brown
Hector Santos
Jeff Magnotta
Gary Dupes
The End

… it probably made sense to talk to Abe’s agent.

I also tried to move some unloved personnel. Currently, the 40-man roster held more players huddling on the edges of the infield than actual pitchers, and we also had a glut of outfielders that were somewhere between so-so and meh. While there was probably room on the roster for a Brandon Johnson type of player that was not an amazing batter by any definition of both “amazing” and “batter”, but could play all three outfield positions well, we had no room for the bushel of major league fringe corner outfielders like Keith Chisholm, Danny Ochoa, and Jason Seeley (though he also played center). I almost whoopsed here and included Ron Richards, but I always got to remind myself that we just committed to $8.5M to him.

I would love to nail down DeWeese, then find a Luis Reya-comparable player as competent bench piece in addition to Johnson. On the infield, we had the two most recent Continental League Rookies of the Year on the left side of the infield, but the right side was bare except for the wild card that was Sandy Sambrano. Plus the flock of below-average infielders of whatever hue of preferred position – Bergquist, Canning, Hudman, somehow even friggin’ Palmer Taylor, who had somehow made it to 35 plate appearances in the last two weeks of the season. We had only 28 players on the 40-man overall as the offseason proper began.

There was probably ample room to do some flopping, starting with the fringe corner outfielders and the surplus of mildly able infielders, although I would also enjoy moving Dylan Alexander and his contract and try to get a new start with a new catcher.

I had already elaborated on Pat Walston a bit, who was probably the top free agent catcher out there, with a career OPS of .763, and his annual production was remarkably consistent, but there was the issue that I didn’t dig his defense the least bit. His name also reminded me of the traitor “Monte” Alston, and so I was not exactly sympathetic to his bid to get butter on his bread next season. There were other, credible options however, traversing most of the spectrum of an entirely defensive backstop and an offensive-minded slugger with O-shaped legs (which was pretty much what Walston was close to).

Raúl Hernandez was probably somewhere in the middle. He had been our backup catcher heading into the 2014 season, before he was included in the deal with the Aces that brought in Ron Richards and Zack Entwistle. He had spent last year with the Elks (but also their AAA club in Drummondville). He knew how to handle the bat, although he had produced an OPS over .700 only once in a full season. He lacked power, but in the time he had been the primary catcher for the sad-sack Loggers (2011-13), he had hit almost 30 doubles on average. He was mostly flawless defensively. There was a defensive expert on the market in 3-time Gold Glover Foster Leach. He was a singles hitter through and through, breaking 20 doubles occasionally and 10 homers never. He had posted OPS values wildly below .700 (and sometimes .600) consistently throughout his long career – he was already 35, going to be 36 in April. He had also been on the Loggers, the successor to Hernandez as their primary catcher. Then there was Pat Eaton, 33, who was largely unknown in the CL since his entire body of work had been compiled in the FL West. He had been the primary catcher for the Warriors in 2011 and 2013, with somewhat decent results. Actually, his last five years (age 28-32) had been far better than his early years with the Scorpions, which kept down his career .OPS at .691. Defensively, he was a bit of a nightmare, however, and we’d be better advised going after Walston.

Walston however pretended to be worth $3M annually, so there was that. My primary objective was to land R.J. DeWeese to play leftfield, and that was probably going to come us in that order. Even if you have $8M at hand, you shouldn’t blow it all on two players… ESPECIALLY with only eight pitchers on the roster!

There was also Freddy Rosa avail- ha-HAH!! Never!

But I did stumble across an interesting trade opportunity by chance, and one that I would have never inquired about on my own, because the notion seemed ridiculous. The Cyclones had signed ex-Ace Howard Jones to a 4-yr, $7.8M deal before the 2015 season, but their team had just disintegrated over the course of the season and they had finished last in the FL East with 95 losses (then again, they were loaded with every bad Raccoons starting pitcher of the last five years: Rich Hood, Graham Wasserman, and Shunyo Yano, so at least WE knew where this was coming from). They had failed to retain the services of DeWeese and now they knew that they had to officially rebuild. Jones had not had a good season, not at all, merely batting .255 with a .314 OBP. While he had hit a career-high 11 home runs, it had been his worst season by OPS since 2011. He was probably never going to hit .300, but he sure could do better than this. The Cyclones jumped at the first opportunity for a marginally useful player on a tiny contract, and were ready to part with Jones in a heartbeat.

… or perhaps GM Doug Sauerwine had nipped a bit too much on his Merlot. We were not to ask questions however, and so the Coons figured in the first big deal of the offseason.

I was also looking at left-handed relief pitching. Gee, why would I look at left-handed relief pitching? We’ve got Sugano and Thrasher after all, and they seem to be doing okay. Well… there’s this thing. Closers are goddamn expensive. Angel Casas is looking for a $2M annual salary, and he’s really no alone. I had the wicked idea (again…) of promoting Ron Thrasher to closer. I would really prefer to put the available money into some ****ing bats, since we didn’t need a closer for way too long stretches at times last season. There was an additional caveat, however, and that was that I was really keen on signing a left-handed pitcher to a 1-year deal. However, all the good setup-capable guys had none of that. I specifically pissed off Kevin Beaver and Patrick Mercier (both mostly FL veterans) with my cheapskate offers, although Beaver eventually did take home a proposal for a 1-year deal with a vesting option for 2017, probably to use it as coaster.

Beaver would complement Sugano really well from the left side. A 31-year old groundball pitcher, Beaver had almost even splits for his career (though not 2015, when funnily left-handed batting wrecked him, though there’s also a .320 BABIP in play…), while we have established that you can’t consciously let Sugano face a right-handed batter of any name in a critical situation, since they are hitting almost .350 against him.

Plus, a beaver is a furry animal that likes to play in the water, so could there be a better fit!?

+++

October 17 – The Portland Raccoons acquire 30-yr INF Howard Jones (.264, 32 HR, 377 RBI) from the Cyclones, parting with 29-year old OF Jason Seeley (.238, 18 HR, 114 RBI).
October 25 – More turnover in Portland, as the Raccoons acquire 1B Adam Young (.310, 86 HR, 374 RBI) and SP/MR John Korb (17-14, 6.03 ERA, 2 SV) from the Bayhawks in exchange for C Dylan Alexander (.261, 93 HR, 350 RBI) and two low-key prospects in AA SP Edwin Silva and AA INF Dan Riley.

October 25 – The Crusaders don’t want to stand back in the CL North arms race and sign ex-OCT SP Curtis Tobitt (179-84, 2.76 ERA). The 35-year old right-hander receives a 2-yr, $6.08M deal.
October 25 – The Titans pick up 25-yr old RF/LF/1B Jonathan Blake (.258, 9 HR, 74 RBI) from the Blue Sox, sending them 31-year old C Randy Porter (.284, 7 HR, 107 RBI) and cash.
October 26 – Former Ace LF/RF John Kelsey (.267, 51 HR, 323 RBI) inks a 7-yr, $11.48M contract with the Cyclones.

+++

Jones is foremost a second baseman. He also has considerable experience at third base, but that one is nunleyfied. In a pinch, he can play all infield positions.

Adam Young is a bit pale around the nose, so he’ll love it in the northern climate. He has hit 25+ homers and 110+ RBI in each of the last three seasons, while missing only six games in ’13 and none since. He does not strike out too often and gets the odd scared walk. He is slow and will hit into a few double plays just like our previous first basemen, but 110+ RBI for three straight years!

Even better – compared to Jones, who’s probably soundly overpaid, Young makes only $820k this year, and his contract will top out at $1.44M for both the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He is mobile enough to do a decent job at first base, and I am giddy like a little girl whenever some new My Little Horse **** comes out.

To be fair, Calderón is not as excited as me about Young. He literally wrote under his scouting report “I don’t know how he does it”.

John Korb was in the deal solely for financial reasons. The Bayhawks were also bidding on free agents and could not afford Alexander’s contract. Korb, a pretty mediocre pitching pretender, was the closest thing they had to an overpaid veteran on a small scale. He will make $406k this year and will be arbitration eligible at least once more. He has no options, but it’s not like anybody would pick him up. While he was 14-3 with a 2.59 ERA in AAA last year – which easily tops all of our AAA starters – his major league track record suggests that he’s somewhere between Tom Constantino and two rotten bananas in terms of pitching ability.

Ex-Coons who have signed minor deals so far: Josh Gibson inked with the Condors for 2-yr, $424k; Dan Nordahl (who killed the Warriors’ playoff ambitions single-handedly) joined the Rebels for $308k;

+++

We’re not even at the rule 5 draft yet, but it’s been an intense ten days since the roster was washed clean. And good ten days! Very good!

I swear I do not have the trade AI on “retarded”. They’ve never been this eager to deal me players…

Before the offseason began I had the depressing plan of dealing Hector Santos for impact bats. Thankfully that didn’t happen …!
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Old 11-22-2016, 06:11 PM   #2088
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I guess I will go ahead and renew my season tickets!

Adam Young looks like the best 1B the Raccoons have had since that Japanese fella was catching ladies' undergarments (well, mostly ladies, except for a pair or two of mine) on his way out of the stadium!
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Old 11-23-2016, 05:00 PM   #2089
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The 2016 Hall of Fame ballot is a headcracker. Martin Garcia, ... and then?

I just feel like Neil Reece missed his train last year, and there won't be another one with this crowded ballot.

Note that the mentioned World Series Trophies are borked. Rings won before 2003/4 when the league migrated to OOTP 16 are not counted. Neil Reece f.e. should have two rings, Steve Rogers should have one, and so on. Neither do the missing rings show on profiles. Platinum Sticks were not awarded before 2003/4 at all.
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Old 11-23-2016, 05:26 PM   #2090
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The Raccoons still had only three starting pitchers at the end of November. We had made an offer to Tadasu Abe, but this would probably take a while. We still had Jonny, Brownie, and Santos, so our needs in terms of top line pitching were probably satisfied. We had to find a decent enough fifth starter that wouldn’t kill us and would come cheap. Handedness didn’t matter, because – and this will be front page news – Jonny Toner would be the #1 starter in 2016, and Brownie would move into the #2 slot, so if we got a left-hander, they wouldn’t start back-to-back. Brownie is still Brownie, but if you win a Pitcher of the Year title, you’re number one by default. Brownie will understand. Dang, I sure hope so.

Not that there weren’t interesting starting pitchers on the market outside of Tadasu Abe, but we had to stay realistic for a while. Sure I would like to add Jaquan Wagoner to the fold, but he was going to command another three million bucks, and we were liable to run out of three million bucks-sized pieces of our money pie at some point. Besides, outside of our three starters, we also only had six relievers, and that included Marco Gomez, John Korb, and Francisquo Bocanegra, who were still on the not-so-active-anymore roster.

Leading up to the rule 5 draft, the only minor leaguers that were on the 40-man roster were Magnotta and Dupes, the other starting pitchers that would not help us any, plus catcher Pedro Torruellas (and he deserved to be taken off) and infielder Ricky Moya, who had had some value a few years ago as a decent prospect, but now was 25 and instilled sadness. There was not all that much to add to the 40-man, either.

Back to starting pitching. I wasn’t keen on adding chronic injury cases, and I wasn’t keen on another $3M deal. That latter condition ruled out Wagoner and Pancho Trevino (ex-NYC!), and the former eliminated once-decent guys like Alfredo Collazo and Juan Garcia, the latter still the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in the ABL, but eight years later he was just one big surgery scar, and nothing else.

What eventually caught my eye was decent consistency, and I found it in ex-Logger and Crusader A.J. Bartels. He hadn’t pitched to a sub-4 ERA since 2011, but he wasn’t walking the world, he was no home run machine. If there was something I didn’t exactly like, it the fact that the Crusaders had buried him in the minors for all of 2014.

The winter meetings are about to start. I have not heard a lot from or about R.J. DeWeese since making him an offer. The general silence might indicate that not a lot of franchises are interested in him, but I assume he will wait for another offer to come in during the winter meetings. Whether he signs with us or the Crusaders, I’m certain that the winter meetings will give me an opportunity to get completely drunk.

+++

November 27 – Former Pacifics 3B Jens Carroll (.293, 58 HR, 687 RBI) joins the division rivals Gold Sox on a 2-yr, $4.88M contract.
November 29 – The Warriors grab 29-yr old ex-POR RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.275, 103 HR, 431 RBI) for 7-yr, $9.38M.
November 30 – One of the year’s biggest free agents elects a change of scenery: ex-NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.299, 287 HR, 1,253 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $8.92M contract with the Dallas Stars. Martin owns six World Series rings, nine Gold Gloves, 8 All Star nominations, three Platinum Sticks, a Hitter of the Year award, and two CLCS MVP awards.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: 12 players are taken. The Raccoons draft 22-yr old AA SP Chris Munroe from the Aces.
December 1 – The other one stays: Stanton Martin’s Crusaders-partner-in-crime with six World Series rings signs a retirement extension with the Crusaders, as 35-year old LF Martin Ortíz (.297, 318 HR, 1,448 RBI) signs a 3-yr deal through 2019 that will pay him another $12.88M.
December 2 – The Raccoons announce the addition of 24-year old Japanese free agent SP Tadasu Abe on a 5-yr, $7.8M contract.
December 5 – Ex-SFB CL Micah Steele (44-50, 2.92 ERA, 233 SV) agrees to a 2-yr, $1.5M contract with the Thunder.
December 6 – The Gold Sox sign ex-NAS C Pat Walston (.271, 75 HR, 426 RBI). The 31-year old left-handed batter is going to be earning $14.64M over six years.
December 6 – From the Gold Sox to the Stars goes 37-yr old LF Victorino Sanchez (.356, 202 HR, 1,324 RBI). Sanchez will try to utilize his 1-yr, $1.98M contract to make up the missing 134 hits on career hits leader Dale Wales in 2016.
December 6 – The Cyclones deal SP Ted McKenzie (49-53, 4.09 ERA) to the Thunder, netting two decent but unranked prospects for the 27-year old.
December 7 – Another former Raccoon gets picked up by the Warriors, who sign CL Angel Casas (21-23, 1.85 ERA, 446 SV) to a 3-yr, $4.38M contract.
December 7 – 39-year old ex-LAP 1B/3B Dennis Berman (.284, 320 HR, 1,520 RBI) agrees to a 2-yr, $3.08M deal with the Knights.

+++

Nobody seemed to have been bidding for Abe, which is a bit surprising, since there is some obvious talent there. We might have gotten him for much less – a bit like the Umberger bargain a number of years back. I like his huge assortment of pitches, and while not one pitch stands out too greatly, the huge mix should give him all the required weapons to deal with batters. Or runners. Not that there should be so many of those.

Chris Munroe is a roll with four dice trying to get four sixes. His stats indicate that the Aces probably could have moved him up to AAA half a season ago, as he clearly dominated AA batting in 2014 and 2015, running a 4.8 K/BB in the latter year. He is a flyball pitcher, and his fastball is nothing much. He was drafted in the last round of the 2011 draft, 299th overall (so six picks later than Brownie in ’95). For that, he’s already more than one could ever have hoped for. I am not enough of a lunatic (yet) to throw him into the rotation. I see him as long man and spot starter, and if he can’t do that either, we will shrug and send him back.

Former Raccoons and what they’re up to: Marcos Bruno got another gig worth $300k with the Stars. The Condors poked at Daniel Dickerson with a $308k stick.
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Old 11-24-2016, 06:39 PM   #2091
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While we picked up both A.J. Bartels and Kevin Beaver (who was obviously despaired and signed despite being offended) during the winter meetings in some lovely kitsch hotel in Los Angeles, there were also some really, really disturbing news.

The Crusaders were after R.J. DeWeese!

After silence for weeks, DeWeese called me to say that the Crusaders had made him a really nice offer and that he was tempted to pick it up, especially since it came from a winning team. That one stung a bit. I gulped down my first response and instead scratched another million together to impress him. That night, I couldn’t sleep one bit and the next morning I was wrecked. Maaaaybe alcohol was in play. I won’t say. It was bad enough, however, that I almost made a 6-year offer to Kaz Kichida for some 12 million.

The DeWeese drama aside, we also still lacked a catcher (unless the combo of Danny Margolis and Tom McNeela looked promising of anything else than a combined .217, 5 HR, 41 RBI output), a right-handed setup reliever, and we also were not entirely clear on our backup infielders.

Poor Sandy Sambrano! His name probably hasn’t come up once this offseason. With Howard Jones and Adam Young aboard, Sandy’s two primary infield positions are occupied, and with the Raccoons in hot pursuit with flying tails of R.J. DeWeese, the outfield would be full soon as well. It looked a hell of a lot like Sandy would be one of the bench pieces.

We also still had Jason Bergquist, Brock Hudman, and Walt Canning. Bergquist might be a damn fine batter, or he might be not, but if he actually is, he knows how to ****ing hide it. He is batting .233/.305/.327 for his career in over 700 at-bats. He is a pretty good defensive second baseman, but he doesn’t play anything else. He’s not exactly a manager’s dream.

Canning plays on the left side of the infield, Hudman plays everywhere a little bit, and neither has a career OPS exceeding .660 … They all bat right-handed. Assuming we manage to uncover a decent catcher somewhere to supplant Margolis, we also get Margolis as right-handed bat off the bench. Sandy is a switch-hitter. Between the five outfielders that were still on the roster (Cookie, Richards, Ochoa, Chisholm, and Johnson) and DeWeese we had only left-handed batters. Looks like it will be hard to build a lineup against left-handed pitching, but right-handed pitching will only face one right-handed batter (Howard Jones), plus whatever will be the primary catcher.

But before we could blow money on a catcher, we had to pool all available resources to get our main goal R.J. DeWeese, because the ****ing Crusaders were after him as well!

Damn the Crusaders!

+++

December 8 – The 33-yr old ex-Titan 1B Tony Ramos (.297, 98 HR, 744 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $3.74M contract with the Scorpions.
December 9 – The Raccoons come to terms with 31-yr old ex-PIT MR Kevin Beaver (41-47, 3.84 ERA, 51 SV), who agrees to a 2-yr, $1.4M contract.
December 9 – Also jumping onto the Raccoons train is ex-NYC SP A.J. Bartels (63-69, 4.48 ERA), who signs a 1-yr, $440k deal.

December 9 – The Blue Sox deal 30-yr old OF Joey Kretz (.253, 17 HR, 114 RBI) to the Gold Sox for two prospects, including #124 SP Brian Leser.
December 11 – The Loggers deal SP Adam Euteneuer (23-43, 5.07 ERA) to the Aces for #55 prospect C Josh Wool.

+++

The Aces picked up Tom Constantino for 2-yr, $458k; the Falcons have signed Adrian Quebell to a $416k contract; Freddy Rosa will get $462k from the Warriors;
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Old 11-25-2016, 08:48 PM   #2092
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Christmas was coming and we had yet to unearth a catcher. The good free agents were more or less gone, except for Pat Eaton, but his defensive skill set was really not what I was looking for. There were a few things to consider: do we look for someone to pair with Danny Margolis (which was probably a “yay”), and do we insist on a left-handed or switch-hitter to generate a platoon leverage? If yes, the options were scarce (and Eaton was batting right-handed anyway), and came down to a select few.

Ignoring former Furballs of the “scorched earth” category, there were really only two left-handers in play. Aaron Case was one of them, but he was also frequently fooled on errant breaking stuff, and the other would be Alonso Baca, which was a bit of a defensive option. Baca had been the primary catcher for the Loggers and then the Elks for a number of years in the late 2000s and until 2011, but then fell onto hard times and only got backup jobs the last four years, with changing fortunes. He had batted .298 with the Wolves in ’15, but hadn’t even reached 100 plate appearances, but the year before he had batted .218 in 115 plate appearances. It was really hard to say what you could get from him…

Meanwhile the R.J. DeWeese drama kept raging. As the holidays drew closer, the Crusaders moved the bidding war well over $20M, and the Knights and Pacifics were also rumored to be involved, though the Knights would have a hard time fitting DeWeese, Gil Rockwell, and Dennis Berman into their lineup… They were already the team hitting the most homers in the Continental League, but some non-fatal pitching would do them really good… Then came Christmas’ Eve and they unpacked themselves a former Crusaders starter, so that was that.

I also tried to trade Jason Bergquist around this date, but the returns that teams offered were rather meager.

+++

December 17 – The Pacifics have themselves a new catcher, signing ex-Logger Foster Leach (.279, 42 HR, 445 RBI) to a 3-yr, $2.22M contract.
December 19 – Former Capitals CL Juan Jimenez (44-37, 2.69 ERA, 218 SV) joins the Cyclones. The 32-year old southpaw will make $1.84M in 2016.
December 22 – The Warriors keep loading up on former Raccoons, adding 36-year old 1B Stanley Murphy (.289, 257 HR, 1,056 RBI) on a 2-yr, $2.74M contract.
December 23 – The Rebels collect the services of ex-NAS SP Alfredo Collazo (113-109, 4.41 ERA). The 34-year old right-hander will make $1.42M over two years.
December 24 – The Knights sign ex-NYC SP Pancho Trevino (218-143, 3.58 ERA) to a 3-yr, $3.88M contract. Trevino, 36, was part of five of the Crusaders’ six recent World Championship teams.
December 25 – The Crusaders think they have found a replacement for Stanton Martin; they have signed 39-yr old RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.322, 348 HR, 1,600 RBI) to a $1.58M deal for the 2016 season. Bailey was with the Thunder for the last three years, but played in only six games in ’15 before tearing his labrum.
December 26 – The Titans add to their bullpen with ex-LAP MR Ron Sakellaris (36-26, 3.34 ERA, 13 SV), who will get $800k for the 2016 season.
December 30 – Ex-POR LF/RF Luis Reya (.289, 114 HR, 804 RBI) signs a 3-yr, $2.58M deal with the Rebels.
January 6 – The Raccoons add ex-SAL C Alonso Baca (.260, 114 HR, 454 RBI) for the 2016 season. The 34-year old catcher will earn $315k.


+++

We’ll pair Baca with Margolis. It’s probably not going to be a straight platoon, and they might split playing time fairly evenly in the end. While we could have lunged for a top-of-the-line catcher earlier, I had DeWeese as my top priority for the offseason, plus the obvious pitching needs. While the trades for Jones and Young ended up roughly salary-neutral after all, I was too slow to make a bid for Pat Walston then, and we had to make a compromise between more glove or more bat.

Given that, should be acquire DeWeese after all, we are going to run a primary lineup in which Ron Richards will bat sixth, we might be able to swallow our pair of catchers batting .213 in the #8 hole.

Of our compensation-eligible players, only Kenichi Watanabe remains unsigned, which – let’s be fair – is not that much of a surprise.

One more former Furball was signed: Bill Conway hooked up with the Gold Sox for $310k;

+++

2016 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The ABL Hall of Fame will induct three new players this summer! The inductees are kind of varied in their resumes, with a starting pitcher that led the league in strikeouts and wins when he retired, a slugging third baseman whose career was cut short by big and small injuries, and a defensive centerfielder that also showed contact and power abilities with the bat.

Here are the complete voting results (with year on the ballot and percentage of votes received):

MIL SP Martin Garcia – 1st – 98.7% - INDUCTED
WAS 3B Jose Lopez – 1st – 76.4% - INDUCTED
POR CF Neil Reece – 6th – 76.4% - INDUCTED
BOS CL Javier Navarro – 1st – 73.4%
OCT SS Bob Grant – 3rd – 54.9%
CHA 2B Juan Barrón – 1st – 51.1%
SFB CL William Henderson – 5th – 50.6%
IND 3B David Lopez – 1st – 48.1%
SAC SP Whit Reeves – 1st – 45.6%
NYC RF Avery Johnson – 1st – 30.8%
NYC SP Anibal Sandoval – 2nd – 26.6%
BOS LF Jose Martinez – 9th – 18.6%
MIL 2B Jim Stein – 3rd – 15.2%
NAS CL Lorenzo Flores – 1st – 12.2%
DAL CL Arthur Joplin – 1st – 8.9%
DAL C Rob James – 2nd – 5.9%
??? 2B Hubert Green – 1st – 5.5%
??? 2B Masaaki Matsumoto – 2nd – 5.1%
BOS SP Jesus Bautista – 1st – 3.4% - DROPPED
??? SP Dan George – 1st – 3.4% - DROPPED
??? RP Ivan Lopez – 1st – 2.1% - DROPPED
TIJ RF Paul Theobald – 1st – 1.3% - DROPPED
OCT 3B Haruki Nakayama – 1st – 1.3% - DROPPED
OCT CL Jimmy Morey – 2nd – 0.8% - DROPPED
CHA RP Ray Hoskins – 1st – 0.8% - DROPPED
DAL SP Elwood Spurrell – 1st – 0.8% - DROPPED
??? SP Steve Rogers – 1st – 0.4% - DROPPED
BOS 2B Hector Ramirez – 1st – 0.4% - DROPPED
??? CL Sancho Rivera – 1st – 0.4% - DROPPED

Neil Reece is the fourth Raccoon inducted into the hall, after Tetsu Osanai, Grant West, and Kisho Saito. Interestingly, neither position player inducted this year reached even 2,000 career hits. Lopez was a slugger, while Reece played excellent defense, which boosted his WAR enough to get him recognized, I guess. My opinion about WAR is well known, I guess, but if it helps getting another Critter into the Hall, then it’s all well and fine!
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Old 11-25-2016, 08:56 PM   #2093
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Yay, Neil Reecee Cup!

I did not think he had a chance to make it....
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Old 11-26-2016, 05:08 AM   #2094
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I did not think he even belonged...

Don't tell him that. Please, god, no.
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:27 PM   #2095
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While I was digging our lineup versus right-handed pitching, left-handed pitching – with or without R.J. DeWeese – would give us a nightmare in 2016. Between Cookie, McKnight, Nunley, and Young – whom do you sit so that you don’t send four or five left-handed bats out there?

Our right-handed batting options were not exciting at all. Bergquist and Canning. Sandy Sambrano. Margolis. There was not a whole lot of upside to be had here. A right-handed bat for the outfield would be a great thing to have, to split time with Ron Richards, so we’d like a strong arm.

The reserve outfielders were not settled at all at this point. Brandon Johnson was a nice defensive alternative, but he was a left-handed batter, too, and so were Chisholm and Ochoa. We still had Jimmy Fucito stowed away in AAA, but if things go according to me, he’ll stay stowed away there. 22-year old Alex Duarte would start the season in AAA, but even then there was nothing hinting at him being any help in this coming season.

How much help do the Raccoons need, and how much can they afford?

The cheaper option might be looking for a hand change in the defensive outfielder and supplant Brandon Johnson with a right-hander or switch-hitter. This one was actually tougher than it sounded, especially considering only free agents. The hits were few and far between, and if a player generally fit the criteria of being decent-to-good on all outfield positions and not batting left-handed, then they were usually 38 years old like John Hudson.

The Condors’ Ryan Feldmann would be an interesting option, but he was a key part of a first-place team and the cost of acquiring him for what few prospects we had was probably prohibitive. It didn’t hurt asking, but let’s just say that GM Gabriel Villanueva was asking for more than my pain threshold. No deal without either Nunley, or Cookie, or Tadasu Abe.

But that’s okay. After all I’m not looking towards adding a starter (since the DeWeese chase was still hot), but just a defensive backup to nibble up a few dozen starts against left-handed pitching. Still, options were scarce. You quickly ended up with players like Dylan Grindstaff, who was almost 31, had barely over two years of service time, and when he had played a full season with the 2014 Wolves, had batted .203 with eight homers.

There were also relievers to add to the roster, which still saw the recently acquired John Korb as perhaps the fourth-best right-handed replacement for canned starters. That had to change!

In mid-January, Zack Entwistle was still unclaimed, which certainly had nothing to do with his pitiful performance last season which didn’t match his salary expectations at all. There was another ex-Raccoon available, Adam Riddle. He had been merely okay when he came up with the Coons in the mid-2000s, and we had traded him to the Capitals with last-rounder Danny Zigay to gain the services of Juan Barrón after the 2007 season. He had basically done fairly okay for his career, but he was now 33 and had a bank account to fill. To that end, he insisted on a 4-year deal, and the Raccoons backed out of negotiations fairly quickly.

I made offers to two veteran 7th/8th inning relievers on the 18th, which was just the wrong moment. That afternoon, R.J. DeWeese’s agent called and informed me that the Thunder were packing bundles of dollar notes into suitcases to win his client’s favor.

Two days later, the Crusaders picked up outfielder Winston Jones, which was big news for us, since they were paying Jones a lot of coins and I was highly doubtful that they would continue to pursue DeWeese after that, since they still had perennial Player of the Year Martin Ortíz, and neither of the three made a good impression in center.

One way or another, our outfield situation didn’t resolve until February…

+++

January 7 – The Bayhawks add ex-SFW C/1B Pat Eaton (.254, 30 HR, 251 RBI) for 2-yr, $1.14M.
January 9 – The Raccoons acquire 32-yr old OF Juan Medina (.293, 2 HR, 92 RBI) from the Canadiens in exchange for 28-yr old SP Marco Gomez (0-3, 9.13 ERA) and 23-yr old AA MR Tim Patton.
January 9 – The Condors trade 27-yr old C Cory Roland (.268, 15 HR, 72 RBI) to the Warriors for 28-yr old 1B Mike Gershkovich (.299, 16 HR, 82 RBI).
January 11 – Former Warriors closer and reigning Federal League Pitcher of the Year Arturo Lopez (55-57, 2.37 ERA, 341 SV) stays in the FL West, signing a 3-yr, $6.84M deal with the Pacifics.
January 20 – Big signing in Washington, as the Capitals ink ex-LVA SP Jaquan Wagoner (73-70, 3.87 ERA) to a 6-yr, $19.24M contract.
January 20 – The Crusaders sign ex-RIC LF/RF Winston Jones (.289, 119 HR, 72 RBI) to a 2-year deal. The 32-year old will earn $3.76M as part of the deal.
February 4 – The Raccoons confirm the addition of 29-yr old ex-CIN LF/RF R.J. DeWeese (.249, 193 HR, 621 RBI) on a 7-yr, $23.1M contract. The Raccoons forfeit their second-round pick.
February 4 – 39-yr old ex-POR SP Kenichi Watanabe (66-91, 4.17 ERA) signs a 1-yr, $242k deal with the Canadiens.

February 4 – The Crusaders sign 37-yr old ex-WAS 3B Alex Rivas (.244, 53 HR, 256 RBI) to a 1-yr, $940k contract.
February 13 – The Aces have a new closer, adding 35-yr old ex-TOP Jose Medina (15-19, 3.97 ERA, 51 SV) for three years and $1.83M.

+++

After almost three months of counting coins, R.J. DeWeese is here! Finally! That $23.1M contact is flat, $3.3M per year, with the last year in 2022 a player option. There are also incentives because who can live off $3.3M these days?

… and then he immediately pissed off his newly-won team mates, announcing at the press conference for his introduction that this was a deal that would settle him for life, and it came from a pathetic team that had recognized that only a player of his caliber could save them from their misery. His bat alone would lead them to the playoffs. When baited by Jim Palehose from the Agitator about whom on the roster he admired most, DeWeese calmly announced that he alone was worth admiring on this roster.

Immediately after that could-have-gone-better presser I made sure that I had enough ammo for the gun in my top drawer to shoot me once for every million I had signed him for; Nick Brown had sent an email after seeing the press conference online that clearly stated his intention to consume DeWeese’s lunch every single ****ing day; and Maud, usually the only sane one around the premises, but now with her bun undone, took seven Aspirin with a healthy dose of Jack Brainloss whiskey and laid down face-down on my couch.

Maud, we gotta make some ****ing bobbleheads for DeWeese. – Maud? – Nah, she’s dosed off.

Medina is a cheap solution to the defensive outfielder thing. He’s 32 and will be under team control at least until he’s 34, but it was the best thing you could get for little to put on the table. Gomez stinks, and Patton’s prospect status extinguished basically as soon as we took him in the eighth round of the 2013 draft. Medina is a switch-hitter, who has been roughly even against right-handed and left-handed pitching in what little major league exposure he has managed to get.

It required talking to someone with moose breath, but I’m proud of that deal.

The hunt for right-handed relief goes on, although the options get scarcer. I was after Clyde Henderson, who had several stints with the Knights, but he rejected a 2-yr, $1M offer, longing for three years or more. I pulled back the offer, and he eventually had to sign with the Aces for 2-yr, $672k. I continue to entertain offers, but setup relief could be a weak spot…

+++

What else? Ralph Ford signed a $350k deal with the Stars, who also added Raúl Hernandez for $246k. The Aces picked up John Alexander for $850k. Vic Flores got a $312k gig from the Bayhawks. Nelson Chavez joined the Capitals for $284k. The Thunder have signed Daryl Anderson for $267k. The Titans will bring back Matt Pruitt into the division for $236k.

Poor Pruitt spent the entire 2015 season in the minors, batting .314 with six homers in 74 games. His last big league stint was with the 2014 Indians, where he batted .271 with seven homers in 369 AB.

+++

I’ve been slow with things recently. This has nothing to do with the Raccoons. Bought a lot of gaming stuff the last few months, didn’t like any of it. Nothing tickles my fancy. Joyless gaming here, and a job that slowly consumes my soul (although I’d blame certain people around the premises more than the actual work – consulting, accounting, taxes) I just find it hard to get excited by anything recently, and I have watched a lot of TV stuff from the olden days, in passive mode, without OOTP open on the side. ‘Olden days’ in my case would be stuff from the 80s or so. Golden Girls mainly, some Star Trek, and also a whole bunch of episodes of ‘Tatort’ [‘Crime Scene’], which is a police drama that is virtually unknown in the States although I do know that it used to run on obscure channels over at your end of the pond with subtitles. Some of those episodes will rip your guts right out. Watched a few of those as well recently.

Yeah, I don’t know. Slow days ‘round here right now. Opening Day should be somewhere in the middle of this week anyway. But I’m not excited.
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:51 PM   #2096
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Deweese just screams bust to me. Hopefully im wrong.

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Old 11-27-2016, 05:24 PM   #2097
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February 26 – The Condors sign ex-POR MR Zack Entwistle (30-40, 3.54 ERA, 54 SV) to a 3-yr, $2.88M contract.
March 2 – The Stars ink ex-SFW/BOS CL Valentim Innocentes (30-35, 3.09 ERA, 192 SV) to a 3-yr, $1.62M deal.
March 3 – Another addition for the Raccoons, who sign 27-year old Korean international free agent MR Seung-mo Chun to a 1-yr, $200k contract.
March 19 – One of the last prominent free agents comes off the table as the Warriors sign ex-MIL CL Kevin Cummings (26-21, 3.35 ERA, 59 SV). The 33-year old southpaw receives a 1-yr, $780k deal.

+++

Chun is nothing special, basic fastball/slider combo, with decent control and movement. He generates groundballs, which is always dandy in Critters Ballpark.

I still have an offer out there for a right-handed reliever that has not signed as of Monday morning, April 4. 33-year old right-hander Lou Cannon does have a few suitors, but we’re talking about a 1-year deal for less than 500 grand here, and he’s been considering his options for eight weeks now. Get the **** moving, Lou!

Other signings of former Critters: Adam Riddle got $504k over two years from the Stars; Joe O’Brian got $244k from the Wolves (he only made 13 appearances for the Coons when we also flipped relievers with the Capitals outside of stealing Cookie from them – plus assorted other prospects – for half a season of “Dingus” Morales); Rob Howell signed a $252k deal with the Loggers literally five minutes before Opening Day, on Sunday night.
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Old 11-28-2016, 02:14 PM   #2098
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2016 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set shows 2015 numbers, second set overall; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Jonathan Toner, 25, B:R, T:R (18-5, 2.16 ERA | 41-16, 2.43 ERA) – Jonny’s Pitcher of the Year campaign in 2015 saw him miss the triple crown by a single measly win, while leading the league not only in strikeouts (254; breaking Nick Brown’s franchise mark for a single season), but also WHIP (0.81!). He throws pure filth, and walked only 41 batters – a real ace if there ever was one.
SP Nick Brown, 38, B:L, T:L (17-9, 2.94 ERA | 200-117, 2.85 ERA) – the flash is gone with Nick Brown, who in 2014 came back from injury with much less velocity, stuff, and most notably strikeouts. But despite all that he has lost (which includes a number of franchise records now owned by Toner), he still ranks in the top 10 of the ERA leaderboard, undoing base path trouble with groundballs instead of strikeouts. His home runs allowed have also gone down considerably since 2014. Enters the season with exactly 1,000 walks against 2,968 strikeouts and needs to pitch 160 innings to trigger a $1.8M vesting option for 2017. His hamstrings are an issue, leaving him to abandon three starts in ’15.
SP Hector Santos, 27, B:S, T:R (9-11, 2.96 ERA | 52-47, 3.47 ERA) – while setting new career bests in ERA and strikeouts, Hector was the main victim of the Raccoons’ lackluster offense in 2015, which left him with a losing record despite a sub-3 ERA. His slider is the bane of batting, but unfortunately he tends to leave things hanging over the middle from time to time to get clonkered. He’s allowed 86 homers in 907 innings, with a career-high of 30 dingers in 2013, which then led the league.
SP Tadasu Abe *, 24, B:R, T:R (rookie) – signed as international free agent, Abe has a multitude of decent-to-strong pitches that lets him fool the hitters endlessly, while also generating a lot of groundballs with his cutter; might be undervalued as a fourth starter.
SP A.J. Bartels *, 30, B:R, T:R (9-12, 4.52 ERA | 63-69, 4.48 ERA) – signed as free agent and picked out mostly for the important fifth starter qualities, which include MT/9 – Manager’s Tears per nine innings. Decent curveball/forkball combo in addition to his decent fastball, but occasionally will get taken over the fence. Won two rings with the Crusaders.

MU John Korb *, 30, B:R, T:R (0-0, 1.93 ERA | 17-14, 6.03 ERA, 2 SV) – a throw-in in the deal that brought in Adam Young, Korb would have been removed from the roster if the Raccoons could have signed right-hander Lou Cannon in time for the start of the season. Not suited for more than mopping up in blowouts.
MU Chris Munroe *, 23, B:R, T:R (rookie) – picked from the Aces in the rule 5 draft, Munroe might not be major league ready at all, but we do know that he dominated AA batting in 2015 and might have done well enough against AAA hitters as well. Throws a nasty knuckle curve that sometimes is left hanging, which is exactly the point when he starts giving up runs.
MR Seung-mo Chun *, 27, B:S, T:R (rookie) – the second international free agent that the Coons signed over the winter is from Korea and works with a fastball/slider combo that produces grounders to feed to our middle infielders.
MR Manobu Sugano, 31, B:L, T:L (1-2, 2.74 ERA, 1 SV| 12-9, 2.44 ERA, 7 SV) – his ever more ridiculous splits should see Sugano avoid right-handed batting as much as possible as a real situational lefty. Has appeared in 74 or more games in all of his four major league seasons, including 78 games in ’15 while then pitching a career-low 49.1 innings.
MR Chris Mathis, 29, B:R, T:R (3-2, 2.38 ERA, 1 SV | 10-4, 2.87 ERA, 3 SV) – a rare case of a player breaking out in his late 20s, Mathis appeared in 70 games in his age 28 season, more than in his previous big league assignments combined, and did a really good job fooling hitters with that curve.
MR Kevin Beaver *, 32, B:L, T:L (6-2, 4.81 ERA | 41-47, 3.84 ERA, 51 SV) – this general-purpose left-hander was signed as free agent to get through innings in which the opposition will alternate left- and right-handed hitters, since he has much more balanced splits than Sugano.
CL Ron Thrasher, 28, B:L, T:L (5-2, 3.64 ERA, 5 SV | 20-15, 2.66 ERA, 14 SV) – blessed with an executioner’s stuff, but saddled with a drunkard’s control, Thrasher has struck out 70+ in every full season, while missing 30 walks only once (in 2011). Will try to replace the departed Angel Casas, who was never somebody to walk the bases full in the ninth inning.

C Alonso Baca *, 35, B:L, T:R (.298, 3 HR, 7 RBI | .260, 114 HR, 454 RBI) – this free agent addition has not been the primary catcher for any team since 2011, and also does not exactly excel defensively; him and Margolis might split time fairly evenly unless one of them slumps.
C Danny Margolis, 25, B:R, T:R (.238, 4 HR, 21 RBI | .243, 5 HR, 28 RBI) – hardly managed to hit a ball in the second half of 2015, seeing him drop in favor after his good-enough debut late in 2014. Would actually be the better defensive catcher compared to Baca, with a really good throwing arm.

1B Adam Young *, 27, B:L, T:L (.328, 27 HR, 117 RBI | .310, 86 HR, 374 RBI) – acquired in trade with the Bayhawks, this defensively solid left-hander is a pure slugger that inflicts hurt to the tune of 25 homers and 110+ RBI annually on opposing pitching. The Raccoons really need someone like that.
2B/3B/1B Howard Jones *, 30, B:R, T:R (.255, 11 HR, 68 RBI | .264, 32 HR, 377 RBI) – this versatile infielder was brought in after trading with the Cyclones and will be the new second base starter. Just last year he increased his power, but bought that with about 30 points of average, and we’re not sure whether that’s a good thing. He spent most of his career with the Aces.
SS/2B/3B Ronnie McKnight, 25, B:L, T:R (.278, 20 HR, 91 RBI | .290, 20 HR, 98 RBI) – when acquiring McKnight from the Cyclones last winter we expected to get strong defense (and he won the Gold Glove), but didn’t quite see him also claim the Platinum Stick at short *and* Rookie of the Year honors. He’s just raw fun to have in the lineup!
3B Matt Nunley, 25, B:L, T:R (.324, 12 HR, 66 RBI | .298, 20 HR, 123 RBI) – 2014 ROTY Nunley had a great season in his sophomore year, which also saw him hit 31 doubles and for a .837 OPS. He makes a legit case for batting third in the order.
1B/LF/2B/CF/RF/SS Sandy Sambrano, 28, B:S, T:R (.245, 3 HR, 36 RBI | .268, 10 HR, 241 RBI) – Sandy combines versatility with a steady singles bat and great speed; he has amassed 157 stolen bases so far. Unfortunately we added new players on all of his preferred positions, so he’s kind of the odd one out right now after logging 530+ PA in each of his last three seasons.
2B Jason Bergquist, 26, B:R, T:R (.219, 5 HR, 27 RBI | .233, 8 HR, 59 RBI) – despite not doing anything worth getting excited about, Bergquist somehow retained his spot on the team. Good defensive second baseman, but his stick instills sadness in our home crowd.

LF/RF R.J. DeWeese *, 29, B:L, T:L (.233, 35 HR, 109 RBI | .249, 193 HR, 621 RBI) – handed the biggest contract the Raccoons ever shelled out at $23.1M, DeWeese represents a long-term bet on the franchise’s success for the next seven years. He goes after pitches like a mad man, which has resulted in two home run trophies over in the FL as well as two thorny strikeout crowns.
LF/CF/RF Ricardo Carmona, 24, B:L, T:R (.332, 0 HR, 47 RBI | .328, 9 HR, 183 RBI) – the Jose Morales bonanza a few years ago has already worked out when you look at this young Panamanian pony, racing along the beach and gnawing through opposing pitchers. He missed out on the SB title after winning it in 2013 and 2014, and also finished runner-up in the batting race for the second year in a row. His defense isn’t quite what got Neil Reece into the Hall of Fame, but he’s not killing anybody out there in center. If he could just stay healthy… he has yet to start 140 games in a season.
RF/LF Ron Richards, 30, B:L, T:L (.270, 22 HR, 73 RBI | .256, 81 HR, 306 RBI) – the only one of the diabolically pathetic assumed slugging quartet to make it into the new season with the Raccoons, Ron Richards certainly did not hurt the team with his .805 OPS, although it was a noticeable step down from 2014. We’ll see whether his 5-yr, $8.5M extension will kill us after all. His defense is also an issue and he will be subbed out frequently late in games if the Coons are just barely ahead.
RF/LF/CF Juan Medina *, 32, B:S, T:R (.317, 2 HR, 67 RBI | .293, 2 HR, 92 RBI) – acquired from the Elks after a breakout season at age 31, which in fact saw him collect more at-bats than in his previous career combined, Medina will play primarily as a defensive backup, but also figures to collect a number of starts against left-handed pitching.
RF/LF/1B Danny Ochoa, 27, B:L, T:L (.252, 4 HR, 22 RBI | .252, 4 HR, 22 RBI) – was impressive early after a midseason callup in 2015, but faded in the last two months. Not much of a defender. Since he’s the only natural left-handed bat off the bench on most days that doesn’t need to be held back to sub for Richards defensively (which figures to be Medina’s job), he might mostly hit for the pitcher in low-key spots or when the team is already losing. Probably replaceable.

On disabled list:
MR George Youngblood, 30, B:L, T:L (0-1, 11.25 ERA | 6-2, 4.24 ERA, 2 SV) – will labor on a torn flexor tendon for another three months, but had not been on the 40-man roster at the time of injury.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
C Tom McNeela, 27, B:L, T:R (.133, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .235, 1 HR, 13 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; every year same old, same old: McNeela is being DFA’ed on Opening Day for the fourth straight year. Middling defensively, and with 1 RBI in the last four years combined in 106 AB.
3B/SS Walt Canning, 30, B:R, T:R (.263, 1 HR, 11 RBI | .254, 8 HR, 83 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; not much of a batter or shortstop, Canning chipped a few singles here and there at times, but never made even a slight impact since debuting in 2010.

Opening day lineup:
Vs. RHP: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Toner
(Vs. LHP: CF Carmona – RF Medina – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – SS Jones – LF DeWeese – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – P Toner)

The lineup vs. lefties looks just bad, but you try to come up with something when you have seven left-handers in your primary lineup. Jones batting ahead of DeWeese is just wrong, and batting Medina second is also a folly at best, but the required personnel to build a more balanced lineup is just not there…

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

After a calm offseason before the 2014 campaign, the Raccoons start the 2015 season with a whopping 11 new players on the roster. Some additions can be labeled big, like Young and DeWeese, some small, like Medina, and some you don’t really know what you’ll get, like Abe, Chun, Korb, and Munroe. While the lineup should – goddamnit! – finally be improved to contend for a spot in the upper third in runs scored, and the rotation looks still solid at the back end, the bullpen will be a constant source of tears this season. At least BNN liked our offseason wheelings and dealings, ranking ups tops in WAR gains, which of course does not assign any value to Abe and Chun, f.e.;

Top 5: Raccoons (+8.4), Gold Sox (+8.2), Condors (+5.7), Cyclones (+5.6), Stars (+4.0)
Bottom 5: Buffaloes (-4.5), Bayhawks (-4.9), Loggers (-5.2), Blue Sox (-9.0), Aces (-9.5)

PREDICTION TIME:

Last year I saw the Raccoons somewhere around 90-72 and 15 games behind the Crusaders, but they actually took their second-biggest plunge in terms of wins from one year to the next ever, dropping 19 games to 78-84 and finished fifth in the North, 22 behind the Crusaders, and also behind the Loggers, which always hurts.

This 2016 roster could constitute an always desirable rebuild in sixth gear. The Raccoons were lucky enough to get rid of enough huge, useless contracts either through free agency (Murphy, Reya, Bednarski, Entwistle, Casas), or trade (Alexander), or the player’s spiritual death (Dickerson) that they could pursue any player they wanted in free agency, and they even got all of their key men, and at times more than they could have hoped for (Young!). And the best thing is: only the DeWeese signing actually cost a draft pick, and it was only a second-round pick. There are still compensation-eligible free agents out there, but the situation on Opening Day is such that the Raccoons would have the #9, #30, #45, #50, and #51 picks in the June draft, which would produce a rich load for normal teams, and another funny story of failure for the Critters, but we have to get there first…

What can this team do? First, the Crusaders have not lost that much outside of Stanton Martin and Pancho Trevino (the one who’s breathing down Brownie’s neck in the career strikeout table), and they added ****ing Curtis Tobitt and Winston Jones. They could just as well win 100 games yet again, and I don’t think the Raccoons can even remotely stink up to that.

True, the offense is much improved (now that’s an old record…), and if everybody keeps hitting the way they hit in 2014 and previous years, the Coons should challenge for five runs per game and a top 3 value in runs scored. However, our lineup is horrendously lop-sided, we will have no production from the catcher’s spot, and then there’s the pitching. First, we kind of know what to expect from Toner and Santos (greatness!) as well as Bartels (low-4 ERA, if things go well), but we have two wild cards in the rotation in the Japanese free agent Abe and in Brownie, who is definitely getting older and certainly not getting better. And then there’s the bullpen, which currently has no qualified setup man, a closer that will walk the bases loaded with no warning, and two or three mop-up guys. Even if Abe clicks and Brownie cheats the Death of Pitchers another year, this bullpen will cost the Coons wins frequently and they can not expect to compete this way. The Raccoons will finish 90-72 (and this time I mean it) and safely behind the Crusaders, perhaps battling the Elks for second place.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Coons’ ravaged farm system that almost bottomed out in 22nd place last year, had a mild renaissance in the newest prospect rankings, but it’s probably for the wrong reasons. First, last year we had only six top 200 prospects. That number is up to ten now, but only two of those are in the top 100, and only one of those is actually a prospect. See below…

Ranked last year but not anymore are #91 Jeff Magnotta (inept) and #168 Francisquo Bocanegra (too old).

26th (+137) – A OF Ricky Cruz, 20 – international discovery by the Raccoons (Juan Calderón)
51st (new) – ML SP Tadasu Abe, 24 – 2015 international free agent signed by Raccoons
103rd (-56) – AA SP Ricky Martinez, 21 – 2011 international free agent signed by Raccoons
148th (new) – A 1B/2B Tony Velasquez, 20 – international discovery by the Raccoons (Juan Calderón)
163rd (new) – A SS/2B Sam Armetta, 19 – 2014 third round pick by the Raccoons
169th (new) – A SP Danny Arguello, 19 – 2013 international free agent signed by Raccoons
174th (-25) – AAA SP David Tucci, 24 – 2012 ninth round pick by the Condors, signed as minor-league free agent
197th (new) – AA OF Andy Bareford, 21 – 2013 supplemental round pick by the Raccoons
199th (new) – INT SS/2B Ismael Pastor, 16 – 2015 international free agent signed by Raccoons
200th (-8) – AAA CF Alex Duarte, 22 – 2011 eighth round pick by the Raccoons

No, I still can’t draft. Stop asking.

The top 5 overall prospects this year are SAL OF/1B/2B Quinn Jewell, DEN SP Tommy Weintraub (#1 last year), DEN SP Warren Polito, TIJ SP Andrew Gudeman (also #4 last year), and NAS INF John Muller (#2 last year).

Next: first pitch.
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Old 11-28-2016, 05:00 PM   #2099
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Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 5-7, 2016

The new season is here, and it starts against the worst team from last season, the 62-100 Titans, whom the Raccoons had won 13 games against.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Ian Rutter (0-0)
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Dave Priest (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Jonathan Ryan (0-0)

Only right-handers to start the season!

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – LF Pruitt – 3B T. Thomas – RF X. Williams – CF Blake – P Rutter
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Toner

Mike Rivera started the season with a single to left and stole his first base right away when Alonso Baca fell asleep behind the dish, but Jonny struck out Jose Gutierrez, Steve Butler, and Tim Robinson in order to leave Rivera stranded at second base. In the bottom 1st the Coons would have singles by McKnight and Nunley before Young and DeWeese both softly grounded out … but I was totally sure it was nothing. While the Coons would have the first single of Howard Jones as a newly-clad Furball and then ended their day, the Titans had leadoff singles in each of the first three innings, but never scored. In the sixth, Rivera opened the inning with a double to right, the first extra-base hit for them, and Tim Robinson would add another one with two outs, crashing a 2-run homer to left center. Jonny, a bit disconcerted, walked Matt Pruitt and Tom Thomas before Xavier Williams flew out easily to DeWeese.

Jonny finished seven innings, but this season was already underway in all the wrong ways. The Raccoons got a leadoff single from DeWeese in the bottom 7th before both Richards and Jones feebly struck out. Baca didn’t, but he also didn’t reach base on his own merits, instead taking a fastball into the thigh and going down howling. Despite the best efforts of the Druid, who sprinkled him with orange juice, he had to come out of the game. Sandy ran for him, while Danny Ochoa batted for Toner with runners on first and second, the best chance to score since the first inning – in fact the first runner in scoring position since the first inning. Ochoa struck out, while Seung-mo Chun came close to being taken deep by Steve Butler in his ABL debut, but Richards made the grab against the wall. Before another reliever made his Raccoons debut and Kevin Beaver spun a perfect ninth, Cookie Carmona got his first time being caught stealing in the 2016 season in in the bottom of the eighth. The Coons went down meekly against Ron Sakellaris in the ninth. 2-0 Titans. Toner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, L (0-1);

Oh, it’s just one game! (and the Crusaders are already 0-2)

Alonso Baca could barely walk even after the game was over and left the park on crutches which he kept carrying around the next day. No structural damage, but his thigh was swollen real good and looked like it was pregnant the next day; he likened it to the time he got kicked by a donkey when he was 12 years old.

So here come some free at-bats for Danny Margolis!

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF Pruitt – RF X. Williams – CF Blake – P Priest
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Brown

While the Raccoons’ DeWeese and Richards drew two walks to start the bottom of the second only to be ignored, Nick Brown struck out three against one hit his first time through the order. That soon changed for him, as the Titans rapped him for three extra-base hits in the fourth inning. Tom Thomas and Tim Robinson both hit doubles, and Matt Pruitt took revenge on a franchise that once dumped him and hit a 2-run homer to right. A dozen innings into the new season the Raccoons were still runless, which changed when DeWeese clobbered a Priest fastball for a solo homer in the bottom of the same inning, but that still left Brownie hanging 3-1, and that gap only grew bigger, since the Raccoons kept not hitting with a passion, and the Titans got another leadoff double in the seventh inning, this one by Gutierrez, that Brownie was hardly able to something against. Matt Pruitt singled before hurting himself on the base paths, and the run scored on Williams’ grounder. Brown was gone after seven, after which Chris Munroe made his big league debut. He pitched a scoreless eighth before Robinson hit a leadoff shot in the ninth against him. He still finished two innings and struck out three, but the Raccoons sat in a terrible 5-1 hole in the bottom 9th, which started with Tommy Briggs grazing Adam Young’s uniform. DeWeese singled to right center, which prompted another appearance by Sakellaris, who struck out Ron Richards and got grounders from Sambrano and Margolis to end the game. 5-1 Titans. McKnight 2-4; DeWeese 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Okay, it’s only two games…

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 3B T. Thomas – RF X. Williams – LF Stephenson – CF Blake – P Ryan
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Santos

The Raccoons had two walks in the first that didn’t cause much commotion on the scoreboard, and didn’t get a hit until the third inning, but when they did they also took their first ****ing lead of ’16. McKnight had walked ahead of Nunley, who creamed a 2-1 pitch to deep right and outta here, also taking the team RBI lead with a spiffy two. Tim Robinson had nothing of those antics and immediately responded with a solo shot, giving a homer off each of the Raccoons’ top three starters in this series. Still ahead 2-1, the Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 5th before Ron Richards ended the inning with a meager fly to center. Also like his mates from the last two days, Santos would go exactly seven innings, although he was the only one still entitled for a W when he was done with things. It was still 2-1, a tight game, but Jonathan Ryan’s pitching excellence had nothing to do with it. It was merely the lackluster Raccoons not doing anything with the seven unintentional walks he issued over six innings, and he issued another one to Cookie at the start of the bottom 7th. When Nunley singled over Thomas into left, it was left to Briggs to see the inning to conclusion. Young singled to right, Cookie was thrown out at home by Bob Arnold, and DeWeese struck out to strand a pair. Sugano’s appearance in the eighth was then almost undone by a clumsy mistake by Young at first base which put the leadoff man on base in Jonathan Blake, but Arnold grounded into a double play. Bottom 8th, Ochoa’s pinch-hit single and Sambrano’s pinch-walk put two on with nobody out. Trying to be sneaky, the Coons told Margolis to bunt, which promptly resulted in a force of Ochoa at third base. Medina hit for Sugano and flew out to center, and Cookie’s line to right dropped right into Arnold’s glove. Thrasher started out the ninth with three balls to Steve Butler, then had to give him something hittable and the resulting blast – only the Titans’ third hit in the game, but the second homer – tied the score rapidly. Robinson would have a deep fly out to left, but Thomas and Daron Griffin hit quick singles off Thrasher – yet with Thomas being thrown out at third base by Medina, who had replaced Richards in right. Thrasher walked Joe Stephenson anyway before Jose Silva hit a ball into the gap for an RBI double. Chris Mathis had to rescue Thrasher, who hung in there for the loss. Not that the Titans didn’t try to lose. Jayden Reed walked two to bring up Mathis with two outs. Bergquist was the last guy on the bench and struck out. 3-2 Titans. Nunley 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K;

Well. ****.

Richards is 0-for-8. Young was 0-for-8 before that single that turned out to be worthless. Margolis is 0-for-7. And the biggest stunner of all: Cookie Carmona is 0-for-11.

Raccoons (0-3) vs. Aces (2-2) – April 8-10, 2016

The Aces had started the season with a 4-game split against the division-winning Condors, had actually scored runs aplenty and led the league in stolen bases with four. The Coons had already been creamed by them to a 2-7 tune in 2015 and right now weren’t even so sure all their four paws were attached the right way round at this point…

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (0-0) vs. Alonso Alonso (0-0)
A.J. Bartels (0-0) vs. Juan Valdevez (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (0-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (1-0, 2.25 ERA)

That’s another three right-handers. Which could be good news, or maybe we’re just ****ed anyway.

As we start the season with nine straight games, I will try and work in an off day for everybody into either this weekend set or Monday.

Game 1
LVA: 2B Walsh – CF Hubbard – SS Burke – C D. Rice – 1B Bovane – RF A. Perez – LF Struck – 3B Reeve – P Alonso
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – 2B Sambrano – RF Medina – C Margolis – P Abe

The Coons topped their entire midweek output against the Titans in the first inning against Alonso Alonso, scoring four runs on six singles, while also having Matt Nunley thrown out at home. Him and Medina had two RBI apiece. The Aces would get a run off Abe in the third inning that got started with a 1-out double by Rick Walsh and then two more hits, but the Coons tacked that counter right back onto their end of the score when Nunley and Young singled in the bottom 4th and Nunley scored on Sambrano’s groundout. The Aces even hit for Alonso in the top of the fourth inning, which didn’t get them anything there, and the first guy to face their bullpen, Danny Margolis, rapped a jack in the bottom of the inning, victimizing right-hander Brian Morgan for a 6-1 score.

Things settled down after that. Abe struck out a bunch, but also ran a lot of 3-ball counts in the middle innings and was done after retiring John Alexander at the start of the seventh inning. John Korb made his first Coons appearance in that inning, retiring Brent Burke. The Aces put two on in the eighth against Chun, but Mathis extinguished them. Him and Beaver shared the ninth, in which the Aces went down sufficiently quickly to not cause any panic. 6-1 Raccoons. Nunley 2-4, 2 RBI; Young 2-3, BB; Medina 2-4, 2 RBI; Abe 6.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

What, the Coons won? What sick sorcery did that?

Game 2
LVA: CF Flack – RF B. Miller – SS Burke – C D. Rice – 1B Bovane – LF Hubbard – 2B Beard – 3B A. Perez – P Valdevez
POR: SS McKnight – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – RF Richards – 2B H. Jones – CF Medina – C Margolis – P Bartels

The Raccoons started this game like the last one, with two singles, but unlike on Friday, Nunley didn’t add to that and instead hit into a double play. Young however scored McKnight with a broken-bat floater to shallow right that dinked in for a single and his first Coons RBI – only 109 more and I’m happy. The lead was quickly blown by Bartels, who allowed a single to Danny Rice at the start of the second inning. Not only did this soft bloop to right fall in, it also went through Richards’ legs and left Rice at second base, but the error was irrelevant once Bartels walked Raúl Bovane. The Coons couldn’t turn a double play on Devin Hubbard’s grounder, and with two outs Arturo Perez hit a single to center to tie the score at one.

That was as far as the game went before a sudden shower broke over the park and interrupted play for an hour. When the proceedings were picked up in the bottom 2nd, Perez made a throwing error that put Medina on base before Margolis unloaded a 2-run homer to dead center, and almost over the batter’s eye. Bartels managed to quickly put two on in the top 3rd before the rain returned and forced another delay of 20 minutes. Bartels returned and walked Burke to load the bases, which drew some attention from pitching coach Todd von Lindenthal, who drove out to the mound in his personal Sherman tank yelled down on Bartels from the commander’s cupola, and then drove off again. This didn’t necessarily help Bartels, who allowed one run on Rice’s single, another one on Hubbard’s groundout, fell behind on Rusty Beard’s single, and then threw a wild pitch to give the Aces a 5-3 lead. Perez flew out to left, but Bartels was done after three innings and five runs, all earned, in his debut for the Critters. Things did not improve from there. Munroe was in for long relief, had a quick fourth, but then had to suffer through another rain delay in the fifth inning. Half an hour later, and with the outfield turned into a swamp that suddenly bore a gator that chased Sandy Sambrano around leftfield for the entire remainder of the inning, he claimed to be fine, but walked three batters before von Lindenthal hauled him in for a court martial. Seung-mo Chun replaced him, but had nothing better to do than to surrender a run on Juan Valdevez’ 1-out single, and then conceded the other two runners as well. The Coons were now down 8-3, which didn’t change until the seventh inning when R.J. DeWeese hit a leadoff jack after entering in a double switch. That was all from the home team, which only made itself noticed once more in the top 9th when Bergquist and McKnight both made errors to cost Ron Thrasher an unearned run. 9-4 Aces. McKnight 2-4; DeWeese 1-2, HR, RBI; Medina 2-4; Korb 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Yup, our pitching coach fits in neatly here.

Alonso Baca’s thigh looked less like a melon that morning and he pinch-hit in the game, but we’ll not start him for another day to give that monstrosity 24 more hours to heal off.

Game 3
LVA: CF Flack – RF B. Miller – SS Burke – LF J. Alexander – 1B Bovane – 2B Walsh – C Diersing – 3B Reeve – P N. Jones
POR: CF Carmona – 3B H. Jones – SS McKnight – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

The Aces sprung out to a convincing lead early on. After loading the bases with more or less soft singles by Raúl Bovane, Rich Walsh, and Ron Reeve, Jonny managed to strike out the pitcher Jones for the second out, but Adam Flack took his 1-1 pitch into the leftfield corner for a bases-clearing double. The Raccoons had the most wicked answer to that. Ron Richards – still hitless in ****ing ’16! – drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 2nd, after which Margolis doubled to left center. He was now batting .188, but slugging .625 for the year… Bergquist kept up the pressure and zinged a triple into the same gap as Margolis, plating two and representing the tying run. Cookie scored him with a single, raising his average to a creaky .118, and the game was tied at three. Richards would hit a single in the bottom 3rd, the team’s only effort there, and by the top 4th, Toner was chin deep in trouble again. After a leadoff walk to Walsh, Bobby Diersing had singled, and Reeve walked in a full count, giving the Aces the bases loaded with no outs. Jones struck out, Flack struck out, but Bill Miller lined into shallow center for a 2-run single before Burke whiffed.

Misery all around, the Raccoons could neither pitch, nor hit, nor field… and had Howard Jones thrown out attempting a double steal behind Carmona to end the fourth inning. The bottom 6th was led off by Margolis, who cracked another home run, giving him a shot in every game of the series. It still left the Coons trailing 5-4, and the Aces had an answer, with the top 7th seeing Kevin Beaver allow doubles to both Flack and Burke to give the run right back.

Bottom 7th. Nehemiah Jones was still in the game despite wading in left-handed bats, and allowed a 1-out single to McKnight in the inning. Adam Young worked a walk, bringing up DeWeese, the savior with the home run bat. The crowd rose to its feet, demanding a power demonstration, although they had to settle for a bases-loading single to right. That brought up Ron Richards, batting a strong and healthy .071 at this junction. But perhaps Jones was done; he not only walked Richards to force in a run, he also fell to his knees after delivering ball four. Relief was in order, and Jose Medina came out to face Margolis, the unlikely slugger, who grounded straight into a double play, and Nunley would hit into a double play in the eighth that erased Sandy Sambrano’s leadoff walk. The tying run was on base again after a 1-out single by McKnight in the ninth, this one off righty Manuel Reyes. Young popped out, but there was another chance for DeWeese. The home crowd, still believing in a little stutter start, but for everything to turn out swell, was up on its feet and clapped and chanted right up until DeWeese meekly grounded out to Bovane. 6-5 Aces. Jones 2-5; McKnight 2-5; Richards 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Margolis 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

In other news

April 4 – Opening Day sees the Blue Sox utterly creamed by the Capitals, who ride to an 18-2 win. WAS Salvador Orellana has five hits in the rout, WAS Danny Munn has four, and Jose Flores drives in a handful including a grand slam.
April 7 – The Thunder will be without recently acquired RF/LF Rodrigo Lopez (1-for-2, 0 HR, 0 RBI) for much of the season after the 35-year old smashed his ankle to bits on Opening Day.
April 7 – DAL 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.429, 0 HR, 1 RBI) remains a mainstay on the DL, as he’s now going to miss a month with a torn meniscus.
April 10 – IND 1B Jimmy Shank (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI) will miss the majority of the season with a broken bone in his elbow.

Complaints and stuff

First off – under no circumstances can season ticket purchases be partially or wholly refunded. We’re in this **** together!

Well, this is the first time I see two catchers hit home runs in all games of a series in the same week.

The Coons weren’t the only CL team to score one run from their first two games. The Loggers did the same (always a great comparison!), and the Thunder scored none at all. By Thursday night, we were in last place, however.

Lou Cannon, who had been supposed to be our setup man, signed with Pittsburgh during this opening week, which leaves us bereft of many options in the pen. Also, the last significant position player found a home as outfielder Tom Reese signed a 2-yr, $2M deal with the Pacifics.
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Old 11-28-2016, 06:46 PM   #2100
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I thanked the above post because I read it, but let me make it clear that I am NOT really very thankful for it.....
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