Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[MarkCuban]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I appreciate the kind words, which brings us swiftly to - and I am not ****ting you - this:

Service announcement:

Overnight, the power unit to my laptop died a silent death and since the battery of the laptop has been as good as dead for a while, I can't even start it anymore. Worse, the guy at the shop (which is not where I bought it) told me - literally - that the power unit I had was an "exotic" component and they didn't have it at hand at all. There seems to be ONE online shop carrying a suitable replacement power unit and delivery takes three days, at least, excluding Sundays. It also costs a fortune, but like I said, it's an "exotic" component.

I can't imagine that there is damage to the laptop (all was fine when I went to bed), but looking at how life has been going for me the last few months, nothing would surprise, nor shock me right now.

I *do* know the actual injury for Nick Brown, which was reported on the next day, but I had something written up that I wanted to edit today, but I can't access it anymore. Not starting from scratch, either, and I don't just barf anything in here right now, because ... ah, I just generally can't handle **** anymore... This should not be interpreted as an indicator that the injury might be severe, and this sentence should not be interpreted as an indicator that the injury is not severe. Not tellin' right now.

ANYWAY. I'm on the previous laptop right now (the one that I LITERALLY bought at the grocery store) and it is not a pleasure. Since I can't access the Raccoons file the way things are right now, no update is going to come forth until at least the middle of next week. And in case the broken power unit fried the current laptop this morning - well, I don't know. I have no way of telling. The most recent external backup is from Opening Day.

**** my life.

Sounds like a mercy killing. The laptop couldn't bear to let you live in a post-brown world.

[Questdog]

It's the middle of the week.....where is my update!.....

[Westheim]

No notification email of a replacement part having arrived has been received yet. And my heart is full of darkness...

[Orcin]

My fingers are crossed for your laptop to boot perfectly when the replacement finally arrives.

[Westheim]

Portland Agitator
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Brown, Coons out for '13 - at least
by Cate Strophie

At nine o’clock last morning, the Portland Raccoons announced that they had placed star pitcher Nick Brown on the disabled list with an elbow ailment. The full extent of the injury was initially not clear, but by now everybody is in agreement that the injury to Brown’s flexor tendon is season-ending, and as such, the Raccoons’ 2013 season and all their high-strung ambitions quite definitely ended on Sunday night, when Brown threw only two pitches in a nationally televised game against the Tijuana Condors.

A national audience got to witness not only the major league debut of 23-year old right-handed pitcher Juan Gallegos, who by dumb luck alone survived three innings and claimed victory in the Raccoons’ 4-1 win over the perennially disregardable Condors. When your good fortunes rely on a home run by colossal money sink Craig Bowen – hit entirely by accident – and a long relief effort only enabled by the Condors hitting ball after ball right at a fielder, against a pitcher whose name six weeks ago would not have turned up by sifting through pages upon pages of prospect rankings, then the team in question’s following might as well grow accustomed to the cellar of the Continental League North, because said cellar is now exactly what the Raccoons are going to be heading to.

The signs are all too clear. Another 1997 meltdown is in progress in the middle of our city. The wonderful sport of baseball and its beauty – besmeared by another nightmarish and ultimately futile campaign.

The 1997 Portland Raccoons came off a semi-decent 108-54 campaign in 1996, although they also managed to throw dirt at what little achievement that was by getting swept by the Richmond Rebels in the World Series, and managed to drop into freefall and finish the following season in fifth place in the Continental League North, at 68-94. What followed, was the entire exodus of all meaningful talent, let go for draft picks ultimately wasted on players that never performed anything at any level, and sent away in trades that yielded nothing but disappointments on a galactic scale. Ten years of nothing but losing and depressing baseball ensued. And that is where the Raccoons are heading back to.

Almost half the roster is eligible for free agency after the season, potentially including Nick Brown, who might be rightfully proclaimed the only player of any skill on the roster as it is currently constructed, with all the questionable personnel included.

Of course, the blame for all the misery surrounding the team has to be laid squarely with management. The Raccoons front office for years has seen players with questionable pedigree, and still signed them to multi-million dollar contracts. The total salaries mingled together on the team’s disabled list over the course of the 2013 season only just now figures to amount to more than $7,000,000 – enough money to provide all schoolchildren of low-income families in the Portland area with a healthy daily apple for two years. What did the Raccoons do with the money? Instead of investing into the future with young, hungry players, they signed Daniel Dickerson, famous for his brittleness, to a 3-year contract worth $3,200,000 annually, and he pitched all of eight innings for them in 2012 before blowing out his arm.

Right now, the team is down their top two starting pitchers and its closer, plus third baseman Jon Merritt, another player that was not known for heroics of any kind before landing a maddening contract for five years with the Raccoons front office. The closer one is investigating their transactions, the more one is horrified. For decades this ever befuddling front office has turned future Hall of Famers, like pitcher Dennis Fried, into broken hopes and dreams. The way in which they are playing with the common fan’s hard-earned wage is an utter disgrace and deserves an investigation.

The returns on investment are laughable. Any board of directors on a public company would long have been chased out of town for reckless spending and endangering the organization’s well-being, but with Mr. Westfield and his entourage of yay-sayers there is never a backlash; no outrage over all the burned money; no outrage over all the promising careers ruined; no outrage over the extravagancies – the only valid description over why Craig Bowen still holds down a roster spot. A change is long due.

Arrogance was not only the downfall of the 1997 Raccoons and also the proud old Romans, it will also be the gateway into a new era of futility in Portland. It will take years for the horrendous bad contracts, that nobody wants to take on – Bowen has reportedly been shopped 42 times in three-and-a-half years – to clear off the books. By then, the aspiring young players like Sandy Sambrano, Ricardo Carmona, and Hector Santos, and wonderful veteran Ieyoshi Nomura will have moved on since management preferred to throw the money at random rehabilitation cases. Sunday night against the Condors was the end for the semi-watchable Raccoons of the last six years. Nothing put devastation and darkness lies ahead of them.

[Orcin]

It is true that fans wanted to run everyone associated with this franchise out of town for years. But then, the glory days... we could rise from the ashes again, right? We did it once, not so long ago.

Easy for me to say huh. I bailed on rebuilding a couple of times myself. It looks easy from the bleachers, but not so much fun for the poor sucker pushing the buttons. You have to sift through a lot of horse manure to find one Brown pony.

Just one piece of advice... don't read the papers for a few weeks... err months... well, just stop using media devices all together. Whiskey and espresso is all you need anyway.

[Mecza]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Cate Strophie

Any relation to Des Aster?

[MarkCuban]

You can only refuse to rebuild so long before.... well, you no longer have any pieces. The Portland team defied convention for a long time, but they couldn't defy reality. And eventually, all those years of organizational neglect came to bite them like the rabies.

Last year was the "expiration date" with Brown and Casas coming due for 2014. But, sadly, both became shelved in contract years, and will now seek fortunes elsewhere.

Well, Westheim, he had a great run, but sadly, you can only do so much with a dozen million in the game of baseball. It's an expensive business, and the ownership didn't want to invest.

I'm not surprised the house of cardboard fell, I'm surprised it weathered the storm so long before collapsing under its own weight.

[Westheim]

The news spread through Coon City like wildfire. The Willamette reversed its course and flowed back up to Salem. The Willis Frodo Center trembled, but didn’t fall – yet. Monday by lunch, the whole city knew that the Raccoons had placed Nick Brown on the disabled list with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.

He was quite definitely out for the season –

Raccoons (21-22) @ Bayhawks (20-23) – May 20-22, 2013

The radically diminished Raccoons faced the almost-as-good-record-wise Bayhawks, who were second in the South, but nine games out. Their average offense failed to make up for the second-worst pitching staff in the league, and they were bleeding runs at a frantic pace. The Raccoons had beaten them 7-2 in 2012.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-2, 2.98 ERA) vs. Julio Munoz (4-2, 4.23 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-3, 4.05 ERA) vs. Jared D’Attilo (2-3, 6.51 ERA)
Rich Hood (2-2, 4.37 ERA) vs. G.G. Williams (1-0, 3.76 ERA)

G.G. is employed as a left-handed swingman by the Birds, while the first two guys are right-handers. Williams could also potentially pitch in the middle game.

The Raccoons could go without a replacement starter this week due to an off day on Thursday, with Conway, Santos, and Baldwin pitching on the weekend. With that, a reliever was added in George Youngblood, who had a 1.38 ERA in St. Petersburg despite issuing nine walks per nine innings, while striking out just as many.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – LF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – CF J. Alexander – 3B Rodgers – P Santos
SFB: LF J. Gomez – 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Alston – 1B A. Young – CF Holt – C McClendon – SS Robinson – 2B Brazeal – P J. Munoz

Either team had one baserunner the first time through the order. “Monte” Alston reached on a pop blatantly dropped by Michael Palmer, while Munoz plunked none other than Santos. With two outs in the bottom 3rd, the Bayhawks certainly got going, with Jose Gomez singling up the middle. Javy Rodriguez singled, too, and then it went rather quickly for Santos, who allowed a 2-run double to Alston, then a 2-run homer to Adam Young. The Raccoons answered this 4-spot in the third with a 3-spot in the fourth of their own, which started innocently enough with a Sambrano single that was almost banished to the confines of an obscure stat page when suddenly they also got going with two outs. Quebell doubled, 4-1, Palmer singled, 4-2, Palmer stole second and made it to third on Henry McClendon’s awful throw, and then scored on John Alexander’s single, 4-3. While the ball kept jumping off the Birds’ bats, and they had Gomez and Rodriguez reach base with 2-out singles again in the fifth, this time Alston would hit into a double play. The Raccoons tied the game in the next inning on the strength of a Bednarski double and J-Alex’ clutch 2-out RBI single, but Santos would disintegrate in a nightmare-inducing seventh inning, in which Mike Robinson led off with an infield single, Omarion Thompson had a pinch-hit single, and Santos then plated the go-ahead run with a wild pitch while having two outs and a .111 hitter at the plate. Sugano replaced him to strike out Alston, but the Coons were 5-4 behind, and Chris Mathis was skinned for three runs on four hard hits in the eighth to give this one completely out of hand. 8-4 Bayhawks. Sambrano 2-5; J. Alexander 2-4, 2 RBI; Canning (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Palmer – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – SS Whitehouse – 3B Canning – P Baldwin
SFB: LF J. Gomez – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Holt – RF Alston – C McClendon – 1B A. Young – SS Ingraham – 2B Richter – P G.G. Williams

When Adam Young popped leisurely to Bednarski in shallow right on a 3-1 pitch, he left the bases loaded in the first inning, and Zach Ingraham was left on third base the following inning, before the Raccoons got their own chance to sabotage in the top 3rd. Williams had walked Canning, then threw away Baldwin’s bunt to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Ricardo Carmona certainly made a big step towards another total team failure with a poor pop over third base, but Sandy Sambrano found the gap with a pretty fat 1-1 pitch by G.G. Williams and came up with a 2-run triple. Then, Palmer struck out, Bednarski came close until a 1-2 pitch hit him, Quebell walked, and Bowen was an obvious K with the bases loaded. The Bayhawks countered that failure with getting Rodriguez thrown out at home by Sandy on Jasper Holt’s single in the bottom 3rd, then stranded Holt on third base. The Coons went on to score single runs in each of the middle innings despite Carmona getting caught stealing in the fourth, Bednarski hitting into a double play in the fifth, and in the sixth it was another unlikely leadoff jack by Whitehouse.

Bottom 6th, down 5-0, Jasper Holt led off with a double against Baldwin. Alston popped out, but then the Coons’ battery broke down completely. Baldwin threw a wild 0-2 to McClendon, moving Holt to third. McClendon popped the next pitch foul behind home plate, and Bowen had it dink off the edge of his glove for an egregious error. They probably deserved to surrender a multitude of runs, but McClendon eventually lined out and Young grounded out to Palmer to end the inning and strand ANOTHER runner on third base. Too much fail cost the Bayhawks this game, while the Raccoons kept adding, somehow. Yoshi Nomura hit a pinch-hit RBI triple in the eighth, and Quebell threw in a 2-run homer in the ninth. The Bayhawks didn’t score until they were on their last out, putting four straight batters on to put two runs on Josh Gibson. 8-2 Critters. Carmona 2-5, RBI; Palmer 2-4; Quebell 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; Baldwin 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-3);

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Nomura – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Hood
SFB: LF J. Gomez – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF Holt – RF Alston – C McClendon – 1B A. Young – SS Ingraham – 2B Richter – P D’Attilo

Nomura’s first home run of the season was of the solo variety and tied the game in the third inning, 1-1. It was also the Coons’ first hit in the game, while Hood was totally easily hittable and the Baybirds had already stranded three in the first two innings. Sloppy fielding didn’t help, but somehow the Bayhawks even failed to cash in on Quebell’s leadoff error in the bottom 5th that put the pitcher on base. They ended up stranding runners on the corners despite Javy Rodriguez’ infield single. Meanwhile the Coons had to wait until Yoshi Nomura’s next at-bat to get another hit, a single to left. Then things went quickly, however, as D-Alex singled and Bednarski completely crashed a fastball that came right down the middle of the road without doing much, cranking a 3-run homer to break the 1-1 tie. Even the normally dreaded leadoff walk was no help for the Birds. Zachary Richter drew one off Hood in the bottom 7th, and was also stranded, with Matt Pruitt making a bear of a catch on Jose Gomez’ drive to deep left. The Birds knew how to make contact, and they made a lot off Hood, but they completely failed to miss the fielders as soon as somebody was on base. Hood went eight with a line that looked treacherously good, while the Raccoons took a rubber game in which both sides had five hits apiece. 4-1 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4, HR, RBI; Bednarski 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Hood 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (3-2);

Raccoons (23-23) @ Falcons (18-29) – May 24-26, 2013

The Raccoons visited the worst offense in the Continental League, with the Falcons’ 3.8 runs scored per game already summing up a good number of their issues. Their pitching was not all that much better, with the third-most runs allowed, and the second-worst rotation. The Raccoons had won two of three in the first series of the year.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-3, 3.56 ERA) vs. Roberto Ramirez (0-7, 5.88 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-3, 3.41 ERA) vs. Max Shepherd (2-4, 2.74 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-3, 3.64 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (2-5, 4.59 ERA)

Three right-handers waiting for the Raccoons.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Nomura – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Conway
CHA: CF Ibarra – C F. Chavez – 1B T. Avila – 2B C. Martinez – LF J. Jimenez – 3B Ladd – RF Puckett – SS Kester – P R. Ramirez

The infamous leadoff walk hurt Bill Conway rather quickly; issued to Rich Ibarra in the first, Fernando Chavez made this a 2-0 Falcons game in a real hurry and without a doubt. Bottom 2nd, leadoff walk to Wes Ladd, and that run damn sure scored as well after a Jaime Kester double. As if a 3-0 deficit wasn’t bad enough, Yoshi Nomura was hurt on a slide into second base, with some kind of lower body pain or other, after doubling in the top 3rd. Whitehouse replaced him with Palmer sliding over to second base – another warm body off the field. The Raccoons would pile singles on Ramirez in this and the next inning, scoring single runs in both while leaving on four men total, and after four trailed the Falcons 3-2, while out-hitting them 8-2. Conway went six and two thirds without allowing another hit, but sure did allow another leadoff walk in the bottom 7th to Chris Puckett. With the runner on third and two outs, Thrasher replaced Conway to face the top of the order, and walked Rich Ibarra before whiffing Chavez. The Coons had miffed up a chance in the fifth after Whitehouse had been hit by the pitch and Bednarski had drawn a walk, stranding both on poor flies by Quebell and Pruitt – and those were the Raccoons’ last runners in the game. The measly Ramirez and Matt Collins sat down the last 14 Critters in order. 3-2 Falcons. Nomura 2-2, 2B; Rodgers 2-3, 3B;

The Raccoons promoted 2B Jason Bergquist (.278, 4 HR, 25 RBI) from AAA, a 24-year old right-handed defense-first second-sacker, a supplemental round pick by the Titans in ’08 and eventually part of the big Jose Morales trade with the Capitals (along with Carmona), who had been claimed in the rule 5 draft by the Wolves before the 2012 season only to be returned to the Raccoons without playing in the majors.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF J. Alexander – SS Palmer – 3B Canning – P Santos
CHA: CF Ibarra – C F. Chavez – 1B T. Avila – 2B C. Martinez – 3B Ladd – RF Puckett – LF Nieves – SS Best – P Shepherd

The Coons scored first in the top 2nd with some first-gear 2-out terror, Canning reaching with an awkward single, Santos on Carlos Martinez’ error, and then Carmona just barely found the gap between the convering Puckett and Ibarra to plate both runners, even Santos. D-Alex homered in the top 3rd, but the murky weather worsened quickly and by the fourth inning the teams had to deal with a lengthy rain delay that lasted for over an hour. D-Alex singled home another run when play resumed in the top 4th, 4-0, but Santos had clearly gone to junk during the interruption. He had a quick fourth, but the three batters he faced in the bottom of the fifth all reached base, including Domingo Nieves getting hit. Sugano replaced him, got a pop from Steve Best for the first out, then served up a pinch-hit grand slam to Jose Jimenez – oh yeah, that bullpen. While Gibson and Vega patched together outs after Sugano’s departure (not before adding two more baserunners), the Raccoons grabbed back the lead in the seventh, when Dylan Alexander hit another home run, a solo shot, off left-hander Pat Kling. Up 5-4, Thrasher walked a pair in the bottom 7th to continue his perpetual useless ways, with Chris Mathis replacing him and bailing out on a grounder to third by Martinez. Even worse than Thrasher would be Jerry Scott in the top 8th, walking Pruitt, throwing a wild pitch, walking Carmona, then another wild pitch. Runners on second and third with one out, all the Coons got was Sambrano’s grounder to first, D-Alex walking half-intentionally, and Bednarski flying out to center on the first pitch he saw, but in the ninth Jason Bergquist made his debut with Quebell on first and two outs, hitting for Canning and driving a ball into the left-center gap for an RBI double. Hoshi Watanabe turned out to get along without the insurance run, but it was certainly a nice thing to see from a debutee. 6-4 Furballs. D. Alexander 4-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Interlude: trade

Saturday night, the Raccoons picked up SP Jack Berry (4-3, 4.20 ERA) from the Indians by dealing them AAA LF/RF Jeff Bowden, who had been involved in a trash deal already this year, having been flipped with Richard Williams from the Crusaders in April. Berry, 32, is the right-hander the Raccoons traded before his major league debut because he was expected to surrender countless home runs in the majors and especially Raccoons Ballpark. He led the FL in home runs allowed once, in 2008, but overall put up decent career numbers: 104-86 with a 3.76 ERA and 1,419 K.

Berry, making $880k both this and next year, figures to take over the rotation slot emptied by Nick Brown’s season-ending injury. Berry remained DFA’ed through the weekend, but was penciled in for a start on Monday when he would replace Youngblood on the roster.

Raccoons (23-23) @ Falcons (18-29) – May 24-26, 2013

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 2B Bergquist – 3B Rodgers – P Baldwin
CHA: SS Ibarra – LF A. Chavez – 1B Puckett – 3B C. Martinez – RF Nieves – CF J. Jimenez – C F. Chavez – 2B Best – P Patrick

The Raccoons started the game in a hurry with two runs in the first, powered by a Sambrano triple, a D-Alex double, and Quebell’s bloop single. The Falcons would soon have their own triple by Nieves, with the ex-Titan and still-pitcher Brian Patrick plating the run with a 2-out single off the still not impressive Baldwin. The Coons had the bases loaded in the top 3rd, including two walks issued by Patrick, with Quebell hitting another RBI single with one out before Palmer lined out to Ibarra, who doubled a straying Bednarski off second base, but at least no Quebell double play and a 3-1 lead, although Armando Chavez’ leadoff double in the bottom of the inning quickly led to another run for the Falcons.

Top 5th, Patrick walked Sambrano, walked Dylan Alexander, and Bednarski hit a really hard single to left, so hard that Sambrano had to hold at third base. But the bases were loaded with nobody out and an excellent chance for Quebell to do something stupid, like hitting a soft grounder to the pitcher for a force at home. After Palmer’s sac fly, the Falcons were almost out of the inning at 4-2 until Steve Best misfiled Bergquist’s grounder for an error and Patrick – completely clueless as to the characteristics of the strike zone, walked Rodgers to force home the fifth run. Colin Baldwin was batting a destitute .045 for the season, jabbed away at the first pitch he saw and lined a rocket into the gap where the ball split Armando Chavez and Jose Jimenez and made it all the way to the wall for a bases-clearing double that put the Raccoons up 8-2 and got Patrick a ticket to the showers. Baldwin, for a minute the hero, opened the bottom 5th by walking relief pitcher John Key. After Ibarra’s groundout, Baldwin completely exploded for – in order – a double, a triple, and a homer. 8-6, he was yanked. Vega replaced him, but all he oversaw was a Domingo Nieves single and an error by Bergquist to put on the tying runs. Youngblood struck out Fernando Chavez, then got a grounder to first from Best, where Quebell simply missed it. Another grievous error, and the bases were loaded for pinch-hitter Jaime Kester, who struck out.

In his first major league game started, Bergquist got an intentional walk from lefty Pat Kling in the top 7th, with Quebell on second and one out. The Falcons thus got to Ken Rodgers, who beat Jimenez in center for a line drive double, scoring Quebell, 9-6, but the two runners in scoring position were stranded between John Alexander and Carmona. J-Alex had hit for Youngblood, whose five outs collected without a dozen runs allowed had been a welcome intermission from the usual dredge, but when Gibson started the bottom 7th, the leadoff man Carlos Martinez singled immediately. Nieves then hit into a double play to thwart a likely rally. Sugano got through the eighth mostly in shape, but in the bottom 9th it was Watanabe to create drama and bring up the tying run with two outs after a single by Armando Chavez and Carlos Martinez’ walk. Domingo Nieves promptly doubled, 9-7, tying runs in scoring position, and Jimenez singled to center, 9-8. With the left-hander Fernando Chavez up, Thrasher replaced Watanabe, with switch-hitter Maxime Da Silva batting for Chavez. An obvious walk later, the bags were full, and Thrasher could not get rid of Steve Best, either. The rookie had his first career hit with a game-tying infield single, sending the game to extras. A Rodgers error wasn’t quite enough to sink the Coons in the bottom 10th, but the following inning Gallegos walked Jimenez before Best hit another single. With two outs, the Falcons’ bench was empty and reliever Ralph Davis had to bat – and walked. The pen was so horrendously empty, Gallegos could not be replaced, and Rich Ibarra dropped to 0-for-7 with a groundout to Rodgers, prolonging the 9-9 game even further. Rodgers had a leadoff single in the 12th, but Sambrano killed the inning with a double play. D-Alex then had a leadoff single in the 13th, and Bednarski found the double play there. Davis lasted the Falcons into the top 14th, but there allowed singles to Palmer and Bergquist before he walked Rodgers. Bases loaded, Bowen hit for Gallegos, managed a sac fly, and that was already it once more, with Carmona singling to restock the sacks before Sambrano lined into a double play, caught by Martinez and Rodgers being doubled off second. Chris Mathis – the Raccoons’ last reliever – was handed the 10-9 lead, was 3-1 behind against reliever Jimmy Freeman (…!) before Freeman flew out to left, allowed a single to Ibarra, and then thankfully got a double play to end the game from Armando Chavez. 10-9 Raccoons. D. Alexander 3-6, BB, RBI; Quebell 4-7, 2B, 2 RBI; Rodgers 3-5, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Youngblood 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Gallegos 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (2-0);

In other news

May 20 – The Warriors will be without LF Gil Gross (.287, 8 HR, 32 RBI) for a month after the 27-year old slugger has sprained his ankle.
May 21 – Topeka’s Dave Flores (3-4, 2.49 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout over the Gold Sox.
May 22 – Eight-time Gold Glover DAL INF Armando Rodriguez (.290, 1 HR, 18 RBI) also knows how to hit a bit, and gets his 2,000th career base knock in the Stars 4-1 loss to the Rebels. The milestone hit is a single off Richmond’s Tim Winston.
May 22 – Bad injury news for the Canadiens, who lose key slugger 1B Ray Gilbert (.370, 9 HR, 30 RBI) for three weeks with a broken rib.
May 22 – The Loggers lose SP Jim Baker (5-2, 2.78 ERA) for the season with a torn rotator cuff. Baker had been working on a 1-hit shutout against the Condors on Monday before leaving with the injury.
May 23 – SFW SP Fernando Cruz (5-3, 2.53 ERA) holds his ground in a 1-0 shutout over the Blue Sox, yielding only two hits.
May 24 – The Canadiens acquire SS Jeremiah Irvin (.277, 3 HR, 17 RBI) from the Warriors along with a minor leaguer, parting with SP Johnny Krom (5-1, 4.34 ERA).
May 26 – Dallas places OF/1B Hugo Mendoza (.283, 7 HR, 28 RBI) on the DL with an oblique strain. He might be good in a month.

Complaints and stuff

Hi, um. I’m Chad. Y’know. (Chad sits there in full costume, except fort he mascot head which is in his lap)

That other guy’s not here, y’know. He … (gestures slowly, yet wildly, and unhelpfully) … he called in sick on Monday and … and I don’t think anybody’s heard of him … since then. Ms. Maud said to me I should tell you that. Y’know. Um. And I should say some things about how it’s going. Well. … Well, the team’s on the road. Um. For one more week, y’know. And… and so I have two weeks off, which’s cool, y’know. Two weeks off is totally ace!

Y’know.

Oh, and Ms. Maud also said to me I should tell you that Doshi Uhura has an abominable drain or something. And he will not come back ‘til July, y’know. I like July. In July I always eat ice cream.

(looks around)

I wonder if he has glue in his desk. (puts on the head and goes rummaging)

(finds the pistol in the top drawer) Whoah, ace! Y’know! (fires through one of the acrylic glass panels and sends the groundskeepers below scattering)

[Questdog]

Ahhhh....now this is why I continue to read about the Racoons year after year. No matter how dark the future looks or how dire the present seems, you always manage to find the silver lining and bring us readers a smile with your unquenchable optimism!........

Terrible sad about Nicholas.....I hope he can bounce back next year, though at his age it will not be easy.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by MarkCuban

You can only refuse to rebuild so long before.... well, you no longer have any pieces. The Portland team defied convention for a long time, but they couldn't defy reality. And eventually, all those years of organizational neglect came to bite them like the rabies.

Last year was the "expiration date" with Brown and Casas coming due for 2014. But, sadly, both became shelved in contract years, and will now seek fortunes elsewhere.

Well, Westheim, he had a great run, but sadly, you can only do so much with a dozen million in the game of baseball. It's an expensive business, and the ownership didn't want to invest.

I'm not surprised the house of cardboard fell, I'm surprised it weathered the storm so long before collapsing under its own weight.

What are you even talking about!?

The Raccoons are not rich, certainly not in the context of the CL North, but we finally made it to an above-average budget, with lots of room before the last offseason, and that budget space was converted into the best pitcher on the market rather easily. No more early-2000 finances, where every additional minimum player was a nightmare to fit into the budget.

The team still had a decent, maybe not great, but decent shot at the playoffs if two or three things had gone right. Well, they haven't. But it's not like we've been tabbed to compete with the Loggers on Opening Day.

There also was never in the last six years a point where it would have made sense to start selling the top players on the team. The Raccoons were always in contention in the middle of the season, except for 2012, and then we flipped Jose Morales, who was in a transit year anyway after not signing with the team until after Opening Day, for a bushel of prospects, including Carmona, who might well be worth his weight in gold. While the Morales affair cost our first round pick in '12, in addition to Carmona we gained Bergquist (might be Yoshi's replacement if the Coons can't resign him, which is highly likely), Bednarski (traded straight up for Mike Cook, who was in the Morales deal), and a maybe-starter in Gary Dupes, who's out for the season just like everybody else. Overall I'd claim that this one worked out well enough.

Then there's 2013, where the Raccoons have been hit by it like 1340s Europe. We haven't seen injuries of that magnitude on the team - ever.

Nick Brown is not a free agent, he has a player option for '14 (same for Merritt). Missing most of the year at his age will not further his stock, so I guess he stays, and since there might be a few lean years ahead (including '13), and the money has to go someplace lest the Mexican prick take it back, constructing a retirement deal for Brownie will be possible in some form. The Coons are banking on the hometown discount here, and maybe Craig Bowen is lost at sea in a holiday cruise. Bowen is due his blatantly luxurious $1.88M/y salary through '15, the only year that might be tight for money in the near future (calculating with budget cuts for '14 and '15 right now), and after that the money can be allocated to Brown's retirement fund to keep him around in whatever diminished state he will be in by 2016.

Nick Brown is leaving Portland over my dead body, and over my dead body ONLY. You can stop holding out for a trade. It won't happen. I am irrational that way.

With Angel, Palmer, Pruitt, Yoshi, J-Alex, Watanabe, and Rodgers all heading for free agency, there will be budget space again this fall - just not enough.

---

Raccoons (25-24) @ Knights (22-27) – May 27-29, 2013

Despite holding fifth places in both runs scored and runs allowed, things had not worked out at all for the Knights, who were four games under their expected record, tied for most in the ABL. They had a decent bullpen, but a horrid rotation, much the contrary of what the Raccoons were dragging around with them. The Coons had won two of three from the Knights in April.

Projected matchups:
Jack Berry (4-3, 4.20 ERA) vs. William Raven (1-4, 3.20 ERA)
Rich Hood (3-2, 3.90 ERA) vs. Rafael De Jesus (1-0, 4.05 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-4, 3.62 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (2-2, 4.50 ERA)

The Raccoons – facing three right-handed pitchers in this set – arrived in this series with a ravaged bullpen (which was also very inept in the first place), and had to navigate this 3-game set before getting an off day.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – RF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 2B Bergquist – 3B Rodgers – P Berry
ATL: CF Arnette – SS Hibbard – LF M. Reyes – 1B Rockwell – 2B Downing – C W. Jones – RF Shearing – 3B Tolwith – P Raven

While Jack Berry in his Raccoons debut faced the minimum through four innings while being aided by two double plays turned behind him, Raven struggled from the start with his command and ended up issuing four walks in the early innings, three of which ended up scoring on a Ken Rodgers sac fly in the second and a 2-out, 2-run single by Ricardo Carmona in the fourth inning. Berry had a few struggles in the fifth and sixth, with the Knights stranding four runners total in those inning, before the Raccoons opened the gap in the seventh inning by exploding left-hander Jorge Cortez. Sambrano and D-Alex had reached and had made it into scoring position on a very wild pitch. A Quebell single plated one, and with two outs Pat Whitehouse batted for the hapless Pruitt and drove in two with a triple to center, 6-0. Jack Berry went eight full innings and wasn’t chased until Josh Downing hit a leadoff single in the ninth. Manobu Sugano replaced him and covered the last three outs. 6-0 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, RBI; Whitehouse (PH) 1-1, 3B, 2 RBI; Bergquist 2-3, BB; Berry 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (5-3);

Exactly what this beleaguered bullpen needed!

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Bowen – 2B Bergquist – SS Whitehouse – 3B Rodgers – P Hood
ATL: CF Arnette – SS Hibbard – LF M. Reyes – 1B Rockwell – RF J. Garcia – 2B Downing – 3B Fish – C I. Gutierrez – P De Jesus

Just like the previous day, Ken Rodgers plated the first run of the game in the second inning, this time with a 2-out double to the corner in leftfield that scored Pat Whitehouse from first base when the shortstop got a very good jump. The Knights made outs on the basepaths in the first two innings, with Devin Hibbard being caught stealing by Bowen, and Downing getting thrown out going first-to-third by Bednarski. But the thing with Hood was that a) he couldn’t pitch with a lead for his sorry life, and b) if you kept swinging long enough, good things would happen eventually. The Knights, who had had four hits in the first two innings, then had four hits and a walk in the third, easily plating three runs for a lead against the completely overwhelmed Rich Hood. The Coons countered then with a 3-run fourth for which Hood was also responsible, following up Whitehouse’s and Rodgers’ 2-out singles with one of his own, plating Whitehouse, 3-2. Carmona then beat Pat Arnette’s range for a 2-run triple, reclaiming the lead for the Critters.

Yet besides diamonds, really only Rich Hood cocking up was forever. Jorge Garcia hit a tremendous 2-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to get the Knights past the Coons again at 5-4, and a still-aching pen here or there, he was hit for (with Pruitt, and to no good effect) in the sixth. Sergio Vega made it through 16 innings without an earned run allowed until Rafael De Jesus, the opposing starter, tripled with two outs in the bottom 6th, but was then left on base when Vega himself made a nifty grab and throw on Arnette’s slow bouncer to end the inning. The Raccoons didn’t get much done against De Jesus after their 3-spot, but when Bergquist singled and D-Alex hit for the pitcher with two outs, they Knights went to Cortez, who had already blown the game on Monday wide open. Alexander bounced back to him, Cortez threw the ball away completely, then drilled Carmona, who made a step towards the mound, snickering, before being pushed up the line by the home plate umpire. Bases loaded, Sambrano singled to left, and the score was flipped for the fourth time in the game, 6-5 Furballs. It was also the final flip. Despite being run out almost every day, Josh Gibson and Hoshi Watanabe mustered enough mustard to get through the final two innings and get the Raccoons to within one W of taking the season series. 6-5 Critters. Carmona 2-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Bergquist 2-5; Whitehouse 2-4; Rodgers 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Palmer – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF J. Alexander – 2B Bergquist – 3B Rodgers – P Conway
ATL: CF Arnette – SS Hibbard – LF M. Reyes – 1B Rockwell – RF J. Garcia – C W. Jones – 2B Hilderbrand – 3B Tolwith – P McKenzie

The Coons had runners on second and third with one out in the top 3rd after Conway reached on Aaron Tolwith’s error and Carmona doubled, but stranded the runners when Palmer and D-Alex produced poor groundouts. The Knights produced the same chance on Conway’s wildness alone in the bottom of the inning as he walked T.J. Hilderbrand and Tolwith, with a wild pitch in between. McKenzie bunted them over, Conway walked Arnette, conceded a run on Devin Hibbard’s grounder to short that was too slow to turn two, and then Conway walked ANOTHER batter in Marty Reyes. Gil Rockwell, who had 17 homers to lead the Continental League, anticlimactically popped out to Bergquist to leave it at 1-0 Knights after four walks in the inning, and despite a leadoff walk to Jorge Garcia and a double by William Jones, the Knights failed to score in the bottom 4th. Top 6th, the Raccoons had runners in scoring position with one out again after Bednarski singled and Quebell doubled. J-Alex fouled out, Bergquist walked, and Rodgers grounded out to the pitcher. Conway walked and whiffed six apiece in six innings of nightmare, but only allowed that one Jones double and that lone run as two hopelessly futile teams banged heads – or maybe butts, being too futile to even bang heads…

Top 9th, Ed Bryan pitching. The ex-Coon walked Bergquist to start the inning, then conceded a double to Ken Rodgers, now the go-ahead run. Sambrano was already in the #9 slot, but grounded out to Tolwith. Carmona had been removed and Ron Thrasher was in the #1 slot, now being hit for by Whitehouse, who … grounded out to Tolwith. Still two in scoring position for Palmer – line drive to right for a single, and a tied ballgame! Moaning in the stands, and Bryan crumpled immediately, plunking D-Alex before surrendering a 2-run double to Mike Bednarski. Steve Arritt replaced Bryan and allowed a deep drive to center to Quebell, but the ball was caught by César Morán. Watanabe retired Garcia and Morán quickly in the bottom 9th before Hilderbrand singled. Conor Shearing pinch-hit but struck out to complete the sweep. 3-1 Blighters. Bednarski 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (28-24) @ Titans (35-19) – May 31-June 2, 2013

The Titans were finally doing what they had been supposed to do the last two years and were winning lots of games. While going only 3-3 against the Raccoons, they were leading the North, despite the Elks and Crusaders still being on their heels. But the Titans had the best pitching in the CL, and the last staff to surrender less than 200 runs, which helped greatly with an above-average, but not overly enthusiastic offense that ranked fifth in runs scored. They were built around getting on base and moving around quickly, leading the CL with 46 swipes, while hitting the second-least homers, with half their total vested in Ricardo Garcia and Toki Hayashi, who had seven apiece.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-3, 3.63 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (6-1, 2.44 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-3, 4.24 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (5-2, 2.19 ERA)
Jack Berry (5-3, 3.57 ERA) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (3-4, 4.09 ERA)

Yep, the Raccoons were getting their very best starting pitching, including the lefty Hamlyn, which contributed to a rather bleak outlook for the weekend. Tobitt’s lone loss had come at the hands of the Coons when they stripped him for nine runs on Opening Day.

It’s been some time. In his ten starts since then, Tobitt had always lowered his ERA, and had failed to go seven just three times, and had allowed more than seven hits only three times, too.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Whitehouse – 3B Rodgers – P Santos
BOS: SS M. Rivera – CF R. Pena – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – 3B Butler – P Tobitt

The Raccoons’ best surviving bet to be an ace in some fashion, Hector Santos was waffled early once again and trailed 3-0 after facing three batters. Mike Rivera had singled, Roberto Pena walked, and Ricardo Garcia whammied a no-doubter to right center. The Coons made up a run in the third on Carmona’s 2-out double and Sambrano’s following single, but in the fifth had two runners, Rodgers and Carmona, being caught stealing by “Quasimodo” Suda. The Titans had yet to add something to their line other than a lonely Jesus Ramirez double, and Tobitt was suddenly in a load of trouble in the top 6th when two singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Coons with nobody out. But Tobitt was one of those aces you didn’t need to worry for. Quebell grounded into a force at home, and Pruitt rolled into a double play, and all the remaining Raccoons on base could do was to twitch the whiskers and head back to the dugout. Santos made it to the seventh before a bloop single by Ramirez and an infield single by Bob Butler put two on with two outs. Sugano replaced him, conceded a run on Angel Solís’ single, drilled Mike Rivera, and then somehow escaped without a loud knell when PH Aurelio Gomez grounded out to Whitehouse. Nothing of that was helpful to the Raccoons’ lineup, which failed to produce another chance and wouldn’t have deserved one in the first place. 4-1 Titans. Sambrano 2-3, BB, RBI; Rodgers 1-2, BB;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 2B Palmer – SS Whitehouse – 1B Rodgers – 3B Canning – P Baldwin
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Ramirez – 1B Butler – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – LF Hayashi – 3B A. Gomez – CF R. Pena – P Hamlyn

Another early deficit hit the Raccoons in the middle game as Baldwin allowed two hits, two walks, and conceded two runs on Suda’s double in the first inning, and the Titans collected the same loot in the second inning as well, this time with Jesus Ramirez hitting that 2-run double. That was all for Baldwin – not because the Raccoons were keen on having the pen throw seven innings, but because he headed to the clubhouse with the trainer, being in general discomfort as far as his shoulder and neck area were concerned. This time, Chris Mathis was tabbed for long relief…

Testing everybody’s patience, Mathis retired Hayashi on a pop before drilling Aurelio Gomez. After D-Alex dropped Roberto Pena’s foul pop for an error, Mathis threw a wild pitch to advance Gomez to second, and while Pena popped out to Palmer eventually, Hamlyn singled to center to bring in Gomez, 5-0, and Mathis surrendered doubles to Ramirez and Butler as well as a homer to Hayashi in the fourth inning, 8-0. An inning later, the Titans ended Sergio Vega’s 18-inning scoreless streak with more rampant offense, upping to 10-0 after five. The Titans still led by ten in the bottom 7th after outrageously not sticking the Coons any runs in the sixth, when Mike Rivera singled off Thrasher and then stole second base. The Coons’ bench coach diligently made a note of that. The stolen base, Rivera’s 17th competing against Carmona with 15, was not the only insult to the game. Hamlyn had tossed a 1-hitter through six, still had a 3-hitter through eight, but Bednarski doubled in the top 9th to get going. Suddenly – thunder, rain. And the umpires had everybody linger in the storm for EIGHTY minutes … and then play resumed without Hamlyn. The Titans went with Dusty Balzer, overwhelmed even in a mop-up role, and of course Balzer conceded the run on a John Alexander sac fly to soil Hamlyn’s line. 11-1 Titans. Palmer 2-4;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Berry
BOS: SS M. Rivera – CF R. Pena – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – 3B Butler – P Uenohara

Rivera singled in the first and stole his 18th base, while Berry hit Ricardo Garcia. Uenohara would happen to hit Ken Rodgers in the top 2nd before Sambrano reached on a single in the third, stole second and took third on Suda’s bad throw, and scored on J-Alex’ sac fly to give the Raccoons their first lead in the series. Berry faced Rivera with one out and totally accidentally drilled him, but karma soon caught up with him. Pena singled to left and Ricardo Garcia hit a liner up the leftfield line that then caromed off the sidewall deep in foul ground in a funny way and was played into a 2-run triple by Alexander. Suda homered, 4-1.

While Berry was whacked, Uenohara struck out eight in the first five innings while mostly keeping the Raccoons off the bases, except for the top 5th, when Alexander reached on an infield single, Bednarski also got on with a rather soft single, and then Quebell cranked a 3-run homer to tie the game. Berry’s response was to walk the leadoff man Garcia, but Suda hit into a double play this time. Uenohara left after Carmona reached with a 2-out single in the top 6th, with Dan Parker surrendering that go-ahead run with singles issued to Sandy and J-Alex. The Titans’ Dusty Balzer was then in again in the seventh inning and opened with three singles surrendered to Bowen, Quebell, and Palmer. With the bases loaded, Rodgers struck out, Pruitt hit a sac fly, and that was all, because Carmona grounded out to Hayashi at first, 6-4. That lead turned out to be worth nothing, with Thrasher, Gibson, and Sugano conspiring to blow it right away in the seventh inning, starting with a Thrasher walk to Pena, and then cascading onwards with three hard hits off the other two, as the Titans tied the score at six.

Top 8th, next attempt. Sambrano led off with a single off Balzer and stole second base, moving up to third on a groundout. Bowen batted with two down, and hit a quick bouncer up the first base line, where it ultimately defeated Hayashi and became an RBI single, 7-6 Coons. That one finally stuck. Gallegos struck out two and walked one in the eighth, and Hoshi Watanabe ended the Titans on 12 pitches for three grounders to Canning at third, Bergquist at second, and Palmer at short. 7-6 Raccoons. Sambrano 3-5; J. Alexander 3-4, 2 RBI; Bowen 3-5, RBI; Quebell 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Palmer 2-5;

In other news

May 29 – LAP CF/LF Jimmy Roberts (.374, 9 HR, 37 RBI) is out until the All Star game with a separated shoulder.
May 29 – The Capitals total only one hit, a Victor Sarabia RBI single, in their 3-1 loss to the Pacifics’ Brad Smith (5-2, 3.42 ERA), who goes eight innings and notches the W.
May 31 – CHA OF Jose Jimenez (.297, 6 HR, 25 RBI) might miss the majority of the remaining season with a badly fractured ankle.
June 2 – Oklahoma City’s Ed Michaels (4-2, 4.61 ERA) spins a complete game 2-hitter in a 7-1 win over the Bayhawks, who only get two singles off him.

Complaints and stuff

To answer your first question… (Maud says as she takes a seat on the couch in the office) …no, Mr. Westfield is still ill. He intended to come in on Monday, he told me, but then I filed him the player development update, and how Senor Calderón slashed the scouting reports on our pitching, and … well, I don’t think he’ll come in on Monday.

Say. (looks over the top edge of her narrow, rimless glasses) You look just like my first husband. – No, he’s not deceased. No, he very isn’t. Why don’t you sit here, right next to me?

Okay. What else is there to talk about? The overall ratings have been raised for Jonathan Toner, however, who will be in town next week among a group of prospects we will tout as Raccoons Futures along with Matt Nunley, Chris Brown, and one or two others.

Before you leave, could I make you interested in a vintage Daniel Hall bobblehead in mint condition? Never has been bobbled. Do not hesitate – our stocks might run out in a few years.

[Questdog]

Dear Mr. Portland

It seems that the Raccoons are proving my theory that a starting pitcher's win total is proportional to his ERA. Not inversely proportional as some muddle-heads have argued......Bigger numbers are obviously better.

Sincerely,
Tex Houston

[Westheim]

Colin Baldwin will miss a start with a back spasm, but it’s not worse than that. The problem is the lack of an off day this week, so the Raccoons need a fill-in for his turn on Thursday. There was the possibility of just using Sergio Vega, to get a spot start from AAA starter Ian Cumins (who was on the 40-man roster), or to add rapidly improving Jonathan Toner to the 40-man and have him make the spot start. Toner had pitched on Friday, so timing was not an issue. Cumins was 5-1 with a 2.93 ERA, but an almost even K/BB ratio in St. Pete, while Toner was 6-1 with a 2.55 ERA and 65 K in 77.2 IP. The only slight issue were the 36 walks.

Raccoons (29-26) vs. Crusaders (32-23) – June 3-6, 2013

While third in runs scored, and fourth in runs allowed, the Crusaders had suffered a slow-motion sweep at the hands of the Indians over the preceding weekend and had dropped four games out in the CL North. But starter Kel Yates aside, they were perfectly healthy and were looking forward to starting a turnaround on the season series, which early on stood at 2-1 in the Raccoons’ favor.

Projected matchups:
Rich Hood (3-2, 4.33 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (6-4, 2.77 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-4, 3.41 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (9-2, 3.29 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-4, 3.80 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (3-3, 5.78 ERA)
TBD vs. Rodrigo Moreno (7-3, 3.39 ERA)

The Raccoons will see a full complement of right-handed starters.

Game 1
NYC: 2B J. Ortega – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Hernandez – CF K. Wood – P P. Miller
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Canning – P Hood

While Francisco Caraballo’s double play erased the 4-pitch walk Rich Hood had handed to Jorge Ortega at the start of this game, the incredibly dull Hood still found a way to cough up a 3-run homer to B.J. Manfull in the same inning, allowing singles to both Martin Brothers. While Paul Miller showed some intense cruelty to small woodlands animals in this game and basically put the Raccoons in a sack and hung that into the Willamette, Hood never got even remotely decent and just kept getting whacked. He was saved once, when Stanton Martin (15 HR) hit into a double play in the third inning. Other than that… The two runs the Crusaders added in the fifth inning were unearned after a Canning error, but they got three hard hits in the sixth to knock him out in a 6-0 game with two runners left on base. Mathis replaced Hood and surrendered a rocket to Ken Wood – though a rocket that went right into Adrian Quebell’s glove, and Quebell tapped first base ahead of the scrambling Julio Hernandez to end the inning on a double play. The Raccoons somehow scratched out a run in the bottom of the inning, Carmona driving home Canning before being caught stealing for the fourth attempt in a row. Miller had only allowed one hit in the first five innings, but got lit up in the bottom 8th eventually, with the first four Raccoons up all getting base hits (doubling their output up to that point), the last of which was a 2-run triple by Carmona to get them to 7-4. The Furballs ran out of air right there – their next six batters would make six outs, but at least Miller’s line had been urinated on. 7-5 Crusaders. Carmona 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI; D. Alexander 2-4; Canning 2-3; Pruitt 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Sergio Vega had to pitch in long relief here with Mathis not getting it done, ruling him out for a start on Thursday. So it’s between Cumins and Toner.

Game 2
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Case – 3B Petersen – CF K. Wood – P P. Trevino
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 2B Bergquist – 3B Rodgers – P Conway

Stanton Martin’s missile-like line drive homer to dead center in the first inning was measured at 434 feet, and gave the Crusaders another early lead, 2-0. For Conway, this was only the beginning of a painful night that quickly escalated into back-to-back homers by the Crusaders’ light-hitting centerfielder Ken Wood (no homers on the season so far) and Pancho Trevino – the opposing pitcher. Sambrano threw out Martin Ortíz at home plate to end the third and spare Conway another run added to his ledger, while the Raccoons, down four runs and three homers, were donated a run in the bottom 4th on Francisco Caraballo’s throwing error on a play that looked a lot like a double play would be turned on Dylan Alexander. The lead runner, Sandy Sambrano, had singled to open the frame, the Raccoons’ first hit in the game. Conway made a messy error himself in the following inning to hand the unearned run right back, however. Jorge Ortega made a throwing error on D-Alex in the bottom of the fifth, putting him and Sambrano in scoring position with two outs, but J-Alex’ long fly to right was caught, and the Raccoons remained down by four until the following inning, where Pruitt hit for Conway and drove in a run with a 2-out single. Alas, that run was powered by Trevino drilling Michael Palmer beforehand, and the Raccoons continued to exist on charitable donations only.

Caraballo homered off Juan Gallegos in the seventh, 6-2, the first earned run the rookie Gallegos was charged with in his major league career, 12 innings in. 6-2 was still the score in the bottom 9th, which strangely was opened for the Crusaders by one ex-Coon, Micah Steele, who walked Bednarski and allowed a single to Carmona with nobody out before yielding for another ex-Coon, Joe O’Brian, who was supposed to close the affair despite his 5.79 ERA. That one had a taste of garlic to it from the start. D-Alex singled, loading them up with one out. Craig Bowen hit for Gibson, with J-Alex having left earlier in a double switch, and worked a full count walk to force home a run and bring up Quebell as the winning run. Of course he popped out – but still better than a double play. Michael Palmer came up, struggling the entire season, and not exactly hitting for any power. When he jabbed at the 3-1 pitch, the home crowd gasped, before bursting into cheers as that ball was not only hit high to right, but also deep, deeper, and outta there. GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!! 7-6 Raccoons!! Palmer 2-3, BB, HR, 5 RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Side note: Joe O’Brian has already cleared waivers this season.

Side note #2: This was Michael Palmer’s second walkoff homer against the Crusaders. He ended a 17-inning affair in July of 2011 with a solo shot off Ray Conner, who is currently unemployed.

Game 3
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Case – 3B Petersen – CF K. Wood – P Bartels
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Bergquist – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Santos

Third game in the set, third massive multi-run homer for the Crusaders in the top 1st, and it was Martin again, tattooing an unassuming Santos offering in a 2-piece. While the Raccoons scored a run in the bottom 1st, D-Alex doubling home Sambrano, Santos got a right waffling with Tommie Petersen hitting a leadoff jack in the top 2nd, and Bartels (single) and Ortega (double) reaching scoring position with one out. Caraballo struck out before Ortíz launched a 3-2 pitch to deep, deep left, but somehow it decided to not go out and landed in J-Alex’ mitt. Santos’ waffling would end in the fifth inning after back-to-back homers by B.J. Manfull and Aaron Case that put the Crusaders 5-2 ahead, and to add injury to insult, Santos was also drilled by Bartels in his first plate appearance. As if Santos’ drubbing for eleven hits wasn’t bad enough, Mathis allowed a 2-piece to Tommie Petersen (1 HR in 85 AB before this game) in the top 7th. Sandy Sambrano’s 401st plate appearance as a Raccoon would yield his first homer as a Raccoon, but that was down by a lot and with one out and nobody on in the ninth inning. 7-3 Crusaders. Sambrano 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4;

The Crusaders have now hit ten home runs in this series.

For the Thursday game, Chris Mathis was demoted to AAA with his ERA close to six, where he would meet with Pat Slayton. The two relievers jointly held the Raccoons lead for wins in the majors, with four W’s, which in itself was telling. Ian Cumins was called upon to make the start in the fourth game.

While that was going on for the Raccoons, the Crusaders acquired CF/RF Amari Brissett (.257, 5 HR, 17 RBI) from the Loggers in exchange for MR Jose Ramos (1-1, 3.48 ERA) and #75 prospect CL Troy Charters.

Game 4
NYC: CF Brissett – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Case – SS J. Ortega – 3B Petersen – P R. Moreno
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS Palmer – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – 1B Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Rodgers – P Cumins

Cumins had lasted 5.2 innings in a spot start last season, allowing four earned runs and taking the loss. He came close to matching the damage from last year in the first inning alone after Pruitt started the game with an error putting newly-minted Crusader Amari Brissett on base. Cumins walked Caraballo and eventually a run scored on Manfull’s double to deep right. Aaron Case missed the Daily Early Blast by less than 20 feet, with Carmona catching his drive to center on the edge of the warning track. Cumins issued leadoff walks in the second and third, which were resolved in a double play and Brissett being caught stealing, respectively, although Martin Ortíz did hit a homer in the third to make it 2-0. The fourth started with another 3-ball count in which B.J. Manfull doubled, and of course scored, 3-0. By then, Carmona had lengthened his streak of being caught stealing to five times, being caught by Case in the fourth, and he was AGAIN caught in the sixth.

Despite walking five, Cumins somehow ate up seven innings, and had a chance for the W when he was hit for in the bottom 7th, as D-Alex grabbed a stick in a 3-1 deficit, two outs, and the bases loaded after a so far impregnable Moreno had faltered in the inning. Lefty Aurelio Hernandez came out of the Crusaders’ pen and got Alexander to pop out right above home plate. The Crusaders responded to that mild and disregardable rebellion without a sign of mercy. Sugano faced the 3-through-6 batters in the top 8th, three of whom were left-handers, but conceded two walks and a single before being chased for Josh Gibson to face Tommie Petersen, with the Crusaders sending left-handed Jesus Flores to pinch-hit. Gibson had Flores at 0-2, then served up a meatball for Flores to slam away at, blowing the game wide open. 7-1 Crusaders. Palmer 2-3, RBI;

Cumins was sent back to St. Pete after the game, with Pat Slayton being recalled. Slayton had developed a serious case of The Walks in AAA…

Raccoons (30-29) vs. Scorpions (27-33) – June 7-9, 2013

The Raccoons had swept the last series from the Scorpions (in 2011), but were pretty far away from being able to sweep much right now. The Scorpions ranked eighth in both runs scored and runs allowed over in the Federal League, comfortably out of the division battle, and between their bullpen and the Raccoons’ a lot of misery was pooled together. The Coons already had a 4+ ERA from their pen, but the Scorpions topped that with a grisly 5.03 relievers’ ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jack Berry (5-3, 3.81 ERA) vs. William Kay (3-4, 3.42 ERA)
Rich Hood (3-3, 4.52 ERA) vs. Jorge Gine (5-5, 3.52 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-4, 3.64 ERA) vs. Fred O’Quinn (5-2, 4.38 ERA)

Left-handed starter on Sunday, while the Raccoons miss their former starter Kenichi Watanabe (3-6, 3.65 ERA) by a day.

Game 1
SAC: CF P. Sanchez – C Leach – LF R. Lopez – 3B Whitley – RF X. Alvarez – 1B Bovane – 2B Luna – SS Sauceda – P Kay
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – 3B Rodgers – SS Whitehouse – P Berry

Nobody among the home crowd could do much with it, but it was the RACCOONS to score a run in the first, WITHOUT falling behind first in the series opener. Carmona led off with a double and scored on Bednarski’s single to left to do the trick. Alas, with this team, no lead was forever, and while Berry only allowed one hit in the first three innings, the Scorpions’ second hit was a pretty big one as Rodrigo Lopez tied the score with a mammoth shot to left in the fourth inning, and the Stingers took the lead in the fifth on back-to-back 1-out doubles by Ricky Luna and Gabriel Sauceda. Sambrano was on for the Raccoons in the third, walking with one out and stealing second base, and drawing a leadoff walk in the sixth, but was generally ignored by the rest of the lineup. Bottom 7th, Quebell drew a leadoff walk and Bergquist hit an infield single to put the go-ahead run on base. Rodgers grounded to short where J.D. Shipley missed the pickup and instead of a double play got nothing but a grim look from William Kay, with the bases now loaded and nobody out. Kay walked in the tying run against Whitehouse before the lineup rolled over and died. John Alexander hit for Berry and struck out, and Carmona popped out to first. Just before the dismayed fans could start chanting for the Scorpions, Sambrano singled hard up the middle to plate a pair with two outs. Gibson and Watanabe didn’t allow a baserunner between them in the last two innings to put this comebacker away. 4-2 Coons. Sambrano 1-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-3, BB; Canning (PH) 1-1; Berry 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-3);

Game 2
SAC: CF P. Sanchez – LF R. Lopez – C R. Gibson – 3B Whitley – 1B Bovane – 2B Luna – RF Allen – SS Sauceda – P Gine
POR: 1B Sambrano – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 2B Palmer – SS Canning – 3B Rodgers – P Hood

Ricardo Carmona’s futility in terms of stolen bases ended in the first inning, albeit as the trailing part of a double steal, and only after getting smacked by Jorge Gine in the first place. Both runners would score; Bednarski plated Sandy with a groundout, while John Alexander hit a home run to right center to tie with Bednarski and Dylan Alexander for the team lead with seven (…). Other struggles also ended for Carmona, who got his first major league home run in his next appearance at the dish. It was also a big one. Rodgers, Hood, and Sambrano had all hit 2-out singles and Carmona hit a drive high and deep to right center, the first pitch of the at-bat – GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

That ran a) Gine from the game, and b) the score to 8-1. Hood, however, despite being spotted the early lead, was a hot mess of bad command sprinkled with the occasional pitch right down the middle, and was getting hit quite hard – the Scorpions just had not found the boundary yet. Rodrigo Lopez came darn close to a homer in the fifth, being caught against the wall by J-Alex, and Bednarski made a headlong catch on Stan Whitley’s drive to right to end the inning with a man in scoring position. That was Hood’s last batter regardless; he had needed 104 pitches to get through five innings, walking four. After Carmona’s slam, almost all the scoring was in for this game. The Raccoons failed to make any impression on the Scorpions’ flammable bullpen, while the old wisdom that no box score’s pitching segment would get better by the insertion of Pat Slayton wasn’t entirely true. Slayton logged four outs without drama, but the Scorpions hit three singles for a run off Sergio Vega in the ninth inning. 8-2 Critters. Sambrano 2-4; Carmona 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; D. Alexander 2-4, RBI; Rodgers 2-4;

Interlude: waiver claim

Sunday, the Raccoons were awarded the contract of swingman Tom Constantino (0-0, 3.00 ERA), after claiming the 27-year old right-hander off waivers by the Loggers. Constantino has a 91mph heater, a good fork, and tries to not get burned with his change and curve. He is 3-13 with a 5.48 ERA in his major league career. He replaced Slayton on the roster.

Yes, the Raccoons claimed a player the Loggers didn’t want anymore. Please contain your outrage.

Raccoons (30-29) vs. Scorpions (27-33) – June 7-9, 2013

Game 3
SAC: CF P. Sanchez – C Leach – 3B Whitley – RF X. Alvarez – 1B Bovane – 2B Luna – LF Allen – SS Sauceda – P O’Quinn
POR: 2B Sambrano – CF Carmona – LF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – SS Palmer – 3B Canning – P Conway

This was not only the only game of the week for the Raccoons in which nobody scored in the first inning, it was also the only one with a rain delay, over an hour in the second inning. When play resumed, Palmer drove in Bednarski with a single to take a 1-0 edge, and the Coons added a run in the third, Carmona plating Sambrano with a sac fly after Sandy had tripled.

Conway – who had little on a good, sunny day – had clearly little left after the lengthy rain delay and was removed after issuing a wickedly wild walk in the fourth inning, bringing in Tom “Virus” Constantino for his Raccoons debut. Constantino walked his first batter, Geoff Allen, but eventually got out of the inning. Yet, his debut did not leave a nice, sugary taste after all. He conceded a run in the fifth and overall allowed plenty of hard contact as well as a leadoff walk in the sixth inning to Raúl Bovane. When Al Graves, a left-hander, batted for the Scorpions’ reliever with two outs and two on in the top 6th, Manobu Sugano was called on, and got the K to maintain the 2-1 lead. The Coons’ defense then did the heavy lifting in the next two innings, turning nifty double plays in support of Sugano in the seventh and Gibson in the eighth. The home team’s lineup had gone absent throughout the middle innings: they were still leading the Scorpions on the “strength” of two hits. In the bottom 8th, pinch-hitters Ken Rodgers and Matt Pruitt hit balls hard, but both flies ended up with Xavier Alvarez and Geoff Allen, respectively. So it was Hoshi with no cushy in the top 9th, facing the bottom of the order. After Geoff Allen popped out to left on the first pitch, Watanabe struck out PH Rodney Gibson, and the Scorpions sent another pinch-hitter, Portland’s old Tomas Castro, who was batting .308 in very limited use. Always strikeout-prone, Castro had one hung onto him to seal the sweep. 2-1 Critters.

In other news

June 3 – PIT C Bartholomeu Pino (.288, 9 HR, 36 RBI) hits the DL with a strained medial collateral ligament, and is expected to miss six weeks.
June 4 – DEN SP Brendan Teasdale (4-2, 4.56 ERA) is lost for the season with shoulder inflammation.
June 4 – Atlanta’s SP Harry Wentz (1-5, 4.03 ERA) is also unlikely to pitch again this year after suffering a tear in his triceps.
June 5 – LAP 3B Jens Carroll (.274, 2 HR, 14 RBI) will miss two weeks with an intercostal strain.
June 6 – The Bayhawks score in only three innings against the Condors, but still romp them 15-1. Every scoring inning is at least a 4-spot for the Bayhawks.
June 7 – Starting pitchers keep dropping, with TIJ SP Manuel Rojas (7-4, 2.96 ERA) now out for at least a month with shoulder inflammation.
June 8 – Cincinnati’s CL Ian Johnson (2-1, 1.40 ERA, 15 SV) logs his 400th career save by preserving the Cyclones’ 2-1 win over the Thunder. The 34-year old left-hander was the FL Reliever of the Year in 2008 and won a ring with the Cyclones in 2010, closing for them since 2005 after starting his career with the Aces. He is 66-60 with a 2.28 ERA for his career, having struck out 1,307 batters. He’s also legendarily unshaven, meticulously maintaining his three days’ of beard for the last 15 years.

Complaints and stuff

(Ivan Mena draws the blinds, hiding the hole that Chad shot into the glass panel that has a page from the Agitator with the partial headline “ONIZING DEFE” pasted over it in most crude fashion; the drawn blinds almost completely darken the room; which is a good thing given his small, bright green eyes that are penetrating everybody and can look right into one’s soul)

Welcome, senor, welcome! Please take seat. Ivan have prepared tea, if you want. (the tea’s foul stench is unbearable and you throw up a little in your mouth) – No? Oh, is no issue, is it very strong, Ivan know.

Ivan here to give you medical report. Senor Westfield is feeling mucho mejor, and can already eat solid food again. He may be back with you next week again.

Tuvimos suerte – no fatalities this week for the team! Colinho will make next turn on Tuesday also. Como usted saben – Marronito e Angel e Dickersonito; que no regresan este ano. Pero; Ivan take good care for them. Marronito no ha intervención quirúrgica, no-nonono-nono! Ivan has approach alternativo. Ivan make Marronito daily vendaje de compresión, with secret recipe inside. Is paste with many healing ingredients from jungle, but is not true that is squeezed brown slimy frog in there. Is green slimy frog in there!

Now you must excuse Ivan. Must look after Yoshino. Ivan put Yoshino in ice bath to sooth abdominal strain. Must be healed by now – que no podia mover las piernas … about three hours ago. Adios, adios! (hurries out)

[Westheim]

2013 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons are lacking a first round pick and won’t come until in the supplemental round, when it will be picking through the leftovers of everybody else. The Raccoons had forfeited their first round pick by signing Daniel Dickerson – a truly genius move in hindsight.

There was plenty of starting pitching available in the draft pool, also guys who thought they were starting pitchers because of a good fastball and little else, but teams picking early (…) could pick between a number of offerings. There were also a few good catchers and a flurry of interesting outfielders. In terms of infielders, things were a bit particular in this draft, as there were no sterling hitting prospects among the infield crop, but a few solid-contact middle infielders, also a few defensive shortstops … in other words, no first round material.

The Raccoons’ Juan Calderón has prepared a nice little overview of the top talent:

SP Pat Selby (12/15/14)
SP Elliott Rosner (13/11/13)
SP Jerry Moran (11/13/11)
SP Mike Baker (14/14/11)
SP Zach Weaver (12/13/13)
SP DeAndre Bynum (12/15/14)

RP Tim Dunkin (13/12/13)
RP Toby Wood (20/16/11) – enters the draft as an outfielder
RP Pat Collins (16/15/10)

C Ryan Holliman (10/12/9)
C Mikey Ford (12/12/8)

1B Russ Greenwald (12/8/11)
3B/2B Rey Umpierre (9/11/9)
SS Jeff Wittner (11/10/11)

RF/LF Justin Quinn (12/12/13) – Calderón thinks he’ll be the #1 pick
CF/RF Brad Gore (16/13/10)
OF Jim Webb (10/12/10)
LF/RF Rick Farmer (10/11/13)
CF/RF Andy Bareford (13/6/12)

Pronounciation guide on Rey Umpierre: his heritage is a bit of a cluster**** of cultures with one half of the family descending from Haitian mulattos, the other half coming from Guatemala, plus a great-grandfather from Cuba. He is American, though, and was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY - of all places. His surname was originally French, but is pronounced in Spanish fashion: oom-PEE-erre;

+++

The draft will be on Saturday, and I played Civ V most of the day – blame Hammercraft – and won’t be able to complete the week due to time and things. So, no other update coming today and I don’t know when the horrendous offices will spew me forth tomorrow due to tax deadline stuff, so maybe it will be Tuesday. I don’t know.

[Westheim]

Oh well.

(slowly sinks down onto the couch, wearing a thick neck brace, a shimmering black eye, and the right arm in a splint and a sling)

First, don’t ask. It’s way worse than it looks.

Second, the Raccoons are currently maintaining a winning record, ever so slightly, but deep down under all the .260 batting averages with no power whatsoever … they are going to sink down sooner or later, it's a bit of a schedule thing, but they will sink down. The power is the most puzzling. Since we had some fun with Alston and Black, nobody’s hit the ball anymore. I mean, really deep. Portland, the city that the homers forgot.

Ultimately, if we can find trades that make sense, we should do so in July. Should the Coons be out by about five games, you would want to ADD stuff, but adding stuff will be hard, since a big chunk of our remaining money went into acquiring Jack Berry. The holes in the rotation … the gaping holes …! Not even starting to talk about my heart. (coughs into a handkerchief) Oh it’s nothing, just a little blood.

And what you heard about me drinking bleach and walking off a bridge over the Willamette – that’s so totally not true! Totally not true!

Raccoons (33-29) @ Rebels (34-27) – June 10-12, 2013

The Rebels found themselves in a vertical dive, having lost their last six games. Overall they were just above average in both runs scored and runs allowed, but in June were conceding a rather un-average seven-and-a-half runs per game, playing 2-7 ball. The Raccoons had won the last three meetings with the Rebels, including taking two of three games last season, and despite that the Rebels were still the team the Raccoons were outright worst against, with an all-time .357 winning percentage.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-5, 4.19 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (7-4, 3.83 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-4, 4.66 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (5-6, 5.42 ERA)
Jack Berry (6-3, 3.68 ERA) vs. Josh Knupp (6-2, 4.32 ERA)

A full set of right-handers is awaiting the Raccoons’ bats. We looked, and they are not shivering.

Game 1
POR: 2B Sambrano – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Santos
RIC: CF D. Flores – LF M. Austin – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Enriquez – 1B Shank – C Little – 3B Mateo – SS Cash – P Furst

It had been a while, but the Raccoons’ team led in homers finally moved again, with Dylan Alexander hitting a 2-piece off Brian Furst in the furst inning. Santos had struggled like you wouldn’t believe it recently and from the start in this game gave his outfielders a workout, but struck out Jaime Mateo with a man in scoring position in the bottom 2nd. Well, actually Mateo was called out on a pitch that was closer to his shoelaces than his knees, and he had none of it, giving the umpire an earful, leading to an early shower for Mateo and replacement third baseman David Gonzalez taking over the hot corner. Santos labored through three innings, then came to bat with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth once Furst was done drilling Ken Rodgers. Santos hit a fly to fairly deep right, deep enough for Quebell to tag and score from third base. Sambrano then walked, but Carmona couldn’t do anything with the bases loaded and flew out to CL North veteran Mark Austin. The following inning, J-Alex joined D-Alex with his eighth homer of the year, a solo job that ran the score to 4-0. Santos had struggled early, but caught himself in the middle innings, allowing only one hit past the third (to David Gonzalez) and made it through seven innings without allowing a run. Sugano got four outs, Vega got two, and the Rebels were shut out in the opener. 4-0 Coons. Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K (2-5) and 2-2, RBI;

Mike Bednarski had been the first to reach seven homers on May 22 – not an inspiring total at that point, but decently good – but has stopped since. Both Alexanders have overtaken him now.

Game 2
POR: SS Sambrano – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 2B Bergquist – 3B Rodgers – P Baldwin
RIC: CF D. Flores – SS Mateo – 1B J. Gutierrez – 2B Enriquez – C Little – RF D. Gonzalez – 3B M. Austin – LF Cash – P Sabatino

The Coons scored two in the first again, with Carmona singling, finally stealing a base on his own again, then came home on John Alexander’s double to left center. Quebell’s single scored J-Alex after bouncing past Juan Gutierrez. Baldwin came back from the back issues no better and no worse than he had been before, living on defense early on, but while Santos had gotten better on Monday, Baldwin just melted in the middle innings. Morgan Little hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, and David Gonzalez walked. A grounder to first by Austin moved the tying runs into scoring position, upon which Baldwin threw a totally wild pitch to bring home Little. When Dave Cash bounced a 2-0 pitch back to him, Baldwin couldn’t play it, continuing with runners on the corners with one out. Sabatino laid down a bunt before Danny Flores drilled a pitch to deep left, but it hung up just long enough for Pruitt to put the paws on it. The Coons rebuilt their 2-run lead in the following top 6th when Quebell singled in Carmona, with Baldwin again laboring around two runners on base in the bottom 6th.

Well, the pitch count was low and the pen was on yellow alert already, but Baldwin batted for himself with two out and nobody on in the top 7th, reaching on an error by Victor Enriquez. Sambrano drew a walk off Sabatino (an awesome name combo!), bringing up Carmona, who had just a week ago hit his first major league homer and had liked the taste. He CRUSHED Sabatino’s 2-2 pitch all-out, and drove it over right center and outta here, a 3-run homer! Baldwin spilled another two runners in the seventh, getting out when Flores hacked himself out for the second out, and Pruitt made another dazzling play on a drive to left center by Jaime Mateo. After that, the pen took over. Constantino had a quick eighth, and Thrasher issued a walk but struck out three in the bottom of the ninth. 6-1 Raccoons. Carmona 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Quebell 4-4, 2 RBI; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (4-4);

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Palmer – LF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Berry
RIC: 3B Mateo – LF M. Austin – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Enriquez – C Little – CF D. Gonzalez – 1B C. Gonzalez – SS Cash – P Knupp

Josh Knupp was almost even on walks and strikeouts given out, but before he could issue either here, John Alexander broke the tie for the team home run lead by knocking his ninth, a solo job in the first inning. The Rebels made up the early deficit this time, with Mateo doubling and Austin singling to get the Rebels going. Mateo scored the tying run on a groundout. Berry gave up two singles to start the next inning, with Jaime Mateo plating the runners with a 2-out, 2-run single, and Berry just kept bleeding, throwing a wild one and conceding the third run of the inning on Austin’s single. The Rebels had two hits to start the third AGAIN, and then Berry fell apart outright, walking César Gonzalez, the old knacker, to load them up, and Dave Cash to shove home the Rebels’ fifth run. Josh Knupp’s RBI single knocked Berry out of the game, and we’d have a nice little bullpen day. What joy.

Sergio Vega replaced Berry, but allowed a 2-out, 2-run single to Mark Austin, putting the score at 8-1. Things were out of control even before Gutierrez’ drive into the gap in left center, where John Alexander warped out of nothing to steal the 2-run double and finally ended the inning and closed Berry’s line that resembled a burnt out chicken cube. Down by seven, Quebell hit hard drives in both the fifth (leading off) and the sixth (with two out), doubled the first time and scored along with Canning on Jason Bergquist’s 2-run double, but flew out to Enriquez in the latter instance. Enriquez then homered off Gallegos in the bottom 6th, the Rebels going up 9-3, and that one was hit SO HARD, Gallegos tweaked his neck twisting around to wave it goodbye.

Top 8th, Carmona hit a 1-out double. Down six runs, enthusiasm was understandably absent. Then Palmer got on with a single, and Knupp was starting to run out. Bednarski hit an RBI single, 9-4, and D-Alex hit for Constantino. While Knupp pitching to Bednarski at the end of the line was defensible – he was a right-hander and Bednarski had struggled, having him pitch to D-Alex was probably not, and Alexander promptly cranked a 3-run homer to cut the deficit to 9-7. Closer Juan Jimenez had a 4 K/BB and faced the bottom of the order in the ninth inning, but Walt Canning promptly reached on an infield single. Bergquist hit a proper single to left, putting the tying runs on base with nobody out, but Jimenez then struck out Pruitt and Carmona and had Palmer at 0-2 when Palmer drilled a shot to right center – but it wound up with Enriquez. 9-7 Rebels. Bednarski 2-4, RBI; Quebell 2-3, 2B; D. Alexander (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Canning 2-4; Bergquist 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Juan Gallegos’ stiff neck was not severe in the end, and the off day on Thursday was enough for him to get back to 100%.

Raccoons (35-30) @ Loggers (26-40) – June 14-16, 2013

The Raccoons were last in the North, last in runs scored, last in batting average, and almost last in bullpen ERA. It was more of the same for a team that had not finished in last place for seven straight years and was making a hard run for an eighth consecutive red lantern to go onto the mantelpiece. The season series with the Raccoons was tied at 2-2.

Projected matchups:
Rich Hood (4-3, 4.33 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (1-2, 4.28 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-4, 3.45 ERA) vs. Matt Crisler (0-1, 8.44 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-5, 3.83 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (3-7, 3.89 ERA)

Three more right-handers for the Raccoons to deal with.

Bill Conway has the best ERA on the starting staff, which is disconcerting in itself.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Hood
MIL: LF Knowling – SS Howell – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – C R. Hernandez – CF Gilmor – 3B Jennings – 2B O. Sandoval – P Euteneuer

Euteneuer (spell: YOU-tea-nyer) faced the minimum through four innings thanks to Carmona singling and getting caught stealing (…) in the first inning, and Hood bunted into a double play in the third. By then, Hood had already surrendered a massive homer to Zach Knowling in the first inning, Knowling’s first dinger in 235 AB on the season. Quebell hit a 2-out single in the fifth that didn’t lead to anything, but in the sixth the Coons got runners onto the corners when Dylan Alexander struck out, and they left John Alexander on third base in the seventh. Hood spilled only two more hits in seven innings, but the Raccoons were completely unable to come up with anything against Euteneuer. Carmona hit a triple in the eighth, and was stranded. Jose Ramos tried to close out the 1-0 win for the Loggers in the ninth, but D-Alex hit a leadoff double off the wall in rightfield. Bednarski singled, putting runners on the corners with nobody out, and the Raccoons tried very hard to blow this, but didn’t manage. After J-Alex hit into a force at second base on which D-Alex held, Quebell’s bouncer to first base was taken to second again by Mike Rucker, but the relay was not in time, and D-Alex accidentally scored the tying run. Two inept teams tumbled into extra innings, where the Coons left Ken Rodgers on third base in the top 10th, and the Loggers had Ramos bunt into a double play to kill the leadoff walk Josh Gibson had issued. But the horrendous Loggers bullpen came into play in the 11th, with Kevin Cummings allowing four hits for two runs to score rather easily, while Hoshi when inserted into the bottom 11th got a pop from Knowling and struck out Rob Howell and Justin Dally to end the game. 3-1 Coons. Carmona 3-5, 3B; D. Alexander 2-5, 2B; Bednarski 2-5, 2B; J. Alexander 2-5, RBI; Hood 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 3B Rodgers – P Conway
MIL: LF Knowling – SS Howell – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – C R. Hernandez – CF Gilmor – 3B Jennings – 2B O. Sandoval – P Crisler

Knowling had the first hit in this game, but it didn’t come until his second turn, with the Raccoons only mounting the minimum again through three innings, and with Conway having opened the bottom 3rd on two walks to Dave Jennings and Oscar Sandoval. Crisler bunted them over and Knowling singled to right. Jennings scored, but John Alexander threw out Sandoval. Rob Howell bounced out to end the inning with only one run across for the Loggers.

The Coons stranded the Alexanders on the corners after 2-out hits in the top 4th, and Rodgers and Conway after drawing 2-out walks in the top 5th. Knowling drove in another run with a sac fly in the bottom of the fifth after again coming up with two men in scoring position and one out. Conway went into the seventh before surrendering another run on a 2-out, pinch-hit single by Tim Pace, putting the Loggers up 3-0. Well, it didn’t FEEL like the Loggers were doing anything at all in this game, yet they decidedly less crap than the Coons, who had enjoyed base hits in only one of their seven innings. But again it was a matter of getting the pen involved, perhaps. Kevin Cummings was back in the top 8th, faced Rodgers to lead off, and –clank!– a home run! Whitehouse singled, pitching change to Orlando Valdez, and Carmona singled off him to put the tying runs on base. They – and more – were in before long. Sambrano doubled into the corner in deep left, 3-2, two in scoring position for D-Alex, whose sac fly tied the game and moved Sandy to third, from where J-Alex plated him with a single, all off the left-handed Cummings and Valdez. Too bad though that the Coons’ pen stunk as well, and Mike Rucker homered off Sugano to tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Constantino replaced him, allowed three singles to load the bases with two down, and when Josh Gibson relieved him to pitch to Corey Martin, the pinch-hitter sent a drive to deep center, which Carmona made a hero’s play and a leaping grab on before creating a crater and a puff of dust on the warning track, just short of adding his skull to the fence. Sometimes, heroism isn’t worth it, though. Justin Dally’s homer walked off the Loggers and made Gibson the loser after the Coons had stranded Matt Pruitt at third base in the top of the ninth. 5-4 Loggers. J. Alexander 2-4, RBI; Whitehouse 1-2;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 2B Palmer – SS Canning – 3B Rodgers – P Santos
MIL: LF Knowling – SS Howell – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – C R. Hernandez – CF Gilmor – 3B Jennings – 2B O. Sandoval – P B. Morrison

Santos struck out four in a row the first time through the lineup, and neither team amounted to much in the early innings. The Coons would get the first serious threat going with leadoff singles hit by D-Alex and Bednarski in the fourth. J-Alex chipped a low bouncer back to the third base side of the mound, and that looked like a double play off the bat, but Morrison couldn’t get to the ball in time, Dave Jennings had remained at third expecting a throw, and the whole mess gave the Coons three men on with nobody out after the infield single. Palmer struck out, bringing up Canning, who beat a leaping Dally for a high liner into the corner, where it bounced just in front of the wall, kicked up high off the wall, and then landed dead on the line. Nick Gilmor took forever to come over and Dally had fallen down and had to get his limbs untied while the bases gradually emptied with Canning racing for third, and still no throw back in – the third base coach sent Canning for home, and he arrived WELL ahead of the throw – INSIDE-THE-PARK GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

Also, Canning’s first big league homer since ’10, his rookie season. Unfortunately, Santos couldn’t cope with the sudden lead, walked Dally and Rucker to start the bottom of the inning, and then Raúl Hernandez’ single up the middle loaded them up with nobody out for the Loggers. Nick Gilmor hit into a run-scoring double play, while a mad dash by Carmona into the gap sucked up Dave Jennings’ fly to keep the damage to one run. But the sparkling that Santos had shown in the first three innings was completely gone. The Loggers threatened in the fifth, but it wasn’t until the sixth that Gilmor hit a 1-out, 2-run double and knocked Santos from the game, but Vega proved to be no relief, much the opposite. He walked Jennings, then allowed hits to Oscar Sandoval and PH Corey Martin and the Loggers took a 5-4 lead on him. The Raccoons stopped taking place at that point, shell-shocked or lazy, whatever, but the Loggers put up another ugly crooked number in the eighth that was on Gallegos, who walked four (one intentional) and had allowed a 2-run homer to Sandoval in between, and couldn’t get out of the inning. When Constantino replaced him, he walked Aaron Moody to force home the fourth run in the inning before striking out Jennings to end the nightmare. 9-4 Loggers. D. Alexander 3-4, 2B; Canning 2-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI;

Boy are we glad that the Loggers have such a ****ty offense.

In other news

June 11 – SFW SP Jeremiah Bowman (5-6, 4.57 ERA) 2-hits the Crusaders in a 2-0 shutout.
June 11 – LVA 2B/3B Howard Jones (.224, 1 HR, 25 RBI) suffers a sprained ankle in an on-base collision and will miss time until about the All Star break.
June 12 – The Knights and Pacifics score 7-run innings in the same game. The Pacifics’ comes in the fourth and the lead they take with it lasts them until the ninth, when they not only blow a 7-6 lead, but concede seven to fall to the Knights, 13-7.
June 13 – Brian Patrick (5-5, 4.07 ERA) spins the first ABL no-hitter in almost three years, holding the Scorpions dry in a 1-0 game in which he issues only two walks and whiffs nine. The Falcons don’t score until the ninth inning in his support, with Fernando Chavez’ home run the margin of victory. Patrick’s no-no is the 31st in ABL history and the first since Juichi Fujita killed off the Raccoons in 2010. It is the first no-hitter in interleague play, and also the first for the Falcons, who had been no-hit twice before, both times by Bayhawks: Rafael Espinoza in 1989, and Tyler Sullivan in 2006. The Scorpions are still looking for a no-hitter, and have been on the receiving end for the second time, being no-hit by Hall of Famer Leland Lewis in ’93.
June 14 – CIN SS/2B Pat Morrison (.286, 4 HR, 38 RBI) is out for a month with a tender elbow.
June 14 – A day after being no-hit and despite churning out 21 hits, the Scorpions come up losers to the Wolves, dropping an 11-9 game.
June 16 – In a year with a flush of starting pitchers vanishing on the DL, CIN SP Nathan O’Herlihy (9-2, 2.69 ERA) will make no exception, being shut down for the year due to work having to be done on a torn labrum.
June 16 – SFW INF Jamie Wilson (.271, 4 HR, 28 RBI) is drilled in the foot with a pitch and will be placed on the DL for 15 days, so hope the Warriors.

Complaints and stuff

Closing in on 3,000 regular season wins. Although with the way they’re playing… the magic number is nine right now.

The Coons have gone six weeks while playing mostly middling to bad teams, the Crusaders, Titans, and Cyclones left aside for the moment. Their 24-18 record since the beginning ofMay thus has to be taken with a grain of salt. There will be nine more games against average-at-best competition, but then we will start a string of 21 games of which 18 will be against the Crusaders, Titans, Thunder, or Elks. That will be the point where the cookie will crumble and the Coons will crash into the depths of the division.

Goddamnit I miss Brownie doing the rounds every five days.

Maud, how much longer until the next season? And is anybody going to fix that window, ever? – SO LONG?? – (sobs)

[Westheim]

2013 AMATEUR DRAFT

Not much excitement was building in the front office in the days leading up to the draft. The Raccoons were playing poorly, and they were playing poorly because of a swath of injuries (among some inability), and while Nick Brown was the heaviest emotional loss among the long-term injuries, Daniel Dickerson was the priciest. Dickerson was also the reason the Raccoons lacked a first-round pick, having forfeited theirs to the Thunder. Like they needed first-round picks!

The Raccoons would pick at #35, courtesy of their only compensation pick received for the loss of Scott Spears (we’ve cried more before…), and then again at #63 and 24th pick from there in their regular spot.

There was no elaborate plan in place, because #35 was too far down to be even remotely sure of who might drop to there. We had a few candidates, and the hotlist was a bit longer than usual with 19 players.

SP Pat Selby (12/15/14)
SP Elliott Rosner (13/11/13)
SP Jerry Moran (11/13/11)
SP Mike Baker (14/14/11)
SP Zach Weaver (12/13/13)
SP DeAndre Bynum (12/15/14)

RP Tim Dunkin (13/12/13)
RP Toby Wood (20/16/11) – enters the draft as an outfielder
RP Pat Collins (16/15/10)

C Ryan Holliman (10/12/9)
C Mikey Ford (12/12/8)

1B Russ Greenwald (12/8/11)
3B/2B Rey Umpierre (9/11/9)
SS Jeff Wittner (11/10/11)

RF/LF Justin Quinn (12/12/13) – Calderón thinks he’ll be the #1 pick
CF/RF Brad Gore (16/13/10)
OF Jim Webb (10/12/10)
LF/RF Rick Farmer (10/11/13)
CF/RF Andy Bareford (13/6/12)

Wittner, Farmer, or Wood might drop to #35, really. Wood is a bit of an enigma. Not a bad outfielder, but Calderón thinks he could be gold as a reliever or closer.

The Loggers used their annual #1 pick on outfielder Brad Gore, before the top 5 were completed with Salem taking RF/LF Justin Quinn at #2, the Buffaloes selecting SP Mike Baker at #3, followed by SP Jerry Moran going to the Indians and SP Casey Hally to the Condors.

The hotlist continued to be decimated quickly, and at the end of the first round proper only the three infielders, the catcher Ford, outfielders Farmer and Bareford, and the mysterious Toby Wood remained, with Calderón’s eyebrows rising higher and higher. Too soon, though – the Loggers picked Wood with the first supplemental round pick at #25. Before the Raccoons’ pick came up, Umpierre and Farmer were also swooped up, and the Titans took Jeff Wittner one pick ahead of the Coons at #34, causing Calderón to grumble something in Spanish. I wasn’t particular into this leftovers-at-#35 stuff and my arm was itching inside the splint…

Calderón took care of the proceedings and decided to take the lone remaining outfielder, making Andy Bareford, who looked like he needed a pretty hefty sun blocker in the outfield, which made Portland a top choice of residence, the Coons’ top pick in 2013. Mikey Ford went to the Warriors at #37, but Greenwald remained around until our next pick.

In the fourth round, Calderón suggested Jim Bitely, potentially a great defensive centerfielder, but we had not taken a pitcher yet and I instead called an unremarkable starter in Rich Gould to draft at #111. The Elks took Bitely with the very next pick, so he’s basically guaranteed a Hall of Fame career at the least, and perhaps Kingship of the World on top of that. There was another pitcher I had my eye on in Randy Webster, but I decided on Gould, with Webster going to the Wolves in the fifth round.

2013 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Supp. Round (#35) – CF/RF Andy Bareford, 18, from Pikesville, MD – great defensive and mobility-related skills, although the arm is a tad weak for rightfield; ultimately he might shift to leftfield, where he has not played a lot before. The bat shows some good contact ability and he goes to all fields for extra base hits, but is quite hack-happy at this stage. Not much home run power, not the second coming of Neil Reece.
Round 2 (#63) – 1B Russ Greenwald, 19, from Bloomer, WI – everything you expect a first baseman to be. Slow, clumsy, with a huge stroke. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Round 3 (#87) – 1B/3B Tyler Scott, 18, from St. Paul, MN – adds a murder arm to all your first baseman stereotypes, but his range is not overwhelming. Whether he can become even a decent third baseman is a bit up in the air. Not many other skills except for a desire to mash stuff.
Round 4 (#111) – SP Rich Gould, 18, from Ellicott City, MD – tends to give up hard contact with a straight 89mph fastball, with a good cutter and a much-to-be-worked-on change rounding out the repertoire of this right-hander
Round 5 (#135) – 2B Terry Gibbons, 21, from Beach Park, IL – slick defender at the keystone, decent contact bat, but next to no power and not enough speed to be a big help on the basepaths
Round 6 (#159) – SP Isaiah Franks, 17, from Lewiston, ID – rumor has it he was the only black kid in his county, and taught himself pitching by throwing the rocks back at the white kids – probably just street talk. In any case, this right-hander does have only a 88mph cutter and a slider, with not much of a third pitch, so he might not be much of a starter after all
Round 7 (#183) – INF Dan Riley, 18, from West Bloomfield Township, MI – versatile defender with a good arm and steady hands, but even in high school he hasn’t hit much outside singles. No meaningful speed or power to make out
Round 8 (#207) – MR Tim Patton, 20, from Falfurrias, TX – righty with a 93mph heater and a quite good slider, but the problem was mainly to locate that heater, which he tended to throw in the dirt, at the batter, or even behind the batter…
Round 9 (#231) – C/1B Owen Long, 19, from Edgewater, FL – not much to see here, pretty unremarkable, not standing out in any way, but we could still use another catcher in the minors…
Round 10 (#255) – SP Jeremy Homer, 17, from Vassalboro, ME – bad name for a pitcher, especially one that claimed to throw six pitches, but it all looked like the same mess in the end; at least a southpaw. We’ve drafted southpaws in lower rounds that became semi-decent major leaguers.
Round 11 (#279) – OF Tim Willey, 18, from Henderson, NV – good mobility, no power, but I like our chances for a centerfielder better even with Bareford
Round 12 (#303) – MR Jason Slaughter, 18, from Manchester, NH – not much to see here except for a 87mph heater that gets hit really, really far, and a cutter and fork that are no big help masking the first one; right-hander.

All players were assigned to single-A Aumsville, with cuts to be made in the coming days.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (36-32) vs. Indians (29-39) – June 17-19, 2013

The measly Indians had so far held the Raccoons at .500 for the season (3-3), although they really weren’t scoring runs at all (4.0 R/G, 11th). They did try to balance things with their pitching, but the rotation was mediocre at best, and the pen was not any better, even running a worse ERA than the rotation. Good defense helped them to only concede the sixth-most runs in the league, somehow.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 4.33 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (2-4, 5.48 ERA)
Jack Berry (6-4, 4.61 ERA) vs. Aaron Walsh (5-6, 4.58 ERA)
Rich Hood (4-3, 4.06 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (3-8, 3.01 ERA)

Weise might make a run for unluckiest pitcher in the league. We face three right-handers, with the Indians’ pair of southpaws having pitched on Saturday and Sunday.

Game 1
IND: CF J. Wilson – LF Kui – 2B Kym – RF J. Ortíz – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – SS R. Miller – 1B J. Mendoza – P Spears
POR: CF Carmona – SS Palmer – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – 2B Bergquist – P Baldwin

Scott Spears’ meltdown from the 2012 pennant race continued into the 2013 season, now with the Indians (his compensation pick transformed into newly-signed outfielder Andy Bareford, whom I can’t get excited for at all), and the Raccoons chipped five hits off him to begin their offensive efforts, and six in the first inning, good enough for four runs with Michael Palmer getting thrown out going first-to-third in between. Spotted a 4-run lead, Baldwin immediately set out to sabotage it, with generous help from Jason Bergquist, whose fielding error put Dave Padilla on first to start the second inning. Baldwin would walk two, including the pitcher, while allowing an RBI single to Jose Mendoza, but John Wilson’s fly to center was caught by Carmona to end the inning with three runners stranded. While hitting continued for the Raccoons in the following innings, scoring very didn’t, thanks to double plays hit into by D-Alex and Quebell (…!), and in the bottom 5th it was Ken Rodgers, who had plated two with a double in the opening frame, to roll out gently to Ryan Miller with the bases loaded.

Top 6th, Baldwin managed to walk the bases full before being excused from further proceedings. Sugano came in with one out and a run already in, walked Mendoza, struck out PH Clint Phillip, then uncorked a game-tying wild pitch, sharply followed by a gapper in left center to John Wilson that put the Indians ahead 6-4 on the strength of four hits. When the Coons’ Dylan Alexander drew a leadoff walk off Wade Davis in the bottom 7th, Bednarski promptly hit into a double play. Vega walked two in return in the top 8th, but Bednarski gobbled up enough drives to deep right to keep the Indians from extending their undeserved lead. Ken Rodgers’ homer in the bottom 8th pulled the Coons back to within a run, and Helio Maggessi faced the top of the order in the ninth. One of two blown saves for Maggessi this year had been against Portland, and he was in trouble in a hurry, with a hard single to right for Carmona and a soft single through Joey Mathews for Palmer. The bases were loaded after Bednarski singled to right (following a K for D-Alex). J-Alex had been removed in a double switch to remove the luckless Vega earlier, and now it was Craig Bowen and his glorious .182 average to pinch-hit. And suddenly Maggessi couldn’t find the plate – Bowen walked on four pitches to tie the game, and Quebell hit a ball into the gap to walk off the Critters, also in a 3-ball count. 7-6 Coons! Carmona 4-5; Palmer 3-5; Bednarski 4-5, 2B; Bowen (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Rodgers 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Gibson 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-1);

The Raccoons out-hit the Indians 17-5 in this affair, but issued nine walks, while drawing only three.

A nasty oh-fer with an error sent Bergquist packing to AAA before Yoshi Nomura was going to come back. Sandy Sambrano was anointed second base starter for the moment after being shoved around everywhere in the last few weeks, while Jason Seeley, batting .248/.366/.448 in AAA, would get a few looks the next two weeks. He’s already 26, it’s probably not worth it, but then again this team is a nice playground for experiments. (Matt Pruitt strolls past) Hey, Matt! (puts a plastic cup with a foaming green liquid on the table) Would you please drink this for me?

Game 2
IND: CF J. Wilson – LF Kui – 2B Kym – RF J. Ortíz – C Padilla – 1B J. Mendoza – 3B Mathews – SS R. Miller – P Walsh
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – C Bowen – P Berry

John Wilson and Ming Kui opened the game with singles, with Jack Berry throwing right down the middle. Jong-beom Kym hit a grounder to Sambrano for an out at second base, scoring the first run, before Juan Ortíz crushed an estimated four-hundred-seventy-footer. Mendoza doubled, but was left on, yet, not bad for a team that didn’t know how to score a lick. John Alexander hit a 2-piece in the bottom of the inning to keep things close enough (and became the first Coon into double digits), and Bowen and Bednarski also hit deep drives in the early innings (that were caught), but none of this changed the fact that Berry was plain bad and sucked real hard. He was knocked out with two outs in the fourth inning after walking Dave Padilla to force home a run, 6-2 Indians at that point. Thrasher came in, went 3-1 on Mendoza, then surrendered a 2-run single, walked Mathews, and only got out of the hole when Miller popped out to Palmer on a 3-2 pitch. When the Coons had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom of the inning, dumb-lucky Walsh held them to a Bowen sac fly, and two lineouts by Pruitt and Carmona. The Coons also couldn’t even find long relief, with Juan Gallegos nursing a long string of full or almost full counts before departing having faced eight batters, retiring half of them. Constantino took over based loaded and one out in the sixth, struck out Miller, then had a run score on Quebell’s error, putting the Indians 9-3 ahead. Constantino would put the leadoff men on with singles in the seventh and eighth, but somehow the Indians failed to draw umpteen walks again and didn’t pile on. Much the contrary, they gave the Raccoons a fair chance by sending broken Cal Holbrook to pitch, but he allowed only a single run (that was however aided by a wild pitch). Tim Crouch allowed a 2-run shot to Dylan Alexander in the bottom 9th, but it was by far not enough. 9-6 Indians. J. Alexander 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Bednarski 2-4, 2 2B; D. Alexander (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB; Rodgers 1-2, 2 BB; Constantino 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 3
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS R. Miller – 2B Kym – RF J. Ortíz – 3B Mathews – LF J. Gonzalez – C Parks – 1B J. Mendoza – P Weise
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 3B Canning – P Hood

The Indians had the bases loaded three batters into the rubber game, with John Wilson singling in an 0-2 count, Miller drawing a walk off Rich “Bad Neighbor” Hood, and then a hard single by Jong-beom Kym. Ortíz brought in the first run with a groundout before Joey Mathews rolled out to third, where Canning managed to hold the runners and got the out at first. Okay, almost outta it. And then Hood walked Jose Gonzalez, walked Jalen Parks for a run, walked Jose Mendoza for a run, and conceded a 2-run single to the pitcher Tom Weise. 5-0.

The Raccoons didn’t get a runner until the third (Canning walked only to get forced by a ****ty bunt by some forsaken pitcher), and no hit until the fourth, but then had the Alexanders on the corners with one out. Quebell grounded sharply to Jong-beom Kym, whose throw went past Miller and not only cost the double play but ultimately three unearned runs, one scoring on the bad throw, and two more on Pruitt’s 2-out double. The game would then briefly be in rain delay in the fifth inning as the baseball gods failed to cope with the misery and wept at the sight of what these two miserable teams did to the beautiful game of baseball. Hood went five without any more cockuppery, but Mendoza homered off Sergio Vega in the sixth to put the Indians 6-3 ahead. However, a single by John and a walk by Dylan Alexander brought up the tying run against Weise with nobody out in the bottom 6th, even though it was only Quebell. He flew out to left, but Palmer reached with a single, loading them up. Pruitt’s sac fly was not infinitely helpful, 6-4. Canning’s infield single reloaded the sacks, with Bednarski hitting for Vega and popping out to short to end the frame.

As was to be expected, the Raccoons’ pen continued its series-long explosion. Gallegos came into the seventh, and immediately was in trouble again. Pruitt threw out Ryan Miller at home plate, though, leaving Kym at second with two outs – until Gallegos threw eight straight balls to Ortíz and Mathews, then conceded a bases-clearing double to Phillip. What did the Coons respond with? Well, with one run already driven in by D-Alex and runners on the corners, Quebell hit into an inning-ending double play in the bottom 7th, but the humiliation was not completed until after Juan Ortíz hit a 2-run homer off Josh Gibson in the ninth. 11-5 Indians. J. Alexander 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; D. Alexander 2-4, BB, RBI;

With this, the Raccoons dropped to a negative run differential (-3), after being sliced for 26 runs by a team that would score 12 on average in a 3-set.

Raccoons (37-34) @ Aces (30-43) – June 21-23, 2013

The Aces were last in the CL South, but that was not a reason not to clobber the Coons, neither was their bottom three offense, or their league-worst pitching. Where there’s a Coon, there’s a blowout in progress. The Aces are already 2-1 against us this season.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-4, 3.51 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (6-7, 4.85 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-5, 4.01 ERA) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (5-3, 4.12 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 4.50 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (6-4, 3.33 ERA)

Three more righties, but all their starters are righties. They have a number of position players on the DL, including Tom Dahlke and Howard Jones, forcing them to play shoddy replacements up the middle.

Tom Constantino came down with the flu on the off day and is DTD for the opener and will not be used unless everybody’s arms have fallen off, and in the 18th inning.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – SS Whitehouse – P Conway
LVA: 3B R. Avila – LF Zackery – CF Kelsey – C Durango – RF Richards – 1B McDermott – SS Burke – 2B F. Soto – P Hinkley

Bottom 1st, Ricky Avila singled on the first pitch and John Kelsey cracked a bomb to make it 2-0 Aces, and it was really the same ****ty movie every day. Except for Thursday. Thursday had been an off day, and a nice day. The usual misery included a Quebell double play, this time in the fourth, and with the Coons down 3-0. D-Alex also did the trick in the sixth when he batted as the tying run with one out. At least Conway went seven in pretty dismal fashion with the Aces not making much good contact with lots of pops and at one point four consecutive casual grounders to Sandy at second. Hinkley maintained his shutout through eight and was allowed to start the ninth inning, but after D-Alex’ leadoff double the Aces quickly made a move and brought in Zack Entwistle, whom the Raccoons had loved to get last winter, but now were glad that they didn’t have to worry about that 7.36 ERA. The Aces continued to maintain the notion that Entwistle was a closer – eight losses be damned! – and what shall we say … he was good enough for the Coons. 3-0 Aces. Carmona 2-4; D. Alexander 2-4; Palmer (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Santos
LVA: 3B R. Avila – LF Zackery – CF Kelsey – C Durango – RF Richards – 1B McDermott – SS Burke – 2B F. Soto – P Wagoner

Again the Raccoons were set back right in the first inning with Ricky Avila opening with a single, stealing second, and coming home on Eduardo Durango’s double. While Sambrano would tie the score in the third with an RBI triple, the Raccoons’ double play magic continued unabated. Palmer hit into deuces his first two times up, and Bednarski killed the sixth inning with another double play, but when the Aces had Rusty Zackery reach with a single and John Kelsey walking behind him, they got the runners in scoring position with Durango’s groundout to first and got them home with Ron Richards’ 2-out, 2-run double that made it 3-1 for the home team after six. Top 8th, tying runs reached with nobody out on Pat Whitehouse’s single off Law Rockburn and Carmona’s single off Mike Daniels. Next pitcher, Anthony Bryant facing Sandy Sambrano, grounder to short – another double play. John Alexander singled home Whitehouse, but what in hell??? Entwistle retired the Coons 1-2-3 in the ninth. 3-2 Aces. Sambrano 2-4, 3B, RBI; J. Alexander 2-4, RBI; Whitehouse 1-1;

Ricardo Carmona was injured on a half slide / half tumble on a defensive play in the eighth inning. Not all of his limbs have been found yet and Ivan the Druid is in stasis after some ritual involving red-glowing censers, and can’t be communicated with through means of the corporeal world.

Another loss, and the Raccoons drop the season series to Las Vegas for the first time since 2008. They would also drop to .500 even before facing actually good teams.

Game 3
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Rodgers – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – CF Seeley – P Baldwin
LVA: SS R. Avila – 1B McDermott – LF Zackery – C Durango – 2B Burke – CF Kelsey – RF Woods – 3B W. White – P Valdevez

The double play parade got started early, as Sambrano singled to open the game but was swept up in John Alexander’s grounder to second base, and the daily first inning deficit was also something you could rely on as Baldwin coughed up a run in the opening frame’s bottom half. Baldwin continued the mockery with a 2-out walk to Valdevez in the bottom 2nd, then walked Ricky Avila to load the bases before Sean McDermott grounded out to Sandy. While the Coons had one hit in the first five innings, the Aces had seven, but again failed to convert and led only 2-0.

But isn’t it great when you can count on the opposing team to defeat itself? Baldwin issued a leadoff walk to Kelsey in the bottom 6th, then ANOTHER 2-out walk to Valdevez before balking the runners into scoring position, from where he conceded them on Ricky Avila’s bloop double to center on which Jason Seeley looked really bad. Avila scored on McDermott’s single, chasing Baldwin, and the Aces were up 5-0.

Top 7th, the Raccoons got their second hit of the day on Ken Rodgers’ leadoff single to left, a sorry pop that fell in when Zackery and Avila closed in on it from different directions and both shied back at the last moment. D-Alex singled before Bednarski hit a meaningless 3-piece since they - … oh wait, Quebell went back-to-back, his sixth homer, and it’s a 5-4 game. The pen wobbled in the bottom 7th, but didn’t fall (for once), while the Coons got a leadoff double from Walt Canning in the top 8th. Canning moved up to third on Sambrano’s groundout, and then was left there when Rodgers and J-Alex struck out against a tiring Valdevez. The Aces also stranded a runner on third that was Thrasher’s responsibility in the bottom of the inning before Law Rockburn was sent out to close the game. D-Alex rolled out to Brent Burke, but Bednarski and Quebell hit singles to their respective pull side, yet Palmer struck out. Pruitt hit for Vega, jabbed a 1-2 pitch into play and up the middle, but Burke made the play. 5-4 Aces. Bednarski 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-4, HR, RBI; Canning 1-1, 2B;

In other news

June 17 – It takes 11 innings for a single run to score in the Crusaders’ and Loggers’ series opener. Jesus Flores doubles home Aaron Case to make New York 1-0 winners.
June 18 – A tear is discovered in SFW C Jose Paraz’ (.300, 3 HR, 30 RBI) hip flexor and he will have to sit out for at least a month.
June 19 – Big deal in the Continental League, as the Crusaders snatch star SP Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (3-8, 3.51 ERA) from the Condors, which costs them four prospects, including #38 SP Luis Flores.
June 19 – The Loggers scoop up #69 prospect SP Brian Cope in a trade with the Rebels, also netting OF Victor Enriquez (.231, 4 HR, 24 RBI) while sending OF Philip Locke, who spent the entire year in AAA, to Richmond.
June 20 – CHA SP Brian Patrick (5-5, 4.04 ERA) left his post-no-hitter start against the Bayhawks after only eight pitches and has been diagnosed with a torn elbow ligament. He’s done for the season and maybe the start of 2014, too.
June 20 – Despite only six games on the day, two affairs go 14+ innings, as the Knights beat the Condors 6-3 in 14, while the Indians drop a make-up game to the Stars, 7-6 in 15. The latter game saw both teams score in the 12th.
June 22 – IND 2B Jong-beom Kym (.256, 9 HR, 33 RBI) has torn a hamstring and will have to sit out until August.
June 22 – NAS 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.325, 11 HR, 54 RBI) will miss six weeks with a broken hand.

Complaints and stuff

“Midnight” … (sheds a tear) … next he’ll get a $30M contract and the Raccoons will bury another dream. It’s okay. They’re used to it.

We have arrived at the pre-All Star Game stretch without an off day. From here it’s 14 more games until the break. Even with an off day and meager competition, the Raccoons managed to lose five straight and plummeted nine spots in the power rankings, from 9th to 18th. I didn’t know that there were worse tendencies than a double-minus for the rankings, but apparently there is, as BNN gave them a skull flanked by two bombs.

This was the week of some culling in the minor leagues. A number of formerly prominent picks were dumped, as 2009 fourth-rounder SP Mark Grimes (moved to the pen long ago), 2010 sixth-rounder LF/2B Matt Saunders, 2011 seventh-rounder C Josh Marrone, plus a few from the last rounds of previous years, and a handful of international signings by Whitebread.

Also released this week: 30-year old Santiago Trevino, who had lingered in Ham Lake since last summer. He batted .234 with 5 HR and 74 RBI in 800 major league AB’s from ’06 through ’11 with the Coons. The culling is not 100% complete yet, as we still have 91 active players between the three minor league teams.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-37) vs. Condors (35-40) – June 24-26, 2013

The Jalyen Martin-less Condors appeared in Portland, and a sad bunch had just gotten a whole lot sadder. They were sixth in offense in the league, but their pitching had already been hopeless, allowing the most runs in the CL. Their rotation was barely palatable WITH “Midnight”, and their bullpen was the worst in all the land. The Coons had so far gone 2-1 against them in ’13.

Projected matchups:
Jack Berry (6-5, 5.38 ERA) vs. Michael Colvard (4-5, 4.77 ERA)
Rich Hood (4-4, 4.35 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (2-7, 4.78 ERA)
Bill Conway (2-5, 3.54 ERA) vs. Micah Kirchberg (0-0, 3.45 ERA)

The Raccoons continued to not see a left-hander in this set (and would continue to do so with the Crusaders coming in afterwards). We are opening the week with Ivan Mena still in other spheres and Ricardo Carmona still in injury limbo.

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Dasher – C Bedinghaus – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – 1B May – LF Newman – SS Eroh – 2B M. Miller – P Colvard
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Rodgers – CF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – P Berry

Jack Berry didn’t explode on contact, which was already a plus, and for the first time in five games (all losses) the Raccoons didn’t fall behind in the first inning. While Berry covered five on two hits and seven strikeouts, he also drove in the first run for the Coons, following up Michael Palmer’s triple with a bloop single to plate him in the bottom of the third. Bednarski brought home another run in the fourth, 2-0, and all was well until the seventh inning, which Ezra Branch opened with a solo jack to get the Condors back to within a run. Berry got out of the inning before the Raccoons got D-Alex and Bednarski onto the corners with a double and a single and nobody out in the bottom 7th. Quebell flew out to left, D-Alex was sent and thrown out, but Pruitt managed to salvage something with an RBI double into the leftfield corner. Colvard struck out Palmer to end the inning. A single by Matthew Miller and a double by Craig Dasher put Berry into some sticky 1-out trouble in the eighth, however. Josh Gibson replaced the starter, had Bill Bedinghaus at 0-2 before the catcher, batting .383 in limited action, lined a rocket up the middle that Palmer made a leaping grab on, then scrambled on and threw himself on the bag ahead of the rapidly returning Dasher – double play, inning over! Instead, Hoshi blew the game, allowing a leadoff single to Branch and a real bomb to Nick May in the top of the ninth, resulting in a 3-3 tie that soon bled into extra innings. Tom Constantino would pick up the win there, when the Condors’ pitcher of choice for extras turned out to be Kaz Kichida, who struck out four Raccoons, but ultimately fell to John Alexander’s 11th bomb of the season, which ended the game with two outs in the bottom 11th. 4-3 Coons. J. Alexander 2-4, HR, RBI; Bednarski 2-4, RBI; Berry 7.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K and 1-2, RBI; Constantino 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-0);

The sucking streak might continue, but at least the losing streak is over.

Game 2
TIJ: 3B Dasher – C Bedinghaus – 1B May – CF Feldmann – RF Branch – LF Eroh – SS M. Miller – 2B Dougal – P Hogan
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Rodgers – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – SS Whitehouse – CF Seeley – P Hood

The Coons passed on Ken Rodgers’ double in the first inning, but Bednarski pounded a leadoff jack in the second to put them 1-0 ahead after the Condors had stranded Ryan Feldmann at third in the top of the inning. The Condors were not to be counted out (especially with a “Free Runs” card dealt to the Raccoons as their pitcher) and when Rich Hood issued a leadoff walk to Stanley Dougal in the third inning, they brought him in on a Bedinghaus bloop that fell between Seeley and Whitehouse for a 2-out RBI single, tying the score.

But sometimes, other teams have bad luck, too. The Coons had two on with one out in the bottom 4th, and Quebell batting. At 0-2, Dave Hogan threw a wild pitch that moved J-Alex and Bednarski into scoring position. Quebell ran the count full before popping a pitch behind second base, but neither Dougal nor any other player could find it in time to prevent a most miserable single, and one that scored two runs for a 3-1 lead. Something inside Hogan broke at that point, and the Raccoons would hurt his feelings big time in the inning because of that. Whitehouse singled to center, two on and still one out. Seeley then hit a double off the wall in left, his first on-base appearance since coming from the depths of Gatorland, plating Quebell, 4-1. Hood singled(!), scoring another run, and Sandy hit a sac fly, 6-1, before Ken Rodgers bombed Hogan with a tremendous shot to left center; 8-1!

That was not all. John Alexander hit a chopper off the emotionally dying Hogan that Dougal misfielded into a generous infield single, which finally led to Hogan being removed (the hitting coach and bench coach carried the poor pitcher, frozen solid, into the tunnel), and Derek Pinnell took over. He allowed a single to D-Alex, then balked and walked Bednarski onto the open base. With bags full, he threw a wild pitch, allowed RBI singles to Quebell and Whitehouse, until finally Seeley flew out to (deep) center to end a tremendous mess of an inning in which the Coons scored ten runs!

Pinnell would throw two scoreless after that before conceding another run in the seventh. Hood pitched into the eighth, but got nobody out there, issuing a leadoff walk to Jimmy Raupp before Dasher reached on an error by John Alexander, and Bedinghaus singled to get the Condors to 12-2. Gallegos replaced him, allowed the runners to score on singles by Nick May and Ryan Feldmann, before somehow getting out of the inning while Branch and Miller flew out to the warning track. 13-4 Raccoons! Rodgers 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Bowen (PH) 1-1, RBI; Bednarski 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Quebell 3-5, 3 RBI; Whitehouse 2-5, RBI; Seeley 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Canning (PH) 1-1; Hood 7.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-4) and 2-4, RBI;

Believe it or not, Rich Hood is out first pitcher with five wins this year. And it’s almost July. (Berry has six, but four came with Indy)

Also, at midnight sharp Ivan Mena broke out of his herbally induced hibernation and got to work on Carmona. Nothing major, no big damage, but there was some stiffness in his back, and he would require a trip to the DL after all. The 15 days would encompass the remaining games before the All Star break, but Ivan was confident that he would return in time for the first game after the break. Jason Bergquist was promoted onto the empty roster spot, which was not a bad thing since Sandy Sambrano couldn’t hit a lick right now and could use a day or two out of the lineup to search for his swing in silence.

Game 3
TIJ: 3B Dasher – C Bedinghaus – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – 1B May – LF Newman – SS Eroh – 2B M. Miller – P Kirchberg
POR: 3B Rodgers – SS Canning – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – CF Seeley – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

For the second game in a row, the Coons’ pitcher drove in the first run of the game … somehow. Seeley and Bergquist were on the corners with one out in the bottom 2nd when Conway grounded to short, but Ron Eroh killed the play with a clumsy grab, allowing Seeley to score and for two men to stay on base, where they remained. The dysfunctional Condors had twice in the first three innings runners thrown out at third base, including their pitcher Micah Kirchberg on hitting a double. He moved on to third, where Seeley’s throw back in already awaited him. Overall, the Coons failed to hit much, being held to two hits in five innings, while the Condors required some defensive ineptitude by Jason Bergquist to get something going. Bergquist failed to play a slow grounder by Kirchberg with any vigor in the sixth inning, leading to a leadoff single for the pitcher, who eventually scored on Bill Bedinghaus’ RBI double to left. With the game tied, the Condors got the go-ahead run on in the seventh when Conway drilled Will Newman. Ron Eroh singled, prompting the Condors to run Mike Herrera for Newman and to hit Jimmy Raupp for Miller, but when Raupp grounded out and there were two in scoring position, they did not hit for Kirchberg, which was perhaps an issue with a lunatic manager. Kirchberg struck out, Conway’s ninth victim in the game, and the game remained tied.

The Coons couldn’t get a clutch hit for their sorry tails, even when Bergquist tripled in the bottom 7th. Pruitt hit for Conway and walked, and Rodgers and Canning were no help at all, with the runners being stranded again. Josh Gibson appeared for the eighth, walked the leadoff man Craig Dasher, who stole second and eventually scored on Quebell’s eighth error of the season. Bottom 9th, Jose Sanchez walked Quebell to put the tying run on base. Sambrano ran for Quebell and stole second uncontested before Seeley hit an infield single to become the winning run. Bowen hit for Bergquist and tied the game with a deep fly to center, a sacrifice that brought home Sambrano. Palmer hit for Gallegos and singled, before Rodgers, at 0-4 in the game and 0-2 in the count, avoided further futility with a slap single to left. Bases loaded for Walt Canning. Yeah… but only Whitehouse remained on the bench, so it was Canning and hopefully anything but a double … - or a grounder to Dasher and a force at home. J-Alex grounded out, extras, where futility intensified, and the Raccoons were unlucky enough to get their first chance to walk off in the 13th (…), with runners on the corners, two outs, and … Sergio Vega at the plate. Whitehouse had been used by now, and Tim Moray for the Condors got an easy third out. In a twist of bitter irony by the be-damned baseball gods, Moray would single off Vega with two outs in the top 14th, and two pitches later crossed home plate on Craig Dasher’s homer. Moray casually tossed a fourth inning, ending the game on Walt Canning’s double play. 4-2 Condors. Bergquist 2-3, 3B; Conway 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K;

(groans violently)

Raccoons (39-38) vs. Crusaders (46-32) – June 27-30, 2013

The Crusaders, 1.5 games out in the North, came to Portland to kill. They were only 4-3 against the Coons on the year, and were hungry to greatly expand on that record. They ranked second in runs scored, second in runs allowed, with the best rotation that had just been further improved, and this series also signaled the end of six weeks of relatively easy opposition for the Raccoons, and top echelon teams to face the Critters for the next six out of seven series.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-6, 4.03 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Moreno (9-4, 2.96 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-5, 4.73 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (7-5, 3.21 ERA)
Jack Berry (6-5, 4.99 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (3-8, 3.28 ERA)
Rich Hood (5-4, 4.32 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (13-2, 2.99 ERA)

Like I said, nothing but right-handers for the Raccoons here. Presumably also nothing but pain.

Game 1
NYC: SS J. Ortega – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 2B J. Hernandez – CF K. Wood – P R. Moreno
POR: SS Palmer – 2B Sambrano – CF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Rodgers – P Santos

… and then Hector Santos came out to pitch, was totally ****, and ravaged for four hits and three runs right in the first inning, while hardly ever pitching ahead in the count. Francisco Caraballo hit a 2-run bomb in the second to send the Crusaders soaring at 5-0. Rodrigo Moreno walked a pair in the bottom 2nd, but two walks was by no means a scoring opportunity for the heavily inept Raccoons, but perhaps the bottom 3rd and the leadoff walk to Palmer and Sambrano’s single that sent him to third base with nobody out could generate something. If your expectations exceeded a sac fly by J-Alex and then nothing else – nope, the Coons couldn’t. Down 5-1 after three, and also after five, which was Santos’ last inning after being saved by the defense in various spots after the early thrashing. In addition to said early thrashing there would also be late thrashing, with three runs scored off the Coons’ pen, while all they managed in the latter half of the game was a solo home run by Dylan Alexander off Micah Steele. 8-2 Crusaders.

Game 2
NYC: CF Brissett – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Ortega – 2B J. Hernandez – P P. Miller
POR: SS Palmer – 2B Sambrano – CF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Canning – P Baldwin

The Critters got going early in this one, with J-Alex collecting Sambrano in the first inning with his 12th homer of the year, and in the second it was Pruitt with a leadoff triple who scored on Craig Bowen’s single to left. Baldwin tended to the 3-0 lead reasonably well … for a bit. B.J. Manfull homered in the fourth, a solo shot of awe-inspiring length, and the next three batters all hit 1-out singles off Baldwin, with Pruitt killing Gabriel Ortíz at home on Julio Hernandez’ single to left. Paul Miller batted with two on and two out, was down to two strikes, and still managed to hit a fly to right center, but John Alexander got there in time to prevent horrible things. Alexander came too late however on the RBI double that Manfull hit off Baldwin his next time up, plating Stanton Martin in the sixth after Martin had reached on an infield single and had stolen second, making it to third on Bowen’s erroneous throw. Somehow Baldwin wobbled on to bring up Miller again with two on and two out and used him as ticket out of the inning with a 3-2 lead still intact.

Baldwin started the seventh by retiring the left-handed Brissett, and with Martin Ortíz also batting left-handed the intention was to have him somehow squeeze through the inning. Not to be; while Baldwin retired Caraballo on a grounder, it was Ortíz who singled, and now with the tying run on, Tom Constantino (claimed off waivers from the Loggers) had to contend with Stanton Martin (.936 OPS) with the tying run on base. Stanton shrugged, not fearing such a puny pitcher, and tied the game with an RBI double into the gap in left center. Manfull struck out to end the seventh, but Gallegos was knocked over for a run in the top 8th, giving the Crusaders a 4-3 lead. The Raccoons didn’t seem able to cope with the deficit. Bottom 9th, Canning started off grounding out against Robbie Wills. Seeley batted for Watanabe and worked a walk. D-Alex hit for a not amused Michael Palmer, and went out there hacking and hacking only. He missed twice, but he met one the third time and crashed a 94mph heater into the upper regions of the leftfield stands – it’s a walkoff!! 5-4 Critters! D. Alexander (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-4, 2B; J. Alexander 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-4, 3B; Bowen 2-4, RBI;

Cheer up, Mike, with your oh-fer, or I’ll make you.

Game 3
NYC: CF Brissett – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – SS J. Ortega – 2B J. Hernandez – P J. Martin
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Rodgers – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – CF Seeley – SS Whitehouse – P Berry

Singles by the Raccoons’ 3-4-5 batters plated a run in the first inning, before the next three half-innings all were promising for the batting team until some goon hit into a double play. The Coons managed to make three outs in the bottom 3rd without a deuce, but Stanton Martin hit into another double play to end the fourth, the Crusader’s third two-for-one rolled into in the game.

The Coons then got into “Midnight” Martin’s head in the bottom of the fifth. Sambrano worked a 1-out walk, then took off and swiped second base while Martin didn’t get the call on a 1-2 pitch in the general vicinity of Ken Rodgers’ knees. Rodgers came back to walk, and immediately the Raccoons embarked on a double steal, all hands safe! Martin was thrown off by now, threw a wild pitch to plate Sandy and conceded Rodgers’ run on a groundout by J-Alex. 3-0 Coons after scoring two runs on no hits whatsoever.

There were a few problems, though, and they had to do with Jack Berry still wearing a coonskin hat, and the fact that Stanton Martin didn’t like his new namesake buddy being drawn a nose by such puny forest rats. After Berry allowed singles to Caraballo and Martin Ortíz in the top 6th, Stanton Martin unpacked the sledgehammer and trebucheted a colossal 3-run homer into the upper rows of the leftfield stands – tying the game. And that was not all. Berry hit Gabe Ortíz, threw a wild one, walked Jorge Ortega, and allowed Ortíz to score on Julio Hernandez’ single. That was all for Berry, but the Coons had a chance to come back from the 4-3 deficit in the bottom 6th. Chasing “Midnight” with two on and two out, Aurelio Hernandez walked Palmer to load them up, but Sambrano grounded out right to Hernandez. In response to that ineptitude, the Raccoons had Juan Gallegos incinerated for five runs in the eighth inning. 9-3 Crusaders. Whitehouse 2-3, BB;

Gallegos had pitched well after debuting, but by now had skyrocketed his ERA to 5.96 and it was well enough. He was sent back to St. Petersburg. George Youngblood was added to the roster.

Game 4
NYC: CF Brissett – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – SS J. Ortega – C D. Anderson – 2B J. Hernandez – P Trevino
POR: CF Sambrano – 3B Rodgers – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – 2B Palmer – LF Pruitt – SS Whitehouse – P Hood

While the Crusaders stopped just short of permanently disfiguring Rich Hood, but still spanked him for seven runs in four-plus innings, including home runs by both Martin Brothers, actual physical harm was done only to Matt Pruitt, who was hurt in a collision with Jorge Ortega on second base in the second inning, and the poor home crowd, who had to endure their team reaching base to all means except hits, and then hitting into double plays. Pancho Trevino’s 14th win of the season (about twice as many as all our starters combined, I fathom) was never in any danger, and his shutout was not until the bottom of the eighth when Rodgers led off the inning with a double to left. After J-Alex popped, D-Alex flailed, and Quebell walked, Bednarski hit for Youngblood, but grounded out right into Ortega’s glove. The bullpen had nursed a 7-0 deficit successfully for the sixth, seventh, and eighth, before exploding capitally in the ninth. Constantino faced four and put three on, and when Thrasher replaced him, he swiftly used the open base to walk Amari Brissett onto it. Caraballo hit an RBI single, 9-0, and after Martin Ortíz struck out, Stanton Martin crushed a slam to left center. 13-0 Crusaders.

Oww.

In other news

June 26 – ATL LF/1B Gil Rockwell (.308, 24 HR, 79 RBI) connects four times in a 7-4 Knights win over the Canadiens, with a single in the first, an RBI double in the third, an RBI triple in the fifth, and a solo home run off Juichi Fujita in the seventh! The 51st cycle in ABL history is also the fifth natural cycle and the first since 2007. Jai Utting (1993), George Morris (1997), and Jason Clark (2006) had previously cycled for the Knights, with Clark’s the only reverse-natural cycle in league history.
June 26 – Wade White (.333, 0 HR, 1 RBI) has the Aces’ only hit in a 6-0 loss to the Indians and Sam McMullen (4-6, 4.44 ERA), who goes seven and two thirds.
June 27 – SFW SP Jimmy Boswell (7-5, 4.05 ERA) goes onto the shelf for the rest of the year after suffering a tear in his flexor tendon.
June 28 – Cincinnati’s Gerardo Rios (.275, 3 HR, 17 RBI) joins the 300 HR club with a grand slam off Topeka’s Roberto Pantoja that is enough to win the Cyclones a 4-3 game. Rios, 37, has collected 1,802 career hits while batting .266/.351/.464 with 300 HR and 1,126 RBI. He led the Federal League in homers in 2007 and 2008 and was an All Star four times.
June 28 – A sprained wrist will cost RIC OF Danny Flores (.277, 2 HR, 26 RBI) about three to four weeks on the DL. Flores leads the ABL with 27 stolen bases. In addition to that, the Rebels also lose LF Earl Clark (.318, 1 HR, 20 RBI) with a tear in his quad, which will take at least one month to heal.
June 29 – WAS 1B/2B Alberto Rodriguez (.291, 5 HR, 42 RBI) churns out six hits, including three doubles, in the Capitals’ 8-7 win over the Miners. It’s the 48th six-hit day for an ABL player overall, the first since Will Bailey’s six-piece in September of 2010, and the first ever for the Capitals, who are one of two teams still looking for both a no-hitter and a cycle, the other team being Sacramento.
June 29 – The rapid decimation of starting pitchers, a league-wide phenomenon, continues, with the Bayhawks placing Julio Munoz (6-3, 4.27 ERA) on the DL with a torn labrum. The 32-year old right-hander was employed as swingman, starting and relieving in 11 games each.

Complaints and stuff

Between the four categories of a no-hitter, three homers in a game, six hits in a game, and the cycle, the Wolves are the only team left that lack three of the feats. They’ve had three cycles, nothing else, and only one of those cycles came in the last 30 years.

It looks like Yoshi Nomura can begin playing in a few days, but after the long DL stint he will go to St. Pete first and will thus only rejoin us after the All Star break, along with Ricardo Carmona. Jon Merritt is still a bit further off. Including a rehab stint, Merritt might not make it back until August.

Of course, no improvement is to be expected in terms of the pitching staff, which remains the definition of shambles. The Raccoons won’t buy at the deadline, and there was no money to buy with anyway (ignoring the fact that there was no point in buying when down by almost ten games and in fourth place at that). We will have to gauge a few things in terms of selling however, which is the amount of draft picks (especially first round picks) that could be won by not trading in July, but rather by releasing players into free agency. So far, things look bleak in terms of a fat haul in the 2014 draft.

Speaking of youngsters with hopes that will soon be dashed, I'm after a left-handed pitcher from the Dominican in the international amateur period that has just opened. There is not that much bling in the pool as in recent years, but 16-year old Danny Arguello scratches an itch or two.

In terms of prospects we already have, 2012 picks Jeff Magnotta (first round) and Blake Kelly (seventh round), both starting pitchers, have been promoted to AA recently. Magnotta got waffled, but Blake Kelly has been successful in his first few outings (including a few relief apperances), and OSA is starting to warm up on his stuff (Calderón not so much; a bit, but not much).

Stanton Martin had four multi-hit games on the weekend, ultimately batting 10-for-21 with a .476/.476/1.000 slash including three homers, two doubles and nine runs driven in. He also stole two bases to double his season total. Martin has murdered the Raccoons all his life, yet I am not mad him and I don’t hate him. I only hate the ****heads that are career .229 batters but always hit the 2-run doubles to beat the Raccoons in the eighth inning. The Clint Southcott type. Or Daniel Silva. Bah, Daniel Silva!

By the way, “Clockwork” Martin was Player of the Week, unsurprisingly. He could have barfed on the umpire in the Crusaders’ midweek series and it wouldn’t have changed the selection…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (40-41) @ Canadiens (46-34) – July 1-4, 2013

The boys – whatever was left of them – were sent off to Canada to compete with the smelling Elks, which could hardly go well. The Elks had fallen back to third place in the North, but they had eight free wins coming up in the next 11 games. Holding the third place in both runs scored and runs allowed, the Canadiens had a solid team throughout, and they were also already 2-1 against Portland this season.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-5, 3.36 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (11-4, 3.16 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-7, 4.28 ERA) vs. Bill King (5-5, 5.63 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-5, 4.68 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (2-4, 4.06 ERA)
Jack Berry (6-6, 5.06 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (8-4, 3.52 ERA)

Sjogren will be the first left-hander we’ll see in a while. The Elks had only one injury, outfielder Don Cameron, who had batted .352 and still hadn’t led his own team, as Ray Gilbert, the pest of pests, was batting .362 with ten homers, but had missed a few weeks of games.

Game 1
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Palmer – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – SS Whitehouse – P Conway
VAN: RF K. Evans – SS Sharp – 1B Gilbert – CF Holland – 3B Suzuki – LF E. Garcia – 2B C. Aguilar – C Hurtado – P Fujita

To the home crowd’s disbelief, Juichi Fujita not only allowed a leadoff single to Sandy Sambrano, but also issued three walks in the first innings to concede two runs on a bases-loaded walk to Bednarski and a groundout by Quebell, then hit Ken Rodgers, but Whitehouse struck out to keep it at 2-0. Something had been off with Fujita all season, as he came into the game with less strikeouts than Bill Conway. Then there was also the special adventure the Canadiens embarked on by playing Daniel Sharp – always an average third baseman at best – at short as he was entering really old age. It came to bite them in the third inning. D-Alex had opened with a double, and then Fujita – totally out of whack – smacked Bednarski. Quebell grounded to César Aguilar, perfect double play ball, but Sharp dropped the service from Aguilar and the Elks got nobody, while the Coons had the bases loaded with nobody out. And then – Rodgers popped to Sharp at short, no accident this time, and Whitehouse lobbed softly out to Ross Holland in shallow center. CONWAY came through, though, and singled to left center, plating two to run the score to 4-0.

However, it was still CONWAY pitching, too. Fujita (!) hit a single to get the Elks going in the bottom 4th, and Kurt Evans and Daniel Sharp added two more singles to score a run before Ray Gilbert hit into an inning-ending double play. At least Fujita’s shenanigans were ended forcefully in the fourth inning: Adrian Quebell whacked a 2-out, 3-run homer and after a walk to Rodgers, Fujita was removed from the game. Michael Palmer homered off Lou Cannon in the fifth to get the score to 8-1, but Cannon became the second Vancouver pitcher to single off Conway in the bottom of the inning. Conway got his revenge, though, leading off the top 7th with a double off Cannon. Sambrano got on, and Dylan Alexander romped a 3-run homer of his own to put the Raccoons into double digits. Bill Conway not only had a high scoring effort behind himself, but also pitched for long enough to come to the plate five times and to pitch into the ninth inning. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get through and loaded the bases with a single and two walks. George Youngblood had ONE job to do with two outs, and get Kurt Evans. Instead, he balked, then walked Evans and TWO more batters before the game finally ended. 12-4 Critters. Sambrano 3-5, BB, 2B; Palmer 2-5, BB, RBI; D. Alexander 3-6, HR, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Rodgers 1-2, 2 BB; Conway 8.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (3-5) and 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

Youngblood! YOUNGBLOOD!! HAAARGGHH!! I assume my furious screams could be heard in Canada all the way from Portland…

Game 2
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS Palmer – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – CF Seeley – P Santos
VAN: RF K. Evans – SS Sharp – 1B Gilbert – CF Holland – 3B Suzuki – LF E. Garcia – 2B C. Aguilar – C Baca – P B. King

Santos didn’t allow a hit in the first three innings, but Evans opened the fourth with a double to right. Sharp struck out, and then Santos totally by accident hit Gilbert, and this was totally unrelated to Bednarski getting hit again in the second inning. Ross Holland took revenge in his way, hit a single to center that scored Evans, and that was the first run in the game. The Coons would load the bases in their next attempt with a leadoff single by Quebell, walks drawn by Rodgers and Sambrano, but Palmer flew out to fairly deep rightfield to leave everybody on base. Bases loaded again in the sixth as D-Alex walked and Bednarski and Quebell both singled. Rodgers with one out stayed out of the double play by a whisker’s width when he grounded to Sharp, bringing in the tying run before Seeley was another obvious and sad third out. Santos needed every bit of the eight innings of 1-run ball he pitched in this game to get a chance at an elusive win. The Coons had Rodgers and Seeley on base in the ninth with one out. Bowen batted for Santos, but flew out to left, but Sambrano came through with a bloop single that plated Rodgers with the go-ahead run. Palmer drove in Seeley with a single, before John Alexander completely exploded closer Pedro Alvarado with a booming 3-run homer! Five runs with two outs in the ninth, with the Coons having their own stutterer in the bottom of the inning. Vega put two on while getting two outs, with lefty Enrique Garcia getting to face Sugano. The count ran full before Garcia struck out on a 3-2 right down the middle, glaring in disbelief. 6-1 Coons. Palmer 2-5, RBI; J. Alexander 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-4; Santos 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (3-7);

Game 3
POR: 1B Sambrano – 2B Palmer – LF J. Alexander – RF Bednarski – C Bowen – SS Whitehouse – CF Seeley – 3B Canning – P Baldwin
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – 2B Madison – 3B Suzuki – SS Sharp – RF Medina – C Hurtado – P Sjogren

Sjogren issued two walks and three wild pitches in the third inning, but the Raccoons still only scored one run, Baldwin crossing the plate after drawing a leadoff walk. Baldwin had his own issues, pitching with heavy traffic and stranding pairs in the first two innings. Gilbert hit a single in the third, but was left on, and Pedro Hurtado rolled into a double play to end the fourth and keep the Elks off the board. But while the Raccoons got only one hit off Sjogren in the first five innings, the Elks kept swinging away, with the pest of pests, Ray Gilbert, driving in Holland, another pest, with a 2-out single in the bottom 5th, tying the score. Steve Madison and Mitsuhide Suzuki both singled to loed them up, but Sharpie struck out to leave them on.

The Coons would get their own chance with the sacks full in the sixth. Bednarski hit a 1-out double, Bowen walked, and Whitehouse singled to center. Unfortunately that brought up Seeley – nah! Quebell pinch-hit for him, right into a double play, and on one pitch. Baldwin went six and a third for a no-decision before Gibson took over for the right-handed heart of the Elks’ order, but surrendered the Elks’ winning run in the eighth on a Juan Medina double. The Coons, hapless the entire game, went down in order against Alvarado this time. 2-1 Canadiens. Sambrano 2-4;

Anybody remember Matt Pruitt? Deflated anyway, Pruitt had been hurt on Saturday, and Ivan the Druid could finally be bothered to check him out. Turns out Matt had an oblique strain and was going to miss most, perhaps all of what was left in July. So! Another disabled list dweller for a battered team!

In some kind of triangle movement, Pruitt thus went on the DL, Yoshi Nomura went to the Alley Cats for rehab, and Keith Ayers got a promotion to the Raccoons, batting .244/.338/.447 with 14 homers in AAA.

Game 4
POR: SS Palmer – CF Seeley – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – 2B Bergquist – P Berry
VAN: RF K. Evans – SS Sharp – 1B Gilbert – 3B Suzuki – LF E. Garcia – 2B C. Aguilar – CF Medina – C Hurtado – P R. Taylor

Juan Medina was on second with two outs in the bottom 2nd when Pedro Hurtado poked out, except that Dylan Alexander couldn’t come up with the pitch and it hit off his ankle and rolled far enough away that the hurting Alexander could not make a play on Hurtado who dashed to first base as quickly as his clubfeet allowed him to. Catchers moving – a sight to behold! Berry then completed the misery by conceding an RBI single to the pitcher Rod Taylor, the first run of the game. Berry did little remarkable in the game except serving up the lead to Taylor and killing two innings for the Raccoons with his own stick before putting Hurtado on third base in the bottom of the fifth and then waving for the trainer to relieve him from his misery. Some kind of injury was apparently in play here, and who would even fake surprise at another Raccoon keeling over?

Constantino inherited runner on third, two outs, and struck out Sharpie (batting .250-ish with five homers now) to end the inning and close the book on Berry. Sharp’s limited defense at short then cost the Elks their 1-0 lead when he couldn’t get to an entirely gettable Bednarski grounder that escaped into left for a 2-out RBI single. Quebell and Rodgers both singled after that, with Bednarski crossing home to put the Coons on top, and then Taylor walked the easily victimizable Bergquist on four pitches. Sandy batted for Constantino – and struck out. Sergio Vega then took over to pitch long relief, shutting the Elks down for three innings, facing only ten batters, twice among them Ray Gilbert. Taylor went eight without regaining the lead, and it was on Hoshi to seal a series win. Suzuki hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth, and Watanabe spent 26 pitches on three batters, but then Suzuki was still on second base. Steve Madison hit for Medina with two outs, popped up the first pitch and Palmer reeled it in to end the game. 2-1 Critters. J. Alexander 2-3, BB; Rodgers 4-4, RBI; Vega 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Jack Berry was diagnosed with a tender elbow and that would need a whole lot of rest and a whole lot of vomit-inducing weed extracts smeared onto the elbow by Ivan the Druid. He was out for about two months.

The Raccoons continued to spin their paws, but while Berry was DL’ed, Pat Slayton was added to the pen for at least the next few days. We will only need a fifth starter again on the 15th.

Raccoons (43-42) @ Titans (52-35) – July 5-7, 2013

The series win in Vancouver would allow the Coons to post their 3,000th regular season win before the All Star break. Slightly in the way, though, were the Titans. They had the best concept of preventing runs, allowing less than 3.8 per game, while scoring the fourth-most in the Continental League. Their rotation and their pen both ranked second in terms of ERA in the CL, and they held a 5-4 advantage over the Raccoons so far.

Projected matchups:
Rich Hood (5-5, 4.71 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (6-5, 3.82 ERA)
Bill Conway (3-5, 3.43 ERA) vs. Melvin Andrade (5-8, 5.12 ERA)
Hector Santos (3-7, 4.04 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (8-2, 3.33 ERA)

Three more right-handers. Can’t say I’m mad.

Game 1
POR: CF Sambrano – SS Palmer – LF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Hood
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 3B A. Gomez – 1B Butler – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – LF Hayashi – 2B Moultrie – CF R. Pena – P Rutter

Offense was non-existent early on, but patrons were awoken in the fourth inning by Ricardo Garcia’s LOUD shot to left, that was outta there right off the bat and put the Titans ahead, 1-0. Garcia hammered a double his next time up in the sixth, quickly followed by a 2-run homer by “Quasimodo” Suda bending around the inside of the left foul pole. The Raccoons had had a Bednarski single in the second inning, and that was their last baserunner against Ian Rutter, who retired 20 straight Raccoons after that. It still didn’t win him a shutout, with Iemitsu Rin being sent out to close the 3-0 game, which he did on seven pitches. 3-0 Titans.

Game 2
POR: LF Sambrano – 2B Palmer – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Rodgers – SS Canning – CF Seeley – P Conway
BOS: SS M. Rivera – CF R. Pena – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – 3B Butler – P Andrade

The Raccoons scored two in the second when Bednarski and Quebell went into scoring position to start the inning after a single and double, respectively. Rodgers brought home a run on a groundout, while Canning singled to plate Quebell. The Raccoons continued to get a few runners, but couldn’t get a long fly past any outfielder and stranded everybody in the following innings. Conway allowed one hit while whiffing four the first time through the Titans’ lineup, but they started to hit the ball a bit harder the second time through, still not scoring however. He then issued walks to Mike Rivera and Roberto Pena in the bottom 6th, but Rivera was caught stealing before Pena got on and the inning still yielded nothing for the Titans, but they didn’t have to wait for much longer. Javier Gusmán and Toki Hayashi hit back-to-back doubles with one out in the bottom 7th, 2-1, and while Butler struck out, Andrade grounded to short, where Canning, the ****ing piece of ****, colossally botched the easiest play and put runners on the corners.

That was it for Conway. Sugano was assigned to the left-handed Rivera, but the Titans sent Aurelio Gomez to bat instead. Sugano remained in against the .238 batter, who hit a double on a 2-2 pitch, and everything went up in flames. Hayashi scored anyway, and Andrade was sent around third, but was thrown out by Sambrano by a good bit, ending the inning with a 2-2 tie. But somehow it seemed like Andrade was shaken up now. The Raccoons blew him up in the top of the eighth, along with Tommy Wooldridge who came to his supposed relief. Okay, stupid luck was also a thing. The Raccoons hit THREE run-scoring infield singles in the inning. THREE. Canning, Sandy, and Palmer all grounded into the general vicinity of an infielder and they were unable to make any play despite a tardy runner on third base. With two outs, the bases loaded, and in a 1-2 count D-Alex would then crash a bases-clearing double off Wooldridge, ending his night in tears, before Scott Hood replaced him and drilled Bednarski with an 0-2 pitch, and Bednarski went down like a rock, immediately adding the taste of blood in the mouth to a 7-run outburst. Youngblood drilled Suda in the bottom 8th and everybody knew what was going on. That was not the last injury suffered by the Coons in this game, by the way, as Sergio Vega was supposed to pitch in the ninth, but only got one out before showing a blister to the Druid. 9-2 Bloody Coons. Sambrano 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; D. Alexander 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Bednarski 2-4; J. Alexander (PH) 1-1; Conway 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Walt “Stupid ****” Canning. Can we get any takers shopping him? Nah. Not one highly drunk GM among 23 in the league.

Vega was DTD and unavailable for the rubber game, but diagnosing the blister took all of the Druid’s mental capacity and Bednarski went untended to on his stretcher.

D-Alex was nominated as the Raccoons’ lone All Star and got Sunday off to get proper rest over the break.

Game 3
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS Palmer – LF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Rodgers – CF Seeley – RF Ayers – P Santos
BOS: SS M. Rivera – CF R. Pena – RF R. Garcia – 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – C Dunn – 3B Butler – P Tobitt

Patterns! The Titans also had their backup catcher in the game, and Melvin Dunn promptly homered off Santos in the second to put the Titans 1-0 ahead. By the fifth, the Raccoons led, 2-1, both runs scored by Sambrano on 2-out singles, once by Palmer in the third, and once by J-Alex in the fifth. Also, Craig Bowen had been up with two outs and two on three times by then, and had left six men on with two hacks and a pop against him. More things we already knew: Keith Ayers remains a nightmare on the bases, hitting a 2-out double in the sixth only to get thrown out stretching it for a triple.

Santos struck out the side in the fifth (7-8-9) to reach 100 K for the year. He got on with a bloop hit in the seventh inning, and the many, many singles had worn out Tobitt, who was replaced by Dusty Balzer. The bases eventually became loaded, and with two outs, here came Craig Bowen. Oh for ****’s sake… He flew out to left on the first pitch. Top 8th, Ayers hit another 2-out double. STOP! STOP YOU IDIOT!!! Good, he stopped. D-Alex batted for Santos… and flew out to left. Sambrano was caught stealing in the ninth (which had happened to him twice on Saturday), and with two outs in the bottom 9th Jesus Ramirez hit a first pitch from Watanabe to deep, deeeeep left, is it gonna tie – no. John Alexander made the catch right against the wall. 2-1 Coons. Sambrano 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Palmer 2-5, RBI; J. Alexander 2-5, RBI; Quebell 1-2, 2 BB; Ayers 2-4, 2 2B; Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (4-7);

All Star Game

The top 3 teams in the CL North loaded the All Star roster, with six Titans, five Elks, and four Crusaders on the team. The Coons’ lone representative was Dylan Alexander, who had an RBI single after replacing Eduardo Durango halfway through. The Federal League was up by six after six, but the Cincy duo of Juan Garcia and Ian Johnson was torn to shreds by the CL in the seventh when they threw up an 8-spot to win the game, 10-8. Gil Rockwell hit a slam and was named MVP.

With the All Star game out of the way, the Raccoons got SOME of their starters back. Yoshi Nomura and Ricardo Carmona both returned to the roster, with Jason Bergquist (.200) and Jason Seeley (.147) being sent back to AAA. We also eventually got a report on Mike Bednarski, who had a bad bruise on his knee (presumably from falling onto it after being plunked into what he thought was his empty skull), and would be out for another week at least. With that, we were already pretty close to 15 days anyway… so he was put on the DL. Pat White was still alive, 30 years old now, and had spent the entire last season in St. Petersburg. This year, he was batting .305/.370/.437 against the poor kids and took the open roster spot. To put him on the 40-man roster, Daniel Dickerson was transferred to the 60-day DL.

Raccoons (45-43) vs. Canadiens (49-38) – July 11-14, 2013

Ugh! Elks! Don’t open the windows!

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (3-5, 3.30 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (11-5, 3.44 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-7, 3.87 ERA) vs. Bill King (6-5, 5.49 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-5, 4.47 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (3-4, 3.61 ERA)
Rich Hood (5-6, 4.63 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (8-5, 3.43 ERA)

We won’t have Monday off, but rather Thursday. We might use a long man for a spot start on Monday, which buys us another week to find some warm body for the fifth slot. Slayton and Vega both come to mind.

On July 9 the Canadiens picked up OF Robbie Luxton (.176, 5 HR, 17 RBI) from the Wolves, along with cash, while parting with a dubious AAA infielder.

Game 1
VAN: RF K. Evans – SS Sharp – 1B Gilbert – CF Luxton – 3B Suzuki – LF E. Garcia – 2B C. Aguilar – C Hurtado – P Fujita
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Conway

The Coons jumped on Fujita quickly, with Sambrano and Yoshi (YOSHIIIII!!!) hitting singles in the first, and advanced into scoring position on Enrique Garcia’s error, and both scored on D-Alex’ 2-out double to deep right. After that early 2-spot Fujita also encountered rotten luck. In the bottom 2nd, Rodgers reached on an uncaught third strike, before Conway walked on a ridiculous 3-2 call. Carmona grounded to short, but Sharpie only got the out at second, and the Coons got a 2-out bloop single from Sandy to plate Rodgers and go up 3-0. Next, Fujita dinked the most terrible bunt, which was converted into a double play by Conway, third-and-first (!), leaving the Elks with Pedro Hurtado at second base, who ended up stranded. Quebell would homer off Fujita in the third, making it 4-0, before the Elks’ co-ace finally settled in and allowed nothing in the middle innings, with the Coons leaving the bags full in the sixth. Conway was gone after six after surrendering a 2-spot in an arduous top of the sixth, but the Raccoons were still up 4-2, though that changed in the eighth. Josh Gibson allowed a single to Sharpie before being taken the hell deep by the pest of pests, Ray Gilbert. Fujita was just at 100 pitches through eight and reappeared for the ninth, where Canning, having entered in a double switch, walked with one out before Carmona doubled to right. Canning, the winning run, went to third base, with Sandy and Yoshi getting chances. Actually, Sandy didn’t get one, being walked intentionally, and Yoshi grounded to César Aguilar, who threw home to kill off Canning. J-Alex came up, lined to right, and Kurt Evans couldn’t get there. Walkoff single! 5-4 Raccoons! Nomura 2-5; J. Alexander 2-5, RBI; Quebell 2-4, HR, RBI;

We might not be going anywhere this year, but ruining the Elks’ chances is wonderful indeed.

Game 2
VAN: RF K. Evans – SS Sharp – 1B Gilbert – CF Luxton – 3B Suzuki – LF E. Garcia – 2B C. Aguilar – C Hurtado – P A. Rios
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Santos

Our assessment of the Elks’ rotation for the set was incorrect, as Alfredo Rios (6-7, 3.35 ERA) was getting the ball for this game.

Santos walked leadoff man Kurt Evans and after a passed ball by D-Alex the pest Gilbert almost hit one out again, but Sandy caught it on the track. Oh well, shrugged Robbie Luxton and peppered a 2-piece himself. The Raccoons had a leadoff double for D-Alex in the bottom 2nd, and he scored on a sac fly before Rodgers’ double play ended the inning. Bottom 3rd, Santos led off with a single and batters continued to flock onto base. D-Alex batted with the bases loaded in a tied game and cracked another double to center, this one emptying the bags and giving the Raccoons a 5-2 lead. So, Rios was not any good, but neither was Santos. He plated a run with a wild pitch in the fourth inning and loaded the bases in the fifth with a hit, a walk, and a hit batter (sorry, Sharpie! He sucks…) and that was with Gilbert coming up. Gilbert was the go-ahead run and would face Gibson (…), who got off easy with a deep sac fly by Gilbert, 6-4, but then surrendered a triple to Luxton and a double to Suzuki to go onto the hook and get clubbed with spiked bats in the dugout following his removal. The general meltdown continued with Youngblood, who conceded Suzuki’s run, too, and the Elks threw up five to take an 8-6 lead. The worst pitching staff in many years was hard at work again…

The Raccoons did have a comeback on the plate however by the seventh inning. Yoshi hit a leadoff single and J-Alex doubled off Jason Long to put the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out. Pat Treglown replaced Long, a right-hander with a 13.5 K/BB and 1.52 ERA. The ****ty Raccoons were held to Dylan Alexander’s run-scoring groundout, though, with Quebell’s drive to left intercepted by Garcia in mid-flight. Pat Slayton gave the worthless single run right back in the top 8th. Bottom of the inning, Pat White hit a pinch-hit single. Aurelio Garcia, a southpaw, came out to face the many, many left-handers to come, but the first one, Carmona, singled to center, extending his hitting streak to 12 games, and bringing the go-ahead run back up. Even though Garcia was about to blow up, walked both Sandy and Yoshi, 9-8, the Alexander failed and made pathetic outs to end the inning with three men left on base. The bottom of the order had no chance in the ninth against Pedro Alvarado. 9-8 Canadiens. Sambrano 2-4, BB, RBI; Nomura 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; D. Alexander 3-5, 2 2B, 4 RBI; White (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
VAN: CF K. Evans – C Hurtado – 1B Gilbert – 2B Madison – 3B Suzuki – SS Irvin – LF Luxton – RF Southcott – P B. King
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – RF J. Alexander – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Baldwin

The Coons had Carmona and Sambrano on the corners with nobody out in the bottom of the first and ****ed themselves out of the inning on three consecutive pops over the infield. Carmona would be on third once again with one out in the fifth, and then wasn’t scored either. The game was then still scoreless, with only Steve Madison’s leadoff single in the second inning charged against Baldwin. Madison would also have the Stinkers’ second hit of the day, another single with one out in the seventh that moved Gilbert, who had walked, to second base. Mitsuhide Suzuki dissolved the inning in a double play in what was an orgy of offensive offensiveness. When the first run finally came onto the board, it was of course a head-scratcher. Baldwin had hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, and had moved up on consecutive groundouts. Nomura nursed an oh-fer with a ton of LOB’s, and lined to Jeremiah Irvin, who misplayed the liner and had it bounce off the heel of his glove for an error. Baldwin scored, 1-0 Coons. John Alexander reached on an infield single, but when Ayers pinch-hit for Dylan Alexander against the lefty Long, he struck out. Baldwin was virtually unchallenged through eight with the Elks running more errors than hits, and started the ninth despite the tiniest of leads (but it wasn’t like we had a reliable closer, anyway…). Sharpie pinch-hit to start the inning, and singled sharply into center. A bunt moved him to second before Baldwin struck out Hurtado. Oh ****, Gilbert up. Intentional walk! That brought up Madison, and also Watanabe to face him. Strikeout – ballgame. 1-0 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4; Baldwin 8.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (5-5) and 1-3;

Game 4
VAN: CF K. Evans – SS Sharp – 1B Gilbert – 2B Madison – 3B Suzuki – LF E. Garcia – C Hurtado – RF Luxton – P R. Taylor
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – RF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Canning – C Bowen – P Hood

Rich Hood was in a heap of trouble right out of the gate, failing to retire any of the first four batters. Sambrano threw out Kurt Evans at home, however, and the Elks left the bases loaded after Suzuki fouled out and Garcia grounded out to Canning. And this was not the only safety net that Sandy had to throw the horrible Hood in this game. After J-Alex and Kurt Evans had exchanged solo homers for a 1-1 score, Hood loaded the bases in the fourth inning with walks to Pedro Hurtado and Robbie Luxton before also drilling Rod Taylor. With one out, Evans lifted a fly to left, caught by Sambrano, who then proceeded to gun down Hurtado at home to end the inning. Hood wouldn’t stop being ****, however, issued leadoff walks to Sharp and Gilbert in the fifth and conceded one run on a single while other defensive heroics limited the damage. Hood was hit for in the bottom 5th (success could not be gained, though), and the pen took over the 2-1 deficit.

The lineup continued to be unproductive, but a bout of wildness on Taylor’s part, walking Bowen inexplicably, led to two on and nobody out in the bottom 7th for the Furballs. Whitehouse popped out to second, bringing up Ricardo Carmona with one out. Carmona was still looking to extend a 13-game hitting streak, and cracked the first pitch by Taylor to right, and PAST a diving Gilbert! All the way to the wall, and then misplayed by Luxton, Canning scored the tying run, Bowen scored the go-ahead run, and Carmona parked casually on third base with a 2-run triple. The third base coach enthusiastically hugged Carmona and I planned to do the same after the game. Sandy brought him in on a sac fly to extend the newly-won lead to 4-2. Too bad that Constantino put the first two batters in the eighth on base with a walk and a single, and they moved up on Hurtado’s grounder to third, which Canning played but then shook his arm long enough to gain attention. He was eventually replaced with Rodgers, while Sugano took over the unsightly compliment of runners, conceded the lead run on Jeremiah Irvin’s groundout, but got Clint Southcott to pop out to Nomura to end the inning with the Coons still up 4-3, but that lead was blown by Watanabe in the ninth. Sharp singled, the ****head Gilbert doubled, and Madison’s groundout produced the tying run. The game went to extras, where Watanabe had to pitch the 10th for punishment, and then Slayton threw 53 pitches over four scoreless without the faintest offense by the Coons. Bottom 14th, Palmer led off with a single off Treglown. Rodgers bunted to the left side, where Suzuki was slow and Sharp had a bad angle and spiked the throw to first so that Gilbert had no chance to come up with it, but at least managed to knock it down and keep it around to avoid having the losing run (for the smelling Elks) on third base with nobody out. Yet, Bowen was batting next, and D-Alex had long been used. Bowen was rung up for the golden sombrero before the last bat came off the bench. Keith Ayers batted for Pat Whitehouse, who was 0-3, but also struck out. Carmona fouled out…

George Youngblood was in for the 15th, putting Garcia on with a leadoff single before beating the already overpowered Bowen for a capital wild pitch. Somehow the Elks fouled out enough to leave the go-ahead run on second base. Treglown made the third out on a K, with no bench left for anybody. Youngblood even had a ****ing 2-out single in the bottom 15th, moving Yoshi to second base, but Palmer grounded out, before falling apart for three singles and a run in the top 16th. Bottom of the inning, Rodgers and Bowen made rapid outs before Ayers hit a single to left. Aurelio Garcia replaced Treglown with a walk to Carmona. Sandy Sambrano was nursing an 0-6 day, a really bad spot to come up as the final out, and struck out. 5-4 Canadiens. Palmer 3-7; Canning 2-3; Slayton 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

Walt Canning has a forearm strain and will be out for a week plus. This is a bad situation… we might just disable him to clear the roster spot…

In other news

July 1 – In a bit of a lop-sided game, OCT SP Bob King (13-3, 2.41 ERA) pitches a 5-hit shutout while the Knights get romped for 18 runs by the Thunder offense.
July 1 – The Thunder have to play 1B Jimmy Roberts (.268, 11 HR, 50 RBI) on the DL with a hamstring strain. He should not be back until August.
July 1 – Pittsburgh’s 1B/2B Dave McCormick (.282, 6 HR, 30 RBI) has built a 20-game hitting streak with a single in the Miners’ 8-7 win over the Buffaloes.
July 1 – Three pitchers, four singles, three walks, and two errors – the sad bottom line of the Blue Sox blowing an 8-4 lead in the ninth inning and eventually losing 10-8 to the Cyclones. The Sox made four errors total in the game.
July 3 – The Crusaders lose INF Jorge Ortega (.311, 0 HR, 30 RBI) for the rest of the year. Ortega, 28, has broken his elbow.
July 4 – The Scorpions trade SP Fred O’Quinn (5-7, 4.42 ERA) to the Rebels, getting #30 prospect SP Cameron McSweeney, the #21 pick in the 2010 draft, in return. The Rebels also make another trade, acquiring MR Kevin Poisson (0-0, 5.71 ERA) from the Loggers for two middling prospects.
July 4 – An 0-5 day ends the hitting streak of PIT 1B/2B Dave McCormick (.287, 6 HR, 33 RBI). The Miners fall to the Buffaloes, 3-0.
July 5 – IND OF Rowan Tanner (.257, 1 HR, 13 RBI) has shattered his ankle and is out for the season.
July 5 – The Canadiens answer the Loggers’ 6-spot in the fourth inning with two in the fifth, five in the eighth, and two in the ninth to beat them 9-6.
July 6 – The Gold Sox lose LF Victorino Sanchez (.324, 6 HR, 32 RBI) for the rest of the month after the batter with the batting title subscription sprained his elbow.
July 7 – The Loggers lose OF Victor Enriquez (.231, 6 HR, 28 RBI) for the year with a torn back muscle.
July 10 – The Indians send 29-year old SS Ryan Miller (.275, 9 HR, 43 RBI) to the Falcons for MR Pat Kling (2-2, 3.47 ERA) and unranked infield prospect Steve Dykstra, who does show promise.
July 13 – BOS SP Curtis Tobitt (9-3, 3.28 ERA) is nursing a mild shoulder strain and will go to the DL, presumably for the minimum 15 days.
July 13 – Topeka’s Joe Cowan (.260, 4 HR, 32 RBI) opens the Buffaloes’ game in Pittsburgh with a double off Pedro Vargas – the Buffaloes’ last hit in the game as they are 1-hit and lose 4-0.

Complaints and stuff

Jaylen “Midnight” Martin signed a 4-year deal worth almost $12M with the Crusaders in the first week of July. My heart is full of sadness.

And the 3,000th regular season win goes to … Hector Santos! The Sunday game in Boston did the trick. Then, the Coons had dropped 2,921 regular season contests for a .507 all-time average.

Hoshi Watanabe now has logged more saves for the Raccoons than he notched for all his many teams since debuting in ’98 combined. He doesn’t even have more than three saves for any SINGLE team other than the Coons.

You know who else is injured? Jonathan Toner! The most likely pick to replace Berry and the reason Juan Calderón is salivating in his sleep, Toner was diagnosed with a biceps strain, and will miss the rest of the month. I would punch the wall now but I just got rid of the splint…

Two weeks ago I mentioned that international amateur Danny Arguello… the bidding war has been on since. We started at around $180k, and we’re up to almost $280k now. Looks like the entire league is bidding.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (47-45) @ Indians (40-53) – July 15-17, 2013

The Indians continued to go nowhere. They now ranked eighth in runs scored and also runs allowed. They ranked about eighth in a lot of categories, to be honest, but they were in the top 3 in home runs and their defense was ranked fourth in the league. Also, they were 5-4 against the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Sergio Vega (2-2, 1.56 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (2-7, 6.81 ERA)
Bill Conway (3-5, 3.28 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (7-9, 3.15 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-7, 4.19 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (8-7, 3.56 ERA)

This time we won’t miss both of their southpaws, but will get Tristan Broun at least. Sam McMullen (4-8, 4.83 ERA) pitched on Saturday.

Walt Canning was NOT placed on the DL after Ivan the Druid consulted the spirits again and now claimed they told him that he might be ready to play by the end of the week.

Meanwhile the Furballs will explore trade opportunities for everything that’s not tied up in a hospital bed or under 27 and decorated with hope stickers.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Vega
IND: CF J. Wilson – LF Kui – RF J. Ortíz – 1B Tsung – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 2B Bowers – SS Preto – P Spears

Spears was in danger of getting routed early as Carmona led off the game with a single – hitting streak successfully extended to 15 games – then stole his 22nd sack. Spears walked Sambrano, and Yoshi singled to load them up. Spears still didn’t get himself reeled in and forced home the first run with a walk to Dylan Alexander. John Alexander swung at a 3-0 and grounded it to the right side, causing a brief blackout for some poor GM, but it went past Tom Bowers and into rightfield for an RBI single after all. Spears didn’t get an out until after a bases-loaded walk to Quebell, when Palmer grounded out, but we were already at 4-0. Rodgers walked, but Vega hit into a merciful double play after a 38-pitch top of the first. Yoshi and D-Alex went yard back-to-back in the second to run the tally to 6-0, and Spears was yanked shortly after.

Unfortunately Vega was only slightly better and pitched only a little longer. He was also wild, but not quite as bad (6 BB, 0 K) as Spears, but he also was pitching in 3-ball counts constantly and didn’t go five innings as everybody would have hoped for. A 2-out walk to PH Jose Gonzalez in the bottom 4th put him at 75 pitches, and he was obviously toast. Two on, two out in a 6-2 game, Ron Thrasher replaced him. His first pitch was wild, moving both runners into scoring position… Nomura made a diving play on John Wilson’s hard grounder then and lobbed it to first in time to end the inning. While the game had been certified wild right until this point, the excitement ebbed down instantly from here. The Raccoons emptied more or less their entire pen except for Watanabe and an exhausted Slayton, which was for once good enough to keep the Indians off the board from here, while the offense didn’t manage much more than John Alexander getting nicked by a pitch in the seventh and then swept up in Quebell’s double play. 6-2 Coons. Nomura 2-5, HR, RBI; White (PH) 1-1; Gibson 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Despite an eight-man pen, it would be REALLY great if Bill Conway could have another long outing. How is he our best starter anyway?

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – C D. Alexander – RF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – P Conway
IND: CF J. Wilson – 2B Bowers – RF J. Ortíz – 1B Tsung – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – LF J. Gonzalez – SS Larsen – P Weise

Sandy had a single in the first inning, which was all nice, but was also the Coons’ last baserunner for several hours. Conway gave up litters of singles early on with single runs scoring in the second and third innings, but reeled himself in by the middle innings. The Indians got a third run off him in the seventh after Tom Weise hit a 1-out double and scored on Tom Bowers’ single. The Raccoons were still looking for that second Furball to appear on base, but J-Alex’ leadoff single in the top 8th did the trick. Palmer also singled with one out after Quebell hit into a fielder’s choice, Rodgers whiffed, and Ayers flew out to center. That was it for the Coons. Constantino gave up a run in the bottom 8th after a leadoff double by Mun-wah Tsung, who had flailed for a golden sombrero in the series opener, and Tom Weise finished a 4-hit shutout despite a 2-out double by Yoshi in the ninth. 4-0 Indians.

Carmona’s hitting streak fell victim to Weise just like the rest of the lineup.

Game 3
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – 1B Palmer – LF J. Alexander – C Bowen – SS Whitehouse – 3B Rodgers – RF Ayers – P Santos
IND: CF J. Wilson – LF Kui – RF J. Ortíz – 1B Tsung – 3B Mathews – C Parks – 2B Preto – SS Larsen – P Broun

The Indians had runners on first and second in the bottom 1st against Santos when the pesky Ming Kui suddenly took off on a pitch to Tsung, but was thrown out quite clearly by Craig Bowen, saving Santos’ tail and getting him out of the inning without early damage. A strange kind of pitching duel developed, one in which the Indians always batted in favorable counts and made hard contact, but couldn’t get the ball in, while the Raccoons had curled up and called for the mother raccoon for help just at the bare sight of Tristan Broun holding the ball in his left hand. Santos stumbled through the innings before sooner or later some hard contact had to be hard enough, and it was the disgusting Kui with a 2-run homer in the bottom 6th. Bowen answered with a solo shot just inside the left foul pole in the top 7th, and Santos got only one more out before a sudden rain shower broke and doused the field, leading to a 1-hour delay. The Indians sent *Cal Holbrook* to pitch the eighth, but the Raccoons couldn’t even get to *him*. All the Coons managed after the rain was a Bowen single with two outs in the ninth, and Helio Maggessi then had Pat Whitehouse for a little snack. 2-1 Indians. Bowen 3-4, HR, RBI;

When Craig Bowen has more than half of your hits, you have to lose. It’s that simple, really. Even a 3-4 day still has him under .200 …

By the time each of these two teams played their next game, both had parted with a guy batting cleanup in this series. The Indians sent 1B Mun-wah Tsung (.282, 8 HR, 35 RBI) to the Stars for CL North veteran INF Gary Rice (.289, 8 HR, 34 RBI), while …

Trade

The Raccoons knew they were done and gave up. The Falcons were probably done, but didn’t give up. Thus, the Raccoons traded OF John Alexander (.283, 14 HR, 40 RBI) and cash to the Falcons, in return getting three minor leaguers, of which only one qualifies as a strong prospect: 21-yr old AA SP Ernesto Lozano, a right-hander who had been a scouting discovery of theirs. Lozano threw a 90mph heater, a knuckle curve (mean!) and a messy changeup. Control was an issue for him overall. But it was something to hang a bit of hope onto.

The other players in the deal were 20-yr old A CL Will West and 23-yr old A C Cory Massey. All three players stayed in their respective minor league level.

Mike Bednarski would come off the DL on Sunday. In the meantime, the Raccoons added an extra arm for the first two games in Oklahoma (well knowing of their capabilities…) and brought up Juan Gallegos.

Also, Jon Merritt started a rehab assignment in AAA on this Friday.

Raccoons (48-47) @ Thunder (56-38) – July 19-21, 2013

The Thunder had lost three games in a row and were probably mad right now, which could only mean bad things for furry woodland creatures. The Thunder were first in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. Their rotation was struggling quite a bit, ranking in the bottom 3 in the league, but the bullpen was strong. They had swept the Coons in the first meeting between teams this season.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (5-5, 4.10 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (10-3, 4.11 ERA)
Rich Hood (5-6, 4.58 ERA) vs. Ed Michaels (6-5, 4.40 ERA)
Bill Conway (3-6, 3.32 ERA) vs. Bob King (13-5, 2.71 ERA)

Michaels will be another auto-loss (read: left-hander).

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – C D. Alexander – 1B Quebell – SS Palmer – 3B Rodgers – RF Ayers – P Baldwin
OCT: 2B O. Torres – C J. Martinez – RF Bailey – LF M. Cruz – SS Farias – CF P. Estrada – 3B D. Mendez – 1B R. Jackson – P R. Jimenez

In a terrific pitching duel it took these teams until the seventh inning to put a guy on third base. The only double in the game up until then had been hit by Baldwin, and he had never moved off second base after that. In the top 7th it was then singles by Palmer and Ayers to get the Raccoons going, although Palmer only made it to third base on Jesus Martinez’ clumsy play on Carmona’s slow grounder that became an infield single and loaded the bases with two outs for Sambrano, who laid off enough crap to walk and force home a run, as did Yoshi Nomura, for a 2-0 lead. Baldwin went eight shutout innings before being hit for in the top 9th following Pat White’s pinch-hit double in place of Keith Ayers. Craig Bowen struck out for Baldwin and White never was moved off second base in what was a recurring theme in this game. Will Bailey cost the Thunder a potential comeback with a grievous baserunning gaffe, hitting a 1-out double off Hoshi Watanabe in the bottom of the ninth, put not stopping at second base. Pat White in rightfield showed him quite clearly he had no triple, and Bailey had to pick up his helmet and ego after being tagged out by Ken Rodgers in a wild slide at third base. The park fell dead silent, and Manny Cruz’ foul pop handed the Raccoons their first win over the Thunder in 2013. 2-0 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, BB; Palmer 2-4; White (PH) 1-1, 2B; Baldwin 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, W (6-5) and 1-3, 2B;

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – 1B Palmer – RF Ayers – C D. Alexander – SS Whitehouse – LF Carmona – 3B Canning – CF White – P Hood
OCT: 2B O. Torres – C J. Martinez – RF Bailey – LF M. Cruz – SS Farias – 3B D. Mendez – LF V. Diaz – 1B R. Jackson – P Michaels

The Thunder certainly wouldn’t take kindly to being shut out by the puny Raccoons, and Rich Hood gave up some hard contact immediately in this one and fell 1-0 behind in the first. Ed Michaels however put a pair on to start the second inning, then fell to a 2-run triple by Walt Canning, who scored on White’s groundout to give the Coons an early 3-1 lead. With Hood being surrounded by the aura of constant crumble, indeed no lead was ever safe against a stacked team, and the Thunder kept hitting them right at fielders for a while, but made up a run in the bottom 4th. Top 6th then, D-Alex led off with a double to left. Whitehouse drew his second walk of the day before Carmona hit a shy single to load the bases with nobody out. Between Canning’s grounder to short and two strikeouts the Raccoons scored zero in the inning, and Hood was so close to pulverization in the bottom of the inning until David Mendez hit hard into a double play to forego another comeback attempt. Instead it was Michaels to get waffled in the next inning. Palmer reached on a walk, stole second, and scored on Alexander’s 2-out double, which was soon followed by an RBI single from Pat Whitehouse, 5-2.

However, Hood soon followed him into the trash can, only making it to one out in the seventh before allowing a single to Pedro Estrada and walking Oliver Torres. Gibson came on, got Martinez on a groundout, and then the Coons walked Bailey, a left-handed batter, intentionally, to get to the scuffling right-hander Manny Cruz, who was promptly hit for by switch-hitter Josh Thomas, who was batting a grisly .156 with six homers and grounded out to Yoshi to end the inning. But there were still a few innings to cover, and the Raccoons’ pen was full of dorks. Sugano was called on for the eighth, dorked, with Emilio Farias singling, Mendez being handed a walk, and Vinny Diaz knocking in Farias with a single of his own. The tying runs were on and nobody out when Constantino replaced Sugano, got a groundout, then yielded to Thrasher when left-hander Johnny Crum was announced as pinch-hitter. Crum was thrashed and had to sit down, and Torres grounded out to Palmer at second base. Yet, that still didn’t mean that all the struggles were over. Watanabe faced the 2-3-4 batters again in the ninth, and again Bailey had a hit, hitting a single and then standing still, much to the appreciation of the fans. Behind him, Thomas whiffed, but Farias singled, bringing up the winning run in David Mendez, who battled with Watanabe for seven pitches before driving a 2-run double to centerfield. Tied game, and soon enough extras.

The Coons had runners on the corners with two outs in the top 10th, with Craig Bowen batting for Watanabe. Robert Parsons snuffed him out on three pitches. Youngblood came on in the bottom of the inning, and didn’t get a strike past ANY of three batters he faced, instead allowing a leadoff single to Brian Campbell and walking Bruce Boyle, the truly ancient specter of the Cold War era. Torres grounded to move over the runners, with Slayton replacing Youngblood in the hope of a strikeout. Martinez grounded hard to short, where Canning was installed by now and lasered home a throw that struck down Campbell, with Boyle moving – slowly – to third. Bailey grounded out to Palmer to extend proceedings further. The Coons would break the tie in the 12th, when Carmona singled off Tommy Costello, stole second base, and scored on Canning’s single to left that barely eluded Farias. White hit into a deuce, and Slayton stayed on to defend his own 6-5 lead … successfully. 6-5 Critters. D. Alexander 2-5, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Whitehouse 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Carmona 4-6; Canning 2-5, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Slayton 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (5-1);

Bruce Boyle is 43 years old and this was his first plate appearance of the year. Farias went 5-for-6 in this game. The Thunder have never had a 6-hit appearance by a batter. Farias singled, doubled, and singled against Hood, singled against Sugano, singled against Watanabe, but flew out to right against Slayton.

Slayton is tied for second in wins again. (shakes head)

Mike Bednarski came off the DL, with Keith Ayers being sent back to AAA after a nasty oh-fer in this game and a .190 clip overall. Bednarski was eager to swing a stick, but the last game of the set was rained out.

The game will be made up on August 26 in a double header towards the tail end of a grueling 4-city road trip, so: ya-hooo!

In other news

July 15 – Starting pitchers keep dropping, as CHA SP Max Shepherd (5-6, 2.49 ERA) has been diagnosed with a torn flexor tendon and might be out for a full year.
July 15 – One more: LAP SP Bruce Mark (9-4, 3.16 ERA) is nursing a sore shoulder and will be shut down until September.
July 19 – Another starting pitcher goes down, as TOP SP Juan Ortega (8-6, 3.52 ERA) has ruptured a triceps tendon and is out for the year.
July 20 – The Stars get to enjoy a 3-hit shutout by SP Ralph Ford (5-11, 5.30 ERA) over the Buffaloes, but have to place 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.348, 6 HR, 45 RBI) on the DL with a sprained ankle. He will miss about a month.
July 20 – The Loggers slog four homers (Mike Rucker, Corey Martin, Justin Dally, Zach Knowling) and break up an 8-8 tie with an 8-run ninth to clobber the Bayhawks, 16-8. Rucker’s homer is a slam off Dani Flores in the ninth.
July 20 – The Wolves score 12 unanswered runs in the last three innings to beat the Capitals, 14-7.
July 21 – The Canadiens pick up SP William Raven (2-9, 4.60 ERA) from the Knights for unranked infield prospect Guillermo Aponte.
July 21 – A 19-inning marathon is played in San Francisco, with the Loggers eventually coming out on top of the Bayhawks, 5-3. Rob Howell’s 2-out, 2-run single in the top 19th does the trick.
July 21 – The Scorpions deal SP Jorge Gine (8-8, 4.55 ERA) to the Warriors for five prospects, none of them ranked.
July 21 – Another one down: SAL SP Cesar Ochoa (6-9, 4.43 ERA) has a damaged elbow ligament and could be out until after the start of the 2014 season.

Complaints and stuff

Included in the Jorge Gine deal is a former Raccoons draftee, 1B Jonathan Marsh, 23, who was a supplemental rounder in 2009 but had been released by 2012. He’s not hitting a meaningful amount in either AA or AAA.

As we are on Raccoons draft picks not hitting a meaningful amount in AAA, Jimmy Oatmeal, now a healthy 25 years old, is batting .204/.267/.292 for the Condors’ AAA affiliate, the Los Reyes Crows.

Cleaning the minors of gunk is a hard task. This week last year’s eighth-rounder, infielder Ryan Schwaiger was released, partly because we had two promotions from the international complex, including LF/2B/SS Tony Viera, 19, whom Calderón is very hot on and whom he insisted had to move to professional ball now. Oh well fine. The way bigger headache in Aumsville, which gets ratcheted for a sub-.400 clip once more, is 2011 supplemental rounder SS Dylan Thorne, who put up OPS values of .477, .551, and .521 since being drafted. He’s almost 20 and he gets fooled by 17-year olds. It is not pretty.

The most innings the endless chewing gum with rhubarb flavor had ever pitched for the Raccoons in his career that had begun at some point during the Old Testament had been 20.2; Sergio Vega has already more than doubled it this year, despite not being in anybody’s plans or wishes. And since we are TOTALLY out of starting pitching, he might get another assignment next week. I just can’t find a replacement …!

As we’re on Vega, the rainout on Sunday keeps him from making another start before Thursday’s off day (with Conway and Santos going a day late and Baldwin on regular rest), and Jonathan Toner spun a complete game win in his return from the minor league DL (sooner than expected, too!) and might not need A LOT MORE time in AAA.

The Danny Arguello bidding war is still raging, by the way. Up to $312k now. We still have budget room (but it’s becoming an issue). That Dominican hustler better be worth it. I wonder where the nickname comes from.

By the way, next Saturday, the 27th, we host the Knights on John Alexander Bobblehead Day!

YES I KNOW.