The day Baseball Changed Forever

[hanramtrumps]

lol strangle schedule makers... thats a good idea, Montreal is a pain to play

[twinsGM]

hanramtrumps: Yeah, why cant you guys beat them?



***********************************************

We ended the month of April with a bang. I was really dreading our game aginst the Dodgers, who are 8-2 in their last 10, with their 37 homeruns, 2nd in the Majors. In LA, we scored four runs in the first, capped by Branon Inge's 3-run homer. My lineup was different today, since were facing a righty.

PORTLAND             ab  h bb  r hr bi  k sb     avg
J. Pierre (CF)        5  1  0  1  0  0  1  0    .306
B. Bell (RF)          5  4  0  3  1  1  0  0    .302
M. Montero (C)        4  0  1  1  0  0  2  0    .232
J. Guzman (2B)        5  1  0  0  0  1  3  0    .158
B. Inge (3B)          5  2  0  1  1  4  0  0    .258
M. Kotsay (LF)        5  3  0  2  0  0  0  0    .287
J. Desi (1B)          5  2  0  1  1  3  0  0    .216
C. Barmes (SS)        4  0  0  0  0  0  1  0    .200
B. James (P)          3  1  0  0  0  0  1  0    .200
 B. Brown (P)         1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .000
 J. Bisenius (P)      0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .000
TOTALS               42 14  1  9  3  9  8  0

That's how it was with stats.


As for the month, a pretty bad one to start out our franchise. We went 8-19, second worst in the majors. Here's the standings after April:

           W  L   GB
Oakland   17  1     -
LA        14  14     3
Seattle   12  15   4.5
Portland  8  19    8.5
Texas     7  22    10.5

Our Player of the Month: Jaun Pierre, leads the team with a .306 Batting average, 6 steals, and 14 runs, while being a very affective leadoff hitter and a big veteran presence.

Juan Pierre, on the Marlins, Rockies, Cubs and Dodgers before gracing our team with his speed.

Who needs to step it up: Jason Vargas, the first major league player in Portland, has done nothing to lead our in-experienced staff. He'll get the perfect chance to show our team he can be our ace when he opens a big 4-game series against divisional rivals, the A's, on the 4th. The games are at home, and could set the tone for the rest of the season.

Coming into the season, I knew we wouldn't be that good of a team, but I never expected this bad. I knew, just like almost all expansion teams before us, we were going to be locked in the cellar for a season or two at least, before finding our rhythm.

One major move I'm making is this:
Alex Cora will be taking over as bench coach, while playing sometimes as well. I made the move so our players have a coach they can relate to better, and Cora is one of the best we could find.

Alex Cora, our new Player-Coach.

Other Beavers Notes:
Brandon Inge will get his ninth start tomorrow at thirdbase, since Casto will miss one more day with a blood clot in his arm...Lance Cormier will start for Triple A Oregon City tomorrow in the first of what will likely be two starts in the minors to work on his mechanics and condfidence...A trade is in the works that would send Jon Huber to Seattle for a player to be named later and cash...


Month of April stats:

April Batting             Team  G   AVG    AB    H  2B  3B  HR   BB    K   SB  CS    R  RBI   SLG   OBP
Pierre, Juan              Por   27  .306   121   37   3   0   0    5   10    6   4   14   10  .331  .344
Meske, Jorge              Por   26  .225   102   23   7   0   2    5   26    0   0    8   10  .353  .259
Montero, Miguel           Por   27  .232    99   23   4   0   4   10   26    0   0   12   13  .394  .313
Casto, Kory               Por   26  .302    96   29   9   0   3   14   19    0   0   10   16  .490  .393
Barmes, Clint             Por   25  .200    90   18   4   0   1    7   11    0   0    9    5  .278  .255
Desi, James               Por   27  .216    88   19   3   0   2   15   18    0   0   11   12  .318  .327
Kotsay, Mark              Por   21  .287    87   25   6   1   0    4    8    0   0    8    3  .379  .319
Bell, Bubba               Por   12  .302    53   16   2   0   1    2   11    1   0    8    4  .396  .321
Cora, Alex                Por    8  .188    32    6   1   0   0    2    5    3   0    4    0  .219  .235
Inge, Brandon             Por    8  .258    31    8   0   0   2    5    7    0   0    3    6  .452  .361
Armstrong, Cole           Por   17  .280    25    7   1   0   2    0    7    0   0    4    5  .560  .280
Guzman, Jesus             Por    9  .158    19    3   0   1   0    0    6    0   0    2    1  .263  .158
Carroll, Jamey            Por   17  .235    17    4   0   0   0    2    2    1   0    4    0  .235  .350

April Pitching            Team   IP   ERA    G  GS   W   L  SV    K   BB  
Vargas, Jason             Por   35.2  4.54    7   6   0   2   0   33   15 
Herrera, Yoslan           Por   35.0  3.60    5   5   1   3   0   14    5 
James, Brad               Por   29.1  4.91    6   5   2   2   0   24    9 
Cormier, Lance            Por   28.1  6.35    5   5   0   3   0   22    9 
Bautista, Denny           Por   25.0  3.96   14   0   1   0   0   17    4 
Brown, Brooks             Por   17.1  6.23   12   0   0   1   0    8    6 
Troncoso, Ramon           Por   15.0  8.40   14   0   2   1   0   13    5 
Volquez, Edinson          Por   14.1  5.65    6   0   0   0   0    9   15 
Huber, Jon                Por   14.0 15.43   12   0   1   1   1   14    4 
Bisenius, Joseph          Por   11.0  2.45    9   0   1   0   3    9    2  
Smith, Matt               Por   10.1  9.58    5   5   0   5   0    9    9 
Stauffer, Tim             Por    7.0  3.86    1   1   0   1   0    3    3

May 1st, 2011

Alexander Smit was found dead today in the Phillies clubhouse after their lose to Arizona yesterday. Team officials say there was a knife found in his back, but no fingerprints were found on the weapon. The Philadelphia clubhouse went into panic, and everyone was evacuated out of the building and into the player's lot, where a convoy of police cars were arriving. "This is a terrible loss. Alex was a great guy and a great player. We're really going to miss him." Said Francisco Cordero, Smit's teammate for the last 2 years. Two hours later, manager Charlie Manuel let Theo Epstein know the Phillies would not be playing their game tomorrow against Arizona, giving the DBacks the victory.

Now this made me almost cry. What had baseball come to? Players can no longer feel safe in the stadium, and neither can the fans. No amount of security can change this terrible fact, and until Gestenate and all their followers are found, which could take years until we are sure they are captured, it might be hundreds of more innocent lives that worked harder than anyone to reach their ultimate goal, which could be taken away from them. What I saw next on msnbc.com 4 hours before our game disturbed me even more:

Shane Youman, a relief pitcher for the Phillies, was arrested this morning at the Disney Hotel (Disney bought out all Hilton hotels in 2010 after Paris Hilton had lost nearly 50% of her family's fortune gambling) for his connections to Gestenate. Shane Youman was supposedly the muderer of Alex Smit yesterday, says the Phoenix Police Department. Brandon Lyon, rooming with Youman all of this season, said he heard Shane's cell phone vibrate while he was out of the room, and "out of curiosity" says Lyon, he opened it up and saw the following text message:

Nice job taking care of Smit. Pick your next target, someone big. Next Gestenate meeting today, 7am, u know where.
-Jon


Lyon immediatley called police, and Youman was arrested an hour 10 minutes later, but would not speak about who "Jon" was or where the meeting, which had just ended, was. He did say he murdered Smit and announced to by-standers outside the hotel he supported Gestenate and Michael Mutinski. Shane Youman will face a minimum seven years in jail, possibly 35 if he had helped with the bombing on Yankee Stadium and was convicted of conspiracy.

Now I was very worried, as was Major League Baseball. From now on, all players were to go through a metal detector before going into the clubhouse when they arrive from the parking lot, and security will be very tight to prevent a fan from attacking a player. This is so terrible for baseball, and it's a shame over 99% of all people involved in the MLB and fans have to deal with this, but hopefully baseball can survive this.

[dannymac910]

LOL! It's weird that you have a Portland team with Juan Pierre, and I have a Portland team with Juan Pierre.

[twinsGM]

yeah, that's funny. I've also had Lance Cormier in both my dynasties, and I've traded/drafted him both times.

[twinsGM]

Everyone: Yes, this is a long entry. But bear with me, it was a good game to recap, and the long recaps will be no more almost always soon.



****************************************************
May 2nd- Tim Stauffer got his 2nd start for us, and Brandon Inge takes over at thirdbase, hitting third and moving Kasto to 1st in the cleanup spot. Montero will miss two games due to a bruised foot, so Cole Armstrong is hitting sixth today. After a 5-game road trip, it's good to be back to try for our 10th win and our 3rd in a row.

On the 5th pitch of the game, the excited crowd of 40,000 was quieted after Chris Duffy was hit in the knee to start the game. We got out of it, with an intentional walk to Yunel Escobar (to bring up Jason Bay, who doesn't hit righties well.)

When the third inning came, it was the first time I really realized I was deeply involved with a big-league team. Here was Tim Stauffer, a journeyman who hadn't pitched in the bigs in nearly four years, standing in the center of the newest stadium in baseball, performing in front of one of the biggest crowds he had seen, and he brought them to their feat. All the troubles in the world, the economy, pollution, everyone's personal problems, were set aside, and 40,000 new Beavers fans joined together to appreciate Tim Stauffer, who was said to have no big-league potential by all other teams, but here he was. He had just struck out the side, but more importantly, the fans had realized this:
Tim is what we stand for. A scrappy, no-potentail team with no chance at the playoffs, that is going to surprise everyone. For the first time, the fans thought we were meant to be, and our offense was going to come right back and take the lead, keep it for the game and through May, build upon Tim and keep the momentum going all of the season, knocking the A's, Angels, and Mariners flat on their asses, and turn Portland into a proud baseball town, not just a punchline for jokes.

Our team did just that. With two outs, most were headed to the concession stands, while Pierre singled. My palms were sweaty, trying not to mess this up, but my steal sign to Pierre was a good decision, as he stole. Bubba Bell came up with the hit, scoring Juan on a single. Yes, it was the third inning, but our team hadn't much to cheer for so far in our one month of playing.

After Stauffer got 2 outs in the 5th, Brian Friday singled to right to break up Tim's streak of 9 set down in a row.

Stauffer walked with an out in the 5th, and Pierre doubled him to third. Bubba Bell came up, and hit the sac fly to left. It was a risky move with the pitcher running, but he was sent in to score. Everyone jumped to their feet, that wonderful buzz of about 100 decibels filled 2334 Nicolai street, and we were now up 2-1.

Tim is great again in the sixth, getting them 1-2-3. He's at 94 pitches, but he has all the adrenaline in the world: he has set retired 12 of the last 13 batters he's faced, and is pitching what has most likely been his best game of his career. I have to let him go for 7, which he did in his last and first start as a Beaver.

Now there's a runner on second, two out, Chris Duffy up. Duffy crushes righties, and so does Brian Friday, next up. I elected to go out to the mound to replace Tim, since he could get hi standing O if he left in the inning. The crowd gave him that, and stood almost until Bautista was finished warming. Denny got the line-out, and our lead was still safe.

In the 8th, I was just about to submerge my head in raw sewage, with one out and runners on the corners, with our lead about to dissapear from Bautista. A slow roller was hit to Jorge at second, and he and Barmes BARELY turned it, sending the home dugout and stands into a frenzy. You'd think we had just won the division, but no, we had a lead for our so-far lights-out closer, Joe Bisenius.


The 8th was the best part of the night. Armstrong tripled, followed by a Meske double, this bringing in three insurance runs. My eardrums started bleeding from the noise, but so what! we were going to win our 3rd in a row!

Bisenius had an easy inning, getting 3 outs on 3 batters in 13 pitches. Our players were pumped up congratulating eachother on the field, our fans didn't want to leave, and our TV network, FSN Northwest for now, couldn't decide who to interview.

In other news, we pulled off this trade with Tampa:

Jon Huber (P)
$2,500,000

for

Brian Tallet (P)
Tom Niemiller (P)

We do add a little salary, but now we have a good lefty for the pen, and a decent pitching prospect, plus Huber and his thunder cloud are lifted from the team. A very positive day for the Portland Beavers baseball club, but don't tell Jon Huber I said that.



Beavers notes:
Lance Cormier threw 112 pitches in 6 innings, allowing 4 ERs, 2 homers with no walks and 3 K's at AAA Oregon City. He was assigned to AA Bristol where he will pitch on May 6th... FA Todd Linden was signed to a 2-year, $850,000 deal after Monday's game against the Pirates. He will be on the Portland bench today in San Diego...Ian Vanderveer was sent down to AAA Oregon City... Alex Cora will make his debut as the Beavers bench coach on Wednesday against the A's, and he is expected to play on the 6th in the 3rd game of the series against the A's.

The next day, Kory got us off to a good start in San Diego, against Jake Peavy, when he hit a solo homer in the first. We ended up winning another good game, 4-3 over the Padres. We've now won 4 in a row, and we're 6.5 games out of first going into a big series against Oakland.

For the series, David Schafer will be in the 'pen to help us out while Volquez makes his recovery. Here's another interesting story from mlb.com:

With the amateur draft approaching, many teams are pouring over thousands of names to potentially draft, but here's one name that will be talked about a lot, but not neccessarily because of his baseball skills:
Jordan Mutinski. The son of Michael Mutinski has entered the minor league draft out of Lebine High School in New York. What has Jordan threatening a lawsuit now is this statement the MLB released just hours after Mutinski's agent declared he was entering the Major League Draft:

What Jordan's father did will never be forgotten, and his actions have disgraced the Mutinski family name, especially in baseball, and we will not welcome anyone from this immediate family into Major League Baseball, its teams or any affiliates. We are taking action to prevent Jordan getting into the MLB, but we have not told any teams to take up conspiracy theories against the young man.

Jordan, a 17-year old student, released this statement through his agent and mother:

What the MLB has said about me is very rude, and stereotypical of me. I am not my father, and nor do I hope to be, and Major League Baseball cannot keep me out of the league or any minor leagues, and we (my agent, mother and I) will take legal action if neccessary to press charges of collusion or violation of rights.


Jordan is very right in this situation, but looking at his scouting report, he may not have the skills to be drafted, though I am pretty sure he can get drafted in the 5th or 6th round.

As for Michael, no news has come in the last few days, so they're still waiting for the FBI to find the rest of Gestenate to decide what to do with Michael Mutinski. For the series against Oakland, I'm looking to increase security like the rest of the MLB, with the diagram below. Yes, we are far from New York, but since it could possibly be many people behind Mutinski, there could be operatives here in the northwest.


In the front office...
One of our goals for next year is to have our own TV station, or one that shows all our games. Right now, we share FSN Northwest with the Mariners, who get priority over us when we have games at the same time, which is wuite often. We will have 35 games not shown, but 27 will be on the Portland local channel. Our options for next year include:

-The local Portland sports channel, covering prep sports in the area, but also some of the minor league soccer team at PGE park, the Portland Timbers. We could get games broadcasted on their channel, by our own commentators (TBA) which would be about 150 games. Price: about $900,000
-Our own channel, which would cost a lot of money, that we could rent out to other sporting events (mainly college) which would broadcast as many games as we wanted to have. Price: about $2,500,000
-Sign a deal with two local TV networks (e.i., the local CBS and NBC affiliates) to broadcast most games. Advisors say that would mean about 130 games. Price: about $800,000


I'm leaning towards option 2, since we could have as much Beavers coverage as we wanted, to build our fanbase.

Anyway, tomorrow is the opening game of the big series, and I say big because 1, we can move to within 2.5 games of first and even 2nd place with a sweep, and 2, we don't play another team from our division until July, so we need to make up games while we can.

[twinsGM]

Sorry for the double post, but putting them both together puts me over the 10,000 character mark.
********************************************

For the sake of getting this dynasty going faster, Here's how the series went:
1st game, 5/4: First day for our new player-coach Alex Cora, and it was a good debut. Beavers 7, A's 3. Vargas:

                   ip  h bb hr  r er  k pit    ERA
       J. Vargas  6.0  5  1  2  3  3  4 103   4.54

Bubba Bell and Brandon Inge each knocked in 2 runs, with a double each. Not much attendance, just over 24,000, but I suspect that number will rise once the weather get warmer. 9it was 50 degrees at gametime.)

[/B]2nd game, 5/5: [/B] Another winner! 6-0, Brad James went six and two thirds, with 11 k's and 2 walks! Another all-around great game for us, while Montero hit his 5th homer, a grand slam(!) to take the team lead from Kory (Though Casto still has a slim lead in RBI, 18-17). The only downside was Bell got hurt for the next 6 days, so Todd Linden will start in RF and hit 6th for most of those days.

3rd game, 5/6: We lost, 6-0. We only had 2 hits until the ninth, and surrendered two errors. A terrible game to snap our win streak. This puts us 5.5 games back, and if we don't win tomorrow, the series was a total waste of time.

4th game, 5/7: A VERY frustrating game, since we got 2 hits off of Joe Blanton in 8 innings, letting him only throw 82 pitches. In the 9th, with us down 5-0, Brandon Inge got a grand slam with one out, and the fans, the ones that had not left yet anyway, went crazy. Montero and Kotsay, two of our best hitters so far, could not follow-up, so we lost 5-4, to go back to 6.5 games back.

Brandon Inge now was 15 RBI for us, 5 behind the team lead, with 100 fewer ABs than the leader.

For the last 3 innings, Preston Kinzer made his MLB debut for Portland with three of our regulars tired, and did very well, going 3 innings, allowing a run and K-ing 2. In AAA this year, the surprise pitcher 1.38 ERA through May. He's 20 years old, and could possibly be seeing more time with our club if injuries occur to the staff or we have a long game and many pitchers are too tired to pitch.

In AA yesterday, Lance Cormier went 4.1 innings and allowed 8 runs on 10 hits, 5 walks and 137 pitches. I don't know what to do with him, except send him down to A ball. This is pretty much his last chance to prove he can pitch, or he could find himself back on the FA list.

5/8 vs. Indians: we lost, 5-2, but Montero hit his 7th homerun of the year, and Kinzer went 2 innings, allowing nothing but a single hit on 23 pitches. Lance started today in Boulder, and went 5.2 innings, allowing 8 hits and 3 ERs.

"Gary, what do you think of Lance?" I said over the phone to my minor-league director Gary Sheberski.
"Cormier? Not too much."
"Well, I'm thinking of letting him go. He hasn't done much for the organization, and we need to cut payroll."
"Yeah, with our finances, I say try and trade him, but probably ending up releasing him."

Lance is headed to his 5th MLB team in 7 years in the league.

I sent out a message saying Cormier was available before I called Gary, and I had just recieved an email from the Royals front office as I was speaking with him. I called them up, and 15 minutes later, we came up with this:

Lance Cormier (P)
Devon Robinson (P)

for

Jeff Bianchi (SS)
Brent Fisher (P)

[boa]

I sort of like the long recaps. Its like listening to a game on radio, almost.

[twinsGM]

Boa- Thanks for the input, then I'll do some everyone once in a while. I've just had other complaints about them being too long and boring.

Everyone- I'm getting a new computer, so this dynasty will be inactive for a week or so while I set up mogul and transfer the files to the new computer.
***************************************************************

[twinsGM]

Five days after Shane Youman was taken to jail, he said the comments that have not just the baseball world, but all of America, buzzing:

Now that I have been revealed as a Gestenate member, I will reveal this. Bud Selig was in with us. His died by murder, yes, but because he did not carry out his part. The plan was for Selig to lure all the owners to a meeting, and blow up the room. Hours before he died, he told me on the phone:

"I just felt I couldn't do it. I know boss won't like it, but I just can't do it. Yes, I will be killed, but my biggest regret was joining the group. No amount of money in the world would be worth it, and I wish I could go back and stop them from doing that on June 27th. I think I deserve to die, Shane."

I am still with Gestenate, and would not reveal their next plans even if I knew them, but I will tell you this:
Something is coming. They are planning something bigger. Everyone better watch out, and I promise you, we will stop Major League Baseball completely.

After that, he kept his mouth shut. WOuld not say anything but, "I'll spend another 100 years in prison before I say anything!"

Hopefully, he's just trying to intimidate us. Just in case, like everyone will be doing, here's our new security plan to help prevent an incident like last summer at Yankee Stadium.



Here's our stadium. The green markers our portable bomb detectors, that will go off whenever a bomb is in range of it.

Blue is police cars, with officers in them of course, who can have quick access to anywhere on the field. The red represents a fire engine, so fire can be put out right away.

The Yellow is a road closure, effective four hours before the game until 1/2 hour after.
Of course, will have our regular ambulance, but we're increasing medical staff in the "Medical Assistance Center" on the concourse from five to ten. Also, a mandatory increase for the MLB of 15% more security guards will be put in place, all immediately.

Shane Youman will have his trial on May 25th, three days before the court will re-evaluate the Mutinski situation.

[TheBigBomber]

What are those in the middle of the field, the squares? Anyways continue, this dynasty is getting interesting.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

What are those in the middle of the field, the squares? Anyways continue, this dynasty is getting interesting.

Its just descriptions for points of interest on Google Maps.

[twinsGM]

Ok, this dynasty is coming out of retirement. Stay tuned for the next post, later today!

[twinsGM]

After we split the last two games in Cleveland, interleague play started for us in a crime scene still under investigation. Matt Smith, 1-6 this year with an average of just over 2 innings per start took the ball for us.

The team was weary, with little life, everyone exhausted from the non-stop travel and losing, nothing much being expected of themselves today. We had just arrived in Phoenix hours earlier,and the team would fly again once this one-game series was done. Kory Casto was the only one showing life, and he produced a double in the first with it.

The down-hill turn to come of our team may have started when Mark Kotsay grounded weakly to first. 2 innings earlier, Kotsay was hit by Dan Haren, an action thought to be purposeful by Mark. When he came up in the 4th, it was apparent he was trying to hit one to the moon, that or drill Danny Haren square in the nose. Once he came back to the dugout, his helmet was thrusted into the cubby hole marked "11" and a bat exploded seconds later in the tunnel.

Of course, I wasn't sure of any downturn, but I could sense it. Even with my limited experience as a manager, I still knew what could happen from this. Something had to be done, but I was not sure what yet, though I needed to decide soon.

Once Preston Kinzer, our 20-year old miracle worker up to that point, helped allow 8 runs in the 6th and 7th, Casto helped a small rally, knocking in Eric Reed with a 2-run homer. It was the 8th inning, but if we rallied some more, Casto could have a chance at hitting a triple, completing the cycle. Unlikely, yes, but we have to have something to hope for on the team.

Casto did come up in the ninth, 2 outs, bases loaded. The few Portland fans rose, Sean Morgan, on the mound now, took a deep breath. On the 6th pitch of the at-bat, Kory sent a rocket to center, and as we all jumped up to the rail, Chris Young opened his glove as the ball entered, clinching an 11-2 win.


Beaver notes...
Preston Kinzer sent down to AAA Oregon City... Brooks Brown called up to Beavers... Ramon Trancosco sent down to AA Bristol...Beavers sign 5 year deal to play spring training in Tucson, Arizona. Team will share stadium with Colorado Rockies (Hi Corbett Field) Until the new stadium is built for 2013. The Beavers will pay about 60% of cost for stadium.

[twinsGM]

After we took the last two games against Baltimore, the AL East leaders currently, we finally headed home after a 3-4 road trip,
placing us eight games back from Oakland and 10 under .500.

A little more than 23,000 came to see us lose 9-4 against Colorado in 56 degree weather.

It's now 3 hours after the last out, there are very few left at The Beaver Dam, but I have to prepare.
The next couple weeks will be very important, with the amateur draft approaching and 20 of our next 25 games at home, a great time
to pull ourselves above .500. We start against the White Sox tomorrow, who are 14-27, and have their 4th and 5th starters going against us in the first two games.

Besides the players being ready, a team of Beavers' executives are set to meet with me tomorrow morning, at 8 am. Seeing that I only have 6 hours until then, I
take my briefcase of secrets about Chicago hitters and how Brooks Brown pitches to lefty hitters on cold nights on the road with the team in the alternate red jerseys.


May 17th, 2011: 8:00 am...

Mark Cuban was last to enter the board room, a nice, brand-new shiny room with large windows facing the river.

He was in a blue jumpsuit, sweaty from most likely a run. If he weren't the owner, he'd be out the door by now,
working at the Citgo across the street.

Our publicity director spoke first. "Gentleman, thanks for coming today. Let's get down to business.
The team is struggling, and attendance has dropped off. As you know, we have a very large amount of home games left
until the middle of next month, and we need more people."

He spoke very monotone, a voice that would have put me to sleep already had we not been talking baseball.

"Sir," said the young, 25-year old out of Harvard, Zac, looking at both me and Mark Cuban, "We have a pretty good amount
of cash, and we are under budget, so I think some promotions would help us out."

Everyone else sat for a moment, almost insulted Zac had said something.

"That's what I thought as well. I say the fans need something connected to our team." The director spoke.
"Yes, and maybe something that can help fans endure cold weather." I said, my first words of the meeting.

After another 10 minutes, an order was placed for 10,000 wind breakers with Beavers logos on the back, set to be handed
out at the last game against Chicago. The bill was $300,000, but hopefully we can make that up with the million-or-so
ads set to be put out for that game.



May 17th vs. White Sox...
With Javier Vazquez on the mound, struggling Jamey Carroll was put on the bench in favor of Alex Cora. That way,
six of our eight hitters are lefty, and we have two righties on the bench.
Matt Smith, 1-7 so far, gave up an RBI single to Konerko in the 1st, alonging with another hit and a hit-batter.
He really took the crowd out of it when he walked in a run, then served up a Grand Slam to Quentin to make it 8-0.
Once Edinson Volquez pitched 4.1 innings, after Matt's terrible 2.2 innings. We lost 10-1, and Matt Smith will have a start
in AAA. I have no idea how he got away with being in the rotation all year. He did pitch just as many innings as
he had in the last 3 years of his career.

Tim Stauffer has been stuck in the minors most of his career before he came to us.

Kinzer is back, after he threw 7.2 innings of shutout ball, and the very far-off from his peak pitcher will get another shot in the
majors, as our Long Reliever. Volquez will take Matt Smith's spot in the rotation.

May 18th vs. White Sox...
Brandon Inge was on the bench today. He wasn't happy about it, but that's what happens when you hit .154
in the last 10 games.
James Desi hit 7th, playing third, not his usual position, but he made us very lefty-heavy.

In the 2nd, Tim Stauffer pitched out of a jam, and Jamey Carroll (hitting .122 this year) got his first RBI this year,
on his 42nd at-bat. Stauffer even came up with a hit, to counter Javier Vazquez's two hits yesterday, and Juan Pierre
got a single to bring in Carroll.

Tim gave us 7 great innings, a solo homer to Crede his only mistake. In the 8th, Tallet walked in the tying run, and
Joe Bisenius got one out to end it. We couldn't do anything in the bottom of the 8th, so we needed Joe to give us one inning
of shutout ball against Dye, pitcher's spot and then Orlando Cabrera, for Kotsay, Guzman and Desi in our half of the
ninth. He did, and the few fans rose and clapped after he struck out two. Kotsay reached on an infield single, and Eric
Reed jumped out of the dugout, knowing his job before I told it to him. I didn't want to do a sacrifice with the bottom-
of-the-order coming up, and becuase our teams seems pretty bad hitting with more outs. Reed was off on the pitch, and
good thing because Guzman grounded out to short, a double play had Eric not ran. James Desi wanted to go home, sending
his third homer of the year over the short left-field fence.
The team ran on to the field, all except Brandon Inge, who had grounded out in his only at-bat. He shuffled into the
clubhouse, not caring about what just happened.

[twinsGM]

On May 19th, Brandon Inge rebounded and hit the walk-off single, our 2nd in as many days. They're were only 20,000 in the stands today, just 2,000 more than the night before.

We than lost two in a row on the road against Cleveland, oen game 1-0 and the other 7-1. Sunday really got to me. We were in total control, and a 5-4lead was ours going into the ninth. Bisenius got a quick first out, but he and Bautista handed over 9 runs to the Orioles. This was really the first time I showed my anger to my players. At first, after most had gone into the main room of the clubhouse to the dinner.

I looked at the big white board at the entrance to the room, with neat, block letters in assorted colors. I stared a minute, as if it took my 30 seconds to read the time for our game tomorrow. I picked up the nearest chair and flung it just above the heads of some pitchers, exploding the locker of newly-aqcuired Jon Switzer. All of the chatter abruptly stopped.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" My face turned red, my voice a little hoarse. Denny Bautista slipped into the nearest bathroom.
Lowering my voice a little, I still yelled, "YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME AND THE CITY AND THE FANS!!" I let that sit for a moment. "YOU JUST WALTZ OUT ONTO THE FIELD, THINKING YOU'RE REAL COOL FOR BEING IN THE MAJORS!"

"And you know, you're not very good. If not for this, you'd be back in the minors, pitching in front of 4,000 people. I want some more effort around here!" I ran out of words at that point. I stared down a group of players for a moment, then left for my office, but not before I grabbed another chair and thrust it against the wall.

I left 10 minutes later, arriving at my apartment 7 blocks from the ballpark. It was emptier than usual. I peeked through the curtains, seeing one homeless man wandering around and some business men carefully and quickly avoiding him. I couldn't get my self to go to school, and espn wasn't my answer for that, since Mike Lupica was giving his 5-minute insult-filled monologue. I ended up on top of my bed, street clothes from yesterday still on, at 10:30. The game was at 4:30, so I had to rush to get to the Dam.

May 23rd, 2011...
The baseball world was not focused on our game today, let alone any baseball game, but instead the trial of Shane Youman. Not that I cared to watch, but the trial was at 5pm EST, in the middle of BP for us. I suspected Youman would be convicted of murder, but I was far from a legal expert.

Tim Stauffer was our starter by default in the last game of the series against Baltimore. The lineup was normal, at least from the last few weeks, but let's review that:

1. Juan Pierre CF: Leads our team in PAs by over 40, and has been a great hitter for us and has played in every game.
2. Bubba Bell RF: Has become a great 2nd hitter, hitting .339 for us since coming from the Red Sox.
3. Kory Casto 1B: 2nd in homers for us, has slumped recently.
4. Brandon Inge 3B: After jsut 2 games on the bench, has worked himself back into the lineup.
5. Miguel Montero C: Leads the team in homers and RBI, but has also slumped recently. He's only homered once in his last 38 At-Bats.
6. Mark Kotsay LF: Is only hitting .257, but has come through in tight spots.
7. Jorge Meske 2B: Gets about 60% of the playing time over Jesus Guzman.
8. Jamey Carroll SS: Has struggle a lot so far, but Barmes is injured for the next month or so.

The first 5 innings were pretty uneventful, no scoring as Stauffer was pitching good. In the 6th, Aubrey Huff hit a leadoff triple and then was knocked in by Bill Hall. Kory Casto then luanched a two-run homer into the upper deck in left-field. The crowd jumped up and didn't get the chance to sit down before Inge doubled and was moved to third on a single by Montero with one out. Kotsay promptly hit a towering flyball to right-center, giving us the 2-1 lead in the 6th.

They scored again in the 7th, so we came up, tied 2-2, in the ninth. Jorge Meske singled with one out.

Carroll flew out and so did the pinch-hitter, sparking my cap to fly across the dugout.

In the 10th, Tallet got Baltimore 1-2-3. I liked our chances in the 10th. We had Pierre up first against a struggling George Sherrill. Juan was thrown out on a very close play at first, and Casto and Inge each had long flyouts after Bubba's single.

I really needed us to get this over soon, since Kinzer was the only guy we had left in the bullpen who was fully rested.

Preston ended up giving up a homer to Reimold, and we lost 3-2. We left for Pittsburgh after an espisode about half as intense as yesterday's.