Hemstitching: Four Bulls (maybe), Ruggiano, Kinas, and More

Justin Ruggiano at the DAP

** 71 Days **

• The Rays recently signed four players to minor league contracts, most of whom have experience in Durham, if not always with the Bulls. 
• Will Rhymes has put in a lot of time with Detroit’s AAA team, the Toledo Mud Hens, the last three years (so he’s probably played at the DBAP). Looks to be a solid 2B. Signed to a minor league contract, probably with an invitation to spring training, you’ve got to think he’s on the hunt for the Rays 2B slot. Good possibility to end up with the Bulls this year. He sounds happy.  Stats.
• Jesus Feliciano, an outfielder, spent most of last year with the Mets’ AAA team, Buffalo. An outfielder, at 32 he might bring some maturity and depth to the Bulls. Trivia: He was in the Devil Rays system back in 2004. Stats.
• RHP Romulo Sanchez is 27 and has some time with Indianapolis and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, so he’s likely to have visited the DBAP as well. He spent 2011 in Japan, so we’ll have to wait and see how he comes out of spring training. Stats.
• Then there’s Matt Torra, whom we know and like from his time with us last year. Glad to have him back.
• Durham Bulls stalwart, Justin Ruggiano, has been designated for assignment. He doesn’t sound too happy about it. Can’t say that I blame him. He spent a good bit of time in Durham last year, but my bet is that if he isn’t picked up on waivers he’ll try free agency. 
• The Bulls have hired well-known local broadcaster Patrick Kinas to fill Neil Solondz's slot as the “voice” of the Bulls. Thirteen seasons in Double-A. Time to get called up. See commentary at a recent post on this blog.
• Catcher Nevin Ashley cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Durham. Good news.
• Dirk Hayhurst, possibly channeling his inner yoda, is offering advice to minor leaguers (here and here) as spring training approaches. His new book, Out of My League, is on the cusp of being published. However, as I recall, that was what he was saying when he showed up here last spring.
• For the stats geeks among you, here is the godfather, Bill James, speaking out on the subject of great pitchers duels.

April Fool's Day Comes Early?

We think that Cork Gaines' "Rays Index" is a terrific blog. We check it out every day. He keeps an eye on the minor league franchises, so we weren't too surprised to see Charlie Montoya's image in a post today.

What surprised us was why. Apparently Cork thinks it would be a good idea for the Rays to have a AAA franchise at the old Al Lang field in St. Petersburg. That would be ... the Bulls???

It's not clear if the idea is to bulldoze the Trop and offer the Bulls in compensation as the Rays move to ... Charlotte? Nashville? Memphis? San Antonio? Raleigh? Or to just have the teams close together.

But what about a swap? The Bulls move to Al Lang and the Rays move to the DBAP. At least we could probably fill the DBAP for them, for a while.

I guess I'll wait until it happens. If Sidd Finch is in the lineup as the starting pitcher for opening day, then I'll know we Bulls fans have been had.

Hemstitching: DJ, EJ, Aging Hitters, and Ashley

In the weaver’s world the word hemstitching is used for two purposes: to tie up loose ends (literally, because an “end” is a thread in a warp) and for decoration.

• Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune did an interesting piece on Dan Johnson, with a nice photo accompanying it. For the first time in the years of running this blog, however, a paper refused permission to reproduce a photo, so you will have to click the link to see it. For Bulls fans who have been following Dan a long time there’s two new bits of info (new to me anyhow). First, he and his wife Holly have a new baby girl (congrats!). Second, he was playing with an injury essentially all of 2011 (he was hit by a pitch on April 15 and never quite recovered). He’s looking for work. Here’s hoping he finds it and does well. He’s brought Bulls fans a lot of pleasure over the years. [Thanks for the tip on this one, DRR]
• I don’t quite know what to make of Adam Sobsey’s adaptingT. S. Elliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock to celebrate (?) former Bull Elliot Johnson’s failure to lay down a bunt. Baseball certainly attracts the literati, but I simply can’t figure out if Sobsey is mocking Johnson, trying to make some obscure point about the difficulty of being a low-roster guy, or just showing off. Seems a bit invasive of EJ’s space to me. But then in my day it was our affectation to scorn expatriate T.S. Elliot in favor of the “new guys” like Alan Ginsberg, Gregory Curso, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, so I probably never quite got the point of Prufrock either.
• And then there’s the chart above copied from fangraphs. Fascinating bit of statistical analysis that seems to show that hitters mature even earlier than may be usually thought. [And thanks to DRaysBay for the hint on this item]
• Lastly, Bulls catcher Nevin Ashley has been "designated for assignment" to take him off the Rays' 40-man roster. We'll have to see if he passes through waivers.

Charlie's Back!

Great news for Bulls fans and Bulls players — Charlie Montoyo will be back as the manager of our favorite team this year. Without a doubt one of the best managers in minor league baseball, we'd been wondering with very mixed feelings if this would be the year that we would lose Charlie to the Rays' dugout. At a guess they must feel that what he does here in Durham is more important to the Rays system than anything he could be doing down St. Pete way.

In any case, it's great start for the Durham Bulls in 2012.

[DRR: Thanks for the heads up]

Hemstitching: Devil Rays, Moore, Shortstop, and Second Base

When there’s no hot baseball news, sometimes you have to stretch it a bit.

• Over at Rays Index, Cork Gaines laments the end of the Devil Rays.
• Matt Moore gets more favorable press and there’s some interesting down-ticket commentary on the Rays site. It is less and less likely that we will see Mr. Moore in Durham next year. Too bad. He really is the best we’ve ever seen.
• Rays Prospects keeps on trucking with their thoughts on shortstop (Tim Beckham and Shawn O’Malley with the Bulls) and second base (Cole Figueroa).

Hemstitching: The DAP, Sonnanstine, and Rosters

Durham Athletic Park, 1940s

• The Herald-Sun is reporting (thanks, Fritz) that the Bulls are going to take over management of the old Durham Athletic Park. What will that mean to Bulls fans? Other than tweaking our nostalgia bones, not much. What could it mean to Durham? Possibly quite a bit. As a non-Durham guy, I think that the DAP really adds a lot to that part of town. I know that there’s not too much going on in the neighborhood, but with the DAP in good shape that part of town just looks great. As I’ve mentioned before, the renovated DAP is a not all that great a place to watch a game, but sure looks to be a great place to play a game. So if the current arrangement with NCCU can be sustained (and Duke?) seems like a good idea for all. Note: it looks like the idea of a museum for minor league baseball is not going to happen. Tricky business model for that project, I’d guess.
• Andy Sonnanstine, who’s spent a good bit of time with the Bulls over the years (56 innings in 2011) has signed with the Cubs. Seemed to me that for all of last year the Rays couldn’t decide just what it was that they wanted Sonnanstine to be able to do. Was he a starter? A long reliever? Did the Rays need a sixth starter? Or even a long reliever? He had decent stats as a Bull, but he also added to the starting pitcher roster confusion that plagued the Bulls all year. Not his fault, though. Here’s hoping he gets a chance to bloom up there in Chicago. The Cubs AAA franchise (Iowa) is in the Pacific Coast League so we’re not likely to see Andy here again.
• Over at Rays Prospects they are starting to build their guesses at 2012 rosters with a look at starting pitching and catching. No arguments from me so far.

DAP Restored

What Stars Are These?

Hubble Advent Calendar, Day 25

Check out the link for Alan Taylor's astute descriptions of this and all the other images he assembled.

Happy Christmas!