Monday, February 13, 2012

Where are the 2011 Durham Bulls?


*** 52 Days! ***

About time to try to sort out what's happened to last year's team. As is often the case, a lot of ballplayers came through Durham. Shown below are just 36 of them. I've left off several who left early or didn't play in very many games (including Cory Wade who is now firmly entrenched in Bulls trivia, to wit: In the final game of the regular ML season, when 2011 Durham Bull Dan Johnson hit the game-tying home run, what 2011 Durham Bulls pitcher was on the mound for the Yankees?). For a complete list of all 57 (!) players who put on a Bulls uniform in 2011, see Baseball Reference.

Thanks to Rays Prospects for tracking most of these guys. Also if anyone knows the exact status of Omar Luna, Jay Buente, Lance Cormier or Daniel Mayora, I'd like to hear. I'm pretty sure they are still under minor league contracts to the Bulls. Also, if anyone's heard if or where the free agents have landed, let me know and I'll update this.

Hitters are listed in order of number of games played as a Bull, pitchers are listed in order of innings pitched. I've made no distinction between players on the Rays 25-man roster and those on the 40 man. The "Non-Roster Invitee" list is based on reports out of Tampa Bay newspapers and the limited listings so far on the Rays website. A Non-Roster Invitee is a player who is invited to spring training, but is not on the 40-man roster of the Rays. Many of the NRIs will end up playing in Durham this year.

For summaries of their 2011 performance, check hitters here and here, and pitchers here and here.


Hitters

Russ Canzler (131 games) - Cleveland Indians
Ray Olmedo (124 games) - Chicago White Sox
Leslie Anderson (121 games) - Probable Non-Roster invitee
J.J. Furmaniak (116 games) - Free Agent
Brandon Guyer (107 games) - 40 man
Dan Johnson (93 games) - Chicago White Sox
Desmond Jennings (89 games) - 40 man
Robinson Chirinos (78) - 40 man
Omar Luna (56) - Minor League Camp?
Jose Lobaton (54) - 40 man
Daniel Mayora (51) - Free Agent
Justin Ruggiano (43) - Houston Astros
John Matulia (36) - Free Agent
Nevin Ashley (26) - Non-Roster Invitee
Stephen Vogt (31) - 40-man
Tim Beckham (24) - Non-Roster Invitee
Matt Carson (22) - Minnesota Twins
Craig Albernaz (8) - Non-Roster Invitee

Pitchers

Alexander Torres, LHP (146 innings) - 40 man
Brian Baker, RHP (104 innings) - Milwaukee Brewers
Dane De La Rosa, RHP (70 innings) - 40 man
Mike Ekstrom, RHP, (68 innings) - Colorado Rockies
Rob Delaney, RHP (67 innings) - Florida Marlins
Alex Cobb, RHP (67 innings) - 40 man
Matt Torra, RHP (61 innings) - Non-Roster Invitee
Dirk Hayhurst, RHP (59 innings) - Italy
Andy Sonnanstine, RHP (56 innings) - Chicago Cubs
Ryan Reid, RHP (55 innings) - Non-Roster Invitee
Matt Moore, LHP (52 innings) - 40 man
Lance Cormier, RHP (47 innings) - Free Agent
Jay Buente, RHP (42 innings) - Disabled List
Joe Bateman, RHP (21 innings) - Free Agent
Adam Russell, RHP (17 innings) - Atlanta Braves
Chris Archer, RHP (17 innings), 40-man
Paul Phillips, RHP, (11 innings), Free Agent
Richard De Los Santos, RHP (6 innings) - Signed
Marquis Fleming (2 innings) - Non-Roster Invitee

Update: Jay Buente will be rehabbing at the beginning of season. Still with Rays system. See Comments.
Update 2: Daniel Mayora is an unsigned free agent. Omar Luna is still in the Rays system.
Update 3: Adam Russell added to list and shown as working for the Atlanta Braves this year.

8 comments:

  1. Can't wait for the season to start, I guess that is half the fun of triple a ...whole new batch of players every year LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Couldn't agree more. Lots of fun seeing new guys. Not sensing a vet to lead the team this year from the lists at hand, but very likely I've missed something.
    Gonna be out of pocket for a couple of weeks. Big loose end at the moment are complete lists of non-roster invites. Guess we see that on the blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jay Buente is pretty active on Twitter. A quick question about his status for this season got this response:

    I am still with the Rays but will be rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder for a majority of the season.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks!
    Don't do Twitter. Guess I should.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Luna is still in the org, not eligible for free agency yet. Mayora is still an unsigned free agent. Buente re-signed the end of September, don't think he ever officially elected to become a free agent. Thanks DRR, didn't know about the shoulder surgery. The rest look correct.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, Doug.
    Note: For readers who don't visit Rays Prospects, Doug is the guy behind that blog. Take a look. Great way to see what's going on downstream from the Bulls and who might be coming our way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Still hope Matulia and Mayora re-sign, but it doesn't look good. Chris, forgot to thank you for recommending the John Campbell school a few years ago. The 2012 catalog arrived and I hope to make it to a class this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're off for classes this Sunday. It's a great place to spend a week (or two).
      I liked watching Matulia play at the end of last year. Think there's a place for him, but hard to tell.

      Delete