Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Cloudy Days

Game 18, Monday, April 23, McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket Red Sox 2; Durham Bulls 0 (7 innings)
Box

Game 19, Monday, April 23, McCoy Stadium
Pawtucket Red Sox 7; Durham Bulls 1 (7 innings)
Season: 6-13; Trip: 1-11; Streak: 0-8
Box, Herald-Sun

Is there some good to talk about? Well, yes, a few flickering lights
  • If these two games had been played last night at the DBAP it would have been really miserable for us. Those of you from around here know that last evening was particularly cold and damp. I was happy not to be at the ballpark.
  • New guy Stephen Vogt got his first hits of 2012, as DH in game 2. He also caught the first game. 
  • New guy Reid Brignac played in game 2, at shortstop, and got a hit.
  • Because these 11 losses have come on the road, none went into extra innings, and two games were these shortened minor league style double headers, the Bulls pitching staff has thrown 15 fewer innings over this stretch. (Home team doesn’t come to bat in the bottom of the last inning if they are winning.)
  • Chris Archer and Ryan Reid had decent starts. Reid is emerging as a key figure on the Bulls pitching staff.
Otherwise, bleah!
  • New guy Lance Pendleton made his first appearance and picked up his first loss. 
  • Over the two games Bulls got 11 hits (10 singles, 1 double) but only scored 1 run. The Red Sox scored 9 runs on 15 hits (4 doubles and a homer).
Outside the game:
  • The Bulls are playing the Norfolk Tides tonight. The Tides have lost the last 6 games in a row. The Bulls have lost their last 8. Somebody’s going to have their streak broken!
  • Hedeki Matsui (stats) will likely be wearing a Bulls uniform in a couple of weeks, if various reports are accurate. Will that bring some nostaligic Yankee fans to the DBAP. Why not? If you’re into trivia, Matsui has only played in 5 American minor league games in his career (rehab games while a Yankee) He is expected to go to Port Charlotte to get in shape, then show up in Durham.
  • If you missed it, Tim Beckham went on the 7-day DL, making room on the roster for Brignac. Just putting the decision off?

7 comments:

  1. I am no expert, but it seems like an easy decision on Beckham to me. I though that the big picture dream for the Rays infield of the future was Beckham at 2B and Lee at SS. I assumed that Beckham was already going to be moving to 2B when Lee was ready to come up from the Biscuits, so I don't see any reason to not do it now.

    Though, it does give us something to talk about other than the results of these games ...

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  2. It was cold and damp in Rhode Island, as well. I had a hat, parka, and blanket.

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  3. Why am I not feeling sorry for you?
    But there does seem to be something deeply, deeply wrong with watching baseball dressed for a football game. A cold beer, sunglasses, shorts, scorebook in hand, that's a baseball game.
    Good luck for the rest of the season, except, of course, May 15-18.

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  4. So being a strong believer or reversion to the mean, I was curious how OPS looked for our hitters compared to their career minor league OPS. I realize some of these folks are in AAA for the first time, and some have a small sample size, but I think based on this we might be in for a decent run going forward as nearly the entire team is playing at lower than an "expected" level. Here are the #s for those who are interested:

    Anderson +0.051
    Guyer +0.035
    Ashley +0.029
    --------------
    Feliciano -0.017
    O'Malley -0.104
    Mangini -0.108
    Hudson -0.121
    Beckham -0.141
    Rhymes -0.145
    Vogt -0.147
    Salzar -0.150
    Miranda -0.269
    Brignac -0.284

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  5. Put another way, the average hitter is hitting 13.9% worse than their career average.

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  6. Interesting data set. Leads to the conclusion that the pitchers ain't pitchin and the hitters ain't hittin.
    I'm really surprised by the bottom 5. As bad as I've been reporting Miranda (Brignac and Vogt sample sizes really are too small, don't you think?) I didn't realize Beckham and Rhymes and Hudson were doing so poorly.
    Nice work. Thanks. Email me the spreadsheet and I put up a "picture" the next day or so.

    ReplyDelete