Watching Durham Bulls Baseball

Russ Canzler Traded

2012-01-31T17:26:00.000-05:00

Russ Canzler Rounding Third Base, July 3, 2011.
Photo by Al Drago, Indy Week

For Durham Bulls fans, this is just about the worst possible news we could have on this last day of January. Russ was our star in 2011 and now the only way we’re going to see him back is if he doesn’t make the Cleveland starting roster and he shows up in a Columbus Clippers uniform. (Good Grief! A Clippers uniform! ).

Here’s what we had to say about Russ at the end of last season:

Played in the most games of any Durham Bull (131) and had the most plate appearances (549). He led the Bulls in batting average (.314), was second in OBP (.401) and was first in SLG and OPS (.530 and .930), and led the team in wOBA (.399). His 83 RBI were way ahead of #2, Leslie Anderson, who had 65. He also led in home runs (18), doubles (40), second in triples (5). He was the team leader in walks (67) and strikeouts (129). The all-around offensive star of the year.

We started to worry when we read that he'd been designated for assignment. Then today we learned that he'd been traded to Cleveland.

The other side of the coin is that a serious minor league fan really does want the best possible outcomes for the players we get to watch, and this looks like a pretty good deal for Canzler. The folks in Cleveland seem to think a lot of him. He’s been put on the Cleveland 40-man with a solid opportunity to compete in spring training for an opening day slot.

So, we’ve got to wish Russ the best and hope that we don’t see him back in the DBAP in a Clippers uniform. We’ve had enough of losing to those guys. Would hate to have it come at the hands of a former Bull.

Good luck, Russ!

Ruggiano Declines Assignment

2012-01-31T09:18:00.001-05:00

As we guessed the other day, Justin Ruggiano has passed through waivers and has opted for free agency. From a very great distance it sure looks like the right decision for him if he’s ever to get a serious shot at a regular job in the majors.

But he’s been a large part of my Durham Bulls experience. You will see that he’s been mentioned a bunch of times in this blog, which makes sense since he was with the Bulls from before this blog was even started. In fact, he’s logged parts of five years in a Bulls uniform (and 30+ games in Montgomery before then). And he has done a stellar job for the Bulls.

Take a look at his numbers. They are impressive. As a Bull he hit .289/.378/.518 over five seasons. 58 home runs, 300 RBI, 105 stolen bases. If we ever get around to setting up a Durham Bulls AAA All-Star list, Justin is going to have to be on it.

I think, but am not sure, that he holds a couple of AAA Bulls records. His 119 doubles has to be close to the top.

At 29 Justin certainly has a solid shot of getting on with another team. I worry that he might end up playing against the Bulls at some point in the future. That could be a problem. He’s got a great glove, great speed, and a solid bat.

Nevertheless, thank you Justin for some real thrills over the last several years and the quality baseball you brought to the Durham Bulls. Good luck!

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

2012-01-25T14:24:00.000-05:00

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?

2012-01-19T17:20:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-15T15:36:00.001-05:00

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!

2012-01-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-29T09:33:00.001-05:00

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?

2011-12-25T07:54:00.001-05:00

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!

Just Because It's Beautiful

2011-12-24T14:35:00.002-05:00

Hubble Advent Calendar, Day 24

Hemstitching: GIBBYS, Prospects, and Market Inefficiencies

2011-12-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

Hubble Advent Calendar, Day 23

Greatness in Baseball Yearly awards were announced a while back. Of interest to Bulls fans was the award for the “Must C Moment”, our Dan Johnson’s homer against the Yankees that set the stage for Even Longoria’s walkoff that put the Rays into the playoffs.
To fill up the time before Spring Training lots of folks are evaluating prospects within the Rays system. The best place to keep an eye on that is, of course, Rays Prospects. But, Baseball America has just come out with their list. We have seen several at the DBAP and are likely to see more next year.
And there’s always some geek stuff to look at. Over at Grantland, Ray Jazyerli thinks he has found the latest market inefficiency — overvaluing prospects. No direct effect on the Bulls unless the Rays pull off another big trade like they did last year for ... prospects. However, given the success of the players involved in the Garza trade, the Rays appear to be going against the trends identified by Jazyerli.

Ode to Brasstown, North Carolina

2011-12-17T15:09:00.002-05:00

This blog is, in general, monomaniacal regarding its subject — The Durham Bulls Baseball Club. However, on occasion there are matters of such deep and abiding concern that they cannot be ignored.

This morning’s News & Observer gave us one such instance. It would seem that the good people with PETA have taken umbrage at the annual Clay’s Corner New Year’s Eve Opossum Drop.

Well, just next door to Clay’s Corner out there in Brasstown, NC (just east of Murphy) is my favorite place in all of North Carolina, the John C. Campbell Folk School. Brasstown itself is a community of something like 200 souls and Clay’s Corner is just about the only business left. I like visiting Clay’s Corner and Brasstown whenever I’m at the Folk School.

As noted in the story, on New Year’s Eve an opossum is placed in a plexiglass box and hauled up into the air. At the stroke of midnight the 'possum is lowered to the ground and released.

Opossums of my acquaintance would consider it an honor to participate. Probably a good idea if them fellers up there in Washington, DC just leave the good folk (and 'possums) of Brasstown alone. Complaining about an opossum drop is sillier than the 'possum drop itself.

Update: Brasstown's 2012 Possum after the drop:

Happy New Year!

Photo by Eliza Kern of Reese News

Neil Solondz Departing

2011-12-16T16:23:00.001-05:00

Talk about good news/bad news!

Neil Solondz is moving down to St. Petersburg to do pre- and post-game radio for the Rays. (Thanks for the heads up, DRR!)

Congratulations, Neil!

We Durham Bulls fans have been exceptionally fortunate to have Neil in the broadcast booth for the last several years. From time to time when the Bulls were on the road I checked in with the host team’s broadcast just to hear what they are saying about the Bulls. The contrast was startling. You’d think that you were hearing a different game. I think that it’s safe to say that Neil is the best play-by-play man in AAA baseball, certainly the best in the International League.

Neil never forgot the fundamental task of the play-by-play guy, keeping the listeners informed on just what is happening on the field and painting a picture of what that looks like. Through him we always had a very good idea of what was happening minute by minute in the game. I’m not sure if every slider he called was actually a slider, but it was in my imagination, and that’s what counted.

He also did a terrific job of keeping us informed, as best he could, on both on-field tactics and off-field strategy, the significance of roster changes and potential for further moves.

On a more personal note, whenever I managed to get way to far out on a limb here at WDBB, I could expect a kind note from Neil suggesting how I might be able to crawl back without making a complete fool of myself. Thanks, N!

So, we are going to miss Neil. We know that the Bulls aren’t going to be able to find as good a guy to replace him, but maybe they’ll find someone who can grow into the job.

In the meantime, good luck Neil. You already know almost every one of those guys you’ll be interviewing and they’ll know you. Should be fun.

Update: Stacy Long had a great comment over on his blog:

(One wonders if they had Durham manager Charlie Montoyo give him the news or at least called him into the manager's office for it.)

Hemstitching: Torra Signs, MiLB.com Picks All-Stars

2011-12-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

Hubble Advent Calendar, Day 14

MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that RHP Matt Torra has signed with the Rays. With no further information, we’ll just go ahead and speculate that it is a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. We like Torra. He showed up in Durham last year in July and put in quite a few innings (61⅓), 11 games started, 5-1, ERA of 3.67. Pretty good. At 27 you have to think that he’s a long shot with the Rays, but as we noted at the end of the season, we’d be happy to see him back in a Bulls uniform.
MiLB.com is reporting a “Rays Organization All-Star” list. Quite a few 2011 Bulls on the list including Steven Vogt, Russ Canzler, and Brandon Guyer whom we might see next year, along with a couple we’re very unlikely to see, Dan Johnson and Desmond Jennings, and several that we might see. Worth looking at for the comments of Rays minor league exec Mitch Lukevics.

Hemstitiching: More on Mangini, Hayhurst Opines, and Dress Codes

2011-12-13T14:52:00.001-05:00

Hubble Advent Calendar, Day 13

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.

As mentioned earlier, we think there’s a good chance Bulls fans will get to see Matt Mangini play for the Durham Bulls next year. Sure would be fun to see two local lads (Matt is from Holly Springs, RHP Chris Archer is from Clayton) on the field together. Certainly the Bulls front office would like to see that happen. Why is he available? That is not entirely clear. He was the Tacoma Rainiers’ (the Seattle AAA team) MVP in 2010, with very solid numbers. But looks like 2011 was a bit of a nightmare for Matt with quad injuries that must not have healed properly and then a concussion in July. As to why the Mariners released him, someone who knows the team better than I would have to guess at that. I’d speculate that they were happy with their 1B/3B situation and needed to make room on their 40-man. Played for Apex High School, NC State, and Oklahoma State before being drafted by the Mariners. Interesting mid-2010 interview here. I wish Matt well at Spring Training, but it sure would be nice for the Bulls to have a solid player at 3B for a change. For that matter, with Dan Johnson gone and (in my modest opinion) Leslie Anderson not working out, 1B would be interesting.
Former Bull Dirk Hayhurst is providing an insider’s view of the Ryan Braun situation and the Pujols and Matt Moore deals while he waits for his new book to hit the street and obsesses about the greyhound he rescued.
And then there’s the dress codes that have been established for baseball's sports writers. Who knew? Who cared? But it is interesting to learn that there’s not supposed to be any cheering in the press box.

Three More Potential Durham Bulls Signed

2011-12-07T15:29:00.003-05:00

Image from Hubble Advent Calendar, Day 7

The Rays announced that they’ve signed four players to minor league contracts “with invitations to Spring Training.” They are infielder Matt Mangini, first baseman Juan Miranda, and pitchers Jhonny Nunez and Ricky Orta.

Given the Rays’ concerns about first base, it’s probably fair to say that these guys will get some playing time in Spring Training, but end up with the Bulls. What we don’t know, and won’t for a long time, is who among these has an opt-out contract and could disappear mid-season.

Mangini has a good bit of time in AAA, but only played in 68 games in 2011, 10 with Seattle (injured?). Almost all of his time has been at 3B, and the Bulls usually need a third baseman. Will have to dig and see what problem was in 2011.

Juan Miranda has plenty of time at 1B in the majors and in AAA with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for most of 2008-2010. He got a fair amount of playing time with the Diamondbacks last year, but he’s about to age out (28). Major League stats, minor league stats.

Depending on their contracts, seems to me that J.J. Furmaniak and Leslie Anderson have the most to worry about with these two signings.

We’ve looked at Jhonny Nunez.

Ricky Orta is recovering from surgery in early 2010. Bet we see him in a Bulls uniform later in 2012 ... if the surgery worked.

Hemstitching: Durham Bulls get a RHRP, and More

2011-12-03T08:59:00.002-05:00

Reports are out there that the Rays have signed right-hander Jhonny Nunez to a minor league contract. We saw Nunez a couple of times last year when he was pitching for the Charlotte Knights. To be honest, can't say that I remember much about him other than the odd spelling of his name. He's 26 years old, has been in professional ball for a while, but only a few outings in the majors back in 2009. Stats Commentary. In all likelihood Nunez will spend spring training with the Rays and then become a reliever in waiting with the Durham Bulls.
For some insights into how the Rays approach minor league operations, check out the three-part interview with the boss, Chaim Bloom, over on Rays Prospects. Part I, Part II, Part III.
The Rays trade of former Bull catcher John Jaso for Seattle Mariners pitcher Josh Lueke has stirred quite a bit of controversy and philosophizing. See items here, here, and here. I suppose it's possible that Leuke to show up in Durham. We'll see.
Update on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. I left out the part where major league teams can have 26, instead of 25, man rosters for double-header days. That will lead to a startling outbreak of honesty in the majors. Typically a bench position player gets "hurt" and goes on the DL to make room for one of Durham's starters, when a) the Bulls have a pitcher the Rays want to look at and/or 2) they don't want to screw up their rotation. The impact on the Bulls? Not much or, said another way, it won't screw around with the Bulls rotation any more than it usually does.
What about that Hubble photo up top? Nothing to do with baseball, I just thought it was pretty. Here's a link to a very cool Hubble Advent Calendar. New photo every day.

The New Collective Bargaining Agreement

2011-11-28T09:19:00.004-05:00

As regular readers know, I am no expert on the obscure and arcane of the business of baseball. Nevertheless, when all these gazillionaires get together and decide the future of our sport we should give the deal a small amount of attention.

The players and the owners did come to an agreement. For the obsessive, you can take a look at the summary of the agreement here. For commentary, try St. Pete Times, or Rays Index, or DRaysBay.

For the larger picture, a couple of key points seem to some experts to be really important to baseball and ultimately the Durham Bulls.

We'll have baseball without labor strife for a couple more years.
They are at least trying to get a grip on the human growth hormone issue.
How will the spending caps affect a young athlete's choice of sports? We'll see.
With the signing deadline moved up, drafted players will start playing sooner and show up in Durham as much as a year earlier.

But that's the big picture. What about the fine print? And what's up with that batting helmet?

I've written about baseball's helmet policy before. Basically, if you're a minor leaguer you have to wear the much more protective helmet shown above, but when you get to the big leagues you can wear something a bit prettier. The new agreement calls for the adoption of better helmets by 2013. I'm guessing that the delay has everything to do with studly looks. Can't find a photo of what the new helmet's supposed to look like. For National Leaguers going up against Aroldis Chapman next year, it may be a year too late.

Then there's this curious sentence:

The parties agreed that no new players will be permitted to use a low density maple bat during the term of the agreement.

Notice the words "new players". That would be players new to the major leagues. I'm guessing that means that maple bats will be taken out of the hands of minor leaguers immediately, but if you're a big leaguer you can keep on chunking pieces of your bat at the pitcher and the rest of the infield until you retire.

Lastly, to the detriment of the game, the players and owners conspired to slow down the game even more. I kind of like instant replay, but I hate 4-hour ball games. This change to the instant replay policy is going to delay the game. The crotch-scratching batters and twitchy relievers are bad enough, now we'll wait for the umps to huddle around a TV set. Play Ball!!!

Instant Replay will be expanded to include fair/foul and “trapped” ball plays, subject to the Office of the Commissioner’s discussions with the World Umpires Association.

Hemstitching: Stephen Vogt, Rule 5, Trade Values

2011-11-21T08:19:00.002-05:00

In the weaver’s world hemstitching is used for two purposes: to tie up loose ends (literally, because an “end” is a thread in a warp) and for decoration. [For another connection between weaving and baseball, see a post from last winter]

Stephen Vogt, along with two pitchers we've never seen, was added to the Rays 40-man roster recently. At a guess, the primary motivation had more to do with the Rule 5 draft than anything else, but we really like Stephen and if he doesn't make it to the active roster out of Spring Training we'll be happy to see him as a Bull. Note that he's being reported as a catcher, but he is a much more versatile player than that. I don't think any other Bull is subject to Rule 5, but if someone knows better, jump in.
Over at Rays Index he's put up his Trade Value Index. That's a very interesting rank-ordering of players currently in the Rays' system ranked in accordance with their "trade value". Twelve Bulls from 2011 are on the list, many of them quite high.
We wrote about catchers a while back admiring the Cardinals' Yadier Molina. Looks like the Rays may have signed his brother, Jose. We won't likely see him in Durham, but the deal confirms that the Rays are on the hunt for catching talent.

Update: For more on the players involved in the 40-man roster and the Rule 5 draft, see T. Rancel's post at Rays Insider.

Hemstitching: Fan Fest, Field of Dreams, & More

2011-11-17T08:43:00.003-05:00

This Saturday you can have an excuse to visit the DBAP in the off-season and walk around on the turf. Fall Fan Fest.
Here's a fascinating interview with Billy Beane and Michael Lewis of Moneyball fame from the Financial Times.
Remember the beautiful final scene from Field of Dreams? Well, that farm (and the ball field) were just sold.
Jeremy Hellickson was picked for Rookie of the Year and Joe Maddon was picked as AL Manager of the year. |Tampa Bay Rays|
Ever wonder how the Rays compare to the rest of baseball when it comes to spending money? Rays Index had an interesting graphic a while back.
Flip Flop Fly Ball compares all the teams in everyone's system in his chart. The Bulls would be that little bar up in the Rays system display near the top.
The number crunchers over at DRaysBay take a look at the difference former Bull Desmond Jennings may have had when he went up to the Rays.

Hemstitching: Free Agents, Friedman, Winter Ball

2011-11-10T17:10:00.003-05:00

The ever-diligent Rays Prospects site has brought to our attention the Baseball America listing of minor league free agents. Bulls fans know almost all of these guys from the Rays system, as might be expected. On the list are several who saw time with the Bulls in 2011, including:

Pitchers

Brian Baker
Joe Bateman
Lance Cormier
Richard de los Santos
Paul Phillips
Adam Russell
Matt Torra

Position Players

J.J. Furmaniak
Daniel Mayora
Ray Olmedo
John Matulia

Scrolling through the list we find a couple of other former Bulls including:

Chris Carter (Braves)
Rhyne Hughes (Orioles)
Fernando Perez (Mets)
Winston Abreu (Blue Jays)

Readers with sharper eyes (and better memories) than I should take a look and see if there’s someone important that I may have missed.

What does it mean for the Bulls? Probably not too much. These are guys whose agents will be looking to find them jobs beginning in the spring, assuming they haven’t decided to leave baseball. The Rays have been very, very smart about looking over the larger pool for possibilities and I would assume that the Bulls coaching staff would have some say on who from 2011 might fit with the Bulls in 2012.

* * * * *

On a different note, over at DRaysBay there’s an interesting interview with Rays VP Andrew Friedman. Several interesting comments regarding player development made.

* * * * *

Lastly, if you'd like to catch up on folks playing winter ball, here's a helpful link. Interesting are the two players with a fairly large age difference (Tim Beckham, 21, and Elliot Johnson, 27) both working so very hard (19 and 18 games, respectively).

Update: Not recent Bulls, but remembered with some fondness, pitcher Dale Thayer and outfielder Jason Pridie are leaving the Mets organization for minor league free-agency (Thanks, anon).

Dan Johnson Won't Be Back

2011-11-08T09:12:00.002-05:00

DJ at Bat, 2010

Dan Johnson won’t be coming back to the Durham Bulls next year. When the Rays "outrighted" him to the Bulls a few days ago, he turned it down. He is now a free agent with no ties to the Rays at all.

All of the commentary is about his several shining moments with the Rays. The best of these columns is by Bradley Woodrum over at SB Nation.

My interest is in what he did as a Durham Bull. We are going to miss him, a lot. He made major contributions to the Bulls in all of the three seasons he played here (2008, 2010, and 2011) and he had a lot to do with the Bulls winning the South Division of the International League in each of those years.

DJ After Home Run, July 2010

Every year he was with us we expected him to be called up. Every year he was. Every year he did something heroic for the Rays. But as Bulls fans we were interested in day-to-day performance and we were rarely disappointed.

We saw him mostly at first base and in the DH position. But he put in 61 games at third base and always surprised me with the strength of his arm and the intelligence of his play. He was a good first baseman in a time when the Bulls were blessed with two very good hitters at first (Chris Richard being the other one).

His numbers were simply extraordinary. How does this sound? In his three seasons:

304 Games — 68 Home Runs — 230 RBI

Looking back, here's what we said (in 2010) about his 2008 season:

But what Bulls fans remember about 2008 was his stellar year with us. He played in 113 games; hit 25 home runs, 83 RBIs, and a batting line of .307/.424/.980. Dan was our player of the year for 2008. For a really hard core Bulls fan, as much as we admire his heroics for the Rays that Fall, we have this wistful feeling that maybe the Governors’ Cup would have been ours if he’d stayed with the Bulls through all of the playoffs.

Dan Johnson, Joe Dillon, Jose Lobaton after Lobaton Home Run July 5, 2010

Of course, 2010 was DJ's great year as a Durham Bull. Here's what we said at the end of 2010:

Dan Johnson was our superstar this year. His home run and RBI pace was extraordinary and he collected a whole bunch of AAA awards even though he didn’t even play the last month of the season. It is a bit puzzling that the Rays did not notice that for the last two years he was mostly a third baseman, not a first baseman. This year he only made one error in 36 games at third. We were also more that a little surprised that he wasn’t traded off during the year, but that could easily just mean that we don’t really understand the business of baseball very well. We are having great fun watching him play for the Rays and have high hopes he will go to the postseason with them.

And if 2011 was a mild disappointment compared to 2010, surely Dan was even more disappointed. After all, he'd expected to spend the whole year with the Rays. Nevertheless, he did a pretty darned good job for the Bulls. Here's what we said at the end of the season.

Played in 93 games (395 PA). Starting very slowly, his numbers improved as the year went on — .273/.382/.459,wOBA .375. Low extra base production (for him) of 23 doubles and 13 home runs. 52 RBI. 59 games at 1B, 15 at 3B, and 21 as DH.

What I'd like to wrap up with is just a little bit of balance. I'm a Durham Bulls fan and Dan Johnson has been a great Durham Bulls baseball player. For three seasons I've gone to the park and Dan's been on the field and has given me a bunch of thrills and won a bunch of games for us.

Thank You!

Best of luck in 2012!

Dan Johnson, June, 2011

Catchers

2011-10-26T14:44:00.002-04:00

This year's World Series will probably not be known for this, but it should be:

We are getting to watch two great catchers — The Card's Yadier Molina and the Ranger's Mike Napoli — at the very top of their games. Great arms, good at-bats, calling good games, just a lot of fun to watch.

Which in turn brings to mind that out of all the terrific ballplayers we've seen in a Bulls uniform over the years, I can't recall an outstanding catcher. We've had a couple of Crash Davis types, and I have really enjoyed watching them, but never a really promising youngster.

DRR's comment yesterday pointed out that many in the blogosphere are expecting (hoping?) that the Rays will be in the hunt for a catcher because although they have five catchers on the 40-man, none is very promising — Ashley, Shoppach, Jaso, Chirinos, and Lobaton. We've seen all except Shoppach in a Bulls uniform and we have to agree that the Rays should be shopping for a first string catcher.

But to come back to my original point, what I'd really love to see in a Bulls uniform is a young Molina or a young Napoli. Wouldn't that be fun? Wouldn't it be neat if the Rays, in addition to a first-stringer, also get their hands on a young catching prospect for us to watch here for a couple of years?

Winter Ball

2011-10-15T10:45:00.002-04:00

How do you measure real baseball fanaticism? Well, maybe take a look at Jim Donten’s work over at Rays Prospects He is diligently tracking down once and future Rays who are playing elsewhere this Fall and Winter. As each league opens up, he posts a list of players he's found on the rosters. Then he’s been doing daily updates. That's real dedication and we thank him for it.

Players of immediate interest to WDBB:

Arizona Fall League (Surprise Saguaros)

SS Tim Beckham
RHP Marquis Fleming

Venezuelan Winter League

C Robinson Chirinos (Navegantes del Magallanes) (Note: Robinson has reportedly broken a wrist)
C Jose Lobaton (Leones de Caracas)
IF Daniel Mayora (Leones de Caracas)
LHP Alex Torres (Aguilas de Zulia)
C Stephen Vogt (Leones de Caracas)
IF Ray Olmedo (Tiburones de la Guaira)
RHP Rob Delaney (Bravos de Margarita)

Dominican Winter League

RHP Richard De Los Santos (Estrellas de Oriente) (Happy to see him pitching after last year’s troubles)
IF Omar Luna (Aguilas Cibaenas)
C Nevin Ashley (Gigantes del Cibao)
IF Elliot Johnson (Gigantes de Cibao) (Note: Why would he he playing winter ball? Caribbean vacation?

Keep an eye on Rays Prospects (maybe add the RSS feed) to keep up).

Another ex-Bull to keep an eye on this winter:

Jon Weber is playing for Venados dos Mazatlan, as he has for several winters. Turns out that the 33-year old Weber returned to professional baseball with the Indy League Winnepeg Goldeyes last summer and had a decent year.

Update, 18 Oct: Rob Delaney in Venezuela (Thanks, Anon!)

2011 Moonlight Graham Awards

2011-10-13T11:59:00.002-04:00

WDBB's Moonlight Graham Award recognizes those players who had the least amount of time with the Durham Bulls during the season.

The award is named in honor of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham who achieved lasting fame as a character in the W.P. Kinsella novel, Shoeless Joe, and then became even more famous when he was played by Burt Lancaster (and Frank Whaley) in the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams. As a ballplayer he played two innings in the major leagues as a right fielder for the New York Giants in 1905. He never came to bat. You can look it up. He did, however, go on to a career as a well-loved physician in Chisholm, Minnesota.

Of interest to us is that he was a North Carolina native (born in Fayetteville, grew up in Charlotte); graduated from UNC (where he played baseball); and was the older brother to UNC President and US Senator Frank Porter Graham. If you find him an intriguing character, the Wikipedia article is a good start. Then there’s a nice NBC piece done on him a couple of years ago. And then there's a terrific book by Fayetteville writer (and Bulls fan) Brett Friedlander and Robert Reisling, Chasing Moonlight. Copies of the book are in the Wake County Library system, Amazon, and I found my copy at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh.

We have a few modest criteria for selection: Not considered were players who came through on a rehab assignment, played only in postseason, and (for the pitcher) a position player thrown to the wolves at the end of a game.

The 2011 Winners

Outfielder John Shelby

Mr. Shelby came over from the Montgomery Biscuits to play one game for the Bulls on July 31, against Charlotte. Box Score. At 25, this was his sixth pro season and, although he didn't have a hit in his one game with the Bulls, he did OK, but not outstanding, with the Biscuits. Stats.

Right-Handed Relief Pitcher Marquis Fleming

Mr. Fleming came up to join the Bulls in Rochester, New York and made two appearances, July 20 and 21. In the first he had a rough time — five batters, one out, blown save — but in the second he did just fine. Overall for a 24 year-old in his fourth professional season he had a good year. Stats. The Rays must think well of him since they have him pitching with the Surprise Seguaros of the Arizona Fall League. That means we are very likely to see him in a Bulls uniform this next season.

Congratulations to John and Marquis! Good luck in 2012!

Something to Worry About

2011-10-07T08:32:00.002-04:00

Scroll down to the end of this little end of season piece by Marc Topkin of the St. Pete Times. He makes the perfectly logical speculation that if Rays bench coach Dave Martinez should get a manager job (Boston or Chicago), Charlie Montoyo would be in the running to move up.

Bulls/Rays Playoff Thread

2011-10-03T13:51:00.002-04:00

Let's see if we can keep track of our Bulls as the Rays move forward. But first to backtrack a bit.

September 28, 2011
Tampa Bay Rays 8, New York Yankees 7 (12 innings)
Wrap, Box

This was, of course, the most important game of the season for the Rays that, combined with Boston's loss, earned them the wild card spot. Dan Johnson got the game-tying home run. Other recent Bulls who were in the game included Desmond Jennings, LF (0-6, 1 BB), Russ Canzler, PH (0-1); Justin Ruggiano, RF; Brandon Guyer, RF (1-1); Dane De La Rosa, 1⅓ innings.

Interesting links:

Rays Prospects looked at the game
Adam Sobsey/Indy Week looked at Dan Johnson
Dirk Hayhurst chimed in
Rays Index looked at Dan Johnson
A bunch of interesting links, also from Rays Index
And more links from DRaysBay

September 30

Tampa Bay Rays 9, Texas Rangers 0

Wrap,Box

For Bulls fansMatt Moorewas the story on Friday, pitching to a catcher he'd never pitched to before, Kelly Shoppach (who got two home runs). Other than Moore, none of recent Bulls call-ups except Desmond Jennings got into the game. Jennings batted an uncharacteristic 8th in the order and went 1-3. Another oddity was seeing Wade Davis in relief.

Links:

Not many of the recent call-ups made it into the playoff roster, although some are traveling with the team. Recent Bulls missing are Dan Johnson, Russ Canzler, Justin Ruggiano, Brandon Guyer, Matt Torres, Dane De La Rosa, and probably a couple of others I've missed.
Moore was very impressive, as noted in DRaysBay analysis.

October 1

Texas Rangers 8, Tampa Bay Rays 6

Wrap, Box

Desmond Jennings moved back to his leadoff position, but no other recent Bulls were in the lineup (mostly because few of them are on the playoff 25-man). James Shields pretty much single-handedly lost this game for the Rays hitting batters and throwing pitches away. Almost a heroic comeback later in the game.

Upcoming games in St Pete: October 3, 5:00 pm

Big day for the Tampa Bay region, sold out for both football and baseball |St Pete Times|
David Price scheduled to start. Lineup

Update, 4 Oct

Rangers 4, Rays 3
Wrap, Box

Jennings did his job, 2 home runs. Price has six good innings, needed seven. J.P. Howell, seen briefly in Durham this year, gave up the winning run(s).

Game 4, October 4, 2 pm

Rangers 4, Rays 3

Wrap, Box

Thus endeth the season.

Hemstitching

2011-09-23T16:46:00.002-04:00

No particular significance to this image. Just thought it was dramatic. Who knew that there was a connection between Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, and baseball? Besides there's an important Dali Museum near the Rays home.

Now that the player stats are wrapped up, a few odds and ends from the last couple of days before I hit the road for a week.

The Columbus Clippers picked up their second Triple-A Championship to go with their International League Governors’ Cup. |MiLB.com, The Columbus Dispatch|

Over on Rays Prospects, Bulls fans need to visit and vote on their “readers’ choice” hitter and pitcher of the Bulls. Have to do it within the next couple of days. Also at Rays Prospects are some great summaries of this year’s action in all of the Rays’ minor league teams. Check it out.

Every reader of this blog who attended a game at the DBAP this year has, of course, already bought a duck for the Great American Duck Race and support the kids who the real work putting the Bulls games on TV. In the very remote chance that you haven’t, or perhaps you watched on TV and didn’t make it to a game, here’s your chance to do it now. I checked out MiLB.com’s TV this season and the Bulls definitely outshine the rest of the IL. Much of the credit has to go to Explorer Post 50. So, Buy a Duck!

The 2012 schedule is out. It looks a bit better than 2011, but that’s not much of an endorsement. It starts the season at the DBAP (I guess the Dukies and the ACC are letting the Bulls have their ballpark back early). But wait! Right after the opening series the Bulls hit the road for two weeks!. Oh, well, weather can be really crummy in April anyhow.

Something I never got around to mentioning the end of the season is a very interesting project called Bull City Summer. So far it looks to be driven by some ideas from Sam Stephenson, who has some serious creds from the Center for Documentary Studies and the Jazz Loft Project. The test run at the end of the season had some terrific interviews, photographs, and Adam Sobsey’s Indy Week columns from the end of the year. Take a look. This could be something really interesting to watch next year.

Speaking of Adam Sobsey, he had a very interesting sort of end-of-year piece over in Baseball Prospectus. Features a close look at Russ Canzler and others in the final days of the season.

And speaking of Russ Canzler, the box score from Thursday night’s game in Yankee Stadium highlights a bunch of September call-ups including Matt Moore, Dane De La Rosa, Alex Torres, Russ Canzler, Brandon Guyer, and Dan Johnson. Some did great (Moore), some were awful (De La Rosa and Torres), one got his first major league at bats and hits (Canzler), and Johnson and Guyer drew walks and scored runs.

I'm working on my annual lists of Well Dones and Areas To Work On for the Bulls/DBAP fan experience. See last year's list and comments here. Please lend me your voices in the comments section and I'll write it up when I get back in town.

The Durham Bulls in 2011 — The Pitchers: Part II

2011-09-23T08:58:00.001-04:00

Matt Moore (22), LHP, 9 games, 9 starts, 52⅔ innings, 4-0, ERA-1.37, 5 pro seasons, 1st season in AAA.

I was surprised to see how many innings Matt Moore was able to pitch since his first game with the Bulls on July 22nd. Added to his 18 games and 122 innings he had with the Montgomery Biscuits, his year was busy even before going up to finish it out with the Rays. Very, very impressive young pitcher. If we're lucky, we will be watching him a lot as a Bull in 2012.
Stats

Lance Cormier (31), RHP, 20 games, 4 starts, 47⅓ innings, 4-3, ERA-5.51. 8 pro seasons, 7 in AAA, 1st w/Bulls, most of 2008-2010 in majors (ML stats).

Released by the LA Dodgers, Cormier was signed by the Rays to a minor league contract in early June and spent the rest of the season with the Bulls. Nothing about his stats as a Bull is particularly impressive although he did take several for the team in spot starts as the season went along. At a guess, the Rays were buying insurance for their relief cadre and stashing him in Durham. Not likely to return next year.
Stats

Jay Buente (27), RHP, 24 games, 4 starts, 42⅔ innings, 1-3, 1 save, ERA-5.70, 6 pro seasons, 3 in AAA, 1/Bulls.

The Rays outsmarted themselves when they claimed Mr. Buente off waivers as the Marlins were trying to send him back to their AAA team in New Orleans this May. As a Bull he had a rough beginning losing three out of four starts. In relief from early July to the end of the season he did OK, but not good enough to avoid being released at the end of the season to make room on the 40-man of the Rays.
Stats

Cory Wade (28), RHP, 22 games, all in relief, 36⅔ innings, 3-1, ERA-1.17, 8 pro seasons, 3 in AAA, 1 w/Bulls.

Cory Wade did a brilliant job for the Bulls in the first two months of the season. As with others on the Bulls this year, he had an opt-out contract and he pitched his last game in early June. Unfortunately for the Rays, Mr. Wade is now pitching in relief for the New York Yankees where he has an impressive 6-1 record and 1.98 ERA (ML Stats).
Stats

R.J. Swindle (28), LHP, 39 games, all in relief, 34⅔ innings, 2-0, 1 save, ERA-4.15, 8 pro seasons, 5 in AAA, 2 w/Bulls.

Yet another Bull with an opt-out contract. In Swindle's case the Rays were obviously taking a look at him as a left-handed relief specialist. Eighteen of his appearances were for less than an inning, often for just one out. R.J. is famous for his unique slow curve and in 2010 he was great fun to watch. But the slow curve wasn't working this year and he really wasn't helping the Bulls. After his opt-out, no report of him catching on with another team.
Stats

Jake McGee (25), LHP, 24 games, relief, 33⅓ innings, 4-2, 9 saves, ERA-2.70, 8 pro seasons, parts of 2 in AAA, all w/Bulls.

Jake McGee was with the Bulls at the very end of 2010 and up until essentially the All-Star break in 2011. Then he was off to the Rays where he's doing OK, but not as well as I would have expected (ML Stats). His superb work in the bullpen was very helpful in keeping the Bulls in the South Division race for the first half of the season.
Stats

Brandon Gomes (27), RHP, 20 games, relief, 25⅓ innings, 0-1, 7 saves, ERA-1.07, 5 pro seasons, 1 AAA w/Bulls.

Bradon Gomes' Triple-A career was very short. He left the Bulls just before the 4th of July with his stellar 1.07 ERA and 7 saves. He appears to be doing just fine with the Rays (ML stats). We probably won't see him back. With McGee, he kept the Bulls in the race in May and June.
Stats

Joe Bateman (31), RHP, 15 games, relief, 21 innings, 1-3, ERA-4.71, 9 pro seasons, 3 in AAA, 2 w/Bulls.

We really like sidewinding Joe Bateman. We liked him in 2009. We liked him in 2010. And we could not have been happier to see the Rays sign him out of the Oakland system in late July. That said, he wasn't quite the same Joe we knew from the last two years. Used mainly in short relief, he wasn't as sharp, especially against righties. Charlie Montoyo apparently likes him. So do we. And he was better than a couple others the Bulls had this year. He may not make it back in 2012.
Stats

Jeremy Hall (28), RHP, 5 games, 4 starts, 17 innings, 0-2, ERA-8.47, 5 pro seasons, 1 AAA, w/Bulls.

Jeremy Hall started the year with the Montgomery Biscuits and came up to Durham at the end of April when Dirk Hayhurst went on the disabled list. He wasn't very successful and he decided to retire.
Stats

Adam Russell (28), RHP, 15 games, relief, 17 innings, 0-1, 1 save, ERA-4.24, 8 seasons, 4 in AAA, 1 w/Bulls.

Adam Russell started the season with the Rays (36 games) and did not come to the Bulls until the end of July. His numbers with the Bulls are skewed by a truly awful ⅔ of a inning when he let 4 runs score. With this small sample we really don't know much about him as a AAA ballplayer. I don't think I understand enough about his status to speculate on his future with the Bulls. He looks better that a couple of the guys we saw this year, though.
Stats

Rehabbers

Jeff Neimann and J.P. Howell of the Tampa Bay Rays put in some time with the Bulls on rehab assignments this year. Neimann started 2 games and put in 9⅓ innings, allowed 4 earned runs, and put up a win and a loss. Nice to see Jeff again. J.P. Howell coming off a long layoff appeared in 4 games for 3⅔ innings. He didn't allow any earned runs.

Short Visits

Chris Archer (22), RHP, 2 games, 17 innings, 1-0, ERA-0.69. Chris put in an impressive two game (plus one in playoffs) appearance with the Bulls at the end of the season. We hope for him to be back for 2012. Stats.

Paul Phillips (27), RHP, 6 games, 11⅓ innings, 1-1, ERA-12.71. Paul came up from Montgomery to lend a hand when Richard De Los Santos went on the DL at the very beginning of the season. Spent the rest of the year in Montgomery. Stats.

Jim Paduch (28), RHP, 1 game, 7 innings, 1-0, ERA-3.86. Jim Paduch was signed out of the independent leagues to Montgomery in June, had a one-game call-up to the Bulls when they were on the road, then went back to Montgomery. Part of the July turmoil. Would like to see him pitch some day. Stats.

Richard De Los Santos (27), RHP, 2 games started, 6 innings, 0-1, ERA-6.00. De Los Santos was a stalwart of the 2010 Bulls. But this year he had four not very good innings in his first game, 2 innings in his second start, and was on the disabled list for the rest of the year. We like him, but have no idea when or if he will return. Stats.

Cesar Ramos (28), LHP, 4 games, relief, 4 innings, 2-0, ERA-4.50. Ramos came down from the Rays in late July (with Adam Russell), appeared in 4 games, and went back to St. Petersburg the first week of August. Was nice to have a lefty in the bullpen for a while. A left-handed specialist for the Rays (57 appearances, 41 innings pitched). Stats

Marquis Fleming (24), RHP, 2 games, relief, 2⅓ innings, 0-0, ERA-0.00. Marquis Fleming joined the Bulls from Montgomery for a couple of games while they were on the road in late July. Then he went back to Montgomery where he had a decent year (41 games, 80 innings). Stats.

The Durham Bulls in 2011 — The Pitchers: Part I

2011-09-22T16:49:00.002-04:00

Thirty-three ballplayers pitched in a Durham Bulls uniform in 2011, six more than in 2010. We'll take three of those off the list since they were position players thrown to the wolves in losing games (Craig Albernaz, Omar Luna, and J.J. Furmaniak). That leaves 30 to talk about. For those who were with the Bulls at the end of the season, we've charted their performance. Turmoil in July is mentioned several times. See the post from July 22 for more about what that was like.

Players listed in order of number of innings pitched.

Alexander Torres (23), LHP, 27 games, all starts, 146⅓ innings, 9-7, ERA-3.08, 6th year in pro ball, 1st in AAA.

Alex Torres was the only Bulls starter who was with the team the entire year (how's that for trivia?). He had a few innings with the Bulls in last year's playoffs, but otherwise he's had two years with the Biscuits and now a year with the Bulls. He led the International League in strikeouts with 156. Unfortunately, he also lead the league in walks with 83. That pretty much tells you what kind a pitcher he is. Nevertheless, he seemed to be getting a little bit better as the season progressed. He was called up to the Rays at the end of the Bulls' season but at this writing has pitched only 1 inning in relief. Very likely to be back with the Bulls next season to be part of a very strong starting rotation.
Stats

Brian Baker (28), RHP, 25 games, 20 starts, 104⅔ innings, 7-9, ERA-6.62, 7th year in pro ball, 2nd year in AAA.

Brian Baker was supposed to be the Bulls' long reliever this season. Instead he ended up spending most of the year in the starting rotation. He appeared to run out of steam at the end of August and his numbers really soared in his last few games. Not sure that he is physically up to the task of pitching in AAA.
Stats

Dane De La Rosa (28), RHP, 52 games, all in relief, 70⅓ innings, 6-5, 6 saves, ERA-3.20, 8 seasons, 1st in AAA.

A break-through year for Mr. De La Rosa after a long time working his way up. First came to my attention with his 1-pitch appearance at the DAP in early May. He was ejected and had a four-game suspension. Before and after that event, he did a terrific job for the Bulls, a real stalwart in the bullpen in a year where starting pitching was in confusion. Had a one-inning, mid-season call-up in July and is back up for September with the Rays (three brief appearances so far). One of the good guys. Hope the Bulls get him back next year, if he doesn't stick with the Rays.
Stats

Mike Ekstrom (27), RHP, 46 games, 1 start, 68⅓ innings, 6-4, 5 saves, ERA-4.35, 8 seasons, 3rd with AAA time.

Mike Ekstrom did a pretty good job for the Bulls this year, if not nearly as good as last year (ERA-2.79 over 58 innings in 2010). Last year he had a lot of back-and-forth with the Rays. This year he pretty much stuck with the Bulls. At the end of the season there was some roster shuffling going on with the end result that he was off the 40-man of the Rays. He was not claimed, but hard to tell if he will be back for 2012.
Stats

Rob Delaney (26), RHP, 51 games, all in relief, 67⅔ innings, 4-2, 13 saves, ERA-1.86, 6 seasons, 3rd in AAA (1st w/Bulls).

A terrific ball-player that really helped the Bulls this year. He had a brief visit with the Rays, but was taken off the 40-man in September. Hard to tell if he will be back next year. I hope so. Sort of this year's Winston Abreu, and that's a compliment to Mr. Delaney.
Stats

Alex Cobb (23), RHP, 12 games, all starts, 67⅓ innings, 5-1, ERA-1.87, 6 seasons, 1st in AAA.

Cobb is a brilliant young pitcher. He was called up to the Rays in mid-April for one game, in late May as a substitute for the injured Jeff Niemann, and finally in July until he went on the Rays DL in early August. All reports are that surgery was successful and he will be back in form for 2012. That's good news because, unless the Rays do some trading in the off-season, he could start with the Bulls.
Stats

Matt Torra (27), RHP, 11 games, all starts, 61⅓ innings, 5-1, ERA-3.67, 7 seasons, 3 in AAA, 1st w/Bulls.

In some ways, Matt Torra was the complement to Alex Cobb for the second half of the season. Signed out of the Diamondbacks system, his first start was in early July. He began slow, but finished very strong with his numbers improving game by game. Not particularly flashy, he looks very competent and durable. He'd be an asset to the 2012 Bulls.
Stats

Dirk Hayhurst (30), RHP, 11 games, all starts, 59 innings, 4-2, ERA-4.12, 8 seasons, 3 in AAA, 1 w/Bulls, missed 2010 while recovering from surgery.

Dirk had a decent start to his season but an elbow problem cropped up in April. He was back in June for 7 starts before going back on the DL. In a bit of what sounded like contractual finagling, he was pronounced fit to play and then released at the end of August. As a fellow blogger (albeit Dirk is much more famous and certainly much better), I can only wish him the best. His new book is due out sometime "soon".
Stats

Chris Bootcheck (32), RHP, 16 games, 7 starts, 58 innings, 3-2, 1 save, ERA-3.57. 10 pro seasons, parts of 8 seasons in AAA, 1 w/Bulls.

It probably isn't fair to blame the players for opt-out contracts, but Bootcheck was yet another who opted out this year, at the end of June. I've heard, but haven't confirmed, that he is pitching in Korea. He was helpful while here.
Stats.

Andy Sonnanstine (28), RHP, 10 games, 9 starts, 56 innings, 3-6, ERA-4.82. 7 pro seasons, parts of 3 seasons in AAA, all with Durham. Much of five seasons with the Rays (stats).

It seemed odd for Sonnanstine to be sent down to the Bulls in mid-July, but that was a confusing month for everyone in Rays baseball. As a practical matter, the Rays don't seem to know what they want from Mr. Sonnanstine (ML Stats). He had a couple of good moments for the Bulls and filled in when they needed a starter. But is he a starter, long reliever, or what? Doubt that he will be sticking in the Rays system next year.
Stats.

Ryan Reid (26), RHP, 26 games, 5 starts, 55⅓ innings, 1-1, ERA-4.55, 6 pro seasons, 1st in AAA.

Ryan Reid did a decent job for the Bulls this year in his first AAA season. He came up from Montgomery in the beginning of May, went back for a couple of weeks in early July, and didn't pitch at all after August 15. Since the Bulls are not particularly forthcoming about their ballplayers we don't know if there was an issue or if he was just the victim of minor league roster shuffling. I'd worry some about his fitness, but he did put in 16 more innings at Montgomery. Next year? Probably. But on the disabled list at the end of the season.
Stats

Edgar Gonzalez (28), RHP, 11 games, 11 starts, 53⅓ innings, 3-3, ERA-4.56, 8 pro seasons, parts of 7 in AAA, parts of all seasons in ML.

Veteran Gonzalez started the season with the Bulls and did OK at first. However, he rarely went more than five innings and seemed to have persistent back problems. He was released in June and caught on with the Rockies system. He put in another 80 innings with their AAA team in Colorado Springs.
Stats

The Durham Bulls in 2011 — The Hitters: Part II

2011-09-20T10:04:00.004-04:00

The new guys, the rehabbers, and the visitors

John Matulia (24) has been playing professional baseball since he was 18 years old. When he came to the Bulls in July, it was his first time in AAA. He was up and down a couple of times in July as the Bulls' roster seemed to turn over almost every day. Eventually he stuck in Durham by early August.

Played in 36 games (134 PA). Mostly he took over for Desmond Jennings/Brandon Guyer/Justin Ruggiano in center field (29 starts there). Not strong numbers — .238/.278/.429, wOBA .290, and they were about the same as he was showing in Montgomery. He hit 5 home runs and got 16 RBI. His speed got him 2 triples.
At the end of the season John was one of the few Durham Bulls showing any speed in the field or on the bases, so he was needed. But even as a youngster, he needs a really good year to keep moving up. Not sure he will be back next year.
Stats

Nevin Ashley (26) also came up from Montgomery in mid-July after Bulls catcher Jose Lobaton got called up, got hurt, then Bulls catcher Robinson Chirinos got called up to St. Pete. This was his sixth year as a pro. He had a couple of games with the Bulls in 2010 and is on the Rays 40-man.

Played in 32 games (112 PA) mostly as a catcher (1 DH appearance). One of six different catchers who played for Durham this year, he had almost as many games as Jose Lobaton (38) by end of the season. Not very good offensive stats — .218/.273/.307, wOBA .256. However, 10 of the 21 guys who tried to steal on him got caught.
A fan really can't judge a catcher's game-calling skills from the stands, but it looks like Ashley has a home in the Rays' system if he can get his hitting stats up.
Stats

Stephen Vogt (26) came up from the Biscuits at the end of July and a more versatile player I haven't seen in a very long while. This was his fifth year in pro ball and first time in AAA.

Played in 31 games (131 PA) at catcher (5 games), 1B (5 games), outfield (10), and DH (11). Good, strong, left handed bat — .290/.305/.516, wOBA .351.
Seems like the Bulls have always had at least one strong left-handed bat in the line-up. Vogt may be that guy for 2012.
Stats

Tim Beckham (21) joined the Bulls in early August, the last of the Biscuit call-ups on the year. In his fourth year as a pro. It was his first time at AAA.

Played in 24 games (111 PA) all at shortstop and, I think, all as the leadoff batter in the lineup. Stats were OK — .255/.282/.462, wOBA .310, but they will need to improve as he moves up.
Does he look like a superstar? No. Does he look like a good, solid middle infielder? Yes.
Stats

Matt Carson (29) was signed out of the Oakland system at the beginning of August to fill in some big holes in the Bulls' outfield. Although he was briefly injured he helped keep the Bulls on track to win the South Division title.

Played in 22 games (95 PA) all in the outfield. Good power — .250/.337/.512, wOBA .354.
A long-time AAA ballplayer, hard to tell if he will be back. At a guess, probably more a matter of clubhouse "fit" than anything else. Heck of an arm.
Stats

* * * * *

The Bulls had a few players down from the Rays on rehab assignments. Shortstop Reid Brignac was in town for 11 games, catcher John Jaso for 6 games, Elliot Johnson was back for just 2 (both on the road), and Justin Ruggiano put in 6 of his games while on rehab.

* * * * *

Lastly, three players that don't really fit into any category.

Craig Albernaz (28) was present with the Bulls almost the entire season, not going down to the Montgomery Biscuits until the end of July when Nevin Ashley came up. But he rarely got into a game as he was mostly confined to a bullpen role. From the stands he appeared to be a vital part of the team, his good spirits infectious even at a distance.

Played in 8 games (25 PA). Pitched in 4 innings in 3 games. Back in Montgomery at the end of the season he got in 29 games catching, an inning pitching, and a game at 2B (!).
Obviously, we like Craig. Would be happy to see him in a Bulls uniform again.
Stats

Casey Kotchman (28), the Tampa Bay Rays' first baseman, actually started the year on a minor league contract with the Durham Bulls. That's going to be a trivia question some day. However, the Bulls' season started a week after the Rays' season, which allowed enough time for the Manny Ramirez fiasco to start playing out. Played in 1 game (5 PA), single and a walk, and was called up to the Rays.

John Shelby (25), got in one game (3 PA) with the Bulls in late July and then went back to the Biscuits. We might see him next year.

The Durham Bulls in 2011 — The Hitters: Part I

2011-09-19T10:27:00.001-04:00

Twenty-five different ballplayers came to bat in a Durham Bulls uniform this year. Some quite a few times (Russ Canzler, 549). Some not so often (John Shelby, 3 ). That compares to 27 in 2010 and 25 in 2009, so 2011 was about normal. Players are listed in order of games played. The "slash line" is Batting Average/On-Base Percentage/Slugging.

The Top 14 (40+ Games)

Russ Canzler (25) was in his first season with the Bulls and had a brilliant year. He was the International League MVP.

Played in the most games of any Durham Bull (131) and had the most plate appearances (549). He led the Bulls in batting average (.314), was second in OBP (.401) and was first in SLG and OPS (.530 and .930), and led the team in wOBA (.399). His 83 RBI were way ahead of #2, Leslie Anderson, who had 65. He also led in home runs (18), doubles (40), second in triples (5). He was the team leader in walks (67) and strikeouts (129). The all-around offensive star of the year.
His great year was rewarded by a call-up (and placement on the Rays 40-man) as soon as the Bulls season was over in early September. As of this writing he has had one ML plate appearance where he drew a walk. Defensively, the Bulls never quite figured out where to play him, although by the end of the year you could consider him a regular corner outfielder. He had 40 starts at 3B, 17 at 1B, and 68 games in the outfield. He also had 6 games at DH. He certainly is not the Rays' future third baseman, but no reason why he couldn't spend more time at 1B and see how it goes. As we'll see, however, it looks like 1B could be crowded in 2012. Really was fun watching him play.
Stats

Ray Olmedo (30) came back to the Bulls after a year with Nashville, the AAA team of the Brewers that plays in the PCL.

Played in 124 games (500 PA). Ray had 95 games at SS and 29 games at 2B. For a guy who usually batted at the end of the order, he had very good numbers — .260/.303/.322, wOBA .306. 27 RBI, 22 doubles, 3 triples.
I like watching Ray Olmedo play baseball. I especially like the way he moved over to second base when young Tim Beckham came up and how well he covered that position. Here's hoping the Rays find room for him next year.
Stats

Leslie Anderson (29) joined the Bulls late in 2010. He had defected from Cuba earlier in the year and quickly moved up through the Rays minor league system as an outfielder and first baseman. This season was a decent, but not breakout, year.

Played in 121 games with 494 plate appearances. He had 63 games at 1B and 42 in the outfield, mostly in LF. The rest of the games he was the designated hitter. Decent numbers of .277/.314/.413 with a wOBA of .323. His 65 RBI was second-best on the team; his 24 doubles were third-best; and his 13 home runs was third best as well.
I'm not sure Mr. Anderson is going to make it beyond AAA. He isn't very fast. He's something of a streaky hitter and only a so-so first baseman. Plus he's beginning to age out.
Stats

J.J. Furmaniak (31) was with the Bulls with most of 2010 and we were really pleased to see him back in 2011. He did not have a good year at the plate, but he had a bunch of timely hits and sacrifices, and was vital to keeping the infield sorted out.

Played in 116 games (433 PA). In the field he played 2B (52 games), SS (15), 3B (43), outfield (11), dh'd a game, and pitched a shutout inning(!). Most of the year his numbers were off, but they got much better near the end. Numbers — .215/.267/.308 with a wOBA of .258. J.J. led the Bulls on successful sacrifice bunts with 15.
I really like J.J. I think he adds a lot to the team. He did not have a good year at bat, but until the Rays start bringing up some infielders, the Bulls really need someone like J.J. on the roster — an experienced, mature, quick-handed infielder.
Stats

Brandon Guyer (25) came to the Bulls as part of the big Tampa Bay Rays/Chicago Cubs deal over the winter. A lot to like about this young ballplayer. He would have played in more games if a back injury had not taken him out of the lineup for a couple of weeks in the middle of the year.

Played in 107 games (443 PA). All of his games were as an outfielder, mostly in right and center field. Very good numbers — .314/.401/.530, wOBA .387. Hit 18 home runs (second on team), had 61 RBI, and led team in getting hit by pitches (12). Very fast, but needs to work on base running a bit (16 stolen bases, but caught 6 times).
Brandon was on the 40-man all year and was called up once, before going up in the September callups. As of this writing he's been in 10 games for the Rays. Expect him back next year and looking forward to it.
Stats

Dan Johnson (31) started the year with the Rays and came to the Bulls in late May. Something must have gone awry over the winter, since the 2010 Bulls superstar was having serious troubles in St. Petersburg. He passed through waivers and accepted an assignment to the Bulls.

Played in 93 games (395 PA). Starting very slowly, his numbers improved as the year went on — .273/.382/.459,wOBA .375. Low extra base production (for him) of 23 doubles and 13 home runs. 52 RBI. 59 games at 1B, 15 at 3B, and 21 as DH.
Dan was called back up to the Rays at the end of the season, but he's got to be thinking about his future as a ballplayer. I'm guessing that he will not be back with the Rays in 2012.
Stats

Desmond Jennings (24) began his year with the Bulls and, to our surprise, stayed with the team until mid-July.

Played in 89 games (397 PA). The big difference between this year and 2010 was that he stayed healthy and he had some big improvements in his power. Numbers — .275/.374/.456, wOBA .362. A leadoff batter is going to be a bit low in the RBI column, and he was with only 39. But he scored 68 runs and stole 17 bases. Mostly a center fielder this year, with a few starts in right field and a couple as the DH.
He's had 52 games in the majors as of this writing, and he's tearing things up with a .292/.386/.510, 9 homers, 22 RBI, 38 runs scored and 17 stolen bases. Don't expect to see him back with the Bulls next year.
Stats

Robinson Chirinos (27) is another of the players from the Cubs/Rays deal. He had a spectacular spring training and came to the Bulls with very high expectations. He had a good, not exceptional, year. And was able to get in 20 games with the Rays.

Played in 78 games (319 PA). He had a terrible start, so his final numbers actually represent a big improvement on the year — .259/.343/.376, wOBA .324. Because of his terrific spring training, most thought Chirinos was going to have a real breakout year and, at 27, he needed it. Not quite, though. He got the most starts at catcher (63) of anyone on the Bulls' roster and did pretty well.
His main counterpart, Jose Lobaton, had a much better year as a catcher and a hitter. When Lobaton got a call-up he was almost immediately injured and Chirinos followed him to St. Pete within a couple of days, then came back in August.
Stats

Omar Luna (24) started the season with the Bulls and then was essentially swapped out for infielder Daniel Mayora in late June.

Played in 56 games (182 PA). Not very good numbers — .203/.229/.227, wOBA .229. Pretty much the worst numbers of anyone who had any serious amount of time with the Bulls this year. Mostly played 2B (47), but had a game at 3B, a game at shortstop, and 3 games in the outfield. He also made two appearances as a pitcher.
Pretty good second baseman, but Furmaniak better, with a better bat. Luna went to Port Charlotte in the Rays system where he did OK. Hard to tell if he will be coming back.
Stats

Jose Lobaton (26) had a breakout year and he was fun to watch as long as he stayed with the Bulls.

Played in 54 games (224 PA). Terrific numbers — .293/.410/.489, wOBA .382. His OBP was the team best. Most of his ABs were as a catcher, but 18 games as DH. Above average catching skill as a catcher.
His third best OPS (.899) and skills behind the plate earned him a call-up in early July. Unfortunately, he was immediately injured and did not return to the Rays lineup until September. Expect him to stick with the Rays next year.
Stats

Chris Carter (28) started the year with the Bulls.

Played 54 games (233 PA) for the Bulls before exercising an opt-out clause in mid-June, 26 games as DH and 28 games in a corner outfield position. Pretty good, but not stellar, numbers for his time with the team — .270/.309/.460, wOBA .323. He brought some power to the team, 10 HR and 11 doubles.
He signed with the Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) and was having a great run (OPS of .974) for 23 games before he was injured and went out for the rest of the season.
Stats

Daniel Mayora (25) came up to Durham from the Montgomery Biscuits in late June.

Played in 51 games (205 PA), almost exclusively at third base. Of the six different third basemen the Bulls used this year, he was tied for the most games (40) with Russ Canzler. Numbers are OK — .262/.317/.353, wOBA .306.
Not a standout third baseman and doesn't seem like he will get past AAA level. And yet the Bulls needed him for the second half of the season and may need him again next year.
Stats

Felipe Lopez (31), a veteran infielder, started the season with Durham, went back and forth to the Rays a couple of times and then moved on to the Milwaukee Brewers system.

Played in 48 games (207 PA) and had excellent numbers — .305/.357/.474, wOBA .374 with 37 RBI and 7 home runs. 25 games at 2B, 12 at 3B, and a few as DH.
Lopez was with the Bulls primarily because the Rays' infield situation was unsettled at the time. Once that was sorted out, he left the system. I would have preferred to see more young players under development.
Stats

Justin Ruggiano (29) has a five year history with the Durham Bulls and holds a number of hitting records. He started this year with the Bulls, but went up to Tampa in May and stayed there, with the exception of a brief rehab visit in August.

Played in a total of 43 games (190 PA) and had excellent numbers — .304/.378/.518, wOBA .398. Almost an RBI per game (34), 7 HR and 11 doubles.
Unlikely that we will see him in Durham next year.
Stats

Next: New guys, rehabbers and visitors.

Congrats to the Columbus Clippers

2011-09-19T08:40:00.001-04:00

The Columbus Clippers won the 2011 Governors' Cup and are off to play the Omaha Stormchasers (Kansas City) for the Triple-A Championship tomorrow (Tuesday, 20 Sep).

Check out the Columbus Dispatch, the Allentown Morning Call, and MiLB.com for stories. Regarding the Stormchasers, there's this.

Regarding the Triple-A Championship, good luck on finding any useful information. But the game is on Versus and maybe they will have a lead-in if you decide to watch.

Bulls in Boston

2011-09-16T08:42:00.003-04:00

The Rays/Boston game was on local TV last night. (An oddity. Must’ve been because they were playing Boston. Rays won 9-2.) What jumped out at us was that when the Rays took the field in the bottom half of the inning we knew all of the players. We’d seen every one of those Rays on the field in Boston in a Bulls uniform, many of them this year.

The only Rays to see action in the game who had not worn a Bulls uniform were DH Johnny Damon and relief pitcher Juan Cruz.

Seven of the twelve Rays who came to bat and three of the five pitchers played for the Bulls this year, including Dan Johnson, Russ Canzler, and Alex Torres who joined the Rays in the last couple of days.

Doesn’t pass the “So What?” test? Well, maybe it does. It says that if you go to a Bulls game you’re going to see a lot of current and future major leaguers. Also, it says a lot about the ability of the Rays organization to grow their own ballplayers.

* * * * *

IronPigs fans filled the ballpark, but the Clippers won a key game last night. The Columbus team now leads Lehigh Valley in the Governors' Cup series 2-1.

Two More Bulls to the Rays

2011-09-15T08:34:00.003-04:00

Dan Johnson and Alex Torres got called up to the Rays yesterday.

The Johnson call-up is a modest surprise since he wasn't quite back on track at the end of the year (but getting better) and he wasn't on the Rays 40-man. On the other hand, the Rays owe him a bunch of money and he might as well be sitting on the bench in Boston (where he's had some notable successes) as at home in Minnesota. I'm sure that's where he'd rather be as well.

As far as Alex Torres is concerned, he was the Bulls' busiest pitcher this season (see charts), but he's surely got a couple of major league innings in him. After a full year at Triple-A, the Rays are going to have to make some decisions about Mr. Torres' future this winter. Might as well take a close look at him.

Jay Buente got released to make room on the 40-man for Dan Johnson. Claimed from the ~~Mariners~~ Marlins, Buente was acquired at a time when the Bulls just needed an arm during the mid-season turmoil. Did not work out all that well for the Bulls. One of a couple of not-so-good-for-the-Bulls decisions this year.

Rob Delaney and Mike Ekstrom, who had been designated for assignment in earlier moves, passed through waivers. It will be up to them to decide if they want to stay with the Rays' system.

Meanwhile Matt Moore made his major league debut last night. 1⅓ innings, 27 pitches, 3 hits, 2 ER, 2Ks, 1 HR. ERA — 13.5. Welcome to the big leagues. But the observers loved him.

All this moving up is unprecedented in my watching of the Bulls and Rays. Only ~~three~~ four players from the Rays 40-man are left with the Bulls: pitchers Chris Archer and Matt Bush (a inning or so in the playoffs his only AAA time) and catchers Robinson Chirinos and Nevin Ashley.

* * * * *

When the Rays take the field in Boston tonight, one of my all-time favorite Durham Bulls will be sitting on the Red Sox bench — and I'm not talking about Darnell McDonald. Joey Gathright is there. Too bad the Rays can't reach out and put Fernando Perez on their bench so they could have a run-off.

* * * * *

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs had their 8-game win streak broken last night. They are now tied with the Columbus Clippers 1-1 as the Governors' Cup moves to Pennsylvania. Former Bull Mitch Talbot had a complete game win.

Update: A careful reader has noted some errors/omissions in the original post. Used line in ~~line out~~ to mark corrections. Thanks!

Rob Delaney DFA'd

2011-09-13T08:46:00.002-04:00

To make room on their 40-man roster for Matt Moore the Tampa Bay Rays have designated for assignment 26-year old Bulls reliever Rob Delaney.

I'm surprised. Of all the relievers on the Rays 40-man that we've seen with the Bulls this year, Delaney had by far the best numbers. To take just one, Fielding Independent Percentage, Delaney's was 2.77 (the best on the team). Others: Mike Ekstrom - 3.43 (he's been DFA'd already), Dane De La Rosa - 3.57 (called up), and Jay Buente - 3.67. So it wasn't numbers, it must have been something else.

Of course, this could just as easily be a bit of three-card Monte and at the end of the season Rob will still be in the Rays system. As a Bulls fan, however, if it had come down to a choice between Jay Buente (who, to his credit, looked pretty good by the end of the season) and Rob Delaney, it should have been Delaney who was kept and Buente DFA'd.

The Rays are famously astute at picking and keeping overlooked players, especially pitchers. But they blew it with Cory Wade this year (1.23 ERA in 21 appearances with the Bulls, 1.93 ERA in 32 appearances with the Yankees). Have they done it again with Delaney?

Moore Call-Up, More on Canzler/De La Rosa

2011-09-12T08:56:00.001-04:00

Lefty Matt Moore has been called up by the Rays, proving yet again that I don't understand the business of baseball. But that's OK. The way things are shifting and changing for the Rays these last few days, he just might get a chance to shine. Certainly the newspapers and bloggers are looking forward to his arrival. See the St Pete Times, Rays Index, and DRaysBay for more. Likely to see his debut in relief, something he hasn't done in a long time.

Meanwhile a nice little story about how Russ Canzler got the word on his promotion in the St. Pete Times.

INF/OF Russ Canzler got word of his unexpected promotion in memorable fashion. The Triple-A Bulls got back to Durham about 8 a.m. Saturday after an eight-hour bus ride from their season-ending loss in Columbus, Ohio, and Canzler was saying his goodbyes when manager Charlie Montoyo said, “Good luck this offseason. Oh, and good luck in the big leagues, too.” Just like that, Canzler’s dream was realized. “That’ll wake you up real quick,” he said.

To make room for Canzler, Bulls reliever Mike Ekstrom has been designated for assignment. No guesses from me on how that might play out.

The Rays will have to make another roster move to officially put Moore into the mix. See post from the other day on players with the Bulls on the 40-man.

Dane De La Rosa got into the lineup quickly, finishing out yesterday's game against the Red Sox with a strikeout and a flyout to recent Bull Brandon Guyer in right field. Guyer was 1 for 5 in the Rays 9-1 win.

Canzler, De La Rosa to Rays ... and More

2011-09-11T09:15:00.002-04:00

Great news to see Ruzz Canzler and Dane De La Rosa get well-deserved call-ups to the Rays. [Rays Index, MLB.com] As we discussed yesterday, the Rays will have to do some shuffling of 40-man for Russ to come on the field.

Also in the news was a report that Tampa Bay closer Kyle Farnsworth has elbow problems and may be out for a while. If so, then, since we all know how carefully the Rays have been studying the WDBB charts, Rob Delaney should be on his way up as well.

No doubt the Rays might want to take a look at Matt Moore, as mentioned, and that's a possibility as well.

* * * * *

Over the the Governors' Cup (remember that?) the IronPigs swept the PawSox. They will go to Columbus to play the Clippers. First game is Tuesday.

What's Next?

2011-09-10T09:34:00.001-04:00

How are we going to get through the winter?

First, if you want the 2011 South Division Champions T-shirt you need to check with the DBAP store, because they only had a few printed up. Not sure how many, if any, are left.

Then we can speculate on who might get called up to the Rays. Rays Index is reporting a statement by Joe Maddon that one or two Bulls might be called up right away, mentioning, tongue in cheek I am sure, Dan Johnson and Matt Bush. The Tampa Tribune blogger Roger Mooney also mentions Matt Moore as a possible call-up.

After that, we might watch a couple of Rays games, assuming the local TV folks deign to put them on the air.

About call-ups:

Current Durham Bulls on the Tampa Bay 40-man roster are: Pitchers Chris Archer, Jay Buente, Matt Bush, Dane De La Rosa, Rob Delaney, Mike Ekstrom, and Alex Torres; Catchers Robinson Chirinos and Nevin Ashley.

Not on this list are a couple of well-regarded Bulls, notably Russ Canzler and Matt Moore (and the third Matt, Matt Torra). If the Rays want to call them up (or anyone else on the Bulls roster) then they’ve got to do a bit of roster manipulation — something they are more than capable of doing.

Here are a couple of guesses. The Rays are going to want to divide up these guys into players they want to look at right now and players they are willing to wait until spring to look at. I see a big decision coming up regarding Alex Torres and a lesser decision regarding Mike Ekstrom, so take another look at them. All but Chris Archer on this list got a “taste” this year, so maybe give him a look.

Who could actually help them? For that they might want to give Jay Buente a real test before putting him back on waivers. Robinson Chirinos has already been up and Jose Lobaton reportedly tweaked his knee again, so look for him to go up. Russ Canzler might be a good guy to give a look, because he will surely be a solid candidate for a different team if he goes back into minor league free agency.

Again, please remember that the possibility that I don’t really understand the business of baseball is very high. I could easily be very, very wrong. Notably, I don't understand the "Rule 5 Draft" rules at all and there could be someone in the system the Rays need to look at before exposing them to that process.

See also other folks' comments over here.

Last note: I loved this year's fan appreciation video until I realized it was missing something — Baseball!

Durham Bulls' Season Ends

2011-09-10T09:13:00.001-04:00

Playoffs, Round One, Game Three, Huntington Park, Columbus, Ohio
Columbus Clippers 5, Durham Bulls 2
Wrap, Box, MLB.com

Hats off to the Columbus Clippers. They are heading to the Governors' Cup finals.

The Bulls kept the game within reach through the 7th inning and they did manage to collect 10 hits. They just didn't push the runners across — and the Clippers did.

Reliever Matt Bush made his first appearance in a Bulls uniform and looked pretty good, striking out two in his one inning.

Over Pennsylvania way the Lehigh Valley IronPigs went ahead 2-0 in their series against the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Nevertheless a great year and I'll be doing some wrap ups over the next week or so.

In the meantime:

THANK YOU DURHAM BULLS!

I had a great time this year watching you play. Hope you had as much fun playing the game as I did watching it. See you next year!

See You Next Year

2011-09-09T09:20:00.002-04:00

Playoffs, Round One, Game Two, September 9, DBAP
Columbus Clippers 8, Durham Bulls 3
Wrap, Box, Examiner

The headline is what we were saying to each other near the end of last night’s game. The Bulls are a good team, but on these two nights Columbus was clearly the better in all respects: hitting, fielding,

and pitching.

That’s why we don’t think we’ll be back to the DBAP this year. Mind you, we haven’t given up. I’ll be listening/watching tonight night (both teams took buses to Columbus!). I’ll be hoping, but I won’t

be expecting.

In spite of striking out fifteen Clippers, the Clippers nevertheless got key hits when it counted (RISP: 6 for 15). As important, when the Bulls were smashing themselves against the outfield fences and dropping fly balls, the Clippers outfielders were chasing down deep fly balls and catching them; when the Clippers were moving runners around the bases, the Bulls were hitting into double plays

(three of them).

At the beginning, it looked like the Bulls were going to get to former teammate Mitch Talbot. They scored two runs in the 1st and led off the 2nd with two singles. But Tim Beckham hit into the first of the three double plays and Clippers right fielder Travis Buck made a terrific grab of a Stephen Vogt fly ball to the wall to end the inning. Talbot was never really in trouble after that.

Chris Archer shows a lot of promise, in spite of the five runs he was charged with. The relief crew of Ekstrom and Russell weren't very helpful (three more runs).

Everyone is going to have to do better up in Columbus tonight, and the next two nights. I hope my headline is wrong.

Trivia for Tonight

2011-09-08T14:27:00.001-04:00

Who was the winner of the first and last Durham Bulls games of 2009?

Durham Bulls Lose First Playoff Game

2011-09-08T08:33:00.001-04:00

Playoffs, Round One, Game One; Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Columbus Clippers (Indians) 3; Durham Bulls (Rays) 0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, MLB.com

The Columbus Clippers' Zach McAllister made sure the Durham Bulls never quite got on track last night. Only six Bulls even got on base and just two of those were on hits out of the infield. I was on the verge of going up and throwing something at Neil Solondz if I heard him say "pop-up" again. After McAllister's solid six innings, Chen-Chang Lee pitched two no-hit innings and Zach Putnam struck out the side.

On the other side, Matt Moore showed the small, but noisy, crowd that he was human. Too bad he picked last night to do that. The Clippers just kept chipping away, not intimidated in the least by Moore's 96 mph fastball. To his credit, Mr. Moore worked through several very tough situations. The score could have been much worse. In the 1st inning he handled a runners on second and third, one out situation with two popups. In the 6th he had a bases-loaded, nobody out situation that he got out of scot-free (if you don't count the run that was made on a blown call earlier in the inning). It was Moore's first loss as a Triple-A pitcher. It won't be his last and there won't be very many of them before he goes to the majors. Sure wish the timing had been better.

For the first time since coming back to the Bulls, Joe Bateman showed us what we loved about him the last couple of years. That's a very positive sign. Coming on with runners on second and third, two outs, bottom of the 8th, he got a strikeout to end the inning. In the 9th he faced three left-handed batters in a row and got all of them out. Given the trouble he's been having with lefties, we can hope.

In all my thinking about these playoffs I forgot a key element missing from the playoff roster — speed. That came to me as I watched Russ Canzler and Matt Carson chase down fly balls last night. Most of the season the Bulls have had at least one, and sometimes three, very speedy outfielders: the early-season Justin Ruggiano, Desmond Jennings, and Brandon Guyer. All of them are with the Rays now, and deservedly so. But I miss 'em. Leslie Anderson isn't quick enough for a safety squeeze, such as was a possibility in the 5th last night. And if you look at the rest of the roster the Bulls don't have many who could. I can't remember the last time a Bull stole a base (I know, you've got to get on base to steal a base). So, it's a weakness I hadn't considered.

It was a small, but knowledgable and enthusiastic crowd last night. Maybe the town of Clayton will fill up the DBAP tonight for Chris Archer. Here's a challenge for the young man in his third AAA game — keep the Bulls in this one.

The IronPigs/Red Sox got rained out last night, but Bacon and Biscuits has several pre-playoff links that look at matchup.

Durham Bulls End of Season Charts — III

2011-09-07T14:56:00.002-04:00

Pitching

Before the playoffs start I wanted to wrap up the season’s charts by taking a look at the pitching stats. Click on a chart for a larger view.

Just to set the stage, I want to look first at the innings pitched by the pitchers who made it to the end of the season. Note that I’ve left Ryan Reid on the roster even though he’s officially on the DL. I’ve also left on these charts the two pitchers temporarily dropped for the beginning of the playoffs, Lance Cormier and Brian Baker.

What's striking about this chart is the story it says about AAA baseball. The turmoil among the starters has been such that only one left standing (Alex Torres at 146 ) has a significant amount of innings and that is far below the number of innings pitched by four of the five Tampa Bay starters. Only one, Jeff Neimann, has pitched fewer innings (121), and he was on the DL for quite a while. James Shields of the Rays has 218 innings so far.

The core of the Bulls relief core (De La Rosa, Ekstrom, and Delaney), on the other hand, have quite a few more innings than their major league counterparts. The Ray's Peralta leads the Rays with 60 innings in 57 games.

A last reason for leading with this innings chart is to warn readers of the small sample size problem with several of these pitchers.

Sorting out the ERA and FIP (Fielding Independent Percentages) of this crew shows some differences.

If FIP is supposed to be a more reliable predictor of the future, then sending Cormier and Baker to Montgomery makes some sense. And we need to cross our fingers if Adam Russell comes to the mound in relief.

Next are the Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched, WHIP. No surprise to see Alex Torres down near the bottom. Even with the small sample size, it's encouraging to see Moore, Torra, and Archer near the top.

Lastly we have WDBB's very own "efficiency" stat. This is a simple measure of pitches thrown per out recorded. What might it mean? Well, it means that two guys who have been reasonably successful, Dane De La Rosa and Alex Torres have to work really hard to get through an inning. Matt Torra not so much.

Roster Updates and More

2011-09-07T14:02:00.002-04:00

Two of the three Biscuits who came up to Durham from Montgomery have gone on the Bulls' roster.

We reported earlier that that RHP Jim Paduch and RHRP Matt Bush were on their way but that there was not, at that time, a place for them on the roster. Now there is, Brian Baker and Lance Cormier had been "assigned" to Montgomery.

What does this do for the Bulls? Potentially quite a bit. It does not solve the lack of a left-handed relief pitcher — the Bulls don't have one. But Paduch is a solid replacement for the reportedly arm-weary fifth starter Baker and Cormier has not been all that sharp while Bush can be a very scary guy on the mound. Besides, I'll bet that both Cormier and Baker are going to be hanging out in Bulls' uniforms for the series. If needed, they'll likely be back on the roster.

Surfing around I found this post by a Cleveland blogger. Pretty good, even if he, like most, thinks that Russ Canzler is a third baseman. Heck, that's what he made the IL All-Star team as. We'll just stay quiet about that. OK?

Tarp is still off the field. Weather radar is quiet. Looking good!

Ready to Play?

2011-09-07T08:21:00.003-04:00

The tarp is not on the field as I write this, but check for yourself. All we can do is watch the skies and hope for a good night. If the weather cooperates this series should be a lot of fun. The Bulls have been in town since Monday evening. At a guess, so have the Clippers. Both teams are as rested as they are going to get.

I've been putting up season charts and tables (still have the pitchers to go), but I haven't been able to take a close look at the Columbus Clippers. Fortunately for Bulls fans, Adam Sobsey has. Take a look at his post over at Triangle Offense/Indy Week. Sobsey has a solid analysis of the strengths and potential weaknesses of both teams.

Also, of interest is Harold Gutmann's story in the Herald-Sun.

My hometown newspaper, the News & Observer, fails to even notice that the playoffs are starting. Why am I not surprised?

The Clippers' hometown paper the Columbus Dispatch has this backgrounder.

Matt Moore has the start. The rest of the gang is back in town and healthy. This could be a great series!

Durham Bulls End of Season Charts — II

2011-09-06T19:04:00.003-04:00

Team Performance

Here are a couple of interesting ways to look at the Durham Bulls performance over the year (interesting for me, that is, and maybe for a couple of readers). Click on the charts to get a larger view.

In the first chart we expand on the idea of "weighted On Base Average". What the chart shows is the Bulls team wOBA (green bars) for each game after the All-Star break. Next to the Bulls bar is the Opponent's wOBA (OwOBA, red bars) for the same game. The "trend" lines are 10-game moving averages. The wOBA is a good read of a team's overall offensive performance since it includes, and weights, every conceivable way of getting on base. The OwOBA is, in my opinion, a reasonable measure of defensive performance, primarily pitching.

What does this chart tell us? The gap between green and red trend lines shows that things settled down in late July and stayed that way pretty much until mid to late August. After that the offense starts to drop and the pitching had it problems until about the very end of August. Then the red trend starts sneaking downwards, a very good thing. What's afoot? Best guess? Chris Archer, Matt Moore, and Matt Torra have days good enough to influence the overall trend. That is, starting pitching got better.

Another way to look at essentially the same data is to plot the difference between the two wOBAs over time. What you want to see are two things: a difference that stays in the positive range and one that grows. Here we see the trend stalling out about 10 games ago. Why? Well, we can look at the chart above and see that it was a rare day for the Bulls' wOBA to get above .300. Essentially, Bulls hitting slacked off.

What does this tell us about the year? A lot.

First of all, the Bulls pitching made room for the Bulls hitting to win games. When that trend line crosses over, as it did in the last week of the season, you're losing games. And the Bulls were. But over the year, the green trend stays nicely above the red.

Secondly, 2010 really spoiled Bulls fans. For much of that year the Bulls hitting simply blew the opponents out of the park, plus the Bulls had better starting pitching and a slightly better bullpen.

What does it say about the playoffs? Not much. Unquestionably the Bulls are capable of winning it all, but in a short series a lot of micro-measures come into play. Recent hitting trends are not good. Recent pitching/defensive trends are very good. It could easily come down to tactical, on-the-spot decisions by Charlie Montoyo and company.

End of Season Charts — I

2011-09-06T12:19:00.003-04:00

The regular season is over, so it's time to take a look at the path the Bulls took to get to the playoffs. Click on an individual chart to get a larger view.

The Bulls played 142 games this year instead of the usual 144 (a couple of days of storms up in Syracuse led to cancelled games that could not be made up). From Game 1 on April 7 down in Gwinnett County, Georgia until yesterday over in Norfolk, Virginia the Durham Bulls and the Gwinnett Braves were competing for the lead of the South Division of the International League. As recently as a few days ago Gwinnett had a shot. As it happened, up in the North Division the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Phillies) were on a run and grabbed the Wild Card berth.

All season long the Bulls have been running ahead of their Pythagorean Expectation. At the end of the year the Bulls won-loss was 80-62, 18 games above .500. If you crunch the runs scored - runs allowed numbers (much like the chart below) the "expectation" was 76-66, just 10 games above .500.

Why would the expectation run behind the actual? The conventional wisdom points to two factors at work: the bullpen and luck. You would think that over time luck should even out. And, as this next chart shows, the Bulls relievers have done a great job. This chart is the cumulative ERA since the IL's All-Star break (July 14).

I keep a similar set of base data for our friends down in St. Petersburg. The comparisons really aren't very meaningful, but it's still fun to take a look.

Unfortunately for the Rays, they are in the American League East. While the Bulls could win the IL South at 18 games over .500, the Rays aren't even close in the AL East at 14 games over .500. This is also the time that I get to point out that the Bulls, who started the season a week after the Rays, have played more baseball games (142) than the major league Rays (140). Why? They just work harder and get fewer days off.

The Rays runs scored - runs allowed graph is strikingly positive, however their "expected" won-loss (78-62) is running slight ahead of their actual (77-63). I don't pay that close attention to the Rays. Does this mean that their relievers haven't been doing their jobs? Have they been unlucky?

Hitting Ending

2011-09-06T09:27:00.001-04:00

Game 142, Monday, September 5, Harbor Park, Norfolk, VA
Norfolk Tides 8, Durham Bulls 5
Season: 80-62
Wrap, Box

The Bulls went out with a bang, 18 hits, but they left most of them on base (11). The optimist in me says that the hitting on Monday, along with the 10 hits on Sunday, says good things about the playoffs. As yesterday's table showed, most of the Bulls have been having trouble at bat the last couple of weeks (the table didn't include Monday's game). What we can hope for is that this game shows them beginning to connect. Certainly J.J. Furmaniak's 4 for 4, Stephen Vogt's 4 for 5, and Russ Canzler's 3 for 5 are good signs.

As for the game itself, the Tides came out swinging and Brian Baker wasn't ready. They jumped on him for six runs (two home runs) in the first inning and that would be enough.

According to Stacy Long over in Montgomery, three Biscuits will be joining the Bulls for the playoffs. [Biscuit Crumbs] They are pitchers Jim Paduch (stats) and Matt Bush (stats), and infielder Cole Figueroa (stats). As regular readers will surely have learned by now, I am no expert in such things, but I think that these fellows will dress out, but will not play unless someone were to go on the disabled list during the playoffs. They way I read it, the Bulls roster is currently full and I think I heard Neil Solondz say that pitcher Ryan Reid (on the DL) is ready to play. Nevertheless, as noted several times, the Rays are past masters at manipulating the roster system. Maybe we will see one or two of these guys.

Speaking just for myself and my own superstitions, I really want to see Jim Paduch around. He was the starting pitcher for the Bulls back on July 21 up in Rochester. The Bulls scored 18 runs in that game on 20 hits, 7 home runs, and 44 (!) total bases. [story] He was sent back to Montgomery the next day.

I've been waiting to see Matt Bush for a long time. I'd give up at least one of our relievers (e.g., Lance Cormier) to see what he could do for the Bulls in the playoffs.

Don't know a thing about Mr. Figueroa, but will chase him down if he gets in a game.

Stats and charts coming up soon.

Hitters

2011-09-05T12:57:00.003-04:00

As we get ready for the playoffs, here’s a look at the current crop of hitters. I’ve chosen OPS as the stat to compare because it’s simply the easiest to get to and is a better measure than straight batting average. This table does not include stats for the last game.

A couple of features jump out.

Only four players have been with the Bulls all year: Russ Canzler, Leslie Anderson, Ray Olmedo, and J.J. Furmaniak. Most of the current team has not been with the Bulls all that long. Only Dan Johnson and Robinson Chirinos have been with the Bulls most, but not all of the year.
The last 10 games have not been kind to Bulls’ hitters. Only Dan Johnson and Ray Olmedo have been hitting above their season OPSs.

Let’s put a positive spin on that — all of the Bulls are due!

Clouds & Rain?

2011-09-05T09:19:00.001-04:00

NOAA radar, September 5, 2011

Game 140, Saturday, September 3, Harbor Park, Norfolk, VA
Norfolk Tides 7, Durham Bulls 6 (10 innings)
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Game 141, Sunday, September 4
Durham Bulls 3, Norfolk Tides 2
Season: 80-61; Games Remaining: 1
Wrap, Box

We are going to be looking at radar images of Tropical Storm Lee for a couple of days as we worry about Wednesday's game. At first I was thinking that the Bulls and Clippers should just swap locations for the start, but maybe, just maybe, this is going to pass us by and the DBAP will be ready for the start of the playoffs.

In the meantime, the Bulls have been going back and forth with the Tides this weekend and will wrap the season up with a game at noon today.

The first 8½ innings on Saturday were vintage Bulls baseball. Decent start by Alex Torres, then Joe Bateman and Adam Russell taking the game to the 9th. In the meantime, Matt Carson got a three-run homer in the 3rd inning and in the 6th a Dan Johnson home run led a 3 run 6th. The last half of the 9th was all Norfolk as they came back with five runs and then had a walk-off sixth run in the 10th.

Yesterday was better. Matt Torra started it off with a 3-pitch, 3-out first inning and hung in there until leaving a bit of a mess for Dane De La Rosa in the 8th (runners on second and third, no outs, one run in). I'm not a big fan of the "save" statistic, but this was one. De La Rosa let one run in, but two K's and a ground out limited damage. He let two runners on in the 9th, but a double play finished things off.

Russ Canzler and Dan Johnson got the Bulls' RBIs. That augers well for Wednesday.

Up in the North Division the IronPigs were working hard to get the Wild Card berth. Issue is not absolutely resolved in their favor over the Gwinnett Braves. But it does look like they have the edge going into the last games of the season.

While I was looking the other way, Charlie Montoyo and Neil Allen have done some very sneaky/thoughtful juggling of the starting pitching rotation. Brian Baker has today's start. With Tuesday off, and assuming a preference for a 5-day gap, they can now choose between Chris Archer (RHP) or Matt Moore (LHP) to open the playoffs. They have also flipped the Matt Torra (RHP)/Alex Torres (LHP) sequence. That gives them right-handed and left-handed choices for the first four games instead of being stuck with a specific sequence. How carefully will Montoyo and his crew be looking at the Columbus lineup? Can't tell. Charlie famously looks at things from day to day (for the press at least), but no doubt he will be looking at the Columbus crew very carefully now.

Five!

2011-09-03T08:52:00.001-04:00

Game 139, Friday, September 2, Harbor Park, Norfolk, Virginia
Durham Bulls 4, Norfolk Tides 1
Season: 79-60; Games Remaining: 3
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Wild Card

The Bulls won in Norfolk to become the South Division Champions for the fifth year in a row. Dan Johnson hit a home run with Matt Carson on base in the 1st inning. With Matt Moore on the mound, that was enough.

This has been a rough couple of weeks for Bulls fans — and surely much tougher on the Bulls. Coming off their last road trip, it looked like the Bulls had the division championship in the bag. And that was a fair assessment. Nevertheless, the nine-game home stand and the recent visit to Charlotte were struggles. How nice then for the winning run to be scored by Johnson.

Matt Moore has been pitching terrific baseball since coming to the Bulls. Last night was no exception. Ten K's, only four hits and one run allowed over 6 innings.

Charlie Montoyo summed it up for the Herald-Sun:

“Great game and great season.”

If you haven't done so yet, go ahead and get your tickets for next Wednesday and Thursday. The Bulls will be playing the Columbus Clippers at the DBAP for the first round of the Governors' Cup.

The Wild Card team has not yet been decided. It will be either Gwinnett or Lehigh Valley. That could go right down to the wire, with the remote possibility that Pawtucket could stumble and Lehigh Valley could make it up into the North Division championship.

Bulls Backing Into Playoffs

2011-09-02T09:39:00.002-04:00

Game 138, Thursday, September 1, Knights Stadium, Fort Mill, SC
Charlotte Knights 2, Durham Bulls 0
Season: 78-60, Last 10: 4-6
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, Examiner, Wild Card

Chris Archer pitched a fine game last night up in the wilds of South Carolina, but lots and lots of Knights were getting on base (they left seven runners in scoring position during the evening). In the 8th, after Mike Ekstrom came on, two runners came across. Game lost. Adam Sobsey, who has been roaming around with the Bulls has the story at the Indy Week link above.

For the Bulls, they were shut out for the first time in over a month (July 29).

Nevertheless, the Gwinnett Braves lost, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs didn't play, and the prospects for more games at the DBAP are pretty good.

The math makes my head hurt, but Mike Potter at the Examiner link above works it out for us. Some pretty radical things have to happen for the Bulls to not get at least a wild card berth.

The Braves have two games in Charlotte and two at home. Story.

Meanwhile, up in Allentown, things have gotten a bit huffy since a catcher of theirs got suspended for what amounts to the rest of the season. Take a look here, here, and here.

Four games in Norfolk and it's wrapped up. Seems like the Bulls are owed a pitcher or two when available from Montgomery.

Roadkill

2011-09-01T09:23:00.000-04:00

Game 137, Wednesday, August 31, Knights Stadium, Fort Mill, SC
Charlotte Knights (White Sox) 10, Durham Bulls 2
Season: 78-59, Games Remaining: 5
Wrap, Box, Indy Week

My road game ritual goes like this:

Go to Bulls website. Click on "Listen Live" link and adjust volume. Click on "Watch Live" link and go through the MiLB TV sign-in and see what's there. In the case of Charlotte it's nearly pointless since the "TV" is a single camera set high over home plate. Click on "game day" to get the running pitch/box score.

Last night I went through all of the above. Got a bit of Neil Solondz's update (more later). Bulls end the first inning with two men on base. Charlotte comes to bat with Andy Sonnanstine starting.

First batter reaches base on a Daniel Mayora throwing error. Second batter reaches base on a fielding error by Ray Olmedo. Single, run scores. Single, run scores. Fly out (out #1). Double, run scores. Single, two runs score. Ground out. Strike out. Five runs on four hits and two errors.

Close web browser. Go watch regular TV.

* * * * *

Outside the game, a good bit was going on.

Justin Ruggiano, Brandon Guyer, and Andy Sonnanstine are going to the Rays.

If I'm candid, I'm pleased to see Justin go back. He got a few hits while he was here, but his injury apparently kept him from putting in much of an effort on the bases or in the field. Setting himself apart by wearing the long trousers seemed to be a thumb in the eye of his teammates. Mostly he seemed to be taking up space on the roster.

As for Brandon Guyer, he's worked very hard for this chance in the majors. Good luck. The Bulls will be fortunate to get him back for at least the beginning of next season. Indy Week reports that John Matulia from the Biscuits will be his replacement. Welcome back, John.

Cannot imagine why Andy Sonnanstine was recalled, but his departure may help the Bulls. His ten appearances led to 3 wins and 6 losses and he carried a not-very-stellar 5.46 ERA. As fans, however, it probably won't make much difference in whom we see this year. It might have been more fun, however, to have taken a look at another Biscuit.

Congratulations are in order for Matt Moore and Stephen Vogt. They were named to the Southern League All-Star Team. More info here and here.

Elsewhere, the Gwinnett Braves split a semi-double header with Norfolk. Lehigh Valley lost (troubles up in Pennsylvania, here and here). So the Braves moved into the wild card spot and gained a half game on the Bulls. Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew, in the meantime, weren't much help to the Pawtucket Red Sox, who were swept by the Red Wings.

Thrills and a Win

2011-08-30T23:34:00.001-04:00

Game 136, Tuesday, August 30, DBAP
Durham Bulls 4, Gwinnett Braves 3
Season: 78-58; Home Stand: 4-5; Games Left in Season: 6
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner

Let's jump right to the thrills.

8th inning. Score tied 3-3. Right-hander Anthony Varvaro came in as the third Gwinnett pitcher of the night. Tim Beckham led off with his third hit, a double to right. Brandon Guyer sacrificed Beckham to third base. Justin Ruggiano struck out. Two outs. Gwinnett decided to give an intentional walk to the 2010 International League MVP, lefty Dan Johnson, who had had two singles (one RBI) and a long flyout so far in the evening. That brought up the 2011 International League MVP, righty Russ Canzler who had had a terrible night, three strikeouts. Canzler took a strike, looked at a ball, hit a foul. 1-2, two out. Single to right! Beckham scored. Johnson was thrown out trying to reach third, but the Bulls were ahead 4-3.

Rob Delaney came on for the 9th. The first Brave hit a foul ball deep to the left side of the outfield, but Canzler chased it down for the first out. Wilkin Ramirez singled. After a called strike to catcher J.C. Boscan, Gwinnett called a hit and run. Ramirez took off as Boscan slapped a low line drive to right. Matt Carson made a diving catch with Ramirez almost to third base. He tossed the ball to Dan Johnson at first. Double play. Game over. The Bulls are 3 1/2 games ahead of Gwinnett in the south.

How did the Bulls get to the 8th tied 3-3? To be honest, it was pretty ugly. Reliever Lance Cormier, not my favorite Bulls pitcher in any circumstance, got thrown into the breach when once again the Bulls can't find a fifth starter. Not sure what happened to Brian Baker or Andy Sonnanstine (maybe the double header messed with Sonnanstine's schedule), but we've all read about Dirk Hayhurst's release by now. Cormier started out with a walk and that runner scored soon after. The redeeming feature of the inning was the two K's with bases loaded to end the inning. The leadoff batter in the 2nd inning got a double and scored and that was it for Cormier, the first of five Bulls pitchers.

Jay Buente had three solid innings to get the Bulls to the 6th. In the meantime the Bulls scored in the first, and picked up two more in the 3rd. But Adam Russell had an ugly 6th (that could have been worse) that let another run in. The Bulls, on the other hand, went from the 4th through the 7th with just one hit.

So, a lot of ups and downs until the sustained thrills of the bottom of the 8th and the top of the 9th.

* * * * *

This was the last home game of the regular season. The Bulls are headed for Charlotte for two games, then over to Norfolk for four games. During that time the South Division championship will surely be decided, along with, very likely, a bunch of roster changes.

But let's savor the fireworks and the win. This was a big one.

September Call-Ups

2011-08-30T11:34:00.002-04:00

First, let's get some technicalities out of the way. On Thursday the Rays can expand their "active roster" from 25 players to 40 players — the famous "September Call-Ups". A player must be on the Rays 40-man roster before he can be called to the team.

Bulls who are on the 40-man are:

Pitchers:

Alex Torres (1)
Chris Archer
Jay Buente (2)
Dane De La Rosa (1)
Rob Delaney (5)
Mike Ekstrom (1)
Andy Sonnanstine (34)

Catchers:

Robinson Chirinos (60)
Nevin Ashley

Outfield:

Brandon Guyer (6)

(Note: If they've had time with the Rays this year, shown are innings for pitchers, plate appearances for position players)

To my surprise only Rays Index and The St Pete Times Heater blog are doing any speculating.

Obviously the Rays are going to promote players they think they need or they think they want to take a look at. Past is not prologue here. Remember that last year the Rays won the American League East and were looking at the playoffs.

Every player on this list except for pitcher Chris Archer and catcher Nevin Ashley has had his "cup of coffee" this year, albeit just a sip or two — not even enough time for one of those little cups over in Ybor City.

And there are a couple of loose ends on the DL, notably catcher Jose Lobaton and outfielder Justin Ruggiano. Lobaton is reported to be close to being ready but hard to tell about Ruggiano.

In addition, the Rays are famously willing to game the DFA/waiver/options/DL rules to their advantage. So who's not on the 40-man that could be a candidate? How about these guys?

Russ Canzler
Stephen Vogt
Matt Moore
Adam Russell

Here's my guesses/desires pre-playoff, including one non-40 man player

Rob Delaney and/or Dane De La Rosa
Andy Sonnanstine
Brandon Guyer
Russ Canzler

A coin toss on Lobaton coming to the Bulls for rehab or staying with Rays in place of Chirinos. In any case the Rays will want three catchers. Ruggiano will go to the Rays when they think he's ready, probably with the call-ups.

A non-roster invite to spring training for Vogt and Russell. Moore will obviously go on the 40-man just as soon as the system requires it (surprised he isn't there already, might be some legalistic reason).

What will it do to the Bulls for the playoffs? Pretty sure it won't do much harm assuming that not being called up doesn't get into the heads of the guys left behind. We've seen plenty of talent from Montgomery this year.

Your thoughts?

[Update: Sep 1, Sonnanstine & Guyer to Rays. (Ruggiano doesn't count, he was just here on rehab)]

Canzler Named IL MVP

2011-08-30T10:15:00.001-04:00

The International League just announced the selection of Durham Bull outfielder Russ Canzler as 2011 Most Valuable Player. Here's the text:

Russ Canzler has been named the International League Most Valuable Player for 2011. The former 30th round draft pick had never played above the Double-A level before signing with Tampa Bay as a free agent this past offseason. Having seen significant time at third base, first base, left field, and right field, the versatile Canzler has made his biggest contributions for Durham at the plate. He is 4th in the International League with a .312 average to go along with 18 home runs and 79 RBI. His 61 extra-base hits, 77 runs scored, 241 total bases, and .533 slugging percentage are all tops in the IL. In July, Canzler was elected as the starting third baseman for the IL at the Triple-A All-Star Game, where his three-run home run was the difference in the 3-0 contest. He is just the second IL player ever to win Top Star honors at the Triple-A All-Star Game and the League MVP award in the same season, following in the footsteps of another Durham Bull, Kevin Witt in 2006. Canzler is the fifth Durham player to win IL Most Valuable Player honors, along with Steve Cox in 1999, Toby Hall in 2001, Witt in 2006, and Dan Johnson last season.

Ya-Hoo! Well-Done Russ!

Now, let's see if we can get you on the 40-man and some playing time with the Rays this year.

Dull, Dull, Dull

2011-08-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

Game 135, Monday, August 30, DBAP
Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) 2, Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) 1
Season: 77-58; Home Stand: 3-5; Home Games Remaining: 1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Indy Week

This has been a dispiriting week for this Bulls fan: rain in buckets and not very good baseball. I don't think I'm alone. For example, in the links above the Bulls Wrap summarized the game in just 156 words. Mike Potter on Examiner managed 449 words, but most of them were quotes. Steve Wiseman at the Herald-Sun did a workman 583. Even Adam Sobsey at Indy Week, who usually puts together essays in the 5,000 word range, could only find 3,000 and much of that wasn't on the game.

In a sentence, the Bulls were outpitched. Their one run was scored in a bases-loaded, ball bounced past the catcher, situation. Bulls batters struck out 13 times. Not a season record (that would be 14 last May 21st), but close.

Matt Torres did not have his best day, but if the Bulls had been hitting the two runs he let in would not have mattered much.

From a fan's point of view, three nice plays helped brighten the dullness of the evening. A nifty Brandon Guyer to Ray Olmedo to Robison Chirinos at the plate saved a run in the 3rd (OK, looked to me like the runner beat the tag, but the ump was on the other side of the play). A routine, but still smart, play by first baseman (!) Stephen Vogt to go home after grabbing a bases-loaded grounder saved a run when the double play was uncertain. And left fielder Russ Canzler made a terrific running grab of a line drive in the 8th.

Well, there's my 280 or so words on the game. I can't find anything else worth saying.

* * * * *

The Bulls have been very coy about announcing who will pitch in the final home game of the year tonight. I was thinking that it meant that Dirk Hayhurst was about to return to the rotation. I was wrong. He was released yesterday. I'll let him tell his own story over at his blog.

Speaking for myself, I enjoyed watching Mr. Hayhurst pitch this year. I've worried about his elbow. I was fascinated by a couple of the interviews he's done. I'm impressed with his skill as a photographer. I look forward to reading his next book and hope that I enjoy it as much as I did The Bullpen Gospels. Good luck. Here's hoping that he finds his way back to baseball, if that's what he wants to do. If not, have a great life.

* * * * *

Speculation on September call-ups is circulating. I'll take my shot at that later today. Commentary welcome.

Sunday at the Park with the Bulls

2011-08-29T09:38:00.001-04:00

Games 133 & 134, Sunday, August 28, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Durham Bulls 4, Charlotte Knights 3 (8 innings)
Durham Bulls 3, Charlotte Knights 0 (7 innings)
Season: 77-57; Home Stand: 3-4; Home Games Remaining: 2
Wrap, Box (133), Box (134), Herald-Sun, Indy Week

The sky was a brilliant blue. Inside the park all evidence of the storm was gone. With the win on Saturday the Bulls seemed to be themselves again. If there was a wisp of a cloud on the horizon it came in the 2nd when Matt Moore gave up a rare walk. He would end up giving up four of them during his six innings, adding to the worrisome 36 issued by Bulls pitching since this home stand began.

When Moore left after six innings, the Bulls were down 3 to 1. But a Ray Olmedo single and a Justin Ruggiano home run in the bottom of the 6th set things right. J.J. Furmaniak came in to run for Dan Johnson in the 7th, but that tactical move of Charlie Montoyo's didn't pay off ... then. The payoff came in the extra-inning 8th when the game was still tied and Brandon Guyer was on third after a triple. Justin Ruggiano drew a walk. J.J., the Bulls best bunter, came to bat with one out. Guyer was off on Furmaniak's hard bunt past the pitcher in the direction of the second baseman. He was past the Charlotte catcher and the game was won.

Interlude watching the grounds crew put things right. Diligent restoration of both sides of the batter's box. Refilling of the holes dug by pitchers out on the mound. Brushing and smoothing and redrawing the lines. After 10 minutes the eye is treated to a fresh baseball field just waiting for new teams to emerge from the dugouts.

First there was the presentation of this year's Goodmon Awards: Team Spirit — Ray Olmedo; Pitcher — Rob Delaney; Community Service/Fan Favorite — Russ Canzler. Great choices, congratulations, well-done Ray, Rob, and Russ.

The Bulls came on the field and we got to watch a superb performance by Matt Torra. Mr. Torra has quietly established himself as a key Bulls pitcher. His ERA has been steadily declining since his not very auspicious arrival in early July. He has won four out of his last five starts. By my little "efficiency" measure (pitches per out), he is the most efficient pitcher on the team. He only needed 69 pitches to get through six innings last night (Moore threw 99). You could make the argument that he should have stayed in for the 7th since Delaney made things a bit more exciting than they needed to be with a one out walk followed by a single. But he did close things down, he got a save, and the Bulls had their shutout.

Brandon Guyer led of the game with a home run over the Monster. In the 3rd Guyer singled, stole second, went to third on a Stephen Vogt fly ball, and came home on a Dan Johnson single. A Russ Canzler double was enough to bring Johnson all the way around — although I'd have to say that Charlie Montoyo's arms windmilling to send D.J. home were moving faster than Dan's feet. That was enough.

Out on the web these two curious entries from Dirk Hayhurst, last seen leaning on the dugout railing. The first complains about Durham drivers (not very good, that's a surprise?) and the second is an odd little piece reflecting on expectations of a professional athlete. He seems to think that fans will be disappointed that he doesn't play for the "love of the game." As far as I can tell, that isn't the average fan's expectation, certainly not today. Must be something about the folks he encounters out there in the bullpen.

End Times Avoided

2011-08-28T10:52:00.001-04:00

Game 132, August 27, DBAP
Durham Bulls 3, Charlotte Knights 2
Season: 75-57; Home Games Remaining: 4
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, Herald-Sun, Wild Card

Funny how a win, even a shaky win, defers the Apocalypse. Just yesterday we were wondering if the Bulls had been abducted by aliens and today we're standing in the sunshine on the back porch and checking the playoff calendar.

Let's deal with Hurricane Irene first. The Triangle area dodged the bullet and besides, as broadcaster Neil Solondz noted the night before last, the team is the Durham Bulls, not the Apex Bulls or the Cary Bulls or the Raleigh Bulls. That is, they are tough guys — once they get over this abduction thing. So what's a little wind and rain gonna do?

Well, for one thing, a bunch of those Apex, Cary and Raleigh folks (like me) stayed home and watched the game on TV. The attendance number of 9,549 needs a great big "paid attendance" asterisk, because if there were more than a couple of thousand I'll chew up a page of my scorebook. And what we TV watchers saw for the first four innings or so was a lot of wind and rain and interesting pitching.

This was Chris Archer's first AAA start. Pretty good. More than that, and good news for Bulls fans, he needs a good bit of work. That means we'll likely be seeing a lot of him next season. The bad news is that, much like Matt Torres, he's likely to scare/disappoint us from time to time. Last night, for example, he got two quick outs in the 2nd inning then a walk, double, and two more walks brought in an easy run for the Knights. Except for that inning, however, he looked very good and put in a nice six innings for the Bulls. For more background on Mr. Archer, Adam Sobsey did a piece for Indy Week a couple of days ago.

Meanwhile, Charlie Montoyo sent out a lineup of all right-handed batters against Charlotte lefty Doug Davis, leaving on the bench lefties Dan Johnson, Stephen Vogt, and Leslie Anderson. They did just fine, especially outfielder Matt Carson who had two doubles.

Dane De La Rosa (need to do a feature on him) did a solid two innings. Rob Delaney had a thrilling 9th that we could have done without. And there we were, a win!

Remember: Double header tonight! Two for the price of one.

Abducted!

2011-08-27T09:23:00.007-04:00

Game 131, August 26, DBAP
Charlotte Knights 10, Durham Bulls 4
Season: 74-57; Streak: 0-4; Home Games Remaining: 5
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

I think I’ve figured it out.

The road from Norfolk to Durham goes through some pretty dark places. Last Sunday night when the Durham Bulls were on their way back to Durham they were abducted. The team on the field this week isn't the real Durham Bulls. Those guys in baseball uniforms at the DBAP for the last four games are aliens. They're visiting the Earth to experience the game, but they aren't very good at it. What other explanation could there be?

The real Durham Bulls went 7-3 on the last road trip. They averaged 4.1 runs a game. They only allowed 2.7 runs per game. In the last four games the Bulls let in 32 runs — 8 runs per game! Gotta be aliens on the field.

Anything good to come out of last night? Well, yes. Those of us on the third base side got a wonderful view of weather in action. One of the outer bands of Hurricane Irene was up there in the eastern sky as the sun was setting behind us. We could see the edges of the clouds rotating around from the northeast and back down to the south. Very pretty as it crept our way and then blew in gusts of rain to put the grounds crew to work.

Anything else? Sonnanstine's first two innings, J.J. Furmaniak's 9th inning (J.J. struck out Charlotte's Dallas McPherson who'd hit two home runs for 6 RBIs earlier in the game). But if they were all aliens then hard to tell if they even understood the concept of winning and losing.

If we're lucky two things will happen today.

The storm will keep moving on and we'll have baseball tonight.
The aliens will have finished their experiment and release the real Durham Bulls back to the Earth.

Remember: No double header today (Saturday). Two 7-inning games tomorrow starting at 4:00.

Saturday's Game Moved to Sunday

2011-08-26T17:01:00.000-04:00

The Bulls have just announced that the first game of tomorrow's (Saturday's) double-header has been postponed. Instead, they will do a couple of those 7-inning deals with Charlotte on Sunday starting at 4:00.

See link for details.

All together now ...

Irene good night,
Irene good night,
Good night, Irene
Good night, Irene
I'll see you in my dreams.

Waiting for Irene

2011-08-26T09:31:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Fran comes ashore, September 6, 1996

Irene is coming and will likely come ashore in eastern North Carolina sometime tomorrow. Last night could be the last baseball we see before Sunday or even Monday. However, maybe, just maybe, we'll get a game in tonight. If so, and if you were not here back in 1996 when Hurricane Fran came through, take a moment to ask your neighbor what it was like. Trust me, you will hear a couple of terrific stories — chainsawing paths out of neighborhoods, huge neighborhood cookouts to prevent the waste of food thawing out in freezers, steamy un-airconditioned evenings, and more. They've been waiting for someone to listen to their stories.

Nearer in time, as it was back in September, 2010, what we Bulls fans really care about is what effect Irene might have on this weekend. Based on the home stand to date, how could it get worse? So it's gotta get better, right?

Game 129, August 24, DBAP
Norfolk Tides 4, Durham Bulls 3
Wrap, Box

Game 130, August 25, DBAP
Charlotte Knights (White Sox) 12, Durham Bulls (Rays) 7
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Indy Week
Season: 74-56; Streak: 0-3; Home Games Left: 6

Brian Baker took the loss last night, but he deserved better. The performances of relievers Lance Cormier and Mike Ekstrom were just pitiful. The Bulls had an oh-so-tenuous lead when Cormier came on with two runners on base. Cormier let those two guys in, plus four more. That put the game pretty much out of reach. And it was surely so after Mike Ekstrom let four more runs across. Except for a flurry of activity in the bottom of the 9th, that was about it.

Nice to see Justin Ruggiano on the field. Noted that he was announcing his major leaguer status by wearing long trousers. Guess that's sort of cool, but maybe a bit of showing off in front of the guys he played with for a long time? If so, then he ought to collect a couple more hits.

Have I mentioned that this has been a miserable home stand so far? Guess what? Among the 60+ games so far this year, the Raleigh News & Observer decided to write up last night. Well, not actually a write-up. More a cut-and-paste from the Bulls website. My hometown paper doesn't even deserve a link from WDBB for that. Of course, they don't do any better with the Mudcats over on the other side of town.

Back to the threat from Irene. We can expect the Bulls website to do a good job regarding tonight and then tomorrow's double header. Last look implied that we are on the edge of this storm, so seems like a good chance that three games could get rained out with no chance of makeup. Since Gwinnett has been beating the teams the Bulls are getting beat by (Gwinnett has two wins over Charlotte and one over Norfolk in recent days) the season is at risk. The Monday and Tuesday games against Gwinnett are suddenly very important to those of us obsessing about the Governors' Cup.

Chris Archer, At Last a Fifth Starter?

2011-08-24T10:49:00.002-04:00

Stacy Long is reporting that RHP Chris Archer is on his way to the Bulls. Adam Sobsey over at Indy Week is reporting the transaction as well. Chris Archer is the very personable young (22 year old) pitcher who came to the Rays system from the Cubs in trade for the Rays' Matt Garza. That trade also included current Bulls Brandon Guyer and Robinson Chirinos, Rays outfielder Sam Fuld, and shortstop prospect Hak-Ju Lee now with the Biscuits.

Mr. Archer is from Clayton, so we can expect a flurry of interest from the newspapers that generally ignore the Bulls such as the Raleigh News & Observer.

Important to us is that the Bulls may at last have a legitimate fifth starter in the rotation, something we haven’t seen since Richard De Los Santos (remember him?) went on the disabled list back in mid-April. Even if Archer's stats are not world-beating, he’s been able to start 25 games this year for the Biscuits. That’s more than any pitcher on the Bulls roster — which says something about the turmoil in that role this year.

Welcome aboard, Chris. Have been looking forward to seeing you pitch all year.

Seven Pitchers, Thirteen Innings, One Loss

2011-08-24T10:07:00.001-04:00

Game 128, August 23, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham, NC
Norfolk Tides (Orioles) 6, Durham Bulls (Rays) 4 (13 Innings)
Season: 74-54; Home Stand: 0-1; Home Games Remaining: 8
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Indy Week

The first oddity of the night was how hard Matt Moore seemed to be working. Nevertheless, he made it through six scoreless innings and all seemed right in the world. The Bulls were ahead 4-0 on four solo home runs (Guyer, Carson, Beckham, Johnson). That would be another oddity of the early part of the game. At that point the Bulls bullpen, with a combined ERA of 3.45, could be depended upon to close out the next three innings and we'd be on our way home by 9:30 or so.

Didn't happen.

The next six (count 'em, six) Bulls pitchers had their fair share of trouble, but it was Jay Buente and Adam Russell who did the most damage by putting runners on base, then giving up home runs. It could have been worse, I suppose, since the Bulls got out of a bases-loaded (all on walks) situation in the 7th. Nevertheless, by the end of the 7th, the score was tied and stayed that way until the 13th. In that inning Joe Bateman, much like every other Bulls pitcher, could not handle Norfolk's Carlos Rojas. Here's a guy batting ninth in the order, barely above .200, who got on base five out of six times last night (three walks, two crippled singles). As it happens he didn't score any runs, but it says something about Bulls pitching that he got on base at all, much less five times.

Deep breath.

Sometimes a day off is not a good thing for baseball. Maybe that's all it was.

Alex Torres tonight. Still playing the Tides. The Bulls have to play these guys five more games this year, tonight at the DBAP, plus four games in Norfolk at the end of the season. Might as well get used to seeing Manager Gary Allenson put on his show. Last night's had something to do with how many times you have to touch second base when you're not sure you've hit a double or a home run. Maybe he'll get tossed early and we will have a shorter game.

To end on a high note: If you went to the game you got to see third baseman J.J. Furmaniak make a couple of stellar plays.

Durham Bulls Home Stand, Aug 23-30

2011-08-23T09:47:00.003-04:00

The Durham Bulls baseball team, the Triple-A franchise of the Tampa Bay Rays, returns to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park today (Tuesday) after 10 games on the road. The trip took them to Buffalo, New York; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Norfolk, Virginia. They won seven out of the ten games.

How are the Bulls doing this year?

Terrific. They are well above the .500 mark (74-53) and are 6 games ahead the Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) in the contest for the International League’s South Division championship.

The Bulls have played 127 games out of a 142 game season that ends in early September.

For more details about the Bulls and the International League, take a look at Bulls Basics.

Who are they?

The Durham Bulls are a mix of major league veterans, prospects (young players moving up through the system), and AAA veterans. What’s the difference as far as the game you see at the DBAP goes? Very little. These are all professional ballplayers who have been in the game anywhere from 4 years (shortstop Tim Beckham) to 11 seasons (first baseman Dan Johnson). They are managed by one of the most successful minor league managers in baseball, Charlie Montoyo.

Their opponents

The Norfolk Tides (Aug 23-24) are the Baltimore Orioles AAA team. They are not having a good year (49-79), much like their parent club. The Bulls just split a two-game series with them in Norfolk and will finish the season playing them in Norfolk for four games September 2-5.

[0-2]

The Charlotte Knights (Aug 25-28, 5 games) are the White Sox’s AAA affiliate. At 5 games below .500 (62-67) they are not having their best year, but they are a dangerous team. Their series will feature a double header on ~~Saturday (Aug 27)~~ Sunday (Aug 28). The Bulls will play two more games against the Knights in their stadium on Aug 31 and Sep 1.

[3-2]

The Gwinnett Braves (Aug 29-30) are the Bulls lead competitor for the South Division Championship and have a shot at the Wild Card slot in the IL Championship. Good pitching. This could be a key series for the Braves and the Bulls.

[1-1]

Bulls players to watch

The Bulls roster turned over in July. Half of the pitchers and fielders were new to the team, some sent down from Tampa Bay, some up from the Montgomery Biscuits (the Rays AA team), and some purchased outright from other teams. All of them have done well. A couple have gone back to their original teams.

Pitchers:

Matt Moore is possibly the best pitcher in minor league baseball. He should be pitching today. Alex Torres, another talented left-hander, will probably pitch Wednesday. Starters Matt Torra and Andy Sonnanstine have had very good games recently, but the fifth slot in the rotation is up for grabs. The Saturday double-header screws up any projection beyond that. The Bulls have one of the best bullpens in AAA. If a starter can get through five or six innings, the relievers can usually carry the load.

Fielders:

The new guys are simply fun to watch, including catcher/outfielder/first baseman Stephen Vogt, catcher Nevin Ashley, and shortstop Tim Beckham. They are all recent call-ups from Montgomery.

Outfielder Brandon Guyer is a rising star. You will want to say you saw him play as a Bull. He's my guess as a possible call-up to the Rays if outfielder B.J. Upton's injury yesterday is more serious than early reports indicate.

Outfielder Russ Canzler is having a breakout year. He’s WDBB’s favorite for a September call-up to the Rays. Dan Johnson’s power has been erratic this year. But flashes of last year’s Johnson shine through from time to time.

Catcher Robinson Chirinos just returned from a stint with Tampa Bay. Ray Olmedo, J.J. Furmaniak, and young Daniel Mayora are (along with Tim Beckham) a formidable infield. They turned six double plays in a game last week.

First baseman/outfielder Leslie Anderson is recovering from a very painful hit by pitch a couple of nights ago.

Outfielder Justin Ruggiano is with the Bulls on a rehab assignment. If he plays, expect some serious power at bat. An ex-Bull, he knows the DBAP better than any player on the field. Also a possible immediate return to St. Petersburg if Upton's injury is serious (and Ruggiano's rehab goes well).

Speaking of the DBAP, our park got some love from Stadium Review recently.

After these nine games, the Bulls play six games on the road and that’s it. No more baseball for 2011. Except, the Governors’ Cup playoffs! That’s a possibility of four more games at the DBAP.

Bulls Finish Great Trip and Head Home

2011-08-22T08:52:00.002-04:00

Game 126, August 20, Harbor Park, Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk Tides (Baltimore) 3, Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) 2
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, Virginia-Pilot

Game 127, August 21, Harbor Park, Norfolk, Virginia
Durham Bulls 4, Norfolk Tides 3 (10 Innings)
Season: 74-53; Road Trip: 7-3; Home Games Remaining: 9
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, Virginia-Pilot

What an amazing road trip. After dropping the first two games by just one run each, the Bulls ripped off six wins, took a loss (also by just one run) and then won last night in extra innings. They come back to a well-deserved day off and then a nine games at home, six games on the road finish to the season.

The Independently Weekly is either taking very seriously the task of showing other Triangle media how sports should be covered by paying for his trip, or (more likely) Adam Sobsey is just about the most Bulls-obsessed guy out there. He's got two columns up (see the Indy Week links above) about the Saturday and Sunday games in Norfolk.

In addition to games reportage, he mentions that Justin Ruggiano has been with the team the last couple of days on his rehab assignment and may start playing during the home stand. It'll be nice to see him on the field and he should be able to help the Bulls hold on to their 6-game lead in the South Division.

Last night's game? After the first couple of innings, I was worried that Matt Torra was not going to make it, but after giving up three runs, he did just fine. The relief crew of Bateman, De La Rosa, and Delaney pitched shutout baseball over the next five innings, waiting for the Bulls to get one of their many base runners across. That was finally done in the 10th on a Tim Beckham single.

Gotta love this chart.

Good-Bye to PNC Field

2011-08-20T09:16:00.001-04:00

Game 125, Friday, August 19, PNC Field, Moosic, PA
Durham Bulls 7, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 4
Season: 73-52; Trip: 6-2; Streak: 6-0; Games Remaining: 17
Wrap, Box, Times-Tribune

Don't get me wrong, I'll take a win anywhere, anytime. But I am just a bit wistful that this beautiful run hasn't taken place at the DBAP. After all, home is where teams are supposed to play their best, right? This year the Bulls don't seem to care where they're playing. They are 37-26 at home and 36-26 on the road.

Last night started off worrisome. We expressed some concern about Brian Baker yesterday and the very beginning of the game bore that out. The Bulls got a run in the top of the first, but the first three Yankees to bat had a single, a double and a home run. Not good. But, as hoped, the Bulls bats were with them and they got two runs back in the top of the 2nd off a bases-loaded double by Brandon Guyer. Unfortunately, the leadoff batter for the Yankees in their 2nd hit a home run to put the Yankees back ahead. This was beginning to look like a very long game for all concerned (and it did end up going almost 3 hours).

What helped a lot was that the Yankees pitcher was having as much or more trouble as Baker. Dan Johnson led off the Bulls' 3rd with a homer, Baker settled down for the 3rd and 4th. The Bulls picked up two more runs in the 4th.

Brandon Guyer had a terrific night: triple, double, two singles, 4 RBI. Stephen Vogt played 1B (Anderson still out, Dan Johnson DHing) and had a double, single, and 1 RBI. Dan Johnson had a homer, double, and single. 13 hits in all for the Bulls.

The Bullpen: They have really stepped up for this streak. As noted in the wrap, but worth repeating here, in this six game run the relievers have put in 20 2/3 innings and only allowed one earned run!

This might have been the last game the Bulls play at PNC Field for a couple of years. Apparently a major renovation is in the works and the Yankees may play no games at home next year. Interesting that it was first reported in Baseball America, not the local newspaper.

What I'd hope for is that with a renovation they'll also hire a television crew. For most of the games of this session your subscription to MiLB.TV got you a fixed, wide-angle camera shot from high above home plate. Bit like watching a video game with figures scurrying around on the ground way below you. At first kinda cute, since audio feed of Neil Solondz was on a 45-second delay. You would see folks scurrying around and then wait for the play-by-play. In the end, however, it was just irritating. They had regular TV coverage for one of A-Rod's games, but that was the only time. Too bad.

The Bulls got on the bus to head for two games in Norfolk, then a day off, and then the last home stand. Can't wait.

Governors' Cup — What's Up?

2011-08-19T15:05:00.001-04:00

The International League has put up their first look at this year's championship race. [Click on the link here]

More on the topic later, but the key info is:

First round, best of five:

First two games: West Division @ South Division; North Division @ Wild Card
Next games at West and North

Championship round, best of five:

First two games: North/Wild Card winner @ West/South winner
Next games: reverse

Why Governors' Cup (note the location of the apostrophe)? Well ...

In 1933....the Governors of Maryland, New Jersey, and New York and the Lieutenant Governors of the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario sponsored a trophy to be awarded annually to the winner of the International League playoffs.

Buffalo won, Rochester was the runner-up, Newark and Baltimore were in the playoffs. Over the years four "international" teams have won the cup: Havana, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. More.

Russ Goes Home

2011-08-19T09:25:00.001-04:00

Game 124, Thursday, August 18, PNC Field, Moosic, PA

Durham Bulls 5, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 1

Season: 72-52; Trip: 5-2; Streak: 5-0, Games Left in Regular Season: 18

Wrap, Box, Wild Card

The 10,000+ fans who came to see Alex Rodriguez on Wednesday dwindled to 3,000+ for Thursday. Apparently most of those came to see the Bulls' Russ Canzler. He put on a show for them and got some love in the local newspaper. Deservedly so. The local lad (from nearby Hazelton) had three hits, including a big home run in the 8th.

Every year it seems the Bulls have a non-40-man roster guy who is beating on the door of the Rays in August. This year it's Russ Canzler. We can hope that the Rays are listening — just wait for the playoffs to be over, if you don't mind.

Meanwhile the Bulls infield continued with some simply stellar baseball. Six double plays! OK, two of them came after errors by Bulls' infielders that let runners on in the first place, but six in one game has to be some sort of season high. (Am I too lazy to go leafing through all the box score? You bet I am.) Ray Olmedo's hitting might have fallen off a cliff since coming to Pennsylvania (0-8), but he and Tim Beckham make one heck of a pair out there at short and second. Pretty to watch them. Beckham, by the way, got his second home run of his brief AAA career. His rep was not as a batsman, but 7 RBI in 8 games for a leadoff batter is quite an accomplishment.

With that kind of defense, as long as you're not giving up home runs, a pitcher can do just fine. Alex Torres went seven innings, Jay Buente finished off the last two.

The Bulls have won five in a row. The Yankees have lost eight in a row. Brian Baker is starting tonight. Time for the big bats to roll out, cause Baker is gonna give up a couple of runs. We like Mr. Baker a lot, but he has only pitched 3 innings since July 25. We hope he's ready to come back.

Speaking of coming back, catcher Robinson Chirinos, last seen in a Bulls uniform in Pawtucket on July 16, is coming back. John Jaso has finished his rehab and went to St. Petersburg yesterday. With Brandon Guyer back and covering center field, outfielder John Matulia was sent to Montgomery. Hope he's ready to come back, because I'm guessing the Rays are gonna want to take a look at Guyer in September.

Pleased to read that Alex Cobb's surgery was successful.

Chart

What we're looking at here is the team wOBAs for each of the last 15 games. The green bars are the Bulls, the red bars are the Bulls' opponents. The Bulls won 10 of the last 15 games and the widening gap between the trend lines helps explain why — pitching and defense has been just terrific. By the way, the Bulls are now 20 games over .500, the best they've been all year.

Two Games in Moosic

2011-08-18T08:57:00.001-04:00

Game 122, Tuesday, Aug 16, PNC Field, Moosic, PA
Durham Bulls 2, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 0
Wrap, Box, Scranton Times-Tribune

Game 123, Wednesday, Aug 17, PNC Field
Durham Bulls 3, SWB Yankees 2
Wrap, Box, Scranton Times-Tribune, IL Wild Card
Season: 71-52; Trip: 4-2; Streak: 4-0

It sounded like a good fraction of eastern Pennsylvania came to Moosic to boo Alex Rodriguez the last two nights. I guess I don't understand the hostility he generates within Yankee fandom. But they drove out to the park to watch him play and give him a hard time. He responded by giving balls away to youngsters near the third base line.

In the meantime, the Bulls won two games, making it four in a row and putting them nineteen games above .500. That's the best they've been all year. Gwinnett has split the last two games and is four games back in the South (2.5 in the Wild Card). Toledo has joined Rochester and Norfolk in falling completely out of contention.

The first game saw four batters hit by pitches (two by Yankees pitching, two by Bulls pitching), but none of them scored. No HBPs in the second game.

Matt Torra looks better each game he pitches. The Bulls are inching toward having a starting rotation! Four out of five slots (Torra, Moore, Sonnanstine, and Torres) are doing pretty well. What about the fifth slot? Not much hope there unless Hayhurst comes off the DL or the Rays decide to promote someone from Montgomery.

In the first game, Matt Carson, the new guy we haven't seen on the field in Durham yet, hit a home run and Dan Johnson knocked in John Jaso. Torra, Beunte, and Delaney combined for the Bulls first shutout in a couple of weeks.

Matt Moore had his least effective start as a Bull in the second game, but at least the pitchers quit throwing at each other's batters. And Moore got another 8 K's (in just four innings) while only allowing one run (a homer). His pitch count was way up by the end of the 4th though (84).

How about the Bulls rehabber, John Jaso? While all the attention was on Rodriguez, Jaso seems to be coming along. He DH'd on Tuesday and caught his first complete game on Wednesday. 1-8 at bat with 1 walk and 4 K's, so needs some work. Hope that it doesn't come at the Bull's expense. Don't like seeing Vogt out of the lineup when he's been so hot.

Speaking of being hot, Russ Canzler got one of the RBIs last night. This is, sort of, a hometown crowd for him. And then there's Tim Beckham with another triple and two of the runs scored last night.

I missed the last couple of lead-ins to the game broadcasts. If someone has heard the update on Leslie Anderson, please jump in. He was hit by a pitch in the second game on Monday and limped off the field. Has not played since.

Bye Bisons

2011-08-16T10:42:00.001-04:00

Game 120, Monday, August 15, Coca-Cola Field
Durham Bulls 2, Buffalo Bison 1 (7 Innings)
Box

Game 121, Monday, August 15
Durham Bulls 8, Buffalo Bison 3 (8 Innings)
Season: 69-52; This Trip: 2-2
Wrap, Box, Buffalo News, Wild Card

To be honest, given the track record of the last two games, I was really worried about the bottom of the 7th in the first game yesterday (7-inning game). The Bulls had gone ahead 2-1 on a triple by young Mr. Beckham that drove in Ray Olmedo. I was putting gas in my car and had rolled down the rear window so I could hear the game. Andy Sonnanstine had gotten the first out but then gave up a single. Rob Delaney came in. A popup for the second out. Runner on first stole second. Gas pump dings. Batter grounds out to Johnson at first. Game over. Breath easier. Put nozzle back on the pump. Go on home.

At home with MiLB TV fired up for the second game, I begin to wonder if some bad karma could be out there. Former Bull Fernando Perez hit his very first home run (!) as a Bison and put Buffalo ahead 3-1. The Bulls got one back in the 4th, but then another former Bull, reliever Dale Thayer, came in for the 6th and weaseled out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation.

The planets come back into a proper alignment in the 7th, however, when Mr. Beckham hit a double, got to third on a Brandon Guyer sacrifice, and came home to tie the game on a Stephen Vogt sacrifice fly.

Mike Ekstrom kept things under control in the bottom of the 7th and Russ Canzler led off the 8th with a game winning home run, the first home run for a Bull since August 10 (Canzler and Ashley).

The icing on the cake was Tim Beckham's grand slam three batters later. Beckham hit for the cycle over the two games and accounted for five of the ten runs scored by the Bulls, not bad. See the Buffalo News link above for some comments by Beckham and Charlie Montoyo about his stellar night.

Dane De La Rosa came in to close things out and the Bulls were off to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Expect intense press coverage of the Bulls-Yankees games the next couple of nights. But not likely to have anything to do with Tim Beckham or Justin Ruggiano's bursitis of the knee.

Alex Rodriguez is scheduled for a rehab start with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and the eyes of Yankee faithful will be watching what he does. A challenge for Bulls starter Matt Torra.

The sweep of the double header puts the Bulls three games ahead of Gwinnett. With recent losses, Norfolk and Rochester have been officially eliminated from contention.

Waiting for Baseball

2011-08-15T10:55:00.001-04:00

Just for the record ...

Game 119, Saturday, August 13, Coca-Cola Field, Buffalo, New York
Buffalo Bisons 7, Durham Bulls 6
Wrap, Box, Buffalo News

Two notable things about the game: Brandon Guyer was back in the lineup and did very well; and the bullpen lost the second game in a row.

Rainout last night. Double header starts at 5:00 today (7 inning games).

Charts

About that bullpen. This chart shows the cumulative ERAs of the Bulls starters, relievers, and team for the last 15 games. With the team at over a 1,000 innings, the numbers are hard to move. But the last couple games are discouraging. Let's hope it's an anomaly. The bullpen has made a huge difference this year. The Bulls need for them to keep it up.

How about the hitters? Pretty good. For the last 10 games, the ups are really up (Canzler, Johnson, Furmaniak). And the downs are minor.

I really like wOBA as a measure of offense, but from this scatter chart it doesn't look like it tells you all that you'd like about wins and losses. These are the teams with a shot at the playoffs. Scranton/WB is 7 games back in the North Division and 6 games back in the wild card. Their wOBA is awfully good, though. They are the Bulls next opponent and based on their wOBA, the Bulls could have some work to do. Source: StatCorner.

A New York Night

2011-08-13T10:07:00.003-04:00

Game 118, Friday, August 12, Coca-Cola Field, Buffalo, New York
Buffalo Bisons (Mets) 3, Durham Bulls (Rays) 2
Season: 67-51, Road Trip: 0-1, Home Games Remaining: 9
Wrap, Box, Wild Card, Buffalo News

The Bulls started off the game with three straight hits and scored one run off Bison starting pitcher Pat Misch. Misch then struck out the side (and struck out 9 more Bulls in his 8+ inning start).

The Bisons started off the bottom of the 7th with three straight hits off reliever Dane De La Rosa, scoring a run. A hit by pitch and a grounder added a second run, and a wild pitch scored a third run. That was enough to win the game.

Matt Moore had a good night with a solid six innings. De La Rosa had an awful 2/3 of an inning. To his credit, Pat Misch went 8 1/3 very well-pitched innings. I was not happy to see Dale Thayer come on for the last two outs of the 9th. For some reason the sight of Fernando Perez in a Bisons uniform doesn't bother me as much as Thayer.

Web World

Joe Posnanski has a terrific meditation on the current state of baseball in a recent Sports Illustrated, Loving Baseball. [Thanks, John]
Dirk Hayhurst looks at some of the cross-cultural dynamics burbling under the surface in minor league ball.

Charts

Time to take a look at the runs scored/runs allowed picture. Not bad at all. The Pythagorean Expectation for the Bulls based on these numbers is 64-54, well below the actual 67-51. The general thinking about variation with the expectation is that it's a function of luck and bullpen, i.e., the Bull's bullpen is doing a great job and they've had some luck. Makes sense to me. Our bullpen has been doing a good job ... mostly.

How about the guys who play in the bandbox by the bay? They are also on an upward trend. Their Expectation (64-54) exactly matches their actual record.

Click on charts for larger image

Nice Home Stand

2011-08-12T10:17:00.002-04:00

Game 117, Thursday, August 11, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Durham Bulls 6, Rochester Red Wings 1
Season: 67-50; Home Games Remaining: 9
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Indy Week, Wild Card

The Bulls are off to Buffalo today after a very good 5-3 home stand. They have four games in Buffalo, four games against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, two games against the Norfolk Tides, a day off, and then are back here for their last home stand of 9 games (including a double header on August 27).

Matt Torra, who has been improving steadily since his arrival from Reno, had a very solid seven innings last night. The Red Wings did not get a baserunner until the last of the 3rd inning and didn't get a runner to second base until the 5th. Torra isn't a strikeout kind of guy, but he doesn't walk many either (none last night). He lets the fielders do the work and last night that worked out just fine. Particularly notable was John Matulia's over the shoulder grab of a Justin Marneau shot to deep, deep centerfield in the 6th and J.J. Furmaniak's nifty grab of a foul ball out of the Red Wing's dugout in the 7th. Torra did give up a home run, but that was it.

Adam Russell (let's be very quiet here and not disturb anything) continued his 0.00 ERA performance since his arrival. Rob Delaney closed out the 9th.

Russ Canzler continued his amazing performance — walk, single, triple, 2 runs scored. He leads or is close to the lead in a bunch of International League categories: Doubles (#1), Slugging (#1), Runs Scored (#1), Total Bases (#2), RBI (#3), Hits (#3), OBP (#2), Extra Base Hits (#1), Batting Average (#4), OPS (#1).

Ray Olmedo almost hit his first home run of the year, but the umps got together and decided that the ball hit the top of the fence. But Ray got 2 RBI out of the hit at any rate. His double was part of a four-run 2nd inning that was enough, with Torra's pitching, to win the game going away.

For a game oddity we had the Red Wings third baseman Chase Lambin get thrown out of the game while standing on first base after hitting a single to left. Speculation was that he griped about the ump's call of a close play earlier in the game. Don't think I've seen that happen before

Tim Beckham's first game as a Bull was notable for not being notable. He handled several plays straightforwardly and got an infield hit.

As seem to be the norm this year, we can expect more roster changes as the Bulls hit the road.

The Herald-Sun and the Indy Week links above report that Justin Ruggiano is coming back to the Bulls as part of a rehab assignment. The Indy Week piece expresses some of the same cynicism that I have about this move. My hope is that Ruggiano doesn't let his maltreatment by the Rays affect his play. He could be a huge asset over the next couple of weeks, and he doesn't count against the Bulls 24 man limit.
The same links are also reporting that Brandon Guyer and Matt Carson may be about to come off the DL. If so, someone will probably have to leave. My guess would be John Matulia back to Montgomery.
There are some terrific photos at the Indy Week link.

Ups ... and Downs

2011-08-11T08:58:00.001-04:00

Game 115, Tuesday, August 9, DBAP
Durham Bulls 10, Rochester Red Wings 6
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

Game 116, Wednesday, August 10, DBAP
Red Wings 11, Bulls 3
Season: 66-50; Home Games Remaining: 10
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner

The lights flickered on Tuesday night, but all was well in the end.

But last night. Last night. Last night. Oh, woe. Oh, woe. Let's just tell the worst of it and move on to something else. The scoring summary gives a clue. Durham: 12 hits and 3 runs. Rochester: 8 hits and 11 runs. How can that be? Good question.

It all started in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Bulls starter Ryan Reid's "troubles" began with a two-out walk to Rochester right fielder Rene Tosoni. Reid then proceeded to walk the bases full, but got off the hook with a grounder to third.

The 3rd inning was possibly the worst inning I've seen the Bulls play this year. Mr. Reid walked the first two batters. Ray Olmedo (at shortstop) bobbled a grounder from the third batter and the bases were loaded. Reid then walked in a run and was pulled.

Brian Baker came in for his first appearance since July 25th. (Note to broadcaster Steve Barnes — love the stories you and Scott Pose tell each other, but love background on players more. No background on Baker's long vacation from baseball. Had to look it up after I got home.) Baker induced an easy ground ball and I'm thinking, OK another run but things will be OK. But Olmedo committed his second error of the inning and two runs scored, leaving runners on first and second. Double, single and three more runs were in. Three runs on two hits. It would have been worse except for an accurate throw from outfielder John Matulia to home that caught an overaggressive Rochester baserunner trying to score from first on the third hit off of Baker. But, I have to note that the run saved by Matulia was given back with a throw into the dugout after a Rochester double in the 7th. That runner then scored — a "Little League Home Run."

Last note before going on to other things: The 11 walks awarded by Bulls pitching was the most in a game this year and, to explain the rest of that odd scoring summary, Rochester's four double plays meant that a lot of the Bulls hits didn't lead to runs.

Web World

Over on Rays Prospects their analysis of hitting prospects has been updated.
Ever wonder what the Arizona Fall League was about? DRaysBay has the answer.
A fire almost got to 620's broadcast tower the other day.
Reid Brignac gets an enthusiastic welcome back into the loving arms of Rays Manager Maddon. And honestly, if you were sitting on a jury, would you believe that story about Ruggiano's knee? I didn't think so.
Here's a listing of the top 25 minor league ballparks in the country. Two in North Carolina make the list. The DBAP isn't one of them.
I really like Nicole Johnson's Life of the Baseball Wife blog. Here are a couple of recent stories. Coping with "sportmanship"; a day in the life; and dealing with the other love.

Cobb Out for the Year

2011-08-10T22:02:00.002-04:00

According to a couple of sources (MLB.com, St. Pete Times) Alex Cobb will undergo surgery in a few days to remove a "blockage" near his right rib. To be honest, I haven't a clue what that means other than he won't be pitching again this year.

Cobb started the season with the Bulls and made two trips to Tampa Bay before sticking there on the third trip. Twelve appearances with the Bulls, 5-1, stellar ERA of 1.87.

We were indulging ourselves with the fantasy that he might come back for a couple of games. That isn't going to happen. In fact, if the Rays want to take it easy on their starters for the rest of the year, they now have a space on their 40-man for someone like Matt Moore.

Alex Torres and Andy Sonnanstine are the only Bulls starters on the 40-man. One of them could be going up soon.

Brignac Back to Tampa Bay

2011-08-10T13:46:00.002-04:00

Marc Topkin is reporting that Reid Brignac is going back to the Rays. Justin Ruggiano going on the DL made room.

At the moment that leaves the Bulls with only 10 active position players — Brandon Guyer and Matt Carson haven't been playing. With Jaso here on rehab maybe they can get by in the near term, but have to think an outfielder will be called up before the hit the road on Friday.

Was fun having you here, Reid. Best of luck down in the bandbox by the Bay.

Update: As Jamie commented and Stacy Long just reported, shortstop and top prospect Tim Beckham is on his way. We've been waiting to see this young man since he was drafted in 2008.

I was, of course, wrong in my prediction, but what's new there? Have to say that I think this is a terrific choice. Beckham will also have the chance to play with Ray Olmedo for a while, which I think would be a help.

The Rays and Alex Cobb

2011-08-09T13:12:00.001-04:00

Rays Index has an interesting piece on the relationship between David Price’s troubles this year and his workload last year. |Rays Index|

That brought to mind Alex Cobb’s recent trek to the disabled list. My concern is that the Rays are not paying enough attention to Cobb’s workload this year.

First I need to point out that this quote also set my teeth on edge. It is from the MLB.com item on Cobb going to DL. Buried in the article that reported Alex Cobb going on the disabled list was this comment.

Cobb did not say anything to Joe Maddon prior to -- or during -- Saturday night’s game. The Rays manager said that Cobb needs to be more up front about any problems in the future.

What struck me about Maddon’s quote was that it sounded like classic “blame the victim” kind of thinking. Alex Cobb is 23 years old and has never done anything in his adult life except play baseball. Was he supposed to go whimpering to the manager if his arm doesn’t feel quite right? Not very likely. Shouldn’t all those coaches be watching a youngster like Cobb?

That sent me off on a modest number chase. Putting off all the usual commentary about modern pitcher’s conditioning, here’s what I found: ML Stats; Minor League Stats

So far this year Mr. Cobb has pitched in 9 AAA games and 12 major league games for 119 innings. That’s as many innings as he pitched in all of 2010 in AA (he pitched 10 more innings in the AAA playoffs) and about the same number of innings as in 2009 (124). He pitched a few more in 2008 (139).

Does it make sense for him to have pitched 119 innings by August 6th of his first year in the majors?

Don’t know.

What do you think? Is there someone out there who understands all this pitch f/x stuff that can do a deeper analysis? Did the Rays break young Mr. Cobb?

Double, Double

2011-08-09T08:47:00.001-04:00

Game 114, August 8, DBAP
Durham Bulls (Rays) 6, Rochester Red Wings (Twins) 5
Season: 65-49; Streak: 3-0; Home Games Remaining: 12
Wrap, Box, Examiner, Wild Card

I was sitting next to a teacher of Shakespeare last night, so forgive the headline. Nevertheless, it does point out to a key feature of the game: The Red Wings put a lot of runners on base, but the Bulls turned four double plays. Here's the quirk (of course there's a quirk, why else would I mention it?), two of the four were started by the pitcher.

Alex Torres has had better starts. It took him 91 pitches just to get through five innings. On the other hand, in the 5th he had runners on second and third, one out, and got two K's to end the inning.

Russ Canzler continues with a hot bat, single, two doubles, two RBI. Leslie Anderson continues to struggle, 0 for 4. Stephen Vogt's 9-game OPS of 1.111 warms the heart (along with two critical RBI last night).

The highlight play of the evening came in the 9th. Adam Russell came in to close, but the first batter dinked one over third base. The sacrifice bunt was popped up and Russell stretched out all of his 6'8" and flopped to the ground, catching the ball. By that time the runner on first was standing on second. He had no chance of making it back before Russell tossed the ball to first. (Note: play is on the video highlights at Bulls website.) Russell's first save. In four appearances no runs scored.

The big deal was the appearance of famous big leaguer Justin Morneau rehabbing his way back to Minneapolis. I'm guessing that since he's not actually assigned to AAA he doesn't have to follow AAA rules. He was wearing a one-flap major leaguer's batting helmet. Here's a guy who's missed a lot of baseball from a concussion, but still wants to look good, I suppose. I'm reminded of the motorcycle guys protesting helmet laws. Have always thought that as long as they've signed their organ donor cards they should be allowed to go bare-headed. Maybe the same should apply to baseball players.

With this win the Bulls went 16 games over .500, the best they've been all year. Could not have picked a better time in the season.

As careful readers know, the business of baseball is not my forte. So when it's announced that a player has been "exposed to waivers" my reply is usually, "Huh?" Rays Index makes an attempt to explain recent "exposures" by the Rays.

Baseball in the Steam Room

2011-08-08T09:08:00.003-04:00

Game 113, August 7, DBAP, Durham, North Carolina
Durham Bulls 6, Lehigh Valley IronPigs 4
Season: 64-49; Home Games Remaining: 13
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Wild Card

Matt Moore showed himself to be human last night, allowing two runs in the 7th inning of what turned out to be a 6-4 game. But he also had a bit of bad luck up at the scoring table. Yes, he did start the inning by giving up a double and a single, putting runners on first and third. But Reid Brignac really did botch the grounder hit to him by Lehigh Valley's Josh Barfield — probably getting ahead of himself going for a double play. Instead of what should have been an E6, the grounder was scored as a hit. That meant that the run scoring from third was scored an earned run and on the books against Moore. If an error then the run goes on the books as unearned. The next run that scored (on a wild pitch from Jay Buente) might also have been unearned. And Moore's fabulous numbers would have been even better. Oh well, Moore will just have to live with the awful 1.09 ERA. Nice to see Moore's work so well recognized by Bulls fans as he left in the 7th. Gonna have to work on his hat tip, though.

This series with the IronPigs tested the mettle of the roster that we are likely to see through August and the end of the season. Although the changes are far from over, as you'll see below, we can hope that the pace of change will dampen down some. Russ Canzler rediscovered both his power and plate discipline last night with a single, double, home run, and a walk. Stephen Vogt's home run turned out to be very important. John Matulia's bat is hidden somewhere on the other side of Magnum St. Reid Brignac laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, but still isn't hitting all that well. Dan Johnson had the day off. My point is that this is the team we'll be watching for the rest of the month and they are playing pretty well, with each having his ups and downs. Given the brutal heat, that has to be expected.

Speaking of the heat, yesterday was just awful. Again, all praise to the conditioning of these young men.

The Bulls gained a game on Gwinnett and are now 2 1/2 games ahead of Gwinnett.

Roster changes. Brian Baker is back from his stay on the Hudson Valley roster. As noted in an earlier post, Cesar Ramos went back to St. Petersburg. The Bulls have no left-handers in the bullpen at all. John Jaso is coming back to the Bulls for what may be an extended rehab assignment. Should be in the lineup by tomorrow. That will help out a lot.

Question of the day: Who is the catcher who's been warming up pitchers while Ashley's been behind the plate and Vogt's been in left field? Not Craig Albernaz, too tall, too much hair. No name on his jersey. Anybody know? Anonymous answers welcome.

Last roster change: Broadcaster Neil Solondz has been called up to St. Petersburg for a few days. He's expected to rejoin the Bulls in Buffalo where he can spend the evening telling Fernando Perez stories.

Update: Oops! Forgot to put up the link to the fabulous Brignac-Johnson play on the 6th.

Ramos to Tampa Bay; Cobb to DL

2011-08-07T12:07:00.001-04:00

Durham Bulls reliever, lefty Cesar Ramos, is on his way back to Tampa Bay. Alex Cobb, who spent much of 2011 with the Bulls, has been put on the disabled list. Cobb reported "discomfort" in his pitching hand Saturday night. Details are not yet available. |The Heater|

Ramos had four appearances for four innings while with the Bulls. He was the only left-hander in the Bulls bullpen. Montoyo won't have to bother pointing to an arm when he goes out the the mound for a while.

How About Them Hats?

2011-08-07T11:07:00.002-04:00

I had been thinking about doing an attempt at humor based on the star wars jerseys the Bulls wore on August 6th. So I accumulated a bunch of not-very-good images last night. Then I noticed something else that seemed to my quirky mind to be even more amusing. Take a look at Reid Brignac as a Ray and Brignac as a Bull. Notice anything different?

Yep. It's the hats. In the minor league players are required to wear a higher standard of batting helmet than in the majors.

Why don't they wear top of the line batting helmets in the majors? 'Cause they ain't pretty and the players' union doesn't like them.

So, here's the deal, Reid. Just stay here with the Bulls and keep your brains from getting jellied. Who cares about being pretty?

On the other hand, any player concerned about his image better stay in the majors. 'Cause when he comes back here he's gonna look pretty goofy.

The Force Triumphs!

2011-08-07T09:39:00.001-04:00

Game 112, August 6, DBAP, Durham, North Carolina
Durham Bulls 6, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs 2
Season: 63-49; Home Games Remaining: 14
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week, Bacon and Biscuits, Wild Card

We had another this-is-why-we-go-to-the-ballpark moments last nights and it was really special. Top of the 5th inning, two outs. Ground ball between third and short. Reid Brignac goes deep into left field, grabs it, jump throw, and Dan Johnson really stretches to the right of the bag (actually ends up flat on his back) for the catch. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Clip is on Bulls website. Catch it now. They tend to disappear after a day.

Overall, the night belonged to Matt Torra and the bottom of the batting order, especially former Iron Pig J.J. Furmaniak. We haven't been impressed with Mr. Torra since he came down from the Sierra Nevada (Reno) to the Piedmont. But he only gave up three hits in his first five innings and was very efficient. The 6th was troublesome and he probably should have been pulled, but he got out of it hanging on to a lead.

Iron Pig starter Ryan Fierabrand pretty much made his own bed in the 2nd inning by walking the first two batters. Then, single, single, double, double and he was five runs down. The last four batters in the Bulls lineup — Mayora, Ashley, Matulia, and Furmaniak — got six of the Bulls 8 hits, scored 4 of the six runs, and had 5 of the 6 RBIs. Well done!

Today Matt Moore is on the mound. Since there are only 15 home games left, the odds are very high that he may only pitch in Durham one more time before the end of the year (unless he doesn't get called up, or he appears in the playoffs). Today may be your last chance!

Durham Bulls Losing At Home Have Been

2011-08-06T09:18:00.001-04:00

Game 111, August 5, DBAP
Lehigh Valley IronPigs 4, Durham Bulls 3
Season: 62-49; Streak: 0-2; Home Games Remaining: 15
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, Bacon & Biscuits

We'll get to that image in a moment. First let's talk about the Bulls new bullpen, especially the left-handed relief specialist Cesar Ramos. He faced three batters in the 5th, all left-handed. He came in with runners on first and second, two outs, and his first batter hit a double to send in the runner from second and tie the game. He walked his second batter and got the third to hit a weak base-loaded liner to short to finish the inning. The IronPigs lefty specialist (Mike Zagursky) came on in the 7th and 8th inning and the game at 4-3. He faced four Bulls left-handed batters and got them all out.

Joe Bateman took the loss, possibly from trying too hard on a close play at first. It is not going to be easy to come from behind with this team. Russ Canzler, more often than not the hero, had the best chance in a bases loaded situation in the 5th, but couldn't pull it off.

About the image. Tonight is a "Star Wars" night at the DBAP in support of the Autism Society of North Carolina. The players will be in special jerseys that have already drawn a some attention on the web. They will be actioned during the game. I'll be putting a couple hundred bucks up for Reid Brignac's jersey. I'm sure that Cork Gaines of Rays Index will reimburse me.

The big down side of the Star Wars theme is that it's likely to encourage broadcaster Neil Solondz's propensity towards "Yodaisms". A Yoda-ism is a sentence with the verb stuck out on the end such as, "Tonight Dan Johnson on first base playing is." Or, "Russ Canzler deep fly ball off the Blue Monster hit." On the other hand, unlike some political figures of the past, most of the time his sentences do have a verb. I guess we should be thankful for that.

We do need the Force, however. This winning on the road (7-3), losing at home (5-6), needs to change.

The Herald-Sun did a piece on IronPigs manager, Ryne Sandberg. Worth a look.

He Wuz Safe!

2011-08-05T08:43:00.001-04:00

Look closely at this one. Photo courtesy Craig Robinson of FlipFlopFlyBall

Game 110, August 4, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Phillies) 5, Durham Bulls (Rays) 3
Season: 62-48; Home Games Remaining: 16
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Examiner, Bacon & Biscuit, Horn and Bell, Indy Week

Dan Johnson, safe at home in the 8th, wuz what shoulda been. But it wasn't. And even if the call had been right the Bulls would still have been behind 5-4 with two outs and a runner on second. But he wuz safe ump.

I'm not quite sure what can be said about Andy Sonnanstine. Outside of the terrible 4th inning — and it was terrible — he did a decent job. The same can be said of all of his four starts since he showed up in the middle of last month. His overall numbers (ERA, FIP, WHIP, etc) aren't that bad, but he's been on the losing end of his starts twice and has one no-decision to go with his one win. He does eat up innings, usually. And he is a very efficient pitcher, a pitch to contact kind of guy. It's just when the "contact" is single, single, double, double, triple, hit by pitch, sac fly, as it was in last night's 5th, it's troublesome.

The practical reality is that the Bulls' starting pitching has been troublesome all year (ERA 4.28) and it is not getting better (with the exception of the exceptional Mr. Moore). An innings-eater is welcome, if we can get away from the big innings.

Dan Johnson looked good at the plate last night. Stephen Vogt continues being very impressive. New guy Matt Carson pulled a hamstring and left the game. Not good.

The IronPigs closer Michael Schwimer was every bit as impressive as reported. The Bulls need to avoid situations where he gets called in because I don't think they'll get much when he is. I'm not sure what catcher Erik Kratz's nickname might be, but he looks like he should be playing middle linebacker, not catcher. At 6'4", 255, he is a presence behind the plate and at bat. Maybe D.J. should have been happy that in that close play Kratz was pulled a bit off. If he'd been fully blocking the plate there's no doubt who would have won the contest.

Bulls reliever Ryan Reid gets the spot start tonight. Heat is not supposed to be quite as brutal today. No watches or warnings for the first time in quite a while.

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs

2011-08-04T22:39:00.003-04:00

As far as I can tell, only three fanblogs are devoted to International League baseball: WDBB and two that follow the IronPigs, Bacon & Biscuits and The Horn and Bell.

Back when the Bulls were visiting Lehigh Valley we answered a couple of questions for Matt Creedon of Bacon & Biscuits. For the IronPigs visit to Durham, Matt agreed to answer a couple of ours.

WDBB: The Durham Bulls of August have 12 new players on their roster (some up from Montgomery, some down from Tampa Bay, and a couple that were traded for on the open market. Have the IronPigs had a similar turnover in personnel?

B & B: The IronPigs have had a lot of roster changes this season - many of them involving key players - and we just had some more Tuesday night. Shortstop Brian Bocock, who was in his 2nd season with the Pigs, was sent to Pittsburgh while two players from our Double-A team (Reading) were brought up to see significant playing time. Both of the players are on the 40 man roster so they will take away time from our usual starters. Most fans aren't happy about it, but that's minor league baseball. What are ya gunna do?

WDBB: Who should we be watching among the starters, pitchers, and position players?

B & B: Here's what you need to know about the current IronPigs: All of our starting pitchers are pretty consistent across the board. Five or six innings, three runs, maybe 6 or 7 hits. Definitely a bend but don't break rotation. Bullpen is up there with the best in the minor leagues (and maybe better than some major league teams).

Right now the offense is having a terrible time with runners in scoring position. Since June 16, the Pigs are hitting .216 with RISP. No one seems capable of coming up with the big hit. If we got just a few clutch hits, we'd probably have the division wrapped up (unofficially of course).

As far as players to watch, I suppose you'd start with top Phillies prospect (or at least rookie at this point) Domonic Brown. When the Phils acquired Pence they sent Brown down and moved him to left field in order to take over for Raul Ibanez next season. He recently set the IronPigs hit streak record at 21 games. Keep an eye on catcher Erik Kratz, outfielder Brandon Moss, outfielder Rich Thompson, and outfielder Delwyn Young as well.

Michael Schwimer is our best arm out of the 'pen followed by Drew Carpenter, Mike Zagurski, and Justin De Fratus. Everyone out there has been great this season though.

WDBB: Do you think either of us can beat Columbus in the playoffs?

B & B: I think the IronPigs can beat Columbus. We took three of four from them two weeks ago and they were pretty dominant wins. In early May we split the four game set in Ohio. I can't speak for Durham, but I will say that I believe the Clippers are very beatable. Let's just get there first.

WDBB: Thanks, Matt!

Durham Bulls Home Stand, Aug 4-11

2011-08-04T13:29:00.004-04:00

The Durham Bulls baseball team, the Triple-A franchise of the Tampa Bay Rays, returns today (Thursday) after 2 games on the road. They are coming back from a short trip down to Ft Mill, South Carolina, where the Charlotte Knights play baseball. They won both games.

How are the Bulls doing this year?

Terrific. They are well above the .500 mark (62-47) and a game and a half game ahead the Atlanta Braves AAA team, the Gwinnett Braves, in the contest for the International League’s South Division championship.

The Bulls have played 109 games out of a 142 game season that ends in early September.

For more details about the Bulls and the International League, take a look at Bulls Basics on the “Favorite Links” list.

Who are they?

The Durham Bulls are a mix of major league veterans, prospects (young players moving up through the system), and AAA veterans. What’s the difference as far as the game you see at the DBAP goes? Very little. These are all professional ballplayers who have been in the game anywhere from 5 years (outfielder John Matulia) to 11 seasons (first baseman Dan Johnson). They are managed by one of the most successful minor league managers in baseball, Charlie Montoyo.

Their opponents

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Aug 4-8) are the Philadelphia Phillies AAA team. The Iron Pigs are having a year much like the Bulls. They are 63-49 on the year and a 1/2 game ahead of the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston’s AAA team. The Bulls played a four-game series against the Iron Pigs back in early June and split the series 2-2. They are likely to be the toughest team the Bulls see in the month of August.

[Update: August 4, Bulls split the series 2-2 in four well-played, fun to watch games.]

The Rochester Red Wings (Aug 8-11) are the Twins affiliate. They are having a tough year, 44-66. The Bulls played four games against them just a couple of weeks ago and won three out of four.

Bulls players to watch

The Bulls roster has really been turned over in July. Half of the pitchers and fielders are new to the team, some sent down from Tampa Bay, some up from the Montgomery Biscuits (the Rays AA team), and some purchased outright from other teams.

Pitchers: Matt Moore is possibly the best pitcher in minor league baseball. He should be pitching on Sunday. Alex Torres is another talented left-hander. He will probably pitch next Monday. Relief star from the 2010 Bulls, Joe Bateman, just re-joined the team. See Bulls of August, Pitchers.

Fielders: A bunch of new guys that are simply fun to watch, including catchers Stephen Vogt and Nevin Ashley just up from Montgomery, outfielder John Matulia also just up from Montgomery, and an outfielder from the Oakland A’s, Matt Carson.

Outfielder Russ Canzler is having a breakout year. Dan Johnson has been showing some of his old power the last couple of days. Shortstop Reid Brignac is down from Tampa Bay to work on his hitting. Ray Olmedo, J.J. Furmaniak, and young Daniel Mayora are keeping the infield sorted out. Leslie Anderson has been showing a lot of power recently. See Bulls of August, Position Players.

Like the last session, it looks to be blazingly hot for the beginning of the home stand. In the Terrace Reserved sections you’ve got monster fans that keep the air moving though. Stay still, drink lots of liquids, have fun.

Boom! Boom!

2011-08-04T09:29:00.001-04:00

Game 109, August 2, Knights Stadium, Ft Mill, South Carolina
Durham Bulls 5, Charlotte Knights 3
Season: 62-47; Streak: W-3; Remaining Home Games: 17
Wrap, Box

Of course, for John Lee Hooker it was Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! But two was enough last night. The Bulls went into the 7th tied at 3-3 after Cesar Ramos gave up a homer to the Knights. Reid Brignac flew out. New guy Matt Carson grounded out. Then new guy Stephen Vogt (at DH last night) banged a home run and then Dan Johnson came to bat and hit another. Cesar Ramos gets a blown save and a win.

The Bulls on the field were a bit different last night. Dan Johnson was on third base and Daniel Mayora was on second. Guess it was time for Ray Olmedo and J.J. Furmaniak to get a day off.

Has Alex Torres established himself? As a Bull, you bet he has. This was his 21st start for the Bulls. He only went five innings last night, but he has become pretty much the last man standing among the Bulls starting pitchers. Indeed, his 111 innings are more than twice as many innings as anyone on the current roster. Sure, we worry about him a lot. But we are not flinching when he starts a game the way we did at the beginning of the season. Keep it up.

Speaking of charts, here are a couple just to get us ready for this home stand. This shows only the current 13 pitchers on the roster. However, the team numbers are from all the 31 (!!!) pitchers who have stepped up on the mound for the Bulls this season.

The first chart shows the Fielding Independent Pitching numbers. Please note that for the new guys (remember half the pitching staff has joined the Bulls since July 1) the sample size is really, really small.

The second chart shows the walks and hits per inning pitched. In the case of both charts we have to worry about two pitchers, Matt Torra and Jay Buente. Both are relatively new to the team. We can hope they settle down.

click on charts for larger images