Bulls Got Shut Out, But Coming Home

Season: 32-23; Trip: 6-2
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The Bulls shut out the Mud Hens on Wednesday. The Hens returned the favor last night, shutting out the Bulls for just the second time this season. (The Bulls have five shutouts on the season.) The major downside of the loss has to be that a terrific 2-hit six inning performance by Nate Karns did not get rewarded with a win. Meanwhile, the Mud Hens won on a Mike Hessman double. Hessman is the same guy who hit two home runs against Bulls pitching on the 6th.

Outside the game —

• All in all a good road trip. The Bulls return leading the South Division of the International League 1½ games ahead of the Gwinnett Braves. Considerable roster turmoil. 
• I have subscribed to MiLB TV this year, but I usually mute the sound and listen to Patrick Kinas' stream. But this trip I did check in on the other broadcasters. That reminded me that we are lucky to have Patrick calling the Bulls' games. He's clearly interested in the game; doesn't go off on odd tangents (at least not too often); very smooth dealing with commercial necessities; and he gives the opposing teams and players their due. He often discovers a story to track through the game that is just fascinating. As an example, a couple of games ago Toledo catcher Luis Exposito could not do anything right, committing three errors (and there was a wild pitch that could have been called a passed ball). Patrick noticed it early and kept us interested in the story as the game progressed (which was otherwise a 7-0 blowout by the Bulls).
• The Bulls are making room on their roster for Alex Colome by moving Doug Mathis off to extended spring training.
• Cole Figueroa is coming back after an exciting time with the Rays. [MLB.com]My guess is that Robbie Price will be the one who goes to extended spring training to make room.

Matchup

The IronPigs are the Triple A franchise for the Philadelphia Phillies. Watch this space later on today for a guest blog post from our colleague in the Allentown area.

They are tied for second place in the very tight North Division race. [Standings]

 The anomaly in the table here is the Pythagorean Expectation projection since they have given up more runs than they have scored. As noted before, this implies an unusually effective relief corps. Maybe so.

One of the relievers starters is former Bull Chris Bootcheck. No other former Bulls jump out at me on the roster, although infielder Reid Brignac was with them earlier in the season. He is now with the Phillies.

The Durham Bulls in 2011 — The Pitchers: Part I

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

10,000 at the DBAP

Game 82, July 2, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) 4, Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) 1
Season: 44-38; Last 10: 4-6
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

As I was settling in for the game last night a friend of mind pointed out that I had been ranting a lot lately. On reflection, I realized he was right. I pledged to myself that I would just sit back, enjoy the game, and write about the interesting and positive things going on. After all, the unbeaten Alex Cobb was the starting pitcher.

And then there was the 1st Inning ...

Well, I'm going to stick with my pledge, so here goes:

After an unfortunate 1st inning, Alex Cobb gave up only two more hits in the remaining five innings that he pitched. He was followed by Rob Delaney and Jay Buente who combined to no-hit and shut out the Braves for the rest of the game. The Bulls, however, were not able to generate much offense against an excellent Gwinnett pitching crew.

The Bulls dropped one game behind the Braves in the South Division. However, they will be playing each other three more times in the next three days, so there's plenty of time to come back.

How's that?

* * * * *

Let's review all the roster changes of the last several days, just to get the record straight:

• Pitcher Chris Bootcheck has been released.
• Infielder Omar Luna was sent to the Charlotte Stone Crabs
• Infielder Daniel Mayora was called up from Montgomery
• Pitcher Ryan Reid was sent to Montgomery
• Pitcher Matt Torra was acquired from the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks)
• Pitcher Jay Buente came off the DL

I don't think that I've mentioned that Desmond Jennings, Brandon Guyer, and Russ Canzler were picked for the IL All-Star team. The Bulls' Neil Solondz was named to call the game that will be played in Salt Lake City on July 13. Congratulations to all.

Brandon Guyer was reported to be day-to-day from a back injury. He did not play last night.

Bulls fans should be pleased with the 6th inning of yesterday’s Rays-Cardinals game. The Rays loaded the bases mostly former Bulls: Damon (the sole exception), Matt Joyce, and B.J. Upton. Casey Kotchman (remember he started the season with the Bulls?) cleared the bases with a double. Justin Ruggiano hit a home run to bring Kotchman in. Win was recorded for former Bull Jeff Neimann. As an aside, Ruggiano is looking good at the plate and in the field. Sure is nice to see him doing well.

16 Innings of Not Very Good Baseball

Game 79, June 30, Knights Stadium
Charlotte Knights 6, Durham Bulls 3, 7 innings
Box

Game 80
Durham Bulls 7, Charlotte Knights 4, 9 innings
Season: 44-36; Last 10: 5-5; Trip: 2-1
Wrap, Box, MiLB.com

There’s so much not to like about these two games that it’s hard to know where to start.

Probably the best thing to do is to find at least a couple of good things to say about the game(s). Then go on to the ugly stuff.

Hmmmm.

Well, they tied the second game up in the 7th and R.J. Swindle, working much harder than he usually does, got the Bulls through the end of the inning and set up the extra innings.

And then there was just the sheer hanging in there for 16 innings of baseball until Jose Lobaton walked in the 9th and scored the go-ahead run all the way from second base on a Knight’s errant throw. Says something about the character of the team that they hung in there so well.

New guy Daniel Mayora got his first hit(s) and Leslie Anderson had a good night.

That’s about it.

On the other side of the ledger is the bottom of the 5th in the first game where the Bulls gave away a three run lead; the 11 strikeouts in the second game; the struggle to take advantage of the gifts of Charlotte pitching in the second game (12 walks, 5 in the 9th inning); the combined 5-21 with runners in scoring position in the two games; and the two home runs given up by Chris Bootcheck, his 8th and 9th of the year (is that why the Rays didn’t bring him up?).

These opt-outs are messing with my mind. Wonder if they are messing with the team’s mind as well.

Tied for first place. Could have slipped into second place without the late night win.

Turn the page. A new day.

Bootcheck Leaves Bulls

Interesting games last night. Not sure I want to write about them. According to the radio broadcast the second game of the double header was Chris Bootcheck’s last game. He had exercised the opt-out clause in his contract with the Rays.

Here’s a question for Rays’ management: What’s the point of all these opt out contracts?

With the departure of Chris Bootcheck, the Bulls have lost their third talented ballplayer in as many weeks. Bootcheck was preceded out the door by Cory Wade, now pitching for the New York Yankees and Chris Carter, now hitting .346 for the team that’s tied with the Bulls for first place in the South Division, the Gwinnett Braves. All three are now reported to have originally signed minor league contracts with clauses that said that if they weren’t called up they could move on. How many other Bulls have out clauses in their contracts? We don’t know.

As a general rule, the comments about the Tampa Bay Rays here at WDBB are made with with what I hope is seen as good humor. But it sure is tough to watch good ballplayers leave the Bulls, players whom we fans never knew weren’t going to spend the season with the team. Bulls fans have been blindsided again and again and again.

A week or so ago a fellow fan remarked to me that the Bulls didn’t seem to be playing like a team this year. Something to that?

Sitting up in the stands at the DBAP a few of us keep fairly close watch on this team. We keep track of things such as noticing who’s on the 40-man roster and who might be going up to or coming down from the Rays. We watch who's improving, having trouble, etc. Bootcheck, for example, was doing a fine job moving from relief to starting and really helping out the team. It really hurts to turn on the radio and discover that one of our best pitchers is pitching his last game in a Durham Bulls uniform.

Did the Rays try to keep him in Durham? Who knows? Reporters who could have been reporting this story haven’t. So we have been in the dark all season (which is now more than half over, I might add). Makes some of us (OK, maybe just me) feel like fools. Are we going to lose any more? Is anybody going to say?

In the abstract, for 2011 Tampa Bay Rays last spring, this may have made sense. The Rays were shedding payroll like there was no tomorrow and the Rays were obviously sweeping up any veteran ballplayer with a remote chance of being able to lend a hand to the Rays, especially if they could be had cheaply. The Rays obviously were also, we now know, more than willing to add opt out clauses to those minor league contracts.

Here’s another question for Rays management: Was any thought given to the impact this might have on their team in Durham? No? I didn’t think so.

Last question: What’s the point of this secrecy? It sounds like everyone under the stands (in their offices and locker rooms) and on the field at the DBAP knew about these contracts. Just not anyone in the stands. For that matter, if last night was Bootcheck’s last stand you’d think the print reporters would have mentioned it. They haven’t. Nor have any roster moves been announced at the usual places.

Well, maybe we have a reason for my fellow fan’s observation that the Bulls don't seem to be playing like a team this year. They aren’t.

Anderson Gives His Best

Game 75, June 25, DBAP
SWB Yankees 2, Durham Bulls 1
Season: 42-33; Home Stand: 3-3
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

Leslie Anderson did his level best to win the game for the Bulls yesterday, but it wasn’t enough. In the 3rd inning he had a lead-off double and was sacrificed to third by J.J. Furmaniak. At the end of the inning he was still there. In the 5th inning he had another lead-off double and was again sacrificed to third by Furmaniak. At the end of that inning he was still on third base. In the 7th inning he took things into his own hands and hit a leadoff home run. But that wasn’t enough to carry the game. Valiant try on his part.

The rest of the offensive story was the nine other Bulls who also got left on base during the course of the game.

Meanwhile, Chris Bootcheck is emerging as a terrific starting pitcher for the Bulls. He’s going long into games (starts of 7, 7, and 7 1/3 innings) and with even a modest amount of run support would have won his third in a row last night.

A notable moment was Desmond Jennings’ beautiful catch against the centerfield wall in the 4th. He really is a terrific outfielder. He and Guyer make one heck of a team out there.

Chart of the Day — ERA

Not a lot of surprises here. Young Mr. Buente (currently on the DL) is distorting the chart a bit.

Alex Cobb’s last game was while with the Rays against the Marlins on June 18th. Seems to be yet another example of the Rays calling up a pitcher, breaking him, and sending him back (as with Brandon Gomes). In this case Mr. Cobb is reportedly going to pitch on Monday after recovering from flu-like symptoms.

The other day’s disastrous outing by Brian Baker and Ryan Reid are pushing them out. R. J. Swindle’s ERA is falling nicely, but with his extremely short appearances, it wouldn’t take much to push it back up.

Obviously the starters as a group (the Bulls have had 13 different ones) need to do better.

click on image for larger view

Cranky Old Geezer Alert!

Am I the only one who gets blown out of his seat by the noise when they crank up the PA volume for a large crowd? We sit right under one of the corner speakers and that may be it. They may be trying to get their noise out to the Diamond View seats.

I just don’t understand why it’s necessary to try to make 10,000 folks sound even louder than they already do. Am I just of a generation too old to have had his hearing destroyed at rock concerts? Am I alone in wanting to have a conversation with my friends between innings?

"Efficient" Win

Game 70, June 20, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham, NC
Durham Bulls (Rays) 2, Buffalo Bisons (Mets) 1
Season: 39-31; Since Strickland’s Haircut: 5-1
Wrap, Box

Robinson Chirinos led off the 3rd with a double. One batter later Desmond Jennings hit a home run (his 10th). That was enough to win.

Chris Bootcheck got out of trouble twice and generally pitched a terrific seven innings. In the 1st things looked dire when the Bisons had runners on first and third with one out. But, for the first time in my memory, the old “fake to third base, throw to first base” pickoff gimmick actually worked. With a runner trapped between first and second, the runner on third broke for home and was thrown out by Dan Johnson. Just to keep our hearts pumping, the next batter got a single, so we were back to runners on first and third with two outs. Bootcheck got a K and didn’t look back until the 7th. In that inning two singles and a sacrifice put runners on second and third with one out. But Bootcheck, in what might have been the key moment in the game, struck out Bison catcher Mike Nickeas. The next batter flied out to end the inning.

Over in his blog, Durham starter Dirk Hayhurst recently offered a meditation on pitching efficiency. I’m sure that the sabermetricians have a metric for that idea, but I don’t know what it is. However, whatever a good metric might be, a simple one suffices to look at the terrific job that Mr. Bootcheck did last night. Over his seven innings he faced 27 batters and threw 89 pitches (3.29/batter). Compare that to his opponent, Dylan Owen, who in his basically very good six innings had to throw 96 pitches to 25 batters (3.84/batter). Of course, throwing fewer pitches is not necessarily a good thing if they’re crushing everything you throw. Nevertheless, safe to say that Bootcheck had an “efficient” outing.

First time I’ve seen Felipe Lopez at second base. J.J. Furmaniak made a couple of very pretty plays at third. The relief crew has now gone three games in row (9.1 innings) without allowing a run.

Dale Thayer (missing his moustache) came on for two innings for the Bisons. Have to admit he was looking better than the end of last year. Lots of pop to his fastball. That’s enough, Dale. You’ve shown us your stuff. Go back to the bullpen and stay there.

Other stuff:

Because of a couple rainouts, the Bulls are only going to play 142 regular season games this year. That means that today’s game is the exact midpoint of the season.

Remember that Elliot Johnson visited the Bulls when they were up in Allentown playing the Iron Pigs? Turns out his blog writing spouse, Nicole, was traveling with him.

Rays Index discusses Alex Cobb, Justin Ruggiano, and the return of Jeff Niemann to the Rays' lineup.

How about a totally impossible, unsubstantiated, unlikely, couldn't possibly happen speculation? Why not? We note that the modestly well-known Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter is on the disabled list and might (or might not) play a rehab game or two. We also note that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees are in town later this week ...

That's More Like It

Game 64, June 13, DBAP
Durham Bulls 4, Norfolk Tides 1
Season: 34-30; Home Stand: 1-2
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Chris Bootcheck showed us how starting pitchers do their jobs last night. At 32, he is the senior member of the team and even if he has not been a starting pitcher for several years, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how it’s supposed to be done. Seven innings, only three hits, no walks, a very efficient 81 pitches.

Nice job, with one exception, a home run by the Tides’ Ryan Hughes. That was a puzzle. If there’s a hitter in the International League that the Bulls should have a book on it would be Ryan Rhyne Hughes, who is both a former Bull and has been with the Tides for a couple of years. Hughes hit the first pitch he saw in the 5th inning over the right field fence. That’s what Hughes does. Not smart to give him a hittable first pitch.

We also saw Brandon Gomes in the 8th inning. That was nice. Mr. Gomes started the year with the Bulls. Tampa Bay called him up, broke him, and sent him back for repair. He had not pitched since May 30th, but he looked OK last night. Jack McGee had a thrilling 9th inning with his third baseman, Russ Canzler, putting two runners on base for him before he could get the save.

Highlights:

According to the Herald-Sun, along with his lineup card, Charlie Montoyo sent Tides’ Manager Gary Allenson a baseball, telling him that he found it out in center field. (if that makes no sense, see yesterday’s post.)

J.J. Furmaniak not only hit the bull to win a steak, with that home run and a double he got above the Mendoza Line. For the first time this year, every active Durham Bulls player is above the .200 mark. (Two players on the Rays’ roster are below .200.)

Mixed review for Russ Canzler’s night. Terrific at the plate and on base, three singles, two stolen bases, one run scored. Awful at third base, three errors.

Brandon Guyer, playing center field last night, really showed off his speed. A triple in the DBAP is a rare thing (only three by Durham Bulls this year), but he pulled it off in the 3rd inning. Then he ran out a bunt back to the pitcher for his second hit, and singled then stole second in the 8th (OK, he got caught stealing in the 6th). One RBI, one run scored. Great night.

Today is the U.S. Army’s 236th birthday and the 82d Airborne is bringing some people and stuff up from Ft. Bragg to put on a show.

A bit of historical trivia: you will note that the U.S. Army is older than the U.S. That’s because we trace our lineage back to a resolution of the Continental Congress to raise “ten companies of rifleman” on this day in 1775.

Box Score Deception

Game 52, June 1, DBAP
Durham Bulls 5, Columbus Clippers 4
Season: 30-22; Last 10: 6-4; Home Stand: 3-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Sometimes the box score just doesn’t tell the story. For example, last night’s. You see there that Chris Bootcheck went 6 1/3 with a no-decision and Cory Wade went 2/3 for the win. By the rules of the game, that is an accurate report. What’s missing is that reliever turned starter Bootcheck had his best game yet and probably should not have even started the 7th inning. With the score 4-1, Bootcheck hit the first batter who then moved to second base on a sacrifice. The next batter got a contentious walk, leaving runners on first and second, one out.

The Bulls, who have been pulling off double plays like clockwork this home stand, didn’t get a chance to do that this time. Cory Wade came in and gave up a game-tying three-run homer. So there’s a no-decision for Bootcheck and a blown save for Wade. However, Wade was still the pitcher of record when Russ Canzler’s single drove in Desmond Jennings in the Bulls half of the 7th. So Wade gets credit for the win.

Columbus has apparently had someone developing “spray charts” for the Bulls’ hitters. We are seeing some very odd shifts for some, but not all, of our left-handed batters. Sometimes just the infield shifting and not the outfield, sometimes just the outfield, sometimes both. The shift against Dan Johnson, however, gave him a freebie when a simple pop-up over third base, typically easily handled by either the shortstop or the left fielder, fell in for a hit (the shortstop was playing behind second base).

Please, please, please let’s not disturb whatever is keeping Ray Olmedo locked in. He was 3 for 3 last night, and sacrificed the eventual game winner to second, pushing his batting average to .301. Yes, he bobbled a grounder in the 6th, but he redeemed himself the very next play.

With Chris Carter out with a hangnail, we’re seeing some interesting guys in the outfield. On Monday and Tuesday it was J.J. Furmaniak in right field. Last night it was Omar Luna in left field. Both of them have done just fine.

Because of that double header in Toledo on Sunday, the Bulls don’t have a starting pitcher ready to go for tonight. Instead we’ll see relievers out there for short stretches. Still, we’ve beaten the best team in the International League for three games so far, let’s go for four.

Today’s Rants:

• The Bulls are still wearing those ugly, illegible jerseys.
• The field needs a rest! ACC tournament really messed things up out there. Hope it was worth it to the DBAP’s bottom line.

Today's Chart

This is the last 15 games with the wOBA and OwOBA plotted for each game. Remember that team wOBA is a pretty good measure of hitting and Opponent's wOBA is a decent measure of our pitching and defense. Bigger is better for wOBA (green), small is beautiful for OwOBA. Then a couple of simple trend lines for those 15 games. That dropping OwOBA trend is saying that our pitching and defense has really improved over the the period while our hitting/getting on base has stayed at a very respectable level. This is a very positive looking situation. Hope they can keep it up.

Click on chart for larger image

Looking Better

Game 47, 28 May, First Third Field, Toledo, Ohio.
Durham Bulls 7, Toledo Mud Hens 3
Season: 26-21; Last 10: 4-6; Trip: 2-4
Wrap, Box, Toledo Blade

The Mud Hens are getting turned inside out by their parent club, the Detroit Tigers. See the Toledo Blade link for details. No reason for the Bulls not to take advantage of that, and they did. On the mound was the 32 year-old elder statesman of the Bulls pitching staff, Chris Bootcheck. Have to admire him stepping into the breach until the Rays can find a couple of starters for the Bulls. And he did a decent job, going 4 2/3 innings. This was his second start as a Bull and the first time he’s started games in quite a few years. The last time he saw regular duty as a starter was in 2005 with the Angels AAA team in Salt Lake City. Good job.

Meanwhile Ray Olmedo has slipped into Justin Ruggiano’s #2 spot in the batting order and is acting a bit like Justin. His batting average is up to .293 and yesterday he went two for 5 and scored both times he got on base. Dan Johnson played first and got his first hit. Russ Canzler remains hot, playing third and hitting another homer, just his fourth, but they have been timely. (By the way, Justin Ruggiano has not started a game with the Rays, but did have a little bit of playing time back on May 21st. Guess the Rays are treating him pretty much as usual. Too bad.)

I’m not quite sure what to make of Chris Carter’s day. His hitting helped a lot (two RBIs). But his aggressive base running led to him being thrown out twice trying for third base. And he grounded into two double plays.

Craig Albernaz and Jeremy Hall (I guessed right!) have been taken off the Bulls’ roster and sent to Hudson Valley, making room for Rob Delaney, who passed through waivers, and new guy Jay Buente.

Chart of the Day — Fielding Independent Percentage

This is one of those relatively new numbers that really is a better way of evaluating pitchers than ERA. I like it. It does, however, punish the pitcher who gives up home runs as you can see by the rankings of Swindle (6), Bootcheck (3), and McGee (3) who have pretty high HR/Inning numbers. But, all things considered, that’s seems only fair. An interesting feature of this chart is how well Edgar Gonzalez, today’s starter, comes off. He’s been having back problems recently. We can hope that that sorts itself out.

Swept! On to Toledo

Game 41, 20 May 2011, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Durham Bulls 8; Lousville Bats 9
Wrap, Box

Game 42, 21 May, Huntington Park
Durham Bulls 8; Columbus Clippers (Indians) 11
Wrap, Box

Game 43, 22 May
Durham Bulls 6, Columbus Clippers 7 (10 innings)
Wrap, Box

Game 44, 23 May
Durham Bulls 2, Columbus Clippers 3 (8 innings)
Wrap, Box

Game 45 24 May
Durham Bulls 3, Columbus Clippers 5
Season: 24-21; Last 10: 3-7; Trip: 0-4
Wrap, Box

I’m guessing that only North Carolina readers are going to get this story, and maybe not all of them.

I spent the last couple of the days up near Asheville/Hendersonville. I had to drive out from where I was staying to get a signal for my cellphone and iPad (no computer). Wanting to at least be able to do a little bit of web surfing I went down to the AT&T store to complain about it.

The AT&T person mutters as she’s typing in the location, “If there’s a 'Cove' in the address we sometimes don’t have good coverage.” Not a good sign. For those not from around here, “cove” is North Carolina-ese for “hollow”, or valley, or “way back yonder.” There was a cove in the address and there wasn’t coverage. No fix. 

Result wasn’t all bad because it wasn’t until today that ...

I found that the Bulls had lost four in a row up until this morning. And now they have lost five in a row and have been swept by the Columbus Clippers.

Let me jump to my first chart to show what that means. At first while the Bulls were falling of the edge of the earth, the Gwinnett Braves weren’t doing all that well either. But today they caught up with the Bulls and now the Bulls are tied for the first place lead.

click on chart for larger view

How did that happen? First of all, Columbus is one heck of a team. As the chart shows, they’ve been on a run all year and don’t look to be slowing down the least little bit.

In the Bulls defense (and this is just from the obvious, reported stuff) the turmoil on this trip has been unusually high. Two hitters, Ruggiano and Lopez, got called up to the Rays. While I was not yet a fan of Lopez, I have to admit his league-leading week before his call-up was special. A pitcher, Rob Delaney, came back and was banged around a bit at first.

Chris Bootcheck got a try-out as a starter in game 1 of the Clippers series and gave up 5 earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. He took the loss, but I must point out that the next two pitchers (Delany and Hall) gave up 6 more runs (4 earned).

Edgar Gonzalez only lasted one inning in his start in game 2 of the seris. The bullpen kept a lid on (sort of) through nine, but Mike Ekstrom wild-pitched in the winning run in the 10th.

Over the last five games the Bulls have scored 27 runs, pretty good and usually good enough. Unfortunately their opponents have scored 35 runs. But only 26 were earned. What does that mean? It means there were a few mistakes (3 errors, 1 passed ball, 2 wild pitches), but that’s not terribly bad, just that the timing of the mistakes was terrible.

In terms of pure numbers, the Bulls team wOBA at the beginning of the stretch was .338 and at the end it was .339. So I guess we’ve got to blame the pitchers.

This chart pretty much says it. The team ERA and the ERA of the starters and relievers has really ramped upwards over the last several games. And the trend started even when the Bulls were winning.

The Bulls get a day off in Toledo tomorrow. The Tigers’ AAA team, the Mud Hens are 22-25 so far. Maybe Dan Johnson will show up and hit a couple of dingers for the Bulls and life will settle back down. We can hope.

A Lot to Like

The DAP in the 1940s

DAP Restored 2008

Game 31: Durham Bulls 4; Syracuse Chiefs 0
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Season: 19-12; Streak: 5-0

Bulls pitching got its third shutout last night (the Bulls have not been shut out at all this year) and several good things happened.

Brian Baker, who was one of last year's stalwarts (see summary here), had his best game by far. He only gave up one hit and he struck out six in six innings.

Then Chris Bootcheck came in and gave the Bulls three very solid innings. After his mysterious one-batter appearance Saturday night, we were puzzled. But whatever the reason (Montoyo forgetting that Whiting was a switch hitter and going for a left on left situation with McGee?), Bootcheck looked really good. If he is back in form, things are looking up. Now if Hayhurst would quit blogging and get back to pitching, the Bulls pitching would be in great shape.

All bats were fairly quiet last night; neither team got an extra base hit. Early on my note read, "The script for the last couple of games is to sit and wait for Jennings and Ruggiano to come to bat." And that's the way things were working, with Ruggiano scoring the only run on a Felipe Lopez single in the first and getting on base with an error in the 3rd. But Russ Canzler changed the script in the 7th with a single, Lobaton walked, Anderson singled, Furmaniak got an RBI single, and Ray Olmedo got two runs in with a single. Syracuse's Detwiler who had had a really good game until the 7th was obviously out of gas, but it was way too late by then.

So, a sweep and the Bulls stay on top of the South Division of the International League.

Indianapolis comes to town for the "Return to the DAP" game tonight.

In my diligent research into the popularity of the old ball field I have uncovered the real reason for the intensely fond memories of the park, meaningful only to those of a certain age. Listen carefully children. There was a brief moment in time when the patriarchy decided that not only could 18 year-olds vote, but they were also responsible enough to legally purchase a drink. The problem remained that "liquor by the drink" counties were still quite rare in the Ol' North State. However, one place you could reliably buy a beer and drink in public was, guess where, the Durham Athletic Park. Moreover, in that same time, driving while a bit fuzzy in tongue and mind was, mostly, tolerated. Hence, the intense nostalgia not for the baseball, but for the DAP itself, since that's just about all a certain generation can remember. That is, they went to the DAP and a beer, and then a couple more...

Nevertheless, there is a certain charm to the place. Worth a visit tonight.

Beautiful Extra-Inning Win, With Puzzles

Game 29: Durham Bulls 3; Syracuse Chiefs 1
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Game 30: Durham Bulls 6; Syracuse Chiefs 5 (11 innings)
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Season: 18-12; Streak: 4-0

Justin Ruggiano had yet another amazing game Saturday night. In fact he sort of had to win it twice. In the 10th with the score tied 2-2, Ray Olmedo tried to score on Ruggiano's single to center field, but he was thrown out. So when Rugg came to bat in the 11th with the bases loaded and the score tied 5-5 [Ooops! Thanks, Chris D] Chiefs 5, Bulls 4, it was naturally assumed that he would hit in the winning runs — and he did with a single to center.

The win kept the Bulls two games in front of the Gwinnett Braves and its spectacular nature obscured a couple of oddities and issues that are worth mentioning.

What we witnessed for 6 innings was a superb scoreless pitchers' duel between the Bulls Alex Torres and the Chiefs Yuneska Maya. All of these games with the Chiefs have shown them to have a fine crowd of starting pitchers. But (who else) Justin Ruggiano broke the tie with a RBI double and Russ Canzler hit him in. That certainly looked good enough.

But then in a puzzling move, after J.P. Howell did his rehab inning, Chris Bootcheck came in, walked the Chief's #9 batter, and was pulled for Jake McGee. McGee got a ground out fielder's choice then gave up a home run that tied the game. My question is, why was Bootcheck pulled? He's just off the DL and did give up a walk, but something could have been wrong. And why McGee back-to-back? He pitched part of an inning on Friday and was back for this session.

Then there was the 11th. New guy Ryan Reid got a ground out and gave up a walk. R.J. Swindle came in to give up three runs with a homer, single, double and hit batter. Not good. In fact, this is not a good year for R.J. This was his first time on the mound since April 30th (2/3 inning). He's being hit hard. In 11 innings he has given up 5 home runs, 11 earned runs, 16 hits. His signature slow curve has disappeared. As a final peculiarity, after giving up 3 runs in the top of the 11th last night, when the Bulls came back with 4 in the bottom of the inning, Swindle got the win! Overall, I'm beginning to think that R.J. may not be long for the Bulls. That's too bad, because he was a key figure in last year's championship team.

We saw Felipe Lopez for the first time. He did a fine job at third base, where he was quite busy early in the game. On the other hand, he left Ruggiano hanging out in scoring position three different times.

Meanwhile, for Rays' futurists, the Montgomery Biscuits have been over in Zebulon and won one last night as well.

Our guys up with the Rays: Brandon Guyer did not get into the Rays' 8-2 win over Baltimore, but Brandon Gomes pitched a scoreless 9th (1 BB, 2 K's).

One Month's Worth of Pitches

Keeping track of Durham Bulls pitching can be tough to do. The season is not quite a month old yet and seventeen players have already taken the mound for the Bulls (eighteen if you count catcher Craig Albernaz’s two appearances). The Bulls' website seems to have trouble keeping track. For example, as this is being written Alex Cobb’s return from Tampa Bay does not show, nor does the departure of the unfortunate Paul Phillips to Montgomery. Even with those transactions, the Bulls are carrying 13 pitchers, one more than usual. Also, we can expect a visit from rehabbing Tampa Bay reliever J.P. Howell soon.

The Bulls have two starting pitchers on the disabled list, Richard De Los Santos and Dirk Hayhurst. Chris Bootcheck just came off the DL.

Ryan Reid and Jeremy Hall joined the Bulls while they were on this road trip.

As a group, Bulls pitching ranks fifth in the IL on ERA and third on the WHIP (walks and hits per inning) metric. They are fifth in the league on won-loss percentage.

As this chart (sorted by innings pitched) shows, ERA is mostly OK. You have to discount the low-inning guys who are down near the bottom. That’s going to get better. The two worrisome numbers are R.J. Swindle’s and Brian Baker’s, the same two who have WHIPs up and out of the zone.

The stats guys don’t like ERA very much. To see their tRA and other such numbers, check here.

This crew ranges in age from 23 (Cobb and Torres) to 32 (Bootcheck), so a pretty decent balance there. From a fan’s perspective it does not look like this year we are going to be seeing any fireballers — unless Jake McGee, just back from Tampa Bay, is supposed to be working on his fast ball. Just about all of this crew are finesse guys, which can be just as much fun to watch.

Update 5 May, 2:45: Tampa Bay's Jeff Neimann may be going on DL. If so, then either a starter (Cobb or Torres) or a reliever (your guess is a good as mine) will be called up from Durham. 

Hitting Surge Continues

Game 25: Durham Bulls (Rays) 6; Indianapolis Indians (Pirates) 1
Season: 14-11; Streak: 3-0
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Bulls hitters continued their remarkable run yesterday afternoon with 10 more hits (helped out by 5 walks and 2 HBPs) resulting in 6 runs. Chris Carter kept going with his outstanding performance going 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI (18 on the year). As a team, the Bulls’ wOBA has grown from .313 to .331 in just four games. The “Hitting and Pitching” chart provided just a couple of days ago has seen a dramatic change. Nice to see green (hitting) going up and red (pitching) going down.

Speaking of red going down, Alex Torres had another good, if erratic start. He’ll settle down someday, I’m sure. But his propensity to give up a string of walks adds discouraging excitement to a game.

Happy to see Chris Bootcheck back on the mound. I’m guessing that his long stay on the disabled list reflects the change in thinking about concussions in all of sports. Not long ago if you could correctly count the fingers a coach was waving in front of you it meant you were OK. Now head injuries are treated much more seriously. As mentioned, just a guess, but Chris was out for more than two weeks.

Newcomer Ryan Reid had a clean inning.

Down in St. Petersburg Alex Cobb did a decent job in his major league debut, even if he didn’t seem to be happy with himself and he may have been tipping his pitches. I guessing he'll be back on the mound in Durham later this week.

Also, local (i.e., St. Pete and Tampa) papers are reporting that the Bulls Brandon Gomes has been called up; however we’ve seen nothing official from the Bulls.

Reminder: Tomorrow’s 11:05 AM game will be broadcast on the MLB network. Set your DVR or, what the heck, take the day off and stay home to watch the Bulls in Indianapolis.

* * * * * 

Biscuit watch

Pitching prospect Matt Bush had a good day.
Game 24: Montgomery Biscuits 9; Jacksonville Suns 6
Season: 11-13
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Home

Durham Bulls 4; Norfolk Tides 0
Season: 5-3; Streak: Won 3
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Wool E. Bull arrives by a very nicely flown helicopter; delivers a gift to manager Charlie Montoyo; and we’re off! Beautiful, beautiful day.

This team is going to be fun to watch. Maybe not the long-ball crushing crowd we’ve gotten used to over the last couple of years, but still a lot of fun.

But, for those of us who try to follow the team closely, this year is also likely to be confusing. To get some of that out of the way up front, two pitchers went on the disabled list yesterday — Richard De Los Santos and Chris Bootcheck. De Los Santos has stiffness in his shoulder. Chris Bootcheck cracked his head on a pipe in the Charlotte clubhouse and has a mild concussion. Catcher Craig Albernaz has been placed on the roster and Brian Baker will take De Los Santos’ next start.

Back to the game. Alex Cobb looked terrific. Granted that this Norfolk team is off to a rough start, but Cobb didn’t let a runner on base until the beginning of the 4th inning and it wasn’t until deep in the 5th that a runner made it to second base — a single and a hit batsman. Mike Ekstrom and Brandon Gomes closed things out nicely.

Let’s look at last night’s lineup:

• Desmond Jennings, center field: Jennings was with the Bulls all of 2010. A top prospect in the Rays system, he has had a hard time staying healthy. Off to a great start this year batting .333 in the leadoff slot. On Rays 40-man roster.
• Justin Ruggiano, left field: A leading RBI man and run scorer for last couple of years. At 29 he’s running out of time to make his mark. Prime candidate for a trade. In the meantime, could not be happier to see him with the Bulls.
• Brandon Guyer, right field: First year in AAA, first year as a Bull, tGt*. So far, so good. Hitting well. On Rays 40-man.
• Chris Carter, DH: Veteran AAA and major league ballplayer to the Bulls out of the Mets system. Spent most of last year on the Mets major league roster. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what he’s doing here. Guess we’ll find out as the season goes along. He could be a huge help.
• Jose Lobaton, catcher: Came up to the Bulls from Montgomery early last year and stayed. Starting out the season really, really hot. Solid defensive catcher. From the San Diego Padres system. On the 40-man.
• Russ Canzler, third base: Signed in the off-season as a minor league free agent. First time in AAA. Showing power with two homers in two days. Can play first base. Is this another scouting coup for the Rays? Hope so, cause with Longoria in St. Pete, we get to keep Canzler here.
• Leslie Anderson, first base: A star in Cuban baseball, he defected last year and played at A, AA, and AAA levels. As a Bull late in the season, he has just not seemed comfortable at the plate or in the field. Maybe this year, but at 29 he may be running out of time. Off to a slow start.
• Omar Luna, 2nd base: Very dependable middle infielder. Still young and developing. On the Montgomery roster at the very beginning of the season and could go back there depending on the shuffle when the Rays Evan Longoria comes off the disabled list. On eight errors at all levels (A, AA, and AAA) last year. Odd that he doesn’t make any of the prospects lists, but I’m happy to see him here.
• Ray Olmedo, Shortstop: I’ve written about Olmedo earlier. Like the guy. Off to a decent start. Keep it up.

*tGt: The Garza trade: Over the winter the Tampa Bay Rays traded pitcher Matt Garza (and Bulls outfielder Fernando Perez) for five Chicago Cubs. We have two with the Bulls now and likely to see more later. One of them, Sam Fuld has achieved early fame with the Rays.