Even More Baseball

Game 31, May 8, DBAP

Norfolk Tides: 1
Durham Bulls: 3

13 Innings
Season: 14-17; Home Stand: 2-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The two hitters with the worst batting averages in the Bulls lineup, Jake Goebbert (.160) and Carlos Corporan (.180), each hit crucial home runs. And the Bulls seem to have fallen in love with the DBAP (at least they’re spending a lot of time there).

They played 10 innings on Friday, 11 innings on Saturday, and 13 last night. They have used 13 pitchers, including reserve catcher Mayo Acosta who got the win last night.

Until the Bulls got the win, the story line from last night was going to be how all the Norfolk runs were unearned. The error plague that has created problems for the Bulls all year was continuing. However, after the Tides got their 4th unearned run in the 11th, Goebbert contributed his first home run of the year to re-tie the game at 4-4. Having run out of pitchers, Mayo Acosta came on in the 13th and even got a K in his first appearance as a pitcher since 2014 when he put in 3 innings in similar circumstances. Then Carlos Corporan hit his first homer of the year to bring in Patrick Leonard for the walk-off win.

Parker Markel arrived from Montgomery just in time to put in three innings. Stats. That’s two new pitchers for the Bulls in the last two games.

After not calling for an intentional walk all year, Jared Sandberg has called for 3 over the last 5 games.

Outside the game —

• Matt Andriese had a terrific winning start with the Rays. Wonder if he’s going to stick up there?
• Which is a problem for the Bulls because backup starter Eddie Gamboa just went on the disabled list (did not hear why) and the reason Austin Pruitt only pitched three innings on Saturday was that he developed a blister on his finger.
• Jhan Marinez has been Designated For Assignment by the Rays. Even if he isn’t claimed by somebody else, that takes a couple of days to sort itself out.
• The Bulls TV schedule has been published. Based on my look at the streaming from other parks, the Post 50 crew is the best in the International League.

K's and Dingers; Fun at the DBAP

Game 18, April 24, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburg): 1
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay): 6
Season: 10-8; Home Stand: 1-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Fun day at the park as several Bulls had a terrific game, starting with Jamie Schultz and his 12 K’s, and then there was Richie Shaffer getting his first home run in the 5th inning and another in the 7th.

But there was more, a lot more. Jake Goebbert came into the game with an awful OPS of .255 and raised it to .316 with two singles. Still awful, but there’s hope. Similarly, Kyle Roller punched a home run and raised his OPS up to .868, an above average number.

The three homers plus RBIs by Nick Franklin and Carlos Corporan led the Bulls best run differential of the year. Plus they went into a tie for first place in the South Division.

In addition to Jamie Shultz’s superb performance, we saw Andrew Bellatti on the mound for the first time since April 13. Did OK in his 22 pitches. Time to call out Eddie Gamboa’s superb ERA of 0.71 and there’s his WHIP of 0.95. He had 2⅓ innings yesterday and looked very good.

Outside the game —

• Blake Snell had a superb start against the Yankees and is back in Durham. 
• The Rays fiddled around with the 40-man roster to add Jhan Marinez and then he was called up. He had an inning in relief last night. No word on his replacement. Possibly Danny Farquar?
• Luke Maile is reported to be a couple of days away from coming back.
• No word (that I heard) on Mikie Mahtook’s status.

Team Hitting

OPS (on base percentage plus slugging) is one of those stats that has fallen out of favor for evaluating individual players. But we are less interested in that than we are in team trends. For that it works just fine. What we see here is that the Bulls’ hitting over the last 15 games fell off from a very hot, small sample start. It fell below this year’s International League average. We are still early enough in the season for one game’s results (the best team OPS of the year — 1.024) to push it up quite a bit.

click on chart for larger view

Be Still My Heart

Game 5, April 11, Durham Bulls Athletic Park

Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta): 5

Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay): 6

11 innings

Season: 4-1; Streak: W-3
Wrap, Box, Gwinnett Wrap, Herald-Sun

A game not for the faint-of-heart. The Braves tied the Bulls in the 6th and then loaded the bases in the 8th, 9th, and 10th innings. But they did not score a run. In the top of the 11th they went ahead by a run. In the bottom of the 11th, however, Carlos Corporan got his first hit of the season and with the help of Nick Franklin, Kyle Roller, and Dayron Varona, the Bulls had a walk-off win. The Braves had twice as many hits as the Bulls, 16 to 8.

First Look: Pitcher

LHP Adam Wilk: 4⅔ innings, 6 hits, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s, Game Score - 42
Wilk has time in the Detroit, Pittsburgh, and LA Angels systems. Looks like one of those pitchers that the Rays seem to find each year that can help the Bulls (and maybe the Rays) before the end of the season. Plus he’s left-handed. Stats.

Observations: Dayron Varona has one heck of an arm and he’s quick in the field. Playing right field last night he made a superb throw from the corner to 2B. Later a very powerful throw home was off-line, but still impressive. Jake Goebbert certainly has spent his time figuring out the Blue Monster in left. The Braves were tattooing the wall all night and he played each of them perfectly.

Mikie Matook’s third triple in five games pushed his OPS up to .939.

A very familiar face was playing second base for the Braves, Reid Brignac. Coming up through the Rays system he spent part or all of 2008, 2009, and 2012 with the Bulls. Beginning in 2013 he’s been with Colorado, the Yankees, Philadelphia, and Miami. He is not on the Braves 40-man this year. A left-handed batter, the Bulls had good luck with a shift last night.

Outside the game —

• Richie Shaffer received some well-deserved recognition as the International League Hitter of the Week.
• Taylor Motter was profiled over at DRaysBay.

Chart: The Game Score stat of Durham Bulls pitchers. First time through the rotation.
Yes, this has all the problems of small sample size, but, what the heck, this is a good time to just introduce this stat. Basically, Game Score is a measure of how a starting pitcher did in a game. See the formula at the link. If you agree that starting pitching is key to the game, then you want to see your starters keep their game scores above 50. However, starting pitching isn’t everything. We’ll get to that.

A Little Luck and a Win

Game 3, 9 April, Durham Bulls Athletic Park

Charlotte Knights: 2

Durham Bulls: 3

Season: 2-1; Home Stand: 2-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun (paywall)

Consider Saturday night’s win a gift from the Charlotte Knight’s battery of catcher Hector Sanchez and reliever Phillipe Aumont. Hats off to broadcaster Patrick Kinas who called out the shaky teamwork of the two from the beginning of the 8th inning. A single by Richie Shaffer was followed by two wild pitches that got him to 3B (and a walk that got Kyle Roller on base). A double by Daniel Robertson tied the game. Another wild pitch scored pinch-runner Nick Franklin, and that was enough to win the game.

The Lineup

(just the players we are seeing for the first time)

DH Jake Goebbert: 0 for 3, 1 BB
Goebbert is a left-hand hitting first baseman who was very recently claimed from the Pirates system. He played all last year at AAA  El Paso (Padres) and carried a very nice .844 OPS. He could end up be a real asset to the Bulls. Stats.
RF Dayron Varona: 1 for 4
Varona has had his 15 minutes of fame this year when he accompanied the Tampa Bay Rays to Cuba to play the Cuban National Team. He was the only Cuban on the Rays and got a bit of returning hero treatment. He had a decent 2015 at A and AA last year and 40 games in the Puerto Rican Winter League. Stats.
C Carlos Corporan: 0 for 2, 2 BB
Well-traveled, 32 year-old Corporan played in the Rangers system last year, but went to spring training with the Yankees. The Rays got him from there. He adds some depth and experience to a roster that’s unusually young (average age of hitters is 25.4). Stats.

The Pitchers

RHP Jamie Schultz: 4⅓ innings, 5 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K’s, 2 HR, Game Score - 41
Schultz made his AAA debut and, with the notable exception of the two solo home runs, did just fine. He spent all of last year in Montgomery, starting 27 games and pitching 135 innings with 168 K’s. Think he’s going to be fun to watch. Stats.
RHP Eddie Gamboa: 3⅔ innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 BB, 3 K’s
For the last three years knuckleballer Gamboa bedeviled Durham Bulls hitters as a reliever for the Norfolk Tides. Very happy to see him wearing a Bulls uniform. He’s going to be fun to watch. Stats. Interesting conversation with Neil Solondz about his knuckleball and joining the Rays here.
RHP Mark Sappington: 1 inning, 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 BB, 2 K’s.
Sappington came to the Rays out of the Angels system and spent last year in Montgomery. This was his AAA debut. He had a good year last year and has some interesting comments in his Solondz interview. Stats.