The Bulls Are Back in Town

Game 30: Bulls 4, Braves 3
Wrap, Box
Game 31: Bulls 0, Braves 4
Season: 18-13
Wrap, Box

The Bulls are home with something of a new look on the field.

Tonight David Price is pitching against the Louisville Bats and Jonny Gomes. Louisville, the Reds AAA team, leads the IL’s West Division and has won their last three games.

Not much to say about yesterday’s game. We got outpitched. Mitch Talbot is having a lot of trouble keeping guys off base in his last two games. Yesterday his OBA was .435 with 6 hits and 4 walks in 5 innings.

A bunch of transactions while the Bulls were on the road. I don’t know anything about these guys yet, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. In the case of Matt Hall, though, maybe not.

• Matt Hall comes to us from the Rays’ Charlotte Stone Crabs (as in Port Charlotte, Florida). He started at 3rd in yesterday’s game and was 0-3. However, according to something I heard just this morning, he’s been sent back. Have no idea what’s going on there. Maybe Montoyo didn't like what he saw.
  
• Reliever Joe Bateman comes to us from Hudson Valley. To be honest, I’m not sure that’s even a real team. Maybe somebody can help me out with that. He pitched in the 9th yesterday and, according to the box score, struck out two looking and got the third out on a foul pop-up. Welcome to the Bulls, Joe!
• Joe Dillon comes to us in the Adam Kennedy trade from Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t played this year. An infielder.
• Lastly, showing on the transaction list is Alex Jamieson going to Hudson Valley. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s actually gone anywhere. It does mean that he can’t play in a Bulls game. Look to see him warming up pitchers in the bullpen.

Webworld:

• It looks like Stacy Long came over from Montgomery to interview David Price. Price is supposedly working on a new pitch called a “spike curve”. Cork Gaines thinks that is the new name for the knuckle curve. Whatever works, I say.
• Justin Ruggiano talked about his three-homer game with Bulls broadcaster Neil Solondz. What I found interesting was his comments about Carlos Hernandez later in the interview. Not to put too fine a point on it, a pitcher who works quickly keeps the outfielders from getting bored out there.
• For more on the transactions (particularly Joe Dillon), see Adam Sobsky over at Indy Week.
  

Gathright to Norfolk

Game 28: Bulls 1, Braves 7
Season: 16-12
Wrap, Box, Indy Week Story

I wasn’t going to write anything today since the game has been well-covered over at Indy Week (see link above). Then I checked Stacy Long’s blog and noticed something of great interest to Bulls fans — Joey Gathright’s going to the Orioles organization and likely to show up playing for Norfolk. Probably a good thing for our catchers and third basemen, cause he’s really going to test their throwing arms. I’d lost track of Joey after he went to the Kansas City organization. Didn’t even know he’d been traded to the Cubs. So guess he’s become one of those guys who can’t quite stay in the majors. It will be fun to see him run, as long as it isn’t from third to home, or snagging chip shots into the outfield.

So since I’m writing, might as well say something about Adam Kennedy. Pretty sure this will end up being played as yet another bright move by Andrew Friedman, the guy who calls the shots for Tampa Bay. He grabs Kennedy, hangs on until someone really needs him, then does a deal. Potentially a win-win for the organization and, hopefully, only a temporary loss to the Bulls. He sure was doing a good job for us in the field and at the plate.

“It’s an extended opportunity for Adam and we weren’t going to stand in the way,” said Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman. “We feel like we’re going to get a guy that’s going to help us some depth-wise, and that was our understanding with Adam coming in – we’re not a group that’s going to stand in the way of someone, especially someone that hadn’t played in the minor leagues in 10 years.”

See preliminary stories by Marc Lancaster and Marc Topkin. Notice that Shaw Riggans’ rehab isn’t going well, which means that Michel Hernandez isn’t coming back any time soon, which may mean that our “ghost catcher” Jamieson might see some more playing time.

I’m wondering what the story is on Ruggiano. He’s missed the last couple of games.

Justin Jolts One

Game 18: Bulls 14, Knights 7
Season: 12-6
Wrap, Box

Well, that was fun.

After a worrisome top of the first with Davis giving up a two-out walk, then an error leading to men on 1st and 3rd, we got out of the inning.

To start out our half of the inning Weber walked, Brignac singled, Joyce walked, and Ruggiano grand-slammed them all home. Richard struck out, Kennedy grounded out, but Sadler singled and Jaso hit his first home run for the Bulls. So we’re up 6 runs and everyone bats in the 1st.

By the end of the game we've got 14 runs, by far our best output this year.

Overall Wade Davis had a decent start, only getting in some trouble in the 4th with a 3 run homer. Still he wrapped things up nicely in that 4th with a strikeout, fly out, and strikeout. The 5th was interesting with Davis getting three fly balls to Joyce in right. He hit his pitch limit with the first batter in the 6th. Orvella very deftly finished the inning off — two pitches, two outs.

One other quirky event was Richard breaking two bats in the bottom of the 6th, the last broken bat leading to a grounder to second that scored Brignac.

The late innings were distinguished by sloppiness on both sides, errors, passed balls, etc. Got pretty ugly.

Nevertheless, a lot of positives in the game. Ruggiano's hitting (homer and double). Johnson's hitting (homer and single). Davis' pitching. Choate looking very good in relief (even though there were two errors behind him, he struck out two and made the third out on a come-backer).

Fun night at the park. Looking forward to see the rehabbing Rays right-handed reliever (gonna milk that alliteration for all it’s worth) tomorrow or the next day.

Montoyo’s Merry-Go-Round

Game 8: Bulls 5, Knights 0
Season: 7-1
Wrap, Box, Charlotte Observer Story

Montoyo’s Merry-Go-Round (Charlie’s Carousel?) continues. Last night’s starting line-up had Richard at 1st (5 out of 8, so that makes him almost a regular); Kennedy at 2nd (4 out of 8); Brignac at short (7, so he is a regular); Johnson at 3rd (2); Ruggiano in left (3); Joyce in center (1, but that completes his rotation through all outfield positions); Sadler in right (3); and Jaso catching (5). I left out the dh in my previous counts. We’ve had five different designated hitters.

This is beginning to look like a strategy, and it’s a strategy that’s working. Think about it. We’ve got terrific pitching this year in our starters and relievers. We’ve had three shut-outs in the first eight games. We’ve got a very professional group of position players. So why not keep them all in the game? And looking at the game differently every night?

It’s working. Keep the carousel turning Charlie.

Interesting links:

Adam Sobsky over at Indy Week discovered this terrific piece by one of my favorite ex-Bulls, Fernando Perez, in the New York Times. Here’s hoping we see him again if he does a rehab tour this summer.

Over at Her Rays we get her take on ex-Bull Ben Zobrist’s grand slam for the Rays last night.

Welcome to Durham!

Game 6: Bulls 5, Braves 3, 13 innings
Season: 6-0
Wrap, Box

To be honest, so far I had been less than impressed by newcomers to the Bulls Ray Sadler and Adam Kennedy. But then came today.

In the bottom of the 8th the Bulls were behind 3-0. Chris Richard got hit by a pitch, Adam Kennedy hit a double, moving Richard to 3rd, and Ray Sadler hit one over center field wall, tying the game.

In the bottom of the 13th (!) Richard hit a single and Kennedy whacked one over the right field wall. Game over.

Maybe it’s time I started checking out the old guys instead of worrying about the new guys.

By the way, the 6-0 start is the best in Bulls AAA history.

Firsts in the Second (Game)

My guess is that anyone coming to this blog already knows the results of a game and how to get to box scores. Nevertheless, I’ll post basics here.

Bulls 8, Norfolk 4, 2-0 on the season, wrap, box.

Just to get it out of the way, Price started and lasted into the fourth. 17 batters, 74 pitches, no decision. By the way, Bulls starting pitchers are being limited to 75 pitches or 5 innings, whichever comes first. For a thoughtful look at Price’s performance check out Adam Sobsey’s article.

Various firsts:

• Sunshine! Top of the third, maybe a minute or so, but sure was pretty while it lasted. Maybe some more this afternoon.
• Home run. By Ruggiano, 3rd inning. Justin’s having a great start with the Bulls. He went 3 for 5 last night. Hope that we can keep him here for a while.
• Appearances on the field. Ray Olmedo, Chris Nowak, and Chad Orvella. Olmedo looked good on third base and homered in the 8th. Nowak started at first base. Didn’t know he has experience there, but turns out he played mostly first at Montgomery last year. For some reason I thought he was a third baseman. Nice to see Chad back on the mound.
• Hit by pitch. Adam Kennedy by Norfolk’s Chris Waters, 3rd inning.

I saved the best news for last — Radio in the ballpark! Turns out that there’s a really low-powered FM signal at 87.7. Easily heard while in the stands, but drops off very quickly. So, on the days that 99.9 is transmitting only on HD, you can still hear what’s going on. All of us Secret Service wannabes can now plug our earphones back in and listen to every game.

Opening Day

Bulls 2, Norfolk 1

Back at the park at last. Weather got cool near the end, but still it was a beautiful night and a decent crowd.

The team that took the field only had two new guys, second baseman Adam Kennedy and right fielder Ray Sadler. Interesting to see Jon Weber in a leadoff role. Think he did that a couple of times at the end of last season, but not sure that’s his forte. He did bang a double off the left field wall in the 5th, though. Also interesting to see Elliot Johnson at third. He handled his opportunities well.

Mitch Talbot looked just fine. Not quite sure why he’s had trouble when called up to Tampa, but I’m happy to have him here. Then Montoyo ran through five relievers, all of them, except Thayer, new to the Bulls — Childers, de Paula, Choate, Abreu, and Thayer. Childers walked the bases full in the 6th but got out of it and Thayer gave up a lead-off triple in the 9th but got out of that.

Reid Brignac got the first Bulls hit of the season, but Norfolk’s hot prospect Matt Weiters threw him out trying to steal second (on the other hand, Weiters overthrew second and gave the base to Ruggiano in the 8th).

I’m worried (maybe too early) about speed in this team. We’ll see.

Highlight of the night for quirkiness was Ray Sadler breaking three bats, two of them at one at-bat. David Fellerath at Indy Week chased it down after the game to discover that the bats were free, which leads me to a the something for nothing observation.

All of which would have been even more fun if I could have been listening to the commentary on the radio! I read the fine print when the Bulls announced their radio “partnership” with 99.9 a week or so ago, I even commented on it. But opening day without radio coverage? Guess if I’d have had an HD pocket radio (do they exist?) or maybe an iPhone to listen via the web, I could have had a connection. Sigh. Who wants to listen to a Canes game? It’s BASEBALL!

April Cool

For those who missed last night, you missed one of the great pleasures of April in Durham at the DBAP -- freezing your butt off. But it looks good for opening day tomorrow. Now if it just holds up for the rest of the week.

The players were out in the field running down fly balls and taking a bit of batting practice. Looks like they’ve got new warm-up jackets this year and they are an improvement over last year’s.

The opening day roster was handed out and showed up on the Bulls website today.

Three of the players on the roster I’m really happy to see back with the Bulls: Chris Richard, Jon Weber, and Michel Hernandez. Jon is a master of the Blue Monster and dangerous at bat. Looks like Chris Richard will be the designated veteran of the team, at 35 he’s two years older than Adam Kennedy. A very solid first baseman and another left-handed bat for us. Michel Hernandez has what we need behind the plate and in the bullpen: major league experience and time handling just about every sort of pitcher to come along. All three got invites to the Rays spring training and Jon and Chris in particular did very well there. Here’s hoping they keep it up. I think that Michel stuck with the Rays through the World Series last year, so he’s probably in line for an American League championship ring.

Think I’ll wait until the first game to comment on other veterans such as Elliot Johnson and Justin Ruggiano, as well as what looks like a very solid starting pitcher lineup.