Boog Booms One

Season: 72-69; Trip: 2-1
Wrap, Box, Charlotte Observer

Has Boog Powell turned into a home run hitter? He’s the guy who bunts his way on base a lot of the time and yet in the last two games he has put one over the wall. We expect it of Corey Brown, who hit a just barely fair one in the 9th for his 19th, or Taylor Motter, who’s 12th dinger in the 7th was the shot that doomed the Knights, but Powell?

Things got a bit testy in the 9th when the Knight’s Wendelkin tossed a pitch behind Taylor Motter. But Wedelken got ejected and if things didn’t calm down, at least the field got cleared of excess players after some intense discussions. In the last couple of games there was a good bit of plunkin’ and near-plunkin’ goin’ on. So maybe the umps had had enough. Too many home runs? Over the three game series 15 home runs were hit, 9 by Knights, 6 by Bulls, but that seems to be the result of the Knight’s very, very pretty Little League park. By the way, after Wendelkin got ejected, his replacement walked Motter and Corey Brown followed with his home run that put the game out of reach. Have to wonder what the chatter between dugouts was after that.

Meanwhile Blake Snell pitched his last minor league game of the year. With the Bulls he was 6-2 with a 1.83 ERA. He is an amazing young ballplayer. We can hope to see him for at least some of next season. The Rays have been appropriately cautious of him, limiting his pitch count and innings with the Bulls. Have to think that he will get in at least a couple of innings with the Rays before the end of this season.

We also saw Ernesto Frieri for the first time since July 7th. Frieri has been on the Durham Bulls’ books since passing through waivers on June 20, appearing in only 7 games. José Dominguez, another on and off pitcher, had a rough inning.

Now what? Standings. Norfolk leads Gwinnett by 2 games, they both have three games left to play.

Gwinnett plays Charlotte for their last three games down in Georgia. Norfolk comes to town for three games at the DBAP. As noted, Norfolk is just 2 games ahead of Gwinnett for the South Division title. That’s a big comedown for the Tides. They had led the division by six games as recently as August 18th, but they’ve had their troubles since then. Nevertheless, Gwinnett has to win all three against the Knights, and the Tides have to lose all three against the Bulls to take them completely out. We won’t go into tie-breaker rules. Makes my head hurt. Seems to me that both Norfolk and Gwinnett are going to have to work for it. By the way, the IL West is still a dead heat between Indianapolis and Columbus.

The Bulls are one game back of Charlotte. There’s a way for them to get out the cellar before the end of the year.

These last three games have odd timings: 6:35, 5:00, and 1:00. Don’t be late!

Roster moves —

• A pitcher, Kyle Bird, has been brought up all the way from Single A Bowling Green. Seems to be somewhat specialized for his age (22). 69Ks in 69 innings. Stats.
• Jim Miller was placed on the Temporarily Inactive List. Update: Reported to have become a new dad. Congrats!

Eight!

Season: 67-66; Home Stand: 1-0
Games Remaining: 11; Home Games:8
Wrap, Box

The Bulls kept their streak alive at the DBAP last night. Remarkable.

Both managers pushed their luck, though. Jared Sandberg got away with it. The Knights’ manager, Joel Skinner, did not. The question both managers faced was how long to leave a struggling pitcher in the game. The Bulls Scott Diamond got out of a bases loaded situation in the 4th inning with a lineout to left field. However,  in a bases-loaded no-outs situation in the next inning, he got the first out on a popup, his second out on another popup, but the next batter singled and two runs scored. By that time Diamond had faced 27 batters and thrown 90+ pitches. The Bulls were down 3-2 going into the 6th.

Over on the Charlotte side their pitcher, Kyle Drabeck, went into the 7th inning, but a walk and two singles later he faced the same situation, bases-loaded, no-outs. He wild-pitched in a run, got a K, but then a two-run single by Luke Maile put the Bulls ahead 5-4. He left the game at 27 batters and 104 pitches.

Neither starting pitcher had stellar Game Scores: Diamond’s was 38, Drabeck’s was 40.

But the Bulls' relief crew only gave up one hit. Jim Miller was particularly impressive. I don’t think I’ve seen him more focused on each pitch this year. Two K’s and a pop-up and he got the save

Kudos to Luke Maile for his game-winning single in the 7th and to Mikie Mahtook for his two-run double in the 3rd.

Outside the game —

• J.P. Arencibia started at catcher for the Rays last night and Joey Butler, who helped win the last two games for the Bulls, joined him in the lineup as the DH. The two of them made the difference in the Rays win before just 9,000 fans in St. Petersburg (the Bulls had almost 8,000 in Durham). Arencibia drove in run with a sac fly. Butler hit a game-tying RBI and then scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
• Along with Butler leaving, José Dominguez is back. He passed through waivers. I didn’t notice him in the bullpen last night, but he was probably there.

You can get headaches trying to figure out the combinations and permutations of the next 11 games. However, I think that it’s safe to say that Columbus and Indianapolis have a lock on the Wild Card and IL West championship. Indianapolis certainly looks like the winner, but one or the other would have to lose almost of their remaining games to fall out of the wild card lead. Standings.

Norfolk, on the other hand, has lost their last four games and is only ahead of Gwinnett (who they are now playing) by two games.

Here's the pattern since mid-season (game 73).

Looong Game and a Sweep

Season: 62-66; Home Stand: 3-0
Wrap, Box

Infielder Taylor Motter took the mound in the top of the 14th after the Bulls had run out of pitchers. He set down the Mud Hens in six pitches and the sense was that things had changed. The Bulls had been putting plenty of runners on base (they stranded 11 on the night), but couldn’t push anyone across. Until the 14th. Mikie Mahtook doubled, Richie Shaffer got an intentional walk, and Nick Franklin doubled Mahtook home.

That ended the longest game of the year for the Durham Bulls. For the first time since early June the Bulls won three games in a row. And throughout these three days the team seemed loose and ready to play.

Other good things that happened along the way were Joey Butler's home run (his 4th as a Bull), Richie Shaffer’s 19th home run (in 60 games), the smart base running by Shaffer in the 8th on a Nick Franklin sacrifice fly that tied the game, and solid relief work by Jim Miller, C.J. Riefenhauser, and Jhan Marinez (two days in a row). Worrisome? That would be Scott Diamond's 6th inning.

Outside the game —

Who’s going to St. Petersburg on September call-ups? Your guess is as good as mine, maybe better. But we have to start with players on the 40-man, so here’s that list. If anyone else is to be called up then room will have to be made for him one way or other (and the Rays are pretty good and finding that “other” gimmick). Note that this list is constantly in motion.

Pitchers

• Andrew Bellatti
• Matt Moore
• C.J. Riefenhauser
• Kirby Yates

Hitters

• Ryan Brett
• Jake Elmore
• Nick Franklin
• Hak-Ju Lee
• Richie Shaffer
• Joey Butler
• Mikie Mahtook

Bats Away

Gotta admit he (she) is kind cute

Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Matt Andriese looked really, really good

Season: 56-59; Home Stand: 4-6;
Games Remaining: 27; Home Games Remaining: 15
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

From the way it started, we have to say that this home stand could have been among the worst in Bulls history. Instead, it ended on an up note when the Bulls won three of the last four. Plus we got to see the talent of young Blake Snell as he threw a no-hitter through his five innings. He was followed by a very decent 1-hit, two innings outing by Everett Teaford, his best outing since being moved to the bullpen. C.J. Riefenhauser K’d the side (with a walk thrown in there). And Jim Miller “closed”.

The other game story was Mikie Mahtook, Taylor Motter and Joey Rickard. As mentioned the other day, Mahtook is simply looking more comfortable since his last return from the Rays. Maybe it was just a change of scenery. He was 2 for 4 with 5 RBI yesterday. Taylor Motter had what seems to be routine for him: an RBI double, and two walks. New guy Joey Rickard kept up his bid to stick in AAA with a triple and a single and 3 RBI.

The 9-run differential matches the one from Friday and gives us hope that the Bulls will wrap up the season with at least a few respectable, fun-to-watch games.

Outside the game—

• J.P. Arencibia is hanging out with the Rays, but has not gone on their roster. Rays catcher, former Bull Curt Casali was injured and the Rays wanted some insurance with the team. Mayo Acosta has been put on the active roster.
• Somehow I wasn’t paying attention to this: Robert Zarate, the mystery pitcher who came up from the Charlotte Stone Crabs in mid-June and who has been doing a terrific job, is on the disabled list. If anyone knows why, please jump in. I’ve been distracted recently.
• Desmond Jennings is not going to Norfolk for tonight’s game, but there’s been no official announcement of his status. 
• First base coach for the Louisville Bats last night? Former Bull Matt Buschmann. Oddly enough, he is featured on the Bulls home page today wearing his Bulls hat. 

The Durham Bulls at the All-Star Break - Part 2 - Individuals

Pitchers

Unlike Part 1's look at team performance, looking at individual pitching performance for a minor league team is much more of a problem. As mentioned, the Bulls have had 30 players throw the ball this year, but 6 of those don’t really count. Several others have only made very brief appearances before going up to the Rays or back to Montgomery (Brandon Gomes, Jim Patterson, Kyle Winkler). A few others are simply gone from the Rays system (Andy Oliver, Grant Balfour, Preston Guilmet, Matt Buschmann, Ronald Belisario). And at least one will probably make his way back up (Bryce Stowell). That doesn’t count the back-and-forths. So, take all of these charts with a grain of salt and if there’s a number that seems odd, check out the innings pitched number, we could be dealing with a very small sample size. We’ve essentially pared this down to the folks who might at start out the post-All-Star Break with the Bulls. Very likely that at least one, probably two, will not be on the active roster next Thursday.

click on chart for larger image

I’m fairly agnostic on the ERA vs FIP (Fielding Independent Percentage), so here are both in one chart, sorted by ERA. Since some folks seem to think that FIP says more about the future, then a high FIP/low ERA seems weaker than the opposite. Overall, this is not a particularly impressive set of numbers. Only Scott Diamond among those left standing in the starting pitcher crew has particularly good numbers. Andrew Bellatti has been with Tampa Bay or on the DL most of the season. Jhan Mariñez looks awfully good, and Jim Miller has been something of an iron man keeping things alive. The best Bulls starter, Matt Buschmann, and the best reliever, Ronald Belisario, didn’t make it through the season in the Rays system. (Voice from back of head — “Get over it, Chris, they’re gone” Yeah, but… )

The Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP) stat shows some of the weak spots on the crew.

Lastly, our home-brewed measure of pitching efficiency, or pitches per out, also sorts out in an interesting way.

Hitters

This table is sorted by wOBA, a newish hitting stat that has a great reputation. Mostly it tracks OPS, on-base percentage plus slugging, but the stats geeks think it works better. Also included is Weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA), a number that speaks to me as a way to judge how much a player is contributing to the team. What jumps out for 2015 is how much Taylor Motter has contributed to the Bulls this year. He has a terrific wOBA and a team-leading wRAA. Well-deserved All-Star, even if he didn’t play.

Tim Beckham was just called up, but I left him on the list just to show where he fit among the rest in his short time with the Bulls this year. We will have to see if Richie Shaffer's star continues to shine. No reason for it not to. Boog Powell’s numbers will likely drop just a bit (but that means he may stick with the Bulls the rest of the year rather than get called up). What’s a considerable worry for the Bulls, Tampa Bay (likely), and the individual players, are the young men on the 40-man roster who are not doing so well — Ryan Brett, Mikie Mahtook, and Hak-Ju Lee. No doubt they can turn things around. But time is running out for this year.

Name	Age	PA	AVG	OPS	wOBA	wRAA
Richard Shaffer	24	154	.284	1.020	.449	14.4
Boog Powell	22	62	.313	.892	.410	4.0
Taylor Motter	25	361	.306	.848	.384	16.6
*Nick Franklin	24	74	.284	.829	.380	3.2
*Tim Beckham	25	43	.297	.805	.368	1.5
Corey Brown	29	282	.227	.748	.340	3.9
J.P. Arencibia	29	278	.228	.708	.321	0.0
*Hak-ju Lee	24	233	.231	.617	.289	-5.5
*Mikie Mahtook	25	262	.224	.606	.284	-7.0
Luke Maile	24	209	.188	.574	.278	-6.6
*Ryan Brett	23	167	.205	.575	.269	-6.4
Vince Belnome	27	187	.173	.530	.262	-8.1
Bobby Wilson	32	42	.167	.480	.233	-2.7

* = Players on 40-man roster of Tampa Bay Rays

Source: FanGraphs

Good Pitching & Hitting, Umpire Thins Out Opposition

Season: 39-27; Trip: 4-1
Wrap, Box

With last night’s win the Durham Bulls went 12 games above .500, the best so far this year. Mid-season is only 6 games away (AAA only plays 144 games) and we have to say that the team’s record is terrific.

One reason is that they are getting good pitching from odd places. Last night reliever Jordan Norberto got his second start in a row and lasted even longer than last time. He essentially set the stage for Jim Miller, who got a win even though his stint was not impressive. Then the new guys, Robert Zarate and Kyle Winkler, pitched one inning each of shut out ball and semi-new guy Preston Guilmet (he seems to spend a lot of time on the Rays-Bulls shuttle) got his second save.

Another reason is youngster Richie Shaffer is just pounding the ball. I saw his shot last night and he just crushed a ball in that oddly shaped stadium. At the DBAP it might have gone over the Bull.

Maybe, just maybe, Alan Dykstra is coming out of his season-long slump. He was 3 for 4 last night and made his way above the Mendoza Line to .210. And there’s Cory Brown, who was named the International League Hitter of the Week yesterday. He had a very timely triple in the 6th that won the game for the Bulls.

For oddity, how about this? The home plate umpire threw out three Indians last night, all for grousing about balls and strikes. First it was hitting coach Butch Wynegar in the 3rd. Then in the 9th it was catcher Tony Sanchez, followed by manager Dean Treanor. The Bulls have seen a lot of this particular umpiring crew, 16 games this season. Last night it was a four-man version. It strikes me as particularly stupid for a catcher to argue balls and strikes on the first game of a three-game series.

Rostering —

• Two Bulls pitchers had Jun 15th opt-out clauses in their contracts: Matt Buschmann and Ronald Belisario. Just what circumstances were involved in the clauses aren’t clear (typically assignment to the 25-man active squad). Nevertheless, according to Broadcaster Patrick Kinas, both have exercised their options. That means the Rays have 48 hours to do some kind of deal or both players are gone. No matter what happens, it would seem that neither player will be back in a Bulls uniform. Also according to Kinas, both players were still with the team last night as they wait for decisions down in St. Petersburg.
• Too bad for the Bulls. Buschmann was the front end and Belisario was the back end of quite a few Bulls wins this year. Belisario is probably the best closer in the International League and Buschmann, while he’s never made it to the major leagues, is certainly an above average pitcher.  
• Meanwhile, catcher Bobby Wilson, the Rays backup catcher all this year, has accepted an assignment to the Bulls and should show up in a couple of days. That could add a lot of experience and depth to the team. Stats.
• And then there’s Grady Sizemore, who was signed yesterday by the Rays. He’ll probably show up with the Bulls after spending some time with the Stone Crabs. Not sure about that one. Stats.
• Additional commentary here and here, 

How to Win a Marathon

Season: 35-26; Home Stand: 3-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The finish of this longest game of the year (4:12) is well-covered at the links, including the heroics of infielder Leonardo Reginatto who now has a place in the 2015 Durham Bulls record books as a pitcher.

But how in the world did they get there when they had a 7-3 lead going into the 6th inning? Well, I’d like to blame the Tampa Bay Rays, who told the Bulls not to start Matt Andriese, so they had to go with Jordan Norberto who had never started a game in his professional career, and who was, by WDBB’s measures, the Bulls’ worst reliever. But Norberto got out of his 2+ innings in decent shape. The Rays also took away a reliever, Preston Guilmet, which came into play later on.

But we have to admit that the first big mistake was leaving generally superb reliever Jim Miller in the game with two outs in the 6th. Jared Sandberg was ready to take him out since he was over 50 pitches and C.J. Riefenhauser was ready to go. Sandberg, who seems to be quicker with the hook that Charlie Montoyo, even went out to the mound. But Miller apparently talked Sandberg out of pulling him. Didn’t work. The very next batter hit a home run and the IronPigs were then 4 runs back at 7-3. Riefenhauser came in to finish out the 6th.

Andy Oliver, not the Bulls’ best reliever, but not the worst either, came on in the 8th, struck out a batter, then loaded the bases with three quick walks. The last man standing in the Bulls’ bullpen was closer Ronald Belisario. Yes, it was true that this would be his 12th appearance in the last 21 Bulls’ games, but that’s what closers do, right? This was to be, however, a 5-out save and Belisaro had only attempted that twice before this year: one save and one loss. On the other hand, the Bulls really did not have a choice in the matter. The bullpen was empty.

A run scored on an infield out at first and the next batter flied out. The Bulls got the run back on a Reginatto double in the bottom of the inning, so they went into the 9th with a comfortable 3-run lead. After all, Belisario does lead the IL in saves.

A walk, a single, and a home run (by former Bull Russ Canzler), and the game was tied. The marathon began. Young Brazilian infielder Reginatto kept the Bulls in the game until the IronPigs pitching faded in the bottom of the 12th. Note that the rules of the game meant Reginatto also had to keep on coming to bat, which he did in the 12th. He was hit by a pitch and was on 2nd base when Taylor Motter’s home run brought home Hak-Ju Lee to win the game.

Outside the game —

• As mentioned, Preston Guilmet has been called up. Enny Romero is coming back. Kirby Yates was taken off his rehab status and is coming on to the Bulls roster.

In the wings —

• According to the Tampa Tribune’s Roger Mooney, Matt Moore will have a rehab start with the Durham Bulls on June 18. That would be their first home game after the Bulls get back from their current trip.

The Bulls are now alone in first place in the International League South Division.

Arencibia/Casali Rule!

Season: 31-24; Home Stand: 7-2
Wrap, Box

Bulls fans could not have hoped for a better home stand than what we just went through. Nine games in eleven days; seven wins; good crowds, over 65,000 fans; decent, but not great, weather. Not only that, the Bulls end the stand back in a three-way tie with Charlotte and Norfolk for first place in the International League South Division.

They are off to Lawrenceville, Georgia to play the Braves for three games, then back to the DBAP. This is the first real break for the DBAP’s turf in a very, very  long time.

The fun part of last night’s game was watching J.P. Arencibia and Curt Casali shine. Neither of them is having a particularly good year at bat, but times could be changing. Arencibia played first base and batted 4th. Casali was the DH and batted fifth. Between them they accounted for 6 of the Bulls' 9 hits, 2 of the RBI, and all of the runs scored.

Arencibia started in off in the 2nd inning with a single and Casali hit a home run to bring him in (Casali’s second home run in a row since he’d homered Wednesday night in his last at bat).

With one out in the 4th inning Arencibia singled again, Casali singled him to third base, and Richie Shaffer drove him in with a double.

Arencibia led off the 6th with a double, went to third base (again) on a Casali single, and came home on a Corey Brown sacrifice fly.

Scott Diamond kept things quiet until the 5th and Sandberg was quick with the hook. Probably because the relief crew needed the work and they have been exceptional during this home stand. In the last four games they have not allowed a single earned run over those 15+ innings.

In the wings —

• Bulls reliever Kirby Yates made his first rehab appearance with the Charlotte Stone Crabs. One not-very-successful inning. Box.
• Juniel Querecuto has moved to Montgomery. He was 1 for 4 playing shortstop in a Biscuits loss to the Jacksonville Suns. Box. Wrap.

Bulls Relievers

I mentioned the relievers' recent performance above. Here’s a chart that shows how they’ve been doing this year. As with most of the charts so far it’s early days in the season and the sample size is small. This shows the ERA and the Fielding Independent Percentage (FIP) for the relief crew. FIP is one of those newish sabermetric stats that tries to focus on just those things the pitcher controls. As the season goes along FIP and ERA will probably get closer in synch. This chart is sorted by FIP.

A few more caveats: Obviously, José Dominguez’s sample is too small for any kind of conclusion, just 5 innings so far this year. Ronald Belisario’s 14 saves are the best in the International League and he’s coming up on his opt-out date. All who are on the 40-man have seen time with Tampa Bay this year. A couple of players currently with the Rays have seen significant time with the Bulls this year, but aren't on this chart.  Jim Miller and Jhan Mariñez have been really impressive and important to the Bulls this year. Even with all the caveats, for these are mostly very good numbers. The overall ERA for Bulls relievers on the year is 3.10.

click on chart for larger image

Starting Stumbles

Wrap, Box, Buffalo News

Season: 19-14; Trip: 2-3
Wrap, Box, Buffalo News

Pitching, in just one awful inning, was enough. Then the Bisons brought on Todd Redmond. This will be the last time the Bulls see him this year. That’s a good thing.

Hard to find much to like in this game, so let’s at least mention the solid job that veteran (33) Jim Miller (stats) has been doing for the Bulls. He came in last night and pitched 2+ innings and kept the Bulls within reach. In 11 appearances so far he has pitched 19⅓ innings for an ERA of 2.79 (FIP of 2.68) and a decent WHIP of 1.19. He has not allowed any home runs and not one of the 4 runners he’s inherited has scored. He spent the last two years with the Yankees AAA team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, but his numbers so far with the Bulls are much better than those years.

Jake Elmore, who had been up with the Rays, was back and playing 3B, 0-7 with on walk so far. Hanging out in St. Petersburg seems to mess with your game — a lot.

Pitching Update

Back on April 30 when we first looked at this chart things were on nice downward trend. That continued for several days, but recently the starting crew has had its problems.

These are the last 15 days of the cumulative ERAs of the starting and relief pitchers. As the season progresses you would expect to see less variability in the ups and downs, but this is a fairly obvious and worrisome trend. Note that the Bulls have had 21 different pitchers so far this year, ranging from Dylan Floro’s 40 innings to Jose Dominguez’s and Matt Andriese’ 2 each.

click on chart for larger image
www.watchingdurhambullsbaseball.com

Durham Bulls Back to .500 on Walk Off

Season: 8-8; Home Stand: 4-1; Standings
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun [paywall]

Joey Butler was last night’s hero accounting for half of the Bulls’ RBIs, most spectacularly with the walk-off home run that won the game. At 29 he’s one of the senior members of the team and he’s got plenty of AAA time under his belt, parts of 5 seasons, not counting a stretch in Japan last year. He has some major league time with both the Rangers and the Cardinals. [stats] Happy to have him here to hit the first Bulls homer over the Blue Monster that I’ve seen this year, plus the double to right field in the first inning.

Nice ending to what was something of a struggle for starting pitcher Dylan Floro and reliever Jim Miller. Floro gave up two home runs (in the 2nd and the 4th), but it was the lengthy 5th inning where he seemed to lose his touch. Jim Miller, at 33 the elder statesman of the bullpen crew, came in to end the 6th and had a clean 7th. However, he gave up the tying run in the 8th, setting the stage for Joey Butler’s heroics.

Mikie Mahtook was back in town after a very short, one game, no plate appearance visit with the Rays. He has not lost his touch. He got on base 4 out of five times with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two singles. He scored three runs, to include the winning run when driven in by Butler’s homer.

Coming to the Bulls with Mahtook was first baseman Allan Dykstra. Mr. Dykstra was on the Bulls roster at the beginning of the year, but got called up to the Rays before the Bulls’ first game. That was the first visit of the 28 year old to the big leagues. He spent 2014 with the Mets AAA team out in Las Vegas with some pretty good power hitter numbers (OPS: .930 in 117 games with 16 home runs and 74 RBI. Stats.) Not a strong debut, 0-4 as the DH.

Rosterizing —

• As mentioned, Mikie Mahtook is back. Alan Dykstra is now with the team. Catcher Mayo Acosta is off to “Hudson Valley”.

Not a Good Home Stand

Season: 3-6; Home Stand: 0-3
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun [Paywall]

We saw youngish (26) Jim Patterson a few times early last year. He went back to Montgomery for the rest of 2014. [stats]. After one inning in relief by new guy Andy Oliver, Mr. Patterson came on in the 6th inning with the Bulls up 2 to 1. He got out of the inning, but first gave up a single, two wild pitches, and a walk, putting runners on first and third with just one out. A popup to the catcher and soft line drive to Lee at SS let him escape.

The 7th started with a single and a fly out to center field. But then there was a walk, followed by a visit to the mound by new pitching coach Kyle Snyder. Impossible to know what Snyder and Patterson talked about. It sure seemed to us that when Snyder got back to the dugout he and manager Jared Sandberg decided to let Patterson twist in the breeze (or maybe it was before Snyder went to the mound). No pitcher began warming up. Instead we fans were treated to: a hit batsman that loaded the bases; a single that scored two runs; a single that scored another run; a sacrifice fly that scored a run; a single; and, at last, a grounder to short to end the inning. 4 runs. Bulls behind 5-3. At the end of the inning there still wasn't a reliever warming up.

Déjà vu, we’ve seen this before, just the day before. On Thursday Matt Buschmann was similarly left dangling.

Interesting, if that’s what you want to call it, but my section of the stands got up and left after that, even though the game was not out of reach. That did not happen until the 9th when 4 runs were scored off of Jim Miller. Still, the pitching side of this year’s crew leaves something to be desired.

On the other side, Taylor Motter had a good night. Mr. Motter is one of the few “prospects” on this year’s Bulls team. At 25, he is working his way up through the Rays system. He had a good year at Montgomery last year (stats) but had only had one hit so far this year in 22 ABs. He went 4 for 5 last night (single, two doubles, and a home run). He has experience at 3B, so we might see him there this year as well.

Outside the game —

• C.J. Riefenhauser was called up to Tampa Bay. He pitched a scoreless 7th inning for the Rays last night.
• Ryan Brett, who’s been playing mostly at 2B, was called up. He was the Montgomery Biscuits’ MVP last year and, with Motter, a ‘prospect’. [stats] Apparently callup related to Longoria injury.  As a Bull, he had 6 games at 2B and 2 in the outfield (first pro experience in the outfield) and was hitting .226 in 31 ABs. He will be back.
• Catcher Mayo Acosta was “assigned to Hudson Valley”. For those new to WDBB, assignment to the Hudson Valley roster is usually a paper transaction. It does not mean that Acosta has left the team, but it does mean that he cannot play in a game until he’s added back. Acosta has played in two games this year and is 0-4, so far.
• Outfielder Mikie Mahtook is back from Tampa Bay. We saw him in the dugout last night, so he hurried back. As far as I can tell, he almost no playing time with the Rays, although he did hit a pitch hit home run as his first major league hit.
• Relief pitcher Andy Oliver was recently signed by the Rays and sent to Durham. Story here. He has a lot of AAA time with Toledo (Detroit) and Indianapolis (Pittsburg) both as a starter and as a reliever. [Stats] He pitched last night, as noted above, and did OK. First game appearance this year.
• J.P. Arencibia has also been signed to a minor league deal and sent to the Bulls. We saw him leaning on the dugout rail last night. Although he has played catcher most of his career, reportage out of Tampa implies he is lined up for a DH/1B role. [stats]
• Six transactions in one day! And the Bulls are still short one player for their active roster.
• I tried the Rise Donut stand on the 1B side of the concourse last night. Apple fritter was terrific! Will be working my way through their offerings.