Stumbling at Home; Mud Hens Arrive

Missing from the accounts of the last four games is the fact that a former Bull played a key role in two of the Bulls' losses. Richie Shaffer, who spent part of 2015 and most of 2016 with the Bulls, is now in the Cleveland system. He got key hits in games 2 and 3 of this series.

Nevertheless, even after losing three games in a row, the Bulls remain firmly in first place.

Rosterification

Just to try to keep things up to date ...

• LHP Justin Marks went up to the Rays. Got DFA'd and then claimed by the LA Dodgers. I'm just a blogger, but sure looks like a dumb move by the Rays.
• RHP Chih We Hu is back, but not as a starting pitcher. So that hole remains unfilled.
• RHP Yoel Espinal went back to Montgomery
• RHP Kyle Winkler is back from "extended spring training"
• Outfielder Johnny Field came off the disabled list
• Outfielder Shane Peterson, who started the year with the Bulls, is back from TB.
• Outfielder Granden Goetzman, surely one of the more exciting Durham Bulls in a while, has gone back to Montgomery.
• Outfielder Dayron Varona has been "assigned" to the Hudson Valley Renegades. 
• RHP Austin Pruitt, who has been with the Rays all year, but spent last year in Durham, is headed to the Bulls
• RHP Diego Mareno got called up.

Matchup - Toledo Mud Hens

In most years visits by the second-most famous team in minor league baseball, the Toledo Mud Hens, are fun. Probably will be fun this year as well. The Mud Hens are leading the West Division, but their numbers are not good. On paper, the Bulls should be in good shape. On the other hand ... Tampa Bay, where's a starting pitcher? The Bulls have been without a 5th starter for a long time and it's starting to show. They used three (3!) position players as pitchers the other night. They gave up 10 runs on 7 hits and 6 walks in 2 innings, putting a severe kink in the team's pitching stats.

Sweep, Swept

The Bulls are getting a day off, then leave town for three games in Indianapolis and then three games in Louisville. Indianapolis is off to a slow start.

This was a frustrating home series with the Bulls first taking four games from Charlotte and rising to a solid grasp on first place in the South Division at 6 games above .500. Then they lost three in a row to Gwinnett and fell into a tie with Gwinnett at 3 games above .500.

Adding to the frustration was how the Bulls lost to the Braves: by giving up big innings in the first two games and then taking a tie game into the top of the 9th and one out, and not being able to hang on.

When it comes to stability this year, things are not looking good, 11 games, 10 transactions.

• RHP Jamie Schultz went on the disabled list almost right away. To fill his spot RHP Jeff Ames was called up from "extended spring training" (not sure what that means). Ames has already made three relief appearances and has only given up one run.
• Outfielder Johnny Field was hurt and went on the disabled list, but he's been hanging out in the dugout, so we can hope that he will be back soon. Cade Gotta came up from the Montgomery Biscuits and is 3 for 12 with 3 stolen bases so far. 
• Somebody with the Rays got an ouchie, which led to OF Shane Peterson being put on the 40-man and being called up (good for him). He hit a home run in his first at bat as a Ray.
• To replace Peterson, Granden Goetzman was called up from Montgomery. He's played in two games so far. 
• Tampa Bay called up RHP Chase Whitley and then the next day RHP Taylor Guerrieri was put on the disabled list. 
• Those transactions led to RHP Brent Honeywell being called up from Montgomery where the young (22 years) pitcher has had two starts this year. He has not yet pitched for Durham.
• And, lastly, RHP Yoel Espinal was called up from the Charlotte Stone Crabs, the Rays A+ team down in Florida. He pitched a terrific 2 1/3 innings last night. In fact, an argument could be made that he should have stayed in the game after the first out of the 9th. Certainly, he could not have done worse than what was done.

Outside the game —

• The Herald-Sun and News & Observer have been doing an unusually good job on feature articles this year. In one, the current Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker recalled his time as a Durham Bulls manager when the Bulls were a Single-A Braves team. I was pleased to learn that even back then Bulls fans were obstreperous and noisy. Back in 1983 fans put together a petition and sent it to Braves management, to have Snitker replaced (this was pre-internet, so they had to have worked to get a petition together). Got me thinking ...
• As fans may have noticed, Jared Sandberg is managing from the dugout this year and new coach (and former Bull) Craig Albernaz is coaching 3rd Base. Sandberg discusses that change in a feature article by the Herald-Sun's Steve Wiseman. Hard to tell this early in the season if it will make a difference.

Splashdown

Stormy Sky by Laurie Williams

Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun

Season: 66-78; Final Standings

Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun

The clouds and rain rolled in. I’m guessing the umps had a fit of common sense and said to the managers, “Let’s call it a day.” And the managers agreed. After all, the Knights need to get up to Indianapolis for their playoff game on Wednesday. The Bulls? Well, the Bulls (most of them) just needed to go home.

We’ll spend the next few days trying to wrap up this season. Regarding these last two games, the kindest review would point out that Chris Archer had a good start on Sunday; that Josh Lueke dug himself an even bigger hole in losing Sunday’s game; and that Leslie Anderson simply didn’t have enough time to get the hits he needed to win the batting crown. 

If we were looking for oddities (and we usually are) we’d note that in both games the Bulls outhit their opponents, but still lost. What could that mean? At a guess, the Knights were tuning up for the playoffs and the Bulls were not. 

 * * * * * 

There was another oddity in this last game that creates a dilemma for Watching Durham Bulls Baseball.  I need your opinion on an issue. The oddity was that Jim Peterson came into the game in relief and Robby Price started at second base.

Back when we set up the Moonlight Graham Award, given to the Durham Bull with the least amount of time in a Bulls uniform, we set up a fairly simple set of criteria excluding a few categories of players who come through that we didn’t think should be eligible for the award.

Not considered are players who come through on a rehab assignment, played only in postseason, and (for the pitcher) a position player thrown to the wolves at the end of a game.

Here’s my problem this year. We’ve got a pitcher and a position player who meet these criteria, and who are clearly the players with the least amount of time in a Bulls uniform, but we’ve never seen them (the aforementioned infielder Robby Price and pitcher Jim Patterson). They both played only at Knights Stadium, but they will not step onto the field at the DBAP. So, here’s my question: 

Should we add playing at the DBAP as a criterion for eligibility of the Moonlight Graham Award?

Outside the game —

• The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Stephen Vogt and Dane De La Rosa are being called up and speculates that Chris Archer could be called up soon.
• Bulls catcher Chris Gimenez hit two RBI yesterday to win the game for the Rays.