Looking at 2010 — 5 — Pitchers (cont)

Let's see if we can wrap this up.

Mike Ekstrom (26). RHP. Reliever. 58 Innings (3 2/3 postseason). 39 Games (1 start). 6-1. 6 holds, 1 save. ERA 2.79. On Rays 40-man.

• Ekstrom started the year in Tampa Bay and came to the Bulls in a swap for Joaquin Benoit in late April. He went back up to the Rays for a couple of weeks in early August, again in early September, came back for one round of playoffs, and went back to the Rays. Not quite sure why he was around all year given the somewhat erratic quality of the Rays bullpen, but nice to have him with the Bulls and he did a good job. Seemed to handle the back and forth better than most we’ve seen around here. He’s young. He’s only got two years of AAA under his belt. If he doesn’t stick with the Rays he might be back next year.
  
• Stats.

Winston Abreu (33). RHP. Reliever. 55 1/3 innings (3 1/3 postseason). 40 games. 0-4. 2 holds, 23 saves. ERA 2.28.

• A great deal of the Bulls’ success over the last two years can be attributed to Winston Abreu. If his number of saves seems a bit low (tied for 3rd in the IL), remember that in the early months of the season there were few save opportunities with the Bulls on a record-setting run scoring pace. Very, very important to the Bulls to know that if they had a lead going into the last inning, Abreu was there. At a guess, it’s up to Abreu whether or not he wants to put in another year with the Bulls. Certainly the team (and this fan) would love to have him back.
  
• Stats.

R.J. Swindle (26). LHP. Reliever. 55 innings (5 innings postseason). 40 games. 2-4. 12 holds. 2 saves. ERA 2.79.

• There was not a pitcher on the crew that was more fun to watch this year than R.J. Swindle. He got a late start on the season, not showing up with the Bulls until May 10. Impressive control right out of the gate. He didn’t walk a single batter until his eighth appearance. R.J. is famous for his slow curve that loops across the plate at much less than 60 mph, while his “fastball” barely approaches 80 mph. No pitcher on the Bulls staff could mix it up as well as he could. One or two inning guy, real asset to the team. Still young. He could be a real help to the Bulls in years to come if Rays want to keep him around.
  
• Stats.

Darin Downs (25). LHP. 40 1/3 innings (5 1/3 postseason). 23 games (1 start). 6-2. ERA 4.46.

• Downs joined the Bulls from the Montgomery Biscuits in late June. His numbers with the Bulls were much less impressive than his 1.67 ERA at AA level. On the other hand, this was his first visit to AAA baseball and he seems fully recovered from his injuries. Pretty sure that he’s going to be on the Rays “Let’s wait and see” list. Maybe Biscuits, probably Bulls next year.
  
• Stats.

The next several pitchers were in the 20 inning range, so let’s try to wrap this up with some one-liners.

Bobby Livingston (27). LHP. 27 2/3 innings (5 postseason). 5 games, no decisions. Livingston filled in some gaping holes in the Bulls starting lineup on August, and did a pretty good job for us. He’s been banging around AAA for the last couple of years — Indianapolis, Columbus, Norfolk, Buffalo, and Albuquerque — so have to think there’s a story there we don’t know about. Still, liked what we saw in August and September. Stats.
Heath Rollins (25). RHP. Started the season with the Bulls and appeared in 13 games (23 innings), but did not do well. Was sent down to Montgomery where he also did not do well. Stats.
Jake McGee (23). LHP. Started the season with Montgomery as a starter. Came to the Bulls in August to work as a reliever (17 innings) and did very, very well. Went to Tampa in mid-September. On 40-man. Likely to start 2011 with the Bulls. Stats.
Ramon Ortiz (37). RHP. 17 innings. 4 games. Much like Bobby Livingston, brought in at the end of the season to fill some holes in starting lineup. Less successful than Livingston. First time we’ve ever seen a pitcher tossed from a game for something he apparently said, not something he did (August 30). Did not appear in the postseason. Stats.
Brian Shouse (42). LHP. Reliever. Signed in mid-August to fill some holes and possibly back up the Rays bullpen. 10 games, 12 innings. Was of little help to Bulls. Stats.
Jeff Bennett (30). RHP. Starter. Started the year with Durham. Pitched one game, faced two batters in his second start and went on DL. Had one more start on May 11 and was released. Total of 10 2/3 innings. Stats.
Paul Phillips (26). RHP. Came up from Montgomery and got in 3 appearances (10 2/3 innings) before the end of the season and two in post season (6 1/3 innings). We like Phillips, but he’s running out of time. He could easily come out of spring training on the Bulls roster. Or just as easily disappear. Stats.
Joaquin Benoit (33). RHP. Likely to become a trivia question if he keeps up his terrific performance as a Rays setup man. He did spend a couple of weeks with the Bulls at the beginning of the year, making 8 appearances for 9 2/3 innings, 2 saves and a loss. Swapped out for Mike Ekstrom. Stats.
Jason Cromer (29). LHP. 8 innings. 4 games. A favorite of WDBB, Jason could not get his arm/elbow working right this year. He did show up for four games in late May/early June. He on the books as pitching a couple of games/innings in mid-August down in the Gulf Coast League, so we can hope. But have to say that it doesn’t look well. Jason’s running out of time. Stats.
Justin Garcia (24). RHP. Reliever. 4 2/3 innings. If you been reading this far, this is the punch line. Justin Garcia, as far as we can tell, has never been to Durham, NC. He came up from Montgomery and pitched two games in relief against Indianapolis, then went from there to the Charlotte Stone Crabs. Obvious candidate for the Moonlight Graham Award. Stats.
Alex Cobb (22). RHP. Starter. Alex did not play for the Bulls in the regular season. He did come up for the postseason and took a loss in his first appearance. Nevertheless, he is a very, very promising young pitcher, one of two on this year’s Biscuits squad on the Rays 40-man (Jake McGee being the other one). If we’re lucky, we’ll see a lot of him next year. Stats.

Bullpen Lets Six Get Home

Game 65: Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) 2, Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) 7
Season: 39-26; Last 10: 7-3
Wrap, Box, Gwinnett Daily Post

Last night’s game can be looked at in a couple of different ways, most of them not good.

We’ll just point out that the game was one of the very rare times this year that the Bulls’ relievers have lost a game. To date they have only been charged with six losses and three of those six were from pitchers no longer with the Bulls. Benoit (1) has gone to the Rays and Rollins (2) has gone to the Biscuits. Winston Abreu, R.J. Swindle and Dale Thayer have the other three. Another indication of the strength of our bullpen is that they have only had two blown saves, Bateman (1) and Ekstrom (1). One of the blown saves was last night (Joe Bateman) as was the loss by Dale Thayer.

Going into the 7th inning, the Bulls were leaving a lot of runners on base, but they still had a 2-1 lead. Then Bateman came on and gave up a tying run. That was followed by what was probably Dale Thayer’s very worst outing as a Durham Bull: Single, hit by pitch, single, double, walk, single, couple of ground outs and another single — five runs. Following as it does a rough outing June 6th, I’m wondering if there’s something wrong with Dale. Or is he simply not getting enough work?

We’ll also point out that the Bulls left 17 men on base and outhit the Braves 13 to 10.

Moving right along …

Desmond Jennings has attracted a flurry of attention by being named IL Player of the Week and in a pretty good article in today's News & Observer.

Elliot Johnson and Jason Cromer were put on the disabled list. Joe Dillon came off (hooray!). Rehabbing Tampa Bay shortstop Jason Bartlett is playing a couple of games with us on his way back to the Rays.

Cromer; Rollins

It's official, per an email from Bulls' front office.

Heath Rollins has been assigned to Montgomery.

Jason Cromer is officially off the disabled list.

For those who were not with us for 2009, Jason was one of our stalwarts. A left-handed starting pitcher, Jason had 19 starts and put together a 7-3 record with a 2.25 ERA. He's been knocking around the minors for a good while, stats, but it seemed like he usually came through when needed last year. We here at WDBB were particularly taken with him and have been looking forward to his return. No word on when he will get his first start. My guess, and it is a guess, is in the next day or so.

Bulls Go Quietly; Ready for DAP?

Photo courtesy Durham County Library and Endangered Durham

A hundred years ago parking was a problem at El Toro field. Wonder how it will be tomorrow?

Game 30: Durham Bulls 2, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 4
Season: 19-11
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

Last night was to have been a big night for two players who have been out of the lineup for a while, Angel Chavez and Desmond Jennings. Chavez had only missed a few days, but Jennings has been out for a couple of weeks. Jennings had a good night — single, double, RBI, stolen base. As for Chavez, well, his return to shortstop could have been better.

In his first at bat in the 2nd inning Chavez hit a solid single, but tried to stretch it into a double and got thrown out for the last out of the inning. In the 3rd Scranton had runners on first and third with one out. A classic “strike ‘em out/throw ‘em out” play didn’t quite work. Carlos Hernandez got the strike out and the runner from first was caught in a run down. But Chavez threw the ball away when the runner on third broke for home. So, instead of being out of the inning, Scranton had a run in and a runner on second. Hernandez walked the next batter and gave up a three-run homer to Scranton’s Winfree.

But all was not lost. In the 6th inning Chavez came to bat with runners on first and second and one out. Of course, this being his night to be the goat, he hit into a 3-6-1 double play.

Shake it off, Angel. Shows you what a quirky game baseball can be.

A very bright light in the evening was Heath Rollins. He had what was, by far, his best outing of the year. He went 3 ⅓ innings with 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, and used a reasonable 54 pitches to get there.

Clearly Charlie Montoyo is a member of the crowd that thinks stolen bases count for something. The bottom of the 3rd last night was a classic example of how that approach can work. With one out, Rashad Eldridge drew a walk. Eldridge stole second during Jennings’s at bat, then scored on Jennings’ single. Jennings then stole second and scored on Elliot Johnson’s single. Elliot Johnson stole second, but neither Joe Dillon or Hank Blalock could bring him in. Still, our only runs last night came off of stolen bases.

Pretty sure I saw Jeff Bennett leaning against the rail in the Bulls dugout last night. Bennett has not been seen here since April 15th when he left the game after facing two batters. Is he back? Would be nice if he were, assuming he’s healthy.

Today is the last time to see the Yankees this year, unless we meet in the playoffs.

Tides Stroll In

Tides shortstop Scott Moore tags out Durham’s Justin Ruggiano, right, during Norfolk’s win at Harbor Park. (Hyunsoo Leo Kim | The Virginian-Pilot)

Game 2: Durham Bulls 4, Norfolk Tides 6
Season: 1-1
Wrap, Box

Bulls pitching walked in two runs in the 5th inning to let the Tides get ahead 3-0, but then we got back two in the 6th and two more in the 7th to go ahead 4-3. The bottom of that inning, however, was a lesson on how quickly things can change in the game of baseball. With two outs, a single was followed by a triple, and then a potential third out became the winning run when a run-down between 3rd and home got botched. That happens. These guys are pros, but that is the sort of thing that happens when they really haven't played any games together as a team.

On the other hand, Joe Bateman got up to some of his 2009 tricks in the 8th. He struck out the first batter. Then hit the next batter. Walked the next. Gives up a single. Runner on second scores. Runner on first goes to third. Walks the next batter, so bases are loaded. Next batter grounds into a force out at home. Bases still loaded. Next batter grounds out.

So, Joe, who was my leading candidate last year as a substitute for a cardiac stress test — just take some readings before he comes in and monitor — is on track to keep the EMTs in business this year. In fact, if it’s at the DBAP just bring the defibrillator on up to 208 while Joe’s on his way to the mound.

Turns out I was wrong in a couple of my guesses about the starting rotation (that’s happened before — why once back during the Reagan administration …). Heath Rollins isn’t going to be a starter. That leads to Heath and Heath sequences such as last night. Jeff Bennett to start tonight. That leaves Carlos Hernandez and someone else. I’m sure that Neil Solondz has mentioned it, but I’ve missed it. If it’s Vasquez, then the tweet reported a while back must’ve gotten in right. You’d think the Bulls would put this kind of information out.

Justin Ruggiano got tossed out of the game last night. Let’s see if Charlie sticks with his rule of benching a player for a game if he gets tossed.

For what it’s worth, last night’s game is one of those where the numbers say we should have won, but didn’t. Aggregate OBP, OPS, wOBA, and FIP were all better than Norfolk’s. But then there’s that other one — runs scored — that sort of messes things up. Oh well, back to the spreadsheet.

For Rays fans: I think, but never trust Time-Warner, that there's a Rays-Yankees game on this afternoon.

Opening Night & Starting Pitchers

Lots of good links at the Bulls website. Take a look. To my great surprise, an article in the News & Observer. Also, looks like long-time Herald-Sun sports writer Mike Potter will be working over at Indy Week. Suggest all the links be checked out.

In another item, looks like Matt Joyce will be back with the Durham Bulls for a while. No telling what will happen with him once his rehab is done.

So, while we wait for tonight’s game, let’s start going through the roster.

Starting with, what else, the starters. Opinions, additions, comments, etc. most welcome.

Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, 23
Basics, RaysProspects, stats, more stats
Jeremy’s coming off a terrific year. Great things are expected.

Carlos Hernandez, LHP, 30
Basics, stats, more stats
What more can you ask for than 112 innings and a 3.29 ERA from a 29 year old left hander coming off surgeries and injuries? Will this be the year he makes it back to the big time? I hope so, but only after winning a bunch of games for the Bulls.

Brian Baker, RHP, 27
Basics, stats, more stats
Coming to Durham off a decent year with the Biscuits, Baker has been pretty much off the radar. Looks like he was converted from a starter to a reliever while with Montgomery last year. At 27 it’s time for him to make his mark. Have to say that he looked pretty good last Saturday.

Heath Rollins, RHP, 25
Basics, RaysProspects, stats, more stats
Also a decent year with the Biscuits, and he lent a hand in our championship run last year with a relief appearance and two starts, one no-decisions and a win. He had 22 starts with the Biscuits and six relief appearances. So I don’t know which role he’ll be in this year. RaysProspects seems to think he will be a reliever.

Heath Phillips, LHP, 28
Basics, stats, more stats
I gotta be honest and say that I don’t remember much about Heath from his stint with the Bulls in 2008. I’ve got some stats that show that he started a couple of games, but mostly pitched in relief.


Jason Cromer, LHP, 29
Basics, stats, more stats
Since the President of the Jason Cromer Fan Club is a close associate of WDBB, we will be inviting him to make some comments once Jason comes off the DL. For some of his previous comments, do a search on the blog or click on Cromer on the cloud.

How They’re Doing — 5

The Rays and Bulls rosters are going to have to be set in the next couple of days, so this is probably the last of these.

Player / Games / PA / wOBA

Rodriguez, S / 21 / 62 / .555
Joyce, M / 8 / 25 / .450
Ashley, N / 7 / 15 / .573
Brignac, R / 23 / 51 / .344
Johnson, E / 24 / 56 / .274
Dillon, J / 21 / 27 / .199
Colina, A / 14 / 18 / .119

Now, Ashley and Colina are surely still there just to spread out the catching duties until the Rays’ Navarro is up to full speed. But Nevin Ashley’s had a couple of good days recently. Matt Joyce strained an elbow and isn’t quite at full strength. Joe Dillon had an inning or so as catcher on Sunday.

Other interesting stuff:

Elliot Johnson had a nice piece about him in the St. Pete Times last Friday. The Tampa Tribune has a similar article today.

Rays Renegade did a thoughtful item on Justin Ruggiano a few days back.

Jon Weber is having a spectacular spring with the Yankees and getting some blogger and press attention: here, here, here, here, and here. On the other hand, he still isn’t on the Yankees’ 40-man, so looks like we’ll see him here in Durham with him playing outfield for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 6th. His numbers are 14/25/.558.

Update: Jon's been sent down to SWB.

Stacy Long, the Montgomery Advertiser’s sports writer and expert on all things Rays Minor League, is down to take a look at Spring Training. His semi-interview with soon-to-be Durham Bull Desmond Jennings is here and a discussion with probably Bulls’ reliever Heath Rollins is here. Noted at the end of the Rollins story is this information on WDBB favorite Jason Cromer:

Left-hander Jason Cromer, expected to go to Durham, will miss a month with a minor elbow injury he suffered this winter while playing in Venezuela.

Here’s hoping it’s less than a month and we see him soon in Durham.

Bulls Below the Border

And out in Arizona ...

Inspired by some of the posts over on Rays Prospects I started digging around in the Winter League data, going from team to team looking for guys who played for the Bulls last year. I found several of our guys scattered around the Caribbean and Arizona and made up a list of how they’re going. Then, of course, I found a link that pretty much summarized everything I’d been looking for and more. Here’s all the Rays players currently playing Winter league baseball.

Of the position players listed, we saw Ray Olmedo and Henry Mateo last year. Neither are on a major league contract, so there’s no guarantee they’ll be back. The oddity is Tampa Bay infielder Willy Aybar. Hard to guess why he’s playing winter ball. Shouldn’t be for the money.

A bunch of the pitchers we saw last year are down south and out west: Bateman, dePaula, Medlock, Oliveros, Phillips, Rollins, and Talbot. One to watch is Mitch Talbot since he spent so much time on the DL last year. Seems to be doing OK.

Missing from any of the stats (although initially on rosters) are Justin Ruggiano and Jon Weber. Don't know what the story there may be.

We’re Going to Five

Durham Bulls 7, Louisville Bats 10
Wrap, Box, Indy Week, N&O, Courier-Journal

Well, it finally caught up with us. I had my hopes that somehow, someway the fact that we only have two starters wouldn’t make a difference. But it did, and does. Of course, the fact that we haven’t had one of our multi-homer games in what seems a very long time made a difference as well.

Raynor Oliveros and Mike Wlodarczyk bookended a night where three of the four pitchers who appeared in the game were new arrivals from Montgomery. Our guys gave up six runs in the first two innings, but we stayed in the game when their guy gave up six runs in the first three innings. So up until the 6th things weren’t all that bad. But we coughed up two in the 6th, off of Heath Rollins, and only got back one in the 8th. Meanwhile they got two more in the 8th off of Mike Wlodarczyk.

In defense of Oliveros, he had not pitched since September 5th, when he went seven innings and got a win against Norfolk. I’d be the last person to claim expertise on how pitchers’ fitness should be monitored, but that sure seems to me like a long time to go between starts. Did we get enamored with the “comeback” of Mitch Talbot? Or is this “rotation” hopelessly screwed up and Charlie and X. just have to figure it out an inning at a time?


Michel Hernandez hit a home run in the 2nd inning. Why is that a big deal? Because, unless I missed one, that was the first home run of the playoffs for the Durham Bulls. Oh, if only Chris Richard had been here these last couple of days, but, of course, he’s desperately needed to sit on the bench up in Boston. He’s got good company — Reid Brignac (1 game, 4 plate appearances) and Shawn Riggans (1 game, 1 AB).

But that is just whimpering, I suppose. We’d be in good shape if we could just get a hit off Louisville’s relievers. Our team OPS wasn’t all that bad (.736). We’ve won with worse, but not when the RISP is only 2-9. Louisville’s OBP was a whopping .436. Ugly things are gonna happen if almost half the opposing batters get on base and then if their RISP is 6-11, it can get worse.

Charlie Montoyo sort of says it all, as quoted in the N&O (The N&O covering a Bulls game? An away game?)

“It wasn’t a crazy game, it was just bad pitching,” Montoyo said. “Really there are no excuses. The pitching was just not very good.”

Shake it off, guys. New game tomorrow. We don’t have a regular starter available, but we do have the heart of our relief corps. The series is in your hands.

By the way, game starts at 5 o’clock.