Last Year's Durham Bulls: Knowns and Unknowns, Position Players

We know that 62 ballplayers are at the Tampa Bay Rays Spring Training. What we don't know is who else is there in Port Charlotte at the minor league training camp. So here's a brief list of the 2010 Bulls, the number of games they were in for the Bulls, and what we know about them for 2011, if anything.

• Justin Ruggiano, 117 games, Durham Bulls
• Chris Richard, 117 games, Retired
• Fernando Perez, 116 games, Chicago Cubs/Iowa Cubs
• Angel Chavez, 113 games, Bridgeport Bluefish
• Elliot Johnson, 109 games, Tampa Bay Rays
• Desmond Jennings, 109 games, Durham Bulls
• Dan Johnson, 98 games, Tampa Bay Rays
• Joe Dillon, 96 games, Retired
• J.J. Furmaniak, 77 games, Durham Bulls
• Jose Lobaton, 72 games, Durham Bulls
• Alvin Colina, 51 games, Lancaster Barnstormers
• Ryan Shealy, 30 games, Blue Jays
• Dioner Navarro, 43 games, LA Dodgers
• Omar Luna, 40 games, Durham Bulls
• Rashad Eldridge, 34 games, ????
• Leslie Anderson, 28 games, Durham Bulls
• Hank Blalock, 26 games, ????

Any help out there regarding Chris Richard, Joe Dillon, Alvin Colina, Omar Luna, or Rashad Eldridge? Any or all of them could be with Rays organization, just not non-roster invitees.

Update 1: Although I'm not absolutely certain, I think it will be safe to change Chris Richard and Joe Dillon to "retired".


Update 2: In the very large category of "things I don't know about baseball", it turns out that minor leaguers without invites to Spring Training are not yet in camp. Omar Luna is expected to be there.


Update 3: April 19, changes italicized.

Looking at 2010 — 3

This should just about wrap of this year's position players. We'll put off to another post any speculation regarding how many, if any, we think might be coming back.

Alvin Colina (28). 2010 was his fourth year as a AAA catcher. Last year he was with Gwinnett.

• Played in 51 (201 plate appearances) games with the Bulls before blowing out a knee on July 22nd. 7 HR, 28 RBI, .231/.279/.390, wOBA .274, bRAA -7.3. Postions played: C-37, DH-13.
• As with Jose Lobaton, we find it hard to evaluate a catcher from the stands. Nevertheless, we find a lot to like about Mr. Colina. He appears to handle pitchers well and he appears to handle younger catchers well. We haven’t had an update on his condition since July, but we would not mind seeing him back with the Bulls next year.
  
• Stats

Ryan Shealy (30) played 48 games at first base and as a DH for the Bulls before opting out in June. Decent numbers, wOBA .373, bRAA 6.5. He helped the Bulls get off to a good start. He went to the Pawtucket Red Sox, got in a few games with Boston, went back to Pawtucket, and was released in early August. Stats.

Dioner Navarro (26) showed up in Durham in late June and left the beginning of September. Apparently struggling as the Tampa Bay Rays starting catcher, he came to the Bulls for the opportunity to sort things out. And pretty much did.

• Played in 43 games (169 plate appearances) during his stay. 2 HR, 21 RBI, .284/.387/.390, wOBA .369, bRAA 4.6. Positions played: C-35, DH-7. We don’t expect to see Dioner back any time soon. Good catcher. Certainly an asset to the Bulls while he was with us. The best numbers of any of the Bulls’ catchers.
  
• He is likely to be remembered for his first game as a Bull when he took a 102 mph fastball from the then Louisville Bat (now Cincinnati Red) reliever Aroldis Chapman.
  
• Stats

Omar Luna (23) joined the Bulls (from Montgomery) in mid-June and stayed until the end of the year

• 40 games (149 plate appearances). 1 HR, 9 RBI, .291/.306/.369, wOBA .315, bRAA -2.7. Positions played: SS-26, 2B-12, P-1.
• Luna played at three levels this year, the Stone Crabs, Biscuits, and Bulls. As much as he was around this year, he didn’t make much of an impression until the end of the season. Then he was terrific. He’s young and looks pretty good on the field. Not much of a bat, however. Would imagine he’s got a good shot to start either in Montgomery or with the Bulls next year.
  
• Stats

Rashad Eldridge (28). As in 2009, outfielder Rashad Eldridge spent time with the Bulls and Biscuits.

• 34 games (124 plate appearances). 1 HR, 3 RBI, 20 runs scored. .215/.309/.308, wOBA .297, bRAA -4.2. Positions played: RF-17, CF-2, LF-17, DH-1.
• Montgomery’s center fielder has, I think, run out of time. He is a very good outfielder and has decent speed. He seems to be pretty much stuck at the AA level, with an occasional callup.
  
• Stats

Leslie Anderson (28) joined the Bulls in August after stints with the Stone Crabs and the Montgomery Biscuits.

• 30 games (129 plate appearances). 2 HR, 12 RBI, .328/.359/.418, w0BA .338, bRAA 0.2. Positions played: LF-16, 1B-9, RF-1, DH-4.
• Cuban defector Leslie Anderson was being touted as a candidate for the Rays Carlos Pena’s job when he was signed. We don’t think so. He does bat for average, and, so far, doing pretty well. The question would be, at his age, is he on his way up or down?
  
• Stats

Hank Blalock (29) played 26 games, went up to the Rays, and went on his way.

Matt Joyce (25) played 25 games with the Bulls and it now looks like he is finally sticking with the Rays. About time, we’d say.

Rocco Baldelli (28) was in 11 games, Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach (30) visited for 4 games while rehabbing, as did shortstop Jason Bartlett (30) for 1 game. Another outlier was pitcher Bobby Livingston who DH’d twice.

Catcher John Jaso (26) started the year with the Bulls, but went up to the Rays in April and stuck there. Good for him.

That brings us to four interesting guys from whom we are going to have to pick this year’s Moonlight Graham Award.

• Catcher Nevin Ashley (25) came up from Montgomery for 7 games in the regular season and 5 more in the postseason. There is a lot of potential in this guy even if his hitting was not stellar while with the Bulls. Stats.
• Catcher Craig Albernaz (27) only had one regular season game, but 4 in the postseason. We have always like Albernaz. Maybe he’ll spend a year with us next season. Stats.
• Catcher Kyle Holloway (22) in his first professional season had 4 games with the Bulls at the end of the year. Not much of a chance of seeing him again for a year or two. Stats.
• Outfielder Emeel Salem (25) had three games with the Bulls when they were playing Gwinnett. We speculated at the time that his visit might have had as much to do with proximity to Montgomery as the fitness of the Bulls outfield crew. Stats.

Batted

Game 66: Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) 0, Louisville Bats (Cincinnati) 2
Season: 39-27; Last 10: 7-3
Wrap, Box, Louisville Courier-Journal

Just why a baseball team is named after a small, furry, flying mammal is beyond me. And then there’s the attendance figures which are routinely at the top of the International League. But that’s the way it is.

Heath Phillips had another very good start, but Louisville’s Chad Reineke’s was just a bit better and that’s how it ended up.

Minor features of the game: Chris Richard got a double. Maybe light at the end of the tunnel. Moving Fernando Perez to leadoff didn’t help. He went 0 for 4. Omar Luna got his first start in a Bulls uniform and went 1 for 3. This was the Bulls fifth shutout this year.

Other stuff:

Charlie Montoyo was named as the International League’s manager for the All-Star game. Another bit of well-deserved recognition. Also got good local coverage in N&O and Herald-Sun.

Ryan Shealy has signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox. So he must have had something lined up as he left the Bulls. Good chance we’ll see him in Pawtucket next month.

As mentioned by a commenter earlier, there was some major grounds keeping going on in center field a while back. Good photos here. Which reminds me that the appearance of the field is pretty ragged, but it’s supposed to get some re-sodding during this away trip. Seems like the local Trinity College folks are doing a bit more damage than was expected.

Gotta put up this link. Turns out things are not all sweetness and light in the baseball wife world.

Late Start, But That’s OK

Game 64: Durham Bulls (Rays) 13, Gwinnett Braves (Braves) 6
Season: 39-25
Last 10: 8-2
Wrap, Box

Five o‘clock start time, so we arrived outside the DBAP at 4:45 — along with the storm. We had no choice but to dash from the parking deck to the Tobacco Road Cafe. Our first time and we liked it. Food choices interesting, many were nicely spiced, prices OK. Best of all it was a good way to kill time while we waited for the tarp to get pulled. We came over to the DBAP just after they pulled the tarp, but then they put it back on. It was a little after six then and we were beginning to understand that baseball, when it happened, was not going to be over for a long time. We went home.

Back home I launched a search for the Bulls on Time-Warner cable. It was not easy and the Bulls website, previous emails to the Bulls, or the Time-Warner website were not helpful. The Raleigh News & Observer offered a cryptic clue — WRAZ DT2. I punch up Channel 151 and some kids’ show is on. But, 7:00 we suddenly were treated to a shot of the DBAP and the voices of Neil Solondz and Scott Pose. All is well!

All is well, that is, until Carlos Hernandez gets bludgeoned for four runs in the first. A home run, a double, a triple, and two singles. Really pleased now that we left. Once this gets really painful I could just turn it off. However (trumpets sounding in the distance), JJ Furmaniak starts us off with a single, the first of his three hits (another single and a double, plus a walk); Desmond Jennings follows with an RBI triple, the first of his two hits (a single, plus an RBI sac fly and an RBI walk); Matt Joyce follows with an RBI double the first of his five hits (two more doubles and two singles). Two runs are in and things are looking much better. Plus Carlos settles in over the next several innings. In the 4th the Bulls bat around and put 6 runs across, the key moment being Ryan Shealy’s bases clearing three RBI standup triple.

We’ve mentioned Jennings and Joyce, their hitting continues to improve. Fernando Perez made a brilliant over-the-shoulder catch in the 2nd, and maybe, just maybe, is sneaking out of his slump (two singles). Chris Richard is a bit snake bit, but he’ll come out of it. He usually does.

Overall, a very, very nice 5-1 home stand.

Odds and Ends

• I’m beginning to appreciate what Scott Pose brings to Bulls broadcasting. He and Neil make a very good team. Humor. Perspective. None of the big ego some former major leaguers bring to a broadcast booth. Plus Scott has a ton of time in AAA ball (as well as the majors), so he brings a lot of on-the-field experience to the table. For the curious, here’s his major league and minor league stats. Didn’t know that he was an alum of the University of Arkansas (as am I). Which did not, of course, influence these comments.

• Elliot’s injury is a “quad” strain.

• Here’s a kick in the head. The Bulls got on a bus right after the game for an overnight ride to Laurenceville, GA (that’s the town the G-Braves play in). The Braves spent the night in Durham and are flying out today. Who’d want to wish them ill, but it’s entirely possible that the bus ride from Hartsfield Airport on the south side of Atlanta to Laurenceville, on the north side, could take almost as long as the Bulls ride. We can hope.

• The Bulls are not back until June 25th. Very weird scheduling.

Slow is OK

Game 60: Durham Bulls 6, Buffalo Bisons 4
Season: 36-24
Streak: W2; Last 10: 8-2
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

It was a long, slow game, relieved by a couple of oddities and the fact that we won. But first let’s mention the beautiful crepe myrtles that are in bloom inside the park up near the Blue Monster and out along Blackwell street. In this part of the south we do not have a better signal that summer is actually here.

To the game: Jeremy Hellickson did not have a good outing, simple as that. Yes, a lot of strikeouts (8) and only two walks. On the other hand, he took 101 pitches to get through 4 ⅔ innings. Hints were there as early as the second inning when Jeremy gave up two doubles and a walk. The 4th was a mess with a homer and three singles before Montoyo pulled him. Reliever Mike Ekstrom might not mind since he’s gotten two wins in his stats for the last two Hellickson no-decision starts.

Before the game we had a discussion regarding what might happen when Joe Dillon comes off the disabled list. The consensus was that J. J. Furmaniak would go to Montgomery. J. J. must’ve been listening. He led off with a triple, had two more hits, and scored two runs, including a heads up dash on a passed ball in the 6th. He’s hitting .333. I don’t envy the decision that’s coming for the Bulls.

Matt Joyce, Chris Richard (really hot lately), Angel Chavez, and Jose Lobaton hit the RBI. Justin Ruggiano had three singles and found a new way to take one for the team when he was hit by an errant throw the Bison’s second baseman.

The oddity of the night, however, was Matt Joyce insuring Bison Mike Jacobs’ inside-the-park home run by throwing the ball up to the fans on top of the Blue Monster. Jacobs hit a fly ball to the top of the Blue Monster that hit something and dropped back down to the warning track with Joyce (left field) and Perez (center field) watching. They appeared to have a conference and must have decided (a) “it’s a home run” or (b) “it’s a ground rule double”. “In either case we don’t have to do much.” Apparently a third option, (c) “none of the above”, did not cross their minds. Meanwhile Mike Jacobs ran around the bases. Surely, surely the team will not let either player forget that mistake.

Have to mention Ryan Shealy’s stellar play at first base last night. He grabbed at least three low and outside bounced throws for outs. Great job.

Now, how about Salisbury-born Bison reliever Bobby Parnell? Here’s a pitch speed sequence for two at-bats last night: 98, 96, 95, 97, 97, 99, 100, 99, 91. I saw at least two 100 mph signals during his appearance. So here was a guy who can really bring in a fast ball. We got two hits off of him, and a run on a wild pitch. Don’t think we’ll see him again this trip, and that’s a good thing.

In our corner up came left-hander R. J. Swindle, who is a guy worth coming to the park to see. Swindle’s “heat” hits 80 mph on a good day and he has a curve ball that is 20 mph slower. Talk about screwing up a batter’s timing. Gotta love the guy and glad he’s pitching for us.

Winston Abreu provided a couple of thrills before closing the Bisons out. Keeping the ol’ heart pumping.

As noted by commentators the last couple of days, we really miss Neil Solondz doing play-by-play on the radio. Among the comments along our row last night were, “What are you gonna say about his in your blog?” And a loud grumble, “It’s men on second and third, not first and second, dummy.” That last to the great puzzlement of fans who didn’t have earphones on. And, “It’s the Bisons, dammit, we’re playing the Bisons, not the Tides,” to the persistent references to the wrong team by Rich Herrera’s colleague Scott Pose. I won’t go on at length. Neil simply does a better job than Herrera.

Clipping Clippers

Game 36: Durham Bulls 8, Columbus Clippers 1
Wrap, Box, Columbus Dispatch

Game 37: Durham Bulls 7, Columbus Clippers 3
Season: 23-14
Streak: W4
Wrap, Box, Columbus Dispatch

Jeremy Hellickson was back in form Friday: six innings, eleven strikeouts, no walks. Very pretty. And well backed up (well, sort of) by Joe Bateman and Mike Ekstrom. Joe gave up his first home run in 14 appearances (20+ innings). Ekstrom hasn’t walked a batter yet (3 appearances, 4+ innings).

Lots of doubles (Richard, Jennings, Chavez, Shealy) and a couple of home runs (Shealy, Richard) drove the offense. Hellickson’s pitching and a couple of double plays kept Columbus off the board.

Then Heath Phillips stepped to the mound yesterday (Saturday). Heath had his best game of the year, marred only slightly by a 7th inning when he arguably should not have even been in the game. Probably Charlie was saving his bullpen for another day and assuming that the game was in hand (score 7-0 at the time), but a single, wild pitch, single, home run put three runs on the board very quickly. Still a fine day for Heath.

Other interesting features of the game: Ryan Shealy hit a grand slam, the first grand slam for the Bulls this year. Last year it seemed like we hit one every time we got the bases loaded. Chris Richard most memorably hit two in one game. So it was fun to see our first one of the year. Also good to see Shealy have two good days in a row. Shealy really hasn’t had a very productive year so far, but it’s been somewhat hidden by the stellar performances of Dan Johnson, Hank Blalock, Chris Richard, Angel Chavez, and company. Maybe now that he’s out of the shadow of Blalock he can blossom.

Justin Ruggiano was back in the lineup and had a ground out RBI and a walk. We’re going to need his bat pretty soon now.

So we are 2-0 in Columbus, have a 1:05 game today with (probably) Aneury Rodriguez getting a start. As seems to be usual, we can expect at least of couple of transactions while on the road.

Transaction Speculation

Let’s start with what we know: Blalock is gone. An infielder we’ve never seen, but who has been on our roster since opening day, J. J. Furmaniak has been activated and put on the Montgomery Biscuits roster. Seen as a Bull, that is. Furmaniak was with Lehigh Valley last year.

We usually carry 12 position players. So we’ve got room for two. Down in St. Petersburg things are fairly complex and those considerations will, of course, have an impact on us. [St Petersburg Times] So I’ll just put a few names in play here — catcher John Jaso could come back, infielder Sean Rodriguez might get sent down to give him some more playing time, outfielder Matt Joyce will surely at least visit on a rehab tour if not an assignment. Furmaniak’s physical condition could be really good and so maybe just a short visit to Montgomery before coming to the Bulls. Pat Burrell, in an extraordinary act of penance to Rays fans, donates $6,000,000 to earthquake relief and comes to the Bulls to learn how to play team mascot. (“I’ve been a fan of Wool E. Bull all my life. It’s going to be an honor to study with him this season. I’ve heard that he’s on the DL, so maybe I’ll get an even earlier shot at a performance that I expected.”)

Update: A modest correction or two to today's post. It was noted that at the bottom of today's "wrap", Neil provided us with the name of today's starter and it is, indeed, Aneury Rodriguez. Secondly, a slight difficulty with my enumerative skills was noted in that the Bulls usually carry twelve position players (I got that right) and they have 12 position players. Other than that, I guess I got things right...

Buffaloes Buffaloed in Buffalo

Game 21: Durham Bulls 9, Buffalo Bisons 2
Season: 15 - 6
Wrap, Box

Must be getting used to the cold, because the weather was only a little bit warmer, but the Bulls pulled out their bats and Jeremy Hellickson re-asserted himself.

Hellickson did a very credible 5 ⅓ innings, followed by visiting Tampa Bay reliever Mike Eckstrom. Winston Abreu got in an inning (his ERA remains at 0.00) and Dale Thayer closed it out.

Meanwhile Chris Richard and Angel Chavez got home runs. As did Rashad Eldridge after a long stay on the bench. Fernando Perez and Joe Dillon had disappointing at bats, but the rest of the team did more than fine. Notable was Justin Ruggiano’s three hits. Is Justin having a breakout year? Here’s hoping so.

So, let’s get to the interesting, trivial part of yesterday.

The Bulls’ parent club, the Tampa Bay Rays is having a great start as well, even better than the Bulls. They are 16-5. You will notice that both teams have played 21 games. But, you may also note, the Rays started the season a couple of days before the Bulls did. How could it be that they have only played 21 games? That’s because AAA ballplayers work harder than major league ballplayers. That is, they play more games in a shorter period of time. The Bulls first day off will be next Wednesday.

More trivia:

The starting lineup last night for the Bulls was, on average, older than the starting lineup last night for the Rays. The Bulls’ spread was from Jeremy Hellickson and Fernando Perez (23 & 24) to Joe Dillon and Chris Richard (34 & 35). Down on the shores of Tampa Bay the spread went from Evan Longoria and B. J. Upton (24 & 25) to Carlos Pena and Gabe Kapler (31 and 34). The average last night for the Bulls was 28.7, for the Rays 28.2. So the youth movement is not going to start in Durham.

To that end, however, reliever Joaquin Benoit (32) is heading for Tampa Bay in exchange for Jose Lobaton’s (25) return. So we will be measurably younger by day’s end.

I’ve decided to start tracking our bench sitter and DL’ers. We know that Montoyo really prefers a steady rotation of players on the field, so you have to think that when someone spends a good bit of time on the bench it’s because he needs to.

On the bench last night: Jennings (7 days), E. Johnson, (1), Shealy (1). Others on our roster but not around are: Virgil Vasquez, Infielder J.J. Furmaniak, and pitcher Jason Cromer.

I’m a huge fan of Craig Robinson’s “infographics”. He’s got a new one up depicting time allocation for a baseball fan. Worth a look, as are all the others on his site.

A Bashing By the Bulls

Game 9: Durham Bulls 14, Norfolk Tides 7
Season: 6-3
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

A few days back I said our pitching was OK, but the bats hadn’t come around. Now it looks almost the opposite. The pitching has been off the last two days, but no one should doubt that the bats are there, not after last night. Twenty hits (and 32 total bases) might not be a team record, but if my records are right you have to go back to April 22, 2008 to do better (22 hits, 40 bases). The team OPS for the night was 1.206. Very, very special.

Every Bull got at least one hit — Alvin Colina got his first of the year. Seven got RBIs. Angel Chavez raised his batting average to .400. Dan Johnson, Ryan Shealy, and Joe Dillon all got home runs and all the homers came with men on base.

Justin Ruggiano, playing right field, lost a fly ball in the sun in the first inning, but made up with a brilliant catch in the 5th. Elliot Johnson at short made a nifty bare-handed play in the 4th, and was 3 for 6 at bat. Johnson, Ruggiano, and Perez all stole bases.

A lot to like, so let’s enjoy it.

Former Bull Mitch Talbot got his first major league win yesterday, and a complete game to boot. Mitch was on the disabled list most of last year, but is also the owner of my favorite 2009 season trivia (he won the first and last games of the season).

About the DBAP —

• As we all know, the video board is not working well. It looked like folks were trying to get it sorted out. Hope they do by tonight.
• What’s with the lights in the concourse? Given the electricity bill for the whole place, saving a couple of bucks by keeping lights off in the concession area doesn’t make much sense.
• The field looks great! Here’s hoping we make it through the rye/bermuda transition better this year.
• Suggest a conversation between management and some of your concessionaires. I know it’s only the second game of the season, but a bit of training on how to draw a beer, make change, work a cash register is in order.

Who’s On First?

Tomorrow, April 3rd, is a big day in Durham Bulls history. The Tampa Bay Rays are coming to town to play the Bulls in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Some more details here.

I have no doubt the Bulls front office is experiencing some of the same difficulties that I am, such as, Who are the Durham Bulls?

I’ve got it easy, I can just go to the game and get a program and find out.

They don’t. They’ve got to print the program.

Who will be on the roster is a really tough question to explore for a lot of reasons, but mostly because Saturday’s game is only an exhibition game, the last of the season, and the Rays do not have to make decisions just yet. The Rays have a game tonight in St. Pete (the Mets) and then have to get here for the 3 o’clock game tomorrow. They will go home to open against Baltimore on Tuesday the 6th.

As for who is traveling, that’s another question. But mostly it boils down to whether or not two players of interest to us stay with the Rays — Reid Brignac and Sean Rodriguez (Matt Joyce has been placed on the disabled list, so he doesn’t count, yet). Fortunately for Durham fans, against all logic and evidence to the contrary, the Rays are hanging on to Pat Burrell and Gabe Kapler. That means that we’re going to have the pleasure of watching players like Desmond Jennings, Justin Ruggiano, Dan Johnson, Fernando Perez and others at the beginning of the season.

I could make some guesses about the roster and the lineup, but that doesn’t make much sense if the answer will be there for all to see tomorrow. So let’s just limit ourselves to the headline question: Who’s on first?

Possibilities:

Chris Richard (36): Durham Bull stalwart of several seasons. Had a good year with the Bulls last year, but missed the championship run because he spent most of the last month with the Rays. Solid spring training stats with Rays, but didn’t spend much time there (wOBA - .516). Fan favorite (including WDBB). Stats. Interviewed yesterday on 620 The Buzz.

Dan Johnson (31): Played a good bit of first base for the Bulls in 2008, but mostly was a designated hitter. Couple of innings in left field and at third base. Reportedly spent a lot of time at third base in Japan last year. Spring training numbers with Rays not all that good (wOBA - .321). Stats.

Ryan Shealy (31) has been a first baseman/dh his entire career, mostly in minor leagues. Don’t know much about him. Like Johnson, nothing special while with Rays in the spring (wOBA - .336). Stats.

Joe Dillon (34) finished out the season with the Bulls last year playing all the infield positions, but mostly the corners. Had some time with the Rays this spring, but did not do well (wOBA - .199). Stats.

Answer to the question — quite possibly none of the above, although it does begin to look like first will be a geriatric corner this season.

One-liner of the day:

In an AP story about the Twins new stadium and the prospects of painfully cold games in April and May, fans are quoted as saying:

We’re Minnesotans. We own jackets