Rain — So Let’s Talk About McGee and Anderson

Thursday’s game is now scheduled for Friday at 6:00 pm. Come early, stay late, since it’s gonna be a double header (my guess is 7-inning games).

In the meantime here’s some info on our two new Bulls just arriving from Montgomery.

Leslie Anderson sounds like he ought to be 6’2”, blond, blue-eyed, with a chiseled chin and a family back in Wisconsin. But he isn’t. He’s 6’1”, speaks limited English, and has been somewhat secretive about just where his family is or how he happens to be in the U.S. at all. A former member of the Cuban National Team, he apparently fell out of grace with Cuban authorities a while back. He was signed by the Rays this spring drawing some attention from the St. Pete Times, Rays Prospects, and DRaysBay. On the 40-man, the thought all along has been that if he can adapt, he looks good to be in Tampa in September. I think he has been mostly playing the outfield in Montgomery. Decent stats.

Jake McGee is also on the 40-man and trying to re-create a career interrupted by Tommy John surgery a while back. According to the Montoyo interview aired while the rain was coming down, McGee is to be in the bullpen here even though he was a starter all year in Montgomery. Here’s a profile from back in February and a more recent one. A youngster for this year’s batch of Bulls, He turns 24 on Friday. Career stats here.

Bulls Come Home

Game 110: Durham Bulls 4; Pawtucket Red Sox 5
Season: 68-42; Trip: 6-2

Wrap, Box

Pretty spectacular trip that left the Bulls with the best record in the International League and 14 games ahead of Charlotte in the South Division.

Although a late inning loss, yesterday afternoon’s game appears to have been very well-played. Considering that the Bulls were outhit 12-5 the one run loss, even in the bottom of the 9th, is more a testimony to great defense and pretty good pitching than anything else. As always, pleased to see Elliot Johnson have a good night.

Regarding Dan Johnson, I thought there might be some interest in this look forward from one of the stats-oriented sites. And then there’s this item that implies that Dan won’t be coming back any time soon. Dan played first last night and drew two walks in 4 trips to the plate.

Here’s a cryptic bit of information from Rays Prospect. Potential Bull reliever if Abreu gets called up?

Bulls Pitching

The last time we looked at Bulls pitching was a couple of weeks ago. Not too much has changed since then. But the table that compares changes in FIP shows that Baker, Thayer, and Vasquez have slipped some, but that is mostly attributable to single outings (Baker and Vasquez). Given the job that the whole relief crew did yesterday, can’t be too worried about pitching just yet.

Broken String

Game 109: Durham Bulls 0; Pawtucket Red Sox 12
Season: 68-41; Trip: 6-1
Wrap, Box

All good things come to an end.

I was out yesterday evening. I got back to my car about 7:30, started it up, and switched the radio to 620. Neil Solondz was telling the world that Josh Reddick, Pawtucket’s leadoff batter, was coming up for the second time in the first inning. This is not good, I’m thinking. As it went on I got some background on the six runs that had come in prior to Reddick’s at bat and then Reddick singled in the seventh run of the inning. Drove on home. Didn’t listen to much more. A good thing, because it obviously got even worse.

Trivia: The first Bulls shutout since June 17, in Louisville, and only six on the year. That makes it a bit better.

Assuming that my experience is much like other Bulls fans who find something else to do when a game gets so terribly out of whack, you have to wonder about what’s happening inside the broadcaster’s head. He’s got to be wondering if there is really anyone out there listening anymore. What if he puts up the trivia question and no one even sends an emai, because no one is listening at all? Maybe that’s why they do the trivia question. Sort of the radio equivalent of tapping on the mike to check the sound system.

In this case there were two broadcasters in the booth last night, so they could at least chat with each other.

In the meantime, Tampa Bay has given Charlie Montoyo a management “challenge”: He’s short a starting pitcher and a starting position player. Plus he used his backup starter (Aneury Rodriguez) just to get through last night’s fiasco. To list available pitchers, with the date of their last appearance, he’s got Downs (Sunday, 2 innings), Ekstrom (Saturday, 1⅓), Swindle (Saturday, 1⅓), Bateman (Sunday, 1), Thayer (Sunday, 1), and Abreu (Saturday, 1). Wednesday is an off day, so that might put some more options on the table. Hellickson isn’t really available to go back into the rotation until Saturday at the earliest. What would you do? Gotta think that the Rays aren’t going to send anyone up from Montgomery to lend a hand when the Bulls have such a huge lead in the division. Character building experience?

Also not likely to get a fill-in for Dan Johnson, depending on how long his stay might be. Possibly no longer than it takes to get Tampa Bay first baseman Carlos Pena off the DL, but at least Dan goes on the 40-man. The result of the move might be more outfield time for Elliot Johnson and Chris Richard. Interesting that Joe Dillon has played first base the last two games. Maybe, just maybe, we will see Leslie Anderson come up from Montgomery.

[Update: It will be hard for Carlos Pena to come off the DL since he is not on it, as careful reader Chris D has pointed out. Rays reliever Andy Sonnanstine is the player who is on the disabled list, conveniently going there at about the same time that Hellickson was called up. So Sonnanstine is staying on the DL a bit longer — he has to stay for at least 15 days, but it was backdated. In the meantime, Dan has a chance to hit/play because Carlos Pena is hurt, but not on the DL. Make sense. No? Does it pass the, "So what," test? Probably not. But it does mean that if Dan is to stay with the Rays someone has to go. And that the Rays probably need to dump a relief pitcher in any case to make room for a guy they bought last week (Chad Qualls).]

In the meantime, our Jeremy Hellickson helped the Rays into a first place tie. Here are several links — everybody loved him:

• Rays Index
• Rays Prospects
• Tampa Tribune (interesting human interest stuff regarding Hellickson’s family)
• DRaysBay
• FanGraphs
• Process Report

Dan Johnson Moves To St Pete

Tampa Bay newspapers are reporting that Dan Johnson, not seen in the last two games, is on his way to the Rays, or possibly already there. Guess we'll see tonight. Tampa Tribune, St. Pete Times.

Good luck, Dan. Hope you get to stay a while.

# 11

Game 108: Durham Bulls 9; Pawtucket Red Sox 3
Season: 68-40; Trip: 6-0; Streak: 11-0
Wrap, Box

Now, we Southerners down here in North Carolina, we would never be so tacky as to boo one of our own pitchers, would we?

Well, maybe.

If we’d had a reliever (in Pawtucket’s case, Fernando Cabrera) step to the mound in the top of the 8th inning with a 3-2 lead, and absolutely, irrevocably let that sucker get completely away.

It was a sort of Gettysburg in reverse.

First of all, he walked Chris Richard. The way Chris has been hitting, maybe not a problem. Then he gave up a single to Joe Dillon and Chris Richard went to third. Not good. The next batter, J. J. Furmaniak, got on with another walk and the bases were loaded, no outs. Coach came out to the mound. Everyone had a big confab and they decided what to do. Whatever the plan was, it didn’t work. Cabrera gave up a single to Angel Chavez. Chris Richard scored (run #1, game tied). Bases were still loaded. Still no outs. Jose Lobaton singled. Joe Dillon scored (#2, Bulls go ahead 4-3). Bases still loaded. Fernando Perez singled. J. J. Furmaniak scored (#3, Bulls are now ahead 5-3). Desmond Jennings hit a grand slam (#4-7 in inning, and Jennings' first ever grand slam). Fernando Cabrera exited to boos from stands.

What would we have done?

Up until that moment, both teams were having pretty good afternoons. Heath Phillips had another pretty good start. However, Darin Downs got the win after the seven-run melt-down in the 8th. Joe Bateman closed it out.

The Bulls 11th win in a row ties a record for the franchise set back in 2004. Brian Baker gets the start tomorrow to see if they can set a new one.

I was interested in finding out was whether or not Dan Johnson was on the bench or headed for St. Pete. It made sense for him to get a day off, but you have to wonder, given reports out of St. Pete about injured Carlos Pena and Ben Zobrist. And Sean Rodriguez started at first base for the Rays. So, will Dan be going to the Rays? No idea. Couldn't find out if he was even in Pawtucket.

Jeremy Hellickson will, as reported, start a game for the Rays tomorrow (Monday). Oddly enough, that means that, if need be, he can make his next scheduled start back in Durham. Will it work out that way? No telling.

Which bring me to my question of the day. What’s the point of keeping secrets about roster moves like this? Why couldn’t the Rays just have said something last week like, “We’re thinking about bringing Hellickson up here to pitch a game or two”? What’s the big deal? It isn’t as if it will make a gnat’s eyebrow worth of difference in what happens on the field. It isn’t as if the Rays’ front office is into some sort of mega-million dollar contract negotiation with Hellickson’s agent. It isn’t as if they gain some sort of competitive advantage over a potential opponent. The Twins probably know as much about Hellickson’s stuff as the Rays do. That’s not a secret either. And it surely isn’t as if they couldn’t adjust immediately before game. This is just keeping secrets for the secrets. I know something you don’t know. Childish.

Creep-out warning … be careful out there sports fans. Hazards of not ducking broken bat revealed.

# 10

Game 107: Durham Bulls (Rays) 5; Pawtucket Red Sox (Red Sox) 1
Season: 67-40; Trip: 5-0; Streak: 10-0
Wrap, Box, Providence Journal

The story for fans up nawth was a visit to Pawtucket by rehabbing Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. For the Bulls the story was the tenth win in this streak.

Another solid performance by our pitchers, beginning with Virgil Vasquez, visits by Mike Ekstrom and R. J. Swindle, and a close-out by Winston Abreu. Nicely done.

Dan Johnson picked up his 30th home run and 95th RBI. Elliot Johnson, playing right field, added a double and two RBI to his stats. Chris Richard added to his league-leading batch of doubles with his 34th.

Today’s game coverage is supposed to start at 12:50. Maybe we’ll get some background on what’s happening down in St. Petersburg. At best we’ve got to fill a big hole and, unless Carlos Hernandez or Jason Cromer (remember him?) comes off the DL, we just might not have anyone available.

Here’s an update on our hitters, and a new stat, bRAA (wRAA). Without digging into it too much, let’s just say that this number is how many runs a batter contributes to a team, above the league average. The problem, for evaluating Bulls, is that I’m guessing that the site where I get these numbers (www.statcorner.com) is using American League averages, not International League averages. That’s OK with me, because all I really want to show is the relative ranking of our hitters (and, obviously, Rays hitters as well). We would assume that going from the International League to the American League would result in a drop. How much? Hard, possibly impossible, to tell. Nevertheless, this is a number we can assume that Rays’ management is looking at.
What does the table tell us? Dan Johnson is having a terrific year. We knew that. Chris Richard’s year is much better than certainly I thought, as is Elliot Johnson’s. Desmond Jennings and Justin Ruggiano, only so-so. Fernando Perez, awful.

If these were the only numbers, you can see some obvious potential swaps between the teams.

Speaking of swaps and shifts, am I the only one who’s annoyed at Bulls management for lying to us? Here’s GM Mike Birling’s tweet from a couple of days ago when Jeremy Hellickson was pulled after three innings:

#GM A lot of twitter followers are wondering about Helly. He is fine. Just keeping his innings in check

Does anyone believe that now? Should we pay much attention in the future?

In the short run, the Rays acquisition of a reliever, Chad Qualls, doesn’t necessarily affect the Bulls since they put Grant Balfour on the DL after a particularly dumb move on his part, otherwise someone would have to have been pushed overboard.

But then there’s Rays first baseman Carlos Pena being pulled from last night’s game. Is that going to force the Rays to finally take a look at Dan Johnson? Looking at that table above, they could do worse.

Hellickson to Tampa Bay

According to several reports (St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Rays Index) from down by the Bay, Jeremy Hellickson will be starting a game for the Tampa Bay Rays tomorrow (Monday). Rays manager Joe Maddon is quoted in a Tampa Tribune blog as saying:

“Everybody moves back, just one day for everybody,’’ Maddon said. ”He’s going to slide in on Monday. We’ll tell you the rest of the plot after that. Part of it is it’s just a situation where we just want to at this moment give the other guys a little bit more rest. It’s our attempt at being prudent at really monitoring their pitches and innings. It’s not about an injury. It’s about being comfortable with this pitcher as well as trying to give these other guys an extra day.“

We'll see.

Good luck, Jeremy.