Rainy Night in Georgia

Game 84, July 4, Coolray Field, Lawrenceville, Georgia

Gwinnett Braves 11, Durham Bulls 3

Wrap, Box, Gwinnett Daily Post

Game 85, July 5, Coolray Field

Durham Bulls 3, Gwinnett Braves 1

Wrap, Box, Gwinnett Daily Post

Season: 46-49; Last 10: 5-5

Alex Torres was doing his usual thing of letting the leadoff hitter on base (walk, walk, walk, single for innings 2, 3, 4, and 5) and yet only one run had gotten across for Gwinnett when the skies opened up down in Georgia in the bottom of the 6th. Uncharacteristically, Torres had gotten the leadoff batter out in that inning. 

In the meantime Desmond Jennings, Robinson Chirinos, and Leslie Anderson had hit bases-empty home runs. That was enough for the Bulls to win it and for Torres to improve to 5-6 on the year. 

This Braves-Bulls rivalry looks to continue for the rest of the year. They are back in a tie for first place in the division. In another instance of this year's weird scheduling it turns out the that they have seven more games to play, all at the DBAP, four games at the end of July and two at the end of August. I'm betting that they will still be arguing over the South division title.

Interesting stuff on the web:

• Given my background, I tend to look for connections between soldiering and baseball. Here's one about a guy who's played minor league ball and is now serving in Iraq.
• What were you doing when you were 16 years old? Probably not signing a professional baseball contract as this young man just did with the Rays.

Chart of the Day — ERA

Tonight we get our first look at new guy Matt Torra, who is coming to the Bulls with a AAA ERA of 6.07 in 15 starts. Hate to say it, but that's not too promising. Obviously the Rays (or one of their scouts) saw something and we are going to get a chance to see it as well.

This chart is sorted by innings pitched, so the usual cautions about small sample size for the players at the bottom of the chart apply. Note that the caution applies both to players who are having troubles (Buente and Cormier) and those doing OK (McGee and Gomes).

The Bulls seem comfortable with a 13 pitcher/11 position player setup this year, so I'll slip Mr. Torra in the next time I update this chart.

click on chart for larger view

Some Fireworks; Back in First

Happy 4th of July!

(Our Heaven Born Banner, 1861, based on Frederic Church’s Banner in the Sky, more info)

Game 83, July 3, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Durham Bulls 7, Gwinnett Braves 4
Season: 45-38; Last 10: 4-6
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

The Bulls and Braves are back in a tie for first place and will be continuing the series tonight down in Lawrenceville, Georgia. That trek down I-85 has got to be getting old.

Brian Baker seemed to benefit from the extra days off. He hadn't pitched since June 24 and, but for a walk, escaped what was becoming a signature rough 1st inning. I'm guessing that Charlie Montoyo and pitching coach Neil Allen may have decided to keep Baker on a low pitch count since they pulled him after five innings even though he appeared to be doing OK.

The Bulls "batted" around in the 2nd inning although in addition to Canzler's homer, Johnson's double, and singles by Chirinos and Olmedo, you have to give the Braves' pitcher, Erik Cordier some credit. He walked in two of the four runs all on his own.

The risks of carrying only eleven position players almost jumped up and bit the Bulls last night. The Bulls have only two players on the bench most nights. So when a player does something really stupid, as Felipe Lopez did last night, they do not have much depth. When one of them is a catcher, as is often the case, they have even less. When Lopez came to bat in the top of the 3rd inning, he decided to get in umpire Art Thigpen's face about something. He was ejected, of course, and Charlie Montoyo had to find a batter and a second baseman. Inexcusable. After watching him dog running out a dropped third strike on Saturday night, I've got to wonder about Mr. Lopez. In the normal course of affairs, Montoyo sits a player the game after he gets ejected. We'll see.

Fortunately, J.J. Furmaniak was one of the players getting a day off and he was able to step in for Lopez.

At the risk of tempting the gods of baseball, we have to point out that in his last 16 appearances, R.J. Swindle has not allowed a single hit run, only three hits, and has struck out 16 batters. Now it's also true that he has only pitched 12 1/3 innings, and mostly against left-handed batters, but he is making a huge contribution to the Bulls this year. Unlike his difficulties early in the season, he seems to have his slow curve back under control. How beautiful it is to watch that pitch tie up opposing batters. Last night it was turncoat Chris Carter who was the victim. Swindle unleashed the slow curve on a 1-2 count. It drifted across the plate at 53 mph and Carter just barely chipped it over the third base dugout to keep it at 1-2. Carter then stood there and watched Swindle's "fastball" blaze across the plate at 82 mph for a called third strike. That's a 30 mph difference from one pitch to the next! Is it major league stuff? Not sure. Carter thinks he's a major league batter, so maybe so.

New pitcher Matt Torra was in the dugout last night, so have to think he's ready to go. His last start was June 24, so he probably needs to get into the rotation pretty quickly.

[Update: A careful reader has pointed out an error in the Swindle stats. Fixed.]

10,000 at the DBAP

Game 82, July 2, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta) 4, Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) 1
Season: 44-38; Last 10: 4-6
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun, Indy Week

As I was settling in for the game last night a friend of mind pointed out that I had been ranting a lot lately. On reflection, I realized he was right. I pledged to myself that I would just sit back, enjoy the game, and write about the interesting and positive things going on. After all, the unbeaten Alex Cobb was the starting pitcher.

And then there was the 1st Inning ...

Well, I'm going to stick with my pledge, so here goes:

After an unfortunate 1st inning, Alex Cobb gave up only two more hits in the remaining five innings that he pitched. He was followed by Rob Delaney and Jay Buente who combined to no-hit and shut out the Braves for the rest of the game. The Bulls, however, were not able to generate much offense against an excellent Gwinnett pitching crew.

The Bulls dropped one game behind the Braves in the South Division. However, they will be playing each other three more times in the next three days, so there's plenty of time to come back.

How's that?

* * * * *

Let's review all the roster changes of the last several days, just to get the record straight:

• Pitcher Chris Bootcheck has been released.
• Infielder Omar Luna was sent to the Charlotte Stone Crabs
• Infielder Daniel Mayora was called up from Montgomery
• Pitcher Ryan Reid was sent to Montgomery
• Pitcher Matt Torra was acquired from the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks)
• Pitcher Jay Buente came off the DL

I don't think that I've mentioned that Desmond Jennings, Brandon Guyer, and Russ Canzler were picked for the IL All-Star team. The Bulls' Neil Solondz was named to call the game that will be played in Salt Lake City on July 13. Congratulations to all.

Brandon Guyer was reported to be day-to-day from a back injury. He did not play last night.

Bulls fans should be pleased with the 6th inning of yesterday’s Rays-Cardinals game. The Rays loaded the bases mostly former Bulls: Damon (the sole exception), Matt Joyce, and B.J. Upton. Casey Kotchman (remember he started the season with the Bulls?) cleared the bases with a double. Justin Ruggiano hit a home run to bring Kotchman in. Win was recorded for former Bull Jeff Neimann. As an aside, Ruggiano is looking good at the plate and in the field. Sure is nice to see him doing well.

How About Them Waiver Claims?

Game 81, July 1, Knights Stadium
Charlotte Knights 7, Durham Bulls 2
Season: 44-37, Trip: 2-2
Wrap, Box

The Tampa Bay Rays have claimed two pitchers off waivers this season and sent them to the Durham Bulls. The first was 27 year-old RHP Jay Buente who was with the Florida Marlins. Buente started in four games before going on the disabled list — 3 losses, 1 no decision, 17 innings, ERA of 9.17. The second was 30 year-old Lance Cormier who was with the LA Dodgers. Cormier has had three starts and two relief appearances — 2 losses, 19 1/3 innings, ERA of 5.59. Cormier and Buente are neck and neck in the competition for the worst in several pitching metrics such as ERA, WHIP, and FIP. Yes, this is a very small sample, but sure doesn't look good for them or the Bulls or the Rays' vaunted ability to pick through the discard pile of other teams.

[Update 9:44 am: As improbable as it may sound, I was wrong about Cormier. He was not a waiver claim. He was acquired as a free agent after his release by the Dodgers. The general drift of my comments, however, stand. Doesn't look like he was a good acquisition.]

As far as last night goes, Knights Stadium is famously kind to home run hitters. That was true last night. Unfortunately, the hitters were the Knights themselves. They got three off of Cormier, including two in the four-run first inning. That was pretty much the game.

By now the Bulls have been back in town for a couple of hours and have been getting some rest. For the next several days they are going to be playing the Gwinnett Braves, with whom they are currently tied for first place. To get ready for that lets take a look at the aggregate hitting and pitching.

Chart of the Day — Hitting and Pitching, Game by Game

The last time we looked at this one was back on June 2. This chart shows the team wOBA (the green bars and trend line) and uses that to represent team hitting and the Bulls' opponents wOBA (the red bars and trend line) is used as to represent team pitching. The last 15 games are plotted. During that time the Bulls won 9 games and lost 6. Pretty good. But an obvious concern is the pitching (red) trend line. And then the hitting trend line is slipping downwards. In combination, not a promising sight.

On the other hand, the Bulls are back! Baseball in the DBAP! Let's go take a look at people instead of numbers.

New Pitcher On His Way?

The International League transaction page is showing 27 year-old RHP Matt Torra as being on his way to the Durham Bulls. Torra has been working his way up through the Diamondbacks system for several years and has been with the AAA Reno Aces for most of 2010 and all of 2011. Not stellar numbers, 4-2 in 15 starts and 86 innings. 6.07 ERA.

Another one of these cryptic Rays deals, but who are we to complain? The Bulls undoubtedly need a starter, or two, or three. More info as available.

16 Innings of Not Very Good Baseball

Game 79, June 30, Knights Stadium
Charlotte Knights 6, Durham Bulls 3, 7 innings
Box

Game 80
Durham Bulls 7, Charlotte Knights 4, 9 innings
Season: 44-36; Last 10: 5-5; Trip: 2-1
Wrap, Box, MiLB.com

There’s so much not to like about these two games that it’s hard to know where to start.

Probably the best thing to do is to find at least a couple of good things to say about the game(s). Then go on to the ugly stuff.

Hmmmm.

Well, they tied the second game up in the 7th and R.J. Swindle, working much harder than he usually does, got the Bulls through the end of the inning and set up the extra innings.

And then there was just the sheer hanging in there for 16 innings of baseball until Jose Lobaton walked in the 9th and scored the go-ahead run all the way from second base on a Knight’s errant throw. Says something about the character of the team that they hung in there so well.

New guy Daniel Mayora got his first hit(s) and Leslie Anderson had a good night.

That’s about it.

On the other side of the ledger is the bottom of the 5th in the first game where the Bulls gave away a three run lead; the 11 strikeouts in the second game; the struggle to take advantage of the gifts of Charlotte pitching in the second game (12 walks, 5 in the 9th inning); the combined 5-21 with runners in scoring position in the two games; and the two home runs given up by Chris Bootcheck, his 8th and 9th of the year (is that why the Rays didn’t bring him up?).

These opt-outs are messing with my mind. Wonder if they are messing with the team’s mind as well.

Tied for first place. Could have slipped into second place without the late night win.

Turn the page. A new day.

Bootcheck Leaves Bulls

Interesting games last night. Not sure I want to write about them. According to the radio broadcast the second game of the double header was Chris Bootcheck’s last game. He had exercised the opt-out clause in his contract with the Rays.

Here’s a question for Rays’ management: What’s the point of all these opt out contracts?

With the departure of Chris Bootcheck, the Bulls have lost their third talented ballplayer in as many weeks. Bootcheck was preceded out the door by Cory Wade, now pitching for the New York Yankees and Chris Carter, now hitting .346 for the team that’s tied with the Bulls for first place in the South Division, the Gwinnett Braves. All three are now reported to have originally signed minor league contracts with clauses that said that if they weren’t called up they could move on. How many other Bulls have out clauses in their contracts? We don’t know.

As a general rule, the comments about the Tampa Bay Rays here at WDBB are made with with what I hope is seen as good humor. But it sure is tough to watch good ballplayers leave the Bulls, players whom we fans never knew weren’t going to spend the season with the team. Bulls fans have been blindsided again and again and again.

A week or so ago a fellow fan remarked to me that the Bulls didn’t seem to be playing like a team this year. Something to that?

Sitting up in the stands at the DBAP a few of us keep fairly close watch on this team. We keep track of things such as noticing who’s on the 40-man roster and who might be going up to or coming down from the Rays. We watch who's improving, having trouble, etc. Bootcheck, for example, was doing a fine job moving from relief to starting and really helping out the team. It really hurts to turn on the radio and discover that one of our best pitchers is pitching his last game in a Durham Bulls uniform.

Did the Rays try to keep him in Durham? Who knows? Reporters who could have been reporting this story haven’t. So we have been in the dark all season (which is now more than half over, I might add). Makes some of us (OK, maybe just me) feel like fools. Are we going to lose any more? Is anybody going to say?

In the abstract, for 2011 Tampa Bay Rays last spring, this may have made sense. The Rays were shedding payroll like there was no tomorrow and the Rays were obviously sweeping up any veteran ballplayer with a remote chance of being able to lend a hand to the Rays, especially if they could be had cheaply. The Rays obviously were also, we now know, more than willing to add opt out clauses to those minor league contracts.

Here’s another question for Rays management: Was any thought given to the impact this might have on their team in Durham? No? I didn’t think so.

Last question: What’s the point of this secrecy? It sounds like everyone under the stands (in their offices and locker rooms) and on the field at the DBAP knew about these contracts. Just not anyone in the stands. For that matter, if last night was Bootcheck’s last stand you’d think the print reporters would have mentioned it. They haven’t. Nor have any roster moves been announced at the usual places.

Well, maybe we have a reason for my fellow fan’s observation that the Bulls don't seem to be playing like a team this year. They aren’t.