'Splain This to Me

Right-handed reliever Brandon Gomes is coming back to the Bulls.

I am always ready to learn something about this puzzling game. More so since I started this blog and started paying attention to some of the little stuff.

Here is what was reported on the  Rays website:

Because of the workload, Gomes was optioned to Triple-A Durham following the game. The Rays will make a corresponding move before Sunday’s contest.

Tampa Bay Times writer Marc Topkin expanded on the comment slightly here. Stacy Long over in Montgomery has this take.

What puzzles me is the “workload” comment. Gomes has pitched a grand total of 10⅔ innings all year (6 with the Bulls and 4⅔ with the Rays). This was over 10 appearances (5 with the Bulls, 5 with the Rays). He has pitched the least number of innings of any pitcher on the Rays roster. So, what "workload"? I’m guessing that something else is afoot.

In the meantime, we can speculate on who will be called up to replace him.

Note: Gomes surely won’t show up with the Bulls for a couple of days, but one of the Bulls pitchers will likely be heading for St. Pete today. It's possible that whomever has been called is already on his way to be there for today’s game.

Choices: Dane De La Rosa, Josh Lueke, Cesar Ramos, John Gaub, Alexander Torres.

Gonna be tough on the Bulls’ staff because last night's postponement is going to mess with the pitching rotation and the Bulls hit the road for Syracuse, New York after tonight's games.

* * * * *

Update: It's Cesar Ramos. Well-deserved! Good luck!

Game Suspended; Resumes 4 pm Sunday

First, a small confession: I left the DBAP about 7:00 pm and watched what there was of a game at home. That photo was taken just before I left.

The game didn’t get going until about 8:00 and Matt Torra’s second pitch was hit into the right field stands. The home run was followed by a single, a walk, and a double before he got things under control.

And so it stood as the rain came and went and came again. A mess. The sprinklers even came on at one point.

The game resumes 4 pm Sunday: top of the 3rd inning, two outs.

They will will go nine innings, or until the game is over, then play a seven inning game to finish the series.

Contact the box office or check the website regarding what happens with a raincheck.

Best Bulls Game Yet

Season: 10-19; Home Stand: 4-4
Box, Wrap, Indy Week, Herald-Sun

Pitchers pitched, hitters hit, fielders fielded. What more could you ask for in a baseball game? A win? That too.

All in all a very satisfying game.

Alex Cobb had a couple of tough moments in the 6th and 7th innings. But he was helped out by decent fielding (and poor base-running) in the 6th and relief pitching in the 7th.

In that 7th lefty John Gaub came in for one batter and struck him out. Is he a LOOGY-in-training for the Rays?

He was followed by Dane De La Rosa who got the final out of the 7th inning and stayed for the 8th and 9th. De La Rosa made a terrific comeback from that disaster the night before last. Here he went 2⅓ with one BB and 4 Ks.

The hitters: Everyone got at least one hit except for Shawn O’Malley, but even O’Malley got an RBI with a grounder in the 2nd with Vogt on third base and one out. Of note was Stephen Vogt getting his first home run of the year, Reid Brignac hitting a double, and Matt Mangini a double. Brandon Guyer returned to the lineup and hit a couple of singles.

The fielding: Jeff Salazar made an important catch and then threw out a runner who was trying to make it from third to home. Pretty straightforward play, but nice to see. As was an astute play of a carom off the right field wall by Brandon Guyer in the 6th that held a Bat to a single.

A good day at the DBAP.

Outside the game

• A few days ago we provided a link that discussed the knuckleball. But whatever happened to the spitball? Inquiring minds want to know. And Tampa Bay’s Jim Hickey might have a couple of answers.

Chart of the Day — ERA

It's been quite a while since we looked at the team, starter, and reliever ERA trends. Things are getting better. Nice to see. Nevertheless, the team ERA of 5.29 is still the worst in the International League (behind Louisville at 4.96), so there's a ways to go to get back on track.

Ouch!

 ________

Game 28, Thursday, May 3, DBAP
Season: 9-19; Home Stand: 3-4
Box, Wrap, Indy Week

Shortstop Shawn O’Malley took two for the team, but the team could not get him home. That may have made all the difference. In the 3rd Kyle Hudson got on with a bunt single. O’Malley got plunked by Bat starter Sean Gallagher. They moved to second and third base when Gallagher balked. Hudson came home on a Leslie Anderson ground out. O’Malley was stranded on third when Juan Miranda grounded out.

In the 8th O’Malley was clipped by reliever Kanekoa Texeira and moved to second on a Stephen Vogt sacrifice. That’s where he was after a walk and a double play ended the inning.

Also on the plus side of a losing cause were Bulls pitchers. Chris Archer had a solid outing. Alexander Torres was shaky (and walked two) in his first appearance in relief. Ryan Reid was terrific. Cesar Ramos let a pitch and a home run get away from him in the 11th and that made the difference. But the Bulls had plenty of chances before the 11th inning to put the game away.

Also on the plus side was Reid Brignac’s home run, deserving a special mention. He also ran out a very hard hit grounder for a single in the 9th, but got stranded on second.

I’ve got to mention Leslie Anderson and Kyle Hudson teaming up to misplay of a hit off the wall in the very first inning. I’m pretty sure it was Anderson’s first time in left field this year, but he’s played it before. Daniel Dorn’s hit off the wall played properly would have been at most a double. And it’s possible that the runner on first would not have scored. DBAP fundamentals are for the center fielder to play for the carom, not the ball. As it happened the ball skittered back into the middle of the outfield with both outfielders chasing it. The runner on first scored, and Dorn easily made it to third.

New guy Cole Figueroa started at third, got a double, started a clean double play, and looks pretty good.

Brandon Guyer is reported to be coming back for tonight’s game. A welcome addition, I’d say.

Chart of the Day

This is just a bit of wishful (or is that wistful) thinking on my part. These are yesterday’s OPS numbers with 2012 numbers of three guys who played for the Bulls last year added (Johnson, Ruggiano, and Canzler). Wouldn’t it have been lovely?

Fun in the Sun

Game 27, Wednesday, May 2, DBAP

Durham Bulls (Rays) 7, Indianapolis Indians (Reds) 5

Season: 9-18; Home Stand: 3-3; Streak: 2-0

Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun

Jim Paduch’s first start at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park was superb. The Bats didn’t get a man on base until the 4th, and that was a hit by pitch. Over five innings only 2 hits and 5 Ks. Very, very good.

As mentioned earlier, we first heard about Jim Paduch, but did not see him, when he had a spot start up from Montgomery last year. That game was a 18-3 Bulls blowout over the Rochester Red Wings. We didn’t hear about him again until early April this year when he showed up to open a game against Gwinnett. He did OK, but went back to Montgomery. Here’s hoping he stays this time. 

When he left the game, the Bulls were up 4-0 and things were looking pretty good. However, Dane de La Rosa and John Gaub combined to give up 5 runs in the 8th and 9th to give us (and several thousand school kids) some thrills. 

Jeff Salazar kept things on track by hitting the Bulls first home run since the departed Will Rhymes hit one in Norfolk seven games ago.

Unlike the Bulls (hint, hint), the Bats have their roster accessible from their website. And they have a link to the Reds roster as well. That seems like a good idea. From that I could check out what I thought I heard on the radio. Our old friend and former Bull Dioner Navarro is playing for the Bats. Navarro spent the end of the 2010 season with the Bulls. He’s apparently not traveling with the Bats and he’s on the DL for kidney issues. 

Dioner Navarro is forever enshrined in the hallowed halls of Watching Durham Bulls Baseball for his heroics against these very same Louisville Bats on June 30, 2010. On that day Navarro stood in against Aroldis Chapman and took a 102 mph fastball in the middle of his back! I guess now he can hope to be catching Chapman some day. I’m not sure which I’d rather do. Probably neither if he’s still throwing that hard. 

Chart of the Day

Here’s the current roster’s On Base Percentage + Slugging (OPS) numbers. These aren’t very good, but they are what they are. Albernaz got his first RBI and first extra base hit of the season Wednesday. Leslie Anderson went 3 for 3. Let’s take what we can get. Vogt and Brignac will return to form eventually. Note that I kept Ashley’s and Guyer’s numbers in, but they are both on the DL. Ashley may be there for quite a while.

click on chart for larger image

Jesus the Hero!

Game 26, Tuesday, May 1, DBAP

Durham Bulls 5, Indianapolis Indians 4 (10 Innings)

Season: 8-18; Home Stand: 2-3; Streak: 2-0

Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun

Jesus Feliciano, one of nine left-handed hitters in the game, got to be a hero, twice. The first time was in the 8th inning when he hit a double that scored Sean O’Malley and Kyle Hudson putting the Bulls ahead 4-3. But the Indians got a run back in the 9th and the 4-4 tie went into the 10th. One more time Feliciano came to bat, with O’Malley again on base (this time on third), and a single was enough to win the game.

Meanwhile Lance Pendleton got his first start since joining the Bulls and Montoyo got to  play matchups with the rest of the bullpen. Nunez, Gaub, Leuke, and Ramos all did just fine, even if Ramos did give up a home run to force Feliciano’s heroics.

Speaking of home runs, the last home run hit by a Bull was Will Rhymes’ against the Norfolk Tides six games ago (the Bulls have only hit 7 home runs this year, the fewest in the league). 

Speaking of Will Rhymes, he got called to Tampa Bay yesterday afternoon. That left the Bulls with exactly one position player on the bench, catcher Craig Albernaz, who besides being the only right-handed batter on the team, was busy warming up pitchers all night. 

That left Charlie Montoyo the job of making sure his guys were nice to the umps, otherwise he’d probably have to use a pitcher as the DH. That was a difficult task when the ump made a particularly bad call invoking a fairly obscure rule. The ump was flashy about it though. You could just see him back in ump school when he learned the rule and thinking, someday I’m going to be able to call this and somebody’s going to argue with me and I’ll get to throw him out of the game. 

The Bulls had the bases loaded and no outs in the 4th inning. Kyle Hudson hit a grounder to second. The first part of a fairly routine double-play effort was started, but a nice, hard slide by Sean O’Malley into second broke it up. Should have been one out and a run scored, but no. The ump dances into the play, calls interference and deems both O’Malley and Hudson are out, plus the runners have to come back to second and third, and there's two outs. I guess that’s the rule, but I think the ump was just showing off.

Outside the game:

• The News & Observer noticed that the Bulls exist with a page one story. Unfortunately it was about Tim Beckham.
• Even with the arrival of Cole Figueroa from Montgomery, the Bulls will still have a vacant spot on the roster. Sure wish Guyer would get well soon. Figueroa is, of course, a left-handed bat.
• Bulls games are also being broadcast on HD radio. I’m going to have to look into that. You will see at the link the AM 620 coverage. No wonder I can barely get the games at home!

Chart(s) of the Day

This is an update of the runs scored-runs allowed chart. As of last night’s game, the Bulls have scored 88 runs and allowed 146 runs. The chart shows the game-by-game path to that condition. If you run these numbers through the Pythagorean Expectation formula, it will tell you that the Bulls "should" be at 7-19 rather than the 8-18 they are. In general, differences between expectation and actual is attributed to relief pitching and luck. I’ll take the pitching.

click on chart to enlarge

Just to show new Bulls fans what we old farts are so upset about this year, this chart shows how things were going at this point in previous years. It ain’t pretty. But it’s getting better. It’s getting better. It’s getting better. We hope. We hope. We hope.

click on chart to enlarge

Roster in Turmoil

The game starts in exactly an hour, so here are just the bullets.

• Tim Beckham has been suspended for 50 games for a second offense using a drug of abuse. Stacy Long has the details.
• Brandon Guyer moved to DL, but we expected that.
• A pitcher, Ricky Orta, who has been on the Bulls roster since the beginning of the season, was released. We never saw/met the man.
• Biscuits infielder Cole Figueroa is on his way, also according to Stacy Long.
• Finally, Long thinks that someone on the Bulls roster will be going to the Rays as a stand-in for injured Evan Longoria. 

Ouch!