Matchup: Bulls vs. Iron Pigs

The Philadelphia Phillies Triple-A team, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, come to town today for a three-day series. The Bulls took 3 of 4 from them back in late April and their season has not gone much better since then.

They have not been treated well by their parent club. We complain about the Bulls' roster turmoil, and it has been high — the Bulls have seen 22 different pitchers and 19 different position players in just a couple of months. But, and this has got to be a near-record, the Iron Pigs have had 33 different position players and 21 different pitchers! That has to be a management challenge of the first order. Plus we have to remember that several of those players on both teams have been rehabbers with very specific playing/pitching prescriptions.

In the matchup what jumps out for me is the team OPS. Without diving into the numbers more than I want to, that indicates either impatience or lack of muscle (or both?).

Could be a much better series that the numbers imply, and we’ll get to see some Phillies fans in the stands. Not quite as obstreperous as the “Red Sox Nation”, but they’re working on it.

One Out of Three

 Wrap, Box

Wrap, Box

Season: 32-26; Trip: 1-2
Wrap, Box, Gwinnett Daily Post

Back at the beginning of the season folks were high on Dylan Floro, but we didn’t quite see why. After four very nice starts in a row, the Bulls winning three of them, maybe we’re starting to understand. He’s very efficient. He throws strikes and mostly lets the fielders do the work. He works very quickly (last night’s game was only a little over 2 hours). Will he do well in the majors? Hard to say. So much attention is paid to velocity these days that control guys like Floro can be overlooked. Maybe.

Meanwhile, J.P. Arencibia continued his improving performance. Beginning to like the guy.

Outside the game —

• The Rays are swapping out Enny Romero for Andrew Bellatti. Not sure when Bellatti will be back since players get more time to get back to the Bulls than they are allowed when going to the Rays.
• Long-time major league reliever Ernesto Frieri has accepted an assignment to Durham. Only 29, he is obviously looking to get back in to the form that saw some terrific seasons in 2010 to 2013. Stats. 

In the wings —

• Reliever Kirby Yates had an inning as a starter down in Florida.
• Outfielder Mikie Mahtook got his second hit as a major leaguer, and his second home run.

Pitching Efficiency

This is a home-grown stat that we like to keep track of. Very simple. How many pitches does it take to get an out?

As mentioned earlier, Dylan Floro is a standout in this category, but most of the Bulls crew seem to be doing well by this measure.

click on chart for larger image

Arencibia/Casali Rule!

Season: 31-24; Home Stand: 7-2
Wrap, Box

Bulls fans could not have hoped for a better home stand than what we just went through. Nine games in eleven days; seven wins; good crowds, over 65,000 fans; decent, but not great, weather. Not only that, the Bulls end the stand back in a three-way tie with Charlotte and Norfolk for first place in the International League South Division.

They are off to Lawrenceville, Georgia to play the Braves for three games, then back to the DBAP. This is the first real break for the DBAP’s turf in a very, very  long time.

The fun part of last night’s game was watching J.P. Arencibia and Curt Casali shine. Neither of them is having a particularly good year at bat, but times could be changing. Arencibia played first base and batted 4th. Casali was the DH and batted fifth. Between them they accounted for 6 of the Bulls' 9 hits, 2 of the RBI, and all of the runs scored.

Arencibia started in off in the 2nd inning with a single and Casali hit a home run to bring him in (Casali’s second home run in a row since he’d homered Wednesday night in his last at bat).

With one out in the 4th inning Arencibia singled again, Casali singled him to third base, and Richie Shaffer drove him in with a double.

Arencibia led off the 6th with a double, went to third base (again) on a Casali single, and came home on a Corey Brown sacrifice fly.

Scott Diamond kept things quiet until the 5th and Sandberg was quick with the hook. Probably because the relief crew needed the work and they have been exceptional during this home stand. In the last four games they have not allowed a single earned run over those 15+ innings.

In the wings —

• Bulls reliever Kirby Yates made his first rehab appearance with the Charlotte Stone Crabs. One not-very-successful inning. Box.
• Juniel Querecuto has moved to Montgomery. He was 1 for 4 playing shortstop in a Biscuits loss to the Jacksonville Suns. Box. Wrap.

Bulls Relievers

I mentioned the relievers' recent performance above. Here’s a chart that shows how they’ve been doing this year. As with most of the charts so far it’s early days in the season and the sample size is small. This shows the ERA and the Fielding Independent Percentage (FIP) for the relief crew. FIP is one of those newish sabermetric stats that tries to focus on just those things the pitcher controls. As the season goes along FIP and ERA will probably get closer in synch. This chart is sorted by FIP.

A few more caveats: Obviously, José Dominguez’s sample is too small for any kind of conclusion, just 5 innings so far this year. Ronald Belisario’s 14 saves are the best in the International League and he’s coming up on his opt-out date. All who are on the 40-man have seen time with Tampa Bay this year. A couple of players currently with the Rays have seen significant time with the Bulls this year, but aren't on this chart.  Jim Miller and Jhan Mariñez have been really impressive and important to the Bulls this year. Even with all the caveats, for these are mostly very good numbers. The overall ERA for Bulls relievers on the year is 3.10.

click on chart for larger image

Damp Time at the Park

 

Craig Robinson, of FlipFlopFlyBall, "Ballpark on Stilts"

Season: 30-24; Home Stand: 6-2
Box, Wrap, Herald-Sun

Matt Buschmann had his not-quite-worst outing of the season (worst would have been back on May 8th up in Syracuse). And the Bulls never quite got on track. Also to be noted was his his recent tendency (four in the his last two games) to hit guys. Last night the rain was certainly having its effect on his footing and his grip on the ball, though.

Seeking just a little bit of light, we have to note that this was the first time in his last 5 appearances that Jordan Norberto didn’t allow a run, and his first two-inning stint since April 22. Not much effect on his pretty awful numbers, but maybe ...

Meanwhile, "Please stop the rain ..."

Outside the game —

• Everett Teaford is back from Montgomery. Assume that he will go into the rotation.
• George Habel, Bulls front office exec, has been writing about the food choices at the DBAP.
• FlipFlopFlyBall is the website of artist and baseball obsessed infographics guy Craig Robinson. His drawing/painting above is part of a series putting ballparks in interesting places. Also note the Bull on his homepage. He has very graciously allowed WDBB to use a couple of his images this year. Please don't reuse them without his permission.

In the wings —

• Rehabbing Rays pitcher (and former Durham Bull) Matt Moore, 2.1 innings with Charlotte Stone Crabs. Box. Claw Digest.

Bulls Back in First; Fresh Fruit

Season: 30-23; Home Stand: 6-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

With this win the Bulls are now in a three-way tie for first place with the Charlotte Knights and the Norfolk Tides (they got rained out last night). All three teams have had their ups and downs this year as the chart will show.

Have to say the the Bulls are responding well to the daily shuffling of positions that seems to have become the norm. Last night, for example, Taylor Motter started at shortstop. He has played every position on the field except 1B and catcher this year, but only 4 times at shortstop. Ryan Brett was out in center field for just the second time this season. Mostly he’s been at second base, although he only has 13 games under his belt.

With all the shuffling, the Bulls were left with just two players on the bench last night, catcher Curt Casali and infielder Leonardo Reginatto. Pitcher C.J. Riefenhauser officially came off rehab and warmed up in the later innings, but didn’t come into the game.

In a game like this one, fans pick out moments that speak to them. In my case it was Ryan Brett’s base running in the 4th inning. His hit to center field shows on the books as a double, but if he had not been running hard right out of the box he never would have made it to second base. And then when Eugenio Valez singled to right a few minutes later, Brett was again well-ahead of the throw with a nifty, hand-slapping slide past home plate to tie the game. Very nicely done.

Meanwhile, the 4th was the only really tough time for Knight’s pitching. But it was enough. The Bulls got another run in the inning and mostly kept the Knights off the bases for the rest of the game.

Enny Romero got a 3-inning save in spectacular fashion. After the Knights got the tying run to third base with just one out and Romero simply blew away the next two batters with 97 and 98 mph fastballs.

In the Wings (players who have been with Durham this year) —

• Reliever Bryce Stowell gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in the last inning of a Montgomery Biscuits 4-1 loss to the Jacksonville Suns. Box. Wrap.

Outside the game —

• We don’t really go the the DBAP in search of healthy food. But these guys, out of Durham’s Co-op market, have brought some to us. They are over near the ramp up to the first base side of the stands and doing beautiful presentations of very fresh-looking fruit. Reasonable prices, too, it seems to me.

Standings

Nice to see the Bulls back in first place

click on chart for larger image

Matchup: Durham Bulls vs Charlotte Knights; Rosterizing; Mahtook to Rays

Durham Bulls Athletic Park, 7:30 am, June 2

If the weather god(s) are kind (doesn't look good at the moment), the Bulls will go up against the Charlotte Knights tonight. The Knights are a game ahead of the Bulls in the International League South Division.

The Chicago White Sox affiliate is having a very good year and is arriving at the DBAP after a 5-2 home stand in Charlotte. The Knights and the Bulls (and the Norfolk Tides) have been trading places all year. We have every reason to expect it to continue.

As the table shows, they carry a stellar batting average. However, that small run differential implies a vulnerability in the pitching department, and possibly in defense. Unfortunately, the Bulls don’t have much to brag as defenders. They lead the league in errors (48) to Charlotte’s 12th place (32).

Dealing with rain. A while back we wrote up this little item about how we deal with a rainy day. The link is also up there on the links list. Essentially, check out the camera before you drive, might save yourself some pain.

Rosterificaton —

• Two Bulls have been called up to the Rays, pitcher Andrew Bellatti and outfielder Mikie Mahtook. Bellatti pitched last night, in relief, against the LAA Angels. See stories here, here and here.
• The Rays also Designated for Assignment veteran reliever Ernesto Frieri. Comments by Rays Manager Kevin Cash implied that he didn’t really expect Frieri to make it through waivers.
• That leaves the Bulls with two holes in their roster that we can expect to be filled before the end of the day.

In the Wings (players who’ve been up with the Bulls this year) —

• Juniel Querecuto went 1-3 with a walk and scored two runs in a Charlotte Stone Crabs win. Box. Claw Digest

Deeefense

Season: 29-23; Home Stand: 5-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Yes, the pitching was pretty good, but five pitchers don’t get a shutout without some awfully good defense. Case in point: in the Chief’s 4th they had a man on second base who came around towards home plate on a single to right. Mikie Mahtook threw a very accurate bullet for a very pretty play at home. In the 6th, runner on second, a ground ball to shortstop Leonardo Reginatto’s left, runner goes to towards third, but Reginatto throws to 3B instead of 1B for the out. Then on the next play a sharp grounder to 1B leads to a double play.

In all, the Chiefs left 11 runners on base. Meanwhile, Mikie Mahtook drew a walk and had a very well-hit double. We can hope. Meanwhile, J.P. Arencibia had 3 Ks and his average has dropped to .194. Alan Dykstra continues to tease us. He got another RBI double, but remains well-below .200 at .156.

Apparently Matt Andriese is to be the Bulls 5th starter. See the Herald-Sun link for a review of pitcher management by Jared Sandberg. In the meantime, a bunch of them got their chance last night and several worked their way out of problems.

One difference in this matchup with the Chiefs is that they must have decided to crowd the plate a bit. Bulls pitchers have only accumulated 13 hit batsman calls this year, but 5 of them came during this series with the Syracuse Chiefs. Of course, it’s only fair to point out that Bulls hitters are second in the IL in getting hit, with 21 on the season.

Outside the game —

• There I was, singing away at the stretch, when I realized that I hadn’t had any Cracker Jack this year. I took a quick look at the concession stands and realized that Cracker Jack was not to be found. Awwww! Say it ain't so!
• Tampa Bay Rays infielder Tim Beckham has gone on the disabled list. At the moment the only Bulls position players on the 40-man are catcher Curt Casali, outfielder Mikie Mahtook, and infielder Ryan Brett.
• I heard last night that reliever Ronald Belisario has an “opt-out” contract and the date is coming due soon. Last night was his 13th save (and his third in three days). He leads the IL in saves. So will the Rays do some razzle-dazzle to get him on the 40-man and call him up, or let him go, or will he decide to stay?

In the wings (players who’ve been with the Bulls this year) —

• Infielder Juniel Querecuto played 3B for the Charlotte Stone Crabs, went 1 for 4 with a walk, and scored a run in a 2-0 win. Box