Week 7; A Wash in Charlotte

 The Durham Bulls settled down a bit after their disastrous visit to Norfolk the previous week. They split the series, 3-3. 

Let's have a small aside on pitching, at least on two pitchers, Taj Bradley and Luis Patiño. Both of these young men are thought of as the future of the Tampa Bay Rays. Mr. Bradley has already been up to Tampa Bay and did very well while there. He started 3 games, pitched 15 innings, won all three games, and holds an OK 3.52 ERA. As a Bull, however, not so good. As a Bull he has started 5 games, pitched 16 innings, given up 20 earned runs, for an 11.25 ERA. Unless injured, there's no doubt he's going to keep on starting games for the Bulls and keep on working on whatever Tampa Bay wants him to work on. That's what Triple-A is all about, but sometimes we can hope that what he needs to work on for Tampa Bay aligns with what the Bulls need to win a game.

Mr. Patiño is a bit different. I've come to dread seeing him on the mound. He's appeared in 9 games (6 as a starter, 3 in relief). May has been a disaster so far. 4 appearances, 15 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings. 

Last week in Charlotte was not good for either pitcher. Mr. Bradley started on May 11, lasted 3 1/3 innings, and gave up 4 runs. Mr. Patiño had two relief appearances. In one he did OK, 1 run in 1 inning; the next was awful, 7 earned runs in 2/3 of an inning.

Stats

5/15: Week 7		Change
OPS	.795	+.002
ERA	5.10	+ .07
WHIP	1.52	+ .03
uERA	.674	- .031
Run Diff	-8	+5

Not much change in the team stats this week. 

Matchup

Nashville comes to town today and the Bulls are tied with them for 5th place, 8 games back from Norfolk. It looks like their pitching is significantly better than the Bulls as a team. So it's likely to come down to day-by-day performances.

Matchup: Bulls vs Nashville, May 16, 2023
As of May 16, 2023	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	uERA
Durham Bulls (Rays)	20-18	5	-8	.795	5.10	1.52	0.67
Nashville Sounds (Brewers)	20-18	5	18	.791	3.89	1.32	0.65
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning; uERA-unearned runs per 9 innings

Week 6: Pretty Much a Distaster

I got lazy, and a bit apprehensive, after last week's disaster at Harbor Park. I'm late. 

So far this year Norfolk has won 8 of 9 games against the Bulls, and the Bulls are going to have to play another 6 games against them starting on the 4th of July. On a positive note, that will be after the Great Re-Set and will not count against the first half of the season. 

At any rate, at the end of the week in Norfolk the Bulls were two games over .500 and tied for 7th place in the International League. Not what Bulls fans are used to. The team saw a decline in all major performance metrics. 

5/8: Week 6		Change
OPS	.793	- .04
ERA	5.03	+ .22
WHIP	1.49	+ .04
uERA	.705	- .037
Run Diff	-13	- 18

                                                            Matchup

The Knights are another traditional rival of the Bulls, but not in recent years. They aren't doing all that well in 2023, but neither are the Bulls.

Matchup: Bulls vs Knights, May 9, 2023
As of May 8, 2023	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	uERA
Durham Bulls (Rays)	17-15	7	-13	.793	5.03	1.49	0.71
Charlotte Knights (White Sox)	16-17	11	-36	.758	5.94	1.69	0.35
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning; uERA-unearned runs per 9 innings

The Bulls did win last night's game against the White Sox franchise, looking very good in a 5-3 game. Progress?

Week 5: Bulls Split

Week 5 was OK. The Bulls were at home and played well, mostly. They split 3-3 against a very good Memphis team. Aside from the Taj Bradley blowup on Sunday and the terrible, horrible, execrable, odious, and just plain wrong home run call that gave away three runs and lost the game for the Bulls on Wednesday (and ended up with pitcher Elvin Rodriguez being thrown out of the game), not a bad week.

Statistically, hitting stayed even, ERA and WHIP lost ground, and fielding continued to improve. The drop in run differential is worrisome.

5/1: Week 5		Change
OPS	.836	0.0
ERA	4.41	+.4
WHIP	1.43	+.02
uERA	.742	-.182
Run Diff	5	-5

For some reason, the standings are now split into East and West Divisions although the fine print says that championships will disregard regions (as does the schedule). Overall, the Bulls started the week in 5th place and ended the week in 5th place.

ABS and Challenge Games

This week saw the full-blown implementation of both the Automated Balls and Strikes System and the Challenge system, all driven by some fancy whiz-bang technology. How it works and the way it's used depends on the day of the week you go to the game. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the machines tell the ump what to call — ball or strike. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the ump calls the game, but players (batter, catcher, or pitcher) can "challenge" the call and the machine will decide the call (and show the path of the ball on the video board). Each team gets three challenges. If they are wrong, then they lose the challenge. If they are right, they retain the challenge. Details here.

If the home plate ump's not quite as busy Tuesday thru Thursday, then how come he missed the call on Wednesday? Just asking. 

Speaking of umpires, this week's crew included Jennifer Pawol, on track to be MLB's first female umpire. I'm not sure if this is a first at the DBAP. It's not something I track. Just happened to notice that she was the only member of the crew not involved in a controversial call this week.

Matchup

The Bulls are off to Norfolk to play the Norfolk Tides, Baltimore's team. They are doing very, very well this season. They swept the Bulls 3-0 at the DBAP to start things off and they've been doing well since.

Week 4, Bulls Win 5

 The Bulls had a great week up in Syracuse, winning 5 of 6 games against Syracuse and rising into a tie for 5th place in the International League Standings. 

The stat improvements are impressive. Every key stat got better.

    

4/24: Week 4		Change
OPS	.836	+.049
ERA	4.41	-.37
WHIP	1.43	-.02
uERA	.924	-.02
Run Diff	10	+12

Matchup

Now comes a new challenge. The Memphis Redbirds won 12 games in a row before losing on Sunday. Their run differential is impressive, but otherwise, maybe there are some cracks in their pitching. We'll have to see.

Matchup: Bulls vs Redbirds, April 25, 2023
As of April 24, 2023	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	uERA
Durham Bulls (Rays)	13-7	5	10	.836	4.41	1.43	0.92
Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals)	15-6	2	43	.754	3.39	1.28	0.15
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning; uERA-unearned runs per 9 innings

Great Week in Durham, Syracuse Next

 

Next Week in Syracuse

The Bulls went 5-1 and moved up from 16th to 6th in the 20-team International League standings. 

Certainly yesterday's bizarre bottom-of-the-9th was the oddity of the week. The Bulls were trailing 1-3, with one of those runs most annoyingly scored on a balk back in the 7th. Nick Dini singled and then moved to 2B when Tristan Grey drew a walk. Kyle Manzardo struck out, but then Kameron Misner doubled to center, Dina scored, Tristan Gray to 3B. Curtis Meade came in to bat for Tanner Murray. In a move that the IronPigs surely came to regret, Meade was given an intentional walk. Makes sense, of course, since it loaded the bases to allow for a double play to end inning. Even better, the next batter, Ruben Cardenas struck out. Bases loaded, 2 outs, Bulls still behind 2-3.

Osleivis Basabe, he of the bright, bright, orange cleats, walks. Game is tied. Ben Gamel walks on the next four pitches. Wins the game.

Matchup

The Bulls are off to Syracuse, New York to play the Mets. They are doing well this year. 

About this season

Just a few thoughts about just how weird this season is going to be for International League fans. First of all, the basic numbers: 20 teams, no divisions. Teams play 6-game sets (mostly). In a 150-game season, that's roughly 25 sets of 6 games. But the plan this year is to have two 75-game seasons and for the winners of the two seasons to play each other for the championship. That means the Bulls will play one 3-game set (already done) and 12 6-game sets (2 down, 10 to go). The first half wraps up at the end of June. By that time the Bulls will have had a home and away with Syracuse, Memphis, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Norfolk. Not bad. On the other hand, the Bulls will not see Lehigh Valley again. The "traditional" rivalries of Gwinnett, Charlotte, and Norfolk will be observed. But there are too many "what-if's" to mention. 

Winning Week in Jax; Matchup

 

The Durham Bulls went down to Jacksonville, Florida for a week and did OK by getting their first wins of the season. They won three games, lost two, and one got rained out. It's still hard to get a handle on the numbers for this year. The one that stands out is the number of unearned runs they are letting through. Per 9 innings they are letting in 1.4 runs. That's an exceptionally bad number. The team ERA of 5.62 is pretty ugly as well. 

A modest hole has been punched into the lineup with the Rays calling up Vidal Brujan and Jonathan Aranda. Both are very good players with Aranda off to a particularly solid start this year. Have not heard of any replacements.

This week sees the Lehigh Valley IronPigs come to town. They are Philadelphia's Triple-A team. The table has their matchup numbers, but we are way too early in the season to put much stock in them.

On the other hand, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Bulls' parent club, is off to an amazing start to their season. They've won 9 games against 3 different teams without losing any. Congrats!

The Durham Bulls Are Back

 

Throwback Uniform — I like it

Quite possibly the worst opening home stand in Durham Bulls history. But, hey, the season is very, very young.

The Bulls lost all three games: 4-3, 4-13, and 4-7. So, they've shown they can score four runs. Now, how do they hold down the opposing team? Well, they sure won't do it by giving out bases on balls. Bulls pitchers issued 21 walks and gave up 9 home runs. Not auspicious. For now, the are firmly in last place in the International League. Standings.

Nevertheless, this roster looks pretty good. Nine on the 40-man, 4 position players and 5 pitchers. Mostly young players. 

Without checking history too closely, it seems to me that the first year with a new manager in Durham was usually pretty tough. I'd hope that's not what we're up against this year.

Meanwhile, MLB keeps piling on the weirdness in whatever the International League is going to be from year to year. This year, assuming I understand it, we have a 20-team league and no divisions. Whichever team is leading after 75 games wins the first half. The team out front at the end of the year wins the second half. And then they have a playoff for the championship.

But wait, there's more. We might be getting automated balls and strikes right here at the DBAP, any day now. Not sure whether it's going to be full-blown ABS or the version where appeals are allowed.

And even more. The home dugout has moved from the first base side to the third base side. I was worried that Ripken might get confused, but I think that the main person confused was me. I'll get used to it. Just like I've got used to living inside a cage while at a game.

The changes in the rules making such a stir in Major League Baseball were the norm here at AAA last year. The only new rule for us involves doing away with the extreme shifts. I'm happy with that. We saw at least one ground ball on Sunday that would have been an out last year. Still, we saw a couple of pitch clock violations over the early games (both pitcher and hitter). 

Patrick Kinas is back in the radio/TV booth doing his superb job. All home games, by the way, are televised. 1257 on Spectrum. 

Beautiful catch in the 8th last night. Video here.

Our favorite manager, Charlie Montoyo, is back. Now with the Chicago White Sox.