Who's in Camp? Durham Bulls from 2016

2016 Position Players

Of the 19 Durham Bulls who played in 25 games or more in 2016, just 8 are in the major league camp with the Rays this spring. And of those, 3 are on the 40-man roster of the Rays, having a shot at sticking with the team. For more info, check out our end-of-season report here.

Here's last season's group, listed in order of # of games played. Players now in the Rays camp are in bold.

• Richie Shaffer, 199 games: Now with Cleveland Indians (via Mariners, Phillies, and Reds over the winter)

• Daniel Robertson, 118 games with Bulls in 2016: On Rays 40-man. Infielder. 22 years old. Not having a particularly good spring with 23 ABs and just 2 hits.
• Dayron Varona, 117 games in 2016: Non-Roster invite to spring training. Outfielder. This spring: 6 hits in 18 ABs. 

• Jaff Decker, 99 games in 2016. Now with Oakland Athletics.
• Jake Goebbert, 93 games in 2016. Now with Arizona Diamondbacks.
• Taylor Motter, 88 games in 2016. Now with Seattle Mariners
• J.P. Arencibia, 78 games. Free agent?

• Jake Hager, 71 games with Bulls in 2016. Non-Roster Invite. Infielder. 23 years old. Spring so far: 21 ABs, 3 hits.
• Johnny Field, 69 games. NRI. Outfield. 16 ABs. 3 hits.
• Nick Franklin, 64 games. On 40-man. Infield. Having a decent spring, but only 18 AB and 9 hits.
• Luke Maile, 58 games. On 40-man. Catcher. 20 AB, 8 hits. 

• Kyle Roller, 50 games. Free agent?

• Casey Gillaspie, 47 games. NRI. Infield (1B). 24 years old. Impressive spring. 19 AB, 5 hits (2 HR).
• Patrick Leonard. 42 games. NRI. Infield. 18 AB, 4 hits.

• Cameron Seitzer. 40 games. With Chicago White Sox
• Juniel Querecuto, 36 games. With San Francisco Giants
• Hank Conger. 30 games. With Arizona Diamondbacks.
• Mikie Mahtook, 27 games. With Detroit Tigers.
• Eury Perez, 17 games. With Pittsburgh Pirates (May see him with Indianapolis).

Update [14 March]: Ooops! This is position players only. Makes my head hurt trying to keep track of the pitchers.

Baserunning, Hot Bats, First Place

Game 107, July 29, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Louisville Bats (Reds): 1
Durham Bulls (Rays): 9
Season: 49-58; Home Stand: 4-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Stats:
Game Score: Pruitt 67; Season Avg 57 (21 starts, 120.1 innings)
Team wOBA: Game .438; Season .301; Diff +.137

Eury Perez came back to the Bulls last night when Nick Franklin was called up to the Rays. Batting ninth in the order he drew a walk to start off the 3rd inning with the Bulls trailing 1-0. The next batter, Jake Hager, struck out, but not before Perez stole second base. Jaff Decker flew out to center field for the second out. While Taylor Motter was at bat, Perez stole third base. Motter drew a walk, the fourth of nine the Bulls drew during the game. After Richie Shaffer came to bat, a couple of pitches in, Motter took off for second and Perez stole home for the run that tied the game. Gee, that was fun to watch. Here's a scoring puzzle, though. Does a guy who steals home get an RBI for himself? (Ans: No)

Then, remember Richie Shaffer's still at bat, a double by him brought home Taylor Motter from second base and the Bulls went ahead 2-1.

In the next inning, the game came unraveled (from the Bats point of view) or we could say that the Bulls bats came alive. In the middle of it? Eury Perez. Jake Goebbert drew a walk to start the inning, moved to third on a Johnny Field single. A Perez grounder towards second base started a double play effort, but Perez did get an RBI when Goebbert came home. Even better, the shortstop threw the ball away instead of finishing the double play and Perez ended up on second base. Jaff Decker picked up the Bulls' sixth walk of the game and Taylor Motter hit a very pretty home run over the Blue Monster. Bulls went ahead 7-2 on just 4 hits.

The Bulls picked up a couple more runs in the 6th. Austin Pruitt got his 6th win. All was right in the world.

Even better, up in Toledo, the Mud Hens were beating the Gwinnett Braves. That meant that the Bulls moved to sole possession of first place in the South Division. It's been a long time. To be specific, back on April 11th, the fifth game of the year, the Bulls went a half-game ahead of Gwinnett for the only other time this year that the Bulls have led in the South. (standings)

Outside the game —

• If you're curious about all the "non-waiver trade deadline" talk. Here's the definition. Not saying it will help understand why folks are so obsessed with it. But maybe.

Durham Bulls Tied for First

Game 100, July 21, PNC Field, Moosic, Pennsylvania
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays): 8
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (New York Yankees): 4
Season: 45-55; Trip: 5-3
Wrap, Box, Scranton Times-Tribune

Stats:
Game Score: Marks 46; Season Avg 53 (15 starts, 84 innings)
Tm wOBA: Game .415; Season .297; Diff +.118

The Bulls are in 1st place in the International League South Division! How weird is that? They are 10 games below .500 and yet they are tied with Charlotte for first place. Plus, they won a game from the best in the IL in a very impressive fashion. See the chart below.

At first, it looked as if Justin Marks, who threw a no-hitter his last time out, was going to have a very short outing. He got through the first inning OK, but the 2nd was a disaster. Then, the Bulls had a great top-of-the-3rd with Taylor Motter's 2-run homer a highlight and acting manager Ozzie Timmons left him in the game. A couple of double plays helped as he did a good job through the 5th.

Timmons and, very likely, pitching coach Kyle Snyder, had to make the decision because manager Jared Sandberg had gotten himself thrown out of the game in the 1st inning. By my count, this was the fourth ejection of the year (2 wins and 2 losses) and gets us wondering about his anger management skills. Did he have a legitimate beef? Probably. Nick Franklin had taken a pitch off his hand that was called a foul ball, not a hit-by-pitch. Franklin ended up leaving the game.

In the 4th Richie Shaffer hit a long home run to tie the game. Jaff Decker drew a walk and did some nice base running to get to 3B on a Daniel Robertson single. Decker came home on a Johnny Field sac fly. That put the Bulls ahead to stay. Speaking of Decker, in the 8th the accounts will show he hit a double, and that's fair. What they don't say is that the hit was a dribbler that barely made it past the infield and the RailRiders didn't expect Decker to even think about going to second base until they looked around and there he was standing on the bag. Decker came home for the Bulls' 8th run on a Johnny Field single.

Add in Daniel Robertson's 2-run homer in the 6th and you have the Bulls best day at bat in a long while.

Parker Markel came back from Hudson Valley to pitch the 6th inning. Ryan Garton has been put on the disabled list. [Note: I assume that most readers of WDBB understand that to/from Hudson Valley transactions are typically paper transactions. Markel, for example, has very likely been traveling with the team, just not wearing a game jersey.]

Kirby Yates, one of WDBB's all-time favorites (e.g., see a typical post here), came to the mound to pitch the 9th inning for the RailRiders. After coming up through the Rays system Yates started the season as a Yankee. He came down to the RailRiders at the end of June. Overall, he seems to be doing OK on the year even if he's back in Triple-A. J.P. Arencibia, who must have caught him a couple of times last year, seemed particularly amused during his at-bat, and he managed a single off of him.

Standings

Loss in Rochester; Off to Moosic

Game 99, July 20, Frontier Field, Rochester, New York
Durham Bulls: 2
Rochester Red Wings: 6
Season: 44-55; Trip: 4-3
Wrap, Box, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Stats:
Game Score: Faria 24; Season Avg 45 (5 starts, 20.2 innings)
Team wOBA: Game .250; Season .296; Difference -.046

Morning did not suit the Bulls yesterday, especially young Jacob Faria. He will undoubtedly improve, but he's obviously having trouble adjusting to Triple-A hitters.

Nick Franklin is back with the Bulls and accounted for all of the game's RBIs. Dayron Varona continued his hot hitting. Richie Shaffer committed his 14th error. Hank Conger is still working toward his first hit as a Bull. Eury Perez was moved to the Sand Crabs to make room for Franklin.

Moving on down the road

After yesterday's game, the Bulls trekked on to Moosic, Pennsylvania to play the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Interesting site for a baseball field. (zoom in to see)

Matchup

If this looks/sounds familiar, it is. I mistakenly put it up a couple of days ago when I misread the schedule. Updated.

The Bulls face their most formidable matchup of the year in these four games against the Yankees Triple-A franchise. Back at the end of May, the Bulls took two out of three. We could say that stats aren't everything, but...

Since then the RailRiders have gotten even better and the Bulls have remained in the cellar for offensive stats and middle of the road in pitching. As can be seen, the RailRiders lead not just the North Division, but the entire International League in all these key metrics.

They are 4th in errors committed, but the Bulls are 14th in that category, too.

The RailRiders are coming home from a 3-game series in Charlotte where they lost 2 of 3. However, they've won 7 of their last 10.

Gonna be a tough series.

Another Comeback Win

Game 98, July 19, Frontier Field, Rochester, New York
Durham Bulls: 7
Rochester Red Wings: 6
10 innings
Season: 44-54; Trip: 4-2
Wrap, Box, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Stats:
Game Score: Gamboa 68; Season Avg 54 (7 starts, 26 innings)
Tm wOBA: Game .289; Season .296; Diff -.007

Eddie Gamboa had his second terrific start in a row, thoroughly baffling the Red Wings lineup. Plus the offense put together 6 runs on mostly small ball. In the dugout after six innings, he should have been chalking up his sixth win. Dana Eveland had a nice, clean 7th inning. Then there was a truly awful beginning of the 8th. The Red Wings scored 5 runs off of Steve Geltz to tie it up.

No fan just watching from the stands or on TV can do anything more  than just speculate, but this is Mr. Geltz' second visit back from Tampa Bay and he's not doing well at all. On yesterday's 1/3 of an inning his ERA ballooned from 3.31 to 5.94. More than that, he just doesn't look confident on the mound.

New guy Casey Coleman came on to get out of that inning and the 9th. In the 10th a walk and a single (Casey Gillaspie and Richie Shaffer) led to a pitching change. After Jaff Decker K'd, a bit of shakiness on the part of the pitcher/catcher combination led to a passed ball and set up Dayron Varona's second RBI.

Then new guy Ryne Stanek simply blew away the Red Wings in the bottom of the 10th. The Red Wing announcers were called the fastball speeds and they were 97-98 mph most of the time and one was 100. A very impressive young man.

Outside the game —

• Nick Franklin is coming back. In yet another example of how little I understand Rays' decision-making. Here's a guy who has played in 4 different positions for the Rays over 19 games and a holds a .836 OPS. And they are sending him back?  Happy to have him. But looks foolish on the Rays part. 
• Early morning game today. 11:05.

Pretty Game

Game 73, Tuesday, June 21, DBAP
Charlotte Knights: 1
Durham Bulls: 3
Season: 32-41; Home Stand: 2-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Stats:
Game Score: Gamboa 57; Season Avg 46 (3 starts, 9.1 innings)
Tm OPS: Game .700; Season .644
Tm wOBA: Game .312; Season .291

Sometimes we get so caught up in our numbers that we forget what a genuinely beautiful game this is.

Last night we got to watch Eddie Gamboa flutter his knuckleball in towards the plate at 71 mph for 3 innings, and then a parade of four more Bulls kept the Knights in check. Only in the 8th were we particularly worried when runners got on second and third base. Richie Shaffer showed his chops as a third baseman, grabbing a grounder and throwing home to prevent a run. They got out of that inning, then Danny Farquhar struck out the side in the 9th to end a very quick game (only a few minutes over 2 hours long).

For the first three innings, the Bulls simply chipped away at Charlotte. In fact, if not for two very timely double plays by the Knights, the score could have been much more in favor of the Bulls.

Good pitching. Good defense. Good hitting. Great weather. A win. What more could you ask for?

Outside the game —

• Nick Franklin got called up to Tampa Bay.
• Juniel Querecuto came back to the Bulls from Montgomery.
• After throwing a grand total of 7 pitches on Monday, Ryan Garton went back up to the Rays.
• Reliever Dana Eveland is reported to be in the Bulls bullpen. Have not seen him yet.
• Nice to hear that Mikie Mahtook's broken hand will not require surgery.

Bulls Start With a Win; Callups Coming?

Game 72, Monday, June 20, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham, North Carolina
Charlotte Knights (White Sox): 2
Durham Bulls (Rays):3
10 innings
Season: 31-41; Home Stand: 1-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Stats:
Game Score: Marks 60; Season Avg 49 (9 games, 53.1 innings)
Tm OPS: Game .575; Season .644
Tm wOBA: Game .261; Season .291

Justin Marks had an unusually good start, but left the game with the Bulls behind by one run. The bullpen crew threw no-hit ball for 3⅔ innings and the Bulls scored a run on a Nick Franklin single, a Richie Shaffer double, and a Dayron Varona single tieing the game.

In the 10th, after the Bulls got runners on 1B and 3B, Charlotte let Cameron Seitzer get to 2B on defensive indifference, then gave up on a 3-2 1 (oops! Tnx Chris) count and intentionally walked Johnny Field. Knights pitcher Tommy Kahnle walked Daniel Robertson and the Bulls got their first win in quite a while.

This is a critical series for the Bulls as they reach the half-way point of the season. Good start.

Outside the game —

• The Bulls are now ½ game out of second place in the south.
• Two Tampa Bay players were injured yesterday. WDBB favorite Mikie Mahtook had his hand broken by a pitch and infielder Steve Pierce pulled a hamstring. More info here and here. 
• Can expect two callups today. Bulls currently on the Rays 40 man are Richie Shaffer, Nick Franklin, and Luke Maile. However, the Rays are very clever about manipulating the rules. So, they could add to the roster. Who gets a call? I'd guess Richie Shaffer for one. But who else? Dayron Varona? Or give a prospect a shot? Johnny Field?

Update: Nick Franklin got the call to Tampa Bay (playing in Cleveland). Juniel Querecuto called back from Montgomery. Still short one on roster.
Update to Update (16:19): Relief pitcher Ryan Garton recalled (didn't occur to me that Rays would reach out for a pitcher. Bulls now two short on roster.

Short and Sweet

Game 62, June 9, DBAP
Norfolk Tides: 2
Durham Bulls: 3
Season: 28–34; Home Stand: 1–1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Stats:
Game Score: Marks 61; Season Avg 48
Tm OPS: Game .600; Season .650
Tm wOBA: Game .238; Season .294

To give credit where credit is due, pulling Justin Marks at the end of 6 innings was the right call. Marks had pitched his best game as a Durham Bull through 6 innings, 86 pitches, 8 K’s. He survived a shaky 4th and came back with two solid innings. His game score of 61 was also his best of the year. Time to rest on his laurels.

He was followed by Eddie Gamboa’s terrific 2 innings and Steve Geltz’s heart palpitating 9th when he closed out the game with a K of pinch-hitting Mike Yastrzemski with runners on 1st and 3rd.

Rehabbing Logan Forsythe’s home run was all the Bulls could do at bat until the 7th. In fact they came into the 7th with just two hits of any kind. Then Jaff Decker got a single and Jake Goebbert’s home run brought in the winning run.

Nice crowd of 10,000+ watched the shortest game of the year, 2:01.

Outside the game —

• Got to figure that Logan Forsythe will be heading for St. Petersburg, which raises the question of who will be kicked off the Ray’s bus. Very likely to be one of these guys: Tim Beckham, Taylor Motter, or Nick Franklin. The stats don’t tell you much of anything (none of them is hitting well), so you have to think that Tampa Bay will be looking at an assessment of team defensive needs and who is most dependable off the bench as a platoon player.
• The Bulls leave town until June 20th. First chance for the turf to “rest” in a long while.

Streak Ends; Bulls Back Home

Game 60, June 7, Harbor Park, Norfolk, Virginia
Durham Bulls: 3
Norfolk Tides: 7
Season: 27–33; Trip: 1–1
Wrap, Box, Virginian-Pilot

Stats:
Game Score: Pruitt 31; Season Avg 56
Tm OPS: Game .583; Season .652
Tm wOBA: Game .246; Season .295

Well, it couldn’t last — the winning streak, I mean. Sure was nice, though. Yesterday, however, nothing went well for the Bulls. Austin Pruitt was coming off a terrific start, but found himself in a six run hole before the 2nd inning was over. Even when the Bulls hitters seemed to get a handle on rehabbing Oriole Yovari Gallardo, especially Jake Goebbert’s 2-run homer, it was too late.

Outside the game —

• Here’s some more details about Jamie Schultz's near-perfect game.
• Here’s a bit of trivia that I’d not heard before. When major league pitchers are rehabbing in the minors, they are provided major league baseballs to throw. Is that so? Maybe a reader will fill me in. What would be the difference, I wonder?
• Yesterday was not a good day for this year’s Bulls in the big leagues. Box. Taylor Motter started at 3B and went 0 for 4; Mikie Mahtook started in right field and was 0 for 3; Nick Franklin pinch hit and flied out. However, Ryan Garton did come on to pitch with one out in the 8th and had 2 K’s to finish the inning.

Bulls Pitching

This is a pretty picture. The team ERA (3.46) is now below the International League ERA (3.59). The big improvement is the relief crew. Over the last 15 games their combined ERA has dropped from 4.31 to 3.75.

Five in a Row!

Game 58, June 5, DBAP
Gwinnett Braves: 0
Durham Bulls: 9

Season: 26–32; Home Stand: 6–1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Stats:
Game Score: Snell 68; Season Avg 56
Tm OPS: Game .813; Season .653
Tm wOBA: Game .363; Season: .296

The Gwinnett Braves pitching crew were more than generous again, giving up 8 walks. And the Bulls took advantage of it early. Half of the runners who scored in the first 4 innings got on base with a walk. A double by Kyle Roller, home runs by Johnny Field (off the Bull) and Dayron Varona drove them in, as did a single by Varona.

A big day for Bulls hitters and pitchers led to the biggest run differential of the year, the team’s 4th shutout, the longest winning streak, the first four-game sweep in years, and the best home stand this year.

Blake Snell had an impressive 6 inning, 104 pitch game. A bit shaky in the first inning, when he was victimized by a bad call by the 3rd base ump on a pickoff and run down. The runner went out of the baseline, but ump didn’t see it that way. After a batter or so, Snell was in command the rest of the way.

Juniel Querecuto started the game at second base. The first time he’s done that as a Bull. He was taking the place of Nick Franklin, who finally got his call to the Rays. Querecuto has plenty of experience at the position in lower level minors (where he has mostly been played at shortstop).

Cameron Seitzer came back from “extended Spring Training” to play first base and to fill the hole left by Nick Franklin’s departure.

On the Bench: J.P. Arencibia, Mayo Acosta, Jaff Decker

Outside the game —

• “Dr. Miraculous” runs the numbers of some of the current Montgomery Biscuits (and future Bulls?).

Standings

The Bulls run against the Braves has pushed the Bulls up into second place in the South. They are off to Norfolk for two games and back to Durham for two games before heading North for six games and then, oddly enough, back to Norfolk for three games.

click on chart for larger size

Durham Bulls Offense Has Best Night of the Year

Game 52, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham, North Carolina

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (New York Yankees): 3
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays): 5

Season: 21–31; Home Stand: 1–0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun (No story on their website, guess they took Memorial Day off. Too bad. Missed a good game.)

So there I was grumbling to myself for most of the first 6 innings. The Bulls had wasted a one-out triple by Kyle Roller through awkward baserunning by Roller himself and a caught stealing of Dayron Varona. Starting pitcher Justin Marks was really working hard (he ended the game having thrown 103 pitches in just 3 ⅔ innings). And then in the 6th inning, after a leadoff home run by recently-returned Jake Goebbert, the Bulls left the bases loaded. Meanwhile, back in the 4th the RailRiders had put up three runs.

But then came the 7th as the Bulls got a run off a Jaff Decker sacrifice fly and then the 8th when the Bulls put finishing touches on their best hitting game this year, a one game OPS of 1.061 (see chart below)! A solo home run by Nick Franklin and a two-run homer by Dayron Varona were the innings’ highlights.

Meanwhile the bullpen crew of Markel, Wagner, Farquhar, and Floro, threw 5 innings of shutout ball, closing  down one of the best hitting teams in the International League.

Outside the game (sort of) —

• As mentioned, Jake Goebbert passed through waivers and is back with the team.
• Patrick Leonard got sent to the Montgomery Biscuits. Leonard played in 42 games so far this year as a 1st baseman, 3rd baseman, and outfielder. He was hitting just .198, well-below his last year’s performance with the Biscuits. Probably part of larger roster shuffling. Stats.
• Johnny Field got promoted from Montgomery. Looks to be a pure outfielder and it looks like the 24 year-old has been having a pretty good year so far. Stats.
• Cameron Seitzer, who has been with the Bulls all year, has been sent to “Extended Spring Training” (probably a paper move). The first baseman is not having a particularly good year with an OPS of just .464. Stats.
• Early in the game new guy Johnny Field was coaching first base, which got me to wondering, just what is it that hitting coach does during a game? We see the manager and the pitching coach pretty regularly, but not Ozzie Timmons. But then he suddenly showed up, coaching first base. The first time I’ve noticed him there this year. Have I been missing something?
• Remember Ryan Garton, who made 14 appearances for the Bulls before being called up a few days ago? Turns out he’s part of a new training experiment that the Rays are experimenting with, but also being very close-mouthed about. Something about varying the weights of balls thrown in training. Story here.
• Dylan Floro got his third save in his third opportunity last night. Has he found his niche?

Here’s that chart I mentioned earlier. Game-by-game OPS scores for the last 15 games. Last night was the best this year.

Shutout in Columbus

Game 49, Huntington Park, Columbus, Ohio
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay): 2
Columbus Clippers (Cleveland): 0
Wrap, Box

This was only the second shutout by Bulls pitching this year. The last came on April 13, the 8th game of this season. Jamie Schultz seemed to recover from the rough outing he had in his last game and pitched 6 shutout innings. Parker Markel got his first win as a Bull, in relief. Adam Kolarek faced just one batter in the 9th, gave up a hit, and was replaced by Dylan Floro, who appears to be the Bulls new closer. Floro got his second save of the season, and his career, with just 10 pitches. Shultz and Floro were both involved in the April 13 shutout, as was Tyler Sturdevant, who had a clean inning against the Yankees last night.

All of the Bulls' runs were scored off a Nick Franklin double that brought in pinch-running Patrick Leonard and Daniel Robertson. Tim Beckham had a nice day back at shortstop by starting a key double play in the 9th and fielding a grounder for the last out.

K's and Dingers; Fun at the DBAP

Game 18, April 24, Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburg): 1
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay): 6
Season: 10-8; Home Stand: 1-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Fun day at the park as several Bulls had a terrific game, starting with Jamie Schultz and his 12 K’s, and then there was Richie Shaffer getting his first home run in the 5th inning and another in the 7th.

But there was more, a lot more. Jake Goebbert came into the game with an awful OPS of .255 and raised it to .316 with two singles. Still awful, but there’s hope. Similarly, Kyle Roller punched a home run and raised his OPS up to .868, an above average number.

The three homers plus RBIs by Nick Franklin and Carlos Corporan led the Bulls best run differential of the year. Plus they went into a tie for first place in the South Division.

In addition to Jamie Shultz’s superb performance, we saw Andrew Bellatti on the mound for the first time since April 13. Did OK in his 22 pitches. Time to call out Eddie Gamboa’s superb ERA of 0.71 and there’s his WHIP of 0.95. He had 2⅓ innings yesterday and looked very good.

Outside the game —

• Blake Snell had a superb start against the Yankees and is back in Durham. 
• The Rays fiddled around with the 40-man roster to add Jhan Marinez and then he was called up. He had an inning in relief last night. No word on his replacement. Possibly Danny Farquar?
• Luke Maile is reported to be a couple of days away from coming back.
• No word (that I heard) on Mikie Mahtook’s status.

Team Hitting

OPS (on base percentage plus slugging) is one of those stats that has fallen out of favor for evaluating individual players. But we are less interested in that than we are in team trends. For that it works just fine. What we see here is that the Bulls’ hitting over the last 15 games fell off from a very hot, small sample start. It fell below this year’s International League average. We are still early enough in the season for one game’s results (the best team OPS of the year — 1.024) to push it up quite a bit.

click on chart for larger view

Close, but No Comeback; Watch Out for the Wind

Looks Breezy!

Game 2, 8 April 2016, Durham Athletic Park
Charlotte Knights (White Sox): 8
Durham Bulls (Rays): 6

Season: 1-1; Home Stand: 1-1
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun (paywall), DRaysBay

The Bulls had a nice lead going into the 6th, but Andriese ran into a bit of trouble and new-to-the-Bulls reliever Tyler Sturdevant let two runs score and gave up one of his own. The Bulls came back to tie it up, however 2015 stalwart Jhan Martinez couldn’t hang on.

Continuing my look at this year’s team …

The Lineup

(note: The “slash line” is: Batting Average/On Base Percentage/On Base Percentage+Slugging; “*” indicates player is on 40-man roster)

RF Mikie Mahtook*: 2 for 4, 1 BB, scored 2 runs. Season — .333/.400/.733
CF Jaff Decker: 2 for 5, scored 2 runs. Season — .500/.500/1.100
SS Taylor Motter*: 1 for 5. Season — .300/.300/.600
1B Richie Shaffer*: 3 for 5, scored 1 run. 3 RBI. Season — .625/.667/1.542
2B Nick Franklin*: 1 for 5, scored 1 run. Season — .222/.222/.444
3B Daniel Robertson: 3 for 3, scored 1 run, 1 HR, 2 RBI. Season — .500/.625/1.625
DH Kyle Roller: 0 for 3. 1 RBI (sac fly). Season — .000/.000/.000
Roller spent the last two seasons with the AAA team of the Yankees, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. Exclusively a DH and first baseman he was signed as a minor league free agent. Solid stats. Looks like a good addition to the roster. Stats.
LF Patrick Leonard: 0 for 4. 1 RBI (bases loaded ground out). Season — .250/.250/.625
C Luke Maile: 0 for 4. Season — .250/.250/.625

The Pitchers

RHP Matt Andriese*: 5 ⅓ innings. 6 hitds, 4 ER, 0 BB, 9 K’s.
Matt Andriese is essentially with the Bulls for a month or so while the Tampa Bay Rays work with a 4 (instead of 5) man pitching rotation. He had a fine year last year in his 65 innings with the Bulls and his 65 innings with the Rays. Stats. Solondz interview.
RHP Tyler Sturdevant: ⅓ inning. 1 hit, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 inherited runners scored.
Sturdevant spent 2015 with the Cleveland affiliate, the Columbus Clippers. Decent stats.
RHP Ryan Garton: 1⅔ innings. 1 hit, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s
Garton is working his way up through the Rays system. He had 70 K’s in 61 innings last year with Montgomery. Stats. Solondz interview.
RHP Jhan Martinez: 1⅔ innings. 2 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s.
Martinez was a star of the 2015 Bulls bullpen. Have to think he will come around. Stats. Solondz interview.

Outside the game —

• Rosterification begins. Cameron Seitzer who started at 1B on Thursday is off the roster and Jake Goebbert has been assigned. Gooebert was claimed off waivers from the Pirates. We’ll profile him when/if he ever shows up at bat.
• Baseball America had some love for Blake Snell's game Thursday (Thanks to DRaysBay for the link).
• Tampa Bay has released a top prospects list. Several Bulls are on it. 

Singing in the Rain — Nice Start

Game 1
Durham Bulls (Rays) - 7
Charlotte Knights (White Sox) - 3
Season: 1-0; Home Stand: 1-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun (paywall), N&O, WRAL

The weather was ugly. Cold mist swept across the field as the National Anthem was sung (quite well, by the way, by a Duke a cappella group). Blake Snell kept things on track for the Bulls. Charlotte’s Scott Carroll only lasted an inning and a third. After the rain stopped, the temperature dropped like a stone, but it was baseball! And the Bulls won!

Here begins my look at this year’s team. Starting with last night’s lineup.

The Lineup

(note: “slash line” is Batting Average/On Base Percentage/On Base Percentage+Slugging;(OPS) “*” indicates player in on 40-man roster)
Also note that former Bulls broadcaster Neil Solondz has interviewed a bunch of these players. All of the interviews worth a listen. See the links below.

RF Mikie Mahtook*: 2 for 5, scored 2 runs. Season — .200/.200/.400
Mahtook spent much of last year with the Bulls playing in 98 games with .209/.304/.670. And he really looked good in his 41 games with the Rays (.295/.351/.970). So why is he back? Hard to tell. Perhaps to get playing time? The Rays really like the outfielders they have. Stats. Interview.
CF Jaff Decker: 3 for 5, stole 3B in 1st inning. Season — .600/.600/1.400
First game as a Bull. Decker signed with the Rays as a minor league free agent. Had some major league time with the Pirates last year and 69 games with the Indianapolis Indians (.214/.371/.693). Stats. Pre-season interview with Neil Solondz.
SS Taylor Motter*: 2 for 5, stole 2B. Season — .400/.400/.400
Motter was a star for the Bulls last year. He played in 127 games with a slash line of .292/.366/.837 with 26 stolen bases. He apparently impressed Rays in spring training, so there’s a good chance he will spend some time with them this year. Stats. Solondz interview.
DH Richie Shaffer*: 2 for 3, 1 BB, 3 RBI. Season — .667/.750/.1.417
Shaffer had a busy 2015 playing for the AA Montgomery Biscuits (39 games), the Durham Bulls, (69 games — .270/.355/.937), and 31 games with the Rays at the end of the season. Stats.
2B Nick Franklin*: 1 for 4. Season — .250/.250/.500.
Franklin played in 57 games for the Bulls last year (.266/.353/.853) and 44 games with the Rays. Stats. This will be his 8th year in baseball, but he’s still just 25 years old. Maybe this year?
3B Daniel Robertson: 0 for 3, 1 BB, scored 1 run. Season — .000/.250/.250
Young (22) Mr. Robertson came out of the Oakland system and played in 78 games in Montgomery last year. This was his first game at AAA. Stats. Interview. A player to watch this year.
1B Cameron Seitzer: 1 for 3, 1 BB, scored 1 run, 1 RBI. Season — .333/.500/.1.167
Seitzer came up from Montgomery at the end of 2015. He did fine in his 7 games as a Bull. Another player to watch this year. Stats.
LF Patrick Leonard: 2 for 4, scored 2 runs, 1 RBI. Season — .500/.500/1.250
Leonard (also a youngster at 22) also made his AAA debut last night. At Montgomery in 2015 he was mostly an infielder, splitting time at 3B and 1B. Last night was his first game at AAA. Seems like the Bulls have a lot of third basemen this year. Stats. Interview.
C Luke Maile*: 2 for 4, scored 1 run, 2 RBI.  Season — .500/.500/1.250
Luke Maile had 84 games with the Bulls last year (.207/.298/.594) and 15 games with the Rays. We like him a lot. Stats. Interview.

The Pitchers

LHP Blake Snell*: 5 innings, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K’s
Snell is much written-about, so I won’t add anything here except to say that he’s the Rays hottest pitching prospect and the Bulls will be lucky to keep him for a couple of months. He helped the Bulls a lot at the end of last year. Stats.
RHP Dylan Floro*: 3 innings, 1 ER, O BB, 5 K’s
Mr. Floro, on the other hand, was not our favorite Bulls pitcher last year. He’s back, this time as a reliever, and things are looking up. He certainly did a good job last night. So perhaps the 25 year-old is back on track to the majors. Stats.
RHP Andrew Bellatti*: 1 inning, 1 BB, 1 K
Bellatti probably should not be in Durham, but the Rays are pretty deep, so they can afford to leave a young (24) player here. Expect him to be rotating back and forth, much as he did last year (46 innings as a Bull, 23 innings as a Ray). Stats.

Outside the Game —

• Think I’m going to get used to the netting. Here’s some TV of the netting going up.
• Unlike most years the Bulls have a bunch of position players on the 40-man (7) and only 3 pitchers.
• Also, the Bulls don’t appear to have any left-handed relief pitchers.

Bulls in the Bandbox by the Bay

Unless I’ve misremembered or miscounted (likely) ten Durham Bulls went “up” to the Rays this month, or just at the end of August. Six were position players and four pitchers. How are they doing?

I guess that depends on your point of view. So far in September the Rays have played 11 games, won only 4 of them, losing 7. Except for the last 3, they’ve all been road games, so they really haven’t spent much time in the bandbox by (or at least near) the Bay.

Of this crowd I have to say that only one of them has had much of an impact, J.P. Arencibia. And he was actually called up on August 26 and got in 5 games before the rest of the crew showed up. Among the pitchers only Andrew Bellatti has done particularly well. The rest? Not so much. Most of the numbers here are for September, unless otherwise noted.

Also note that with nearly 40-players on the bench, the Rays have been doing a lot of pinch-hitching and pinch-running. Does not seem to have made much difference in the won-loss column, though.

• J.P. Arencibia: 15 games (Aug-Sep), 39 plate appearances, 14 hits, 3 doubles, 5 HR, .368/.359/.842
• Mikie Mahtook: 10 games, 24 PA,  6 hits (double, triple, home run), two complete games. .228/323/.509 on the year (66 pa)
• Richie Shaffer: 9 games, 26 PA, 4 hits, (double, home run) four complete games. .209/.320/.442 on the year (50 PA)
• Nick Franklin: 4 games, 3 PA, no hits. .133/.198/.438 on the year (81 PA)
• Joey Butler: 5 games, 6 PA, 1 hit. .272/.325/.719 on the year (265 PA)
• Luke Maile: 6 games (1 start), 10 PA, 1 hit (a double) .100/.100/.200

• Matt Moore: 2 starts, no-decision and a loss, games scores of 51 (OK) and 23 (not good)
• C.J. Riefenhauser: 4 games, 3.1 innings, 2 ER, no decisions.
• Kirby Yates: 3 appearances, 4 innings, 2 ER, no decision
• Andrew Belatti: 4 appearances, 4.1 innings, 0 ER, 1 loss, 1 win

Bulls Wrap Season With a Shoutout

Season: 74-70
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

Taylor Motter finished the Bulls’ season with a bang, actually two bangs — his first two at-bats were solo home runs. And he scored the third of the  Bulls’  six runs of the game when he was hit by pitch in the 6th inning and came home on Nick Franklin’s single. As we’ve remarked before, he is our favorite for a non-roster September call-up, but we admit it’s unlikely. But who am I to guess about that? Two of the guys who I didn’t think would make it (J.P. Arencibia and Luke Maile) are playing with the Rays today.

New guy Jared Mortensen did a terrific job in his second AAA start. He had one of the longest outings of any Bulls pitcher this year, 7⅔ innings, and did not allow a run. Nice to see that the crowd knew how well he had done. In fact, it was a terrific end-of-season bunch there at the DBAP. We had a proposal and a tear-inducing father home from deployment moment that was shared with all of us.

And then we had the battery of Dominguez (José) and Dominguez (Wilmer) to close things out. This was only the third game this year that Wilmer Dominguez has caught. I think that he has been playing essentially a Mayo Acosta role down in Montgomery this year. But he might have gotten the start because he knew Mortensen from Montgomery. He took advantage of the opportunity. He threw out Norfolk’s very quick outfielder Julio Borbon trying to steal (Borbon came in the game with 23 steals under his belt). On his first at bat he alertly took off for first base when Norfolk’s catcher could not handle the third strike, and made it. Then in his third at bat he hit a two-run single and he singled again in the 8th. Pretty good for only your second AAA game ever and only your third game this year!

With Gwinnett’s win over Charlotte, the Bulls ended the year in a tied for third place and 4 games above .500. Considering where they were just a few weeks ago, pretty good.

Things got a bit testy in the 6th. Hard to tell just why. Norfolk’s pitcher was obviously not ready for prime time and had an awful debut into AAA baseball. Maybe next year.

We’re still sorting out this year’s stats and opinions. Let me know what you thought of the DBAP and this year’s team.

Opening Day: April 7, 2016. Only 212 days away!!!

Outside the game —

• The St. Pete Times is reporting that Nick Franklin and Andrew Bellatti were called up after the game.

Five in a Row; Is There Hope for the Future?

Season: 64-66; Home Stand: 5-0
Games Remaining: 14; Home Games: 10
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

For the first time in what seems like a very long time I was able to get to the DBAP to watch a game. I certainly didn’t expect the Bulls to pull off a 5-in-a-row, but they did. This was the best at-home series of the year.

The Bulls’ were hitting homers last night, Nick Franklin, J.P. Arencibia, and Hak-Ju Lee in the first three innings. But it was Lee who had the big night at bat, 4 RBIs.

Everett Teaford had his best start in a very long time. In fact, the last time he had a Game Score as good as last night (58) was in a no-decision game back on June 16. Nice to see him in good form. Particularly impressive was the moment in the 5th when the umpire apparently decided to ignore the pace of game rules and let two Columbus batters in a row step in and out of the box numerous times. Both batters drew walks, but Teaford managed to sort himself out and get out of the inning unscathed (we won’t count the inning-opening home run).

My first time seeing new guy Parker Markel. He looked pretty good with his 3 K’s over 2 ⅔ innings. At a guess, however, he’s the odd man out when José Dominguez returns. Dominguez passed through waivers yesterday and will be coming back to the Bulls.

For the first time in recent memory Boog Powell was not the leadoff batter, Mikie Mahtook was and Powell was second. However, he did start toward the plate at the very beginning of the game and came back toward the dugout with a big grin on his face. Habit.

Carolina Dreamin’

These five wins in a row got broadcaster Patrick Kinas running the math a bit. His colleague Scott Pose wasn’t challenging the numbers, but he also wasn’t buying into it either. Standings.

Let’s take a look. The rest of the season the Bulls are playing against International League South Division teams. Five against Norfolk (2 away, 3 home); 7 against Charlotte (4 home, 3 away); and 2 against Gwinnett at the DBAP. All of those teams are above .500 and Gwinnett in particular has been hot lately. Half of the remaining games will take place place after the September call-ups and it’s hard to say what Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, or Tampa Bay will do to their South Division teams.

What we can point out is this:

Yes, the Bulls are hot, but so are the Braves. You have to think that Gwinnett could make a run at the top spot, but no one else is likely to sneak into the wild card slot. Could something happen? Sure. Likely? We can only hope.

A more reasonable wish is for the Bulls to establish a winning season. That’s what this chart will be showing. Getting above the 0 mark is a winning season. And that, given this July and August, would be a significant accomplishment.

Stee-rike!

Season: 63-66; Home Stand: 4-0
Games Left in Season: 15; Home Games: 10
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The game story from last night is, as it should be, Matt Moore’s 16 Ks (a Bulls record) and the 4 more by the relievers to set a season team high of 20 Ks. Certainly very fine performances by Matt Moore, Robert Zarate (who got the win) and Kirby Yates. And yet after Moore gave up the home run in the 6th, the Bulls were losing the game.

So, yes, there was some great pitching on both sides until the 7th. However, the Clippers put in Michael Roth to take the place of Toru Murata and Roth never got an out. In fact, it wasn’t until his 13th pitch that he even threw a strike. That is, he walked the bases loaded on 12 pitches, something of a pitching accomplishment all of its own. A Boog Powell sacrifice fly brought in the tying run and Roth was pulled from the game. A Nick Franklin single brought the go-ahead run in and a J.P. Arencibia single brought in two more.

The last time the Bulls won four games in a row was back in June, from the 7th to the 12th, but only two of those wins were at home. We have to go back to the end of May for four home wins. And lots of folks are showing up for the games as well.

A feature of the Bulls’ recent success has been plate discipline. They’ve drawn 21 walks over the last four games. Before we get too excited about that, however, we have to also note that they have struck out 35 times over the same four games (the Bulls lead the IL with 1,071 Ks on the season).

This win over Columbus is a modest help to Gwinnett in the wild card race. The Braves are still 2½ back, but aren’t out of it.

Looong Game and a Sweep

Season: 62-66; Home Stand: 3-0
Wrap, Box

Infielder Taylor Motter took the mound in the top of the 14th after the Bulls had run out of pitchers. He set down the Mud Hens in six pitches and the sense was that things had changed. The Bulls had been putting plenty of runners on base (they stranded 11 on the night), but couldn’t push anyone across. Until the 14th. Mikie Mahtook doubled, Richie Shaffer got an intentional walk, and Nick Franklin doubled Mahtook home.

That ended the longest game of the year for the Durham Bulls. For the first time since early June the Bulls won three games in a row. And throughout these three days the team seemed loose and ready to play.

Other good things that happened along the way were Joey Butler's home run (his 4th as a Bull), Richie Shaffer’s 19th home run (in 60 games), the smart base running by Shaffer in the 8th on a Nick Franklin sacrifice fly that tied the game, and solid relief work by Jim Miller, C.J. Riefenhauser, and Jhan Marinez (two days in a row). Worrisome? That would be Scott Diamond's 6th inning.

Outside the game —

Who’s going to St. Petersburg on September call-ups? Your guess is as good as mine, maybe better. But we have to start with players on the 40-man, so here’s that list. If anyone else is to be called up then room will have to be made for him one way or other (and the Rays are pretty good and finding that “other” gimmick). Note that this list is constantly in motion.

Pitchers

• Andrew Bellatti
• Matt Moore
• C.J. Riefenhauser
• Kirby Yates

Hitters

• Ryan Brett
• Jake Elmore
• Nick Franklin
• Hak-Ju Lee
• Richie Shaffer
• Joey Butler
• Mikie Mahtook