Showing posts tagged “I Am Psychic”
Adam Sobsey ·
7 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—There’s a tacit understanding among ballplayers regarding season-ending series. If the postseason is all settled, the deal is this: the pitchers throw strikes, the hitters swing at them; you avoid long at-bats; you avoid injuries, too, by staying out of collisions on the basepaths; you try to decide games quickly and painlessly—and with a bonhomie that revolves around mutual good sportsmanship.
Cut to last night at the DBAP, home of the IL South Division Champion Durham Bulls. After three innings, the game was on a brisk 90-minute pace. The two starting pitchers had combined to throw just 57 pitches. Only one man had reached base, Justin Ruggiano, and he was thrown out (on what looked like a bad call) trying to stretch his liner off the Blue Monster into a double. We were cruising, coasting, flying toward the finish line. When Sean Rodriguez hit his first home run as a Bull, a solo shot in the fifth inning (which I predicted when he stepped to the plate!), it felt like that might turn out to be the only run of the game.
It wasn’t. The Bulls fell behind, tied it up, and won 3-2—and wouldn’t you know it, even with the suspense drained out of the regular season, they did it in dramatic fashion.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bob McCrory, Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, FNG, I Am Psychic, Jason Cromer, John Jaso, Justin Ruggiano, Mitch Talbot, Norfolk Tides, Paul Phillips, Ray Olmedo, Sean Rodriguez, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
29 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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There was so much to report on the game-inside-the-game after Monday’s home win by the Bulls over Norfolk that I completely neglected a key part of the big picture. Although I noted that Elliot Johnson replaced Henry Mateo at the top of the order, I failed to recount what Johnson did there: he went 3-4 with a homer, a double and a walk, and was basically the player of the game for the Bulls.
(I must digress here briefly for an I Am Psychic moment. On Monday night, I totally called Johnson’s homer off of Norfolk’s David Pauley. His first inning single was sharply struck, and Pauley then left a number of pitches up in the zone during his first time through the Bulls’ lineup. Johnson is good at getting his hands up on top of high fastballs, and I had a feeling he’d come up next time looking for one from Pauley. Before his third-inning at-bat, I said, “Johnson’s gonna hit a home run here.” One pitch later, pow: Pauley threw the high fastball and Johnson clubbed it over the right field wall. Alas, no one had heard my prediction, but Dave Levine, seated to my left, can back me up, because I was so worked up about it that I practically bashed a hole in the press box desk. Kids, I am psychic. Believe me.)
After Johnson shined in Monday’s game, I asked Charlie Montoyo about the decision to promote Johnson to the leadoff slot. Montoyo responded that it had more to do with giving Mateo a chance to break out of his prolonged slump than it did with rewarding Johnson, who in the week or so prior to Monday’s game had gone a decent but not awesome 10-33 with two homers and two doubles, but only four walks and an uncomfortable 12 strikeouts. Still, he was a better candidate to lead off than Mateo, who hasn’t looked consistently good in over a month. And after Johnson’s stellar Monday, Montoyo gave us a wry look and said, laughing, “Maybe Johnson’s leading off now.”
Turns out he wasn’t kidding. Johnson was in the pole position again against Scranton on Tuesday night, and played left field. (With Justin Ruggiano out on personal leave while he and his wife have their first child, Johnson may see another game or two there.) The switch-hitting utility player responded by hitting like a corner outfielder, belting two home runs, one from each side of the plate. The second, off of rehabbing Yankees reliever Damaso Marte, gave the Bulls a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning. Johnson is in full Eedge mode.
One out later, Matt Joyce followed Johnson’s home run with another one, a long screamer that gave the Bulls insurance. They won, 4-2. Both Gwinnett and Norfolk lost, so the Bulls are up two games and three and a half, respectively. They have the second-best record in the International League, just half a game behind Louisville. Don’t look now, but they’ve won three straight and five of six.
A few notes follow:
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Andy Sonnanstine, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, David Pauley, Edward Albee, Elliot johnson, Henry Mateo, I Am Psychic, Jason Childers, Matt Joyce, Norfolk Tides, SBG, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, The Eedge, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
13 Jul 2009, 12:39 AM ·
1 Comment
Even though I am psychic, I was half-kidding when I ended my last post with a borderline prediction that the Bulls and their bricolage of relievers would end their four-game losing streak and beat Norfolk on Sunday. Sure enough, Durham rolled, 9-2.
I was half-kidding not only because Julio DePaula + Calvin Medlock {not =} Andy Sonnastine, but also because the Bulls have suffered a big losing streak before and could easily have another one. But I was half-not-kidding for a few reasons: one, the Bulls hadn’t played terribly during the skid, as they had during the Horrible Homestand of mid-June; two, the hitting was still potent; three, in hindsight after I suggested the Bulls would win on Sunday, it became clear that a victory would balance so many accounts that it was virtually assured.
Also, dare I say that the Bulls needed this game?
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays all star, Calvin Medlock, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, Dave Myers, Elliot johnson, Henry Mateo, I Am Psychic, injury, Jake Arrieta, John Jaso, Jorge Julio, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, Mary Steenburgen, Michel Hernandez, Norfolk Tides, Ray Sadler
Adam Sobsey ·
18 Jun 2009, 3:03 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—Henry Mateo’s hot hitting earned him a promotion to the leadoff spot in manager Charlie Montoyo’s lineup on Tuesday, and he rewarded Montoyo’s choice by going 4-5 and raising his average to .360. Mateo was in pole position again on Wednesday afternoon—another heavy, gray, sodden day in Durham—and he led off the bottom of the first inning with a grounder to the right side that Lehigh Valley’s burly first baseman, Andy Tracy, couldn’t get to. But second baseman J. J. Furmaniak gloved it near the outfield grass and threw to Kyle Kendrick, the pitcher, who hurried over to cover first base. Mateo, hustling all the way, dove into the bag.
It’s been widely discussed, but the general consensus is that diving or sliding into first base is a bad idea (here’s an inelegant but useful summary of the argument). It looks like a hustle play and you get sexily, mannishly dirty doing it, but it slows you down, for one thing, and it’s also a great way to get hurt, for another.
Guess what? Henry Mateo was out at first. Guess what else? He got hurt. Guess what other else? It wasn’t even a result of diving head-first into the bag: he pulled his hamstring legging out the play, and the Bulls hottest hitter had to leave the game, which they wound up losing to Lehigh Valley, 4-0 in 11 innings.
When teams are going good they find ways to win, and when they’re not they find ways to lose. The Bulls had no business winning on Monday or Tuesday, and they didn’t (although through sheer force of will they made like they might win anyway). On Wednesday, however, they should have won, and they had to find, by my count, at least four ways to lose—and they did. Let us count them:
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Andy Tracy, baserunning, Chad Bradford, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, Henry Mateo, I Am Psychic, James Houser, Jason Cromer, Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Ray Olmedo, Ray Sadler, Rhyne Hughes, RISP, Wheel of Fortune
Adam Sobsey ·
26 May 2009, 11:36 AM ·
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Five recent Bulls helped the Rays implode last night.
Somehow the injury- and promotion-depleted Bulls managed to win again yesterday at Rochester,
3-2. John Jaso, Ray Olmedo and Chris Richard all sat with minor injuries (at least, I assume they’re minor) so the lineup was once again rather lite—although .634-OPSing Chris Nowak made the difference with an eighth-inning single. Still, the Bulls are going to need more production from the lower third of its order. Without it (i.e. if the injured Jaso and Richard don’t return soon), they’ll struggle to score enough runs to keep winning at the pace they’ve set so far this year.
It ought to be pointed out that Durham starter Carlos Hernandez wouldn’t have needed Nowak’s hit (and would have gotten credit for the victory) had he not made two throwing errors, each of which led to a Rochester run. He and Sunday’s starter, Wade Davis, allowed no earned runs in their two starts, but all three they permitted came as a result of their own fielding mishaps. I’m all for consistency in the rulebook, and I know that’s why a pitcher’s own error holds him harmless against an earned run, but sometimes I wonder if the rule shouldn’t be changed. Why isn’t the skill to field his position considered part of a pitcher’s basic responsibilities? If someone commits a crime and represents himself in court, we don’t let him off the hook because he flubs his own defense (yes, there’s probably something wrong with that analogy, but give it to me anyway).
Anyway, out of the courtroom and back to the field.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Carlos Hernandez, Chris Nowak, Chris Richard, Dale Thayer, David Price, Dewon Day, Harmon Killebrew, I Am Psychic, Jason Isringhausen, John Jaso, Matt Hall, Randy Choate, Ray Olmedo, Reid Brignac, Rochester Red Wings, schlmazel, Wade Davis, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
16 May 2009, 2:19 AM ·
7 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—For most of tonight’s wild game, which Durham won 13-9 in 11 innings, I couldn’t think where I’d begin my report later. The game took 3:45 to play but didn’t seem all that long because it was thoroughly packed with action, so much as to bewilder a journalist who is only in his fifth week as a daily baseball writer.
Fortunately, Chris Richard (pictured, left) solved my problem: He hit TWO GRAND SLAMS IN ONE GAME.
Just to emphasize how rare this is, it has happened 12 times in the history of the major leagues (no information was readily available about the minors). For comparison, dozens of players have hit two inside-the-park homers in one game, and inside-the-park homers are rarer than grand slams. There have been 17 perfect games pitched in major-league history. The only thing more freakish, among freakish things I could think of, is unassisted triple plays: eight all-time.
The Bulls’ official scorer, Brent Belvin, has been at every game at the DBAP since it opened in 1995. He said he’d never seen two grand slams in a game here.
(Possible Headline: “CHRIS RICHARD IS JUST LIKE YOU AND ME: HE HAS TWO GRANNIES.”) Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Uncategorized Brent Belvin, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Nowak, Chris Richard, Dave Levine, Dewon Day, Elliot johnson, F.O.B., grand slam, I Am Psychic, James Houser, Joe Dillon, John Jaso, Jon Weber, Justin Ruggiano, Kevin Barker, Louisville Bats, Matt Joyce, Mike Potter, Reid Brignac, The Roodge, Two grand slams in one game, Wilkin Castillo, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
30 Apr 2009, 12:06 AM ·
1 Comment
Reid Brignac moves from short to second base, makes highlight reel catch.
DBAP/DURHAM—First (and second) things first: The Bulls split a two-game miniseries with the Charlotte Knights, sumoing them last night, 14-7, and then rolling over to receive same on “Education Day” this morning [sic], 9-1. The Bulls’ PR people beat me to the choicest pun the way the first waiters to spot staff-meal always scarf up the tuna tartare.
Neither game was much fun to watch. The Bulls struck for six runs in the bottom of the first yesterday on a grand slam by Justin Ruggiano and a two-run shot by John Jaso. The Knights halved the deficit in the fourth, but the Bulls tacked on seven more runs in the fifth and sixth and yawned their way to victory from there. The teams collaborated on a seven-error, 11-walk game that somehow managed to finish in less than three hours. Most of the press box denizens were probably glad not to have to pay much attention to the proceedings, because they were more interested in the TV showing the Carolina Hurricanes’ series-winning thriller over the New Jersey Devils.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Carlos Hernandez, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Richard, Dale Thayer, David Price, Elliot johnson, Gerry Hunsicker, I Am Psychic, Jeff Niemann, John Jaso, Jon Weber, Jose Oquendo, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, Ray Sadler, Reid Brignac, Tuna Tartare, Wade Davis
