Showing posts tagged “James Houser”
Adam Sobsey ·
2 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—The quotation above came from Charlie Montoyo after the Bulls blanked Indianapolis, 2-0—the team’s first shutout since mid-May—and we asked him about the latest swath of changes to cut through the Durham clubhouse (about which more later). There wasn’t much else for Montoyo to say after we prompted him, almost forcibly, and few managers will ever express anything but unequivocal enthusiasm for their team anyway, regardless of its construction; but anyone looking at the current roster would almost surely agree that the Bulls are looking better than they have all year—on paper, at least. It’s August, which on the Triple-A calendar means we’re in the home stretch, and the hurricane-season Bulls look primed for a charge down Thunder Road.
And they showed why last night at the DBAP, despite some difficulties. One was the sultry air. It was 89 degrees at game time, with oppressive humidity, and starter Jason Cromer (pictured) told us after the game that his shirt got soaked through before he even took the mound. The Iowa native mentioned Durham’s summer steaminess a couple of times. It’s surely hard to pitch when your body doesn’t feel like it’s moving free and easy. That’s no excuse, though, and Cromer wasn’t making one; he was just hazarding guesses why, after a pregame bullpen session that felt good to him and two pretty easy innings to start the game, he suddenly lost control in the third inning. (”I just fell apart,” he said. “I don’t know what happened.”) Cromer fell behind every man who batted in the inning, went to at least a two-ball count on each one (and four three-ball counts), walked two men, and needed 33 pitches to get out of it. Somehow, though, he kept Indianapolis from scoring. The key was inducing cleanup hitter Jeff Clement, the Indians’ newly acquired big-time prospect, to pop out to third on a 3-1 pitch with the bases loaded and one out.
And that was how the rest of the game went: Indians threaten to score, Bulls keep them from doing it.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays BABIP, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, Desmond Jennings, Elliot johnson, FIP, horse latitudes, Indianapolis Indians, Iowa, James Houser, Jason Childers, Jason Cromer, John Meloan, Jon Weber, Jose Ascanio, Julio DePaula, Ray Olmedo, Ray Sadler, Rhyne Hughes, Shawn Riggans
Adam Sobsey ·
26 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—”Technically, it’s not a doubleheader,” someone said in the press box during the first game of what was unquestionably a doubleheader on Saturday. The argument there was that a day-night twinbill is really just two separate games that happen to be played on the same day. In an official minor-league doubleheader, the two games are played consecutively, and are shortened to seven innings each.
Try putting that sophistry over on the Durham Bulls and the Norfolk Tides, who got about two hours of “rest” (i.e., stuffing their faces, checking their Facebook accounts, peeling off their uniforms and putting on new ones) in between games on a steamy 90+degree day at the DBAP. It was a doubleheader, and frankly I’d rather play them back-to-back than try to find something to occupy the awkward time between. However you prefer it, Bulls’ manager Charlie Montoyo was visibly exhausted in the clubhouse after the second game ended, about nine hours after the first one began. The first game went to the Bulls, 5-3 (it was the Tides’ first loss in a doubleheader game this season; they had been 8-0); the Tides claimed the second, 8-4.
And right around the narrative midpoint of the long day’s journey into night, a strange and unexpected thing happened, right before before Game Two. During the National Anthem, which was sung by a man and woman in well-manicured harmony, the microphone malfunctioned. After some on-again-off-again teasing, the device stopped working altogether, and there were a few awkward seconds while we watched the two singers do something that looked very much like lip-syncing, only on mute.
Then the large crowd (almost 10,000) began to sing. At first this was weird, because no one sings “The Star Spangled Banner” anymore. But after a few moments, it actually grew quite affecting: The impromptu rendition had the quiet poise and concord of a peace demonstration, except of course that Francis Scott Key’s song is actually a glorification of war and promotes anything but peace. Nonetheless, there we were, filling in the blanks left open by broken technology. It was almost touching.
And it was also appropriate, because the whole day was about filling in blanks.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Carlos Hernandez, Charlie Montoyo, doubleheader, Fish or No Fish, James Houser, Jason Childers, Matt DeSalvo, Norfolk Tides, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, trade
Adam Sobsey ·
19 Jul 2009, 5:16 AM ·
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The Eedge delivered for Durham
“This type of game is all about the late mistakes,” Bulls’ broadcaster Neil Solondz noted in the 14th inning of last night’s
3-2 Bulls win at Louisville. Solondz made that comment moments after Ray Sadler was picked off of first base: an S.B.G. of potentially dreadful consequence from which Sadler was held harmless when Elliot Johnson struck out to end the inning. But given Johnson’s night overall—more on that below—it’s easy to suppose that he’d have found a way to plate Sadler had Sadler managed to stay attached to his base.
The “type of game” Solondz was referring to was the very long, extra-inning one that might be dubbed the extraneous-inning game: fun as free baseball is, there comes a point when you can’t help but sigh “enough already.” It’s like too much drink: the fun wears off and you’re left with the hangover and vague memories of a wasteful evening. If you wake up to discover you’ve also lost the game in question, it’s a bit like realizing you didn’t go home with that cutie at the bar you were hitting on.
Or in the Bulls’ case last night, not hitting on.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Ben Jukich, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, Elliot johnson, extraneous innings, James Houser, Jason Childers, Joe Bateman, Jorge Julio, Louisville Bats, Matt Joyce, Ray Sadler, SBG, The Eedge, The Roodge
Adam Sobsey ·
11 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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The problem with winning streaks is that they end. After rattling off series wins against Toledo, Columbus and Charlotte, which put them back at the top of the mountain, the Bulls then looked down and saw Gwinnett and Norfolk—their two closest competitors in the International League South Division—coming up to try to knock them off. After Gwinnett basically handed Durham the first game of the three-game set at the DBAP, the Bulls responded by more or less giving one back, and then nearly stealing one late that they had no business even coming close to winning.
And then last night they faced Norfolk, who sat just a game behind. The Bulls basically gave that one away, too, losing 5-3 despite putting 17 men on base in the game on 11 hits and six walks. And although the Bulls went 4-8 with runners in scoring position, they hit into four double plays, were caught stealing third once, and had a runner thrown out at home plate trying to score from second on a single to left field. These last two erasures both came in the fourth inning. I’m not prepared to call them SBGs since I didn’t see them—although I suspect at least one of them was—but the fact is that the Bulls lost a game they should have won. A whopping 15 of the 24 men faced by starter Andy Mitchell reached base. That is Houseresque.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Andy Sonnanstine, Calvin Medlock, Dale Thayer, Gorch Brothers, James Houser, Joe Bateman, Jorge Julio, Norfolk Tides, Ray Olmedo, SBG, The Wild Bunch, Wade Davis
Mike Potter ·
9 Jul 2009, 11:47 PM ·
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DBAP/DURHAM It’s the finale of the short three-game homestand between the Durham Bulls and the Gwinnett Braves, and since each has won one it’s the “rubber game” of the series.
It’s my last night in a three-game callup to pinch-hit for Adam.
The Bulls lead the International League’s South Division by a scant one game over the second-place Norfolk Tides, and a Norfolk win plus a Durham loss would put the league’s only Virginia team in first place by percentage points.
Good news for Bulls reliever Dale Thayer (pictured), who has been selected to the IL roster for the Triple-A All-Star Game to replace Pawtucket phenom Clay Buchholz and will be headed to baseball’s biggest game of that day for the second straight year. No explanation on why Buchholz isn’t going, but from where I sit the legitimate ones are either an upcoming stint on the DL or an impending promotion.
Anyway, he’ll be joining teammate Reid Brignac for the festivities on Wednesday night in Portland.
There’s a great crowd in the house for a non-weekend night.
The buffet is chicken tenders and fries and the media contingent is still a big larger than usual since Bob Sutton of the Burlington Times-News is in the house.
And baseball sometimes fools you. Gwinnett leads 8-1 going into the ninth and it ends up 8-6 as Chris Richard strikes out with the bases loaded to end the game. Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Andy Mitchell, Atlanta Braves, Barbaro Canizares, Bobby Brownlie, Brandon Jones, Charlie Montoyo, Charlotte Knights, Charlotte Thayer, Chris Burke, Chris Richard, Clay Buchholz, Dale Thayer, Dave Brundage, Gwinnett Braves, Haley Thayer, International League, J.C. Holt, James Houser, John Jaso, Jonny Venters, Justin Ruggiano, Kelly Johnson, Lisa Thayer, Lucas Harrell, Matt DeSalvo, Mike Birling, Norfolk Tides, Pawtucket Red Sox, Reid Brignac, Reid Gorecki, Rhyne Hughes, Wade Davis, Wes Timmons
Adam Sobsey ·
5 Jul 2009, 5:40 AM ·
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Carlos Torres is armed and dangerous.
To recap the Buck Showalter Theorem and modify it to the Triple-A season: You can count on losing about 50 games a year and winning about 50, regardless of how you prepare; it’s what you do with the other 44 that determine whether you’re playoff-bound or a cellar dweller. It’s easy enough to categorize Durham’s
11-2 loss at Charlotte last night by glancing at Matt DeSalvo’s pitching line in the box score: the Durham starter was tagged for nine runs in just 2 2/3 innings; this one was lost early. Each of DeSalvo’s last four starts has been poor, and you can’t help wondering if the current membership of the International League (Hitters’ Division) has now seen enough of his application for readmission and has initiated rejection proceedings. The 29-year-old has to start showing some new and consistent efficacy, like his teammate Jason Cromer has, in order to show the Rays that there’s anything interesting left there. But although DeSalvo assured the Bulls of defeat last night, the game might have been over before it even began.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Buck Showalter, Carlos Torres, Charlotte Knights, Chris Richard, James Houser, John Meloan, Matt DeSalvo, Reid Brignac
Adam Sobsey ·
28 Jun 2009, 2:00 AM ·
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A week and a day ago at the DBAP, the Bulls jumped on Pawtucket Red Sox’ starter Michael Bowden for six runs in the first inning and appeared to put a quick end to both the game and their five-game losing streak. But that contest came during a horrendous stretch in which Durham kept finding ways to lose: the Bulls didn’t score again, and Pawtucket chipped away at the lead and finally came from behind to win, 8-6.
On Saturday night against the Columbus Clippers, the Bulls charged out of the gate again, this time even more quickly: Henry Mateo hit the second pitch of the game from Jack Cassel out of the park for a leadoff solo home run. The Bulls tacked on three more in the top of the first with generous help from the Clippers, who donated three infield errors.
Still, you could be forgiven for wondering whether the Bulls would find a way to make their hefty first-inning lead stand up. Not only had they choked on their last one against the PawSox, but Durham starter James Houser, who has been struggling badly, was on the mound.
Wouldn’t you know it, Houser turned in probably his best start of the year, and the Bulls sank Columbus, 12-5.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls airborne toxic event, Columbus Clippers, Craig Albernaz, Dewon Day, H1N1, Henry Mateo, James Houser, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, Mitch Talbot, Reid Brignac
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Jun 2009, 12:25 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—So much attention is paid to Father’s Day that it was easy to miss the other red letter stamped on Sunday: June 21 is the summer solstice. The ballgame ended right around 8:00 p.m., and there was still plenty of daylight left. It wasn’t fully dark until after 9.
But solstice or no, it’s getting late early, as Yogi Berra once said, for the Durham Bulls these days. Sunday was another dispiriting game, shadows creeping ominously across the infield as the day waned. Even though the Bulls mounted a late uprising, which failed due to catastrophically bad luck (more about that below), they never really seemed in it, losing their eighth straight game, 5-3 to Pawtucket. The loss dropped them two games behind first-place Norfolk, and in fact Durham surrendered second place to Gwinnett. They’re now third in a four-team division.
Here was the play of the game: In the last of the eighth, down two runs, the Bulls loaded the bases with one out. Henry Mateo came to the plate, patiently waited for a pitch he could hit (the selective Mateo saw 23 pitches in five at-bats), and then stung a line drive—right at Pawtucket shortstop Gil Velazquez. Velazquez gloved it and flipped to second base to double up Ray Olmedo, ending the inning and, for all practical purposes, the game. What looked like a sure game-tying single turned into the Bulls’ latest misery.
Naturally, the first question posed to Charlie Montoyo after the game was about that play. But Montoyo disregarded the prompt. He had something else on his mind.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Charlie Montoyo, F.O.B., Henrry Mateo, James Houser, Joe Bateman, Luck, Pawtucket Red Sox, Ray Sadler, Scott Kazmir, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
18 Jun 2009, 3:03 AM ·
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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 ·
17 Jun 2009, 2:47 AM ·
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Slump? What's a slump?
DBAP/ DURHAM—The final tally would make an ugly football score, and it’s an even uglier baseball score, especially when the home team loses. The Bulls have dropped six of seven, including three by scores of 13-5, 8-1, and now 16-8. They have had two three-game losing streaks in those seven games after having zero three-game losing streaks over the first 61 games of the season. I can’t retrace for you all of the steps that led to Tuesday’s ugly loss—although I’m going to try (and fail, sorry)—for the simple reason that there are many more than 16.
And in case you think there is panic in the Bull City, you should have seen the look that flashed across Charlie Montoyo’s face when he was asked by a reporter, “Do you dare use the word ’slump’?” after the loss last night. It was the look of a slightly offended person. “Slump for who?” he shot back, meaning something like a cross between, “Slump? What slump?” and, “Maybe you’re the one slumping here.” Then: “Call it whatever you want [since you're the one who's the writer].” And then he quickly started talking about tangible details, like the bad pitching of the last few games and the reassuring fact that “we keep fighting back,” which the Bulls did again on Tuesday before drowning in their bullpen’s sorrows. And when asked whether the endlessly proliferating roster changes were the problem, he demurred, decisively, saying only that it bothers him when he has to leave relief pitchers in game longer than they should be in the game because “we don’t have anybody else.”
Charlie Montoyo knows his job. The Triple-A roster will change constantly; you play all the guys you have at your disposal, and when it’s over you do it again the next day. Every day you can win. And every day you can lose. To the men who play and manage this game, there’s no such thing as a slump (and so, by extension, no such thing as momentum either?), despite appearances to the contrary. Would you believe me when I say that the Bulls almost won this game that they wound up losing, badly? It happened, more or less, on one pitch.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Alex Jamieson, baserunning, Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, Henry Mateo, James Houser, Joe Bateman, Jon Weber, Jorge Julio, Justin Ruggiano, Lehigh Valley IronPigs, momentum, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes
