Showing posts tagged “Jeremy Hellickson”
Adam Sobsey ·
23 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
7 Comments
ESPN 2—And that’s that: the Durham Bulls took a 4-0 lead early, squandered it in the middle, and got help at the end to beat the Memphis Redbirds, 5-4, in 11 innings and claim the Triple-A Championship. It’s kind of amazing, really. (What’s really great is that the Bulls’ own Web site has the winning run in Memphis’s row in the linescore.) The Bulls, who are the first International League team to win the crown, are officially the best Triple-A baseball team in America, which by extension makes them the best team in the entire minor leagues. They could probably also take six of 10 from the Pittsburgh Pirates, if they had Winston Abreu—which they don’t, not anymore, but that’s for well after the jump.
Did you know, by the way, that 2009 is the Year of the Bull? A game report and some final thoughts follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Brandon Yarbrough, Calvin Medlock, Carlos Hernandez, Charlie Montoyo, Jason Cromer, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Bateman, Julio DePaula, Memphis Redbirds, Michel Hernandez, Mitch Talbot, Oneli Perez, playoffs, Rashad Eldridge, Ray Olmedo, Sean Rodriguez, Triple-A championship, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Sep 2009, 12:00 AM ·
4 Comments
You can still watch a few highlights of the Bulls’ dramatic championship-clinching win over Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre on the team Web site. Those clips drive home (so to speak) just how crazy the last inning really was. Justin Ruggiano’s diving catch of Reegie Corona’s sinking slice down the left-field line was not only great per se; it also saved the game, because the ball was ruled fair (but was it fair?) by the umpire. At the end of that play, though, second baseman Ray Olmedo made a poor relay throw to first base in an attempt to turn a game-ending double play, a throw he shouldn’t have attempted at all under the circumstances. He was fortunate that after the ball sailed well to the left of first baseman Joe Dillon, it bounced straight off the railing where it was picked up by pitcher Julio DePaula, who was properly backing up the play and made a quick recovery of the ball in foul territory.
To top things off, DePaula himself nearly blew the game, catastrophically, on the very last play: Doug Bernier’s bouncer back to the mound was easy enough for DePaula to field, and you could understand his excitement in running the ball all the way to first base himself rather than make an easy toss to Dillon. But DePaula decided to make a big puddle-jump onto the bag, and the hop-step he indulged in slowed him down so much that Bernier, hustling all the way, nearly beat DePaula to first base. As it was, DePaula won the race by about three quarters of a step, but it was a scarily close play. Had Bernier been safe due to DePaula’s grasshopper insouciance, the game would have been tied. As it was, the Bulls are champions. (Champions! It’s really extraordinary, when you think about it, after all that.)
A few more notes follow on the game, the season, and the final ballgame to come. If you’re deplaning here, one thing to take away with you: Tyler’s, the pub/eatery right by the DBAP, is hosting a viewing party (the game will be televised nationally on ESPN 2) of Tuesday night’s Triple-A championship game between the Bulls and the Memphis Redbirds, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and winner of the Pacific Coast League. Game time is 7:00 p.m. and it will be a lot of fun to watch it right by the ballpark, surrounded by Bulls fans, in a place that serves something like 712 different beers. Come on out, and do drop by my table to say hello, to buy me a beer or to pour one over my head. I’ll be the guy with black (going gray) hair, the black button-down shirt, the blue jeans, the bandanna, and Heather.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Allen Craig, Calvin Medlock, championship, David Freese, Desmond Jennings, Governor's Cup, Heath Rollins, Jaime Garcia, Jeremy Hellickson, John Jaso, John Rodriguez, Juan Miranda, Julio DePaula, Justin Hoffpauir, Justin Ruggiano, Memphis Redbirds, playoffs, Ray Olmedo, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Triple-A championship, Tyler Greene
Mike Potter ·
15 Sep 2009, 11:06 PM ·
4 Comments
DBAP/DURHAM Well good evening sports fans from beautiful Downtown Durham, where I am in what has become my regular spot covering the Governors’ Cup Finals ever since the Bulls joined the International League in 1998.
The Bulls are taking on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in the opener of the best-of-5 series for the title for the second straight year, after losing the series in four games in 2008. It is only the fourth rematch in Governors’ Cup Finals history and the first since 1997.
Durham is in the Governors’ Cup Finals for the third straight season and the seventh time in its 12 seasons in the league. The Bulls won back-to-back championships in 2002 and ‘03.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has been in the playoffs four times since 1992, with its only championship coming last season.
The series winner advances to the one-game Triple-A National Championship Game on Sept. 22 in Oklahoma City.
Tonight I - who covered the Bulls for The Incredible Shrinking Herald-Sun from May of 1985 to May of 2009, when they decided to start sending my former salary to the hard-working suits in Kentucky - am pinch-hitting for Adam Sobsey, who has been covering the team all season for Triangle Offense. Don’t worry, folks. Adam, who is expected back for Game 2 on Wednesday night, misses a good one as the Bulls win a 4-1 pitchers’ duel for ace Jeremy Hellickson (pictured).
I am also, incidentally, covering for the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
There is, by Triple-A standards, a veritable media crush in the press box. By the time I fight through a traffic jam on West 40 to get to the park from Brier Creek, all the mashed potatoes that went with the glorified Salisbury steaks on the buffet are gone. Hello, kettle chips.
But enough about all that. Hard-nosed Carolina Hurricanes forward Erik Cole fires a solid ceremonial first pitch and it’s time to play ball!
The Bulls get to SWB’s Romulo Sanchez for a run in the first. Henry Mateo draws a one-out walk, takes third on Joe Dillon’s single to left and scores on Sean Rodriguez’s two-out single to left.
Durham adds to its lead in the sixth. Mateo leads off with a bunt up the third-base line, with Sanchez firing the ball past first and down the right-field line. Mateo winds up at third with a hit, an error on Sanchez and a fielding error on right fielder Colin Curtis on the play.Dillon then singles to right to make it 2-0 and chase the starter.
Matt Joyce continues the rally with a double to right off Zach Kronke, followed by a one-out intentional walk to Justin Ruggiano. Then with two out, Michel Hernandez strokes a two-run single to center to make it 4-0.
John Rodriguez, who played in Durham last season, gets the Yankees on the board in the seventh by blasting Hellickson’s two-out, 1-1 offering over the wall at the 375 mark in left center. Julio DePaula replaces Hellickson.
And that’s where the score stays, as DePaula and Winston Abreu shut the door.
Wednesday’s Game 2 will be the last game of the season in Durham, with the remainder of the series at PNC Field in Moosic, Pa.
Here’s what they said …
Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo: “Hellickson has been outstanding all year long. We knew we didn’t have much room for error tonight. Michel got a big hit for us in the sixth. He’s been swinging the bat good. When Joe (Dillon) was on third base, I told him (Hernandez) was going to do something good.”
Hellickson: “We were in a few tough spots. … I just bear down in those situations - throw good strikes and make good pitches. I had a better fastball tonight. I don’t think I mixed it up as much. Everything felt good though, I just had a better command of my fastball tonight.”
Dillon: “This team is a great team and we have been all year long. We got another great pitching performance from Hellickson.”
What does it all mean?
That the Bulls are two wins away from their third Governors’ Cup.
Stars of the game
1. Hellickson, for allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings.
2. Hernandez, for the two-run single in the sixth.
3. Rodriguez, for his homer and a single.
Play of the game
Hernandez’s two-run single in the sixth.
On deck
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Durham, Wednesday, 7:05 p.m.
Ian Kennedy (R, 0-0, 0.00) vs. Mitch Talbot (R, 4-4, 4.47)
Baseball, Carolina Hurricanes, Durham Bulls Charlie Montoyo, Colin Curtis, Erik Cole, Henry Mateo, Ian Kennedy, International League, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Dillon, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, Mitch Talbot, Romulo Sanchez, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Winston Abreu, Zach Kronke
Adam Sobsey ·
15 Sep 2009, 1:00 AM ·
2 Comments
This one is a tad easier than previewing the Bulls’ first-round series against the Louisville Bats. Before that series, Durham and Louisville hadn’t played each other in nearly two months, which is about two years in Triple-A time. The Yankees, on the other hand, visited the DBAP August 14-17, and although both teams have seen plenty of changes since then, anyone who attended some or all of those games will recognize the visitors when they return on Tuesday night.
And the visitors will recognize the Bulls’ starting pitcher. Right-hander Jeremy Hellickson has already faced Scranton/Wilkes-Barre twice this season, and he’s done very well both times. He went 7 1/3 against them on August 15, struck out seven, and allowed only two hits. Unfortunately, those two hits were both solo homers, by Juan Miranda and John Rodriguez, who remain the two most dangerous hitters in the Yankees’ lineup. The two lefty power bats have hit 33 homers between them this season. Back on July 30, Hellickson pitched six inning of three-hit, shutout ball at Scranton.
His opponent tonight will be Romulo Sanchez, a very large, hard-throwing right-hander who is probably not to be confused with Humberto Sanchez, even though Sanchez is a Yankees pitcher who is also very large, right-handed, and hard-throwing. Together, they are about 13 feet and 550 pounds of Sanchez. The difference between them is that Romulo, despite his mid-90s fastball, has low career strikeout numbers (although they’re higher this year), and Humberto has high ones. Also, Humberto is a reliever, and is recovering from years of injuries. The Bulls hitters, who are a fairly selective bunch, will need to be patient against Romulo, who has walked 34 hitters in 64 Triple-A innings this season. That’s a very poor rate.
Game Two and beyond follows. I also highly recommend Chad Jennings’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees blog, which has head-to-head matchups and is much more thorough overall than my preview.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Anthony Claggett, FNG, Governor's Cup, Humberto Sanchez, Ian Kennedy, Ivan Nova, Jason Cromer, Jeremy Hellickson, John Rodriguez, Juan Miranda, Justin Ruggiano, Kei Igawa, Matt Joyce, Mitch Talbot, Paul Phillips, playoffs, Romulo Sanchez, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Sean Rodriguez, Winston Abreu, Zach Kroenke, Zach McAllister
Adam Sobsey ·
10 Sep 2009, 4:00 AM ·
Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—Only one thing about the Durham Bulls’ 8-4 win over the Louisville Bats last night made it seem like a playoff game: the size of the crowd. The attendance, 1,809, must have been the smallest of the year to date, and that’s about normal for a playoff game at the DBAP. It’s as if fall comes along and snatches four out of every five spectators from the stands. You can pretty much sit anywhere you want for the most important games of the season each September. Not sure if it’s the playoffs? Just cock your head and listen to the unsettling silence all around you, occasionally disrupted by the home plate umpire saying “Ball Two!” so loudly that you’re startled by it.
But the fans who came were into the game in a way that regular-season crowds at the DBAP rarely are, and their intensity made up for their fellow citizens’ abandonment of their team. It was fun to watch the game with them. They cared. They were in it. The Bulls rewarded them by taking a 1-0 lead in this best-of-five series.
But they did it in a game full of bad baseball. Yes, there was clutch hitting and good fielding, another double-digit strikeout game by Jeremy Hellickson, and a fine performance by his counterpart, the Bats’ highly regarded left-hander Travis Wood. But both starters’ performances had substantial flaws, as well; there were seven errors (and could easily have been an eighth—games at the DBAP have lately been plagued by poor glovework); there were three errors by Sean Rodriguez alone; a total meltdown by a Bats reliever; a lot of pitchers struggling to get ahead in the count and hitters failing to make them pay for it—and also pitchers getting ahead in the count and then failing to finish off hitters, who did make them pay for it. The Bulls took a comfortable lead into the ninth inning, but for a moment, it suddenly looked to be in grave danger, and a game that should have been over-and-done managed to get sticky at the end.
And for the first three innings, it barely seemed like we were watching an official game at all. When Juan Francisco creamed a Jeremy Hellickson fastball off the Triangle Orthopedics sign way out in left-center field for a two-run homer, you felt like you were watching a big strong young prospect take batting practice. “Wow,” you said to yourself, “that kid can really hit.” The ball thwacked off the sign with a resounding crack and landed back on the outfield grass. Justin Ruggiano trotted over to it as though he was just out there shagging flies.
But in fact it was 2-0, Louisville, in Game One of the playoffs. Bats, of course, are nocturnal, and dusk was fading to dark when Francisco hit his homer. But apparently, your late-inning Bulls are creatures of the night, too. They awakened in the middle innings, first needing some tapping on the shoulder from the Bats, who should have let sleeping Bulls lie.
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Baseball, Carolina Mudcats, Durham Bulls Charlie Montoyo, Federico Baez, Jeremy Hellickson, Juan Francisco, Louisville Bats, Mitch Talbot, playoffs, Ray Olmedo, Sean Rodriguez, Travis Wood, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
8 Sep 2009, 12:39 PM ·
3 Comments
Triple-A baseball teams are subject to a variation on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the one you may have run across in the movie The Man Who Wasn’t There or in the play Copenhagen. Basically, it says that you can’t determine both the velocity and position of a particle at the same time. It’s possible that we’re really talking about the Observer Effect here, or possibly Schrödinger’s cat, or even quantum superpositions. All I can say is, don’t do what I did; don’t go look them all up, because the next thing you know you’re lost in something very like the Uncertainty Principle yourself: you think you know what you’re looking for, and then as soon as you think you’ve found it, it turns into something else. Eventually you wind up desperately lost in a terrible, mountainous region, overrun by wild beasts and full of tar pits, known as Verschränkung. Just don’t go there, kids.
Instead, do what Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo does before each series—or rather, don’t do what he doesn’t do: pay any attention to the opposing team’s record, or to what happened the last time the Bulls played them. Montoyo has said several times this year that all he looks at is how they’ve been playing the last couple of weeks.
That’s because, as you probably know if you’re a Bulls fan, minor-league teams change constantly. The last time the Durham Bulls played the Louisville Bats was July 19 at Louisville. Thirty-two players saw action in that game, and only half of them remain on the teams’ rosters. Both starters, each team’s leading home-run hitter, four of Durham’s five pitchers that night, the league’s Most Valuable Pitcher (Justin Lehr) and the Bats’ leadoff man: all gone.
So take the following preview as a thought experiment, a la Schrödinger’s cat—until Wednesday at 7:05 p.m., when the cat (the Durham Bulls) actually goes into the box (the DBAP) with the flask of poison (the Louisville Bats) and the radioactive substance (Jeremy Hellickson’s first pitch, let’s say). Then we’ll see if the beast lives or dies.
If my colleague Mike Potter, who for most of the season has covered the Reds’ Double-A affiliate, the Carolina Mudcats, feels inspired to chime in, the cat will get at least partway out of the bag/box: more than half of the current Bats’ roster has seen time in Zebulon this year.
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Baseball, Carolina Mudcats, Durham Bulls Ben Jukich, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Heisey, Chris Nowak, Chris Richard, Jason Cromer, Jay Bruce, Jeremy Hellickson, John Jaso, Logan Ondrusek, Louisville Bats, Mitch Talbot, Paul Phillips, playoffs, Sam LeCure, Schrodinger's Cat, Sean Rodriguez, Travis Wood, Uncertainy Principle, Yonder Alonzo
Adam Sobsey ·
5 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
In his last 15 innings, Jeremy Hellickson has allowed four hits and zero runs, with 21 strikeouts and two walks. In his last outing, a 4-0 win over Gwinnett at the DBAP, he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. In the first inning of last night’s 4-1 victory, he allowed a two-out double to Stefan Gartrell, then retired the next 16 hitters he faced. Thus Hellickson has no-hit each of his last two opponents for 5 1/3 innings. He left last night after seven shutout innings. He’s currently the hottest pitcher in the minor leagues, according to Baseball America, and the No. 2 prospect overall. (Notice who’s No. 1.)
The Bulls did nothing special at the plate last night, stranding 12 and going 3-14 with runners in scoring position. A night after his record-making 7-7 performance, Desmond Jennings went 0-5. The 1-2-3 hitters in the order for Durham were hitless in 15 plate appearances, with a pair of walks. The Bulls struck out 10 more times.
But it didn’t matter: Hellickson was awesome, and Charlotte is officially terrible now. The Knights scored their only run when Brady Shoemaker hit newly called-up Heath Rollins’s first pitch of the eighth inning for a solo homer. Rollins put another man on, and then Charlie Montoyo called in his executioner, Winston Abreu. Abreu struck out Keith Ginter to end the inning, but he broke his 11-inning hitless streak in the bottom of the ninth when he allowed a leadoff single to Gartrell. (If what we saw during Gartrell’s late-season promotion heralds things to come, watch out for him in 2010.) Abreu walked Mike Restovich, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of Wilson Betemit. But Betemit rolled into a 3-6-3 double play to hose down the threat, doused for good when Abreu went back to his bag of clubs and pulled out another K-wood on Justin Knoedler. It was the last home game of Charlotte’s dreary season. They did fireworks at Knights Stadium anyway.
And there will be fireworks at the DBAP on Saturday night. If the Bulls beat Norfolk behind Rayner Oliveros, those pyrotechnics will be authentically celebratory: one more win will clinch the division title for Durham. Be there. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m.
Baseball, Durham Bulls Charlotte Knights, Heath Rollins, Jeremy Hellickson, Stefan Gartrell, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
31 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
6 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—Yesterday I threatened to need an infinite number of words to describe Durham’s surreal, 10-9, 14-inning win over Gwinnett. Today, I could do it in two: Jeremy Hellickson. The 22-year-old Iowan, who has been excellent since his callup from Double-A Montgomery in July, had his best start of the season and led the Bulls to a 4-0 win over the Braves, extending the Bulls’ division lead to two games.
In eight sterling innings, Hellickson (pictured) allowed just one hit—a sixth-inning single by Brian Barton—walked Gregor Blanco twice, and struck out 12. On a night when the entire Durham bullpen was exhausted from its 14-inning slog on Saturday, Hellickson not only rested them but put his clamps on the game right from the get-go, serving notice by striking out the side in the first inning.
That was actually the easy part. You’ve probably seen countless highly touted young flamethrowers blow hitters away for a few innings and then melt down. Truly mature pitchers are steady, and as effective at the end of their night as at the outset. We’ve seen Hellickson break down a few times right at the end of his starts, allowing late homers just before departing. But last night, when Gwinnett got a two-out baserunner in the eighth inning, Hellickson’s last, he marooned the man there. (Not a single Brave reached second base.) That was a sign of maturation from a kid who seems already well beyond his years. His equanimity, his poker-faced ease, and his quiet resolve are as much the reasons for his success as his raw material.
Details on the best pitching performance by a Bull this year follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bulls on the Move, Calvin Medlock, Charlie Montoyo, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Heath Rollins, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Bateman, Jon Weber, Rayner Oliveros
Adam Sobsey ·
29 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
Maybe we misspelled his name when we Googled him
There’s often not too much to say about
11-2 routs like last night’s. The Bulls took an early lead and then systematically enlarged it, unimpeded by a 54-minute rain delay that ended starter Wade Davis’s night early. One night after tying the Bulls’ Triple-A franchise record for career homers, Chris Richard broke it. Matt Joyce and Elliot Johnson added round-trippers of their own (the
Tides have been out-homered 39-6 in their last 30 games!), the Bulls racked up 16 hits off of five Norfolk pitchers, the last of whom was second baseman Brandon Pinckney, and your local news is coming up next, thank you for staying up with us.
It was the Bulls’ fifth straight win, which kept them even with Gwinnett (who won at Charlotte) atop the International League South Division. Guess who comes to Durham for a four-game series on Saturday?
So the romp was a mere setup for the showdown we’ve all been waiting for, and as such was secondary to its surrounding weather, a complex and unpredictable collision of fast-approaching fronts and precipitations that will pass over the DBAP very soon. Details follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Andy Sonnanstine, Brandon Chaves, chokers, Chris Richard, Desmond Jennings, Gwinnett Braves, Jake McGee, Jason Childers, Jeremy Hellickson, John Halama, Jon Weber, Mitch Talbot, Norfolk Tides, playoffs, Ray Olmedo, Scott Kazmir, Team USA, trade, Wade Davis, wild card
Adam Sobsey ·
26 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
I had plans last night and stopped listening to the Durham Bulls’ radio broadcast with the Bulls leading Syracuse, 5-0, in the seventh inning. Matt Joyce hit a grand slam in the first inning and Bulls’ starter Jeremy Hellickson was cruising, having allowed just a single baserunner. The Bulls seemed well on their way to an easy win on getaway day.
I should have known better. Hellickson allowed a two-out, three-run homer to Seth Bynum in the bottom of the seventh—long balls are his one obvious weakness so far—and gave the Chiefs life. The Bulls added a run to their lead in the next inning on a passed ball, but not before Syracuse outfielder Justin Maxwell got ejected, the second time he’s been tossed from a game versus the Bulls this year. According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, his ejection had to do with the last out of the seventh inning, on which Maxwell grounded out to third base and protested the call at first. Manager Tim Foli joined him in the dispute and in the clubhouse. Must have been a fun argument to watch. I hope I never make Justin Maxwell mad.
Sometimes ejections light a fire under a team, and in this case Jason Childers had a gasoline can with him when he came on to replace Hellickson in the eighth inning. With a 6-3 Bulls lead, Childers faced four batters and retired none of them. It went: triple, double, single, single, Dale Thayer. Thayer got charged with a blown save when he allowed a game-tying sacrifice fly to Daryle Ward. (This is, by the way, a ridiculous rule. All Thayer did was retire all three men he faced in order, but it’s he, rather than Childers (who put the man on third base), whose stats take a hit.)
Anyway, the Bulls scored three more runs in the top of the ninth. Shawn Riggans had a two-run double and Michel Hernandez added his third sacrifice fly in two days. Winston Abreu, suddenly Sandman again, eliminated a one-out walk with a double play, and this one goes in the win column, 9-6. Deep breath.
The Bulls now have a 3.5-game lead over Syracuse in the wild-card chase. A couple of quick notes follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Dale Thayer, Desmond Jennings, Golgafrincham, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Jason Childers, Jeremy Hellickson, Justin Maxwell, Matt Joyce, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, telephone sanitizers, Tim Foli, Winston Abreu
