Showing posts tagged “John Meloan”
Adam Sobsey ·
13 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
That ringing in your ears is the postman at the door, and the Bulls keep neglecting to answer. Actually, check that: the Bulls keep leaving the door open for the Gwinnett Braves, who respond each time by charging through it. For the second straight night, Durham took a one-run lead into the ninth inning; for the second straight night, their closer—Winston Abreu on Tuesday, Dale Thayer on Wednesday—let two runs score. Last night’s version was a 2-1 loss. Thayer had Gwinnett down to its final strike before giving up a game-winning, two-run single to Brandon Jones, who had the game-winning homer off Abreu the previous night.
So much about the tune is familiar. The Bulls left 11 men on base and were 2-13 with runners in scoring position; they had 13 baserunners but scored just a single run. Starter Jason Cromer had another excellent outing (it’s becoming almost routine for him), tossing six scoreless innings but getting no run support, as usual. He’s come away with a no-decision in nearly half his starts, even though all but one have been win-worthy. The first two Bulls to bat in the seventh inning reached on errors (both by Braves reliever Vladimir Nunez), but Reid Brignac botched a sacrifice bunt attempt—or so I gather from the play-by-play game recap—and the Bulls ultimately failed to score. Justin Ruggiano struck out again—nothing new there; he’s second in the league—but this time he went postal on home plate umpire James Thomas and was ejected for arguing balls and strikes (well, really just strikes, since he was probably happy with the balls). That forced Ray Olmedo and his .627 OPS to come in and hit cleanup in Ruggiano’s place. As it happened, Olmedo led off the sixth inning with a double. Jon Weber followed with a walk, but guess what? The Bulls failed to score.
Which is to say: the postman kept ringing, but it was the Bulls who couldn’t deliver, and they returned this victory to sender. The best position they can hope to be in when they return to Durham on Friday is a game behind Gwinnett. If they lose to rehabbing Braves stalwart Tim Hudson on Thursday, they’ll be three games back with North Division leader Scranton/Wilkes-Barre coming to the DBAP for a four-game wraparound weekend series. Yikes.
Meanwhile, more roster moves are in the mail. Details follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Brandon Jones, Bulls on the Move, Chad Bradford, Dale Thayer, ejection, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Cromer, Joe Dillon, John Meloan, Justin Ruggiano, Michel Hernandez, Mitch Talbot, Postman Always Rings Twice, R.J. Swindle, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
8 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
6 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—And by “wonder-full,” I mean full of wondrous things. If you’re one of those quick-and-dirty types who stops reading at the jump, let me dispense with the summary:
The Bulls battled back from a 6-2, sixth-inning deficit. They scored three times in sixth inning and twice in the eighth inning and took a 7-6 lead into the ninth against Syracuse. Joe Nelson, the fifth Bulls pitcher, came in to save the game, but he put two men on with a single and a walk. With two outs and a full count on Justin Maxwell, he threw a fastball that tailed back toward the middle of the plate, and Maxwell tattooed it. His long, high drive sailed over the Blue Monster—just foul, it appeared to us, up in the press box. But home plate umpire Fran Burke, the only one of the three officials with a straight-on view of the play, called it fair.
Things went nuts. The Bulls all argued. Charlie Montoyo charged out of the dugout to join them. We watched two replays in the press box, both of which seemed to show the ball crossing in front of the screen that extends from the foul pole—which would indicate a foul ball. Charlie Montoyo implored the umpires to watch the replay on the big screen behind them. They didn’t. The call stood. Montoyo was so mad, he threw not only his hat but also the photos of his kids that he keeps in his back pocket. He went into ultra-argue mode, which is manager-code for Eject Me Now, Please. Crew Chief Kevin Causey complied and ejected him. Montoyo, as if only now realizing just how mad all of this had made him, then had to be held back by one ump while he yelled at another. Finally he departed, but not before picking up the photos he’d thrown. A fan threw beer on the field and was escorted from the ballpark. After the game, which the Chiefs won, 9-7, Bulls’ General Manager Mike Birling had a brief, heated exchange with with one of the umpires.
And that was only one exciting sequence in a game full of them.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Anthony Michael Hall, Baltimore Orioles, Bulls on the Move, catcher's interference, Charlie Montoyo, ejection, Elliot johnson, F.O.B., Fran Burke, Greg Zaun, injury, Jack Spradlin, Joe Nelson, John Hughes, John Jaso, John Meloan, Jorge Julio, Justin Maxwell, Justin Ruggiano, Kevin Causey, Matt DeSalvo, Matt Joyce, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, Shairon Martis, Shawn Riggans, Sixteen Candles, Syracuse Chiefs, Winston Abreu, Zechry Zinicola
Adam Sobsey ·
6 Aug 2009, 3:49 PM ·
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In what is surely the weirdest transaction we’ll see this year, Winston Abreu has been re-signed by Tampa and will report to Durham on Friday.
Abreu began the year in Durham and was, to put a fine point on it, awesome. He was the awesomest pitcher on the staff, in fact, posting a 1.41 ERA in 23 appearances. In 32 innings, he allowed just 14 hits and 10 walks (that’s a stingy 0.75 WHIP and .128 opponents’ batting average), and struck out a dazzling 49 hitters. The 32-year-old Dominican went 3-0 for the Bulls, with 10 saves.
Abreu’s return is really strange. He was promoted to Tampa earlier this season, pitched in a couple of games there, and then was designated for assignment. That in itself made little sense, since the Rays had just called up a guy who was out of options (meaning he couldn’t be sent back to Durham without clearing waivers), didn’t use him much at all, and were then forced to move him. They traded him to Cleveland for John Meloan, who now pitches for the Bulls. Abreu made three appearances for the Indians and got hit around pretty hard. A few days ago, the Indians designated him for assignment, and he was claimed by the Rays.
This means, among other things, that the Rays got John Meloan essentially for free.
It also means that Abreu will be reunited with Dale Thayer in an encore performance of The Wonder Twins of the Durham Bullpen, and it makes late innings very un-fun for opposing teams: the Bulls now have two of the best closers in the International League. Thayer was on the All-Star team, and Abreu almost certainly would have been had he not been recalled to the majors.
It further means that a move will need to be made to clear roster space in Durham for Abreu—although the Rays are having a lot of fun these days getting Bulls to jump through the Hudson Valley loophole, and perhaps we’ll see that happen again. But the Hudson Valley end of the dugout, which currently seats three Bulls-in-waiting, is getting crowded. At this point, a more significant shift seems likelier, e.g. the demotion of Calvin Medlock or Joe Bateman to Montgomery, the release of someone like Jorge Julio or Matt DeSalvo, or even the return of Dale Thayer to the majors (which would mean the concomitant movement of someone off of the major-league roster, a notion that is entirely beyond my powers of consideration).
One thing is sure: Charlie Montoyo will be thrilled. Ever since Abreu left the Bulls, Montoyo has occasionally mentioned his name, here hoping that Jorge Julio would pick up where Abreu left off, there expressing gratitude that Jason Childers has lately done just that. If Abreu pitches anywhere near as well as he did in his first stint with the Bulls, he’ll improve a bullpen that is already looking pretty good right now.
Part of me can’t help wondering if this was all some sort of gentleman’s agreement between the Rays and the Indians, whereby an elaborate transactional contraption would be set up to allow for Abreu’s return to the Rays. What the Indians got out of the deal, I have no idea. Maybe Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro receives a bunch of pink flamingos, or perhaps Jason Childers will decorate a beach chair for him.
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bulls on the Move, Charlie Montoyo, Cleveland Indians, John Meloan, Winston Abreu
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 ·
25 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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Jeremy Hellickson, pitching recently for the Montgomery Biscuits
DBAP/ DURHAM—First things first: great to be back at the ballpark! When I walked into the DBAP last night, I suddenly felt like I hadn’t been there in months. It had actually been three weeks, but the feeling I had was evidence of the dailiness of the baseball season. You play almost every single day for five months in class AAA, and three weeks off seems like a really long time. Not only had I been gone that long, but the Bulls themselves hadn’t played a game at the DBAP in two weeks.
And so, if last night’s game was rather like the beginning of a new season, it seemed appropriate that it was started by a new pitcher. Jeremy Hellickson was called up from Double-A Montgomery, where he had been something close to dominant in 11 starts. (He missed seven weeks with a shoulder strain.) The 22-year-old Iowan was quite good, picking up the win with six innings of two-run ball. Three innings of shutout relief by John Meloan and Jason Childers, who earned his first save, and home runs by Justin Ruggiano and Chris Richard, supported Hellickson. All in all, it was an old-fashioned, best-of-times sort of game, and the 4-2 win over Norfolk pushed the Bulls back into first place, half a game up on the Tides. Gwinnett beat Lehigh Valley to remain a game back.
The fun part of the standings-switcheroo was when Bulls’ manager Charlie Montoyo, asked after the game how it felt to get the division lead back, replied, “We did?” He’s so focused on each game, and on developing his players, that the aerial view little interests him. The extent of his schedule-awareness is that the Bulls have four more games in the next three days against Norfolk; the rest is for fans and journalists to worry about.
More on Hellickson’s performance, and a few notes, after the jump.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Charlie Montoyo, Chris Richard, Jake Arrieta, Jason Childers, Jason Cromer, Jeremy Hellickson, John Meloan, Justin Ruggiano, Matt DeSalvo, Norfolk Tides, The Roodge
Adam Sobsey ·
5 Jul 2009, 5:40 AM ·
2 Comments
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 ·
3 Jul 2009, 5:30 AM ·
1 Comment
Earl Weaver: "I'll tell you what you can do with your small ball!"
DBAP/ DURHAM—Adepts of that scrappy, hustley, one-base-at-a-time stratagem called Small Ball are able to make a case for it because it looks sportier: Guys stealing bases, laying down sacrifice bunts, putting on the hit-and-run, dirtying their uniforms, and so on. There are certainly occasional moments when Small Ball is a good idea, but the vast majority of the time it isn’t. You can read endless articles about the war between the Small Ballers and the Big Ballers (I’d better stop before this starts to sound vaguely lascivious), so I won’t belabor the schism here; but the empirical evidence—i.e. history—supports the latter, whose philosophy was best summed up by the legendary Baltimore manager Earl Weaver way back in the days that seem comparatively Small Ballish compared to ours: “Pitching, defense and the three-run homer.” But what about bunting? “I have nothing against the bunt—in its place. But most of the time that place is in the bottom of a long-forgotten closet.”
Cue the Durham Bulls. They’ve now hit 20 round-trippers in their last nine games, including three in last night’s 8-6 win over Charlotte. The Bulls have won seven of those nine games, and six straight; it’s the first half-dozen-in-a-row for them since the first six games of the season. They remain unbeaten in the Age of Dave Myers, the hitting coach sitting in for Charlie Montoyo while Montoyo’s son recovers from surgery. If you want to know why the Bulls are winning right now, those homers provide a large portion of the answer; they are the grains, along with doubles, in the food pyramid of offensive nutrition. Or the meat of the Atkins Diet. Either way.
Coupled with Gwinnett’s win over Norfolk, the win extended Durham’s division lead to two games. That’s as far ahead as the Bulls have been since something like late April (please don’t make me try to find the actual date; I’m really begging you). For Gwinnett, which now stands just 2 1/2 games back, it was the second improbable late-inning comeback win in a row. Even more improbable, though, was that their starter was the 37-year-old John Halama, who seemed to be just coming into his prime with the Seattle Mariners during the second Clinton administration.
Anyway, guess what was the biggest play of last night’s Bulls game? If you said a three-run homer, you win a Jon Weber Grill! And last night the Bulls followed most of the rest of the Earl Weaver Formula as well:they got perfect defense, and enough good pitching from Andy Sonnanstine, making his first start for Durham since his relegation to the minors from Tampa. Sonnanstine last pitched at the DBAP in 2007, when he was on his way up rather than down.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Andy Sonnanstine, Charlotte Knights, Chris Richard, Dale Thayer, Dave Myers, Dewon Day, Earl Weaver, John Halama, John Meloan, Jon Weber, Jorge Julio, Justin Ruggiano, Luck, Matt Joyce, Small Ball, Winston Abreu
