Showing posts tagged “Rhyne Hughes”
Adam Sobsey ·
27 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
Jeff Bennett’s arrival in Durham a couple of weeks ago has drawn relatively little attention. Akinori Iwamura and Fernando Perez are getting most of the attention on their rehab assignments, and Tampa had already recently demoted another struggling major-league reliever, Joe Nelson. Bennett doesn’t even appear on the Bulls’ roster list on the team’s web site.
But a Bull he is, and although Bennett (pictured), who is primarily a reliever, has been far from perfect in two starts—he has walked five in 9 1/3 innings, a habit that suits him well to the Bulls’ walk-happy staff—he has also done a serviceable job filling in for injured lefty starter Carlos Hernandez. Pitching last night against Norfolk, Bennett lasted 5 1/3 innings, and his only significant mistake was surrendering a two-run homer to—you ready for this?—former Bull Rhyne Hughes. (Yes, okay, Rhyne, we’re sorry we traded you. Now that’s enough of that.)
Other than that, Norfolk failed to score, thanks in no small part to some wiggling out of jams by Julio DePaula and Joe Bateman—although granted that they brought the pectin to the mound with them. Bennett got his first victory as a Bull and Durham beat Norfolk, 4-2. The lineup wasn’t especially potent, but they scored the runs they needed to score, all of them by the fifth inning. The win gave the Bulls their first three-game winning streak in about a month, and it pushed their lead over the Tides to six games in the wild-card race with 12 left to play. Syracuse beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to remain 3.5 games back. (Don’t look now, but the revivified Chiefs trail the Yankees by just 2.5 games in the IL North Division.)
More intriguingly, Charlotte rallied to beat Gwinnett in 11 innings, 10-7, pulling Durham to within just a single game of the Braves for the South Division lead. (Who knew that Reid Gorecki, called up to the majors a week ago, was the team’s glue? His departure snapped a five-game winning streak, and Gwinnett is just 3-4 since.) Things are getting quite interesting, to say the least, as the season races to its close.
A few notes follow.
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls Elliot johnson, Gwinnett Braves, Henry Mateo, Jeff Bennett, Joe Bateman, Julio DePaula, Norfolk Tides, Ray Olmedo, Reid Brignac, Reid Gorecki, Rhyne Hughes, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, slump, Syracuse Chiefs
Adam Sobsey ·
16 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—This was one of those games that seemed like it was over early. In the third inning, down 1-0 on Juan Miranda’s second homer in as many nights (and hit to nearly the same place), five consecutive Bulls reached base against Scranton’s Kei Igawa before Igawa recorded an out. All five scored. No one scored again until the eighth, and in the mean time, the Bulls’ 5-1 lead seemed like 15-1.
That was because of Jeremy Hellickson (pictured). The young right-hander, who had beaten the Yankees at Scranton just over two weeks ago with six three-hit, shutout innings, was even better last night. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine him pitching much better against the Yankees’ sluggers. He allowed only two hits, both solo homers. He threw 108 pitches, 72 for strikes, and produced an eye-opening 21 swings-and-misses (11 of which came in his first 33 pitches). Nearly all of those whiffs were on Hellickson’s changeup, which the Yankees never came close to solving. The changeup was so good last night that Hellickson barely even bothered with his curveball, which he threw just a handful of times and which wasn’t very effective. Fastballs and changeups, fastballs and changeups. By the end of Hellickson’s outing, his excellent control had widened home plate umpire Derek Crabill’s strike zone, and the young Iowan was getting called strikes on anything close to the plate and around the knees.
When Hellickson departed, he received the loudest ovation I’ve heard for a player at the DBAP this year. “He earned it,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. And so he did. Reliever Jason Childers came on and nearly blew the game for Hellickson, but Dale Thayer gathered up the live wires Childers left dangling and snuffed them out. The Bulls won, 5-4.
Hellickson’s performance might have been even better had he come out of the game at the logical point. But Montoyo needed more from him, and it cost Hellickson a run—and almost cost the Bulls the game.
Meanwhile, a spaghetti junction of injuries, trades, demotions, slumps and collisions made this an especially busy night in the postgame clubhouse. Many loose ends to tie up, from the game itself and the extra-curricular surroundings. All of that follows. Length advisory.
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Austin Jackson, Carlos Hernandez, Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, Dale Thayer, Damaso Marte, Desmond Jennings, Elliot johnson, injury, Jason Childers, Jeff Bennett, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Dillon, John Rodriguez, Juan Miranda, Justin Ruggiano, Kei Igawa, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, New York Yankees, Reegie Corona, Rhyne Hughes, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Shawn Riggans, Shelley Duncan, Xavier Hernandez, Yurendell de Caster
Adam Sobsey ·
15 Aug 2009, 5:33 PM ·
Comment
The callup of Reid Brignac to Tampa was expected. Rays’ designated hitter Pat Burrell hurt his neck again, which means more time at DH for Jason Bartlett and Ben Zobrist, both of whom play a lot of middle infield. Chances are good that Brignac won’t be back this year, as he was likely to be promoted anyway when rosters expand on September 1. And as I wrote yesterday, the Bulls were about to have too many infielders with the arrival of Joe Dillon, who was outrighted to Durham and should be in uniform (and perhaps on the field) tonight.
Much more surprising was the trade of Rhyne Hughes (pictured) to the Baltimore Orioles. The move completed the deal that brought Greg Zaun to Tampa for a Player-to-Be-Named-Later (or at least that’s what I assume). Hughes was assigned to the Norfolk Tides, a division rival whom the Bulls play six more times before the season ends. Hughes will probably DH and share time at first base with Wade Davis’s least favorite player, Michael Aubrey.
Who really knows how these deals are consummated? It was easy enough to assume that the Orioles would wind up with a catcher in return for Zaun, less because Zaun is a catcher than because the Tampa Bay Rays have 149 catchers on their 40-man roster and need to move at least one of them. So much for that.
What does this mean for the Bulls? Well, for one thing, one of their best hitters is gone. Hughes was leading the team in batting average, slugging and OPS. His doubles rate was actually higher than that of teammate Jon Weber, who leads the league. Hughes played in 56 games for Durham and hit safely in 37 of them, including a recent team-high 13-game hitting streak. His big problem was plate discipline. He’d walked only 12 times in 230 plate appearances, with 69 strikeouts. Still, his big power bat will be missed.
Expect to see a fair amount of Joe Dillon at first base, where he’ll probably be Chris Richard’s main backup. Expect also to see more of Elliot Johnson at shortstop with Brignac gone. Ray Olmedo will see a good deal of time there, too. And as for Charles in Charge (I mean Bulls’ manager Charlie Montoyo, of course), the deletions of Brignac and Hughes actually make his life a bit easier. The “too many pieces” he was wondering what to do with last night just got resolved—for now, of course. His job will get harder again soon enough. The one thing you can count in Triple A, as in life, is change.
Bulls vs. Yankees in about 90 minutes. Finish your chores and get to the DBAP, stat!
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Bulls on the Move, Greg Zaun, Joe Dillon, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, trade
Adam Sobsey ·
9 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
2 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—It has turned into a rather dreary homestand for the Durham Bulls, who are a gloomy 3-4 and tied for the International League South Division lead with Gwinnett, which is somewhat comforting until you’re reminded that the Bulls should probably be at least two games up. They just lost a pair of games they should have won.
I was thinking, on the way to the park last night, that one reason for the Bulls’ middling results was that they hadn’t had a really good starting pitching performance during the homestand. The best was Andy Sonnanstine’s three runs in six innings on Tuesday night, which is really only decent, especially when you consider that he allowed nine hits in that game. It counted as a so-called “quality start,” but all it did was reiterate that “quality start”—which designates at least six innings and fewer than four runs allowed—is a poorly conceived statistic: a season of “quality starts” translates to a thoroughly so-so 4.50 ERA.
So it seemed that the Bulls were badly in need of a stopper-like start, even a dominant start, and it further seemed that Wade Davis (pictured, top) was the man to give it to them. He has been a bit inconsistent recently, allowing five runs in three of his last five starts, but in his usual fashion he always competed hard, and it seemed only a matter of time before his determination was matched by results. Sure enough, that happened on Saturday night.
But for the second straight night, the Bulls lost late, 3-2.
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Charlie Montoyo, ejection, Jason Childers, Jhonatan Solano, Joe Dillon, Justin Maxwell, Kevin Causey, Marco Estrada, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, R. J. Swindle, Ray Sadler, Rhyne Hughes, Russ Springer, Shawn Riggans, Syracuse Chiefs, Wade Davis
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.
Continue reading »
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 ·
5 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
3 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—There was a stretch of games earlier this season—it seems a long time ago now—when it felt like the Bulls were rallying for wins nearly every night. They almost appeared to be deliberately waiting until the late innings to go to work. They’d go into the ninth down three runs and tie the game with late extra-base hits before winning in extras; or they’d scratch the runs out by exploiting errors and hit batters; and then, of course, there was the game when Chris Richard hit two grand slams. Bulls’ fans almost grew to expect late-night heroics from their team.
But of course you can’t keep playing like that or you’ll need bypass surgery, and the Bulls have had few zero-hour comebacks lately—in fact, I can’t even remember the last one. In yesterday’s post, when I foolishly decided to promise that soon the Bulls would resume hitting homers and Dale Thayer would look like his early-season self again (maybe he should re-grow the mustache), I nearly added that it had been a long while since we’d seen ninth-inning fireworks from the team and so we would probably soon see another heart-stopper.
Guess what? Bulls won a heart-stopper.
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Charlie Montoyo, Chris Richard, Denny Bautista, Desmond Jennings, Fernando Perez, Henry Mateo, Indianapolis Indians, injury, Jason Childers, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Nelson, Justin Ruggiano, Mitch Talbot, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, Shawn Riggans, strikeouts
Adam Sobsey ·
4 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—In the sixth inning of the Bulls’ 6-2 loss to Indianapolis, the sky grew ominous, and thunder rumbled in the distance. In the press box, Dave Levine checked the radar, which showed an orange-red storm cell moving toward the DBAP.
The Bulls trailed, 3-2. They’d taken a 2-0 lead with single runs in the first and second innings, and early on they looked poised to rebound from Sunday’s disheartening loss to the Indians. But Indianapolis touched Durham starter Andy Sonnanstine for single runs in the third, fourth and fifth—two scored on solo homers, and the other on a lot of bad luck. You got the feeling, as the sky darkened not only with the onset of night but the gathering of clouds, that the Bulls might be on the verge of erupting after 23 deceptively punchless innings so far. Sure, the Bulls had scored six times in splitting the first two games of the series, which isn’t awful, but they’d looked out-of-sorts at the plate and had choked repeatedly when they needed a big hit. In the series so far, they’re 5-29 with runners in scoring position.
And so the last of sixth seemed rather emblematic. Jon Weber and Shawn Riggans struck out—two of 10 whiffs on the night for Durham—but then Rhyne Hughes, the ubermensch of the moment for Durham, the team’s lone star in an overcast stretch, ripped his second double of the night. This was a boomer hit to nearly the same place as the fateful one he belted on Sunday, the one that plated one run less than it should have.
Here are Rhyne Hughes’s numbers during his 11-game hitting streak, which is the longest of the season by a Bull: 20-37 (that is a .541 batting average), 10 doubles and a homer (.892 slugging). You could complain that he has only drawn three walks during the streak, but do you really expect a guy to take pitches when he’s hitting like this?
But Hughes’s double amounted to distant thunder. Henry Mateo followed Hughes’s double by grounding out to first base and ending the inning. The storm passed without hitting the DBAP; the night grew heavy and still; the small crowd (just over 4,000) got very quiet and stayed that way for most of the rest of the game; and so did the Bulls’ lineup. They failed to score in the last seven innings, going 0-10 with men in scoring position in that stretch and stranding nine baserunners all told. Afterward, Charlie Montoyo used the word “horrible” to describe the Bulls’ current hitting with men in scoring position. Montoyo doesn’t resort to language that strong very often.
Heather worried after the game that Montoyo shouldn’t have called the current roster “the best team of the year,” which he consented to do when that headline-ready phrase was suggested to him two games ago. I agree not only with Montoyo that the Bulls have a sprained RISP right now, but also with Heather that comments like “best team of the year” are an almost sure way to jinx a ballclub. Still, I don’t think Bulls fans should worry too much about their team just yet.
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls Andy Sonnanstine, Brian Bixler, Chris Barnwell, Desmond Jennings, Indianapolis Indians, Jon Weber, Matt Joyce, Rhyne Hughes, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, Tagg Bozied
Adam Sobsey ·
3 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—I had a bunch of really nice tomatoes that I got at the farmers’ market on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon I made a sauce out of them that I planned to poach some fish in on Monday. Maybe some Spanish Mackerel. The sauce had mint in it, some young garlic, a little fresh cayenne. Simple, but really tasty.
After I was done with the sauce, I went to last night’s ballgame at the DBAP. When I got there, I realized I’d left my voice recorder thingy at home. Oh, well.
In the fourth inning of the game, I had one of those uh-oh moments.
The Indians had jumped on Durham starter Wade Davis—they hit three homers and two doubles off of him—and led 4-0 after three innings, but the Bulls began the last of the fourth with three straight singles off of the highly regarded Indianapolis pitcher Brad Lincoln. Two of those hits were little loopers, but of course loopers count. With the bases F.O.B., Chris Richard flew out to shallow center field for the first out of the inning. To the plate stepped Rhyne Hughes, the Bulls’ hottest hitter over the last ten games.
Here’s the uh-oh moment: Hughes hit a towering fly ball to deep left-center field. From where we sat in the press box, it looked very obvious that the ball would at least hit the Blue Monster if not clear it, and Hughes would either have a three-run double or a grand slam. But Justin Ruggiano, who had been on first base, must not have seen the ball well, because he hung around between first and second waiting to see the outcome of Hughes’s hit.
The ball hit high off the Monster in left-center field—had it been hit about 15 feet to the right, it would have avoided the Monster and been a homer—and Hughes had a double, extending his hitting streak to 10 games (which matches the longest by a Bull this season). Reid Brignac and Jon Weber scored, but Ruggiano had to stop at third base. It was 4-2 now, but it should have been 4-3. Elliot Johnson struck out and John Jaso grounded to third, Ruggiano was stranded, and the inning was over.
I thought to myself, I hope that doesn’t end up the difference in the game.
Guess what? It was the difference in the game.
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls Chris Richard, Desmond Jennings, F.O.B., farmers' market, Henry Mateo, Indianapolis Indians, Jon Weber, Jorge Julio, Jose Tabata, Justin Ruggiano, Mario Brothers, Media Pass, Neil Walker, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, SBG, Tagg Bozied, tomato sauce, voice recorder, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
2 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
Comment
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.
Continue reading »
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 ·
28 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
5 Comments
DBAP/DURHAM—I am in the general habit of watching the first few innings of each game at the DBAP from the press box, and then moving down behind the plate to get a closer look at the pitchers and hitters. I did that last night and found myself sitting in front of Norfolk Tides’ pitcher Troy Patton (you can read an interesting piece about him here). Patton started Sunday’s game for the Tides and was charting pitches and working the radar gun for Monday’s pitchers. This is common practice, by the way: Jason Cromer of the Bulls (well, technically of the Hudson Valley Renegades for three days until his next start) was a few seats to my right, doing the same for the home team. I was always amazed that David Price wasn’t besieged by fans each time he took his turn.
I chatted on and off with Patton during the Bulls’ 7-5 win over Norfolk last night. It was revealing to watch baseball through his eyes. “Why’d he throw that pitch there?” Patton wondered aloud when one of his teammates left a meatball up and out over the plate ahead 0-2 in the count. He was quite impressed by Julio DePaula’s slider and couldn’t believe it when the Bulls’ reliever abandoned it in the eighth inning for his fastball, which he couldn’t throw for strikes and got himself in trouble with. When Joe Bateman failed to get a strike call on a slider that was so good it seemed to fool home plate umpire Derek Crabill, Patton noted that the hitter, Tides’ right fielder Melvin Dorta, had lifted his hands when the pitch went by him, making it look as though it was inside. “Major league hitters do that all the time” to get a ball called, Patton added. (Dorta, by the way, wins the 2009 prize for Weirdest Cause of Leaving a Game: he had so much earwax buildup on Saturday afternoon that he got dizzy and had to be removed. The ear wax had to be removed, too.)
Patton has suffered from some bad luck in his career (read that article linked above), as well as in the game he’d pitched the previous night, but he seemed in remarkably genial spirits despite the setbacks. You see this over and over again in baseball: there’s an enormous amount of misfortune and failure you just have to shrug off. From the first inning to the last on Monday night, the Bulls did that—and it paid off with a win.
A couple of quick roster notes before I move into a very long post (the closer you get, the more you’re forced to see):
1) Dale Thayer should rejoin the team on Tuesday in Scranton. Brian Shouse was activated after his rehab assignment and Thayer returned to the herd. (Shouse was promptly Swishered and Damonized by the New York Yankees).
2) Justin Ruggiano’s wife is expecting and due any day now. Ruggiano will take a leave from the team during the series at Scranton and will return on Saturday at the DBAP. No word on whether an official move will be made (i.e. a temporary add of someone like Rashad Eldridge).
Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Ben Zobrist, Bob McCrory, Brandon Pinckney, Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, earwax, Henry Mateo, Jason Cromer, Jeff Fiorentino, Joe Bateman, Joey Gathright, Julio DePaula, Justin Ruggiano, Luck, Melvin Dorta, Michael Aubrey, Mississippi, Norfolk Tides, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, Troy Patton, Wade Davis
