Showing posts tagged “RISP”
Adam Sobsey ·
28 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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Five times this season, first on June 2 and most recently on Wednesday, the Bulls have gone 16 games over .500. Each time, they lost the next the game, and never reached the 17-games-over mark.
There’s nothing particularly special about 17; it’s just a number; but for whatever reason, it came to represent the ceiling of the Bulls’ success in 2009. Try as they might, they just couldn’t get there. They seemed doomed to be a 16-games-over team. Given that it’s mathematically impossible to finish a 144-game season 17 games over .500—and kids, don’t look now but the season is, in terrifying fact, 92.36% finished—maybe there was something appropriately chimerical about the mark.
Last night, they finally broke through. Their fourth straight win, a 3-1 margin delivered by Chris Richard’s three-run, ninth-inning home run, pushed the Bulls’ record to 75-58, and pulled them dead even for the IL South Division lead with the Gwinnett Braves, who lost their fourth straight to Charlotte.
Given how long it took the Bulls to pass 16 and to reclaim a share of first place (where they haven’t been since August 10), the way they crested those humps last night was appropriate.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Baseball World Cup, Bob McCrory, Chris Lambert, Chris Richard, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Childers, Jason Cromer, Joe Dillon, Joe Nelson, Joey Gathright, Jon Weber, Josh Perrault, Justin Ruggiano, Melvin Dorta, Norfolk Tides, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, Team USA, Winston Abreu
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
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—A long time ago, I studied playwriting. I had a brilliant professor who used to say that the first 20 minutes of a play were “free”: the audience would allow almost anything in those first 20 minutes, as long as whatever you gave them in that extended introduction wound up getting “paid back” to them later on; you were sowing seeds that would ripen as the play progressed. Starcrossed lovers, you say? Better do ‘em in by the end of the play.
In other words, those 20 minutes weren’t really free. You were essentially laying the groundwork for whatever was to come, and as a consequence, the first 20 minutes were the most important part of the script.
My professor was talking about a two-hour play, but baseball games—or at least, Durham Bulls baseball games—last about three hours. So we’re really talking about the first half hour of a game. And it was in the first 30 minutes of last night’s disheartening 4-3 loss to the last-place Charlotte Knights that the Bulls constructed the dramaturgy for how they would lose.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Akinori Iwamura, Bullpen, Charlie Montoyo, Dale Thayer, Gwinnett Braves, Jason Childers, Jeff Bennett, Josh Fields, Matt Joyce, Norfolk Tides, RISP, Romeo and Juliet, Runners In Scoring Position, Sherry Kramer, Syracuse Chiefs, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
21 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—Out here in (oh, just go ahead and call it the) blogosphere, we were getting a little restless after the Bulls got crushed by the Charlotte Knights on Wednesday, 8-1. The team seemed flat and dull, listless and [adjective of your choice]. And when Charlotte scored a run in the top of the first inning last night with a bloop single that was so shallow it was actually fielded by Bulls’ third baseman Ray Olmedo, you couldn’t help but think, and now here comes the bad luck, too.
The Bulls took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning, but they got help in the form of a bases-loaded walk (to John Jaso) and left the pasture F.O.B., failing to get a hit with the sacks packed. In the top of the third, the Knights tied it 2-2 when Olmedo made two errors (16, 17) on one play.
And then the Bulls loaded the bases again in the bottom of the third inning. Here’s how they did it: walk, strikeout, flyout, walk, walk. Two outs, three on, zero hits. The Bulls seem to fail routinely in this situation lately. Jaso steps to the plate. With runners in scoring position this year he’s 10/73, which is tragically bad—it seems he needs bases-loaded walks to succeed when it counts. But what I haven’t bothered to look up is Jaso’s average with the bases loaded.
Later, after Jaso rips a bases-clearing, three-run double to the base of the left-center field wall, I will look up that stat, and discover that he is now 4/8 with nine RBIs when the bases are loaded. It’s now 5-2, Bulls. That’s plenty for Jeremy Hellickson and a pair of relievers. Reid Brignac adds a two-out, two-run single in the fifth, and the rout is on. The Bulls win, 10-2. After the game Charlie Montoyo says, “I’ve never been so relaxed in the ninth inning.” It’s the Bulls first easy win in a week and a half.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Akinori Iwamura, Charlie Montoyo, Charlotte Knights, F.O.B., Fernando Perez, Jeff Bennett, Jeremy Hellickson, John Jaso, Jon Weber, Ray Olmedo, Reid Brignac, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Typewriter Tip Tip Tip, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
20 Aug 2009, 2:42 AM ·
3 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—”We had no pitching and no offense. It’s that easy.” Those were the first words out of the mouth of Durham Bulls’ manager Charlie Montoyo after last night’s 8-1 drubbing at the hands of the last-place Charlotte Knights, before we’d even asked him a question.
No argument from me. Andy Sonnanstine had his second straight poor outing; the Bulls left five men in scoring position in the first five innings and then put only one more runner on base for the rest of the game against four different Charlotte relievers; Joe Nelson came on in the seventh and served up a two-run homer to Wilson Betemit; and the normally reliable Calvin Medlock gave up an obligatory ninth-inning gopher ball to Mike Restovich, who now has four of his 16 homers against the Bulls, all launched to approximately the same spot on the concourse behind the Blue Monster.
All in all, one to forget. Some thoughts follow.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Andy Sonnanstine, Charlie Montoyo, Charlotte Knights, Daniel Hudson, Desmond Jennings, Gwinnett Braves, Henry Mateo, horse latitudes, Joe Nelson, Norfolk Tides, Ray Olmedo, Reid Brignac, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Syracuse Chiefs
Adam Sobsey ·
19 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—I missed more than two innings of last night’s 5-2 Bulls win over Charlotte. I spent half an inning in the visitor’s clubhouse as part of the crowded media contingent interviewing the Knights’ Jake Peavy (pictured) following his four-inning, 67-pitch outing against the Bulls, his second rehab start for the Chicago White Sox, and another two innings waiting for that interview. It was much like the game that rehabbing Tampa lefty Scott Kazmir started for the Bulls a couple of months ago, when we were whisked down into the bowels of the DBAP for a mid-game interview with a pitcher.
Both times, I was happy to do this—it’s not every day that you get to talk to one of the dozen or so best active pitchers on planet Earth—but I have to say that I got very antsy in the administrative lobby while watching the ballgame on a television feed as Peavy threw a supplementary bullpen session. All that did was make me wish I was seeing the action firsthand rather than on a screen. I suppose that my reaction means that, for better or worse, I’ve become more interested in the fortunes of the Durham Bulls than I am about pretty much any other baseball being played.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Akinori Iwamura, Carlos Hernandez, Carlos Torres, Charlie Montoyo, Charlotte Knights, Chicago White Sox, Craig Albernaz, Dale Thayer, Daniel Hudson, Elliot johnson, Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Henry Mateo, injury, Jake Peavy, Jeff Bennett, Joe Dillon, Jon Weber, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Wade Davis
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 ·
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.
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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 ·
23 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
They didn’t exactly round up the Indians, but the Bulls hitters went 3-8 with runners in scoring position and made the most of the opportunities they had in beating Indianapolis on Wednesday afternoon, 3-1. If you want to be a buzzkill, you could argue that Chris Richard went 2-3 with RISP and the rest of the team was an unimpressive 1-5; but that’s acting like Richard isn’t really part of the team. In terms of productivity if not batting average, Richard is probably the second-best Bull with men on base. He knocked in the go-ahead run yesterday in the top of the eighth inning after putting the Bulls on the board in the third. It was somehow refreshing that all three of Richard’s hits were singles—as were all of the Bulls’ seven hits—as if to prove (me wrong by demonstrating) that he and his teammates don’t have to hit home runs in order to win. They do have to keep striking out, though: twelve more against major league-seasoned Tom Gorzelanny and a pair of relievers.
Other ways in which Wednesday’s game (once again) proved me wrong:
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Brian Shouse, Chris Richard, Dale Thayer, Indianapolis Indians, Jake McGee, Jason Childers, John Jaso, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Joyce, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Shawn Riggans, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Jul 2009, 5:00 AM ·
2 Comments
I didn’t have a chance to listen to the Bulls’ 2-1 loss at Indianapolis last night, so I can only go by the game logs and Neil Solondz’s report; but it seems to me that the Bulls showed some widening of the holes in the fabric of their season to date. It’s hard to know whether these can be stitched up adequately enough to set this team up for the playoffs. Certainly the talent and the drive are there, but over and over again the Bulls lose for the same handful of reasons:
1) Not Enough Hits and Too Many Strikeouts. I wrote last night that the Bulls have trouble stringing rallies together unless the opposing pitcher helps out with walks; they just don’t put enough balls in play. Last night, they struck out nine more times (or 10, depending on whose count you accept) in six innings against Ian Snell, and managed just five hits overall in 33 plate appearances. That’s a little extreme—Snell has major-league stuff and a chip on his shoulder, and Indians’ closer Chris Bootcheck was an International League All-Star—but lately the Bulls seem to be hitting less and striking out more. Chris Wise over at WDBB has a chart and notes about the Ks.
2) Baserunning. And when the Bulls finally did get something going off of Snell, they ran themselves out of the rally. With two on and one out in the sixth inning and Durham down 1-0, Justin Ruggiano doubled to drive in Henry Mateo and move Reid Brignac to third. But Ruggiano rounded second base too widely and was thrown out trying to retreat to the bag. That SBG (the Bulls’ old nemesis) might have cost the Bulls the lead: there would have been two men in scoring position and one out. Instead, there were two outs with Brignac on third. Naturally, Chris Richard struck out. See 1).
3) Runners in scoring position. (Geeky stats advisory!) Last night’s 1-5 isn’t really that bad when you consider how few chances the Bulls had with RISP, but lately they’ve really struggled to hit in the clutch. By my count, they’re now 10-61 with RISP since the All-Star break. If memory serves, they had a similarly anemic stretch early in the season, too.
Oddly, a wider-angle lens on this stat shows minimal distortion between overall season hitting (.255) and RISP hitting (.251 as a whole, although the current roster is actually at a collective .249). But when you pick that apart, you see that the problem is the mean, not the average—or at least I think that’s the correct mathematical distinction (said the book critic, drowning in numbers). Six of the team’s hitters are batting under .232 with RISP; three are hitting above .315; and just three are between .232 and .315. That means that a clutch-deficient Bull is nearly always twice as likely to come to the plate as a decent or excellent clutch hitter. And one of those apparently excellent clutch hitters has deceptive numbers: Ray Olmedo is at .316 with RISP, but his slugging percentage in that situation is only .355 (that’s actually slightly higher than his overall mark). Not surprisingly, the clutchiest Bull is Jon Weber, who is a King-Kongly .345/.400/.707.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Boba Fett, Dale Thayer, Ian Snell, Indianapolis Indians, Jason Cromer, Jon Weber, Justin Ruggiano, Ray Olmedo, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, SBG
