Rain and Who is Watching the Bulls

Game 24: Bulls 3, Knights 8
Season: 14-10
Wrap, Box

Well, it rained and by the time it started raining I was ready to go home. I was on my way to the parking deck behind Diamond View II when the Bulls rallied, so I stayed a bit longer up there under the bull to see how things went. Not bad, but then they started pulling the tarp and I went home. To offer a variant on Adam Sobsky’s headline over at The Independent Weekly, their Carlos (Torres) beat our Carlos (Hernandez). More on Adam’s piece later.

About the only bright spot in a bleak day, and that more of a “gray” spot, was Reid Brignac retaining enough situational awareness that, after he bobbled a grounder of the Knight’s Dawkins, he then was able to throw out Lucy heading for home from third. Hardly a great play, but what can I say.

So instead of discussing the game, thought I’d write about Bulls coverage, such as it is.

The only actual print coverage I see is the News & Observer and when it comes to the Bulls, it’s dismal. At best it will be a cut & paste from the AP wire, but mostly this year they have only printed the IL standings and the box score. They did have a couple of articles earlier in the year about David Price but that’s about it. For whatever it’s worth, the Mudcats aren’t doing any better. For an overview of the N&O in general, see the Indy Week feature here.

Last year the Durham Herald-Sun at least covered the home games. This year it has been hit and miss, at least as far as what I’m able to find on their web site. Some games they cover, some they don’t. Seems to usually be Mike Potter doing the writing as it was in last night’s game.

WRAL usually has a Bulls story on but it’s just a cut & paste from the Bulls website. Not really a surprise since the same company owns the Bulls and WRAL.

However, since I mentioned the Bulls website, let me point out Neil Solondz’s podcasts. They are essentially audio of the interviews you can see if you get to the game early, and they are pretty good. For example, this interview with Jon Weber the other day. Sometimes the video highlights capture interesting moments.

The vast majority of Bulls-related information on the web is from websites and bloggers following the Tampa Bay Rays. As a consequence, their interest in the Bulls generally extends only to those players on the Bulls roster that have the potential of going down to Tampa Bay and helping out. Still, a couple of good writers out there. I’ve got links to the ones that I like on my sidebar.

The bright spot is over at the Independent Weekly. Although not alone, Adam Sobsky is doing most of the writing and it’s very good. For example, in today’s piece he really tries to get at what I’ve called the Montoyo Merry-Go-Round, the constant shuffling of position players. The explanation is that Tampa Bay already knows what these guys can do at their primary position, what about someplace else? So the carousel is a very deliberate attempt to develop a broader range of skills for possible call-up. OK, I can buy that. More than that, I can’t honestly say that it has been hurting us. We are, after all, at 14-10, which is pretty good.

Once the Bulls go on the road we’re stuck with what we can discern from the wrap (often written by broadcaster Solondz) and the box score. If I’ve got the time and inclination I can get a decent sense of the game by listening to the radio on the web and following the “gameday” graphics. And occasionally I can find an article in local newspaper. So far I haven’t found any bloggers following IL teams closely. If they’re out there, let me know.

Not relevant to any of the above, but it’s fun: Over at Rays Index he’s doing a lot of rabble-rousing regarding an incident in the last inning of a game Sunday.