Durham Bulls Left Bats Behind?

Game 42: Bulls 0, Mud Hens 4
Season: 23-19
Trip: 2-5
Streak: L5
Wrap, Box, Toledo Blade

The key bit of information we need this morning is whether or not the Bulls paid the overnight shipping fees needed to get their bats shipped to them from Durham. Obviously they left them behind (did Blalock take them with him to St Petersburg?).

How bad has it been? How about two shutouts in five days? How about only 6 runs (three of those in the 9th inning) in five days? How about 0 home runs in five days. Zero. None. Nado. Zip. The Bulls hit 51 homers in 46 games, then none for five days.

This cries out for something like the shower room scene in Bull Durham except that 1) these guys are real pros, so not likely to do much good and 2) they’ve all seen the movie — a bunch of times.

Here’s an “insight” for you. Back before the season began we were salivating over the prospect of an outfield of Justin Ruggiano, Desmond Jennings, and Fernando Perez. Be careful what you wish for. Guess who has been in the outfield for the Durham Bulls for the last five games? As near as I can figure, May 16 was the first time that we got all three out there this season — and for the next five games they've been out there. Could this all be my fault? I got my wish and the gods of baseball looked down and said, we’ll show you.

Is there something positive to come out of this? Well, maybe. The bullpen has been getting a break. The last five games have only gone 8 innings for us, so our relievers have caught up on their tweets, etc.

Heath Phillips had, mostly, a good night. So two decent games in a row. Can't help pointing out, however, that he leads the Bulls in giving up home runs, 10, by a bunch. The next worst is a tie at 4 between Aneury Rodriguez and Carlos Hernandez.

I don’t think I’m going to trust the Wall Street Journal for my baseball insights any more. They told me that this guy Scherzer was in trouble this year. He sure picked a heck of at time to figure it out what was wrong (see the Toledo Blade link).