Vogt and Brignac to the Bulls

I can't bring myself to write anything about last night's disaster yet and today's game doesn't look much better with Torres leading off the 3rd inning with 3 BBs and giving up home runs in the 1st and 2nd.

So, let's just talk about Stephen Vogt and Reid Brignac.

Reid Brignac came up through the Rays system playing shortstop including two seasons with the Bulls (2008-2009) when he had decent hitting numbers. Our comments on his 2009 season with the Bulls and Rays are here.

With the Rays in 2010 he split time between 2B and SS and put up decent numbers. 2011 was not good for Reid. He was sort of platooned at SS and hit only .193. He visited with the Bulls to try to sort out his hitting. He played in 11 games mostly in August, but did not show much punch at the bat. So far this year with the Rays his BA is down at .118.

We've written a good bit about Stephen Vogt. He has not played in a Bulls uniform this year.


What will happen when these guys show up? Well, the Bulls now have 12 position players, so two will have to go somewhere. We’ll know soon enough who will go where, but here’s both a couple of guesses and a wish.

With four pretty good middle infielders (Brignac, Beckham, Rhymes, and O’Malley) you have to figure that the youngster (O’Malley) will be heading back to Montgomery. But there could be a delay if Beckham were to go on the DL. Beckham hasn’t played the last two games.

Who goes off the bus for Vogt? My guess is that Craig Albernaz will go to Hudson Valley and Vogt will focus on his catching skills.

Note: Through some kind of mysterious rule manipulation, Bulls players will go on and off the Hudson Valley roster (a Tampa Bay Rays short-season team) during the year. What that means is that they cannot play in a Bulls game, but can usually be seen sitting on bench, warming up pitchers, warming up as if they are going to pitch, etc. In general, they will be wearing a sweatshirt or windshirt over their Bulls jerseys. Prior to the 2011 season I got to ask Albernaz if he had ever been to Hudson Valley. He said that he had not.

What should happen? I wish they'd take a close look at the fine print in Juan Miranda’s contract. His wOBA after 12 games is .281, below “awful” on the wOBA scale (.290). Will he get better as the season goes along? Don’t know, but certainly the Rays just bought a first baseman and must be happy with their 1B situation. Miranda seems to be pretty much dead weight with the Bulls, so far. So maybe release Miranda and keep Albernaz on the roster.