Soaking Up the Sun

Season: 10-5; Home Stand: 2-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

These 11:00 am games are oddities in the Bulls’ schedule. I guess the idea is to introduce a ballpark experience to youngsters from all over the Triangle. I think that’s a pretty good idea even if very few of them are really interested in the game (just try getting a hot dog). To be honest, it’s fun just watching them watch each other.

Out on the field it looked like Jake Odorizzi wasn’t going to get through the 1st inning. Walk, single, single, walk, single put two runs across. The only good moment was the nice throw by new guy Juan Apodaca to catch Charlotte’s Luis Durango trying to steal. Nevertheless, there were two runs before something came into focus for Odorizzi and he struck out two. Those three hits were half of what Charlotte would get in the game and they got just one more off Odorizzi. As a side note, we should note that Charlotte started 8 left-handed batters. That took a bit of adjustment as well.

Meanwhile, Jason Bourgeois showed his stuff as a leadoff man by getting on base three times with two singles and a double, plus two stolen bases. He scored twice.

Speaking of stolen bases, this is a running team. The Bulls lead the International League with 20 so far. Lee has 6 of those, Bourgeois and Thomas have 5 each.

Hak-Ju Lee had another good day as he continued his stellar performance with  beautiful sacrifice bunt in the 1st (the runner eventually scoring), a bunt single in the 5th, and a RBI single in the 3-run 7th. Great day.

Happy to see Rich Thompson have a good day at the plate. Maybe moving him to the 8 spot helped. At any rate, a walk, single, and double with a RBI for a very good day.

Should we be worried about Wil Myers being pulled for a pinch runner after his RBI single 7th? The Herald-Sun reports he fouled a ball his foot in the 5th inning and was limping a bit after that. Acting Manager Dave Myers was quoted as saying, “He was limping, then he wasn’t limping, then he was limping. So I’m going with the limping.”

I’m beginning to worry about our new catcher Juan Apodaca. He’s 0 for 9 with a walk in three games so far. That’s hardly a good sample size. But he has what strikes my eye as an unusual history of simply not being in very many games in his 8 years playing professional ball (70 games in AAA).

Overall, a great start to the longest home stand of the year.

Outside the game —

• Today’s weather prediction isn’t good for Bulls fans. Keep an eye on the webcam.

The Tides’ numbers are poster children for a statistician’s concern with small sample size. There’s a nifty stat called Pythagorean Expectation (PE) that estimates won-loss records based on runs scored vs. runs allowed. By that measure, the Tides’ record should be 5-10, not 9-6. Why is the PE so far off? Apparently when they lose they lose big; when they win, they win by just a little. That implies problems with their bullpen. But, remember, the reason I mentioned this was to point out that with small samples you can get weird results. The PE for the Bulls, by the way, is 11-4, pretty close to actual.