More Bashing

Game 53, May 29	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Buffalo Bisons (Blue Jays)	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	3	1
Durham Bulls (Rays)	1	0	0	0	5	0	0	4	x	10	16	0

Season: 33-20; Home Stand: 3-0
Wrap, Box, Herald-Sun

The Tampa Bay Rays continued their assault on the Durham Bulls pitching staff, but the hitters came through with their best offensive game of the season (as measured by OPS — 1.212!). And the reinforced bullpen did just fine.

Before the game, WDBB favorite Alex Colome got his first call up. He is scheduled to start today down in Miami. Good luck. Meanwhile Jake Odorizzi is on his way back. And there are expectations that the Rays may grab another reliever from the Bulls soon.

Reliever Juan Sandoval came up from the Montgomery Biscuits where he had been their closer. He probably expected to go into the bullpen. Instead, he got his first start since 2007. Sandoval was the feature in any number of stories during spring training. The 32-year old has been working his way back up through the ranks of professional baseball since losing an eye in an accident a couple of years ago. Montoyo’s plan was to serve up a platoon of relievers to perhaps challenge the Bisons with diversity. It worked. Holding those guys to just three hits is a major achievement.

Meanwhile, every Bull got at least one hit (Leslie Anderson had four). They batted around in two innings. Along with their 9 singles they had four doubles, two triples (!), and a home run.

Outside the game —

• Looks like Rays prospect Jose Sale has managed to single-handedly derail his career though social media.

Bulls Hitters

We last looked at the Bulls hitters on May 12. Pretty significant changes since then. Remember wRAA represents Weighted Runs Above Average and wOBA represents Weighted On Base Average. Both measures give a good glimpse of a player’s contribution to the team. What’s worth noting is that only one player’s numbers show much of a drop, Mike Fontenot. Nevertheless, the wRAA number is positive. Rich Thompson’s numbers are slightly disturbing; however, his 16 stolen bases and glove more that make up for it, especially since he seems to be coming out of a long slump (back on 5/12, his wRAA was -9.0, now it’s -7.5, so very improved along with his wOBA).

Player	Age	PA	wRAA	wOBA	Change
Vince Belnome	25	186	16.5	.445	.048
Leslie Anderson	31	191	7	.379	-.011
Wil Myers	22	214	5.1	.363	.011
Jason Bourgeois	31	179	4	.361	.058
Chris Gimenez	30	140	1.8	.349	.010
Brandon Guyer	27	178	2.2	.348	.006
Shelley Duncan	33	78	0.4	.339	NA
Mike Fontenot	33	153	0.2	.335	-.052
Tim Beckham	23	168	-0.6	.328	.021
Cole Figueroa	26	176	-2.2	.317	.026
Juan Apodaca	26	64	-2.1	.291	.078
Craig Albernaz	30	52	-1.8	.289	-.009
Rich Thompson	34	185	-7.5	.282	.042