The Durham Bulls in 2013 — Pitchers — Part 1

Twenty-six ballplayers pitched for the Durham Bulls in 2013. They ranged from stalwarts like J.D. Martin who appeared in 27 games and pitched 160⅓ innings or Kirby Yates who was in 51 games for 61⅔ innings, to young Austin Hubbard who pitched just ⅔ of an inning. The number of pitchers in a given year is highly variable at any level of baseball and this years seemed about normal. The Bulls had 25 pitchers in 2012, 33 in 2011, 25 in 2010, 34 in 2009,  and 27 in 2008. Some of those pitchers were position players brought in to finish a out-of-reach games and some were rehabbing major leaguers just passing through on their way back to the big leagues.

The table is sorted by innings pitched. Left-handed pitchers are marked with an asterisk (*). Players on the Tampa Bay Rays 40-man roster are marked with a dagger (†). We’ve only picked out a few key stats for the table. For more details, check out the Baseball Reference or Fangraphs pages. The chart at the end of the post pulls out just the innings pitched.

The starting rotation for the Bulls as 2013 began was Chris Archer, Alex Colome, Mike Montgomery, Jake Odorizzi, and Alexander Torres. Mike Montgomery went on the DL after his first 3⅔ inning appearance and J.D. Martin was moved into the rotation.

	Age	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	WHIP	FIP
J.D. Martin	30	16	4	2.75	27	27	160.1	1.21	3.62
Jake Odorizzi†	23	9	6	3.33	22	22	124.1	1.13	3.45
Mike Montgomery*†	23	7	8	4.72	20	19	108.2	1.46	4.35
Matt Buschmann	29	8	2	2.97	18	17	97.0	1.28	3.14
Merrill Kelly	24	8	4	3.19	15	14	84.2	1.28	3.47
Alex Colome†	24	4	6	3.07	14	14	70.1	1.31	3.48
Steve Geltz	25	5	3	2.82	41	0	67.0	0.88	3.48
Kirby Yates	26	3	2	1.90	51	0	61.2	0.97	1.97
Adam Liberatore*	26	5	3	3.58	43	0	60.1	1.24	2.42
Josh Lueke†	28	3	1	0.63	40	0	57.1	0.98	1.49
Chris Archer†	24	5	3	3.96	10	10	50.0	1.46	4.18
Cory Wade	30	4	1	2.17	30	5	49.2	1.11	3.68
Alex Torres*†	25	2	2	3.52	9	9	46.0	1.20	2.61
Jeff Beliveau*†	26	2	3	2.62	38	0	44.2	1.41	1.63
Jim Paduch	30	2	3	7.54	12	3	37.0	1.84	6.85
Frank De Los Santos*	25	1	2	5.34	26	0	32.0	1.59	4.51
Will Inman	26	0	2	6.47	21	0	32.0	1.66	6.17
Juan Sandoval	32	1	1	3.13	12	2	23.0	1.00	3.98
C.J. Riefenhauser*	23	2	1	3.05	17	0	20.2	1.11	3.49
Brandon Gomes†	28	0	0	2.61	9	0	10.1	0.77	2.33
Enny Romero*	22	0	0	0.00	1	1	8.0	0.75	3.45
Ramon Ramirez	31	0	0	2.84	6	0	6.1	0.95	1.46
Matt Moore*†	24	0	0	9.00	1	1	4.0	2.50	3.7
Craig Albernaz	30	0	0	0.00	3	0	3.0	0.33	1.87
Braulio Lara*	24	0	0	0.00	1	0	3.0	0.33	2.2
Austin Hubbard	25	0	0	67.50	1	0	0.2	10.50	13.7

2013 Durham Bulls Pitchers, Sorted by Innings Pitched

J.D. Martin (RHSP), as has been often stated here, was the leader of the starting pitching staff this year. His numbers are simply superb, but, as important, he was available every fifth day all year long, something that could not be said for any other starting pitcher on the team. That sort of stability is key to a team at any level, but possibly even more so at Triple-A ball. He won all sorts of awards this year, and deserved every one of them. He got a September call up for one day and accepted assignment back to the Bulls a day later. He is, or will become, a free agent, so it’s anyone’s guess on whether he sticks with the Rays system next year. He’s WDBB’s pitcher of the year. Stats.

Jake Odorizzi (RHSP) is likely one of the upcoming stars for the Tampa Bay Rays. In addition to being the Bulls’ #2 starter, he  appeared in 7 games with the Rays (29⅔ innings). His numbers are not spectacular, but they are certainly more than enough to make him look good for the future with the Rays. He was a September callup and it remains to be seen if he will be on the post-season roster(s). Stats.

Mike Montgomery (LHSP) was an instance of the Bulls being a place where a prospect works on his game — sometimes without a lot of success. Montgomery put in a lot of innings, but on a per game basis he rarely went long. He only pitched in one game before going on the DL early in the season. After his return in late May he made his turn in the rotation, but was rarely effective. Teams do not give up on left-handers with promise. He will probably be back next year and maybe deliver then. Stats.

Matt Buschmann (RHSP) is a surprising guy in a couple of ways. At 29 you’d think he’d be further along in his career path, but for now he was very, very good with the Biscuits and the Bulls this year. He came over to the Bulls at the end of May after the Rays had called up Archer and Torres, and Montgomery went on the DL, He is exactly the kind of guy WDBB likes. He carried the second best ERA among the regular starters. Looking back, we wish we’d written more about him. Terrific numbers. Kept the Bulls in the game. Won a bunch of games. Here’s hoping he’s back next year. Stats.

Merrill Kelly (RHSP) came over from AA Montgomery and pitched his first game on June 14. I’m looking forward to seeing how this young pitcher develops. He was the 5th man in a very solid end-season rotation. Fun to watch.  Stats.

Alex Colome (RHSP) did not have a good year, and I was surprised to see how many innings he pitched (70⅓). Early on he did have a great run of three games (5/13, 5/18, and 5/24). He was called up  to the Rays and started and won a game on May 30. He came back to the Bulls after that and appeared in 4 games before going back to Rays to appear in (and lose) two games. He came back to Durham not long after that, but was placed on the 60-day Disabled List in late June/early July before going back in the lineup. In tried and true Rays tradition, we have not heard a word since. Stats.
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click for larger chart

Continued in Part 2