Weeks 8 & 9: Doing OK

 

Top 8 of 20 Teams

The Nashville Sounds came to town in mid-May and the Bulls went 3-3 against them. Then the Bulls went off to Lawrenceville, Georgia and won 4 out of 6 there. Today they are in 4th place and come home 8 games back from the Norfolk Tides. Standings.

5/28: Week 9		Change
OPS	.771	-.019
ERA	4.76	-.22
WHIP	1.45	-.03
uERA	.613	-.035
Run Diff	-4	+4

This is a decent baseball team, just not the league-dominating team we've been used to around here. They rank 15th of 20 in OPS at .771, and 7th in ERA at 4.76. They've had a lot of roster turmoil (20 transactions since mid-month) that probably links back to the exceptional performance of their parent club, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are tearing up Major League Baseball (they just took 2 out of 3 against the LA Dodgers and have the best record of any team out there). 

Meanwhile, Norfolk is dominating the International League. 

Matchup

Jacksonville shows up for 7 games today (making up a rainout down in Jacksonville earlier in the year). They are not doing all that well, but their roster has also seen a lot of turnover.

Matchup: Bulls vs Jumbo Shrimp, May 29, 2023
As of May 28, 2023	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	uERA
Durham Bulls (Rays)	27-23	4	-4	.771	4.76	1.45	0.61
Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami)	23-26	14	-23	.759	4.99	1.52	0.59
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning; uERA-unearned runs per 9 innings

Umpires

Noticed that there was a 4-person crew down in Georgia. Seems only fair that we have another human on the field when the machine is calling the shots on the balls and strikes. I'd like to see more of the full crews, especially as we see all these base-stealing attempts.