Week 7: Bulls Take the Series

The Bulls had a very good week against Memphis, winning 4 out of 6 games. That puts them in a three-way tie for third place in the 20-team International League. But several of the teams in contention are on a roll. Gwinnett, the team coming to town today, has won 8 in a row, Iowa has won 5 in a row; Jacksonville and Worchester are 8 of 10. We have just 6 weeks left in the season, so looks like things will have to sort themselves out soon.

The Bulls did just fine last week. They lost two important players, Curtis Mead and Osleivis Basabe, to the Rays (they are doing just fine up there) and kept on truckin’. And the pitching roster has been chaotic — 9 transactions involving pitchers in the last 7 days! 

Have to mention Jonathan Aranda’s back-to-back 2 home run games. Stellar performance. Can’t imagine his sticking around past September.

Overall, the Bulls outscored Memphis 41 to 35 and raised their 2nd-half run differential to +40, the best it's been all year. On the downside, they continue to lead the league in strikeouts, striking out more than 25% of the time.

Matchup

Matchup: Bulls vs Braves, August 15, 2023
As of August 13	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	Fld%
Durham Bulls (Rays)	23-16	3	40	.817	4.79	1.45	.977
Gwinnett Stripers (Braves)	21-16	7	28	.761	5.15	1.46	.985
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning;

The Bulls start a 6-game set against the Gwinnett Strippers today. From a pure stats perspective, the Bulls look pretty good, but Gwinnett has that 8-game winning streak (although 6 of those wins were against the hapless Charlotte Knights). Of equal importance is that of the 36 games left on the Bulls’ schedule, 12 are against Gwinnett. That is, one-third of the games left in the season will be against the Atlanta Braves franchise.