Aaaaaaargh!

Ugly, ugly baseball at the DBAP.  Errors, wild pitches, unearned runs, and 2-9, 7-10 losses. What’s going on?

Recently I mentioned a concern of mine that has been amplified over these days: the Durham Bulls are playing lousy baseball. This is a fairly recent trend, most obvious in the last seven games (the last two nights have been especially awful, though). Take this locally-invented metric, the “UnEarned  Run Average,” unearned runs per 9 innings. That’s the ugly child of the Earned Run Average. This chart shows the last 7 games and the uERA’s growth from .526 to .576. 

Underneath that metric is the 11 errors, 7 wild pitches, 3 hit batsmen, and 10 unearned runs. The pain has been well-distributed among 5 players, but catcher René Pinto with 4 of the 11 errors, and infielder Jim Haley with 3, lead the error-committing group. Nor does the box score capture mistakes such as the pitcher not covering 1st base. 

I had hoped that by digging into the box scores I’d discover some modest redemption in the infield, but only 4 double plays in those 7 games. Then I looked at the players and there are some modest hints there. You see a fair amount of variety at each base. Over the 7 games: 3 different players at 3B, 3 at SS, 2 at 2B, and 3 at 1B. But that’s not to say that there wasn’t a “regular” at positions: Mostly Aranda at 1B (5 of 7), Mastrobuoni at 2B (5 of 7), and Bruján at SS (5 of 7). Who’s on 3rd? Haley, Gray, or Edwards. 

I’m leaving out a more proximate factor. Maybe Nashville has got the Bulls rattled.