Jersey Shore - September 2012

Even though with the end of September we saw our D-Bags fall short of their first playoff spot, we did see another good month in September.  After a rocky start the D-Bags went on a middle of the month run and finished up with a 16-11 record for the month.  This marked their 4th straight winning month and in those months they played at a clip of .630.  If they would have played that well in April and May this team would have won 102 games.  Disappointing end to a magical run, but encouraging moving forward.

Players of the Month:

SP Jose Reyes: 3-2, 1.75 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 30 K's.  The season will be marred with "what-if's" for Reyes.  After suffering an injury last season which kept him out until the middle of June he rejoined the rotation and was the staff's best pitcher.  After 3 sub-par starts at the end of August, Reyes re found the magic in September winning 3 of his 5 starts and lasting into the 7th inning 4 times out of 5 tries.  A little more run support and help from the bullpen and he could have been 5-0.  Regardless he is a big reason that Jersey came so close this year to their first playoff berth.

MR Ciro Roghi: 1-0, 1.08 ERA, 8.1 IP.  Though 8 innings in a month is a small sample size, 1 ER in relief for the month is why he has a role on this team. Roghi finished up a fabulous rookie year with 2nd straight POTM award.  He allowed 1 ER in his last 17.2 IP.  Look for this lefty to be a staple in the pen for years to come.

MR Alonso Jiminez: 0.00 ERA, 9 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 K:  Where did this kid come from??  Jiminez was Jersey's 2010 3rd round draft pick out of Michigan, and just two years later he was an intricate piece of the D-Bags late season bullpen.  He started the year dominating AA ball, moved to AAA Tuscaloosa posting big numbers and earned a September call up.  He racked up a 5.5 VORP in just 9 outings and it's looking like he could add to Jersey's already lethal bullpen.

3B Parker Morrow: .326/.391/.484. 4 HR, 13 RBI, 16 R, 2 SB.  Morrow capped his best season as a D-Bag with his 2nd best month and 2nd POTM award of the 2012 season.  This month included 7 multi-hit games including 4 with at least 3 hits.  He also had his first multi-HR game of the season on the 4th against Regina.  Morrow also picked up his 1000th VBL6 hit this month.  He finished the season with 1037 hits and only turns 28 this upcoming January.

LF Mason Bonniface: .313/.451/.438.  1 HR, 10 RBI, 18 BB.  Yes, that's right his OBP was higher than his SLG in the month of Sept. Bonniface's bat regressed this year and he had his worst season since his rookie year as a pro, but clogged the basepaths all month long.  Became the 25th player in league history to draw at least 104 BB's in a season.  Really bounced back after the beginning of the season saw him moved down in the lineup and had people questioning his talent.

2B Fred Ross: .378/.489/.595.  8 RBI, 9 BB, 1K, 4 SB.  Sure this screams small sample size considering he only played in 12 games, but filled a much needed void.  After trading 2B Nunez at the trade deadline to make way for uber prospect Antonio Ruiz, Ross was the fill in if needed and PR.  Antionio Ruiz gets injured and thrusted Ross into the starting position where he couldn't have done much better.  He hit the cover off the ball, hitting in 11 of the 12 games he played in Sept, and scoring in 7 of the 12. 

Roster Changes, Questions and Answers:

As always in September we see different new faces, some make a difference and some do not.  Alonso Jiminez stepped up from AAA to dominate out of the pen.  The loss of Antonio Ruiz allowed Fred Ross to step off and hit the cover off the ball.  Alex Torrez suffered a season ending injury mid-month and Rob Goodship jumped in to make two spot starts against Greenville and pitched brilliantly.  The kind of pitching that this team's front office thinks he can do in the future.

As always when a season ends means roster changes.  The team as a whole has 4 players whose contracts are ending and another 8 players who will be arbitration eligible when the season is over.  It will raise some interesting questions the team must make, especially considering the amount of talent this club has waiting in AAA this season.  This will be talked more in depth in the first off season report.  This wraps up the last monthly report for the 2012 season.  Look for our season in review report which will be out next month.

GO D-BAGS

Do or Die

September baseball for the Jersey Shore D-Bags has customarily involved seeing a lot of new faces in lineup and the younger players getting their so-called "cup of coffee" after the team had fallen out of the playoff race.  Welcome to exciting September baseball Jersey fans!  After the hottest month of baseball in Jersey history which saw our D-Bags erase a 10 game deficit in the division, September didn't start nearly as hot.  The 2nd week saw Jersey drop 4 of 5 making their big August run seem like merely a tease.  This was until this last week when Jersey took 3 of 4 from division foe Greenville and followed that with a 3-game sweep of Madison to position themselves closer a playoff spot than they have been all season.  

With 6 games apiece left in this 2012 season the Dent division has a 2-way tie for first place.  The Greenville 84's and the Pittsburgh Pirates are deadlocked with an 88-68 record.  Your Jersey Shore D-Bags sit one game behind them both with a 87-69 record.  The Wild Card Standings look exactly the same but add in the Oklahoma Droogies and their 87-68 record and you have 4 teams, 1  game apart vying for 2 playoff spots.  2 will move on, 2 will be left in the dust.  

The last week schedules look like this:

Greenville: JER, JER, JER, @MAD, @MAD, @MAD

Pittsburgh: @HAD, @HAD, @HAD, WHI, WHI, WHI

JerseyShore: @GRN, @GRN, @GRN, DNV, DNV, DNV

Oklahoma: @WHI, @WHI, @WHI, HAD, HAD, HAD, HAD

At first glance, the obvious series is the 3 game set between Jersey and Greenville.  A sweep either way will more than likely eliminate one of these teams.  A 2-1 win for Jersey would put them in a virtual deadlock with 4 games to play, this will be an interesting series, especially considering Jersey just took 3 of 4 from the 84's.  It will be a nerve racking week for 4 owners this week as Pocatello and Regina sit back and await who their first round matchups will be.  Even though Pocatello is the only TL team that has clinched, they still sit 2 games behind Pit/Grn for the 2nd playoff seed.  Regina has the 1 seed locked up. 

NEWS AND NOTES

In Jersey's current 5 game win streak, the bullpen allowed 0 ER in 10 IP.  The tentative pitching schedule for the D-Bags for their last 6 games would be Brito, Goodship, Bourg, Reyes, Hernandez and then with Brito getting the ball on the last day of the season.  Brito and Reyes have been the two best starters as of late, giving up 5 ER between the 2 of them in their combined last 6 starts.  Jersey has already set their franchise record for wins with 87, their previous high being 85 in 2010.  1B Derrick Wright was called up after his monster year in AAA and proceeded to get a single in his first VBL6 AB. David Pena needs 2 HR's to tie William Hinson for most HR's in a season by a D-Bag with 30.  Jose Brito could set a Jersey Shore record for wins in a season at 15, if he can win both of his starts.  Mason Bonniface became the only D-Bag ever to walk 100+ times in a season.  Parker Morrow became only the 11th player in VBL6 to record 1000 career hits earlier this month.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore - August 2012

AUGUST!  What's there to say, except the Bags kicked some ass!  The D-Bags had a VBL best 21-7 record for the month August, which is the franchise's first 20 win month in it's history.  They went from being a seller at the deadline to thick in the mix of the playoff picture in just a month.  This record was helped by good starting pitching and phenomenal job by the bullpen.  Jersey went 10-2 in 1-run games during the month of August, while the bullpen only allowed 15 ER all month long.  The Bags end August with a record of 74-61 and trail Pittsburgh by 2 in the division and Greenville by 2 games for the WC.  There are 26 games left in the regular season and 7 of them will be against Greenville.

Players of the Month:

SP Hector Hernandez: 4-1, 3.19 ERA, 1.18 WHIP.  In his first month as a D-Bag, Hernandez thrived.  He pitched 4 quality starts, winning 4 of his first 6 starts with his new ballclub.  The same amount of wins he had in 13 starts with Orlando while pitching with almost half of the ERA.  

MR Jamie "Mungo" Saenz: 1-1, 2 Saves, 1.66 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 21.2 IP, 24K.  Mungo continued his spectacular season with a great August.  The bullpen really came through and Saenz was a big reason why.  Pitching in the setup role with Dog Pound, the two made the road to CL Morris as easy one stopping several rallies.  He even contributed by going 2+ innings 5 times during the month.  Jersey will need him to come up big down the stretch run with Lucas, Huerta and Roghi all battling injuries.

MR Jose "Dog Pound" Gomes: 4-0, 1 Save, 1.38 ERA, 1.08 WHIP.  For the 3rd month in a row Dog Pound receives a POTM award. He tied with Hernandez for the team lead in wins with 4, he allowed 1 ER in 14 appearances and lowered his season ERA to 1.98 on the season.  If Daniel Morris wasn't on the team he would be the closer no doubt, but with Morris, these two make one of the, if not the best 1-2 bullpen punch in baseball.

1B David Pena: .292/.341/.496  6HR 19 RBI. After winning a POTM award in June, Pena slumped in July and finished with only .202 BA and 9 RBI.  He bounced back in a big way in August leading the team in HR with 6, bringing his season total to a team leading 25.  He has also been tremendous in the field at 1B.  In 1060 chances he has yet to commit an error.

OF Ramon Taverez: .288/.351/.500 4 HR 21 RBI 17 R.  This shouldn't come as a surprise after hearing about him so much this month.  He earlier won the TL POTW award and didn't stop hitting after that.  Even after being moved from 1st to 4th to 5th in the lineup order his bat never cooled down.  He led the team in RBI for the month with 21 and 2nd on the team in runs for the month.  In Jersey's big win against Oklahoma on the 23rd he hit a go-ahead and eventually game winning 3-run homer in the 14th inning.  Finishing 4-7 with 4 RBI.

Roster Changes, Questions and Answers:

As we enter September the rosters are expanded from 25 to 40 men which will lead to some interesting roster changes.  There is no doubt a few arms will be called up.  Injuries have Carl Lucas out for the remainder of the season and German Huerta will miss the first 2-3 weeks.  In the first game of September Ciro Roghi felt soreness in his wrist and is listed as day-to-day, but an injury like this could linger for up to 2 weeks.  Look for names such as Gabriel Barrentez, Marv Williams and maybe Alonso Jimenez, the former 3rd round pick, to get a shot, as he has shot up from AA and looked amazing. 

Antonio Ruiz still has 11 days left on the DL with his wrist injury so look for Fred Ross to get more time at 2nd, and there has been rumors that Mike "Coffin" Bryant could possibly get a call up, but he is currently not even on the 40 man roster.  Stay tuned.  Other batters we could and will probably see up are OF Michael Lee, would bring great defense and speed to the bench.  We might even get to see the VBL debut of Derrick Wright who is hitting the cover off the ball in AAA.  He came over in the William Hinson trade this past winter.  He is on pace to shatter the ITL record for RBI which is currently 145.  Wright sits at 141.

 

The big question remains can this team stay hot?  I don't think anyone expects them to stay as hot as they have been, but they do have 3 winning months in a row.  The pitching for once this month was phenomenal.  In 28 games, the staff gave up 4 runs or less 23 times, this is how you win ballgames.  Can this team complete the ridiculous comeback and make the playoffs for the first time?  Being 2 games out of the WC leading Greenville with 7 games left against them will lead to an exciting August.  Come out the ballpark and root on your D-Bags!

GO D-BAGS