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