D-Bags May 2014 in Review

After a complete up and down month in April which saw the Bags finish at 15-13, May come and went and proved to be no different.  Wins followed by losses, hot streaks, cold streaks.  At one point they lost 7 of 8 to Kansas City, Seattle and Vista;  Only to come and win 7 straight starting with a sweep of Regina.  We saw good pitching, horrendous pitching and pretty much a lack of offense.  They finished the month 13-15 for an even 28-28 record for the season.

Players Of the Month

Though the team was up and down as usual a couple carried the team and those we call the POTM, and they are as follows:

SP Dan Macias, 2-2, 2.61 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 38 K's - Macias who had a horrendous start in a D-Bag uniform, Macias turned it around and pitched like the guy Jersey thought they brought over in the trade with Orlando.  The 33 year old statesman finished the month with a 2-2 record, for a 4-6 record overall.  If Jersey is going to compete for the division, he will be leading the pitching charge.

2B Mike Bryant, .343/.393/.713  10 HR, 28 RBI, 37 Hits - After a strong finish to 2013 Bryant is attempting to put himself in that "elite" category.  He broke out hitting 10 HR in the month, which was almost 40% of the teams total HR's for the month.  He leads the 2B category in almost every hitting statistic across the league.

1B Matt Doyle, .308/.417/.450  7 HR, 23 RBI - As if we haven't had enough DOYLE talk this season so far, he comes out in his first month with a bang and wins our POTM, but not only that.  He also took home the CL Rookie of the Month award for May as well.  The kid has a bright, bright future.

On a side note, we would like to congratulate rookie OF Al Ryan on being named the CL Player of the Week for the first week of May.  After a monster April he has really settled down.  He currently has 10 HR and 28 RBI on the season.

Roster Changes, Questions and Answers:

After such a puzzling start, May saw the Bags make a few moves.  The first and biggest of course being Matty Doyle being called up and Derrick Wright going to AAA.  Nothing major was done until the end of the month.  After Jersey lost 6 of 7, OF Bob Thomas, C Albert Lopez, 3B Alberto Perez were all sent to Tuscaloosa and called up in their places were OF Ramon Tavarez, C Tomas Gutierrez, and coming from the DL was Manuel Vazquez.

Injuries during the month plagued two D-Bag players as well.  CF Scott Powers fractured a rib while diving for a ball that set him back 4 weeks while 3B Parker Morrow strained his rotator cuff which also set him back 4 weeks.  both will be eligible to come back during the month of June at some point.  

As we look into June the Bags sit well behind the division leaders and the wild card, one has to wonder that if they fall further behind...will some moves be made?  With most of the AAA talent up at the big club, trades would be the option.  Will they be sellers?  Can they make a comeback and be buyers?  Will they clear up money on a very tight budget?  Only time will tell.  As we bid you adieu, we will make a prediction and say the Bags will bounce back and go 16-11 for the month and crawl back into this race.  

GO D-BAGS

7 Games. 7 Wins. Much Needed for Bags.

After a dismal first 3 weeks of May, the Bags traveled on the long flight from the Great Northwest to Regina after being swept by the Seattle Pikes.  The Bags (minus closer Daniel Morris) lost 2 games in the 9th inning and dropped Jersey to 6-14 for the month.  Bad pitching, bad hitting, bad fielding, bad everything led to this.  The Bags needed a spark, needed something.  If not their season might be over before June.  Something happened on that flight.  Maybe it was the lone player over the age of 30, Dan Macias standing up to the group of overly young players.  Maybe it was Mike Bryant the young up and coming superstar with words of wisdom.  No one will talk, but something happened.


After an off-day given by manager Kevin Davis, the team showed up fresh to face Regina, who boasted the 2nd best record in the CL.  The struggling Jerry Paige on the mound, who seemed to have lost his confidence as well as control as the season had carried on, pitched brilliantly.  It only took him 118 pitches to dominate the powerful Regina lineup.  He scattered 5 hits, walked 2 and struck out a season high 9 in his first career complete game and shutout.  Mike Bryant had his 4th multi hit game in a row, and drove in all 5 runs in a 5-0 victory in front of the hostile crowd of over 39000 people.  1 win.


Sometimes it only takes 1 thing to turn it around.  The next night after a shaky first inning Kenny Stanford settled in threw 8 strong innings as the offense took advantage of 2 Regina errors and 7 walks to power the Bags to a 6-3 victory. Rob Goodship took the ball in the series finale and tried to do his best Jerry Paige impression.  A 3 run 3rd inning would be enough as Goodship allowed 2 hits and  2 ER in going a strong 8 innings in a 3-2 victory. A sweep, 3 wins. 


The Bags took the red eye flight home as St. Charles came to town the very next day.  Macias took the ball and continued the streak of great performances turned in by Jersey starting pitchers.  A solo HR in the 3rd inning was one of the only 2 hits he would surrender, as he struck out 9 and the team welcomed back Daniel Morris who picked up his 9th save.  Every Bag had a hit except Antonio Ruiz and used small ball to win 2-1.  Jose Reyes took the ball the night of game 5 and continued the streak.  Though he gave up 8 hits, he only allowed 1 R, being unearned and struck out 8 through 7 1/3 before giving the ball to the pen.  But it was a night for the offense.  14 hits, 13 runs, 3 HR, 3 SB and 4 St. Charles errors led to a 13-2 romp and ran the win streak to 5.  Jerry Paige took the ball for the series finale and finished what he had started 5 nights ago.  He didn't quite match his shutout effort, but only allowed a lone sac fly in going 8 strong pitching the D-Bags to their 2nd second series sweep in a row, a 4-1 victory.  Back-to-back sweeps, 6 wins.


In a story there always needs to be some heroics.  This one has good performances, but no heroics.  Well welcome the Madison Bombers to town.  Division rivals.  Kenny Stanford took the ball and looked good through 2 innings when the Bombers said "what's up?"  Tommy Green capped a 5 run 3rd inning with a 3 run HR, which almost doubled the runs the Bags had given up in the 6 game win streak.  We forget the Bags do have a formidable bullpen.  Down 5-1, Brian White took the ball for the Bags.  2 walks, a FC and a passed ball made it 5-2 in the 4th.  Jose Gomes took the mound for Jersey in the 6th.  A single and a 2 run HR by Al Ryan in the 6th made it a 5-4 game.  Gomes handed the ball to Tapia mid way through the 7th. The Bags strand 5 combined runners in the 7th and 8th. Mungo comes in to get the last 2 outs in the 8th.  Back to back doubles by Romero and Doyle tie the game in the 9th.  An intentional walk to Al Ryan, a FC, a fly out and a game winning single by Manuel Vasquez.  The comeback.  The heroics.  7 wins.


GO D-BAGS

"The Doyle" Opens BSA Career With a Bang

Ever since Matt Doyle excelled in High School and got a scholarship to play baseball at Texas big things have been talked of him.  Being a team leader on the Longhorns for 4 years, and becoming the first (and still only) 4 year college player to hit over .400 for a career he has been humble.  After being taken in the first round, 18th overall by Jersey Shore and being called the 41st best prospect in the game the following season, he still didn't buy into the hype.  It took after the 2012 season for him to bust out.  2012 Doyle ripped up A pitching.  Was named the 38th best prospect before 2013 and hit AA pitching even harder than A pitching the year before.  It earned him a mid-season promotion where he took AAA by storm hitting over .380 in 45 games.  

It wasn't until before this current season Doyle realized what was happening.  He was named the #1 overall prospect by OSA.  At the age of 24, questions arose what the club would do with Doyle.  Bring him up or let him play in AAA.  A grassroots campaign started on the social media engine Twitter and swept the nation under hashtag #BringupDoyle.  None the less, not a peep was heard from Doyle and he "quietly" went about his business and posted a line of .424/.481/.685 during the month of April in 23 games, not to mention 8 2B, 4 HR and 19 RBI.  With production like that, a call up could not be ignored.  On May 1st, Doyle was promptly called up to the big leagues.

He was inserted into the middle of the lineup and his first 6 games, started with a 6 game hitting streak.  In those 6 games, he had two 4 hit games and hit 3 HR.  By the end of his first week in the big leagues, his jersey was sold out around the East Coast.  And though he didn't keep up his torrid pace through his first 22 big league games, he has played excellent. He has a line of .305/.388/.561 combined with 6 HR, 15 RBI and 13 BB.  The combination of him and 2B Mike Bryant, who is busting out, make them one lethal 3-4 combo, and could be at some point one of the better combos in the game.  Hopefully we have only seen a glimpse of what is coming to be known as simply "The Doyle."

GO D-BAGS