2014 started and finished in true D-Bag fashion. After a 16-0 Opening Day loss in Dan Macias first ever Jersey Shore start, the season ended with the same Macias shutting out Greenville for his first career 20 win season and the first ever in Jersey history. The year contained 4 winnings months, including a 21 win September, 2 losing months including a 12 win August and finished with the D-Bags notched a team record 94 wins and falling 2 games short of their first playoff spot. This marked Jersey's 5th straight winning season where they have compiled a 440-370 record, good for a winning percentage of .540.
Before the season Jersey built arguably their most talented team with bringing in of Macias, the emergence of 2nd year up and comer Mike Bryant combined with a young core group of players in their 2nd or 3rd seasons. At the end of the year it was the veteran Macias combined with the bullpen on the pitching side and a young offensive core that drove Jersey's drive for a playoff spot. 5 of their 6 top offensive performers were all in their 1st or 2nd full season which creates an amazing buzz of hope for the future.
Unless you have been living in a cave, this is a no brainier. Not only did he finish near the top of the league in every category, Mike "The Monster" Bryant also shattered nearly every record in the Jersey Shore record book. His batting average of .329 bested the prevoius best by 1 point, his slugging percentage of .600 shattered the old record of .567 set by
Leon Foster. His offensive VORP of 72 best
Mason Bonniface's old record by 11.5, and his OPS was short that only of Bonniface's 2011 season. He also set team records for hits (209), runs (113), total bases (381), HR (37), and RBI (130). He won the CL player of the week award 3 times and player of the month award once. He was selected as a starter at the All Star game and finished 2nd in MVP voting only to Morales of the 84's. It was a season for the record books and it came in Bryant's full official season after playing 91 games his rookie year. What else does Bryant have in store for us?
Runner Up - Matt Doyle (see below)
Again like Bryant, another no brainier. This 34 year old who came over in a trade with Orlando in the off season found his youth again pitching his best season since the 2008 campaign. He became Jersey's first 20 game winner, the only 20 game winner in the CL, as well as the first Jersey starter to have an ERA under 4.00 for a full season, which he shattered by putting up a 2.82 ERA. 25 of his 36 starts were quality ones, including 2 shutouts and tying a career high of 227 strikeouts. Despite finishing 2nd in Cy Young Voting to "Prince" Clemente of Madison, Macias's WAR this season was 9th all time since the inception of the VBL/BSA in 2010, only trailing seasons by the names Hill and JTF. His VORP of 74.5 also ranks 9th all time. Both marks of those that Clemente posted, but it came down to the voters. The only categories Macias trailed Clemente eas ERA and WHIP, but led him in W, K, FIP, VORP and WAR but regardless Macias had an amazing season.
Although Goodship's season numbers do not scream anything positive, he did finish 14-14 with a 4.44 ERA. His overall season was a down step from his "rookie" year as a Jersey starter. But not everything was negative. Goodship won his last 7 starts in a row, beating 4 playoff teams in the stretch. His ERA for his last 12 starts was around 3.25 showing much promise on being a solid #2 on this staff. If he had pitched nearly that good earlier in the season we might be talking playoffs.
#Call Up Doyle becoming a trending sensation in the early goings of the season while Doyle ripped up pitching in AAA during the first month of the season. What Doyle did with the time he did have in Jersey was nothing less of sensational. He finished with a line of 33 HR 108 RBI with a slash line of .326/.389/.570 with a VORP of 51.2. He played 4 months in the big leagues and won the Rookie of the Month award for the CL 3 of those months. Despite leading all rookies in the CL in OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, HR, RBI,
BB and ISO he finished runner up in ROY voting to LuGo of Toronto.
Doyle also finished runner up to only LuGo in Avg, WAR, hits, runs and
total bases. Bryant and Doyle emerged this season as one of the most
feared duos in all of baseball. Combined they have played in only 380 games total, be prepared for the duo to bring fear to pitchers for the next decade.
In a trade just days before the season started, Jersey acquired Al Ryan from division rivals greenville in exchange for
MR Gabriel Barrentez. Ryan had showed some power promise hitting 16 HR in 294 AB for Greenville's AAA affiliate last season and figured to be a 4-5th bench spot. Ryan played in 90 games, getting 273 AB's and fully took advantege of them . He belted 20 HR combined with 50 RBI on way to a VORP of 12 giving Jersey another prominent lefty in their lineup. In a normal year Ryan probably would have been a ROY candidate.
The Off-Season
Entering the off season Jersey will be short 3 players due to free agency. Two of those players were acquired during the season in MR Gordon Brown and 3B David Paquette. Paquette had the biggest impact, playing in 42 games for the Bags after coming over from Indianapolis hitting 7 HR, driving in 17 RBI hitting .297 with an OBP of .355. The former All Star was asking for a big extension the Bags just couldn't sign at this point. MR Brown came over from New Orleans after pitching a very good season could never get it going with the Bags. In 19 appearances, he had an ERA arond 7.50. He does carry a B-level compensation pick if he is signed. The other FA the Bags are seeing leaving is MR Marv Williams. Marv continued his Jekyl and Hyde performances this year after throwing a very respectable year last year. Williams appeared in 14 games, sporting an ERA around 9.00 before tearing a muscle in his back ending his season.
With only the 3 vacancies and 2 25-man roster spots don't expect much FA talk from Jersey this off season. MR Jose Ruiz expects to challenge for the open MR slot in the spring and the combo of Adam Morrow/Alberto Perez plans to be a good one for the last spot on the offensive side of things.
Rumors have it that Jersey is deep in talks with a couple of clubs to acquire another starting pitcher to pair up with Dan Macias and Rob Goodship, but nothing has been announced yet. Stay tuned to the Bag Report for any moves, big or small upcoming the Jersey D-Bag world.
GO D-BAGS
The major news in the off-season is the addition of SP Art Ellis. Ellis pitched in Madison last year after 3.5 seasons in Hendersonville. He marks the first player ever to come play for the D-Bags who has a BSA championship ring from the current period, and he has 2. After an injury plagued season in Madison last year which held him to 23 starts, he is healthy and ready to be the #2 starter behind Cy Young runner up Dan Macias. This could be the 1-2 punch Jersey has been looking for in previous years. For his career Ellis has won 89 games while posting a 3.83 ERA.
