2015 Jersey Shore Amateur Draft

2015 was a little different than 2014 where the D-Bags had 9 picks in the first 4 rounds.  This season they had two extra picks in the Supplemental round and a total of 7 picks in the first 4 rounds.  With the amount of players not being signed in recent years as well as the amount of compensation picks those picks which use to be in the 60's-70's are now 100+ which creates not the talent level it once did.


As it has been in the past, Jersey drafted heavy on hitting and heavy on college players. 10 of their 13 players were position players, many older.  Here's the breakdown:


Similiar to last year Jersey picked late in the 1st round, this year 25th overall.  They picked a college IF with this pick as they did last year as well, this time taking 22 year old SS out of U of Minnesota Fabrice Brodeur.  Brodeur is a rangy infielder with a big arm who projects as a SS or 3B with some time in the league.  Fabrice was having a fabulous 3 year career before a sudden drop in production his senior year.  Despite the drop across the board he still went 1st round. Fabrice will report to single A where Jersey hopes  he can work the kinks out of his swing.


In the supplemental round Jersey had 2 picks, picks from the losses of Gordon Brown and Marv Williams.  The 1st of the two was pick 10 in the supplemental round at 45th overall and with that pick the Bags selected CL Gerald "Top Dog" Johnson.  Johnson attended Rocky Point HS in NY and is a flame throwing lefty.  College closers don't see many innings, but in his 3 HR seasons Top Dog almost average 2 K's per inning.  Johnson will just add to the relief arms in Jersey's already well stocked stystem.


Their 2nd pick in the supplemental round came 10 picks later at 55th overall.  The pick was very similar to their last pick.  In fact not only were the players the same age, the attended the same High School.  The pick was local New Yorker 19 year old MR John Hall.  This right hander was downright filthy in his 3 years at Rocky Point and most notably his Sr. year.  In 28.1 IP he gave up 13 hits, walked 3 and struck out 50 on his way to an astounding 0.32 ERA and 0.56 WHIP.  He doesn't strike out as many as Top Dog but he has better control, if signed Jersey plans to send him to A ball.


With Jersey's 1st of 2 2nd round picks, compensation from Niagara Falls, the Bags selected 23 year old OF Juan Cabanas.  Cabanas, a local Jersey boy, played 3 years at Villanova and was drafted in the 2nd round and 64th overall last season by Kansas City and failed to sign.  Jersey took him 36 picks later this year. Cabanas hit .330 in 4 years at Nova and has good speed while and being an above average LF.


With Jersey's own pick in the 2nd round they took another 23 year old speedy OF from St. Johns, Caleb Farrell.  Farrell has a knack for stealing bases and some power.  He doesn't project to be a great major league hitter, but should hang on with his speed and defense.


In the 3rd round Jersey took another speedy college defender in UCLA 3B Michael Swanson.  Swanson has a big arm and his best attribute would be his power where he hit 35 HR in 3 seasons.  He does have a knack to strikeout and at 23 years old already, his time might be running short.


4th Round Pick: C Juan Salas, 24 year old college catcher from Pittsburgh.  Speed and good OBP player
5th Round Pick: 3B Jorge Perez, 24 year old 3B from Mississippi.  Power player, above average defender.
6th Round Pick: College OF Dale Sims.  Speedster, not much else.
7th Round Pick:  HS MR Michael Pitts.  Poor pitcher, won't last long.  Never posted an ERA below 5.00
8th Round Pick:  OF Flint Knight. College player, good speed and defense.
9th Round Pick: HS 3B Julio Manuel.  Big arm, good speed, not much with the bat.
10th Round Pick: SS Tony Tibbs.  Utility player, little talent.


Weird draft for Jersey, took a lot of older players.  High potential with the first 3 picks and not much more out of the rest of the draft.  Would be surprised to see half of them on the roster next year.  Don't be surprised to see at least 2 picks not get signed and Jersey to receive picks next year.

D-Bags make 2 trades: Bring in Burgess, Send Ruiz Packing

Burgess Trade

In 2 separate trades in the weening days of June, the D-Bags have again bolstered their rotation with an addition and sent a familiar face packing to the sunny state of California.

The big piece in the trades was bringing in SP Jerry Burgess from the El Paso Diablos.  Now over the past 2 seasons Jersey has brought in Dan Macias, Art Ellis and Jerry Burgess.  To get Burgess they had to dip into their deep talent-rich farm system to pull off the deal, but let's talk about Burgess first.

Jerry Burgess is a 28 year old left hander who stands at a statue tall 6'7" and will be calling Jersey his 4th home in just 5 seasons under his belt.  Drafted by Madison in the inaugural draft, he played his first 2 professional seasons there in 2011-2012 before being traded to Hendersonville where he would help them win a title in 2013.  He would be dealt at the 2014 deadline to El Paso in the Yokoyama deal and pitched a week short of a full season there before landing in Jersey today.

Burgess has a career record of 55-41, 4.20 ERA, and averages over 1K/IP for his career.  This year has been the worst so far as a professional, but Jersey brass has confidence that a change of scenery can help him turn it around.  

The deal was a 6-1 trade that included: SP Kenny Stanford who was struggling in his 2nd season as a D-Bag and is an impending FA this offseason.  32 year old SP/MR Justin Terry who has been a staple on the AAA staff for years now.  OF Harold Robinson, saw brief time last season in Jersey and should be on a ML roster but due to the D-Bags he found himself buried in AAA.  

The main real piece of this deal was 20 year old SP Ignacio Colon. The Cuban SP is in his 3rd season of AA and has improved on each one.  Scouts say that if he was coming out in the rookie draft this year he would be a Top half of the first round talent.  Also from AA OF Jorge Melendez, who has tremendous talent potential, who socked 24 HR in 370 AA AB's last season.  The last piece is MR Victor Lopez, 19 year old RHP, who projects to be a solid bullpen arm someday. 

A lot of pieces for 1 arm, but a move that Jersey hopes can help push them over the hump this year.  A rotation of Macias-Ellis-Burgess-Goodship-Schaefer is one the Jersey ownership claims is Top-5 in the league and should help us to our first playoff berth this season.

Ruiz Swap

IF Antonio Ruiz is one of the only remaining players on the Jersey franchise since the inaugural draft of 2010.  He was spending his 4th season in a Jersey uniform and earlier this season signed a very, very team friendly contract of 3 years and 1.98 million dollars.  Coming off a season where he hit 20 HR, this came as a surprise to many folks to see him packing his bags, but today Jersey announce they have sent Ruiz to the Vista Panthers in exchange for 2 minor leaguers.  

When GM Josh Swain was asked about why, he had this to say: "We have always like Mr. Ruiz in this organization.  We thought he signed a great deal for us, but we had some reservations.  While it rare to find a SS who can hit for 20+ HR, his batting average and OBP haven't been there over the past 2 seasons, which are two main components.  With bringing in Burgess, we now have 5 starters who are considered ground ball pitchers, and while Ruiz can play the MI positions, his strengths lie at 1B and 3B, which are currently occupied by Doyle and Morrow.  This combined with the fact we have a very, very good player in Alberto Perez who has been in AAA far too long without getting a shot, led to our decision to trade Antonio."

With Perez being demoted we can expect to see defensive specialist Marvin Taylor see time at SS against RHP and Adam Morrow being shifted to SS against LHP to allow Alberto Perez to play 3B.  We are also pretty sure that the play of former 1st round pick Lawrence Schroeder in AAA this year gave some insurance in case of disaster or injury.

In exchange for Ruiz, the D-Bags receive 2 18 year old players.  The 1st is SP Javier Garcia, whom Vista discovered and signed out of Mexico in 2013.  He is a workhorse who throws 6 pitches, the best being his fastball.  His movement is lacking in his game and Jersey plans on looking in and fiddling around with this in the offseason.  The other player is 18 year old OF Miguel Rosa whom the Vista Panthers discovered and signed out of Cuba in 2013.  Rosa is a speedy left hander who has 50+ SB in the last 2 seasons combined and projects with plus power.  He is still very raw with the bat and glove, but at only 18 years old, there is plenty of time to see him progress.

Garcia                     Rosa

Hopefully these 2 trades will reap the rewards and turn out to be wise decisions for the D-Bags this season and beyond.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore May 2015 in Review

May 2015 is in the books and your D-bags remain one of the streakiest teams in all of the BSA.  This might be the streakiest month though we have ever seen.  The D-Bags opened the month with high hopes with a tough schedule coming up and in the next 2 weeks managed to have the worst stretch in the team's history going 2-12.  This stretch included 6 1-run losses and bad play all around.  Losing much ground in the division and WC race, the Bags finish the month on a 13-1 run, which included closing out May on an 11 game winning streak.  What gives? What is going on?  Who knows, but here's the month in review.

Players of the Month

SP Rob Goodship 3-0 1.54 ERA 36K's 0.94 WHIP.  With Macias and Ellis on the staff who would have picked Goodship to be the best pitcher through the first 2 months?  He dominated this month giving up 6 ER total while ending the month with 22 straight scoreless innings.

MR Jaime "Mungo" Saenz 2-0 1.62 ERA 23K/2BB in 16.2 IP.  In a month where the bullpen got demolished in the first half of the season Mungo thrived.  Averaging almost 1.5K per inning he allowed the opposition to hit at a .182 clip and led the shaky bullpen.

1B Matt Doyle .299/.362/.335  8HR 34RBI 24R.  After a relatively slow start in April Doyle busted out in May.  Averaging more than a hit and RBI per game he led the offense in hits, HR, RBI and runs.  This is what to expect out of your MVP candidate and 2nd year superstar.

2B Mike Bryant .300/.371/.500 4HR 25RBI 22R.  When Bryant and Doyle hit the D-Bags thrive.  The two combined to knock in 59 runs in 28 games.  Bryant also added 8 2B and 3SB for the month.  He continues to show that his runner up for MVP last season wasn't a fluke.

3B Adam Morrow .317/.450 33H 25BB 22R.  This rookie continued to flourish hitting mainly out of the 2 hole.  His OBP of .450 is a godsend for the big boys behind him and had his 2nd straight 30 hit month.  The early talks of ROY hold merit, the kid can ball.  Won BSA CL Rookie of the Month for May.

RF Peter Larson .300/.463  82B 26BB.  Larson has such a good eye that he averaged 1BB shy of 1 per game.  When his bat is going an OBP of over 450 is never out of the question.  When Larson and Morrow both have a cominbed OBP over 450 is anyone surprised Doyle drove in 34 runs for the month?  He is the catalyst of this offense. 

Roster Questions, Changes and Answers

Thus far ::knock on wood::: the Bags have been injury free.  This creates little room for call ups and ABs for other players. We did see Rule V pick Jose Ortiz return from the DL after his spring training injury and hit 3-14 in limited action.  The Bags would like to see him get more AB's against RHP.  Super prospect CF Tim Duncan got a call up after the Bags struggled so much against LHP early in the season. Duncan who had been tearing the cover off of the ball in AAA pitching for the past 2 years had little success managing 8 hits in 37 ABs in 9 games getting 1 XBH hits and stealing no bases.  The 5th OF position has been a carousel looking for someone to take charge.

OF Taro Kino ripped up in AAA pitching as well with 11 HR hitting .404 with a .500 OBP, look for him to possibly get some BSA AB's this upcoming month.  Also we could see 3B Alberto Perez sometime soon, even though I'm not sure Jersey has a spot for him.  He had an astonishing 45 hits in just 27 games in AAA and is on pace for a monster season.  The 27 year old lost the battle to Adam Morrow in ST, but with the struggles of SS Marvin Taylor and 2B/SS/3B Antonio Ruiz, we could see Perez sooner than later.  

As the Bags end the month on an 11 game win streak all we can think is June plans on being another streaky one!  Let's hope the Bags can stay close in the division and WC so that elusive first playoff berth hopes will still be alive down the stretch!

GO D-BAGS!