Matthew Doyle had high hopes coming in 2016. A year after leading the CL in HR in his first full season he eyed improvement and so far this year he has come up short. For him the numbers are down across the board, for any normal player it's still a stellar season, but playing in his 3rd year in the pros it's been a small disappointment. Though on August 9th, 2016 he had something to celebrate. Doyle become the 2nd D-Bag player in franchise history, and this season, to reach the 100 HR plateau.
In officially his 1537th AB, Doyle took Vista SP Michael Hoffmeyer deep in the 4th inning to give Jersey a 3-0 lead and officially his 100th career HR. It was a line drive shot Doyle pulled and whizzed by the foul pole landing an estimated 352 feet from home plate. As Doyle rounded third celebratory fireworks filled the skies at the Ballpark at the Shore and Doyle was first greeted by fellow superstar and best friend Mikey Bryant who had doubled in his previous AB. It was Doyle's 2nd career hit and 1st career HR off of Hoffmeyer, who he had been 1-5 against previously for his career.
Doyle needing only 1537 AB's, or 15.37 AB/HR, compared to all-time HR leader John Crowe who has hit 16.04 AB/HR in his career. Not that it means anything, nor that Doyle will ever reach Crowe who has nearly 4 times the HR at this point, but a nice point of reference for the 27 year old. Doyle in only his 3rd year sits only behind Bryant for HR in a D-Bags uniform. Bryant currently sits at 125, while at the time of this publication Doyle sits at 103. If Doyle is going to repeat as CL HR king, he will have to get hot late. Bryant and rookie Domingo Cardona currently lead the CL with 33 HR apiece, while Doyle sits at 26 with only 40 or so games left to go in the season.
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