Jersey Shore August 2012 in Review

In Jersey picked anytime to have their best month so far of the season it was August, especially after the subpar and sub .500 month they had in July.  Coming into the month they sat 1.5 games back of Chicago for the CL Wild Card spot and when things were said and done a 19-9 record pushed them to 1/2 up on the Machine.  The bats got hot scoring over 8 runs in 11 of their 19 wins and a 21 year old rookie won the CL Pitcher of the Month Award. 

Players of the Month

SP Jose Ramos: 5-1, 2.62 ERA, 2CG, 1.12 WHIP.  Wow, Ramos went from big time prospect dominating AAA hitters to CL Pitcher of the Month faster than anyone could have expected.  With Jerry Burgess struggling, Ramos stepped in at the right time to pick up 7 wins in his first 10 starts and bring another formidable starter to the Jersey rotiation.

SP Art Ellis: 2-1, 1.95 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 37 K in 33.1 IP.  After having his worst month as a D-Bag in July, Ellis bounced back in a remarkable way.  The lone loss was against Toronto where he surrounded 4 ER, but didn't allow more than 1 in any other start for the rest of the month.  He even picked up a no decision against Vista allowing 0 ER.  If Jersey is going to find their way back to the playoffs this year, Ellis will be a main cog in getting them there in September.

2B Mike Bryant: .363/.406/.552. 3HR, 29RBI, 42 hits, 9 2B.  Familiar face this season.  While the power dipped a little bit for Bryant in August, the hits kept on coming.  His 4th 40 hit month, 4th month to have more RBI than games played and scored a season high 31 runs for the month.  This is the dream season for Bryant, if he can keep it up BSA records will fall.

1B Matt Doyle: .355/.430/.645. 8HR, 30 RBI, 39 hits, 8 2B.  Welcome back Matt Doyle! After a summer swoon which saw Doyle hit for .238 and .255 with 6 combined HR for the months of June and July, Doyle found that stroke he had in May and much of his rookie year bashing 16 XBH, his 2nd 30+ RBI month and a glimpse of how devestating the 3-4 holes in the Jersey lineup can be with he and Bryant are both clicking.

Questions, Concerns and Answers

The main concern heading into September is will this team make the playoffs?  Both Chicago and Jersey are playoff caliber teams and both could win 95-100 games this year with one being left at home. 

Will Jerry Burgess be given his rotation spot back? Since his demotion to the pen, he has only pitched 6.1 IP but only has given up 1 ER in that time span.  He also struck out 10, compared to 4 BB.  The control has been the issue for him much of this season.  While Goodship and Shaefer have not been terrible, they haven't put up numbers bad enough to be replaced in the rotation.  Plan on seeing Burgess get a spot start or two, or more if Jersey can take the lead in the WC race.

September is a time for call up but since we have seen Ramos, Schroeder and Torres is there anyone else we might see during the month?  I don't think we will be seeing any more rookies, but catcher Duran will be off the DL as well OF Jose Ortiz, plan on seeing both back.  We will probably also see OF Duncan and OF Kino come back up to be bats off the bench.  There is an outside chance of seeing a rookie pitcher, for depth.  If I had to guess MR Zong, Lara or Cortez could be given a couple of September innings.

Minor Leaguers of the Month

Pitcher
MR Bernardo Pacheco (AAA):  1-0, 1 save, 0.63 ERA, 1.12 WHIP.  While pitching mainly middle relief and set up for Tuscaloosa, Pacheco was money in his 14.1 IP in August.  He allowed 1 ER, which was on a solo HR and tallied 13 K to only 3 BB.  Pacheco, 28, is in his 4th year at AAA and each year his ERA has gotten lower.  He will be 29 next year, and if he becomes a minor league free agent, he could catch on somewhere and help a bullpen.



Hitter

1B Tadahisa Kisuki (AA): .408/.487/.582. 3 HR, 27 RBI, 40 hits.  Signed in April 2015 out of the free agent pool, the 20 year old is really picking it up since he his subpar play in A ball last year.  He crushed A pitching this year, and August was his best month playing in AA Gainesville.  While he doesn't hit for a lot of power, the gap is there totally 37 2B between the two levels while hitting over .350.  There's a good chance he will get the promotion to AAA before the year is over.  At only 20 years old the kid could see the show before a lot of players his age are even out of college.