Revisiting Old Trades; Part 1

With the commish dealing with personal issues and a lull in the league I thought I would create a new series revisiting some of the bigger trades we have seen in the league's past.  After looking over some of the proposed trades to look at I have decided I want to focus on trades that happened AT LEAST 2 plus years ago.  A lot of the big trades included prospects at the time and some might still be hard to analyze if they are still raw and haven't matured yet.  Today we visit 2 trades.  The first being between the Hendersonville Hitmen and the Quebec Les Capitales (Cleveland) and the Sacramento Mentalists (Los Cabos) and the Springdale Dynamos (Greenville).

Before I start I want to say I am using MY TEAM SCOUT for all historical scouting reports.

Trade 1:

3/2/2012 (5 years, 6 months ago): Hendersonville receives RF Luis Padilla, SP Mal Windham and $5M in cash from Quebec (Now Cleveland) in exchange for SP Carlos Arevalo, MR Tomomi Sanu, SP Jack Wolochow, and CF Jesus Carrillo.

Everyone knows 2012 was a different time and era for the BSA.  Quebec finished with one of the worst records in the league in 2011, losing 106 games.  Hendersonville won 109 games in 2011 after being ousted by surprise Long Beach who went on to win the championship.  

To Hendersonville:

RF Luis Padilla - 21 years old. 2.5/4.5*  400K

SP Mal Windham - 24 years old. 3.5/4* 400K

$5,000,000 in cash

To Quebec:

SP Carlos Arevalo - 26 years old. 4/4* 1 year, $7.25M

MR Tomomo Sanu - 25 years old. 4/4* 1 year, $5.275M

SP Jack Wolochow - 27 years old. 1/1* Unknown

RF Jesus Carrillo - 29 years old. 1.5/1.5* 1 year, $1.7M

On the surface it looks like kind of a head scratcher for Quebec.  They were by far the worse team, traded the 2 younger players both under team control AND gave $5 million dollars and took on 3 players who had just hit arbitration for the first time.  While Padilla wasn't what he was today, nor did scouts have him as a monster prospect he still had the most talent in the deal.  But like I said on the surface isn't always what "wins" the trade or gets the better end.  Arevalo was coming off a very nice season for the Hitmen while Windham got quite shelled in his rookie season, even though it seems he was called up a little early having never played past AA ball before. Sanu was also one of the better relievers in 2011.

2011 stats:

Padilla:  .337/.486/.590   83 AB, 5 HR, 17 RBI. (Rookie season)

Windham:  4-23, 6.62 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, 5.81 FIP, 115K, 105BB in 178 IP.

Arevalo:  14-10, 3.62 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 4.37 FIP, 184K, 70BB in 203.1 IP.

Sanu: 8-2, 1 save. 2.23 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 3.61 FIP, 81K, 27BB in 72.2 IP.

Wolochow: 2-3, 5.45 ERA, 1.56 ERA, 5.63 FIP, 58K, 34BB in 74.1 IP. (with OKL & SF)

Carrillo:  .231/.315/.387.  186AB, 13 2B, 4 HR, 28 RBI, 24 SB.

On the surface HEN gets the young talented rookie slugger and a talented pitcher (ratings wise) while Quebec gets a quality starting pitcher, quality reliever, a 4th OF type and throw in Wolochow.  The main part of the trade is my mind is the Hitmen lost almost 19M off their bottom line before the 2012 season where they would have a payroll of 123M, one of the largest we have ever seen in the league and lose $36M for the season.  The money cut was well needed.

Let's see how they fared after the trade:

Padilla: 6 years, 139 HR, 516 RBI, .308/.408/.493 (Still on HEN)

Windham:  1 year, 10-9, 5.17 ERA, 1.46 WHIP,  5.33 FIP (Traded to GRN)

Arevalo: 1 year, 4-11, 6.50 ERA, 1.64 ERA, 5.10 FIP, 98K, 54BB, in 106.2 IP (Traded back to HEN)

Sanu: 6 years, 22-10, 17 saves, 475 K, 407.5 IP, 3.27 ERA

Wolochow: 1 year, 1-2, 5.91 ERA, 1.64 ERA, 4.79 FIP, 19K, 13BB

Carrillo:  2 years, .180/.278/.281, 18 2B, 6 HR, 46 RBI, 20 SB (Released)

In the end, Padilla has been far and away the best player becoming one of the best all around bats in the league.  At the time no one could have seen it coming. The only player of value ended up being Sanu for Cleveland who has been an above average reliever for the Monsters for 6 seasons now.  SP Arevalo was traded back to Hendersonville 4 months later, where again Quebec gave up money...and a lot of it, $10 million in cash along with shut down bullpen arm Oliver Donahue in exchange for CF Ingo Backx and 2B Bryce Hester.

At the end of the season the trade ended up looking like this:

RF Luis Padilla

MR Oliver Donahue

SP Mal Windham

$15M in cash

MR Sanu

SP Wolochow

RF Carrillo

CF Backx

2B Hester

While Hester and Backx ended up being BSA players, one word for this debacle for Quebec was ouch.

Trade 2:

1/13/2012 (5 years, 8 months ago) Springdale (Now Greenville) receives LF Stan Hickman, SP Ron Eager, CF Augusto Grinaldo, SP Ramon Cruz, MR Jesus Salazar, C Carlos Martinez from Sacremento (Now Los Cabos) in exchange for RF Arturo Morin and MR Javier Martinez.

In 2011 both teams struggled finishing 3rd and 4th in their respective divisions.  Stan Hickman had been picked with the 9th overall pick in the 2011 amateur draft and SP Eager was coming off a shaky sophomore year.  At 31 years old Morin had a monster year in 2011 (and the last time he would get over over 350 AB) and had just signed a 3 year deal making an average of $12M per season.  It was the simple case of trading good young players for at the time a superstar caliber player.

To Springdale:

LF Stan Hickman, 22 years old, 1/4*, MLC

SP Ron Eager, 22 years old, 4/4*,  1 year $8.5M

CF Augusto Grinaldo, 21 years old, 1.5/1.5*, MLC

SP Ramon Cruz, 27 years old, 1/1*, MLC

MR Jesus Salazar, 24 years old, 1.5/2.5*, MLC

C Carlos Martinez, 23 years old, 1/2.5*, MLC

To Sacramento:

RF Arturo Morin, 31 years old, 4.5/4.5*, 3 years, $12M per year.

MR Javier Martinez, 28 years old, 4.5/4.5*, 1 year, $5.32M

On the surface here Sacramento gets the superstar and a very good middle reliever coming off 2 very good seasons in a row, but pays the price taking on almost $10M dollars and giving up the two very valuable pieces in Hickman and Eager.  Interesting at the time and 6 years later, still interesting to see how things turned out.

2011 stats:

Eager: 5-14, 5.15 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, 4.65 FIP, 131K, 63BB, 173IP

Hickman, Grinaldo, Cruz, Salazar and Martinez had yet to see the Major League Club

Morin: .303/.412/.502, 30 2B, 28 HR, 123 RBI, 140 OPS+

Martinez: 5-3, 5 saves, 3.12 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 3.84 WHIP, 97K, 23BB, 89.1 IP

What's not to like about those numbers?  A middle of the order hitter and a middle relief/set up man both at ages where they should be in their prime.  Eager, 22 at the time, was probably pre maturing brought up to the majors and was taking his lumps and the rest were just young minor league players at that point.

Let's see how they fared after the trade:

Hickman: (5 years): .281/.378/.472, 80 HR, 298 RBI.  (Still on team)

Eager: (4.5 years): 51-33, 4.08 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 518K , 248 BB, 696.9 IP (Traded to LA)

Grinaldo: (1.5 years): .260/.344/.379, 436 AB, 19 2B, 11 HR, 58 RBI ( Traded to STL)

Cruz: (1 year): 1-1, 7.04 ERA, 2.05 WHIP, 5.52 FIP, 30.2 IP (Released)

Salazar: (1 year): 1-2, 7.79 ERA, 1.85 WHIP, 6.72 FIP, 17.1 IP (Claimed on Waivers by ORL)

Martinez: Never played (Traded to MAU)

Morin: (4 years): .271/.359/.435, 38 HR, 192 RBI, 1135 AB (Retired)

Martinez: (2 years): 9-7, 29 saves, 3.55 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 160K, 46BB, 135.2IP (Traded to BAF)

What a direction this trade took!  In the following 20 months after the trade, Morin missed 7+ with multiple injuries which ended up derailing his career.  He never came close to matching the numbers he put up with Springdale and last played in 2015 hitting an abysmal .186 before retiring.  Martinez was a quality closer for a year then was moved to middle relief before being sent to Baffin in a 9 player deal.  He played 1 season there before retiring at the age of 33.

Looking at it from the view point of Sacramento, things could have been a lot worse.  Hickman, while very talented, has also been ravaged with injuries, only seeing 400AB twice in his 5 year career, but still putting up solid numbers the last 3 years, is only 28 years old, and on a very team friendly contract.  Eager had a solid run with Greenville before being traded to LA which netted them stud MR Hassan and current 23 year old catcher and ROY candidate Chris Moore which looks to be the real deal.  Grinaldo and Martinez were both pieces in bigger deals that brought the 84's CF Perez and SP Manning.  Cruz and Salazar were both basically fillers that never amounted to anything for Greenville.

This turned out to be quite the bust for Sacramento. Making the playoffs in 3 of Morin's 4 years with the team, if he could have stayed healthy who knows if LCC could have advanced further in the playoffs.  Not only did it hurt by him not playing up to expectations, it seems to be the trade that keeps on giving for Greenville.  Both players they traded are long retired and to show for it they have Stan Hickman in his prime,  23 year old stud Catcher Moore, 28 year old stud MR Hassan on their roster now and pieces that helped them getting Manning and Perez.  

This is an example of the repercussions a trade can have when a group of young players are traded for a veteran trying to put a team over the top.  If one of the players going to Springdale would have flopped and declined there were 5 more who could have made an impact.  Morin's injuries and decline killed the deal for Sacramento and leaves LCC sitting here 5+ years later wondering what might have been.

GO D-BAGS

Prestige is on the Line in the Most Important Race Left of the 2017 Season

With only 15 games to play in the 2017 season we have a few intriguing races still to be played out.  As emotions are riding high, managers losing sleep and players with flailing nerves only the best will stand out and take over.  One race imparticular has a few new contenders.  Over the last couple seasons two teams have dominated this race, in fact for the last 3 years these teams have finished 1-2 in the race.  We want to congratulate Terrance and Terry for finally using that talent of draft's past to improve the team and leave the race for the #1 pick. (Although Terrance Knights are only 4 games up on the current #1 seed, we feel that is a big enough margin for him to stay out.)  We will highlight our top 3 contenders, break down the teams and see who has what it takes to secure BSA's worst record and the right to first pick in the 2018 amateur draft.

First off let's identify the Top 3 and they are according to record at this point:

Niagara Falls Frenzy 49-98

Irvine Gang Green 50-96

St. Charles Sheens 51-95

The Frenzy have 15 games left to play while the other two still have 16 games to go. Here's how the schedules break down:

NFF: 3 vs LAB, 3 @ IRV, 3 vs NYK, 3 @ORL, 3 vs CLV               

IRV: 1 @BAF, 3 @MAU, 3 vs NFF, 3 @LAB, 3 vs SNF, 3 vs LCC

SCS:  1 vs REN, 3 @SEA, 3 @KCY, 3 @POC, 3 vs TOR, 3 @GRN

NFF has the easiest schedule coming in with an average winning percentage of .472 while both IRV and SCS opponents are over the .500 mark at .515 for SCS and .525 for IRV.  St. Charles will also play the most games on the road with 12 of their final 16 games come away from home.  

Niagara Falls

After 74 wins last year and some good young players, NFF looked prime to compete, after disastrous April and May that was shot to hell.  It seems the young pitchers, both starters and relievers, were held back and a patch work rotation of veterans shouldered the load.  In fact at this point in the season the pitching staff has 9 members who are over the age of 30 years old, a staff that is dead last in almost every category in the NL.  The starting rotation features 4 starters who have lost over 14 games including former 16 game winner Allan Landry who has lost an impressive 18 of his 21 starts this season.

NFF seemed to have a leg up on the #1 pick up through August.  Pitching was terrible.  The veteran bats were terrible.  Former super spec and 2nd year man Bernardo Guzman was sub par, and then August hit.  The Frenzy had a winning record at 15-13.  Phillips and Guzman combined for 15 HR.  JJ's freaky bunch was winning.  They are currently 4-7 in September, Benny McCafferty is coming off a Player of the Week award and they have the easiest schedule remaining of my contenders.  While they have a bright future, what will the next 15 games bring?

Irvine Gang Green

First year owner Larry Rice knew he didn't have much to work with when he moved the franchise from El Paso to Irvine following former owner Michael Flaherty's jump to greener pastures taking over the San Fransisco franchise.  A new ballpark, much bigger than the bandbox this team was use to in El Paso created more of a pitching environment instead of the big offensive teams of the past.  What he did have is a young 21 year old ace in Etienne Garcia and a powerful ROY candidate in Alden Lindsey, after the it was murky.  After a terrible June, Irvine has seemed to be neck and neck with the Frenzy, and they also had a good month in August going 12-16 to keep pace with the "hot" Frenzy.  

The currently have the hardest remaining schedule, facing 7 games with playoff teams.  Unlike NFF they have called up a few top prospects.  Those include former 7th overall pick Jose Esparza and SP Ignacio Colon, who was the main piece in sending Jerry Burgess to Jersey Shore in 2015.  Irvine has been active on the waiver wire this year as well, probably most notably getting former Baffin closer Razor Ramon for free who has thrived as the closer since coming over.  Will Irvine play playoff spoiler and upset a few contenders or will they fall by the way side and slide into the #1 pick? Only time will tell.

St. Charles Sheens

This was a team who was just 81-81 two years ago. They finished 2nd to only division winner Seattle and a core of Fred Jones, Phil Lindsey and Dominque Marquis seemed to be set up for a good future.  Fast forward 2 years and this team is on the verge of 100 losses, Fred Jones fell apart, Lindsey is on the shelve with a long injury and has been a shell of his former self and the Sheens are looking toward a younger generation.  The interesting things about the Sheens in the race is they weren't even on the radar until a 7-23 August helped them gain an astronomical 9 games on Niagara Falls and put them right in thick of things.  

The Sheens late season schedule sees them have games with 1 for sure playoff team in Greenville, one playoff contender in Seattle and the under achieving yet still loaded Toronto team.  The Sheens have been good about keeping young talent and have a system littered with some very nice pieces to compete in the future.  Currently on their major league team are a trio of players they obtained in the Gillberto Montano trade that happened in 2014.  The speedy John Meldelson has done an adequate job filling in for the entire injured outfield.  While he might not be ready yet 15 steals and 34 extra base hits in 323 at bats isn't anything to sneeze at.  Top SP prospect 23 year old "Ratchet" Moreno was called up this month to fairly terrible results but the talent is there.  1B 22 year old Alfredo Rivera has broken out this year with 13 HR on way to a 22.5 VORP and currently hits clean up.  Will the trio help the team win games or just get that valuable experience for the future?  

All 3 are interesting teams who all have a shot at the prestigious prize.  Who will get it? Stay tuned.

Mike Bryant August 2017; The Best Month......Ever?

We have seen a lot out of Mr. Mike Bryant in what is almost a 4.5 year BSA career.  Last year we saw the league's only 2nd Triple Crown.  In 3 full seasons he has finished 2nd, 2nd and 1st in MVP voting.  We have seen him rise to the top of the ranks in almost every category in Jersey Shore history and start climbing the all-time ranks in BSA history.  He has won the Player of the Week award 11 times and Player of the Month Award 6 times and been named to the CL All Star team all 4 seasons now that he has been eligible.  That is a lot of accomplishments, but did we just see the best month a hitter has ever put up in BSA history? Let's break it down.

Bryant has had a lot of stellar months.  You don't win the CL Player of the Month with lousy statistics, something he had done 5 times before his explosion in August.  In fact he won the award in April of this year as well.

April stat line:

.400/.455/.691/1.145   25 G, 110 AB, 44 hits, 9 2B, 1 3B, 7 HR, 27 RBI, 1 SB

Now he came out of the gates hot.  Averaging more than 1 RBI per game and almost getting 2 hits per contest while putting up an amazing 1.145 OPS.  A great month for sure.  

Now let's look at August:

.439/.480/.930/1.409   27 G, 114 AB, 50 hits, 3 2B, 4 3B, 15 HR, 41 RBI, 5 SB

Mind boggling numbers.  It's the first time I have noticed a player having 50 hits OR 15 HR in one month, and he did them both. A slugging percentage of of .930.  He had 16 multi-hit games, including 10 with 3 hits or more.  There were 3 multi-HR games and 13 multi-RBI games.  Quite frankly he was near impossible to get out during the month.  

This season there have been 16 players who have recorded double digit HR months.  There have only been 3 that have had at least 13 HR in a month.  Jersey catcher Warren Goyer had 13 in June, almost unnoticed Charles-Antoine Champagne had 14 this past month in August, and Bryant's 15.

There have been 3 players this season to have 45 or more hits in a month this season.  Reno's Seung-Chun Mun and Boston's Rob Whitley both had 46 hits in May, and Bryant's 50 coming in August.

As for OPS, Bryant is the only player this season with more than 75 AB in a month to have over the 1.250 mark for the month......and he finished August at 1.409.

At least in the year of 2017 no one has come close to touching what Bryant has done in this last month.  After writing a monthly write-up for every month for the past couple years, it is the best month from a Jersey player and it isn't really close.  With less than a month left to go, can Bryant keep it up and go on to win his 2nd straight MVP award?  Could he possibly catch his own teammate Goyer and over take him for the HR lead and possibly win his 2nd straight Triple Crown award?  With Jersey Shore all but has already clinched the CL East division title for the first time in their history and BSA's best record, can they keep the passion alive and thrive in the 2017 playoffs?  All we know is Bryant is on pace for his 4th straight 200+ hit, 37+ HR, 130+ RBI. .323+/.379+/.560+ season in a row.  Can he help lead Jersey to a BSA title?  Only time will tell.

GO D-BAGS

July in Review From the Shore

Another All-Star game has come and gone and we just have 2 months left in the 2017 season.  A 17-8 record for the month might have been Jersey's worst month statistically of the season, but was good enough to finish with a 10.5 game lead on 2nd place Greenville and leave the Bags with a 81-27 record.  One more win to assure themselves their 8th straight winning season and just 50 or so games from their first division title.

Players of the Month

MR Lucio Tapia: 3-0, 1.46 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 21K in 12.1 IP.  With much of the staff having a down month, Tapia under the radar is having his best season since he broke out in 2013.  The 32 year old has an ERA just over 2 and has been excellent in the set-up role which he share with Jose "Dog Pound" Gomes.  If the starters don't step up down the stretch it will be up to bullpen guys like him to carry the load and keep the Bags in the game.

MR Jose Ruiz: 1 save, 2.25 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 13K.  To go along with Tapia, Ruiz had an excellent month out of the middle innings and earned himself a spot on POTM for the 2nd straight month.  At just 24 years old, his K/9, BB/9, HR/9, H/9 and K/BB have all improved since his great sophomore year last year and a sign that he will be a staple in the Jersey pen for years to come.

3B Adam Morrow: .375/.480/.475. 30H, 17BB, 8 2B, 12R.  After a terrible sophomore season which saw Morrow get shipped back and forth between the big league club and AAA, he has seemed to find his stroke again and July was his best month to date.  His stats this year are very similar to when he was awarded the CL Rookie of the Year in 2015.  Maybe the switch to hitting at the bottom of the order was the trick he needed to be productive at the plate again.

2B Mike Bryant: .306/.352/.510.  4 HR, 17 RBI, 8 2B, 17 R.  Bryant turned things around after a slow June to take some of the pressure off of the other big boppers in the lineup.  While the power we have grown to love really wasn't there, the 8 doubles are encouraging as he is still way off the pace he set last season.  He may not win any awards this year, he is still on pace for 35-120-.315, just another season in the life of Bryant.

Questions, Concerns and Answers:

Should the fact the team just had it's worst month of the season be concerning?  Some say yes, some say no.  The schedule was the toughest of the season and August won't get any better, but holding a big lead on Greenville was the key.  

On the injury front there was no bad news.  No new injuries and with SP Art Ellis on schedule, he should head to rehab sometime this month.  This is encouraging news for the Bags.  If he stays on schedule he should get 3 starts for the Bags before the playoffs which will really test his availability for the playoffs.  Fransisco Ibarra was always taken of the DL and sent back to AAA after missing 5 weeks with an injury.  We still think he is a very viable candidate for a September callup.  

Jersey successfully signed all 10 of the draft picks from the Amatuer draft on July 1st and all have been assigned to the A or AA minor league affiliates.  Also towards the end of the month, Jersey officials announced 2 contract extensions.  The first being MR Hyo-chin Kim, which bought out 1 free year and 3 years of arbitration.  The 2nd extension was given to up-and-coming SS Lawrence Schroeder.  His contract is a 5 year deal, the last being a team option, also bought out his last free year and all 3 years of arbitration.  

Minor League Players of the Month

Pitcher

SP Sergio Martinez (AA): 4-1, 1.96 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 29 K, 1 HR allowed, 36.2 IP.  Martinez in his 3rd year in AA, is having his best year and is slowly climbing up the prospect charts for the Jersey Shore.  While his control is still considered his achilles's heel, if he can get a grasp on that and play to his potentials, some Jersey folk say he slates out to be a 2-3 starter in the rotation.  At only 21 years old there is no rush on Martinez and will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

Hitter

SS Fabrice Brodeur (AAA): .316/.383/.430, 36 hits, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 24R, 4SB.  Leading the entire organization in hits in July and scoring in almost every game in July, Brodeur was a key cog in the Tuscaloosa lineup in July.  It was his 3rd straight 30+ hit month and he looks on track to reach the big leagues sometime next year. The former 1st round pick plays every infield position and would make a great asset as a backup or a fill in starter and could probably start on many teams on the left side of the infield.

GO D-BAGS

BSA Hits Mid-Summer Classic; Bags Send 6 Players

We reached the unofficial halfway point of the 2017 season where the league's stars headed off to Niagara Falls for the 2017 All-Star game.  It comes as no surprise in a season where Jersey has produced the best record in the BSA that they would send more players to the game than they ever had before.  Jersey had set the bar last year sending 5 players but they one upped the 2016 team by sending 6 players this season, including 3 first timers.  

SP Jose Ramos: 8-4, 3.35 ERA.  The young ace of the staff in his first full season in the BSA gets the nod for the first time as an All-Star.  After bursting on the scene last year, Ramos future appears to be very bright.  On the season he also has 3 complete games and his first career shutout coming against Greenville in May.

SP Greg Schaefer: 13-0, 3.07 ERA. It seems it just took Schaefer a little longer to develop than your average BSA player.  Playing in his 6th season in the BSA, Schaefer has gotten better every year reaching his 1st BSA All-Star game at age 27.  At the time of the break he had yet to lose a game, which would eventually be halted after 23 starts, which is the 5th longest streak in BSA history.   

CL Jaime Saenz:  4-1, 29 saves, 1.84 ERA.  In his 2nd year as the Jersey closer, Saenz has been named to his 2nd straight All-Star game.  The flame throwing lefty leads the CL in saves while his 11.83 K/9 is the 2nd best in his career.  He is on pace to shatter his own team saves record of 40 which he set last season.

C Warren Goyer: 26 HR, 73 RBI.  Jersey's starting catcher in his first full season in Jersey after coming over Cleveland in a trade last season is putting up bigger numbers than anyone could have imagined.  His 26 HR put him in a tie atop the CL HR leader-board and puts him in a position to challenge Matt Doyle's team record of 44 which happened in 2015.  Goyer has 4 multi-HR games this season, including a 3-HR game June 26th against Toronto.

2B Mike Bryant:  .311, 19 HR, 68 RBI.  While Bryant isn't re-producing the numbers he put up last season in his triple-crown season, he was still almost a unanimous choice for the starting position at 2B for the CL.  Bryant is in his 4th full season and is making his 4th All-Star appearance.  He is one of 27 players all time to be selected to the Mid-Summer classic 4 or more times.  Bryant passed the 150 HR mark this season and will surpass 1000 hits sometime early next season.  He leads the franchise in both categories.

DH Matt Doyle: .309, 24 HR, 84 RBI.  For the 3rd straight year Doyle will be headed to the All-Star game and first time as a DH.  With Alberto Perez manning 1B for much of the season Doyle has been solely used for his bat, which he doesn't seem to mind.  At the time of the break Doyle was leading the CL in RBI with 84 and on pace for his 4th straight 100 RBI season.  Doyle should hit the 150 HR mark at 500 RBI mark later this season.

GO D-BAGS

June In Review; D-Bags Coast to Best Month in Team History

After two 20- win months to start the season people were ready for the "new season" shine to wear off.  Waiting for Jersey Shore to fall back with the pack.  The team apparently wasn't ready for that.  For the 3rd straight month the team won 20 games and in the end it turned into the best month in team history.  The Bags compiled a 24-4 record, which included a team record 18-game win streak and on July 1st puts Jersey up 9 games even on 2nd place Greenville not only for the division but also the best record in the BSA.  The team continues to click on all cylinders, Top 2 in batting average, runs scored, ERA, runs allowed and defesive efficiency.

Players of the Month

1B/DH Matt Doyle: .384/.465/.705  10 HR 35 RBI  43 H  26 R.  Why not start out with the BSA CL Player of the Month as one of our players of the month?  After struggling through April, Doyle showed us why he is.....Matt Doyle.  He had 14 multi-hit games, including back to back multi-HR games against Toronto, the 2nd being his 2nd 5 hit game of his career.  He also hit 2 HR and knocked in 6 runs in that contest.  Surprisingly this was the first time Doyle has been awarded the CL award for Batter of the Month in his short, but great, 4 year career.

C Warren Goyer: .280/.333/.731  13 HR  33 RBI 20 R.  If a player not named Doyle was going to win Batter of the Month, it probably would have been Goyer.  He played in 24 games and hit 13 HR, which as far as I can tell is a Jersey record, breaking the previous record of 12 set on several different occasions.  Goyer was named Player of the Week in the CL for the first week of June, which was the first honor of it's kind for Goyer in his career.  His best game of the month came against Toronto where he had his first career 3 HR game, had 4 hits, scored 4 runs and knocked in 7.

MR Jose Ruiz: 4-0, 1.20 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 15IP, 20K.  The 24 year old Ruiz keeps getting better.  Not only this season but in his career as well.  He posted his best month of 2017 while his stats across the board are the best in his career.  Those numbers include ERA, WHIP, K/9, BB/9, K/BB, H/9 and HR/9.  He seems to be on track to be another great reliever in the Jersey system.

MR Lucio Tapia: 3-0, 0.60 ERA, 0.93 ERA, 15IP, 13K.  If anyone in the middle innings was better in June than Ruiz, it was Tapia.  Allowing only 8 hits and 1 ER in 15 innings helped bridged the gap in a month where starting pitching wasn't THAT good. Tapia in his 7th year in the Jersey bullpen is currently posting the 2nd lowest ERA in his career and lowest WHIP.  This is the 5th season where he has won at least 6 games. For his Jersey Shore career he posts a 36-11  record.

CL Jaime Saenz: 3-0, 9 saves, 0.48 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 18.2 IP, 30 K.  Why not save the best for last?  Saenz won the CL Pitcher of the Month for June and well deserved.  He as virtually unhittable.  After a blip against Madison early in the month he went on a streak of 15 shutout innings giving up 9 hits and walking 3 in those innings.  His 25 saves as of July 1st lead the CL.  After having the lowest K/9 rate in his career last year, he has come back this year with a bang averaging a career high 12.49 K/9.

Questions, Answers and Concerns:
We asked this question last month, but what else is there to say?  How many concerns can you have when the team is playing at such a high level?  Towards the middle of the month leadoff man Peter Larson sprained a hamstring playing the outfield and missed the rest of the month.  After rehab we expect him back towards the end of July.  It's not the first time in his career he has been injured, but he has been relatively healthy over the last 2 seasons.  Towards the end of the month of the 27th the outfield took another blow as Jose Ortiz strained his oblique making a sliding catch in the gap against the Titans.  At first he seemed to be fine but was taken out of the game.  He is expected to miss about 5 more weeks which will put him back on the team sometime in August.  Expect to see Al Ryan and/or Taro Kino in the coming weeks.  Ryan has been up since Larson got injured and has played well in his absence.

I would say this is a perfect chance for Top Prospect Fransisco Ibarra to make his debut but he is also shelved on the DL with tendinitis in his right knee.  Updating the injury front, SP Art Ellis still remains 7 or so weeks out until he will start a throwing program and head for rehab.

The Bags made a trade that went on with little publicity trading for the often troubled SP Drew "Onion" Schaefer formally of the Niagara Falls Frenzy.  Scouts still see him as having very talented but at age 26 time is running out for him to perform.  Before coming to Jersey he posted a 2-11 record with a 7.69 ERA in 18 starts and having a WHIP above 2.  In his only Jersey start for the month he was crushed by Toronto, being pulled in the 4th inning giving up 7 ER on 6 hits and 7 BB.  With such a big lead Jersey may be able to be patient with him and see if he can mature and learn something playing with many veterans on the Jersey staff.

Even though Schaefer was struggling doesn't mean he was cheap.  Jersey gave up promising 20 year old OF Guillermo Sanchez who Jersey's scout has rated 4* and learning CF for the past 2 seasons.  Also leaving Jersey was 21 year old MR Ruben Rojas who was having a good year at A ball Manhattan.  Rojas has an explosive arm and can hit 100 MPH on a good day, but with Jersey's MR depth he was far down on the list.    Also leaving was 22 year old Jesus Herrera.  Hererra isn't the most naturally gifted player, but with top speed and above average contact he had been a terror in AAA this season, hitting over .400 with Tuscaloosa and winning May's Minor League Player of the Month for Jersey.  He project's as a 3rd-4th OF.

Minor League Players of the Month
Pitcher
SP Victor Rivera (A): 4-0, 1.60 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 33.2 IP, 47 K.  At 19, Rivera is starting to show up on scout's radars.  He is hitting 99-100 MPH with his fastball, something we have never seen before. His 12.05 K/9 is 4th in the Midwest league for SP and the only pitchers ahead of him are 29, 30 and 30 years old.  He posts a record of 8-4 and is coming off a 15 K game, which was only the 5th of it's kind in Midwest League history.  Don't be shocked to see him get moved up to AA in the coming weeks.


Hitter
OF Fransisco Calderon (AAA):  .407/.490/.889.  10 HR, 32 RBI, 33 H, 24 R.  Calderon, just 22 years old, has always had that power, well....according to scouts.  Before last season the highest amount of HR he
had hit in a season was 7.  Between AA and AAA last year he hit 20.  Through 3 months in 2017 he already has 19.  The plus speed OF from Cuban was originally discovered by Greenville.  He spent a month with the LA organization before being released in Feb 2013 before signing with Jersey.  With his new found power, top speed and above average OF skills we might just see him in Jersey  in the coming  months.

July is a month where Jersey plays 16 of their 25 games at home, but will see teams Vista, Greenville, Austin, Chicago and Orlando.  Not the easiest schedule.  If the Bags can hold their lead on the 84er's through the month the Bags could be on their way to their first division title in the franchise's history.  We hate to be to optomistic but with a lead of almost 20 games over the first WC team, we have good inclination that the Bags will reach the playoffs for the 3rd straight year.

GO D-BAGS