For the 7th year in a row Jersey Shore has sent multiple people to represent the team in the annual All Star game. The contest was held earlier this month on the 9th of July. The CL team behind very strong pitching blanked the NL All-Stars 2-0, in only their 2nd win in the series. Representing Jersey Shore were 2B Mikey Bryant, C Warren Goyer and SP Jerry Burgess.
After a terrible start Bryant and a terrible month of April, Bryant stepped up his game like we have seen him time and time again and won Player of the Month for the CL in the month of May. Even with his hot May and above average June he was still on the cusp of not making the team due to Jorge Martinez's MVP type season and the continued success of Joe Sanders. Bryant was rewarded one of the last spots on the team. This is Bryant's 5th selection to the AS team, putting him in some very good company beside some of the BSA's best players.
Goyer has obviously liked his time he has spent in Jersey. After becoming the team's starting backstop last year and making his 1st AS team on the way to 40+ HR, he followed that up this season with his 2nd straight AS game nod. While he isn't on pace to best 40 HR again, he has been quite consistent. In all 3 months thus far this season he has clubbed 6 HR and between 15-18 RBI. At his current pace he would hit 36 HR and drive in 96 runs.
The last of the 3 All Stars took a different road to get there. After trading for SP Jerry Burgess from El Paso in 2015, Jersey was hoping they were getting a legitimate SP to join Macias and Ellis. Burgess pitched good enough down the stretch and in the playoffs to earn a 5 year extension that off season, and that's when his well documented struggles started. 2016 was a trying year where his control was almost completely lost. He only started 22 games and came out of the bullpen 12 times to a ERA of 5.20 plus and Jersey wondered what to do with him. He cleared waivers before the playoffs last year and started this year in the bullpen with Jersey's plethora of starting pitching. He entered the bullpen when Jose Ramos went down with injury and hasn't looked back since. While his control is has not been great, it's better than his career average and he is striking out people at all time high. He leads all starters in the BSA with 11.39 K/9 and only trails Lebel of Toronto and Haynes of LA in strikeouts this season. For this Burgess has earned his first career nod to the AS game.
Speaking of the injury who allowed Burgess another change at the starting rotation, Jose Ramos will start his injury rehab tonight after missing 4 months with a torn labrum in his shoulder. With Jersey in a very tight 5-team race, it couldn't have come at a better team. GM Swain said that a timetable for his return isn't known yet, but depends on results we see from Ramos in AAA. What we know from previous rehab stints is Ramos will not be rushed, and could use the entire 30 day rehab limit on pitchers. Even if Ramos does use the full 30 days he would return towards the end of August and have 5.5-6 weeks to help his team down the stretch. Swain has said that this will likely be the teams "trade deadline" move as no other big moves plan on being made.
As of right now, July 25th, Jersey is tied for the WC lead with fellow division rival St. Louis and Vista/Seattle. They are 1 game up on Toronto and 2 up on Kansas City. This looks like it might come down to one of the better races we have seen in the BSA thus far.
GO D-BAGS
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