Superstar in the Making?;Meet Rookie Ricardo Berroa

Not really too surprising but in his 2+ months in the big leagues, rookie Ricardo Berroa is excelling and adding another dangerous bat into an already potent offense in Jersey Shore.  He was called up June 21st to play mainly against right handed pitching and hasn't looked back since.  He started his career with a 16 game hit streak and through 49 games played and 194 plate appearances, Berroa has a line of .324/.387/.497 to go along with 13 doubles, 4 triples, 3 home runs and 6 stolen bases.  

Berroa was discovered by scouts early in the 2016 season in Cuba and began his ascent through the Jersey Shore farm system.  He came out of the gates a raw but talented 19 year old and was named the #22 prospect in all the BSA by the OSA scouting department prior to the 2017 season.  That season he would go on to have a monster season in A ball putting up a 5.9 WAR and rightfully earned promotion to AA the following year.

As a 21 year old in AA, he would top his monster year in A ball by posting a 6.1 WAR to go with his .562 slugging percentage and 49 doubles.  Jersey knew they had something special in Berroa.  He was kept in AA the first month and a half of the 2019 season before being promoted to AAA Tuscaloosa.  He would struggle adjusting to AAA pitching at first, but ended the 2019 season with a .273/.398/.528 in 66 games.  

With a crowded outfield in Jersey Shore which included Vancini, Dodd, Torres, and Ibarra, Jersey chose not to invite Berroa to spring training and named him the starting LF in Tuscaloosa.  The first 2.5 months of this season showed Jersey management they had no choice but to promote him.  Berroa was hitting a career high .351 to go with an outstanding .466 on base percentage and an OPS of 1.207 when he got the call to the big league club.  It was also the first time in his career where his walks would out number his strikeouts. 

Combined with Jersey's 24 year old rookie starting 1B Tadahisa Kisuki and their trio of young starting pitchers in Jose Ramos, Sergio Martinez and Ramon Ruiz the future is bright for the D-Bags. Though it seems like he has been on the team forever as well, Dave Dodd is just 26 and on pace for another 5.5+ WAR season.  So while the days of the solid core of Bryant/Perez/Morrow/Ellis get older this new group of core players look to help Jersey remain competitive well beyond the foreseeable future and hopefully for the next decade.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Pitching Sizzles in July; Ramos Takes Home Award

It was a great month for the Jersey Shore D-Bags, whom at the end of July saw themselves with a 3 game lead over slumping St. Louis in the CL East.  While the bats continue to lead the league in most offensive categories, it was the pitching that came through to drive Jersey Shore to an 18-5, easily their best of the season.  The starters combined to go 16-4 with 15 quality starts, 3 complete games and 1 personal shutout to go with another team shutout.  

Ace Jose Ramos led the way, being named the Pitcher of the Month for the CL, the 4th time in his career he has been donned with that honor.  He won all 5 starts he had in July, getting a quality start for every one of them and averaging a little over 8 innings per start.  His final numbers for the month: 5 starts, 5-0, 41.2 IP, 1.51 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 21 K's to go along with just 5 BB. With a 13-4 record and league leading 2.34 ERA he might have a chance to catch up with Toronto phenom Albert Lebel in the Cy Young race who is out for the next 2-3 weeks.

Not only was Ramos perfect for Jersey, but we saw glimpses of the Jose Lara of old as he went 6-0 for the month, winning everyone of his starts as well, including a 109 piece masterpiece on 7/7 against Chicago.  Lara threw his first shutout since 2014 and it was the 14th complete game of his career.  His final numbers for the month: 6 starts, 6-0, 40.1 IP, 3.12 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 34 K's.  Before the month began Lara was 2-6 with a nasty high ERA of 7.20.  Through his 6 starts in July he lowered that to 5.64.  While Lara is still only a fraction of the Lara we saw in Boston, stretches like this give Jersey fans hope that he can make some meaningful starts down the stretch and help lead Jersey back to the playoffs.

Is Art Ellis's job in trouble?  After bouncing back somewhat from a horrible 2019 campaign, veteran Art Ellis had a good April and May before slipping in June and having a fairly terrible July.  In his last 4 starts, though he is only responsible for a 0-1 record, he hasn't gotten out of the 5th inning and twice hasn't even gotten out of the 3rd.  The almost 35 year old is making $12.25 million this year and has a team option for $14.75 million next year.  At this point that option being picked up has to have a very slim chance of happening.  24 year old Ramon Ruiz who has ripped up AAA pitching this year, but struggled through 4 big league starts is slated to come off the DL this week and with a couple more bad Ellis starts.....could a change be made?  If Jersey remains in a tight race down the stretch can they really send a struggling Ellis who has obviously lost a step and several MPH off of that fastball?  As much as we would hate to see him go out on a low note....Ellis's days in Jersey might be limited.

GO D-BAGS

Bryant Joins 1500 Hit Club; Dodd Climbing Jersey Leaderboards

In the 1st game after playing in his 6th straight All-Star game, August 12th, 2020,  Mikey Bryant did nothing new and had another 3-hit game, his 10th of the season.  In his 2nd AB he grounded a ball between 3rd and SS that found a hole into the OF for his 2nd single of the game.  What was special is that marked his 1500th career hit in just a shade over 7 total seasons in the big leagues.  

He became the 29th BSA player to reach that level, but by far has the most the hits between 2013-2020 than any player in the league.  There have only been 34 different times where a player has 208 or more hits in a season.  Bryant accounts for 6 of those.....all 6 full seasons he has been in the league.  That comes out to nearly 18%.  The man is a hitting machine.  He is on pace for 196 hits this season and I know everyone will be rooting him on to get that 7th straight season of 200 hits or more.  

Bryant turned 32 years old this year and though is OPS is down a little bit from the former glory years, Bryant looks to continue hitting in a  league where turning the age of 30 is like getting a death sentence. Though there have been a handful of players to succeed well into their 30's, the list of players to fall off is a lot longer than  of players who have faltered.  Hopefully we can see Bryant age like the great Sam Sagar has done, playing at a high level through age 35 and still putting up at least average numbers through age 37.  Hopefully 2500 hits will be within reach for Bryant.  He also sits at 279 HR.  A great 2nd half could have him near that magical 300 mark which only 8 players have accomplished thus far in the history of the BSA.  Are 400 HR out of reach?  Only time will tell at this point.

On the opposite end of the age spectrum, kinda, is Dave Dodd who turned 26 this season.  When Bryant was 26 he had ~1 year or so of BSA experience under his belt.  Dodd has 4+ at the same point.  Just this week Dodd passed former Jersey slugger Matt Doyle in hits and tied him in HR in a Jersey uniform.  With 1 more HR and 39 more hits he will plant himself in 2nd in both categories only behind Bryant.  Pretty crazy to think that he is already among one of the Jersey greats before his 27th birthday.  If he can stay healthy, he might be able to put up some very big numbers statistically.  Many people around the league believe he hasn't hit his peak yet, which could be scary for pitchers around the league.  Regardless of meaningless personal accomplishments, if you ask each player what they hope to accomplish most you can bet both of them want a championship more than anything.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey and Baffin Make Deal; Mungo Coming Home

After 8 seasons in Jersey blue, Jamie "Mungo" Saenz became a free agent and eventually signed a 3 year, $19 million dollar deal to switch coasts and pitch for the Seattle Pikes.  Jersey was the only team and organization he had ever known after joining the Jersey organization in April 2010.  Ownership wanted to keep him but salary restraints and the fact that the D-Bags have a knack for producing a high level of major league quality middle relief pitching, the fans had to watch their closer, 2-time All-Star and 2017 Reliever of the Year leave.

Jose Ruiz stepped in last year, saved 40 games and was elected to the All-Star team.  He struggled this season blowing 2 saves and having 4 losses pinned on him before handing the reigns to the young Gerald "Top Dog" Johnson.   While Johnson has an electric fastball that can reach 99 on the gun, first time closing duties aren't always a success. Johnson was lights out as the setup man before taking over the closer role.  Since he has blown 5 of 14 save chances and left GM Josh Swain with question marks what to do with his closer role.  The team's 15 blown saves leads the entire BSA, and in a race as tight as we have this season, losing games in 8th and 9th is not something a team like Jersey can afford to do.

In a casual conversation with Aaron Blank, GM of the Baffin Island Beavers, Blank made a comment on how old his relief pitching had gotten. With Daniel Morris and Saenz at 34, Tapia at 35, J-Rod and James Kelly 33, and Pedro Castillo at 31, the bulk of the relief corps is 33 or over.  With the Beavers struggling mightily this year, and at the time were sitting 15+ games under .500, Swain simply asked about Saenz and his large $9M dollar team option for next season.  Talks progressed and eventually a deal was in place for Mungo to be sent back to Jersey for a pair of young middle relievers.  

Those relievers are Pedro Vega and Antonio Ramos.  Vega was discovered as an 18 year old in 2013 and has slowly worked his way up through the Jersey system spending multiple seasons at every level before seeing action in the Jersey bullpen last season as a 24 year old.  Now at age 25, Vega throws 2 above average pitches and his fastball reaches the mid-to-upper 90's.  His arm isn't nearly as live as Saenz's arm, but at 10 years younger he could be a nice cheap bullpen fixture on a team who will probably have to re-tool their bullpen in the near future. 

Ramos actually came from Baffin Island when Jersey traded starting pitcher Dan Macias to the Beavers after the 2017 season.  Macias would pitch one year in Baffin before deciding to hang them up.  Ramos is also 25 and your typical hard throwing bullpen arm.  He has averaged just a shade under 12 K/9 in his minor league career and his knack has been giving up the long ball, but being in Baffin should help that tremendously. 

For all intents and purposes this move for Jersey looks like a rental, as Saenz's $9 million dollar option next season seems like a stretch for Jersey to be picked up, but if Saenz keeps up his great numbers he has put up in Seattle and Baffin this year, you never know what will happen.  For the season Mungo's stat line looks like: 4-2, 15 saves. 1.93 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and is striking out 11.6 K/9.  He will step into the closer's role immediately and being added to the CL's 2nd best bullpen (statistically wise) should make a good pen even better.

"We hope this is a move that helps push us over the hump," GM Swain exclaimed, "If we had only won a third of those 15 blown saves we would be sitting in 1st place with the best record in the CL.  The fans are excited to have him back and the veterans are as well."  Saenz will go back and wear his #99 jersey that he wore for all 8 seasons in Jersey.  Welcome back Jaime!

GO D-BAGS

All Star Game Notes and Tidbits

The BSA is in their 11th year which means of course we have now played 11 All-Star games.  The game shows off the games best talents and this year was no exception.  The NL won for the 9th time in 11 years and used spectacular pitching from 9 different members to hold a stacked CL lineup to just 1 run on 4 hits.  This game was much less dramatic than last's year game which saw the NL come back from behind and win in walk-off fashion.  This PR isn't meant to talk about the game or score itself, but rather the players who have played in it.

There were 64 players voted into this year's game.  30 from the NL and 34 from the CL.  Enzo Diaz, Richard Hunter and Hiroshige Yamada were all replaced on the CL squad which is why their roster was pushed to 33 players.  Jamie Saenz was also voted in from his stats with Seattle before being traded to Baffin Island, he was also replaced but did make a cameo.  Of the 63 players voted in, this is how it breaks down:

26 1st time All-Stars

12 2nd time All-Stars

9 3rd time All-Stars

6 4th time All-Stars

4 5th time All-Stars

5 6th time All-Stars

2 7th time All-Stars

This seems to be the general way things go each year.  More players have career years or young players break out than the good ones continue to stay good.  It shows how hard it is to stay healthy and good to make it to this game year in and year out.  

Here are some stats about total appearances from our 11 games:

We have had 347 different players make the All-Star team over the 11 years the game has been played.  Of those 347 players, only 151 players have repeated being selected for a 2nd time.  That means there have been 196 different players who made the game just a single time.  Of those 151 players who have made it twice, just a little more than half of those have made it a third time, at 77 players.  When a player makes it a 4th time is when I anoint them as a special player.  Only 44 players over 11 seasons have made the All-Star team 4 times.   A relatively small number, but we are getting into elite talent here.  As for 5th timers?  Just 23 players.  After the 5th timers we have a drop off.  It seems that being one of the games great for more than half a decade is just...well...hard to do.  12 players have been selected 6 times for the game...and 5 of those players played in this year's game.  How about 7?  3 players.  It's fair to say there will be more as 7 seasons is more than 2/3 of the total seasons we have played in the BSA.  2 of those players played this year.  Mike Bryant and Jeff Cole who are now on the wrong side of 30 but both playing at a very high level.  The only player to play in 8 games and in fact 9 games is the games greatest player, Scott Hill.  It will be interesting to keep tracking this after the league has been around 20-25 years.

Here are some questions about the future All-Stars..........

Will we see these greats play in another game? The great Scott Hill?  JTF?  Ramon Hernandez?  All 6+ time players who missed the game this year.

Our MVP Kendrick Garland this season was enjoying his 2nd appearance. His 1st appearance?  9 years ago when he made the 2011 team with the Madison Bombers.  9 years between appearances and he wins the MVP trophy?  Talk about making the most of his appearances.  

Yet, was any All-Star more unlikely this year than Rob Sharp? One of the feel good stories of the BSA this season, unless you are a River Sharks fan.  It was his 2nd game as well, his 1st coming in 2015 with Austin.  After a great 2015 season which saw Sharp blast 41 HR, he got a massive extension of $71M over 6 seasons.  If you look at that, he should be in his 5th year with Austin.  Well....the 4 years between 2016-2019 he hit between .188-.202 each season, saw his AB's dimish, as well as his OBP and his slugging never got over .390.  Austin reluctantly paid him up front for his final 2 years and became a free agent.  No one signed him until Birmingham gave him a shot a week into spring training.  A mere $1.4M for the slugger.  I don't think anyone saw what Sharp has done this season.  He is having the best season of his career, ready to shatter personal records across the board.  To your comeback Mr. Sharp, I salute you.

With another All-Star game in the books, we are ready for the 2nd half of the year.  A lot of stories to be settled, let's get ready for a great 2nd half.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore Selects Prep Star Serna 21st Overall

With the 21st pick in the 2020 amateur draft the Jersey Shore D-Bags selected 19 year old Miguel Serna out of Madawaska Valley High School from the Canadian Province of Ontario.  Though Serna only saw 65 games in his HS career, he amassed a stat line of .382/.494/.593, while hitting 9 HR in his 199 AB.  Though scouts have his talents as very raw, they believe his potentials could top out at plus contact, power and eye to go along with his plus-plus speed.  While he is listed as a 3B, many believe that his future could be at 2B given his fielding talents.

Jersey was given the 21st pick as compensation for not signing their last year 1st round pick, prep star Max Jones, who attended the Univeristy of Miami this year and is draft eligible.  By not signing Jones and his lofty contract demands, Jersey sits with the 21st and 32nd picks in the first round and a real chance to add great talent in what is turning out to be one of the deepest drafts the BSA has seen in a long time.

Serna is the 3rd infielder off the board after Irvine took SS Murphy and Los Cabos snagged college 2nd baseman Gonzalez one pick ahead of Jersey.  Serna is the 11th bat off the board as the first 22 picks were split evenly between arms and bats.  This marks the 2nd year in a row that Jersey selected a prep player and the first time since 2015 that they selected an infield bat with their 1st overall pick.  In 2015 they selected current starting 3B Fabrice Brodeur with the 25th overall pick.

Serna will likely be sent to Single A Manhatten after he signs and likely take his bumps with professional pitching but hopefully add some pop to a lineup who only has one player with over 5 HR and a team that sits with a 33-45 record.  It will yet to be seen what Jersey will do with their 2nd pick in the first round.  According to GM Swain, there is a lot of top talent on their draft list and will be a tough decision on who to select with that pick.  We will see soon enough who else will be joining the organization

GO D-BAGS

Early Jersey Trade Bock

Though we have just hit June 1st and the trade deadline sits just less than 2 months away we have already seen a handful of BSA trades where veterans have been swapped for prospects.  Contending teams starting early before the frenzy of the July comes.  With that being said, here is an early Jersey Shore Trade Block:

One of Jersey's strong points is the bullpen.  Their 3.30 ERA sits 2nd in the CL and they have a slew of talent in AAA as well.

LHP Phillip Moran - The 32 year old is enjoying a much better year in his 2nd year in Jersey, carrying a 3.06 ERA in 35 innings pitched.  His K/9 is over 10 while posting an ERA+ of 140.  He has a team option of $4 million next season, but with the emergence of Gerald Johnson and the comeback after 14 months after a nasty injury to Hyo-chin Kim, this lefty is available.

C Warren Goyer - The signing of Fernando Ramos in the offseason had Jersey fans thinking Goyer's days might be numbered and after seeing Ramos severely out-hit Goyer in the first 2 months of the season, things are looking that way.  At age 31, Goyer is coming off of a 38 HR season and is in the last year of 4-year deal given to him by Jersey after acquiring him from Cleveland in 2016.  He still has elite power and rumors have it he is looking for a very modest extension.

1B/3B Alberto Perez - A D-Bag for life, Perez lost his starting position at 1B when rookie Kisuki was called up before the season.  The 32 year old has a career slash line of .293/.341/.422.  He still plays an above average 3B and has a slick glove at 1B.  He is in the last year of his contract and is also looking for a short term extension for any team that is interested in acquiring him.

LF/RF Jose Ortiz - A 4th or 5th option a crowded Jersey OF over the years, Ortiz has above average contact, a knack for hitting the ball to the gap and rarely strikes out.  Currently making only $1.25M this season, he will become a free agent at the end of the year.  With Berroa and Mendoza knocking on the door from AAA, Ortiz is very much a trade-able asset.

Now we will also accept offers on other players, but these are very much the most available.  Feel free to make offers on other relievers as there is a long list of quality arms in the majors and AAA who can help many teams out.

With all the slew of talent, we are looking to restock the farm system.  Just letting that be known before offers start being made.  

GO D-BAGS