Last Sim of the Season; What to Watch For

Well here we are!  There are 4 days left in the regular season and what a wild ride it has been.  Not 1 of the 6 divisions have been clinched yet and there are still 4 playoff spots to be taken. So what's at stake?

NL EAST
Much like last year, the NL East race might go down to the season's final day.  At the moment, Niagara Falls leads Baffin Island by 1 game.  The Frenzy will visit Boston for a 4 set while Baffin will stay home and welcome Plymouth to town.  If you remember last season, these two played a one game playoff for the division.  The Beavers are looking for their 9th NL East division title while if the Frenzy can hang on, this would be their 1st.  The division winner would clinch the 2 seed and play the NL South winner in the Divisional Round while the loser will clinch Wild Card spot #2 and be the visiting team in a 3 game set against the other Wild Card winner,  which will be Los Angeles or Irvine.

NL WEST
After winning the division comfortably by 16 and 17 games over Irvine the last two seasons, 3 games separates the two with just 4 games left to play.  Both will be at home, Los Angeles welcomes Maui meanwhile the Bandits of San Francisco will be visiting Irvine.  If the Bruins can take care of business they will win their 14th division title in 16 years.  Irvine is looking for their 2nd division title, while their only one came in 2021.  The winner of the division will be rewarded with the #1 seed and will await the winner of the Wild Card round.  The team that places 2nd will be rewarded with the #1 Wild Card seed and will host either NFF or BAF.

NL SOUTH
Two years removed from a World Series win and one year removed from the best record in the BSA, the Hendersonville Hitmen find themselves 2 games up on the resurgent New Orleans Looters, who are attempting a worst to first story.  The Hitmen lead by 2 and will welcome the Looters for a 4 game series to end the season.  The Looters will need to take 3/4 to tie for the division and a series sweep to win it outright.  The Hitmen are looking for their 15th division title in 16 season, with their only blemish coming in 2021 when Orlando took home the crown.  The Looters are looking for their 1st division title and 2nd playoff appearance.

CL EAST
The best division in baseball.  They will have 3 teams finish with at least 96 wins.  Atop of the division and on the verge of clinching are the St. Louis Browns.  The Browns lead the division by 4 games with just 4 to play over the Greenville 84ers.  St. Louis will travel to Chicago where only 1 win is needed to clinch their 1st division title in team history.  The 84ers welcome Madison where they will need a 4 game sweep and 4 losses from St. Louis just to tie the division.  If the miracle happens, they will win their 11th division title.  The winner will be the #1 seed in the CL playoffs, meanwhile the loser has already locked up the #1 Wild Card.

CL WEST
Almost identical to the East, the St. Charles Sheens lead the Portland Philosopher Stones Kings by 4 games with just 4 to play.  Unlike the East these two will play each to finish off the season as the Sheens travel to The Kallipolis for a 4 game set.  One win for the Sheens will give them their 4th division title and third in a row.  If Portland can sweep and then cause a 1 game playoff and win again, they would win their first division title and their first playoff appearance.  Their 93 wins are already 13 ahead of the franchise's best 80, set back in 2010.  Portland is in the Wild Card race, explained below.

CL CENTRAL
After a close race all season long the Toronto Titans hold a 4 game lead with 4 games to play over the Springfield Stars.  The Stars had their chance in the last series, but the Titans won the last 2 games of the series to push Springfield on the brink of elimination.  The Titans will travel to rival Austin for 4 while the Stars go to Kalamazoo.  The Titans are looking for their 12th division title while Springfield is looking for a miracle to take home their first title.  Their only playoff appearance was a Wild Card berth in 2011.

CL WILD CARD
The 1st Wild Card position has already been clinched by St. Louis/Greenville, but we have a two team battle for the 2nd.  Jersey Shore currently leads Portland by 1/2 game as both teams are playing amazing baseball.  Jersey gets an off day before heading to New York to finish their season, while Portland welcomes St. Charles for 4 games. The Jersey Shore is looking for their 8th playoff spot, while Portland is still searching for their 1st.

TRIPLE CROWN WATCH
Santiago Marquez, or Q, of Orlando is still in contention for the NL Triple Crown.  If you remember last year he led the league in RBI, but finished 2nd in AVG and 3rd in HR.  With 4 games to play he leads the NL in AVG and HR but trails Ruben Calderon of Los Angeles by 6 RBI.  It would take some huge games, but it is still in reach.

RECORD WATCH
There are a few season records that could be in jeopardy going into our final 4 days.  Jeff Daniels of Portland is 10 hits shy of Dave Dodd's record of 239 hits set back in 2021.  Daniels needs to average 2.5 hits per game in his last 4 to tie.  Ronnie Brown of Boston sits at 166 singles on the season.  The current record is held by his teammate Rob Whitley who singled 175 times back in 2016. Brown would 9 in his final 4 games to tie.  Meanwhile in Boston, Bill Wilson has been a doubles machine and currently sits with 61 for the year.  The record of 67 was set by Jin-yu Son way back pre-BSA in 2007.  The current day BSA record is 63 set by Dan Best in 2014.  Derek Davidson currently sits at 156 RBI on the year and is 10 behind Dave Dodd's record of 166 set in 2021.  Thought it is a long shot, Davidson has 4 games.

On the pitching side of things, Irvine closer Kuang-Yin Yue sits at 48 saves with 4 games to play.  The current BSA record for saves is 50, which is shared by 4 players.  2 will give him a tie with this foursome while 3 would give him the outright record.  Jose Rivera of San Fran and Armando Lopez of Niagara Falls have both appeared in 101 games this season, which turns out is a new BSA record for appearances in a season.

Tracking Mikey Bryant's Assault on the Record Books; Volume 7

This will be 7th year in a row we will continue to follow Mikey Bryant's rise on the career leaderboards.  Mikey turned 36 just two weeks ago and his career appears headed towards a close, but at a gradual pace.  2023 was the 1st season Bryant finished under 5 WAR since his rookie campaign but still managed 36 HR and 105 RBI.  Jersey Shore reached the conference championship round again before losing to Greenville, and Bryant's time to get a ring is running out.

Besides the HR, Mikey had 192 hits, walked a career best 66 times and still had a fairly productive season mainly playing from the DH position for the D-Bags.

Bryant's average of .304 was the lowest mark he has put up in his career and dropped his career average to .324.  Bill Wilson and Paco Rosas remained in the top two spots and we have a newcomer to the list, as Bryant's teammate Tadahisa Kisuki has enough AB's to pass Bryant for 3rd. Bryant remained 3rd overall in slugging, but fell in OPS behind the retired Mel Fields and slugger Shumei Yokoyama, good for 6th.

In hits SS Oliver Hernandez remains in the top spot and needs 157 hits this season to become the first BSA player in history with 3000 career hits.   With his 192 hits, only his 2nd full season below 200, Bryant moved past the the retired Crowe and active players Copriviza and Rivas to sit in 6th place as we start the season.  The recently retired Gordon McMahon sits 189 above Bryant.  Another 30+ double campaign made Mikey the 19th player in BSA history to reach the 400 doubles plateau and good for 19th place.  Bryant also finished the 2023 season 5th in total bases which put him 5th all time and 71 short of 4000 for his career.

His 36 HR last year was enough to top the 400 HR mark, following Crowe, Newell, Cobra and Yoko. Yoko took over the career lead last year and sits at 431 and we should see 3 more sluggers reach the 400 mark this year in Delaney, Rivas and Doyle.  His 10th straight 100+ RBI season slots Mikey into 6th all time, just 3 behind Newell, 25 behind the retired Crowe and 26 behind the retired Sagar.  65 RBI would make Mikey the 3rd player ever to reach 1400 RBI.

It was another productive year stats wise, but most categories down down down as expected.  Bryant is playing with a $26M contract this year which was a team option picked up by Jersey Shore this past off-season.  At 36 years old, what does Jersey do with Mikey?  Does he come out and have a solid year at 36? Is the year when we see things start to slide off the table?  Time will tell this season. Stay tuned!

Current All-Time Rank.  (Previous 6 years are in parenthesis)  

BA: 4th (3rd, 2nd, 2nd 2nd, 2nd, 1st): .3240

OPS: 6th (4th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd): .9557

SLG: 3rd (2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st): .5744

VORP: 8th (8th, 9th, 13th, 20th): 624.94 - apparently OOTP doesn't track anymore

Hits: 6th (8th, 14th, 27th. 34th, 57th, 96th): 2216

Doubles: 19th (25th, 29th, 42nd, 57th, 82nd, NR): 402
Triples: 12th (15th, 17th, 28th, 46th, 75th, NR): 54

Total Bases: 5th (8th, 11th, 14th, 23rd, 41st, 73rd): 3929

HR: 5th (8th, 8th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 35th): 401

RBI: 6th (7th, 8th, 9th, 19th, 32nd, 53rd): 1335

Runs: 7th (11th, 14th, 22nd, 28th, 55th, 86th): 1249

WAR: 6th (6th, 10th, 11th,13th, 18th, 24th): 66.74

Meet the 2024 Pitching Staff

2023 saw the Jersey Shore D-Bags take another deep run into the playoffs before eventually falling to the World Champions Greenville 84's.  While only losing one piece of the staff in the off-season, the staff remains nearly unchanged. 

Starting Pitching - Bags bring back the Big 4 with a new face

SP Jose Ramos - Coming off a 24 win season and 2nd in the Cy Young voting, this is the first year in his $163M contract.  Ace.

SP Roland Martin - 2022 Rookie of the Year and 17 game winner last season, Martin is a budding star.  With a devastating change-up, he and Ramos make a mean 1-2 punch.

SP Ramon Ruiz - Hard throwing lefty who struggled last season after 2 good years.  Control will always be his issue, but has the stuff to strikeout 10/9 and be a great 3.

SP Sergio Martinez - Martinez has won at least 14 starts in 5 straight years now and rounds out a very good 1-4 staff.  He is in a contract year and it will be interesting to see if this is his last year in Jersey.

SP Li-Xue Si-ma - With SP Gianluigi Ciotton being selected in the expansion draft to Nassau, the D-Bags looked to free agency to fill their #5 spot.  Si-ma has previously won 14 games on 2 occasions in Maui and came over on a cheap 2 year deal.  He walks a lot but does keep the ball in the ballpark.

The Bullpen 

MR Angel Lara - Had an awful 2023 but won the job in ST.  Hits 99 with his fastball but needs to improve on his K/BB which was less than 2.

MR John Hall - Groundball pitcher with a good fastball.  Had his best season as a pro last year and will work middle relief.

MR Luis Cortez - 29 year old righty coming off 3 straight solid years.  Won't overpower many hitters, but does have a tricky curveball in his arsenal, will also work the middle innings.

MR Claude Pinard - Left handed power arm who had 129 K's in 105 innings last year.  Historically has been tougher on righties than lefties.  His sinker is his out pitch and home runs off of him is a rarity.

MR Hyo-chin Kim - At 27, Kim is probably one of the best non-closers in the BSA.  Career 3.03 ERA in 424 appearances and is only 27 years old.  Coming off two sub-1.80 ERA years and will act as the set-up man.

CL Gerald Johnson - With back-to-back All Star appearances, Johnson is becoming one of the premier closers in baseball.  He led the league with 42 saves last season while striking out more than 13 batters per 9.  

In the Wings 

SP Stephen Puckett - Former 2nd round pick out of High School, Puckett had a full year of AAA last season with decent results.  He may not be ready now, but could be an injury fill in and possibly a staple in the rotation as soon as next year.

MR Gil Dickson - Dickson looked good and improved in what very little time he got after missing most of all 2023 to injury.  If he can limit walks he should be an average reliever down the road.

MR Jonathan Phillips - Very hard throwing 25 year old right hander who can hit triple digits.  He struck out 171 batters in 108 innings last year in AAA, but managed to walk 81 as well.  Don't be surprised if he is the first reliever up this season.

MR Alfonso Martinez - 23 year old junk ball pitcher who survives with a great change-up.  Struggled in AAA last year after walking more than 6 per 9 innings.  He is still young, but the jury is still out.

GO D-BAGS