Great August Puts 1st Playoff Appearance in Reachable Sight

The Jersey Shore D-Bags picked a great time to string together their best two months of the season in July and August, but should it come as a surprise to anyone considering the way this team has played over the years?  Widely known as a 2nd half team, the Bags record of 81-55 put them on pace to finish the season with 96 which would set a new team record and in this case probably would secure a playoff spot.  The 19-11 record in August put them 6 games up on the Austin River Sharks for the Wild Card spot in the CL and marks the first time they entered the last month of the season in the lead for a playoff spot.

Players of the Month

SP Art Ellis.  1-2. 2.77 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 38K/39 IP.  Though his W/L record doesn't show it Ellis was far and away the best starter in the month of August. In 4 of his 6 starts he gave up 2 ER or less and twice gave up 0 ER, once earning him a loss (4 unearned runs) and the other a no decision.  Ellis's great August kept him in the lead in the CL in the ERA race and makes it likely he will set the team record in this category which was set by Dan Macias last season.

MR Jaime "Mungo" Saenz.  4-0, 2 saves. 0.00 ERA, 0.65 WHIP, 31K/21.2IP.  Mungo was as we call it flat out nasty in August.  In fact this probably is the best month from a Jersey reliever ever, and that's saying something.  Appearing in 17 of the teams 30 games he didn't give up a run and only allowed 6 hits in 21.2 innings.  Mungo is showing that if the Bags can't work out an extension with closer Daniel Morris that he is more than able to do the job going forward

1B Matt Doyle. 10 HR, 22 RBI, .364/.456/.710.  1.166 OPS.  Another POTM for Doyle, even if it wasn't as big as his July.  He continued to lead the CL in HR and his average crept higher towards that .326 he hit last year, finishing the month at .298. His 10 HR was tied for 3rd in the BSA only behind Caro's 11 of NFF and "Superman" Phillips's 16 also of NFF.

3B Alberto Perez. 4 HR, 15 RBI, 10 2B, .390/.420/.701 1.121 OPS.  Antonio Ruiz who?  Perez has been a highly coveted asset with no place to play in Jersey until the trade that sent Ruiz to Vista before the deadline.  Now that he is getting AB's he is showing the fans of Jersey what he can do.  Despite a handful of AB's over the past two season this was by far his best month in the big leagues, adding 30 hits and 15 of those for extra bases.

2B Mike "Coffin" Bryant.  10 HR, 23 RBI, .316/.374/.598.  Bryant's stellar 2nd month in a row puts him in the MVP chase again and ended the month ranked 3rd in AVG, 3rd in HR, 2nd in RBI while leading the leading the league in runs scored.  The past 2 September's have been huge for Bryant earning him POTM from the Bag Report for each of them, don't be surprised to see him here again next month.

LF Sergio Rodriguez. 4 HR, 17 RBI, .351/.424/.689, 1.114 OPS.  Sergio is another player like Perez who is an AAA standout but just lacked a place to get AB's on the Jersey big league club.  He continued his above average July with a stellar September month, much of the time playing CF.  The drawback was he had an elbow injury towards the end of the month which will sideline him for 3 weeks.  With Scott Powers and Foster coming off the DL, Jersey will have replacements for him, but it always is a downer losing a hot bat.

Roster Changes, Questions and Answers:

Ah, September always brings a time to see the young kids called up and get their "cup of coffee."  This year should be no different as we expect to see a a group of new faces joining the club.  With Leon Foster coming off the DL, he should join the Bags the first week of August after his rehab stint gets over with.  Sergio Rodriguez is the only member of the club on the DL at the moment, should miss the first 2 weeks on the DL and might get a small rehab stint before joining the club the last week of the season.

We talk about him almost every month in this section, but OF Tim Duncan has been called up to the big club.  In fact in August he played in 2 games and hit his 1st career HR and stole his 1st career base in the same game, so congrats to him.  We aren't sure yet if he will start on a regular basis, but expect him to at least get pinch run and some late inning defense in.  The Bags are also expected to recall MR Takafumi Ogusuku to give the bullpen some rest before their late season playoff push.  He was so-so with the Bags in July posting an ERA north of 5.00.  

We also expect at least at some point in the month that 1B Edgardo Gonzales, 2B Aaron Bailey, SP Jose Reyes, C Albert Lopez, and LF Ken Taylor to be recalled for some AB's.  With Tuscaloosa being 14 games up in the AAA standings, their magic number is 9 and would get their players back before the playoffs started.  

Until next time, go out and root on your Bags as their quest for their first playoff spot could come to and end this month!!

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore July 2015 In Review

July was a successful month for Jersey who compiled a 15-8 record in the game shortened month causes by the All Star break.  The stars showed up to shine and the Bags will start August with a 4.5 game lead in the Wild Card race over the Austin River Sharks.  It's an odd place for Jersey who usually finds itself chasing other teams at this point and not holding any sort of lead.

Players of the Month

2B Mike "The MACHINE" Bryant: .385/.431/.703 8 HR 30 RBI 22 R.  Why not start off with the CL Player of the Month?  Bryant won the award for the 2nd time in his career for the month of July, he also won it July of 2014 as well.  Bryant had 12 multi hit games, 9 multi RBI games, including having 4 RBI on 3 separate occasions.  He started at 2B for the CL All Star team earlier in the month and has put himself back into the midst of MVP talks for the 2nd year in a row.

1B Matt "Down Home" Doyle: .357/.421/.667 8 HR 30 RBI.  Doyle joined Bryant to create quite the 2 some for the month.  He was also selected as a reserve for the All Star game and matched Bryant's HR and RBI totals.  The combined 16 HR and 60 RBI in 23 games is an incredible amount.  It was Doyle's 2nd 8 HR and 30 RBI month of the season, the other coming in May.  He currently sits 2nd in the league in HR and leads the league in RBI, also he was the first BSA player to reach 100 RBI on the season.

3B Adam Morrow: .323/.405 31 H 13BB 16R.  Super rookie continues to impress as he had his 3rd 30 hit month of the season.  Leading off most games he ranks in the Top 10 in the CL in hits and runs.  He has put himself right in the thick of things in a crowded CL ROY conversation as well.

SP Jerry Burgess: 4-0  2.70 ERA  28K/4BB  0.90 WHIP.  The new acquisition dazzled winning all 4 starts after coming over from El Paso.  His 4 wins were more than he had in 3 months with El Paso and his first month with less than double digit walks.  Apparently the bats like when he is on the month as well, in his 4 starts they scored:  11, 14, 13 and 15 runs in his starts. 

SP Art Ellis: 3-0  2.01 ERA  1.12 WHIP  26K/6BB.  Ellis continued his torrid first season with the Bags and is making a run at Dan Macias's team record for ERA which he set last year at 2.82.  After his last July start he sits at 2.44.  Ellis was selected to the All Star for the 2nd time this month and his first time since the 2011 season.

MR Jaime "Mungo" Saenz: 2-0  1.35 ERA   0.75 WHIP 16K.  After a rough start to the season in April for Mungo, he finished July as the 3rd month in a row with an ERA sub 2.00.  The hard throwing lefty is having a bounce back season after a "down" 2014.  This marks the 2nd year in a row he has registered 9 wins, he currently sits at 9-0.

CL Daniel Morris:  1-0  6 Saves  1.08 ERA  0.96 WHIP.  Morris had been having the exact opposite of what a contract season should be, but July he finally looked like the Morris of old.  2015 marked the 2nd year in a row Morris was left off the CL All Star team after a streak of making the team 3 years in a row.

Roster Questions, Changes and Answers

Leon Foster still has 3 weeks left on the DL and we won't see him probably until late August or September.  Scott Powers suffered a Knee contusion on 7/23 and will miss 3 weeks with the injury.  With him being out of the lineup it gave more AB's to Sergio Rodriguez and Taro Kino in the OF. Sergio had 60 AB in July and hit .300 with 2 HR.  

Jose Gomes was also injured on 7/30 with some shoulder tendonitis and is set to miss 3 weeks.  In his absence the Bags added Takafumi Ogusuku, the Japanese native to the 40 man roster and the active roster.  In one game in July he gave up 3 ER in 2.1 IP vs San Fransisco.  At only 19 years old he rose quickly through the Bags system to make it to the big club.

Edgardo Gonzales, Aaron Bailey and Tim Duncan continue to impress in AAA Tuscaloosa for the Bags but right now there just isn't any room for any bats.  Look for one or all 3 of them to get September callups to see what they can do for the big club, especially if the Bags start to pull away in the WC race. 

GO D-BAGS 

Brian Wilson No-Hit Magic

Who knew the cool spring night on April the 24th in Tuscaloosa would be a special one?  A crowd of just over 3800 piled into Tuscaloosa Municipal Stadium to see the home town Trout Slayers take on the Zanesville Gunslingers, the AAA team of Cleveland Monsters.  28 year old veteran Brian Wilson took the bump for the Trout Slayers who came in with a 4.41 ERA and 3 no decisions in his first 3 starts of the season. 

Game time was 7:05 and Wilson promptly walked the lead off man but took care of the next 3 hitters in order via 2 fly-outs and a strikeout.  The Trout Slayers went to work early starting their half of the inning off with 3 straight singles with the third bringing in the first run of the game.  SS Aaron Bailey then stepped to the plate and launched a 340 foot 3-run HR into the left field bleachers.  The 4 run first inning would be more than enough for Wilson on this night.

A ground-out, another walk and a pair of K's finished the 2nd.  A 1-2-3 3rd and 5th innings sandwiched with another walk given up in the 4th and we were through 5 innings.  0 hits, 3 BB.  A 2-run HR by OF Albert Rodriguez made it 6-0 in the bottom half of the 4th.  4 more runs in the 5th inning made it 10-0 Trout Slayers and the game was getting out of hand.  All the runs and hits from Tuscaloosa made the no-hitter through 5 innings seem non-existent. 

Wilson walked the leadoff man again in the 6th for his 4th walk of the evening but retired the next 3 batters to get out of trouble.  Back to back strikeouts and a groundout and he was through the 7th inning in just 7 pitches.  Through 7, 98 pitches 0 hits, 4 BB. 

A lengthily bottom half of the 7th saw the Trout Slayers send 7 men to the plate and Aaron Bailey knock in his 4th run to push the lead to 11-0.  It was at this time everyone in the dugouts and stands knew what was going on.  Wilson sat on the end of the bench alone with his thoughts and the stands were still full.  Wilson took the mound for the 8th and struck out the leadoff man on 3 pitches.  The 2nd batter walked on 5 pitches but a lazy fly ball to Center and a weak grounder to 2nd ended the inning.  Wilson had 8 no hit innings while throwing 112 pitches, which was already a season high.  

The Trout Slayers had a single and a walk in the bottom of the 8th but couldn't produce another run and we were onto the 9th.  Wilson had 2 coats on to keep that arm warm and every eye was on him as he made the slow walk to the mound.  After a handful of warm up pitches Marty Ward stepped to the plate and drew a 5 pitch walk with the only strike coming on a close pitch which could have easily been called a ball.  The 6th walk of the evening and questions by every fan wondering if he had anything left in the tank.  His arm was obviously fatigued as his fastball was several miles an hour below the 90 MPH he usually throws.  After 2 called strikes on the 2nd batter a changeup just missed the outside corner which had the crowd in an uproar.  Mark Bryant took the next pitch and poked it towards the 1st baseline where First Base replacement Xin Zhang was perfectly positioned.  He fielded it on 2 hops stepped on first and threw to 2nd where Aaron Bailey made the tag, and......DOUBLE PLAY!!  Just like that Wilson was one out away.  The crowd was on their feet as 34 year old veteran Antonio Reynoso stepped into the box.  Wilson set and delivered and Reynoso tagged the first pitch to deep right CF, with the entire stadium holding their collective breath, the speedy CF Tim Duncan chased back, and back on the warning track and MAKES THE CATCH!!  The entire team mobbed Wilson and carried him off the field on their shoulders.  

While Wilson reaching his prime might never make the Major Leagues, this was a moment he would call the most special one in his career up to this point.  Wilson's gem was on the 6th No-Hitter in ITL league history and only the 2nd since the VBL/BSA take over.  

 

Brian Wilson was the 82nd overall selection in the 2008 draft by the then Bugaboo Creek Caribou.  He grew up in Shelby, Montana and played his college ball at the University of North Carolina.  He was traded by the formerly known Edison Colonels, now Boston Rebels, to the Jersey Shore D-Bags in the off-season of 2011 in the Rob Whitley trade.   This is his 6th season of pitching at the AAA level and 4th for the Tuscaloosa Trout Slayers.  He is currently tied with John Sharp of the Indianapolis organization with 63 wins which is the most in ITL history.