D-Bags Make Ripples; Trade for Paquette

The D-Bags announce today that they have sent former stand out Mason Bonniface along with 3 minor leaguers and brought in 36 year old and former Gold Glove winner and All Star 3B David Paquette.  Paquette was playing in his first season for Indianapolis after being traded from Baffin Island where he spent the previous 4 seasons.

Paquette

Though Paquette's numbers are slightly off his career numbers, as a 36 year old he hasn't lost much.  On the season for Indy he has hit .274/.370/.423 with 8 HR and 48 RBI.  He is an upcoming free agent and it isn't known right now if he was brought in as a rental and cash off set for Bonniface or if the team plays on giving him a contract extension.  He is currently making $12 million dollars this season.  Paquette should be penciled in as the starter at 3B and will probably hit 5-6th in the lineup.

Leaving the D-Bags if former All Star who has seemed to fall off the planet Mason Bonniface.  Bonniface who has been in steady decline since 2011 started the year on the Jersey roster but a 6 for 42 start got him jettisoned to AAA where he struggled to find playing time and his contract becoming an albatross.  The move on paper will save Jersey 24 million over the next 2 seasons.

Bonniface

As for the minor leaguers headed off to Indy the highest ranked was SP Daniel Felix who had been in A ball.  Felix came over to Jersey through a traded with Vista last October.  In 16 starts in Manhattan, Felix had a 4-7 record with a 2.65 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP.  Another arm headed out of the Jersey system is 20 year old MR Jose Rivera.  Rivera signed as a ML free agent last season and was in his 2nd season in AA Gainesville.  He has potential, but has struggled with control in his short BSA career.  The 3rd minor leaguer going over was 27 year old OF Claudio Lee.  Lee was drafted in the 72nd round of the inaugural draft in 2010 and slowly worked his way through the Jersey system.  This year was his best statistically where he was hitting .347 in 176 AB's, but had trouble getting many AB's with Jersey's highly stocked OF at the big league and AAA level.

                                              Felix                       Rivera                        Lee

I would guess with the Bags crawling back in the race this will not be the last trade they make before the deadline, but only time will tell. Rumors have it they are looking for another arm.....as usual.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey to Call up Top Prospect

After an injury free and and successful month of April, the first days of May brought a rash of injuries to the Jersey Shore D-Bags.  On May 3rd, Marvin Taylor who had been playing out of his mind, in a game against New Orleans, Taylor doubled, then came around to score on a single by Leon Foster.  After he crossed the plate he came up limping and taken out of the game.  After the game team trainer diagnosed him with a latissimus dorsi strain, which will leave him out of action for 3-4 weeks.  Taylor had manned 2nd base throughout the first month.  

The next day in another win against the New Orleans Looters, a similar instance occurred.  During a 5 run 2nd inning, 3rd baseman Parker Morrow singled, advanced to 2nd on a Mason Bonniface single, then came around to score on a Jorge Lozano single to CF.  There was a play at the plate and Morrow slid in from an angle to avoid the game and safely slid across the plate.  In doing so he tweaked his back and was taken out of the game.  At first the trainer said he was day-to-day, but later was diagnosed to miss 2 weeks with a strained back muscle.  Later in the same game with no outs in the Top of the 5th, Jose Brito induced the Looters 3rd sacker Ronald Reardon to hit a fly ball down the RF line.  RF Michael Paul made a sliding catch near the line and apparently tweaked his wrist. He was taken out of the game for precautionary reasons and was diagnosed with a sore wrist, nothing that will land him on the DL for, but should miss 1-2 weeks of time.

With what seems like impeccable timing, Jersey activated 2B Fred Ross from the DL.  He had been on there since tearing his groin muscle in a Spring Training game on March 20th.  Ross appeared in 61 games last season, hitting with a slash line of .290/.387/.426 adding 14 XBH and 32 RBI.  Ross will be added to the 25 man roster, but the extent of his playing time is not known yet.

The big and more exciting news is the Jersey Shore D-Bags have announced they will call-up their highest rated hitting prospect, Matt "Coffin" Bryant.  Bryant is a former 1st round pick (21st overall in 2010) and was named the 21st best prospects in all of baseball by the BSA.  In 2012, Bryant had a solid season for AAA Tuscaloosa, hitting .296 with 17 HR and 94 RBI, while adding 37 SB.  In the first month of 2013 Bryant made a statement that is ready to help contribute.  In just 31 games he has amassed 8 HR, 30 RBI and 50 hits to post a .373 BA along with a staggering 1.045 OPS.  The switch hitter will be added to the 40-man roster and likely will start at 2B when the Bruins of Los Angeles visit on Monday.

Bryant

Look for April in review to come soon!

GO D-BAGS!

Jersey Shore - September 2012

Even though with the end of September we saw our D-Bags fall short of their first playoff spot, we did see another good month in September.  After a rocky start the D-Bags went on a middle of the month run and finished up with a 16-11 record for the month.  This marked their 4th straight winning month and in those months they played at a clip of .630.  If they would have played that well in April and May this team would have won 102 games.  Disappointing end to a magical run, but encouraging moving forward.

Players of the Month:

SP Jose Reyes: 3-2, 1.75 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 30 K's.  The season will be marred with "what-if's" for Reyes.  After suffering an injury last season which kept him out until the middle of June he rejoined the rotation and was the staff's best pitcher.  After 3 sub-par starts at the end of August, Reyes re found the magic in September winning 3 of his 5 starts and lasting into the 7th inning 4 times out of 5 tries.  A little more run support and help from the bullpen and he could have been 5-0.  Regardless he is a big reason that Jersey came so close this year to their first playoff berth.

MR Ciro Roghi: 1-0, 1.08 ERA, 8.1 IP.  Though 8 innings in a month is a small sample size, 1 ER in relief for the month is why he has a role on this team. Roghi finished up a fabulous rookie year with 2nd straight POTM award.  He allowed 1 ER in his last 17.2 IP.  Look for this lefty to be a staple in the pen for years to come.

MR Alonso Jiminez: 0.00 ERA, 9 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 K:  Where did this kid come from??  Jiminez was Jersey's 2010 3rd round draft pick out of Michigan, and just two years later he was an intricate piece of the D-Bags late season bullpen.  He started the year dominating AA ball, moved to AAA Tuscaloosa posting big numbers and earned a September call up.  He racked up a 5.5 VORP in just 9 outings and it's looking like he could add to Jersey's already lethal bullpen.

3B Parker Morrow: .326/.391/.484. 4 HR, 13 RBI, 16 R, 2 SB.  Morrow capped his best season as a D-Bag with his 2nd best month and 2nd POTM award of the 2012 season.  This month included 7 multi-hit games including 4 with at least 3 hits.  He also had his first multi-HR game of the season on the 4th against Regina.  Morrow also picked up his 1000th VBL6 hit this month.  He finished the season with 1037 hits and only turns 28 this upcoming January.

LF Mason Bonniface: .313/.451/.438.  1 HR, 10 RBI, 18 BB.  Yes, that's right his OBP was higher than his SLG in the month of Sept. Bonniface's bat regressed this year and he had his worst season since his rookie year as a pro, but clogged the basepaths all month long.  Became the 25th player in league history to draw at least 104 BB's in a season.  Really bounced back after the beginning of the season saw him moved down in the lineup and had people questioning his talent.

2B Fred Ross: .378/.489/.595.  8 RBI, 9 BB, 1K, 4 SB.  Sure this screams small sample size considering he only played in 12 games, but filled a much needed void.  After trading 2B Nunez at the trade deadline to make way for uber prospect Antonio Ruiz, Ross was the fill in if needed and PR.  Antionio Ruiz gets injured and thrusted Ross into the starting position where he couldn't have done much better.  He hit the cover off the ball, hitting in 11 of the 12 games he played in Sept, and scoring in 7 of the 12. 

Roster Changes, Questions and Answers:

As always in September we see different new faces, some make a difference and some do not.  Alonso Jiminez stepped up from AAA to dominate out of the pen.  The loss of Antonio Ruiz allowed Fred Ross to step off and hit the cover off the ball.  Alex Torrez suffered a season ending injury mid-month and Rob Goodship jumped in to make two spot starts against Greenville and pitched brilliantly.  The kind of pitching that this team's front office thinks he can do in the future.

As always when a season ends means roster changes.  The team as a whole has 4 players whose contracts are ending and another 8 players who will be arbitration eligible when the season is over.  It will raise some interesting questions the team must make, especially considering the amount of talent this club has waiting in AAA this season.  This will be talked more in depth in the first off season report.  This wraps up the last monthly report for the 2012 season.  Look for our season in review report which will be out next month.

GO D-BAGS

Do or Die

September baseball for the Jersey Shore D-Bags has customarily involved seeing a lot of new faces in lineup and the younger players getting their so-called "cup of coffee" after the team had fallen out of the playoff race.  Welcome to exciting September baseball Jersey fans!  After the hottest month of baseball in Jersey history which saw our D-Bags erase a 10 game deficit in the division, September didn't start nearly as hot.  The 2nd week saw Jersey drop 4 of 5 making their big August run seem like merely a tease.  This was until this last week when Jersey took 3 of 4 from division foe Greenville and followed that with a 3-game sweep of Madison to position themselves closer a playoff spot than they have been all season.  

With 6 games apiece left in this 2012 season the Dent division has a 2-way tie for first place.  The Greenville 84's and the Pittsburgh Pirates are deadlocked with an 88-68 record.  Your Jersey Shore D-Bags sit one game behind them both with a 87-69 record.  The Wild Card Standings look exactly the same but add in the Oklahoma Droogies and their 87-68 record and you have 4 teams, 1  game apart vying for 2 playoff spots.  2 will move on, 2 will be left in the dust.  

The last week schedules look like this:

Greenville: JER, JER, JER, @MAD, @MAD, @MAD

Pittsburgh: @HAD, @HAD, @HAD, WHI, WHI, WHI

JerseyShore: @GRN, @GRN, @GRN, DNV, DNV, DNV

Oklahoma: @WHI, @WHI, @WHI, HAD, HAD, HAD, HAD

At first glance, the obvious series is the 3 game set between Jersey and Greenville.  A sweep either way will more than likely eliminate one of these teams.  A 2-1 win for Jersey would put them in a virtual deadlock with 4 games to play, this will be an interesting series, especially considering Jersey just took 3 of 4 from the 84's.  It will be a nerve racking week for 4 owners this week as Pocatello and Regina sit back and await who their first round matchups will be.  Even though Pocatello is the only TL team that has clinched, they still sit 2 games behind Pit/Grn for the 2nd playoff seed.  Regina has the 1 seed locked up. 

NEWS AND NOTES

In Jersey's current 5 game win streak, the bullpen allowed 0 ER in 10 IP.  The tentative pitching schedule for the D-Bags for their last 6 games would be Brito, Goodship, Bourg, Reyes, Hernandez and then with Brito getting the ball on the last day of the season.  Brito and Reyes have been the two best starters as of late, giving up 5 ER between the 2 of them in their combined last 6 starts.  Jersey has already set their franchise record for wins with 87, their previous high being 85 in 2010.  1B Derrick Wright was called up after his monster year in AAA and proceeded to get a single in his first VBL6 AB. David Pena needs 2 HR's to tie William Hinson for most HR's in a season by a D-Bag with 30.  Jose Brito could set a Jersey Shore record for wins in a season at 15, if he can win both of his starts.  Mason Bonniface became the only D-Bag ever to walk 100+ times in a season.  Parker Morrow became only the 11th player in VBL6 to record 1000 career hits earlier this month.

GO D-BAGS