Your All-Time Jersey Shore Team

I thought this seemed like a fun idea.  To find the best team I could from former Jersey Shore teams.  Rules: You can only use a player once, regardless if he played another position.  Some decisions were tough, some were easy, but here you have it:  

SP: 2019 Jose Ramos.  23-6, 2.76 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 1.05 WHIP, 8.2 WAR

SP: 2014 Dan Macias. 20-8, 2.82 ERA, 2.81 FIP, 1.16 WHIP, 8.9 WAR

SP: 2015 Art Ellis. 13-8, 2.94 ERA, 3.73 FIP, 1.20 WHIP, 5.0 WAR

SP: 2019 Sergio Martinez. 17-3, 3.08 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 4.5 WAR

SP: 2017 Greg Schaefer. 18-3, 3.82 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3.9 WAR

MR: 2016 Jose Gomes. 10-1, 4 saves. 1.31 ERA, 2.05 FIP, 1.02 WHIP, 3.6 WAR

MR: 2014 Daniel Morris. 6-5, 31 saves.  1.52 ERA, 1.94 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 2.0 WAR

MR: 2013 Lucio Tapia. 8-1, 2 saves.  2.19 ERA, 1.77 FIP, 1.21 WHIP, 3.0 WAR

MR: 2019 Jose Ruiz.  6-3, 40 saves. 2.83 ERA, 2.92 FIP, 1.09 WHIP, 1.3 WAR

MR: 2013 Ciro Roghi. 1-0, 0 saves. 1.95 ERA, 2.15 FIP, 1.30 WHIP, 1.2 WAR

CL: 2017 Jaime Saenz. 8-2, 49 saves.  1.94 ERA, 1.96 FIP,  0.99 WHIP, 2.8 WAR

C: 2013 Jorge Lozano. .303/.388/.511.  36 2B, 24 HR, 107 RBI, 5.1 WAR

C: 2017 Warren Goyer. .257/.329/.541. 20 2B, 42 HR, 116 RBI, 3.4 WAR

1B: 2015 Matt Doyle. .302/.386/.572.  25 2B, 44 HR, 147 RBI, 5.7 WAR

1B: 2021 Tadahisa Kisuki.  .366/.424/.560.  32 2B, 18 HR, 57 RBI, 5.7 WAR

2B: 2016 Mike Bryant.  .347/.407/.618.  48 2B, 40 HR, 158 RBI, 9.6 WAR

3B: 2015 Adam Morrow. .282/.402/.360.  31 2B, 4 HR, 61 RBI, 3.9 WAR

3B: 2012 Parker Morrow. .313/.390/.418.  29 2B, 10 HR, 62 RBI. 3.6 WAR

SS: 2020 Lawrence Schroeder.  .306/.341/.542.  27 2B, 19 HR, 74 RBI, 4.7 WAR

SS: 2011 Jerome Lindsey.  .343/.427/.480.  23 2B, 9 HR, 56 RBI, 4.2 WAR

UTIL: 2020 Fabrice Brodeur.  .325/.365/.465.  29 2B, 10 HR, 61 RBI, 3.4 WAR

OF: 2021 Dave Dodd.  .388/.455/.799.  46 HR, 119 RBI, 9.7 WAR

OF: 2011 Mason Bonniface. .328/.433/.556.  23 HR, 78 RBI, 6.1 WAR

OF: 2010 William Hinson.  .308/.404/.538.  23 HR, 91 RBI, 4.3 WAR

OF: 2013 Leon Foster.  .272/.338/.567.  33 HR, 105 RBI, 3.7 WAR

Starting Lineup:

SP: 2014 Dan Macias. 20-8, 2.82 ERA, 2.81 FIP, 1.16 WHIP, 8.9 WAR

1.  SS 2011 Jerome Lindsey

2. DH 2021 Tadahisa Kisuki

3. 2B 2016 Mike Bryant

4. RF 2021 Dave Dodd

5. 1B 2015 Matt Doyle

6. C 2013 Jorge Lozano

7. LF 2011 Mason Bonniface

8. CF 2013 Leon Foster

9. 3B 2015 Adam Morrow

How does your team stack up?

GO D-BAGS

Dan Macias Hits Milestone; Wins 150th

It was a windy night in Indianapolis and even though he wasn't nearly as sharp as the 8 shutout innings he threw in Seattle 5 days prior for win #149, Dan Macias lasted into the 7th inning and was backed by 12 runs from the Jersey offense to win for the 150th time in his career.  The gutsy 36 year old veteran became only the 5th pitcher in BSA history to reach that mark.  He joins Alfredo Aicon as the 2nd hurler to hit the 150 mark this season.

Macias pitching in his 4th season in Jersey, won his 52nd game in  D-Bags uniform which puts him 2nd all time for the franchise in wins.  Jersey is Macias's 4th team in his 11 year career which dates back to 2007 before the modern BSA times.  He has won double digit games 9 times, topping out at 20 wins in 2014, his first season with Jersey.  Macias has publicly stated he would like to stay in Jersey and finish his career but management has been leery to give him an extension after seeing his production go down for the 4th straight year.  Macias has obviously lost some velocity but still is a decent option at SP.  This season Macias is 5-3 in 11 starts with a 4.66 ERA and 1.29 WHIP.  He will turn 37 at the tail end of this season.

The pitchers to reach 150 wins ahead of Macias are, Scott Hill (195 wins), Jean-Thomas Francoeur (158), Ricky Bolden (157) and Alfredo Aicon (156).  The next 3 pitchers to more than likely reach the milestone are John Garrett (140), Earl Harper (137) and Fransisco Rivera (133). 

Macias's career line is 150-96 in 322 career starts.  He has a 3.58 ERA to go with a 1.20 WHIP and has struck out 1879 batters in his career.  If he can strike out 121 more batters this season he would be the 5th pitcher to also reach the 2000 K club.   

Bags Finish Off Vista in 5; Head Back to CLCS

After starting the series 1-1 playing the first two games in Vista, Jersey headed back home to The Ballpark at the Shore for their first 3 home games of these 2016 playoffs.  Jersey won game 1 handily with Art Ellis pitching them to an 8-2 win.  Game 2 was a masterpiece turned in by Michael Hoffmeyer who out dueled the rookie Jose Ramos for a slim 2-1 victory, a victory that GM Josh Swain was afraid of.  "We have the bats, they have the arms.  There's no doubt in my mind that we can beat them in a shoot out, its the 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 games that will lose us this series.  We need to stay away from those," is a quote from Swain before the series, thus far he seems to be right.  On to Jersey!

Game 3

Gane 3 would feature a matchup between Tyler "Big Train" Law of Vista and Dan "Simple Man" Macias of Jersey.  Law, who missed more than 2 months with elbow tendonitis during the year, pitched great all season, including a no-hitter against the Reno Cards.  He shut down Jersey in both his starts this season, pitching 14.2 innings of shutout ball.  Macias, the the 36 year old veteran, had his worst season as a pro as his strike out totals fell and ERA rose.  He did have a great September which Jersey is hoping for good signs during this postseason.

Macias, who struggled mightily in the playoffs a year ago, would get things started nicely for Jersey taking the first 3 Vista hitters in order.  The stadium was packed down to standing room only tickets and gave an ovation as he got All-Star John Doby to strike out to end the first.  Tyler Law would take the mound for Vista and whatever concerns Jersey hitters had about him shutting them down all season quickly disappeared.  Two quick walks and a hit by pitched loaded the bases for Matt Doyle with no one out.  Doyle would waste no time and take the 2nd offering to the gap in left-center bringing home 2 runs an sending Bryant to 3rd.  The next batter Dodd would walk on 4 pitches to re-load the bases, still with no one out.  A harmless fly ball would get Romero, but Bryant would tag and score the third Jersey run.  Catcher Warren Goyer would fly out for the 2nd out before Alberto Perez would single on a line drive over shortstop to load the bases for the 3rd time in the inning.  Law's control problems would continue as Tim Duncan would step in and not take the bat off his shoulder for 4 straight pitches forcing in the 4th run from 3rd base and surprisingly ending Law's night.  It resulted in the shortest outing of the season for him.  Carlos Arevalo would relieve Law and strike out leadoff man Sergio Rodriguez on 3 pitches.  But the damage was done.  After 1 inning, Jersey held a 4-0 lead.

Macias apparently came to work.  Even after the long delay of batting around he came out and retired the side in order for the 2nd straight time.  Jersey would waste no time getting more.  SS Lawrence Schroeder led off the inning with a single and 2 batters later Matt Doyle would connect and pull a line drive down the line that barely stayed fair for a 2 run HR.  It chased Arevalo from the game, and the 6 runs would be more than Jersey needed today.

An RBI triple from Schroeder would bring in the 7th run in the 3rd and an RBI single from Perez would bring home the 8th run in the 4th.  Macias would stay out of the trouble until the 5th when Torres connected on a 2 run HR.  Brian Cash would leadoff the 6th with a solo HR to bring the Jersey lead to 8-3 and follow that up with an RBI sac fly in the 7th to shave one more run off.  A triple and wild pitch would bring home Vista's 5th run in the 8th before Macias was done for the night.  Even though he gave up 5 ER he was effective enough to pick up the win.  Jose Gomes and Jaime Saenz would close out the last 5 batters to preserve the 8-5 win for the Bags and give them a 2-1 series lead.

Final Score: Jersey 8  Vista  5
POTG:  Matt Doyle  2-5, 2R, 2B, HR, 4RBI

Game 4

Game 4 would turn out to be the most interesting game of the series.  Vista would bring Cipriano Montanez back on short rest while Jersey would send the embattled Jerry Burgess to the mound.  Burgess was regulated to bullpen duty for much of August and September before coming back and throwing a quality start against Pocatello during the last series of the year.

Things did not start well for Burgess.  A walk, single and walk loaded the bases with no outs, just like Jersey did the day  the before.  Vista would get their 4 runs but they did it on one swing.  Roberto Bojorquez would only need one swing to send a Burgess offering high, deep and gone over the CF wall to put Jersey in a 4-0 hole before an out was recorded in the game.  Burgess would shake it off and retire the next 3 batters before heading to the dugout in a quiet stadium.  Montanez was sharp in the 1st inning, needing only 8 pitches to saw through 3 Jersey hitters to get us to the 2nd inning.  Either Manager Kevin Davis had faith in Burgess or just didn't want to waste his bullpen, but Burgess headed out to the mound for the 2nd inning.  A walk, double play, single and groundout ended the top half, while Jersey would go down in order in the bottom half to end the inning.

Burgess would go back to work in the 3rd giving up a lead off single Bojoquez before getting 2 straight outs.  But a single from Torres and back to back walks would force in Vista's 5th run, but Brian Cash couldn't capitalize and break the game open by grounding out to end the threat.  The Bags would finally show some sign of life in the 3rd getting two free passes to start things off before Luis Antonio Duran came to plate.  Duran would single up the middle which would score one, and advance the runners on the throw to home.  An RBI groundout from Larson would plate the 2nd run, giving the Bags a runner on 2nd with one out.  An Adam Morrow single would put runners at the corners and Mikey Bryant would be the 2nd D-Bag to be hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases.  Montanez probably got the biggest out of the day by getting masher Matt Doyle to weakly hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.  Both teams left the bases loaded.  Jersey shaved part of the lead off, going into the 4th, Vista led 5-2.

Burgess would finally get the hook when he surrendered a 1 out double Doby and was replaced by Greg Schaefer.  Schaefer would get an out before giving up back to back singles where Vista would plate their 6th run.  Torres would strike out with 2 runners on to end the threat.  As usual Jersey batters wouldn't lay down.  The struggling Dave Dodd led off the inning with an exciting triple and came around to score on Perez's single before Montanez retired 3 batters in a row to end the 4th.  Both teams score, 6-3 Vista lead.  The 5th went by without any damage from Vista, but MVP showed up for Jersey.  2 pitches after Schroeder pulled a double down the left field line, Bryant would take a Montanez fastball the other way landing 340 feet away and bringing the Bags to within 1 and the crowd to their feet.  It was Bryant's 1st HR of the series and just his 2nd and 3rd RBI in 4 games.

Both teams would pose threats in the 6th and 7th innings but no one could come up with a clutch hit until the bottom of the 8th.  Vista would bring in Evan Brown to pitch to the left handed hitting rookie Torres, who would get the best of him and single on a line drive to CF.  Brown would be replaced with rookie 1st round pick Edward Cadle who gave up a line drive single to former ROY Adam Morrow to put 2 runners on with no outs.  Arevalo would replace Cadle who had a battle with Peter Larson before getting him to ground into a HUGE unassisted DP from Brian Cash.  Arevalo couldn't get all the way out of trouble though.  Lawrence Schroeder would hit a grounder pasts a diving Cash to score the runner from third and knot up this ballgame at 6 runs apiece. There could have been more trouble when he walked both Bryant and Doyle, but got Dodd to lazily fly out to send to send us to the 9th tied up.

Both teams would go down in order in the 9th sending us to our first extra inning game of the series.  The 10th was no different, 6 up and 6 down.  This was a pivotal game for both teams.  Vista would threaten in their half of the 11th getting a lead-off single from Cash and a successful sac bunt from Cassidy to give Vista a runner in scoring position.  John Doby would be given a free pass and like many other times in this series, the Vista bats wouldn't come through.  Flame thrower Mungo Saenz would get Ashur and House both swinging to a huge ovation from the crowd.  They wanted a Jersey win. With the meat of the order coming up, there would be no better time for the Bags.  Bryant quickly got his 4th hit of the game a double into the left field corner and Doyle was walked to set up the double play.  Goyer would pinch hit for Dodd and fly out to right field to bring up last year's playoff hero and this year's All Star game hero Alberto Perez.  Why not? Perez took a 2-0 pitch and grounded the ball up the middle.  Bryant would score without a throw and and was met at the plate by the team for a mini mosh pit to celebrate the walk off win.  Down 5-0 and to come away winners was a great feeling.  Going up 3-1 in the series with a chance to close it out at home was an even better one.

Final Score  Jersey 7  Vista 6
POTG:  Roberto Bojoquez  2-4, R, HR, 4RBI

Game 5

If you were expecting a close nail-biter this wasn't your game.  Game 1 Art Ellis winner would take the mound against Game 2 winner Michael Hoffmeyer pitching on short rest.  Ellis was nothing short of brilliant on this evening.  Hoffmeyer labored, couldn't avoid the Jersey bats and this one was over before it even began.  Jersey scored in every inning but the 3rd and the 5th highlighted by Home Runs from Bryant and Doyle in the 4th and the 6th, 4 total hits for Bryant and 4 hits from Peter Larson.  Every Jersey regular besides Alberto Perez had a hit and Art Ellis would go 7 scoreless innings giving up 4 singles and 1 walk on his way to 8 strikeouts and his 2nd win of the series.  Hoffmeyer wouldn't get out of the 4th inning and 4 other relievers would pitch and all would give up runs.  In the end the Bags won in laughing fashion 11-0 in front of 35,000 fans and would earn their right to take on the winner of the Toronto-Greenville series, which Toronto holds a 3-2 lead in.

Final Score:  Jersey 11  Vista 0
POTG:  Mike Bryant 4-5, 2R, 2 2B, HR, 3RBI

Summary:

From what we said in the pre-series summary, if Vista is going to win they need to limit the Jersey bats.  They did in 1 game, which resulted in a Vista win.  In the other 4 games Jersey scored 8,8,7 and 11.  The bats were just too much for the Panthers. I also want to give much respect to the bullpen.  They were outstanding, only 3 hits in 15+ innings giving up no runs and striking out 16.  

Series MVP:  Mike Bryant  13-22 (.591) 7R, 5 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI

Other notable performers:

Alberto Perez: 8-21, .381, 5RBI
Matt Doyle:  6-21, 5R, 2HR, 8RBI
Art Ellis: 2-0, 1.42 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 14 K
Entire Bullpen: 15.2 IP, 3H, 0ER, 0R, 3BB, 16K

Jersey Shore vs. Vista; Tied After 2

Welcome to the long awaited BSA Division round of the 2016 playoffs!  The Jersey Shore D-Bags will take on the Vista Panthers in the first round.  Since Vista was the division winner, games 1-2 and 6-7 will be played in Vista, while 3-4-5 will be played in Jersey.

We breakdown the first 2 games of the series played in Vista here:

Game 1

Former Cy Young winner Cipriano Montanez would take the hill for Vista, making him the first Vista starter to start a playoff game for the team.  He would throw a ball to Peter Larson to start the game in front of a packed house of just over 40,000 fans.  He would get Larson to pop out, rookie SS Lawrence Schroeder to ground out before coming to the teeth of the Jersey lineup.  Mr. Triple Crown Mikey Bryant would run the count to 2-0 before roping a line drive the other way into the corner for a 2 out double and the game's first hit. On the first pitch to Matt Doyle he would hit a hard grounder through the hole between 3rd and SS, Bryant with a great jump would score the game's first run without a throw.  Montanez would get rookie Dave Dodd swinging to the end Jersey's first.

Starting for Jersey Shore was their veteran ace Art Ellis.  We learned early on that his control might be a little off today.  He walked the leadoff man Brian Cash, gave up a single to John Doby and walked Matt House to load the bases with only one out.  A very fortunate come-backer off the bat of Armando Macias would result in a force out at the plate for the 2nd out.  Cesar Torres would step to the plate and see the 2nd pitch in the at bat in the dirt and to the screen, a passed ball, which would bring home Doby to the tie the game.  Torres would strikeout in the at bat 4 pitches later to end the inning.

The 2nd innings treated both pitchers well with both getting 3 up and 3 down.  The 3rd inning the Bags would get to Montanez again.  A walk to Larson followed by singles by Schroeder, Bryant and Doyle resulted in 2 runs, giving the D-Bags a 3-1 lead.  A single to Doby is all Vista could manage in their half of the 3rd, ending the inning trailing 3-1.  A base runner apiece for each team in the 4th is all the action we would see, keeping the score the same.

Mistakes abound would kill Vista in the 5th inning. Schroeder would strike out to start the inning before Bryant would pull a scorching ground ball down the first base line for his 2nd double of the game.  An intentional walk to Doyle would set up the double play ball seemed to be a good strategy until the 3rd pitch to Dodd would be a wild pitch to move the runners up.  This forced Montanez to intentionally walk Dodd to load the bases. Alberto Perez would step to the plate, and what should have been an inning ending double play ate up SS Riley Cassidy, which subsequently would allow 2 runs to score and the inning to keep going, also this would chase Montanez from the game.  Guillermo Martinez would relieve Montanez, give up a sac fly to catcher Duran, to bring home Jersey's 6th run, before getting rookie Fransisco Torres to ground out to end the inning and a big Jersey lead 6-1.

This would be all Jersey would need today.  Vista would load the bases in the 6th against Ellis but only muster one run, and that was forced in by a walk from Matt House.  This would chase Ellis who ended up pitching 5 2/3 innings, giving up 2 ER on 3 hits but walked 7.  Jersey would get the run back and another in the 7th with a single from Duran that would bring home Doyle and Dodd and make the score 8-2.  The only other base runner for the rest of the game would come in Vista's 9th when 1B Manny Dominguez would walk, before Hyo-chin Kim retired 3 batters in a row to end the game.  Dominguez was the only batter Kim would let reach in 3 1/3 inning, which resulted in a save for him in his first postseason pitching.

Final Score: Jersey 8   Vista 2
POTG: Matt Doyle  3-4, 2B, BB, 2R, 2RBI

Game 2

Game 2 would offer an interesting pitching matchup.  Vista would send Michael Hoffmeyer to the mound, who was 0-2 against Jersey this season with the combination of Mikey Bryant and Matt Doyle doing most of the damage in those 2 games.  For Jersey they would send 21 year old phenom Jose Ramos, who shutout Vista in 7.1 IP in his only start against the Panthers this season.  

Hoffmeyer and Ramos would dance around base runners in the first inning before both escaped trouble. The 2nd inning both pitchers would get 3 up, 3 down getting a pair of groundouts apiece to send us to the 3rd still knotted at 0.  Besides a 6 pitch watch to Peter Larson, Hoffmeyer was all business in the 3rd, throwing 8 pitches to achieve 3 outs outside of the Larson AB.  

In Vista's half of the 3rd we would finally get some action.  After Manny Dominguez would strike out swinging, Riley Cassidy would come to the plate trying to redeem himself for his very costly error in Game 1.  On the 2nd pitch of the AB, Cassidy would surprise everyone and drag a bunt down the line and beat it out by half a step.  On a 1-1 count to Brian Cash, Cassidy would steal 2nd base, giving Vista a rare runner in scoring position.  Ramos would get Cash to fly out for the 2nd out, but wasn't out of trouble yet.  Roberto Bojorquez would slice a line drive down the RF line that would land fair by a foot scoring Cassidy from 2nd easily and giving Vista the early 1-0 lead.  A John Doby walk would extend the inning before Matt House grounded out to Mikey Bryant to end the inning.

The Bags would show some life in the 4th, well Bryant would show some life.  He started the inning with a single, his 2nd hit of the game and stole 2nd with Dodd at the plate after Doyle flew out to RF.  Dodd would fly out for the 2nd out before disaster almost struck Vista and Mr. Cassidy.  Alberto Perez would again ground to Cassidy which should have ended the inning but a bobble and a throw off target would allow him to reach and send Bryant to 3rd base.  Duran would come to plate looking to tie this game up at 1.  After running the count to 2-0, he took a big cut at a fastball which would result in a grounder to 1st, which would end the inning.

After the middle of the 4th, both pitchers would settle into a groove and besides a wayward single we would head into the bottom of the 6th inning with Vista still leading 1-0.  Doby would lead off Vista's half of the 6th with a single before House and Macias hit lazy fly balls into the OF for easy outs.  But again Vista would strike with two outs.  Cesar Torres, the speedy OF, who had 46 2B on the year, would do what he does best and line a ball to the gap in left-center.  CF Torres would have no chance to make a play on the ball, Doby would score with no throw and Vista goes up 2-0, but it wouldn't last long.

Dave Dodd would lead off the 7th for the Bags and take Hoffmeyer's 3rd pitch of the AB and deposit it 425 feet later into the RF bleachers.  It would mark the first HR for either team in the series and erase the insurance run Vista just pushed across the plate.  Hoffmeyer would struggle through the rest of the inning, getting 2 outs, but loading the bases in the process.  The threat would be ended when he would get SS Schroeder to fly out to CF avoiding all danger and leaving the Bags with 3 runners left on to think about. 

The bottom of the 7th and top of the 8th were very similiar for both starters seeing 3 batters apiece with Hoffmeyer getting Bryant, Doyle and Dodd to all groundout in order.   Ramos's night would be over after pitching 7 very solid innings for Jersey, giving up the 2 ER on 6 hits while striking out 5.  Jose "Dog Pound" Gomes would come in, getting a ground out and 2 strike outs to send us to the 9th.

Vista closer Alejandro Lopez would be called upon to end the game for Vista.  Lopez saved 20 games on the season between Vista and St. Louis.  His night wouldn't start well with a 5 pitch walk to Lopez.  One of the more bizarre plays you will see happened when Duran stepped to the plate.  On the 3rd pitch of the AB, Duran would lay down a bunt that immediately went back to the pitcher Lopez.  Lopez would twirl and fire to 2nd to get Perez easy as the force out, but a heads up play by Cassidy to throw to first would end in a bang-bang double play off a bunt attempt.  Duran had had't a successful sac bunt attempt in over 2 years and only 3 in his entire career.  It was an odd decision. Jersey wasn't done yet as Torres reached after being hit by a pitch and last year's ROY Adam Morrow coaxed and 8-pitch walk to put the tying run in scoring position for leadoff man Peter Larson.  But it wasn't meant to be for the Bags as Larson popped up the first pitch on the infield where 2B Cash would end the game with an easy catch.  

Final Score:  Vista  2   Jersey 1
POTG: Michael Hoffmeyer   8IP, 1ER, 1R, 4H, 4BB, 4K

We now head to Jersey for 3 games, tied 1 game apiece.

GO D-BAGS

Jose Ramos, Rookie Phemon; Wins CL Pitcher of the Month

Coming into this season Jose Ramos was just a 20 year old heading back to AAA after a trying 2nd half the season after dominating AA in 26 starts.  He showed so much promise that OSA named him the 7th best prospect in the entire BSA before the 2016 starter.  Management had no plans to even consider moving him to the big club this season.  

"Ramos is a kid with special talent.  Being so young we have moved slowly with him since he joined the organization in 2013.  We gave him 2.5 seasons in AA before he finally felt comfortable and his true talent starting coming out before sending him to AAA last season.  We expected him to struggle in the starts that he had.  In his 7 starts he had an ERA of around 4.50 and only had a 2:1 K/BB ratio, so we knew he had a ways to go.  At the beginning of the season I never really thought we would be talking about him in a light like this," commented GM Josh Swain on Ramos.  

Ramos struggled in April and came through about with the same statistics and ratios he had last season, but was walking fewer.  In his first 2 starts in May he notched 2 wins pitching 15 innings, giving up 2 ER and having a 4:1 K/BB ratio.  His signature start though came against Topeka on May 18th.  Ramos went 7 shutout inning, giving up 5 hits, walking 3 and tying a league record with 15 K's.  It got the attention of the baseball world, and also put him at 7-0 for AAA Tuscaloosa.  He would continue baffling AAA hitters up through his last AAA start on June 30th where he would throw his first career shutout, giving up just 3 hits, walking no one and striking out 11.  This took his record to 11-1, his ERA to 2.95 and fIP of 2.30.  How do you keep a guy down after that performance?

He made his BSA debut on 7/5/2013, 2 days before the All Star break to face the Madison Bombers at home.  He wasn't overwhelming but did go 8 strong innings, giving up 3 ER on 4 hits, walking 1 and striking out 3 for a no decision.  He would get his first win 11 days later in his next start across the country against Pocatello.  He again would throw 8 innings, this time only allowing 1 ER, 6 hits, 1 walk and 6 K's.  He would beat rival Chicago before be humbled by the bats of Niagara Falls to bring his record to 2-1 entering August.  

Ramos got 6 starts in August, 3 at home and 3 on the road.  He went 6.2 IP in everyone of his starts, allowing 4 or less runs in every start and 4 /6 2 or less.  He tallied a 5-1 record, getting his only loss in his last start at Chicago, allowing a season high 10 hits and 4 ER as well as 2 HR.  His shiny 5-1 record compiled with a 2.62 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 24 K's gave him the CL Pitcher of the Month.  This was the first recorded time that we could find of a Jersey pitching winning this award.  Amazing with a staff that has featured pitchers like Macias, Ellis, Brito and Burgess that a 21 year old was the first to win it. 

Even though GM Swain didn't expect Ramos to pitch for the big club this season, he could end up being their savior.  7 wins in his first 10 starts, as well as Ramos making 4 or 5 starts may be the reason they make the playoffs instead of being on the outside looking in.  Either way, the kid has been everything he was advertised to be and more.  I don't expect this will be his last POTM award.

GO D-BAGS

2016 Jersey Milestones We Might See

Baseball is about statistics.  There are more statistics in baseball than in any sport combined.  And we here in Jersey are no different, we love tracking our players and their accomplishments.  Here is a list statistics and what we might be in store for the 2016 season.  Some more likely than others.

Let's start on the pitching side of things.  

Pitching:

35 year old Dan Macias has 3 wins in 4 starts.  It's a long shot, but 19 more wins this year (22 wins total) would make him the 3rd ever pitcher to reach 150 wins.  With 2 more wins he passes Ethan Pickup for 5th All-time.

Sticking with Macias, his 19 K's thus far puts him just 105 K's from 1800, which (After Ricky Bolden does it soon) would make him the 5th pitcher to reach this milestone.

Rob Goodship with 1 win this season, needs 12 more this season for 51 career, which would make him the current all time Win leader in D-Bag history.

Jaime Saenz with 2.6 VORP this season needs 17.4 more this season to pass former closer Daniel Morris as the franchise all-time VORP leader.

Hitting:  

Leon Foster, with 17 RBI in 16 games, needs 92 more RBI to join the 800 RBI club which has only been accomplishment thus far by 5 players and 2 soon to be members.  109 RBI might be a stretch for the season though.

Foster also needs to strikeout only 3 more time to join the 1100 club, occupied by 3 players.  With 103 more he would join only John Crowe, and possibly Enrique Jarmillo as the only players on the 1200 list.

Mikey Bryant, 3 HR thus far, needs 5 more to make him the 1st D-Bag ever to hit for 100 career HR.  It would also only make him the 3rd 2B ever to hit 100+ HR behind Luis Pezina and Jeff Cole.

Matt Doyle would need 23 total, already has 5, for the 100 HR plateau as well.  Doyle has average a HR ever 14.23 AB in his career so far.  Career leader John Crowe has a 15.62 average for his career.

There are also a few team records Bryant could set this season.  He needs  to score 111 total runs this season to set the team record in runs, he currently sits 3rd behind Parker Morrow and Mason Bonniface.  He would also need 226 hits (which would break his own team record of 209) to pass Parker Morrow the only man he sits behind at this point.

With the team's last 5-4 win over Austin on 4/22 with 4 total bases, Bryant passed Morrow for 1st on the franchise record for total bases.

With 29 HR this season (which would be a career high) Luis Antonio Duran would become the 8th catcher to hit 100 HR in BSA history. 

With most players being in their mid-20's there isn't a lot for milestones.  But some things to look this season besides the amount of wins the D-Bags rack up!

GO D-BAGS!

Bags Stumble But Remain Hopeful

For the first time in Jersey Shore's history they were putting on the uniforms in the month of October.  In the visitor's clubhouse at CNE Stadium in Toronto wasn't home but this was the postseason.  "You could tell there were nerves in the air," SS Marvin Taylor proclaimed, "this is a fun loving bunch and before the game the only one yappin' like usual was Al (Ryan).  For the majority of this team this was their first postseason experience.  Their draw as the wild card was to take on the #1 seed in the CL, 110 win Toronto, which was second only to the mighty Hitmen in all of the BSA.  It is a 7 game series, but the first game was the first punch, who would land it?

  The veteran Ricky Bolden would get the start for TOR who was making his 22nd all time playoff appearance and 7th BSA playoff start. Dan Macias would get the start for Jersey marking his first BSA playoff start. He previously had playoff experience in '09 and '07 before the VBL-BSA take over.  After getting out of a 1st inning jam, disaster struck in the 2nd.  With runners on 1st and 2nd, Toronto SS Jordi Overbeek smashed a line drive between SS and 3B. Using cat like reflexes 3B Adam Morrow dove back into the hole and made a spectacular catch for the first out of the inning.  Sighs of relief came from the Jersey dugout until they noticed Morrow struggling to get up.  Trainers immediately rushed onto the field and helped him up.  Morrow obviously in pain grasping at his left shoulder as he was taken out of the game.  We would learn after the game the diagnosis: separated shoulder: recovery time, one month.  A blow to the offense.  In the last 3 weeks Jersey has lost both Adam Morrow and Peter Larson who ranked 2nd and 4th in the CL in OBP and were the team's lethal 1-2 on base machines in front of the big boys in Bryant and Doyle.  A big loss.  Things didn't get better from there, a 3 run 3rd inning capped off by a Ben Moss 2-run HR would all that Ricky Bolden would need as he cruised through 6 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 7.  A triple by Maximo Zargoza in the 6th would make the score 4-1 and essentially chase Macias from the game.  Jersey had a chance in the 7th after Ryan reached on an error, Ryan Cole replaced Bolden.  He got a K, gave up a BB and big RBI 2B by Marvin Taylor to put 2 runners in scoring position with the tying run on 2nd base with only 1 out.  He would get Alberto Perez and Jose Ortiz to fly out and the Bags never threatened again, dropping Game 1, 4-2.

Game 2 started differently, a double, wild pitch and a sac fly put the Bags up a run after only producing one out, but that's where the good fortunes would end.  Starter Jerry Burgess would give back 3 runs in the bottom half on a handful of hits and Jose Brito would do the rest.  He was brilliant in his 7 IP, allowing 6 D-Bags hits, the 1 run, 1 BB and 6 K's.  A Ben Moss solo HR in the 4th would make it 4-1 and Toronto added 3 more in the 7th to chase Burgess taking a 7-1 lead.  Toronto's bullpen would work 2 perfect innings to shut the door, giving the home team the 2-0 advantage.

The good news was that the series would head to Jersey.  The bad news was the offense was struggling,badly.  3 runs on 11 hits over 2 games.  The deadly duo of Bryant/Doyle had combined to go 3/15 without an extra base hit or and RBI.  Jersey played a lot better at home all season long, playing almost .700 baseball there.  Art Ellis would be on the mound, he had an ERA of 2.28 at home this season, something had to give, and it did.  Jersey nearly equaled their hit total from the first two games and Art Ellis pitched a gem leading Jersey to their first ever playoff win in front of a crowd of 40,000+.  It was a tight game most of the way through but Ellis refused to let Toronto back in, or even on base if he could.  He gave up 3 hits through 7 innings, 2 being solo HR's by Rivas and Crowe which would be all the offense the Titans would generate.  The Jersey offense took every advantage to score runs. They plated runs on a double play, wild pitch, walk and then finally on Mike Bryant's 2 run HR that put the game away for good.  It was the first HR of the series for Jersey and Bryant's first RBI as well.  Being down in a series 2-1 sure looks better than 2-0.  Jersey is still in this thing.

We now will go live as GM Josh Swain's press conference is just getting under way:

Reporter Sally Trumpert, Trenton Free Press:  "Mr. Swain, please give us thoughts on the loss of Adam Morrow."

Swain: "Losing Adam is big.  After Pete went down we were relying on Adam to be our spark plug, our table setter.  The kid is a hustler, first in-last out type of kids, really sucks to lose him.  That first game, which was tough enough already playing a team like Toronto in front of that raucous crowd and facing that all-star studded lineup, but as they helped Adam off the field it was like a punch in the gut that took the air out of the sails.  We will move on and the combination of Perez-Taylor on the left hand side of the infield will do fine, but we will miss the boy on the field."

Beat writer Sam Toddenfield, BSAreport.com: "You were criticized and 2nd guessed for starting Burgess Game 2 and waiting to use Ellis in Game 3.  We know how it turned out, have anything to add now and would you change anything?"

Swain: "No.  I will stand by that decision.  I know Burgess had struggled in much of September, but he had been good in Toronto.  We wanted Ellis at home.  Look, even if Ellis would have been on the mound for game 2 he would have had to been perfect.  We scored 1 run.  Brito was excellent that day.  We were hoping that either Macias or Burgess could lead us to a win and Ellis could put us up in the series pitching Game 3.  You need offense to win games fellas and I still feel it was the right choice."

Reporter Dan Miles, NY Times: "With the struggles of the offense, will there be changes for Games 4 and 5?"

Swain: "What do you expect me to do?  Yes, we had to make changes to the lineup to compensate for Morrow, but other than that it's all about timely hitting.  Yes, we haven't had that many hits, but when we have had opportunities, we haven't taken advantage.  We need to score those runners from 3rd with less than 2 outs, 1 clutch hit in game 1 and we had a tie game.  Game 3 should have been a blow out, so many runners left in scoring position.  The hits will fall.  We had the bases juiced with 1 out and had Bryant and Doyle coming up and we scored 1 run when Doyle was walked.  How often is that going to happen?  The lineup will be much of the same, but look for Foster to get the start in CF in Game 4. Last question."

Reporter Vanessa Antuaco, Morgantown Today:  "What are the keys for your team for the rest of the series, how do the D-Bags pull this out?" 

Swain: "Like I said before, some clutch hitting, we won't win games scoring 3 or less runs against this team.  The bullpen needs to stay strong, they have been nearly perfect thus far and need to keep that up.  Also we need to get on the board early and keep their starters pitch counts high.  Bolden only lasted 6 innings last time and is coming back on short rest, we need to get into that bullpen which we have had success against.  We need another quality start.  We will be going with Dan in Game 4 and we need a big time Macias start. Evening up the series 2-2 with one more game at home would be huge.  Thank you for your time and questions, hopefully we can have another one of these after the series.....a winning series. ;)"

Thus far the starters have given up all 13 runs in the series.  The bullpen like Swain mentioned has in fact almost been perfect.  In 5.2 IP they have surrendered 2 hits, 1 walk while striking out 7.  Dog Pound Gomes is the only reliever to be in more than 1 game and he has seen all 3.  He came into Game 3 in the 8th to strike out Cuan and Rivas back to back to end the 8th, the only 2 batters he faced.

Game 4:

SP Dan Macias

RF Scott Powers

DH Jose Ortiz

C Luis Antonio Duran

2B Mikey Bryant

1B Matt Doyle

LF Al Ryan

3B Alberto Perez

CF Leon Foster

SS Marvin Taylor

Rob Goodship is more than likely going to be the starter in Game 5.  Jersey was waiting to see how rested Jerry Burgess will be, but based on his first start it might not matter.  Toronto will see one of the lefties in Game 5.  That is all from the Bag Report, we wish the D-Bags luck!

GO D-BAGS

 

D-Bags make 2 trades: Bring in Burgess, Send Ruiz Packing

Burgess Trade

In 2 separate trades in the weening days of June, the D-Bags have again bolstered their rotation with an addition and sent a familiar face packing to the sunny state of California.

The big piece in the trades was bringing in SP Jerry Burgess from the El Paso Diablos.  Now over the past 2 seasons Jersey has brought in Dan Macias, Art Ellis and Jerry Burgess.  To get Burgess they had to dip into their deep talent-rich farm system to pull off the deal, but let's talk about Burgess first.

Jerry Burgess is a 28 year old left hander who stands at a statue tall 6'7" and will be calling Jersey his 4th home in just 5 seasons under his belt.  Drafted by Madison in the inaugural draft, he played his first 2 professional seasons there in 2011-2012 before being traded to Hendersonville where he would help them win a title in 2013.  He would be dealt at the 2014 deadline to El Paso in the Yokoyama deal and pitched a week short of a full season there before landing in Jersey today.

Burgess has a career record of 55-41, 4.20 ERA, and averages over 1K/IP for his career.  This year has been the worst so far as a professional, but Jersey brass has confidence that a change of scenery can help him turn it around.  

The deal was a 6-1 trade that included: SP Kenny Stanford who was struggling in his 2nd season as a D-Bag and is an impending FA this offseason.  32 year old SP/MR Justin Terry who has been a staple on the AAA staff for years now.  OF Harold Robinson, saw brief time last season in Jersey and should be on a ML roster but due to the D-Bags he found himself buried in AAA.  

The main real piece of this deal was 20 year old SP Ignacio Colon. The Cuban SP is in his 3rd season of AA and has improved on each one.  Scouts say that if he was coming out in the rookie draft this year he would be a Top half of the first round talent.  Also from AA OF Jorge Melendez, who has tremendous talent potential, who socked 24 HR in 370 AA AB's last season.  The last piece is MR Victor Lopez, 19 year old RHP, who projects to be a solid bullpen arm someday. 

A lot of pieces for 1 arm, but a move that Jersey hopes can help push them over the hump this year.  A rotation of Macias-Ellis-Burgess-Goodship-Schaefer is one the Jersey ownership claims is Top-5 in the league and should help us to our first playoff berth this season.

Ruiz Swap

IF Antonio Ruiz is one of the only remaining players on the Jersey franchise since the inaugural draft of 2010.  He was spending his 4th season in a Jersey uniform and earlier this season signed a very, very team friendly contract of 3 years and 1.98 million dollars.  Coming off a season where he hit 20 HR, this came as a surprise to many folks to see him packing his bags, but today Jersey announce they have sent Ruiz to the Vista Panthers in exchange for 2 minor leaguers.  

When GM Josh Swain was asked about why, he had this to say: "We have always like Mr. Ruiz in this organization.  We thought he signed a great deal for us, but we had some reservations.  While it rare to find a SS who can hit for 20+ HR, his batting average and OBP haven't been there over the past 2 seasons, which are two main components.  With bringing in Burgess, we now have 5 starters who are considered ground ball pitchers, and while Ruiz can play the MI positions, his strengths lie at 1B and 3B, which are currently occupied by Doyle and Morrow.  This combined with the fact we have a very, very good player in Alberto Perez who has been in AAA far too long without getting a shot, led to our decision to trade Antonio."

With Perez being demoted we can expect to see defensive specialist Marvin Taylor see time at SS against RHP and Adam Morrow being shifted to SS against LHP to allow Alberto Perez to play 3B.  We are also pretty sure that the play of former 1st round pick Lawrence Schroeder in AAA this year gave some insurance in case of disaster or injury.

In exchange for Ruiz, the D-Bags receive 2 18 year old players.  The 1st is SP Javier Garcia, whom Vista discovered and signed out of Mexico in 2013.  He is a workhorse who throws 6 pitches, the best being his fastball.  His movement is lacking in his game and Jersey plans on looking in and fiddling around with this in the offseason.  The other player is 18 year old OF Miguel Rosa whom the Vista Panthers discovered and signed out of Cuba in 2013.  Rosa is a speedy left hander who has 50+ SB in the last 2 seasons combined and projects with plus power.  He is still very raw with the bat and glove, but at only 18 years old, there is plenty of time to see him progress.

Garcia                     Rosa

Hopefully these 2 trades will reap the rewards and turn out to be wise decisions for the D-Bags this season and beyond.

GO D-BAGS

2015 Is Here; And a Major Change

Welcome back D-Bag fans!  As I type this we are just days away from the start of a new and exciting season full of promise for your Jersey Shore D-Bags!  We have a few new faces, but for the most part the Bags bring back the majority of the same team that won a team record 94 games last season.

The major news in the off-season is the addition of SP Art Ellis.  Ellis pitched in Madison last year after 3.5 seasons in Hendersonville.  He marks the first player ever to come play for the D-Bags who has a BSA championship ring from the current period, and he has 2.  After an injury plagued season in Madison last year which held him to 23 starts, he is healthy and ready to be the #2 starter behind Cy Young runner up Dan Macias.  This could be the 1-2 punch Jersey has been looking for in previous years.  For his career Ellis has won 89 games while posting a 3.83 ERA.

As of opening day the rotation will look like this:

1. Dan Macias

2. Art Ellis

3. Rob Goodship

4. Greg Shaefer

5. Kenny Stanford

 After losing Marv Williams to injury for most of the season, he became a FA and ultimately signed with the New Orleans Looters.  Gordon Brown was traded for right before the deadline and an extension couldn't be reached and he signed a 1 year deal with Niagara Falls this off-season.  With neither of these players being retained it opened up a spot in the bullpen.  After some solid pitching in Spring Training, the open spot will go to 22 year old Jose Ruiz.  Ruiz has climbed through the Jersey system since 2010 and finished last year with a 3.27 ERA in AAA along with 56 K in 41.1 innings.

The current bullpen looks like this:

MR1 Lucio Tapia

MR2 Jose Ruiz

MR3 Brian White

SU1 Jose Gomes

SU2 Jamie Saenz

CL Daniel Morris

Much of the faces on offense will look the same, in fact every players has had some playing time in a Jersey uniform except one player.  That player is OF Jose Ortiz.  Ortiz was picked in the Rule V draft coming over from the Reno organization.  He is 26 and never played above A ball, but Jersey think he has the type of skills to compete for the 4th-5th OF position.  In order to acquire Art Ellis the D-Bags traded all time hits leader Parker Morrow.  Morrow had been a D-Bag since the inception of the league and while it was sad to see him go, he will be replaced in the lineup by another Morrow, Adam Morrow.

The opening day starting lineup will look like this:

RF Peter Larson

3B Adam Morrow

1B Matt Doyle

2B Mike Bryant

DH Manny Romero

SS Antonio Ruiz

CF Leon Foster

C Luis Antonio Duran

LF Scott Powers

With a bench of:

C Albert Lopez

1B Derrick Wright

SS Marvin Taylor

LF Taro Kino

RF Al Ryan

RF Jose Ortiz*  Will begin year on DL.

With much of the team in tact, Ellis adding to the rotation, Peter Larson and Matt Doyle staples in the top of the lineup for the whole year, Jersey has a reason to be excited.  Expectations are high, but still have to some how find a way to overcome the dominance of the Greenville 84's and the tough competition atop of CL.

Jersey needed a change, not a managerial change, not a player change....but a change.  Something to break them out of their slump of missing the playoffs and something to send them over the top.  And with that, I would like to introduce to you the new logo of the Jersey Shore D-Bags.

Boom.  Enjoy.  

GO D-BAGS

2014 In Review

2014 started and finished in true D-Bag fashion.  After a 16-0 Opening Day loss in Dan Macias first ever Jersey Shore start, the season ended with the same Macias shutting out Greenville for his first career 20 win season and the first ever in Jersey history.  The year contained 4 winnings months, including a 21 win September, 2 losing months including a 12 win August and finished with the D-Bags notched a team record 94 wins and falling 2 games short of their first playoff spot.  This marked Jersey's 5th straight winning season where they have compiled a 440-370 record, good for a winning percentage of .540.  

Before the season Jersey built arguably their most talented team with bringing in of Macias, the emergence of 2nd year up and comer Mike Bryant combined with a young core group of players in their 2nd or 3rd seasons.  At the end of the year it was the veteran Macias combined with the bullpen on the pitching side and a young offensive core that drove Jersey's drive for a playoff spot.  5 of their 6 top offensive performers were all in their 1st or 2nd full season which creates an amazing buzz of hope for the future.

Offensive MVP - Mike Bryant

Unless you have been living in a cave, this is a no brainier.  Not only did he finish near the top of the league in every category, Mike "The Monster" Bryant also shattered nearly every record in the Jersey Shore record book.  His batting average of .329 bested the prevoius best by 1 point, his slugging percentage of .600 shattered  the old record of .567 set by Leon Foster.  His offensive VORP of 72 best Mason Bonniface's old record by 11.5, and his OPS was short that only of Bonniface's 2011 season.  He also set team records for hits (209), runs (113), total bases (381), HR (37), and RBI (130).  He won the CL player of the week award 3 times and player of the month award once.  He was selected as a starter at the All Star game and finished 2nd in MVP voting only to Morales of the 84's.  It was a season for the record books and it came in Bryant's full official season after playing 91 games his rookie year.  What else does Bryant have in store for us?

Runner Up - Matt Doyle (see below)

Pitching MVP - Dan Macias

Again like Bryant, another no brainier.  This 34 year old who came over in a trade with Orlando in the off season found his youth again pitching his best season since the 2008 campaign.  He became Jersey's first 20 game winner, the only 20 game winner in the CL, as well as the first Jersey starter to have an ERA under 4.00 for a full season, which he shattered by putting up a 2.82 ERA.  25 of his 36 starts were quality ones, including 2 shutouts and tying a career high of 227 strikeouts.  Despite finishing 2nd in Cy Young Voting to "Prince" Clemente of Madison, Macias's WAR this season was 9th all time since the inception of the VBL/BSA in 2010, only trailing seasons by the names Hill and JTF.  His VORP of 74.5 also ranks 9th all time. Both marks of those that Clemente posted, but it came down to the voters.  The only categories Macias trailed Clemente eas ERA and WHIP, but led him in W, K, FIP, VORP and WAR but regardless Macias had an amazing season.

Runner Up - Rob Goodship

Although Goodship's season numbers do not scream anything positive, he did finish 14-14 with a 4.44 ERA.  His overall season was a down step from his "rookie" year as a Jersey starter.  But not everything was negative.  Goodship won his last 7 starts in a row, beating 4 playoff teams in the stretch. His ERA for his last 12 starts was around 3.25 showing much promise on being a solid #2 on this staff.  If he had pitched nearly that good earlier in the season we might be talking playoffs. 

Rookie of the Year - Matt Doyle

#Call Up Doyle becoming a trending sensation in the early goings of the season while Doyle ripped up pitching in AAA during the first month of the season.  What Doyle did with the time he did have in Jersey was nothing less of sensational.  He finished with a line of 33 HR 108 RBI with a slash line of .326/.389/.570 with a VORP of 51.2.  He played 4 months in the big leagues and won the Rookie of the Month award for the CL 3 of those months.  Despite leading all rookies in the CL in OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, HR, RBI, BB and ISO he finished runner up in ROY voting to LuGo of Toronto.  Doyle also finished runner up to only LuGo in Avg, WAR, hits, runs and total bases.  Bryant and Doyle emerged this season as one of the most feared duos in all of baseball.  Combined they have played in only 380 games total, be prepared for the duo to bring fear to pitchers for the next decade.

Runner Up - Al Ryan

In a trade just days before the season started, Jersey acquired Al Ryan from division rivals greenville in exchange for MR Gabriel Barrentez. Ryan had showed some power promise hitting 16 HR in 294 AB for Greenville's AAA affiliate last season and figured to be a 4-5th bench spot.  Ryan played in 90 games, getting 273 AB's and fully took advantege of them .  He belted 20 HR combined with 50 RBI on way to a VORP of 12  giving Jersey another prominent lefty in their lineup.  In a normal year Ryan probably would have been a ROY candidate.

The Off-Season

Entering the off season Jersey will be short 3 players due to free agency.  Two of those players were acquired during the season in MR Gordon Brown and 3B David Paquette.  Paquette had the biggest impact, playing in 42 games for the Bags after coming over from Indianapolis hitting 7 HR, driving in 17 RBI hitting .297 with an OBP of .355.  The former All Star was asking for a big extension the Bags just couldn't sign at this point.  MR Brown came over from New Orleans after pitching a very good season could never get it going with the Bags.  In 19 appearances, he had an ERA arond 7.50.  He does carry a B-level compensation pick if he is signed.  The other FA the Bags are seeing leaving is MR Marv Williams.  Marv continued his Jekyl and Hyde performances this year after throwing a very respectable year last year.  Williams appeared in 14 games, sporting an ERA around 9.00 before tearing a muscle in his back ending his season.  

With only the 3 vacancies and 2 25-man roster spots don't expect much FA talk from Jersey this off season.  MR Jose Ruiz expects to challenge for the open MR slot in the spring and the combo of Adam Morrow/Alberto Perez plans to be a good one for the last spot on the offensive side of things.  

Rumors have it that Jersey is deep in talks with a couple of clubs to acquire another starting pitcher to pair up with Dan Macias and Rob Goodship, but nothing has been announced yet.  Stay tuned to the Bag Report for any moves, big or small upcoming the Jersey D-Bag world.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore - September 2014

In another up and down season which Jersey finds themselves out of the playoffs, does it surprise anyone that September was their best month of the year?  Including their 11 game streak in the middle of the month, Jersey captured it's 2nd 20 win month in team history by going 21-6, falling just 2 games behind the eventual Wild Card winner, the Regina River Sharks.


Players of the Month:
With a big month like September, there will be several main players in the running for POTM, and this month was no exception.


SP Dan Macias 5-0, 2.14 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 42 K's. Aces are suppose to show up big in big situations and Macias did that in a month where Jersey needed every game. He pitched 6 quality starts, winning 5 of them and earning a no decision in the other.  He ended the season with 16 straight shutout innings picking up his 20th win on the last day of the year. It marks his first 20 win season and the first in Jersey Shore history.


SP Rob Goodship 6-0, 2.51 ERA, 2 CG.  Fans are hoping that Goodship has finally come to play. After a trying sophomore year Goodship finally put together a fabulous string of starts for a perfect 6-0 September.  Always thought of to have potential to be a legit #2 starter, the soon to be 28 year old might just be a late bloomer.


MR Jose Gomes 2-0, 2 Saves, 2.08 ERA, 21 K in 13 IP.  When Dog Pound is on his game, he can be one of the most dominating relievers in the game, and we saw that in September.  Gomes is very much a veteran to the POTM column.  He finished the season leading all relievers in K/9IP.  


2B Mike Bryant 6 HR, 29 RBI, .333/.398/.619.  Bryant rebounded from a slumping August to rake again in September.  3rd month of 2014 with at least 28 RBI.  1st round pick to standout rookie to legit MVP candidate.  The future is bright for Mr. Bryant.  Jersey Shore brass is also lobbying to get an official nickname change from "Coffin" to "The Monster"  Mr. Ulery, take note.


RF Peter Larson .333/.436/.444 11 wb, 18 BB, 20 runs scored.  Larson got better every month after putting on a Jersey uniform and September was by far his best month.  He was on base at a .436 clip and scored in 80% of Jersey's games.  Is there a better spot for him in the game than hitting in front of Bryant and Doyle?


C Luis Antonio Duran 4 HR, 17 RBI, .360/.436/.573.  Hitting mainly out of the 6 slot Duran showed what a valuable asset he can be with power and and and eye.  2nd straight season with 20+ HR and the front office has hinted about an upcoming extension.


Roster Questions, Changes and Answers
Since up until the last few days of the season Jersey still had slim hopes of a playoff spot we didn't get to see too many young players get AB's.  We did see OF Al Ryan get plenty of playing time this year and eclipse the 20 HR plateau.  We still have the 1B/3B candidates Adam Morrow and Alberto Perez looking for regular work.  Adam Morrow had a 4 hit game on the 2nd to last day of the season.  OF Harold Robinson was called up and hit a Grand Slam in his first AB.  OF Ken Taylor and OF Sergio Rodriguez both saw time recently and could be regulars in 2015.  MR Jose Ruiz who was hurt most of the season got a late season call up but never got to see the mound in a game.


It looks as though the D-Bags will hit the offseason with 3 pending Free Agents.  3B David Paquette, MR Marv Williams and MR Gordon Brown.  With the budget the way it is, I would look for none of the 3 to be resigned.  Williams pitched poorly then was injured and Paquette is 36 years old.  Brown would be an interesting candidate even though he pitched very poorly since coming to Jersey at the deadline.  Ruiz is a good candidate to take one of the open MR spots next year, and look for a trade or FA to come in to fill the other.  


There will be some interesting decisions in the off season as far as contract extensions go as well. Next year will be the last year on the contracts for CL Daniel Morris, CF Scott Powers, 3B Parker Morrow and SP Kenny Stanford.  Also you had to wonder when players who will be hitting arbitration soon such as Duran, Bryant , Manny Romero and Greg Schaefer will receive long term deals or wait out their arbitration hearings.  Stay tuned for a season long break down as well naming the Batter and Pitcher of the year as well as minor league players of the year for the Jersey system.


GO D-BAGS