Jersey Shore August 2012 in Review

In Jersey picked anytime to have their best month so far of the season it was August, especially after the subpar and sub .500 month they had in July.  Coming into the month they sat 1.5 games back of Chicago for the CL Wild Card spot and when things were said and done a 19-9 record pushed them to 1/2 up on the Machine.  The bats got hot scoring over 8 runs in 11 of their 19 wins and a 21 year old rookie won the CL Pitcher of the Month Award. 

Players of the Month

SP Jose Ramos: 5-1, 2.62 ERA, 2CG, 1.12 WHIP.  Wow, Ramos went from big time prospect dominating AAA hitters to CL Pitcher of the Month faster than anyone could have expected.  With Jerry Burgess struggling, Ramos stepped in at the right time to pick up 7 wins in his first 10 starts and bring another formidable starter to the Jersey rotiation.

SP Art Ellis: 2-1, 1.95 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 37 K in 33.1 IP.  After having his worst month as a D-Bag in July, Ellis bounced back in a remarkable way.  The lone loss was against Toronto where he surrounded 4 ER, but didn't allow more than 1 in any other start for the rest of the month.  He even picked up a no decision against Vista allowing 0 ER.  If Jersey is going to find their way back to the playoffs this year, Ellis will be a main cog in getting them there in September.

2B Mike Bryant: .363/.406/.552. 3HR, 29RBI, 42 hits, 9 2B.  Familiar face this season.  While the power dipped a little bit for Bryant in August, the hits kept on coming.  His 4th 40 hit month, 4th month to have more RBI than games played and scored a season high 31 runs for the month.  This is the dream season for Bryant, if he can keep it up BSA records will fall.

1B Matt Doyle: .355/.430/.645. 8HR, 30 RBI, 39 hits, 8 2B.  Welcome back Matt Doyle! After a summer swoon which saw Doyle hit for .238 and .255 with 6 combined HR for the months of June and July, Doyle found that stroke he had in May and much of his rookie year bashing 16 XBH, his 2nd 30+ RBI month and a glimpse of how devestating the 3-4 holes in the Jersey lineup can be with he and Bryant are both clicking.

Questions, Concerns and Answers

The main concern heading into September is will this team make the playoffs?  Both Chicago and Jersey are playoff caliber teams and both could win 95-100 games this year with one being left at home. 

Will Jerry Burgess be given his rotation spot back? Since his demotion to the pen, he has only pitched 6.1 IP but only has given up 1 ER in that time span.  He also struck out 10, compared to 4 BB.  The control has been the issue for him much of this season.  While Goodship and Shaefer have not been terrible, they haven't put up numbers bad enough to be replaced in the rotation.  Plan on seeing Burgess get a spot start or two, or more if Jersey can take the lead in the WC race.

September is a time for call up but since we have seen Ramos, Schroeder and Torres is there anyone else we might see during the month?  I don't think we will be seeing any more rookies, but catcher Duran will be off the DL as well OF Jose Ortiz, plan on seeing both back.  We will probably also see OF Duncan and OF Kino come back up to be bats off the bench.  There is an outside chance of seeing a rookie pitcher, for depth.  If I had to guess MR Zong, Lara or Cortez could be given a couple of September innings.

Minor Leaguers of the Month

Pitcher
MR Bernardo Pacheco (AAA):  1-0, 1 save, 0.63 ERA, 1.12 WHIP.  While pitching mainly middle relief and set up for Tuscaloosa, Pacheco was money in his 14.1 IP in August.  He allowed 1 ER, which was on a solo HR and tallied 13 K to only 3 BB.  Pacheco, 28, is in his 4th year at AAA and each year his ERA has gotten lower.  He will be 29 next year, and if he becomes a minor league free agent, he could catch on somewhere and help a bullpen.



Hitter

1B Tadahisa Kisuki (AA): .408/.487/.582. 3 HR, 27 RBI, 40 hits.  Signed in April 2015 out of the free agent pool, the 20 year old is really picking it up since he his subpar play in A ball last year.  He crushed A pitching this year, and August was his best month playing in AA Gainesville.  While he doesn't hit for a lot of power, the gap is there totally 37 2B between the two levels while hitting over .350.  There's a good chance he will get the promotion to AAA before the year is over.  At only 20 years old the kid could see the show before a lot of players his age are even out of college.

 

Slow Start

After a hot spring training the Bags were looking to change things up and get off to a hot start this year in 2015.  5 out of there first 6 games were decided by 1 run and left the D-Bags with a 2-4 record.  At the half way part of the month the Bags sit 8-6 with some surprises, both good and bad.

The Good:

Starting pitching has been excellent.  Jersey's starters sit with an ERA of 3.17 which is 4th in the league. Led by Art Ellis, Rob Goodship and Greg Shaefer who all have an ERA under 2.75.

The rise of Adam Morrow.  The draftee of 2010 (one round behind Mike Bryant) waited patientlly putting up huge numbers in AAA back to back years. Now hitting either leadoff or in the 2 hole has gotten off to a scorching start hitting .367 with an OBP of .441 and a team high 10 runs scored.

The return of dominant middle men.  The combination of Gomes, Saenz and Ruiz have been virtually unhittable giving up 10 hits in 22 2/3 IP while giving up 3 runs and striking out 23 while picking up 3 of the team's 8 wins thus far.

The Bad:

Bats off to a slow start.  Although with each sim the batting average goes up a little bit each, it still sits at .242 which is 10th in the league and a slugging percentage of .403 which is 8th in the league.  These are bound to go up but they can be attributed to the low scoring 1 run losses. 

Mike Byrant and Peter Larson slow starters.  When the 2-3 hitters in your lineup are either below 200 or barely above you know you will have problems.  Larson, though taking walks at a high pace has not hit....at all, getting 8 hits in 53 AB.  Mike Bryant who is and will be the catalyst of this offense, got off to a brtual start hitting .156 with no HR or RBI in the team's first 7 games.  He has turned it on some hitting a couple of bombs and raising the average to .213, but he needs to step it up.

Daniel Morris not automatic?  In the first 3 games he pitched in, he gave up 6 runs, struck out only 2 batters and attributed for 2 losses and a blown save.  Though in the last 4 games he has given up 1 hit, it was totally unlike Morris, who is usually Mr. Automatic.  It won't matter if the pen is lights out if Morris isn't.

As usual Greenville is off to a hot start.  Despite a few key injuries already, the 84's have raced out to an 11-2 record, 3.5 games ahead of the Bags.  They don't play their first series with Greenville until the end of the month giving the 84's plenty of time to cool down before these teams meet. 

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

We Have Been Here Before

Oh September in Jersey.  The guidos and guidettes have left the Shores in search for warmer climates, the smell of rotting seafood and lost dreams have faded and the D-Bags find themselves amidst another (what once seemed unobtainable) playoff hunt.  For much of the summer and early fall Jersey has looking up the standings to the dominate 84's of Greenville, the power bats of the Swag from Pittsburgh and the Bombers who reside on the shores of Lake Mandota in the city of Madison.  

After a dismal 12-16 August which saw Jersey lose 7 games to teams under .500, the D-Bags fell  to 9 games behind Regina for that last coveted Wild Card playoff spot.  8 games out, 26 games to play.......if the chances were slim to none, slim had he hat on and was heading for the door.  Attendance started to drop pulling in a season low 24,808 fans to witness the D-Bags drop the 2nd to last game in August to the Titans of Toronto.  While the Stars were playing well, the team as a whole wasn't.  3 players cannot carry a ball club.  With September abound, the last month is a long under achieving season was upon us and 26 games til family, winter, golf, travels and another off season to ponder what else to bring to Jersey to help them get over that hump of the only team in BSA history to always finish with a winning record but never finding the playoffs. 

But if we have ever learned anything from this team is don't give up on the D-Bags.  September started with a win over Toronto, followed by taking 2 of 3 from St. Louis and one of Jersey's only 2 off days of the month.  A loss to Reno on the 6th of the month left Jersey 3-2 for the month with 21 games to play, 7.5 back.  Funny thing about that Reno game, it's 11 days later and that was Jersey's last loss.

Jersey would take the next 2 from Reno, scoring 10+ runs in both games. Next traveled to Pittsburgh for a 4 game set, and who was also well ahead of the D-Bags. 4 games, 4 wins, including a game scoring 4 in the 9th to take the lead.  Next came 4 at home with the Browns.  Jersey pitching was phenomenal, allowing 10 runs in a 4 game sweep.  The series included 2 walk off wins, wins 7 and 9 of the streak.  Win 11 came on Rob Goodship's best performance of his career, shutting out WC leading Regina on 1 hit for a 7-0 win.  11 wins in a row,  5 games shaved off the WC lead.  11 games to play, the D-Bags sit 3 games back.  Impossible? No. Improbable? Absolutely.  It was a mere 2 years ago the D-Bags made a similar run to make it 1 game back with 6 to play. Only to watch Oklahoma and Greenville pull away an finish 2 games out.  

Here is what we have left:

Jersey: @REG, @REG, @POC, @POC, @POC, @KCY, @KCY, @KCY, vs GRN, vs GRN, vs GRN

Pitts: @MAD, @MAD, vs GRN, vs GRN, vs GRN, vs MAD, vs MAD, vs MAD, @STL, @STL, @STL

Regina: vs JER, vs JER, vs TOR,  vs TOR, vs TOR, @VIS, @VIS, @ VIS, @IND, @IND, @IND

When we talk about how good Jersey has been as a team, it starts with the pitching.  

Greg Shaefer is undefeated in 3 starts, with a 0.87 ERA which included a CG shutout.

Rob Good ship is undefeated in 4 starts, with an ERA of 2.67 and his 1 hit shutout.

Macias is 2-0 in 3 starts with a 3.32 ERA.

The bullpen as a whole has allowed 10 ER in 33 IP, with 50 K's, which comes out to a 2.92 ERA. 

As far as the hitting goes, 12 of the 17 batters are hitting over .300, including 8 hitters with multiple homers, led my Mikey Bryant who has 4 HR and 17 RBI in 16 games.  Bryant who went cold in August has seem to have found it again and it shows in the team's results.

While we don't fully expect the D-Bags to continue this magical winning streak and run, it has brought us something to watch and root for again in September, and with 11 games left and this being baseball in Jersey, anything can happen.  Keep your eyes open ;)

GO D-BAGS