Gianluigi Ciottone; A Long Road to the Majors

With their 1st round pick and the 31st overall pick in the 2016 amateur draft, the Jersey Shore D-Bags selected SP Gianluigi Ciottone, a 4-year starter form the University of Nebraska.  Starting 42 games as the primary ace of the staff, Ciottone averaged over 11 K/9 while accumulating an ERA of 3.58 and a WHIP of 1.19. Ciottone was 22 at the time of the draft and while his third pitch (changeup) wasn't that strong, Jersey management viewed him as a mid-rotation starter who was matured enough to a candidate to shoot up the minor league ranks quickly and possibly see the major league roster in as little as a year.  They were wrong.

After being drafted he was sent to AA Gainesville where his current talent should have pushed him, but he was dominated.  He walked 6.5 batters per 9, which resulted in more walks than K's and led to a 2-9 record with an abysmal 8.02 ERA in 14 starts.  Perplexed by the results he started the 2017 in A Manhattan where he did walk 2 batters less her 9 while his K/9 nearly doubled.  He was still getting hit fairly hard but his BABIP of .354 led Jersey brass to believe it was more a defensive problem than Ciottone's pitching.  Towards the end of the 2017 season he was sent to AA and slotted in the bullpen to ease him into a starting role.  In 11 appearances at age 23, he pitched 12.2 innings, gave up 15 hits, 3 HR, 8 walks and struck out 10.  Good for a 7.82 ERA to finish out the year.  Again perplexed by these results he would again start the 2018 season in A ball.  He turned 24 during the 2018 season making him one of the older players in the league.  While he did improve on his rate stats, he still gave up more hits than innings pitched and was still walking over 4 batters per 9.  

When the 2019 season rolled around, management really had no other option than let him pitch in AA.  When he was drafted, ownership pictured him starting the season in the BSA already, while in reality he barely had any success, even in A ball.  His 24-25 year old season in AA he finally started to show some promise.  Maybe it was because he was taken completely out of a starting role.  He pitched 77 games out of the bullpen, mainly in the setup role.  In 90 innings he allowed 75 hits, 41 walks and struck out 108 batters.  While still walking 4.1 batters per 9 he was back up over 10K per 9 for the first time since college.  As the 2020 season rolled around, Ciottonne was now 25, in his last half a season considered a prospect and hadn't seen AAA yet.  At this point, a 1st round pick should be considered a bust.  Gianluigi would start the year in AAA as a member of the Tuscaloosa bullpen.  He would only see 6 games before injuries on the big league club pushed him into the starting rotation.  In 32 starts he would win 10 games while posting a 5.44 ERA to go along wit ha 1.67 WHIp and a .357 BABIP.  The good news was his walks had fell below 4 per 9 for the first time in his professional career while his K's stayed at 8 per 9.  Maybe there was hope.  He was added to the 40 man roster before the Rule V draft and would head back to AAA to start the 2021 season.  In 9 starts he would go 4-1 posting a 3.67 ERA (best ever since college) as well as lowering his walks to 2.8 per 9 innings.  When Jose Lara forgot how to pitch Jersey came calling and Ciottone would make his debut.

3 days after his 27th birthday and a month short of 5 years after being drafted, Ciottone started against Madison and while he didn't earn the win he pitched 6.2 innings giving up 2 runs on 8 hits while walking 3 and striking out 2.  He would go on to win his next 4 starts and would undeafeated in his first 7 starts compiling a 4-0 record.  Ciottone would  go through a rough patch in his next starts giving up at least 5 ER in all 4 going 1-3 before just last week having the best start of his career.  Against division rival St. Louis, the team Jersey is also chasing for the Wild Card, Gianluigi would throw his first career complete game, holding the Browns to 1 run on 6 hits, walking just 1 while striking out 4 in a 7-1 win.  In 12 starts for Jersey he has a record of 6-3 a 4.06 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP.  

While it may have taken a lot longer than expected and while he isn't an ace the 1st round pick of 2016 looks like it is finally starting to pay off.  One interesting fact about Gianluigi is that since being draft in ever level he has never had a BABIP lower than .310 and has had a FIP lower than his ERA in every single stop he has made along the way.  That's 8 stops including this year in the BSA.  Does he have misleading numbers? Is the defense that bad?  Is he just unlucky?  It's really hard to say at this point.  If he keeps it up though he will find a spot in the Jersey rotation for the foreseeable future though.  He is set to pitch against the Titans in today's sim down in Toronto against a tough lineup.  With both teams looking for a win to stay in the playoff picture we will see how he succumbs to the pressure.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Pitching Sizzles in July; Ramos Takes Home Award

It was a great month for the Jersey Shore D-Bags, whom at the end of July saw themselves with a 3 game lead over slumping St. Louis in the CL East.  While the bats continue to lead the league in most offensive categories, it was the pitching that came through to drive Jersey Shore to an 18-5, easily their best of the season.  The starters combined to go 16-4 with 15 quality starts, 3 complete games and 1 personal shutout to go with another team shutout.  

Ace Jose Ramos led the way, being named the Pitcher of the Month for the CL, the 4th time in his career he has been donned with that honor.  He won all 5 starts he had in July, getting a quality start for every one of them and averaging a little over 8 innings per start.  His final numbers for the month: 5 starts, 5-0, 41.2 IP, 1.51 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 21 K's to go along with just 5 BB. With a 13-4 record and league leading 2.34 ERA he might have a chance to catch up with Toronto phenom Albert Lebel in the Cy Young race who is out for the next 2-3 weeks.

Not only was Ramos perfect for Jersey, but we saw glimpses of the Jose Lara of old as he went 6-0 for the month, winning everyone of his starts as well, including a 109 piece masterpiece on 7/7 against Chicago.  Lara threw his first shutout since 2014 and it was the 14th complete game of his career.  His final numbers for the month: 6 starts, 6-0, 40.1 IP, 3.12 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 34 K's.  Before the month began Lara was 2-6 with a nasty high ERA of 7.20.  Through his 6 starts in July he lowered that to 5.64.  While Lara is still only a fraction of the Lara we saw in Boston, stretches like this give Jersey fans hope that he can make some meaningful starts down the stretch and help lead Jersey back to the playoffs.

Is Art Ellis's job in trouble?  After bouncing back somewhat from a horrible 2019 campaign, veteran Art Ellis had a good April and May before slipping in June and having a fairly terrible July.  In his last 4 starts, though he is only responsible for a 0-1 record, he hasn't gotten out of the 5th inning and twice hasn't even gotten out of the 3rd.  The almost 35 year old is making $12.25 million this year and has a team option for $14.75 million next year.  At this point that option being picked up has to have a very slim chance of happening.  24 year old Ramon Ruiz who has ripped up AAA pitching this year, but struggled through 4 big league starts is slated to come off the DL this week and with a couple more bad Ellis starts.....could a change be made?  If Jersey remains in a tight race down the stretch can they really send a struggling Ellis who has obviously lost a step and several MPH off of that fastball?  As much as we would hate to see him go out on a low note....Ellis's days in Jersey might be limited.

GO D-BAGS

2019 CLDS Breakdown; Toronto vs Jersey Shore

In what many saw as a wacky year in the BSA the playoff teams that eventually came out probably didn't surprise that many people.  While surprise teams Chicago and Pocatello fell short in September and left contenders Seattle and Austin under the .500 mark, the CL sent Toronto and Greenville back to the playoffs while Jersey Shore and Vista reclaimed their division titles that they both had claimed in 2017.

It took a 1 game tie breaker against division rival Greenville, but Jersey Shore held on for their 2nd division title and and the #1 seed in the CL playoffs.  They had to withstand a 24-4 September record from the 84's but had enough in the tank to win Game 163 on the road, 6-4 and win a date with Toronto. 

This will mark the 3rd time in BSA history that D-Bags and Titans will meet in the postseason.  The first being in the 2015 CLDS where Toronto took a 2-1 lead and Jersey came back and won 3 games in a row to advance and eventually make the World Series.  That Jersey Shore team won 13 games less than the heavily favored Titans who had the best record in the CL and 2nd best record in the BSA behind Hendersonville.  They would also meet a year later, this time as Jersey coming in as the team that had won 11 more games.  Toronto still had home field advantage being division winners and walked away with a convincing 4-1 series win which propelled them to the World Series as well.  This will mark the first time that Jersey will face Toronto as the better seed with home field advantage.  

Jersey won the season series this year by a slim margin of 5-4 which was mostly made up of convincing wins by either side.  There were only 2 of the 9 games decided by 2 runs or less.  It should be noted that Jersey did hand the Toronto ace Albert Lebel 3 of his 9 losses on the season.

Projected Jersey Shore lineup:

vs RHP:

LF Matthieu Vancini
SS Lawrence Schroeder
2B Mike Bryant
CF Fransisco Ibarra
RF Dave Dodd
1B John Warner
C Warren Goyer
3B Fabrice Brodeur
DH Alberto Perez

Bench:
C Albert Lopez
1B Roberto Bojorquez
3B Adam Morrow
LF Fransisco Torres
RF Jose Ortiz

vs LHP

LF Matthieu Vancini
SS Lawrence Schroeder
DH Mike Bryant
CF Fransisco Ibarra
1B John Warner
RF Dave Dodd
C Warner Goyer
2B Fabrice Brodeur
3B Adam Morrow

Bench:
C Albert Perez
1B Roberto Bojorquez
3B Alberto Perez
LF Fransisco Torres
RF Jose Ortiz

Pitching Staff:

Jersey will go with a for sure 1-2-3 of Ramos, Martinez and Jose Lara for the first 3 games of the series and will use either Art Ellis or Greg Schaefer in Game 4 or back to Ramos if necessary. Here is a list of Jersey pitchers with their season stats against the Titans.

SP Jose Ramos - 2-0, 17 IP, 15H, 4ER, 0BB, 11K, 2.12 ERA, 0.88 WHIP
SP Sergio Martinez - N/A
SP Jose Lara - N/A
SP Art Ellis - 0-2, 12.1 IP, 13H, 7ER, 4BB, 7K, 5.11 ERA, 1.38 WHIP
SP Greg Schaefer - 1-0, 6IP. 9H, 2ER, 1BB, 5K, 3.00 ERA, 1.67 WHIP
SP Jerry Burgess - 0-2, 16.2 IP, 22H. 15ER, 17BB, 11K, 8.10 ERA, 2.34 WHIP

MR
LHP Phillip Moran - 5.1IP, 7H, 5ER, 2BB, 6K, 8.44 ERA, 1.69 WHIP
RHP Yin-zhen Zong - 6IP, 9H, 2ER, 3BB, 9K, 3.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP
LHP Pedro Vega - 2.2IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 1K, 3.38 ERA, 1.50 WHIP

Setup
LHP Gerald Johnson - 1-0, 4.0IP, 7H, 3ER, 1BB. 4K, 6.75 ERA, 2.00 WHIP
RHP Angel Lara - 1-0, 7IP, 9H, 4ER, 2BB, 3K, 5.14 ERA, 1.57 WHIP

Closer
RHP Jose Ruiz - 2 saves, 2.0IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 0K, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore Flexes Muscle; Takes Down Toronto in 6

Staring at a 2-0 hole and a long flight back to Jersey reality set in.  After 5 years or playing decent baseball and coming up short so many times this was the playoffs. Where the best of the best come to play.  They had been good enough to enter this prestigious tournament and after 2 games had not played their best baseball, in fact it was far from their best.  A game 3 win was a boost, but it was still far from Jersey baseball. Runs scored in odd ways, not the usual Jersey style of mashing and bashing.  We held a press conference after Game 3 with GM Josh Swain and he laid out what Jersey had to do to win, and with surprise much of that came through.  What came after that was 3 straight wins.  Down 0-2 to winning the series 4-2.  4 game winning streak.  How did they do it? Here's how:

Entering Game 4 you can tell the monkey was off their backs.  There was that Jersey swagger back in the walks of a lot of the players.  It would be a rematch of Game 1 with Dan Macias taking the mound for Jersey and Ricky Bolden for Toronto, both on short rest.  GM Josh Swain told us it's the matchup he wanted.  If Dan could outduel Ricky, Jersey had the advantage.  They liked their changes agianst Jackson at home and liked the potential Ellis/Brito matchup in game 6.  Fireworks started early.  Toronto got 3 runs on 5 hits in the Top of the 1st before Jersey had a chance to bat.  But a sac fly and a passed ball in Jersey's half of the inning put the game back to 3-2.

The 2nd inning starting and things didn't stop.  D-bag killer Jaime "Gunner" Torres lifted off hitting a solo HR down the RF line to get a run back.  But veteran Leon Foster got the run right back for Jersey with a mammoth 452 run shot off of Bolden.  After the HR, a walk to Marvin Taylor, a single by Scott Powers and the eventual death blow came with catcher Luis Antonio Duran hit his 1st HR of the the postseason and 3 run blast that put Jersey up 6-4, a lead that would hold.

Macias would retire 13 of the next 16 batters before eventually being replaced and received a standing ovation from the Jersey crowd.  With Gomes replacing Macias and striking out Cuan and Rivas to end the 7th, Toronto replaced MR Cole with MR Jones, which turned out to be a mistake. A 2B, 1B, BB and HBP left a run in and the bases loaded with Al Ryan at the plate who tore open the game with his first postseason HR and first Glad Slam by a Jersey player in playoff history.  The Bags would add one more in the 8th before cruising to a 12-4 victory to the tie the series at 2 games apiece.

Who knew after the offensive explosion by the D-Bags in Game 4 that Game 5 would bring us the low scoring game of the series.  We would see Shawn Jackson start for Toronto and Rob Goodship take the hill for Jersey in what could have been the last game at the Shore for the season.  40,200+ fans showed up to cheer on their Bags.  Goodship made the first mistake in the 2nd inning when HR king John Crowe led the inning off with a solo HR to get the scoring started.  Jersey tied the score in the bottom of 3 when Sergio Rodriguez and Scott Powers both doubled.  Other than these two early runs, each starter was very good.  It wasn't until the bottom of the 7th when Sergio Rodriguez led off the inning and reached 1st when John Crowe bobbled the throw from SS Pete Harvey.  Shawn Jackson would retire the next 2 batters on a fly out and a sac fly before he was pulled in favor of the lefty Jung-Keun Li to face lefty Jose Ortiz.  Ortiz took a 1-2 pitch from Li and rapped into the corner for an easy stand up double and Rodriguez came around to score the go ahead run.  Goodship would cruise in the 8th and that would be his last inning of work.  In what you have to call the biggest game of his career, he was brilliant.  Throwing 8 IP, giving up 5 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB while striking out 9.  Mungo was called in to save the game and it only took 11 pitches to strike out John Crowe, Luis Gonzalez and German Rivas all swinging.  The crowd was in an uproar, Jersey had won 3 straight, all at home and took a 3-2 lead in the series going back to Toronto.

Game 6.  A rematch of Game 2 with Jerry Burgess facing off against Jose Brito.  Brito won the first match pitching brilliantly while Burgess was knocked around for 7 ER. Would this game be any different and could Toronto force that pivotal Game 7?  Brito was his usual efficient self facing 3 batters over the minimum in the first 4 innings and not letting any runner get past first base.  Burgess on the other hand lived dangerously.  Allowing runners 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the first get erased by a double play ball.  A walk, wild pitch and an error by SS Marvin Taylor allowed German Rivas to reach 3rd base in the 2nd inning before Pete Harvey grounded out to end the threat.  A single in the 3rd was wiped off the board with the 2nd double play of the day and in the 4th a Rivas single, stolen base and a walk to Fujita put 2 runners on before Burgess hunkered down and struck out Gunner Torres looking on a nasty slider that just brushed the outside corner.  Alberto Perez would lead off the 5th and thus far after taking over for Adam Morrow at 3B he was 0-17 in the series.  Something had to give, and it did.  He took a 2nd pitch fastball from Brito and pulled it deep and far and way back in the left-center field bleachers for his first hit of the series to give Jersey a 1-0 lead.  

Burgess would settle down and Jersey would turn their 3rd double play ending Toronto's 5th inning.  Both pitchers breezed through the 6th until some commotion in the 7th inning.  With 2 outs in Jersey's top half of the 7th the usual pinpoint Brito came way inside and hit catcher Luis Antonio Duran on the hand which immediately dropped him to the ground.  He had to be lifted from the game and came away gripping his hand.  We wouldn't find out til later he had fractured the hand.  Brito would get Taylor to ground out to end the inning.  In Toronto's half of the 7th, after a groundout Burgess came inside and hit the Toronto catcher Kyuso Fujita in the back.  Warnings were given to both sides and after 112 pitches, 6.1 IP and 0 ER Burgess was pulled in favor of Jose Gomes.  Gomes got out of the 7th without incident and we headed to the 8th.  A half check swing by Scott Powers combined with his upper echelon speed created a leadoff infield hit that chased Brito from the game.  Jose Murillo was brough in and pinch hitter Al Ryan surprised everyone when he laid down a perfect sac bunt to put the insurance run on 2nd base with 1 out.  Struggling superstar Mike Bryant came through knocking a hard line drive into RF, but Powers was held at 3rd giving the Bags runners at the corners.  Matt Doyle knocked a grounder into the hole that looked like a hit but a diving stop by Zaragoza managed to get Doyle at 1st by a half a step but couldn't prevent Powers from crossing the plate and Bryant advancing to 2nd.  The run gave Jersey a 2-0 cushion.  With 2 outs now veteran Leon Foster and put a ball right down the right field chalk line for a stand-up double easily scoring Bryant and pushing the lead to 3-0.  Murillo would get Manny Romero swinging to end the inning.  

Jose Gomes walked Lugo to lead off the 8th before striking out Cuan to end his night as he was replaced by Lucio Tapia to face John Crowe.  Tapia went 1-1 with Crowe until I can only describe as "the longest HR I have ever seen" on a 97 MPH fastball.  Crowe hitting left handed crushed it to CF and Powers barely turned his head to watch it travel 485 feet and give the Toronto crowd a reason to celebrate as Toronto was back in it and only down 3-2. A single and a walk gave Toronto the go ahead run on 1st base with only 1 out while the crowd was on their feet.  After a mound visit Tapia got the biggest out of his career by striking out All Star Kyuso Fujita before being pulled for closer Daniel Morris to face Gunner Torres.  Morris amidst the avoided danger by getting Torres to ground out on the first pitch on a 2 hopper to Doyle at first base.  Insurance runs at this point would have been nice, but Toronto brough in future HOF'er Martin Griffin to set the side down in order before heading to the bottom of the 9th.  Daniel Morris, the longest tenured D-Bag, would retire the side in order as LuGo would fly out to Leon Foster to end the game and send Jersey to their first ever series win and sending them to the CLCS to face their division rival, the waiting Greenville 84's.

We now will go live to GM Swain's press conference:

::Swain comes out, untucked button-up business shirt, D-Bags cap, and big smile:::

Reporter Vanessa Antuaco, Morgantown Today: "Mr. Swain!  You just won 4 games in a row.  We talked with Toronto GM Jason Goldberg earlier and in his tenure with the Titans this is his first 4 game losing streak, how'd your boys do it??"

Swain: "I told you at the last conference how what we needed to do to win this thing.  We needed some clutch hitting, Game 4 was full of that.  Hell, we scored 12 runs on only 8 hits!  I told you we would need another quality start and in fact we got 2 of them.  Goodship was fantastic in Game 5 and Jerry really bounched back for a great Game 6.  The bullpen stayed strong and we won the close games.  That's what October baseball is about!"

Reporter Dan Miles, NY Times: "Everyone and their dog though (Art) Ellis would be the starter for Game 6. He was brilliant, Burgess had been lit up, what were you thinking there?"  

Swain: "Burgess convo again?  I told you guys the first time through that Burgess had been better in Toronto.  Yes, Game 2 we saw him get lit up.  Art could have gone.  We thought he was close to 70% rested which would have been good enough to throw out there, but with a 3-2 lead, with us having confidence in Jerry, even a loss would have given us Ellis at 100% in Game 7.  I don't want to say I played this one right, but it worked out didn't it?"

Reporter Sally Trumpert, Trenton Free Press: "Duran left tonight's game with an apparent hand injury, can you tell us any more on what happened?"

Swain: "At this time the medical staff hasn't given us an update yet.  They have it on ice and we are waiting for the swelling to go down, but the said it doesn't look good, but we might not know for a day or two.  Losing Luis would hurt.  We already lost our 1-2 hitters against RH starters, losing 1-2-3 would almost be devastating.  But we showed this series that even losing key pieces like Larson and Morrow, we have the talent to overcome."

Beat writer Sam Toddenfield, BSAreport.com: "Speaking of Larson, will he play in the Greenville series?"

Swain: "At this point we feel as he can play towards the end of this week.  He will be added to the roster but will not travel to Greenville for games 1 and 2 but stay at home and rest and we will run some more tests.  If all goes well and there are no setbacks there's a great chance he will play in Game 3 or 4.  Last question guys!"

Beat Writer Melissa Franklin, Jerseysports.com: "You are very familiar with Greenville, what are the keys to beating them and can it be done?"

Swain: "Anything can be done.  Yes, Bosma's 84's have had our number over the past couple of seasons.  This will be a slugfest.  2 loaded offenses.  We will need some starting pitching performances and we will need someone to step up. Toronto held down our superstar bats in this series, don't expect that to happen in the next one.  Thanks everyone for your time, and I would like to congratulate you all on being here to see the D-Bags move on!"

:::Swain gets up to leave and stops:::: "Oh and one more thing.  Let me introduce you all to the 2015 CLDS MVP Al Ryan!"  :::Ryan walks out, waves, shakes a few hands and is presented with a the CLDS trophy:::

Ryan lead the team in batting during the series hitting .385, hitting 1 HR and driving in a team high 5 runs.  The bullpen was stellar and probably was the difference in the low scoring series.  They pitched 12 IP in 6 games, giving up 2 ER, 8 hits, 4 walks while striking out 18.  With Jersey knocking out Toronto and Greenville knocking out Seattle, 2015 will mark the first time in BSA history that the CL East will represent the CL in the World Series.

With Burgess going in Game 6, the probable rotation for Jersey in the CLCS is:

Game 1: Art Ellis

Game 2: Dan Macias

Game 3: Jerry Burgess

Game 4: Rob Goodship

Whatever happens will happen, but the CL East will have a representative in the World Series and here is to rooting for our D-Bags!

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

 

Jersey-Toronto Breakdown

As we described in our previous post the star talented Jersey D-Bags will take on the Toronto Titans in the first round of the CLCS starting tonight.

Starting Pitching:

Game 1: Dan Macias vs Ricky Bolden

Game 2: Jerry Burgess vs Jose Brito

Game 3: Art Ellis vs Salvador Perez

Game 4: Rob Gooship vs Shawn Jackson

The numbers show that Toronto's SP has been a lot better than Jersey's.  If Jersey's starting pitching can keep the D-Bags in the game we except a good series.

Macias vs Toronto this season:     0-2, 9.31 ERA, 8 BB, 10 K, 9.2 IP

Burgess vs Toronto:                      1-0, 3.86 ERA, 4 BB, 22 K, 18.2 IP

Ellis vs Toronto:                            0-2, 2.70 ERA, 8BB, 15K, 13.1 IP

Goodship vs Toronto:                   0-1, 7.84 ERA, 5 BB, 7K, 10.1 IP

Lineup vs RHP:

1. Adam Morrow 3B

2. Jose Ortiz         DH

3. Luis Antonio Duran C

4. Mike Bryant 2B

5. Matt Doyle 1B

6. Al Ryan LF

7. Ken Taylor CF

8. Scott Powers RF

9. Marvin Taylor SS

Bench:  Albert Lopez C, Manny Romero 1B, Derrick Wright 1B, Alberto Perez 3B, Sergio Rodriguez OF, Leon Foster OF

Lineup vs LHP:

1. Adam Morrow SS

2. Sergio Rodriguez CF

3. Mike Bryant 2B

4. Matt Doyle 1B

5. Leon Foster LF

6. Manny Romero DH

7. Alberto Perez 3B

8. Albert Lopez C

9. Scott Powers RF

Bench: Luis Antonio Duran C, Derrick Wright 1B, Marvin Taylor SS,  Jose Ortiz OF, Ken Taylor OF, Al Ryan, OF

Lineups a little bit changed from the the regular season.  With Peter Larson set to miss 2 more weeks with his injury it opened up a spot in the OF.  Surprise start vs RHP goes to Ken Taylor because of how Toronto's park pays towards left handed hitters.  Against lefties Sergio Rodriguez gets the start who has been red hot since his call up to the Majors in July.

Jersey vs Bolden:

Ortiz: .500  1-2

Bryant: .400 4-10  2 HR

M. Taylor:  .400  2-5

Morrow: .333  1-3

Powers: .267  4-15

Ryan:  .250  1-4

Perez: .200  1-5

Duran: .143  1-7

Romero: .143 1-7

Doyle:  .000  0-7

Rodriguez: .000  0-3

Foster:  .000  0-2

Lopez, Wright,  and K Taylor have never faced Bolden

Jersey vs Brito:

 Morrow: .545  6-11

Foster:  .429  12-28  2 HR

Powers:  .417  5-12  2 HR

Doyle:  .333  2-6  1 HR

Ryan: .250  1-4

Rodriguez: .250  2-8

Bryant: .222  2-9  1 HR

Wright: .200  1-5

Duran:  .000  0-7

Romero .000  0-7 

Perez: .000  0-5

M. Taylor: .000  0-3

Lopez, Ortiz and K. Taylor have never faced Brito

Jersey vs. Perez:

Perez:  .667  2-3
Foster: .444  4-9
Morrow:  .429  3-7
Rodriguez: .400  2-5
Doyle:  .333  4-12

Romero:  .250  3-12  1 HR

Bryant:  .167  3-18  1 HR
Powers: .167  2-12

M. Taylor: .125  1-8

Ryan: .000 0-6

Duran: .000  0-11

Lopez, Wright, Ortiz and K. Taylor have never faced Perez.

Jersey vs. Jackson:

Foster: 1.000  1-1  1 HR

Romero:  1.000  1-1

Duran: .500  2-4  1 HR

Doyle:  .500  1-2

Bryant: .250  1-4

Wright: .000  0-1

M. Taylor: .000  0-5

Powers: .000  0-1

Lopez. Wright, Morrow, Perez, Rodriguez, Ortiz, K. Taylor, and Ryan have never faced Jackson.

As you can see there isn't a whole lot of success against the starters so Jersey has their work cut out for them.  We have faith in this powerful offense that they can manufacture enough runs to stay in games, but will the pitching allow it?  We will know soon!  Playoffs start tonight!

GO D-BAGS

CLDS Jersey Shore vs. Toronto; An Early Breakdown

          

We still have less than a week left of the regular season but the CL playoff match ups are set in stone regardless of the this week's outcomes.  Jersey Shore on securing the Wild Card will travel to Toronto for the first 2 games of the opening round series in the CLDS.  Though pitching staffs nor lineups have been set, we can look at the numbers and make some comparisons.

On the season Toronto holds a 5-4 advantage in the 9 games they played this season.  Jersey finished  1-2 at home and 3-3 in Toronto in the games played.  2 games were played in May where TOR went 2-0 and the other 7 played in August where Jersey went 4-3 including taking 3 of 4 in Toronto.  

6 of the 9 games were decided by 2 runs or less and in the other 3 the biggest winning margin was a 6-2 win Jersey had over Toronto.  The teams played some very good, very close baseball. 

On the hitting side of things here's how the 2 teams stack up:

Jersey                                            Toronto

.276                Batting Avg                 .279

.367                    OBP                       .357

.447                    SLG                       .446

874                     Runs                       854

200                      HR                         171

Jersey holds a slight lead in hitting categories, now pitching categories:

Jersey                                            Toronto

4.39               Stater's ERA             3.21

3.56               Bullpen ERA             3.52    

735                     Runs                     556

498                      BB                      423

1325                    K's                      1224

Toronto holds a heavy edge in Starter's ERA and runs allowed while the other categories remain fairly close.

Even key injuries are close as we both have 2 on both sides.  Toronto is missing SP Guillermo Mendoza (who has been lost for nearly the entire season) and more recently CL Jose Gomez.  On the other hand Jersey Shore lost OF Peter Larson (2nd in CL in OBP) and MR Jose Ruiz. 

This should be a fun series which includes a lot of star power on both sides.  A couple of MVP candidates, a couple of Cy Young cadidates, former rookie of the year candidates as well as 2 of the best closers we have seen since the beginning of the BSA.  When the rosters are released we will have a more in depth breakdown.

GO D-BAGS