When you think dynasties you think the Murderer's Row and the Yankees of the 20's and 30's, the Celtics of the 60's, the Showtime Lakers, Steel Curtain Steelers, Jordan's Bulls, the late 90's Yankees, and most notably the Hendersonville Hitmen the modern era. A little less talked talked about modern dynasty is what is going on for Jersey Shore's AAA affiliate in Tuscaloosa.
Tuscaloosa is most well known for the the powerhouse that is the Alabama Crimson Tide of the collegiate football world, but in the last 9 years, the Trout Slayers of Tuscaloosa have donned the championship hats and shirts 5 times and are set to tangle this week with the Trenton Stars in a best of 5 series aiming for their 6th title in 10 years.
In this being the 10th year of the modern BSA, Tuscaloosa has won 8 division titles and made the playoffs as the Wild card team the 2 remaining years. This season with their 108 wins it marked the 6th time they eclipsed the 100 win barrier and marked the 3rd straight year they have seen over 1 million in attendance for the season.
In a league and for a team that is very much offensive based, the Trout Slayers feature a player who has taken International league hitting to new heights and that player is 25 year OF Juan Mendoza. Originally a 2nd round pick of the Jacksonville Jackhammers way back in the 2014 season, Mendoza was signed and then released nearly a month later and say as a free agent for 3 weeks before Jersey offered him a minor league deal and was sent to A ball Manhattan. Always projected as a power prospect, he didn't show it until the 2016 season hitting 26 HR in A ball and a combined 22 HR between A and AA the following year. 2018 was a stellar year for Mendoza as he bashed 39 HR and drove in 135 runs to go with 100 walks in AA Gainesville before being promoted to AAA to finish the 2018 season. 2019 Mendoza finally was put on the 40 man roster and was invited to Spring Training for the D-Bags where he struggled in 31 AB, only hitting .161 with a single HR. Being sent back to AAA gave Mendoza a push. He hit double digit HR in every month except September and had his banner month in August. In 106 AB in 28 games he 17 HR, 45 RBI, walked 22 times on way to a slash line of .349/.461/.858. He won player of the month for both June and August and sprinkled in 3 player of the week awards in their as well. This season he set the ITL record for SLG (.713), OPS (1.97), Total Bases (430), HR (72), RBI (185) and WAR (9.8). Those are some big numbers.
Not only did the 2019 feature the record breaking Mendoza, they also had Tadahisa Kisuki, a very possible next star in Jersey at 1B, who hit .366/.452/.561 and 3B Xin Zhang who added 25 HR and hit .322/.431/.552. Not only could they hit they had four 16 game winners led by top prospect Ramon Ruiz who went 21-4 in 28 starts with an ERA of 2.91 and a WAR of 6.9 and not to mention one of the best bullpens in the ITl. While Trenton does have a very stacked roster, the Trout Slayers have a very good chance to add a 6th title to their wall.
Many of Jersey Shore players past and present have been part of championship teams and added to the storied past which is Tuscaloosa. From that first Championship year in 2010 which featured players such as: former MVP Ricardo Vargas, long time major leaguers David Pena, Damien Balmforth, Sergio Rodriguez, Jugurtha Wemusa and Jose Reyes to long time Jersey bullpen arms such as Jaime Saenz, Lucio Tapia and Jose Ruiz. The 2014 Championship team featured former ROY Adam Morrow, 5-time All Star Matt Doyle, Jersey starter Alberto Perez, Jersey starting pitchers Sergio Martinez and Greg Schaefer and current bullpen arms Jose Ruiz and Yin-zhen Zong.
With Jersey's long time strategy to build within and through the draft, it is evident to this how many home grown players have come up and won in the Jersey system playing together. This can only mean a championship is coming to Jersey......right?
GO D-BAGS
No comments:
Post a Comment