Jose Ramos, Roland Martin, Ramon Ruiz, Sergio Martinez and Stephen Puckett. The forceful rotation that was set to lead the Jersey Shore D-Bags to the playoffs and contend for their first BSA title. That's what many of fans and management alike saw heading into Spring Training for the 2026 BSA season. Fast forward to today, just 7 days left in the regular season and the D-Bags have clinched a playoff spot, but the starting rotation wasn't how they got there.
The injuries started on April 27th, when 5th starter and former Vista Panther, Cristobal Santos would leave a home game in the 2nd inning against Chicago with immense pain his shoulder. Jersey trainers were hoping it was a sprain, but news quickly came that he had a partially torn labrum which would require surgery and keep Santos out of action up to 4 months. To the DL goes Santos.
The D-Bags would promote super prospect Stephen Puckett to take his place and hopefully cement his place in the rotation for years to come. Everything was going smoothly especially with Jersey Shore up in 1st place in the CL East until June 6th when Puckett left a contest against the Madison Bombers with discomfort in his elbow. A worst case scenario was soon found out as Puckett would need surgery to remove bone spur from the elbow on his pitching arm. Best case scenario following surgery was a 4-5 month time frame, which would put Puckett out for the rest of the season.
Before the D-Bags had time to re-group, just 4 days later, 15 game winner from 2025 Ramon Ruiz would be pulled after 2 innings against Chicago and not return. Similar results would come back and Ruiz would require surgery to remove bone chips from his pitching elbow and would miss the rest of the season and could possibly push into Spring Training. What now?
With AAA also having a few injuries and the talent level barren, the D-Bags looked outside the organization and quickly sparked up a trade with the Vista Panthers. Jersey would bring in veteran starting pitchers Jesse Green and Jose Zamora looking to patch the rotation. To Vista went promising former 1st round pitching prospect Sloan Sanders, who at the time was dominating single-A pitching. Though neither were world beaters, Green and Zamora slotted into the 4th and 5th rotation slots.
With a strong bullpen and very strong offense, the D-Bags would trudge on through the summer months with the CL East lead in hand. On August 17th, Santos was sent to AAA for rehab and was recalled to the big club on September 7th. He was slotted back into the rotation and Zamora would head to the bullpen, though this wouldn't last long.
Just 10 days later staff ace and one of the team captains, 3 time 20 game winner Jose Ramos would leave a game with the Kings in the 2nd inning. Jersey brass feared the worst and soon received news that Ramos would be on the shelf for 3 months with bad elbow inflammation, effective ending his season. Since then the D-Bags have gone 3-7, coughing up the division lead.
With a week to play, the D-Bags who have clinched a playoff spot, trail their arch rival Greenville 84er's by 2 games and eye the playoffs down their top 2 starters and their ace young gun who they had such high hopes for. If the season ended today Jersey would host division rival St. Louis in the best of 3 Wild Card round with a win pitting them against the best team and a similiar built team in the Springfield Stars. For the D-Bags to advance deep into the playoffs, they must have Roland Martin and Sergio Martinez step up and lead this staff as winning slugfests in the playoffs are not how you win ballgames.
Can the D-Bags do it? Of course. Is the road a tough and very uncertain one? Very much so.
GO D-BAGS
Showing posts with label injuries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injuries. Show all posts
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Monday, March 10, 2014
Early Injuries Hit Jersey
Everyone knows the injuries are part of baseball and the BSA is no exception. Injuries have hit several teams this year and many note worthy players have hit the DL in recent weeks. Some of those players outside of Jersey include: Jose Salazar, Zach Hutchinson, Osvaldo Cruz, Kendrick Garland, Jason Jackson, Brett Dwyer, Earl Harper, Enzo Diaz and many others. Injuries to star and core players can impact one team more than others and vice versa. Do you have the depth to replace the player with an above average player? League average player? Defensive stud? Below Average starter? Is the injury bad enough to make a trade? Many questions go into how to replace these players.
As for Jersey since the beginning of Spring Training 6 of the D-Bags projected Opening Day 25 man roster have been injured severely enough to warrant a DL trip. Below they are listed with their injury, approximate time missed, their replacement and how heavy it impacts the team.
MR Hyo-chin Kim: Torn UCL, 14 months+ recovery time. With a young bullpen Kim was one of the more experienced relievers on the staff. In 3 years his ERA+ was 117 and he was pegged as the set-up man. If the trade with LA hadn't of happened to bring in MR Moran, this would have been a much harder hit. At the time I would have rated this as 7/10 impact level. Through the first month and a half of the season the bullpen ERA sits at 3.50, which is good for 4th in the CL. His replacement Gerald Johnson has been more than adequate in his rookie season.
LF Fransisco Torres: Sprained Knee, 5-6 weeks+ recovery time. Torres a starter in the past have seen his numbers go down each year he had been in the pros. With a full OF, he was slated to be the 4th or 5th OF, bench bat and pinch runner. I rated this a 2/10 on impact level because of how deep the Jersey OF is. His replacement on the roster is 27 year old Juan Cabanas who has done everything Torres could have done thus far.
MR Phillip Moran, 2 weeks, back tightness. Moran became the primary bullpen lefty when Kim went down. Luckily this injury happened before the the end of spring training, so almost a week of his DL time was before the season started. MR Pedro Vega replaced him and pitched 5.2 scoreless innings before Moran came off the DL. I listed this as a 2/10 impact because the length of the injury was so short. A long injury for Moran would have pushed this much higher.
SP Jose Lara, 3 months, elbow inflammation. This only makes sense. After a career worst year, Lara came out of the gate hot and was the D-Bags best starter through 5 starts. He was pulled after 1 hitter in his 6th starter. Though the Jersey rotation is deep I still rate this a 7/10. Lara seemed to have put 2018 behind him and with the rest of the staff struggling, he hadn't allowed more than 3 runs in any start. With rehab we should see Lara sometime in mid-late July. Since the staff was going with a 6 man rotation, this injury pushed it back to the normal 5-man rotation.
CF Fransisco Ibarra, 3-4 weeks, sprained knee. For the 2nd year in a row Ibarra will miss at least a month of the season. He had drastically improved across the board this year and was hitting clean-up. I put this at an 8/10 impact level. He is one of the only consistent right handed hitters on the team and was on pace for 40+ HR at time of the injury. He was replaced in the field by sliding Vancini from LF to CF and 4th OF Cabanas to LF starter. He was replaced on the roster by OF Armando Gonzales.
MR Angel Lara, 2 weeks, back tightness. The 3rd MR of the short season to see DL time. Luckily middle reliever is the deepest position in the organization. Thus far Lara has been good serving as the set-up man posting a 3.15 ERA and striking out just over a batter per inning. Pedro Vega was recalled to replace him an Gerald Johnson will move into the primary set-up role for the next 2 sims. Though Lara is an important piece to the pen, missing 2 weeks only rates as a 2/10.
Although Jersey has been hit with 3 major injuries so far in the young 2019 season, none of them had TOO much of an impact so far. The majority of the injuries have come at positions of great depth, something Jersey prides themselves on, and were replaced with above league average players. We hope that early injury concerns do not become a theme of this season, but if they do, the D-Bags plan on replacing and chugging along.
Through May 19th, Jersey sits with a 24-21 record, 3rd place in the CL East, 5.5 games behind division leader Greenville and 1.5 games behind Wild Card leading St. Louis.
GO D-BAGS
As for Jersey since the beginning of Spring Training 6 of the D-Bags projected Opening Day 25 man roster have been injured severely enough to warrant a DL trip. Below they are listed with their injury, approximate time missed, their replacement and how heavy it impacts the team.
MR Hyo-chin Kim: Torn UCL, 14 months+ recovery time. With a young bullpen Kim was one of the more experienced relievers on the staff. In 3 years his ERA+ was 117 and he was pegged as the set-up man. If the trade with LA hadn't of happened to bring in MR Moran, this would have been a much harder hit. At the time I would have rated this as 7/10 impact level. Through the first month and a half of the season the bullpen ERA sits at 3.50, which is good for 4th in the CL. His replacement Gerald Johnson has been more than adequate in his rookie season.
LF Fransisco Torres: Sprained Knee, 5-6 weeks+ recovery time. Torres a starter in the past have seen his numbers go down each year he had been in the pros. With a full OF, he was slated to be the 4th or 5th OF, bench bat and pinch runner. I rated this a 2/10 on impact level because of how deep the Jersey OF is. His replacement on the roster is 27 year old Juan Cabanas who has done everything Torres could have done thus far.
MR Phillip Moran, 2 weeks, back tightness. Moran became the primary bullpen lefty when Kim went down. Luckily this injury happened before the the end of spring training, so almost a week of his DL time was before the season started. MR Pedro Vega replaced him and pitched 5.2 scoreless innings before Moran came off the DL. I listed this as a 2/10 impact because the length of the injury was so short. A long injury for Moran would have pushed this much higher.
SP Jose Lara, 3 months, elbow inflammation. This only makes sense. After a career worst year, Lara came out of the gate hot and was the D-Bags best starter through 5 starts. He was pulled after 1 hitter in his 6th starter. Though the Jersey rotation is deep I still rate this a 7/10. Lara seemed to have put 2018 behind him and with the rest of the staff struggling, he hadn't allowed more than 3 runs in any start. With rehab we should see Lara sometime in mid-late July. Since the staff was going with a 6 man rotation, this injury pushed it back to the normal 5-man rotation.
CF Fransisco Ibarra, 3-4 weeks, sprained knee. For the 2nd year in a row Ibarra will miss at least a month of the season. He had drastically improved across the board this year and was hitting clean-up. I put this at an 8/10 impact level. He is one of the only consistent right handed hitters on the team and was on pace for 40+ HR at time of the injury. He was replaced in the field by sliding Vancini from LF to CF and 4th OF Cabanas to LF starter. He was replaced on the roster by OF Armando Gonzales.
MR Angel Lara, 2 weeks, back tightness. The 3rd MR of the short season to see DL time. Luckily middle reliever is the deepest position in the organization. Thus far Lara has been good serving as the set-up man posting a 3.15 ERA and striking out just over a batter per inning. Pedro Vega was recalled to replace him an Gerald Johnson will move into the primary set-up role for the next 2 sims. Though Lara is an important piece to the pen, missing 2 weeks only rates as a 2/10.
Although Jersey has been hit with 3 major injuries so far in the young 2019 season, none of them had TOO much of an impact so far. The majority of the injuries have come at positions of great depth, something Jersey prides themselves on, and were replaced with above league average players. We hope that early injury concerns do not become a theme of this season, but if they do, the D-Bags plan on replacing and chugging along.
Through May 19th, Jersey sits with a 24-21 record, 3rd place in the CL East, 5.5 games behind division leader Greenville and 1.5 games behind Wild Card leading St. Louis.
GO D-BAGS
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