2016 Rule IV Amateur Draft; Jersey Shore

It's draft time again and that means one of GM Josh Swain's favorite times of the year.  Swain has done a fantastic job drafting taking the teams 2 superstars in Bryant and Doyle, as well as the team's current SS Adam Morrow and the team's future SS Lawrence Shroeder and recently traded Richard Coker.  In 6 years of drafting one thing has been common for the Bags, taking a bat in the first round.  And most notably taking an infield bat.  5 out of the 6 years the team's first round pick was an infiender: Bryant, Doyle, Coker, Schroeder and Brodeur.  The only other first rounder that wasn't an IF was CF Ernesto Barzaga who never developed and is out of the league.  This year we saw things change.

1st Round:
With Jersey's first pick coming at pick 31 in the first round they went and different direction and chose SP Gianluigi Ciottone out of the University of Nebraska.  Ciottone was a solid starter for Nebraska for 4 season averaging over 11 K/9 while walking 3.5 per/9 and limiting his HR.  Swain was ecstatic to get him at 31.  "I'll be honest we had him as a Top 3 SP in this draft and him falling to 31 is amazing, I would have taken him 20-25 picks sooner if we had position" Swain said.  The one knock on Gianluigi is the lack of a decent 3rd pitch.  He does throw a changeup, but it is very raw and limits it in games.  The Bags will try to help improve the pitch in the offseason and track his results from there.

2nd Round:
Having 2 second round picks, Jersey went the same route with both picks.  Both high stuff/high movement MR, one out of HS and one out of college.  The first was pick 40 of the 2nd round and 113th overall, MR Gil Dickson out of Randall HS.  Dickson served as the closer for Randall for 4 years, totally 31 saves in his 4 seasons.  He finished his HS career with a 2.70 ERA, racking up 99 K's in 60.0 IP.  He throws an above average fastball and curveball and tops out at 94 MPH.

2 picks later at 115th overall, Jersey selected SP/MR Claude Pinard out of the University of Louisville.  Pinard was a college starter and finished school with a 16-7 W/L record, striking out 271 batters in 67.2 IP. He was one of the best starters in the country his senior year having a 2.13 ERA and finishing 6-0.  Jersey has already come forth and stated he might get some minor league starts but with only 2 pitches he will probably be regulated to straight bullpen duty.  Pinard throws an excellent sinker which keeps the ball on the ground almost 75% of the time.  Combine that with his power to hit 99 MPH, you have some great potential.

3rd Round:
For the 2nd round in a row Jersey would have 2 picks.  With the first the trend continued and Jersey selected MR Pat Wright out of Dublin Jerome High School at pick 45 of the 3rd round, 169th overall. Wright started for 4 seasons tallying a 20-6 record in 32 starts amassing an amazing 319 K's and only 38 BB's 199 IP.  He like Pinard only throws 2 pitches and probably will be regulated for bullpen duty and if there was a knock on his pitching it's his movement. He gave up 29 HR in 32 stats.

2 picks later Jersey selected another pitcher and it's 5th of the day taking MR Jesus Ramos out of Buchanan High School with pick 47 of the 3rd round, 171st overall.  Ramos played at Buchanan for 3 seasons compiling a 3.53 ERA, making 14 starts in 23 appearances.  His control is his strong point rating at a 16 on a 20 point scale.  He will be sent to A ball Manhatten.

4th Round:
With it's 4th round pick, 203rd overall, Jersey selected Nicaraguan born 23 year old MR out of the University of Minnesota Sergio Hernandez.  Hernandez was selected 90th overall last year by the New Orleans Looters but failed to sign.  He reportedly played ball in the South American league this season before re-entering the draft pool.  Sergio was the primary closer for UMN, but what stands out is his 73% groundball rate and the fact he only gave up 4 HR in 89.2 IP in college.  He will report to AA Gainsville.

5th Round:
For Jersey's 5th round pick they finally shied away from the arms and selected a bat.  At 231st overall they selected 3B Michael Swanson out of UCLA.  This is the 3rd time time Swanson has been drafted and will turn 25 later this year. Not the ideal draftee.  He was selected 134th overall by Toronto in 2014, then 160th overall by your Jersey Shore D-Bags last season.  Swanson doesn't have much upside with the stick but has elite speed and has a great glove.

6th: CF Guillermo Cardenas
7th: MR Juan Patino
8th: CF Charlie Nichols
9th: LF Joseph Randall
10th:  RF Greg McDaniel

Overall another strong draft for the Bags.  The pitching will restock the system and give them one of the deepest systems in MR prospects in the BSA.  If Ciottone can develop like Jersey hopes, he could be an absolute steal at pick 31.

GO D-BAGS

April 2015 In Review

It seems like the season just got underway and POOF we have a full month under our belts.  Technically we are 17% of the way through 2015 just like that.  This season started again with high expectations for your Jersey Shore D-Bags.  After winning a franchise high 94 games last season, they bring back a nearly identical team with added pitching ace Art Ellis. The season started in true D-Bag fashion, with the Bags dropping 3 in a row for a quick 0-3 start.  They would rebound at one time winners of 7 straight and even a 2-3 final week of the month the Bags finish with a 18-10 record, good for a share of the CL East lead with the Greenville 84's and a comfy 3 game Wild Card lead at this point in the season.  The April mark bests last year's 15-13 record by 3 games, but the Bags open May up with a tough stretch.  They will finish out their 4 game set with  the 84's with 2 more games, travel to defending BSA Champions Hendersonville for a 3 game set before coming home to greet the current NL West leaders Los Cabos for a 3 game tilt.  Also during month includes a trip to Toronto who holds a BSA record of 23-5 and also a visit by NL West leading St. Charles.  May will really determine how serious this team is about contending this year.

Players of the Month

SP Rob Goodship 2-0, 2.09 ERA, 25K.  After 1 month of play surprise, surprise Goodship leads the CL league in ERA.  In 6 starts he has given up 2 or more runs only twice and if he had any run support at all he would be sitting at 4+ wins.  It's great to see him finally turn a corner after a down Sophmore year.

SP Art Ellis 1-0, 2.49 ERA, 38K, 5QS.  Speaking of run support, where is it for Ellis??  Jersey is averaging 2.83 runs per game for his starts which shows with Ellis only having 1 win on record despite being superb thus far.  Any of the critics who said they gave up too much for Ellis is eating crow right now

MR Jose Ruiz 2-1, 1.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 10/3 K/BB.  While the likes of Saenz and Morris in the pen have been struggling, rookie Ruiz has stepped in nicely to add to an already formidable bullpen.  At only 22 years old look for Ruiz to be around for awhile throwing that high 90's heater.

3B Adam Morrow .355/.454/.445, 19R, 39H, 7 2B.  When Parker Morrow was traded giving way for rookie Adam Morrow to start I don't think anyone saw this hot start coming.  Hitting primarily out of the 2 hole Morrow has been an OBP machine on pace to best 100 runs scored and 100 base-on-balls.  Bryant then Doyle now Morrow, third year in a row a rookie could be an added impact bat in this Jersey lineup.   It's been almost 2 years since we broke down Morrow, read about what we thought about him then, right here.

RF Al Ryan .439/.500/.805.  3HE, 10RBI, 6 2B.  We saw what Ryan could do last year as he blasted 20 HR as a rookie for this team and he just continues to add to that this year.  He started out as a 4th OF but has slowly been taking playing time away from veterans Leon Foster and Scott Powers as he rakes with the hot stick.  He only played in 18 games, but is hitting .500/.570/.867 against RHP.  Hard to keep that out of the lineup.

Roster Questions, Changes and Answers

Even though we did have some nice breakout performers there were also those players who still have us scratching our heads.  First that comes to mind is CL Daniel Morris.  The usual steady rock has blown 5 saves already and attributed for 4 losses.  To put that in perspective that's as many saves as he has blown in the past 2 years combined.  He has already walked as many batters as he did all of last season as well in 43 less innings.  There have been talks of taking him out of the closers role to regain composure, we will see if it happens.

Matt Doyle, Luis Antonio Duran, Peter Larson and Antonio Ruiz are all hitting below the .225 mark.  These of course are all plenty below career marks and could be a concern.  On the bright side Doyle leads the team in HR and RBI while Duran and Larson both have matching OBP's of .379, not hitting could cause a decrease in playing time. 

While there may not be any roster changes for now, look for a mix up in the backup catching situation this month as Albert Lopez has struggled mightily having only 3 hits in 34 AB's.  Also former Rule V pick Jose Ortiz will have to be called up in the next 2 weeks as he rehab assignment will end and look for him to replace Taro Kino or possibly 1B Derrick Wright.  There are also a slew of players hitting the snot out of the ball in AAA, including CF Tim Duncan, 3B Alberto Perez, LF Sergio Rodriguez and 2B Aaron Bailey.  Depth is never a problem and you never know when an extra bat might come in handy.

May should be a tough month, let's hope the D-Bags can win enough to keep up with Greenville!

GO D-BAGS

Opening Day 2014!!

Spring Training has come and passed, the cuts and demotions have been made, lineups are set and predictions are being made.   Are you ready for some Baseball???  The Jersey Shore D-Bags are!  They finished Spring Training with a 16-8 record and escaped injury free and the roster has been cut to 25 men.  For the most part the roster is very identifiable, there were some surprises though.


Making the Roster


On the pitching sides of things the D-Bags will feature the rotation we laid in ST with only one newcomer in the bullpen.  Marv Williams who was the 6th option last year was sent to AAA while the team kept MR Brian White in his role on the big club.  White the former AAA closer thrived in Spring Training, giving up 1 run in 8.0 IP and striking out 7.  GM Josh Swain said it was a tough decision but when it came down to it, "Since White was out of options, there was no way he was going to clear waivers.  It was either keep them both on the ballclub, trade one, give one away or send someone down.  I know Marv Williams wants to be up here, and he will get his chance.  It's nice to have depth."


The news of Milliard Cross taking his talents to Cleveland was a surprise and in his place will be 1B Derrick Wright has been tearing AAA up for 2 years and was no different in Spring Training.  He finished 2nd in spring batting and 5th in slugging.  He's like to see a lot of AB's against left handed pitching.


With Jerome Lindsey packing his bags for Orlando, one IF spot opened up.  Many people thought that Adam Morrow was a shoe-in for the position.  That wasn't the case. Alberto Lopez who also plays the corner IF positions, and can play 2B in a pinch, absolutely demolished ST pitching. He led all of baseball with .473 batting average and was 3rd with a .508 SLG%.  You just can't keep that off the team.  Even though he won't see starting AB's, he will be a great asset coming off the bench.


In the OF, there was one position to be decided and it too might have been a surprise to those of you following D-Bags baseball.  Getting the 5th OF nod, was lefty Bob Thomas.  While Thomas did not hit the ball well, he too was out of options and rather than risk losing him, the D-Bags kept him on the roster and send Harold Robinson and Sergio Rodriguez down to AAA.


The Rotation:


Come Opening Day, Manager Kevin Davis will hand the ball to the wily veteran Dan Macias.   The 6'5" righty will be making his first start on Opening Day at home against the rival Pittsburgh Swag.  
The rest of the rotation will look like this:
2) Rob Goodship
3) Jerry Paige
4) Kenny Stanford
5) Jose Reyes


The Lineup:
Whether or not Pittsburg decides to send John Corrigan or the newcomer Jules Paradis to the mound Davis plans to march out this lineup to try and repeat and led the league in runs scored again this year.


1) Scott Powers RF
2) Mason Bonniface LF
3) Matt "Coffin" Bryant 2B
4) Leon Foster CF
5) Antonio Ruiz 1B
6) Manny Romero DH
7) Luis Antonio Duran C
8) Parker Morrow 3B 
9) Marvin Taylor SS


If you are a season ticket holder, you will be seeing much of the D-Bags the first month of the season.  They start the year with a 10 game stand with 4 w/ Pittsburgh, 3 w/Vista and 3 w/ Indianapolis. After off day they head to Seattle for a 3 game tilt, then immediately back across the the entire country for a 4 game series with St. Louis.  They head to St. Charles for a 3 game tilt before their next day.  They end the month with an 8 day stretch of games starting at home with 2 w/ Pocatello, 3 w/ defending CL champs Regina before heading to Greenville for their first 2 of 16 games with the 84's this season.  April usually sets the tone for the season, so let's get out there and root our D-Bags on to a hot start to this one!!


GO D-BAGS

Prospect Lookback and Breakdown - Adam Morrow

Continuing our series of prospect breakdown, today we take a look at 25 year old 3B Adam Morrow.

 

 

Though this writeup comes a little late considering he is now 25 years old, he has not yet seen a BSA AB, we thought it was still appropriate to get in a breakdown.


College Play
Morrow played his college ball at Oregon State University where he played 4 years.  He excelled in college and showed throughout his 4 years his knack to be a great contact hitter with an above average eye.  If he would have come out after his Junior year, many scouts say he would have been a for sure 1st round pick.  He compiled a triple slash line of .437/.591/.739 while walking 32 times and striking out only 20 times.  The batting average he put up that year stands as 2nd all time in the collegiate ranks and the OBP of .591 still sets the mark as the best ever seen by a collegiate player. His Senior year went well, but nothing compared to the record setting junior year, and he finished his college career with 137 hits, 40 2B, 8 HR and 66 RBI.  His final slash line of .354/.517/.530.  His career BA its in the Top 60, and his OBP currently sits 6th all time at the college level.


Draft and Early Years
Morrow was drafted int the 2nd round of the 2010 draft, 42nd overall by the Jersey Shore D-Bags.  Josh Swain, GM of Jersey Shore, had Morrow listed in his Top 10 and was shocked when he fell to the Bags in the 2nd round.  The 22 year old signed quickly and was sent to Single A affiliate Manhattan.  As many first year players do, he struggled.  He played in 21 games that year getting 67 AB's.  He only managed to get 8 hits, one being a HR, and struck out 23 times without taking a walk.  Morrow got down on himself for not being prepared and went home to Minnesota for the winter where he worked long hours on his swing and worked on the transition from the metal college bats to the wooden ones used at the professional level.  In 2011 he was sent back to Manhattan where he got a full year's play in.  While he didn't light the world on fire, he was improved.  He hit .242/.302/.312 while still K'ing 119 times in 458 AB's.  In the winter of 2011 Morrow put on 15 pounds of muscle and came to play in 2012.  The 23 year old came in as a leader, cut his K's dramatically and played the first 5 weeks in Manhattan getting on base at an alarming rate.  In 27 games he was hitting .366 and getting on base at a .440 clip, cutting down his K-rate even more, and after a 3-4 game a trip to the manager's office produced a promotion to AA Gainesville.


Promotions and Success 
After being sent to Gainesville in 2012, he started at Third Base immediately.  His gap power took a turn for the best and ended the year with 20 2B, 2 3B, and 3HR.  In 125 games he hit .292/.351/.356.  Though he did strikeout 122 times in 517 AB, he walked 48 times, just slightly less than he did in 1.5 season in Manhattan.  While his OPS+ of 99 didn't lead the team or jump out on the page to start the 2013 season Morrow was promoted to play for the AAA affiliate in Tuscaloosa, AL.  Before the season started the BSA named him the 90th best prospect in baseball, the first time he had the honor of being included on this list.  He joined the Troutslayers, which had won the ITL Championship the year before. He joined a powerful offense that included Derrick Wright, Mario Ramirez, Alberto Perez among others.  Through 121 games thus far this season Morrow has shown why he was listed on the Top 100 prospects list.  He has hit .327/.405/.429 while hitting a career high 7 HR.  His K/BB ratio is also the best it's been in his career, K'ing 83 times to taking 58 BB.


The Future
Being 25 and excelling in AAA, Morrow's future looks very bright.  Although the D-Bags currently have a jammed packed roster at 1B, 3B and SS, if Morrow keeps it up the D-Bags will have to find AB's for him.  Jersey has never been known to rush along players and Morrow will likely spend the rest of the year in AAA, possibly getting a September call-up.  Morrow is currently not on the 40-ran roster and must be placed there before the Rule V draft or the D-Bags will risk losing him.  GM Josh Swain thinks that Morrow could be a cog at the top of the Jersey lineup for years to come.  Is he right? Or will Morrow just become a utility player?  Only time will tell.


Next lookback: 2012 1st round pick Ernesto Barzaga

Bags Make First Off Season Move

Welcome back Bag fans!! Afte the Bags best season since moving to Jersey, their first roster move of the off season has happened.  Right before the eligible players have filed for free agency talks a deal finally formalized between the Bags and the Knights of New York.  The teams had been in talks for almost a week when a deal was agreed upon. 

The D-Bags agreed to send one of the more popular players in 3B David Pena, who broke out last season witha team high 28 HR, and former inaugural 4th round selection SP Rudy Bourg packing to New York.  In return Jersey will retain some power back with the versatile OF Leon Foster.  Foster plays all 3 OF above average, brings what Jersey most sorely needed as well, power from the right hand side of the plate.  Last season Leon jacked 36 bombs, 42 doubles while driving in 123 runs hitting 5th for the Knights last season.  His bat will be a welcome addition to the lefty-laden roster of Jersey.

When asked about trading Pena, GM Josh Swain said it was a hard one and added, "David is a great kid.  He is a gold glove caliber fielder and hits the ball a long ways.  He is only 27 and we might not have seen his peak yet, but it was a team decision.  We sorely needed a big OF bat, especially a right handed one.  Our 1st-3rd base platoon is a very crowded one, and he was expandable, but we will miss him in the clubhouse."

When Swain mentioned that the 1st-3rd platoon was a crowded one, he wasn't kidding.  Milliard Cross showed splashes of power hitting with his 200-some AB's last year for the D-Bags and the 2012 likely MVP Derrick Wright will get ample time to prove he can handle the position.  He absolutely tore up AAA pitching to the tune of 35 2B, 31 HR, a league record 158 RBI and a triple slash line of .343/.420/.561 and scouts like what they see in this kid.  

On the 3rd base side you have the incumbent and Jersey's MVP of the 2012 season in Parker Morrow who is signed for the next 3 seasons.  In AAA 25 year old Alberto Perez finished last season with a line of .334/.379/.462 while knocking 13 HR's looks ready for some VBL experience and one of the team's top prospects Adam Morrow was very successful in AA after his mid-season promotion and will likely be called up to AAA for the upcoming year.  A very crowded depth chart.

With the trading of SP Rudy Bourg, a spot will open up in the rotation.  Bourg had a lackluster year posting an ERA of 5.15, with a record of 11-12.  The most likely candidate to take Bourg's place would be the 26 year old Rob Goodship who went 12-7 in AAA last year, but posted a very big dominating performance in the last week of the season to keep Jersey's season alive.  Another candidate could be #2 pitching prospect league wide Jerry Paige.  Paige came over in the Vargas trade with Maui last off season.  In AAA he went 15-5, an ERA of 3.44, while striking out 240 batters in just 209 innings.  

According to sources this move might be the first of a couple moves to come this off season to bolster this roster for another playoff run.  We shall see!

Go D-Bags!

Do or Die

September baseball for the Jersey Shore D-Bags has customarily involved seeing a lot of new faces in lineup and the younger players getting their so-called "cup of coffee" after the team had fallen out of the playoff race.  Welcome to exciting September baseball Jersey fans!  After the hottest month of baseball in Jersey history which saw our D-Bags erase a 10 game deficit in the division, September didn't start nearly as hot.  The 2nd week saw Jersey drop 4 of 5 making their big August run seem like merely a tease.  This was until this last week when Jersey took 3 of 4 from division foe Greenville and followed that with a 3-game sweep of Madison to position themselves closer a playoff spot than they have been all season.  

With 6 games apiece left in this 2012 season the Dent division has a 2-way tie for first place.  The Greenville 84's and the Pittsburgh Pirates are deadlocked with an 88-68 record.  Your Jersey Shore D-Bags sit one game behind them both with a 87-69 record.  The Wild Card Standings look exactly the same but add in the Oklahoma Droogies and their 87-68 record and you have 4 teams, 1  game apart vying for 2 playoff spots.  2 will move on, 2 will be left in the dust.  

The last week schedules look like this:

Greenville: JER, JER, JER, @MAD, @MAD, @MAD

Pittsburgh: @HAD, @HAD, @HAD, WHI, WHI, WHI

JerseyShore: @GRN, @GRN, @GRN, DNV, DNV, DNV

Oklahoma: @WHI, @WHI, @WHI, HAD, HAD, HAD, HAD

At first glance, the obvious series is the 3 game set between Jersey and Greenville.  A sweep either way will more than likely eliminate one of these teams.  A 2-1 win for Jersey would put them in a virtual deadlock with 4 games to play, this will be an interesting series, especially considering Jersey just took 3 of 4 from the 84's.  It will be a nerve racking week for 4 owners this week as Pocatello and Regina sit back and await who their first round matchups will be.  Even though Pocatello is the only TL team that has clinched, they still sit 2 games behind Pit/Grn for the 2nd playoff seed.  Regina has the 1 seed locked up. 

NEWS AND NOTES

In Jersey's current 5 game win streak, the bullpen allowed 0 ER in 10 IP.  The tentative pitching schedule for the D-Bags for their last 6 games would be Brito, Goodship, Bourg, Reyes, Hernandez and then with Brito getting the ball on the last day of the season.  Brito and Reyes have been the two best starters as of late, giving up 5 ER between the 2 of them in their combined last 6 starts.  Jersey has already set their franchise record for wins with 87, their previous high being 85 in 2010.  1B Derrick Wright was called up after his monster year in AAA and proceeded to get a single in his first VBL6 AB. David Pena needs 2 HR's to tie William Hinson for most HR's in a season by a D-Bag with 30.  Jose Brito could set a Jersey Shore record for wins in a season at 15, if he can win both of his starts.  Mason Bonniface became the only D-Bag ever to walk 100+ times in a season.  Parker Morrow became only the 11th player in VBL6 to record 1000 career hits earlier this month.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore - August 2012

AUGUST!  What's there to say, except the Bags kicked some ass!  The D-Bags had a VBL best 21-7 record for the month August, which is the franchise's first 20 win month in it's history.  They went from being a seller at the deadline to thick in the mix of the playoff picture in just a month.  This record was helped by good starting pitching and phenomenal job by the bullpen.  Jersey went 10-2 in 1-run games during the month of August, while the bullpen only allowed 15 ER all month long.  The Bags end August with a record of 74-61 and trail Pittsburgh by 2 in the division and Greenville by 2 games for the WC.  There are 26 games left in the regular season and 7 of them will be against Greenville.

Players of the Month:

SP Hector Hernandez: 4-1, 3.19 ERA, 1.18 WHIP.  In his first month as a D-Bag, Hernandez thrived.  He pitched 4 quality starts, winning 4 of his first 6 starts with his new ballclub.  The same amount of wins he had in 13 starts with Orlando while pitching with almost half of the ERA.  

MR Jamie "Mungo" Saenz: 1-1, 2 Saves, 1.66 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 21.2 IP, 24K.  Mungo continued his spectacular season with a great August.  The bullpen really came through and Saenz was a big reason why.  Pitching in the setup role with Dog Pound, the two made the road to CL Morris as easy one stopping several rallies.  He even contributed by going 2+ innings 5 times during the month.  Jersey will need him to come up big down the stretch run with Lucas, Huerta and Roghi all battling injuries.

MR Jose "Dog Pound" Gomes: 4-0, 1 Save, 1.38 ERA, 1.08 WHIP.  For the 3rd month in a row Dog Pound receives a POTM award. He tied with Hernandez for the team lead in wins with 4, he allowed 1 ER in 14 appearances and lowered his season ERA to 1.98 on the season.  If Daniel Morris wasn't on the team he would be the closer no doubt, but with Morris, these two make one of the, if not the best 1-2 bullpen punch in baseball.

1B David Pena: .292/.341/.496  6HR 19 RBI. After winning a POTM award in June, Pena slumped in July and finished with only .202 BA and 9 RBI.  He bounced back in a big way in August leading the team in HR with 6, bringing his season total to a team leading 25.  He has also been tremendous in the field at 1B.  In 1060 chances he has yet to commit an error.

OF Ramon Taverez: .288/.351/.500 4 HR 21 RBI 17 R.  This shouldn't come as a surprise after hearing about him so much this month.  He earlier won the TL POTW award and didn't stop hitting after that.  Even after being moved from 1st to 4th to 5th in the lineup order his bat never cooled down.  He led the team in RBI for the month with 21 and 2nd on the team in runs for the month.  In Jersey's big win against Oklahoma on the 23rd he hit a go-ahead and eventually game winning 3-run homer in the 14th inning.  Finishing 4-7 with 4 RBI.

Roster Changes, Questions and Answers:

As we enter September the rosters are expanded from 25 to 40 men which will lead to some interesting roster changes.  There is no doubt a few arms will be called up.  Injuries have Carl Lucas out for the remainder of the season and German Huerta will miss the first 2-3 weeks.  In the first game of September Ciro Roghi felt soreness in his wrist and is listed as day-to-day, but an injury like this could linger for up to 2 weeks.  Look for names such as Gabriel Barrentez, Marv Williams and maybe Alonso Jimenez, the former 3rd round pick, to get a shot, as he has shot up from AA and looked amazing. 

Antonio Ruiz still has 11 days left on the DL with his wrist injury so look for Fred Ross to get more time at 2nd, and there has been rumors that Mike "Coffin" Bryant could possibly get a call up, but he is currently not even on the 40 man roster.  Stay tuned.  Other batters we could and will probably see up are OF Michael Lee, would bring great defense and speed to the bench.  We might even get to see the VBL debut of Derrick Wright who is hitting the cover off the ball in AAA.  He came over in the William Hinson trade this past winter.  He is on pace to shatter the ITL record for RBI which is currently 145.  Wright sits at 141.

 

The big question remains can this team stay hot?  I don't think anyone expects them to stay as hot as they have been, but they do have 3 winning months in a row.  The pitching for once this month was phenomenal.  In 28 games, the staff gave up 4 runs or less 23 times, this is how you win ballgames.  Can this team complete the ridiculous comeback and make the playoffs for the first time?  Being 2 games out of the WC leading Greenville with 7 games left against them will lead to an exciting August.  Come out the ballpark and root on your D-Bags!

GO D-BAGS