June 2016 Review
First order of business this month was the amateur draft. We had the first pick and our scouting had pointed to an underwhelming draft pool overall but with a couple of stand out players. The top player according to our scouts was SS O'Neal Lochridge out of Occidental college at 18 years old. Lochridge was slated as a hard signing for us but I pushed the button on drafting him anyway. In the 2nd round we took RF Brendon Davis. Our 3rd round pick was SS Cole Stobbe. The rest of the draft was unremarkable and the chances of any of them being anywhere near a big league contract ever are slim to none.
It didn't take us long to come to agreement with Lochridge and the other two guys signed on soon after. Here's a look at Lochridge:
Back to the majors and I found another MR still lingering in free agency who I thought could help out in our bullpen:
Chavez goes straight to the bullpen and Mike Mikolas is optioned to AAA Plymouth.
2 days later on his first outing for us, Chavez got injured and will miss 4-5 months. Mikolas returned immediately.
We had another winning month. 16-11 this time, we're 7.5 GB from the dominant Angels and are now 1.5 GB from the wild card slot.
DJ LeMahieu also joined the DL this month. Nick Noonan was called up from AAA and has started well, he's clearly looking to prove he belongs at major league level. Matt Wieters has improved with the bat, but lets be honest he couldn't have got worse.
I'm pleased to note that AAA Plymouth and AA Wauseon are both leading their leagues. This bodes well for the near future.