[Loeffle]

After starting the month well, we are now there were the pundits expected us to be: A 10-16 record, which means tied for last, six games behind the Reds, in a rather weak NL Central.

We are struggling at the plate and we are struggling on the mound - and recently also with the glove. But there are a few glimmers of hope.

Who was doing well?
(1) B.J. Surhoff - hitting .393/.414./.625, which is good for a 1.0 WAR. Does also surprisingly well behind the plate (+1.5 ZR), while throwing out 50.0% of base stealers.
(2) backups Franklin Stubbs and Gerald Young both have OBPs of over .400 and got much more playing time recently. This was of course only possible because the every day players did very badly.
(3) No 1 and No 2 pitchers Bill Wegman and Mike Birkbeck are doing ok. While their ERA is over 3, they are eating innings and give us usually a chance to win the game.
(4) setup men Graeme Lloyd and Mike Ignasiak did their job by posting a WHIP of 1.0 or below. Notable when the rest of your bullpen is a disaster area.

Who was doing badly?
(1) Greg Vaughn was supposed to be the best hitter of this team. But he was hitting .175/.298/.225 in april with 1HR and 5 RBI.
(2) every day players that don't hit at all include 1B Kevin Seitzer (.220), 3B Jeff Cirillo (.226) and SS Jose Valentin (.202).
(3) starting pitcher Jaime Navarro makes $800,000 (a lot of money for a team like us) and posted a 5.91 ERA with a 1.94 WHIP.
(4) as mentioned above the bullpen is a disaster. Here some WHIPs Teddy Higuera (1.86), Mike Fetters (2.06), Jesse Orosco (2.71) and Bob Scanlan (2.34).

Interestingly enough people flock to see us. Our total attendance ranks 4th now with a 50 % increase from 1993.