[Loeffle]

After May gave hope for the future, June was a bit disaster with a 9-16 record. We officially entered rebuild now mode and several big names that don't deliver at all are on the trading block. Unsurprisingly there were no decent offers yet.

At least we can still catch the Cubs?

Who was doing well?
(1) OF Gerald Young who turns 30 soon. He collected an 139 OPS+ by collecting an .462 OPT and stealing 7 bases.
(2) Backups Franklin Stubbs and Troy O'Leary had an OPS+ over 100 as well - the rest of the team did not!
(3) our "new" bullpen did mostly ok. Graeme Lloyd, Scott Bankhead, Mike Timlin and Huck Flener had a WHIP of 1.26 or below and did not lose a game in june.
(4) our rookie teams started their season great by going a combined 17-3. The Beloit Brewers went 10-0!

Who was doing badly?
(1) starting pitching really struggles. Sean Blanton's 4.86 ERA was the best in the rotation. While the other starters had ERAs of 5.17, 5.72, 6.14 and 6.43. No help in sight in the upper minors.
(2) most of the lineup was quite cold as well with B.J. Surhoff (.236/.278/.371) being the biggest disappointment after signing a new deal. Jose Valentin had a low average (.238) but drives in runs (18 RBI).
(3) player development at ML level. Scouts say Teddy Higuera, Sean Blanton, Bill Wegman, Kevin Seitzer and Pat Listach are on the decline.

Huck Flener (too old) dropped out of the top prospects list and is replaced by OF Terry Barlow.