New Blood

Well, the draft has come and gone. All we got this season was one future ML player, but that's all that we expected, given the weak draft class, and the fact that we only had one selected in the top 130 or so. We ended up with SS Turner Schoeneweis at #9, which we were happy with, because we had him in our top three. He will unseat Randy Atkins as our SS of the future. While his defense will suffer a bit, he hits for more power and a better average. We just hope he can reach those projections. Atkins should still serve as a starter for us for at least a season or two.

As for the big league squad, we're currently standing at 31-34, only three games back of the WC2 position. We're halfway through our killer set against the NL North, having gone 3-3 in the first two series. If we can take two from Minnesota and steal one from Chicago, we'll be in okay shape.

We've made some roster moves. The net difference is that we brought back last year's closer, Eli Rivera, as a set up man and we sent long-reliever Bernie Adkinsson down to the minors.

Hot players are led by Skeeter Wilkinson who has gone 12-40 with 4 HRs and 10 RBIs, Aramis Maduro who is on a 9-game hitting streak, and Alex Johnson who has given up just four hits and 0 ER in his last three appearances and 7.1 IP.

Cold players include Pete Benes who is just 5 for his last 30, Midre Cela who is 5 for his last 34, and Jumbo Tabaka who is 2 for his last 15.