A good start to the 2016 season for Illinois. 14-11, in 3rd place though the first month. There have been some ups and downs, but overall no one following the team can complain. The Piasa have weathered the first major injury of the season, Gonzalez and are poised to make a run when he comes back.
Pitching
Wallace has started where he left off in 2015. 3-1, leading the league in strikeouts and a solid 3.10 ERA. He has had 5 quality starts in 6 outings. Zhu has pitched well too. He is 1-1 with a 2.10 ERA. Teal is a solid #3 starter. The surprise thus far is MacIntosh who is 3-1 with a 2.56ERA.
The bullpen started very poorly, but bounced back a little recently. Newcomers (and rookies) Morcom and Hawkins have had mixed results. Morcom has been solid, Hawkins struggled out of the gate and has had 6+ staight shutout innings help lower his ERA to 6.40. He seems to be finding his groove. The disappointment has been Chris Vellenoweth who was a stud reliever in 2015. He has been brutal thus far 0-3 with a 6.48 ERA.
Hitting
Greg Hammond still strikes out way too much (40 in 25 games), but has belted 11 jacks thus far. Clarence Thomas is hitting .330 with 7 HR and a .450 OBP. Ed Jackson has continued his upward development and is hitting over .300 and leading the Frontier League with 9 stolen bases.
Jim Sackett and Stan Anderson are struggling with batting average, but provide good defense and Sackett has launched 7 bombs in the first month of the year proving last seasons's 33 HR were not a fluke.
Merritt and Carr have struggled to replace Gonzalez at 3B, who was out with an oblique injury. He is slated to be back in the lineup very soon.
The Minors
Dan Allen is looking like he is ready for a call up. He destroyed AA pitching to start the year and has continued his hot pace in AAA. Ruben Martinez and Greg McCoy are AAA outfields ready to make the jump as well. So Stan Anderson needs to pick up the pace or he may find himself on the bench or back in AAA in the near future.
Zac Chambers is making the transition to 2B - no doubt he can hit, at only 19 years old he is mashing the ball at AAA to the tune of a .359 batting average. When the defense is there, he will be a strong contender to take over for Artie White, the 38 year old second baseman.
The pitching at AAA is atrocious and there is little or no immediate help at that level. Plenty of good young pitching prospects in AA and the lower minors coming along nicely.
