2000 was a nice inaugural season for the Rebels, as new free agents Brett McCollum, Jon Frailey, and Tim Sotomayer joined the arrival of many of the young players from the farm. But none of the young pups made as big a splash as Adam Miller who burst onto the scene, hitting 25 extra base hits in his first 18 games (and perhaps skewing the hopes for his power numbers going forward). Travis Platt, who debuted briefly in 2000, made great contributions to the middle of the batting order. Scott Wilson came out of the gate wild but showed flashes of brilliance in his first 3 months in the big leagues.

To me, the story of the season was Jerry Vasquez. Coming off two injury plagued years and a stormy exit from Gurnee, the long-time 1B moved to C due to injury. Vasquez came out of the gate swinging, hitting .554 / .639 / .750 before the mid-season break. Vasquez really tailed off dramatically in the second half, but still provided many key hits, including two very memorable ones.