Welcome to "Chatter from the Pressbox", the website dedicated to the Pressbox of the Frisco RoughRiders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Today's Matchups Around the Ranger's System

Today's (5/20) Match-Ups Around the Ranger's System

Round Rock: Martin Perez (3-3 5.27) vs. Fresno Grizzlies: Andrew Kown (3-1 2.61) @ 1:00 PM CT

Myrtle Beach: Kyle Hendricks (1-4 2.91) @ Wilmington Blue Rocks: Sugar Ray Marimon (3-0 2.65) @ 12:30 PM CT

Hickory : Santo Perez (2-2 6.19) @ Asheville Tourists: Daniel Winkler (4-2 6.06) @ 1:05 PM CT



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Game 19: Frisco RoughRiders (Miguel De Los Santos) @ San Antonio Missions (Matt Buschmann)

Time: 7:05 PM CT
Location: Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium (San Antonio, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (6-12 6 games back in the Texas League South Division)... San Antonio Missions (12-6 1st place in the Texas League South division)
Streak: Lost 4 in a row
Last 10: 2-8
Series Record: 1-4-0
Record against San Antonio: 0-2
Starting Pitchers: Miguel De Los Santos (1-1 6.59 ERA)... Matt Buschmann (1-1 6.32 ERA)

What to Watch for on the Mound: The Riders send De Los Santos out to the mound for the 4th time this season, while San Antonio sends out Matt Buschmann to the mound for the 4th time as well... Miguel De Los Santos struggled with command in his last start last Friday night, but he was able to get his first AA win as he pitched 5 shutout innings, gave up 1 hit, and walked 5 batters. De Los Santos added 4 strikeouts in the victory. He has walked 5 or more in 2 out of his 3 starts this season, something he did three times all of last season for Bakersfield. Still, over his last 2 starts, he has managed to allow just 3 hits in 9 innings pitched... 27 year old right handed pitcher Matt Buschmann will be making his 4th start of the season and 19th career appearance against Frisco, including his 11th start against them. In his time against Frisco, Buschmann is 3-6 with an ERA of 3.84 and a WHIP of 1.22. He has struck out 51 Riders in 70 1/3 career innings. In his last start on Friday against Midland, Buschmann went 5 solid innings, gave up 3 hits, 2 runs (both earned), walked 3 batters, and struck out 5. He got a no decision in a loss where Midland scored 5 runs off of Missions relief pitching to win 7-6. For teh season, Buschmann has given up 15 hits and 7 walks in 15 2/3 innings pitched. He has also struck out 10 batters. His win on the season came in San Antonio's 23-10 clobbering of Tulsa. Buschmann helped himself in that game by going 2 for 4 with a homerun with the bat.


Brigham Stays Consistent: Perhaps the most consistent starter so far for Frisco, Jacob Brigham had another outing, his fourth consecutive, where he gave up 3 earned runs in 5 innings. He also gave up 3 earned runs for a 5th straight game dating back to his last start of 2010. Brigham added 6 strikeouts, walked 3 batters, and allowed 4 hits. He was in line to get his 2nd victory after the offense scored 3 in the top of the 6th, but the Riders gave up 3 runs in the 8th inning and lost the game 6-5.

Middle of the Order: Despite the 6-5 loss to the Missions on Tuesday morning, the Riders middle of the order was lethal against Missions pitching. Michael Bianucci, Tommy Mendonca, and Jonathan Greene combined to go 5 for 13 with 5 extra base hits and a hit by pitch. Bianucci had a controversial double (more on that later), a homerun, and 2 RBI. Tommy Mendonca had 2 doubles, and Greene added a double of his own.

Riders Hit Attack: It wasn't only the middle of the order that was putting on a hit parade against Missions pitching on Tuesday. Engel Beltre went 2 for 5 at the top of the order, while Jose Ruiz and David Paisano both chipped in 2 hits of their own. Overall, every hitter except for Davis Stoneburner got a hit for the Riders and every batter in the lineup reached base at least once.

Controversy and Craziness: It appeared as if the Riders would take a 7-6 lead in the 9th inning when Michael Bianucci hit a ball that would have given Frisco the lead on a 3-run homerun. Instead, the umpires changed the ruling to a ground rule double, which allowed only 1 run to score, and Frisco to remain down 6-5. San Antonio recorded the final out. Frisco manager Steve Buechele and pitching coach Jeff Andrews were eventually ejected from the game for arguing the call. However, it got even crazier when fans taunted the players and things got out of control. Trash cans and bats thrown into the stands and back at the players later and 3 fans were taken away in handcuffs. For more on the story and pictures of everything, check out this article

Hit by Pitches: Jonathan Greene was hit by a pitch for the 3rd consecutive game on Tuesday and it also marked the 10th game out of 18 possible games that a RoughRider batter has been hit by a pitch in. It also was the 17th hit by pitch of the season for Frisco hitters, which is highest in the Texas League by far and one of the highest team totals in minor league baseball.

Discipline Among the Worst: Another game, another day with 1 walk by Riders batters. Frisco has walked 8 times in their last 8 games and 18 times in their last 12 games. They are the only team in the Texas League with less than 50 walks, as they have 39 walks. Only one team in AA has less walks than the Riders, and that is the Richmond Flying Squirrels (San Francisco Giants) of the Eastern League, who have 38 team walks. Perhaps to go even further to illustrate the point, Frisco has the 3rd lowest walk total in minor league baseball on offense out of 120 teams. Richmond (AA) and the Lynchburg Hillcats (Atlanta Braves) of the Carolina League (high-A), who have 34 walks, are the only two teams with less than Frisco.

Control Issues: At the same time that the offense has struggled to take walks, the pitching staff leads the Texas League in walks given out. The Riders had a better day with 4 walks given up on Tuesday, which is below their season average of 4.4 BB/9, however they still have issued the 2nd most walks in AA baseball. And Miguel De Los Santos takes the mound tonight averaging 7.2 walks per 9 innings pitched, although hitters have just 5.9 hits off of him per 9 innings, and he has 11.2 strikeouts per 9 innings.

Arkansas Postponed Again: Severe storms continue to pound the midwest and Arkansas once again had their game postponed on Tuesday. They are supposed to have a double header on Wednesday and the chance of rain looks very low tonight for Little Rock, Arkansas, so hopefully they will be able to get the double header in. They have had just 2 games over the past week. We hope that people were able to stay safe in Arkansas as the tornadoes have caused a lot of damage there.


Around the Ranger's System: 

Round Rock (AAA) lost 9-3 to the Oklahoma City Redhawks with all 9 runs coming in the 2nd inning. First baseman Koby Clemens, son of Roger, hit 2 homeruns in the 2nd inning for Oklahoma City. Former Riders Craig Gentry, Joey Butler, and Robbie Diaz combined to have 5 of Round Rock's 8 hits in the loss. Seth McClung, Chris Mobley, and Yoshinori Tateyama combined for 7 1/3 innings of shutout relief after Derek Hankins gave up 9 runs (5 earned) in 1 2/3 innings.

Myrtle Beach (high-A) had their game against Potomac postponed due to rain. Double header scheduled today.

Hickory (low-A) scored 8 runs in the last 3 innings to defeat the Augusta Greenjackets 9-1. Jurickson Profar went 2 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base in his first game back since the injury. He also did make a throwing error. Odubel Cabrera went 1 for 5 with a homerun, his 2nd in the last 3 games. Jonathan Roof went 2 for 4 with a a double, a homerun, 5 RBI, and 2 runs. Jake Skole went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored as well. Justin Grimm had one of his best starts for Hickory. He went 5 2/3 innings, gave up 5 hits, 1 run, walked 2 batters, and struck out 8. He also had a balk in the outing. He left the outing with no runs given up, but with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. Zach Osborne got the win (his 2nd) for Hickory after giving up a single to the first batter he faced in the 6th inning and getting his first blown save. Jorge Marban closed out the game for Hickory with a scoreless 9th inning.

Minor League Performacne of the Night:

Colorado Rockie's prospect Charlie Blackmon had a pretty good season in the Texas League in 2010, but he has clearly enjoyed hitting in the Pacific Coast League, a league with just a few hitters parks, quite a bit more than in the Texas League. On Tuesday, Blackmon went 3 for 5 with 2 homeruns, 5 RBIs, and a walk for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in a 17-3 bashing of the Las Vegas 51s. Colorado Springs had 24 hits in the game, including a 5 hit day from catcher Jordan Pacheco and a 4 hit day from third baseman Ian Stewart. Blackmon, however, had 2 homeruns and led the team in RBIs. On the season, he is batting .354 with a 1.119 OPS. Last year for the Tulsa Drillers Blackmon hit 11 homeruns in 337 AB's. This year for the Sky Sox, Blackmon already has 6 homeruns in just 82 AB's. The 24 year old was a 2nd round pick by the Rockies in the 2008 draft. He has never repeated a level in the minor leagues and was listed as the 11th best prospect in the Rockie's system by Baseball America entering 2011.

As always...

Station to Listen to the Game on: 1630 AM (KKGM)
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And Check Out the Riders Insider Blog for more Frisco RoughRiders info: http://ridersinsider.mlblogs.com/

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