November 2010

Almost Thanksgiving …

Hard to imagine Thanksgiving is just days away!  Seems like almost yesterday that we were in Midland playing the final days of the season (Thanksgiving seemed REALLY far away at that point).

Beltre_Catch_250.jpg

My Thanksgiving vacation begins Tuesday, Nov. 23, so the blog will be quiet for a few days until the following week.  In the meantime, not sure if you saw that CF Engel Beltre and RHP Fabio Castillo have both been added to the Rangers 40-man roster.  If you’ve watched Beltre play you can tell he’s got the tools to play in Arlington one day.  He’s still raw but he sure is electric.  No doubt he was one of the fastest players in the Texas League this past season.  Once a Red Sox farm hand, I have to imagine Beltre will be the ‘Riders 2011 Opening Day center fielder.
Castillo didn’t have enough time in Frisco this year to really show enough of his stuff.  He can reach 97 mph and was the Rangers representative in the Arizona Fall League’s Future Stars
game. At 21-years-old, Fabio appeared in only three games with Frisco in 2010.
Have a great Thanksgiving, we’ll catch up next week!
- Aaron

Friday in Frisco

Happy Friday to everyone!  Who knows, maybe the Cowboys make it two in a row this Sunday (you’re right, let’s not get ahead of ourselves).  This morning I had a nice time speaking to the good folks at the Richardson Kiwanis Club and later today I’ll be at Julian T. Saldivar Elementary School for their Career Day.  

Did you know that Frisco Manager Steve Buechele has a younger brother named Eric who is a teacher at Arlington High School?  He’s also the golf coach there and he invited me out to Arlington yesterday to speak to some of his kids about the fun world of getting a job!  Eric is a super guy and his kids were terrific.  
I’m now beginning to weed through the applicants for our two 2011 Internships.  We’ve had a nice group of candidates apply for our  Broadcasting/Media Relations internship, and I just posted our strictly Media Relations internship.  If you know anyone who might want to apply they can learn more about both positions here.  
Plenty of good football this weekend, enjoy it!
- Aaron 

2011 Schedule

As mentioned in a previous post, the ‘Riders will open up 2011 at home against the Springfield Cardinals on April 7th.  Feel free to download the complete 2011 PDF schedule below. 
As always, a big thanks to Erik Davila our graphics design guru.  He does big league quality work for us and was quite the high school pitcher!

2011_Schedule_Page.pdf

Rangers Minor League News, Nov. 12

The Rangers have made some moves that you, a RoughRiders fan, will be interested to know about.  First of all, SS Guilder Rodriguez has been resigned by the Rangers. Even though he’s Guilder_Blog_175.jpgolder, I’m glad he’ll be back in the system and couldn’t be happier for the season Guilder had in 2010.  The 27-year-old earned his first ever promotion to Triple-A and hopefully, for his sake, will begin 2011 there as well.  Good for Guilder.

Remember stout right-hander Chris Mobley?  Under six feet tall, signed from an independent league after pitching 2009 in Triple-A New Orleans and, like Rodriguez, he’s 27-years-old.  Despite the previous handcuffs, Mobley performed well overall for the ‘Riders last year and has been re-signed by the Rangers.  Good fastball and slider.

Mobley_Throw_175.jpg

Funny quip about Mobley: His name is pronounced MOB-lee, not MOE-blee.  He once told me that he’s so used to people mispronouncing his name that it doesn’t bother him at all anymore.  He said it also doesn’t bother his dad.  Interestingly enough, it’s his mom who gets most upset when his name is mispronounced and, as Chris said, “it’s not even originally her name.”  

Other Notes: 
The Rangers signed C Kevin Cash to a minor league contract.  He’s 32-years-old and has spent time in Triple-A and the bigs with both the Astros and Red Sox.  Keep in mind that former ‘Riders Kevin Richardson and Emerson Frostad (who has done some catching) are six-year free agents and could leave the Rangers organization.  
Thanks to Jason Cole of lonestardugout.com for keeping us up to speed with the Rangers system during the off-season.  Jason is the best when it comes to getting the inside scoop about the club’s minor league prospects.  I highly recommended bookmarking his site and subscribing.  
The ‘Riders 2011 season opens up on April 7th vs. the Springfield Cardinals.  The Cards opened up 2010 in Frisco as well.  Blake Beavan got the start and the win (no surprise there).  Set your calenders.
- Aaron  

var OB_langJS = ‘http://widgets.outbrain.com/lang_en.js’; var OBITm = ’1289594207695′;var OB_raterMode = ‘none’;var OB_recMode = ‘strip’;

var OutbrainPermaLink=’DROP_PERMALINK_HERE’;

if ( typeof(OB_Script)!=’undefined’ )OutbrainStart(); else { var OB_Script = true; var str = unescape(“%3Cscript src=\’http://widgets.outbrain.com/OutbrainRater.js\’ type=\’text/javascript\’%3E%3C/script%3E”); document.write(str); }

Welcome to ‘Riders Insider!

Hi, welcome to our new blog!  I’m the club’s radio play-by-play broadcaster, Aaron Goldsmith.  It’s a typical Thursday during the off-season here at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco.  This morning I gave at talk to the broadcasting class at TCU, and tonight I’ll be speaking at The Boys & Girls Club of Frisco.  That reminds me, if you ever need a speaker at your school or civic group, I’d love to contribute!  During the off-season a big part of my job is touring the Metroplex speaking to various organizations about the ‘Riders, how I got into the business, and what it’s like working in professional sports.  I can always be reached at agoldsmith@ridersbaseball.com.

Right now I’m in the process of hiring our No. 2 broadcaster for 2011 and our seasonal Media Relations Manager.  Both Jordan Roberts and Reese Gordon did a great job for us last year and I’m confident will be moving onto full-time employment in 2011.  Once our media department is fully staffed you can expect even more posts on here about the happenings at Dr Pepper Ballpark.
Opening Day is scheduled for April 7th vs. Springfield.  Remember when Blake Beavan started on Opening Day last year against the ‘Cards?  What a stud.  He picked up the win, by the way.
If you ever have any questions or blog requests feel free to reach out to me at agoldsmith@ridersbaseball.com.  Be sure to bookmark our site and visit often!
- Aaron
| back to blog home |
Theme: MLB “pro” | Get a free blog at WordPress.com
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 55 other followers