Live From Frisco

FRISCO — I’ll try to keep you up to date with what’s going on out here at beautiful Dr Pepper Ballpark today with a mini Depot.

RHP Guillermo “Willie” Moscoso gets his first start for the RoughRiders after a couple of outstanding bullpen appearances. I’m very interested to see what he’s got.

The Human Ball of Fire also known as Marcus Lemon is hitting sixth as the DH and 2B Jose Vallejo is back in the lineup after a night off, hitting in the two hole behind CF Craig Gentry. Chad Tracy gets his first start in the outfield and will hit cleanup behind 1B Justin Smoak who is hitting a very respectable .273 / .405 / .424 through his first week of Texas League play after getting only 56 at-bats as a professional last summer.

Feel free to ask questions as we go along and I’ll do my best to interact as the afternoon advances. I’ll be away from the computer in the fourth, joining Scott Garner for the broadcast on Channel 21.

3:57 pm: Just back in the booth after watching Moscoso warm up in the pen. He had less action on his fastball than I had imagined, but he seemed to be able to move it around the strike zone at will. His slurve was better than I had imagined. He seems to like to bring it aggressively down the pipe and break it down and out of the zone (which probably helps to explain how infrequently he allows a homer).

4:07 pm: Arkansas’ leadoff man Coby Smith singled to right off of Moscoso on a 1-1 pitch. FB velo is right at 90 mph.

4:12 pm: Moscoso starts off giving up a single, a walk, another single and then another single. Arkansas up 2-0. He’s not comfortable with runners on base yet he’s throwing a ton of breaking balls. Pitching coach Joe Slusarski is already out to the mound.

4:17 pm: Bloop single to center (another breaking ball). He’s been a little unlucky. Nobody has hit the ball hard, but this is surprising. For a guy who is known for living off of challenging hitters with his fastball in the zone, he sure isn’t being very aggressive today.

4:24 pm: Five runs on five hits in the first for Moscoso in the first. He’s rattled.

4:30 pm: Smoak stands in with Gentry on second (walked and advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw). He smoked a laser to left center, but right at Arkansas left fielder Coby Smith.

4:37 pm: Another hanging Moscoso breaking ball hammered into left field for a double.

4:45 pm: I hope you saw Jose Vallejo’s double play to end the second. Now you know why the prospect watching world is so crazy about his defensive chops. You saw the quickness, the awareness, the arm strength…everything. That kid’s a player.

4:48 pm: That’s a hard nine. Lemon pounded a 1-1 pitch into the L/C gap to extend his season-opening hitting streak to nine games. For those of you who saw that hit, that’s what virtually every hit I saw him get in Surprise looked like this spring. An endless string of frozen ropes to the gaps.

5:00 pm: The Human Highlight Film Jose Vallejo made another tremendous defensive play to get Moscoso out of a potential jam. I’d pay to watch that kid play.

5:06 pm: Moscoso’s day is done. Two and two-thirds innings. Eight runs on 11 hits, one walk and a wild pitch. 75 pitches, 50 for strikes. An inordinate number of offspeed pitches. I’ll try to find out after the game if that was by design. Perhaps he was sent out with orders to work on offspeed stuff. Fastball velocity was normally 89 mph and he touched 91-91 a handful of times.

5:59 pm: Kea Kometani was outstanding in relief of Moscoso: 2.1 scoreless innings, no hits, one walk, two K’s. Flashed the old splitter. A.J. “Pirate” Murray in now. Hard to believe, but I’m sitting here thinking back to when I first saw Pirate pitch for Frisco in their inaugural season back in 2003. A.J. got the first two hitters he saw on a curve and a changeup.