Former Tourists Scheduled To Pitch

Two former Asheville Tourists, Antonio Senzatela and Carlos Estevez, are acheduled to pitch in the Colorado Rockies intrasquad scrimmage on March 1. Antonio Senzatela spent 2014 with the Asheville Tourists going 15-2 with a 3.12 ERA in 26 starts. Senzatela is the Rockies #13 ranked prospect according to MLB.com. Relief pitcher Carlos Estevez also spent 2014 with the Tourists appearing in 33 games, going 1-3 with a 4.72 ERA.

Two left handed starting pitchers and candidates for the Rockies starting rotation, Tyler Matzek and Tyler Anderson, are scheduled to appear in the Rockies Cactus League Opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matzek pitched for the Tourists in 2010 and 2011 going 10-5 in 30 starts over the two seasons. He has started 24 games for the Rockies over the past two seasons with an 8-12 record and a 4.06 ERA. Anderson pitched for the Tourists in 2012 and had a 12-3 record with a 2.47 ERA in 20 stars. He missed all of 2015 due to an elbow injury.

A Second Half Team

The Asheville Tourists have played phenomenal baseball in the second half of the season. As of this post, they have posted a .703 winning percentage (45-19) and have easily outdistanced second place Savannah building a seven game lead with only three games to go. The Tourists have their fair share of offensive stars. Ryan McMahon has been consistently hitting .280 on the season with 17 homeruns and 100 RBI's, Correlle Prime (a great last name for any athlete) has 21 homeruns and 99 RBI's (I wonder if the Tourists have ever had two players that have had 100 RBI's in a season?), and Raimel Tapia has batted .329 with 9 homeruns, 72 RBI's and leads the team with 33 stolen bases. The Tourists pitchers haven't blown batters away with fastballs but have pitched fairly consistently all season long. Johendi Jiminian is 13-5 with a 4.15 ERA and Antonio Senzatela is 14-2 with a 3.20 ERA. The bullpen has pretty much been bullpen by committee with Trent Daniel leading the team in saves with 14 and Dylan Stamey has 11. The Tourists look ready to make another championship r un.

The Bats Come Out

The bats finally came alive last night for the Asheville Tourists in a 11-4 win over visiting Greensboro and they improved their record to 6-1 in the second half of the season. They pounded out 16 hits in their best offensive performance of the second half. Ryan McMahon homered and drove in 4, Jordan Patterson went 4 for 5 with a 2 doubles, a homerun, and 3 RBI's; Jose Briceno added 3 hits, 2 of them doubles and an RBI, and Max White had 2 hits and 2 RBI's. Starter Antonio Senzatela improved his record to 8-1 by pitching 5 2/3 innings and giving up 3 runs.

Off To A Great Start

The Asheville Tourists improved to 2-0 in the second half last night with a 4-3 win over the Augusta Greenjackets. The Tourists only managed 6 hits in the game and Third Baseman Ryan McMahon was the hitting star going 2 for 4 with two doubles and a Run Batted In. Four Asheville Tourists pitchers combined to scatter nine hits. Antonio Senzatela got the start and he went 4 1/3 innings and allowed two runs, Andrew Brown came in and pitched 2 2/3 innings in middle relief and gave up one unearned run and got credit for the win (3-0), and Matt Carasiti and Trent Daniel came on to pitch a scoreless inning a piece. Trent Daniel got his 6th save on the season. Tourists batters struggled a little bit at the plate, striking out thirteen times. Catcher Jose Brecino is quickly developing a reputation in the South Atlantic League for his willingness to throw to any base at any time to try to keep the opposing teams runners honest. He picked a Greenjackets runner off Third Base last night. Pitcher Andrew Brown also helped his own cause by picking a runner off second base.