Saturday, July 10, 2010

The River No Longer Runs Dry

The ninth of June 2010 was a day that changed the life of The Charlotte 49ers first-baseman-Ryan Rivers. He was selected 1074th Overall in the MLB amateur player draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Rivers signed a contract with the Angels and reported to Arizona within five days of his selection. Ryan was assigned to the Tempe Angels (AZL Angels) who are the Rookie league affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Tempe Angels play in the short-seasoned Arizona Summer League (AZL).

The season began on June 21st. Rivers had shown enough to the coaching staff that he was chosen as the staring first-baseman for the first game of the 2010 season. While at bat, Ryan went 0-3 with three strikeouts to start his professional career. Rivers struggles in the batting box continued through his first three games after getting his 1st hit on June 29th. Despite finally getting a hit at this point Rivers was 1-11 with 7 strikeouts and a .091 BA. The slow start was not enough to keep Rio down. Over the next three games he raised his BA to .304 and is now 7-23 with 4R 5RBI and one double. This increase in offensive production was highlighted by July 9th’s 3-4. 3R 4RBI performance as Tempe’s DH. The Tempe Angels return to action July 10th against the AZL Dodgers.

River’s teammate at Charlotte, Zane Williams, is looking to duplicate the offensive surge that Ryan has produced over the last several games. Williams was signed as an un-drafted free agent by the Tampa Bay Rays and assigned to their Appalachian League (Rookie-Adv) team, The Princeton Rays. He is 1-17 with .059 BA after 6 games of play. Zane’s first hit came on July 6th and has yet to play since then. The Princeton Rays are in action again July 10th against the Burlington Royals.

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