Monthly Archives: June 2011

Jordan Schafer’s production has been a bit of a surprise. He hasn’t hit much since the Atlanta Braves summoned him from Triple-A, but the former Mississippi Braves outfielder has made an impact with his speed. On Saturday, for example, that speed forced an error in the eighth inning and he eventually scored the tying run in a game the Braves would lose to Texas in the 10th. In 22 games, hitting mostly leadoff, Schafer has scored 17 runs and stolen seven bases in 10 tries. His average is just .233 with an on-base percentage of .310. That’s inadequate for a big league leadoff man. At times, Schafer has looked much like he did when he was back in Mississippi last summer, when he showed very little as a hitter. Meanwhile, Atlanta activated Nate McLouth today and purged Joe Mather from the roster. Now what do the Braves do? Does McLouth go back to center field and Schafer to the bench? Do they both play? Is that wise? They are similar in type. Both are good outfielders, though Schafer has a better arm. Both are lefty hitters. McLouth might have more power — he was hitting .238 (.332 OBP) with three homers and 11 RBIs in 48 games before going on the disabled list. But Schafer is faster and more of a base-stealing threat. How Fredi Gonzalez, whose club is in a funk, uses these two will be interesting, to say the least. And when Martin Prado returns … then what?
P.S. Former M-Braves outfielder Matt Esquivel is still plugging away in the independent Atlantic League. He is hitting .333 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 24 games for the Long Island Ducks. His manager there, by the way, is former Jackson Mets infielder Kevin Baez.

Randall Delgado won’t start tonight for the Mississippi Braves at Jacksonville. Instead, the 21-year-old right-hander will start for Atlanta on Friday night against Texas at Turner Field. Delgado, 4-4 with a 3.54 ERA for the M-Braves, will take the spot of Tommy Hanson, another ex-M-Brave who was scratched because of shoulder soreness. Delgado, who hasn’t pitched higher than the Double-A level, is 0-3 in his last five starts. His last win came on May 14. But the wiry 6-foot-3, 180-pound Panama native was rated the Braves’ No. 3 prospect before the season. He has strikeout stuff, having fanned 10 in one start this year and eight in another. After eight starts this season, he was 4-1. His ERA took a beating in a May 24 outing when he allowed 10 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Delgado could have picked a better team to debut against; the defending American League champion Rangers can rake.

Southern Miss piled up some impressive numbers this season — beyond the 39 victories the Golden Eagles claimed on the field. USM had six of its high school signees for 2012 make first-team All-State. Two of those, The Clarion-Ledger’s Mr. Baseball Mason Robbins and Sumrall star Connor Barron, were drafted by MLB clubs, as were two out-of-state signees. Barron was the first Mississippian picked, going to Florida in the third round. He has yet to sign. USM juco signee Andrew Pierce, a left-handed pitcher for national runner-up Jones County Junior College, was named a first-team All-American in NJCAA Division II. Somehow, Pierce wasn’t drafted. Four 2011 USM players were drafted, including B.A. Vollmuth, who went in the third round to Oakland and was the second Mississippian picked. The junior third baseman/shortstop has yet to sign, but Ferriss Trophy winner Tyler Koelling (Minnesota), Todd McInnis (St. Louis) and Collin Cargill (Florida) have turned pro, along with Marc Bourgeois, a senior who signed a free agent deal with Arizona. The Eagles will miss those four — and Vollmuth, too, if he signs — but Scott Berry appears to have restocked the roster with top-tier talent. USM figures to pile up a bunch more wins in 2012.

Was that the sound of Cliff Lee blowing through the Florida lineup today? Or the sound of the Philadelphia Phillies starting to pull away in the National League East? Both, perhaps. Lee, the former Meridian Community College standout, tossed a two-hit shutout at the Marlins, winning 3-0 to boost his record to 7-5. It was the third win in the last four starts for Lee, who might just now be finding his best form. Roy Oswalt, the pride of Weir and Holmes CC, hasn’t been his usual crafty self either, and still the Fightin’ Phils find themselves with a season-best seven-game win streak and a 5 1/2-game lead over Atlanta. The Braves, suddenly wobbling through a three-game skid, turn to former Mississippi Braves left-hander Mike Minor (0-2, 4.50 ERA) to be a stopper tonight against the New York Mets. The Braves really need to keep the Phillies in sight.

Six Mississippi natives had a hand in five big wins in the big leagues on Wednesday. Start in Arizona, where Nettleton’s Bill Hall went 2-for-4 with an RBI and New Albany’s Eli Whiteside 1-for-3 (a triple) with an RBI as division leader San Francisco beat the second-place Diamondbacks 5-2 to extend its lead in the National League West to 2 1/2 games. At Colorado, Jackson’s Seth Smith went 1-for-4 with an RBI double in a 5-run sixth inning to help the third-place Rockies (6 games out) keep pace with the Giants by beating San Diego 6-3. At Los Angeles, Hattiesburg native Fred Lewis was 2-for-3 with two RBIs as Cincinnati completed a sweep of the Dodgers with a 7-2 win and stayed 2 1/2 games behind first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central. At Detroit, Pascagoula product Tony Sipp registered his 13th hold by getting two outs in the eighth inning of a 6-4 win for Cleveland, which moved back into a first-place tie with the Tigers in the American League Central. At Minnesota, McComb’s Matt Tolbert, starting again at second base, didn’t get a hit but still contributed in the surging Twins’ third straight victory, a 4-1 win over the Chicago White Sox.
P.S. Minnesota has activated infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka from the DL and will install him at shortstop, with Alexi Casilla moving to second. Matt Tolbert, hitting only .193, will go back to a true utility role, which he handles well. Tupelo native Dusty Hughes was sent to the minors when Nishioka was activated.

The college season in Mississippi is in the books. Time for a final grade report.
Mississippi State: A. The Bulldogs, not even picked to make the NCAA field by many preseason forecasters, won a regional title and came within one victory of a trip to the College World Series. Maybe they overachieved. Or maybe the 38-25 finish is indicative of progress for John Cohen’s program. State fans surely hope the latter is true.
Ole Miss: C. This could have been a D. The Rebels were projected as an NCAA Tournament team, but they were swept in a season-ending doubleheader at Arkansas and wound up missing both the SEC and NCAA tourneys as a result. The 30-25 finish, even considering the injuries Mike Bianco’s club endured, was a disappointment.
Southern Miss: B. But this bordered on a C because of the Golden Eagles’ late fade. They squandered an opportunity to win the C-USA regular season title outright at home, then saw their offense run dry in a 1-2 performance in the C-USA Tournament that was played practically in their own backyard. USM got a regional bid and went 0-2. Thud. Still, a 39-19 record and a share of the C-USA title rates some praise.
Delta State: D. The Statesmen perked up at season’s end but still needed to make a strong showing in the Gulf South Conference Tournament to extend their season. They bowed out in three games. At 30-19, they missed the NCAA Division II regionals for the third straight year. They expect better in Cleveland.
Belhaven: A. The Blazers won the tough Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament title in their first year in the league and made the NAIA field. BU fell short of a second straight NAIA World Series trip, but a 45-18 year is a good one.
William Carey: B. Though their final record was just 31-27, the Crusaders made a nice run at season’s end, reaching the SSAC title game against Belhaven and earning an NAIA regional bid.
Mississippi College: C. The Choctaws, though faced with replacing a number of key players, were ranked in preseason in NCAA D-III. They struggled much of the year and finished 24-18, bowing out in the opening round of the American Southwest Conference playoffs a year after reaching an NCAA regional title game.
Millsaps: C. The Majors went 0-2 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament and wound up 24-18. That’s one win fewer than they put up in 2010, which was also a down year for a program that usually makes a bid for D-III postseason play.
Tougaloo: D. The Bulldogs (record unavailable) beat Belhaven for the first time ever, which has to be worth something.
Blue Mountain: C. The Toppers went 16-35 in their first year of competition. They were 4-20 in the TranSouth Athletic Conference, a pretty strong NAIA league.

Three teams reportedly have interest in signing veteran infielder/outfielder Bill Hall, the Nettleton native who was released a few days ago by the Houston Astros. Washington, Baltimore and the New York Yankees may be pursuing the 33-year-old Hall, who hit 18 homers for Boston in 2010. The Astros, who signed the free agent in the off-season, had hoped Hall would inject some power into their lineup as their second baseman, but the experiment didn’t work. He hit just .224 with two homers. He was dropped into a platoon role in mid-May and then displaced altogether when Jeff Keppinger, a superior hitter and glove man, returned to active duty.

Maybe Bobby Cox’s magic will rub off on the Mississippi Braves. The man who helped turn the Atlanta Braves into a National League powerhouse will make an appearance tonight at Trustmark Park, where the M-Braves will try to pull out of a freefall that has seen them lose eight of their last 10 and 11 of 15. At 23-37, the M-Braves have the second-worst record in the entire Southern League heading into the last five games of the first half. Their pitching seemingly has hit a wall. A staff armed with top prospects — four made the SL South All-Star team — currently has an ERA of 4.40, eighth in the league. And they still can’t hit (.255, eighth) or score (243 runs, last) with any consistency. Tyler Pastornicky, an All-Star pick at shortstop, has played well, hitting .309 with five homers and 33 RBIs. Cox and the others in Atlanta’s front office have to like his progress in his first full Double-A season. And the same could be said of third baseman Donell Linares, a less-heralded 27-year-old Cuban in his second tour with the M-Braves. The Braves wanted to see Linares come back this year in better condition, and he appears to have done that. He is hitting .285 with five homers and 40 RBIs in 51 games. He has struck out just 17 times in 186 at-bats. And he has committed only five errors. He may have worked his way into the Braves’ picture as a possible replacement for Chipper Jones. Keep an eye on Linares.

200 — Saves by Mississippi State alumnus Jonathan Papelbon. He got the milestone on Tuesday night against the New York Yankees in his 356th career appearance; only Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley reached 200 saves in fewer games.
.133 — Eli Whiteside’s batting average (with one RBI) since he became the San Francisco Giants’ No. 1 catcher. On the plus side, however, the Giants are 7-4 in games in which the former Delta State standout has played since star Buster Posey went down on May 25. The NL West-leading Giants are 11-6 overall in games started by Whiteside.
887 — Overall place in the draft for Coahoma Community College’s Montreal Robertson. Detroit picked the 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander, who surely had a hard time attracting attention while pitching for a team that went 3-41 in 2011.
8 — College World Series appearances by Mississippi State, the last in 2007. The resurgent Bulldogs, suddenly ranked 16th in one major poll, are two wins from a ninth trip to Omaha.
2,607 — Average announced attendance at Mississippi Braves games through 30 dates this season. That’s down slightly from the official 2010 average. The struggling M-Braves start another homestand, the last of the first half, on Thursday.

The Texas Rangers are hot, and so is Amory’s Mitch Moreland. The Mississippi State alum belted his eighth homer — and added another hit to lift his average to .313 — to help the Rangers win their fifth in a row on Sunday. At 34-26, Texas has the most wins in the American League. … Pascagoula’s Tony Sipp struck out the side in a one-inning relief appearance for Cleveland against the Rangers. … Tim Dillard, the pride of Saltillo and Itawamba Community College, pitched a perfect 1 2/3 innings to earn his first win of the year as Milwaukee beat Florida 6-5 in an 11-inning contest. … Ole Miss product Matt Tolbert, a backup infielder playing more regularly because of injuries in Minnesota, had a hit and two RBIs in a 6-0 win over Kansas City. Tolbert is hitting just .202, but the scuffling Twins seem to like his defensive versatility. … Catcher Craig Tatum, the MSU product from Hattiesburg who was recently recalled to Baltimore, got a start — and a hit — in the Orioles’ loss to Toronto. … Boston called on Daniel Bard to nail down a save instead of Jonathan Papelbon, the ex-MSU star who blew a save on Saturday and also was ejected in an epic meltdown. … Louisville’s Marcus Thames is expected to be activated today from the disabled list by the Los Angeles Dodgers. L.A. faces Philadelphia — and former Meridian CC star Cliff Lee — tonight at 6 in game to be televised by ESPN.