03 Oct

eye on …

Brian Dozier will get a taste of October baseball — in the Arizona Fall League, a proving ground for major league prospects that starts its season on Tuesday. Southern Miss product Dozier, who will play for the Mesa Solar Sox, is coming off an excellent season at the high Class A and Double-A levels in the Minnesota system. An eighth-round draft pick in 2009, he hit .322 at Fort Myers and .318 (with seven homers) at New Britain this season. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound second baseman-shortstop was rated the Twins’ 30th-best prospect entering 2011 by Baseball America. He surely has moved up the ranks. If he plays well in the AFL, he should get a long look from the big league club next spring. … Among the players Atlanta is shipping to the AFL are four who could be in Mississippi in 2012: reliever Billy Bullock, catcher Christian Bethancourt, second baseman Phil Gosselin and outfielder Todd Cunningham.
P.S. Cliff Lee, who once seemed unbeatable in the playoffs, has had his aura tarnished. The former Meridian Community College star, now Philadelphia’s No. 2 starter, was knocked out in the seventh inning of Sunday’s 5-4 loss to St. Louis, leaving him 0-3 with a 7.13 ERA in his last three postseason appearances. “They got 12 hits,” Lee told mlb.com. “Anytime they do that, they’re hitting good pitches, they’re hitting bad pitches, they’re hitting.” If there is a decisive fifth game in this series, and Lee gets the call, it’ll be interesting to see how he responds.

02 Oct

check your schedule

In case anyone was wondering, the Mississippi Braves will open the 2012 season in the new-look Southern League at home on April 5. The M-Braves will play a five-game series with Mobile from April 5-9, then a five-game home series with Montgomery from April 10-14. The SL divisions have done a minor shuffle: With the Carolina franchise relocating to Pensacola, the new Blue Wahoos (some kind of fish) will play in the South Division. Birmingham shifts to the North. Pensacola, still a Cincinnati affiliate for 2012, will make its first visit to Trustmark Park on May 6. The M-Braves’ final home game of 2012 — unless they make the playoffs — will be against Pensacola on Aug. 28. The SL All-Star Game is set for June 19 at Tennessee. The full schedule is on the Southern League web site.

02 Oct

faith rewarded

After enduring a mostly dismal September, Mitch Moreland got his October off to a nice start on Saturday. The former Mississippi State standout from Amory drove in two runs, one with a home run, in Texas’ 8-6 victory over Tampa Bay in the American League Division Series, which is now squared at 1-1. Rangers manager Ron Washington had said he still had faith in Moreland despite his late-season slump, and Washington put his lefty-swinging first baseman in the lineup for the crucial Game 2 against Rays right-hander James Shields. Moreland got an RBI goundout in the pivotal five-run fourth inning against Shields and blasted his homer, his first in Arlington since June 21, off Brandon Gomes in the eighth. “This game is going to be full of ups and downs and you can’t dwell on the downs,” Moreland told espn.go.com. Moreland batted .348 with a homer and seven RBIs in the 2010 postseason, helping the Rangers reach their first World Series. Meanwhile, Rays outfielder and ex-Itawamba Community College star Desmond Jennings, who finished the regular season in an awful skid at the plate, is 2-for-7 in the ALDS with a hit in each game.
P.S. Lance Berkman’s home run off Roy Halladay on Saturday was his second against the Philadelphia ace in two weeks and the eighth postseason homer for Berkman in his career. Alas, St. Louis lost Game 1 of the NLDS 11-6. … Terry Francona’s departure as manager in Boston leaves former Jackson Mets Dave Magadan (the Red Sox’s hitting coach) and Tim Bogar (third-base coach) in an uncomfortable limbo until a new manager is hired. Of course, they could follow Francona to his next job, possibly with the Chicago White Sox.