Monthly Archives: June 2012

Itawamba Community College’s Ben Hudspeth was named to the NJCAA Division II All-America team, one of just two freshmen to make the 12-man first team. Hudspeth, a right-handed pitcher (who also plays catcher), went 11-0 with a 1.82 ERA and tossed a no-hitter against Northwest. Also on the first team is Hinds CC’s Tyler Akins, a sophomore infielder who signed with Belhaven. Meridian CC’s Wade Wass, a sophomore who signed with Alabama and was also drafted last week, made the NJCAA D-I third team as a catcher. On Monday, Mississippi State’s Jonathan Holder and Southern Miss’ Bradley Roney were named on the Collegiate Baseball Writers Freshman All-America team, Holder as a first-team pick and Roney on the second team. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves lefty Jonny Venters earned an ignominious distinction tonight when he served up Alex Rodriguez’s record-tying 23rd career grand slam in Atlanta’s 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees. A-Rod equaled Lou Gehrig’s long-standing mark.

Seth Smith’s home run-robbing catch for Oakland against Arizona on Friday night was the No. 2 play of the week on MLB Network’s countdown. The former Ole Miss star’s leaping snag of an Aaron Hill drive lost out for No. 1 to a walk-off home run by San Diego’s Logan Forsythe. Smith, who statistically hits better when he is playing the outfield and not DHing, went 3-for-4 with a home run in Friday’s game. He goes into his old stomping grounds, Colorado’s Coors Field, on Tuesday carrying a hot bat. He went 5-for-8 in the Arizona series and is batting .387 over his last 10 games. For the season, Smith is up to .259 with five homers and 17 RBIs. P.S. Mississippi Braves alumnus Matt Young was back in the big leagues for Detroit’s interleague series at Cincinnati and scored the game-winning run in the eighth inning on Sunday night on a wild pitch. Young, who had entered the game as part of a double switch, had reached base by getting hit by a pitch. That’s typical Matt Young.

Scott Diamond was, uh, brilliant again for the Minnesota Twins today. The former Mississippi Braves left-hander threw six shutout innings in an 11-3 win over the Chicago Cubs. Diamond is now 5-1 (with a 1.61 ERA) for a Twins team that is 24-34. The Canada native pitched for some mediocre clubs in Pearl, as well. He was 5-10 despite a 3.50 ERA for the 2009 M-Braves and 4-6 with a 3.52 in 2010 before getting a promotion to Triple-A. The Twins plucked Diamond from the pitching-rich Braves in the Rule 5 draft in December 2010 and then traded current M-Braves reliever Billy Bullock to Atlanta in spring training 2011 to keep Diamond in their system. He was just 1-5, 5.08 for the Twins last season but has apparently returned with a bit more, uh, polish in 2012.

The star student of Mississippi’s college class of 2012 is, without a doubt, Delta State. Ole Miss was the last team standing in our college baseball season — but only because the Division I season runs longer than D-II. DSU went 49-15, won a Gulf South Conference title, won a regional and then reached the championship game of the College World Series. A well-deserved A to the Statesmen. Ole Miss and Mississippi State also rate A’s for making it to regional play out of the rugged SEC. The Rebels (37-26) overcame a late-season lull to reach the championship round of the College Station Regional. State (40-24) gets extra credit for winning the SEC Tournament crown before going out rather quietly in the Tallahassee Regional. Southern Miss will have to settle for a B. The Golden Eagles went 32-24 and won two of three games in the Conference USA Tournament, including a win over powerhouse Rice. But they fell short of making it to the NCAA postseason for what would have been a 10th straight year. Mississippi Valley State finished with an ugly 17-38 record but reaching the championship game of the SWAC Tournament is worthy of a B. Give a B also to Jackson State (33-16), which dominated the SWAC in the regular season but came up a dud in the tournament. Belhaven (32-24), William Carey (29-27), Millsaps (28-16) and Mississippi College (21-24) fall into the C category. The Blazers were the defending Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament champs but barely made the field this year as the 8-seed. MC gets some extra credit for scrambling to make the American Southwest Conference postseason and winning its best-of-3 opening round series. The records for Tougaloo and Rust are unavailable, so they get incompletes. Blue Mountain, despite its 25-31 record, deserves a special mention — and a B grade — for reaching the championship round of the TranSouth Athletic Conference Tournament in just its second year of competition. All in all, it was another good year for Magnolia State college baseball, which also produced a first-round MLB draft pick (MSU’s Chris Stratton).

Nobody — but nobody — predicted this: Lance Lynn, the former Ole Miss standout, became the first pitcher in the big leagues to reach nine wins. The big right-hander for St. Louis beat Houston 14-2 on Thursday night, striking out 11 hitters in six innings. He is 9-2 in 12 starts with a 2.66 ERA. Where would the injury-riddled Cardinals be without him? … UM product Alex Presley is 5-for-14 since Pittsburgh recalled him from Triple-A. … Weir’s Roy Oswalt, tuning up for his as-yet-undetermined Texas Rangers debut, made his second Triple-A start on Thursday and was knocked around for five runs in four innings. … Big night for former Mississippi Braves with Atlanta on Thursday. Mike Minor delivered a much-needed quality start, Jason Heyward hit two monster home runs and Andrelton Simmons made a highlight-reel defensive play at shortstop as the Braves, now second in the National League East, completed a sweep at Miami. … Simmons was one of seven M-Braves voted to the Southern League South All-Star team. He won’t be participating, obviously. Though the M-Braves have the worst record in the SL South, they do have some talent. … Hard to believe, but former Jackson Mets star Gregg Jefferies had a son, Jake, picked in the MLB draft. Has it really been that long since Jefferies, the young phenom, played at Smith-Wills Stadium? In 1987, he put up one of the greatest seasons ever by a Jackson area Double-A player (JADAP): .367, 20 homers, 101 RBIs, 26 steals.

Ole Miss alumnus Alex Presley celebrated his return to the big leagues from Triple-A with a home run, a triple and two runs as Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati 8-4 on Tuesday and moved into second place in the National League Central. Presley, back in the leadoff spot that he was expected to hold down this season, lifted his average to .228. Ex-Rebels star Zack Cozart was 3-for-5 for the Reds in that game. Itawamba Community College’s Desmond Jennings also celebrated a return, coming off the disabled list to go 1-for-4 for Tampa Bay. Alas, the Rays lost to the New York Yankees 7-0 and dropped into a first-place tie with Baltimore in the American League East. Southwest Mississippi CC product Jarrod Dyson went 1-for-3 in Kansas City’s 1-0 win over Minnesota. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier had two hits for the Twins. Ex-Mississippi Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons had three hits and three RBIs (his first in The Show) as Atlanta whipped Miami 11-0. And former Jackson Generals standout Bobby Abreu, batting .329 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, had a pinch hit and scored a run as the Dodgers rallied for two runs in the eighth inning to beat Philadelphia and former Meridian CC ace Cliff Lee (now 0-3) by a 2-1 count.

The Atlanta Braves may finally have acknowledged that Joey Terdoslavich was out of his element in Triple-A. The infield prospect was sent to the Double-A Mississippi Braves today, shortly after Atlanta acquired veteran infielder Ruben Gotay from Toronto and assigned him to Gwinnett. Terdoslavich, 23, who jumped over Double-A to start this season, was batting .181 with four homers and 20 RBIs at Gwinnett. He also had 22 errors at third base. Playing mostly first base last year at Class A Lynchburg, Terdoslavich batted .286 with 52 doubles, 20 homers and 82 RBIs. He was named the Braves’ minor league player of the year and climbed the prospect charts. It’ll be interesting to see where Terdoslavich plays with the M-Braves, who have a solid third baseman in Joe Leonard and a veteran slugger at first in Ian Gac. The M-Braves are at Huntsville tonight.

Jonathan Papelbon took the loss for Philadelphia on Monday night and then went off on the home-plate umpire postgame. The former Mississippi State standout was upset about a potential third strike that wasn’t called in the ninth inning of a tie game; the batter, Los Angeles’ Dee Gordon, then tripled and scored the go-ahead run on another hit. The umpire in question was a fill-in up from Triple-A, and Papelbon said he should be sent back down for not doing a good job. “There’s no room for that up here,” Papelbon told mlb.com. Papelbon is 15-for-15 in save opportunities with his new club but hasn’t pitched as well in non-save situations. After the 4-3 loss to L.A., his record is 0-2 and his ERA 2.31. P.S. Ole Miss product Seth Smith had a “Wendy’s Slam” for Oakland: a triple, a double and two singles. His four hits led the A’s 15-hit attack in a 12-1 win over Texas. Smith is hitting just .238 for his new club. … Minus their best player — Andrelton Simmons, now with Atlanta — the wheels are coming off for the Mississippi Braves. After a fifth straight loss on Monday, they are 24-34, worst record in the Southern League. Maybe they’re looking forward to wiping the slate clean for the second half on June 21. Maybe that’s it.

Mississippi State’s Chris Stratton was picked in the first round of the major league draft tonight, but he wasn’t the first from the state to be called. That honor belongs to D.J. Davis, an outfielder from Stone County High who was plucked by Toronto with the 17th overall pick. Stratton went to San Francisco three picks later. Davis was projected by some as a potential first-rounder, based on his speed and athleticism. He is a 6-foot, 170-pound left-handed hitter who reportedly needs some polish. Perhaps the Blue Jays see him as a better (if somewhat smaller) version of Fred Lewis, another Stone product who played for them in 2010 and is now in the New York Mets’ minor league system. P.S. Overheard on MLB Network’s broadcast of today’s St. Louis-New York Mets game: Ex-Cardinals star Keith Hernandez isn’t bothered at all by the fact that Jackson native Chris Maloney, in his first season as the Cards’ first-base coach, was given Hernandez’s old No. 37. Hernandez said he never had any real attachment to that number. He switched to No. 17 when he played for the Mets.

Mississippi State ace Chris Stratton is expected to hear his name called tonight in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. Otherwise, it’ll be all quiet on the Magnolia State front until the later rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday. Stratton, a right-hander from Tupelo, had a breakthrough junior season for the Bulldogs, helping them to an SEC championship and a regional appearance that ended Sunday in Tallahassee, Fla. Stratton went 11-2 with a 2.38 ERA and won the Ferriss Trophy as Mississippi’s top college player. Petal High’s Anthony Alford might have gotten some first-round consideration but has told MLB scouts he is firmly committed to playing football (and baseball) at Southern Miss. He’ll likely be picked but way down the line. It might be more interesting on this first day of the draft to look back at last year’s draft. The top pick from the state was infielder Connor Barron of Sumrall High. He went in the third round (No. 102 overall) to St. Louis but opted to play for USM, where he fared well until suffering a midseason shoulder injury. USM’s B.A. Vollmuth was called three selections after Barron and signed with Oakland. The third baseman is batting .252 with five homers and 38 RBIs in low Class A ball. Wheeler’s Brandon Woodruff, a fifth-round pick by Texas, enrolled at MSU and had some success as a freshman hurler. Senquez Golson from Pascagoula was drafted in the eighth round by Boston and received a large signing bonus offer. But he went to Ole Miss to play football and baseball. He contributed as a DB on the football field but did very little with the baseball team. UM’s Austin Wright (eighth round, Philadelphia) is 5-0 with a 3.61 ERA in low-A ball, possibly due for a promotion. MSU pitcher Devin Jones (ninth round, Baltimore) has a 2.51 ERA and two saves (plus an 0-3 record) in low-A ball. Curious is the case of last year’s Ferriss Trophy winner, Tyler Koelling of USM. The outfielder, a 19th-round selection by Minnesota, hit .228 with five homers in rookie ball last summer, then was released during the off-season by the Twins and is no longer playing.