Monthly Archives: August 2018

23 Aug

random numbers

90 – Losses by Mississippi State alum Buck Showalter’s Baltimore Orioles, who fell to Toronto 6-0 on Wednesday. The O’s went 0-10 at Toronto this year and have 50 road losses all told.
4 – Wins, against no losses, for ex-State standout Dakota Hudson, who worked a scoreless inning in St. Louis’ win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Rookie Hudson has a 1.29 ERA in 12 relief appearances for the surging Cardinals.
5 – Earned runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings by ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn, who took his first loss with the New York Yankees against Miami. Lynn has allowed 10 runs in his last two starts for the Yanks after yielding one in his first three appearances.
15 – Home runs by Mitch Moreland, the former State standout whose latest bomb helped Boston beat Cleveland and snap a rare three-game losing streak.
17 – Homers by East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, who went deep for the Chicago White Sox and matched his season total from 2017.
20 – Homers for Ronald Acuna, the former Mississippi Braves star whose sixth leadoff blast of the season helped Atlanta beat Pittsburgh. Rookie Acuna has reached the 20-homer mark in just 290 at-bats.
3 – Wins by former M-Braves starters: Atlanta’s Julio Teheran beat Pittsburgh for his ninth W of the year, Texas’ Mike Minor snuffed Oakland for his 10th and Houston’s Charlie Morton notched his 13th as the Astros held off Seattle.
1 – Run scored by State product Adam Frazier, the only run Pittsburgh tallied against Atlanta, which held the Pirates to two runs total in sweeping a three-game series at PNC Park.
38 – Hits in his last 30 games by ex-M-Braves star Mallex Smith, who got two more knocks for Tampa Bay to raise his average to .304, seventh in the American League.

22 Aug

launch mode

The Cleveland Indians, running away with the American League Central, may not need the help that Bobby Bradley could provide down the stretch. But, if that need does arise, the left-handed slugger from Gulfport looks ready to launch. Bradley, 22, playing at Triple-A Columbus, hit his second home run in the past four games on Tuesday. He has 26 homers on the year, including the 24 he hit in Double-A. After a slow start with Columbus, the Indians’ No. 7 prospect is batting .273 over his last 10 games. … Apparently, there was something in the air on Tuesday. Mississippians all over the minors were in launch mode. DeSoto Central High product Austin Riley homered in both games of a doubleheader for Triple-A Gwinnett in Atlanta’s system. Riley has seven homers in Triple-A and 14 on the year, including six he hit for the Mississippi Braves. Former Mississippi State star Brent Rooker smacked a grand slam, his 22nd homer, for Double-A Chattanooga in the Minnesota organization. He is batting .263 with 77 RBIs in his second pro season. First-year pro Zack Shannon, the ex-Delta State slugger, belted his 12th homer at Missoula in Arizona’s system. He is batting .343 with 50 RBIs. (And to think there were questions about whether he’d even be drafted.) Worth noting: Itawamba Community College alum Tyreque Reed homered on Monday, his 14th at low Class A Hickory in Texas’ chain. Reed, batting .274 on the year, is hitting .324 over his last 10 games.

21 Aug

watch for it

Tweaks to his mechanics helped Chris Stratton post wins in his last two starts at Triple-A Sacramento. Tonight, the Mississippi State product from Tupelo gets to see if the changes pass muster in the big leagues. Stratton was recalled by the San Francisco Giants to start against the lowly New York Mets at CitiField. In his previous three big league appearances, Stratton allowed 17 runs in 10 innings. That precipitated a second trip to the minors this summer for the right-hander, who was in the Giants’ rotation to start the season. Though he hasn’t won a game in the majors since June 17, he still leads the San Francisco staff in victories. He is 8-7 with a 5.52 ERA in 20 games. The Giants are a sub-.500 club whose postseason hopes are hanging by a thread. A sweep of the current four-game series against the Mets is a virtual necessity – and a real possibility. The Mets, in their first year under Ole Miss alum Mickey Callaway, have been snake-bit, and not just by injuries. They handed the Giants the winning run on Monday when two fielders collided and a pop fly dropped. Shades of ’62.

21 Aug

there’s another one

They just keep coming. On Monday, it was Bryse Wilson, the latest fresh, young arm summoned from the minors by Atlanta. Like so many of the others, the 20-year-old Wilson impressed, throwing five shutout innings at Pittsburgh to win his debut, 1-0. All the recent hype about the pitching talent in the Braves’ farm system appears to be very real. Truth is truth, so to speak. Followers of the Double-A Mississippi Braves have been witness to their rise. Of the 33 pitchers Atlanta has employed this season, 18 passed through Pearl. Five M-Braves pitching alums have made their big league debut since July 31. Over the last two years the likes of Sean Newcomb, Max Fried, A.J. Minter, Luiz Gohara, Jesse Biddle, Mike Soroka, Touki Toussaint and now Wilson have made The Show and made a positive impression. Wilson, 3-5 with a 3.97 ERA for the M-Braves this season, certainly looked like he belonged from the get-go on Monday. He struck out the first two batters he faced, Mississippians Corey Dickerson and Adam Frazier. And there are more arms on the minor league runway: Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller, et al. It’s hard to keep track. Where will they all fit in? For the Braves, it’s a nice problem to have.

20 Aug

back on track

In his fifth year in pro ball, Justin Steele is still in the low minors, though he isn’t exactly spinning his wheels. George County High product Steele appeared to be having a breakout season at the advanced Class A level in 2017 when an arm injury sent him to the disabled list in early August. As it turned out, the left-hander needed Tommy John surgery. After a quicker-than-usual recovery, Steele seems to be humming along nicely back at Myrtle Beach, the Chicago Cubs’ high-A team. On Sunday, he went five innings, allowing two runs and fanning seven, to improve to 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in four starts. He had a 1.47 ERA in the Arizona League to begin his comeback. Steele was a dominant hurler at George County, posting a 0.98 ERA and tossing two no-hitters as a senior. The Cubs picked him in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, and he passed on a scholarship to Southern Miss to sign. Now 23, Steele is rated the Cubs’ No. 8 prospect (by MLB Pipeline) and twice has made their organizational postseason all-star team, including last year when he went 6-7, 2.92 at Myrtle Beach before the injury detour. Though he has yet to be tested in Double-A, he appears to be part of the Cubs’ future plans.

20 Aug

have a day

Adam Frazier earned a prominent place in the spotlight on Sunday, hitting an 11th-inning walk-off home run for Pittsburgh. But there’s a crowd of Mississippians deserving at least a slice of the attention. Mississippi State alum Frazier’s fifth homer of the year and second career game-winner gave the Pirates a 2-1 win against the Chicago Cubs. He said in an mlb.com story that it was “probably the most excited I’ve ever gotten going around the bases.” Frazier has been swinging a hot bat since returning from a trip to the minors; he is batting .386 in his last 15 games. Former Meridian Community College star Corey Dickerson, also with the Bucs, went 2-for-5 to boost his average to .308, best among Mississippi-connected players in the big leagues. Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier had a three-hit game and scored twice for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 12-1 rout of Seattle. Dozier is batting .250 with three homers, 12 RBIs and eight runs in 17 games for the Dodgers. Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton had a stat sheet-stuffing day for Cincinnati, banging out two triples, drawing a walk, driving in three runs and scoring one in an 11-4 victory vs. San Francisco. Ex-State standout Hunter Renfroe went 2-for-3 with his 14th home run and three RBIs for San Diego in a 4-3 loss to Arizona. East Central CC product Tim Anderson had only one hit but it left the park for his 16th homer, helping the Chicago White Sox beat Kansas City 7-6. And down on the farm, Meridian CC and McLaurin High product Davis Bradshaw produced a 5-for-5 game for short-season Class A Batavia in the Miami system. The speedy Bradshaw, an 11th-round pick in June, bunted for his fifth hit and stole two bases. He is 7-for-16 in four games at Batavia after batting .376 with 15 steals in the Gulf Coast League.

19 Aug

making a move?

In the midst of a little slump that has knocked him off the pace in the National League batting average race, Corey Dickerson may have gotten a second wind. The former Meridian Community College star from McComb went 3-for-3 for Pittsburgh on Saturday, kicking his average up to .307. The current leader in NL hitting is Freddie Freeman, the ex-Mississippi Braves star who’s at .320. Dickerson was around the top with a .318 mark in late July when he went on the 10-day disabled list with a minor injury. He has scuffled since coming back, but Pirates manager Clint Hurdle isn’t concerned about his leadoff batter. “I love the way he shows up every day,” the former Jackson Mets manager told mlb.com. “He always feels that today’s the day … .” While known more for his power (101 career home runs), the 29-year-old Dickerson is a .284 career hitter; his best season was a .312 with Colorado in 2014. If he gets it going again down the stretch this year, he could join Buddy Myer (1935), Harry Walker (1947) and Dave Parker (1977 and ’78) as the only Mississippi-born players to win a batting title. … The biggest hit by a Pirate on Saturday was delivered by ex-Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier, whose RBI single in the second inning against the Chicago Cubs ended a 24-inning scoreless streak for Pittsburgh. The Pirates (62-62) went on to win 3-1 to snap a five-game losing skid that has knocked them off the pace in the NL playoff race.

18 Aug

the full spectrum

Ah, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Mississippians experienced both on Friday — and something in between, as well — in the wide world of big league baseball. Start with the agony. In the big Houston-Oakland showdown, former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College standout Tony Sipp, an Astros reliever, surrendered a walk-off home run to Matt Olson that gave the A’s a 4-3 win in 10 innings and cut Houston’s lead to 1 game in the American League West. Sipp has been very good this season. His ERA entering Friday’s game was 1.50. He hadn’t allowed a run since June 24. He hadn’t allowed a home run all season. So, yeah, that one hurt. On to the thrill: Mitch Moreland, the Mississippi State product, is also having a helluva year — and so is his team, the Boston Red Sox, who have the best record in the game. They trailed early on Friday against Tampa Bay in Fenway Park but rallied, going ahead to stay in the fifth inning on an RBI hit by Moreland, his 62nd RBI of the year. He scored a run in the seventh inning as the Red Sox, 87-36 and 43-15 at home, stormed to a 7-3 win. Meanwhile, at Yankee Stadium, ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn, who had been lights out in his first three appearances for New York, gave up four runs in the first inning against Toronto but his personal agony was erased by a thrilling Yankees rally. They won a rain-shortened affair 7-5, staying within shouting distance — if only barely — of the Red Sox in the AL East. Lynn now has a 2.61 ERA in four games, three starts, with the Yanks since arriving in a trade with Minnesota.

17 Aug

the a’s have it

If you didn’t become a fan of Billy Beane during his three seasons as an outfielder with the Jackson Mets, then surely “Moneyball” won you over. The longtime Oakland A’s executive is still trying to win that last game of the season, and he might have a team that can do it this year. As they say in the movie, What is happening in Oakland? From a ho-hum start – and on the heels of three straight losing seasons – the A’s have caught fire. They are on a 38-13 roll and have climbed to within 2 games of Houston, the defending World Series champion and leader of the American League West, heading into a rather large weekend series at Oakland Coliseum. These A’s aren’t a team of household names – Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, Sean Manaea, Matt Olson, et al. – but that could change by October. Beane is now the A’s vice president of baseball operations but still works like a GM. With his club surging into playoff contention in mid-July, he engineered several moves just before the trade deadline that might prove huge. The A’s added Jeurys Familia, Shawn Kelley, Mike Fiers and Fernando Rodney, greatly enhancing their pitching depth. “We just went through three years where we didn’t have that opportunity (to make the postseason),” GM David Forst told Yahoo Sports. “And you know Billy’s personality. As soon as he sees it, he’s going to jump on it.” The A’s still have one of the lowest payrolls in MLB. They might not be buried under “50 feet of crap” as they were in the “Moneyball” season of 2002, but they’re still an underdog in this fight. It just kinda feels right to pull for Billy Beane.

17 Aug

closing time

After two years as a closer extraordinaire for Southern Miss, Nick Sandlin moved to the rotation in 2018 to fill a team need. Shifted back to the bullpen in pro ball, he is showing that he hasn’t forgotten how to do the closer thing. The right-hander with the unconventional form registered his third save in his last three appearances on Thursday for Cleveland’s high Class A Lynchburg club. In six games all told in the Carolina League, Sandlin has a 1.69 ERA with eight strikeouts, two walks and two hits allowed in 5 1/3 innings. Picked in the second round – higher than most projections – by the Indians in June, Sandlin started his summer in rookie ball, moved quickly to the low-A level and then to Lynchburg on Aug. 1. He has a 1.45 ERA, 27 K’s and two walks overall in 18 2/3 innings. He is ranked 18th on Cleveland’s prospect chart by MLB Pipeline. Sandlin threw 102 innings for the Golden Eagles this season – going 10-0, 1.06 and winning a slew of awards, including the Ferriss Trophy – so it’s understandable why the Indians want to limit his innings. But they have to be thrilled with what they’ve seen.