Tag Archives: Meridian Community College

19 Aug

coming out party

Ke’Shun Collier, a 20th-round pick last month, played in his first pro game on Thursday, going 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI as the right fielder for the Arizona Complex League Cubs, Chicago’s rookie team. A Meridian Community College product from Mendenhall, the 5-foot-8 Collier is the latest of the 2022 draftees from the state to debut. Most of them are still in rookie ball, but a few have graduated to a higher level. Logan Tanner, a second-round pick out of Mississippi State, is 2-for-14 at Low-Class A Daytona in Cincinnati’s system. Southern Miss alum Tyler Stuart is at Low-A St. Lucie in the New York Mets’ chain; he yielded a run in 1 1/3 innings of work there on Thursday. Ex-USM standout Landon Harper allowed two runs in one inning in his Wednesday debut for Low-A Augusta in the Atlanta organization. Ole Miss alum Kevin Graham is 1-for-24 (with a home run) at Low-A Visalia in Arizona’s system. Emaarion Boyd, drafted by Philadelphia out of South Panola High, has had one of the best starts: 5-for-16 (.313) with three steals in the Florida Complex League. Ex-MSU star Brad Cumbest, a Colorado draftee, has had a cold start: 1-for-17 (with eight strikeouts) in the ACL. Former Ole Miss slugger Tim Elko has had the most interesting debut. He was hitless in his first three games for the White Sox’s ACL club but has belted three homers in his last three. He is 3-for-21 overall. Of note: MSU product Landon Sims, the first pick (34th overall) out of the state by Arizona, won’t debut until 2023 because of elbow surgery. Itawamba CC alum Kyle Crigger, drafted out of Louisiana Tech by Miami, has not allowed an earned run in five appearances for Low-A Jupiter. USM/Delta State product Hunter Riggins, a free agent signee by Atlanta, has a 3.00 ERA in two games in the FCL.

16 Aug

a homecoming

Davis Bradshaw’s 11th Double-A game may have a little different feel. A homecoming feel. The outfielder, in Pearl with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos to take on the Mississippi Braves, played high school ball just a few miles down the road at McLaurin. Now 24 and in his fourth pro season, Bradshaw isn’t on Miami’s list of Top 30 prospects. But make no mistake, the 6-foot-3, 175-pound lefty hitter can put bat on ball. Bradshaw hit a ridiculous .756 as a senior at McLaurin in 2017. He hit .442 in his one season at Meridian Community College. Drafted in the 11th round by Miami in 2018, he hit .354 in rookie ball that year. He was leading the High-Class A Midwest League in batting at .310 when he was promoted to Pensacola earlier this month. He is off to a modest start with the bat for the Blue Wahoos — .241 (7-for-29) — but has a .405 on-base average and nine runs in his 10 games. What Bradshaw lacks is power: two career homers. He hit eight bombs at MCC in 2018, so maybe that tool is in there somewhere. … The M-Braves and Blue Wahoos both stand 20-19, in a three-way tie for second in the Southern League South, 5 games back of Montgomery. Their six-game series runs tonight through Sunday at Trustmark Park.

03 Aug

around the horn

The San Diego Padres, as you might have heard, made some big moves the past couple days. They also made some smaller ones of local interest: Former Mississippi State star Brent Rooker, playing in Triple-A, was traded to Kansas City for catcher Cam Gallagher. Outfielder Rooker, acquired from Minnesota just before the season, got only seven at-bats with the Padres. He was hitting .272 with 19 homers at El Paso; he has been assigned to Triple-A Omaha by the Royals. The Padres also sent ex-Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz on a rehab assignment to the Arizona Complex League. The veteran lefty, 33, has been on the injured list since Aug. 11, 2021, with an arm injury that required surgery. He posted a 1.75 ERA in 27 games last season. … MSU product Adam Frazier continued to provide spark to Seattle’s offense, going 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs and an RBI on Tuesday in the Mariners’ 8-6 win vs. the New York Yankees. Frazier is batting .345 in his last 15 games for an M’s club battling for a playoff spot. … MSU alum Chris Stratton, looking sharp in a St. Louis uniform, worked a scoreless ninth inning in his Cardinals debut, a 6-0 win against the Chicago Cubs. Stratton was acquired from Pittsburgh on Monday. … Davis Bradshaw, the ex-Meridian Community College and McLaurin High standout, has been promoted to Double-A Pensacola in the Miami system. He was batting .310 in A-ball this season and is a .301 career hitter in four pro seasons. … Former Mississippi Braves star Joey Meneses (2016-17), called up by Washington to replace Josh Bell at first base, homered in his MLB debut on Tuesday as the Nationals beat the New York Mets 5-1 in Jacob deGrom’s return to The Show. Meneses, a Mexico native, is a .281 hitter in a long minor league career. … A footnote, duly recognized in MLB Network’s touching tribute, on the brilliant career of Vin Scully: Mississippi native Red Barber, a legendary radio broadcaster in his own right, gave Scully his start with the Dodgers in Brooklyn in 1950 and mentored him in the early days of his career. Scully became the Dodgers’ primary voice when Barber left the team after the 1953 season, and he kept the job through 2016. So sad that he is gone.

01 Aug

seize the day

Austin Riley wasn’t the only Mississippi product capping the month of July with a big day. In addition to DeSoto Central High alum Riley’s record-setting, walk-off double for Atlanta (see previous post), Corey Dickerson, Kirk McCarty, Hunter Renfroe, Kendall Graveman and Adam Frazier also earned some high-fives on Sunday. Dickerson, the ex-Meridian Community College star, produced the kind of game St. Louis was anticipating in his first season with the Cardinals: three hits, a homer (his fourth), two runs and three RBIs in a 5-0 win over Washington. Dickerson, who got off to a woeful start in 2022, is batting .226. McCarty, the rookie lefty out of Southern Miss, got his second MLB win, throwing 3 1/3 innings (one run) in middle relief for Cleveland in 5-3 victory against Tampa Bay. His first win came Tuesday at Boston. Mississippi State alum Renfroe, back in Boston with his new club Milwaukee, went 4-for-4 with his 19th homer in a 7-2 loss. He has six bombs in his last nine games and has raised his average to .254. Graveman, another ex-MSU standout, notched his 16th hold with a scoreless inning (the eighth) for the Chicago White Sox in a 4-1 defeat of Oakland. And MSU product Frazier, who had scuffled for many weeks with Seattle, went 2-for-4 with a run as the leadoff batter in a 3-2 loss to Houston. He is batting .353 in his last 19 games (.244 overall) for the resurgent Mariners. P.S. Former East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson continues to play for the White Sox while his three-game suspension from a Friday incident is under appeal. He is 3-for-8 in two wins. … The Los Angeles Dodgers have released ex-Ole Miss star Bobby Wahl, who had appeared in six games in Triple-A this year. He pitched in 17 big league games from 2017-20.

29 Jul

still grinding

In the category Best Performance by a Mississippian on a Team Going Nowhere, here’s a nominee: Nathaniel Lowe, Texas Rangers. Ex-Mississippi State standout Lowe hit a home run and a triple off Shohei Ohtani on Thursday night in the Rangers’ 2-0 win against the Los Angeles Angels. Lowe, hitting .370 over his last seven games, is batting .276 with 15 homers and 43 RBIs for the Rangers (44-54). A 13th-round draft pick out of State back in 2016, Lowe is now in his fourth MLB campaign, second with Texas. He has 97 hits this season and his next will be his 300th total in The Show. He is a .265 career hitter. A few other praiseworthy performances from Thursday down on the farm: Ex-Columbia High star Ti’Quan Forbes hit two doubles and a homer, driving in six runs, for Double-A Amarillo in the Arizona system. Forbes is at .247 with seven homers. … Ole Miss product Thomas Dillard went 2-for-3 with his eighth homer for Double-A Biloxi, which got a win over Montgomery but is in last place in the Southern League South. … Davis Bradshaw, a Meridian Community College product from McLaurin, went 1-for-3 for High-A Beloit in the Miami chain and raised his average to .322. He has 23 RBIs, 23 runs and eight steals in 67 games. He is a career .302 hitter in four pro seasons. … Southern Miss alum Reed Trimble, only recently activated from the injured list, extended his hit streak to four games and is 6-for-20 (.300) for Low-A Delmarva in the Baltimore system. He was the 65th overall pick in 2021. P.S. Tyler Stuart, the 6-foot-9 right-hander from USM, has signed with the New York Mets, per mlb.com. He was a sixth-round pick. … Detroit has announced that Spencer Turnbull, the Madison Central High alum, won’t pitch in the big leagues this season. The right-hander had Tommy John surgery last summer, shortly after throwing a no-hitter on May 18. He was 4-2, 2.88 ERA, in 2021 and is 11-25, 4.25, for his MLB career with the Tigers. … On this date in 1966, Clarksdale native Fred Valentine had a day: a franchise-record seven hits, including two doubles, and four RBIs in a doubleheader for the Washington Senators. He hit .247 over a seven-year career.

25 Jul

climbing the chart

With his third home run in three games, all wins by the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, Hunter Renfroe moved into the top 10 Sunday on the all-time homer list among Mississippi-born players in the big leagues. The Crystal Springs native and former Mississippi State star has 144 career homers, equaling the total of Hattiesburg native Charlie Hayes. Gulfport’s Bill Melton and Greenville’s Frank White are tied for eighth at 160. The all-time leader is Vicksburg native Ellis Burks with 352. Amory’s Mitch Moreland, not formally retired but not currently playing, stands sixth with 186. Renfroe has 16 homers this year, his seventh in MLB. His career-high is 33, which he reached with San Diego in 2019. The Padres, his original club, traded him to Tampa Bay, where he hit eight homers but batted just .156 in 42 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The Rays non-tendered Renfroe, and he signed with Boston, where he had a huge year with 31 homers, 33 doubles, 96 RBIs and a .259 average. Nevertheless, the Red Sox traded him to Milwaukee. P.S. Dakota Hudson threw five strong innings (five hits, one run, three walks, six strikeouts) in a rehab start for Triple-A Memphis in the St. Louis chain. The ex-MSU standout, who went on the injured list with a neck strain, is 6-6 with a 4.10 ERA for the Cardinals. … The signing deadline for 2022 draftees with college eligibility remaining is a week from today, and to this point three Mississippi products have signed, according to mlb.com. Mississippi State’s Landon Sims, the first player from the state to go at No. 34 overall, signed for a reported $2.4 million with Arizona. State’s Logan Tanner, the No. 55 pick, got $1.03M from Cincinnati. And 20th-round pick Ke’Shun Collier from Meridian Community College inked with the Chicago Cubs for $100,000.

19 Jul

it’s a wrap

Major League clubs found a deep pool of talent in Mississippi this year, selecting 23 players from the state over the 20 rounds of the three-day draft. The picks ranged from Mississippi State pitcher Landon Sims at No. 34 overall to Arizona to Meridian Community College outfielder Ke’Shun Collier at No. 593 in Round 20 to the Chicago Cubs. National champion Ole Miss saw seven players drafted, the first being pitcher Derek Diamond in the sixth round to Pittsburgh. Seven MSU players also were picked, including the first position player from the state to go off the board, catcher Logan Tanner at overall pick No. 55 in Round 2 to Cincinnati. Five Southern Miss players were drafted, all pitchers, topped by Dalton Rogers, third round to Boston. William Carey’s Chris Williams Jr., an outfielder, was picked in the 18th round by Detroit. South Panola outfielder Emaarion Boyd went in the 11th round to Philadelphia and Tishomingo County shortstop Spence Coffman in the 19th round to San Diego as the only high school players selected. No state SWAC school players were picked.

12 Jul

in other news

Yes, there were significant MLB games in places other than Atlanta on Monday night, and a couple of Mississippi products played significant roles in two of them. Corey Dickerson, the former Meridian Community College standout, gave St. Louis fans something to cheer about in a big win over Philadelphia. Ole Miss product Lance Lynn gave Chicago White Sox fans something to fret about in a tough loss at Cleveland. Dickerson, 0-for-6 in his first two games since coming off the injured list, went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs in the Cardinals’ 6-1 victory. St. Louis is 2 games back of first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central. Third-place Philly fell 8 back of the New York Mets, who beat Atlanta 4-1, in the NL East. Dickerson, a career .280 hitter, hasn’t produced as expected in his first year with the Cardinals. He is now batting .196 with three homers and 15 RBIs in 41 games. Lynn, the 35-year-old vet coming off knee surgery, yielded eight runs in four-plus innings in the White Sox’s 8-4 loss to the Guardians, who moved 1 1/2 games ahead of Chicago in second place in the AL Central. A Cy Young Award finalist in 2021, Lynn fell to 1-2 with a 6.97 ERA in his seven starts. Though he reportedly wasn’t hit hard, he gave up five runs in the first inning and was charged with three more in the fifth. He faced 25 batters and 13 of them reached. The ChiSox, the defending division champs, are a disappointing 41-44. The Guardians are 42-42, 4 back of Minnesota. The White Sox and Guardians play a doubleheader today, with ex-Mississippi State standout Konnor Pilkington (1-1, 4.08) slated to start Game 2 for Cleveland. Southern Miss alum Nick Sandlin (3.32 ERA) figures to see duty out of the Guardians’ bullpen. P.S. Kudos to DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley, whose 24th homer was the lone run the Braves produced against Max Scherzer and the Mets, and to USM’s Tanner Hall, who threw four shutout innings with seven strikeouts in Team USA’s 2-0 win over Cuba in a tournament in The Netherlands.

10 Jul

third time’s a …?

Finally, after call-up No. 3, Brent Rooker got in a game for San Diego. Former Mississippi State star Rooker made his Padres debut Saturday night but ran into a nasty Carlos Rodon of San Francisco and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in a 3-1 loss. Rooker, acquired by the Padres from Minnesota just before the season started, has spent most of 2022 at Triple-A El Paso, batting .279 with 14 homers and 43 RBIs. The 27-year-old outfielder was recalled by the Padres on June 3 and again on June 11 but didn’t get an at-bat either time before going back down. The Padres brought him up again on Friday. The 35th overall draft pick in 2017 by the Twins, after winning the SEC Triple Crown at State, Rooker has always hit well in the minors: .265, 88 homers in 370 games. But in 66 MLB games, he’s at .209 with 10 homers. P.S. Meridian Community College alumnus Corey Dickerson returned to the St. Louis lineup for the first time in over a month (calf injury) but went 0-for-3 with a walk in the Cardinals’ 1-0 loss to Philadelphia. Dickerson, a free agent acquisition in the off-season, is batting .188. The Cardinals wasted a great start by ex-State standout Dakota Hudson, who threw six innings allowing just two hits. … MSU product Brandon Woodruff also threw six shutout innings for Milwaukee, ran into some trouble in the seventh, left the game and watched Brad Boxberger give up a game-deciding two-run homer to Pittsburgh’s Ben Gamel. Woodruff was charged with three runs in the 4-3 defeat. … Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Austin Riley, bidding to be picked as an All-Star reserve, went 2-for-3 with his 22nd home run in Atlanta’s 4-3 win over Washington. Riley is batting .278 with 53 RBIs. The reserves and pitchers for the July 19 All-Star Game will be announced tonight on MLB Network.

23 Jun

down on farm

It was a quiet day for the few but proud Mississippians active in the majors. In Triple-A, however, it was a different story on Wednesday: Former Southern Miss standout Chuckie Robinson went 3-for-4 with his first Triple-A home run in Louisville’s loss to Iowa. Robinson, a good defensive catcher, started this season with Cincinnati’s International League club, was sent down to Double-A Chattanooga, then bumped back up a few days ago after hitting .276 in 31 games with the Lookouts. Delta State product Trent Giambrone, who had a cup of coffee in the big leagues in 2021, went 0-for-5 for Iowa, the Chicago Cubs affiliate. … Gulfport’s Bobby Bradley, who started this season in Cleveland, hit a pair of homers — doubling his season total — for the Indians’ Columbus club, which lost an IL game to Omaha. Bradley is batting .202. Ex-Mississippi State star Konnor Pilkington, who also has some time in The Show this year, gave up five runs in four innings as the Clippers’ starter but did not take the loss. USM product Nick Sandlin has joined the Clippers’ bullpen, sent down Monday by the Indians despite a 2.98 ERA, but didn’t work Wednesday. … Former MSU standout and erstwhile big leaguer Brent Rooker went 2-for-4, boosting his average to .281, for El Paso, San Diego’s Pacific Coast League team. … Former Ole Miss standout Mike Mayers, recently demoted by the Los Angeles Angels, made a rare start, yielding one run in four innings for Salt Lake in a PCL loss to Reno. Mayers has a 10.57 ERA in three Triple-A games. … MSU alum Jacob Robson, who made his MLB debut last year, went 0-for-2 but swiped his 12th base and scored a run for Toledo, Detroit’s IL affiliate, in a win against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Robson is batting .206. … Ex-Bulldogs star Jordan Westburg was 1-for-5 with an RBI for Norfolk and is batting .365 since his recent promotion to Triple-A by Baltimore. Ole Miss product Aaron Barrett notched a hold for Philadelphia’s Lehigh Valley club, which lost that game to the Tides in the ninth inning. … Rehabbing big leaguer Corey Dickerson, the former Meridian Community College standout, went 0-for-2 in his third game with St. Louis’ Memphis affiliate. Dickerson, 3-for-7 with the Redbirds, appears close to a return to the Cardinals’ roster.