Monthly Archives: July 2012

It was a first for Brandon Hicks, the former Mississippi Braves shortstop, but Wednesday’s walk-off win was just another day at the office for the Oakland A’s. The A’s, who have climbed to 47-44 (same as Baltimore and better than Tampa Bay, Boston, the New York Mets and St. Louis), have nine walk-off wins this season, most in the majors. While this isn’t really a Moneyball operation anymore, former Jackson Mets star Billy Beane, the A’s dynamic GM, has pieced together another solid yet unheralded club in small-budget Oakland. Recent additions such as Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Brandon Moss and Seth Smith (the Ole Miss alum) have given the lineup spark. Hicks, a waiver claim from Atlanta in the spring, has seven big league hits. He’ll always remember the seventh, which came Wednesday at O.Co Coliseum. It was a tape-measure homer, his first in The Show, and it took down Texas, the American League West leader. Hicks has some power; he hit 10 homers in Pearl in 2009 and has 21 in Triple-A the last two seasons. He’s not a bad infielder, either. He can make contributions in Oakland. The A’s start a series tonight against the visiting New York Yankees (and former Jackson Generals ace Freddy Garcia). Suddenly, this is a series worth watching. Who’da thought it?

Poor Todd Redmond. Cincinnati sent the former Mississippi Braves right-hander back to Triple-A today, just a day after bringing him up. In the minors since 2005, with good numbers down the line, Redmond still hasn’t pitched in a big league game.

So far, Texas has to be happy with what it has gotten from midseason addition Roy Oswalt. The former Holmes Community College standout is 3-1 in his five starts, despite a 5.22 ERA. (This just in: The Rangers score a lot.) Oswalt beat Oakland at O.Co Coliseum on Tuesday night, allowing just three hits and one run in 6 1/3 innings. “I’m getting there,” he told mlb.com. The A’s Josh Reddick begged to differ. “I don’t feel he was very good,” said Reddick, who homered for the A’s only run in their 6-1 loss. Stay tuned. … Meanwhile, Meridian Community College alum Cliff Lee, who is 1-6 despite a 3.92 ERA, goes to the mound for Philadelphia today hoping for some better luck. The struggling Phillies have suddenly won four in a row, the last two against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with ex-Mississippi State star Jonathan Papelbon saving both. (He has 21 now.) P.S. With catcher Hector Sanchez having suffered a knee sprain on Tuesday, wonder if San Francisco is considering bringing back Delta State product Eli Whiteside to back up Buster Posey for a few days. Whiteside is hitting .241 with a homer and 15 RBIs at Triple-A Fresno. … Former Ole Miss standout Alex Presley has had a hit in both games he’s played in since coming off the concussion DL for Pittsburgh. … Former Mississippi Braves ace Todd Redmond is back in the big leagues with Cincinnati, which got him in the Paul Janish trade with Atlanta. Redmond, a longtime minor leaguer, never got in a game when the Braves called him up earlier this summer. … Belhaven made a nice pickup Tuesday when it added transfer Zach Polzin. The former Northwest Rankin and Hinds CC standout has big-time power.

Billy Hamilton’s adjustment to Double-A ball has not been too taxing. The former Taylorsville High star has four hits, including a triple and a homer, and five steals in six attempts over five games for Cincinnati’s Pensacola club. He has 109 bags on the season. … Ole Miss product Justin Henry, itching for a call-up, is hitting .282 for Detroit’s Triple-A team. … Meridian Community College alumnus Corey Dickerson was promoted from high-A (.338, nine homers) to Double-A by Colorado and is hitting .282 with four homers in 30 games at the advanced level. … Former Picayune High star T.J. House, a left-handed starter, is 5-2 with a 4.07 ERA in Double-A for Cleveland. … Batesville’s David Renfroe is batting .277 with seven homers and 46 RBIs in low-A for Boston. … Among this year’s draft crop: D.J Davis from Stone County — the first Mississippian picked — is at .234 in 19 games in rookie ball for Toronto. Mississippi State alum Chris Stratton, the 2012 Ferriss Trophy winner, gave up a home run in two innings in his pro debut Sunday in short-season ball. And ex-Ole Miss star Alex Yarbrough was off to a .288 start for the L.A. Angels’ low-A club. … Ryan Bolden, the Madison Central product who was the top Mississippi pick in 2010, is batting .184 in his third tour of rookie ball in the Angels’ system. Bolden’s career average is .180.

The MLB season resumed at long last on Friday, but it seems like most of the Mississippians in The Show weren’t quite ready to clock back in. Paul Maholm got a win for Chicago — he is 7-6 for a 34-52 Cubs club — but you’d be hard-pressed to find another highlight. Desmond Jennings went 0-for-4, Zack Cozart 0-for-3 and Brian Dozier 0-for-2. Jarrod Dyson drew a couple of walks and stole a bag (No. 16) but also got picked off. Seth Smith and Tyler Moore didn’t play. Alex Presley, eligible to come off the 7-day (concussion) disabled list, wasn’t activated and instead will go on a rehab assignment. Cliff Lee took another loss; he’s 1-6. Louis Coleman threw two scoreless innings but wasn’t involved in the decision in Kansas City’s 14-inning loss to the White Sox. Jonathan Papelbon and Tony Sipp didn’t get called on, and Tim Dillard found himself back in the minors. But today’s a new day. P.S. Injury-stricken Atlanta apparently will not recall former Mississippi Braves standout Tyler Pastornicky to play shortstop; he’s been playing some second base at Triple-A Gwinnett, prepping for his possible role as a utility player. Geez. … Ben Sheets, who was with the M-Braves on a minor league contract, will count as the 67th M-Braves alumnus to advance to the majors when he starts for Atlanta on Sunday.

When the Triple-A stars come out tonight in Buffalo, be on the lookout for Mississippi native Joey Butler. The right-handed hitting outfielder, in his fifth year in the Texas Rangers’ organization, will suit up for the Pacific Coast League team. Butler is batting .277 with 14 homers and 47 RBIs in his second tour at Round Rock. Butler, 26, was born in Moss Point and played at Pascagoula High, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and the University of New Orleans before Texas drafted him in the 15th round in 2008. He’s got a career average of .289 with 53 home runs. He doesn’t show up on the Rangers’ prospect charts (due perhaps in part to his high strikeout totals), but he has a chance to make an impression tonight in a star-studded game that will be televised by MLB Network at 6 p.m.

The 2012 Mississippi Braves haven’t been in this position very often. They go for their fourth straight win tonight against Birmingham at Trustmark Park. Only twice before have the M-Braves won three straight this season; they didn’t get the fourth W in either of those opportunities. So tonight could be special, maybe even the start of something. Former major leaguer Ben Sheets will be on the bump, aiming to fare better than he did on July 4 when he took the loss (four runs in five innings) in his first outing in some two years. Odds are he will be sharper. The M-Braves haven’t exactly knocked the cover off the ball during the current three-game streak, scoring 11 runs. But they have done some clutch hitting. And, hey, Joe Leonard belted a home run on Saturday, the first at the TeePee by an M-Brave since June 13, when Leonard went yard against Jacksonville. The team has hit just seven homers at home all season. The M-Braves are 7-11 in the second half, not so far back yet that they can’t make a move in the Southern League South. A fourth straight win would be a big step in the right direction. P.S. Former Taylorsville star Billy Hamilton has been promoted to the Double-A Southern League by Cincinnati, but the Reds’ Pensacola club doesn’t come to Pearl until Aug. 24.

Let’s hope Billy Hamilton gets on base. The Taylorsville native, whose speed is generating much buzz in baseball these days, will play shortstop and bat leadoff today for the U.S. team in the All-Star Futures Game in Kansas City. (First pitch 4 p.m. on ESPN2.) Hamilton, currently rated the No. 27 prospect in the minors by Baseball America, already has 104 stolen bases for Class A Bakersfield in the Cincinnati system. Scouts rave about his ability to hit top-end speed in two steps. He has been timed at 3.4 seconds running home to first base from the left side (he’s a switch-hitter). He has a .323 batting average and a .413 on-base percentage, so there’s a good chance he will get on, even against some of the good arms he’ll face today. One guy who’s probably not hoping to see Hamilton reach base? Christian Bethancourt of the Mississippi Braves. He is the starting catcher for the World team.

Mississippi Braves outfielder Todd Cunningham entered this season, just his second full year in pro ball, rated by Baseball America as the No. 16 prospect in Atlanta’s system. The 23-year-old Alabama native has only improved his stock. The switch-hitting Cunningham, playing for an offensively challenged M-Braves club, is batting .308 with a .347 on-base percentage, 31 RBIs, 35 runs and 12 stolen bases in 72 games. He often hits leadoff and usually plays center field. BA rated him the best defensive outfielder in the organization in 2011. Atlanta center fielder and leadoff man Michael Bourn is a free agent after this season, so the Braves might be looking to fill that role as early as 2013. Cunningham may not be ready by then, but he certainly is worth keeping an eye on. Drafted in the second round out of Jacksonville State in 2010, Cunningham came with a reputation as a pure hitter. He won two summer league batting titles as a collegian and hit .359 his junior year at Jacksonville State. He batted .260 at low Class A Rome in 2010 and .257 at high-A Lynchburg last season, but the bat has awoken this summer at the more challenging Double-A level. That’s a good sign.

The most interesting facet of the baseball career of Chad Bradford, the new pitching coach at Hinds Community College, is not his submarine pitching style. Nor is it his featured status in the “Moneyball” book and movie. No, it would have to be his postseason success in the major leagues: a 0.39 ERA in 24 appearances over seven different seasons with five different teams. His job was to come in from the bullpen in tight spots and get ground balls, and he did it very well. The Byram native had a 3.26 career regular season ERA spread over parts of 12 years in the big leagues. He quietly retired after the 2009 season. The Byram native and former Southern Miss star is now returning to Hinds, which he helped reach the junior college World Series in 1994 and ’95.