Monthly Archives: August 2012

The road back to The Show may not be easy for Brian Dozier. The Southern Miss product, sent down to Triple-A Rochester by Minnesota early last week, slipped while making a play on Saturday night and left the game limping. He is 2-for-15 in his four games with the Red Wings. Dozier’s promotion to the Twins earlier this season generated a lot of excitement in the Twin Cities, but the highly rated shortstop prospect had begun to falter in recent weeks. When he was sent down, he was batting .234 with six home runs and 33 RBIs in 84 games. The bigger concern, however, seemed to be his defense. He had made 15 errors and many mental mistakes, as well. “(H)e needs to go relax a little bit and get his swing back to where it was,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “He was frustrated with it at times, carrying that swing out there to defense.” Dozier could be recalled when rosters expand in September, but there is no guarantee. P.S. Former Hillcrest Christian and Ole Miss standout Seth Smith is likely to return to the Oakland roster early this week. Smith was batting .237 with 11 homers when he went down with a hamstring injury about two weeks ago. … Taylorsville product Billy Hamilton swiped his 143rd base for Double-A Pensacola on Saturday night, leaving him two shy of tying Vince Coleman’s pro record of 145. The Blue Wahoos come to Trustmark Park in Pearl on Friday.

Roy Oswalt apparently had no trouble finding his passport. Now if he can just locate the stuff that has won 163 games in the big leagues, it’ll be all good. The former Holmes Community College standout will make a spot start today for Texas at Toronto because, according to reports, Ryan Dempster, the Rangers’ scheduled starter, can’t find or doesn’t have his passport. Oswalt was pulled from the Rangers’ rotation at the end of July and grudgingly moved to the bullpen. His last appearance, on Aug. 8, was a rocky one. Maybe the rest and the opportunity to start again will be rejuvenating. Oswalt has a 6.53 ERA. … Also on the bump today is Lance Lynn, the Ole Miss product who is seeking to get back on track with St. Louis. He is 13-5 with a 3.65 ERA, but his last couple of starts haven’t been so sharp. The Cardinals play host to Pittsburgh in Game 2 of a huge series. … Former Mississippi Braves star Todd Redmond will at long last make his major league debut for first-place Cincinnati in the second game of a twinbill against the Chicago Cubs. Twice this season Redmond was called up from the minors but sent down before making an appearance. … M-Braves alumnus Scott Diamond, who is 10-5 with a 2.97 ERA for a scuffling Minnesota club, is on the mound today, as is Atlanta’s Ben Sheets (4-2, 2.13), whose career revival began with the M-Braves earlier this summer.

A disappointing season turned even more so today for former Terry High star Deshun Dixon. The 20-year-old outfielder was suspended 50 games, effectively ending his season, for a second violation under Major League Baseball’s drug policy. The announcement from the commissioner’s office did not specify the banned substance but called it a “drug of abuse.” Dixon was a 10th-round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010 and was batting .193 at short-season Class A Hudson Valley this season. The suspension will carry over to 2013.

Kris Medlen turned in his first shutout for Atlanta on Thursday night, blanking San Diego in a 6-0 win. He is 3-0 and has allowed just three earned runs in 25 2/3 innings over four starts since moving from the bullpen to the rotation. This is remarkable. It’s also familiar. Mississippi Braves fans might recall the 2008 season, when Medlen moved from the bullpen to the rotation in early June. He was brilliant in that role, helping the M-Braves win the second half championship in the Southern League South and roll on to the league pennant. He went 6-5 as a starter, winning the second-half clincher. He had a 3.52 ERA, so with a little luck his record could’ve been much better. In the postseason, Medlen beat Birmingham with a dominating five-hit shutout in the division series clincher. M-Braves manager Phillip Wellman and pitching coach Derek Botelho said it was as good a performance as they’d seen all season. Medlen left the do-or-die Game 4 of the league championship series after seven innings with a lead, which the M-Braves blew before rallying to win 6-5 and square the series at 2-all. They won their only league title the next day. P.S. Cliff Lee took another hard-luck no decision on Thursday, giving the former Meridian Community College star a major league-leading 12. The Philadelphia left-hander hasn’t always been sharp this season, but his 2-7 record doesn’t seem to fit with his 3.83 ERA.

Minor leaguer Billy Hamilton’s run for the stolen base record — the Taylorsville product has 139, six shy of the pro mark — may have kindled some curiosity about Mississippi’s best bag burglars. Hall of Famer Cool Papa Bell, allegedly one of the fastest men ever to play the game, was a legendary base stealer in the Negro Leagues. But the Starkville-born Bell, unfortunately, never got a shot at the major leagues, where he might have set all kinds of records. Perhaps the fastest Mississippian to appear in the majors was Belzoni native Herb Washington, whose brief career is largely a curiosity. Washington was a world champion sprinter recruited by Charlie Finley as a pinch runner for the Oakland A’s of the mid-’70s. Lacking most baseball skills, Washington lasted just a season and a half, stealing a grand total of 31 bases. He never batted, never played a position. The career steals leader among Mississippians in the majors is Gerald “Gee” Walker, who debuted in the 1930s and wound up with 223 bags. He is followed by Ellis Burks (181), Frank White (178), Matt Lawton (165), Buddy Myer (156), Dave Parker (154), Don Blasingame (105), Hughie Critz (97), Larry Herndon (92) and Joey Gathright (81). Gathright is still active but playing in the minors. Jarrod Dyson, currently with Kansas City, has 41 and has the speed to move quickly up the chart if he gets more playing time. It’s worth noting that Marcus Lawton — Matt’s older brother — had a 100-plus stolen base season in the minors but didn’t hit enough to stick in the big leagues for long. It takes more than speed, as Hamilton, now in Double-A, will learn.

The hottest team in the big leagues right now is Tampa Bay, which won its seventh game in a row on Monday. Yes, the streak coincides with Evan Longoria’s return from the disabled list, and, yes, the Rays’ pitching has been great of late. But Desmond Jennings, the former Itawamba Community College two-sport star, is also heating up and doing the things a leadoff man should do. Jennings is batting .359 over his last 10 games, with two homers, four RBIs and 12 runs. He has scored 10 runs in his last six games, all Tampa Bay wins. For the year, he’s at .249 with nine homers, 34 RBIs and 55 runs in 91 games. Don’t be surprised if Tampa Bay runs down the New York Yankees in the American League East. P.S. Brent Lillibridge, the former Mississippi Braves shortstop, is getting regular time with Cleveland — his third team in 2012 — and is taking advantage. He homered Monday and now has two, his first two of the year, in his last three games. He is batting .313 in his last 10 games, raising his average to .205. Lillibridge can run and play virtually anywhere in the field. When he hits, he’s a valuable asset.

The Washington Nationals might just be a team of destiny. Davey Johnson, who steered the Jackson Mets to a Texas League pennant back in 1981, is almost certainly the National League manager of the year. The Nationals have the best record (71-44) in baseball. Atlanta has been feverishly chasing them since the All-Star break but still stands 4 1/2 games behind in the NL East as of today. The Nats had an eight-game win streak snapped on Sunday; the Braves also lost, in heart-breaking fashion to the New York Mets. That’s how it’s gone for Washington, whose fans are long overdue for some October baseball. The Nationals, who moved from Montreal in 2005, haven’t contended before this year. The Senators of 1961-71, who moved to Texas, had one winning season and never sniffed the postseason. The last Washington team to do so was the 1933 Senators, who lost the World Series in five games to the New York Giants. (That Senators franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961.) Buddy Myer, an Ellisville native who batted. .303 in his brilliant big league career, was the Senators’ second baseman in ’33. He was also on their pennant-winning team in 1925. Of course, the current Washington club also suits up a Mississippi native — Tyler Moore, the Northwest Rankin, Meridian Community College and Mississippi State product who is having a great rookie season (.295, six homers) as a part-time player.

Paul Maholm, who says he was a big fan of Tom Glavine as a kid in Greenwood, did the old left-hander proud on Friday, throwing a masterful shutout for Atlanta against the New York Mets. Maholm, a ground ball-inducing machine, yielded just three hits. He walked none. The complete game was exactly what the Braves and their stretched bullpen needed. The Mississippi State product is 10-7 overall and 1-1 with the Braves, and his ERA is down to 3.50. Not to be overlooked in the 4-0 win is Jason Heyward’s home run. It was his 19th of the season, a career high for the ex-Mississippi Braves star. He hit 18 in 2010, when he took the league by storm as a rookie. Then came last year’s crash, which left many wondering which was the real Jason Heyward. Well, he seems to have answered that question. His average (.269) could be better, perhaps if he struck out (111 K’s) a bit less, but he has become a scary hitter again. Plus, he’s got 15 stolen bases and is playing very well in right field. So … when will Andrelton Simmons return to the lineup? It might be September, according to reports. The former M-Braves shortstop, who was playing so well for the big league club, has been out since early July with a broken bone in his right hand. The Braves reportedly are targeting the end of August for a rehab assignment. P.S. Itawamba Community College product Desmond Jennings went 3-for-4 and scored three runs for Tampa Bay, which won its fourth in a row on Friday. Good sign? Jennings, often the Rays’ leadoff man, has 51 runs in 88 games. They need more from him as they battle for the playoffs. He’s got eight homers and 19 steals, but his batting average is just .243, on-base percentage .309.

Billy Hamilton fever is spreading. He got a mention on ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption the other day. Baseball America and milb.com have “Race for the Record” factoids on the front page of their web sites, tracking the Taylorsville native’s stolen bases. He has 131 at the moment. Vince Coleman’s pro record is 145. Hamilton’s team, the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos, has 24 games left. They have 14 scheduled before they arrive at Trustmark Park for an Aug. 24-28 series. Hamilton is averaging a stolen base a game (27 in 27) for Pensacola, so he could already have tied — or even broken — the record by then. But with a rest day here or a rainout there … it could be close. Noteworthy, also, is the fact that Hamilton is hitting a respectable .263 in Double-A, with a homer (inside the park) and 18 runs. P.S. Mississippi State alum and 2012 Ferriss Trophy winner Chris Stratton has a 5.40 ERA in limited (8 1/3) innings in rookie ball with San Francisco.

Roy Oswalt answered the call for the Texas Rangers today. He was rudely disconnected by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh inning. Oswalt, the ex-Holmes Community College star, made his first appearance since he embroiled himself in controversy on Sunday by declining to pitch a third inning in relief (see previous post). Today, he retired the only batter he faced in the fifth inning (a run scored on a passed ball), then got three straight in the sixth. He came out for the seventh but was shelled for four runs, including a game-tying three run bomb by Will Middlebrooks. Texas, which hit four homers (Amory’s Mitch Moreland blasted his 12th), recovered to win 10-9. But the Oswalt situation just gets more complicated. He faltered as a starter but has made it clear that he isn’t happy pitching in relief. And maybe he’s not fit for that role, as today’s outing would seem to indicate. His ERA is 6.53. Now what?