Monthly Archives: February 2014

10 Feb

walking papers

Taiwan Easterling, Mississippi’s Mr. Baseball 2007, has been released by the Chicago Cubs, according to Baseball America’s minor league transactions report. The former Oak Grove star, who played baseball and football at Florida State, batted .216 in high-A ball in 2013 and hit just .253 with nine homers and 71 RBIs over three pro seasons as an outfielder. He signed with the Cubs as a 27th-round pick in 2011, passing up a final year of football eligibility at FSU. Easterling might get another shot, but he turns 25 on Feb. 24, which is old for a player who has never been out of A-ball.

09 Feb

california dreamin’

The opportunity is grand. Former Mississippi State standout Paul Maholm reportedly has signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, regarded by many as a favorite to win the World Series this season. Left-hander Maholm, 31 and coming off a 10-11, 4.41 ERA campaign with Atlanta, presumably will compete with Josh Beckett (and maybe others) for the No. 5 spot in the Dodgers’ rotation. LA is stacked at the top with Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dan Haren. Maholm’s deal was just one year for $1.5 million with possible bonuses. He’ll have to earn his spot and hold on to it, which he was unable to do with the Braves, but he could hardly have wished for a better place to land.

08 Feb

a major player

There is a spotlight on Millsaps College’s Keith Shumaker this season. The junior third baseman/pitcher from Brandon was the Southern Athletic Association player of the year in 2013 and was named a first-team preseason All-America this year by d3baseball.com. Shumaker, who also figures to be a prime contender for the 2014 Ferriss Trophy award, hit .376 with four homers, 52 RBIs and 63 runs AND went 6-2 with a 3.01 ERA on the mound. Obviously, he was a major cog in the Majors’ 38-14 campaign that ended in the NCAA Division III College World Series, the school’s first trip there. Well, if Shumaker is feeling any heat, it didn’t show in Millsaps’ opener on Friday. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run in a 4-1 win over Randolph-Macon at Huntingdon (Ala.) in Montgomery. The Majors have two more games slated in the Alabama event before their home opener on Tuesday against Belhaven.

07 Feb

party on

Delta State, which hasn’t played a game yet, is already in a celebratory mood. This season marks the 10th anniversary of the Statesmen’s NCAA Division II national championship campaign. Of course, DSU may have plenty of other things to celebrate. The Statesmen, who open Friday at Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach, Fla., are a consensus top 10 team in the D-II preseason polls. Coach Mike Kinnison (747 wins in 17 years) has five preseason All-Gulf South Conference players on his roster. That group includes preseason All-Americans Jordan Chovenac (.333, 64 runs, 20 stolen bases) and Michael Manley (9-0, 1.93 ERA). Also back are pitchers Ricky Winters (5-0, 3.93) and Taylor Stark (3-0, five saves) and second baseman Kasey Hinton (.331). DSU went 44-11-1 in 2013, won the GSC regular season title and made the NCAAs. This team appears capable of similar accomplishments, and that 10th anniversary buzz certainly won’t hurt. P.S. The state’s junior colleges also start this weekend, with defending MACJC champion East Central Community College opening Saturday against Pensacola JC in Decatur. The Warriors went 32-21 last year but lost star shortstop Tim Anderson to the MLB draft. Two Mississippi schools are ranked in the NJCAA Division II preseason Top 20: Northwest (31-18) at No. 14 and Northeast (30-18) at No. 20. Defending South Division champion Pearl River, 41-14 in 2013, didn’t make the poll. … The best player in the league might be East Mississippi sophomore outfielder LeDarious Clark, a former two-sport (baseball/football) star at Southeast Lauderdale High. Clark is rated the No. 40 juco draft prospect by Sporting News. Also on that chart is former Northwest Rankin outfielder Daniel Sweet, No. 27, now playing at Polk State JC in Florida.

04 Feb

it’s about that time

With training camps already springing to life in Florida and Arizona, it’s curious that free agent Paul Maholm has yet to be signed. The Mississippi State product from Greenwood, one of those crafty left-handers, was cut loose by Atlanta after a lackluster 2013 season: 10-11, 4.41 ERA. Maholm’s career numbers aren’t great — 76-95, 4.28 — but he pitched for some bad Pittsburgh teams early in his career. He broke in in 2005, so his arm has a few miles on it, but one would think he could still be an effective back-end-of-the-rotation pitcher. Perhaps his price tag is too high. Maybe teams are waiting to see what some of the other remaining free agent pitchers get. Surely Maholm will land somewhere in the next few days. … Roy Oswalt, the veteran right-hander from Weir and Holmes Community College, is also unsigned, though it seems likely he will retire after his poor 2013 campaign with Colorado.
P.S. Here’s an early look at Mississippians already slated for big league camps:
40-man roster members
Position players
Joey Butler (Pascagoula), St. Louis; Zack Cozart (Ole Miss), Cincinnati; Brian Dozier (Southern Miss), Minnesota; Corey Dickerson (Meridian CC), Colorado; Jarrod Dyson (Southwest CC), Kansas City; Billy Hamilton (Taylorsville), Cincinnati; Desmond Jennings (Itawamba CC), Tampa Bay; Tyler Moore (Mississippi State), Washington; Mitch Moreland (MSU), Texas; Alex Presley (Ole Miss), Minnesota; Seth Smith (Ole Miss), San Diego
Pitchers
Robert Carson (Hattiesburg), Los Angeles Angels; Louis Coleman (Schlater/Pillow Academy), Kansas City; T.J. House (Picayune High) Cleveland; Phillip Irwin (Ole Miss), Pittsburgh; Cliff Lee (Meridian CC), Philadelphia; Lance Lynn (Ole Miss), St. Louis; Jonathan Papelbon (MSU), Philadelphia; Drew Pomeranz (Ole Miss), Oakland; Donnie Veal (Jackson), Chicago White Sox
Non-roster invitees
Position players
Julio Borbon (Starkville), Baltimore; Chris Coghlan (Ole Miss), Chicago Cubs; Ed Easley (MSU), St. Louis; Eli Whiteside (Delta State), Chicago Cubs; Alex Yarbrough (Ole Miss), Los Angeles Angels
Pitcher
Tony Sipp (Gulf Coast CC), San Diego

03 Feb

worth watching

Alex Yarbrough, the former Ole Miss infielder, is a player worth keeping tabs on in the minors this season. Yarbrough, 22, a switch-hitting second baseman, is a consensus top 10 prospect in the Los Angeles Angels system and received a non-roster invitation to their big league camp. A fourth-round pick out of UM in 2012, he batted .313 with 11 homers, 80 RBIs, 77 runs and 14 steals at Class A Inland Empire in the California League in 2013. Yarbrough’s defense reportedly still needs work. He is expected to spend 2014 at Double-A Arkansas, where his manager will be Phillip Wellman, the former Mississippi Braves skipper.

01 Feb

sipp catches on

Tony Sipp, the former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star from Pascagoula, has signed a minor league contract with San Diego and will go to big league camp with the Padres later this month, according to a variety of reports. Sipp, a 30-year-old power left-hander, has a career 3.84 ERA, though he slipped last season to a 4.78 with Arizona. He would appear to have a good chance of making San Diego’s roster, which isn’t overrun with lefty relievers.

01 Feb

opening acts

And so it begins. Belhaven University got the college baseball season started on Friday with a 6-1 loss to LSU-Alexandria at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Blazers, anticipating a big year, didn’t look sharp, managing just four hits, committing three errors and getting an uneven start from Southern Miss transfer Boomer Scarborough (seven hits and four earned runs in five innings). The Blazers and Generals play a twinbill today. William Carey, ranked No. 24 in NAIA, was rained out Friday in its scheduled opener at Webber International in Florida. The Crusaders had a pair of games slated for today at Babson Park, Fla: Embry-Riddle and then Webber International again.
Other Magnolia State lid-lifters:
Blue Mountain, now in the Southern States Athletic Conference with BU and Carey, opens today at home against Union University.
Tougaloo starts Feb. 4 against Belhaven at Smith-Wills.
Millsaps plays Feb. 7 against Randolph-Macon in Huntingdon, Ala.
Delta State, ranked as high as sixth in NCAA Division II, opens Feb. 7 against Palm Beach Atlantic in Florida.
Mississippi College rolls out on Feb. 18 at Belhaven.
The NCAA Division I schools start on Feb. 14: Mississippi State, ranked as high as No. 2, hosts Hofstra; Southern Miss hosts Stony Brook; Ole Miss is at Stetson in Florida; Jackson State hosts Texas Southern; Alcorn State hosts Bradley; at Mississippi Valley State is at Dallas Baptist.