Monthly Archives: March 2015

On the day he was officially reassigned to minor league camp, Pascagoula’s Joey Butler hit a called-shot, game-tying, ninth-inning home run for Tampa Bay. Butler’s homer Monday against Baltimore was his second of the spring. He is batting .257 (after an 0-for-3 today) with six RBIs. Butler was a non-roster invitee to the Rays’ camp, and he surely made an impression. Expected to start the season in Triple-A, the right-handed hitting outfielder may yet get another big league opportunity. … Meanwhile, Rays outfielder Desmond Jennings, the ex-Itawamba Community College star who had a down year in 2014 that ended with an injury, has been in rare form this spring. He has 17 hits in 38 at-bats (.447). … For the second straight day, Billy Hamilton hit seventh in Cincinnati’s lineup. The Taylorsville High product, who batted leadoff and hit .250 last season, is struggling to hit his weight (160) this spring. … Paul Maholm had a 2.19 ERA in five appearances for Cincinnati, but the 34-year-old former Mississippi State standout wasn’t going to make the rotation and apparently didn’t want to go to the bullpen. Hence, his release on Monday. Another club might have need for a “crafty” left-hander with 77 career wins and a 4.30 ERA. … Ole Miss alum Chris Coghlan might be hearing footsteps. He is the Chicago Cubs’ starting left fielder, a job he won with a strong 2014. But reports are that mega-prospect Kris Bryant will see time in left field as well as third base in Triple-A this year. Some believe Bryant, who appears big-league ready as a hitter, might be better suited to left field when he returns to the Cubs, which will be soon. … Silento Sayles, the ex-Port Gibson High star who set the prep stolen base record with 103 in 2013, got an at-bat for Cleveland this spring. Unfortunately, Sayles didn’t get to flash his speed – he struck out. Sayles hit .262 with 16 bags in the rookie-level Arizona League in 2014. Other minor leaguers with Mississippi ties who got a brief look in big league camps include Bobby Bradley, Adam Frazier, Ti’Quan Forbes, D.J. Davis, Colin Bray, Angel Rosa and Travious Relaford.

Former Picayune High star T.J. House has earned a spot in the Cleveland Indians’ rotation, the team said Sunday. House, a left-hander, is 2-2 this spring with a 5.70 ERA. He made his big league debut in 2014, posting a 5-3, 3.35 ledger with some strong work down the stretch. The Indians’ pitching coach is former Ole Miss hurler Mickey Callaway, who was House’s coach in A-ball in 2011 when, as the story goes, he delivered a stern postseason lecture that turned House’s foundering career around. House, reportedly on the brink of being released, responded with a solid year in Double-A in 2012 and made the big leagues (though he didn’t get in a game) in 2013. … Mississippi State alumnus Kendall Graveman appears to have won a job in Oakland’s rotation with a brilliant spring. Graveman is 3-0 with a 0.42 ERA in five games. The former 2013 eighth-round pick went from A-ball to the majors with Toronto last season and was acquired by the A’s as part of the Josh Donaldson deal. “He’s pretty cerebral in the way he (pitches),” A’s manager Bob Melvin told mlb.com. … Drew Pomeranz out of Ole Miss, also vying for a rotation spot with Oakland, pitched today and blanked Colorado for six innings on two hits with six strikeouts. He has a 2.04 ERA this spring. P.S. Corey Dickerson, the ex-Meridian Community College standout from McComb, earned some high praise from a scout speaking to Sports Illustrated (March 30 issue): “He’s probably got as good a barrel-to-the-ball ability as any young hitter I’ve seen in a long time.” Dickerson is having a good spring (.273, a homer, six RBIs) for Colorado after hitting .312 with 24 home runs in 2014. … Ed Easley, the longtime minor leaguer and MSU product, was sent down to Triple-A Memphis by St. Louis, and ex-Bulldogs star Paul Maholm, a big league vet, has been released by Cincinnati.

On a special day at Twenty Field, Millsaps extended what is shaping up as a special season. The surging Majors rode the power of Isaac Glenn and the pitching of Keith Shumaker to a Southern Athletic Association sweep of Centre on Saturday. It was an emotional day: Former Majors star Tait Hendrix, who died in a motorcycle accident last summer, was honored with a big crowd in attendance. His No. 14 was formally retired. The Majors won Game 1 of the twinbill 11-2 as Glenn belted two home runs and then took Game 2 2-0 behind Shumaker’s four-hitter. Millsaps, winner of nine straight, is 18-4 and 9-2 in the SAA. Glenn, from Madison, is batting .449 with three homers and 36 RBIs. Shumaker, a preseason NCAA Division III All-America pick from Brandon, improved to 6-0 with a 1.37 ERA. He is also batting .390. The Majors are coming off a 23-19 2014 season that began with much higher hopes. They went to the D-III World Series in 2013, winning 38 games. Jim Page’s current club, led by a group of eight seniors, looks to have designs on another NCAA postseason run.

Brian Dozier signed a 4-year, $20 million contract extension today, then celebrated with a home run in his first at-bat of Minnesota’s Grapefruit League game. The former Southern Miss star belted his third homer off the spring (off former Mississippi Braves ace Todd Redmond of Toronto) and is now batting .448. … Former Hillcrest Christian and Ole Miss standout Seth Smith hit his first home run and stole his first base of the spring today for Seattle. … Milwaukee sent David Goforth to its Triple-A team on Monday, but you have to expect he’ll be in a Brewers uniform before too long. The Ole Miss product from Meridian pitched well in big league spring games, posting a 1.42 ERA, three saves and seven strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. In his first full season as a closer in 2014, right-hander Goforth registered 27 saves and a 3.76 ERA for Double-A Huntsville in the Southern League. Goforth, drafted in the seventh round in 2011, made the Brewers’ 40-man roster in the off-season. Milwaukee recently re-signed Francisco Rodriguez to be its closer this season, but if the 33-year old “K-Rod” falters, Goforth just might get his shot. … For what it’s worth, Billy Hamilton hasn’t hit this spring, nor has the former Taylorsville High star done much running. Hamilton is batting .160 in nine games for Cincinnati. He has stolen two bases and scored three runs. After his slump last year, are the Reds worried?

Ex-Ole Miss standout Lance Lynn, making just his second spring appearance today for St. Louis, worked four innings and yielded just one hit with three strikeouts against Boston. Lynn, who has won 48 games for the Cardinals over the last three seasons, had been nursing a left hip flexor strain. … Joey Butler, a non-roster invitee in Tampa Bay’s camp, has had a nice spring. The Pascagoula native is 7-for-24 with a home run and three RBIs — but he faces stiff competition for a big league outfield job. The Rays have six outfielders on their 40-man and five of them are still in camp. The right-handed hitting Butler, 29, is 4-for-17 in his brief MLB time with Texas and St. Louis. He finished 2014 playing in Japan. … Former Pillow Academy star Louis Coleman has fared well in his fight to make Kansas City’s bullpen. The right-hander has a 3.12 ERA in 8 2/3 innings this spring. He had a rough 2014, with a 5.56 ERA, but his career mark is 3.25. … Ole Miss alum Drew Pomeranz has been tabbed by Sports on Earth as the “breakout” left-handed starter of 2015. Pomeranz, vying for a spot in Oakland’s rotation, has a 2.00 ERA in nine innings this spring. He went 5-4, 2.35 last season, working both as a starter and in relief. … Mississippi State product Jacob Lindgren, in the New York Yankees’ camp as a non-roster reliever, has impressed: no runs and nine strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. … Jarrod Dyson, the former Southwest Mississippi Community College star, got his first stolen base today for Kansas City.

It’s not a bloodlust rivalry, but on the rare occasions when Mississippi State and Southern Miss get together, there is an unmistakable intensity among all concerned. The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles meet Tuesday night in the first game of the annual three-game college series at Trustmark Park in Pearl. First pitch is set for 6:30. A big crowd is likely. USM is 13-8-1, coming off a doubleheader split at Louisiana Tech on Friday. The resurgent Connor Barron leads the Golden Eagles at the plate with a .345 average; he has three home runs, 10 RBIs and eight steals. Matt Durst is at .341 with two homers and 16 RBIs, and Tim Lynch has four bombs to go with a .281 average. But most impressive about this USM club is its pitching, which has posted a staff ERA of 2.28. The USM arms will be tested by an MSU team (18-8 after dropping two of three at Kentucky over the weekend) that has a .414 on-base percentage, tops among SEC clubs. Jacob Robson has sparked the Bulldogs with a .436 average (.558 OBP), 29 runs and 15 steals. Cody Brown is hitting .324, Seth Heck .314 and Wes Rea .295 (.544 OBP) with two homers and 17 RBIs. State’s staff ERA is a respectable 3.71. You probably won’t see front-line pitchers in this mid-week game, but the stats suggest that both teams have more than a couple of quality arms. And make no mistake: There is incentive to win on both sides.

Today’s subject: Andy Reese. An injury curtailed Reese’s promising major league career in 1930 after just 331 games, but the Tupelo native left his mark on the game in other venues. He finished his playing career as the all-time hits leader in the minor league Southern Association and was voted the “most popular” Memphis Chicks player of all-time. Such was his stature in his hometown that a youth league field there bears his name, and in 1969 he was elected to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Reese, born in 1904, made the big leagues in 1927 with the New York Giants, managed by the legendary John McGraw. Reese was a contributor over the next four seasons on a club that included Hall of Famers Bill Terry, Travis Jackson and Mel Ott. Nicknamed “Handy Andy” for his versatility, Reese played every position but catcher and pitcher. He batted .281 with 14 homers, 111 RBIs and 166 runs. He developed a sore arm in 1930 and after that season was sold to a minor league team in California. Though he never got another big league opportunity, Reese played in the minors into the 1940s and also managed in the minors. He died in 1966.