Monthly Archives: July 2015

19 Jul

going coastal

First impression of MGM Park in Biloxi: intimate. Listed seating capacity of the new ballpark is 5,000, and each one is relatively close to the field. (On the downside, the park offers very little cover from the rain or sun.) The power alley distances are marked as 350 feet, which would seem to be a hitter’s dream. But on this particular night, when the air was heavy from a pregame storm, none of the 23 hits mustered by the Shuckers and visiting Chattanooga Lookouts came close to leaving the yard. The stadium backdrop is unique. The Beau Rivage towers above the center-field wall and dominates the view. MGM owns the Beau, and Shuckers ads and paraphernalia are everywhere in the Casino & Hotel. Construction is ongoing at the park, which is obvious. Lots of orange barrels, cones and tape. An announced crowd of 4,482 turned out for this Friday night game despite a 1-hour, 41-minute rain delay. (Yes, there were postgame fireworks.) The product they’re seeing on the field is a good one. The parent Milwaukee Brewers stacked the Double-A club with prospects, and the Shuckers won the first-half title in the SL South despite playing mostly road games. (MGM Park opened June 6.) They lost on this particular night, 6-5, but had the winning run on second base in the ninth. Shortstop Orlando Arcia, who’ll be in the big leagues soon, went 1-for-3 with two RBIs, and center fielder Michael Reed shined on defense, throwing out two runners. One of Chattanooga’s stars was former Ole Miss player Stuart Turner, who had three of the team’s 14 hits. In sum: Nice park, good game, fun time. P.S. Continuing on a Coastal theme, former Vancleave High standout Colin Bray is on a tear at Class A Kane County in the Arizona system. The switch-hitting outfielder, in his third pro season, is batting .296 with 15 doubles, 30 RBIs and 15 steals. He won Midwest League player of the week honors for July 6-12. And ex-George County High star Justin Steele, a fifth-round pick by the Chicago Cubs in 2014, is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in five starts at short-season Class A Eugene.

17 Jul

wild, wild life

File it under Crazy. The Mississippi Braves rallied from a 10-0 deficit with a 10-run inning, squandered two late leads and then won in walk-off fashion in the 10th inning Thursday night against Jacksonville at Trustmark Park. The final was 15-14 in a game that featured 33 hits and five errors, four by the visiting Suns. Steve Rodriguez, hitting .184 entering the game, knocked in the winner with his third hit. David Rohm, who had reached on an error to start the M-Braves 10th, scored the decisive run. Jacksonville KO’d M-Braves starter Andrew Barbosa – who threw seven shutout innings in his debut last week – in a six-run second inning en route to building a 10-0 lead heading to the bottom of the third. The offensively challenged M-Braves promptly erupted for 10 runs. The M-Braves took leads of 13-10 and 14-13 but couldn’t hold them. Rodriguez then came through in the 10th to end a 4-hour, 6-minute affair that can’t be classified as anything but crazy. Eric Garcia, filling in at shortstop for hot-hitting Emerson Landoni, had four hits, three RBIs and three runs for the M-Braves, now 11-9 in the second half of the Southern League season.

16 Jul

breaking away

The big league All-Star break, which continues through today, means different things to different players. Those who are slumping likely welcome the respite, while those on a roll are hoping not to lose their mojo. Seth Smith, the Ole Miss product from Jackson, falls into the latter category. He homered for Seattle in the last game before the break, giving him eight for the year. He is hitting .333 over his last 15 games to lift his average to .268. Former Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore had a big two-run double for Washington last Sunday and has seven RBIs in eight July games for the first-place Nationals. He would like to find his home run stroke, however; his last blast came on June 12. UM alum Drew Pomeranz, who has been rock solid since moving to the Oakland bullpen, had a 1.50 ERA over his last seven appearances heading into the break. The break might have been a good thing for Pascagoula native Joey Butler. So hot for Tampa Bay just a couple of weeks ago, he is batting .098 with one RBI over his last 15 games, dropping his average to .287. Ex-UM star Chris Coghlan’s consecutive games streak ended at 150 when he sat out on Sunday, getting a pre-break break. Coghlan hasn’t produced much of late for the Chicago Cubs, with just one RBI and four runs in 11 games in July. Tony Sipp, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College product, has a 5.06 ERA – two runs higher than his season number — over his last seven games for Houston, which fell out of first place in the American League West on the last day before the break.

15 Jul

step right up

The award-winning Emerson Landoni Show comes to Trustmark Park in Pearl tonight. The Mississippi Braves shortstop put up back-to-back five-hit performances at Chattanooga on Sunday and Monday. Prior to Monday’s game, Landoni was named the Southern League player of the week for July 6-12. He batted .566 in that span, getting 14 hits in a six-game streak and picking up 10 runs and five RBIs. For the year, the 26-year-old Venezuela native, getting a fourth look in Double-A, is batting .281 with 11 doubles, three triples, 22 RBIs and 30 runs. The M-Braves, back at the TeePee to start a five-game series against Jacksonville, have been searching for some offense. They are 10-8, hanging a game back of first-place Pensacola in the SL South. The M-Braves won four of five games at Chattanooga, a nice run that included strong pitching performances from Andrew Barbosa and Greg Ross as well as Landoni’s heroics. Landoni is now the team’s leading hitter, just ahead of Matt Lipka (.279). P.S. Former M-Braves ace Tyrell Jenkins, who threw seven shutout innings in his Triple-A debut on July 9, is in line to start for Gwinnett on Thursday or Friday at Syracuse. Right-hander Jenkins, one of Atlanta’s top prospects, was 5-5 with a 3.00 ERA for the M-Braves this season before his promotion. … On the subject of the Braves and pitchers, here’s an interesting fact: There are 17 former M-Braves pitchers on the 40-man rosters of other major league clubs, including Craig Kimbrel, Charlie Morton, Blaine Boyer, J.J. Hoover, Chasen Shreve and J.R. Graham. Two others, Zeke Spruill and Todd Redmond, who have pitched in the big leagues this year, recently were assigned to the minors, and yet another, Paul Clemens, was among Philadelphia’s last cuts in the spring. The Braves also have traded in recent weeks John Cornely, Ian Thomas and Juan Jaime, each of whom pitched for Atlanta this season.

15 Jul

exclusive company

The first list is fairly long and includes the likes of Johnny Bench, David Ortiz, David Wright, Bo Jackson, former Atlanta Braves star Javy Lopez and ex-Jackson Mets standout Lee Mazzilli. The second is shorter but no less impressive: Kirby Puckett and Harmon Killebrew. Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier put his name on both lists on Tuesday night when he homered, in his first at-bat, in the All-Star Game. Dozier went deep against Pittsburgh closer Mark Melancon in the eighth inning, helping the American League take a 6-3 victory at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark. It was the 16th time a player has homered in his first career All-Star at-bat; the last player to do it was J.D. Drew in 2008. Dozier became the third Minnesota player to homer in the Midsummer Classic, joining Hall of Famers Puckett and Killebrew. “I might say I don’t deserve to be in that company, I can tell you that,” the ever humble Dozier told mlb.com. For the record, Dozier has 19 homers this season and 42 over the last two. … The idea of having the All-Star Game “count” seemed silly to a lot of people when it first started in 2003. But that’s changing. Listening to Ned Yost, the former Jackson Mets catcher who managed the AL squad, talk about preparing his lineup and game plan, you get a different perspective. He took this thing very seriously. “We tried to punch holes in (the game plan) every which way we could, and we worked it to perfection,” he told mlb.com after the game. Yost’s Kansas City team had home-field advantage in the 2014 World Series, and even though the Royals lost in seven games to San Francisco, he wanted to have that edge again should his team, which currently has the best record in the AL, get there this year. A change is still needed, however. If the game is going to count, fans should not be voting in the starting lineups.

14 Jul

field notes

Hot-hitting Adam Frazier, the former Mississippi State standout, is on the West Division roster for Wednesday night’s Eastern League All-Star Game at Portland, Maine. Frazier, playing shortstop for Pittsburgh’s Double-A Altoona club, is batting .373 with 16 RBIs and 33 runs in 51 games. He got a delayed start due to a spring injury this season, his third in pro ball. … Southern Miss’ Dylan Burdeaux was named the New England Collegiate Baseball League player of the week on Monday. Burdeaux, hitting .303 with three homers and 16 RBIs for the summer, will be joined by Golden Eagles and Ocean State teammates Tim Lynch and Chuckie Robinson in this Sunday’s NECBL All-Star Game at Sanford, Maine. … Matt Tracy, the former Ole Miss left-hander who was in the big leagues for one day in April, is back in Double-A and trying to find his form. Tracy, in the New York Yankees’ system, has a 2.89 ERA in four games at Trenton, including a quality start (one run in six innings) on Saturday. He was scuffling at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with a 5.79 in 12 appearances over two stints there. He has a career 3.95 ERA working mostly as a starter. Tracy got a call-up from the Yankees on April 11, when they needed an extra arm. He pitched two innings against Boston at Yankee Stadium, allowing two hits, two walks and three runs (all unearned) in an 8-4 loss. … Melvin Rodriguez, the SWAC player of the year at Jackson State, is just 1-for-12 in his pro debut with Washington’s Auburn team in the New York-Penn League. Rodriguez batted .422 for the Tigers in 2015 with seven homers and 65 RBIs. P.S. Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Kade Scivicque already has earned a promotion from the Detroit Tigers. The fourth-round pick from LSU, who was hitting .406 at Connecticut in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League, has been bumped to West Michigan in the Class A Midwest League.

14 Jul

warming up

Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s draft, is starting to show the power that enticed the Atlanta Braves to take him 41st overall. The former DeSoto Central High star belted his third home run in four games on Monday in the Gulf Coast League. After a slow start to his pro career – hitless in his first five games – Riley has seven knocks in his last 14 at-bats, boosting his average to .250. He has eight RBIs. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Riley, playing third base for the GCL Braves, smacked 11 home runs and 14 doubles as a senior at DeSoto, leading the Jaguars to the MHSAA Class 6A championship.

13 Jul

cotton pickin’

With about two weeks left in the season, the Tippah Tribe has emerged as the best team in the Cotton States League. The Tribe is 12-3 with five straight wins in the New Albany-based college summer league. Luke Stanley, a Delta State alum, went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a steal to spark the Tribe to a 6-5 win over Tallahatchie on Sunday. Tallahatchie, 9-7 and tops in the Delta Division, gets another crack at the Deep South Division-leading Tribe on Tuesday. The Tribe’s Jerry Tatum has a 0.86 ERA and two saves over 21 innings. The Rascals’ Zach Phillips leads the CSBL in homers (four) and RBIs (20), and Payton Cain is 4-1. In other games on Sunday: Tyler Dowdy and Drew Carter combined on a one-hitter to lead Hill Country past Tupelo 1-0. Dowdy, a Mississippi Delta Community College product, earned his third win, Carter – an Itawamba CC alum — the save. Jordan Lambert, batting .524, scored the game’s only run. And Jon Marc Girardeau and Zachary Quillian combined for six hits, six RBIs and four runs to pace Golden Triangle over North Delta 13-1. Matthew Mills notched his fourth win for the Jets, who are 9-8 in the Delta Division.

13 Jul

star gazing

Mississippi native Dave Parker won the very first MLB Home Run Derby, held in 1985 at the Metrodome in Minnesota in conjunction with the All-Star Game. Parker was with Cincinnati at the time and in the 13th of his 19 big league seasons, during which he belted 339 home runs, second all-time to Vicksburg’s Ellis Burks (352) among Mississippi natives. In the ’85 derby, Parker hit six bombs in his two, five-out “innings,” beating a field that included Eddie Murray, Jim Rice and Dale Murphy. The revamped (yet again) derby is slated for tonight at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. … Brian Dozier is the first Mississippi native to make the All-Star Game since Roy Oswalt was picked for the National League squad in 2007. Dozier, who was born in Tupelo and went to Itawamba AHS in Fulton before starring at Southern Miss, is in Cincinnati as an injury replacement pick, but the Minnesota second baseman certainly is having an All-Star-worthy season. He has 19 homers, 50 RBIs and 67 runs for the second-best team in the American League. Oswalt, from Weir, made three straight Midsummer Classics for Houston starting in 2005. … Ex-Mississippi State star Jonathan Papelbon, who has made six All-Star Games, was the winning pitcher in the 2009 game at St. Louis. Then with Boston, Papelbon pitched a clean seventh inning with the score tied 3-3. Adam Jones’ sac fly in the eighth put the AL stars ahead, and they won 4-3. Papelbon is now with Philadelphia and on the NL roster. … The most memorable of the four previous All-Star Games to be held in Cincinnati would have to be the 1970 contest, which ended when Reds star Pete Rose crushed Ray Fosse at home plate with two outs in the 12th inning and scored the winning run for the National League. Yazoo City native Jerry Moses was on the AL team but didn’t play in his only trip to the Midsummer Classic. However, had Rose been out at the plate – the throw actually beat him, but Fosse couldn’t hold the ball after the collision — and the game extended, Moses likely would have replaced the injured Fosse at catcher. The AL’s only other catcher was Bill Freehan, who had started and departed the game. Moses hit .263 with six homers for Boston in 1970, the only season of his nine in MLB in which he got more than 200 at-bats. The Red Sox were one of seven teams Moses played for.

12 Jul

whatever happened to …

Travious Relaford, a former juco All-America shortstop at Hinds Community College, is back on the field at Class A Augusta, where he is batting .272 with 24 RBIs and 24 runs in 48 games. Relaford went 3-for-6 with an RBI and a steal in a doubleheader on July 7, his first game action after a month on the disabled list. It’s hard to get a read on how Relaford stands in the San Francisco Giants’ grand scheme. Drafted in the 44th round in 2011, he didn’t start his pro career until 2012. He got a look in Double-A in 2013 but hit only .188 and found himself on a short-season Class A team in 2014. He batted .283 with three homers and 28 RBIs for Salem-Keizer and made the Northwest League All-Star Game. He appeared in a couple of major league spring games this year, then was assigned to the low Class A South Atlantic League. He isn’t on any of the lists of the Giants’ top prospects, but he is only 23 and he appears to be progressing. P.S. Sixteen years after the Jackson Generals last played at Smith-Wills Stadium, there are two alums of the old Houston Double-A affiliate still playing. Daryle Ward, at age 40, is in the independent Atlantic League, batting .253 with one homer for Southern Maryland (Jackson native Stan Cliburn’s club). Ward hit 90 MLB homers and has 189 others as a pro. Freddy Garcia, 38, is pitching in the Mexican League. The big right-hander, in his 21st pro season, has a 6.00 ERA in five games for Tabasco.