Monthly Archives: August 2015

24 Aug

summer fun

Biloxi Shuckers fans were given quite a treat this summer. The first team Milwaukee sent to its new Double-A home won a first-half championship and was packed with prospects, including Orlando Arcia, who is still there and still raking. The Venezuelan shortstop, rated the Brewers’ No. 1 prospect and No. 13 overall by mlb.com, had his first career two-homer game on Sunday at MGM Park. He is batting .342 over his last 10 games and .302 for the year, with eight homers, 62 RBIs, 34 doubles and 23 steals. Arcia turned 21 earlier this month. Biloxi hitting coach Sandy Guerrero told milb.com that Arcia is not quite big league-ready, but “he’s not that far.” … Meanwhile, the Mississippi Braves have moved into first place in the second-half race in the Southern League South. Lucas Sims, one of Atlanta’s top pitching prospects, threw six strong innings, fanning 10, and Rio Ruiz, another prospect, homered as the M-Braves beat host Pensacola 3-1. If the M-Braves win the title — there are 14 games left — they would meet the Shuckers in the first round of the SL playoffs. That would be quite a treat for both fan bases. P.S. Former Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe hit his third homer in five Triple-A games for El Paso (San Diego Padres) on Sunday. … Ex-State standout Kendall Graveman threw six shutout innings for Oakland on Sunday but got a no-decision and remains winless in his last eight starts. What’s worse, he suffered an oblique injury and may have to go on the disabled list.

23 Aug

whatever happened to …

T.J. House, the Picayune High product who had such a strong rookie season with Cleveland, is still on the shelf at Triple-A Columbus with what is described as a “strained left shoulder.” House hasn’t pitched since June 8. It has been a season to forget for the 25-year-old left-hander. A 16th-round pick in 2008, he finally reached the big leagues last season and made 18 starts for the Indians, going 5-3 with a 3.35 ERA. He won a battle for a rotation spot in spring training, but then things went south. Struggling with his command, House made four starts in April, losing all four while allowing 21 hits and 12 walks in 13 innings. His ERA was an unsightly 13.15 when he went on the DL with shoulder soreness. House went to the minors to rehab and then was optioned to Columbus in late May. He was 0-2, 3.38 in five minor league appearances before being shut down. P.S. Things are going much better for Alex Presley, the ex-Ole Miss star now at Triple-A Fresno in the Houston system. Presley is batting .312 with three homers, 47 RBIs, 46 runs and 13 steals in 79 games for the playoff-bound Grizzlies (78-49), who saw an 11-game win streak end Saturday. It would appear the first-place Astros have some strong reinforcements available if they need them in September when rosters expand. … With Mississippi State alum Tyler Moore going to the DL for Washington last week, there are now six Mississippi-connected big leaguers sidelined by injuries. And five others have spent time on the DL. That’s from a group of 25 who have been active in The Show at some point.

21 Aug

back on the beam

Quietly, Desmond Jennings is making a nice comeback with Tampa Bay. While Chris Archer’s one-hit, 11-strikeout shutout was one of the buzz-generating stories in baseball on Thursday, much less attention was devoted to the hit that drove in the only run the Rays would score in the victory over Houston. Jennings, the ex-Itawamba Community College star, delivered the big run in the fourth inning with a two-out single off Collin McHugh. Jennings is 8-for-22 (.364) with two RBIs in six games since he returned from the disabled list, where he had been stuck since late April with a nagging knee problem. Jennings, batting .253 for the year, is now playing left field with defensive stalwart Kevin Kiermaier seemingly entrenched in center. Jennings has posted double-digit homer and steal totals each of the previous four seasons, and his contributions down the stretch could be important for a Rays team that is 60-61 and lurking on the fringe of wild card contention. He is also arbitration-eligible after this season. P.S. Pascagoula’s Joey Butler, sent down by Tampa Bay when Jennings was activated, is 6-for-14 with a homer in five games at Triple-A Durham. Butler, who got an opportunity with the Rays when Jennings went out in April, batted .278 with six homers and 22 RBIs in his 74 big league games.

20 Aug

smashing debut

Hunter Renfroe moved a step closer to the big leagues on Wednesday — and looked very comfortable in doing so. In his Triple-A debut, the former Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs for El Paso. Playing at Memphis’ AutoZone Park, where he played some games in college, and with family and friends in the seats, Renfroe singled in his first at-bat, homered in his final AB and rapped a sac fly and a two-run double in between. “It was like I was supposed to be there,” Renfroe told milb.com. Renfroe, 23, San Diego’s first-round pick in 2013 and currently the Padres’ top prospect, was batting .259 with 14 homers and 54 RBIs at Double-A San Antonio when he got the promotion. He now has 42 bombs in 285 career minor league games. P.S. Billy Hamilton’s tough season (.226 average, .272 OBP) continued in that vein on Wednesday when Cincinnati put the ex-Taylorsville High star on the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder injury. With 54 steals, Hamilton may already have wrapped up the MLB stolen base crown.

19 Aug

speed demons

Speed is good. Speed never slumps. Mississippi natives Billy Hamilton and Jarrod Dyson, two of the fastest players in the game, showed the value of speed in Tuesday night’s Kansas City-Cincinnati game, won by the Royals 3-1 in 13 innings. With the score tied 1-1 in the 11th, Reds center fielder Hamilton sprinted into right-center field and made a diving stop of a ball headed for the gap, then threw out Alcides Escobar at second base for the first out of the inning. In the 13th, the Royals’ Dyson scored the go-ahead run from first base after Reds pitcher Ryan Matheus threw Kris Medlen’s bunt down the right-field line. Hamilton also stole his MLB-leading 54th base; Dyson, not a regular for KC, got No. 23. (Hard as it is to believe, both also grounded into double plays.) P.S. There was a show of power, too. Ole Miss alumni Chris Coghlan and Seth Smith went deep, Coghlan hitting No. 14 on the year in the Chicago Cubs’ 10-8 loss to Detroit and Smith No. 10 in Seattle’s 3-2 win against Texas. Southern Miss product Brian Dozier still leads the all-Mississippi home run derby with 25, followed by ex-Mississippi State standout Mitch Moreland with 17.

18 Aug

holding pattern

The return date for Corey Dickerson, out since July 30 with broken ribs, is now listed as “possibly September” on the MLB web site. Last week, it was “possibly August.” The ex-Meridian Community College star from McComb has played only 43 games for Colorado this season sandwiched around three stints on the disabled list, the first two related to plantar fasciitis. Comments from Rockies manager Walt Weiss, whose club is floundering in last place, would seem to suggest that Dickerson, 26, might not play again this season. He is batting .315 with five homers and 18 RBIs. “I love coming to the ballpark, and I know when I’m healthy, I’m going to succeed,” Dickerson told mlb.com in an Aug. 16 article. The lefty-hitting outfielder broke out in 2014, when he hit .312 and blasted 24 homers.

18 Aug

crunch time at teepee

Birmingham is one of the Southern League’s best hitting teams. The Mississippi Braves are running out a rotation filled with prospects, young guns that could be in Atlanta in the near future. The compelling clash of Barons bats and M-Braves arms begins tonight at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Right-hander John Gant is slated to start Game 1 for Mississippi. He is followed in the rotation by Lucas Sims, Greg Ross, Zack Bird and Andrew Thurman. Birmingham, hitting .261 (second in SL) as a team with 482 runs (fifth), features a dynamic 1-2 punch at the top of its order. Former East Central Community College star Tim Anderson, one of the Chicago White Sox’s highest rated prospects, is batting .316 and tops the league in runs (69) and steals (45). Two-hole hitter Jacob May is batting .296 with 31 bags, second in the league. For power, the Barons have Christian Marrero (12 homers), Danny Hayes (seven) and Brian Fletcher (six). They’ll test the young guns. Gant, recently acquired from the New York Mets, has been slotted in as the Braves’ No. 23 prospect by mlb.com. Since joining the M-Braves, he is 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA in three outings. Sims, Atlanta’s first-round pick in 2012 and the seventh-best prospect, is 1-2, 5.87 in five Double-A starts. Jackson native Bird, acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers and ranked No. 12 on the prospect chart, is 1-1, 4.26 over three starts. No. 18 prospect Thurman, picked up from Houston late in the spring, took a loss in his M-Braves debut on Aug. 14, allowing four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. Ross doesn’t have a top 30 rating, but the Double-A veteran is 7-9, 3.98 in 23 games. P.S. Former M-Braves star Brian McCann did something Monday night that no catcher in the New York Yankees’ long history has done, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: He drove in five runs and threw out three runners attempting to steal. McCann’s efforts, which included his 21st homer, led the Yankees to an 8-7, 10-inning win over Minnesota. One of the runners he cut down was Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier, who had three hits for the Twins.

17 Aug

numbers to crunch

1 – RBI by Walker Robbins, the George County High star who went 2-for-3 with a triple in Sunday’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego. He drove in the only run the West team scored.
2 – Saves, in two opportunities, for Mississippi State alumnus Jonathan Papelbon over the 19 days he has been with slumping Washington, which has lost six straight and eight of 10.
3 – Place in the Southern League South standings held by the Mississippi Braves. The M-Braves are 27-22 with three straight losses headed into a five-game homestand that starts Tuesday against Birmingham.
4 – Triples this season by ex-Ole Miss star Seth Smith, who got his latest on Sunday for Seattle. He has zero stolen bases.
5 – Home runs over five consecutive games by Harrison Central product Bobby Bradley, who has 25 bombs for the season at Class A Lake County in Cleveland’s system.
6 – Runs allowed, in 3 1/3 innings, by ex-State star Kendall Graveman on Sunday in Oakland’s 18-2 loss to Baltimore. Graveman, 6-9, saw his ERA rise to 4.27.
7 – On-base streak for former Ole Miss standout Alex Yarbrough, who is batting just .241 with a .277 OBP for Salt Lake in his first Triple-A campaign in the Los Angeles Angels’ organization. “I think it’s big to finish strong in the last month,” Yarbrough, a .282 career hitter in the minors, told the Orange County Register.

16 Aug

celebrate, celebrate …

The party was at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Before a packed house and a national TV audience on Saturday, the first-place Royals celebrated win No. 70 on the season, win No. 900 of Ned Yost’s managerial career and birthday No. 31 for Jarrod Dyson. Dyson, the McComb native and ex-Southwest Mississippi Community College star, partied hard during the game, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs, two runs, two steals and an outfield assist to fuel the Royals’ 9-4 victory against the Los Angeles Angels. KC broke the game open with a six-run second inning during which Dyson slapped a two-run single and scored a run. “Any time you get the win, that’s a great day for us,” Dyson, who usually offers something much more colorful, told the Kansas City Star after the game. It was also a great day for Yost, the former Jackson Mets catcher who hushed a lot of doubters by steering this club to the World Series last year. The current Royals have won seven of nine and are running away with the American League Central. P.S. The Houston Astros celebrated their 2005 World Series team on Saturday at Minute Maid Park. Among the stars of that club were Holmes Community College product Roy Oswalt, a 20-game winner, and Jackson Generals alum Lance Berkman, who hit .293 with 24 home runs.

15 Aug

hot spots

Matchups of playoff contenders are abundant in the big leagues this weekend, and a bunch of Mississippians are in the middle of things. One of the hottest spots on Friday was U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, where the Cubs beat the White Sox 6-5 thanks in large part to two home runs by former Ole Miss star Chris Coghlan. Coghlan hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the third inning and a game-tying solo shot in the fifth, both off Jeff Samardzija. Coghlan now has 13 homers on the year for the hard-charging Cubs. At Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, ex-Itawamba Community College standout Desmond Jennings went 3-for-4 with an RBI in his first game since April, but his Tampa Bay team fell to surging Texas 5-3. Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland was 1-for-4 for the Rangers. At San Francisco’s AT&T Park, fading Washington lost to the Giants 8-5 with ex-State stars Tyler Moore (an HBP in his one at-bat) and Jonathan Papelbon (two hits and a run allowed in the eighth inning) tasting more frustration. The day’s best game was at Rogers Centre in Toronto, where the New York Yankees stopped the Blue Jays’ 11-game win streak with a dramatic 4-3 win. No Mississippians played in the game, but veteran umpire Andy Fletcher, an Ole Miss grad who lives in the Magnolia State, was behind home plate. P.S. Milwaukee has recalled right-hander David Goforth, a Meridian native and former Ole Miss standout. He has a 4.15 ERA in six MLB appearances this year.