Monthly Archives: August 2015

15 Aug

the stars come out

A long, long time ago – well, 40 years or so – Don Kessinger roamed the infield dirt at Wrigley Field as an All-Star shortstop for the Chicago Cubs. Today, his grandson Grae Kessinger will stand in the same spot. The younger Kessinger, also a shortstop, will participate in the Under Armour All-America Game at the Friendly Confines in Chicago. Kessinger, 6 feet 2, 180 pounds, batted .354 with 36 RBIs and 45 runs as a junior in 2015 for state champion Oxford High. He is committed to Ole Miss, where both his grandfather and father, Kevin, played. … Also in the Under Armour game is Starkville’s A.J. Brown, who is just the second player to participate in both the Under Armour baseball and football all-star games. Brown, 6-2, 220, a heavily recruited wide receiver, plays center field in baseball and hit .344 with 30 runs and 12 steals for Starkville this past season. He says he want to play both sports in college. Today’s game will be televised by MLB Network at 3 p.m. … George County High’s Walker Robbins is slated to play in Sunday’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego. Robbins, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound first baseman/pitcher, batted .348 with four homers and 28 RBIs and went 8-2 with a 1.47 ERA as a junior this past season. A Mississippi State commit, Robbins was MVP of the MHSAA Juniors All-Star Game at Trustmark Park in June. Robbins is the younger brother of Mason Robbins, the ex-Southern Miss star now playing in the Chicago White Sox’s system. The All-American Classic will be televised by MLB Network at 7 p.m.

14 Aug

beating the bushes

Bobby Bradley ain’t goin’ away. The former Harrison Central High star homered Thursday for the second straight game and now has 22 for the season at Class A Lake County. The lefty-hitting first baseman, Cleveland’s No. 7 prospect (by mlb.com), is hitting .275 with four homers and 17 RBIs in his last 10 games, boosting his season stats to .254 with 74 RBIs. And remember, he’s 19 years old. … Kansas City, which already has a great bullpen, also has Louis Coleman humming along at Triple-A Omaha, apparently ready if needed. The former Pillow Academy star and Greenwood native has seven saves, seven wins and a 1.84 ERA in 33 games. Coleman, 29, has 148 big league appearances but none in 2015. … Starkville native Julio Borbon is batting .483 over his last 10 games for Norfolk, Baltimore’s Triple-A club, and is at .281 with 20 steals for the season. Like Coleman, onetime big leaguer Borbon isn’t on the 40-man roster, but it would seem he could help the Orioles as they fight to stay in the American League playoff race. … DeSoto Central product Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s draft, is back from a short stint on the disabled list and hitting .325 with two homers and seven RBIs for Atlanta’s rookie-level Danville club. … West Lauderdale alum Blake Anderson, the first Mississippian picked in the 2014 draft, is on the DL at short-season Class A Batavia. The catcher, a first-round supplemental pick by Miami, is hitting .220 with two homers and 11 RBIs in 22 games. … Wade Wass, former Meridian Community College slugger, has seven homers at Class A Burlington in the Los Angeles Angels’ system. Wass, a catcher who signed out of the Cape Cod League last summer, is batting .256 with 35 RBIs in 75 games. … Ex-Murrah star Zack Bird took his first Double-A loss on Thursday for the Mississippi Braves. The right-hander lasted just two innings against Mobile, yielded five runs and walked five batters; M-Braves pitchers walked 11 all told in the 9-1 loss. Bird is 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA, 12 walks and eight strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings over three starts. … East Mississippi CC alum LeDarious Clark’s scorching start (see previous posts) is a fading memory. He went hitless in seven straight games from late July into August, and despite a current five-game hit streak, is batting .135 over his last 10 games at short-season Spokane in the Texas system. His average is down to .298. For the season, Clark’s numbers look good: eight homers, 21 RBIs, 37 runs and 19 steals in 45 games. But he hasn’t homered since July 22 and has one RBI, five steals and 22 strikeouts since that date.

14 Aug

fore for four!

There was something in the air Thursday. Maybe it was the Perseid meteor shower. Something. Two players from small towns in Mississippi had career-high four-hit games. What are the odds? In Minnesota, Amory’s Mitch Moreland banged out four hits that included his 17th home run of the season. He drove in four runs – giving him a career-high 61 for the year — as his Texas Rangers beat the Twins 10-5. In Los Angeles, Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton also went 4-for-4, scored four times and hit his fourth home run in Cincinnati’s 10-3 victory against the Dodgers. As he sprinted around the bases on the homer that easily cleared the wall in left, Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said, “He runs out a home run like he’s afraid they’re going to change their mind.” Hamilton also swiped his 53rd bag of the year. (Note: The magic didn’t work for every Mississippi native in the majors: Tupelo’s Brian Dozier went 0-for-4 for the Twins.) P.S. Ole Miss product Lance Lynn (who was born in Indiana) suffered the worst start of his career, getting just two outs before getting pulled in the first inning of St. Louis’ game against Pittsburgh. Lynn allowed six hits and seven runs (three earned), and the Cardinals ultimately lost 10-5. “It was terrible, plain and simple,” Lynn told The Associated Press.

13 Aug

stirring the drink

The Minnesota Twins’ recent swoon – 8-16 since the All-Star break — probably cost Brian Dozier any chance he might have had at the American League MVP award. But the Southern Miss product is still the team’s key player, the straw that stirs their drink, as they say. He has suffered through a second-half slump, as well, but when the second baseman does things like he did on Wednesday, the Twins tend to win, which they did. Dozier got two doubles (31 for the year), scored twice (80 for the year, second in MLB) and drove in a run (59). Minnesota whipped Texas 11-1, its second straight win, and climbed over .500 at 57-56. The Twins have fallen far back in the AL Central (11 games out) but remain in the thick of the wild card chase. To make the postseason for the first time since 2010, they’ll need a strong finish from Dozier, batting .248 with a .318 on-base percentage and 24 homers. P.S. Joey Butler, the former Pascagoula High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star, was sent back to the minors on Wednesday, a decision Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash called “incredibly difficult.” Butler, a 29-year-old rookie outfielder, batted .278 with six homers and 22 RBIs in 74 games for the Rays. At one point in mid-June he was hitting .347. He got the opportunity to play regularly for the first time in his career when Desmond Jennings went on the disabled list in April. Itawamba CC alum Jennings is supposed to be activated on Friday. Butler likely will get back to the big leagues when rosters expand in September. … Yarmouth-Dennis won the Cape Cod League championship series with an 8-1 win against Hyannis on Wednesday night. In the opener of the three-game series on Sunday, Dakota Hudson of Mississippi State allowed one run on two hits in eight innings, finishing with eight strikeouts, as Hyannis beat Y-D 8-1. Vance Tatum, another Bulldogs pitcher toiling for Hyannis, got knocked around in Game 2 on Monday and took the loss in Y-D’s 9-3 victory. Ole Miss’ Colby Bortles had a two-run hit for Hyannis in that game.

12 Aug

when the going gets tough

There is an interesting story on the Oakland A’s page on mlb.com in which Kendall Graveman talks about persevering through some tough times at Mississippi State and again earlier this season when the A’s sent him to the minors. Well, the times look tough again for the rookie right-hander. He went up against the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday and got burned in a 4-2 loss. Hurt by a couple of big errors, Graveman lasted just 4 2/3 innings, allowing five hits, a walk and four runs (two earned). His record dipped to 6-8. The last-place A’s are 0-6 in Graveman’s last six starts; he hasn’t won since July 4. Graveman’s ERA is a very respectable 3.89, and that’s even more impressive when you consider that it was 8.27 when the A’s demoted him to Triple-A after four starts in April. He went 5-2 in a nine-start stretch after his return in late May. Drafted in 2013 by Toronto, Graveman bolted through the minors and reached the big leagues last September. Oakland got him in the off-season trade that sent Josh Donaldson to the Jays, and Graveman won a job in the rotation in spring training. This current victory drought isn’t likely to get him down. … Times are also tough for ex-State star Tyler Moore, who is hitless in his last nine at-bats (all as a pinch hitter) and is batting just .203 for Washington, which is scuffling as a team. Moore’s last hit was on July 24, his last home run on June 12. He belted 10 homers in 156 at-bats in his debut season in 2012 but has just 12 over three seasons since. He seems due for a breakout. P.S. Tampa Bay sent former Itawamba Community College standout Desmond Jennings on another rehab assignment (see previous post), this one at Class A Port Charlotte.

11 Aug

medical report

Itawamba Community College product Desmond Jennings, who last played in a big league game on April 26, might be activated by Tampa Bay for tonight’s game with Atlanta, reports say. Jennings, recovering from a knee injury, hit just .143 in 21 at-bats on a rehab assignment for Triple-A Durham. The Rays’ opening day center fielder, he batted .222 in 18 games before the injury. For his MLB career, over parts of six years, Jennings is batting .248 with 47 homers, 166 RBIs and 93 steals. … Injuries have been a big story for Mississippians in the majors in 2015. Meridian CC alum Cliff Lee (flexor tendon) hasn’t thrown a pitch for Philadelphia and may yet retire. Corey Dickerson, another MCC product, had made three trips to the disabled list, playing in just 43 games for Colorado after his breakout 2014 campaign. Ex-Ole Miss star Zack Cozart (knee) went out for the season in mid-June; he was hitting .258 with nine homers for Cincinnati. Aaron Barrett, another former Rebel, is currently on the DL (elbow), his second stint, for Washington. Picayune High alum T.J. House, who began this year in the Cleveland rotation, went on the DL in May, went to the minors and then went out in early June with a shoulder injury. He hasn’t pitched since. And former Mississippi State standout Jacob Lindgren (elbow) has been shelved since mid-June; he made his big league debut with the New York Yankees in May, was sent down and then shut down following surgery.

11 Aug

deja vu

This had a familiar ring: Jose Peraza, in his major league debut on Monday night, got a triple for his first hit. Last summer, June 19 to be exact, Peraza, in his Double-A debut with the Mississippi Braves, also smacked a triple. This is not a fluke; he is very fast. Peraza, a second baseman who was Atlanta’s top-rated prospect entering this season, made his MLB debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who got him in a trade just before last month’s deadline. He is a nice addition to the fantasy team of former M-Braves who aren’t playing for Atlanta. At catcher, there’s Brian McCann, who has 18 homers for the New York Yankees. At first base, Evan Gattis (17 homers, 60 RBIs for Houston). At shortstop, Yunel Escobar (.309 for Washington). At third base, Martin Prado (.268 for Miami). In the outfield, Jason Heyward (.286, nine homers for St. Louis), Gregor Blanco (.286 for San Francisco) and Jeff Francoeur (.273, 10 homers for Philadelphia). Starting pitcher: Charlie Morton (Pittsburgh) or Alex Wood (another new Dodger), each of whom has seven wins. Closer: Craig Kimbrel (32 saves for San Diego). Feeling nostalgic?

10 Aug

well-stocked toolbox

In his relatively brief time in the minors, Anthony Alford has hit and run and showed enough arm to play right field. The power hasn’t been there, but you have to think that tool will come out soon. Ex-Petal High star Alford, now Toronto’s No. 3 prospect, is batting .304 with 13 RBIs, 26 runs and nine steals in 40 games at Class A Dunedin in the Florida State League. Batting leadoff and playing center field on Sunday, he had a four-hit game, including a triple and a walk-off double. He hit .293 with 16 RBIs, 49 runs and 12 steals in 50 games at Lansing in the low-A Midwest League before earning a promotion. Alford, 21, has just one home run at each level this season, his first full year in pro ball since the Blue Jays drafted the erstwhile football player in 2012. He has five bombs in 115 career games. Alford lists at 6 feet 1, 205 pounds and looks bigger. At Petal, where he was Mr. Baseball and Mr. Football, drawing Bo Jackson comparisons, Alford hit four homers and slugged .805 in 30 games as a senior. The power will come. And just wait till he gets a chance to hit at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in a couple of years. P.S. Versatility is keeping Ole Miss alum Chris Coghlan in the sizzling Chicago Cubs’ lineup. Coghlan, a lefty hitter, has been playing second base, his primary minor league position, of late (since Starlin Castro’s benching). Coghlan has played mostly left field for manager Joe Maddon but also has seen time at third, first and right field. He is batting only .248 but has a .334 on-base percentage, 11 homers, 25 RBIs and 10 steals.

10 Aug

numbers game

Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State slugger from Crystal Springs, took a curious tumble in mlb.com’s latest Top 100 Prospects chart. Though he is batting .262 with 14 home runs and 51 RBIs in his first full season in Double-A, Renfroe slid to No. 84 from a preseason rank of 48. The concern seems to be his strikeout tendencies: 104 K’s this season with just 33 walks. Still, it’s not hard to imagine the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Renfroe playing right field for the San Diego Padres on opening day 2016. Justin Upton likely will leave San Diego as a free agent, opening up an outfield spot. Renfroe’s power – 41 homers in 2-plus seasons — might even play at spacious Petco Park, and his defense is a major asset; he has 33 career assists. … Other names of note on the prospect chart – the top 50 were revealed on MLB Network on Sunday – include No. 45 Tim Anderson, No. 37 Ozhaino Albies, No. 30 Jose Peraza and No. 14 Orlando Arcia. East Central Community College product Anderson, tearing up the Double-A Southern League (.308, 45 steals, 10 triples, 67 runs) as a shortstop in the Chicago White Sox’s system, jumped from No. 76 in preseason. Albies is an 18-year-old shortstop (now injured) who hit .310 with 29 steals at low Class A Rome in Atlanta’s system. Former Mississippi Braves second baseman Peraza, now in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, moved up from 38 in preseason. One of the biggest jumps was made by Arcia, the slick shortstop at Double-A Biloxi in the Milwaukee system who started the year ranked No. 88. He had a walk-off hit in the Shuckers’ victory over the M-Braves in their second of two games on Sunday.

09 Aug

around the horn

Former Harrison Central High standout Bobby Bradley blasted his 20th home run of the season on Saturday for Class A Lake County in the Cleveland system. Bradley, only 19, is batting .256 with 68 RBIs in his second pro season. … Ole Miss alumnus Will Allen has been named to the New York-Penn League All-Star Game, set for Aug. 18. Allen, a catcher drafted in the 13th round by Detroit in June, is hitting .263 with a homer and 17 RBIs in 33 games for Connecticut in the short-season A league. … Also impressing in the Tigers’ system is catcher Kade Scivicque, a former Southwest Mississippi Community College star, drafted in the fourth round this year out of LSU. He is batting .282 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 19 games at West Michigan in the Class A Midwest League. … And to continue on a Tigers theme: JaCoby Jones, the ex-Richton High star, hit his fourth home run in eight games for Double-A Erie in the Eastern League. Jones, a shortstop traded from Pittsburgh to Detroit last month, is hitting .300 with nine RBIs and 12 runs. He has 14 homers on the season. … Stone County High alum D.J. Davis also homered on Saturday and is batting .350 with five RBIs and 10 runs in his last 10 games for Class A Lansing in the Midwest League. Davis, a 2012 first-rounder by Toronto, is batting .290 for the season. … Mississippi State product Jonathan Holder went 5 1/3 innings on Saturday for Class A Tampa in the New York Yankees’ system, allowing just one run. It was his longest outing since June 6, just before he took a month-long trip to the DL. Holder, in his second pro season, is 5-3 with a 2.52 ERA in the high-A Florida State League.