Monthly Archives: April 2016

12 Apr

tilting at curveballs

The biggest disappointment in the big leagues so far would have to be Minnesota, which is 0-7. Ex-Southern Miss star and Twins second baseman Brian Dozier was quoted during spring training as saying, “The last couple years, we thought we would be good, but this year we expect it.” Like his team, 2015 All-Star Dozier isn’t meeting expectations: .192 with a solo homer. … Among the surprises in MLB is Cincinnati, off to a 5-2 start. Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart is batting .412, and Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, while hitting just .176, has contributed a homer, a steal, three walks and four runs. … The only thing Jonathan Papelbon has throttled this season for Washington has been opposing batters. The former Mississippi State star has saved all four of the Nationals’ wins, allowing just one run. … Tampa Bay wanted power from ex-Meridian Community College star Corey Dickerson, and the ex-Colorado slugger has delivered with three homers through six games. He has only two other hits, however. … McComb native Jarrod Dyson is 1-for-4 with two walks in two rehab games at Triple-A Omaha; no definite return date has been set for the Kansas City Royals speedster. … Former Mississippi Braves star Mallex Smith’s line from his MLB debut for Atlanta on Monday: 1 hit, 1 run, 1 caught stealing, 5 stitches in his forehead. But, he may start again tonight. … Though the M-Braves are 1-4, don’t blame Ozzie Albies or Chris Ellis for the poor record. Albies, the flashy shortstop prospect, is batting .364. Ellis, the highly touted Ole Miss alum, won his only start, throwing six shutout innings. … Petal High product and Toronto prospect Anthony Alford, injured (leg) in Class A Dunedin’s opener last week, is on the club’s 7-day disabled list. Alford’s Dunedin teammate D.J. Davis, a Stone County alum, is off to a 3-for-21 start. … Not only does the Magnolia State have three nationally ranked NCAA Division I teams, but D-II Delta State is 26-11, NAIA William Carey is 29-13 and jucos Jones County and Meridian are 31-3 and 26-6, respectively. … On the schedule today are two interesting intrastate matchups: Mississippi Valley State visits Delta State at Ferriss Field in Cleveland and Mississippi College and Millsaps hook up at Twenty Field in Jackson in a Maloney Trophy Series game.

09 Apr

season to savor

Scan the roster of the 1996 Jackson Generals and it’s plain to see how that club won a Texas League pennant. They had talent. Future big leaguers on that team included Richard Hidalgo, Melvin Mora, John Halama, Russ Johnson, Mitch Meluskey, Jamie Walker, Rich Loiselle, Tom Martin, Manny Barrios, Chris Hatcher and Mike Grzanich. Among the ’96 Gens who didn’t reach The Show were former Ole Miss star Kary Bridges, who batted a team-best .324, Buck McNabb (.301, 10 steals), Dennis Colon (.280), Tim Forkner (.293, seven homers), Ryan Creek and Tim Kester. The Generals, managed by the affable Dave Engle (with an assist from coach Rusty Harris), won the first half in the TL East, faded in the second and beat Tulsa (3-1) and Wichita (four straight) in the playoffs. Halama, the tall lefty, was the ace: 9-10, 3.21 ERA. Barrios had 23 saves, and relievers Walker, Martin and Grzanich (now the softball coach at Hinds Community College) combined for 16 wins and 11 saves. Hidalgo, a Venezuela native, looked like a budding superstar — and he did have a couple of big years in the majors. In Jackson, he hit .294 with 14 homers, 78 RBIs, 34 doubles and 11 steals and handled both right- and center-field duties with aplomb. Hatcher could mash (13 homers in 41 games), and Mora did a lot of things well. Johnson, the shortstop and former LSU star, was the team’s MVP, however. His numbers still dazzle: .310, 15 homers, 78 RBIs, 86 runs, 24 doubles, five triples, nine steals, a .470 slugging average, 56 walks and just 50 strikeouts. Unfortunately, he couldn’t replicate that production in the majors. It happens. It’s unfortunate also that there is nothing at Smith-Wills Stadium to commemorate the ’96 pennant — or any of the other championships from the old ballpark’s pro era. So take this occasion, the start of another season, to raise a glass for the 20th anniversary of a very special one.

06 Apr

roster surfing

Mississippians are all over the place in the Atlanta Braves’ organization. Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High product, will start the 2016 campaign at low Class A Rome, Murrah alum Zack Bird is at high-A Carolina, Ole Miss’ Chris Ellis and Southern Miss’ Bradley Roney are with the Mississippi Braves and ex-Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore will play at Triple-A Gwinnett. … Add Cedric Hunter to the list of former M-Braves to rise to the majors; the outfielder, who had a big year in Pearl in 2014, started on opening day for Philadelphia. John Gant is on the Braves’ roster but didn’t pitch in their opener. … Petal’s Anthony Alford and former Stone County High star D.J. Davis will begin the season at high-A Dunedin in the Toronto system; Alford, the Blue Jays’ top prospect, probably won’t stay there long. … Cleveland has placed former Harrison Central High standout Bobby Bradley at high-A Lynchburg. … Itawamba Community College product Tim Dillard, ex-Ole Miss standouts David Goforth and Alex Presley and former Biloxi Shuckers stars Orlando Arcia and Jorge Lopez are on the roster of the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox in the Milwaukee system. Rick Sweet, the first manager of the Jackson Generals in 1991, is the Sky Sox skipper. … Ex-Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff will start with the Brewers’ high-A Brevard County team. … Madison Central product Spencer Turnbull and Southwest Mississippi CC alum Kade Scivicque are at high-A Lakeland in the Detroit system. Richton’s JaCoby Jones is on the Tigers’ Double-A Erie roster but is under suspension until late May. … The Los Angeles Angels have placed former Ole Miss stars Alex Yarbrough and Cody Satterwhite at Triple-A Salt Lake and Alcorn State product Angel Rosa and Meridian CC alum Wade Wass at Double-A Arkansas. … Columbia’s Ti’Quan Forbes and East Mississippi CC product LeDarious Clark are teammates on Texas’ low-A Hickory club. … Former Ole Miss star Auston Bousfield, who made milb.com’s list of top under-the-radar prospects for 2016, will play at Double-A San Antonio in the San Diego system. He is described as “a solid contact hitter with exceptional throwing and running abilities.” The manager at San Antonio is ex-M-Braves skipper Phillip Wellman.

05 Apr

winging it

Trustmark Park is a notorious pitchers’ park, so when considering tonight’s Southern Miss-Ole Miss game in Pearl, it makes sense to cut right to the starting pitchers. They are a study in contrast. USM’s Mason Walley is a 6-foot right-hander, a Taylorsville native who transferred in this year from junior college powerhouse LSU-Eunice. Ole Miss’ James McArthur is a 6-foot-7, 217-pound left-hander, a freshman from Texas. Walley, who won a state high school championship at the TeePee in 2013 with Taylorsville, hasn’t worked much for the Golden Eagles. In four games (8 1/3 innings), he is 1-1 with a 4.32 ERA. He was an ace at Taylorsville and at LSU-E, going 11-1 for the NJCAA Division II champions last year. McArthur has been something of a midweek ace for the Rebels. He is 3-0 with a 5.48 ERA in six games, including five midweek starts. He’ll face a USM team with a lot of momentum. The Eagles (22-7) pounded Charlotte in a C-USA sweep over the weekend, scoring 34 runs. USM has won six of seven overall and has a six-game win streak against the Rebels. USM has beaten UM seven of 10 in the Trustmark College Series. The nationally ranked Rebels (21-7) are in a 1-5 tailspin in which they’ve had trouble scoring. Trustmark Park is typically not a place for bats to come alive, though USM and Mississippi State combined for 18 runs there last week. Even in a pitchers’ park, pitchers gotta pitch.

04 Apr

numbers to crunch

0 – Hits allowed by Hinds Community College’s Quinton Logan and Carlisle Koestler in a 4-1 win vs. Coahoma on Saturday.
1 – Losses in MACJC play by first-place Jones County JC, which has won 11 league games and is 28-2 overall.
4 – Wins for Kenny Wright and saves for Chris Guerin after the Millsaps duo combined to beat Sewanee 2-1 on Sunday and complete a Southern Athletic Association sweep at Twenty Field.
5 – Mississippi State’s rank (same as last week) in Baseball America’s poll after the Bulldogs whipped nationally ranked Ole Miss two of three in Starkville over the weekend.
6 – Number of former Mississippi Braves, including recent addition John Gant, on Atlanta’s opening day roster.
8 – Years since the Mississippi Braves won their only Southern League pennant. With an initial roster that includes two top 10 Atlanta prospects (Sean Newcomb and Ozzie Albies) and several other top 30-types from a replenished farm system, this year’s club could be a contender.
10 – Consecutive wins in Gulf South Conference play for nationally ranked Delta State, which swept Christian Brothers in Cleveland over the weekend to improve to 16-5 in the league and 23-10 overall.
17 – Hits by Southern Miss, including four by Tim Lynch, in a 16-6, sweep-completing win at Charlotte on Sunday. USM (22-7) has won six of seven games heading into Tuesday’s College Series clash with Ole Miss (21-7 with five losses in six games) at Pearl’s Trustmark Park.
25 – Wins for William Carey, which got a big hit from RBI leader Tyler Richardson in a 7-6, Southern States Athletic Conference series-clinching win against NAIA No. 3 Faulkner in Hattiesburg on Sunday. The Crusaders are 25-12.

04 Apr

come together

Players roll out from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Curacao, South Africa, Venezuela, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands. Sounds like a World Baseball Classic event has convened, but it’s just an everyday occurrence at Jackson State. Coach Omar Johnson’s multicultural team, which also includes eight players from good ol’ Mississippi, is showing signs of coming together after an uneven start. The Tigers, who take their show on the road to Biloxi tonight for an exhibition game with the minor league Shuckers, blew away Mississippi Valley State in a three-game series over the weekend. By beating the Delta Devils 10-3, 16-5 and 19-9, JSU moved its SWAC record to 6-3 (after an 0-3 start). Overall, the Tigers are 17-11. Jesus Santana (Puerto Rico) hit three home runs, two of them grand slams, in the Valley series and leads the team with nine homers and 37 RBIs. Such production was expected from Santana, a preseason player of the year candidate in the SWAC. Also contributing good stuff is catcher Carlos Diaz, another Puerto Rico product who is raking at a .451 clip; pitcher Miguel Yrigoyen, a Venezuela native who is 4-2; Canadian Jesse Anderson, who has three saves; and C.J. Newsome, who hails from Columbia, the city in south Mississippi. Newsome was drafted by Miami out of CHS last summer but elected to play at JSU. Tiger Nation should be thrilled. The 5-foot-9 outfielder, who had eight hits, six RBIs and six runs in the Valley series, is hitting .382 with 31 runs.

03 Apr

happy anniversary

Fifty years ago this month, on April 12 to be exact, George Scott made his debut for the Boston Red Sox. The Greenville native, nicknamed Boomer, did not go deep against Baltimore that day, but he did get the first of his 1,992 hits in a career that rates among the best among Mississippians who’ve played major league baseball. Scott, who died in 2013, hit 271 home runs over his 14 MLB seasons, batted .268 and played in three All-Star Games. More than just a slugger, the big first baseman, who also played some third, won eight Gold Gloves. Other anniversaries of note: Eighty years ago, two players from the Coast broke into the big leagues, both in Philadelphia. Biloxi native Red Bullock played 12 games for the A’s in 1936, and Leo Norris, the pride of Bay St. Louis, started a two-year stint with the Phillies. Norris hit 20 homers in his brief time in the majors. In 1946, Jackie Price of Winborn debuted with Cleveland. Flash forward to 1976 for the debut of Hattiesburg native Bobby Myrick, one of the original Jackson Mets of 1975 who pitched parts of three seasons for the New York club. In 1986, Ricky Jones, a Tupelo native, got into 16 games with Baltimore. Vicksburg’s Dmitri Young made the big leagues with St. Louis in 1996 and went on to belt 171 home runs in a 13-year career. And 10 years ago, another Vicksburg product, left-hander Taylor Tankersley, debuted with the Florida Marlins.

02 Apr

read all about it

The new Baseball America is here! The new Baseball America is here! Well, it’s not quite that exciting, but the arrival of the bi-weekly magazine in the mailbox – the one sitting on a pole down by the street — does provide a little kick. There on the cover of the latest edition (April 8-22) is a picture of a gaggle of Atlanta Braves prospects, including Austin Riley, the former DeSoto Central High star whose pro debut in 2015 was such a smash. As the Braves build toward the future, Riley already rates among the top position player prospects in a stacked farm system. A third baseman drafted 41st overall, Riley hit .304 with 12 home runs over two levels last summer. He might someday fill out an Atlanta infield that will include Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies, who also appear on the BA cover and will appear with the Mississippi Braves sometime soon. There is more treasure inside. John Manuel, BA’s editor in chief, throws out some preseason candidates for minor league player of the year, and two Mississippians are on the short list: Petal’s Anthony Alford and Gulfport’s Bobby Bradley. Alford, an outfielder in Toronto’s system, is expected to play at the Double-A level this year; reports are he is close to big league-ready. Bradley, a first baseman with Cleveland, might make Double-A this summer; he is only 19 but already drawing raves about his power potential. Found on an inside page is a chart of the top catchers in the minors who will vie for the Captain’s Catcher’s Award, which recognizes defensive skills. Ex-Ole Miss star Stuart Turner made the list; he played at Double-A Chattanooga in the Minnesota organization in 2015. This issue of BA also has the chart of minor league managers and coaches. Among the familiar names: Al Pedrique, Stu Cliburn, Jody Davis, Rick Sweet, Gary Allenson, Joe Mikulik, Phillip Wellman, Paul Phillips, Jeff Ware, Scott Thorman … . Ah, ’tis the season.

01 Apr

hot spots

Opposing pitchers must be hard-pressed to find a soft spot in Delta State’s lineup. Every regular is hitting .300 or better, and collectively the Statesmen are batting .336 with 212 runs in 30 games. Will Robertson, a senior from Falkner who missed 2015 with an injury, has been hot from the jump and is batting .409. Trent Giambroni and Ben Pickard have seven home runs each. DSU also throws out a pair of aces: Left-handers Tre Hobbs and Dalton Moats are a combined 12-3 with a 3.02 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 107 innings. The sum of these parts is also impressive. The Statesmen, unranked in preseason, are now ranked in two NCAA Division II polls, No. 14 in one, 24 in the other. They’ll take a 20-10 overall record and a 13-5 Gulf South Conference mark into this weekend’s series against Christian Brothers at refurbished Ferriss Field. … Cleveland isn’t the only hot spot in the state this weekend. In Hattiesburg, at Wheeler Field, William Carey plays host to NAIA No. 3 Faulkner in a Southern States Athletic Conference series. The Crusaders are 23-11 and coming off what amounted to a batting practice session against Tougaloo on Wednesday. WCU won 18-3 and 16-0; Tyler Richardson had a day, going 4-for-8 with nine RBIs. Things will be a little tougher against Faulkner, which is 29-7, 11-1 SSAC and was ranked No. 1 last week before losses to Georgia-Gwinnett and Bethel. Carey, 7-4 in the league, is 18-5 overall at home. Faulkner is 4-3 on the road. … Of course, the hottest spot in the state this weekend is Starkville. Tonight’s pitching matchup is a dandy: Mississippi State’s Dakota Hudson vs. Ole Miss’ Brady Bramlett in the opener of the three-game series at Dudy Noble Field. Strong arms and good hitters abound on these two nationally ranked rivals. State (18-7-1, 4-2 SEC) is hitting .317 as a team, third in the league. Ole Miss (20-5, 2-4) has a 2.73 staff ERA, fourth in the league. The Bulldogs roll out the likes of Jacob Robson and Jack Kruger and Austin Sexton, each of whom has sparkling stats. The Rebels feature Tate Blackman and J.B. Woodman and Wyatt Short, among other stars. But many times the hero in a big series is someone you might not expect. Here’s a couple of candidates: Nathaniel Lowe arrived at State as a touted slugger, coming off a 17-home run season as an NJCAA All-America in 2015. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Lowe is hitting .306 and is third on the team with 22 RBIs, but he has just one long ball. Who better to break out against than Ole Miss? The Rebels, meanwhile, have been waiting for Errol Robinson to break out. A highly rated draft prospect who made some preseason All-America teams, the junior shortstop is batting just .213 with four extra-base hits in 24 games. He batted .297 in 2015, with 31 runs and 30 RBIs in 58 games. Robinson had a big hit in a win against State last year; perhaps he can summon another.