Monthly Archives: July 2016

08 Jul

going forward

The Mississippi Braves go for a fourth straight win tonight at Trustmark Park. It would match the team’s longest streak of the season, previously accomplished in early May. They’re 8-6, first by a game in the Southern League South second-half standings. They’re 6-3 at home; they had a losing record at the TeePee in the first half. Maybe things are starting to click. Leadoff batter Ozzie Albies fueled Thursday night’s 3-2 victory over Montgomery with a couple of hits, two runs and a steal. He is batting .397 and is 15-for-32 since he came back from Triple-A Gwinnett to play second base. Jacob Schrader smacked his team-leading ninth homer on Thursday, and the M-Braves also got a nice start from Lucas Sims and a ninth save from Madison Younginer. There’s a lot to like here. Uber-prospect Dansby Swanson is batting .417 over his last 10 games. Connor Lien is hitting .286 with four steals in 10 games since coming off the disabled list. Dustin Peterson has rather quietly driven in 54 runs, third in the league, with seven homers. Rob Whalen has been a steady starter, and Sean Newcomb, who goes tonight against the Biscuits, is brimming with potential. Left-hander Newcomb, 6 feet 5, 255 pounds, acquired from the Los Angeles Angels in the Andrelton Simmons deal, is 4-5 with a 4.14 ERA. A strong finish from Atlanta’s No. 2-rated prospect would certainly help the team’s title chase.

08 Jul

hot topics

Heading into Sunday’s All-Star Futures Game in San Diego, Hunter Renfroe has the look of a future big league All-Star. The Mississippi State alum from Crystal Springs hit his 21st home run of the season on Thursday for Triple-A El Paso in the Padres’ system. Over his last 10 games, the outfielder is hitting .457 with four homers and 13 RBIs. He’s at .335 for the year. Surely he’ll be playing big league games in Petco Park in the near future. … Ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz, bidding to be a late pick for the MLB All-Star Game, allowed two hits over seven shutout innings for the Padres on Thursday to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers. Pomeranz is 8-7 with a 2.47 ERA for a last-place club. … About the only thing that could cool off Seth Smith was a day off. Seattle rested the UM product on Thursday (against Kansas City lefty Danny Duffy). Over his last seven games, Smith batted .385 with five homers and 14 RBIs. … Mason Robbins is making a case for promotion in the Chicago White Sox’s system. The former Southern Miss standout from Leakesville had a three-hit game on Thursday for Class A Winston-Salem, boosting his average over his last 10 games to .390 and his season number to .306. The lefty-hitting outfielder, in his third pro season, has two homers, 21 doubles, 33 RBIs and 26 runs in 69 games. … In the Cape Cod Baseball League, Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker and Jake Mangum rank in the top five in batting. Rooker leads the summer circuit with a .386 average for Brewster, while Mangum is fifth at .344 for Bourne.

06 Jul

tip your cap

Having been released by Pittsburgh, Ed Easley may have seen his playing career reach the end of the line. The Mississippi State product was batting .174 as a 30-year-old catcher getting limited playing time at Triple-A Indianapolis. Easley has played 10 years in pro ball and appeared in four MLB games, all last year with St. Louis, going 0-for-6. But don’t get the wrong idea. If indeed it is over, Easley’s career is one worth celebrating. After his senior season at Olive Branch High in 2004, he was the state’s Mr. Baseball, Gatorade player of the year and a Louisville Slugger All-America pick. At MSU, he was All-SEC and won the Ferriss Trophy and the Johnny Bench Award that goes to the nation’s best catcher in 2007. Arizona drafted Easley 61st overall in ’07, and he has batted .260 with 43 home runs in 770 minor league games. He has 683 minor league hits, including a single in what may have been his last game, on June 29.

06 Jul

smash and dash

The home run is all the rage again in the big leagues, but speed still has its place. Zack Cozart and Billy Hamilton demonstrated the value of the smash and the dash elements in Cincinnati’s 9-5 win against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. Ole Miss product Cozart belted his 13th home run – two shy of his career-high – and Taylorsville’s Hamilton swiped three bases – he’s got 22 all told — and scored from second base on a passed ball as the last-place Reds took down the mighty Cubs at Wrigley Field. Hamilton scored the game’s first run in the first when he walked, stole second and came home as a John Lackey pitch got past catcher David Ross; it helped that Lackey, perhaps forgetting who was running, was slow to cover the plate. Cozart hit his homer in the second inning, a two-run shot that made it 4-0. (Cozart tied Corey Dickerson and Brian Dozier for the lead in the all-Mississippi home run derby, each with 13. Mitch Moreland has 11 and Seth Smith 10.) In the fourth, Cozart led off with a double – his 22nd – went to third on a bunt by Hamilton and scored on a sac fly by Joey Votto, putting Cincy up 6-4. In the seventh, Hamilton legged out a bloop double, stole third and scored on a Votto hit to make it 7-5. Cozart (.269) and Hamilton (.244), batting 1-2 in the lineup, combined for four hits, four runs and two RBIs. P.S. Props to former Mississippi Braves Julio Teheran and Craig Kimbrel for making the All-Star Game.

05 Jul

whatever happened to …

Silento Sayles, the prep stolen base king from Port Gibson High, is batting .171 with two steals in 13 games at short-season Class A Mahoning Valley in the Cleveland system. Sayles started his third pro season in low-A ball and was batting .182 when he was moved down. For his career, he has 33 stolen bases in 49 tries over 151 games. He bagged a record 103 his senior year in high school. … Spencer Turnbull, the former Madison Central star and Detroit’s No. 6 prospect, has made two injury rehab starts in the Gulf Coast League. Turnbull went 11-3 with a 3.01 ERA at Class A West Michigan last season; he has been on the disabled list all season. … Bobby Wahl, the Ole Miss product who spent some time in Oakland’s big league camp this spring, has a 2.86 ERA and two saves in 21 games at Double-A Midland, where he had a 4.18 and four saves in 2015. … Zack Bird, the Murrah High alum who made three starts for the Mississippi Braves last summer, is at Class A Carolina in the Atlanta system. He is 2-1, 7.47 in 19 games, all but one in relief. … LeDarious Clark, the ex-East Mississippi Community College star from Meridian, has been on the disabled list at Class A Hickory in Texas’ system since early June. Clark is batting .219 in 42 games. He exploded into pro ball last summer and wound up at .276 with eight homers, 24 RBIs and 29 steals at the short-season Class A level. … Jacob Lindgren, the former Mississippi State and St. Stanislaus star who made The Show with the New York Yankees last season, has been on the disabled list at Class A Tampa since late April. Lindgren had elbow surgery last summer. … Tim Dillard, the former Itawamba Community College standout, is on the temporary inactive list at Triple-A Colorado Springs in the Milwaukee system. Dillard, 32, a onetime big leaguer, has a 7.11 ERA in his 14th pro season. … James McMahon, the 2015 Ferriss Trophy winner from Southern Miss, retired after his one tour of pro ball. He posted a 6.44 ERA in 19 games at the rookie level for Colorado. … Melvin Rodriguez, the 2015 SWAC player of the year from Jackson State, was released by Washington in the spring; he hit .200 in short-season Class A last summer. P.S. Though Cody Reed’s ERA sits at 9.00 after four starts for Cincinnati, reports are the Reds will keep the Northwest Mississippi Community College alum in the big leagues. Reed, a highly regarded left-hander, has been knocked around twice by the Chicago Cubs, including on Monday (five hits, three walks, two HBPs and four earned runs in four innings). “I think I’m a lot better than what I’m doing,” he told mlb.com. … Welcome back: Jonathan Papelbon, the former Mississippi State star, returned from the disabled list and pitched a scoreless inning for Washington on Monday, and Picayune’s T.J. House was recalled by Cleveland. Lefty House, who made 22 starts for the Indians in 2014-15, had a 4.45 ERA at Triple-A Columbus but put up a 2.16 in seven outings after moving to the bullpen in mid-June.

04 Jul

streak show

Whatever the Baltimore Orioles’ plan was for pitching to Seth Smith during the four-game series at Seattle, they need to rip it up and try something different. Smith, the ex-Ole Miss star, homered in all four games at Safeco Field, including hitting his first career grand slam on Sunday as the Mariners finished off a sweep. Smith said he made some minor adjustments in his swing recently and is on a 17-for-44 tear ever since. He is batting .280 with 10 homers and 38 RBIs for the surging M’s. … Southern Miss product Brian Dozier tripled on Sunday for Minnesota, extending his on-base streak to 25 games. Dozier is batting .380 with 19 RBIs over that span and has boosted his numbers to .262 with 11 homers, 41 RBIs. He just might make another All-Star Game. … Mississippi State alum Adam Frazier got his first career double and triple for Pittsburgh, helping the Pirates beat Oakland 6-3 for their fourth straight win. Frazier is 7-for-14 in seven games since his call-up. … Tim Anderson, the former East Central Community College star, had two more hits for the Chicago White Sox in a win over Houston. Anderson, batting .300, has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games and 17 of 22 since he was called up. … Enduring a different kind of streak is ex-State standout Mitch Moreland, who has been stuck on 99 career home runs since June 19, a span of 12 games for the Amory native. He is batting .229 with 11 homers and 34 RBIs for Texas.

02 Jul

timing is everything

If you’re going to watch Seth Smith play, you should catch him at home, at Seattle’s Safeco Field, and against a right-hander, which he faces almost exclusively. And catch him when he’s hot, of course, like now. The former Ole Miss standout from Jackson homered for the second straight game on Friday as the Mariners beat American League East leader Baltimore for the second straight time at Safeco. The lefty-swinging Smith is batting .362 over his last 15 games and has six hits in his last three games. For the year, he is at .272 with eight homers and 30 RBIs. At home, he is hitting .298 with six homers, and against right-handers, he’s batting .284 with all eight of his homers and 27 of the RBIs. The Mariners face Buck Showalter’s Orioles again tonight at Safeco, and Baltimore’s scheduled starter is right-hander Tyler Wilson. Seattle is 41-39, battling to keep AL West leader Texas in its sights. The M’s trail the Rangers by 10½ games. P.S. East Central Community College product Tim Anderson got some love on MLB Network’s Quick Pitch show today for drawing the first walk of his big league career on Thursday. It came in his 86th plate appearance for the Chicago White Sox. Anderson did not walk in Friday’s game – or get a hit – but the rookie leadoff man is batting .300 with three homers, 14 runs, five RBIs and a couple of steals while also playing some sharp shortstop over 20 games. The White Sox apparently are pleased. “He’s quiet, but there’s a confidence and a drive,” ChiSox manager Robin Ventura told CBSChicago.com.

01 Jul

touching the bases

Jackson native and ex-big leaguer Stan Cliburn will manage in the independent Atlantic League’s All-Star Game on July 13 in Lancaster, Pa. Cliburn’s Southern Maryland team won the Freedom Division title in 2015, which earned him the managerial honor even though he now skippers the New Britain Bees, who play in the Liberty Division. (So, yes, he’ll be managing against some of his own players.) … Jones County Junior College alum Mason Irby will play on the NJCAA National Team in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan. Irby, a Southern Miss signee from Meridian, batted .387 with eight homers and 76 RBIs for the NJCAA Division II national champion Bobcats. He is a first-team NJCAA All-America pick and an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove recipient as an outfielder. The NBC World Series will be held July 29-Aug. 13 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. … Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State slugger, has been chosen for the Triple-A All-Star Game, set for July 13 in Charlotte, N.C. The San Diego Padres prospect, who leads all of Triple-A with 18 home runs, already is slated to appear in the All-Star Futures Game on July 10 in San Diego. … Also on the Pacific Coast League team for the Triple-A Game are former Biloxi Shuckers star Orlando Arcia and ex-Mississippi Braves Gorkys Hernandez and James Hoyt. Onetime Jackson Mets shortstop Wally Backman is the PCL manager. Stu Cliburn, Stan’s brother and another Forest Hill High alum, is the pitching coach for the International League team; he is with Rochester in the Minnesota system. … Something about summer ball seems to suit Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker. Playing for Brewster in the Cape Cod League, Rooker is batting .391 with eight RBIs through 11 games. Rooker, who was drafted last month but apparently will return to the Bulldogs, was MVP of the New England Collegiate Baseball League last summer, when he batted .360 with 11 bombs. He’ll be in Omaha on Sunday for the College Home Run Derby, along with Ole Miss’ Colby Bortles. … Also in the Cape, Southern Miss’ Kirk McCarty is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA for Orleans. … The North Delta Dealers have had the best hand in the Cotton States League to date, winning nine of their first 10 games in the New Albany college summer loop. East Mississippi Community College’s Garrett Ainsworth is 1-0 with a save in 7 1/3 innings, while John David Kubiszyn (Auburn) is batting .462 with three homers for the Dealers.

01 Jul

reunited

Well, that worked out nicely. Atlanta reunited infield prospects Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies on Thursday, and the pair combined for seven hits to spark the Double-A Mississippi Braves to a 6-5 win at Jackson (Tenn.). Swanson, the Braves’ No. 1 prospect (as rated by mlb.com), played shortstop and hit third. Albies, the No. 3 prospect, played second base and hit leadoff. The two, both shortstops by trade, had played in tandem in big league spring training games, one at short and the other at second. Albies, only 19, began the season as the M-Braves’ shortstop and batted .369 before he was promoted to Triple-A Gwinnett in late April. Swanson, who started the year at Class A Carolina, moved to Mississippi when Albies left. After a hot start at Gwinnett, Albies cooled off and was hitting .248 through Wednesday. With a 3-for-5 on Thursday, he picked right up where he left off. Swanson, who started hot with the M-Braves, had seen his average drop to .235 before a recent surge. He is now at .267, having hit .385 over his last 10, including the four-hit game on Thursday. They may be the middle infield of the future in Atlanta but for now Albies and Swanson have brightened the outlook for the M-Braves in the second half of the Southern League season. The club is 4-3 and in first place in the South Division. P.S. The third shortstop prospect on the Mississippi roster, No. 24 Johan Camargo, played third base on Thursday and went 1-for-3. He is hitting .254 with four homers and 22 RBIs while playing mostly second base.