Monthly Archives: September 2016

05 Sep

there and here

In a battle royale at the bottom of the American League Central on Sunday, former Southern Miss standout Brian Dozier and East Central Community College product Tim Anderson put on quite a show, combining for six hits, four RBIs and four runs. Dozier, running away with the all-Mississippi home run derby, hit his 35th for last-place Minnesota. But Anderson, the rookie, drove in the go-ahead run as the fourth-place Chicago White Sox took a 13-11 victory in 12 innings at Target Field. … Jarrod Dyson, the ex-Southwest Mississippi CC star, delivered a big two-run triple and scored on a hit by Paulo Orlando as Kansas City took a late lead against Detroit in a battle of AL Central and wild card contenders. But the Royals ultimately fell 6-5 at Kauffman Stadium. … Billy Hamilton’s resurgent season for Cincinnati may have come to a painful end when the Taylorsville High product departed mid-game with a strained oblique. Hamilton, leading the majors in steals with 58, has been on a roll in the second half, boosting his average to .260 and his on-base percentage to .321. … Chicago Cubs announcers anointed it “the Jason Heyward Game” after the former Mississippi Braves star drove in three runs in a 3-2, 13-inning win over the San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field. Heyward, scuffling at the plate this year (.234, 41 RBIs), atoned for a run-scoring error in right field by knocking in the game-tying run in the ninth and the game-winner in the 13th in what might have been a National League postseason preview. … A day after being eliminated from Southern League playoff contention, the Biloxi Shuckers, behind the brilliant pitching of ex-Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff, throttled the M-Braves 7-0 at Trustmark Park. The M-Braves, who clinched a playoff berth – and reportedly celebrated with gusto – by winning on Saturday, can still claim the SL South title with a victory today or a Pensacola loss. If they have to settle for the wild card, they lose the chance to host a deciding fifth game in the best-of-5 first round of the playoffs.

02 Sep

movin’ on up

Pinstripes and a playoff race in September. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that. And Jonathan Holder is feeling it. The former Gulfport High and Mississippi State standout has been summoned to the big leagues by the New York Yankees, who are very much in the hunt for an American League postseason berth. Holder, a 6-foot-2 right-hander, will join the Yankees’ bullpen tonight in Baltimore, where former State star Buck Showalter is the manager. Holder (see previous post) had a 0.89 ERA at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after putting up a 2.20 at Double-A Trenton. … Cincinnati has recalled former Northwest Mississippi Community College left-hander Cody Reed from Triple-A. Reed was 0-7, 7.36 in 10 starts with the Reds before being sent out on Aug. 15. … Pillow Academy product Louis Coleman is back in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ bullpen; he had been in the minors as he recovered from a minor shoulder injury. … MSU alum Adam Frazier, a .321 hitter as a rookie, is back up with Pittsburgh; he was briefly sent out last week as the Pirates juggled their roster. … Former Bulldogs star Hunter Renfroe, named the Triple-A Pacific Coast League MVP on Thursday, is still waiting on the call from San Diego. P.S. Ex-Alcorn State star Corey Wimberly is playing again in Mexico, with the Leones de Yucatan. The switch-hitting outfielder had a 3-for-3 day on Thursday and is batting .300 over his last 10 games with five RBIs and seven runs. He signed with Yucatan in June, then was inactive for about a month before returning to the field in early August. Wimberly is 32 and in his 12th season in the minors.

02 Sep

brave ramblings

The Mississippi Braves appear to have righted the ship in the nick of time. A 5-1 win over Biloxi on Thursday night at Trustmark Park was the team’s third straight and reduced their magic number to 3 for clinching the Southern League South second-half title. The M-Braves, shaking out of a funk that saw them lose eight of nine, have four home games left against the Shuckers, who still have a shot at a wild card playoff entry. For the M-Braves, Patrick Weigel, in just his third Double-A start, went 8 1/3 innings, allowing a lone, unearned run. Dustin Peterson and Ozzie Albies homered, and rehabbing big leaguer Mallex Smith, back on his old stomping grounds, went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. The only thing lacking was a big crowd – an announced 2,128. … Former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman is playing like an MVP. Unfortunately, he’s playing for the worst team in the National League. Freeman has a 24-game on-base streak during which he is batting .361 with 10 homers. He’s at .289 with 28 bombs for the year. … Shae Simmons, another ex-M-Braves standout, threw a clean inning in relief for the Braves on Thursday, his first MLB appearance in over two years. He had Tommy John surgery 18 months ago. … When Jed Bradley, now with Atlanta, makes his debut, he will go into the books as another former Mississippi Brave and former Biloxi Shucker to reach the majors. Bradley, 26, a left-hander, was drafted by Milwaukee – 15th overall — out of Georgia Tech in 2011. He made it to Double-A Biloxi this year, posting a 6.20 ERA before being traded to the M-Braves. He found something in Pearl, putting up a 4-3 record with a 2.35 ERA as a starter and earning a promotion to Triple-A. … Ex-M-Braves infielder Daniel Castro delivered an 11th-inning walk-off hit, scoring M-Braves alum Matt Lipka, as Triple-A Gwinnett beat Durham 1-0 on Thursday. … Austin Riley has a 16-game hitting streak at Class A Rome, which is clinging to first place in the South Atlantic League South. The third baseman out of DeSoto Central High is batting .360 with five homers and 16 RBIs in that stretch. The 2015 draftee, already one of the Braves’ top-rated prospects, is hitting .269 with 19 homers and 76 RBIs for the year.

01 Sep

three things

In a home run-mad month in the major leagues, nobody hit more than Brian Dozier, the pride of Itawamba AHS and Southern Miss. Dozier hit his 13th August bomb on Wednesday in Minnesota’s 8-4 loss to Cleveland. In Twins history, only Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew hit more homers in a month (14 in June 1964). Dozier has 32 on the year and 107 in his MLB career. This from a 5-foot-11, 200-pound second baseman who hit 16 homers in his four-season minor league career and 16 in four years at USM. Nobody saw this coming – or did they? “There’s not a whole lot that the guy can’t do,” USM coach Scott Berry recently told WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg. Berry said he could tell Dozier was a special player when he won the starting shortstop job as a true freshman. … In his second big league game, former Richton High star JaCoby Jones led off the ninth inning with a double and then scored the game-winning run for Detroit, diving across home plate on a sac fly to beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2. Tyler Collins’ fly ball to left with one out wasn’t deep, so Jones and third-base coach Dave Clark, the former Shannon High and Jackson State star, had to make a snap judgement. “I really couldn’t understand (Clark),” Jones told mlb.com. “I’m pretty sure he was just saying, ‘Go, you’ve gotta run.’ I was going to go anyway, regardless, unless he was just (imploring) me to stop.” Jones is 4-for-8 with two RBIs and three runs for the Tigers, who are battling for a playoff berth. … Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State standout from Crystal Springs (and Copiah Academy), belted his 29th homer for Triple-A El Paso. The right fielder is hitting .306 with 104 RBIs and 94 runs in 128 games. Certainly, he is ready for a big league look. But San Diego reportedly will wait until El Paso’s season is over to call up Renfroe. The Chihuahuas have five regular season games remaining and then the Pacific Coast League championship series.

01 Sep

fall preview

The team to watch in the Arizona Fall League is, without a doubt, the Salt River Rafters. Initial rosters for the prospect-packed circuit have been released, and the Rafters’ includes: JaCoby Jones, the Richton High product who is off to a sizzling start in his big league career with Detroit; Ole Miss alum Chris Ellis and ex-Southern Miss standout Bradley Roney, both in Triple-A in Atlanta’s system; former Madison Central star Spencer Turnbull (Detroit); Southwest Mississippi Community College product Kade Scivicque, who recently joined the Mississippi Braves; current M-Braves Ozzie Albies (Atlanta’s No. 3 prospect), Dustin Peterson (Southern League All-Star), Akeel Morris and Evan Phillips; and current Biloxi Shuckers (and Milwaukee prospects) Brett Phillips and Jacob Nottingham. Anthony Alford, the former Petal High standout now playing in Toronto’s system, is on the Mesa roster. The AFL season starts Oct. 11. (Not on an AFL roster, surprisingly perhaps, is ex-Harrison Central star Bobby Bradley, the Class A Carolina League MVP and a top Cleveland prospect.) P.S. Fred Lewis, the ex-big leaguer from Stone County and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC, recently was released by Southern Maryland in the independent Atlantic League. He was batting .256 with four homers and 12 RBIs and had spent a chunk of time either inactive or injured. At 35, after 15 years of pro ball, the former second-round pick (by San Francisco out of Southern University in 2002) might be done.