Monthly Archives: July 2017

17 Jul

hit refresh

As he took his place in the batter’s box in the ninth inning on Sunday at PNC Park, Adam Frazier had 392 big league at-bats, 109 hits and 39 RBIs under his belt. The former Mississippi State star then did something he had not done in his previous 135 MLB games: He delivered a walk-off hit. Pittsburgh beat St. Louis 4-3 on Frazier’s single off Brett Cecil. Frazier, who was batting .361 in late May, had been scuffling mightily heading into the All-Star break. During the time off, he did nothing baseball-related. “Everybody needs a mental break,” he told mlb.com, “to get away and live life like normal people for a few days.” It appears to have helped. The Pirates’ super utility player is 6-for-13 in the three games since the break, helping the Pirates take two of three from the Cardinals in the weekend series. For the season, the second-year big leaguer is batting .267 with three homers, 29 RBIs, 36 runs and seven stolen bases in 70 games. The Pirates (44-48) are 7 games back of first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central heading into a four-game home series against the Brewers.

16 Jul

back on track

The anxious journey back to the big leagues began on Saturday for Brandon Woodruff, the ex-Mississippi State standout from Wheeler. Woodruff threw two innings (two hits, a walk and a run) for Milwaukee’s Arizona League team. Woodruff was warming up for what would have been his major league debut on June 13 when a hamstring problem caused him to be scratched and then placed on the disabled list. Woodruff, the Brewers’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2016, was 6-4 with a 4.12 ERA at Triple-A Colorado Springs when he was called up. He’ll likely work some there again before rejoining the Brewers later this month, according to reports. … Meanwhile, Petal’s Anthony Alford is 2-for-9 on his rehab assignment in the Class A Florida State League (see previous report). Alford made his big league debut with Toronto on May 19 but went on the DL five days later with a broken wrist. Ole Miss alum Chris Coghlan, also with Toronto, has been on the DL since June 16 with a wrist injury; his return is TBD, according to mlb.com’s Injury Update page. Ex-State star Kendall Graveman is expected to make a rehab start on Wednesday in Oakland’s system. UM product Bobby Wahl is also on the DL (since May 24) for the A’s with no return date imminent. Hunter Renfroe, the former MSU star recently put on the DL by San Diego, could be activated as soon as Thursday. P.S. Props to UM alum Lance Lynn, who tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings in St. Louis’ win against Pittsburgh, and to State product Jonathan Holder, who worked three scoreless innings for the New York Yankees in their 16-inning win against Boston.

15 Jul

welcome back

Big league baseball roared back Friday from its midsummer nap, and Mississippians shared in the noisemaking. Brian Dozier, the ex-Southern Miss star, hit a leadoff home run for Minnesota, his 14th of the season and the 21st leadoff blast of his career, which makes him the all-time franchise leader in that stat. He also had a three-run double in the Twins’ 10-5 loss to Houston, which continues to look like baseball’s best team. … Former Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier got three hits for Pittsburgh and was on base for Josh Bell’s walk-off homer in the Pirates’ 5-2 victory over St. Louis. Frazier, who has played six different positions plus DH this season, is batting .263 with three homers, 28 RBIs and 35 runs. … Ole Miss alum Drew Pomeranz went six innings for Boston against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park, yielding four runs (including a go-ahead two-run bomb by Gary Sanchez in the fifth) while fanning seven. But Pomeranz, who is 9-4, escaped taking the loss when the Red Sox rallied against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth to win 5-4. … Tim Anderson, the East Central Community College alum, made MLB Network’s top plays with a leaping snag at shortstop in the Chicago White Sox’s 4-2 loss to Seattle. Southwest Mississippi CC product Jarrod Dyson notched his 21st stolen base for the Mariners. … Former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman had a homer – his 17th – and an RBI single in Atlanta’s gritty 4-3 win against Arizona; Freeman is batting .352. … Former Biloxi Shuckers star Orlando Arcia hit his ninth homer to help fuel Milwaukee’s 9-6 win vs. Philadelphia; Arcia is batting .282 with 33 RBIs and 35 runs for the first-place Brewers. Ex-Shuckers ace Josh Hader got a couple of outs and trimmed his ERA to 0.69 in nine appearances. P.S. San Diego put State product Hunter Renfroe on the 10-day disabled list (retroactive to July 10) with a neck problem. The rookie outfielder is hitting .231 with 16 homers.

14 Jul

going places

New level, no problem for Atlanta prospects Austin Riley and Ronald Acuna. Former DeSoto Central High star Riley went 2-for-4 in his Double-A debut with the Mississippi Braves on Thursday night, while Acuna, promoted from the M-Braves to Triple-A Gwinnett, homered and added two more hits for the G-Braves. Riley, a first-round supplemental pick in 2015, is rated the No. 11 prospect in Atlanta’s system by Baseball America and No. 12 by MLB Pipeline. The 20-year-old played third base and batted third for the M-Braves in a 2-0 win at Pensacola. He was batting .252 with 12 homers at high Class A Florida after belting 20 bombs at low-A Rome in 2016. Travis Demeritte, also regarded as a prospect, moved back to second base from third in Thursday’s game for the M-Braves; Demeritte has 11 homers but is hitting just .211. (The M-Braves’ next home game is July 19.) In Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday, the 19-year-old Acuna, BA’s No. 10 overall prospect, played right field and batted leadoff in the G-Braves’ 13-4 victory. After fanning in his first at-bat, he went yard in his second. He scored three times and drove in two runs. Acuna, who began this season with the high-A Florida club, hit .326 with nine homers – including a shot over the Trustmark Park batter’s eye on Tuesday – 30 RBIs and 19 steals in 57 games for the M-Braves. He played in the All-Star Futures Game on Sunday. The Braves may be considering adding Acuna to the big league roster if they are still in the playoff hunt in the season’s final weeks. He could be a difference-maker.

13 Jul

divergent

Anthony Alford is back in Dunedin of the Florida State League, where he is reunited with fellow Mississippian D.J. Davis. The 2012 Toronto draft picks have seen their careers veer off in very different directions. Alford, a third-round selection out of Petal High, is in A-ball again on a major league rehab assignment. The outfielder, who turns 23 next week, was batting .325 with three homers and nine steals at Double-A New Hampshire when he was promoted to the big leagues on May 19. He was 1-for-8 before suffering a broken left wrist and landing on the disabled list on May 24. Alford, whose career was stalled for a couple of years while he played college football, is rated among the top prospects in the Blue Jays’ system. He is No. 38 on Baseball America’s most recent chart of the Top 100 overall. Davis, a first-round draftee out of Stone County, was once a highly rated prospect himself. Not so much now. The outfielder, who turns 23 on July 25, is in his second season at Dunedin after spending two years in low-A ball. He is batting .218 with 19 steals but has just six extra-base hits. He batted .197 in 2016. Perhaps inspired by Alford’s arrival, Davis went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI for Dunedin on Wednesday. He needs a lot more days like that in what remains of his season.

12 Jul

scatter shooting

One has to wonder if the Minnesota Twins are considering a promotion for Brent Rooker, who is wearing out the rookie-level Appalachian League. The ex-Mississippi State star – the 35th overall pick last month — has 12 hits in his last seven games for Elizabethton and is at .323 with five home runs and 10 RBIs in 16 pro games. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Rooker has been playing left field; he played mostly first base at State this year. … Rehabbing big leaguer Sean Rodriguez went 1-for-5 with four strikeouts for the Mississippi Braves in an 8-7 loss to Jackson (Tenn.) on Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The M-Braves fanned 11 times all told and dropped to 4-14 in the second half of the Southern League season. They play the Generals again tonight at the TeePee. … Blake Anderson, the former West Lauderdale High star catcher, is now listed as a pitcher on the roster of the Gulf Coast League Marlins. Anderson, widely hailed for his defensive abilities, was a supplemental first-round pick by Miami in 2014. Injuries have limited him to 58 pro games (one in 2016), and he carries a .173 average. He has not appeared in a game this season. … None of the four high school players drafted out of the state this year signed to play pro ball. Myles Christian of Olive Branch, the highest prep pick (18th round, Seattle), is bound for Middle Tennessee State. C.J. Dunn of Center Hill, a Toronto pick, is going to Texas Tech; Ocean Springs’ Garrett Crochet, a Milwaukee pick, is off to Tennessee; and McLaurin’s Davis Bradshaw, another Brewers draftee, will play at Meridian Community College in 2018. The state’s Gatorade player of the year, Trey Shaffer, a left-hander from Biloxi, wasn’t drafted. The Southeastern Louisiana signee went 8-1 with a 1.20 ERA for the Indians. He also hit .380. … The only other 2017 draftees who didn’t sign were Mississippi State’s Jake Mangum, Ole Miss’ Brady Feigl and East Mississippi Community College’s Marcus Ragan, who is bound for Arkansas-Little Rock. State’s Cody Brown (New York Yankees) and Southern Miss’ Tracy Hadley (Chicago White Sox) signed as non-drafted free agents. … The Mississippi Semi-Pro State Tournament is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday at Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium. Among the participants will be the Hattiesburg Black Sox, who won the Magnolia Adult Baseball League title. … USA Baseball has unveiled the 40-man group that will go to Minneapolis in August to take part in the 18U National Team Trials. Pitcher J.T. Ginn of Brandon and outfielder Joe Gray of Hattiesburg made the cut. The team trials begin on Aug. 19 and the final 20-man roster will be announced on Aug. 24. The 18U National Team will compete in the World Baseball Softball Confederation U-18 World Cup in Thunder Bay, Canada, from Sept. 1-10.

11 Jul

worth remembering

Not to be overlooked amid all the hubbub over the Home Run Derby and tonight’s All-Star Game: On this date in 1914, Babe Ruth made his big league debut as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. His mound opponent at Fenway Park was Pleasant Grove native Willie Mitchell of the Cleveland Naps. Ruth and the Red Sox won the game 4-3 as Mitchell took the loss. But the record will also show that in his first at-bat in the majors, Ruth – not yet known as the Sultan of Swat — was struck out by Mitchell. A crafty lefty, Mitchell pitched parts of 11 years in the big leagues, won 84 games and fanned 921 batters.

11 Jul

star power

American League All-Star DH Corey Dickerson, in an interview on MLB Network on Monday, didn’t offer up a very complex analysis of his resurgent 2017 season. “I gotta be me,” he said. “Be the hitter I am.” Dickerson, the McComb native and Brookhaven Academy and Meridian Community College alumnus, is batting .312 (.355 on-base percentage) with 17 homers in 85 games in his second season with Tampa Bay. He hit 24 bombs in 2016 but batted just .245 (.293 OBP). A .299 hitter in three years in Colorado and a .321 hitter in the minors, Dickerson said it was the first time in his career that he had struggled at the plate: “I was searching, didn’t know who I was.” He got fitter in the off-season and made subtle changes to his free-swinging approach. He appears to be Corey Dickerson again – and that’s a good thing. He’ll bat seventh for the AL tonight at Marlins Park in Miami. Ole Miss product Zack Cozart bats ninth and plays shortstop for the NL. … Putting the best players in the game on the field at one time won’t necessarily produce a great game. Baseball doesn’t work that way. But the All-Star Game has produced its share of drama. This year marks the 10th anniversary of one such game, and a couple of Mississippians were involved. Flash to 2007 and San Francisco’s AT&T Park. The National League scored two runs in the ninth to make it a 5-4 game and had the bases loaded when Aaron Rowand popped out against Francisco Rodriguez to end it. Vicksburg native Dmitri Young got a one-out hit for the NL in that final inning and scored on Alfonso Soriano’s home run. Mississippi State alum Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless eighth for the American League, preserving the 5-2 lead, but yielded to J.J. Putz (who was followed by Rodriguez) in the ninth. Holmes Community College alum Roy Oswalt of Weir was on the NL roster but didn’t get in the game. … Other All-Star anniversaries of note: Forty years ago, at Yankee Stadium, Mississippi native Dave Parker, batting third for the NL, singled and scored as part of a four-run first inning against Jim Palmer that carried the Senior Circuit to a 7-5 win. That was one of Parker’s seven All-Star game appearances. … Seventy years ago, Pascagoula’s Harry “The Hat” Walker, then with Philadelphia, batted leadoff for the NL and went 0-for-2 in a 2-1 loss at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Walker made two All-Star Games during an 11-year career. … Eighty years ago, in Griffith Stadium in Washington, adopted Mississippian Dizzy Dean suffered a broken toe when struck by a line drive off the bat of Earl Averill. After the All-Star Game (in which he took the loss), Dean tried to pitch through the injury, hurt his arm and hastened the end of his brilliant career. Ellisville’s Buddy Myer was on the NL team that year but didn’t play, and Gulfport native Gee Walker, selected as a starter for the NL, couldn’t play because of injury.

10 Jul

eye on …

Cody Carroll, a 22nd-round draft pick two years ago out of Southern Miss, is looking like quite a steal for the New York Yankees. The 6-foot-5 right-hander has reached Double-A and is having success at that level with an impressive arsenal of pitches. In 11 relief appearances for Trenton, Carroll has a 1.50 ERA. He put up a 2.25 with two saves at high Class A Tampa before earning a late May promotion. He has 60 strikeouts in 44 innings all told. Carroll has added a split-finger pitch to his upper 90s fastball and slider, according to reports. At age 24, he could be poised to move up again soon. Carroll went 4-4, 3.15 with three saves at low-A Charleston in 2016, making six starts among his 26 appearances. He has pitched solely in relief in 2017 but isn’t confining himself to that role. “I can definitely be a whatever-you-need kind of guy,” Carroll told scout.com. Carroll was a solid if not outstanding pitcher at USM. As a junior in 2015, he went 5-5, 3.08 but was overshadowed by Ferriss Trophy winner James McMahon. P.S. Mississippi State product Jonathan Holder, who was fast-tracked by the Yankees after being drafted in 2014, is back on the big league roster after a brief demotion to Triple-A. Holder has a 3.78 ERA in 32 games for New York in 2017. He first reached the majors late last season.

10 Jul

summer stock

Yes, it’s been quite a summer for Ole Miss’ Ryan Rolison. The left-hander is 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA in three starts for Orleans, which is in first place (15-8) in the Cape Cod League’s East Division. Rolison threw five hitless innings on Sunday, striking out eight in the Firebirds’ 8-2 win over Chatham. Rolison has allowed just four hits with 22 strikeouts and four walks in 14 1/3 innings in the elite college summer league. As a freshman at Ole Miss last season, he went 6-3 with a 3.06 ERA. Mississippi State’s Luke Alexander is batting .311 with a homer and eight RBIs for Cotuit, which leads the CCBL West. Hyannis is having a tough season, but State’s Jake Mangum (.354) and Southern Miss’ Nick Sandlin (2.20 ERA in nine games) have performed well for the Harbor Hawks. … Closer to home, the Tallahatchie Rascals lead the New Albany-based Cotton States League standings with an 8-3-1 record. Blue Mountain alum Miciah Heard is batting .348 with 15 steals for the Rascals, and Benjamin Smith (Saltillo) and Wyatt Bailey (Coahoma Community College) are among the league’s ERA leaders. Hunter Bishop (Oxford) is batting .375 for the Tippah County Tribe, second in the league at 7-3-2. The CSBL’s top hitter is the Golden Triangle Jets’ Isaiah Eiland (East Mississippi CC), who is batting .486 with 11 runs and 10 steals. Luke Miller (EMCC) is batting .447 with 13 runs and Tucker Childers (Northeast CC) is at .433 with two homers and 11 RBIs. Both play for the Hill Country Generals. Alan Rickman of the North Delta Dealers is 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 26 innings. … UM’s Dallas Woolfolk worked three scoreless innings for the Collegiate National Team in its recent five-game series against Cuba. Team USA won 3-2. State’s Konnor Pilkington made two starts but got no decisions while posting a 6.00 ERA. The team starts a five-game series against Japan on Wednesday.