August 2017 - Page 4 of 4 - All Mississippi Baseball

07 Aug

next?

Kudos to former Jackson State coach Bob Braddy and ex-Mississippi State and MLB star Jay Powell on their induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend. Braddy, an icon at JSU, should have been in a long time ago. Who’ll be the next baseball luminary to get the call? Longtime big leaguers Roy Oswalt (163 MLB wins, three-time All-Star) and Charlie Hayes (.262, 144 homers, World Series ring) certainly should get in at some point, as well as Luke Easter, who was the first black Mississippian to make the major leagues. Sam Hairston and Howard Easterling, a couple of Negro Leagues stars, also rate consideration. Among coaches, there’s William Carey’s Bobby Halford, the 2017 NAIA coach of the year who has more than 1,100 wins, and Millsaps’ Jim Page, who has over 700 W’s and seven conference coach of the year honors on his ledger. Both are deserving of recognition over on Cool Papa Bell Drive.

07 Aug

power broker

Former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier reached the 20-home run plateau for the fourth straight season when he went deep on Sunday in Minnesota’s 6-5 win over Texas. He joins fellow Mississippians Corey Dickerson (21) and Hunter Renfroe (20) in the 20-bomb club. Never considered a power hitter in college or in the minors, Dozier started pulling the ball more in 2013, when he hit 18 homers for the Twins. He followed with seasons of 23, 28 and then 42 last year. Dozier also drove in 99 runs and scored 104 in 2016, numbers he isn’t going to reach this year. He is batting .248 with 56 RBIs and 54 runs. The subject of trade rumors in the off-season, Dozier insisted he wanted to remain in Minnesota, where, despite his best efforts, things haven’t gone well. The Twins haven’t made the postseason during Dozier’s time with the club and aren’t likely to break through in 2017. He is under contract for one more year, so it seems likely he’ll be hitting homers for some other club in the near future.

06 Aug

full speed ahead

While the Mississippi Braves’ season is sliding off the rails, Austin Riley is showing signs of getting on track at the Double-A level. The former DeSoto Central High star is 7-for-18 over his last four games, including a 3-for-5 with a homer on Friday at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The 20-year-old third baseman, listed at 6 feet 3, 220 pounds, added two more hits on Saturday, lifting his average to .256 in 22 games with the M-Braves. He has three home runs and nine RBIs. Riley, a supplemental first-round pick by Atlanta in 2015, is one of several top prospects being fast-tracked by the Braves this season. He was batting .252 with 12 homers and 47 RBIs at Florida in his first season at the high Class A level when he was promoted to Mississippi last month. The M-Braves have dropped 11 of 12 and are an unsightly 12-30 in the second half of the Southern League season, but Riley’s development is something worth watching. The M-Braves and Biloxi Shuckers hook up again today at the TeePee. … Meanwhile, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s draft, Brent Rooker of Mississippi State, seems to be settling in at the high-A level in Minnesota’s system. Rooker hit a grand slam on Saturday and extended his hitting streak to five games. After a very sluggish start at Fort Myers, Rooker is batting .197 with three homers and nine RBIs in 19 games. The SEC player of the year wore out the rookie-level Appalachian League, batting .282 with seven homers there before his promotion.

05 Aug

three stars

To borrow from the hockey tradition, here are three Mississippi stars from MLB action on Friday night:
Mitch Moreland: The Amory native and Mississippi State alum hit a game-winning home run in the 11th inning for Boston, taking down the Chicago White Sox 3-2 at Fenway Park. It was an opposite-field shot, over the Green Monster, off a left-hander. Ironically, Moreland had been inserted into the game as a defensive replacement at first base in the 10th inning. He has been fighting a slump, but, as ChiSox broadcaster Ken Harrelson lamented on the air after the walk-off bomb: “A dangerous hitter is Mitch Moreland.” The homer was Moreland’s 14th – 124th career – and boosted his RBI total to 50 for a Red Sox team that has tightened its grip on first place in the American League East.
Brian Dozier: The Southern Miss product from Fulton hit two homers for Minnesota, helping 44-year-old Bartolo Colon beat visiting Texas 8-4 at Target Field. Dozier belted a leadoff homer, No. 24 of his career, and went deep again in the second inning. Though hitting just .246, he has 19 bombs and 54 RBIs on the season. The Twins are under .500 but not dead yet in the AL playoff race.
Brandon Woodruff: The MSU alum from Wheeler notched a win in his big league debut for Milwaukee, throwing 6 1/3 innings in a 2-0 victory against Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. “This is what every kid dreams of,” Woodruff told The Associated Press. The right-hander was scratched from his originally scheduled debut in June because of a pregame injury. He made the most of his second chance. Woodruff struck out the first batter he faced, McComb native Corey Dickerson, and fanned six all told. He labored at times, allowing seven hits and two walks, but routinely pitched out of jams. Manager Craig Counsell hailed Woodruff’s composure. The win moved the Brewers within a half-game of the first-place Chicago Cubs in the National League Central.
On deck: Three Mississippi college alums are slated for starting pitcher assignments today: Drew Pomeranz for Boston, Lance Lynn for St. Louis and Chris Stratton for San Francisco.

04 Aug

let’s try that again

Major league debut, Take 2, is on tap tonight for Brandon Woodruff, the former Mississippi State standout whose first scheduled start in June was aborted because of an injury he suffered in warm-ups. The big right-hander is now slated to get the ball tonight for Milwaukee against Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. If he makes it to the post, he’ll become the 27th Mississippian (native or college alum) to play in the majors in 2017. Woodruff, one the Brewers’ top prospects, was 6-5 with a 4.46 ERA at Triple-A Colorado Springs, which plays in a hitter’s park in a hitter’s league (the Pacific Coast League). Woodruff, described in one scouting report as a “hard-throwing wild man” at State, has 70 strikeouts and 24 walks in 72 2/3 innings this season. The first batter Woodruff will face might just be fellow Mississippi native Corey Dickerson, Tampa Bay’s All-Star outfielder and leadoff batter of late. Dickerson, a McComb native and Meridian Community College product, is on a 9-for-22 roll, breaking out of a protracted slump. He is hitting .304 with 21 home runs and 50 RBIs. P.S. State alum Kendall Graveman came off the disabled list to start for Oakland on Thursday and was shelled by San Francisco, giving up seven runs in two innings. It was his first MLB appearance since May. “I threw a lot of strikes, but I don’t think the movement was quite there,” he told the Mercury News of San Jose. … Chris Stratton, another ex-Bulldog, is back on the Giants’ roster to replace Matt Cain in the rotation for a team that is having an awful season. Stratton will make his second MLB start on Saturday against Arizona.

02 Aug

line of night

Competition was stiff for MLB Line of the Night, Mississippi Division. Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton put up a 4223 (AB-R-H-RBI) on Tuesday, with a homer and a triple, his eighth, which ranks second in the big leagues. Ole Miss product Seth Smith had a 3223 with a double. Jarrod Dyson, the ex-Southwest Mississippi Community College star, produced a 5221 with a stolen base, No. 24 on the year. Former Mississippi State standouts Hunter Renfroe (3220) and Adam Frazier (4030) also put up some numbers worthy of mention. But Line of the Night must go to State product Mitch Moreland, whose 5323 included a double, a homer, his 13th, and a “productive” out that figured prominently in Boston’s crazy 12-10 win against Cleveland. With two outs and one on in the ninth at Fenway Park, the Red Sox down a run, Moreland reached first on a wild-pitch third strike. Christian Vazquez followed with a three-run bomb that beat Indians closer Cody Allen and moved Boston back into first place in the American League East. P.S. Dyson’s stolen base was the 200th of his career. He has an amazing 85 percent success rate. The McComb native ranks third among Mississippians on the all-time steals list, behind Hamilton (228) and Gee Walker (223). … Smith’s big night helped Baltimore beat Kansas City and give Buck Showalter his 1,481st managerial victory. The former State star moved into sole possession of 24th place on the all-time list, ahead of Earl Weaver. … Former Mississippi Braves Lucas Sims and Ozzie Albies debuted for Atlanta on Tuesday. Sims took the loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing three runs in six innings. Albies went 0-for-2 with a run.

01 Aug

exclusive company

Rookie Rafael Devers added his name to a small list on Monday when he went 4-for-4 for Boston against Cleveland. The list of Red Sox players who recorded four hits in a game at the age of 20 or younger now numbers five. Red Sox legends Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Tony Conigliaro did it, along with the lesser known Dalton Jones, a McComb native who spent six years with the BoSox in the 1960s. Jones, who went to high school in Louisiana, signed with Boston in 1961 and made the big club – at age 20 — out of spring training in 1964. He homered in his second game and notched two four-hit games that season, finishing with a .230 average. The lefty-hitting second baseman/third baseman was on Boston’s 1967 Impossible Dream team and went 7-for-18 in the World Series that year. Jones left the Red Sox after the 1969 season and played three more years with Detroit and Texas. His career average was .235 – not exactly the stuff of legend. But he is and always will be on that legendary list with Ruth, Williams, Conigliaro and the rising star Devers.