Monthly Archives: September 2017

17 Sep

shucker factor

The Milwaukee Brewers, desperate for every win they can get, will send former Mississippi State standout Brandon Woodruff to the bump today to face Miami, which is the “home” team at Miller Park. The Brewers are 4 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central and running 3 games off the pace in the wild card race. Woodruff, a rookie, has pitched well. The big right-hander is 1-2 with a 3.14 ERA in his five career starts. He is one of several former Biloxi Shuckers who could be key figures in the Brewers’ drive for the postseason. Seventeen Shuckers alums have reached the majors since the team debuted in 2015. The most accomplished of that group so far is shortstop Orlando Arcia, who is batting .273 with 14 homers, 48 RBIs and 13 steals in his second season as a starter. Brett Phillips, a spare outfielder for the Brewers, is the only other ex-Shuckers position player of note; he is batting .220 with two homers in 24 games. There are Shuckers aplenty on the Milwaukee pitching staff. Josh Hader, an electrifying left-hander, has had a significant impact out of the pen, posting a 1.85 ERA in 30 games. Brent Suter also has been effective with a 2-2 mark and 3.66 ERA in 19 games, including 11 starts. Jacob Barnes is 3-4, 4.29 with two saves. Taylor Williams (5.40 ERA in two appearances) and Aaron Wilkerson (scoreless inning in his debut on Friday) are the most recent call-ups. P.S. Northwest Mississippi Community College product Cody Reed notched his first career save for Cincinnati on Saturday, getting the last out against Pittsburgh. … Ex-State star Jonathan Holder has been recalled from the minors by the New York Yankees, who remain in the thick of the playoff race in the American League. Holder had a 1.69 ERA for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season and has a 3.58 in 34 games for New York.

16 Sep

stepping up

From Mike Minor’s save in Cleveland to Blaine Boyer’s last pitch at Tampa Bay, it was quite an eventful night for former Mississippi Braves in the major leagues. Minor notched the first save of his pro career on Friday as Kansas City stopped Cleveland’s record win streak at 22 games with a 4-3 victory. Minor, who has 17 holds and a 2.71 ERA, allowed a leadoff hit but then struck out the side to nail down the win for a Royals team clinging to postseason hopes. Ryan Buchter, another M-Braves alum, also threw a scoreless inning for KC. … Charlie Morton worked six innings for his 12th win and Evan Gattis went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs to help Houston knock off Seattle, another American League wild card hopeful. … Alex Wood tossed six shutout innings and fanned eight in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rout of Washington in a battle of the National League’s two best teams. Wood is now 15-3. … Andrelton Simmons went 2-for-4 with two RBIs to help the Los Angeles Angels, who sit in the No. 3 spot in the AL wild card standings, beat fading Texas 7-6. … In a game of much less significance, Sean Newcomb started and Arodys Vizcaino closed as Atlanta beat the New York Mets. Newcomb picked up his third win, Vizcaino his 11th save. … And in the game of the night, Boston scored seven runs in the 15th inning to finally put away Tampa Bay 13-6, with Boyer, a member of the 2005 M-Braves, working the last inning for the Red Sox as the 21st pitcher to appear in the game. Boston remained 3 games up on the New York Yankees in the AL East, while the Rays suffered a crippling defeat. P.S. Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland homered for Boston and needs one more to become the fifth Mississippian (native or college alum) with 20 bombs this season. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier hit his 31st for Minnesota on Friday, and Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart hit Nos. 21 and 22 for Cincinnati. Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson has 26 homers and former State standout Hunter Renfroe 20.

15 Sep

on this date

On this date in 1990, former Mississippi State standout Bobby Thigpen became the first pitcher in baseball history to reach the 50-save mark. Pitching for the Chicago White Sox, Thigpen closed out a 7-4 win over Boston. He had already set the MLB record for saves in a season with his 47th on Sept. 3. Thigpen finished the 1990 season with 57 saves, a mark that stood for 18 years. Francisco Rodriguez broke it in 2008 en route to 62. Thigpen’s mark is still second on the all-time list. Only 16 pitchers have reached 50 saves in a season. Thigpen, who retired in 1994 with 201 career saves, coached in the White Sox’s system for many years and as recently as last season was the big league team’s bullpen coach.

14 Sep

still out there

Hattiesburg native and onetime big leaguer Robert Carson is still out there chucking it in the hinterlands of pro baseball. Carson is a main bullpen piece for Southern Maryland, which won the first-half title in the Freedom Division of the independent Atlantic League. The Atlantic League, which is filled with a lot of veteran talent, is in the last week of its regular season with the playoffs looming. Carson, 28, a large left-hander, has a 4.00 ERA and a 3-4 record in 55 games for the Blue Crabs. He is in his 11th pro season, with 447 appearances on his ledger, including 31 for the New York Mets in 2012-13. Also in the league is former Ole Miss pitcher Hawtin Buchanan, who has put up a 3.26 ERA in 37 games as a reliever for York. The Revolution is close to clinching the second-half race in the Freedom Division. The 6-foot-8 Buchanan, originally drafted by Seattle in 2014, was released by Cincinnati in the spring. Alcorn State product Angel Rosa is the shortstop for Bridgeport, hitting .219 with two homers and 16 RBIs for a team that has the league’s best overall record but likely will miss the playoffs. Rosa, who played in the Southern League for Mobile this year, was released in mid-summer by the Los Angeles Angels. Jackson native Stan Cliburn, a veteran Atlantic League manager, is the skipper in New Britain, but his Bees are not a postseason contender in 2017.

14 Sep

time grows short

September is not the time to fall into a hitting funk. With their teams fighting for postseason berths, three Mississippians, all toiling in the American League East, are fighting slumps. With less than three weeks left in the season, Mitch Moreland, Seth Smith and Corey Dickerson need to rise and shine. Boston leads the division but only by 3 games over the New York Yankees. Moreland, the former Mississippi State star from Amory, has had a productive first year with the Red Sox (.248, 18 home runs, 68 RBIs) but currently finds himself in a 6-for-38 skid. He is homer-less in September. Jackson native and Ole Miss product Smith is just 2-for-23 in September for Baltimore, which sits 4.5 games out in the wild card chase and is desperate for some offensive spark. Smith, batting .259 overall, has contributed 13 homers and 31 RBIs in his first (and probably last) year with the Orioles. Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes are also rather dim; the Rays are 5 games out. Dickerson, the McComb native and ex-Meridian Community College standout, is just 3-for-35 this month and has been slumping for a while. He was hitting .312 at the All-Star break – when he started for the AL – but has hit .218 since with just 18 RBIs. For the year, he’s at .277 with 26 homers and 60 RBIs. The Rays would certainly love to see the All-Star version of Dickerson reemerge. P.S. For the record, ex-State star Dakota Hudson got the win for Memphis in Game 1 of the Pacific Coast League title series on Wednesday night; former Bulldogs slugger Hunter Renfroe went 1-for-4 for El Paso.

13 Sep

farm livin’

Crackle … buzzzz … crackle … We interrupt coverage of the heated major league races to take you to Memphis’ AutoZone Park, where, tonight, the Memphis Redbirds and El Paso Chihuahuas will open the best-of-5 Pacific Coast League Championship Series. Mississippians could play prominent roles. Dakota Hudson, former Mississippi State star, will start Game 1 for the Redbirds, a St. Louis affiliate, and he’ll likely face another ex-Bulldogs standout, Hunter Renfroe, an outfielder for the Chihuahuas, a San Diego farm club. Hudson was the Double-A Texas League pitcher of the year but scuffled a bit in Triple-A, going 1-1 with a 4.42 ERA in seven starts. He delivered a strong start in winning Game 1 of the PCL semifinals, yielding one run in six innings. Ole Miss product Mike Mayers works out of the Memphis bullpen. He had a 3.28 ERA in 31 games and made three scoreless appearances in the semifinal series. Renfroe, sent down by the Padres last month, hit .509 with four homers in 14 games in his return to El Paso, which he led to the PCL pennant in 2016. He had a homer and three RBIs in the Chihuahuas’ semifinal series sweep of Fresno. Renfroe should have some fond memories of AutoZone Park; he made his Triple-A debut there last summer and hit a home run, one of the 105 he has blasted in his five pro seasons.

13 Sep

hot and cold

It’s becoming clear what kind of hitter Tim Anderson is. In a word: streaky. The East Central Community College product, now the Chicago White Sox’s shortstop, went 2-for-4 on Tuesday to boost his September average to .405. Anderson batted .204 in April but rebounded to hit .319 in May. He hit a summer swoon in June and July, batting .206. He started hot in August, hitting safely in 14 of his first 16 games that month before cooling off. But he has cranked it back up in September. He has three three-hit games this month and is up to .252 for the year with 16 homers, 60 RBIs and nine steals. He hit .283 as a rookie. White Sox fans best get used to this streakiness: Anderson, drafted 17th overall out of ECCC in 2013, is signed for five more years. P.S. Some magic numbers from Tuesday: Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier hit his 30th homer, marking the second time he has reached that figure. He was a double shy of a cycle in Minnesota’s 16-0 drubbing of San Diego. … Ex-Ole Miss star Zack Cozart reached the 20-homer plateau for the first time, taking former Rebels teammate Lance Lynn deep. But Lynn, now 11-7, won the day as St. Louis whipped Cincinnati 13-4. … Former Mississippi Braves standout Ozzie Albies stretched his hitting streak to 10 games as Atlanta zapped Washington 8-0. Albies, the rookie second baseman, went 3-for-5 with his third homer and is hitting .293 with 18 RBIs in 39 games.

12 Sep

that other streak

The “Moneyball” A’s are back in the news, thanks to Cleveland’s remarkable winning streak. The Indians will seek their 20th straight win tonight, which would tie the 2002 Oakland club’s American League record. The A’s record – and the 20th win, in particular – were made famous by the “Moneyball” book and movie. Former Jackson Mets star Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt in the movie, was the Oakland GM and, of course, star of the film. Chad Bradford, a Byram High, Hinds Community College and Southern Miss alum, also gained a measure of fame from “Moneyball” as one of the frequently featured players. His role in the winning streak is worthy of mention. A situational, submarine-style right-hander, Bradford made eight appearances during the A’s record roll from Aug. 13-Sept. 4, 2002. He did not allow a run in six of those games. One of his two rough outings came in the Sept. 4 game, which was immortalized in the movie. Bradford allowed four runs in a third of an inning as the A’s blew an 11-0 lead against Kansas City. As all the world knows, the A’s won on the dramatic walk-off homer by Scott Hatteberg, who was played by Chris Pratt in the movie. The part of Bradford was played by an ex-minor league pitcher named Casey Bond. The real-life Bradford posted a 3.11 ERA in 75 games for Oakland in 2002, his second year with the team and fifth of 12 he spent in the big leagues.

12 Sep

oh, that hurts

Jarrod Dyson – and the Seattle Mariners – got some bad news on Monday when it was revealed that the M’s center fielder would have season-ending surgery for an apparent sports hernia. The Southwest Mississippi Community College product from McComb hit .251 with five homers, 30 RBIs, 56 runs and 28 steals in 111 games. He also had 11 outfield assists. The Mariners, still in the American League wild card hunt, will no doubt miss Dyson. “When he was healthy, he did a lot for us in the outfield defense-wise and what he can do on the bases, that’s his game,” Seattle manager Scott Servais told the Seattle Times. Dyson, 33, is a free agent at the end of this season. He joins a sizable list of Mississippians in the majors who have suffered significant injuries this season. Billy Hamilton and Bobby Wahl are also out for the year, and Kendall Graveman, Tony Sipp, Brandon Woodruff, Zack Cozart and Adam Frazier missed chunks of time. Woodruff’s big league debut was delayed by a pregame injury. Anthony Alford, called up by Toronto on May 19, went on the DL on May 24, was optioned back to the minors on July 25 and hasn’t been back up. JaCoby Jones also was knocked out of the big leagues by an injury, though he is with Detroit again now.

11 Sep

golden moment

Brandon High’s J.T. Ginn struck out the last batter in the ninth inning on Sunday as Team USA claimed gold in the Under 18 World Cup in Canada. Ginn pitched a perfect ninth in the 8-0 victory over Korea, calling it the “best moment of my life” on Twitter. A prep All-American in 2017 and a Mississippi State commit, Ginn worked 3 1/3 innings in four appearances in the tournament and allowed no hits and no runs with six strikeouts and two walks. Team USA went 9-0 in the World Cup, which it won for the fourth straight time.