June 2020 - Page 2 of 2 - All Mississippi Baseball

12 Jun

worth noting

William (Bill) Foster, widely considered the best left-hander in Negro Leagues history, was born on this date in 1904 in Texas. His mother died when he was 4 and he was raised by his maternal grandparents in Rodney, according to Negro Leagues historian James Riley. A ghost town no longer on the map, Rodney is listed by the National Baseball Hall of Fame as Foster’s hometown. It was 12 miles from Lorman and Alcorn A&M, where Foster reportedly made the college baseball team while in sixth grade. In the Negro Leagues, Foster was credited with 143 wins, played on several championship teams and started and won the inaugural East-West All-Star Classic in 1933. He was selected to Cooperstown posthumously in 1996. Foster, who claimed to hold a winning record head-to-head against the great Satchel Paige, threw a variety of pitches. “Now, if you can keep a man off balance, he can’t hit the ball hard,” Foster told historian John Holway. “How do I keep him off balance? And with what pitches? It boils down to the fact that I had to have one motion to control every pitch.” After his pro playing days, he served as a coach and dean at Alcorn State from 1960 until just before his death in ’78. The Braves’ field bears his name.

12 Jun

more draft doodles

For baseball fans who love this sort of thing – and most do – Baltimore’s selection of Ole Miss’ Anthony Servideo in the MLB draft on Thursday completed a cool historical connection. Servideo’s grandfather was Curt Blefary, who broke into the majors with the Orioles in 1965 and won American League rookie of the year honors. Blefary, who played eight years in the majors, died in 2001, when Servideo was 2. Servideo, a shortstop, was the O’s third-round pick, 74th overall. … All told, seven in-state players were picked in the five rounds of the draft, three from Mississippi State, two from Ole Miss and two high schoolers. Also, former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet was the 11th overall pick out of Tennessee. … Justin Foscue, drafted 14th overall by Texas on Wednesday, is the 13th Mississippi State player to be picked in the first round since the MLB draft started in 1965. State is now tied for 11th place with two others on the list of schools with the most first-round picks. Stanford tops the chart with 24; the SEC leader is Vanderbilt with 18. … The top prep pick from the state was not a surprise: slugger Blaze Jordan from DeSoto Central. It was a surprise to the team that drafted him, Boston, that Jordan lasted late into the third round. Red Sox amateur scouting director Paul Toboni told mlb.com: “Quite frankly, we didn’t think he’d make it that far in the draft. He’s a unique talent. A ton of power upside with a good feel to hit.” The slot value of the 89th pick, per mlb.com, is $667,000. The Red Sox could offer more to entice the 17-year-old State signee to turn pro. … The slot value of the 52nd overall pick, where State’s J.T. Ginn was taken by the New York Mets on Thursday, is $1.4 million. Ginn, currently rehabbing from elbow surgery, turned down $2M-plus two years ago as the 30th pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The right-hander has three years of eligibility left at State. The Mets reportedly are confident – and hopeful — he’ll sign. A Mets scouting executive said of Ginn, “He’s got all the qualities of being a top-of-the-rotation guy.” … Detroit’s selection of Biloxi High’s Colt Keith in the fifth round marked the continuation of a trend: All six of the rebuilding Tigers’ picks were hitters, including the No. 1 overall pick, Spencer Torkelson out of Arizona State, and three are third basemen. Keith, an ASU signee, oddly enough, was drafted as a third sacker, though he also played shortstop and pitched. He was Mississippi’s Gatorade player of the year in 2019. “We got a high-ceiling third baseman that we’re excited to get, a left-handed hitter,” Detroit scouting director Scott Pleis told mlb.com.

11 Jun

a little draft drama

A handful of in-state players could be picked during the four rounds of Day 2 of the MLB draft, but none carries more intrigue than J.T. Ginn or Blaze Jordan. Right-hander Ginn, a sophomore-eligible at Mississippi State, is listed by ESPN as the fifth-best player available today. Jordan, a senior infielder out of DeSoto Central High, is, at No. 42, among mlb.com’s top 10 rated prospects still available. (Ginn is No. 44 on mlb.com’s chart.) Ginn’s situation is clouded by the fact he had Tommy John surgery in March. He was drafted 30th overall in 2018 as a two-way star at Brandon High but passed on a $2 million bonus to play at State. He had a strong freshman year – 8-4, 3.17 ERA – but began to develop an arm problem, which ultimately led to the surgery. That could impact the signing bonus he’ll be offered if he’s drafted today. Plus, he has three years of eligibility left at State, so he might just decide to stay in school. Jordan has been on pro scouts’ radar for several years; he famously slugged a 500-foot home run in a contest when he was 13. Now 17, he is listed at 6 feet 2, 220 pounds. His power potential is unquestioned. His ability to make consistent contact reportedly might be an issue. He played a lot of third base at DeSoto and in summer ball but may be better suited to first. Jordan is an MSU signee and could well wind up in Starkville if he slides to, say, the fourth or fifth round. P.S. A third in-state college summer league is set to get underway on Saturday when the Deep South Collegiate League debuts in Laurel. The DSCL, organized by Gulfport High assistant coach Colton Caver, will play the rest of its schedule at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville and Columbia High. … The New Albany-based Cotton States League opened its 12th season on June 5. The wood-bat college summer league has 10 teams this year, up from six in 2019. … The new Southeast Collegiate League, based in Jackson, Hattiesburg and Baton Rouge, La., was scheduled to start play this week. The SECL is also slated to play some games at PRCC’s field.

10 Jun

welcome to show

It has only happened 30 times in major league history. First career at-bat. First pitch. Home run. Louisville native Marcus Thames did it on this date in 2002. And he did it against a future Hall of Famer, no less: Randy Johnson. Thames was batting ninth for the New York Yankees before a crowd of 45,000-plus at Yankee Stadium. Johnson was pitching for Arizona in an interleague rematch of the 2001 World Series. Johnson threw a fastball up and over the middle and the right-handed hitting Thames deposited it over the left-center field wall. The two-run bomb in the third inning gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead – yes, Thames got a curtain call from the amped-up crowd — and the Yanks went on to beat the Diamondbacks 7-5. Thames, now the Yankees’ hitting coach, wasn’t drafted out of high school and wasn’t picked until the 30th round out of East Central Community College by the Yankees in 1996. Defying the odds, he went on to play parts of 10 MLB seasons. And that show of power on June 10, 2002, was no fluke. He hit a bunch of big home runs, 115 all told in the big leagues on top of 147 more in the minors. … Other notables on the list of batters to homer on the first pitch they saw: Bert Campaneris, Jay Bell, Kaz Matsui, Starling Marte and Willson Contreras, the last to do it in 2016.

09 Jun

draft board

Only one in-state player – Mississippi State’s Justin Foscue — is projected by mlb.com to get picked in Wednesday’s first round of the MLB draft. The junior second baseman is pegged to go to Minnesota as the No. 27 pick in the latest mock draft. Former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet, a big left-hander now at Tennessee, is predicted to go 14th overall to Texas. ESPN’s latest mock draft has Crochet going to Texas at 14, Foscue to the New York Mets at 19 and State shortstop Jordan Westburg to the Los Angeles Dodgers at 29. … The highest any state college player has been picked is second: State’s Will Clark in 1985. The top high school pick is Ted Nicholson, taken third overall out of Laurel’s Oak Park in 1969. … Nine in-state players appear in mlb.com’s Top 200 draft prospects list, with DeSoto Central High’s Blaze Jordan the highest rated prep player at No. 42. All the attention given Jordan in recent years doesn’t seem to have gone to his head. In an interview published by Baseball America last summer, Jordan said he “would describe myself as being respectful to the game and just always hustling and playing hard. … Wearing my jersey right and making sure everything is done right.” Jordan said his favorite player is Miguel Cabrera, and he thinks his swing is similar to the former Triple Crown winner’s. Jordan, the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year and a Mississippi State signee, has prodigious power, ranking among the top 10 power hitters in the draft per MLB Pipeline. … Colt Keith, who played at Biloxi High the last two years after moving from Arizona, is considered one of the best two-way players in this year’s draft class. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Keith is a right-handed pitcher and a left-handed hitting shortstop/third baseman. He is an Arizona State signee. His approach to the game? “I think for me, and I encourage other baseball players too, always play like it’s your last game,” he told WXXV-TV of Gulfport. … Columbia Academy’s Slade Wilks and Brandon’s Kellum Clark are other possible high school picks in this year’s abbreviated five-round draft. … The lone state juco player in mlb.com’s Top 200 is lefty Dalton Fowler (No. 154), a sophomore at Northwest Mississippi CC in 2020. The 6-foot-6 Fowler, from Tennessee, was picked in the 27th round in 2019 by the New York Mets but didn’t sign. He was 4-0 with a 1.89 ERA this season and 6-2, 3.76 as a freshman.

08 Jun

singular achievement

With the Little League World Series having been cancelled for 2020, the grand accomplishment of the 1977 Hub City team will go unmatched for at least another year. That Hattiesburg team, launched from Vernon Dahmer Park and featuring future big leaguer Charlie Hayes and future Southern Miss football star Andrew Mott, is the only Mississippi squad to reach Williamsport, Pa., home of the LLWS since 1947. Hub City, one of eight teams in the field that year, did not win the championship – they won the consolation bracket after falling in the first round – but made quite the impression at the event. A Sports Illustrated story about the ’77 LLWS described Hub City as “an all-black team that was the loosest, friendliest and most relaxed of the bunch. The Mississippi kids milled about International Grove—which other bored U.S. clubs christened ‘Stalag 17’—in happy confinement, soul-slapping everybody in sight and setting up a souvenir money exchange with the Taiwanese, as well as playing well enough on the field to win the consolation-round championship.” Coached by Kenneth Fairley and Robert “Boot” Walker, Hub City lost to undefeated California 3-1 in its opening game, then beat Spain 10-2 and Ohio 9-2 for the consolation crown. Hayes would go on to star at Forrest County AHS and then play 14 years in the big leagues. He is one of a small bunch of players who have appeared in both the LLWS and the major league World Series; he won a ring with 1996 New York Yankees. (Former Ole Miss standout Lance Lynn, from Indiana, also achieved that double.) Mott played four years at USM as a wide receiver/kick returner and for a time held the school record for longest TD reception. “We didn’t have much, but we had each other,” Craig Walker, another member of the Hub City team, told sports601.com in a 2019 story. “If kids today believed in themselves (like we did) and never let others bring them down, they could go back and do it again.”

05 Jun

here and there

On this date five years ago, the Biloxi Shuckers ended the 54-game road trip that launched their inaugural season with a victory at Birmingham. They stood at 33-21 when they won their first game at MGM Park, which had been under construction, the next night. The Shuckers went on to clinch the first-half championship in the Southern League South on June 14 with a win over the Mississippi Braves at Trustmark Park. That Shuckers team, a Milwaukee affiliate, featured Josh Hader, Orlando Arcia (who hit the first homer at MGM), Adrian Houser and Brent Suter, among others, and reached the SL Championship Series before falling to Chattanooga. … On June 5, 1992, Pete Young, the ex-Mississippi State and McComb High star, made his MLB debut for Montreal, throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Young posted a 3.86 ERA in 17 games over two years with the Expos. … Among the big wave of minor league players released in recent days by major league clubs are: Southern Miss alum Luke Reynolds (by the Chicago Cubs), ex-Mississippi State standout Jacob Billingsley (Houston), MSU product Hunter Stovall (Philadelphia), former Ole Miss star Chris Ellis (St. Louis), George County High alum Walker Robbins (St. Louis) and ex-MSU standout Daniel Brown (Milwaukee). Ellis, also a former M-Braves pitcher, made his big league debut last summer, appearing in one game for Kansas City. … Looking ahead to next week’s draft: If State’s Justin Foscue goes in the first round (as widely projected), the second baseman will be the 13th Bulldogs player to be picked in the opening round since the draft started in 1965. That’s more than all but 14 other schools, according to mlb.com. Stanford leads the way with 23 first-rounders, followed by Arizona State with 21. Six schools have had 13 first-round picks. … The Cotton States League is slated to open its season tonight with three games at two different fields at BNA Bank Park in New Albany. The wood-bat college summer league is in its 12th year. The new Southeast Collegiate League, based in Jackson, Hattiesburg and Baton Rouge, La., starts play next week. … New coaches are settling in at two state junior colleges. Luke Stanley, former Delta State player from Oxford, is the new Mississippi Delta CC coach, replacing Dan Rives, who moved into the AD chair. Longtime Holmes CC coach Kenny Dupont retired and is succeeded by Scott DeLoach, a former Mississippi State player from Madison.

02 Jun

nostalgia

Mississippi baseball aficionados may get a dose of nostalgia today if they follow the semifinals of mlb.com’s Dream Bracket 2, the computer-generated tournament matching some of the outstanding teams of recent years. The 1986 New York Mets, loaded with former Jackson Mets, are in the National League semis against the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. On the American League side, the 2001 Seattle Mariners, featuring three ex-Jackson Generals, take on the 2004 Boston Red Sox. The ’86 Mets, feeding on a farm system that had produced three Texas League titles (1981, ’84 and ’85), trotted out former OJMs Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra, Jesse Orosco, Mookie Wilson, Wally Backman and Rick Aguilera, to name a few. The Generals, Houston’s Double-A club, claimed two TL pennants during their nine-year run at Smith-Wills Stadium and produced a long list of major leaguers. Three of them – Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen and John Halama — were on the ’01 Mariners club that won an MLB-record 116 games in the regular season before falling to the New York Yankees in the ALCS. Those three were part of the blockbuster trade in July of 1998 in which the Astros acquired Randy Johnson from the M’s. Johnson went 10-1 for the Astros down the stretch but was 0-2 in the NLDS and then departed as a free agent to Arizona. Seattle, meanwhile, got long-term returns on the trade. All three ex-Gens were impactful players on the ’01 club. Garcia, a starting right-hander, went 18-6 with a 3.05 ERA and logged 238 2/3 innings, most on the staff. Halama, a lefty swingman, was 10-7 with a 4.73 in 31 games, 17 starts. Guillen, a good fielding shortstop, batted .259 with five homers and 53 RBIs as a complimentary piece in a loaded lineup with Ichiro Suzuki, Edgar Martinez and Bret Boone. P.S. On June 2, 1935, Babe Ruth announced his retirement at age 40. On July 11, 1914, Ruth, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, struck out in his first career at-bat against Pleasant Grove native Willie Mitchell. On May 30, 1935, batting third for the Boston Braves, Ruth grounded out against Jackson native Jim Bivin in the first inning. It was Ruth’s final career at-bat; he was replaced in left field by Ludlow native Hal Lee. In between those two ABs, Ruth belted 714 home runs, which stood as the record for almost 40 years.

01 Jun

digging up data

In the manager’s office at Smith-Wills Stadium one day many years ago, Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan joked with Jackson Generals hitting coach and ex-big league masher Jorge Orta. “Jorge, this might be the first time I was ever glad to see you coming,” a grinning Ryan said as Orta approached for a handshake. In reality, Ryan handled Orta pretty well in their career matchups, holding him to a .179 average in 79 at-bats and striking him out 30 times. To be fair, Orta did hit a couple of home runs off the 324-game winner. Know who Ryan really hated to see coming? Will Clark. The former Mississippi State star famously homered against Ryan in his first career at-bat in 1986 and went on to smack five more bombs against him. No batter in MLB history hit more homers against Ryan, whose amazing career spanned 27 seasons (1966-1993). Clark was 12-for-36 career vs. Ryan, who did punch him out 12 times, adding to his MLB record total of 5,714 K’s. On the website baseball-reference.com, you can dig up career pitcher-batter matchups like those, and if you’ve got some time to kill, it’s worth a deep dive. Just taking Ryan as an example, you can decipher that he faced roughly two dozen Mississippians over the years. Rafael Palmeiro, Clark’s old MSU teammate, didn’t fare so well, going 2-for-12, two K’s. Jackson native Chet Lemon managed just five hits in 41 ABs vs. Ryan, fanning 18 times. Grenada native Dave Parker struck out 23 times and never took Ryan deep, though Parker hit .281 with a .338 OBP in 70 plate appearances. Greenville’s George Scott didn’t homer off Ryan either but did reach base 26 times in 67 plate appearances (.388 OBP) with 16 K’s. Former Shannon High star Dave Clark got just four at-bats against Ryan, but his one hit was a home run. Ex-Ole Miss star Donnie Kessinger and Gulfport native Bill Melton gave Ryan fits. Kessinger posted a .425 OBP and fanned just twice in 40 plate appearances. Melton hit two homers off Ryan and reached base 18 times against him, good for a .429 OBP.