Monthly Archives: August 2023

23 Aug

triple-a mashers

They played a Triple-A baseball game in Louisville on Tuesday that produced a football-type score and saw a couple of Mississippi products deliver big hits. Biloxi High alum Colt Keith hit his seventh homer, drove in three runs and scored three to help Toledo smack down the host Bats 24-10. Ex-Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson went 2-for-4 with his 11th homer and drove in five runs for Louisville. Keith, one of Detroit’s top prospects, is hitting .258 and appears on the cusp of a big league call-up, though it might not happen in 2023. Robinson, in his seventh pro season, is having a huge year for Cincinnati’s top farm club, batting .315 with 66 RBIs. He is a .261 career hitter in the minors and hit .136 in 25 games with the Reds last summer. (Former Madison Central standout Spencer Turnbull, on a rehab assignment with Toledo, started and yielded three runs in 3 2/3 innings, running his ERA to 7.71 in four starts for the Mud Hens.) … At Triple-A Round Rock, where the scoring also ran high, Mississippi College product Blaine Crim went 4-for-5 with his 16th homer to power the Express to a 9-6 win over Salt Lake. Crim, in his fourth season in Texas’ system, is batting .296 with 62 RBIs. He has yet to receive an MLB look.

22 Aug

going places

Coming soon to the Mississippi Braves’ lineup: Brandon Parker. The former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star from Saucier, just off the injured list, has been promoted to Double-A, though he is not starting tonight at Montgomery. A 2019 draftee by Atlanta, after winning NJCAA Division II player of the year honors at Perk, Parker was hitting .250 with five homers, 21 RBIs and 10 steals for the High-Class A Rome Braves. He has been on the injured list since July 25 and just completed a rehab assignment in rookie ball. The 6-foot, 205-pound outfielder has 26 career homers in 231 minor league games. … Parker might get a chance during the six-game series against the Biscuits to face former Mississippi State standout Colby White, whose journey back from arm surgery has led him back to Montgomery, where he spent part of the 2021 season en route to reaching Triple-A in Tampa Bay’s system. White, on the Rays’ 40-man roster, has a 1.86 career ERA in 74 minor league games since 2019. … Also moving up today is ex-MSU standout Kellum Clark, a 20th-round pick by the New York Mets in July. He was hitting .308 in rookie ball, earning a promotion to Class A St. Lucie.

22 Aug

great timing

Brent Rooker hit a milestone home run on Sunday, his 20th of the season accounting for Oakland’s lone run in a 12-1 loss to Baltimore. On Monday, the ex-Mississippi State star hit a much more significant home run, No. 21 producing a walk-off 6-4 victory for the A’s over Kansas City at Oakland Coliseum. Not only that, the homer came just in time for Rooker and some teammates to scurry over to the Oakland Arena and catch the show by Rooker’s favorite country music star, Zach Bryan. Rooker even made an appearance on stage with Bryan, who was performing before a crowd quite a bit larger than the 3,095 who watched the two worst teams in baseball fight to the finish on Monday. It has been a roller coaster of a season for Rooker, who joined the A’s as an off-season waiver claim from the Royals. He ht .358 with nine homers in April, which earned him an appearance on MLB Network’s MLB Central show and propelled him to his first All-Star Game nod. There have been a lot of struggles since then, but Rooker’s bat has perked up recently. He is hitting .346 over his last seven games. “Swing and approach-wise, I feel pretty solid,” he said. Rooker, batting .245 with 53 RBIs, and many of his teammates may be vying for 2024 jobs with the lowly A’s, who are 35-90. … Rooker stands second on the All-Mississippi Home Run Derby chart to Austin Riley, who has 29 this season. Hunter Renfroe is at 18, Nathaniel Lowe at 15, Adam Frazier at 13 and Matt Wallner at nine.

19 Aug

on quite a roll

Putting a cap on a remarkable year, Belhaven University pitcher Brett Sanchez got the win in the Northwoods League championship game on Friday night. Sanchez’s Green Bay Rockers beat St. Cloud 4-3 to win the college summer league title. Sanchez earned league pitcher of the year honors after posting a 6-2 record with a 3.23 ERA in 10 starts. The sidearming right-hander from Louisiana previously was named the NCAA Division III Collegiate Conference of the South’s pitcher of the year and d3baseball.com’s national pitcher of the year for 2023. He went 5-2 with a save and a CCS-best 1.91 ERA and 102 strikeouts. Sanchez has 26 wins over four years at BU and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist in 2022. He apparently has eligibility remaining with the Blazers, who will have a new coach for the 2024 season. Andrew Gipson, who played and coached for the Blazers under Hill Denson, has replaced Kyle Palmer. Gipson previously worked as an assistant at D-I Southeastern Louisiana.

19 Aug

when opportunity knocks

There were 612 players selected in the 2021 MLB draft. Walker Powell was not among them. A few weeks after the draft, the Chicago Cubs gave Powell an opportunity in pro ball — and the former Southern Miss star has run with it. The 6-foot-8 right-hander, now pitching for Double-A Tennessee, posted his 10th win of the season, going six innings Friday night in a 10-5 win against Rocket City. He allowed two hits, two runs, no walks and struck out eight. He has won six straight starts, beating both Mississippi and Biloxi during that streak. Powell, 27, who isn’t rated among the Cubs’ top prospects, leads the Southern League in wins and WHIP (1.04) and ranks fourth in ERA (3.79) and batting average against (.230). In his brief pro career, Powell, a self-described “pitch to contact guy,” is 21-7 with a 3.38. Arkansas native Powell spent six years at USM, including a medical redshirt year (Tommy John surgery) in 2017 and the curtailed (COVID-19) 2020 season, and won 30 games all told. In 2021, he went 10-2, 2.31, tossed a no-hitter and claimed C-USA pitcher of the year honors for the league champion Golden Eagles. The Cubs signed him as a free agent on July 30, 2021. He recently told WXXV-TV of Gulfport that he hopes to make the big leagues someday but isn’t hyper-focused on that goal. “I’m just trying to enjoy every second I’m on the baseball field,” Powell said. P.S. USM alum Matt Wallner, now with Minnesota, was hit by a pitch on the right hand Friday night but X-rays were negative for a break. He has had some big hits of late (see previous post) for the first-place Twins. … In a case of Bulldog-on-Bulldog crime, Nathaniel Lowe of Texas took Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff deep in the fourth inning for the Rangers’ first two runs. It was Mississippi State alum Lowe’s 15th homer, his only hit Friday. Fellow MSU product Woodruff (four runs in 5 1/3 innings) got a no-decision as the Brewers won 9-8 in a matchup of first-place clubs.

18 Aug

a few atta-boys

Emaarion Boyd, the second-year pro out of South Panola High, got the walk-off knock Thursday for Low-Class A Clearwater in the Philadelphia organization. Boyd was 2-for-5 with a walk, a run and a triple in the 5-4, 11-inning win against Dunedin. Boyd, 19, the Phillies’ No. 13 prospect, ranks second in the Florida State League in steals (49), fifth in runs (65), ninth in triples (five) and 10th in batting average (.272). “His ceiling is that of a speedy table-setter,” according to the scouting report on mlb.com. … Lance Lynn, former Ole Miss star, tossed seven shutout innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat Milwaukee 1-0 for their 11th straight win on an eighth-inning homer by Austin Barnes. The Dodgers are 4-0 in Lynn’s four starts since acquiring the veteran right-hander from the Chicago White Sox and 3-0 in his starts at Dodger Stadium. “I’ve always enjoyed pitching in this ballpark, and it’s definitely a lot better as a home player,” Lynn told mlb.com. He is 3-0 with a 1.44 for the Dodgers after going 6-9, 6.47, with the struggling ChiSox. … Tim Elko, the ex-Ole Miss slugger, hit his first Double-A home run for Birmingham and now has 23 for the season across three levels. A 2022 draftee by the White Sox, the big first baseman is batting .267 for the Barons, .301 with 88 RBIs for the year. … East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, now with the White Sox, finally issued an apology (on Instagram) for the fight he started with Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez on Aug. 5. Anderson will begin serving a five-game suspension (reduced from six on appeal) today. The two-time All-Star and 2019 batting champ went 2-for-17 while his appeal was pending and is at .230 for the year. … Konnor Griffin, Jackson Prep’s two-way star, and Samuel Richardson, Lewisburg High slugger, are among the 50 players on the rosters for Sunday’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in Phoenix. Both played on state championship teams this past season. Pitcher/outfielder Griffin, an LSU commit considered a top MLB draft prospect for next summer, participated in the Baseball Factory/Under Armour All-America Game last Sunday in Arlington, Texas, and has been invited to USA Baseball’s 18U national team tryout camp set for Aug. 21-25 in California. Those who make the final roster will compete for Team USA in the U-18 World Cup in Taiwan in September. Richardson, a Missouri commit, played in the Hank Aaron Invitational in Atlanta on July 30. … Drew Davis, a pitcher/infielder at Sumrall, has made the 15U Team USA that is going to the Dominican Republic for a tournament in September.

17 Aug

to the rescue

On a night when ace Justin Verlander got a little wobbly, Kendall Graveman led a four-man relay team of relievers who carried home Houston’s 12-5 win against Miami. Former Mississippi State standout Graveman, rescued from the sinking Chicago White Sox at the trade deadline, has been just what the Astros wanted, posting a 2.35 ERA in seven appearances. After Verlander allowed a five-run lead to shrink to one on Wednesday night, Graveman replaced him in the sixth inning and put the Marlins down 1-2-3 on eight pitches. (None of the four Astros relievers allowed a hit.) It was Graveman’s fourth straight scoreless outing for a team that is trying to chase down Texas in the American League West. (The Rangers lost Wednesday and lead by just 2.5 games.) Graveman, a converted starter now in his ninth MLB season, is in his second stint with the Astros, who acquired him from Seattle in a deadline trade in 2021. After helping Houston reach the ’21 World Series, he went to the White Sox as a free agent. He pitched well there, racking up 14 saves and 35 holds in 110 games before the Astros, the reigning world champs, got him back. “It’s an organization that’s run very well and … (I’m) thankful that they would want me back,” he told the Houston Chronicle at the time of the trade. P.S. Charlie Morton was masterful for Atlanta in a 2-0 win against the New York Yankees, notching his 12th win of 2023 and 128th career. That total leads all former Mississippi Braves by a wide margin on the career wins list. For the record, the leader among former Jackson Generals is Freddy Garcia with 156. Kevin Tapani, with 143, is tops among ex-Jackson Mets. … Tough break for ex-Ole Miss star Justin Bench, who was hitting .354 at Low-Class A San Jose (San Francisco system) when he went on the injured list on Wednesday. A utility player who made the All-College World Series team for the ’22 champs, Bench hit .370 in rookie ball before moving up to San Jose in mid-July.

16 Aug

crowd-pleaser

Matt Wallner will strike out. He struck out three times for Minnesota on Tuesday night. Matt Wallner will also hit home runs, big ones, like the game-turning grand slam the ex-Southern Miss star stroked Tuesday night for the Twins in a 5-3 win over Detroit. “That’s not one we will forget. That was more than a nice swing,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told mlb.com. Wallner’s 450-foot bomb to right-center field was his first career slam in the big leagues, and it earned the Minnesota native and lifelong Twins fan a curtain call from the 30,000-plus at Target Field. The win kept the first-place Twins 4.5 games ahead of Cleveland in the American League Central. Wallner said in a postgame TV interview that his swing felt terrible at the start of the night, but that changed in the sixth inning when he sent a pitch from Will Vest into the upper deck. “Just felt like I hit it about as good as I could,” the lefty-hitting outfielder said in an Associated Press article. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Wallner has struck out 36 times in 104 at-bats over 38 games for Minnesota this season. He also has belted nine homers, five in his last 15 games. Lots of K’s, lots of bombs: That’s the yin and yang of many contemporary sluggers. Wallner mashed a school-record 58 homers in three seasons at USM, a show of power that got him drafted 38th overall in 2019. He made his MLB debut last September and, of course, homered in his first game. P.S. Mississippi State product Dakota Hudson improved to 3-0 in three starts since returning to St. Louis’ rotation. He went 6 2/3 (two runs) in a 6-2 win against Oakland. … Former Madison Central High standout Spencer Turnbull, on a rehab assignment for Detroit, allowed six runs in five innings for Triple-A Toledo. … Drew Lugbauer, the Mississippi Braves’ all-time home run king, hit a homer in his first game for Triple-A Gwinnett. Lugbauer, promoted on Tuesday, hit 68 homers over three seasons for the Double-A M-Braves. … At Trustmark Park, Biloxi’s Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee’s No. 4 prospect, yielded one hit in six dominant innings as the first-place Shuckers beat the last-place M-Braves 3-0 in the Southern League. Looking like a right-handed Chris Sale, the 6-foot-7 Misiorowski struck out 12 batters. The M-Braves fanned 17 times all told.

15 Aug

advantage, shuckers

Based on the MLB Pipeline prospect rankings, Biloxi vs. Mississippi doesn’t look like a fair fight. The Shuckers, in Pearl tonight for the start of a six-game Southern League series, feature four of the Milwaukee Brewers’ top seven prospects, including the No. 1, outfielder Jackson Chourio. Chourio is the No. 2 overall prospect in the minors, and catcher Jeferson Quero, Milwaukee’s No. 3, is 34th overall. The M-Braves have only one of Atlanta’s top 20: left-hander Luis De Avila, ranked 14th. Based on the league standings, the Shuckers also appear to have the edge. Though the M-Braves lead the season series 11-10, the Shuckers currently lead the SL South with a 21-18 second-half mark. The M-Braves are 16-22, 4.5 games back in last place. In tonight’s opener at Trustmark Park, the M-Braves will trot out Alan Rangel (2-12, 5.46 ERA) against Brewers No. 4 prospect Jacob Misiorowski (1-1, 7.80, in four Double-A starts). On Wednesday, the Shuckers will start No. 7 prospect Carlos F. Rodriguez (7-4, 2.63). De Avila (6-7, 3.01) goes for Mississippi on Friday. Of note: Jesse Franklin V, Atlanta’s No. 22 prospect, is coming in hot for the M-Braves: He went 6-for-19 with two home runs and four RBIs last week and has a 23-game on-base streak. Franklin is batting .241 with 13 homers and 38 RBIs. M-Braves slugger Drew Lugbauer leads the SL in homers with 22, four more than Shuckers leader Wes Clarke. Tyler Black, who tops the league in steals with 47, was recently promoted from Biloxi to Triple-A Nashville.

15 Aug

under the radar

It’s tough to get much attention in the American Association, an independent league of mostly Midwest teams with odd nicknames. Gavin Collins deserves a little love. The Mississippi State alum has banged out 16 hits over his last 10 games for the Kansas City Monarchs, a .381 clip that has boosted his average to .314. Playing catcher and some third base, Collins, 28, has 10 homers and 41 RBIs for a team that leads the AA’s West Division with a 46-33 record. Collins may also have found it difficult to get much attention while at MSU, where, in his junior year of 2016, his teammates included Brent Rooker, Nathaniel Lowe, Dakota Hudson, Ethan Small, Konnor Pilkington and Jake Mangum. Collins hit .302 for a 44-win team that reached a Super Regional, and he was a 13th-round pick by Cleveland in the 2016 draft. He spent six years in the Indians/Guardians’ minor league system, batting .246 overall and reaching the Triple-A level. He became a free agent at the end of the 2022 season, signed with Tampa Bay and went to the Rays’ spring training camp before being released at the end of March. He then signed with the Monarchs, who also suit up ex-Bulldogs standout Jacob Robson, Delta State product Dalton Moats and Chris Herrmann — another catcher, one who spent eight years in the big leagues and currently leads the team in average, homers and RBIs. P.S. With Ozzie Albies on the injured list, Atlanta reportedly has called up former Mississippi Braves star Vaughn Grissom from Triple-A Gwinnett, probably as the backup to Nicky Lopez at second base. Grissom, a righty hitter, is hitting .327 with six homers and 50 RBIs. The Braves’ other infield option at Gwinnett was ex-M-Braves star Braden Shewmake, a lefty hitter and better fielder than Grissom who is batting .229 with 13 homers, 57 RBIs and 20 steals. That’s some kinda system depth. … Also back in The Show is former M-Braves infielder Johan Camargo, recently signed and called up Monday by San Francisco. Camargo spent 10 years in the Atlanta system and was in Pearl in 2016.