July 16, 2025 - All Mississippi Baseball

just stuff

Adam Frazier left Kansas City as a free agent last fall. Today, the Royals decided they wanted him back. They sent a Triple-A prospect to Pittsburgh to reacquire the Mississippi State product, a utility player who was batting .255 with three homers and 21 RBIs for the last-place Pirates. The Royals are 47-50 and playing better of late. Frazier, a lefty hitter, had a down year with KC in 2024 but is a .263 career hitter in 10 MLB seasons with five different clubs. He has 63 homers and 62 steals. Earlier this season the Royals released two ex-MSU players: Hunter Renfroe and Chris Stratton. Ex-Ole Miss star James McArthur is on their injured list. … MLB Pipeline hailed Washington as having one of the better drafts this year. The Nationals, who took Oklahoma high schooler Eli Willits first overall, drafted East Union High right-hander Landon Harmon in the third round and in later rounds got Ole Miss righty Riley Maddox and MSU first baseman Hunter Hines. Maddox (11-14, 6.09 ERA in four years in Oxford) and Hines (career-record 70 homers in four years in Starkville) already have signed. … Pearl River Community College had four alums drafted, all pitchers: Jacob Johnson and K.K. Clark off the 2025 team and former Wildcats Conner Ware of LSU and Landen Payne of Southern Miss. All four are Magnolia State natives. The River has had 34 alums drafted since 1983, per the school’s website. … The Frontier League All-Star Game is tonight at Troy, N.Y. Brian Williams, Victor Diaz and Travis Holt of the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters have been invited. … On this date in 1988, the longest game in Texas League history concluded with the San Antonio Missions beating the Jackson Mets 1-0 in the 26th inning. It took 7 hours, 23 minutes over three days to complete. It began on July 14 and was suspended at 2:28 a.m. on July 15, scoreless in the 25th inning. It was resumed on July 16 and finally ended in the 26th inning. Blaine Beatty, a future big leaguer with the New York Mets, gave up the winning run. Current Nationals pitching coach Jim Hickey pitched six scoreless innings for the Missions, a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate. He would later serve as pitching coach for the Double-A Jackson Generals.

have a blast

Mississippi State has sent a boatload of players to the major leagues, and quite a few of them have played in the MLB All-Star Game. Only two have ever hit a home run. Will Clark in 1992 and Brent Rooker on Tuesday night in a highly entertaining Midsummer Classic at Atlanta’s Truist Park. Rooker’s seventh-inning homer — a three-run shot off Randy Rodriguez, he of the 0.87 ERA — started the American League’s comeback from six runs down. The AL stars ultimately tied it at 6-6 before losing in the first-ever swing-off that decided the outcome, which goes in the books as 7-6. It was quite the All-Star experience for Rooker. He hit 17 bombs in the Home Run Derby on Monday night, narrowly missing a berth in the semifinals. He also participated in the swing-off and, as the leadoff batter in the six-man competition, hit two home runs; the National League would win that showdown 4-3 thanks to Kyle Schwarber’s three bombs. Home runs are kind of a thing for Rooker, who was making his second ASG appearance; he has 20 homers this season for the A’s and 89 over his last three seasons with the club. On Tuesday night, San Francisco’s Rodriguez came in with two runners on and none out to face Rooker, who took two sliders off the plate. “I was swinging no matter what at that 2-0 pitch,” Rooker said in an in-game TV interview. The 407-foot drive to left field put the AL on the board and gave the team some needed juice. They tied it with two runs in a crazy ninth inning, setting the stage for the swing-off. Rooker again gave the AL some mo with his two homers. “I don’t know what the viewing experience was like,” Rooker said in an mlb.com story, “but on the field, it was electric.” … Clark’s 1992 homer, also a three-run shot, came against Rick Aguilera, a former Jackson Mets star then with Minnesota, at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The AL beat Clark’s NL squad — he was with the Giants at the time — 13-6.