August 11, 2025 - All Mississippi Baseball

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Veteran big leaguer Kendall Graveman, a Mississippi State product, has been designated for assignment by Arizona. The 34-year-old Graveman, coming off 2024 shoulder surgery, has a 7.13 ERA in 19 games this season. He has a 4.03 ERA in 299 career MLB games and posted a 1.64 in nine games for Houston in the 2021 postseason. … Houston Roth, a former Ole Miss star, was designated for assignment by Baltimore, removing the minor league right-hander from the 40-man roster. He got a brief call-up to the big club but never made an appearance. He has a 2.08 ERA, five wins and two saves in 26 relief appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season. If he clears waivers, it’s likely the Orioles will want to keep him in their system. … Luke Hill and Will McCausland, 2025 draftees out of Ole Miss, have been assigned to Low-Class A Lynchburg in the Cleveland organization. Infielder Hill was a fourth-round pick, righty McCausland a seventh-rounder. (Most of this year’s draft picks have been sent to spring training facilities and will take part in Instructional League next month.) … Logan Forsythe, a D’Iberville native who spent a couple of years at Mississippi State, is now on the roster at Low-A Augusta in the Atlanta chain. The right-hander was drafted this year out of Louisiana Tech. … Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel was activated from the injured list on Saturday at Double-A Pensacola and went 0-for-3 in his first game. He was traded by Tampa Bay to Miami in July for Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes. Etzel is a .267 career hitter with 84 steals in three seasons. … Bryson Ware, a Germantown High product who also passed through Pearl River Community College and Auburn en route to pro ball, recently was promoted to Double-A Reading by Philadelphia. He is 5-for-14 in three games, though all five hits came in one game last Saturday. The third baseman was batting .229 with eight homers in High-A ball this season. Ware’s brother Conner, also a Germantown and PRCC alum, was drafted out of LSU this year — and signed — by the New York Mets. P.S. Former USM standout Landon Harper was named the Double-A Southern League’s pitcher of the week (Aug. 4-10) after throwing a seven-inning one-hitter on Aug. 7 for Columbus. Harper had a perfect game for 6 2/3 innings and is now 3-6 with a 3.67 ERA in his second Double-A season. He joins a lengthy list of Mississippians to win POW awards this season (see previous posts).

like old times (sorta)

In the relative obscurity of an independent league, Demarcus Evans is flashing the form that made him a hot prospect when he reached the majors five years ago. The Petal native threw three scoreless, hitless innings in relief Sunday for Gary SouthShore in an American Association game. The 28-year-old right-hander trimmed his ERA to 1.95 in 20 appearances. In 27 2/3 innings, he has struck out 25 batters but walked 16. Drafted out of Petal High in the 25th round by Texas in 2015, Evans — currently listed at 6 feet 5, 270 pounds — was described as a “hulking fireballer” who needed a lot of polish. He gradually rose through the Texas system — punching out 444 batters in 297 innings — before getting his first MLB call-up in September of 2020. And, yes, Albert Pujols welcomed him with a home run. Evans would make just 29 appearances in ’20 and ’21 for Texas, posting a 4.75 ERA with a high walk total. He became a free agent in 2022, went to spring camp with the New York Yankees in 2023, got hurt and barely pitched the next two seasons. Seemingly healthy now, Evans has settled in as one of the more dependable relievers for the RailCats. He has allowed just one run in his last seven appearances for a team that is 20 games under .500. Getting back to affiliated ball might be unlikely for Evans, but it’s good to see that he is finding some success again. P.S. Isaac Collins, former Biloxi Shuckers standout, hit his first (ever) walk-off home run to give Milwaukee its ninth straight win, a 7-6 shocker over the New York Mets. Collins is batting .462 over his last seven games and .295 with eight homers on the season. … Nathaniel Lowe played a role in a history-making event on Sunday: The ex-Mississippi State standout was the 3,500th career strikeout victim for future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander; only 10 pitchers have hit that total. Lowe’s Washington club did beat Verlander and San Francisco by an 8-0 count. … Down in the minors, former Magee High star Brennon McNair doubled in the eighth inning, went to third on a bunt and scored the game’s lone run on a throwing error as Columbia beat Hickory. McNair, 22, has had an uneven season for the Low-Class A Kansas City affiliate, batting .192 with nine homers, 34 RBIs, 40 runs and 12 steals in 87 games.