Author Archives: Mike Christensen

17 Apr

stat sheet watching

As the Chicago White Sox continue to struggle at the plate, their Triple-A first baseman — Tim Elko — is flourishing with a .373 average, three homers and 11 RBIs in 14 games for Charlotte. Former Ole Miss star Elko went 3-for-5 with two homers and four RBIs in the Knights’ loss to Nashville on Wednesday night. He ranks sixth in the International League in hitting. Elko, 26, has hit at every level since the White Sox drafted him in the 10th round in 2022: .291 career with 54 homers. The folks at MLB Pipeline suggest that Elko, who isn’t on the 40-man roster, could be an impactful call-up for the ChiSox (4-13), who are 29th in MLB in both runs and batting average. … In the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, ex-Mississippi College star Blaine Crim — another off-the-radar slugger — stands sixth in the league in batting at .364 and has three homers and 11 RBIs for Round Rock, a Texas affiliate. Crim, 27, a sixth-year pro, is a .297 career hitter with 104 homers. … Mississippi State product Justin Foscue, also at Round Rock, is hitting .333 with two bombs and eight RBIs. He might rate another shot with the Rangers; he hit .048 in limited at-bats in his MLB debut in 2024. … Kemp Alderman, Ferriss Trophy winner at Ole Miss two years ago, is third in the Double-A Southern League with a .359 average and tied for first with three homers at Pensacola in Miami’s system. … Magnolia Heights product Cooper Pratt has hit two homers for Biloxi in the SL and is batting .266 in his debut for Milwaukee’s Double-A team. … In the Double-A Texas League, Ole Miss alum Cooper Johnson has three homers — tied for the TL lead — in seven games for Frisco, a Texas affiliate, and is batting .304. … Braden Montgomery, an ex-Madison Central High standout and a first-round pick last summer, is tied for first with 13 RBIs in the Low-Class A Carolina League and is batting .353 with two homers for the White Sox’s Kannapolis club. He was traded to Chicago by Boston in the Garrett Crochet deal. … Konnor Griffin, the Jackson Prep product drafted ninth overall by Pittsburgh in 2024, is tied for second in the Low-A Florida State League with six stolen bases. He is batting .231 with two homers, seven RBIs and nine runs through 10 games in his pro debut with Bradenton. … Oddest stat for a Mississippian in the minors: ex-South Panola standout Emaarion Boyd is tied for fourth in the High-A Midwest League with seven steals. He got six of them in one game. The fourth-year pro, who has 98 career bags, is batting just .120 (three hits) for Beloit in the Miami system. P.S. Former Southern Miss star Dustin Dickerson was promoted to Triple-A Omaha by Kansas City and debuted as a defensive replacement on Wednesday. The shortstop was batting .286 in Double-A. … Ex-USM slugger Matt Wallner, now with the Minnesota Twins, went on the injured list with a hamstring strain. He was batting .263 (.373 OBP) with a homer, three RBIs and seven runs, leading off for the Twins much of the time.

16 Apr

all in a day

Somewhere in Hattiesburg today, Nick Monistere must be walking on air. Having been named the Sun Belt Conference’s player of the week earlier on Tuesday, Monistere went out and hit two home runs, including a game-clinching grand slam in the ninth inning, to lead Southern Miss to an 8-7 victory at Southeastern Louisiana. The junior second baseman out of Northwest Rankin High hit .438 with three homers and 10 RBIs last week, including a two-homer, seven-RBI game in a loss at Texas State on Sunday. His slam on Tuesday was his 12th homer of the season, tied for the team lead, and he now has 44 RBIs, which leads the club. The former prep All-American is batting .322. The Golden Eagles (25-12) trailed most of the game at SLU (29-8) and were down to their final out when they loaded the bases on two walks and a single to set the stage for Monistere’s dramatic blast. Colby Allen pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth for his seventh save. Still ranked in some national polls, USM will play Georgia State in an SBC series at Taylor Park this weekend. … In other Tuesday news, Belhaven University claimed the Maloney Trophy for the sixth straight time, beating NCAA Division III rival Millsaps College 10-5 at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Tristan Pearson went 3-for-3 with a walk, an HBP, two RBIs and a run for the Blazers (24-11), and John Wade got the last six outs without yielding a hit for his second save. Pearson, a senior from Biloxi via Jones College, leads BU in hitting at .405 and in OBP at .557.

15 Apr

draft notice

A high school player from Mississippi went ninth overall in the 2024 MLB draft. Might another go that high this July? Keith Law, draft analyst for The Athletic and The New York Times, ranks Purvis High’s JoJo Parker No. 9 on his recently released 2025 draft prospect chart. (Jackson Prep product Konnor Griffin went at No. 9 overall to Pittsburgh last year and is currently in A-ball.) Law calls Parker “one of the best pure hitters in the draft class this year, with a very compact swing and excellent pitch recognition, unusual for a high school hitter from Mississippi.” Parker is the third-highest rated prep player on Law’s list. (Ethan Holliday of Stillwater, Okla., is No. 1 overall.) Parker is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound lefty-hitting shortstop. Per MaxPreps, he is batting .500 with eight homers, 47 runs and 27 steals. Yes, he also pitches for the Tornadoes, ranked third in the state by MaxPreps. Parker’s twin brother Jacob, also a potential 2025 draftee, is hitting .480 with nine homers and 37 RBIs and is regarded as a better pure power hitter than JoJo. Both are Mississippi State signees. … Also on Law’s Top 50 draft list are Southern Miss right-hander J.B. Middleton (No. 44) and Ole Miss righty Mason Morris (No. 50). P.S. Pearl River Community College’s Caston Thompson, from Jayess, went 7-for-11 with three homers, nine RBIs and six runs to earn MACCC player of the week honors. The second-ranked Wildcats went 3-1 last week and are 36-6, 16-2 MACCC. Jones County’s Josh Lee, from Gulfport, went eight innings, fanning 13, to beat Mississippi Gulf Coast last week and garnered conference pitcher of the week honors. He is 6-0 for the Bobcats, 29-10, 15-5, and ranked eighth in NJCAA Division II. East Central remains No. 3 in the national poll at 33-7, 15-3.

15 Apr

just stuff

As Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, here’s a tip of the cap to Luke Easter, the first black Mississippi native to play in an MLB game. The Jonestown native broke in with Cleveland on Aug. 11, 1949, at the age of 34. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound left-handed hitter belted 93 homers for the Indians over parts of six seasons. He also played in the Negro Leagues and in the minors for many years, hitting 351 homers all told, per baseball-reference.com. … The Columbus Clingstones, Atlanta’s Double-A team that previously played in Pearl, will make their home debut tonight at Synovus Park in Columbus, Ga. Quite a few familiar names populate the roster, including former Southern Miss and Mississippi Braves standout Landon Harper and M-Braves alum Craig Kimbrel, the erstwhile big league star who is launching his 2025 season in Double-A. … After a weak start this season, former DeSoto Central High standout Austin Riley is coming on strong for Atlanta. The M-Braves alum hit two homers in Monday’s win at Toronto and is batting .452 with eight RBIs and seven runs over his last seven games. … Jake Mangum, the rookie out of Jackson Prep and Mississippi State, went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs Monday for Tampa Bay, which saw every starter get at least one RBI and score at least one run in a 16-1 win against Boston. Mangum has cooled after his sizzling start but is still batting .311 over 13 games and making great plays in the outfield. … Hunter Renfroe, MSU alum from Crystal Springs, needs to step it up for Kansas City. He is batting .128 with no homers in 39 at-bats and is no longer playing regularly. A .236 career hitter with 192 bombs, the 33-year-old outfielder is coming off a poor year. … Ole Miss product Kemp Alderman, who had a two-homer game last week for Double-A Pensacola (Miami system), and ex-MSU star Khal Stephen, who had a nine-strikeout game for Low-Class A Dunedin (Toronto), were named to MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week. … Konnor Griffin got his first pro homer and triple in a game last week and continues to fill out the stat sheet for Low-A Bradenton (Pittsburgh). The ninth overall pick last summer from Jackson Prep, Griffin is batting .258 with six RBIs, seven runs and five steals. … Sad to see Justin Steele, the lefty from Lucedale, lost for the season to elbow surgery; he was 3-1 with a 4.76 ERA in four starts. That’s a blow for the first-place Chicago Cubs. Also going on the IL last week was Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes (oblique), who was batting .300 in 20 at-bats as Miami’s starting catcher. … Kudos to Will Warren, the Jackson Prep grad who notched his first MLB win in his eighth career start for the New York Yankees last week. The 25-year-old right-hander went five innings Saturday to beat red-hot San Francisco. … Ex-MSU star J.T. Ginn got his second MLB win Saturday in his 2025 debut as the A’s beat the Mets; Ginn was recalled from Triple-A that same day. … Former MSU standout Brandon Woodruff threw 3 2/3 innings for Triple-A Nashville on Saturday in his first rehab start as he aims to return to Milwaukee’s rotation. The righty from Wheeler is 46-26 in his MLB career; the Brewers sorely need him. … Ex-Madison Central star Spencer Turnbull, still unsigned for 2025, has been throwing for various teams, per reports. The veteran right-hander put up a 2.65 ERA in 54 1/3 innings for Philadelphia in 2024.

13 Apr

anniversary time

Several of the Magnolia State’s brightest big league stars have debut anniversaries to celebrate this year. Claude Passeau, one of the state’s great pitchers, debuted in 1935. Boo Ferriss broke in with the Boston Red Sox 80 years ago, throwing a shutout in his first game on April 29, 1945. Don Blasingame, the Corinth Comet, debuted 70 years ago. Chet Lemon, one of the best defensive center fielders of all-time, played his first MLB game in 1975. Paul Maholm, a recent Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductee, broke in 20 years back and Jacob Lindgren — whose promising career was marred by injury — 10 years ago. But the spotlight here is on Buddy Myer, the Ellisville native and Mississippi state alum, who launched his 17-year career 100 years ago. A middle infielder, he played in just four games for the old Washington Senators in 1925 but got the first two of his 2,131 career hits, the record for Mississippi natives in the majors. He made the team’s roster for the ’25 World Series and got two more hits in the loss to Pittsburgh. He went 6-for-20 in the ’33 World Series, also with the Senators. Myer won a batting title in 1935 and hit .303 for his career; only Negro Leagues star Cool Papa Bell (.325) holds a better average among Mississippians. Myer scored 1,174 runs, hit 130 triples, stole 157 bases and posted a 48.4 WAR (fourth-best among Mississippi-born players) in 1,923 games. Remarkably, he walked (965 times) more than twice as many times as he struck out (428). Indeed, it was a very different game a hundred years ago. Myer — a two-time All-Star who got MVP votes in four seasons — played it very well.

12 Apr

on this date

Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia officially opened on this date in 2004, and Bobby Abreu, the former Jackson Generals standout playing for the Phillies that year, hit the first home run there. Abreu, who played in Jackson in 1994, had a flair for home runs. He hit 16 for the Gens in ’94 and 288 in an MLB career that has gained Hall of Fame attention. He put up nine 20-homer seasons, two of them 30-homer campaigns. He won the All-Star Game Home Run Derby in 2005 with a performance that fans and media still buzz about. The homer he belted on April 12, 2004, against Cincinnati’s Paul Wilson came in a year in which he would win a Silver Slugger award. Alas, the crowd at Citizens Bank, which has become one of the majors’ most raucous venues, didn’t have a lot to roar about that day. Abreu’s bomb was the only run the home team scored in a 4-1 loss.

09 Apr

spotlight on …

Focus today on Ellisville and Community Bank Park, where Jones College will host Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in a big — yes, they’re all big — conference doubleheader. The big move in the NJCAA Division II poll this week was made by Jones (27-8, 13-3 MACCC), which jumped from No. 8 to No. 5 after running its win streak to eight games. Pearl River Community College (33-5) remains No. 2 in the national poll and atop the MACCC standings at 13-1. East Central is ranked third (up from fourth) at 31-7 and is 13-3 in the league. Jones is 13-1 at home, its only loss there to Itawamba in mid-March. The individual spotlight at JC belongs to Chase Russell, an All-Stater from Madison Central High who leads the state in hitting at .417 with four homers — including a walk-off grand slam last week — and 24 RBIs. T.J. Dunsford is second in the league in batting at .397, and Braden Smith, out of Brandon, has nine homers and 36 RBIs. Russell, originally a Southern Miss signee, also leads Jones pitchers with a 3.96 ERA and has a 3-1 record. Josh Lee (Gulfport) is 5-0, 4.05. Jones is coached by former Mississippi State catcher Wes Thigpen, who came over from Gulf Coast four years ago. Gulf Coast, under new coach Zach Allen, comes to Ellisville with a 27-13 mark, 9-5 in the league. … Pearl River’s K.K. Clark, from Brandon via MSU, was named MACCC pitcher of the week after tossing a five-inning no-hitter at Meridian. Hitter of the week is East Central’s Briceton Johnson, a freshman from Maben who hit .615 with a grand slam and a three-run homer in four games.

08 Apr

one month out

One month from today, Mississippi’s new pro team — the Mississippi Mud Monsters — is scheduled to launch its 2025 season. The independent club, owned by Joseph Eng, will play Florence (Ky.) on May 8 at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, former home of the Mississippi Braves. The Mud Monsters will play a 96-game schedule — 48 home dates spread over nine homestands — in the 18-team Frontier League, an MLB Partner League. The team’s manager is Jay Pecci, the hitting coach Jamie McOwen and the pitching coach Robert Carson, a former Hattiesburg High star who pitched in the big leagues.
Here’s a look at the Mud Monsters’ unofficial, very preliminary roster, based on the Frontier League’s transactions page:

Pitchers
Chris Barraza, RH
Gage Bihm, LH (Hinds CC)
James Boeree, RH
Tahj Cunningham, RH/OF
Luis Devers, RH
Jalen Evans, RH
Aubrey Gillentine, RH (USM)
Josh Lanham, RH
Brandon Mitchell, LH
Zack Morris, LH
Josh Paulina, RH
Jeremy Peguero, LH
Michael Reed, RH
Sergio Sanchez, RH
Jackson Smith, RH (Northwest CC, MS Coll)
Rodney Theopile, RH
Tyree Thompson, RH
Brian Williams, RH

Catchers
Victor Diaz
C.J. Dunn (Olive Branch HS)
Nick Hassan
Andriel Lantigua

Infielders
Ryan Cash, 3B
Samil De La Rosa, 2B
Kasten Furr, SS
Travis Holt, SS
Dane Simon, UT

Outfielders
Kyle Booker (DeSoto Cent)
Davis Bradshaw (McLaurin, Meridian CC)
Basiel Roberts
Brayland Skinner (MSU)

08 Apr

long shots

This seems like an apropos note for 715 Day: They say records are meant to be broken, but there is one mark in the Magnolia State that will be especially tough to top. In 2018, Zack Shannon of Delta State blasted 31 home runs, breaking a single-season record for state college players that had stood for 34 years. (The previous record of 29 had been set by Mississippi State’s Bruce Castoria in 1982, then tied by the Bulldogs’ Rafael Palmeiro in 1984.) But there are some players producing big pop around the state this year — even without torpedo bats. The leader of the pack as of April 7 is Josh Alexander of William Carey University. The Louisiana native, who previously played at Louisiana-Lafayette, has 14 homers. Mississippi State’s Ace Reese and Mississippi College’s Bryce LaRocca are hot on Alexander’s heels with 11 homers each. There is a large contingent at 10: Ole Miss’ Judd Utermark; Southern Miss’ Carson Paetow; Mississippi College’s J.T. Vance and Korey Cooper; and Carey’s Preston Ratliff and Rigoberto Hernandez. The junior college leaders are Dom Jackson of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and Holmes CC’s Hunter Azemar, both with 10. Delta State’s Dylan Coleman, who has nine bombs, has the distinction of hitting three in a game twice. MC’s Vance also has managed a three-homer game, along with Carey’s Jayden Mark, who has only four total. P.S. In keeping with the home run theme, on this date in 1986, Will Clark famously homered in his first career MLB at-bat — against Nolan Ryan, no less. After an All-America career at MSU, Clark was the No. 2 overall draft pick by San Francisco in 1985. His debut homer was one of six he would hit off Hall of Famer Ryan, and it helped the Giants beat Houston 8-3 at the Astrodome.

07 Apr

a page-turner … so far

Though the book is far from finished, Ole Miss is writing one of the best stories in college baseball. From unranked in preseason — and picked to finish 15th in the vaunted SEC — the Rebels are 24-7 and ranked seventh nationally again this week in Baseball America’s Top 25. The Rebels battled for a 5-4 win in 12 innings at Kentucky on Saturday to win their third straight SEC series. They’re 8-4 in the league. National champs three years ago, UM foundered through the ’23 and ’24 seasons. Coach Mike Bianco rebuilt the roster for 2025 and apparently has found pieces that fit. The Rebels are middle-of-the-pack in the league in hitting (ninth in average) and pitching (12th in ERA). But they’re winning, which is all that really matters. In that 12-inning victory at Kentucky, they took a lead in the 11th, then lost it. Undaunted, they got a clutch two-run homer from Luke Hill — a .353 hitter — in the final frame and an heroic save from Alex Canney, who has a 1.50 ERA. A big week looms. The Rebels visit longtime rival Memphis on Tuesday, host undermanned Alcorn State on Wednesday and then welcome No. 4 Tennessee to Swayze Field for a weekend series that could define the season. The Vols, defending national champs, are 28-4 and 9-3 and no doubt plenty angry after losing a series at Texas A&M in ugly fashion (17-6 in the finale). UM fans are no doubt eager to see how the next chapter of this season is penned. P.S. Whenever there’s a list, there’s usually a Mississippian on it. Since 2007, Barry Bonds’ last season, San Francisco has started a different left fielder on opening day every year — 18 all told. Fred Lewis, former Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College standout, is on the list. He was in left field on April 7, 2009, and he went 1-for-4 with a walk and two runs — plus an error — in a 10-6 win over Milwaukee at AT&T Park. In 2009, Lewis was in the fourth year of a seven-year MLB career in which he batted .266.