Author Archives: Mike Christensen

02 Aug

troublesome numbers

The Atlanta Braves strike out a lot — 947 times so far, fourth-most in the National League — and their worst offender is Austin Riley. The power-hitting third baseman out of DeSoto Central High has some good numbers — .260, 16 homers, 54 RBIs, 54 runs — but his punch-out number is problematic. He has struck out 127 times, tied for fifth-most in the NL, in 415 at-bats. He struck out four times — a proverbial Golden Sombrero — in the Braves’ 3-2 loss at Cincinnati on Friday night. The team whiffed 14 times. So many of the strikeouts seem to come in clutch situations. Yes, injuries have wreaked havoc with Atlanta’s pitching, but clutch hitting, making contact in key situations, also has been a season-long issue. They’ll sputter into today’s much-hyped Speedway Classic in Bristol, Tenn., with a 46-63 record, third-worst in the NL. They left eight runners on base Friday and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Case in point: In the eighth inning, with runners at second and third, one out and Atlanta down 3-0, Riley struck out for the fourth time. That kind of thing has plagued the Braves all season. Five players have fanned 83 times or more. They simply don’t hit enough home runs — 117 — to overcome that. P.S. Adam Frazier, Mississippi State alum, hit his fourth homer of the year — first with Kansas City — and the feisty Royals belted four bombs all told in a 9-3 win over first-place Toronto. … Former Madison Central star Braden Montgomery hit his first Double-A homer for Birmingham in win against Rocket City. The recently promoted Montgomery, one of the Chicago White Sox’s top prospects, is batting .268 with 12 homers, 58 RBIs and 12 steals across three levels of the minors. … MSU product Dakota Jordan returned from the injured list and went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in a win by Low-Class A San Jose. The San Francisco prospect is hitting .304 with 10 homers, 72 RBIs and 27 steals. … Colton Ledbetter, ex-MSU standout, swiped his 28th bag for Double-A Montgomery. The Tampa Bay prospect is hitting .284 with five homers, 33 RBIs and 52 runs. … Christian MacLeod, a 25-year-old left-hander out of MSU, was promoted to Triple-A St. Paul by thinned-out Minnesota and allowed a lone unearned run in 3 2/3 innings in his debut. He has a 2.26 ERA in 16 games over three levels. … Worth noting: Cal Raleigh, the Seattle slugger, set the record for homers by a switch-hitting catcher with his 42nd on Thursday. The previous record of 41 was set by Jackson Mets alum Todd Hundley with the New York Mets in 1996.

01 Aug

ode to jucos

In the display case honoring Scott Berry at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, there is a green jersey emblazoned with EAGLES. It’s a nod to Meridian Community College and, by extension, to juco baseball in the state, which doesn’t seem to get the attention it deserves. Berry, who’ll be formally inducted into the state’s Hall of Fame on Saturday, is best known as the former coach at Southern Miss, where he is the all-time leader in victories, including numerous championships. But Berry also spent 10 years as a coach at MCC, the last four as head coach after succeeding the highly successful Corky Palmer. Berry’s legacy at MCC is powerful: Over his four seasons, the Eagles were a perennial Top 10 team in the NJCAA, per the MCC website. His teams went 185-58, twice reaching the Juco World Series. The 1997 team, his first, was ranked No. 1 all season before falling in the district round of the postseason. He won numerous coach of the year awards, including two national honors, and he was inducted into the MACCC Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. More than 25 players advanced from Meridian CC to Division I schools during Berry’s tenure. Among that group was Cliff Lee, who went on to Arkansas and then to the big leagues, where he was an All-Star and Cy Young Award winner. All told, MCC has produced seven MLB players, including Corey Dickerson, Tyler Moore and Jamie Brown. There’s an impressive list of state juco alums from other programs who’ve made it to the big leagues: Roy Oswalt (a recent Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductee), Jarrod Dyson, Matt Lawton, Tim Anderson, Marcus Thames, Greg Hibbard, Bill Selby, Fred Lewis and Wendell Magee. Among the decorated coaches in addition to Berry and Palmer who’ve served in the state juco ranks are Ken and Cooper Farris, Rick Clarke, George McQuitter, Donny Castle, Keith Case, Sam Temple, Chris Kirtland, Rick Collier, Neal Holliman and Marc Carson. Kirtland won a national title at Jones, and current Pearl River coach Michael Avalon won the national crown in 2022. Current USM coach Christian Ostrander previously coached at Jones. Every season, and throughout each season, several state jucos will appear in the NJCAA Division II national rankings. That green EAGLES jersey in the museum display case serves as a subtle reminder of the quality and rich history of juco ball in Mississippi.

01 Aug

catching up

The week’s trade winds — trade storms? — have subsided, and a handful of Mississippi products have landed in new places. To recap:
Khal Stephen: The former Mississippi State standout is now in the Cleveland system, assigned to Double-A Akron. A 2024 draft pick, he was 9-1 with a 2.06 ERA over three levels in the Toronto chain. Traded straight up for big leaguer Shane Bieber, the 6-foot-4 Stephen is slotted in as the Guardians’ No. 7 prospect by MLB Pipeline.
Victor Figueroa: The lone Mississippi Valley State alum in affiliated ball, he is now in the Baltimore organization, having been dealt by San Diego as one of the six prospects sent to the Orioles for major leaguers Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano. Figueroa, who played at Valley in 2023, was at Low-Class A Lake Elsinore, where he was batting .262 with seven homers. The Florida native, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound lefty hitter, hit .400 with eight homers and 14 steals at Valley in 2023 before transferring to a Florida juco. He was an 18th-round pick last summer.
Blaze Jordan: The slugger from DeSoto Central High is now in the St. Louis system and has been sent to Triple-A Memphis, 15 minutes from his Southaven home. A 22-year-old corner infielder, he is batting .308 with 12 homers and 62 RBIs between Double-A and Triple-A in his fifth pro season. He has 55 career homers.
Nate Dohm: The 6-4 right-hander, drafted out of MSU in the third round in 2024, also has moved to the St. Louis system and was placed on the High-Class A Peoria roster. He was 3-5 with a 2.87 ERA as a starter in A-ball in the New York Mets’ organization.
Nick Fortes: The ex-Ole Miss catcher was dealt to Tampa Bay by Miami and already has played in three games for the Rays. A fifth-year big leaguer, Fortes, known for his defense, is batting .231 with two homers and 10 RBIs on the year.
Matthew Etzel: The former Southern Miss standout went to Miami from Tampa Bay in the deal for Fortes. Etzel, currently on the injured list, was assigned to Double-A Pensacola. He is batting .230 with five homers, 34 RBIs and 17 steals this season, his third in the minors.
P.S. MSU product Adam Frazier, traded from Pittsburgh to Kansas City on July 16, is hitting .261 with two doubles, an RBI and three runs in eight games for the Royals, having played four different positions. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Tim Elko homered again Thursday — No. 18 — for Triple-A Charlotte; he is on a rehab assignment with the Chicago White Sox. … Former USM star Justin Storm threw two shutout innings for his fifth save as High-A Beloit beat Peoria 3-0. The 6-foot-7 lefty, in his third pro season, has a 4.08 ERA in 31 games.

31 Jul

just stuff

The St. Louis Cardinals, in the process of trading away big league pitchers, have added a couple of Mississippi products to their farm system. Former DeSoto Central High star Blaze Jordan was acquired from Boston as part of a deal for Steven Matz and ex-Mississippi State standout Nate Dohm was picked up from the New York Mets in the Ryan Helsley trade. Corner infielder Jordan, Boston’s No. 17 prospect (MLB Pipeline), is batting .308 with 12 homers and 62 RBIs between Double-A and Triple-A. Dohm, a hard-throwing right-hander drafted in the third round in 2024, is 3-5 with a 2.87 ERA as a starter in A-ball. He was the Mets’ No. 14 prospect. … Also on the move on Wednesday was veteran third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. Hayes is the son of Hattiesburg native and ex-big leaguer Charlie Hayes. The trade deadline is today at 5 p.m. CDT. … Mississippi college products Brent Rooker (23), Matt Wallner (13) and Jordan Westburg (12) all went deep in MLB games on Wednesday, and in his first game on a rehab assignment in Triple-A, Tim Elko hit his 17th minor league bomb. He has four big league homers. … Cool Moment, Take 2: Former Jackson Prep teammates Jake Mangum and Will Warren faced off for the second time this season in the Tampa Bay-New York Yankees game. Warren struck out Mangum in Wednesday’s first confrontation, then Mangum got an infield hit in the second. Mangum also got an infield hit off Warren back in April. Warren (4.64 ERA) allowed one run is six innings but got a no-decision in a game the Yankees won in extra innings. Mangum (.288) was 1-for-5 with a highlight-reel catch. … MSU product Konnor Pilkington from Pascagoula has thrown six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts since Washington called him up on July 22. … At Trustmark Park in Pearl, former St. Andrew’s standout Banks Tolley homered for visiting Schaumburg, but Brayland Skinner and Kasten Furr combined for nine RBIs as the Mississippi Mud Monsters took a 14-9 victory in the Frontier League contest.

30 Jul

bird feed

After a rather weak start to his season that included a stint on the injured list, Jordan Westburg has been coming on strong for Baltimore this month. Former Mississippi State star Westburg, batting leadoff, went 4-for-6 with two doubles, an RBI and four runs to spark the Orioles to a 16-4 win over Toronto in the first game of a Tuesday twinbill. Westburg is batting .337 in July, with seven knocks in his last two games, boosting his season average to .269. He was at .217 when he went on the IL in late April. For the year, the 2024 All-Star third baseman has 11 homers, 24 RBIs and 42 runs in 56 games for the underachieving Orioles. They did sweep first-place Toronto on Tuesday to extend their win streak to five but are just 50-58. In more Bird news: The Orioles called up ex-Ole Miss standout Houston Roth as an extra pitcher on Tuesday, but he did not play. It might be a short-term stay. The right-hander, a 2019 draftee by Baltimore, is having a good year, with a 2.21 ERA, four wins and two saves in 24 relief appearances between Double-A and Triple-A. The O’s also have MSU alum Preston Johnson, a 2022 draftee, at Triple-A Norfolk, though he has not pitched well there since moving up earlier this month. Baltimore promoted Southern Miss product Reed Trimble to Norfolk, but the outfielder didn’t play Tuesday. A 2021 draftee, he is batting .227 with nine homers and 10 steals on the season. Of note: The Orioles drafted — and have signed — two juco pitchers from Mississippi this year: Pearl River Community College ace K.K. Clark and Meridian CC star Conner Gehr. P.S. USM alum Hurston Waldrep, who was reportedly being promoted to Atlanta, instead tossed seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts for Triple-A Gwinnett. He is 7-8, 4.42 ERA. … Former Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz faced four batters and retired one for the Chicago Cubs in their 9-3 loss to Milwaukee. The veteran lefty wasn’t charged with a run but has yielded five over his last seven outings (9.64 ERA) after throwing 26 scoreless innings to begin his Cubs tenure. … Petal High’s Trey Barnes will play in today’s Hank Aaron Invitational, a premier prep showcase event, at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field. A USM commit, Barnes hit .404 with four homers and 29 RBIs as a junior at Petal last season.

29 Jul

on the move

Former Madison Central High standout Braden Montgomery has been promoted to Double-A Birmingham in the Chicago White Sox’s system. The 12th overall pick last year (out of Texas A&M by Boston), the 22-year-old Montgomery, a switch-hitting outfielder, hit .269 with 11 homers, 57 RBIs, 50 runs and 11 stolen bases over two levels of A-ball. He is the ChiSox’s No. 2 prospect and No. 26 overall in the minors, per MLB Pipeline. … Michael Fowler, a Southern Miss product, has signed with the Milwaukee Brewers, the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters announced. Fowler, who only recently joined the Mud-sters’ roster, went 2-1 with a 1.92 ERA in seven games, striking out 15 in 9 1/3 innings. This is his first pro season. … Will Verdung, the MACCC’s player of the year for 2023 at Itawamba Community College, has been placed on the injured list at High-Class A Rome by the Atlanta Braves. The third baseman is batting .279 with no homers and 22 RBIs. Verdung mashed 25 homers in two years at ICC and went deep in his first pro at-bat in 2023 but has hit just two homers since. … Oak Grove outfielder Eric Booth Jr., Magnolia Heights infielder Cole Prosek and Jackson Prep outfielder Kevin Roberts Jr. have advanced to Phase 2 of USA Baseball’s U18 National Team Training Camp in Cary, N.C. There will be a second cut to 20 players, who will compete in the U-18 Baseball World Cup in Okinawa, Japan. … Nick Fortes, just acquired by Tampa Bay from Miami, is in the Rays’ lineup at catcher for tonight’s game at Yankee Stadium, facing New York ace Max Fried.

29 Jul

trade breeze

A pair of former Mississippi college standouts will trade places today in a deal that will soon be overshadowed when the trade winds pick up in MLB. Tampa Bay, in need of a defensive-minded catcher, is acquiring former Ole Miss star Nick Fortes from Miami, sending ex-Southern Miss star Matthew Etzel, a third-year minor league outfielder, to the Marlins. The Rays are 54-53 after beating the New York Yankees on Monday and are hanging on the fringe of the American League wild card race. Fortes, in his fifth big league season, was batting .240 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in 59 games as a part-timer for Miami. He’ll join a Rays team that includes Mississippi State alum Jake Mangum and share catching duties with Matt Thaiss, a .219 hitter. Etzel is currently on the injured list at Double-A Montgomery. He is batting .230 with five homers, 34 RBIs and 17 steals. Originally drafted by Baltimore in 2023 and traded last summer, the speedy Etzel is a .267 career hitter with 83 steals. He’ll likely go to Double-A Pensacola and join a club that includes Ole Miss product Kemp Alderman. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves star Michael Harris II, in the throes of a tough offensive year, was named the National League player of the week. He batted .478 with six extra-base hits, including two homers and two triples, last week. … A host of former Biloxi Shuckers started for Milwaukee on Monday in an 8-4 win over the visiting Chicago Cubs that moved the Brewers a game up in the NL Central. Shuckers alum Sal Frelick, batting leadoff, went 2-for-4 with a walk, a homer and two runs as the Brewers overcame a ragged start by ex-Shuckers star Jacob Misiorowski. … Former Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin, currently in High-Class A for Pittsburgh, is now Baseball America’s No. 1 overall prospect; MLB Pipeline previously ranked Griffin No. 1.

28 Jul

present arms

In his second outing since moving back into the A’s rotation, J.T. Ginn looks like he has staying power. The Brandon native threw six shutout innings Sunday as the last-place A’s beat first-place (but injury-riddled) Houston 7-1 to complete a four-game sweep at Daikin Park. In his previous start, the 26-year-old right-hander worked five innings and yielded a lone run at Texas. His last start prior to that was on May 19 before going on the injured list for a month. “Once you get back into that groove, normally it’s pretty easy,” Ginn said in a TV interview about the transition back to starting. The ex-Mississippi State star is now 2-2 with a 3.89 ERA over 13 games, six starts. … In his fourth start since returning from a year on the shelf, Brandon Woodruff allowed two runs in six innings and got a no-decision in Milwaukee’s 3-2 comeback win against Miami. Woodruff, the former State standout from Wheeler, is 2-0 with a 2.01 ERA and 29 strikeouts in four starts for the first-place Brewers. … Atlanta, its rotation decimated by injuries, reportedly will call up Southern Miss alum Hurston Waldrep, possibly to start on Tuesday at Kansas City. Waldrep, who starred at USM in 2021-22, is 6-8 with a 4.78 at Triple-A Gwinnett but has a 2.43 ERA over his last six starts. The former first-round pick (from Florida) and Mississippi Braves alum debuted in the majors last year but has yet to appear in 2025. … MSU product J.P. France allowed three runs in two innings Sunday in a rehab appearance at Corpus Christi, Houston’s Double-A club. France, an 11-game winner for the Astros in 2023, has been out since early last season. … Ex-Madison Central High standout Spencer Turnbull, recently signed by the Chicago Cubs, made a start for Triple-A Iowa and was rocked for six runs in three innings. He allowed nine hits, walked one and hit a batter. Turnbull was released in late June by Toronto after three appearances (7.11 ERA).

27 Jul

for the win

Despite surrendering two home runs in the first inning, Garrett Crochet notched his 12th win for Boston on Saturday, going six innings in a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The big lefty from Ocean Springs is having a superb season, but he is likely to come up short of being the first Mississippi native to win 20 games since Roy Oswalt in 2005. Crochet is 12-4 over 22 starts. With just 46 games left in the ’25 campaign, he may not get enough opportunities even for eight more wins. Oswalt won his 20 in 2005 over 35 starts; the Kosciusko native also won 20 in 2004 in 36 appearances, 35 of them starts. In the era of the five-man (or more) rotation, 20 wins just isn’t the hallmark it used to be. For the record, the record for wins in a single season by a Mississippi native is 25, by Boo Ferriss for the Boston Red Sox in 1946. He made 40 appearances, 35 starts. Reb Russell won 22 with the Chicago White Sox in 1913. He made 52 appearances, 36 starts. Guy Bush won 20 (in 41 games) for the Chicago Cubs in 1933, and Claude Passeau got 20 (in 46 games) with the Cubs in 1940. Among pitchers from Magnolia State schools, Cliff Lee (Meridian Community College) won 22 — along with a Cy Young Award — for Cleveland in 2008, and Hall of Famer William Foster (Alcorn State) got 21 wins for the Negro League Chicago American Giants in 1927. P.S. Colorado optioned ex-Ole Miss standout Ryan Rolison (7.43 ERA as a 27-year-old rookie) back to Triple-A. … The White Sox have promoted Jacob Gonzalez, former first-round draft pick out of Ole Miss, to Triple-A Charlotte from Double-A Birmingham. He hit .244 with six homers and 47 RBIs for the Barons. He played second base Saturday for Charlotte and went 0-for-4. … Luke Hill, a fourth-round pick out of Ole Miss earlier this month, has signed with Cleveland; the bonus figure has not been reported. Hill was UM’s leading hitter in 2025 and a second-team All-SEC shortstop.

27 Jul

famous connections

Dave Parker was born in Mississippi and Billy Wagner pitched for the Jackson Generals en route to the big leagues. CC Sabathia, also being formally inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame today, has a peripheral Mississippi connection that is certainly worth noting. When he was making his pro debut in the low minors, pitching for Burlington in August of 1998, Sabathia faced a kid from Meridian named Brian Cole, batting cleanup for Kingsport. “Of course I remember,” Sabathia said in a 2013 Sports Illustrated story, “The Best Player You Never Saw.” “It was my first start as a professional.” The 6-foot-7 Sabathia, the 20th overall pick by Cleveland in the 1998 MLB draft, was already throwing in the upper 90s at age 18. According to Michael McKnight’s wonderful piece, the 5-foot-8 Cole, in his first at-bat, doubled off the wall on a Sabathia fastball. They met again in July of 1999, Sabathia throwing for Columbus, Cole batting for Capital City. Cole took him deep. Sabathia said he never forgot that bomb off the scoreboard. “Brian Cole was the player who showed me I needed to develop an off-speed pitch,” Sabathia, who would win 251 games in The Show, said in the SI story. Cole was one of the most promising players Mississippi has ever produced, but his life was cut tragically short in a 2001 car wreck. He was 22. After starring at Meridian High, he played a year at Navarro Junior College in Texas, hit a reported .524 with 27 homers and was named Baseball America’s juco player of the year. The New York Mets drafted him in the 18th round in 1998, and two years later he was their minor league player of the year and No. 3-rated prospect. P.S. Wagner, who pitched for the Double-A Generals 30 years ago, is the first player from Jackson’s Texas League era (1975-99) to be elected to Cooperstown. A flame-throwing left-hander, he was a seven-time All-Star who registered 422 saves with a 2.31 ERA over 16 seasons in the big leagues. … Grenada native Parker, being inducted posthumously, is the first MLB player born in Mississippi to make the Hall; Starkville’s Cool Papa Bell played in the Negro Leagues during the game’s segregated era. Parker, who should have been elected a long time ago, was a seven-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner, three-time Silver Slugger winner, two-time batting champion, two-time World Series champ and one-time National League MVP over 19 seasons (1973-91). … Ichiro Suzuki and the late Dick Allen also are going in today. The ceremony will be televised by MLB Network beginning at 12:30 CDT.