Author Archives: Mike Christensen

27 Jul

odds and ends

Stanley Stubbs, who won championships at two colleges in Georgia and coached at Rust College the last two years, will be named coach at Mississippi Valley State on Wednesday. Stubbs succeeds Aaron Stevens, fired after an 0-20 season. Stubbs is a Booneville native who played at Northeast Mississippi Community College and was an assistant coach under Bob Braddy at Jackson State for several years. Rust, an NAIA program, finished 13-20 in 2021. Alcorn State has yet to name a replacement for Brett Richardson, who was not retained after a 7-20 season. … The Mississippi Braves are riding an eight-game losing streak as they head into a 12-game road trip that begins tonight at Pensacola. The Double-A club’s longest losing streak since it arrived in Pearl in 2005 is nine. At 40-32, the M-Braves no longer have the Double-A South’s best record. … Whatever happened to Corey Dickerson? Well, the former Meridian Community College star is expected to begin a rehab assignment this week for the Toronto Blue Jays. Dickerson was on the injured list (foot) with Miami when he was traded on June 29. The veteran outfielder hit .260 with two homers in 62 games for the Marlins. … No surprise really that the top two teams in the Cotton States League North feature the college summer league’s top two pitchers. Will Cook, of Holmes Community College, is 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA for the Tupelo Thunder, 13-6 heading into the season’s final weekend in New Albany. Camron Wright, a lefty from Itawamba CC, is 3-1, 1.66 for the North Delta Dealers, also 13-6. The Dealers took two of three from the Thunder back in June, with Cook notching Tupelo’s lone win. Wright pitched well in the rubber game but didn’t get a decision. … Among the array of stars who’ll be formally inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night are two baseball icons: former high school coach Jerry Boatner and renowned stadium architect Janet Marie Smith. In addition, Con Maloney, longtime owner of Jackson’s Texas League franchise, will receive the Rube Award, which recognizes lifetime contributions to Mississippi sports and is named in honor former sports museum director Michael Rubenstein.

27 Jul

boom or bust

Brent Rooker doesn’t always hit the ball. But when he does, it goes a long way. Mississippi State product Rooker blasted a 460-foot home run on Monday night for the Minnesota Twins. In four games since being recalled from Triple-A St. Paul, Rooker has three hits: two homers and a double. Including his April stint with the Twins, he is 6-for-44, with three homers and two doubles. He has struck out 18 times. From all indications, Rooker – the 35th overall pick in the 2017 draft — is going to play down the stretch, either as the DH or a corner outfielder. His MLB debut in 2020 was cut short by injury; he hit .316 with a homer and five RBIs in seven September games. He struggled at the outset of this season and was shipped out to St. Paul, where he was batting .239 (.546 slugging) with 19 homers. His career minor league numbers: .262 (.512 slugging), 73 homers, 393 K’s in 320 games. As a blogger at twinkietown.com notes: “At this point, he mostly is what he is going to be. It’s time to find out if what he is will be good enough to produce at the game’s highest level.” Basically, he just needs to hit the ball more often. … Rooker’s 460-foot bomb is the second-longest by a Mississippian in the majors this season, topped only by Nate Lowe’s 465-footer, per Baseball Savant. Hunter Renfroe has a 453, Mitch Moreland a 444, Austin Riley a 439, Bobby Bradley and Corey Dickerson each a 432.

26 Jul

very interesting …

Mississippi State product Justin Foscue, a first-round pick by Texas in the 2020 draft, homered in his eighth straight game on Sunday. (Note: The big league record is eight straight.) Foscue went deep for High-A Hickory in the completion of a game suspended last Friday. His streak began on July 9 when he was on a rehab assignment with the Arizona Complex League Rangers. He is batting .324 with 10 homers and 23 RBIs for Hickory. Foscue didn’t play in Sunday’s regularly scheduled game, but ex-Mississippi College star Blaine Crim did. And he homered in his second straight game and for the 12th time in July. Crim is batting .298 with 19 homers and 58 RBIs for Hickory. … The remains of the 2021 season will be a lot more interesting for Adam Frazier now that the ex-State standout has been traded from Pittsburgh to San Diego. The Pirates are mired in last place in their division. The Padres are in a heated battle with San Francisco and Los Angeles in the National League West. Frazier, 29, was a coveted trade piece, with several teams reportedly expressing interest. The All-Star second baseman is batting .324 and leads the big leagues in hits with 125. According to mlb.com, Frazier is only the third player in the modern era to be traded midseason while leading MLB in hits. The others: Willie McGee (1990) and Red Schoendienst (1957). Frazier is a left-handed hitter with some pop (39 career homers) who has played six different positions over his six seasons in the majors. … It wasn’t surprising that All-Stars Lance Lynn and Brandon Woodruff gave us quite the pitchers’ duel on Sunday night (see previous post). The surprise was that former Ole Miss star Lynn delivered the game’s biggest hit, a two-run single off MSU product Woodruff that propelled the Chicago White Sox to a 3-1 win over Milwaukee in a matchup of division leaders. Lynn’s second-inning hit, on an 0-2 fastball, was his first since 2017. It came in his first plate appearance in over two years. Woodruff, a good-hitting pitcher, also had a knock off Lynn but came up empty in a key at-bat in the fifth inning. Down 3-1 with a runner at second and one out, Woodruff took a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch.

25 Jul

marquee event

Lance Lynn vs. Brandon Woodruff. Two All-Stars from rival Magnolia State schools pitching for division leaders in the ESPN Sunday night feature. This ought to be good. Lynn, the very intense Ole Miss product, is 9-3 with a 1.94 ERA for the Chicago White Sox, who lead the American League Central with a 58-40 record. Brandon Woodruff, the very intense Mississippi State product, is 7-4 with a 2.04 ERA for the host Milwaukee Brewers, 58-41 in the National League Central. Though their college careers did not intersect, surely one of the ESPN broadcasters will pick up on the Rebel vs. Bulldog theme. However, the depth of that rivalry probably isn’t known to them. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Christian Yelich have a combined four homers against Lynn in 13 combined at-bats. Few of the White Sox have ever faced Woodruff. Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton is 0-for-4. East Central Community College alum Tim Anderson hasn’t had the pleasure. P.S. Update: Eric Cerantola has signed a pro contract, leaving just two of the 12 picks from the state unsigned.

25 Jul

just stuff

Carrying an .083 average and having already struck out three times against Patrick Sandoval, Brent Rooker was a most unlikely candidate to spoil the Los Angeles Angels left-hander’s no-hit bid. But baseball is funny that way. Former Mississippi State star Rooker blooped an opposite-field double down the right-field line with one out in the ninth inning Saturday to end Sandoval’s bid for a no-no. Rooker, only recently recalled from Triple-A by Minnesota, said he was fooled on the pitch and called it a “lucky hit.” Rooker later scored, but the Angels held on for a 2-1 win. … Ex-State standout Kendall Graveman, a possible trade piece for Seattle, got the win and trimmed his ERA to 0.84 in the Mariners’ walk-off win against Oakland. Graveman, who has 10 saves, told mlb.com that it would be “a little bit discouraging” to be traded from a Mariners club that is still in the wild card hunt in the American League. … Harrison Central High product Bobby Bradley, mired in a slump, hit his 11th home run (in 39 games) in Cleveland’s loss to Tampa Bay. Bradley has just two hits in his last 21 at-bats and is at .211 for the year. … Down in Double-A, former Itawamba Community College star Tyreque Reed hit his first homer — a walk-off bomb, no less — since his promotion by Boston to Portland. Reed is batting .346 in seven Double-A games. He has 15 homers all told this season. … Southern Miss product Matt Wallner homered for the second time in four games since rejoining Minnesota’s High-A Cedar Rapids team. Wallner had missed almost two months with a wrist injury. The second-year pro is batting .337 with six homers and 16 RBIs in 21 games. … After a sluggish start to his pro career, ex-DeSoto Central slugger Blaze Jordan is heating up for Boston’s Florida Complex League team. Jordan, a 2020 draftee, has a six-game hit streak that includes two home runs and has boosted his average to .269 with 14 RBIs in 13 games at the rookie level. … The first five players picked from state schools in the 2021 draft have signed: Will Bednar, Gunnar Hoglund, Doug Nikhazy, Reed Trimble and Tanner Allen. Ryan Och, Brennon McNair, Rowdey Jordan and Hunter Stanley, the last four of the 12 picked, also have signed. Eric Cerantola, Christian MacLeod and Taylor Broadway remain unsigned. Walker Powell and Houston Harding have signed as undrafted free agents. (When Harding debuts for the Angels, he’ll be the fourth ICC alum in pro ball, joining Reed, Delvin Zinn and Steffon Moore.) … And finally, there is this: The Biloxi Shuckers, the worst team (by far) in the Double-A South, have beaten the league’s best team, the Mississippi Braves, five straight times at Trustmark Park in Pearl this week. Saturday’s score was 13-1. Game 6 of the series is today. Will order finally be restored to the universe? Who knows? Baseball is funny that way.

21 Jul

ecstasy to agony

Tough break for former Madison Central High star Spencer Turnbull, who’ll miss the rest of this season and a big chunk of 2022 because of Tommy John surgery. Turnbull threw a no-hitter in late May, the first ever by a Mississippi high school or college alum, and was having a strong year (4-2, 2.88 ERA) with a bad Detroit team when he went on the injured list June 5 with a sore arm. He was shifted to the 60-day IL on July 7, and the announcement about the arm surgery came Tuesday. Turnbull, 28, was a second-round pick by the Tigers in 2014 out of Alabama. He debuted in the big leagues in 2018 and has an 11-25, 4.25 career ledger.

20 Jul

that’s consistency

Tim Anderson was playing like an All-Star before he was named as a late addition to the American League squad. Nothing has changed since. The East Central Community College product went into the break on a 12-game hit streak that started before he was named to the team for the first time. As if he needed to validate his selection, he has hit safely in all four games he has played since the break and has homered in three straight for the first-place Chicago White Sox. “(He) is one of the big reasons why we are where we are,” manager Tony LaRussa told The Associated Press. Anderson has 12 hits in his last seven games, 28 during his 16-game streak and is batting .394 over that stretch. For the year, Anderson, in his sixth season as the White Sox’s regular shortstop, is batting .314 with nine homers, 36 RBIs, 61 runs and 14 stolen bases. Anderson will look to extend his streak when Chicago hosts Minnesota today. The club record for a hitting streak is 28, held by Carlos Lee (2004). P.S. Petal’s Demarcus Evans was recalled by Texas on Sunday, threw two scoreless innings, then was optioned back to Triple-A Monday. Thanks for playing.

17 Jul

totally random

Mississippi native Norm Bass is one of the select few – roughly 70 – who have played both major league baseball and pro football. Born in Laurel in 1939 and raised in California, Bass spent parts of three seasons (1961-63) in the majors as a pitcher with the Kansas City A’s and then played defensive back in the AFL in 1964 with the Denver Broncos. But Bass did not stop there. Arthritis curtailed his ability to perform in baseball and football, so he turned to table tennis and became a prominent player on the international scene. He medaled in the 2000 Paralympics and is in the Table Tennis Hall of Fame. Bass, whose brother Dick was also a pro football player and Mississippi native, posted a 13-17 record with a 5.32 ERA in 65 MLB games. (He allowed one of Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in 1961.) In a wonderful profile on Bass in an online publication called Sports Stories, the writer says, “No athlete I can think of has had a career like Norm Bass.” A film about his life reportedly was in the works in 2020.

16 Jul

still raking

Yes, it was Division II juco baseball, and, yes, it was with a metal bat. Still, the .504 batting average posted by Tyreque Reed at Itawamba Community College in 2017 was an eye-popping number. And Reed is proving in pro ball that it wasn’t purely a fluke. The 6-foot-1, 250-pound Houlka native can rake. Reed, now playing at High-A Greenville in the Boston system, went 3-for-3 with two walks, a homer and a career-high five RBIs in a game on Thursday. He is batting .296, slugging .587, with 14 homers and 50 RBIs for the Drive. His slugging percentage ranks second in the High-A East and the homer total is tied for third-most. Over four minor league seasons, Reed is batting .283 with 55 homers. A first baseman/DH, Reed is 24 and no doubt ready to be challenged at a higher level. He’s not rated among the Red Sox’s Top 30 prospects on mlb.com, but the organization reportedly is high on his potential. Boston plucked Reed from the Texas organization in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft in December. The Rangers had drafted him in the eighth round out of ICC in 2017; he hit a homer for them in his first big league spring training game in 2019. “(W)e really believe in the power potential, so we’re excited to bring him into the organization. He’s been someone we’ve kept an eye on even outside of the Rule 5 context,” Boston scouting exec Gus Quattlebaum told bloggingtheredsox.com in December. P.S. Former Ole Miss standout Bobby Wahl, released by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, re-signed with them Thursday to a minor league deal.

15 Jul

road not taken

The lone high school player from Mississippi picked in the MLB draft this week was not Braden Montgomery, the former Madison Central two-way star and the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year award winner. (It was Brennon McNair, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound shortstop from Magee, who was plucked by Kansas City in the 11th round as something of a sleeper pick.) Montgomery, a Stanford signee, was rated as the No. 66 draft prospect by mlb.com, but apparently his asking price to sign did not match up with what teams were willing to offer. So, he’s off to Stanford, which is still pretty awesome. A local scout called him “an exciting talent.” Montgomery posted a .479 average with seven home runs and 50 RBIs and compiled a 9-0 record on the mound with a 0.74 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 56 2/3 innings. He’ll be eligible for the draft again in three years, perhaps following the path of J.T. Ginn, the 2018 Gatorade POY at Brandon. Ginn was picked in the first round by the Los Angeles Dodgers that year but turned down a reported $2.4M to pitch at Mississippi State. He sparkled as a freshman but suffered an elbow injury that required surgery early in 2020, his sophomore season. Nevertheless, the New York Mets took him in the second round last year. The right-hander signed for $2.9M and recently began his pro career. He is 2-1 with a 2.48 ERA in Low-A ball. The 2020 and 2019 Gatorade POYs were drafted in 2020, DeSoto Central’s Blaze Jordan going to Boston in the third round and Biloxi’s Colt Keith to Detroit in the fifth and final round. Jordan signed for $1.75M and is playing in the Florida Complex League, batting .194 with a homer. Keith, a junior when he won the POY award, signed for $500,000 and is now in Low-A ball, batting .291. The 2017 and 2016 Gatorade award winners weren’t drafted, then or since. Trey Shaffer, from Biloxi, went to Southeastern Louisiana and recently transferred to LSU. Jason Barber, from Oxford, signed with Ole Miss, pitched very little as a freshman in 2017 and then gave up baseball. P.S. Walker Powell, C-USA pitcher of the year at Southern Miss, has signed with the Chicago Cubs as an undrafted free agent, according to Baseball America. The 6-foot-8 right-hander went 10-2, 2.31 ERA this season for the Golden Eagles.