Author Archives: Mike Christensen

19 Sep

fitting finale

Lance Lynn’s season ended Wednesday when St. Louis put the veteran right-hander on the injured list with right knee inflammation. We’re now left to wonder if Ole Miss alum Lynn’s career might have ended, too. If so, he went out in fitting fashion, like the horse he has always been, throwing six innings and allowing a lone run in a 3-1 victory Tuesday against Pittsburgh at Busch Stadium. The burly, gray-bearded Lynn, 7-4, 3.84 ERA in 23 starts on the year, went 6-0 at Busch Stadium, where a large group of family members watched him work on Tuesday. Tuesday’s game was his 100th career appearance at Busch, per an mlb.com story, and he is 46-20 there all-time. The 37-year-old Lynn’s 13-year MLB career began with St. Louis in 2011, when he helped the Cardinals win the World Series. All told, he went 143-99 with a 3.74 ERA and 2,015 strikeouts, pitching for six different clubs. Drafted in the first round out of Ole Miss by St. Louis in 2008, Lynn’s 143 wins are tied for fourth-most (with Cliff Lee) among Mississippi natives or school alums who have pitched in the big leagues. Lynn signed a one-year, $11 million free agent contract with the Cardinals this past off-season, and the club holds an option to bring him back in 2025. Cards manager Oliver Marmol told mlb.com he couldn’t have asked for more than Lynn provided in 2024: “I think we picked the right guy to come in and help mold the culture in ways that matter.” So, will we see Lynn on the bump in the majors again? “If you ask me if I want to pitch, I never want to stop pitching,” he said after Tuesday’s game. “But I know there’s going to be a time when that’s going to happen.” P.S. Lucedale’s Justin Steele came off the injured list Wednesday and threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings for the Chicago Cubs, who lost to Oakland 5-3 at Wrigley Field. Steele is 5-5, 3.03, in an injury-dampened season. … Props to Milwaukee and all the former Biloxi Shuckers who contributed as the Brewers clinched the National League Central crown on Wednesday. … Love these comments from Grae Kessinger, the former Ole Miss star now playing a reserve role with the playoff-bound Houston Astros: “It’s always good to contribute and help the team win. Every day, just come to win. What a fun group this is. Winning is all that matters.” On Tuesday, Kessinger, subbing for the ejected “Shoeless Jose” Altuve, scored the go-ahead run as the ghost runner in the top of the 10th inning and then made a sweet play behind second base to end the game, a 4-3 victory over San Diego. Kessinger has played in just 17 games and gotten just 15 at-bats.

17 Sep

on this date

On Sept. 17, 1984, Reggie Jackson hit the 500th home run of his Hall of Fame career. But forget that. In the same game, for the same team, Jackson native and former Forest Hill High star Stewart Cliburn made his major league debut. Cliburn pitched the last two innings of California’s 10-1 loss to Kansas City at Anaheim Stadium. The right-hander worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning, striking out the first batter he faced (Greenville native Frank White), then coughed up three runs in the ninth. Cliburn, 27 at the time, pitched in two more seasons for the Angels, posting a 3.11 ERA in 85 appearances overall. In 1985, he was a key reliever for the club, notching nine wins and six saves for a 90-72 team that finished 1 game out of first in the American League West. Cliburn was drafted out of Delta State by Pittsburgh in 1977 and labored in the minors for seven seasons before California gave him a call-up in ’84. Since his playing days ended, Cliburn has worked as a pitching coach at various levels and is currently with the Chicago Dogs of the independent American Association. His twin brother Stan, who also reached the big leagues as a catcher, is the manager of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the indy Atlantic League; he got his 2,000th managerial win this season.

14 Sep

welcome back … ?

The Pittsburgh Pirates and fans at PNC Park gave Adam Frazier a warm “welcome back” on Friday night. The Pirates played a video tribute to their former star on the stadium scoreboard and the crowd gave him a standing ovation before his first at-bat. “Appreciate them doing that,” the Mississippi State product said in a postgame interview. “Then you gotta lock back in, that’s all I was trying to do right there … .” He did, helping visiting Kansas City — fighting for a playoff berth — roll to an 8-3 victory. Frazier scored twice and hit his fourth home run as the Royals improved to 81-67, second in the American League wild card standings. Frazier was drafted by the Pirates in 2013 and spent his first six MLB seasons in a Pittsburgh uniform. He was traded in mid-2021, which was the last time he played at PNC. He has bounced to four other teams the past four years. A .264 career hitter, Frazier’s first year in KC hasn’t been great — .205, four homers, 20 RBIs, 32 runs over 244 at-bats — but he plays hard and plays anywhere in the field he is needed. He also has postseason experience — with Baltimore in 2023 and Seattle in 2022. P.S. Saucier native Brandon Parker, back near his old stomping grounds at Biloxi’s Keesler Federal Park, homered for the second straight night as the Mississippi Braves beat the Shuckers 7-0 in a Double-A Southern League game. Parker has eight homers on the season. At Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, Parker belted 38 homers in two seasons, setting the school record with 24 as a freshman in 2018. … Ole Miss alum T.J. McCants doubled home the winning run in the 11th inning as Low-Class A Kannapolis beat Charleston 2-1 to advance to the Carolina League Championship Series. McCants, who finished his college career at Alabama in 2024, hit .230 with two homers and four steals this season for the Chicago White Sox affiliate.

13 Sep

short hops

A year after helping his rookie-level club win a league title, Cooper Pratt is chasing another championship in the High-Class A Midwest League. The 2023 Mississippi prep player of the year at Magnolia Heights knocked in the tying run and scored the game-winner Thursday as Wisconsin beat Quad Cities 7-6 to advance to the MWL Championship Series. Pratt, a .277 hitter at two levels in 2024, had three hits and scored three times for the Timber Rattlers, a Milwaukee affiliate. Pratt is the Brewers’ No. 2 prospect. … Former Mississippi State right-hander K.C. Hunt threw six shutout innings to notch his first Double-A win as Biloxi beat visiting Mississippi 8-1 in Game 2 of a doubleheader. Hunt, the Brewers’ No. 29 prospect, is 1-2, 2.20 ERA, for the Shuckers and 8-3, 2.03, overall this year. … Former Shuckers star Jackson Chourio hit his 20th home run for Milwaukee, becoming the youngest player, at age 20, to post a 20-homer/20-steal season in major league history. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Kemp Alderman belted his first Double-A homer for Pensacola (Miami affiliate) and now has eight bombs over four levels in his second pro season. … UM alum Tim Elko hit his eighth homer for Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox) and now has 50 in his three-season minor league career. … Former MSU star Brent Rooker hit his 36th homer for Oakland and extended his on-base streak to 22 games, best current streak in MLB. … UM product Grae Kessinger was recalled from the minors by Houston but did not play in Thursday’s win against the A’s. Kessinger, batting .262 in Triple-A, is 0-for-15 in his limited duty with the Astros this season. … Ole Miss and Southern Miss will meet at Trustmark Park on March 18 next season, and Mississippi State and Ole Miss will play the annual Governor’s Cup game on April 22 at the Pearl ballpark. MSU is slated to play Southern Miss in a home-and-home series in 2025 but no game in Pearl. MSU will play two non-conference games in Biloxi (March 11-12).

12 Sep

central characters

With just a couple weeks left in the major league season, four of the five teams in the American League Central are very much in the playoff hunt. And, yes, there are Mississippi products in impactful roles on all of these clubs. To wit: Former Southern Miss star Matt Wallner homered for Minnesota in a win against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday. It was his 13th of the season, 12th in 51 games since he was recalled from the minors on July 7. Wallner hit a majestic 444-foot blast in the Twins’ win on Tuesday. The Twins, third in the division, are third in the wild card standings, 1.5 games back of Kansas City. The Royals, who swept the Twins last weekend, lost in extra innings to the New York Yankees on Wednesday, falling 4.5 games behind AL Central leader Cleveland. Ex-Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe, who didn’t play Wednesday, is hitting .240 with 13 homers and 50 RBIs for the Royals. MSU product Adam Frazier (.204) plays a utility role for the team, and James McArthur (Ole Miss) and Chris Stratton (MSU) work out of the bullpen, though both have struggled of late. Cleveland won its third straight on Wednesday, beating the lowly Chicago White Sox. USM alum Nick Sandlin pitched 1 1/3 innings for the Guardians and cherry-picked the victory, his eighth, all in relief. He has nine holds, a save and a 3.78 ERA. Cool moment: In the sixth inning Wednesday, Sandlin faced ChiSox catcher Chuckie Robinson, his batterymate in Hattiesburg back in 2016. Sandlin struck out Robinson on a 3-2 pitch. Lurking in fourth place in the wild card standings is Detroit, just 3 games back of Minnesota. Ex-Biloxi High standout Colt Keith, the Tigers’ rookie second baseman, is batting .262 with 12 homers and 55 RBIs. He was 1-for-3 in a win over Colorado on Wednesday. The battle for postseason spots between the AL Central clubs intensifies next week: The Guardians and Twins meet in a four-game series, while the Tigers and Royals play a three-game set. P.S. Brent Rooker, the former SEC player of the year from MSU, knocked in two runs for Oakland on Wednesday, giving him 101 RBIs on the season. That’s tied for fifth in MLB, third in the AL.

11 Sep

puttin’ on the hits

You probably could have made some nice bank if you had bet that Brent Rooker would lead all Mississippians in the majors in hits in 2024. The former Mississippi State star, who entered this season with a .230 career average, is batting .298 for Oakland with 142 hits (35 of them home runs). One preseason magazine projected Rooker to bat .223 this year. He has more hits than Rafael Devers, Freddie Freeman and Alex Bregman. Go figure. Of course, few would have guessed that Biloxi High alum Colt Keith would be No. 2 on the all-Mississippi hits chart with just a couple weeks left in the season. A rookie with Detroit, Keith has 123 hits, 12 more than Nathaniel Lowe, an MLB vet out of MSU who has 111 in an off-year for Texas. Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High product with Atlanta, has 109 hits but is currently on the injured list and may not return. Jordan Westburg, another MSU alum playing for Baltimore, has 105 knocks; he is also on the IL but may be close to coming back. … The hits leader among Mississippi products in the minors is ex-Ole Miss star Tim Elko, who has 139 between Double-A and Triple-A in the Chicago White Sox system. Former Mississippi College standout Blaine Crim, at Triple-A Round Rock in the Rangers’ organization, has 131 knocks. MSU alum Jake Mangum, the International League’s leading hitter at .328, got three more hits on Tuesday — including his sixth homer — and now has 118 in only 94 games for Triple-A Durham (Tampa Bay). … On the subject of hits, Kemp Alderman, the 2023 Ferriss Trophy winner out of Ole Miss, went 1-for-4 in his Double-A debut on Tuesday for Pensacola. The Miami Marlins’ No. 13 prospect hit .248 with seven homers and 43 RBIs over 105 games in the lower minors this season. P.S. Down in Mexico, where the Mexico City Red Devils claimed the King’s Series title on Monday, former big leaguer Bobby Bradley enjoyed a good year with Tijuana, batting .271 with 13 homers and 53 RBIs in 81 games. The former Harrison Central High star, 28, has 229 homers over 10 professional seasons, including 17 homers in MLB. Erstwhile big leaguer Anthony Alford, the ex-Petal High standout, batted .271 with eight homers and 25 RBIs in 39 games for Campeche in the LMB, and Columbia High product Ti’Quan Forbes hit .206 (in only 63 at-bats) for Queretaro.

10 Sep

fizzling finish

The big game on Monday’s MLB docket was Kansas City-New York, a battle between two playoff-bound clubs at Yankee Stadium. It proved to be a big disappointment for the visiting Royals. The KC bullpen — namely Ole Miss alum James McArthur and Mississippi State product Chris Stratton — imploded, handing the Yankees a 10-4 victory. New York leads the American League East by 1.5 games; Kansas City sits second in the AL Central and the wild card race. A home run by ex-MSU star Hunter Renfroe — his 13th — gave the Royals a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh, with one out, McArthur — the team’s former closer — came on to face the top of the New York order. Gleyber Torres singled, Juan Soto walked, Aaron Judge singled in the tying run and Austin Wells hit a three-run bomb: 7-4 Yankees. Down goes McArthur. It was his seventh blown save in 25 chances; his record fell to 5-7 and his ERA jumped to 5.01. “We know that is a big spot in the game,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said in an mlb.com article. “We felt really good about him there. It was just one of those nights he wasn’t able to put them away.” It was still 7-4 in the eighth when Stratton came on. He gave up four hits, a walk and three runs, pretty much ending any hopes the Royals might have had of a ninth-inning rally. Tupelo native Stratton, who won a ring with Texas last year, saw his ERA balloon to 5.34. The Royals get two more cracks in this series at the AL’s top team.

09 Sep

let’s get it started

Nothing like a first-inning home run to energize your team. Jake Mangum, the former Mississippi State standout from Flowood, led off Sunday’s game with a bomb for Durham, sparking Tampa Bay’s Triple-A club to a 15-5 rout of Columbus. It was the fifth homer of the season for minor league veteran Mangum, who went 3-for-6 to lift his average to .323, easily the best in the International League. He has 49 RBIs, 54 runs and 16 steals in 93 games for the Bulls. In the big leagues, Nathaniel Lowe, another MSU alum, went yard in the first frame for Texas, which went on to beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-4. The defending World Series champion Rangers have faded from playoff contention, but Lowe has picked up his game of late: .333 (.431 OBP) over his last 15 games. He is batting .263 (.358 OBP) with 12 homers and 53 RBIs on the year. Down in the Midwest League, ex-Magnolia Heights star Cooper Pratt smacked a first-inning homer — against former Southern Miss ace Tanner Hall — as High-Class A Wisconsin beat Cedar Rapids 10-3. Shortstop Pratt, Milwaukee’s No. 2 prospect, has five homers for the Timber Rattlers and is hitting .221 in 23 games with the team. The second-year pro hit .295 in Low-A before his promotion. P.S. The postseason starts Tuesday for teams in the Class A levels. Pratt’s Wisconsin club will play Quad Cities in the first round of the MWL postseason. Ex-USM star Dustin Dickerson plays shortstop for Quad Cities, a Kansas City affiliate. … Bowling Green, a Tampa Bay affiliate featuring MSU products Colton Ledbetter and Kamren James, faces Rome in the High-A South Atlantic League playoffs. Former Smithville High standout Jared Johnson pitches for Rome, an Atlanta affiliate. … Connor Hujsak, another 2024 draft pick out of State, is an outfielder for Charleston, a Tampa Bay affiliate in the Low-A Carolina League postseason. Southaven native and Northwest Mississippi Community College product Dalton Fowler pitches for the RiverDogs, who’ll face Kannapolis in the first round. Ole Miss alum T.J. McCants plays for the Cannon Ballers (Chicago White Sox). … Tyson Hardin, a 2024 draftee out of MSU, pitches for Carolina, a Milwaukee affiliate that’s also in the Carolina League postseason. … Dakota Jordan, the ex-MSU star from Canton, is on the roster but on the injured list at Low-A San Jose (San Francisco Giants), which is in the California League playoffs. Jordan, a 2024 draftee, was 0-for-7 in two games this season.

09 Sep

remember that time …

It wasn’t the kind of finale the Mississippi Braves would have hoped for. In the team’s last game at Trustmark Park, they lost 10-3. The last batter of the last game struck out. A crowd announced at 4,111 on a breezy, sun-splashed Sunday groaned at that last out but then gave the home boys a final round of applause. Just like that, 20 years — 19 seasons — of Double-A baseball in Pearl ended. The Atlanta affiliate sent scores of players to the big leagues. Won two league championships. Produced five no-hitters, a Southern League MVP, a pitcher of the year and a bunch of league All-Stars. There were shutouts and grand slams and walk-offs aplenty. Sunday’s game might not have been one for the scrapbook of memories, but there were plenty of those through the years for the more than 3 million fans who passed through the gates. Here’s one: On April 30, 2005 — the inaugural season — Brian McCann, the 21-year-old catching prospect just weeks from his first big league call-up, stepped to the plate in the bottom of ninth with the M-Braves down 1-0. West Tenn’s Rich Hill — yes, that Rich Hill — and three relievers had no-hit the M-Braves for 8 2/3 innings. Lefty Yorkin Ferraras was on the bump to face the lefty-hitting McCann with a man on first. As West Tenn manager — and Laurel native — Bobby Dickerson said after the game: “McCann is the one guy we didn’t want to face right there.” On a 2-2 pitch, Ferraras left a fastball out over the plate and McCann smacked it high and deep over the right-field wall for a 2-1 victory. “I’ve never had a feeling like that as long as I’ve been playing sports,” McCann said afterward. Nineteen years later, it still resonates. Baseball does that.

08 Sep

aloha from pearl

Good-bye, Mississippi Braves. Hello, Frontier League team to be named later. The M-Braves — Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves — will play their final game at Pearl’s Trustmark Park today (2:05 p.m. vs. Tennessee). On Monday, fan voting will begin to pick a name for a new team that will play there in the independent Frontier League. (Visit ondeck2025.com.) Pearl city officials and the stadium management group have announced that Trustmark Park will have a pro team in 2025. As currently configured, the Frontier League, officially an MLB-supported Partner League, has 16 teams, 13 in the U.S., three in Canada, none in the South. If you’re scoring at home, this team will be the third independent club to come to central Mississippi (Jackson or Pearl) since 2000. (Several other cities in the state hosted indy teams at various times in the 1990s, but all are long gone.) Since 1990, fans in the metro have said good-bye to the Mets and Generals, both MLB affiliated teams, and the DiamondKats and Senators, both independent clubs. All four played at Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium, and all four suffered from poor attendance that impacted their bottom line. That’s why the M-Braves are leaving, as well, bound for Columbus, Ga., after a 20-year run at Trustmark Park. The M-Braves — who drew an announced crowd of 5,300-plus for Saturday’s doubleheader — have averaged just over 2,000 fans a game for the past several seasons, ranking near the bottom in all of Double-A baseball. The league average in the Frontier League this season was 2,305. Six teams drew under 2,000, including a Brockton, Mass.-based club that averaged 1,116. The team in Schaumburg, Ill., averaged a reported 4,627 to lead the league. … For the record, a new college summer league — the Legacy League — is scheduled to operate at Smith-Wills next year: eight teams playing a 40-game slate from May into July.