Author Archives: Mike Christensen

01 Sep

upward mobility

Miami brass decided to give Kemp Alderman a look at the Triple-A level, and they surely liked what they saw in his Sunday debut. After striking out in his first two at-bats, the Ole Miss product from Decatur hit a two-run homer in his third, helping Jacksonville beat Rochester 6-5. The radio broadcaster for the Jumbo Shrimp described Alderman’s homer as “a 414-foot missile to center field” at Vystar Ballpark in Jacksonville. Alderman, 23, hit .282 with 15 homers, 53 RBIs and 20 steals at Double-A Pensacola this season, his second full year in pro ball. He hit 31 homers in his three years in Oxford and won the Ferriss Trophy in 2023 on the heels of a huge offensive season. Miami drafted him in the second round that summer. Power is his top tool — scouting reports compare him to Hunter Renfroe — but oddly enough he went 28 games into his pro career in 2023 before going deep. Challenged at the Double-A level last summer, Alderman homered in his second game. He is Miami’s No. 11 prospect by MLB Pipeline. … Colton Ledbetter, also a second-round pick — out of Mississippi State — in 2023, might be in line for a promotion at Double-A Montgomery in the Tampa Bay system. The lefty-hitting leadoff batter, 23, went 2-for-6 with two RBIs, two runs and his 34th steal for the Biscuits on Sunday in a win against Biloxi. A sluggish August has dropped his average to .264, but he has a .342 OBP with six homers, 40 RBIs and 63 runs in 113 games as a firestarter for the Biscuits. He is ranked as Tampa Bay’s No. 18 prospect. P.S. Three pitchers with Mississippi ties went to the bump as starters in the big leagues on Sunday. Collectively, they went 0-2, allowing 19 hits, eight walks and 14 runs (11 earned) with 19 strikeouts in 16 innings. To be fair, Atlanta’s Hurston Waldrep — who played two seasons at Southern Miss before transferring to Florida — pitched well, allowing a lone run to Philadelphia over 5 2/3 innings. He got a no-decision in a game the Braves ultimately won. MSU alums Brandon Woodruff (5-2) and J.T. Ginn (2-6) got battered around for Milwaukee and the A’s, respectively. … Toronto moved former USM star Nick Sandlin (elbow injury) to the 60-day injured list, possibly ending his season. … MLB rosters can expand today — by two — possibly opening spots for some Mississippians in the minors.

31 Aug

noteworthy

The Milwaukee Brewers, the team with the best record in the majors, got stronger on Saturday when Jackson Chourio came off the injured list. And the former Biloxi Shuckers star went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning as the Brewers (85-52) beat Toronto 4-1. It was the 18th homer of the season for Chourio, who spent a month on the IL. The 21-year-old outfielder, currently batting .278 with 68 RBIs and 18 steals, was third in National League rookie of the year voting in 2024. Mississippi State product Brandon Woodruff, another of the many Shuckers alums on Milwaukee’s roster, starts for the Brewers today at Toronto; he is 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA. … Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Blaze Jordan extended his hitting streak to seven games with a home run — his 15th of 2025 — in Triple-A Memphis’ 8-2 win over Oklahoma City. Jordan, St. Louis’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .280 with 84 RBIs on the year with three different clubs. … In a Double-A Eastern League game at Reading, Pa., before a crowd of 7,000-plus, a couple of former Mississippi high school stars got big knocks: Bryson Ware, Germantown grad, hit a two-run homer for Reading (Philadelphia affiliate) and Tupelo alum Reed Trimble went deep for Chesapeake (Baltimore) in the Fightin Phils’ 3-1 victory. Reading managed just two hits in the game. Ware, who also played at Pearl River Community College and Auburn, is batting .279 with two homers for Reading and has eight bombs overall at two levels. Ex-Southern Miss star Trimble has nine homers for Chesapeake and 13 overall, including a couple in Triple-A. … And at Windy City in Illinois, Kyle Booker’s eighth-inning single drove in the lone run as the indy Mississippi Mud Monsters (and Jeremy Peguero) beat the Thunderbolts 1-0. The Mud Monsters (48-47) finish their inaugural season today at Crestwood, Ill. … Madison Central product Spencer Turnbull has signed a minor league deal with Kansas City and will report to Triple-A Omaha. The veteran right-hander is now with his third organization in 2025, having been released by Toronto and the Chicago Cubs. … On this date in 1990, former Jackson State standout Wes Chamberlain made his MLB debut for the Phillies. He would play six years in the majors, batting .255 with 43 homers. He batted .364 for the Phils in the 1993 NL Championship Series win over Atlanta.

30 Aug

plan is working

To the long list of Konnor Griffin’s best games as a first-year pro, add this one: On Friday night, the former Jackson Prep star belted two home runs — his first in Double-A — and drove in seven runs while leading Altoona to a 14-3 win against Harrisburg. “Sticking to the plan I’ve had all year,” the minors’ No. 1 prospect told milb.com. His aggressive approach has produced a .353 average and 13 RBIs in nine games for Pittsburgh’s Double-A team. On the year, the 19-year-old Griffin is batting .333 with 18 homers, 85 RBIs and 64 stolen bases across three levels. He has had three four-hit games, a four-RBI game, a three-double game and two three-steal games. Friday was the first two-homer game for the 6-foot-4, 225-pound shortstop. He has yet to go more than two straight games without a hit. … Braden Montgomery, the other Mississippi prep product drafted in the first round in 2024, is also enjoying a big season. The Madison Central alum went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Double-A Birmingham on Friday and is batting .307 with a homer and 10 RBIs in 27 games at that level. The Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 prospect is at .278 with 12 homers, 67 RBIs and 14 bags on the season. Montgomery, a 22-year-old switch-hitting outfielder, was drafted 12th overall out of Texas A&M. … Jurrangelo Cijntje, the switch-pitcher drafted in Round 1 in 2024 out of Mississippi State, is also in Double-A and has a 4.58 ERA for Seattle’s Arkansas club. The Mariners’ No. 8 prospect at 22, he is 4-7 with a 4.58 on the year in 19 appearances over two levels. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss slugger Tim Elko, recalled from Triple-A for the fourth time by the White Sox, went 0-for-4 on Friday. A .292 hitter (with 24 homers) in the minors this year, he is batting .136 in The Show. … Riley Maddox, former Ole Miss and Jackson Prep standout, threw two scoreless innings in his pro debut for Washington’s Low-Class A Fredericksburg team. … Props to the Mississippi Mud Monsters, who played Thursday night in Pearl, made a 10 1/2-hour trip to Chicago and beat Windy City 4-1. The independent Mud Monsters, now 47-47, got seven strong innings from Luis Devers (8-6) and two RBIs each from Travis Holt and Karell Paz. … Mud-sters outfielder Davis Bradshaw announced his retirement on Friday after seven pro seasons, six in affiliated ball with Miami. The former McLaurin High and Meridian Community College star hit .310 for his pro career, .402 this year with Mississippi. “I’ve cherished every step of this journey,” he said in a Facebook post.

29 Aug

happy trails

Fans at Trustmark Park said good-bye to the Mississippi Mud Monsters on a soggy Thursday night. The independent club won the last home game of its inaugural season, a rain-shortened 8-3 victory over the Gateway Grizzlies. The team, expected to return to Pearl next year, also won the first game of the season back in May. The Mud Monsters finish the Frontier League season with three games at Windy City, on the outskirts of Chicago, starting tonight. It’s been a competitive team, currently sitting at 46-47. Mississippi prep products like Davis Bradshaw (hitting .402 after a two-hit game), Kyle Booker (.297) and Brayland Skinner (.292) have played starring roles. Tyree Thompson, who notched his sixth win with a six-inning complete game on Thursday, is among five starters who won at least six times. Three Mud-sters — Brian Williams, Victor Diaz and Travis Holt — made the FL All-Star Game. Two pitchers signed with major league organizations off the roster: Zack Morris and Michael Fowler. The team did a whole lot of promotion, gave away a lot of stuff, drew some big crowds and more than a few small ones. No attendance number was released from the finale, but the club averaged an announced 2,022, middle-of-the-pack in the 18-team league. All in all it was a good debut season. We’ll see what Year 2 holds.
For the record: It was 20 years ago this month that we said good-bye — forever — to the previous independent team to play in central Mississippi, the Jackson Senators. That club, which won a league title at Smith-Wills Stadium in 2003, finished 35-58 in 2005, managed by Hill Denson, who was doubling as Belhaven’s coach at the time. (The Mississippi Braves arrived in Pearl that same year; their scheduled final homestand in 2005, some might recall, was cancelled because of Hurricane Katrina. The Braves left town last September.) The ’05 Sens finished last in the eight-team Central League despite having one of the league’s best players, outfielder Vince Faison. A former first-round draft pick by San Diego, Faison hit 15 homers and got a minor league deal with the New York Yankees at season’s end. Selwyn Langaigne, another talented athlete, hit .305. Rusty Camp, former Southern Miss standout from Amory, was the top pitcher. Several other Mississippi natives played on that club, including Gerard McCall, Brandon Parker and Fontella Jones. … Twenty-five years ago, the independent Jackson DiamondKats played their forever finale. They lost their last game in September of 2000 and finished 38-74, setting a record for losses in the Texas-Louisiana League. Not a lot of pleasant memories from that team. Managed by ex-Ole Miss and MLB star Steve Dillard, the D-Kats endured two 10-game losing streaks. Crowds were very sparse, roughly 700 per game. Some players did manage to shine, however. Ex-big leaguer Mark Carreon, at age 36, joined the team late in the season and hit .340 in 42 games. Ex-Delta State star Casey Myrick batted .329 with nine homers and 56 RBIs, and Jeremy McClain, former DSU ace and now Southern Miss’ athletic director, went 7-9 with a 3.27 ERA. … Thirty-five years ago, the Jackson Mets concluded their 16-year run at Smith-Wills. The beloved OJMs’ swan song came in September in the Texas League East Division playoffs, a disheartening loss against old rival Shreveport. The Clint Hurdle-managed club went 73-62 on the year and featured a bunch of future big leaguers. Among them: Todd Hundley, Chuck Carr, Anthony Young, Pete Schourek and Chris Donnels. The Mets moved their team to Pennsylvania. The Houston Astros’ Double-A club — the Generals — moved into Smith-Wills in 1991 as the city’s new Texas League franchise and stayed until 1999, when they, too, hit the road.
P.S. Spencer Turnbull is a free agent — again. The Madison Central High grad opted out of his minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs and was released off the Triple-A roster. He had a 9.49 ERA in six starts for Iowa. Turnbull, who pitched for Philadelphia in 2024, signed with Toronto as a free agent in May, put up a 7.11 ERA in three MLB games and was released in June. He signed with the Cubs on July 12.

28 Aug

a door opens

After parlaying his monster season in an independent league into a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres, Christopher Sargent Jr. wasted little time making an impact in affiliated ball. In the fourth at-bat of his first game, the ex-Southern Miss standout belted a two-run homer. Sargent, 25, officially signed with the Padres on Wednesday and was in the lineup at catcher for Double-A San Antonio on Wednesday night. His homer helped the Missions beat Frisco 14-11. Sargent hit .384 with 35 homers and 130 RBIs this season for Ogden in his second season in the hitter-friendly Pioneer League. He hit .316 with 19 bombs in 2024. Ogden manager Evan Parker hailed Sargent as a “real dual-threat catcher.” Sargent, 5 feet 11, 185 pounds, played first base at USM from 2021-23 and hit 51 homers while batting .249. He wasn’t drafted after his senior season. A catcher in high school and junior college in Alabama, Sargent began playing that premium position again with Ogden. He joins a San Antonio team that includes former USM left-hander Ryan Och. P.S. In other minor matters: Blaze Jordan, DeSoto Central High product, hit a two-run double in the ninth inning that gave Triple-A Memphis an 8-6 win at Oklahoma City. Jordan has 19 RBIs in 19 games with St. Louis’ Triple-A club and 81 on the year with three different clubs. … Niko Mazza, ex-USM and MRA standout, threw 5 1/3 strong innings to get the win for Low-Class A San Jose in a 2-0 victory against Visalia. Mazza, in his first pro campaign, is 4-3 with a 2.04 ERA in 20 starts for the San Francisco affiliate. … Mason Nichols, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss and a Jackson Prep product, notched his first career save with a scoreless inning for Low-A Charleston (Tampa Bay system) in a 1-0 win vs. Augusta. Nichols has yet to allow a run in five relief appearances.

27 Aug

power trip

With his fourth home run in three games, Matt Wallner powered Minnesota to a comeback 7-5 win at Toronto on Tuesday night and joined some rather select company. The ex-Southern Miss star, from Forest Lake, Minn., became the fourth native of the North Star State to hit 20 bombs in a season. He joins Hall of Famers Joe Mauer and Dave Winfield along with Twins legend Kent Hrbek in that club. Wallner’s three-run homer in the ninth inning Tuesday came against Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman and gave the Twins a 7-4 lead. Seven of Wallner’s 14 hits this month are home runs, and most of them were tape-measure blasts. On Monday, he hit two against Toronto ace — and future Hall of Famer — Max Scherzer in a Twins loss. “Wally is a fun player to talk about,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told mlb.com after Monday’s game. “Nobody really impacts the ball the way he does except for maybe five guys, maybe 10.” … It was a big night for big flies from Mississippians in the majors and minors: Colt Keith, Biloxi High alum, hit his 12th — as part of a 3-for-5 night — in Detroit’s 7-6 loss in 10 innings against the A’s. … Former Mississippi College standout Blaine Crim belted his 20th Triple-A bomb of the season, his second for Albuquerque in the Colorado system. Crim’s homer came against Mississippi State alum J.P. France, pitching for Houston’s Sugar Land club, which won the game 6-4. … USM product Reed Trimble hit his 12th homer of 2025, going yard for Double-A Chesapeake (Baltimore). The Tupelo native has hit eight homers in Double-A, two in Triple-A and two in the low minors in a peripatetic campaign. … Kemp Alderman, the 2023 Ferriss Trophy winner at Ole Miss, smacked his 14th homer for Double-A Pensacola (Miami); the Decatur native has four in August after hitting just one in July. … And Mississippi Braves alum Ozzie Albies hit two homers for Atlanta — his first two-homer game in more than two years — powering the Braves to an 11-2 win at Miami. The switch-hitting Albies, who has 12 homers on the year, hit one from each side, getting his first as a righty hitter all season. P.S. Hurston Waldrep, former USM and M-Braves star, battled for 5 1/3 innings (one run allowed) in Tuesday’s game and stood to get the win before the Atlanta bullpen coughed up a late run. Waldrep is 4-0 with an 0.90 ERA in his five appearances this season. Lightly recruited out of his Georgia high school in 2020, Waldrep went 7-2 in two years at USM — a good baseball school, by the way — before transferring to Florida. On the Braves broadcast it was noted that he still has the ball from his first college victory in 2021.

26 Aug

head-to-head

Detroit vs. the A’s in West Sacramento, Calif., an interdivisional game between a first-place club and a last-place one. Not a matchup that generated much excitement on the major league schedule for Monday night. Ah, but there was a matchup within the matchup that Mississippi baseball aficionados would find compelling. It wasn’t the pivotal head-to-head confrontation in the A’s stunning 7-3 win, but it was entertaining. Batting leadoff for Detroit was Colt Keith, the ex-Biloxi High star, the state’s Gatorade player of the year in 2019. Starting on the mound for the A’s was J.T. Ginn, former Brandon High star, the state’s Gatorade player of the year in 2018. Both were drafted in 2020, Keith out of high school, Ginn out of Mississippi State. Both are second-year big leaguers, but they hadn’t faced off before. The lefty-hitting Keith came in batting .261 with 11 homers and 39 RBIs, having a fine year for the Tigers (78-54), who have been in command of the American League Central most of the season. Right-hander Ginn was 2-5 with a 4.95 ERA for an A’s team that was 60-72, in the AL West cellar, 10.5 games back of the third wild card spot. Keith was a .278 hitter against right-handers, with all 11 of his homers coming against righties. Lefties were batting .339 with eight bombs against Ginn, who had yielded 10 runs in 11 2/3 innings in his previous three outings. But this matchup, on this night, belonged to Ginn. He struck out Keith on three pitches to start the game, the first of his eight K’s. In the third inning, Keith crushed a line drive foul down the right-field line on the first pitch, then popped up to left two pitches later. In the fifth — in what was still a scoreless game — the count went to 3-1 before Ginn induced a grounder to short that ended the inning. Ginn departed in the sixth; he would be charged with seven hits, a walk and three runs in 5 1/3, in line for a loss before the game suddenly turned. The crucial clash came in the seventh, when former Mississippi Braves star Shea Langeliers hit a two-out grand slam off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal that put the A’s up 6-3. The 450-foot bomb at Sutter Health Park was the 29th of the season for “Bang-eliers” and the first slam ever allowed by Skubal, the 2024 AL Cy Young winner. Skubal took the L, falling to 11-4. Ginn may have gotten a no-decision on this night, but he won the battle with Keith and his team ultimately won the war.

25 Aug

details, details …

Sunday stuff: Two more hits and RBIs for Nathaniel Lowe. That’s seven knocks in 16 at-bats with seven RBIs for the ex-Mississippi State star in six games with Boston. The Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees on Sunday and are 3-3 in Lowe’s appearances. … Two more hits, an RBI, a run, three different positions and a win for Kansas City’s Adam Frazier. The former MSU standout is hitting .295 with 14 RBIs and 12 runs in his 29 games for the wild card-chasing Royals, 19-12 since the All-Star break. … Konnor Pilkington, MSU product from Pascagoula, struck out the Philadelphia side in the seventh inning of Washington’s 3-2 loss; he has 18 punchouts in 14 2/3 innings — with a 5.52 ERA — in 16 games this season. … Blaze Jordan, DeSoto Central High product, drove in a run for Triple-A Memphis, his 16th RBI in 17 games since joining the St. Louis affiliate in a trade. He is batting just .129. … In his first week in Double-A, ex-Jackson Prep standout Konnor Griffin batted .286 with four RBIs, four runs and four steals for Pittsburgh’s Altoona club. … Former Southern Miss star Dustin Dickerson scored one run for Northwest Arkansas, but it was the game-winner in a walk-off victory by the Royals’ Double-A club. … MSU product Kamren James hit his first homer of the season and fellow Bulldogs alum Colton Ledbetter added his sixth in a win for Double-A Montgomery, a Tampa Bay affiliate. … Patrick Lee, former William Carey University star, hit his fourth homer for West Michigan, one of six bombs Detroit’s High-Class A club belted in a 16-0 win. … Luke Hill, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss, got three more hits and is batting .417 in seven games for Low-A Lynchburg in Cleveland’s chain. He has a homer, four RBIs, five runs and five bags. … Michael Fowler took a loss for Low-A Carolina but still has yet to yield an earned run in five appearances for the Milwaukee affiliate. He pitched for USM and the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters this season before the Brewers signed him on July 29. P.S. Fun flashback: On this date in 1995, former Jackson Mets star Gregg Jefferies hit for the cycle and ex-Jackson Generals ace Jeff Juden threw a complete game and clubbed a grand slam as Philadelphia whipped the Los Angeles Dodgers (and Hideo Nomo) 17-4.

24 Aug

touching the bases

His Boston teammates call Garrett Crochet “Beast,” and on Saturday at Yankee Stadium he showed why. The former Ocean Springs High star overpowered the New York Yankees in the Red Sox’s 12-1 victory: seven innings, five hits, one run, one walk, 11 strikeouts. The 6-foot-6, 245-pound left-hander is 14-5 with a 2.38 ERA; he is 2-0, 2.96, in three starts vs. the Yankees, all wins by Boston. He went over 200 strikeouts for the season and passed 500 for his career; he has only been a starter for two of his five seasons. While Crochet was sharp in the Red Sox’s eighth straight win over the Yanks, Jackson Prep product Will Warren was not. He was charged with five runs in four innings and fell to 7-6, 4.47. … The Milwaukee Brewers will honor the late Bob Uecker today at American Family Field. Brewers broadcaster Tim Dillard, the ex-Itawamba Community College star who pitched for the Brewers from 2008-12, said this about Uecker, aka Mr. Baseball: “He made everybody better. Whether it was with his knowledge or his wit, his storytelling, just his voice, all of it. That was his gift, and he shared it with the world.” … Matt Wallner hit his 17th homer in Minnesota’s loss on Saturday. The former Southern Miss slugger, batting just .210, has 33 extra-base knocks among his 55 hits. … Seattle has designated former Mississippi Braves shortstop Dylan Moore for assignment. With the Mariners since 2019, the versatile Moore is hitting .193 this year. … Former Atlanta Braves scout Roy Clark — responsible for the drafting of Austin Riley, Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward and Adam Wainwright, among others — has died at age 68. … Justin Foscue, the ex-Mississippi State standout, is itching for a call-up with Texas, which has suffered a rash of injuries lately. Foscue hit his 15th homer for Triple-A Round Rock on Saturday and is batting .292 with four bombs and 17 RBIs in August. He is 3-for-51 in his brief MLB time the last two years. … The Mississippi Mud Monsters’ Frontier League playoff hopes took a hit on Saturday when Washington rallied for six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to an 8-6 win. Former ICC standout Tyreque Reed hit a game-tying three-run homer in the pivotal frame, his 13th of the season for the Wild Things. … Christopher Sargent Jr. continues to put up staggering stats in the independent Pioneer League: The USM alum, who had two hits in Ogden’s win on Saturday, is batting .384 with 35 homers, 130 RBIs and 94 runs in 80 games.

23 Aug

den of thieves

Jake Mangum notched his 20th stolen base of the season on Friday, a significant milestone for the MLB rookie out of Mississippi State. He’ll surely get more before the Tampa Bay Rays’ season ends. One of the fastest players in the 2019 MLB draft, Flowood native Mangum ripped off 81 bags in his six minor league seasons. For the record, the record for steals in a season by a Mississippi native is 59, set by — no surprise here — Billy Hamilton. The state’s career steals leader, Hamilton also stole 58, 57 and 56 in different seasons but, oddly enough, never won a league stolen base crown. The only Mississippian to do that was Sam Jethroe, a Columbus native who led the National League with 35 — as a rookie — in 1950 and again in 1951 while with the Boston Braves. He was rookie of the year in 1950. According to baseball-reference.com, Starkville’s Cool Papa Bell stole 49 bases in a season (1929) in the Negro Leagues and also had a 36-steal campaign. Jarrod Dyson’s MLB-best was 36; the McComb product also had 34 one year and had three 30-steal seasons. Gee Walker, from Gulfport, was the career steals leader among Mississippians before Hamilton and Dyson blew by him; he topped out at 30 in a single season, back in 1932. In the minor leagues, Konnor Griffin has 60 steals this season, having played in three different leagues. Now the No. 1 prospect in the minors, the Jackson native was regarded as the fastest prep player in the 2024 draft. Batesville native Emaarion Boyd has 46 steals over two levels this year and swiped 56 in 2023. The record for a Mississippian in the minors? Hamilton, again. The Taylorsville product set the all-time minor league mark with 155 playing at two levels in 2012.