beating the bushes

Bobby Bradley ain’t goin’ away. The former Harrison Central High star homered Thursday for the second straight game and now has 22 for the season at Class A Lake County. The lefty-hitting first baseman, Cleveland’s No. 7 prospect (by mlb.com), is hitting .275 with four homers and 17 RBIs in his last 10 games, boosting his season stats to .254 with 74 RBIs. And remember, he’s 19 years old. … Kansas City, which already has a great bullpen, also has Louis Coleman humming along at Triple-A Omaha, apparently ready if needed. The former Pillow Academy star and Greenwood native has seven saves, seven wins and a 1.84 ERA in 33 games. Coleman, 29, has 148 big league appearances but none in 2015. … Starkville native Julio Borbon is batting .483 over his last 10 games for Norfolk, Baltimore’s Triple-A club, and is at .281 with 20 steals for the season. Like Coleman, onetime big leaguer Borbon isn’t on the 40-man roster, but it would seem he could help the Orioles as they fight to stay in the American League playoff race. … DeSoto Central product Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s draft, is back from a short stint on the disabled list and hitting .325 with two homers and seven RBIs for Atlanta’s rookie-level Danville club. … West Lauderdale alum Blake Anderson, the first Mississippian picked in the 2014 draft, is on the DL at short-season Class A Batavia. The catcher, a first-round supplemental pick by Miami, is hitting .220 with two homers and 11 RBIs in 22 games. … Wade Wass, former Meridian Community College slugger, has seven homers at Class A Burlington in the Los Angeles Angels’ system. Wass, a catcher who signed out of the Cape Cod League last summer, is batting .256 with 35 RBIs in 75 games. … Ex-Murrah star Zack Bird took his first Double-A loss on Thursday for the Mississippi Braves. The right-hander lasted just two innings against Mobile, yielded five runs and walked five batters; M-Braves pitchers walked 11 all told in the 9-1 loss. Bird is 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA, 12 walks and eight strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings over three starts. … East Mississippi CC alum LeDarious Clark’s scorching start (see previous posts) is a fading memory. He went hitless in seven straight games from late July into August, and despite a current five-game hit streak, is batting .135 over his last 10 games at short-season Spokane in the Texas system. His average is down to .298. For the season, Clark’s numbers look good: eight homers, 21 RBIs, 37 runs and 19 steals in 45 games. But he hasn’t homered since July 22 and has one RBI, five steals and 22 strikeouts since that date.