crunch time at teepee

Birmingham is one of the Southern League’s best hitting teams. The Mississippi Braves are running out a rotation filled with prospects, young guns that could be in Atlanta in the near future. The compelling clash of Barons bats and M-Braves arms begins tonight at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Right-hander John Gant is slated to start Game 1 for Mississippi. He is followed in the rotation by Lucas Sims, Greg Ross, Zack Bird and Andrew Thurman. Birmingham, hitting .261 (second in SL) as a team with 482 runs (fifth), features a dynamic 1-2 punch at the top of its order. Former East Central Community College star Tim Anderson, one of the Chicago White Sox’s highest rated prospects, is batting .316 and tops the league in runs (69) and steals (45). Two-hole hitter Jacob May is batting .296 with 31 bags, second in the league. For power, the Barons have Christian Marrero (12 homers), Danny Hayes (seven) and Brian Fletcher (six). They’ll test the young guns. Gant, recently acquired from the New York Mets, has been slotted in as the Braves’ No. 23 prospect by mlb.com. Since joining the M-Braves, he is 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA in three outings. Sims, Atlanta’s first-round pick in 2012 and the seventh-best prospect, is 1-2, 5.87 in five Double-A starts. Jackson native Bird, acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers and ranked No. 12 on the prospect chart, is 1-1, 4.26 over three starts. No. 18 prospect Thurman, picked up from Houston late in the spring, took a loss in his M-Braves debut on Aug. 14, allowing four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. Ross doesn’t have a top 30 rating, but the Double-A veteran is 7-9, 3.98 in 23 games. P.S. Former M-Braves star Brian McCann did something Monday night that no catcher in the New York Yankees’ long history has done, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: He drove in five runs and threw out three runners attempting to steal. McCann’s efforts, which included his 21st homer, led the Yankees to an 8-7, 10-inning win over Minnesota. One of the runners he cut down was Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier, who had three hits for the Twins.