holding pattern

For a veteran big leaguer, playing in Triple-A must feel a little like a long layover in the airport. Well, with one key difference. He can’t be sure he’ll ever hear the call to board for a trip back to The Show. There is a large contingent of Mississippians with big league time who are currently hanging out in Triple-A, and a few of them have even made productive use of their time. Ole Miss product Matt Tolbert (Chicago Cubs) is batting .324 in 19 games, and Delta State alumnus Dusty Hughes (Atlanta) has a 0.71 ERA and three saves in 10 games. Nettleton’s Bill Hall (Baltimore) is at .294 with two homers in eight games. Jackson native Donnie Veal (Chicago White Sox) has a 2.25 ERA in eight appearances. Then there’s former Southern Miss star Jarrett Hoffpauir (Washington), who is hitting .278 with seven RBIs in 18 games. It hasn’t gone as well for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College product Fred Lewis (New York Mets), who has played in just three games since signing on April 25 and put up a .250 average. Starkville native Julio Borbon (Texas) is batting .224, ex-DSU standout Edwin Maysonet (Milwaukee) .217, former Statesman Eli Whiteside (San Francisco) .208 and Mississippi State product Craig Tatum (New York Yankees) .179. P.S. Good to see that Bobby Abreu, the former Jackson Generals star, was picked up by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Abreu, now 38, was batting just .208 for the L.A. Angels when he was released, but the lefty hitter’s career mark of .293 is still attractive.