Tag Archives: 2025 World Series

03 Nov

ring it up

Justin Dean doesn’t have a big league hit on his resume, but he will have a World Series ring. The ex-Mississippi Braves star, who won a Double-A ring in 2021, was in center field for the final out of Game 7 on Saturday night and celebrated with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates after they won the World Series for the second straight year. Dean’s postseason line with the Dodgers is interesting: 13 games, no at-bats, one run, one steal, six putouts. He played in three of the Series games and made that heady move in Game 6, throwing up his arms to signal that a ball had gotten stuck under the outfield padding for a ground-rule double. Toronto likely would have scored a big run on the hit. Dean, in his MLB debut, went 0-for-2 in the regular season for L.A., appearing in 17 games and making seven putouts. He has played 689 minor league games, having spent parts of four seasons with the M-Braves. In 2024, the team’s finale at Trustmark Park, Dean stole 47 bases and set the M-Braves career record with 117 bags. He signed with L.A. as a minor league free agent in December. … Former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman earned a second ring with the Dodgers, as did ex-M-Braves pitcher Evan Phillips, a reliever who made seven appearances in 2025 before going on the injured list and having elbow surgery in May. P.S. Braden Montgomery, former Madison Central High star and top Chicago White Sox prospect, is listed among the Arizona Fall League top performers for week four of the season by mlb.com. Montgomery, completing his first pro season, went 5-for-15 last week with a homer, a triple and five RBIs. He is batting .385 overall in the AFL and has drawn 10 walks. … Ke’Bryan Hayes won a second Gold Glove at third base in the National League; his dad, Hattiesburg native Charlie, never got one of those but did win a World Series with the 1996 New York Yankees. … Former Ole Miss standouts Chris Ellis and Cooper Johnson are batterymates in the Dominican Winter League with Cibao. Ellis, who has pitched in the majors, has worked three scoreless innings. He posted a 3.66 ERA and 19 saves in the Mexican League in 2025. Johnson, who played in the Texas system this past season, is 4-for-15 in seven games in the DWL. … Veteran slugger and ex-big leaguer Bobby Bradley from Gulfport is toiling for Tucson, an expansion team in the Mexican Pacific League; he is hitting .250 with a homer in 15 games. Bradley has 254 career homers in pro ball.

30 Oct

there and here

In light of Trey Yesavage’s dominant start for Toronto in World Series Game 5 on Wednesday night, mlb.com compiled a list of other outstanding performances by postseason rookies in other organizations. Brandon Woodruff, who debuted with Milwaukee in 2017, was still technically a rookie in 2018 when the Mississippi State product shined during the Brewers’ run to a Game 7 in the National League Championship Series. Woodruff made four appearances all told in the playoffs, yielding three runs in 12 1/3 innings with 17 strikeouts. He got the win in Game 1 of the NLCS with two hitless innings and famously homered off Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw. … Tim Elko, the ex-Ole Miss star who made his MLB debut in 2025, will miss the start of the 2026 season after having surgery to repair a torn ACL, according to an mlb.com report. He could be sidelined several months. Elko, 26, hit just .134 with four home runs in 23 games with the Chicago White Sox this season. He batted .292 with 26 homers and 70 RBIs in Triple-A in his fourth pro campaign. Elko suffered an ACL injury to the same knee during his senior year in Oxford before returning to help the Rebels win the national championship. … The MLB Players Association has named Ronald Acuna Jr. its NL comeback player of the year and Drake Baldwin the NL’s outstanding rookie. Both are former Mississippi Braves stars. … Former MSU standout Eric Cerantola, a prospect in Kansas City’s system, is pitching in the Dominican Winter League and has a 2.25 ERA in four appearances for Cibaenas. A fifth-round draft pick in 2021, he went 2-2 with a 4.04 era and a save in 38 games at Triple-A Omaha this past season. … Coming Nov. 7, MSU’s annual alumni game — the Diamond Dawg Classic — that will bring an impressive list of ex-Bulldogs to Starkville, including current big leaguers Adam Frazier and Jake Mangum. Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro will serve as managers of the two squads. Expected to participate are Mitch Moreland, Jonathan Papelbon, Hunter Renfroe, Tyler Moore, Reid Humphreys, Tanner Allen and current minor leaguers Dakota Jordan and Connor Hujsak. … Colt Keith, former Biloxi High star, is expected to again play a utility role for Detroit in 2026. The second-year big leaguer did time at first, second and third base as well as DH while batting .256 with 13 home runs. “The fact that he can play all three positions gives us a real advantage,” Detroit’s president on baseball operations, Scott Harris, recently told the Detroit Free Press. … Born on this date in 1986: Desmond Jennings, the ex-Itawamba Community College two-sport star who played seven years in the big leagues, all with Tampa Bay. He hit .245 with 55 homers and 95 steals; he also batted .303 in 11 postseason games.

28 Oct

cooperstown bound

Baseball pundits talk about a Hall of Fame highway when heralding players who appear to be bound for Cooperstown. Well, Freddie Freeman is on a Hall of Fame expressway. Freeman, easily the best player ever to suit up for the Mississippi Braves, delivered a walk-off home run in the 18th inning that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a 6-5 win over Toronto in World Series Game 3 (which started on Monday and ended Tuesday morning). Seems so appropriate that an epic, 7-hour game that had everything would end with a Freddie Freeman bomb. Hall of Famers do things like that. Freeman’s homer was the 16th of his postseason career, which already includes two championship rings. He finished the 2025 season with a .300 career average, 2,431 hits, 367 homers, 1,322 RBIs. He’s been an MVP, a nine-time All-Star and a three-time Silver Slugger. He also has a Gold Glove at first base — and should have earned more. On top of all that, he’s a really good guy. When Freeman arrives in the Hall of Fame, he’ll be the first former M-Braves star to make it. That franchise has produced a multitude of standout big leaguers but no others yet of Freeman’s caliber. When he arrived in Mississippi in July of 2009, he came up from A-ball along with Jason Heyward, the higher drafted player and the more highly rated prospect. Heyward had better Double-A numbers and reached Atlanta first. But as good as Heyward has been, Freeman has passed him. He dealt with injuries while in Pearl and hit just .248 with two homers in 41 games. But once he got to The Show, late in 2010, he took off, starting down a path that has become an expressway to the Hall of Fame. P.S. Billy Wagner became this year the first former Jackson Generals player to make the Hall. No former Jackson Mets are in. A ton of talented players came through Smith-Wills Stadium during the 25-year Texas League era, indicative of just how special it is for one to make it to Cooperstown.