Tag Archives: allmississippibaseball

12 Aug

wings of eagles

The Mississippi Braves ran into some stout pitching at Tennessee on Thursday night, the most effective of the three arms that shut them down belonging to former Southern Miss right-hander Walker Powell. In a 1-0 Smokies victory, Powell worked five innings in middle relief, yielding three hits and a walk while striking out seven. He got the win, improving to 3-2, 2.40 ERA, in seven games for the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A affiliate. On the year, at three different levels, the 6-foot-8 Powell is 10-2, 3.02. Signed by the Cubs as a non-drafted free agent out of the MLB Draft League last summer, Powell is one of 14 former USM pitchers currently in pro ball. Pitching has become a hallmark of the Golden Eagles program, and it showed in this year’s draft, with five USM pitchers getting picked. Another was signed as a non-drafted free agent. Ole Miss and Mississippi State have had higher profile draftees in recent years, but USM is producing its fair share. Nick Sandlin, a second-round pick by Cleveland in 2018, is the lone USM alum currently in the majors; he has a 2.51 ERA as a reliever for the first-place Guardians. Cody Carroll, drafted back in 2015, and Kirk McCarty, a 2017 draftee, also have pitched in the big leagues, though both are currently in Triple-A. McCarty has been up-and-down with Cleveland this season and has posted two wins. J.C. Keys is in Double-A in the Cincinnati system, and Ryan Och, Hunter Stanley and Jarod Wright are in A-ball. The 2022 crop of draftees includes Dalton Rogers (a third-round pick by Boston), Ben Ethridge, Garrett Ramsey, Landon Harper and Tyler Stuart. Hunter Riggins signed after the draft. Stuart is the only one of that group to debut, throwing one inning in rookie ball. P.S. Kudos to Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, who got a well-deserved four-year contract extension. The school’s all-time winningest coach — and No. 3 all-time among SEC coaches — won the national championship this season along with his second batch of national coach of the year awards in three seasons. He may also finally have won over Ole Miss fans.

11 Aug

guests in the corn

A pair of Mississippians will make the walk through the corn field and onto the Field of Dreams tonight in Dyersville, Iowa: George County High alum Justin Steele for the Chicago Cubs and ex-Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson for Cincinnati. Robinson was called up as the Reds’ 27th man for the special event. He’ll be the third catcher on the roster, so it’s unlikely he’ll make his MLB debut — but you never know. There’s magic in that corn field. Steele, a second-year big leaguer, pitched Wednesday for the Cubs, so he’ll be down tonight. Robinson, who helped USM win a Conference USA title in 2016, was drafted by Houston that summer. Considered a strong defensive catcher, he was a Midwest League All-Star in 2017 and MVP of the Class A league’s championship series. He had a seven-RBI game in A-ball in 2018. The Reds took him in the Rule 5 draft in December 2020. He started this season at Double-A Chattanooga and was at Triple-A Louisville when he got the call-up. He is batting .263 with five homers and 23 RBIs overall in 2022. … Ole Miss product Lance Lynn started last year’s Field of Dreams Game for the Chicago White Sox, and ex-East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson memorably won the game for the ChiSox with a walk-off homer into the corn. … Pascagoula’s Willie Joe Garry played in Tuesday’s minor league Field of Dreams Game for Cedar Rapids, a Minnesota affiliate. P.S. Mississippi State product Brent Rooker was called up from Triple-A by Kansas City on Wednesday but did not make his Royals debut that night and isn’t in today’s lineup. He was mashing at Omaha (.450 with three homers in five games). Rooker has big league time with both Minnesota and San Diego.

11 Aug

now that’s a big splash

Ever since Brian McCann made the jump from Mississippi to Atlanta in 2005 and banged out a couple of hits in his first game, we’ve seen some splashy MLB debuts from a number of former M-Braves. We’ve never seen anything like what Vaughn Grissom did on Wednesday night at Fenway Park in Boston. In fact, no one has. Grissom, 21, became the youngest player in the modern era to both hit a home run and steal a base in his debut. He is the only Braves player (Boston, Milwaukee or Atlanta) ever to do it. Not to be overlooked is the fact that Grissom, primarily a shortstop who played only one game at second base in 22 games for the M-Braves, handled eight chances flawlessly at second. He registered four assists and four putouts and turned two double plays. “He was like a kid out on the playground pretty much, just having a ball,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said in an mlb.com article. Having recently been elevated to the top of Atlanta’s prospect chart, Grissom was having a breakout season in the minors, batting .324 with 14 homers and 27 steals between High-Class A Rome and Double-A Mississippi. He was hitting .363 with three homers and seven bags for the M-Braves when he got the call-up. He was promptly inserted as the No. 9 hitter and plugged in at second base, filling a hole created by injuries. In the bottom of the first inning, the ball found him; he dug out a grounder by Rafael Devers, completed the 4-3 and flashed a broad grin. He was hitless in two at-bats when he came up in the seventh against lefty Darwinzon Hernandez. “The competitive nature kicked in,” Grissom told mlb.com. He launched a first-pitch fastball over the Green Monster, 412 feet, punctuated with a playful bat flip. In the ninth, he lashed a single to left and then stole second. He scored on a Dansby Swanson hit, the last run in the Braves’ 8-4 win. Jeff Francoeur homered in his first MLB game, as did Evan Gattis and Austin Riley. Jordan Schafer and Jason Heyward homered in their first at-bat. But the splashy debuts of those former M-Braves stars have to take a back seat to what Grissom did on Wednesday night. P.S. On a somber note, we mourn the passing of Corky Palmer, a legend in Southern Miss circles and beyond. Palmer, an affable character, is a thread through USM baseball history, having played for Pete Taylor, coached under Hill Denson and served as head coach for 12 years, taking the 2009 team (featuring Brian Dozier) to the College World Series. Current USM coach Scott Berry coached with Palmer for most of those years. He was 68.

10 Aug

whatever happened to …

Braxton Lee, whose serpentine career includes a minor league batting title and 17 MLB at-bats, is flourishing in the independent Atlantic League. Lee, 28, who played at Picayune High, Pearl River Community College and Ole Miss, set an Atlantic League record with a three-triple game on Tuesday for Southern Maryland, the club managed by Jackson’s Stan Cliburn. A lefty-hitting outfielder, Lee is batting .315 with three homers, 57 RBIs, 19 doubles, nine triples and 14 stolen bases. Originally drafted by Tampa Bay in 2014, he won the Southern League batting title in 2017 (playing for two different teams) and reached the big leagues with Miami in 2018. He played in the New York Mets’ system in 2019 and Cincinnati’s in 2021, getting some Triple-A time both years. He moved on to the Atlantic League after becoming a minor league free agent last fall. Cliburn’s Blue Crabs won the first-half title in their division with a 48-18 record; they’re 18-11 (second place) in the second half. P.S. Debut alert: Vaughn Grissom, making the jump from Double-A Mississippi to Atlanta today, is in the Braves’ lineup, batting ninth and playing second base at Boston. Grissom, 21, Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect, hit .363 with three homers in 22 games for the M-Braves, playing one game at second base, the others at shortstop. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Grissom has played 19 games at second in his three-year pro career. He is a .315 career hitter.

09 Aug

just stuff

There is a Mississippian on the roster of one of the two Iowa-based teams slated to play tonight in the minor league Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa. Former Pascagoula High star Willie Joe Garry is an outfielder for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Minnesota’s High-Class A affiliate. Garry, who recently came off the injured list, is batting .179 with 10 steals in his fourth pro season. Drafted out of ‘Goula in 2018, Garry is a .199 career hitter who stole 24 bases in 2021. (Listed on Quad Cities’ roster but on the season-long IL is ex-Mississippi State pitcher Eric Cerantola, drafted by Kansas City in 2021.) Tonight’s game will be televised by MLB Network at 6:30 CDT. … Ex-State standout Logan Tanner, the second-highest drafted Mississippi product this summer, made his pro debut on Monday with Cincinnati’s Arizona Complex League team. The Hattiesburg native, a second-round pick by the Reds, went 0-for-3. … The Mississippi Braves are at Tennessee this week for a six-game Southern League series in which they could encounter a couple of Magnolia State products. Ex-Southern Miss star Walker Powell is 2-2 with a 2.88 ERA in six games (three starts) for the Smokies, a Chicago Cubs affiliate. The 6-foot-8 Powell has nine wins over three levels in the Cubs’ system in 2022, his second pro season. Infielder Delvin Zinn, a Pontotoc native and Itawamba Community College alum, has played sparingly this season and is batting .095. He is a .237 career hitter. … The big league Cubs have announced that former M-Braves star Jason Heyward will be released after this season with a year left on his eight-year, $184 million contract. He is batting .174 with seven homers and is on the IL, probably for the remainder of this season. Heyward, 32, a key figure for the Cubs on their historic World Series winner in 2016, arrived in Mississippi as one of the top prospects in baseball in 2009. He hit .352 with seven homers and 30 RBIs in 47 Double-A games. He famously homered in his first MLB at-bat with Atlanta the next year. The Cubs also have released former M-Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, a defensive whiz who was hitting just .173. Simmons, 32, hit .293 for the M-Braves in 2012 and carries a .263 career average in the big leagues. … In Atlanta’s deflating series against the New York Mets last weekend, there were good signs from ex-M-Braves star Ronald Acuna, who went 8-for-19 with two doubles and a home run. He also won the Chevrolet Electric Play of the Week award for a home run-robbing catch in right field in Friday’s game, the only one the Braves won. Acuna is batting .267 with nine homers, 28 RBIs and 23 steals. Atlanta, playing at Boston tonight, needs more from him.

08 Aug

staggered

While the Atlanta Braves — and all those Mississippi Braves alumni on their roster — were getting steamrolled in New York by Buck Showalter’s Mets, the current M-Braves were getting trucked in Pearl by the rival Biloxi Shuckers. The Double-A M-Braves dropped Sunday’s series finale 6-5 at Trustmark Park, their fifth loss in the six games against Biloxi. They fell from 17-10 and first place in the Southern League South at the start of the homestand to 18-15 and second behind Montgomery. Biloxi bolted to 17-16, third place. There was an ominous sign early in Sunday’s game. With the bases full and two outs in the top of the first inning, a pop fly into left field off the bat of Biloxi’s Thomas Dillard was lost in the sun by Justyn-Henry Malloy. Two runs scored. A wild pitch made it 3-0. The M-Braves later lost another ball in the sun and had some adventurous catches in the outfield, as well. Down 6-1 in the seventh, the home club battled back but wound up with their second one-run loss in the series. They also lost two two-run games. Dillard, the former Ole Miss star, had a big series for the Shuckers, going 7-for-23 with two walks, a homer, five RBIs and four runs. He had three hits Sunday and is batting .229 (.365 on-base percentage) with nine homers and 60 RBIs on the season, his first full year in Double-A. Immediately after the game, the wounded M-Braves boarded a bus for a seven-hour trip to Kodak, Tennessee. That’s a lot of time to sit and think about what just hit them.

07 Aug

one door closes …

It was a hard fall for Bobby Bradley. Cleveland’s opening day first baseman, the Gulfport native was anchored to the bench by late April, outrighted to the minors in May and then released from Triple-A Columbus on Saturday. He was hitting .174 with seven homers and 30 RBIs — plus 74 strikeouts in 167 at-bats — for the Clippers. Guardians officials decided “maybe a change of scenery would be good for the kid,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona told cleveland.com. Bradley, just 26, figures to catch on somewhere. A lefty hitter with big power — 163 minor league homers since 2014 — he has some value. Drafted in the third round out of Harrison Central High, he rose fairly steadily in the Cleveland system. He debuted in the big leagues in 2019 and was Cleveland’s regular first baseman the latter half of 2021. But he hit just .208 with 16 homers last year and struck out way too much. P.S. Mike Mayers, veteran reliever out of Ole Miss, was brought back from the minors by the Los Angeles Angels and threw 3 1/3 shutout innings Saturday in the team’s loss to Seattle in Game 1 of a doubleheader. It was his first MLB appearance since May 25. He had a 5.40 ERA when he was designated for assignment. … Hayden Dunhurst, catcher for national champion Ole Miss this year, is 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and three walks in his first two pro games. The sixth-round pick is playing for Kansas City’s Arizona Complex League team. … Former Madison Central (and current Stanford) star Braden Montgomery has been a key player for Yarmouth-Dennis in the Cape Cod League. Montgomery hit .250 with four homers and 19 RBIs and posted a 2.25 ERA in three pitching appearances in the regular season. He got the win in relief for the Y-D Red Sox in their CCBL playoff opener.

06 Aug

southern style

Two of the most prominent sluggers in Mississippi college baseball history played a little version of home run derby in the eighth inning of an International League game Friday night at Omaha’s Werner Field. Matt Wallner, Southern Miss’ career homer leader, went deep for St. Paul, a two-run shot in the top half, and Brent Rooker, who led the SEC in homers in 2017 while winning the Triple Crown at Mississippi State, belted a three-run bomb for the host Storm Chasers in the bottom half. (St. Paul won the slugfest 15-6.) For Wallner, Minnesota’s No. 7 prospect, it was his first Triple-A home run in his 14th game at that level. He hit 21 in Double-A before his promotion. The left-handed hitting outfielder went 2-for-5 on Friday to lift his average to .179. He hit .299 in Double-A. Rooker’s homer was his second in his second game for Omaha following his trade to Kansas City from San Diego. He belted 19 at Triple-A El Paso, where he batted .272 for the Padres affiliate. The right-handed hitting outfielder, a former top prospect, has 95 minor league homers and 10 MLB bombs (all with Minnesota) in 67 big league games. He was the 35th overall pick by the Twins in the 2017 draft and was traded to the Padres just before this season began. P.S. Former George County High standout Justin Steele matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts for the Chicago Cubs on Friday. The lefty was pulled with two outs in the fifth inning after throwing 93 pitches against Miami. The Cubs won 2-1. … MSU product Dakota Hudson, in his second start for St. Louis since coming off the injured list, threw four-plus innings (78 pitches) against the New York Yankees, allowing three runs in a game the Cardinals would win 4-3.

05 Aug

eye on …

Justin Foscue looks ready to take the next step on the minor league ladder. The ex-Mississippi State standout rapped two doubles and a homer and drove in three runs for Double-A Frisco on Thursday night. With 10 hits, including three home runs, in his last 12 games, the 23-year-old infielder is batting .281 with seven homers and 48 RBIs in his first full Double-A campaign. He is rated Texas’ No. 4 prospect in the new MLB Pipeline rankings. He has played mostly second base this season but also has seen some time at third. Foscue was drafted 14th overall in the 2020 draft that followed the pandemic-shortened college season; only two Bulldogs position players have been picked higher: Will Clark (No. 2 in 1985) and Hunter Renfroe (No. 13, 2013). Foscue is batting .279 overall with 24 bombs in his two pro seasons. It’ll be interesting to see who gets to the big leagues first, Foscue or his former State keystone mate Jordan Westburg, Baltimore’s No. 5 prospect now in Triple-A. P.S. Brent Rooker, traded from San Diego to Kansas City, hit his first home run for Triple-A Omaha on Thursday. The former State star has 20 homers on the season. … MSU product and veteran big leaguer Jonathan Holder has been assigned to Triple-A Iowa in the Chicago Cubs’ system after a brief rehab assignment in rookie ball. He has been on the injured list all season.

04 Aug

look who’s no. 1

The flurry of recent trades that involved a ton of minor league prospects made for a major reshuffling of the organizational Top 30 charts by MLB Pipeline. Mississippi Braves shortstop Vaughn Grissom jumped up to the No. 1 spot in Atlanta’s list. He is raking at a .362 clip in 17 Double-A games. Nine other current M-Braves, including some on the injured list, are in the Top 30. No. 10 is Darius Vines, a right-handed starter slated to go tonight against Biloxi at Trustmark Park. Former Smithville High star Jared Johnson is No. 23 on the Braves’ list. The right-hander is on the IL (Tommy John surgery) at Low-Class A Augusta. … There are 18 other Mississippi products in the various Top 30s. (The lists will be redone again at some point to filter in the 2022 draft picks.) Former Mississippi State stars Will Bednar (No. 4, San Francisco) and Justin Foscue (No. 4, Texas) are the highest-rated. Others of note: MSU product Jordan Westburg is Baltimore’s fifth-rated prospect; ex-DeSoto Central High standout Blaze Jordan is Boston’s No. 6; Ole Miss alum Ryan Rolison is Colorado’s No. 7; Southern Miss product Matt Wallner is Minnesota’s No. 7; and former MSU star J.T. Ginn is Oakland’s No. 8. Wallner, who homered in last month’s All-Star Futures Game, has reached Triple-A. MSU product Ethan Small, Milwaukee’s No. 10, has made two big league pitching appearances this season. P.S. Lance Lynn, the veteran right-hander from Ole Miss, delivered a shot in the arm for the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday. In what broadcaster Steve Stone described as a “wonderful” performance, Lynn threw six innings of one-run ball to beat Kansas City 4-1. It might have been the best of his 10 starts since coming off the injured list. Pitching around a rain delay, he allowed four hits and struck out eight. Lynn is 2-4 with a 5.87 ERA, not the numbers Chicago was hoping for from him. But Wednesday’s outing surely was encouraging. … Ex-UM star Thomas Dillard hit his ninth homer of the season, helping Biloxi complete a twinbill sweep of the M-Braves at the TeePee. … Mississippi College alum Blaine Crim, at Double-A Frisco in the Texas system, went 4-for-5 and hit a pair of homers. He is batting .277 with 15 bombs and 57 RBIs.