Tag Archives: allmississippibaseball

14 Aug

positive signs

Blaze Jordan, the former DeSoto Central High star, hit his first home run for Memphis — 13th overall in 2025 — as part of a 2-for-5, four-RBI performance in the Triple-A Redbirds’ 14-5 win Wednesday night against Charlotte. Jordan, recently traded to St. Louis by Boston, has four hits in his last two games after a sluggish start for Memphis. His homer came against erstwhile big leaguer Bryse Wilson. Jordan, the Cardinals’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .292 with 71 RBIs on the year. … Madison Central alum Braden Montgomery, the No. 1 prospect in the Chicago White Sox’s system, went 2-for-4 with a double for Birmingham and boosted his average for the Double-A club to .278 in 14 games. He is hitting .271 with 12 homers and 61 RBIs over three levels in his first pro season. … Mason Nichols, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss and a Jackson Prep grad, threw a clean inning in his pro debut for Low-Class A Charleston in the Tampa Bay chain. He worked the sixth and got a hold in the RiverDogs’ 3-2 win against Hickory. … Ex-Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff tossed four scoreless innings in a scheduled short start as Milwaukee won its 12th straight, 12-5 over Pittsburgh. The Brewers are 7-0 in Woodruff’s starts; his ERA is 2.06. … Nathaniel Lowe, an MSU product, belted his first career grand slam, a first-inning bomb that helped propel Washington to an 8-7 win at Kansas City. The scuffling Lowe, who has 16 homers on the season, had not hit one since July 19 and is batting just .091 in August. … Former State standout Jake Mangum, also battling a slump, had an RBI knock, stole a base — his 17th — and scored during Tampa Bay’s four-run first inning against the A’s (and fellow Bulldogs alum J.T. Ginn). The Rays rolled on to an 8-2 victory at West Sacramento. Rookie Mangum is batting just .163 in his last 15 games but is at .275 overall. … And in the wild, wild Pioneer League, Kellum Clark, an MSU product from Brandon, went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs to pace Rocky Mountain to a 16-1 win vs. Oakland. Clark is batting .386 with nine homers, 50 RBIs and 50 runs in 40 games in the independent league. He was released by the New York Mets last year after two seasons in their system.

13 Aug

straw’s record falls

There’s a new king of Queens: Darryl Strawberry, Jackson Mets star of 1982, has been displaced as the New York Mets’ all-time home run leader by Pete Alonso, who hit No. 253 — and then 254 — on Tuesday night in a romp against Atlanta. Strawberry’s record stood for almost 35 years. The biggest star to come out of the JaxMets’ 16-year run at Smith-Wills stadium, “Straw” hit a franchise record 34 bombs for the Texas League club in ’82. He was in New York the next year, won rookie of the year honors and stayed with the team until 1990, hitting 252 bombs over those nine seasons. For the record, the most homers by a Jackson Generals alum in a Houston Astros uniform is 326 by Lance Berkman. That ranks second on the Astros’ all-time list behind Jeff Bagwell. Berkman hit 24 homers for the 1998 Gens and made The Show the next year. Mississippi Braves alum Freddie Freeman hit 271 homers for the Atlanta Braves, ranking sixth all-time on their impressive list. (Hank Aaron, of course, is far-and-away No. 1.) Freeman hit just two homers in 41 games for the M-Braves in 2009, playing hurt part of that time. … Brandon Woodruff will start today for Milwaukee, which pounded Pittsburgh — and Paul Skenes — 14-0 Tuesday for its 11 straight win. Former Mississippi State and Wheeler High star Woodruff is 4-0 since coming off the injured list on July 6, and the Brewers are 6-0 in his starts and 25-4 since he returned after a year on the shelf. Interesting to note that back in early April, Milwaukee was No. 22 in USA Today’s MLB power rankings. The Brewers are now No. 1 — with the best record in the majors. It’s been that kind of magical run for this club, which features several Biloxi Shuckers alumni, Woodruff among them. P.S. Down on the farm: Brewers No. 3 prospect Cooper Pratt, a Magnolia Heights grad, homered and delivered a walk-off single in the ninth as Biloxi beat Columbus 7-6 at Keesler Federal Park. Pratt, who has faced some challenges in Double-A, is batting .237 with six homers, 48 RBIs and 24 steals. … Ex-Ole Miss star Tim Elko homered twice for Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox system) and now has 25 on the year, including four in the big leagues. … Landon Tomkins, a Northwest Rankin and Hinds Community College product, got a win in relief in his Double-A debut for Altoona (Pittsburgh). … Luke Hill, 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss, got a hit in his first pro game with Low-Class A Lynchburg (Guardians).

12 Aug

down on the field

Mississippi Mud Monsters management is hyping it as Six Nights of Beautiful Nonsense. The upcoming homestand at Trustmark Park — which begins tonight — will have fireworks and bobbleheads, bingo and a jersey auction, $2 beer and sausage on a stick. There are also a few players capable of providing entertainment value. Pitchers Luis Devers, Brian Williams and Brandon Mitchell have strikeout stuff, and Sergio Sanchez is among the Frontier League’s best closers. Brayland Skinner is a .298 hitter who ranks among the league’s top base stealers. Travis Holt (nine homers, 16 doubles, 46 RBIs) and Victor Diaz (six homers, 11 doubles) can go deep in the spacious Pearl ballpark. And then there’s Davis Bradshaw, from just down the road in Florence. An indy ball version of MLB batting champion Luis Arraez, Bradshaw is hitting .429. The lefty hitter — who spent a chunk of time on the injured list — has struck out only nine times in 83 plate appearances over his 23 games. This is no fluke. Bradshaw batted .303 over six seasons in the Miami system, reaching the Double-A level. He hit .756 as a senior at McLaurin High in 2017 and then .442 the next season at Meridian Community College. Bradshaw doesn’t have much power or speed, but he can put bat on ball, a skill that’s never really out of style. Having recruited the likes of Bradshaw, Skinner and Devers, manager Jay Pecci did a very good job building a team from scratch. The Mud Monsters are 39-38 as the season enters the final stretch, still in sight of a playoff berth in their inaugural season. The promos are cool and all, but pay some attention to the guys down on the field.

12 Aug

prospecting

Major league clubs that went prospecting in Mississippi in the July draft turned up some intriguing talent. Nine players picked in this year’s draft have landed on the Top 30 prospect list in their respective organizations; MLB Pipeline has updated its rankings to include new draftees. JoJo Parker, drafted eighth overall out of Purvis High, is No. 2 on Toronto’s list, and Southern Miss alum Jake Cook (third round) checks in as the Blue Jays’ No. 11. J.B. Middleton, the 2025 Ferriss Trophy winner at USM and a second-round pick, is No. 6 on Colorado’s chart. Landon Harmon, former East Union High ace and a third-round pick, is No. 6 on Washington’s list, and ex-Lewisburg High star Talon Haley, a 12th-rounder, was slotted in at No. 14 on the Los Angeles Angels’ list. Mason Morris, Luke Hill, Nick Monistere and Pico Kohn also cracked the new Top 30s. … A pair of first-rounders from the 2024 draft, Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin and Madison Central alum Braden Montgomery, are ranked No. 1 in the Pittsburgh and Chicago White Sox systems, respectively. Griffin is the overall No. 1 minor league prospect. Cooper Pratt, a 2023 draftee out of Magnolia Heights, is up to No. 3 on Milwaukee’s chart. Dakota Jordan, a Jackson Academy and Mississippi State product drafted in 2024, remained No. 6 in San Francisco’s system. … Of note: Liam Doyle, who pitched at Ole Miss before transferring to Tennessee, is ranked second on St. Louis’ list; he was the fifth overall pick in July. P.S. A pair of Mississippi high school products went to the bump as starters in the big leagues on Monday. Only one got a good result. Will Warren (Jackson Prep) threw 6 2/3 strong innings for the New York Yankees to beat Minnesota 6-2; Warren is 7-5 with a 4.34 ERA. Garrett Crochet (Ocean Springs) was pulled after four innings — his shortest stint of the year — and took a loss as Boston fell to Houston 7-6. Crochet (13-5, 2.48) yielded a season-high five runs. … Ex-MSU standout Adam Frazier, a trade acquisition last month by Kansas City, went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the Royals’ 7-4 win against Washington on Monday and is batting .333 with nine RBIs and eight runs in 18 games for his new club. K.C. is 59-60 and hanging around in the American League wild card battle.

11 Aug

transaction watch

Veteran big leaguer Kendall Graveman, a Mississippi State product, has been designated for assignment by Arizona. The 34-year-old Graveman, coming off 2024 shoulder surgery, has a 7.13 ERA in 19 games this season. He has a 4.03 ERA in 299 career MLB games and posted a 1.64 in nine games for Houston in the 2021 postseason. … Houston Roth, a former Ole Miss star, was designated for assignment by Baltimore, removing the minor league right-hander from the 40-man roster. He got a brief call-up to the big club but never made an appearance. He has a 2.08 ERA, five wins and two saves in 26 relief appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season. If he clears waivers, it’s likely the Orioles will want to keep him in their system. … Luke Hill and Will McCausland, 2025 draftees out of Ole Miss, have been assigned to Low-Class A Lynchburg in the Cleveland organization. Infielder Hill was a fourth-round pick, righty McCausland a seventh-rounder. (Most of this year’s draft picks have been sent to spring training facilities and will take part in Instructional League next month.) … Logan Forsythe, a D’Iberville native who spent a couple of years at Mississippi State, is now on the roster at Low-A Augusta in the Atlanta chain. The right-hander was drafted this year out of Louisiana Tech. … Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel was activated from the injured list on Saturday at Double-A Pensacola and went 0-for-3 in his first game. He was traded by Tampa Bay to Miami in July for Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes. Etzel is a .267 career hitter with 84 steals in three seasons. … Bryson Ware, a Germantown High product who also passed through Pearl River Community College and Auburn en route to pro ball, recently was promoted to Double-A Reading by Philadelphia. He is 5-for-14 in three games, though all five hits came in one game last Saturday. The third baseman was batting .229 with eight homers in High-A ball this season. Ware’s brother Conner, also a Germantown and PRCC alum, was drafted out of LSU this year — and signed — by the New York Mets. P.S. Former USM standout Landon Harper was named the Double-A Southern League’s pitcher of the week (Aug. 4-10) after throwing a seven-inning one-hitter on Aug. 7 for Columbus. Harper had a perfect game for 6 2/3 innings and is now 3-6 with a 3.67 ERA in his second Double-A season. He joins a lengthy list of Mississippians to win POW awards this season (see previous posts).

11 Aug

like old times (sorta)

In the relative obscurity of an independent league, Demarcus Evans is flashing the form that made him a hot prospect when he reached the majors five years ago. The Petal native threw three scoreless, hitless innings in relief Sunday for Gary SouthShore in an American Association game. The 28-year-old right-hander trimmed his ERA to 1.95 in 20 appearances. In 27 2/3 innings, he has struck out 25 batters but walked 16. Drafted out of Petal High in the 25th round by Texas in 2015, Evans — currently listed at 6 feet 5, 270 pounds — was described as a “hulking fireballer” who needed a lot of polish. He gradually rose through the Texas system — punching out 444 batters in 297 innings — before getting his first MLB call-up in September of 2020. And, yes, Albert Pujols welcomed him with a home run. Evans would make just 29 appearances in ’20 and ’21 for Texas, posting a 4.75 ERA with a high walk total. He became a free agent in 2022, went to spring camp with the New York Yankees in 2023, got hurt and barely pitched the next two seasons. Seemingly healthy now, Evans has settled in as one of the more dependable relievers for the RailCats. He has allowed just one run in his last seven appearances for a team that is 20 games under .500. Getting back to affiliated ball might be unlikely for Evans, but it’s good to see that he is finding some success again. P.S. Isaac Collins, former Biloxi Shuckers standout, hit his first (ever) walk-off home run to give Milwaukee its ninth straight win, a 7-6 shocker over the New York Mets. Collins is batting .462 over his last seven games and .295 with eight homers on the season. … Nathaniel Lowe played a role in a history-making event on Sunday: The ex-Mississippi State standout was the 3,500th career strikeout victim for future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander; only 10 pitchers have hit that total. Lowe’s Washington club did beat Verlander and San Francisco by an 8-0 count. … Down in the minors, former Magee High star Brennon McNair doubled in the eighth inning, went to third on a bunt and scored the game’s lone run on a throwing error as Columbia beat Hickory. McNair, 22, has had an uneven season for the Low-Class A Kansas City affiliate, batting .192 with nine homers, 34 RBIs, 40 runs and 12 steals in 87 games.

10 Aug

worth noting

Hurston Waldrep sure knows how to capture the moment. Last Sunday, the ex-Southern Miss and Mississippi Braves standout was the winning pitcher for Atlanta in the historic Speedway Classic. On Saturday, he threw six strong innings to get his second career MLB win in the first game of a twinbill, which also happened to be the debut for Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire an MLB regular season game. (She’ll be behind the plate today.) Waldrep is 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA and — probably? — has earned a spot in the Braves’ rotation. … Former M-Braves Michael Harris II and Drake Baldwin combined for eight hits and eight RBIs as the Braves swept Miami on Saturday at Truist Park. … M-Braves alum William Contreras and ex-Biloxi Shuckers star Brice Turang homered — 10th of the season for each — and Milwaukee beat the New York Mets for its eighth straight win. … Jacob Gonzalez, former Ole Miss All-American, homered for the second straight day and went 2-for-3 with two walks and three RBIs to power Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox system) to a victory. … Chuckie Robinson, Southern Miss product, put up a 2-for-4 — eight hits in his last five games — scored twice and threw out a base-stealer for Triple-A Oklahoma City (Los Angeles Dodgers) in a win against El Paso. … K.C. Hunt, ex-Mississippi State standout, threw six shutout innings for his seventh win as Double-A Biloxi (Milwaukee) beat Knoxville. … Konnor Griffin, the No. 1 prospect out of Jackson Prep, banged out three hits and scored three times as High-Class A Greensboro (Pittsburgh) rang up 27 runs against Asheville. … Emaarion Boyd, the speedster from South Panola, stole his 40th bag, drove in a run and scored one for High-A Beloit (Miami) in a 2-1 victory against Quad Cities. P.S. Kevin Roberts Jr., a Meridian native now playing at Jackson Prep, will play in the MLB-sponsored High School All-American Game on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The game features players, many of them top draft prospects, from the prep class of 2026. A Florida commit, Roberts hit .406 for Prep in 2025.

09 Aug

ecstasy and agony

When it ended, on an unforgettable, jaw-dropping play, Brandon Woodruff was just a spectator. The Mississippi State product had done his part for Milwaukee on Friday night, throwing a season-high seven innings and leaving with a lead. In the top of the ninth inning, the New York Mets — who put the Brewers out of the playoffs last fall — got the tying run to second base with two down. On a single to center field by Jeff McNeil, Blake Perkins came up throwing and nailed Starling Marte at the plate, ending the game and sending the 43,000-plus at American Family Field into a frenzy. “I was running up and down the hall after it happened. It was incredible,” Woodruff said in an mlb.com story. The 3-2 victory was the Brewers’ seventh straight. “A perfect representation of the way this team’s playing,” said catcher William Contreras, the former Mississippi Braves standout who made the tag on Marte that ended it. Milwaukee has the best record (71-44) in the majors and a 5-game lead in the National League Central. Woodruff, making his sixth start since coming off the injured list, is 4-0 with a 2.29 ERA. Though his fastball velocity is down a bit, the Wheeler High grad is still racking up strikeouts: eight on Friday and 45 (with only six walks) in 35 2/3 innings all told. “That is what a horse looks like,” Brewers broadcaster Brian Anderson said when Woodruff walked off the mound after a 1-2-3 seventh. … New York’s other team also suffered a crushing defeat on Friday night, and a pair of Biloxi Shuckers alums played key roles. Devin Williams, the Yankees’ embattled reliever, allowed three runs in the 10th inning, two on a Taylor Trammell homer, and the scuffling Yanks fell to Houston 5-3 at raucous Yankee Stadium. One of the best closers in the game with Milwaukee before joining the Yankees this season, Williams saw his ERA rise to 5.73. He has allowed eight runs in his last five appearances, though he did manage to notch a save in that span. “It’s pretty simple. I stink right now,” Williams told mlb.com. Josh Hader, another former Shuckers star and now the Astros’ closer, worked the ninth and 10th for Houston, stranding the tying runs in the final frame. Hader is 6-2, 2.05, with 28 saves. The American League West-leading Astros improved to 65-51. New York, third in the AL East, is 61-55. P.S. Alex Wood, an ace for the M-Braves back in 2013, announced his retirement after 12 MLB seasons. He was not on a team this year. The 34-year-old left-hander went 77-68 with a 3.78 ERA for his career, which included winning a World Series ring with the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers. … Former MSU standout Preston Johnson was released by Baltimore; he had reached the Triple-A level this season but struggled there (14.73 ERA in seven games).

08 Aug

they also serve …

Dave Clark and Travis Chapman won’t throw a pitch or swing the bat this weekend, but they’ll be on the field at Yankee Stadium and involved in the action. Clark, the former Jackson State star from Shannon, and Chapman, a Mississippi State alum, are first-base coaches for Houston and the New York Yankees, respectively. Those teams, rivals with a history and 2025 playoff contenders, will face off in a three-game series. With the likes of Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa and Jazz Chisholm taking hacks in this series, Clark and Chapman figure to be plenty busy playing traffic cop at first base. They are among a sizable group of former players with Mississippi connections who now work in managerial or coaching roles in the big leagues. At one time in 2018, there were seven major league managers with a Mississippi tie, either a school alum or a player or manager for Jackson’s old Texas League club. Today, Brian Snitker, 2005 Mississippi Braves skipper, and Ray Montgomery, who played for the Jackson Generals in the 1990s, are the only two. Snitker is retiring after this season on the heels of a great run in the ATL, the 2025 season notwithstanding. Montgomery is the interim manager for the Los Angeles Angels, presumably just keeping the seat warm for the return of Ron Washington next year. For the Milwaukee Brewers — MLB’s hottest team — Chris Hook, a former Biloxi Shuckers coach and a Jackson Generals pitcher, serves as pitching coach for an outstanding staff, and Starkville native Julio Borbon is the Brewers’ first-base coach. The Crew is hosting the New York Mets this weekend. John Gibbons, former Jackson Mets catcher, is the Mets’ bench coach, and Antoan Richardson, who starred for the Mississippi Braves, is their first-base coach. Laurel native Bobby Dickerson is the infield coach for Philadelphia. Marcus Thames, the Louisville native and East Central Community College star, is the hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox. Jim Hickey, a former Jackson Generals pitching coach, is the longtime pitching coach of the Washington Nationals. The Colorado staff includes Clint Hurdle, skipper of the last JaxMets team in 1990, as bench coach and ex-JaxMets first baseman Ron Gideon as first-base coach. Chris Truby, who manned third base for the Jackson Generals in the mid-’90s, is now a coach for Pittsburgh. P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Landon Harper came within one out of a seven-inning perfect game Thursday for Double-A Columbus in Atlanta’s system. Harper finished with a one-hitter and improved to 3-6 with a 3.67 ERA after the 2-0 win over Rocket City. … Former Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin homered — his 15th overall this season — for High-Class A Greensboro (Pittsburgh). The minor leagues’ No. 1 prospect is batting .332 with 64 RBIs, 87 runs and 50 steals in 92 games over two levels of A-ball. … Blaine Crim, Mississippi College alum, hit his 19th homer of the year, his first for Triple-A Albuquerque since Colorado claimed him off waivers from Texas. The bomb came against his former team, Round Rock, and erstwhile big leaguer Craig Kimbrel. … The Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly will call up Justin Dean, who played center field for the 2021 Double-A South champion M-Braves. … The North Delta Dealers, behind the two-hit pitching of Eli Akins, won the Cotton States League championship last Sunday, beating regular season champ Tallahatchie 2-1. Hayden Short and Patrick Mangels drove in runs for North Delta. Akins, a 6-foot-6 righty at Delta State, went 6-1 in the New Albany-based college summer league. Tallahatchie finished 14-5-1 this season and led the loop in hitting and pitching.

07 Aug

caught up in middle

Games aren’t always saved in the ninth inning. Middle relievers frequently work on the razor’s edge. Drew Pomeranz, the 36-year-old left-hander out of Ole Miss, faced such a situation on Wednesday with the Chicago Cubs. He came on in the sixth with the Cubs holding a one-run lead, a runner on base, two outs and the dangerous Elly De La Cruz up for Cincinnati. Pomeranz struck him out on four pitches. And his job was done. Rookie starter Cade Horton would get the win. Pomeranz was credited with a hold, his ninth in 38 appearances, and reduced his ERA to 1.97. He also has a save and two wins on his 2025 ledger. The Cubs used three more relievers, added on some runs and won 6-1 at Wrigley Field. Take 2: In Washington, Konnor Pilkington, the ex-Mississippi State standout, got the call in the fifth inning, two on, one out and the Nationals locked in a scoreless battle with the A’s. Pilkington struck out Nick Kurtz, pitched around Brent Rooker and got J.J. Bleday on a ground ball to end the inning. The lefty went back out for the sixth and gave up a tie-breaking solo homer to Tyler Soderstrom — the first he has allowed in eight appearances — before getting two outs and departing for another reliever. The Nationals tied the score in the bottom of the sixth and went on to win 2-1 via a walk-off hit. Pilkington, called up just last month, has been an effective pitcher in clutch situations though he has no wins, saves or holds. He has inherited seven baserunners and not allowed one to score in his 7 2/3 innings of work; he has put up a 2.35 ERA for a last-place team. P.S. Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes got his first hit — a home run — in his sixth game for Tampa Bay since joining the club in a trade on July 29. The Rays, with Fortes behind the plate, beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-4. … Philadelphia has claimed UM product Jacob Waguespack off waivers from Tampa Bay and assigned the right-hander to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He has been on the injured list since late May. Waguespack, who has a 5.11 ERA in 31 career MLB games, had pitched well (0.46) in the minors this year.