Tag Archives: allmississippibaseball

10 Aug

coming up

The NJCAA National Team, featuring five MACJC players, has made the semifinals of the National Baseball Congress World Series. The NJCAA stars, who rallied to win their quarterfinal 9-8 in a game that ended at 1:40 a.m. local time today, play the Wellington Heat tonight at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kan. Brant Blaylock, a Southern Miss signee out of Northwest Mississippi Community College, is hitting .294 with three RBIs and four runs. Hinds CC coach Sam Temple is an assistant on the team. … The get-off-my-lawn segment of traditionalists may cringe, but Players Weekend is back in the big leagues. “Bull,” “C-Dizzle,” “Bone” and “Juicy J” are nicknames that will adorn the distinctly non-traditional jerseys of Mississippians in the majors during the second annual event that starts Aug. 24. Brian Dozier is “Bull,” Corey Dickerson “C-Dizzle,” Billy Hamilton “Bone” and JaCoby Jones “Juicy J.” Mitch Moreland again will wear “2 Bags,” and Hunter Renfroe will be “Froe.” Lance Lynn will wear “Mia,” his daughter’s name. … Milwaukee visits Atlanta for a big weekend series that matches the parent clubs of the state’s two Double-A teams. The Braves have a much more homegrown roster, with 10 former Mississippi Braves among the 25 players. That tally includes five regulars: Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, Johan Camargo and Ronald Acuna. There are four Biloxi Shuckers alums with the Brewers, none of them position regulars. Tonight’s starter, Freddy Peralta, is one of three pitchers who played in Biloxi. … Saturday is National Baseball Card Day, a reminder to search the attic one more time for those lost cardboard treasures. How much is a George Scott rookie worth, anyway? … Four Mississippians are on the East roster for Sunday’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego: Jackson Prep’s Jerrion Ealy, Pearl River Central’s Hayden Dunhurst, George County’s Logan Tanner and Olive Branch native Kendall Williams, who attends IMG Academy in Florida.

10 Aug

homer happy

As home run celebrations go, Hunter Renfroe’s on Thursday was a little bit unusual and a whole lot exhilarating. You can’t watch it without feeling his emotion. The ex-Mississippi State standout yanked a ninth-inning grand slam that put San Diego ahead of Milwaukee at Miller Park. After he hit it, Renfroe bent forward in a bow with the bat clutched in front of him, as if to say, “Oooh, I got all of that one.” “It was just like, ‘[Heck] yeah!'” Renfroe told mlb.com. “Let’s be honest here, that’s just the way it was.” He then flipped the bat away and broke into his trot. His teammates went bonkers. The Padres would win 8-4. The resurgent Renfroe has homered in four straight games and now has 12 on the season. He is creeping up on the leaders in the All-Mississippi Home Run Derby, currently topped by Brian Dozier, the Southern Miss alum who hit his 19th – third with the Los Angeles Dodgers — on Thursday. (With 170 career bombs, Dozier trails fifth-place Dmitri Young by one on the all-time list of homers by Magnolia State natives.) Former East Central Community College star Tim Anderson has 15 homers this season and State alum Mitch Moreland sits on 14. (Moreland is ninth on the career list with 146.) Ex-Meridian CC standout Corey Dickerson now trails Renfroe with 11.

08 Aug

heady times

Mitch Moreland is caught up in the middle of something special. Moreland, the Mississippi State alum from Amory, hit a key home run on Tuesday night to help Boston repel Toronto 10-7 in a wild 10-inning affair. It was the Red Sox’s 80th win of the year; that’s seven more than the next best total. They swept the rival New York Yankees four straight over the weekend. They’re on a 24-5 roll. There’s even buzz about them threatening Seattle’s 2001 record of 116 wins. “Yeah, we’re pretty good,” Moreland said in his typically understated manner in an mlb.com story. His decision to re-sign with the Red Sox as a free agent in the off-season is shaping up as a brilliant career move. He has delivered 14 homers and 55 RBIs as part of a lineup stacked with All-Stars, himself included. And consider that the Red Sox have achieved these heights with little contribution from ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz, a 17-game winner in 2017 who has one victory this season. He started Tuesday’s game and lasted just 4 2/3 innings, yielding two runs. His ERA is 6.31. “We need this guy,” manager Alex Cora told mlb.com. “This guy is very important to us for what we want to try to accomplish, so we’ll keep working at it.” P.S. Former State standout Hunter Renfroe went deep for San Diego, his 10th of the year and 40th of his career. He is hitting .297 with three homers in his last seven games.

07 Aug

around the horn

Two games into his New York Yankees career, ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn looks like a good fit. The big right-hander played stopper on Monday night, throwing 7 1/3 fairly brilliant innings to beat the Chicago White Sox 7-0 and end the Yanks’ five-game skid. He hasn’t allowed a run in 11 2/3 innings over two appearances since his trade from Minnesota. His ERA for the season is now 4.58. Lynn won 72 games in six years in St. Louis, pitched in 24 postseason games and won a World Series ring in 2011. And yet: “When playing for the Yankees, it’s a little different,” Lynn said in an mlb.com story. … Meanwhile, UM alum Bobby Wahl, pitching for that other New York club, notched his second hold on Monday night in his third appearance for the Mets, who beat Cincinnati 6-4. Wahl, acquired in a trade with Oakland, has three strikeouts among the five outs he has recorded in his three scoreless outings. … Though not all of his numbers are great, former Southern Miss ace Kirk McCarty does lead all low Class A pitchers in strikeouts with 132. The 5-foot-10 left-hander from Hattiesburg is 4-8 with a 4.29 ERA in 115 1/3 innings for Lake County in Cleveland’s system. He has won three of his last four decisions. … Joe Gray, drafted in the second round in June by Milwaukee, isn’t hitting much in the rookie Arizona League – .175 in 17 games – but the Hattiesburg High alum has shown a knack for drawing walks – 14, boosting his on-base percentage to .342. The 18-year-old outfielder has a homer, eight RBIs, 10 runs and six steals. … The NJCAA National Team, featuring several MACJC stars, is 1-1 in the National Baseball Congress World Series after a 6-3 loss to the San Antonio, TX Angels on Monday. Jones County JC’s Tyler Spring took the loss, though he allowed just one earned run in 5 1/3 innings. Northwest’s Brant Blaylock was 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI and Gulf Coast’s Brandon Parker 0-for-2 with two walks and a run. Blaylock went 3-for-6 with an RBI and Parker 1-for-4 with two walks and an RBI in a 7-6, 12-inning win vs. the San Diego, CA Force in the team’s opener on Saturday. Shermar Page of Pearl River pitched a scoreless inning in that game.

06 Aug

eyes on tomorrow

The San Diego Padres are an awful 44-70 and careening toward their eighth straight losing season. But hope springs eternal in baseball, and apparently there is a feeling that a turnaround is coming soon. Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs, is bidding to be a part of that brighter future. Getting a start in all four of the Padres’ games in Chicago over the weekend, Renfroe went 5-for-15, including a two-run homer in Sunday’s 10-6 win over the first-place Cubs. For the year, the 26-year-old outfielder is batting .238 with nine homers and 31 RBIs. He has 20 walks and 62 strikeouts in 214 at-bats over 69 games. After an uneven 2017 campaign, during which he hit 26 homers but fanned 140 times, Renfroe had to win a roster spot in spring training. He did, but an elbow injury put him on the disabled list in mid-April and he didn’t return to the Padres’ roster until May 28. His playing time was sporadic in June and July. The Padres have a boatload of outfielders and presumably will use the remaining weeks of the season to sort out who they want to keep around. “We have all these other guys. I just have to keep healthy, keep growing as a player and go into spring next year and be better than them,” Renfroe told the San Diego Union-Tribune. P.S. Home run-robbing catches by Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton and Richton’s JaCoby Jones ranked second and third on MLB Network’s countdown of the top plays in the majors in July. A Keon Broxton homer-robbing catch was the No. 1 play.

06 Aug

welcome back

In his first start with Class A Greensboro in almost two months, ex-Southern Miss star Taylor Braley threw the first five innings of a seven-inning no-hitter against Kannapolis on Sunday. Braley, now 5-5 with a 4.28 ERA for the Miami Marlins’ low-A club, went on the disabled list (shoulder) in late June and made two rehab appearances in the Gulf Coast League before returning to the Grasshoppers. He struck out four and walked two, throwing 66 pitches, on Sunday. “He just kind of lived up in the strike zone today and he got a lot of weak contact,” Grasshoppers manager Mike DiFelice told milb.com. Braley, a two-way standout at USM and Oak Grove High before that, was a sixth-round pick by the Marlins in 2017. He posted a 2.66 ERA in limited innings last summer. Greensboro’s catcher for the no-no was Will Allen, the Ole Miss product who is hitting .244 with seven homers in his fourth pro season. He was originally drafted by Detroit in 2014.

05 Aug

by the numbers

9 — Batters faced and retired on Saturday by Dakota Hudson, who notched his second big league win for St. Louis. The Mississippi State product has not allowed a run in four appearances for the Cardinals.
4 — Holds this season for Mike Mayers, the ex-Ole Miss standout who followed Hudson with a scoreless inning in the Cardinals’ 8-4 victory over Pittsburgh. Mayers has a 3.63 ERA.
.317 — Corey Dickerson’s batting average, which ranks second in the National League. The Meridian Community College product went 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter in his return to Pittsburgh’s roster after a stint on the disabled list.
13 — Home runs by Mitch Moreland, the MSU alum whose two-run first-inning shot propelled Boston to a 4-1 win against the New York Yankees.
8 — Times reached base by Brian Dozier in his four games with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The ex-Southern Miss star walked three times in the Dodgers’ 14-0 loss to Houston; he is 5-for-11 since the trade from Minnesota.
55 — Runs this season by Tim Anderson, the former East Central CC standout who scored the game-winner (on a throwing error) in the top of the ninth inning for the Chicago White Sox in a 2-1 victory vs. Tampa Bay.
0.69 — Tony Sipp’s ERA over his last 15 appearances for the Astros. The left-hander from Pascagoula and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC retired the only batter he faced vs. the Dodgers, cutting his season ERA to 1.63.
24 — Stolen bases by Billy Hamilton, who got one in Cincinnati’s Game 1 win against Washington. The Taylorsville High alum ranks third in the National League in steals.
17 — Earned runs yielded in his last three MLB appearances (over 10 innings) by Chris Stratton, the former State standout who was sent back to Triple-A by San Francisco on Saturday.
4 — Hits, including a walk-off single in the 10th inning, by Bobby Bradley at Triple-A Columbus. The Harrison Central High product, one of Cleveland’s top prospects, was promoted from Double-A last week.
7 — Shutout innings posted by David Parkinson in his high Class A debut with Clearwater in the Philadelphia system. The ex-Ole Miss star was 8-1 with a 1.51 ERA at low-A Lakewood.

04 Aug

timing is everything

Adam Frazier may have found his form, and his discovery comes at a good time. Former Mississippi State standout Frazier delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning Friday night for Pittsburgh, capping a three-hit game in the Pirates’ 7-6 win against St. Louis. Frazier’s clutch knock came on a 101 mph sinker from Cardinals gas-thrower Jordan Hicks. “It says a little bit that I’m where I need to be if I can do that on him,” Frazier told mlb.com. Frazier hit .301 in 66 games as a rookie in 2016 and followed that with a strong 2017: .276, six homers, 53 RBIs, 55 runs, six triples, nine steals. But he struggled out of the gate this season and was sent to the minors in June. He made a brief return to the Bucs, went back to Triple-A Indianapolis again and then got another call on July 25. He has 10 hits since, lifting his average to .269 with three homers and 11 RBIs in 66 games. Frazier is a lefty hitter who can play practically anywhere, which, if he continues to produce at the plate, makes him a valuable piece for Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. The old Jackson Mets skipper has guided this overachieving club to 17 wins in its last 22 games and into the thick of the playoff chase in the National League. P.S. Still searching for his form is ex-State star Chris Stratton, whose return to San Francisco’s rotation on Friday did not go well. The right-hander from Tupelo allowed five runs in the first inning and six all told in three innings of work as the Giants fell to Arizona 6-3. After a good start this season — he was 6-3 through May — Stratton wobbled and wound up back in the minors for a stint. He has been knocked around in both appearances since his return and is now 8-7 with a 5.52 ERA. His spot in the rotation may be in jeopardy.

03 Aug

one step closer

Bobby Bradley has taken another step toward the big leagues, moving from Double-A to Triple-A in the Cleveland system. The lefty-hitting first baseman out of Harrison Central High went 0-for-4 in his debut with Columbus on Thursday night. He had 24 homers at Akron, though he was hitting just .214 with 105 strikeouts in 389 at-bats. Still only 22 years old, Bradley is rated the Indians’ No. 7 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Power is his calling card; in five pro seasons he has 111 bombs. … The Indians also bumped Nick Sandlin up a level, from low Class A Lake County to high-A Lynchburg. The Southern Miss product, a second-round pick in June, had a 1.74 ERA in 10 games at Lake County after making three scoreless appearances in the rookie Arizona League. He has 19 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings and has not walked a batter. Sandlin won a national pitcher of the year award and was the C-USA pitcher of the year in addition to claiming the Ferriss Trophy. P.S. Sandlin’s 2018 USM teammate Luke Reynolds, a 10th-round pick by the Chicago Cubs, has caught fire in the short-season Northwest League, batting .400 over his last 10 games and .358 in 15 games overall for Eugene. The C-USA hitter of the year has a homer and nine RBIs. … While things are looking up for former Golden Eagles Sandlin and Reynolds, Mason Robbins may have reached a dead end. The 25-year-old outfielder is currently out of the game, having been released by the Chicago White Sox on July 22. Robbins was hitting .265 at Triple-A Charlotte in his fifth pro season. He is a .283 career hitter but apparently lacks the power and/or speed to be a corner outfielder. … The Ugly Stat of the Day – maybe the year – in MLB goes to Jonathan Holder, who faced seven batters and saw all seven score in the New York Yankees’ 15-7 loss to Boston on Thursday. Former Mississippi State star Holder’s ERA jumped from 2.06 to 3.50.

02 Aug

call for help

The New York Mets, who seemingly need all kinds of help, have called up Ole Miss product Bobby Wahl from Triple-A Las Vegas. The Mets recently acquired Wahl, a relief pitcher, from Oakland in the Jeurys Familia trade. Wahl was drafted out of UM by the A’s in 2013 and made his big league debut last year, appearing in seven games before an injury curtailed his season (see previous post). He had a 2.27 ERA and 11 saves at Triple-A Nashville this year before the deal and had allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings at Las Vegas. The right-hander, who has hit 100 on the radar gun, has averaged 12 strikeouts per nine innings in his minor league career. The Mets host Atlanta tonight. … Wahl becomes the 26th Mississippian (native or college alum) to appear on a major league roster this season.