Tag Archives: allmississippibaseball

27 Apr

highs and lows

Highs: The No. 1 highlight for Mississippians in the majors on Thursday was provided by Corey Dickerson, whose first career walk-off home run gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 win over Detroit. The Meridian Community College product is batting .314 with two homers, 13 RBIs and 13 runs for the Pirates, who acquired the 2017 All-Star in a curious spring trade with Tampa Bay. … Jarrod Dyson, another McComb native and an ex-Southwest Mississippi CC star, went deep for surging Arizona, his new team, in a victory at Philadelphia. Dyson is 4-for-11 in his last three games and is at .197 with six RBIs and eight runs on the year. … Former Mississippi State standout Brandon Woodruff is back in the big leagues with Milwaukee and may soon find his way back into the first-place Brewers’ rotation. The right-hander was 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA in three Triple-A starts after posting a 5.14 in three games for Milwaukee before being sent out. Lows: Ex-State star Kendall Graveman was sent to Triple-A Nashville by Oakland on Thursday. The A’s opening day starter, he is 0-5 with an 8.89 ERA after suffering a loss against Texas on Wednesday. … Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier went 0-for-4 on Thursday and was 1-for-16 in slumping Minnesota’s four-game sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees. … MSU product Hunter Renfroe is eligible to come off the disabled list for San Diego this weekend but there has been no indication that will happen. Renfroe, batting .200 with two homers in 17 games, has been troubled by pain in his right arm. P.S. Four Magnolia State products appear in the top 58 in MLB Pipeline’s new list of the Top 100 draft prospects. Ole Miss left-hander Ryan Rolison is No. 12, Brandon High infielder/pitcher J.T. Ginn No. 36, MSU lefty Konnor Pilkington No. 57 and Hattiesburg High outfielder Joe Gray No. 58. The full chart was published on mlb.com Thursday.

26 Apr

can’t have too much

At Trustmark Park, the prized arms just keep coming. Of Atlanta’s top 15 prospects (as ranked on mlb.com), 11 are pitchers. Seven of those 11 have climbed the bump at the TeePee in the past couple of years, and that number doesn’t include 2016 Mississippi Braves star Sean Newcomb, who has moved off the prospect chart and into Atlanta’s rotation. The marquee pitchers in 2017 were Kolby Allard, Mike Soroka, Max Fried and Luiz Gohara; Fried and Gohara already have made The Show. The centerpiece of the 2018 M-Braves staff is Kyle Wright, Atlanta’s No. 2 prospect and the scheduled starter tonight in Pearl in the opener of a series against the Jackson (Tenn.) Generals. (Jon Duplantier, Arizona’s top prospect, is slated to start for Jackson.) Ex-Vanderbilt ace Wright was drafted fifth overall — $7M bonus – last June and worked only 17 innings in the low minors last summer. A 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-hander, he got his first Double-A win in his last outing, going six innings at Mobile. He is 1-2 with a 2.45 ERA in 14 2/3 innings. Wright throws the requisite upper-90s fastball and two good breaking pitches, according to the MLB Pipeline scouting report. He is forecast to make the big leagues next year, as is Touki Toussaint, another top 15 prospect on the current M-Braves staff. And remember the names Ian Anderson, Joey Wentz, Kyle Muller and Bryse Wilson. All are top 15 prospects pitching in A-ball who’ll be in Pearl soon. This wealth of pitching should pay dividends in Atlanta for years to come. P.S. Kudos to Jonny Venters, who toiled for the M-Braves in 2008-09, for making it back to the majors after a six-year absence. Venters, a star in Atlanta from 2010-12, has endured multiple arm surgeries and setbacks. He retired the only batter he faced for Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

26 Apr

tale of two starts

Both Kendall Graveman and Lance Lynn were saddled with another loss on Wednesday, but there was a difference in their outings. Former Mississippi State star Graveman may have found something; ex-Ole Miss standout Lynn is still searching. Graveman fell to 0-5 for 13-12 Oakland, allowing three runs in six innings of a 4-2 loss to Texas. But utilizing his changeup more frequently and effectively, he struck out seven batters and actually trimmed his ERA to 8.89. “I thought the changeup was really good,” Graveman told mlb.com. “Got a lot of swing-and-misses. For me, that’s a big plus, something I’m working on … .” Lynn, in his fourth start for Minnesota, was KO’d by the New York Yankees in the fourth inning of a 7-4 defeat, the 8-11 Twins’ sixth straight L. Lynn (0-2) yielded six runs – including two homers – and saw his ERA jump to 7.71. “When I made pitches, I would get outs, but I didn’t make them when it counted,” Lynn said in an mlb.com article. P.S. Cool to see five former Mississippi Braves combine for eight hits, three runs and three RBIs in Atlanta’s 5-4 victory at Cincinnati. Included was Ronald Acuna’s first big league hit and Ozzie Albies’ seventh homer. In addition, M-Braves alums Jesse Biddle tossed two scoreless innings and A.J. Minter notched his first save.

25 Apr

stuff

Dominant may not be a strong enough word to describe Will Freeman’s performance on Tuesday in Ellisville. The Jones County Junior College sophomore struck out 18 batters in a seven-inning, 2-0 win over Pearl River Community College. The Alabama signee is 6-1 with a 3.32 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 57 innings. In the day’s second game, Jones’ Tyler Spring and Bryce Fagan combined on a three-hitter in a 4-1 win. This twinbill was a showdown for first place in the MACJC standings, which third-ranked Jones, 33-7 and winner of 14 straight, now leads at 18-4. Fourth-ranked PRCC is 17-5, 32-8. … It’s a midweek, neutral-site game that doesn’t count in the SEC standings, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone among the 8,500-plus in Pearl on Tuesday night who would dismiss the Governor’s Cup as just another game. Mississippi State’s dramatic walk-off win against Ole Miss was the Bulldogs’ third straight victory in the Cup series and eighth in the last nine games overall vs. the Rebels. Worth noting: Jake Mangum, the Jackson Prep product who had a two-run double for the Bulldogs and scored the game-winning run, is 22-for-51 (.431) against UM in his career. … Delta State, ranked as high as No. 3 in NCAA Division II, put up 20 runs in a win against Ouachita Baptist on Tuesday in Cleveland and is averaging 10 runs a game. How does DSU, 36-7, ever lose? … A hitter making his big league debut couldn’t pick a much better venue than Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, a masher’s paradise. Ronald Acuna, the former Mississippi Braves star and Atlanta’s top prospect, is expected to be in the Braves’ lineup tonight at what some jokingly call “the Great American Small Park.” Acuna passed through Trustmark Park in Pearl last season en route to being named Baseball America’s minor league player of the year. The Reds’ scheduled starter is left-hander Brandon Finnegan. … Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier saw his 17-game hitting streak end as Minnesota suffered its fifth straight loss, 8-3, on Tuesday night against the New York Yankees. “Couldn’t care less about the streak,” Dozier told mlb.com. “The beautiful thing about it is, we play tomorrow.” Ole Miss alum Lance Lynn, seeking his first win as a Twin, will get the start today at Yankee Stadium. … They’ve set a date in Laurel. Opening day for the city’s National Urban Professional Baseball League team is May 25. Tickets are on sale. The team will be called the Josh Gibson All-Stars in honor of the Hall of Famer from the Negro Leagues and will play at Wooten Legion Field. Tryouts are ongoing. (Visit nupbl.com for more information.) A number of Mississippians are expected to be on the Laurel team roster.

24 Apr

yes, it’s early

It’s much too early in the season to be alarmed, but Bobby Bradley – the highly regarded Cleveland prospect from Gulfport – is off to a noticeably rough start in his second Double-A campaign. The 21-year-old first baseman is batting .103 with two home runs and 20 strikeouts in 58 at-bats for Akron. Bradley reported for spring training – he went to big league camp, where he batted .312 – having dropped about 25 pounds from last year. He lists at 6 feet 1, 225. “I am focused on what I started to focus on at the end of last year, which is staying with a consistent approach, becoming a better defender and becoming a better base runner,” he told the Akron Beacon Journal earlier this month. It’s the power in his bat that has made Bradley the No. 3 prospect in the Indians’ system, according to the ratings of MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and Perfect Game. He hit 23 homers (with a .251 average) for Akron last year and has 89 bombs (with a .255 average) in five pro seasons since Cleveland picked him in the third round out of Harrison Central High in 2014. Surely he’ll start to hit as the weather improves in the Eastern League.

23 Apr

meritorious work

The longest current hitting streak in the majors belongs to Brian Dozier, who went 2-for-5 on Sunday to extend his run to 16 games. That also happens to be a Minnesota Twins record to begin a season. Former Southern Miss star Dozier just keeps doing these things, steadily establishing himself as one of the game’s premier players. In what might be his last tour with the Twins – he’s a free agent at season’s end – Dozier is batting .310 with four homers and nine RBIs. Over the past four years, he has been an All-Star and a Gold Glove winner, set a record for homers by a second baseman (with 42 in 2016) and earned two team MVP and Heart and Hustle awards. He drove in more than 90 runs each of the previous two years, hit at least 20 homers and scored more than 100 runs each of the last four and topped 30 doubles and 10 steals each of the last five. He batted a career-high .271 with 34 homers last season and helped the Twins reach the postseason for the first time in seven years, then homered to lead off the wild card game at New York’s Yankee Stadium. Dozier and the Twins will be back on that stage today, opening a four-game series against the Yanks and their array of stars. Dozier will hold his own. P.S. Also on the MLB hot list: Mitch Moreland, the ex-Mississippi State standout who is batting .438 with two homers and nine RBIs in his last five games for Boston, and JaCoby Jones, the Richton High product who is hitting .375 with two homers and five RBIs in his last seven games for Detroit.

23 Apr

heads are spinning

Well, now, that was some kind of weekend in college baseball. Mississippi State swept Arkansas. Ole Miss took two of three from Georgia. Southern Miss took three from Middle Tennessee State. Jackson State won a series against Alabama State. Alcorn State took two of three from visiting Mississippi Valley. Delta State claimed the Gulf South championship with a sweep at North Alabama as Zack Shannon broke the school’s single-season homer record. William Carey won a Saturday rubber game against Blue Mountain. Millsaps put up a fight at the SAA Tournament, going 2-2. But let’s focus for a moment, if that’s possible, on Mississippi College. The Choctaws beat West Alabama two of three at Frierson Field in Clinton, clinching a berth in the GSC Tournament for the second straight season. MC is 28-12, 17-8 in the league. Remember that the Choctaws were 17-30 two years ago in Jeremy Haworth’s first season there and 12-34 the year before he arrived. That’s some kind of progress. MC’s best hitter has been Blaine Crim, who homered and drove in three runs in Saturday’s series clincher. He is batting .380 with nine home runs and 48 RBIs, all team-bests. MC’s pitching also has improved dramatically under Haworth. The weekend starters – Chris Crosby, Hunter Mullis and Zack Ingram – are a combined 14-6 with a 3.73 ERA. So, what’s next? For MC, there’s a trip to Delta State next weekend. Buckle up.

22 Apr

special day — and season

On this date in 2006, the Milwaukee Brewers slugged five home runs in one inning, tying a major league record. The first of those five was hit by Bill Hall, the pride of Nettleton. Hall went deep against Cincinnati’s Brandon Claussen in the bottom of the fourth at Miller Park. Damian Miller, Brady Clark, J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder followed with bombs. The first four came against Claussen; Fielder hit his off Chris Hammond. Milwaukee won the game 11-0. For Hall, the April 22 homer was the third of the 35 he would hit that season, which was far and away the best of his 11 in the big leagues. A couple of weeks later, on Mother’s Day, Hall hit a memorable walk-off home run with a pink bat. He finished the 2006 season with a .270 average, 85 RBIs and 39 doubles. He hit 125 homers in his MLB career, which ended in 2012. He played a couple of years of independent ball after that.

21 Apr

a developing situation

Blue Mountain and William Carey are creating a nice little rivalry in NAIA land. They’ll play the rubber game of a three-game Southern States Athletic Conference series today at Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg as they jockey for seeding positions in the upcoming league tournament. Carey won Game 1 8-2 on Friday behind the pitching of Hunter Speer (8-2), who threw a seven-inning three-hitter, and three RBIs from RBI leader David Pementel, who has 43. BMC bounced back with a 5-1 win in Game 2 as Josh Letson (6-4), Mason Woolridge and David Torres combined on a six-hitter over nine. Five different Toppers drove in a run. Both teams are trying to get their house in order as the regular season wanes. Carey (now 29-18, 13-7 SSAC) entered the series having dropped seven of 10 games in April; its ranking in the NAIA poll sank to No. 19 this week. BMC (now 26-18, 9-11) came in with a three-game win streak but had dropped five in a row prior to that. The SSAC Tournament is just around the corner, slated for May 2-5 at Montgomery, Ala., and it’s a bear. Four of the nine teams in the league were nationally ranked this week, including No. 1 Faulkner. Bobby Halford’s Crusaders marched all the way to the NAIA World Series in 2017 and had high hopes again entering 2018. They began the year ranked sixth by Collegiate Baseball. BMC, still a young program under Curt Fowler, made the league tournament for the first time last season.

21 Apr

slam the door

While the Drew Pomeranz-Kendall Graveman matchup was something of a dud, another Mississippi product provided the fireworks on Friday night at Oakland Coliseum. Mitch Moreland, the former Mississippi State standout from Amory, hit a grand slam that boosted Boston to a 7-3 win over Oakland and gave the Red Sox a 17-2 record, among the best starts in MLB history. Ole Miss alum Pomeranz, in his first start of the year for Boston, was tagged for three runs in the first inning and left in the fourth. Ex-State star Graveman lasted five-plus and was charged with the loss, falling to 0-4 with a 10.07 ERA. He surrendered a three-run bomb to Jackie Bradley Jr. in the second inning and the three runners on base when Moreland hit his sixth-inning slam were also his doing. Moreland was 0-for-2 against Graveman when he came up in the sixth but didn’t get to face the right-hander a third time. Emilio Pagan came on, and Moreland promptly crushed a high fastball into the right-field seats for the BoSox’s fifth grand slam of the season. Moreland is on an 11-for-23 tear, raising his average to .333 with two homers and 11 RBIs.