Tag Archives: allmississippibaseball

26 Aug

front-runners

Five of the six first-place MLB teams kept their foot on the gas on Friday, and Mississippi college products were a driving force for three of those winners. Brandon Woodruff, Matt Wallner and Lance Lynn delivered praiseworthy performances for Milwaukee, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. Start in Milwaukee, where ex-Mississippi State standout Woodruff threw six innings and allowed one run while punching out 11 batters in the Brewers’ 7-3 win against San Diego. It was Woodruff’s fourth start since he came off a long stay on the injured list (shoulder), and he has won two of them to run his record to 3-1 with a 2.65 ERA. Friday’s outing was his best yet; he has 19 career double-digit strikeout games. “It’s the best time of the year,” he told mlb.com “(A)nd it’s fun when you’re winning.” The Brewers have won six in a row and lead the National League Central by 4 games. At Minnesota, Southern Miss alum Wallner keyed a four-run first inning with a bases-loaded triple and the Twins went on to pound Texas 12-2. Wallner also had a double, scored three times and made a great catch in left field. He is batting .244 with nine homers and 25 RBIs in just 123 at-bats for Minnesota, which leads the American League Central by 6 games. Texas, the first-place team in the AL West, lost for the eighth straight time and fell into a tie with Seattle. Mississippi State product Nathaniel Lowe went 2-for-4 with an RBI in defeat for the Rangers. At Boston, former Ole Miss star Lynn battled through six innings and got the win as the Dodgers rallied late to beat the Red Sox. Lynn, 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA since moving to LA, gave up a couple of early home runs — a season-long bugaboo — but shut the BoSox down from innings 3-6. The NL West-leading Dodgers scored six times in the sixth and seventh innings to win 7-4. They lead the division by 12 games. … For the record, NL East leader Atlanta won at San Francisco, though DeSoto Central High product Austin Riley had a quiet night, and AL East leader Baltimore topped Colorado with MSU alums Jordan Westburg and Adam Frazier combining for one hit in four ABs.

25 Aug

notable numbers

17 — Quality starts by George County High product Justin Steele of the Chicago Cubs. The All-Star left-hander went six innings Thursday, allowing two earned runs, and propelled the Cubs to a 5-4, 10-inning win against Pittsburgh. Steele is 14-3 with a 2.80 ERA in 24 starts this season. “I want to be the guy that we rely on,” he told mlb.com.
10 — Runs allowed by ex-Mississippi State standout J.P. France, who took the loss for slumping Texas in a 17-1 defeat against Boston. Rookie France (9-5) lasted just 2 1/3 innings in his worst outing. The Rangers’ lead in the American League West is 1 game over Seattle and Houston.
55 — RBIs this season by former MSU star Brent Rooker, who belted his 22nd homer in Oakland’s 8-5 win over the White Sox. Rooker, the SEC Triple Crown winner in 2017, leads the team in homers, RBIs and batting average at .245.
117 — Hits this season by MSU product Jake Mangum, who banged out two more — including a grand slam — in Triple-A Jacksonville’s 8-4 win over Columbus. Mangum, 27, in his first year in Miami’s system, is batting .315 with five homers, 46 RBIs and 12 steals.
1 — Hit by Kellum Clark, the ex-MSU standout from Brandon, who went 1-for-4 with an RBI in his second game for the Low-Class A St. Lucie Mets.
1 — Hit by Brandon Parker, the Saucier native, West Harrison High alum and ex-Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star who made his Double-A debut for the Mississippi Braves at Montgomery. Parker, who also drove in a run and drew a walk, is the first Mississippi high school alum to play for the M-Braves since DeSoto Central’s Austin Riley debuted on May 5, 2018, according to a team release. Parker is the first state native to play for the M-Braves since Jackson’s Zack Bird, a Murrah High alum, pitched in three games in 2015.
32 — Consecutive games reaching base by the M-Braves’ Jesse Franklin V, who homered (No. 14) and walked three times in the team’s loss to Montgomery.

24 Aug

something different

On this date in 2010, Roy Oswalt the MLB pitcher became Roy Oswalt the MLB left fielder, appearing at a position other than on the bump for the only time in his 13-year career. The former Weir High and Holmes Community College star, with Philadelphia at the time, came in as a replacement for an ejected player in the 15th inning of a 16-inning game against Houston. And, of course, the ball will find you, as they say. The first batter of the inning, Jason Castro, hit a fly ball to left field, which Oswalt caught without incident. Oswalt came to bat in the bottom of the 16th and grounded out for the final out of the Astros’ 4-2 win in the 5-hour, 20-minute affair. Oswalt, who retired in 2013, was 163-102 with a 3.36 ERA for his career, making three All-Star Games. He wasn’t a terrible hitter, either, banging out 101 hits (.154 average) with a homer and 36 RBIs. P.S. Tim Anderson returned Wednesday from his five-game suspension and went 2-for-5 with an RBI and scored the game-winning run in a 5-4 victory for the Chicago White Sox against Seattle. East Central CC product Anderson was the ghost runner in the bottom of the 10th, took off for third base on a failed pickoff attempt by the Mariners catcher and scored when the shortstop’s throw got past the third baseman.

23 Aug

playing the numbers

Billy Hamilton, the former Taylorsville High standout, has piled up a lot of numbers in his major league career — and it seems highly uncertain that he’ll be adding to the totals. The skinny outfielder, just released from Triple-A by the Chicago White Sox, has played in 951 games and gotten 2,988 at-bats over an 11-year MLB career. Originally drafted by Cincinnati, he has played for eight different big league clubs, five in the last three years. He has just 22 MLB at-bats the last two years and only one hit; his career average sits at .239. But his 326 stolen bases are the most ever by Mississippi native, and he has scored 454 runs. And there are a couple of other numbers that might entice a big league team to bring Hamilton aboard when rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September. Though he has never won a Gold Glove, Hamilton has 73 defensive runs saved and 58 outs above average as a center fielder, both very good numbers according to MLB Trade Rumors. His career highlight reel is impressive. He has spent a good chunk of this season on the injured list, most recently with a shoulder problem. But he can still run and catch, even at 32. Here’s hoping he gets another shot.

23 Aug

triple-a mashers

They played a Triple-A baseball game in Louisville on Tuesday that produced a football-type score and saw a couple of Mississippi products deliver big hits. Biloxi High alum Colt Keith hit his seventh homer, drove in three runs and scored three to help Toledo smack down the host Bats 24-10. Ex-Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson went 2-for-4 with his 11th homer and drove in five runs for Louisville. Keith, one of Detroit’s top prospects, is hitting .258 and appears on the cusp of a big league call-up, though it might not happen in 2023. Robinson, in his seventh pro season, is having a huge year for Cincinnati’s top farm club, batting .315 with 66 RBIs. He is a .261 career hitter in the minors and hit .136 in 25 games with the Reds last summer. (Former Madison Central standout Spencer Turnbull, on a rehab assignment with Toledo, started and yielded three runs in 3 2/3 innings, running his ERA to 7.71 in four starts for the Mud Hens.) … At Triple-A Round Rock, where the scoring also ran high, Mississippi College product Blaine Crim went 4-for-5 with his 16th homer to power the Express to a 9-6 win over Salt Lake. Crim, in his fourth season in Texas’ system, is batting .296 with 62 RBIs. He has yet to receive an MLB look.

22 Aug

going places

Coming soon to the Mississippi Braves’ lineup: Brandon Parker. The former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star from Saucier, just off the injured list, has been promoted to Double-A, though he is not starting tonight at Montgomery. A 2019 draftee by Atlanta, after winning NJCAA Division II player of the year honors at Perk, Parker was hitting .250 with five homers, 21 RBIs and 10 steals for the High-Class A Rome Braves. He has been on the injured list since July 25 and just completed a rehab assignment in rookie ball. The 6-foot, 205-pound outfielder has 26 career homers in 231 minor league games. … Parker might get a chance during the six-game series against the Biscuits to face former Mississippi State standout Colby White, whose journey back from arm surgery has led him back to Montgomery, where he spent part of the 2021 season en route to reaching Triple-A in Tampa Bay’s system. White, on the Rays’ 40-man roster, has a 1.86 career ERA in 74 minor league games since 2019. … Also moving up today is ex-MSU standout Kellum Clark, a 20th-round pick by the New York Mets in July. He was hitting .308 in rookie ball, earning a promotion to Class A St. Lucie.

22 Aug

great timing

Brent Rooker hit a milestone home run on Sunday, his 20th of the season accounting for Oakland’s lone run in a 12-1 loss to Baltimore. On Monday, the ex-Mississippi State star hit a much more significant home run, No. 21 producing a walk-off 6-4 victory for the A’s over Kansas City at Oakland Coliseum. Not only that, the homer came just in time for Rooker and some teammates to scurry over to the Oakland Arena and catch the show by Rooker’s favorite country music star, Zach Bryan. Rooker even made an appearance on stage with Bryan, who was performing before a crowd quite a bit larger than the 3,095 who watched the two worst teams in baseball fight to the finish on Monday. It has been a roller coaster of a season for Rooker, who joined the A’s as an off-season waiver claim from the Royals. He ht .358 with nine homers in April, which earned him an appearance on MLB Network’s MLB Central show and propelled him to his first All-Star Game nod. There have been a lot of struggles since then, but Rooker’s bat has perked up recently. He is hitting .346 over his last seven games. “Swing and approach-wise, I feel pretty solid,” he said. Rooker, batting .245 with 53 RBIs, and many of his teammates may be vying for 2024 jobs with the lowly A’s, who are 35-90. … Rooker stands second on the All-Mississippi Home Run Derby chart to Austin Riley, who has 29 this season. Hunter Renfroe is at 18, Nathaniel Lowe at 15, Adam Frazier at 13 and Matt Wallner at nine.

19 Aug

on quite a roll

Putting a cap on a remarkable year, Belhaven University pitcher Brett Sanchez got the win in the Northwoods League championship game on Friday night. Sanchez’s Green Bay Rockers beat St. Cloud 4-3 to win the college summer league title. Sanchez earned league pitcher of the year honors after posting a 6-2 record with a 3.23 ERA in 10 starts. The sidearming right-hander from Louisiana previously was named the NCAA Division III Collegiate Conference of the South’s pitcher of the year and d3baseball.com’s national pitcher of the year for 2023. He went 5-2 with a save and a CCS-best 1.91 ERA and 102 strikeouts. Sanchez has 26 wins over four years at BU and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist in 2022. He apparently has eligibility remaining with the Blazers, who will have a new coach for the 2024 season. Andrew Gipson, who played and coached for the Blazers under Hill Denson, has replaced Kyle Palmer. Gipson previously worked as an assistant at D-I Southeastern Louisiana.

19 Aug

when opportunity knocks

There were 612 players selected in the 2021 MLB draft. Walker Powell was not among them. A few weeks after the draft, the Chicago Cubs gave Powell an opportunity in pro ball — and the former Southern Miss star has run with it. The 6-foot-8 right-hander, now pitching for Double-A Tennessee, posted his 10th win of the season, going six innings Friday night in a 10-5 win against Rocket City. He allowed two hits, two runs, no walks and struck out eight. He has won six straight starts, beating both Mississippi and Biloxi during that streak. Powell, 27, who isn’t rated among the Cubs’ top prospects, leads the Southern League in wins and WHIP (1.04) and ranks fourth in ERA (3.79) and batting average against (.230). In his brief pro career, Powell, a self-described “pitch to contact guy,” is 21-7 with a 3.38. Arkansas native Powell spent six years at USM, including a medical redshirt year (Tommy John surgery) in 2017 and the curtailed (COVID-19) 2020 season, and won 30 games all told. In 2021, he went 10-2, 2.31, tossed a no-hitter and claimed C-USA pitcher of the year honors for the league champion Golden Eagles. The Cubs signed him as a free agent on July 30, 2021. He recently told WXXV-TV of Gulfport that he hopes to make the big leagues someday but isn’t hyper-focused on that goal. “I’m just trying to enjoy every second I’m on the baseball field,” Powell said. P.S. USM alum Matt Wallner, now with Minnesota, was hit by a pitch on the right hand Friday night but X-rays were negative for a break. He has had some big hits of late (see previous post) for the first-place Twins. … In a case of Bulldog-on-Bulldog crime, Nathaniel Lowe of Texas took Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff deep in the fourth inning for the Rangers’ first two runs. It was Mississippi State alum Lowe’s 15th homer, his only hit Friday. Fellow MSU product Woodruff (four runs in 5 1/3 innings) got a no-decision as the Brewers won 9-8 in a matchup of first-place clubs.

18 Aug

a few atta boys

Emaarion Boyd, the second-year pro out of South Panola High, got the walk-off knock Thursday for Low-Class A Clearwater in the Philadelphia organization. Boyd was 2-for-5 with a walk, a run and a triple in the 5-4, 11-inning win against Dunedin. Boyd, 19, the Phillies’ No. 13 prospect, ranks second in the Florida State League in steals (49), fifth in runs (65), ninth in triples (five) and 10th in batting average (.272). “His ceiling is that of a speedy table-setter,” according to the scouting report on mlb.com. … Lance Lynn, former Ole Miss star, tossed seven shutout innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat Milwaukee 1-0 for their 11th straight win on an eighth-inning homer by Austin Barnes. The Dodgers are 4-0 in Lynn’s four starts since acquiring the veteran right-hander from the Chicago White Sox and 3-0 in his starts at Dodger Stadium. “I’ve always enjoyed pitching in this ballpark, and it’s definitely a lot better as a home player,” Lynn told mlb.com. He is 3-0 with a 1.44 for the Dodgers after going 6-9, 6.47, with the struggling ChiSox. … Tim Elko, the ex-Ole Miss slugger, hit his first Double-A home run for Birmingham and now has 23 for the season across three levels. A 2022 draftee by the White Sox, the big first baseman is batting .267 for the Barons, .301 with 88 RBIs for the year. … East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, now with the White Sox, finally issued an apology (on Instagram) for the fight he started with Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez on Aug. 5. Anderson will begin serving a five-game suspension (reduced from six on appeal) today. The two-time All-Star and 2019 batting champ went 2-for-17 while his appeal was pending and is at .230 for the year. … Konnor Griffin, Jackson Prep’s two-way star, and Samuel Richardson, Lewisburg High slugger, are among the 50 players on the rosters for Sunday’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in Phoenix. Both played on state championship teams this past season. Pitcher/outfielder Griffin, an LSU commit considered a top MLB draft prospect for next summer, participated in the Baseball Factory/Under Armour All-America Game last Sunday in Arlington, Texas, and has been invited to USA Baseball’s 18U national team tryout camp set for Aug. 21-25 in California. Those who make the final roster will compete for Team USA in the U-18 World Cup in Taiwan in September. Richardson, a Missouri commit, played in the Hank Aaron Invitational in Atlanta on July 30. … Drew Davis, a pitcher/infielder at Sumrall, has made the 15U Team USA that is going to the Dominican Republic for a tournament in September.