Tag Archives: A’s

22 Aug

standing tall

Amid the rubble of the Oakland A’s season, Kendall Graveman stands tall. The former Mississippi State right-hander, who tossed his first career shutout last Friday, is 8-2 with a 3.47 ERA over his last 15 starts. For the season, he is 9-8, 4.09 for an injury-riddled team that sits at 53-71 in the American League West. Graveman was a key contributor on State’s 2013 College World Series club, posting a 4-4 record and 2.81 ERA as a senior that year. Toronto picked him in the eighth round of the ’13 draft, and he blew through the minors to make his MLB debut in September of 2014. The Blue Jays then sent him to Oakland with three other players in the Josh Donaldson trade that off-season. Graveman’s 2015 season with the A’s was a bit uneven (6-9, 4.05) and 2016 got off to a wobbly start, as well. In mid-May, he was 1-6 with a 5.48 ERA. Then came the turnaround, which has included two wins against Houston, one against Baltimore and a complete-game W against Tampa Bay. And there is reason to believe the good times will continue for Graveman, a ground-ball pitcher who thrives on control. His shutout last week – a 98-pitch two-hitter against the Chicago White Sox — followed a phone conversation with his boyhood hero, Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, the ultimate craftsman. “I was like a kid in a candy shop. I was just asking him questions and he was very generous to talk to me for 15 or 20 minutes about the mental side of the game,” Graveman told the San Francisco Chronicle.

12 Aug

crazy good

Chris Coghlan, the former Ole Miss standout, has a grand total of 10 hits for the Chicago Cubs this season. The one he got on Thursday night at Wrigley Field may stick in the memory for a while. Batting in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and the Cubs down 2-0 to St. Louis, Coghlan looked back at the umpire and tried to call time before a pitch by Carlos Martinez. Time wasn’t granted. Coghlan swiveled back toward Martinez, re-gripped the bat as the pitch — a changeup – was en route and smacked a two-run single into right field. “Crazy,” he called it after the Cubs had secured a 4-3 win in extra innings. The first-place Cubs have been on a crazy roll with 10 straight wins, though Coghlan’s contributions have been limited. The 31-year-old veteran has just seven at-bats in August. In 24 games since he was reacquired from Oakland, he is batting .208 with four RBIs. But … it takes a bench to win a championship, and the Cubs have a deep one. For his part, Coghlan can play almost anywhere — a quality Cubs manager Joe Maddon seems to really like — and he is a .259 career hitter with some pop from the left side. (He hit five homers for the A’s but none since rejoining the Cubs.) He’ll have more moments, though it’s unlikely any will be quite as crazy as Thursday’s. P.S. Picayune High product T.J. House was sent back to Triple-A by Cleveland, a first-place club in the American League. House made three appearances during his call-up, allowing one run in one inning of work.

04 Aug

random numbers

37 – Stolen bases for Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, who got one as a pinch runner on Wednesday in Cincinnati’s 5-4 loss to St. Louis. Hamilton’s total ranks second in MLB, three behind Jonathan Villar. Hamilton, who set the all-time minor league record with 155 steals in 2012, swiped 57 bases for the Reds in 2015 and 56 in 2014.
11 – Home runs allowed in eight starts by Northwest Mississippi Community College alum Cody Reed, the rookie left-hander who gave up another in Cincinnati’s loss to St. Louis. Reed, one of the Reds’ top-rated prospects, fell to 0-6 with a 7.30 ERA.
6 – RBIs by former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier in the last three games, all wins for Minnesota against Cleveland. Dozier, who has a 12-game hit streak, is 5-for-16 with two homers and four runs scored in the series, helping the Twins score 35 times against the Indians’ vaunted pitching staff.
14 – Number of players the Los Angeles Dodgers currently have on the disabled list, which now includes Greenwood native and ex-Pillow Academy star Louis Coleman. Coleman, out with right shoulder fatigue, has appeared in a career-high 50 games in his first season with the Dodgers after five in Kansas City. He has a 3.70 ERA.
2 – Number of former Mississippi Braves to make their MLB debut on Wednesday. Rob Whalen started and got the win for Atlanta against Pittsburgh, and James Hoyt worked a scoreless inning in relief for Houston. By one count, that makes 111 M-Braves alums who have advanced to The Show since the Double-A club arrived in Pearl in 2005.
6 – Runs, matching a season-high, yielded by Mississippi State product Kendall Graveman, who lasted just four innings in Oakland’s 8-6 loss to the L.A. Angels. Graveman, who had won four straight starts in July, now has a loss and a no-decision in his last two. He is 7-7, 4.46.
9 – Hits in his last four games for Petal High alum Anthony Alford, who has boosted his average to .232 at Class A Dunedin in Toronto’s system. The Blue Jays’ No. 1 prospect (by Baseball America) entering this season, Alford has been sidetracked by injuries. The 22-year-old outfielder has five homers, 30 RBIs and 14 steals in 68 games.

24 Jul

numbers to crunch

4 – Wins in four consecutive starts for Kendall Graveman, the former Mississippi State star now pitching for Oakland. Graveman went nine innings on Saturday to beat Tampa Bay – thanks to a pair of ninth-inning homers – and is now 7-6 with a 4.15 ERA. At one point, he was 1-6, 5.48.
12 – Hits in his last 10 games for Anthony Alford, the former Petal High star now in A-ball with Toronto. Alford, in an injury-plagued campaign, is now batting .210 with four homers and 23 RBIs for Dunedin.
7 – Wins in their last nine games for the Double-A Mississippi Braves, who beat Tennessee 3-0 on Saturday behind the pitching of Lucas Sims and Jason Hursh. The M-Braves are 16-13 and in first place in the Southern League South.
31 – Steals for Billy Hamilton, the ex-Taylorsville High star playing for Cincinnati. Hamilton, batting leadoff on Saturday, went 1-for-4 with a bag and a run in the Reds’ 6-1 win against Arizona. Hamilton has a six-game hit streak that has boosted his average to .251 with 46 runs in 82 games.
3 – Runs scored by Ole Miss product Seth Smith in Seattle’s 14-5 win against Toronto on Saturday. Smith, batting .273, has 43 runs in 83 games for the Mariners. He also has 11 home runs.
7 – Consecutive scoreless appearances for Jonathan Papelbon, the former Mississippi State standout who pitches for Washington. Papelbon yielded a hit and a walk in the ninth against San Diego on Saturday but got the win thanks to a walk-off triple by Stephen Drew. Papelbon is 2-2 with 19 saves and a 2.56 ERA for the first-place Nationals.
3 – Number of former Mississippi Braves who started for the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday (Yunel Escobar, Andrelton Simmons and Todd Cunningham). Two ex-M-Braves started for Atlanta (Freddie Freeman and Jeff Francoeur).

10 Jun

look who’s back

Chris Coghlan must be one happy dude. When Thursday dawned, the former Ole Miss standout was batting .146 for a last-place team. By day’s end, he was a member of the team with the best record in baseball. Coghlan, who recharged his sagging career with the Chicago Cubs in 2014-15, was reacquired by the club from Oakland, where he had been shipped in February. Injuries have struck the Cubs, and Coghlan can play a lot of positions. He wasn’t hitting much for the A’s, but perhaps he’ll recapture some magic with Chicago. He batted .250 with 16 homers and 41 RBIs last season and .283 with nine and 41 in 2014. The Cubs are in Atlanta tonight. P.S. It was, as expected, a rather quiet first day of the MLB draft for Mississippians. Mississippi State right-hander Dakota Hudson went at the end of Round 1, 34th overall, to St. Louis, and Ole Miss outfielder J.B. Woodman was picked in the second round, 57th overall, by Toronto. Things should pick up today for Magnolia State players.

21 Apr

check and check

It had been a while since Kendall Graveman last posted a win. It had been a whole lot longer since he took a bat to home plate. The former Mississippi State standout now with the Oakland A’s did both at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night. Graveman beat New York for his first win since last July 4 – a span of 10 starts – and, because the A’s had to put their DH on the field, he batted for the first time since he was in high school in Alabama, eight years ago. He struck out against Nathan Eovaldi. What Graveman did on the bump made that AB totally irrelevant. The right-hander went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just three hits and a run with a career-best eight strikeouts in the 5-2 victory. Graveman is 1-1 with a 2.04 ERA in three starts for the A’s. Former Ole Miss star Chris Coghlan drove in the game-tying run, scored the go-ahead run and made a big defensive play at third base in the seventh inning. P.S. Also notching a big win on Wednesday was Ole Miss alum Drew Pomeranz, who struck out a career-high 10 in San Diego’s 8-2 decision against Pittsburgh. Lefty Pomeranz, 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in his first season with the Padres, yielded four hits and an unearned run in 6 2/3 innings. … So far, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ idea of trying Jordan Schafer as a pitcher is working just fine. The former Mississippi Braves and big league outfielder, a left-hander, has a 0.00 ERA and six strikeouts over seven innings for Double-A Tulsa. He is a .228 career big league hitter.

28 Mar

here and there

If there were any doubts about his place in the Oakland rotation, Kendall Graveman likely quashed them on Sunday. The Mississippi State alum drew raves after a seven-inning outing against Kansas City in which he yielded just four hits and one run and fanned six. “I knew it was big,” Graveman told mlb.com. Graveman and the A’s beat the Royals 10-1, getting a home run from Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan in the process. Graveman was 6-9 with a 4.05 ERA in 21 starts as a rookie for the A’s in 2015, his first year with the club after coming in a trade with Toronto. He has 4.98 ERA this spring. Drafted in the eighth round out of MSU in 2013, the right-hander climbed through four levels of the minors in 2014 to reach the big leagues with the Blue Jays. P.S. Tyler Moore should serve as a nice insurance policy if Freddie Freeman’s wrist troubles him again. Atlanta traded for Moore, the ex-State star, on Sunday and will stash the power-hitting first baseman at Triple-A Gwinnett. … Milwaukee shipped Ole Miss product David Goforth, a bullpen candidate, to the minors on Sunday, but ex-Rebels standout Alex Presley is still hanging around in the Brewers’ outfield picture. Presley is in camp as a non-roster player. … Just when the job of first-base coach is getting some pub – see Tom Verducci’s article in the March 28 issue of Sports Illustrated – Chris Maloney moves to third base with St. Louis. Jackson native and former State star Maloney has been the Cardinals’ first-base coach since 2012. He’ll move across the diamond while Jose Oquendo recovers from knee surgery.

25 Feb

changing places

Chris Coghlan, whose playing time figured to be limited with the Chicago Cubs this year, is off to Oakland, where the ex-Ole Miss star might find greener pastures. Coghlan, a lefty-hitting outfielder, was traded today for pitcher Aaron Brooks. Penciled in as a fourth outfielder (at best) for the Cubs, Coghlan, who hit .250 with 16 homers in 2015, could battle Khris Davis and Coco Crisp for the starting job in left field with the A’s. Crisp, a switch-hitter, hit .175 in an injury-dampened 2015 season. Davis, a right-handed hitter with power, was acquired recently from Milwaukee. Sam Fuld is also in the picture. Oakland appears set with Josh Reddick in right and Billy Burns in center. Coghlan, the 2009 National League rookie of the year with the Florida Marlins, revived a slumping career in Chicago the past two seasons, posting a .346 on-base percentage and a .447 slugging average. He credits a new approach. “When you value (slugging percentage) and on-base, now you swing at pitches that you can slug and you take pitches that you can’t slug,” he recently told mlb.com. If it worked at Wrigley Field, it ought to work at O.Co Coliseum.

02 Dec

this just in

For the third time in a pro career that began in 2010, Drew Pomeranz has been traded. The left-hander out of Ole Miss was dealt today by Oakland to San Diego in a four-player trade that moved Yonder Alonso to the A’s. Pomeranz was 5-6 with three saves and a 3.66 ERA for Oakland in 2015, starting the season in the rotation and ending it as a closer. He had minor shoulder surgery in October but was expected to be ready for spring training. Pomeranz, 27, has a career ERA of 4.07 in 107 games, 49 of them starts. The fifth overall pick by Cleveland in 2010, he was traded to Colorado in 2011 and from the Rockies to Oakland in 2013.

23 Oct

here and there

Former Picayune High star T.J. House, whose 2015 season with Cleveland was derailed by arm problems, is doing a rehab assignment with Scottsdale of the Arizona Fall League. Left-hander House, 25, who last pitched on June 8, worked a spiffy 1-2-3 inning on Thursday, throwing eight pitches. House went 5-3 with a 3.35 ERA for the Indians in 2014 and made the rotation in spring training this year. After four starts, and with an 0-4 record and a 13.15 ERA, he went on the disabled list and then was sent to the minors. He was 0-2, 3.38 in five minor league appearances before being shut down. House’s teammates on the AFL Scorpions include Richton High product JaCoby Jones (Detroit) and Ole Miss alum Stuart Turner (Minnesota), who were in the lineup on Thursday – and went a combined 0-for-8 in a 7-6 loss to Surprise. … Mississippi State product Adam Frazier (Pittsburgh) is 4-for-6 with three walks in two games for Glendale in the AFL. … Ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz had shoulder surgery on Thursday. The Oakland A’s left-hander shifted from the rotation to the bullpen last season, putting up a 2.61 ERA in 44 relief appearances after posting a 4.63 ERA in nine starts. His 2016 role reportedly is still undecided.