Tag Archives: Astros

02 Oct

the road ahead

Anthony Alford, once rated the 36th-best MLB draft prospect in the country, has some catching up to do. The former Mr. Baseball from Petal High, who recently left the Ole Miss football team to return to pro baseball, has played just 25 minor league games, none since 2013. Alford, an outfielder, will spend a couple of weeks in Toronto’s Instructional League camp in Florida and then head off to the Australian Baseball League, according to the National Post of Toronto. Because of his commitment to football — he originally signed with Southern Miss — he slipped to the third round in the 2012 draft. Toronto signed Alford with the intention of letting him continue to play college football while spending the summers in pro baseball. In two limited stints in the low minors, Alford has a career .200 average with a homer and six steals. Alford, who was also the state’s Mr. Football in 2011, has tremendous potential on the diamond. This is a guy who hit .483 with four homers, 31 RBIs and 14 steals as a senior at Petal. It’ll be interesting to see if he can get back on the prospect track. P.S. In addition to Bobby Abreu (see previous post), there was one other ex-Jackson Generals star still playing in 2014, though not in the major leagues. Daryle Ward, now 39, began the 2014 season in Mexico and finished in the independent Atlantic League. The lefty-hitting first baseman batted .239 with eight homers for Somerset, which recently was eliminated from the APBL playoffs. Ward, who hit 90 homers over his 11 MLB seasons, last played in the majors in 2008. He had a huge year for the 1997 Gens, batting .329 with 19 homers and 90 RBIs in 114 games before moving to Triple-A. And, of course, he famously hit a foul ball that blasted a hole in the outfield fence at Smith-Wills Stadium.

12 Aug

whatever happened to …

Stewart Cliburn, the former Delta State standout and ex-big league reliever, is now in his 13th season — sixth straight — as the pitching coach at New Britain, Minnesota’s Double-A affiliate. He also did a stint in Triple-A. Cliburn, drafted in the fourth round in 1977 by Pittsburgh, toiled in the minors for seven years before getting to the majors with the California Angels in 1984. In ’85, he had a truly great year: 9-3, six saves and a 2.09 ERA in 44 games (99 innings), all out of the bullpen. Arm problems derailed his career thereafter, and he was done as a player by 1990. For his MLB career, Jackson native and Forest Hill High alum Cliburn posted a 3.11 ERA in 85 games. Twin brother Stan, a catcher, also played in the big leagues and was in the Angels’ system for a time. But the two never realized their childhood dream of being battery mates in The Show. P.S. Among his other talents, McComb native Jarrod Dyson (see previous post) also does a pretty nice backflip. Check the highlights of Kansas City’s win on Monday. … Ole Miss product Alex Presley, on the disabled list (oblique) since July 8, is slated to start a rehab assignment today and could be back with Houston soon. Presley, in his first season with the Astros, is batting .252 with five homers and 13 RBIs.

08 Aug

slammed

For most of this season, Tony Sipp has been quietly efficient for a team that doesn’t capture a lot of headlines. Former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star Sipp, a situational lefty for the lowly Houston Astros, had allowed just one earned run in 12 previous appearances when he was called on Thursday to face Philadelphia. It was the eighth inning, there were two runners on with one out, and the Astros led 5-2. Sipp allowed a single that loaded the bases but then got the second out. Up came Ryan Howard, Philly’s massive left-handed slugger. Sipp had held lefties to a .120 batting average and just one homer to that point of this season. Then Howard, on a 3-2 pitch, hit one out of Citizens Bank Park – a stadium-shaking grand slam that propelled the Phillies to a 6-5 win. Sipp jumped and punched the air in frustration as the ball left the yard. He was on all the highlight shows, the center of attention for all the wrong reasons. He was pulled from the game, left to mull that one pitch until his next opportunity comes. Overall, Sipp has a 2.91 ERA in 38 games in his first season with the Astros following stints in Cleveland and Arizona. Still, despite all his good work, that one pitch on Thursday is what got noticed. It’s the nature of the role, a role that’s not easy to play.

08 Jul

number crunching

1 — Major league starts by Phil Irwin, the Ole Miss alumnus who’ll make his second tonight for Texas against Houston. It’ll be his Rangers debut.
4 — Hits by Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan (now batting .252) and RBIs by Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (34 for the season) in Monday’s Chicago Cubs-Cincinnati game, won by the Reds 9-3.
4 — Runs allowed (in three games) by former UM standout Aaron Barrett since a controversial balk call against him on June 30. Barrett, pitching for Washington, had yielded just five runs in 30 previous appearances.
5 — Number of Mississippi Braves alums slated to play in All-Star games next week: Current M-Brave Jose Peraza (Futures); Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman, Craig Kimbrel and Julio Teheran (MLB); and Gwinnett’s Phil Gosselin (Triple-A).
5 — Home runs in 2014 for ex-Rebels star Alex Presley, who hit his latest Monday to help Houston stop a seven-game losing streak with a 12-7 victory over Texas.
9 — Consecutive seasons of at least 20 saves for former Mississippi State star Jonathan Papelbon, who reached that number Monday in Philadelphia’s 3-2 win against Milwaukee.
10 — Starts by Meridian Community College product Cliff Lee (4-4, 3.18), who won’t make another for the Phillies until after the All-Star break. He has been on the disabled list since May 19.

05 Jul

fireworks

Mississippians do love fireworks. And Mississippians in the majors did their part to contribute to the noise on the Fourth of July, cracking out eight hits on the day, two of them bombs, and getting some sizzle from the mound, as well. Eight Magnolia State-connected position players got into games on Friday and collectively went 8-for-26 (.308) with the two home runs, three RBIs and nine runs. A pretty good day to be sure, and consider that the state’s best hitter, Meridian Community College alum Corey Dickerson (.337), did not play for Colorado, the left-handed slugger sitting against Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw. Itawamba CC’s Desmond Jennings sparkled with a three-hit game, and he also scored three times for Tampa Bay. Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan scored three for the Chicago Cubs and went 2-for-4, raising his average to .219. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier smoked a home run (No. 16) for Minnesota, and Taylorsville High product Billy Hamilton lit off one (No. 5) for Cincinnati. Former Ole Miss standout Seth Smith went 1-for-3 with a run for San Diego. UM alum Zack Cozart of the Reds had the only real dud of a day, going 0-for-4 — though his team did win its game. Former Rebels star Alex Presley was 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter for Houston, and Southwest Mississippi CC product Jarrod Dyson got in late for Kansas City, as he often does, as a defensive replacement. Ex-Ole Miss ace Lance Lynn provided the pitching sparks, throwing 6 2/3 shutout innings for St. Louis in a victory over Miami. Lynn has nine W’s on the year. For the day, this Mississippi nine helped their clubs go 6-2. Now that’s a blast.

30 Jun

hard knocks

Big day at the plate for B.A. Vollmuth on Sunday. The former Southern Miss star, playing for the Beloit Snappers in the Class A Midwest League, went 3-for-4 with three doubles, three runs and an RBI. Trouble is, the big days have been few and far between for Vollmuth this season. Dealing with failure is a big part of a player’s development in pro ball, and that’s what Vollmuth is confronted with in 2014. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound third baseman is batting just .189. He has six home runs but hasn’t hit one in the entire month of June. Vollmuth, from Biloxi, was arguably the state’s best player as a junior at USM in 2011. He was drafted in the third round by Oakland and showed enough that first season that he was rated the A’s No. 9 prospect heading into 2012. He batted .261 with 14 homers at two levels of A-ball in 2012 and was rated the No. 17 prospect following that season. Vollmuth spent 2013 at Stockton in the high Class A California League and enjoyed some success, hitting 21 homers and knocking in 70 runs. But he hit only .212 and struck out way too much (161 times). He was sent back this season to the low-A Midwest League, where apparently he is still trying to figure things out in what may be a pivotal season. P.S. Corey Dickerson, the former Meridian Community College standout, went 2-for-4 for Colorado on Sunday and has 10 multi-hit games in June. He is batting .343 with 10 homers, 33 RBIs and 34 runs in 60 games. Too bad his name isn’t on the All-Star ballot. … Tony Sipp, the Mississippi Gulf Coast CC product, registered his first save of the year in Houston’s 6-4 win over Detroit. Sipp threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.61. Primarily a set-up or situational left-hander, Sipp has only four career saves. … Picayune’s T.J. House was back in The Show and pitched well for Cleveland, allowing just two runs in six innings against Seattle. Unfortunately, the rookie lefty was matched against Felix Hernandez, who allowed just one hit over eight innings as the Mariners won 3-0. House is 0-2 with a 4.54 ERA in seven games, six starts.

29 Jun

something new

The Mississippi Braves, 6-4 in the second half, will have a new look when they take the field at Trustmark Park today to begin a five-game series with Huntsville. All-Star shortstop Elmer Reyes is gone, sent to Triple-A Gwinnett on Saturday. Kyle Wren, an outfielder, and Daniel Castro, an infielder, were promoted from Class A Lynchburg. Neither played in the series finale at Birmingham, so they could make their Southern League debuts today. Wren, son of Atlanta general manager Frank Wren, was batting .296 with 33 steals at Lynchburg. The lefty-hitting center fielder was an eighth-round pick last June from Georgia Tech. Castro, a Mexico native who can play second base and shortstop, was hitting .292. The M-Braves also lost right-hander Aaron Northcraft, who led the team with seven wins, to promotion last week. They do come home on a roll, having won the last two games at Birmingham in dramatic fashion: with a nine-run ninth inning on Friday and with a go-ahead, eighth-inning home run by Cedric Hunter on Saturday. Hunter, a onetime big leaguer, is batting .311 with seven bombs. Second baseman Jose Peraza, who arrived from Lynchburg during the previous homestand, is hitting .425 in nine games. P.S. Some big league chew from Saturday: Former M-Braves star Christian Bethancourt got his first big league hit for Atlanta in a 5-1 win over Philadelphia that completed a twinbill sweep. … Itawamba Community College product Desmond Jennings, who went 0-for-9 in a doubleheader on Friday, led off Saturday’s game with a homer (No. 7) that propelled Tampa Bay to a 5-4 win over Baltimore. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton got three hits and a steal — he’s batting .282 with 34 bags — and Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart added a couple of hits to help Cincinnati win its fourth straight, 7-3 over San Francisco in 11 innings. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Alex Presley went 2-for-4 with a homer (No. 4) and three RBIs as Houston fell to Detroit 4-3. … UM product Lance Lynn, coming off a brilliant outing at Colorado, lasted just two innings at Dodger Stadium, yielding nine hits, two walks and six earned runs in St. Louis’ 9-1 loss to Los Angeles.

12 Jun

3 stars — plus a couple

Desmond Jennings, the ex-Itawamba Community College star, had a two-run single in a four-run fourth inning as Tampa Bay snapped a 31-inning scoreless blight and went on to beat St. Louis 6-3 on Wednesday night. All told, Jennings was 2-for-4 with a run for the reeling Rays, who have won just twice in their last 16 games. … Meridian CC product Corey Dickerson, enjoying more playing time in Colorado, went 2-for-4 with three RBIs as the Rockies beat Atlanta 8-2 and knocked the Braves out of first place in the National League East. … Former Taylorsville High standout Billy Hamilton went 1-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, a run and a stolen base (No. 24) as Cincinnati beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0. … Ole Miss alum Alex Presley, a veteran among Houston’s cast of kids, went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a steal to help the Astros beat Arizona 5-1. … And Jarrod Dyson, the former Southwest Mississippi CC star, was 1-for-3 with an RBI for Kansas City, which beat Cleveland 4-1. Ned Yost’s Royals have climbed into second place in the American League Central. P.S. The Biloxi Shrimpers? That’s one of the choices — perhaps the best — on the new Southern League club’s name-the-team ballot. The others: Beacon, Schooners, Mullets, Shuckers and Black Jacks. Voting ends this week. The team, moving from Huntsville, is scheduled to begin play in a new ballpark on the Coast next April.

10 Jun

the long and short of it

Now that the 2014 Ole Miss team has made history — reaching the College World Series for the first time in 42 years — the Rebels must hope history doesn’t repeat. Ole Miss’ 1972 trip to Omaha lasted just two games. The Rebels lost 8-6 to Southern Cal and 9-8 to Texas. That Ole Miss team was coached by Rebels legend Jake Gibbs, who just the year before was catching for the New York Yankees. The stars were shortstop Steve Dillard — future big leaguer (nice career) and future manager of the Jackson DiamondKats (forgettable season) — outfielder Paul Husband and pitcher Jim Pittman, who won 10 games for a 28-16 club. The ’72 Rebels won the SEC Championship Series 2-games-to-none against Vanderbilt. Next they won the NCAA District III playoffs, going 5-1 in the double-elimination affair and beating South Alabama twice for the right to go to Omaha. It was Ole Miss’ fourth CWS berth. Having waited so long for the fifth, maybe the Rebels will stay a little longer. P.S. A spinning managerial wheel put pitcher Tony Sipp in right field for Houston on Monday night. Left-hander Sipp, the former Moss Point High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star, moved from the mound to the outfield (for one batter, who walked) and back again during the eighth inning at Arizona. It was the first MLB outfield appearance for the veteran Sipp, who was a standout outfielder in amateur ball, playing the position at Clemson as well as in high school and junior college. He faced six batters Monday and retired five of them, notching his fourth hold in the Astros’ 4-3 win and lowering his ERA to 2.70.

30 May

staying with it

Watched a few innings of the Pacific Coast League game of the week on TV Thursday night. Eli Whiteside, the ex-Delta State star from New Albany, was catching for Iowa (Chicago Cubs) and Mississippi State product Ed Easley was behind the plate for Memphis (St. Louis Cardinals) at AutoZone Park. These are two guys who must really love the game. They are backup catchers in Triple-A. Both are scuffling in their limited time: Whiteside is batting .168, Easley .204. Whiteside, who’ll be 35 in October, is in his 15th pro season. He has 208 MLB games under his belt and won a World Series ring with San Francisco in 2010. The Cubs are the seventh organization Whiteside has played for. He last appeared in the majors — briefly — in 2012. Easley, 28, is in his eighth season. He has yet to play in a big league game. He hit .334 with six homers and 49 RBIs in Triple-A for Arizona in 2013, never got a call-up, then signed with St. Louis in the off-season as a minor league free agent. The chances that either Whiteside or Easley will get called to the big leagues this season are pretty slim. Yet they keep plugging away at the game’s most demanding position. There is something admirable about that kind of devotion. P.S. Tony Sipp has shown that he still has some gas in the tank. The Pascagoula native has not allowed a run in 9 2/3 innings over eight appearances with Houston. Sipp, given his release from a minor league contract with San Diego so that he could sign with the Astros, has yielded just one hit and one walk with 13 strikeouts for a club that is suddenly playing well. The Moss Point High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College alum is in his 11th pro season.