Tag Archives: Biloxi Shuckers

23 Sep

faded glory

Perusing the box score from Atlanta’s game Monday against Washington evokes many thoughts, some positive, some sad. The Braves won their ninth straight, 11-5 at Truist Park. The familiar names of Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II, Drake Baldwin and Nacho Alvarez Jr. combined for eight hits, five walks, an HBP, six runs and eight RBIs. Quite a game. And yet, here the Braves are, stuck in fourth place in the National League East, nine games under .500 and out of the playoff picture for the first time in eight years. End of an era. Those five familiar names once played at Trustmark Park in Pearl for the Mississippi Braves, Atlanta’s highly productive Double-A team that now resides in Columbus, Ga., another era having ended. The Braves’ current win streak makes one wonder what might have been had this team stayed healthy and performed to expectations. (As fate would have it, Albies, having a tough year, broke a bone in his hand Monday.) It’s easy to forget that Baseball America ranked Atlanta as the majors’ second-best team entering the 2025 season, and Lindy’s magazine picked the Braves as NL champs, as did many others. On Monday, the Braves banged out 14 hits all told and went 7-for-16 with runners in scoring position. Stranding baserunners was a huge issue this season. There was production up-and-down the lineup; every starter save for Matt Olson — the most dependable hitter — got at least one knock. Yes, the pitching staff needs some attention this off-season, but the current lineup, if it clicks like it has recently (72 runs during the win streak), should be fine for 2026. … Meanwhile, Milwaukee lost its second straight — a 5-4 defeat in 11 innings at San Diego, a playoff-clinching win for the Padres. The Brewers have clinched the NL Central title but their lead over Philadelphia for the top seed in the NL postseason is down to 2.5 games with a week to play. Former Biloxi Shuckers star Freddy Peralta was good for Milwaukee on Monday, leaving after five innings with a 3-2 lead. However, ex-Shuckers Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick and Brice Turang went 1-for-15 with five strikeouts and a GIDP. P.S. Ex-Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin was named the Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America. The top-rated prospect had a remarkable first pro year: .333 with 21 home runs, 65 RBIs, 117 runs and 94 steals over three levels in Pittsburgh’s system. The 19-year-old shortstop is among three finalists for MLB Pipeline’s player of the year honor. … In the minors tonight, Jacksonville — with Ole Miss alum Kemp Alderman and Southern Miss’ Matthew Etzel on the roster — plays Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the opener of the Triple-A International League Championship Series. In the Double-A Southern League, Montgomery — with ex-Mississippi State standout Colton Ledbetter — takes on Birmingham — featuring former UM catcher Calvin Harris — in Game 2 of the title series. The Biscuits won the opener on Sunday.

19 Sep

tapping into power

Brent Rooker hit his 30th homer of the season on Thursday, a first-inning two-run shot that helped the A’s deal playoff-chasing Boston a hard loss at Fenway Park. Rooker, the former All-America from Mississippi State, now has 99 homers in three years with the A’s. It’s weird to think that in his first three MLB campaigns (2020-22) he hit a grand total of 10 homers while barely playing with three other clubs. The A’s got the former 35th overall pick as a waiver claim from Kansas City in November 2022. Of note: Fellow MSU product J.T. Ginn pitched six effective innings Thursday to get the win; the second-year right-hander is 4-6 with a 4.57 ERA in 22 appearances this year. With the defeat, Boston fell to third in the American League wild card standings. … Former Mississippi College star Blaine Crim belted two 400-foot homers for Colorado and now has three in seven games with the Rockies. Crim, getting his first real opportunity in the big leagues in his sixth pro season, has 124 minor league homers on his ledger. … Down in the minors, Kemp Alderman, third-year pro from Ole Miss, slugged his seventh homer in 17 games since being promoted to Triple-A Jacksonville in the Miami chain. Alderman hit 15 bombs in Double-A this season. P.S. Biloxi was eliminated by Montgomery in the Southern League division playoffs. Ex-Magnolia Heights star Cooper Pratt, Milwaukee’s No. 3 prospect, hit .237 with eight homers, 62 RBIs, 71 runs and 31 steals in his first Double-A season.

11 Sep

touching the bases

Blaine Crim, the former Mississippi College slugger, had a hand in a very rare feat on Wednesday night, hitting his 21st homer and driving in three runs as Triple-A Albuquerque scored in every inning in a 21-10 romp over El Paso in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. (Only 20 times in major league history has a team scored in every inning.) Crim now has 21 Triple-A homers in 2025, split between Albuquerque (Colorado system) and Round Rock (Texas). He got up briefly with the Rangers. … Former Mississippi State ace Dakota Hudson notched his seventh win for Triple-A Salt Lake in the PCL, yielding three earned runs in 6 2/3 innings for the Los Angeles Angels affiliate. Hudson is 7-7 with a 6.98 ERA. The former first-round draftee (2016) has 80 career wins, 40 in both the minors and the majors. He pitched for Colorado in 2024. … Konnor Griffin, the phenom from Jackson Prep, smacked his fifth homer for Double-A Altoona just as dad Kevin — the Belhaven University softball coach — was stepping into the broadcast booth in the fifth inning at Erie, Pa., per an milb.com story. “I might stay up here the whole game,” Kevin Griffin said. Konnor, No. 1 prospect in the minors, has 21 homers at three levels in the Pittsburgh chain this season. … Ex-MSU star Brent Rooker, having another big year for the A’s, crushed his 39th and 40th doubles of 2025 — ranking third in MLB — and now has 70 extra-base hits, 27 of them homers. The resurgent A’s beat Boston — and Aroldis Chapman — 5-4 on Wednesday in West Sacramento, Calif. … In the Frontier League playoffs, Ole Miss alums Anthony Calarco (3-for-5, three RBIs) and Banks Tolley (2-for-5, run) sparked Schaumburg to a 9-0 win over Gateway and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 conference series. Calarco, the indy league’s MVP for 2025, has eight RBIs in the postseason after plating 116 runs in the regular season. Former St. Andrew’s star Tolley hit a three-run bomb in the Boomers’ 11-6 win on Tuesday. Dallas Woolfolk, former UM pitcher, also plays for the Boomers. … The Arizona Fall League rosters for 2025 include several Mississippi connections: Former Madison Central High star Braden Montgomery, the Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 prospect, with Glendale; MSU alums Cade Smith (New York Yankees) with Mesa and David Mershon (Angels) with Salt River; Ole Miss product Derek Diamond (Pirates) with Salt River; and ex-Southern Miss pitcher Michael Fowler (Milwaukee) with Surprise. Luke Adams, current Biloxi Shuckers infielder and a top Brewers prospect, is also on the Surprise roster. Former Mississippi Braves star Nacho Alvarez, currently filling in for Austin Riley as Atlanta’s third baseman, is on the Glendale roster; he missed much of the minor league season with injury. The AFL season runs Oct. 6-Nov. 15.

04 Sep

around the horn

Four games. Four hits. Four home runs. That about sums it up for Kemp Alderman’s time with Triple-A Jacksonville. Promoted from Double-A by Miami on Sunday, the Ole Miss product has gone deep in each game with the Jumbo Shrimp. He homered in both ends of a doubleheader on Wednesday. The 6-foot-2, 235-pound outfielder now has 19 homers on the season and 28 in his three-year pro career. He is hitting .282 overall. … Jurrangelo Cijntje, the switch-pitcher drafted out of Mississippi State in 2024, picked up his first Double-A win on Tuesday, throwing six innings for Arkansas against Amarillo. Cijntje allowed one run on five hits and four walks, punching out seven. The 15th overall pick by Seattle last summer and now the team’s No. 8 prospect, Cijntje has a 3.80 ERA in five starts for Arkansas and is 4-7 with a 4.38 at two levels. He has 110 strikeouts over 98 1/3 innings. … Konnor Griffin, the phenom from Jackson Prep, has shown no ill effects from being beaned (by former MSU pitcher Will Bednar) on Tuesday night. Griffin, playing at Double-A Altoona in Pittsburgh’s system, stayed in the Tuesday game and started at shortstop Wednesday, going 1-for-3 with two runs and a steal. He is batting .320 in 13 Double-A games. … MSU product Jackson Fristoe retired all eight batters he faced Wednesday and notched a win for Low-Class A Tampa (New York Yankees). The third-year pro is 7-2 with two saves, four holds and a 4.37 ERA for the Tarpons. … Billy Hamilton, former big leaguer from Taylorsville, has signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs and reportedly would be eligible for the postseason. The 34-year-old outfielder played briefly this season in Mexico before getting hurt. Over 11 MLB seasons with eight teams (including the Cubs), Hamilton batted .239 with 326 steals. He last played in the majors in 2023. … Former Mississippi Braves star Shea Langeliers, who hit 11 homers for the A’s in August, was named the American League player of the month. Ex-Biloxi Shuckers standouts Brice Turang and Freddy Peralta, now with Milwaukee, were the National League’s player and pitcher of the month. Turang batted .343 with 10 bombs, Peralta went 4-0 with an 0.32.

03 Sep

random numbers

11 — Holds for Drew Pomeranz, the veteran lefty out of Ole Miss who threw a scoreless seventh inning Tuesday night for the Chicago Cubs in a 4-3 win against Atlanta. Pomeranz has a 2.04 ERA in 46 appearances for the Cubs, who won their 80th game and pulled within 5 games of first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central.
3 — Batters faced and retired by Hayden Harris, former Mississippi Braves reliever who made his MLB debut for Atlanta against the Cubs. Harris, a lefty, had an 0.56 ERA in the minors this season and a 1.74 in 19 games with the M-Braves in 2024.
3 — Grand slams this season, two in the last five days, by former Biloxi Shuckers star Trent Grisham, whose bases-loaded bomb off Framber Valdez helped the surging New York Yankees rout Houston 7-1. Grisham has 29 homers on the season, 12 more than his previous career-best.
4 — Home runs allowed by Garrett Crochet, the Ocean Springs High product who suffered a rare clunker for Boston against Cleveland at Fenway Park. The left-hander (14-5, 2.67 ERA) yielded three homers and six runs in the sixth inning alone, blowing a four-run lead, but the Red Sox rallied to win 11-7.
12 — Hits in 36 at-bats for Nathaniel Lowe since the ex-Mississippi State slugger signed with the Red Sox on Aug. 18. Lowe hit his 18th homer of the season and drove in three runs in Tuesday’s victory.
101 — Strikeouts this season by Matt Wallner, the former Southern Miss star who fanned three times in Minnesota’s loss to the White Sox. Wallner has 61 hits — 20 homers — in 295 at-bats.
1 — Scoreless inning thrown in his 2025 debut by Ethan Small, the former first-round pick out of Mississippi State now with Triple-A Sacramento in San Francisco’s system. Small, in his sixth pro season, had not pitched since August 2024 because of injury. The 28-year-old lefty made four MLB appearances with Milwaukee in 2022-23.
80 — RBIs on the year for Blaine Crim, the ex-Mississippi College standout now with Triple-A Albuquerque in the Colorado organization. He is batting .281 with 20 homers at two stops in the minors in 2025 and got 11 MLB at-bats with Texas.
2 — Home runs in as many Triple-A games for Ole Miss alum Kemp Alderman, who went deep for Jacksonville in a win against Charlotte. For the season, the Decatur native has 17 bombs and is batting .281 between Double-A and Triple-A in the Miami chain.
5 — Shutout innings tossed by Dalton Rogers, the former Southern Miss star now with Double-A Portland in the Boston system. The left-hander from Brandon is 4-4 with a 3.63 ERA for Portland and 6-5, 3.15, overall in his fourth pro season.
16 — Hits in 42 at-bats for Luke Hill, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss by Cleveland. Hill had three hits and three RBIs for Low-Class A Lynchburg in a 14-2 win over Delmarva and is batting .381 with a homer, seven RBIs and seven steals in 13 pro games.

31 Aug

noteworthy

The Milwaukee Brewers, the team with the best record in the majors, got stronger on Saturday when Jackson Chourio came off the injured list. And the former Biloxi Shuckers star went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning as the Brewers (85-52) beat Toronto 4-1. It was the 18th homer of the season for Chourio, who spent a month on the IL. The 21-year-old outfielder, currently batting .278 with 68 RBIs and 18 steals, was third in National League rookie of the year voting in 2024. Mississippi State product Brandon Woodruff, another of the many Shuckers alums on Milwaukee’s roster, starts for the Brewers today at Toronto; he is 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA. … Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Blaze Jordan extended his hitting streak to seven games with a home run — his 15th of 2025 — in Triple-A Memphis’ 8-2 win over Oklahoma City. Jordan, St. Louis’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .280 with 84 RBIs on the year with three different clubs. … In a Double-A Eastern League game at Reading, Pa., before a crowd of 7,000-plus, a couple of former Mississippi high school stars got big knocks: Bryson Ware, Germantown grad, hit a two-run homer for Reading (Philadelphia affiliate) and Tupelo alum Reed Trimble went deep for Chesapeake (Baltimore) in the Fightin Phils’ 3-1 victory. Reading managed just two hits in the game. Ware, who also played at Pearl River Community College and Auburn, is batting .279 with two homers for Reading and has eight bombs overall at two levels. Ex-Southern Miss star Trimble has nine homers for Chesapeake and 13 overall, including a couple in Triple-A. … And at Windy City in Illinois, Kyle Booker’s eighth-inning single drove in the lone run as the indy Mississippi Mud Monsters (and Jeremy Peguero) beat the Thunderbolts 1-0. The Mud Monsters (48-47) finish their inaugural season today at Crestwood, Ill. … Madison Central product Spencer Turnbull has signed a minor league deal with Kansas City and will report to Triple-A Omaha. The veteran right-hander is now with his third organization in 2025, having been released by Toronto and the Chicago Cubs. … On this date in 1990, former Jackson State standout Wes Chamberlain made his MLB debut for the Phillies. He would play six years in the majors, batting .255 with 43 homers. He batted .364 for the Phils in the 1993 NL Championship Series win over Atlanta.

20 Aug

rise and shine

Hit? Check. RBI? Check. Stolen base? Check. Win? Check. Baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, batting second and playing shortstop, checked off several notable accomplishments in his Double-A debut on Tuesday night, helping Altoona beat Reading 6-5. He singled in his first at-bat. We shouldn’t be surprised, really. The former Jackson Prep star also got a hit in his first pro at-bat back in April and got two knocks in his first game at the High-A level in June. On the season, Griffin is now batting .331 with 16 homers, 73 RBIs, 97 runs and 60 steals. And he is only 19. “It’s just like popcorn,” Andy Fox, manager of Pittsburgh’s Double-A club, told milb.com. “People pop at different times. He’s just an early popper.” The 2024 Gatorade player of the year in Mississippi is the third recent winner of that award to reach Double-A this season, quite a testament to the caliber of high school baseball in the state. Magnolia Heights alum Cooper Pratt, the 2023 Gatorade winner and Milwaukee’s No. 3 prospect, is playing at Biloxi, while Madison Central grad Braden Montgomery, the 2021 winner and the Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 prospect, is with Birmingham in his first pro season. Of note: The 2022 Gatorade winner, Dakota Jordan (Jackson Academy), is one of the top hitters in the Low-Class A California League in the San Francisco system; a couple of injury setbacks likely have kept him from being promoted. And the 2020 winner, Blaze Jordan (DeSoto Central), is at Triple-A Memphis — at age 22 — in St. Louis’ chain. … Emaarion Boyd, an 11th-round pick out of South Panola in 2022, was promoted to Double-A Pensacola by Miami but did not play Tuesday. He was batting .235 with 43 steals in High-A; he is a .251 career hitter with 134 bags in four years, the first three in Philadelphia’s system. P.S. Jake Mangum, the ex-Jackson Prep and Mississippi State star, got a couple of hits, an RBI and a steal for Tampa Bay — but he also had to watch seven of the New York Yankees’ nine home runs sail over his head in right field at Steinbrenner Field. The Bombers, tying a franchise record for homers in a game, won 13-3. … Nathaniel Lowe hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth in his second game with Boston, but the former MSU standout then watched Baltimore win 4-3 in 11 innings … Four former Mississippi Braves catchers were in big league lineups on Tuesday: Drake Baldwin (Atlanta), William Contreras (Milwaukee), Shea Langeliers (A’s) and Alex Jackson (Baltimore). Baldwin delivered the game-winning RBIs for the Braves against the Chicago White Sox, and Langeliers hit his 27th home run in an A’s victory.

18 Aug

wrigley’s the place

The eyes of the baseball world should be turned this week to Wrigley Field, where National League Central rivals Milwaukee and Chicago, both featuring Mississippi connections, will battle in what could be a pivotal five-game series. The fun starts today with a doubleheader (1:20 and 7:05 CDT). The first-place Brewers, who had a 14-game win streak snapped on Sunday, lead the Cubs by 8 games in the division race. If the Cubbies are gonna make up ground, it’s gotta start this week. Freddy Peralta, a former Biloxi Shuckers star, starts for the Brewers in Game 1. He is 14-5 with a 2.90 ERA but has had issues against the Cubs’ Kyle Tucker (.625), Pete Crow-Armstrong (.556 with a home run) and Michael Busch (two homers). Cade Horton (7-3, 3.07), a revelation as a rookie, goes for the Cubs. The Game 2 starters are TBD for both clubs. (The Cubs have yet to name a starter for Games 4 or 5, either.) Milwaukee’s regular lineup features several alums of the Double-A Shuckers: Brice Turang (who hit .340 with six homers during the 14-game streak), Sal Frelick and Isaac Collins. Brewers catcher William Contreras, a former Mississippi Braves star, is one of the NL’s best. He was a teammate in Atlanta of Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, who also played for the Double-A M-Braves. The slick-fielding Swanson is batting .249 with 18 homers and 10 steals. Brandon Woodruff, a Mississippi State product from Wheeler, is slated to start Tuesday’s game for the Brewers against 2025 All-Star Matthew Boyd, 11-6, 2.46. Since coming off his long stint on the injured list, Woodruff has been sensational: 4-0, 2.06 in seven starts, all Milwaukee wins. Ex-Shuckers ace Jacob Misiorowski (4-1, 3.89), the All-Star rookie, will start Wednesday’s Game 4 for Milwaukee. The Cubs have former Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz in their bullpen, and he’s been good. The 36-year-old lefty has a 1.85 ERA in 40 appearances in his first big league work in four years. And, for the record, the Cubs have ex-Madison Central High star Spencer Turnbull warming up at Triple-A Iowa, though the veteran right-hander has not pitched particularly well there: 0-2, 7.13, in four starts. P.S. Anthony Servideo, a third-round draft pick out of Ole Miss in 2020, has been released by Baltimore off of its Double-A Chesapeake roster. He was batting .156 in 95 games.

17 Aug

in the spotlight

Will Warren and Garrett Crochet, a couple of Mississippi high school grads now pitching in the American League East, will go to the mound today with something to prove. Warren, ex-Jackson Prep standout, starts for the New York Yankees at St. Louis. The rookie right-hander has been a reliable rotation piece for the Yankees, with a 7-5 record and 4.34 ERA. On the road, however, Warren has wobbled: 1-2, 6:48 ERA, in 12 starts. He is also 1-3, 6.06, in day games. Game time at Busch Stadium is 1:15. The Yankees, who have won the first two against the Cards, are 66-57, third in the AL East and barely hanging on to third in the wild card race. So, every game is a big one. Warren will face a sub-.500 Cardinals club that likely will trot out some of the same players he faced last year, when he gave up four runs in five innings and took a loss. … Crochet, the former Ocean Springs standout, gets the call for Boston against Miami at Fenway Park. Considered a Cy Young Award candidate, Crochet ranks among the Al leaders in wins (13), ERA (2.48), strikeouts (188) and, perhaps most notably, innings (152 1/3). He is coming off his shortest — and worst — start of the season: four innings, five runs in a loss at Houston. In just his second season as a starter, the 26-year-old left-hander already has exceeded his innings total from last year with the Chicago White Sox. The Red Sox, sitting in second place in the AL East and tied for first in the wild card, no doubt want to keep Crochet as fresh as possible for the postseason. Can he give them enough length today to beat a fading Marlins team? P.S. Milwaukee won its franchise-record 14th straight on Saturday, getting a three-run pinch-hit homer in the 11th inning from Andruw Monistereo (Biloxi Shuckers 2022) to top Cincinnati 6-5. … Ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison notched his first career win, benefiting from Colorado’s six-run eighth inning in a 10-7 victory against Arizona. Rolison pitched a clean top of the eighth, trimming his ERA to 7.41 for the 34-89 Rockies. … Former Mississippi Braves lefty Joey Wentz, another member of Atlanta’s patchwork rotation, got his second straight win for the Braves, tossing six innings (three hits, one run) in a 10-1 romp past Cleveland. The well-traveled Wentz is 2-2, 2.60, in seven games for the Braves, his third MLB team this season.

15 Aug

big knocks

Continuing his second-half revival, Michael Harris II doubled in the tying run and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Thursday night as Atlanta beat the New York Mets 4-3. The Braves have won six of eight, showing some signs of life in what’s been a rough year. It was looking like a lost year — offensively — for former Mississippi Braves star Harris before he made some swing adjustments and turned things around in mid-July. Since the All-Star break, the lefty-hitting center fielder is batting .381 with seven homers, 16 RBIs and 18 runs. He has 14 hits in his last seven games and is batting .250 for the year with 13 homers, 60 RBIs and 14 steals. And he still knows no peer with his glove. Called up from the Double-A M-Braves after just 43 games at that level in 2022, he won National League rookie of the year that season and has been highly productive before hitting a wall to start 2025. … There were several others with Mississippi ties who got big knocks in clutch situations on Thursday:
Biloxi High alum Colt Keith, on his 24th birthday, drove in the tying run for Detroit in the sixth and scored the winner in the 11th as the Tigers beat Minnesota 4-3; Keith, a second-year big leaguer, is batting .260 with 10 homers and 37 RBIs.
Justin Foscue, former Mississippi State star, delivered the go-ahead run with an eighth-inning double as Triple-A Round Rock (Texas system) knocked off Sacramento 3-2; Foscue is batting .260 with 12 homers, 49 RBIs.
Cooper Pratt, Magnolia Heights product, hit a three-run homer in a five-run seventh inning that propelled Double-A Biloxi (Milwaukee) to a 14-8 win over Columbus; Pratt is batting .238 with seven homers, 51 RBIs, 25 steals.
Connor Hujsak, ex-MSU standout, drove in the tying run in the seventh inning — and threw out the potential winning run at the plate in the 10th — as Low-Class A Charleston (Tampa Bay) beat Hickory 2-1 in 10; Hujsak is batting .227 with five homers, 45 RBIs.
Andrew Fischer, an Ole Miss alum making his pro debut, drove in two runs in the eighth — on his third hit — that put High-A Wisconsin (Milwaukee) ahead in an 8-6 victory against Great Lakes.