Tag Archives: Blue Jays

11 Jun

stuff

Former Petal High star Anthony Alford is in a Florida hospital after suffering an apparent neck injury in an on-field collision during a minor league game Friday night. Alford, taken off on a stretcher, was talking and able to move his limbs, according to various reports, with more tests due today. Alford, a top Toronto prospect playing for Class A Dunedin, suffered a knee injury in the first game of the season and is batting .205 in 32 games. … Now that Tim Anderson has made his MLB debut, joining Chad Girodo and Chris Stratton as Mississippi-connected players reaching The Show this season, one wonders who’ll be next: Cody Reed, Hunter Renfroe, JaCoby Jones … ? … On this date 13 years ago, Holmes Community College alum Roy Oswalt and ex-Jackson Generals star Billy Wagner started and closed a six-man combo no-hitter for Houston against the New York Yankees. It was the first time the Yanks had been no-hit in 45 years. … The Cape Cod Baseball League, the best of the college summer loops, launched its season on Friday. There are 11 Mississippi State players listed on the various rosters, but, of course, they have some other matters to attend to at present. Ole Miss’ Will Golsan and Will Stokes and Southern Miss’ Kirk McCarty are on the Orleans roster, but none of the three played in the Firebirds’ opener. … Former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College coach Cooper Farris, who had been at the helm of the Cape’s Wareham Gatemen since 2001, is not coaching the team this year. During his tenure, Wareham won three CCBL titles (2001, 2002 and 2012). … In case anyone was wondering, Jones County Junior College’s national championship in NJCAA Division II is the first by a Mississippi juco. It is the third by a college-level team from the state: William Carey won an NAIA title in 1969 and Delta State an NCAA Division II crown in 2004.

24 Apr

around the horn

It’s a day for letting baseball just flow over you. … Rubber game today in Hattiesburg with the Conference USA lead at stake. Kirk McCarty (3-0, 3.51 ERA) for Southern Miss vs. Ricardo Salinas (6-1, 3.60) for Rice in what has been a pitching-dominated series at Taylor Park. … Mississippi State goes for a sweep at LSU. Reid Humphreys, the ex-Northwest Rankin High star, got an RBI and the save in Saturday’s 2-1 win. For the year, he’s hitting .328 with 15 doubles, four homers and 31 RBIs and he has five saves. … Ole Miss, going for a sweep against Auburn in Oxford, now has won 30 games for 19 straight seasons. Impressive. … Delta State left-hander Tre Hobbs beat Valdosta State in Cleveland on Saturday to improve to 11-1 with a 2.46 ERA and eight complete games. Nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, DSU is 32-13, 21-8 Gulf South. … There was a celebration in Itta Bena on Saturday. By Alabama State, which clinched the SWAC East with a 10-0 win over hapless Mississippi Valley State. ASU (17-0 in the league) won Friday’s opener 12-0. … William Carey University improved to 34-15 and 16-7 in the Southern States Athletic Conference by sweeping Brewton-Parker in Hattiesburg. The NAIA nationally ranked Crusaders are hitting .327 with 390 runs. … Millsaps’ season ended with a 13-11 loss to Birmingham-Southern in the Southern Athletic Association tournament. The Majors finished 20-21. … Belhaven lost its home finale to McMurry at Smith-Wills Stadium on Saturday, saying goodbye to 11 seniors and paying special tribute to Devin McCann, who died in a car accident just before the season began. … Mississippi College stopped an 11-game GSC losing streak with a 3-2 win against Lee in Clinton on Saturday. The Choctaws go for the series win today at Frierson Field. … Former Ole Miss star Chris Ellis, bucking for a call-up to the big leagues, threw six brilliant innings for the Mississippi Braves against Biloxi at Trustmark Park on Saturday. He got a no-decision in a game the M-Braves would ultimately lose but is 2-0 with a 1.16 ERA in four Double-A starts. He got a long look with Atlanta in spring training. … Ex-State standout Chad Girodo’s stay in MLB was short but sweet. He threw two scoreless innings in his debut for Toronto against Oakland on Friday but was shipped back to the minors on Saturday. … UM product Zack Cozart went 3-for-5 in Cincinnati’s 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday and is now batting .400 (20-for-50) on the year with a homer, five RBIs and 10 runs. … Anthony Alford, the former Mr. Baseball from Petal and a top-rated Toronto prospect, has not played since suffering a leg injury in his first game of the season at Class A Dunedin. The Blue Jays have been silent on his status.

02 Apr

read all about it

The new Baseball America is here! The new Baseball America is here! Well, it’s not quite that exciting, but the arrival of the bi-weekly magazine in the mailbox – the one sitting on a pole down by the street — does provide a little kick. There on the cover of the latest edition (April 8-22) is a picture of a gaggle of Atlanta Braves prospects, including Austin Riley, the former DeSoto Central High star whose pro debut in 2015 was such a smash. As the Braves build toward the future, Riley already rates among the top position player prospects in a stacked farm system. A third baseman drafted 41st overall, Riley hit .304 with 12 home runs over two levels last summer. He might someday fill out an Atlanta infield that will include Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies, who also appear on the BA cover and will appear with the Mississippi Braves sometime soon. There is more treasure inside. John Manuel, BA’s editor in chief, throws out some preseason candidates for minor league player of the year, and two Mississippians are on the short list: Petal’s Anthony Alford and Gulfport’s Bobby Bradley. Alford, an outfielder in Toronto’s system, is expected to play at the Double-A level this year; reports are he is close to big league-ready. Bradley, a first baseman with Cleveland, might make Double-A this summer; he is only 19 but already drawing raves about his power potential. Found on an inside page is a chart of the top catchers in the minors who will vie for the Captain’s Catcher’s Award, which recognizes defensive skills. Ex-Ole Miss star Stuart Turner made the list; he played at Double-A Chattanooga in the Minnesota organization in 2015. This issue of BA also has the chart of minor league managers and coaches. Among the familiar names: Al Pedrique, Stu Cliburn, Jody Davis, Rick Sweet, Gary Allenson, Joe Mikulik, Phillip Wellman, Paul Phillips, Jeff Ware, Scott Thorman … . Ah, ’tis the season.

17 Mar

leading the way

Brian Dozier has jokingly called himself a “Grapefruit League All-Star” for the good numbers he usually hangs up in spring training. The Southern Miss product is doing it again. Dozier went 2-for-3 and belted his second home run for Minnesota on Wednesday, boosting his Grapefruit League average to .435. Dozier was an American League All-Star in 2015 and, entering his fifth MLB season, the Tupelo native has emerged as a leader for a Twins team that many expect to contend. Dozier hit 28 homers last year but batted just .236. The average may rise in 2016. Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci recently noted that Dozier, typically a pull hitter, is one of a number of players “making swing path adjustments—the counterattack to shifts” and has been going to right field frequently this spring. P.S. Some familiar names appeared in the Toronto box score on Wednesday: Ex-Mississippi State star Chad Girodo threw 1 1/3 clean innings, D.J. Davis, the 2012 first-rounder from Stone County, got an at-bat and so did Brett Wellman, son of former Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman. Girodo, bidding to make the Blue Jays’ bullpen, has not allowed a run in four appearances. Davis, a top 10 prospect in the Jays’ organization, is coming off a good 2015 season in A-ball but reportedly needs to improve in some areas. The younger Wellman, who used to serve as a bullpen catcher for the M-Braves, has been in the Toronto system for three years after playing at Auburn-Montgomery. … Detroit has given Richton’s JaCoby Jones a lot of work in big league camp. In 13 games at shortstop and third base, he is batting .231 with a homer and three RBIs. A 2013 third-round pick by Pittsburgh, Jones reached Double-A last year but will start this season on suspension for a failed drug test last fall (see previous posts).

10 Mar

storylines

Ex-Mississippi State standout Chad Girodo, in Toronto’s camp as a non-roster invitee, might have a legitimate chance to make the club out of spring training. “(H)e’s on the radar and you’re always looking for lefties who can get lefties out,” manager John Gibbons told mlb.com. Drafted in 2013, the 25-year-old Girodo advanced through three levels of the minors last season. He began the year in Class A Dunedin, moved to Double-A New Hampshire and then made a brief appearance with Triple-A Buffalo. He posted a combined 1.34 ERA while striking out 58 in 60 1/3 innings and also pitched well in the Arizona Fall League. He has not allowed a run in 1 2/3 innings this spring for a Blue Jays team that is a little thin in the bullpen. … Tyler Moore, another ex-Bulldogs star, hit his first home run on Wednesday for Washington. Coming off a 2015 season – his fourth in the big leagues — in which he batted .203 with six homers in 187 at-bats, Moore is just 2-for-16 this spring as he tries to win a job on the bench under new manager Dusty Baker. “It’s not an easy job at all and it’s sometimes very frustrating because you feel like you can contribute so much more than what you actually do,” Moore told federalbaseball.com about being a reserve. Moore is wearing No. 32 now, having given up his old No. 12 to Baker. That might be worth a few brownie points. … Though he isn’t expected to have an impact for Arizona this year, former Vancleave High star Colin Bray is certainly a player to keep an eye on. The switch-hitting outfielder, who got an at-bat in an MLB spring game on Tuesday, is rated the No. 24 prospect in the Diamondbacks’ organization, and the MLBPipeline report on him is fairly glowing: speed, defense, make-up. At Class A Kane County in 2015, the 6-foot-3, 197-pound Bray batted .308 with three homers, 52 RBIs and 27 steals. Bray, 22, a sixth-round pick out of Faulkner State (Ala.) Community College in 2013, could make it to Double-A Mobile in the Southern League this summer.

16 Feb

breaking good

Good story on the Baseball America web site about Mississippians Anthony Alford and Cody Reed, who have emerged on the magazine’s list of the Top 100 prospects in 2016. Alford, an outfielder with Toronto, is No. 25; Reed, a left-hander in the Cincinnati system, is No. 34. Neither was in the Top 100 last year. Alford came out of Petal High with dreams of being, as he tells BA, “the next Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders.” He was the state’s Mr. Football and Mr. Baseball as a senior, but the two-sport thing didn’t quite work out on the next level. Alford devoted himself to baseball full-time in 2015 and mastered two levels of A-ball. He acknowledges that baseball probably always was his better sport. Reed, a non-prospect in high school at Horn Lake, signed with Northwest Mississippi Community College. Rangers assistant and ex-big leaguer Bill Selby apparently saw potential in Reed, who proceeded to gain 50 pounds and add 15 mph to his fastball. Reed tells BA he was genuinely thrilled to be drafted in the second round by Kansas City in 2013. After struggling for a couple of years, he found his form in 2015 and was a standout at Double-A Pensacola after the Reds got him in a trade. Both Alford and Reed will be in big league camp. … Also appearing in BA’s Top 100 are East Central CC alum Tim Anderson (No. 45, Chicago White Sox); Mississippi State product Hunter Renfroe (No. 86, San Diego) and ex-Harrison Central star Bobby Bradley (No. 93). Former Biloxi Shuckers shortstop Orlando Arcia is No. 8, and Dansby Swanson, who could be the Mississippi Braves’ shortstop in 2016, is No. 17.

14 Jan

whatever happened to …

Jordan Schafer, the former Mississippi Braves outfielder of some renown, has signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to various reports. Schafer, a lefty-hitting center fielder with plus speed, played 27 games for Minnesota in 2015, went on the disabled list in May and then was released, spending the rest of the year out of the game. Schafer arrived in Mississippi in 2008 as Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect and with a swagger to match. A few days into the season, he was slapped with a drug suspension. He struggled upon his return but bounced back to have a good last month and helped the club win a Southern League pennant. He hit .269 with 10 homers, 51 RBIs and 12 steals that season. He won the center field job in Atlanta the next spring and famously homered in his first at-bat. But then he slumped and got hurt and his career became a series of ups and downs. He wound up back in Pearl for a while in 2010, was traded to Houston, then reacquired by the Braves, then claimed off waivers by Minnesota. Schafer, 29, has 103 career MLB steals but has hit just .228 over parts of six seasons. P.S. Anthony Alford has received an invite to Toronto’s big league spring camp for a second straight year, and this time the former Petal High star will be joined on the non-roster list by Mississippi State alum Chad Girodo. Alford is the Blue Jays’ No. 1 prospect and figures to play in Double-A this season. Girodo, a lefty reliever who reached Triple-A last summer, has a 2.30 ERA over three seasons and was a standout in the 2015 Arizona Fall League.

18 Dec

comin’ on strong

No surprise here: Anthony Alford, the former Petal High standout, has been ranked the No. 1 prospect in the Toronto organization by Baseball America. The magazine had previously named Alford the “best player” in the Blue Jays’ system in 2015. The 21-year-old outfielder is rated the Jays’ No. 2 prospect by mlb.com. Alford may wind up among the Top 50 prospects overall for 2016, according to BA’s John Manuel, who wrote in an online chat on the magazine’s web site: “If he’s not a big league regular in 2-3 years, I’ll be very surprised.” Alford played at two levels of Class A ball in 2015, his first full season in pro ball after giving up football. He batted .293 in low A and .302 in high A over 107 games, with four homers and 27 steals combined. He is a player to be excited about. … Stone County High alum D.J. Davis, also 21 and an outfielder, is rated Toronto’s No. 10 prospect by BA. Davis batted .282 with seven homers and 21 steals at low Class A Lansing last season.

20 Nov

fall guys

Ex-Mississippi State standout Chad Girodo made a good impression in the Arizona Fall League, which concluded its regular season slate on Thursday. Left-hander Girodo, a ninth-round pick by Toronto in 2013, didn’t give up an earned run until his sixth appearance and finished with a 1.80 ERA in seven games (10 innings) for Salt River. Girodo moved from A-ball to Triple-A in the Blue Jays’ system this past season. He posted a 1.32 ERA at Class A Dunedin and an 0.62 at Double-A New Hampshire before getting knocked around a bit in four appearances at Triple-A Buffalo. He has 163 strikeouts in 160 2/3 minor league innings. … Adam Frazier, another State alum and a Pittsburgh farmhand, hit .321 with three triples, four RBIs and six runs for Glendale before heading off to Asia for the Premier 12 tournament. … Before he was hit with a 50-game suspension (see previous post), Richton’s JaCoby Jones (Detroit) batted .280 with two homers, four RBIs and nine runs in 12 games for Scottsdale. Ole Miss product Stuart Turner, a catcher in Minnesota’s system, scuffled on that same Scottsdale club, hitting .171 in 12 games. Rehabbing big leaguer T.J. House (Cleveland) from Picayune pitched for Scottsdale and threw three scoreless innings. … Scottsdale plays Surprise in the AFL championship game on Saturday. Several Biloxi Shuckers alums are on the Surprise roster, including infielder Yadiel Rivera (.315) and starting pitcher Adrian Houser (2-2, 3.51 ERA). P.S. Atlanta added center fielder Mallex Smith and right-hander John Gant, both 2015 Mississippi Braves, to its 40-man roster on Thursday.

22 Oct

a bright spot

Considering the Chicago Cubs’ star-crossed relationship with the World Series – no titles since 1908, no appearances since 1945 – it’s more than a little ironic that one of the greatest single-game pitching performances in World Series history was delivered by a Cubs hurler. In Game 3 of the ’45 Series, Waynesboro native Claude Passeau threw a one-hit shutout against Detroit. Baseball Digest, in its September/October issue, rated it among the top 10 Series pitching feats of all-time, in the company of legendary games thrown by Don Larsen, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson. Passeau, who played at Moss Point High and Millsaps, faced just 28 batters in the 3-0 win at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium that gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead in the series. The Tigers lineup Passeau shut down included Hank Greenberg, Rudy York (who had the lone hit, a second-inning single), Doc Cramer and Meridian native Skeeter Webb. Passeau, a 162-game winner in a big league career that ended in 1947, also pitched well in his other Series start that year, departing in the seventh inning of Game 6 with a 5-3 lead. The Cubs won 8-7 in 12 innings, then lost Game 7 9-3 at Wrigley, still the last World Series game played at the Friendly Confines. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss standout Chris Coghlan, who had a good year with the Cubs (.250, 16 homers, 41 RBIs), didn’t produce in the postseason, going 1-for-12 overall, 0-for-7 in the National League Championship Series. Coghlan got one start against the New York Mets, in Game 2 at Citi Field on Sunday, and was robbed of a home run by Curtis Granderson. … A Butera is going to the 2015 World Series. Sal Butera, who managed the Jackson Generals to a Texas League championship in 1993, is a scout for Toronto and is currently in uniform as a coach. Son Drew is Kansas City’s backup catcher. The Royals lead the Blue Jays 3-2 in the American League Championship Series. Sal won a ring as a backup catcher with Minnesota in 1987.