Tag Archives: Braves

15 Apr

just stuff

As Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, here’s a tip of the cap to Luke Easter, the first black Mississippi native to play in an MLB game. The Jonestown native broke in with Cleveland on Aug. 11, 1949, at the age of 34. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound left-handed hitter belted 93 homers for the Indians over parts of six seasons. He also played in the Negro Leagues and in the minors for many years, hitting 351 homers all told, per baseball-reference.com. … The Columbus Clingstones, Atlanta’s Double-A team that previously played in Pearl, will make their home debut tonight at Synovus Park in Columbus, Ga. Quite a few familiar names populate the roster, including former Southern Miss and Mississippi Braves standout Landon Harper and M-Braves alum Craig Kimbrel, the erstwhile big league star who is launching his 2025 season in Double-A. … After a weak start this season, former DeSoto Central High standout Austin Riley is coming on strong for Atlanta. The M-Braves alum hit two homers in Monday’s win at Toronto and is batting .452 with eight RBIs and seven runs over his last seven games. … Jake Mangum, the rookie out of Jackson Prep and Mississippi State, went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs Monday for Tampa Bay, which saw every starter get at least one RBI and score at least one run in a 16-1 win against Boston. Mangum has cooled after his sizzling start but is still batting .311 over 13 games and making great plays in the outfield. … Hunter Renfroe, MSU alum from Crystal Springs, needs to step it up for Kansas City. He is batting .128 with no homers in 39 at-bats and is no longer playing regularly. A .236 career hitter with 192 bombs, the 33-year-old outfielder is coming off a poor year. … Ole Miss product Kemp Alderman, who had a two-homer game last week for Double-A Pensacola (Miami system), and ex-MSU star Khal Stephen, who had a nine-strikeout game for Low-Class A Dunedin (Toronto), were named to MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week. … Konnor Griffin got his first pro homer and triple in a game last week and continues to fill out the stat sheet for Low-A Bradenton (Pittsburgh). The ninth overall pick last summer from Jackson Prep, Griffin is batting .258 with six RBIs, seven runs and five steals. … Sad to see Justin Steele, the lefty from Lucedale, lost for the season to elbow surgery; he was 3-1 with a 4.76 ERA in four starts. That’s a blow for the first-place Chicago Cubs. Also going on the IL last week was Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes (oblique), who was batting .300 in 20 at-bats as Miami’s starting catcher. … Kudos to Will Warren, the Jackson Prep grad who notched his first MLB win in his eighth career start for the New York Yankees last week. The 25-year-old right-hander went five innings Saturday to beat red-hot San Francisco. … Ex-MSU star J.T. Ginn got his second MLB win Saturday in his 2025 debut as the A’s beat the Mets; Ginn was recalled from Triple-A that same day. … Former MSU standout Brandon Woodruff threw 3 2/3 innings for Triple-A Nashville on Saturday in his first rehab start as he aims to return to Milwaukee’s rotation. The righty from Wheeler is 46-26 in his MLB career; the Brewers sorely need him. … Ex-Madison Central star Spencer Turnbull, still unsigned for 2025, has been throwing for various teams, per reports. The veteran right-hander put up a 2.65 ERA in 54 1/3 innings for Philadelphia in 2024.

02 Apr

numbers to crunch

From April 1, no foolin’:
.636 — Jake Mangum’s batting average through three MLB games after a 3-for-4 effort in Tampa Bay’s 7-0 win Tuesday against Pittsburgh. Today, the Mississippi State product gets to face Paul Skenes.
5 — RBIs by both Nick Monistere and Ozzie Pratt in Southern Miss’ 13-6 win over Tulane.
5 — RBIs by Judd Utermark in Ole Miss’ 18-7 romp past Jackson State.
2 — RBIs by Owen Abney on a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning, putting Belhaven ahead in its 4-1 victory vs. Millsaps in the Maloney Trophy Series.
4 — Stolen bases by Hayden Redding in Blue Mountain Christian’s 7-6, 10-inning win at Williams Baptist. Redding leads NAIA in steals with 41 in 43 attempts.
0 — Hits allowed by K.K. Clark over five innings for Pearl River Community College in a 14-0, run-rule win against Meridian CC. No. 2-ranked PRCC swept the doubleheader to move to 31-5, 11-1 MACCC.
1 — Hit allowed by Will Warren over five innings for the New York Yankees, who blew a late lead and cost the ex-Jackson Prep star his first big league win.
10 — Strikeouts in 22 at-bats by former DeSoto Central High standout Austin Riley, reflective of Atlanta’s offensive woes in an 0-6 start.
7 — Strikeouts recorded over five innings by Hurston Waldrep, the Southern Miss alum who won his season debut for Triple-A Gwinnett in the Atlanta system.
90 — Career minor league homers by ex-MSU star Justin Foscue, who went deep for Triple-A Round Rock (Texas affiliate) in a win over Toledo.

30 Mar

worth noting

Mississippi State is in a lot of pain. The Bulldogs lost 17-8 Saturday night at LSU, which scored eight times in the first inning. State fell to 1-8 in the SEC and 16-12 overall. Six Bulldogs pitchers allowed 19 hits and seven walks. … Southern Miss is in a little pain. Closer Colby Allen blew a save, allowing four runs in three innings as South Alabama took a 6-3 victory at Taylor Park in Hattiesburg. Allen (3-2), who has six saves, saw his ERA jump to 2.73. USM is 19-8, 6-2 Sun Belt, heading into today’s rubber game vs. USA. … Former MSU star Jordan Westburg went 4-for-5 Saturday with two homers — one off Max Scherzer — two RBIs and three runs in Baltimore’s 9-5 win against Toronto. Westburg, batting .462 in three games, also homered on opening day. … Ex-MSU standout Nathaniel Lowe hit his first homer as a member of the Washington Nationals — the 90th of his MLB career. … USM alum Matt Wallner is 0-for-8 with a walk in his first two games as Minnesota’s leadoff batter; the Twins are 0-2. … Former Mississippi Braves star Drake Baldwin, now Atlanta’s starting catcher, got his first major league hit Saturday in the winless Braves’ loss at San Diego. … M-Braves alum Spencer Strider threw three innings (one run, six strikeouts) in a rehab start for Triple-A Gwinnett. … Mississippi Valley State’s Jace Jones put up an eight-RBI game in a win over Alcorn State on Friday. There were 80 runs scored in that three-game SWAC series, swept by the Delta Devils (8-10, 4-5) at Magnolia Field in Itta Bena. Alcorn fell to 4-19, 0-8. … In a matchup of top 10 NAIA teams, No. 3 Georgia-Gwinnett swept No. 8 William Carey 9-7 and 10-9 in a couple of wild affairs Friday at Hattiesburg. The Crusaders’ power-hitting lineup did not manage a home run in either game. … Here’s a name to know: Cannon Hensarling. The Ocean Springs senior went 7-for-11 with four RBIs and seven runs and threw a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts in three games last week, per an si.com piece. P.S. In the current issue of Sports Weekly, USA Today writers rank a top 100 Names to Know of rising stars based on their “anticipated impact” in MLB in 2025. Among the group are three Mississippi college products now in Triple-A: Ole Miss alum Doug Nikhazy (Cleveland), USM’s Hurston Waldrep (Atlanta) and UM’s Gunnar Hoglund (A’s).

28 Mar

cue the highlights

With one triple to his name over his first four big league seasons, Nick Fortes delivered a second three-bagger Thursday that helped Miami make a little history. The former Ole Miss catcher led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a triple off the center-field wall, and moments later Kyle Stowers knocked in pinch runner Javier Sanoja to give the Marlins their first opening day walk-off win, 5-4 over Pittsburgh. Fortes, whose defense is his real forte, sorta picked up where he left off in 2024, when he batted .290 after the All-Star break. His big hit was one of several highlights for Mississippians in the majors on opening day: Austin Riley, the ex-DeSoto Central High star, hit the first 2025 home run by a Magnolia State product, going yard for Atlanta in its 7-4 loss at San Diego. … Mississippi State alum Jordan Westburg smacked one of the six homers Baltimore hit in a 12-2 rout of Toronto. … After all those fireworks had settled, former Southern Miss star Nick Sandlin pitched a clean ninth inning in his Blue Jays debut. … Garrett Crochet, Ocean Springs High product, threw five innings (two runs, four strikeouts) in his Boston debut and got a no-decision in a game the Red Sox won late, 5-2, at Texas. … Ex-George County High standout Justin Steele allowed three runs in five innings, good enough to get the win for the Chicago Cubs in a 10-6 victory at Arizona. … Biloxi High alum Colt Keith had a chance to be a hero for Detroit but, with two on and two out in the ninth, fouled out against Blake Treinen, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 win in their home opener. Keith went 0-for-5. … A couple of lowlights: Brent Rooker, the former State slugger, went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts for the A’s in a 4-2 loss at Seattle, and East Central Community College product Tim Anderson went 0-for-4 with three punchouts in his Angels debut, an 8-1 loss to the White Sox, his original team.

27 Mar

appetizers

Fun facts about MLB’s Opening Day:
Garrett Crochet will make his second straight opening day start when he takes the bump for Boston against Texas. The Ocean Springs native started Game 1 for the Chicago White Sox last year and — perhaps foreshadowing the team’s dismal season — took a loss despite allowing just a lone run in six innings against Detroit, which won 1-0 behind Tarik Skubal. Incidentally, ex-Biloxi High star Colt Keith made his big league debut in that game and got his first hit off Crochet.
The record for consecutive opening day starts by a Mississippi native belongs to Roy Oswalt, the Weir High and Holmes Community College alum who made eight starts for Houston between 2003-10. The right-hander, who won 163 games in his stellar career, was in his third big league season when he got the Day 1 call for the Astros in 2003, and he beat Colorado, yielding one earned run in seven innings.
The record for highest on-base percentage all-time on opening day (at least 10 starts) is .500, according to mlb.com research. Ellisville native and Mississippi State alum Buddy Myer shares that mark with two others. Myer, a leadoff batter most of his career, played from 1925-41 and had a career .389 OBP, in the top 100 all-time.
The record for home runs on an opening day is three, and Vicksburg native Dmitri Young is among the four players to accomplish that feat. “Da Meat Hook” did it 20 years ago for Detroit; he went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs in an 11-2 victory against Kansas City. Young belted 171 career homers and hit two in a game six times.
The only opening day cycle in major league history belongs to Gee Walker, a Gulfport native and ex-Ole Miss star who pulled it off on April 20, 1937, for Detroit against Cleveland. He went 4-for-4 and scored twice in that game, a 4-3 win; he batted .294 in a 15-year career.
Two former Mississippi Braves standouts — Jordan Schafer and Jason Heyward — homered on opening day in their first career at-bat, both for Atlanta, Schafer in 2009 and Heyward in 2010. Schafer would hit only 11 more homers in a brief career. Heyward, still playing, has 184 bombs.
P.S. The Los Angeles Angels optioned Chuckie Robinson, ex-Southern Miss star, to Triple-A on Wednesday. Now in his third organization, the 30-year-old catcher, a good defensive player, has a career .132 average in 51 MLB games.

26 Mar

play ball!

A pair of Mississippi high school products will be on the mound as starting pitchers on Thursday, opening day for most of the major league clubs. Garrett Crochet, out of Ocean Springs, will go for Boston — in his Red Sox debut — at Texas and Justin Steele, ex-George County standout, gets the ball for the Chicago Cubs at Arizona. Steele is 0-1, having lost in the Cubs’ second game in Japan last week. There are state connections in just about every game. Austin Riley is back at third base for Atlanta, which opens at San Diego. Hunter Renfroe likely will be in the lineup for Kansas City against visiting Cleveland. Baltimore, with Jordan Westburg at third base, visits Toronto, where Nick Sandlin now works out of the bullpen. There’s Chris Stratton with the Royals, Brent Rooker with the A’s, Matt Wallner with Minnesota, Colt Keith with Detroit, Will Warren with the New York Yankees, Nick Fortes with Miami. Adam Frazier is back with Pittsburgh after side trips to San Diego, Seattle, Baltimore and Kansas City. Thursday will bring the Washington debut of Nathaniel Lowe when the Nationals host Philadelphia. Tim Anderson, who made the Los Angeles Angels’ club as a non-roster invitee, returns to Chicago, where he was once a batting champ for the White Sox. Marcus Thames is the hitting coach for the White Sox and Bobby Dickerson the infield coach for the Phillies. Brandon Woodruff (Milwaukee), James McArthur (Kansas City) and J.P. France (Houston) will start the season on the injured list. … Of note: Four former Biloxi Shuckers, including the starting pitcher, and a former Mississippi Braves star are expected to be in Milwaukee’s Day 1 lineup, and four former M-Braves and one ex-Shuckers star are projected as starters for Atlanta. (And Ronald Acuna could return to Atlanta’s active roster by late April.) P.S. Ole Miss alum and MLB veteran Drew Pomeranz, 36, was released by Seattle. He was in camp as a non-roster invitee and posted a 4.70 ERA in eight games. … Ex-Rebels star Hayden Dunhurst, a 24-year-old catcher from Carriere, has re-signed with Kane County of the independent American Association.

16 Mar

good vibes

Atlanta Braves fans breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday when Austin Riley returned to the lineup following a worrisome HBP the day before. “We dodged a bullet,” the former DeSoto Central High star told reporters after an impressive display in batting practice. Riley was hit in the right hand and left Friday’s game, but he returned Saturday to play third base and hang out a 1-for-3 in a 4-0 loss against Minnesota. Riley missed several weeks at the end of last season with a broken right hand. He is hitting .310 with a homer this spring. A two-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger winner, he enters 2025 with a .272 career average and 153 bombs. … In that same Saturday game, former Southern Miss standout Matt Wallner went 1-for-3 with his 13th RBI of the spring for Minnesota. Wallner, batting leadoff (see previous post), is tied for second in MLB spring training stats in both RBIs and homers (five). He hit two on Friday. He’ll enter the new season with 29 career bombs in 169 games. … Elsewhere, Tanner Hall, the 2022 Ferriss Trophy winner from USM, started and threw two scoreless innings for the Twins’ Spring Breakout team. Hall, a fourth-round draft pick in 2023, went 4-3 with a 5.40 ERA in A-ball in his pro debut last season. He was 22-8 with a 2.92 in three years in Hattiesburg. Hall is not listed among the Twins’ Top 30 prospects. … Ole Miss alum Doug Nikhazy, Cleveland’s 22nd-ranked prospect, was optioned to Triple-A. He had a (misleading) 7.27 ERA in four spring appearances and impressed Guardians staff, who reportedly want him to build up innings in the minors.

03 Mar

next man up

Perhaps sooner than expected, Drake Baldwin — Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect — will join the lengthy list of former Mississippi Braves catchers to reach the majors. The injury to starting catcher Sean Murphy that will sideline him at the start of the 2025 season opens the door for Baldwin to make Atlanta’s opening day roster. In camp as a non-roster invitee, Baldwin is 4-for-12 with two RBIs in Grapefruit League games. At age 23, he already has impressive seasoning. A former third-round pick from Missouri State, the lefty slugger hit .244 with four homers in 52 games for the Double-A M-Braves in 2024 before finishing the season at Triple-A, where he belted 12 more bombs. He batted .377 in a brief stint in the Arizona Fall League and then played for Team USA in the World Baseball Premier 12 tournament. Since Brian McCann jumped to the big leagues from Mississippi in 2005, 10 other M-Braves catchers have made the climb, including Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Christian Bethancourt, William Contreras, Shea Langeliers, Alex Jackson, Willians Astudillo, Clint Sammons and Jesus Sucre.

03 Mar

weekend wrap

Riding a nine-game win streak, Ole Miss (10-1) has jumped in at No. 19 in the new Baseball America poll released today. Oxford’s Swayze Field was the wrong place for Wright State over the weekend. The Rebels swept three from their visitors, including a 7-3 win Sunday that featured some sparkling relief work from Mason Morris. The junior from Tupelo threw three hitless innings to get his second career win. Ole Miss, 8-0 at home, plays its next five games in Oxford. … For Southern Miss, which cracked the BA poll at No. 24, Matthew Russo hit two homers and drove in five runs to lead the Golden Eagles to an 11-3 win in Sunday’s rubber game at TCU. The Golden Eagles, crushed by Ole Miss last week, will take a 9-3 record into Tuesday’s intrastate clash at Mississippi State. … The Bulldogs (7-4) lost two of three in the Astros Foundation College Classic in Houston over the weekend and tumbled from No. 15 to No. 22 in BA’s rankings. … Jackson State (9-2 with five straight W’s) overwhelmed rival Alcorn State 43-10 in a non-conference series sweep at Smith-Wills Stadium. JSU’s Jordan McCladdie went 8-for-10 with nine runs in the series, and Joseph Eichelberger had a five-hit, five-RBI game on Saturday. … Alcorn, under new coach Carlton Hardy, fell to 0-9. … Mississippi College (9-8, 5-4 Gulf South) moved over .500 with a doubleheader sweep at Union (Tenn.) on Saturday. In the 10-1 win in Game 2, cousins Blake Gollott (2-0) and Coby Gollott (first save), both from the Coast, combined on a three-hitter. … Amari Conley, Holmes Community College’s leadoff batter from Grenada, is hitting .417 with 27 runs, 16 RBIs and 14 steals for the 16-3 Bulldogs, who’ve won nine in a row. P.S. In MLB, Austin Riley, the ex-DeSoto Central High and Mississippi Braves star, blasted his first home run of the spring in Atlanta’s win over the New York Yankees in the Grapefruit League. Off to a slow start this spring after missing the last month and a half of the 2024 season (broken hand), Riley had two hits Sunday and is batting .214 in 14 at-bats. … Former Jackson Prep standout Konnor Griffin, rated the top power prospect in Pittsburgh’s system by MLB Pipeline, hit his first spring bomb on Saturday. (Note: He is also very fast.) The 2024 first-round pick is 2-for-7 in five Grapefruit games and has played exclusively in center field. … Ole Miss product Doug Nikhazy, now on Cleveland’s big league roster, has been impressive this spring, throwing four scoreless innings with four punchouts in Cactus League play. … Ex-Biloxi High star Colt Keith, a breakout rookie with Detroit in 2024, was a guest on MLB Network’s Hot Stove today and talked about his move to first base, dealing with the highs and lows of an MLB season and his Star Wars-themed Bobblehead Night coming on May 9. (He said he’s never watched any Star Wars movies.)

26 Feb

moments in the sun

A week into MLB spring training games, a bunch of Mississippi products have enjoyed noteworthy moments. To wit: Cooper Pratt (Milwaukee) has had the best day so far, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs in a Cactus League game on Tuesday. … Konnor Griffin (Pittsburgh) got an RBI knock last week in his first at-bat as a pro player. … Tim Elko (Chicago White Sox) homered in his first AB, repeating his feat from 2024. … Will Warren (New York Yankees) threw two shutout innings. … Tyler Stuart (Washington) notched a win in his spring debut. … Braden Montgomery (White Sox) got a hit in his first pro game. … Dakota Jordan (San Francisco), another rookie, doubled in his first spring appearance. … Matt Wallner (Minnesota) hit a two-run, game-tying bomb. … Drew Pomeranz (Seattle), on the comeback trail, picked up a hold in his second scoreless outing. … Hurston Waldrep (Atlanta) threw a scoreless inning in his first outing but, alas, was sent to the minor league camp shortly thereafter.