Tag Archives: Braves

24 Jul

off to a good start

Will Verdung hit 25 home runs in two seasons at Itawamba Community College, tying former Indians slugger Tyreque Reed for the most in program history. So maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise what Verdung did in his first at-bat in pro ball. The Corinth native hit a three-run homer today for the Florida Complex League Braves, Atlanta’s rookie-level affiliate. Verdung finished 1-for-3 against the FCL Orioles in Sarasota. Verdung, the MACCC’s player of the year for 2023, was drafted in the 13th round by the Braves earlier this month. A 6-foot-1, 185-pound third baseman, Verdung batted .389 with 15 homers and 65 RBIs this season and was a second-team NJCAA Division II All-America pick. He had signed with Southern Miss. … USM alum Hurston Waldrep, Atlanta’s first-round pick out of Florida, has yet to make his pro debut. More Braves stuff: Kudos to Mississippi Braves alum Daysbel Hernandez for picking up the win for Atlanta on Sunday against Milawukee. Hernandez struck out the side in his one inning of relief work. … Kudos to current M-Braves lefty Luis De Avila for being named Southern League pitcher of the week after tossing six no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts at Tennessee on Sunday. De Avila, 5-5, 3.04 ERA, has a current streak off 11 no-hit innings. … Atlanta traded prospects Victor Vodnik and Tanner Gordon, both of whom were on the M-Braves’ roster, to Colorado for major league reliever Pierce Johnson.

23 Jul

all in the family

Allan Winans, another in the long line of former Mississippi Braves pitchers to crash the big leagues, seemed well on his way to earning a win in his debut Saturday when Sal Frelick, a Biloxi Shuckers alum also making his MLB debut, intervened and stole the show. Frelick went 3-for-3, drove in the tying and go-ahead runs and made two great catches in right field as Milwaukee beat visiting Atlanta 4-3 in a riveting game between the parent clubs of Mississippi’s Double-A teams. Frelick, 23, who hit .317 for Biloxi last year, was asked postgame what he had imagined his debut would be like. “I think this blew it out of the water,” he said in an espn.com story. The game between the two first-place clubs, played before 39,707 at American Family Field, ended with former Shuckers star Devin Williams striking out ex-M-Braves star Ozzie Albies with the bases loaded for his 25th save. Austin Riley, another M-Braves alum, gave the Braves a 3-0 lead by homering for the fifth straight game, his 22nd blast of the year coming in the first inning against Shuckers alum Adrian Houser, who struck out 10 Braves in his six innings. Winans, 27, who went 1-4 despite a 2.44 ERA in eight starts for the ’22 M-Braves, carried the lead into the fifth. He gave up three hits and a couple of runs in that frame — Frelick led off with a single and came around to score — and departed after 4 1/3. Frelick’s third hit of the game was a one-out single in the sixth off Michael Tonkin that tied the score 3-3. In the bottom of the eighth, Frelick’s line drive sac fly to right field plated the go-ahead run. Willy Adames scored just ahead of the bounced throw from former M-Braves star Ronald Acuna. The rubber game of the series today features M-Braves alum Bryce Elder on the bump for Atlanta against another ex-M-Braves star, Julio Teheran, now in his first season with Milwaukee. Of note: Former Mississippi State star — and Shuckers alum — Brandon Woodruff made a rehab start in A-ball on Saturday and appears close to returning to the Brewers’ rotation. He had a 0.79 ERA in two starts before going on the injured list in April.

22 Jul

three stars

Austin Riley: The ex-DeSoto Central High star smacked his fifth home run in four games, powering Atlanta to a 6-4 win Friday against Milwaukee in a matchup of first-place teams. Riley has 21 homers and 58 RBIs on the season and is batting .321 with 14 RBIs and nine runs in his last seven games. “I want to go out there and do my job as the third hitter, which is to drive in runs and do damage,” Riley told mlb.com.
Nathaniel Lowe: The former Mississippi State standout hit a two-run homer that put Texas ahead in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who rallied to win 11-5 in another matchup of first-place teams. Texas had won six straight. Lowe, who also walked twice and scored another run for the Rangers, is hitting .440 with two homers, five RBIs and nine runs in his last seven games. He’s at .281 with 11 homers on the season.
Justin Steele: The George County High product notched his 10th win of the season — and third against rival St. Louis — as the Chicago Cubs won 4-3 in a matchup of National League also-rans. Steele, bouncing back from a rough outing, yielded one run in 6 1/3 innings and struck out a season-high nine. The All-Star left-hander is 10-3 with a 2.95 ERA on the year.
P.S. Ole Miss alum Lance Lynn, reportedly a coveted trade piece, allowed four home runs in the Chicago White Sox’s 9-4 loss to first-place Minnesota. Lynn is 6-9 with a 6.18 ERA and has surrendered an MLB-high 28 homers. … Kemp Alderman, the 2023 Ferriss Trophy winner out of Ole Miss, has signed for $1.4 million with Miami, which drafted him in the second round. Other newly reported signees include Magnolia Heights’ Cooper Pratt (Milwaukee), Southern Miss’ Matthew Etzel (Baltimore) and Itawamba Community College’s Will Verdung (Atlanta). Of the 14 players drafted out of the state, only Tupelo High’s Johnathan Rogers, 20th-round pick by Detroit, is unsigned, per mlb.com. Former Pearl River CC star Bryson Ware, who played at Auburn, has signed with Philadelphia, and Hinds CC alum Landon Tompkins, a Louisiana Tech alum, signed with Pittsburgh. … Mississippi Valley State will name CJ Bilbrey as its new head coach, according to blackcollegenines.com. Bilbrey will replace Milton Barney Jr., who went 15-36 in his one season. Barney replaced Stanley Stubbs, who coached one season after replacing Aaron Stevens.

19 Jul

random numbers

7 — Austin Riley’s career-high RBI total from Tuesday night’s game, which Atlanta lost 16-13 at home to Arizona. DeSoto Central High product Riley hit two home runs — both go-ahead bombs — and now has 18 on the year with 52 RBIs.
3 — Hits by Tim Anderson in the Chicago White Sox’s 11-10 loss to the New York Mets. The ex-East Central Community College standout might finally be heating up. With seven hits in his last four games, he has lifted his average to .234. (He did, however, make the last out of the game with the go-ahead run at second base.)
197 — Total runs scored in MLB games on Tuesday, a season-high; there were four games in which both teams scored double-digits, a modern era record. Riley scored three of those runs, Anderson two and Nathaniel Lowe, Mississippi State alum now with Texas, scored once. No other Mississippians contributed a run.
1.54 — Tyler Stuart’s ERA, which — as of Tuesday a.m. — led all qualified minor leaguers, per mlb.com. The ex-Southern Miss star, a 2022 draftee by the Mets, was 4-0, 1.55, at High-Class A Brooklyn and allowed one run in six innings in his Double-A debut for Binghamton last Saturday. The 6-foot-9 Stuart pitched mostly in relief in two seasons at USM. The Mets made him a starter this spring. “I feel like I get better as the game goes on,” he said in an mlb.com piece.
8 — Wins by Derek Diamond, the former Ole Miss standout now at Low-A Bradenton in Pittsburgh’s system. The right-hander, a 2022 draftee, threw seven innings on Tuesday, allowing four hits, a walk and a lone run to beat Fort Myers 5-2. He is 8-3 with a 3.98.
6 — Appearances in the Florida Complex League by Colby White, who is on a rehab assignment with Tampa Bay. White, an ex-MSU star, blew through four levels of the minors in 2021 (4-3, 11 saves, 1.44 ERA all told) and went to spring training with the Rays in 2022 before an arm injury cost him the entire year. He has a 1.59 ERA in the FCL this season and may be close to making his big league debut.
16 — Number of 2023 Pearl River Community College players bound for four-year schools this fall. It’s a program record, according to a release from the school. Of note: Gabe Broadus and Landen Payne are USM signees, Will Passeau is off to MSU, Tristan Hickman to Delta State, Blaise Breerwood to Mississippi College, Bobby Magee to William Carey and Alex Perry to Tennessee. PRCC won the NJCAA Division II national title in 2022 and was the preseason No. 1 this year.

18 Jul

starting point

Ex-Ole Miss star Jacob Gonzalez, the first player drafted out of the state this year, has signed with the Chicago White Sox and will soon begin the journey toward the big leagues. There is no roadmap, no timetable, no guarantee that he’ll even make it that far. That’s how it works. Only the fittest survive. Over the last 10 years, going back to 2014, the experiences of the top picks from the state each year have been quite varied. Blake Anderson, a catcher at West Lauderdale High, was a surprise pick at 36th overall in 2014 by the Marlins. The Southern Miss signee never made it out of A-ball, even after a conversion to pitcher. Four of the five top picks between 2015 and ’19 have reached The Show, and two of them — Austin Riley and Brent Rooker — were All-Stars this year. Riley, drafted 41st overall out of DeSoto Central by Atlanta in 2015, rose rather smoothly in the Braves’ system, made a splash as a rookie in 2019, took a brief step back to the minors but has been a fixture at third base — a legit star — since 2020. Rooker’s path was much more winding. The 35th overall selection out of Mississippi State by Minnesota in 2017, he is now with Oakland — his fourth organization. He has put up some nice stats this season but still is not playing everyday. Dakota Hudson was the 34th overall pick out of MSU by St. Louis in 2016. He reached the big leagues in 2018, won 16 games in 2019, had arm surgery in 2020 and has been inconsistent ever since. He is currently with the Cardinals after starting the year in Triple-A and picked up a win with 3 1/3 shutout innings in relief on Saturday. Ethan Small, 28th overall pick out of MSU by Milwaukee in 2019, has made three wobbly MLB appearances over the last two seasons and appears stuck in Triple-A. Ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison was the 22nd overall selection by Colorado in 2018. The left-hander (12-13, 4.56 ERA, in his minor league career) has been beset by injuries and is currently on the 60-day injured list at Triple-A. The first pick in 2020 was MSU’s Justin Foscue, 14th overall by Texas. The infielder is in Triple-A, playing well, and is the Rangers’ No. 6 prospect. He’ll get there soon. The first pick in 2021 was MSU College World Series star Will Bednar, taken 14th by San Francisco. Stalled by injuries, he has made just 20 appearances in the minors and currently is on the IL. Ex-Bulldogs standout Landon Sims was coming off Tommy John surgery when he was drafted 34th overall last July by Arizona. He has pitched in six games this season, all in the rookie Arizona Complex League, where he might soon cross paths with UM alum Gonzalez, both at the starting point of an uncertain journey. P.S. Other 2023 draftees from Mississippi schools who have signed include Colton Ledbetter with Tampa Bay, Calvin Harris with the White Sox and Justin Storm with Miami. Atlanta has signed first-rounder Hurston Waldrep, a USM alum who pitched at Florida in 2023. … MSU’s Hunter Hines has been selected to the Cape Cod League All-Star Game, to be played Saturday in Norwich, Conn. Hines leads the CCBL in homers (nine) and RBIs (34) and is batting .274 for Yarmouth-Dennis.

16 Jul

you never know

On paper, based on practically all the relevant stats, this should not have happened. Lance Lynn and the Chicago White Sox should not have beaten Spencer Strider and the Atlanta Braves. But it happened on Saturday night at Truist Park in Atlanta. Over the course of 162 games, games like this do happen, which is one of the joys of baseball. The White Sox, 38-55 after a 9-0 loss on Friday, beat the Braves (61-29, best record in MLB) in a roller coaster affair, 6-5. Former Ole Miss star Lynn, 5-8 with a 6.03 ERA going in, got the win against All-Star Strider, 11-2 with a 3.44. Both threw 97 pitches in the Georgia swelter, and neither was particularly sharp. Ex-Mississippi State standout Kendall Graveman got the save, his eighth as the fill-in closer, but not before giving up a home run to Ronald Acuna leading off the ninth that made it a one-run game. Graveman gave up two more hits before getting a ground ball up the middle that East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, who has had his issues at shortstop, turned into a nifty 6-3 double play to end the game. Lynn worked 5 1/3 innings, yielding six hits, three walks and four runs. He gave up two homers; his season total of 24 is the highest in baseball. He struck out six and has 133 on the year, ranking sixth in MLB. The last run Lynn allowed came on a fifth-inning single by DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley that tied the score 4-4. Strider, who fanned 10 on Saturday, leads MLB in that category with 176. But he allowed eight hits — several on two-strike pitches — and five runs over six innings. The ChiSox took the lead for the third and final time on a two-out, two-strike homer by Jake Burger off Strider in the sixth. Strider has allowed 14 homers. The teams go at it again today. On paper, the Braves should win. But as Saturday showed, you never know. P.S. Ex-DeSoto Central star Blaze Jordan’s first Double-A homer was a big one. His two-run ninth-inning blast gave Portland a 3-2 win at Reading in the Eastern League contest. Jordan was promoted Friday from High-Class A Greenville in the Boston system. … Minnesota recalled former Southern Miss slugger Matt Wallner from Triple-A on Saturday; he did not play in the Twins’ 10-7 win vs. Oakland. Wallner, who made his MLB debut in 2022, was 7-for-19 with a homer and four RBIs in two previous stints this season with the Twins.

15 Jul

enter the fray

The All-Mississippi Home Run Derby competition should be fun to watch down the stretch of the 2023 season. Austin Riley and Brent Rooker — a pair of All-Stars — lead the way with 16 home runs each, topping Hunter Renfroe by one. Suddenly, on Friday, a rather unexpected contender threw his hat in the ring with those heavyweights. Former Mississippi State star Adam Frazier hit two homers for Baltimore in a 5-2 win over Miami. It was the first multi-homer game for Frazier in his eight MLB seasons and gave him 12 for the year, bettering his career-high by two. The lefty-hitting infielder hit 10 homers in 2018 and ’19 when he was with Pittsburgh. The Orioles signed him as a free agent in the off-season to add some veteran presence to their young roster. The power Frazier has supplied has been a bonus for the O’s, who have won six straight to reach 55-35, second in the American League East. “Yeah, it’s surprising,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde told mlb.com about Frazier’s power production. “(I)t’s been huge for us.” Frazier is batting .240 with 44 RBIs and 41 runs. … Riley, the DeSoto Central High product, led all Mississippians in the majors (natives or school alums) with 38 homers in 2022. He is off that pace this season, but a sudden surge would not be a surprise. MSU alum Renfroe hit 29 last season, two more than fellow former Bulldogs standout Nathaniel Lowe. Lowe is sitting on 10 at present. P.S. Former DeSoto Central slugger Blaze Jordan went 0-for-3 with a walk in his Double-A debut Friday for Portland in the Boston system. Jordan, 20, had 12 homers in A-ball this season and 30 total in his two-plus pro seasons.

12 Jul

seeing is believing

Numbers can be deceiving. Some of the newfangled defensive metrics paint Austin Riley as a sub-par third baseman. Regular followers of the Atlanta Braves know this ain’t so. Anyone who watched Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in Seattle also got an eyeful of the type of plays Riley makes routinely for the Braves. In the fifth inning, having just entered the game, the ex-DeSoto Central High star charged in, fielded a grounder with one hand and threw out the batter. In the bottom of the eighth, after the National League had taken the lead, Riley speared a 106.2 mph line drive off the bat of Brent Rooker and, from one knee, threw across to first to double off a runner. Both were key plays in the NL’s 3-2 win, which snapped a nine-game losing streak in the Midsummer Classic. Riley also went 1-for-2 at the plate and is 2-for-4 in his two All-Star appearances. Justin Steele, the lefty from Lucedale, pitched a scoreless inning for the NL in his All-Star debut; he was on the bump when Riley made the first of his two glittering plays. Former Mississippi State star Rooker, also an All-Star rookie, went 1-for-2 for the American League; his sixth-inning double was a big hit in the inning in which the AL took a 2-1 lead. P.S. On the final day of the MLB draft, three more players from state schools were selected: The Braves took Itawamba Community College third baseman Will Verdung — the MACCC’s player of the year — in the 13th round; Detroit took Tupelo High right-hander Johnathan Rogers in the 20th round; and the New York Mets plucked MSU’s Kellum Clark in Round 20. In all, 14 players were drafted out of Mississippi, four each from Ole Miss and Southern Miss. Worth noting: Landon Tomkins, a former Hinds CC and Northwest Rankin pitcher, was drafted in Round 10 out of Louisiana Tech by Pittsburgh. … Today marks the 50th anniversary of Dave Parker’s MLB debut with the Pirates. The Grenada native went 0-for-4 that day but went on to bat .290 with 339 homers in a 19-year career that included an MVP award, two World Series rings, two batting titles, seven All-Star nods, three Gold Gloves and a Home Run Derby crown.

11 Jul

down memory lane

There are 12 — count ’em, 12 — players in Seattle for tonight’s MLB All-Star Game who did minor league time with one of Mississippi’s two Double-A clubs. Four will not participate for various reasons, but there are three in the National League starting lineup: Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman and Orlando Arcia. On the bench for the NL are Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies and in the bullpen Craig Kimbrel, Josh Hader and Corbin Burnes. Selected for the game but sitting this one out are Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder, Dansby Swanson and Devin Williams. Acuna, Arcia, Riley, Albies, Strider and Elder are among the eight Atlanta players named to the NL team.
Here’s a quick trip down the Mississippi memory lane: Freeman, now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, arrived in Mississippi — along with Jason Heyward — on July 4, 2009. Bugged by some injury issues, he hit .248 with two homers and 24 RBIs in 41 games for the M-Braves. Acuna’s stint in Pearl was a bit more spectacular: He homered on the first pitch he saw at Trustmark Park in 2017 and hit eight more in 57 games, batting .326 and swiping 14 bases. Arcia was Milwaukee’s No. 1 prospect when he played in Biloxi in 2015; he spent the entire year with the Shuckers and hit .307. Riley, the former DeSoto Central High star, played parts of two years (2017 and ’18) with the M-Braves and hit over .300 with 14 homers in 75 games all told. Albies arrived in Pearl in 2016 (as a shortstop) and in 82 games hit .321 with four homers and 33 RBIs. Swanson, now with the Chicago Cubs, came up midway through the 2016 season, took over at shortstop and batted .261 with eight homers in 81 games for the M-Braves before Atlanta called him up that August. Strider and Elder both pitched for the ’21 M-Braves, who won the league championship. Strider went 3-7 with a 4.71 ERA but fanned 94 batters in 63 innings. Elder was 7-1 with a 3.21. Kimbrel, now with Philadelphia, blew through Pearl late in the 2009 season, going 6-for-6 in save opps with an 0.77 ERA in 12 games. Hader, now with San Diego, pitched for Biloxi — as a starter — in 2015 and ’16; in the latter season, he posted an 0.95 ERA in 11 games. Burnes, a Milwaukee starter, went 3-3, 2.10, for the Shuckers in 2017, and Williams, now the Brewers’ closer, toiled in Biloxi in 2019, going 7-2 with four saves and a 2.36 ERA in 31 appearances.
P.S. In addition to Riley, two other Magnolia State school alums are in Seattle. Brent Rooker, who has 16 homers for Oakland, is Mississippi State’s 12th All-Star selection. Lucedale native and George County High product Justin Steele, 9-2, 2.56 ERA, for the Cubs, was strongly considered for the starting job that went to Zac Gallen. The only Mississippi native to start an All-Star Game is Claude Passeau, who did so in 1946 while with the Cubs. He took the loss at Fenway Park. Passeau, born in Waynesboro, is buried in Lucedale.

11 Jul

feeling a draft

Day 2 of the MLB draft saw eight players from Mississippi selected, joining the three picked during Rounds 1-2 on Sunday. Four from Southern Miss were picked: Tanner Hall (fourth round, Minnesota), Justin Storm (seventh, Miami), Dustin Dickerson (eighth, Kansas City) and Matthew Etzel (10th, Baltimore). Calvin Harris (fourth, Chicago White Sox) and Jack Dougherty (ninth, Minnesota) were plucked from Ole Miss, and Cade Smith (sixth, New York Yankees) from Mississippi State. Cooper Pratt, Magnolia Heights Academy grad, is the lone high school player drafted to date (sixth, Milwaukee). Former Germantown High and Pearl River Community College star Bryson Ware was picked in the eighth round out of Auburn by Philadelphia. Rounds 11-20 are today. … On Sunday, Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez was the 15th overall selection by the White Sox. Rebels outfielder Kemp Alderman (second, Miami) and MSU outfielder Colton Ledbetter (second, Tampa Bay) also were picked on Sunday. Hurston Waldrep, who pitched at USM in 2022 and at Florida this past season, went to Atlanta in the first round, 24th overall.