Tag Archives: Braves

04 Jul

eye on …

Hunter Hines essentially has taken the Cape Cod League by storm. The Mississippi State star leads the elite college summer league with eight home runs, five more than the next-closest total, and 26 RBIs, 11 more than the next-highest number. Through 20 games for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, the lefty-hitting outfielder, who goes 6 feet 4, 220 pounds, is batting .289 with 14 runs. Facing some of the top college arms in the country, Hines has picked up right where he left off at State. He hit .297 with 22 homers and 61 RBIs, made All-SEC and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist as a sophomore in 2023. As a freshman, he hit .300 with 16 bombs and 52 RBIs. “From his first BP (batting practice) until now, he’s been the best hitter in our program,” State coach Chris Lemonis said at the Ferriss Trophy ceremony. Hines was a highly touted recruit coming out of Madison Central High in 2021, overshadowed a bit by teammate Braden Montgomery, who took Gatorade player of the year honors. Hines comes by his talent naturally, of course. His father, Richey, was a tremendous hitter at Mississippi College, where he still holds school records for career homers and RBIs. P.S. A raw box score doesn’t always tell the story. Hunter Renfroe went 2-for-5 for the Los Angeles Angels on Monday, boosting his average to .248. But the ex-MSU standout most certainly didn’t feel good about his game. The Angels stranded 14 runners in a 10-3 loss to San Diego. Renfroe personally left eight runners on base, twice striking out in early run-scoring situations. As a team, the Angels are batting just .246 with runners in scoring position, one of the worst averages in baseball. … Kudos to Ole Miss product Nick Fortes, whose clutch hit delivered the go-ahead run in the seventh inning of Miami’s 5-4 win against St. Louis. The second-place Marlins managed to stay within 9 games of red-hot Atlanta, which has won nine in a row, in the National League East.

02 Jul

short but sweet?

Dakota Hudson, the former Mississippi State ace, was back in the big leagues on Saturday and looked as if he belongs. Recalled from Triple-A by St. Louis as the 27th man for a doubleheader, Hudson retired eight of the nine batters he faced in a scoreless relief outing in Game 2 against the New York Yankees. Whether Hudson might have earned a longer stay with the last-place Cardinals remains to be seen. The former first-round draft pick was sent to the minors in spring training and has been inconsistent at Memphis, posting a 5-4 record with a 6.00 ERA and missing a month with a neck injury. Hudson went 32-17, 3.61, for the Cards from 2018-22 following his first call-up. After missing most of 2021 due to Tommy John surgery, he was 8-7, 4.45, in 26 starts in ’22. His velocity reportedly was down this spring, and he lost his bid for a rotation spot. Note: The Cardinals lost Game 2 of the twinbill 6-2 as starter Matthew Liberatore (1-3, 5.68 ERA) allowed three early runs and ex-State star Chris Stratton, who replaced Hudson in the eighth inning, yielded three runs in the ninth. Stratton’s ERA rose to 4.73. P.S. An impressive display of power and speed carried the Mississippi Braves to an 11-5 win at Biloxi on Saturday. The Double-A M-Braves (2-2 in the second half) hit five homers and stole eight bases. Jesse Franklin V — Atlanta’s No. 13 prospect — hit three bombs and now has nine in 35 games. Prospects Tyler Tolve and Luke Waddell also went deep. Justin Dean stole a club-record four bags and now has 19 in 41 games for Mississippi.

01 Jul

bravissimo

Before the curtain fell on June, a handful of Mississippians delivered performances worthy of raucous applause. Bidding for a spot on the National League All-Star team, Justin Steele — the lefty from Lucedale — pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings for the Chicago Cubs in a 10-1 win Friday against Cleveland. Steele is 9-2 with a 2.43 ERA, tied for second-most wins in the NL and tops in ERA. He should be in Seattle, for sure. … Austin Riley, the slugger from Southaven, went 3-for-5 with his 15th home run in Atlanta’s 16-4 demolition of Miami, its closest pursuer in the NL East. Riley, batting .270 with 43 RBIs, 55 runs and a .459 slugging percentage, was a finalist at third base in the All-Star voting and deserves a spot on the roster as a reserve. It would also be great to see him in the Home Run Derby. … Down in the minors, ex-Southern Miss star Matt Wallner continues to build his case for a return to the big leagues with Minnesota. He went 3-for-5 with a single, double and triple for Triple-A St. Paul a day after hitting two home runs for the Saints. He is at .307 with 11 homers and 42 RBIs. Sent down on May 29 — despite getting seven hits in a four-game stretch for the Twins — Wallner hit .320 with five bombs in June for St. Paul. … Colt Keith, the former Biloxi High star, hit a 473-foot home run for Triple-A Toledo and is 7-for-13 in three games since Detroit promoted him from Double-A. The 21-year-old lefty-hitting third baseman is ticketed to play in the All-Star Futures Game on July 8 in Seattle. … Ex-Mississippi State standout Hunter Stovall, quietly having a nice year for Triple-A Albuquerque, delivered a walk-off hit for the Isotopes in a 4-3 win against El Paso. Stovall, a sixth-year pro, is batting .281 with six homers and 26 RBIs for Colorado’s top farm club. … In Low-Class A, former South Panola High standout Emaarion Boyd went 2-for-4 with three runs, two walks and a stolen base — his 39th of the year — in a win for Clearwater. The Philadelphia prospect is batting .276 (.400 OBP) with 46 runs in 52 games in his first full pro season.

28 Jun

a clean start (sorta)

The do-over starts tonight for the Mississippi Braves, who play Biloxi at MGM Park. With the start of the second half of the Southern League season, the team’s record is wiped clean. Considering that the M-Braves finished last in the South Division at 33-35, that’s a good thing. The Shuckers went 34-35, so the do-over is welcome there, too. Unfortunately for many of the M-Braves players, their individual numbers will follow them into the second half. But perhaps they’ll feel like they’re getting a fresh start, a feeling Alan Rangel — tonight’s starting pitcher — would welcome. The right-hander is 1-7 with a 4.91 ERA. He’s better than those numbers. The Mexico native, 25, is on his third tour with the Double-A M-Braves. He was the winning pitcher in the deciding game of the 2021 Double-A South championship series. He made it to Triple-A in 2022 and, for a brief time last September, was in the big leagues, though he never got into a game. He’ll make his 13th start of 2023 tonight against Biloxi, hoping to notch his first win since May 14. He’ll also be hoping that the M-Braves’ bats perk up against the Shuckers’ Carlos F. Rodriguez, 4-2, 3.02. After making a long climb to get over .500, the M-Braves finished the first half with a whimper, losing their last three and scoring a total of four runs. They’ve had two days off to recharge. Drew Lugbauer, batting .271 with 12 homers, is expected back in the lineup after a stint on the injured list. Landon Stephens, despite a .220 average, has emerged as a power threat with 13 homers. But the top Atlanta prospects on the roster have scuffled: Jesse Franklin V is at .214, Cal Conley at .221 and Tyler Tolve at .247. The M-Braves are next-to-last in the league in runs, first in ERA. In the first half, that was not a winning formula. As of right now, they are 0-0.

23 Jun

there’s a sizzle in cincy

The Atlanta Braves are coming to town this weekend, and Cincinnati — if not all of baseball — is abuzz with anticipation. “You can’t get a ticket, I’ll tell you that,” Reds broadcaster Jeff Brantley, the former Mississippi State star, said in a phone interview. “That’s how maddening it is.”
The fresh-faced Reds, picked to finish at the bottom of the National League’s Central Division, enter the weekend series at Great American Ballpark in first place. They’ve won 11 games in a row, one win shy of a record set in 1957. Atlanta, which has the best record in the league, has won eight straight.
“The Braves are the ultimate test,” said Brantley, who brings a keen perspective to what is happening in the Queen City, one of baseball’s great towns, home of a venerable franchise that has won five World Series and featured the legendary Big Red Machine in the early 1970s.
Brantley pitched for the Reds in the mid-1990s and was on the ’95 club that reached the NL Championship Series, losing to the Braves. He has been on the broadcast team since 2007, covering a club that reached the postseason in 2010, ’12 and ’13. He has also seen the team — and the city — endure seven losing seasons in the past nine, including a 62-100 pratfall last year that followed a roster purge.
“I’ve been here a long time,” Brantley said. “I’ve seen the ups followed by the downs, and it gets old. Fans get frustrated.”
But the ’23 Reds have rekindled their enthusiasm — and not just by winning but by how they are winning. “We’ve got a bunch of young kids playing like bandits, playing with their hair on fire,” Brantley said. “That’s attractive to this city. Cincinnati is the birthplace of Pete Rose. Fans see guys playing like he did, they’ll come out in droves.”
Brantley said the feeling around the team in spring training was that they’d be improved from last year’s disaster, but the lead would come from young starting pitchers Graham Ashcraft, Nick Lodolo and Hunter Greene. “That hasn’t happened,” Brantley said. “They’re all on the injured list. And yet, all these kids, position players, have taken off.”
The influx of young talent includes T.J. Friedl and Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz, who was just called up at age 21 and has generated a lot of chatter around the game with his jaw-dropping power and speed. “But the kid that’s been the firestarter lately is Matt McLain, the No. 1 pick from UCLA a couple years ago,” Brantley said. “He’s about my size, five-eight. The way he plays the game is incredible to watch. He flies around like he has nothing to lose.”
The team’s chemistry is evident in the clubhouse, Brantley said, with many of the young players taking their cue from second baseman Jonathan India, NL rookie of the year in 2021. “He hasn’t been here long, but longer than most of them. They look to him,” Brantley said.
He believes this run is sustainable, though the true tell will come in late August. “The young guys haven’t played that duration of baseball,” he said. Solidifying the starting rotation, sort of a patchwork of late, also will be key.
For now, the Reds are just riding the wave, and it’s a massive one.
Brantley said the atmosphere reminds him a little of the mid-’90s, when the team of Larkin and Gant and Sanders was creating roars at Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field. “We had a bunch of veterans on that team, and we were pretty good,” he said. “But we didn’t win 11 in a row.”

23 Jun

seattle star power

The Major League All-Star Game in Seattle may have an old home week feel for Atlanta Braves players. The amazing Ronald Acuna already has made the National League squad — the fourth selection for the former Mississippi Braves star — as the top vote-getter in Phase One of the balloting. Six other Braves, including three more former M-Braves and one Biloxi Shuckers alum, made the cut for Phase 2 of the voting, which opens Monday. Plus, former Atlanta and M-Braves standout Freddie Freeman, now playing first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is also a finalist. Austin Riley, ex-DeSoto Central High star and a 2022 All-Star, is a finalist at third base. Ozzie Albies — who leads the NL in RBIs — is among the last two candidates at second base; Michael Harris II, reigning rookie of the year and currently swinging a torrid bat, is among the four outfield finalists; and ex-Shucker Orlando Arcia, having a breakout season, is in the running at shortstop. Atlanta pitchers, most notably former M-Braves Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder, could also be picked for the NL team. Atlanta has the best record in the league and is routinely packing Truist Park. … Phase 2 of the voting will be available exclusively online at mlb.com and on team sites. The voting process ends June 29. The game is July 11 at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.

17 Jun

all about runs

Austin Riley had a quiet night at the plate on Friday for Atlanta. Or did he? The former DeSoto Central High standout got one hit, a bloop single to right, in four plate appearances. But he also drew two walks and scored two runs, both on Travis d’Arnaud home runs in the Braves’ 8-1 win against Colorado. Riley is second among Mississippians in the majors in runs with 41. Runs isn’t one of the Triple Crown categories, though it is arguably as important — if not more so — than average, homers and RBIs. So much of the buzz around Ronald Acuna is over his long-distance homers and stolen bases. Hardly mentioned is the fact that the former Mississippi Braves star leads all of baseball in runs with 61. Isn’t scoring runs what it’s all about? Nathaniel Lowe, the Mississippi State product having a big year for Texas, is the leading scorer among Mississippians (natives and school alums) in MLB with 46 runs. The first-place Rangers lead MLB in scoring with 419. MSU alums Adam Frazier (Baltimore) and Hunter Renfroe (Los Angeles Angels) have scored 33 apiece, and ex-Bulldogs slugger Brent Rooker (Oakland) has crossed the plate 29 times. In the minors, State alum Jordan Westburg has scored 54 times for Baltimore’s Triple-A Norfolk club; the hot prospect is batting .292 with 17 homers and 52 RBIs. Behind Westburg is MSU product Justin Foscue with 44 runs at Triple-A Round Rock (Texas system), followed by Biloxi High alum Colt Keith (41, Double-A Erie, Detroit system) and ex-Mississippi College standout Blaine Crim (40, Round Rock). Former Ole Miss star Tim Elko has scored 37 times at Low-Class A Kannapolis (Chicago White Sox), same number UM product Grae Kessinger put up at Triple-A Sugar Land before Houston summoned him to the big leagues. He has one hit so far but is still looking for his first big league run. P.S. Ex-George County High standout Justin Steele is slated to come off the injured list and start for the Chicago Cubs today against Baltimore at Wrigley Field. Steele, who hasn’t pitched this month, is 6-2 with a 2.65 ERA. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton accepted an assignment to Triple-A Charlotte by the White Sox. The veteran big leaguer, just off the IL and off the ChiSox’s 40-man roster, did not play Friday night.

12 Jun

here and there

Southern Miss, which plays Tennessee today in Hattiesburg for a trip to the College World Series, isn’t just a Mississippi-based team. It’s a Mississippi-fueled team. Twenty Magnolia State natives dot the roster, including regulars Dustin Dickerson, Slade Wilks, Nick Monistere, Carson Paetow and Tate Parker. Today’s probable starter, Niko Mazza, is also a state product. Incidentally, USM’s 2009 team, the only one to make it to Omaha, also featured 20 Mississippi natives, most notably Brian Dozier, future big league star. … Also vying for a CWS trip today is Stanford, playing a Game 3 at home against Texas. Former Madison Central standout Braden Montgomery, an All–Pac-12 selection this year, is 4-for-9 with a walk and pair of runs in that Super Regional. … Former USM pitcher Hurston Waldrep, now at Florida, already has booked a trip to the CWS; he was brilliant (eight shutout innings, 13 strikeouts) in the Gators’ clincher vs. South Carolina on Saturday. … Twice on their just-completed homestand the Mississippi Braves took the field with a chance to reach .500 for the first time since mid-April. Twice they lost. Biloxi, which got five shutout innings from rehabbing big leaguer Wade Miley, beat the M-Braves 5-4 Sunday at Trustmark Park, dropping the home team to 27-29. The M-Braves started the season 3-2 but then went on an eight-game skid and have been fighting their way back ever since. … Mississippi native — and former M-Braves radio voice — Ben Ingram will do the TV play-by-play on Bally Sports South for Atlanta’s three-game series at Detroit. Ingram is moving over from the radio booth for this short road trip. … Congrats to Crystal Springs native Hunter Renfroe, who became a first-time father last week. The veteran outfielder out of Mississippi State returned to the Los Angeles Angels’ lineup on Saturday. … Tim Anderson, the East Central Community College product, got a (needed?) day off Sunday as the Chicago White Sox lost to Miami 6-5. Anderson went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and made a critical ninth-inning error that led to three unearned runs in the White Sox’s 5-1 loss to the Marlins on Saturday. Anderson, a 2022 All-Star, is hitting .263 with no home runs and has five errors in 46 games at shortstop with a minus-4 Defensive Runs Saved stat (per FanGraphs). BTW, former MSU star Kendall Graveman blew the save for the White Sox in Sunday’s loss; they are reeling again at 29-38. … MSU alum Brent Rooker hit his 13th homer for Oakland on Sunday as the woeful A’s (17-50) completed a three-game sweep at Milwaukee. After a prolonged cold spell, Rooker has six hits (two homers) in his last 19 at-bats.

08 Jun

twin peaks

While the Mississippi Braves and Biloxi Shuckers were going at it in Trustmark Park on Wednesday night, a pair of their alumni were taking star turns in big league stadiums. Michael Harris II, who blew through Double-A Mississippi last year en route to winning rookie of the year honors in Atlanta, hit a game-winning homer for the first-place Braves against the New York Mets. Joey Wiemer, who spent most of his 2022 season with the Shuckers, belted two bombs for first-place Milwaukee in its win against Baltimore. Harris, who has been fighting injuries and a slump in his sophomore campaign, already had two hits on Wednesday when he stepped to the plate at Truist Park in the bottom of the eighth in a tie game. “You sorta feel like right guy, right time,” Braves TV analyst Jeff Francoeur said moments before Harris hit a 443-rocket to center field to put the Braves up 7-5. Harris’ 3-for-4 night lifted his average to .181 with three homers. He hit .297 with 19 bombs last season. He also made a great catch in deep center field in the top of the eighth. “I feel like myself,” Harris told mlb.com. He even flashed his Money Mike sign as he touched home plate after the home run. At Milwaukee’s American Family Field, Wiemer, the Brewers’ rookie center fielder, went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs in a 10-2 romp over the Orioles. This came a day after he delivered a walk-off hit to beat the O’s. He also had been battling a slump but is on a tear now, hitting .478 in his last seven games to boost his average to .231. He has eight homers. “He’s just a very pure competitor,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said in an mlb.com story. Coincidentally, Wiemer recently got a mullet-style haircut that has been labeled the Kentucky Waterfall. “He got a good haircut and now he’s the best hitter on the planet,” Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes said. P.S. Grae Kessinger, the former Ole Miss standout from Oxford, made his MLB debut Wednesday, going 0-for-3 as Houston’s third baseman in a loss at Toronto. Kessinger is the 25th Mississippian (native or school alum) to appear in the big leagues this season.

06 Jun

eye on …

Javier Valdes is one of the three catchers on the Mississippi Braves’ roster. He’s not the one on Atlanta’s Top 30 prospects list, but he is the leading hitter — at .302 — on the active roster. The M-Braves take a 24-26 record into tonight’s Southern League series opener (6:35) against rival Biloxi at Trustmark Park. The M-Braves’ slumbering bats perked up a bit during a series at Birmingham, where they won four of six and scored 36 runs. Valdes was one of the hotter hitters on that trip, going 4-for-11 with a homer and three RBIs. He has six homers, 13 RBIs and 15 runs in 29 games while sharing catching duties with Tyler Tolve (the Braves’ No. 29 prospect who is batting .170) and veteran Arden Pabst (.143). Valdes, 24, a Miami native, was a 21st-round draft pick out of Florida International in 2019. He batted .263 with 11 homers at High-Class A Rome a year ago and earned a late promotion to Mississippi, where he hit .231. Atlanta’s system is a little thin in the catching department, so Valdes’ stepped-up performance this season has no doubt been a welcome sight. Valdes is in tonight’s lineup, batting seventh as the DH, against Biloxi, which comes in with a 26-25 record. The Shuckers’ roster is loaded with top Milwaukee prospects, including outfielder Jackson Chourio, the No. 2 prospect in all of the minors. He is batting .253 with eight homers, 32 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. Biloxi leads the season series 5-4. P.S. Billy Hamilton, the ex-Taylorsville High star, is on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte. The veteran outfielder stole two bases and scored two runs in three games for the Chicago White Sox before suffering a hamstring injury.