14 Aug

rise and shine

Christian Johnson, a former Clinton High star who has been plugging away in the low minors since 2019, hit his first career home run on Saturday night for the Low-Class A Charleston RiverDogs, then belted his second in his next at-bat. Johnson, now 21, was drafted in the 19th round by Tampa Bay in ’19 and had played in rookie ball for three seasons before getting a brief call-up to Charleston in July. He went back to the Florida Complex League after two games (1-for-7), then returned to the RiverDogs on Aug. 4. He is 4-for-17 since. Johnson’s career average is just .177, but maybe Saturday’s performance will be a spark. … A trio of Mississippi State products took star turns in the big leagues on Saturday. Hunter Renfroe smacked his first triple since 2019, driving in the go-ahead run and then scoring an insurance run in the 10th inning of Milwaukee’s 3-2 win at St. Louis in the National League Central showdown. The Brewers are just a half-game behind the Cardinals entering today’s series finale. Renfroe, batting .246, has 44 RBIs. At Texas, Nathaniel Lowe went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run as the Rangers, playing a spoiler role, beat wild card-chaser Seattle 7-4 in an American League West clash. Lowe, a .284 hitter this year, has a 19-game on-base streak during which he is batting .357. And at Kansas City, while the hapless Royals were getting crushed by the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-3, Brent Rooker got his first two hits of 2022 in his first game for KC. He also drove in a run and threw out a runner at the plate from left field. Rooker, a .211 career hitter in 68 MLB games, was 0-for-7 for San Diego this year before being traded at the deadline. P.S. Ex-Taylorsville High star and big league vet Billy Hamilton chose free agency rather than accept an assignment to the minors by Miami. He has played for seven different big league clubs since 2013 and swiped 321 bases, most ever by a Mississippi native. He also has 401 minor league bags.

02 Aug

whole new ballgame

Welcome to the playoff race, Chris Stratton. Former Mississippi State ace Stratton was traded Monday — along with Jose Quintana — from last-place Pittsburgh to second-place St. Louis, which is feverishly chasing Milwaukee in the National League Central. Stratton, a 31-year-old right-handed reliever, has had a sluggish season with the lowly Pirates — posting a 5.09 ERA in 40 games — but might draw some energy from moving to a contending club. He had a strong 2021, putting up a 3.63 ERA with seven wins and eight saves for another bad Bucs team. He said in a recent story on triblive.com that his issues this season are with the “sequencing” of his pitches, something he believes can be fixed by “just trying to be more thoughtful and a little more unpredictable.” Stratton, from Tupelo, was the SEC pitcher of the year at State in 2012 and was drafted 20th overall by San Francisco that summer. He has a 4.61 career ERA in 218 games, 42 of those starts. He moved to the bullpen in 2019 with the Los Angeles Angels, who traded him to the Pirates early that season. Stratton joins a Cardinals club that includes ex-MSU star Dakota Hudson in its rotation. Division rival Milwaukee also features a pair of former Bulldogs: starter Brandon Woodruff and outfielder Hunter Renfroe. This ought to be fun. … The MLB trade deadline is today.

01 Aug

seize the day

Austin Riley wasn’t the only Mississippi product capping the month of July with a big day. In addition to DeSoto Central High alum Riley’s record-setting, walk-off double for Atlanta (see previous post), Corey Dickerson, Kirk McCarty, Hunter Renfroe, Kendall Graveman and Adam Frazier also earned some high-fives on Sunday. Dickerson, the ex-Meridian Community College star, produced the kind of game St. Louis was anticipating in his first season with the Cardinals: three hits, a homer (his fourth), two runs and three RBIs in a 5-0 win over Washington. Dickerson, who got off to a woeful start in 2022, is batting .226. McCarty, the rookie lefty out of Southern Miss, got his second MLB win, throwing 3 1/3 innings (one run) in middle relief for Cleveland in 5-3 victory against Tampa Bay. His first win came Tuesday at Boston. Mississippi State alum Renfroe, back in Boston with his new club Milwaukee, went 4-for-4 with his 19th homer in a 7-2 loss. He has six bombs in his last nine games and has raised his average to .254. Graveman, another ex-MSU standout, notched his 16th hold with a scoreless inning (the eighth) for the Chicago White Sox in a 4-1 defeat of Oakland. And MSU product Frazier, who had scuffled for many weeks with Seattle, went 2-for-4 with a run as the leadoff batter in a 3-2 loss to Houston. He is batting .353 in his last 19 games (.244 overall) for the resurgent Mariners. P.S. Former East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson continues to play for the White Sox while his three-game suspension from a Friday incident is under appeal. He is 3-for-8 in two wins. … The Los Angeles Dodgers have released ex-Ole Miss star Bobby Wahl, who had appeared in six games in Triple-A this year. He pitched in 17 big league games from 2017-20.

30 Jul

bring the wood

Since coming off the injured list in late June, Brandon Woodruff has been putting the hurt on opposing batters. The Mississippi State product from Wheeler, now working for the Milwaukee Brewers, beat Boston at Fenway Park on Friday night, his fourth win (against no losses) in six starts since his IL stint. Woodruff (9-3, 3.55 ERA, on the season) checked the Red Sox on four hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run and punching out nine in the 4-1 win that kept the first-place Brewers 3 games up on St. Louis in the National League Central. “If I can get ahead and mix it up a little bit …,” he told mlb.com in casually explaining his success. Over his last six starts, Woodruff has a 2.06 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP and 48 strikeouts in 35 innings. “Very happy to hand him the ball every five days,” manager Craig Counsell told Sportsnaut before Friday’s game. Woodruff has matched his win total from a hard-luck 2021 and seems certain to surpass his career-high 11 wins in 2019. He was an All-Star in both of those seasons. The big right-hander was an 11th-round draft pick in 2014 after an uneven career at State; it might rank as one of Milwaukee’s shrewdest picks ever. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn, who started this season on the IL, allowed three homers in the Chicago White Sox’s 7-3 loss at home to Oakland. Lynn is 1-4, 6.42 ERA, in nine starts. He was an 11-game winner and an All-Star in 2021. The White Sox fell to 49-50 and might lose Tim Anderson to a suspension. The East Central Community College alum appeared to bump the home plate umpire in Friday’s game while arguing his ejection for protesting a strike call. … Former DeSoto Central High star Austin Riley, who homered and doubled twice in Atlanta’s 5-2 win vs. Arizona, is batting .427 with 11 homers, 13 doubles, 21 runs and 24 RBIs in July. … Southern Miss left-hander Dalton Rogers, the third player picked from the state in this year’s draft (third round), has signed with Boston for a reported $447,500, according to mlb.com. USM pitcher Landon Harper (14th round) reportedly has signed with Atlanta.

28 Jul

clearing ahead?

A corrective lens in his right eye may have put Joe Gray Jr. back on track in his fourth pro season. The Hattiesburg High product, a second-round pick by Milwaukee in 2018 and a highly regarded prospect in the system ever since, got off to a slow start this season at High-Class A Wisconsin. The right-handed hitting outfielder went through a miserable 1-for-48 slump in June before finally realizing something was wrong with his vision, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Gray had Lasik surgery in the off-season, but the vision in his right eye somehow got worse. “It just sucked that it took me half of the season to figure that out,” he told the Journal Sentinel. The Brewers’ No. 13 prospect was hitting .163 before getting the corrective lens; he is up to .191 as of today with a seven-game hitting streak. He has 12 home runs and 16 stolen bases. Coming off a year in which he batted .252 with 20 homers and 23 steals, Gray, only 22, had hoped to make Double-A Biloxi this season. Now that he is back to, in his words, “having fun,” he still might get that promotion before the Southern League season ends in mid-September.

27 Jul

central casting

There is a three-team battle going on in the American League Central, and a bunch of Magnolia State products were on the frontlines Tuesday in three different skirmishes. Start in Boston, where former Southern Miss pitcher Kirk McCarty, making just his fourth big league appearance, delivered four shutout innings and got his first MLB win in Cleveland’s 8-3 victory at Fenway Park. “It’s special,” said McCarty, who in the last couple weeks was claimed on waivers by Baltimore and then reclaimed by the Guardians. The left-hander allowed just one hit and one walk while fanning four. He followed fellow former Golden Eagles star Nick Sandlin in what was a bullpen game for Cleveland. Sandlin, who has a 2.81 ERA, got the last two outs of the third inning. The Guardians (49-47) moved to within 2 1/2 games of first-place Minnesota (52-45) in the AL Central after the Twins lost at Milwaukee. The Brewers gave former Mississippi State star Ethan Small his second big league start, and it was a little rough, much like his first one back in May. Small yielded a leadoff home run to Byron Buxton, three more hits, four walks and two more runs in 3 2/3 innings. He has a 7.11 ERA in his two MLB games. However, the Brewers, the first-place team in the National League Central, rallied to win 7-6, aided by ex-State slugger Hunter Renfroe’s 17th home run. Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox (49-48, 3 games back in the AL Central) kept pace with their third straight win, beating Colorado at Coors Field 2-1. Ex-State standout Kendall Graveman worked a scoreless eighth inning for Chicago, notching his 15th hold. East Central Community College alum Tim Anderson, the ChiSox’s All-Star shortstop, had a hand in all four of the double plays the team turned in that game. P.S. Props to former Mississippi Braves manager Brian Snitker for notching his 500th win with Atlanta on Tuesday. His club, the reigning World Series champion, has won four straight NL East titles. … South Panola High product Emaarion Boyd, one of the two prep players drafted (11th round) out of the state last week, reportedly has signed with Philadelphia. He is the seventh player of 23 drafted to sign, according to mlb.com (see previous posts).

26 Jul

whatever happened to …

Jonathan Holder, the former Mississippi State standout from Gulfport, made his first appearance of 2022 on Monday, throwing an inning for the Chicago Cubs’ Arizona Complex League team. He allowed a hit but no runs and struck out a pair for the rookie club. The 29-year-old right-hander is on a rehab assignment from Triple-A Iowa; he is not on the Cubs’ 40-man roster. From 2017-19, Holder was a significant piece of the New York Yankees’ bullpen, and he has a career 4.38 ERA in 157 MLB games. After a rough 2020 season in New York, he became a free agent and signed with the Cubs. Beset by shoulder issues, Holder pitched in only two games, both in the minors, last season. He re-signed as a minor leaguer last fall and went to major league spring camp before being shut down again. P.S. Ex-State star Ethan Small has been recalled by Milwaukee and is slated to make his second big league start today against Minnesota. The big left-hander is 6-4, 3.34 ERA, at Triple-A Nashville. He gave up four hits, four walks and two runs in 2 2/3 innings against the Cubs in his big league debut on May 30. … DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley extended his hitting streak to 17 games for Atlanta on Monday; he is batting .435 with eight homers and 15 RBIs during that span. … MSU alum Buck Showalter, current Mets manager and former Yankees manager (1992-95), will get his first taste of the Subway Series tonight when the first-place teams meet at CitiField. … Three Ole Miss products, all sixth-round MLB draft picks, have signed or agreed to terms, per mlb.com: pitcher Derek Diamond (Pittsburgh), catcher Hayden Dunhurst (Kansas City) and pitcher — and College World Series hero — Dylan DeLucia (Cleveland).

25 Jul

climbing the chart

With his third home run in three games, all wins by the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, Hunter Renfroe moved into the top 10 Sunday on the all-time homer list among Mississippi-born players in the big leagues. The Crystal Springs native and former Mississippi State star has 144 career homers, equaling the total of Hattiesburg native Charlie Hayes. Gulfport’s Bill Melton and Greenville’s Frank White are tied for eighth at 160. The all-time leader is Vicksburg native Ellis Burks with 352. Amory’s Mitch Moreland, not formally retired but not currently playing, stands sixth with 186. Renfroe has 16 homers this year, his seventh in MLB. His career-high is 33, which he reached with San Diego in 2019. The Padres, his original club, traded him to Tampa Bay, where he hit eight homers but batted just .156 in 42 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The Rays non-tendered Renfroe, and he signed with Boston, where he had a huge year with 31 homers, 33 doubles, 96 RBIs and a .259 average. Nevertheless, the Red Sox traded him to Milwaukee. P.S. Dakota Hudson threw five strong innings (five hits, one run, three walks, six strikeouts) in a rehab start for Triple-A Memphis in the St. Louis chain. The ex-MSU standout, who went on the injured list with a neck strain, is 6-6 with a 4.10 ERA for the Cardinals. … The signing deadline for 2022 draftees with college eligibility remaining is a week from today, and to this point three Mississippi products have signed, according to mlb.com. Mississippi State’s Landon Sims, the first player from the state to go at No. 34 overall, signed for a reported $2.4 million with Arizona. State’s Logan Tanner, the No. 55 pick, got $1.03M from Cincinnati. And 20th-round pick Ke’Shun Collier from Meridian Community College inked with the Chicago Cubs for $100,000.

24 Jul

a few atta boys

Austin Riley: The former DeSoto Central High star went 3-for-4 with his 28th home run, extending his hitting streak to 15 games, as Atlanta beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-2 on Saturday to pull within a half-game of the New York Mets in the National League East. “Hey, we’re coming for ’em,” Riley said with a grin in a postgame interview.
Brandon Woodruff: The Wheeler High and Mississippi State alum allowed one run on four hits with eight punchouts in six innings as NL Central leader Milwaukee beat Colorado 9-4. Woodruff is 8-3 with a 3.73 ERA.
Hunter Renfroe: The ex-State star from Crystal Springs homered for the second straight game, drove in three runs and scored twice in the Brewers’ win at toasty, enclosed American Family Field. “Good gosh it was hot, but we pulled it out. It was fun,” said Renfroe, who has 15 bombs on the season.
Lance Lynn: The Ole Miss product threw six shutout innings for the Chicago White Sox, yielding three hits and fanning six in a 5-4 win against Cleveland in an American League Central clash. Alas, Lynn got no decision because the bullpen blew a lead the ChiSox held when he departed.
Konnor Pilkington: The rookie from Pascagoula by way of MSU, facing off against Lynn in Game 2 of a twinbill, went five innings and allowed two runs, trimming his ERA to 4.17 in 12 games for the Guardians this season. He also got no decision.

23 Jul

now that’s clutch

On the brink of a fourth straight loss, one strike away from defeat at their home park Friday night, the Milwaukee Brewers were jolted to life by a 447-foot, game-tying home run off the bat of Hunter Renfroe. The ex-Mississippi State star’s 14th homer of the year — and first in over a month — came in the 10th inning and enabled the Brewers to play on against Colorado, ultimately winning 6-5 in 13 on Luis Urias’ walk-off single. “Obviously, we want to win any way possible, but this really helps the camaraderie in the clubhouse,” Renfroe said in an mlb.com story. Things didn’t look good before Renfroe smashed a 2-2 slider from Robert Stephenson high over the left-field wall at American Family Field to tie the score at 5-5 with two down in the 10th. “If you’ve got a chip, you’ve got a chance,” a Brewers broadcaster said as Renfroe rounded the bases. The Brewers opened up a 1 1/2 game lead over St. Louis in the National League Central. Renfroe, who missed a couple weeks with a hamstring injury, is batting .247 with 31 RBIs in his first season with Milwaukee after a career year in Boston in 2021. … Elsewhere in MLB, George County High alum Justin Steele allowed a first-pitch homer to Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber but nary another run in five innings as he picked up the win in the Chicago Cubs’ 15-2 blowout of the host Phillies. Steele is 4-6. … Former Ole Miss standout Nick Fortes drove in three runs in Miami’s 8-1 win at Pittsburgh that ended a three-game scoreless streak for the Marlins (see previous post). The drought reached a franchise record-tying 37 innings before it ended. P.S. Minor matters: Former Ole Miss star Errol Robinson signed a minor league contract with St. Louis on Friday and was assigned to Double-A Springfield. Robinson was playing for Sussex County in the independent Frontier League, batting .312 with 22 stolen bases. Originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016, Robinson was a minor league Rule 5 pick by Cincinnati in 2020 and reached Triple-A last season before being released. He was batting .176 at Louisville and .254 for his pro career. … Ole Miss product Tyler Keenan has been promoted to Double-A New Hampshire in Toronto’s system. The power-hitting third baseman was drafted by Seattle in 2020 and traded earlier this season. He was batting .300 in 15 games at High-A Vancouver, where he had spent time on the injured list. … Ex-Southern Miss star Reed Trimble came off a brief rehab assignment and was sent to Low-A Delmarva by Baltimore. He was 2-for-4 in Friday’s game. The 2021 draftee hit .200 in A-ball last season and had been on the IL since the start of this year. … MSU product J.T. Ginn pitched three innings (no earned runs) on a rehab assignment for Oakland’s Arizona Complex League team. He was 0-2 with a 6.48 ERA at Double-A Midland when he was hurt. Ginn was acquired by the A’s in a spring trade with the New York Mets.