Tag Archives: Cardinals

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.

16 Jul

star power

The No. 1 player in the Hitter Power Rankings announced Thursday by mlb.com is not in Monday’s Home Run Derby. Nor is ex-DeSoto Central High star Austin Riley in the MLB All-Star Game, though he keeps building his case to be named as a replacement should one be needed on the National League squad. Riley, the aircraft carrier for Atlanta’s potent offense, leads the majors in total bases with 201. He hit his 26th homer — second in the NL — in Friday’s win at Washington. He is batting .424 with eight homers and 17 RBIs in his past 16 games and is currently riding an 11-game hit streak. Star stuff, for sure. Riley has said he’d love to participate in a Home Run Derby if (when?) he makes an All-Star Game. One imagines the 6-foot-3, 240-pound third baseman could put on quite a show. If we could put together a home run derby contest solely of Mississippians in pro ball, it would be compelling theater. You’d have Riley, who has blasted a 441-footer this season; Crystal Springs native Hunter Renfroe, who has 13 bombs for Milwaukee, including a 444-foot shot; Mississippi State alum Nathaniel Lowe (12 homers, including a 439-footer, for Texas); Southern Miss product Matt Wallner (21 in Double-A for Minnesota); ex-State star Brent Rooker (16 in Triple-A for San Diego); MSU alum Jordan Westburg (16 at Double-A and Triple-A for Baltimore); former Mississippi College star Blaine Crim (13 at Double-A for Texas); and the DeSoto Central slugging legend Blaze Jordan (eight in A-ball for Boston). P.S. Wallner is in today’s All-Star Futures Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. There is an unofficial batting practice home run derby during that event, and he’d be one to watch. … Brookhaven native Lance Barksdale, a veteran MLB umpire, has been named as one of the umps for Tuesday’s All-Star Game; he’ll work first base. … Oxford High catcher Campbell Smithwick participated in Friday’s MLB-USA Baseball High School All-American Game at Dodger Stadium. … St. Louis has placed MSU product Dakota Hudson on the injured list with a neck strain. Hudson is 6-6 with a 4.10 ERA on the year — 2-4, 6.16 in his last seven starts. … Atlanta prospect Vaughn Grissom is batting .556 in four games for the Double-A Mississippi Braves, who won Friday on a walk-off homer by Justyn-Henry Malloy to improve to 12-4 in the second half.

12 Jul

in other news

Yes, there were significant MLB games in places other than Atlanta on Monday night, and a couple of Mississippi products played significant roles in two of them. Corey Dickerson, the former Meridian Community College standout, gave St. Louis fans something to cheer about in a big win over Philadelphia. Ole Miss product Lance Lynn gave Chicago White Sox fans something to fret about in a tough loss at Cleveland. Dickerson, 0-for-6 in his first two games since coming off the injured list, went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs in the Cardinals’ 6-1 victory. St. Louis is 2 games back of first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central. Third-place Philly fell 8 back of the New York Mets, who beat Atlanta 4-1, in the NL East. Dickerson, a career .280 hitter, hasn’t produced as expected in his first year with the Cardinals. He is now batting .196 with three homers and 15 RBIs in 41 games. Lynn, the 35-year-old vet coming off knee surgery, yielded eight runs in four-plus innings in the White Sox’s 8-4 loss to the Guardians, who moved 1 1/2 games ahead of Chicago in second place in the AL Central. A Cy Young Award finalist in 2021, Lynn fell to 1-2 with a 6.97 ERA in his seven starts. Though he reportedly wasn’t hit hard, he gave up five runs in the first inning and was charged with three more in the fifth. He faced 25 batters and 13 of them reached. The ChiSox, the defending division champs, are a disappointing 41-44. The Guardians are 42-42, 4 back of Minnesota. The White Sox and Guardians play a doubleheader today, with ex-Mississippi State standout Konnor Pilkington (1-1, 4.08) slated to start Game 2 for Cleveland. Southern Miss alum Nick Sandlin (3.32 ERA) figures to see duty out of the Guardians’ bullpen. P.S. Kudos to DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley, whose 24th homer was the lone run the Braves produced against Max Scherzer and the Mets, and to USM’s Tanner Hall, who threw four shutout innings with seven strikeouts in Team USA’s 2-0 win over Cuba in a tournament in The Netherlands.

10 Jul

third time’s a …?

Finally, after call-up No. 3, Brent Rooker got in a game for San Diego. Former Mississippi State star Rooker made his Padres debut Saturday night but ran into a nasty Carlos Rodon of San Francisco and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in a 3-1 loss. Rooker, acquired by the Padres from Minnesota just before the season started, has spent most of 2022 at Triple-A El Paso, batting .279 with 14 homers and 43 RBIs. The 27-year-old outfielder was recalled by the Padres on June 3 and again on June 11 but didn’t get an at-bat either time before going back down. The Padres brought him up again on Friday. The 35th overall draft pick in 2017 by the Twins, after winning the SEC Triple Crown at State, Rooker has always hit well in the minors: .265, 88 homers in 370 games. But in 66 MLB games, he’s at .209 with 10 homers. P.S. Meridian Community College alumnus Corey Dickerson returned to the St. Louis lineup for the first time in over a month (calf injury) but went 0-for-3 with a walk in the Cardinals’ 1-0 loss to Philadelphia. Dickerson, a free agent acquisition in the off-season, is batting .188. The Cardinals wasted a great start by ex-State standout Dakota Hudson, who threw six innings allowing just two hits. … MSU product Brandon Woodruff also threw six shutout innings for Milwaukee, ran into some trouble in the seventh, left the game and watched Brad Boxberger give up a game-deciding two-run homer to Pittsburgh’s Ben Gamel. Woodruff was charged with three runs in the 4-3 defeat. … Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Austin Riley, bidding to be picked as an All-Star reserve, went 2-for-3 with his 22nd home run in Atlanta’s 4-3 win over Washington. Riley is batting .278 with 53 RBIs. The reserves and pitchers for the July 19 All-Star Game will be announced tonight on MLB Network.

06 Jul

names in the news

Former Southern Miss star Kirk McCarty has been claimed off waivers by Baltimore, added to the 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Left-hander McCarty was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in three appearances as a rookie with Cleveland this season. … USM product Nick Sandlin was recalled from Triple-A by Cleveland on Tuesday and gave up a couple of runs in a loss to Detroit. He was sent down in late June despite a 2.98 ERA through his first 19 games. … Meridian Community College alum Corey Dickerson has begun rehab assignment 2.0 at Triple-A Memphis in the St. Louis system. Dickerson’s first rehab was shut down after two games. He went on the injured list June 5 with a calf injury, batting .194 for the Cardinals at the time. … Former Mississippi State teammates Justin Foscue and Jordan Westburg, both 2020 draftees, are ranked in MLB Pipeline’s new Top 100 minor league prospects list. Foscue, now in Texas’ system, is No. 63, Westburg (Baltimore) No. 96. Foscue is in Double-A; Westburg already has reached Triple-A. … Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, Rebels pitcher Hunter Elliott and Southern Miss pitchers Tanner Hall and Hurston Waldrep made the cut for the Collegiate National Team. Team USA, managed by UM coach Mike Bianco, is playing in the Honkbalweek Haarlem tournament in The Netherlands, opening against Japan on Saturday. (Waldrep has put his name in the transfer portal at USM.)

04 Jul

numbers to crunch

4 — Straight wins by the Mississippi Braves, who’ll take that streak into tonight’s Southern League game against Pensacola at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The M-Braves (4-2 second half, 33-42 overall) have struggled with the bats of late but scored 36 times during the win streak, including an 18-run outburst on Saturday.
10 — Hits in his last seven games, including two on Sunday, for Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High product who is batting .385 over that stretch with two homers, six RBIs and five runs for the surging Atlanta Braves. Riley is fourth in the National League with 20 homers.
1 — Career starts vs. Atlanta by Dakota Hudson, the Mississippi State alum who goes for St. Louis against the Braves today at Truist Park. That one start was on May 25, 2019. Hudson is 6-4 with a 3.83 ERA. He’ll be opposed by ex-M-Braves star Kyle Wright (9-4), tied for second in the NL in wins.
2 — Wins in his last three starts for Justin Steele, the George County High product who’ll pitch for the Chicago Cubs against Milwaukee today at American Family Field. Steele is 3-5, 4.39, for the lowly Cubs.
1,600 — Career managerial wins for Buck Showalter, the former State standout who reached that milestone on Sunday when his New York Mets beat Texas 4-1. Showalter, who has managed five different MLB clubs, is No. 22 on the all-time wins list, having just passed Tommy LaSorda.
22 — Number of Mississippians to appear in an MLB game in 2022 after ex-Taylorsville High star Billy Hamilton got in as a pinch runner for Miami on Sunday. He scored his 440th career run in his 912th big league game.
18 — Strikeouts in 11 innings over two games (both wins) for Brandon Woodruff since the former State standout came off the injured list for Milwaukee. Woodruff beat Pittsburgh with six shutout innings (eight K’s) on Sunday and is 7-3 on the season.
9.00 — ERA in three games for Kirk McCarty, the ex-Southern Miss star who was designated for assignment Sunday by Cleveland. The rookie left-hander lost to the New York Yankees on Saturday (four runs in five innings), the second time he has faced them in his brief MLB tenure.
3 — Hits in five at-bats for Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez, who also drove in two runs as he helped the Stars beat the Stripes 7-3 on Sunday in Game 4 of Collegiate National Team’s intrasquad series. The teams play again today at Charlotte, N.C.

29 Jun

three dog night

Collectively, they worked 14 1/3 innings, yielding eight runs on 16 hits and four walks with 17 strikeouts. A 5.03 ERA might not bring joy to the world, but two wins with one loss is a good feeling. Three former Mississippi State Bulldogs started in big league games on Tuesday night. Konnor Pilkington came back from Triple-A to make a spot start for Cleveland in Game 2 of a twinbill against Minnesota, and it didn’t go so well for the rookie left-hander. Dakota Hudson came back from a rough start last Thursday to post a better one, earning a win thanks to a St. Louis rally against Miami. Brandon Woodruff came back from the injured list for his first start since May 27, and the veteran right-hander was very good in Milwaukee’s win at Tampa Bay. “There’s a reason why hitters talk about his fastball. We saw it tonight,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell told mlb.com. Woodruff threw 76 pitches over five innings, allowing two hits and one run with no walks and 10 punchouts. He reportedly hit 99 on the radar gun several times. Woodruff is now 6-3 with a 4.44 ERA for Milwaukee, which won 5-3 to maintain a 1/2-game lead over St. Louis in the National League Central. The Cardinals beat the Marlins 5-3, scoring four times in the bottom of the fifth. Hudson (6-4, 3.83) worked five, allowing six hits and all three Miami runs. (Ex-Ole Miss standout Nick Fortes knocked in one of those runs.) Pilkington (1-1, 4.31, in nine appearances) gave up four runs on eight hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings in Cleveland’s 6-0 loss to the Twins. The teams split the doubleheader, leaving the Guardians 3 games back of the first-place Twins in the American League Central.

20 Jun

something’s brewing

A three-game home run streak for Hunter Renfroe has coincided with the three-game win streak Milwaukee will take into a big four-game series against National League Central rival St. Louis starting tonight at American Family Field. The teams, both of which feature Mississippi products, are tied atop the division at 38-30. Former Mississippi State star Renfroe, whose 444-foot homer at Cincinnati on Sunday was his first on a Father’s Day since the death of his dad — his “best friend” — last summer, has 13 homers on the season and is batting .250 with 27 RBIs as the prime power source in the Brewers’ lineup. This series will feature some good pitching matchups, including Thursday’s between ex-State standout Dakota Hudson of the Cardinals and Jason Alexander, a 29-year-old Brewers rookie. Hudson, who beat Boston at Fenway on Saturday, is 5-3 with a 3.31 ERA in his first full season after Tommy John surgery. He has never faced Renfroe in the big leagues, and their careers at State did not intersect. Missing from this series, unfortunately, are State product Brandon Woodruff, one of the Brewers’ top starters, and ex-Meridian Community College star Corey Dickerson, a St. Louis outfielder. Both are on the injured list and on rehab assignments. P.S. East Central CC alum Tim Anderson, out roughly three weeks with a groin injury, is expected to return to the Chicago White Sox’s lineup at shortstop today against Toronto. Anderson is batting .356. … Blaze Jordan, the 19-year-old slugger from DeSoto Central High, clubbed two homers as part of a three-hit game Sunday for Boston’s Low-Class A Salem team. Jordan, a second-year pro, is batting .291 with six homers and 37 RBIs in 57 games this season.

19 Jun

rising son

Among the bundle of sons of former major leaguers who have made The Show, there is Ke’Bryan Hayes, whose father, Hattiesburg native Charlie, has from all indications done a great job of guiding him down the proper path. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 25, is a rising star at third base for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a .278 hitter over three seasons with a good blend of power, speed and defensive skills. Earlier this year, the Pirates showed their faith in him with an 8-year, $70 million contract. Charlie Hayes, a Forrest County AHS alum who played in the majors from 1988-2001 (.262, 144 homers), has said he never tried to force baseball on any of his three sons, Ke’Bryan being the youngest. But, “if we were gonna do it, we were gonna try to do it the proper way every single time,” Charlie told espn.com in a recent piece. The lessons worked, as Ke’Bryan was a first-round pick out of a Texas high school in 2015. Off the field, the younger Hayes also seems to handle things the proper way. “He’s an impressive player, especially the way he carries himself,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol told The Sporting News. “It’s fun to watch someone who has the combination of skill and, you can tell, just his good character.” Charlie rates some credit for that, as well. P.S. Props to Lucedale native Justin Steele, who threw five solid innings to beat Atlanta and ace Kyle Wright at Wrigley Field on Saturday. It was the first win for the Chicago Cubs lefty since April 9, when he beat Milwaukee and ace Brandon Woodruff. Steele, who has a 1.89 ERA in three June starts, is 2-5, 4.27. … Props also to Mississippi State product Dakota Hudson, who battled for five innings to beat Boston at Fenway Park. The St. Louis right-hander is now 5-3, 3.31, for the first-place Cardinals.

17 Jun

there and here

For what it’s worth — probably not much — 247sports.com predicts that Ole Miss will last just three games in the College World Series, beating Auburn, then losing to Arkansas and Stanford. Saturday’s opener against Auburn does loom large. The teams’ mid-March meeting doesn’t provide much of a gauge. The Rebels won 13-6 and 15-2 (in the rubber game) and lost 19-5. Neither of UM’s emergent aces — Dylan DeLucia and Hunter Elliott — started in that series, though both pitched well in relief in the wins. The Rebels’ pitching depth beyond those two and closer Brandon Johnson, which held up nicely in the regional and Super Regional, will be tested in Omaha. … Up in the Cape Cod League, Kellum Clark is off to a hot start for Wareham. The Mississippi State sophomore from Brandon went 3-for-5 with three doubles and three RBIs in a win on Thursday and is 4-for-10 in three games in the elite summer league. … The slumping Mississippi Braves could use some spark, and there’s a player at High-Class A Rome bidding for a promotion to the Double-A club. Shortstop Vaughn Grissom, a top 10 prospect in Atlanta’s system, is batting .288 with eight homers, 39 RBIs and 12 steals for the R-Braves. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Grissom hit two grand slams in a 4-for-7 effort on Thursday. … MSU alum Jordan Westburg is batting .414 with three homers and nine RBIs in his first seven games for Triple-A Norfolk in Baltimore’s system. Wonder if the awful Orioles might give him a look later this summer? … Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson went 1-for-3 with a homer for Triple-A Memphis on Thursday in his first rehab assignment for St. Louis. Dickerson was batting .194 for the Cardinals when he injured a hamstring on June 4. … East Central CC product Tim Anderson is 4-for-11 in three games for Triple-A Charlotte on his rehab assignment. Anderson, who went down with a groin injury on May 30, was batting .356 in 40 games for the Chicago White Sox. … Hunter Renfroe is known for his power bat and cannon arm — not his wheels. The ex-State standout, playing for Milwaukee, tried to score from first base on a hit into the right-field corner against the New York Mets on Thursday. Didn’t work out. He was cut down for the second out in the ninth inning of the Brewers’ 5-4 loss at CitiField.