Tag Archives: Freddie Freeman

28 Oct

cooperstown bound

Baseball pundits talk about a Hall of Fame highway when heralding players who appear to be bound for Cooperstown. Well, Freddie Freeman is on a Hall of Fame expressway. Freeman, easily the best player ever to suit up for the Mississippi Braves, delivered a walk-off home run in the 18th inning that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a 6-5 win over Toronto in World Series Game 3 (which started on Monday and ended Tuesday morning). Seems so appropriate that an epic, 7-hour game that had everything would end with a Freddie Freeman bomb. Hall of Famers do things like that. Freeman’s homer was the 16th of his postseason career, which already includes two championship rings. He finished the 2025 season with a .300 career average, 2,431 hits, 367 homers, 1,322 RBIs. He’s been an MVP, a nine-time All-Star and a three-time Silver Slugger. He also has a Gold Glove at first base — and should have earned more. On top of all that, he’s a really good guy. When Freeman arrives in the Hall of Fame, he’ll be the first former M-Braves star to make it. That franchise has produced a multitude of standout big leaguers but no others yet of Freeman’s caliber. When he arrived in Mississippi in July of 2009, he came up from A-ball along with Jason Heyward, the higher drafted player and the more highly rated prospect. Heyward had better Double-A numbers and reached Atlanta first. But as good as Heyward has been, Freeman has passed him. He dealt with injuries while in Pearl and hit just .248 with two homers in 41 games. But once he got to The Show, late in 2010, he took off, starting down a path that has become an expressway to the Hall of Fame. P.S. Billy Wagner became this year the first former Jackson Generals player to make the Hall. No former Jackson Mets are in. A ton of talented players came through Smith-Wills Stadium during the 25-year Texas League era, indicative of just how special it is for one to make it to Cooperstown.

16 May

movin’ on up

Freddie Freeman became just the sixth player to hit 250 homers with the Atlanta franchise when he went deep against Milwaukee on Saturday night. The former Mississippi Braves star joins a list that also includes legends Hank Aaron, Chipper Jones and Dale Murphy. Freeman is, at the moment, No. 234 on the all-time home run list. But where does he rank on the chart of former Jackson area Double-A players? He is fifth. Ex-Jackson Generals standout Lance Berkman leads that group with 366, followed by Jackson Mets icon Darryl Strawberry at 335, Gens alum Bobby Abreu at 288 and Brian McCann, the first M-Brave to make The Show, at 282. Freeman, 31, is a virtual lock to pass McCann, who hit 188 of his homers while with Atlanta. P.S. Props to Mississippi State product Ethan Small, who worked the first five innings of a four-man no-hitter for Biloxi against the visiting M-Braves on Saturday night. Small, a 2019 first-round pick and one of Milwaukee’s top prospects, notched his first Double-A win in his second start.

20 May

ode to freddie

Freddie Freeman already has achieved iconic status with the Atlanta Braves. The former Mississippi Braves first baseman is to the current generation of Braves fans what Hank Aaron, Dale Murphy and Chipper Jones were before him: the face of the franchise. Still, the occasion of Freeman’s 200th career home run – struck Sunday against Mississippi native Brandon Woodruff of Milwaukee – gives us a peg to celebrate what he has achieved in his 10 seasons in the big leagues. It has been a treat to watch. Freeman arrived in Pearl on July 4, 2009, as a highly rated prospect though not as celebrated as his buddy who arrived on the same day, Jason Heyward. Heyward put up better numbers as an M-Brave – Freeman, not fully healthy, hit .248 with two homers in 41 games that summer – and reached Atlanta first, famously homering in his first at-bat in 2010. But Freeman has clearly surpassed Heyward on the big league stage. Freeman is a career .294 hitter with 713 RBIs. He has made three All-Star teams, won a Gold Glove and finished in the top six in National League MVP voting three times. He is just the ninth player ever to hit 200 homers for the Braves. He has the second-most homers by an M-Braves alum; Brian McCann has 273, 179 with Atlanta. Only Lance Berkman (366), Darryl Strawberry (335), Bobby Abreu (288), McCann and Kevin Mitchell (234) rank above Freeman on the list of career bombs by former Jackson area Double-A players. The current Braves team, sprinkled with so many young stars, revolves around Freeman — and will go as far as he leads them.