Tag Archives: Giants

04 Feb

here and there

Cody Satterwhite, on the comeback trail from a variety of injuries, has received a non-roster invite to the New York Mets’ big league spring camp. The former Ole Miss standout from Jackson, now 28, notched 15 saves with a 2.33 ERA at Double-A Binghamton in 2014. It wouldn’t be a shock to see him land a role in the Mets’ bullpen. … Former Mississippi State ace Chris Stratton, San Francisco’s top pick in 2012, has a non-roster invite to the Giants’ camp. Stratton, from Tupelo, reached Double-A last season. … Belhaven University, 4-0 after whipping Tougaloo 16-2 on Tuesday, will host the BU Invitational starting Thursday at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Blazers will play Culver-Stockton; NAIA nationally ranked Missouri Baptist, which swept William Carey three straight last weekend; and NAIA national champ Cumberland University. … Tougaloo’s game at Belhaven on Tuesday marked the coaching debut of former Jackson State star (and onetime Jackson Generals pitcher) Earl Sanders. … Blue Mountain went 1-2 last weekend at Georgia Gwinnett despite allowing 36 runs. … Hinds Community College, the No. 2 team in the national juco polls, has moved its opener to Friday (from Saturday) in Raymond. The Eagles will play two against Mineral Area (Mo.). … Also opening on Friday are Mississippi College, which will take on Tougaloo at Frierson Field in Clinton, and Delta State, which travels to Nova Southeastern in Florida. … The NCAA Division I schools start on Feb. 13. Both State and Ole Miss are ranked in various national polls. … Also slated to start on Feb. 13 is Division III Millsaps, which hosts Ozarks (Ark.) at Twenty Field on its Jackson campus.

25 Nov

play it again

Wendell Fairley, a former first-round draft pick out of George County High, recently signed to play in 2015 with the Southern Illinois Miners of the independent Frontier League. Fairley, who’ll be 27 in March, apparently has not played organized ball since 2012, his last season in the San Francisco system. The left-handed hitting outfielder was the Giants’ top pick in 2007 and batted .257 with eight home runs, 149 RBIs and 26 steals over five seasons. The Giants invited him to their big league spring training camp in 2010, but he never played above the Double-A level. P.S. They will be called the Biloxi Shuckers, but the new Southern League team’s plans for where they’ll play in 2015 remain unknown (see previous post). No new information was revealed at Monday’s nickname announcement ceremony. … It’s unlikely that David Goforth, a Meridian native and ex-Ole Miss standout, will play for the Shuckers, Milwaukee’s Double-A affiliate, next season. Goforth went 5-4 with 27 saves and a 3.76 ERA for the Huntsville Stars in 2014 and earned a spot on the Brewers’ 40-man roster. If he doesn’t make the big club, Goforth figures to pitch in Triple-A.

31 Oct

lefty for hire

The list of free agent pitchers includes some big names: Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, James Shields, Ervin Santana, to name a few. It also includes many more names from the MLB rank-and-file, role-fillers such as Paul Maholm, the former Mississippi State star from Greenwood. Maholm, a 32-year-old left-hander, was a late signee last off-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a generally lackluster year: 1-5, 4.84 ERA in 30 games (eight starts). Over 70 2/3 innings, he yielded 82 hits and 28 walks with just 34 strikeouts. And he finished the season on the disabled list. Maholm was a first-round draft pick by Pittsburgh in 2003 and spent his first seven MLB campaigns with the then-lowly Pirates. He has bounced from the Chicago Cubs to Atlanta to the Dodgers over the past three seasons. His career numbers: 77-100, 4.30 ERA. Since he is a lefty who can start or come out of the pen, Maholm should get another shot in 2015. But he again might have a long wait this off-season. P.S. Read an interesting comment from Kansas City’s Alex Gordon, who was held at third base while his two-out hit was misplayed in left field in the bottom of the ninth inning of World Series Game 7. “I’m not as fast as Jarrod Dyson,” Gordon told mlb.com. “If I was, I probably would’ve scored (the tying run).” He’s probably right. Of course, a pop up ended the game and gave San Francisco the title. Former Southwest Mississippi Community College standout Dyson, who swiped 36 bags during the season, didn’t get to use his speed much in the Series. He wasn’t on base very often and never attempted a steal.

23 Oct

whatever happened to …

Corey Wimberly, the former Alcorn State standout, is still chasing the dream of making it to the big leagues — and the trail has led him to the Mexican Pacific League. Wimberly, 31, a sixth-round draft pick by Colorado in 2005, is batting .308 with three runs and a steal in six games for Obregon. The 5-foot-8, switch-hitting outfielder played at Double-A New Britain in the Minnesota organization in 2014, batting .252 with 32 runs and 17 bags in 72 games. Wimberly has been with seven different organizations, including some time with Atlanta’s Triple-A Gwinnett club in 2013. Wimberly’s best pro year might have been his first, 2005, when he led the rookie Pioneer League with a .381 average. He has stolen as many as 59 bases in a season (2008 in Double-A). P.S. Props to Mississippi Braves alum Gregor Blanco for becoming just the 19th player to hit a lead-off home run in a World Series game. Blanco’s Wednesday night blast didn’t hold up for San Francisco, which lost Game 2 to Kansas City 7-2.

22 Oct

bits and pieces

The big stuff was provided by other hitters, but former Mississippi Braves standout Gregor Blanco did a lot of little things Tuesday night that helped San Francisco win Game 1 of the World Series. Blanco went 1-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and two runs — plus a couple of nice catches in center field — as the Giants whipped Kansas City 7-1. Blanco played for the M-Braves in 2005 and ’06 and was — trivia alert! — the first player to bat in the very first M-Braves game on April 7, 2005, in Montgomery, Ala. He won a ring with the Giants in 2012, going 4-for-15 with a run and an RBI — plus some nice D in left field — in the Series victory over Detroit. … Former M-Braves reliever Tim Collins, buried in KC’s deep bullpen, made just his second postseason appearance, working two scoreless innings, though he did allow an inherited runner to cross in the seventh. Collins, a 5-foot-7 lefty who throws gas, put up a 1.13 ERA and two saves in six games for the M-Braves in 2010 after he was acquired by Atlanta from Toronto as part of the Yunel Escobar trade. A couple of weeks later, Collins went to Kansas City (along with Blanco, coincidentally) in the deal that moved Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth to the Braves. P.S. Ex-Mississippi State star Tyler Moore smacked his second home run in the Dominican Winter League, this time going deep against ex-M-Braves ace Randall Delgado. Moore is batting .417 in four games for Toros del Este. … Former Hattiesburg High standout and onetime big leaguer Robert Carson has re-signed as a minor leaguer with the Los Angeles Dodgers. A 14th-round pick by the New York Mets in 2007, the big left-hander pitched at two levels for the Dodgers this past summer, going 2-5 with a 5.40 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 25 innings in Triple-A. He began 2014 in the Angels’ system before getting released.

21 Oct

see how they run

You have to be hoping that McComb native Jarrod Dyson gets on base tonight in Game 1 of the World Series. Even some San Francisco Giants fans have to be hoping for that. You want to see the Kansas City Royals speedster run. And you want to hear what he says about it afterward. Dyson has always been fast — and he’s always been outspoken. “That’s J-Rod,” said Chuck Freeman, Dyson’s coach at McComb High from 2002-04. “We tried to keep the reins on him, but his personality always shined through. That’s how he is.” Dyson, who stole 36 bases for KC in the regular season — four against the Giants in the Royals’ three-game sweep back in August — and is 120-for-140 in his big league career, has gotten just one bag in the postseason. But he’s a major threat to steal, as are several of his teammates, which makes for compelling theater. As Dyson told mlb.com, “They give us an inch, we are going to run a mile.” P.S. Both Pittsburgh and Oakland made the postseason this year but both lost in the wild card round (to the Giants and Royals, as a matter of fact.) Still, both towns have reason to celebrate this month. The Pirates won the World Series in 1979 — 35 years ago — and the A’s captured the Fall Classic in 1989 — 25 years ago. Significant anniversaries, to be sure, and Mississippi native Dave Parker was a common thread. He batted .345 with four RBIs for the Pirates in the ’79 Series and contributed a homer and two RBIs for the A’s in ’89. The oft-controversial slugger, one of baseball’s first big-money players, batted .290 with 339 homers over a 19-year career spent with six different clubs. He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame this summer, though his chances of making it into Cooperstown appear slim. Sadly, Parker is battling Parkinson’s disease.

15 Oct

full speed ahead

Tuesday’s League Championship Series games had the feel of defining moments. And a pair of Mississippi-connected players — former Southwest Mississippi Community College standout Jarrod Dyson and ex-Mississippi Braves star Gregor Blanco — were involved in crucial plays. Blanco’s bunt — and subsequent hustle down the first-base line — drew a wild throw from pitcher Randy Choate and sent the winning run home in San Francisco’s 5-4, 10-inning victory over St. Louis. The Giants, who blew a 4-0 advantage on Tuesday, lead the NLCS 2-1 with two more games ahead in the tricky confines of AT&T Park. Blanco, the Giants’ leadoff batter, is just 2-for-14 with no runs in the series, but that sac bunt was as big as any hit the Giants got in Game 3. In Kansas City, Dyson scored the game-winning run on a sac fly in the sixth inning as the Royals beat Baltimore 2-1 and went up 3-0 in the ALCS with two games left at crazy Kauffman Stadium. Dyson’s “bold” and much-publicized prediction that the series would not be returning to Baltimore may well hold up. Dyson is 0-for-3 in the series and twice has been caught stealing. But his speed has had an influence. The Orioles are using that strange ploy to hold Dyson on at first base, and it might have been a factor in the game’s key hit in the pivotal sixth inning. Dyson entered as a pinch runner in the 1-1 game and bolted to third when Eric Hosmer slapped a single to the right of first baseman Steve Pearce, who was still very close to the bag. According to an mlb.com story, Statcast tracking technology showed Dyson reached 21 mph en route to third base. He also reached that speed as he scored the go-ahead run — quite easily — on Billy Butler’s sac fly to left. A mad dash here and a mad dash there, and now we appear headed for a Giants-Royals World Series.

08 Oct

crazy happens

Let’s see: There was a walk that loaded the bases. Then a wild pitch that scored the go-ahead run. That was followed by an intentional ball four that went over the catcher’s head. Runner races home from third. Pitcher covers. Play at the plate. Runner called out. Video review to confirm. It was a crazy few minutes there in the seventh inning Tuesday night for Ole Miss product Aaron Barrett. Ultimately, his Washington Nationals were eliminated from the postseason with the 3-2 loss to San Francisco. Barrett’s wild pitch plated the winning run. All told, Barrett faced three batters in the postseason — he also pitched in the Nats’ 18-inning Game 2 loss — and yielded a hit and two walks. That’s what many Washington fans will remember about Barrett. But they shouldn’t forget his work during the regular season. The rookie right-hander, a ninth-round pick in 2010, went 3-0 with eight holds and a 2.66 ERA in 40 2/3 innings over 50 games for the National League East champs. He struck out 49 batters, which is one of the reasons he was inserted into Tuesday’s game with runners at first and second and one out. Washington needed a punch out. Barrett also walked 20 batters during the season — and threw six wild pitches. Those things happen, and when they happen in October, they are magnified.

06 Oct

thinking october

Dennis Boyd, better known as “Oil Can,” celebrates his 55th birthday today. The colorful and controversial Meridian native and ex-Jackson State star was a respectable 78-77 with a 4.04 ERA in 10 big league seasons, from 1982-91. His best year was 1986, when he won 16 games for the Boston Red Sox. Boyd won a game in the ’86 American League Championship Series against California but lost his only start in the World Series, which the BoSox infamously dropped in seven to the New York Mets. Boyd put a stain on his own career when he claimed in a recent biography that he frequently pitched under the influence of cocaine, even in 1986. … More deserving of an October shout out is Chad Bradford, the Jackson native of “Moneyball” fame. Bradford pitched in seven different postseasons for five different teams. In 23 1/3 innings over 24 appearances, he allowed one run. That’s a 0.39 ERA. In the October spotlight. Bradford made it to only one World Series and was on the losing end with Tampa Bay in 2008. The former Byram High, Hinds Community College and Southern Miss star put up a 3.26 ERA in 561 MLB games. He is now the pitching coach at HCC. … Another October achievement to marvel at was accomplished by Mississippi State product Will Clark. Clark was 29-for-62, a .468 batting average, in League Championship Series play. That’s a record by a wide margin for players with at least 50 LCS at-bats. Clark also came up short of winning a World Series ring. His only appearance in the Fall Classic came in 1989, when his San Francisco club lost to Oakland in the Earthquake Series.

01 Oct

speed thrills

Is it safe to assume that Jarrod Dyson will never forget the first postseason game of his MLB career? The former McComb High and Southwest Mississippi Community College standout got a piece of a record in addition to the thrill of a dramatic victory in Kansas City’s first postseason game in 29 years. The Royals beat Oakland 9-8 in 12 innings in Tuesday’s American League Wild Card Game at a raucous Kauffman Stadium. KC trailed 2-0, 7-3 and 8-7 but used seven stolen bases and four sac bunts to claim the win-or-go-home contest. “That’s the most incredible game I’ve ever been a part of,” Royals manager Ned Yost, the former Jackson Mets catcher, told mlb.com. The seven steals tied a postseason record, held by two other clubs, and seven different players with steals set a postseason mark. Dyson got one of those bags. He entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch runner, with the Royals down 7-6. He was bunted to second, stole third and scored the tying run on a sac fly. Dyson, rated the fastest player in the AL in a Baseball America survey, swiped 36 bases in 43 attempts this season. He led the league with 10 steals of third base. In 359 MLB games, the former 50th-round draft pick has 120 steals. Speed, it would appear, is back as a weapon in the big leagues. And on that subject, it wouldn’t be surprising to see former Mississippi Braves star Gregor Blanco have an impact on tonight’s NL Wild Card Game with his legs. Blanco, who figures to hit leadoff for San Francisco at Pittsburgh, stole 16 bases in 21 tries this year and also banged out six triples.