Tag Archives: Jackson Generals

01 Nov

familiar names

While perusing box scores from the various winter circuits, ran across a couple of names of note in the Puerto Rican (a.k.a. Robert Clemente) League: Angel Rosa and Ramon Castro. Rosa, an Alcorn State alumnus and Puerto Rico native, just finished his second season in the Los Angeles Angels’ system and looks to be making progress. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound shortstop hit .246 with seven home runs, 46 RBIs, 23 doubles and 15 steals in the Class A Midwest League, then batted .348 in 28 games in the high-A California League. Rosa doesn’t show up on the prospect charts, but he certainly is worth keeping an eye on. Castro is on the other side of the hill. The former Jackson Generals catcher, a first-round pick by Houston in 1994, is 38 years old and hasn’t been in an MLB game since 2011. But he is playing winter ball in his home country, showing an admirable love for the game. P.S. The Arizona Fall League’s Fall Stars Game will air tonight at 7 on MLB Network. Daniel Castro, a 2014 Mississippi Braves star, is in the starting lineup for the West, and ex-Mississippi State standout Hunter Renfroe (San Diego Padres) will come off the West’s bench.

28 Oct

the hustle factor

The last time the Kansas City Royals were in the World Series, in 1985, they had their backs to the wall in Game 6 against St. Louis and won 2-1, then went on to win Game 7. People remember Game 6 because of umpire Don Denkinger’s missed call in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jorge Orta reached first base on that play, and KC, down 1-0, rallied from there (with the aid of some misplays by the Cardinals). Orta, when he was the hitting coach for the Jackson Generals in 1998, said when asked about the play that he hoped people would remember how he busted it down the first-base line and turned what appeared to be a routine 3-1 putout into a close play. Yes, Denkinger missed the call. Replays showed that. But Orta’s hustle — in a situation where some players might not have gone full-bore — was a factor. Hustle always plays. P.S. Much is made about how the 2014 Royals were built through the draft, and it is interesting to note that McComb’s Jarrod Dyson has some of the deepest roots on the current roster. Drafted by KC in 2006, he is the only homegrown player on the World Series roster from that draft. Dyson, a small but swift center fielder at Southwest Mississippi Community Colleger, was picked in the 50th round. Luke Hochevar, a pitcher, was the Royals’ top pick — the No. 1 overall pick, in fact — but he missed the entire 2014 season after having elbow surgery in March. Dayton Moore, who was Atlanta’s farm director when the Mississippi Braves were hatched in 2005, took the Kansas City GM job in June 2006, just after the draft was conducted.

02 Oct

the road ahead

Anthony Alford, once rated the 36th-best MLB draft prospect in the country, has some catching up to do. The former Mr. Baseball from Petal High, who recently left the Ole Miss football team to return to pro baseball, has played just 25 minor league games, none since 2013. Alford, an outfielder, will spend a couple of weeks in Toronto’s Instructional League camp in Florida and then head off to the Australian Baseball League, according to the National Post of Toronto. Because of his commitment to football — he originally signed with Southern Miss — he slipped to the third round in the 2012 draft. Toronto signed Alford with the intention of letting him continue to play college football while spending the summers in pro baseball. In two limited stints in the low minors, Alford has a career .200 average with a homer and six steals. Alford, who was also the state’s Mr. Football in 2011, has tremendous potential on the diamond. This is a guy who hit .483 with four homers, 31 RBIs and 14 steals as a senior at Petal. It’ll be interesting to see if he can get back on the prospect track. P.S. In addition to Bobby Abreu (see previous post), there was one other ex-Jackson Generals star still playing in 2014, though not in the major leagues. Daryle Ward, now 39, began the 2014 season in Mexico and finished in the independent Atlantic League. The lefty-hitting first baseman batted .239 with eight homers for Somerset, which recently was eliminated from the APBL playoffs. Ward, who hit 90 homers over his 11 MLB seasons, last played in the majors in 2008. He had a huge year for the 1997 Gens, batting .329 with 19 homers and 90 RBIs in 114 games before moving to Triple-A. And, of course, he famously hit a foul ball that blasted a hole in the outfield fence at Smith-Wills Stadium.

29 Sep

the curtain drops

The Mississippi star on the final day of the MLB regular season was T.J. House, the Picayune High product who pitches for Cleveland. House, a rookie lefty who turns 25 today, went five innings Sunday for another victory, improving his season numbers to 5-3, 3.35 ERA. He went 4-0 over his last seven starts and appears to have thrust himself into the Indians’ plans for 2015. … Pillow Academy product Louis Coleman, with postseason-bound Kansas City, notched his first save of the season by striking out the side in a 6-4 Royals win. It’s unlikely that Coleman, with a 5.56 ERA this year, will make KC’s postseason roster. … Kendall Graveman, the Mississippi State product who rocketed to the big leagues this year with Toronto, tossed a scoreless inning in his fifth appearance and ended with a 3.86 ERA. … The Mississippi-connected hitters had a very quiet final day. The only one to get a hit was MSU alum Tyler Moore, who went 1-for-2, finishing at .231 this season for National League East champ Washington. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier (Minnesota) was 0-for-4 (.242); Ole Miss alum Alex Presley (Houston) 0-for-4 (.244); UM’s Zack Cozart (Cincinnati) 0-for-3 (.221); ex-Rebels star Chris Coghlan (Chicago Cubs) 0-for-4 (.283); Jackson native and Ole Miss alum Seth Smith (San Diego) 0-for-3 (.266); and Southwest Mississippi Community College product Jarrod Dyson (Kansas City) 0-for-1 (.269). … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (Cincinnati) missed a fourth straight game because of a concussion. He finished at .250 with 56 steals. Meridian CC alum Corey Dickerson (Colorado) missed the final three games of the year to be with his wife in Mississippi for the birth of their first child. Dickerson hit .312 with 24 homers. P.S. Bobby Abreu, the last Jackson General still playing, got a hit in his final MLB at-bat for the New York Mets. Abreu, who has announced his retirement, finished with 2,470 hits, a .291 average, 288 homers, 1,363 RBIs and 400 stolen bases. Hall of Fame worthy? Close.

15 Sep

a few observations

Former Mississippi State star Jonathan Papelbon blew a save (just his fourth of the year in 41 chances) on Sunday, got booed by the Philadelphia crowd, made an apparent vulgar gesture as he walked to the dugout, got ejected and then engaged umpire Joe West in a heated confrontation. Can this marriage be saved? Papelbon clearly doesn’t want to be in Philly, and maybe this was the final straw for Phillies management. … Four former Mississippi Braves belted home runs on Sunday, but none did so for Atlanta. Martin Prado and Brian McCann went deep for the New York Yankees, Yunel Escobar for Tampa Bay and Jordan Schafer for Minnesota. … Meanwhile, M-Braves alum Mike Minor allowed eight hits, three walks and five runs in 4 2/3 innings as skidding Atlanta lost its third straight game to a woeful Texas team that is playing a veritable Triple-A lineup. Minor is 6-11 with a 4.74 ERA. The Braves are just one game over .500 and likely have had a fork stuck in their season. … Former Ole Miss star Seth Smith got a hit for San Diego, but it was just his fifth in 35 at-bats. His latest slump has dropped his average to .268, and he has been stuck on 12 home runs for a while also. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton stole a base, his 56th on the year for Cincinnati but first since Sept. 2. He is also slumping (.139 over his last 10 games) at the plate and has seen his average fall to .259. … Former Jackson Generals standout Bobby Abreu is 2-for-3 since the New York Mets recalled him from the minors. Abreu now has 2,468 career knocks and a .291 average.

03 Sep

on the debut watch

Curious to see how Kendall Graveman’s stuff plays in the big leagues. It sure worked in the minors. The ex-Mississippi State standout, a September call-up by Toronto, accidentally discovered a cut fastball, ala Mariano Rivera, this summer while throwing in A-ball. That pitch essentially propelled the right-hander to Double-A, then Triple-A and now to the Blue Jays. He went 14-6 with a 1.83 ERA as a starter at four levels in the minors. The Blue Jays, hanging buy a thread in the American League postseason race, figure to use Graveman out of the bullpen. “A big league starter? I don’t know,” Gary Allenson, Graveman’s manager at Triple-A Buffalo, told the National Post of Toronto. “He doesn’t light up the radar gun. But he’s got good movement on his fastball, and it’s late movement.” Allenson, a former Jackson Generals manager, also said that a “soft tosser” like Graveman can have a hard time getting an MLB opportunity, so Graveman has already beaten those odds. The Alabama native was an eighth-round pick by the Jays in 2013 after he went 8-5 with a 3.09 for State’s College World Series team. P.S. Other interesting call-ups include former Mississippi Braves pitcher Erik Cordier (11-7, 3.71 for the 2010 club) by San Francisco and ex-M-Braves outfielder Antoan Richardson by the New York Yankees. Richardson got a cup of coffee with Atlanta in 2011; Cordier is awaiting his MLB debut.

20 Aug

say it ain’t so

The 40th anniversary of the first game at Smith-Wills Stadium comes next April. What a shame it would be if the Jackson ballpark is no longer standing at that time. Reports are out there that the old yard may be demolished. To make way for a Costco. A Costco on Cool Papa Bell Drive? Squeezed in between the Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and the Murrah High baseball field? Smith-Wills still serves a purpose. Not only does Belhaven University play there, but in recent years so have junior colleges, high schools, youth teams and semi-pro squads. Heck, maybe Biloxi’s homeless Southern League team could move in there next season. Smith-Wills has an unappreciated history. It has been nine years since the last pro game was played there and 15 since the final Texas League game. People forget. They should be reminded. This was a place where stars came out, from Lee Mazzilli to Selwyn Langaigne. Darryl Strawberry called it home, and Mookie Wilson and Jeff Reardon and Lenny Dykstra and Gregg Jefferies. And Billy Wagner and Bobby Abreu and Lance Berkman. Fernando Valenzuela made a visit there, and Pedro Martinez and Mark McGwire and Roberto Alomar and Johnny Damon. The list goes on. Will Clark and a host of other Mississippi State and Ole Miss stars played there, too, in the old Mayor’s Trophy Game. Max Patkin and the San Diego Chicken performed there. And the Silver Bullets and The King and His Court and two U.S. Olympic squads. Six pro teams won league pennants while playing there. These things should not be forgotten; they should be celebrated. They want to take this tradition and put up a wholesale store? Carole King ought to write a song.

05 Aug

full speed ahead

It’s a small sample size but impressive nonetheless. In 13 1/3 professional innings, Mississippi State product Jacob Lindgren has racked up 30 strikeouts with a 0.68 ERA. New York Yankees officials reportedly are calling the 5-foot-11 left-hander “the Strikeout Factory.” Lindgren was an All-America pick this year at State after moving from the rotation to the bullpen and fanning 100 batters in 55 1/3 innings. He was selected by the Yankees in the second round of the June draft, 55th overall, and has quickly moved through three levels. He is currently pitching at high Class A Tampa, where he posted a four-strikeout inning on Sunday. Speculation is that a promotion to Double-A, the real proving ground, may come soon. P.S. We are back to zero former Jackson Generals in the big leagues after the New York Mets designated Bobby Abreu for assignment on Monday. It seems unclear whether the 40-year-old Abreu will go back to the minors.

03 Jun

oldie but goodie

Maybe Bobby Abreu spent last year looking for the fountain of youth. Maybe he found it. The former Jackson Generals star — from way back in 1994 — is batting .315 for the New York Mets at the age of 40. Abreu, the only ex-Gen still playing affiliated ball, is hitting .400 over his last 10 games and went 5-for-13 in a five-game series at Philadelphia, helping the surging Mets win four times. In that series, the Venezuela native contributed four runs, three RBIs, two walks and a stolen base, No. 400 of his career. There is talk that Abreu might see some time in the leadoff spot while Juan Lagares is out with an injury. Abreu’s outstanding MLB career (.292 average, 2,400-plus hits) appeared to be over after he batted just .242 in 100 games with the Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers in 2012. He did not play in 2013. The Phillies gave him a look in spring training this year but he didn’t stick. Then the Mets signed him to a minor league deal and called him up in late April. Abreu’s impact surely has been everything, if not more, than they could have expected. P.S. Louis Coleman, the Greenwood native and former Pillow Academy star, was sent down by Kansas City lugging a 6.27 ERA, more than double his career average. Coleman posted a 0.61 in 27 games for the Royals in 2013. … San Diego signed former Ole Miss star Cody Overbeck (out of the independent Atlantic League) and assigned him to Double-A San Antonio. … Former Hattiesburg High star and onetime big leaguer Robert Carson is back in A-ball with Rancho Cucamonga in the Dodgers’ system. A waiver claim by the Angels (from the Mets) in the off-season, the big left-hander posted a 10.34 ERA in Triple-A, was released last month and signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers. He pitched for the Quakes on Sunday and gave up a home run in his one inning.

09 May

remember the time

Some nights at the ballpark stay with you. Here’s one: It was May 9, 1996. The Jackson Generals were playing host to the Wichita Wranglers in a Texas League game at Smith-Wills Stadium. There was a player photo giveaway that night: Russ Johnson, the former LSU star who was playing shortstop for the Houston Astros’ Double-A club that season. And wouldn’t you know it: Johnson put on a show. He hit for the cycle, one of baseball’s rarest feats. It was the first time a Generals player had done it in the six years the team had been in Jackson. Johnson, who would go on to play in the big leagues, scored three times and drove in a run as the Generals won 8-4. Former Ole Miss star Kary Bridges also played for the Gens in that game, as did Richard Hidalgo, Chris Hatcher, Donovan Mitchell, Tim Forkner and Dennis Colon. Doug Simons got the win. The announced attendance was 2,284. Still have the box score and the photo. And the memory.