Tag Archives: JoJo Parker

19 Jul

quick pitches

Friday’s best: Former Mississippi Braves star Ronald Acuna’s throw. From the right field corner to third base — on the fly — to complete an Atlanta double play. ‘Nuff said. … JoJo Parker, the ex-Purvis High star, reportedly has agreed with Toronto on a $6.2 million bonus as the eighth overall draft pick. … Former Mississippi State standout Brent Rooker hit his 100th career MLB homer for the A’s. … MSU product Adam Frazier hit a two-run pinch double in his first at-bat for his new team, Kansas City. … Veteran right-hander Spencer Turnbull, Madison Central High alum, signed a major league contract with the Chicago Cubs as a free agent. … Khal Stephen, 2024 draftee out of MSU, was promoted to Double-A New Hampshire by Toronto after going 9-1, 1.75 ERA, in A-ball. … Dakota Jordan, another 2024 draftee out of MSU, was placed on the 7-day injured list at Low-Class A San Jose (San Francisco), where he is batting .302 with 10 homers and 27 steals. … Former Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin, hit in the right hand by a pitch in the All-Star Futures Game last Saturday, did not play Friday for High-A Greensboro (Pittsburgh). … Batesville native Emaarion Boyd stole his 32nd base and scored the game’s lone run in a win for High-A Beloit (Miami). … Davis Bradshaw, McLaurin High and Meridian Community College product, came off the IL and went 2-for-2 in his first game since May 31 for the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters. … Bradley Pelle, the SAA player of the year at Millsaps, has signed with Ogden of the indy Pioneer League and went 1-for-4 in his pro debut. … Ex-Southern Miss slugger Christopher Sargent is hitting .383 with 17 homers and 76 RBIs for Ogden.

14 Jul

pick five

As the eighth overall pick in the MLB draft, Purvis High product JoJo Parker is in elite company. Only three other high school players from Mississippi have been drafted at No. 8 or higher in the 60-year history of the draft. Ted Nicholson was taken third overall in 1969 out of Oak Park in Laurel by the Chicago White Sox, Donny Castle went eighth in 1968 out of Coldwater High to the Washington Senators and Kirk Presley was selected No. 8 in 1993 out of Tupelo High by the New York Mets. Only Castle made it to the big leagues. Parker, a lefty-hitting shortstop, was the state Gatorade player of the year and is regarded as one of the best pure hitters in the 2025 draft class. He was picked by Toronto; the slot value of the eighth pick is $6.81 million, according to mlb.com. (Konnor Griffin, the ninth overall pick last year out of Jackson Prep, signed with Pittsburgh for approximately $6.5M; he already has reached the High-Class A level.) Interestingly, 11 of the top 24 picks, including No. 1 Eli Willits, are high school shortstops. … Southern Miss’ J.B. Middleton was the 45th overall pick — the second pick of the second round — by Colorado. The right-hander was a 2025 All-America selection and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner. On MLB Network’s draft coverage, he was described by Tennessee coach Tony Vitello as “the ultimate competitor” and “a truly tough kid,” qualities a player would need to pitch at Colorado’s Coors Field. Vitello said he recruited Middleton out of Benton Academy. … In the third round, East Union High pitcher Landon Harmon, who can throw 99, went to Washington at No. 80 overall; Jake Cook, an unsung speed demon at Southern Miss, was picked at No. 81 by Toronto; and Ole Miss righty Mason Morris went at No. 83 to Cincinnati. … All told, five players from Mississippi schools, all natives of the state, were drafted on Day 1, which covered the first three rounds and 105 picks. … Of note: Milwaukee took with the 20th overall pick Tennessee third baseman Andrew Fischer, who played at Ole Miss in 2024 and hit 20 home runs, then popped 25 for the Vols this season. He could be at Double-A Biloxi in short order.

16 Jun

showtime in phoenix

JoJo Parker, the Purvis High star and projected first-round draft pick, is on the list of players from Mississippi schools who have accepted invitations to attend the MLB Draft Combine, which runs Tuesday through Saturday at Chase Field in Phoenix. The Tuesday workout will be televised from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. CDT by MLB Network, with former Mississippi State standout and big league manager Buck Showalter among the crew that will provide analysis. Parker, rated the No. 10 draft prospect by MLB Pipeline, is among the players slated to participate in on-field events that will include batting practice and bullpen sessions. A game for the prep players is on tap for Tuesday night. Also scheduled to attend the showcase are Southern Miss’ Jake Cook and J.B. Middleton; Mississippi State’s Pico Kohn and Ben Davis; Ole Miss’ Mason Morris and Luke Hill; and high school grads Jacob Parker (JoJo’s twin from Purvis), Landon Harmon (East Union), Talon Haley (Lewisburg) and Griffin Enis (Corinth). Middleton, a first-team All-America pick and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner, and Harmon, the ace of East Union’s MHSAA Class 2A state title club, are top 50 draft prospects. In 2024, per an mlb.com story, 224 of the 305 players who participated in the Combine were drafted, including 75 of the first 100 picks. P.S. Austin Riley, Colt Keith and Brent Rooker are among the top 10 vote-getters at their positions in the MLB All-Star Game ballot standings released today. Ex-DeSoto Central High star Riley is seventh in the National League third base voting, while Biloxi High product Keith is sixth and ex-MSU standout Rooker seventh in the voting for American League DH. The All-Star Game is July 15 in Atlanta.

06 Jun

spotlight on …

With Mississippi’s Big 3 out of the NCAA Tournament, look east to Auburn, Ala., where Mississippi native Butch Thompson has his Tigers in a Super Regional for the fourth time in his 10 seasons on The Plains. Auburn, the national No. 4 seed, hosts 13-seed Coastal Carolina, the Sun Belt champ, in the best-of-3 series this weekend, with the winner off to the College World Series. “We’re playing the hottest team in college baseball coming in here,” Thompson said of the Chanticleers, 51-11, who have won 21 straight games. Thompson’s Tigers are playing pretty well, too. Led by Ike Irish (.362, 18 homers, 57 RBIs), they went 3-0 in their regional, putting up 28 runs, and are 41-18 on the year, 28-6 at home. Thompson, born in Aberdeen, starred at Amory High and Itawamba Community College and served as an assistant for seven years at Mississippi State. He is 324-231-1 as the head man at Auburn, which has become one of the best programs in the hyper-competitive SEC. The Tigers have been to the CWS twice in the last six years, and Omaha is again within reach. “We gotta keep our head down and just keep fighting for that consistency in our lineup,” Thompson said. Game 1 of the Super Regional is tonight. … Meanwhile, MSU has given newly hired coach Brian O’Connor a four-year deal worth $2.9 million per, reportedly the second-largest contract in college baseball. He won 900-plus games, including the 2015 national title, in 22 years at Virginia. P.S. Props to JoJo Parker, who joins select company as the winner of the 2025 Gatorade Player of the Year Award in Mississippi. The Purvis High senior, the highest-rated MLB draft prospect in the state, batted .465 with 13 homers this year. Primarily a shortstop, he also pitched (9-2, 2.68 ERA). He and twin brother Jacob led Purvis to a runner-up finish in the MHSAA Class 4A Tournament. JoJo Parker, 6 feet 2, 195 pounds, follows Konnor Griffin, the ex-Jackson Prep star now in pro ball, as the state’s Gatorade winner. Previous winners also include Austin Riley (now with the Atlanta Braves), Colt Keith (Detroit), J.T. Ginn (A’s), Blaze Jordan (Boston minor league system), Dakota Jordan (San Francisco system), Braden Montgomery (Chicago White Sox system) and Cooper Pratt (Milwaukee system). All told, 10 Gatorade winners from the state have made the big leagues. … Tim Elko, former Ole Miss standout, got the first walk-off hit of his big league career on Thursday, a 10th-inning single that gave the Chicago White Sox a 3-2 win over Detroit. Recently recalled from the minors for a second stint, Elko is hitting .175 with three homers over 12 games. … MSU alum Kendall Graveman notched his first win since 2023, the beneficiary of Atlanta’s epic meltdown in Arizona’s 11-10 victory. Graveman — 2.45 ERA in eight appearances this season — allowed a run in the eighth that put the Braves ahead 10-4. The Diamondbacks then scored seven in the ninth. … Ex-MSU star Brandon Woodruff reportedly will be down for “a few weeks” after being struck on his right elbow by a line drive during a rehab assignment (see previous post). … The Los Angeles Dodgers outrighted MSU product Chris Stratton and Southern Miss’ Chuckie Robinson to Triple-A Oklahoma City after both cleared waivers.

15 Apr

draft notice

A high school player from Mississippi went ninth overall in the 2024 MLB draft. Might another go that high this July? Keith Law, draft analyst for The Athletic and The New York Times, ranks Purvis High’s JoJo Parker No. 9 on his recently released 2025 draft prospect chart. (Jackson Prep product Konnor Griffin went at No. 9 overall to Pittsburgh last year and is currently in A-ball.) Law calls Parker “one of the best pure hitters in the draft class this year, with a very compact swing and excellent pitch recognition, unusual for a high school hitter from Mississippi.” Parker is the third-highest rated prep player on Law’s list. (Ethan Holliday of Stillwater, Okla., is No. 1 overall.) Parker is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound lefty-hitting shortstop. Per MaxPreps, he is batting .500 with eight homers, 47 runs and 27 steals. Yes, he also pitches for the Tornadoes, ranked third in the state by MaxPreps. Parker’s twin brother Jacob, also a potential 2025 draftee, is hitting .480 with nine homers and 37 RBIs and is regarded as a better pure power hitter than JoJo. Both are Mississippi State signees. … Also on Law’s Top 50 draft list are Southern Miss right-hander J.B. Middleton (No. 44) and Ole Miss righty Mason Morris (No. 50). P.S. Pearl River Community College’s Caston Thompson, from Jayess, went 7-for-11 with three homers, nine RBIs and six runs to earn MACCC player of the week honors. The second-ranked Wildcats went 3-1 last week and are 36-6, 16-2 MACCC. Jones County’s Josh Lee, from Gulfport, went eight innings, fanning 13, to beat Mississippi Gulf Coast last week and garnered conference pitcher of the week honors. He is 6-0 for the Bobcats, 29-10, 15-5, and ranked eighth in NJCAA Division II. East Central remains No. 3 in the national poll at 33-7, 15-3.