Tag Archives: Kirk McCarty

26 Oct

celebrate, celebrate …

There were two wild celebrations in baseball on Friday, the one at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and another at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taiwan, where Kirk McCarty and his CTBC Brothers teammates celebrated a Chinese Professional Baseball League title. McCarty, the former Southern Miss standout from Hattiesburg, won Game 3 for the Brothers, working 5 1/3 shutout innings in a 10-0 win over Uni-President that put the club up 2-1 in the best-of-7 Taiwan Series. CTBC won the clincher 12-6 on Friday for the franchise’s 10th CPBL crown. McCarty went 5-3 with a 2.76 ERA for CTBC in his first season in Taiwan after a year in the Korean Baseball Organization, where the little lefty won nine games in 2023. Drafted by Cleveland out of USM in 2017, McCarty made the big leagues in 2022 and posted a 4-3, 4.54, ledger for the Guardians. He won two C-USA titles with the Golden Eagles. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves pitcher Evan Phillips was a late scratch from Los Angeles’ World Series roster, reportedly because of minor arm soreness. The Dodgers added pitchers Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol to the 26-man squad, and both worked effectively in the 6-3 win capped by M-Braves alum Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning. … Brennon McNair, Magee High product, had a disappointing fourth year in pro ball, batting .193 for Low-Class A Columbia in the Kansas City system. The 22-year-old outfielder, who can also play third base and shortstop, will get a chance to redeem himself in the Australian Baseball League, where he’ll play for Brisbane starting next month. McNair did have some highlights in 2024, hitting eight homers, 15 doubles and two triples and swiping nine bases in 87 games. His career average is .207 with 18 bombs.

18 Jan

globe-trotter

On the heels of a strong season in the Korean Baseball Organization, Kirk McCarty will travel over to Taiwan in 2024 to play for CTBC Brothers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. The former Southern Miss standout and Hattiesburg native pitched in Major League Baseball for Cleveland in 2022. A diminutive left-hander, the 28-year-old McCarty went 9-6 with a 3.39 ERA in the KBO last season after going 4-3, 4.54, in 13 games for the Guardians the year before. He was released by Cleveland after the 2022 season. McCarty has a fairly impressive resume. He was an All-State performer and a strikeout machine at Oak Grove High, going 25-3 and winning a pair of state titles. He was a two-time All–C-USA pitcher at USM, going 22-4, 3.50, in three seasons in Hattiesburg. Drafted in the seventh round by Cleveland in 2017, McCarty was 23-28, 4.30, overall in the minors, 13-8 in Triple-A. He made his MLB debut on April 24, 2022. P.S. Today is the birthdate of another USM pitcher who made the majors: Hugh Laurin Pepper. Pepper, born in 1930 in Vaughan, died in 2018. A Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer, he was a baseball and football standout at USM, throwing a no-hitter in 1954 and rushing for 1,000 yards in 1952. He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in ’54 and played parts of four seasons in the big leagues.

16 Jun

whatever happened to …

Kirk McCarty, the former Southern Miss and Oak Grove High star, notched his sixth win today for SSG Landers in the Korean Baseball Organization. McCarty, in his first year in the KBO, threw six innings in a 12-1 win over Lotte, yielding one run on five hits. In 12 starts, the 27-year-old left-hander is 6-3 with a 2.48 ERA, which includes an awful debut in which he allowed eight runs in 3 1/3. McCarty was a remarkable 22-4 at USM from 2015-17 and was drafted in the seventh round by Cleveland after his junior year. He made his big league debut last season with the Guardians and pitched fairly well: 4-3, 4.54 ERA, in 13 games. Cleveland released him in November, and he quickly signed with the KBO team based in Incheon, South Korea, that won the league title in 2022. SSG Landers played a series against the KT Wiz earlier this week, but McCarty did not pitch, missing a chance to face former Petal High star Anthony Alford, one of KT Wiz’s best hitters. P.S. Eight Magnolia State college players are among the 323 prospects invited to next week’s MLB Draft Combine by MLB and USA Baseball. Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, the highest-rated draft prospect in the state, leads four Ole Miss alums on the list, joined by outfielder Kemp Alderman, catcher Calvin Harris and pitcher Jack Dougherty. Southern Miss pitcher Tanner Hall and outfielder Matthew Etzel got invites along with Mississippi State outfielder Colton Ledbetter and pitcher Cade Smith. The combine runs June 19-24 at Chase Field in Phoenix. MLB Network will broadcast from the site on Tuesday and Wednesday. The draft is next month.

23 Apr

denied

The anticipation was high. Kirk McCarty, the ex-Southern Miss star from Hattiesburg, was scheduled to make his big league debut today, starting on the bump against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. It’s not happening. Cal Quantrill has come off the COVID-19 list and will get the ball for Cleveland. McCarty, brought up from Triple-A earlier in the week, might still get in the game as a reliever, of course, but a start against Aaron Judge and Co. would have been so much cooler. (In Friday’s game, a Cleveland loss, Mississippi State alum Konnor Pilkington threw two scoreless innings in relief for the Guardians in his third big league game. He has yet to yield a run.) … In other MLB news: Former State standout Nathaniel Lowe extended his hit streak to eight games, raised his average to .412 — tops in the American League — and belted his first home run in Texas’ win against Oakland. … Anthony Alford, the former Mr. Baseball from Petal, made his 2022 debut for Pittsburgh, coming off a rehab assignment, and went 0-for-3 as the leadoff batter at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The Pirates won the game over the Cubs 4-2, with ex-State star Chris Stratton getting the save. … Ex-East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson was handed a one-game suspension for flipping off the Cleveland crowd in a game on Wednesday. Anderson issued an apology, then appealed the suspension and played Friday. He went 0-for-4 and his eighth-inning throwing error — his sixth E in three games — proved costly in the Chicago White Sox’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota. MSU alum Kendall Graveman suffered the blown save and took the loss in that game.

20 Apr

three on a match

The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen is well-stocked with former Magnolia State college stars for today’s doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. Southern Miss product Kirk McCarty was added to the roster and joins former USM teammate Nick Sandlin and ex-Mississippi State standout Konnor Pilkington on the Guardians’ 28-man club. Hattiesburg native McCarty, a 5-foot-8 left-hander, was brilliant in three starts at Triple-A Columbus this season, posting a 0.79 ERA in 11 1/3 innings. A seventh-round pick in 2017, he is 19-26 with a 4.31 ERA in his minor league career. One report said McCarty is a candidate to start against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium this weekend. That would be quite the debut. Pascagoula native Pilkington debuted last weekend (see previous post). Sandlin, a Georgia native, debuted in 2021 and pitched well (2.94 in 34 games), though he has an 8.31 in 4 1/3 innings in 2022. Also on the Cleveland roster is Harrison Central High product Bobby Bradley, a first baseman who has seen limited playing time this season.

23 Oct

job well done

Kirk McCarty’s work is complete in the Arizona Fall League, and it was a job well done. The ex-Southern Miss standout, in his third year in Cleveland’s system, finished 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA over 24 innings for Mesa in the prospect-filled AFL. The little left-hander struck out 19 and walked just six. In his final start on Monday, McCarty threw five shutout innings, reportedly displaying command of four pitches. “It’s good to build a lot of confidence back up going into the off-season,” he told mlb.com. “It’s absolutely vital to end on a good note.” McCarty got a late start on his 2019 season because of a minor injury and wound up 3-7 with a 5.66 ERA in 13 starts for high Class A Lynchburg. A seventh-round pick in 2017, the Oak Grove High product – a state champion as a senior in baseball and football (as a quarterback) – is 10-20 with a 4.12 ERA in his pro career. There are 12 pitchers – including USM product Nick Sandlin – currently listed among the Indians’ Top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline and McCarty is not among them. At age 24, he needs to build on his AFL success with a strong 2020 season to stay on Cleveland’s radar.