M-Braves Archives - Page 31 of 42 - All Mississippi Baseball

11 May

now you see him

He is listed at 6 feet 1, 190 pounds but looks smaller out on the field. Dansby Swanson is batting .292 with a homer, seven RBIs and six runs – and two errors at shortstop — in his first 11 Double-A games. Nice numbers but nothing to drop your jaw. Then again, there is more to Swanson than what personal stats can tell you. The No. 1 overall draft pick from 2015, who is now the top prospect in Atlanta’s system, is said to be dripping in intangibles. His coach at Vanderbilt, Tim Corbin, described him this way: “Dansby is a rare talent … he affects the game in so many different ways, whether it’s physically on the field or in the clubhouse. Plain and simple, he’s a winning baseball player.” Mississippi Braves hitting coach Garey Ingram recently echoed that sentiment. “He’s a ballplayer, man,” Ingram told milb.com. “You haven’t seen the depth of this guy.” Alas, Swanson may not stay with the M-Braves long enough for fans at Trustmark Park to see an impact on the club. He is only 22 and has played just 54 professional games, but the woeful big Braves need help — and something to get Atlanta fans jazzed about 2017 when the team moves to the new ballpark. The M-Braves (14-19) do have some talent around Swanson, who replaced Ozzie Albies on the roster on April 30. Johan Camargo is batting .272 with 16 runs in 31 games, and Dustin Peterson is at .262 with four homers and 19 RBIs. Starters Chris Ellis, the ex-Ole Miss star, and Brandon Barker are a combined 8-1 with a sub-1.70 ERA. It’s a team that could make a move in the standings if Swanson sticks around.

09 May

here and there

Dansby Swanson, Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect, is expected to make his home debut tonight when the Mississippi Braves host Mobile. Interested to see what kind of crowd they get at Trustmark Park. Swanson, hitless in his last three games, is batting .310 over his nine Double-A games. The shortstop out of Vanderbilt homered in his M-Braves debut on April 30 and had a four-hit game May 4. … Brett Phillips, Milwaukee’s No. 2 prospect, had a three-homer game for Biloxi on Saturday and is batting .260 with five bombs for the season. The Shuckers also open a homestand tonight. … Mississippi State is No. 3, Ole Miss No. 6 and Southern Miss No. 19 in the new Baseball America poll. State’s Dakota Hudson is listed as the No. 19 draft prospect in BA’s latest rankings. … After rallying to beat West Georgia 8-7 on Sunday, Delta State is 2-0 in the Gulf South Conference Tournament. Ace Tre Hobbs had an off day, but DSU got three RBIs from Trent Giambroni, a three-run homer from Ethan Gill and a clutch sac fly by Will Robertson to secure the W, its 36th of the year. … Jackson State, looking to gather some momentum for the SWAC Tournament, swept Mississippi Valley State in a three-game set at Braddy Field over the weekend. The Tigers are 14-10 in the league and 6-0 against MVSU. The tournament is slated to start May 18. … The MACJC final four is set. Jones County Junior College, the regular season champ, will host the double-elimination tournament starting Thursday. Also in are 3-seed East Central, which beat Gulf Coast 27-21 on Saturday to advance from the best-of-3 round; Meridian, the second seed; and 4-seed Northwest. … The Houston Astros optioned former M-Braves star Evan Gattis to Double-A? Reportedly, he was sent down just to brush up on his catching skills; he hasn’t caught in an MLB game since 2014.

30 Apr

swanson is coming

Mondays are typically a slow night at Trustmark Park in Pearl. May 9 could be – should be – different. Dansby Swanson, the former No. 1 overall pick and one of the top prospects in all of baseball, has been promoted to the Double-A Mississippi Braves, whose next home game is May 9 against Mobile. Swanson, a shortstop acquired by Atlanta from Arizona in the Shelby Miller deal, was batting .333 with a homer, 10 RBIs, 12 doubles and seven steals at Class A Carolina. He is expected to make his M-Braves debut tonight at Jacksonville. In a corresponding move, the Braves promoted Ozzie Albies, another shortstop prospect, to Triple-A Gwinnett. Albies was batting .369 for the M-Braves.

24 Apr

around the horn

It’s a day for letting baseball just flow over you. … Rubber game today in Hattiesburg with the Conference USA lead at stake. Kirk McCarty (3-0, 3.51 ERA) for Southern Miss vs. Ricardo Salinas (6-1, 3.60) for Rice in what has been a pitching-dominated series at Taylor Park. … Mississippi State goes for a sweep at LSU. Reid Humphreys, the ex-Northwest Rankin High star, got an RBI and the save in Saturday’s 2-1 win. For the year, he’s hitting .328 with 15 doubles, four homers and 31 RBIs and he has five saves. … Ole Miss, going for a sweep against Auburn in Oxford, now has won 30 games for 19 straight seasons. Impressive. … Delta State left-hander Tre Hobbs beat Valdosta State in Cleveland on Saturday to improve to 11-1 with a 2.46 ERA and eight complete games. Nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, DSU is 32-13, 21-8 Gulf South. … There was a celebration in Itta Bena on Saturday. By Alabama State, which clinched the SWAC East with a 10-0 win over hapless Mississippi Valley State. ASU (17-0 in the league) won Friday’s opener 12-0. … William Carey University improved to 34-15 and 16-7 in the Southern States Athletic Conference by sweeping Brewton-Parker in Hattiesburg. The NAIA nationally ranked Crusaders are hitting .327 with 390 runs. … Millsaps’ season ended with a 13-11 loss to Birmingham-Southern in the Southern Athletic Association tournament. The Majors finished 20-21. … Belhaven lost its home finale to McMurry at Smith-Wills Stadium on Saturday, saying goodbye to 11 seniors and paying special tribute to Devin McCann, who died in a car accident just before the season began. … Mississippi College stopped an 11-game GSC losing streak with a 3-2 win against Lee in Clinton on Saturday. The Choctaws go for the series win today at Frierson Field. … Former Ole Miss star Chris Ellis, bucking for a call-up to the big leagues, threw six brilliant innings for the Mississippi Braves against Biloxi at Trustmark Park on Saturday. He got a no-decision in a game the M-Braves would ultimately lose but is 2-0 with a 1.16 ERA in four Double-A starts. He got a long look with Atlanta in spring training. … Ex-State standout Chad Girodo’s stay in MLB was short but sweet. He threw two scoreless innings in his debut for Toronto against Oakland on Friday but was shipped back to the minors on Saturday. … UM product Zack Cozart went 3-for-5 in Cincinnati’s 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday and is now batting .400 (20-for-50) on the year with a homer, five RBIs and 10 runs. … Anthony Alford, the former Mr. Baseball from Petal and a top-rated Toronto prospect, has not played since suffering a leg injury in his first game of the season at Class A Dunedin. The Blue Jays have been silent on his status.

22 Apr

together again

Mississippi Braves vs. Biloxi Shuckers. We want this to be a rivalry. Rivalries are good. They demand attention. Remember Jackson-Shreveport from the old Texas League days? The M-Braves and Shuckers meet for the first time in 2016 tonight at Trustmark Park. They split their 24 meetings in 2015, but, M-Braves fans should recall, the Shuckers clinched — and celebrated — the Southern League South first-half championship at the TeePee last June. So, there’s that. Biloxi comes in tonight leading the SL South at 11-3. The M-Braves are last at 5-10. The Shuckers again feature a bevy of top Milwaukee prospects, including No. 2 Brett Phillips, who is batting .311 with a homer and eight RBIs, and right-hander Adrian Houser, tonight’s starter, who is 0-1, 5.73 ERA. Biloxi has three of the SL’s top 10 hitters: Phillips, Victor Roache (.333) and Javier Betancourt (.314). The M-Braves have one: Ozzie Albies, who’s third at .350. Both teams pitch pretty well, ranking second (Biloxi) and fourth in the league in ERA. Lucas Sims, one of several pitching prospects on the M-Braves’ roster, gets the start in Game 1; he is 0-2, 1.84. P.S. Big league chew: Ex-Ole Miss star and veteran big leaguer Alex Presley got a hit in his Milwaukee debut on Thursday. … Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Jarrod Dyson is 3-for-9 with two steals since Kansas City activated him from the disabled list. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton has a thumb injury (from last week’s home run-robbing catch) that is keeping him out of the Cincinnati lineup. … Former Pillow Academy standout Louis Coleman has been placed on the bereavement list by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

17 Apr

searching …

Trustmark Park is not a great place to find your offense, but the Mississippi Braves open a 10-game homestand tonight desperately searching. The M-Braves, off to a 2-8 start, are batting .218 and have scored just 27 runs, ninth in the 10-team Southern League. Nine of those runs came in one game, a win at Montgomery on Friday. Maybe that was a sign that a breakout is imminent. There are only 10 position players among the top 30 prospects (as rated by mlb.com) in Atlanta’s refurbished minor league system, and three of them are playing for the M-Braves. No. 3 Ozzie Albies is off to a fine start, batting .310. No. 21 Dustin Peterson also has played well, hitting .308 with a homer (in Friday’s game) and seven RBIs. No. 24 Johan Camargo, like Albies and Peterson, playing his first Double-A season, has scuffled (.179). The pitching depth in the Braves’ system is impressive, but they’re going to have to produce some hitters, too. There are less-heralded players on the M-Braves’ roster who could be part of the rebuild in Atlanta but who need to get it going. First baseman Jacob Schrader, who hit .268 and belted 15 homers at Class A Carolina in 2015, has hit one bomb this year (Friday in Montgomery) and is batting just .214. Third baseman Carlos Franco, who had 11 homers at Carolina last year, is still looking for his first in Mississippi and is hitting .125. Infielder Emerson Landoni, a .297 hitter for the M-Braves a year ago, is at .118. Outfielder Dian Toscano, the 27-year-old Cuban signee, is 1-for-8 in his two games since being activated, though the one hit was a two-run triple in that Friday game at Montgomery. He’s one to watch. Outfielder Connor Lien had good numbers at Carolina in 2015 (.285, nine homers, 32 steals) but is currently on the disabled list. He could boost the attack, too, whenever he returns. The M-Braves’ pitching staff, armed with prospects, has a 3.19 ERA. If they could only get them some runs. P.S. On Chattanooga’s roster is former Ole Miss star Stuart Turner, a catcher who is batting .364, ranking among the SL leaders. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore is hitting .282 with a home run and seven RBIs in eight games at Triple-A Gwinnett. Former M-Braves third baseman Rio Ruiz is hitting .314 for the G-Braves; he hit .229 in Pearl last season. … Dansby Swanson, the Braves’ No. 1 prospect, is killing it at Carolina, hitting .350 in 10 games for the high-A club.

30 Mar

just a wild guess

Purely speculating on the Mississippi Braves’ 2016 Opening Day lineup:

Ozzie Albies, ss
Connor Lien, cf
Dustin Peterson, rf
Jacob Schrader, 1b
Dian Toscano, lf
Rio Ruiz, 3b
Joseph Odom, c
Levi Hyams, 2b
Zack Bird, p

That would be a nice mix of old and new, with hot prospect Albies and Cuban curiosity Toscano rating particular attention. Bird, a former Jackson Murrah High star, would be a cool choice to start Game 1. New M-Braves manager Luis Salazar will pencil in the actual lineup on April 7, when the M-Braves host Pensacola to begin their 12th season at Trustmark Park in Pearl. … Former Mississippi State standout Brandon Woodruff looks like a candidate for the Biloxi Shuckers’ rotation this year. The right-hander from Wheeler pitched at Class A Brevard County in the Milwaukee system last season and went 4-7, 3.45 ERA in 21 games, 19 starts. Biloxi opens at MGM Park on April 7 against Chattanooga. P.S. Good to see that Atlanta added Jeff Francoeur of the original M-Braves (2005) to the big league roster. “For me, it’s going to be really cool on Monday running out there back at Turner Field,” he told mlb.com. Now if the Braves could find a way to bring back Brian McCann, Gregor Blanco, Martin Prado, Craig Kimbrel, Evan Gattis, Jason Heyward, Yunel Escobar, Kris Medlen, Tommy LaStella, Phil Gosselin, Jose Peraza … . Longtime M-Braves outfielder Mycal Jones has signed with Somerset of the independent Atlantic League, and Luis Hernandez, another original M-Brave, signed with Bridgeport of that same league.

17 Mar

now playing shortstop …

When the Mississippi Braves open the 2016 season on April 7 at Trustmark Park, keep an eye on the shortstop. He’s a heckuva player. As of today, we have no clear indication who the shortstop for the Double-A club will be, but we do know that he’s a heckuva player. It might be Dansby Swanson, Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect. First pick in the 2015 MLB draft by Arizona. Former All-SEC star and College World Series MVP at Vanderbilt. But Swanson, 22, played in short-season Class A last year, and even though he has played a lot – and well — for the big league club in spring training, Braves brass might opt to start him in A-ball. So … the M-Braves’ shortstop might be Ozzie Albies, rated Atlanta’s No. 3 prospect on the mlb.com chart. The Curacao native, who also has been impressive in big league camp, played at low-A Rome in 2015. A switch-hitter, he batted .310 with eight triples and 29 steals. And yes, he can pick it. But Albies is only 19, and the Braves might be considering shifting him to second base. It’s possible he’ll start the year at high-A Carolina. So … the M-Braves’ shortstop might be Johan Camargo. The Panama native doesn’t get the kind of attention lavished on Swanson and Albies, but he’s certainly no slouch. Rated the No. 25 Atlanta prospect, the switch-hitting Camargo, 22, batted .258 with six triples, 32 RBIs and 50 runs for the Carolina Mudcats in 2015. He was a Carolina League midseason and end-of-year All-Star and was selected for the Arizona Fall League. So … it might be Swanson … could be Albies … maybe Camargo. However it shakes out, the guy at shortstop on April 7 will be worth watching. P.S. The M-Braves have had a succession of quality shortstops, including Luis Hernandez, Yunel Escobar, Diory Hernandez, Brandon Hicks, Brent Lillibridge, Tyler Pastornicky, Andrelton Simmons, Ed Lucas and Daniel Castro, all of whom have played in the big leagues.

14 Jan

managerial matters

Phillip Wellman, after a year out of the pro game, is a manager again. The former Mississippi Braves manager has been handed the reins of San Diego’s Double-A San Antonio club in the Texas League. Wellman managed the M-Braves from 2007-10 and won a Southern League pennant with the team in 2008. After leaving the Braves, he served as a hitting coach in the St. Louis system and then managed in Double-A in the Los Angeles Angels’ organization in 2014. … The Double-A Biloxi Shuckers have a new manager: Mike Guerrero, first-base coach in Milwaukee last year. A longtime minor league skipper, Guerrero replaces Carlos Subero, who was promoted to the Brewers’ big league staff. There are some familiar names in the Brewers’ system: Former Jackson Generals manager Rick Sweet will run the Triple-A team, Colorado Springs, and ex-Delta State star Edwin Maysonet is now a coach at Class A Brevard County, along with Ned Yost IV, a Jackson native and the son of the Kansas City manager.

14 Jan

whatever happened to …

Jordan Schafer, the former Mississippi Braves outfielder of some renown, has signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to various reports. Schafer, a lefty-hitting center fielder with plus speed, played 27 games for Minnesota in 2015, went on the disabled list in May and then was released, spending the rest of the year out of the game. Schafer arrived in Mississippi in 2008 as Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect and with a swagger to match. A few days into the season, he was slapped with a drug suspension. He struggled upon his return but bounced back to have a good last month and helped the club win a Southern League pennant. He hit .269 with 10 homers, 51 RBIs and 12 steals that season. He won the center field job in Atlanta the next spring and famously homered in his first at-bat. But then he slumped and got hurt and his career became a series of ups and downs. He wound up back in Pearl for a while in 2010, was traded to Houston, then reacquired by the Braves, then claimed off waivers by Minnesota. Schafer, 29, has 103 career MLB steals but has hit just .228 over parts of six seasons. P.S. Anthony Alford has received an invite to Toronto’s big league spring camp for a second straight year, and this time the former Petal High star will be joined on the non-roster list by Mississippi State alum Chad Girodo. Alford is the Blue Jays’ No. 1 prospect and figures to play in Double-A this season. Girodo, a lefty reliever who reached Triple-A last summer, has a 2.30 ERA over three seasons and was a standout in the 2015 Arizona Fall League.