31 Jan

a growing list

Coming off an outstanding first full season in pro ball, Matthew Etzel is the latest Mississippian in the minors to get an invitation to major league spring training. The former Southern Miss star will go camping next month with Tampa Bay, which acquired the 22-year-old outfielder in a trade with Baltimore last summer. Etzel, drafted out of USM in 2023 by the Orioles, batted .272 with 11 homers, 66 RBIs, eight triples and 45 stolen bases in 2024, playing for three different teams. He finished the season at Double-A Montgomery. He joins a growing list of non-roster invitees with state ties:
Tim Anderson (East Central CC), Los Angeles Angels;
Gavin Collins (Mississippi State), St. Louis;
Blaine Crim (Mississippi College), Texas;
Tim Elko (Ole Miss), Chicago White Sox;
Matthew Etzel (USM), Tampa Bay;
Jacob Gonzalez (UM), Chicago White Sox;
Dakota Hudson (MSU), Los Angeles Angels;
Cooper Johnson (UM), Texas;
Braden Montgomery (Madison Central), Chicago White Sox;
Konnor Pilkington (MSU), Washington;
Drew Pomeranz (UM), Seattle;
Cooper Pratt (Magnolia Heights), Milwaukee;
Ethan Small (MSU), San Francisco;
Tyler Stuart (USM), Washington;
R.J. Yeager (MSU), St. Louis.
P.S. The Mississippi Mud Monsters have hired Robert Carson III, former Hattiesburg High standout and ex-big leaguer, as their pitching coach. Carson pitched in 31 games for the New York Mets in 2012-13 and spent seven seasons in independent leagues, most recently in 2021. He been an indy league pitching coach the last three years. The independent Mud Monsters will start their inaugural season in the Frontier League in May at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The “Mud-sters” have announced three signees to date, none of them pitchers.

13 Jan

mud monsters name manager

Jay Pecci, 48, a former Stanford star with a wealth of professional playing and coaching experience, has been hired as the first manager of the Mississippi Mud Monsters. “Mississippi has a passionate sports community, and I look forward to helping build a winning culture that fans can be proud of,” Pecci said in a press release by the club. Pecci coached and managed in the New York Mets’ minor league chain for the past several seasons. An infielder at Stanford, he was drafted by Oakland in the 11th round in 1998 and played seven years in affiliated ball, reaching the Triple-A level, and then eight more in independent and foreign leagues. The Mud Monsters will begin their inaugural season in the independent Frontier League on May 8 at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The team has yet to announce any player signings for the 2025 campaign.

18 Dec

transaction watch

Former Southern Miss standout Chuckie Robinson, who finished last season on the Chicago White Sox’s roster, has been traded to the Los Angeles Angels for cash. Robinson, 30, originally drafted by Cincinnati in 2016, has played in 51 big league games over two seasons, hitting .129 in 26 games for the lowly White Sox in 2024. He has a .257 minor league average. Regarded as a good defensive catcher, Robinson helped USM win a C-USA title in 2016. (The ChiSox needed to create a 40-man roster spot after signing former Mississippi Braves pitcher Bryse Wilson as a free agent.) … In other recent transactions: Washington signed Mississippi State alum Konnor Pilkington, who has some MLB experience, to a minor league contract. … Seattle signed MLB veteran and Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz to a minor league deal; the lefty with a 3.91 career ERA last pitched in the majors in 2021. … San Francisco re-signed ex-MSU star Ethan Small to a minor league deal after he was non-tendered last month. Small made four big league appearances with Milwaukee in 2022-23. … Colorado released ex-State slugger Brad Cumbest, a 2022 draftee who hit .173 in the minors. … Starkville native Julio Borbon, an ex-MLB outfielder, has been named Milwaukee’s first-base coach. P.S. On this date in 2021, former Mississippi State star Buck Showalter was hired to manage the New York Mets. It was his fifth major league managerial job — and proved to be his shortest stint. He won manager of the year honors — for the fourth time — in 2022 but was surprisingly fired at the end of the next season when the team had a losing record. He has a career record of 1,727-1,665.

10 Oct

postseason potpourri

A former Mississippi Braves player enjoyed a star turn for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night. It wasn’t Freddie Freeman, who sat out the Dodgers’ stunning 8-0 win vs. San Diego with an ankle injury. It was Evan Phillips, who got four outs — against the biggest bats in the Padres’ lineup — and earned the win at Petco Park. The series is 2-2 heading back to Dodger Stadium on Friday. One of the eight pitchers LA deployed in Game 4, Phillips entered in the fifth inning of a 5-0 game with two on and two out and got Fernando Tatis Jr. to fly out. The 30-year-old right-hander then mowed down Jurickson Profar, Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill in the sixth. Now in his fourth year with the Dodgers, Phillips has not allowed an earned run in nine postseason appearances. A former Atlanta draftee, Phillips pitched in Pearl in 2016 and ’17, posting modest numbers over 37 games in Double-A. The Braves traded him to Baltimore at the deadline in 2018. He signed with Tampa Bay in 2021 and was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers that summer. He has a 3.43 ERA and 45 saves in 243 MLB games. … The New York Mets, who eliminated Philadelphia in a Game 4 on Wednesday, might have a good luck charm in their dugout: first-year bench coach John Gibbons. Gibbons, a former big league manager, was a catcher for the Jackson Mets in 1982 — the Darryl Strawberry year — and ’83 and also played for the 1986 big league Mets. Of course, that was the last time New York won a World Series. (Gibbons didn’t play in the ’86 Series.) … Biloxi High product Colt Keith got his first postseason knock and scored a run in Detroit’s 3-0 win against Cleveland on Wednesday. The Tigers take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 tonight at Comerica Park. Rookie Keith is back in the lineup at second base, hitting fifth. … Ex-Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier made his first appearance of the ’24 postseason, got a hit and scored a run for Kansas City in a 3-2 loss to the New York Yankees at Kauffman Stadium. Frazier has been in the postseason each of the last three years with a different team each time; he is 6-for-31 in eight games.

23 Aug

spotlight on …

A trio of former Mississippi high school standouts stuffed the box score Thursday night in a High-Class A game at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Park. Bryson Ware and Emaarion Boyd combined for six hits for Jersey Shore in a 10-1 win over the host Cyclones, with Kellum Clark getting a knock for the losers while having a hand in four double plays. Ware, a Germantown High product who also passed through Pearl River Community College and Auburn en route to pro ball, picked up four hits with a double, a triple, an RBI and two runs. The third baseman, a 2023 draftee, is batting .348 in 14 games since Philadelphia moved him to Jersey Shore. He hit nine homers in Low-A ball. Boyd, who starred at South Panola, produced a triple, two runs, two RBIs and a stolen base, his 22nd. The Phillies’ No. 23 prospect (by MLB Pipeline) in his third pro season, center fielder Boyd is batting .238. Clark is an ex-Brandon High and Mississippi State standout who was drafted in the 20th round last summer. In 48 games for Brooklyn, the New York Mets’ High-A club, the first baseman is batting .217 with three doubles and eight RBIs. He smacked 30 homers in three seasons in Starkville but has yet to find that stroke in pro ball, with just one career bomb, none in 2024. P.S. Another state prep product, Spence Coffman out of Tishomingo High, got a shot at Low-A ball after hitting .295 with eight doubles, 24 RBIs and 19 steals this year in rookie ball, where he had been toiling since being drafted in the 19th round in 2022. Coffman, 20, a shortstop, is 6-for-27 (.222) in nine games for San Diego’s Lake Elsinore club; he was placed on the development list on Thursday but remains with the Storm.

21 Aug

the big step

It wasn’t smooth sailing for J.T. Ginn, but the former Mississippi State standout from Brandon arrived in the big leagues on Tuesday and was in the bullpen for Oakland’s game against Tampa Bay. Ginn, 25, was 4-3 with a 5.72 ERA at Triple-A Las Vegas (where ERAs tend to run high) and 8-4 with a 5.26 overall in 2024. He was primarily a starter in the minors but is expected to fill a relief role for the A’s. Ginn was a two-way star at Brandon High when the Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him in the first round in 2018. He passed on a lot of money, chose to attend MSU and was the SEC freshman of the year in 2019. An elbow injury early in 2020 led to Tommy John surgery, but the New York Mets drafted Ginn in the second round that summer as a draft-eligible sophomore. The Mets traded him to the A’s in March of 2022 in the deal for big leaguer Chris Bassitt. Ginn, 6 feet 2, 200 pounds, has endured myriad injuries while in the A’s system but appeared in 21 games (20 starts) this season between Double-A and Triple-A. He allowed just two runs in 12 innings in his last two outings, both wins.

01 Jun

names to know

Dakota Jordan: The Mississippi State sophomore slugged a two-out, two-strike, three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to boost the Bulldogs to a 5-2 win against St. John’s in Friday’s opener at the Charlottesville Regional. It was the 18th homer of the season for the ex-Jackson Academy standout, who was in a 1-for-26 slump. State gets host Virginia today in a winners bracket game.
Niko Mazza: Presumably, the junior right-hander will get the start today for Southern Miss in an elimination game against Northern Kentucky at the Knoxville Regional. Mazza, former MRA star, is 8-3 with a 4.43 ERA. USM lost its opener 10-4 to Indiana.
East Central Community College pitchers: The Warriors bowed out of the NJCAA Division II World Series with a 2-1 loss to Brunswick (N.C.) on Friday despite a six-hit effort from Marbin Lezcano, Riley Passman and Rex Henderson. In four straight elimination-game wins over a three-day stretch, 10 different Warriors pitchers combined to allow just 12 runs: Bryson Goff (complete-game 3-hitter), Chris Bilingsley, Hayden Dodson, Henderson, Connor Alpin, Evan Folse, Carson Ellis, Reid Hall, Eli Smith and Parker Martin. In ECCC’s opening game loss in Enid, Okla., staff ace Luke Cooley allowed just two runs in five-plus innings, but the Warriors squandered a big lead.
Dakota Hudson: The ex-MSU standout threw seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk, to pace last-place Colorado to a 4-1 win over the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Hudson, who has won two of his last four starts, is 2-7 with a 5.02 ERA in his first year with the Rockies.
Darryl Strawberry: The New York Mets will retire the former Jackson Mets star’s No. 18 in a ceremony today at CitiField. Old JaxMets fans will never forget Strawberry’s exploits at Smith-Wills Stadium in 1982: He hit a franchise-record 34 homers, batted .283, stole 45 bases, hit nine triples, drove in 97 runs and walked 100 times. He was named the Texas League MVP. The next year, he won National League rookie of the year honors with the big Mets. They won a World Series with him in right field in 1986, and he was an eight-time All-Star.

10 Apr

simply the best

As yet another era of Double-A baseball in the Jackson area enters its final chapter, raise a glass to the seven championship teams produced over the years. The JaxMets won Texas League titles in 1981, ’84 and ’85. The Generals (a Houston affiliate) won TL pennants in 1993 and ’96 at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Pearl-based Mississippi Braves won the Southern League title in 2008 and the Double-A South crown in 2021. The best team among that bunch arguably would be the ’84 JaxMets, who could run out a starting nine made up entirely of future major league players. That club, managed by Sam Perlozzo, featured Lenny Dykstra, Billy Beane, Al Pedrique, Mark Carreon, Greg Olson, Randy Milligan, Calvin Schiraldi, Randy Myers and Floyd Youmans, among others. They went 83-53 overall and won both halves handily in the TL East. Schiraldi was 14-3 with a 2.88 ERA and was the league’s pitcher of the year. Dykstra led the league in runs with 100 and stole 53 bases while batting .275. Beane, in what he called his “junior year” in Jackson, had a breakout season: .281, 20 homers, 72 RBIs, 26 steals. Pedrique led the league’s shortstops with a .961 fielding percentage. Bill Max, who never made the majors, had a TL-best 16 game-winning RBIs plus 11 bombs. All told, 19 players who appeared on the JaxMets’ roster in 1984 made it to The Show. P.S. Jackson teams also won championships in various low-level minor leagues in 1908, 1913, 1925, 1927, 1931, 1940 and 1947 — according to the Minor League Baseball Encyclopedia.

23 Mar

watch for it

As spring training winds down, Will Warren is ramping up his bid to make the New York Yankees’ starting rotation. The Jackson Prep product pitched five strong innings on Friday, allowing three hits, two walks and a lone run in a Grapefruit League game against the New York Mets. Right-hander Warren, the Yanks’ No. 8-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline, is competing with several others for the fifth starter job. He is 3-1 with a 3.52 ERA in five games this spring. “He’s got the starter repertoire, a lot of confidence and a great demeanor on the mound,” New York manager Aaron Boone said in an mlb.com article. “He’s done a nice job and earned (a chance) to be in this position.” The 26-man roster should be announced soon. The team opens March 28 at Houston. Featuring a wipeout slider, Warren went 10-4 with a 3.35 between Double-A and Triple-A last season. After going 7-0, 1.39, as a senior at Jackson Prep in 2017, Warren signed with NCAA Division I Southeastern Louisiana, where he posted a 3.90 ERA in 53 games over four seasons. The Yankees drafted him in the eighth round in 2021, and he has made steady progress in their system. P.S. Pitching against Warren and the Yankees on Friday was ex-Southern Miss star Tyler Stuart, drafted by the Mets in the sixth round in 2022. The 6-foot-9 Stuart allowed two runs in three innings against the likes of Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Rated the Mets’ No. 18 prospect, Stuart was 7-2, 2.44, between High-Class A and Double-A in 2023.

01 Jan

here and there

One month from today, the college season gets under way in the Magnolia State when William Carey University hosts Missouri Baptist and Blue Mountain Christian welcomes Lane College. Carey went 49-11 in 2023 and reached the NAIA World Series. Crusaders coach Bobby Halford will begin his 39th season at the helm with 1,300 career victories. Blue Mountain finished 26-25 last season, qualifying for the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament, where the 6-seed Toppers beat Carey before bowing out in a rematch. … Former big leaguer Bobby Bradley, the former Harrison Central High slugger, finished 2023 with a bang, getting four hits including a home run on Saturday in the Mexican Pacific League. Bradley is batting .281 with three homers and 19 RBIs for Monterrey. He hit 30 bombs for Charleston in the independent Atlantic League last summer. Bradley played in 97 MLB games for Cleveland from 2019-22. … On the topic of slugging, DeSoto Central alum Austin Riley made mlb.com’s list of the 10 longest home runs in 2023. Riley tied for ninth with a 473-footer on April 3 at St. Louis; it was the first of his 37 homers on the year for Atlanta. The longest homer of 2023 was belted by — who else? — Shohei Ohtani, a 493-footer in June. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Chad Smith recently signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets; the right-hander posted a 6.59 ERA in 10 games for Oakland in 2023.