Tag Archives: Mexican League

06 Jun

whatever happened to …

Thomas Dillard, the ex-Ole Miss slugger, is playing for Cleburne in the American Association and batting .250 with six home runs for the independent club. Dillard, a longtime Milwaukee minor leaguer, blasted 39 homers in the indy Atlantic League in 2023 and 12 for Double-A Biloxi in 2022. … Trent Giambrone, former Delta State standout, is with Kansas City in the American Association, having recently been traded there by Cleburne. Giambrone, who had a cup of coffee in the majors with the Chicago Cubs in 2021, is batting .292 in seven games for the Monarchs and .203 with four homers overall in 2024. He also played in the Atlantic League last year, hitting .287 with 22 homers for York. … Tyreque Reed, the ex-Itawamba Community College star from Houlka, is with Washington in the independent Frontier League. Recently placed on the injured list, Reed — who turns 27 today — is hitting .258 for the WildThings. He missed all of 2023 with an injury in Boston’s system and became a minor league free agent last fall. He hit 25 homers at ICC and has 64 career minor league bombs but has yet to go deep in 2024. … Ti’Quan Forbes, the former Mr. Baseball from Columbia, is hitting .258 for Querataro in the Mexican League. Forbes reached Triple-A during his eight-year minor league run and belted 17 home runs in the indy Frontier League last season. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves star Justyn-Henry Malloy broke up a perfect game with his first MLB home run — and hit — on Wednesday for Detroit. Malloy went deep against Texas’ Jose Urena in the sixth inning of the Tigers’ 9-1 loss. Malloy, 2-for-10 in three games with the Tigers, played for the M-Braves in 2022 (.268, six homers in 54 games) and was traded by Atlanta in December of that year in the Joe Jimenez deal.

30 May

playing pepper

Three straight wins in elimination games have put East Central Community College into the semifinal round of the NJCAA Division II World Series. The third-seeded Warriors (54-8) play 2-seed Brunswick (N.C.) today at Enid, Okla. (LSU-Eunice, the top seed, is in the other semi.) A clutch two-run double by Marvin Jackson and six strong innings from Chris Bilingsley helped ECCC beat South Arkansas 6-4 on Wednesday, and Jayden Adcox went 4-for-4 with five RBIs and Reid Hall pitched a hitless final three innings in a 13-4 romp past Madison (Wisc.) later Wednesday. … Former Smithville High star Jared Johnson pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his fifth save as High-Class A Rome beat Greenville 10-8. Johnson, who has a 2.37 ERA in 14 appearances for the Atlanta affiliate, is tied for the second-most saves in the South Atlantic League. … Ole Miss alum Derek Diamond moved to 3-0 with a 2.70 after a solid five-inning outing (one run, seven strikeouts) for High-A Greensboro (Pittsburgh system). Diamond was a 2022 draftee off the Rebels’ national title team. … Anthony Alford, the ex-Petal High star, is enjoying the hitter-friendly Mexican League, having banged out nine hits in 25 at-bats (.360) in his first seven games for Campeche. Former big leaguer Alford was recently released by Cincinnati. … Jackson native James Steels, who had a brief major league career before becoming a Mexican League star, was born on this date in 1961. Steels might best be remembered as the Texas League player of the year in 1984, when he was with Beaumont in the San Diego system. The Golden Gators lost to the Jackson Mets in the league championship series. … Jackson native Jim Bivin, who had a brief major league career with Philadelphia, enjoyed his 15 minutes of MLB fame on this date in 1935, when he retired Babe Ruth on a ground out in his final at-bat. Ruth, playing for Boston, was replaced in the bottom of the first inning by Ludlow native Hal Lee.

21 May

touching the bases

The decision by the Chicago White Sox to move Garrett Crochet from the bullpen to the rotation this season is beginning to look like a stroke of brilliance. The 6-foot-6 left-hander from Ocean Springs, who’ll face Toronto today, has allowed one earned in 17 innings with 23 strikeouts in three May starts. For the year, he is 4-4 with a 4.18 ERA, 70 punchouts, a 1.01 WHIP and a .207 batting average against. And he is pitching for a team that is 14-34. Crochet was the 11th overall pick out of Tennessee in 2020 and made the big leagues that season, throwing 100 mph gas. Arm surgery shelved him in 2022 and limited him to 13 games last season. Moved to the rotation this spring, he seems to have found his calling. Writes the Chicago Sun-Times: “Great fastball, four-pitch mix, plenty of moxie and the intangibles all baked into a prototypical staff ace.” … The jury is out on Philadelphia’s decision to move former Madison Central High standout Spencer Turnbull from the rotation to the bullpen. Turnbull, in his first season with the Phillies, was 2-0, 1.67, in six starts this season. As a reliever — a new role for the veteran right-hander — he has a 6.43 in four appearances. … Colt Keith, Biloxi High alum, is heating up for Detroit in his rookie campaign. The 22-year-old Keith is 9-for-22 over his last seven games and 14-for-44 the last 15, boosting his average to .214. He has yet to homer. … Austin Riley, the ex-DeSoto Central star, hasn’t played for Atlanta since May 12 (side inflammation) but remains on the active roster. It’s unclear when he might return to the lineup. Her is batting a sub-par .245 with three homers. … Former big leaguer Anthony Alford, the Petal High product, is playing in the Mexican League for Campeche after being released by Cincinnati. He was hitting .222 at Double-A Chattanooga. … The New York Yankees DFA’d Colby White, the former Mississippi State pitcher they claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay earlier this month. The injury-plagued White, yet to appear in the majors, presumably will stay in the Yankees’ system. … Ex-Ole Miss star Jacob Gonzalez has been promoted to Double-A Birmingham, where he’ll join former Rebels teammate Tim Elko on the Barons’ roster. Gonzalez, a first-round pick last summer by the White Sox, was hitting .273 with three homers, 15 RBIs and seven steals at the High-Class A level. Birmingham starts a series at Biloxi today. … Dalton Moats, former Delta State left-hander, recently signed with the Chicago Cubs and threw three innings for Double-A Tennessee on Sunday. The minor league vet pitched in independent ball in 2023.

19 Apr

watch for it

A couple of former Mississippi high school stars will face off tonight as opposing pitchers at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Both Garrett Crochet (Ocean Springs alum) of the Chicago White Sox and Spencer Turnbull (Madison Central) of the Phillies — the former in a new role, the latter with a new team — have had very good results to date. But they will face very different challenges in this game. Left-hander Crochet, a former first-round pick out of Tennessee, is 1-2 with a 3.57 ERA over four starts in his first season after converting from reliever to starter. He goes against a Phillies team that is 11-8 and trots out a lineup loaded with sluggers (see Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm, et al). Turnbull, a former second-rounder out of Alabama, is 1-0, 1.80, in three starts with the Phillies as he attempts to bounce back from a couple of injury-wracked seasons with Detroit. The right-hander faces a 3-15 White Sox team that has some of the worst offensive numbers in the big leagues. It’s worth noting that several Chicago batters have experience against Turnbull from his time with the Tigers (see Eloy Jimenez, three home runs), while few of the Phillies have ever faced Crochet. Citizens Bank is a hitters park, so perhaps we shouldn’t expect a pitchers’ duel. P.S. Where are they now: Ex-big leaguer Bobby Bradley (Harrison Central), who played independent ball last year, is playing for Tijuana in the Mexican League. … Gavin Collins (Mississippi State), another indy baller in 2023, is now at Triple-A Memphis in the St. Louis system. … Thomas Dillard (Ole Miss), also an indy leaguer in 2023, has signed with Celburne of the independent American Association. … Onetime big leaguer Chris Ellis (Ole Miss/Mississippi Braves) recently signed with Long Island of the indy Atlantic League; he did not pitch in 2023. … Patrick Lee (William Carey) has joined Evansville in the indy Frontier League. … Dalton Moats (Delta State) has re-upped with Kansas City of the American Association, where he pitched in 2023.

21 Jul

that’s more like it

After a sluggish start to his pro career, Tanner Allen’s numbers are starting to look more like what was expected. A fourth-round pick by Miami after a tremendous 2021 season at Mississippi State, Allen hit .183 and .201 in his first two pro seasons. After a two-hit game Thursday that included a game-deciding grand slam for High-Class A Beloit, the lefty-hitting outfielder is batting .284 with eight homers, 34 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 48 games for the Sky Carp. Things have really clicked this month; he is batting .345 with four homers in 13 July games. He hit .296 at Low-A Jupiter before a May promotion. Allen was a key figure in MSU’s 2021 national championship run, batting .383 with 11 homers and 66 RBIs. He reaped numerous individual rewards: a national player of the year award, first-team All-America honors, the SEC’s player of the year award, All-College World Series honors and the state’s Ferriss Trophy. Allen, 25, has not yet cracked Miami’s Top 30 prospects list, but his breakout season surely has put him on the radar. Perhaps a promotion to Double-A Pensacola in the Southern League is in the offing this season. P.S. Southern Miss products and 2023 MLB draftees Tanner Hall and Dustin Dickerson have signed pro contracts, as has Ole Miss alum Jack Dougherty. Hall, an All-America this year, and Dougherty inked with Minnesota and Dickerson with Kansas City. Eight of the 14 players drafted earlier this month have now signed. Ole Miss’ Kemp Alderman, second-round pick by Miami, is the highest draftee still unsigned. … Former Columbia High star Ti’Quan Forbes, who was having a standout season in the independent Frontier League, is now playing for Yucatan in the Mexican League. Forbes, who spent eight years in the affiliated minors, was batting .301 with 10 homers and 14 steals for New Jersey and had been named to the league’s All-Star game before his contract was purchased by Yucatan on July 5. Forbes is 3-for-25 in nine games in the unaffiliated LMB, which is generally considered Triple-A caliber. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Thomas Dillard hit three home runs, boosting his season tally to 27, for Lexington in a loss Thursday to Lancaster in the indy Atlantic League.

01 Jun

dog day afternoon

In St. Louis, the day belonged to Dakota Hudson. In Cleveland, it was Konnor Pilkington’s time to shine. The former Mississippi State pitchers were brilliant on the bump Wednesday, Hudson beating San Diego with one of his best starts of the year and Pilkington shutting down Kansas City for his first big league win. Hudson (4-2) went seven innings for the Cardinals, allowing one run on four hits in a 5-2 win. At one point, the right-hander retired 18 in a row. “Exactly what we needed,” Cards manager Oliver Marmol told The Associated Press. Pilkington, a rookie making just his sixth appearance, went five innings, allowed no runs on five hits and fanned eight, including the first four batters of the game. The lefty has claimed a spot, at least temporarily, in the Guardians’ rotation. “My stuff plays,” he told the AP after the 4-0 game — and after receiving a beer shower from his teammates. P.S. Former Ole Miss pitcher and big league manager Mickey Callaway, suspended by MLB in May 2021 after allegations of sexual harassment against female media members, has been fired as manager of Acereros de Monclova in the Mexican League. The team was 16-17. Callaway managed the New York Mets in 2018-19 and was fired after posting a 163-161 record. He was working as the Los Angeles Angels’ pitching coach last year when he was handed a suspension that extended through 2022.

21 Jun

back on track

Bradley Roney, drafted by Atlanta out of Southern Miss in 2014, reached Triple-A in 2016 and put up nice numbers as a closer there. But his rapid progress was suddenly derailed by injuries that cost him a big chunk of the 2017 season, all of 2018 and some of this season. He may be getting back on track. Roney, 26, was promoted to the Double-A Mississippi Braves on Thursday after a dominating stint at Class A Florida, where he worked 14 1/3 scoreless innings with 18 strikeouts and three walks. Roney pitched for the M-Braves in 2016 and ’17. He had 30 career saves at USM and is 20-for-25 with a 13-7 record and 3.38 ERA in his six minor league campaigns. … The M-Braves, currently playing a series in Biloxi, return to Trustmark Park on June 25. P.S. Blast from the past: Among the handful of players still active from the first M-Braves team in 2005 is Iker Franco, who was the backup catcher to Brian McCann. Franco, now 38 and in his 20th year of pro ball, is playing for Oaxaca in the Mexican League. Franco batted .296 with three homers in 48 games for the M-Braves before earning a brief promotion to Triple-A. A native of Mexico, he has played in the Mexican League since 2008 and was the championship series MVP in 2011. He is currently batting .260 with three homers, including a walk-off shot on May 28.

12 Oct

around the horn

No big surprise here: Austin Riley, the former DeSoto Central High All-Stater, was named Atlanta’s minor league hitter of the year by MLB Pipeline. The 21-year-old third baseman hit .294 with 19 homers at two levels (Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett). “The sky is the limit for this guy,” Braves assistant farm director (and former M-Braves second baseman) Jonathan Schuerholz told Baseball America, which also named Riley the Best Player in Atlanta’s system. Touki Toussaint, who started 2018 in Pearl and rose all the way to the big leagues, was named the system’s pitcher of the year by MLB Pipeline and BA. … Ole Miss product David Parkinson was named Philadelphia’s pitcher of the year. A 12th-round pick in 2017, he went 11-1 with a 1.45 ERA in A-ball this past season. His ERA was the lowest in the minors among qualifying pitchers. … Ex-Mississippi State star Nathaniel Lowe was Tampa Bay’s hitter of the year after batting .330 with 27 homers and 102 RBIs between A-ball and Triple-A. … In the Arizona Fall League on Thursday, Ole Miss alum Errol Robinson (Los Angeles Dodgers) debuted with a 2-for-4, two-RBI effort for Glendale, and in the same game Petal’s Demarcus Evans (Texas) threw two scoreless innings for Surprise. Delta State product Trent Giambrone (Chicago Cubs) banged out four hits in his debut for Mesa, while ex-George County High standout Justin Steele did not have his best stuff in that same game. He gave up four runs in 1 2/3 innings as Mesa’s starter. The Cubs’ No. 8 prospect yielded five hits, a walk, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. Former DSU star Dalton Moats (Tampa Bay) worked two hitless innings for Peoria on Wednesday, and Daniel Brown (Milwaukee), a left-hander out of MSU, tossed 2 1/3 hitless innings for the same club on Tuesday. … Starkville native and ex-big leaguer Julio Borbon won a Mexican League championship with Monterrey, which wrapped up the pennant on Tuesday. Borbon went 8-for-26 with three runs and an RBI in the title series. He hit .301 with 14 steals during the season. A former first-round pick out of Tennessee by Texas, the 32-year-old Borbon last played in the majors in 2016. … Ke’Bryan Hayes, son of ex-big leaguer and Forrest County AHS product Charlie Hayes, won a minor league Gold Glove award at third base for the second straight year. The younger Hayes, a first-round pick out of a Texas high school by Pittsburgh in 2015, played at Double-A Altoona in 2018. … On this date in 2010, the Texas Rangers scored a landmark victory, thanks in large part to former Meridian Community College star Cliff Lee. Lee threw a six-hitter with 11 strikeouts to beat Tampa Bay (and David Price) in Game 5 of the American League Division Series, giving the Rangers their first playoff series victory. Texas would go on to the World Series, losing to San Francisco. Lee, incidentally, was 7-3, 2.52 ERA with three complete games in 11 postseason starts but never won a ring.

11 Jul

it’s a start

Ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison, the first Mississippi product picked — 22nd overall — in the June draft, pitched two innings on Tuesday in his debut for Grand Junction, the Colorado Rockies’ rookie club. The left-hander, who threw 28 pitches, allowed one hit (a home run) and struck out two. He has spent a lot of time since he signed working with former major leaguer Doug Jones, the Grand Junction pitching coach, on improving his changeup. “I’m excited for the challenge,” Rolison told The (Grand Junction) Daily Sentinel when he first arrived there. “It’s challenging being in Colorado because the air’s so thin and the ball flies. Every day we work on drills to locate our fastballs down, keeping them at the knees, and also just developing my changeup into a key pitch for me along with my slider.” Because he threw almost 100 innings for Ole Miss this past season, the Rockies reportedly will limit his work at Grand Junction. P.S. Cody Satterwhite, the former Hillcrest Christian and Ole Miss standout, is pitching in the Mexican League, still chasing the big league dream 10 years after he was first drafted. Satterwhite, 31, has made three appearances this month for the Mexico City Red Devils. He signed there after being released in late May from the Triple-A Syracuse roster in Washington’s system. Drafted in the second round by Detroit in 2008, Satterwhite has endured several injuries and passed through several organizations over the years. His numbers are actually good: 3.47 ERA, 33 saves, 16 wins in 231 minor league games.

16 May

whatever happened to …

Desmond Jennings, the former Itawamba Community College star, is back in the game, playing for Monclova in the Mexican League. Jennings, who has 567 games of big league experience, was released twice by MLB teams in 2017 – Cincinnati in spring training and the New York Mets off their Triple-A roster in June. The 31-year-old outfielder still has some game, batting .339 with seven homers and 30 RBIs through 26 contests in Mexico, which is regarded as Triple-A level. Jennings, drafted by Tampa Bay in the 10th round in 2006, was a hot shot in the minors, winning Southern League MVP honors in 2009 and playing in two All-Star Futures Games. He hit .245 with 55 homers and 95 steals in his big league career; he last played in The Show with the Rays in 2016. … Alex Yarbrough, the ex-Ole Miss standout, is no longer in the game. The infielder retired quietly in February. Yarbrough, only 26, was a fourth-round pick by the Los Angeles Angels in 2012, earned Texas League player of the year honors in 2014 and reached Triple-A the next year. But that was his peak. He spent last year in the Double-A Southern League, batting .231 for Jacksonville in the Miami system.