Tag Archives: Mississippi Braves

14 Oct

numbers game

A few relevant numbers from Monday night’s Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, won 2-1 by Los Angeles at Milwaukee:
8-6-2 — The scoring for the never-before-seen double play turned in the fourth inning by Milwaukee, including two putouts by catcher William Contreras, the former Mississippi Braves standout. Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick, former Biloxi Shuckers standout, started the bizarre play with a bobble-and-catch off the wall and then a perfect throw to shortstop Joey Ortiz for the relay.
15 — Career postseason home runs by ex-M-Braves star Freddie Freeman, including the one in the sixth inning that put the Dodgers up 1-0.
3 — Walks in the top of the ninth inning, one of which forced in a run, issued by Shuckers alum Abner Uribe.
3 — Walks issued by Dodgers pitchers in the bottom of the ninth, including one to Shuckers product Isaac Collins, who scored the Brewers’ lone run.
7 — RBIs this postseason by the Brewers’ Jackson Chourio, the ex-Shuckers star whose ninth-inning sac fly put Milwaukee on the board.
11 — Number of times the Brewers struck out, 10 against Blake Snell and one against Blake Treinen, who got Shuckers alum Brice Turang to swing and miss to end the game.
3 — Number of former M-Braves who played, including L.A. defensive replacement Justin Dean. (Freeman and Contreras were teammates on Atlanta’s 2021 title team.)
5 — Number of Shuckers alums who played, including rookie Collins, who got his first postseason start, in left field.
1 — Loss for Milwaukee in seven meetings with Los Angeles in 2025.

12 Oct

whatever it takes

Everybody digs the long ball nowadays, not just chicks. Milwaukee is not a team that lived by the long ball this season — the Brewers’ 166 home runs ranked 22nd among MLB teams — but the Brewers launched three on Saturday night, which was enough to beat Chicago 3-1 and claim Game 5 of their National League Division Series at American Family Field. Former Mississippi Braves standout William Contreras homered off Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz in the first inning, Andrew Vaughn homered in the fourth and ex-Biloxi Shuckers star Brice Turang went deep in the seventh. The Cubs’ lone run was a Seiya Suzuki bomb. Home runs win games, the stats show: Teams that out-homer their opponents in a game win more than 70 percent of the time; the percentage is even higher in postseason games. The Brewers, in their first NL Championship Series appearance since 2018, will face Los Angeles, which led the NL in homers with 244, 55 of them by presumptive MVP Shohei Ohtani. Freddie Freeman, the former M-Braves star, hit 24 homers for the Dodgers. The Brewers’ leader was Christian Yelich with 29, followed by Shuckers alums Jackson Chourio (21) and Turang (18). And yet, don’t sell the Brewers short. They beat the Dodgers six straight times in the regular season en route to the league’s best record. The Brewers seemingly are just good at doing whatever it takes in a given game. “It’s a team that deserves and earned their way for the right to go to the World Series. That’s a good baseball team,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said in an mlb.com piece. The Brewers hit three solo homers Saturday, and their pitching — they were first in the NL in staff ERA — made those runs stand up. Jacob Misiorowski, the rookie All-Star who pitched in Biloxi just last year, delivered four great innings in relief to earn the win, and Abner Uribe (Shuckers ’22-23) retired six of the seven he faced to get the save. As Manny Randhawa writes for mlb.com, they “are the very definition of the phrase ‘greater than the sum of its parts.'” Many of those parts came up through the pipeline from Double-A Biloxi. P.S. The last time Milwaukee played in the NLCS, in 2018, the Dodgers were the opponent. A home run was a highlight in Game 1 of that series: Brandon Woodruff, the Mississippi State product from Wheeler, hit a bomb off Clayton Kershaw — back when pitchers still batted — and won the game with two clean innings out of the bullpen. L.A. won the series in seven. Woodruff currently is on the injured list and won’t be available for the NLCS.

10 Oct

go figure

You know the phrase, “That’s baseball.” Well, consider this: Justin Dean, longtime Mississippi Braves standout who didn’t touch the plate in 18 MLB appearances this season, scored more runs for the Los Angeles Dodgers than the entire Milwaukee team scored on Thursday night. Dean came on as a pinch runner in the seventh inning and came across on a bases-loaded walk for the Dodgers’ first run in their jaw-dropping 2-1 win against Philadelphia. The National League Division Series game — and the mighty Phillies’ season — ended on a base-loaded throwing error in the 11th inning at Dodger Stadium. Now that’s baseball. Meanwhile, in Chicago, at a frenzied Wrigley Field, the Brewers, the second-highest scoring team in the NL this season, lost 6-0 to the Cubs and will now face a deciding Game 5 in Milwaukee on Saturday. Former Biloxi Shuckers Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang and Sal Frelick went 2-for-11 and M-Braves alum William Contreras 0-for-4 as the Brewers managed just three hits all told. Ex-Shuckers star Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee’s ace, gave up a three-run bomb to Ian Happ in the first inning — all the offense the Cubs, fueled by the home crowd, would need. P.S. Dean made the Dodgers’ postseason roster because of his speed and his glove. He spent parts of four seasons with the M-Braves and was the center fielder on the 2021 Double-A South pennant winner. In 2024, the M-Braves’ swan song at Trustmark Park, Dean swiped a club-record 47 bases and set the Mississippi career record with 117 bags. He was signed by L.A. as a minor league free agent in December and made his MLB debut — as a defensive replacement — on Aug. 8. He was 0-for-2 as a hitter on the season.

09 Oct

quick pitches

Drew Pomeranz, the veteran left-hander out of Ole Miss, has thrown four hitless innings for the Chicago Cubs in four postseason outings, including a stint in Wednesday’s win against Milwaukee at Wrigley Field. Pomeranz worked a 1-2-3 fifth and got the W as the Cubs stayed alive with a 4-3 victory in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. … Brookhaven native Lance Barksdale was the first-base umpire for that NLDS game and if the normal rotation holds, he’ll be behind the plate for tonight’s Game 4. … Colt Keith, coming back from an injury, has started each game at DH for Detroit in the American League Division Series, but the ex-Biloxi High star is just 1-for-10 with a walk. He went 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s 9-3 victory over Seattle, which forces a decisive Game 5 on Friday. … Devin Williams, the Biloxi Shuckers alum, yielded a crushing two-out hit — on a fastball, not his signature changeup — that scored two inherited runners in the seventh inning of the New York Yankees’ season-ending 5-2 loss to Toronto in their ALDS. Trent Grisham, another former Shuckers star and a big bat for the Yanks all season, went 0-for-5 in Wednesday’s Game 4 loss and finished 2-for-17 in the series. … Former Mississippi State righty Tyson Hardin, a second-year pro, was named Milwaukee’s pitching prospect of the year by MLB Pipeline. The Brewers’ No. 20 prospect, converted from reliever this year, Hardin went 6-5 with a 2.72 ERA in 21 starts between High-Class A Wisconsin and Double-A Biloxi this season. Ex-Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin, the top prospect in the minors, was named Pittsburgh’s hitting prospect of the year. … Jalen Miller, a member of the Mississippi Braves’ 2021 league championship club, won another title this season with the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League. Miller was the MVP of the championship series, batting .474 in the four games, and also earned postseason All-Star recognition and All-Defensive Team honors at second base. He hit .297 with 19 homers and 80 RBIs on the year. Of note: Miller is among the handful of players to hit a homer over the batter’s eye in center field at Pearl’s Trustmark Park. … The Mississippi Mud Monsters will open their 2026 season on May 7 at Trustmark Park against the Gateway Grizzlies, first game of a three-game set. The indy club’s second season will feature 51 home games on the new artificial surface at Trustmark. The club went 49-47 in its inaugural season in the Frontier League.

07 Oct

connect four

Those were familiar names rising to the occasion in Milwaukee’s huge Game 2 win Monday night in the National League Division Series. Three Biloxi Shuckers of recent vintage and a Mississippi Braves alum took star turns in the 7-3 victory over Chicago at American Family Field. Start with Jason Misiorowski, the 6-foot-7 stringbean rookie who threw three innings of high heat and got the win. He yielded just one hit and no runs, striking out four and hitting 102 mph-plus on 12 of his pitches, topping out at 104.3. In two seasons at Double-A Biloxi, The Miz flashed some of that stuff: He struck out 141 batters across 100 2/3 innings. With the score tied at 3-3 in the third inning, William Contreras (M-Braves 2019) launched a 411-foot (at least) solo home run off Shota Imanaga. (Why did Atlanta ever trade Contreras, who’s also an excellent defensive catcher?) In the fourth inning, Jackson Chourio — one of the top prospects in the minors when he wore the Shuckers unie in 2023 — belted a three-run bomb, 419 feet to center field on an 0-2 pitch, that essentially iced the game for the Brewers. Almost overlooked is what reliever Abner Uribe (Shuckers ’22-23) did in the ninth, blowing away Carson Kelly, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Dansby Swanson on 13 pitches. The largely unsung Uribe had a 1.67 ERA in 75 appearances this season. The Brewers hold a 2-0 lead as the series shifts to Wrigley Field. P.S. Oh yeah, in the other NLDS, Los Angeles took a 2-0 series lead with a drama-filled 4-3 win against Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. In the middle of it all was Freddie Freeman, the “grizzled veteran” who toiled for the M-Braves way back in 2009. Freeman had a hit and scored a run in the Dodgers’ four-run seventh, then made two outstanding plays at first base in the ninth as the Phillies tried to rally. Because of his clutch hitting prowess, it’s easy to forget what a great defensive player Freeman is: In 66 postseason games, he has a .996 fielding percentage with just two errors.

05 Oct

spotlight on …

Jackson Chourio was the center of attention for the first two innings of Saturday’s American League Division Series game at Milwaukee. The former Biloxi Shuckers star had three hits, three RBIs and a run as the Brewers cooked up nine runs en route to a 9-3 win against Chicago. Chourio was the center of attention again after the game, which he left in the second inning with a hamstring strain; a hamstring injury in the same leg sidelined him for a month earlier this season. His status for the rest of the best-of-5 series, which resumes Monday, is to be determined. Losing him would be a huge blow: “devastating” is how manager Pat Murphy described it. The 21-year-old outfielder belted 22 homers and stole 43 bases for Double-A Biloxi in 2023, then got an $82 million contract before making his MLB debut in 2024. He finished third in the NL rookie of the year voting and backed that up by hitting .270 with 21 homers, 78 RBIs and 21 bags this season.
Max Fried, the former Mississippi Braves standout and current New York Yankees ace, gets the start today in a critical Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Toronto. The Yankees were blown away by the Blue Jays’ power in Game 1, losing 10-1. Fried, 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 2025, has a wealth of postseason experience, though not all of it is good stuff. He delivered a quality start against Boston in the Wild Card Series but got a no-decision in a game the Yanks lost. Overall, the lefty is 2-5, 4.66, in 21 postseason games. He did get a gutsy win for Atlanta in the ’21 World Series. M-Braves fans might recall that Fried’s 2017 season in Pearl was a little ragged: 2-11, 5.92, in 19 starts. He was evolving, apparently, and two years later won 17 games for the big Braves. He is a fiery competitor, “a Yankee for this exact moment,” per the New York Post.
Colt Keith, former Biloxi High star, got the start at DH for Detroit in Game 1 of the ALDS vs. Seattle and figures to be in the lineup again today against right-hander Luis Castillo. The resurgent Tigers won the opener 3-2 in 11 innings at T-Mobile Park. Keith, a left-handed hitter, missed the Wild Card Series against Cleveland because of a rib cage injury. He went 1-for-2 Saturday (in the 5-hole) against George Kirby and is 3-for-20 in two postseasons. The second-year big leaguer hit .256 with 13 homers, 45 RBIs and 65 runs this season, typically as the leadoff batter.

30 Sep

just rewards

Konnor Griffin reeled in another player of the year honor on Monday, earning the Minor League Baseball Hitting Prospect of the Year Award from mlb.com. Former Jackson Prep star Griffin, the overall No. 1-ranked prospect, also won Baseball America’s POY award. (And, of course, he was the Gatorade state and national player of the year in high school in 2024.) In his first season in the Pittsburgh system, Griffin batted .333 with 21 homers, 65 steals and a .941 OPS across three levels, reaching Double-A. MLB Pipeline called his performance “the most impressive professional debut in recent memory.” He also was named the shortstop on the Prospect Team of the Year. Former Mississippi Braves reliever Hayden Harris, who reached the majors with Atlanta, was a pegged as a first-team pitcher on that squad, and Jesus Made, who played for Biloxi this season, was the second-team shortstop. … Griffin is an obvious choice for the all-Mississippi minor league All-Star team for 2025. Here’s the rest (with their organization):
Catcher: Chuckie Robinson* (Southern Miss), Los Angeles Angels/Dodgers/Atlanta
First base: Tim Elko* (Ole Miss), Chicago White Sox
Second base: Justin Foscue* (Mississippi State), Texas
Shortstop: Griffin
Third base: Blaze Jordan (DeSoto Central HS), Boston/St. Louis
Outfield:
Kemp Alderman (UM), Miami
Matthew Etzel (USM) Tampa Bay/Miami
Braden Montgomery (Madison Central HS), White Sox
DH: Blaine Crim* (Mississippi College), Texas/Colorado
Starting pitchers:
Khal Stephen (MSU), Toronto/Cleveland
Hurston Waldrep* (USM), Atlanta
Jurrangelo Cijntje (MSU), Seattle
K.C. Hunt (MSU), Milwaukee
Relievers:
Landon Sims (MSU), Arizona
Landon Tompkins (Hinds Community College), Pittsburgh
Justin Storm (USM), Miami
*Played in the big leagues
P.S. Marcus Thames, the Louisville native and ex-big leaguer, won’t be retained as hitting coach by the Chicago White Sox. The veteran coach had been in that post for two years, both of which saw the ChiSox lose 100 games. … Eric Booth Jr. of Oak Grove High and Kevin Roberts Jr. of Jackson Prep are ranked No. 7 and No. 12 on MLB Pipeline’s new list of the top 20 prep players in the 2026 MLB draft. Outfielder Booth, son of the former Southern Miss football star, is a Vanderbilt commit. Roberts, a 6-foot-5, 217-pound right-hander/outfielder, is committed to Florida.

29 Sep

on the eve …

Few things in baseball beat a Red Sox-Yankees game, especially when it’s a postseason game. At Yankee Stadium. With a Mississippi native starting for Boston and a former Mississippi Braves standout on the bump for New York. That’s what Tuesday’s American League wild card round will give us. Garrett Crochet, an 18-game winner, the pride of Ocean Springs, gets the call for Boston against Max Fried, a 19-game winner who pitched in Pearl in 2017-18. Game time is 5:08 CDT. Crochet went 3-0 with a 3.29 ERA in four starts against the Yankees; he struck out Aaron Judge 10 times in 13 at-bats, yielding two home runs. Fried was 1-1 with a 1.97 in three starts vs. the Red Sox. This best-of-3 series will be the sixth postseason meeting between the rivals. Boston has prevailed in the last three — and won the World Series in two of those years (2004 and 2018). … Boston’s lineup figures to include Mississippi State alum Nathaniel Lowe, a lefty hitter who hasn’t faced the lefty Fried. The Yankees’ roster includes two ex-Biloxi Shuckers standouts in outfielder Trent Grisham and reliever Devin Williams and former Jackson Prep star Will Warren, expected to work out of the bullpen in this series. … In Tuesday’s first game, Detroit is at Cleveland in a matchup of AL Central rivals. There is a familiar name in the Guardians’ bullpen: Kolby Allard, a former first-round pick by Atlanta who pitched for the M-Braves in 2017. The lefty has a 2.63 ERA over 33 games. Biloxi High alum Colt Keith remains on the injured list with Detroit. Former M-Braves outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy was on the Tigers’ roster at season’s end but may not make their postseason list. … Drew Pomeranz, the ex-Ole Miss star, is a mainstay in the bullpen for the Chicago Cubs, who play host to San Diego in the NL wild card round. M-Braves alum Dansby Swanson has had a productive year as the Cubs’ shortstop. Of note: The Cubs signed Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton — he of the 326 career stolen bases — to a minor league deal in early September, and he played a handful of games at Triple-A Iowa, swiping three bases in five tries. He’s 35 but can still run; he could be a weapon on the bases should the Cubs add him to the roster at some point. … The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who’ll host Cincinnati in the nightcap on Tuesday, got another a big year from Freddie Freeman, the former M-Braves standout who hit .295 with 24 homers and 90 RBIs for the NL West champs. He is a .277 career postseason hitter with 14 homers, including the Game 1 grand slam that essentially powered the Dodgers to the 2024 World Series title. There is a familiar name on the Reds’ roster also: Ke’Bryan Hayes, son of Charlie Hayes, the Hattiesburg native who won a World Series with the Yankees 29 years ago. P.S. Since there are no major league games today, ripping open a couple packs of Topps cards from, say, 20 years ago can help fill the void until the postseason starts on Tuesday. You never know what treasures might be found inside. To wit: Unfortunately, there were no cards of Mississippians, but there were some interesting ones. Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon (of the curse-busting Red Sox), Vinny Castilla, Eric Chavez/Gold Glove, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds/Sporting News All-Stars, Tony Batista (in the uniform of the defunct Montreal Expos) and a Felix Hernandez/Prospects (but not an actual rookie). The best pull, if not the most valuable, from these two 2005 foil packs: a commemorative action shot of Ken Griffey Jr.’s 500th home run, hit on Father’s Day 2004, when he was with Cincinnati.

28 Sep

wait ’til next year

Bad day for Houston, which was eliminated from playoff contention before it took the field, but there was some consolation for Astros pitcher J.P. France. The Mississippi State alum, on the mend from shoulder surgery, got his first win since 2023, working three innings Saturday in the Astros’ 6-1 victory against the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim. France, 30, won 11 games for the Astros in 2023 but went on the injured list after five starts last season. After nine rehab appearances this summer, he was recalled to the majors on Sept. 9 and made his first appearance in 509 days on Sept. 14, throwing a scoreless inning against Atlanta. That outing, France said, “was huge for me, mainly mentally.” He backed that up with his strong showing Saturday, yielding one run on two hits with five strikeouts. His next outing will come next year, presumably with Houston, which endured an injury-plagued season and missed the postseason for the first time since 2016. Wins by Detroit and Cleveland on Saturday KO’d the Astros. Heading into the final day of the regular season, the American League Central and East Division titles have not been settled, nor has the final National League wild card berth. … Charlie Morton, 41, who pitched for the 2007 Mississippi Braves, will get the start for Atlanta today in what is expected to be his final MLB appearance. The Braves, Morton’s original club, recently claimed him on waivers from Detroit.
A total of 32 players with Mississippi ties (natives or school alums) appeared in MLB games this season:
Hitters
Tim Anderson (East Central CC), Los Angeles Angels; Blaine Crim (Mississippi College), Texas/Colorado; Tim Elko (Ole Miss), Chicago White Sox; Nick Fortes (UM), Miami/Tampa Bay; Justin Foscue (Mississippi State), Texas; Adam Frazier (MSU), Pittsburgh/Kansas City; Colt Keith (Biloxi HS), Detroit; Nathaniel Lowe (MSU), Washington/Boston; Jake Mangum (MSU), Tampa Bay; Hunter Renfroe (MSU), Kansas City; Austin Riley (DeSoto Central HS), Atlanta; Chuckie Robinson (Southern Miss), L.A. Dodgers; Brent Rooker (MSU), A’s; Matt Wallner (USM), Minnesota; Jordan Westburg (MSU), Baltimore
Pitchers
Garrett Crochet (Ocean Springs), Boston; J.P. France (MSU), Houston; J.T. Ginn (MSU), A’s; Kendall Graveman (MSU), Arizona; Gunnar Hoglund (UM), A’s; Trevor McDonald (George County HS), San Francisco; Doug Nikhazy (UM), Cleveland; Konnor Pilkington (MSU), Washington; Drew Pomeranz (UM), Chicago Cubs; Ryan Rolison (UM), Colorado; Nick Sandlin (USM), Toronto; Justin Steele (Lucedale/George County HS), Cubs; Chris Stratton (MSU), Kansas City/L.A. Dodgers; Spencer Turnbull (Madison Central HS), Toronto; Hurston Waldrep (USM), Atlanta; Will Warren (Jackson Prep), New York Yankees; Brandon Woodruff (MSU), Milwaukee.
Note: Houston Roth (UM), Baltimore, was recalled but did not appear; James McArthur (UM), Kansas City, has been on the injured list all season.

25 Sep

playing pepper

Concerns about Garrett Crochet’s durability seem kinda silly now. The ex-Ocean Springs High star delivered one of his best performances of the season Wednesday night: eight innings, three hits, no walks, no runs, six strikeouts in Boston’s impactful 7-1 win at Toronto. The left-hander’s last pitch — No. 100 — hit 97 mph, a called third strike. “At this point of the year, it’s unbelievable,” Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez said in an mlb.com story. “He’s still throwing gas, everything has shape.” Crochet (18-5) reached 205 1/3 innings for the season, just his second since converting from reliever. He threw 146 innings for the Chicago White Sox last year, working very conservatively down the stretch of that team’s woeful season. Wednesday’s win reduced the Red Sox’s magic number to one for clinching an American League playoff berth. The proud franchise hasn’t been to the postseason since 2021. The bold off-season trade for Crochet has gotten them over that hump. … Following Toronto’s loss, the New York Yankees beat the White Sox 8-1 and moved into a tie with the Blue Jays atop the AL East. Former Mississippi Braves star Max Fried, in his first year in pinstripes, won his 19th game, boosted by Aaron Judge’s 50th and 51st home runs. … Former Mississippi College standout Blaine Crim hit his fifth homer in 11 games with Colorado — but who noticed? Seattle, powered by Cal Raleigh’s 59th and 60th homers, beat the visiting Rockies 9-2 to clinch the AL West crown. … Mississippi State product Brent Rooker drove in two runs — he has 89 RBIs on the year — and M-Braves alum Shea Langeliers homered in a four-hit game to power the A’s past Houston 6-0. Stumbling toward the finish line with five straight losses, the Astros are a game behind Detroit for the final AL wild card spot. Houston will face ex-MSU standout J.T. Ginn (4-6, 4.57 ERA) today in West Sacramento, Calif. … The fading Tigers, meanwhile, lost their eighth straight, 5-1 to Cleveland, which moved into first place alone in the AL Central. (Colt Keith, the ex-Biloxi High star, has been on the injured list since Sept. 19; he is typically Detroit’s leadoff batter.) … On a night when Cincinnati honored the late Dave Parker — the recently inducted Hall of Famer from Mississippi — the Reds fell to Pittsburgh 4-3 in 11 innings. The Reds remain tied with Arizona, a game back of the Mets for the final National League wild card berth. All three lost on a wild Wednesday. P.S. In the minors, both ex-Ole Miss star Kemp Alderman and ex-Southern Miss standout Matthew Etzel hit home runs to help Jacksonville beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6-4 in Game 2 of the Triple-A International League Championship Series. The deciding game is tonight.