Tag Archives: Mississippi Braves

10 Aug

coming up

The NJCAA National Team, featuring five MACJC players, has made the semifinals of the National Baseball Congress World Series. The NJCAA stars, who rallied to win their quarterfinal 9-8 in a game that ended at 1:40 a.m. local time today, play the Wellington Heat tonight at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kan. Brant Blaylock, a Southern Miss signee out of Northwest Mississippi Community College, is hitting .294 with three RBIs and four runs. Hinds CC coach Sam Temple is an assistant on the team. … The get-off-my-lawn segment of traditionalists may cringe, but Players Weekend is back in the big leagues. “Bull,” “C-Dizzle,” “Bone” and “Juicy J” are nicknames that will adorn the distinctly non-traditional jerseys of Mississippians in the majors during the second annual event that starts Aug. 24. Brian Dozier is “Bull,” Corey Dickerson “C-Dizzle,” Billy Hamilton “Bone” and JaCoby Jones “Juicy J.” Mitch Moreland again will wear “2 Bags,” and Hunter Renfroe will be “Froe.” Lance Lynn will wear “Mia,” his daughter’s name. … Milwaukee visits Atlanta for a big weekend series that matches the parent clubs of the state’s two Double-A teams. The Braves have a much more homegrown roster, with 10 former Mississippi Braves among the 25 players. That tally includes five regulars: Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, Johan Camargo and Ronald Acuna. There are four Biloxi Shuckers alums with the Brewers, none of them position regulars. Tonight’s starter, Freddy Peralta, is one of three pitchers who played in Biloxi. … Saturday is National Baseball Card Day, a reminder to search the attic one more time for those lost cardboard treasures. How much is a George Scott rookie worth, anyway? … Four Mississippians are on the East roster for Sunday’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego: Jackson Prep’s Jerrion Ealy, Pearl River Central’s Hayden Dunhurst, George County’s Logan Tanner and Olive Branch native Kendall Williams, who attends IMG Academy in Florida.

02 Aug

triad

This might have happened before, but it’s gotta be pretty rare. A pitcher from each of the state’s Big 3 appeared in the same big league game on Wednesday. Southern Miss alum Cody Carroll made his MLB debut with Baltimore, ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn made his New York Yankees debut and Mississippi State product Jonathan Holder also worked an inning for the Yanks. Combined, the three pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings in a game won by Baltimore 7-5 at Yankee Stadium. Lynn, acquired from Minnesota, replaced struggling starter Sonny Gray in the third inning and delivered a solid 4 1/3 innings, yielding five hits and fanning five. Carroll, acquired from the Yankees by the Orioles last week, pitched the seventh inning and allowed one hit. Holder, who has become a significant piece of New York’s formidable bullpen, worked the top of the ninth, reducing his ERA to 2.06. P.S. As if following a Hollywood script, former USM star Brian Dozier introduced himself to Dodgers fans with a 3-for-4 debut, including a home run and a double, in Los Angeles’ 6-4 win against Milwaukee. Dozier now has 17 homers on the season. … Down on the farm, Atlanta’s No. 5 prospect, Cristian Pache, made his Mississippi Braves debut on Wednesday at Trustmark Park, going 2-for-2 in the second game of the night against Birmingham. Pache, 19, is an athletically cut 6 feet 2, 185 pounds. He batted .285 with eight homers at Class A Florida and is reportedly a plus defender in center field. He is one to watch.

31 Jul

all about pitching

So much news involving Mississippi-connected pitchers … where to start? Lance Lynn, the ex-Ole Miss star, will be in pinstripes today, having been traded from Minnesota to the New York Yankees. “It’s going to be a different experience,” the veteran right-hander told mlb.com. Lynn was erratic with the Twins, going 7-8 with a 5.10 ERA. Overall, including his years in St. Louis, he is 79-55, 3.54. Primarily a starter, Lynn said he is open to working out of the pen for the Yankees. … Former Mississippi State standout Chris Stratton will rejoin San Francisco’s rotation, taking the spot of the disabled Johnny Cueto. Stratton, recently back from a stint in Triple-A, is 8-6, 4.93 this year for the Giants. … Bulldogs alum Dakota Hudson notched his first MLB win on Monday, working a scoreless 10th inning for St. Louis, which beat Colorado 5-4 on a Marcell Ozuna homer. … Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz goes to the bump for Boston against Philadelphia tonight seeking his second win of the season. Pomeranz took an L last week in his first outing off the DL and is an ugly 1-4, 6.91 for the team with the best record in baseball. … Former Mississippi Braves standout Kolby Allard is scheduled for his big league debut tonight with Atlanta, and in a corresponding move, Kyle Wright departs from the M-Braves for Triple-A Gwinnett. Allard is rated Atlanta’s No. 8 prospect by MLB Pipeline, and Wright is No. 2. Former M-Braves ace Touki Toussaint, the No. 7 prospect now at Gwinnett, may also be in line for big league look, according to reports. … Former State standout Reid Humphreys is now in Double-A in the Colorado system and worked a scoreless inning for Hartford over the weekend. Humphreys posted 22 saves and a 1.83 ERA at Class A Lancaster.

29 Jul

chipper — and other stuff

The career path that took Chipper Jones to the Hall of Fame veered through Mississippi in 2006. Anyone who was there for those two days in August surely has not forgotten. Jones’ visit to Trustmark Park in Pearl on a rehab assignment created a hoopla that hasn’t been matched by any other Mississippi Braves games played there in the 14 years of the stadium’s existence. The announced crowds on Aug. 11 and 12, 2006, were 7,577 and 7,652 — and those are legit figures. To his everlasting credit, Jones signed autographs for fans and did pre- and postgame media sessions. He was engaging. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy reminiscing about his previous Double-A days in 1992, when he crushed it in Greenville. They played his signature walk-up song, “Crazy Train,” on the P.A. when he batted, and the crowd went nuts when he got his one hit in the six at-bats he took. Fellow Hall of Famers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine also made rehab appearances with the M-Braves — Smoltz threw one inning in a road game — and HOFer Jeff Bagwell did a rehab stint with the Jackson Generals at Smith-Wills Stadium. But they didn’t generate the excitement that Jones did. Fernando Valenzuela’s visit to Smith-Wills in 1991 drew a standing-room only throng, but he came in with the visiting team, the Midland Angels. There was a very different vibe for Jones, a former No. 1 overall pick by Atlanta whose ascendance had been tracked for years by the many Atlanta Braves fans in the area. P.S. Former Mississippi State star Dakota Hudson worked a 1-2-3 inning in his MLB debut for St. Louis on Saturday, striking out the Chicago Cubs’ Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ. … Richton High alum JaCoby Jones, batting .122 over a 15-game stretch, needed a highlight moment and produced one on Saturday, belting a two-run homer in Detroit’s 2-1 win against Cleveland. Jones is hitting .208 with eight homers and 24 RBIs in 95 games for the Tigers. He left Saturday’s game with an apparent injury that he later deemed “nothing serious.” … Former State star Mitch Moreland returned to Boston’s lineup after missing two games with a minor ailment; he contributed a hit and an RBI in the Red Sox’s 10-4 victory over Minnesota. … Corey Dickerson, the Meridian Community College product from McComb, went on the 10-day disabled list for Pittsburgh with a hamstring injury. Dickerson is hitting .318 with 11 bombs and 44 RBIs. … Former M-Braves Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna grace the cover of the latest issue (Aug. 3-24) of Baseball America, which has a feature piece on the “Baby Braves” behind Atlanta’s resurgent season.

28 Jul

talent will out

Baseball is hard. Even for those among us who are very good at it, the game can be humbling. On a recent steamy night at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Brett Cumberland stepped to the plate for his first at-bat with the Mississippi Braves, his first at-bat in Double-A. Keep in mind that just getting to this level of the game is an accomplishment; many a good player never gets to play pro ball, and many a pro player never gets out of A-ball. Cumberland cleared that hurdle. As the 23-year-old switch-hitter dug in on the left side for that first AB, there was no special announcement on the P.A. system. Just “Brett Cumberland.” The great majority of the fans in attendance had no idea who he is. There was no noticeable reaction when he was introduced and none when that first AB ended in a strikeout. Cumberland went 0-for-3 in that debut game and is 0-for-8 in two games since. Baseball is hard, but Cumberland is very good at it. Two years ago, unbeknownst to much of the TeePee crowd, Cumberland, a catcher, was the Pac-12 player of the year. He hit .344 with 16 home runs and 51 RBIs for Cal-Berkley. He was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. The Atlanta Braves, looking for catching help in their system, drafted him in the supplemental phase of the second round in 2016, 76th overall. He immediately became one of Atlanta’s rated prospects. But his pro debut didn’t go so well. He hit .216 in rookie ball that summer. The Braves sent him to low-A Rome to start 2017, and he hit .263 with 10 homers in a half-season there before moving up to high-A Florida. He batted .269 at the new level but managed just one homer. Overall last year, he showed enough promise, including a .400 on-base percentage, that he was rated the No. 22 prospect in the Braves’ system entering 2018. Back in Florida to start the year, he put up decent numbers — .236 (.367 OBP), 11 homers, 39 RBIs — before his promotion to the M-Braves, who desperately need catching help. Still, Cumberland dropped out of MLB Pipeline’s recently updated ratings of the Braves’ Top 30 prospects. Baseball can be humbling. But here Cumberland is, in Double-A, the make-or-break level, with a chance most never get. Baseball is hard, but talent will out.

27 Jul

prospecting

Austin Riley, the former DeSoto Central High star, saw his stock skyrocket in the refreshed Top 100 prospect rankings posted Thursday by MLB Pipeline. Riley, a third baseman now at Triple-A Gwinnett in Atlanta’s chain, jumped to No. 44 from No. 97 in the preseason rankings. He is now No. 4 on Atlanta’s chart, up from 8th. The 21-year-old Riley, on a tear of late, is hitting .295 with four home runs and 23 RBIs at Gwinnett after hitting .333 with 11 homers to start 2018 at Double-A Mississippi. He was a first-round supplemental pick in the 2015 draft. Going the other way was former Petal High standout Anthony Alford, who fell 47 spots to No. 94. Alford, who has had injury issues, is batting .220 with five homers, 21 RBIs and 13 steals at Triple-A Buffalo in the Toronto system. The former Southern Miss and Ole Miss football player, a third-round draftee in 2012, only became a full-time baseball player in 2015. Now 24, he has had cups of coffee in the big leagues each of the last two seasons. … Ryan Rolison, the Ole Miss alum and first player from the state picked in the June draft, broke into Colorado’s Top 30 at No. 6. Other 2018 draftees who made the organization rankings: Hattiesburg High product Joe Gray (No. 9, Milwaukee); ex-State star Konnor Pilkington (No. 18, Chicago White Sox); and ex-Southern Miss standout Nick Sandlin (No. 20, Cleveland). … Also of note: MSU product Nathaniel (Nate) Lowe, a third-year pro, jumped into Tampa Bay’s rankings at No. 13; now in Double-A, he has had a breakout season. Ex-Bulldogs star Reid Humphreys, having a strong year in high-A ball, entered Colorado’s Top 30 at No. 14. David Parkinson, a second-year pro out of Ole Miss, is newly rated No. 21 in Philadelphia’s system. Former George County High star Justin Steele, coming back from Tommy John surgery this year, moved from No. 16 to 9th in the Chicago Cubs’ Top 30. MSU alum Jacob (Jake) Robson, who has reached Triple-A for Detroit in his third year, moved up to 15th from 28th in the Tigers’ rankings. P.S. Ex-State ace Chris Stratton was recalled by San Francisco on Thursday (see previous post) and gave up three runs in 1 1/3 innings of relief work in a loss to Milwaukee. … Bulldogs product Adam Frazier, back up with Pittsburgh after a Triple-A stint, is 3-for-5 in two games since returning. … Ole Miss alum Cody Satterwhite has been released by his Mexican League club after seven appearances.

23 Jul

eye on …

Travis Demeritte is one of the most intriguing players on the Mississippi Braves’ roster. He is a former first-round draft pick. He has played in an All-Star Futures Game and two minor league all-star games. He has hit as many as 28 homers in a season and swiped as many as 17 bases in a season. He stands 6 feet, weighs 180 pounds and can play second base, third and left field. MLB Pipeline rates him the 19th-best prospect in a strong Atlanta system. Yet many M-Braves fans must be wondering, When is Demeritte going to break out? With roughly a month and a half left in his second Double-A campaign, Demeritte is hitting .221 with 11 homers and four bags. He has struck out an even 100 times in 308 at-bats. If the M-Braves, currently 15-14 and 6 games out of first, are going to make any kind of run at a playoff spot in the Southern League South, more production from the 23-year-old Demeritte would be a big help. When the Braves acquired him from Texas (for two pitching prospects) in the summer of 2016, the trade generated some buzz. Demeritte was batting .272 with 25 homers and 13 steals in 88 games in the Class A California League. He added three homers and four steals in 35 games for the Braves’ high-A club. But he did punch out a bunch, and that trend continued in his Double-A debut last year. He hit 15 homers in 124 games – and made the SL All-Star Game – but all in all, it was a disappointing year. There hasn’t been much to shout about in 2018, either, but there is still time – for him and his club. The M-Braves begin a stretch of 10 straight home games tonight, facing Mobile at Trustmark Park. P.S. One of Mobile’s hottest hitters is Jack Kruger, the ex-Mississippi State star drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in 2016. Kruger, a catcher, has hit .333 his last 10 games and is at .308 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 25 games. He was promoted to Double-A Mobile on June 21, when Meridian Community College alum Wade Wass, also a catcher, retired and opened a roster spot.

20 Jul

ties that bind

In a dugout interview during ESPN’s coverage of Thursday night’s game, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon sang the praises of former Mississippi Braves star Jason Heyward, calling his first-half performance a key ingredient in the team’s charge into first place. Heyward rose to the occasion with a three-hit, two-RBI game as the Cubs beat St. Louis 9-6 to begin the second half. After a couple of seasons of scuffling in Wrigleyville, Heyward is hitting .290 with six homers and 43 RBIs in 2018. Resurgent seasons by Heyward and Gorkys Hernandez, All-Star campaigns by Freddie Freeman and Ozzie Albies and the unyielding brilliance of Craig Kimbrel give rise to the idea that you could put together a competitive team of former M-Braves now in the big leagues. An infield of Freeman, Albies, Andrelton Simmons and Martin Prado is pretty darn solid. At catcher, there’s the seven-time All-Star Brian McCann, backed by Jesus Sucre. In the outfield, Heyward, Hernandez and either Ronald Acuna or Mallex Smith would be outstanding defensively. Evan Gattis is a scary man at DH. On the bench: Choose from Johan Camargo, Jose Peraza, Dansby Swanson, Tommy La Stella, Jose Martinez. Charlie Morton, also a 2018 All-Star, would head up a rotation that includes Julio Teheran, Alex Wood, Sean Newcomb and Mike Minor. All-Star Kimbrel would be the closer in a bullpen with some combination of Arodys Vizcaino, Jesse Biddle, A.J. Minter, Chasen Shreve, Randall Delgado, Luis Avilan and Cory Gearrin. Such a team could probably win the American League Central this year.

17 Jul

farm livin’

Austin Riley, the ex-DeSoto Central High star and Atlanta prospect, is 6-for-21 since he returned to Triple-A Gwinnett from a rehab assignment in rookie ball. Riley, out roughly a month with a knee injury, is hitting .285 with four home runs and 19 RBIs in 31 games for the Stripers. He was promoted from Double-A Mississippi in early May. … The hits keep coming for Jacob Robson, the former Mississippi State standout now at Triple-A Toledo in Detroit’s farm system. Robson is hitting .414 with three homers and 10 RBIs in 15 games for the Mud Hens. Also at Toledo is ex-State star Zac Houston, a big right-hander who has a 2.08 ERA and three saves in 16 appearances. … Southern Miss alum Mason Robbins went into last week’s Triple-A All-Star break with a 12-game hitting streak for Charlotte (Chicago White Sox). He is 0-for-12 since play resumed. Overall, the lefty-hitting outfielder is at .269 with two homers and 24 RBIs in 54 games. … Former State star Reid Humphreys notched his 20th save on Sunday for Lancaster, Colorado’s high Class A affiliate. Humphreys, who leads the California League in saves, has a 1.67 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings. … USM product Chuckie Robinson has started to hit at high-A Buies Creek in Houston’s system. An 11-for-33 surge has boosted his average to .204 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 53 games. Robinson, a catcher, was a Midwest League All-Star in 2017, when he batted .274 with 15 homers and 32 doubles for a championship club at Quad Cities. … LeDarious Clark, the East Mississippi Community College alum from Meridian, has hit in six straight games since he returned to the Down East (Texas Rangers) lineup from an extended rehab stint. He is batting .266 with three homers for the high-A club in the Carolina League. He hit 13 homers and stole 20 bases there last year. … One of the more interesting picks in this year’s draft was Dallas Woolfolk, taken by Oakland in the 13th round. Right-hander Woolfolk, who had some struggles at Ole Miss late last season and ultimately left the team, has been up and down for the Arizona League A’s. In five games (six innings), he has two saves and a win with a 6.00 ERA, seven strikeouts and seven walks.

13 Jul

back in the day

Nostalgia is thick in the air at Trustmark Park when the Pensacola Blue Wahoos come to call. The field staff for the Cincinnati Reds’ Double-A club, which began a five-game series with the Mississippi Braves on Thursday, is replete with big league stars of another era. Fans of a certain age know the names well. Hitting coach Mike Devereaux, who won a ring with the 1995 Atlanta Braves, and bench coach Lenny Harris debuted in the majors in the late 1980s, and pitching coach James Baldwin broke in in 1995. And then there’s Blue Wahoos manager Jody Davis. Not only is he a former big leaguer, he is also a former Jackson Met. Davis made his MLB debut in 1981. Surely there are a few fans around who recall that two years before that, Davis had a breakout season for the Double-A JaxMets, who made their home at Smith-Wills Stadium. Davis batted .296 with 21 home runs and 91 RBIs in 1979, playing on a team that included Hubie Brooks and Wally Backman. Davis also refined his catching skills that year and was named a Texas League All-Star. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals (for big leaguer Ray Searage) following that season, then taken in the Rule 5 draft by the Chicago Cubs in December 1980. The next April he launched a 10-year MLB career during which he made two All-Star teams. Davis coached and managed in the Cubs’ system for several years and took the reins in Pensacola this season.