Tag Archives: Mississippi State

30 Jun

tagging up

Snapshots from the newsy week that was (or wasn’t):
Sunday, June 23: Biloxi High product Colt Keith registers the third four-hit game of his rookie campaign and adds his fourth homer for Detroit in a win over the Chicago White Sox. … Philadelphia announces that ex-Madison Central High star Spencer Turnbull, moved to the bullpen in May, would return to its rotation.
Monday, June 24: Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn of St. Louis beats Atlanta for his third win, though ex-DeSoto Central star Austin Riley takes him deep for his eighth homer. … Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet (White Sox) and Lucedale’s Justin Steele (Cubs) get no-decisions in losses by their respective Chicago clubs. Steele has a 3.08 ERA but no wins in 11 starts. … Former Mississippi Braves third baseman C.J. Alexander makes his MLB debut for Kansas City (0-for-3).
Tuesday, June 25: Brookhaven native Lance Barksdale works behind the plate for the Yankees-Mets game at CitiField in which Garrett Cole surrenders four homers. … Tampa Bay sends Ole Miss alum Jacob Waguespack, on the injured list since May 18, on a rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League. … San Francisco promotes former Mississippi State star and first-round pick Will Bednar (3.18 ERA in six games at High-Class A) to Double-A Richmond.
Wednesday, June 26: Turnbull throws 36 pitches in three innings in his first start for the Phillies since April 30, then departs with a “lat strain” that lands him on the IL. … Texas activates former MSU standout Justin Foscue, on the IL since April 8 with an oblique, and options him to Triple-A. … MSU alum Nathaniel Lowe belts his first homer since May 14 for Texas; he has three on the year. … Houston anounces that MSU product J.P. France (0-3, 7.46, in five starts) will have season-ending shoulder surgery. … Madison Central High alum Braden Montgomery of Texas A&M is named second-team All-America by d1baseball.com. MSU’s Khal Stephen and St. Andrew’s High alum Banks Tolley of Appalachian State make the third team.
Thursday, June 27: Ex-State star Jordan Westburg is a finalist at third base in the American League after the first phase of MLB All-Star voting. … Ole Miss product James McArthur registers his 14th save and former Copiah Academy and MSU standout Hunter Renfroe makes two key throws from right field in Kansas City’s 2-1 win over first-place Cleveland.
Friday, June 28: Riley hits his ninth homer in Atlanta’s win vs. Pittsburgh and has six bombs (plus a .352 average) over his last 15 games. … Renfroe homers, his eighth, in Kansas City’s win against Cleveland, and MSU alum Brent Rooker goes deep for Oakland, his 15th. … Ex-MSU standout Dakota Hudson absorbs his MLB-worst 11th loss, surrendering five runs in five innings for Colorado in a loss to the White Sox. Hudson’s ERA is 5.84.
Saturday, June 29: Former Ole Miss star Nick Fortes, a .163 hitter, doubles in the tying run and then scores the go-ahead tally in the seventh in lowly Miami’s 3-2 win over Philadelphia. … After a frustration-fueled outburst in the dugout by Steele, the Cubs rally to beat Milwaukee. Steele goes six innings, allows three runs — and gets another no-decision.

22 Jun

welcome back

Dylan DeLucia, College World Series hero for Ole Miss two years ago, finally made his pro debut on Friday, pitching two clean innings with one strikeout for the Cleveland Guardians’ Arizona Complex League rookie team. One of the hitters he retired was Eloy Jimenez, a rehabbing big leaguer on the Chicago White Sox’s ACL team. DeLucia, 23, was a sixth-round draft pick by Cleveland in 2022 but has been on the shelf ever since because of injuries, including Tommy John surgery in the spring of 2023. In the Rebels’ remarkable postseason run in 2022, DeLucia beat Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg Super Regional and Auburn and Arkansas in the CWS, in which he earned MVP honors. He went 8-2 with a 3.68 ERA in his one season in Oxford. He transferred in from Northwest Florida State College, a juco where he posted a 15-2 record over two seasons. P.S. Tim Anderson delivered a walk-off single for Miami in a 3-2 win vs. Seattle and is batting .311 over his last 15 games. All 19 hits in that stretch are singles. The former East Central Community College standout, who was hitting .188 on June 5, has lifted his season average to .232 with no homers, nine RBIs and four steals over 207 at-bats. … Ex-Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe came off the injured list Friday for Kansas City and went 0-for-3 with a walk in a loss to Texas. He is batting .197 with six homers.

21 Jun

it happens

There are pot holes on the road to the big leagues, and a trio of Mississippians in the minors — each one a former high draft pick with MLB aspirations — ran smack into a few on Thursday. Former Mississippi State star J.T. Ginn, ex-Ole Miss standout Doug Nikhazy and former Southern Miss ace Tanner Hall endured rough starts for their respective clubs, with Ginn and Nikhazy getting tagged with losses. Ginn, a second-round pick in 2020 now in Triple-A with Oakland, allowed four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings for Las Vegas. Making his fifth Triple-A start, the right-hander fell to 0-2 with a 6.66 ERA. He went 4-1, 4.15, at Double-A Midland to rate the promotion. Left-hander Nikhazy, a second-round pick in 2021, coughed up five runs in five innings for Double-A Akron and got his first decision in 11 outings. He is 0-1 despite a 3.17 ERA over 48 1/3 innings for the Cleveland affiliate. Hall, a fourth-round pick last summer, worked four innings and yielded four runs for Low-Class A Fort Myers, escaping with a no-decision. Hall is 0-0, 4.08, in eight appearances. Minnesota has limited Hall’s innings after he started the season on the injured list (glute strain); he has pitched just 17 2/3. To be sure, there will be better days for this trio. … One Mississippi product did get a win in the minors on Thursday: Ole Miss alum Mike Mayers, 32, former big leaguer in his 12th pro season, worked a clean 1 1/3 in the middle innings and plucked a victory for Triple-A Buffalo in Toronto’s system. He is 2-3, 5.04, in 21 games for the Bisons. P.S. Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin has been named the national player of the year by Baseball America. The outfielder/shortstop/pitcher, an LSU signee, is projected as a first-round pick in next month’s MLB draft. “I’ve tried to do my best to prepare him for that part of it,” Jay Powell, the former big league pitcher who is Prep’s pitching coach, told BA, “for the things he’s going to be faced with when he gets into professional baseball.” … MSU alum Hunter Hines put on a power show during Wednesday’s workouts at the MLB Draft Combine in Arizona. The lefty-hitting first baseman reportedly hit five 400-foot homers, with a best of 441.7, during his batting practice session. The ex-Madison Central star, No. 174 in MLB Pipeline’s draft prospect rankings, hit 54 homers in three seasons in Starkville and 13 in the Cape Cod League last summer.

20 Jun

rickwood connections

Historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham is the center of the baseball universe today, hosting the San Francisco-St. Louis MLB game that pays tribute to the Negro League clubs and players, many of them Mississippians, that called the ballpark home from 1924 into the 1950s. An array of black stars, Hall of Famers among them, passed through Rickwood during those years, and quite a few of the game’s great white players also appeared in exhibitions there. Hall of Famer and former Alcorn State player and coach Bill Foster pitched for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1925, throwing a one-hit shutout in his lone appearance, per baseball-reference.com. The legendary Satchel Paige broke into pro ball with the 1927 Black Barons, and one of his teammates was Jackson native Columbus Lance. The real heyday of the Black Barons was the mid-1940s, when the team won three league championships in a six-year span. The primary catcher on the 1943 title winner was Meridian native Paul Hardy, who played 11 years in the Negro Leagues. The ’43 Black Barons also featured the likes of Piper Davis, Clyde “Big Splo” Spearman, Felix McLaurin and Johnny Markham. The Birmingham club also won Negro American League pennants in 1944 and ’48, with the late, great Willie Mays, at 17, starring for the latter team. Jackson native Curtis Hollingsworth was a pitcher on the 1946 and ’47 Birmingham teams. P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Nick Sandlin has gone on the 15-day injured list for Cleveland with back inflammation. He has five wins and a 3.49 ERA in 33 relief appearances for the first-place Guardians. … Mississippi State alum Rowdey Jordan hit a seventh-inning grand slam for Double-A Binghamton on Wednesday, accounting for all the team’s runs in a 4-1 win vs. Akron. Jordan, a fourth-year pro, is batting .264 with six homers and 28 RBIs for the New York Mets’ affiliate. … Congrats to Northwest Mississippi Community College outfielder Cade Greer, who won an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove. Greer, from Olive Branch, handled 108 chances without an error as a sophomore for the Rangers.

19 Jun

picks of the lot

For baseball fans who love lists and rankings — and that’s virtually all of us — Bleacher Report has put together an interesting list/ranking of the best players drafted at each of the top 30 slots since 1965. Two of them played their Double-A baseball in the Jackson area: Jason Heyward, rated the best 14th overall pick, and Lance Berkman, pegged as the best at No. 16. Both were impressive during their time in Double-A; if you saw them, you know. Berkman was plucked by Houston out of Rice in 1997 and played for the Jackson Generals at Smith-Wills Stadium the very next season. He hit .306 with 24 homers and 89 RBIs for the Gens en route to a big league career that warranted Hall of Fame consideration. Heyward was drafted by Atlanta out of an Atlanta area high school in 2007 and arrived in Mississippi and Trustmark Park in mid-2009. He hit .352 with seven homers in 49 games for the M-Braves. Still playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Heyward — who homered in his first MLB at-bat in 2010 — has enjoyed a decorated 15-year career in the majors. … Rafael Palmeiro, drafted 22nd overall out of Mississippi State by the Chicago Cubs in 1985, was rated the second-best pick at that spot. Hall of Famer Craig Biggio was No. 1. Will Clark, drafted second overall out of State by San Francisco in 1985, fell somewhere behind Justin Verlander and Reggie Jackson on the list of best No. 2’s. BR named Alex Rodriguez — over Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Chipper Jones, among others — as the best overall No. 1 pick. Some baseball fans would beg to differ. P.S. The infield at Trustmark Park in Pearl has been re-sodded; a crew appeared to be finishing up the work today. Because of “unplayable field conditions” (not related to rain), the M-Braves had to relocate their last homestand (June 11-16) to Madison, Ala., home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas. The team’s next homestand is slated for June 25-30; they last played at the TeePee on June 2.

18 Jun

around the horn

Former Ole Miss stars Jacob Gonzalez and Tim Elko are expected to take part in tonight’s minor league showcase at Birmingham’s venerable Rickwood Field. Gonzalez and Elko, prospects for the Chicago White Sox, play for the Double-A Birmingham Barons, who will wear the uniform of the Black Barons in tribute to the Negro League club that played at Rickwood decades ago. The visiting Montgomery Biscuits (Tampa Bay affiliate) will play as the Gray Sox. The game will be televised by MLB Network at 6 p.m. MLB’s Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood, the country’s oldest professional ballpark, between San Francisco and St. Louis is set for Thursday night. … Former Southern Miss standout Matt Wallner was named the International League player of the week (June 11-16) after going 14-for-27 (.519) with five homers, 11 RBIs and 11 runs in six games for St. Paul, Minnesota’s Triple-A club. Wallner, who hit a 481-foot homer on Sunday, has 16 bombs for the Saints and is batting .250 with 43 RBIs since the Twins sent him down in mid-April. … DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley had two more hits in Atlanta’s 2-1 win over Detroit on Monday and is 9-for-26 (.346) with three homers and eight RBIs in his last seven games. … If the name of the Texas A&M pitcher who was mowing down Kentucky hitters Monday in the College World Series sounds familiar, it might be because Ryan Prager is the son of former Jackson Generals standout Howard Prager. The younger Prager threw 6 2/3 no-hit innings before yielding a pair of knocks in the Aggies’ 5-1 win. He is 9-1 with a 2.88 ERA. His father played first base for the Double-A Generals, a Houston affiliate, in 1991-92 and reached Triple-A in St. Louis’ system. BTW, Kentucky’s hitting coach is former Mississippi State catcher Nick Ammirati, previously an assistant at Hinds Community College and USM.

17 Jun

powering up

The projected home run tally for Jordan Westburg this season was 11, according to Lindy’s Baseball 2024 Preview. Forget that. A month before the All-Star break, the former Mississippi State star already has hit 11. He reached that mark on Sunday with a blast against Zack Wheeler, one of four homers Baltimore hit against the Philadelphia ace in an 8-3 victory. Second-year big leaguer Westburg is hitting .278 with 42 RBIs, 37 runs and six steals in 66 games; he is going to get some consideration for the American League All-Star team. In the All-Mississippi Home Run Derby for 2024, Westburg stands second to Brent Rooker, the ex-MSU standout who has hit 13 bombs for Oakland. To this point in 2024, the once-promising derby competition is a two-horse race. Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High product, led all MLB Mississippians (native or school alum) with 37 homers in 2023. Rooker followed with 30, and three others hit double figures. Lindy’s projected Riley to hit 35 in 2024, and he may be starting to perk up after a tough start. He has six, one each in Atlanta’s last three games. Riley’s homer on Sunday came hours after he learned that his personal hitting coach Mike Brumley had died in a car accident; Riley pointed and looked to the sky as he rounded first base. “He was in the back of my mind really all day,” Riley said in an mlb.com piece. No other Mississippi product has more than six homers this season. MSU alum Hunter Renfroe, tied with Riley at six, was just starting to slug for Kansas City when he went on the injured list with a foot injury. He hit 20 homers last season and was projected at 17 for 2024. Nathaniel Lowe, another State alum, has hit just two for Texas. He hit 17 last year and 27 in 2022. His power outage is a concern for the defending but fading World Series champs. Colt Keith, the Detroit rookie from Biloxi High, hit 27 in the minors last year and was projected to go deep 10 times for the Tigers this season; he has three. Former Southern Miss star Matt Wallner hit 14 for Minnesota in 2023 and was projected for 16 this year. He has 17 — but 16 of those have come in the minors, where he is today. P.S. The Chicago White Sox added USM product Chuckie Robinson to their 40-man roster on Sunday but did not call him up to the big leagues. Robinson, a catcher who got some big league time with Cincinnati two years ago, is hitting .228 with six homers and 25 RBIs at Triple-A Charlotte.

16 Jun

caught in a draft

A host of Magnolia State products will have the opportunity to enhance their draft stock at the upcoming MLB Draft Combine, which runs Tuesday-Sunday at Chase Field in Phoenix. Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin; former Madison Central High star Braden Montgomery of Texas A&M; Mississippi State’s Dakota Jordan, Hunter Hines, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Khal Stephen and Nate Dohm; Ole Miss’ Hunter Elliott; Pearl River Community College’s Conner Ware; Lewisburg High’s Samuel Richardson; and former Lewisburg standout Brady Tygart of Arkansas are on the list of scheduled attendees. Griffin, Montgomery, Cijntje and Jordan are ranked among the top 29 draft prospects by MLB Pipeline. The draft is July 14-16. Players will get to participate in technological evaluations of their “cognitive skills, speed of processing, athletic performance and on-field talent,” per a story on mlb.com. A pro-style workout, strength tests and a game for prep players are also on the docket. Of note: Griffin — the Gatorade national player of the year — said in an MLB Central appearance last week that he doesn’t plan to participate in on-field activities. Asked on MLB Central to evaluate himself as a draft prospect, Griffin, in a polite and unassuming manner, said: “I know the skill set that I have. I feel like I’m a five-tool guy … one of the few five-tool guys in this draft.” An LSU commit, he pitched and played shortstop and outfield while at Prep but projects as an outfielder in pro ball. MLB Central’s Mark DeRosa said Griffin also has the “sixth tool,” aka makeup: “It’s beyond real.” … Montgomery’s Texas A&M team is in the College World Series in Omaha, though the first-team All-America outfielder is sidelined with an ankle injury. … Jordan won the Ferriss Trophy as Mississippi’s top college player. … Elliott had elbow surgery earlier this year and did not pitch for Ole Miss this season. … Ware, a Germantown High alum and LSU signee, made only seven appearances for PRCC, posting a 1.80 ERA and two saves. … Richardson, a preseason All-America pick and top draft prospect, had an off year, batting .211 with seven homers, per MaxPreps. … Vicksburg native and former big leaguer Dmitri Young is among the ex-players slated to work with the attendees, and former Mississippi State star and MLB manager Buck Showalter will be part of the MLB Network crew covering the event.

13 Jun

cruise control

Before he went on the injured list on May 12 with a broken finger, Blaze Jordan was cruising along on a 17-game hitting streak. He returned to the Double-A Portland lineup on Wednesday and got right back in gear. The DeSoto Central High product — Boston’s No. 19 prospect — banged out a two-run double in his first at-bat and finished 2-for-5 in the Sea Dogs’ 5-4 win at Reading. After a sputtering start to his first full year in Double-A, the 21-year-old Jordan is hitting .288 with two homers, eight doubles and 18 RBIs in 27 games. A renowned power hitter in his amateur days, Jordan was a third-round draft pick as a 17-year-old by the Red Sox in 2020. His power potential began to show last season, when he hit 18 homers between High-Class A Greenville and Portland. He batted .324 in 73 games at Greenville and was named a South Atlantic League postseason All-Star; he was also a Red Sox Organization All-Star for the second straight year. Jordan, who goes 6 feet 1, 220 pounds, is a corner infielder whose future may be at first base. His right-handed stroke seemingly is well-suited for Fenway Park. P.S. A couple of former Ole Miss stars are playing major roles for Birmingham, which has the best record (38-21) in the Double-A Southern League. Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, promoted from A-ball last month, is hitting .321 after a 2-for-4, two-RBI effort in a 4-3 win Wednesday against Pensacola. He has a homer, 15 RBIs and 14 runs in 21 games for the Barons, a Chicago White Sox affiliate. Tim Elko, the Barons’ first baseman/DH, is hitting .298 — fourth in the SL — and ranks in the top 10 with six homers and 28 RBIs. Gonzalez — a first-round pick in 2023 — and Elko — 10th round, 2022 — were teammates on Ole Miss’ ’22 national championship club. … Hunter Renfroe has a bone bruise in his left foot, not a broken toe, the Kansas City Royals have announced. The former Mississippi State standout went on the IL on Tuesday. His recovery time likely will be shorter than originally expected.

12 Jun

going places

Former Mississippi Braves star Drew Waters got back in The Show and former Biloxi Shuckers star Carlos F. Rodriguez got his first MLB shot among a flurry of Tuesday transactions involving players with Mississippi ties. Southern Miss product Matthew Etzel was promoted to Double-A in the Baltimore system; ex-Ole Miss standout Brandon Johnson moved up to Double-A in the Kansas City chain; former Mississippi State bullpen ace Landon Sims jumped to High-Class A in the Arizona system; and USM product Hunter Stanley came off the injured list at Triple-A Columbus in the Cleveland organization. … Waters — Southern League player of the year in 2019 — was recalled by Kansas City to replace Hunter Renfroe, the ex-State star who went on the injured list with a broken toe. Waters, hitting .277 with seven homers and 33 RBIs in Triple-A, went 0-for-4 in his first MLB game of 2024. The Royals also placed Bulldogs alum Adam Frazier on the bereavement list. … Rodriguez, Milwaukee’s No. 6 prospect who went 9-6, 2.77 ERA, for the Shuckers in 2023, allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings and took a loss against Toronto. … Etzel, a 2023 draftee by the Orioles, was batting .306 with four homers and 31 steals at High-A Aberdeen; he got a knock in his first at-bat for Class AA Bowie. … Johnson was 3-3, two saves, 4.13, in High-A for the Royals. … Sims, a star on MSU’s national title team, had a 4.38 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings at Low-A Visalia. … Stanley, on the IL for about a month, has a 5.85 ERA over six games for Columbus. P.S. Kirk McCarty, former USM standout from Hattiesburg, threw seven shutout innings in his Chinese Professional Baseball League debut last week and allowed two runs in five innings on Tuesday for CTBC Brothers. He is 1-1 with a 1.50 ERA. The well-traveled McCarty has won 18 games the past three seasons: four in Triple-A, four in MLB with Cleveland, nine in the Korean Baseball Organization in 2023 plus the one in the CPBL. He won 22 games for USM from 2015-17.