Tag Archives: Mississippians in the minors

28 Aug

a door opens

After parlaying his monster season in an independent league into a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres, Christopher Sargent Jr. wasted little time making an impact in affiliated ball. In the fourth at-bat of his first game, the ex-Southern Miss standout belted a two-run homer. Sargent, 25, officially signed with the Padres on Wednesday and was in the lineup at catcher for Double-A San Antonio on Wednesday night. His homer helped the Missions beat Frisco 14-11. Sargent hit .384 with 35 homers and 130 RBIs this season for Ogden in his second season in the hitter-friendly Pioneer League. He hit .316 with 19 bombs in 2024. Ogden manager Evan Parker hailed Sargent as a “real dual-threat catcher.” Sargent, 5 feet 11, 185 pounds, played first base at USM from 2021-23 and hit 51 homers while batting .249. He wasn’t drafted after his senior season. A catcher in high school and junior college in Alabama, Sargent began playing that premium position again with Ogden. He joins a San Antonio team that includes former USM left-hander Ryan Och. P.S. In other minor matters: Blaze Jordan, DeSoto Central High product, hit a two-run double in the ninth inning that gave Triple-A Memphis an 8-6 win at Oklahoma City. Jordan has 19 RBIs in 19 games with St. Louis’ Triple-A club and 81 on the year with three different clubs. … Niko Mazza, ex-USM and MRA standout, threw 5 1/3 strong innings to get the win for Low-Class A San Jose in a 2-0 victory against Visalia. Mazza, in his first pro campaign, is 4-3 with a 2.04 ERA in 20 starts for the San Francisco affiliate. … Mason Nichols, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss and a Jackson Prep product, notched his first career save with a scoreless inning for Low-A Charleston (Tampa Bay system) in a 1-0 win vs. Augusta. Nichols has yet to allow a run in five relief appearances.

23 Aug

den of thieves

Jake Mangum notched his 20th stolen base of the season on Friday, a significant milestone for the MLB rookie out of Mississippi State. He’ll surely get more before the Tampa Bay Rays’ season ends. One of the fastest players in the 2019 MLB draft, Flowood native Mangum ripped off 81 bags in his six minor league seasons. For the record, the record for steals in a season by a Mississippi native is 59, set by — no surprise here — Billy Hamilton. The state’s career steals leader, Hamilton also stole 58, 57 and 56 in different seasons but, oddly enough, never won a league stolen base crown. The only Mississippian to do that was Sam Jethroe, a Columbus native who led the National League with 35 — as a rookie — in 1950 and again in 1951 while with the Boston Braves. He was rookie of the year in 1950. According to baseball-reference.com, Starkville’s Cool Papa Bell stole 49 bases in a season (1929) in the Negro Leagues and also had a 36-steal campaign. Jarrod Dyson’s MLB-best was 36; the McComb product also had 34 one year and had three 30-steal seasons. Gee Walker, from Gulfport, was the career steals leader among Mississippians before Hamilton and Dyson blew by him; he topped out at 30 in a single season, back in 1932. In the minor leagues, Konnor Griffin has 60 steals this season, having played in three different leagues. Now the No. 1 prospect in the minors, the Jackson native was regarded as the fastest prep player in the 2024 draft. Batesville native Emaarion Boyd has 46 steals over two levels this year and swiped 56 in 2023. The record for a Mississippian in the minors? Hamilton, again. The Taylorsville product set the all-time minor league mark with 155 playing at two levels in 2012.

04 Jun

on the move

Blaze Jordan, the precocious slugger from DeSoto Central High, made his Triple-A debut on Tuesday night and went 1-for-4 with a double, a walk and a pair of runs for Boston’s Worcester club. He played third base and hit cleanup. The Red Sox promoted Jordan, 22 but in his fifth pro season, from Double-A Portland, where he hit .390 in May. For the year at Portland, Jordan was batting .320 with six homers — all in May — 37 RBIs, 30 runs, 22 walks and just 19 strikeouts in 44 games. He hasn’t quite hit with the power that was expected when he was drafted in 2020 — 49 career homers — and he has dropped off the Red Sox’s Top 30 prospect list. But this recent surge obviously has grabbed some attention. Jordan’s move up was one of a slew of transactions on Tuesday involving Mississippians in the minors. Ex-Mississippi State standout Brandon Woodruff made another rehab start — his ninth all told — for Milwaukee’s Triple-A Nashville team but was struck on the right elbow by a line drive and left the game in the second inning. X-rays were negative; more tests are planned. … Southern Miss product Nick Sandlin, on the injured list in Toronto, got a rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League and worked a scoreless frame. He has a 2.35 ERA in 10 MLB appearances. … MSU alum Justin Foscue was activated from the IL at Triple-A Round Rock in the Texas system. … Chuckie Robinson, former USM star, was DFA’d by the Los Angeles Dodgers just days after being claimed off waivers from the Angels. He had not yet gotten an at-bat at Triple-A Oklahoma City. … Ex-USM standout Tyler Stuart, on the IL at Triple-A Rochester in Washington’s chain, was activated and bumped to Double-A Harrisburg. … MSU product Preston Johnson was moved down to Double-A Chesapeake from Triple-A Norfolk, where he made one appearance, in the Baltimore system. … Tyler Samaniego, a Northeast Mississippi Community College alum on Pittsburgh’s Double-A Altoona roster, was sent on an injury rehab assignment to High-A Greensboro. … Brooks Auger, a 2024 draftee out of State, was activated from the development list at High-A Great Lakes in the Dodgers organization. He threw three scoreless innings on Tuesday.

13 May

take it on the run

While no one is conjuring up images of Billy Hamilton circa 2012, speed is still a tool that many Magnolia State products bring to the game. To wit: Seven different Mississippians in the minors rank among the stolen base leaders in their respective leagues. Emaarion Boyd, former South Panola High star, is tied for second in the High-Class A Midwest League with 15 bags for Beloit in the Miami system. Boyd, hitting just .225 this year, has 106 steals all told in 222 pro games. Konnor Griffin and Dakota Jordan, both former Gatorade players of the year in the state and 2024 draftees, have 13 steals apiece, both playing in Low-A ball. Patrick Lee, a well-traveled former William Carey University standout from Pascagoula, has 11 steals in Low-A ball this year and 46 in two minor league seasons. In the Double-A Southern League, Cooper Pratt — another Gatorade POY out of Magnolia Heights — and Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel are tied for fifth in the league with 10 steals each. Ex-Ole Miss star and Decatur native Kemp Alderman, also in the SL, has eight steals. Braden Montgomery, still another Gatorade POY from Madison Central, has swiped seven bases over two levels of A-ball, already surpassing his college season-high. In the big leagues, the leading Mississippian is Jake Mangum, the former Jackson Prep and Mississippi State star — on the injured list since April 24 — who has eight steals for Miami. Mangum totaled 81 steals over five minor league campaigns. The standard for all base stealers in the minors was set by Hamilton, the ex-big leaguer out of Taylorsville High. He nabbed 155 bags in 2012 in the Cincinnati system, a record that’ll never be broken. He stole 326 bases in his MLB career and is still out there performing thievery at age 34, with seven steals in 10 games in the Mexican League.

29 Apr

minor matters

Around the minor leagues: Jake Mangum came off the injured list Sunday for Triple-A Durham, tripled and drove in two runs as the Bulls beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6-2. The former Mississippi State standout, in his fifth minor league season, is batting .367 with two homers and 10 RBIs in eight games for Durham in his first year in the Tampa Bay system. … Chuckie Robinson, the Southern Miss product, went 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs for Triple-A Charlotte in the Chicago White Sox system. The 29-year-old catcher, now with his third organization, is hitting .297 with three homers and 12 RBIs. He reached the big leagues in 2022 with Cincinnati. … Ex-USM star Matt Wallner, sent down by Minnesota after a 2-for-25 start, is hitting just .194 with a homer and seven RBIs in nine games for Triple-A St. Paul. … Mississippi College product Blaine Crim has just 18 hits for Triple-A Round Rock (Texas system) but five have left the yard. … Kevin Graham, who played on Ole Miss’ 2022 championship team, is batting .385 (third in the Texas League) for Double-A Amarillo (Arizona system). … R.J. Yeager, who hit 18 homers at MSU in 2022, is batting .299 with five bombs for Springfield, St. Louis’ Double-A club. Yeager signed as a non-drafted free agent with the Cardinals two years ago. … Matthew Etzel, drafted out of USM in 2023, is batting .333 with two homers, 12 RBIs and nine steals for High-Class A Aberdeen in the Baltimore chain. Reed Trimble, a 2021 draftee by the Orioles, is batting .273 with five steals for Aberdeen but recently went on the IL, where he has spent a lot of time. … Former MSU standout Colton Ledbetter is batting .288 with three homers and nine RBIs for High-A Bowling Green. He was a second-round pick by Tampa Bay last summer. … Jackson Prep product Will Warren, a highly rated New York Yankees prospect, is 3-0 with a 4.22 ERA for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. … Ole Miss alum Gunnar Hoglund, the 19th overall pick in 2021 by Oakland, is 2-1, 4.39, for Double-A Midland. … Ex-UM standout Brandon Johnson is 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA in seven relief appearances at High-A Quad Cities (Kansas City). … Former Smithville High star Jared Johnson, now in the Atlanta system, has two saves and a 0.00 ERA in six relief appearances for High-A Rome. … Landon Sims, one of the heroes of MSU’s 2021 national title team, is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA, a hold and a save in five games for Low-A Visalia (Arizona). He was the 34th overall pick in 2022 while down with Tommy John surgery.